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possiblyimbiassed · 2 years

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Time, Space and Sherlock

After the surrealistic ending of BBC Sherlock’s fourth series in 2017, many of us might have asked ourselves: is it even possible to construct a coherent plot line out of this mess? Is it possible to trace some ‘real’, believable story arc for the show; a narrative where things would still make logical sense? Or is the whole show rather a sort of abstract work of art, where everything is to be read metaphorically? Strangely enough, I think both. :)

One of the things that don’t exactly behave normally in BBC Sherlock is time. And this is not limited to S4, but can be found all over the show. We see people perform things that would be highly questionable, or even wouldn’t be physically possible, to do in our real world, considering the time it would take. Like Sherlock and John climbing over rooftops and still arriving in time to shortcut a taxi in ASiP. Or Moriarty in TRF, arriving to have a chat with Sherlock at 221B from having been in custody at The Old Bailey (at least 15 minutes apart with car, according to the maps), basically within the time it takes for Sherlock’s kettle to boil.

Or Mary showing up in the top apartment of a sky scraper in HLV, knocking out people and wreaking havoc, within the time it takes for John and Sherlock to ascend there with the only elevator. Or Sherlock, when Mary shoots him, having three seconds of consciousness left, and yet he’s able to notice how many minutes it takes for John to get there and call the ambulance. It really doesn’t add up, does it?

We also see and hear these specific elements (along with other, similar examples that I won’t bore you with now) being repeated again and again in the show, in a seemingly haphazardly and meaningless manner. In TSoT we see a sequence from Sherlock’s best man speech where he and John are chased over rooftops by Cupid a short man with a blow pipe. A rooftop is also where Sherlock chooses to meet Moriarty in TRF, and consequently then uses for his fake suicide.

Apparently Sherlock had predicted the exact method of Moriarty’s blackmail from start. But if he knew beforehand, why even put himself in this situation? Couldn’t he thus prevent it? Or is he some kind of oracle that can predict but not interfere with the course of the events? And who was he really planning to con here - Moriarty or John? From the angle they were standing, Jim would have seen the whole theatre from above, had he not opted for a sudden - supposedly unpredicted - suicide on the rooftop. Logic fails when time is twisted here, I believe.

The boiling kettle is mentioned by John in another not too dissimilar context in THoB (thanks for the transcripts, Ariane De Vere X), when Sherlock and John are trying to fake their way into Baskerville’s military facility:

SHERLOCK: What’s the matter?

JOHN: We’ll get caught.

SHERLOCK: No we won’t – well, not just yet.

JOHN: Caught in five minutes. “Oh, hi, we just thought we’d come and have a wander round your top secret weapons base.” “Really? Great! Come in – kettle’s just boiled.” That’s if we don’t get shot.

John is ironic here of course, ridiculing the idea that the military would immediately welcome their intrusion by offering them tea. But this is exactly what Sherlock absurdly does with his arch enemy the very next episode. He even uses precisely the same words: ”Kettle’s just boiled” to greet Moriarty. It’s almost as if he would aim to fulfill John’s ironic ‘prophecy’, isn’t it?

If it was strange in HLV how an unconscious Sherlock could know how long it took for John to find him after he was shot, it’s even weirder in TST to see Mary perform a long speech after being shot. And the way she throws herself in front of the bullet after it has been fired is physically impossible. In real life with a real time frame, she wouldn’t have the time to move, because no human being can move faster than a bullet.

In the show we can also see scenes shifting forwards and backwards in time, where later events are superimposed over former events without any explanation. Like in HLV when John and Mary are being welcomed as Christmas guests at Sherlock’s parents’ house, shown before the trio had even attempted to sort out the horrible event when Mary had tried to kill their son (which they actually didn’t sort out - they were interrupted by Sherlock’s second heart failure).

And in S4 we have these inexplicable ’jumps’ in time where big chunks that would be explanatory for the story line are simply skipped over. What happened, for example, in TST after Mary had ordered John to ”pull over” - did she give birth in the car? Or was little Rosie born on the sidewalk in the middle of London? Or was this just another labour pain after which they could continue to the hospital? We don’t get to know, because suddenly it’s time for the baby shower. Or in TFP, John and Sherlock jump out of an exploding 221B Baker Street in London, but next moment they’re suddenly hijacking a fisher boat out at sea, perfectly unharmed. How did they even get there? And what happened in between? We never get to know.

This is not how you construct a believable story, is it? All in all, time and space are being handled in a very sloppy manner in BBC Sherlock - actually from start, but increasingly so until it gets really absurd at the end of TFP. Which is a bit illogical in a story about a detective where the facts and details are supposedly essential to his crime solving. In this show one can get the impression that time is not a linear chain of events, and space is not even relevant. But maybe it’s all just a matter of perspective?

The space-time continuum

Not so long ago, I saw this post from 2014 on my dash (X), now with an addition by @sarahthecoat (X) which in turn linked to this very interesting meta by @impatient14 (X). The latter is about BBC Sherlock seen from a space-time continuum, a concept which I find truly mind-boggling and very fascinating - thanks for the link, @sarahthecoat! Here’s Wikipedia’s representation of the space-time continuum (X):

This idea originates from Einstein’s theory of relativity. The speed of light is constant. If space has three dimensions, time can be seen as the fourth dimension. In the representation above, space has been reduced to only two dimensions, leaving the third for time. The observer is placed at an event in Origo (O), the null point where all the time and space axes and the two ’light cones’ of future and past events meet. A signal with equal or less speed than light can travel from O to a position and time within the future light cone. Therefore it’s possible for event O to have a causal influence on this future event. The future light cone contains all the possible events that could be causally affected by O.

Likewise, a signal with equal or less speed than light could have travelled from a position and time within the past light cone to O. The past light cone contains all the possible events that could have had a causal influence on O.

What is real?

But what has this to do with BBC Sherlock? Years ago, we had this really interesting discussion based on a meta by @gosherlocked about ill-treated children in BBC Sherlock (X), where we tried to explore what could be seen as ’real’ events in BBC Sherlock, and what could be seen as purely metaphorical representations. @ebaeschnbliah made a good point explaining how things only happening inside Sherlock’s head would still appear just as ’real’ to him, since every action from a person always starts from within their own brain. I think this idea of a ‘inner universe’ might also be consistent with space-time continuum: within the light cone of possible, future events even absurd things can occur, because in our fantasy everything is possible. So if Sherlock is setting up scenarios within his mind palace, separated from other people’s reality, he might get to absurd conclusions that appear very true to him. And to him the time-line might even seem logical and normal, even if it would appear twisted to an outside observer.

In light of more recent discussions around @sagestreet’s analyses of possible starting points for Sherlock’s extended mind-palace - EMP - (X), I felt inspired to try to apply @impatient14’s idea of the space-time continuum to my own view of this show.

As far as I can see (with my very limited understanding of the topic, because this ’timey-wimey’ stuff is a bit confusing, and a far cry beyond my ’event horizon’ :D) the space-time continuum idea seems to correspond with EMP theory and also with a lot of other stuff we’ve been discussing for the last few years after S4 aired.

However, when it comes to the observer’s point in the space-time continuum, the moment when Sherlock presumably enters his EMP and starts running scenarios of possible future events, I like to see things a bit differently. I’m still inclined to hold on to the ’possibly-raggedy-theory’ as @sagestreet calls it, which places this moment right after John’s wedding.

I have several arguments for this, and some of them involve John’s online blog, which we can all still find on the wayback-machine (X), and also in the mirrored version on tumblr (X). I’ll try to describe my view here, followed by an attempt at argumentation. It might be a bit much to read, but I’ll do my best to point out the main components, so please bear with me 😊. But first of all I recommend you to read @impatient14 ’s space-time meta (X).

Trying to apply @impatient14 ’s space-time continuum idea on the ’possibly-raggedy-theory’ (which is originally @raggedyblue’s brilliant idea; here’s my meta series about it: X), I would suggest the following:

The event when Sherlock enters his EMP - the null point in his space-time continuum - is caused by an overdose of drugs, and this point in time occurs ’off-screen’ on one of the days following John’s wedding.

The past light cone would cover ASiP to TSoT.

The future light cone would cover HLV to the last episode of S4.

Within the closest part of the past light-cone, Sherlock has been reading all the posts on John’s blog, and what we see in the show up until TSoT is Sherlock reminiscing real and imagined past events inside his own mind. They all have a causal influence on the null point (O), but not all of them have necessarily occurred in other people’s reality.

We’re seeing the whole show from Sherlock’s point of view. But he’s trying to look at the events from John’s perspective, in order to better understand John. He imagines, for example, John waking up from a nightmare or John attending a session with his therapist or John having a chat with Mycroft.

Within the future light-cone, there lies a huge amount of hypothetical ’time-strands’ of possible future events. But the null point (O) when Sherlock loses contact with John’s and the other characters’ reality has a causal influence on these future time strands. What we see in HLV-TFP is Sherlock’s drug-induced scenarios where he, inside his comatose but still working brain, tries to follow one of these hypothetical time strands to see where it leads.

In his dream-like state, Sherlock believes that he experiences real events within real light cones, but within his imagination there’s no real materia, so physical realities and limits like the speed of light are no obstacle.

But to an outside observer (like John) time behaves differently. Throughout Sherlock’s perhaps year-long experience, John might only experience a short time when Sherlock lies comatose in hospital, perhaps weeks, and apparently with not much hope of survival.

The time-strand Sherlock has followed in HLV-TFP, however, might end up being a circular time-line, because Sherlock has only his own experience to draw from to make scenarios, and his real-life experience stopped at O. Sherlock can’t possibly predict his real-life future, even though he believes he can; he just doesn’t possess the data of future events, and therefore the higher up the future light cone that his mind travels, the more absurd becomes the result. There are far too many possible variables to take into account for this ‘modeling’ to be a good idea. So this time-strand winds up where we started from, with Sherlock and John eternally solving crimes together, eternally beeing ‘just friends’. And a Ghost!Mary telling him that this is just fine. At the end of the show as we know it for now (TFP), there’s apparently no progression.

What could make Sherlock Holmes ‘come alive’?

The issue of progression in time is, in my opinion, what needs to be solved by a potential S5. For now, this show only ends up where it started; Sherlock goes directly from the absurd, surrealistic events at the prison of Sherrinford to a ’normal’ but never-ending story of crime-solving at 221B. And in the last scene of TFP, time seems to be frozen:

At the end of S4 we can see no progression, only ’business as usual’, in spite of all the things Sherlock has learned about ’emotional context’ after John’s wedding. Continuing the story further, however, based on Sherlock’s new insights, could break this circular timeline. S5 would have the potential to transfer Sherlock and John from the eternal, crime-solving stereotyped friends, to a couple of characters that have an actual, believable life together. But this would require Sherlock waking up from his current state of surrealism.

In ACD canon it may be difficult to follow an actual story arc, but at least Holmes and Watson grow older. In the latter part of Conan Doyle’s stories, we’re told that Holmes retired and moved alone to Sussex Downs to calmly indulge in bee-keeping, while Watson seemingly remained in London. The very last story, though - His Last Bow (LAST) - ends differently. With the villain securely tied up in the back seat, the now older Holmes and Watson leave the scene together in a car. Holmes talks about an impending ‘East Wind’ that will change everything, and now they’re traveling together into the future in a modern (for their time) vehicle of transport to cash in a check for five hundred pounds. ACD didn’t spell it out, but this to me gives a hint of potential.

But how could Sherlock re-enter the same space-time continuum as John? In short, my assumption here is that in John’s ’reality’, HLV-TFP mark a slowly progressing time strand in John’s space-time continuum where Sherlock is hospitalized after an OD of drugs. He’s comatose and in a serious condition between life and death. He needs, of course, to stay alive and wake up from this. But then what? What could he do to change this reality into something new?

What John doesn’t know is that Sherlock’s brain is still working frantically, trying to run scenarios of a hypothetical future in his extended mind palace (EMP). To Sherlock all this appears ’real’ while to us, the onlookers, it seems surreal and increasingly absurd. But the only benefit this serious condition has for Sherlock is an opportunity for self-reflection. In his EMP, he can learn things about himself and his feelings for John, even if he gets all his predictions of the future events essentially wrong. But the things Sherlock (and by extension the audience) experiences within his EMP have a symbolic and metaphoric value to him (us). Even if they’re not ’real’ to other characters, they represent a reality which Sherlock - if he survives to wake up to it - can act upon and influence, very much like a living, breathing person.

One important thing of symbolic value for Sherlock is the change in his view of love, intimacy and emotions. In HLV-TLD Love is represented by Lady Smallwood. @sagestreet has described it beautifully in this meta (X). She’s a new character who isn’t even mentioned before HLV, which to me indicates that in this alternate reality, Sherlock has started to look more closely at Love and what it might actually mean to him. At first he (and Mycroft, representing Sherlock’s brain) is very suspiscious and accuses Lady Smallwood of being a killer and a traitor. But at the end of TLD Mycroft considers to actually meet up with her for a drink. ;) Likewise, at the end of TLD Sherlock realises that he must comfort John with a hug rather than with words - Sentiment is important.

And at the end of TFP he learns that in order to help John, he needs to embrace his crazy sister (who probably represents another, long neglected, part of himself) and start to communicate with her through feelings (= the violin).

The null point from a meta level perspective

But even in a space-time continuum as experienced by Sherlock, why should we place ”O”, the null point of the observer, exactly where I suggest here (immediately after TSoT)? There are many other good and valid ideas about EMP starting points floating around, for example that it would occur when Mary shoots Sherlock in HLV. Or much earlier when he jumps from Barts in TRF. Or even from the very start of the Pilot or at least from ASiP. So what would be particularly convincing about this one? We have no chance of knowing, of course, but I’ll try to argue my case below.

Placing the null point directly after the wedding and making Sherlock’s transition into EMP self-inflicted by drugs gives the whole show structure a different centre of gravity, because it enhances the importance of Sherlock’s heartbreak as a game turner. Instead of being shot in the chest by an assassin, the real cause of Sherlock entering his EMP becomes his own emotional reaction to John marrying another - adding the prospect of John having a child with them. Which would have started after Sherlock’s deduction about Mary’s pregnancy at the end of TSoT:

That would have ‘sealed the deal’ for Sherlock, wouldn’t it? Whatever would happen with John’s marriage, his responsabilities as a father would weigh heavy on John, limiting whatever spare time he’d have for Sherlock in his life to a mere minimum. The last nail in the coffin… And that’s a far more interesting reason than a gun shot in my opinion, because Sherlock will have to deal with this emotional conundrum in a different way than how he usually solves puzzles. The drugs reason would also be far more canon consistent - as I suggested in this meta long ago (X) - since this is what happens at the end of SIGN, when Watson declares his intention to marry Mary Morstan:

“The division seems rather unfair,”I remarked. “You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?”

“For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine-bottle.” And he stretched his long white hand up for it.

@victorianpining has elegantly described in this episode (X) of the video series ’TJLC Explained’ how, in many ways, BBC Sherlock has picked up on Billy Wilder’s adaptation, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (TPLoSH). In this film from the 1970:s the real reason behind Holmes’ drug use is strongly hinted at: his frustration over his own desire for Watson.

Also: Assuming an impending S5 and a five-act structure to the show, like @garkgatiss has suggested in this excellent meta (X), each series of BBC sherlock would represent one act. And the midpoint of the show would fall somewhere in the middle of TSoT (perhaps around Sherlock’s speech about the stag night? ;)) Thus the two halves of the show could be folded nicely around this point in TSoT, with 7,5 episodes before and 7,5 episodes after. But what about TAB? The ’Christmas Special’ was said to be separate from the rest of the show, but this wasn’t true, was it? There were ’moden’ scenes in TAB which seemed to be caused by events in HLV, which means TAB would follow logically after it in Sherlock’s space-time continuum. So if we add TAB to the equation, the midpoint would instead fall between TSoT and HLV, with 8 episodes before and 8 after.

A ‘Watsonian’ perspective?

Another possible start for EMP - thus an alternative null point - has been suggested to be the moment when Sherlock jumps from Barts’ hospital in TRF to fake his own suicide (or even the moment when he decides to do this). This could of course be seen as a crucial point; a causal event when Sherlock took a decision that would later perjudicate his whole relationship with John, resulting in John marrying Mary Morstan. But from John’s perspective I think it’s important to remember that he didn’t ’move on’ to marry Mary Morstan immediately after Sherlock jumped and (apparently) died in front of him - however cruel this may have been. No, John finally felt it necessary to ’move on’ because Sherlock stayed ’dead’ for two years, letting John grieve him without even a hint that he was alive. If Sherlock had told John at least shortly afterwards what he was doing and why, I believe much could have been forgiven. And I think this is obvious, both from John’s blog posts and from TEH:

JOHN: One Word, Sherlock. That is all I would have needed. One word to let me know that you were alive.

I’d rather see ’The Fall’ when Sherlock jumps from Barts’ rooftop as a symbol of Sherlock’s ’fall from grace’ in John’s eyes - and probably also in Sherlock’s own eyes. In the scene with the boiling kettle, Moriarty seems to be the ’tempter’ with the apple, and he claims to owe Sherlock ”a fall” - an obvious symbolic reference to the biblical ”Fall of Man” when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. (I won’t go much further into this here, but maybe Sherlock later on gaining insight about his emotional self and his feelings for John could count as a forbidden, original ‘sin’, that would threaten to break his self-imposed celibacy? The ‘headless nun’ with the intellect stored in the fridge of 221B? Knowledge is power...)

But The Fall, however, was not a crucial point in time when John decided to marry a woman. It was Sherlock’s continued behaviour (= his absence) for a prolonged time period that made that decision necessary in John’s view. So John’s decision - even after Sherlock’s return - to ’move on’ is probably not caused by a single, crucial event, but rather by Sherlock’s whole treatment of John; his (apparent) idea that John was safer and better off without Sherlock, and not capable of confronting a dangerous enemy like Moriarty at Sherlock’s side. Why does John proceed with his wedding plans with Mary even after Sherlock has come back to his life? Because his trust is broken. John can’t risk revealing his true feelings to someone who keeps shutting him out and keeps exposing him to cruel jokes, trying to coax him into confessing things that have no apparent reciprocation.

A ‘Holmesian’ perspective!

But the important thing is, in my opinion, that we’re probably not seeing this show from John’s perspective; we’re seeing it from Sherlock’s point of view. And in Sherlock’s eyes, John marrying Mary, together with the revelation that they’re expecting a child together, would be a far more crucial event than him jumping from Barts. If this null point in time of the observer occurs shortly after Sherlock goes home alone to his ‘solitary confinement’, starts taking drugs while reading John’s blog and in a couple of days loses consciousness due to an OD, then everything we see after that, up until TFP, will only have happened in his head - within a hypothetical light cone of possible future events.

And Mary shooting Sherlock in the heart in HLV would also be merely a symbol of what she did to him by marrying John and (apparently) getting pregnant with him; a metaphor produced by Sherlock’s brain scenario within his potential future light cone.

But I suspect the shot was never real; hence the weird sliding flower pot at the actual moment, and this later image of Mary dressed as a bride with a gun, and even later Moriarty dressed as a bride in TAB - an ’abominable bride’ symbolising Sherlock’s heartbreak. So I don’t think Mary did shoot him; she didn’t have to, because Sentiment was enough to tip Sherlock over the allegorical rooftop. If Moriarty was somehow behind Mary marrying John, he really managed to ’burn Sherlock’s heart out’.

Everything we see before this crucial point in time might be Sherlock’s recollection of past events, inspired by reading John’s blog and projected within his light cone of past time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everything we see really happened, though; it might be mixed up with little fantasies of Sherlock’s, where he embellished and dramatized the ‘real’ events in scenarios where he could play the hero. And perhaps a very James Bond-like hero at that, based on all the movies John had made him watch, according to both John’s blog (X) and Sherlock’s website (X). Because Sherlock is trying to see everything through John’s eyes, and he thinks John at least used to hero-worship him.

It might be within this light cone of the past that we see Sherlock do all the things that do make logical sense, yes. But already here we also see him do fantastical, exaggerated things that rather seem taken from action movies. Like short-cutting a taxi by climbing rooftops in ASiP. Or battling a veiled villain, knocking them out and getting rid of them in the short time-window when John went to the grocery’s in TBB. Or traveling to Karachi in no-time to single-handedly save Irene Adler from a bunch of armed terrorists in ASiB. Or the scene where he’s being tortured while his brother is watching in TEH. There’s lots of questionable stuff happening in ASiP-TSoT - much more so than what ever happened in canon.

For this theory to be confirmed, however, we need to finally see the scene when Sherlock takes an overdose after the wedding - or at least be told that it did happen. And this is what S5 could reveal. For now, this is mostly speculation.

OK, so this is basically how I view this show, trying to place it within the concept of time-space continuum proposed by @impatient14. I might not have grasped the terms of this concept properly, but in my view it seems to fit with my points above - please correct me if I’m wrong.

To me it would make sense if the increasing surrealism of the show from HLV to TFP were basically due to three things:

Sherlock’s serious health condition; he’s near death, with the implications this has for his brain activity.

He has lost contact with reality almost completely; he’s operating within a hypothetical, drug-induced universe with its very own natural laws and space-time continuum.

He’s biased by strong emotions; heartbreak, guilt and self-loathing, which makes him draw some incorrect conclusions based on misconceptions about John.

Recurring events - a circular time strand

I’m certainly not the only one who has noticed how the story line seems to fold into itself as this show progresses, and how new versions of things we’ve already seen before seem to come back. In fact, it’s not at all difficult to make a long list of the events and elements that are repeated in BBC Sherlock (X). ’The wheel turns, and nothing is ever new’, as Sherlock says in ASiB. That line originates from canon, by the way; Holmes utters something similar in VALL:

“Everything comes in circles – even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It’s all been done before, and will be again.”

