#something about how both things intertwine and parallel each other

[exmotranny]

beaded bracelet grasped/like a rosary

hands pressed together/hands in prayer

sit in a circle/say the words

sing the songs/we all know

you're part of the group/you are one of us

candlelit comfort/been around forever

generations of girls/exact same thing

beads/bracelet

hands/prayer

group/circle

holy/night

famous/ritual

now you are older and have left/the group

now you cannot relate/to those days

no longer a girl/no longer believe

hands sit loosely/stay silent

left the circle/they talk about you

your short hair/your old jeans

original/not worthy

happier/now

[iteratorsex]

How Gravity Disruptors Work

We all are aware of the gravity disruptors inside of iterators, right? They... disrupt gravity.

I believe they do this through fluctuating karmic fields in parallel planes of existence, which affect spacetime and gravity by rapidly decreasing or creating "negative" mass.

Let me break down what I mean

Karma as a force, and alternate planes

Karma is like a force of the universe alongside that of gravity, electromagnetism, and weak/strong force. The iterators have an incredibly pragmatic view of karma and the cycles, treating it more like a science with odd spiritual elements involved. The iterators calculate and solve through traditionally empirical means, yet still pray and meditate.

- "It became the symbol for enlightenment as it momentarily enables a creature to let go if its carnal self, and to contact the selves of other planes - dreams, memories, imagined worlds."

Moon mentions other planes in her Karma Flower dialogue. We can understand there's a "dream" or "cerebral" realm that you could see through with this flower.

These dream plane(s) are HEAVILY associated with karma, and karmic fields, as your ingame deaths experienced in this plane cause your karma to decrease, and the karma flower that lets you contact these cerebral plane selves ... affects your karma!

As well as this, Hunter in vanilla is described as having a "karmic imbalance", once again wording it like it's a force that can be measured and somehow imbalanced

The behaviors of gravity disruptors

Having established karma as a universal force, and also alternate realities, let's actually look at the gravity disruptors themselves.

They appear to very clearly have an orbit, and drag nearby things into it. They also distort light they're so powerful!

But... you can't get to the center. The center of a gravity disruptor repels you. Violently. You can't get to the center naturally through gameplay due to the force.

So rather than this being like a black hole, it's actually closer to theoretical white holes!

The distortion of time and gravity

This leads further into my next point. According to general relativity, the mass of a black hole causes a huge sink in spacetime, slowing it down. So a white would be the opposite, wouldn't it? Something that REPELS matter because of its negative mass!

How do karma and gravity interact with each other then?

Well, like a black hole, the Void Sea slows down your perception of time until you enter it, at which point you return to normal speed. However, unlike one, gravity seems to get lower

So perhaps the Void Sea- and by extension void fluid- are somehow manipulating the spacetime continuum to both lower gravity and slow down perceived time?

Now this leads me to my biggest point...

Parallel planes!

I believe that karma and gravity are intertwined, as the boundaries between realities in rain world seem to be very vague and blurred, as you can never tell in the void sea when you actually enter the other reality. And as mentioned in the above Karma Flower dialogue, apparently you were able to contact other selves in other planes of reality.

By warping the karma fields in a parallel plane, you can warp gravity in a localized area, creating the effect of a 0g environment! This was done most likely through the use of void fluid

These parallel planes of reality between cerebral and corporeal planes already interact with each other to a noticeable degree!

How do iterators manage to "smooth out" this flux? Well, I'll be honest I'm not sure. But the fact they have the technology to do that to begin with is rather impressive!

What about Mass Rarefaction Cells

Rarefaction is an actual thing, for those who didn't know. I actually found this out recently.

From Wikipedia: "Rarefaction is the reduction of an item's density, the opposite of compression. Like compression, which can travel in waves (sound waves, for instance), rarefaction waves also exist in nature. A common rarefaction wave is the area of low relative pressure following a shock wave (see picture)"

And if you refer back to the examples of general relativity I brought up... you can see it's doing the opposite of compression. It's stretching- being rarefacted!

And in some ways, it reduces density- or gives the illusion of such.

So yes! Rarefaction is actually relevant and isn't some odd technobabble thing.

So how do they produce energy?

The orbit formed by rarefaction cells can produce kinetic energy, replacing the role of a force spinning the turbine inside of a generator. This kinetic energy is then converted into electrical energy, transported on those powerrails/busbars

This might also be the explanation to the "washing machine" look...

Closing notes

I know I've said in the past that rarefaction cells are probably not the safest and wouldn't be used very often, and how much I dislike their existence.

I still think that.

I don't believe that the vanilla gravity disruptors work the same way. They use void fluid of course, but they're MUCH safer I imagine- at the cost of not being easily transported around like a cell.

but yeah thats what I think

[mikayuumouse]

Can we talk about how *safe* Atsushi and Akutagawa feel with each other

How much they're connected to each other is actually insane

They have innate trust with each other (Akutagawa even gave his coat to Atsushi), and they're comfortable with each other, it's wonderful

I think the best depiction of canon "domestic sskk" per se, is in beast

The direct passage from the beast light novel is:

"They continued to shoot the breeze for the next few minutes or so. Both boys shared small yet profound experiences that their colleagues would never be able to understand or even empathize with. The two of them could just be kids, something they seldom did around others.

'This is the first time I've ever been able to talk to someone like this,' the white-haired boy said with a chuckle."

They can relate to each other so strongly, they're opposites yet they feel intertwined. God they have such a well written and like at this point really romantic relationship

I really like how beast can show us a new perspective on sskk (among other things in the Bsd universe), comparing their first meeting in the main series to their first meeting in beast is kinda crazy. When Akutagawa nor Atsushi has the prior information of who they work for, they can get along. In a world with no abilities, no Mafia, no detective agency, they would know each other so well

Also, I'm sure Akutagawa has smiled more than twice in the series, but both most memorable times he's smiled they were both directed at Atsushi (one smile was the one he gave Atsushi while he told him to run before dying, second smile was in beast, shown in the picture above)

It's like Atsushi brings out the best of him, and vice versa. They're just so *perfect* for each other 😭

I will always love their parallels and similarities, their relationship balance is a perfect representation of the yin and yang

Atsushi knows he can't bear to live without Akutagawa. Akutagawa knows that Atsushi is the only person he's ever met who really, truly understands him. And no matter how much they're in denial about how they're a lot more than just "rivals", they still scream each other's names when one of them gets hurt, because they both *care*

Akutagawa is definitely going to go feral in the next chapter or so oml

[xielexalt]

phaidei & renheng parallels (as of 3.1) (spoilers & theories ahead!!)

thinking about phainon/mydei + blade/dan heng (incl. yingxing/dan feng) parallels, here's some scattered observations & parallels i made

- the closeness phainon & mydei have is very reminiscent of yingxing & dan feng. like i get this feeling that this is what it would've been like to witness yingxing and dan feng together on-screen

- both blade & mydei Can Not Die

- both phainon & dan heng are associated with the path of trailblaze (one way or another)

- dan heng directly relates to mydei's conflict of letting go of the past to go towards the future

- cloud piercer being broken On Amphoreus Specifically by Phainon Specifically and having him allude to blade -- definitely says something.

also, TB's memory of dan heng & blade being brought up in amphoreus for some reason (of course it's moreso astral express vs stellaron hunters, but renheng are inherently tied to that dichotomy anyways)

more in-depth spoilers ahead

- blade got corrupted by the abundance motherfuckers. i have a very strong suspicion that mydei might become corrupted by the black tide, and then i think phainon is going to kill mydei. #tragicyaoi

either way, no matter what happens here, something bad is going to happen to them

- with the reaver being commonly theorized to be another phainon from the future or another timeline, we have the dual persona with reaver - phainon and dan heng - dan feng. both the flame reaver and dan heng walk a different path than their other self. (i think this even adds more meaning to dan heng's heavily involved presence on amphoreus at the moment)

- if blade & mydei cannot die, it might be the case that only dan heng & phainon (reaver) are capable of killing them. or rather, it's only dh/phainon that blade/mydei wants, to be the one to kill them.

- they are part of a group of worshipped heroes, but that group will meet a tragic end? chrysos heirs and high cloud quintet. largely at the hands of phainon (flame reaver) : dan feng. i think something will happen to phainon that will make him parallel dan feng even more

- the chrysos heirs, after they die, will probably be reborn somehow in the "new world/genesis" they're working towards. part of the prophecy is that all but one person will die(?) before the coming of the new world, and that one person will open the path to the new world. which imo reflects how all of the high cloud quintet got reborn/corrupted except for jing yuan

what this means for both pairings & the story?

honestly, i do enjoy how hsr has parallels all over the place, and it might be a testament to how well these two dynamics work, that phaidei & renheng might be the most popular hsr m/m pairings. (side note, for some reason i'm more partial to myphai 🤔 but that's irrelevant)

on top of that, by drawing these parallels, we can further understand just How Doomed phainon & mydei are (as are the rest of the chrysos heirs), and how closely intertwined dan feng & yingxing might have been in the past -- to the point their conflict and feelings are still relevant in the current day as dan heng and blade. even if they're at conflict with each other, there is still such a deep connection that shapes them so profoundly, it cannot be overlooked..

(everything after this is incoherent yapping that i'm not entirely sure about myself but it's what's on my mind)

i do think this also further amplifies the trailblaze vs finality dichotomy, if finality is to be the 3rd path of amphoreus, and if finality is to be associated with the 3 titans of calamity (which mydei = strife is associated with one of those.)

the main thing that marks a significant change in both of these dynamics is the influence of trailblaze. we already know with dan heng joining the path of trailblaze, he wants to come to terms w/ his past in his own way and seek a new future for himself. he's making a meaningful change in his own life. (i do believe he's only getting started in this, the conflict he has with blade, the relationship between astral express & stellaron hunters -- not to mention future involvement w/ xianzhou politics -- will definitely span over the long, long run of HSR as a whole). we don't know if or how dh & blade would ever reconcile, but the paths they now walk on this grand script of "honkai star rail" might lead to an answer later down the road...

in the case of amphoreus, going off the theory they're in a time loop and the flame reaver is a key part of that time loop -- if in previous loops mydei would die or become corrupted at the hands of phainon/reaver, that is "finality" at work -- the endless endings. "trailblaze" is the element that interrupts that, and is what phainon is meant to wield. the trailblazers' appearance in the story would be what diverges the loop and helps phainon become the "nameless hero/king" he is destined to become ...

the really spicy, awesome thing about both these pairings is just how strongly intertwined they are with the overarching plot of their respective stories, and the themes so strongly present in duality and opposition, it's just so good to dig into 😭🙏 and just how much they parallel EACH OTHER too and how important dan heng himself even is to amphoreus too, it's like. god. in analyzing the things that affect their relationship, you're not only analyzing just that, but also the larger story in general and. aouujgjgkhghhh it's so good, it's so good. let them cook we love yaoi star rail

[primarilymedievalish]

A Rant About the Characters

Okay so! The thing about Marm and Avid is that in some ways they are so, so painfully similar. I talk a lot about Marm and the allegory of the pelican, but that same mentality of sacrifice is present in Avid. They’re both willing to pay The difference lies in how they express it. They’re both reckless, at times. They’re smart people, and they’re stupid in the same ways. They rush in and make mistakes and see that they’re doing stupid things and maybe don’t care. There’s this one scene in the Limbo AU—I think it’s the beginning of the third stream—where  Avid is building the tower and Marm is climbing the trees. Their conversation goes something like this:

Marm: You know you’re going to fall and die, right? Avid: Yeah. So? [Marm starts climbing the trees.] Avid: You know you’re going to fall and die, right? Marm. Yeah. So?

