#like if we actually got to see her grapple with it and figure out if she was keeping the baby or not

[sodrippy]

the thing about shiv and the baby and motherhood is i really dont think she'd care. i dont think she's ever had any interest in those things, in fact she's made it a point to be as far from those things as possible to show her father she's a serious person and as close to one of the boys as she can get. i still think people making digs about her ability to be a mother would be insulting to her insofar as they are meant to insult her, an incredibly prideful person who tries very hard to always be seen as hypercompetent no matter the task.

if anything, i think it might make sense that she found out about the pregnancy before logan died but i truly don't think she'd keep it once he was dead. he's about the only person she would keep the baby for, like she might feel it would give her leverage or sympathy, but once logan is gone the baby honestly is nothing but liability to her. it makes her perceived as less serious about the business it takes her out of the running for ceo or any real power.

i know theres obviously threads of inescapability as with every character in the show, and the ways in which shiv has tread on other women to get where she is yet cannot help being entrapped by the same things as those women, but i also feel like there's just something. i dont want to say misogynistic but the way shows sort of inevitably use motherhood as an intrinsic humanity-finder, like see she's a decent person she's keeping the baby she's not heartless, or whatever, is so flat and reductive, to me.

also of course, they might have done it with more nuance if it was yknow. actually planned and written in from the start of the season.

#i think there are ways in which it could have been interesting #like if we actually got to see her grapple with it and figure out if she was keeping the baby or not #that could have been something but as it stands i think its so unnecessary and...yeah flat #but at the end of the day i really dont think she gives a fuck and i am really sick of seeing any Woman character fall into this motherhood #-thing esp when its characters who you know would be unaffected by it #again i think theres def room for shiv to have a struggle with it of like #dreams she used to have for herself and expectations her family enforced vs what shes already given up to come this far etc right #but the way shes all gutpunched about people saying she'd be a bad mother i think is like. idk the way its been done is left wanting yk? #succession #actually i think an interesting true to character way might even have been her changing her mind and keeping the baby out of spite- #-in direct response to what tom says in the tailgate fight #i would feel thats more realistic for her to have decided not to keep the baby but then bc tom goes out of his way to make that comment #and to make her hurt she keeps the baby to show him what a great mother she will be. all without him! #and then of course. the cycles. #that would have been more honest i think than whatever theyve done instead

[sailor-aviator]

SORRY I’M LATE, I was searching for my bunny slippers and it’s dark here in your walls and none of these termites can hold a flashlight for SHIT

I wanna start with a drabble request (bc of course) for DHTN (bc OF COURSE) and I want Jake’s POV of the arrest bc we don’t actually know how that went down and I just know his thought process as he realizes he’s going to be taken away from Scout is gonna BREAK me. Also did he see Isaac as he was being led out of the saloon?????? SO MANY QUESTIONS, but hey we’re here for the weekend~

CONGRATS AGAIN ON 500 FOLLOWERS, LIZ!!! I love you so so much and I’m so proud of you!!! It’s such an honor and pleasure to be your friend 🥺❤️

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RUTHIE. I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE MY FRIEND AND THAT I'M HOLDING YOU HOSTAGE TO WHERE YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO MY IDEAS FOR DIFFERENT FICS.

Of all the posse members, Bob was the last person Jake would have guessed to go starting fights. Though, start was probably not the correct word to use in this case. From what Bradley had told him, a group of men had been making comments about Bunny. Something about her past in New Orleans, and the bespectacled man had not cared for their choice of words. At all.

Bradley and Jake had just arrived outside the saloon when all hell broke loose. Jake watched as Bob reared his fist back, sending it flying forward into an older man's nose. A sickening crunch sounded throughout the street, and he was scrambling forward just as the rival posse launched towards his friends.

Fists were flying everywhere, and Jake heard a woman scream as he elbowed his way through the frenzy. His heart was beating a mile a minute as his eyes landed on Javy, who was grappling with another man. Jake ran up, shoving the man before grabbing Javy's arm and dragging him towards the sidelines.

"Grab the others," he ordered, eyes darting around as he spotted Bradley already grabbing for Mickey. "Help Rooster, and get everyone out of here as fast you can, got it?"

"What are you going to do?" Javy shouted, struggling to be heard over the noise of other men joining in. Jake shook his head.

"Don't worry about me. Now go!"

He shoved Javy back towards the fray, eyes scanning the streets when he spotted Ice making his way towards the chaos, a dark haired man at his side. He searched frantically for Bradley, eyes spotting the brunette before jogging towards him.

"Get the others out of here," he told him, eyes still on the two approaching figures. "No reason for all of us to get caught."

Bradley followed his line of sight, a frown tugging at his lips when he saw the approaching U.S. marshal.

"Jake," he started, but the blond shook his head.

"There's no time," he shouted, seeing Javy lead Bob and Reuben towards the back of the saloon, brown eyes starting at him worriedly. "Grab Bob and go."

Bradley pressed his lips into a thin line before grabbing the back of Bob's shirt, hauling the bespectacled man away from the fight.

Jake stood in the middle of the chaos, watching different men fight each other. He wasn't even sure who some of these men were, but more than likely they were just men taking advantage to settle old scores.

He knew he couldn't just leave, not after it was one of his friends who started the fight in the first place. They'd come after all of them then. No, Jake would stay to give his friends a chance to flee. They'd figure something out. They always had before.

Jake's green eyes met black ones as a gunshot rang out, and a stillness washed over the street, so quiet you could hear a church mouse squeak. He focused on the devious smile that adorned Isaac's face, smug satisfaction seeping through every pore as the two men stared at each other. Jake's jaw clenched. Of course. Of course this had all been a trap.

Jake turned to watch Ice lower his pistol, holstering it back at his side as his gaze drifted over the crowd, blue eyes settling on him. He could practically hear the sharp inhale Ice gave as he looked at the younger man. He blinked before looking away.

"What seems to be the commotion?" He asked, frowning at the rest of the men gathered.

"It was the Dagger Posse!" Someone shouted, no doubt one of Isaac's lackeys. "They're the ones that started the fight! One of them is standing right there!"

Jake's shoulders stiffened as all eyes turned to him, including that of U.S. Marshal Simpson. A cry rang out amongst the crowd at the accusation, but the damage had already been done. Simpson casted an indecipherable look before making his way towards Jake.

"No, it wasn't the Daggers!" Someone else shouted. "The Hunter Posse is the one that started all this!"

"Say that again, and you're a dead man."

"It was those no good, spineless cowards in the Hun-"

"Quiet, Hanson," Ice snapped, never taking his eyes off of where Simpson stood in front of Jake. "Don't need to add your sorry ass to my list of problems right now."

Jake squared his shoulders. He knew he was caught, but like hell he was going down without putting up even the illusion of a fight. He swung his fist out, just clumsily enough for the marshal to dodge it, gripping his arm and slamming him up against the wall of the saloon. Jake winced as his arms were forced back, cuffs clicking around his wrists. Simpson grabbed him by the collar, hauling him back so hard that Jake stumbled slightly.

"Is this all really necessary?" He drawled, earning a scowl from the dark haired man.

"Yes," Simpson snapped, pushing Jake forward as they began to walk. Jake's eyes scanned the crowd for any sign of his friends. If they were smart, they'd be long gone from the scene. What he wasn't expecting to see, was you standing at the front of the crowd, eyes wide and shining with unshed tears as you watched him.

He felt his heart crack at the sight. He didn't want this. He didn't want to be the reason you cried, and you had cried more than enough over him to last a life time. He just got you back, and now you had to see him like this. Chained like a dog and paraded down the street. He stopped in front of you, trying and failing to jerk his arm out of Simpson's hold.

"Hey, sweet girl," he cooed. He cast a glance back at the marshal, who eyed the two of you wearily. "Everything is going to be alright, yeah? Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll be out as a free man before you know it."

“You shouldn’t lie to her, Hangman,” Simpson said, casting you a sympathetic look. “We all know that this is the end of the line for you.”

Jake frowned. He wanted to argue, he really did. But, just as he opened his mouth to do so, Simpson pushed him forward once more, ending the conversation. Jake supposed Simpson was trying to do you a favor in his mind, saving you from what the marshal surmised were empty promises from the captured outlaw.

He cast one last look over his shoulder at you, committing you to memory. As if he could forget. He offered you a tight-lipped smile before Ice slammed the door behind him, cutting him off from the outside world.

#jake hangman seresin #jake seresin #jake seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin x you #top gun maverick #jake seresin x you #jake seresin fic #jake hangman seresin imagine #hangman x reader #hangman seresin #hangman x you #hangman imagine #dhtn #don't hang'em til noon #drabble

[klbwriting]

Our Strange Duet

Chapter 7 - From Here

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Warnings: none, just angst

Summary: Jason had a long recovery journey ahead and doesn't start it well

Taglist: @deans-spinster-witch @amberpanda99

It isn't where I am, its where I go from here - Amelie

Jason had passed out whenever he saw Dick finally arrive to get him, the pain of trying to walk on his ankle enough to drain all the blood from his face. The last thing he remembered was Dick’s frantic face as he picked him up to carry him to the car. Then he was sleeping, until he heard Dick’s voice. He didn’t open his eyes, wanting to will himself back to sleep, but then he heard his name.

“Jason isn’t just some soldier for you to discharge when you think he’s disobeying orders,” Dick said, voice low but so angry. Jason assumed that he was talking to Bruce. He must have known that Jason found Bruce and was now trying to figure out what had happened.

“What are you talking about ‘he’s not one of us’? I tried to beat the shit out of you…so what if I didn’t try to shoot you, I just didn’t think of it…o so because he has guns he’s some kind of serial killer?...it was Falcone what harm did his death do?...what are you talking about, you wouldn’t give him to the cops…fuck you Bruce, get your shit together and don’t call me until you do,” Dick finally hung up the phone and let out an annoyed sigh. “I know you’re awake.”

