#but i think it stayed decently faithful to the source material
Note
Helsknight showing up bloody at Welsknight’s base please I need suffering 🙏
There was something to be said about the stupid things he was willing to do in the name of self preservation. Damn his fears, and the unfairness of the universe, and the uncertainty of living [and dying] and everything else. The unknown had always been his greatest weakness, his greatest betrayer. Pity it was also one of the few inescapable things about living in general.
To say Helsknight stepped into Hermitcraft would be a terrible injustice of what stepping normally, let alone gracefully, looked like. What he actually did was stagger and drag himself into Hermitcraft on unsteady and shaking limbs. There were holes in him. He hadn't really taken inventory of them yet. Admitting he had a wound [or several] was enough. The minute he admitted the wounds were bad, in certain terms his mind could comprehend, was the minute shock would steal his senses. He was on Hermitcraft for the specific reason of dodging death, and it seemed to him shock, on any level, meant dying. If he wanted to die and roll the dice of respawn, he would have died in hels, in the alley he'd been jumped in, where he could at least take comfort in familiar cobblestones and the knowledge he'd dragged all his attackers down with him. But he didn't want to die, so he was here.
It was dark. He was inside a building. He was bleeding. Wels was nearby. Those were the only things he needed to know for certain. Helsknight looked around, trying to ignore the sluggish tilt his vision offered when he moved too quickly. The double vision of trying to parse memories of a place that weren't his battled with his wounded animal double vision and together they made him feel nauseous, more so than his wounding already did. Helsknight balled a fist against his sternum, like he could hold himself together that way, and concentrated very hard on walking and nothing else.
Helsknight didn't like being this close to Wels. Not while he was this injured. He could feel the awareness of his other half like a spider on his skin. There was a reflex-like urge to shout and try to shake it off, the instinct-like certainty that if it rested on him long enough it would find a reason to bite him. And he knew, in the way only experience could teach, that if he could feel Wels, Wels could feel him. Helsknight had the sensation of walking a tightrope: his body insisted speed was the only thing that could save him, while his mind insisted he must stay unnoticed. He must balance necessity with making his thoughts and emotions small, and it was hard work to do when he was losing blood.
Helsknight blinked slowly, tiredly. He picked a direction and walked, a hand pressed to the wall, keeping himself upright. Wels's potion room was nearby, a borrowed half-memory informed him, he just had to get there. He searched his drifting thoughts for a poem to repeat in his head, to keep fear and uncertainty from rising. His heartbeat was quickening, a symptom of something; panic, or fear, or blood loss, or all three combined. He was fixing one of those things. He needed to carefully manage the other two, before Wels felt them. The only poem he could think of was in Middle English, and mostly gibberish to him, which told him it came from Wels's memories somewhere.
Why have ye no routhe on my child?
Have routhe on me ful of mourning;
Tak doun o rode my derworth child,
Or prik me o rode with my derling!
[Rhyming child with child was a lazy, but this was written back when one could convincingly spell "down" as "doun" so he supposed he shouldn't be overly critical. The real trick was figuring out if "derling" was supposed to mean "darling", or some other archaic word lost to time. He could only figure out so much from context clues. "Mourning" apparently transcended centuries, and that seemed fitting. Everyone knew mourning, in some form or another.]
An ache opened up beneath his clenched fist, or it had always been there, and his body was only just now reinforcing the fact that it was important. It felt like the mother of all cramps in his muscles, and he stubbornly pretended that's what it was. He needed more potassium in his diet or something, and the gods would forgive him the smear he left on the wall when he leaned on it, waiting on the intensity of his pain to ebb. The doorway he was walking towards seemed close, but also very, very far. Closing distance with it was going a lot slower than he thought it would, and it was only one short hallway. He was glad he'd decided to do this, instead of his other half-considered option of attempting to walk across hels to the Colosseum. He wouldn't have made it.
Dread pooled in his stomach. Dread, and other more physical things, like blood, probably, but he pretended the dread bit was more important. He could feel Wels pricking on his skin again, an insistent spider twitching at a breath on his web. Helsknight breathed out the steadiest breath he could manage.
More pine ne may me ben y-don
Than lete me live in sorwe and shame;
As love me bindëth to my sone,
So let us deyen bothe y-same.
[Sorwe. What medieval idiot thought "sorrow" was spelled like "sorwe"? Maybe it had something to do with inflection. Poetry was half words, half rhythm. Maybe "sorwe" was supposed to indicate they wanted the reader to pronounce "sorrow" as a single syllable, so it sounded more like "sore". That's also probably why "bothe y-same" was sitting there like word vomit. They meant "both the same", but wanted it read without a pause between the first two words. It was really the method for the madness that mattered with poetry.]
Helsknight blinked. He was in the potion room. He couldn't fully remember the walk down the hallway, but that didn't matter. What mattered was there should be health potions in here somewhere, his salvation. Relief edged his vision in stars, and he once again felt Wels's attention cant in his direction, confused and curious. Wels didn't associate feelings of relief with Helsknight. It wasn't an emotion they felt in each other's presence, and it was far too strong to be muffled by the distance to hels.
[He knows I'm here.]
Helsknight opened a chest and rifled through it. His vision was protesting. Stars and tilting that would turn to spinning soon made a clutter of his eyes. It got hard to distinguish the colors of the stoppered bottles. He picked up one that felt overly warm to his cold and shaking fingers. He was pretty sure it was a health potion. It felt too hot, but he reminded himself he was cold from losing blood, so it should feel hot. Hesitantly removed his fist from where it was balled in front of his sternum, and let his eyes unfocus when he grasped the bottle's stopper. His hands were so unsteady, it took a couple tries just to grab it, and when he pulled on the cork, his fingers slipped off weakly. He tried again, eyes closed with concentration, pouring every ounce of his strength into the act of pulling a stopper out of a bottle, only for his hand to slip right off again.
Frustrated, nearing desperate, he looked down at himself for a clean place to wipe his hand on his tunic. It was a mistake. He knew it as soon as he did it. His eyes were inexorably drawn from the fabric to the poke-holes in it, to the wine-dark stain that flowed down his front and still dripped tak-tak-tak slow and inexorable onto the floor. It was a woeful amount of blood. He was honestly surprised he wasn't dead yet. Chalk it up to fortitude, and ignorance, and size. He had more blood to lose than some people did.
Helsknight's world suddenly gave an awful twist, vertigo and the crescendoing, cramping agony of his wounds, only staved off by how his now shattered ignorance, kicking him off his feet just as surely as a horse could. He slumped against the wall, and then to the floor, and the awful jarring of it hurt him worse. Half a dozen other wounds on him aired their grievances, and the big one near his sternum pushed blood onto his fist when he clutched it. Helsknight sat pinned, unable to breathe for many long seconds, feeling a bit like he'd been struck by lightning. The pain was blinding and numbing and overwhelming all at once.
Why-- have no-- have ye no-- something something...
[Words. Breathe. Think of words.]
[Gods... But it hurts......]
Why have ye no routhe on my child?
Have routhe on me ful of mourning;
[And what the hels did "routhe" mean, anyway? He knew the word "route". He knew the name "Ruth". Neither of them fit, unless his bloodless brain was missing something. There was a chance "routhe" was supposed to be read like "bothe", as a double word slurred together, but that still left "routhe the" which made less sense in context than "routhe" did.]
Right. He was supposed to be doing something other than bleeding to death on the floor. Helsknight blinked, looked down at his hand and realized the health potion he'd grabbed was gone. He must have dropped it when he slumped over. Looking around, he spotted it just to the side of his left boot, unbroken, thankfully, but it might as well be a lifetime away for all the good it did him. Helsknight knew without a shadow of a doubt he couldn't reach it. The idea of tensing his muscles and dragging himself forward to reach was exhausting, and he hurt so much he knew the movement would feel like tearing himself in half, and there were just some things a mind couldn't power through. Helsknight laughed dismally and let his head fall onto his chest. Both motions were white hot agonies, but all his pains were starting to blur together into a smear of overwhelming sensation that took thought away. It occurred to him he was breathing too fast, like he'd run too far too fast, and his fluttering heartbeat agreed.
[... It hurts...]
[Gods and saints it hurts.]
[I'm dying.]
A feeling he could only describe as doom fell on his shoulders, a cold grasp of fear that wrapped stony hands around his heart and squeezed. He'd heard of this. Never felt it himself. The utter sureness that if he didn't do something now, he would die. All the unconscious bits in his body in charge of keeping him working all unanimously agreeing they needed divine intervention, preferably right now, before they started shutting down. It wasn't something he often had occasion to feel, though he had heard people tell of it after particularly grizzly matches and bloody tournaments. Death was normally too quick in the Colosseum, or else he'd won his match, and even if he was falling to pieces there was a health potion too close to hand to let him dwell on his harms. This was so terribly different. Death stalked toward him unhurried and unbothered, waiting on him to finish drowning in blood. He might panic, if he wasn't already so cold and scared.
"Ah. This makes some sense, anyway."
Helsknight, who had stopped seeing the world in front of himself without really closing his eyes, refocused his vision on the open doorway. Wels stood there, an angel of death in azure and silver, his sword in his hand. His eyes were the ruthless blue of hels freezing over and lifeless corpses, and Helsknight thought there was no one else in the world he would rather not watch him die. But the universe hated him, so here Wels was, just as surely as if he was fated.
"I didn't think all that fear could possibly be for me."
Helsknight tried to reply, but all he managed was a dying-animal noise that strangled itself out when he tried to breathe a little steadier. He tried again, and this time managed a very weak, but vaguely defiant, "Fuck off."
"Rude," Wels said chastisingly. A glow of something like smug satisfaction prickled Helsknight's skin. The feeling came from Wels. "Especially given I'm the only person who can save you."
Helsknight chuckled, and then stopped when his body seized painfully around the motion. "We both know you don't want to save me."
"No," Wels admitted. "But I don't want to do a lot of unpleasant things I agree to do anyway."
"How... charitable."
"It is a virtue."
"Sure."
Wels didn't move. Well, he did move, but only to sheath his sword. He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame, the image of patience, as though they had all the time in the world.
[Hungry spider. Waiting on a web for something to struggle.]
"If you're waiting on me to beg," Helsknight informed him through staggering breaths, "I won't."
"Too prideful?"
Helsknight searched himself momentarily for pride, and came up short. Pride would've dictated he die in the alley, instead of here where Wels could lord it over him. This was something different than pride.
"No."
"Then why not?" Wels asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's easy. Just say, 'Welsknight, please give me a health potion'. Or if you're feeling monosyllabic, just 'please' will work."
Helsknight managed a smirk. "Why not help me out of the kindness of your heart?"
"I don't have any kindness for people like you."
[People like you. What a loaded phrase.]
Have ye no routhe on my child?
There was an entire philosophical debate that could happen in the phrase 'people like you' that Helsknight had neither the time or the energy to bother with. Besides, it was all words Wels knew. Wels pretended to be a chivalric knight. Chivalric knights helped the weak. Chivalric knights saved the defenseless. Helsknight, for all the grievances of his existence, was both right now. Then again, the chivalric knights were also supposed to make war against their enemies mercilessly, so he supposed Wels would be in his rights, as a chivalric knight, to walk away and let him die slowly and painfully on the ground.
As if sensing his thoughts, and likely because he could actually sense his thoughts a bit, Wels said, "You are always going on about how I need to be a better knight. There's something ironic here. No matter what I decide, I think you'll owe me an apology regardless."
The feeling of doom, of bone-deep, agonizing dying mantled over Helsknight again and Wels stopped existing to him. His sense of urgency, of desperation to live clawed its way up his throat. He tried to move his arm, his leg. He got his fingers to twitch. He tried to lean forward, to drag himself with willpower alone towards that stupid potion just out of reach. The potion he wasn't even strong enough to open. His vision collapsed in quickly, and he only knew he'd cried out because he was breathless. But he hadn't moved, besides managing to lull his head forward onto his chest again. Cold fear crawled around in his empty guts, a relentless, caged animal that refused to stop squirming.
[I'm dying.]
[Breathe.]
[I'm dying.]
A shadow fell over him, a presence freighted with hate, and deserving, and dissonant guilt. Wels had come forward, only to stop short when Helsknight's terror swept over him like a wave, and he stood baffled by it, and guilty for it. The fool knight probably thought Helsknight was scared of him. If only. Helsknight thought he would prefer that. At least then he could manage to die gracefully. Wels's fortitude bricked itself up against him then, a bitter soul trying to will itself to be cold and cruel, and Helsknight was thankful for it. It staved off his fear, if only a little.
"What did you do to bring this on, anyway?" Wels asked breathlessly, trying to recover his resolve. Looking for a reason to hate him.
"I was... walking home."
"That's it?" He sounded so skeptical, it was almost funny.
"I committed the terrible sin..." Helsknight laughed out a breath, "... of being fearless when I should have been cautious."
"Hubris."
"Habit."
"Yeah right."
"If I got stabbed like this every day, I wouldn't have come crawling here."
Wels glowered, parsing this statement for truth. Helsknight might have mustered some hate in him for it, if he wasn't so scared. His vision had taken on a permanent blur, and he was getting cold. He hadn't gone numb yet, which was something he found profoundly cruel. He wanted to be numb. To stop hurting. To stop fearing.
[Breathe.]
Why have ye no routhe on my child?
Have routhe on me ful of mourning;
Tak doun o rode my derworth child,
Or prik me o rode with my derling!
[Derworth... "Dearworth", probably. Beloved. So "derling" was probably "dearling", which turned into "darling". Middle English was strange. Just slightly to the left of normal. He didn't think "tak" was a word anymore, except where it existed as pieces of words. "Tak" to "take", to take hold, maintain, maybe. "Tak" to "tack" like a nail. "Prik" also, like "pricking" flesh, like a point digging.]
"Hold down the road, my dearworth child," Helsknight muttered. "Or pick me a road with my darling."
"What?"
"Stupid poem."
"How much blood have you lost?"
Helsknight laughed, and his whole body flinched, and for a moment he couldn't breathe because his pain was so alive and electric it almost stopped being pain. The concern from Wels was laughable. He wished Wels would make up his mind about whether or not he cared. Then he could get on with dying, and the terror would stop, and the universe would take him or it wouldn't, and if it didn't, he would respawn and sleep for a week. He felt Wels's hand on his wrist, which was its own kind of hilarious.
"Trying to figure out how many heartbeats I have left?" Helsknight asked.
It would be nice to know. If Wels figured it out, he hoped he would share the information. Then Helsknight could keep count.
"Your heart's too fast."
"That happens."
Wels stood up and paced, all nervous energy, back and forth across the room.
"You don't deserve my help," Wels told him scathingly, angry for how conflicted he felt. "You don't. You've been nothing but cruel ever since we met."
More pine ne may me ben y-don
Than lete me live in sorwe and shame;
["Pine", like pining. Or pain. More pain? Punishment maybe. "Don" to done. Something like: More pain to me could not be done than to let me live in sorrow and shame.]
Helsknight decided whoever wrote this poem had never been stabbed. He'd felt both sorrow and shame, and neither of them packed quite this amount of punch, in his opinion.
"It probably goes against my tenets anyway," Wels continued, still pacing. "And yours too. Aren't you the one who follows some crazy death god?"
"... Saint... of Blood and Steel."
"He probably thinks dying in a puddle on my floor is glorious."
"... they."
As love me bindëth to my sone,
So let us deyen bothe y-same.
[Maybe he was just getting better at this, or maybe this part was just easy. "As love I'm bound to my son, so let us die, both the same." It didn't flow very neatly when it was simpler. Maybe Middle English wasn't that stupid.]
"I can't help but think you did this on purpose to... I don't know. Test me somehow. Prove you're better. Weak again, Welsknight! For helping your enemy when you should have let him die, or speed him along. Don't you know knights are supposed to be cruel?"
Helsknight tried to call up his own tenets, or Wels's tenets, or anything to do with knights and their duties. He got a little lost on his way, his thoughts meandering and dying, and gasping back to life again when they remembered they were supposed to be searching for something. Something he was scared of. Dying. A wave of fear crashing over him that made Wels flinch, and bid Helsknight keep breathing, because any agony was worth not confronting that one, great, crippling unknown.
"What would you do in my place?" Wels asked him suddenly. "Answer me that, perfect knight. What would you do if the person you hated most showed up one day bleeding on your floor?"
That... was an excellent question. Helsknight searched briefly for the answer, and found it wasn't very hard to find.
"I would help."
"You're lying," Wels said guardedly.
"I... can't lie."
"Then you're dodging the truth. What would you do?"
"I would heal you if I could. Or I would kill you if I couldn't." With strength he didn't know he even still had, Helsknight leaned his head back against the wall. It was easier to breathe that way. To talk.
"Why?"
"No creature is deserving of dishonor or pain."
"That's not a tenet."
"It's not a chivalric tenet." Helsknight shrugged one shoulder weakly. "Chivalry states you can hang my guts from the ceiling if I'm your enemy."
"It does not."
"It might as well."
Wels didn't seem to have a ready reply for that.
"What is routhe?"
Wels blinked down at him, guarded and confused. "Routhe?"
"Routhe." Helsknight repeated, as though it were helpful. "Middle English."
"As in?"
"Poetry."
"Use it in a sentence."
"Why have ye no routhe on my child?"
"Ruth." Wels said, a bit too quickly, like he'd known what Helsknight was asking and was trying to avoid the answer. "We don't use it as ruth anymore. It shows up in rue, like regret, or sorrow. And... ruthless."
"Merciless."
"Yes."
Why have you no mercy on my child?
"Why are you asking about Middle English while you're bleeding to death on my floor?"
Helsknight let out a breath. It hurt, but everything did. "Stupid poem."
"Can I hear it?"
"I'm busy bleeding to death on your floor."
"Tell me and I'll heal you."
There it was again, asking for an excuse. That was Wels's real cowardice, his failing as a knight. He was scared of making decisions. Scared of dealing with the consequences of his actions. Paralyzed by indecision. He wanted to hate Helsknight because it was justified. He wanted to watch him suffer, because hatred allows suffering. He didn't want to label himself cruel, nor be accused of weakness, or softheartedness, if he showed mercy. And he didn't want to pick up his sword and kill, if it meant killing someone defenseless. He wanted Helsknight to give him a reason to act, so he could blame it on him later if it turned out wrong. Given it would likely be Helsknight rubbing his nose in it later if it was wrong, he couldn't really blame him for that.
Helsknight closed his eyes and counted his heartbeats, and pretended he wasn't scared.
"Do what you will."
An hour long minute ticked by. Helsknight felt the time moving like it was physical, like he was falling through it and he couldn't catch himself, and he was nearing his limits. He thought the only thing stopping him from begging for it all to stop was the crushing weight of his fatigue, the exponential strength it took to take his next breath, and that stupid poem, skipping in a circle in his head. It kept his thoughts away from his fear, from bearing the weight of the unknown that came next. It was still there, a nameless, formless anxiety that formed the undercurrent of his thoughts. But he didn't have to think about it when he was busy being annoyed about a poem stuck in his head.
Wels moved. He stooped to pick up the potion Helsknight had dropped and unstoppered it deftly. He was surprisingly gentle as he helped him drink, aware that every movement could cause pain. Helsknight could feel Wels's caution in the air like wings, like a bird hovering before it lands. The first potion wasn't enough to heal him completely, so he got a second from his chests and helped him with that as well, one hand hovering over Helsknight's wounds, waiting on the skin to knit back together. Helsknight got to his feet, shaky, and feeling like he'd been wrung dry of all vitality. There was no pain to speak of, but he was thirsty, and hungry, and exhausted.
"You should rest before you go anywhere," Wels said, words of pragmatic care that sounded stilted coming from him. "I can get you some water."
"I'll be fine," Helsknight told him, allowing himself some hesitant pride now that the smothering pain was gone. Even exhausted, he could think so much more clearly now -- think at all, really. And he thought the longer he stayed here, the higher the chance Wels would come to regret his decision to heal him. They were not made to like each other. They didn't even respect each other as enemies. And Helsknight knew if they fought now, he would lose, and he might lose very badly, if Wels decided to leave him to bleed out again. It was something Wels had never done before, but if he could convince himself Helsknight deserved it, he would.
"Do what you will, then," Wels said, bitterness creeping into his tone. He probably thought he was being coy and ironic. Helsknight mostly thought it was annoying.
"The poem isn't mine," Helsknight said. "It's one you've read before. Middle English. Why have ye no routhe on my child. I don't know the title. It might just be the first line. I think it's a lament."
"... I see."
"Next time you find yourself bleeding out on someone's floor," Helsknight snorted, "Pick something stupid like that. It makes things... manageable."
"Right... manageable."
Helsknight gave a helpless sort of shrug, as though what he'd just said were perfectly normal.
Wels mustered an enviable facsimile of concern when he said, "I've never felt terror like that before."
Helsknight felt his already parched mouth somehow go drier. The sympathy he felt rolling off of Welsknight was sickening. Literally. He could feel himself becoming nauseous.
"What are you so scared of?"
Shame, red hot and searing, clawed at the inside of Helsknight's ribs. He wished so badly he could hide it. Distract himself from it. At least turn it into anger. But he was tired, and he didn't know how to bring his emotions back to heel, and Welsknight was already giving him an open, piteous look like maybe they'd stumbled onto something significant. He could feel hope there, like maybe there was a reason they hated each other like they did, and if Wels could figure out where that fear came from, they could find common ground -- or at least the leverage Wels needed to make Helsknight relent.
"I don't need your pity, white knight," Helsknight snarled. "Go sate your savior complex somewhere else."
Wels scowled. A cold wall of loathing, resigned and inevitable, closed itself around anything else he could possibly feel.
[As it should be.]
Hours later, home and safe, Helsknight cracked open his journal and wrote:
Why have you no mercy on my child?
Have mercy on me, so full of mourning;
Take down the road my dearworth child,
O give me a road with my darling!
More pain to me could not be done
Than to let me live in sorrow and shame
As with love I am bound to my son,
So let us die then, both the same.
#Situations Asks#rns asks#anonymous#tw wounds#tw blood#tw dying#tw fear#welsknight#helsknight#[jazzhands] mind the tags she's an intense one!#And also very long#4k words woooo#The poem in Middle English is Why Have Ye No Routhe On My Child#it is supposedly from the 14th century#but i had a very very hard time finding sources for it#so take that with a heavy grain of salt#i will say the middle english -> modern english translation is mine#done using the Chaucer Dictionary from the University of Cambridge#As well as the Oxford Middle English Compendium#take the translation with a grain of salt its one of maybe twice i've done something like this#but i think it stayed decently faithful to the source material#as faithful as someone who sucks at reading Middle English can make a translation anyway#rns ficlet
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Ok. Don’t kill me for this but after totally not pirating this show, Velma HBO wasn’t THAT bad. I understand people are tired of edgy retellings, but think of it as like a fucked up AU. And don’t take it super seriously. Like I personally didn’t feel preached to cause I already believe in or agree with most of the topics they cover, but don’t go in expecting it to teach you anything life changing. I went into this show expecting to hate it but I didn’t! It’s super heavy handed satire. This is like a satire of a satire. I also really enjoyed Daphne’s character and what they did with her being adopted and trying to find her birth parents cause you don’t see that a lot. Also messy very morally gray female characters!