And it doesn’t stop them. Marm falls and dies. Avid falls off of the house later, and also dies. They know they’re being reckless. They’re being reckless in the same ways. They don’t really care. They’re both loyal, too. Once they’ve given their hearts to something, there’s no going back. They’re self-assured, and stubborn as the rocks; and no more so than when they’re set against each other. No more so than when their aims align.

They have parallel deals with parallel deities; both of them are profoundly shaped by the bargains they make. While the nature of their arrangements are different, the substance isn’t necessarily. The Void isn’t malicious; Olm is. Marm is devoted to keeping the balance and protecting the Void; Avid is here to escape and prevent anyone else from falling into Limbo. On the surface, they’re diametrically opposed. But both of them are in intimate, invasive, and all-consuming relationships with ancient entities whose motivations are, ultimately, inhuman. Both of them pay the price.

Another thing is how absolutely no one is as strange about each other as they are. From the day they met, they’re caught up in each other’s business, although true friendship comes much later. They are the strangest set of enemies that the world has ever seen. They don’t trust each other at all, and find no better joy than impeding and annoying each other, and exchange jokes and pleasantries when they’re not on duty with getting in each other’s way. I don’t think it’s fair to say they hate each other, even then; more that they think the other is misguided and making their life a lot harder. They don’t trust each other, but they orbit. This is the period where Avid goes around impersonating Marm, and where Marm uses his moss to feed the Void. It’s when they have their exchange saying “You never trusted me!” And “You’ve never given me a reason to trust you!” It’s when they have the OSSHA and Mangrove confrontation. They squabble, tease, and make threats, with that current of distrust underneath. I don’t think they like each other, yet; not then, not exactly. But I think they’re pretty aware that they could. They could get along just fine, if not for the teeny tiny detail that they’re both serving higher powers. And this stays pretty stable until Marm finds Avid on the bridge, takes pity on him, and takes him to raid the end. After the end, their semi-stable orbit starts collapsing. They still don’t fully trust or understand each other. I’m on the fence whether it’s even fair to call them friends, then. But they’re falling inward at a concerning rate, and getting more intertwined with every second. Their respective arrangements with the powers they serve grow more marked and more important, even as they become more and more important in each others lives. I feel like it’s important to note that this is also around the time that Tea goes missing, leaving Marm alone on her island. She’s alone. She’s the one to reach out.

Avid and Marm both have a history of loneliness and longing. Marmalade spends the series feeding herself to a being of endless hunger, and reaches out to Avid after her island partner disappears without a trace. Something that I touch on a lot when writing her is the idea that hunger isn’t just something the Void has. Marm wants things. She misses things she’s never known, and she doesn’t even have a name for the things she wants. She misses her home, and can’t remember it. She misses her island partner, and might never find her. I think it’s fair to say that she’s lonely and discontented. I think it’s fair to say she could use a friend. Though Avid has an island partner, he’s honestly just as isolated. He’s fresh out of limbo, closed off and dishonest, and has spent his time tubing people and decimating what friendships and neutralities he might have had early on. He has a ton of acquaintances, and no actual confidantes. His conversations are all buried in irony and half truths. The thing he wants most is to go home, and he’s acutely aware that that isn’t happening. He doesn’t trust her, and she doesn’t trust him. He takes the olive branch, all the same. They latch onto each other, because even if they don’t understand each other, they have an understanding. And slowly, strangely, they become friends. They build the sniffer gardens and marvel at how well they work together. They hunt for lily pads and do each other favors. They go from orbiting to crashing, headfirst, and never looking back. They laugh and joke and ask the time of day, and turn around when they’re on the clock and get back to business as usual with antagonizing and obstructing the others’ aims.

Of course, after this phase, spent slowly gaining trust and becoming the single most important figure in the other’s life (with the notable exemption of their respective patrons, and the time spent in their service), Marm finds Avid in Limbo. And while she would have tried to save just about anybody, I think this is the point, for her, when everything clicks. This is when, from Marm’s perspective, it all makes sense. So she cashes in his debt, drags him back down there, adn we all know that they’re never the same. After the rescue, they’re just best friends. There’s no questioning it. They’re still obsessed with each other. They still mock each other; I think they would die if they had to stop mocking each other. They still tease. They still bother and poke. But there’s trust, beneath it. They’re best friends. And I could say more. I could talk about the door. I could talk about the sacrifice pit. I could talk about the tubes. I could talk about the sacrifice book club. I could talk about Marm going home at last; the Void letting her. I could talk about Avid never getting to. I could talk about the Void Cathedral. I could talk about the end. I could talk about them, after the end, cut loose from their gods and bearing the marks. I could talk about the Limbo AU. I could talk about Marm and Avid, until the sky falls in and my keyboard dies. But I think this will have to be enough for now. They love each other, more than anything. They’re best friends. They’ll go to hell and back for each other. They’ll die for each other. They’ll live for each other. For better and for worse, for good and for ill—they’ll be there.

And I love them.

[kentuckyfriedmegumi]

i wrote an entire analysis on yuji's and megumi's parallels throughout the series

what i think is interesting regarding megumi's and yuji's characters and how they are made to foil each other is that we see from the beginning how their stories are intertwined. from their very first interactions we see them save each other and that sets off a catalyst in how they save each other throughout the series, which is both selfishly and impulsively.

like we see them act without thought, both acting for their own reasons for why they decide to save each other. yuji's selfishness is different than megumi's though, of course. we see him act in selflessness to the point that it becomes selfishness. he WILL sacrifice himself for the greater good, regardless of those around him that care for him, because he thinks that the only thing that matters for his life is that he saves as many people as he can. this comes from the "curse" placed on him by his grandfather.

however, with megumi's selfishness, it comes from his own desire to live by his standards that he's placed on the world in his own twisted view of life due to his upbringing and life as a sorcerer. megumi doesn't think that everyone deserves to live the way that tsumiki and yuji do, and that's why he admires them so much. but this also ties into his self-imagery issues and how he thinks that he doesn't deserve to walk alongside him. this is where his self-destructive ideas come into play where he thinks that everything is fine as long as he can use mahoraga to save the ones he loves because his life doesn't matter as much as others.

we see this foil/parallel (i know this is an oxymoron, but they ultimately have differing beliefs while still acting in a similar fashion) grow between them throughout the series as the save each other and understand the other's struggles. megumi sees that yuji has gone through something after he's revived in chapter 33:

megumi: “itadori, you okay?” yuuji: “well, it’s a big job but i should be fine.” megumi: “no, something happened, didn’t it?” yuuji: “huh, what are you talking about?”

megumi can tell that something has been/is bothering yuuji, even after his insistence that he’s fine at this point, megumi has lost and mourned yuji, while yuji has lost and is mourning junpei.

there's also the classic scene in chapter 63, after yasohachi bridge where they both realize that yuji being alive means that curses are killing more people:

megumi: “don’t tell him.” yuuji: “hey! don’t tell fushiguro. don’t you dare tell him”

this is another instance of them trying to save each other/carry the other's burden as they act as foils. they both feel they are at fault for the deaths and while megumi doesn't regret it ("i never once regretted saving you"), yuji acts in a way that he feels is deserving of his life (in that he wants to "earn" his life because megumi saved him and he doesn't want it to be for nothing)

then of course we get to shibuya and yuji has his moment of giving up and feeling that he is undeserving of living because of the lives sukuna killed. he has his conversation with todo and he is able to pick himself back up, but he still feels like he needs to make up for every life lost. we see the parallel with megumi here in 256 where he tells yuji that he wants to give up. we expect him to get up right away like yuji did back in shibuya, but sukuna cuts them off and megumi doesn't fight back.

then of course their dynamic comes full circle as they both talk in 266, where yuji is able to relate to megumi in his grief and loss and tells megumi that he understands why he's made his decision. what i think is really beautiful about this chapter is that we probably expected the convo to go similar to yuji's with todo, where it's like "i know you're down now, but we must prevail!!" type stuff. but we don't get that with megumi and yuji because they understand each other at a very basic core level. we see yuji give him the choice to live or die as he tells megumi that he accepts him either way.

yuji and megumi are like yin and yang. they have very different motivations, beliefs, and ideals, but they ultimately work together and find harmony in their differences. i think the way that gege has written the two of them and their characters is really cool and it's that very reason why i'm so miffed that we don't get to see a true conclusion to their dynamic as far as this last chapter goes. i would really REALLY like to see a final, good, emotional conversation between the two of them because they deserve it.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

you know, i like hordak as a character. he's interesting, he's likeable, he's a good example of an abuse victim who isn't overly infantilized and coddled by the narrative. his relationship with entrapta was cute, his relationship with horde prime was tragic and i like that he at least gets a proper confrontation with his abuser, where he is able to declare his own independence and get some closure from his trauma.

however, there are two main problems i have with his character (some of which i've already talked about but i want to go into more detail):

1. hordak was not an effective villain. heck, he was barely a villain at all.

you cannot tell me that hordak was the main villain of the first four seasons when the majority of his screentime was spent with him either lurking in his sanctum or canoodling with entrapta.. in his sanctum.

at first i thought that hordak was going to be this looming presence that had control over everything and puppeted everyone's every move, and was this evil masterpiece who orchestrated everything behind the scenes but.. nah. turns out he's just an incompetent manchild who needs a literal teenager with no battle experience to plan everything out for him. how did he conquer half of etheria before that? who knows? not important.