Actually, I think the concept of recurring events was already incorporated into Doyle’s stories. But the time line still at least made some logical sense - roughly. ;-)

In any case, what we see in BBC Sherlock - especially S4 - is not how time works for a human being living in the real world. Even if some things sometimes seem to repeat themselves in our lives, and even if our time sometimes appear to pass faster and other times slower, we don’t usually experience our lifetime as circular or even spiral, do we? These things might occur in a dream world, though; in a space-time continuum constructed inside someone’s brain.

In @impatient14’s meta, Sherlock’s statements in TST and TLD are quoted, where he claims he could totally predict the future if he only had enough data:

The world is woven from billions of lives, every strand crossing every other. What we call premonition is just movement of the web. If you could attenuate to every strand of quivering data, the future would be entirely calculable, as inevitable as mathematics.

An advanced grasp of the mathematics of probability mapped onto a thorough apprehension of human psychology and the known dispositions of any given individual can reduce the number of variables considerably. I myself know of at least fifty-eight techniques to refine this seemingly infinite array of randomly generated possibilities down to the smallest number of feasible variables.

I correctly anticipated the responses of people I know well to scenarios I devised? Can’t everyone do that?

And already at the end of ASiP, Sherlock claimed something similar:

The thing is, though: while these things in theory may be totally cool in Sherlock’s imagination, where his own brain controls everything, in our real, physical world it’s still impossible.

No human being is omnipotent or omniscient. But inside his drug-influenced brain, Sherlock might like to believe that this is his super-power. It’s not credible though, that someone could foresee events with the precision that Sherlock predicts them in TLD, because there are simply too many “feasible variables” to keep track on. No one can collect that much data. But if you recycle old, already collected data, you might come up with some new combinations of it. Just look at the world Sherlock dreamed up in S4! This is not a realistic future based on correct predictions; it’s a dystopic future where no one is happy and everything is bleak and depressing, but it’s also absurd and surrealistic. Because the person doing the modelling is only human; he’s biased by his own emotions and bad experiences.

John’s blog as a “second opinion”

If we assume that the null point indeed occurs shortly after John’s wedding, that also coincides with the point in time when John’s blog stops updating. Up till that point, we have been able to read John’s own version of the events as a kind of ’second opinion’ - like the one you get from a second doctor. :)

As I see it, John’s blog is the litteral ‘Watsonian perspective’; the blog, rather than the show, is the equivalent of Watson’s stories published in the Strand Magazine. And the blog posts have also been fairly consistent with the order of the events in the show. When we read John’s blog, it’s not difficult to form a coherent plot line in our heads from it. All in all, even with all their fantastic ’adventures’ described, I think the blog is a fairly logical recollection of events, and the conclusions of the crime cases do make sense - at least to the point we can expect from a fictional story. The problem is, hovewer, that the real-life blog stops updating mid-show, directly after TSoT, which is rather illogical. What happened there? This fact would only make sense to me within the context of what we can see in the show, if the stopping has an in-story reason. But in TST (which bears the name of an old blog post!) the blogging has seemingly continued. In TST we can see several cases described on John’s blog which never actually appear on the stopped version online.

The discrepancy between John’s blog and the weird references to it in S4 is particularly interesting, I believe. Since these S4 blogposts are never confirmed by the real, online blog, it gives food for the suspicion that they are all made up by Sherlock’s brain. And why do people, like nurse Cornish in TLD, talk about the blog as if it were Sherlock’s rather than John’s? Because Sherlock is the author of the very last post on the online version (X); he obviously hacked John’s blog after the wedding and took over it, while John was occupied with his "sex holiday” with Mary. Sherlock’s excuse was to publish some wedding photos, but neither them nor Sherlock’s claims about having solved the cases of The Bloody Guardsman and The Mayfly Man seem to impress John. In his comments to Sherlock’s hacked wedding post, John does not confirm that Sherlock solved these two cases. Instead, he tells Sherlock to stop.

From Sherlock’s perspective, reading John’s blogposts as well as his readers’ comments, would have been a great support for Sherlock’s memory; he could have used them as inspiration and incentive to re-live the events in his mind to try to better understand John. One interesting thing with the blog is that the order in time of the posts seems to fit with the order in which the events can be seen in the show. There are cases written on the blog that aren’t presented in the show, or even referred to, but most of the cases that John describes on the blog also figure in the show - either as full-blown plot lines or referred to by Sherlock and other characters. All in all, I think John’s blog represents a fairly coherent story arc, up until his wedding in TSoT when it suddenly stops.

But if this marks the null point when Sherlock loses contact with reality, Sherlock’s perspective might begin to differ more and more from John’s perspective, right? The order of certain events in Sherlock’s EMP might also be altered, if his mind no longer needs to experience them in a coherent order. Which might explain, for example, why he recycles a case - The Six Thatchers - that already has been described by John on the blog years ago (X), but in S4 it’s casted with almost entirely new ’actors’. Please note that the original case of The Six Thatchers is never referenced in the show. It doesn’t contribute to ’our’ (Sherlock’s) story, nor does it have the potential to alter it in any way. It could be said to have no causal influence on Sherlock’s null point, nor on his light-cone of future events. But the case could still be stored somewhere in Sherlock’s subconcious, right?

Causality and non-causality

In Wikipedia’s explanation of the space-time continuum, there’s also a part (see ’Relativity of simultaneity’, X) that explains how different observers’ experiences of the order of events could differ, depending on the speed with which they travel, provided that these events have no causal influence over each other. In the presentation of the light cones, these events are space-related rather than time-related, and are said to occur ‘elsewhere’. If an observer approaches the speed of light, they can even experience these not-causally-connected events in a reversed order, due to their own altered frame of reference:

Not that Sherlock physically can travel with the speed of light, of course, but inside his imagination this would not be a problem, because his thoughts can travel very fast, so following physical laws is not required.

An interesting thing about the Thatcher case is that in TST:s recycled version, Sherlock seems to have inserted the case in a new setting into his EMP, fitting it into a time strand with a causal chain of events within his light cone of possible future. Because this time the Thatcher case definitely has an impact on the events that follow. The smashed Thatcher busts lead Sherlock to the memory stick, which in turn leads him to Mary and him and John to Morocco, a story which ultimately leads to Vivian Norbury and to Mary’s death. All these events are now causally linked in Sherlock’s EMP.

John’s version of their time together is more ‘down-to-earth’, though, even if John sometimes appear to be a slightly unreliable narrator. It’s an ‘alternate historical source’, if you like. The blog is still useful, in my opinion, to confirm the ‘authenticity’ of different events in the show. Thanks to the blog, we can find evidence that John’s wedding truly occurred, and that Mary really exists, because Sherlock has posted documentation - wedding photos - on John’s blog, and Mary has made several comments on the blog. (We don’t actually have Mary’s pregnancy confirmed by herself on the blog; when Sherlock mansplains that she needs to avoid seafood alludes to it in a comment, she merely tells him to shut up).

But the show represents, I believe, Sherlock’s own perspective. While reading the blog he also, of course, would add his own memories to the experiences. If Sherlock was affected by drugs already while reading, that could explain all of the weird scenes in ASiP - TSoT mentioned above, which don’t appear very realistic and aren’t mentioned on the blog.

This explanation - with or without the space-time continuum - is of course not something I’m sure of, it’s merely a hypothesis. Anyone is welcome to try to debunk it. :) But this far I haven’t been able to find any convincing evidence against it. The fact that Sherlock’s OD would have occurred ’off stage’ is not a problem in my opinion, because

a) this method of reasoning backwards to reach a solution which is not shown in the story but still most likely has ocurred, is very much Sherlock Holmes’ MO already in canon and

b) his OD is talked about a lot in TAB, and still we never actually see it happen.

As far as I can see, all the ingredients are there, but the time sequence in which they occur is twisted and folded in on itself:

Sherlock’s ‘week of solitary confinement’ before his OD (described by Mycroft in TAB) happens in TLD, when Sherlock isolates himself at 221B taking drugs

Sherlock’s OD happens in TAB

Sherlock being taken to hospital happens in HLV

Hints of different life-threatening health problems and hospital equipment are sprinkled all over S4, but they don’t have a logically satisfactory context

Maybe this could be explained because in Sherlock’s mind, these events are not causally linked - they occur ‘elsewhere’. He hasn’t yet fully recognised what he’s been doing to himself and the real reason why. This realisation remains for the next series to explore, along with Sherlock’s solution to get out of the situation. In the mean time, he’s woven them into his alternate inner universe with a hypothetical time strand where they are not causally linked.

Predictions...

... are of course very difficult to make for BBC Sherlock - especially since the show makers still refuse to give us any details as to whether we’ll even have a fifth series and when, in that case. And there are so many ‘feasible variables’ to take into account. So maybe it’s more interesting to see what we might draw from canon? Doyle treated his audience very much the same, when he killed off Sherlock Holmes and remained silent about his future for a decade. But, as I mentioned earlier, there are differences. The plot line we’ve seen this far in BBC Sherlock seems to go on and on in circles, frozen in time, with our two eternal friends “sitting arguing in a scruffy flat”, where we could imagine that ‘it’s always 1895′:

But ACD canon’s ending was far more open-ended and took place at the beginning of a new century. In LAST we learn that Holmes and Watson have indeed aged and at least Holmes, who supposedly no longer lives at 221B, has retired to Sussex Downs and written a handbook about beekeeping. Except for this last case, where he very much acts as a Bond-like action hero still going strong. As a double agent in disguise, Holmes effectively fools and wrestles down his opponent, saves his country from enemy attacks and then he steps into a modern car with Watson at the wheel, and they travel together into the future. I so wish that Sidney Paget had made an illustration of this, but we are left to our own deductions about it... ;-). Instead, I’ll post this picture of Claridge’s Hotel, London, where Holmes told Martha Hudson in LAST that he was now staying:

Claridge’s is a famous, still existing, five-star hotel not very far from Baker Street and - ironically - equally close to the subway station Bond Street. :-) From the video on their website (X) we can indulge in any fantasy about Holmes spending a couple of nights in this glamorous luxury hotel with his Watson (maybe a prompt for a fan fiction?): There is nowhere quite like Claridge’s. The hotel began life in 1856 and soon attracted royal notice. During the 1920s it became an English institution; an art deco landmark, loved by movie stars and statesmen, fashion designers and global dignitaries.

As for BBC Sherlock, I think the dystopic, circular plot line needs to be broken in S5, even if we won’t reach the speed of light; John and Sherlock literally need to run out from Rathbone place. Even if the plot line didn’t advance in S4, there still has been a lot of character development, at least for Sherlock. If we’ll indeed have a S5, I expect Sherlock to be able to now act on his new insights and experiences in the physical world, even if it turns out that some of them only took place inside his own head. I do expect some true progression of the plot line in S5, I do expect to see a similar character development in John and that certain predominant issues with this show - like heteronormativity - will finally be properly addressed.

Well, hereby endeth the monster post. Thanks to anyone patient enough to have followed my ramblings this far! :) Tagging some people who might be interested.

@raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @sagestreet @tjlcisthenewsexy

#space-time continuum #bbc sherlock #canon ending

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sepublic · 3 years

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Season 2 Teaser for The Owl House?

So for those of you who haven’t caught up; A few days ago, Dana released an exclusive photo of herself on Instagram, with a cryptically-blurred reflection in her window that was all too conveniently-placed;

Now, this COULD just be some game she’s playing, but like; Reverse-image searches have yielded nothing, and it hurts no one to speculate! Thanks to @50shades-of-blue, who had the common sense to remember to flip the reflection, we have something more akin to THIS;

This image bears a decent resemblance to a sequence from the show’s intro, in terms of structuring; We have characters divided and separated by golden bars. This points to Dana’s image being a shot from a new intro for Season 2, either one for an entire season, or a single episode. I say this, because looking at the subject matter… On the very left, we see something vaguely blue, and similar in resemblance to a bile sac;

This could actually be the Titan’s heart, image below for reference;

Not only that, but as Blue’s helpful tracing points out, the other two figures in the ‘slots’ bear a resemblance to Owl Mask and Kikimora, the latter having the fingers of her hand-hair splayed out, and the former appearing to take off their mask.

What little we see of Owl Mask bears a decent-enough resemblance to the Season 2 character that Dana teased, further cementing a connection between the two. Not only that, but we get a glimpse of five (possibly six) colorful symbols above the three character slots, each likely pertaining to the Coven Heads, as shown by Blue’s earlier tracing.

In particular, you can tell the blue symbol has the same distinctive, U-shaped horns of the Healing Head; And the green symbol bears enough resemblance to the Plant Head, with their dark-green bangs covering most of their lighter-green face. Combined with symbols that seem similar to the Construction, Beastkeeping, and Oracle Heads, the exact layout we’ve seen so far coincidentally seems to match the banner layout seen in The First Day;

You have from left to right; The Construction, Plant, Beastkeeping, Bard, and Healing Heads! Now, if you look to the very right of the image, there also seems to be a sixth symbol, a bit lower than the others, with what appears to be a purple coloration; This is likely the Oracle Head, especially since it matches with the aforementioned placement of the banners. Now, exact positioning beside, we also know that there are three more symbols obscured, the ones for the Abominations, Potions, and Illusion Heads. If we go by the pattern established by the rest of the image, with the Heads at either end of the display being placed lower than the rest, and the rest being shown in an up-down pattern… Then it seems we more or less have the vast majority of this mysterious screenshot, with some of it blacked out!

As others such as @preciseprose have suggested, there’s a good chance that this is a screen transition, hence why only a specific corner and portion is obscured; Because if this shot parallels the one seen in the Season 1 intro with Willow, Gus, and Amity, which burns away in the middle to reveal King… Then it makes sense that a similar transition would happen with this show, perhaps obscuring from the outside-in this time as a contrast.

Now, what’s interesting is that this style of shot, once reserved for protagonists and friends/peers of Luz, is now being designated towards lesser-known antagonists associated with the Emperor’s Coven. While this could just be how the Season 2 intro works, with Gus, Willow, and Amity appearing later or earlier, likely closer to Luz; It does make me and others wonder if we’ll get a dedicated intro to the Emperor’s Coven with Belos, front-and-center! I’ve talked at enormous length in the past of Luz and Belos being parallels… And it’d match other Disney TVA shows, such as Gravity Falls, Ducktales, or Amphibia, who had villainous takeovers for their shows’ intros as well!

This could of course allude to an episode with a heavy focus on the members of the Coven System, specifically Belos and his aides Owl Mask and Kikimora, as well as the Head witches of the Covens he appointed and presumably trusts. This is of course all fascinating and has me even MORE intrigued, but also; The placement of the Titan’s heart alongside Owl Mask and Kikimora suggests its treatment as its own character as well… Which, if it’s a giant heart, it presumably represents and operates as a stand-in for the Titan, perhaps the conduit with which Belos even speaks to it (and vice-versa?) through! AKA the Heart represents the Titan, it IS the Titan, which then suggests that this Emperor’s Coven triumvirate consists of the Titan, Owl Mask, and Kikimora…

But that’s not the only consideration! I’ve talked before about character parallels in this show… We have Luz and Amity, Eda and Lilith, Owlbert and Lilith’s palisman. I’ve speculated on King and Kikimora being parallels, and even Hooty and Belos… But that always made me wonder; What about Willow and Gus? Do THEY have parallels, associated with the Coven System and its Emperor? And for a while I entertained Warden Wrath and Owl Mask, but lo and behold; I may be right, at least about one of those two, and also in general about parallels! Because if we compare the placements… We have the Titan and Willow, Owl Mask and Gus, and Amity and Kikimora!

Owl Mask being a parallel to Gus is interesting, because they’re operating as a spy for Belos; And presumably, Illusionists would be great at stealth. I wouldn’t be surprised if Owl Mask used Illusions, albeit to disguise and mask their own presence; A parallel and contrast to Gus, who uses Illusions to create and draw attention and spectacle! Not only that, but it makes me wonder if Owl Mask is also a child prodigy like Gus, if they have issues with being overlooked, and as a contrast to Gus, they’ve embraced this instead of fighting against it…? And Owl Mask is sent to spy on Luz the human, perhaps a parallel to Gus’ own fascination with humans…?

Then we’ve got Willow and the Titan’s heart. Now, this one interests me… And it makes me think about how Willow is presented with a raw, innate strength, and an uncanny ability to cast magic without summoning a circle nor glyph. I’ve talked before about Willow and Belos having parallels, as they both have distinct shots with their eyes glow green; Could this parallel stem more from a connection to the Titan, than anything else? Then as @aguigenae suggested, instead of Luz (or JUST Luz) being able to speak to the Titan… What if it was Willow? It’d re-contextualize her ability to draw onto raw, magical potential through pure emotions… And similarly, a lot of her spells draw power from the Isles itself in the form of plants, and we know the Isles as synonymous with the Titan!

With how Belos seems to draw power and spells from the Isles, albeit with fleshy and stone formations… Perhaps Willow serves as a parallel and foil, creating constructs from the Isles as well, but in the form of plantlife! Her being able to speak to plants might provide a medium to contact the Isles they’re rooted in… And as I said before, Willow has shown an unusual ability with magic not unlike how Belos can cast magic, but through his unique form of spheres and orbs. If Willow is associated with the Titan’s heart, perhaps she could speak to it in a way that Belos can’t- Perhaps they BOTH can speak, and this will lead to a conflict with Belos, who seeks to preserve this ‘privilege’? Keep in mind that it’s Willow who openly defies Belos the most by rallying an entire crowd against him- If she’s the face of the revolution, her being able to speak to the Titan could create further parallels and odds between the two!

Not only that, but… Talking again of Willow and the Titan’s Heart, if the two are parallels; What does this say about the Titan itself? Perhaps like Willow, it’s a being with raw magical power, easily terrifying, and with a connection to nature (as it IS nature in its case). If these characters are dark parallels, then what if the Titan was like Inner Willow, wrathful and fully exploring its dangerous power, having felt harmed and hurt, twisted…

But what if it was also a Willow who never learned to stand up for herself? A powerful, dangerous witch… But with no true self-esteem, no believe in themselves? What if the Titan was like a Dark Willow, and this self-doubt was what allowed Belos to manipulate it? I’ve speculated before that perhaps Belos has managed to sway and influence the Titan into seeing his way as the right way to handle magic… If it was a dark parallel to Willow, perhaps the Titan is hopeless, thinking there’s nothing it can do to oppose Belos, feeling like it’s smarter than him, as a toxic friend with control; Think Anne and Sasha from Amphibia!

We might even get a scene paralleling Willow and Amity’s first appearance, with how Amity condescendingly mocks Willow, albeit with potential, if misguided, good intentions. Perhaps Belos is like this- He’s cruel and manipulative of the Titan, but he also genuinely believes in what he’s doing, that this IS the best for the Isles, and that this is how the Titan should have its magic be utilized and taught. But, in absence of Amity, we see Willow’s true feelings of resentment and anger that have bottled up… So what if the Titan was like that with Belos, except dialed up? What if the Titan hates Belos or wants to see him defeated, but isn’t entirely sure if he’s wrong, either…

So to get into blind speculation, what if- What if the Titan has tried to create a new champion? By going behind Belos’ back and communicating with a new, younger witch, perhaps one that reminds it of Belos before he turned corrupt… What if the Titan is contacting Luz and/or Willow? Hoping to find someone else who will actually speak for them, not just talk over as Belos possibly is doing? Maybe the Titan is trying to foster a new witch, an alternative champion to depose Belos or take over; Or have Belos and Luz/Willow compete, to prove to the Titan who has the best philosophy to magic through their own respective victories?

And if Belos were to find out… Well, I imagine he might do something drastic to the Titan. He has control and access to its heart- Could he torture it in retaliation, perhaps causing quakes across the Isles that echo the Titan’s throes of agony? Would Belos do something drastic to prevent the Titan from helping Luz/Willow, adversely affecting the Boiling Isles in the process? Similarly, if Belos is a toxic friend to the Titan, perhaps there’s symbolism to his castle built around the Titan’s heart… Kudos to @fermented-writers-block for some of these ideas;

Perhaps it could be interpreted as Belos having an iron grip over its heart, or the Titan building up walls around its heart –thanks to Belos’ encouragement- and letting in only Belos…? Alas, Belos is the one who convinces the Titan to hide itself away and let only him in, because only HE cares, only he knows best… And yet, he’s the one who helped build those walls that the Titan hides within. Ultimately, his castle MUST fall- Especially if it’s being used to exploit and manipulate the Titan’s heart in other, literal ways as well…

Finally, let’s talk Amity and Kikimora sharing placements. There is of course the obvious implication of romantic feelings, but also… What if, instead, there was this idea of Belos being like Luz to Amity, for Kiki? For Amity, Luz was an outsider who came out of nowhere and changed her life for the better, helped her stand up for herself- What if Belos was that to Kikimora? What if he was an outsider, a human even (before he changed and decayed) that changed Kikimora’s life forever after he appeared from nowhere… The two starting to a prickly start, before truly caring for each other? As Belos encouraged Kikimora to stand up for herself, eventually culminating in her own life improving(?) as Kiki is now second only to him, the Emperor of the Boiling Isles! It might explain why he seems to trust her so much- The two genuinely care for each other and Kikimora feels like she owes everything to him…

And, to incorporate my own analysis/speculation of Amity; Perhaps Kikimora has placed all of her sense of self-worth into Belos, about how she can help him, because only HE ever made her feel like something! What if as a toxic parallel to Luz and Amity, Kikimora has lowkey become dependent upon Belos- Who, while kind to Kikimora… Kiki still has placed all of her self-esteem not in herself, but in Belos’ approval of her. And while Belos DOES approve and provide support, it’s still dangerously dependent and shows that Kikimora can’t really stand for herself, that she needs someone else as a litmus test to judge her worth as a person.

Finally, we know Amity is the least talented compared to Willow and Gus; Given how we have the literal Titan and Owl Mask, compared to Kikimora, who caves into Luz’s threats… It’s possible Kikimora is the least powerful amongst the Titan and Owl Mask, but has made up for it with raw determination and skill? After all, she presumably cast the magical cage that all of Luz’s efforts wouldn’t have been able to defeat. Perhaps like Amity, Kikimora had to work hard to prove herself, to earn respect; And like Amity in Episode 3, Kikimora feels a desperate need to hold onto that sense of accomplishment and superiority, and can and WILL retaliate viciously when it’s threatened. To Kikimora, she’s dedicated everything into making up for her own shortcomings, just like Amity- So she despises cheaters, or at least people who undermine that work.