I also think the initial outrage over its “wokeness” got really out of hand too (as is usual with leftist media) but if you don’t care about that, I think you’ll find it decently funny. However, if you care a lot about an adaptation staying faithful to the original series you will not like it. Or maybe you will who knows. I know a big complaint was that it was too mean for the source material but yeah again, just imagine it's an AU.
I'm going to call it early, but when people forget about all the hate this show got upon debut, it will become a cult favorite.
Edit: Some of the jokes are like eh like it's a very raunchy camp show and it's a little fucked up but if you can handle that while realizing it's not something you advocate for, it'll be enjoyable.
Edit 2: You know how people complain about how characters will talk to each like they’re in therapy. Well. They do that in this show cause they put meta + straightforwardness up to 200% so it’s not super jarring compared to the tone of the show
Edit 3: YOOOO DRAG KING REP
Edit 4: there are some lines that COULD be read as transphobic but id like to think its just a jab at being in drag. By using language like “disguised as a man/woman” it is very reductive to a gender binary. I don’t know if the writers are old school but eehhhh and I also don’t know the creator’s view on trans topics.
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Writing a “realistic” lotro Lore Master
(Disclaimer: This is just me taking notes and making a reference for myself of how to incorporate the Lore master game mechanics into a more believable setting for me, no one else has to follow it if they don’t want to. I am not dictating what other people should do in any way. This mainly concerns my elven LM)
The Lore master is class is my favorite because of it’s animal and nature abilities but I feel like trying to write the class into the broader world of Middle-Earth lore can be seen as god-modding or cringe, in my opinion at least. Brings me back to those days of role playing where the setting was just normal, real world animals and humans, until ebony darkness dementia raven way made an appearance and won every battle and argument with 5 different magic spells and could communicate with dragons and unicorns, making themselves a god amongst the other players.
So to avoid my main lore master Daerhovan being seen this way, I've tried to come to a compromise between source material Middle-Earth and LOTRO Middle-Earth in a way that makes my OC more believable.
In regards to animal communication and relationships with them.
I don’t want Daerhovan to be seen as a Snow White esque figure who makes animal friends wherever he goes and they help him with chores and shit, so I've tried to make his relationships to wildlife and other creatures a bit more in tune with middle earth elf canon and real world interactions.
-Animal interactions in general:
It’s book canon that elves can converse with animals, so there’s no problem with communication there. But I don’t think they would warm up to an elf right away, some of them? Especially wild beasts. Most of the time Daerhovan leaves animals alone and lets nature take it’s course. But he tends to befriend those he rescues from cruel and inhumane traps.
-Animal Companions: The bear, raven, bog guardian, eagle, lynx, and nature spirit.
I think he would grow fond of certain individuals for sure. Everyone in the list above he might have rescued from what I mentioned above. For game purposes I mainly use the lynx. In the real world, I absolutely loathe wild animals being kept as pets, and it was hard to separate that part of myself when writing in daer’s faithful lynx companion. To compromise, I decided that, hey, a character can’t be a character without some flaws, so maybe he messed up with his lynx. In my story of him, she was rescued from starvation when found without a mother, and Daer took matters into his own hands, perhaps a little too much. Verya (the lynxs name) is still wild, but despite him trying to teach her to live on her own, in the lynx's mind it’s easier to stick by someone who helps you get food more easily and offers security. And maybe she’s just a really stubborn cat. Thus this is a lesson learned sort of thing.
So he lets the lynx stay. Besides, life back then for him was really lonely. When it comes to domesticated animals he’s all for them and wants to take every one of them home and give them love.
Lore Master Skills
This has been a little harder to write with, but I've done what I think is my best. Many things I took out completely, and they are as follows. (i’m only listing those that relate to his in-game trait tree. I use all blue with a bit of red and yellow)
Gust of wind, the power signs, Sic em, heals, lightning storm, light of the rising dawn, wind,fire/frost lore, power of knowledge, inner flame,
-Explanations for skills I've kept in
Burning Embers: To me the skill induction looks like the LM is igniting something by natural means that makes it explode upon contact with an enemy. So perhaps he keeps a decent sack of whatever it is that accomplishes this.
Blinding flash and bane flare: These can happen by man made means and require no magic really. But with the gifts that elves can do in regards to crafting perhaps a little something more is involved (same with the other skills perhaps)
Sticky Gourd and Sticky tar: Like Burning embers, just bigger, and one has a different substance.
Ancient craft: The in-game skill directly says that the LM is throwing a handful of metal to impede the enemy.
Now, I didn’t want to completely omit some of his elemental skills, as I believe they’re a core part of who he is too. But the output is much, much lower, only used as a last resort, made possible by the canon fact that elves have a connection to the land, and doing these in battle severely weakens him after. (based on some tidbits from the skill deed texts). I also believe that being immortal gives elven lore masters the time they need to learn and harness this as well.
Cracked earth: It was the elves who first taught the trees how to communicate with others, and I've used this canon fact to help Daerhovan persuade the trees around him to aid him in battle when the need arises. For this skill in particular, if a tree be willing, it can shoot its root up from the ground to entangle and root the enemy in place.
Lightning strike: I’m still debating this one, but here’s what I have so far. He can only do this when he begins to master his craft. (still debating on whether that's at age 600 or 5000 lmao) He can only stun with it, there has to be electricity in the air already via storm, and it severely weakens him after use.
Murder of Crows: An upcoming skill to replace Sic em. I’ll leave this here for when it actually comes out and I can decide how to incorporate or leave out
AND SO that concludes this mini essay lol. Might add more stuff as I think about but hopefully this puts Daerhovan in a much more believable light as a character and oc
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16 - Lucubration
((For some context, Teremy + Reonora’s gang had their adventures in Norvrant and have all arrived back at the source here. Reonora had asked Teremy to work at Fortunes & Fancies for the next 45 days three months. So this entry is part of Teremy working there.))
wc: 1,859
Joey stood on top of the counter and cleared his throat. “Due to an influx of customers suddenly showing up at once and coincidentally wanting their commissions done within--” Joey flipped open his notebook, “--the next three days, I’m calling this morning meeting to organize and delegate tasks. So...” He paused again as his red eyes scanned his notes. “Reo, due to your knowledge of where everything is, and the nature of this job requiring many gathered and crafted objects from this and that occupation, you’ll be in charge of helping the free company do sweatshop--er, workshop stuff.”
Reonora tilted her head and patted herself, smiling. “You can count on me!”
“Teremy, since you’re a carpenter and blacksmith specialist, you’re the only one who can make these Tsukuyomi weapons. Specifically, the client wants a Tsukuyomi’s Moonlit Cane and Tsukiyomi’s Moonlit Great Axe. They already handed over the celestial kimono remnant. All that’s left is to gather the rest of the materials yourself and make the thing. Oh, and a manor cello.”
Teremy arched an eyebrow. “What does a manor cello have to do with anything?”
“The client wants it as part of their collection, I guess,” said Joey.
“And drying the wood?”
“I’ll take care of that. Just leave the spruce lumber with Rosemary and I’ll dry it out at some point within the next three days.”
“Sounds good.”
“As for me,” Joey scrunched up his face in a way only a lalafell could, “I’ll take care of the dance troupe costumes. Sequins. Why sequins.” He shook his head. “And Rosie, that leaves you to take care of the store. You okay with that?”
Rosemary nodded. “Mm! I’ll do my best.”
Joey clamped his book shut. “All right. You all know what you have to do. Feel free to ask me anything if you have any questions. Dismissed.”
Reonora picked up Rosemary, gave the plainsfolk a smushing hug and kisses to the cheek, then scoured Rosemary’s inventory for any items she had onhand. As Joey reopened his notebook to even begin counting the number of materials he needed, including sequins, he glanced over to see Teremy looking down at his own books. One hand on his hip, the other holding a book of carpenter recipes, the miqo’te frowned pensively. Joey was about to ask what was the matter, but Teremy spoke first.
“Tsukuyomi… you said?” Teremy asked.
“That’s right.”
“I can’t find any recipe that bears her name.”
Joey froze. “What? Lemme see that.”
Teremy moved closer to the counter and held out the book for Joey to see. Standing beside the miqo’te, Joey turned the pages of Teremy’s crafting manual.
“I see what’s the matter. You have the master recipes book? It’s the sixth one,” said Joey.
Teremy glanced at Joey blankly. “... master recipes?”
“You don’t have any of the master recipe books?”
“Unless these recipes fell out of my brain from years of experience, then no. First time I’ve heard of such a thing.”
“And let me guess. No folklore books either?”
“Such knowledge failed to fall out of my head the day I slept under a faerie apple tree. I deeply regret my error.”
Reonora passed by the two in the background, materials already collected. “He’s your protege, Joey. You agreed to show him the ropes.” She waved and left the store.
A chime rang as the door closed. All Joey could do was inhale reality, exhale frustration.
“I’ll start from the top and then tell you where to get them.”
* * *
Zhloe clapped her hands together and raised a foot, her face lighting up with such pure happiness that her smile may as well be the sun. “Oh, Teremy, these items are so beautiful! But no, I must think of the children. Thank you, thank you so much! This is not much, but it’s all I can give you.”
Teremy scooped up the armsful of yellow scrips. “Your happiness is enough. Yours and the… orphans…”
“Yes, and clothes--no, food! Ah! By the way, speaking of food, did you want to stay for dinner? I promise I’ll give you the bigger half of my portion!”
Teremy took a step back. “You keep your food for yourself. You need it more than me. T-take care!”
Down in the depths of Sui-no-Sato, Kurenai smiled politely and bowed. “Such splendor, such beauty. Your--” Her gaze quickly moved away from his chest to the objects in his hands, “--works never fail to impress me. Please take this gift of scrips in return.”
Teremy bowed and responded in Hingan, “The least I can do to help the cause.” Although Kurenai spoke Doman, he understood her somewhat as one who spoke a different dialect of the same language. And same for Kurenai in return. He hadn’t spoken his native language in awhile and doing so made him feel a little happy on the inside.
“I shall be looking forward to your subsequent return, if you will grace us with your presence again.” Kurenai bowed again.
“Wherever the wind will carry me.”
As Teremy turned around to leave, thankfully he had no clue as to Kurenai peering over at his two shapely ‘cloud pearls.’ All the miqo’te heard was a smack from Sanana’s hand. “Keep your eyes off the guys and on the prize!”
Thanks to the yellow scrips, Teremy now left Rhalgr’s reach with both the aforementioned master recipe book, as well as books of folklore native to Othard and Gyr Abania. One third of the battle done.
* * *
“Chromite Ore. A decent-sized piece of rock containing the metal chromium.” Teremy read out loud while dodging several demons. “Self-explanatory.”
Book in one hand, gunblade in the other, and with his face completely engrossed in the book of Othardian folklore, Teremy’s instincts took over in the heat of battle. He spun and weaved around any threat that dared come close to him in Haukke Manor. A couple of cuts from his gunblade was all he needed to disperse the voidsent from whence they came.
“Chromium. Difficult to discern from a single glance. Dark grey to black in colour. Slightly magnetic.”
The manor sentry screeched at him as his fire-endowed gunblade sank into its person. With an indignant flap of his wings, said sentry flew off to open the ritual spell blocking the door. But Teremy’s destination was elsewhere, namely the room of which said manor sentry hung out in itself. Teremy opened the chest and was greeted by two pots of manor varnish. Exactly what he needed.
* * *
“Rhea. A variety of ramie better suited to the climes of Far Eastern Othard.” Teremy glanced at the picture beside the descriptive text. “Compared to the usual ramie, rhea has smaller leaves green on the underside. Huh. Good to know.”
Teremy placed planks of spruce lumber by Rosemary as instructed. He petted her on the head and sauntered off to his next destination, his nose still stuck in the folklore book.
* * *
“Torreya Log. A rough cut of torreya timber. Then what the hell is a torreya tree--”
“Ignoring us would be your greatest folly!” cried Ascian Prime.
Teremy was sure he felt a tickle of… something. He merely summoned a small barrier around him in the form of a technique called Rampart and allowed the damage to brush off of him. Gunblade in one hand, book in the other like his previous run through Haukke Manor, his body moved on its own while he buried his face in the folklore book.
“Torreya, a genus of conifers. Spiky leaves. Destined to prick you before you prick them. Ah. All right. What a prick.” Teremy muttered as he stepped into a black portal for safety.
One he stepped out of the area, he found himself rewarded with enough poetic tomestones to appease Rowena’s employees. Bone charcoal and demicrystals acquired.
* * *
Torreya Log. The Lochs. Six o’clock. Teremy found said tree at the peak of its gathering time at some point in the evening. Thanks to the description, he recognised the tree’s needle-like leaves immediately. Hacking away with his patented axe--he trusted his faithful warrior’s axe more than he would a botanist’s tool, he acquired as many logs as this tree allowed him to have.
“Tsukuyomi’s Moonlit Cane. Three torreya lumber, two rhea cloth, 2 molybdenum ingot, one celestial kimono remnant, five demicrystal.”
Chromite Ore. The Peaks. Ten o’clock. Teremy brought a small magnet with him. When not latching onto his pickaxe, the magnet did do the job of detecting the relevant ore. Once again, Pick Clean, Blessed Harvest II, and as many ores as this node allowed him to have. He gave up with the magnet after awhile and left it hooked on one of the ores.
“Tsukuyomi’s Moonlit Greataxe. Three chromite ore. Two palladium ingot. Two palladium nugget… which makes how many nuggets? Hrm. One celestial kimono remnant, five demicrystal.”
Rhea. The Azim Steppe. Twelve o’clock. As someone accustomed to working with ramie, Teremy found the plant easily. Sure enough, smaller leaves green on the underside. Just like the other two folklore materials, he gathered as many leaves as he could.
“Manor Cello. Two manor varnish, one glazenut, four spruce lumber, four cobalt ingot, one dew thread. Interesting. Dew thread for strings.”
Teremy closed the master recipe books.
“Now for all the rest of that good shit.”
* * *
He returned to Fortunes & Fancies late at night. Reonora had locked the door, but Teremy had a key. He excused himself to no one on particular and turned on the lights as he entered. The planks of spruce lumber now laid by the side of the counter with a note in Joey’s handwriting. Drying done.
Teremy had all the materials he needed to start work. He rolled up his sleeves and pulled out his own list of items to make. Starting by propping the relevant master books up on the counter.
* * *
The fated third day had arrived. Reonora, Joey and Rosemary stood in front of the store bright and early. Reonora had no items onhand as all of her necessary materials went towards the free company workshop, but her clothes looked a little ragged and a few strands of white hair strung out of place. Joey dragged behind him a cart containing nothing but folded shimmering clothes and many sequins. Rosemary, who had to take care of customer service, had dark circles under her eyes.
“Have either of you heard from Teremy?” Reonora asked.
“I tried contacting him earlier but no answer.” said Joey.
“I hope he’s okay…” Rosemary looked down.
Reonora turned the door handle to her store.
The handle was open.
“Strange. I thought I had locked the door last night.” Reonora furrowed her brow.
Rosemary waved her hands. “Hopefully robbers didn’t come in!”
“Only one way to find out.”
The three entered the store. Thankfully everything seemed intact as usual. However, from the moment they entered, Reonora and Rosemary sensed a presence from downstairs from powerful, yet familiar energies. To Joey, who could only sense magic and therefore not this specific presence, heard soft, rhythmic breathing, also from downstairs. The trio headed downstairs and saw Teremy passed out on the couch. Beside him were all the items he had been requested to make, finished and gleaming from the highest quality possible.
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Anime Update 41
CLANNAD: The Movie - So to officially say farewell to CLANNAD before the start of Summer and moving on to something else, I took a look at Toei Animation’s CLANNAD movie, which came out a month before the KyoAni series premiered on TV and adapted material from the visual novel a lot more loosely to fit with it’s run time. I actually kind of like the idea of this. It reminds me of the old Babar series where Babar had his origin told but then there were also two different movies that told two different origin stories, the second of which being most faithful to the source material books. The movie itself was...alright. I’d say it’s pretty good in only the most adequate of ways - not anywhere close to greatness but not particularly horrible either. Had I watched this movie before the series, I’d probably have found it a decent animated film and appreciated the artistic value and emotions behind the moments that actually landed, even though it wouldn’t likely stay with me like A Silent Voice or Your Name.
Problem is, I watched it after I’d watched the entire series, having ended After Story just last week. And the movie is not CLANNAD. It shares a title, a setting, a premise, and characters with CLANNAD, but the overall feel of it was completely different. The story seemed done based on a Cliff Notes version of the Nagisa Route + After Story up until the equivalent of Episode 18′s end, done in whatever way the director (the late Osamu Dezaki) and his crew felt like doing it, which ended up not being nearly as powerful as what we got in the anime series. And boy howdy does it ever let down the characters. Fuko, Kotomi, Ryou, Mei, and Yukine are all absent (save for Kotomi getting a single silent cameo early in), Tomoyo and Kyou are more minor here (especially the latter, who has been stripped of her personality entirely), Kouko Ibuki and Yusuke Yoshino get more attention for whatever reason, and Akio and Sanae display none of the more serious and relatable human qualities they had in the series except for towards the very end when their daughter is dying.
Then we have the three leads - Tomoya, Nagisa, and Sunohara. Tomoya had his complex and interesting character adapted well in terms of all the big stuff, but the movie fails to provide us the littler stuff that was just as crucial to endearing him to viewers and making him a strong leading man. Nagisa in this movie is a lot different from in the series, and is quite frankly a huge disaster because of it. Good lord, the way she’s framed and depicted is beyond ridiculous and corny to the extreme: she’s almost always positive, upbeat, and happy in her scenes, there’s almost always warm, heavenly light shining down on her and cherry blossoms blowing in the wind when she’s on screen, constant close-ups of her cute cherub face that emphasize how Too Good And Pure For This Sinful Earth she is, and even the colors of her design are changed so that her skin is very pale and her brown hair is so light it’s practically golden. She lacks solid motivation for wanting to try new things at school and re-start the Drama Club, her social awkwardness, her shyness and anxiety issues, her doormat/crybaby nature and self confidence issues are nonexistent, and instead of learning her parents’ big secret at a critical moment, she already knows it (in here they were both actors rather than just Akio being one) and says outright that it’s a motivator for her in pursuing her dream rather than a demotivator like it was originally. The only time she’s recognizable as the Nagisa I know and love is when she’s all cutely excitable about the Big Dango Family, and even that’s diminished because the movie makes her act that way all the freaking time when Dangos aren’t involved. But perhaps worst of all is that she serves as a literal definition Manic Pixie Dream Girl for Tomoya, all in service of his story rather than her own. I’m actually a sucker for seeing that trope actually done well (think Leslie Burke from Bridge To Terabithia, Senna from Bleach: Memories of Nobody, or Xion from the Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days manga adaptation), and that’s when the girls actually feel like their own well realized individuals in spite of the impact they have on the main male character’s story. But with Nagisa in this movie, I knew we were in trouble the moment the backstory info about why she’s re-taking her senior year came not from her own mouth, but from Sunohara. Oh, and speaking of, Sunohara’s probably the best and most faithfully adapted character in the film...but the problem lies in his function. To repeat: he is one of the three lead characters in the movie. All those other female characters never join the Drama Club - it’s just the trio of Tomoya, Nagisa, and Sunohara. Sunohara, a supporting character in the series, is elevated to legit main character status in this movie. He’s the fucking tritagonist of the whole piece, meaning he gets a lot of screen time. And when he goes over-the-top, he goes REALLY over-the-top, even moreso in this movie than in the series, so this is to his detriment. Sunohara worked great as a supporting characters whose antics you could watch in doses unless his presence was a crucial requirement for the current plot. Just the right amount of Sunohara goes a long way. I flat out detested him so much in the early episodes partially because his antics felt not only overplayed and repetitive, but not spaced out enough. I came around on him when the series got a better handle on how to use him, but the movie really works against his whole purpose as a character. So no matter how enjoyable his voice acting is or what laughs he got out of me at times, the screentime spent on him just felt so wrong to me. The one character I think was handled perfectly right was Naoyuki Okazaki, of all people. Actually getting to see him in a drunken stupor and see the moment where he assaulted his son in a rage rather than it all being implied or told to us was appreciated, and the resolution with him, while different, actually felt a bit more realistic.
In terms of the narrative, the film actually impressed me with how they adapted the Illusionary World stuff. The Girl and the Junk Doll aren’t here since their ultimate purpose wasn’t to be utilized by the film, so in their place is this recurring nightmare of Tomoya’s that sees his soul severed from his body and forced to inhabit a creepy harlequin looking mannequin who travels the desolate, empty hellscape with a bicycle in search of someone or something, and trying to reach some “Tree of Promises” at the end of the world. All of these scenes were atmospheric and unsettling in the tangible surreal horror vibe they give off, which is a vastly different feel from the series’ version (where the Junk Doll’s kind of creepy at first but you get used to him after repeated exposure, and there’s overall more of a peculiar dreamlike quality and it feels like an otherworldly fairy tale or spiritual out-of-body experience rather than a freaking nightmare). But then they taint it by using it in service of the Tomoya/Nagisa love story, which might be where the movie fails the hardest. In the series, the lead characters romance felt natural, organic, developed and earned. You could see how and why they fell for each other and you could root for them as a couple. It helped that both characters were equally treated as the narrative’s protagonists and the stars of their own arcs - even after Nagisa passed away, her story didn’t end and she was still a presence that influenced the story. In the movie...why do they fall in love? Why do they become a couple, get married, and have a baby? Get this: it’s because they both have one half of the same recurring dream. They’re each other’s missing half. They’re soulmates. The movie literally plays the soulmates card! Not only is this cheesy “because they’re MEANT to be together!” narrative cheapen the relationship and rob it of it’s power, but it’s particularly bad for Nagisa because really, what does she gain out of being with Tomoya? The whole point was that being with Tomoya gave her more confidence, but she’s already plenty confident in the movie, so the only one getting benefits to their character and personal growth from this relationship is Tomoya. His feelings of love for Nagisa get heavily focused on but not her feelings in return. His pain over losing Nagisa is what matters, not her life being lost. Nagisa straight up cannot and does not exist independently of Tomoya in this version, and that ends up sabotaging the emotion of her death scene. The movie has within it’s grasp a death that could be possibly even more heartbreaking than the series version since here Nagisa starts to go into delirium and talks about walking up that hill to school like when she and Tomoya first met right before passing away. But because the lead-in was so poorly done, complete with the movie flash-forwarding ahead and outright telling us that Nagisa died well before we got to see it happen (oh, thanks for the spoiler, movie!), I just couldn’t muster up any feelings for the girl’s death after it happened. It’s yet another way the film messed up with Nagisa’s character, and since the Nagisa of the VN and anime is a serious God Tier female lead, it really sucks.
