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𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒.

i had a super SUPER productive morning and i was treating myself to the fancy shampoo (u know the shampoo u got as a gift that’s kinda expensive and v v Nice so u only use it when ur going out or have a social event going on?) and i came back to find a bunch of my mutuals reblogging the same post about hair, and i’ll be damned if i didn’t see that combination of events as some sort of sign! so here u go my dudes! another addition to the group! feel free to add “+ REVERSE” to switch the roles of this meme!

as always, DO NOT ADD TO THIS LIST! i’ll add to it as time passes! and i really hope you all enjoy this one bc i had a lot of fun making it! 

[ WASH ]:          sender begins to wash the receiver’s hair.

[ TUG ]:          sender grabs the receiver’s hair and pulls at it. ( SPECIFY A REASON! CONTEXT IS KEY! )

[ BRAID ]:          sender, sitting behind the receiver’s back, begins to braid their hair.

[ SNIP ]:          having discussed the matter, the sender gives the receiver a haircut.

[ BACK ]:          sender, noticing a strand of hair fall from the receiver’s hairdo, carefully tucks the strand back behind the receiver’s ear.

[ BURY ]:          sender buries their hand deep in the receiver’s hair.

[ BRUSH ]:          with a hairbrush, comb, or their hand, the sender begins to gently brush the receiver’s hair.

[ GLIDE ]:          sender runs their fingers through the length of the receiver’s hair.

[ BLOOM ]:          sender weaves a number of flowers through the receiver’s hair.

[ STYLE ]:          sender begins to arrange the receiver’s hair into an elaborate hairstyle to an unspecified degree of success (or failure).

[ CROWN ]:          having created a flower crown, the sender carefully places it atop the receiver’s head.

[ INHALE ]:          while embracing or in close proximity to the receiver, the sender inhales slowly, smelling their hair in the process.

[ TICKLE ]:          the sender uses the ends of the receiver’s hair to playfully tickle them.

[ PLAY ]:          the sender begins to play with the receiver’s hair while the receiver lies in their lap.

[ LAY ]:           the sender lays down in the receiver’s lap to let them play with the sender’s hair.

[ TOUCH ]:           just for the sake of the contact, the sender reaches out and gently touches the strands of the receiver’s hair.

[ MASSAGE ]:          with their hands buried in the receiver’s hair, the sender begins to gently massage their scalp.

[ ROYAL ]:          as part of a coronation ceremony, the sender places a crown atop the receiver’s hair, maintaining eye contact as they do so.

[ KISS ]:          the sender places a tender kiss on the receiver’s hair.

[ AWAY ]:          the sender, using their fingertips, tenderly sweeps a few strands of hair out of the receiver’s face so as to see them more clearly.

[ TOWEL ]:          the sender uses a towel to carefully dry the receiver’s hair.

[ DRY ]:          the sender uses a hairdryer to dry the receiver’s hair.

[ SOFTEN ]:          the sender rubs oils/conditioner into their hands, and begins to slowly massage it into the receiver’s hair.

It took her a moment to realize who exactly she was talking to. She and Brunhilde weren’t friends. Not because of any sort of dislike or based on any bad impression. They just didn’t cross paths often. But Jade knew basic things about her. She knew she worked in the kitchens and had a reputation for baking the best muffins. She knew Brunhilde was about the same age as her. And she knew that was because she was an orphan, a ward of the queen, just like Jade was. It was the one thing they shared in common.

Jade also knew the squire boys around her age had a tendency of teasing Brunhilde for her name. And while that bullying made the young knight-in-training uncomfortable, she never said anything. It wasn’t that the boys were her friends. On the contrary, she would consider very few of them as such and most of her time was spent with Princess Kit anyway. But Jade already got enough shit for being the only girl training with them. She didn’t want to pile onto it.

But Brunhilde certainly seemed nice.

“You’d do that? Help?” Jade glanced down at herself. She was going to need help if she wanted to do this safely and get out to the pitch on time. “I’d really appreciate it. Thanks. This cuirass is a bit more difficult than I thought.” She could hear the crowd all the way from here, their excited and anxious chatter faint in the distance. “Shouldn’t you be out there, too? Watching?”