(I know what some may be thinking- Isn’t Kikimora a King parallel? Well, these parallels work in multiple ways… Amity parallels Luz, but then so too does Belos, presumably. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amity was both a parallel to Luz AND Kikimora, then.)

And, that’s my general thoughts, analysis, and speculation, all based from this reflection we’ve seen! It’s possible Dana is trolling us, by accident or otherwise, with a videogame screenshot… But hey- It doesn’t hurt anyone if we’re wrong, I say! It’s all in good fun… Besides, if it WAS a teaser from Season 2, and we didn’t give our shot, then we’d all feel like idiots! We may as well take our chance and analyze, because- Just in case…!

#the owl house #the owl house luz #Luz noceda #the owl house belos #emperor belos #the owl house willow #willow park #the owl house gus #augustus porter #the owl house amity #amity blight #the owl house kikimora #the owl house season 2 #speculation #theory #analysis #Dana terrace

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cblgblog · 3 years

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Sorry I’m advance but one of my other favorite accounts just reblogged a Tony scene and people are talking about Civil War and how it made them Stan Tony, and how when they watch that movie they hate team cap👀 Then someone was all about how he was sleep deprived and how much pressure he was under and couldn’t understand how people didn’t like Tony because. Someone literally said that when someone says they don’t like Tony in Civil War they say “did you watch the same movie as me.” I’m baffled. Oddly enough someone else said, “he just wants to help everyone.” Sorry for the rant but I think people forget about what the accords are and what it would mean for people. Side note, I hope you’re having a great day/night 😀

No sorry needed!

I feel you man, I do. Honestly, I’ve unfollowed people based on similar posts when I was in especially Done moods, so.

Look on the one hand, the movie would’ve been a narrative failure if everyone was in favor of one side or the other, right? The whole point of the damn thing—besides giving the Mouse overlords more money—was to spark discussion, debate. Which, yeah, we’ll call that the tame description for what actually happened. But just, the thing was meant to split the fanbase so in that regard…winning? Thanks, I guess?

Film is also very obviously subjective, different strokes for different folks, so yeah, ten people can watch a movie and none of them are gonna see the exact same film. Let’s try to remember that this is, in theory anyway, a good thing. I just read a professional film review yesterday where I had the same reaction. What film were you watching, dude? Incidentally his reviewing partner said the same thing.

So honestly, no, they weren’t watching the same film as you or I or anyone else, because everyone brings their own biases and experiences and knowledge and interests into a thing, and that’s always going to flavor how it’s viewed. Again, let’s try to remember that this is good. In theory. Heavy on the theory.

That out of the way? Let’s get into Tony specifically so his uber stans can find this and scream at me on anon as though I just shot RDJ with a nuke.

Oh yeah, he was stressed. Oh, he was sleep deprived. Yeah, I’ve heard that. And that it’s Pepper’s fault, if she hadn’t left the poor baby, if she was there to rein him in, he’d be fine dammit, leave the baby alone!

Here’s the thing. You know who gets a pass on their shit behavior when they’re upset or tired? Actual babies. Actual babies and toddlers, and children, up to a point. Because they actually cannot always help themselves. Their bodies and brains are different, they have not learned better.

When you’re a 50-year-old man who’s supposedly the world’s bestest superhero, who wants, wants to be in charge of protecting the whole world? You need a little more self-control than that. The sleep deprived excuse works if you snap at someone before you’ve had your coffee, not for this. Roseanne Barr didn’t get to blame Ambien for her racism, Tony doesn’t get to handwave CW away because oops, I was tired.

Really? You’re a superhero, dude. Most of your teammates are tired too, that’s part of the gig. If you crash and burn this badly without your afternoon nap, fucking hang up the armor and go back to your billionaire playboy lifestyle.

Speaking of that, sure, right. It’s Pepper’s fault because she left him. Put aside the argument on whether that was justified or not (cough, it was and she should’ve stayed away even though they are adorable together). It’s not Pepper’s job to keep Tony sane. It’s not any partner’s job to do that for anyone. If she wants out, she has a right to that, without Tony going off the rails and blaming it on her. Seriously, he says part of the reason he backed the Accords was to “split the difference” with Pepper.

Dude. You were an asshole and you lost your girl. You destroyed all your suits, turned an emotional and mental corner in IM 3…and then relapsed 4 minutes later I guess because Whedon. Either way, Tony admits himself that he does not want to stop. So instead of doing that, or finding another partner who can accept that, you back an unjust international law that pits you against your team, your supposed friends? Go to therapy, have a pint of ice cream, cry into your pillow, send her more of those strawberries you sent her in IM 2 that she’s allergic to. You don’t go trying to change international law in ways that could ultimately affect millions of people because your girl left you.

Honestly—and thank God they didn’t do this but—the only way the Pepper excuse works in excusing his behavior in any way is if she’d died. Or been severely injured like Happy in IM 3. Still wouldn’t be okay, but, like Quill messing up their chance to stop Thanos because Gamora died, it would’ve been more understandable. Understandable, not excusable, and the way the MCU treats their women as manpain fodder, we’re probably legit lucky we didn’t get this.

As for him wanting to help everyone. He does in fact want that, I think. The problem is that his need to feel like he’s doing that is stronger than his rational mind, or his want to actually help in a constructive way.

Tony is too smart. He’s dumb as hell in many instances, mostly involving people and relationships, but he’s also too smart, and he’s been told for too long that he’s smart, and he’s bought into it. Ultron. Suit of armor around the world, protects the world, no more alien threats. It’s a simple concept on paper that fails in execution. So there are people with dangerous powers. Okay, we’ll make a set of laws to keep them from being dangerous, problem solved. But again, it isn’t.

Tony is not used to problems he cannot solve. He’s a genius, right? He can fix anything. He should be able to fix anything. That’s how he feels. But not everything is zeros and ones and circuits, things that can be fixed mechanically like his armors can. The people he wants to protect are not built that way. But he needs to feel like he’s doing something, because he’s terrified of what happens to the world if he doesn’t. So he creates these simple solutions to complex problems. The suit of armor, the Accords. They sound good in theory, but the problems they’re trying to solve are bigger than they are. And Tony, way back in IM 1, he sat back for years, clueless that his weapons were being used for bad things. He says it to Cap in CW. When he found out what his weapons were being used for, he went in and stopped it. Whether or not he should’ve known that already is a separate issue here. The point here is that when he found out, too late or not, he went in and did something about it.

Tony needs to do something about it. Again, go back to Cap in AoU, Tony’s nightmare sequence. Steve asks Tony why he didn’t save them. Tony’s ultimate nightmare is that he sits back and does nothing, and his inaction causes everyone to die. Which is where you get Ultron. Something he came up with because of what he saw in space in Avengers 1, then doubled down on in AoU. It’s where you get the Accords. Oops, he caused someone to die, he killed Charles Spencer. Must do something about that right now so it doesn’t happen again, and he won’t have to feel this guilt. He should be collaborating with others to come up with solutions (no Bruce in AoU doesn’t count because Bruce was dumb there), or at the very least, taking more time to think through the repercussions of the things he puts out there. But he doesn’t, because he’s got his savior complex that tells him that he alone can and must fix this, and because he’s too dumb to realize how not-smart he is in certain areas.

“We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I’m game.”

Isn’t that what he says in CW, or something very close to it? Whatever form that takes. That’s the issue, right there, whatever form that takes. Realistically, yes, there should be laws regarding people with powers, the same way there are special laws pertaining to people who carry guns, or people who are licensed to fly planes. You have a thing/can do a thing that not everyone else does, so there are regulations pertaining to that thing. Laws change with the times, they always have. Some new technology comes up, eventually there will be laws that regulate it. As there should be, honestly. The issue with the Accords, Steve’s issue with the Accords, was not the basic idea. He says as much. He says that it could work, but there would have to be safeguards. Safeguards that are not in the Accords that Tony wants him to sign.

It's not a matter of oh, fuck the law, there should be no law governing these people, they’re above it. The problem is that the law as it’s presented here is unjust. There’s what, a month between Lagos and Ross coming by to tell them about the Accords? A month is not enough time to properly analyze such a big issue, Especially when you’re reacting out of fear, which is what happened with Lagos. People died because of an Enhanced person, an Avenger, in this case. Lawmakers don’t want that to happen again, they especially don’t want the political shit storm that comes with it. Damn, we look like we were asleep at the switch here, not having anything to throw at this problem earlier. Quick, let’s throw together this thing so no one can say we’re not addressing the problem.

Patriot Act of 2001, anyone? 9/11 happened, the public were rightfully terrified, the US said oh man, these are unprecedented circumstances, we’ve never had this before. Don’t worry though, we’re on this, we’re protecting you. The reality being that that bill simply gave the government too much power, most of it being used against people who were not actually threats, and it’s debatable, to say the very least, whether or not that law helped more than it hurt.

No law is perfect. No law ever will be. It’s not possible. We still have to strive for perfection though, have to aim there so that the laws we get are as close to fair as possible. Tony’s a big deal. If not for his “whatever form that takes” attitude, he might’ve been able to use his influence to pressure lawmakers into coming up with a fairer bill. Hey, I’m me, the public loves me, I will endorse this bill publicly and work on getting the rest of the team to sign, but you need to change this and this and this first, or no deal. Instead, he took the easy way out, the quickest, easiest way for him to feel like he’s atoned for his sins without actually doing anything. Whatever form that takes.

Tony’s not wrong because he backs the creation of a law that addresses these things. He’s wrong because he says himself that he does not care what that law does, specifically, so long as it exists. He’s wrong because he violates said law upteen times during the movie, while preaching to team Cap about what assholes they are for not backing it. He’s wrong because he cares more about feeling as though he’s tackled a problem than he does about taking the time to make sure that the thing he’s proposing is actually a good idea. He’s wrong because of what he does with Bucky, though that’s honestly a separate issue, for the purposes of this discussion.

Anyway, that was longer than I ever wanted it to be. Damn. Next time you see a comment about CW being the reason people stan Tony, just remember there are other people out there who stopped stanning Tony because of that movie. Everyone’s entitled to see a piece of media however they see it, and although the Tony stans are often the loudest, there are plenty of like-minded people out there who share your take on events. Block who you need to, unfollow who you need to, blacklist what you need to, and don’t let them get you down.

Hang in there, and have an awesome day :)

#pro steve rogers #pro team cap #anti tony stark #anti tony stans #anti iron man #anti team iron man

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twdmusicboxmystery · 2 years

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TWD 11x16: First Analysis

Okay, how did everyone like the episode? Some very major and crazy stuff happened in this episode, so let’s dive right in. Today, I’ll talk about the biggest stuff (mostly Leah). Tomorrow, I’ll do the details.

***As always, spoilers bound below for this episode. Don't read until you watched!***

So, Leah was finally killed in this episode. I have to say, I was a little surprised. I can't tell you how many people sent me information from spoilers saying that Lynn was seen filming through 11x24. Now, that doesn't mean that that she won't be in 11c. She could be in it, but still be dead. We might see her in flashbacks or dream sequences of some kind.

Plenty of people are asking me what the point of the reapers were and why Pope was after Maggie. We just don't know. I hope they explain it at some point, but we can’t be sure they will. If they do, though, we may see it in flashback form.

The biggest thing about Leah's death is that she died exactly like Beth. She was shot in the head, in the exact same place Beth was shot. When she fell on the ground, and Lance looked at her, she was laying very much the way that Beth was.

Actually, we don't know exactly how Beth was laying because they didn't show her face or her entire body after she was shot. We only saw her arm. But Leah's arm is laid out exactly like Beth’s. And even with little stream of blood flowing behind it. And what are the chances of that happening twice?

If you're at all on the fence about TD, there's no better proof than this that something is going on here. They wouldn't have all these parallels to Beth with Leah, (anti-parallels/foils) and then have her die in the exact same way for no reason. I mean, not only shot in the head, but in the left side of the forehead. Exact. Same. Spot.

They're trying to remind us of Beth. They're trying to remind us of Grady.

It's also very important that it was Daryl who shot Leah. Because clearly, he's not the one who shot Beth. I won’t go into great deal of detail about this right now. My fellow theorists and I have been discussing it all week and I will definitely give you some of our thoughts in the next few days.

For now, just know that it's very much part of the duality theory. In a few days, I’ll do a deeper dive onto the duality theory and how it often appears and is used in the show. That may shed some light on why they've made some of these creative choices. But it doesn't necessarily explain why Pope was so heavily after Maggie or what the point of the reapers were. It could be that we'll find out they are tied the CRM in some way. So, it might be something we just have to learn in the future. There's no way to tell yet.

The way they showed Leah get shot made it seem like Daryl shot her from behind. At first, I assumed he had, and that she was shot in the back of the head. It didn’t bother me, as Leah is often an opposite or mirror image to Beth. But that’s actually not true. He was out in front of her and shot her from a position facing her.

I feel like the show went out of their way show this in a strange way that would confuse us. They show Leah on top of Maggie, and the camera is on her left side. Then, when it shows Daryl, the shot has flipped to coming from Leah’s right side, but we don’t see her in the foreground, so it’s a little disorienting. To figure it out, you just have to look at the furniture in the cabin, where the door to the adjacent room is compared to Maggie and Leah, and you’ll understand the true spatial positioning. But it’s just weird that they almost seemed to be trying to fake us out.

Why? I’m not sure. Just another mirror to Grady, perhaps? Between that and the very obvious Dutch angles we see during the scene with Leah and Maggie, there are some clear callbacks to Coda.

After killing Leah, Maggie and Daryl go out of window with green curtains. Because of the backdoor/side entrance angle I’ve talked about a few times, this is significant. We also understand that Daryl entered the cabin this way, which is why he came from the back room, rather than the main door. That’s highly symbolic as well. Green (in the curtains) just equals life and survival. So, it was a small and obvious symbol, but a significant one.

I also can't help but massively side I the fact that Daryl shot at Lance and the bullet grazed Lance on the side of the face. He now is going to have a scar that is identical to Beth on the side of his face. Absolutely no way that is an accident. I’ll get into this more with the Duality theory in a few days, but I think in many ways, Lance is also an anti-Beth. So Daryl killed one and shot/tried to kill the other. Keep that in mind.

Another really significant thing in this episode was when Daryl mentioned Charleston. I said quite a while ago (in THIS post) that I thought there was a good chance Beth could be at Charleston. This is because of the Francis Marion template. If you don't know what that is, go back and read it here. But there's just no way that Daryl accidentally, insignificantly mentions Charleston on his own. Not only is that a foreshadow of Charleston coming into play at some point, but it's probably a foreshadow something to do with Beth, and probably the CRM.

We also noticed that a bunch of Lance’s guys, the ones he sent with Leah were dressed in black. We can’t help but wonder who they are. Why are they different or how, then, the Commonwealth soldiers? They’re dressed all in black with ski masks, rather than the CW army’s white and red armor. It makes them look like special ops or something. And maybe they are. But where did they come from? Again, we just can't help but wonder if there tied the CRM in some way. They don't give us really any information on them in this episode, though.

Another thing we noticed were railway ties. These were seen pounded into the trees around Leah's cabin in Find Me. Trust me, my fellow theorists and I have been trying to figure out what they mean since 10x18 aired. Seeing them again sort of helped me clarify in my head what I think they mean. I'll talk more about that on Wednesday. Just understand that when Daryl was searching for Lance because he, Gabriel, and Aaron thought correctly that he was going after Maggie, he suddenly saw the railroad spikes in the trees. Right after that, Gabe found Leah's bracelet. So those two things together made him realize that Leah was a part of this. He hadn't guessed realized she was around before then.

And finally, at the end, Lance takes over the three communities. Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside.

At the beginning of the episode, Lance is flipping his coin and telling each of his men to call heads or tails. He seems to be putting them into groups based on that. I’m actually thinking one of the two groups donned black and went with Leah. Meaning, it was heads or tails whether they lived or died, though they couldn’t have known that at the time.

The only one we actually hear in the scene is one random guy who says, “tails, I guess.” That’s super significant. Remember that one definition of a coda is “a tale.” That tells me that were heading into the coda in some respect. I think what's happening now, with Lance taking over the communities, which is deeply entangled with Leah’s death, will lead to the coda and Beth.

It's also significant, as I said, that we heard Charleston mentioned. Daryl said there was a rumor on the rooftops that Charleston might be willing to trade for weapons. So maybe TF goes to Charleston looking for allies against the Commonwealth or at least against Lance. And that's how they run to Beth in some way. Total speculation over here, of course, but all these things are super significant and cannot possibly be coincidences.

I'll stop there for today. Just a really significant episode with a lot going on. I'll talk details tomorrow. What did everyone else think of 11×16?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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makeste · 4 years

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“being a hero means protecting everyone.”

hey guys, so can we talk just a little bit more about the absolutely outstanding character growth shown by Bakugou Katsuki in this one scene, though?

because this is sure as heck not the same boy from a year ago, not by a long shot. this scene proves that Bakugou has finally found what it was that he lacked, and with that, he’s taken one monumental leap forward.

so this isn’t going to be a super-long post or anything, but let’s break it down play by play.

so since we’re working with the fan scanlation here, meaning the translations aren’t quite exact, what I’m going to do is number the dialogue bubbles, and then provide my own understanding of what is actually being said in each one. I’m basing this on a combination of 1) the scans, 2) the rough translations of the Japanese raw leaks posted in this reddit thread, and 3) my own understanding and interpretation of the characters. so not an exact science, but hopefully we can muddle our way through!

but before we get to that part, let’s backtrack here and start with Deku.

so it’s simple enough to follow what’s happening here. Deku overhears “one for all” on Endeavor’s comm, followed by the warning that Shigaraki “I can fly now, I guess” Tomura is heading towards the civilians and the shelter. and he realizes in this one hefty moment that Tomura is after him. and that by staying with the rest of the group, he’s putting everyone in danger. and so he makes the decision to break away and try to lead Tomura off somewhere else. there is no actual plan beyond that yet, as far as I can see. he just knows that he has no other choice.

but now here’s where it gets interesting.

1. so I could be wrong, but based on the context of the situation, I think it’s a reasonable guess to make that when Katsuki says “these people”, he’s actually referring to the villains. as in, “listen up, it seems the villains are looking for you.”

2. so now, get rid of the “because” in this next line. and 1+2 now becomes, “so it seems like the villains are after you. being a hero means protecting everyone...”

3. “...that’s what you’ve always said from the beginning, right?”

and continuing on to the next page...

4. “him heading this way right after mentioning One for All... there’s no way to know for sure [that it means he’s targeting you], but...”

5. “you pretty much have no other choice but to move.” (in other words, “I know you can’t risk it.”)

so there you go. now we’ll have to wait for Viz tomorrow to really know for sure, but regardless of the exact wording, in short what Katsuki is demonstrating here is that he just had the exact same thought process as Deku. the villains are after One for All -> the villains are targeting Deku -> if Deku stays here with the civilians, he’ll lead Shigaraki right to them -> as heroes, our job is to protect everyone -> we need to leave the area right now.

think about all that for a sec. there is not a single thought in that entire sequence that is focused on himself at all. this is the same kid who used to be all “me, me, me” at the start of all this. but here, we witness him come to the exact same conclusion as Deku, at the same speed as Deku. and what that means is that he too instantly made that same connection from ‘Shigaraki is coming here’ to ‘we have to protect the people.’ instinctively.

and what that in turn means is that Katsuki has truly and beyond any shadow of a doubt finally learned how to see outside of himself. he’s finally learned how to put other people first. that his job as a hero isn’t to just kick ass all day; it’s to protect other people. he’s gone from someone who only ever thought about winning and being strong, to someone whose first thought upon hearing “the bad guy is heading your way” is not, “hell yeah, time to throw down,” but instead, “we need to lead him away to keep these people safe.”

...oh yes, and there’s one more thing as well.

because you see, not everything Katsuki says is always in actual words. he’s someone who has always communicated his most important thoughts and feelings through his actions just as much, if not more so.

so what his words are communicating right now is, “I get it, that bastard Shigaraki is targeting you, you gotta move to protect everyone.” but even as he says this, he adds on a much more important, yet unspoken thought.

because what he does is to immediately go to his side.

without so much as a word of acknowledgement. he’s always had difficulty saying this kind of stuff out loud, I guess. but in this one instance it’s all right, though, because he doesn’t have to. I’m pretty sure Deku understands him just fine.

because what he’s saying here is, “...but I won’t let you do it alone.”

and that pretty much says it all, really.

tl;dr for possibly the very first time, Bakugou Katsuki is entering a fight, and he’s not fighting for himself. he’s fighting to protect the people of Jakku... and he’s also fighting to protect the very person who taught him what it means to fight for others. to win to save.

so Shigaraki is after Deku, huh? well then. time to make damn well sure that Shigaraki doesn’t get what he wants.

anyways, so that’s it! I’M PROUD OF YOU KACCHAN. and you too Deku. I’M PROUD OF EVERYONE, HOORAY... now please don’t die.