Even the ending was all kinds of fucked up. Rather than getting led towards a father-daughter trip with Ushio, Tomoya flat out gets abducted by Yoshino and the others and forcibly taken to where Akio and Sanae have Ushio waiting for him. This is the last scene of the movie, the one time where we see Ushio, and what we’re given doesn’t even come remotely close to matching Episode 18 of After Story. The emotional resonance is nil. A large part of that might be the soundtrack, as not much of Maeda’s actual tracks got used aside from the opening “Megu Meru” song, a single jaunty tune, and some of Nagisa’s theme in the ending song. Even the fucking Big Dango Family song here is completely different from the one in the show!
As a movie, I’d give it a 6/10. As an adaptation, it gets a 2/10. Unlike the series, it’s not something I could ever imagine myself revisiting.
Dragon Ball - OK, I have a confession: remember last week when I said “Did I watch it this week? I honestly can’t remember.”? Well, I kind of did watch it...but by “watch” I mean I just skimmed over the entire Fortuneteller Baba mini-tournament, up to Goku fighting his grandpa Gohan. That whole part of the story honestly never really interested me and it’s a better fit for watching during October given all the Halloween rejects that Goku was made to fight. So this week I finally ended the Red Ribbon Saga, with Goku claiming the final Dragon Ball from Emperor Pilaf and then returning to the Land of Korrin to summon Shenron and wish Bora back to life. It’s a bit polarizing to me because one on hand, dragging things out for two more episodes after Baba’s ordeal ended makes this Saga’s case of Arc Fatigue even worse, and it was definitely excruciating in the manga. But in the anime? I can’t help but enjoy it because it’s Pilaf. When animated so expressively and voiced so perfectly by Shigeru Chiba or Chuck Huber, he and his comedic interplay with Mai and Shu is just a total delight to watch every single time. We’ve not seen these jokers since the very start of this saga and I really did miss them, and got so much enjoyment out of watching Goku beat first their individual mechs, then their combining mech, and finally the weird robo-Roadrunner they tried to make their escape in. In the following episode, seeing Goku snatch the 4 Star Ball just as it turned into a rock and was about to fly off was incredible, and the resolve for him to go train himself for the next Budokai Tournament rather than continue to learn under Roshi was an interesting way to close things out and set up the next Saga. Also, Bora likening Goku to “a hero from the stars” or something along those lines is another thing that makes it amazing how the twist of Goku being a Saiyan wasn’t planned all along. In retrospect, it feels so inevitable.
Love Live Sunshine! - Season 1 came to a phenomenal close in it’s last two episodes, first with Aqours returning to Tokyo to search for what made µ's so special and able to save their own school, and then with their big debut at the regional qualifier idol performances, with both episodes marking the point where Aqours stops trying to be a µ's imitation and starts looking for their own “shine”, embracing what they are and becoming a radiant force on the school idol scene in their own right. Coming back to this show after having watched the first series really makes a big difference in how I look at certain parts: like when the girls go to Okonokizaka High. Seeing that school again, looking just as I remembered it from µ's show, gave me chills. That really is kind of the brilliance of this show - it’s a great series if you experience it without having seen it’s predecessor, and is then an even better great series if you re-experience it after seeing it’s predecessor. Seeing Aqours’ truly begin at the same beach where µ's decided they would end, and the feather that comes down at the end...God, all of it was simply brilliant. Also, Saint Snow made another appearance and they’re still perfectionist jerks but are pretty chill, sociable and agreeable in their off time, so I liked watching them and Aqours’ hanging out all friendly-like just like µ's and A-RISE used to. Oh, and all of this was springboarded because Aqours got another 0; the number of new applicants for their school was 0 despite their newfound popularity. Like Dia said, it feels like a joke at this point. The big “shining moment” for Aqours in Episode 13 more than made up for this, though. The pre-show the girls put on where they detail what makes their town and school great, recap the events of the season, and just really put themselves out there in all sincerity and vulnerability, went on for several minutes but I could care less because I was totally absorbed into it. It’s as @themattress put it in this post: a beautiful, magical moment. And then the big, grand, glorious crescendo to finish the scene follows. “Future Ticket” and the performance they put on with it might just be for Aqours what “Snow Halation” was for µ's (the exact equivalent to it will come literally in the second season’s ninth episode too, but it’s not entirely Aqours’ song), with the whole sequence surrounded by hundreds of lights and bright colors being the affirmation of Aqours as legit school idols who are worthy of so much more than a 0. Everything here, even the episode’s very name of “Sunshine”, just came together to deliver the best conclusion to this season’s narrative that you could ask for. Aqours might only get better from here, but it’s hard to feel that the show itself will. They really put out all stops with what they did with this first season, and for that I’ll always remember it well.
One weird part, though. In episode 12...what the fuck was that Mini-Honoka sliding down the rail at Okonokizaka High? That seemed way too specific to be real. Chika must’ve been imagining things!
My-HIME - Watched two episodes this week. And it’s episodes like these that bring this series’ biggest conundrum to attention - how much does this second half really benefit from the first half? It’s purely because of the first half that we know who these characters are and can care about what they’re going through now. But on the other hand, that could actually just be making it worse to see pretty much everyone turning into assholes and villains. First Yukariko, then Nao, then Mikoto, then Mai herself, and now Shizuru as well? The more this goes on, the less characters worth rooting for are left, and that could be considered a big problem with how dark and grim the show has gotten at this point. But my interest is still held by the notable events that occurred here. Just when I thought the Searrs Foundation wasn’t a thing in this show anymore, this weasely Searrs representative called John Smith turns up and exposes the truth about Natsuki’s mother - how when she turned on First District, she was planning on selling her daughter to Searrs. Mai also broke things off with Tate in order to keep him safe, she’s still being pursued by this mysterious flute playing phantom HIME, Mashiro was revealed to actually be the Obsidian Prince’s sister, the Crystal Hime, incarnated in the form of a doll that’s also a Child and that’s why she was bound to a wheelchair, the Obsidian Prince killed Mashiro and brainwashed her maid over to his side, Nagi is onto Wataru’s plan and wants to use him for something, Mikoto is still alive and serving her “brother”, and not only is Shizuru a HIME but she’s a reprehensible person who madly crushes on Natsuki to the point of sexually assaulting her and seems ready to fight Yukino and Haruka at the end ‘cause of course.
Assassination Classroom - This episode served as our first proper meeting with our main antagonist, Principal Gakuho Asano, and hole-eee shit, this guy is an impressively awesome villain already. The logic he thinks with regarding the system he seeks to uphold is chilling in how well it mirrors the thinking that goes into such institutions and systems in real life - the part where he explains the “worker ant theory” to Korosensei gave me goosebumps in how cold and cruel it was yet delivered with a straight face and a calm, reasonable voice. Speaking of his voice, Chris Rager provides it perfectly. He carries this Jamieson Price quality and made the character remind me of Rufus Shinra in Final Fantasy VII Remake what with the deep, collected businessman voice coming out of this well-dressed pretty boy, and it’s not something I expected to hear from Chris Rager given his previous work I’ve seen. Just a pitch perfect continues to be Sonny Strait’s Korosensei - I’m convinced this might be Strait’s best role to date. He gets to voice a wide array of moods, emotions, and pitches as this character, with his big speechifying to the class about why they all need to step up their game and strive for their best by carrying “a second blade” being one of his best scenes yet. But one thing regarding Korosensei that was a bit troublesome before was the amount of shilling he was getting from other characters, always being talked up as this perfect teacher who does the best job ever teaching his class and cannot be outdone as either a teacher or a target ‘cause he’s both super smart and super powerful. This would normally be the sign of a Mary Sue. And then in this episode, Gakuho comes in, builds himself up as the antithesis to everything Korosensei believes in regarding how to treat students, and he flat out bests him. The strategy he devised to ensure the E Class failed their exam and were kept down succeeds, Korosensei admits to having underestimated his enemy this time, and takes full responsibility for his own failure. And it hurts to see the poor yellow octopus man get so down, but at the same time it was very welcome to see the kinks in his armor - that he’s not perfect and can still fail at the goal he set for his students to accomplish. But in the end, the class is not feeling kept down from this setback, and Karma being the one to actually ace his test and lift Korosensei’s spirits? Through taunting and death threats? That was perfect.
Nadja of Tomorrow - So Nadja returns to the place it all began, Applefield Orphanage...and it’s abandoned. Her old caretaker died in an accident that occurred while she was away. Having to see her find this out and even go to Ms. Applefield’s grave? That was rough. But at least we got the return of Rafael, who helped his friend Nadja back on her feet. And in the next episode, John the piano prodigy returns! See, everything’s coming back - it’s all coming together. The most interesting scenes, though, were away from Nadja’s plot. Rosemary, still posing as Nadja, being moved to tears at the kindness that Colette and Hilda show her compared to how the folks back at the Gonzales Estate treated her was touching for a bit, and then she uses the moment to lie about having been abused by the staff at Applefields. What a little fiend! Then she tells Herman that she really IS Nadja Preminger now and that she will hold herself to playing that role including holding higher status and power over him. Herman, however, still thinks he can use Rosemary and keep her in her place of serving his ambition to take over the family and claim it’s wealth and assets for himself because he’s the worst. And we even got a short moment with Kennosuke and the others in the Dandelion Troupe - they still get appear on the show sometimes! Not sure how or if they factor into the current happenings, but it’s still nice to see.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam - So Sai Saici discovered his late father’s will that expressed his regret over not being able to see through his dream of reviving the Shiaolin Temple before he passed away, and that motivated him to get a lot more serious and dedicated in the fight. There’s even a bit where he has a martial arts brawl with Allenby over some silly, childish reason only to abruptly stop it when he remembers he can expend too much energy before his Gundam Fight match with Domon. The match, as expected, was fierce. Sai Saici kept on striking and clobbering Domon only to always get pummeled himself and he just kept on coming back for more, to the point where he was willing to use a kamikaze attack that might kill him because he’d rather die fighting for victory than live with the shame of being this fight’s loser. Thank goodness the emperor of Neo China was around to ensure he didn’t throw his life away like that and even got him admittance to the Battle Royal (though it kinda bothered me how...white this Chinese emperor was). Minister Wong’s increased frustration over how none of the Shuffle Alliance fighters are defeating Domon brings a smile to my face, especially coupled with Master Asia’s increased pleasure at seeing his pupil live up to his expectations. They really do make the oddest evil couple.
AND
WataMote - Returned to the delightfully dismal and deranged world of Tomoko Kuroki, as she spent most of this episode trying to build herself up for a reunion with Yuu-Chan, her old middle school bestie. Looking for something to boast to her friend about or some super enthralling experience straight out of an anime to share with her proves harder for Tomoko than she thought, since she’s...well, Tomoko. Not exactly Miss Popular around town or at school, with good reason. When Yuu-Chan finally shows up in the episode’s final third, the result is a little bit predictable - when Tomoko recalls her as the plain, nerdy type, you just know she’s going to now be this really beautiful, socially outgoing, popular girl as a high schooler now. But the execution is still gold, with Tomoko turning all gray for a good many minutes after the reveal and getting this blatant girl crush on Yuu-Chan with remarks like about how good she smells. Much like the first episode, this one didn’t have that much of a well structured plot going on, but it’s still entertaining ‘cause I enjoy watching Tomoko so much. She’s just the strangest character where I find her pretty repulsive on a personal level, but at the same time I could watch her say, think, and do weird shit all day ‘cause I just can’t get enough of the cute little dork and how Monica Rial voices her. And there’s also the total contradiction of how she’s written like a pretty grounded, relatable person but is presented in a totally cartoonish way that no real person could ever emulate. This girl is a crazy walking contradiction and I love her for it. Just as impressive is how the episode got incredibly sincere and heartwarming towards the end, with Tomoko just being herself and chatting it up with Yuu-Chan, showing the common ground the two girls still share, and Yuu-Chan even admitting she wishes things were still like they were in middle school and that her time with Tomoko was so fun it made her forget her own life’s troubles. It was just so fucking sweet and wholesome, but this show still needed to end on a strong joke, which it did with Yuu mentioning she has a boyfriend, and Tomoko feeling dejected until she looks at that sketch that one student drew of her that has her looking all pretty, which gets her happy and content...totally oblivious to the fact that the guy was just a lazy artist who draws that face for insignificant background characters. Poor Tomoko, I guess?
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SnK Season 3, Part 1 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)
The poll closed with 240 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!
Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!
RATE THE FIRST COUR
231 Responses
Overall, respondents had a positive experience with the anime’s retelling of the Uprising arc with a 4 being the most popular ranking. It seems most believe there was room for improvement, but that it was overall enjoyable!
Good shit man, good shit. Next arc is gonna wring my heart dry of every last feel in existence, but so far I am satisfied.
This season was poor. I hoped for better. The scenes I loved it the manga were removed. Lots of character development was gone. But my biggest pain is anime version of Kenny. I will be honest - I am disappointed.
I liked it but the manga version will always hold a special place in my heart
I thought it was amazing, despite all the new things and things taken out. I still love the series way too much to really criticize choices they or Isayama make. I know I'm still gonna watch it and love it.
FAVORITE ANIMATED COUR SO FAR?
235 Responses
Nearly half of voters favor the Clash of the Titans arc’s adaptation the most so far, but the Uprising arc came at a surprisingly strong second overall!
Well done, WIT Studio! Although some of my favorite chapters became my least favorite and vice versa (sadly), this was over all the best arc in my opinion.
It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.
FAVORITE EPISODE(S) FROM THIS COUR?
231 Responses
“Friends” was the most well-liked episode of the first half of the season, but overall the last four episodes performed the strongest. This is likely due to their more faithful adaptation of the manga material than than the earlier episodes. On that note, “Pain” did pretty well in regards to the earlier episodes.
First two episodes were meh (way too fast for my liking), then it got slightly better, but the last 4 episodes were amazing
that ending scene in ep 12, what the hell, that scared me so much but it was so well done! also that last scene before the ending song is great for hype lol, Erwin's (japanese) voice actor is a god, my god what a man, SUSUMEEE
RATE THE SOUNDTRACK
236 Responses
It is probably safe to assume that the majority of respondents agree with the sentiment, “OST when!?” The soundtrack was great this season according to voters. Hopefully Sawano treats us soon!
It was so good and I really want the soundtrack to come out, I have 6 months to mentally prepare myself for the return to Shiganshina arc and I still won’t be ready
RATE THE ANIMATION
235 Responses
Overall, reactions to the animation were positive. Although there were some scenes that had room for improvement, ultimately we can’t deny that the hard work done on the action sequences really paid off. Here’s hoping for even more glorious animation in the second half of the season!
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING KEY CHARACTERS BY THE END OF THE COUR?
We’ll let the results speak for themselves on this one. Levi, Historia, Erwin, Hange and Kenny drew the most positive feelings. Rod evoked the most negative feelings.
ARE YOU PLANNING TO WATCH THE NEXT COUR?
237 Responses
We’re happy to see that most of you guys will be around for more!
I feel like this section and onwards are not going to make for very entertaining episodes and are better in manga format, particularly if it's going to keep forcing major changes
HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE DUB?
237 Responses
The majority of respondents have not watched the dub and have no desire to do so. 16% will get around to it eventually and 14% are keeping on up on it.
IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF THE DUB THIS SEASON?
211 Responses
Aside from the 75% who haven’t been watching it, those who have are having an overall positive experience with it this season, regardless if the original Japanese is the preference or not!
This season has been an improvement both in voice acting and script, I've been pretty satisfied with it.
I'm not sure why people think animes need dubs tbh. They never sound good. Kenny's voice actor really butchered the cowboy voice.
I've only seen a few scenes but when Levi shouted ''Nifa!'' it sounded really weird in the dub xD
The very idea of watching dubbed anime is heresy
DO YOU THINK LINKED HORIZON WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE NEXT COUR?
233 Responses
The majority are feeling pretty confident that Linked Horizon will be back again for part 2 with an exciting new opening for us! 16% are sure they will stick around, but we may not see them retake their role as the artist of the opening. A small sliver of respondents think that they will be absent.
OVERALL, DID YOU THINK THE ADAPTATION OF THE UPRISING ARC WAS DONE WELL?
237 Responses
Just over half of respondents believed that the Uprising arc was adapted well overall. 28% felt it was a good story, but not a good adaptation - still enjoyable, but not close enough to the source material. Smaller percentages either preferred the anime’s retelling or, on the opposite end, believe that the adaptation wasn’t good in any way.
Í think a few parts would've been better if they had stuck to the source, but overall it was a good adaptation
It was horrible to be very honest, ehhhhh they ruined it
There were a few cuts and changes that didn't make sense or took away from the story but it wasn't too bad. I love Attack On Titan too much to be ungreatful lol.
At some points it was a better adaptation, with changes I liked, and at some points the attempts to fix some issues created some others. I'd say I find it about even with the manga, the pros and cons balance out.
I enjoyed it, and I loved the action animation in the first few episodes, but I'd still have preferred a more faithful adaptation.
First half was rushed, i like the manga version of it better, but the second half that went more like the manga was excellent
It could've been a teensy bit better, but glad they hit all the marks that were important (except for the hesitation of the 104th squad killing people)
It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.
Although the story was entertaining and was produced well, it missed a lot of key factors present in the manga that really brings it down. At the end you have a feeling of hollowness as opposed to satisfaction
OPINIONS OF THE ARC BEFORE THE ANIME?
238 Responses
Prior to the anime adaptation, the majority of respondents were fond of this arc of the story. A few were indifferent or didn’t enjoy it, however.
I thought this arc was boring when I read it in the manga and it honestly wasn’t any better when it was animated.
AND AFTER?
237 Responses
Opinions stayed about the same after the anime retelling, with just a small bump up in the “liked it” area.
I actually like the Uprising arc. So when the anime came up I expected it to be better. So for me this is a good adaptation. Plus I think half of the budget was spent on making Levi 100 time hotter... My only regret is that they didn't show Levi shirtless.
Uprising arc is my favorite in the manga. So many changes have driven me mad but in the end, I have rather enjoyed this cour. The chara design and the animation are insane. Feel robbed in many ways though, but never mind.
I felt like a lot of details that made the arc good in the manga was lost in the anime
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING MAJOR CHANGES?
While most stances were overall neutral on many of the changes, the most disliked change was taking away Levi forcing Historia to take the crown, thus unraveling subsequent events which eventually lead to the beloved punch/smile scene. The most well received change was including a proper Kenny vs. Levi fight scene in the cave.
I did disapprove of some removals and additions, because I felt that the way the manga structured it made the plot flow easily. For the anime, it felt a tad rushed with the fast stream of information given to the viewers.
Like many manga readers, my biggest and only really significant complaint was the removal of Levi's choking-and-speech moment. It was entirely crucial to both his and Historia's characterisation and future development.
I only liked two of the changes. Everything they did that stuck to the manga was really well done.
The fandom is happy because of the 2nd fight between them in the cave. That was the worst fight IMO: Kenny didn't learn anything from the first battle between them and decided to go against Levi again; he was babbling some nonsense, offended his nephew and as result - he almost got killed. So in other words - Kenny was shown as immature, dumb simpleton who despised his nephew and was pathetic fighter.
while different, i still think it was a good adaptation and none of the changes really bothered me too much.
An additional scene that I'm still upset they didn't include - the conversation between Nile and Erwin before Erwin's arrest, where they discuss their childhood together.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST COUR?
A shame a bunch of the political parts were ''rushed'', but it was to be expected. Otherwise a good adaptation!
Decent adaptation that skimmed over the boring stuff. Too bad some scenes were hacked away.
"Okay, this is epic." - Ben Shapiro
I don't care that Isayama approved the changes and that the majority of people seemed to have enjoyed this arc more in anime form with the changes. I'm not an idiot, I know how adaptations work and that they're a different medium and that it wouldn't be a 100% panel by panel adaptation nor was I expecting it to be. Neither of the previous seasons were. But they removed and changed SO MUCH of what made the arc great and my favorite personally that I'll never get over that.
After a few fast paced episodes that were slightly Concerning™️ things slowed down and made a lot of sense. I’m glad that isayama got a chance to see uprising play out in the way he would have liked. And as far as changes, some were great, some were not awesome, but we always have the manga. Overall it was amazing and what will I do with my Sundays for the next six months rip
It was pretty calm, right before the storm of the next cour
First sighting of god tier character Floch
I feel like a fair bit of changes were made just to give the main/loved characters far more screentime, and some other changes to be simply dumb and entirely unnecessary
I wish they had just stayed true to the manga. It seems like they wanted to remove some of Levi's darker parts which makes him a less interesting character.
While it could have been better (less CGI!), it was phenomenal overall, and I believe guarantees that the Shiganshina arc is in good hands!
Rod's Titan was so gross. YUCK!
EEEEEEKKKKKK
10/10 there was a brief flashback of Mina Carolina in the Cave.
I'm still salty about some cuts but overall I liked it. Who will say no to Anime SNK?
For Yams story and characters are the most important, for the anime team - it's fun for watchers. That's a bit sad but okay.
Historias new coronation outfit was better than in the manga
I see the anime as an extra, so nothing that happens in the anime will change how I see certain characters or the arc itself. So I really had a problem answering your poll. In my eyes, it a gimmick, a nice animated extra but nothing more.
Despite not being a 1:1 adaptation of the manga, the anime still manages to do a fantastic job of adapting Uprising as well as altering it. The story and characters were still executed very well, and this arc overall had a MUCH better reception than its original counterpart which, in my opinion, says something.
WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES?
221 Responses
SHOULD THE POLLS CONTINUE/OVERALL POLL FEEDBACK?
226 Responses
We’re happy to see you guys are enjoying the polls! We appreciate all of you! <3
Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in April!
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Chris Evans Fic: Hiking and Hypocrisy (Chapter 10)
Some NSFW content in this.
You glanced nervously at the clock, wiping your hands on a cloth as you ran through your mental checklist once more. Dinner was in the oven, dessert was chilling in the fridge, the table was set… all you needed to do was get yourself ready. You had about forty five minutes until Chris was due to arrive and you planned on using them to make yourself as primped and preened as possible.
After the success of your reunion at Mackie and Sheletta’s, you had invited Chris over to your apartment for dinner. You planned on telling him everything, the whole sorry tale. Yes, there was a high probability that it would totally kill the mood, and you worried that it was too soon to be bearing your soul so completely, but after all that had happened, it seemed like the only option. Chris had to know, end of.
You practised what you were going to say as you showered and shaved your legs, and then again as your dried your hair and applied a touch of make up. You practised, but you knew full well it would all go out of the window once you actually began talking. Still, it didn’t hurt to run through it all, as much as it pained you to recall the events that put the final nail in the coffin on yours and Isaac’s relationship.
By the time the doorbell rang, you felt somewhat ready. You did a final smooth over of your dress and opened the door to Chris, smiling on the other side and holding a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine.
You matched his smile, feeling nerves turn to excitement now that he was there, and stepped aside to let him.
He gifted the flowers to you and you thanked him, pressing a gentle and tentative kiss to his mouth before heading to the kitchen to find a vase and water.
‘Smells good in here,’ Chris complimented you.
‘It’s honey mustard chicken. I hope you’re hungry, I got a little over excited and made enough to feed the whole apartment block.’
