Piano_Padawan on Ao3 American Chinese Esoteric worldbuilding, art and writing. Gladiator and SW Imperials, with some other fandoms in between. You never know what you will get.
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In which Johnny Storm brought home a Pomeranian without telling anyone, and said Pomeranian is Fireball the Destroyer of Worlds. All shall love him and despair.
(Click for full resolution. Please don't repost! Reblogs are appreciated though!)
I did find the site you were saying where his height is listed as 4’7” which seems kinda wrong to me because he’s just a bit shorter than Denise Gough who’s 5’5”… but I like the heels idea better
Just wanted to say that in this age of AI spam scum, I am more grateful than ever to the real readers out there who leave comments on Ao3 fic and also to the wonderful people who have let me rant to them about fic on Discord. You make all the hours of plotting and writing worth it. Thank you all so very much!
(Part 1? lol)This got more ridiculous than I intended but here we are, a little rujinu aquarium date shenanigan inspired by @galaxyspeaking ‘s great aquarium date concept! I have a part 2 sketched out that’s more romantic and sappy but we’ll see if and when I get to it 🐠
I Wish We'd Seen Joseph Quinn act out Geta's Historical Death Scene
So, the decapitation scene in Gladiator II is dramatic and all, but in my humble opinion, I wish that we'd gotten Geta's historical death scene because I feel there's even more weight to him not only dying in his mother's arms but pretty much walking into his own assassination. I promise I'm not being that person who's just saying "UGH, it's not historically accurate". I actually do feel that it would have added to the drama to follow the history in this case.
For context, Caracalla had attempted to murder Geta literally a week before the actual murder took place. And even before then, we know that Geta was very aware of the threat that his brother posed to him because of all the security measures he went through. Caracalla ultimately has Geta murdered by stating he wants to arrange a "peace talk" in their mother's chambers, and since they were supposed to be at peace, Geta was not allowed to bring his guards. Geta complies, so he has no protection besides his desperate mother who ends up literally soaked in blood.
Firstly, the angst potential is just about as good as it gets here. I would've loved to see Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger act this out. But besides that, I think the historical events lend themselves to very interesting interpretations of Geta's character.
The fact that Geta not only agrees to this but follows through in bringing no security detail is really surprising to me, and by that virtue, I think there's so much to explore about why he did it. Was he actually that naive that he believed Caracalla was truthful in his intentions to settle for peace? You could definitely write this off to him placing too much faith in blood being thicker than water, but my theory is that there was something more to it because Geta overall made no pretense about mistrusting his brother. They were notorious for having a tumultuous relationship from the time they were children. So, I feel there was something else at play besides the fact that Caracalla is family.
Also, unlike the film, at the time that Geta was murdered, there's evidence that he was likely popular. He's described as having more equanimity and having a friendlier disposition than his brother, and there's theories that the army took well to him because of the strong resemblance between Geta and his father. That's why Caracalla has to really spin the story to frame him as a tyrant and get away with the murder. So, it doesn't seem logical for Geta to surrender to his brother either. Unless his perception of his own image in the public was so pessimistic that he saw the need. With no surviving first-person accounts from Geta and all his close associates murdered soon after him, there's really no way of saying whether he was insecure about his popularity as an independent emperor.
I think it's possible that insecurity might have been a factor because Geta throughout history is described as being pretty dependent on others. (This is one thing that I actually think the movie got pretty accurate by having him leaning on first Acacius and then Macrinus, both of which ended horribly for him.) His father is constantly arranging for older mentors to watch out for him even after Geta is pretty far past the age of maturity by Roman standards. And after his father's death, Geta essentially does everything that his mother is recorded as having asked him to do, including the peace talk. Could this pattern of dependence have made him paradoxically reluctant towards becoming sole emperor despite saying and doing everything to imply the opposite up until his death?
Ultimately, there's no way of knowing of course. But I think it's an interesting characterization point. I love the vulnerability that Joseph Quinn brought to the character, and I would have absolutely loved to see him have more screen time and how he would have portrayed the historical death.
Incorrect Severan Dynasty Quotes Part 2 (which are probably still more accurate than the Historia Augusta)
Elagabalus: [*looking at Severus Alexander who is staring off into space, smiling*] Look at him. He's probably trying to overthrow me.
Severus Alexander: [*daydreaming about puppies*]
Elagabalus: That traitorous BITCH.
---
Septimius Severus: Come along, boys! Let's stop trying to murder each other and go on a warpath to murder people as a family!
Geta: Aww, but I was going to have my feast themed around the letter "B" this weekend!
Caracalla: I'm in. You had me at "murder".
---
[*on the road to Caledonia*]
Geta: DAD, are we there yet? Also, Caracalla is bothering me!
Septimius Severus: I swear to the gods, if you don't stop complaining, I will turn this legion around.
Geta: Yeah, sure. You're really going to turn the entire legion around and march over a thousand miles back to Rome.
[*later*]
Geta: [*frantically writing a letter to Julia Domna*] Mommy, I messed up, and dad left me in Eboracum with all this administrative work that I don't know how to do and I just want to go home! Please help ASAP! :( Signed with love from your favorite son, Imperator Caesar Publius Septimius Geta Augustus.
---
Geta: Dad, I'm pretty sure my brother's plotting to murder me.
Septimius Severus: In retrospect, your mother and I should have seen the signs.
Geta: You mean the fact that he always has this murderous scowl on his face whenever he looks at me?
Severus: No, obviously I was talking about that purple egg that he broke on the night that you were born.
Geta: Okay... so, are you going to do something about this?
Severus: Of course. I'll tell him to be harmonious with you and all that good stuff.
---
Geta and Caracalla: [*dividing up the imperial palace after Severus's death*]
Caracalla: [*draws line on the floor*] Alright, everyone, this. This here is my side of the palace. Annoying little brother stays on the other side.
Geta: What if I step onto the line but don't cross it?
Caracalla: Stepping on the line counts as crossing the line, obviously. Actually, don't even look at the line.
Geta: But how can I know whether I'm on the right side of the line if I can't look at it?
Caracalla: ...
Caracalla: MOM! HE'S BEING ANNOYING AGAIN!
Straight out of the soup I think Fantastic 4 is the wildest direct AU they could have put Acacius in. Why is he a space scientist, and why is he still 100% just Acacius while he's at it. America explain
At this point Pedro Pascal has been in so many wildly different universes that it's getting to be like the Pedro version of Everything Everywhere All at Once and I'm here for it.
In some universe out there, Acacius owns a laundromat and files taxes with Geta.
I have too many fics to develop this but l this post once again has me thinking of an Everything Everywhere All At Once kind of picture in which somewhere in the Pedroverse, a guy named Marcus is just running a laundromat and living a mundane domestic life with Geta. And one day he’s going to get connected to a multiverse and realize in other universes, he is an elastic space scientist, a Roman general, a space bounty hunter, in an apocalypse, etc.
Straight out of the soup I think Fantastic 4 is the wildest direct AU they could have put Acacius in. Why is he a space scientist, and why is he still 100% just Acacius while he's at it. America explain
At this point Pedro Pascal has been in so many wildly different universes that it's getting to be like the Pedro version of Everything Everywhere All at Once and I'm here for it.
In some universe out there, Acacius owns a laundromat and files taxes with Geta.
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