#bnha 274 #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #bakudeku #bnha meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #bakugou meta

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: Alabasta (Part One)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

(this is a repost, i deleted the first version of it by accident cause im Idiot)

the entry into the grand line is such a great sequence. it feels like such an ending- a triumph after they’ve spent pretty much all of east blue struggling to make it here, and at the same time the beginning of a new adventure, the biggest yet, one that has yet to end a solid two decades later. they all look so happy to have made it here- it makes me smile.

whiskey peak is one of my very favorite short arcs, and i think of the whole first half of the baroque works saga its the one that hits and maintains a tone best (almost certainly because its so short, admittedly, but still). i love the repeated shots of the moon, the reveal that the cactuses are actually covered in graves, the way everything seems far too good to be true at the start and the sense of suspense that creates.

zoro’s extended fight scene in whiskey peak is so great- it’s so creative and so dynamic and the odds are stacked so high against him and yet he’s clearly having so much fun. i do miss this sort of scrappy, improvised fight, cause its largely absent from later one piece but its SO much fun to read- zoro cutting holes in rooftops for people to fall through or shoving ladders to the ground as bounty hunters try to climb them.

i’m a huge fan of fight scenes that use the environment to their fullest, and this is such a perfect example of it. it makes the fight feel a lot more real and exciting, in my opinion.

i’ve never liked zoro and luffy fighting at whiskey peak, its always struck me as frustrating and contrived and kind of out of character for both of them, but i will say that i do like how on the same page they are even when they’re trying to kill each other.

the entire first half of the baroque works saga basically serves to introduce and endear us to vivi so we’ll be invested in the alabasta conflict, and that starts here in whiskey peak, when we get our first glimpse of her actual personality rather than the act she was putting on as miss wednesday, when she bites her lip hard enough to bleed in order not to break down at igaram’s apparent death.

watching robin’s actions with the added context of later one piece is one of the great joys of rereading alabasta. she does a fantastic job of appearing to be crocodile’s most dedicated and capable and dangerous employee while quietly but consistently sabotaging his efforts; saving luffy, sparing pell, sparing igaram, not telling crocodile anything about the strawhats despite meeting them here at the very start of the saga.

little garden has some really cool and striking panels that really put the scale of things on the island, the dinosaurs and giants alike, into perspective, and i love it.

i’m a huge fan of the depth of in-universe lore one piece has. just having little details like this, quotes from books written in-universe, go so far towards making the world feel like a real and wondrous place with mysteries to be solved and details to be uncovered.

i still think sanji is firmly at his best when he’s being a sneaky bastard, and i will never cease to be delighted by how thoroughly he manages to fuck crocodile over with nothing but a phone and some quick thinking not once but twice.

i really like dorry and brogy! for minor characters who’ve only appeared in one relatively minor and inconsequential arc so far, they’re not only very fun and memorable but also leave a hell of an impact on the story, not only in usopp’s new dream of eventually visiting elbaf but also in how they and their crew just keep coming up, first in enies lobby and then even further down the line in dressrosa and whole cake island.

i’m really excited for when we eventually get to reach elbaf, because this plot thread has been so thoroughly and subtly built up over such a long time that i can’t wait to see how it ends.

this is one of my favorite little moments to really drive home how much the strawhats care about each other. they all fell asleep on the floor rather than leave nami alone.

the whole introductory scene to drum is a really good summary of who vivi is as a person and how she contrasts with luffy, and it’s something i’ve written extensively about in a past meta. here ill just settle for saying, vivi is chronically selfless, and always the sort of person to sacrifice herself for others, and these traits which save the strawhats here are the exact same ones that bring her and luffy to blows later on in alabasta.

a good thing to remember when writing characters is that traits aren’t really inherently good or bad, they’re just traits and can have positive or negative consequences depending on the situation, and i think oda is really good at this. vivi’s selflessness, usually a positive thing, becomes reckless self-sacrifice when she’s pushed to her breaking point.

‘kindness begets kindness’ is a pretty consistent theme throughout one piece, though luffy is most often on the other side of it. someone (rebecca, law, tama, etc.) does something for him without really expecting anything in return, and gets paid back a hundred times over. this is a case of the opposite- luffy helps someone offhandedly, and is later saved by their gratitude.

i think luffy wearing his fingers bloody as he climbs the drum rockies is the only time one piece has ever made me cringe back from the page. this sequence is absolutely brutal, and it’s so well-done.

the way luffy decides chopper should be his crewmate is precious, and also reminds me a little of his recruitment of sanji (ironically, given he’s talking to sanji about chopper here). in both cases he sees someone do something good without even really knowing the full extent of their abilities and makes a snap decision that they are awesome and are gonna be part of his crew, no matter what they have to say about it.

i really, really enjoy the way the drum island flashback is set up, with the cutaway right as luffy is about to punch wapol’s lights out. the cut back to that punch finally hitting when the flashback ends is by that point infinitely more satisfying, since you’ve just read chopper’s backstory and therefore have a deep and abiding desire to see wapol eat shit.

hiriluk’s final speech is definitely one of the best and most memorable quotes from one piece, and effectively the crux of one of its biggest themes. one piece is all about inherited will. all of our main cast and a solid percentage of the supporting cast bear the legacy of at least one forebear on their shoulders, from kuina to corazon to otohime. the entire setting of the story is defined by roger’s legacy.

all those people are dead, but they’re sure as hell not forgotten- how can they be, when their legacies are actively shaping the world as a direct result of their lives and influences?

i really, really like the use of flags in one piece. flags are how you declare loyalty or war in equal measure, and flying a pirate flag is a declaration that you’re choosing freedom, come what may, over the laws of the world government. it’s just a really excellent running motif, and a great symbol of what one piece’s definition of piracy means.

this scene is also one of the ones that gets even more extra weight behind it when you know luffy’s full backstory with sabo, which i love.

chopper’s recruitment scene sums up one of the reasons luffy is really great. he just doesn’t care about a lot of things other people would normally take notice of. occasionally that gets him in trouble, but other times it leads to him responding to a situation exactly right, like here. chopper is listing off all his insecurities and reasons he can’t go with the strawhats, and luffy just flat doesn’t care. he wants chopper on his crew and he knows chopper wants to be on his crew, so as far as he’s concerned, there’s no issue at all.

it really is wild that the will of D is named this far back in the story, and has consistently been referenced and built up ever since in very slight ways, through comments by characters like robin and corazon, and yet we still know basically nothing about it.

and a toast to a new crewmate!!

continued in the next post, which covers alabasta arc proper.

#the voyage so far #arc: reverse mountain #arc: whiskey peak #arc: little garden #arc: drum island #one piece #opmeta #not japanese #long post

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florrickandassociates · 3 years

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TGF Thoughts: 5x02-- Once there was a court...

Season five is off to a great start. I’m feeling more energized about TGF than I have in ages, maybe since the beginning of season three. After the mostly standalone premiere, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the rest of the season. Episode two introduced a lot of new elements that I’m intrigued by and excited about, so here’s hoping the rest of the season can sustain that energy. (Many) more thoughts under the cut.

And, again, since the most consistent thing about Tumblr is its inability to roll out new features that are actually helpful, here is a link to view the post so you don’t have to read it all on your dash. (Omg, Tumblr, not only do you force people to keep reading on their dashes but you also jump down to the middle of the post when the full version opens? Do you have ANYONE beta test these features?)

Reddick/Lockhart is bustling when the episode opens. The fact they’re calling it Reddick/Lockhart seems like an indication that Liz chose to partner with Diane—it's not. The firm just needs a name, and it can’t have Boseman in it. (The signage still says RBL... for now.)

Everyone in reception is talking animatedly, except for Carmen Moyo, who’s just taking it all in. You might be tempted to read her as nervous. You would be very, very wrong. But we don’t know that now. Right now, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume she’s Maia 2.0. This scene strongly parallels Maia’s first day at the firm (opening with the reception saying “Good morning” and the firm name, then showing new associates waiting for an orientation by David Lee). And in that scene, Maia is absolutely nervous, like you’d expect a new hire might be.

Carmen focuses on another associate’s hand. I assume this is meant to be a parallel to how Maia fidgets with her rosary ring in that initial scene. Carmen then peels a price tag off her portfolio—possibly another Maia parallel, since the portfolio Diane gives Maia is such an important symbol in Maia’s arc.

I also see shades of Alicia and her first scene here—Alicia's silent and focuses on small details (the thread on Peter’s jacket) too.

I don’t say any of this in hopes of comparing Carmen directly to either of those characters. Carmen is not like any other character this show has had before. But these parallels are quite good at establishing character, building intrigue, and showing contrast (even if you don’t see them as parallels, we’re still getting a lot about Carmen just from watching her reactions, even if we don’t yet have the context to understand how to read Carmen). Since I’m now thinking about Maia and Alicia, I’m also now thinking about how Carmen is different from them and triangulating her spot in this universe—that's a good thing. She’s not a copy of either character, but I understand a little more about what the writers are telling me about her from the parallels.

The RBL sign in the background is being taken off the wall. It falls and adds even more chaos to reception.

David Lee walks in and screams, “Stand up! Those seats are for clients.” This is the exact same language he uses in the 1x01 scene; this is definitely an intentional parallel.

Btw Carmen already has more personality than Maia and she’s been in one episode so far! I didn’t hate 1x01 Maia, but I will say that nearly everything that intrigued me about early Maia was that I could project more about Alicia (whom I, obviously, care a lot about) onto her. I can and will compare Carmen to Alicia, but when I do, it won’t be because Carmen is an interesting lens through which to analyze Alicia... it will be because Alicia is interesting precedent to use to understand Carmen.

I still hate Maia, yep.

David Lee accidentally instructs a client to stand and then has to save face, heh.

In David’s tour of the office, we see the partners squabbling. Sounds about right. And STR Laurie is still a thing, which explains why David is there (though not why he is giving a tour).

Throughout the tour, we get a lot of shots of Carmen. Again, she’s silent and looks like she could be nervous. (Spoiler: this is a fakeout and when you rewatch this scene, you can see what new cast member Charmaine Bingwa is doing here—expertly putting on a face that looks like anxiety in one context, but is actually just Carmen calmly sizing things up.)

Marissa eagerly joins the tour. “That’s right. They’re letting you play lawyer, Marissa. How nice,” David says. Carmen takes this in, too. “Fucking prick,” Marissa mutters. Carmen hears.

David Lee introduces “someone from HR” which is a great sign that HR is very effective at this firm.

In the conference room, the partners are still arguing about who should replace Adrian. Diane tries the “all options are open to us and we plan to decide in the next 48 hours” strategy, but this audience is too smart for that. Madeline asks about the new leadership structure. (I am kind of hoping that one nice side effect of having to kind of shoot the season in a COVID bubble will be that we’ll get more small recurring characters. Madeline’s been around for a little while but we’re already seeing her get to do more this year.)

“Diane and I are going to run the firm together. For now,” Liz says. Oh, no, Liz, do not open the door to change. Letting the partners know you’re not sure is probably the worst strategy. You’ve gotta decide or they’ll sense weakness.

“Just the two of you? A black firm being run by a white woman?” a partner asks. “Well, I’m not running it alone. I’m here to assist Liz,” Diane says, trying to deflect. “Really? Because she needs assistance?” he counters. Diane doesn’t know what to say, but she and Liz both know these questions aren’t going to go away.

HR is running an orientation for the new hires and it involves having them all take pieces of toilet paper. Man, I hate ice breakers. Carmen takes a moderate amount and then passes it to Marissa, who takes only one square. Carmen notes this and makes eye contact with Marissa. And this is where it starts to become obvious that Carmen is not nervous—just observant and not chatty. Carmen knows Marissa is one to watch from how David reacted to her presence. She gives Marissa a look that’s meant to be noticed and start a conversation. It works, and Marissa explains that for each square you take, you have to share a fact about yourself. Carmen hates this and hides the rest of the toilet paper so she only has one square.

Liz tries to say there will be a discussion about the partnership, and Daniel (that’s what the captions call him, though they do reference him as “Barry” at one point but I'm like 99% sure I know which actor is Barry and it’s not him) says it feels like they’re just being told what the new state of things is. Liz says she hears him but right now they need a senior associate to backfill Lucca.

Daniel doesn’t think they need one. I don’t get why, unless it has to do with the budget cuts.

“We need someone with real experience to take on her caseload,” Liz notes. Hell yeah you do!

Liz asks if any of the partners want to take over family law. None do.

After the meeting, Liz asks Diane if she can call a head hunter. Diane approves. David Lee pops up to ask which one of them is taking Boseman’s office and they haven’t discussed it yet. I love that they managed to order a sign with their names on it before they’ve talked about how being partners will actually work.

(Also, Adrian’s office is quite obviously going to end up with Liz. And it would be weird if it were Diane, anyway, because it’s Diane’s old office from Lockhart/Gardner and it would look it if she sat there again lol)

David notes that an empty corner office looks like failure. He is correct. He gives them until Friday to decide.

Marissa does not like the ice breaker at all and pointedly notes she only has one secret, and it is that she used to be married to a mime. She makes a whole bit out of it and then whispers to Carmen, “I usually just make things up.”

Carmen’s next and she finally gets to speak her first words of the series. You know who else didn’t speak at all in her first scene? Alicia Florrick. Very different scenes, but I can’t help but think this is intentional. From what I’ve seen of Carmen, both she and Alicia use silence strategically and are comfortable with quiet. Alicia’s first scene is silent because she doesn’t need to use words to be expressive, but it does establish that she’s going to be a character with a lot of internal thoughts she won’t vocalize and that she’s observant and tries to maintain composure. Sure, you can watch the first scene of Pilot and just see a woman who’s stunned into silence, but when you watch it knowing Alicia and realize how much of the essential parts of her character are in her totally silent intro sequence that kicks off the show... it’s kind of amazing.

So comparing Carmen’s introduction to that? I mean this as a huge compliment. Carmen deploys silence for reasons both similar and different to Alicia. While Alicia uses silence to maintain some kind of boundary between her inner thoughts and the outside world, Carmen uses it to get a chance to observe and take things in without showing her cards. (We do see Alicia do that as well, especially at work, but I would call this a side-effect of Alicia being a quiet person rather than her intention; Carmen seems to be more conscious of how she uses her silence.)

Carmen is from Victorville, California. That means nothing to me but I’m sure there’s some significance. Carmen mimics Marissa’s response when asked for her secrets—she also responds with, “secret,” emphasizing she only has one. But what she says next also shows her in contrast to Marissa. She says her secret is she hates games. We already know so much about her and she’s said like ten words!

I think it’s smart to set Carmen up as a contrast to other characters. I know who Carmen is not because of how she differs from more familiar presences like Alicia, Maia, and Marissa. Marissa hates ice breakers, but her reaction to them is to use them as an opportunity to say something funny and over the top. Many others (including probably both Alicia and Maia) would likely resent the activity but play along and say something unremarkable (I could see Alicia overthinking it and sharing something surprisingly quirky though!). Carmen just does not give a fuck, and in a different way than Marissa doesn’t give a fuck. Marissa insinuates that she thinks the whole activity is stupid... Carmen just flat out says it. I would not pull this move on my first day of a new job! And that is the point—who is this person who is so self-assured she’s willing to insult HR on her very first day of her very first job as a lawyer?

ALL OF THIS FROM A FEW WORDS AND SOME WELL-ACTED GLANCES! As I said, I’m very intrigued by Carmen. I have some questions about the logistics of this plot, her endgame, and how she’ll function when brought into the firm drama/debate plots, but for now, I only have good things to say.

Liz interrupts the ice breaker to announce that everyone will be assigned a mentor. She then pauses to greet Marissa, which Carmen, again, notices. Liz is really there to say that they’ll be working on client maintenance that day, and each new hire will get to help with one of their clients. When she reads off their top clients, all the hands shoot up—except Carmen’s.

Madeline’s last name is Gilford. Noted. John’s last name is Wilson.

No one raises their hand to assist with Oscar Rivi, who is in a maximum-security prison. Carmen confidently raises her hand.

Barry’s last name is Poe. Noted.

Marissa and Carmen exchange glances. Super curious to see how this evolves. There are too many Marissa/Carmen exchanges in this episode for the writers to not plan to have them interact more in the future.

I’m kind of loving that it seems like the show’s leads are now Diane, Liz, Marissa, and Carmen. Diane’s obviously great, Liz is someone who’s been deserving of leading material for ages, Carmen seems interesting, and I’m so impressed they have managed to make Marissa, usually good in small doses, into a character who can handle larger plots without wearing on my patience (like that awful Elsbeth centric episode of Wife).

Diane has a client who received a summons directly, which Diane finds strange. But, since she is already working with this client on the same case (teaching kids during COVID) in another court, Diane is optimistic about this second suit. She thinks it could set a good precedent.

Diane introduces Phoebe, an associate who will help out on the case. Diane says she’s not personally going because it’s a formality and Diane needs to work on the brief. I’m like 99% sure Diane isn’t personally going because Diane’s role here is to convince the client she’s getting senior-level attention while having junior people do the work, but nice story!

Diane asks Marissa to go along with Phoebe. Marissa thinks she’s going to get to argue in court... Diane says no, Marissa gets to hand hold a client.

Oscar Rivi is basically Lemond Bishop, which is the only explanation I have for why RL would represent him. And, you’ll recall, I didn’t understand why RL would represent Bishop either. But we’ll just have to go with it.

(I think representing multiple drug lords is probably a bigger PR issue for RL than having a white partner! How come no one ever talks about this! Actually, new complaint: wasn’t Liz, who now has more power than before, the one who was most against representing Bishop?)

(I guess it may make sense that she’d be more okay with this Rivi dude than Bishop. Whatever Rivi’s done, I don’t think he’s threatened Liz’s kid like Bishop did!)

(Also, I’m fine with them switching it up and suddenly having this new drug kingpin. Mike Colter is obviously unavailable since he’s a lead on Evil, and I was tired of Bishop anyway. If the writers stop using Bishop and Sweeney as shorthands for corruption I will be very happy; I don’t think there’s much more mileage left there. Speaking of, Dylan Baker popped up in 2x02 of Evil!)

“I don’t want you to be intimidated,” Barry tells Carmen as they arrive at Rivi’s prison. Carmen reads articles about Rivi on her phone, saying she’s taking notes. Barry tells Carmen to “sit, listen, leave.” But then he discovers his ID is expired (he didn’t get it renewed during the pandemic) and he can’t go visit Rivi as a result. Carmen says she’s fine alone—she'll sit, listen, leave. She’s calm and not at all cocky as she says it, and it really takes until she’s actually talking with Rivi to realize that she’s not (just?) a hypercompetent law school grad trying to impress. She doesn’t seem to care at all what people, no matter how powerful, think of her, as long as she’s able to find security of any sort. (Tbh, it is kind of amazing she doesn’t get fired in this episode.)

(I’m getting ahead of myself but in Alicia’s first ep, she also changes up strategies on the partners. Alicia does it almost without realizing she’s gone against their wishes—she's just sure of the right strategy—and Carmen does it much more intentionally.)

Marissa and Phoebe can’t locate Judge Wackner’s court. Marissa asks a security guard she’s friendly with (of course she is) for help. He says there’s no Judge Wackner there, and the security guard notices that it’s a summon for a “9 ¾ Circuit.” The guard laughs at the Harry Potter reference; Marissa is not amused. They leave the courthouse when Marissa spots a sign for “9 ¾". She follows the sighs down an alley. Phoebe wants nothing to do with this; Marissa and the client are intrigued. They end up in a store called Copy Coop and are directed to a warehouse.

In the warehouse, an argument is resolved through Rock, Paper, Scissors. Then it’s Marissa’s turn. She asks for a continuance just like she was supposed to, but she uses the wrong phrasing. Judge Wackner notices. That’s when Marissa notes she’s not a lawyer, and Wackner responds that he’s not a licensed judge. So it’s fine that Marissa isn’t a lawyer.

Marissa tries to protest again that she’s not a lawyer, and Wackner basically tells her to proceed anyway. The client wants to stay, weird as this fake court seems.

Carmen reads with Rivi. She stares at him, getting him to speak first. His translator asks if there’s another lawyer with her; she just introduces herself. The translator does a terrible job of translating Rivi’s complaints, sharing very little of what Rivi said with Carmen.

Unsurprisingly (to me at least, because scenes like this ALWAYS have the twist where a character doesn’t let on that they speak the language until the exact right moment), Carmen speaks Spanish.

She lets Rivi know she speaks Spanish AND insults the translator in one go. Pretty big move. That gets Rivi’s attention and he kicks out the translator. He asks who she is and she repeats her name again (characters reacting like this will never not remind me of “Who are you?” “Kalinda.”).

Carmen notes that she’s just out of law school, explaining that’s why she’s eager to help. She doesn’t reveal that by mistake—she's using it to her advantage.

Credits! As I predicted, things are blowing up again this week like normal. No more kittens and puppies. There’s a new couch that blows up in the credits. Wackner’s desk also makes it in. I can’t remember if the purses were in this position before; they might be new. All the exploding TVs show footage of January 6th (which I hear is going to be a major theme of the season, though it’s not heavily featured in this episode). And the zoomed in shot of the closet (that I’ve never really liked) is gone, as is the falling curtain!

I still hate the font of the logo for this show. I also don’t understand why the show seems to have three logos—the one that’s the TGW logo but with “fight”, the one in the credits, and whatever the one they’ve come up with for this season’s marketing materials is. I like that they’re trying with the marketing of this season but I don’t get why the show has three logos.

While I’m talking about the marketing, can we just talk about the “Goodbye Lucca” graphic the official social media account posted? It had a fucking crown drawn over her head like this is a 2013 Tumblr shitpost!!! Who are they targeting with this?! WHO ARE THEY MARKETING TO? DOES THIS WORK ON ANYONE??? It literally says, “Chi-Town” on it. I cringed so hard. Sometimes I feel like the marketing of this show is meant to cater to the people who would, like, watch the credits of last week’s episode and be like, “Yes! It IS all now puppies and kittens! Everything bad in the world has been resolved!”

But hey, at least it’s better than the absolute trash they used to post for TGW. Remember when there’d be episodes about Alicia making career moves and they’d be like, “#TeamPeter or #TeamWill????”

OR, OR OR OR, the fucking time they tried to crosspromote TGW and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show (yes) with a tweet that read, “All ‘Saint Alicia’ needs is a pair of wings&she practically turns into an Angel.” I... have no words.

Hey, Caleb is back! I was not expecting them to actually wrap up his arc with Liz. I think I’m actually pretty thankful it’s ending like this—he comes back for what I assume is one last episode and I don’t actually have to deal with the Liz/Caleb plot. Apparently the writers were setting that up so they could do some plots about power dynamics and interracial couples and who is seen as having power. Caleb and Liz were going to have an encounter with the police, who were going to listen to Caleb instead of Liz even though this encounter would’ve taken place in Liz’s house and Liz is the name partner and Caleb the employee. Interesting enough, but anything boss/employee just squicks me out and I don’t need it around and Liz deserves better.