He just grinned boyishly, ‘Oh, I’m absolutely famished.’
***
You chatted all through dinner, music playing softly in the background, venturing into flirtation on more than one occasion. You had seated yourselves around a corner of the table so that your knees brushed together often and you were close enough to lay a hand on an arm here or have your hair brushed back over your shoulder there. Each touch ignited a new spark within you, your body finally able to give in to its attraction to him.
Chris helped you clear away the dishes after dessert, moving close by you as you stacked them in the sink and you felt hands snake around your hips, a bristly cheek rest against yours from behind.
‘Thank you for that spectacular dinner,’ he said sincerely, and you spun around in his arms, wedged between him and the counter, laying your hands against his chest.
‘You are more than welcome,’ You beamed up at him. ‘I hope it goes some small way to apologising for the absolute shitshow you’ve encountered since you met me.’
You laughed as you said but there was a serious undertone to your words.
He dipped his head in acknowledgement, ‘There’s nothing to apologise for, honestly. The one thing I would like to know, if you ever felt up to telling me, is what that asshole did to you in the past to make you so wary. Just so I know what I’d be fighting him for if I ever meet him again.’
You knew he was joking about the fighting thing and you laughed with him, trying to keep the mood light but feeling the significance of what you needed to do.
Reaching up on tip toes, you pressed your mouth gently to his, placing your hands against his neck. He pushed back against you almost instantly, deepening the kiss, sweeping his tongue across your bottom lip. It was full of longing and, on your part, of apology, both for what had happened and what you were about to unload on him.
You pulled back just enough to be able to speak against his lips, ‘Let’s take the wine into the living room and I’ll tell you whole thing.’
He looked at you steadily for a moment, ‘You sure? I don’t want to push you into something you’re not ready for.’
‘No, you need to hear it so you can understand. I’ve been holding on to it for too long.’
He nodded, ‘Lead the way.’
***
So you sat, with your glasses of wine and you told him the whole of your history with Isaac. Some of it you had assumed Chris had been able to piece together from what he had seen at the cabin, but some of it was going to be fresh information.
So you told him how you had met Isaac when you were too young to know any better, had been taken in by his good looks, charming personality and, honestly, his ambitions of being an actor impressed you. He was just starting out but had a couple of decent TV credits under his belt, he knew people and was a little showbiz.
You spent a lot of your relationship wondering what he saw in you, how you had managed to catch such a prize, and it was only years later that you realised that whole train of thought was one carefully cultivated by Isaac himself. He wanted you to feel inferior, like he was doing you a favour, and he manipulated you so well that you hadn’t even realised that he was doing it. Every time he made you change your clothes before going to an event, or compared you to another girl, or changed plans at the last minute and went to events alone because ‘you know how it is babe, sometimes I can get more out of networking if I appear single, it’s just for work, you know that right?’
And every time, you told him yes, you knew he was trying to carve a career for himself to secure your future. He wasn’t cheating on you, he loved you!
Then things had happened in rapid succession. You moved in with him, into an apartment being sublet by none other than Anthony Mackie, also an up-and-comer at the time, and three months, he’d asked you to marry him. You had worn that obscene ring with pride at the time, believing beyond everything that this proves exactly how much Isaac truly loved you, how everything he did was for your future together as a couple. Underneath it all, however, deep down you were scared of how much you needed him. All of your friends had been cut off, left to the wayside as Isaac consumed you. You dyed your hair, lost weight, starting tanning - all things you thought would make him love you more - because, now you knew, that ring that never made you feel more secure. If anything, now you had it, you felt you had to work to keep it.
Isaac was the only person you had in your life, and that made it very difficult to leave him, even years down the line when you knew things weren’t right, that there was something wrong in his treatment of you. He stayed out late, a lot. You were invited to less and less of his events and spent more and more time alone in the apartment with only that ridiculous ring for company. His career didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast and you began to live for monthly trips to the cabin.
The cabin belonged to his parents really, but Isaac used it the most. Sometimes for out-of-town parties but your favourite times were when it was just the two of you. It was only there you felt like you had him, truly. You tried to keep him in bed all weekend, waiting on him hand and foot, trying desperately to show him how good a fiancée you were and how you could meet all his needs. You didn’t care what he asked of you, you did it. He was himself at the cabin, he was nice to you and paid attention to you, and you told yourself this is how he really was and that ‘LA Isaac’ was just a front, a mask.
The truth really hit you all at once, however. You’d been feeling pretty sick at work for a couple of days and, having mentioned it in passing to Nina, decided you should take a pregnancy test. You bought one at the store on your way home, leaving work earlier than you normally would, feeling excited to tell Isaac. This would surely set everything in stone. Engaged, with a baby on the way, you could be a family. You could give him what no one else could. Maybe he’d give up on the actor thing and settle into something more stable once he was a Dad.
You let yourself into your apartment, ready to burst, ready for Isaac to wait with you in anticipation as the test did it’s thing, but you froze immediately.
There, bent over the couch was a naked woman, head thrown back in pleasure as Isaac pounded into her from behind. Time seemed to slow. You saw every little detail, saw him admiring her ass, giving her a little slap, telling her she was a good girl. You heard the noises she was making, thrusting her backside in the air like she was in a porn movie. It wasn’t long before the shock evolved and all you wanted to do was throw up.
‘Isaac?!’ Your voice was strained, wild.
They both turned to the source of the noise but Isaac barely batted an eyelid. He even grinned a little as he pulled out, telling the girl he’d be back in a minute.
‘I didn’t know you’d be back so soon baby,’ he said as he nonchalantly strolled past you to the kitchen, pulling a bottle of water from the fridge.
‘Isaac! What - we’re together. We’re engaged! I can’t… why would you do this? Does this mean nothing to you?’ You held up your hand for him to see the ring he’d placed there himself.
He took a swig from his bottle and gazed at you, no emotion whatsoever on his face.
‘Don’t be so naive sweetheart. This is LA, you think anyone is monogamous?’
That churned up the ever increasing fury inside you and you wanted to scream.
‘I am! I’ve been here, been faithful, been everything you could possibly want me to be, and this is what I come home to.’
‘That’s the way it works baby, very rarely does wife material coincide with, well, bedroom material. That’s all I’m saying. Needs have to be fulfilled somehow. Now why don’t you run along for a couple of hours, take my card, go treat yourself to some shopping, and we’ll go out for a nice dinner later.’
He laid his bottle on the counter and began to walk back towards the girl, still ready and waiting over the couch. You couldn’t believe the lack of concern. He literally did not care that you had caught him fucking another woman’s brains out while you were at work, while you might have his child-
‘Isaac, I might be pregnant. I came home early today to do a test.’
That made him stop at least and he turned around slowly, but his face was hard and unforgiving.
‘Then what are you doing here? Get to the doctor and get that sorted out now,’ he hauled you by the shoulder and all but pushed you out the door, ‘And don’t come back until it’s taken care of.’
You stood in shock, staring at the front door, watching your life fall apart in front of you. You had no one. There was no one to go to, no one to help you. Isaac was all you had in the world.
Eventually, you had called Mackie. He was your landlord for all intents and purposes, and you didn’t really know him too well at that point, but at least he could help you with the apartment stuff. Maybe he had another sublet you could use temporarily? And help you collect your belongings from the apartment? Because you wouldn’t be going back. Not ever.
He’d come over after hearing your shaky voice on the phone and had led you away carefully. He and Sheletta had taken you in, Sheletta holding your hand while you waited for the results of the test (Negative. Just stomach flu then) while Mackie collected your belongings for you. You figured he’d kicked Isaac out because Mackie had asked you if you wanted the apartment back. You’d shook your head vehemently. There was no way you would ever go back there.
With the help of Mackie and Sheletta you had slowly gotten back on your feet, found a new apartment, threw yourself back into work, and, after a broker had told you your ring was virtually worthless, had thrown it into the river.
You started again, were reborn as a new Isaac-less woman: hardened, cynical, and alone but just about getting by.
Until Chris.
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youre proud the portuguese used to be major colonizers?? what do the british have to do with south america??? im. a little lost
Okay so, I’m going to assume you’re a gringo to be asking that question, and I’m also going to take this in good faith for yours and other people’s benefit because South American history is not really a subject in other countries’ educational system to put it very charitably.
First of all, I’m absolutely not proud of the Portuguese empire’s colonial legacy. On the contrary, I’m highly critical of it and its lasting consequences in all of its past colonies, and the atrocities that they perpetuated. What I meant was that to erase the Portuguese empire’s part in the colonization of South America, the differences between the past Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Central and South America, and how those differences shaped our current geopolitical situation is to erase half of the history of the continent. When I brought them up, it was to remind that they were in fact a major power in the world before the British Empire took that role, something that is quite often overlooked or downplayed like it was in that post I reblogged. I don’t say it as a point of pride, I say it as a reminder of a historical fact, awful as it is.
And, you ask what do the British have to do with South America, and I tell you, more than you might think.
The British had been trading with Portugal in their colonies since the 16th century when they first started to dip their toes in the transatlantic trade. They first started sailing from West Africa and then started to make stops in the northeast of Brazil, before returning to England. At first, they came for pau-brazil, a type of wood native of South America that gives a very deep and rich red dye and it was all the rage before sugar came along and became the Portuguese colony’s main export as well as other raw materials like cotton and tobacco. Of course the Portuguese cracked down on those trades eventually, and also Britain had the Sieges of Boulougne going on, so they had to give it a break for a bit.
So guess what? Around the late 16th century, the British empire sent down fucking pirates to press on the Spanish and Portuguese fleets. Privateers but, you get the picture. You’ve heard of Francis Drake, right?
Yeah, that guy. He and some other notable names like Edward Fenton and Thomas Cavendish were sent to explore the waters between the Atlantic and the Pacific and find ways to circumvent the fleets to make the way around the globe, going through the Strait of Magellan. You know, the southern tip of South America. Also, to steal stuff from the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Just to prove that they can and to clap back at the Spanish. And the ports of São Vicente and Santos in the southeast of current Brazil became an almost obligatory stop for English ships sailing in the south Atlantic to restock their ships for the rest of the journey.
So the Portuguese started to get fed up with the English stopping by their colony and started to fend off the ships and arrest the sailors if they made port. So because they were pirates, they attacked the Portuguese colony. They assailed the Bay-of-All-Saints (current Bahia, Brazil) for two months, they raided and pillaged engenhos and towns on the southeast coast, and when they attacked Recife, they got so much loot from the city that they needed the help of Dutch and French ships to take it all with them. (an interesting source to dig through)
Also, where do you think our sugar went to? The engenhos (our version of plantations) sent the raw sugar to the Dutch who refined it and sold it across Europe, especially the British. Until the Dutch and the Spanish started to plant sugar cane in the Caribbean, Portugal had the sugar market pretty much cornered. That’s why the Guyanas exist and one of them have English as their main language, it was a Dutch colony and the British took control of parts of it from them, so they could trade with the native communities for prime resources, like wood, pau-brasil, native animals, cotton, tobacco, urucum (it’s another source fo red dye, google it), and so on. Guyana’s capital is called Georgetown??
Oh, shall I get to the fact that the majority of the gold you see in the interior of Buckingham Palace is from Brazil? I think I shall because, during the gold rush in Minas Gerais, Portugal was severely in debt from their wars with the Spanish and the Dutch. So much debt that what they got from exploiting their colonies, they spent it right away with industrialized goods. Goods from England. We in Brazil have an expression, “quinto dos infernos”. Literally “the Devil’s fifth”. It comes from the taxation of gold from the mines, one-fifth of what the miners extracted went to the Portuguese. To send someone to the Devil’s fifth is to tell them very emphatically to go fuck themselves. I think that explains how the people in the colonies felt about the taxes. It also caused revolts like Levante da Vila Rica and the Inconfidência Mineira, the last one being a major historical event in Brazil. So much so Minas Gerais’ state flag’s design is the same as was suggested by the rebels.
Libertas quae sera tamem is latin for “freedom albeit late”.
Oh, and you think pirates and privateers got involved just those first times? Think again! The tensions between the Spanish and British fleets in the Caribbean caused some major upheaval and even a war between the two of them, one battle affecting current Colombia, with the British attempting to siege several major ports from the Spanish. The war started cus the Spanish cracked down on illegal commerce in their colony by the British.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the British invaded the Vicoroyalty of Río de la Plata, (currently Argentina and Uruguay). The war was a good cover to attack one of France’s allies, but it wasn’t the first time the British had their eyes on the region, they’ve had previous attempts at trying to take control previously. The defeat of the British by the local populace with little to no help from the Spanish colonizers was also the last straw they needed to push for their independence.
Speaking of dwindling colonial powers, when Spanish and Portuguese ships kept failing to supply ships to meet the colony demands, it was the British who stepped in and filled the gap. After the Napoleonic Wars, the transatlantic trade basically belonged to the British, and if you’re paying attention, that greatly affected colonial and independence era South America. After Brazil’s independence from Portugal, the British were one of the new country’s main economic partner, mostly because it was their support when the royal family came to Brazil that pushed for independence. They even opened a mining company in Minas Gerais that ran for 125 years.
And these are just the things off the top of my head. The British Empire, like all the other European empires, had their fingers on many major events in Latin America as a whole as well as all over the world, but I tried to stay focused on South America.
Colonizing powers in Europe of past and present have always had their fingers here because that’s what having colonies is. It’s exploitation and intimidation and always trying to get more and more, no matter who gets hurt or killed in the process. The plantations and engenhos were brutal, the mines were brutal, the entire system of colonization is brutal and revolting. Countless enslaved people, mostly black people, died in those places, so many even the slave trade couldn’t keep up with the demand for slave labor. It’s absolutely horrifying. And our countries have suffered and still suffer from external influences in our politics, especially by the US in more recent history, even if we keep fighting against thinly-veiled military intervention constantly. It really fucking sucks.
And you could have learned all this - and more! - if you just bothered to open a single Wikipedia article. Like, literally google “history of South America” or “Latin America-United Kingdom relations” and read. Bonus credits if you dig into the article sources and read them if available to you in English. But if reading is not your thing, there are several youtube channels out there who want to teach you stuff you don’t know and are a decent enough jumping point. Literally all I can say after all this is, educate yourself.
(I’ve leaned more on Brazillian history which is what I’m more familiar with, but if there are any fellow latines who want to correct me on something or add on to this, pls do so!)
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Radio Romance | Ep 1 & 2 Review
So I have attempted to watch Radio Romance and I barely finished the first two episodes. I wasn't interested at first because the description on Viki makes it sound really bad, but then I found out Kim So Hyun is in it and became interested. She's been in so much that she's definitely had her fair share of duds, but she's a really strong actress and has been in some really good stuff as well (Moon Embracing the Sun and everything she's been in written by Park Hye Ryun to name some).
I feel like I started this show with reasonable expectations. They might have been low because the premise sounded bad or they may have been a little high because of Kim So Hyun, but either way my opinion of the show in the beginning sharply nose dived not long after it started and did not plateau until I stopped watching. Kim So Hyun, who is 18, is playing an old and tired heroine archetype that was finally left behind only a couple of years ago, and seems to be part of a weird trend to bring back old elements of K Dramas that were left behind for a reason and should never be brought back, but I won't get into that here. She's driven, brazen, and fighting to keep her head above water. Or in this case, to stay in her chosen field. Also she has the super curly, wild, and unruly hair that not so subtly represented her personality. Did I mention she's brazen?
Putting this aside since I've never liked this caricature of a strong and independent woman and the fact that even though she started off pretty weak I had faith that Kim So Hyun could layer the character and do her well, I also had issue with the age range between her and the male lead. Now, I don't have an issue with him per say, I only know him from the movie Splash Splash Love which in spite of its terrible title was actually pretty cute. The problem is that he, Yoon Doo Joon, is 28. A full ten years older than the lead actress which wouldn't be so terrible if only Kim So Hyun didn't still look very much like a teenager, maybe just turned 20, and Yoon Doo Joon didn't like very much like he was in his late twenties, maybe just turned 30. What makes it even worse is they are both apparently supposed to be the same age. The Same Age.
But this is also something I could over look. Like I could over look how Yoon Doo Joon's character's friend/therapist is awkward and cringey and hard to watch and not at all funny like he's so clearly supposed to be (I'm chalking this up to bad writing or possibly a miscast or a mixture of the two because I've seen the actor, Kwak Dong Yeon, throw out some decent performances). I could also, possibly, maybe, ignore the fact that Kim So Hyun's character keeps getting mad at Yoon Doo Joon's character for always smiling even though I was always initially confused by this because I couldn't tell he was supposed to be smiling because whatever emotion the actor was going for he was most definitely not getting at.
However all these little problems, together with other things like the cheesiness that is Kim So Hyun's character's love for radio shows, together make it progressively harder to be forgiving and really distract from any good the show had to offer. Because I was interested, and part of the reason I'm frustrated is because the show had legitimately good elements that were heavily brought down by bad ones.
But honestly, the biggest offense this show had for me was something so obvious and brazen, something they didn't even try to hide, something I cannot begin to fathom why they would do it, is that Radio Romance is, at least so far as the first two episodes go, a cheap knock-off of Uncontrollably Fond. What's weird to me is I recently saw this happen with The Bride of the Water God being a cheap knock-off of Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, and while I was annoyed with Habeak (The Water God) for assassinating its source material in an attempt to get name recognition from the Manhwa and also ride off the waves (I honestly didn't mean to make that pun but since we're might as all own it) of the success of Goblin by lifting elements of it, it was at least its own story with its own characters. Radio Romance, so far, essentially lifted the bare bones of the story of Uncontrollably Fond, the characters, and the relationships between the characters. So while I can forgive one story lifting elements from another, such as a male "god" that's a couple of centuries old being magically bound to a mortal woman in modern day Korea and the woman is struggling for whatever reason, as pretty much all heroines tend to do as has been touched on previously, it's not quite the same as regurgitating the same set up for a story and characters and back story for those characters.
What's worse is once I realized just how much Radio Romance is like Uncontrollably Fond I also began realizing the elements of Radio Romance I liked were things lifted almost directly from Uncontrollably Fond. There were definitely elements lifted that I really hated, like Yoon Doo Joon's character picking up Kim So Hyun's character to carry her to his car, but most of the elements from the show that elicited any response from me were from Uncontrollably Fond.
But this is observation from the first two episodes, and maybe they get better as the series goes on. But these are serious foundational issues that I don't believe the show could recover from hardly at all in the remaining 14 episodes because the issue is the foundation itself. What's weird about this show for me, though, is I don't think they were trying to capitalize off of Uncontrollably Fond or were intentionally being lazy. There's a lot of sincerity in it already, albeit misplaced and pretty over done—and this from someone who loves a lot of sincerity in her stories—but it seems like the creators are trying to tell a well constructed story with fleshed out characters. It never felt like it was assumed the audience had watched Uncontrollably Fond so Radio Romance was building off of it.
I have absolutely no idea what the creators were thinking making an Uncontrollably Fond 2.0, nor why something that seemed to have had a lot of care put into the script was produced so poorly. Because a lot of my issues stem more from bad production than bad writing. All I do know is that if I, or anyone else, want to watch Uncontrollably Fond, then just watch Uncontrollably Fond. And this from someone who has attempted to watch the show twice and always starts off loving it but then unable to watch past episode 10 or 11.
And some people will like Radio Romance. The main script wasn't terrible, if you can look past the blatant plagiarism, and there are some solid actors on the main cast, Yoon Doo Joon's and Kwak Dong Yeon's respective performances so far not withstanding. I just doubt I'll ever watch more of it.
#radio romance#kim so hyun#yoon doo joon#kwak dong yeon#yoon park#uncontrollably fond#bae suzy#kim woo bin#the bride of the water god#the bride of habeak#habaek#bride of the water god#bride of habaek#goblin#goblin the lonely and great god#k drama#kdrama#k drama review#kdrama review#review#radio romance review
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(1/2) hng so this was a weird thing to take away from ur nsfw hcs (100/10 by the way, i love and theyre perf) but the one ab niles and the choking also made me think ab the diff ways l/n/o handle the trauma theyve been through. (in my personal hc) obvs theres overlap, but leo becomes kinda a workaholic/insomniac, niles is (as in canon)distrusting/often distant w/ def some triggers, and odin/the trio has a warped sense of priorities in regards to their own lives/injuries (listen i have a spiel ab
(2/2)how living a long period of their lives ready to die has shifted their outlooks and while they arent suicidal they have like? A very cavalier outlook on their own lives? ‘Dont do that, you could get hurt’ ‘its cool itd totally be worth it’ ‘not to US dipshit’ and im getting sidetracked and may ask u for hcs ab that later but my original ask was how do u think n/l/o reconcile/help each other w their diff types of trauma? I love ye olde comfort trope (happy holidays FYI! take ur time w this)
Firstly, I totally agree on your points about how these three handle trauma. I hadn’t thought about Leo’s methods too much, but overworking (being 8,000% over prepared for anything/needing that sense of “things are under control”) and insomnia make sense to me, as do Niles’ and Odin’s (which I may have also vaguely referred to before in other asks). (Also I’m glad you like my other hcs, lol).
In terms of how they comfort each other, I’ll start by initially referencing this ask , in which I mention that if Odin’s secret past were to come to light, he and Niles might benefit by discussing their traumas together, as actually verbalizing their experiences (rather than leaving things unsaid as Odin might with Selena and Laslow, who experienced the bad timeline firsthand) and getting fresh perspectives might help. Niles’ and Odin’s pasts aren’t the same (different settings, different monsters, etc), but they can still probably relate to each other in certain ways. (That ask, btw, sorta also references this longer, semi-related ask if you want a larger context, but that’s the gist of what it says). So in a world where Odin is able to discuss his past trauma without giving the time/dimensional travel away (or where it is an open secret), frank discussion would probably benefit him and Niles both.
I get the feeling Niles’ past isn’t discussed with Leo a lot? In his and Niles’ support, Leo seems pretty uncomfortable hearing about Niles’ past (when Niles is describing it in unpleasant flashes, I mean) and he actually bails kinda early in their C-Support, to the point where Niles apologizes to Leo in their B-Support in case he burdened Leo in some way. (Niles also admits he doesn’t remember a lot of his time before meeting Leo anyway, so that’s something else to unpack altogether.) Leo assures Niles that isn’t true, so he definitely isn’t shutting down that kind of communication entirely. It’s not that he’s unnecessarily unwilling so much as that he’s kinda awkward, I think. He expresses interest in what Niles has to say by asking if he has any pleasant memories of his past at all, which allows Niles to continue talking without diving back into unpleasant material for both of them. Even though Leo’s uncomfortable, he’s probably a decent listener? In their exchange, Leo seems to have the lesser amount of dialogue, often offering two or three word answers. Part of that seems to be a search for words to say, however. He’s probably better when given a heads-up. He and Niles probably don’t talk the same way Odin and Niles do about their traumas though. Leo seems to discuss the present/future worries more than past ones.
