#the royal wedding retcon

[getvalentined]

I thought I posted this here ages ago, but I couldn't find it to link in another post I'm working on, so I'm posting it now!

Regardless of everything else surrounding the First SOLDIER battle royale game, I'm always going to be delighted that the timeline established in its opening cutscene indicates that Hojo and Lucrecia were experimenting on Vincent for around seven years before Lucy ran off and Hojo put him in the box.

See, the thing that's always bothered me about the known timeline of Vincent's life as it existed up until this cutscene dropped is that it kind of implied that Hojo did all his scientific body horror work in about two months, and then Lucrecia took over and spent a couple months on her part. This is...utterly ridiculous, for so many reasons, not the least of which is Shalua being aware of Lucrecia's work with Chaos having subjects, which it didn't prior to Grimoire's death—this project wouldn't have been ongoing long enough for Shalua to refer to "subjects" in Dirge if it was only a couple months of work.

The implication with the timeline shown in the FF7FS opening is that Lucrecia and Hojo both moved to Project 0 after their part of Project S was complete, presumably leaving Gast with Sephiroth while they tried to make superhumans that would be deployable sooner than a literal baby. We know it's post-Jenova Project, because Hollander is there but Gillian isn't, so she's already in Banora with baby Angeal. The team is shown working on Project 0 until around 1984, with Lucrecia present.

Hojo working on Vincent for a year or two while Lucrecia first gives birth to Sephiroth and then recovers from that whole ordeal makes sense. Him going back and forth between Midgar and Nibelheim trying shit on Vincent that he thinks might work on Project 0 also makes sense, given that we know Hojo's work on Vincent was eventually repurposed for a couple of the Tsviets, who are the current iteration of what Project 0 originally was.

When Vincent's body finally gives out, Hojo just kinda leaves him there, changing his focus entirely to Project 0, while Gast still has Sephiroth. Lucrecia comes back to Nibelheim at that point, for whatever reason, and picks up where Hojo left off, trying desperately to do something to keep from being responsible for killing both Valentines.

Gast leaves the company in 1984, whereupon Sephiroth is moved into Hojo's care—not Lucrecia's—and we can assume that Project 0 as a whole is shuffled.

This is the point where Lucrecia reaches the end of her rope. She's never going to get to meet her son, she's never going to get anywhere in this damn company, she's still so sick from the Jenova infection she contracted during her pregnancy. She can't do this anymore. So she dresses Vincent up like his dad (because his eyes look just like his father's), puts on a wedding dress she never got to wear, and leaves forever.

Hojo comes back to Nibelheim, possibly looking for Lucrecia—he either finds her "dead," or he only finds Vincent. Either way, Lucrecia ends up in the Nibel Mountains and Vincent ends up in the basement. With nothing left to lose and nothing holding him back, Hojo proceeds to track across the planet to find Gast and shoot him in the face.

This is a much better story.

This also explains why the official Dirge guide says that Vincent was asleep in the basement for, very specifically, 23 years, and why all Ultimania material cites that he was in the coffin for "over 20 years" even though he was shot to death 30 years ago. It's not a retcon. It never was. It's a clarification.

Vincent was killed in 1977, 30 years before Cloud found him during the Crisis. But he was under the knife and in the tubes for seven years after that, until the two equally brilliant psychopaths trying for opposing reasons to make him into Something Else finally gave up and put him in a box.

That's fantastic.

[erinoma9]

Problems with "The Search" Comic

The Implausible Secrecy of Ursa's Backstory

I found this little gem from the commentary of the Search Comic (Part One). (Long rant ahead!)

Mike - We added this detail of Ozai forbidding Ursa from speaking of her old life again as a way to explain why Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge. (In "The Avatar and the Fire Lord," Iroh tells Zuko that Avatar Roku was his great-grandfather on his mother's side.) It also parallels the present story in a cool way: When Ursa married Ozai, she had to forget her past. Later, she makes a similar choice.

Essentially, the scene of Ozai telling Ursa to bid her parents farewell mainly/somewhat serves to narratively establish that "Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge" despite her marrying into royalty.

This comic suggests that the general population of the Fire Nation never knew Ursa's backstory even though she and Ozai were together for 10+ years. And somehow, no new information about her came out during her time in the Capital. Even if the royal family bothered to concoct a backstory for her, anyone could have realised it didn't add up and/or gotten information from at least one of the 100+ royal servants. Heck, her parents attended the wedding and sat a few feet away from her, surely they would have interacted with someone (I mean how else does Iroh have Roku's headpiece).

Then there's "the fire nation town of Hira'a", described as a "small town - on the outskirts of the Fire Nation." The townsfolk know her, aren't supposed to talk about her, but can't help but speculate. Apparently, the town’s (official yet laughable) story is that "she was - taken to - Capital City on some sort of official business" accompanied by "rumours" of her "supposedly" marrying into the royal family. And "rumours" of her returning to town, and entering Forgetful Valley.

I can't believe I haven't seen any posts addressing how absurd and farfetched this is. This isn't even mentioning how the Search retconned Ursa's noble upbringing, which is evident on her Avatar Lore page (I could make another post for that).

