#that's 3 coups in the last month I think

[beardedmrbean]

The leader of Gabon's military junta has vowed to return power to civilians after "free, transparent" elections.

However, in a speech after being sworn in as interim president, he did not give a date for military rule to end.

Gen Brice Nguema led last Wednesday's coup against Ali Bongo, toppling the president shortly after he was named winner of a disputed election.

Crowds of cheering civilians turned up at the inauguration - the coup was welcomed by many eager for change.

However, some say Gen Nguema's rule will be a continuation of the 55-year Bongo dynasty.

Ali Bongo's father, Omar, was in power for 41 years before he died in 2009 and was succeeded by his son.

The general, aged 48, spent most his career in the Bongo's inner circle and is even thought to be Ali Bongo's cousin.

Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories from across the continent

Gabon's unexpected new strongman

Why young Africans are celebrating military takeovers

At Monday's inauguration, Gen Nguema gave a defiant speech, referencing the likes of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, French statesman Charles Fe Gaulle and former Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings.

"This patriotic action will be a lesson learnt that will be taught in the books of our schools," said the new president, dressed in the red ceremonial costume of the Republican Guard.

He added that a fresh government would be formed "in a few days" and recommended new electoral legislation, a new penal code and a referendum on a new constitution.

Gen Nguema also said he had instructed the new government "to think without delay" about freeing all political prisoners.

The ceremony was broadcast live on Gabonese TV and across online platforms.

Hundreds of officials attended, including former ministers from the ousted government, who were booed by a crowd of junta sympathisers.

The opposition has said it welcomes the removal of Mr Bongo from power but has called for a speedy return to civilian rule.

The defeated presidential candidate Albert Ondo Ossa told the Associated Press that the coup was a "palace revolution", engineered by the Bongo family to retain their power.

Gen Nguema's is the latest in a series of military takeovers across West and Central Africa.

Gabon is the sixth Francophone country to fall under military rule in the last three years as former colonial power France struggles to maintain its influence on the continent.

Gabon was suspended from the African Union following the coup, which has been condemned by the UN and France.

In his inauguration address on Monday, Gen Nguema said he was "surprised" at foreign criticism of the takeover.

[wonder-worker]

"In reality Richard III invented a Woodville scare as a screen for his own conspiracy"

-A.J Pollard, "Richard III and the Princes in the Tower"

[cranberrymoons]

speak a little louder

prompt: mutual pining (@steddieholidaydrabbles) rated: t word count: 673 words tags: fluff, flirting, nerds in a basement

welcome to Day 3 of the fic advent calendar – bite-sized fics posting every day during the month of december. enjoy!

The campaign lasts all day.

That’s what they call it – a campaign – as if it’s an actual military coup and not what it really is, which is a bunch of teenage nerds sitting around a table in Mike Wheeler’s basement with sodas and a bag full of dice. 

Steve is used to it by now, but he doesn’t expect to have to wait for a whole extra hour when he shows up to collect them, but here he is, sitting on the couch in the corner and staring at the ceiling while he listens to Eddie drone on and on about elves or some shit.

Well – drone is maybe sort of an inaccurate word, considering how into it Eddie’s getting, crouched on his seat like a gargoyle, talking with his hands, doing the voices. It’s actually kind of fun to watch, and Steve is maybe sort of pretending not to find it as interesting as he does, because he has a reputation to maintain, dammit, and he refuses to be drawn in by the spark in Eddie’s eye or the flush on his cheeks or the way his fingers weave strands of the story across the table.

Whatever. Steve doesn’t even care.

“Sorry about that,” Eddie says when it finally wraps up, when he’s climbed off his chair and is standing in front of Steve while the kids bicker over something and take their sweet time packing their things. “Couldn’t stop in the middle, they would’ve killed me.”

He reaches behind his ear for a cigarette stuck there, and Steve stares at the way his rings catch the light as his hand moves. 

“No problem,” he says. He clears his throat. “Hey, can I –” 

He nods his head toward the cigarette, and Eddie raises his eyebrows, holding it out.

“Bum a smoke?” he asks. “Sure, Harrington. Anything for the valiant babysitter.”

Steve smiles as he accepts it from him, and he tries to ignore the way his stomach flips when their fingers brush. 

“Thanks.”

---

They take them upstairs, outside to wait for the kids, and it’s starting to get cold enough now that Steve has to flip up the collar of his jacket against the chill as soon as they step onto the porch. 

“That was cool back there,” he says around the filter clenched in his teeth as he ducks his head to light the cigarette. “The thing, or whatever.”

Eddie eyes him for a moment, then flicks ash onto the ground. “It was like… the metric opposite of cool, but thanks anyway.”

Steve laughs. “Still. It looked fun.”

“You should join us sometime,” Eddie says. He clears his throat. “I mean… if you want.”

And Steve can’t help it; even on top of everything big and scary going on in his chest right now, the idea of actually playing the fantasy math nerd game sounds like –

“I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. “I think I’ll leave that one to the pros.”

Eddie laughs a little. “Oh, we’re pros now?”

“You managed to save the elf. I think. Sounds pretty professional to me. I couldn’t save an elf.”

Eddie gives him a look. “There wasn’t even an elf in that part of the campaign. I think you’re just making shit up.”

Steve laughs too at that. “Yeah, I had… no idea what you were doing. But the kids seemed into it.”

“So what are you into, then?” Eddie asks. “If not nerd shit, then what?”

You , Steve wants to say. Mostly these days, I’m just into you .

He takes a breath. “I don’t know,” he says instead. “I don’t mind the fantasy stuff. It’s the math part I have issues with.”

Eddie smiles a little. “Then take the numbers out of it. Come watch a movie with me sometime. I bet we can find some kind of nerd thing for you to be into.”

Steve feels his stomach give another little jolt as he stubs out his cigarette. “Yeah, I bet we can.”

[also on ao3]

[mtkay13]

I say now is the time I start updating my tumblr gallery again... I've been slacking...

More TYK design studies! Here, specifically, an evolution of Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing throughout their lives, to see what stages they got through to reach who they are during book canon.

I headcanon ZZS as this little smug genius and tried to keep this unimpressed, self-satisfied smirk throughout, with I hope a noticeable shift for the last two.

5 y.o., still living at the Zhou estate, with his family. He's a bit of a weak child (pulled from ZZS saying he didn't have nearly as good a constitution as ZCL does), but quite smart, already with a knack for spying on people.

10 y.o. has joined Siji manor, proud and smug and feeling superior for having been chosen by QHZ and being hella good at what he does.

15 y.o. is now freshly appointed sect leader, and I think it's going well enough, that he's quite feeling himself there.

20 y.o., has now been working for HLY for a bit more than a year, roughly.

25 y.o., right after the ending of Qi Ye, right after the war, right after he pretty much got his very personal bad ending. I feel like he's quite numb, can only survive through floating above everything and just focus on work and some distracting, meaningless things.

29 y.o., TYK canon after unmasking.

---

With WKX I wanted to represent, without being too on the nose, the progressive loss of humanity.

5 y.o., still living with his Jianghu heroes parents. Quite a happy and playful child, more interested in having fun than studying. Probably a natural at many things, however, such as learning his father's sword techniques (unlike the arts of healing lessons that he probably didn't pay much attention to)

10 y.o., has been in the valley for a few months already, surviving.

18 y.o., is a servant for whom is currently the Ghost Valley Master.

21 y.o., is now the GVM himself, has successfully lead a coup against his own master and then won what was basically a battle royale for the throne.

26 y.o., is now a seasoned GVM, has been in this position for much longer than average, is working on his plan.

30 y.o., TYK canon.

For reasons, it's quite important to me to have this overview and to consider in detail each of their progression since I think it participates heavily into how I understand them as people. The followings were already posted in my previous post with all the design, but since it's thematically coherent I will add the families and some details about them:

The Wen family, especially the parents, were Jianghu heroes in the best wuxia tradition. Wen Ruyu had to look a like Wen Kexing, and Gu Miaomiao be this pure, strong, energetic heroïne. As mentioned above, I like child WKX to be a very fun and energetic child himself-- he likes the colours his mother wears, likes to run around and look at beautiful things. I found that the two buns were a cute addition to his design. He's about 3 y.o. on this illustration. The Zhou family is meant to look plain and normal, as ZZS himself-- little parenthesis: although I do like to draw ZZS as handsome, I think he isn't much more than that; I think that it's fine to consider that he looks rather plain, especially next to people like WKX or, obviously, JBY or YBY. Since ZZS seems to have a fascination with heroes in the book, I like to imagine that he was naturally the least heroic of the brotherhood; both his brother and sister being a better match than himself (although ultimately they are all fairly normal people). I liked to have his mom be the originator of his height (I think he should totally be the tallest of the brotherhood, btw).