That said, I feel like Leo is the type to help more through understanding/making the situation easier for the upset person. Like, if they had to cross a bridge, he might suggest they take the longer way around and would only explicitly ask “Odin, are you okay?” if they were absolutely going to cross the bridge and it was particularly intimidating. Granted, he might not even ask at all if he’s confident Odin will be fine and doesn’t want to draw attention to it. (Leo places a lot of faith in his retainers, which sometimes appears as giving them space and independence in times of stress.)
(Also, I’m not sure Odin would admit to his fear deterring him unless explicitly asked, so that’s probably another conversation altogether too.) Leo might offer slow down or do something more once the bridge had been crossed though.
But in another example, like, if he were sitting in a room with Niles and Niles was clearly upset thinking about something (maybe the past or another trigger), if Leo asks “Do you want to talk” and Niles says “No,” Leo would sit there in silence with Niles until Niles was feeling better.
It’s hard to explain, but while Leo is direct in his own way, I feel like if he has all the information on a situation already, he’s not direct/asking questions the same way Niles or Odin might be.
(I feel like I’ve strayed a bit from the “comfort” part of this ask, so let’s get back on track, lol.)
Niles is the first to recognize a panic attack in any of them, including himself, and when Leo has his first panic attack, he’s the one who tells Leo to put his head down and helps him breathe until it’s over and then explains what happened when Leo asks why
When Leo overworks himself, Odin and Niles both take notice and they go out of their way to do more themselves to lessen Leo’s burden. They also either remind him to slow down or try to guide him to bed when he works late into the night too. They take turns staying up with him when Leo can’t sleep; sometimes they both stay up, but one of them has to be functional in the morning, so they try to take turns.
Finding Leo asleep in the library or on top of a book or some other place that isn’t his bed isn’t unusual, but if so, either Niles or Odin usually aren’t far away
There are things Niles Doesn’t Like and places/ways he just doesn’t want to be touched (example: don’t touch his neck too much bc that activates a fight or flight response) and so Odin and Leo don’t do those things and/or back off when Niles seems to be getting oddly fidgety and give him his space when he needs it
that said Niles is pretty tactile in private, so they’re experts by now
His memories before Leo are in fragments (as said in his Supports) so any dreams/suddenly triggered memories of his past make him feel Off for a little while. He doesn’t always talk about it–– Odin and Leo alternate between listening when he wants to speak and giving him space to reminisce depending on his mood. He’ll more often speak to Odin and sit quietly with Leo. It can happen the other way around, but it’s more common the first way.
Odin tries to hide when he’s upset the most? (Niles is super guarded unless alone with Leo and eventually also Odin. Leo also hides it, and while he’s decent, he’s not the best and his retainers see right through him anyway, especially once they’ve been around Leo for a while.)
Maybe that’s the wrong way to phrase it. That is, while Odin might say he’s not feeling well, he’s sometimes the least likely to say why, especially if it deals with pre-Nohr stuff.
Odin has a tendency to be vague about what’s triggering or at the very least bothering him, especially since most of his trauma comes from his secret past which is… secret, obviously. The tendency to keep it quiet even if Niles and Leo have already found out about his past still persists.
The main signs that Odin is distressed is that he gets (a.) quiet and (b.) speaks normally and seems reluctant to talk. When the source is obvious (like they’re climbing a mountain and it’s the heights thing), Niles and Leo try to talk to him as a distraction, which usually helps. When the source is less obvious/talking doesn’t help, holding hands to keep Odin grounded in the moment usually works pretty well.
Touch is pretty good for all three of them most of the time, actually.
Happy holidays to you too! I hope you’ve had a good December!
#my text#asks#fe14#trauma discussion#long post#i didn't touch on the 'doing things that'll definitely end up with injuries' thing that you mentioned but i wasn't ignoring it on purpose#the heights thing was just easier to use as an example#i feel like i had more to say but i can't put it into words so! thanks! i hope this was what you were looking for bc i feel like i was#somehow too vague still lol#EDIT: something i was trying to say earlier but i wasn't sure i had the words to do so#was that i feel like odin is good at compartmentalizing??#not that niles or leo aren't because they do in their own way#but specifically tho#but i feel like the theatrics and talking like a hero thing was a hobby/interest that developed into a coping mechanism as a kid#and just continued on#which i may have mentioned before#i feel like it's less a coping mechanism and more just a fun thing he got used to by fates#bc it wasn't needed as much#but there was a good meta i read before about how selena and laslow remember people from ylisee and odin remembers/relates to events#idk where i'm really going with this or how to put it all together coherently so maybe don't even ask because i'll be just as confused as#you are but#idk i was gonna say something about how his compartmentalizing and theatrics combine into a form of disassociation? but then maybe#that's not the right word either#there's a distance#and anyway it's changed by fates at least a little and definitely lessened even if so#and i'm definitely not an expert or qualified to maybe make that call anyway#i've definitely lost the thread here sorry#if anyone asks what i'm trying to say here i won't have any idea what to tell them#blugh i tried
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Via Alex Pareene at The New Republic, posted 13 July 2020:
The “mountain” is a triumphalist materialization of an overwhelming pile of bodies. It is a manifestation of a horrific and avoidable failure. New Yorkers did not set out to climb the mountain; they were led to its peak by their government.
That very much includes our federal government, which clearly signaled by early March that it was neither willing nor able to do what was necessary to contain the pandemic nationwide.
Months into the crisis, we still face inexplicable and inexcusable testing delays, evidence that the federal government never addressed its earliest and most catastrophic failure. Here in New York, where Cuomo would have us believe that we have made it to the other side of the mountain, where tests are ostensibly available to anyone who wants one, I would face, according to one of the city’s main swab test sources, a seven-day wait for results, severely limiting the test’s effectiveness as a way of tracking the spread of the virus.
The United States has the highest Covid-19 death toll in the world, and it is rapidly adding a staggering number of new cases every day. These are conditions that would lead to widespread resignations of public health officials in a functionally democratic country.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown resigned less than a month after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana. So far, most of the people who’ve been forced out of public health jobs since the pandemic began have been those advocating for more forceful and effective government action.
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If it was clear by March that the federal government would simply not be containing Covid-19 (and I certainly think it was clear), it was the responsibility of governors like Cuomo to try to contain it themselves.
Instead, for the first few weeks of the crisis, from February, when the state’s first confirmed case was reported, through March 15, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that schools would close, Cuomo did almost nothing useful. Hospital capacity would be increased later; the state would ramp up its own testing later; contact tracing got started—started!—many months later, and only at the discretion of local governments.
In the meantime, for no clear reason, the state Department of Health essentially stopped communicating with the New York City Department of Health. The mayor would dither on closing schools until the governor made it absolutely clear that it was something only he had the power to do. Cuomo would similarly resist issuing a shelter-in-place order because he didn’t like the term. As the virus exploded in jails and prisons, he dragged his feet on clemency for the most vulnerable incarcerated people. In late March, by which point scientists had a decent working knowledge of how and where the virus spreads, a state directive sent tens of thousands of infected people back into nursing homes.
None of that is on the poster Cuomo released Monday, though the poster does include a rendering of the state-branded hand sanitizer he unveiled to great fanfare in early March. (The state, Cuomo announced, would produce “up to 100,000 gallons per week.” In fact, prison workers were simply bottling sanitizer produced elsewhere. The facility would, inevitably, have its own Covid-19 outbreak by mid-April. It would be another month before the Department of Corrections could tell reporters that everyone incarcerated in state facilities would be given masks. This is what New York was spending resources on while other nations were successfully carrying out the sorts of interventions that actually limited coronavirus spread. Including the state hand sanitizer on the poster is a bit like bragging about your state’s early cultivation of the herbs and flowers that ward off plague-spreading miasmas, as other nations were producing and distributing antibiotics.)
(emphasis mine)
We have come to expect so little from our government that it will seem perfectly unremarkable if no major heads roll over a disaster for which leaders across the country all bear some direct responsibility.
If Donald Trump loses in November, our political system’s last true believers will think that the system worked precisely as it is supposed to: It held him accountable. But this is an ongoing catastrophe of government as a whole.
Every day brings a new reason to feel outraged or numbed by the scope of the disaster. We haven’t begun to grapple with the breadth of it. Governors, big-city mayors, public health officials, and congressional leaders should be resigning in disgrace, firing those responsible, groveling for forgiveness, or fleeing town under cover of night.
Instead, they are mainly just waiting for the worst to be over, until the moment they, too, can put out celebratory posters. That the majority of our leaders seem not to be embarrassed or ashamed of their failures—some may not even think of them as failures—raises doubts about whether good governance is even possible in our political system.
Americans have, this year, shown a heroic willingness to take to the streets in protest and riot. If they have not yet demanded accountability and consequences for the officials who presided over this unprecedented failure of the state, it might be because hardly anyone has real faith in the ability of their government—at the federal, state, county, or city level—to accomplish anything but policing and jailing people. That isn’t cynicism so much as resignation.
We can elect a new president. Voters in Arizona, Florida, and Texas will get their chance to make their feelings toward their governors heard, eventually. But to elect our way out of the debilitated and rotten political system that caused this outcome could be a project that takes generations, if it is possible at all.
If you believe, fundamentally, in the American system, if you oppose radicalism from either side, you’d better hope that project is possible. Unless and until the people in charge in the U.S. are scared of actually being held responsible for the outcomes of their actions and inaction, they’re going to keep dragging us up mountains and leaving us to die at the peaks.
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Me:
I don’t know a single person that is critical of Cuomo’s coronavirus handling, other than 20 or so people on left-wing twitter. Everyone I speak to thinks he’s done a great job! Of course, from what I’ve heard and seen, area conservatives only want him to cede his emergency powers, since of course ‘Rona was overblown to begin with and we’re done with that fucking shit now. When upstate GOP red hats call for investigations into the Nursing Home Covid Scandal months after the fact, believe it that they’re acting in bad faith as always.
I can cite sources that show Cuomo massively fucked this up, but no one seems to buy it. “He did the best he could!” How?? Would you ignore all the signs from since NOVEMBER 2019 that a pandemic was likely? Would you allow over 32,000 people (likely a lowball estimate) to die horribly? Yes, apparently. Of course Cuomo wasn’t as reckless and less-than-zero-fucks-given as Trump and Trump’s handlers were, but that does not absolve Cuomo of wrongdoing.
And our elected officials want NOTHING to do with Black Likes Matter. NOTHING AT ALL. They’re unafraid to show that now. They’re unafraid of the consequences. They’re thoroughly disinterested in even a modicum of justice, not even an inkling of societal change. Perhaps they figure BLM is not representative of the majority of the public. Perhaps they’re afraid of (or engaged in illicit quid-pro-quo deals with, or maybe even being blackmailed by) America’s law enforcement, exposed further every day as at best a lawless farce and at worst fully compromised by organized crime and white supremacist terrorists. Perhaps most of our white anglo-saxon public officials are closet racists. Perhaps all of the above…
Perhaps no one gives a fuck about anything anymore beyond self-interest, and most public officials’ sole motivation is to make money for themselves (plus the perverse gratification they get from being in charge & having power). To hell with our republic, I guess.
I hate the idea that Democrats are of the “better things aren’t possible” mindset. Better things ARE possible, even in this shitty clusterfuck world we live in. Yes, we can understand that some individuals are irredeemable yet also refuse to accede to some notion that the WORLD, that all humanity, is thusly irredeemable and all hope is lost.
For sure a lot of conservative and moderate Democrats, and many conservative and moderate independents, DO NOT WANT better things and they know it. Those individuals benefit from the status quo, they have vested interests in things staying just the peachy way they are. “Better things WILL NOT BE possible“ let's say, a heads-in-the-sand dilettantism that obfuscates the predatory capitalistic scheming they benefit from, whilst they saunter at their lakehouses comfortably numb to the world at large. Hopefully their kids and grandkids will see how fucked up this all is.
Nearly everyone in positions of consequential power in the United States right now are doing all they can, knowingly or unknowingly, to force governmental and societal collapse in this country.
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(Greg Greene) (Pareene)
#news#andrew cuomo#new york state#coronavirus#black lives matter#2020 us elections#2020 us presidential election#the way things work#alex pareene#the new republic#cuomo pandemic poster#2020 pandemic#failed state#failure of leadership
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In a somewhat surprising, but not unprecedented, turn, the show opts to draw from a significant turning point in its source material to deliver a dramatic cliffhanger. With yet another rescue party out to retrieve yet another of the protagonists, the audience would be forgiven for believing the series to be stuck on a loop. Sometimes patterns build to something bigger, though, and that appears to be the case here. The show has always prided itself on its ability to parallel past events and draw attention to the significance of their similarity to the current circumstance. All three protagonists have come together, finally, tensions still high and conflict unresolved, but no more so than it has been at other lulls. This is the time for banter and jokes and meaningful glances, reconciliation and a completion of the reunions of the previous episode. But all of that is cut short by, quite literally, the wrath of God. And it stings.
3P Reviews Series: Preacher
Spoilers: YES
Audience Assumptions: I’m kind of assuming you’ve been following the show, but do what you like. Oh, also some pretty substantial book spoilers too, so you’ve been warned.
Season Four
Episode Six: The Lost Apostle – *****
Part One: If You Look Closely, You May Notice This Season Was Filmed in Australia
There’s that motif of ominous planes again. By the end of the episode, we know what it’s all about.
Tulip and Cassidy have arrived in Melbourne to rescue Jesse, because it just wouldn’t be Preacher unless one or more of the protagonists was in dire peril and needed rescuing. Initially, they just want to find him so they can continue to support his inane God quest, but after a bit of Australian humor, they come across Eugene and realize he’s being held captive by the Saint. To what purpose, no one is quite clear for a while.
Despite his evident desire to do Jesse in, the Saint stays his hand to march Jesse across the Outback (because how else would they travel?) to the Lost Apostle. The place Jesse was going anyway.
The Saint reveals his plan en route: he wants Jesse to kill God. Flawless, buddy. I can see no point where this could go wrong.
Jibes aside, here’s another of those classic moments where the fate of the characters is revealed to them long before they’re ready to accept it. In summarizing the books compared to the show, the main difference has always been show Jesse’s desire to find God for peaceful reasons. The books make no pretense of Jesse having a beef with God and going after him out of anger, but the show’s version is deluded by his faith. He wants to know what’s going on, he wants to know his place, he wants to help God in some way, because that’s how he reconciles his beliefs with the sudden knowledge that his god has abandoned him and everyone else. He holds onto the very persistent idea of a benevolent all-knowing god who loves all Christians and would never do something like this without a reason. He’s skeptical enough to want to know that reason, rather than accept events without question, but he has a very particular idea for what God should be, and he’s reluctant to give it up.
It’s fitting, then, that the Saint would be the one to decide God needs to die, rather than the reverse. He has reason for it, and much as he dislikes Jesse, Jesse’s just some person in his way. He needs Jesse for something, though. Or, more likely, he needs Genesis.
So that’s the reason for these two hiking across the Outback together. They’re at a stalemate, the Saint unable to kill Jesse because he needs him and Jesse unable to kill the Saint full stop. To pass the time, they talk. One can imagine the Saint isn’t much for conversation, but Jesse, not too eager to get on with murdering his deity, tries to reason with him. He tries to save him in that Christian sense, going on about redemption and how this doesn’t need to be the way things go. That they should trust God because He knows what He’s doing, and it’s worthwhile. In response, the Saint murders an entire family in cold blood.
Part Two: The Conference
Sneaky set designers fitting that snow globe in surreptitiously. I see it, and I applaud. If they actually get the Alamo setpiece in, that’ll be a setup running since the very first season (just take a look at my review of Monster Swamp).
On the other hand, little details like that can make the outcome seem disappointing if it doesn’t come to fruition. Adaptations generally offer little risk, but where it does exist is in the details. Unthinking mimicry like in the recent live-action Disney films can lead to a domino effect where parts of the story no longer work without modification. A good story is like a house of cards, and the more interconnected it is, the more little changes disrupt the rest of it.
On the whole, I’ve been impressed with how Preacher has handled extensive alteration of its source material while still adding homage to the original. However, the weak point is frequently this homage. The show wants to be a bit indulgent, and I’m more than willing to enjoy it as a fan of the books. But after the initial appeal of recognizing a reference fades, its contribution to the whole often comes into question.
For instance, the end of the world. The series teases impending Armageddon through the Grail, inching steadily closer to it with some bizarre choices involving nuclear tensions between, of all countries, Australia and New Zealand (neither of which are nuclear powers). That scene involving the New Zealand MP that I said was pointless? Turns out I was wrong.
On some level, I love how ridiculous this subplot is. It fits the show without taking away too much attention from other subplots. But the thing is, by this point in the story, the Grail is more or less obsolete. Starr’s still here, getting his penis eaten by a dingo. Featherstone’s still here, at least until she squirrel-suits out the window. She actually gets a decent bit of an arc, asking Starr to at the very least execute her personally when she’s failed him, and dipping when he designates the assignment to Hoover 2.
To be fair, the Grail subplot is in pretty much the same position after Book Four. Promises of the end of the world diminish into a pissing contest as Starr, losing valuable body parts left and right, uses up all of the Grail’s good will and resources trying to get revenge on Jesse. Its counterpart in the show has a similar tone, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the show to set up a different outcome where the world does perish, while still keeping an absurdist tone.
Unless, for instance, the show also wanted to divert to a more character-driven narrative focusing on the relationships between the protagonists or give Jesse some sort of climactic resolution with God on a personal level.
You can have Jesse face God, Cassidy, or Starr at the Alamo, but you can’t give him all three.
The problem here is that of the three big subplots coming to a head — Jesse’s personal quest, the protagonists’ interrelationships, and the end of the world — the latter is the weakest. The former subplot is the most unique to the series, and seems to be where it’s heading. I’m fond of the middle one for character potential and depth, but it requires the most time to play out, and while the show seems interested, I don’t know that it has the necessary framework this late into the series. The latter subplot is the obligatory one, and the one no one seems overly interested in, but it’s still there, trucking along. And as much as I’m on-board with it as a side-hobby, we only have three episodes left. Something has to be cut, you can’t be that fucking greedy, show.
I’m not going to lie, I’m also less enthusiastic about Jesse’s confrontation with God than I should be. I think it’s because this quest has consistently taken him away from the other two protagonists, so I’m projecting my frustration of the weaker parts of the second and third seasons onto it. There are a million things the show could have done differently to give the payoff more appeal, particularly if it had spent more time showing Tulip and Cassidy’s relationships to religion as a contrasting point. It exists, and seems to be a sore spot for both of them. The interconnection between this plot and the character plot works in the first season with both Tulip and Cassidy going to Jesse’s sermons and helping out around the church to spend time with him, but it pretty much fades after that. The bottom line is, if the show wants to throw the climaxes of the three main plots together, fine. They just won’t have anything to do with one another, and I foresee it being a bit of a mess.
We’ll see, I suppose. I can’t help but think back to the latter half of the previous season and how disconnected and unnecessary the Allfather, Les Infants, and Angelville subplots ended up. They all had resolutions, sure, but poor Tulip was stuck without anything personally compelling to do in that final episode, and as fun as it was to see her fight Nazis and give God what-for, I do feel like the show could have made her contribution to the story more integral. Same with Cassidy. As satisfying and resonant as certain scenes have been, they mean a lot less if they don’t fit within the story you’re trying to tell.
Also, where did my gay content go, show? You promised me homoerotic subtext and text, goddamnit!
I don’t think I can blame references to the books as the sole cause of weaknesses in the plot, but there are enough moments to point out and make it look damning. Toscani, Masada, Allfather, Eccarius, the angel, Tulip nearly dying, Jesse losing his powers, the end of the world — hell, even the entire Grail, really. If the show had cut the Grail entirely, what, story-wise, would we lose?
All of these elements have their merits, and the showmakers have done a damn fine job of making them entertaining. I do wonder, though, if the show knew how many seasons it would be getting from the start, would it have gone about them the same way. Maybe. Maybe it would have gone to greater lengths to ensure that the fan-pleasing moments were better integrated into the story.
For all my misplaced ire, though, I can at least point out one major plot point lifted directly from the books that, even with a new set-up and slightly different context and its scene playing with the panels in the graphic novels almost a story board, works. Other than the Coffin, I mean.
And that’s the setpiece for this episode: the one where Jesse dies.
Part Three: Foreseen Consequences
Do you know when the last time the three protagonists were in the same room together was? It was Season Three, Episode Four, The Tombs. Specifically the moment where Tulip bursts in on Jesse trying his darnedest to murder Cassidy with a stake. The time before, the last the three of them had a conversation together, was two episodes earlier. I don’t say any of this as a complaint. In fact, despite my previous complaints, this episode, and its ending sequence in particular, almost justify the amount of time spent keeping these characters apart. Now, finally, they’re reunited. Fucking finally.
And then it’s gone.
This is the turning point in the books. It’s probably the single most important thing that happens in the series. Unlike in the show, most of the main characters in the books rarely spend more than a few chapters separate from one another. Up until this point, the record is about half a book, and that’s often not by their choice. Jesse has flaked out on Tulip to save Cassidy before, and Cassidy has gone off and been kidnapped or waited for the young-uns to rekindle their love for one another, but beyond that, they’re usually no more than a few hours in-world from regrouping.
When Jesse falls out of the airplane, it’s sudden, unexpected, and leaves the team shattered. He’s not technically dead, as we soon find out, but he might as well be for all the other two know. They think he’s dead, and everything spirals downhill from there. His absence comes at a bad time, exacerbating tensions between the other two that have been building for the last few chapters. Tulip doesn’t want to be left alone with Cassidy, Cassidy likewise is wary of being left alone with her. But they both love Jesse dearly, and they need support for their grief. Him dying where and when he does makes them to stay together long after they should have parted ways. Tulip turns to drugs and alcohol, and Cassidy turns to abusing her, twisting the tragedy of the situation to his advantage.
After this point, the story becomes much more about Tulip and Jesse reconciling with what Cassidy has done to them. The latter remains something of a nuanced character, if still a tremendous asshole. One of the major throughlines that remains up to the end of the series is that as duplicitous and vile as Cassidy has been to Tulip, and as jealous as he has been of her and Jesse’s relationship, at the end of the day, he does still care about Jesse very much. The situation isn’t orchestrated, he’s not intent to off Jesse to get at his girl, and though he lies about Jesse’s last words being for her, his assholery is a domestic sort, and it exists alongside the character’s few better attributes. One of those is his willingness to go to the ends of the world for Jesse.
The actual scene plays out much like it does in the show: the door falls off, Jesse falls out, Cassidy grabs him, Cassidy starts to burn up in the sun, Jesse realizes Cassidy can’t pull him to safety, and Jesse commands him to let go. It’s not a long scene, but it’s beautifully paced out, largely visual with just a few words between the characters, most of them yelling. The situation is appropriately frantic, and the cartoon style sells it. Expressions are exaggerated, the panels are all different angles and sizes, Cassidy is mostly campfire by the end of it, and the medium of the graphic novel allows every single panel to have an impact. You don’t even see Jesse fall or hit the ground, you just see a smoke trail falling away from the plane. Tulip remains unaware for most of it, only realizing that someone has fallen out after the fact, and not knowing who. Her rushing back to see ends that issue of the comics with these three panels:
It’s difficult to replicate that level of expression on film. The simplicity of the lighting and background allows the panel to draw a razor’s focus on what’s important. Panel position and the mere fact that all movement is implied allows the individual frames to stand out. This scene, as written, only works in comics.