hordak also has no meaningful relationship with adora, the hero. there were actually a lot of parallels that could be drawn from hordak and adora both being raised by abusers who valued perfection over everything else. granted, in that aspect, hordak is more like catra but there isn't even that many parallels with him and catra. there are, in fact, more parallels with catra and shadow weaver or catra and horde prime.

and okay, not every hero and villain needs a deep intertwined relationship or complex narrative parallels. but at least give us something? a proper interaction?? the show even acknowledges the fact that hordak and adora have absolutely no connection with each other, when adora asks him why he kidnapped her and he basically replies with "lol who are you again". and then he just randomly remembers her at the end of the finale and it’s supposed to be this touching, emotional scene except you feel nothing because these characters literally never interacted, what are we looking at?

adora is supposed to be fighting the horde, but it seemed like she was just fighting catra most of the time. as the hero who opposes etheria's oppressors, shouldn't adora mainly be targeting hordak, the person who started it all? and shouldn't hordak, as the leader of the horde, be more concerned about the rebellion having an actual god on their side? i guess it doesn't really matter if said god can be easily defeated by a inexperienced catgirl

it just feels like hordak didn't have to be a villain at all. we only know he does horrifying things, because the narrative says that he does. oh, and he tortures catra once and sends her to crimson waste, so i guess that qualifies as being a villain.

the point of a villain is to drive the central conflict of the story. to oppose the hero and to pose an actual threat to the status quo. any character who doesn't do this is merely an antagonist. in hordak's case, i don't even know if he counts as an antagonist. he's like that one edgy antihero with a dark past where he murdered countless people but it doesn't really matter in present time. it’s just there to add flavor and to enhance his tragic past, because war is obviously a fictional fantasy trope and totally not something that has happened in real life. /s

2. like many other characters in this show, hordak's character almost completely revolves around his love interest.

yes, entrapta taking care of hordak and boosting his self-esteem is endearing. yes, hordak breaking his defenses and being vulnerable around entrapta is very sweet. but apart from entrapta, the only characters who have any kind of effect on hordak is horde prime and catra. and.. i guess, imp? but again, imp is mostly just a stand-in for the cute animal sidekick.

i know that hordak was supposed to be a recluse but it's impossible to believe that this kind of person was able to start an army and feed them with false propaganda. again, if you read my post about cults and their methods of indoctrination, you would know that cult leaders are often very charismatic and friendly people. and i know the horde isn't exactly a cult but we are supposed to believe that at least some of the cadets raised there genuinely believed that they were on the side of good, when their leader was a mysterious shut-in who basically didn't do anything substantial and their mentor/superior officer was just actively radiating Evil Vibes™.

i just wish they did more with hordak’s character and actually made him interact with some of the other characters. he doesn’t even interact with shadow weaver that much, and she was his second-in-command. even if it’s not direct interactions, it would have been interesting to see the characters mention hordak more, especially the ex-horde soldiers. apart from the general “oh no he’s evil and wants to kill everyone”, that is.

like we see people talking about shadow weaver. we see adora open up about her relationship with shadow weaver and ponder about whether there’s some good left in the woman who raised her. we see glimmer talking about how powerful shadow weaver is and how she could help the rebellion. we see catra complaining about how shadow weaver treated her in comparison to adora. we see angella talk about how shadow weaver shouldn’t be trusted.

when you think about it, shadow weaver was much more of a looming menacing presence in spop, despite not even being a villain, let alone the main villain.

even when she was on the good side and helping the princesses, there was always a ceaseless feeling of unease and fear, because we’ve seen what she’s capable of. we weren’t just told that “shadow weaver is sooo abusive, she’s bad!” we see how she treats adora and catra, we see how she manipulates situations and people for her own benefit, we see how she slowly starts to get into glimmer’s head. the show actually does a good job with shadow weaver, and i have to give credit where credit is due. shadow weaver was genuinely a well-written character.

hordak is just.. there, most of the time. he acts evil enough to be considered as one of the villains but he’s not actually a villain if you consider it for more than five seconds. he doesn’t really do anything for the bulk of the narrative, he has one kinda cool scene where he stands up to his abuser and then he just peaces out with entrapta.

i don’t really understand the point of taking a main villain of the show and turning him into this. sure, the OG hordak was more of a comedic villain and wasn’t super complex, but from what i know, he still played an important role in a narrative and his humorous moments made up for the lack of a tragic backstory.

[icharchivist]

About the lavi/Allen ship after resent development do you think it actually has a chance with how it’s looking like soulmates like do you think it can be taken as romantic now what kind of development do you see happening now do you think their relationship can grow in a good way from here I saw in past posts you think it be one sided do you still think that

oh boy HI!

Well you got me i genuinely don't know.

And i rambled again

I don't actually expect ships going canon in shounen in general, but Past!Laven really went straight into reproducing Current!Yulma and we know Yulma is canon, so this is definitely Something.

I did always say that i thought if romantic, it was fully one sided from Lavi's side. Lavi's changes around Allen are more extreme and obvious, while Allen's behavior around Lavi doesn't really sound so different from his behavior around everyone else except that, i would argue, he looked more comfortable around him to be doing childish things. Something i already thought was me pulling at straws until recent developments.

While i'm totally thrilled about the confirmation they're soulmates (in a neutral sense of the term, not every soulmates are romantic in nature, but their souls are clearly intertwined by the way Past!Allen and Past!Lavi merged and it's safe to say that it involves platonic affection at least.) i genuinely don't know where to go on from that point. I'm still on that high a little to be honest.

I don't even know if Past!Laven is really "canon" by romantic metric considering we know Past!Lavi stuck around also due to his promise to Nea, but it's clear, imo, that there's meant to be a parallel between Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi about "we started staying with Allen because of our sworn duties but our affection for him grew to the point of being torn between duty and caring for him". After all Past!Laven traveled together for a long time, as evidenced by the fact their first interaction has Allen with short hair and that Apocryphos attacks him after they've been travelling together when Allen has waaaay longer hair.

It will depend on how Allen will take the reveals imo and i can't predict the kid when it comes to unveiling his identities. I think there's potential for him to feel extremely emotional about it since one of the only things he remembered in his present life, that Apocryphos couldn't take away from him, was how Past!Lavi held him so warmly. And like. the whole reason he took the potion that would kill him so readily was specifically to "take back what was taken away from him" when he realized the only thing he remembered was this precious.

I think this could push Allen to really want to at least clear things up with Lavi, and perhaps even properly lower his walls around him.

However.

The situation IS different from Yulma. Kanda and Alma both remembered enough their past lives, AND spend a whole lot of time ALSO developing feelings because fully remembering them, to know once the reveal was out that they were meant to find each others over and over and be in love in the past and the future.

but with Laven, while Allen is learning about it, Lavi knows absolutely fuck-all.

The dynamic is going to be SO different because what Lavi feels for Allen (platonic, romantic, whatever you want to call it) is due to who Allen is now, while Allen is going to learn a lot more about Past!Lavi to influence his opinion. On top of that Lavi also is somewhat "guided" by this vision of Past!Lavi that drive him to Allen.

There's a gap in knowledge and one that i think may be too nebulous for feelings to return just on the idea that now there is more knowledge.

One that will only be made worse by the others elements of the main plot right about now:

-Allen is going to learn that Mana's corpse isn't in its grave and its likely going to derail his feelings.. or on the contrary, amplify them realizing that even the one person who raised him and loved him didn't even die (and he carried this guilt his whole life and all the horrors that happened after that) so it could make him want to seek out this "past warmth" again. Or it will destroy him first and we'll have to deal with that.

-Lavi is still being tortured and it's been months in universe. Fiddle draws Lavi with a broken heart in a doodle he made in a recent chapter which implies Lavi' condition is pretty bad.. I think when we will find Lavi back he will be in no condition to process the whole soulmate situation

... That said he IS being tortured because the Noah want to learn about what happened to Past!JR (and i'm just realizing the fucking irony right here on Allen, being called "Mister Host" atm by the Bookman Clan, aka being held because of his condition as an Honorary Noah, being put into a deadly situation to recover information about Past!JR, while Lavi is being tortured by the Noah because they want Bookman information on Past!JR and Nea. The parallels never stop paralleling.). So Lavi wanting to learn more about Past!JR is on the table, and i wonder what plotline could come off from realizing he spent 3 months tortured because of the very figure that saved his life when he was 7.

And actually now i'm thinking about how Allen and Lavi were separated during the Alma arc and following it, were both held captive, before being hurt by a shadow of their common past lives: the Noah on Lavi while Allen is hunted by Apocryphos. Almost as if Apo had to wait until Lavi was far away from Allen to hope to attack him in case the Bookman JR meddles with his plans again. I mean i don't think it's exactly the reason but imagine if this is true?!

So actually maybe Lavi will want to learn about JR but this will probably be more confusing for them to process. I think it will be harder for them to understand how intertwined they are.

When compared to Kanda for instance he knew he had to be looking for his soulmate his whole life, he knew he had someone he loved and wanted back at all cost, so when Alma was revealed to be just that it was just a question of "finally, my lifelong quest, finishing where it started".

but neither Lavi nor Allen were really looking for this past connection so i think it'd take them a while to really process how intertwined they are and they may return to their normal dynamic afterward.

However i do think they will behave a bit differently realizing just how much they share.

As a romantic, my favorite option would be for them to not actually let their past lives dictate how they should feel about each others, but as they are working together to unravel the past and realize they have to do it together because both are concerned, they are lowering their walls in ways they haven't around others people because it just feels right, and it's where something more natural can bloom.

As a realist, I honestly don't even believe it would take a romantic turn because usually Shounen rarely do this type of things. But Hoshino is unpredictable so maybe things could take a turn. I just can't dare to hope.

(would i even want it? I don't know. I never considered it a possibility. Again i thought it was one sided. I also always have thought "Dear Gray Man" could be because it's Lavi keeping records of Allen's life because Allen isn't going to make it but Lavi will, so the one-sided-ness added to the tragedy, but now i'm so distraught on what that could mean. Hell now i also have thoughts about how this can be also reminiscent of Past!Lavi's approach. I mean i have many different ideas on what the title is about but it is one of them yaknow.)

So i genuinely have no idea where this could possibly be taken. I didn't even think it was ever possible that my "fav ship but it's probably one sided" would ever just reveal they were soulmates all along. I don't know how to process this information and how much romance i can interpret out of it exactly.

So i do what i do best instead and look for Narrative Parallels and Foils because at least there i have content.

but as to predict the future and especially a romantic relationship in a Shounen?