That's it! Thank you for reading!

[lgbtlunaverse]

Thinking about the fact that during the gusu lectures arc Huiasang has apparently been going every year for the last 3 years, but he isn't older than the others. He can't be any older than Zixuan because Meng yao is canonically younger than Zixuan, yet Huaisang calls him "san-ge" which means Meng Yao is older than Huaisang. So maybe Zixuan is way older than the other kids there, except in the novel it was mentioned that they were all around 15 to 16. And Huaisang also calls himself around Wei Wuxian's and Lan Wangji's age. Which means Nie Mingjue has been sending Huaisang to gusu summer camp since he was like 12 years old.

I'm relatively sure that you're just supposed to chalk that up to nmj's general gung-ho-ness about Huaisang and training like wowww he's so intense! HOWEVER. We are not here to take the easy route we are here to overthink. So I have 2 alternate headcanons.

1. Nie Mingjue went to the gusu lectures at an unusually young age himself.

So we know Nie Mingjue's father died when he was between the ages of 10 and 15, generally assumed to be a little on the older side of that spectrum, 14 or 15-ish. Considering that he was, you know, allowed to acually inherit the sect and it didn't topple down, nor did a coup occur or did any of his advisors use him as a puppet ruler. And I'm not sure a 10 year old is capable of handling all of that. We also know that Nie Mingjue's father got wounded in a night hunt that Nie Mingjue was present for, as he saw his father's saber shatter himself, and that it took 6 months for Lao Nie to actually die from his injuries. During that entire timeframe, and afterwards- as I presume sect leaders don't exactly have the time to leave their sect for multiple months to go study- Nie Mingjue could NOT have gone to the gusu lectures. It could be true that he didn't go at all, we're not told this. But IF he ever went, he must've been unusually young. 13 at the eldest.

If that's true, it'd provide him a reasonable motivation to send his brother at a younger age as well. "I did it too and I was fine, Huaisang! It's not that hard if you actually work for it"

or, alternatively:

2. He didn't want him to be in gusu in the same year as the Wens.

Nie Mingjue has a longstanding grudge againt the Wens for his father's murder and very good reasons to NOT trust them with his family's safety. He definitely wouldn't like his little brother to be out of his sight for a multiple month-long stretch with one of Wen Ruohan's sons right there. We don't know Wen Xu's exact age but since he wasn't in the archery competition he's at least 1 year older than lan xichen, which means he's at least 3-4 years older than Huaisang, so sending Huaisang early would mean avoiding Wen Chao, who was his age, without running into Wen Xu. Sadly, due to Huaisang failing the 2 years before, he's ended up in the same class as Wen Chao anyway. And not sending him again after failing for 2 years would mean giving up, and was probably considered a disgrace, so Nie Mingjue had to bite the bullet.

There's definitely other options I'm not seeing but both of these are fun to play with and rotate around in my head.

[compacflt]

If you want, and only if you want to, could you explain about making Logistics a big part of Ice's career path? Not only did fit so well with your Ice's characterization, it was just so neat I've made it my HC for Ice's career path.

yes!

I got REALLy deep into the defense policy weeds in this post so I’m putting a cut to save people’s dashboards

1. when i was rewriting chapters 8 &9 last winter i did literally the bare minimum of research about the current set of high-level officers. the commander of the pacific fleet at the time had previously been the director of pacific fleet logistics ordnance & supply. So that was easy to yoink. a proven chain of succession.

2. but also: it fit ice’s (or his alter ego admiral Kazansky’s) neat, orderly, effective, collected, strategic characterization. And as professional tactics go, there would be no better promotion for a high-level officer looking to take over the fleet than DFLOS. understand the fleet by the numbers, you comprehensively understand the fleet.

3. In terms of secret-keeping logistics, ice is supposed to be kind of the best. like, because of his logistical thinking, he & maverick get away with it. Or that’s how I would’ve written it if I were a little smarter. Obviously in practice a bunch of people find out so it’s not great. but the navy AS A WHOLE doesn’t find out.

4. The field of military logistics is rigorously bureaucratic, boring, soulsucking, selfdefeating, notoriously corrupt, and yet entirely necessary for the military to succeed at any level (in the very first draft of WWGATTAI i included a famous US marine corps maxim that most people have heard at some point: “amateurs talk tactics. professionals talk logistics.” but that was literally the only good thing about the original chapter 6 which got entirely rewritten a month after i published it). So logistics as a field of specialization fit in perfectly with my secondary character thesis that rising through the boring bureaucratic ranks of the Navy sucked all the humanity & will to live out of ice one day at a time.

a couple related interesting things that I’ve never talked about on this blog & might never get the chance to again:

a) ice canonically joins the navy as a fighter pilot & ends his career as a glorified bureaucrat. that sucks. obviously the struggle to rise in the ranks is a notoriously cutthroat, political, sleazy business (you do not get to the top of the United States Navy by being nice to people), but i would also not be the first person to say that—for exemplary officers—leadership is an EXPECTATION that can counterbalance someone’s natural drive to excel, if that makes sense. You get promoted because you’re good at something (flying), but you get promoted away from the thing you were good at. There is an extent to which you have to fight for a promotion—but there is also an extent to which commanders above you pick you for the job, suck you up along the pipeline. Loss of agency—a major major component of joining the military—does still apply to upper-level officers.

B) to that end, i am reminded of one quote from Todd Schmidt’s 2023 book “Silent Coup of the Guardians: US Military Elite Influence on National Security.” This is an Army training & doctrine commander speaking: “the military has a lot of two- and three-star senior leaders that were confident, charismatic commanders at the O-6 level. But that’s the end of the story. One in fifty, maybe one in a hundred, truly have what it takes to operate successfully at the strategic level and make a real difference for their service. The problem is that they all tend to think that, since they have stars on their shoulders, they’re the one.” —I’ve been writing ice as “The Chosen One,” the officer unicorn, for two reasons: one, it provides him cover for his illegal relationship (and also asks an interesting chicken-egg question: does he get away with his rlnship because he’s so good, or is he so good JUST to get away with his relationship?); and two, he’s “the chosen one” in canon, i.e. he already has four stars in canon: canonically he is not a mediocre officer. But most officers (cough cough maverick) are not cut out for high-level leadership.

C.) in Thomas E. Ricks’ book “The Generals,” Ricks argues that (at least in the Army) mediocrity in the general/flag officer ranks is unfortunately by design. In WWII, if you were a mediocre officer, you got relieved! You got fired! It’s part of why we won: merciless culling of the general officer ranks! But between WWII and Korea, officer relief began to be associated with shame & wasted resources. Mediocre officers got promoted anyways. The military elite pipeline sucks mediocrity up the chain of command. Ricks blames this issue for (at least the Army’s) shit leadership in every post-WWII war, including but most especially Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s no penalty for mediocrity. That in turn reflects on military strategy (mediocre strategists at the helm) & the outcome of every military foray (mediocre outcomes).

D) additionally. There’s a whole neverending debate in the field of civil-military relations (an extremely interesting field of study btw) about the corporatization of the military—lots of high-level talk over the years of “running the military like a business.” If you get kinda into defense policy like me (am i still antimilitary? Idk! but i CAN easily tell you i am against the navy’s littoral combat ship program! It sucks!) then you will know that the navy is struggling right now on a lot of different fronts (procurement [shipbuilding esp. is a disaster—ford-class carriers are under budget though 👍🏽], recruitment, theatre prioritization, general preparedness, readiness against major adversaries [China in particular]). Simply, the navy is pretty mediocre at the minute. I talk a big game about ice being COMPACFLT & SECNAV, but if those are true, & if he “exists” in our current timeline, or even canon timeline (COMPACFLT in 2020), then he’s complicit in a lot of why the navy is sucking ass right now. He didn’t do his job very well. LOL. So, because I love (especially my version of) ice too much to see his legacy suffer, I am stating for the record that my timeline is a different timeline where ice saves the navy from itself and fixes all its issues & solves all its problems & makes it the pride of the armed forces & the tip of the spear of American defense :) because I said so

E.) unrelated but important. It sounds obvious but it must be said. Ice dies on the job in TGM canon. To the extent that in earlier drafts of the script, not-his-sister-Sarah even points out to maverick that ice is still active duty, in the same breath as she tells him ice is sick again. (A wise move to remove that line.) ice does not resign his commission. Ice does not retire to spend time with his family at the end of his life. Ice dies as commander of the pacific fleet. He dies on the job; he dies FOR the job, bureaucratic as it is. If you were wondering why I wrote ice so dormantly suicidal, it’s because canon (i argue) has made it clear that—since the second ice signed up to be a fighter pilot during the Cold War to the second he died active duty—ice has ALWAYS been ready and willing to die for his honorable Navy career.

