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sumersprkl · 2 years

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Now that Unprepared Casters Arc 8 is over, I’m planning on speedrunning the whole arc before Arc 9 starts airing. I just finished Episode 1, and I’ve had spoilers blocked for this entire time, so I’m going in completely blind. Y’all can feel free to point and laugh at my bad theories as long as you don’t put spoilers in the comments or tags on this post.

Here’s my definitive ranking of characters who are, at the end of Episode 1, in the best position for achieving their goals.

Penny Lovejoy.

She could play all of the sides of this whole thing so easily.

She’s got a blank check signed by Sybilla in the form of the Illusory Script contract.

Sir Up Ton seems to like her, and I don’t think she’d be particularly bothered by a murderous despot on the throne so long as he leaves Glaceria alone.

If the guy from Hasmo makes it onto the throne, he’ll give more power to the cities, and thus more power to Glaceria.

If the whole monarchy gets fully overthrown, the people who already have a lot of power and influence in their areas are likely to be able to grab the best scraps of the broken country, so the Lovejoys might come out of a full-on revolution with even more power over Glaceria.

Unless the entire situation changes SIGNIFICANTLY (which it of course will, this is a game), she’s set up perfectly to come out on top.

Sir Up Ton.

Sir Up would have a lot of work to do to come out of this as the king, and there are a LOT of things that could go wrong along the way, BUT. The way I see it, he has a pretty clear path to his goal.

So far the most immediate problem for him is NOT keeping Sybilla from winning the vote, because she will be banking on having Sir Up’s vote, and she would have a lot of work to do to secure at least two out of three of Helga, Penny, and Nephila.

The main obstacle in front of him at this point is the fact that even if she loses the vote, there’s still another popular candidate. If he can take out the Hasmo guy while keeping his image clean, he can present himself as a pretty good option for the throne.

How can he take him out without being implicated? There’s another person on the minor council whose biggest problem is also Hasmo Guy (whose name I can’t look up on the wiki for fear of spoilers). Nephila, who we already know is down for violent revolution, cannot get support for her full-on anti-monarchy position while Hasmo Guy is hanging around convincing everyone that a bunch of violent city-states would be better than either the current system or total anarchy.

If Sir Up can convince Nephila he’s on their side for long enough to conspire with her to off Hasmo Guy (Very possible, he has forty years of practice successfully convincing people he’s on their side), then he can fairly easily frame them for the whole thing. There’s probably a lot of witness accounts out there about Nephila and Laz openly discussing revolution, and Sir Up is EXACTLY the guy who would be expected to root that kind of shit out. He’s the head of the guard and has been for FORTY YEARS, most people would probably just take his word on it even WITHOUT all of the evidence that ACTUALLY EXISTS implicating Nephila. On top of that, Nephila already has a criminal record for shit-stirring. People would take Sir Up’s word over Nephila’s, 100%.

Helga Hatebad.

Helga has, at this moment, no skin in this game. Sure, it would be annoying to her if the Lovejoy family got out of this with significantly more power. But Helga’s life would only be materially changed if the Lovejoy family got full control of Glaceria, which would only happen if Sybilla got on the throne, which I’ve gotta say is not looking super likely. If she doesn’t get involved (which she of course will, because she’s a player character in a game), then she’s got nothing ventured and nothing lost.

Sybilla Eirik.

Sybilla’s position right now is shaky as FUCK and she doesn’t even know how bad it is. Everybody seems pretty fully convinced that Sir Up Ton is on her side, and I don’t think she’s the exception to that rule.

To get on the throne, she’d need two votes out of three of Nephila, Helga, and Penny. She’s already secured Penny’s vote (at great cost), BUT. It would be very hard to sway Nephila away from her anti-monarchy stance, AND it would be very hard to convince Helga Hatebad to vote for the same thing that Penny Lovejoy wants, ESPECIALLY if Helga found out about the secret contract.

