Iâm sorry butâŠ.this is hilarious to međ. Zuko literally leaving his fighting pose to yell at his little sister is both so in character and such a sibling move.
CHTHON: A great sorceress has awakened this night. With her first hex, Chthon touches your world. Chthon speaks to you⊠through seven hells. The influence of Set will reach here no more. The Serpent Crown returns to the ice. Go too, acolyte of Set. Lest yo harm my faithful charge. Know this⊠the young witch is special to Chthon. She will be loyal to no coven.
Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch by Jeff Parker & Juan Santacruz
Chthon is technically protecting Wanda from Set and the Serpent Crown in this scene, but his role is less protective father figure and more disgruntled owner. She is meant to be his vessel, and he doesnât want anyone else having access to her.
There are some people who think, because Chthon is evil and Wanda is connected to him, that her writer troubles random villainy is because of him. When Diassembled and HoM first happened, it made sense to assume those things were caused by or related to him, but Childrenâs Crusade has since attributed them to Doomâs scheming and something called âthe life force.â Even though I liked the âChthon is involvedâ theory a few years ago, it doesnât make sense with whatâs come after. I donât think Chthon wants Wanda being infected with âthe life forceâ or pumped full of⊠whatever Immortus put into her. He sees her as a possession. Both Chthon and his cult watch over her. He wanted her to learn to control her powers better because that made her a better vessel. I think he wants her to be in pristine condition and not messed up by all other beings.
Set is immensely powerful. Heâs a potential rival to Chthon, and it makes sense Chthon wants him away from Wanda because he is a threat to Chthonâs plans. But I donât think Chthon wants these other characters messing with Wanda either. If you owned something that had no emotional value to you but was important because you planned to use it for something special later, you wouldnât want a three-year-old playing with it and smashing it to pieces. All of these schemes must seem trivial to an immortal being of infinite power. He probably doesnât care about any of that stuff, even as mild entertainment, but he does care about what happens to his would-be vessel. I canât buy that heâs thrilled about her being used by these lesser beings.
As a mother reading romance/fantasy, LoA is SO important to me.
Everywhere I look, thereâs dead mothers in the heroâs backstory. Dead mothers without names and tragic lives. No personalities, no impact to the plot, no substance for me to look inside and see my motherhood experience reflected back. Nothing to offer the narrative except grief or pain.
But with Lady of Autumn? Thereâs a chance. Thereâs finally a chance for a gripping, inspiring story.
I need her to be a loving, devoted mother. I need her to be the last saving grace keeping her sons together against the brutality of Beron. I need to see the immense strength it took to sacrifice her own mating bond to protect her children. I need to see an example of an older mother with adult children still getting her own epic romanceâbecause she is worthy of love even after all those years spent protecting her flesh and blood over her own happiness. I need to see her play a pivotal, political role in Beronâs takedown as High Lord. I need to see her love her sons despite the moments they are cruel, selfish, or ugly from their fatherâs influence. I need to see more examples of how a motherâs fierce, unconditional love has teeth. I need to see her children be better because of itâthat her love has the power to change the world and its fate. I need to see LoA transform from tragedy to heroine.
Mothers need the representation. Motherhood needs the representation. Show me love conquers all. I need it.
Being what was considered "High Fae" in their world did not protect him from harm.
Just because Beron could not prove Helion sired Lucien (though he suspected) it does not mean Lucien purposely hid his Day Court heritage to stay safe (since he wasn't safe in Autumn).
It does not not mean Lucien was free from harm, his brothers / father tried to kill him.
Lucien did not have it easier because of the way he looked or because of the type of Fae that he was.
Jorge Rivera Herrans mentioned throughout the musical, Odysseus was learning how to become ruthless. I don't want to copy and paste Odysseus' personal journey onto Zuko who I believe would handle some events much differently.
Zuko's journey would be about defiance.
He defies the Sky Fire god (Ozai) by sparing enemy's infant son.
He defies the Goddess of War (Azula) by sparing the Cyclops.
He defies the Ocean goddess (Hama) by using the wind bag to escape.