[theia-eos]

Elincia Was Not Too Hesitant to Act

I love the Tellius games. I think the writing for the Fire Emblem series as a whole peaked in the Tellius duology. There's a lot of nuance and tiny details and characterizations and depth and layers to every character. However, this does not mean that the games are perfect or beyond criticism.

And one such criticism I have is the message they try to sell in Radiant Dawn Part 2. I am not buying it. Spoilers below the cut.

In Part 2 of Radiant Dawn, we see how being ruler of Crimea is working out for our fair Queen Elincia. The last time we saw her in Path of Radiance, she was filled with self-doubt and worried about her ability to rule as she was never raised to rule and kept secret from the public, so her coronation as queen of Crimea is a big step for her.

Ike stayed on as a member of the royal court for a while, but dips out 6 months prior to the events of Part 2 because he's only causing her more grief than he is providing support now and he goes back to the simple mercenary life he loves.

Bastian has also left her side, citing sightings of the Black Knight returning in Daein and wanting to get a good understanding of Ashnard's "son," the new King Pelleas. He is lying to her, which I'll go into later. So it's only Elincia and the children she was raised alongside, her knights Geoffrey and Lucia, in the courts.

And the nobles do not respect Elincia at all. They disparage her at every chance they get, they blame her for Bastian wanting to go scope out Daein because she lets him go because he tells her, as her advisor, that it's the best idea. They chastise Lucia and Geoffrey for trying to defend her. Generally, you get the idea why Ike had to leave, he probably kept calling them out until he was blue in the face and then some.

Leanne comes looking for Ike, and he's disappeared into the wind, and then Elincia gets word from Nephenne, Brom and Heather from Ohma that one of the nobles, Duke Ludveck, is attempting a coup based on what the recruiter said. Elincia sends Lucia to Ludveck's territory, under the guise of showing Leanne around Crimea's best orchard region, to gather some more information. Lucia finds proof that Ludveck is trying to start a civil war/insurrection, and brings that back to Elincia, who then sends Geoffrey and the Crimean Royal Knights to arrest Ludveck. Elincia privately despairs to Leanne that she never wanted to be queen, she never wanted to deal with these problems, the burden of having to act against her own people is too much for her to bear.

There's some political espionage, Ludveck had a decoy force at his castle and attacks Elincia in her safehouse in Fort Alpea, and Elincia bests Ludveck, captures him, and then says he needs to be executed for treason. Ludveck says she should make him king instead, as she's too indecisive and feeble to be queen, she took too long to stop him plotting under her and that's weakened her authority in Crimea, and to force her hand, he says that he captured Lucia. His forces will execute Lucia unless she releases him and promises to pass her crown to him. Elincia refuses, Lucia is about to be killed but Ike and the Greil Mercenaries swoop in to save the day to save Lucia. Elincia resolves to be more decisive in the future.

So what is my problem with this plot? Well, let's review the chapter count of Part 2, it's very short.

Prologue - Elincia finds Begnion wyvern riders attempting to capture Leanne and intervenes immediately

Chapter 1 - Nephenne, Brom, and new recruit Heather fight their way out of Ohma to warn Elincia directly

Chapter 2 - Elincia sends Lucia to find solid evidence that Ludveck is a traitor

Chapter 3 - Lucia comes back with proof and Elincia sends Geoffrey to arrest Ludveck

Final Chapter - Elincia fights Ludveck

Please tell me where Elincia was indecisive, failed to take action, dwadled, or let the insurrection just grow. As soon as she finds out that it's happening she goes to get evidence, and then as soon as she has the evidence, she orders for Ludveck to be arrested. She immediately refuses to hand Ludveck the throne.

Ludveck: So I take it you understand everything now? And considering Lady Lucia’s life is on the line, you haven’t much choice. Now, let’s have you free me from this prison cell, and then we can discuss any further details… Elincia: I don’t think so. Radiant Dawn, Chapter 2-F, Elincia's Gambit Extended Script Translation from Serenes Forest

No hesitation. None. Even in the prologue where she fights and kills Begnion forces intruding on her home, trying to enslave Leanne, no hesitation.

Elincia: Begnion dracoknights… You will only be warned once. Leave this area immediately! I serve the queen of Crimea. Trespassers on Crimean territory will be dealt with. No exceptions. Zeffren: The queen, she says! The very queen that relied on us, the Begnion Empire, to free her nation. Imperial dracoknights are not frightened by soldiers so weak as Crimean pegasus knights. Listen up! Leave those two alone. It’s the Serenes maiden we want. Do not allow her to escape! Elincia: …Looks like we’ll not talk any sense into them. I suppose we have no choice. Sir Nealuchi! We’re here to help you! [Elincia attacks Zeffren] Zeffren: You… You Crimeans seriously believe you can withstand the might of Begnion?! Elincia: Crimea takes this sort of encroachment seriously. We will not overlook invaders in our domain. Release your weapons, and apologize for your discourtesy… Only then will we lower our own. Zeffren: You have quite a mouth on you… I won’t be addressed in that tone by anyone. It’s time to end this farce. Radiant Dawn, Chatper 2-P, On Drifting Clouds

Like yes, she offers diplomacy and a chance for them to stand down, but the story and Ludveck would have you believe that she's so crippled by hesitation that she wouldn't take action. Ludveck says "you were too hesitant and too concerned about harming the people" in stopping the civil war decisively to be a strong ruler.

What the hell else was she supposed to do? Elincia never caught wind of the rebellion until the beginning of Chapter 2, and then what was she supposed to do? Take the word of three villagers that there was some random unknown man they didn't even bring in with them recruiting for a rebellion for Duke Ludveck? Like I love Nephenne, Brom, and Heather as much as anyone else, but if she had just arrested and executed Ludveck based on that information she'd be a tyrant, the other nobles would never trust her and could possibly turn against her too. Getting proof was not a sign of hesitation. Sure, she says she'd like to attempt diplomacy first instead of immediately resorting to the sword, but as soon as she says that, a soldier runs in and says Ludveck is preparing to attack and Elincia realizes the time for negotiation is over and authorizes an immediate attack.

Lucia: As we suspected, Lord Ludveck is intent on rebellion. His followers are spread across the land, inciting insurrection. We have the documents to prove it. Geoffrey: Queen Elincia, I stand ready to defend the realm! I will lead the Royal Knights into Felirae, and we will seize the duke! Elincia: I am hesitant to resort to the sword without at least attempting diplomacy. At all costs, I must stop the people of Crimea from fighting one another. [A Crimean soldier rushes in] Crimean Soldier: Your Majesty! News from the countryside! Duke Ludveck has assembled an army and announced his intentions against you! The rebellion in Felirae is growing quickly! Elincia: I see… Lucia: He must have realized that his operations were no longer a secret. Your Majesty, we have no time to waste. We must stand against this, for the future of Crimea! Elincia: …I understand. Geoffrey, leader of the Royal Knights… I hereby authorize the use of military force against the rebel army! Geoffrey: Yes, Your Majesty. At once! Radiant Dawn, Chapter 2-2, Tides of Intrigue

Does a few seconds warrant Ludveck's criticisms? Is that a failure of Elincia, for taking a moment to say she wants to try diplomacy first?

Ludveck: Exactly, Your Majesty. If you truly had the power to quell the civil war… As long as I could affirm that, even if I were executed as a traitor, I would have no regrets. But, no, you were too hesitant and too concerned about harming the people… Now look what has happened. Radiant Dawn, Chapter 2-F, Elincia's Gambit Extended Script Translation from Serenes Forest

No, the real reason it took Elincia so long to act is because Bastian, Lucia and Geoffrey failed in their roles for her. All three of them had known that this was underway for a while.

Elincia: I see… So, that’s what’s going on. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I’m very sorry your village was affected by this. You have my sincere apologies. Brom: Oh, no, Your Majesty. We don’t need no apology. We’re just happy we could help. Geoffrey: Lucia… Brom’s story confirms what we’ve suspected all along. Lucia: Yes, as we thought. Duke Ludveck of Felirae is firing up a rebellion. We should have seen it coming. To be honest, Queen Elincia, there have been a number of indications that something like this was under way. We’d hoped to uncover something more tangible than hushed rumors… I should have told you sooner. Radiant Dawn, Chapter 2-2, Tides of Intrigue

They've suspected it. They've known it. They're not surprised when the Ohma villagers tell Elincia about it, which is the first time she ever hears of this going on. Lucia apologizes for keeping it from Elincia because she was waiting for more proof. If Elincia had known about this sooner, she could have acted sooner. She would have acted sooner, by how she immediately sends Lucia to gather evidence.

