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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

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'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+#interview

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reactionimagesdaily · 3 years

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I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space).

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

#Also: love (as in romantic love) is 'not canon' in the Bionicle universe. Big win for the aromantics #(I couldn't find a place in my lore explanation to mention that but my friend Zacch insisted I mention it somewhere)#also... fuck me dead this is a long post. I spent literal hours writing all of this down. Was it worth it? probably.#not a pic #Someone asked me a thing!#Ask mood: Don't Get Me Started #bionicle #bionicle lore #bionicle story

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tare-anime · 3 years

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SxF Chapter 49

(Beware spoilers)

We're almost 50 chapters!! Wohoooo 🥰

Still.... after the ending of chp 48, I have no clues at all of how the story in this chapter will go.

Thus, I am not prepared at all, when Endo slapped me with this much angst 🥲

I mean, I love hurt/comfort. But this chapter is all about hurt without comfort (yet)... I'm....🥲

Ahem. Okay, let's see the lighter part of this chapter first.

Anya being worried for her mom's safety is sooo cute!! She really tried her best, but after playing all day, she got sleepy.

And day by day, she started to took her parent's trait, I found that cute 🥰

Like mother, like daughter.... LOL

On Loid's side.... a bit of TwiYor content here. Loid really misses his wife. Especially, since he had to watch over Anya all day long, and he got really tired from doing so.

Now you understand how Yor feels when you went all around town for your mission, eh???

I can't wait to see his expression when he reunited with Yor 🥰

(The rest will go under the cut, because this is a loooooonnngggg post.)

Now unto the villains...

It looks like Steve Jobs is a sniffing freak! That's one scary ability there..... yet, that ability could become a weakness too. But by the his inner monologue... apparently this man was one of those who responsible in eliminating the Gretchers. Which means, he's one formidable enemy. The "boss enemy" of this arc.

I am both excited and terrified in anticipating the match between him and Yor 🥶

But, I say, the most terrifying enemy is the "evil Frankie". Informants always works in the shadow. Made them those with higher chance of survivals, and yet they held the important things/cards in their hands. With enough strategy, they will able to use it to evil deeds. Scary. And just look at this. He already prepared to save himself, should things went south.

Now, on the lighter note...

Soft boy detected!

Furseal, whose real name turn out to be Zab, already admired Olka for a long time!! Awww... and he even noticed how distressed Olka (and the baby) are, and thus take action to be the goofy one, so that they could relax a bit.

Olka knows this, which made her commented that he’s a nice guy.

Awww.... I just hope.... really hope.... Zeb didn't die protecting Olka. After what had happened to Olka, I want her to at least has someone she could rely on, someone that will not betrayed her under any circumstances. That person being Zab here. (Please Endo....hear my praaayy....)

From his backstory, however.... now we get a timeline. We are currently around 10 years after the war.

And that apparently the Gretchers were not at the same side with the current government, despite their enormous power. Which might be one of the reasons why they're eliminated. The government needs their resource for weaponry, but they refused to cooperate. Thus they're eliminated.

This made me think.....

The Gretchers are friends with Garden. Garden was said to serve the shadow government. And in that term, Garden might also be at the side who don't want any war....

Which means.... Garden and WISE might be at the same side!!

I really hope so.

That means we have a possibility of Loid and Yor doing join mission, buuuuttt then we might have a Yor vs Yuri??? (Okay, I'll stop here)

Continue to Garden member. I am awed by McMahon.

He is one awesome character!! By the way he act here, we can conclude that he is one with enough experiences. Good one and bad ones. He might had seen so many things in this world, thus he understand the nature of human beings. Him being the soldier who would do things necessary for his country? Ugh... total badass!! And unlike Yor, he knows how to use different type of weapons. Fire weapon, close range weapon, throwing weapons.... wow!! wow!!

And once again, I got the feeling that he’s Yor’s mentor. He knows when to scold her (forgeting the knocking code?? Yor!! Don’t be too nervous!), but he also acknowledge her as one of the strongest assassins in Garden.

Btw, somehow I got the feeling that McMahon is there to watch over Yor too. He seems like the loyal butler of Shopkeeper. And Yor is the princess (Shopkeeper’s daughter). And thus Mc Mahon is responsible of her safety too. I mean, look at him. Cleaning after the mess, preparing them food, smoothing their cover story, and for the night, he asked “the three of them” (Yor included) to ‘rest’ while he ‘cleaned’ the enemies.

He really got the ‘loyal butler’ and ‘mentor’ vibes here.

Now aside from Furseal, I am also afraid that he might die in doing what he has to do (protecting Yor).

Uuuhh but please Endooo!! If you want to kill someone, let it be Steve Jobs!! pleaseeee!!!

(btw, could we have McMahon at the cover of the 8th volume?? but we haven’t even got Handler yet!!)

Leave it to Endo, to make this supposedly warm panels, hurts so so so sosooooooo muccch T.T

Now, the last but not least, the source of this chapter’s angst...

Yor... oh my dear Yor...

She’s so afraid of getting hurt because she thought it might hindered her to return to the Forgers. She was reminded that the Forgers are just ‘fake’ family.

Yor is a simple person. All this time, she do whatever she has to do, doing all the dirty jobs, all for one purpose: Raising Yuri.

Now that Yuri had able to stand on his own two feet, suddenly Yor felt lost. And for the first time, she also has wants. Yor wants something, that is to be loved by a family. Yet she felt that she isn’t allowed to have what she wants. Ugh!!

Not having a goal in her live, currently doing an unusual job, and now she also wants to be with the Forgers but she felt she wasn’t appropriate in doing so.... And by sitting alone in the dark quiet room, her mind wanders: She felt lost and she is depressed T.T (and my heart breaks!!)

But by the next chapters, I hope she realized, that the Forgers are not ‘fake’. At least, Anya really see her as the mother. Anya needs her. And that getting hurt to protect her family is worth it. (I have a feelings that Yor might get hurt in protecting Anya, who in her own way tries to help, but the kid didn’t realized that these assassins are dangerous.)

So, all in all, this chapter really make me feels.... (still a wonderful chapter though!)

In next chapter I think we’re finally entering the climax of this arc (the countdown begin!).... I can’t wait!

#spy x family #sxf #review #chp 49 #yor forger #loid forger #anya forger #mcMahon #olka gretcher #spoiler #spoilers

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blackjack-15 · 3 years

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Two Can Keep a Secret (if the Family Tree is Dead) — Thoughts on: Ghost of Thornton Hall (GTH)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT, SAW, CAP, ASH, TMB, DED

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with my list of previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: GTH; SPY; mention of ASH (and the ASH meta); mention of Nik/HER’s spoilery hints about GTH.

NOTE: THIS META CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF AND REFERENCE TO SEXUAL ASSAULT. MORE DETAILED SECTIONS ARE MARKED, BUT THIS WARNING STANDS FOR THE WHOLE META.

The Intro:

It’s time to get our Spooky on, lads. And we’re gonna do it in a meta of truly staggering length, so maybe go to the bathroom and get a snack before you start. My apologies.

Due to the (to be quite frank) absence of nostalgia surrounding them, there’s not really many games that are post 2010 that the fandom tends to agree on, but Ghost of Thornton Hall happens to be a standout in that pretty much everyone has found something to like about it. It often tops the charts of “best newer game” polls, and puts in a valiant effort against the more nostalgic mainstays.

There are a lot of reasons for this, in my mind – the quality of the writing, the choices that Nancy can make that actually affect the outcome of the game and especially affect Nancy, the fabulous voice work, the purposely-unanswered questions that give a deeper sense of horror — but if you ask me, the love for GTH really boils down to one thing:

Atmosphere.

Nancy Drew game fans (and I’m including myself in this) tend to prioritize atmosphere in the games, probably because without good and proper atmosphere it’s easier to pick apart the formula as you’re playing and to avoid being immersed in the game’s story, and GTH has it thick on the ground (figuratively and literally). The fear, unease, and overall sense of being an Intruder in this story comes from the overwhelming atmosphere provided by the grief of the characters, the time-sensitive nature of the crime, the secrets of the house and family, and, of course, the rather stellar visuals and locations.

The Thornton’s house and grounds really feel alive, but dead — in fact, they almost feel alive in the way that a zombie is, where they function and feed but have no heart. The gloriously (and meticulously) decorated walls are cast in shadow and grime; the portraits feel ominous and disapproving rather than lifelike and nostalgic; even the graveyard, as spread out and opulent as it is, feels claustrophobic and unwelcoming.

In a word, the game is – visually, thematically, story-wise, and atmospherically — haunting. And I think that overwhelming feeling of being haunted is, in large part, what draws fans back to this game again and again.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the scariest parts of this game are the things that you, as the player, do not see. Sure, the apparitions of Charlotte, the ghostly figures, the appearance of Harper — these are all scary, but the fear is gone after a moment, leaving the player unsettled but not running to hide under a blanket. The deaths of the fifty-four souls, the secret behind Clara’s birth, Harper’s breakdown — all these things that you don’t see, that you can only hear about or have hinted at are where the fear of the game kicks in, especially for older players.

It’s no secret that, despite the games being labeled for ages 10 and up, that the actual age of the Nancy Drew games fandom hasn’t been around 10 for some time — most people playing these games are in their 20s or 30s, or have siblings who are in their 20s and 30s and got into the games through them. Sure, there are some outliers, but the Clue Crew is much closer in general to the ages of the River Heights crew than they are to the age that that box says.

Because of this, the writers (and I’m going to especially hat-tip Nik here) behind the games have been able to slowly graduate the topics of the games to be a little bit older, hiding the true horror behind things that younger kids just won’t think about. This is especially the case with GTH and SPY, but you see it in a lot of the newer games, where the implications of events are normally scarier than the events themselves.

GTH takes that and runs with it, choosing to hint at and dance around truly upsetting — for any age — topics, presenting a mystery and a story that only get scarier once you’ve finished staring at the screen. The characters’ emotional problems and issues — loss, abandonment, anxiety, guilt — are like this too; while they’re present in the game itself, when you take a step back after finishing the game you realize just how badly scarred everyone is in the story.

Because answers were purposely left vague in order to 1) make the player work for it and 2) keep the 10+ rating, pretty much everyone who plays GTH has a slightly different opinion on what went down at Charlotte’s party, who the Thorntons really are, the circumstances of Clara’s birth, why the children of a female Thornton take their mother’s name — you name it, and there’s around 10 distinct opinions on it, and many more offshoots of those opinions besides.

I’m going to talk a little bit here about a couple of the “biggies”, since I don’t want it cluttering up the Suspect portion of this meta, so bear with me. I’m not so much interested in “this is the Correct answer” as much as just presenting the information from the game and wondering about its conclusions…but I (like everyone else) have my little pet theories, so what follows will be a little bit of reporting, a little bit of inference, and a little bit of supposition.

What follows is a frank discussion of topics such as rape and incest as they apply to GTH. If this is something you’d rather not consume, skip down to the next bolded line.

The most talked-about question left hanging in the game is, of course, who Clara’s father was. I think this question is best addressed from a two-pronged approach, however, because to figure out who Clara’s father could have been is a question that requires another question to be answered: why would Clara’s mother not tell her, even on her deathbed.

The most popular — and horrifying — answer to this is that Clara’s father is Jackson, and that she was a product of rape and incest. Now, just looking at the timeline, this theory adds up; Rosalie (Clara’s mum) would have been 25 when her father was 51 and would have raped her — young enough (especially in relation to her father, a middle-aged man of a lot of power in and out of the family) that she would have been scared to tell anyone anything, but old enough to not have it be super out of the ordinary that she got pregnant and had a baby — especially in 1968.

To add to this theory, there’s the note in the cellar that asks “who was this Jackson?...what’s he hiding, and who put it there? Was it Charlotte?”. If you’re looking for clues with the incest theory in mind, this seems to point directly to it — “who was this Jackson”? both Rosalie and Clara’s father. “What’s he hiding”? his crime of raping his daughter and impregnating her. The mention of Charlotte alludes to the supposition that Charlotte found proof of this crime — tangible proof — and put it somewhere; this pretty much supposes that there’s a document somewhere that names Jackson as Clara’s biological father, such as an admission of guilt or a paternity test.

The final “proof-positive” to this theory is that Rosalie refused to tell Clara who her father was even on her deathbed. We know from the family tree and Wade that Clara was between 5-10 when her mother died (I’m inclined to believe the family tree, and chalk the discrepancy up to either the writers not being concerned with math or, more likely and more charitably, to show that Wade isn’t a Perfectly Reliable source, just like everyone else), and Rosalie’s protection of Clara from the truth makes sense with a child in that age span. It’s one (horrible, horrible) thing to be forcibly impregnated by your father, but to have to say it out loud, and to say it to your child — that’s something that no one can even remotely blame Rosalie for not being up to, especially when weakened by sickness.

There are smaller points — like pointing out that this might be why Virginia (Wade’s mum) was skipped over in inheritance — but these small points have dozens of explanations, so they’re not really good for bolstering a theory unless you’re already dedicated to it and are looking for crumbs to shore it up.

End of frank discussion. The previous topics may be alluded to and/or mentioned, but not discussed in detail from this point on.

Now, let’s talk about another explanation. I think there’s a tendency to jump on the “Jackson Theory” because 1) there are clues that support it, but more importantly 2) because it’s horrifying, and it’s natural to leap to the scariest thing you can think of when considering a game that relies on fridge horror in the first place.

In the “Jackson Theory”, Rosalie would have hidden Clara’s parentage because of shame, horror, and trauma, and probably to (at least momentarily) spare Clara’s feelings — but Jackson isn’t the only explanation for her reticence.

Generally, we can break apart the reasons for Rosalie’s silence into three distinct emotions or emotional states: shame (supports the Jackson Theory), trauma (supports an assault by a known wolf), or, often overlooked, ignorance.

Clara is mentioned repeatedly as being outwardly and obviously scared about her place in the family — a fear borne from and exacerbated in her childhood, as Nik plainly states (“her insecurity wasn’t just a personal flaw, it was a response to her uneven upbringing,” emphasis mine).

An easy way for Rosalie, worried as she must have been about leaving her daughter alone, to fix this if Clara really was a product of incest, is to name a distant Thornton cousin, preferably one who was already dead or out of the picture, as the father, which would assure Clara’s place in the Thornton line by both blood and her future adoption. This way, if Clara’s parentage was tested, she’d show up as a Thornton from both sides in a way that wouldn’t be suspicious, and her daughter would have an easier life.

But Rosalie didn’t do this — she never even hinted at the identity of Clara’s father. As a woman known primarily for secret keeping — not just about Clara, but about everything (“She loved her secrets,” Wade says), Rosalie would have been adept at hiding things through various means, including through lies and subterfuge, not simply staying silent. Given the little we know of Rosalie’s character, then, let’s consider why she wouldn’t have said anything — even something false — to ensure her daughter’s safety when she died.

Looking outside of Jackson (and with any other known Thornton being quite unlikely), the vast majority of assaults are committed by those known to their victim — friends, acquaintances, classmates, etc.

