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guacam011y · 3 years

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***SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5 OF WANDAVISION***

HOLY SHITE MY MIND IS BLOWN

TOMMY AND BILLY CRYING

“Do you want me to take that again?” “Take it from the top?”

Agnes knows ! Tiger - Ralph

“Dark liquor” Vision being concerned

Billy and Tommy aged up?!

I DO NOT TRUST HAYWARD

SCARLET WITCH - TALKING ABOUT HOW WANDA DOESN’T HAVE A CODENAME

SIS STRAIGHT UP TOOK VISIONS CORPSE

HEX — HER POWERS GET REFERRED TO AS HEX POWERS SOMETIMES IN THE COMICS

CAPTAIN MARVEL REFERENCE

NORM SAYING NONE OF IT IS REAL

SPARKY THE DOG - VISION HAD A STAND ALONE AND STOLE A DOG

HER ACCENT

LAGOS

SHE DOESNT KNOW HOW ANY OF THIS STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE

EVAN PETERS AS QUICKSILVER

DARCY GOING “SHE RECAST PIETRO?” MOOOD

X-MEN, START TO THE MULTIVERSE?!

WANDA CAN’T BE THE ONLY ONE CONTROLLING IT

IS MONICA MAD AT CAROL???

MONICA X DARCY?! WHAT A POWER COUPLE THAT WOULD BE

SIS REALLY ENDGAME - ENDGAME ENDED WITH TONY’S FUNERAL AND WANDA PROBS WENT STRAIGHT FROM THERE AND STOLE HER DEAD BF’S CORPSE (can’t really blame her, it looked like they were trying to experiment on Vis and could it be Hayward behind it?)

WHO WAS THAT ENGINEER THAT MONICA WAS GOING TO CONTACT?

BABY VISION

AND AGNES DEFINITELY KNOWS SOMETHING

DARCY FINALLY GOT HER COFFEE

SO VIS SAID THAT WANDA COULD’VE MADE EVERYTHING SUBCONSCIOUSLY AND THAT OVER TIME SHE BECAME AWARE OF IT, AND SIS DEFO HAS SOME CONTROL BUT IT’S NOT ALL HER. I THINK AGNES IS AGATHA HARKNESS AND EITHER MEPHISTO IS BEHIND IT OR IT’S NIGHTMARE AND THEY’VE MAYBE POWERED UP NIGHTMARE

***FURTHER UPDATES AND EASTER EGGS***

Auntie Agnes and Agnes saying she has a few tricks up her sleeve - we should definitely take note of that seeing as Agnes definitely has something to do with the whole situation

Wanda and Vision’s house changed again, being inspired by Family Ties, possibly Full House and Growing Pains

“Do you want me to take it from the top?” It seems as though when someone, this time Vision, steers away from the script, things either reset themselves or people become aware to some capacity, although Agnes probably already knows

Speaking of Growing Pains - It had a spin off called “Just the 10 of Us” in which the director for Wandavision, Matt Shakman, was apart of the cast - and seemingly also inspired the theme song for this week

We should definitely keep an eye on Monica and her potential for powers. With Maria last episode revealed to have gone by the name ‘Photon’ (which is a name that Monica uses as one of her aliases in the comics) and could inspire Monica’s name as she develops her powers - those scans didn’t look 100% normal. Monica has also used the Captain Marvel monicker in the comics

Wanda’s energy field and such being referred to as “Hex” short for Hexagon, could be a little nod to the comics where Wanda’s powers are sometimes called Hex powers

She’s never been referred to as the Scarlet Witch on the big screen - and it seems as though she soon may earn that code name

So we now know that Wanda stole Vision’s corpse from S.W.O.R.D, but did she actually re animate him fully? He’s still got the gem in the centre of his forehead, but the last time he had it was in Infinity War where it promptly got ripped out by Thanos - so has Wanda found her own way of reanimating him and he’s alive or is he dead and just a trick of the mind - though from other trailers/previews, Vis is seen trying to and looks successful at leaving Wanda’s barrier

They had a little call back to Captain America: Civil War with the Sokovia Accords, which were targeting the Avengers in general but were created when Wanda lost control of her powers and killed civilians

A little joke towards Vis as playing “Father Knows Best” in their little suburbia - Which was a sitcom that ran for 200 episodes in the 50’s

Sparky ! A little nod to the little green dog from the Walta and King comics run for Vision and unfortunately soon meets the same fate 💔

A little nod to Endgame when we hear from Monica that Wanda definitely could’ve taken down Thanos by herself had Thanos not rained fire - and Jimmy arguing that Captain Marvel could’ve just as easily done it - which leaves Monica with an angry look on her face

Good ol’ dial up internet

Can Vis “save” the residents of Westview? He can still seemingly interact with people’s minds, with or without the mind stone - Norm soon comes out of his trance as Vis snaps him out of it and asks to call his sister and that he has to save them all from “her” - now this “her” could be Wanda...but it could also be Agnes and then Vis shuts him down soon enough again and Norm goes back to his sit com self

Billy and Tommy are fully aware, or at least suspect Wanda’s abilities - after asking her to bring back Sparky from the dead and speaking of Billy and Tommy - could they be semi permanent fixtures in the MCU, it would help to introduce the Young Avengers eventually. They'll do Young Avengers at some point since Kang is supposed to be a thing in the third Ant-Man.

Teddy, unfortunately, I don't think will be here for a bit (I really hope he is though!). I think the guy they hired that everyone is rumoring to be Teddy might just be an episode about Billy coming to terms with his sexuality and Wanda and Vis learning to accept it in the way that era of tv they're in would go about with that kind of episode and the dude is just a dude - but again, I really hope it’s Teddy 😭

Wanda leaves the hex after a mini missile/plane tries to shoot at her - and she’s in her Scarlet Witch costume and is seemingly mostly back to her “normal self”, which includes her accent !

Lagos brand paper towels - “For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to” - a nod to Civil War again in which Wanda accidentally blew up a building in Lagos and caused the Sokovian accords to come to fruition

The mail man again - I also think he was in the commercial but anywho - “Your mom won’t let him go far” similar to “Much like she won’t let anyone leave” a potential nod to Wanda or Agnes not letting anyone leave?

“We can’t reverse death” and yet she brought Vision back - keeping in mind that he’s an android but still a little foreshadow to what happened at the end of the ep? Better yet, could Pietro coming back be a distraction for Wanda? Agnes or whoever introducing someone that Wanda lives in hopes that she won’t go full on breakdown superpowers or just to give her an attachment to Westview even more and make her not want to leave at all

“She recasted Pietro” EVAN ! I’m so pumped for this - it seems this could turn into the X-Men making their debut earlier than expected possibly? In any case, it’s a nice little Easter Egg to the previous Fox franchise of X-Men movies where Evan played Peter Maximoff “Quicksilver” alongside James McAvoy as Prof X, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and so many others - and with Deadpool being confirmed as Disney’s first R rated film, it seems Mutants are definitely on their way to the MCU

Agnes is definitely Agatha or a gender bent Nightmare

The way Billy shed himself and Tommy up was scary - definitely a little nod to his powers coming in

Multiple different perspectives of Wanda saying that Monica left

Red Hex dialled up to around light sources (computer, window, etc.)

Vision mentions reading Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man - which could refer to Mutants entering the MCU, Mutants being superior to humans

Agnes calls herself Auntie Agnes - in episode 2 during the title sequence in the grocery store there’s a product called ‘Auntie A’s Kitty Litter’

Agnes refers to herself as a Tiger and in the episode, there’s a Tiger on the dining table in the kitchen - could that be a listening device, her eyes and ears?

There are no other children in Westview - Billy and Tommy are immune because they have no prior trauma

Elizabeth Olsen’s photos are real and slightly altered with Sokovian flags in the background

In the birthday shot of Billy and Tommy, they have ‘1,2,3,4,5’ candles all on one cake

In the holiday photos, Vision goes from Turkey to Easter Bunny, to Santa and progressively gets more unhappy - realising he no longer wants to play along in Wanda’s Hex

During Monica’s callbacks to seeing Wanda’s pain inside her head, we see a new shot of Wanda crying - it looks like it’s around the time she stole Vision’s corpse, as the outfit she’s wearing is very similar, if not the same - could this be an after shot of when she’s trying to bring Vision back?

During the scene where we see the footage of Wanda stealing Vision’s corpse, the S.W.O.R.D logo that appears on the table has 8 stars around the rim of the logo but then has a 9th one in the middle - could this be a little Easter Egg to the nine realms of the Cosmos? And there’s also a map showing Cape Canaveral, could that be where S.W.O.R.D’s headquarters are?

Wanda and Pietro were born in 1989 to Irina and Oleg Maximoff - who were killed in an air raid when the twins were 10. In the comics, Wanda and Pietro were raised by Django and Maria Maximoff, before their true parentage was revealed as being the children of Magneto, however, in the comics this has been retconned so that Wanda and Pietro are no longer Mutants and the High Evolutionary had just disguised them as Mutants (something I think they should undo tbh - MARVEL, PLEASE MAKE WANDA AND PIETRO MUTANTS AGAIN!!!)

Speaking of the air raid, that was also referenced in Age of Ultron by Pietro and Wanda - “We were 10 years old, having dinner the four of us. And the first shell hits 2 floors below, makes a hole in the floor” - was the beeping Stark toaster be what that was referring to?

WHIH reappears for a brief cameo as the news service in the MCU - and Hayward cuts off Jimmy as he was trying to defend Wanda’s reputation, in which Jimmy then turns to Darcy and says “I try not to speak ill of people” Darcy then follows up with “Then allow me, Hayward’s a-“ and then she’s cut off by a shot back to Hayward saying the word “Terrorist” which would make sense as it seems with Vision’s corpse, he may have been trying to make sentient weapons and by subverting Vision’s will and blaming Wanda of doing the same. In the footage shown of Wanda stealing Vision’s remains, we see Vision broken up into parts and S.W.O.R.D seems to be experimenting on him and this seems to be the robotics/nanotech project that Hayward was referring to. Monica asks Hayward about the footage saying “When was this?” to which Hayward replies saying “9 days ago. Maximoff stormed our facility, stole Vision’s body and resurrected him” - this would mean that Wanda took Vision 2 weeks after the events of Endgame, about a week before Monica returned to S.W.O.R.D and Hayward didn’t tell her any of this and when he sent her in there, he knew exactly what he was doing - with her reputation after Civil War, this makes it easier for Hayward to paint her as the villain.

Back in Westview, Tommy wears red and Billy wears green - which are the colours that Wiccan and Speed wear in the comics, respectively. And it’s also the colours that Wanda and Vision are known for and appears quite a lot in their wardrobes

More in regards to Sparky, he was the synthezoid dog in Tom King’s run of Vision - the story being that he was originally a dog named Zeke who unfortunately passed away after digging up the Grim Reaper’s corpse and getting zapped. The Grim Reaper’s helmet appears during the title sequence of Episode 2 in the floorboards. Could Sparky have been trying to dig up a similar thing when he was caught by Agnes and consequently killed?

Monica mentions that she knows this aerospace engineer, they’re never shown but she is seen texting them. Could it be Reed Richards a.k.a Mr Fantastic? Hayward did mention that some astronauts used to work for S.W.O.R.D before a mission went haywire - though it seems a bit lacklustre to introduce such highly anticipated characters this way. Could it instead be the Skrull daughter of Talos that Monica befriended at the end of Captain Marvel? She mentioned that they had extraterrestrial allies in episode 4 working with her and Fury as apart of S.W.O.R.D - in the Spanish subtitles they use the feminine articles for this engineer - so I think it’s more likely to be Talos’s daughter

The board that we saw in Episode 4 now includes the mailman, drivers license and all - could he be Jimmy’s missing witness?

The tension in the room after Jimmy references Carol is similarly seen when in Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Peter asks Skrull Fury/Talos “How about Captain Marvel?” To which Talos replies “Don’t involve her name”. Fury, Monica and Talos were all on the side of the Skrulls by then end of Captain Marvel and the space station that Fury was on maybe apart of S.W.O.R.D. So did Carol betray them?

A slight reference to Captain America: The First Avenger is made when Monica pulls a Peggy Carter and shoots at something to see if it’s bulletproof, in Peggy’s case it was the iconic Captain America shield and in the case of Monica, it was her clothes that she was wearing after Wanda threw her out of the Hex

Abilash (Norm) never states that Wanda is the one that Vision has to save them from, it’s just “her” - could this instead be Agnes?

When Billy is training Sparky to sit, he puts the treat by his ear up to his temple - a future reference that Billy will one day share the same powers as his mum?

During the scene in which Wanda leaves the Hex briefly, she turns the guns onto Hayward but none are trained on Monica - she may still trust Monica slightly, whereas with Hayward, she slightly more pissed off because of what he was doing to Vision’s remains. And turning a bunch of guns on the people you don’t trust? Like father, like daughter as Magneto pulls a similar move in one of the X-Men films - Hopefully, the big cameo they keep teasing will be Ian McKellan as Magneto or the Magnus of this House of M adaptation

During when Agnes “found” Sparky, she says he died from eating too many leaves from her plants - in the Tom King Vision run, one of Vision’s kids ends up killing Sparky and sees inside his stomach that there’s a plant that Agatha Harkness grows in her garden

All the names that appear during the credits that Wanda tries to run to end the show and to stop Vision from talking are names of people who work on the actual Wandavision show itself

When Evan Peter’s version of Quicksilver shows up, he says “Does a long lost bro get to squeeze his sister to death or what?” I DO NOT TRUST THIS PIETRO - Similar to Wandavision, the Fox X-Men movies moved up decade by decade - First Class was in the 1960s, Days of Future Past was in the 1970s, Apocalypse was in the 1980s and Dark Phoenix was in the 1990’s - which would make even more sense as MCU! Pietro wasn’t born until 1989, whereas Peter was active during the 1980s. I reckon that this Pietro is Jimmy’s missing witness, Agnes’s husband Ralph and is disguising itself as a comforting presence to Wanda as Vision no longer brings comfort and is trying to bring Wanda back to reality - and when he shows up, the mirror in the background behind Wanda is slightly distorted but his hand looks red and in the shot as well, there seems to be a grey arm reaching towards Pietro - in the shot itself behind and in front of Wanda, there’s nothing there but in the mirror, there is! Either way, I do not trust this Pietro and it’s just an entity trying to give Wanda the last thing that could make her happy - but it won’t last, as everything is already breaking down around her.

I seriously seriously love this show so much 💙

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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One Piece Chapter 1023 - Initial Thoughts

15 Minutes is on the clock

Onigashima reaches the mainland and the fights continue on. Including the Wings of the King vs the Disasters of the Beast

Without further ado, let's get into it

Spoilers for Chapter 1023, Support the Official Release too

Vivi cover page is nice, proper Disney Princess action with Karoo being jealous birb again, but now I have worries because last we heard something went down with Alabasta...all those post-Reverie questions

Back to where we left off with the boys being back in town

Miyagi can you not ominously foreshadow Zoro's future pain please?

Kawamatsu's here to save Zoro from interference, and Hyou's telling the Yakuza not to get in the way of this fight

Marco though is a pensive Pineapple, taking a good long look at King as he recalls Whitebeard telling him about King's race living on the Red Line before the world nobles, Void Century and before stuff

Mention of Gods does fuel one of my old post fan theories, but also fuels that the WG kicked King's race out of the Red Line

Izo though out here saving Marco from being an easy target, tbh Marineford did show he was prone to a surprise attack

Asking Izo if they believe in God though in a raid that may lead to their deaths is kinda irreverent right now though huh?

Queen back to hyping themselves up though

Hm? Is there a limitation to Sanji's raid suit? Sanji's saying he feels weird

Zoro wasting no time to banter with it though, saving Sanji from King as Sanji returns the favour with Queen

Queen does make a valid point though, as much as Sanji expresses that he is unenhanced by Germa he can also set himself on fire, I do wonder if it is just part of that enhancement in there that he expresses as his 'fiery hot passion'

Lunarian though, that must be King's species' name: moon people again I bet which feeds my fan theories

Also since we mentioned Germa again what happened to them? Jimbei made it out after all and I wanna see me some alive and well Baeju

I would issue doubt on Queen's claim that their enhancements are beyond Vegapunk's, given how little we know of Vegapunk after all

King's got a special sword too, it can change its edge to be teethy which he used to ensnare Zoro's swords

Wado saves Zoro's face from eating King's spiked fist though

King does make a fair point though, traditional weapons are romanticized but a fight's about getting every advantage you can, Zoro at least respects that since King never claimed to be a Swordsman, while also reminding King that he could be a feral bastard too

Kinda gave me mini Mr. 1 fight vibes there

Oh here we go, potential Zoro lineage time

Kawamatsu and Hyou muse over how Zoro was like Ushimaru when he was young, even down to his style (though that could be more Shimotsuki Koushiro's doing since he's Zoro's master)

Also Ushimaru was Ryuma's direct descendant, which means that 1. Ryuma banged, 2. Swordsmanship runs in the blood and 3. Ryuma banged

Also Ryuma also had the one eye, and it does seem pretty mythical that a swordsman of similar skill and stature returns Shusui back to Wano (even though this should mean that Shusui would be Zoro's birthright and he was kinda forced into relinquishing it)

Also worth reminding that Kozaburo was Kuina's grandpa so there may only be loose relations if Zoro is a Shimotsuki too, we don't exactly know how Kozaburo and Ushimaru are related if it's by blood or clan, plus I still wonder about Tashigi

Over to Jack vs Inu though, and Jack's hybrid form is just...weird

I did not need to see an Elephant head with abs you know Oda!

