Lazy Times

- the jewelled eyes are ?? kind of explicitly said to not be (entirely) blue (Athy compares then to a peridot once and Cabel later says Athy’s eyes are neither blue or green but rather like several colors at the same time, and I’m not entirely sure about this translation but I think Athy, at some point, said Claude’s eyes looked dark green under the shadow of a tree).

- Older Ijekiel is said to look pretty manly, which I don’t think is the case in the manhwa imo

- Lucas doesn’t have long hair! It is mentioned that it got a bit longer at some point (and that he wanted to cut it because it was annoying him), but it was always short to begin with so it couldn’t have been that long.

- I’m p sure Jennette’s hair is described as brown, so darker than her chestnut (?) shade from the manhwa.

- Athy said Penelope (when she was her portrait in Claude’s bedroom) looked pretty and that seemed to be a woman who likes to dress up but that’s pretty much it, while she looks like a typical villain in the manwha

- maybe Felix would have like, actual red? ginger hair rather than bright crimson lol

- Athy says Lily looks very delicate as if “a gust of wind could make her fly away” Lmao 😭

- Athy also said Diana’s eyes were purple, and in the manhwa they’re rather pink-ish? A bit red in some panels.

- Athy also said that in his portrait outside Claude’s office, Aeternitas had long and pretty golden hair (tied up in a ponytail?? I think??) and that he looked very wise

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The theme of magic in “Who Made me a Princess”: The Imperial Family’s magic, Lucas’ magic, the magicians of the Black Tower and the source of magic. PART 1

[Wow I really think this is my longer post. I hope everything is understandable and clear >.<]

Okay so first of all, let’s explain what mana is in WMMAP:

Mana is basically the source of magic, it’s horsepower. Without mana, there is no magic. And everyone has mana, and therefore, magic: in the novel, Lucas explains to Athanasia that everybody posses mana/magic, it’s rather a question of whether or not they can summon it/use it, and if it’s powerful enough to be useful. Mana/magic also greatly impacts it’s user’s life, as if a person posses a big amount of mana, they will age more slowly than a normal person, even stop aging at some point and live for a long period. And magic is not always hereditary, at the exception of the Obelian imperial family:

The de Alger Obelia are the heirs and possessors of a very unique and powerful magic: the blue magic. That magic is what causes them to have jewelled eyes. Basically, their magic is so powerful and rooted in their genes that it causes a physical manifestation. (That’s why every single child from the Imperial family has jewelled eyes. If Athanasia and Lucas were to have a child (*cough* WHICH THEY DO), the child would have blue jewelled eyes, and not red eyes. Unless Spoon decides to change that rule and make Lucas’ magic hereditary.) Therefore, as they have a very powerful mana, the members of the imperial family age slowly and live long lives, and that’s why they are given names related to immortality/eternity.

Oh, and there is also something else hereditary about the de Alger Obelias’ magic: it’s instability. Originally, the imperial’s family was flammes, but after Aethernitas’ reign (which will be explained down 👇🏽), it became unstable.

(I wonder why there are not more people with jewelled eyes tho. How come that Claude and Anastacius don’t have siblings, aunts, uncles or cousins???)

Therefore, the Imperial family can use some “specials” spells, like one called “the dragon of wisdom(?)”, that Claude uses in the novel to cure Athanasia after her second explosion of mana, during her tea party. The dragon cured Athanasia in exchange of Claude’s most precious possession: his memories of Athanasia. (*sobs*)

(You ses that?? The blue electricity?? It’s Athanasia’s blue magic. It’s not blue only for aesthetics hehe)

Continuing with the Imperial’s family magic, you might wonder why Athanasia has a divine creature, Blackie, and nobody else (Claude, Anastacius or even Jenette) has one?

Athanasia has too much magic to contain in her small body, so her mana expulsed itself out of her and got transformed into a “living repicient” of mana. Although Lucas claims that it’s not really alive, and that Blackie is rather just something that “exists”, we can see that Blackie has his own conscience. For example, he purposely stayed away from Athanasia, knowing her desire to survive (Blackie “knew” that Athy would be endangered if they stayed together), he always wandered out of the palaces because he had the same desire to escape as Athanasia, he saved her when Lucas tried to kill her and he has his own likings (chocolate, just like Athy).