So the show doesn’t even try to do it that way.
Certainly the actions are the similar. After the trail goes cold, Tulip and Cassidy stumble upon God’s RV (He needs somewhere to store His motorcycle and dog suit), whereupon they find that Jesse is headed to the Lost Apostle. They run across him, stage a quick rescue, and keep going for the rock. Once they get there, God strikes at the plane. The door comes off, Jesse falls out, Cassidy catches him, then catches fire, and Jesse makes him let go. The main difference from a script standpoint is that Jesse tells Cassidy to tell Tulip to read his letter (as opposed to telling her he loves her), and there’s no need to explain to Tulip what happened. She was in the cockpit of the rinky-dink aircraft just a few feet away.
The season knows it’s been leading to this, and it’s ensured the audience knows too. It plays a little bait-and-switch with audience members familiar with the books by having him survive an earlier plane crash on the way to Australia. Now, not only does the show call into question the reality of everything Jesse had done between Masada and Melbourne, it also makes this event seem inevitable. He’s been heading for this plane, and the ground below, since the start of the season. This was always going to happen, manipulated by God and the screenwriters alike. It’s not a spur-of-the-moment mishap.
That doesn’t relieve the other characters of guilt over it, though. The show does a solid job of layering the series of things that go wrong on top of the foreboding imagery leading up to the accident, such that the precise cause of death isn’t entirely clear. Not all of these lines of reasoning are satisfying — for instance, it takes a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief to accept that Tulip wouldn’t realize until the last minute that maybe her finding a convenient post card in God’s RV wasn’t a coincidence. Or that they would come across an airplane that could stay in the air in near-junkyard condition. Or that God could send a sort of fire storm toward said plane with the only consequence being its door flies off.
Much as the effects could stand a bit more budget and workshopping, I’m inclined to say these moments of disbelief actually add to the scene in the intended way. It’s all to do with how Tulip and Cassidy respond. They’re both glad to see Jesse once rescued, but their interactions are brief and superficial. Cassidy makes a joke about The Big Lebowski, because of course he does, and Tulip gives Jesse a bit of a cold shoulder for abandoning him. That’s pretty much all of the conversation they get to before God attacks the plane, and from then on, Tulip is stuck struggling with the controls to ensure the plane stays aloft. The part with Cassidy and Jesse is probably the most consistent with the books, but as the former has no confessions about hitting on Tulip, there’s no real added weight of feeling obliged to save him to redeem himself. He’s just holding onto him because Jesse’s his friend.
The visuals of the scene are less impressive than those in the book. The most Cassidy catches fire is his arm, and, well, it’s not like his fingers are falling off or the plane is spiraling away from a nuclear explosion or anything. Jesse just falls out of the plane because it’s a piece of junk and God’s a petty asshole. We even see him fall. Hell, it’s one of the things the season opens with. We’ve known this was coming, and it’s even played like a joke. Like that’s the way he gets to the Lost Apostle, by falling from a great height and landing in a puff of dust like a cartoon character.
Perhaps it’s because the scene is so much more mundane that the ending hits an effective blow. The episode ends with a few shots of Tulip and Cassidy glancing at each other and then off into space, not a word between them. They both look exhausted and teary-eyed, but they hardly emote at all. They just kind of sit there, stunned, Tulip still flying the plane, like it hasn’t fully registered to them what’s happened. And if you’ve ever been in a dire situation before where something horrible happens that you’re powerless to stop, that feeling might be familiar. Distress sometimes has a delayed response, to the point where you’re not even sure if you’re grieving properly because you don’t feel right. What it leaves you with is this unusually quiet head that ensures you hear every unbidden thought that tells you what went wrong with perfect clarity.
The show doesn’t give us much indication of what’s going on in the protagonists’ heads after Jesse falls, but beyond the simple shock of losing him, you can imagine there’s plenty of guilt. Guilt that Cassidy didn’t close the door properly, guilt that Tulip couldn’t evade the attack in time, guilt that Tulip couldn’t help, guilt that Cassidy couldn’t pull him back in, guilt for picking an airplane on its last legs, guilt for bringing him into a trap, guilt for not realizing sooner, guilt for not making the most of the few minutes they had left with him, guilt for letting him run off on his own, guilt for not joining him sooner, guilt for screwing things up every step of the way with the stupid accidental affair that both of them are kind of embarrassed about anyway. It doesn’t really matter if these were avoidable events or not — that they all feel avoidable is what really matters. Cumulatively, they put all of this pressure on the characters that the audience can empathize with because that’s what we would be thinking of under the circumstances.
It’s a different effect than the books have, not necessarily worse or better. I think I prefer the delivery of the scene in the books for general enjoyment, but I’m curious to see where the show takes this. These are different characters, and whether the show wants to hit certain plot points from the books or not, what it does will be all its own.
Series Breakdown Rating:
Characters and Character Development: 9
Aesthetics and Style: 8
Creativity: 8
Overall Plot: 7
Subplots: 8
Sum: 40/50
Out of the Blue – Preacher, Season Four, Episode Six In a somewhat surprising, but not unprecedented, turn, the show opts to draw from a significant turning point in its source material to deliver a dramatic cliffhanger.
#Blogging#Characters#Comics#Graphic Novels#Horror comedy#nerd stuff#Preacher#Preacher show review#Reviews#story#TV recaps#tv show reviews 2019#Writing
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I really would like to know your opinion about Sherlolly and Molliarty 💕
My opinion on Sherlolly grew as my opinions on fandom politics thankfully matured cause it’s really easy to make assumptions about M/F ships since typically they’re filled with everything Progressive Fandom supposedly hates.
But what I’ve come to realize is that Progressive Fandom is kind of full of shit.
It says one thing (“we want better material for this female character!”), but then proceeds to do the complete opposite (takes a male background character with exceedingly less material and creates mountains of fanworks to the point where even the creators start giving him more screen time over the female character). It’ll come up with all these tl;dr think pieces that seek to blame some other outside sources as to why this keeps happening (“men are just written better!”, “there’s just more male characters to choose from statistically!”, etc.), but there’s really no denying which types of ships and characters and dynamics and narratives it actually values when you see what kind of content dominates creative spaces that no one is controlling except the fans.
So I realized a lot of my “concerns” were just the result of theoretically wanting the most subversive conceptualization for the ship as any good Progressive Fandom member prides itself on seeking, but then falling in to the same traps that reinforce a very biased hierarchy Progressive Fandom measures everything by and upholding ridiculous standards that I wasn’t holding everyone else to.
For example, I’ve done the typical “pOoR mOlLy :(( sHE dEseRveS bEttEr tHaN sHerLOcK” spiel everyone seems to say after watching ASIB since that scene is meant to elicit a reaction. She very clearly was in love with him and particularly series 1 & 2 Sherlock, despite whatever good he was doing or moments of ~humanity~ he had, was overall a pretty rude, abrasive dick. He wasn’t this way just to her, but Molly is a legitimately decent person on a show full of assholes so there was some part of me that wanted to protect that, you know?
However, my reaction shouldn’t have been “Wow, Molly deserves better than Sherlock”, it should have been “Molly deserved better from Sherlock because she deserves common fucking decency.” Her unwavering love for him is always considered a problem that needs to be either removed entirely or given to someone else more deserving. It’s never Sherlock’s behavior that’s the problem that needs to get checked because Progressive Fandom doesn’t typically criticize male characters for their actions. You excuse, you explain, you apologize, but you don’t with any kind of negative intention seek to frame their reaction in any given situation as the part that’s wrong. The feelings of white dudes are valued over everything and everyone.
So my reaction of “come on, Molly, let’s get out of here and find you someone better” sounds noble, but all I’m really saying is “Well he’s an ass and we can’t do anything about that, but your crush on him is definitely fixable!” Again, she’s not the problem here, her love for him is not the problem here. He is the problem here, his rudeness is the problem here. There’s absolutely something we can do to fix that and we know this because part of his character arc was about becoming warmer and kinder. “Molly deserves better” is such an empty, meaningless statement when you really get in to it and I cringe every time I see it now.
Plus, something I’ve noticed that seems to be exclusive to the ship is most people in fandom ship one of these characters with Sherlock or are invested in a dynamic that includes him in it. And I guarantee you there’s a scene or a moment or a line that Sherlock was the source of that you had to go fix with fic or meta or some AU gif set or something because you wouldn’t still care about it if you didn’t. He’s done some pretty horrendous shit to these characters that far surpasses what he did with Molly at the Christmas party. But we’re not saying poor John he deserves better (hell we’re not even saying poor Sherlock he deserves better), we’re not saying poor Mycroft he deserves better, or that poor little Lestrade deserves better. It’s always poor Molly, specifically, because Progressive Fandom isn’t about to micro-comb through her material like they do with male characters in order to flesh her out more and find ways to make her a person of equally nuanced value to Sherlock. Then it would be easier to see why he’d extend more than just common courtesy to her, which lays the foundation for potentialness (specifically romance cause no one is gonna flip their shit about friendship), and now you’re sighing in agony about having to deal with a love interest - and worst of all - yet another M/F ship existing.
And listen, I get it - M/F ships have everything and it’s obnoxious. They get the coveted title of being “most likely to happen”, they get all the exposure, all the juicy arcs, all the cast conversations when it comes to their expressions of sex and love and romance being treated as completely plausible and entirely normal, etc. But when Progressive Fandom notoriously doesn’t produce nor consume F/F media let alone at the same rates as M/M media, when Progressive Fandom deeming a female character “too awesome/independent for romance” is basically a death sentence in spaces where romance and pairing up characters is the name of the game - what are people supposed to do with Molly that doesn’t decrease her visibility or sideline her entirely in the name of what? Making sure heteronormativity doesn’t happen? Cause looking at tumblr’s most popular M/M ships that are full of exceedingly harmful gendered stereotypes about the characters then being further conceptualized in to gross top/bottom discourse among other issues, that pesky problem of not reinforcing heteronormativity shouldn’t fall solely on M/F ships cause they’re not the only ones perpetuating it.
From what I can tell, Sherlolly shippers are the only people placing her in multiple kinds of dynamics and narratives that seek to explore the depth of her character without treating all of her material with Sherlock like a joke or a predicament that must be changed (which is different from fixing some bumps or gaps or straight up missteps that may be present, and there are some, but no one is denying that). Sometimes it’s a reversal of expectations, sometimes it’s not, and that’s pretty standard summary of any ship in fandom, really. You don’t have to like what they’re doing, but the door is always open for these diverse, inclusive stories Progressive Fandom wants so badly to be brought to the table yet I get the feeling they won’t be walking through it any time soon.
so tl;dr - the ship isn’t bothering me and any faux-criticisms I had about it in the past I can easily say about other ships, including my own, so it’s not fair to condemn one but then bolster another with the same elements. As long as they aren’t engaging in anything harmful or pushing any Ists, Isms, and Phobias, which they aren’t, I’m cool.
And I’m not even gonna lie, I could not stand Molliarty in the beginning stages of fandom.
I hated how Jim from I.T. was treated as a separate person from Jim Moriarty just to give Molly a cuter and more fun version of him to continue dating (to be fair, this ship isn’t the only one that did this, [don’t even get me started on the Richard Brook\twin thing omfg], but I loathed this trend regardless of who did it more cause particularly with Jim everyone would always push the ‘we don’t know anything about his private life!!’ excuse to justify wildly ooc shit [and still do to this day]).
I hated that narrative of Molly ~softening~ monstrous beast!Jim with her kindness and in return he became obsessed with having her love him, but she couldn’t cause he’s a bad person or whatever, so he’d protect her until his dying days instead (I recognize the trope, I personally can’t stand that trope, but I still don’t understand why it was applied to this dynamic).
I hated all the creepy undertones in a lot of the really early fanworks that were like “come with me little girl and you’ll never be hurt again” (look, MY ships are capable of creepy undertones, but particularly with this ship it felt more like an impending sense of doom that Molly was getting herself in to a really skeevy, fucked p situation which is gross).
I hated with a goddamn passion that still consumes me to this day that Little Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf aesthetic cause it’s just piggybacking off what I just said of this lecherous devil ready to devour this unsuspecting and naive victim (as you can imagine I don’t like imbalanced dynamics so a lot of this one is just personal irritation too, but it still feels like you’re having to compromise their characters by bastardizing the shit out of them in order to get this to work).
I hated how Jim was treated like her sassy gay best friend who’d stay up at night watching Say Yes To The Dress with her and Toby, and gushing about cute boys when someone did a more platonic bff take on the ship (this was the biggest one for me because Andrew was walking a fine enough line as it was with Jim to not have everyone go ahead and throw his character into stereotype hell anyway and I hate most fanworks with Jim for this very reason, so again this problem isn’t exclusive to the ship).
And I hated how Molly tapping in to her inner darkness thanks to Jim awakening it somehow always took the form of her becoming sadistic and murderous to illustrate how strong she really is in an effort to put her on even footing with him so she’d get the love and respect and appreciation she wasn’t getting else where through being his faithful killing babe (besides having problems with women having to become badass and bloodthirsty in order to equal strength of any kind, the implication she can only be treated right through bad people is unsettling).
After making that list, I realized a lot of why I couldn’t stand it was tied to general misinterpretations of their characters that was floating around fandom, so putting those specific versions of them together to make a ship out of it was unforgivable to me. I’m gonna make an assumption here and say I’m willing to bet a lot of their earlier stuff wasn’t made by the shippers themselves and that it was people from other ships making material for it based off what they thought it was. So for all I know a lot of what I hated wasn’t even what the ship was about cause I know that’s the case for old stuff about my ships. None of us really had the numbers to change public opinion about how we perceived it, so there’s a lot of lingering misconceptions thanks to those works and I might have just listed all of them for Molliarty, I don’t know.
But a lot of this seems to have gone away now in any case? Not all of it, but it’s been replaced with lighter, more comical material which is still not the ballpark I’d personally place them in, but I’m not in that inner circle of shipping so I don’t know why it took that turn. They could be trying to counter fanon ideas surrounding the pairing, they could be trying to build up a more diverse selection of fanworks, I have no idea, but the ship doesn’t bother me in the same way it use to mostly because I’ve become too indfferent for most ships to even get a reaction from me anymore tbh
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NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!
(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)
First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing.
From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room.
And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen.
(Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old)
Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect.
I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory?
This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym.
In fact, all the rooms are locked.
Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three.
I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made.
Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms:
As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless.
As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl.
It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered.
In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt.
Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now.
No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki.
Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there.
That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes.
Especially Tsumugi lmao
She's a full-on critic
Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards.
I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay.
Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi.
Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited)
I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited)
And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan?
That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure.
This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction.
She likes her casts well-rounded.
But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory.
Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season.
Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited)
And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day.
Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe?
Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying.
It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game.
His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery.
Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo.
All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death.
TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme.
A neat manner to let the world know what to expect.
TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast.
Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought.
The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle.
Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out.
It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly
Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture.
So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed.
There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all.
You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi.
They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in.
More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P
Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet.
The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty.
It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto.
And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case.
Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards.
Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited)
Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial.
Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym?
It's simple when you've gotten this far.
Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor.
Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited)
And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym.
Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited)
I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job.
I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course.
This is my demo headcanon.
This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo
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So here we are. The finale of Season 2. I hope you’re sitting down because there is A LOT to unpack in this ep. So let us get right to it without further ado.
We begin with Montespan in her rooms, in tears, topless and furiously scrubbing herself from a basin. It is clear she is frantic and upset, and on one hand I really really feel for her because we all know what it’s like to get in over your head and let emotions overrule common sense in love (we do….DON’T WE??) So it is pretty much over Red Rover for her. On the other hand… good God, woman. Did you seriously think you would stay in favour for ever? That Louis would love you above all others? Did creepy father Etienne not give you that weird ‘fuck no!’ gut feeling at all??
So then we flash to Agathe who is in her home and doing some kind of meditation/praying thing (her rooms are actually quite decent and I wonder at what level she’s at on the ladder of respectability). Cut to a scene of guards on horses riding and Marchal-to-the-rescue as they gallop through the fields. Obvs on their way to arrest the witch – yay! He shoves open the door and she remains seated, eyes closed, as if she hasn’t even heard them enter. The guards surround her chair and Marchal watches her closely, then turns the tarot card on the table. The Labyrinth we saw before. She opens her eyes, says, “I’ve been expecting you.” Marchal is unimpressed, asks if she can predict her own future, then orders the guards to search the room and that’s their cue to basically trash the place. They find a trunk, the box with the poisons, and a disc-thingy with a pentagram on it, which Marchal smashes. Then a notebook is discovered – her little black book of clients. As Marshal scans it, he sees Sophie’s name, swallows and looks a bit… worried? Taken aback? Disappointed? Thoughtful? Hard to tell. But it does affect him. Agathe smirks: “found a friend of yours?” Unimpressed Marchal is unimpressed and he orders a guard to bind her.
I am SO Liselotte right now.
Now we are outside in the gardens of Versailles, with Thomas doing a reading of his prose to an audience and UGH I am really hating his smug little weasel face, knowing what he’s done with Philippe and knowing he didn’t do it because of any affection or need. *burns him in effigy*.
We see Philippe with Liselotte by his side, looking mighty unimpressed (sames, Madame. Sames). Louis looks back at Maintenon. Thomas finishes his blah-blah, they all clap and Marchal approaches. Louis praises Thomas and Thomas-the-weasel smiles his shitty little smug smile UGH *smashes his face*.
Look at him. That is one backpfeifengesicht if ever I saw one.
Louis is well pleased: “your love of detail and fidelity to the truth can only be applauded, Thomas.” Does Philippe agree with this awesomeness? “Makes French breasts burst with pride, brother.” And OMG that truly FILTHY look Liselotte gives Philippe. I just can’t even 😂 Louis finishes with, “one day soon, I shall reward you in full.” which sounds quite ominous and creepy and I wonder if on some level, Thomas kind of knows that his cover is blown. But still, he smiles and is all “thank you, Sire,” and then Louis looks to Marchal and we are back to secret spy business. The Queen glances at Maintenon and I am wondering if she knows about the garden snogging. Surely someone has told her by now? Louis, Marchal and Bontemps make a huddle under a really nice garden canopy and see CHAIRS WITH ARMS that should not be there but hold that thought because they’re now talking about Agathe. Potions have been found, plus satanic materials. Louis is all, “bring her to me,” and Marchal is “to the palace?”
Hell, yeah. Louis is all about never showing fear to the devil and I could spend pages making screen caps of Marchal’s expressions, so full of thought yet revealing nothing. Marchal hands over the client book and Louis looks taken aback. Agathe is the source of the poisons. “How many were involved?” Louis wants to know, but there are too many to count, which we see as Louis flicks through page after page of names and details….aaaaaand his gaze falls upon a familiar name. The Duc de Luxembourg. THEN….. there it is.
Marquise de Montespan. And Louis cannot quite believe it. He looks up from the book, across the gathered nobles, and watches Montespan in a subdued gown, standing on the edges as if already an outcast, looking from the outside in at all the favoured ones. You can see him thinking, going back through his memories to all the times she could have possibly snuck him something, got him to take drugs… all the opportunities she had. I think he’s a bit shook.
CUE INTRO MUSIC FOR THE LAST TIME THIS SEASON.
The guards bring Agathe into a private room with Marchal, Louis and Bontemps, and she offers a deep and mocking bow, to which Bontemps is offended. “You would be advised to show respect.” Yeah, nup. Agathe is all smirky and smug and hey, here’s another one whose face is in need of a slap. “You stand accused of witchcraft and sorcery,” Louis says tightly. Unsurprisingly. she pleads guilty on both counts. She is not a person to snivel and beg. She seems to me someone who would proudly claim all the deeds she is charged with. She claps back with, “to what do you stand accused? Tyranny? Arrogance? Vanity?” Louis ain’t biting, instead asking about Montespan. “Her hands are clean,” Agathe says. “She came to me for a love potion.” She laughs. “Don’t try and tell me it didn’t work?” Louis slowly circles her. “I would have expected more humility in your predicament.” Ah, but she already knows her fate. She laughs again: “They tell me Good Friday is an apt time for a sacrifice.” Louis is quite a bit offended that she is ridiculing her maker. But Agathe doesn’t care; she does not seek forgiveness: “I am not the sinner here. You and your Lord have no dominion in my world.” Which is quite a good comeback for people who want to push their religious beliefs upon those who do not follow that faith, but in 17th century France it is not really a smart idea to shun the church so publicly. Especially to Louis. “We are equals, you and I,” she goes on, almost pityingly. “You cannot choose to be born a king. Anymore than I choose to be a pauper.” That simply ENRAGES Louis and he yells back: “I am chosen by GOD!” Agathe raises her voice too: “Your Lord giveth and he will taketh away. History will record your fleeting moment in blood! A tide is coming that will SWEEP YOU AWAY!” (OMG this is so powerful, it gave me chills!) Louis studies her a moment then steps back, says calmly, “All of Versailles will see you burn for this.” Agathe gets a little ranty, says “I will not be vanquished while my agents are at large.” (oooh, Louis’ expression, knowing she has more people working for her…) She gets louder, saying how she has sewn the seeds of sedition and is going to turn everything into… I dunno what because Bontemps suddenly loses his shit, steps forward and does what we all want to do and slaps her across the face. As she’s dragged from the room, she yells, “A TIDE!” and then she’s gone and Louis looks at Marchal and says, “find who they are.” Then we cut to Agathe being led through the palace, through the salons, and everyone turns to watch this display, some with “OH SHIT” expressions, and she smirks at Gaston and Montespan as she gets hustled out. Gaston mumbles, “show a brave face. So there can be no suspicion.” But Montespan ain’t having that. Or him. She wants nothing more to do with him. It’s over and nothing can be proven. (RLY?) In time it will all be forgotten, apparently. (RLY????) Gaston disagrees. He moves off as everyone else is stuck in gossipy whispers.
Ah, and it is evening and we are with Cassel who is coughing up blood in his bed. Man, he looks really bad. I guess that’s what slowly being poisoned will do to you. Sophie steps to the bed, asking what he will have her do. “Water, please,” he rasps, looking all haggard and on his last legs. She serves him, helps him drink and it is clear she is quite upset about it. Poor thing. She looks torn, and I am really liking the depth of humanity she shows. She could have been written as cold and determined: considering what Cassel did to her, I would not have been surprised. But instead her character remains true to her heart and she is feeling remorse and conflict with her actions.
