#which to be fair may actually have the desired effect

[the-punforgiven]

I mentioned at some point I was gonna talk about how Gideon Ofnir's helmet is probably one of my favourite pieces of Fromsoft character design a little while ago, so I figured I should talk about it before I forget to again

I really like this helmet because it serves as an excellent crystallization of Gideon as a character, so I figured I'd break it down and go step by step as to why I like it so much

Firstly, its design is clearly based off the Greek Corinthian helm, which sticks out a fair amount when compared to Elden Ring's generally 13-16th century European fantasy aesthetic, doing a good job communicating that he is, effectively, much older than most of the other characters present, and conveys a sense of seniority that even he himself comments on when you first visit the Roundtable Hold. (There is an argument that it could also be based off a barbute helm, but I feel like the sharper shape language and closer-to-bronze coloration swing it more towards the Corinthian helm for me)

Secondly, and quite possibly more obviously, the ears. Viewed from a distance they give a vibe closer to a sort of scholarly beard almost reminiscent of greek philosopher statues, again tying in to his aged academic vibe, but being ears instead of a beard also hints at his deceptive nature as even his character design is somewhat misleading, but also hints at his more insidious habit of watching and especially listening to everything you do. He is called the All-Hearing for a reason, after all

The spikes on his helm mirror the shape of a crown, symbolizing both his lordship over the Roundtable Hold, but also his desire to become Elden Lord. Given how simplistic the points are, as well as how some of them (in the icon at least) appear almost bent or dented, I feel could also demonstrate how worthy of a lord one like Gideon may actually be, worn, out-of-shape, thin to the point of frail-looking and remarkably plain compared to the meticulous engravings and stalwart construction of a crown like Godfrey's, but that might be a bit of a stretch so take it with a grain of salt lmao

The eyes across the forehead lock in the crown aesthetic for him (as well as touching slightly on the double helix pattern that is literally everywhere in this game), while also further punctuating his motif of eyes and ears; always watching, always listening to what you do. Curious that the eyes are notably less detailed than his ears though, I wonder if that's relevant

Lastly, the "face". It's a fairly common trope out there that people tend to use masks in character design to portray an air of distrust about a character, in a sort of "If they were trustworthy why would they conceal their face" sort of way. This feels incredibly deliberate on Gideon's part, since a helm like that by all accounts should let you see a good portion of the wearer's face, and is indeed why barbute helms have been a staple of good guy knights throughout the fantasy genre for years, Gideon's quite clearly does not, preferring to cast his face in impenetrable shadow. and That, I think, is a pretty blatant and in-your-face indicator that you definitely should not trust him

Anyway character design is really cool have fun out there 👍

[anghraine]

A few days ago, I briefly mentioned Wickham's take on Lady Catherine, and it's stuck in my mind. At least, this specific part of the description has:

She [Lady Catherine] has the reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever; but I [Wickham] rather believe she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune, part from her authoritative manner, and the rest from the pride of her nephew, who chooses that everyone connected with him should have an understanding of the first class.

I mean, in fairness to ... Wickham (ugh), it's evidently true that Lady Catherine is not actually clever and her power and force of personality do a lot of the work of giving her a reputation for it. But I do think the way he manages to link this to Darcy is interesting.

Wickham seems to assume that Darcy can just choose that everyone connected with him has a reputation for high intelligence, which I think is pretty debatable. On top of that, Wickham assumes that Darcy would choose to do that, because of pride. He's set up an odd framework in which Darcy cares deeply about everyone around him being perceived as clever (but only for nasty pride reasons, of course!), and in fact cares so deeply that he'd bring his influence to bear in maintaining Lady Catherine's reputation for it.

I don't think Lady Catherine's reputation for cleverness rests on Darcy just wanting his family to be seen as clever or requires that explanation at all. But I find it intriguing that Wickham thinks so, or at least says he does, given the Ch 4 description of Darcy:

In understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means deficient; but Darcy was clever.

So I suspect this may be part of Wickham's attempt to acknowledge Darcy's good reputation and qualities enough to cover his ass later, while tying everything good about him to his pride. Wickham doesn't quite admit that Darcy's (alleged) desire for those around him to be seen as clever derives from Darcy being clever himself and valuing the quality, but I think it's kind of implied, and at the very least, he could suggest that he'd said something to that effect.

It's a bit how he describes Darcy's careful guardianship of Georgiana (which Wickham certainly has reason to know about!). He mostly attributes it to Darcy's reputation for being a good brother, finds a way to make it somehow about pride, and barely wedges in a grudging admission that Darcy actually has some real affection for Georgiana. I suspect he only does the last because it's so incredibly obvious that it'd be suspicious if Wickham suggested otherwise.

I do wonder, though, if part of the reason that Wickham associates Lady Catherine's reputation for cleverness with Darcy's supposed desire for his family/connections to be seen as clever is Wickham's own fixation on Darcy. Wickham knows Darcy is seen as clever and likely that Darcy values intelligence. Darcy and Wickham were brought up together as companions in the same household. And tbh I don't think Wickham himself is, or has ever been, particularly clever in the way that Darcy and Elizabeth are.

Wickham suggests that Darcy was insecure and jealous from childhood (and some readers have really wanted to believe him!). But my headcanon is that, growing up with Darcy, Wickham was the more insecure one. He was the one who was supposed to go to school and Cambridge and become a clergyman; he was supposed to be quick-thinking and good at his books and morally restrained. Darcy was the heir; he could be anything he wanted to be. Yet I would guess that young Wickham was continually outstripped by Darcy in those terms, that he came to resent Darcy's freedom and what he did with it, and that it's very easy for his mind to link Lady Catherine's supposed cleverness to Darcy's.

In Wickham's head, the connection must somehow be causal. But he can't bring himself to quite admit to anyone that Darcy's cleverness is real any more than he can admit that Darcy's generosity or moral rectitude are real. It's got to be about pride, reputation, family, fortune. And I suspect Wickham can't admit the truth to himself, either.

[winterlogysblog]

✨4KOTA 141✨

I have a lot of things to say about this Chapter.

First things first. Sixtus. Love him.

His entrance. Great. 10/10

I also find it so funny how Sixtus' magic is casually dropped on us like this with no explanation, it's frustrating when it comes to analyzing the lore but it's hilarious how casual it was, like yeah Sixtus can do this, this is normal, no need to think about it too much lol. In a sense, this makes sense actually since in the lens of someone who hasn't read 7ds this is just showing what Sixtus can do and will be further explained later.

A little detail I noticed is this.

Apparently, the place they're in currently is the Fairy Kings Forest that was burned years ago. It's quite nice to see how the trees and plants around are starting to grow back and in the distant future it'll grow back to a forest again. It's also intriguing how this place doesn't seem to be affected by Arthur taking chucks of land off Britannia, at least it looks that way.

I also made a previous post that these Chaos mages may just be after the ancient medicine, I'm right on that one and it's called the Drug of Yore and as explained by Sixtus

This very well is the same elixir that King used to cure Elizabeth in Grudge of Edinburgh and after hearing this Mertyl contemplated that it may just be what he needs to essentially "cure" his body.

As established, Sixtus can read minds and it's quite nice to see his reaction when Mertyl thought of this. Sixtus must have known that Mertyl is not really his brother but he still views him as his big bro, he's concerned for him and he knows that that drug won't have any effect because the reason why Mertyl is sickly is because he's a human in the Fairy Realm.

Now, why Arthur's minions are after the Drug of Yore is quite interesting. The Drug of Yore is actually the perfect cure for Diodra and I wonder if Arthur is after it for Ironside's sake (probably not lol)

I also want to take a moment and talk about this panel. King started off outright saying that Nasiens is his long lost son and he's been searching for him this entire time then he backtracks and changes the subject. This is a good moment to note that King wants to tell him the truth but just doesn't know how to discuss it to him. To be fair, it's a hard topic to start.

King went on to discuss Spirit lore and that the tunnel of whispers is a quiet place where you can hear the voices of spirits. This could be the primary reason why he decided to put Percival there. King then added that he has a gift for Nasiens, this could very well be the Drug of Yore that they can use to bring Percival back once they get into contact with his Spirit.

Also, I wanna know whose idea it was to bring Percy to the Fairy Realm, cause sure the Fairy Realm has a place like this but no one could have known unless they asked King about it.

Now, a lot of people speculate on how Mertyl can be manipulated into joining Camelot because of his desire to get the Drug of Yore and King's inevitable decision to give it to Nasiens. Which is a cute plotline but not anything major.

A lot of people also want the pace to speed up a bit and focus on the knights. Which to be fair, yeah we should. But this arc does a few things for the plot, this arc is basically showing us the way to bring Percival back and introducing new characters that will be relevant later on, also we gotta remember that Lancelot is King's nephew and he could pop up at any time.

I can see the Drug of Yore and Percival's revival to be center stage for this arc, as all plot points are connected to it. King seems to know a whole lot about Life Spirits and Spirits in general so he could be Percy's guide into understanding himself better.

Overall, a great Chapter can't wait for the next one.

[elsewhereuniversity]

A charm for the pen drawer: a penlight that seems to have been enchanted by someone with a taste for puns. When you press the button to turn it on, rather than lighting up, the bulb turns into a pen nib; it writes perfectly normally, in a rather nice bright blue, and while it doesn't use any actual ink it does need the batteries changed about as often as a regular penlight would. Also, it's entirely weightless – it has a normal amount of mass, but as far as I've been able to tell, the enchantment precisely counteracts the gravitational pull and air resistance acting on it. (This latter property is why I'm entrusting it to you, since I'd rather it not end up as space debris.)

In trade, may I request a charm whose effects need testing that you can't or would rather not do yourself?

