i needed a sideblog for all my fandom feelings

But it got me thinking about if you took that statement more LITERALLY, since Kel has some literal prophecy bullshit happening regarding that particular title.

She HAS always been the Protector of the Small, because that's how prophecies often work. She was born the Protector of the Small, destined to follow in Alanna's footsteps and train to be a Knight and go to Haven and defeat Blayce. This was always going to happen because it's always been who she is, from the moment she came into existence, maybe even before.

Which brings up plenty of questions about how much of a choice she really has in all of it. How much of a choice did anyone AROUND her have, if Kel needs to exist and exist in a particular way? Does that prophecy impact Alanna's own fate, or Jon's, in order to allow Kel to be the person who follows in Alanna's footsteps and become the second female knight in several centuries? How connected is Alanna and Jon's intertwined destiny to Kel's own predetermined fate? And how involved is Wyldon in Kel's fate, his bigotry and stubbornness necessary to push Kel in certain directions? And if Wyldon's included, then so is Ozorne since Wyldon only ends up as the training master due to an injury he got during the Immortals War. And since Tortall needs to WIN the Immortals war in order for Kel to take the path she takes, Daine and Numair's own lives might be caught up in her fate, too.

How many choices does Kel herself truly make on her own? How many of them were predetermined for her? And how does it work when her prophecy is something seemingly created by whatever entity powers the Chamber of the Ordeal instead of one of the regular pantheon of gods? The gods' prophecies don't even always seem to come true, or at least not always exactly the way they thought it would happen, as proved by what happens in the Copper Isles with Sarai and Dove and Kyprioth's reaction to it. And the gods don't even get total control over the prophecy's outcome, they depend upon humans to make the prophecies come true, again as seen by Kyprioth's nervousness and reliance on people like Aly and his anger when things seemingly go awry. They can even fuck each other's prophecies over, since the Graveyard Hag helps Sarai run off by distracting Aly.

Great has been into solving crossword puzzles lately [insp.]

The hardest part sometimes it being haunted by what a show didn't do and I am forever going to be haunted by the fact that Ramil and Paytai's final scene was them weeping on a beach together, abandoned by the world but still beholden to it, never truly free but at least together again. A bittersweet ending of so many issues that the show barely managed to handle made masterful by the actors who understood their roles... Ramil, abused in front of his peers but forced to be the villain in the end because no one could see past who he had to become to survive and Paytai, tied to him in childhood but choosing him in the end forever tied to him as the only person who could understand their lives and the only person who saw him and was seen by him.

Whenever his father is talking shit about Rati in their home or at the school, Dech tells him to shut up. Anytime his father has caught him with Mek, he has not shied away from being seen with a servant. Every time his father mentions working in Foreign Affairs, Dech mentions how he doesn't want to do that type of work. And when his father was physically assaulting Buaphan, Dech stepped in and protected her.

I'm always begging BL boys to kill their shitty fathers, but what Dech is doing is so much more pleasurable because he is showing his father that he is better than him all the time. He is showing his father that he will never be as cruel as him no matter how awful his father is, even to him. Dech is kind and will not be swayed even from family pressure.

And that's what I love best about Memoir of Rati because even Thee is showing his father that he has no intention of following in his footsteps.

Thee's father is not cruel like Dech's, but he is weak and has no desire to go against the norm unlike Thee who is constantly making it clear that he will be brave about his love.

I like that these BL boys in a historical drama are using the past to shape the future in their present. I like that they are looking at society in that moment and knowing that it can all be different. But beyond knowing it could all be different, they are actively changing it through love and kindness.

God bless the brave boys, who despite it all, decide to make the world a better place.

For everyone.

Kill your shitty father

Woof.

OHM THANAKRIT as PAYTAI in The Next Prince (2025)

GUNNER NATSAKAN as THUN in Knock Out (2025)

HUANG XING as HUA YONG in ABO Desire (2025)

a dream, a wish, a moment in time with you

for @zannolin and their fic perchance to dream

and i wish to be honoured as your lover.

Bruce: Clark:

A lot of things portrayed or marketed as bows are actually something else. So how can we tell the difference?