Things would be fine for Sybilla if she did somehow manage get the throne, but if she didn’t, she’d lose everything she worked for her whole life. Even worse, if Sir Up got the throne or Nephila’s revolution succeeded, she would be too much of a threat to the new government for them to let her roam free. Nephila, at least, would make her jail cell as comfortable and not-prison-like as possible, but I feel like Sir Up might just have her secretly killed. Her best bet for living through his rule would be to grab her family, flee to Malum, live as a commoner, and hope that the prince she snubbed by marrying a commoner instead of him doesn’t figure out who she is.

Most fucked of all? Nephila Mori.

It’s rough that Nephila, the one person who seems to be doing this out of genuine care for the people, is at the bottom of this list. But I genuinely do not see a way out of this where Nephila gets what they want. And even if she did get it, I haven’t seen much evidence so far of a plan for after the overthrow of the government.

If Sybilla gets the throne, there are only incremental changes for the better, within the constraints of a terrible system of government.

If Hasmo Guy gets the throne, there’s nearly the same amount of chaos as an overthrow of the government, without most of the governing power actually changing hands: all the city barons will continue to be city barons. Nephila can’t fight a revolution against a bunch of little governments, so they would lose their chance to do anything to effect real change.

If Sir Up gets the throne, it’s almost certain that he’d have already stepped all over Nephila to get it, and even if he didn’t, there would be a worse monarch on the throne while she and Laz tried to scrape up a revolution. There’s like a 80% chance that both Nephila and Laz would end up dead, if Nephila wasn’t dead already.

If they succeed and no one gets the throne, it will be a long, bloody path to get there, with pretty significant chances of the whole cycle repeating without any significant changes, because building a government that won’t collapse under the weight of people with too much power is REALLY DIFFICULT. Unlike Sybilla, there is no real chance of winning for Nephila. Regardless of the outcome of this arc, they would have to keep fighting for the rest of their life.

#unprepared casters #the king is dead #penny lovejoy #nephila mori #sir up ton #helga hatebad #sybilla eirik #unprepared casters arc 8 #this is a very complicated spiderweb that i have spent hours building #i can't wait to see what kind of broom knocks it down when i listen to the next episode

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kpopfanfictrash · 5 years

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The 7th Prince: Plot Summary

Hello, all. As I have previously stated on this blog, I no longer have the intention of writing this particular story (The 7th Prince) any longer. With that said, I do feel bad leaving the story unfinished and would like to my readers know how it ends. If you would like, feel free to read the remaining plot summary of The 7th Prince!

A/N: To clarify, this is NOT permission to take my story and write it as your own. This summary is merely a courtesy to my readers to let them know how the story ends. I am absolutely not giving permission for my work to be finished with another writer at the helm.

Chapter 14: Fearing that Mark is hurt, or dead, Y/N rides to find Youngjae. Youngjae is on his way back to Quattor with Jaebum. Knowing Youngjae has powers of healing, Y/N convinces him to come with to Septum. On the way, Youngjae gathers his mentor. The group of them find Mark in Septum, on the edge of the forest. He is injured but when Youngjae reaches for his chest to try and heal him, Y/N snatches his hand back quickly. Mark still has his curse, even asleep. Youngjae cannot touch him. When Y/N tries to explain, Jaebum grasps Youngjae’s hand and touches Mark’s chest. He insists Youngjae will be able to do it and, to their surprise, Youngjae can. Mark is healed. They move Mark to stay with Youngjae’s mentor in Quattor.

Chapter 15: Y/N is in Senary’s palace the next day when Jackson arrives. She tells him she is sorry, but her heart belongs to another. She cannot marry him. Jackson is saddened by this, but says he understands. He said he kind of figured there was someone else and asks if it’s Jinyoung. Y/N assures him it is not. Later that day, Y/N goes to visit Mark in Quattor. It is still uncertain what, exactly, happened with Mark/Jaebum/Youngjae and their powers. Jaebum refuses to come back and test his strength further. Y/N tells him that power by itself is neither light, nor dark. It is whatever he chooses to do with his magic that decides his fate.

Chapter 16: One week has passed and Y/N attends the political Counsel meeting. There are two more weeks until her marriage deadline. During the meeting, Y/N learns that the witch is on the move. For the first time in decades, she has left her hiding place in the mountains and advances upon Morsus. There are rumors that it is because of her attack on Septum. Something happened that night which scared her. There are rumors that the explosion in the tower occurred towards the witch’s forces. It did not come from them.