Here are some more photos and info:

"No one's seen or heard from Ursa since she was taken to - Capital City!" said almost two years after Zuko's coronation.

Gee, no wonder Azula was tempted to burn the place down. Somehow a Fire Nation town (seemingly) doesn't know that Ursa married Ozai. Though I’m certain that wasn’t what the writers intended, and am certain that Azula mostly acts out-of-character throughout the comics (I could make another post for that).

Please note that in the Avatar Lore Pages, "royalty" is (seemingly) sometimes used synonymously with "nobility" (see Mai and Onji).

[thetimelordbatgirl]

To be honest, I don’t have much hope for Descendants. I thought they were done after the 3rd movie, even though it was bad but at least it had charm. As for the Royal wedding? A complete cash grab that no one asked for and now RoR? They basically retconned the 3 descendants movies and nostalgia bait the fans by bringing Brandy(idk if they’re using her story in the 1997 movie or the og 1950 Cinderella as they are going use ‘So this is Love’) and totally ignore the animated movies. Plus, I’m so annoyed by the people on the descendants subreddit talking about the movie and the 5th one. God forbid someone made a criticism about RoR without being bashed on by the RoR fans.

Idk, descendants doesn’t feel like descendants after the 3rd movie.

I honestly ignore anyone who gets up and arms about everyone needing others to be positive about Rise Of Red. If they want to give it a chance or like it, good for them. But don't go and try to force others to be toxic positive about it. Me and other's have explained our reasons at this point for not liking the film and that's that. But also it probably doesn't feel like Descendants after third film because Descendants should have ended there and its very clear the film was meant to be the ending point...but then they released Royal Wedding just to rush and conclude stuff while casually implying Carlos is dead, just so they can go and make more Descendants films with new characters and such... ...While also retconning everything in the process and ripping EAH/SFGAE off- yeah uh, that also adds to not feeling like Descendants anymore: once you throw in shit like Merlin Academy, everything is way off suddenly and not in a good way.

[crisiscutie]

In your domestic AU, did Sephiroth and the darling get married before or after leaving Shinra? Or are they not even technically married?

If they are/got married before leaving Shinra, what was their wedding like (if they even had one)? I can’t imagine either wanting a big wedding! They’re definitely a small, very private wedding sort of couple.

The first chapter of the Domestic AU series touches on this very concept. Coming real soon 💜💜💜. I can feed you some background information, though:

They definitely were an established couple before running away from Shinra. When it came to the idea of marriage, though, the darling hasn't given it much thought. A special someone brought up the idea of Sephiroth and the darling getting married during a friendly conversation in the past. Guess who. 😊 The Domestic fic AU series will offer a great opportunity to delve deeper into Sephiroth's thoughts and feelings, which I'm excited to do. His dark struggles to cope with a new reality lacking the warfare he was bred for... His extreme anxiety fueled by the fear of losing his pregnant darling to unknown dangers that could arise, or to childbirth, a fate that had befallen his "mother"...

Hell, even the possibility of putting her in danger from his own actions, like the last time they were physically intimate, troubles him deeply...

My goal is to adhere to these headcanons as closely as possible to challenge myself to maintain consistency, although some retcons may be necessary.

Now if they had a wedding: Yes, anon. You definitely hit the nail on the head. They would both want super private. But knowing Shinra, they would exploit and publicize their wedding for their own gain. It'd be like the royal weddings, Shinra edition. And with that much meddling from Shinra, Sephiroth and Darling would rather not have one at all.

[hannahhook7744]

De Vil Masterlist;

Random;

My descendants fancast redone part 2;

Summary; My fancast of the de vil and Badun cousins.

Wasted Potential in disney descendants part 1;

Summary; Wasted Potential for the core four.

The De Vil time line;

Summary; The De vil family Time Line (my version);

Radcliffe Reactions;

Summary; How the Ratcliffe react to Beast and Belle resurrecting and sending Hunter and Ivy off to the isle when they find out.

De vil cousins meet Radcliffes reblog reaction:

Summary; Tiger answering a question of mine.

Anita wonders;

Summary; Anita wonders about the de vils on the isle.

Reza Vs. Carlos;

Summary; Why Reza hates Carlos.

Opinions;

Summary; What @dragoneyes618 thinks of the theory that Princess Ivy is an ancestor of the de vils?

The royal wedding, a retcon;

Summary; a explanation why Carlos wasn't at the wedding that doesn't kill him off.