I have no clue where we're going.

My only hope is that it will be the story Hoshino really wants to tell.

thanks for the ask! <3

[skippygiraffee]

I'm once again thinking of SWSH.

Specifically, thinking about Leon and Raihan's rivalry and how that's framed. Rivalry in SWSH is interesting to me, because the rivals in Pokemon game are usually relegated to the relationship between the player character and some of the others that join them on the journey across the various regions. And SWSH both has a lot of rivals in Hop, Marnie, and Bede, but also showcases rivalry and what that looks like in both adulthood and in the professional setting in Leon and Raihan. Which to me is intensely interesting in many aspects, and I think they're foils of each other in a lot of ways.

Leon is set up to be polished, confident (edging on the side of arrogance in some cases), if not a bit goofy and aloof. I don't think this personally reflects all of him, not in the slightest, but taking a cursory glance at him, he's clean, he's put together, and he's definitely given the quirk of being the silly goofy guy of Galar who keeps getting lost everywhere. Whereas Raihan is a bit messier, a tad feral in his batting pose, and is shown off as being very intelligent. Raihan is the dragon, Leon is the prince/knight, like I think there's a lot to work with there, and I find a lot of that dichotomy interesting.

They also share some aspects, like the connection to royalty, where Leon has the crown on his hat, and Raihan is literally hanging around a castle. But the ways in which both are presented is so different that it feels like a different kind of royalty, or at least they're not supposed to be seen on equal footing.

I also find their ace Pokemon to be quite interesting. I'll die on the hill that Charizard, in this game, is meant to be a dragon. Raihan has his dragon, Duraludon, and I don't think giving him that one is a coincidence. Because they could have easily given him the other Gen 8 dragon, Dragapult, but they didn't, and I think there's a reason for it aside from Duraludon just fitting Raihan better. Honestly, I think it might be drawing a parallel between the White and Red dragons of the Arthurian tales (which these dragons were also imprisoned under a castle and well. Eternatus is right there), and having Leon and Raihan have two dragons, one white and one red is pretty interesting, at least to me, seeing as it might connect to something real world, and since SWSH does take a lot from the myths and stories of the UK and surrounding areas.

I'm also unsure if it ever states how long their rivalry has been going on, but definitely long enough for it to become part of both of their brands, intertwining them in ways that I don't think they can be pulled apart from. Where the other rivals in game are able to grow outside of the rivalry from one another, Leon and Raihan always seem to be both doing their own thing, and always meeting back at the same place to duke it out again.

Not sure where to end it, seeing as I have a lot more thoughts that get caught in the web, but I wanted to at least down and throw them out onto my blog :3

[anghraine]

I saw a popular author post about how, while of course Elizabeth has some obligatory flaws, Darcy's are exponentially more severe, and it was like stepping into a view so far removed from mine that it was almost disorienting.

The thing is, I periodically see people wondering why Elizabeth/Darcy is such a behemoth in Austen fandom when either/both of them have substantial flaws that the narrative doesn't shy away from. Their flaws aren't identical, but they do obviously mirror each other and are thematically intertwined, with reflecting character arcs and specific beats. As I see it, the novel maintains a tense and careful balance between them—not in terms of centrality (Elizabeth's mistakes and growth are more central to the narrative than Darcy's IMO) but in terms of the weight given their flaws and virtues.

And for me that's essential to their appeal!

I love plenty of other Austen characters and relationships, but for me, personally, none of the other canon pairings are balanced in such a fun and satisfying way. The closest (and the other most conventionally romantic pairing in Austen IMO) is probably Anne/Wentworth, where at least the choices of both of them are heavy contributors to their current problems. But a) the novel is ambivalent as to whether Anne actually erred morally in the first place and b) that is long in the past by the time of the novel; the Anne of the main story of Persuasion is a fairly idealized figure by contrast to Wentworth.

I sometimes see arguments that, say, Anne or Mr Knightley or Elinor Dashwood or whomever are actually as flawed and prone to error as their romantic counterparts, but I just ... don't buy it, honestly. As far as canon Austen goes, I only really see that balance in the course of the main story with Elizabeth/Darcy. P&P loves them and holds them up as admirable (and they are!), but it also loves undercutting them in clearly paralleling ways and does it over and over throughout the novel.

So the idea of an Elizabeth and Darcy where one of them has obligatory storytelling flaws that can't seriously be compared to the other's is just ... blah. It cuts out the fundamental interconnection and resonance between them that I think is built into the structure of the novel down to its bones and is what makes their relationship special. A lot of stories pay lip-service to that kind of dynamic, sure, but despite the many (many) imitators, I don't often see it done successfully. But P&P is the real deal.

So yeah, when people are like "why do people like Elizabeth with Darcy so much when she could have a different man who doesn't make serious mistakes" I'm just thinking ... why on earth would I want Elizabeth "there was truth in his looks" Bennet with someone who would never make mistakes on that level? Or when people are like, Darcy's just misunderstood, wouldn't he be better off with Jane [or another relatively idealized female character] it's like ... hell no, I love him, but I do not want to inflict him on that poor woman.

It's not that there's something wrong with multishipping them (I've written alternate pairings for both!) or shipping them with other people, but just in terms of the novel as it exists, I do think the balance and echoes between them are part of what makes the novel work and one of the sources of their long-standing popularity. And I feel that trying to pin the "real" blame on one or the other up-ends that balance and diminishes a lot of what I, at least, find appealing about the dynamic between them.

[raayllum]

So what's the Mirrored Trio Theory?

The Mirrored Trio theory is, for lack of a better explanation, a two pronged theory regarding the way the main trio will parallel both the generation that led to / immediately received Aaravos upon his fall (himself, Leola, and a speculative human who may or may not have been a mage / helped to found Elarion) and how they may also parallel the Orphan Queen, Jailer, and Aaravos yet again. So put your tinfoil hats on and strap in because it's going to be a speculation heavy one, lads! We're going to get deep in the weeds.

Fallen Trio

So the first trio we want to talk about is what I'm going to, for lack of a better term / meta simplicity, refer to as the Fallen Trio, consisting of Aaravos, Leola, and 'Elarion' — our stand-in for a potential human Aaravos had a close dynamic with that may be intertwined with the human city of Elarion.

First, I want to talk about Aaravos and Leola. We get our first mention of Leola in S5, specifically with Leola's Last wish being a star for both Xadians and for humans, who use it to navigate and "to find their way in the endless darkness of the night." This is fitting given that what we know of unicorns from the book one novelization — that they gave primal magic and stones to humanity out of mercy and compassion — and that Tales of Xadia singles her out further as the specific unicorn to do so, although it omits primal stones from the equation:

This is, of course, a big parallel between Leola and some details we know from Aaravos as well, who also gave gifts to humanity: the relic staff that Ibis identifies as truly belonging to Aaravos ("It was a gift from one of the Great ones" / "If you seek to return that staff to its true owner...") and, as Claudia says, dark magic:

However, there's also been indications that Leola might've been a Startouch elf (tweet from Aaron Ehasz identifying her as the Startouch child + the star on the star chart map, although it's not entirely clear), that star magic can be reality altering, that Startouch elf designs had unicorn like horns protruding from their foreheads, and that history can change and shape things differently than they necessarily were.

Either way, unicorns are one of the few creatures we know to also possess the Star arcanum and, seemingly like the Startouch elves, are all but gone from Xadia (+ the Pentarchy)'s physical plain. And that she, like Aaravos, were two Star(touch) beings who both wanted to help humanity and help them develop magic, but did so in very different ways. Whether they are literally related or the same species, I think this parallel between them means they're set up to have an almost sibling-esque bond — one that existed, and one that accordingly fell apart under the brunt of dark magic and other disagreements, as TDP is prone to do.

(Put a pin in Callum and Ezran for now, cause we're going to circle back to them shortly.)

Bare minimum, Leola and Aaravos will have to be foils if not contemporaries of each other, given the closeness of their original goals in manifestation, regardless of motivation. This is particularly true given that Aaravos preys on mages in particular and that dark magic (plus a little Star magic, maybe?) allows him to literally possess people who have done dark magic, which can be no happy accident.

Given that Leola seemed dead set on giving humans primal magic, it seems unlikely she might've been too keen on a dark magic, alternative development either, which we know came after, thanks to Ripples.

It happened long ago, when humans had only just learned to hold fire in their hands without burning. They nurtured their precious primal flames secretly—in the dark of night, beneath shadows and shrouds—as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters. Eventually, for the audacity of their fire, they were hunted, and—though they looked to the stars for salvation—the stars, too, looked down upon them with disdain. Humanity had been given something it was never meant to have.

So again, you have two characters with very similar goals/desires, but very different ideas of how to achieve said goals. This one of the reasons why, I think, that TDP loves to have siblings disagree, as it's an effective way of having more worldviews on display with some hope for reconciliation or the tragedy of deterioration, or both. Callum and Ezran stand alone as the one sibling pair that hasn't been terribly wrenched apart by political or ideological disagreements thus far, save for Sarai and Amaya, who were torn apart by Sarai's death.

Which brings me to my next point: if Aaravos and Leola had a sibling like bond, did he lose her to their potential ideological disagreements, or did those disagreements actually cost her life?

Whether Leola just walked away and likewise abandoned him (like Soren), became too distant in disagreement to continue having some sort of bond (like Harrow and Viren, and Janai and Karim), flat out died (like Khessa, Harrow, and Sarai), or all three, that could be one of the many cogs motivating Aaravos to keep turning the wheel of the cycle, as grief has often been the primary motivator throughout history, even amongst the 'villains'. A "song of love that loss" that Aaravos has chosen handpicked "instruments" for, after all (4x03, 4x04).

And like I said, Callum and Ezran are long over due to have a disagreement, given that they haven't had a substantial one since season one, and given that Ezran has grown to only be more assertive than he was since then, not less. This could easily be over Runaan (Callum, having already sworn himself to helping Rayla free her parents, and Ezran, understandably holding onto anger and grief concerning Harrow's death). I'm sure there are also plenty of other things they could heavily disagree over in the future, like military aid or action or how to approach trying to defeat Aaravos, etc.

The point to all of this is that I think Ezran could be a very good stand in for Leola — at least in terms of being selfless, deeply compassionate, uncomplicated, and adamant about giving people their freedom even at the cost of themselves and even if that gift can be misused or discarded (3x04) — which means Aaravos could offer a potential parallel to Callum in the sibling split. Aaravos, who turned to dark magic as an option regardless of or precisely because of the potential violence, and Callum, who argues for the Nova Blade whereas his brother still always champions a non-violent route thus far.