But I did like Caleb as a character, so I’m glad he gets an exit, unlike past characters who have just disappeared. (Remember Robyn Burdine? Or that time Taye Diggs was a major character for two seconds?)

Liz was NOT expecting to see Caleb as a candidate for Lucca’s old role. Things are instantly awkward. I guess Caleb left STR Laurie?

Diane immediately senses that things are awkward with Liz and Caleb. Caleb is very professional throughout all this. Diane gets an important call and leaves the room, so Caleb and Liz can chat privately.

Caleb says he thought Liz was reaching out; Liz says she should’ve reached out but things ended abruptly. Love that Caleb checks that no one else is in the room with Liz before getting even more personal. He says they should just act like nothing ever happened between them and Liz asks if he can do that. “I’m the employee. Of course I can,” he says. This is why you don’t sleep with employees.

He says he really does want the job and he liked the firm. Liz says she’ll talk to Diane. Caleb says if it doesn’t work out he’ll be fine.

Phoebe tells Diane about 9 ¾ and Diane does not understand... at all. “If it has no power, and it doesn’t have jurisdiction, what does it have?” Diane wonders.

A little more on the case: RL is representing a woman who taught a small group of students during the pandemic, and some parents are suing her for preaching socialism at the children.

The woman suing did NOT like being called a Karen by her daughter or being compared to the family from Parasite. She wants a refund.

Marissa objects and makes up her own grounds, realizing that since it’s not a real court, she can object for any reasons she wants—as long as they follow common sense.

These scenes could so easily feel ridiculous, like a gag that goes on for too long. They do not. There’s just enough zany humor and theatrics to make the 9 ¾ court feel surreal. And, most helpfully, Wackner is a GREAT judge. He is engaged with the work and only concerned with the facts and arguments rather than politics. He’s tough but fair. He’s direct and he maintains control over his court. He’d be one of the best judges in a normal court. His sincerity is enough to make you wonder why courts DON’T operate like this. It’s easy to see why the characters are sold on this BS-free, rational, and effective system, even if it makes no sense that it would exist and it has no power. It’s simultaneously idealistic (if only things were resolved fairly) and threatening (how can something like this exist?! What does it mean that the real courts are so ineffective that there’s a need for something like this?! What happens if this goes beyond what are basically mediations for simple issues?).

This type of thought experiment is where TGF excels. I think they were going for something like this with Memo 618 (which hasn’t gone away!), but that arc always felt like it was on the verge of going off the rails. Mandy Patinkin’s performance and the writing for the 9 ¾ court already have me more invested in this than I was in Memo 618.

Marissa tries yet again to wait for help to arrive, but Wackner insists that they keep things moving. She tries to stall and ends up referencing George Clooney. Wackner cuts through that, too—he hates speeches “unless I'm giving them, and even then I’m just trying to stall.” Then he holds up a sign that reads, “CUT THE SHIT” and the audience laughs. He says this isn’t the kind of court where you can just run out the clock. Kind of ridiculous that real court IS that kind of court, no? (And that’s why this is an effective device so far.) (I say so far because I have watched content from these writers for long enough to know that things that work in small doses or initially can go wildly off the rails.)

Marissa changes strategies and does what she does best: she goes on instinct and adjusts her strategy as she goes. She eventually catches the woman accusing her client of teaching socialism in a lie about Parasite. It’s very Legally Blonde and very smart of Marissa. And I’m rather proud of myself for seeing what Marissa was doing (getting the woman to commit to a time frame and then baiting her to talk about a moment that proved the time frame fake) before she revealed what she was doing.

Sarah Steele is so good in this scene. I love her smile when she realizes the woman took the bait, and that she reacts with “AHA!” instead of something more proper. This is pretty much the perfect court for Marissa.

Diane and Jay arrive; are confused.

Carmen leaves Rivi after quite a bit of time has passed, making Barry nervous. Carmen tells him very little and repeats that she sat, listened, and left. She told the translator to go fuck himself (almost in those words) so she’s gotta know that Barry will hear what happened from someone. She does not care. She lies to Barry like it’s nothing.

Diane does not understand the 9 ¾ court, nor does she understand why a non-lawyer like Marissa is arguing. She does not understand why losing in this venue would matter or why a lawyer she knows (ha, I looked him up to see if he’d been on Wife or Fight before, and he has... as a totally different character!) is there.

“Okay, I’m losing my mind. Look, this is not legal. We have got to get out of here,” Diane says. Toni, the client, wants to stay.

I don’t actually know the answer to this—would there be repercussions to someone who is a member of the bar participating in something like this? Everyone knows it’s not real or binding, so nothing is being misrepresented, but this FEELS illegal?

Toni notes that a lot of people suing her are there watching, so walking out or losing would look bad. She also likes Judge Wackner because he is “better than the judges in real court.”

“Diane, what is real?” the client asks when Diane points out again that this court is fake. The client’s spent 8 months on this case in limbo, so this feels like reality to her. Fair point.

Diane chats with the other lawyer and asks what he’s doing here. He says he’s getting paid—with business down and court dockets backlogged (how much would that affect a large firm that settles most cases out of court? I’m actually curious about this), it’s a good source of money.

Diane realizes it’s basically arbitration. Then says she doesn’t understand anything anymore. The other lawyer replies, “Sure you do. That’s why this is throwing you. Welcome to 2021.” Yup.

Diane goes with it. A former teacher is on the stand. He’s got a grudge and wants money, so he’s helping out. He tries to say something that is the most obvious hearsay ever... and Wackner has no problem with it. Marissa likes that.

Wackner basically says he’s fine with hearsay because he can use his brain to figure out what’s real and what’s fake, just like we all do every day. Crosstalk is also allowed.

Wackner also doesn’t allow for bullshit breaks where lawyers tell clients what to say, because he “likes the truths found in sudden utterances.” All his rules make a lot of sense. They are all also counter to every single sneaky legal strategy these characters tend to use.

Toni made a comment that she “couldn’t fall in love with anyone who voted for Trump.” That gives a point to the plaintiff. Diane notes that this belief is shared with most of the country, and Wackner asks her if she shares it. “I’m not the question,” Diane replies, because she definitely doesn’t want to talk about her husband who worked in the Trump administration.

Wackner flat out tells Diane that Marissa should argue instead of her. “Marissa is not a lawyer,” Diane tries to say. “Well, I’m not a judge!” Wackner responds. And that’s it for the day.

Diane asks Jay for intel, and then we get one of the most effective Jay scenes in a while—he bonds with the Copy Coop security guard, who only has good things to say about Wackner. I like how the writers use COVID in this episode—they treat it like it’s recent past (fingers crossed) and reference it when it makes sense, like how the courts are backlogged, or this guard was laid off.

The security guard notes that he thinks Wackner is building something good in his spare time. He also notes that Wackner is a big Grateful Dead fan.

Carmen takes it upon herself to visit someone else in prison to help Rivi. She points out they’re under surveillance and convinces this other dude to take the fall for Rivi so he can go free. It’s very smart. I assume this is all her own strategy, as we see her look up this other dude before she’s even met with Rivi, though it’s possible Rivi came up with some of it.

There is something about Carmen’s demeanor when she deals with clients that is very Alicia-like in interesting ways. She’s very direct and unflappable in a way that people seem to take to (remember how all the creeps loved Alicia?), and she only shows emotion when she decides to. The similarities stop there. Carmen doesn’t seem remorseful or conflicted (Alicia always did). Sociopathic definitely isn’t the right word for her, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it didn’t cross my mind. Carmen knows that her clients are bad guys. That doesn’t trouble her. And she doesn’t try to take the easy way out—she does more than she needs to. I don’t know what she’s really trying to do here, but I suspect she does.

Carmen is 28, just fyi.

Liz gets a call from Charles Lester. Obviously, Lester now works for Rivi, because Rivi is New Bishop. (Usually I’m a bit against saying any character is the new version of an old one, like how Lucca was not the new Kalinda (even if she was brought in to bring new energy to the space Kalidna occupied) or how Carmen is not the new Lucca (same), but I’m pretty comfortable saying Rivi is New Bishop. He’s not the same personality, but he... is New Bishop.)

Lester notes that Rivi only wants to meet with Carmen from now on. Liz does not understand this and she’s not thrilled with it. She notes that Carmen is a first year who has been there for two days, but she doesn’t want to lose Rivi’s business so she goes along with it. Was that Carmen’s endgame? Job security? Does she not care about the RL job and see a good opportunity to... just represent Rivi without a firm behind her? I can’t tell.

(This is where I could see this arc faltering. I get why Liz keeps Carmen on—she doesn’t want to lose the client—but I don’t really understand why Liz wants Rivi as a client. Losing Carmen who’s been there for two days and Rivi who she probably doesn’t want to represent seems like a fine outcome to me. And, beyond that, if Carmen doesn’t care about the firm and also doesn’t need them, what’s in it for her to stay? I don’t think she really cares that the firm would have more resources to use in defending Rivi. Like, why isn’t the outcome here just that Carmen teams up with Lester and leaves RL behind?)

Diane listens to the Grateful Dead and writes down lyrics she can use in court. Kurt gets home from work. Diane asks him if he thinks she should give up her name partnership since it’s a black firm. Kurt asks if she’s the best lawyer there. She says no, but she’s one of the best, and besides, it’s a bad look and she wants to do what’s right for the firm. “You and I disagree on so much. You obviously ask my opinion because you know that I will argue something you know you won’t,” Kurt says. This is a very good, and very accurate, response.

Diane keeps going, though. Kurt plays along and starts talking about identity politics. Diane starts debating back, ignoring that Kurt is not really wanting to play devil’s advocate. Kurt doesn’t give Diane an easy out and tells her she’s right—she should step aside. That’s not what she wanted to hear. Kurt laughs and then goes to take a shower.

Liz is eyeing Adrian’s office when Carmen walks up. She’s invited Carmen to talk to her. She asks her how things are going. Carmen just wants to know if she did something wrong. Carmen says she likes the firm and it’s great to be out of the legal clinics.

Liz shares the news that Rivi only wants Carmen going forward. Carmen is pleased and says that’s surprising... though she looks more pleased than surprised.

Liz suggests maintaining a professional distance, to which Carmen replies “I’m very professional.” “Oh, I don’t doubt it,” Liz tries to backtrack. “Is the firm dissatisfied with my work?” Carmen asks bluntly. Liz says no. “It’s my intention to treat all my clients like humans. Even the ones who might be murderers, or definitely are murderers. And I think Mr. Rivi might be responding to that because it’s something that he hasn’t received at this firm previously,” Carmen notes. This is QUITE the tone to take with your boss.

One question I have—and this is mostly inspired by the recap at I think Vulture?-- is to what extent Carmen knows what she’s doing. It seems like a lot. I can’t tell how much Carmen knows vs how much Carmen THINKS she knows. She’s definitely smart, and I don’t think she is an idealist (when she says her intention is to treat her clients like humans, she means that’s her strategy), but she is young and new to the law and only out for herself, which makes her vulnerable.

Liz does not take well to Carmen’s talk and notes she’s talking about her personal safety. Carmen thanks her and says she’d understand if Liz doesn’t want her on the case.

There is something a little unnerving about Carmen. She keeps saying things that are boldly inappropriate but masked by how professional and correct her arguments sound (like the line about treating clients like humans). And she has a way of gaining power over a conversation. Liz squirms way too much in that conversation and loses some of her control as a result.

I just need to know more about her!!! The fact that I can’t understand her makes her immediately interesting.

Diane and Liz interview Julius for Lucca’s position. They all know it would be a demotion for him, but they’re seriously considering it. I feel like this would look awful for the firm and they are going to handwave it anyway after a few lines about how bad it would look.

Diane quotes the Grateful Dead in court and it works. The other lawyer tries to quote songs too... it does not work.

Carmen gets Rivi a bunch of candy bars from the court vending machine so he can have a snack he enjoys. The security guard doesn’t want to let Rivi eat them, but Carmen is right that this is permissible. The guard smashes the bars in defeat. Carmen opens one for Rivi.

It is a little distracting to see the main characters pretend that COVID is in the past when the extras have masks, but honestly, that’s kind of what life is like right now?

Carmen zones out a little in court—not sure if she just does that or if she is trying to look unfamiliar with the rules so people will go easy on her/have low expectations. I think it’s a combination of both, considering that we’ve seen her laser-focus on things elsewhere in the episode AND she tells the judge it is her first day in court.

Court stuff happens; Carmen’s strategy works.

The judge tries to give Carmen advice and a warning. Liz is also there, watching, which is good because I was shocked anyone would let Carmen do this unsupervised.

Carmen is also kind of like if you removed all of Maia’s worst traits (her selfishness, her spoiled brat attitude, her sense of entitlement) and skipped right to her willingness to partner with Blum.

Liz and Carmen talk again, this time about the reputation of the firm. Liz notes that Carmen is clearly capable and reminds her sternly that she needs to conduct herself in a manner that does not put the firm at risk and that’s the only reminder she’s going to get. Carmen twirls a pen and stares at it instead of listening to Liz. She says she’s just listening like she’s perfectly innocent. It’s the right thing to say and, again, it’s SUPER UNNERVING.

“Wow. You really don’t give a shit what people think about you, do you?” Liz says in frustration. “I’m here to do a good job for my clients,” Carmen notes. Is she??? Does she just not care who she’s representing and want to do a good job, and that’s her whole motivation?? I would find that interesting but I need more to believe it. She’s so perplexing.

(Again, I don’t really get why Liz hasn’t fired her, because if she and Carmen keep having these interactions, Liz IS going to end up ceding all of her power and looking weak. But maybe Liz is as intrigued as I am.)

Liz also tells Carmen she’s going to be her mentor. Carmen says thanks and that she respected Liz’s father. Liz does NOT take that well. Audra’s reaction—a mix of shock, irritation, and confusion—is perfect here. I think Carmen is trying to say that she respected Carl Reddick—but she has no such respect for Liz. (It could also be about the sexual harassment, but I don’t think that’s public knowledge.)

I noticed earlier that the courtroom was #305 and was wondering why they chose that number (it’s similar to Courtroom 302, the book that inspired the bond court arc, which is why 305 stuck in my mind). I see now that the Copy Coop’s address is 305. Heh.

Turns out that the woman suing Toni is someone who would break COVID protocol and be generally terrible. I’m shocked.

Wackner decides to skip closing arguments and rule. He sides with Toni.

See, this is where this kind of thing is dangerous. Wackner is great and fair. But you can’t really replicate a system like this (though I also think this system would fail if replicated on too large of a scale; the reason it works is that everyone involved is buying into it and if it were to be corrupted no one would buy into it unless forced to—and if people are forced to buy into an extrajudicial system then that’s its own problem). What if some other judge were to just decide to skip closing arguments or decide suddenly a trial was over? That could be unfair in so many different ways.

After the resolution of the case there’s clapping and even Diane is surprised at how reasonable the verdict was.

Wackner then insists that everyone shake hands because “the thing we all crave most is respect and acknowledgement.” They also have to say, “I respect and I love you.” And they do! And no one even seems that unhappy with it Marissa and Toni are super into it.

And, someone in the gallery wants to get Marissa’s number because she did such a good job. Yep, sounds about right.

Diane fills Liz in, and Liz can’t believe it. Liz wants to hire Wackner (jokingly). Then she says she wants Julius since they know and trust him. Diane’s good with that, but she also chooses this moment to playfully let on that she knows Liz slept with Caleb. We’ve seen Diane observe Liz’s reaction to Caleb/mentions of Caleb all episode, and I don’t think it’s coincidental that Diane brings this up now, and in a friendly way. Diane doesn’t need to bring it up. I don’t think Diane needs the answer. I think she just wants to throw Liz off without making it obvious that’s what she’s doing.

I really, really hate to say it, because my whole thing about this season is wanting to see Liz be a great manager, but I don’t... actually think... Liz is a great manager? She’s second-guessing herself far too much. She’s more thrown in this scene than Carmen, who has like two days of experience, is by anything she encounters. And worse, she doesn’t hide it when she’s thrown. I think Liz is very smart and capable, but this episode is a pretty good case for why she might not be able to manage alone.

I know I’ve said that I want to see Liz manage and think she’d be good at it. I still think she could be. But I’ve also tended to think that Liz is a good manager and Adrian talks down at her, and I’ve dismissed some of her less strategic ideas as the fault of the Adrian/Liz dynamic. But nothing in this episode seems out of character, so now I’m less sure. (And to be clear, Liz not being a great manager isn’t a problem with the show, it’s actually pretty interesting to me.)

(Here are some of the things Liz has done in this episode alone that she needs to stop doing to be more effective: 1) Everything about her reaction to Caleb (and the fact she slept with him-- and yes I would, and did, say this about Will too so this is not a double standard!) 2) Not having a clear plan when meeting with the partners, even though she—and not Diane—is the one who is seen as having power. 3) Not being able to hold her own nearly as well as she should be able to with Carmen. I’m curious to see how the other partners hold up, and in fairness to Liz, I may be able to make this criticism of any character who doesn’t just immediately fire Carmen.)

And, I say all of this now because Diane in this scene is SO smart and SO strategic. She mentions Caleb to disarm Liz, then casually notes that she thinks Liz should take the corner office since it’s a black firm.

Liz isn’t sure if she should thank Diane for that (it is a little patronizing) but she does anyway.

Diane has another “last thing” to say, and it’s that she wants to bring on another partner, a black one. She wants to be in the discussion and to retain a name partner position. Liz says yes, as long as she has any power over the decision. This is a very smart move for Diane. It’s a compromise that’s to her benefit, and she makes the request of Liz at exactly the right time. I think Diane likes Liz as a person and wants to work with her, but she’s definitely buttering her up. This is kind of like an audition to show Liz that she should stick with Diane—Diane will be friendly with her! Diane won’t judge (but definitely knows about!) her indiscretions. Diane is reasonable and not power-hungry! Diane is understanding!

(And again, to be clear, I don’t think Liz is falling for Diane’s trap or anything. If Diane is smart enough to plan all this out, Diane is absolutely someone you’d want to keep on as a name partner. It’s just that Diane showing how smart she is, is a pretty stark contrast to Liz getting disrespected by a first-year associate.)

(And, because I feel like I'm being quite harsh on Liz, I don’t think Liz has handled the Carmen situation badly... yet. I just see signs that Carmen is able to shift the balance of power in her favor without really trying, and that Liz is getting flustered. I think Liz mentioning the mentorship is a way of Liz asserting power, and I think/hope that now that Liz knows the situation, she will try to regain control. And, I could very easily see this same plot happening but with Diane—it's just that there are a few other plots where Liz seems flustered in this episode alone, so it feels like a pattern. I’ll be looking out for more of this.)

Marissa and Carmen, both with large folders of casework, get in an elevator together. “So. I guess it begins,” Marissa says as the episode ends. I very much want to see more of Marissa and Carmen interacting. Mostly, I just want to see what Carmen does when she’s in situations that aren’t about representing a client or defending her work. I know what type of lawyer and employee she is, but who is she as a person?

Wow, this might be the most I’ve written about characters on TGF—as opposed to plots—in quite a while. I think that’s what has me so excited about this season. Carmen is interesting as a character because she’s so unique (or, perhaps, because she feels so much like a part of this universe yet so little like any other character—that's why I keep trying to compare her to others and find out where to place her). The 9 ¾ court is interesting because Wackner is so grounded, because it challenges Diane’s sense of reality in a way that’s new and interesting (this whole series is about making reality seem like it’s shifting under your feet; this is a new take on a familiar theme), and because it is a great match for Marissa’s personality and will give her a lot of opportunities for growth. It seems like we’re heading for some interesting material with Diane and Kurt, and there’s been a little bit of a tense undercurrent in their interactions in these first two episodes—I truly can’t tell if it’s supposed to be part of their banter or if there are mounting frustrations; I think the former but could see it being the latter. And, as I’d hoped, Liz is getting a lot more material.

#tgf thoughts #the good fight

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years

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Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep10

I’m kinda out of it due to a mix of toothache and painkillers, so bare with me on this one, lmao.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Also lots of Umineko spoilers, probably.

I’m genuinely kinda shocked that this arc STILL isn’t over, but at least it makes a lot more sense now why it ended up being longer than I expected, lol. I still think it probably could have been condensed by an episode or two, but still. It turns out that way more was going on with Satoko behind the scenes in this arc than I thought.

There’s also the whole possibility that Ryukishi might have intentionally laid out the script of Gou/Sotsu so that this whole sequence of Satoko definitively accepting that she’s a witch and killing her humanity happened on the cumulative 34th episode [24 from Gou and now 10 from Sotsu]. I’ve been wondering if anything could actually justify the extremely slow pacing this has had up to this point, but this might actually be dumb enough to make me think it was all worth it, lol.

Also, I’ve been trying to avoid saying it, but I looked at the whole batch of leaks from this arc when they got posted about a month ago, and it looks like we’ve officially covered everything that was in those leaks. I kinda regret looking at them, since it spoiled that Satoko would have an internal conflict that gets expressed literally in usual WTC fashion, but in a funny way I guess I ended up getting a misguided idea of what was going to happen just from looking at the leaks.

For one thing, I completely forgot about the leak of Satoko shooting Teppei until I double checked it a few days ago, so I was mostly just focused on the stuff about her two sides fighting against each other, and I guess I thought it would have made her seem a lot more redeemable than how it ended up actually working out, lol. I thought that it would basically go in the opposite direction and this would signal the start of her spiraling into regret and despair over the course of Nekodamashi, but basically the opposite happened.

I guess this probably answers the question I’ve had of what could stop Satoko from just immediately shooting Rika after the cliffhanger from Nekodamashi, since this raises the possibility of her ‘human side’ literally stopping her from doing it.

Though at this point I’m starting to seriously wonder if there’ll be some big meta twist about how Sotsu has actually been a separate set of loops to what we saw in Gou, and maybe Nekodamashi really did just end in tragedy and then everything got reset. I’ve been toying with that idea in my head for a while, mainly just as a way to try and make Sotsu feel like more than just a literal retread of Gou, but this is giving it a bit more validity as a theory.