Another De Vil;

Summary; Cristian De Vil by Chris Villian.

~~~~Bad Apples Playlist~~~~;

Summary; songs Diego De Vil's band would play.

Edits/moodboards;

Little Carlos with his parents;

Summary; a photo edit of little Carlos with his ouat parents, Cruella and James.

The Lost Children edits part 3:

Summary; edits of my story that include a couple of different edits of little Carlos.

Core four aesthetic;

Summary; what the title says.

De Vil family aesthetics part 1;

Summary; what the title says.

De Vil family aesthetics part 2;

Summary; what the title says.

De Vil family aesthetic part 3;

Summary; what the title says.

De Vil family aesthetic part final;

Summary; what the title says.

Family name asesthic;

Summary; what the title says.

From birth to now descendants part 3;

Summary; Baby Carlos.

The Bad Apples Characters;

Summary; Diego and his band.

Theories;

De vil ancestor theory:

Summary; Princess Ivy is a de vil theory.

Who the baby daddy? Descendants; Carlos Edition.

Summary; who is Cruella's baby daddy?

Fanfics;

The de Vils; "I lived".

Summary; Diego and his band play their first gig in Auardon, and as he sings, he thinks of his family. Past and present, and imagines life through their eyes as he does so.

Doofen-dad;

Summary; Carlos finds out his dad is Dr Doofenshmirtz. In one time line.

That time EVERYONE wanted to kill Diego;

Summary; What could possibly go wrong when you let Diego de Vil babysit Hadie?... you'd be surprised....

What if Villians were good parents part 2;

Summary: A look into what things would be like if Cruella de Vil was a good mother and aunt.

Headcanons;

Mad De Vil Headcanons;

Summary; Ivy De Vil and Gordon is a thing.

Hunelim headcanons;

Summary; Hunter De Vil, Eliza/Elisa Fae, and James Brown Jr. Are a throuple.

de Vil headcanons revised;

Summary; De Vil headcanons revised.

Art:

The de Vil Family art;

Summary; drawing of the de Vil family I made.

Want to see my version of the Baduns? Click the link below?:

Badun Detective Agency Masterlist;

Summary; I headcanon the Badun cousins from descendants as detectives with a handful of other kids. Here is the info on that and the stories I've made based on it.

[seabreezeraincloud]

So I recently saw from your Twitter about the poll for anyone interested for a Tangled sequel, and I was surprise to see how many people said they want a sequel. Personally for me, I feel like both Rapunzel's & Eugene's story arc are fully complete following from the TV series & the Ever After short that I don't think we need a movie sequel. HOWEVER, if they do ever put Cassandra & Varian into the Tangled film sequel, that's something I can't ever say NO to! LOL!

Yeeeaaah, I highly doubt that WDAS will make another Tangled movie anyway. I heard there was an attempt, but they couldn't come up with a story due to Rapunzel's hair being gone. Now I obviously don't agree with their conclusion that there was nothing more to tell since the series definitely disproved that, but it was still the right call to scrap a theatrical sequel. Because like...yeah, what other story can you tell in a 90-minute film? It feels like the options are to either come up with a story that's underwhelming and pointless, or a story that's so big it just can't be told in one movie (Yes I know that other animation studios like Pixar and especially Dreamworks have put out some really good sequels, but WDAS does not have a good track record). Plus, I don't think Disney wants any more Tangled content that doesn't feature the hair, and considering that the series not only brought the hair back already, but also cut it a second time and pretty much closed the door on it ever returning again...it just doesn't seem likely.

And if Disney did greenlight a theatrical Tangled sequel, I can't see it going very well. Not just because of the valid point you brought up regarding Rapunzel and Eugene's arcs, but also because like...how would they handle everything that the series added to the canon? Either they would ignore or retcon the series and piss off the fans (regardless of your opinions on the show's quality as a continuation, erasing the existence of all the new characters people have grown quite attached to would definitely be a shitty move), or they would go all-in on incorporating the series lore and risk alienating the average moviegoers who have no idea who these people are and what their connections to Rapunzel and Eugene are. Yeah, you could probably get around it okay by establishing that plenty of time has passed since the first movie, but still, the people who didn't watch the series would be missing a lot. And we all know how Disney tries to cater to the lowest common denominator as much as possible, so just ignoring the series altogether would be far more likely.

If it were up to me, I'd make a movie about Cassandra, Lance, Angry, Catalina, and Varian having some kind of misadventure during the royal wedding that explains their absence (not that I think it needs to be explained, because the real reason is simply that they didn't exist yet when that short was made lol). Kinda like what they did with Pascal and Maximus, though obviously on a bigger scale. I think it could work because by focusing completely on them, the audience would be able to really get to know them and connect with them even if they haven't watched the series. They'd get some cutesy New Dream shipping content and some awesome new characters to fall in love with! But it ain't up to me, so. I'd rather Disney just. Not.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Carry On*

*(A big addendum to the original suggestion I made months ago)*

It’s a first slice-of-life then later adventure webcomic by Kathy Garrison-Kellogg. 

  Starting off as a spin-off of 21st Century Fox during a wedding storyline, reading 21st Century Fox is not necessary, it’s a comic that focuses on the life and times of Kathy Grrsn; an obituary hyena reporter working in a newspaper company in New Yak City (punny name version of New York). It’s all your run-of-the-mill almost daily webcomic feel with many stories containing either grounded comedy or hijinks; focusing on the everyday lives of Kathy, her friends and her family in this futuristic, when the author wants to make it appear futuristic anyway, animal world. 