After all, TDP loves to have their "person A is estranged from their sibling and is determined not to lose their lover" parallel, given that it's happened four times (Harrow, Viren, Sarai; Viren, Harrow, Lissa; Claudia, Soren, Terry; Janai, Karim, Amaya) already.

Now, this could be wildly off base as we know very little about Leola and even less about her potential dynamic with Aaravos, but if we follow along with the idea that Ezran could parallel her and Callum could parallel Aaravos, I think now maybe we can talk about Elarion and Rayla.

Years ago we learned that there was a place on Xadia's map (both sides) that was named after someone who had a deep connection to him, and that many of his choices are based around this relationship. Given the Midnight Star poem, people defaulted to Elarion ("Elarion, black-eyed child / her twisted roots spread deep and far / The humans’ might sparked by the light / of Aaravos, her midnight star") although I've also considered Kalik.

And while I'm still not unconvinced that Elarion isn't just a name like Elara and Laurelion, before Aaravos changed his name, combined, I do think Elarion has to be important in Aaravos' backstory, and that it's more than likely that a founder of Elarion / a human involved with Elarion for a variety of reasons.

For starters, while we can be told that Aaravos had a soft spot for humans at one point, giving us a specific person or dynamic to think of is helpful in regards to emotional investment, and in helping to explain why he may have developed said soft spot. We also know, thanks to a birthday post years ago, that a human once gave him a gift:

He thinks that if he cared for the idea [of birthdays], he’d like to remember the taste of a smooth red fruit a human had plucked from a tree for him, once. It had been so crisp, and so sweet.

While this could've been the Orphan Queen (we do know, thanks to 1x01, that there's a tree planted in the castle courtyards 300 years ago, but we don't know it was an apple tree), an apple transfer like this one feels far more "Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and knowledge isn't always a Good thing" type schtick. Not only does it seem to indicate a more intimate bond, it also might foreshadow the reason Aaravos Fell.

One of the most interesting, but perhaps more discreet, reasons I think there's a connection between 'Elarion' as a person and Aaravos is because of the nature motif running between what little we know of Elarion and to do with Aaravos' mirror and appearance motifs. The Midnight Star is riddled with flower and nature symbolism, referring to it as a "trembling seed" and "fading bloom," that "her roots took hold" and later became "twisted," and that before the gift of Aaravos, she was "wilting" with "bone-white branches". And Aaravos' mirror and the box that held his matching key have blooming flowers on it.

See the flowers along the bottom on the actual frame of the mirror, then sculpted along the sides, and the top? Yeah. We also know that flowers themselves, thanks to Tales of Xadia, are featured in a story told both in Katolis and amongst the Moonshadow elves in particular, featuring an elven thief who steals what you value most, leaving only flowers in their wake. This is the only story in all of Tales of Xadia that we see two cultures share, even if they interpret it wildly differently.

Flowers that were always gone by morning, and gifts that couldn't be accepted or understood ("I’ve got one more gift for you, Callum: I'm going to keep you safe. I have to. I love you too much not too [...] Taking on hard choices and going to dark places is an act of love. It’s a gift. So, please let me give you this gift, Callum. Stay safe, and stay in the light").

We also know that whoever Aaravos loved, he inevitably lost whether due to time or tragedy. While this form of grief is one the show has explored, it was previously largely only through Harrow, who mourned Sarai for 9 years upon losing her, and who avenged her by slaying Avizandum, and more briefly through Ethari believing Runaan was dead.

That was, until season four, where Callum grieving Rayla and dealing with the fallout of that grief and distance turned it into more of an accentuated plot point, both before and even after her return.

Before, losing your partner in this manner would've been something Callum had witnessed, but not experienced. Now, whether the show wants Callum to sympathize with Aaravos or not, it is an experience that they could both understand, particularly if it is going to be one of Aaravos' main motivators.

Thus, we have a disagreement set up between 'siblings' (Leola, Aaravos; Ezran, Callum) as well as lost love (Elarion, Aaravos; Rayla, Callum) as a big motivator for choices, grief, and what possibly led to the fall. That Aaravos, at least in practice / thematic lineups, being a Callum who lost his Rayla and his Ezran*, and then lost himself.

Therefore:

Aaravos — Callum

Leola — Ezran

Elarion — Rayla

[ * This is not to say that Callum would pull an Aaravos and go on a hellbent 1000+ year revenge scheme, because he's not like that, but I do think it could be a very poignant and apt parallel of giving him and Aaravos more in common than they currently have, which is about nothing but magical curiosity and connection. ]

However, 90% of this is all speculation of things that have been kept supremely under wraps. For something a little more tangible simply because we have slightly more information, let's talk about the

Imprisonment Trio

The Imprisonment Trio, as the name implies, refers to the two humans who seemed to directly (the Jailer) and potentially indirectly (the Orphan Queen) be involved in imprisoning Aaravos (the third in this trio). This time, however, I'm going to argue that Aaravos — in terms of his imprisonment — is going to parallel someone other than Callum, but we shall see.

To start, I want to look at the Jailer and the Orphan Queen, since their parallels to Callum and Ezran respectively are the most obvious.

We don't know for sure whether the Jailer came from Katolis, but we know that the Orphan Queen did, eventually taking on the throne from the previous royal family and starting Harrow and Ezran's royal line, first hinted at in 3x05 with "Only orphans can ascend to the throne". Ezran has been directly compared to her in both role and appearance by the show's framing and by characters like Rex Igneous in 4x08: "I should have seen it before. Long ago, it was a human who saw through the Fallen Star's schemes and helped Xadia put an end to them. You look so much like her." This plays well into Ezran's tendency to discover or unearth long lost things, most notably Zym's egg, just as the Orphan Queen became the Truthteller of Aaravos' treachery.

Callum, for his part, is a human mage, just like the Jailer. He's clever, very talented with magic, and despite being Aaravos' preferred prey as a mage will ultimately — like the Jailer — play a role in his defeat. He will also work with and for the archdragons and their wills, but has no problem being disobedient either, in the name of concern or mercy, much like how the Jailer kept Akiyu alive rather than tell the archdragons the truth. And like the Jailer, he understands the potential danger of knowledge: "The entire world would be in danger if she let him live with this knowledge" / "I need you to kill me."

Like the brothers, they were a (future) royal and mage working together, starting off what perhaps was a long tradition of Katolian monarchs having high mages. If, as often theorized due to having an Aaravos-y twin box (S2 novelization) and his love of puzzles, Kpp'Ar is indeed descended from the Jailer, that adds another layer onto Kpp'Ar being one of Callum's predecessors as High Mage. While Ezran has the job and the bloodline of the Orphan Queen, Callum would've more directly inherited the position of (high) mage from the Jailer's thematic and occupational line.

Granted, there are differences. Most notably, the Key of Aaravos was given to Callum, not to Ezran, although there could be potential future parallels between the brothers and the Sunfire siblings, with Karim unable to undo Kim'Dael's chains because his sister is still queen, and the brothers needing to work together to fully use the cube. I wouldn't be surprised if Ezran learns more about the cube and the Orphan Queen in S6 while Callum still has some unknowns to its true meaning, leading to some delicious dread and dramatic irony. But I digress.

The point is that the Jailer and the Orphan Queen both had their roles to play in imprisoning Aaravos, and that Callum and Ezran, respectively, will both have their roles to play in trying to keep Aaravos contained, only to inevitably somehow fail in a way that allows him to escape, if by another's hand. We do know the brothers will be going to weird ruins in a future season thanks to some out-of-context spoilers that have yet to pass, and the Ruins of Elarion would certainly fit:

Which, just like the out-of-context spoiler card, you might've noticed that I haven't mentioned Rayla and who she's going to be paralleling yet. Well, that's because this time / generational pass around, I think she's going to be the primary foil to Aaravos.

Now, this train of thought isn't new by any means. I've thought Rayla paralleled Aaravos reasonably well since S3 aired largely due to their status as ghosted/banished elves, a compassion for humans (at least implied for Aaravos) that other elves disapproved of, and their dynamics with Callum and Viren, respectively.

Both Rayla and Aaravos have to work to earn their high mage's trust ("And should we trust you? Have you told us the truth about everything?" / "And why should I trust you?") over the course of season one for Rayla and season two for Aaravos, ending in promises of allegiance and togetherness: "You've got to stay with me" / "I will stay with you" (2x09). Aaravos leads Viren to his doom in being tackled off the Pinnacle, and Callum throws himself off the Pinnacle after Rayla.

You can imagine my delighted surprise, then, when S4 simply cranked it up even further: Rayla was hunting Aaravos' mage ("I spent two years hunting"), and Aaravos was hunting Rayla's mage ("Yes, mages were his prey"). Rayla wants to protect Callum and kill Viren, and Aaravos had promised to save Viren and use Callum. Even for Callum himself, 4x04 and 4x07 seemed like clear set up for Rayla symbolizing agency in Callum breaking free from Aaravos' control someday, putting the two in literal opposition to each other. Two potential paths (although picking Rayla, at least at first, may not be mutually exclusive from picking Aaravos).

Rayla, who was also harshly punished by Xadia with no trial.

This isn't to say that Aaravos didn't do anything wrong and is being unjustly punished — far from it — or that Aaravos' imprisonment and subsequent freedom won't have parallels to anyone else like say, Callum, who will likely be imprisoned by Aaravos through possession in S6 and ultimately freed by Rayla. More so that imprisonment of different sorts has been a running theme throughout Rayla's arc, and that Callum — who is primed to be Aaravos' chain breaker, whether through possession or not — could also be hers (if not just her parents') the way he has routinely been in the past, whether it was from instigating the events that eventually led to her binding (chain) coming off or saving her from being emotionally stuck (3x08) or from doing anything for her freedom (5x01, 5x08). He's primarily been someone who is tethered to freedom when it comes to recognizing and breaking cycles (chains of history) or literal restraints, and it's only in season four and season five that he's shifted to being both tied to freedom and having himself restrained.

I've speculated in the past this may result in Callum (and Ezran) leading to Aaravos' release in order to save/free Rayla; however, the show may not want as much of a repeat from 5x08, and freeing the Moon fam from the coins also resulting in Aaravos' freedom through an escalation of events would also keep that ironic thread, so it could really go anywhere.

Two humans, one elf, and endless tragedy, repeating and breaking cycles all at the same time. Ezran, discovering important info about his ancestor and possibly the Key; Callum, following in the Jailer's footsteps and unravelling the final puzzles of the prison and figuring out how to undo it; and Rayla, ghosted, banished, vying against Aaravos for the control and agency of his latest pawn who also happens to be the love of her life.