But worst of all is Bastian. Bastian not only knows that this is happening, he is so certain his absence would set things into motion that he hires Ike and the Greil Mercenaries to step in and assist at the last minute if things go as he expected. Does he warn Elincia of what might happen while he was gone? No. Not only that, but Bastian isn't even going to Daein to see if the new king is going to be friendly to them. He's going to Daein to get Izuka to force Izuka to cure Renning, even though Bastian has known all along for years that the herons could have cured Renning. Why does he go this route?

[エリンシア] ユリシーズ、あなたは いままでどこにいたのです？▼ 突然、連絡を絶ってしまって… とても心配していたのですよ。▼ [ユリシーズ] デインにて…… 長く探っていた”鍵”にめぐり合いまして。▼ それ故、表より姿を消し、 策謀を巡らしておりました。 全てはクリミアの未来のために……▼ Radiant Dawn, Chapter 4-5, Unforgivable Sin Extended Script

In the Extended Scripts (JP Only script locked to Hard/Manic Modes), Bastian explains that he is looking for a "key" to Crimea's future in Daein while working in secret, which is later revealed to be that he wants Izuka, former advisor of King Pelleas of Daein, cure Renning. This despite the fact that he could go to the herons the entire time, and eventually winds up going to the herons in the end anyway. While never talking to Elincia about any of this. The only justification for this is that Bastian is in love with Renning and Bastian is worried that Renning will die if he is cured through heron galdr, as Rajaion did, and Bastian's emotions get in the way of his reason. The best and most charitable explanation I can give Bastian saying that Renning is the key to Crimea's future, to the point he's left Elincia alone since before Part 2 begins when she really could have used his help, is that he hopes that Renning's support will make Elincia's rule more stable, but it's never explained why Bastian believes Renning is the key to the future or why Bastian doesn't go straight to the herons, so your guess is as good as mine.

But that still doesn't excuse the fact that he hires mercenaries to rescue Elincia without ever warning Elincia himself. He either doesn't believe in her himself, which him saying that Renning is the future of Crimea kind of hints towards, or he is just leaving the the queen of the country in the dark because he thought his plan was best. Either way, unforgivable.

None of Elincia's most trusted people, the people she relies on for advice and counsel, gives her a single hint of a warning of the information they have, even if it is only rumors. Elincia should have been told.

Is Elincia young and naïve? Yes. Ludveck's criticisms that she's too trusting, that it is too easy to assassinate her, or poison her food or drink are 100% valid. I'll even agree with his point about her letting the fleeing rebels leave after she captures Ludveck in the final chapter, they absolutely should be arrested and punished for treason. Maybe not killed, but punished.

But that she is too hesitant to act to quell the rebellion? No. Bastian, Geoffrey, and Lucia keep vital information from Elincia. That the civil war gets so far is on them, not Elincia. Elincia always takes the correct next step for her based on what she knows and what they know after finding out about it. Now, for all Ludveck knows, Bastian and the others found out and told Elincia from the start and the inaction was on Elincia, because why wouldn't they keep the queen informed, so he can say what he believes to be true. But the fact that Elincia believes him, the fact that no one calls out the three of them for what they did wrong, is a failure of the writing.

Elincia: Yes, that’s true. It’s for the same reason that, once I knew of the rebels’ movements… I didn’t immediately make any decisive orders. Radiant Dawn, Chapter 2-F, Elincia's Gambit Extended Script Translation from Serenes Forest

If they wanted me to believe that message, they would have needed to add another chapter into Part 2, not that Radiant Dawn needs to be any longer, ideally making Chapter 3 deal with her attempting diplomacy and hesitating to act (maybe they set up a place to talk that gets attacked and she still doesn't authorize an attack on Ludveck), and then Chapter 4 being Geoffrey's Charge when Ludveck mobilizes his army.

However, as it stands, Elincia hesitating to take action is completely absurd.

[nextinline-if]

Hello Vi ☺️

Has anyone asked about the fake-out make-out scenario yet? I hope you have an amazing day 💛

Hi Anon! ☺️

I let your ask sit for a longgggg while, sorry anon. <3 forgive me pls.

I'm going to do Constantine today and do a different one tomorrow, etc! I'll just reblog and add :)

warning: kissing, touching, etc! (I think these are obvious but!)

uhm okay so I've never written one of these, idk if I did okay or if this wasn't 100% matching the scenario, hopefully I didn't break any rules? lol okay bye

Constantine (MC initiates)

You glance back over your shoulder, meeting Constantine's eyes as you force your feet to move. He shakes his head. "Don't stop running," he replies roughly.

You never excepted a visit to the capital to turn into a coup attempt. How did they know you were going to be here? It's only been four months since your brother abdicated and this was an unannounced outing.

You force the thoughts away and turn the corner, your footsteps pounding against the cobblestone. Up ahead, the doors to a brothel are open. You can hear the sounds of pleasure and poetry. You urge your feet forward and make for the entrance. "Follow me," you shout without looking.

Constantine's brows furrow but he does as you command. He'd follow you into a fire - a brothel isn't so different, is it?

You grab his hand as soon as he crosses the threshold, weaving you both around sweaty bodies full of intoxication and anticipation.

Once in the corner, you face each other, neither able to speak as you attempt to catch your breath. You start taking off his armor. "What are you doing?" He looks nervous as his eyes glance around, but he doesn't move to stop you.

You laugh softly, drawing his piercing blue gaze back to your face. "Your armor isn't exactly inconspicuous."

He nods. "You think they'll check in here?"

"You trust me, right?" You throw the last piece of armor behind the settee as heavy footsteps hammer their way toward the brothel.

"Of course," he says, swallowing hard.

"Good," you reply, pushing him into a seat. His eyes widen and he opens his mouth but you climb on top of him as the rebels stream through the door. There's no time to think so you crash your lips against his.

Your heart hammers in your ears. If they find you, at least you can say you went out with the feeling of his lips on yours. With the comfort of his hand in your hair, pulling you closer. Not that you care about any of that. But everyone should die in peace, right?

If this wasn't life or death, you'd almost believe he wants this. You'd almost believe you want this.

Focus, you tell yourself. Focus on the environment, not his rough lips gently caressing yours.

You can hear the lyre again and the sounds of lovers returning to their activities so you pull away. Your lungs needed air regardless. Constantine stares at you for a moment and you stare back.

"Uhm, thank you," you blurt out.

He tilts his head, "Thank...you?"

Your eyes widen and you move away, turning away to grab his armor. "For trusting me. I'm sorry for...that. I needed to get them off our trail." You take a breath, steeling your face before turning around to hand him his armor.

He takes it quickly, his face giving nothing away. "It was a brilliant plan, Your Highness."

Neither of you speaks until you reach the castle to alert the others of your escape.

[children-of-subcon]

So, it's been uh,,,,*checks watch* two months,! Sorry about that, I've been really busy -w-;; But anyways!!

As you've probably noticed, this ref is wayyy different from my usual style! To be honest, I,,,really started hating that style and it made working on refs stop being fun jsdkljsd... Plus I got really inspired by a certain youtuber so!! Ref formats are getting a revamp!!!!! It's possible that it may change more in the future since this was very experimental,, but the good news is it worked and I had a TON more fun making this :DD

As usual, story will be under the cut!

Taking the role of goofy mafia is the Lost Florist, also known simply as Chrys! She's the oldest member of Princess's runaway coup, at 19 years old, and also its only authority figure. She's been trying to reign things in and convince the Lost Kids to stop the whole thing, with...negligible success. Let's just hope SOMEONE figures out how to get things under control before she turns 20,,,and the coup kicks out the last thing keeping the island from burning to the ground.

As the only one really equipped to deal with the chaos (or at least, she's trying), Chrys is CONSTANTLY sleep deprived. She hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in months! And on one particular night, when it begins to lightly snow all over Ever Isle, leading every single child to attempt to shovel the stuff into their mouths...let's just say she's more tired than ever.

For USAU's Ch.1 Act 3: He Came From Underground, instead of raining, it snows! As seen above, Prince has a snow coat outfit exclusive to the next two acts (although it can later be earned). Falling into a snow pile will cause him to get covered in snow (loser), and anyone he encounters will ignore him unless attacked. If he passes through a bush while covered in snow, Prince will then get DOUBLE covered in leaves. Blegh. He's gonna need a shower after this...

Lost Florist, being so tired she's probably starting to see spiders, mistakes the leaf-covered alien for a "Leafy Plant Monster", screaming something about how she "knew the plants would come to take revenge on her". Prince rather confusedly chases after her, just trying to politely ask for his Time Piece back. Chrys ends up passing out, allowing her to get some much-needed sleep and Prince to retrieve his Time Piece.