Both are pretty tired, as Jack mocks Inu saying he has forgiven Zou for the Raizo stuff, since he already destroyed most of it

Inu though with the shoulder toss, reminding Jack that they had to make these sacrifices to get to here

But we're getting the epic speech, and the hole in the roof caused by Ashura's sacrifice is changing Inu back into Su Long

Same thing is happening with Neko, turning Su Long in front of Carrot and Wanda (who I guess are covering from the moon) as he stares down Perospero

And I'm glad Neko's pointing out that Pedro's sacrifice is valid. I truthfully always felt a bit iffy about people saying that Carrot's desire to avenge Pedro was ill-found because 'Pedro killed himself'. Had Pedro not sacrificed himself then Brook and Chopper would've been dead by candy and Big Mom would've obliterated the rest on the ship

Raizo and Megaforehead though prelude with the mention of maturity, that everyone - even the Akazaya - needed time to mature into who they wanted to be

Down to the surface though and the Heart Pirates are on high alert/panic, they think Kaido's here

But it's Momo, and he looks magnificent

Shinobu's aged him up to 28, the age he'd be had he not been leapt through time, but now she's upset he looks like Kaido

There's new fire in Momo's eyes though, the return ascent begins!

Can you feel that? It feels like the last stretch before the ultimate battle of Wano

Sanji and Zoro vs King and Queen hopefully will remain a tag bout, but I am curious as to King's abilities and what's affecting Sanji in terms of the raid suit. It's not bad to have a limitation but this is the first we've heard of it after seeing him use it 4 times. I don't hate Zoro being a Shimotsuki, though I do feel like we could've built to this, plus we're still lacking in the how.

One wonders what role Marco will now play, and whether Tiny Tiny Chopper is due to recover. We haven't heard from the others for a bit, nor CP0 nor Yamato. Our Pineapple does have unfinished business with Edward Weevil tbf so he could make it out, Izo may be a variable in that, they've yet to learn of Kiku's fate.

Also we never did see who that mystery person was did we? Still could be Hiyori

Marco's musing about gods does feel like we're gonna get more about King, and more lore of the world that Robin will love to soak up like a sponge, Oda have been leaving these seeds since Skypeia, and where there are Gods, there are Devils.

We are however getting major death flags from the minks, one last turn to Su Long to enable their efforts. I like how Ashura's sacrifice is not in vain because of this though, it makes me wonder if there's a slither of hope for Kin and Kiku. If anything though the minks will die from exhaustion rather than being defeated, Su Long eats away at you after all, it's probably gonna be traumatizing for Carrot a little but I hope we see some resolve out of her more like when she was in Zou and WCI, I still want her for Nakama.

And then the final coup de grace, giant dragon Momo, it's one hell of a panel and it means we're bringing Luffy back into the fight. But the extent of Momo's ripening is only in body remember, in mind he's still young. But now we have the setup for the final fight between Luffy and Kaido, I'll expect in that time we'll have to try and finish off everything else with the Akazaya, reconvening the Straw Hats, King, Queen, Big Mom, Kid, Law, Killer, Hawkins, Apoo and Drake.

Act's not over yet, less than 15 minutes until Onigashima Falls.

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a-duck-with-a-book · 3 years

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REVIEW // Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1) by Jay Kristoff

★☆☆☆☆

So I’m very late to the party, but I just finished reading Nevernight by Jay Kristoff I had such high hopes for this series based off of what people recommending it had told me and what I read about it before picking up. Dark fantasy? Check. Strong leading lady? I’m here for it. Gays? It’s literally my only personality trait. Sign me up. Unfortunately, this book fell flat in all those categories. It reminded me a lot of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass, which made me take one point off of to begin with simply for making me think of Maas’s writing. Overall, I just found the book to be too predictable, with bad writing, exposition, and pacing, and too many parts that just made me ~uncomfortable~.

In case you are not familiar with this novel, Nevernight tells the story of Mia Corvere, a girl who lost her family when she was a child after her father was convicted of treason. When the book begins, she is 16 years old and embarking on a journey to join the Red Church, a school for assassins, so that she may one day be able to avenge her father’s death. Along the way she meets a bunch of forgettable characters whose names I can’t be bothered to remember and is taught by the most fearsome killers in the Republic. Here she gains many valuable skills, like how to survive being poisoned, how to fight, and how to get big boobs.

+ Side note: by chapter 3 three I started picturing Mia as the crow guy from RWBY and I could not shake that for the rest of the book

I had many issues with this novel that I will try to summarize in some sort of coherent fashion, but to be honest this book sucked the will to live out of me so I don’t know how much energy I can put into this review.

// image: official cover art by Jason Chan //

FOOTNOTES

The footnotes were probably the most jarring element of the book for me, and, unfortunately, there’s a lot of them. Their function seems to be twofold:

they are the form of most of the world-building, explaining several customs, the history of the institutions and peoples Mia meets, and the mythology followed by the people of the Republic.

they allow for the narrator of our story to interrupt with comical one-liners or cryptic foreshadowing

In my humble opinion, both of these are unnecessary and stupid. The interruptions come off as crass and immature and make the other more textbook, boring exposition come off as a joke, especially when it is dealing with sensitive or serious topics. There is one that explains this brothel called the Seven Flavors, which the footnote explains refer to “Boy, Girl, Man, Woman, Pig, Horse, and, if sufficient notice and coin was given, Corpse.” Now, on its own, this passing mention of pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia could very well contribute to the world building and tone of the novel, but when placed side by side with the childish, joking tone of the “cue the violiiiiiiiins” or, regarding the acoustics of a room, “…they were, as it happens, exceptional. Falalalalalalaaaaaaaa”, come off as way too light-hearted for the topic at hand. Maybe I’m being way too sensitive, but I’m pretty tired of authors using serious topics as off-hand remarks as a lazy way to make their world daker and grittier. Plus, these footnotes were just so incredibly cringy that I would recoil from second-hand embarrassment every time. They resemble the things I wrote when I was 14 and trying (and miserably failing) to be funny. Also… there are way too many of them. While at first I appreciated the attempt to deepen the lore of the story (I’m a sucker for world-building), after a while it became evident that the author was just forcing information down our throats without taking the time to actually weave the lore and background into the story itself. It came off as a very lazy way to force exposition.

OVERLY FLOWERY LANGUAGE

This story is BRIMMING with similes and metaphors, like every other sentence is some overly complicated way to describe something that could have been presented in three words. When you include so many metaphors/similes/etc., they begin to lose power. They should allow the reader to extrapolate more meaning and emotion from a sentence, but if the book is bursting at the seams with them, they become increasingly ordinary, to the point of losing all of their luster. One prime example appears on page 30:

“It was a bucktoothed little shithole, and no mistake. Not the most miserable building in all creation. [here there is a footnote about some other inn/brothel] But if the inn were a man and you stumbled into him in a bar, you’d be forgiven for assuming he had—after agreeing enthusiastically to his wife’s request to bring another woman into their marriage bed—discovered his bride making up a pallet for him in the guest room.”

So first of all what the fuck is that supposed to mean? That whole paragraph is a fever dream. Let’s begin with “bucktoothed little shithole”. Bucktoothed? Really? What does that mean. Please, someone explain to be right now what a bucktoothed building is. Is it uneven? Is it awkward? Is it half-finished? Is one side longer than the other? Did they do a bad paint job that only covers on side? Are the windows askew? Is the door too big for its frame? We already know from the paragraph above that it is “disheveled” as well, so why the need for another weird phrasing of its appearance? We then move on to that whole JOURNEY of a sentence, where the inn is compared to a man being cuckolded. That is the most insane tale-can you imagine running into someone in a bar and that story being the VERY FIRST thing that runs through your mind??? I know I’m focusing way too much on this stupid paragraph, but basically what I am trying to get at is that even though we spend half a page talking about how bucktoothed and disheveled and cuckolded this building is, we get no actual physical description of it. Imagine if Kristoff had just written that it was a run-down, ill-kept building that looked as worse for wear as its owner did. Done, one sentence. Great. Let’s move on. Instead, we spend so long reading these absolutely batshit descriptions that ultimately tell us next to nothing. Flowery language is placed over actual context. You may think that a description this long and complex means that this inn is a significant or recurring setting in the novel. Nope. It’s not. Mia leaves and that’s that. The reason that I’m focusing so much on this objectively irrelevant paragraph is because it is so representative of the biggest issue I have with the writing in this book. There are so many unnecessary comparisons that function only to make the author feel clever rather than add anything to the story at all. It’s very à la 2010s Tumblr.

THE (IN MY OPINION, BAD) WRITING

For the first half of the book, we are constantly being TOLD things rather than being SHOWN things. With the exception of one of the teachers cutting off Mia’s arm, we rarely see the ruthlessness that the assassins are so feared for, but we hear about it in nearly every other sentence Where are the consequences? I think this book would have been way more enjoyable if there were actually consequences to the characters’ actions. The inclusion of the weaver and the weird vampire guy completely remove any tension regarding the fate of the central cast. When Mia had her arm chopped off, I was shocked, and pleasantly surprised. How was she going to overcome this unexpected obstacle in her training? Then a couple pages later, its reattached with absolutely no lasting consequences. All of the initial tension and shock value of the loss of Mia’s arm is entirely removed because of the two incest-y siblings. Their entire purpose for existing is just to undo all damage to the main characters. Then suddenly, out of the blue, Mia is willing to take on a ton of consequences and completely throw away her chance at becoming initiated in order to avenge her family just to save Tric from receiving like one punishment??? Like why?? As an aside, the only moment I truly enjoyed was when Ash fucking stabbed Tric to death. I assume that when the reader’s favorite moment is one of the central characters’ death, it does not bode well for their reception of the book.

THE THEMES

TW: rape-y subjects

The author seemed a little too keen to include rape and sexual assault in his story. Mia withdrew her consent in the sex scene in the very first chapter, and even if you read it as consensual (which I do not), it is described as incredibly unpleasant on her end. Tric is the result of a rape, which is brought up several times throughout the story. Further, Mia is constantly facing harassment from men. I understand that this is frames the idea that the world she lives in is misogynistic and ruthless, but there are other ways to push that idea through other than constantly putting in her in those situations. As in, this didn’t need to be the ONLY way we explored this subject. Beyond the uncomfortable propensity for sexual assault, I also very much disliked the sexualization of the 16-year-old main character. Oh. My. Gosh. Mia is CONSTANTLY sexualized. Every single damn character makes comments about her body, how hot she is, how much sex she potentially has. It is so weird and uncomfortable. I feel the need to reiterate that she is SIXTEEN. There is, however, a focus placed on the power Mia can gain from seducing her targets. Girl power? Not to me, really. The issue I have with this is the idea that a woman has to be overtly sexual in order to be considered powerful. This is something that we can see in many female assassins and supposedly powerful female characters in fiction (like Black Widow) especially those written by men. Now, there is nothing wrong with using one’s sexuality as a weapon, and I’m certainly not saying that a strong female character cannot be sexual, but the idea that a sixteen-year-old girl is shown having her body painfully modified tp be more desirable, and in a graphic sex scene with another character, in order to for the reader to read her as liberated and powerful does not sit well with me. I don’t really feel like this aspect of her training should be relevant to the overall story. I wish the time that Kristoff had dedicated to hammering into our heads that Mia is a femme fatale to developing her Darkin powers instead. The way she is written now feels more like she is a faux strong female character written for a male audience.

Secondly, Mia is fully written as “the plain-girl-who-is-actually-pretty”. This whole trope bothers me IMMENSELY. YA is full of girls who are described as plain, forgettable, or ugly while their physical descriptions are just the dictionary definition of conventionally attractive. It seems like a way to market off of girls’ self-consciousness while still being able to market the main character as a hot heroine in official art. And there is, of course, the issue of Mia’s boob job Readwithcindy (just “withcindy” now!) did a whole video about this so I won’t get into it much just to repeat what she already said, but I agree that the idea of a 30-something year old man including this completely unnecessary detail regarding the sexualization of teenage girl, who we have ALREADY seen in a rape and being sexualized by other men in the story, made me really, really, uncomfortable. I highly recommend you go watch her video, as she touches on this in way more detail. [Cindy's video

RATINGS

Worldbuilding: ★★☆☆☆

A lot of thought obviously went into the world-the mythology, society, and politics are well-thought out. But the way they are introduced is annoying and bland. It seems like the author put a lot of effort into constructing this world but realized a lot of it would be left out of the book, so he crammed it into footnotes instead.

Tone and writing style: ★☆☆☆☆ for first half, ★★★☆☆ for second half

The tone of the first half is all over the place, like it doesn’t know if it should be dark and gritty or comical and immature. Footnotes and character dialogue ranges from lighthearted and crass to seeped with themes of torture and sexual assault. It is jarring, to say the least, and often feels like the author doesn’t take these ideas of rape or violence seriously. There are so many instances where the scene is tense or gritty, and Kristoff is actually writing it pretty well, I’m enthralled and on the edge of my seat, and then Mia or some other character (or the footnotes) throw in some stupid comment or make the same “Mia is such an asshole lol” joke for the billionth time and completely ruin the mood of that scene. The second half of the book moved much faster and was helped with way better writing, but it really did not do enough to make up for the horrendous structure of the first half of the book.

Pacing and structure: ★☆☆☆☆

The first half of the book really drags on. Once we arrive at the school, there are constant jumps in timeline, marked with periods when a thousand things happen all at once and the plot moves forward at a dizzying rate, and others when the characters just seem to be going about their daily lessons.

Concept: ★★★☆☆

I found the overall idea of the books to be very interesting, even though it is certainly not the most original or unique concept for a YA fantasy book. The issue is that the potential is squandered with a poor execution.

Characters: ★☆☆☆☆

I truly did not care about any of the characters. The token mean girl, the bumbling nice-guy-who-is-definitely-the-love-interest. too many of the characters just sat nicely within their tropes, doing nothing much to pique my interests. I think my favorite overall was Mister Kindly.

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years

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When Jon think about wanting winterfell and it's Lord he felt hunger which he later connect with ghost's hunger. Do you think that passage is implying something?

Hi anon!

I think the passage has many layers when it comes to symbolism and foreshadowing.

ASOS, Jon XII is a fun chapter. Jon’s been through a lot. His trip North of the wall left him traumatized and disillusioned in a way that’s hard to sum up. Anything he had hoped to be proud of in life was obliterated, he suffered serious injury, has been separated from ghost, learned that all his family are dead or missing, fought a viciously cruel battle, feels responsible for the death of his stockholm-syndromy abuser, was stripped of all respect and honor by his superiors, and he got to see a woman die in childbirth. Now Stannis and Mel are squatting at Castle Black, and the threat to the North keeps looming.

Life sucks.

We’d been introduced to some options that were denied to him in life:

His lord father had once talked about raising new lords and settling them in the abandoned holdfasts as a shield against wildlings. The plan would have required the Watch to yield back a large part of the Gift, but his uncle Benjen believed the Lord Commander could be won around, so long as the new lordlings paid taxes to Castle Black rather than Winterfell. "It is a dream for spring, though," Lord Eddard had said. "Even the promise of land will not lure men north with a winter coming on."

If winter had come and gone more quickly and spring had followed in its turn, I might have been chosen to hold one of these towers in my father's name. Lord Eddard was dead, however, his brother Benjen lost; the shield they dreamt together would never be forged. (ASOS, Jon V)

“If the boy shows any skill with sword or lance, he should have a place with your father’s household guard at the least,” Jon said. “It’s not unknown for bastards to be trained as squires and raised to knighthood. But you’d best be sure Gilly can play this game convincingly. From what you’ve told me of Lord Randyll, I doubt he would take kindly to being deceived.” (ASOS, Samwell IV)

One fails because of the seasons, the other was prevented by Catelyn. The Watch has been a soul-destroying nightmare, Ygritte’s offer of taking over a Tower “after” is not even worth a moment’s consideration to him. Every hope he ever had about his life has been disappointed.

Jon’s just about sixteen and is completely done. Sam notes how much time Jon spends in the training yard, even though he’s injured and off-duty for the title of turncloak. He does not bother voting in the Lord Commander election. A maligned outcast again. Forever.

The warg, I’ve heard them call me. How can I be a warg without a wolf, I ask you?” His mouth twisted. “I don’t even dream of Ghost anymore. All my dreams are of the crypts, of the stone kings on their thrones. Sometimes I hear Robb’s voice, and my father’s, as if they were at a feast. But there’s a wall between us, and I know that no place has been set for me.” (ASOS, Samwell IV

He is lonely. Even Ghost is gone, his one proof that he belongs to something.

Stannis alienates Jon by talking ill of Robb, but he offers Jon recognition for the things he did right, a rare thing, and then he offers him legitimization. Basically, “You proved your worth and you have the Right blood. All you ever wanted can be yours. For the small price of breaking your oaths for real and of your own volition and forsaking your gods.” Downright mephistophelian.

Jon is torn, can’t sleep, fights. For the first time he has a real choice. He remembers the traumatic incident where his bastardy became a true concept to him.

That morning he called it first. “I’m Lord of Winterfell!” he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, “You can’t be Lord of Winterfell, you’re bastard-born. My lady mother says you can’t ever be the Lord of Winterfell.”

I thought I had forgotten that. Jon could taste blood in his mouth, from the blow he’d taken. (ASOS, Jon XII)

And Jon’s response is a near black-out rage against his sparring partner. All his suppressed feelings of grief and anger and longing and loneliness are just broiling inside him.

Why am I so angry? he asked himself, but it was a stupid question. Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father’s heir.

Jon soaks in the hot tub and thinks of Winterfell, mulls restoring it versus not belonging and destroying its soul in the process

When Jon closed his eyes he saw the heart tree, with its pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face. The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said … but to save the castle Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman’s hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods

The tree is almost described like a person. A person with Tully coloring, like all his siblings save Arya. Like Sansa. The hot springs in Winterfell have a potential link to his decision to join the Watch, or at the very least to his siblings in general. The castle of Winterfell is juxtaposed with the heart, with the purpose and point of it all. Save a structure by destroying what made it a meaningful place? Betray his family in his heart, the person whose castle is truly is, betray all his values and his gods?