So for the Imprisonment Trio:

The Orphan Queen — Ezran

The Jailer — Callum

Aaravos — Rayla

In Conclusion

Is any of this something? I don't know, honestly. I think it's plausible, at least partially. I think it'd be neat. We know TDP likes varying intergenerational parallels and looking at how history repeats, whether that's directly through family (blood or not) lines, or by having repeating plot points (the dragon quartet, or Rayla being immobilized) and trials (Rayllum facing Sol Regem, much like Ziard, etc). We know there was someone Aaravos loved and lost, we know he's not above using what people want against them, and the connections between Ezran and the Orphan Queen are just Text at this point, although how they may manifest further, we don't know.

This is just one particular stab at it, and an examination of three of the series' most interesting (potential) trios. We'll simply have to see if anything here hit the nail on the head.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

—Dragons Out

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

I can't believe the new Ryan interview dropped while I was showering. Always when I leave to do something, smh.

Anyways, onto my thoughts on this interview! (NOTE: I wrote this as I read the interview.)

So here's where the "he kind of falls in line" quote comes from, but then three sentences after it says that this is "not what Eddie "wants" for his team."

Which dispels any notion that Eddie will be completely fine with what's happening and that makes sense with Eddie's character. And honestly, I'd be really mad if the writers made him be completely fine with Gerrard because that's not how I think any of the main characters would react with him in the captaincy based on how they reacted to the news of his captaincy in the season 7 finale.

An interesting thing that Ryan says is "So it doesn't really affect him as much as some of the other characters who happen to be a little bit more emotional or erratic in their behavior.”

And to me is reminiscent of what Tim said in his interview where he said Buck be the one who wouldn't be used to dealing with someone like Gerrard. (That was me paraphrasing what Tim said, btw.) It's really interesting to me that, if that's the case, they're drawing parallels between Buck's reaction to Gerrard and Eddie's reaction Gerrard. I'm super curious for that.

Ryan said that Eddie's journey this season is about loving himself. I'm very excited for that, very excited on this journey with him. (I know this was short, but to be fair, he only talked briefly talked about it in the interview.)

I find it interesting that when it comes to Buck and Eddie, Ryan (according to the writer, so take that as you will) said that "the duo are still "going strong," noting that Eddie will be a source of comfort for Buck when Gerrard makes things difficult on the job." And the next thing that's in quotations (which are his words) are about how both Buck and Eddie will lean on each other.

Even without taking this in a romantic light, I'm assuming it means that they'll have a lot of scenes together like they did last season. Which I'm personally not mad about because I just love Buck and Eddie's dynamic even if I'm not thinking about it with shipper goggles.

And there are more things after that, but since this post is already long and I've deemed those other things as not really pertaining to be about the storyline for Eddie this season. So this is where my conclusion is coming in.

What I've taken away from this interview is that there are two things that are prevalent in Eddie's storyline in 8A: his journey of self-love and his way of dealing with Gerrard being captain. I do think it's worth noting that by the sounds of it, Buck seems to be intertwined with Eddie's storyline in a way that the others aren't.

I keep saying this, but I truly am excited for this season. I can't wait to see how everyone's storylines pan out. I'm hoping that we get interviews from the other cast members that we haven't seen, because it seems like the storylines this season are really interesting.

[mxqlss]

BEFORE - RM2

part of the sunshine au

Sypnosis .ೃ࿐ In which Sunny is grateful that all of Rutger's past lovers made him who he is now.

Pairing .ೃ࿐ Rutger Mcgroarty x Sunny

𝐀𝐔 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 .ೃ࿐

Song Choice .ೃ࿐

When you think of all the late nights Lame fights over the phone Wake up in the mornin' With someone but feelin' alone

Before Rutger had met Sunny, he was in relationships that didn't sit right with his teammates. Either his girlfriends were rude when Rutger was there around or they just controlled him and he let it happen since he loved them so much

Rutger would constantly fight over these things in his relationships, when he got home late, went out partying, everything. He would sometimes wake up in the morning with his lover but it made him feel so alone cause he didn't have someone who wanted him for him and could deal with his golden retriever personality instead of using him.

A heart is drawn around your name In someone's handwriting, not mine We're sneakin' out into town Holdin' hands, just killin' time

When Sunny was enrolled in UMICH she would go to the hockey games to support her best friend, Mark Estapa. She knew everyone else, they just didn't know her, except Rutger Mcgroarty. Sunny was hanging out with some friends of hers and they knew Rutger, introducing Sunny to him. From that day forth Rutger knew her.

In class one day, Sunny was sitting with one of her friends until someone in the row in front of her was drawing hearts, Sunny being curious tried to look over and saw that, that person had written their name with Rutger’s, hearts all over.

Sunny knew she liked Rutger but only confided it within Mark, she didn’t want Rutger to ever find out, and knowing Mark, he wouldn't tell a soul about his best friend's secrets even if his life depended on it.

One day, Sunny and Rutger were holding hands coincidentally. it wasn’t a thing where they were dating but it was something to them that brought them comfort. They were sneaking around and holding hands to kill time before and after exams or stressful games.

Your past and mine are parallel lines Stars all aligned, and they intertwined And taught you the way you call me baby Treat me like a lady, all that I can say is

everyone knew that Rutger and Sunny liked each other but never made their moves on each other because they didn’t want to ruin the friendship they both loved, adored and cared for.

“I’m telling you! Both of you are meant for each other!” Mark said he was talking to Rutger, thinking Sunny was sleeping in Mark’s bed. When Sunny had heard it, her face turned red.

weeks later Rutger was in the same position. He was in Sunny’s dorm to surprise her after coming home from a long roadie, till he heard Sunny and Mark talking as they got to her dorm.

“Suns, all I’m saying is that look at the way he looks at you, the way you look at him. You both like each other! All I’m saying is that he likes you!”, “Mark, how would you know? It could’ve been those looks where they look at you like they love you but it’s in a friendly way.”. when Sunny opened the door she was met with Rutger standing there in her dorm. “is it bad to say that marks right about me liking you?”

Rutger had let out a soft nervous smile as Sunny stood there in shock, after what seemed like an eternity she smiled and let out a soft breath giggle as she walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and giving him a tight loving hug. Rutger then smiled at Mark as Mark smiled back and walked away to his dorm, Rutger then smiled at Sunny, hugging her back.

All of the girls you loved before (ooh) Made you the one I've fallen for Every dead-end street led you straight to me Now you're all I need I'm so thankful for All of the girls you loved before But I love you more

when Rutger and Sunny had called it official, all his teammates knew how he was actually happy and that he was with someone who brought out the best and him. Sunny was finally happy, and it made Mark happy that he saw how happy Rutger had made her.

Sunny is glad that Rutger’s exes made him who is now. Every dead end Rutger was at, girl after girl, Sunny was the only girl he needed. Rutger was the only boy she needed, she’s thankful that all of the girls he loved before made him the loving, affectionate boy that Sunny now can call hers. Yeah maybe the girls he loved before, loved him but one thing was for sure, she loved him more.

And all Rutger needed was his sunshine.

jess's notes ⋆·˚ ༘ * I've been planning this AU for like a week now.. and I'm so excited to finally do this au cause I have so many ideas for it. If you have any AU ideas you can go ahead and ask away in my inbox!

[tf-es-unbreakable-au]

Regiment

"I'm here because I wanna help." The mech had made their intentions clear, if not a bit off-putting.

Needless to say, agent croft wasn't too convinced.

"You want to... help these criminals?" The smaller human quirked an authoritative brow.

"That's what I said, did I not?"

"I suppose you did... so tell me - what was your designation?" Croft asked

"I'm called hardhelm, pleased to make your acquaintance..."

"Agent croft." She finished.

The silence in the air had made the subtle tension much more palpable.

"So, hardhelm... how do you intend to "help" these decepticons?" She put her hands together, intertwining each digit while observing hardhelm's every move...

In truth, he never knew something so small could make him feel so uneasy.

The mech took a deep intake, preparing his explanation.

"By instilling in them purpose and maybe even guidance to any that'd let me." They met optics with agent croft, and made every word clear and concise.

This was the first time croft had broken her usual scowl. Instead, her brows shot up in disbelief.

"Guidance... for giant robots that are most likely older than our ancestors ancestors..." Croft said the words slowly, like she was trying to understand a completely foreign language, before letting out a scoff.

"What a joke." And with that, hardhelm felt his opportunity slipping away. He had to say something.

"Well when you put it that simply, nothing seems like a good solution, now does it?"

"What we're doing here is for the betterment of not just mankind, but cybertronians, too. There's a reason we keep them locked up tight, it's because they're dangerous." Now hardhelm was getting irritated with her tone, she had no need to talk down to him like he didn't know just how dangerous these mechs were.

"And your solution is...? Let them rot in prison cells while they start to hate you more and more? What do you think is gonna happen when they escape, not if, WHEN."

"Our facilities have the most cutting edge technology in both human and cybertronian logistics -"

"And I can guarantee it's nothing like the other prisons these cons have spent time in... you humans have a name for that, right? Something like "hardened criminals." You and the other 'bots must've forgotten who we're dealing with here."

For a long moment, the two eyed eachother down.

Croft sighed and rubbed at her eyes before relenting.

"What is your proposal." She didn't even say it like a question, more as a command.

"I've done some digging on you humans and found some things both our races might enjoy... combat."

"Are you suggesting gladiator pits?!" Croft stood up suddenly.

"No, no, primus no... I'm talking about these "sports" you humans have... most of them aren't ideal for cybertronian participation, but there is one I've found that I believe I could be a great help with.

Croft had since taken her seat once again, still a bit uneasy and unsure of where hardhelm was going with this.

"And that is..."

"Boxing."

More silence.

"...boxing?" Croft repeated, and hardhelm nodded.

"Like... punching each other, boxing?"

Hardhelm groaned

"Yes, punching each other with fists... does that spell it out?"

Croft stared at him even longer, the same confusion plastered on her face.

Hardhelm sighed.

"Look, I know it sounds odd... but I've done a bit more digging and you humans have had success with it amongst yourselves... even certain prisons have their own boxing programs which gives outlets for these individuals while also giving them something to strive for."

He could practically see the gears in her helm turning as she slowly nodded while digesting every words he said.

For a moment, she seemed conflicted.