The Thorntons were — and are — an incredibly powerful family, both monetarily and socially. Having dealt with families such as the Thorntons before in matters like this one, it is frankly incredibly unlikely that, had Rosalie been assaulted by someone she knew, that the truth wouldn’t have come to light through another source, and that the perpetrator would have been punished in every way possible.

BRIEF DISCUSSION OF ASSAULT STATISTICS AS THEY RELATE TO ROSALIE’S POSSIBLE CASE.

Some people familiar with only the post-20th-century world as “the modern age” and with a less stellar grasp of the pre-tech-boom world might raise an eyebrow at this supposition of punishment, but this is Exactly what would have happened — and did happen with regularity — even as “far back” as ’68 — especially when the crime was committed against a young, privileged, wealthy woman of the community.

Note, this is after the USMPC adjustment to the definition of rape in ’62, but before the adjustments in the early 70s; in 9 years, forcible rape rates (this number includes only female victims, so the true number of victims is indisputably higher, given the enormous jump in rape statistics in 2016-present as male cases have been included) had soared in the United States from around 17,000 per year in 1960 to, in the year Clara was born, 31,000 reported cases (source: DisasterCenter). With these soaring numbers came soaring awareness, and combined with Rosalie’s identity as a rich, powerful young woman in a rich, powerful family, it’s on the outside of belief that, had her attacker’s identity been known or suspected, that it could have remained a secret and gone unpunished.

END OF BRIEF DISCUSSION OF ASSAULT STATISTICS AS THEY RELATE TO ROSALIE’S POSSIBLE CASE.

Given this historical and social backing, the simplest and unavoidable potential answer to why Rosalie wouldn’t have either told Clara who her father was or made up a “brief love” who abandoned her Dishonorably, is this: she didn’t know.

(I’ll spare a mention here to say that, ignorance because of being a “wild child” in the 60s and having had multiple partners would be a possible theory, but it disregards everything else we know about Rosalie and her behavior, and that her reputation as a party girl would have been common knowledge, unable to be hidden from those who were alive at the time. So let’s move on to what else would cause ignorance.)

Though attacks by a person unknown to the victim are, in relation to known assailants, rare, in the absence of other evidence, the simplest answer to Clara’s parentage was that Rosalie was assaulted by someone that she did not know and had no way of knowing — and who had no idea of the social power of his victim.

Rosalie truly left nothing behind that points to her daughter’s parentage, even for later discovery or for Clara’s private eyes in a bank lockbox when she came of an Age that Rosalie deemed appropriate — so the conclusion to be drawn is, in the absence of evidence, that Rosalie didn’t answer Clara’s question because she simply couldn’t.

This ties into the other theory/mystery I want to cover here — that of what happened the night Charlotte died, and how (and in what way) Clara was culpable and responsible for Charlotte’s death. We know that, according to her, Clara went there simply to “scare” Charlotte — and given the circumstances that Clara gives this confession in, I’m inclined to believe her — and it’s my opinion that the reason didn’t have anything to do with the truth of the identity of Clara’s father.

My stance here — and it’s here that I take a solid stance, rather than presenting options — with Charlotte (and I’ll talk more about her general character in the Suspects section) is that Charlotte found the same breadcrumbs as the players did and came to the same conclusion — that Jackson was Clara’s biological father. The difference, however, is that I believe Charlotte’s conclusion to be understandable, but ultimately incorrect, and that Rosalie’s assaulter was a stranger.

Horrified, this is where Charlotte’s “cryptic obsession with Jackson” (mentioned in the note in the cellar) began, and what led to her changing the beneficiary of her will from Clara — poor, pitiable Clara, already a victim of so much, whose insecurities would be compounded by this truth — to Harper.

An important part of this theory — and of really any theory — is the consideration that Clara was pregnant with Jessalyn at the time. Not only does this partially explain why Clara’s thought was to save herself (and her baby) rather than dragging Charlotte out with her (regardless of any other factor), but it also brings a potential answer as to why Charlotte would change her will to favor Harper, rather than Clara. Just as the cellar note asks “Who was this Jackson?”, I find myself asking a similar, but no less important question:

“Who was this Austin Neely?”

Listed as Jessalyn’s (still living) father on the family tree, Austin Neely isn’t present anywhere else in the game — not by name and not through mentions of “Jessalyn’s father” or “Clara’s ex-husband/ex-boyfriend” or anything like that. There’s not even a mention of Clara contacting him as a guest for the wedding or to help search for their daughter. His absence is glaring, especially in a game so focused around family — so the question of who is Austin Neely is a question that seems incredibly important to me, given that Clara was pregnant at the time of Charlotte’s death.

In mentioning this theory, I do fully acknowledge that I have only some circumstantial evidence — mostly emotional, and based off of who the characters are/were — to support it, but given the total lack of information on Austin Neely, my guess is as good as anything else.

So here’s my theory: Austin Neely is not Jessalyn’s father, and Clara, like her mother, became pregnant via some type of assault (and given that this was the late 80s and given Clara’s age at the time, I would say the most likely culprit is date rape). When Clara became aware that she was pregnant, given her insecurities about her place in the Thornton clan and her lack of knowledge of her own father, would have come to this conclusion: she was not going to let her baby go through what she herself went through. So she did what her mother could have — and honestly speaking, probably should have — done, and lied.

Austin Neely was probably a friend or an acquaintance of Clara’s — someone her family didn’t really know, but that she could make up a story about dating/being engaged to and became pregnant by before it all fell apart. He would have likely received a payout (probably a rather large payout, given the Thornton’s money and influence) and disappeared from the area and the Thornton’s lives, signing off any responsibility or claim to “their” child before he left.

As a result of this, her child now has a father and doesn’t have to grow up wondering, and Clara avoids the stigma, court case, and general Uproar that would come with attempting to find her attacker. She also, importantly for her, avoids that mess for her child, who will grow up in a semi-normal atmosphere, surrounded by family, not doubting her place in the world — and no one has to know.

Except, of course, one person would know. The head of the family: Charlotte Thornton. From then on, based on this series of events, the story behind Charlotte’s death becomes quite straightforward.

Clara’s paranoia and general cleverness clue her in to the fact that Charlotte has changed her will in Harper’s favor, and is scared out of her mind; having recently experienced a trauma and being pregnant with a child, she’s afraid that she will be left with absolutely nothing, that her machinations with Austin Neely and all her striving will have been for nothing, and she will be cast off, unable to give her child the life she wants to give her.

Compounded by her ground-in fear that she does not belong, she decides to try to settle it with Charlotte — she’s going to scare her, to punish her, and make Charlotte rethink the changed will.

And Charlotte, bearing the weight of the family name and business, not to mention its continued propagation on her shoulders, sees a woman who has been — like her mother — assaulted and left pregnant, whose mental state is already fragile, and who the “revelation” of who Charlotte thinks her true father is would topple her completely — sees poor, pitiable, emotional, suspicious Clara, and refuses.

I think that, more than anything else, would have set Clara off. Remember what she yells at Charlotte’s ghost?

“You had so much, so much, and I had nothing.”

In answering some of the questions about the game, Nik/HER’s response is to say that Clara did not literally light the match that burned Charlotte alive — but we know that Charlotte burned all the same. In the video of her birthday, there are candles; in the dust and soot on the floor where Charlotte died, we see candlesticks. And in the response, again, we know that Charlotte lit the candles for the celebration.

In my ASH meta, I discussed the many meanings of the word “fire” and the term “setting the fire” — and that’s important here too. In this case, the fire was set by Charlotte refusing to reconsider the terms of her will; in her refusal, she probably touched on the same point that she makes in the note in her room — that Clara isn’t stable enough to take over the company. Now, I doubt she would have said that straight to Clara’s face, but even framed as a “you have enough to be going on with and I don’t want to burden you” sort of thing, that just would have reaffirmed all of Clara’s fears — that she was unwanted by the Thornton clan, that her child would be unwanted as a matter of course, and that she would truly have nothing.

And so my guess would be that Clara shoved her. Not hard enough to break anything, not even into a direct flame, but shoved her, and Charlotte jostled the table, and a candelabra fell to the floor, where we see it still in the modern day.

When Nancy sees Charlotte’s ghost out in that house — and yes, I’m firm on that being Charlotte’s actual ghost, as she’s out in the open air so carbon monoxide doesn’t figure in, and there’s no way for that to be Harper/Jessalyn — she burns from the skirt up, which follows with a candle falling to the floor and lighting that incredibly flammable dress on fire.

The last thing to note from HER/Nik’s response is that at the end of the game, Nancy faces the exact same choice that the Thorntons have: to help, or to save herself. In this, we have to look back to Clara and Charlotte, and conclude this: Clara chose not to help. It’s debatable how much help she could have really been — we’re not sure how pregnant she was at the time — or if it even occurred to her until she was already out and chose not to go back in — but at the very least, Clara’s guilt comes not only from the fact that she quarreled with Charlotte right before her death, but that she could have tried to prevent it, and didn’t.

Given the supposition that Charlotte was literally on fire, I really do doubt that getting her out or finding water to throw on her would have been successful, but it doesn’t matter — because Clara looks at it as a choice, and Clara (more importantly) looks at it as the wrong choice, and a choice that she’s been punished for since the day it happened. That’s why, when speaking to Charlotte’s ghost, she says this:

“Haven’t I suffered enough for you?”

The last point I want to make in this OBSCENELY long introduction is about GTH’s place in the pantheon of “Haunting Games”. When you look at the bare-bones (heh) circumstances that make up GTH, you’ll start to see shades of other games.

A relationship/marriage gone a bit wrong, a family secret, an ancestral home, a relative/ancestor whose spectre looms over the story, mysterious apparitions and appearances, and Nancy’s status as an outsider and a skeptic — yeah, both CUR and HAU should come to mind immediately.

Having said my piece about, well, the badness of CUR and HAU and their unsuccessful approach to their basic plot points, it delights me that GTH takes a good hard look at them and says “well, what if we did this well this time? What if we gave our characters the complexity, the emotional resonance, the secrets and lies that we should have the first time?”

Like CUR and HAU, the Family is at the center of the game — except this time we believe in this family, in their relationships to one another, and we feel the effects of the family and their choices, not just hear about it from a diffident 9-year-old or a cranky caretaker. The history of the Thornton clan comes alive through the house, the graveyard, the books and journals that we have of them. We understand what this family is and the choices that they make — even if we don’t approve of them — and they feel real, not just like a background chucked in to Make The Spooky Things Happen.

Also like CUR and HAU, we deal with a central relationship and the complexities that come over two people deciding to get married. Happily, this game (unlike CUR and HAU) treats the central relationship as a thing of Import, and comes to the conclusion that it’s the happiness and well-suitedness of the couple that matters, not the family that surrounds them or anything else. It asks the question “what happens if one person runs away from the relationship?” and answers it, quite satisfactorily, with “there are probably some issues that need ironed out before anything else should happen”.

Interestingly, GTH also takes the good points of CUR and HAU – especially HAU’s atmosphere and CUR’s love of family tidbits — and improves upon them as well. Instead of Jane showing off her studies so that Nancy can solve a few puzzles, Wade walks her through the Thorntons were (at least in his eyes) and helps her get to know the people she’s helping. Instead of being duly impressed at the atmosphere in a bombed-out castle, everywhere on the island is teeming with fog — literal and figurative — as Nancy tries to decode the past to help the future.

Now then, let’s leave the general behind, and focus on the specifics of GTH.

The Title:

Ghost of Thornton Hall is a great title in the way that Secret of the Scarlet Hand is a great title – moody, evocative, gives us our location/focus right away, but not in a way that spoils anything, etc. If anything, it’s a little more flexible – are we dealing with The Ghost of Thornton Hall (Charlotte), the ghost(s) of the Thornton family, the ghosts of those who died on the island, or — in a very fun way — are we talking about the ghost of Thornton Hall — the spirit of the building where so much life and death has happened?

As a title for a Haunting game, you really don’t get much better than GTH, and it centers the player’s attention right where it should be — on the messed up family that the game centers around, and how their past impacts their future.

The Mystery:

Nancy’s phone rings in the middle of the night, with Savannah Woodham’s drawl on the other end, informing her of a kidnapping that’s taken place. She’d go herself, but believes wholeheartedly – and is frightened by — the ghost that’s taken up residence on Blackrock Island, Georgia, and doesn’t believe she’d be enough help.

Of course, this isn’t the whole truth, but we’ll get into that later.

Armed with both her detective skills and her inherent skepticism, Nancy sets off for Georgia to find the missing bride-to-be. Of course, when she gets there, she quickly discovers that the family — and family history — is even murkier and laced with tragedy than the presence of a ghost would suggest, and that, even with everyone searching for Jessalyn Thornton, she is nowhere to be found.

To find her, Nancy has to delve deep into the Thornton family lore, Jessalyn’s relationships with her family and friends – not to mention her preoccupied fiancé — and figure out what really did happen to dear, sweet Charlotte Thornton nearly two decades ago…

GTH, as a mystery, is chock-full of hints, clues, red herrings, and background facts that make figuring out the truth behind everything a joy and a delight — not to mention a task that will take more than one playthrough. GTH is also unique in that its mystery can end in more than one way, and that Nancy’s choices actually have more of an impact than just what souvenir she sends home to her erstwhile boyfriend. Choosing to save herself, to save just the “innocent” (for a certain value of innocence), or to save everyone leads to different endings not just for Nancy but for everyone involved with the Thornton Clan, from its matriarch all the way down to a certain spook-hunting ex-girlfriend.

Underpinning the mystery is this question: did Charlotte really come back as a ghost to haunt Blackrock and the Thorntons, or are her appearances just the result of sneaky relatives and atmospheric maleficence? Can all of the sightings be explained by a mixture of carbon monoxide poisoning, a few relatives playing dress-up, and huge amounts of suggestion and guilt? Is it the case, as Rentaro posited a few games earlier, that a ghost doesn’t have to be real to haunt you?

In a word, no. In a few more words, of course not.

Tying the whole of the ‘haunting’ mysteries together is this (previously mentioned) fact: Nancy is not remarkable for being a Skeptic, she is remarkable for being a Skeptic in a world where ghosts exist. The moving wood (and possibly the silhouette) in MHM, Camille’s ghost dancing along in TRN, the reflection of Kasumi in the water in SAW, the ghost of the Willow in GTH — these are all real, unexplainable-by-tech-or-imagination ghost sightings, and the fact that Nancy doesn’t believe in them doesn’t change their reality one bit.

In the house, you can cite carbon monoxide and Jessalyn/Harper running around in a costume for at least some of them — though not all. But the sightings outside — carbon monoxide does not stay in the system for very long in clear air, blessedly — of Charlotte? The consistency of the spectre? The apparition of her burning up at the site of her birthday party? These aren’t things that you can explain by costume theater — especially since these sightings have been happening for over a decade by people who haven’t stepped foot in Thornton Hall.

When they say that Blackrock belongs to Charlotte and has since the fire, it’s not a literary turn of phrase — Charlotte is there, and refuses to be forgotten. Nancy’s status as a Skeptic prevents her from hysteria, but it does not stop her from being haunted by the Ghost of Thornton Hall.

Now, let’s talk about the players — dead and alive — that make this mystery as complicated and dark as it is.