The only time Zuko did give into being cold and heartless was after seeing Iroh in the Spirit Realm, discovering he had died while Zuko was away, and learning of the prophecy of his wife Katara in the arms of another man (The Blue Spirit). Zuko then ordered his crew to merciless kill the sirens then sacrificed six of his crewmembers in the Lair of Koh.
After a mutiny lead by Sokka, the Sky Fire god returned when the sacred cattle were slaughtered and offered Zuko a choice. His death or his crew's death in exchanged for the cattle. He expected Zuko to choose his crew.
Zuko chose himself.
The Sky Fire god saw this as another act of rebellion. So, he scarred Zuko to teach him obedience then killed the rest of his crew.
But Zuko continued to deify fate.
He silently defies the Island goddess (Ty Lee) by never truly surrendering to her advances or losing hope of escape.
Zuko's defiance inspired others.
The Goddess of War, his friend and former mentor (and half-sister), rebelled against her father the Sky Fire god by fighting for Zuko's release.
His fallen friends and comrades escape the spirit realm and helped Zuko in his fight against the Ocean goddess.
In Zuko's last act of defiance, he forced the Ocean goddess to lift her storm so he can return home to his family in a matter very similar to the musical, echoing her own words against her.
Take a moment to analyze the art work! Write in the comments what you think about it, the colors, the composition, the characters, why you like it, etc!
I wanted to finish this for Maomaoâs birthday but uh⊠Iâm way late đ
If you donât understand why it is important for Maomao and Jinshi to end up together, then you donât fully understand Maomaoâs character. Maomaoâs character arc is built in such a way that accepting a relationship with Jinshi is a necessity for it to work.
It takes so long for them to be together because a main characterâs arc resolution has to happen at the end of the story (which Natsu originally intended to be volume 12).
Maomao starts the story believing in the anti-theme, essentially the opposite of the main theme:
âTo be loved, even just for a little whileâthatâs a wonderful thing. You almost⊠start to think it means thereâs a place you belong.â
âChueâs line to Maomao
This is what Maomao ultimately needs to understand. Because of her ghost (an often traumatic event that gives a character their main flaw or incorrect worldview) so in her case not receiving love as a baby, Maomao grows up overly reliant on logic and repressing her emotions. This emotional repression is the anti-theme.
A few examples:
She canât admit to Jinshi that she wants to help Xiaolan because Xiaolan is her friend.
She refers to Luomen as her mentor rather than her father figure in front of Jinshi.
This flaw creates her want, which we see in her goal: to maintain her life exactly as it is. At the beginning of the story, she has no plans to make friends, find a partner, or form new relationships. She is comfortable with the relationships she has always had with her sister and her father because they donât challenge her emotional repression. And this is why she runs away about any clue related to Jinshiâs real identity, because she doesnât want their dynamic to change.
For this type of character, who has a maintenance goal rather than an active one, there need to be other forces or characters who drive the plot. Thatâs why the story begins with her being kidnapped, and why Jinshi takes more plot-changing actions than she does.
However, what a character wants is not necessarily what they need. Jinshi already believes in the theme, which is why his main goal is to be with Maomao. But while his goal is correct, the way he goes about it is flawed. Jinshi needs to learn to be less possessive, which ties into another theme of the story: autonomy.
Jinshiâs possessiveness is rooted in his own ghost, having the toys he loved as a child taken away from him. As a result, he clings too tightly to the things and people he cares about.
This is why Maomao and Jinshi complement each other. Throughout the story, Jinshi challenges Maomao to open up emotionally, while Maomaoâs emotional repression forces Jinshi to unlearn his possessive behavior. In other words, if Maomao were like many other girls who are immediately smitten with Jinshi, he would never have learned to let go. And if Jinshi were not so possessive and stubborn in his pursuit of her, Maomao would never truly open up emotionally, something that Joka herself acknowledges.
âMaomao, youâre very fortunate. This person is clearly very persistent, extremely stubborn, doesnât know when to quitââ
âGee, he sounds like a real catch,â Pairin interjected, but Joka ignored her.