  And then everything changed in May of 2011. A lot of things like many of the old cast and whatever story potential the author had was either retconned or thrown away as the comic shifted to an overarching adventure storyline. Kathy is revealed to be the undiscovered royal heir to the African country Rackenroon; a backwater country composed of battle addicted “warriors” (mercenaries, assassins, barbarians, pirates, general brutes, ect.), stuffy royals, and just straight-up weirdos that you’ll really want dead. In order to claim her rightful throne, she’ll need to be taken and married to Lieutenant Frederick Kruger, a seemingly scrawny looking bottlecap glasses wearing man, who she has been arranged to wed since birth. They’ll need to arrive there immediately as the country has been in a continuing rise of tension over the Duchess of Rackenroon, Songween, delaying on naming the next heir. And if she doesn’t name one soon it will run the risk of sparking a civil war that will spill out from the continent and drag the entire world into a World War (yeah I know it’s farfetched, but just take the comic for its word). 

  If there’s something positive I can say about the very evident Cerebus Syndrome in the comic is that it’s a lot more interesting than it was before. The overarching Rackenroon storyline in Carry On is a lot more engaging to read compared to the pre-2011 iteration of the comic where many simpler storylines and jokes range from average to stale, basically what you’re going to expect from an early 2000s newspaper-styled webcomic. It’s why I didn’t have a lot to say about it before getting to the Rackenroon premise. Another positive to give is the use of photoshopped/painted real world pictures as backgrounds and environments. It was something introduced in small sparse bits, usually when there’d be backgrounds that the author couldn’t very well portray in detail or scope, but slowly became fully utilized when the switch happened. It’s honestly impressive how rarely the backgrounds or characters stick out from one another. Like it’s at points where they can seamlessly interact with the environment (standing on top of surfaces or grabbing/holding onto some of the scenery) with almost complete believability of it all belonging together. 

  It’s a shame for me to say that despite some of the positives I brought up, the comic suffers from a serious case of tell, don’t show. The whole Rackenroon storyline is extremely linear, so a large focus is centered on or around Kathy and Frederick who have to practically carry the whole plot on their own. It initially doesn’t sound as bad until you realize how much exposition that ends up being crammed into each strip every so often, with additional walking scenes to give off the illusion of a moving plot. Like characters just end up talking at each other rather than with each other all in service for the audience to catch up on what should already be shown about a given situation. This doesn’t change even when they arrive in Rackenroon which is when you really start seeing how limited the character perspective truly is. For one thing or another, any character, whether being side or supporting in the cast, has a very selective involvement in the story. It doesn’t matter if they are supposed to have a character arc or more purpose than what’s shown of them (Kathy’s sister Sandy for a big example), they’re usually either off screen, used to add/explain more of the same information that has already been said with little difference, be or make a joke (usually either a pop-culture reference or a cheap sex joke/innuendo), or just used as a talking point to speak off of. It’s so egregious that it can leave the average reader to become partially blind on how much of an effect the events or actions actually have on the cast or the situations in the story, essentially if anything important that’s supposed to be happening is just implied instead of shown then it’s really difficult to believe it. From that point, when even multiple strips with expositional dialogue fails to mend much of anything, just go to the forums or (optionally) the creator’s Furaffinity page. It’s where you can really learn a lot of ideas, intentions, plot/character detail, executions and things that were or weren’t supposed to be there around many strips, especially if or when the answers come from the author, on how they are supposed to be taken as a reader. I won’t lie to you that upon learning any of this can go between eye opening to just plain frustration. It really gives one the impression that whatever the author wanted her big adventure story to be rarely translates well in a lot of the strips or aren’t prioritized as often or as correctly as she originally wants them to be. It basically makes you realize how much the story would’ve worked better if the author wrote it in a text or illustrated novel format, or in a traditional comic page format but Kellog herself seems really against that format switch for some reason, instead of sticking with the same newspaper strip format she’s been doing for years. 

  Tl;dr: Carry On was a standard slice-of-life newspaper comic, but then it switched to an interesting but shakily written adventure webcomic that still tries to keep the newspaper format. It spends too much time telling than showing and has a bad habit of leaving out important story beats that end up being found in the forums. It’s basically a creator writing in a genre they aren’t suited for, but doing it anyway because they pretty much ended up falling into it.

Whoa, jesus. No offense, but let me riff the comic first before writing a review for it. I do understand your passion, though.

[gay-ghostwriter]

If the Royal Wedding sequel takes place in Wonderland like they’re very obviously hinting, I want a child of the Queen of Hearts

Specifically so I can compare them to my Quinn

[lizzybeth1986]

If you had your say, how would you have wrote Liam and MC's ending? Or how would you have written the royal heir?