For one thing, Eua already implied during Satokowashi that she had a history with Satoko, and going by something Ryukishi said in an interview, there’s already been a time where Satoko called her Eua, so it’s possible that Satokowashi onward is an entirely new loop where both Satoko and Rika have had their memories reset, but Eua still remembers it. Presumably the ‘Gou loop’ would have just ended with failure some way or another, and Eua decided to do it again. She’s given Satoko a pretty definitive failure state in Sotsu, but it’s possible that wasn’t always the case, and up until now she’s been willing to just do it over and over again until she gets the right outcome.

There’s also the theory some people have suggested that maybe the conflict between Satoko’s two halves represented a literal split in the timeline of some kind, with Tataridamashi maybe being a version of events where her human side won out, if only temporarily, and Teppei stayed alive to attack Keiichi at the end of the arc. That’d at least be one way to explain the weirdness of Satoko killing Teppei in this episode after we saw him attack Keiichi at the end of this arc in Gou. I’m not entirely sure I support this exact interpretation, though, even if I like the idea of these maybe being different arcs.

I think that for now my theory about the Teppei situation is that either 1: it was some kind of hallucination from Keiichi, 2: it was a fictionalized account of events that she fed to Ooishi to help trigger his L5 state, or 3: it’s the same sort of thing as the ‘Illusion of Witches’ in Umineko, and we as the audience were directly being shown a fantasy version of events by Satoko. Which is basically the same thing as the second option, but still. Considering how this seems to be barreling it’s way towards being some kind of Umineko prequel, I’ve been wondering if maybe they’d go that far with introducing narrative concepts here that get expanded upon more in Umineko. This would at least be a pretty straightforward example to use to illustrate the idea of how fantasy is used as a device in Umineko. And since there were infamously major issues with people not understanding what Ryukishi was trying to do with those scenes in Umineko ep2 which lead to him having to rewrite ep3 to explain it more clearly, I can see why he might go as far as to include an introduction to this idea in this series.

It’s possible that it’s just a hallucination, but I kinda doubt it at this point. For one thing, it’d feel kinda weird if THIS was a hallucination but not the whole fight scene between Keiichi and Rena, but it’d also just feel kinda weird since Keiichi didn’t really seem to be going L5 in this arc, so it’s kinda hard to imagine him jumping straight to that level of insanity on such short notice.

At least if we assume that this leads into the ending we saw in Tataridamashi, and not something entirely different, I think the real version of events is probably that after leading Keiichi to her house, Satoko attacks him with the bat [or she rigged some kind of trap to knock him out], and then when he wakes up he sees the aftermath of Satoko killing Teppei and he assumes he did it. Though tbh even at the end of Tataridamashi I’m not even sure if Keiichi acknowledged any memory of what happened with Teppei, so I’m not even sure if we need to explain how he’d end up convinced that that version of events happen. For all we know it might just be something that the audience alone was being shown, and from Keiichi’s POV he just gets knocked out and then wakes up in the hospital.

It’s possible that Ooishi ends up attacking him, but I kinda doubt it, at least after how this episode went. Even in the midst of HS, he seemed aware of the fact that Keiichi was at worst just being unwittingly manipulated by the villagers, and that he genuinely thought he was helping her, so I doubt that Satoko would be able to convince him to attack him. And at this point it just seems more likely that Satoko would attack Keiichi herself instead of pointlessly relying on someone else to do it for her.

We do know that he shows up at the festival with the bloody bat, but he could have just entered the house after hearing the commotion of Keiichi getting attacked, and then Satoko told her version of events to him, and he just picked up the bat from the crime scene and took it to the festival.

It’s also worth noting that apparently in the manga version of Tataridamashi, Satoko never even leads Keiichi to her house in the first place, and he just gets shot by Ooishi at the festival, which makes it seem more likely that Keiichi himself isn’t super relevant to how this arc ends. At least in the manga version of the arc, it seems like Ooishi probably just walked in on Teppei’s dead body and then picked up the bat and went on to do his killing spree.

Now I’m also wondering what’ll happen in the next episode, since it seems like they literally only have the festival left to cover before this arc ends. I guess there might just be a lot of content related to what happens with Satoko in the fragment space between this arc and Nekodamashi, but either way it feels like it shouldn’t take long at all to reach the big climax of this arc, especially since Satoko has already steeled her resolve. I mean, I doubt that human-Satoko is gone for good, but the rest of this arc is probably just gonna be witch-Satoko putting her final plans into motion, so there shouldn’t be much to cover there.

There’s a possibility that they’ll also speedrun through all of Nekodamashi from her POV in the next episode, but I kinda doubt it’d go by that fast. In spite of it mostly being a montage from Rika’s POV, and there presumably not being much worth showing about the mechanics and reasoning behind how Satoko set up the different mini-loops there, I think there’s still a fair bit to be shown from her perspective in that arc. For one thing, we’ll probably get a reveal of what was really going on behind the scenes with how Hanyuu suddenly gave Rika a new set of powers, and the whole deal with the sword. And even after the loop montage, I think that stuff will go on behind the scenes with Satoko and Takano to lead into the scene where Takano apologizes to Rika.

At this point my main question is how long it might take to get through all of that, since we only have five episodes left. At least as far as we know. There might be some kind of continuation yet to be announced, but I don’t want to bet on it.

It just feels like there’s a whole lot of stuff left to do before we end this. Like the stuff I’ve mentioned before with the OP having scenes of the club members as teenagers wearing outfits different to their ones from Satokowashi, and the scene of teenage Rika and Satoko fighting in the fragment space.

I’m also wondering at this point if we’ll get some Bernkastel origin story stuff to go with the apparent Lambda origin story. At the very least, they never really explained why she ended up being Featherine’s miko in Umineko, aside from the vague ‘Featherine is probably some version of Hanyuu’ thing. Which has been especially weird since Eua has been using Satoko as her pawn against Rika in this series. But this episode also makes it seem even more likely that Eua doesn’t even like Satoko, and is just using her as a pawn towards a greater goal of entertainment, while probably also playing both sides, so I could see this leading to a situation where she ends up working with Bernkastel instead.

There’s still the question about if this is even a Lambda origin story in the first place, but at this point I think that it’d just be a straight up waste of time if it’s not. That basically feels like the entire purpose of Gou/Sotsu’s existence right now, so if it’s all some sort of elaborate troll, then that just feels like it’d make EVERYONE pissed off. It’d obviously annoy the Umineko fans who like the idea of this being a genuine prequel or tie-in of some kind, but for the people on the opposite end who hate that idea, I don’t think they’d appreciate being told ‘I was just spending nearly 50 episodes tricking you into thinking this was something you’d hate, lol’. It just seems like the worst of both worlds.

Also, I’m pretty open to different variants of how they could pull off the specifics of this being a ‘Lambda origin story’. Like, I still think it’d count if this ends up being set after Umineko and is some kind of elaborate reenactment of how Lambda came to be, or whatever. There’s a lot of specific ways it could be executed, but it’d basically just be the same thing at the end of the day.

I know that witch Satoko right now doesn’t have the same sort of personality that Lambda had, but like with how Beatrice went through multiple design iterations that changed her personality, Satoko might just end up going through more development that makes her closer to the Lambda we know in Umineko. There’s also the fact that the end of Umineko already implied that Bernkastel was just ‘playing the villain’ for fun, so Lambda’s whole personality there might have been somewhat manufactured.

I guess at this point I just have to wonder if we’ll see Satoko come up with the name Lambdadelta for herself, lol. Even back in Higurashi we saw how Rika came up with the name Bernkastel, so if they’re really going in this direction, it’d make sense. I know Satoko is still calling herself Satoko by this point, but just a few episodes ago she denied that she was becoming a witch, and now she’s calling herself one, so these things can change, lol.

Anyway, this whole episode ended up being more Umineko-y than I expected. Even aside from the obvious stuff with them using the term witch, the whole fight between the two Satokos in the fragment space was exactly the sort of thing you’d see in Umineko, down to the fact that it was a gun fight like the love trial was. The imagery of the red cracks on the black background, and the entire screen shattering like glass, also felt like it was lifted straight out of Umineko.

Even if it might be kinda cheesy and forced, the monkey brain part of me really likes this stuff, lol.

Come to think of it, I guess this also makes it a lot more likely in hindsight that her classroom panic attack in this arc really was [at least in part] a representation of her two sides clashing. I think she always planned to do it as a recreation of that scene from Tatarigoroshi, but when it actually started her human side bled through and her genuine regret came through as well. I also assume that all the shots in this arc of her looking uncomfortable or depressed, especially around Teppei, were probably also setting up for this. Which I think is fine, but they probably should have been a little more clear about it, since it came across as her just faking everything, and this ended up feeling more sudden than it should have. I get why people would still see it as being sudden and unearned, but I don’t really think so. They probably should have included more stuff like that during the first two arcs of Sotsu, though.

I’m curious to see if I’ll end up being right about my theory that the sword will end up being used as a plot device to completely separate Satoko’s witch self, and maybe Rika’s as well, into their own beings separate from Rika and Satoko in the ‘real world’. It still feels like the only way to have this actually set up for Umineko without having things end in total tragedy for Rika and Satoko in general.

There’s probably a lot more I could say about this episode, but I think this has gone on long enough as it is, lol.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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animebw · 3 years

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Short Reflection: Evangelion 1.0- You Are (Not) Alone

How does one judge a piece of media that’s almost exactly the same as another piece of media that’s come before?

Sure, the anime world is no stranger to remakes. FMA 03 vs Brotherhood, HxH 1999 vs 2011, the old and new versions of Fruits Basket, all the different interpretations of Fate/Stay Night... there are plenty of anime properties that have been made anew and reinterpreted for new generations of fans. And there’s plenty of interesting conversations to have surrounding what these different versions were going for, how well they succeeded at their goals, all that good stuff. But the first Evangelion Rebuild movie isn’t just any ordinary remake. It’s a near shot-for-shot recreation of the first six episodes of the original TV show. If you decided to start Evangelion with the Rebuilds and put this movie on, you’d get a nearly identical experience to if you decided to put on the show. Sure, I know future movies will move the story in a new direction and fully cement this series as its own unique take on Eva, and that’s where the really meaty discussions are sure to begin. For now, though, our starting point is almost entirely composed of imagery, sequences, dialogue, and ideas we’ve seen in this exact order before. How do you judge something like that on its own terms? Should I judge it on its own terms? Is it even possible? How different would my experience with this movie be if it was my introduction to Evangelion and I was experiencing all these moments for the first time.

For now, I can’t answer those questions. Perhaps my opinions will evolve the further I get into the Rebuilds. Until then, though, all I can do is talk about how this movie affected me now, reliving old memories in a slightly different context.

If I’m being honest, there’s something almost uncanny about Rebuild 1.0′s slavish devotion to recreating the first six episodes. It’s not just the scenes themselves that are the same; it’s how they’re shot, how they’re edited, which music cues are dropped when. Hell, even the animation itself feels lifted wholesale from the show at times, as if they literally just traced over the cuts from ten years ago and redid them in a new engine. That alone creates this fascinating stylistic contrast; you’ve got these very 90s keyframes and animation techniques, but now they’re in widescreen with smooth digital lighting effects and the occasional high-quality CG assistance for some of the more complex mechanical tech. This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a 90s-style anime made with modern animation technology, and that itself is pretty cool. I’d even argue the overall effect is so seamless that it’s just as beautiful and evocative as the show. But it’s definitely weird re-experiencing an aesthetic that was very much of its time updated for modern technology. I spent so much of the first half-hour of this film experiencing what I can only describe as a reverse uncanny valley, trying to wrap my head around how well this twenty-year-old visual storytelling still conveyed its meaning in this new context. There should’ve been so much whiplash from fitting the styles of different eras together, and yet it just... works. And that was somehow more unnerving than if there had been a disconnect. What wizardry did you employ to make it so seamless, Anno?

Of course, this movie isn’t literally just the exact same shots as the show. If it were, it would be over two hours long and the pacing would make no sense. There are a few cuts, a few additions, a few re-ordered sequences to make the story flow better as a cinematic narrative. And I could honestly spend the rest of this review talking about how those minor changes affect the experience overall. Some moments I desperately love are lost to cuts, but I can understand why they needed to go; as much as I adore the end of episode 4 where Shinji and Misato stare at each other across the train tracks, that kind of emotional catharsis plopped right in the middle of this movie would slam the brakes on Shinji’s arc and ruin the power of seeing him finally stand up to his demons in the final act. Some moments I feel should’ve been left in; Kensuke and Toji’s subplot is so stripped down that they barely register as characters, which makes their big inspirational speech to Shinji near the end ring hollow unless you know them from the show. Most of the additional scenes are welcome; I like the extra time with Misato and Ritsuko’s relationship, and introducing Shinji’s mental train conversations and Lilith earlier on helps the show’s slow progression of abstract, cosmic weirdness feel more natural. And when the final battle rolls around, the animators really get to cut loose and showcase the full power that modern technology can bring to Eva-on-Angel conflicts when they’re not just reusing blueprints from a decade prior. If that’s a sign of how hard the action is gonna go once these movies come into their own, color me excited as fuck for what’s still to come.

What really hurts, though, isn’t losing any one big moment or subplot. It’s losing all the tiny, incidental moments that are peppered throughout the show. Moments like Shinji teasing Misato when they first meet, or Ristuko joining them for dinner in their cramped apartment, or Shinji finding refuge with Kensuke out in the wilderness for a brief night of comfort. As brutal a show as it was, Evangelion always contrasted that darkness against the simple, ordinary lives of its characters, the scattered moments of humor, sweetness and light that made us care about their fight against the darkness. These are the moments that make Evangelion, and I just wish so many of them hadn’t been cut from this movie. I understand the time constraints; there was no way a 100-minute film could keep every last detail from 150 minutes worth of TV. But even just five more minutes to keep some of these details in, even just one more scene in Misato’s apartment to make it feel like home, even just one more scene with Kensuke and Toji to make their big finale speech hit home, would have made a world of difference. Honestly, I think the pacing overall works really well cinematically, building to a natural climax point and shifting just a few details around to give Shinji a single continuous arc en route to that finale. But those extra five minutes could have pushed it into “This could’ve been initially conceived as a movie and I’d never know the difference” territory.

You know what, though?

More than anything, watching this movie just drove it even further home how much Evangelion fucking owns.

See, I bring up the changes and cuts and additions because talking about what’s different is the most obvious thing to talk about in a product that’s otherwise mostly the same as something you’ve already talked about. But for the 80% of the time where 1.0 is just Neon Genesis Evangelion again? Folks, it was like nothing had changed at all. There I was again, getting swept up in the drama, gasping at the brutality, biting my nails in terror for Shinji’s safety and well-being, devolving into an emotional mess over his growing connection with Rei, howling with fury at Gendo’s cruelty, marveling at the visceral way Anno directs action, even cringing at the same overt fanservice that still hasn’t grown on me after all these years. The coat of paint may have changed, and some details may have been shuffled around, but this is still the same haunting, gut-wrenching, breathtaking, extraordinarily beautiful franchise that broke the world of anime open back in 1995. Not even literally repeating itself is enough to take away its power. If anything, it just makes it even clearer timeless Evangelion is, how its storytelling and conception of humanity transcend the context of their time to speak to audiences of any era. Evangelion could’ve come out for the first time ten years ago, five years ago, yesterday, or decades into the future, and it would still hit just as hard no matter what. It’s a shining star that will never truly fade, a story that will forever remain just as jaw-dropping, just as agonizing, and just as revolutionary no matter how much time passes since it was first released.

So in the end, maybe Rebuild 1.0 is nothing more than a rehashed starting point that begins to set the stage for the real changes to come. But so what? That starting point is every bit as electrifying now as it was when I first laid eyes on it, an eternal reminder of the unmatched power of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I may not like all the little changes it made, but I will never grow tired of revisiting the beginning of anime’s undying masterpiece. So as we prepare to see how these Rebuilds will chart their own course moving forward, let’s raise one last toast to the moments that started it all... and look forward to the new heights this old foundation will take us to. With all that said, I give Evangelion Rebuild 1.0 a score of:

8.5/10

God, I’m so happy to be back with this franchise. See you next time for 2.0, where we (hopefully) get to really see why this story was worth rebuilding in the first place. See you then!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #evangelion #neon genesis evangelion #nge #eva #neon genesis evangelion rebuild #eva rebuild

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lilolilyr · 3 years

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Tagged by @ongreenergrasses, thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Way over 300! Tho it feels like it's been at 300sth so long by now, it'll be weird to look at once it hits 400 :D

Btw, funny how this tag meme asks for so much stuff that can be looked up by just... looking at my Ao3... without asking for any commentary by me? Lol

Anyhow, rest under the readmore bc this is 20 questions and Long!

Personal post - do not reblog

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

995596 - just a few more ficlets or 1 longer fic, and I've got a Million! Hey, maybe I should try to write one with... 4404? (I'd need to ask a calculator xD) words exactly... not rly a hardship with how many drabble exercises (exact wordcounts, 100 is the most used, I also do 200, 500, longest was 10000 exactly lol) I've already done... we'll see!

Over 400k for this year alone, and over half of that is my actual writing (not translations etc), I'm so proud! Last year I only barely hit 200k and that included a lot of translating work

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Again, one could look this up in my works filtered - sorted by kudos? But all three of my incubus!jaskier witcher series are in it, part 2 of the series is highest with 1091 kudos, then a Venom halloween oneshot, and 'Belonging', a fluffy snake-crowley piece from my ineffable spouses series (yes, sth with under 1k words - 666 to be exact - is in the top 5... my poor longfics lol)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

...I try to? But atm I have 202 unanswered (and I always click 'mark read' on replies so these are all comments on my own fic) even tho I told myself I'd not let it get past 200, and now I'm doing a tag meme instead of replying to anything so ummmm

Edit: 203 unread now

But I do love love love all the comments I get! And while atm it's still semi-manageable, if it ever gets to the point where I really can't manage to reply to everyone cause it's too much, i'd rly take that as a compliment lol :D I'd still try to reply to the longer and/or more thought through comments tho :)

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

*thinks* I have an MCD fic? But not only is that very much a case of ~posting a draft version that's barely in complete sentences insgead of taking the time to turn it into a real longfic~, I also just killed off the mlm couple I only semi care about and left the wlw couple with a happy/hopeful (rly don't remember) ending, so... hm idk whether that counts for angsty ending

Apart from that... I dunno, I just prefer my babies to be happy and fluffy? *.* i remember a mirror milippa in the mirrorverse one where in the end Michael is worried about lying to Philippa about her identity... there are some angsty TOG and Gomens ones but I think they end happy-ish (my memory is. Bad. but looking through my 'angst' tag I just saw a lot of h/c and 'angst with a happy ending')

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

They're all happy???!?

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Ahahahahahhahahaahaha

Check this out

I need you to know that all the works in that collection take part in the same universe (or rather, multiverse), and are alltogether just scratching the surface of my gigantic headcanon multiverse that I've been building in my mind since I was like 10

Actual crossovers other than that I don't remember writing

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeh but I only remember clicking 'delete comment', as it should be

Recently I've just gotten a bunch of 'you Need to continue this' and 'omg why isn't there more' or 'this shouldn't end' type comments, not hate, probably not meant maliciously, but So Annoying (maybe espesh bc I don't want to just hit delete on these, but I also don't want to pretend it's fine, but I also don't have the energy for a fight, and trying to explain why that behaviour is entitled and annoying and that I write what I want to write and nice comments should praise what I actually have written, and hoping that they understand and don't get mad is... hard.)

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Check out my rated E and rated M in my works

Mostly femslash lately, but I did also write other smut in the past

Most is a bit dominant/submissive play, but I do also like good fluffy smut with feelings! Best in combo, really :D

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in the sense of pretending someone else wrote it (that i know of), but posted to other sites without my permission - writing 'don't repost to other sites' etc did Not help, they even copied those tags lol, so I just let it be, choosing my battles wisely etcetc, I'd prefer for my fic not to be cross-posted by others bc then I can't edit or otherwise influence the fic anymore and don't see everyone's reactions to it, but as long as it's not someone pretending they wrote it, I only semi care, not enough to fight it tbh

PSA: I Only post fics to Ao3 (and WIPs/prompt fills to tumblr&discord at times), if you see them somewhere else that's Not Me and you'd do me a favour by checking them out on ao3 and kudosing&commenting there instead :)

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yup, one to Russian a while back, a floreleine (Gunpowder Milkshake) one to Korean just today actually, and I translated a bunch to German myself

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I made a TOG fic together with @cinnamonplums, well mostly I wrote and she made the art :D

Trying to remember whether I ever actually co-wrote anything... don't think so?

13. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Don't make me choose!!!

Atm Milippa is OTP bc I'm busy writing them for @discoveryfemslashfortnight (this is not a post to reblog for the fortnight), but I'm also still rly into Floreleine, Bering&Wells and Andromaquynh and Andronilynh, and I read a lot of Mirandy lately

All-time favs I'm not rly active in atm but will always be dear to me are the ineffable spouses, clintcoulson, heistwives, gosh so many more I'll stop here tho xD

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

A Heistwives Kinda Job immediately comes to mind

I also rly want to finish at least one cohesive original-ish storyline for the lverse that I already linked for the crossover question above, but I just have so much backstory (it's been over 10 years!!!) and it's... hard...