She also appears in a much more well rested and less paranoid form in Act 6: Growing Over Ever Isle. Basically, Princess turned on all of the acid faucets around the island, causing the plant life to mutate and overgrow! I'll probably go into more detail later, but Chrys talks to Prince at the start of the act and also thanks him with a Time Piece at the end...along with someone else.

I imagine act 3's song is something like Scootin Through Subcon Forest or Subcon Caves but faster and more She Came From Outer Space-y JSDKLFJ And then act 6 would be a remix of Subcon Village probably? I'm not really sure what kind of music fits evil plants, though...

Some final tidbits about Chrys!

She was childhood friends with Princess, but has kind of been really mad at her ever since she started a coup and even more after she LEFT HER TO PICK UP THE PIECES. -_-

She owns the flowershop in the Town plaza fountain area! It was originally called Bloomin' Boutique, but,,,the Lost Kids spray painted over it to say "Bloomin' Idiots" instead :(

Homegirl is so sleep deprived she put normal gloves over her gardening ones 💀 GO TO BED

Alright, that's about it! These always end up longer than I think they'll be -w-;; BUT I realized whose ref is next and I'm reaaaally excited hehehe :) Anywho, thanks for reading!

[pascow]

CREATIONS FROM EVERY MONTH OF 2023!

Post your favorite and most popular post from each month this year (it’s okay to skip months).

Inspired by @losthavenmine since it looked like a fun way to revisit and recall all my giffing obsessions of the year. 😂

JANUARY

MOST POPULAR: The Menu 'Thank you for your concern.' FAVORITE: The Menu 'That was a shock.'

FEBRUARY

MOST POPULAR: The Last of Us 'Joel's daughters and dogs.' FAVORITE: The Last of Us 'Can I have a gun?'

MARCH

MOST POPULAR: John Wick: Chapter Four 'Bill Skarsgård behind the scenes.' FAVORITE: John Wick: Chapter Four 'Bill Skarsgård as The Marquis.'

APRIL

MOST POPULAR: Annihilation 'I don't think I want either of those things.' FAVORITE: The Last of Us 'Endure and Survive.'

MAY

MOST POPULAR: Pearl 'Thank you for everything.' FAVORITE: John Wick: Chapter Four 'The Marquis + Oral Fixation.'

JUNE

MOST POPULAR: John Wick: Chapter Four 'Suits of The Marquis.' FAVORITE: John Wick: Chapter Four 'I claim the coup de grâce.'

JULY

MOST POPULAR: House of 1000 Corpses 'What's that spell?' FAVORITE: Black Mirror 'Zazie Beetz in Mazey Day.'

AUGUST

MOST POPULAR: Saw X 'Billy the Puppet.' FAVORITE: Saw II 'Is this close enough?'

SEPTEMBER

MOST POPULAR: The Bikeriders 'Austin Butler as Benny.' FAVORITE: 'Saw X predictions.'

OCTOBER

MOST POPULAR: Freddy vs. Jason 'Jason on fire.' FAVORITE: IT 'Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.'

NOVEMBER

MOST POPULAR: Terrifier 3 Teaser trailer. FAVORITE: Pearl 'Mia Goth as Pearl.'

DECEMBER

MOST POPULAR: Gremlins 'Gizmo plays the keyboard.' FAVORITE: A Christmas Story 'Merry Christmas.'

Tagging (no pressure!): @hellboys @saw-x @dushku @rogerdeakinsdp @chloesevigny @hauntedlilies @stephendorff @katherines @animusrox @bladesrunner @crumb @90scully @bruceewayne @talesfromthecrypts @classichorrorblog @breakfastiffanys

[pollyna]

Tom's cancer goes:

0.

1.

2.

His breath is short and his throat hurts like he forgot do drink for days. His hands feel clammy and it's only when Ron's arm catch him that he realises he's falling. Every single person in the room is looking at him with the expression of who just saw a titan falling from the sky. But his feet are steady, more or less, on the ground. His best friend doesn't let him go until he's sure Tom isn't going to collapse again. He blames it all on exhaustion.

(It's not a total lie because when his parter isn't around he tends to work two to three times more than usual. Most of the time Charles, the Vice Admiral who has office a coupe of doors from his, finds him still working in the middle of the night and already working when he comes in at eight. All his concernes go blind on him.)

3.

4.

The house is silent when he comes back from the visit and Ron is still walking just a couple of steps behind him. Ron who's hands were big and warm while the doctor dictated his sentence and Tom was hoping, the whole time, for smaller hands in his. Pete is far away and he's going to be until the end of the year. By the time he's back Tom is probably going to be dead.

I have to- he starts but Ron is already taking away is computer and cellphone. Not tonight Tom, not tonight.

They don't talk a word until he falls asleep on the couch, Ron's arm around his shoulder and half of the dinner still on the coffee table.

5.

Writing to Bradley leaves him without energy for two entire days but it's the first round of chemio that does that, not the long and verbose mail he composes. He starts the white pages for forty minutes and writes seven different drafts. Dear Bradley, Kiddo listen, Lieuten-, Fuckin' christ, Baby Goose I really need y-, I'm dying, It's for Mav and the 8th is the good one because he writes as Admiral Kazansky and not as Uncle Tom. He writes to Bradley's superior and order him to give the boy, a man this days, five days of leave and that he has to report back in DC as soon as he's back in the States. Then he calls a person who will call another person and Bradley is going to arrive in Miramar.

6.

He spends hours learning ASL. The doctor says his voice could be forever damaged. He spends a little more time learning ASL.

7.

It takes almost three months for Bradley to be there because, as the superior officer writes back, right in that moment only some sort of deity would allow the Lieutenant to leave his mission and, contrary of popular belief, you Admiral Kazansky are still not a god. With all the respect, sir. By the time he's at the door step Tom's day is a full cycle of meds to take at what hour and how much morphine he's allowed the think about to take before that dosage got cut in half and then in half again. Bradley says Admiral Kazansky, sir with the whole salute and Tom can barley lift his arm to do the same.

8.

9.

It's not an easy argument to have. Ron makes them tea, kisses Bradley's forehead and he's out of the house for hours. At some point, while Tom is trying to explain papers and his will Bradley leaves the house too. He doesn't scream this time, he's not eighteen anymore, and the silence that follows is more defining than all the words he said the first time. He falls asleep on his armchair and wakes up for dinner, a table ready for three and only two person eating at it. He will come back Ron says. Tom would like to believe him.

10.

Somedays he's better than ever and registers long messages to Pete. Things he's going to listen when Tom is dead and he knows his husband would appreciate. He says I love you as much as he can and reads books and passages of their favourite poems. Once, seven months in to therapy, Tom records an entire hour of Pete's favourite pieces at the piano and sings along for what he can. Bradley is around and lately is always seem on the point of running away, for the third and last time. Tom is greatful he's still here. Ron calls him a romantic at heart and Tom gives him the finger. It's nice, they're laughing, and it almost doesn't feel like the last of his good days.

Tom's remission goes:

10.

9.

8.

He's still half asleep and there's a smaller hands in his, the weight of something, a head?, near is shoulder and his nose is full of the generic shit his husband likes to call his favourite shampoo and that make him cry more than the absence of his voice and the ugly scar that will forever sign his skin. He's alive and Pete is too.

7.

6.

Pete spends a lot of time kissing him, on his lips, on his cheeks and everywhere he can reach without moving away from him. Getting back home from the hospital isn't as smooth as he tought he would be and the road to heal is far from done. Bradley is still there, Ron is still there and Pete wants to say something, probably scream at him, but sometimes he can barley talk at all.

5.

He screams at Ron tho. He picks stupid fights, tries to make Ron angry and goes out on long walks and he almost end up in jail, more than once. Tom pulls some strings and let him fly, because flying is the only way Pete knows how to deal with emotions. He spends hours out there and he's mourning and giving all over again but this time no one is dead, not yet.

4.

3.

Speech therapy is a mountain Tom doesn't feel like he's never going to finish climbing in. But it helps more than he could ever think. And gives Pete the out to scream at him now, even if all he can do is answer with his fingers. It's ugly, how could it not be when he spent a year dying without having the possibility to tell it to his husband?, and it ends in tears from both sides but is a starting point. Another one.

2.

Pete takes on experimental programs that let him be at home at 5 and give him, them, free weekends. He learns ASL and he learns how to talk with Bradley again. Ron goes back on his boat, I missed this old gal he writes him in the first postcard he received, but everytime he has leave is sleeping in their spare room or on the couch.

1.

Bradley starts calling them Uncles again and then dad and pops. If Tom still had tears he would have cried over his icecream. He hugs him as strong as he can against his chest. He isn't as strong has he used to be but he's starting getting back a little muscle, he hopes the hug is warm as the warmth he feels inside.

0.

He says his second first word looking straight in his husband, now legally so, and says Pete and then I love you.

Polished version: here.