"I'm not... saying it doesn't work. What I am saying, is that we can't draw parallels from humans to cybertronians, not yet, anyways."

Hardhelm bent down to her level as best he could.

"Then I'm asking you to let me try... if something ends up going wrong, then by all means, blame it on me... but I think I can do something good here, I just need your help and goo's faith."

Agent croft seemed to be debating inwardly... it was making hardhelm nervous.

"....how about this, you can even have your human researchers observe my fighters... you're talking about how you didn't have the behavioral data to really draw parallels from humans to cybertronians? Well, there you go!" He said to sweeten the deal.

Croft held a hand up, and spoke.

"We have a new wing under construction... it was supposed to be for research and logistics, but this seems like it could be useful to us as a whole... I'll have them set aside some space, after that I'll need a list of equipment you need... don't make me regret this."

"You won't... thank you for this, I won't let you down!"

That'd been a months ago, since then, construction had come to a head.

It was a pretty big wing, with a massive corridor that separated into intersections with doors to different rooms.

Hardhelm got accustomed to his new space, it was up to the first left, and the last door on the right.

The space for the training room was deceptively large, with enough room to fit all his (albeit, modified to fit cybertronian proportions) equipment, a ring held together by chains, as there wasn't exactly a kind of rope strong enough to support a cybertronian's weight, and several other odds and ends.

In the back left of the room was a station with 3 massive bags filled with plasters and foams to minimize servo-damage, these were held by a hook and chain that hung a few inches from the ceiling and secured to the ground by another hook with a shorter chain to add tension.

In the left were speedbags, small free-moving bags held by a hook and socket. Good for training servo-optic coordination as well as timing and punching rhythm.

A bit away from the speedbags, on the same side, was the ring. It was much larger than the ones humans use for obvious reasons, but was good for setting up sparring sessions and practicing general movement, he could even set up a rope at helm-level to train slips and ducks.

And it included an observation booth at the top of the room itself, with blacked out glass tints to maintain anonymity and secrecy.

In the few years that followed, he'd gotten a small stable of fighters, many of which didn't stick around too long. But the ones that did, hardhelm was able to steer them in the right direction and even got some of them to integrate back with the autobots, allowing them to be released.

And it all began with a femme, the first fighter who stuck around.

Unfortunately, with this new operation came some side-effects.

Someone had snuck a picture of hardhelm training his fighters, sent it to their friends, who sent it to their friends and before anyone knew it, the WBC came knocking.

Yes, the WBC wanted to try and dip their fingers in this still-baking pie. It started with their own little thing, WSC, the Wrought-steel championship.

Needless to say, the sub-organization took off, and they began to host their own events as a spectacle on their own, and with the groundbridge repaired, more and more cybertronians began to come knocking. And of course, the WSC ended up amassing a fairly big roster, with some good talent as well in the still-budding sport.

Eventually, the WBC got in contact with G.H.O.S.T. to try get an even larger roster, with old hardhelm spearheading it all.

It took a bit of financial pressure and moral pressure from hardhelm and a few other select autobots, but by some great miracle of primus, the contract was signed. And now hardhelm could take his fighters to the professional level, not just little sparring marches and competitions.

Hardhelm had guided this femme up the rankings of the seeker-weight division, and even showed interest in getting heavier modifications to try her hand at wrecker-weight, the division above.

Watching her wrap that seeker-weight world championship around her chasis made him swell with a pride he hadn't felt in eons.

But now, it was coming to a head.

"Boss... can I talk to you?" It'd been the later hours of the day, starting to get dark. Hardhelm was confused as to why she wasn't back in her cell.

He shifted to face the femme.

"Sure, what's going on?"

The femme shifted nervously, her now heavier, but equally sleek frame, caused her pedes to clang slightly on the metal floor.

"Well, it... I recently spoke with my corrections agent and my..." She seemed to take a deep breath, and hardhelm felt anticipation build up in his spark.

"I've been... I've been deemed fit to re-enter society... no longer considered a danger." She craned her helm back slightly, as if worried.

He felt the anticipation explode into a flood of joy.

He stood up, maybe too fast as she'd recoiled back slightly.

"That's amazing...! That's incredible!" He exclaimed, stepping towards the femme with his arms spread out.

She accepted the embrace, and felt coolant well up in her optics.

"I couldn't have done it without you... I couldn't have... so thank you.." She breathed out.

After a moment, the two pulled back and she wiped at her eyes.

"Sorry, I just feel like I've been here for ages... started to think I'd never leave... you were the only thing keeping me sane for awhile."

Hardhelm gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Then I've done my job... now if I see you in here again, I'll be pissed!" He half joked, earning a bark of a laugh.

"As if! I'm never coming back here... it's the smell, y'know?" She squinted with a quick nod.

The two laughed it out and spent some time sharing memories. They'd only known each other for maybe the better part of 2 or 3 years , but circumstance had given them an unshakable bond.

And when he'd helped her pack her things, he felt that the training room was a bit emptier... but it's history became richer.

But now, he had an issue to deal with. One that he couldn't afford to ignore, no matter how happy he was. His roster was down another fighter.

He could just wait for another con to show up, but he was sort of in a rush to get someone. He asked for a list of all the inmates brought within the last year or so.

While they ex-con inmates were *allowed* to fight on a professional scale, that didn't mean they were *treated* like professionals. They were mainly brought in as short-notice replacements and almost never made it far due to (at least in comparison to the WBC) their lack of resources. More or less, they were cannon fodder.

A few names caught his eye and he noted them down, later that day asking to see each one...

It wasn't a successful affair.

"Just one...just one Is all I need!"

The joy from a few hours ago lingered but had now taken a backseat.

"Next one it is..." correction, *last* one it is.

He'd already gone down the list in the passing hours and he'd came to the final name on the roster; starscream.

He knew the name. Pretty much anyone who had any sort of involvement in the war knew of megatron's second, and the seekers list of crimes seemed to stretch on and on.

But he had to try...

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

*time skip to after chapter 1*

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

The cell door shut behind him and he took a deep vent. It could've gone better but it also could've gone worse.

There wasn't a guarantee that the slot had been filled, but at least there was a chance, and that was better than what he had before.

He headed back towards the training room, the humans had moved their surveillance and reseaech equipment in the observation room.

It was post-hours so he was left to his own devices, to his routine.

He began cleaning the equipment, he foecused on each piece he was cleaning.

He started with the bags, he wiped them down with wet towels before doing the same with towels doused in sanitizer.

He went around in slowly, a flash went before his optics as he did.

He focused harder on what he was doing, once he finished, he moved on to scrubbing the ring.

He grabbed the squeegee and as he went over, he swore he saw a hint of blue.

Looking back, nothing was there. Just the black of the canvas.

"Fraggin'..." he grumbled.

The next cycle, there was nothing; just the usual goers and some who were just looking for a joor of entertainment.

But the next solar cycle was when hardhelm realized that he'd retained his silver tongue.

"C'mon everyone, keep up!" He shouted at his students as he worked among them.

He'd found out long ago that no one would ever follow him unless he demonstrated that he could preform what was asked, so it became part of his instructional routine; he'd preform what he was asking of his students to show them what was being asked.

This day was endurance, and he never slacked on endurance. In his book, if someone couldn't keep up at all points of a fight then they already lost, so he didn't let anyone else slack.

"C'mon, primus-dammit! You wanna get put out in front of everyone?!" He screamed at the top of his intakes.

He also knew that with rowdy decepticons, sometimes gaining their respect meant scaring them sometimes.

And boy, could hardhelm get loud.

As he watched them train, he heard the door slide open.

"New arrival in the bay!" The humans announced.

A familiar, sleek frame, hunched over slightly in his posture, was being escorted by another 2 autobots.

He left his students, beckoning them to continue.

"Go 'till the bell!" He yelled after them.

He strutted up to the trio, full of confidence and swagger.

"Got you hooked, did I?" He said with a smirk.

The seeker growled.

"Don't give yourself too much credit, there was nothing else to do.' He said matter-of-factly.

Hardhelm simply snickered as the autobots undid his status cuffs and shut the doors.

When the others noticed starscream, it got so quiet that one could hear a mouse whisper.

Even in his own ranks, he hadn't been very popular.

Hardhelm looked behind him, at all his students staring in their direction. The tension was palpable, and hardhelm had to think fast.

"Get gone!" He yelled out, and they all continued what they were doing.

He turned back to starscream, who was much more on edge now.

"We won't be doing anything just yet... you're going to fight, yes?" Starscream looked at him entirely perplexed.

"Wh-why wo- I just got here!" He hissed

"Just...trust me and say yes."

"I... sure?" Starscream relented.

Hardhelm clapped his servos together.

"Perfect, then we're not doing anything yet! You're gonna sit tight and watch for the next..." starscream noticed hardhelms optics drifting up and to the left.

"...23 minutes."

And that's exactly what he did, for the next 23 minutes he was absolutely bored out of his processor, but as he looked at each mech as they trained, a small bit of abhorrent recognition sent a jolt to his processor like static electricity.

He'd done all these mechs wrong in one way or another. His optics had grown quite interested in the floor within these past few joors.

After what felt like a millennia, the final buzzer sounded. The piercing buzz startled starscream.

"Alright, everyone I know you all wanna stay but rules are rules... if it were up to me it'd be different but it's not." Hardhelm reasoned with bis dejected students as they went back to their respective cells.

As they passed by him, even though his gaze had been stuck elsewhere, he still felt their passing glances, their unspoken curses, and their undying rage towards him.

And why would he try to convince them to feel different?

"Ready to begin?" The seeker was snapped out of his thoughts and looked up. Hardhelm seemed a bit exhausted from his previous endeavor, so it looked like starscream would be mostly training on his own with hardhelm throwing in some pointers.

As it would turn out, hardhelm had quite a bit left in his tank.

"Follow me... I'm gonna assume this is your first time doing this so I'll go over the basics."

Starscream scoffed.

"Don't patronize me, autobot. It's fighting, fairly simple, is it not?" Hardhelm looked at starscream like he'd genuinely insulted him personally.

"Oh, alright then... so you know how to manipulate distance, find range, cut angles with your pedework, pick the right shots, time them perfectly EVEN..." hardhelm took a deep vent in as he'd ran out of air.

"...while your opponent is throwing heat, no, BOMBS back at you... you know how to do that all, right?" Hardhelms rant had finally ended and starscream glared at him in silence.

"I'm teaching you this cuz it'll help you get hurt less out there... I'm gonna start simple today, simple pede placement and moving in different directions."

He strolled to stand in front of starscream.