That seems a fair trade to me. The penlight goes into the pen drawer, and from the pen drawer comes a quill. A charm for you: a black feather with an oil-slick sheen, with impossibly delicate clockwork gears between nib and stem, turning smoothly and constantly, to unknown effect. It writes with an ink sourced from nowhere I can find, the queasy purple of a bruise. It writes with a will of its own when you put it to paper, and I cannot ascertain what that will desires. I've been wary of using it, given my precarious state, but if you are willing to try, I wish you the best.

And a second charm, which I offer both in gratitude and in the hopes it's useful: a notebook which drinks ink, words disappearing without a trace. Pencil marks stay right where they are, though. I've been using it as a pad on which to keep the leaky pens, but it seems it might have some useful application in your experiments.

[arcanemadman]

The Castlevania franchise feels like it's getting more and more divided since Netflixvania started and it's getting really bloody frustrating to the point that while watching Nocturne I've felt disquieted, and I think I've realised why that is.

It's the fucking DmC:Devil May Cry white hair fiasco all over again.

For those that don't know, when the DmC reboot was revealed people had a lot of criticism, including turning Dante from a cool but likeable hero into a foul mouthed smoker, the dumbing down of the gameplay, the antagonism towards the fanbase, and turning his iconic white hair black. Of all these criticism, only the hair colour change was given any attention, painting the fan base in a very negative light and side stepping the real issues people had by only focusing on the cherry rather than the whole sundae.

All this attention directed towards something that in the grand scheme of things is very minor but it gets all the attention while the bigger stuff is ignore.

Yes, there are people mad about the show for racist reasons and they shouldn't be listened to, but there are genuine complaints that are being swept up with that.

The character changes have a sort of domino effect on everything. Maria being a serious revolutionary is interesting, but I saw someone put it best that what made her special was the fact that she was a little girl in a world of classic horror that believed she was in a fairy tale and had the power to force that reality on everyone else. Netflix Maria is good, but lacks the charm of Maria.

The second example is Juste. When I saw him I was very excited, but that was mainly because it was acknowledgement of the original canon than anything else. His magical prowess, the thing that makes him stand out among the Belmont linage, is mentioned and then brushed aside, and the worst ending of his game is what is taken as canon. And once Richter gets his magic back, Juste is gone. He feels like a plot point rather than the character. I sympathise with people who's favourite game was Harmony of Dissonance.

Annette was a compelling character with a well developed story, but anyone that says her original characterisation would never work are being disingenuous because they literally did that, except that did so with Tera. The connections to Richter and Maria, the damsel elements, the fact she gets turned into a vampire, all from Annette. Swapping them around wouldn't work for multiple reasons and I'm not going to say I can do better than people you get paid to write when I don't, but I feel I can say that if they had wanted to they could have done something closer to the original while still touching on the themes and narratives they wanted to.

Olrox... honestly the only criticism I can really think of is the removal of any reference to Count Orlock.

There's an elitism with both sides of the fanbase here. On the Netflix side, there's the feeling that since theirs is more popular that any criticism is because people are just nostalgic, and game fans feel that since theirs is the original foundation that anyone that doesn't agree with them is just a new fair-weather fan. And honestly, I'm more sympathetic to the game fans.

I've seen Netflixvania fans look at people complaining that the character have changed and go "yeah well the version you like sucks so you should just grow up" As if that's going to make everything better. And all the people complaining about the race changes or posting "WOKE?!?!?!" have poisoned the well for any actual discussion about this, not helped by the social media accounts deliberately stoking the flames in the mistaken belief that all publicity is good publicity, which raised the ire of nexflixvania creators. Unfortunately marketing can often be removed from the intentions of the creators.

Yes, Netflixvania is a great show, with beautiful animation and great storytelling, but it's not perfect and as an adaptation is leaves a lot to be desired. And that's the crux of it! The show is good, really good! But it doesn't feel like an adaptation of Castlevania. It's just a bunch of little details that pile up to make it less of what the game fans liked about the series. It's more grimdark horror than classic horror. It's more crude than it is philosophical. It's more hopeless than it is hopeful. And regardless of what you individually think, that's what people have liked about Castlevania for almost 40 years.

Ultimately I just have to ask, why do people seem to assume that you can't make a faithful adaptation while also making it interesting? They're not mutually exclusive.

[slowlyandrogynousmiracle]

Here’s my unsolicited two cents; some creators I have immense respect for have taken affront at the “soapy” direction “The Acolyte” has pursued with its latest 6th episode edition. While I certainly have my own hiccups with the pacing of transition, (and the show in general) I’ve picked up on nuggets along the way that weave, albeit a slightly frayed thread, with OSHA’s characterization to make all the things Qimir is saying appealing; adding in the sexual element only heightens that tension which refreshing.

We have explored every primarily masculine traits for those characters seduced to the dark side; ambition, power, anger, revenge, loss, fear, even love in the case of Anakin but never has Star Wars are portrayed characters that experience “lust," "hunger," "longing," so when Qimir brings up “desire” imo it isn’t soapy as much tantalizing the femininity of the protagonist by emphasizing the primitive emotions between them, something every person that chooses to become Jedi or train using the force ala Jedi way, must ignore.

Osha being teased with being able to use her powers in a manner that still allows her to maintain her autonomy coupled with her very real unexpected attraction to someone who can not only expose her vulnerabilities but has the same “literal” scars is in itself seductive to the mind, body, and spirit. However, she's been taught to be ashamed of these traits and has lost her ability to wield the force because of it.

The story is effective with this new energy that shouldn’t be dismissed because it doesn’t fit into one’s idea of Stat Wars.

This universe is HUGE; it’s presumptive to assume a story like this can’t be feasible because it tonally doesn’t jive with what has come before it. That’s the appeal, at least for me. The same reinforced tropes I've previously enjoyed are at this stage of 1k plus franchises is boring; imo. Perfectly logical not the like it; every ice cream flavor isn’t going to be your fav…it’s ok to want what you DESIRE the most but to spit in the container because it’s distasteful to you isn’t necessary nor can you declare it isn’t ice cream!

Sidebar; as someone who isn’t into the “soapy” romance myself, I think the moniker is misused here. Friends to lovers has been around in movies and television for longer than most people have been typing on these social media platforms that are becoming less about constructive criticism, entertainment or discussion than agendas but I digress; while I can understand the kneejerk response to dismiss the current Oshamir arc in that manner, it IS a valid storytelling choice and "soapy" is supplanted incorrectly to mask the fact that a the choice to be "seductive" star wars just isn’t your cup of tea.

Fair enough, but this hasn’t even come close to that label. Go watch the Young and the Restless; an actual soap opera and I challenge you to spot the difference lol

Fanfic would be more appropriate but even so, it’s not a criticism; only the uncomfortable emotion that you dislike. I’m not here to tell anyone what they should or should not like only to let out my own frustration regarding the unfairness of some of the commentary when juxtaposed against valid reasons for this unfolding story arc even if it isn’t to your appetite.

I’ll sound off this long ass post to emphasize there are no gatekeepers to the franchise; a franchise only survives by reinventing or delving deeper into unexplored territory. LucasFilm approved this show meaning they WANT to take chances with some of the themes many “fans” cry foul as not within their right to do so. No one makes a series for it to fail and whether it succeeds, or fail is still about taking a chance to do something different. it doesn’t give anyone the right to allow their passion free rein to attack or turn vitriol their disgust at anyone who dares to not have the same issues as you may feel are prevalent.

At the end of the day, it’s ENTERTAINMENT not one’s own self-identity intertwined with fiction.

[cloudyswritings]

Of Whispers and Wyrms

I’ve just escaped the trenches(Ie cleaning aquariums) so y’all get to listen to my headcanons about Wyrms.

So by the events of Canon Wyrms(specifically those in their first bodies/incarnations) are extinct. In fact the pale king may have been the last to die according to Bardoon.

On that Bardoon quote actually, he says that the world is smaller with the Wyrms like gone. If my theory about the Wyrms effectively creating the wastes with the death of their larger selfs is right the pale king being the last to die could mean the wastes won’t expand anymore.

Most Wyrms are born gods or at very least higher beings, those that aren’t tend to be devoured in the nest by their clutch-mates.

Wyrms tend to have relatively large clutches, numbering in the hundreds to the thousands. However the young will generally consume eachother until only a few dozen remain and leave the nest. This kind of competition is fostered by the Wyrm-Dame who guards the nest until the young emerge fully.

Wyrms in the wild tend to communicate via low frequency growling and grinding noises. These noises travel vast distances through stone until they reach other wyrms. Moreover these noises are created by the grinding of specialized teeth in the throat of Wyrms, these teeth are also used as crushing teeth for processing denser mafic stones and some metals.

Wyrms mark their territory with both their light and extremely long lasting pheromones. They essentially impart their light into the edges of their territory by carving specific paths over and over until they’ve built i up a specific “afterglow”. This afterglow is the same one the godseekers comment on when you see the pale kings throne in godhome.

Wyrms are technically omnivores but in practice tend towards being carnivorous. They carve paths through the wastes that lesser beings(ie common bugs) use to traverse the wastes. However these paths are traps and Wyrms generally swallow entire caravans. Wyrms are also actually capable of deriving nutrition from the various stones, soils, and metal they consume when burrowing.

The outer shell of Wyrms are actually composed of a unique blend of metals accrued throughout its lifetime. In the case of the Pale King this metal was called pale ore and gave off a deep chill when handled. The composition of these metal amalgams varies wyrm to wyrm, but the metal itself is always deeply soaked in Light from the Wyrms.

When undergoing a molt Wyrms must split open this metal shell, this becomes more difficult with age, size, and thickness of the shell. Often times the way Wyrms die is actually becoming trapped within their own shells, unable to molt.

