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beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

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A Tiadrin theory

I woke up this morning with a sudden headcanon about Tiadrin, and as I poked at it, it filled out nicely, so I’m gonna go ahead and call it a theory at this point.

It gets angsty, as all good Moonshadow theories do. If your heart doesn’t weigh 6 tons by the time you reach the end of this post, I didn’t capture the feeling properly.

Several bits of detail flutter around this mysterious woman, and I’ve theorized various versions of her circumstances, her relationship with Runaan and Ethari, her former position before the Storm Spire, the reasons she went there, and the reasons Runaan was so hellbent on avenging her dishonor.

I don’t think any of them landed as well or tied together as neatly as this one, though. Hence “theory” instead of just “headcanon.” Here we go:

FIrstly, some meta information. This is a fun tweet, but in this post I’m looking directly at “belief systems as sources of both comfort and restraint” and at the “weight of guilt” and “cycles of trauma” lines, in regards to Moonshadow culture, and specifically Moonshadow assassin training.

And raise your hand if you’ve been looking further afield than the front-and-center Janaya-with-Soren nod from “ripped women who teach soft boys to stab,” because I have. TDP is full of parallels and imperfect mirrors.

So, in the spirit of soft yet angsty cycles and the ripped women who perpetuate them, Theory Part I: Tiadrin trained Runaan, because she was the leader of the assassins before he was.

She’s referred to as a mastermind. Assassin leaders need to be good with plans of all sizes. We’ve seen how Runaan silently adapts to chaos and doesn’t tell anyone what his new plans actually are. He’s a good leader. But he also had to learn those skills from someone. Whoever instructed him was a tactical genius, and also very Moonshadow, and Runaan was an adept student.

Also, Tiadrin is a goddamn badass. She’s several inches shorter than Lain, Runaan, Ethari, and Viren. But she is a powerhouse in battle. She knows her physics well enough to drag this 6′2″ human battle mage skidding across the floor. Monster thighs, monster intellect.

As a 5′4″ woman who trained in jujitsu for several years, let me just say: gender equality in battle is great, but physics does not care. It will crush your popsicle-stick ass if you try to chuck a 250 lb person across the room and your math is off. The most accurate fighters are the ones who know how hard physics hits back when you’re sloppy.

Tiadrin earned every inch of respect, and every inch of her thigh circumference, the old-fashioned way. She worked for it, all day every day. Runaan does the same thing. He might have half a foot of height on her, but he trains like the world will crush him if he’s not perfect. And that’s very Moonshadow assassin in its own right, because it will, and it tried. Tiadrin knew what she needed. And she knew what Runaan, soft boy that he is, needed. And she made sure she trained it into him, all day every day.

Tiadrin is one of the reasons that Runaan survived the fight in Harrow’s chamber. She made him the fighter he is, the person he is, and that was just enough to pull him through... so he could see his own mentor trapped in a coin. Yay, thanks Viren.

Theory Part II: Runaan’s squad was made up of all the elves Tiadrin has personally trained, or trained by proxy.

If Tiadrin was Runaan’s trainer and mentor, then her honor was his honor. And when she supposedly faltered and fled at the Storm Spire, that suddenly cast him, as an individual assassin and as the current assassin leader, in a terrible light. If his mentor was a coward, what did she teach him? Would he also duck and run when things got hopeless, and abandon his duty?

The doubt that must’ve swirled around him when the village learned the terrible news about Lain and Tiadrin must’ve sliced right through him. Thousand-yard stare, biggest internal Oh No ever. Runaan lives to serve his people, and to have them doubt him, after all he has done to train them and protect them from harm, would be the worst kind of pain. He had to make it right.

But not just him. Assassins seem to take solo missions even for their first kill, if Eljaal’s covered shoulders are any indication. You can Moonshadow your feels if you don’t have to watch your friend kill someone, if you don’t have anyone watching while you stab someone to death. You can pretend it’s all serene and just and smooth and valid and honorable. You can hold to your love of life and dance right past your embrace of death, if no one else sees it. But Runaan’s mission had 6 members. They were definitely going to have to watch each other murder people. Why?

Tiadrin’s honor was their honor. An extended family of brothers, sisters, cousins, fosterlings, anyone who was drawn to Tiadrin, or her to them, bonded together over their family feels and protective instincts. They were family. And then their leader fell, her honor crushed.

They had to make it right.

They all carried Tiadrin’s honor with their own, taught by her personally, regarded as honorable assassins. Until she seemed to have a fatal flaw in her character. Then everyone wondered if that flaw got passed down, too. The assassins had to prove that it hadn’t been, for the sake of their people, and for all of Xadia who trusted them to take out threats in the dark. They had to go set right Tiadrin’s “mistake” and take Harrow for Zym’s death. All of them. Every single one, no exceptions.

No exceptions. That’s why Rayla had to go, too. Tiadrin taught Runaan everything he knew about being an assassin, and when she moved to the Storm Spire, Runaan dutifully passed Rayla’s mother’s teachings to Rayla herself, feeling like part of the family, an essential connection between mother and daughter, between assassin mentor and mentee. He tried to get it just right, just perfect, so Rayla would feel like she’d been trained by her actual mom as much as possible. Not just because Tiadrin was Rayla’s mother, but because Runaan respects Tiadrin’s prowess so much. She was the best, and every bit of Runaan’s efforts to be his best reflects his respect for her.

You don’t get to be the assassin leader unless you’re the best there is. Runaan knows that from both sides. And just like Tiadrin did with him, he does his best to teach Rayla everything she needs to stay safe and alive, so she can do her duty too, and come home safe to her family every day.

And, in the end, part of that duty had to be avenging her mentor’s mentor, her own mother, by accompanying Runaan on his mission. Her lessons were from Tiadrin, one step removed. If there was a flaw in her training, no one would trust her when it was her turn to lead the assassins, and she’s not even done training yet! Rayla understood Moonshadow honor, assassin honor. She was driven to ask Runaan to take her with him, and he could see exactly where she was coming from. Their honor was tangled up with Tiadrin’s. They couldn’t back out. They had to go to Katolis, them and everyone else Tiadrin had trained.

That’s why the binding ribbons came out. They were in a do-or-die situation, in the most literal sense.

They could not go home in failure. If they all failed, it would take out a whole line of assassin training, possibly the same one that had lasted for countless generations (okay maybe we can count them and there are like 30) and crush the Moonshadows’ spirits. And they’d literally rather die than see that happen. They were all ready to give their lives to restore Tiadrin’s honor, and their own, because without her legacy, there would be such a crater in the assassin corps that it might never recover.

Yes, this is basically my angsty “Runaan’s found family went into battle together and most of them died” headcanon again, but this time with a solid theory behind it. I’m not sorry. I love this angsty idea, it’s horrible. Do you see the cycle of trauma? I’ve got one more part to add, which may make it clearer.

Theory Part III: Assassin leaders always go serve at the Storm Spire once they successfully train their own replacement.

In this theory’s version of Why Laindrin Went To The Storm Spire, Tiadrin was always going to end up at the Storm Spire, once she became the assassin leader. That’s where the veteran assassin leader goes, see, to liaison between the dragon throne and the current Moonshadow leader. They know the assassins’ skills far better than any Skywings or dragons do, and they know the leader in charge of them, so they can give guidance or direction as needed, or simply phrase the Dragon King or Queen’s request in such language that the assassin leader knows intuitively what really needs to be done.

Yeah, Tiadrin writing Runaan mission directives. I can see it.

Tiadrin’s mentor would’ve left for the Spire when Tiadrin got promoted to leader. The person she trusted most in the world, who had trained her, left her behind, only to communicate by long distance. Moonshadow deniability, amirite--we’re not stabbing people, we’re sending tactical correspondence, yep that’s it. But Tiadrin was still surrounded by Runaan and the other young assassins, and she bonded with them all, and life was bright.

Then, the shadow came once again. Runaan was an excellent student, and she knew he was ready. Maybe she delayed, and delayed, Moonshadowing her reasons. Maybe she wanted the chance to bring life into the world, to try to balance out some of the death she had dealt. Maybe she wanted a few more years of domestic life in the Silvergrove with all her favorite elves, to bolster her heart for the years to come. Maybe her mentor at the Spire was up to shenaniganry in dragon politics and she wanted to buy them more time to lay those plans in place.

Knowing Tiadrin even the slightest bit, I will assume it was all this and more. But eventually, she couldn’t put things off any longer. She had to go fulfill her duty to the dragon throne and join the Dragonguard as the representative of the Moonshadow assassins who had bound themselves to the protection of Xadia long ago. She had to walk away from her bright life, her family, her friends, her allies, and climb up into that misty stone tower, to spend who knows how long away from everything she knew and loved.