And just in case you were wondering, Athanasia’s first explosion of mana was 100% due to the fact that she spent too much time with Blackie, as she absorbed too much mana for her body, causing her to collapse. In the novel, after Lucas goes away to find the world tree, she also spends too much time with Blackie, so she collapses again.

However, in the manhwa, her second explosion of mana is due to Jenette/Anastacius/Karax/Aethernitas’ cursed ribbon.

So why doesn’t Claude have a magical beast (or at least never had one)?

Well, Claude has always been a powerful magician, so he could have had a divine animal, but instead of that, he has Felix.

Yes. Felix.

Lmao.

As I explained in the post about Felix, he and Claude were raised together as brothers by their mothers. And being a magic genius, when he was 3 (and Felix 5), Claude “deposited” his surplus mana in Felix, who then became his recipient of magic, so to say. That’s why Claude never needed a magical beast. Felix is his own Blackie lmao

And about Anastacius, although he inherited the Imperial family’s magic, he is way less stronger than the talented Claude. He only had power and influence because he was the empress’ son and because he had the emperor’s favor. Then, he resorted to a forbidden magic to try to overpower Claude: black magic. Thus, he created Jenette, thinking that she could help him defeat Claude. In the manhwa, it seems like he was possessed by someone (I’ll talk about him in a bit), and resorted to black magic to survive/ressuscite.

And about Jenette, like I said in my post about her (although it’s based on informations of the novel, not of the manhwa, not it might be different in the latter), she doesn’t have Imperial blood: Penelope (kind of) engendred her alone, with the help of black magic and a few drops of Anastacius’ blood, which colored her eyes in the jewelled blue. So she doesn’t have a powerful blue magic (and blue magic at all) and thus no divine beast.

So do yo remember Karax, aka Aethernitas? The novel’s antagonist, and the guy who apparently possessed Anastacius in the manhwa?

Aethernitas is an Obelian emperor that lived some thousands of years before Athanasia was born. He was the son of the powerful magician and wise emperor Cailum, who was friends with Lucas.

However, Aethernitas himself did not have a great mana. Lucas even said that his amount of mana was pitiful.

Aethernitas is described as gloomy and empty hearted, and he became obessed with Lucas. Lucas was the only person he was interested in. Then, Cailum asked Lucas to take Aethernitas as his apprentice and train him to become a great (or at least decent) magician, and Lucas obviously refused because of his dislike towards Aethernitas.

Remember that during Lucas’ “era”, magic was much more common and there was a lot of very powerful magicians. When he became emperor, Aethernitas started using black magic + killing his subjects and people to absorb their mana, thus becoming “powerful” and living until a very old age (at least 150 years old if I’m not wrong), and reigning as a tyrant, sinking his empire in fear, terror and black magic. But not as old as Lucas, of course, as Lucas is naturally way stronger than Aethernitas (and pretty much than everyone else in the whole world).

Since Aethernitas’s reign, the imperial magic became unstable, as his descendants inherited the effects of his mishandling of magic. Even Claude, as a small child (before putting his excess of mana in Felix), has problems with his magic, but it’s mainly visible in Athanasia, as you may already know.

So that’s why Lucas despises Aethernitas so much. Oh, and Aethernitas also seems to have corrupted/modified history books about him so he was remembered as a wise and powerful emperor. Only Lucas, who was alive at that moment, knows the truth.

Now let’s talk about our favorite magician:

Lucas, of course.

(All of these informations come from the novel. It’s seems to be a bit different in the manhwa. For example Lucas’ age.)

Lucas is the second son of a wealthy, noble (?) family. He has an older brother, older than him from a few years, and a younger brother, who was born when he was already a teenager.

However, he is the most special of his siblings, as he was born with a monstrous amount of mana that manifested when he was only a small, small child. He was playing with his only brother, who suddenly took a toy from little Lucas’ hands, angering him. When their parents entered the room after hearing a loud noise, they found Lucas’ brother unconscious, bathing in blood, and Lucas playing quietly by his side with the toy. From that moment, the whole family started fearing Lucas, and because of what they isolated him in the annex of their house.