[snallavanta]

how i differentiated and remembered the 13 members of seventeen when i was a baby carat

just a psa that this is just for fun! i obviously remember their full government names and faces now but it’s funny to see how far i’ve come.

i’m arranging them in order of who i noticed first to last so that the nicknames make more sense. for context, i learned about them mostly through nana tour so a lot of these have nana tour references

vernon — loml (funny story: i refused to acknowledge that his name was vernon because it reminded me too much of vernon dursley and i didn’t want to associate that character with him so i just called him my pookie every time i saw him on screen 🙃 i have now accepted vernon as an endearing term and not as the annoying harry potter guy though)

woozi — loml number 2. also known affectionately as girlypoppies (because of the way he dressed in GoM & world performances)

mingyu — blue suit guy (apparently he wore blue suits a lot to me? even though i literally cannot tell you one (1) instance off the top of my head where he wore a blue suit—unless you want to count the dior fashion week suit but that happened months after i first recognised him lol). cowboy guy (his performance outfit in GoM gave off cowboy vibes). innisfree guy. poor guy who couldn’t make a meringue in peace 😔 at this point, mingyu had too many nicknames that i kept forgetting which one was him. was also constantly confusing him with dk and wonwoo (especially in performances) LOL

s.coups — thai guy (he looked thai to me ok). also the guy who got the acl tear and couldn’t go for nana tour

hoshi — chef (he made a comment about how too many chefs would ruin the food—also happened while there were like 6 guys in the kitchen—and it was so funny that he has been etched in my memory ever since)

dino — sister’s main favourite guy. i couldn’t see the hype about him until the whisper game and he kept going “dino? dino. dino in korean is di-no. DINO.” that was hilarious. after that i could kind of remember which one he was

the8 — the chinese guy. red hair guy. also sister’s favourite (which i laughed at btw when she told me. then she didn’t want to talk to me about him for weeks which was so funny)

joshua — the other american guy

seungkwan — sister’s least favourite guy (btw i do not agree with this sentiment and i think her opinion of him is completely unjust). also the guy who cried in nana tour

wonwoo — the glasses guy. also brought his camera everywhere with him and wore the cute orange bucket hat. was easy to tell him apart during nana tour because he kept wearing the same nana tour t-shirt with his name on it so loved him for that <3

jeonghan — the feminine one. was always mixing him up with joshua though

jun — the other chinese guy. the guy who was alone a lot. also thought he was a genius when his mission in nana tour was to make someone fall asleep and he said coups because of the time difference. big brain behaviour, he earned my respect. also thought he was very charming during performances 🫣 like my guy just has a way with the dances (world specifically) that captivates me

dk — the guy who sings a lot. salute. also wore the cute green granny square bucket hat. kept confusing him with mingyu in their performances though

in conclusion, bless nana tour for having them wear shirts with their name on it because it made identifying and differentiating them so much easier. it’s so fitting in my case that the one guy who i knew and recognised was the one guy who REFUSED to wear the nana tour shirt until the last day 😭

[talesofedo]

Picture from Google

Let's talk Shinsengumi haori.

Without a doubt, the Shinsengumi's asagi-color haori, with its white Yamagata sleeve pattern, is one of the most recognizable items of the Edo period, both in media specifically focused on the Shinsengumi and perhaps in general.

So recognizable, in fact, that there was a lot of confusion when the most recent Shinsengumi movie, 2021's Moeyo Ken (Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai in the international release), did not feature it at all, opting instead for an all-black uniform. Not to mention the complete WTF moment that is the red-and-black uniform of 2002's Mibu Gishiden (When the Last Sword Is Drawn in the international release).

But ... what's the historical basis of the asagi-color haori?

Yamamura Tatsuya, researcher and author of many books on both the Shinsengumi specifically and the Bakumatsu period generally, and consultant on movies, documentaries, TV shows, and various other media, says there are several eyewitness accounts in records of the Aizu domain that describe the haori:

In 騒擾日記 (Sojo Nikki): "Fifty-two of them, who called themselves Mibu Roshi, were uniformly dressed, wearing haori of asagi-iro with a white pattern on the cuffs."

This account dates to the Coup of 8.18 (Bunkyu Coup), which took place at the end of September 1863 using the Western calendar.

Two things that are interesting here: (1) the haori was made while they were still the Mibu Roshigumi, as they weren't given the name Shinsengumi until after the Coup, and (2) all of them were uniformly dressed in haori at this time.

In 文久元治亥子太平録 (Bunkyu Genji Boishi Taiheiroku - I think that's how it's read?): "Asa haori with sleeves marked in white with triangular shapes."

This entry helpfully included a drawing of three connected triangles alongside the description, making it clear what these looked like.

(Asa is Japan's linen, but I'm always hesitant to translate it as linen because it's made from domestically-grown plants, typically hemp, ramie, or wisteria, while linen in the general use of the word refers to material made from flax, which wasn't grown in Japan until the Meiji period.)

Additionally, I found other notes from 文久元治亥子太平録, including one from 3.25 Bunkyu 3 (1863) when Aizu retainers went to see the Mibu Roshigumi, who were "wearing clothes of the same color, with a crest" and "having a uniform cloak made", for which 2 ryo was provided by Aizu in addition to the general allowance the Mibu Roshi received from the domain.

In addition to the period eyewitness descriptions from Aizu retainers, the haori are also mentioned in both "Shinsengumi Tenmatsuki", Nagakura Shinpachi's serialized recollections of the Shinsengumi, and in "Shinsengumi Ibun" by Shimozawa Kan, recording the recollection of Yagi Tamesaburo, the son of the Yagi family.

Nagakura: "The haori was only worn for official duties and the asagi sleeves were dyed with dandara, just like the costumes worn by the Ako ronin in the Chushingura."

Yagi: "There was a uniform. It was a light asagi color haori with white mountain patterns dyed into the hem and sleeves, like the costumes of the Ako ronin."

Yamamura, however, believes that Shimozawa Kan's record of Yagi Tamesaburo's recollection may have been embellished by giving not only the information that both the hem and sleeves were dyed with the white pattern, but also offering specific information on the number of patterns on each. In later writings, such as "Shinsengumi Monogatari", in which Shimozawa reuses some of the information from "Shinsengumi Ibun", those details were removed.

---

Summary:

The famous blue Shinsengumi haori undoubtedly existed, even if there are no surviving examples.

It was made from asa, a kind of linen usually made from hemp or ramie, and did have white triangular shapes dyed into the sleeves.

It is first mentioned in Aizu records is in the 3rd month of Bunkyu 3 (late April 1863) and appears to have been worn as a duty uniform by all of the troops while they were still the Mibu Roshigumi.

However, perhaps because unlined asa is not a durable material and a lot of new members were recruited, the uniform became less of a uniform, with only some members wearing it while others did not.

The last mention of the haori was after Ikedaya, meaning that it was only used for a little more than a year.

Shortly after Ikedaya, the Shinsengumi went to a black uniform that included black haori and black hakama, as seen in the most recent Moeyo Ken movie.

This uniform was described by Watanabe Noburo: "The black clothes and hakama of the people following me immediately identified them as Shinsengumi."

I'm speculating, but it was probably cheaper to buy black haori and hakama for a group that was increasing in size, and those materials were likely more durable and more popular than the original haori.

The original haori appears to have been an attempt at creating a uniform that would stand out but was inexpensive, since the asa cloth and the indigo dye used to create the light blue color, as well as sewing the haori without a lining, would have been a fairly low-cost option.

Picture from Google

Let's talk about another feature of the haori that is often seen in Shinsengumi media, such as Hakuoki in the picture above: the extra-long haori himo.

I have yet to find any historical source for its existence and while I'm unwilling to say that I am 100% sure it didn't exist (largely because never say never), I am about 99.9% sure it didn't.

Here's why:

(1) If several Aizu retainers and several additional people felt it helpful to describe the material, color, and dye pattern of the haori in detail, they certainly would have mentioned an extra-long haori himo.

(2) Extra long haori himo do not exist in any period sources: I have looked at literally thousands of photos from the late Edo and early Meiji period, including many many portraits, and there's just no such thing. The same holds true for woodblock prints, including prints of actors playing characters in the Chushingura. So again, while I can't say I've looked at all the things, I can say I've looked at a lot.

There is a mention of someone wearing extra long haori himo in the book 明治・父・アメリカ (Meiji, Father, America) by Hoshi Shinichi.

Hoshi writes about the experiences of his father, Hoshi Hajime: "At that time [ 1888-1919] only officials wore Western-style clothing and most people wore Japanese clothing. ... I came up with an idea, to make a very long haori cord, even if it's made from cheap thread. It was unnecessarily long. It was strange, but felt stylish. When I wore it to school, it became a hot topic and some of my classmates imitated it. Eventually, they began to tie the ends and twist them to be hung around the neck. ... It became a bit of a trend."