And she did. She chose to walk away, for love of Xadia. She took her beloved husband with her, but she left the Silvergrove, Xadia’s protection, and her own daughter’s upbringing in the hands of the elf she chose to replace her. The soft boy she’d taught to stab, who would teach her baby girl to stab, too.

Because this is The Way.

I know I’ve had an angsty headcanon that assassins don’t retire. But, consider this: maybe one of them can. One of Tiadrin’s many plans could have been counting on Runaan’s extreme prowess and devotion to Rayla. If Tiadrin knew that she could return to the Silvergrove in peace and retire there with Lain once Runaan trained Rayla to take his place as the assassin leader, then she could live in the Silvergrove again for the rest of her life, and also get to see Rayla grown big and strong and become the assassin leader herself, another proud elf in a long line of honor and tradition. She might feel that was a big accomplishment, considering the dangers they all face. And it would be.

Yes, this would hinge on the fact that Runaan would have to leave the Silvergrove to replace Tiadrin at the Storm Spire, to serve as Rayla’s liaison to the dragon throne. Cycles of trauma, remember? Tiadrin can’t have all of her family back in one place, ever again. She has to love and train someone enough to put them through the life that she’s having to live, and she has to be strong enough not to let that break her. And then, she has to choose between them. She chose Runaan first, so that she could hope to choose Rayla later. She trusted him with all the future happiness of her heart. And he did his best with it.

But they didn’t quite make it, in the end, because of Viren.

I know this has been a lot of angst. I know. But there is a moonlit lining to this theory, and I think we all need to consider it. If there is a cycle of taking the assassin leader out of the Silvergrove to serve the dragon throne for ancient promise reasons, then if that ancient promise is ever rescinded or redressed in an effective way, the family won’t need to keep yeeting loved ones out of its orbit. And if assassins cease to be a necessary evil as a result, then no one will have to leave, or stab, again. At least, not for the same angsty reasons. They could stay together and never need to leave again.

It won’t be easy to break such a cycle. It might be impossible. But if anyone can manage it, it’ll be Tiadrin, and her family.

extra headcanon for this theory:

Tiadrin, packing up for the Storm Spire: One last thing, Runaan.

Runaan, stoically attentive because what are feels on the day your mentor leaves you: Yes, Tiadrin?

Tiadrin: Ethari will need to pick an apprentice to replace him, too. He should start looking now.

Runaan: Why? Only the Silvergrove’s Master Craftsman gets to pick an apprentice, and Ethari isn’t--

Tiadrin: *wink” Not yet, he’s not.

Runaan: Tiadrin, please, what have you done?

Tiadrin: I want to come back here someday, Runaan. I want to see your good work with Rayla. And I can’t do that if you flat-out refuse to leave your husband when Avizandum calls for you to replace me. So he needs to be ready to leave, too.

Runaan: I, I, I would nev-- I couldn’t--

Tiadrin: *patting his shoulder briskly as she strides out* Mmhmm, sure thing, kid. The council votes him in next Thursday. Be good while I’m gone! I want to find this place exactly the way I’m leaving it. Lain, honey, get your coat!

Lain, in the next room: Yes, Tiadrin!

Runaan, soft-eyed, to the silence in her wake: Yes, Tiadrin.

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp angst #laindrin #tiadrin #runaan #rayla #tdp headcanons #i liked her before but now i adore her

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greenygreenland · 3 years

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Father! Garmadon & Reader: The Day I Died

-kinda inspired by the movie ‘A Better Tomorrow’ [it’s on Youtube if you wanna watch it] and my own experiences

Summary: A few months after the Overlord’s ‘demise’ he returns and you find yourself feeling hopeless. Thankfully, Garmadon has your back this time and you aren’t alone.

NOTE: SAME TIME-LINE AS LIAR, SO YOU ARE THE GREEN NINJA INSTEAD OF LLOYD

Liar Part 1

Liar Part 2

Your mother was an amazing person. Sure, she left you and Lloyd when you were incredibly young, but only because she wanted to stop the final battle from ever happening to save you both from the pain of fighting your father in a showdown to the death. She may have left you, but she came back and tried to make it up to you even if it felt...odd to have a mother back after being alone for so long.

Your father was a different story. He was the imbalance that tipped Ninjago off its feet, the reason why you defied Destiny to become the Green Ninja, and the cause for all your suffering. He was evil, and sometimes, you wished he weren’t your father.

Despite the venom running through his veins being vanquished, he hadn’t dared show his face around you ever again. According the rare passerbyers you conversed with, he had set up his own ‘lovely and successful dojo’ a few hours away from Wu’s Academy (you thought that was a dumb name).

You weren’t sure if you wanted to be confused by how the former dark lord of evil could somehow attract people to his dojo or angry that he never bothered to visit. He knew where you were because your mum told you she talked to him a week ago. You didn’t know where he was because, well, how the heck were you supposed to locate your ex-adversary’s dojo in the middle of nowhere?

So where in Ninjago was Garmadon? You decided to wait and see if he’d decide to show up sometime before you perished of old age, but he never did. A few days passed, then a week, then another and another and another. You waited, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he might decide to show up and tell you he was sorry for being absent for ten and up years of your life, but why should you expect anything when your whole life had been a let-down?

Being the Green and Golden ninja practically meant holding up the sky. You had duties, a reputation, and an incompetent family to care for. Not only that, but being a teacher at Wu’s Academy meant wasting your life away in a classroom grading paperwork. Before that, you sacrificed yourself to defy Destiny and save Lloyd from all the trauma and heartache you currently dealt with, and even way before that, you were his stand-in parent for your absent father and mother. You were done wasting your thoughts on the false hope that you’d get what all your students had--a family with parents who were actually there for you.

“(Y/n)!”

That broke you from your thoughts. You turned in your chair to face Lloyd, pausing for a second to blink. It was still odd to see him so tall since he magically aged up, so it took a second for you to adjust to what you thought you’d see. “Do you need something?” you inquired. Lloyd shoved a gi in your arms. “Put that on and hurry. We need to go, like now!”

“Now? But the others? Are they still on that field trip or--?” Lloyd slammed the classroom door shut. “I’ll explain later, just hurry up!”

“Okay, okay!”

As soon as you’d finished changing, Lloyd took you by the hand and ripped open one of the windows. “We’re gonna have to jump.” He broke into a sprint, but you yanked him away from the window. “What do you think you’re doing?! We’re on the top floor!” He yanked you towards the window with a strength you didn’t know he even possessed.

“STOP LLOYD!” you shouted. “I SAID STO--!”

“Don’t use your elemental dragon!” he interjected. You were suddenly free-falling, clinging onto your brother like he were a stuffed animal. Oh, this was it wasn’t it? You’d die here, falling through a window as Lloyd reassured you you’d ‘be okay’. You screwed your eyes shut and wrapped your arms around Lloyd to break the fall, all the while preparing the goodbye speech you’d announce once you were dead.

The landing came, but the impact was softer than you expected. Lloyd let out a light chuckle as you opened your eyes and took in the sight of the Ultra Sonic Raider.

“Oh.”

He snickered at you, wiggling out of your tight embrace and climbing in a separate compartment. You settled into the familiar leather, strapping in and closing the hatch as Lloyd revved up the engine. He closed his own hatch, and just as you were about to ask him about what the heck was happening, he slammed the petal to the metal. You yelped as your head hit the back of your chair, gripping onto your seat belt for dear life. “Lloyd, you’re going over the speed limit!”

“Well I’m sorry I can’t abide by the law when we’re about to die!” he sarcastically exclaimed. “The Overlord’s back, and he’s after our power!”

Your eyes widened. The Overlord was back? That couldn’t be. You saw him die--he vanished into nothing, leaving only your father behind and nothing more. Not only that, but what did Lloyd mean by ‘we’? He didn’t have elemental powers. You took his place so he could be how you liked it: safe.

“What do you mean ‘our power’?” you grimly inquired. Despite taking the role as the Green Ninja, you knew that in theory it was possible Lloyd also inherited the same power you possessed since you were both A, siblings, and B, descendants of the First Spinjitzu Master. If he truly did inherit elemental powers, then all your hard work would have been for naught.

That was a scary thought.

“I,” Lloyd paused, heaving in a deep breath, “I have Golden Power.” Your heart stopped.

Golden Power.

Lloyd had Golden Power.

How were you supposed to keep him safe now?

You had the sudden urge to scream or do anything to let those in Cloud Kingdom know that you wanted to take the burden to your grave so Lloyd could have a better life than you. The burden would be miserable for you, but that was how you wanted it. Lloyd wasn’t supposed to share your burden, and you feared if he’d become as bitter as you. A sorrowful sigh left your lips as Lloyd frowned.