“I don’t want to be,” Jason said, eyes opening slowly. He wiped them and sat up a little, looking down that his leg under the hospital blanket. “An actual hospital?” he said, taking in the stark white room and the itchy blanket over his lower half.

“I got your gear to a safe house, said you were getting drunk at some roof party and fell off,” he said. Jason rolled his eyes. “Hey, it was always a safe go to way to get injured, drunk people are idiots.” Jason nodded, pulling the blanket to look at his ankle, leg in a cast from the knee down. “That’s on for six weeks, then you get a boot, so no hijinks until after. I contacted the school, they obviously will work with you for your classes and your theater director said she wouldn’t recast you, they want you at practice today, which starts in an hour so we better get moving.” Jason followed along, but then looked at Dick.

“What about YN? What did she say? Where is she?” he asked, getting up and getting his clothes so he could get dressed. Dick looked at little guilty.

“I didn’t tell her anything, I said I had you and that she needed to get to class, so she went to class, you’ll see her at practice,” he said. Jason stared. Great, she was going to freak out. He got dressed around the cast, needing to cut his combat pants to get them to work around the bulk before shooting off a text to YN telling her not to freak out when she saw him. She called him.

“What do you mean NOT freak out? What happened?” she asked. Dick was driving, pretending he couldn’t hear his brother who was stretched out in the backseat.

“I fell off a roof,” he said. There was a long minute of silence. “YN?”

“Are you ok?” she asked, clearly trying to contain herself. He didn’t know where she was, but she was whispering now. “Was it related to anything like…the terror that flaps in the night?” Jason let out a laugh.

“Darkwing Duck? No, he wasn’t there,” Jason said, getting a loud hmph from YN. He heard a door close and then another door and then running water. “Are you showering?”

“I’m making noise in one of the dorm showers, so no one hears me, I snuck in to hide for this conversation,” she said. “And no not Darkwing Duck, I was trying to infer about Batman.” Jason scowled.

“Yes, it involved Bruce,” he said. “I confronted him, told him to leave you alone. He said something about me finding him, then he said my name and I lost it…I tackled him off the roof, he used a grappling hook and I fell.”

“And then he came to help you until Dick arrived?” she said, even though she knew the answer.

“No, he left me,” Jason said, saying it out loud really ripping open his chest. His father once again leaving him. It wasn’t a surprise, him being abandoned, but it didn’t hurt any less.

“That absolute fucking cunt,” she said, and Jason laughed in surprise more than anything. She wasn’t exactly angelic, but he had never heard her say something so vulgar. “I need to go, heading to practice early to do some arranging with the music teaching advisor on the play, I will see you there?”

“Ya, I’ll be there,” he said, smiling a little.

“Alright, I love you Jason,” she said, making sure to enunciate each word so he heard them clearly. She hung up, knowing he might not be able to say the words back. Betrayal could do that to him. He didn’t feel much love for anything at the moment, but he knew in a few hours, when he had a chance to rest, get a shower and some food, get comfortable, he would feel so much love and care towards his brother and his girlfriend, but right now his entire mind was shaded with anger and worry and doubt. At least he could use that for motivation at practice.

The director was understanding about the timeline of his ankle, but did ask that he be more responsible in the future. He heard her mutter that if he wasn’t so talented she would have kicked him out so he took that as a good sign. He could at least do something right. He could hobble around pretty good on one crutch since he had done that before during his stint as Robin, so he got around the stage pretty well as they got used to their marks. Being the phantom, he didn’t need to do much dancing, it was more looking menacing, which was a little difficult with a cast, but he could figure it out. By the end he was exhausted, collapsing into a theater seat as the director went over the schedule for the next couple weeks. YN didn’t make an appearance until the end where she answered a question about how the arrangement was coming along and she stammered through her answer, catching sight of him with his cast.

“Yes, I know Mr. Todd seems to have gotten himself injured already, college parties get wilder every year,” the director muttered. YN nodded, before walking over and sitting next to him. The director dismissed them all and while the others left YN and Jason stayed seated.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think you were in a cast; you fell off a roof, of course it wasn’t just a concussion or something,” she said. “How bad is it?”

“6 weeks in this thing and then a boot until they say I’m ok,” he answered. She nodded and produced a sharpie from her bag. “Going to be the first to sign it?”

“Yes, I am your girlfriend I am first,” she said, putting her name and a heart on it. “There, now you have a six-week reminder that you are loved.” Jason still wasn’t ready to accept that and instead rolled his eyes, instant annoyance settling over him.

“Yes, loved by someone who lied to me,” he said before he could stop himself. He regretted it as soon as the smile fell off of YN’s face. His annoyance wasn’t at her, it was at himself, and just like always he pushed his self-loathing out onto others. “YN…”

“No, you’re right, I lied to you about the apartment. Don’t worry, the next apartment I get I will be paying for myself, no rich assholes or deadbeat dads to be seen,” she said. “I have some work to finish for the show, I will see you later?” She stood and grabbed her bag before he could answer, disappearing back towards the music area of the school. He knew Dick was waiting to take him back to the apartment, so he sighed and went home.

YN wasn’t back until late that evening, setting her things in a corner by the door, trying to be small. Dick had noticed Jason was in a bad mood as soon as he got in the car and since he couldn’t go out to kiss criminal ass at the moment, he was sulking on the couch watching the 2005 Pride and Prejudice because yes, the one with Colin Firth may have been a classic but dammit Matthew Macfadyen was absolutely perfect as Mr. Darcy. He noticed and bounced to shut the movie off.

“No, I love this movie,” she said, walking over as his hand stilled on the remote. She sat down on the couch, and he put an arm on the back of it, a peace offering. She slid in and leaned her head to his chest, his arm sliding around her and Dick slinking out of the room, and Jason took a deep breath, finally ready to feel loved for a little while.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered after several minutes. She took the hand on her shoulder and kissed it softly.

“I’m sorry too,” she said. Neither of them needed to look to see how much the other meant it, how much they loved each other. It was in their very beings and Jason once again, and probably not for the last time, realized he didn’t need Bruce to love him, he had Dick and he had YN and that was all he needed.

#jasontodd #jason todd #red hood #redhood #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #strangeduet

[genericaces]

I always got the impression Illyria was a he/him in their original god king form but defaulted to she/her when taking Fred as a vessel. In general though I don’t think pronouns actually matter to Illyria. I think he/him was assigned by followers and she/her is assigned by ats crew.

Valid! Canon doesn't dive too deeply into it, so I think a lot of it is up for interpretation. AFAIK all we get in canon is that Knox and Drogyn refer to Illyria (the original god-king) with it pronouns (as do the ATS crew), and it's only when it's in Fred's body that the crew start using she/her. Which is to say that I think that you're correct that it's other people projecting a gender onto it and struggling to disentangle Illyria from Fred.

But also! What I've always found interesting is that Knox (basically the only character on the show with an emotional connection to the original Illyria) entwines a... crush? For lack of a better word? on Fred with his worship of Illyria, and I can't make up my mind, personal headcanon-wise, if he's just projecting or if there's historical precedent for this. Like, what's the thought process behind, "yeah sure I'll resurrect my epic god-king (gender neutral) in the body of my beautiful co-worker"? Also there's this adolescent crush/obsession vibe when he says:

And when I first saw this, I thought this was going to lead into a parable about how some dudes will 'worship' women and make them into god-like figures in their heads, but in doing so, also infantilize them and want to control them? Like I legit thought this was going to evolve into an "I Was Made to Love You" type lesson about objectifying women, where Knox both worships Illyria and feels "owed" for resurrecting her, and when he throws a tantrum about her not being appropriate grateful, she kills him. And this would mirror the condescension that Fred experiences throughout the show -- that ultimately what kills Fred is Knox putting her up on this pedestal as a "perfect woman" rather than seeing her as a complete person:

Like, Knox says this to Wesley just before Wes pulls his gun on him, and I thought this would be about Wes being forced to confront the ways in which HE could also flatten Fred into a symbol of goodness and not see her as a whole person at times. Which would then mimic the ways that nearly every member of the Angel crew harbors feelings of guilt over what happened to Fred.

(Alternatively in my AU where Wes gets Illyria'd, I think it's ultimately about Wes CHOOSING to die in Fred's place, against her wishes, in a way that's heroic/tragic but also intertwined with the complicated feelings Fred has about being patronized by the others and being perceived as the one who needs to 'protecting.' Like, how do you grapple with that grief alongside that resentment? *Wesley voice* "I think I hate her a little for that." But this is getting way off topic.)

ANYWAYS. Obviously none of that happened, so maybe I'm reading subtext where there isn't any or I just missed something. This is all a long way of saying that much of Illyria's arc feels very gendered in my interpretation, not just in the god-king-beyond-human-comprehension way but in the conflict surrounding it. To get back to your ask, I do agree that Illyria doesn't care about pronouns. I do think it's funny in the Wes!Illyria AU if the only person who DOES care is Fred, who's out there pulling (in the most well-intentioned way) the "its pronouns are she/her" move

#i receive: 1 ask #you receive: a vague answer and 7 paragraphs about something marginally related #hope this doesn't come across as anti wes by the way. it's not meant to be #i just think these are underexplored facets of their relationship i would've liked to have seen developed #ask #wes!illyria #fred burkle #angel the series

[cellarspider]

16/?? Chemically inert

(Previous) | (Index) | ⛬

⛬

We return to a movie whose biggest enemy is its own script, Prometheus. This is the second post today, because the previous one was so awful and I had very little context to add beyond anger.

So, now we come to a scene that made me wonder in the theater: what the fuck is going on with straight people?