Thanks for the question, anon! Honestly if it were up to me changes would be made from the latter half of TRR2 onwards. A lot of the writing for Liam at this point focused pretty strongly on the MC, with little scope or necessity for her to be as supportive. This may have been fair, to an extent, during the time that the MC was still handling the plot that hurt her reputation, but once that is resolved the team never actually bothered to make her as supportive as she was to, say, Drake or (later, especially in TRH) Maxwell. (If someone is going to claim Liam didn't help the MC during her investigation I'm going to laugh. The MC actively chooses not to involve him and even then he's offering help whenever he has the opportunity).

For instance, by the end of TRR2 we have the subplot of Liam wanting to be different from his father, who he respected as a king even though he is disgusted by what Connie has done. In TRR3 that never becomes important - as a matter of fact Liam actually isn't given a consistent plot in TRR3! When he eventually loses his father in the attack at the Costume Gala, Liam is made to leave that grief behind and focus on the next task, with the MC only barely making an effort to even ask about his well-being. This is a pattern you will see throughout Book 3, and it bleeds even into TRH (where - even though Liam is faced with reveal after devestating reveal about his mother's death - little more than a second is spared by the MC to show concern for him). When you compare that to the number of times Liam is supportive and protective and at times offering to help - I have to honestly wonder if the MC as she exists in canon even cares.

So probably 75% of the changes I would want to make would have to do with the MC's imbalance in who she actively tries to help and who she barely makes an effort for (you will notice that the first category is filled with white characters). The remaining 25% would be about centering Liam in his issues (including exploring how his losses and the country's crises would affect him), ensuring that most parts of his plot and stories aren't given away as sympathy fodder to Creator's Pets, and absolutely making sure that the writing doesn't try to nerf him into a duke rather than a king just so the MC has more power - which is what happens subtly in the early books and more obviously in the latter books of TRH/F.

With regards to TRH I'm not even sure if I would want it to exist. I'm pretty certain the team was mostly just making shit up as they went - with all the retcons and absolute inconsistencies in characterization - so either I'd try to incorporate Eleanor's story (without the conspiracy angles) into TRR3, or just do without it and let the fandom headcanon the past to their heart's content tbh.

In terms of the pairing I've headcanoned - Liam and Esther connect to each other most because they are two such deeply repressed people, but have to reevaluate that during Esther's own pregnancy (which happens a year or two after their wedding) when they are confronted with their own and each other's traumas. So there is a reason why they won't delve too much into each other's feelings, but I absolutely see them finding other ways to support each other!

[the-indie-owl]

Favorite SpongeBob ships?

Oh boy, I have a lot of ships in the show (some of which are divorced ships or semi-canon ships of the Bikini Bottomites) but I'll just start off with the Main Ones that I ship.

SpongeBobXSandy - Probably one of the Main Ships in both the Show and the Fandom. The Two have a lot of perfect chemistry together and they even have such adorable moments, the two protect each other and even enjoy a lot of fun. They're also very helpful of each other since they're close friends and all, and I like how Sandy is the Badass Girl while SpongeBob's usually the "Goofy Nice Guy". Felt a bit disappointed that their past of how they met was retconned since the Third Movie only for the Spin-Offs like "Kamp Koral" and it was also kinda funny that ship was roasted in one episode of a wedding flashback (Truth or Square).

I sometimes think that SpongeBob has a crush on Her, rather or not it'd be a question, yet, they still support each other.

PatrickXMindy - I'm pretty sure everyone shipped them since the first movie in their own childhoods (including mine). Gotta admit, I always find Patrick's crush on her adorable since they are opposites attract and it's one of those "Royal Heir X Peasant" tropes. It was nice to see that Mindy did had a cameo in the Birthday special. Oh, and I guess Patrick does have a type for Girls; Mermaids (which was hinted in Legends of the Bikini Bottom).

Sherm said that Mindy is 14 and that he assumes that SpongeBob and Patrick are like kids (which makes Me believe that he doesn't know their ages which is why he thinks Mindy is young) maybe SpongeBob and Patrick are somewhat Older Adolescents too since No One really knows much about the Characters' Canon Ages (The Writers would never really know about their true ages based on how old they are).

Personally, in my POV/Headcanon, I see Patrick 17, SpongeBob 18 (based on some theories about his age), and even Sandy 19. (But in most of my AUs, Mindy is 19-21 while Patrick is 22 in some of my AUs, mostly from my Human AU.)

SquidwardXSquilvia - It was nice to see that Squidward finally had a love interest of his own (but sadly, much like Mindy, Squilvia is just a one appearance character even though Mindy did at least came back at the show one time). I felt bad for Squidward being so lonely all the time he couldn't find someone like him who he could love. Personally, I think Squilvia has the same interests that Squidward has, if she could find a Man like Him, then Squidward would find a Woman like Her.

Gotta love on how SpongeBob instantly ships them together since Squidward is honestly the Tsundere type who has feelings for Squilvia. I can see Squilvia having sympathy for Squidward on how rough his life was as she could relate to the same way as him. I think these two would have been perfect as Husband and Wife 💙

Hoping for Squilvia, she might make another appearance in the Modern Episodes.

NeptuneXAmphitrite - Surprise to see that I would instantly brought up Neptune's ship since he's one of my favorite characters? Lmao, thought so 🤭