“There was a falling street lamp and Jay would’ve been crushed if I didn’t step in.” he said. “I don’t really know how I did, but there was this golden glow around my hands and then it hit the pole and made it explode. I’m sorry sis, are you mad at me?” His voice was softer than the time he apologised for spilling juice all over your favourite book. You shook your head, running a hand through your hair. “Lloyd,” you began, “I’m not mad, I just--I just wish I could have done more. Maybe if I...or...I could have....”

You gave up on trying to formulate a cohesive sentence, taking to shaking your head again. “I’m sorry Lloyd.” He huffed from the driver’s seat. “It’s not your fault that this happened. Maybe it was meant to be so that you wouldn’t have to deal with everything on your own.”

“Lloyd--”

“So what you’re my older sister? So what you’re supposed to take care of me? You’re always doing that no matter what it is, risking your life, your health, your freedom, your everything. You always forget that you’re still human even though you’re doing this and that.”

You sighed. “Lloyd, that’s because I have to. It’s my responsibility and--”

“So?” His voice shook. “I don’t want to be your responsibility anymore! You think I don’t see you stay up all night writing out how much you hate being the Green Ninja so no one has to hear you complain? You think I don’t see how much you keep giving until you’re left with nothing? The only reason why you hate dad is because you blame him for everything you’ve done.”

“I don’t blame him for my misfortune.” you icily retorted. “But it’s his fault for leaving. And because he left us, I wanted to make sure you grew up happy even without him and mom. I give so you don’t have to go through what I went through, but now look what’s happened. Destiny has been cruel and you’re the Golden Ninja just like me.”

The rest of the ride continued in silence, something you were unused to around your brother. He was a chatterbox and loved to talk about the latest issues of Starfarer, or the newest video games, but this time, his lips were sewn shut. He didn’t utter a word, and when you asked if he was heading back to the Bounty, he remained silent.

“Lloyd,” you gently said, “just tell me where we’re going.”

His grip on the steering seemed to tighten, a sign that he was nervous. “You’re gonna get mad if I tell you.” You huffed, crossing your arms and frowning. “I don’t have a reason to be angry because you haven’t told me yet.”

Another pause.

“You’re not gonna like this, but we have to stay here and lie low. The nindroids--they’re the guys who attacked us in the city--won’t be able to find us here.” He rounded a bend and stopped the vehicle. You opened the hatch and climbed out as Lloyd turned off the Ultra Sonic Raider. He followed after you, an apologetic look on his face as you made your way up a hill.

No explanation was needed; you knew exactly where you were. The only question that stayed in your mind was, ‘why?’. There could have been a hundred other locations to hide so much harder to find than here, yet the ninja just had to choose the one place you swore to never set foot in: your father’s dojo. Being in the same building as him was something you silently said you’d never do after waiting for him to visit you for months on end.

He was supposed to take initiative because he was your father, especially after everything he did.

You had the sudden urge to weep as Lloyd took you by the arm and dragged you along. Maybe you could wait outside for everyone, or sneak away to some remote village where you could go into hiding alone. As long as it was anywhere but here, you were fine.

Along the way, you passed Zane and gave him a wave. He smiled kindly as he always did, juggling the objects in his hands. “Did you run into any trouble along the way?” he inquired. Lloyd shook his head. “No, but I’m glad we didn’t because I don’t think I’m that good at driving yet.” You were about to interrupt and tell Lloyd you were staying out here, but he suddenly yanked you away from Zane and further up the hill. There was a beautiful waterfall behind the dojo that made you wonder how your father found such a serene place, but that thought left your mind as you stopped at the front doors.

You sucked in a sharp breath as Lloyd took your hand, giving it a good squeeze before sliding open the doors. Soft, yellow light flooded the darkness, drowning out the stars and moon. Your father stood in the middle of the serene room, staff in hand as he lectured the class. Kai and the others waved frantically from where they sat as Nya whispered for them to shut their faces. Your father followed their pointing and waving, raising a brow inquisitively until his gaze met yours.

“Ah,” he warmly said, “if it isn’t my daughter and son, so glad you could join us.” You curtly nodded while Lloyd broke into a full-on grin. “Dad! It’s great to see you again.” He smiled in return, motioning for you both to come in. “It’s wonderful to see you both as well. Take a seat wherever you’d like, the lesson was just about to start.” You closed the door behind you as Lloyd gladly made his way inside. You followed after him, taking in every bit of your surroundings as you could.

Jay motioned for you to take a seat on the floor between him and Cole. You swiftly sat down as Lloyd settled next to Kai. “Did you guys run into trouble?” whispered Jay. “We’ve been here way before class started!” Your father made his way around the room and sent Jay a look. “Silence!” He bonked him on the head, but not enough to injure your poor friend. You frowned, sending your father a disapproving look. He didn’t see it though since his back was turned.

“Close your mouth, and open your ears. Tonight’s lesson is the Art of the Silent Fist, to fight without fighting.” He turned to face everyone again. “May I have a volunteer?” The walls were suddenly real interesting for everyone, and you couldn’t blame them.

“(Y/n) would like to volunteer as tribute!” Lloyd piped up. Your jaw dropped and you looked over Jay’s shoulder with wide eyes. “No I--”

“The Ultimate Battle, round two!” he exclaimed. You sat there for a moment until you realised there was no getting out of it, so with a roll of your eyes, you stood, making your way to the middle of the room. Your father still had a warm smile on his face, but you didn’t return it. “Attack me,” he said, “but please, no powers, I happen to like my monastery.” There was a collection of giggles and snorts from his students that set you a bit on edge.

You rolled your eyes and threw a swift punch, aiming straight for his face. At the last second, Garmadon dodged and you ran straight into a wall. “You see?” he said. “The key is balance.” He set his staff on the ground to stand on its own before holding it again. “Let your opponent fight himself.” You gritted your teeth, this time throwing a roundhouse kick and then an uppercut. He dodged, and dodged, and dodged again. As you threw another punch, he yawned and that made you angry.

You threw a punch first, then a kick, and finally another kick, but he kept dodging. Heaving in a deep breath, you ran towards him, readying a kick to put this so-called ‘lesson’ to a close. At the last second, Garmadon bent over, taking your arm and tossing you over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

The world spun and you let out a groan. “Oh, (Y/n)...” mumbled Kai with a face-palm. The others followed, shaking their heads as you ran a hand over your forehead. “Pupils,” said your father, “I present to you the greatest ninja in all the land, the Golden Ninja.” There was a chorus of laughter that made your chest burn. You didn’t deserve that, or this, or the embarrassment leaking onto your face as you hauled your tired limbs off the floor. Nothing could have been worse than humiliation by the man you loathed.

Suddenly, you found yourself on that unforgiving sandy beach. You were on the Dark Island, preparing to prematurely confront your father before anymore harm could be done to you and the world. You couldn’t wait any longer, and so you had stepped in his way like an annoying fly that wouldn’t leave. You were going to end the imbalance once and for all.

“Easy, easy dear.”

You blinked away the haze from your eyes, the familiar voice grounding you in the present. Your hands were balled into fists and green light danced across your fingertips. When had your powers activated? You didn’t remember doing that.

“It’s only a lesson.” your father said. His voice was gentle, and there was a gleam in his eyes that made you falter for a fraction of a second. You saw regret on his face, but you weren’t about to stick around to confirm your observations. Your arms dropped to your sides and you let out a curt sigh. “Sorry.” Your tone was harsher than you wanted it to be. “Force of habit." You saw the ninja and Nya frown. "I think I’ll excuse myself from the lesson.” You respectfully bowed and silently made your way out the door, ignoring the calls of your friends.

The chirping crickets and gentle breezes of night helped ease the emotional pain building in your heart. You took a seat at the bottom of the stairs and placed your head in your hands. For a while, it was only you and mother nature savouring each other's presence. It left a lot of breathing room for you to think, so you did and reflected.

"May I ask why you are out here alone?" You met Zane's familiar eyes with a weak smile. "Hi Zane." He eyed the spot next to you. "May I?" You nodded and he sat down, adjusting his grip on the golden objects he tightly held. "What are those?"

"The Techno Blades gifted to us by Cyrus Borg before we were attacked. They can hack the system of a corrupted computer and are currently our only hope to defeating the Overlord." You nodded in understanding, allowing your shoulders to droop just a bit. "I can't believe he's back, it felt like only yesterday I defeated him."

"At times, one can forget to count the days." he softly said. You smiled as he scanned your face, taking in every single detail that cracked through your smile.