Brunhilde had been in charge of the pastries. Of course. It came so easily to her that it was almost like magic. But Helga had given her clear instructions on what to do and frankly, Brunhilde had forgotten. Surely the older maids would blame her newest obsession for this, but how could she focus on muffins and lemon cakes when Airk Thantalos was right there, in armor, ready to go to battle? Yes, it was simply a tournament but he had looked truly like a shining knight, smiling at her and... On her way back to the kitchen the moment replayed in her mind over and over and over again. This was her chance to get closer to him, to repay him for the kindness he had granted to her – a simple kitchen maid. But she had forgotten her muffins, spend almost all night on them and now they lay in the dark. She huffed and puffed as she hurried back, knocking a plate off of a counter as soon as she entered the warm rooms and then she froze.

Jade Claymore, the knight. Or the squire? She had not been around this other girl, this other orphan many times before. "Can't tell anyone what?“, Brunhilde's head tilted as she took in the sight in front of her, dimly lit by the warm fireplace. The pieces of metal and clothing, armor, scattered on the ground and a girl only half-dressed as a knight in the middle of it all. "What are you doing here? Should you not get ready out there? With the others? - Oh, oh!“, her eyes grew wide as she realized, "You aren't even supposed to.“

Brunhilde knew that feeling all too well, she had felt it only heartbeats ago when the prince smiled at her and she looked into a world that was not her's to partake in. "You need some help with that?“

After writing that analysis on Jade's hair, I wanna word vomit about Jade's mask and and what it means for Jade's story (even though we only see it in two sequences). Bear with my messy train of thought. Some of this might not even be fully realized or might be a reach. To recap what I wrote in the analysis, Jade's mask represents an identity that is intrinsically tied to Tir Asleen. Based on the way it's constructed, it forces her to keep her hair tight and bound, which could be read as Jade being trapped in the values that she's grown up with in Tir Asleen. She's forced to conform to the mask physically and to her duties to the crown ethically. If the hair analysis is read as valid, then Jade can never be truly liberated while she holds onto the mask.

Jon Kasdan has said that the show is meant to explore "a more fundamental conflict... between your desires and your ideals." Jade's mask is the ultimate symbol of her ideals while Kit is the embodiment of her desire. The primary function of a mask is to conceal or hide one's self. If her mask is representative of Tir Asleen and her knightly ideals, then it is also the tool she hides behind to cover who she really is and what she truly wants. The opening scene of Willow is our first visual representation of ideals versus desire: the mask vs. Kit. The first time we see Jade remove the mask, it's so she can look up at Kit and reveal to us the truth of her feelings for the princess. These two images coincide at once to present two opposing ideas living together. In order for Jade to see Kit (desire) fully and clearly, she must remove the mask (ideals).

It’s interesting, then, that when Jade loses her mask, Kit is essentially offering to give Jade back her identity and ideals. It’s one of the key factors keeping them apart, because as long as Jade hides behind it, she’ll never be able to love Kit the way they both want her to. She can't love Kit fully if she lives under the belief that her duty as a knight requires that she can never be with the princess she serves. There's a boundary that must be observed and Jade's desires can never come before her duty. Kit, as much as she won’t admit it, fears change, especially in her relationships. She needs Jade to take that mask back, because then it means everything is okay. But it’s not okay and Kit and Jade continue to not see eye-to-eye until almost the end of the next episode after Jade has properly grieved Ballantine and her previous life. Ballantine’s death quickly sets her on a path of being able to confess her love to Kit two episodes later. Duty and honor lost her someone she loved already. It’s not worth losing Kit for.

Jade refuses the mask, because, unknowingly to her, she’s refusing to return to who she was, to the identity and ideals that Tir Asleen instilled in her. She’s begun wrestling with the ethical and moral implications for what it means to her as a knight to have killed Ballantine, someone who was not only her Commander, but essentially her father and someone she loves. Ballantine is the one to tell her in episode one that "a knight is defined... by the oaths they keep." If duty and honor is of the highest ideal, how could it ever ask her to kill someone she loves (and, essentially, sacrifice love)?

When Kit suggests killing Graydon in episode four, it should immediately align with Jade’s ideals of duty, but she quickly denies it. This is pure speculation, but after killing Ballantine, it must occur to her that duty and honor forced her to kill Ballantine while love has saved Graydon from the same affliction, not even 24 hours later. If Jade had chosen love instead of duty, could she have saved the only man she’s ever seen as a father? Again, ideals versus desires. And this ultimately ties into Elora's and the show’s message that love is the most powerful thing in the universe, because Kit is given the same opportunity to mirror Jade’s actions with Airk in the finale. The ideal of sacrifice for the greater good vs. the desire to save someone she loves. But the text says it’s the wrong choice for Kit to kill Airk out of dutiful sacrifice when love can ultimately save him. It's important that Jade refuse that mask, refuse the lessons that have been ingrained in her by Ballantine, who ultimately acts as an extension of Tir Asleen and her ideals. 