From that moment, little Lucas stared living alone, with only a maid who took care of him, but who was still kinda indifferent to him. He grew up alone, seeing his brother being loved by their parents and he often pranked them with his magic to try to capt their attention, but they always ignored him, only fearing him more.

When Lucas was a teenager, an unexpected guest arrived to his annex: the then-Guardian of the Black Tower, one of the most powerful magicians of the world (if not the strongest one at that time).That man (I don’t remember his name, if he had one) had heard of Lucas, and decided to visit him to confirm his magical strength. After realising that just like him, Lucas had an en enormous (like. ENOURMOUS) amount of mana and a great capacity with magic, he decided to take him to his tower and train him as his future disciple. (I’m not going to expand on Lucas’ past or their relationship any more because it’s not the goal of this post hehe)

Several hundreds of years later, his master (who already was 800 years old when he met Lucas) fell in love with a young woman, and he had a son with her. Lucas stopped meeting his master because he didn’t understand his attitude and love towards his family, thinking it was ridiculous. But obviously, his wife ended up dying of old age, and when Lucas met his master again, his master’s son was already an old, dying man. Once the son died, Lucas met his master once again at their tower: (THE TRUTH IS THAT I DON’T QUITE UNDERSTOOD/REMEBER THIS MONENT SO... >.<) his master had used black magic to forget his family or had freezed his own heart, then killed himself in front of Lucas, telling him that his (Lucas’) existence was pitiful, as in several hundred of years, he never truly loved something or someone, nor was loved, and that once he finally truly loves someone, he will understand his desperation after his family’s death, but that at the same time, he hopes he will never experience such sadness and disparu. His last words were that he always considered Lucas as his son, and that is was only natural for a parent to die before his child.

From that moment, Lucas became the new Guardian of the Black Tower, and (hundreds of) years later, he met Cailum and Aethernitas, etc...

Part 2

Now: where does magic emanate from?

From the World Tree.

The World Tree is a counscious being that bears fruits full of powerful magic every 500 years, and it’s directly linked to the world Athanasia lives in, and probably to all of the other universes: for example, in the novel, Lucas has a whole battle against the tree to have one of it’s best fruits and a branch, and it dures several days. The tree kinda gives up at the end, after realising that Lucas’ power was monstrous and “almost” infinite.

That battled caused several “natural” disaster all around the continent (as explained in chapters 56 and 57 of the manhwa), and probably all around the world:

Now (and finally @-@) I’ll talk about the Black Tower and it’s magicians:

The obelian Empire is the main place that regroups the best magicians of the world in one institution under the orders of the imperial family: the Black Tower.

(That’s not THE Black Tower btw. It’s Lucas’/his master’s tower. The true Black Tower is bigger and white. It’s explained in the novel that the “Black” Tower is white to “balance” it. Kinda like the Ying/Yang relationship. I hope it’s understandable lmao.)

In the novel, Lucas says that powerful wizards were much many and commun before his slumber, and that he was shocked/disappointed to see that most of them had disappeared. It was probably due to Aethernitas, who absorbed their mana/killed them.

So, the sorcerers of the Black Tower have an important place in Obelia, which functions greatly because of magic. For example, they elaborate spells to help agriculture.

All of the sorcerers of the Black Tower are greatly devoted to their work, and they barely have personal lives.

I think that’s all??? @-@

wmmap as textposts, exclusively lucathy edition !

i think i need to make a list of all the really tiny body language things i noticed Romance (and abby a little bit but romance does them more) doing from like the second time he meets Mira and onwards. maybe im insane but listen this shit has me convinced he’s definitely already obsessed with her *canonically*. so. here!

first time we don’t even get a shot of them in the same frame they meet there isn’t much, but i did notice he seems to be specifically *not* looking at them. Like the type of thing you do when you see someone hot and you don’t want them to know that you think they’re hot.

second we don’t get them in the same frame but two things happen that I’m convinced could’ve caught his attention from the stage and ignited his little crush; when Mira managed to catch *and* completely stop the momentum of that flying heart, and when she demanded that they Kill Them Right Now

then on play games with us. look at where he’s standing after the hot sauce challenge