"What bothers you?"

You fiddled with your hands and shrugged. “It’s nothing, just...”

“Your father?” You nodded and Zane scooted closer to you. “It is only logical you are unused to his presence. You have been separated since you were very young, so it will take time to allow him into your heart again.”

You sat there in silence for a while, nodding in understanding as he offered a reassuring smile. The door of the dojo suddenly opened and Zane looked past your shoulder. He stood, taking the techno blades with him. “I will take my leave now.” You watched as he disappeared down the hill, sighing at the empty space by your side.

“Hello (Y/n).”

You jumped to your feet, balling your hands into fists like you were about to sock someone in the jaw. Your father closed the door behind and made his way down the steps as you relaxed your pose. “It’s just you.” you sighed out. Garmadon nodded. “Just me.” he confirmed. “About earlier--”

“It’s fine.” You turned your back to him, crossing your arms to hug yourself with an uncomfortable frown. He made his way down the stairs, taking a seat on the steps as you plopped down as far away as six feet could take you.

"The sky is quite beautiful tonight." You turned to Garmadon, raising a brow with a look of distaste as he kept his gaze focused on the stars. "When you were younger, you used to sit by your window every night," he smiled to himself. "You refused to go to bed because you were afraid of offending the stars amd moon."

You frowned, picking at a loose thread on your gi. "You remember that?" you quietly mumbled. He nodded, turning to face you with a sad smile. "Of course I do. How could I forget when that was your favourite pass time?" He paused, releasing a long sigh that really spoke of his age. "I know I have caused you and Lloyd so much suffering--something I wish I could reverse--but dwelling on the past won't change anything."

Dwelling on the past won't change anything? Now where have you heard that one? A bitter chuckle rattled past your lips. "Yeah, it's not like I spent everyday wishing you were there to give me the love and support I need. And it's not like I lost my childhood to take care of Lloyd and find a job when I was only fourteen and a half. I totally understand why it's best not to dwell on the past, but it's kinda hard when it's the reason why I'm who I am today."

You kicked at the ground absentmindedly, again avoiding the gaze of your father as if it were fire. "I don't understand why you're always absent. Even after the Final Battle, I've never seen you until now. At least mom stops by and drops something off, or sends post cards and photos of where she's been. She tells me she's missed me and writes letters, but you? I never hear anything--I've always heard nothing. Do you...do you even care?"

He sent you a heartfelt glance, but you ignored it, throwing a hand out to make a point.

"I probably shouldn't have expected anything because I'm always let down anyway. You've never seen this cartoon or movie? Well, course not, because I never had the luxury to sit down and take a break. How are your parents doing, are they coming to the school conference? Course not!" Your shoulders tensed and your breaths became shorter as anger finally took a hold of your heart. "One's been turned into an evil lord and the other's disappeared to find a way to stop a prophecy that could either make or break Ninjago from becoming a land of darkness! You know, I always dreamed of having a perfect, whole family, but that's never gonna happen, not when mum's always gone and you never, ever show up!"

You began walking down the last steps of the stairs, voice cracking as you continued. "I can't believe I began to hope something would change. How...how foolish of me."

You waited for Garmadon to say something, or anything really. Even if it was an insult, a scolding, or a yell, you would take it because then at least you'd remember how it felt like to have a parent tell you what was 'right' or 'wrong'.

Instead of shouting, he sighed.

"(Y/n)," he softly said, "there are three things I've been wanting to tell you for ages, but no matter how long I thought it over, I never found the right words until now." He paused and you kept your back facing him. "You have done all you could to protect Lloyd by defying Destiny to take his place. You became the Green Ninja to fight me and restore balance, then the Golden Ninja to defeat the Overlord and I combined. But now that Lloyd has begun to realise his powers, even you know that you cannot hold his hand much longer."

There was another pause that made your loud mind go insane. Why did he suddenly stop talking? Why had he gone quiet? Was he only saying this to make you feel bad for him?

You licked your chapped lips, clenching a fist. "Well? What's the third thing you wanted to say?"

"I am very proud of you."

Your heart seemed to weigh a ton as it sank in your chest and made your fingers go numb. You suddenly whipped around, marching back up the stairs with a look of disbelief on your face. "'I am very proud of you'?" you demanded. "You're just saying that! How can you be proud of a failure?" You placed a hand on your chest, giving it a good pat to throw your point across.

"I've...I've suffered and had to be a stand-in parent for Lloyd--heck, I even infiltrated Darkley's and pretended to be a boy just to w-watch over him!" You cursed your voice for cracking as you continued. "I hate you. I hate you for making me like this--for taking away my childhood and giving me all these burdens I can't carry! Everyday, I wondered if I was ever going to be able to save Ninjago when I knew I couldn't save myself. I've died a thousand times just to be who I am today, and I'm--" Tears streamed down your cheeks as you threw a hand over your face to hide your tears. "I--I can't..." You sniffled. "Where were you when I needed you dad?! When everyone else had someone, why did you...why did you leave me?" There was a moment of silence as you sniffled before warm arms were around your shoulders and hugging you tight.

"I wasn't there." admitted Garmadon. "I know I wasn't there when I should have been, even when I wanted to make it up to you. The truth is, I wasn't being responsible. I knew you would reject me, so I was a coward and feared the consequences of my actions." He hugged you tighter. "I love you (Y/n). I love you and Lloyd so much and I am more sorry for everything I've done than I can put into words."

And so you stood there in his arms, sobbing as he simply hugged you tighter. You didn't say anything, and maybe that was because you couldn't, so your father took the first step and released you from his arms, keeping a gentle hand on your shoulder. There were a few tears in the corners of his eyes but he smiled despite that. "It's almost dinner time. Why don't we head back inside?"

"Okay."

#ninjago zane #ninjago jay #ninjago cole #ninjago lloyd #legoninjago #lego #ninjago x reader #ninjagoxreader #ninjago garmadon #ninjago

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dragonherder2030 · 3 years

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So I watched Raya and the Last Dragon-

I honestly was very disappointed with the movie as a whole. I LOVE dragons and main movies and media just doesn’t have much of them that I have seen. So when I saw that Disney was making a movie about and staring a dragon character, I got very excited. I had loved the design for Sisu when she was just a concept art

She was much more colorful and had a very different face, a more regional face. She is definitely more water dragony compared to the actual final draft design. And she is just overall prettier in my opinion.

Spoilers under this point

Another thing is the continuity and main logic of the movie. In the beginning of the movie it is practically about 15 minutes of exposition. It tells that apparently all the dragons are water dragons, every single one since they all look the same, but that there were multiple dragons in the past. These evil creatures made of human greed or whatever started attacking humans, and well I guess other things but the humans primarily. When attacked, they pass through the human and either take or freeze their spirit or something I don’t remember exactly, but the person becomes stone. So the dragons being the most powerful creatures in the world, they tried to fight the things. The dragons were also turned to stone, all but one, The Mighty Sisu. In the exposition it says that she compiled all her magic into the orb, and used it to destroy the things and turn everyone back from stone. Except the dragons. Do they ever explain why it didn’t turn the dragons back to alive? No it does not, it absolutely does not, but ho boy there is SO much more. Later in the exposition, the dragon gem gets broken into 5 pieces, one for each of the tribes. And they each possess a piece of the gem now. So, when the gem gets broken, all the evil creatures from the very beginning just, come back! This is never explained- nothing is ever explained in this movie it was just made for the funnies I GUESS. This movie feels like a really bad book adaption HONESTLY. And at the end of the movie when everyone comes back because it’s a kids movie, it’s just AHHGH everyone is happy now all the dragons come back and everything is dandy. But why didn’t the dragons come back in the beginning? The whole moral of the movie is “Trust good”. Seriously that’s it. And when they put the dragon gem back together at the end everyone is like “oh wow we need to trust each other and that’s how the magic will WoRk”. But explained earlier when we hear Sisu’s whole backstory is that when SHE did the magic fix she trusted her siblings the most that she had in that moment, SO TELL ME WHY DIDN’T IT WORK!!?? It makes no sense to me at least maybe I’m just missing something. But it annoys me so much, nothing makes sense in this movie. Another theory I have is that there were 3 writers. Each assigned to a seperate story arc, one to the beginning exposition thing, one to the middle main part, and one to the climax and final bits of the movie. The thing is, the writers only vaguely know what the past ones did XD.