And everything else that's still WIP and untouched for more than a few months will probably have the same fate lol

Also have a few that haven't even seen the light of day at all, most recent a Mirandy ~what if Andy had been pregnant when Miranda hired her and how would it change the entire storyline~ bit - I wrote it in bulletpoints in one go as quickly as I could, I know I had the finished product in my mind, I don't remember anything now and don't feel like going through the bulletpoints painstakenly filling in the blanks

15. What are your writing strengths?

Writing one-shots quickly in one go

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Forgetting everything about a fic if I leave it in a draft for a second too long

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

There are many ways to go about it, and I think they all work (depending on the fic and the length and relevance of the dialogue)

I tend to leave single sentences as is, and for longer and important sequences use cursive and 'they said in xylanguage'.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The Hobbit apparently? I remember thinking that fic was so long lol, it's 3k

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Kat/Ana from Reef Break, they have Such Shippable Chemistry, and it would totally fit Kat's player personality to bang both siblings (she's canonically friends with benefits with Ana's half-brother)... but the ship has one (1!) fic on Ao3 *cries*

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

TOG Andromaquynh longfic In Your Stead has had the title since last year and probably for a while to come! I loved the story idea so much I really worked with several drafts and only! worked on that fic until it was finished so I wouldn't get distracted & forget about it, and the result was wonderful.

Tagging, if you want to do it, @sarah-fiers @purlturtle @cookie-sheet-toboggan @ussjellyfish @onaperduamedee @startrekgeorgiouery @rosalie-starfall @lonely-night @banashee @xvnot15 and everyone else who sees this

Questions to copy:

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? 5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? 6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? 7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? 8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? 9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? 10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 11. Have you ever had a fic translated? 12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 13. What’s your all time favorite ship? 14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? 15. What are your writing strengths? 16. What are your writing weaknesses? 17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? 18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? 19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? 20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

#tagging meme #tagged #mine #ongreenergrasses #ao3 tag #ao3 link #lilolilyrae #sept'21 #personal #Personal 2021 #28.09.21

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

Text

Loki is the latest Marvel Studios TV series in the long-running franchise and it’s currently ongoing with five episodes so far available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia. For previous breakdowns of Loki episodes, check out Episode 1 here, Episode 2 here, Episode 3 here, Episode 4 here and Episode 5 here.

If you want a non-spoiler guide to Loki, you can head on over here.

Courtesy of Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia, we were lucky enough to be the only Malaysian media to participate in a roundtable interview with Loki Costume Designer Christine Wada and Loki Production Designer Kasra Farahani.

This interview with Loki Production Designer Kasra Farahani has been edited for clarity.

Keep in mind that we’ll be discussing some elements from all five episodes of Loki so far, so there will be spoilers below:

Q: You’ve previously worked on Black Panther and other MCU movies. How different was the experience of working on a TV set instead of a movie’s? Were there limitations?

Yes, I’ve worked on several Marvel projects. For me, this is the most fun one, maybe because I’m in a different position than I was on the other ones. But also, just because this project is unique in a couple of ways.

Number one; it’s literally in its own timeline from the rest of the MCU. It’s separate from the stories we’ve all enjoyed and seen in the MCU so far. The other thing that this one has that’s really great is the amount of visual and narrative variety. We have this kind of base in the TVA that we spend a lot of time in but also we have all these exciting different places in the world that the story takes us to. These were great worlds to design and to imagine.

In our case, there was no difference. The thing about the Marvel series is that it’s pretty much like Marvel movies; in terms of their creative ambition, in terms of the way they’re scheduled, the fact that we have one director.

There was not much about it (Loki) that resembled an episodic project, except for the fact that it was six hours of content that we were trying to make, so it’s a very long project.

In terms of resources, I didn’t ever feel that we were unduly stretched. Always, when you get a creative brief like this, there’s always a period at the beginning of every project where you’re reconciling the creative brief and the resources that you have. That has been the case for every project that I’ve ever worked on regardless of the size. There’s this beginning phase where that’s the case and oftentimes, it’s in that process where you come up with some very great creative solutions that are a direct result of some of the limitations, actually.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say that we had some extraordinary limitations in this case (for Loki), but that’s generally true for all projects, in my experience.

Q: What were you inspired by when making designing the sets of the TVA with its retro-futuristic and anachronistic aesthetics?

In the source material, the TVA had a lot of different things going on, but one of the strong themes also was this armada of desks, which is kind of typical of a post-war era bureaucracy look. There was a grain of that in the source material but a lot of it also came from the show’s creator and writer, Michael Waldron, who described in the original document I read before interviewing for this job.

He described the TVA as a kind of mix of Mad Men meets Blade Runner. Part of these two strong visual references for us. On top of that, me and director Kate Herron, even before we met and spoken to each other, were inspired by Terry Gilliam’s Brazil also as a strong influence because of the anachronisms that that story had and also because of the clear presence of this strong monolithic bureaucracy, which is something that we have in the TVA also.

For the TVA, we were looking a lot at wanting to create a world that had a paradoxical feeling, being an imposing monolithic architectural space that has brutalist elements in them and had almost Soviet modernist elements to them. The colour palette and the materials and the whimsical patterning were much more like American style modernism.

The result was hopefully when you’re in an environment like this, you don’t know whether to feel terrified or invited. Hopefully, it creates that feeling in both the characters and the audience; this kind of cognitive dissonance in not knowing whether they can trust the TVA or not. That’s the narrative objective.

The writers came up with these ideas and the idea with that was to kind of create the bubble gum wrapper in the Renaissance era (Loki Episode 2) and the futuristic shovel in the early 20th-century farm field (Loki Episode 1). These ideas were placed there to create a trail of clues for the TVA to follow before they have clarity on Sylvie’s identity. But for the anachronisms generally, that was something we tried to do throughout the TVA to have all kinds of strange things from different timelines and different worlds popping up in terms of props, like the Infinity Stones in the mail cart and stuff like that.

Q: What was it like working with Tom Hiddleston, who is a producer on Loki?

It was very exciting to have this opportunity to take the character and his storyline in a different direction. It became all the more exciting when I read the scripts and I saw the type of journey they were going to take the character on.

Tom is a professor of Loki, basically. After all, ten years or so of playing the character; he knows it better than anybody and he has an in-depth understanding of the character and his backstory; the character’s family relationships and he was really helpful in giving a little talk to all the department heads about the background of his character, which was very informative.

Q: Recently, Loki series director Kate Herron said that 90 percent of production sets were physical. Does this include the world of The Void, and can you tell us more about how you brought it to life?

That’s true. That was what was unique about this show, because of my own design approach, and my goal in creating this large monolithic brutalist environment, I felt strongly that the sets needed to be built kinda wholly and that they needed to have the ceilings in-tact. This was also supported by Loki cinematographer Autumn, in that the way of her own style of photography is very wide and low-angled photography, which is why for both of our creative goals, it made a lot of sense to build these sets like completed and 360-degree environments.

For the TVA, that was almost always the case, with the exception of when you saw outside a window. With the Void (in Loki Episode 5), a lot of that was built practically as well. What I can tell you is that we build a large piece of this landscape on a soundstage, which was about 150 feet by 200 feet of undulating wilderness terrain. In that, we would bring in these different scenery elements on different days to make it feel like different places within the Void.

For example, one day there was the bus stop terrain where we meet Loki. One day it was the giant head. One day it was the drive-in movie theatre where we find Sylvie. All of these things were brought in and we shot there over the course of seven days. The terrain was designed in such a way that depending on what angle you shot, it felt like a very different place. Backgrounds were put in during post-production in visual effects. The Loki palace, where the Loki variants kind of hang out, the bowling alley, all of that was also a 360-degree built set as well.

Q: What was the most challenging set of the entire Loki series that you had to work on?

We had a lot of very ambitious sets but I think the city of Sharoo at the end of Loki Episode 3: Lamentis was a very technical set. The goal was to create this virtual one-in, that appears as a single shot. This was a very involved and elaborate process of choreography, basically.

All the different departments were involved to make this happen because as we watch the sequence, we see tons of actors running around, there are explosions happening, the camera’s panning up to see the planet above crumbling and asteroids pelting the surface.

There was a lot of planning that went through at the very beginning. We brought the paper models of this to Autumn, our cinematographer and creative director, to use to plan some of their shots. One day, we had some more information that fed back to the art department where we developed more involved and elaborate drawings and models which again, fed back to them. In this way, we had kind of an iterative conversation to arrive at what the design was.

So, as we start to build the set, many of the department heads came to visit and check the progress. We rehearsed what the shot was going to be, so we could exactly fine-tune the set to meet the needs of this shot and see where the edits needed to be. In order to do this, we needed to adjust the exact width of the roads or move a piece of scenery here and then figure out exactly, okay, there’s going to be an explosion coming out of the ground here and another explosion coming out of the building here and this is when the camera looks up to the sky and sees the planet explode. This is where the window breaks and this is where the guy jumps out and grabs him and there’s a fight.

There are many, many people involved; Monique Garderton, our stunt coordinator, Kate Herron, the director, and also the special effects team, and of course, visual effects, deeply involved, and Richard Graves, who is kind of our AD (Assistant Director), the circus leader of all of it, organizing everybody to kind of work on this thing altogether. It’s the sort of thing that involves so many different departments that it can only really be discovered when working in a big group together.

I would say that was maybe the most challenging technically because there were so many logistical parameters and so many moving parts.

Q: What are your thoughts on diversity in the production of the creative industry?

I think that it is critically important. As somebody who is myself an immigrant, I was born in Iran and my family moved here when I was quite young. I’m super happy to see the direction that the industry is going in. I think Marvel has been particularly excellent in providing leadership in this way and I honestly have to give a lot of credit to Kate Herron, our director.

Almost more than any other project I’ve been on, she prioritised inclusivity and diversity. I mean, lots of people, don’t get me wrong, it’s on every project and on everyone’s mind, but I think Kate went above and beyond because it’s so fundamental to her worldview and she’s such a sensitive soul in this way. One of the many ways in that it was such a joy to work with Kate and I’m very proud of the many different ethnicities we’re representing, and how many women we’ve had. In our art department, we had close to fifty men and women.

It’s important and leads to better creative results that are more fully realized and more representative of what the fans really want.

#Kasra Farahani #production design #Loki #interview

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snapeysister · 3 years

Text

Vulnera Sanentur

New one-shot consisting of 5 different time episodes about Severus Snape’s signature healing spell. My headcanon is that the spell had been passed down to him by mother Eileen and not having been used before by any other wizard except those from the Prince family. // This and other one-shots can be found on my newly opened AO3 account https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hayalee8 <3

_______________

"Watcha sayin', mummy?"

His voice sounded feeble, dropping with exhaustion. Just a short while ago, his shrieks of pain and terror had been filling the room; now, however, a soothing dizziness took over, his mother's quiet singing voice lulling him into sleep.

"Be silent, darling, it's almost over. Just a wee bit and I'll be done. Don't move yet."

Gentle fingers continued tracing along his naked back, and he obediently held still, and yet wanted an answer to his question.

"But watcha sayin'?.."

His mother sang a few last tunes, voice trailing off, the words turning almost into a whisper. Her movements stopped and she rose from his bed which she had been sitting upon for the last minutes.

"Something good, something very good, Sevvie. It's a song which makes your back feel alright again. It's not hurting anymore, is it?"

"Nah, it isn't, mummy."

"I'm happy, darling. Now let's make sure you're going to sleep well, shall we?"

He wanted to protest, as he always did, he never wanted to sleep, he hated being left alone and the nightmares only increased the fear; but his lids did not obey him anymore.

"I see you won't need a calming draught this time", he heard his mother chuckle quietly, "good night then."

He felt being tucked in and a light kiss on his forehead, yet was too tired to even smile back as he usually did, as his mind traveled off into the land of dreams.

***

"Please, please come! She's going to die, you have to heal her!

"I can't."

"Please, she will die!! You know how to do it, you always know!"

"I said I can't, Severus."

"But why!? Just come and sing that song, you've just been doing it on my arm when father hit me yesterday, why can't you now?!"

"Just let it go."

"No!! I won't! If you don't want to, I'll do it myself! Tell me the spell!"

"It won't work."

"Because I don't know how to, but you do, mum! Help me save her!!"

"Be quiet, Severus."

"I won't! That's evil! She doesn't deserve to die!"

"I said be quiet!"

"You are just as evil as him!"

"Shut up, will you!? Is it my fault that your retarded father had to kill this sodding cat?! The spell doesn't work on animals! Besides, he cut her throat; she must have bled to death already."

"I don't believe you!!"

"Leave me alone, now!!"

***

Severus riffled through the drawers in desperate urgency. Nothing. The bookshelf didn't have anything to offer either. The floor was littered with papers and pencils and books and whatever else he had thrown around in his frantic search. He hadn't still mastered the spell well enough to be able to follow the exact sequence of melody and words, but his notes could help him out, they most definitely would, he had no doubt in his abilities, he just needed to find those notes. The ones he had scribbled down after having listened carefully to his mother performing it on his body, following yet another broken bottle having been thrown in his direction, slicing up his skin. He didn't want to ask his mother as she would inquire in turn what he would need it for, or even worse, for whom... Severus had no intention whatsoever to elaborate on who he had been sharing his magic with the past weeks. Never were they to know who he was meeting with during those lazy afternoons filled with absolutely nothing but him sitting behind the bushes, staring at the road behind them and waiting for the tiny figure with the long, wavy red hair to approach the playground and whistle three times. Then he could leave his hiding place and allow himself to smile and be him, actually enjoying his existence, for the next few hours, until the darkness fell and they both had to leave, each one to what they were able to call home.

Severus threw himself on the bed. The notebook was nowhere to be found. And yet he had promised it to her. That he would help her get rid of the ugly red scar on her leg, the result of the recent tryouts of their magical abilities. How he hated himself for that stupid idea of his. What was he thinking, attempting to cut that bloody orange with her sitting right next to it? To be honest, neither of them had deemed it possible to actually make something happen just by staring at it and doing imaginary cutting movements with the fruit knife. When she had tried it, nothing at all happened, whereas him... Of course it was Lily who had kept her nerves and swallowed the pain and the tears and promised she wouldn't tell anyone how the knife ended up slashing her leg instead of the orange. And that she didn't believe he did it on purpose, like when the branch had fallen on Petunia back then, before she got to know who he really was. Severus, devastated as he was about his lack of damage control, and astonished by her bravery, gave his most sincere and heartfelt promise to find a way to make it disappear. So Lily could attend her first day at Hogwarts without this disgraceful injury, the screaming proof of him having failed her in both his abilities and their rightful application.

Their first day was due tomorrow. Lily was waiting at the playground for him to arrive and fulfill his promise before the sun would set and she had to go home and prepare for her big day. And here he was, in his bloody room, all his efforts in vain, the notebook gone and so the healing spell.

Severus sighed deeply. Never before had he dared taking anything of his mother's, neither ingredients which she kept in a box in the storage room, nor vials or lotions she used to store in an empty cupboard in the attic. But drastic times called for drastic measures. He had to make up for the spell somehow, and if he remembered correctly, dittany was another way of healing scars. Luckily for him, his mother was at work. Severus quickly climbed the ladder to the attic. He had no time to lose. Thankfully enough his mother knew how to keep things in order. Every vial and bottle were meticulously labeled. He grabbed the bottle with "Dittany" written on it and stormed down the ladder and out of the house. He would take care of the chaos in his room later and if his father arrived before him to see it and punish him for this, so be it. Perhaps he'd get another chance then to listen to his mother singing the spell and would write it into another notebook. Right now, Lily was what mattered most.

***

"He must have it written somewhere!"

"We've searched through all of his stuff so far, there is nothing here!"

"Who told you he really knows how to do it?! Perhaps it's just a rumour!"

"A rumour? Are you daft?! I saw him perform it with my own eyes, on Evans! They were practicing with their brooms and she flew into the Whomping Willow by accident and had her face and arms cut badly. Snape rushed to her and began moving his wand up and down the cuts and do some singing, so by the time the patrol arrived the cuts had disappeared and she was walking on her feet with him leading her up to the castle."

"You are the daft one, Prongs; isn't it clear then that he must know it by heart??"

"It still has to be written somewhere. He could've hardly made it up on his own, could he?"

"Yeah, rather not; it's Dark magic the git is into, not healing spells. He must have found it in the library and written it down."

"What for then?"

"To impress Evans? He fancies her no less than you, Prongs, and that's the sort of thing she'd appreciate, mind you, so he can cover up for all his Dark stuff."

"Oh shut up and search, Padfood, the class will be over soon and we've got to get out of here before everyone comes back!"

"What if we don't find anything?"

"We cannot let anyone know it was Moony who scratched the boy. If there won't be another option, we'll drag him personally to the hospital wing to make the cut disappear."

***

This was not the enemy he had invented it for. This was not the spell he would have expected to make its way into the halls of Hogwarts, of all places. And even though it was by far not the first time he had to resort to Vulnera Sanentur to heal cursed injuries of students or colleagues or Death Eaters, he would have never thought it to be possible that he had to use it to undo the damage caused by his very own curse, casted by Lily's son, of all people.

Of course he believed Potter. He could have never known what force the curse carried. If Potter knew, he certainly wouldn't have applied it. As much as Severus felt repulsed by the boy, he knew that Potter was as far from Dark magic as the Dark Lord from valuing mercifulness, or love. He contemplated if a simple detention had been enough an appropriate punishment to bestow upon Potter. If he should have made him to return the book, which Potter undoubtedly had laid his hands upon, regardless of the lies the boy had told him. His apparent leniency for the infliction of such a powerful curse by a student on another was obvious, and it worried Severus. Sectumsempra had by far not been the only dangerous spell he had written down in his book. On the other hand, he reasoned, as easily impressible as Potter was, the messy result he had created would probably serve as a deterrent, powerful enough to keep him from attempting another tryout with any of Severus's spells. At least not without the knowledge of their counter-curses, first and foremost Vulnera Sanentur, which Potter had not the slightest possibility of mastering.

Vulnera Sanentur. Such tremendous power in only two words, reversing unforgivable, unfathomable harm, healing what would've never been expected to heal. A song of life, the melody of which he had inherited from his mother to be able to put a stopper in pain and destruction and death. This time it had saved the soul of his godson and his former enemy's son alike, the one from being killed, the other from becoming a murderer.

Where would he meet it again, waiting for him to be evoked to secure the survival of another miserable being? How would that fateful crossroads look like, where would the paths it offered lead to? There was one thing he knew with dreadful certainty - it would not be destined to save the Headmaster's life. And the more he thought about it, the more he felt his other conclusion to be affirmed - neither would it save his.

Severus sighed, feeling a wave of exhaustion overpowering his senses. Before he closed his eyes to gain a few hours of sleep which were left for him until the break of dawn, a peculiar thought crossed his mind, perhaps for the first time in his life: If his mother had mastered the healing spell for a human body and taught it to him, wouldn't it have been assumable she had knowledge of a spell to relieve the pain of a human mind as well? And if she had, would there have been a reason not pass it down to him? If only...

His mind drifted off, and so did the thought.

#severus snape #vulnera sanentur #one-shot #finally writing #fanfiction #young snape #marauders #eileen prince

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rhmg-au · 4 years

Text

The sequel to the first one, only in the Toppats’ POV.

More will come for these two stories, but beware of major angst ;)

This AU belongs to @rhmg-au . Please follow them, reblog their art, give them fanart, support them in any way possible, etc.

TW: Killing, blood, gore, implied torture

———

Ellie was panicking.

She was extremely scared at the moment, scared that something could go wrong, scared that they could be wiped out from existence, scared that the government had already did something to Henry.

A few days ago, the leader of the Toppats orchestrated a plan to rescue the captured members. Of course, it came with risks, risks that they could be killed or taken along with them, and there’s the matter of that killer…but Henry wanted to save them, and he’ll be willing to take the fall if it meant that they were safe.

So, they went along with the plan, and it was mostly successful…mostly.

They were able to come and collect who they came for, but Henry…wasn’t so lucky.

He was captured.

Since she is his right hand lady, Ellie took the responsibility as temporary leader until they were able to bust him out, or even be permanent if…she doesn’t want to think what would happen to him now that he’s in their grasp.

If only she had gone back for him, despite his claims that he’ll be alright. God, she felt like such a failure for letting him be taken.

After what he had done for her, helping her out of the Wall, she failed to return the favour.

Her mental state wasn’t as bad as Reginald’s though…anyone would be doing better than him. Ask anyone on this space station and they’ll say the same thing as her thoughts.

What happened during the launch sequence made something inside of him snap.

And she couldn’t blame him, anyone who had to see their close friend be taken away by your enemies and you couldn’t do anything about it would be enough to shatter someone’s confidence.

She’s growing very concerned for him as the days past though…especially after Henry was captured.

She was sitting in the office, the one where the leader’s got. Stacks of papers were filling her desk, most were finished but there’s still uncompleted paperwork she has to do, and she felt like she was having a headache from them. Great power comes with great responsibility, and that quote literally defines what being the leader of the Toppat Clan is like.

She’d seen bags under Henry’s eyes from time to time, and now she’s probably going to have them too at this rate.

There was a knock on the door, causing Ellie to look away from her work. “Please come in.”

The door opened up, giving in light into the room. Sabine Setorion entered, her sky blue hair swaying despite there wasn’t any wind inside the space station, the face that contained that unhealed third-degree burn and stitched scar as well as a purple earpiece used for communications is recognizable to anyone. Another thing that made her stand out from the rest was that she had all of her limbs replaced by cybernetics, well almost all of them. The only one left is her right arm. Her spine, left arm, and legs were reconstructed with metal, similar to Right.

“I’m not bothering you, am I?”

Ellie shook her head, swinging her chair around to face her. “You aren’t, really. What is it you want to talk about?”

Sabine shut the door behind her, blocking the light out and leaving them in near darkness again, had there not be a lampshade on the desk, or the blinds opened to showcase the stars. “About your proposal of going down to earth and saving Henry. The executives agreed on it.”

The red haired perked up at this, the meeting ended around 3 hours ago, when she proposed the idea of raiding the government to get their leader back. Not that she just wanted to not be leader anymore, she wanted Henry back safe and sound.

“This can have terrible consequences, but bringing home our family is worth the risk.”

“But we’re also gambling the lives of the rest for the others. I do want Henry back as much as you do, him being my childhood friend and all, but I don’t feel comfortable with endangering the lives of the other Toppats.” Sabine adjusted her blue top hat with a metallic band around it, feeling like it would fall off at any given moment.