The Suspects:

Beginning with the matriarch of the Thorntons seems as good a place to start as any, so let’s talk about Clara Thornton. Cousin to Charlotte and Harper, Clara was taken in after her mother’s untimely death (but before her aunt and uncle’s equally untimely deaths) and became the equivalent of a sister in at least Charlotte and Harper’s eyes — though Clara herself was always unsettled and wary about her place in the family.

After the events of Charlotte’s tragic birthday (covered above), Clara visited Charlotte’s grave every night for a year, and was hospitalized after being pushed off of the widow’s walk (more on this later). Whether due to her upbringing or her Thornton blood – or, most likely, both — Clara is secretive, paranoid, wracked with guilt…and a loving mother and extremely capable businesswoman.

Though GTH doesn’t actually have a culprit —Jessalyn wasn’t kidnapped and Charlotte wasn’t murdered — Clara is, as the resident secret keeper and witness to Charlotte’s death, the closest thing that we’ve got. Clara’s sense of guilt is far beyond anything that she could have done, and is haunted so completely as to turn her rather cold.

I have a lot of sympathy for Clara, who made a mistake in a fit of anger (whether that’s pushing Charlotte or just not helping her when she started to burn) at the age of 21 and has been wracked with guilt and haunted by the spectre — real and imagined — of her ‘sister’ ever since (not to mention knowing that her other ‘sister’ blamed and hated her for it). Charlotte died before she had the time to make too many mistakes, but Clara had the entirety of the estate and the business — thousands of people’s livelihoods — thrust into her hand when she was a single mother of 21 years of age. Even had Clara been completely stable, it would have been a lot, and it’s no wonder that she rules the company with an iron fist.

I also want to point out that, due to Harper’s breakdown at the funeral and her afterwards, that even had Charlotte’s second will been found right then, Clara still would have inherited until at least Harper received her bill of mental health, as the closest heir to Charlotte of (legally) sound mind and body.

Let’s talk then about the other heir, Harper Thornton. A fan favorite for a myriad of reasons — her Helena-Bonham-Carter-esque design, her wonderful VA (props to Keri Healey, voice of Hotchkiss, Sally, Paula, Simone, and Madeline!) knocking her lines out of the park, and her dark sense of humor, Harper is, like most of the Thorntons, incredibly unstable, paranoid, violent…an affectionate aunt, and a pretty darn good detective in her own right.

Since GTH doesn’t have a ‘culprit’, Harper stands in her own guilty/not guilty paradigm along with Clara. She had nothing to do with Charlotte’s death personally, but was the one who caused assorted injuries and thousands of dollars in property damage at the funeral, and the one who pushed Clara off the widow’s walk and hospitalized her. Yes, Harper was young — 18 when Charlotte died, but pushing your cousin/sister off of a balcony is wrong at any age.

It’s worth noting that of the three Thornton ‘sisters’, one is guilty of some degree of manslaughter/criminal negligence, and the other of attempted murder. When Charlotte notes that she herself has a dose of the “Thornton paranoia”, she’s not just whistling Dixie.

The biggest problem the Thorntons have, honestly speaking, is that all of them are way too emotional and react without thinking. Clara confronting Charlotte, Charlotte not taking Clara aside to talk about the will, Harper’s injuring of others and blaming/pushing Clara, Wade destroying machinery, Jessalyn disappearing rather than talking things out…none of the Thorntons, past or present, have seemed to think with their brains since the woman who received the land on Blackrock Island after the Civil War in the first place.

In keeping with the theme, I want to talk about Charlotte Thornton next. A girl who inherited the Thornton land and business at way too young an age — I don’t even wanna know why Jackson hated his adult daughter Virginia (and yes, I know that there’s a supposition to this in the “Jackson Theory”, but it’s pure supposition) so much that he would stake the family future on a 20-year-old, no matter how much everyone liked her — after the death of her parents four years prior, Charlotte was the darling of the Thornton family.

Well-liked by everyone with a beautiful singing voice, Charlotte was nonetheless every inch a Thornton; she outright acknowledged her own paranoia, kept secrets and locked rooms closer to her than her family, and had a flair for the dramatic and emotional. After considering her cousin/sister Clara too unstable for the task of inheriting the family Business, Charlotte, rather than turning to her older aunt or naming multiple beneficiaries to ease the load, instead leaves 100% of it to her younger sister Harper.

I do want to point out the irony here in leaving the business to Harper over Clara on the grounds of mental stability. Whatever else Charlotte was good at, she was not a good judge of character, even giving leeway for her being 21.

After her death, Charlotte haunts the family home, unable to leave the place that was, for a year, hers to inherit. But why would ‘dear, sweet’ Charlotte haunt, frighten, and otherwise unsettle those around her — from family to neighbors to curious kids — especially to the extent that she does?

To answer that question, we need to talk about the family member that everyone says is incredibly close to Charlotte in personality — our missing bride, Jessalyn Thornton.

Clara’s daughter, Jessalyn is painted as being a sort of return of Charlotte; everyone loves her (all Thornton employees are combing the island looking for her, for heaven’s sake), everyone agrees on her, and she’s next in line to inherit the Thornton family business. She’s even around Charlotte’s age (24, rather than 21, but close enough) during the game, for heaven’s sake — the comparisons are not subtle, nor are they meant to be.

Since it’s more than halfway through the game that Nancy meets Jessalyn, the things that people say about her are the best clues to her personality that we have…right?

Everyone agrees that Jessalyn would never run off and make people worry like this, that even if she was scared or had second thoughts about the wedding or even just needed to be alone, that she would never do this to her family. And, as it turns out, everyone — her mother, her uncle, her best-friend-cum-fiancé — everyone is wrong. Jessalyn did exactly that — she ran off, made everyone worry, and didn’t think about her family, friends, fiancé, or employees one bit.

It also takes her no effort at all to fully believe a woman she’s never met that her mom is a vicious, cackling murderer just because her (single, incredibly busy) mother is a bit emotionally cold, so she’s also not a great judge of character.

And remember, we’re told over and over again — Jessalyn is just like Charlotte. Sure, Jessalyn is also our Nancy foil in this game — a young woman who needs to learn the truth about her mother, coerced/guided by a quasi-unreliable source, worrying her family by running off — and that’s important for Nancy’s character, but Jessalyn is first and foremost our Charlotte analogue. Jessalyn’s family and friends don’t understand who Jessalyn is…so I think it’s fair to say that Charlotte’s family and friends didn’t understand who Charlotte was, either.

We see Charlotte, through her writings and actions, could be thoughtless, was a poor judge of character, was secretive and paranoid — all things that no one even alludes to when speaking of her. Sure, there’s the idea of not speaking ill of the dead, but someone would have noted these things, even fondly or mildly.

So why would Charlotte haunt this place, haunt these people, when she was so good and kind and loved everyone? The simplest answer, the least convoluted explanation, is just that she wasn’t. That the Thorntons didn’t understand Charlotte, as much as they loved her, just like they didn’t understand Jessalyn.

Speaking of Thorntons who may be misunderstood, we’ll focus on Wade Thornton next. A little more rough-and-tumble and a little less refined than his relatives seem to be, Wade is introspective, superstitious, hard-working, and a bit gloomy…along with having some anger issues, vast amounts of distrust, and a bit of egotism.

Wade’s (at least legally) guilty of a few things in the past, but since he won’t even go into Thornton Hall, he’s a pretty easy cross-off of our list of suspects. Wade’s there to give Nancy information on the Thornton Clan, to provide the explanation as for (partially) why Savannah isn’t there herself, and to show another facet of the Thorntons — their anger.

Whether or not you agree with Wade’s actions that led to Clara pressing charges — though I think everyone can agree it’s pretty stupid to destroy your own family’s machinery, especially when the only danger to the employees was caused by him scaring them half to death — and it highlights that Wade, philosophical though he is, is just as much a Thornton as those he despises. He even calls himself out on it – that while he used to think he was on the side of “Good Thorntons”, he’s not so sure anymore.

The best (serious) line in the game does come from Wade — I will be in love with his description of dating Savannah as “[falling] for her like a Black Tuesday banker” until I die. It’s a perfect metaphor without sounding pretentious, and shows just how bleak his own worldview really is.

Next is The Fiancé, Colton Birchfield, who has the most hilariously WASP-y name to ever come out of a Nancy Drew game. A man who’s struggled with depression and anxiety all his life, Colton was born to two politicians and has lived in the spotlight — and his marriage to Jessalyn is getting just as show-stopper-y as a campaign trail before she disappeared.

I mentioned above that the resolution to Colton and Jessalyn’s relationship is the healthy, sane version of what should have happened in CUR and HAU, and I stand by that. While I don’t necessarily like him going back to Lexi after the game is over — a relationship interrupted by one party being paid off is not the healthy, loving, loyal relationship that Colton needs — it’s clear that he and Jessalyn would have made each other content, but never fulfilled romantically.

Colton’s guilty of nothing more than not being in love with his best friend, and he’s a refreshing breath of air as someone related tangentially to, but not cast down by, the Thornton family drama. He may get less sympathy than our other cast members, but he’s no less deserving of it, and I’m really rooting for him to find someone that will give him the same amount of love and loyalty that he’ll give them.

We’ll journey outside the Thornton family and their (almost) relations for our next ‘suspect’. Addison Hammond, Jessalyn’s friend and bridesmaid, makes a cameo phone appearance here to tell us that Thornton Hall is Totes Spooky, and that Jessalyn vanished not once, but twice in the night.

I quite enjoy Addison, not because she plays a big part or because she’s an exceptional character — she’s as bare-bones as we get in the later games (ignoring MED/SEA/MID), honestly — but because she’s simply a girl in her 20s reacting the way that most of us would if our unnecessarily spooky friend dragged us to an old haunted house and then vanished twice. Good for you, girl.

Coming in for a wonderful appearance is Savannah Woodham, ex-ghost hunter, ex-girlfriend of Wade Thornton, and the detective who was supposed to be on the case. Savannah’s too scared of the Ghost (and too reticent to talk to Wade face-to-face) to risk stepping foot on Blackrock Island herself, but she’s more than willing to send the biggest skeptic she knows, hoping that Nancy’s skepticism will keep her safe.

As lovely as Savannah is in SAW — and I adore her in that game — she really shines in GTH. Probably the biggest moment she gets in the game — and probably my second favorite moment in the game period — is her tale of tracing the shape of the old willow tree on her wall, only to have a body discovered under that exact willow tree after a storm. It’s a delightfully creepy — and most importantly, completely inexplicable by any means other than accepting that the supernatural exists — moment, and I think it’s key to understanding Savannah as a character in GTH.

Savannah suffers under the weight of knowing that there truly are Things that Go Bump in the Night, that can’t be arrested or captured or gotten rid of by normal, legal means. Her background knowledge of the Thorntons helps Nancy to get an initial feel for the family, and it helps to not have an ex-girlfriend wandering around that the Thorntons might have a grudge against or dislike for.

She is, in effect, the mirror image of Nancy — what Nancy might have become without her inborn skepticism — and that alone, even ignoring everything else about her, is fascinating to me.

Our other phone contacts are Ned Nickerson and Bess Marvin, teamed up due to George’s absence while doing an internship (at Technology of Tomorrow Today, no less!) and Bess’ extreme boredom without anyone else to hang out with.

The lovely thing about Ned and Bess is that we get to see Ned when he’s not Solo Boyfriend Ned, but a college guy hanging out with his friend. Their light-hearted banter is hilarious and comfortable (Bess dramatically asking permission to do a spit-take in his living room is of particular note), and we really get to see a different side of Nancy’s oft-abandoned boyfriend.

You can tell that their voice actors are having a terrific time as well (Scott Carty’s pitch-perfect imitation of Jennifer Pratt’s cadence and tone makes me laugh every time), and it really helps bring a bright and colorful spot to this otherwise rather tense and grim mystery.

We’ll round out our character list with the quasi-amateur, quasi-professional detective herself, Nancy Drew. Through her foil with Jessalyn — discussed above, so I won’t get too into it here — we get to see Nancy in a slightly different light, and get to look at the effect that she has on those around her when she disappears.

We know Carson and Ned (and occasionally Bess/George, and even more occasionally, Hannah) worry about Nancy while she’s off on a case, but this is the first time Nancy herself is dealing with what she leaves behind every time she jets off to Venice, or gets trapped in a lava tube, or lost in a rock maze. Nancy hasn’t investigated a straight-up kidnapping (or what appears to be one) since Maya in FIN (no, I’m not counting HAU, as it’s not played as a kidnapping nor does anyone think it is until 2/3 of the way through the game), and she has the same sense of urgency here that she did back then.

Upon replaying the game, the player will lose that sense of urgency for Jessalyn — we know she’s alive and well, and was never kidnapped — but Nancy’s reactions to the family are what stay interesting. She’s concerned for Jessalyn, but does most of her detective work through getting a sense of what the rest of the family thinks of the missing girl.

Given Nancy’s reputation as a good girl, a solid presence (if an occasional one) who loves her family and friends, and who is always responsible, it’s easy to see why she misses the one question that would have helped her solve the case in half of the time: what if Jessalyn isn’t missing? After all, Jessalyn, like Nancy, would never jet off after hearing an unsubstantiated claim about her mother without telling anyone or pausing to confirm it through a different, more trustworthy source, right?

In this game, we discover a huge characteristic about Nancy: she is reckless. Now, we know this already from other games — that Nancy is reckless physically, confronting bad guys alone, diving down into murky catacombs, jumping from pillars in ancient tombs — but here we see that she’s also reckless emotionally. Even though it interferes with her investigation, Nancy gets personally involved in this case; she’s mad at Colton for “cheating” on Jessalyn, she’s upset by the tragedy of Charlotte’s death, and she’s concerned for Jessalyn’s safety in a different way than she usually is with a victim or suspect.

Nancy’s always been willing to take huge risks, but she always stays emotionally on the surface level of a case — a good and necessary trait for a detective, and one that allows her to face down killers, saboteurs, and forgers without blinking. Here, Nancy’s dragged down into the web of the Thorntons, and — as we see in the middle and bad endings especially — she doesn’t quite recover from it. Nancy loses a bit of objectivity here, but what she gains is humanity — and she’ll need that for the last two games in this meta series.

The Favorite:

With such a well-executed game — even though it doesn’t fall in my personal top 5 ranking — there’s going to be a lot to love, so let’s get down to it.

My favorite puzzle is probably Nancy’s trek to ‘discover’ the ‘ghost’ — aka completing Harper’s tasks in order to meet her, culminating with reciting Charlotte’s rhyme while blindfolded. It’s a different kind of puzzle than the type we get commonly with Nancy Drew games, and really helped spark and keep the tension needed to maintain such a spooky game.

My favorite moment in the game is a quieter one — it’s Nancy’s remarks on Charlotte’s room. She’s taken aback at how, after a game of everyone talking about Charlotte, that it’s opening the door to her room that cements Charlotte as a living, breathing person. She continues that she can’t let that feeling distract her, that she needs to treat the room like the rest of the house and gather tools that will let her find Jessalyn, but it’s lovely to see the effect of the Thornton’s history really settle into Nancy’s bones as Charlotte Thornton turns from a scary rhyme that children chant to a girl who lived and died in the same walls that Nancy’s exploring.