The next problem I have is with the actual magic and formulation of dragons, as well as what the heck is up with the dragon gem. But don’t worry, I have at least 2 more problems with this movie. So as Sisu gets more and more of the dragon gem shards, she gains new powers. But do you know why? Because APPARENTLY when the gem broke into the 5 pieces, the magic of her individual siblings who gave their magic to the gem was separated perfectly. Ok that may not make much sense. But when we see Sisu’s backstory it shows that her oldest brother made the gem, then each sibling except Sisu put their special magic into the gem. So then, when it broke, the individual gem pieces only had the 1 type of magic in them? Excuse me what? That doesn’t make sense, if I make a cake, then I won’t cut it up and get only egg from one slice, then a bunch of sugar from another slice. It’s just- really bad and they could have fixed it by just- not having the siblings at all. They so easily could have been written out of the story, instead Sisu could have no magic when she is brought back, which she practically has none, her “magic” is that she is a strong swimmer. But then as she gets the pieces she gains back parts of her original magic, that would have been more indering then the siblings. Now the second part of this is the actual powers. Ok, which sounds like more of a power, being able to glow, or being able to fly around by walking on raindrops. The second one right? Well, ThEY aRe BoTh COsIdeReD MaGIc iN tHiS UniVErSe. All the powers that Raya aquires from the dragon gem pieces is being able to do the glow, being able to shape shift into a human, and being able to walk on the rain. Now, that isn’t even the part I’m the most mad about. At the end of the movie when all the dragons come back, THEY ALL CAN WALK ON THE RAIN. LIKE WHAT!? I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE OLDER BROTHER’S MAGIC TYPE! Do you get what I mean by this movie having no continuity? At the end of the movie, Sisu was killed by evil cat lady, and all the dragons come back walking on the rain and just- resurrect her. Ok, I guess that could be explained away as all the magic beings being magical, but I still don’t like how easily they did it. Yet another thing is that Sisu can make a bunch of magical smoke, well not magical but it’s really shimmery and thick, that’s not explained, she just can do it.

Let’s talk about the relationships in this movie. I hate them. No ones characters are developed on or improved except for maybe cat lady- I need to find her name somewhere, but except for Namarii is her name, her and Raya. Namarii’s big stitch is, I don’t even know just not being the most evil person? Either that or the same trust thing, which would mean that her and Raya have the same character arc. Raya in the beginning of the movie is explained to be the daughter of the chef of clan Heart, one of the most prosperous out of the 5 clans. They at the start of the movie had the dragon gem, and the father guy, he invited every other clan over to have a big feast or whatever. So when they get there, young Namarii, all this is happening when Raya is like, 9 I think, but Namarii and Raya become friends over fangirling for Sisu. Namarii has a necklace of Sisu that she gives to Raya. And side note, they act as though Sisu isn’t the SAVIOR OF THIER LANDS, but she’s some really good singer. Well I guess they have to connect to all those youngsters out there with an obsession and that rElATaBlE moment when you fInD AnOTheR oF tHiEr kInD. That just triggered me. But since Namarii is such a big fan of Sisu, Raya, after being shown to be VERY offensive about the idea of the other tribes coming, just decides to show Namarii the dragon gem! But uh oh, twist, Namarii is actually bad oh noooo and everyone comes up and starts to fight over the dragon gem. Then it shatters and the evil things come back. So Raya and her dad are trying to escape, her dad had been injured from fighting an arrow to the leg, but the things are repelled by water. So what does the dad do? He yeets the child into a river(they are on a bridge at this point) after having a minute long conversation with her. Like, could he not just tip himself off to? But hey we have to give them characters angsty backstorys amiright? It’s just so stupid the character motives. So like, Idk 12 years pass by or something since Raya is an adult now. She actually has a pretty emotional prayer type thing to Sisu when she is trying to resurrect her to save the world. This movie has a few ups that I will put at the end. So let’s talk about Sisu now, ho boy, she is the “oh everything will be fixed with hugs and kisses”. You know what this is, this is the same exact dynamic that Poppy and Branch went through during Trolls movie! The exact same dynamic! HECK Disney couldn’t even get original personalities. Sisu blindly trusting everything gets them into wacky situations and causes some conflict between Raya and Sisu but BARELY ANY. And Sisu just seems like- really innocent, she’s oblivious all the time. She’s this ancient beast and she just has the most generic personality and I loath it. Namanii is actually someone I liked. She seemed like the most real character until the very end, just, the blindly “oh everything is alright now and I’m fine with everyone now trauma doesn’t exist”. Also on that point, apparently trauma doesn’t exist in this world, because Sisu lost every single one of her siblings, and just, doesn’t show any sign of grieving or remorse she just doesn’t give a thought to them. Except for the backstory bit but she just doesn’t seem to care. Also just a side note, none of those side characters are developed at all and just there for practically comic relief. The whole resolution of the movie is them putting the gem together and then all “hugging” each other and wow look at that it worked. *inhales* and then when Sisu comes back, she has the most emotionally dead response to Raya, none of the character reuniting is good. You know, if you have seen storks, that near end montage where all the babies are brought to the people? Yeah, that was 100% better then the resolutions of Raya and the Last Dragon. One scene that ticked me off so much was when that ninja baby was reunited with her parents, the mom, oh my gosh, she looked as if she had just found an old purse she misplaced. She did not look- ah I can’t even put it into words just look up the clip to get it.

That’s all that I have to say about the movie, I probably have more somewhere but honestly I couldn’t put it into words. Now, you know, I have to give this movie a few good opinions. The movie looked amazing, great character design(except for the dragons I dispose them) and everything looks gorgeous. As well as the animal design, I wish I could have seen more animals honestly they all looked really interesting and unique.

Sorry this post was so long I just wanted to put my opinions out there.

#my opinion #Raya and the Last dragon #Raya and the Last Dragon spoilers #spoilers #critics

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sometimesrosy · 4 years

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(1) Thank you for the gif(t)s of Misters Elba & Morley. I could always use a little more of them in my life ;) Sorry for the last rant but I’m perplexed by those regarding Bellarke as a six season platonic friendship possibly to turn romantic in the last stretch or not at all. And “turn” is generous since some prefer to use “forced” instead. I suppose it can technically be true but only in the strictest, most surface-level sense. It’s been a long time since I’ve thought of Bellarke as NOT part

(2) of a romantic narrative. I look back and see Bellarke as a three-sided dynamic- partnership, friendship, and romance, with each side of the triangle pushing and influencing the others and each season deepening the dynamic. Even season 1 had elements of all three. I’d say progression is the most accurate term to describe their story. Strangers of different hierarchical classes to political rivals to co-leaders to friends to lovers separated by trauma, politics, death, time, other partners to

(3) future couple. Not a single step exists in a vacuum. Their relationship and individual character development are pieces fit to form a complete puzzle over time. Or as I’ve come to see, a seamless 100-episode tale with interconnected threads from start to finish. The only right way to decipher meaning is to look beyond a collection of scenes to the full picture of what we have so far. All stories are chronicles of progression from one point to the next and romance plots are no exception. JR

(4) didn’t invent some newfangled revolutionary storytelling protocol. His story just requires us to look beneath the surface and connect the dots across a seven season sequence. By 6x10, there are no layers needed to be looked under. The romance is smack dab in the middle of the room for all to witness, figuratively and literally. Even the nonshippers can see it, it’s not exclusive to the trained eye of the romance lover. I thought I signed up for a great story years ago. But I never would’ve

(5) known HOW great it was without the thought-provoking, deep-dive analyses by you, jeanie205 and the 3rd in the triumvirate of fandom heroes, travllingbunny, the kind of insights that bring an accompanying joy to the show itself and leave one stupefied in awe. Thank you all, truly. I don’t have sure plans to watch the prequel yet but if the 3 of you will, it may just tip the scales for me into the affirmative. It’d be fun to geek out with you guys on a new-ish adventure from the start.

+++

I got chills when you said,

Not a single step exists in a vacuum. Their relationship and individual character development are pieces fit to form a complete puzzle over time. Or as I’ve come to see, a seamless 100-episode tale with interconnected threads from start to finish.

That was the most unexpected thing about this show. That it wasn’t just another fun show with hot people in the apocalypse with shocking twists dealing with complex questions-- which would be good enough, you know? Lots of fun. No, it was more. I did NOT figure out that it was a novelistic show until we got to season 3 and even then I didn’t understand how LONG TERM a novel was being told here. Not a novel, more like a series. A novel would be season long, but the narratives here have lasted for 7 seasons.

It is seamless. Subplots weaving in and out of the 7 seasons. Character arcs taking the whole series to complete. That actually really confused me in season 3, because I expected both Clarke and Bellamy to finish their hero’s journeys in that season, and instead, there I was, feeling like it was unfinished because they HADN’T returned from their journeys wiser and stronger, ready to change their worlds. Nope. They were still struggling and learning.