Chapter 17: Realizing what this means, Y/N rushes to Mark. His powers are not merely passive, they are not a curse which mean he cannot be touched. He can project out. He can fight against the witch, who seems terrified of his powers. On her way, she runs into Jinyoung. Since their meeting after Bambam’s ball, Jinyoung has been researching their mysterious powers. He thinks that the powers of the six (really, seven) princes has something to do with the witch. He thinks she accidentally threw things off when she bequeathed such a powerful curse. Y/N convinces Jinyoung to come with her. She will need him, she argues, as the most powerful strategist in Morsus.

Chapter 18: Jinyoung and Mark meet. Mark is in the middle of a lesson with Youngjae’s mentor, who is explaining how the current system of magic repression is harmful. It curdles inside people then, leading to potentially violent outbursts which cannot be controlled. Jinyoung explains his theory to them all and Youngjae’s mentor admits it is possible. Magic is tied to all threads of the universe. By tangling some, the witch may have inadvertently changed others and given the Princes magic. Mark agrees to show himself to the Counsel.

Chapter 19: All seven of the Princes meet for the first time. They slowly realize that each of them has a power; or, that most of them are starting to manifest a power. Mark, Destruction. Jinyoung, Prophecy. Youngjae, Healing. Jaebum, Will. The others have yet to reveal themselves but Jinyoung says that the powers seem almost familiar to him, as though he has read them before. The group of them speak to the Council, explaining that they need to stop being so obstinate and fight magic with magic. There is general shock at Mark’s appearance, coupled with fury at Septum for hiding him for so long. At the end of the meeting, the Kings and Queens of Morsus realize they have no other recourse. The witch marches on Morsus and if they do not try something different, they will all die.

Chapter 20: Later that night, Y/N speaks off to speak with Mark. She knows the day must have been difficult for him. Mark and her speak of general destiny, of how terrified they are for the next day. Y/N tells him she is supposed to choose her husband in a matter of weeks. Mark confesses how much he wishes it could be him. Y/N asks why not. He mentions his curse again, how he cannot touch her as he wishes, how he cannot give her what she wants. Y/N says that he can. Through the veil at her bed, he kisses her.

Chapter 21: The next day, the witch arrives and the battle begins. All armies of all seven Kingdoms march into battle. The witch has spent a long time gathering her forces and from the start, the fight does not go according to plan. She has spellcasters on her side, ones tossed out by Morsus and Morsus is unprepared to counter their power. The few bright spots are the Princes. Jaebum is able to simply Will his troops to win the most precarious of fights. Jinyoung can see flashes of the witch’s formations before they happen and Mark is a force unto himself, channeling his lessons with Youngjae’s mentor to cut a path of destruction through the field. Eventually, the witch and Mark meet face to face. They fight and Mark holds his own, but the witch is stronger. He eventually is cornered, pinned down and somehow, Mark’s mother (Septum’s Queen) breaks through. She fights back the witch and nearly is killed herself. That is when Mark’s father (Septum’s King) breaks through and kills the witch. They have a moment as she dies.

Chapter 22: Once the witch is dead, some of her magic starts to break. Many of the magic-casters who left Morsus disillusioned realize they were stirred into a frenzy by the witch’s powers. They slowly come back to Morsus, re-welcomed into society. Months later, you are on your way to another Counsel meeting. The demand that you choose a husband has been lifted, seeing as the Queen of Quinque is again pregnant and according to Jinyoung’s premonitions, will be a girl. The curse is over. As you approach the Counsel room, Mark grabs you by the waist. He pulls you into a corner and, without gloves or veils, kisses you gently. Now that Morsus has regained it’s magic casters, he has been able to work to control his powers. When he pulls back, he smiles and, hand in hand, you re-enter the Counsel.

[ Masterlist Here ]

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ralfstrashcan · 6 years

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Portal Confusion (& Valentine Musings)

I'm not even talking about how the portal style changes through the seasons, because honestly, I dig all those looks, from the purple one

to the translucent swirly one

and don't even get me started on the Portal Rune

because it's a freakin' work of art.