A tangent is required at this moment, before we get back to pondering this question. Some of my friends like to watch their favorite science fiction shows with me, particularly if they have to do with genetics. Orphan Black, for example. This is because it is understood that I will regularly call out “Pause!”, and then they get to sit and listen to me alternatively praise or sputter over the fictionalization of my field of study. 

“Look. Their genetic material pre-dates ours. We come from them.”

Pause!

This is, probably, meant to hammer in the premise of the movie to a lay audience. However, the way she phrased it left me confused for a good long minute, trying to figure out what the fuck she meant. We don’t speak of any extant species as “pre-dating” another, even if they look exactly like their fossilized ancestors: all modern organisms are modern organisms. They have been continuously evolving the whole time they’ve existed. What we talk about is species diverging from each other. We didn't come from chimpanzees, or from neanderthals for that matter: we diverged from them.

(https://news.wisc.edu/naledi/) 

If I were to try and explain what she actually means by this: The particular Engineer they sampled from possess genetic sequences that are present in our evolutionary precursors, but have been lost in humans. That, and/or the Engineer possesses no sequences that are specific to modern Homo sapiens. 

To which my response is: no shit. They’re eight foot tall, completely hairless humanoids, surrounded by advanced technology. This is not Futurama.

This still doesn’t answer all my other logistical problems with when they got involved on Earth, which I already rambled about at length. 

But now we get to the real mystery of the scene: why are straight people?

I’m asexual as a rock. No, not that rock. But I’m not sex-repulsed. Sexual media and art is fine by me, but Hollywood does such a shit job with romantic chemistry that I thought I was for quite a while.

Shaw and Holloway are a couple. We know this, because they are a pair of female and male adult humans who work together in a movie. They have held hands and smiled at each other. Honestly, if Holloway hadn’t called Shaw “baby” soon after they woke up from stasis, I wouldn’t have known. 

Admittedly, this may be due to the fact that my “flirting or not” radar is hilariously non-functional most of the time. I have been on dates before without realizing it. Multiple times. It’s that bad.

This is the scene where we are supposed to see how they are romantic together, and how they grapple with their present situation. Holloway froze a rose in the cargo, along with a bottle of champagne. The fact that he has already been drinking heavily will surely make this especially fun, I’m sure.

Shaw, at least, acknowledges “[t]his is The most significant discovery in the history of mankind,” though I’d argue whichever early hominin first saw the big bald bastards already called dibs on that. I appreciate the gesture toward understanding the enormity of this situation, but her behavior hasn’t demonstrated it so far. Holloway’s, however, is even worse, and I think we are supposed to take Shaw as the more staid and reasonable one because of this.

With this and her further evidence that the Engineers made humans, Holloway immediately says “Okay. I guess you can take your father's cross off now.”

Yes. This is what you should say, when you’re in a long-term relationship with a religiously devout person who lost one or both of their parents at a young age. Definitely.

I get what this is trying to do, thematically. This movie is about the creation of life. We have a religious character squaring her faith with a piece of information that is incompatible with the literal text of her religion’s doctrine. 

Funny enough, we have a lot of religious people who work in biology already. Unless your religion was created last tuesday, there is literally no way it won’t contradict with some aspect of what modern science has discovered. People create the mental space for the supernatural, either merging or separating it from their field of expertise. Or they may not believe in the supernatural at all, instead subscribing to belief systems that provide an ethical and behavioral framework for their lives. 

A lot of scientists who are religious state that their religion is part of why they study the material world: Out of a love for the world, a call to aid others, or because the act of learning is seen as divine in itself.

This is also the kind of conversation that, frankly, two lunatics who believe in ancient alien contact with Earth should’ve had a long time ago. ‘Hey, you believe that big men from space were talking to the Sumerians, how’s that fit in with the whole Christianity thing for you?’

But no, he’s going somewhere hilariously baffling, via a direct route through the state of Wildly Insensitive as he barrels along the Clunky Dialog Highway.

“But here's what we do know: That there is nothing special about the creation of life. Right? Anybody can do it. All you need is a dash of DNA and half a brain, right?”

“I can't. 

I can't create life. What does that say about me?”

He FORGOT HIS LIFE PARTNER WAS INFERTILE.

“Ellie, that's not... I didn't mean… I wasn't talking about…”

Have you ever been so drunk that you made your girlfriend feel like Natasha ‘I’m a monster comparable to the Hulk because I was sterilized’ Romanoff in Age of Ultron

This is, as with most of the most thunderously clunky dialog in this movie, a plot point. There are ways they could’ve done this differently that I will get to at that time

But you know what’s even more baffling about this? Apparently that didn’t kill the mood.

It makes the next scene where Janek seduces Vickers with a jumpscare accordion and “Are you a robot?” almost make sense.

Or, frankly, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron are acting wizards who somehow managed to strangle some chemistry out of that scene.

Next time, the not-so-little death!

⛬ 

(Previous) | (Index) | ⛬

⛬

Citations for alt-text rambles:

https://archive.org/details/abbott-and-costello-meet-the-mummy 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nepenthes_cultivars 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_(Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_and_Gim%C3%A9nez)#Failed_restoration_attempt_and_internet_phenomenon 

https://youtu.be/cZyj6GECjZ0 

https://youtu.be/nRr1t80TayE 

http://www.totheescapehatch.com/2012/06/escape-by-playing-stephen-stills.html 

https://www.discogs.com/artist/236968-Stephen-Stills 

Overflow Ramble 1 

I want it noted at the start here: I try to use screenshots where everyone looks as dignified as they can without losing objects or gestures I want to comment on, because otherwise it breaks flow. I could not find a screenshot where Shaw wasn’t stickin h leggy out real far, or making this extremely weird face. I tried. The movie defeated me.

Medium wide shot of Shaw sitting on a couch (loose pillows that don’t have velcro surfaces to keep them in place if the ship rolls), with Holloway in reverse shot, sitting on the other side of a coffee table (no lip to catch rolling objects), with a rose sitting in a cup between them. Shaw is about to stand up, and has just the most goddamn weird expression on her face. 

In the background is a side table (does have a lip, not tall enough to do anything), with a lamp (might be magnetized/gripped to the surface, doesn’t look it), a pile of books (falling hazard), a stick of incense burning in a cup (falling AND fire hazard), and, as previously noted during Vickers’ introduction, there’s the required Cultured White Person African Art Pieces just sort of. Leaned on a tiny little shelf in the background (how have they not fallen over already). Finally, a tropical hanging pitcher plant can be seen hanging behind the lamp, probably a Nepenthes cultivar. Did David keep these alive for two years? 

There is a bewildering buttload of Nepenthes cultivars, with an active enthusiast community in Japan. So, SO many of the cultivars are called ‘[Adjective] Koto’ (cite 2). Like, to the point where someone was clearly breaking out the dictionary to find more words for Koto. Decorous Koto. Effulgent Koto. Effulgent Koto again, there’s two of them. Elfine Koto. Emotional Koto. Felicitous Koto. Feminine Koto. Feverish Koto. Igneous Koto. Immobile Koto. And that’s as far as the Kotos go, apart from Zonal Koto. Somebody in 1984-1994 was literally going A-Z on Kotos before they suddenly stopped at I, turned around, and went back up to throw in Gerontic Koto and Ferny Koto.

⛬ 

(Previous) | (Index) | ⛬

⛬

#Prometheus 2012 #Prometheus (2012) #palette cleanser of inexplicable dialog after an actually horrible scene #also I know a lot more about pitcher plants than I did before writing this post #thanks to a movie that has nothing to do with pitcher plants #that's the magic of research rabbit holes

[ourladyofmaplemurder]

Cheryl & The Blues

A lovely friend of mine pointed something out to me this morning. Namely, the "why" of the blue dress in Season 1, which had led me to the meaning of blue for Cheryl.

I had asked for his insights previously, as he is a costume designer who is far more visually inclined than I, but it wasn't until now that I got a response. (He has always been a RiverHater, but it seems he is coming around. Our flock grows. Praise Mother Gaia.) In any case, he pointed out that this dress is an attempt from Cheryl to embody Cinderella.

Here is a quick paraphrase of what he said:

She is is desperately trying to NOT be Cheryl during this dinner. At one point she even says "It's supposed to be Cinderella who ran away from the ball." Thus, the blue dress is here to help her emulate the "trad wife heterosexual Cinderella." By the end of the scene, she goes full Cheryl and snaps on Archie because her charade doesn't work and everyone still thinks she's a chaotic lesbian.

Lots to unpack here, no?

As we know, Cheryl IS red. So, seeing her in blue (and this is blue, despite the fact that it looks sort of green. A nod to envy, perhaps?) is very strange. Blue is Betty's color, and though Betty is NOT the ultimate trad wife heterosexual, she is coded that way. In fact, much of her internal character conflict is about her having to grapple with being "The Girl Next Door".

So, this dress is Cheryl's attempt to be "The Girl Next Door". It seems so simple now that I think about it, but still.

I think it's interesting that Cheryl invokes Cinderella specifically, rather than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Snow White would certainly make sense. She's tortured by an evil mother figure and pale as snow, both things that Cheryl could relate to. There's even poison in that story and we all know how much Penelope loves poison. Sleeping Beauty wouldn't really make sense until after Cheryl's Sweet Water River incident, but still. I think it's kind of interesting how many fairytale princesses we could link to Cheryl.

She chooses Cinderella though. Why? Well, Cinderella is also tormented by an evil mother figure, but her most significant moment is being transformed. Cinderella is lifted from the ashes of her wretched life to go to the ball with the help of her fairy godmother in the hopes of winning the heart of the prince. The prince is clearly Archie and there is no Fairy Godmother. Maybe that's why it doesn't work.

In any case, Cheryl is a lot, even for herself, so it makes sense that she would try to suppress her true colors, so to speak, from time to time to satisfy a particular goal. She is aware that she is too much, at least to some degree at any given moment of the series, so yeah. She whips out the blue when she's trying to tone herself down.