Just because I SAW the hero’s journeys in season 3 (a little late, mind you, since they started in s1 in the ‘hot people in the apocalypse’ phase,) doesn’t mean THAT was the entirety of the hero’s journey. It actually stands to reason that if they’re on a hero’s journey, that it’s a whole series long journey. Oooh. But then this hiatus, someone was like... are you sure Clarke isn’t on a HEROINE’S journey? And I, not really being an expert on the heroine’s journey and only seeing the hero’s part of it (which is like the first half of the heroine’s journey?) had to go research it and LO AND BEHOLD, her journey was the HEROINE’S journey, which TOTALLY fits with the dual protagonist, yin/yang, dark/light, head/heart, binary stars, feminist, mythic, epic love story of it all. NOW it all makes sense, why I couldn’t understand that her hero’s journey hadn’t finished yet (because it shifted into the more unexpected heroine’s journey.)

It always frustrates me when people say I can’t admit I’m wrong and am delusional about bellarke, because I have continually adjusted my theories as the story has gone on, changing them when something is off and doesn’t match canon and THAT’S why my theories are still holding up, which they are. Because I keep checking them back against canon. And when canon confirms the theories I have, I keep using them. When canon josses my theories and headcanons, I adjust. I ask myself, okay where did I go wrong? what is he really saying here? I’ve been struggling, particularly with Raven and Murphy’s roles in the show, and talked to various people about them, because I couldn’t grab ahold of them. With shipping, particularly, things can get confused. I’m wondering if Raven’s love story is not for another person at all, what if it’s self love? Because her most consistent relationships have actually been with familial relationships. Clarke as sister. Bellamy as big brother. Abby as mom. Sinclair as dad. While the romances have failed her. (whether they intended to start out this way or not idk, since all the actors who played her love interests asked to leave or were fired.) And I’m wondering if Murphy’s main love story is actually a spiritual love story. His romance with Emori is a good one, but here he is now wondering about immortality and morality, and he’s always been concerned with that just not secure enough to have answers. Maybe spirituality is his route to finding peace within his soul and coping with his mental illness and trauma? IDK. ANYWAY

I don’t think this show is flawless, and maybe they’ve had to franken-stitch some of their plotlines together to fit when things didn’t work out, and maybe some of their subplots ended in a way that didn’t satisfy us because we wanted something BETTER for those characters even though the tragic ending was part of the larger narrative, but I agree that it is seamless, one leading to the other to the next. When I look back at the storylines I didn’t understand or didn’t like as much, I can see how they fit with the larger narrative. How they lead to the ending the whole show is heading towards.

It’s actually very exciting. It’s not a new way to tell stories, it’s an old one, but it’s not one we see on tv very often, with its ratings and early cancellations and dependence on seasonal !POW! endings to keep people watching, and it’s impatience with slow story telling. They COMMITTED to a long term story despite the risk, and that must have been really hard with the pressures from hollywood and the money people and fandom and reviewers and even the cast. it’s remarkable and I can’t wait to see how it’s wrapped up. No matter what the endings are for our fave characters, I think it will be fascinating to see. And being able to watch the whole show, knowing how it ends, and that it was all crafted to be that way, is going to be really cool. It’s impressive, actually. I think the future will actually be much kinder to this show than the present is. Watching it week to week, you can’t see the development so much, but when we get the whole thing, everyone will be able to see it. I think this series is going to count as a future classic.

It’s like the reverse of GOT. We expected GOT to be novelistic, based on the epic ASOIAF novels as it was, we expected it to have a grand structure that pulled everything together and gave it a bigger meaning, and in the end, it was trash shlock with no meaning past boobies, action, trauma porn, and dragons. HOWEVER, The 100 was thought to be some trash teen scifi soap with no meaning but hooking up, action, trauma porn and apocalypses, and it’s ending up being an epic novelistic series with a grand structure that pulls everything together and gives it meaning. Basically, if JR had been hired by HBO to do GOT, he would have done it right. But D&D were hollywood hacks and flim flam men who only know how to do surface and don’t understand story. (and are also racist and misogynistic bullies.)

ANYWAY, nonny. Do you have a blog? You should be writing this stuff down under your own name. If you send it to me on anon because you don’t have your own blog, you should think about it. I’m pretty sure that @jeanie205 and @travllingbunny would agree with me. I have limited what meta I reblog due to past experiences, but I think other people would like to follow you.

#the 100 #epic story #novelistic #narrative arc #series finale

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humaudrey · 5 years

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TheThings is back on their bullshit

(WARNING: LONG RANT AHEAD!!!!)

Anyone know how to delete a YouTube video from someone else's channel (or just their entire channel all together) because...

This

Is SO

I don't even have the words!!!!

Once again, your girl watches one of their videos (several times unfortunately to really analyze this ish) so y'all don't have to and let me tell you, this one is 1,000,000x more infuriating than the one when they belittled Uma to lift Mal and make her better in comparison (link to my post on that here).

I've been recommended this video so many times since the trailers for D3 dropped and when I saw the title, I KNEW I was gonna hate it and low and behold, I DID!

So let's go over their "5 Signs on why Audrey is the real threat", shall we?

#1. Audrey's Outburst

So, their first piece of evidence as to why Audrey's the unfathomable dark force (their exact words) is because of the fact that Audrey yelled no as Ben proposed to Mal, "ruining their beautiful moment". They then explain that it would be "natural for Audrey to be jealous since she is Ben's ex-girlfriend", being perfect okay with the ugly "black, bitter, ex-girlfriend" trope that many have loved to stick onto her in their fanfics (I see y'all 👀), and then compares that moment to when Ben asked Mal to be his date for coronation in D1, stating that she didn't react so strongly before, so why now? EXCUSE ME?! Our girl left the Tourney Field crying that her BOYFRIEND had serenaded another girl with a love song, and not a single person ran after her. She had every reason to be upset then, too. Who's to even say why Audrey's saying no? It could be a terrible misdirect on the trailer's part. The theory that Audrey's possessed is swirling around everywhere, maybe it had already begun to take effect, which is why she's "acting so strangely". D3 hasn't even been released and they're already villainizing her. Figures.

They also use the typical argument that Audrey's into titles and she wants what Mal has, and that she didn't want Chad because he was merely a prince.

She doesn't want Chad because CHAD CHARMING IS A MANIPULATIVE TOOL! Ask Evie! Chad only thinks that being king would get Audrey's attention. You wanna talk about jealousy? Titles? If ant character is jealous of anyone's titles, it's Chad freaking Charming, not Audrey.

#2. The Crown

An obvious piece of evidence is the fact that "Audrey" steals the Queen's crown and Maleficent's scepter from the museum. Whatever, right? They assume that Audrey's faking her slumber when the sleeping spell hits, giving her an alibi. They then have the FREAKING AUDACITY to say that AUDREY, a non magical princess, who has been so anti-magic since D1 (with a grandmother who she loves dearly, that's triggered by the mention of said spells and curses), was the cause of the curse. Their evidence? Well, her family's VERY familiar with it, so it makes sense, right?

NO!!!!

Audrey has NO magic whatsoever!!! Did they forget that? The only reason her family is "so familiar" with the sleeping spell is because THEY ARE VICTIMS OF SAID SLEEPING SPELL!!!! And it's not like she could cast it, because, again, AUDREY HAS NO MAGIC!! If anyone is familiar with a sleeping spell, it's Mal. After all, she almost put Evie under just so she could grab her mother's specter from her.

How dare you take an Innocent family's trauma and turn it around to make them the bad guys?

#3. The Scepter

They continue to say that "Audrey" is to blame for the sleeping spell, rather than Celia, Hades, or Uma because "Audrey" has the specter. And immediately, they suggest that maybe Audrey's not working only. You wanna bet who they hinted Audrey was cooperating with?

If you guessed Uma, you'd be correct. All because Uma's seen laughing in her teaser. WHAT?! So, not only do you attempt to take Audrey's entire character and drag it through the mud, you take ANOTHER black girl's name that you've already tried to ruin and tarnish and say they're working together because they're BITTER?

If they're BITTER, it's ONLY BECAUSE YOUR WHITE, PLAIN, BARNEY COLORED DRAGON FAIRY PRIVILEGED PRINCESS PROSPECT FAVE had treated them HORRIBLY.

They end their third sign with the line "We knew Audrey was a mean girl, but we didn't think she'd stoop so low".

The meanest thing Audrey has ever done INTENTIONALLY, was 1.) Tell Evie that she and her family don't have a royal status in Auradon (to which, she is technically correct) and 2.) Tell Mal that she and Ben wouldn't last because she's "the bad girl infatuation".