Generally after a successful molt a wyrm will consume its sloughed shell to reclaim its metals.

The reason Wyrms make kingdoms generally isn’t out of any desire to become a fair and just ruler. Most of the time when an wyrm creates a kingdom it has suffered a death recently and been forced to metamorphose into a smaller form(ie pale fork). Instead Wyrms make kingdoms as a means to feed their immense hunger. They grow the kingdom and ensure its prosperity before demanding sacrifices. Moreover once a kingdom has reached its peak size a wyrm will often begin the process of gathering soul and create a cocoon from which they can be reborn into a full sized wyrm once more. Once this is complete they “reap” or consume their kingdom in full and move on to richer hunting grounds.

The pale king was very much averse to this process and thought himself above the bestial hunger of his kin.

He was wrong of course…

Wyrms have a higher rate of Pale beings compared to other “species” of god. For example a Pale Moth higher being might be one in a billion while a Pale Wyrm is only one in a million.

The pale king consumed every single one of his clutch mates and incorporated their lights into his. It’s one of his biggest regrets, though his Dame was very proud indeed.

Each Light has a different quality and range to it. The Pale kings light is terribly cold but it falls far and deep. Spreading across even the wastes to a degree and burrowing deep into anything capable of holding it. In person exposure to his light can cause subtle mutations and the development of foresight to differing degrees, his light feels like being skewered and dissected but without the pain. It’s the feeling that something has changed in yourself, like someone rearranged your mental furniture and moved it all to the left by an inch. In theory I his light is even better equipped for fighting the shadows than the radiances. In theory.

Wyrms usually consume Roots on sight due to some half remembered incident during the beginning of the era of Bright Gods.

Wyrms might have a genetic memory of sorts? With the Wyrm-Dame taking the memories she wants from herself and the Sire and blending them to be passed on to her children.

Wyrms are very territorial and are only willing to share territory during mating. Once the Dame is sitting on her clutch all males, including the Sire are chased off. During this time period she won’t eat, but she may capture or kill weaker gods from the fringes of her territory to feed them to her clutch in hopes of making their lights stronger.

the Pale Kings Dame killed her partner, so in part the Pale King consumed his Sire, he doesn’t really remember this though, as he wasn’t even really sapient at that point.

Wyrms sometimes have a preference for what types of higher beings they feed their clutches, this can influence the resulting young and influence them towards certain qualities, depths, and ranges of Light.

The process of refining and defining the light of a Wyrm clutch is called prisming. Any offspring with muddled or weak lights are culled, generally by their siblings.

[orionsangel86]

Dream of the Endless - A Romantic Fool

After talking to @so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site @duckland and @notallsandmen over on this post I have been thinking about the reasons why I personally interpret Dream as a romantic and think that later Sandman stories have made a mistake claiming that romance and erotic fiction are all the work of Desire alone and not the actual Prince of Stories (and thank GOD Neil Gaiman confirmed those Sandman stories were not canon eh?)

Under the cut because as always it got long. Why I think Dream of the Endless is an old fashioned romantic with a soft spot for love stories.

I mentioned in the linked post that I don’t see how Dream and Desire can keep themselves completely separated when their realms blur so much and when they are canonically probably the two most similar of the Endless even above Desire and Despair (which I think is the reason they clash so much).  It’s also worth mentioning that when it comes to influences over mortals, I don’t think any particular Endless sibling has more of a sway than any other, they all influence us all the time such is their nature and I think it would be very difficult to claim only one Endless was totally responsible for certain things. This is the reason why they like to compete and play games with each other like they did in Three Septembers and a January with the Emperor of the United States (side note: this is one of my all time favourite comic issues and my absolute favourite of the stand alone stories).

So even if Desire does have influence over the romance genre and erotica, I don’t think that would make Dream particularly averse to them, because he is also very much responsible for love stories and stories about love and seems to have inspired more than his own fair share over time.

Starting with the obvious - he was Shakespeare’s patron. No matter what else you say about Dream, he is responsible for inspiring and effectively being the muse for the greatest playwrite who ever lived. Shakespeare’s repertoire includes a whole list of plays with romance and love at their hearts not least of all being:

A Midsummer Nights Dream

What is the one thing you remember most about AMND? The fairies yes? Titania, Puck, Oberon, etc. But the central theme and story of AMND is specifically about love. It is a very sweet story about four mortals who are caught in a love “square” and get lost in a magical forest where the fairies decide to get involved and fix their love problems (with some confusing mess ups in between) and at the same time, it is a story about how the King and Queen of Fairie are having a bit of a falling out and the King decides to play some tricks on his stubborn wife, before ultimately reconcilling with her. The play ends with a triple wedding.

In the Sandman issue A Midsummer Nights Dream. It is revealled that Dream commissioned this play from Shakespeare to be a retelling of events which happened long ago, as a gift from him to Titania and Oberon so that mortals may never forget the fae once they leave the realm of Earth forever. It is also revealled that Dream and Titania were once lovers themselves, though we have no other details about when this was, as Titania refuses to talk about it at The Wake. It is clear however that they are still on extremely good terms, care for each other deeply, and had a very close relationship even after they were lovers before the fae left Earth. Throughout the comics, whenever the fae are mentioned, it is clear that Dream is closer to them than any of the other Gods, Goddesses, or various pantheons we meet. Even though at one point he states that he does not trust fairie magic.

At the end of the day, whatever else you want to believe about Dream, Titania is the only lover of his that he remains on good terms with. So much so that even though she clearly has a husband, he is still gifting her love stories. There is an argument here that AMND is quite mocking towards Titania, who falls in love with a man with the head of an ass, and spends most of the play having sex with him and swooning over him whilst the other fairies look on in horror. I know some people have interpreted this as Dream being mocking and cruel towards her, but I didn’t get this impression at all from reading this issue. Titania appears to be delighted at the play and Dream explains clearly his reasons for commissioning it:

The short version is that Dream commissioned a romantic and magical love story for his ex lover, so that the mortal world would never forget her when she left Earth for good.

Pretty romantic in my opinion.

The Tempest

Keeping to the Shakespeare theme, the other play commissioned directly by Dream is The Tempest. Now, there is probably a whole other meta essay to be written about Dream’s reasons for commissioning the Tempest, not least of all how fitting Prospero’s final monologue is when viewing it as a closing statement on Dream’s own endgame. But this is a meta about romance, and Dream couldn’t even keep romance out of his self-insert human!au original fiction. Like AMND, The Tempest is also a comedy (interesting how both plays commissioned by Dream were comedies when he is so clearly living in a tragedy *sigh*) and like AMND The Tempest includes young lovers who fall in love throughout the course of the play. Whilst romance and love isn’t a central theme in The Tempest, it is still a big part of the story.

I just find it impossible to take a view that Dream would shun romance when he personally commissioned two romantic stories from Shakespeare himself.

The Sandman: Overture - Dream’s Personal Love Story

But this isn’t the only evidence of Dream’s romantic inclinations. The Sandman: Overture also includes some interesting clues to Dream’s views on love stories.

Hope asks for a story. She does NOT request a love story. She simply asks for a story with Dream, that also includes a princess. Given that Dream is the Prince of Stories, and has most definitely had interactions with many princesses over his long life, he chose to instead tell a personal story, a love story, and so we finally get the full love story of Dream and Alianora.

Even though it must hurt to relive it, even though the Cat of Dreams (not gonna spoil the twist) specifically states that they NEVER tell that story, he chooses to tell it to Hope. Not only does he tell her that story, but he ends it with a happy ending - not “happy for always” but “happy for a goodly while”.

The fact that the Netflix show chose to adapt on this love story further, by having it be canon that Dream carved their love story into the gates of his own kingdom - well, that only further emphasises how much he cares for love stories, even his own, even when the truth is it ended badly, and hurt him greatly. Would a non romantic person carve their own love story into the gates of their kingdom? I don’t think so somehow. Because even after all this time, even though it pains him to relive it, he is still a romantic at heart, and cared about Alianora and their love enough to carve it into the gates of the Dreaming.

A Mother’s Insight

Also in The Sandman: Overture, Dream’s time with his mother is particularly insightful. She is the one to point out how alike he and Desire truly are, even though he dismisses the very concept and takes offense (obviously). It seems clear to me that we are supposed to agree with Mother Night on this. She also raises two other interesting points - the first is when she realises Dream’s scheme to get his parents back together in the hopes that it will save the universe. She laughs at him, and mocks him, calling it “one of his stories”. Because even if Dream isn’t exactly the most self aware of creatures (understatement), she is exactly right. Dream, being a romantic, had hoped that his parents love could save the universe. A true epic love story for the ages. It is his romantic ideations that sent him to meet with his parents. Dream’s romantic nature is integral to the story of Overture working. If he wasn’t such a romantic, he never would have sought out his parents, he would have been more grounded in realism, and known that they would disappoint him.

The second point Mother Night points out, is Dream’s desire for a lover, as she offers to make him one so that he might stay in her realm with her. He declines of course, since Mother is simply manipulating him to keep him with her, but that doesn’t mean what she says isn’t true. Dream very much desires a lover. His whole family is aware of this. His love story with Alianora began with Desire sending Alianora to Dream after all. Dream’s wish for love and also romance is an integral part of his character.

Brief Lives - Motivations and Comparisons

Dream’s romantic ideations are also central to the story in Brief Lives since the only reason he agrees to go to the Waking World with Delirium is because he hopes that he may find and reconcile with Thessaly. His fantasies of reconciling with her are strong enough for Destiny to call him out and bring him once again back down to Earth.