He takes a walk past sites of all his recent experiences and North the Wall over the recent battle field and just sits to think.

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset.

There’s an essay I could write about walls, Tyrion, Jon and Sansa (the sun to Arya’s moon) and how they all interact in the books, but let’s say just like this word play, the fact that Jon answers his own question is not an accident:

"Close your beak, crow. Spin yourself around, might be you'd find who you're looking for."

Jon turned.

The singer rose to his feet. (ASOS, Jon I)

The singer rose. Lyanna, his mother, the riddle. But also Sansa, who unwittingly took up her mantle. One unlocks his path to the other and everything that follows in his imagination:

I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. Val would want to keep her sister’s son, but we could foster him at Winterfell, and Gilly’s boy as well. Sam would never need to tell his lie. We’d find a place for Gilly too, and Sam could come visit her once a year or so. Mance’s son and Craster’s would grow up brothers, as I once did with Robb.

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger … he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

Jon paints a picture of recreating his own childhood with his wolf pack at Winterfell, only this time there are no outcasts, and he is the Father. He gets to be Ned. The Lord of Winterfell with a lady’s love. And a son, something he had, apparently, dreamed of until he stoppped.

He has always wanted this thing that he has no right to and it filled him with a guilt strong enough to concern the gods. But he admits it to himself, lets himself truly feel it. The feeling flows through him the same way the rage did earlier. powerful and all encompassing.

Like a dragonglass blade. There we have some lovely foreshadowing for a) potentiall the origin of the Others, b) Jon’s paternity, and c) his own death when his desire to abandon his vows and head to Winterfell is met with, you know, some blades. Not to mention d) his desire to have these things.

Each of these is answered by his primal hunger response. Which is of course, his connection to Ghost. The wolf he has so woefully said goodbye to, that he missed deeply and bitterly, chooses this moment to reappear. This moment where Jon returns to his own feelings, his true self.

a) the answer to the Others are the direwolves, the Starks, their magical connection to Winterfell and what happened way back when.

b) the answer to Jon’s paternity is a violent embrace of his mother’s side.

c) the answer to his own stabbing will be warging into Ghost and biding his time in there, becoming more wolf than he ever anticipated.

d) the answer to his heart’s desire...

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. “Ghost?” He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. “Ghost!” he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run. He was leaner than he had been, but bigger as well, and the only sound he made was the soft crunch of dead leaves beneath his paws. When he reached Jon he leapt, and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them. “Gods, wolf, where have you been?” Jon said when Ghost stopped worrying at his forearm. “I thought you’d died on me, like Robb and Ygritte and all the rest. I’ve had no sense of you, not since I climbed the Wall, not even in dreams.” The direwolf had no answer, but he licked Jon’s face with a tongue like a wet rasp, and his eyes caught the last light and shone like two great red suns.

Red suns. Arya’s wolf has golden coins (haggling for death, faceless men coins, spinning fates), Grey Wind has molten gold (like a crown that kills you).

Jon’s wolf has red suns. Like the colors that the sun painted on the Wall. The direwolf in heart tree colors, inverted bastard colors of house Stark, Tully colors, Sansa colors.

Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre’s. He had a weirwood’s eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one. And he alone of all the direwolves was white. Six pups they’d found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow.

He had his answer then.

Not the red gods, not fire. The old gods. the heart tree, the wolves. He may be a Snow, but the old gods gave him Ghost. His own wolf. His white wolf. His place was made by their will.

There is honor in that choice. No matter what anyone else says, Jon knows who he is and he has that power: to reject betraying his heart.

How does this choice led by Ghost fit the layers?

a) The answer to the Others: don’t steal, don’t trick. Be honest. Accept what was painful. Not the Wall matters, the answer is in the heart tree.

b) The Dragon father does not Need to guide his decisions. He can let that go. He is a Snow.

c) Being in Ghost will lead him back to himself. Not fire, not Melisandre. The old gods.

d) Well... What does Jon want? What IS his answer?

Jon is filled with sudden energy. He strides back, rejects Val in his mind, stalks dramatically into the dining hall and is suddenly voted Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. We close on this:

So Jon Snow took the wineskin from his hand and had a swallow. But only one. The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face.

Jon’s answer? We never hear it in this chapter.

We hear it in ADWD, Jon I:

"By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa."

And ADWD, Jon IV:

Jon said, "Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa."

The chapter is followed by? Sansa. Rebuilding Winterfell out of snow.

When Jon lets go of pretense, honestly asks himself what he wants, shame or not, his wolf takes over and helps him find the answer and the path. The answer is not in taking the Castle and creating a mimicry of what it was, it is in honoring what it truly was and truly means. The heart over the structure.

And in giving supremacy to the heart, to the red-white heart, he unknowingly paves the way for his own place: Winterfell built of Snow. He doesn’t have to steal the castle, he will be invited to belong.

That’s my own humble interpretation, anyway.

#asoiaf #jon snow #ASOS #Ghost the direwolf #asoiaf speculation #layered symbolism #foreshadowing #jonsa #Starklings

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whatiwillsay · 3 years

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The Duality of Lover

Hi! It’s me, the Cruel Summer anon, back with some more hot takes! Is this probably clownery? Yes, but it sure is fun! So take this analysis with a grain of salt.

In light of the new Kaylor timeline, I have had some thoughts about Lover as an album. I think there are definitely a lot of songs about Joe (or Lily, or whoever you think was Taylor’s muse for the album), but I also think there are a large collection of songs about Karlie. In terms of the timeline, I think these songs describe the “Messy Summer of Mess,” or the summer of 2016 and subsequent end of the Kaylor romantic relationship, as described by @swiftiesleuth’s new Kaylor timeline.

For a quick breakdown, here are the songs I think are about Kaylor:

Cruel Summer

Cornelia Street

Death By A Thousand Cuts

False God

So let’s get into it!

First off, we have “Cruel Summer,” which, in addition to being my favorite on the album and possibly my favorite Taylor song of all time, sets the tone for the entire chapter. If you’ve read my previous analysis, you know that I do not think this song is optimistic in any way, shape or form. Genius says that this song “narrates the fragility and uncertainty at the beginning of Taylor’s relationship with Joe Alwyn,” and I really just have to side-eye that description. Why? Well, as per my last analysis:

it’s cool, that’s what I tell ‘em/no rules in breakable heaven

they say that we’ll just screw it up/in these trying times, we’re not trying

I'm always waiting for you just to cut to the bone

if I bleed, you’ll be the last to know

said “I’m fine” but it wasn’t true/I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you

This ain’t the beginning of a communicative, healthy relationship, folks. That’s all I have to say on the matter. (You can read my other post for more.)

Next we have “Cornelia Street,” which I also think is a Karlie song because of the following lyrics:

I’d never walk Cornelia Street again

baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name

back when we were card sharks, playing games/I thought you were leading me on

you hold my hand on the street/walk me back to my apartment/years ago, we were just inside

barefoot in the kitchen/sacred new beginnings

First of all, the obvious: in this song, Taylor links her lover very specifically to Cornelia Street and NYC as a whole. New York City definitely does not scream Joe’s name. But, as many before me have pointed out, it’s pretty inextricably linked to Karlie. I mean, Taylor literally has a song called “London Boy,” which makes it clear to me which city Taylor associates him with. London = Joe, NYC = Karlie.

A lot of arguments linking “Cornelia Street” to Joe are because the song appears to depict the beginning of a relationship–and obviously, in the traditional Kaylor narrative, Kaylor would have been together for a long time at this point. However, I think this song makes a lot of sense with the new Kaylor timeline. I could see it taking place sometime in late summer/fall 2016, in a time when Kaylor reunited and Taylor thought she and Karlie might actually work things out. Taylor’s word choices in this song support the idea that this is the beginning of another “on” period in an on-and-off relationship.

In the bridge, Taylor contrasts the true beginning of this relationship (which was “years ago”–a lyric that definitely does not fit Joe) with the present. The notable difference between then and now is how public the relationship is; their relationship is not “just inside,” as it was years ago. Now, her partner can “hold [her] hand on the street.” If you buy the Kaylor timeline, this song takes place in the fall immediately after the “Cruel Summer” from that song–perhaps Taylor thought Karlie might choose her over Josh once and for all, so they would not need the same level of secrecy as they once did. (I don’t think this lyric is about bearding–Kaylor were always publicly affectionate–but if you buy my analysis of “Cruel Summer,” the relationship may have been kept secret from Josh.)

She also calls the present a “sacred new beginning,” which would be redundant unless this is not the first beginning this relationship has had. The lyrics back when we were card sharks, playing games/I thought you were leading me on also allude to a shared history–and the idea that this might be their chance to make a relationship really work, when Taylor felt led on by her lover in the past.

While “Cornelia Street” is definitely a romantic song, it’s sad and desperate in the same vein as “Cruel Summer”–it focuses on the strong possibility that this relationship will end, unlike a song like “Lover,” which very clearly foreshadows commitment.

Next song! “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” which is overtly a breakup song. Taylor says this was inspired by the movie “Someone Great” on Netflix. Maybe it was, but we’re all mad here, right? So I'mma do some wild speculation and say that I think it could have some personal inspiration as well.

Notable lyrics:

I see you everywhere, the only thing we share is this small town

but if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages?

quiet my fears with the touch of your hand/paper cut stings from our paper-thin plans

gave you so much, but it wasn’t enough

Is NYC a small town? Nah, but I do think it’s still notable that this song ties Tay’s lover to a geographical location just like in “Cornelia Street” and “False God,” both of which I think are about Karlie. The lyric also has similar vibes to “I get mystified by how this city screams your name."

I also think the "still writing pages” lyric is telling–the relationship with Karlie is long over, but Taylor still feels compelled to tell the story even if it hurts her (“paper cut stings”). The “paper cut stings” and “paper-thin plans” lyrics form a direct contrast to the song “Paper Rings.” (Might do a more in-depth analysis of this later, but I’m just saying it’s interesting for now.)

And finally… “False God,” because:

we were crazy to think/crazy to think that this would work

I’m New York City/I still do it for you, babe

the altar is my hips

you’re the West Village/you still do it for me, babe

even if it’s a false god/we’d still worship this love

Is it a sexy song? Yeah, but it’s also very fatalistic; it’s basically a song about having an argument with a lover and then patching it up through sex. And knowing the relationship might still be ill-fated even if you resolved this particular argument with some wine and ~sexy times~, which is why I do not think it is about Joe.

First of all, we have the obvious geographic connection; NYC is very much a Kaylor thing, not a Joe/Taylor thing. I have no idea how you’d even argue that the “West Village” line refers to Joe–it just makes so much more sense for it to be referring to Karlie.

Second, the lyrics are very queer-coded. The lyric “the altar is my hips” seems very much like a reference to going down on a woman. Which is by no means an exclusively lesbian thing, but you get the point. The song also connects back to the religious imagery that Taylor uses in “Don’t Blame Me” (oh, Lord, save me and baby, for you I would fall from grace/just to touch your face). Subversion of religion is just a very gay thing, which makes sense because lots of people very literally think gay love is a sin. If you don’t believe me, see: “Holy” by King Princess, “religion (u can lay your hands on me)” by Shura, “Animal” by Troye Sivan, “God In Jeans” by Ryan Beatty, the music video for “Take Me To Church” by Hozier. Taylor and Joe’s love is not a fall from grace–but love between two women would qualify.

Anyway, all this is a long way of saying that I think Lover is at least partially inspired by the Kaylor breakup; songs like “Cruel Summer,” “Cornelia Street,” and “False God” aren’t as happy as they initially seem. I also think “Afterglow” and “The Archer” could have hints of the Kaylor narrative, but this is WAY too long already, so I’m gonna end it here.

And lastly: thanks, Cam, for posting these! I’d submit them to a Kaylor blog, but yours is my favorite gaylor blog, and also, uh… babygate. Obviously I do not believe the girls are together still, so I think the strong Kaylors would not appreciate my hot takes at the moment.

SUBMISSION⬆️⬆️⬆️

amazing stuff! tysm for writing this stuff up and submitting, i bet if you do end up starting a blog you’ll get lots of followers who would love more great content like this!

#kaylor #gaylor swift #cruel summer anon #submission

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ghostlycreatoruniverse · 3 years

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Dabi and the awkward black ballon: a narrative comparison between Touya Todoroki and Vinsmoke Sanji

Hello everyone!

I’m really thrilled about this whole situation , I can’t stop coming up with ideas!

This is about Dabi, Hawks and the black balloon. I’m making this post because I’m totally convinced that Dabi hadn’t tell Hawks he was Touya Todoroki. He might have said something that implied it, but I think that this is not all he told to Hawks. I’ll try to cover others possibility in another post, but to consolidate my position I wants to draw another comparison.

This time is between Dabi and Black Leg Sanji from Eiichiro Oda’s great masterpiece: One Piece.

One Piece is a worldwide famous and one of the most important and best sellers manga of this generation. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not: at some point if your life if you like mangas you’re bound to hear One Piece sooner or later.

For those who never read/ disliked it, Black Leg Sanji is one of the main crew character and soon after his introduction he haunted fans with one question: who he really is?

In years hints became gradually more important; however One Piece is full of adventure and emotional moments so you’re bound to forget about it from time to time... just to be reminded that he’s hiding something.

I don’t know what Horikoshi thinks about One Piece, but I think he should know one or two things about it at least . Oda is considered one hell of a mangaka, being able to tie plot lines among the years, so if I were Horikoshi I’d give a look at One Piece to take inspiration. You have to consider this is a good way to avoid having a copycat event in two mangas published on the same magazine.

I’ll explain briefly who Sanji is.

Sanji is the cook of the Straw Hat pirates and he was (almost forcibly) recruited by Luffy before they entering in the Grand Line making him one of the first nakama.

He was introduced with the nickname “Black Leg”, inherited by his boss who raised him like father ( “Red Leg Zeff”). Zeff tried to assault the cruise ship Sanji was working on as a kid, but they both shipwrecked. When they were saved Zeff took Sanji they met Luffy.

In One Piece names are extremely important, but back then readers really hasn’t that feeling and before Sanji, both Nami and Usopp didn’t have a family name. So no one was impressed.

The first foreshadowing something was off happens around Skypeia arc. In fact all the first straw hat pirates (Zoro, Nami and Usopp) were said to be from East blue, thus everyone thought Sanji was too. However after finding a book Nami never heard of, Sanji gave a brief recap adding casually he was from North Blue instead .

A recurring fun gag about him is that when he finally gained his wanted poster an awful drawing of him was placed instead of his photo. Later on another character was introduced: Duval, who is the spit image of the bleak drawing. As funny as it can be, Duval was persecuted for many time, guaranteeing Sanji wasn’t found.

The biggest red herring Sanji gave was around chapters 480+. In front an honourable yet powerful enemy, Sanji was ready to sacrifice his life for his captain’s sake , underlining that he is someone important due to his background.

After that many theories were edited. And this went on for YEARS.

Until, chapter 800+. Around thst arc we finally get to know his full name and backstory. Vinsmoke Sanji was the third male son of a fallen aristocratic family. He had 3 brothers and one sister, an abusive father and a mother who was locked away in a medical facilities. In fact when she was pregnant, her husband forced on her some scientific experiment to turn their kids in the “perfect soldiers” stripping out every sign of humanity from them. She, trying to save her children for this bleak fate, took a medicine to inverse the process. In the end only Sanji was spared and had a kind heart, while she had a chronic illness that few years later killed her. Sanji then was considered a failure by his own father , enough to fake his own death and putting him in a jail. He then escaped to East Blue thanks to his sister who helped him.

Now, Enji seems to be a loving father when compared to Vinsmoke Judge.

Despite Sanji and Dabi’s story being quite similar , what I want to point out it’s the timing.

Oda foreshadowed this for years and gradually. And when the time was about to come, he added even more details to build Sanji’s great revelation. Once it was declared he was a Vinsmoke there was no turning back and all of his past was known in the following chapters. Of course it took some time to develop it all, but Vinsmokes were brand new characters, while Todoroki are very well known, so I expected Touya’s past to be introduced soon after his revelation, like it happened.

My main concern is... why.

Horikoshi chose an approach similar to Oda.

He show us Todoroki siblings one after another. He hinted Touya had a powerful fire type quirk, yet his body couldn’t stand it. He hinted about his death even before Natsuo spoke about it openly, having Fuyumi praying in one panel. In My Villain Academia he inserted baby Fuyumi’s panel. When Dabi was first introduced he spoke like Shoto does and he made clear he wanted to keep his name a secret. We then were reminded that nobody knew who Dabi was, but instead he was thinking about family and hold a personally grudge against Todorokis.

And that’s was fine! It was exactly like Sanji’s and to be expected.

in chapter 267 at the peak of drama the big black balloon happened. I was both intrigued and excited about it because it was something different and new when compared with the iconic One Piece. And so I guessed that we would have to wait a lot of time before knowing the truth. Then chapter 290 happened.

Now, if you compared Sanji’s reveal with Touya’s reveal your noticed that Sanji took years since his first introduction. The most significant and last foreshadowing can be considered his wanted poster, which after Dressrosa arc finally had his picture and full name on it, with the status of “wanted only alive”.

The huge unnerving block balloon was like Sanji’s poster: the moment everyone saw it they thought Dabi said “I’m Touya” as much as everyone said “Sanji’s theory about being some sort of prince/ son of an important family it’s true”.

And it works! Because the moment we knew Touya was Dabi we would have wanted to know how Touya turned into Dabi, as much as what happened to Sanji.

What it doesn’t sound right it why hiding that dialogue with a black ballon in chapter 267 to give us the truth only 6 months later when One Piece took his own sweet time with Sanji.

To me this makes absolutely no sense at all.

But Horikoshi decided differently than One Piece. And illogically.