I don't know when those extra long haori himo crept into Shinsengumi films, but they are already shown in the 1935 movie エノケンの近藤勇 (Enoken no Kondo Isami), which is on YouTube.

That was the earliest movie for which I was able to find video or images, but there are several older ones I'm aware of: a 1934 silent film, 新撰組悲歌 (Shinsengumi hika) and a 1914 silent film, Kondo Isami. I know there are no copies of the 1914 film, but there may possibly be some of Shinsengumi hika that I haven't found yet. So it's still possible that the fashion of long haori himo for Shinsengumi movie costumes might predate the 1935 film.

As always, if you have more info, please add in comments or reblog!

[periru3]

I know I’m hella late to the Dragon Prince party, but I have some thoughts

Okay, so I just finished the first three seasons of The Dragon Prince, and it was really good, I really enjoyed it, but there was one glaring issue (or maybe more accurately a handful of closely related issues) that makes it really hard for me to love the show, or to think it quite lives up to it’s reputation as the “new AtLA.” The issue? Pacing. Dear god, the pacing. 

*Spoilers and long-windedness below the cut*

The first three seasons take place over about a month, and during this time a handful of things happen, including but not limited to: 1) multiple people travel across what are implied to be huge distances at GoT-levels of inconsistent speeds, 2) Viren attempts a coup, is foiled by the rightful king Ezran, who spends less than a week on the throne before handing the crown back to Viren, 3) Callum and Reyla overcome all of their human-vs.-elves prejudices and fall in love with each other, 4) Callum becomes literally the first human ever to learn primal magic, never having previously studied it, and 5) a bunch humans and elves and dragons band together to defeat the forces of evil despite hundreds of years of conflict that they have not resolved and there being NO WAY most of those people even know like 70% of what’s going on in the plot of the show. 

Seriously. That happens. In one month. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I feel this show was written this way, and I think a lot of it has to do with how TV shows are made now and how that differs from when AtLA was made, for instance. Specifically, most shows these days, The Dragon Prince included, have really short seasons (9 episodes to Avatar’s 20), and are made for streaming (and therefore binging). 

Let’s be real, streaming is doing WEIRD things to how stories get told, and many of them are not for the better. With the advent of dropping whole seasons at a time, the art of writing good episodes of TV that are at all distinguishable from one another sort of feels like it’s vanishing. So much of the goal of streaming shows is about getting you to just keep watching, so the episodes sort of intentionally bleed together. It’s all dramatic cliffhangers followed by autoplay kicking in and suddenly you’re picking up in the exact moment the last episode ended on. And there’s definitely a place for that in stories, but when it becomes every episode, the whole thing starts to feel more like one ridiculously long movie than a season of varied stories that form a satisfying whole but still work on their own. Anyway, I’m rambling and I know all of this has been said before. 

The point though, as it relates to Dragon Prince, is that when every episode flows right into the next, it’s a lot easier to get rid of something that I think is pretty necessary for most TV shows to function: time jumps. Not big ones, just little, normal time jumps that you don’t really notice that let us cover more time with the characters without having to constantly be with them every step of the way. I think when you spend a week waiting for a new episode, it feels natural for the characters to have also passed some time, and instances of this not happening tend to be reserved for two-parters or near the end of a season when the plot is really ramping up. But while many streaming shows do still do this, other’s just... don’t. And Dragon Prince is one of those shows. We’re with the main characters practically every moment of the month this show takes place over and while that does wonders for getting you in a binging mindset (I watched 3 seasons in 4 sittings), it means the actual timeline of the show is ridiculously short. Also, crucially, it means that if we don’t explicitly see something happen (eg the conveying of crucial information), or if something feels to us like it’s happening too fast (eg a relationship or skill developing), we can’t rationalize that by assuming things happened off screen. 

Another huge factor, as previously mentioned, is the nine-episode season, which is simultaneously too short and, weirdly enough, too long. Lemme explain. For all the stuff they are trying to fit in to this show, for the complex political situations and the relationships and the character arcs to all unfold believably, I as a viewer want to be able to spend more time with this story. I want this plot to unfold over more episodes and in more detail, but also I want enough episodes to be allowed a break from the plot. There’s no filler! Filler may get a bad rap, but it’s the filler episodes that give us time with characters and relationships and world-building outside the confines of what’s crucial to the plot! It’s one of the key things that separates TV as an art form from film and often allows us to feel that we know the characters and worlds of TV shows better those of movies. It isn’t just that we spend more time with them in TV, but also that we get to see them in all sorts of situations that movies don’t have time for! Where is Dragon Prince’s “The Zeppo” or its “Lars and the Cool Kids” or its “Ember Island Players?” We need more episodes not only so we can spend more time with the plot, but also so we can spend more time away from it!

But wait, didn’t I also say nine episodes per season is too long for The Dragon Prince? Yes. Yes I did. Because a story that takes place over the course of a single month being told in 27 episodes is straight up bonkers. That is practically one episode per day. See what I mean when I say we’re with these characters all the time? What we really need is for the show (or first three seasons at least) to take place over 6 months to a year with between 15 and 20 episodes per season. Then we get plenty of time to do the plot justice and plenty of time to ignore the plot for a bit and have fun! We also get more time with our beloved characters and they get to spend some time offscreen! 

Anyway, I think these issues seriously impact the effectiveness of the show in so many ways, and I know I’ve rambled for a long time now, but I’m gonna ramble a little longer just to touch on some of the things I think would be improved with more episodes and a longer timeline. Let’s go list format just to spice things up: 

Callum’s whole arc - He’s the first human ever to use primal magic and he figures it out after I think something like 12-ish days. I honestly really love the idea of humans being able to do magic by attaining a deep understanding of and connection with the primal sources, but this only works if we see, like... lots more work put in than we do. Having Callum really struggle and work and grow in the pursuit of this understanding would justify no one else having done it before and make it feel like he is totally revolutionizing how humans and elves alike even conceptualize magic by thinking about it from a different perspective, and I think that’s rad. As it is, he barely does anything, he does it super quickly, and he has a magic dream give him that final shove, and he comes off as just another chosen one which is way less interesting. Also him struggling with the ethics of dark magic and the decision to use it or not use it and the repercussions of using it could have been just so much more. I mean, I haven’t seen season four though so who knows. 

Callum and Rayla’s romance - As far as obviously-endgame het protagonist couples go, I liked them. I really thought there was a lot of great stuff in their relationship and I think the show did a way above average job giving us specific beats that made it feel like the characters really knew and understood and cared about each other. I just would’ve liked it to have more time to get there. Specifically I would’ve loved to see even more of the lingering issues of being from super different cultures and raised to fear and hate each other, as well as some more time on them each realizing their feelings for each other and sitting with that a while before they get together. 

Janai and Amaya - Give me so much more of this I am begging you. Not (just) because I’m extremely gay but because it’s so interesting and there’s so much potential and it mostly happens off screen and I want more build up to them trusting each other and working together at the end. I know Amaya saving Janai and later warning her about Viren does a lot of trust building, but I also want the slow burn (hah. burn. get it? Cause she’s a sunfi- never mind). Give me Janai awkwardly learning sign language! Give me them realizing they aren’t as different as they grew up being told they would be! Give! Me! More!

Grief - I know it’s a kids show and we want to not spend toooo much time being depressing, and they have very important things to worry about, but like... their dad died. The scenes where they’re actually addressing this are great and super emotional, but the minute it isn’t the focus it’s sort of weirdly upbeat for two newly orphaned children

King Ezran - Honestly his whole plot of going back to take up the throne and then leaving basically right away is sort of a mess. This is on the writing as much as the pacing. He doesn’t have time to do anything good as king, like we get no time seeing if he can even be a normal ruler at all before suddenly he’s shoved into an impossible situation and he takes a strong moral stance, you love to see it, but then there just... isn’t a good solution so for some reason the solution he chooses is to give the obvious supervillain the crown? And all of this happens so fast it sort of makes you wonder... why any of this needed to happen? Like if Ezran stayed with the others and the initial coup had been successful.... nothing changes. 

Villain stuff - One recent trend I’m loving is complex villains in kids shows. Viren is such a good villain, but I feel like he’d be a much better one if we had the time to do a slower ramp up in evil. Like, he starts as the king’s best friend and most trusted advisor, I wish we saw him dealing with conflicted feelings about the king’s death, especially after their last interaction. I wish he spent more time seeming like someone who believes his own justifications and who slowly becomes more ruthless and power hungry and looses sight of what he initially stood for or something like that. As is he’s sort of an instant supervillain.