Knowing what we do about Thessaly, it is very easy to interpret Dream’s feelings about her, and his romantic ideations about reuniting with her, as not rooted in reality. I find it very difficult to view Dream as anything other than a romantic fool when he is taking road trips across Earth on the small chance he may lock eyes with his ex lover across a street and they may fall back into each others arms like in some fluffy romance novel. He is ridiculous, and this is made clear throughout Brief Lives.

In fact, Destruction definitely agrees with me as well. He calls Dream a romantic fool directly.

Orpheus’s very existence is also a good example of Dream being a romantic. Who else could father a child who becomes famous for his poetry, his songs, and his epic tragic love story. In The Sandman, it is at least implied that part of the reason Orpheus meets his tragic end is because he is too much like his father, and the one thing that is made very clear about Orpheus, is that he is a romantic, with love being one of his main motivations.

I think adding all this together with the comments made about Dream by his own creations, the residents of the Dreaming, as well as his ex lovers at The Wake, it is clear that he is a romantic character, a character who is driven in many ways by his desire for love, and who rather fancies himself as the broody romantic hero (I just KNOW Dream was somehow involved with Lord Byron lmao). Throughout the comic, Dream often denies that he has any needs, any desires, to the extent that he denies that he is even a person, who has a life. He also adamantly denies that he has a story. Yet, throughout the comic, it is made clear that none of this is true. The reason Dream is so often at odds with Desire is because he desires so strongly - moreso than any of the other Endless siblings. It’s because of this that I think he would enjoy the romance genre possibly more than anything else. Romance is a core component of his personality. In comic canon, Dream has been directly or indirectly responsible for the creation of at least five love stories - two Shakespeare plays, the Song of Orpheus, the love story of Dream and Alianora, as well as the story that the African tribe tell their children when they come of age - the love story of Dream and Nada, the tale where their love was so passionate that every living thing that could dream dreamed of their love making.

So whilst the comics never directly state whether or not Dream is a fan of romance novels, his desire for love and romance indicates to me that he holds love stories in high regard, regardless of whether or not his annoying younger sibling has anything to do with them.

Also, not that it really counts for anything, but Tom Sturridge agrees with me. ;-)

[cicadadust]

I promise I'll get back to drawing canon characters soon. But woo- took me three days to finish. But my boi Kaiba is complete! This is probably the most cluttered ref I've ever made haha.

Potential Rakuyou arc spoilers ahead so be warned:

Originally he was inspired by a post where someone mentioned the artist phenomenon of a canon character basically turning into their OC after awhile.

And it all started with well, I love Kamui. And I love his first official appearance with the bandages obscuring his face - maybe I could work with that. But then I shoved so many of my AU things and other ideas I enjoy into this character that he's mutated so much that he barely has any trace of Kamui left in his character. Definitely not story wise, nor personally, maybe a few elements design wise still along with the fact of being a Yato. Kaiba actually ended up being much more like Kouka story wise than I intended though (*cough* probably because Kaiba was mainly based on my AU of Kamui being the sole Altana mutant on Kouan instead of Kouka *cough*) but eh, I'll live with that.

Despite being a yato and Altana mutant...I may have taken a few creative liberties design wise. But I have my excuses! One thing is, I absolutely love Yato- but wish they had a few more I guess inhuman traits. Like please give them larger canine teeth and reflective pupils please🙏🥺. I thought the reflective pupils for Yato would be really cool, or funny, if Kagura had em too. So I tossed those traits into there. And I know Yato are supposed to be fair skinned- but I had an idea! Since Yato seem to be able to build up a slight tolerance to sunlight, like with Kagura being able to be out in broad daylight, while Housen who hasn't been exposed in a long time immediately started dying. I figured what if during Yato disopra, one of the groups of survivors who had fled Kouan ended up on this sunny desert dwarf planet... probably not by choice. Though there, the survivors perhaps started to build up a higher tolerance to the sunlight. But yet they're still not immune to it. And could have been the downfall of the few generations that had managed to survive for long enough. Kaiba was from this specific clan of Yato that had settled on the dwarf planet. With a slightly higher tolerance to sunlight than the typical Yato, and with the combo of being an altana mutant. Kaiba was free to enjoy the sunlight for much longer before feeling the effects of it, allowing him to gain more of his tanned complexion. Also just shares the same reptile brain as me, with the desire to just lay out in the sun on warm rocks. Though if he's an altana mutant, how come he has a scar? That should just heal right? ... Well, I have absolutely no excuse for that for now! I just wanted to reuse a scar design from one of my older characters because I thought it'd look nice on Kaiba 👉👈.

Now to get a little more into his story and such. It starts off similarly to Kouka's. As again Kaiba is the last member of his clan surviving alone on his birth planet due to him being a mutant. The forgotten dwarf planet, which I've named Ardoros, is covered in reddish orange sands, stone, and a whole bunch of space junk wich collects on its surface. With so much metal and scrap around, Kaiba developed a skill in metal working. And even managed to find a junked ship one day. This was obviously very exciting as he managed to get it to function- just barely. With many days having spent wandering Ardoros previously, he had already discovered one of its altana crystals. Albeit small, he fashioned it into an earring to serve as a battery in a way before he finally left. But being the absolute hunk of junk it was, Kaiba's ship broke down when he managed to land on another planet. And with no money or anything to fix it, he's began relying on hitchhiking. Traveling all over the universe with the aid of strangers. This got to go on for years, exploring new planets, trying new food etc- he absolutely loved it. But, the crystal he wears is almost depleted along with his own altana energy. He continues to hitchhike, yes. But now determined to find his way back to Ardoros before it's too late. Thing is - he's never been skilled at navigating, always leaving that up to whoever he was traveling with. He has also encountered no one else who's even heard of Adoros, no one else knows it's location either. And currently his latest stop during his attempts to get home, is on earth.

[redgoldblue]

🎲 Fandom choosing is so hard! Either S&H or H50, a random kiss pls!

oh hell yeah. there are two directions you could go with this (bridal or h/c) and I went with. the other one.

Send me a fandom and I'll generate a kiss to write!

Steve stared down at the top of Danny's head. Not that that was an uncommon state of affairs, but there was a greater distance to stare right now. It made his hair even shinier, especially under the bright lights of Iolani Palace HQ. "Danny, what the hell are you doing?"

"Just-" Danny grunted, wrapping an arm around Steve's legs. "Just shut up."

"Danny. It wasn't actually a challenge."

"Oh no, boss," Tani chipped in helpfully. "I was definitely challenging him."

"Didn't think it was to propose, though," Grover said, making a manful attempt at pretending he wasn't laughing.

Steve sighed. Danny was reaching up for his hand, but he was reasonably sure he wasn't actually going to just grab his wrist without Steve's cooperation. He rested his hand on Danny's shoulder instead. "Does it have to be fireman's carry? I am supposed to have some authority here. Where did you learn fireman's carry, anyway?"

That, at least, achieved the desired effect of Danny standing up. Apparently he couldn't be appropriately offended while kneeling at Steve's feet. "I was trained as a first responder! I should be asking you how you know it."

"The military invented it."

"That's true," Junior volunteered from the other side of the table, where he'd wisely confined himself.

"No, it's-" Grover interjected. "Honestly. You Navy boys think you made the sky blue."

Steve couldn't help shrugging and responding, "Well, it is our colour."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Oh-"

The man could move fast when he wanted. Stocky and low to the ground came with advantages. As did, to be fair, Steve's reaction time being stymied by his aversion to hurting Danny in the process. Somehow it all ended up with Steve halfway to exactly the position he'd been trying to avoid.

Danny's back was, frankly, a less appealing view than the top of his head. At least at this angle and fully clothed.

"What were you saying about authority?" Danny said smugly.

"I think I lost it ten minutes ago," Steve admitted to Danny's scapula. He was tempted to go dead weight, which he was pretty sure actually would drop Danny, but that probably wouldn't end up in any more dignified position for either of them.

"You lost it years ago, boss," Tani told him. "You're way too much of a softie to keep it longer than first impression."

"You know I led a SEAL team?"

"You've softened since then," Danny said, and poked him in the side. "Candy left in the sun."

Sighing, Steve accepted that as merely the latest in a long line of fond but slightly derogatory food-based analogies. "Are you planning on putting me down anytime soon? All my blood's starting to go to my head."

"Can't have your head getting any bigger," Danny agreed, and helped him heave himself back over Danny's shoulder onto the ground.

Safely standing, Steve blinked a couple of times, letting the dizziness subside as Tani clapped Danny on the back and handed over a dollar bill. "Shouldn't have doubted you."

"No, you shouldn't have," Danny said, and went to take the money.

It floated to the ground untouched as Steve crouched and lifted, one arm across Danny's back and one under his knees.

Danny squawked, and Grover started laughing, bending over with his hands on the computer table.

"Hey! No-one challenged you!"

"Partnership equity."

"I don't think you know what either of those words mean," Danny grumbled, and crossed his arms. Which, given his current bridal-carried state, made Grover's laughter redouble and Steve snort, the movement shaking Danny slightly and pushing his elbow further into Steve's ribs.

"I hate you," Danny said, and let his head fall onto Steve's shoulder.

"Yeah, I love you too." Steve bent his head to kiss Danny on the forehead, which was met with a faint mumble that deniably may or may not have contained words of affection, then he looked over at the rest of the team. "Now, who wants to put money down on how much I can beat his time by?"

"Oh, I do."

"Hundred percent."

"Hey!"

[samueldays]

Retrospective: D&D 3e class feature advancement and design

Of the editions of D&D that I've played, I think Third Edition is my favorite. It's imbalanced, sure, but part of what differentiates D&D from videogames is that there's a DM on hand to say "let's change that". Much of the general success of 3rd was probably due to the Open Gaming License that you may recall a recent fuss about, and two specific impacts of the OGL were 1) explosion of fan content to add on and change stuff, 2) fanmade polish of the System Reference Document (SRD), such as this hyperlinked and crosslinked version where just about everything is accessible in one click. Much less searching for rules!