There are, of course, other things that I love — the objectively creepy poem (“we’ll let you share with Charlotte/a gown of coal and glowing flame” is an incredible line), Savannah’s story about the willow tree, the small Francy crumbs of Frank being sullen after his Very Revealing voicemail in DED and considering an MBA, the multi-layered relationship that Wade and Savannah have, the gorgeous detail of Thornton Hall — and all of these add up to a game that’s frankly just enjoyable to play.

The big thing to mention in this game, as I talked a bit about in the intro, is its atmosphere.

Throughout the entire game, there’s this palpable feeling of death and grief and loss and pure pain, and those emotions are what GTH relies on to keep itself Scary, not the few spectre scares and swinging scythes that it also has to offer.

I don’t normally quote things other than the games/words of the cast and crew in these metas, but I do make exceptions when the quotation is this good, so I tip my hat here to Tumblr user aniceworld, speaking about ranking GTH their top Nancy Drew game of all time:

“The reason GTH is so successful as a scary game is because there’s such a pervasive sense of sorrow at Thornton Hall. People have died here who shouldn’t have. A family has been destroyed. The house has seen so much trauma it can literally no longer stand on its own. There are ghosts that live here, whether you can see them or not.”

This horror is far better than bloody slashers or obnoxious “continuous mysterious accidents”-style thrillers that tend to permeate the genre; instead of random death-by-umbrella or scary-guy-in-the-shower incidents driving the plot, the emotion behind death and loss and betrayal gets to take a turn at the wheel, and the game is much better for it.

The Un-Favorite:

As with any game, however, no matter how good the atmosphere, there are some things that I don’t love.

I’m not actually the biggest fan of Harper; while her design is great and her VA does a spectacular job, she’s a little cartoonish among a cast that endeavors to stay as far away from broad stereotypes as possible.

It’s fine to have a large personality, it’s fine that she’s a bit cracked, it’s great that she has her own reasons and motivations beyond “expose the truth” (especially since she’s not interested in exposing the truth, just in proving that Clara’s a murderer) — she’s just really not my cup of tea, and I prefer Harper as the Anonymous Note Leaver to Harper the Conversational Partner.

Even if she does get some of the best lines in the game.

I don’t really have a least favorite moment or puzzle that sticks out to me; there are puzzles I struggle more or less with, but none of them are immersion-breaking or so frustrating that I have to get up and walk away. The ones I love, I enjoy solving; the ones I don’t love, I turn to the walkthrough and finish them up to get on with the story.

The Fix:

So how would I fix Ghost of Thornton Hall?

Even given my small problems with Harper, I’m not sure I’d change her. Sure, she’s a bit Broad for the game, generally speaking, but she’s also another example of what loss can do to a person — it can make you cold and withdrawn, it can make you righteously angry and dismissive…or it can turn you malicious and violent. She’s an important presence regardless of my personal taste, and while I might tweak a line of dialogue or two, it’s important to note that her Persona is just another thing for Nancy to discover and re-discover as she investigates the Thorntons.

While not a perfect game — very few, if any, of the Nancy Drew games qualify for that title — Ghost of Thornton Hall is an excellent entry in the Nancy Drew series as a whole, and in the smaller series of Nancy-centric games. Through it, we get to see what happens to those who are left behind after a tragic, sudden, and even violent loss — and that becomes more and more important as we leave behind the gloomy Georgia island and leap across the pond to Glasgow.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #ghost of thornton hall #nancy drew meta #GTH #my meta #long post #video games

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thesaltofcarthage · 3 years

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Loki takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

from Entertainment Weekly

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

By Chancellor Agard May 20, 2021

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

Additional reporting by Jessica Derschowitz

#loki #loki series #tom hiddleston #entertainment weekly

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lisinfleur · 4 years

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GUESS WHO’S BACK? WITH RANTS!!!

OOOOOOOOOK

This shit will contain A LOT OF SPOILERS. So, if you didn't see episodes 5, 6 and the trailers for 7, then... WTF are you doing in this fandom uh? GO - WATCH - IT!

Ok, later rants! I took some time away - that I'll explain soon! - but today I finally found a way to watch episode 5 and episode 6 of Vikings and now, the trailers with the goodbyes we just saw in my timeline. So, time to speak! I'll try to resume it because fuck! Things got huge too fast! So, let's start small...

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Dear Torvi Poor woman... She's passing through so much loss. Björn's betrayal, her first son, her second child, now Lagertha... Man, for the gods' sake! Someone please let me hug this woman! She needs it! And yet, she was wise enough to spit some truth on Ingrid's face... Torvi matured a lot from that child we used to think was so fluffy when trying to convince us she was Viking. She grew into a strong woman, able to endure things that many others wouldn't have with a whole mind. I have to clap my hands and admit that Torvi evolved into a whole new character and if there is someone to """replace""" Lagertha in this show, it will be her.

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Ingrid Speaking of replacements... Am I too cruel to say I laughed out loud of this woman at the docks waiting for Björn like that? The honey-dick attacked again and the girl is melting for him. Poor sucker... To be honest, from all the women Björn cheated on, fucked and let go like trash in this series, Ingrid is the only one who I won't feel a single drop of pity for. She searched scab to scratch herself and now I'll sit and watch as she realizes her stupidity. Know your crime, pay your price. That's what I have for her.

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Harald Or should I say King Harald? Man, I have to say: Harald was low. It was pretty low to manipulate things the way he did to win that election over Björn's favoritism and he stroke pretty lower by going there to provoke inviting Björn to be his counselor that drunken way of his. Even more to order the killing of someone who risked its life to save his ass when he was locked by Olaf, trusting the word of a man that he barely knows (Flatnose will be pointed here too... that bastard!). But once again... Am I too cruel to say I laughed OUT LOUD the whole process of election?? Man, it was HILARIOUS to watch Björn's teeth clenching to every single vote Harald had over him! It was ORGASMIC to see all that arrogance of someone who carries nothing but his father's fame in his shoulders being dissolved by noticing daddy's fame won't hold his back anymore! Ragnar's name is fading - despite he'll always be a legend - and whether Björn starts walking for himself or his papa's actions won't hold his butt up forever! And Harald did me the beautiful favor of kicking that white blonde ass to see if Björn will wake up and become the man he should have become since the first episode of this series (To the ones who don't remember, Rites of Passage was the mark of HIS DAY TO BECOME A MAN and receive his armring). However, I think Harald screwed up and got tangled up with a bunch of bad promises he will somehow have to honor. The thirsty man is drinking seawater and will end up dehydrated. It is better for Harald to find a way to manage the whole Norway, or else, the King of All Norway will end up in a pole, impaled, like a beautiful flag for everyone to see...

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Gunnhild She looks miserable in the next episode, but her acting was beautiful during the battles. I just wanted we had seen more of the huge Gunnhild we were habituated to see. I felt they kinda lowered her light to put the spotlights on Lagertha for the scenes and I can understand the need for it to happen, but Gunnhild was really pale in these episodes and I hope Hirst doesn't follow this thread to wipe her off slowly until there is nothing of our precious Gunnhild to be seen. She's too huge to be forgotten or changed this way. I hope it changes in the next episodes.

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Amma I hope someone takes care of the bruise in her face cause fuck... Things didn't go well for this girl. She was delegated "two" Ragnarssons to protect. Magnus is dead. Hvitserk is doing shit. Poor girl is in bad sheets here... But more than that, I really would like to see her slapping Ubbe's face or stopping him from treating her as a slave. It's only me, or did someone else noticed how the bastard is ordering her around as if she was his fucking maid? She would be, imo, the perfect person to throw some truth in this man's face cause man... He's needing a slap. OHHH HE IS...

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Kjetil Flatnose You freaking fucking asshole motherfucker bastard son of a bitch! There are no words in the human language to define how big of a bastard you are! Man, I HATE THIS GUY and I hope Ubbe does one single fucking shitty thing right in his pitiful and dismissable life and KILL THIS ASSHOLE! PAINFULLY! There is not too much to be said about this asshole. I just want him to die. Slowly.

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Now... let's start with the big ones, right?

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Ivar x Igor Once again, I cannot tell you guys the size of the love I feel for these two and their relationship. Everything they do together, no matter how dangerous is it, seems to be a big huge game and Ivar seems to be having so much fun beside this boy that I can only pray the gods it lasts forever. Igor brought back a side of Ivar that we weren't able to see in years! A good side that I was missing so hard! I hope this boy doesn't stab him behind his back, cause if he does, then it will be the end of the Ivar we know and maybe that serpent Hvitserk fears so bad will come out for good...

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Ivar x Oleg (plus Katya?) Is it my impression or the bromance is over? I saw lots of sadness in Ivar's eyes (a point for Alex! Fuck, the boy is good!!) but something tells me that Oleg is messing with fire and will end up veeeery burned... He's playing with a recent wound, making it bleed again with that brunette bitchy version of Freydis and something tells me that Ivar will bury Freydis' memory along with Oleg's and Katya's bodies. And this will happen pretty soon... If I was him? I would destroy that mausoleum in front of Oleg's eyes and say things like "It's good for you to watch it" while breaking his ex-wife's statue in tiny little pieces (using Katya's face like a hammer, of course). But I'll wait and see. Ivar's plans will surely be better than mine!

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Alex Yes, Alex, not Ivar. The boy deserves a whole topic only for him. It is not that I'm surprised, I'm not. Alex has been proving himself an amazing actor since he first dragged himself on screen as Ivar the Boneless for me. With Adrian and Jacup and Viktor and even that crazy-ass Liam, he already had proven himself a multitalented artist and a phenomenal actor able to conquer our hearts with any kind of character. But I have to point out that his expressions as Ivar are absolutely incredible! He can pass complete feelings and whole threads of thoughts without a single word! I can only congratulate him for such a beautiful job! The same goes for the actor who plays Igor. Boy... you rock!

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Björn More momma's boy than never, boy is being forced by the gods to raise his butt up from other people's backs and walk by himself. BEAUTIFUL! I cannot say how happy I am by seeing Björn finally being slapped by reality: papa and momma's fame won't hold your butt up forever, bitch! Grow fucking up, grow some fucking balls and go fucking make your own shit! And I'm not here saying he didn't shit in the whole series. He did, but all he did since this series started was under the weight of his father's name. Björn Ironside, SON OF RAGNAR. It was always something heavier than anything else in his life and now, whether he raises his own name before his blood history or he'll end up fading quicker than his shadow. Yes... shadow. Cause that's what Ubbe has become... I just really wanted him to stop this drama and to remember that mommy was murdered by one of his brothers who had THEIR MOTHER murdered by his mommy, so it was a fair death, a fair kill. No one should be allowed to punish Hvitserk for this especially because the woman would die anyway! Hvitserk shouldn't even be guilty of her death since Whitehair had warranted she wouldn't see a new sunrise before Hvitserk's hallucinations would end up getting his hands dirty.

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Ubbe Who the fuck are you and where the fuck is my daddy? I cannot say he was brainwashed. Who paid attention to the details will remember pretty well the scene when Ubbe, Hvitserk, and Sigurd were speaking right after Hvitserk arrived from the trip to the Mediterranean Sea. They discussed about Ivar's need for avenging their mother and Ubbe was clear saying they would have to kill Björn to reach Lagertha and that's was something he didn't want to do. Ubbe gave up avenging their mother as soon as Björn arrived in Kattegat. But there were better ways for him to show his will to avoid fighting his brother without adopting his stepmother and forgetting all the shit she did like that! He could have accepted fighting beside her with caveats, leaving clear he was there to go against Ivar not to support her. He could have left clear that he was there because of Torvi and Björn, not because of her. He could have rejected Lagertha without creating any problems within him and Torvi as long as he was able to put his own mind out through those beautiful lips saying clearly that he was giving up on the fair revenge because he loved Torvi and didn't want to fight his older brother. But no. He just forgot everything, started treating Lagertha as if she was his mother and now he'll bid her the farewell we didn't see him bidding to his own mother! What kind of an asshole does this shit? And for the ones who want to come here ranting about how shit of a mother Aslaug was, I would like to remember that she starting being a shitty mother AFTER IVAR WAS BORN! This means Ubbe lived THE BEST of her motherhood longer than ANY OTHER OF HER SONS! He had a fucking perfect mother and he didn't have the respect to keep himself away from her murderer once he chose to respect his loyalty to his brother and avoid killing her. I lost all my respect for Ubbe in this season and I cannot say I'll ever be able to really respect him again. Not only he left Margrethe to die (she was ambitious? yes. She was crazy? Yes, but she was HIS WIFE and HE SWORE THE GODS he would protect her!) but he abandoned Hvitserk when he most needed his older brother making himself unable to forgive a simple bad action when worse things were forgiven in his heart, he mistreated the woman that is beside him and declared to go wherever he goes for love by using her loving words against her to keep her from looking after her children's safety, he's mistreating and disrespecting Amma who's a free woman by treating her as if she was his personal maid and his brother's babysitter throwing on her the responsibility of taking care of Hvitserk that should be his own... Ubbe disappointed me so many times in so many ways that he must thank the gods he's played by Jordan and I love Jordan, otherwise, I would have no reason not to spit on his face at all!

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Hvitserk Speaking of pain, there is a picture of Hvitserk beside this word on the dictionary. Shit, he's so hurt, so pulled down, so ragged, so disposed. Poor him is walking around like a ghost himself! I wish so much Amma wasn't so afraid of taking pulse in this situation, but I cannot blame her. She fears she would fail and Ubbe would be harsh on her so she doesn't go further than calling Hvitserk's attention or his name to wake him up. But the truth is that someone should put this boy in its lap, hug him tight, and never let him go. The gods are being harsh on him breaking him in tiny pieces and offering him to Fenrir's jaw to be chewed. I really hope now that he fulfilled his "purpose", he can find a way out of this endless well of self-destruction or, at least, he can start walking for himself once again. It pains my heart to see my beautiful puppy like this. I hope he gets better from now on...

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Marco Once again, a topic for another actor that fully showed his talent here! I've seen other works with Marco, like Kriger and Fasandræberne, and his talent is undeniable, but the interpretation of a man in pieces he's offering us is really perfect! He plays with the scenes of Hvitserk's addiction amazingly not only showing the eagerness for more drugs but the perfect portrait of how this doesn't really change his fear or pain and even more the way Hvitserk keeps longing for more, searching for relief and numbness while hiding all those traumas behind his bloodshot eyes. Marco is a complete show all by himself and I can barely wait to see more of his amazing work around the world.