“I understand your concern, but as long as we’re well prepared and everything goes smoothly, we should be able to go through without anyone falling.” Ellie stood up from her seat and placed a hand on her shoulder, in attempt at comfort.

“Well, if you’re really sure. I’m just worried is all.” Sabine smiled a little at the gesture.

“We’re in this together, no matter what comes our way.” Ellie mirrored her smile.

“We should prepare ourselves for tomorrow then, huh?”

“Alright, alright. It’s nighttime from what the clock said, so let’s head to bed.”

———

The day arrived.

Screams were heard, bullets were fired, blood was shed.

The raid began approximately ten minutes ago, when the Toppats gathered around the government base, readying their weapons and the signal Ellie would give for them to attack.

As soon as it was, the stage was set.

“The cells are there, come on!” Ellie urged the two Toppats following her, Reginald and Earrings, to where the holding cells are located.

Obviously, Reginald was onboard with the plan, it was mostly for Right rather than Henry, it was understandable. He wanted his right hand man back after weeks of separation. Ellie was feeling the exact same, except that Henry wasn’t gone for the same time period as Right was, she’s still determined to get them both back regardless of time differences. Earrings was there because of her battle functions with her earrings, she’d be a great distraction provider should the need arise.

A few soldiers stood in their way, preparing their guns to shoot at them. Earrings was quick to react as she shined her diamond earrings at them, blinding them and causing them to drop their weapons, prompting an easy victory as they overpowered the disorientated soldiers.

“I swear if they done something to Righty…” Reginald mumbled to himself, the pistol tight in his grasp as he shot the last bullet into one of the soldier’s head.

“If they did, we’ll tear this place down. I can guarantee that, isn’t that correct El?” Earrings turned to Ellie, who finished off the last military person with a kick to the gut.

“How could I pass up that opportunity for what they did to us? Our family?” She asked, her red hair flying against the wind that came up.

“Let’s get going, before more soldiers come.” The former leader of the clan mentioned, overlooking the chaos that came with their attack.

It was horrifying to watch, to say the least. Many Toppats and soldiers charging into the fray and either getting severely hurt, killed or apprehended, that last one only applying to the clan members. It felt painful to watch, as their family get slaughtered for the sake of everyone else in the clan, or they get captured. Either of them doesn’t sit right with them.

What they’d give to stop this endless cycle of hurt.

But they weren’t going to make senseless wishes as if they would come true. They need to take matters into their own hands, things aren’t going to resolve on their own. Miracles are just myths that aren’t true and are only told to children.

Ellie and Earrings nodded quickly, the three of them going into the cells, rushing down the halls with metal bars speeding past them as they try to find their acquaintances, while also shooting down guards on their way.

They stopped at one particular cell, sitting inside was a familiar individual.

“Henry!” Said male perked up from where he’s sitting on the bed, rushing over to the bars, a smile crossing his face at the sight of seeing the clan still well.

“Ellie? Reginald? Earrings?” He questioned, as if he thought this was a dream or his mind decided to torment him with a fake promise of getting out of this enclosed space of a cell.

By the time that sentence was spoken, the door was opened by the blonde Toppat, having picklocked it while he was talking. “It is, we’ve come to bust you out.”

“Where’s Right? Is he here somewhere? Is he hurt?” Reginald immediately asked, still not relived, he’ll only be once he finds where Right is and brings him back with him safely.

Henry looked away for a moment, a face full of guilt. That didn’t mean any good. “He’s not in the cells-”

“Then where is he?!”

“He’s…been rewired.”

“What?”

“Rewired, they turned him to their side. I tried to snap him out of it, but I wasn’t able to.”

A moment of silence initiated between the four, everyone but Henry speechless. Reginald was easily the one to be the most devastated, Right working for the enemy by force…he knew the government wasn’t kind but this was insane.

“Those…heartless bastards!” He shouted suddenly, his grip on his pistol and his fist clenched so tight it made his knuckles underneath his black gloves turn to a stark white. “I can’t believe they had the will to do this! This is torture!”

“Reg, we need to keep our heads calm, being rash isn’t going to-” Ellie knew how dangerous it was to go headfirst into trouble out of sheer rage, despite she herself doing that a lot.

“We’re going to save him, take this whole place down and get the clan back to the orbital station.” Reginald’s tone of voice changed to that of commanding, stern, full of rage. At the moment, he didn’t care about anything other than Right, the clan, and taking down the government, too blinded by anger to think clearly like he usually was.

“We need one other person before we go.” Henry’s voice spoke up, getting out of the cell with the three, a revolver tossed into his hand by Ellie. “He may work for the government, but it’s clear that he’s seen just how horrible their general is.”

“But are we really going to make it out if we save him?” Reginald questioned, getting some of his composure back, but it wasn’t enough to quell his rage.

“He genuinely tried to help, I saw it all. He’s worth saving just like him.”

Before an answer could be made, a bullet shot through the air, barely missing Earrings’ arm.

The four of them turned to the guard who fired at them, and he was about to pull the trigger again when he was stabbed from behind, by a sword it seemed. The body was discarded off from the blade, revealing a bloodied faced Sabine standing there, breathing heavily.

“You need any help?”

“Nice timing there.” Earrings muttered, a sigh of relief leaving her.

“Actually, I have a proposal. You and Earrings can go find Right while the rest of us can find whoever Henry needs to look for.” Ellie suggested, looking around to see if anymore guards are coming to arrest them.

It doesn’t seem like the worst of ideas, yet it does has it downfalls.

But if that guy is really important…and if he wants to focus on his goal of finding Right…

“Very well. Come along, Earrings.” Reginald took her arm and ran down the hallway, back to where they first got into the cells.

“Who is this person you say is important?” Sabine asked, once the two are out of sight and Ellie made sure no more guards are coming in to arrest their asses.

“He is actively trying to help Right, he now sees just how horrible the general is. We need to help him, just like how he’s helping us taking back our friend.” Henry explained, gesturing with his hand for the two to follow him.

“Wait, is he out on the battlefield?” Ellie asked, running down the hall.

Henry shook his head, his expression now showcasing guilt. “No, before you guys came, I saw that bastard hit him on the head, knocking him unconscious, and dragged him away from me.” His face contorted into rage. “He’s doing something to him, I know of it.”

“We’ll get him back, and when we do, are you going to have him join the clan?” Sabine questioned, all of them now outside of the cells as they continued to follow where Henry’s heading.

“He’ll be much better off with us than that bastard, that’s for sure.” Henry responded, already having made up his mind about it. He would more than likely accept, since the experience with such an abusive asshole had an impact on him.

They soon reached a building, it was stark white on the outside, it had glass doors, revealing a white hallway behind them. It didn’t look as bright as it could have been, since the sky was a dark grey, it didn’t quite captured the full beauty of the construction as the clear day and sunlight did.

“This is the place where he’s taken to?” Ellie questioned, shooting a soldier who tried to attack them.

“Yeah, he told me about this yesterday, a lab. I believe this is where he is.” Henry answered, pushing open the glass doors to allow them to enter.

“And if it’s not?”

“Then we keep searching until we find him.”

They ran down the white hallway, stopping at two other doors that are made of plastic, or some other material. The windows giving them a little sneak peak inside, an operating table was there, multiple types of equipment were there, and something looked like it was raising above the floor as if it was being consumed but it got stuck halfway through the ground.

Soon, they were treated to the full version. It wasn’t too different to an average lab, but the technology there and the lifted up piece in the floor was different than a regular lab.

The group looked at one another, nodding in unison. There was only one way to settle their suspicions, well more of Henry’s but you get the point.

They quickly headed down the stairs, an opened door at the end.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they saw who was in the room.

General Galeforce, Dr. V and two other people in chairs, seemingly strapped down to them, dried blood, cuts, bruises, and a torn uniform were seen.

Immediately, Henry held up his revolver, a dark glare on his face now. “Let them go, now.”

Sabine let her eyes wander to the blonde woman, hers and Dr. V’s eyes widening when they recognize who the other was.

“Sabine?”

“Mother?”

#PACKAGE - [ FANWORK ]#[ NON CANON ]#tw blood #tw gore #tw torture #HEEEHOOOOOOOOOO #EXCELLENT WRITING AS ALWAYS!!! - MOD - [ SWANNO ]#submission

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starryknight09 · 3 years

Text

This is going to hurt

Febuwhump Day 16: broken bones

Read on AO3.

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“Come on Spiderman.” Peter mumbled as he stood on the ledge of the building. Heights hadn’t scared him ever since he’d gotten his powers, but standing up here now, if felt different. Even though he was in his old Spiderman suit with his webshooters attached to his wrists, it all took on a completely different feeling now that he’d lost his powers. A month ago he’d gotten hit by some weird ray gun and ever since then his powers had remained dormant.

Tony kept trying to convince him they’d figure it out, and at first Peter had believed him, but now after a month of no progress, he was starting to lose hope. No matter how many times Tony had tried to tell him they just needed a little more time and Peter just needed to be patient, Peter couldn’t help but worry. What if they couldn’t figure it out? He couldn’t go back to being just Peter Parker. He couldn’t. Peter Parker was a loser. A nerdy nobody. He didn’t know what he’d do if he couldn’t be Spiderman.

Then this morning he’d had an idea. Tony was Ironman without any powers, so maybe he could still be Spiderman even without his powers. He wasn’t deluded. He knew he couldn’t go out and fight crime right now, but if he put in some crazy work and training, maybe someday he could get there. And maybe without his powers he could still swing. He just needed a little hope. And that’s why he was standing on top of a four story building staring down at the street. He’d been afraid to try any higher. Even this height made his heart pump with adrenaline.

“You can do this.” He tried to convince himself. “You can. You do this all the time. You’re Spiderman.”

He took a deep breath. In. Out.

“Ok. Time to jump.” He said but his feet stayed firmly planted on the roof.

He took another calming breath. “Ok. On three. One. Two. Three.”

His feet remained stuck.

“Stop being a chicken.” He mumbled, annoyed at his cowardice. “Jump. Come on. Do it. Do it. Do it!”

He jumped. The fall that used to invigorate him just sent terror through his veins. He fumbled with his webshooter for a moment before his fingers found the button, sending a web over to the opposite building. It tightened and for a second and he was flying, swinging like he always used to as Spiderman. He got to the peak of his arc and released his web. He was actually doing it!

Oh shit. He needed to shoot another web. His eyes searched frantically for the next best place to anchor it, but it was a lot harder without his super senses. As the space between himself and the ground rapidly decreased, h haphazardly shot a web out, hoping it would stick somewhere to stop his descent. It stuck. But he’d misjudged the placement of it, and instead of swinging into an open alley, he was headed straight toward the wall of the building.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. This is going to hurt. Was all he had time to think before he slammed into the brick.

The absolute force of it rang through his entire body even into his teeth and made him lose his grip on the web. He floundered in midair before smacking into the concrete alleyway below, narrowly missing a dumpster.

He let out a whimper of a breath, his cheek pressed against the ground. Ouch. The understatement of the century. As Spiderman he could get hurt. The mutation didn’t make him invincible, but he didn’t realize until now that part of the mutation helped with his pain tolerance, because he couldn’t remember ever being in as much pain as Spiderman as he was in right now. And that was saying something because he’d been stabbed, concussed, shot, and broken bones before, and it’d never felt like this.

This was terrible all encompassing pain. He couldn’t even figure out where he hurt the most. Oh shit. He’d really messed up. Tears prickled in his eyes, but it hurt too much to cry so they just dripped silently out the corners.

He had no idea how long he laid there. Time lost all meaning as he focused solely on breathing through the agony. Breathe in. Out. In. Out. Eventually some semblance of rational thought returned. He didn’t know if the pain had gotten a tiny bit better or if he’d acclimated to the all consuming nature of it, but he finally had enough mental fortitude to start thinking about what he needed to do. As much as he wanted to lay there forever and not move, he knew he couldn’t. He needed help. He needed…his phone.

With the way he’d landed on his left side, his right arm was free with his hand resting mere inches from his pocket. One lucky break. He inched it into his pocket, scissoring his phone between two of his fingers, and pulled it out. There was no way he could lift it to his face, but he didn’t need to. He tapped the home button five times in rapid succession, the sequence Tony had programmed into it as an SOS call. Almost instantly he felt it start buzzing as Tony undoubtedly tried calling him. He didn’t answer. It stopped buzzing for a few seconds before it started up again. Tony was probably freaking out, and Peter hated that his worry wouldn’t be unfounded for once.

Peter let his eyes slide shut, not wanting to keep staring at the alley wall inches from his face. It wouldn’t be long now. Tony would be appropriately panicked out by now, which meant he’d take the suit, and since he lived in the city, having moved back with Morgan and Pepper after the Thanos thing, it should be only a few minutes until he arrived.

Even though he’d been expecting it, the clang of Ironman landing next to his crumpled form still surprised him. Usually he would’ve heard him coming from miles away. He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to not having his super senses.

“Peter!” Tony’s fear seeped into his voice.

Peter groaned so the man would at least know he was conscious.

Tony knelt down next to him and Peter cracked his eyes open to catch the man’s hand hovering inches above his shoulder before abandoning the idea of touching him. “Shit kid. What were you—”

Tony stopped and frowned, obviously noticing that he had on his old Spiderman suit because the man gently pulled his mask off. A second later Peter could see it in his eyes. The exact moment Tony realized what must’ve happened. What Peter had been doing. Why he was wearing his old suit. The man’s eyes widened in shocked disbelief before he looked up, taking in how far Peter must’ve fallen.

“I’m sorry.” He rasped out.

“Don’t…don’t move kid.” Tony said instead of chewing him out like he’d expected.

He hummed in acknowledgement.

“FRIDAY scan him and call for an emergency medivac.”

Peter didn’t hear her response or the outcome of her scan, the AI probably feeding the information directly into Tony’s ear.

“It really hurts.” He mumbled. “It’s never hurt like this before.”

“I know but it’s going to be ok. Just hang in there. The med team will be here soon and we’ll get you back to the compound.” Tony tried to reassure him, but Peter could hear the anxiety in his tone.

“I’m sorry.” He repeated, more tears sliding down his cheeks. “It was…it was stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s ok.” Tony comforted, lightly brushing the tears off his cheeks. “We’ll, uh, we’ll talk about it later. Just try to concentrate on something else.”

He tried to but thinking about anything besides the pain was near impossible. He whimpered.

“It’s all right.” Tony tried to soothe him. “Here. Squeeze my hand.” Tony put his hand in Peter’s and Peter gave it a light squeeze, surprised it didn’t make anything hurt worse, and it almost did help as something to focus on. Another wave of pain crashed over him and he gripped it harder, not having to worry about squeezing too hard because his super strength was gone. He let his entire world shrink down to holding Tony’s hand and concentrating on breathing as Tony continued to speak softly to him in reassurance.

When the medivac team finally arrived, Peter barely noticed them buzzing around him until they put a neck brace on him and rolled him onto a backboard. He scrunched his eyes closed and grit his teeth as they strapped him down. Man, that had hurt, and the new position left him feeling claustrophobic, especially when they placed an oxygen mask over his face. He frowned, not sure how else to show his displeasure. If he opened his mouth to try to say something, he worried he might scream.

Something poked him in his arm, barely noticeable in comparison to all the pain emitting from the rest of his body. A few seconds later he felt a burning sensation as they injected something into the IV they’d placed, and the pain receded almost instantaneously, his body slackening in relief.

“Better?” Tony asked, still hovering next to him.

Peter hummed his appreciation, eyes slipping closed. Now that the pain had stopped assaulting him, he was exhausted. He vaguely registered the medics lifting him and then they were moving toward something. Something annoyingly loud.

“Just a short helicopter ride and we’ll be at the compound.” Tony said and Peter realized all the noise was from the rotating blades of the helicopter as it waited in the middle of the street. That had to be all kinds of illegal. But he doubted Tony cared. Peter didn’t care either. Of all the things he’d done, he’d never actually ridden in a helicopter before. They loaded him in, Tony taking a seat right beside him and slipping his hand back in Peter’s as soon as they were settled.

Peter gave it a squeeze, determined to stay awake to experience the helicopter ride, but the painkillers pulled him down and he faded out before they even took off.

Awareness came. And went. Came back. And left again. Lapping at him like gentle waves. Until suddenly it was just there.

He opened his eyes and instantly recognized the medbay since he’d spent more than his fair share of time there. The lights were dimmed to their lowest setting so it must be nighttime. Peter took a moment to take stock of himself. He hurt, but in that detached way that signaled he was on some heavy duty painkillers. He glanced down at his legs. The right one was in a cast from his foot all the way up to his hip and propped up on a plethora of pillows. Peter wiggled his toes and let out a sigh of relief when they moved. Thank god. He continued to peruse the rest of his body. He laid shirtless so he could see all the angry bruises covering the entire left side of his chest. Ouch. His left arm was casted up to his armpit and in a sling, resting on its own pillow so it didn’t touch his bruised left side. He recognized the tickle in his nose as an oxygen cannula. Man. He’d really messed himself up.

Regret settled in and he closed his eyes with a sigh before opening them again a few seconds later. As he turned his head, looking for a clock, his eyes settled on a figure slumped in a chair next to his bed. Everything was blurry without his glasses, but he easily recognized the man without them. Tony. His mentor’s head was craned sideways, practically resting on his shoulder, fast asleep. Peter winced in sympathy. That position looked really uncomfortable.

“Hey.” He said, deciding to wake him up. Maybe if he saw Peter was awake and doing fine, he’d be ok with leaving to sleep in an actual bed.

Tony startled at the noise, straightening up and grabbing at his neck with a grimace before freezing when he noticed Peter was awake and watching him.

“Pete?” He whispered, leaning forward. “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

“How’s the pain?”

“It’s ok.” He didn’t know if that’d hold true if he tried moving, but as long as he laid still it was fine.

“Good.” Tony nodded as he searched the sheets for something. He found it and placed the plastic cylinder with a button on top in Peter’s hand. “If it starts to hurt you push this button, ok?”

He nodded, licking his lips, before asking, “How bad is it?”

Tony ran a hand through his hair and sat back in his chair with a sigh. “You’re going to live, but you broke six of your ribs on your left side, your left wrist, arm, and collarbone, and every bone in your right leg. They had to put a rod in it.”

“Ouch.” He mumbled.

“There was some internal bleeding too, but it stopped on its own, so you shouldn’t need surgery for it.”

Peter swallowed hard. “Sounds serious.”

“That’s an understatement.” Tony said, voice taking on a slightly angry edge. “Do you know how incredibly lucky you are?”

“Don’t really feel lucky.” He huffed. Oops. He hadn’t really meant to say that. It’d just slipped out. He was definitely on some good drugs.

“Well you are.” Tony shot him a disapproving look. “You’re going to be able to walk away from this when you just as easily could’ve died.”

He winced. “I’m sorry Tony.”

Tony let out a heavy sigh before asking almost desperately, “What were you thinking?”

Oh. So they were going to talk about it. He supposed that made sense, but he didn’t think the timing was exactly fair since he had a hard time censoring himself when he was high on painkillers. And Tony knew it.

“I just…” He fought the urge to fidget knowing it would probably hurt. “I just wanted to prove that I could still be Spiderman even without my powers.”

“Kid…” Peter hated how torn up Tony sounded.

“I know it was stupid.” He added, not wanting to face Tony’s pity. “I know. I guess I just thought if I could at least still swing around then maybe Spiderman wasn’t really gone for good. But obviously I can’t even do that…”

“Pete, how many times do I have to tell you Spiderman’s not gone? He’s just on a hiatus.” Tony said, voice softening.

“It’s been over a month.” Peter argued. “My powers aren’t coming back.”

“They will.” Tony said and Peter hated how certain he sounded when Peter felt anything but. “Your mutation is still there. Your powers are still there. We just need to get rid of whatever’s suppressing them, and Bruce is really close. He thinks he’ll have it figured out in the next week or so.”

“Really?” He asked tentatively, afraid to hope.

“Really.” Tony reached out to squeeze his good hand. “You just need to be patient a little longer, but you’ll be back to swinging in no time. Well, after you heal from all this. Hopefully we can get your powers back sooner rather than later so you don’t have to be laid up for too long.”

“Are you sure?” He still couldn’t believe it.

“Of course I’m sure. Would I lie to you about this?”

“No.” Peter knew he wouldn’t.

“Then trust me. We’re going to get you your powers back.”

Peter sighed in relief. “Thank god. You have no idea how scared I was that I was going to have to go back to being just stupid Peter Parker.”

“Hey.” Tony chastised, giving his hand another squeeze. “I think Peter Parker’s pretty great.”

“Not like Spiderman.”

“No, you’re right. He’s not.” Tony agreed and Peter’s heart fell for a second before Tony added, “He’s better.”

The corner of his mouth tugged up in a smile. “Thanks.”

“I’m not saying anything that isn’t true.” Tony shrugged. “Now, if I were you, I’d try to get some sleep because you’re going to need all your energy to explain yourself to your scary aunt tomorrow.”

He groaned. “She’s here? You told her?”

“Of course I told her. You jumped off a four story building and almost broke every bone in your body!”

Peter winced.

“She was here sitting with you until I sent her to bed a few hours ago.”

“She’s going to kill me.”

“Well she’s definitely not happy. She’s got a nice lecture all prepared. She practiced it on me. It’s a doozy.”

Peter groaned again.

“So, as I was saying,” Tony continued as he pulled the covers up to his shoulders, “you should rest up tonight because you’re going to need all your strength tomorrow.”

Tony wasn’t wrong, and Peter was tired. Their short conversation had sapped his energy. His eyes slipped closed for a second before he opened them again, remembering something. “Hey Tony?”

“Hm?” Tony looked up from where he’d already been typing away at something on his phone.

“You don’t have to stay. You can go sleep in your own bed if you want. I’ll be all right.” He told him before closing his eyes again.

Instead of walking out, Tony smoothed down his blankets and ran a hand over his hair. “I’m staying kid. Get some sleep.”

Peter had to work to keep the smile off his face as he did exactly that.

#febuwhump2021 #febuwhump #irondad

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