Jane should be branded the mean girl because she turns on the one girl that helped her with her rise to popularity (which, granted, was for malicious INTENTIONS and caused EVEN MORE self esteem issues by degrading her).

MAL should be branded the mean girl, if anyone! She's:

Dumped rotten shrimp on her former best friend because she laughed at her

Forced a guy to throw a party since his mother was away, knowing that his abusive mother wouldn't be okay with it

Then locked a girl in a closet full of BEAR TRAPS at said party all because she wasn't invited to her birthday party when they were SIX YEARS OLD

Dumped lye on another former best friend's hair because she DIDN'T WANT TO BE COMPARED TO HER

Told another girl that all she had going for her was her personality, so she needed the wand to make herself pretty

ROOFIED HER SOON TO BE BOYFRIEND INTO DATING HER IN THE FIRST PLACE JUST TO GET A FRONT ROW SEAT AT HIS CORONATION SO SHE COULD STEAL THE WAND

AND TAKES SAID WAND FROM THE GIRL SHE EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATED EARLIER AND POINTS IT DIRECTLY AT AUDREY ALL BECAUSE SHE KNEW THAT MAL WASN'T GOOD FROM THE JUMP

Let's see a video ranking Mal's top five worst moments, huh? There's plenty of those to use for a freaking video.

#4. It's All About Mal (sounds like D3)

They start this point off with: "Audrey has beef with Mal".

AS SHE SHOULD!

They use the fact that Mal stole her boyfriend and her title and their families history with one another, so Audrey has this motivation to ACT OUT AGAINST HER ENTIRE COUNTRY? Not buying it! I won't buy it, especially since both parties seemed to have made amends at the end of D1 when Mal silently curtsies as a lame form of an apology that Audrey gracefully accepts anyway like the future Queen of Auroria would. Audrey's even seen bowing willingly at the end of Set It Off, and is even cheering and dancing with her friends as Mal and Ben share their moment under the fireworks, so clearly, Audrey's not broken up about it in the slightest.

They propose a theory that Audrey's absence in D2 is because she's planning her revenge in Sherwood Forest, and that she doesn't have car troubles because "Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather should be more than capable of handling it, so she's only calling Chad to help her plot her scheme.

Whatever they're smoking, I want it.

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather can't help Audrey with her car troubles because of the MAGIC BAN!! They needed Chad to help with her car.

And I HIGHLY DOUBT that Disney would plan something so carefully since the entire series is branded with plot holes and inconsistencies anyway, so... 🐸☕

#5. Face Off Time

Their final point states that Mal has to face off against the enemy and they use the first teaser of dragon-Mal blowing fire at "Audrey" on top of the castle, and the card at the end that says "betrayal", that Audrey has betrayed all of Auradon. And since Mal only turns into a dragon against SERIOUS ENEMIES LIKE UMA IN D2, Audrey has to be a REAL THREAT.

Thank God they're probably not making a D4, because if they continue this trend of WOC wronged by Mal as the villain, I'd be scared for Evie...

So, in their words, Audrey and Uma, two of the few black girls in the entire franchise who have every God given right not to like/trust Mal, are Mal's MOST SERIOUS rivals, as if Hades doesn't at ALL pose a threat to Auradon. No, Audrey is So mUcH MOre THreATEninG thAN ThE GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD, SO SHE MUST BE STOPPED!!!

I see you, TheThings, and if I didn't despise your channel before, I hate it that much more now after enduring 5 minutes of hell with you guys.

AND, TO TOP IT ALL OFF THEY CLEARLY SHOW THEIR BIAS OF MAL OVER AUDREY!!

Like, just say you're racist and GO! Audrey's clearly influenced by some magical being, whether it be Hades (WHO WE SEE DOING SOME KIND OF MAGICAL RITUAL WITH HER AND HIS EMBER IN A TRAILER, BUT I GUESS THEY CHOSE TO IGNORE IT FOR SOME REASON 🐸☕), Dr. Facilier, Celia, or maybe even Maleficent. Your reasons for making Audrey the villain are pathetic, and I wish I could block a YouTube Channel so I would NEVER see another video from your channel ever again.

I'm so sick of how "mean" brown girls are treated in media AND fandoms. Why does Audrey get all of his libel while Mal gets away with EVERYTHING? Why are the Cheryl Blossoms, the Quinn Fabrays, the Kitty Wildes, and every other mean girl that Emma Roberts has ever played are so praised and are instant fan favorites while the Josie McCoys, the Santana Lopezes, and the Brees are seen as the bullies when, at the end of the day, they're both different sides of the same damn coin?

And if you don't see a problem with this, then, newsflash, you are the problem!

So, I end my rant with this:

And a short tag list containing: @amityravenclawelf and @coco-rena because I know these two are looking forward to this!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

And I apologize for the typos but I was HEATED!!

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targsdaenerys · 5 years

Note

Jon’s wolf is white, like the Targaryen’s hair. Was it a sign? Were they hinting that since season 1? 🤔

there’s no way they wouldn’t be.

their stories are both parallel to each other, along with Jon’s parentage, and yall know how I’m a slut for it. I’m going to use this ask as an excuse to assess the Pilot. This mainly turned into a Jonerys Parallel Meta, sorry about that - but what comes with Jonerys parallels IS his parentage. Let’s start off with some basics:

A Song of Ice and Fire.

If you don’t follow, read the title again. Here, I’ll give you a hint: A Song of Ice and Fire.

If you still don’t understand, i translated it for you: The Story of a Stark and Targaryen. OR: The Story Of How The North’s Bastard Journeyed And United Those Beyond the Wall and The Girl with Blood Of Fire And Dragon Conquered Essos Managing To Find Each Other. The whole series is just how two halves that find themselves as physical and locational polar opposites join together.

To answer your question: in no way a coincidence. The Targaryen’s honestly identify as what we would say, Albino. White hair, pale skin, and the real characteristic of red/pink/violet eyes. This Albino model is a beautiful example of Targaryen characteristics:

As we all know, Ghost is Albino. As well as the runt of the litter, or the outcast. Something both Jon and Dany are to their families. GRRM could have easily just given Jon another wolf that was a runt, but he also made it Albino. Not to mention Dany getting a white horse:

He basically gave Jon a hint of his parentage in the pilot. I forget where I saw it, but there is a wonderful Theory Video on Youtube that expresses the idea that Three-eyed Raven!Bran pointed Jon into the direction of finding Ghost since there was honestly no way Jon heard the rustling that told him Ghost was there. Much like when Bran called out to Young Ned and he turned around, although could not see him.

3. Their scenes

Believe it or not, their scenes even parallel to each other down to the order.

Jon’s first scene:

Introducing his personality + relationship with his family. The toxic relationship between him and Catelyn.

Dany’s first scene:

Introducing her personality + creepy relationship between her brother.

Both are the victims of the abuse.

The last pics i chose are VERY similar

Jon’s second scene:

Establishing his level of power/family’s level of power. A secondary character in the scene hence its Ned doing the execution and it highlights his honor. But still has (two) lines to his brother that could have very well be given to Robb. (almost word for word in the books, as well.)

Dany’s second scene:

She has her meeting with Khal Drogo and Viserys’s conversation about when the will be married. The meeting ceremony parallels the Stark’s execution ceremony. We then go on to the conversion, which establishes Dany’s place, her brother’s place, and family’s place. She is a secondary character in the scene that exchanges her only two lines with her brother.

Jon’s third scene:

Hunting with his family. They happen upon a gross dead Stag first. Then find the Direwolves. Most importantly, Ghost, the one white wolf out of all of them and his iconic sidekick. As I said before, albino. The Direwolves are considered extinct/north of the all, and yet they find them. He only finds Ghost after identifying his place in the family.

Dany’s third scene:

The Dothraki wedding. Surrounded by gross dead animal meat (I’m not vegan, it just looks gross lol). Accepts her place in the family, and is gifted her dragon eggs, aka iconic sidekicks. Considered extinct. Is then also gifted a white horse.

4. As we know, those are not all of Jon’s scenes. We also have the shaving scene, Royal arrival, and being outside during the feast and invited to join Nights Watch. Although not parallel to the order of the scenes, these all connect to what happens to Dany as well.

Shaving scene = Bathroom scene

Getting prettied up for royal arrival

Nudity

Personality: Dany being timid, Jon being teased for not liking girls more than his hair. Later translates to their traumas of being a bastard and the abuse of her brother.

Royal arrival = meeting ceremony

Kinda self-explanatory. Both Lannisters/Baratheon and Dothraki are to play a significant role in their families’ fates.