ââand is good enough that even you were willing to let him win.â
In volume 12, Maomao is willing to give up her want: to maintain her life the way it is, for her need: to be with Jinshi, even though he is still the Moon Prince and, as she strongly suspects and later confirms in volume 13, the Emperorâs son. In other words, choosing Jinshi means abandoning the emotional safety of maintaining her old, controlled life and accepting love, belonging, and the complications that come with them.
In volume 15, Jinshi is willing to give up his want: to be with Maomao, for his need: learning to let go by prioritizing Maomaoâs autonomy over his own desire.
Maomao moves toward connection by surrendering control while Jinshi moves toward healthy love by surrendering control.
This series often gets a chuckle out of me, but this drew a belly-laugh ngl. Had to replay it right away. The pacing here is genius, with Jinshi staring at her for way longer than regular slow-motion takes, so long that it gets weird even for the viewer, in complete silence, and then the instant cut-off to him bashing his head against the wall. Hahahaha
@elemen You really gave me something to chew on with this one đ I was trying to find some commonality, and after some toing and froing, I landed on this. I think it makes sense. In a kind of weird, dream-logic way (I hope I managed to communicate a bit of that, but jeez this was hard) đ€Ł
Iâm still taking requests if anyone would like me to write something for them. Details here, fics Iâve already written for this here.
The Space Where It Was
Rose Walker woke up at three in the morning with her hand against her chest. The heartbeat was there. Of course it was. A heart doing its job the way hearts do.
She breathed out and stared at the ceiling.
The thing was though: She remembered the red glass heart in her hand before she had passed it to Unity. Sheâd reached inside herself and found it waiting there, had not even known it existed until her grandmother had said, âGive me what makes you what you are.â And she had, and now there was a place in her chest that wasnât exactly empty, but not entirely full either.
Eventually, she fell back asleep...
She wasnât a vortex anymore, and ordinary women didnât walk the Dreaming as though they owned it. But she found herself on a hillside scattered with white flowers that didnât seem like the Dreaming. Then again, it also did. Like, This is a dream but itâs also something else. And sheâd had more than enough of that, and when she was just about to try and wake up, she noticed she was not alone.
The woman was sitting on a rock, writing in a small book, and she did not look up at Rose.
âYou came back,â she simply said.
âI didnât know Iâd been here before.â
The woman turned a page. âYou left a mark on the Dreaming. Vortices generally do.â She looked up briefly and tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. âSit down if you like. I am not expecting company.â
Rose sat down on the grass, legs crossed. âWho are you?â
âMy name is Calliope.â
Calliope-who-loved-Oneiros. Calliope-who-bore-Orpheus. Rose didnât know why she knew, she just did, and she looked at her closely. âAre you alright?â
Calliope stopped writing. âI have been not-alright before, and I expect I will be not-alright again. It is something I have learned to⊠anticipate.â She stared at Rose with a directness that stopped just short of feeling unkind. âAnd you? Are you alright?â
âI gave my heart away.â The words had just tumbled out before Rose could even think twice about them.
Calliope was quiet for a moment. âI know something of thatâŠâ
He came over the crest of the hill as if he had walked it ten thousand times. Rose blinked at him because he looked so young, but most of all because he was whole. She couldnât have said why she expected otherwise, she just knew somehow that in the waking world, he existed differently. But here, he walked and took up space.
âMother,â he called with a smile.
Something in Calliope seemed to open up, but only fractionally. âOrpheus.â She did not get up, so he instead sat beside her on the rock, close enough that their shoulders touched, and for a moment they were simply quiet together. Like people who have been estranged and are not yet sure how to be close again.
Orpheus looked at Rose. âYou are the vortex.â
âI was,â Rose said. âNot anymore.â
âNo.â He studied her face. âYou gave your heart away.â
âMy grandmother was⊠I gave it so she could⊠so that she couldâŠâ Rose took a deep breath because she couldnât get the sentence out right. So she could die for me. So she could choose her death. So the thing that was supposed to be hers could finally be hers. âShe needed it back,â she finally managed. âSo I gave it back.â
Orpheus looked out over the hill. âI would have given mine for Eurydice.â He laughed wearily. âPerhaps I did.â
âWhat happened?â Rose asked, noticing a moment too late the question might be intrusive.