I know that we barley see them together, especially in "The Clash of Triton" and even though it's unknown on what happened to Amphitrite and Triton in the First Movie, I'd like to think that Neptune and his Wife were separated once.

Even though we haven't gotten a backstory about them, I headcanon that in Ancient Times, they didn't mind at first but when they got to know each other, their romance blossomed into love (but Amphitrite was already in a relationship with Poseidon as Neptune technically stole his Greek Counterpart's Girl and won her heart in a fight).

In their Teen Years, I see that their relationship would be pretty similar to Bambi and Faline from "Bambi" (imagine Neptune and Amphitrite's love scene with the song, "I Bring You A Song"/"Looking for Romance" in the background lol)

I guess Amphitrite was chosen to be Neptune's Queen so they can produce an Heir to the Throne but their feelings do matter for each other since hey, Amphitrite respects her Husband a lot.

So yeah, that's about it. I ain't going to feature all of the other ships in cuz that would take a lot of exhausting work to explain a lot. But these that I picked out are my Number One ships in the Show.

[astradrifting]

So here’s a funny little tidbit that I found while researching another post.

In ACOK, Jon I, Lord Commander Mormont explains to Jon the Targaryen succession after Daeron II, how Maester Aemon could have been a king and refused. He’s pretty longwinded about it, explaining how Aemon was 9th or 10th in line for the throne; it’s a similar vibe to Littlefinger explaining to Sansa how Harry Hardying is the heir to the Vale in AFFC. George really needs people to understand his complicated lines of succession:

"Aemon was at his books when the eldest of his uncles, the heir apparent, was slain in a tourney mishap. He left two sons, but they followed him to the grave not long after, during the Great Spring Sickness. King Daeron was also taken, so the crown passed to Daeron's second son, Aerys."

"The Mad King?" Jon was confused. Aerys had been king before Robert, that wasn't so long ago.

"No, this was Aerys the First. The one Robert deposed was the second of that name."

“How long ago was this?”

“Eighty years or close enough,” the Old Bear said, “and no, I still hadn’t been born, though Aemon had forged half a dozen links of his maester’s chain by then. Aerys wed his own sister, as the Targaryens were wont to do, and reigned for ten or twelve years. Aemon took his vows and left the Citadel to serve at some lordling’s court….until his royal uncle died without issue.”

(ACOK, Jon II)

He specifically mentions Aerys wedding his sister, as the Targaryens often do, nothing special about it….except Aerys didn’t marry his sister. In what was probably a record first for the Targaryens, none of Daeron II’s sons married their sister, because he had no daughters. 

So is this a mistake, or a retcon?

It’s pretty much impossible for this to be a mistake on George’s part, because the line of succession after Daeron II in particular was clearly something George had already put a lot of thought into. He wouldn’t just forget about giving Daeron a daughter in one book only to contradict it in TWOIAF and the Dunk and Egg novellas, where we find out who Aerys married. Furthermore, if Daeron had actually had a daughter, she would have been betrothed to his eldest son and heir apparent, Baelor Breakspear, not the second son Aerys.  

So Mormont probably made a mistake, mixing up Aerys I with Aerys II, who did marry his sister, much as Jon did in that same conversation. Mormont’s not a geneologist, I can’t blame him, all these Targaryens blend into one after a while. What’s the big deal? Why have I spent so much time talking about the marriage of a barely relevant Targaryen king?

First off: I will do anything to procrastinate on actual work. Secondly, while Mormont made a mistake, I think this was a very intentional detail on George’s part. Because the woman that Aerys actually married was Aelinor Penrose, his cousin.

There was actually some discussion about this Jon passage and Aerys’ marriage on the westeros.org forums, because it’s not been clarified how Aelinor and Aerys are cousins, who’s child she is that they’re somehow related, besides the fact that she’s not related to his great-aunt Elaena Targaryen, who married Lord Ronnel Penrose. 

The commenters in the thread I linked above are mostly quite confused about the timeline, how to keep what little we know about Aelinor consistent with the fact that she’s Aerys’ cousin.

[text in case it’s unclear : “To reiterate that Penrose thing, here are a bunch of arguments why Aelinor Penrose as cousin of Aerys I causes more problems than it solves.”]

They even suggest removing the detail about them being cousins and making Aelinor a sister again, because that would simplify things:

[text: “My suggestion would be: Change the children of Ronnel and Elaena to three elder sons and one daughter, Aelinor, who married Aerys I. The three elder sons could then be old enough to be killed off by Fireball in 196 - if twins were among them, and we make this story about squires trying to win glory etc. Fireball sparing the youngest son could then be a nod to Princess Elaena, which could be sort of nice touch.

Even better would be the idea to make Aelinor Aerys' sister again, who perhaps was married to him in second marriage, after being married to a son of Elaena's in first marriage [although go with the classical Targaryen incest would be in order in Aerys' case, especially if their parents never actually thought that the marriage had to be consummated - considering Baelor's, Maekar's, and eventually Rhaegel's children].”]

Elio M. Garcia, one of George’s co-writers for TWOIAF, responded to this post, succintly refuting it:

[text: “I said that Aelinor was a cousin, not that she was a descendant of Elaena. 

There’s no issue with the Aelinor situation. 

HoW, 

Thanks]