What I want to address here is the way portals work, because it doesn't really make sense to me.

What do we know about portals?

In 1x07 we learn that you can only open a portal to somewhere you've already been.

In 1x13 we learn that if you don't know where a portal leads to, you get stuck in limbo, whatever that is.

The way I understand that it doesn't matter if you have been at the end location of the portal already or not, as long as you don't know where it's going while passing through, you're done for.

So what exactly does 'know where you're going' mean? Well. There are two situations that allow the conclusion that there is a definite difference between absolute cluelessness and vague inkling regarding the destination of the portal, and that the latter is enough.

1) In 1x13 – before Alec saves Clary from running headfirst into the portal she knows nothing about, and sharing the aforementioned pearl of wisdom – Jace goes with Valentine.. through the portal he too knows nothing about. It is clear, though, that in the moment of passing through Valentine has a firm grip on his arm

and since Valentine knows where the portal leads to, Jace doesn't get lost in limbo but safely arrives at Valentine's ship of spaghetti cooking and questionable recruiting techniques horrors.

2) In contrast, remember in 1x11 when Magnus portals himself, Clary and Jace to Ragnor's? Neither of them was holding onto Magnus while stepping through the portal, even though Clary and Jace didn't know where exactly they were going – sorry, I can't imagine Magnus betraying the location of Ragnor's lair.. and how would he even do that? Coordinates? Satellite pictures? Still, they pass through the portal complication-free, implying that a vague idea where you're going (for example “Ragnor's cottage”) is enough, even if you don't know where exactly that is.

All of the examples above also lead to the theory that a portal has a fixed starting point and endpoint, and as soon as it's opened and the pathway is established you can pass through safely (as long as you know enough about where it leads to).

The pathway-theory is further cemented by 2x02. There we see Simon travel from wherever he is to Magnus's loft, and the endpoint of the portal stays open for several moments after Simon passed through, until Magnus closes it with a snap of his fingers, implying that the portal endpoint is independent from whether someone went through or not; as soon as it's established it exists until it's closed. Same in 2x01, where the portal from Valentine's ship to Reggie's pizza place stays open for several minutes while Jace goes inside, slays vampires, Jocelyn demonstrates her A+ parenting skillzZ, etc. until Valentine and Jace make their escape back through the same portal they came through.

This kinda contradicts what we see in 1x01 though, because there Dot opens a portal for Clary, then Jocelyn asks Clary where Luke is at the moment and when Clary answers with “police station” Jocelyn tells Clary to think of the police station (while going through the portal). One could argue that she said that so Clary wouldn't get lost in limbo but a) there's a difference between “coincidentally thinking of the place where you're going while having no idea that portal travel is a thing and you're about to portal” and “deliberately awarely using a portal” and b) since the portal had already been opened before that conversation it seems unlikely Dot had opened it to the police station, because how the hell would she have known that Luke was at the police station at 2 in the morning?? Also Luke freaked a little when he heard Jocelyn had sent Clary through a portal alone, so even if you know the destination it's not too safe to travel completely unprepared. Of course all this was in the pilot and we all know pilots can't really be trusted in the grand scheme of things because they are often shot and scripted and stuff before the rest of the series.

Still, there is another instance that absolutely contradicts the pathway-theory and that is 2x15. At the end of the episode Valentine is relocated to Idris and the whole procession of Shadowhunters walks through the portal Magnus – the freakin' inventor of the portal!!!! – opened, and Duncan escapes with Valentine into Jonathan's root cellar... by significantly touching Valentine's shoulder. If this portal had been a waterproof pathway there's no way any straying would have happened. Not when Magnus was the one who created the portal. No way. (Pun soooo intended.)

So portal travel seems to be controlled by intention of the traveler at least some of the time??

This..... kinda contradicts 2x04 and 2x08 though, because if that were true Magnus absolutely would never have sent Camille and Iris to the Clave via portal, alone, I mean he would never risk that they could worm their way out and end up in Hawaii instead, right?! He'd only do that if he was 100000% certain he could ensure they really end up where he wants them to.

So I doubly don't understand how that Valentine-debacle in 2x15 could ever happen.