The only way this would actually makes any sense is if Dabi said something else to Hawks. Or rather: what if he said he was Touya but with another meaning? With last chapters we were overloading with new informations about Dabi/ Touya. So the black balloon isn’t that interesting to us anymore. And conveniently Hawks is out of the games for the moment, so we don’t expect him to say something about it. It might be argued that we don’t need to, not anymore.

However after that sentence which took and entire panel Hawks should have something to say, and he can’t bothered the reader with something we already know.

This comparison ties perfectly with Anakin Skywalker’s: in fact after years it was Sanji’s turned to be talked about. His identity moved One Piece’s story one arc forward.

Instead about Anakin... audience didn’t really need his backstory. It was something you wanted to know, but the story could have worked just fine: you just needed to know Vader was Luke’s father to understand why he saved the Jedi at the cost of his own life.

I thus expect we’ll dig up more into Dabi’s past in the following arcs; no, I’m not delusion: Dabi being Touya won’t move the plot much forward aside from the hero society being totally ruined. And neither will end the Todorokis drama.

The situation is dire, of course, and heroes will have it hard. But still, society needs heroes so they can’t just give up on them. Things will change and won’t change at the same time cause even in the worst case scenario, in which Endeavor and Hawks will stop working and all heroes are fired someone needs to take a stand against Shigaraki.

Touya’s death instead might give another push forward, giving the Todoroki arc a deserved ending.

Bear in mind that this doesn’t mean Dabi can’t die. He totally can. But if into Touya’s death a secret lies this can be useful for upcoming future arcs, even if I doubt Dabi will die here and now.

#Narrative comparison #my hero acadamy #boku no hero academia #dabi my hero academia #one piece #Touya Todoroki #Sanji #Black leg Sanji #Vinsmoke Sanji #plot twists #identity revelation #sanji one piece

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kyndaris · 4 years

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Date with Destiny (with a Capital D)

When I watched the announcement at E3 about Final Fantasy VII Remake, I was terribly excited. Though the Final Fantasy series has been one of my favourites since I first played Final Fantasy X, I have never actually played the original Final Fantasy VII.Instead, I read everything I could find and watched walkthroughs (including Dirge of Cerberus) as well as the film: Advent Children and Advent Children Complete. When Crisis Core released on PlayStation Portable (PSP), I also bought that to immerse myself in the entirety of the Final Fantasy VII universe. And when I told one of my close friends, Bleachpanda, about it, they were surprised that I had never played the original. But while I could have purchased the re-release on the PlayStation 4, I wanted to see the game that had captured the imagination of so many people in high definition quality.

As most people in Australia know, the game released a whole nine days earlier than it was supposed to: on 1st of April. After I had mistakenly taken the express train, I was perusing my messages and saw my friend post her excitement that Final Fantasy VII Remake was out. Immediately, I used my situation to my advantage and went to buy the game - despite the fact that I had no facial mask and was entering a shopping centre with a possible high risk of infection. After sweating up a storm by rushing to all the stores, I finally had the copy in hand.

However, it would not be until I had finished Yakuza 4 that I could begin my journey with Cloud and the Avalanche team. Suffice it to say, I was incredibly excited. From the score to Cloud’s lovely cheekbones. In fact, I could not believe my good fortune that I was actually playing the game. It didn’t seem real that I would have in my hands despite the ongoing pandemic. From there, my hype built as I defeated the Scorpion sentinel and moved on to the Seventh Heaven. When Tifa’s theme sounded, I had to resist the urge to shed a tear.

I might not have played the original, but gosh darn it, I loved the characters as much as any fan.

Even the little details were so exciting to see. Though there were several changes to the game, it was clear that the developers loved the game as much as its fans did. I liked how Cloud and the gang kept their victory poses for when they were in the Coliseum. The up-scaled Church, the bar, Wall Market and Aerith’s house. Learning more about many of the side characters also helped build a solid connection to them. From Jessie’s tragic backstory of her dad collapsing in Mako storage in her debut as the role of Princess at the Golden Saucer (goodness me, if she knew about the shenanigans of Cloud and the rest of the party, she’d probably throw a fit), to Bigg’s contribution to the Sector 5 orphanage. This even extended to the differences in Tifa’s and Aerith’s cleavage sizes. Not that I was paying particular attention...

Okay, maybe a little. But I’m glad that they also gave appropriate footwear and gear for the characters.

But my goodness, that pull-up challenge took me fifty minutes! It wasn’t even in the original! And the trophy did not feel worth it after how difficult Jules was. Never again!

Then the characters also called me out for going in the wrong direction. I’m not! I’m trying to explore every nook and cranny of this world Square-Enix has bequeathed us and to find as many items as I can find!

The combat, though, was the one that had the most changes. Gone is the turn-based battle system. While players can play on classic, according to my friend Bleachpanda, it was less than exciting. Particularly when the AI just stood around guarding most of the time. As for me, I played on Normal Mode. The battle mechanics felt like they used bits and pieces from other games: such as Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy XIII. It also incorporated elements of the original Active Time Battle system, but I found it frustrating that all of my more powerful abilities, and even items, were gated behind a slowly rising bar - particularly for the AI-controlled party members. Of course, Final Fantasy VII Remake also allowed players to switch between members and I found I had to do this on a fairly regular basis depending on the battle.

Also, your ATB abilities, spells and item usages could also be interrupted. This proved particularly frustrating in difficult battles where I was hoping to take advantage of an enemy’s weakness, only to be batted to the side because of an air attack.

It also felt, on numerous fights, that I had to think of these battles less like a turn-based battle and more like an action adventure, hack and slash. Instead of just absorbing spells and attacks, I needed to evade and guard. This was clearly evident in several solo battles with Roche and even Rufus Shinra. I had to read attack patterns, avoid some of their deadly moves and strike when they had an opening. All the while, trying to keep my ATB gauge up and ready for some quick healing or spell casting.

Let’s move on now to the characters and the story. But where to begin? How about the ending that proved incredibly divisive among many fans. My friend, Bleachpanda, was sorely disappointed by the presence of the Whispers and how the last two chapters transpired. She, unlike me, had been banking on nostalgia to pull her and was more excited to seeing the original recreated in perfect high definition. If you read her posts on Final Fantasy VII Remake you will learn that she was mightily disappointed that how Cloud manages to obtain his dress was very different (although she probably still liked our ex-Soldier shaking his tush on stage. Heck, I think everyone was channelling Aerith and shouting at our screens for Cloud to work it).

The whole talk of destiny and changing fate, though, probably left many fearing that the rest of the Final Fantasy VII Remake would be a very different beast from their childhoods. What with talk about alternate timelines and the possibility of time travel. As well as that last parting shot of Zack Fair. In fact, there are plenty of videos on YouTube that try to explain the ending.

Now, I profess, time travel has always sat ill with me. And Square-Enix has not always used it well. The first Bravely Default comes to mind as does Kingdom Hearts 3 and the time loops of Type-0. Or even what they tried to do with the Final Fantasy XIII franchise. All those retcons in FFXIII-2 made me wonder if it was all worth it. Lightning’s character development in the first game was all but forgotten and rehashed over Lightning Returns. Still, as this was mostly penned by the original writer (though people will still blame Nomura), I feel like much of the motivations and several story beats will remain the same. The settings will also not change and I am eager to see Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, Junon and so many other places.

In saying that, though, I’m not sure if Aerith will die. Or if she does, whether it will have the same shocking effect that it did in the original. Of course, by now, everyone and their mothers know what to expect and perhaps this was a way for Square Enix to keep players on their toes. What about Cloud falling into the Lifestream and Tifa trying to sort out his memories from the false persona he created? The slap fight between Tifa and Scarlet? My friend, Bleachpanda, just wants to see Professor Hojo surrounded by girls that are trying to flirt with him. Who knows. It might happen. Or it might not. Hence why so many are terrified at the direction of the new games.

The rest of the narrative, however, proved just as exciting with a few little additions along the way. Sephiroth appearing, though, in the second chapter threw me for a loop, even though I appreciated the foreshadowing. Chapter 4 was all devoted to learning and bonding more with the other members of Avalanche. I very much liked their expanded roles, although casting Gideon Emery as Biggs was a bit of a distraction as I could clearly hear his Balthier trying to break through, particularly in the earlier scenes. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Balthier. And Biggs is quite good looking himself.

This whole Midgar portion of the game also remained mostly faithful to the original Final Fantasy VII and its timeline. It also made things a little more realistic and showed fans of the original, more sides of the characters they had come to love. Also, I like that despite the love triangle being set up between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith, there was a strong sense of camaraderie among the girls. They lifted each other up rather than tear each other down. Even Jessie was trying to get in on the action with all the flirting she did. In fact, I just wanted to ship Aerith and Tifa for the long haul.

What I also thought cute was the little swear the left Aerith’s lips when the ladder fell and Cloud had to help lift her up. It was also comical to see Cloud try to pull his Buster Sword out when confronted by one of the other Sephiroth clones and having it catch on the door jam.

Barret, on the other hand, was a little preachy in the first few chapters. There can be no denying his love for Marlene, but it grated on me how much exposition he provided on the train ride back to Sector 7. Still, once we finally get into the meat of the games, I would love to see all their backstories, cry when appropriate and cheer for them when they finally emerge victorious.

I also liked many of the environmental story telling. Particularly in Chapter 2 and seeing the aftermath of what Avalanche’s actions had done. Granted, Heidegger and President Shinra had a hand in it, but it was clear that Jessie and many others were devastated by the damage they had wrought. It was also gut-wrenching to see the remains of Sector 7 after the plate fell. Reeve, in the form of Cait Sith, tried and failed to save the people and even though he was controlling an animatronic cat, you could still see his devastation.

Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy VII Remake. By the time the game ended, I felt a little bereft, wanting to see more of each character and really dive down deep into their psych. Just like before, Tifa is much more reticent and closed off. It warmed my heart that in Hojo’s lab, Aerith asked Tifa if she was okay. As someone who is also similarly guarded, it’s good to know that someone else cares. Red XIII was also a great addition in the last two chapters, though it was a shame we could not play as him.

The ending might have left a sour taste in the mouths of many, but I know that I, for one, am eager to see where the unknown journey takes us next and seeing old familiar faces. We still have Cid, Yuffie and Vincent to find! Also, Marlene is so cute and precious and must be protected at all costs.

#video games #final fantasy vii: remake #FFVII #Final Fantasy

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fangirling97 · 4 years

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TROS SPOILERS

I just want to know WHO? Who made the decisions for this movie. Was it J.J.? Chris Terrio? Kathleen Kennedy? Bob Iger? Who had the power here and who decided to take the most hopeful, beautiful story arc in the history of redemption arcs and end it with a very unsatisfying and disrespectful death?

It truly never seriously crossed my mind that Ben Solo would die in this film. I had faith in the creators to know that it would be the worst idea ever. Clearly I was wrong.

I’ve been doing my utmost to seek positivity. The fact is this movie has some of my favorite moments in the history of Star Wars. I genuinely fall in love with Ben Solo and the brilliant mannerisms and attitude he exudes every time I think about him. I thought I loved Kylo Ren...it’s nothing compared to Ben Solo.

The kiss is beautiful. Their faces kill me every time. I’ve never seen such pure joy and love like that.

The scene with Han and Ben genuinely makes me tear up every time I think about it and I full-on sobbed in the theater when I saw it. It’s everything I didn’t know I needed from this relationship and it only cements my love for these two characters deeper in my heart.

So much of this movie is even better than how I saw it in my head...so why do I feel physically ill when I think about it?

Ultimately I could forgive a whole lot. I can forgive the messy pacing. The lack of meaningful dialogue and the fact that we still have no idea how Palpatine is alive and that no one seems as concerned as they really should be...seriously, why is NO ONE like deeply shocked and concerned??

What I can’t forgive is the lack of respect to the characters and the previous movies.

Rey Palpatine: (I’ll get to Ben Solo, believe me) I remember hearing this theory ages ago and thinking well that’s never going to happen. Don’t I feel stupid? Well....no I don’t, cause really it never should have. Everyone has said it and I whole-heartedly agree that Rey Nobody is what we needed for this trilogy. Frankly, it makes me like her more that way. This story could have gone exactly the same way without her being related to the grossest and most evil man in the galaxy (please go listen to What the Force-Dark Union). There is literally no reason to make these characters related at all except to give Rey a family she has NO connection to at all. I’ve loved the way that each main character (Rey, Kylo/Ben, and Finn) have had to grapple with their personal histories and find a way to accept and move past them in this trilogy. Yet Rey doesn’t...at all. We are repeatedly told throughout this movie that you make your own family and that it doesn’t matter where you come from you are your own person...so WHY relate her (clumsily and without ANY foreshadowing or reasoning at all) to a truly despicable being that has no real effect on the person she is. It’s not unbelievable that every person has a fight between light and dark inside. They don’t have to be related to a villain to make sure we all get that.

Finn: I really don’t understand this character at all in this movie. Firstly, is there even an arc. I’ve seen it twice now and I really can’t see one. The only semi-interesting aspect is that he’s force-sensitive which I didn’t really want. Not because I don’t like Finn but he’s already an interesting and dynamic character without it. Finn being Force sensitive does not make him better in any meaningful way. If that’s really the direction you wanted to take him in then it should have at least been hinted at in TFA. And really? Really? We had to have the weird little secret through the whole movie? I honestly didn’t even notice that his force sensitivity may have been the thing he wanted to tell Rey through the movie (mostly because the movie is too busy for this tiny little piece). I don’t understand where the weird tension between Finn and Poe cane from and while I don’t mind the idea it felt like it came and went way too quickly and all the sudden it’s all grand cause the end battle is coming? And everyone has said it but I agree, I really think Rose made Finn a better character and apparently she’s just gone in this movie with NO addressing of their chemistry and romantic plot in TLJ...at all. It’s just weird and uncomfortable.

Luke: I have never been the biggest Luke fan but I was genuinely excited to see him in this movie. Though the Han scene is spectacular, I really wanted a little more from Luke and Ben. I really wanted Luke’s words in the first trailer to be to both Rey and Ben if not just to Ben himself. It felt important to have Ben face his uncle once again and be able to forgive (somewhat) and move on from that pain and betrayal. Instead, all Luke was used for was to call out Rian Johnson and deliver some very strange exposition that tbh I don’t even remember. The fact that our beloved hero’s scene in the final Skywalker movie is utterly unremarkable is a shame and I have to keep reminding myself it’s even in the movie. It doesn’t make sense for Luke and Leia to know Rey’s lineage and literally never say a word. Luke nearly killed Ben Solo for having darkness inside of him but Rey is the descendent of the most evil man in the galaxy (and a personal tormenter of the Skywalker family) and he just is totally cool with it...no.

Ben: This is really what hurts the most. I could forgive a lot (even Rey Palpatine though it will always be stupid) if Ben Solo had been able to live. The truth is I was enjoying the movie for the whole time until the moment when my favorite character of all time, the epitome of all that is Star Wars to me, died. Without any moment to mourn him. Stepping back, I can see the tragic beauty in this moment. He sacrificed himself to save the light and love of his life. And he’s happy to do it. He knows he can’t live without her. The problem is, Ben Solo has faced his tragedy already. Isn’t that the point? Isn’t that why he’s humanized so early in TFA. I have always loved Vader’s story and I do believe it was the right move to have him sacrifice himself for his son. But Vader was a monster and nothing more until the end of the RotJ. Kylo is nearly immediately humanized in making him the son of Leia and Han. In showing his face to the scavenger girl so quickly. Then pretty much the entirety of TLJ. It’s all showing his humanity. We should have all known (and many did) that redemption and the pull to the light is inevitable for Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren was never going to make it out of this trilogy but I sure believed Ben Solo would. I am in awe with the performance of Adam Driver in the third act of this movie (well actually all of it, but you know what I mean). Ben is completely different from Kylo Ren in almost every aspect. So many people have complained that Ben never actually has dialogue outside of the very endearing “ow”. I’ll be honest it makes me so sad and I definitely wanted to see some from him but I didn’t actually notice the lack of words the first time because of how much Adam is able to convey with every movement and facial expression. I knew exactly who this character was and I have never loved a character so much in my life. In these moments you can see every pain, betrayal, and weight is lifted from him. Ben is finally free of his pain. And now he can be the man he was always meant to be and it is staggeringly beautiful. And then he is thrown into a pit. Not allowed to fight the being that has tortured his family for the entirety of the saga. And is killed without a moment to grieve for us or for the love of his life. And I can’t get over it. I can’t see the logic in it. What’s the point? What’s the message here? Life sucks and then you die? THATS NOT STAR WARS!!!! Star Wars has always been tragic but there is always hope! Look at RotS. That is the saddest movie in Star Wars (till now) and it ends with the twins carrying the hope of the galaxy and their mother. Uncle Lars and Aunt Beru look into the sunset with hope as Obi Wan looks on knowing that if anyone can save the galaxy it’s going to be Luke Skywalker. Even if Obi Wan doesn’t believe that Anakin can be saved Luke is still worth everything to keep safe. In ESB Han Solo is frozen in carbonate, Luke is the son of the monstrous Vader, and the Empire is winning. Yet in the end Luke and Leia stand side-by-side, determined to make it all better. There is always hope in Star Wars yet I am left utterly hopeless by this movie. The only thing keeping me afloat is the idea that Ben Solo May live on due to the fact that we don’t see him at all in the end of HIS FAMILYS SAGA! (More on that in a moment). For the last four years Kylo Ren/Ben Solo has represented potential and hope. And now he’s dead. I can’t get over that. I hope Lucasfilm and Disney understand what he means to us and finds a way to bring him back. I don’t know what Adam Diver believed he was going to be completing but I can’t imagine this was the way it was supposed to be. Not when he loves this character as much as we do.