I also personally liked it for the unusual way it tried hard to put player characters and monsters in the same mechanical framework using the same scale, unlike far too many games, video or tabletop, where the PC has 138 HP but does 9999 damage. (This was to some extent present in earlier editions, but 2e's Monstrous Manual fails to give a creature's Strength score, only specifying its damage directly.) D&D in general was unusually fair and honest about letting you loot Lord Mega-Evil's Mega-Sword instead of doing "2% drop chance" shenanigans. 3e went a step further to making the bugbear playable out of the box, if you wanted to play a bugbear. Bugbears were now real creatures in a sense, not simply bags of HP you popped for XP.

If you're waiting for me to get to the subject announced in the title, just keep waiting, this is a twenty year old game and I'm a grognard with a pet topic. ;-)

4th edition decided to strip much of this stuff back out again, and I detested it. 4e was super weird. 5e tentatively tried to be the simplified best bits of 1e and 3e (IMO) which is nice for the newbies, but I feel its class system still leaves much to be desired. The whole notion of "classes" in a RPG is a bit of a necessary evil. It doesn't exist in-universe, it's an abstraction because doing full pointbuy is more tiresome for players and far easier to accidentally break the system by neglecting one stat or pushing another too high. At the same time, you don't want to lock characters into a progression at level 1, so designers tend to re-invent various class options and class choices that veer back towards pointbuy, and multiclassing...

Bluntly: The "favored class" rules and multiclassing xp penalties in 3rd were failures. The hypothesis was that it would discourage "5 levels of this, 1 of this, remaining levels of this" cherry-picking and encourage keeping 2-3 classes balanced, with an exception for the favored class. What it actually encouraged was "5 levels of this, 1 level of this prestige class, remaining levels of this prestige class" because prestige classes (PrCs) were exempt. Removing that exemption would have had worse second-order effects because prestige classes had different numbers of levels and conditional advancement permission! A deeper overhaul was needed, but didn't appear. My groups usually ended up ignoring multiclassing xp penalties. Worthless rule, no content, no value. Especially the bit where it's possible to get stuck at -100% XP if you made deliberately bad choices, that's nonsense.

What was also a failure, but less so, and produced the content I want to ramble about today, is how the class system incentivized multiclassing in very different ways for different classes. I'm going to gloss over questions of obscure splatbook availability and optimization level here; if you know enough to have an opinion on them you probably don't need to be reading this.

-

Fighter: Multiclass out or prestige class ASAP. This because Fighters have no class features that scale specifically with Fighter level - feats, BAB and HP can be gotten anywhere, and stack cleanly from different classes. Fighter 4 / Barb 1 / PrestigeClassA 5 / PrestigeClassB 10 is an example outcome of starting from "Fighter" and keeping the concept without being bound to the classname.

Sorcerer: Prestige out, but only to +1 caster level classes. Sorcerers have 1 scaling class feature, "spellcasting", which is advanced as a whole by several prestige classes. Something like Sorc10 / Loremaster 10 is cool, gets you 20th level casting, and more class features.

Druid: Stay pure. Druids have multiple scaling class features, and very few prestige classes advance other than spellcasting.

(I reiterate: this is what the class system incentivized. Not what you 'should' play.)

-

This difference was not a matter of party role, but of class feature wording.

Broadly speaking, there's two kinds of class features in 3rd Edition: those that provide a static ability at a fixed level (for example, Paladins become immune to fear at 3rd level) and those that have a progression scaling with each level (for example, Paladins can Smite Evil to add their level to the damage done).

Fighters got almost entirely static abilities, and those with diminishing returns. Spellcasting was almost entirely scaling.

Paladins were closer to the Druid end of the scale due to Smite Evil and Lay on Hands saying "paladin level" (not caster level, nor character level) when calculating what to scale with. A few prestige classes explicitly advanced these features, but there was no standard framework for advancing them the way the Thaumaturgist prestige class had "+1 level of existing spellcasting class" for any of druids, clerics, wizards or sorcerers.

Theoretically, the Thaumaturgist or Mystic Theurge prestige classes also worked for other spellcasting classes such as Paladin, but this was mostly worthless because paladins were tertiary casters who got slower per-level spellcasting progression. +1 level of spellcasting had lower value for paladins or bards than it did for clerics or wizards. This was aggravated by partial progression classes such as Eldritch Knight, which provided less spellcasting advancement - measured in terms of fewer levels. They got community shorthand like 9/10 or 7/10 casting progression.

An intuitive-seeming fix haunted me for years: PrCs that give partial advancement to full casters should give full advancement to partial casters. Perhaps even more than one-for-one when advancing tertiary casters. But it was hard to spell out in rules.

Instead, WotC printed special case ugly hack PrCs like the Sublime Chord, which was blatantly "The Bard Prestige Class For Bards" that gave faster-than-bard spellcasting progression up to 9th level bard spells. (In the core game, wizards get up to 9th level spells, but bards stop at 6th level.) It worked by specifying in detail a new separate spellcasting progression meant to be used at each level from 11 to 20, after using the regular bard progression from level 1 to 10.

Ironically, this special case could then fit back into the standard framework: take 10 Bard levels, take 1 Sublime Chord prestige level, now Sublime Chord has its own spellcasting progression so it can be advanced by other prestige classes such as Loremaster or Thaumaturgist. Sublime Chord was a prestige class that bards took mostly for the spellcasting, and then they didn't need to stay in that class for the spellcasting, because spellcasting was a standard class feature that could be advanced in other ways.

What a mess.

-

Still, I gotta give Wizards credit for being willing to fuck around and try new stuff to get out of this mess they'd made.

During 3rd edition, some of their later pile-ons to this mess were the Truenaming magic system that worked based on a skill check instead of levels (this was swiftly exploited because Make Single Number Go Up is easy for nerds with a wide variety of options), the Shadowcasting magic system that got to retroactively convert the class levels of a wizard who multiclassed into shadowcaster (I never saw this used in practice), and the Initiating not-a-magic system in the Tome of Battle:

Instead of caster levels you had initiator levels, and instead of casting a spell you initiate a martial maneuver, and the maneuver involved swinging your sword around so expertly that it shot fireballs or healed your friends or added an extra 8d8 damage or froze the enemy's lifeblood with the Five-Shadow Creeping Ice Enervation Strike. It also let you resist poison or block mind control by concentrating really hard on how you are a mall ninja One with the Blade.

(image: a Blade Magic user who has convinced the DM that hitting people with your bare hands counts as a 'blade' if you call it Knife-Hand Strike.)

It was actually pretty good, once you got past the flowery names, the weeaboo aesthetic shift, the increased complexity, the dissociated mechanics, and the fact that Wizards printed three initiator subsystem classes that were different enough to be annoying. Now that I'm done damning it with faint praise: you calculate multiclass initiator level by taking your main initiator class's class level and adding half the levels in other classes, whether or not they are initiator classes. A Swordsage 6/Fighter 6 character counts as Swordsage 9 for purposes of the Swordsage's primary class feature: initiator level and martial maneuvers.

This sort of worked to encourage a moderate amount of multiclassing on occasion by reducing the cost, but not really, because of nonlinear scaling. The low-level Swordsage abilities are on the order of "Fighter but with 1d6+1 fire damage". The high-level Swordsage abilities are like "Enemy has to make a Fortitude save or die. On a successful save, enemy still takes 20d6 extra damage on top of your regular damage" and "Quasi-timestop: you get 10 opportunities in a row to pick up a nearby enemy and throw him. Your choice whether you want to throw 10 guys off a cliff, or bounce 1 guy against the wall until he dies."

This class feature progression was cribbed from the core spellcasting system for Sorcerers and Druids, see above for the multiclass incentives on those.

-

I don't have a general solution. Here is my sketch of a fix to the spellcasting part, also usable with the cribbed-from-spellcasting class features like initiator progression:

Build a spellcasting progression separately from a class. Each progression goes up to 9th level spells at character level 20, or the system equivalent. The "Wizard" class then gets a class feature which says something like "+1 spellcasting progression at each level". The "Bard" class gets a class feature which says something like "+0.75 spellcasting progression at each level". The Paladin class get a class feature which says something like "+0.4 spellcasting progression at each level". Round up or down with minima to taste.

This replicates the effect of the 3e progression where the Wizard got up to 9th level spells, the Bard got 6th and the Paladin stopped at merely 4th.

But by separating the spellcasting progression, all these base classes get the same amount of benefit from a Prestige Class which provides +X spellcasting progression per level (X probably 0.5-1). In regular 3e, spellcasting progression classes were worth far more to the wizard than to the paladin, because the paladin got 1/20th of a step towards 4th level spells and the wizard got 1/20th of a step towards 9th level spells.

This eliminates the weird special case that is the Sublime Chord, also eliminates certain other kinds of dumb cheese around Ur-Priest, creates space for semi-focused casting prestige classes that provide 0.9 spellcasting that's an improvement for bards but a slowdown for wizards, and makes it easier for Fighter-adjacent and Rogue-adjacent classes and prestige classes like Assassin to dabble in a little bit of spellcasting at a controlled rate. In weird design space, it allows backloading on a class that goes from +0.5 to +1.5 over the course of several levels to "catch up".

A downside is that this "fractional casting" is more granular, more bookkeeping, and closer to pointbuy, but it's a small step and D&D 3.5 was already including the similar Fractional BAB/Saves in optional rules. Maybe someone can be inspired by this to make something easier.

