So we all know about the Barclay / Audrian parallels, but how much have we thought about how Barclay and Yasha are opposites?
I came to this revelation bc as have said Barclay is literally me and I began to notice that everything I am that Barclay isn't, Yasha was, and how that is mirrored in a lot of other places too!
For example:
1 ) Barclay's lore is mostly cold while Yasha's is hot
2 ) ^ similarly, Barclay usually wears cool/dark colors and Yasha usually wears warmer colors (at least in my head I associate him with red)
3 ) Barclay is pretty messy and wild while Yasha is neat and precise
4 ) Barclay leads with his heart first, often leading to reckless decisions, while Yasha leads with his head first and almost everything he does is calculated
5 ) Barclay is relatively short and (at least in my head) Yasha is decently tall
6 ) (my personal favorite!) Barclay has dog symbolism / associations and Yasha has cat symbolism / associations via their beasts and actions. Symbolism might not be the best word here (similarities might be better) but like, Barclay is generally a friendly person and very loyal to his friends (a trait associated with dogs/wolves) while Yasha is more closed-off and solitary (albeit forced to be by circumstance) which are cat like traits! I have further cemented this connection in my brain bc I have also read the Spirit Animals series (in which they have similar bonding mechanics), and in those books people tend to gain some physical ability and/or behavioral likeness of their creature.
And there's probably more I'm forgetting!
Also, not a difference, but both of their families are dead, just realized that. What if Audrian somehow caused the blight on Trysk.. ooo that'd be some ANGST
Been trying to reread The Night Compass and I noticed the repeated descriptions of Yasha as cunning/calculating everything he says and does to go his way or have the most impact. Then when Barclay reminds him of that one scene with Yasha saving Barclay in the Desert I realized that for that scenario to align with Yasha's otherwise built up character/how he acts, he either
1 ) CALCULATED in the SPLIT SECOND decision time he had, that he could save Barclay from the magically-induced sinkhole AND brush it off as a trick to Audrian so he wasn't suspicious of him being too friendly with the enemy or something
2 ) For once he DIDN'T think things through when he went to save Barclay, and the "you tricked me!" Was his "oh shoot I screwed up (but not really) but Audrian is gonna be so suspicious what do I say to cover this up quick-"
Or maybe Audrian meant that to happen (he sure doesn't seem stupid) and let Yasha save him to give Barclay more to lay awake about and overthink to maybe end up joining them lol
I like the idea that Audrian DIDN'T plan that though, because the implications for Yasha's character...
And in TNC the "I always do the right thing" and Barclay's "no, you don't. But I think you try to" Oh my GOSHHHH-
Also random unrelated side note, as I was re-reading, I realized I related to Barclay quite a bit (idk what that says about me exactly lol) and out of curiosity I made basically a freaking like- Venn diagram to compare/contrast and let's just say that middle section was surprisingly full lol. I am the Barclay Thorne ever apparently lol
One evening a couple days ago I was hit with the sudden urge to rewrite a scene from The Night Compass from Yasha's POV and somehow locked in and finished it so I thought I'd post it if anyone wants to see ! :)
This is the first fic I've ever actually posted bc my ideas are usually gigantic and I never finish them lol
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Look at me go I'm an AO3 author now yippeee!! /silly
I have many thoughts and yapping under the cut! (It is A LOT, fair warning lol)
So obviously TTG SPOILERS under the cut! i feel like the last person to read it tho lol idk if anyone else has to worry about that loll ANYWAYS
Ok so first things first. Barclayyy. BROOO. Repeatedly calling yourself a freak and a coward, jumping off into things when you're emotionally unstable and probably not fully thinking it through. STOP. STOP IT MY BROTHER WE LOVE YOU AND WANT YOU TO LIVEEE!! Also this is made worse by the fact that I heavily relate to him and *I* wouldn't have done that so in my head it feels like 'Nooo you're not supposed to do that because *I* wouldn't do that!' lol
Next: I guessed that Cecily had something to do with Bale that moment she had the scene with the newspaper! I'm proud of that, though I wasn't exactly correct. My theory was that Bale might've been a relative of Cecily's (bc we also read not far from the newspaper scene that her parents never write to her) or that Cecily had worked for Bale when she was still officially a criminal. Also can we talk about how funny it is that Saidra's last name is "bale" and the first thing that happens to her is getting "bailed" out of prison lol
Onto Yasha bc he is definitely not my favorite (closely followed by Barks)! I want to know what Yasha was thinking when he called it for Barclay to wait. Like was he going to join him then? idk cuz then he probably couldn't have done the whole "traitor's gambit" thing. And for a minute I thought we weren't going to know what he said when all we knew he mouthed was “traitor”. Before Barclay had a lightbulb about what he said, I was thinking MAN there's so many ways you could go with that! like 'I'm the traitor' 'you're not the only traitor' 'Veera is the traitor' or simply 'traitor' directed at Barclay. UGHHH. But of course not one of my theories was the correct answer even tho it should've been obvious from their Kingmaker games and the TITLE OF THE BOOK what the answer was lol. Also I KNEW Yasha was second guessing about the Tundra! I called it! Because I really badly want him to be good lol. I don't quite understand how everyone (apprentices at least) so quickly decided to trust him after he stabbed Veera tho. Like I would still be wary, even if I want him to be good. also HE BETTER NOT DIE. If he dies I might actually cry. The yaoi was just un-dooming itself, you can't die now!!! Also you're my favorite!! :(
Now the Chitchat! first off as a lover of puns/wordplay that is SUCH a fun name it's so silly I love it! But also I was thinking the whole time, if the chitchat are connected to Wild Lore, why can't Barclay and Audrian hear it talking? I mean ig Audrian technically can with Veera telling him but why can't Barclay? Maybe her bond with it makes it so only she and Raajnavar can hear it, or she could forcefully exclude Barclay from tapping into it somehow?