The Skywalkers: this is mostly a continuation but I had some specific things I wanted to address here. This is the Skywalker saga. I can say without a doubt this is my favorite fictional family ever. I love the drama and the angst and the importance they hold. I have never doubted that the sequel trilogy would hold up to that because Ben Solo (Skywalker) existed. Yet they are completely sidelined in this movie. I love Rey so so much but to introduce the idea of a Force Dyad with ultimate power in the Force and the to throw the Skywalker half off a cliff so that the two Palpatines can duke it out for the fate of the Skywalker Saga is just awful. I truly believe that Ben should have killed Palpatine (to stop Rey from being possessed by her creepy grandpa) and to be able to complete Anakins story. We even learn that Palpatine has haunted Ben in the same way he’s haunted Anakin (which is totally glossed over by the way, cause why is that important, right?) and yet Ben does nothing against Palpatine in the final fight. How does this make sense? I said all along I wanted an Anakin cameo in this movie and I was truly happy to hear Hayden’s voice in this movie but if Ben and Rey are dyads and representations of balance in the Force then why is she the Jedi that needs to rise? Shouldn’t they BOTH be that? The fact that this movie ends with no living Skywalkers is just bad and it hurts. I cannot understand the need for the Skywalker line to end just cause the saga is ending. Let Ben Solo and Rey have babies for goodness sake! And to be honest I don’t feel any emotion except disappointment and frustration at the whole Rey Skywalker line. She’s not a Skywalker, or if she is then she shouldn’t be alone. Loneliness has never been good in Star Wars. And yeah Luke and Leia show up as Force ghosts but that’s not real companionship and neither is BB-8. Rey is not meant to be alone and neither is Ben. Or do the most touching lines in TLJ mean absolutely nothing at this point. Now I can only hold on to Luke’s line, “no one is ever really gone.”

This ended up way longer than I meant it to but turns out I needed to get some of my feelings out. I’m frustrated at my inability to feel satisfied by all of the truly wonderful moments in this movie (Reylo is real and Ben is here once again). There are so many other things I thought too. Why does Rey decide to go into exile on Ach-To when she spent the whole last movie explaining why it doesn’t work to Luke? (Well it’s cause obviously TLJ isn’t important, that’s why everything was retconned,right? Except JJ said he didn’t do that...weird.) Why is it that Rey showed the Resistance how to get to Exegol when I personally think it would have been cooler and more meaningful to have the signal coming from a rogue tie fighter flown by Ben Solo? (Think about it. Han tells Ben to help the thing his mother lived for, the Resistance, he knows how to get there and it would have been a far more interesting moment then just having Finn tell us all what Rey means when we kinda figured it out for ourselves, thanks). Why didn’t Ben fly the Falcon at all in total acceptance of his true identity?

But ultimately these are the most important things I felt coming out of TROS. I fully expected this movie to be my favorite of the trilogy if not my favorite of them all. I’ve always like the Star Wars finales the most. RotS is my favorite of all of the SW movies with RotJ close behind. Really though, this isn’t a Star Wars finale it’s just dressed up as one. I hope there will be more things to come and I look forward to the future of Star Wars (with binary sunsets in the middle distance, of course). And I hope this isn’t really the end of Ben Solo, my hero.

Now to catch up on Clone Wars because Star Wars is where I go when I’m feeling down. Even if I’m feeling down about Star Wars.

#tros spoilers #reylo #bendemption #ben solo #ben and rey #star wars tros

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clock-work-crow · 4 years

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I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.

TROS SPOILERS!!!!!!!

These are my thoughts on Kylo Ren/Ben Solo’s character in TROS, and it’s all spoilers.

All of it.

You have been warned.

I recently saw someone complain about Rey's treatment in TROS and say she was treated like a doll, taken off the shelf and put back without any change or character growth. And this is what disappointed me in TROS the most. None of the characters had either development or growth. It's easy to see in Rey, but I'd argue the same is true for Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, despite what seems like his redemption.

First, let me clarify what I mean by development and growth. Character development is something that tells us more about the characters. It helps us understand their past actions and their future ones. Growth is some form of change in the character; they are no longer approaching the world in the same way.

For example, in TLJ, when we discover that Ben Solo only attacked Luke Skywalker after his life was threatened, that was development. It sheds a whole new light on his motivations, and how he came to be where he is now, and also helps us understand why he tries to obliterate Luke on Crait. But it should be noted that after believing he killed one Master, Ben Solo runs off and immediately finds another in Snoke. There was no growth there.

On the other hand, after Snoke's death, when he decided to stay with the First Order and not to follow Rey, that is growth. Kylo Ren has no more masters. He is going to determine his own fate, make his own path. He wants Rey to join him, but he's not going to follow her blindly the way he followed Luke and Snoke.

It should also be said that not every character needs to grow, although they should always have development. Fiction is filled with beautiful, tragic characters who fail because they can't grow. Ned Stark leaps to mind. His character continues to develop even after he has died, as we learn more about the choices he made before the books/show began, and they inform the actions we saw him take. However, his character never grows. He is the same man of honor he always was, and that inability to grow destroys his family.

Alright, back to Star Wars and TROS. At first glance, it's easy to say the Kylo Ren had become Ben Solo and been redeemed; that his character has grown. But has it?

At the beginning of the movie, we see him tracking down Palpatine, storming into his floating citadel, and trying to fight him. What do we see at the end of the movie? Ben Solo storming into Palpatine's floating citadel to try and fight him. He's been on one trajectory the whole movie, and it doesn't change.

Sure he's there to fight at Rey's side the second time, but so what? He did that in TLJ as well. He turned against Snoke, his Master, to save Rey. But Palpatine was never Kylo Ren's Master. They were never on the same side. In fact, the first time he talks to Rey in TROS, he tells her they should team up to fight Palpatine. At the end of the movie, they team up to fight Palpatine.

He's doing exactly the same thing at the end he was doing at the beginning, only without any dialogue to explain his actions.

So why do we think anything has changed? Why do we even think he might have been redeemed? Because of what happened in between. Because of the scene with Han Solo.

But he's not actually talking to Han. He tells us this is just a memory. This is Kylo Ren reliving his past. We have the same line of dialogue, "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it." And then he does something different. He throws away the lightsaber.

Or is that different?

In both cases, there is something he feels he has to do, and it isn't easy. He worries he will fail. But he does the difficult thing anyway. That isn't growth or development. That is him acting the same way he did in TFA only in a different context.

Sure, he gets rid of the lightsaber he killed his father with. But he's always regretted killing his father. This allows him to fight with the Skywalker lightsaber at the end, but since TFA, he's been telling us that the Skywalker lightsaber belongs to him. You could call that foreshadowing, you could also call it further proof that he is who he was in TFA all along. Because he's always been conflicted, he's always struggled with the Light and the Dark. In TFA, he tries to embrace the Dark; it doesn't work out for him. In TROS, he (maybe) tries to embrace the Light. But are we really supposed to believe that he will be able to be at peace with that? That all his conflict is just gone now?

This is the difference between him and Vader. In the original movies, Vader has no conflict until the very end. He is absolutely sure of who he is and what he's doing. Darth Vader has fully embraced the Dark Side, which is why when he sides with Luke, it's a significant change. We have seen zero sign of that in him up to that point, and no reason to believe he will act that way.

As the prequels later tell us, so much of his life has been about fighting against death, that giving in, accepting it to save his son, is a big moment.

But Kylo Ren is not Vader. He's not calmly menacing. He constantly reacts with big dramatic gestures that he hasn't thought through. Then he regrets them, even if they are small, like destroying his helmet. If anything, having him repair his helmet only shows us that Kylo Ren is not likely to have changed. It tells us this is a person who goes back to his old ways.

And that's the problem. It's easy much easier for him to make the big dramatic gesture. He can kill Han Solo, but he can't live day to day fully in the Dark Side. He can toss away his red lightsaber, but can he live day to day in the Light? Who knows? If Ben Solo had lived, would he always have been just as conflicted as he's been through the entire trilogy? Would he ever be at peace with himself for longer than one kiss?

And what is it that supposedly prompts this change in him? His mother dies. He even says in the conversation with his father's memory that he can't go back because she's not there. If he really has returned to the Light, he's only done so at the point at which he doesn't have to deal with his family and his past. That doesn't feel like growth, that feels like he just doesn't have two run away anymore because the past is now dead. He doesn't have to face her, so yeah, maybe he can go with Rey now.

So what would have growth been? What would have been real redemption for Ben Solo? It would have been him having to look Poe in the eye and apologizing for torturing him. It would have been him in some way taking responsibility for the First Order and what it did while he was Supreme Leader. Real change and redemption needed Ben Solo to live. He would have had in some way to try and make amends. He would have had to figure out who he is if he's not trying to lead the Galaxy (because I don't see anyone putting him in charge).

And his death doesn't do that. And it's hard to know if it's a sacrifice since it's so arbitrary. We don't know what kills Rey. She's dead because the plot needs her to die. She uses her lightsaber to stop Palpatine's Force lighting, and that kills her because…? I don't know; it just does. Ben on the other hand got tossed down a pit and pulls his way out. He's clearly severely injured but alive. Yeah, I get it; he uses the last of his life Force to save Rey, but…we have no real precedent for this being something that will kill you.

When Rey heals the big worm (who is painfully injured, but not dying), she says she's given it some of her power/force whatever and implies it has weakened her. But when Ben is dying after she stabs him in their fight, and she's able to heal him, bring him back from the edge of death, and it doesn't seem to affect her at all. She just gets up and leaves with no ill effects.

So Force healing just acts however the writer wants it to. There are no rules. There's only a cost when the writers wanted there to be one. Otherwise, it's just kind of fine. That's why it's hard to assign emotional value to what he does. Does he even know it might kill him? Is he smiling in that last moment after the kiss because he's about to start his new life? Or is it some attempt to let Rey know he's okay with this?

That's up to you to decide, but not in a good way because whether or not this redeems him depends on whether it's a knowing sacrifice, not just a side effect.

Also, we do have precedent in the Star Wars universe for attempting to bring people back from the dead. It's bad, and it's wrong. Wanting to keep the people he loves from dying is what brings Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. Palpatine even reminds us in TROS that returning from the dead is considered unnatural. But it's just fine for Ben Solo to do this. It shows he's a good guy. Honestly, this bothers me more than anything else. I think if given the chance, Anakin would have given up his life Force to save Padme. So despite his body vanishing, maybe he didn't embrace the light after all? Perhaps he's a Sith ghost? Who knows, we didn't see him at the end.

***Edit**

Also, the Jedi way is supposed to be one of patience and acceptance. Not accepting Rey’s death, trying to force the universe to obey his will one last time, that seems like he isn’t really on the Light Side of the Force.

***End Edit**

But the important thing is that his death is the easy way out. He doesn't really have to grow and change; he doesn't have to stand up and face the Resistance and the rest of the Galaxy because he's just dead. He doesn't have to live with the choices he's made, to resolve the conflict that has always been there.

Of course, I did say that characters don't have to grow; that tragedy often comes from the characters who can't grow. But he hasn't developed either. We know nothing about Kylo Ren or Ben Solo in this movie that we didn't already know. The fact that Rey is a Palpatine just feeds into his previous vision of destiny and great bloodlines ruling the Galaxy. We already knew that killing his father split him in two, that he also loved his mother, because he couldn't kill her in TLJ. He doesn't fall in love with Rey during this movie, you could argue it wasn't confirmed until TROS, but now that they've kissed, we can say it was the last movie where they fell in love.

We don't even know what kind of leader he's been between movies. Only that Hux didn't like him being in charge, oh, but we already knew that from the last movie also.

So yeah, Rey wasn't the only doll in this movie. Kylo Ren was also picked up off the shelf and put back just the way he was found.

#tros spoilers #meta #kylo ren #bendeption #ben solo

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disappearinginq · 4 years

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"Oh, so you're a necrophiliac?" Oh wow. If I wasn't already falling in love with this show that line would have sealed my fate lol. Guess I need to thank you again, for turning me on to this show. It'll probably be one my new obsession. ("I've gotta give them a hand" had me literally howling. The writing here is just amazing)

I admit, I was looking at this on mobile (which is behaving weird) and honestly thought you were here to start some shit as a random Nonny and I was prepared to throw down. Whooops. ;-) But now here on desktop version:

JT and Malcolm’s relationship is easily one of my favorites (but seriously, I like all of them, and that’s rare for me). Because JT is just so easily grossed out despite having this pretty laid back personality, and I totally get his ‘nope the fuck outta here’ every time he sees Edrisa and Malcolm - flirting? Edrisa is flirting, Malcolm mostly seems like he’s not sure what to with affection and I kinda wonder if part of the reason he just sort of smiles and nods when she does it to him is because 1) he honestly doesn’t know how to answer or 2) he’s slightly worried that she’s interested in him as more of an interesting specimen/case study compared to attraction.

Prodigal Son is one of those shows I appreciate more in the re-watch (knowing what’s coming makes you really appreciate the groundwork/foreshadowing they lay down). So I definitely recommend with the time you do not have to watch it again.

Back to JT and Malcolm - I think I love them because so much of their interactions are subtle subtext? Like at one point, JT and Malcolm have a conversation where JT apologizes for insulting a psychologist and it goes: JT: Sorry, I know she’s your people. Malcolm: No, you’re my people. ::JT gives disbelieving scowl and Malcolm looks genuinely surprised that JT doesn’t believe him:: Malcolm: Tell me why I’m wrong. JT: In the service, we have a hierarchy. Your rank commands respect. Cops are the same. I have a badge. I have a title. But you don’t respect me. Malcolm ::pauses:: When I was a little kid, a cop came to my house. He put cuffs on a bad guy and took him away. He saved me. No one has more respect for the badge or the people who wear it than I do. And I fully admit that what I get out of the conversation is colored by my own service, BUT (you get my dissertation for sending me a comment about a show I love and I have zero chill): Malcolm is a former FBI agent. He’s a profiler. He’s extremely smart, he’s wealthy, comes from Old Wealth NY high society. He was fired by the FBI for punching out a local cop. Regardless of the fact that his dad was a serial killer, Malcolm is pretty much set up to be someone that JT is never going to like, and Gil even point blank says they won’t get along in the pilot. By the time they hit the episode where this conversation takes place, Malcolm has been allllll over the board of weird. Strange tics, neurosis from not sleeping as well as serious mental illness, a great enthusiasm for grotesque and bizarre crimes, but he’s also brought lollipops for the group, tries to make a connect with JT on a subject he thinks JT will like, and genuinely seems to be making an effort to behave and not push buttons. I love the conversation because it’s JT trying to figure out how Malcolm interprets respect - does he look at the badge and the uniform? Or does he look at the person? And someone in the military knows that’s a huge difference, and from there on, when you look at how Malcolm treats JT, it’s like...older brother emulation? It’s actually a really fun relationship to watch unfold and I am here for it (and all my non-published fics surround them because I love them).

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g00d1uckch4rm · 5 years

Text

Primal

Chapter 3: Beginning The Cataclysmic Revelation

Summary/Info Rated M CHAPTER WARNINGS: Body Horror (mild) and Self Exploration (semi graphic description)

Previously... Bazz had the Fanclub send Link a box of goodies, much to Link's embarrassment and horror.

Link then experiences a frightening realization that he might be gravely ill. A dangerous fever sends him back an forth into dreams of the past twisted with reality. And amongst this confusion, two strangers try to help him and his soul finally awakens.

-Only obvious key points will be summarized. There are likely moments of an Unreliable Narrator or Sneaky Foreshadowing.- ____________________________________________________

“Get out and put these on. You should be stable enough to dress yourself.” The tall woman dropped a towel with a ball of clothing at the foot of the tub. Her words were hard like her glare, these were commands not suggestions. “Then you will eat. Understood.”

Link nodded, though all he wanted to do was lie down and remain still for a few more hours. Not that the bath tub had been particularly comfortable. But he wasn’t getting any peace anytime soon.

“Speak up or have you forgotten how?”

[Not that you likely understand.] The young man’s irritation growing, this Gerudo was throwing around demands, but offering no reasonable explanation. Actually, she had thrown him around physically yesterday from the flickering memories he could recall.

“Join us in the kitchen when you’re done, don’t take long.” She had said more, but Link didn’t catch it as she left the room.

Link groaned and carefully lifted his waterlogged body from the tub, both hands and feet pruned beyond belief. It made standing and grabbing things feel weird.

Taking his time with drying off, he could already feel the warmth coming back to his chilled skin. Looking over his body he did not find any trace of the glowing marks. Had his soul truly shown itself after all this time, after four and half years? Such beautiful light that had dance across his skin felt like distant dream. Though in the end, Link was unsure if he could fully trust any of yesterday’s memories.

The kitchen was not hard to find as he could see it from the bathroom door. But walking there was a different story, every few steps had him fumbling like a foal. He didn’t fully understand it, his legs were steady and his mind felt clear. Perhaps his muscles were still numb from the cold water.

“Good morning.” The Sheikah woman greeted him happily over her mug as she waited at the table. It appeared that most had already been set with fruit, toast, sausage and oddly, two teakettles. He could guess there was something more as the Gerudo was tending to something over the wood stove. Smells like eggs. He thought before taking a set across from the expecting mother. “You look like you are doing much better than yesterday.”

That was something he could agree on and nodded; he was a lot better than whatever illness befell him. He stared at the food laid out and his stomach grumbles, definitely hungry from not eating since two nights ago. But Link truthfully wasn’t interested in eating and the potent smell of everything didn’t help much either.

“Would you like tea or milk?” She offered, but quickly frowned when he shook his head. “Just water then?”

[I don’t want anything, thanks though.] He signed lazily, knowing that she wouldn’t understand, though doing so anyway.

Both jumped when a hot pan was dropped onto the table, the vibration nearly sending some of the tableware over the edge. As the very angry Gerudo stared down the Hylian wipes her hands upon her apron ever so slowly. “I really don’t care about what happens to you when you leave. But I won’t be having anyone dying under my roof, even if that means I have to force feed you.”

Link stood up with haste, nearly knocking the chair over. He has about had it with this woman’s unprovoked attack on him for being here. She was the one that grabbed and brought him to her home in the first place! [Then why bother saving me the other morning!?]