âWe were almost out. I could see the light of the living world ahead of us. And then I⊠looked back.â Orpheus swallowed hard. âI doubted. At the last moment, my faith was not enough to keep me from turning around.â He paused. âShe was right behind me. And then she was gone.â
âIâm so sorry,â Rose said, and she meant it.
Orpheusâ voice was quiet when he resumed. âI did not trust myself, that is the part I have not been able to put down. I chose doubt over her.â He looked at his hands. âI would not call that losing your heart but rather throwing it away.â
âThat is not fair,â Calliope cut in.
âBut it is true.â He looked away into the distance.
âMy heart was a red⊠glass thing.â Rose hadnât planned to say it like that, but the words simply fell out of her mouth. No filter in dreams apparently. âWhen I pulled it out, it looked⊠cheap, like something youâd find in a junk shop. Not⊠It just looked wrong.â Rose pressed her hand lightly against her chest. The heartbeat was still there, the ordinary one. âIt feels empty now where it was. I donât know what to do with that feeling.â
âIt is hard. I poured myself into him from the moment of his birth, and he was everything love could be.â Calliope exhaled. âAnd then Eurydice died, and his father would not help, and⊠they tore him apart.â Orpheus made a small sound. âI have carried that space with me for millennia,â she continued. âThe outline of him. And I will not pretend it will ever be the same again, because it will not. But I have learned what can⊠live inside it.â She bent to take Roseâs hands. âThat space does not mean you are diminished, unless you let it.â
Orpheus got on his feet and walked a few steps down the slope. Rose watched him, and the thought came unbidden: In the waking world he is a head tended by priests on an island. She wondered if he knew how he looked here, and if it was cruel or kind to be given back your body for the length of a dream. And as though he had heard her thoughts, and perhaps he had because he was his fatherâs son after all, he spoke without turning. âI know what I am. I am not in any way confused about it.â He glanced back over his shoulder, and his expression seemed more resigned than anything else. âBut in dreams I can be what I once was. My fatherâs realm grants me that mercy, at least.â He breathed. âEven if he wonât grant me the other.â
âAre you still estranged?â Rose asked.
âWe are to each other what we have always been since...â He turned back to the horizon. âHe has not come, and I have not asked him to.â
âThat sounds exhausting,â she said.
âIn a manner of things it is.â
Rose was surprised to see him smiling through his pain, and she asked, âWhat do we do when weâve given our heart away? Or lost it? When thereâs a⊠space where it used to be?â
Neither of them answered quickly.
âYou learn the shape of that space,â Orpheus finally said. âPerhaps you stop trying to fill it with the wrong things.â
âYou are more than only the thing you lost. You existed before it and after it. It is not the same as wholeness but it is not nothing either. You will not be who you were before, and maybe you are not supposed to be. But you will be someone. And I thinkâŠâ Calliope paused. âI think that someone is someone worth being.â She gently touched Roseâs face. âThe space where it was is still yours. Do not let anyone else decide what to make of it,â she whispered.
Rose opened her mouth to ask something, or to answer something, but the dream was already doing what dreams do: The voices went first, then the faces, then the hillside, and she was back in her bedroom, and all she could hear was the rain outside.
She lay still for a moment, hand against her chest. The heartbeat was there, still ordinary. And she remembered the dream, about a woman on a rock and a young man standing at the edge of the horizon. And then she thought about her grandmother breaking a red glass heart, taking back what was hers and leaving an empty space in its stead.
The rain came down outside the window and Rose could hear that down the hall, Jed was already awake. She got up and held her hand one last time to the space that had made her the vortex, and she thought:
I am still here.
Then she went to make coffee, and to sit with her brother in the quiet morning, and the space didnât feel empty because she didnât let it...
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