Also Raajnavar: I had thought it was gonna be a tiger before the cover came out (probably bc the 'raaj' in the name makes me like of 'rajah' the tiger from Disney's Aladdin lol) but I like it as a croc/gator better bc I feel like it fits his ancient and terrifying feel better. And where did she put him???? like girl what??? where is Audrian not gonna find him?? Did you put him into an iceberg like Navrashtya or what??
And Barclay and Runa talking about "the thing" Audrian has that makes people believe in him. Like gang. There's a very simple word for it and that word is 'charisma'. He's not magical (for being charming anyway) he's just got a likable personality and/or is extremely manipulative and good at it. It's not a magical power??? lol
Then the “am I the only one who sees the irony here?” scene with Runa's apprentices. ACK. Like can we talk about their parallels? I don't think I really need to mention Barclay's bc everyone in the whole series talks about how he's similar to Audrian (except Yasha we love you for that! <3). But like, Tadg is similar to Runa. He's angry/grumpy but actually pretty chill when you get to know him, and it makes sense he acts like her if Runa half RAISED him for a while (even before Conley died and Tadg didn't have a mother bc she had already died), like he totally could've picked up on her mannerisms. And Viola used to be CYRIL's apprentice, and wants to be Grand Keeper, and spent a lot of her life in Leopold's shadow, like Cyril, and she's quite serious about her training and her "job" as being a guardian (job in quotes bc she's still training and not fully there yet).
Also Toadles actually having 'psychic lore' makes sense, especially after Runa asks the question at the end of TNC about how Grusha was right about the curse, in a way, and wondering what else she was right about, and one of the things Grusha had rambled on about was Toadles being a prophesied beast of some kind that was supposed to be able to see the future!
Also I love the name "Silver Seven" for the apprentices!! (though I will admit it took me a sec to do the mental math and remember Yasha was the seventh lol) Bc like, they're the next generation after the Grand Three (Color symbolism being gold, being the Grand Keeper's apprentices and Grand Keeper being connected (nowadays just symbolically) to the legendary beasts whose color is gold) and like the next rank after Gold is Silver- do you see what I mean?
A moment of silence for Rohan. I'm not as attached to him as some of you are (I didn't reread TES and TAA before TTG so I lowk forgor about him oops) but I liked him, sorry that happened :(
And let's talk about beasts! What do you guys think Creeps/Kabusoons look like?? I was originally (in TNC) imagining them like Haunter (the pokemon) but like, skinnier/longer, but now with the description of it's small shriveled form and fur as of TTG, I'm kinda thinking it's like a cross btwn Haunter and an aye-aye (the animal). And before I saw the post where someone explaining Marigold is a hippo, I was imagining her as like the salmonoids from Splatoon lol
Last but not least, thank you everyone for doing your best to hide spoilers! The only things I got spoiled for were Cecily having the tooth at some point, Yasha being the/a traitor, and Barclay gaining plant lore, and two of those I found on pinterest, not here. And the way I read the Cecily one in a split second almost made it sound like SHE was the traitor so that wasn't really a spoiler for what actually happened lol. And I read the Yasha one going 'oh no spoiler' and then went 'wait actually, nevermind. He BETTER be the traitor' lol
I might still have more to say later (how? great question) but that's all I got after just finishing! Props to you if you actually read all of this lol, hope you have a nice day! :D
This is super random but I just remembered the first time I ever read fanfiction on a website dedicated to fanfiction (making that specification bc I read warrior cats comics way before this and I feel like that counts as a fanfic honestly), and it was a complete accident lol
After finishing as much of Wilderlore as I could read in 2024, I was starving for content (tiny fandom problems lol) and looked the books up to see what fan content I could find.
