You bury your child. Distant land, unfamiliar territory within your own homeland, and yet so far from home. You stand at the crown of this insignificant hill, unfit for a princess, your heir, your twin, your friend, your child. And the last time you saw her war-stricken face, you didn't even know it would be your last, and the determination lining the ferocity of revenge and exhaustion in the creases of her eyes, her brilliant intelligence and curiosity lighting a torch down the broad and dark path called Death.
You lay her down in the sickeningly sweet earth, your dwindling people by your side, your queen by your side, your now singular daughter by your side.
“You continue to teach me“ —and the Bulb’s light casts dancing shadows through the trees on a gravestone upon a hill too humble for a King and his family.
And then they sail away from that nameless place, their dearly loved one now lying still, and cold, and so so quiet beneath this land of churning blood and gore and the stink of war in which no tears or love can save her anymore.
something about angwyn saying "I will find what is wrong with your mind and I will change it" and adaine telling him "you've been trying to do that for a very long time and I'm sorry to tell you that it has not worked" and jawbone shaking her "having panic attacks is not a character flaw" and adaine saying "this medicine is great!" and summoning a familiar and learning how to help herself and how to channel and manage her anxiety and live with it, and learning how to love herself and love her brain even though it's fucking hard but doing it anyway because "I know that my friends do love me, so maybe there is hope for us yet" so if that's enough, oh god maybe thats enough, maybe she is enough, maybe her brain is enough, is making me. feel. things.,
This absolutely breaks my fucking heart 💔
(Misfits and Magic, episode 4)
lying awake at night thinking about emily axford characters and friendship. fig giving gorgug drumsticks to help him deal with his rage. sofia taking a rat into her heart without hesitation. calliope's dedication to calder throughout his absence. 'maybe im not an artist maybe im just a really good friend'. just. the acknowledgement that friendship is central to a person's life. not something that fills up space until romance can truly make you whole but something fundamental to one's existence
A right hand man. A trusty sword. A friend.
Deli finds comfort in his new acquaintance. Colin Provolone is a sturdy and simple man— quick and skilled in battle, a loyal and reliable in service, and also a good friend. Deli, with boyhood now smudged against the edges of his face, grows into his position of The Meat Lands.
Colin keeps the promise he made years ago to a disgruntled mother in the corner of an expansive hall in Comida. He listens and enacts the advises and discussions made for the benefit of this land far from home. He keeps guard and wrestles the yawns that strangle his throat and eyes as politics are discussed. All standing, never leaving, the right hand of Deli.
Colin watches Deli through the days, this leader guided with a willpower of steel, the love and dedication to the unification of his home watering his quick growth and maturation. Two years and Deli had become a fearsome, confident and ambitious young man.
Then Deli lies a gift upon his shoulders— Skald Colin Provolone, meaning poet (sing the songs of heroes, be my witness, carve my name into history, approve of my works).
And when Deli uses this title, Colin doesn’t question. He only grips his sword tighter, stands straighter, observes steadier. Deli’s sword and shield. His skald, his poet.
And at night he meets a softer, kinder Deli. They sit on the edge of Deli’s bed, talking and laughing about smaller matters. Sweeter things, like childhood and gossip that whisper down the hallways. He watched Deli’s expressions pour out, an innocence that splays across his face. He finds delight in those times, a remedy for a past he tries to forget. Light laughter, “simple is always how we’ve kept things”, and drunkenness fills the air between the two.
Two quiet years. Then comes blood.
And blood and blood pours from a carriage and drips, viscous, hot and real from hands and blades.
A quiet shatter in friendship. A trusty sword clanks at the feet of Deli and the familiar, light scent of cheese drifts far away from the house.
For the first time in two years, Deli is alone. A void renders behind him where his skald, his poet, would be standing.
And then five years pass and Colin sees Deli again. Scars rip at his face and he explains in whispers the ambush which landed him with it. Colin examines Deli’s face and finds little. A hardened and rough man. Colin thinks Deli resembles his mother.
Colin thinks about how he might’ve been able to prevent it, how he would’ve kept his promise, how he would have been able to protect him or die trying. Deli’s sword and shield, his skald, his poet.
There, Colin watches Karna die and the light leave Deli’s eyes. He watches the replaced Skald (and he thinks about the way Deli reached out to her with this title that fit her so effortlessly) shredded into a million pieces and he hears something in Deli die along with it.
This time Colin saves him. He nurses his old friend to stability and yet the “yeah, we’ll talk later” never comes as he watches Deli walk off into the sunset, now a man that would never be the boy, the friend Colin knew five years ago. A man with a cold and lifeless portrait, his soft edges ragged and a heart half rotten.
A sword. A shield. A skald, a poet. Colin keeps a promise to a mother and son made seven years ago. A protector, dedicated and loyal. He swings his sword quietly, precisely, dangerously against the ones who killed all his friends, dead or alive. Colin Provolone, sole survivor of the Saprophus, the poet of dead heroes.
The Rook’s exchange.
Ayda Aguefort 🐦🔥
I love how despite all his cheating allegations, Foolish has only attempted “cheating” twice
Meanwhile all those who hold these allegations against him have flirted at him AT LEAST ONCE!!
I just think it’s quite hilarious
neurodivergent and queer people how are we feeling?
bishop takes queen
do you ever think about how the bad kids were only just children during s1?
Gorgug was 14 years old when he first died and had ended up in that dark forest, and when he was resurrected had to live through the terror that followed him to the waking world with the thought that he ended up in hell, because he was only 14, just a child, what had he done to end up in such a place? was it a result of his rage, the rage he was constantly trying to tamper down, was his simple nature fundamentally horrible enough to automatically buy him a seat in hell?
Kristen was only 14 when she had her entire existence turned upside down, everything she'd known and believed in unraveled in just one day. She had died, she'd met god(!), the god that had spoken to her, guided her, given her reason and given her purpose, and yet the meeting was disappointing, and it left Kristen confused and scared and wondering what to do next, what path to take if the one with Helio, the path she'd been walking her whole life, turned out to be leading to a destination she didn't want.
And isn't it scary, isn't it terrifying to end up in the place you've heard so many horrible rumors about, and for all those violent tales to turn out to be true? The moment Adaine walked into her new school all her fears were confirmed, and in just a few hours she went from bitterly mourning not being at Hudol to stealing an important book from the library, from sitting in detention to holding a broken out of shape ladle, sleeves of her uniform ripped and blood smearing her clothes and face, a body at her feet of a women who surely did not deserve anything that Adaine had just done to her.
Isn't it scary when everything suddenly goes so awfully, horribly wrong, and now you're stuck in a party with a group of people you don't know at all, who you didn't choose, and you're all just kids having to witness all these things you didn't sign up for and yet everything is only just beginning, and now you can't go back
My next analysis has to be about The Ravening War and its allegories to chess.
The dichotomy between dice and its superstitions and randomness with chess and strategy and wit has to be studied under a microscope.
Especially in a story like the Ravening War where the characters each have such a distinct style of movement to clutch power and gain momentum in the story. Not to mention that they make references to the game itself many times!!
Very very interesting.