(I'm probably making too much of this, but there's something about Cheryl Blossom and fairytales that just clicks in my mind. It reminds me of Blanche DuBois from Streetcar saying, "I don't want realism, I want magic!" I feel like Cheryl would agree with that. )

Also! Another time that Cheryl wears blue? Toni's bachelorette party in Season 6. This is another time that you could argue she is trying to suppress herself in the interest of being a supportive ex. (Also fascinating that Heather is wearing red! A testament to her love for Cheryl, I think. This IS right before they have their big kiss.)

She also wears blue when she comes up with the idea to kill Percival for Toni's wedding present. It's a sort of "show of support", but we all know she does not support this union and desperately wants Toni back so....

This is also likely why the Sister of Quiet Mercy uniforms are blue. They are symbols of repression for Cheryl specifically. (And Betty too, tbh. I think this 'suppression' narrative probably works for Betty too, but I would need to actually go through and check that. So, for now, let's just focus on Cher Cher.)

Now, Cheryl wears blue pretty often in season 7, but that makes sense considering the fact that she has to suppress herself quite a bit due to the nature of the times. But like, look at this:

These are all moments where Cheryl is actively suppressing her true feelings, in this case, the gay ones. However, what's different about these instances, and these costumes, is that the truth is always poking through. The suppression in the 50's is different. She's not trying to suppress herself FROM herself. Not in the long run. The red accents remind us who she truly is and that she is still Cheryl Blossom underneath that trad wife, heterosexual nonsense she's putting on.

All this to say: When Cheryl is wearing blue she is actively suppressing herself! It's consistent!

ADDENDUM:

Where does this analysis place her River Vixen uniform?

As you can see, it is predominantly blue. However, I do not think that it fits into the "suppression narrative" in the same way as her other blue outfits. The River Vixen uniform is blue, but it's also a symbol of the Town and of Cheryl's sense of belonging within her community. Though I do think the red versions of her Vixen attire that she wears in season 5 are symbolic of her truly owning her place in the town as the Coach of the Vixens and also the Blossom Heir, I don't think she's actively suppressing herself as a River Vixen.

Tune in next time for White and, one day, Green. (Also wondering about Pink.......)

Ciao!

#Cheryl Blossom #Riverdale #The Mad Priest of Riverdale Speaks #RiverSermons #Might also talk about Cheryl and Fairytales at some point

[atopvisenyashill]

Okay so you're an ancient and powerful vampire who's been sleeping in an underground tomb somewhere in Westeros for thousands of years and around the same time Jon Arryn dies you are awakened by some random smallfolk who accidentally stumbles upon your tomb and now that you've been released back into the world you plan create a vampire army to take over Westeros. Who becomes part of your undead army and who becomes your food? And where would you attack first? And does everyone react to you?

P.S. You have all the basic vampire abilities along with hypnosis, telekinesis, and teleportation and you are of course the strongest vampire, but your weaknesses are sunlight, fire, holy items, and you can't enter a sept, but no one knows these weaknesses, not yet anyway.

Well depends on where I woke up.

Firstly, as I’m grappling with the new world I’ve woken up in, I’m just building a tiny cult and getting information. I’m making sure it’s GOOD information too, so probably once I’m strong enough to get around a bit, I’m sneaking into a castle and I’m making someone highborn my thrall - someone who can walk in the daylight but is tied to me. I think I’d change like some lord’s maiden daughter, make her father my thrall, and be like okay now tell me what the fuck is happening because none of the smallfolk here can read aksjsj.

If we say near Oldstones or the Isle of Faces - both kinda hotspots for funky magic south of the wall - I would say by the time I’ve established a little following for myself, Cat is on her way back North and the war is about to kick off. The moment it starts, i’m dropping everything i was planning - probably to try to get north and see if the daylight days are shorter, and start a lil cult north of the wall - and I’m settling into the Riverlands and getting ready to feed on the slaughter.

Think about it. Desperate people in a war zone willing to flock to anyone offering them shelter. Desperate deserters, hungry soldiers, and half dead bodies everywhere. I can change who I want, I can disguise my kills as being the fault of soldiers, and I have a lot of victims to train anyone I want to change on. Especially when Edmure sends most of his men home to protect their lands - now we got scared desperate soldiers just going home, and I can take advantage of that. By the time anyone with any power figures out what I’m doing, I’ve set up a little cult on the Isle of Faces.

How does this affect the plot? Okay, well, I figure if I'm on the Isle of Faces, I'm going for Harrenhal as my human hide out (while I, the vampire, would want to make more of a home on the Isle itself since humans don't visit there as much. Altho....fuck wait can I hang around weirwoods or do they burn me? Maybe I have to go to Oldstones instead actually) because it's spooky. We know Shella Whent couldn't easily defend it, so probably I've changed a lot of humans at Fairmarket and High Heart, then brought my little group to Harrenhal to take it ourselves. I would definitely set myself up similar to some other peasant or religious heroes here, where I'm offering hearth and home to the frightened heroes nearby and then feeding off them at night. Especially when I find out Harrenhal is cursed- I can just blame anything weird on the curse. That probably winds up helping the Starks because the Mountain can't set up there, nor can Roose Bolton start plotting either, lmao, but also, they've got a creepy cult leader set up in Harrenhal and they have to deal with me. I'd probably promise to let Shella Whent back into the castle so long as she promises to work with my little group to "protect the smallfolk" - and then just like,,,,make HER my thrall. Then I'm really cooking.

#asks #anons #canon divergent au #imagine a vampire in the riverlands omg. the war can't get any worse.

[my-own-walker]

So glad to hear you're taking requests for this week! Luv ur stories 🙂

Can I pls request an angst re-imagining what you've happened in that movie night scene in asylum if Kit, Lana and Grace (you can change Grace for reader if you want, lol) were actually caught there by Jude instead of being mistaken when they were all sitting back soaking wet after having tried to escape?

Tysm

She's Not There

note: thank ya for the compliment! also, this pic makes me so sad :((( love this request tho! it's like a lil creative writing activity

warnings: AHS asylum, abuse, bl00d, really just sad themes, aka angst, does not end well for the reader (sorry)

+

Kit's POV

I loved her as she was. I never wanted to control her fire. All I needed was to be near it. To bask in the warmth of her spirit.

She came to me with the idea of escape. She relied on my resilience to get by. Who was I to dull that sparkle in her eye?

A big storm was on the way. A movie night was planned. Our plan seemed so solid, that we could taste the freedom. Nothing could get in the way of her and me trying to get out of there. To have a life together.

When the moment came, I felt sick. We were unsupervised. We could slip out unnoticed. So we did. Her, Shelley, and I. I paused outside the door to the common room, steeling my nerves. If I'm honest, I would have bailed right there, had it not been for her.

She looked back at me, hope in her eyes. She looked like a religious icon. Like someone you'd sacrifice yourself for. I took her hand and I followed her. I would have done anything for her.

She reluctantly let Lana join us after she begged. I may not have done what she did, but she was brave. And she was kind. And she was patient. Shelley sacrificed herself to allow us to pass without an orderly seeing us.

She kept on because she was fearless.

We exited into the storm, Lana with us instead of Shelley. It was terrifying. We quickened our pace through the blinding storm. Sheets of rain fell upon us, blurring our vision detrimentally. The hissing storm saturated the ground. Sticky, wet mud dragged us down and made moving nearly impossible.

We got turned around. We barely knew which way to go. The curtain of rain and wind made the trees around us blur like a watercolor painting. I couldn't breathe. The water encompassed my being, infiltrating my nose and mouth each time I tried to feed my lungs.

Then, my breath caught for a different reason. With a loud crack and a flash of pain, I was leveled, lying in the disgusting mud. A figure stood over me, holding what looked like a bat. They brandished the weapon and swung down upon me with a swoosh. All at once, everything was black.

+

I awoke coughing. Wet, thick coughs that tasted bad on my tongue. My vision was blurred. A sharp pain crackled through my skull. I feared my brain might split in two. I used two hands to hold my head, trying to squeeze the pain away, all while using the heels of my palms to wipe the clouds from my eyes.

With a few more blinks, I could see again. I lowered my hands and looked down at them. The sight left me shell-shocked. Both were covered in wet, fresh blood. It was grotesque. My chest constricted so tightly, it was as if the walls were trying to keep my heart from dropping.

Then a memory of her flashed across my vision. My head shot up and I scanned the room feverishly for a sign of her. I was in solitary, though, so no one was there. Not even a guard.

I stood from my place on the floor next to the back wall, but without the concrete propping my back up I fell back over onto my hands and knees. The splitting pain in my head rendered me useless on my feet. I crawled to the door and collapsed in a heap next to it.

In the seconds following, I heard the door unlatch, and then open. I didn't even have the strength to look up.

"Ah, you're awake," Sister Jude purred. "It's time you came with me."

Two orderlies grappled me roughly to my feet, securing my hands together with leather straps behind my back. The two of them, led by Sister Jude, dragged my limp body through the asylum, all the way to her office. My hanging feet hit each stair heavily as they dragged me upward.

The sight before me broke my heart. She sat slumped in a chair in front of Sister Jude's desk, bleeding from the back of her head. I perked up a bit upon seeing her, almost believing I could be let go and run to her.

They placed me in the seat next to her. Despite the awful pain, I craned my neck to see her face. She was nearly unrecognizable, brutalized heinously. She wasn't conscious. I full-body winced.

Next in came Lana, in better shape than the two of us, yet still bruised and bloodied.

Sister Jude snapped her finger at the orderly behind us and pointed at Y/N. "You! Wake her up," she barked. The man, dressed in all white, the front of his shirt stained with blood, shuffled over to her.