“Honestly, the only reason I saved you was because I thought you were Sheikah.” She scoffed.

“Mani-!” The Sheikah woman burst in outrage, but was unable to finish as her wife quickly placed a hand over her mouth. Though hushed gently by the Gerudo, the hand was quickly swatted away. The smaller woman’s eyes speaking all her anger and disappointment in silence, she would not stay quiet for long.

[So you do understand me.] He stated with a bitter look, both their eyes meeting a levelled glare. [If that was the case then why not say that earlier!?]

“Not that you can remember, voe. Consider it a favour for keeping things simple with a fever, deranged Hylian.”

“ENOUGH. Both of you sit down this instant! Or Hylia help me, I turn you both into frogs!”

Her wife sat down immediately, but while Link had been taken off guard from the soft-spoken woman’s sudden outburst, he was not really intimidated. Just what kind of threat was that anyways? It wasn’t like she could actually do that. So, he remained standing, half tempted to just leave, but he didn’t know where they had taken his belongings.

“One.” Crossing her arms as she began.

“Dearest, please.” But her protest went unheeded.

“Two.”

“Your body won’t be able to handle the strain so close to birth!” Fear beginning to reveal itself for the first time Link had seen in the Gerudo.

“Thr-” Stopping as the man finally sat down, her expression softening into a weak smile. “Thank you. Now let’s all eat and talk after there is food in our bellies.”

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

With a fork, Link flicked the small round of meat back and forth on his plate. He had barely managed to swallow the only bite he took, but it wasn’t like it tasted bad, the meat had been wonderfully seasoned. He just didn’t want to eat. The warrior had succeeded in finishing the small spoonful of scrambled eggs, half a piece of toast and three slices of fruit. Eating because you have to, not because you want to, makes the whole meal a chore. His body seemed to agree with him as his insides tensed in reply. I hope I don’t throw up after this.

The only thing he might have enjoyed was the mug of hot milk with a few drops of honey. The hot silky drink had done more to wake his senses than the sour scent of the tea the Sheikah was having. Nonetheless his hosts; feeling more like captors at the moment, seemed to be satisfied with his progress.

The white haired woman gave her wife an elbow to the ribs, narrowing her eyes at the taller before gesturing to Link. With a restrained grimace, the Gerudo looked to the man and hesitantly began to speak. “Forgive my behaviour, your… state reminds me of the weakness I once bore. It aggravates me that I was just has helpless to the phase you went through. Thankfully though, I don’t need to worry about others like yourself passing it onto me anymore.”

[So it isn’t Ganon’s Blight…] Link gave a huge sigh of relief, he knew deep down it was never the case. But it was a huge weight lifted to hear that someone else had experienced this and was just fine. [Then this illness only affects a person once?]

A perplexed look quickly shattered her mask of irritation, almost seeming to be stunned for a moment before she could gather herself enough to respond. “Uh…no.”

To which Link expressed his own confusion. [But you said that you were once affected by this, meaning you have grown immune. Or are you saying that I need a cure?]

“Technically…? I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a cure. And I don’t know how it affects others like yourself, but I believe that you are stuck with this your whole life.”

[How did you become unaffected then? There isn’t much difference between a Gerudo and a Hylian.] The man felt like the more questions he asked the more bewildered the woman got and was slower to answer him.

“I formed a soul bond…” Now the Sheikah woman’s cheeks turned pink as she glanced back and forth between them, only getting half the conversation.

How did this topic come up? Shaking his head, Links irritation was starting to return. [How does… How does that have anything to do with this topic?]

“Do you have any idea what you are…?”

[I’m Hylian. Male if you need details.] Putting as much sarcasm he could physically muster into his gestures and expression.

“I don’t really mean race, but sex has a lot to do with it. I don’t know the Hylian words for it specifically. But I wouldn’t be so sure about your claim as male, I doubt that you explored your body completely… or had someone do it for you. Well, not that you can remember before a couple years ago. Right, Link? Memory loss must be such a pain.” Oh how her smirk made him want to knock her out of chair. Just who does she think she is? Like she could understand what it was like to lose everything of your person.

“Link? As in the Hylian Champion, the Hero that slayed Calamity Ganon!?” The smaller gasped and covered her face with her hands. “Oh Hylia, forgive me. I saw something that was not meant to witness.”

“Relax, you’re a healer. It’s not something that you haven’t-”

“It’s not that, his soul! There’s no doubt that he has a fated bond given by the Goddess! What if the Princess-”

[I’m not done talking!] Link waves for their attention, agitation making his temperature rise. [And I am getting very tired with dancing around. Just tell me what is going on already, enough with the toying. I have work to get back to.]

“Fine, I shall make this quick and painless for us both. You present as a voe, but you’re actually a vai.” But quickly earned a sharp slap on the shoulder from her wife. “Ouch, what was that for!? He asked for a direct answer!”

“I don’t care! I don’t ever want to hear you say it that way ever again! How would you like it if I said that you may look like a woman, but you’re really a man!? We both know that’s not true and you getting me pregnant doesn’t change that either!” She was so upset, that she had tears in her eyes.

And the Hylian was beginning to wonder if he had been brought to a mad house. Everything that had led up to this point and now this nonsense? A woman getting another woman pregnant? That’s crazy… It’s just not possible, a man had to be involved.

...Ny..M..Ph... Distorted words echoed briefly with a flickering image of a young man he could not put a name to.

Link winced from a sudden strong cramp and pressed a hand to his pelvis. Much like dropping a torch in an autumn grassland, a blazing heat spread through his body rapidly. With the daunting return of the prickling at the back of his neck, becoming an itch that bloomed across his back.

No… no, no, not again! Eyes widening in abrupt anxiety, but the vertigo was already affecting him and things were quickly beginning to fade at the edges. He knew someone had grabbed him, possibly picked him up, though if they spoke, he heard nothing. Nothing but the pounding of a drum.

What is happening to me? Someone tell me! Tell me what I have to do, tell me what I need…

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

The cooling water felt wonderful on his burning skin, he laid there for a few moments. Though Link nearly jumped from the tub when he opened his eyes to find the married couple looking down at him. Still feeling unsteady from the unfamiliar sensations coursing through his body, he managed to speak. [How long…?]

“About an hour, shortest time yet. I’m sure the blackouts will eventually stop once your shock goes away.” The Gerudo was showing an odd face like that looked like pity. “Experiencing this again for the first time and having no knowledge of it at all seems to be taking quiet the toll on your mind.”

[Tell me, if you know… Please, just tell me the truth. How do I fix this?]

“There is no fixing this, Link, it’s a part of who you are… And there isn’t much either of us can tell you, we only know the basics of how your body works. You would have to find someone that is like you or a healer that is well experienced.”

[A healer won’t be difficult. There are lots at the castle.]

“You mustn’t! You can’t go around Hyrule openly speaking of this to just anyone! It must be done in secret.”

[Why?]

“Because the Hylians are the most barbaric of all people when it comes to our unique bodies… They are either too frightened or forcing their beliefs onto others. A hundred years is a long time for most races and during times of strife, terrible people do terrifying things. I do not know all the reasons nor stories, but I know for a fact that the current mask used to hide their crimes is Ganon’s Blight.”

[Wait, you’re saying that the people that become sick with the fever that is spreading across the land, aren’t sick. But going through- through whatever this is, what I’m experiencing?]

“Yes, I am certain that there is likely no sickness. These people were out there all along, but with the monsters disappearing, there is no other way to hide the killing. I personally have been at the end of that blade many times throughout my life and if not for-” Her eyes left him to look at the Sheikah for the briefest of moments, “for the love of my life. I would have been dead a long time ago.”

[But many have been saved, they have been brought to a safe zone for treatments. I’ve saved many myself.]

“Treatments or experiments?” She asked sadly, unable to look him in the eye.

The question made ice grasp around his heart. He had saved them, he had made sure that they were taken to a safe place. Right now there were the best healers tending to the sick, working with researchers to develop treatments and knights; that he personally trained, to protect them all. Link shouldn’t have any doubt about this and yet here he was beginning to question what he has been told.

If they were all really like him, in this state and not plagued by the remaining taint. Then were anyone of them truly safe, how many lives did he place in harm’s way? Oh Hylia. Does the Princess know? Is she the one looking over the quarantined, making the decisions? Or is it someone working in the dark behind all our backs?

[How long does this state last?] Trying to stay calm and work through this. First Link needed all the information he could get, if he charged in without a plan. The perpetrator could do something drastic to cover their tracks. He didn’t want to lose any more innocent lives, not after all the hard work and suffering he endured to save this land.

“A day or two from the few I have heard about.”

[Tell me everything that you know about people like us, all the differences and little things matter.]

“Why suddenly so serious?”

[Because if there truly is no sickness spreading through the land and it is nothing but a made-up plan to take advantage of those suffering! Then I am going to right the wrong I have caused and make the ones responsible pay for their crimes in full.] Link clenched his teeth together and just about growled in furry. If someone dare think that he could be used like a puppet to bring harm to the innocent, they were sorely mistaken.

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

So there are women capable of conceiving a child with another woman, like a man could, but unlike a man. They still look and feel like a woman in every way. Consequently, they are unable to bear a child themselves.

The Gerudo culture apparently has the highest regard for women like this. The closet expression of what women like this are called in his language, is Pure Blood. In the ancient history of their people, there were never any men born among them nor was there ever a need for men. Pure bloods were almost as abundant as regular women and it was over great lapses of time did the pure bloods slowly fade out. A male outsider was more fertile than a pure blood and thus was easier to have children with. Sometime long after, it was more common to marry outsiders, a rare occasion would happen with the birth of a Gerudo male.

On top of all that, people like a pure blood Gerudo and people like himself react strongly one another. Normally the pure blood’s intentions are triggered by the other, first by scent and then touch or sound. However, these intentions are entirely instinctual and are no means consensual to either party. Accidental crossing of paths in Link’s state often leaves both people in an element of deep anguish with an unwanted soul bond.

While neither of them had information on Rito, Goron or Zora. Sheikah are apparently very similar to Hylians, but Link was unable to get anything more than that. He might not have any choice but to ask Impa as she was the only one likely to both know and share those kinds of secrets.

Then there was what he was told about himself. None of anything he had learned had been easy to take in and self-acceptance was something else altogether. The Sheikah healer had theorized that due to the high stress and grave wounds that he has continuously sustained over the years, his body repressed its full capability till now in order to focus on staying healthy. But… no matter how much he looked, from his shoulders down to his feet, he was a man. Sure, he was not as broad shouldered as some and not noticeably as stocky with muscle, but leaner was better when you were looking for more dexterity.

I doubt that you explored your body completely.

The Gerudo’s taunt came back to team up with doubt as he spread his left hand over his abdomen. What was there to explore, he could see everything clearly. He had penis and a set of testicles just like all the other men.

…or had someone do it for you.

He shook his head to chase off those words. So what if he had never lain with anyone, he wasn’t interested in it or anyone at this point in his life. Nor did his curiosity branch as far as to try and explore himself physically. There were plenty of other things he had to get done than to shut himself up in his room. Unlike some of his knights in training, whom he has caught in places around the castle alone or with another.

I really don’t need to remember the things I’ve found people doing in places they shouldn’t….

Link let himself slide down to dunk his head underneath the cold water. This was another thing about his body, this fever of sorts that lasted a day or so. It had been described to him in a simple, yet animalistic term. His state of extreme warmth, disorientation of the mind, heightened senses and unknown urges was bluntly titled; ‘in heat’. According to what he understood, this would likely happen every month and would change his body odour to boldly announce to everyone within sniffing distance that he was fertile.

Makes me sound like a dog…

At least cool water helped take the edge off and clear his head a little. When finally came up for air and sat upright once more, he found himself staring at his legs. Discovering himself strangely hesitant, Link couldn’t recall the last time that he felt this way about anything. It was his own body, there was nothing to be unsure about, yet here was this small feeling of anxiety. He clenched his teeth in frustration when his legs twitched from his own hands being rested upon them.

Pull yourself together.

If he wanted to end this, to have proof that it wasn’t true, he would have to feel for himself. A place that he couldn’t see clearly and never paid much attention too. Behind his genitals, underneath the pelvis.

Lifting his right hand, Link lightly touched the lower point of his inner thigh and feeling the firm area as he carefully came forward. It kind of tickled, but his body was so tense that he didn’t even titter. However, when he reached behind his scrotum, his whole body gave a jolt and he pulled his hand away. Even his heart quickened from surprise.

I don’t think I felt anything. Trying to reassure himself and took a deep breath to slow his heart down, not wanting to freak out for no reason.

Returning his fingers to where they were, resisting the reflex to pull away when his body jolted again. Waiting a moment before thinking over the feeling, it was like a cut without the pain. Flinching yet again when he slipped a finger just past the opening of the cut, the flesh underneath was almost plush to the touch. It reminded him of the backside of his bottom lip.

All the way to his knuckle, unable to go further and still the passage continued on. It was a phantom sensation, feeling slight pressure and yet unable to relate that it was a part of him. The touch of the wound felt real around his finger, but the flesh didn’t belong to him, it was like it was someone else. Adding pressure to feel more clearly had an unforeseen repercussion.

“Ngh!” A pathetic excuse of a gasp passed his lungs quickly as he was being run over by a tidal wave of revived senses. Like being struck by lightning, his nerves were tingling all over his body. At first it was refreshingly chilling before the blooming burst of heat from his lower hips.

By the time his mind cleared from the shock, Link realized that he was soundlessly struggling to breathe. His legs trembling and body shaking uncontrollably as his core pulsed strongly to the rhythm of his heart. On the surface, it felt as though his insides were twisting, but under his hand he knew that they were twitching.

Half from anger, half from something else, Link ripped his hand away. Needing something to ground himself to, both hands grasped desperately to the edge of the wooden walls of the tub. But his body only seemed to retaliate against him more, leaving this ghost like feeling that his finger was still there.

Just stop already, nothing is there! He cried out, trying to drown out images slowly coming forth. Too twisted to be a memory. That’s not what I want! Stop! Don’t think about that!

Link forced himself back under the water and held himself there as long as he could, till he had to gasp for air. Then pushed himself back under, trying to clear his head and distract himself from the truth. Having learned what he had been needing, what he had been reaching out for. He may not want it, but his body did. Here, here, here his body seemed to beg as it throbbed.

It was true. While he had never touched a woman, he little doubt that what was there was not much different. There was a passageway that led to a womb, his womb. He could be impregnated, grow and birth a child.

Pregnant. Blue light flashed across his skin as his soul manifested itself, triggered by his heightened emotions.

Link could become pregnant with another man’s child, possibly a woman’s too if she was able. He wanted to believe that it was panic and fear he was experiencing, not excitement and joy. No, it was more logical for man to freak out and breakdown in a situation like this.

The stinging of his eyes had to be from terror, from a nightmare that he had awoken to. Link wasn’t built to be a mother, he was built to be a killer.

His touch wasn’t gentle, it was rough.

His heart wasn’t compassionate, it was militant.

His soul wasn’t pure, it was blood stained.

Submerged and curled up at the bottom of the bath, hands grasping painfully at the sides of his head. He couldn’t allow himself to be setback by something like this, he had a wrong to right, a duty to fulfil. Link then repeated a mantra that he had used many times before Calamity Ganon was defeated.

My will and mind are of the people, the innocent. My body is theirs to guide. I am not a person. I am a weapon. I am a shield. My flesh and bones can be repaired. I require nothing that does not suit my mission. I will fulfil my goal by any means necessary.

I am not a person. I am a weapon. I am a shield. I am the Divine Beast of Hyrule.

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

The sun was a few hours from setting as Link stepped out from the cabin and according to his map it was a little ways west of Dalite Forest. Not that far off from where he collapsed and was found. He was certain that he could make it to the stables before night fall.

“Here, take this with you.” The Sheikah woman offered a small bundle, that was no doubtably food. He gave a nod of thanks and tied it to his belt. Then she softly added with a concerned frown. “Are you going to be okay?”

[I’m fine, I’m familiar with the signs and I’ll learn how to handle them.]

“He’ll be able to take care of himself.” The Gerudo piped in from the doorway, still uneasy about him walking away and knowing their whereabouts. Originally she was going to blindfold him and drag him far from her property. But that was before gaining him as brother-in-arms, she wouldn’t go as far to call him an ally yet. Not knowing what he would honour more, the new council and Princess Zelda or their kin suffering in the shadows.

Link really didn’t know what else he could do at this point to prove his loyalty, he had already given them all the information on how to contact him discreetly if they needed him. No one at the castle would think anything of it if he went off duty for a day or two. Zelda was practically begging him to take some days off from training the last time it had been brought up.

[I do have one question that went unanswered.]

“You’re not getting either of our names.”

[Not that, something I asked your wife. Could you relay the question for me?]

“We’ll see, what is it?”

[Why did your soul change colours?] He was not expecting the Gerudo to smirk at him in amusement, but did not express any reaction to further please her.

“That memory loss must be a real big embarrassment, just how much did you lose?” But her teasing was cut short by the scowl that came from her wife and recomposed herself, though was still clearly pouting. “He wants you to answer his question on why your soul changed colours last night.”

“Huh? Oh, that!” She smiled brightly at the Hylian warrior, possibly too much excitement than Link could handle right now. “That was because the one I am soul bound to was close by, we are marked by sharing colours and patterns. The stronger your bond the more you take in from your partner-” She had much more to share, but Link raised a hand to stop her.

[Thanks. I don’t need to know all the details, it’s a marriage thing. I got it.]

“Um?” Looking away for a translation only to find her wife shaking her head and returning inside. Confused and turns to find that Link had vanished. “…I almost hate my people’s enhanced clothing some days.”

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

While the monster was no Octorok, it certainly had been a problem. And the people had been right to call for his aid instead of the Hylian Guard. There was no doubt that the land based warriors would have either drowned or been forced to retreat.