We are back in Louis’ bedchamber with Bontemps, Marchal and the little black book of Agathes’. Bontemps is frustrated – he says Hercules rid himself of the hydra by chopping off all its’ heads. Louis throws down the book in frustration and stomps out, and we next see Montespan asleep in her bed. Louis suddenly enters and she slowly sits up, cautious. His Majesty has come to the wrong room, perhaps? Louis says nup, it was def. you I came to see. And of course, Montespan is weirded out and wondering what he is up to. He leans in on the bed, staring at her. “It has been a long time.” Montespan replies: “Not since you have been with another woman.” Yeah, nup. She’s wrong – Louis has been occupied. “With Madame Scarron?” AHHHH, now SOMEONE notices! But apparently that is careless talk, and “She is Madame de Maintenon now.” OF COURSE SHE IS. Of course, everyone will think you are shagging her, now she has a fancy title and chateau and stuffs. Then Louis holds out his hand to Montespan, even smiles and wiggles his fingers as she hesitates. “What have you been up to?” He asks casually and OMG the look on her face….. She slowly rises from the bed. “Keeping a low profile. Waiting. Hoping.” Louis replies: “The waiting is over,” and the brief smile on Montespan’s face gives me a sad. “I hope so,” she says, then circles him slowly. “I knew it,” she finally adds, with an almost smug smile. (UGH. Not sad anymore) “I know you better than anyone. I knew it was a lie when you said you did not love me.” He steps behind her, gently brushes her shoulders. Apparently everyone lies sometimes. Oh, but she has never lied about her feelings for him. But in other things? asks Louis. She turns to face him and declares, “I have nothing to hide.” Louis replies with “There is sin in thought as well as deed,” and he is so giving her a chance to confess right here, but she is gonna brazen it out. She has nothing to confess, except that she loves him. As Louis removes her nightshift she says she will do anything to have him back. Louis replies, “For that, you must tell me the truth.” Fully nekkid, Montespan slides back onto the bed, obvs thinking she can win him over with nekkid boobage and her magic vajayjay, saying, “come to me, my king. I will show you I have no secrets.” He gives her a brief look up and down, then crawls onto the bed over her, kissing up from her belly, then strokes back her hair, murmurs, “finally. The scales fall from my eyes.” She moves in to kiss him, and they do, then he holds her back and the grip on her face looks pretty uncomfortable. She gasps as he gets out, “and you have betrayed me for the last time.” (Louis getting his Darth Vader on, lulz). Then he pushes her face back, then shoves her legs aside in contempt and walks out as she curls up naked on the bed and cries. OKAY, she is not very cluey, is she? How can she not think at least something was off when he chooses to see her and starts talking about secrets after she JUST SAW Agathe arrested the same day? Maybe a, “hmmm…. he has rejected me, told me he didn’t love me, then Agathe the witch gets arrested and now he’s asking me about what secrets I am holding onto?” SUSPICIOUS, MUCH?
Next day, and Louis meets the duc de Luxembourg, all smiles and hellos. Eh-up, there’s gonna be some major shit going down now. And what a lovely scene this is, with Louis’ intelligence and gift for words really coming out here when he says he needs the Duc’s help with ‘a dilemma’.
Louis: I am in two minds how to deal with my enemies. Do I educate them or punish them?
Luxembourg: Depends what they’ve done, Sire.
Louis: (casually) Well, if I came upon information incriminating someone I trusted…. how should I deal with that betrayal?
Luxembourg: (clearly unaware) There is only one way to deal with a traitor, Sire.
Louis: (gently laughs) Even if it was someone like you?
*CLANG* The penny drops for Luxembourg. He knows. They stare at each other and Louis’ smile slowly falls away. Luxembourg’s expression goes from disbelief to distress and he starts to cry as he hangs his head. Louis says calmly. “If you tell me the truth, you can leave through that door.” (such a beautiful door it is, too. Look. I would want to take it with me, not gonna lie.) “If you do not, you will leave through that door.” His other option is, of course, still a beautiful door, but flanked with the king’s guards, so obvs not the smart choice.
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Glorious door to freedom
Glorious door to jail
I’ll take door number one, thanks, Eddie.
So now we hear Luxembourg’s reasons: “My wife’s father was obstructing our investments. She wished him dead.” The in-laws. Dammit. Those bastards. He heard about Agathe supplying poison and invited dear ol’ Dad around for supper. Louis says he is deeply saddened Luxembourg didn’t come to him… “I am a reasonable man. I always help those loyal to the crown.” Luxembourg snaps back with, “I fear you would not listen unless it was part of your plan!” Look at the shock on Louis’ face…. LOOK AT IT!
“Because I frighten you?” Louis gets out. “Is that it? Because I am a tyrant?” Clearly, Agathe’s words have resonated. “You killed a nobleman in my palace.” Shit. Luxembourg cries, “I beg forgiveness, Sire! I will devote my life to your service without question.” Yeah….. Louis smiles at him, says he appreciates his honesty… “my friend.” Luxembourg thanks him, kisses Louis’ ring and steps to the unguarded door. Uh-uh. Not so fast. The doors open, the guards enter and yesssss….. Marchal enters too. Luxembourg is all WTAF??? but Louis says calmly, “do you really think I could let this go unpunished? After all I have given you? FRANCE. REWARDS. HER LOYAL SERVANTS. AND SHE PUNISHES THOSE WHO BETRAY HER!” You go, Louis, getting all aggro and yelly and I Am The GODDAMN KING. Luxembourg is removed and Louis says tightly to Marchal, “Strike now. Without mercy.” And the Marquise de Montespan? “Not yet.”
Now we have a fab montage of short scenes, with Marchal and guards (shout out to the lovely Cédric Vallet, who is Marchal’s Chief Musketeer), entering the rooms of nobles, dragging them from their beds and rounding them up from the salons. Women, men… all in chaos. We see a dude hurrying down a corridor, then locking himself in a salon, but the guards are inside and he gets grabbed and dragged away .. and can we stop for a moment to acknowledge Marchal casually sipping wine amidst all this arresting? LULZ. Montespan sees this, and Gaston slithers over, hisses, “They’re arresting half the court!” And she is all, “calm yourself. We two remain in the clear.” But for how much longer? He wants to make a tactical withdrawal but Montespan disagrees. She wants to “push ahead.” ……with what? Oh, I’m glad you asked. “There is one person who deserves punishment above all.” Gaston is freaked by another noble being dragged out, but Montespan, however, is so very cool.
New scene and urgent ominous music plays as we see a shot of the village and then Gaston in Agathe’s house, retrieving a bundle from a hidden hole in the roof. Then he’s back in his rooms at Versailles, brushes off Odile (?? Why is she grabbing him?) then opens the bundle, revealing bottles of poison. “What are going to do with them?” Odile asks. Gaston gets out: “Go get me something to drink.” She goes, but does not look happy.
We are now out in the gardens, on a pleasant stroll with Thomas (UGH) and Philippe. While the gardens are lovely, Thomas wants to know where they are going… somewhere private, away from prying eyes? Nah, Philippe is in more of a romantic mood, indicating a stone bench set against a row of hedges (which still looks fairly public, being in clear sight of strolling courtiers) and a valet with wine and noms. “What is life worth if you can’t bask in beauty? And talk about poetry? The words of love?” Thomas laments the fact that his words these days are military, all about the king’s ambitions. Ahhh, so here Philippe is planting the seed, because he still has to tell Thomas all that stuff Louis wanted him to, but without arousing Thomas’ suspicions. Philippe subtly flatters, saying Thomas is a poet, that he sees the reality behind the façade. He all-casual-like leans against Thomas as he launches into it: “take Versailles, for example. It is truly a triumph of style over substance. It has my brother written all over. Same goes for the war. He has you writing all that propaganda when the truth is, things are obviously in chaos.”
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He charms and flirts and touches Thomas’ hair, making Thomas laugh. It’s a very good effort. “Why would you withdraw all of your troops from Holland, when we all know that is where the real war is won or lost?” Yeah, Thomas’ expression indicates he’s noticed that little clue being dropped. But I’m not sure he knows he has been played. Then Thomas places his glass down, turns to kiss Philippe, and as Philippe shifts to get into it, says “the king expects me back in court.” Philippe looks at him, smiles: “We could just have sex if you’d rather.” Huh. Thomas smiles back. “Maybe later.” (and GTFO WITH THAT SHIT. He’s just not that into you, Philippe. He is soooo not down with the man love AT ALL. UGH. Because the only legitimate excuse for denying a prince is going above his head, claiming the king needs him) Thomas leaves and Philippe’s expression is all uggggh, dammit. Failed again. I don’t think he’s annoyed with the cockblocking, tbh. More like, “I need to keep him here, to convince him of this fake war story.” We see Thomas stomp off with such a shitty look on his face and I think that maybe he has swallowed that little story of Philippes’.
Maybe….. Maybe not. Because we are back with Cassel on his deathbed… He rasps, “Is that you, my dear…” To which Thomas answers, “you must be losing your sight.” WTF Cassel has HIS EYES CLOSED. Cassel replies: “I can still detect a bad smell.” AHHH. Thomas is furious. “It was you, wasn’t it? You betrayed me to the king.” Cassel gets out: “Now why would you think that?” The Duc may be one step away from kicking the bucket, but is still sassy as hell.
So, Philippe’s jig is up. Totally. The spy was spied on and now he’s aware of the spy spying on him. But the second spy is still spying, thinking the original spy is still in spy-mode. Thomas says he knows because of a sudden enthusiasm for his company by a certain Monsieur and a “strong urge to divulge secrets of State.” I KNEW Philippe was coming on too strong! Thomas is quite angry, wants to know if Cassel betrayed him to the king, and I detect a certain outrage, and I am all a bit WTF, as if Cassel had any kind of loyalty to Thomas. Cassel starts to laugh and Thomas grabs him by the throat. “I warned you! Didn’t I?” And srsly, why would Cassel give one shit about Thomas blackmailing him when Cassel knows he is dying? I would totally do the same in Cassel’s shoes – snitching on the asshole who’s not only blackmailing him, but also shagging his wife. Although I’m not sure if he did it for the first reason more than the second. Whatever the reason, Thomas is going down and Cassel is pleased. Then we see Sophie approaching the rooms, and Thomas still chokes Cassel, then Sophie bursts in and shoves Thomas off him. She is teary… “I’m sorry,” she whispers to Cassel (oh, my heart!) and Cassel whispers, “Sophie…” touches her face and is gone. Meanwhile, Thomas is being a broody little shit behind them, giving her a look when she glances back at him.
Whew. And we are only 22 minutes into the ep!
We are now in Louis’ rooms with Philippe giving them all a debrief. And Philippe is all uuuugh: “I said you were making a mess of it by withdrawing the troops from Holland so you could focus on tackling the east. Then he left.” He was due to speak with Louis an hour ago. Bontemps asks if Thomas has seen through it. Philippe adds, “we were drinking. It was in the heat of passion.” …..Ummmm. It wasn’t really. Not much passion there, just a brief kiss from Thomas. Louis gives him a look, Philippe looks back at him.
Philippe: That’s exactly what we agreed, wasn’t it?
Louis: You took him for a fool. An error of judgement. And not for the last time.
Philippe: That’s not fair! I’m the one selling his arse for France!
Louis: Find him! Maybe it’s not too late to retrieve the situation.
Philippe gives a mocking bow then leaves as Louis adds, “he must not leave the palace.”
Back in Sophie’s rooms, where she is demanding to know why Thomas would hurt a dying man. He grabs her hand: “There’s no time to explain. I must leave tonight and I want you to come with me.” Sophie is all confused and breathless and worried. “Why should I trust you?” Thomas replies: “If they catch me, they will kill me.” Okay, using Cassel’s death as an excuse. Which is a bit silly, considering everyone knew Cassel was dying and no one else knows Thomas strangled him. Sophie could just not say anything and Thomas would be in the clear. Yyeah, Sophie ain’t down with that shit: “Why? What have you done? What kind of outlaw are you?” YAY! uhhh…… No…. here we go. Thomas plays the blackmail card: “one who knows all about you. That you are a Protestant and that your mother conspired
against the king for William of Orange.” The penny drops for Sophie now. GOOD GIRL. but UGH he plays that “yes, I am a spy too but then I fell in love with you, now are you coming with me or not?!” card and I am yelling at my screen going “NOOO SOPHIE DO NOT BE SO STUPID UGGGGH.” She is confused and he kisses her, tells her he’ll be at the stables at midnight, then swiftly leaves. And Sophie is looking distraught and I want her to go to Marchal for help because we all know HE WILL FIX IT.
Tbh, I thought I’d be more happy with Cassel’s death. He was a nasty piece of shit, sure. But he also had complexity and depth and he did something ultimately for the good of the king. And Louis, to his credit, did not throw him in jail when Cassel confessed to conspiracy. Pip Torrens was brilliant on the screen and I will miss his evilness.
Philippe returns to his rooms, tosses his coat on the bed and we see the Chevalier (FINALLY) in a chair, an empty glass and two more with wine on the table. “Where the fuck have you been?” He says softly yet angrily and I have to pause for a second. Did Philippe not tell him to GTFO in ep 9 after that attempted suicide stunt? “Here we go again,” murmurs Philippe and I am totally with him on that one. *sigh*
The Chevalier: You were with him, weren’t you?
Philippe: (pours water into the empty wine glass) I’m not going to have this conversation with you.
The Chevalier: Then I’m going ’round to your little sweetheart right now and I’m going to rip his throat out.
Philippe: You’re not going to do anything of the kind because you’re a notorious coward and he’s not my sweetheart.
The Chevalier: (gives him a look then gets to his feet) I’m a coward, am I? Do you really want to see how brave I can be?
Philippe: Look, it’s not what you think!
The Chevalier: (limp-stomps to the bed and grabs his coat) I think he’s a snivelling little bastard. And I’ll kill him.
Philippe gives him a look and I actually think that he believes the Chevalier will actually follow through. As the Chevalier heads to the doors, Philippe blurts out, “It’s a charade. Louis is using me to feed information to the Dutch. That’s why I’m flirting with him.” The Chevalier turns, snorts. “I’ve heard some lame excuses in my time..” then walks out. And I am WTAF he WANTED the truth and when he gets it, he doesn’t believe it???? SRSLY? What is so far-fetched with that scenario, given what happened in S1????
Right. We are in the gardens now, with Louis and Maintenon strolling, then taking a seat along a path. Louis comes here for sanctuary, apparently. Then he tells her he has a record of who is behind the poisonings. Hundreds of them. His friends. (and right now I am so reminded of the differences between how Louis is portrayed in the series, compared with Benoît Magimel’s version in the 2000 movie, Le Roi Danse. There is a magnificent scene between him and Lully, his court composer, where Lully says, “I thought we were friends, and Louis replies coolly, “I have no friends.” If you can find the English subtitled version, I urge you to watch. You can buy the French DVD from Amazon)
Anyway, back to Louis and Maintenon, and Louis says some of those friends are “close…. very close. One in particular.” Maintenon, with her calm voice of reason, replies, “then the betrayal is greater. An untreated wound can fester in the soul just as in the body.” Yes, Louis knows what he must do, and wonders why he hesitates, why he doubts himself. And Maintenon is all “Look into my eyes. I believe in you. You must trust yourself.” And Louis says, “you are perfect,” and they have a good ol’ snog. And OMG it JUST occurred to me that they killed off Jacques to make way for Maintenon! All his cryptic metaphors and calm advice, coming from a place of unselfishness, and borne of a desire to just help Louis rather than gain something in return. This is EXACTLY what Maintenon is doing. Even their tone of voice is similar. But now with Maintenon, you get the romantic element thrown in, plus the jealousy from Montespan (and likely the queen when she finds out they’re shagging). UUGGGGHHHH *MIND BLOWN* Anyways, Maintenon stops all the kissing and whispers about it being wrong, and lulz Louis plays the ‘how can it be when God has sent you to me?’ card and when she reminds him he is married, he is all “it is a marriage without love.” Ouch, queen. “And me?” Maintenon replies. “What would I be? Love without marriage?” UGH WOMAN. You overstep yourself just a bit to presume you know the king’s affections. She goes on: “Whatever exists between us is purer, stronger than the desires of the flesh.” Then totally gets up and leaves (WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION) and Louis is left sitting there quite a bit pissed off.
Right. I am so looking forward to Season 3 where they will hopefully show Louis with a stack more mistresses. Pleasepleaseplease….
Back in Montespan’s rooms now and she is looking determined about something. So Louis is under the impression that all she has done is ask Agathe for some love potions…? I think so. We see guards burst into another room, smash things up and find the pouch of poisons Gaston had retrieved previously. So, his rooms then. People stop by the door to gawp (car crash, 17th century version) and Gaston is there too, watching them as the Chief Musketeer claims, “one is missing,” and quite rightly decides it’s a smart idea to move along. He turns… ah-HA. Marchal stands behind him and it really looks like Gaston is about to wet himself. Still, he brazens it out with a cool “can I help you?” To which Marchal says just as coolly, “yes, I believe you can. Whether or not you are willing is another matter.” And the maid Odile is pulled forward by a guard. Gaston loses it… snarls out, “you TREACHEROUS BITCH!” and lunges forward, but Marchal.. OMG bless you, you wonderful man. Marchal grabs Gaston by the face and hurls him back into the guards. The poison pouch is shown, Gaston knows the jig is up, Marchal gives him a look then turns away. And Gaston is dragged, slo-mo-style, through the corridors for all to see, getting in Montespan’s face to give her a panicky stare-down, to which she does not bat an eyelash. His downfall is complete. Montespan quickly hurries off.
Marchal strides into his office/dungeon, Gaston behind, and they pass a bunch of locked-up nobles. Marchal shoves Gaston up against a cell, and a rough looking Agathe steps from the shadows, all messy and bloody about the face. Gaston gasps, “I have failed you. Forgive me.” But Agathe says nothing and he’s dragged away to a rat-cell. “You are defeated, witch,” Marchal says calmly. “where is your dark master now?” As he starts to walk away, Agathe replies: “In my head. just like he is in yours. We both know this is not over yet.” He gives her a cool, calculating look then walks away. And I am reminded of that scene in The Incredibles where Syndrome goes on about how stupid villains are when they go into a monologue about their plans and how the good guys won’t defeat them etc etc. AGATHE. WTF are you doing??? Has no one ever told you to, uhh…. like, NOT TELL THE GOOD GUYS THAT YOU’RE STILL DOING EVIL STUFFS?
We’re back in Sophie’s rooms, where she is cleaning up Cassel’s face, and Marchal is standing there and says what we are all thinking: “You have a very soft heart.” Sophie replies: “everybody deserves dignity in death.” Marchal wastes no time in telling her that he knows what she did, that her name was on a list. Oh, and LORDY how much do I LOOOOVE this man when he adds, “It has now been erased. You conscience should be clear.” Sophie abruptly stands, says tightly. “And what of your conscience? Is that clean?” Marchal: “I leave the past behind me. I hope you will do the same.” To which Sophie does a massive nose curl and strides to the dresser to retrieve a bag. WTF is she so angry with him??? Marchal issues a word of warning: “Your lover may not be the man you think he is.” well, DUH. We know this. Why can he not just forbid her to go? Even lock her up for her own good? Or maybe… tell her?? But no. She simply says to him, “everybody has their secrets,” then walks out the door.
Right, so we see Thomas enter his dark rooms, then rummage through a trunk. He jumps when Philippe casually asks from the bed, “where do you think you’re going?” and is all ‘what are you doing here?’ Philippe: “I like surprises,” and rises from the bed. “And I don’t like people walking out on me.” Thomas gets a bit grovelly: “I’m very sorry, I had urgent matters to attend to,” and Philippe is sorry too – for coming on a bit too strong (WAT. Thomas has already given him a blow job – I think the ‘coming on too strong’ is moot at this point) . And Philippe doesn’t at all sound sincere, especially when he says they could maybe try again. NOOO. THOMAS KNOWS. Okay, so there’s quite a bit of snogging then Philippe pushes Thomas back onto the bed, then more snogging. UGH. Then…. Philippe reaches for a dagger in his breeches, Thomas notices and is all, “That’s not very nice of you.”
And it is ON.
Thomas hurls Philippe from the bed and the knife slices through a window covering. Philippe slashes forward but Thomas leaps back every time. Thomas grabs a pot/vase and deflects a blow, before Philippe knocks it from his hand. Philippe lunges and they then wrestle for the knife, falling over a table and slamming into the floor. Philippe thrusts again, Thomas grabs his arm, Philippe punches Thomas in the face but it’s obviously not hard enough because Thomas punches back and Philippe goes down. As he lays there, dazed and prone, Thomas crawls onto him and just starts wailing into Philippe (OMG *CRIES*) punching him until his nose is all bloody. NOOOOOOOO. Why are there no guards rushing in for backup? Then Thomas picks up the dagger and FFS DOES this IDIOT not know how bad it would be to kill the king’s brother???
THEN OMG……. THE CHEVALIER TO THE RESCUE!!!!!!
I am pretty sure I screamed at this point. The fight scenes as so very well choreographed.
The Chevalier glances at prone Philippe in panic and horror, then leaps forward, yelling for the guards as Thomas runs to the window and leaps out into the night.
Now we have two simultaneous scenes – Thomas hurrying to the stables, and the guards rushing in and the Chevalier all trembly over Philippe, seeing all the blood and not seeing him move. The guards are NOT MOVING THEIR ASSES QUICK ENOUGH, no, they just look casually out the damn window, meanwhile Thomas watches Sophie standing with two horses and a stable dude, all out there on the grass and in the open. Thomas strides out, smiles as Sophie gives a little relieved gasp…. and then the Chevalier just seems to appear from the shadows behind him, with such a fucking badass look on his face. He slowly raises his musket and takes cool, calm aim.
And shoots Thomas.
ABOUT FUCKING TIME. YESSSSS! THIS IS WHAT THE CHEVALIER IS ALL ABOUT AND I AM TOTALLY ON BOARD THIS TRAIN!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
Sophie screams, Thomas collapses, the horses rear, and the smoke wisps around the Chevalier like some awesome metaphor for dark vigilante justice and badassery. YES.
Sophie rushes over to Thomas, holds his head in her lap as he bleeds and goes through the motions of dying, then she kisses him and hurries over to mount her horse while the guards come a-running, Marchal in the lead. Marchal yells out, “STOP!” but Sophie wheels her horse around and gallops through the gates. The guards take aim but Marchal commands them all to hold their fire. “She is innocent,” he says, as the Chevalier stands there all casual-like with his musket pointed in the air. I love them both right now..