Now look at where he’s standing after Jinu announces they have a special guests

his ass MOVED CLOSER (and so did Mystery). and you cannot tell me those two are not specifically posing to look cool for their little crushes. it looks like someone just yelled ‘be natural’ in a DCOM.

and then finally when it’s time to bow, he moves right up next to Jinu, knowing that Huntrix will probably line themselves up parallel to the first three of them. So he moves to the second spot, because it means either he’s right in front of Mira or she’s just barely to one side. (Mystery totally lost out to Abby, look at his lips. They’re pressed into a thin line like he’s *annoyed*, i choose to believe it’s about not facing Zoey while Abby is right across from her)

now, the bathhouse

you *cannot tell me* his ass does not look a little bit sad here. look at his eyebrows. This is immediately after Abby accuses ‘that one’ of always looking at him and Mira gets embarrassed and denies it (while checking him out). he is pouting about Abby getting more attention and i refuse to believe otherwise

then he’s smiling again by the time Jinu mentions killing the hunters. Almost like he’s remembering that they have a mission and she’s technically his enemy

When they’re on stage and the Saja boys win that award and she’s glaring daggers at the group, his head is straight forward until the very last second, and then it just *barely* tilts in the direction of where Huntrix is standing. Like it’s so quick and not even really there that I can’t get a proper screenshot, but if you watch his head as he bows and looks around, he turns it to the left a bit but *refuses* to look directly to his right. It’s almost as if he’s trying really hard to see out of his peripheral but didn’t want to actually look.

Then the second time when Huntrix is the one that wins.

Look at their order in the two. Mystery is always closest to the girls, and i’m convinced Abby and Romance are *taking turns* for who gets to stand closer to Mira. Romance also turns his head to look at them even more than Jinu does. Also i genuinely think his smile at them looks just a little less smug than everyone else’s but that’s debatable

The entire signing, all of it. He’s the one standing the farthest from Mira when they take off the sleeping bags, he walks to the entire other side of the table to sit with her. His arm is on the back of her chair the *entire time*. He doesn’t take it off until the very end.

He looks away from her once, *barely* when she says ‘thanks for coming’ to the one fan. Other than that he’s only ever looking at her face or her poster when she’s signing it. Those three photos on the left are from three separate moments where they’re in the bg of Rumi and Jinu’s convo.

he looks away once more when the flowers get thrown at him. other than that finger heart at the end He’s literally not even paying attention to the fans. and that bottom left picture, he gets *even closer* than that, i just couldn’t pause it at the right time. but dude was literally close enough that if he did a duck face he could’ve kissed her cheek. like, even if he’s acting he’s going *over the top* to the point where he’s actively inhibiting the original plan, which is winning over the fans. Jinu’s already decided to use Rumi, Romance doesn’t *need* to win Mira over. But his ass definitely *wants* to.

Then backstage at the idol awards. Like jesus christ man

Her and Abby both just staring *directly at her*, he doesn’t turn away at all until she’s totally passed by.

We don’t see him again until *right here. That photo in the top left where he’s not looking at the camera? They all look sad, but Romance does not look like he’s faking it.

He’s looking down at his nails when they switch screens, he doesn’t exactly look thrilled about what Jisu is announcing. Baby’s face is already relaxed again, but Romance is still barely frowning. He’s also the *last one to smile* when they gesture to namsan tower. looking just slightly off to the side instead of directly at the crowd, like that expression in the bottom right looks half zoned out to me.

Oh, and that photo in the bottom left? *That* is his ‘smile’ when gesturing to the tower. Look at it compared to Baby’s. It’s like it’s not even there. And he’s also *clenching his fist at his side* instead of casually resting it in his pocket like we’ve seen him doing the *entire rest of the movie*

I already mentioned his sour expression when Huntrix shows up at the final battle, but i want to specifically point out that he *clenches his jaw*. His lips are parted, then they’re not.

And finally, this moment. When Mira gets distracted. He *could have killed her here*, or at the very least tried to. He doesn’t even try to push the blade or hit her in the face or anything. It’s fighting dirty, but why would demons care about that? We see Jinu doesn’t when he starts teleporting to dodge Rumi the first time they fight.