-

Now I would like to say that D&D Third Edition has come and gone and will probably never be repeated, having been supplanted by two later editions twenty years on, especially 3.5e with all its baroque customization, but that would be a lie because not only did it spawn a great many clones, Pathfinder is out there being a big name 3.5e clone with just enough tweaks to not be a copyright infringement. (Also: just enough tweaks to not quite be backwards compatible.) So I feel I should try to give helpful advice for design of class-based RPG systems, rather than just this historical overview so far. Here's my big suggestion:

Figure out how a class offers value, and why I should keep taking it.

The D&D 3e Fighter fails this test. You should multiclass out. Full BAB, d10 HD, crappy skills, Fortitude save (more chassis than feature) are available elsewhere. Feats (the only real feature) have diminishing returns.

The Pathfinder Fighter still fails this test - it's been given tiny value buffs like the scaling effect of Weapon Training: for every 4 levels get +1 to damage with a weapon group. Meanwhile the wizards are still off getting caster levels that give +1d6 spell damage every single level, and it's easy to get 1 damage every 4 levels from other sources.

Also, the Pathfinder Fighter has been given a Bravery feature: +1 on saves against fear for every 4 levels. Meanwhile the Paladin is still getting outright fear immunity at level 3.

The converse of this suggestion is asking yourself in design: Which of a class's valuable features can I get elsewhere?

For the Fighter it's "all of them", for the Sorcerer it's "all of them, but fewer places" and for the Druid it's complicated but "one-third" is a first approximation.

Extra corollary: "...and if getting those features elsewhere, what am I giving up or getting on the side?"

[heliza24]

Character arcs and themes in The Seven

I spend a lot of time in my other main fandom writing meta about dramatic structure and character development, because I’m a playwright and a writer and I can’t turn that part of my brain off even when I’m in love with a show. I haven’t seen a whole lot of meta do that for Dimension 20 yet. I think people might be a little hesitant to write meta for D20 because Actual Plays are based on improv and don’t have a single author, so it feels like a medium we can’t dig into in the same way. But I don’t think that’s true! Once the campaigns are shot and uploaded, they’re complete texts that I think deserve the same kind of loving scrutiny that we offer our other favorite TV shows. So let’s spend a minute talking about character and story structure in Dimension 20, and why I love The Seven so much. 

It’s a kind of accepted maxim that DnD shouldn’t have a main character, and I think that’s very true for home games, where the point is that each friend should be having an equal amount of fun. But I think actual plays are a little different. The fact that they are observed innately changes them (like the way that particles do when they are observed by scientists) and I think the D20 structure, where campaigns are limited to a run time akin to a long TV show, does that even more. A protagonist is traditionally the character who answers the dramatic question of a piece, which is the driving question that moves the narrative and themes of a story forward. I think a lot of D20 seasons end up having a protagonist, or character that is more intricately linked to the central questions and themes of the campaign than the others. Some DnD purists may not like that, but for me as a story nerd? It’s what makes the whole thing work. 

I think The Seven is a perfect example of this. Each one of the six PCs is so well developed. The first episode of this campaign is one of the most effective of any season I think, giving us such a great grounding in each character’s home life, and the personal conflicts that arise from it.  It kicks off Antiope’s complicated relationship with leadership, Katja’s desire to be recognized by her father, Penny’s struggle with perfectionism, Ostentatia’s complex feelings around providing for her family and keeping up with the Joneses, and the way that Danielle’s go-with-the-flow attitude has made her less likely to fight for belonging. And Sam? Sam is struggling with feelings of abandonment as she deals with a transphobic birth mother, a best friend who kidnapped her and then died, and an adopted mom who is moving away after a divorce. Sam is being overwhelmed by change in her personal life even while her friendship group threatens to break apart. And change, and how we choose to accept it or fight it, is absolutely at the core theme of The Seven. To be fair, every other character is also struggling to figure out how she feels about the change going on in the party, and that’s a core part of each girl’s journey. But most of them are balancing a personal question alongside the question of the fate of the group (for instance, Antiope has to decide if she will obey or defy her parents, and whether or not she will take the internship and remain with the party. They’re related, but they’re also distinct questions). Sam is the only character whose personal question hooks directly into the central themes of the campaign, and that sets her up perfectly to become the protagonist of the season. 

I think the dramatic question of The Seven is not, as I first thought, Is change good? But actually How do we accept change with grace? And Sam is the character who figures out how to answer this question. Persephone’s performance as Sam is out-of-this-world good. She instinctively moves towards conflict and scenes that add depth to the narrative, and her portrayal of Sam’s pettiness as a defense mechanism is alternatively hilarious and heartbreaking. Her decision to step away from the others and speak to Talura creates a thematic parallel between her and the Eidolon and creates a connection that drives the back half of the season. 

From the moment the lore became clear, I was obsessed with Brennan’s decision to parallel The Seven Maidens with seven goddesses. The Eidolons went through a similar change that the Maidens are currently going through; in order to seek a better future, they dispersed and assumed a new form. The one who cannot accept this change is the one intricately linked with change as a concept; for Talura who represents endings and death to be the one still holding on to her sisters is profound and heartbreaking. The fact that she forms a connection with Sam feels so meaningful. Sam is probably the Maiden most acquainted with change; she’s the only one of the girls who has gone through a gender transition, and the only one who has been adopted and effectively changed who her parents are. But both Sam and Talura are holding on to stability and resisting change with all their might.

I think it’s a credit to the incredible cast that even with Sam in a slightly more central role, none of the other PCs feels undeveloped. I don’t think there’s a weak link at this table, and each player had a moment where they made me laugh and cry. I love the way that Aabria acts as a leader at the table for other players and also a leader in-story as Antiope. I’m obsessed with the way that Rekha can switch seamlessly between horse girl humor and a heartwarming description of Katja’s inner child. Becca’s quick improv makes Penny so charming (and I have genuinely never laughed harder than the Laertes scene). Every spell that Erika casts as Danielle is beautiful and magical and I loved seeing her begin to assert her own desires. And Izzy is just hilarious as Ostentatia and does so much to unite the group into a cohesive party (I fucking love you!). 

The other reason that each character feels complete and whole is that they each have an opportunity to answer the questions that are set up in the first episode. The penultimate episode, when each Maiden has the chance to confront time and her own death, lets each player create a moment when their character stares down her demons and learns an important lesson. This is really a classic Brennan move, and it’s one of my favorite tricks that he does to help create a cohesive storyline that fits into the confines of the season episode number. I jokingly described it to @bluedalahorse as that inevitable point in the campaign where Brennan “looks straight into a player’s eyes and calmly asks them if their character will achieve self-actualization”.  (Also Lou totally calls Brennan out on this in Fantasy High season 2 when Brennan casually asks “so what’s your character’s greatest fear?” when they head into the Forest of the Nightmare King. “That is the most Brennan thing I’ve ever heard!” Lmao yes it is!)  Those moments are always my favorite in any season, because I can feel the oxygen get sucked out of the room as the story magic starts happening. The fact that it’s improv, and that the player may not rise to the implicit question Brennan is asking, is part of the suspense. But in The Seven I think each player knocks it out of the park, and I can’t watch that episode without fully weeping. 

Even the way the final battle goes down reinforces the theme of learning how to accept change. By a happy accident of dice and initiative order (and I, think, a slight thumb on the scales on Brennan’s part) the battle allows Sam to complete her arc and answer the dramatic question of the show. Sam uses her reaction to save Zelda from Telura’s attack, so she’s powerless when Telura launches a power word kill spell against her. After she goes down, Penny is next in initiative, and although she can’t do anything to revive Sam, is able to remind Telura that The Seven are her sisters, not unlike Telura’s own. Ostentatia is next in initiative, but Brennan has Izzy hold her turn because (I’m assuming) he wants to let Sam/Persephone hit a story beat before Ostentatia revivifies her. Instead he skips to Danielle, who has a connection to Anima, the eidolon of life, who Telura is currently partially presenting as. Danielle and Anima are able to encourage Telura to let go, and to let Sam live, before Brennan switches to a short role play moment between Sam and Telura. It makes total sense that Sam would be able to talk directly to Telura in this state between life and death since Telura is the goddess of death. Sam is able to comfort Telura in this moment and acknowledge that although she’s scared of change, she’s learned that it represents opportunity as much as it represents an ending. “Sometimes change happens,” she reassures Talura, “but it doesn’t mean it will be worse or that you can’t find joy in what happens. And if you never try you’ll never know what can be.” In that moment Sam has completed her character arc; she’s a totally different person from the girl who was desperate to keep her friends exactly as they were at the beginning of the campaign. Her new conviction convinces Talura that it is ok to let go, and to become scattered through the world as the concept of death like her sisters have already done. Ostentatia revives Sam, and Talura stops attacking.  “We can’t promise the future will never hurt,” the other eidolons tell Talura, “but we can promise that if we’re together it will be worth it.”  And that’s the real lesson of The Seven: people will grow and change, but that doesn’t mean we can’t hold each new version of our loved ones in our hearts. We can keep our friends close while still giving each other the grace to become the people we were meant to be. 

Everyone has an absolutely incredible moment in the final battle (Antiope killing Charity! Katja tripping the earth eidolon!) but the way that Sam completes her character arc is especially special to me. As a former teen girl and someone who values her friendships above everything, this lesson that we can love our friends through change is close to my heart. It’s one I keep learning over and over, and I love the way it was explored in The Seven.

[blackbirdffxiv]

So I got this ask in my inbox, and though I was going to answer it in my asks, I think a little, actual post-tutorial would be best. But first, a disclaimer, as I like to cover my bases:

By no means am I an artist; my process is very much a case-by-case basis, and I edit as I need to for each picture that I do end up editing. My method is far from perfect but it is one that works for me for -my character-, so you may have to experiment on your own using these tips to find a method that suits your wants.