There’s also the question of why Aerys would be married into a relatively minor house from the Stormlands, especially when his brother Baelor was already married to Jena Dondarrion, another Stormlands house; to a woman who evidently wasn’t even of the main branch, because Elaena Targaryen’s son was the heir to House Penrose but Aelinor isn’t related to her. She can’t be a cousin through Daeron II’s sister Daenerys, because Daenerys was much younger than Daeron and there’s no way a younger child of hers married into the Penroses and had a child old enough to marry Aerys by the time he ascended to the throne in 209AC. A more likely prospect is that Aelinor wasn’t a cousin through the Targaryens at all, but through Aerys’ mother, Myriah Martell. Perhaps she had a younger sister who married a Penrose. Except there’s a problem with that as well, because why would a Martell princess marry a second son?

[text: “Hm, so Elaena and a daughter of the first Daenaerys both married into the Penroses? This seems to be a bit of an overkill, no? They aren't even the mst powerful among the Marcher lords. And would it actually make things better time-wise? Daenaerys was born... 172 AC, no? So, let's say marriage around 186 at the earliest, eldest child bespoke as a heir to Dorne... No, it fits even worse than with Elaena.

Or are we speaking about Maron's and Mariah's younger sister marrying a Penrose? I.e. a cousin through the Martells, not through Targs? There is still a problem that somebody of her stature would have married the _Lord_ Penrose. So, were she and Elaena married to the same man and was Aelinor actually Elaena's stepdaughter?

I have to say, that I don't understand the reason for complicating things like that. Either a sister or a daughter of Elaena would have done the job much better, IMHO. Because, really, why did Egg expect to marry one of his sisters if nobody in the previous 2 generations had?”] 

The comment above is right. This detail is so strangely placed, and doesn’t make much sense with how noble marriages work. But Elio confirmed, “There’s no issue with the Aelinor situation.”

Meaning it’s all intentional. For some reason, George has deliberately made Aelinor Penrose Aerys’ cousin, and has not clarified the degree of their relation even though this muddies up the timeline and contradicts the only explicit reference to her in the main text of ASOIAF. Apparently, all that’s important is that we know that Aelinor was a Penrose, not previously related to the Targaryens, and Aerys’ cousin. 

So in that conversation with Jon, the mistake Mormont made was intentional too. He drew attention to a Targaryen king who he thinks married his sister, but the truth is, she was his cousin. Despite what Jon’s father figure told him.

[dani-luminae]

Descendants is one of those fandoms where you’re constantly shifting opinions at the drop of a hat. On one hand I want new installments so that minor characters can get more spotlight and backstory as well as completed character arcs, but on the other hand I really, REALLY want the franchise to just die already.

i gotta say that I mostly agree with this, but still lean more on the "kill it already!" side.

More adventures with minor characters would be great, but Disney's consistently ignored the literal book series, School of Secrets, that was meant for this. They've ignored all the side-characters from the Isle of the Lost books, too. It's safe to say that Wicked World doesn't exist to the movies, either.

With all that in mind, I can't trust Disney to give us side-adventures with minor characters, even in the "canon" live-action form. After all, the movies prove that live-action is also just as susceptible to retcon and nonsense...

The franchise needs to die. It is beyond the end of its natural story, and also, one of the key actors is deceased! Which is still a sore topic for so many of us. Continuing with the franchise is just nonsensical, especially with the tasteless so-called "tribute" of the royal wedding - it feels like they're just veering away from the Core Four not because they want to give minor characters plots, but because they want to avoid the debacle of exactly what they did to Carlos.

Let the fanfiction writers handle the minor characters, Disney. Just put your franchise out of its misery before you subject it to more in-coherency and cash-grab plot assassination.

[royaldepravity]

A light retcon

A minor backstory retcon I’ve been mulling over for a while.

Something I set up very early on was that Wendy’s first husband, Walter Kane (WK. I know, so creative.) was an arranged marriage. Said arrangement was made after Wendy was the first born heir to the throne, & Walter was the only child of a high-ranking & highly respected/trusted military officer at the time. The two were, essentially, friends from day one. Introduced to each other early, formed a strong bond, etc.

Somewhat more recently, a slightly alternate scenario emerged. While Walter was still a good lad, his family was not as loyal to the throne as they appeared. And, as Wendy & Walter’s wedding grew near, they pressured Walter into “taking control” of his relationship with the future Queen, seeking to replace the Quinn’s as the Royal Family (via a Bowser-Peach-esque kidnapping). They arranged everything, with Walter reluctantly going along with it.

Of course, it didn’t take long before Wendy escaped “custody”, & fought her way towards confronting Walter. However, when she did so, & found that he was totally against what was going on, their life-long friendship led her to let it slip that, in purely hypothetical terms, she actually found the whole scenario kind of hot. This eventually led to a very healthy Dom-Sub dynamic between the two where Walter would take charge in the bedroom, but only with Wendy’s explicit approval, while Wendy was still the one who held all the power. Walter’s family were quickly “reminded of their place” & allowed to vacate the family home (under supervision) & live out the rest of their days (under constant surveillance).

While currently separated, the two maintain a healthy & friendly relationship, & are open to forming a polyamorous union if Slick (&, potentially, others) approves.

[ifeelbetterer]

I'm rewatching Psych and 1) I would love to see a full fic of your AU Umbrella Academy crossover where Klaus is the reverse Shawn, and 2) having just watched the last Yin episode, why isn't there more fic (OR CANON) addressing the fact that Shawn was low-key STALKED as a kid for years by a gd serial killer??? Who turned out to be damn near his neighbor!?!?!?! It always surprised me how little fic there is dealing with Henry's A+ Parenting but I'd forgotten about some of the other nonsense