(Even when life beats you down)

Look, I’m a mom, I have ADHD, I’m a spoonie. To say that I don’t have heaps of energy to spare and I struggle with consistency is an understatement. For years, I tried to write consistently, but I couldn’t manage to keep up with habits I built and deadlines I set.

So fuck neurodivergent guides on building habits, fuck “eat the frog first”, fuck “it’s all in the grind”, and fuck “you just need time management”—here is how I manage to write often and a lot.

Focus on having fun, not on the outcome

This was the groundwork I had to lay before I could even start my streak. At an online writing conference, someone said: “If you push yourself and meet your goals, and you publish your book, but you haven’t enjoyed the process… What’s the point?” and hoo boy, that question hit me like a truck.

I was so caught up in the narrative of “You’ve got to show up for what’s important” and “Push through if you really want to get it done”. For a few years, I used to read all these productivity books about grinding your way to success, and along the way I started using the same language as they did. And I notice a lot of you do so, too.

But your brain doesn’t like to grind. No-one’s brain does, and especially no neurodivergent brain. If having to write gives you stress or if you put pressure on yourself for not writing (enough), your brain’s going to say: “Huh. Writing gives us stress, we’re going to try to avoid it in the future.”

So before I could even try to write regularly, I needed to teach my brain once again that writing is fun. I switched from countable goals like words or time to non-countable goals like “fun” and “flow”.

Rewire my brain: writing is fun and I’m good at it

I used everything I knew about neuroscience, psychology, and social sciences. These are some of the things I did before and during a writing session. Usually not all at once, and after a while I didn’t need these strategies anymore, although I sometimes go back to them when necessary.

I journalled all the negative thoughts I had around writing and try to reason them away, using arguments I knew in my heart were true. (The last part is the crux.) Imagine being supportive to a writer friend with crippling insecurities, only the friend is you.

Not setting any goals didn’t work for me—I still nurtured unwanted expectations. So I did set goals, but made them non-countable, like “have fun”, “get in the flow”, or “write”. Did I write? Yes. Success! Your brain doesn’t actually care about how high the goal is, it cares about meeting whatever goal you set.

I didn’t even track how many words I wrote. Not relevant.

I set an alarm for a short time (like 10 minutes) and forbade myself to exceed that time. The idea was that if I write until I run out of mojo, my brain learns that writing drains the mojo. If I write for 10 minutes and have fun, my brain learns that writing is fun and wants to do it again.

Reinforce the fact that writing makes you happy by rewarding your brain immediately afterwards. You know what works best for you: a walk, a golden sticker, chocolate, cuddle your dog, whatever makes you happy.

I conditioned myself to associate writing with specific stimuli: that album, that smell, that tea, that place. Any stimulus can work, so pick one you like. I consciously chose several stimuli so I could switch them up, and the conditioning stays active as long as I don’t muddle it with other associations.

Use a ritual to signal to your brain that Writing Time is about to begin to get into the zone easier and faster. I guess this is a kind of conditioning as well? Meditation, music, lighting a candle… Pick your stimulus and stick with it.

Specifically for rewiring my brain, I started a new WIP that had no emotional connotations attached to it, nor any pressure to get finished or, heaven forbid, meet quality norms. I don’t think these techniques above would have worked as well if I had applied them on writing my novel.

It wasn’t until I could confidently say I enjoyed writing again, that I could start building up a consistent habit. No more pushing myself.

I lowered my definition for success

When I say that nowadays I write every day, that’s literally it. I don’t set out to write 1,000 or 500 or 10 words every day (tried it, failed to keep up with it every time)—the only marker for success when it comes to my streak is to write at least one word, even on the days when my brain goes “naaahhh”. On those days, it suffices to send myself a text with a few keywords or a snippet. It’s not “success on a technicality (derogatory)”, because most of those snippets and ideas get used in actual stories later. And if they don’t, they don’t. It’s still writing. No writing is ever wasted.