This little guide is using ClipStudio Paint, but you can get the same/similar results with really any photo editing program you choose that has brushes (GIMP, PaintTool Sai, Photoshop, Photopea (which is free), etc)

I'm going to use a painted over face texture as an example (basically a face diffuse I just painted over with it's base skintone), versus a full-on gpose shot (this way I can get a good swatch/an approximate measure of what skintone I'm used to working on).

Big Tip: ALWAYS WORK IN LAYERS, this way you can adjust everything accordingly without going back a million steps.

Use a basic soft-spray brush for your base, and pick a color a few shades lighter than the skintone you're working on (use your color-picking tool, it is your best friend). Set your first work layer to "add (glow), and make a little splotch like this. You can either leave it as is or blur it out/adjust the layer opacity if you desire, but again, it all depends on the state of your gpose/where you're adding it. I often blur out the edges to help blend it into the skin more naturally, on a low setting as to not erase it completely.

Before & after adjusting blur/opacity:

Next, you'll want a basic shimmer brush; there are dozens of free ones out there, so look around and experiment! Just like before, you're gonna want to make another layer, but this time, set it to white (or gold/copper if your character has medium/darker skintones, as it flatters them more and doesn't wash them out where as white is more for fair skintones).

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the source of the shimmer brush I use, but what works for me may not work for you so it would be best to look at what's available and what suits your tastes more.

Now, working in layers using the "add (glow)" effect, slowly build up the shimmer, first, adding a quick couple swipes, then build it up. Once you're satisfied, focus more on the center

TIP: If you want to make it look more natural, when building your layers, blur out the edges a small bit to hide any possible lines and creases.

And that's pretty much it! Adding shimmer effects is all about trial and error, and just simply adding shimmer where your character catches the light.

I'd post examples but a lot of my shimmer examples are on very much lewd gposes and I'm not trying to get tumblr staff mad at me.

And again, another disclaimer: this is not a one-size-fits-all-guide, I seriously cannot emphasize enough that the best thing for you to do is just EXPERIMENT, this is merely a guideline to give you a lil push in the right direction. Editing gposes is supposed to be fun, and the best way to get experience is to simply practice and learn your tools with your own hands.

I hope this helps, and have fun gposing!

[ellstersmash]

pinot noir

Fandom: Dragon Age Pairing: Makon (@bearlytolerant) x Athi Lavellan (professor au) Rating: G for General (no swears?!) Words: 2241 [Read on Ao3] Athi reluctantly informs her professor she'll be dropping his class.

This is the right call.

Athi repeats the thought with each step, walling off her doubts with manufactured confidence. Unfortunately, Professor Makon’s office is a decent hike from her advisor’s, across campus and two floors up, giving her way too much time to cave.

This could've been an email. Should've, really. After what happened, he won't want to see her any more than she wants to see him. Maybe he won't be there. That syllabus was pretty dense; Athi’s only mostly sure she's remembering his office hours right. Maybe she got them wrong and he won't be there and she won't have to admit her defeat to his face.

The dark, polished wooden door is closed when she finally reaches it, and she breathes a sigh of relief. Surely a note will be fine.

But luck is not on her side today. As Athi approaches, it opens, and a student she doesn't recognize emerges. They hold the door and she gives them a tight smile in reluctant thanks.

It snicks shut behind her.

The professor is seated at his desk in the center of the decently sized room. It's a dark, heavy, ornate piece of furniture that matches the door and full bookshelves and is large enough that he doesn’t dwarf it like he undoubtedly would a more delicate one.

“Miss Lavellan.” His voice is calm but his surprise is plain. “Please, take a seat.”

She takes in his office in one discerning sweep. It's lovely, but moody and serious, high ceilings and cohesive décor utterly drowned in black and brown and crimson, though the huge arched windows set into two of the walls help keep the room from being oppressive. Afternoon sun streaming in turns the red from vampire edgelord to pinot noir.

It feels comfortable, but not the lived-in sort. Immaculately clean, and there are no papers on his desk, no garbage in the bin, no personal effects anywhere—save a single picture frame set on one corner of his desk and a pipe stand and humidor on the other.

“I won't be staying that long,” she says.

The large leather chair behind the desk creaks slightly as the professor leans back, arms folded to his chest. His dark eyes are fixed on her in precisely the situation she was hoping to avoid.

“Very well,” he says, then continues before she has a chance to blurt out her confession. “In fact, it is quite fortuitous for me that you visited my office today, as I have been desiring to speak with you since the regrettable events of last week.”

Of course he wants to talk about it. Athi drops her gaze to the desk and clenches her jaw, fully prepared to derail whatever tiresome rant he has planned.

“I owe you an apology, Miss Lavellan,” he says, yanking the fight right out from under her. She scans his expression for signs of insincerity or mockery but finds none. “I singled you out among your peers, and despite any vexation I may have been experiencing, it was not at all my intent to confound or mortify you. I assumed—wrongly, we may agree—that all the students enrolled in a course on the medicinal magic curriculum would already be able to perform the spell I requested, and hoped that by being a part of the lesson you might become more engaged with it.”

The way he speaks, like some century-old thesaurus is swapping words out for him as he goes, is both mesmerizing and irritating. Athi could listen to him speak for hours in that deep timbre which rumbles at the lowest dips in tone, though she has to hold onto the actual words a while, shuffling them around in her head until they fall into some kind of sense. But once they do, she has to agree; his assumption was fair. Most of the others probably could have done it without a fuss. 

Athi digs her thumbs into the back of the padded wooden chair as he keeps talking.

“We may not always see eye-to-eye on appropriate classroom behavior. However, it is not my job to embarrass you into submission, but to teach you. I am afraid I did you a disservice, and I am sorry for it.”

He is quiet, then. Finally. Waiting for her acknowledgment? Her acceptance? Her forgiveness?

The silence hovers a little longer as Athi finds her words.

Then she slumps into the chair. “No.”

His straight black eyebrows draw together, a few deep furrows appearing between them. “I beg your pardon?”

She shrugs one miserable shoulder. “You asked me to do something I should have been able to do. I couldn't do it, got upset, and took it out on you and your very nice shoes. I'm sorry.”

Professor Makon waves one hand in dismissal. “Please do not trouble yourself over the shoes. They survived the assault quite unharmed, I assure you.”

“Glad to hear it. I'd hate to force you into sneakers.” Athi bites back a grin.

He sets his elbows on the desk, steepling his fingers in front of him. Taps the tips together thoughtfully. “I appreciate your apology, yet I find myself unable to surrender the entire portion of blame for our… altercation. Perhaps we might agree to share it?”

There's the beginnings of a smile on his face, too, uncertain but warm. It disarms her.

“If you insist,” she agrees.

“Excellent. And now, perhaps you and I can start afresh. Your magi—”

“I’m dropping the class.”

His expression sobers. “Oh.”

“My advisor said I should talk to you about options, but I think it's pretty obvious I'm not cut out for this.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Oh, please. I can't even unwilt a few leaves. And there's no way I'll be able to make up for the hands-on portions with theory, much less put it into practice in future.” She shakes her head. “Honestly, I shouldn’t have even enrolled.”

“May I ask why you did?”

Athi can't stop the sheepish smile that spreads across her face. “Healers get the best gigs. And the biggest paychecks.”

“So this is merely a means to an end?”

“Does that offend you? That I should want to end up with a reliable, stimulating job that pays me well enough to live a comfortable life?”

“Of course not. That is your prerogative.”

“If it's any consolation, I don't mind the part about saving people’s lives, either.”

His low hum of acknowledgement settles in her ears. Gods, but he’s handsome. It's hard to hold his gaze too long. Athi grabs the frame off his desk and flips it around.

It's a picture of the professor with one arm draped around the slender shoulders of a much shorter woman. He's dressed down, shirt open in a loose vee, and she's gorgeous, with tightly coiled green hair and a wide, infectious smile. A lover, likely enough; he certainly seems happy to be with her. His wife?

Odd that the idea should sit so poorly in her stomach.

“Has finesse always been a struggle for you?”

Athi nods, strangely glad for the interruption, and sets the photo on her lap. “Can’t warm a mug of water for your tea, but I can set a pond boiling.”

“I hope you don't know that from experience.”

She smirks and lets him speculate.

“I wonder if you might indulge my curiosity,” he starts slowly, “with another demonstration.”

So she’s to be a circus act? Watch the sad semi-mage bumble through simple tricks—what fun. Athi barely keeps from grimacing at him. “Why? Are you in the slim and elusive market for a hot spring?”

He laughs, then coughs as if to cover it.

“Believe it or not, I gather no pleasure from your success or failure. I am a teacher, Miss Lavellan, and I only wish to assess your abilities for your own benefit.”

Athi fills up her lungs, then hisses out a long breath. “Fine.”

Professor Makon fishes a pair of scissors out from his desk then unlatches one of the windows, drawing in a branch from the outdoors and snipping off some leafy new growth. He lays it on the gleaming unmarred surface.

“Remove some of its life.”

Athi does so. Stretches out her hand and focuses on drawing its life force, its moisture, its vitality, into herself until the leaves lay crisp and withered on his desk.

“Very good. Now restore it.”

It’s but a sip of life, not enough to have her glowing but enough to drain her when it’s gone. The leaves start to unfurl, then a stray thought, a doubt, and she nearly loses her grip on it. Cuts it off to avoid a disaster.

The professor hums again. “You very nearly had it. Based on what I've witnessed, your magic is indeed quite strong,” he says. “Your willpower is formidable, though your focus and discipline are…” His head tilts back and forth as if sifting the right word to the top of the pool.

“Pathetic?” she supplies.