He took her by the shoulders and shook her gently. Her head swung from side to side, limply, then, bobbed up slowly. She let out a sickening gurgle that made my stomach turn. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch her.

"So," Sister Jude began. "These are the three who took advantage of my kindness, hm?" She paced back and forth behind her desk. "You three believed it appropriate to try to leave. You sicken me."

"You've punished us enough," Lana croaked.

"Ah, yes?" Jude smiled. "I don't think so." She tutted her tongue. "I don't believe so at all."

Her head dipped back down beside me heavily, her chin making contact with her chest.

"Keep her awake," Jude barked. The orderly returned to Y/N's side and shook her again. This time, though, she didn't stir. A nauseating feeling crept up inside of me.

"Y/N?" I rasped, leaning to my left to nudge her with my shoulder. She still didn't stir. Water collected in my bottom eyelid as a lump formed in my throat.

"Get her out of here," Sister Jude ordered, gesturing toward the door. The man in all white picked her up, bridal style. Her head swayed loosely as he adjusted her in his arms.

My lip trembled. I sucked in a short breath before I let out a small cry. Tears collected in my eyelashes, making it hard for me to see. I couldn't wipe them away, I could only let them fall.

"No," I choked out, barely audible as the orderly took her away from me. I could only believe the worst.

How terrible it is to love something death can touch.

Part of me wanted to believe the worst was yet to come, but if she truly was gone, the worst had already come and gone. I swallowed my despair and steeled myself for whatever punishment I was to be dealt.

Because nothing could be worse than losing her.

+

SORRY IT WAS SAD THATS WHO I AM!!!

#evan peters #evan peters fic #ahs #evan peters x reader #kit walker #evan peters x female reader #evan peters oneshot #kit walker x reader #kit walker imagine #kit walker ahs

[itsclydebitches]

Here's a thing though, because CRWBY loves doing things off-screen. Neo and Cinder did have to travel for some time together and Cinder did speak to Neo in the Vault of the Spring Maiden. They could've exchanged information and she found out about certain things, especially with regards to Salem.

But there's also the fact that Cinder and Neo binded their time in Atlas, waiting for the perfect moment to be able to nab the relic and how to locate the Winter Maiden. I know this banks on Cinder being a competent villainess but she was in V3. Neo is perfect for information gathering, she can choose to be any one who was around Ruby in the background, watching and waiting but also seeing if there were weaknesses she could exploit to make her suffer. Neo could've learned about how close Penny and Ruby by pretending to be some nobody in the background with the aid of her semblance. Headmaster Ozpin, Lionheart and Clover didn't need to be there, no, for the beat down little red got. But man, do I wish that it was something close to Ruby that'd throw the facts at her, that they made mistakes, they were hypocrites and made things worse. Atlas and Mantle are GONE. They almost cost Argus everything with their plane stealing stunt. Salem now has 2 relics in her possession instead of neither. Just someone should've been able to deliver that to Ruby without getting shut down or pushed into submitting to WBY getting all defensive. It's aggravating that RWBY keeps getting away with things one way or another, can't have Ruby get told off by an ally, noooooo, has to be a villain so anyone can dismiss their (very) on point accusations of her character. Wow, I didn't mean to rant so much....

Never feel bad about ranting, anon! I do it plenty lol.

But yeah, full-on agree. That remains my biggest problem with this scene (well, besides the suicide aspect) and why I can't really join in so many other fans' satisfaction at someone calling out Ruby. Because she's not being called out, she's being tortured. The story has taken things that Ruby is at least partially responsible for and framed it so that she comes out looking like the unequivocal victim. Instead of someone trustworthy figuratively knocking some sense into her head (like Qrow, May, or Ren), she's literally getting knocked around by a villain whose ultimately goal is to have her die. There is no version of RWBY in which Ruby comes out of this having learned anything other than her guilt and second-guessing being ~evil~ things that must be defeated. Qrow is threatened into submission. May changes her tune off screen. Ren is ignored until he falls in line. Yang dismisses Ruby and compares her to Ironwood the moment she expresses doubt. And Ruby herself has had those feelings now equated with suicide. If the end result of her going, "Let's stop pretending we know what we're doing" at the start of the Volume is for her to kill herself over that failure, then the message is pretty clearly, "That's a bad thing to believe and Ruby need to improve her mental health by remembering that she's a True Hero who has made the good decisions and shouldn't be doubting her own righteous worth."

By taking Ruby to this extreme the MOMENT she started to question their very questionable choices, the show has written in neon lights what they think of these criticisms. I mean, we knew it already - we've known since Volume 5 - but it really is something else to say, "Ruby's horrific actions aren't something for her to grapple with and learn from, they're the catalyst for suicide and the tools of a villain." Someone else made this comparison already, but the way this is written brings to mind people who have exaggerated, undeserved reactions to someone bringing up legitimate criticism, to the point where suddenly the conversation is about comforting them and ensuring they're safe, rather than actually addressing what they've done wrong. The story has finally gone, "Hey, you did things wrong" and even beyond the fact that this has come from a villain, Ruby has such an EXTREME reaction to that accusation that you feel like an ass for insisting that she still address the problem post-meltdown. The conversation is no longer about how Ruby's arrogance has caused great harm to Remnant, it's about how these things need to be denied/buried/ret-conned/whatever because otherwise she will kill herself.

See? Plenty of ranting XD. On a more positive note, I LOVE that idea, anon. If RWBY really was "planned from the beginning" and we still had to have this encounter, it would have been cool to see a Volumes-long reveal that Neo has been stalking Ruby ever since she left Beacon. She uses her clones to bring up all her mistakes, her failures, intimate moments she'll never repeat because that friend is dead now, and alongside her grief Ruby is downright shocked at the knowledge. How do you know all this? And Neo uses her op semblance to reveal all the background characters that she - and the viewer - had no idea were really her, listening in, biding her time, gathering intel until she could finally use it all to break her.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas #suicide tw

[fictionadventurer]

Reverse unpopular opinion on Moffat Who?

Oh, gosh. I've been undergoing an internal Moffat Who renaissance lately--I haven't watched any, but it's been coming to mind so often, and it's really driving home just how formative those stories were to me--so I'm not sure I'll be able to arrange my thoughts coherently, but I'll try for a few bullet points.

There is so much writing skill on display in his episodes. The plots are so tight--set-up and payoff on a detailed level that you rarely see in television. The word-smithing is wonderful--he has a gift for a turn of phrase that sticks in your head, can make something poetic or pithy or just plain hilarious. The way he can grapple with big ideas and themes and still make a small, concrete story with characters you care about is just wonderful.

The style! His stuff has such a specific voice to it--certain rhythms to the dialogue, certain themes he returns to, certain things he thinks are funny. It's most obvious in the RTD era--when you hit a Moffat episode, everyone suddenly talks twice as fast. Some people might see such a distinctive style as a detriment, but in an entertainment landscape where everything can get sanded down into bland homogeny, it's refreshing to see work that is so personal and specific.

I love how his era understand that Doctor Who is a fairy tale. The fantastical entering into the ordinary. But the fantastical isn't there to save us from the boring drudgery of everyday life, but to make us appreciate just how wonderful the world--especially ordinary life--can be.

That fairy tale focus also makes his era the most explicitly Catholic of any era of Who. It understands a sacramental worldview where the ordinary and the extraordinary intertwine.

I've got major problems with how he can handle romance and sexual stuff, but when it comes to marriage, there is no one in the entertainment industry who does it better. The wedding isn't the end of the adventure, but the beginning of it. Fidelity is a grand adventure; love can get you through anything. It is beautiful.

He understands that the Doctor is a legendary heroic figure, something out of myth whose actions have saved the universe countless times--but he's also an idiot who makes colossal mistakes and wears stupid clothes. Neither side of that characterization undercuts the other one. It neither deifies nor deconstructs the Doctor.

I love how so many stories in his era build off of ideas from earlier eras. Sort of like a second draft or a remake. Digging deep into concepts that were only shallowly glanced at before. It's the fandom instinct toward meta applied to episodes that actually got on-screen.

As a showrunner, I like how he gives other writers a bit more leeway to write the episodes with their style. And I loved the arcs in Series 5 and 6 especially--a significant thread that weaves through multiple episodes, but also doesn't take away from the standalone nature of the individual stories.

He gave the Doctor a family! The Eleven-Amy-Rory-River family is about as good as it gets for companion groups, to my mind. Rory especially is one of the greatest characters in the show--showing the heroism of the ordinary, faithful man and how that can be even better than the showy heroism of the Doctor. And River is the rare companion that I can actually ship with the Doctor, because her life is as strange and time-twisted as his is.

I love that his era focuses on time travel as more than a way to get to the setting of the episode. We get to dive deep into time travel mechanics, twisting back and forth across time in a single episode, delving into time loops and cause-and-effect and out-of-order relationships, and the very human effects all this timey-wimey nonsense can have on people.

It's funny! There is so much humor while never devolving into parody. So quick-witted and clever.

It's a show run by the best kind of fan--one who likes diving in to all those nerdy details, but understands at the end of the day that it's just a show and we can have fun with it. One of my favorite Moffat moments comes in the commentary track for the Series 5 Weeping Angels two-parter. There's a point where he's just riffing mercilessly on how silly the Weeping Angels when you think about it. They can't move when they're seen--makes them kind of weak, doesn't it? Like, he imagines a group of them running into trouble: "Why didn't you invade that planet?" "Oh, sorry, we couldn't. There was an insect." This is one of his greatest creations, basically the only New Who monster (as opposed to friendly alien) deemed worthy of repeat appearances, yet instead of being arrogant over it, he's willing to poke fun at it like any other element of the show. It's just so fun.