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And to finish... Lagertha I didn't like her. Everyone here knows I started disliking Lagertha when she cowardly killed Aslaug in a murder that shouldn't exist. There was no need for her to back shot Aslaug like that especially because that battle was won. Some understood that she gave Aslaug "safe passage" to find her son in Valhalla since Aslaug thought Ivar was dead along with Ragnar. But for me, there was no reason for Lagertha to go further and kill Aslaug like that especially when she could have used many other ways to get what she wanted. Yet, I always admitted and will admit until the end that Lagertha was a hell of a character: a shieldmaiden and a strong woman who could have a better ending after all. Despite the fact that I'm still here trying to figure out how did Björn reached the adult life with her TERRIBLE pieces of advice for children, she was a huge character and I think she deserved to die better than being murdered in the middle of nowhere like a homeless woman by a drugged rag of a man. She was a shieldmaiden. She was the most famous shieldmaiden of her age. She deserved to have died by that wound Whitehair made and her death should be more than just an emotional moment. Now her beautiful and epic fight with Whitehair will fade face to the anger Björn will drive towards Hvitserk. He won't learn from his mistake because, in his head, Hvitserk killed his mother and not Whitehair - who was her actual murderer. Lagertha was fated since she left that battle and Hvitserk was nothing but an accelerator of a destiny that was already sealed. She would die. He just made it quicker. We can even say if we look straight that it was almost a mercy kill. I didn't like her end but I have to say that battle against Whitehair was phenomenal so I'll close my eyes to the rest and believe she died strong and majestically after that fight, as the hero who saved that village from the bandits. And not like a homeless old woman, thrown like trash in the middle of the square, under the rain, murdered by a drugged rag of a man, forgotten in the middle of the mud. She was pretty more than just Ragnar's wife - so I wasn't touched by the words towards this. She was pretty more than just a woman... And I was expecting a better ending for her - and also, something better than hallucinations for Hvitserk to fulfill his destiny.

Let's see... Episode 7 is coming and I can't be more excited!!! The series is doing some shit, but it regained my excitation for good and I cannot wait for next week's episode!

#lis talks #some rants #about the episodes #THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE!

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starswornoaths · 5 years

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Prompt 11: Snuff

Serella isn’t entirely used to having family that recognizes when she isn’t well. Edmont is too much of a dad not to notice. Familial comforting ensues.

Or:

I had another idea but I freaked out bc it was really similar to a friend’s entry for another prompt so have this bit of angsty/fluffy mess. Takes place between 4.1 and 4.2, timeline wise. Vague spoilers for 50-60 DRK questline, but isn’t terribly descriptive of it.

Word count: 1,471

Even on his best days, Lord Edmont was reluctant to consider himself a good father.

That was not to say he did not try to do better—to be better—for his children, though he more often than not felt their burdens were because of him. That they all turned into upstanding knights—and better men than him, all—he felt was largely due to their own character, rather than what he might have imparted upon them.

Haurchefant…had been the best example of that.

Though he was reluctant to claim to be a good father, he was hardly absentee, and had quickly learned the signs of one of his children was under distress.

That Serella was adopted did not change that fact.

And he noticed—practically every time she came through the door—how her stress varied, if only just. Really, with the weight of the realm upon her back, it was a wonder—if not a grave concern—that her stress could increase at all.

So when Serella tried to slip into through the manor and out of sight with shaking hands and shoulders taught as a bowstring, Edmont’s first thought was that the world was ending. But when a second Calamity was not forthcoming in her tense and silent wake, he realized that it may well only be her world ending, and promptly took to preparing tea—and trying not to get in the staff’s way in the kitchens.

Half an hour later and holding a tray laden with tea and sweets — Reinette, the head of the kitchens — had insisted he bring them with him, Edmont found her precisely where he thought she would be: the library, head buried in her sketchbook in front of the fireplace, seated on an overstuffed armchair.

As he drew near, his pointed ears picked up the soft scratching of her charcoal against the paper— she hadn’t even realized he was there yet, so focused on her drawing, he realized with a soft chuckle.

“Really, my dear.” He spoke warmly into the quiet of the room, tearing her focus from her sketch. “One of these days your neck will get stuck in such an odd angle, and then where will you be?”

“Turned just right of where I was before.” Serella answered with a teasing smile. She set her sketchbook and charcoal down on the small table beside her chair. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop in to say hello before I snuck in here, although,” her smile turned wry. “I suppose I didn’t do the best job at sneaking.”

“Of all the children I have had under this roof, my dear,” Edmont said with a chuckle. He set the tray of tea and snacks he’d gathered on the table and took a seat adjacent to hers. “None have managed to slip anything under my nose.”

“Not even Uthen and I?” She asked.

“Especially not the two of you.” He patted her hand gently. “I had thirty years of practice before I met the two of you.”

“Then it is likely not a surprise to you that I am not well.” Serella said, visibly fighting back a grimace.

“Have a biscuit, my dear.” Edmont said instead of answering, gesturing to the plate of sweets and comfort snacks. “Upon discovering you home and distraught, Reinette was sent into a fit of baking.”

“Bless her,” Serella said, instantly plucking a chocolate dipped cookie from the plate and nibbling on it. She scrambled a moment to add, “and the House, of course.”

“What has happened, Serella, to inspire such unease?” Edmont asked her with a concerned frown. “I have not seen you this upset since...well. In some time.”

Which was true enough — though she did not weep, she looked near on the verge of doing so, hands wringing in her lap, eyes darting everywhere but him.

“The inevitable, I guess.” His adopted daughter replied with a sigh and a shrug.

“What does that mean?” When she did not immediately explain he reached over and gently took her hand in his. “My dear, will you not explain?”

She did, haltingly, reluctantly, she told him of her deeds in the shadows, of her service to the people of the Brume as a Dark Knight. She spoke of a child subjected to cruelty for no other reason than for being alive, of a mother who abused her power and her own self righteousness to inflict untold suffering upon her own daughter, and of how Serella had helped put a stop to it. That she had been a practitioner of Dark Arts, though she had not understood what that had meant until it was too late to go back.

Of how she was now being investigated by the man she loves.

“I was called back tonight for a second testimony,” Serella explained quietly. “About what happened to the clergywoman.” She thanked him when he refilled her teacup. “I told Aymeric what happened, but...but he warned me if he couldn’t prove I’m innocent, I’d be executed.” At Edmont’s startled gasp, she hastily added, “He offered to negotiate a lesser sentence, if it came to that. I declined.”

“And so duty must precede love, must it?” Edmont asked bitterly.

“It must.” Serella insisted, surprising him. “I made him promise it would — we promised each other it would, when we first started courting.” She looked down at the teacup now occupying her hands. “They’re just fulfilling their duty. Really, that isn’t what bothers me. Please don’t think less of any of them.”

“I shan’t,” Edmont promised — and given how Aymeric, Lucia, and Handeloup were knights of immense conviction, he supposed that he should not be surprised. “Stalwart and just knights, all of them. But I know them well enough to know that what they are made to do is causing them no small amount of anguish.”

“I know.” She agreed quietly. “That’s...part of what bothers me.”

“Don’t let it.” Edmont dismissed with a huff. “I know they do only as they must, but as the youth are wont to say: fuck them.” Uncouth as the words might have been, they were more than worth the startled laugh it got out of his daughter. “Let them be miserable for a while. Halone knows you are.”

“I’m...I’m more upset that I’m upset about it.” She admitted. At his quizzical stare she tried to explain, “I made Aymeric promise he’d never put me above Ishgard. He’s keeping that promise. I’m glad he is. I’m proud of him for it, but...”

“But it still hurts.” Edmont finished for her softly. She swallowed thickly and nodded. “That is to be expected, my dear. This is no small matter — to be frank, I would be concerned if you were not upset!”

“Da...” She looked back up at him, and his heart flipped in his chest at the term of endearment. “What do I do? After all of this...how can we still...?”

“I won’t pretend to know how hard it will be to move passed this.” Edmont answered, and was only sorry his words would no be enough. “I have no experience in this regard. I only know that circumstances have forced the two of you to opposite sides — albeit temporarily.” After a moment, he laid his hand carefully on her cheek in fatherly affection. “But love always finds a way to work through the worst of it. So long as you remember that, I believe all will be well. But come what may, we will always be here for you.”

“...Thanks, Da.” Serella whispered with a half smile.

“You will never face the dark alone, my child, so long as House Fortemps stands.” He lifted himself from his seat and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Now, then — though the hour is late, I find myself still wide awake. More tea?”

Serella nodded, but when she moved to offer to see to it herself he waved her off and ushered her back into her seat.

Between being caught off guard by a matter Artoirel sought his counsel on, he was waylaid on his way to bringing back a fresh pot — but had not realized how long he had been away until he returned to the study. Serella had curled up on the armchair fast asleep, her face faintly red and puffy — and streaked with tears, he confirmed somberly as he neared.

Draping a blanket over her and pressing another kiss to the top of her head, he paused only long enough to snuff out the candles on the table, take up his tray once more, and shut the door quietly behind him. Much as he might have meant his promise to her that she would not be alone, he only prayed to Halone that she could guide his children to reconciliation, one way or another.

#FFxivWrite2019 #Serella Arcbane #Edmont de Fortemps #ffxiv #*rolls around in my feelings*#this has been good to write about finally to get it out of my system but like o o f #I promise they somehow work through all of it #;_;

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not-close-to-straight · 5 years

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Ok !! So I have lots of questions to ask you about "Shadowed Hearts and Winter Souls" O_O !!! Prepare yourself ! (Gosh I love this fanfic

Hi! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the fic and thank you for supporting me on Kofi!

Okay so I’m going to put answers below the cut since this is sort of lon

Pietro and Wanda-- I imagine them right around 19. I keep the timeline fairly vague in the story, but you know from reading the chapters that Ronin found them when their village was destroyed which meant they were young enough that he felt like he had to save them BUT not so young that he would have been more comfortable leaving them with another mom? So you know... twelvish? And Pietro is old enough that he wants to go fight, wants to go be a man, but young enough that Natalia absolutely hates the idea. They are both old enough to remember James before he fucked off for a while AND we learn later that they were always old enough to be aware of what Natalia was going through with her first husband ie: Wanda talks about Natalia coming home with bruises and helping her get stitched up before Ronin and Samuel could see.

So yeah, I imagine them around 19. Not so young to be helpless, not so old that they should have moved on and gotten their own life by now.

Bucky-- Bucky/James in this story is all 100% beefy WS Bucky with a lean towards his Jesus!Bucky look.

The Houses-- I didn’t have any specific look in place for the Stark home in Italy, but the Sokovian Manor House looks something like the lodge in Skyfall (Bond)

When I started writing about how the house just sort of stood in the middle of nothing with the forest pushed out away and no real gardens or anything, this is what I imagined. It’s even about the right size too. I love the darker stone and the smaller barred windows and just the desolation of the place. Like Tony thinks it looks defiant standing all alone out there and that was my first thought about the Skyfall Lodge.

Inspiration -- I just love a good historical au and I loved the idea of writing a darker side to some of my fave characters, especially since pretty much every character in the MCU has a tragic backstory and they tend to get... ignored after a while? Like Natasha’s experience in the Red Room only mattered enough to give us that frankly terrible scene in AOU where we find out she can’t have kids? And I just thought-- what about a story where they haven’t escaped that back story yet and actually sort of embrace it? Like, Bucky is still called the Winter Soldier except he actively seeks out war and bloodshed. Clint is Ronin because he is a killer, not a wise cracking sweetheart. Natalia has lived up to her training as a femme fatale but also has killed more men than she can count and has no issue doing it again (fucking watch out Rumlow). Tony, who is naive only in matters of the heart and knows he could be pushed to murder in an instant. Sam who followed Bucky through the fight in America then followed him to Russia to finish it all.

I sort of love it? Its letting me work through some of the darker parts of characters (like Tony shoving Nat into a wall when he finds out she lied or Bucky using his reputation to get what he wants) without feeling like I’m “tainting” them. Like my normal Tony would never ever put his hands on a woman and threaten to kill her if she doesn’t start talking. But he’d also never rip off her bodice to mime being in a passionate moment and then put a gun to a soldiers head and threaten to kill him where he stands for interrupting. THIS TONY DOES and I sort of love him.

Plus, I’m gearing up to try my hand at writing villain!Tony and this is a nice segue into the character lol

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fantroll-purgatory · 5 years

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World: Alternia! For once Name: Pirzes Orvaik. Honestly I used a generator for this one, I’m pretty sure.

Hmm. Well, Pirzes could be reorganized to Prizes, so if you made her the kind of Parental Figure that like gives her kiddos Positive Reinforcement for everything, I think that could work well!

Maybe we could change Orvaik to Orstak, which is a scrambling of Arktos, the Greek word for Bear. Because… mama bear jokes are eternal, really.

Age: Didn’t think too hard about this, but 7-8 sweeps just about

Theme/Story: Pirzes is desperately protective of her friends, and has a love of all wigglers. She used to entirely buy into the Alternian culture of culling all who were different/mutated/etc, until she herself had to cull one, simply for hatching as a lime- Something she herself viewed as beautiful, not to mention incredibly rare. For perigees afterwards, she subtly hid mutated or otherwise cull-worthy wigglers in her own hiveblock until during the day, she ran with them. She left to her friend’s hive, and has been trying to hide and raise the wigglers ever since.

I love this setup so much, but you probably need to map timelines and come up with ideas for wrigglerhood in your head. If she stashes them for perigees, then are some of them like troll-toddlers now? Slightly bigger and harder to keep under wraps? Is that why she had to run? Goals: General advice, please! plus a few suggestions? Strife Specibus: I don’t know.

I’m trying to think of good like Mom Jokes. Broomkind? Or if she has to wrangle wrigglers a lot to keep them out of danger, she could be partial to something like Netkind. Or you could give her a more traditional weapon like an axe or a sword, but she’s put one of these things on it.

Fetch Modus: Also don’t know!

ABC modus where she has to spell out the word with magnets to get the item (she adopted this to help teach her wrigglers how to spell, but gee if it isn’t exhausting sometimes)

Blood Color: She is a Jade! Symbol and Meaning: Virpio! Tis her zodiac

(SIGN OF THE HEARTH) (I must ask- where did you decide upon this? You make a lot of comments where it’s “oh her zodiac decided it!” but… that’s not how it works, character writing wise. If she’s going to be Prospit/Light, you have to actually write her that way. If you don’t want to write a character with those traits… there’s 23 other sign combinations per color!! You have the power!)

(My reccomendation is going to be:)

( VIRITTANIUS, SIGN OF THE DELIBERATE)

Handle: Don’t know, whoops

caretakerNaturae might be a good one, as an obvious reference to Lusus Naturae. It’s fitting enough for a jade that no one would bat any eyes, but still reveals more about her activities than anyone realizes. Quirk: { She puts brackets around her speech, like this! She doesn’t close them until she’s done speaking. She uses proper grammar, but speaks fairly casually }

She could probably censor her swears, too, if she ever swears at all of course. More habits picked up from trying to raise some babies! You could also have her do that thing a lot of Daycare Employees or Kindergarten teachers will accidentally do where they’ll tell their fellow friends like ‘Say bye, bus.’ Goofy mistakes make a good character. Special Abilities: Latent rainbowdrinker abilities of course, and the resistance to the sun all jades have! Lusus/Guardian: Did. not think of this. She probably left her lusus behind when running to her friend’s hive (A seadweller)

Jades don’t seem to have lusii, since they appear to live in the caverns with one another and to raise wrigglers/look upon prospective lusii, so you may not have to worry about this. If you want to, though, you could give her one, or give her a favorite lusus from the pack.

Interests: She enjoys video games, cooking, and occasional sewing. Her friends lately have introduced her to hacking, law related stuff, hunting, and robotics. Though due to raising the wigglers, she’s lost most of her free time, but she hopes once they pupate she’ll get back into it.