He levels a weary look at her. “Unbridled.”

Athi snorts. “Tactfully put.”

“It is not a matter of tact but of implied permanence. Do you not wish to improve your skills?”

“I guess, but why do you care?”

“Ah, right. You are quitting.”

She hates the way he makes it sound, but it's not inaccurate. “Yes.”

“And so I should wash my hands of you, then?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

His index finger, long and well-manicured and probably capable of channeling more magic than her entire body, taps steadily on the desk. “What if you did not quit? What if you remained enrolled in my course?”

Athi narrows her eyes at him. “Are you promising to pass me?” He doesn't seem at all the sort, but people can be surprising.

Apparently not this one, though, because he looks thoroughly offended she'd even suggest it.

“Absolutely not,” he says. “Whether you pass or fail will be entirely up to you and your efforts. However, I am willing to take the time to assist you in your studies outside of class if you are willing to apply yourself. I would hate for you to walk away from my course because I failed to assign an appropriate prerequisite. Might I plead with you to finish out the semester with some personal assistance?”

“Outside of class?”

“Can you not make the time?”

“I can, but—”

“Then what holds you back?”

Fair question. He is a master of his craft. It's a generous offer, and one he has no reason to extend. Plus, she could think of worse ways to spend a few hours per week than personal lessons with Professor Tall-Dark-and-Dreamy—even if he does have a smoking hot wife at home. But there is still no guarantee that she won't fail, wasting both her time and money and denting her GPA in the process. And this way, she'll be disappointing more than just herself.

Athi sits back in the chair and sighs. “Will there be snacks?”

Her professor’s eyes soften, deep brown crinkling at the edges as he smiles. “You should take the evening to consider your options. If you are not present in class tomorrow, I shall take that as my answer.”

She’s been dismissed. He holds his hand out and Athi nods and returns the picture. Gathers her bag from the floor and makes to leave.

“If you decide in my favor,” he says, “then I shall see you tomorrow, Miss Lavellan. And if not—”

“See you never?”

He straightens the picture on his desk and meets her eye. Jaw tight, a sharp nod, and he lets her go.

-

Too early the next morning, Athi paces the hall, avoiding the gazes of her potential classmates as they file into the lecture hall ahead of her. She envies their confidence, their probable magical skills, their sense of belonging. Wants to be one of them. Wants to show them.

Wants to show him.

A careful sip of coffee; she leans against the wall to weigh her options. She could leave. Drop the class, and lose the option to label herself a healer-surgeon and all the benefits that would incur. Maybe take another course that’s more to her strengths, like Patient Relations, or Experimental Medicine.

Or she could stay.

Take the professor’s offer and walk in that room like she deserves to be there. Like her magic is every bit as good as it should be. Make her dad proud. Or, if she fails, make him regret subsidizing her education—and still lose the lucrative subspecialty of “healer,” making it that many more years until she could pay back his investment.

Professor Makon wouldn’t fail her, though. Would he? He cares. He’d try. He’d teach her.

Another minute until class starts. Everyone planning to show is already inside, seated, books open, ready to learn. And she’s out here, cradling her coffee like a coward.

The door creaks open. Professor Makon’s head pokes out, black hair pulled back in a neat bun and eyes scanning the hall. Too soon, he spots her loitering like an idiot.

Smiles.

“Well?” he says, “Will you be joining us, Miss Lavellan?”

She gives herself another five seconds to consider, then holds her coffee up—a lavender anti-spill travel mug she purchased especially for this class—and says, “This is my price.”

The professor examines her offering, then opens the door wider to let her in. 

“I accept.”

[onewomancitadel]

I mentioned offhandedly that fake dating is a beloathed romantic trope of mine now (maybe in the past I was more neutral towards it); even though I do think it's a good way to manufacture romantic tension (when otherwise the characters may avoid expressing or initiating it), and there's a reason people enjoy it, because you get all the romantic things without the sweet cathartic release of feelings admission, part of the reason I do not like it is pretty much for these reasons laid out: the nature of that farce can have damning implications thematically, in a lot of cases (an exception I explore below; if the relationship is grounded in farce, how can it be real?) and I think that the characters I gravitate towards are so noble as to never force the other in the relationship into such a situation where the contact may be unwanted.

Which is where you get to the fact that there's a conflict between the author and the reader wanting to smash dollies together versus the actual motivations of the characters at play. Of course we know that secretly they both probably want it - and I think a good workaround here is that they effectively manufacture the situation themselves - but the characters themselves are not made aware of this information.

Another issue I have is the sense of artifice; I am very willing to go along with romantic tropes and the general decorum of narrative rules/verisimilitude, but fake dating stretches believability for me verrryyy far.

The only example I can think of that actually manages to carry thematic weight and not compromise but indeed advance characterisation is The Hunger Games, which is ironic because I know Suzanne Collins prefers to think of the series as a war story as opposed to something grounded in romance, despite the fact she structured the story around a love triangle. But that's because the farce of the fake dating spectacle is married to the spectacle of the manufactured state and fascism within that setting, and where the characters are able to manipulate it is to use the language of that spectacle; it feeds into the surreality the characters endure; most importantly what it demonstrates that there is something so fundamentally true, so fundamentally beautiful, so fundamentally noble that can never even be touched by the spectacle of that relationship they're forced to conduct (the beauty of the roughened, wet, sea-tumbled pearl) that it even endures state-mandated brainwashing and fire and then also probably apocalypse, too. You wouldn't really get that effect without the contrast of the fake relationship versus the reality of their actual true, uncompromising connection.

It's probably the smartest thing about the trilogy (I mean, I'm sure it's good as a learning material as well) and it is integrated into the shame that a romantic trope is motivating it. To be fair, I don't think this is an issue specifically afflicting a female author choosing to put romance in her work where it might otherwise go unremarked upon; I think this is a genuine case where you can see romantic trope conventions and the conventions of YA writ large against the backdrop of very high thematic aspirations. My issue, as I have remarked upon in the past, is the conflict of these ideas, but never will I take specific issue with choosing to integrate romance into those aspirations. The love triangle - now that I will take shots at. Symbolism or no, you can't change what it actually is.

But the real takeaway for me in meditating upon this is that where I am interested in romance is where it realises character (and this is something I am even evolving myself through in how I interact with the romance genre, especially in writing it) and how that creates romantic tension, as opposed to how I might take the shortcut to the quickest and easiest tension to smash my dollies together. Where I think romance really flourishes as a genre is to conduct that intimate character study which naturally realises those essential desires of narrative reward.

[dolphin1812]

This chapter has so many historical references! It’s fun to see how much Hugo can add for context; most of the references are difficult to catch now without familiarity with the period (I personally don’t understand most of them, even if I like seeing them), but for a contemporary reader, they likely added a lot of information about the exact sort of discussions in these salons. The specificity is nice in combination with humorous lines like this one:

“As he had a double measure of wit, in the first place, that which was born with him, and secondly, that which was attributed to him, he was even sought out and made much of.”

Mocking Gillenormand is always entertaining, but the aristocracy that esteems him is even more absurd.

It’s interesting to see the state of the French aristocracy through this salon. On the one hand, it’s maintained a fair amount of power and many of its structures (the salon itself being one of them). Their political situation may have been more precarious, but the Bourbon Restoration was a moment of hope for them (based on the salon conversations). At the same time, we once again see the effects of the French Revolution. La Baronne de T likely fled France with her husband (his “emigration”) during that period, for instance, and while his bankruptcy could have just been from his lavish lifestyle (French aristocrats weren’t known for being economical), it could have also been tied to property losses during the Revolution, either while fleeing, because the government confiscated it, or both.

Through these royalists, we also get further insight into the breadth of French political ideas at the time. Although we’ve seen vague support for a monarchy before (with Myriel), the fact that this salon centers around politics means that we’re getting more details on the forms of royalism. Hugo’s mentioned the charter that limited the king’s power before, criticizing it (as the narrator) for creating an image of liberal government without actually recognizing the need for the people to govern themselves (as the charter still allowed for a monarchy). To royalists in Gillenormand’s camp, however, the charter is too much; any limitation on the king is unacceptable (except, perhaps, limitations from aristocrats, but that doesn’t seem to have featured as prominently in their discussions; Bonapartists and republicans likely felt like bigger threats to them than other royalists). The environment is also telling. While they do seem to discuss current issues, the emphasis on mocking republicans, Bonapartists, and so on makes the salon seem rather smug and self-assured. For them, the humor is probably entertaining, but it does feel like fun is the point rather than complex political theorizing. Given that Gillenormand’s grandson is there, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was expected to learn to parrot these ideas. Gillenormand certainly wouldn’t want him to explore alternatives, and his home environment and the salon don’t seem conducive to independent thought. He is, however, seven, so I’m sure the salon is probably more of a chore for him than anything else anyways.

I also think it’s fascinating how Hugo portrays this group as equal and opposite to the Revolution, focusing on violence in particular:

“In that society, they parodied the Revolution. They used I know not what desires to give point to the same wrath in inverse sense. They sang their little Ça ira [ . . . . ] Songs are like the guillotine; they chop away indifferently, to-day this head, to-morrow that. It is only a variation.”

Characters like the Conventionist have defended what are seen as the excesses of the French Revolution, and while Hugo himself is ultimately in favor of social change, he’s also deeply uncomfortable with the violence of the guillotine specifically (also seen with the bishop). For him to assign the guillotine to the changing song of the royalists, then, is to suggest a horrific capacity for harm. As the “inverse” of the Revolution but its equal in “wrath,” they’re at least comfortable with that form of terror in support of old systems instead of in tearing them down. Their “parody” might also imply an element of hypocrisy, as for all that they hate the French Revolution, they still represent the worst of it (just directed in a different direction).