Even if the rest of his era had been garbage, I would have loved this era for The Day of the Doctor alone. What a triumph of an anniversary special. Beautifully, intricately plotted along several timelines. Set-up and payoff in layers upon layers. Plot resolutions hidden in jokes. A way to bring back Rose that wasn't just inane fan-service but was central to the entire story. Bringing in all the Doctors in a way that didn't clutter up the episode. But best of all, it healed the wound that the Time War had wrought upon the show. The Time War had served its purpose in restarting New Who and giving new depths to the character; the episode didn't erase that. But it challenged the idea that the Doctor had to end Gallifrey for the greater good. For such an idealistic show, it had always been odd for it to argue that the ends justified the means. This episode, at last, destroyed that argument. The Doctor doesn't have to justify the way he ended the war because it can't be justified! It was horrible! So he shouldn't do it! He can be clever and kind and find a better way to save everyone! It's so wonderfully Tolkien-esque and means so, so much to me.

#answered asks #reverse unpopular opinions #doctor who #steven moffat #incomingalbatross

[mike-haters-dni]

Some S5 Ideas, Before Information Starts Coming Out And They Get Destroyed lol, Pt. I

Part II | Part I.V

Roughly ordered from most to least likely to actually happen, but I'm at most like 50% on any of these. Except for the first one which is a 100% :)

No one dies. Yeah, that’s right. Maiming is on the table tho.

The Duffs said we were getting the original groups back together so I’m running with the idea that our boys (and girl) spend the majority of the season as a unit. (yes, this is mostly about the party, I only think about them lmao)

Mike and El have twin arcs that center around responsibility. They are both officially named the party’s leaders who get the last say on anything the group does, specifically for dangerous situations to make sure the group works together. Technically El is the Supreme Leader who gets the final say if they disagree on anything and generally isn't argued with, but Mike is more often coming up with and overseeing plans. They both take this role very seriously, and end up putting perhaps unnecessary pressure on themselves. They both feel responsible for keeping everyone safe, to the point where they would gladly sacrifice themselves if it meant making sure no one else got hurt or died. Mike grapples with his own fears and starts to buckle under this newfound feeling of being responsible for his friends lives, while El also feels the larger responsibility of being the only person with the power to actually fix the apocalypse. Does this mean she has to be willing to do absolutely anything to fix it? Is she even actually the only solution? Does she have to prioritize saving the world over saving her friends?

Lucas of course feels horrible about “letting” max die and funnels his regret into training to make sure he never loses a fight again. As soon as they figure out a plan to get her back he’s on the warpath, and ends up making some game-winning (and very risky, much to Mike's chagrin) plays for the mission.

Will’s arc is about him finding his own self-worth, and ends with him getting to physically defeat the representation of his trauma.

Nancy teaches Mike how to shoot a gun.

Hawkins gets destroyed. I want it destroyed. The rot from the gates and the gates themselves spread over time and eventually monsters come pouring out, making the area completely inhabitable and everyone gets evacuated and the town is closed off. Of course, our heroes eventually have to sneak back into it to fix The Plot. Imagine a scene where they go to the Wheeler house looking for something and have this terrible “oh shit. Nothing is ever going to be the same again” moment as they see how broken down and destroyed everything is. Our homes are destroyed and there’s no going back. It’s like a metaphor.

Everyone ends up having to begrudgingly work with the government/military to fix Hawkins cuz I mean, there's no way they’re leaving the area of this insane alien disaster and someone on the Alien Disaster Response Team is going to know about Eleven and realize that she’s their best resource for fixing this (again lol). Our heroes agree to this because they don’t really have a choice, plus the military has a ton of resources that they can steal utilize.

I also want that timeskip. A lot of it is spent in a makeshift military base in the next town over trying to figure out how to approach the Vecna problem, who has been weirdly absent for too long. There’s very much a held-breath, dread vibe during this section.

During this lull, everyone trains to become apocalypse-ready, and El finally gets an unironic, non-trauma-based training arc to become the finely-honed, superpowered boss bitch she was always meant to be.

Also Dustin learns a good deal about field medicine, which becomes a skill that he utilizes at least once in a very life-or-death situation later.

The other half/two-thirds of the story is spent traveling to the heart of the apocalyptic Hawkins after confirming the military can’t be trusted.

Will gets slightly more utility out of his monster sensing powers/curse than just being able to tell that the giant ominous rumbling is danger, actually. He can more or less read their minds and sense where they are in an area, which allows the group to avoid or ambush them. It would also be really cool if there was some moment where he sensed some goal the monsters had and it was all spooky and cryptic, or he figures out a way to mask his presence from them and there's a tense scene where he sneaks through a heavily infested area to get to something. Idk, the show’s scifi magic system barely has rules anyway we can have fun with it.

Max gets woken up halfway through the season and has some important new information that is the key to stopping Vecna. I like the idea that she retains like 20% vision and her bones healed through the coma (and the timeskip cough), so she forces the boys to bring her with them on the final mission to end everything despite their reasonable concerns about her physical state. Just so we can have the whole group together.

Continuing the responsibility theme, the idea of El having to sacrifice herself to fix everything is brought up multiple times. She never argues with this—its clear she agrees on some level, but then when the moment comes for her to do the thing and die to save the world, she decides “fuck it, I wanna live actually” and fights her way back to her friends.

The one time someone (Dustin) is brave (dumb) enough to suggest El sacrificing herself in front of Mike he almost spontaneously combusts with rage and gets to say the one ‘fuck’ of the season. I would say lmao but its actually a very intense emotional scene ok take this seriously please.

Mike finally gets a real Violence Moment (checkhov did lend him a gun). As well as anyone else that wants one.

It would be fun to see Dustin like legitimately bitter and angry after what happened to Eddie. He blames the townspeople for Eddie’s death and generally lacks empathy for anyone opposing them. Not sure how that would wrap up for him though.

El loses her powers permanently at the end of the show. I just think it would be a good ending for her to finally get to be normal, and not have the government breathing down her back (as much) anymore.

Part II | Part I.V

#gonna be so weird when all of this is disproven when s5 comes out #ive never been in this position before lmao #stranger things #st5 predictions #mike wheeler #el hopper #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #max mayfield #mileven #lumax #headcanons #will byers

[battlekidx2]

Thanks to Them Thoughts

The first special of The Owl House’s third season recently dropped and I can say with full certainty that it hasn’t lost what made the second season so special.

I don’t think I’m in the minority when I say I was disappointed that the third season got shortened to three specials but I wanted to come in hopeful for what these specials could bring. The Owl House proved to me in its second season just how phenomenal it could be within a limited time frame with episodes like Eda’s Requiem, Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door, and Hollow Mind. I know that the situation is different but it’s proof just how much this show knows how to tap into the emotional core of its characters, stories, and relationships in 22 minutes.

This episode does the same thing by digging into the core of Camila, Luz, and Hunter. 

Camila is a character that had the fandom split and in my opinion received way too much hate. She was a single mother doing her best with a specific set of struggles due to the point she was in her life and the circumstances surrounding the start of the series. This episode understands that Camila loves her daughter and wants to do right by her but parenting rarely has a perfect answer. 

Camila’s choices are given more context and shown in a different light. I was already in the camp that believed Camila was a loving parent that made some mistakes because she’s only human, but this episode solidified it.

The nightmare Camila has about halfway through the episode is a poignant way to explore the concept of generational trauma and trying to break that cycle.

Luz found a community that will accept her the way she is and a place where her strengths can flourish. Once Camila has had time to grapple with the reality that Luz went to the demon realm by her own choice and she gets to see just how good this place has been for her she embraces it.

She even wants to go to the demon realm with Luz so she can be a part of that aspect of Luz’s life as well (and look out for her daughter in a very dangerous situation). It’s just a really touching portrayal of motherhood.

That’s actually the part I’m the most upset we missed out on due to the shortened season. Seeing Camila be a supportive mother to Luz and give Amity and Hunter their first real experience with a caring parent is something I would have loved to see considering how much their abusive/complicated home lives we’ve gotten to explore over the show. (I specify Amity and Hunter because we know that Gus and Willow have loving home lives. I would still love to see Camila be a parental figure to them too)

We still have some more time. I’m hoping we’ll get to see more of surrogate mother Camila over the next two specials.

Hunter especially needs that care because he cannot catch a break.

Season 2 and now season 3 has been one long trauma conga line for Hunter with so much of that trauma being born from his twisted relationship with Belos. 

Hunter being possessed by Belos is a very fascinating turn of events that foreshadows so many possibilities with Belos but there is one area I think could have been handled better. 

I want to touch on the scene where Hunter stood up to Belos first. This has been a long time coming. Hunter has submitted to Belos’ ideas for his future for most of his life and even after leaving the emperor’s coven he didn’t get the chance to have a confrontation with Belos where he was given the time to address this area of growth.

Hunter finally has the chance to choose his destiny which is something he stated he was jealous Luz could do back in Hunting Palismen. Due to his journey in the human realm he has the self worth and the security to stand up to Belos for the first time in his life and it was a powerful scene because of the build up.

Hunter has gained so much that he has lacked all his life due to his time away from Belos and in the human realm. It makes this moment and his sacrifice hit all the harder because of how far this episode shows he’s come.

He has a family

He likes who he sees in the mirror 

He has friends who value him for who he is and not what he can do

He can take part in his hobbies and indulge his interests 

He no longer needs Belos like Belos tried to make him believe. He can finally be the person he was always meant to be. 

Hunter is brave, caring, and kind. No matter what Belos did or said to him he never lost those qualities. He is willing to stand up to Belos and possibly sacrifice himself to protect everything he has come to love. He has people that will extend that same care and compassion towards him.

This brings us to one of the saddest moments in the episode: Flapjack’s sacrifice.

Hunter has gone through so much and Flapjack’s sacrifice hits especially hard because Flapjack was one of the first people Hunter could rely on and probably even call a friend. 