She should probably be interested in lusus naturae and their parenting behavior, too. Reading up on papers about wriggler socialization! How does she help her little buggies grow?! Appearance: Pirzes is a bit more than average height, and looks just plain exhausted all the time. Her hair is cut short to make it easier to manage, and she doesn’t wear any makeup. Her outfits are generally picked based on functionality more than style, and she always has one of her wigglers swaddled in her arms. Her horns are tall, and both have a hook at the end, but she’s kind of filed them down a little, so they aren’t a hazard. Personality: She’s a kindly person, but easily stressed and frazzled. She can tend to be defensive towards strangers, especially highbloods, though she thinks that her friend’s status as a violet will protect her. She’s fiercely protective of her friends and wigglers, and tends to let her words get away from her quickly. (Now here’s where I’m getting the weird vibe: Where’s the Light Player Relentlessness? Where’s the Prospit flexibility? Where’s the parts of her character that exist outside of the story you have for her?) Lunar Sway: Prospit! Cuz, uh, extended zodiac? (But… why though. Why make Virpio her sign if you don’t have a good reason for it?) (Prospit characters struggle specifically with Deception, and I think that’s a key thing to keep in mind for your character. If she’s a Prospit dreamer, she’s probably not used to rebelling or hiding her true feelings- that could cause her a lot of strife. If those sound like things she’d be used to, she’s Derse.) Title: She’s a light player, but that’s all i know, really. (But are you SURE about that? Light players are aggressive, they don’t take no for an answer and they love to take the spotlight. None of that seems fitting for a character like this.) (In my head, the narrative arc for her is deliberately making the decision to rebel, something she thought long and hard about, and scares her deeply. But she must do it. Like any good Void player, she’s casting doubt on things that are already “understood” the worth of mutants, limes, and other “undesirable” wigglers.) (Her hiding of the Wigglers for a while is also pretty classic Void- Equius’ nature as the Heir of Void allows him to hide the cue ball- something another Touched By Void character (Rose) uses to access knowledge.) (My thought is somewhere around Witch of Sylph- but she has less character than she has Story, so it’s difficult to ascertain. She’s someone who plays with shadow in order to save the candles from being snuffed out, hiding the life of these wigglers in order to better use their lives.) Land: None!

#jadeblood #submission #sa review #pirzes #orvaik #orstak #pirzes orvaik #pirzes orstak #review #cd review #cabbagiez

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manygalaxiesinone · 4 years

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Crash Bash maybe?

((Greetings hee ho dood! Prinnyfrost reporting for duty! I think it’s time to get onto this discussion. With the success of the Crash and Spyro trilogies along with CTR remakes, should Crash Bash also get one as well? In my opinion...

Look to be honest, I am personally hopeful that it does get one, maybe not right away, perhaps in the future after some new actual games come out for both Spyro and Crash, but I would be interested to see one since honestly I did love the game and have plenty of nostalgia for it as well as the other Crash games.

And I became even more hopeful now that Rilla Roo’s playable in the new CTR and you can bet your ass I bought him the very moment I saw him available in the Pit Stop and I plan on getting Yaya soon even though I never played the game she was in.

Not to mention that games like this and Twin Sanity are the ones that I feel deserve to have remakes the most as while they were alright games, it’s clear that they could be far better if certain changes and more development time were made for them.

At the same time however, I can understand why people would be against this idea. As stated before it may be best to see some actual new games before continuing this remake trend that’s been going on. Not to mention that as a mixed bag game, it’s clear that there are plenty of those who genuinely didn’t like the game at all and probably wouldn’t bother getting the remake if it came out so it may not be for the best sales wise.

Shit I know if someone told me there’s going to be a remake for Shadow Dragon I wouldn’t spend a single dime on it and sell it to the nearest game store if anyone got it for me as a gift.

Regardless I do believe that just in case they do decide to remake the game someday, I should throw in some ideas of what could be done with it and if you have some ideas of your own (aside from the obvious “just not remake the game” comment I can see some people tossing in) feel free to share them.

First is the obvious and take care main complaint I hear when people talk about the game which is to make more mini games. While I do enjoy most of the games here

keyword being “most”. I have to admit that it could use some more variety in the games since most of them are pretty much the same mini game but with different obstacles and adjusted rules. I’m not saying that you should get rid of all the games, quite the opposite actually;

however instead of labeling them as their own mini game, you could turn them into a different version of each game kind of like what smash bros does for it stages and let people adjust them with their own set of rules and whatnot. Not only would this help make things less repetitive, but it’ll also help separate it from other party games including Mario Party.

I have heard people mention including mini games from Crash Boom Bang into the mix, but I’m not so sure since I’ve never played it and I’ve heard rather poor things about the game. Maybe it would be best to have more unique mini games like seeing who can collect the most wumpa fruit within a time limit and have stages where you can steal each other’s wumpa fruit or instantly lose all wumpa fruit after being blown up by a nitro or zapped by Uka Uka. Or maybe a game to see who can last the longest while ridding on an animal while giving characters their own animals to ride on like Crash on Polar, Coco on Purra, or Cortex on a penguin with different stages featuring different types of obstacles to avoid but the pathway being different every time you play it.

That being said, this also means some changes should be done with the story mode of the game. I’m not sure what could be done about the story itself. I don’t mind it staying the same,

but at the same time looking at it now makes me think this is how the tournament started between Earthrealm and Outworld in one of the various Mortal Kombat timelines, especially since not only the original developers of Crash Bash were also the people that worked on Mortal Kombat 4/Gold, which is still my personal favorite MK games to date, but also Aku Aku sounds like he needs to consult with the Elder Gods throughout the whole thing to me. Just watch Crash Bash’s intro and tell me whether or not you can picture Raiden and Shao Kahn have the exact same conversation.

As for the stages, if we’re going so far as to make new games, then we could also replace some of the stages with said new games as once again, to make everything less repetitive. The bosses can remain the same, but some of the mini games should be switched out with whatever new games come into play since the games were mainly different versions of each game. This also means new challenges for the gems and relics, which are no doubt going to be incredibly bullshit like they always are in these games and perhaps actually getting something for reaching 100% instead of just unlocking more games. Maybe there could be new endings for going all the way good, evil, or neutral.

Next, I wouldn’t mind having a bigger roster than what’s available right now. The initial roster can stay the same, though I don’t mind replacing Tiny and Dingodile with Crunch and Tawna, but more characters should be included as unlockables while staying balanced for both good and evil sides. And by unlockables, I mean available to be unlocked at any point, even if we are going back to the whole wumpa coin thing. We shouldn’t have to wait a whole day to see what character we can get and see if it’s one we want or not and they shouldn’t be timed exclusives, which is a main issue I have about the CTR remake. I probably wouldn’t mind too much if it’s only done with cosmetics, especially those that are themed with holidays like Christmas and Halloweeen. That makes a little bit of sense to me since I don’t see many people using those cosmetics outside of the holidays, but the moment a character is included in the game, they should be available to unlock at any time.

And finally, while we’re on the subject of cosmetics, if the game does end up getting some, don’t just import every costume available in the CTR remake into this game. While I would like to see some costumes come back like Coco’s princess outfit or Crash’s motorbike outfit, I think there should be some room for new costumes for the characters like Tawna and Crunch as Jessica Rabbit and Mr. T (and yes I know Crunch’s Mr. T. outfit is already a thing, but it’s not available for the CTR remake at the time of this posting to my knowledge), or Brio as a pirate to go against Cortex’s ninja outfit. I just prefer it that the games have some outfits unique to them okay?))

#crash bash

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marcythewerewolf · 7 years

Text

Some Lord of Shadows Thoughts, In No Particular Order

I think Jace’s name is in this book more than Kieran’s which is obnoxious. Also every appearance of his was prefaced by a multi-sentence description of how gorgeous he was. This did not stop even when he showed up purely to be a dick to Kit. I officially hate book Jace now. He’s drunk the Kool Aid and he’s part of the Shadowhunter establishment and he’s insufferable so thanks for that book. ‘

Shadowhunters are a cult. Full stop. Sometimes it seems like the book has started to recognize this but then it backtracks and goes back to glorifying them. They’re so rich, they’re so pretty! Like, yeah, but they’re also super racist and hugely regressive and directly responsible for the suffering of thousands. Sure, they do some good along the way but so does Salvation Army, they’re still BAD. Look past all the glitter and propaganda and they’re just magical thugs who haven’t gotten past the middle ages and at this rate never will. The Blackthorn kids are better off without them.

Kit is probably the most sympathetic person in the entire book and I do want him to run away and set up a pawn shop in Ohio? Save him from everyone but especially Jace.

At one point his face was described as angular though, which makes me wonder if CC has seen a fifteen year old ever. You do it once, it’s justifiable, but most teenagers have a bad case of the baby face and saying other wise is ridiculous. This cheekbone addiction is getting out of hand.

This book was so ridiculously heterosexual. Like, just such a pervasive case of unfortunate and tragic heterosexuality. So casual. So pointless. Magnus first gets brought up as “glittery”. One character thinks in all seriousness that you only get one dad. Gwyn is painfully straight for no apparent reason when faeries should and previously have been all sorts of flexible. It’s just... bad.

The centurions are all kind of awful and I didn’t bother to learn their names.

That being said, I did like the focus on Diana. She’s beautiful and amazing and brave and I love her.

This is just blatant apologism for what happened to Anselm Nightshade. You set up a situation like that, you deal with the consequences of it, you don’t wimp out.

The kids went to Faerie together and I am glad for that. They did just kill of Iarlath with no fanfare, but now his headcanon bf are chilling together and we got some follow up on Malcolm’s faerie ties so I’m not too mad about that.

“Her old tutor, Katerina.” God, where’s my Katerina spinoff. She has gotten no lines ever and because of that I love her.

I do like anything with faeries very much but it could afford to be a little less fantasy and a little less chaos theory. The rest is just an issue of misplaced expectation. Obviously I like some of my interpretations better (killing girls is so stupid and outdated, an actual curse dooming him to have fifty sons all the time is maybe a twist) but other than that, nice worldbuilding, solid writing.

Faeries! Gosh, I just love them so much. Faeries all the time, that what I want.

The Unseelie King is super interesting. His kids are more trite, but hey, I love them anyways.

On a related note, have I mentioned how much Gwyn just wants his big dumb teenagers to be safe and happy? Kieran and Mark aren’t even twenty and they need to take care of each other and not die. What a quality Faerie Dad.

Some times these kids act dumb but i do not begrudge them it on account of them being children.

The book got good about halfway through, which I appreciated. Kieran my sweet bratty boy, Nene the enigma, the courts, this is some good stuff I appreciate.

What I did not appreciate was the killing off of Arthur. Like, come on. You’ve already done a disservice by magicking up your mental illness, you don’t have to kill him off too. A much more straight forward solution would have used the fact that Malcolm and Annabel were technically married, have his death revive her, then have confused Annabel and her angry zombie husband coming after the Institute, then Annabel realizing what was really going on and turning on Malcolm. Less in between steps. Failing that, ancient aunt they mentioned last book.

Mark, Miach, darling, in fairness, the Seelie Queen’s lover very much did kidnap you. She was kidnap complicit. Don’t be trusting her. She absolutely had Sebastian’s baby.

Memory loss plots are rather boring, but I recognize they do something for some people, so it might just be a cup of tea situation. Enjoy your memory loss then, friends.

The Kieran/Mark/Cristina plot is juicy and I do like that but I want More Diana and Helen and Aline back and Answers first, you know?

One of the downsides of these books being about Shadowhunters is that it always comes down to the Shadowhunter heroes fighting and killing the irrational villainous Downworlder hordes which is Unfortunate. That conflict with Barnabas could have gone so much better.

People need to stop trying to brainwash Kit with this Herondale stuff. People don’t go around calling me by my great-great great grandmother’s name and expect me to sit down and take it. Sure, we’re technically related, but that’s not how convention or basic politeness works. Your name is what you are raised with and more importantly it’s what you choose. His name is Kit and he’s a Rook until he decides, on his own without the constant pressure of adults, to be something else.

As an extension of that? All these callbacks to the other book? They’re getting old and frankly more than a little annoying.

Jessamine died in 1878. Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849. I’m telling you guys, the timeline just doesn’t line up. She wasn’t even born when Malcolm was young and building his house.

Kieran is a very impulsive boy who is already too invested in his Shadowhunter bf and gf. I don’t make the rules.

I tried not to read too much into the Disaster Children literally burning down a church and having a weird intimate moment but they really are a mess. No laws, no holy lands, nothing but family, and nothing comes before family. I’m much more invested in them when they’re tearing down the establishment and making terrible toxic Wicked Powers choices.

AIRMED WAS THE DAUGHTER OF MANNAN. This is basic people. Do your research.

See, the memory loss plots always backfire unless you come clean. Lying never pays, kids.

My Diana theories are more or less confirmed which I appreciate, thank you very much.

I do very much wish they’d at least had the decency to leave bby Morgenstern a bby, that or go all the way and age him a few decades so you had a fifty something year old claiming to be Clary’s nephew. Much better than this cliche storm.

I recognize that Annabel got a short shift in life, but so did Malcolm, frankly. The fact that he gets a life of torment and a horrible death at the hands of one he loved while she gets to wander off and live happily is a little concerning to me. Why do Downworlders not get to be happy? Downworlders, and Arthur Blackthorn, apparently, aren’t allowed to live nice, non-tragic lives, but pretty young Shadowhunters can get away with anything. At this point I would have preferred a disappointing end for Annabel. Get that good tragedy going. The Blackthorn’s clearly have a bad case of the Gothics they need to fulfill.

Oh. OH. There we go. There’s the Blackthorn drama I crave.

My sweet girl, my sweet girl Livvy. She’s coming back as a ghost, isn’t she?

So that’s about five hours. My record holds. The book wasn’t bad, it was just sooooo long. I feel like it could have used a ruthless editor with a really good grasp of the classics to clean things up a bit. Didn’t make me laugh as much, but that might just be a result of my evolving sense of humour. Drama got good nearer the last half of the book. There was some nice stuff in there. Overall, not a waste of five hours, and I’m not mad. Just please, someone de-brainwash these Shadowhunter children. They’re in a cult. Someone needs to tell them that they’re in a cult. Save Kit, he’s getting pulled in as well.

#lord of shadows spoilers #lord of shadows #the dark artifices #long post

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shikai-the-storyteller · 7 years

Note

May I ask what songs you have on your Zero/X playlist? I need some good music to listen too while doing things. Hope the class is going/went okay!

Sorry for the late response So I was originally going to put this playlist up on 8tracks a few months ago, but then 8tracks changed how it does things and I lost interest, so this is just the playlist I keep on my computer for them. It wound up being a ZeroX playlist as well as a “songs I associate with some arcs of the game” playlist.

I’m still a little iffy about a few songs, but here’s the song list (+a few key lyrics) as it is right now + some of my commentary about the songs:

(Note: These songs aren’t necessarily in chronological order with the MMX games, I just like the way they sound when put together in this order)

Mars - Sleeping At LastWe were full of life, we could barely hold it in. We were amateurs at war, strangers to suffering.