I stumbled across several search results on a website called "A03" which I had never heard of at the time. 2024 me thought it was some kind of pre-release teaser archive for the books (hence the word "archive" in the name) bc I didn't realize it was just writing of all kinds for all kinds of fandoms and OCs lol. I didn't realize it was all fanfiction
That said, I proceeded to read a fic that took place during book 2 The Weeping Tide and in it Yasha gave Barclay a bracelet, and I was like "wait I don't remember that happening, did that happen??" And proceeded to spend a good chunk of my afternoon skimming through every instance that Yasha appears in the book, trying to find this thing that never actually happened because it was fanfiction and I just didn't know lol.
Then I found a Barclay x Yasha one and my little brain started to realize this was not canon material bc I remember reading smth about one of them pinning the other to a wall and I was like "ermm what is he doing??they never did that- what am I reading- what???" and now that I read fanfics on a regular basis (and ironically ship those characters but in a non freaky way bc they're literally children and I'm not a "freaky-enjoyer" if you will lol) I think the way I discovered them is hilarious
I just think it's funny that I was so desperate for content that I went down a rabbit hole and discovered A03 but didn't check the homepage first to realize non of it was canon lolll (also if you're reading this, you're in the Wilderlore fandom, and that was your fic I mentioned, thanks for introducing me to A03 accidentally lol)
Here is me giving my two cents of fanart bc I felt like I needed to draw smth after the finale (can't believe I haven't drawn any fanart for this series so far)
UGHH THE FINALEEE-!! As everyone else has been saying, I'm not coping, you're coping haha..
also yes it's a quote from ep10 not ep11 but it was the line that resonated with me the most. I wanted to include it in whatever drew just I case I lock out and never draw anything else for this show bc it means a lot to me.
I can't believe it's been almost two years. I remember watching the trailer... (or maybe it was ep1 I forgot but I was there for the beginning). I've literally grown so much in that time frame and it's a little surreal to think about because looking back it's kinda like the series was just Ivory living in another timeline that goes slower than ours, and her story is just now wrapping up as I've been living my own in the meantime.
This series has been amazing. It sort of pushes the boundaries in the sort of stuff I'm comfortable watching, but doesn't quite cross them. It covers so much of just. Humanity. And it was so beautiful to watch and listen to (vas and music were SO GOOD oh my GOSH-) and I'm so glad I was here for it. Even if the timing of when these last two episodes came out was especially emotional for me based on things happening at that time.
Anyways thank you for your time, whoever's reading this, I hope you're having a wonderful day :)
me when I post smth saying I might be dead to the fandom for a while and then the first thing I post after not even a week is more of that fandom lol. ANYWAYS-
Took a break from that animatic for a while cuz I lost motivation bc of Minecraft Diaries and Artfight lol but I started working on it again! Here's another frame that appears for a very short time that I'm posting as its own thing for the time being! :)
Frosty draws hands with more that one finger for once not clickbait lol
YIKES the contrast for the two blues looked so much better in the animatic software I swearrrr but if you can't read it it's basically the wild Lore heartbeat, and this frame is when Barclay almost causes the blight in the Tundra. It's blue because it was supposed to be reminiscent of the color of the aurora + glacier point when they're functioning properly. Might change it to gold later since it's more symbolic but idk yet.
Now on frame 50-ish out of 80-something because my estimate went up AGAIN because I suck at estimating apparently/add more things in as I go constantly yayyyy.. but at least it will be not half-baked and hopefully very epic !!! And now it's over halfway done !!! :D
Grinded my way through 22 frames since my last update but the problem is I'm bad at estimating and the total went up lol- we're now at 33 out of something like 70-75 (help) but hey that's like half way, almost!! we are COOKING-!!!
If you've read TNC you can probably start to guess what scene animatic this is about... perchance... (a good bit of the animatic is gonna be pretty close to the book action-wise! Not exactly word for word, but this frame definitely is. Probably gonna include some direct quotes in the instrumental of the song too)
Barclay is looking forward in the frame before this and took a step back, it highkey looks like he's looking at Root here because he's scared of him, but he's just looking behind him because he's looking to see what he bumped into lol
Every time I draw Yasha his hair gets fluffier... I am not upset with this development actually haha