I think it's also important to note that masks play a key role in both of Jade's identities. The reason I relate her mask, not only to her ideals, but to Tir Asleen is because it's visually paralleled to Ballantine's helm in episode three. When Jade lowers her mask to fight him, he does the same motion. His mask also has a similar facial structure to hers, because they serve the same military. It also draws comparisons of a child resembling and mirroring their parent. In episode five, we discover her Bone Reaver origins and that community is known for and identified by their masks. Returning to our mask metaphor, her identity in Tir Asleen was used to mask her origins as a Bone Reaver. It might be assumed that Jade's Tir Asleen mask was also meant to foreshadow and mirror the Bone Reaver masks, possibly hinting early on that everything about her is not as it appears and that she is in fact one of them.

While Jade has given up her original mask and, therefore, her Tir Asleen identity and ideals, it doesn't mean that she has given up on Tir Asleen or that she can't return to live peacefully there, and vice versa for the Bone Reavers. It also doesn't mean she can't find a way to unite those identities. In episode six, Scorpia gives her the ultimatum of choosing between Tir Asleen and the Bone Reavers. We see her wear her Bone Reaver armor and embrace that part of her, but she also is still fully devoted to Kit who, as princess, is already a symbol of Tir Asleen. I personally foresee Jade coming to terms with both of those identities and using that to form an alliance between those two communities. I can also see Jade making a new mask in the future, that reflects both aspects of her. I think it'd be cool and kind of full circle for her to create a mask that is an extension of herself.

dark eyes rest upon thraxus and scorpia while they bicker, and rhea smiles. at them - though they don't see it - and at jade. "i hope they stay together this time around." – @bronzeshadows (Rhea Boorman)

“I’m sure they will,” Jade says, lifting a mug of ale to her lips. She’s not much of a drinker, but it’s a Bone Reaver party. Her gaze follows her sister and Boorman just like Rhea’s do. She doesn’t know what Boorman did to attract Scorpia and she’s sure many would wonder the same. She doesn’t understand it. But she does know that her sister loves that idiot rogue. It’s in the eyes. “My sister’s got your brother wound tight around that pinky of hers. Never imagined I’d see that.”

❛  i know i've made mistakes but at least they were mine to make.  ❜ – @tanthalos

A heavy sigh. That’s all she can manage right now. Fingers tangle into red locks. How had they even gotten to this point? Jade can only hope no one has overheard their raised voices. She and Kit have had disagreements before, but she can’t think of one like this. She’s tired, though. So is her voice.

“I know,” Jade says softly. “I know they were, Kit.” Her hands drop back to her side as she turns back to her lover to meet her eyes. “But the mistakes we make now could affect the rest of the realm, the rest of Andowyne. We have to be sure, to be confident that we made the right choice even if it turns out to be wrong. Can you say you’re that sure?”

“Retreat. What a great word to describe what I went through.” The sarcasm drips heavily from her words. It’s a tone she’s openly adopted recently, having once mostly used it in only Kit’s presence. She bites her tongue from saying something far more hurtful and probably true. “Fall in line? I’m not forcing anything on you.”

Her voice lowers. “You may not accept my new outlook on life now, but we’ll all have to adopt it if we’re to survive what’s coming. You’re right. I don’t know what happened here. But I’ve seen what lies beyond the Barrier. I’ve seen what’s coming for us… I expected this bullshit from a lot of other people, but not you. I thought you’d have my back at least.”

ㅤㅤㅤher response pulls an eye roll from tristan's features. ❛❛ must've been quite the retreat , ❜❜ the knight retorts. they may never know what happened on the journey to rescue the prince, but this - this isn't the jade he knows... knew. ❛❛ my problem is that you come waltzing back into the kingdom and expect everyone to fall in line with your new outlook. life doesn't work like that, claymore. you have no idea what's been going on here, and you have the gall to stand there and preach to me about change, about broadening my horizons. get your head out of your ass. ❜❜