There is goodness in the heart of every broken man, who comes right up to the edge of losing everything he has.There are so many quotes in this song I associate with these two, but I feel like some of them are obvious, so here’s two main stanzas. This song feels like a good introduction to the games and to X and Zero’s experience in the first Maverick War. Of course, only one of them made it out of that first war B’’’’).

All Who Remain – Beware of DarknessWhen you leave this life, the world will be a darker place for All Who Remain And the light you gave the human race will go away…

If I can’t have you in this life, then I don’t want this life at all Cause there’s nothing in this broken world that I’ll ever love as much

I called and I called but you never picked up, and I cried and I cried but you never woke up, you died and you died without asking me first, you left me all alone here on EarthThis song sorta has a double meaning for me. On the one hand, you can read it as a song about X post-X1 living without Zero, and on the other hand, you can read it as Zero fearing what would happen if X were to die (’’the light you gave the human race will go away’’, X is literally a son of Light as well as a light to humanity, or at least, he is in Zero’s eyes). This could also be a MM0-era Zero living in a world where X has died. The last lyric chunk ties so well into the later MMX games where Zero seals himself away and X has to deal with things without him. This isn’t a happy song I’m sorry.

But even in the end, no matter what happens, X and Zero are always the ones who are left behind, the ones who keep fighting no matter what horrible things happens, hence the “We are all, we are all who remain”, so the song isn’t necessarily all sad.

I Found – Amber RunI’ve moved further than I thought I could, but I missed you more than I thought I would

And I’ll use you as a makeshift gauge, of how much to give and how much to take Oh I’ll use you as a warning sign, that if you talk enough sense then you’ll lose your mind

Sort of a continuation of the last song. This song reminds me of how X and Zero rely on each other to keep themselves in check (consider X4 and X5). They’re canonically each other’s strengths and motivation, and this song reminded me of how always look to each other for support.

Love Love Love – Monsters and Men Well, maybe I’m a crook for stealing your heart away Yeah, maybe I’m a crook for not caring for it Yeah, maybe I’m a bad, bad, bad, bad person Well, baby, I know.

‘Cause you love, love, love when you know I can’t love you

So I think it’s best we both forget before we dwell on it The way you held me so tight, all through the night, ‘til it was near morningGGGGGGGGGGGOSH THIS IS THE FRICKIN SONG THAT STARTED IT ALL. It was this song that made me write my first fanfic for them, which spiraled into me writing / planning out over 10 fanfics + one series (it also made me create this playlist). It’s all because of this darn song. (I still haven’t posted that first fic I wrote for them based on this song because I want it to be one of the last ones I post).

Anyways, without getting into the details of the fic, the song reminds me of Zero’s thoughts on X, and Zero’s fear that he can’t live up to his own (and maybe X’s?) expectations of who he should be since he was created to be a warbot, not someone who can empathize with other people (like X was). BASICALLY: ZERO’S IDENTITY CRISIS, THE SONG.

What if the Storm Ends?SnowpatrolX –> Zero: The perfect halo of gold hair and lightning sets you off against the planet’s last dance Zero –> X: Just for a minute the silver forked sky lit you up like a star that I will follow

Be the lightning in me, that strikes relentless

One of the core songs of this playlist imo. If I had to summarize the playlist into only a handful of songs, this and the following song would definitely be in it.

Part of this song reminded me of how Zero described X as the sun in the MMX manga, and the line above always makes me think about how Zero’s always followed and trusted X, even when X was a new Hunter. I dunno how to explain this one, it’s just very them.

The End of All Things - Panic at the DiscoIn these coming years, many things will change But the way I feel will remain the same

Short song, but this was one of the first ones I put on the playlist and it always makes me think of them. It’s hard for me to explain this one too, but in any game or any timeline, X and Zero are always there for one another no matter what hardships they’re put through. That’s what this song makes me think of.

See You Again – Charlie PuthIt’s been a long day without you my friend and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again. I’ll be waiting right here for ya ‘till the day you’re homeCarry on, give me all the strength I need to carry onTHIS ONE’S PRETTY SELF-EXPLANATORY but regardless, definitely an X –> Zero song that applies to so many frickin games, I mean come on Zero, how many times do you have to go and die on X. (This can also definitely be a post-“Zero is sealed away for 100+ years” song too).

Like Real People Do – HozierI will not ask you where you came from, I will not ask and neither should you

I like this song because it ties back to Zero and X’s fathers / their past. But no matter what their backgrounds are or who Zero was, X implicitly trusts Zero, and the feeling is mutual. (Now that I think about it, this song counters “Love Love Love” and Zero’s POV).

Nothing Left to Say – Imagine DragonsZero: Who knows how long I’ve been awake now? The shadows on my wall don’t sleep, They keep calling me, Beckoning…

X: Who knows what’s right? The lines keep getting thinner. My age has never made me wise, But I keep pushing on and on and on and on…

If you could only save me, I’m drowning in the waters of my soul

Admittedly when I first put this song on the list, it was just to have it act as a transition between the last song and the next one, but it’s grown on me it fits so many fandoms and characters though. The whole song frickin works for them, but the first half especially.

To me, this song bridges the end of X4 and X5 together. X and Zero both went through hell in X4, having to kill a whole group of people who (technically) weren’t Maverick, and they don’t really have a chance to recover before X5 happens. They both ended up questioning whether they’re doing the right thing, and although they’re still relying on one another for support to get through it, with all the self-doubt and tension at the middle / end of X5, this song easily leads into…

Unwanted Battle – X vs. Zero

Great remix of their battle theme from X5. The artist said their intention was to “make the song more fitting for a fight between two close friends” and BOY DID THEY NAIL IT.

Chasing Cars – The Wind and The WaveI don’t quite know how to say how I feelThose three words are said too much, they’re not enough

All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see I don’t know where, confused about how as well, just know that these things will never change for us at all

Ehh I’m still a little iffy about this song for them, but I still really like the song itself and those specific lyrics (though as of right now I’m not sure it suits them anymore). This makes me think of post-battle X5 (when they’re both KO’ed) before everything takes an even sharper turn downhill.

We’re Still Here – Sleeping At LastYou were on a frequency, the perfect opposite of meThough I never needed any proof to trust the heart that beats inside of you.

Through the static, through the ashes, we were brave. Through the perils of endless narrow escapes, we’re still here. We’re still here.

Sleeping At Last always kills me, and this song especially (I used to think the lyrics at one part said “there is pain within your memory, the origins of our family tree” and I was like “THAT”S PERFECT”. Apparently it’s “pigment” not “pain within” but REGARDLESS). I thought this sweet / sad song was a perfect way to end their playlist. No matter what canon says, (though apparently MM ZX technically confirms this) Zero and X are still around and still together, in one form or another :’)

There’s a few others that could work for them / a lot more songs I associate with them (like SPG’s “Honeybee” or “Love Like You” but these are the ones I currently have on their playlist. I’ve been putting together a playlist for X, but I’m not sure if/when that’ll ever be finished, so in the meantime I recommend greyfishes’ “Endless Fight” playlist, which is to date my favorite X playlist ever (a few of those songs I would’ve added to this playlist, but I’ll just direct you to the ‘Endless Fight’ playlist).Sorry this reply took so long, but I didn’t want to drop the list without explaining a few all of them!

#replies #ZeroX #XZero #MMX #No escape from gay robot hell #anon #Had to write this all down in one-go since if I saved it to my drafts it’d never be found again #The goofy song I also associate with them is ''Everytime we touch'' by Cascada because it came on my playlist while I was drawing their fir #so it's forevermore their song long lmao #but back to what I said at the end of the list- there are more songs I associate w/ them #but these feel like the best fit #Anonymous #this is a suuuuuuuuuuuper personal list so I understand if other people don't necessarily agree with my choices #i talk #song recs #music rec

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thegloober · 6 years

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NYFF 2018: The Times of Bill Cunningham, Cold War, Detour

by Odie Henderson

October 12, 2018 |

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In 1978, candid photographer and fashion column writer Bill Cunningham took a picture of a woman passing by him on a New York street. He was interested in the coat she was wearing, which struck him as unusual. As luck would have it, Cunningham had inadvertently snapped a picture of the long-retired famous movie actress, Greta Garbo, who hadn’t been seen on screen since 1941. The New York Times snapped up the photo and gave Cunningham a long-running photography series called “On the Street.” Every week, readers discovered who crossed the viewfinder of the bike-riding shutterbug wearing his trademark blue shirt.

Premiering at the New York Film Festival, director Mark Bozek’s “The Times of Bill Cunningham” chronicles the photographer’s career, starting with his time as a milliner, then working through his writing at magazines like Women’s Wear Daily before settling on the thing for which he is most famous, his street photographs. Our tour guide for this entertaining journey is Cunningham himself, who appears onscreen in a 1994 interview conducted by Bozek. Bozek structures his film around this lengthy interview, supplementing it with home videos and pictures rather than using a bunch of talking heads. The film has occasional narration of actress Sarah Jessica Parker, an inspired choice; her Carrie Bradshaw character from “Sex and the City” would have loved to live the bohemian lifestyle Cunningham did.

Cunningham was one of the most famous people to live in the Carnegie Hall Studios, residing there for over 50 years in a small room crammed with file cabinets overflowing with photographs, memorabilia and even diamonds. His famous neighbors included Leonard Bernstein, Norman Mailer and Marlon Brando who, we are told, hid out in Cunningham’s flat after female fans broke down his apartment door. Cunningham also rubbed elbows in the 1950’s with famous celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, who’d stop by his Chez Ninon office to try on the hats he designed, and Jacqueline Bouvier, who would later bring ladies’ hats back into style during her days as First Lady.

Though Cunningham comes off as a very nice guy whose thick Boston accent must have stood out like a sore thumb in Manhattan, there’s still some snootiness and shade bubbling underneath the surface, especially when he talks about fashion. It’s amusing coming from a guy whose wardrobe for decades consisted of thrift shop items or hand-me-downs from wealthy women whose husbands had bought the farm. “They were nice clothes!” Cunningham protests when Bozek presses him about this detail, but he then adds that he would have never been showcased in his own column.

Cunningham describes his picture-taking as “stealing the shadows” of his subjects. One such set of shadows leads to the film’s most poignant moment. Cunningham suddenly breaks down when talking about how he’d photographed Gay Pride parades since their inception in NYC, and how he’d lost many of the people he knew to AIDS. We later learn that the man who lived so frugally had also donated millions of dollars to AIDS charities. Cunningham worked practically until his death in 2016; not even being hit by a truck could keep him off his beat for long.

“The Times of Bill Cunningham” runs a scant 74 minutes, which seems a perfect amount of time for a man who was so humble that he didn’t even attend the premiere of a prior documentary about him made back in 2011. Instead, he stood outside the theater and took pictures.

While festival centerpiece “Roma” has deserving buzz as a shoo-in for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, let’s not forget the hauntingly romantic “Cold War,” the new film from “Ida” director, Pawel Pawlikowski. It’s Poland’s official Oscar submission and the winner of the Golden Lion at the Polish Film Festival and the Best Director award at Cannes. Aided by the transcendent black and white cinematography of Lukasz Zal, who also worked on “Ida,” Pawlikowski tells a love story that feels symbolic of Poland during the Cold War era of the film’s setting. Music plays a big part here, first as a symbol of national pride and then as a means of escape via that Western world music known as jazz.

Stuck—or should I say trapped—within this framework are Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Zula (a fantastic Joanna Kulig). Wiktor first encounters Zula while auditioning folk singers with his musical partner and former lover Irena (Agata Kulesza). Zula seems the wrong match for the more straight-laced Wiktor—she’s a hustler who’s wise beyond her teenaged years and who has infamously stabbed her father. “He mistook me for my mother,” she tells Wiktor, “and I used my knife to show him the difference.” Wiktor falls for her anyway.

Many a love story has hinged upon people who are clearly mismatched but try like Hell to make it work. This duo drifts apart and comes together repeatedly, both behind and in front of the Iron Curtain, yet they’re as unlikely a pair as the film’s principal settings of rural Poland and Paris. Pawlikowski deftly uses his pacing and framing to keep our attention: Time passes in the blink of an eye, sometimes without prior warning. The timeline is as fractured and unpredictable as the lovers themselves, and the actors are often dwarfed on the screen by the cold, grey elements of nature that take up much of the screen. There’s a sense of impending doom, but “Cold War” doesn’t telegraph nor elicit our emotions. Its matter-of-factness is its greatest asset.

“Cold War”’s Kulig, “Roma”’s Yalitza Aparicio and “If Beale Street Could Talk”’s Kiki Layne form a trio of the best lead actress performances I’ve seen this year at NYFF. Their films are also the best ones I’ve seen here. “Beale Street” takes the top honor for me, however, for reasons I’ll explain later in my upcoming review. I’ll just say this for now: Barry Jenkins does Jimmy Baldwin proud and, like the directors of the other two films I mentioned, he gives his lead character free rein of the viewer’s gaze to great dramatic effect. Kulig, Layne and Aparicio each have moments when they pull us into their powerful orbits with just a look or a gesture. Add in “The Favourite,” “Ash is Purest White” and “3 Faces” and It was a very good year for actresses.

I’ll close out on a few notes from the Revivals and Retrospectives sections of the festival. Following up on my last dispatch, I took in the screening of “Detour” and can confirm that it was indeed a splendid restoration. I noticed things I never saw before, including details in a shot I could never make out in prior versions. It’s getting a release from Janus Films at the end of November and is well worth the 68-minute investment of your time.

In the theater next to my “Detour” screening, NYFF was showing “My Dinner With Andre.” Our beloved Roger introduced me to that movie on Siskel & Ebert, and his love for it made me rent it when it came out on video. I was 12 or so, and I thought it was the most boring movie I’d ever seen. Good Lord, I hated this movie with the heat of a thousand suns. Now, I have no idea why this was being screened, but I considered it a sign! Maybe this was Roger telling me I should revisit the 1981 Louis Malle movie as an adult, because I have more wisdom and life experience now. Since I couldn’t be two places at the same time, I had to rent “My Dinner With Andre” on Amazon Prime rather than see it on the big screen.

And you know what? It was even worse than I remembered. It’s like being trapped in a college professor’s belly button for 2 hours, but there’s no lint in there to mercifully plug your ears to avoid having to listen to him. Forgive me, Roger! Actually, I think Roger’s laughing wherever he is, shaking his finger at me with mock shame as he often did. You got me, big guy.

See you all next year.

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strangerthings2review-blog · 6 years

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My Breakdown/Review of Stranger Things 2

Stranger Things 2. The TV phenomenon created by the Duffer Brothers and produced by Netflix was released on October 27. Millions of people (including myself) tuned in to watch. As a person who has seen every episode, I am more than qualified to breakdown each episode and give my review.

Episode 1--MADMAX: So, the very first thing we see is this group of people who live in Pittsburgh that are running away from the police. One of them balled up her fist and “made” the bridge collapse in front of the police officers. Her nose starts to bleed which can only mean one thing, she’s like Eleven. We then see a tattoo on her arm of the number “008.” As we all know, Eleven has a tattoo on her arm of the number “011,” so they are part of the same organization.