Evil family drama - This may be the area I think needs least improvement, honestly. I think Soren and Clauda’s arcs and their relationships to each other and to Viren are the most interesting and well-executed in the show by far. They’d just - and I know this opinion might come as a shock to you - be better if they took place over more than the span of a month. Perhaps more than 27 episodes. You know, all that good stuff. 

Travel - Okay I know sometimes they’re on animals and sometimes they’re on foot and sometimes they fly and that all impacts how fast they get from one place to another but like..... there are times when that isn’t the case or where it is but it still doesn’t justify the drastically different amounts of time it takes people to travel certain distances. How did a massive army on foot catch up with the protagonists who’ve been traveling for 2.5 seasons in 2 episode? How did Soren get to the mountain so much faster than the main gang? How did the sunfire elves get there before the human army? These are the examples that are freshest in my mind cause I watched it like an hour ago, but I swear to god this is all over the show. This is another half-pacing half-writing issue.

Communication - And yet another “equal blame goes to the pacing and to wonky writing” thing. I literally have no clue how or when so many people found out so many things in this show. I’m struggling with specific examples on this one, it’s more of a constant vibe of “I do not remember seeing this person find out about this situation, there’s no way news of this had time to spread, what is going on?” Like people knowing enough to show up in the right place at the right time, or to suddenly change their stances on centuries-old global geopolitical conflicts even though I swear no one has specifically told anyone all the relevant information for this to make sense and there isn’t enough time for me to buy them finding out some other way. Anyway speaking of global geopolitical conflict...

Global geopolitical conflict - This! Just! Needs! More! Time! How did Viren have time to get this popular? How did How did Lyanna Mormont Queen Aanya know where to go or have enough relevant information to feel this was worth joining a war over, technically on the side that killed her moms? Why is there suddenly a critical mass of humans who suddenly want to end an ancient conflict with people who literally just assassinated their king just because they I guess found out their side didn’t assassinate the prince of the opposite side???? I swear I find this plot good I just need it to go so much slower and so much more... thoughtful I guess? I need to understand why individuals and groups other than the main characters are making the decisions they’re making, and things happening very fast makes that difficult!

Anyway, I swear I really did like this show a lot, despite my ranting. I think I’m so hung up on this because I liked it so much. Like, I think it could be on the level of AtLA if it had better pacing and it really really frustrates me that it doesn’t. I’m also sure these aren’t very original complaints but here I am anyway, extremely late to the party, having basically just mainlined three seasons of a show and immediately sat down to write an essay on it without taking in even a hint of the existing fandom or discourse so.... sorry? If I’m just repeating something many other people have noted? It’s 4:30 am what am I even doing with my life.

TL;DR - Great show, it’d be an A+ if it could only have the “giving TV shows actual good pacing” of a decade ago while retaining the “kids shows are allowed to have gays in them” of today

[sailorspica]

Tell me more about what Historia could be up to on Paradis post-Rumbling. She gives the romantic sheep job to Reijean, is there anything Hitchannie could bond over? :3

my hisuhitch agenda is quite possibly shifting This House into a throuple situation idk

if we take the epilogue as a pretty much real-time montage, to me it implies historia and the jaegerists have tenser relationship than hers with the zackly government. she has enough power to move freely, e.g. invite our ambassador babies and others (since kiyomi is there on the pier) without interference, and she keeps her distance from the hooligans in kevlar. they're in a stalemate basically, because her utility as a figurehead for zackly was transitioning from the fritz govt; what is she to the jaegerists? a potential obstacle they've inherited. royal blood has no value but its lineage/continuity now without the power of titans; maybe she's also "one of their heroes" like floch tells jean, but that obviously didn't prevent them from fighting the alliance. i don't get a sense the new regime celebrates ymir or her line, which is maybe a last freedom that eren won her: her legacy

i just can't accept historia sitting around for months with eren's heads-up about the rumbling, so her allies are either "moderates" that have clung on since the last coup (hitch) or carefully placed civilians like the old dyke shepherd OC i had reijean meet, a kind of anti-first interior squad. actually, i think she's ended up in a similar role to uri and frieda: "ruling" from the shadows with debatable efficacy, though... they were more like the lara to rod's willy tybur. i picture her riding on horseback all over paradis with no guard, probably just an ODM sword and a gun, gathering intel and straight up dispensing gold and grain for people who need it, and idk maybe "taking care" of any opportunists who used this newest coup she did not sign off on to perpetuate feudalism

but she doesn't start doing this work herself until she feels comfortable leaving her kid at home, so where we're at in This House right now... hitch has a head start with her extracurricular activities. not the fucking widows part but chipping away at jaegerism, and idk, just caring for people, especially women. i just think very deeply about historia's mother alma, and kuchel ackerman, and the backstory i'm constructing for hitch... but is hitch okay with doing this until she dies? is annie okay with leaving her on paradis for such an endless and maybe dangerous task?

their conversation in "sunset" belies the possibility that annie would think this continuation of "cleaning up rubble and corpses" is nearly holy work and fall in love harder, think hitch and historia are good people, but i do generally think annie has a better handle on her guilt than reiner. so if hitch like, throws a bag of beet sugar at her and tells her they're baking for orphans, annie would go along

[themollyjay]

Am I The Asshole For Refusing To Die?  (AITA D&D Edition)

First some Background.  When I(25f) was 12 years old, a gang of monster hunters broke into my dad’s lair and killed him.  My mom and I escaped through one of the secret passages he’d built into the lair, while my dad was busy roasting the monster hunters with his lightning breath (dad was a 2000+ year old Bronze dragon).  After my dad was killed, my mom and I ended up settling in a small town with an active smuggler community.  Mom ended up as the top lieutenant to the head of the largest smuggling operation in the city, and I was one of their best forgers, so it was a pretty sweet set up.  Not as nice as living in a dragons lair, but still, we were doing pretty well.  I even got a nice Tiefling girlfriend. 

About 8 years after my dad died, I was out for the night with my girl, and this guy, call him Smugface (fake name) killed my mom, her boss, and all the boss’s lieutenants.  I found out about it the next morning when I found one of Smugface’s goons dumping my mom’s body in the trash outside her boss’s headquarters.  I killed the good and took his gun, then loaded up my mom’s body in a stolen wagon, and buried her next to my dad in his lair.  Then I went back to town, swearing vengeance on Smugface for killing my mom.

The whole experience messed me up.  I broke up with my girlfriend because I thought maybe Smugface hired her to lure me out of position so it would be easier to kill my mom and her boss, and since Smugface took over the smuggling ring, I was out of work, and had to take jobs smuggling stuff across the desert instead of on ships.

Since then, I’ve built up a good reputation as one of the best couriers on the sand sea, but I can’t go more than about four months or so without Smugface sending someone to kill me, which is annoying.  But every time I send a piece of one of his goons back to him to let him know I’ve killed his latest assassin, he acts like I’m the one in the wrong.  I’m like, ‘Hello, they were trying to kill me.  What am I supposed to do, just stand there and not kill them first?’

Seriously, I just sent back the fifteenth assassin’s ears about 6 months, and word on the street at the time was that Smugface upped the price on my head by another hundred gold pieces.  I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.  Dad always told me that if anyone tries to kill you, you kill them first.  I’m just trying to follow dad’s advice, but after the fifteenth time Smugface has thrown a fit, I’m starting to wonder, Am I the Asshole for non dying?

Edit:  I know I said he usually sends a new assassin once every four months, but the city state we live in got caught in the middle of a civil war, and that’s been taking up most of Smugface’s time, while I’m trying to destroy the death cult that engineered the coup that started the civil war in the first place.

Edit Number 2:  For those who are asking, no, it turns out my girlfriend wasn’t working for him.  I found out recently that Smugface was trying to kill me that night.  Turns out the head of the monster hunter gang was actually one of the leaders of a cult worshiping a death god (same one that started the civil war at home), and they wanted me dead because killing me with break a magic spell that was cast a thousand years ago to imprison their death god.  The GF and I got back together.  We ever have our own flying ship now.  My GF is the captain of the ship, and my other friend and I are leading a coalition of 7 armies to kill the death god.

Edit Number 3:  Guys, the bit about leading an army wasn’t me bragging or anything.  It’s the shittiest job you can imagine.  Long hours, high stress, people trying to kill my all the time (that part isn’t *too* different).  I’m a fucking mailman.  I have no idea what I’m doing, but everyone looks at me like I’m some kind of champion out of the sagas, off to save the world.  I tried to explain that I won the last battle by sitting on the general of the opposing army, but everyone thinks that’s impressive somehow just because I turned into a dragon first.  I’m like, “Hello, my dad was a dragon, how is this not normal?”, but everyone still looks at me like I’m some sort of hero, when all I want to do is crawl in a nice, damp seaside cave and nap for a couple of centuries.