Whew. Well, we are back in the palace, in Louis’ rooms, and Philippe dabs at his bleeding nose while the Chevalier attempts to explain to Louis why he shot Thomas: “Believe me, Sire, I had no intention of causing trouble. I saw your brother in pain… My anger was too strong for me.” And I am just going NOOOOOO why does he have to ruin his Badass Shooting with a grovelling apology? This is what he should be doing after that little shit beat the crap out of THE BLOODY PRINCE OF FRANCE! He deserved to die and no one is going to judge the Chevalier for killing him. Hell, he would be celebrated for coming to Philippe’s defence. And yet, here we are, listening to him stutter and desperately justify his actions to Louis. And then Louis commands him to silence and says, “I have brought you here to express my gratitude. You have shown honour and valour in ridding the palace of a dangerous spy.” Stunned Chevalier is stunned. Louis continues: “And as a reward you will receive an annual stipend so you are no longer in debt, nor so reliant on my brother, and you will be given rooms in the east wing.” As the Chevalier can’t quite believe it, Louis issues a condition, that he start to “behave like a nobleman. Your predilection for alcohol and powders will cease if you wish to remain associated with my court.” Of course, the Chevalier is gushingly grateful, to which Louis repeats, “Will you shut up?” Okay, let me get this right. The Chevalier had thought that by killing Thomas (whom he did not believe was a spy even though Philippe told him so: we see his surprise when Louis confirms it) would mean punishment from Louis? Punishment for killing a man who was about to kill the Prince of France? FUCKSAKE. The Chevalier is a high-ranking noble (not that we see it here: his importance to the court seems to have either been ignored or glossed over in the telling) so he damn-well knows it would be his duty to kill weasel Thomas. And he would also know that Louis would be grateful for it and very likely reward him. So the Chevalier’s surprise when Louis not only thanks him but gives him monies is so very frustrating, because it’s not the way it would’ve happened.
So now Louis then goes over to Philippe.
Louis: Brother. You are alive.
Philippe: (quietly) No thanks to you.
Louis: You were in the service of France.
Philippe: It would’ve been good propaganda, wouldn’t it? Had I died. Your brother sacrifices himself. For you.
Louis: Please, try to be reasonable-
Philippe: What would you have written on my tombstone? (small snort) Gave his arse for France? (Slowly heads to the doors)
Louis: Brother, please. (Philippe slowly turns) If you had died tonight I would have lost my closest friend.
Philippe: (looking sad and forlorn) Why should I believe you?
Louis: Because after all we have been through… After all the hurt I have caused you, you love me as I love you. (walks towards sad puppy face Philippe). If you walk out now, you walk out on that love.
And then, with Philippe all still bashed and bloody and SAD PUPPY EYES, Philippe is the one to lean in first and they embrace and the music swells and yes, I CRY because this is the one thing Philippe wanted from Louis and now he finally has it OMGGGG…. And then….. Louis says, “Tomorrow you will go to war. If that is what you wish.” Philippe cannot quite believe it, and he immediately glances over to the Chevalier who is watching their exchange, and I can see his face is sad but also kinda “yes, this is what you really want, I know.” Then Philippe says to Louis, “no sudden last-minute change of mind?” And Louis gives a small smile and replies: “I want you to go to Holland and destroy William of Orange. For me. For France. For you.” Philippe smiles, turns and walks out, and the Chevalier quickly follows, giving Louis a bow.
Wow. Okay. Nearly 20mins to go and I am EMOTIONALLY DRAINED. We are now moving through the dungeons, the camera shaky and rapid, with a creepy whisper in the air, and we get to Agathe’s cell where she paces and chants creepy-Satan things in (possibly) Latin. The guard outside looks worried and crosses himself, and we cut to Montespan in her room at a table, toying with a vial of poison. Agathe still whisper-chants, Montespan appears to be thinking.
Then we are back outside, daytime, seeing shots of the gardens before we watch Montespan enter the chapel in a subdued dress and vail. She is in confession with Bossuet and he does not look impressed. “I have done things. Evil things. I accuse myself of sins of the flesh. Of pride. And of wrath. And of other things I dare not mention.” Is she truly sorry, Bossuet asks? She is. Oh, then that’s okay because the Lord will forgive her if she says the act of contrition. And she does, and it is a VERY GOOD recital, with the correct inflection of emotion and tears. Bossuet looks forward to seeing her at communion, and is pleasantly surprised when Montespan asks permission to stay and pray. So she goes through the motions, kneeling and signing the cross, and Bossuet watches her and is well pleased and happy because he thinks she is all penitent and has found God. UGH. Yeah, the look she gives his retreating back tells us quite clearly she is still the same old Montespan and up to something.
Louis is going through his morning lever, looking not very happy, and then he and the queen walk into the chapel as holy music swells, then Philippe and a not-very-impressed Liselotte enter (the Chevalier immediately behind them) and Philippe says to Liselotte, “You did well to stay. Versailles is fun once you get used to it.” Liselotte replies: “Versailles will be fun when it gets used to me.” Everyone walks in, courtiers bow, and all take their place as the hymn continues. The Chevalier steps to Philippe’s side, but Philippe says and does nothing. Louis eyes Maintenon, who looks a bit heart-eyes and breathy. The queen is looking a bit.. stoic? Tight lipped? Maybe she has found out about the snogging? Then Louis and the queen kneel and the sermon begins. Meanwhile, Montespan walks in after everyone is focused on Bossuet: “It is only through the light can the long shadow of death be banished.” he says. Quite a subtext here, all about hope and resurrection and peace, and Montespan is struggling to hold it together.
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We are in Marchal’s dungeon now, and he is punching the crap out of Gaston, wanting to know who Agathe’s other agents are. Gaston is all panicky when Marchal prepares to break his pinky finger, quickly getting out, “I can save the king’s life! But not if you touch another hair on my head.” As Marchal slowly steps back, Gaston adds, “and in return you will give me full amnesty and safe passage to Bordeaux.” Marchal says that only the king can grant such a wish, and Gaston half-laughs and says something that sounds like, “the faster he’ll run or no wishes at all.” Then adds, “the ghosts of his victims are here for revenge.” Marchal is not impressed: “you will be freed only if the king survives.” Gaston swallows. “Can I trust you?” (LULWAT). And in answer, Marchal shoves him against the wooden post he’s chained to, grabs his shirt front and says, “if he dies, you die.” Then the church bells begin to chime, the hymns swell and we see Bossuet walking with the wine and wafers… Montespan starts to cry…. everyone lines up to receive the blessing as Bossuet reads from the bible in Latin…. then we are back with Gaston and Marchal and Gaston says, “Hmmm. Easter Sunday. A sermon. Prayers-” Marchal begins to think as Gaston adds, “Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.” And Marchal strides out. Cut back to the chapel, to the singing choir as Bossuet picks up a wafer and places it in Louis’ mouth… and Montespan is desperately trying to hold it together, tears now falling, her face torn with emotion. And damn, GO, MARCHAL!!!!! RUN LIKE THE WIND!!!! He races through the gates, across the courtyard, then pelts up the stairs, screaming, “DOORS!”
Back in the chapel, and the queen receives the wafer, then the wine is uncovered and poured, and Montespan is losing it now, in real distress. And the hymn still plays over the top of these scenes, giving them all a creepy, fatalistic ambiance. The wine is poured in slo-mo, and then the camera pans to the crowd – we see Louvois, Bontemps – and the wine just keeps going. Bossuet stops, Louis makes the sign on the cross… and we are running with Marchal, the camera all shaky, heading hell-for-leather straight to the chapel doors, and the guards quickly open them and then we see the choir still singing, all pure and ethereal as Louis takes the wine glass and brings it to his lips… Montespan wipes her tear-stained face, openly distraught, and Louis tilts the cup up and OMG THE TENSION IS KILLING MEEEEEEEE and JUST as he is about to take a sip, Marchal charges in and screams, “NOOOOOO!!!!!” and Louis stops, Marchal races up to him and takes the cup, murmurs breathlessly, “it is poison, Sire. De Foix confessed.” As everyone whispers, Louis and Bontemps look shocked, then Bontemps takes the wine jug and Louis says, “who else? He could not have done this alone.” And Marchal and Louis share a look, Marchal looking confused then thoughtful and they both slowly turn to look at the assembled crowd. Louis knows. He scans the faces… then he sees her, tears in her eyes and gasping. He knows. His expression is almost disbelieving for a second, then his face hardens as it sinks in. Montespan gasps, hand over her mouth, turns and walks out.
Next scene – we enter a private room of Louis’ and see Montespan in front of Louis, Maintenon standing near a window, a fire burning in the hearth. “Someone tried to poison me while I worshipped God,” Louis begins tightly. Montespan says she is innocent, but Louis does not believe it. “Innocent?” He holds out Agathe’s black book. “Yet you procured poison.” Ah, now she changes her story to “It was a mistake. I did not go through with it.” And what about the heretic priest? A satanic mass? The blood of a child spilled? Montespan is teary. “No, I could never do such a thing!” Yeah, Louis ain’t having none of that. “You went to see him! ADMIT IT!”
Her reply? “Everything I did, I did for you.” Oh, okaaaay, then. That makes it perfectly OKAY and TOTALLY NOT HER FAULT. Louis slowly circles her, his anger and disgust clear…. then slowly, almost as if against his better judgement, he reaches out and gently touches her bare neck, his fingers stroking. “I gave you my heart,” he whispers, almost disbelieving. “My soul. My love.” Then he looks across the room to where Maintenon stands at the open window, light streaming through, and the metaphor of Godly light is so very obvious. Louis’ gaze returns to the back of Montespan’s head, his expression firm. “That love has died.” Montespan is nothing but uber-determined as she whispers back, “it cannot die.” Louis slowly removes his hand from her as she gets out in a teary, breathy whisper. “I made you who you are. I made you complete and I cannot live without you. You cannot live without me.” Louis looks at her directly, replies almost gently: “That was true once. But not now.” She weeps as he adds, “without you, I am myself.” Montespan finally gets it now: “I will leave. If that is what you want. You will never hear from me again.” Louis glances to the still-silent Maintenon, then back to Montespan.
Ohhh, the look on his face. LOOK AT IT. Then he drops it: “No. You will remain here at Versailles. An anonymous noble without the king’s favour. That will be your punishment. Bear the guilt and shame forever. You will leave behind the life you once led. You will attend prayers and mass. You will neither drink, nor gamble. You will be known for your piety and your humility.” And oh, Montespan is in distress weepy tears mode (but still looking gorgeous, dammit) as she struggles out, “you condemn me to death!” But Louis is not swayed one bit. “The Marquise de Montespan,” he says, “who had the world and the king of France at her feet, no longer exists.” Montespan struggles to breathe as she cries, knows it is now truly over for her. Condemned to be a nobody, a nothing. Everything that she loathed and desperately tried not to be. Everything she spent her last waking moment trying to avoid. And finally, as she stands there in tears, Maintenon hurries over and embraces her, gives Louis a look, then leads the fallen-from-grace Montespan from the room. Maintenon then returns to a stoic Louis, puts a hand to his cheek, then whispers cryptically, “even the darkest night gives way to dawn.”
*Historical note: It was never suggested that Montespan ever tried to poison Louis, rather just put things in his wine and food to ‘increase his passion and love’ for her when she suspected her favour was falling. An ex-lover of Louis was, however, accused of wanting to poison him, a Claude de vin des Œillets, who was angry that Louis did not officially recognise her daughter as his. You can read all about her here.
Well. Nearly over now. We are in Philippe’s rooms and he is standing before a mirror, dressing in a golden sash and OMG I am expecting some more emotional shit to go down. Liselotte says, “but if you are killed, what of our son?” Philippe replies: “you will find someone else to take the role of the father.” They both glance across to the Chevalier who is standing by the window… WAT. AHAHAHAHAAAAAA NOPE. SO WRONG.
Anyways, Philippe takes Liselotte’s hand, says, “we will write to each other. Every day. I want a full report on your health and well being.” She nods with a smile. “And remember,” he says lightly, “this is Versailles. You should be happy.” They laugh softly, he kisses her cheek and then he takes a bolstering breath and walks to the Chevalier. “How do I look?” The Chevalier can barely glance at him, he’s so upset. “Passable.” Philippe is sad; “I thought you’d be pleased for me.” The Chevalier replies: “And I thought you’d be grateful to me.” Philippe’s eyes fill with tears as the Chevalier continues, moving to him: “Didn’t I save your life? So why risk it now? On a stupid battlefield?” UGH. Poor Philippe, you can see the emotion on his face and we know the Chevalier’s words are because he is hurting that he may lose Philippe again. Philippe looks at him, says calmly, “I will always love you. But there are things I must do before I can love you again.”
WAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! *SOBS UNCONTROLLABLY*
The Chevalier’s gaze drops to the floor…. Philippe leans in and their foreheads touch, their eyes both gently close as the moment fills with emotion. “-as I wish,” Philippe finally whispers. “And you deserve.” They kiss, sweetly, tenderly and I am an absolute mess because this is what they need, an honest moment sharing what is in their hearts, a kiss that shows what they mean to each other. The Chevalier is shaking, they both smile through the tears, then the Chevalier finally whispers, “go.”
Philippe turns, looks at Liselotte, picks up his sword then strides to the doors, goes through them with his generals, the servants bowing. He glances back as he walks, and Liselotte and the Chevalier are framed in the doorway, Liselotte slowly taking the Chevalier’s hand in a show of solidarity and support… he turns back, gives a sigh, and then – as we all know this has been his dream all along – smiles to himself because he is FINALLY off to war.
No time to wipe those tears, people. We are here for the witch burning. We are in a courtyard and it has drawn a crowd. Burnings and hangings and other sorts of punishment were entertainment in those days: Tyburn Hill in London was like a regular day out for all, with refreshments being sold and nobles watching the hangings from the comfort of their carriages. Not only that, it was supposed to serve as a deterrent. Here we see the townsfolk gathered, and a royal box is set up to get full advantage of the spectacle. Agathe is led out, looking dirty and beaten, in chains and barefoot. The crowd yell at her, she remains silent with her head high. She is strapped to the pole. Then the camera cuts to the dungeons, to Gaston in chains as Marchal enters. Gaston smirks. He thinks he’s won his freedom…. nup. Marchal says, “take him to the pyre,” and his smug face falls. Back with Agathe as she is tied up, and a parade of people in dirty fancy clothing walk past her…. the nobles she supplied poison to? I think so. They are herded before the pyre, and Gaston is shoved forward. Witnesses to the burning. Punishment. Louis steps up to the royal observation platform with the queen, the rest of the royal court spread out, and there are chants of “long live the king.” He looks to the man holding the huge burning torch and the pyre is lit. Agathe is expressionless… until the smoke drifts up and her feet feel the heat.
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We see reaction shots from the crowd – Montespan, a guard holding Luxembourg’s head so he is forced to watch. Peasants crossing themselves and glancing away. And the flames rise higher around Agathe. Louis reveals no emotion as he watches, stepping aside as the Dauphin walks up behind to watch (FINALLY we get to see him again! It’s been, like, eight whole eps in between). Agathe yells,”The Sun King! It is for his greed that you toil! For his vanity! You suffer! Rise up and fight! I URGE YOU! FIND YOUR POWER!” And the camera pans to the peasants but we cannot see any discontent, no nodding or whispering or agreeing with her. She’s two Louis too early. Still she screeches as the flames get higher, “Your days are numbered. Louis, King of France. You and your spawn!” Louis puts a hand on the Dauphin’s shoulder as Agathe keeps ranting, frothing at the mouth, spouting about how their flesh will be eaten by the worms of tyranny. It is a great monologue and, knowing what we do about French royal history, very prophetic. We see Maintenon looking a little distressed, Liselotte the same, the queen showing nothing and Louis with a ‘yeah, burn, you witch.’
And so she does, wailing like a banshee as the flames finally reach her. Marchal watches expressionless, Montespan glances away. Marchal’s guard struggles with Gaston, forcing his head up to watch Agathe burn. The camera pans over the royal platform, to all the expressions of horror while Agathe screams. Louis is still and silent, his gaze direct. And then, just the tiniest twitch of his lips in a smile.
THE END!!!! *Collapses*
So…. that is it until next year, when Season 3 hits our screens. No word yet as to a Season 4…. but did we all enjoy this series? What did you love? What did you hate? What/who do you want to see more of?
For me, the biggest drawcards by far are Fabien Marchal and his dark and broody brilliance as he prowls across my screen. The dialogue, which is always fabulous. The romantic moments between Philippe and the Chevalier. Sophie’s quietly growing strength and determination. Liselotte’s everything. The clothes, the jewellery. And the stunning visuals of Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte and the interiors. Stay tuned for another article on the smexy bits, plus what we can expect (and what I would love to see!) in Season 3. And merci beaucoup for reading along and your comments. You guys rock xxx ❤
Versailles season 2, episode 10 – deaths, downfalls and departures So here we are. The finale of Season 2. I hope you're sitting down because there is A LOT to unpack in this ep.
#17th century#Alexander Vlahos#anna brewster#Cedric Vallet#Elisa Lasowski#Evan Williams#France#George Blagden#George Webster#Harry Hadden-Paton#Louis XIV#maddison jaizani#Philippe d&039;Orleans#Pip Torrens#Stuart Bowman#Tygh Runyan#Versailles#Versailles reviews#Versailles tv series#William of Orange
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B-Squared’s Top Games of 2018!
2018 had a lotta games in it, and while I didn’t get a chance to play ALL of what gaming had to offer this year, I was able to narrow down a list of five great games that I’d highly recommend this year. The list is rather loose, and while they all might have a flaw here or there, they’re all real “Game of the Year” contenders. Without any further ado, let’s go!
I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Monster Hunter games. While a fan of some aspects of them, other aspects would frustrate me. It was a franchise that needed quite an overhaul, and World is just that. A great modernization of the games, World not only makes a more involved, seamless world to explore and do battle in, it looks amazing in HD and is a great place for beginners to start. Being able to play this on a controller automatically makes things so much better, but in general all the weapons are really fun to mess with this time around. I love the slinger and all the ways to interact with the environment, though honestly some areas in the game are a little TOO big and complex for their own good.
The game falls a bit short for me when it comes to post-game content and its implementation of online play, though. But considering this is on a totally new engine and they’re essentially starting from scratch after years on handhelds, I can understand that it’ll take them quite a bit of time to get a handle on things, but World is a great foundation for the series going forward.
There have been a TON of Dragon Ball games over the decades, and honestly, a lot of the fighters aren’t all that good. They’re good spectacle and decent “DBZ Simulators” but lack any real competitive merit. This all changes with FighterZ, a gorgeous, streamlined ArcSys game that pays loving homage to the series, there’s so much to love here. While many past Dragon Ball games have looked pretty good and faithful, Arc System Work’s graphical magic that started with the latest Guilty Gear helps take things to the next level. The game is just really dang pretty and in many cases matches up directly with manga panels or as great recreations of iconic anime moments. Tons of visual fanservice there.
The gameplay is fast, aggressive and has just about everything you’d expect in a game starring Goku and friends, but also manages to be a huge crowd pleaser for more competitive fans. I love how each character is designed in such a way to emulate how they operate in the series itself. Yamcha is weak, but incredibly fast and good at setting things up for stronger characters on the team. Krillin is great support with Senzu Beans as an assist, or overall tricky moves that keep the opponent guessing, while Tien can do TONS of damage at the cost of his life, just to name a few. While I feel the roster has some…odd picks (like Base Goku and Vegeta) and if I played it more competitively I’d surely run into more issues, it’s a lot of fun and I actually went and double-dipped to get it on my PS4 and Switch. Can’t say I do that too often.
There are plenty of great indie titles out there this year, but for me, Celeste is a real standout. On one hand, it’s a brutally tough pixel-based platformer that honestly doesn’t seem like it should be that notable, but as you play, you discover a very intimate, cathartic game based around dealing with mental illness. Our hero Madeline attempts to climb a mountain while dealing with inner turmoil, and that’s represented to the player by throwing them into a super tough game that constantly knocks you down. Depression isn’t something you can just “get over;” you will have setbacks and times when all seems lost. Multiple times through Celeste I was ready to give up, but felt compelled to give it one more try, and with that I finally saw the horizon from atop Mt. Celeste, and I think that’ll stay with me for a long time.
It’s rare to play a game that teaches me something about myself, but with Celeste it forced me to confront how I view failure, both in games and in life. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to have to confront, but I did it anyway, and going forward I’m trying to view failure as something that isn’t always a bad thing, something that’s just part of the journey. Celeste tries to frame deaths in a level as a badge of honor. So what if you died over 100 times on this level? That just means you got up 101 times and beat it. You didn’t give up, and that counts for a lot. So yeah, this game definitely stands out to me for making be all introspective and junk.
Spider-Man is one of my favorite super heroes, and he’s had no shortage of great games, but for too long it feels like we’ve held the game based on the second Sam Raimi movie to such a high standard, and it was time for a new game to raise the bar. So if I’m even talking about Insomniac’s take on the wall-crawler, then it’s a pretty safe bet that they did it. I’ll be honest here; Spider-Man isn’t exactly groundbreaking for an open-world title. It has all the hallmarks of a standard open-world experience: enemy bases, towers to climb, collectibles scattered all over the map, and all manner of repetitive challenges and side content. But here’s the thing…all of that stuff is made about 1000% more fun when you’re controlling Spider-Man. Movement is fluid, effortless and fun all by itself. Combat and stealth has this interesting flow as you zip around the battlefield, using web gadgets and good ol’ fisticuffs in perfect tandem. It’s just a pure blast to play and I absolutely devoured this game when it came out.
This is all paired with probably one of the best Spider-Man stories out there. Yuri Lowenthal is a terrific Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and this is hands down my favorite interpretation of Doc Ock. I genuinely didn’t expect the story for this to be so good, written and acted with so much love for the source material. I was actually bawling at the ending, such a raw, bittersweet end to a wild ride of a game. All that helps elevate what could have been a bog-standard open-world game up several notches to not just a great Spider-Man game, but a great game in general and no-doubt the most fun I had with a single-player game this year. And yes, I’m still kinda salty that it didn’t win anything at The Game Awards.
And lastly, we come to something that’s kind of an easy shoe-in for Game of the Year for me. Honestly, there’s a power gap between Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and everything else on this list. Without a doubt, Smash Bros. is my favorite franchise in just about anything, and any time a new game is about to come out, it’s a real magical time. The speculation of just who is making the roster before release, the countless hours of playtime after it comes out, and now we’re in DLC speculation season so in some ways this hype train never stops.
Smash Ultimate seeks out to be the definitive Smash game and it largely lives up to that claim. An outrageously gigantic roster, tons of content to sift through, and containing so much love and reverence not just to Nintendo, not just to its third party guests, but to the franchise itself and how far it’s come. Nearly twenty years old, it’s crazy to think how this series has grown. What was once Masahiro Sakurai’s pet project has blossomed into this mega-franchise, and now we’re left with one question: where can you POSSIBLY go from here?
Sure, the online is kinda problematic in its matchmaking, and the World of Light adventure mode is a tad too bloated, but this is a game I’m going to probably sink hundreds of hours into with friends for years to come, and it’s been a joy to play so far. Released right at the tail-end of the year, it was a long wait, but Ultimate lived up to the hype for me, and really made 2018 end on a high note…which it kinda needed.
So that’s that! Plenty of other great titles came out in 2018 for sure, but honestly I haven’t gotten to them all yet, if I get to them at all. Indie stuff like Guacamelee 2, The Messenger and Dead Cells are something I’ll be looking into soon, and I have God of War waiting for me as well. I hear good things about Starlink too, but this is pretty much where I draw the line for honorable mentions. Anything else that came out this year was either OK, or not something I’d consider Game of Anything. So that’ll do. Here’s hoping 2019 can top this year!
Until next time,
-B
#xb-squaredx#blog#top 5 games#spider-man ps4#celeste#smash ultimate#monster hunter world#dragon ball fighterz
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