I rewatched Psych a few months ago (or weeks?? time is an illusion in corona!!!) and I was also struck by the Yin/Yang plotline. Like....I think fandom mostly stays away from it because:

(a) fandom was more than a little casually racist and ignored all the moments of the show where Gus and Shawn were the most fertile moments for fic. The Yin/Yang thing revolves SO HEAVILY on that moment with Gus tied to the chair where they essentially do wedding vows at each other. Fandom at the time would basically put its fingers in its ears and shout “LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” anytime something happened that pointed towards Shawn/Gus being the central ship instead of, god help us, Shawn/Lassiter. 

(b) the Yang character is....not well done and fandom tends to just sort of...skip the parts of stuff that is that badly done. Like. I love Ally Sheedy as much as the next person (i.e., A LOT) but it’s too much to ask of her to make that character make sense. My gut says that the show was so thrilled to have her and then to have her be willing to keep coming back that they just wrote themselves into a pretzel trying to eke out more of her plotline. The stalker stuff in particular smacks of short-sightedness. They probably wanted to come up with a retcon for the photo that wouldn’t make it impossible for Yang to come back. If she’s stalking him as a child to murder him, she’s irredeemable and can’t be a sympathetic villain. And they didn’t think it through to see how actually scary stalking a child would be on its own. They clearly thought switching from “stalking for murder reasons” to “stalking because goshdarn i love your domesticity” would make it ok....and it just doesn’t. 

Psych is great fun in a lot of ways, but it really does suffer sometimes from not walking through its own logic. It’s the same mistake in having Henry repeatedly be the mouthpiece for doing what’s right while simultaneously establishing him as the source of Shawn’s childhood trauma. It’s logically inconsistent. 

Anyway. I love to ramble about USA shows from the 2000s. I’ve rewatched Psych, Burn Notice, and White Collar so far this summer. I’m working on Royal Pains right now. Feel free to drop anymore thoughts you have about Psych in my askbox as you rewatch!

[scarlet--wiccan]

The full-page spread of Billy and Teddy's wedding in Aftermath Avengers was really really sweet I legit feel like crying ;_; (p.s. do Billy's younger brothers even exist anymore)

It was really sweet! I know I’ve made a lot of criticisms, and shown some of my opinions on the art through my edits, but I’m happy to say I teared up reading Aftermath. I grew up with these characters, so it really feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment, and I’m so glad that it came at a time when both characters have had the chance to grow and (mostly) find their footing as adults. I never liked their engagement at the end of Children’s Crusade, and I was so afraid that they would either get married too soon in a manner that felt unearned, or else become stagnant and never develop beyond that point in their arcs.

I wish I could say that Billy has a more clear identity and motives, but I’m thrilled that Teddy has been given such a standout role in the Marvel world and a chance to really let his personality shine. I love that the two of them are moving forward as partners, and I really, really appreciate that their endgame is no longer “become full-fledged Avengers”.

There are a few things I would’ve done differently with the wedding. I understand that this was a moment of resolution for all the Earth and Alliance factions, but I wish they’d minimized the Avengers presence and made more space for characters who actually have relationships with royal couple, especially Billy’s family.

I also have a bone to pick about the fashion! I don’t want to see any more weddings with characters in their super suits! You wouldn’t wear your work clothes to a wedding! It only makes sense if the costume is a military uniform (although there’s usually a fancy version for events) or has some kind cultural/ceremonial significance. It’s especially jarring that there some folks in costume, some folks in formalwear, and some folks whose “costumes” are comprised of more casual clothing. It makes for a very disjointed aesthetic. These problems are especially puzzling because Schiti has exercised incredible design skills throughout the event, and his abilities are demonstrated beautifully in the application of Alliance motifs to Jewish wedding elements. I love the look of the chuppah and I love what Teddy and the Elders are wearing. I had wanted to see Billy dressed up fancy in clothes that actually suit him, rather than that getup from the Vegas wedding, but the ceremonial, Alliance-motif version of his space suit was impeccable. I realize that crowd scenes are tough, but dresses and suits could be done with less detail than superhero costumes, and the formalwear he did draw looks amazing.

As for the younger Kaplan siblings— I dunno what to tell you. They’ve been out of the picture for over a decade and I genuinely don’t think most writers or editors remember them. I could wrong, but I don’t think they’ve ever shown up on-page, at least not in a Young Avengers title. I just flipped through everything I own and didn’t see them, but I might’ve missed something, and there are some tie-ins/cameos from the 2000s that I never collected. It sounds callous, but I tend to chalk them up as an early idea that never got developed and has since been passively retconned. The fact that they don’t exist at all in CC or the Gillen run seals the deal for me.

[hannahhook7744]

The royal wedding, a retcon;

Summary; a explanation why Carlos wasn't at the wedding that doesn't kill him off.

.... it's because he lost a bet to Evie and is hiding from Jane because they now have to name their firstborn baby 'Cane' or 'Janlos'. Which also explains why Jane isn't there because she's tracking him down.