Coming to the surface, just off the coast of Aris Beach, Sidon carried two of their wounded that were left unable to swim. They weren’t too far off from Lurelin Village, the proper medical equipment and other supplies had been left there before the battle. The wounded will make it.

“Prince Sidon.” Revan called to him, a bit battle worn himself and seemingly irritated. “Allow us to carry the wounded back, the captain has gone AWOL again.”

Sidon sighed softly, it wasn’t direct because he was the prince, but he knew that this soldier was asking for help. The captain of the royal guard and army was rather young for the position, often doing irresponsible things. Such as this, the battle was won and the captain could be collecting a trophy or something as silly as treasure hunting.

“I understand, I shall look for him. Do not wait for me, I want the wounded seen to at once.” Carefully passing on the two unconscious zora to Revan and another capable soldier. Then allowed himself to sink back into the ocean below, before swiftly swimming off towards the battlefield.

The scent of blood was still heavy in the water, even with the strong current pulling it back out into the vast open sea. Overlooking the area from above, the neighbouring sea life was already helping themselves to the free meal. The schools of fish obstructed most of the view so he swam in for a closer look. Most of the smaller species took off from his approach, clearing the massive corpse of the creature they had slain.

But no sign of- Eyes suddenly locking onto a black tail darting off into cliff like rock formations just beyond the site. Sidon quickly pursued not wanting to lose sight of him for too long. Only to barely see him dive down over a ledge as the prince twisted around the corner.

“Captain Bazz!” He called out, not wanting this to turn into a long game of chase. Sadly, his loud voice was not as effective underwater as it was above and his call went unheard. A game of chase it is…

Diving and climbing over reefs and rock formations. Bazz was surprisingly nimble with quick turns and finding places to slip through the rocks, with Sidon’s size it was not so easy. More than once underestimating his space or over powering his strokes left him with no choice, but to twist last minute and propel off the rocks. Sometimes it just enough to scrape by, others he ended up going the wrong direction altogether.

Bazz was certainly making it rather hard for the prince to keep his title of the fastest swimmer of Zora’s Domain. Always leaving just the slimiest sights of his black tail disappearing from sight, Sidon had yet to see anything else. It almost felt as though he was being taunted.

Till the larger zora finally closed the gap and grasped the tail before Bazz ducked around another corner. Possibly a little too strongly than he should have, it was a semi sensitive area, but did not let got when the other fought back.

“No, I do believe that is enough fooling around, Captain Bazz…” Sidon trailed off when he yanked the man by his head fin from around the rock wall. Only there was no body attached to said head and said head was no zora. It was a twilight shark. While Sidon felt somewhat humiliated, he could see how he had mistaken the shark’s black and grey spotted tail for a zora fin.

“Terribly sorry, I mistook you for someone. I hope I didn’t give you too much of a fright, little one.” And let the shark go, watching as it darted away. Then he chuckled. “Though, this would be a story Link would enjoy I’m sure.”

Now it was time to find the real Bazz. Swimming back to the surface to find out just how far he had been led astray, Sidon was quite astonished where he ended up. If he recognized the land formation correctly, it was Ibara Butte, which meant that he was sitting in the waters just off of the Komo Shoreline. Not wanting to waste any more time, Sidon dived under the waves and made his way back towards Aris Beach, hoping to spot the man on the way there.

But just as he was passing Martha’s Landing, Sidon felt faint spark. It startled him so badly that he stopped and drew his sword as he looked for the threat. However, he saw nothing that could have been the source and it seemed to have vanished- there it is again!

Quickly realizing that he only felt the sensation when he was looking directly at the coast. Sidon had never felt something quite like this before, while mildly reminding him of a shock arrow, it was no way near as powerful. His curiosity had been captured and he followed the weak electric feeling.

At first was like being pulled along by a single line of thread, but it gradually became rope. He lost it a couple times, having to stop and spin around before found it again. It almost felt like it was alive in a sense, a spirit maybe? With the spark now much stronger, it was more of an electrical current, while it irritated him, it did not hurt.

Sidon was probably searching for a good half hour before he found the source. An entrance in the large coral reef, he was almost too big to fit, his armour scraping along the walls. It turned out to be a grotto, the ceiling had gaps big enough for his hands to fit through scattered all over, plant life of all sorts and colours painted the space. He was so distracted by the wonderful little world that he had found that he failed to realize that he was not the only one here.

“I thought I told you that I wanted to be left alone! I am trying to pray! Now do not make me tell you again or are you going to make your Prie–” Their eyes met and all became silent.

Sidon wasn’t sure what to say, he was awestruck. Here was a woman like none that he had never laid eyes upon before sitting in the bed of sea grass. Her skin shimmering as though it were made of silver, embedded with pale sapphires of varying sizes, eyes made of amethyst. Her tail fin was short as a child’s, though round like a clam shell and atop her head many thin, long fins that reminded him of locks of hair.

She wore a decorative head piece made of ivory beads, carved with unfamiliar designs and cut rubies. Her garment was of deep crimson, loosely draped over her front, held up by an assortment of jewellery to match her headdress.

Realizing that he had been rudely gawking, he sheathed his blade and raised his hands to show he meant no harm. “F-forgive me, I did not mean to stare nor trouble you miss!”

“You have not troubled me, stare as much as you wish…” The silver zora seemed to be in some sort of shock, perhaps she had never seen a red zora before? After a moment she got up and swam a little closer to him, a curious yet excited look beginning to show. “How… How did you find me? This place is well hidden and only one man knows this location.”

“I can’t quite explain it myself, I felt drawn here. Like there was energy calling out to me. Ridiculous, I know.”

“By Prima.” She said breathlessly, grasping her pounding heart with both hands, suddenly overwhelmed with joy. “You have answered my prayers, a saviour and beyond words I can express, you have given one of lineage.”

“Saviour, me? I will offer whatever aid I am able, but I am afraid that I do not understand. Are you in a state of peril?”

“Me and what is left of my people. Many are wounded and sick, we have been swimming for so long I am not sure how many of us will make it through the month.” Her glow beginning to dwindle with the thought of death approaching.

Now, he couldn’t have that and determined to make the young lady smile once more, he perked up. “Fret not, Princess. Your people shall endure!” Sidon gave her his renowned, bright smile and placed a hand upon his heart. “I, Prince Sidon of Zora’s Domain, welcome you and your people. I offer refuge and perhaps you could in kind tell the King of your journey.”

It certainly did the trick and she was once more full of delight. “Yes, of course! Thank you for your generosity, your grace.”

“Think nothing of it, it is not every day that you hear of other Zora Kingdoms! Let alone meet one quite so unique, if I may be so bold. The silver is lovely.”

“U-unique? Me?” Her spotted cheeks flushing pink. “Oh, no not at all. All of our people are silver, red is far more worthy of praise. Red is the colour favoured by Prima.”

“Prima?”

“They are the Deity we worship.”

“That is quite the flattery you give me, but I am in no way Godlike. I am merely a humble Prince.” Sidon chuckled and then remembered that he had yet to learn her name. “May I have the honour of knowing your name Princess?”

“Oh! Um, Yanun… But you may call me whatever you wish, your grace.”

“Please, call me Prince Sidon. A Princess should not have to address another of the same stature as though I am above you.” He then gave a polite bow of his head. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Princess Yanun.”

<<–Previous Chapter-^-Next Chapter–>>

#SidLink #a/b/o verse #Mpreg #Primal FF #Written Work #Fanfic #Rated M #Rated R

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tomakeitbeautifultolive · 5 years

Note

Ok two months to go lets hear it: Who lives and who dies?

My death list is actually kind of short, but (probably) controversial:

The Mountain

Beric Dondarrion

Melisandre

Varys

Viserion

Cersei Lannister

Jaime Lannister

Jorah Mormont

Euron Greyjoy

Theon Greyjoy

The Night King

Sansa Stark

Jon Snow*

(*but he will be resurrected)

You’ll notice one very big name - perhaps the biggest - happens to be absent from my list. I’m not so sure I believe the leaks. *shrug*

My explanations and reasoning under the cut.

The Mountain

Of course, The Mountain is already dead, so this feels little redundant. I don’t think Cleganebowl is happening. The Mountain isn’t the same person Sandor had beef with, and Sandor isn’t the same person he once was. *shrug* I’m personally rooting for the Arya-takes-down-the-Mountain theory.

Varys

There’s a good chance that Melisandre is wrong about Varys’ death (like she’s wrong about well, almost everything):

“I have to die in this strange country, just like you.”

But we pair that with the line from Daenerys:

“If you ever betray me, I’ll burn you alive”

…and it seems to seal his fate (I don’t buy for a second he’s got allegiance to anyone but himself). Of course, there’s a chance it could be a line foreshadowing someone else’s death that’s been ‘leaked’. We’ll see!

Viserion

I could argue that Viserion is already dead… but since “(The Night King)’s done the same thing to Viserion that he did with Craster’s sons,” I assume he’s a dragon version of an other. That’s probably not too important, anyway.

I think Viserion will be taken down by Drogon, mirroring Viserys and Drogo *shrug* I love my parallels, don’t I?

Cersei Lannister

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. Eh, eh?

For as much as everyone cries “cliche!” about Jaime being the valonqar, imagine if all that foreshadowing was traded in for some shock value, and someone like Sansa does it. *shudders* Nah, man. I want Jaime to mirror himself - the Kingslayer/Queenslayer who took down both mad monarchs threatening to ignite King’s Landing in green flames - finally getting recognized for his act of heroism. That’s much more satisfying than a quick shock that has no buildup. But I suppose, there is a pretty good chance the valonqar is Euron.

(Though I do admit - I would actually love for Cersei Lannister to make it out of this alive, somehow)

Jaime Lannister

“I cannot die while Cersei lives. We will die together as we were born together.”

Both twins have weird lines like this. So, it’s fair to assume if one dies, they both die. And if one lives, they both live. So if Cersei is brought down, Jaime will be, too. How do I see it happening? Perhaps by one last (poisonous) kiss - wherein Brienne comes in to cradle him as the life drains from his body? I dunno. But after all, he wants to die in the arms of the woman he loves, and for better or worse - that’s Brienne.

Jorah Mormont

It’s been long speculated that in season 8, we’ll be seeing a ‘beloved’ character turn into a wight - and I think the best candidate is Jorah Mormont (keep in mind we’re talking show Jorah, who is leagues better than book Jorah).

Admittedly, I do notoriously give D&D more credit than like, anyone else around here. That said - I’m not sure the polar bear thing was entirely for “coolness” factor, like they claim. The moment I heard this line, followed by Jorah looming eerily over Beric…

I thought for sure we’d see this paid off in the very same episode. To me, it just seems wildly out of place and a waste of dialogue. I hope it’s some clever foreshadowing that we’re going to see a dead 'Bear’ of Bear Isle biting someone next season.

Of course, there is always a chance that the greyscale might play some sort of role in preventing Jorah from turning… I guess we’ll see!

Lastly, I’ve always been intrigued by Jon holding a Mormont shield during the BotB - I have a tendency to read too much into everything, I admit - but wouldn’t it be great if Jorah died saving Jon’s hide?

Euron Greyjoy & Theon Greyjoy

For as formidable as book Euron may be - I don’t see him living. This series just isn’t about evil prevailing. What I think he will do, however, is attack Jon and/or Daenerys at sea, perhaps as they try to flee the north. I’m one of those annoying people who thinks very few lines of dialogue are wasted in-show, and this one is a fucking thorn in my side:

I think Theon will succeed in taking down Euron (I think this scene is a great foreshadowing that he’s going to save house Greyjoy by saving Yara), but it will likely be at the cost of his own life. I suspect he’ll not only save Yara - but perhaps some members of his other house, too. After all, he’s a Greyjoy and he’s a Stark.

The Night King

Oh, this one is fun, isn’t it? I’m probably the only person who doesn’t want the Night King to die - but I’m pretty sure he will and that I know how it’ll happen. First, we’ll finally get to see Vladimír Furdík’s stuntwork paid off in the final season, which almost ensures there will be an epic showdown between Jon and the Night King.

But you shouldn’t want Jon to defeat him! (Or Daenerys, for that matter!) Why?

“The gods hate kinslayers, even when they kill unknowing.”

This quote is specifically told to Jon by Ygritte when she recounts the tale of Bael the Bard. Interestingly, Bael the Bard heavily mirrors Rhaegar x Lyanna. And what also happens to mirror Lyanna, is how Sam and Jon become friends. Jon comes to his rescue as he’s getting his ass whooped by his fellow black brothers - just like his momma coming to Howland Reed’s aid. Both Jon and Lyanna go out of their way to further humiliate the tormenters, too.

I predict the Night King will disarm Jon Snow and in this crucial moment, and that’s when Sam the Slayer will thrust Heartsbane through his back (perhaps melted down into more wieldable daggers by Gendry?), Howland Reed-style, saving Jon’s life and frankly, blowing everyone’s minds.

Because after all…

“Everything that happens will be something that you’ve seen before.”

Buuuut it’s going to be about as satisfying as Arthur Dayne’s demise - as we’re going to learn of the Night King’s history, and perhaps that his death marked not only the death of the wights and white walkers - but all of Craster’s sons, perhaps wiping out a whole misunderstood race.

‘A villain is the hero of the other side’, after all - and if you’re familiar with my theory that the Night King is the one using his greenseeing powers to manipulate the visions in the flames that the followers of R'hllor see… then this line by Beric might foreshadow his death:

And that our heroes, the 'enemy’, will win.

Sansa Stark

Before anyone comes for me, there’s a fair amount of eerie foreshadowing - at least in the books. If the season 7 script leaks are to be believed, Sansa might still be the 'lone wolf’ she warned against last season, distancing herself from her family out of jealousy or paranoia.

The way I see it going down, though, (if it does at all) the Stark girls will mirror their direwolves - and Sansa just might die in her sister’s place, saving her life.

Jon Snow

First, let’s look at the conversation between Jon and Melisandre prior to the Battle of the Bastards:

“Any advice?”

“Don’t lose.”

“If I do, if I fall don’t bring me back.”

“I’ll have to try.”

“I’m ordering you not to bring me back.”

“I am not your servant, Jon Snow.”

“You’re in my camp. I’m the commander.”

“I serve the Lord of Light. I do what he commands.”

“How do you know what he commands?”

“I interpret his signs as well as I can.”

“If the Lord didn’t want me to bring you back, how did I bring you back? I have no power. Only what he gives me and he gave me you. Why? I don’t know. Maybe you’re only needed for this small part of his plan and nothing else. Maybe he brought you here to die again.”

Other than that, we’ve got some fucked up lines from Sansa:

(Thanks, Sansa. Great job.)

As well as Beric:

Alternatively, there is some amazing book foreshadowing that Jon will live.

Why include in the story Beric has come back from the dead multiple times, at all? Why tell us that each time he comes back, he’s a bit less of himself? He’s not a major character. Is it all just for 'flavor’ - or are we being groomed to see it happen again to someone we love?

And how bittersweet would that be - seeing Jon come back a second time, but not quite the man he used to be - the one we all grew to love.

I love the theory that Jon Snow is Dany’s mount, treason, and fire for love - and that she’s the one who commits treason against him, by possibly demanding he be brought back 'against his will’ (though, considering he’s a father-to-be and potential newlywed, I don’t think he’ll gripe about it as much in season 8 as he would’ve in season 6.)

When Jon died the first time - I thought for sure he’d come back in some blaze of glory. That they’d try to burn his body, but he’d have this epic 'Unburnt’ moment, like Dany (lol). I’d like to see Dany wake a dragon a second time with some sort of similar funeral pyre that she walks into… except that two people walk out instead of one.

I know, I know. *adjusts tinfoil hat*

But Sam Tarly happens to agree with me:

Always.

Beric Dondarrion

Considering the man gave his life long ago for Catelyn to become Lady Stoneheart in the books, I think his entire purpose for still kickin’ around in Season 8 is to give someone the 'Last Kiss’. Not really a unique idea, no. Popular candidates tend to be Sandor (after all, he tells him 'We will meet again’), Daenerys, or one of the Stark kids. But my money’s on Jon.

Melisandre

I’m an atheist (like GRRM), and therefore, I more or less despise Melisandre for basically convincing what used to be a good man to burn his daughter alive. That’s some Abraham and Isaac shit right there (and that shit better happen in the books because it’s powerful AF commentary and I’m here for it).

All that said, what I’d love to happen with Melisandre is to see her realize her god isn’t real (assuming the Night King has been messing with her visions), and have a personality crisis/breakdown. Afterward, if my theory about Jon happens to be true, she’ll play a role in bringing him back, perhaps even lending her life in the process. Buuuut I wouldn’t mind Gendry’s future wife avenging his cousin’s death and closing her 'blue eyes’ forever.

As for the rest…

People I’m unsure will live or die:

Drogon 🤞

Ghost 🤞

Nymeria 🤞

Davos Seaworth 🤞

Tyrion Lannister 🤞

Sandor Clegane 🤞

Grey Worm 🤞

Bronn

Ned Umber

Alys Karstark

People I think will live:

Samwell Tarly

Gilly

Daenerys Targaryen

Arya Stark

Bran Stark

Little Sam

“Boatbaby”

Rhaegal

Gendry

Missandei

Jon Snow (resurrected)

#spoilers #got spoilers #not really #but just in case #got endgame #my best gueses

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docholligay · 6 years

Text

Hereditary

This post is brought to you @skylineofspace

I feel like anyone who walks away from the first watching of Hereditary not going, “What the fuck?” was not actually trying to engage with the ideas the movie puts forth.

But right off, let me explain my process for reviewing/talking about a movie I have not seen as an independent commission. This is my first independent movie commission, and so I didn’t really know what my process would be before this. NOW I KNOW. I watch the movie four times.