He put his left pede in front and slid his back pede back a bit and pointed it off to the side slightly for extra balance.

"At no point in a fight should your pedes ever break this formation, this is your base. Not only does it dictate how balanced you are and, by extension, how many hits you can take; but it's also where any and all of your punching power will be generated from."

Starscream mimicked it, but something about his left pede forwards and his right pede backwards just didn't feel right.

"No I want you to take a step forwards without breaking that pede formation. Step forwards with the left pede and bring the right one behind you."

Starscream did as asked, but there was a certain unsteadiness in his stance. At first, hardhelm figured it was because he was new to this.

"Now to move to either side, same principle. The pede that's on that respective side always moves first... for backwards, opposite applies but I'll teach you how to cut angles backing up, and why backing up in a straight line is a horrible idea later."

For the next few hours, hardhelm coached starscream through the basics of movement. He noted the small stumbles whenever he'd try to speed things up, but by all accounts, starscream was quite nimble on his pedes.

Soon enough he was able to teach him footwork patterns, how to circle, pivot, and cut angles.

It took a bit for starscream to get used to his new base, but eventually, hardhelm was able to speed things up a bit.

"You've said all these things about punching, and here I am learning how to move... is there a point to this?" Starscream asked.

"In fact, there is... safety first, as they say."

While the slight impatience was something he expected from all of his students, he was a tad surprised someone as vocal as starscream had only just now said something.

But there was one rule hardhelm followed when it came to training others: the first lesson will always be on movement.

Unfortunately, after that, starscream had to go back to his cell.

The same two autobots came and escorted him, as he hadn't done enough to earn enough trust to have any sort of freedom to leave his cell without direct and armed supervision.

He soon felt the familiar sense of emptiness creeping back up and sinking it's talons into him once again at the sight of his cell.

He walked in and waited for the cell to shut before shutting off the lights.

But not to recharge, he simply couldn't.

Doing what he always did, he watched more memories. Some he'd seen before, others he didn't and his spark ached at his own inability to help himself. He constantly felt a pull to watch, in almost a "look what you've done" fashion.

It tore at the outside walls of his spark but dug no deeper. There was no need for any real injury, only pain.

But it got tiring, and boring. The desire to be productive could've either been simple boredom, or the seeker-born phenomena known as "sky-hunger" manifesting itself in an odd way...

Either way, he had to do something, he just didn't know what.

He looked around his space, it wasn't terribly small and had next to nothing inside of it save his berth and a table he could easily move off to the corner.

He sighed and got up, moving his table.

He stood in the middle, praying everyone else was recharging and wouldn't see him.

He started slowly at first, staying light on his pedes just as taught. But he tried something else, as well.

Instead of putting his left pede forwards and his right pede back, he switched it. Right forward, left back.

And it felt like slipping on a glove.

He was much more stable, much more coordinated as well. He could make sharp movements with no difficulty and execute pivots, stutter-steps, and "falling steps" in chains.

For that discovery, he allowed himself to feel a small bit of satisfaction.

[elainsgirl]

in regard to your 'shadows hide from elain' post,

yes that's what i was wondering as well, the whole vanish aspect, because that means azriel's shadows (metaphorically also his darkness and demons and everything) just go poof in front of elain, which is obviously a good thing in the way that he can fully be just azriel without the bad, she makes him that comfortable.

but as far as that goes the shadows are a part of azriel (as has been said multiple times) and if they feel comfortable enough to reach out and sing and dance with gwyn, doesn't that show that azriel with all his darkness and shadows, is accepted by gwyn and she in turn by his shadows?

besides i also thought that in all of az's descriptions of elain, he just talks about her physical beauty and the lust he feels towards her, which i thought showed just physical, bodily attraction and in elain, the desire to make her own choice instead of the one that had been made for her (lucien) with gwyn, he i think talked more about her as a person along with her hair, eyes etc.

im curious to know what u think of those descriptions! im not trying to negate you or pick a fight, just stating my perception of that chapter <33

Hey anon!

Thank you for sending your ask, I appreciate hearing other peoples interpretations.

Let’s start off with understanding exactly what Azriels shadows are - condensed form of sentient magic.

Let’s also recap: That Gwyn does have some form of magic within her - whether you want to consider her a LS or another potential magical being, it doesn’t matter, she does have magic. In acosf - when Nesta is around Gwyn, she feels a crackling sort of energy around Gwyn which her powers grumbled in answer too, We also know that gwyn’s magic is intertwined with her singing/music in some form. A single shadow - not shadowS, darted out, danced with Gwyn’s exhaled breath as if it heard some silent music before coming back to Azriel. The thing is, does this really give you a sense of playfulness? Or is it clear Azriel’s magic - just like Nesta’s- is reacting to Gwyn? Here is a link of a post I made where I compared this with scenes of other mates where musical imagery is used: Feel free to check it out. Another thing Id like to say is: The shadows don’t sing with gwyn but they hear singing - and simply respond back. Each time, the shadows are responding to something about Gwyn. Just like Nesta’s powers respond to whatever magic Gwyn has - both these scenes are parallels with the same context. If one is romantic so is the other which we know can’t be the case since…well im pretty sure Sjm didn’t set up Nesta x Gwyn to be romantic in acosf, haha.

I would say the shadows are curious about Gwyn and Gwyn was definitely more interestsed in Azriel’s shadows and title then the man himself- but none of this is definitive to be romantic. Nesta was curious about Gwyn in acosf, as readers we are also interested to see what magic Gwyn has to have both Azriel & Nesta react to her - I think the shadows, which are another form of magic, reflect that too. Because there IS something magical about Gwyn.

I disagree with the shadows accepting Gwyn, I think they’re curious about her thats all. It isnt bad thing or a good thing. If Sjm truly wanted it to be romantic we all know she’s more then capable of giving us more then a single shadow reacting with Gwyns breath, for example, she could have had Az notice how sad gwyn looked so his shadowS darted out to play, twirling around her. Weaving in and out of her hair - gwyn laughs and the shadows swayed as if enjoying the sound etc.

Another thing- Elain has not once shown fear or rejection at Azriel’s shadows/advances.

This is the same woman who looked at his scars/armour and called it beautiful, who stepped out of shadows herself to stab the king. Who took Azriel’s hands without hesitation- Just from the books, Id say its made more clearer that Elain has accepted Azriel where as with Gwyn…she’s just seems to be interested in the shadows. Another thing: Az is more then his shadows. Elain fell in love w Az for who he was, it had nothing to do with his shadows. Isn’t that more romantic? As for the second half: Azriel describes Gwyns molten hair, he attempts at conversations which end up being mundane as both Gwyn and Az give half-hearted answers, he lies to Gwyn which she doesn’t detect. With Gwyn, he needed a distraction which was provided. What I find interesting is AFTER the session, not once does he think about Gwyn. It would have been so much more romantic if Az had intended to go to the library to specifically give Gwyn the necklace. Instead he finds himself there, wouldn’t call her a friend. The only potentiallly romantic thing id say happened is when he feels the spark and glow in his chest for the image of gwyns smile yet Nothing after solstice changes between Gwyn and Az. I mentioned this before: Sjm didn’t need to show us how much they care - even in the bonus, Elain & Az can read each other without words, we find out he’s been staring at the powder every single day, he laughs at Elains new earplug gift, we find out how much he’s struggling to stay away from Elain and then how eluciens’ bond is affecting him. Like with Cassians bonus’ the point of Azriels was to confirm to us readers who he is attracted too. Which is Elain. I understand people expected more, but we have 4 books + a bonus of elriel scenes that show us how much they like each other. If it was just lust & superficial - Az and Elain would have done it already.

Let’s remember- elriel’s love confession & how they feel about each other will be written for their book available to everyone. Not in a partially available bonus,

To end off, If Elain doesn’t love Azriel but is chhosing him to make her own choice: Sjm could’ve written Elain being conflicted and still drawn to Lucien to show she isn’t fully into Az - ofc I have more thoughts on this but this has already gotten way to long and im pretty sure ive lost your interest.

Im so sorry this is long but this is just my interpretation ✨

[fastcardotmp3]

Hi!!! I initially read the first fic of All my Friends when it came out and it was a complete surprise when I went back to read it and it turned out to be a whole series!! First things first, before I get into all the details, I absolutely adore your prose. It's gorgeous. You have a way with words that makes the grief and the trauma and the joy stand out.

I really do adore that Eddie's untreated PTSD (in his words!) is a running theme throughout the series - it's in season 2 with the explosion and season 4 with Albert's accident and I can't wait for season 5 where the PTSD gets delved into. Especially since we see how Miles' death haunts Eddie afterwards, I wonder how bad his reaction will be to everyone else in his squadron dying...can't imagine it's any good.

I wonder if the changes to the shooting will make Eddie's response in season 5 to quit the 118 different because Eddie was shot trying to help someone, which is something I think he'd do even if he wasn't on duty. He was shot because Sheila was using her child as bait, not because he was a firefighter. I do like the changes you've made and how it's not an exact retelling of the series, you can never quite tell what's going to happen like with Shannon dying.

Speaking of, changing Shannon's death to be a parallel with Miles was so good - it was mentioned in 4B that Miles should have survived, forgive me if I'm wrong but had rescue gotten to Shannon quicker, she also would have survived her injuries and there was nothing Eddie or Buck could have done to save their lives. And it's such a fun parallel because it flip flops the positions Eddie and Buck held in their relationship so far.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really looking forward to your season 5 retelling and I am eagerly anticipating it! Hope you have a great day!!

this is such a thoughtful message i'm 😭

as far as eddie's ptsd arc goes we are certainly Getting There in season 5 (: that fic all told is just under uhhhh 80k. all on its lonesome. so! lots to talk about re: the trauma! yay <3

and i'm having a lot of fun with tweaking canon in both the big ways and the small ones, so it's very cool to hear that it's adding any level of suspense as to where we're going! that was the hope!

the parallel is the crux of the thing yeah!! i'm always enamored with love stories where they aren't some sort of predetermined 'it was always and will always be you' sort of deal, where they've both lived and loved before finding each other and those lives and loves are imperative to both the ease and complexity of their inevitable relationship with each other, and finding a way to intertwine those complicated pasts?? i am literally writing for me myself and i for real.... self indulgence to the max with these two mirror-image traumas and the equal parts roadblocks against and shoves towards a shared understanding and love. widow4widow!!! it wasn't meant to be but we made it so anyway and it is all the more special because of that!! etc...

i'm definitely looking forward to sharing s5 as well so hopefully i have more for you soon! mwah <3