Flapjack was important for Hunter’s development in more ways than one. He provided him with a confidant when he didn’t have anyone else and it helped him question and re-evaluate Belos’ actions in regards to palismen and wild magic. He also met him because of his first real encounter with Luz.

It all comes full circle. He initially protected Flapjack from Belos because he knew Belos would use him as fuel/a life source but now Flapjack is willingly being exactly that for Hunter. He is now a part of Hunter. It’s a very bittersweet ending to their relationship that shows the growth and care that they each had for each other.

That moment where Hunter stops in front of the portal and holds his hand over his heart was a short but very effective moment at conveying his grief. 

This sacrifice was very well executed in my opinion.

All of this works emotionally within Hunter’s character arc. 

However, the battle didn’t quite reach its full potential. It had incredibly fluid animation and was amazing to watch, but it wasn’t as emotional on Amity, Gus, and Willow’s end as it could have been in certain ways. 

You could feel the conflict and pain from Luz’s end. It was made clear that she was purposefully not trying because she didn’t want to hurt Hunter and even hugged him to try and get through to him. She doesn’t want to hurt him because of how much she has come to care for him and this turmoil could be seen in every action Luz took and could be felt in her voice acting performance. 

She’s the only one you could understand the full grasp of her conflict over the fight with Hunter though. There wasn’t any of that same hesitation or desperation on anyone else’s end. You know that all of them are close to Hunter and care about him but you don’t feel the full depth until after the fight.

These connections are really important to Hunter’s character because of how Belos isolated him prior to season 2 and I loved all the moments that showcased how important Hunter is to the group and vice versa. That’s why I decided to point out the lack of hesitation on everyone else’s part. It doesn’t break the episode (in fact the episode is great) but I thought it could have been executed a bit differently.

Hunter is one of the strongest characters in the show and the way this episode handled him was great.

This brings me to Luz.

King’s Tide had real consequences for Luz. She feels like she couldn’t protect Eda or King and she couldn’t stop Belos or the Collector. She doesn’t know the fate of the family she left behind and she believes that everything that happened is her fault.

She’s understandably not handling it well.

Luz this episode and in a few episodes last season is used to explore grief and loss. This is explored in more ways than one through the loss of her father and her newfound family in the Boiling Isles.

Luz’s father was noticeably absent in her life at the start of the series but what happened to him wasn’t revealed until “Reaching Out” (In a fantastic scene by the way). We get even more expansion on it through Luz’s video diary entries. 

Luz was much more aware of what was happening with her family and father than she let on to her mother despite their best efforts to shield her. The way you can see the decline in her emotional state through her entries as her father’s health declines makes the process feel real. This wasn’t a quick but a slow process/struggle for the family over time until he unfortunately passed. It’s something that Camila and Luz are still struggling with. 

The process of healing isn’t linear for any of the characters. 

It also reveals that Manny introduced Luz to the Good Witch Azura. This is really bittersweet and touches on something that this episode emphasized and that is how media and stories can help us process, heal, and feel seen in aspects of life that people struggle with.

Hunter finds connection and healing through the Cosmic Frontier character O’Bailey. Luz finds that same connection and escape through Azura. It helped her during a really hard time in her life by helping her find a connection to her father after he was gone.

It makes everything in regards to her Good Witch Azura book and hyperfixation very bittersweet and puts so much in a new light. It’s a brief but powerful moment in the episode.

The exploration of Luz’s grief in the present day is handled just as well as that short segment. It shows the repercussions on her mental health and how it trickles out in unexpected ways like her rant in class. 

But most importantly it shows how her support system understands that she’s struggling and they are there for her no matter what. They might not all know how to best handle what she is dealing with but they all give it their best and make sure they let her know that they don’t think of her as a burden.

One of my favorite moments showcasing this in the episode is when Amity lets Luz know that Belos meeting the collector because of her help isn’t a failing on her part. It doesn't make her a mistake or the harbinger of doom she believes she is. She assures Luz it’s a testament to her good heart instead.

Luz’s support system doesn’t automatically make her better either. The Owl House understands there is no quick fix to depression and other mental health issues. There is no list of requirements to check off to “cure” it. It’s something that is dealt with on a daily basis.

Dealing with mental health isn’t linear just like dealing with grief isn’t linear.

I am really intrigued to see how they handle Luz’s struggles moving forward and believe that they were handled with a lot of tact in this premiere.

This show has really come into its own. Season one was fun and had a great world and characters that drew you in but lacked a strong vision of where it wanted to go with wonky power scaling, an inconsistent level of control and influence from Belos that changed to suit the episode, and parts of the story that clashed with its core themes. I loved the season but thought there was missed potential. 

Season two came around and reached the heights I thought it was capable of and it seems like season 3 plans to do the exact same. I can’t wait for the final two episodes. If this is any indication of their quality I bet they will be amazing.

Extra thoughts

I love when Camila lets Luz sleep with her after she’s awoken from her nightmare. It’s just a really sweet mother-daughter moment.

I really liked Hunter’s cosplay and how his attachment to the character of O’Bailey speaks to the importance of representation and how it can help you heal and feel seen.

Gus definitely knows that Hunter is a Grimwalker. He purposefully introduced Hunter to a character that he could connect to and even tried to imply that he knew before Hunter covered his ears to avoid spoilers. I really appreciate their dynamic in the smaller moments of this episode.

I said it in my Hollow Mind thoughts but I’m going to say it again here: I think that Evelyn was a Calwthorne. There’s just too many clues in the show for her not to be and the Owl House has a pretty good track record of paying off obvious hints.

The best thing about this episode is how it carries over the consequences of King’s Tide. There are a few times where the tension the characters should feel to get back to the Boiling Isles gets a bit lost. The most notable example was how solving the clue they found to get them back to the isles was framed more as a way to cheer Luz up than a way to return to their families and know if they are okay. 

Yeah, the characters are sad to be away from their families but there isn’t the desperation to know about their fates that would be expected considering what happened with the day of unity and the collector. I like how this plot point was used in regards to Hunter and Luz but thought it was a bit lacking in execution and development when it comes to Amity, Willow, and Gus.

Amity, Willow, and Gus are unfortunately the ones that suffer from this section of the season being shortened. They are fun and engaging supporting characters but they noticeably don’t get the emotional focus or development that Luz, Hunter, and Camila get. I don’t dislike the choice, in fact, I think it was a smart choice to narrow the scope of the episode because it would likely become bloated and lack the strong focus and emotional core that it has.

It’s just unfortunate because Willow and Gus are not as well explored as Amity, Luz, and Hunter. Gus at least has “Labyrinth Runners” as an episode focused on him and a few episode B plots but Willow doesn’t really have her own spotlight episode. Both of her episodes “Understanding Willow” and “Any Sport in a Storm” are actually Amity and Hunter episodes respectively.

I would just like to see a bit more of Willow explored.

This is the first time Hunter has really cried in the show. He’s teared up before but never allowed himself to fully cry. It’s telling that the moment that gets to him the most, that makes him drop those walls and breaks the dam, is when Luz calls him family. It’s not traumatic or violent. It’s quiet and tender. He’s never had a family (something he mentions in Hunting Palismen) and now he does. Earth really did allow Hunter to come into his own and gain so much that he lacked all his life. 

I absolutely adore all the end credits art. Most of it is just so wholesome with my favorites being Luz teaching Camila glyphs (Camila is really committed to learning from Luz) and Flapjack tucking in Hunter (this is just so bittersweet).

#the owl house #toh #lumity #hunter #amity blight #luz noceda #camila noceda #belos #willow park #gus porter #I love this show #thanks to them

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Jaune when he arrives: visibly tired, breathing hard, disoriented and vocalizing his questions.

Ruby: just fuckin gets up and walks i guess

More episode reactions under the cut because I can't be bothered to make separate posts.

I hate this so much. Your entire kingdom is gone, you've just left yet another place in ashes, and you're now getting the hots for Jaune because he's 20-or-however-many years older? Right after Jaune is tearing up at their reunion?

Tonal consistency, writers. Learn it.

Also, they make such a big deal about how they "got everyone out safely." Uh...

No?

Ruby: "What good is saving anybody if Salem just destroys the world anyway?

Yang: "That's how Ironwood thought. You don't mean that."

Hilarious that they're still throwing Ironwood under the bus. Also, Yang, that doesn't refute Ironwood's line of thinking at all. Every time, literally every time Ruby questions herself or her groups' actions, someone reassures her that they can stay the course. That's not character development, that's stagnation in a fancy hat!

Blake and Yang's little bridge show...literally just shimmy along the ropes, they didn't look frayed at all. Blake, you have a bladed weapon with a long ribbon attached that you have used as a grapple point before. Yang, you've used your gauntlets to launch yourself.

"I just don't get how the story is both real and not" This just in: Ruby seemingly does not understand the concepts of lying, omission, and misremembering.

Why does Jaune's dialogue remind me of the Exo Stranger from Destiny 1? "We don't have time for this" > "I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain." Just fuckin say what you need to say dude. Also, why is Jaune on such a hair trigger?

I do like the twist of the tree/cat being antagonists. That's neat.

I'm glad they finally confirmed Bees, even if the scene itself was very janky (those two kissing is more important than figuring out how to get and save the world? okay). I love when characters just tell each other what they like about each other rather than us as the audience being able to see that appreciation over time /s. Yang's "you've never been intimidated by me" -> smash cut to back in the village auction when that was absolutely not the case.

It's been painful watching them write those two in a seemingly never-ending mating dance. Maybe now there will actually be room for them to have interactions with characters besides each other.

Ruby's almost panic attack when seeing her weapon was interesting. Are they treating CR like the mantle of responsibility? I.e., if Ruby takes it, she's gotta bear the weight again? I want them to do more with that. We keep getting right on the cusp of Ruby's full-on breakdown but never actually tipping over.