First, I watch the movie just like anyone else would, no notes, no nothing. The second time, I watch it take short notes on themes and ideas the movie is putting forth, supports and detractions from those ideas, symbols, motifs, etc. The third time, I watch it while going back over my notes, adding to them or noting where I’ve gone wrong. The fourth time I watch it while working on the actual meat of the post.

So, 2,000 words on Hereditary. Of course, these are my feelings and my feelings alone, and you are in no way obligated to engage with these ideas in the same way I do. This is a semi-spicy take here at the bottom and it’s perfectly reasonable you may not read the film the same way. Obviously, there are massive spoilers for this movie.

As a horror movie, without even going into the deeper questions put forth by the movie, some of which I think are more successful than others, it’s very well done. I was surprised, when I read some rotten tomatoes after watching this the last time, to find that while critics had sided with me on it being a wonderful horror movie that relies on actual creeping fear and dramatic tension instead of jump scares, the hoi polloi had not really taken to the movie.

Maybe I’m just that dramatically out of touch with people’s preferences.

But for me, the horror in the movie is suitably horrifying, the dark and creeping feeling that something is very off, without being able to quite put a finger on it. It wasn’t until my second viewing of the movie that I even realized Charlie had been possessed since she was a baby, that she had been “given” to her grandmother in a way far beyond I took the throwaway line for. The soundtrack is chilling without playing too deeply into horror tropes so as to be cheesy, the lighting never really gets into the “horror movie lighting” even when it is dark. The scene where Charlie’s voice comes out of her mother is brilliantly shot, harried, and terrifying. The movie never is trying to trick you, and telegraphs many of the most important moments within it. Charlie’s actress does a wonderful job of making her feel otherworldly and almost unlikeable, without without ever tripping into “Just kill the kid!” territory.

And then, the fantastic foreshadowing. The scene with Peter in the classroom asks a question that we will be forced to ask ourselves later in the movie: “If the characters are bound by fate, and there was never anything they could do, does that make it more tragic, or less tragic?” The movie seems to answer itself within the scene, offering up both sides (weakly), but ultimately seeming to side with the idea that it’s more tragic, giving a girl in the scene, who speaks directly after Peter is called upon, this idea in the dialogue about hopelessness in a machine while keeping the camera firmly stuck on Peter. From the get-go it makes no illusions that these characters can escape the fates put before them. It’s like a better written Final Destination.

You can’t talk about the foreshadowing without talking about the beheadings, which I am still not certain I loved in carriage, though I love it in concept. Charlie being the one who cuts off the head of the bird, because she’s already the demon king, and this is the way that all the women are going to removed from the line of succession to make way to inhabit a man. (But we’ll get into that later)

In all, very successful as a horror story and as a movie, in my opinion.

But It Follows was amazing and also people didn’t like it, so I’m used to people being wrong.

Thematically, the movie toys with two ideas, to my mind: Mental illness as possession/inheritance, and the ways in which women are destroyed to elevate men.

I’ll start with the idea of mental illness throughout the movie, because I think that’s the slightly weaker position. Obviously, you have *the mom’s entire family history of mental illness, with her mother having DID, and so literally more than one person in the same body. Almost like possession. Her father starved himself to death, in the way the more than one high-profile possession case is said to actually have caused death. Her brother a schizophrenic with “people inside of him.” . All of these carry with them this same theme of possession as mental illness, or mental illness as possession, inseparable from each other. In a movie about the literal rise of a demon king (so the end seems to suggest) that theme of possession is impossible for me to ignore.

At the end of it all, this cult of Paimon is passed down, is hereditary, the same way Annie fears that mental illness might be passed down to her through her family. And, in that vein, there is the dollhouse, the work and fixation of Annie, how she externalizes the things she sees in her life and holds them at a distance. How she writes the stories as she sees them in her mind, and how, within that workshop space, that space where she holds her thoughts about her life, THAT is the first place that she senses her mother, than she feels preyed upon. That she hears things. That space where things should be real. And the question is, is what is happening to Annie real? Or is she imagining it all? Is she losing time? (I take the tack that it IS real, but those are my own preferences and biases and I get the opposite argument is also pretty defensible)

And then there’s the constant string and question throughout all of Charlie’s presence in the movie. Is she a weird kid, or is she possessed? And where is the line there? How much of Charlie’s oddness is Charlie herself, and how much is that she is the vessel for Paimon? The ending seems to suggest that Charlie IS Paimon. When something like that is so much a part of you, is there a line? Is it different for different people? How much of Annie wanting her to be normal is Annie wanting things for Charlie? How much is wanting things for herself?

Trying this into something I’ll talk about right below, Annie wanted to kill her children. She doused them in paint thinner and lit a match. The first time you watch this, or the first time I did, you think, well, she’s ill or she’s possessed, because when I watched this movie for the first time, this theme and theory was what I was taking away from the whole thing. But now, my thoughts are that her sin was that she wanted to kill her son as well. Her sin was that she wanted to kill the one who could rise to being Paimon. Maybe she was trying to save the family, Maybe the world.

My second and favorite read on the whole situation is the way that women are forced to be destroyed in order to elevate men. The demon king can never rise in a woman, for whatever reason, and mostly, to human beings named Doc who are me, this is because they’re trying to do something, sometimes a bit clumsily, with the idea that women are never allowed these positions of power, so often held down for reasons that seem foolish at best. There’s a couple spots where my theory isn’t something I’m 100% happy with, but WE MAKE DO.

And Charlie is given to the demon king, as a baby. Before she has any say in the matter. Her mother gives her as a sacrifice, in a way that she never did her son. Her son was protected. Her daughter was given into the mouth of hell. Even outside of her not knowing about the demonic stuff itself (And did she not know? REALLY? I’ve seen this four times and still can’t come down on a firm answer, having argued it this way and that several times), her mother was a woman with severe mental health issues that she didn’t trust, and yet allowed her full access to Charlie. She was a disposable child.

And Charlie tells her mother that her grandmother wanted her to be a boy, and Annie doesn’t listen. Annie tells her that she was a tomboy when she was a kid too, but that’s not what Charlie said. Not “I wish I was a boy” or “I like boy’s things” or any shade of that. SHE wanted me to be a boy, and Annie never for a moment asks why she thinks that or challenges that in any way. Charlie had to be a boy to be the vessel of all the things the grandmother wants for their life. It could never be passed down to a woman, for riches do not come that way,and Paimon will bring them riches. (Riches to the conjurer, riches to the woman who makes way for the king through a line of other women.) Ellen could be queen, she could carry the demon, but she could never rule.

From the beginning, Charlie’s life does not matter, because Charlie is a girl, and Paimon has to be “freed from the vessel” because that’s all Charlie could ever be. Even Charlie herself seems to accept this, in the very beginning, when her father comes to get her, after a night in the treehouse where he tells her she could get pneumonia, she goes, “That’s okay.” Despite having an incredibly serious nut allergy, she neither inquires about nuts in the cake or anything, nor has an Epipen. Charlie, or Paimon who lives within Charlie (though, again are they even separable?) seems to be comfortable with courting death, or at least not actively avoiding it, seeking to be elevated by a new, male body.

“Our sacrifice will pale next to the rewards” writes the grandmother, in a note left to Annie. And indeed, they do sacrifice. Annie goes through the wild pain of losing Charlie, the pain of being possessed by Charlie/Paimon as Paimon searches for a male host, the ONLY host that can allow him to take reign.

Annie is the woman who tries, tries to break away from Peter, away from this system that she sees coming out, away from him becoming the demon king, away from her small boy turning into a BAD MAN from a system, a machine, that he can’t stop. She wants to set him on fire as a child, she tries to give herself a miscarriage, and when he screams “Why did you try to kill me?” in tears, she goes, “I didn’t, I wanted to save you.” Wanted to save him from what he was to become, what he had to become.

But she can’t save him, even as she begs her husband to set the book on fire and kill her, to save Peter. And her husband never believes her, about any of the things she’s experiencing, not for one moment. She can only end up being in thrall to him, possessed by this same machine. Annie, eyes laser-focused on Peter, cuts her own head off. There might have been a million ways for these women to die, but it is always the head that is removed, the sense of all thought and personality and logic, their VOICE, it has to be removed to make way for a man to keep his, and to be allowed to rule.

And Peter? I think the most telling part of the entire thing is when Peter takes Charlie to that party, and she eats nuts, and she is decapitated. The whole thing was an avoidable tragedy but a mistake, a tragedy. But it is his actions AFTER that really speak to the idea I’m going after here. He stops, for a moment, and then wordlessly drives home, away from the scene. He tells no one what he’s done, despite the fact that it could never remain a secret. He goes home, and he goes to bed, and he doesn’t take responsibility for what he’s done. He feels like he can walk away from the situation, like its okay that he’s forcing his mother into the situation of finding her daughter’s headless body, so long as he doesn’t have to turn around, so long as he doesn’t have to face what he’s done. And Annie calls him on this, that he has refused to take responsibility for all of this, that he has blankly and blearily drifted through this whole thing, and it’s such a powerful moment, especially now for me, where so many men have done so much, and we are all just having our Annie moment. And Peter IMMEDIATELY makes it her fault, which, hm, also sounds familiar to a lot of women right now. Peter only suffers at the very close of it all, as he becomes, but still retaining his head, his voice, because while a woman cannot be become, he can.

And what do we come to, at the end of it all? Headless, voiceless women, bowing to a man who is but a child until the moment he is king.

All in all, a great horror movie, and one that offers a lot in the way of “literary merit.” I don’t think I’ll ever be totally satisfied with any read I ever have on this movie, but that’s okay to me largely--I like the pulling out the threads of it, and I really enjoyed the experience of having something that gave me a lot to chew on for awhile.

#Movie talk #I guess #I'll reblog this in the morning too #doc watches movies #doc watches things

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gascon-en-exil · 6 years

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I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Birthright Part 1

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Chapters 6-11, in which Hoshido’s military is extremely disorganized and only regroups because the mere idea of Ryoma is just that awesome.

Chapter 6

Not much to say here. Corrin tells Xander they’re siding with Hoshido against Garon and implores him to do the same, Xander accuses them of being brainwashed and, after repeated refusals, tries to kill Corrin. Following this is a chapter that will probably be finished during the first enemy phase unless Ryoma gets really unlucky. I suppose it makes sense that this is the shortest of the three versions of Chapter 6 as Corrin went to the border already with the Hoshidans. While it’s kind of neat that all the Hoshidan royals are playable on this map as a bit of a preview, note that this is the fourth of just seven chapters in which Ryoma has appeared as a unit prior to his formal recruitment. We get it already, the guy’s an OP powerhouse and a clear favorite of the writers.

This is also where I should probably bring up My Castle, but I don’t have much to say here as it was never a feature I particularly enjoyed. Other FEs have addressed the concept of a base for your army integrated into gameplay far better than this. Genealogy and the Tellius games and others may not let you perv on your units taking a bath or disgust them with your horrendous cooking, but what does that really add to the experience? I know, I know, a bunch of small and scattered stat boosts....

Chapter 7

Oh, silly banter in the middle of an attack while surrounded by wounded and dying soldiers. Never change, FE. But seriously, even if he’s just Cordelia with a dick whose semen produces more Cordelias let’s take the time to appreciate that Subaki is the series’s first playable male pegasus knight. Fates’s take on classes is actually very egalitarian, a fact that often gets lost in its sea of fanservice and subtle story-enforced misogyny and everything about <insert character whose gender/sexuality-related presentation offends you most>. Moving on.

I’m still not entirely clear what happens to the Hoshidan army between this chapter and the preceding one. They really appear to just break ranks and scatter: Corrin and co. go fool around in the astral plane with Lilith, Ryoma and Takumi lead some of their forces toward Izumo (why?), no one cares about Hinoka, and Sakura retreats here to Fort Jinya to tend to the wounded at a makeshift military hospital. It makes sense that the Hoshidan army wouldn’t have the strictest organization thanks to their years of protection under Mikoto’s barrier, but the problem is the game never tells us that and we’re left to infer these things based on the events of the next few chapters.

The Nohrians meanwhile are still on the offensive, but they screwed up by sending Silas’s unit to attack the fort. Silas has an unhealthy attachment to Corrin that frankly rivals Camilla’s, and his abrupt defection here because he wants to hang out with his partially amnesiac BFF undoubtedly bodes ill for anyone associated with him when news of it reaches Nohr. I guess it’s cute in my case that Silas’s obsession with Corrin knows no gender, but the guy probably steals underwear to sniff. Saizo is entirely justified in being suspicious of him.

Paralogue 1

Oh yeah, I forgot all about this chapter. Mozu’s just not as memorably meme-worthy as Donnel, and recruiting her is less frustrating since you’re not forced to make her poke things in her joining chapter. It does make the Faceless seem like more of a threat to Hoshido, although as a consequence playing through this paralogue in Conquest always feels a little weird. This plus the first Castle Invasion were mostly for EXP and support farming. For anyone wondering, I’m going to be keeping most of my characters in their default class sets since I don’t feel like grinding skills or anything elaborate like that. Also, I’m playing on Normal, so I’ve got a lot of latitude in how I play which is how I prefer FE anyway.

Chapter 8

Hinoka sums up my feelings on her and her retainers. Azama’s got some amusing lines and if I knew more about Buddhism his...interesting take on philosophy would probably be even funnier, but that’s about it. And yeah, Hinoka really just does pop onto the scene with no explanation except that she’s also trailing her brothers and I guess everyone really did forget about her. Sucks to be a late development addition.

Iago tosses the conflict ball to ensure the party’s trip to the Wind Tribe village is a rough one, though since Fuga was set on testing Corrin’s worth by sending a bunch of his tribesmen to get slaughtered by their army anyway I wonder why he even bothered. This is a rare case of a desert map that isn’t a frustrating pain in the ass, because it’s small and there are Dragon Veins to reduce the amount of sand. I also like how even on the lowest difficulty of the easiest route the game is already throwing a boss at you with some annoying skills. Fuga’s motivations may be silly, but at least he leaves us with the memory of a good chapter, some cryptic foreshadowing for the Yato, and a shota wind mage who unfortunately continues in the tradition of Ricken stepping away from their archetypical dynamic after Tellius made it just a little too close to explicitly gay.

Chapter 9

Izana, huh...Izana is...

Let’s talk about Zola!

Zola is one of the rare Fates villains who isn’t (always) exactly what he looks like. On first glance he’s just a typical simpering syncophant with a fitting talent for illusions, but he actually comes with a bit of a character arc in Birthright which I have to say I wasn’t expecting. It was almost as unexpected as Leo’s unexplained appearance at the end of this chapter to kick off said arc by leaving Zola exiled. One big problem I have with Fates is how characters have a tendency to teleport around off-screen as the plot demands it, distance between locations or basic geography be damned, but it’s marginally more forgivable here since Leo is shown later in this route to know how to perform literal teleportation.

I believe this is also one of the only times in Birthright where Hinoka gets to do something that affects the plot, so good on her for acting suspicious of fake!Izana. She’ll go right back to being overshadowed by her brothers - including being overshadowed at being overshadowed - soon enough.

Izumo’s role as the designated neutral nation is delved into more thoroughly in Conquest, weirdly enough. Here Corrin and co. get left only with a vague directive to head toward the Bottomless Canyon and some of Azura’s song lyrics. That’s kind of a good thing, because I’ve got nothing on Izana now. I get that he’s an amusing surprise the first time around, but...who wrote him like that?

Chapter 10

Allow me to divert for a moment from the Takumi angst to pick some very large nits with the geography of this game. In the previous chapter Corrin learned that Ryoma and Takumi had been pushed to the Bottomless Canyon, which is nowhere near their location - but hold onto that thought. The canyon is clearly northwest of Izumo, yet the party goes south to Mokushu allegedly in an effort to reach them there. Fates has a bad time in general with giving a good impression of where its events are taking place, partly because the scale of the map is odd and not helped by it being a topographic rather than a political map like in every other FE, partly because there are times like this where the information presented appears to be simply wrong. What’s worse, the major plot development surrounding Takumi’s possession in Birthright does not, at least so far as I recall, necessitate that he have been possessed by Anankos or anyone else connected to the Bottomless Canyon. I’ll certainly be revisiting this when the time comes.

But...whatever. In spite of everyone getting lost except Ryoma (because of course) this is actually a good chapter, with a cramped map filled with environmental hazards to add challenge. The treachery of Mokushu spans all three routes and is one of those set pieces that benefits from development in each of them. Kotaro’s connection to the, er, Christmas ninjas (and elsewhere, Shura) isn’t developed here unless you choose to have them engage him in combat, but that just saves stuff for the other routes.

Chapter 11

Pictured: easily one of the most forgettable playable characters in this game. It’s a shame too, because she’s the only default kinshi knight and her bits of dialogue and few supports offer hints of an interesting backstory that would speak to gender roles in Hoshido. Alas, she’s merely a Corrinsexual.

This chapter itself is filler, but mechanically it’s good filler. Your new OP archer royal gets plenty of targets for his bow, there are some promoted generics to spice things up, and the Dragon Veins can either help or hinder you depending on how you use them. I don’t care for the antagonist fake-out between the opening and closing cutscenes and the chapter proper - where did possessed!Sumeragi the mysterious swordsman go while you were fighting the fliers? - but that’s a minor quibble. Corrin already beat that guy.

A larger problem is with Takumi’s development, or rather lack thereof. As I said last time the events of the opening chapters explain his initial hostility to Corrin (and Azura) quite well, and Mikoto’s death only reinforces that feeling. Why then does that hostility vanish so quickly in Birthright? Just one chapter after recruitment and he’s already turned his characteristic prickliness onto Zola instead, and I don’t recall it appearing much again except in the context of possession. It’s only the route the ends with Takumi as the final boss that allows him space for his feelings to develop organically (albeit in a negative direction), possibly because Conquest is the only one in which he’s not beholden to love Corrin like all playable characters in Avatar-centered games.

Next time: Birthright Chapter 12 - 18

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Fire Emblem Birthright #FE14

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