Still, even if we say that there are two portal-travel-variants, namely a) pathway-travel, where the caster opens up a wormhole with fixed start- and endpoints and every person traveling through ends up in the same place and b) intention-travel, where the caster opens an unspecific portal and the person traveling through decides per intention where the endpoint lies..... then I still don't understand how 2x13 worked?!

Before Valentine and Magnus change bodies back, Valentine opens a portal with Magnus's magic, and honestly, I believe he would open a pathway portal. But anyway, he opens that portal, they switch back, there is fighting and stuff, and then Clary grabs Valentine and jumps through the portal with him and they end up in his prison cell. If it had been a pathway portal this never would have worked because Valentine would never be stupid enough to open a portal into his prison cell, right? So he didn't open a pathway portal, or if he did, Clary overpowered the pathway (like Duncan allegedly did in 2x15) and bent it to her will. This is further implied by the fact that the portal in the cell opens seconds before Valentine and Clary fall through while the portal at Magnus's loft had been opened for at least a full minute before anyone jumps in. But, what I really don't get then is how the intention works. I mean, Valentine sure as hell didn't want to end up in his cell?! Did Clary just intend harder than he did? How did the portal know that?? How does the portal measure intention?? And really, with all due respect to Clary and her stubbornness, but Valentine is a freakin' fanatic who knew he'd face certain death and probably lots of torture if he lost this battle of wits, so I find it kinda hard to belief that Clary so easily out-intended him. I mean come on, there wasn't even a second of suspense, the portal in the cell didn't flicker in and out of existence or anything.

Leaving all the mechanics aside, there is still the fact that before Clary invented the Portal Rune Shadowhunters couldn't open portals.... and yet Valentine easily opens portals with his stele in 1x11

and in 1x13

yet he unlearned that skill because in the Season 2B Finale he needed poor Rufus to open him a portal to Alicante. One could of course argue that he wanted to preserve his strength, but after Rufus failed he would have at least tried to do it himself, right?

I'd even let myself be persuaded that the reason why Valentine can open portals is because he injected himself with Downworlder blood and so picked up some of their skillzZ though a) why did he forget he can do that halfway through Season 2 when even I didn't forget that... especially when this could have literally saved his undead life in 3x09!! and b) if he really has some magic, why is portal travel the only thing he uses it for?! I mean, magic is super handy?! What the hell, Valentine?!?!?!?! And shouldn't controlling Magnus's magic have been way easier for him in 2x12 if he already has some practice using magic???

Then again, what if Valentine's portal-opening-power isn't the result of his demon-blood-self-experiments? Could it have angelic-blood-causes, since he uses his stele and everything? Well. There is of course the alternative explanation that the Portal Rune Clary created wasn't new, it was just unknown because the Clave likes to keep extremely fancy Runes to themselves. Valentine knew that Rune and used it. However I don't believe that theory because to me it doesn't really make sense. Why would the Clave do that, if the consequence is that Shadowhunters, who do need portals for missions and stuff, have to hire warlocks and pay them good money? I really think the prejudice against Downworlders and the naked greed would outweigh any other motivations the Clave might have for keeping a Portal Rune secret.

I also want to argue that what Valentine uses can't be Clary's Portal Rune because her Rune Portal and the Warlock Portal look vastly different while his Rune Portal looks exactly like the Warlock Portal... but then I'd have to acknowledge that the Warlock Portal also drastically changes style between Season 1 and Season 2 for absolutely no reason, and there's really no good explanation for that. Except maybe that Magnus, as creator of the portal, can dictate what portals look like and feels the need to redecorate every once in a while, which I'd immediately accept as canon.

Of course it could be that Valentine's Portal Rune is just a different Portal Rune than Clary's, but really, that's just ridiculous.

Bonus:

Just as ridiculous as the fact that the purple portal design somehow requires a rectangular shape to work and so in 1x11

this nonsensical doorway in the middle of a meadow happens. Hahaha.

#shadowhunters #some episodes #magnus bane #clary fray #isabelle lightwood #jace wayland #alec lightwood #valentine morgenstern #jocelyn fairchild #dot rollins #luke garroway #simon lewis #through the seasons #magic #musings

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