The gang that we all know and love: Mike, Dustin (my favorite), Will, and Lucas are in an arcade playing Dragon’s Lair, the game that’s really difficult and overpriced. Keith, the arcade employee, cheerfully tells Dustin that someone beat him. Dustin gets really mad because he sees that someone named “MADMAX” has beat him on the game Dig Dug. I would be too if I was into arcade games; all that time getting to the top to just have it stripped away from you.

Things seem to still be bad for Will. Everyone disappears and the room goes darker. The sky goes red and there’s a monster in the sky. There’s only one place he can be in, the Upside Down, which as we know is an alternate dimension of their world. “Episodes” as they’re called.

There’s a new girl at school named Max. Dustin and Lucas end up stalking her because they think she’s MADMAX, which they end up being right about. I think it’s great that MADMAX is a girl and not a boy. Videogames are not just for boys.

Joyce takes Will to go see Dr. Owens who is treating Will at Hawkins Lab. There are men who watch Will on TVs which doesn’t seem right. Joyce should’ve known not to trust the people who work at Hawkins Lab, they are very sketchy.

Chief Hopper goes to check out this pumpkin patch that has rotten pumpkins. Every single pumpkin is rotten. I don’t know about you, but I was wondering what happened to them. Of course, the show left us hanging with what it could be.

Eleven lives with Chief Hopper in the woods, which is just the cutest thing ever. It’s definitely one of my favorite moments from the show. He gets to be a dad figure to her.

Episode 2--Trick or Treat, Freak: Halloween has arrived in Hawkins. The gang dresses up as the people from the movie, Ghostbusters for school, but when they got to school, they see that no one else dressed up. I think we have all been like that, where we try to fit in but don’t.

There’s this new guy, Billy, who is Max’s older stepbrother and is really mean to her. He got so mad at her that he almost hit Dustin, Lucas, and Mike who were biking home because he thought they are her friends. I really hate Billy, they’re just kids.

Hopper goes back to the pumpkin patch, but sees that it’s not just the pumpkins that are rotten, it’s every single crop. At that point, I was really wondering what happened.

Nancy is in a funk because her best friend, Barb, is dead. I would be too. No one seemed to care. Barb was the best character in season 1.

The gang goes trick-or-treating. Max wants to join them and everyone but Mike is welcoming to her. Everyone has at one point in their life been like that, the person who wants to join a group, but there’s always one person who doesn’t want them to.

As they are trick-or-treating, Will has another episode. He sees the monster in the sky and starts to run away from it. Just when you think it’s about to reach out and get him, the world goes back to normal. It’s just Mike who is there with Will.

Eleven is really mad at Hopper because he’s always late coming home and doesn’t let her do anything. That was the one time I was ever mad at Hopper this season; I get he was just trying to keep her safe, but she’s just a kid. Kids don’t want to be stuck inside all day, especially in that time period.

Episode 3--The Pollywog: Dustin finds an animal in his trash and replaces his turtle with it. He names it D’Artagnan (Dart for short) and they share something in common, they both love the candy 3 Musketeers. I don’t know why they like that candy, it’s disgusting.

Eleven is still mad at Hopper because he keeps on lying about when she can see Mike again. It reminded me of how girls act when they’re too caught up on a guy. They always want to see him and see what he’s doing.

Steve gets bullied by Billy. Steve used to be the king of the school, but now it’s the new guy. He’s good at everything, from basketball to getting girls. Speaking of girls, Steve and Nancy broke up. Even though one of them didn’t say that they should break up, it’s pretty obvious. I was so happy about that. I did not like Nancy with Steve. Nancy would be much better off with a guy like Jonathan.

Dustin brought the animal to school to show his friends. Everyone was trying to figure out what it is, but only Will seemed to know. Will had a flashback to the very end of season 1 when he coughed up a slug in the sink. He seemed to think it was one of them. Maybe he’s not wrong. He was having visions of the Upside Down and then this thing shows up.

Mike doesn’t want Max to join their group. It’s like, come on Mike. I know you miss Eleven, but that doesn’t mean you have to be mean to Max. They then have a little moment where she teaches him how to ride the skateboard.

Eleven gets really impatient so she goes to the middle school. She sees Mike with Max and gets really jealous. She lets her jealousy take over and uses her power to make Max fall off the skateboard.

This monster goes inside of Will, through his eyes, nose, and mouth. He calls it a Shadow Monster. The monster is taking over Will’s body.

Nancy calls Barb’s mom and tells her to meet her at a park because she was going to explain everything about what happened to Barb. It then cuts to Hawkins Lab and men listening to their conversation.

Episode 4--Will the Wise: The Shadow Monster took over Will’s thoughts and now he has this thing called “now-memories.” Will is connected to the monster, so that means that whatever the monster is experiencing, he experiences it too but as a memory.

Nancy and Jonathan went to the park because they wanted to talk to Barb’s mom, but she didn’t show up. They saw all of these strange people so they decide to leave, but their car doesn’t start. How convenient. Then a man asks if they need a ride and soon, they’re in Hawkins Lab. My guess is Hawkins Lab sent someone to get them because we all know what happened at the end of episode 3.

Joyce had Will draw instead of explaining what’s going on because that seems to be what he’s good at. She saw that they connected and after and Hopper put them together, he said it was vines.

Eleven found her mom by using a picture and her power. She can find people by using a picture and a blindfold. She found her mom, Terry. Terry started saying the same words over and over again, “Rainbow. Sunflower. Four-fifty. Three to the right. Four to the left.” After Eleven touched Terry’s hand, she disappeared. Eleven started crying because maybe she recognizes that she can never have her mom like a daughter should.

Dart broke through the cage and went from eating 3 Musketeers to Dustin’s cat, Mews. R.I.P Mews.

Hopper goes to inspect the crops and finds a tunnel underground. He ends up getting trapped in there.

Episode 5--Dig Dug: Will can see what the Shadow Monster is seeing and feel what it’s feeling so he can spy on it now.

Dustin is lying to his mom about what really happened to Mews. I don’t blame him. It would be hard explaining that an animal from another dimension ate the cat. He lures Dart outside, but gets caught. He fights Dart and finally gets him inside the storm cellar.

We finally get to see Eleven’s backstory and why her mom says the same thing over and over again. It’s so sad.

Hopper is still inside the tunnel and there are vines down there that are killing the crops, but they see him and choke him. Leave it to the Duffer Brothers to create these vines that can see.

Nancy and Jonathan go meet this guy named Murray to find out what happened to Barb. He seems to not be any help because his timeline was wrong. What I was wondering was why there’s a man who is so obsessed with a dead teenage girl that he has a wall dedicated to what happened to her.

Will was actually drawing a map of Hawkins thanks to Joyce’s boyfriend, Bob. I like how Joyce found someone, but I don’t like it being Bob. Bob’s a good character, but not for Joyce. He doesn’t understand all of this other-worldly things, but Hopper does. He and Joyce would be really good together.

Dustin was so desperate that he asked Steve for help because none of his friends were available. That’s the best and unique pairing but, how desperate can someone be to ask someone like Steve for help?

Episode 6--The Spy: Steve and Dustin went down into Dustin’s storm cellar and found that Dart had escaped by chewing a hole through the wall and making a tunnel. It’s no surprise, he was able to get through the cage he was in.

Murray tells Nancy that she’s afraid of the truth and Jonathan has trust issues which is getting in the way of them being a couple. They end up staying the night at Murray’s place and as if my prayers were answered, they finally get together. They’re a much better couple than Nancy and Steve.

The only reason Dustin kept Dart was to impress Max. Seriously Dustin? No girl would think that it was cool. Every girl would find it gross and disgusting.

Dustin, Steve, Lucas, and Max are getting a trap ready for Dart. They hide in a bus to wait to see what it does. When it didn’t take the bait, Steve went out of the bus to act as bait, but he quickly went back when he realized he was outnumbered. Steve is a lot better at the end of this season, he protects the kids.

The monsters that were down in the basement of Hawkins Lab, came up.

Episode 7--The Lost Sister: Eleven got an a bus to Chicago to look for a girl. Her name is Kali and they’re “sisters.” They were in the same room at Hawkins Lab, which was the Rainbow Room and the girl from the first episode. Kali can make people see or not see whatever she chooses, so that’s how she made the policemen in the beginning see that the bridge was collapsing.

Kali taught Eleven how to use her power using her anger. Of course because she has a lot of anger. She has had so many people in her life lie to her.

Eleven, Kali, and her friends went to a man’s house to kill him because he made Eleven’s mom unresponsive. Eleven was about to kill him, but didn’t because he has two little girls. Even though he hurt her mom, she decided not to kill him because he’s a dad.

The police found them so they had to leave, but Eleven chose to go back home. Her friends needed her.

Episode 8--The Mind Flayer: Hawkins Lab is on lockdown because the monsters got through the wall separating where the monsters are and where the humans are.

We learn the real reason why Billy is really mean to people. It’s because his dad is physically and verbally abusive with him. Even though I hate Billy, I felt for him in that scene.

Hopper, Mike, and Will make it out, but Joyce decides to stay back and wait for Bob. One of the monsters is following Bob, so he tries to make it out, but ends up getting eaten.

Joyce is so depressed because she watched her loved one die right in front of her face. Hopper goes to comfort Joyce. In season 3, I would like to see them get together. They have this undeniable chemistry.

We finally learn that the thing inside Will is actually called a Mind Flayer. It wants to destroy the human world because as Dustin put it, “it believes it’s the master race.”

Everyone took the things out of the shed out and covered the walls because they couldn’t have Will know where he is. Joyce, Mike, and Jonathan told a story to Will to get him back. They were the kind of stories that gave you the feels. It was working at first, but then the phone rang. That sound let the Mind Flayer know where the others are.

Eleven came back and saved the others. Everyone was so happy to see her again, especially Mike.

Episode 9--The Gate: Eleven and Hopper finally talked about everything like where she has been and her new look. I wasn’t here for the look because something about it was not Eleven. She does not seem like the kind of girl that would have an edgy style.

Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy went to Hopper’s cabin to try to get the Mind Flayer out of Will. Since it hates heat, Joyce made the room really hot. She’s crazy, but moms will do anything to save their child.

Max makes Billy go to sleep and was driving his car to get Steve, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas away from Will’s house. I was really confused about that. She’s in middle school and she’s 13. I don’t think 13 year olds know how to drive.

The monster finally came out of Will and he came back. I was so happy. It was in him for like the whole season.

Eleven was able to close the gate to the Upside Down using her power and her anger.

Barb finally got a funeral. She finally got the justice that she deserves.

Dr. Owens gave Hopper Eleven’s new birth certificate which said, “Jane Hopper.” I was so excited because it means we will get to see more of Eleven and Hopper together in the next season.

The kids went to the Snow Ball, which is a school dance. Dustin asked this girl named Stacy to dance, but she turned him down. No one wanted to dance with him. I think we’ve all been there before, where we’re so alone. He sat on the bleachers looking like a loser, but then Nancy came and asked him to dance. I was so happy when that happened because it’s really nice of her and it showed the other girls what they were missing out on.

Eleven showed up at the dance so Mike was not alone. The part that I found very cheesy was when Mike asked Eleven, “Do you want to find out together?” I know, the writers wanted it to be a cute scene, but the show would of been a lot better without it. I get that the guy is supposed to ask the girl, but to me, they seem like the type of people that know they want to dance with each other.

The ending was amazing because it was really sweet with the dance but then it turned dark with showing the Upside Down. At the Snow Ball, the kids were dancing to “Every Breath You Take” by the Police which is about stalking someone. So when it cuts to the Upside Down, it’s like the Mind Flayer is “watching” them.

Review

When a TV show releases a new season, the question they always have in mind is: “Is it going to be better than the first one?” Stranger Things 2 is no different with the amount of hype that the first season got. Stranger Things was the show of the summer in 2016, over 14 million people watched. I believe that season 2 is a lot better than season 1.

Season 1, while being a really good show with an original storyline, was like an introduction to the characters, the Upside Down, and the Demogorgon. We were introduced to Eleven, the girl with the buzzed hair who loves Eggos and has powers. The best character that we were introduced to last year was Barb, Nancy’s best friend. You know it’s a good character when they get their own Twitter hashtag. We were introduced to the Upside Down, the alternate dimension which is like their world but more dark. We were also introduced to the Demogorgon, the monster that lives in the Upside Down and is part of the game the boys play called, “Dungeons and Dragons.”

Season 2, however, is more of a coming-of-age story for the kids and Steve, everyone loves those kinds of stories. Eleven is learning how to deal with finding her mom like in episode 4 and learning that she has to pay the price of her actions.

For the first time, Dustin likes a girl. He doesn’t know how to act around her because he has always hung out with boys. It’s probably why he thought Max would find Dart cool. He ended up not getting what he wants because in episode 6, Steve taught him how to get girls and he used his advice too literally.

Speaking of Steve, he basically lost everything, from Nancy to being the most popular guy in school. At the end, he saw that Nancy was happy and that’s when he knew that he really messed up. She was the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Steve is a much better character this season. He understands how Jonathan felt last season. Steve bullied Jonathan last year, but this season, Billy bullied Steve. He got a reality check and a taste of his own medicine.

Another character that is a lot better is Joyce. She was screeching all of last season. I get it, her child went missing, but her screeching got really annoying. She’s still screeching, but not as much as before.

The show is also about Will being back and what comes with that. At the very end of last season, he came back from the Upside Down, but it’s like he never left. He gets these visions of the Upside Down like in episodes 1 and 2. He has this thing called the Mind Flayer living inside him who is from the other dimension. He’s always reminded of where he was and it’s slowly killing him.

Noah Schnapp, the actor who plays Will, was definitely believable when his character was being possessed. You feel like you want to be there for him, even though it’s not real.

The show included feelings that everyone can relate to; like how it feels when you’re trying to be accepted by people and what it’s like being the outsider. Max was always trying to join the group but there was always someone that didn’t want her. As we saw in the beginning, Eleven stays inside all day because the world is too dangerous for her. Society doesn’t accept outsiders because they’re seen as freaks.

They brought in a couple new main characters (Billy and Max) that brought a lot to the storyline. Billy, the new guy who has everything, but a perfect family. As we saw in episode 8, his dad is abusive. You get to see how he acts in different settings; the guy at home who can’t be the one in control and the guy who can control anything outside of home.

Max, the new girl who doesn’t really have much going for her. She’s trying to fit in at school and her brother is always angry. He takes all of his anger out on her because he has nobody else to.

The acting is a lot better this season, especially with Millie Bobby Brown who plays Eleven. Last season, Eleven was so dull because she didn’t say much and you knew what was coming. This season, there was a lot more room for Millie to show her acting skills.

They added a lot of allusions to pop culture from the ‘80s, like E.T., the Goonies, Dig Dug, and the music. The younger generation won’t be able to get it, but their parents will. The parents will get a nostalgic feeling because they grew up with that.

The new season builds on the first season. The characters are being developed further, especially Eleven. She is not some lab rat anymore, she’s a girl. The characters are starting to experience these feelings they’ve never had before.

I can’t wait to see what they have in store for season 3.

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