Odd that Neo wasn't mentioned at all.

#rwde #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 9 spoilers

[theweirdwideweb]

Well I've really scared the shit outta the people who care about me in the past 24 hours. Including me! I started EMDR therapy about two months ago, which is a special therapy for trauma where you process memories with the aid of eye movements. It sounds like bullshit, but I have never been effected by therapy this way. They told me to choose a less traumatic memory to start with and we have been working on it for three full sessions. The "less traumatic" memory I chose actually wound up being heavily connected to all these painful issues I'm grappling with recently: body dysmorphia, social isolation, social rejection, self image, self worth, fearing others, fearing myself. ALL this shit. And these eye movements are somehow unlocking these pent up bodily emotions to the point where I am feeling bad. On top of that June 28th was my 2 year alcohol sobriety milestone and 1 year nicotine milestone. This year I decided to quit smoking weed. I had become reliant on it again, as I have been for almost all of my adult life. So I'm dealing with all these intense bodily emotions connected to my very sense of identity---every fear and insecurity I have is just being rattled continuously. Then I quit smoking weed two weeks ago. At first it was fine. Yes, I was having big feelings but that's good actually! Yes! Working through that shit. But I begin to feel worse and worse. I am really going through something in my life right now. I cut ties with my only close friend, I'm essentially friendless if you only count people I see irl regularly. And it's also rattling alll these insecurities for me. I began to feel the situation was hopeless. The problem is too big, it's too late, it's not fixable---it's just who I am. I have a fear that there is something about me which I can't control which repels people. My looks, how I carry myself, my behavior---something makes me fundamentally weird, revolting, unlovable. Like people pity me or are afraid of me. Heavy shit, right? Recently I've had some violently depressive episodes. It's a kind of darkness I rarely experience. So last night I'm at the movies. I went by myself. I go to the movies by myself pretty often actually, at least once a week. Anyway so I'm at this movie and it's getting crowded in the theater. There's multiple groups of people sitting in every row --- except for my row. Not a single other person sat in my row. It was a prime row! This is just dinging every one of these deep dark fears once again. I'm looking at all these people with their friends and lovers sitting in the rows in front of me. The move starts and I could feel the empty seat next to me. It was like a cold, empty, bottomless void, and I could feel it inside myself too. It was purely an emotional state, not really any thoughts behind it, and I didn't have the specific thought that I wanted to kill myself, no plan no nothing like that, but I know that is how people feel before they commit suicide. I touched something dark. So this stupid Nicolas Cage movie is going and I'm sitting there trying to pretend I'm fine but inside my head I'm trying to figure out what to do. I figure---anything I have to do to stop feeling this way is acceptable. Fuck your sobriety. Do anything to stop this. It was thunderstorming as I left the theater and I parked way down the block and there's lighting everywhere. I'm walking in the rain with no umbrella and I'm so cold. I get in my car and turn up the heat and I'm saying to stuff to myself like, "Just go home. Just gooo home." I had to pass home on my way to the liquor store and I honestly didn't know which one I was going to until I pulled into my own parking lot. I was completely rattled all night. I told on myself to my sisters right away. This morning I spoke to them again and decided to cancel EMDR this week and start smoking weed as soon as possible. Called out of work. Went to my sister's house and got some weed from her. Went to therapy. We came up with a safety plan. I called out of work again tomorrow. My only job for the next few days is relax.

#tw suicide

[esther-dot]

Half Jonsa again, I wanted to thank you for your lovely reply and taking the time to respond to me. I really appreciate it. I especially liked your point about the tragic romance; I feel like an issue fandom runs into a lot is that there's a difference between pointing something out that the story is doing versus wish-fulfilment.

I don't like the double-standard between L/yanna and what I feel to be his deconstruction of the fifteen year old boyking (Paul Atreides) via Robb, for instance. Holding the tension of romance in L/yanna's story (because I subscribe to the double model - tragic romance as well as self-driven prophetic fallout) versus the political deconstruction is really difficult for me.

I'll give you complete full credit on this one: this is more like identifying GRRM's storytelling faults as opposed to really thinking about the thematic consequences of R/L.

(Continuation of this convo)

Don't even mention it! I'm so happy you came back and elaborated on your thoughts. I’m still thinking about what you said regarding Brienne’s quote!

I feel like an issue fandom runs into a lot is that there's a difference between pointing something out that the story is doing versus wish-fulfilment.

I was guilty of that myself for GoT. I mean, half of what I thought, I still think because of certain non-subjective things D&D chose to do, but when I saw that last shot of s8, I realized, this was in their heads all along, the ending they were working to for Jon, and I couldn't believe I was so sucked into Jonsa I hadn't caught on to that thread. So, yes, first hand experience with it!

However, I do have to defend the expectation for better re: Jon and Sansa in the books. When Sansa says there are no heroes and then Jon does the exact thing she wanted a hero to do for her, when Sansa says they only want her for her claim while Jon is out there refusing to take Winterfell on the grounds that it is Sansa's, we have reason to think, well, it's only a matter of time before he repudiates the other point of despair too. Obviously, I have said, this could be a secret wedding and they can't ultimately be together, that alone doesn't mean a happy ending. But the big factor that makes me question a tragic ending for Jon is that if Jon were to go to the Wall or be exiled, King Bran is not gonna be the answer to the criticism of a weak/unjust Robert that we hoped he would be.

Holding the tension of romance in L/yanna's story (because I subscribe to the double model - tragic romance as well as self-driven prophetic fallout)

I'm behind on this line of thought, I'm only now really grappling with the mess of R/L. I don't care to think of Rhaegar much because I dislike that type of character, so I don't have much to say other than his choices are the arena in which Jon has been and will play, so I know you don't think jonsa is the redemption of it, but Jon will be the response to Rhaegar. I would think the Paul Atreides discussion will be happening between Jon, Bran, Dany, the messiah-like figures, and we all know how destructive that will be for Dany, we know Bran will rise to power, possibly sacrificing himself/personal happiness for the sake of peace for his people, Jon may be the middle ground there?

I read Robb more of an answer to the romanticization of boy kinds/young heroes going to war etc. Seeing it all through Cat's eyes and her anguish keeps it very grounded for me, but again, I didn't read Dune so I'm not sure which connections you're drawing there.

This,

We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.

I think, is something that Martin actually wants to talk about, it is why women die giving birth or protecting their children, it is why brothers die for love of their sisters. It happens over and over, he keeps circling it, delivering versions of it, he finds it heartrending, he finds it beautiful. He is interested in marrying things that seem too far apart to relate. He does that all the time, and that I think is where I misalign with him. Sometimes his belief that these work in concert or two extremes can exist in the same place...I can't quire buy.

#dot chat #asoiaf and dune

[fabdante]

Reboot question:

Do you think Dante KNEW that Vergil was gonna die from that final stab in the chest at the end of their fight? Cause like. He kinda just let him go and seemed to think that he'd be fine. Like, Dante still talks to Vergil like he knows Vergil is gonna be a threat after this, so presumably Dante thought Vergil would just walk that stab to the heart off. And probably with good reason! We see Dante poking at his own heart in a bathroom once during a flashback, and presumably this is the first time Dante's ever gotten in this big of a fight before (I mean, Dante basically fought Mundus and Vergil back-to-back), so maybe he just figured Vergil would be fine?

Idk. I feel like if Vergil comes back as the new King of Hell and tells Dante Dante fucking KILLED HIM with that last stab, Dante would just be devastated and shocked, because he honestly thought Vergil would be okay after that. That Vergil would just portal back to the safe house we see them using after the Order fell, and that Vergil would have medical supplies there or something. (Unless Dante and Kat went there afterwards and found the place wrecked or unused.)

I fear this one might get long again asdfghj bare with me

First, a bit on my reading of Downfall (skip the first two paragraphs if that's not interesting asdfghj): I've always preferred the idea that what we see happening in Downfall is less like, literal for the most part and more something Vergil is imagining in his head after passing out on Eva's grave. I realize Word of God canon from Ninja Theory asserts that it like, is supposed to be taken literally but the textual canon of the game itself doesn't really lend itself one way or the other. All we have is Vergil near death passing out and then whatever Eva is (since we don't really know what Eva is) telling him that he did die at some point, though nothing to substantiate that claim beyond her word on the subject. (I tend to treat word of god canon as secondary to textual canon)

But in my reading of the game, I've always just sort of assumed Dante didn't kill Vergil and rather just almost did, something still very scary and unnerving for Dante to grapple with (also I imagine made more complicated by the fact him and Kat after the game likely don't know if Vergil is alive or dead after he left, and that speculation is enough to cause a lot of problems for both of them mentally which is something that comes up a lot in a very 'fab wrote this fan fic for fab' fic I posted, Crossroads of Catharsis and Contemplation asdfghjk)

HOWEVER, like I said, I know Ninja Theory has asserted with Word of God canon that we're supposed to take Downfall literally. So if we take Downfall literally like, Vergil does die after the fight with Dante because we are told by whatever Eva is that he died and this is sort of his own little personal afterlife hell that he needs to crawl out of.

And I am pretty sure Dante had no idea he killed him. The way both Dante and Kat (who has just begged for Vergil's life) implies to me that both thought he'd just heal like the twins do and he'd be fine. The fact Kat in particular does not seem too particularly concerned that Vergil is in dire straights. So I think at the point they're both at with the end of the game, both probably think Vergil will be ok.

I think when things begin to turn is when Vergil just...doesn't communicate with either of them. And that's when they both probably start wondering if he is actually alive or not.

Dante at the end of the game to always read to me as not entirely in control of his devil trigger, thus why it got so bad and Kat had to come over and snap him out of it. Which I definitely think would add to Dantes distress if he were to find out he actually did kill Vergil, even if Vergil got better

#fab talks #fabtalks #dmc reboot #ask