A side note on high expectations, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism

Obviously, “Setting a ridiculously low goal” isn’t something I invented. I actually got it from those productivity books, only I never got it to work. I used to tell myself: “It’s okay if I don’t write for an hour, because my goal is to write for 20 minutes and if I happen to keep going for, say, an hour, that’s a bonus.” Right? So I set the goal for 20 minutes, wrote for 35 minutes, and instead of feeling like I exceeded my goal, I felt disappointed because apparently I was still hoping for the bonus scenario to happen. I didn’t know how to set a goal so low and believe it.

I think the trick to making it work this time lies more in the groundwork of training my brain to enjoy writing again than in the fact that my daily goal is ridiculously low. I believe I’m a writer, because I prove it to myself every day. Every success I hit reinforces the idea that I’m a writer. It’s an extra ward against imposter syndrome.

Knowing that I can still come up with a few lines of dialogue on the Really Bad Days—days when I struggle to brush my teeth, the day when I had a panic attack in the supermarket, or the day my kid got hit by a car—teaches me that I can write on the mere Bad-ish Days.

The more I do it, the more I do it

The irony is that setting a ridiculously low goal almost immediately led to writing more and more often. The most difficult step is to start a new habit. After just a few weeks, I noticed that I needed less time and energy to get into the zone. I no longer needed all the strategies I listed above.

Another perk I noticed, was an increased writing speed. After just a few months of writing every day, my average speed went from 600 words per hour to 1,500 wph, regularly exceeding 2,000 wph without any loss of quality.

Talking about quality: I could see myself becoming a better writer with every passing month. Writing better dialogue, interiority, chemistry, humour, descriptions, whatever: they all improved noticeably, and I wasn’t a bad writer to begin with.

The increased speed means I get more done with the same amount of energy spent. I used to write around 2,000-5,000 words per month, some months none at all. Nowadays I effortlessly write 30,000 words per month. I didn’t set out to write more, it’s just a nice perk.

Look, I’m not saying you should write every day if it doesn’t work for you. My point is: the more often you write, the easier it will be.

No pressure

Yes, I’m still working on my novel, but I’m not racing through it. I produce two or three chapters per month, and the rest of my time goes to short stories my brain keeps projecting on the inside of my eyelids when I’m trying to sleep. I might as well write them down, right?

These short stories started out as self-indulgence, and even now that I take them more seriously, they are still just for me. I don’t intend to ever publish them, no-one will ever read them, they can suck if they suck. The unintended consequence was that my short stories are some of my best writing, because there’s no pressure, it’s pure fun.

Does it make sense to spend, say, 90% of my output on stories no-one else will ever read? Wouldn’t it be better to spend all that creative energy and time on my novel? Well, yes. If you find the magic trick, let me know, because I haven’t found it yet. The short stories don’t cannibalize on the novel, because they require different mindsets. If I stopped writing the short stories, I wouldn’t produce more chapters. (I tried. Maybe in the future? Fingers crossed.)

Don’t wait for inspiration to hit

There’s a quote by Picasso: “Inspiration hits, but it has to find you working.” I strongly agree. Writing is not some mystical, muse-y gift, it’s a skill and inspiration does exist, but usually it’s brought on by doing the work. So just get started and inspiration will come to you.

Accountability and community

Having social factors in your toolbox is invaluable. I have an offline writing friend I take long walks with, I host a monthly writing club on Discord, and I have another group on Discord that holds me accountable every day. They all motivate me in different ways and it’s such a nice thing to share my successes with people who truly understand how hard it can be.

The productivity books taught me that if you want to make a big change in your life or attitude, surrounding yourself with people who already embody your ideal or your goal huuuugely helps. The fact that I have these productive people around me who also prioritize writing, makes it easier for me to stick to my own priorities.

Your toolbox

The idea is to have several techniques at your disposal to help you stay consistent. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by focussing on just one technique. Keep all of them close, and if one stops working or doesn’t inspire you today, pivot and pick another one.

After a while, most “tools” run in the background once they are established. Things like surrounding myself with my writing friends, keeping up with my daily streak, and listening to the album I conditioned myself with don’t require any energy, and they still remain hugely beneficial.

Do you have any other techniques? I’d love to hear about them!

“ morning scenery  ”

Photo by Ishikoro. Japan.