Outside the feast = Dothraki Wedding

Isolation; although a big family deal, Jon is not allowed inside, highlighting his place in the family of always being excluded. And although it is her wedding, Dany is the most alone shes ever been.

Tyrion’s conversation = Dany’s gifts

These feelings are both alleviated a bit when Tyrion finds Jon and empathizes with him and Dany is given her gifts. Both events establish their roles as characters; the Bastard of the North and Girl with/ Mother of Dragons.

Night Watch Invite = Marriage Consummation

These are both key scenes. It sets off the story we will see them in for the next 5-6 seasons before meeting each other. Jon is told the way to be treated like anything but a bastard in to join the Night’s Watch; Dany is told the only way to go ‘home’ is to marry Khal to get his armies. The invite starts Jon off on his journey in the Watch and North of the Wall while the Consummation officializes Dany’s marriage with Khal, hence her own journey across Essos. AKA embarking to the coldest and hottest places in the GOT/ASOIAF world.

I hope this was a satisfying answer! Again, GRRM had said the whole story is Jon and Dany. Jon’s parentage being half Targaryen mixes in with the parallel of their love story and how they are two people with similar abusive pasts, embark on a 6 season journey on the opposite ends of the world, only to grow as one and finally, against all odds including death, come together as one. Its why their parallels are so beautiful, and honestly, unbelievable to me. they told the same story while polar opposites. the cinematography used to show it really brings it out.

There are so many other scenes that definitely build to his parentage; the context of it all honestly blows my mind and the way they play it out is one of the main reasons i think GoT is so epic. i hope i can find the patience to do it all one day.

#jonerys #jonerys meta #jon snow #jon snow meta #ask #anonymous #jon x dany #jon x daenerys #daenerys x jon #jon snow x daenerys targaryen #jon snow x daenerys

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jamiebluewind · 5 years

Text

Fantasy High Theory: Fabian has an eating disorder

TW: eating disorder symptoms, anorexia symptoms, abuse mention, death mention, violence mention, gun mention, alcohol mention, drug mention, trauma mention, smoking mention,...

Word Count: about 2100

I know this is a big assumption to make with what we have, but I couldn't ignore all the data and the warning signs. In fact, I think that even if Fabian does not have an eating disorder at this time, he's certainly at risk for one and needs the issues addressed before it gets worse.

Before I get into it, let me remind everyone that I am about to talk about a very heavy subject. Remember, stay safe and consider the warnings before you continue. You can always message me for a summary of the red flags or for an edited version if you need it. I would rather you be safe than to have you're like on my theory.

Okay? Okay. Let's start by defining a few things.

Eating Disorder: Any of a range of psychological disorders in which people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts/emotions. People with eating disorders typically become pre-occupied with food and/or their body weight/shape.

ARFID: Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder is an eating disorder characterized by eating very little food and/or avoiding eating certain foods. It does not include having a distorted body image (as occurs in anorexia nervosa) or being preoccupied with body image (as occurs in bulimia nervosa). People with avoidant/restrictive food intake may not eat because they lose interest in eating or because they think eating has harmful consequences. They may avoid certain foods because of their color, consistency, or odor. When it becomes more severe, it can cause substantial weight loss, slower-than-expected growth in children, difficulty participating in normal social activities, and sometimes life-threatening nutritional deficiencies.

Anorexia nervosa: Diagnosed when patient BMI (body mass index which is a rule of thumb measuring body size vs mass) is low for their age and height. Severity is classified as mild (BMI of greater than 17), moderate (BMI of 16–16.99), severe (BMI of 15–15.99), or extreme (BMI of less than 15). Hallmarks of anorexia include limited food intake, excessive monitoring of the calorie and fat content of food, fear of being “fat”, problems with body image, denial of low body weight, excessive exercise, food rituals, cold intolerance, mood swings, sleeping issues, chronic fatigue, distorted body image, and many more. Eventually, the body goes into starvation which cause a lot of bad symptoms.

Atypical anorexia nervosa: All of the criteria for anorexia nervosa are met, except the individual's weight is within or above the normal range.

Again, ANY BMI can still mean a person has an eating disorder. It is NOT confined to those that are underweight. The BMI is only there as a red flag and to help classify severity of anorexia. I want to make this very clear, not just for my theory, but for the people reading this who recognize parts of it in themselves or others. I'm about to give an example that gets... personal in order to show that people who don't fit the stereotype of being underweight can still have an eating disorder. How personal? My own.

I am overweight to obese (depending on the doctor and the range). I don't exercise much. I eat pretty well around friends. But I have an eating disorder. I just... don't get hungry most of the time, so I forget to eat a lot more often than is healthy. A LOT more. I've been to the hospital a few times due to dehydration. I've collapsed because I literally forgot to eat for two or three days. I could have died at one point because despite being overweight, I was eating so little that things just... stopped working. Again, I was overweight. People and doctors thought I was just lazy. I was told to eat less and exercise more. Even my blood tests came back fine until one day, they didn't. And even then, nobody listened. Somebody doesn't have to look how you expect them to in order to have a problem. Also, don't be afraid to reach out for help if you feel like some of this hits close to home or someone you know is showing symptoms. It's okay to need help.

So remember, eating disorders can affect anybody with any body. The important thing is to be kind, supportive, and encourage professional help such as cognitive therapy.

****

Now to list Fabian's risk factors (I only listed the ones I believe he has)

Dysfunction family: This is a big risk factor for Fabian. His father is chaotic evil and (despite loving his son) puts massive pressure on him and tries to make him conform to his ideal for most of Fabian's life. Fabian has seen his father abuse his crew and snap at the drop of a hat. His mother has been a heavy alcoholic and mostly absent his entire first 16 years and when she gets off alcohol, she puts an extreme amount of pressure on him herself.

Abuse: This is another big one. His parents have been verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, neglectful in a variety of ways, controlling, manipulative, isolating, and his mother rested his food intake. He could have also been physically abused in the guise of sparing.

Genetics: Fabian's mother is very slim. Using images of weights and comparing it to her shape, she in fact fits the underweight shape which may or may not imply a genetic component depending on if the normal body shapes are different for high elves or not.

Exposure to warped body ideals and weight stigma: Exposure to "body ideals" in places like the media (especially if at a young age) can increase body dysfunction and eating disorder risk. Weight stigma can make this worse due to discrimination and stereotyping based on a person’s weight. Fabian has actually been exposed to this a lot due to his father and the crew. He's a kid around very strong muscular people and he feels pushed to get stronger to live up to his dad. It's also very easy to imagine that crew members who were not strong or active enough got a very bad reaction from his father, which would reinforce the ideal. Some of this is conjecture, but it's not so far outside the realm of possibility to be impossible.

Participation in sports: He's on the Bloodrush team and is a fencer.

Pressure to have a certain body shape from family: I think this risk factor is there too, especially when his mother takes over training.

Bullying/Teasing: Fabian was actually bullied by peers when he first starts school, but I believe his parents were bullying him long before that.

Trauma and PTSD: Oh boy, is this solid. He was most likely traumitized by his parents before high school. He saw two new friends die the first day of school and nearly died himself, only saved by Riz. He watched two teachers die by gunshot right in front of him (and a staff member killed by bludgeoning). Fabian mentions having nightmares about Riz killing Daybreak which might have been due to it being via gunshot. He was forced to kill people due to the situation he found himself in. The person who was supposed to have been helping them the entire time (Biz) turned out to be an evil dude who trapped one friend in a palimpsest and wanted to capture another. He was stuck in jail for weeks! His family was attacked, his home was damaged, and his dad died (and by his hand no less). He and his friends almost died to a dragon. That's a LOT of trauma for a kid to try to process and Jawbone mentioned that he never came to visit him, so he probably dealt with a lot of it on his own.

Low self-esteem: This is unfortunately something else he has. Despite all the bravado, he doesn't know how to be a friend or have people like him for who he is (instead of who his parents are or how much money he has). He tries to put up a cool front, but he judges himself very harshly.

Perfectionism. One of the strongest risk factors for an eating disorder is perfectionism, especially self-oriented perfectionism, which involves setting unrealistically high expectations for oneself. If they fail to meet their high expectations, the person becomes very self-critical. Fabian has this type of perfectionism.

History of an anxiety disorder: This one is reaching, but possible. People often show signs of an anxiety disorder (generalized anxiety, social phobia, OCD,...) before the onset of an eating disorder and Fabian stays on edge a lot, worries excessively, puts up a front, and deals with nightmares.

Substance abuse: Fabian has had alcohol and drugs before the age of 16, his parents almost encouraging it. He smokes regularly. Addiction runs in his family as well with his mother being an alcoholic and his father doing multiple drugs. Neither parent even hides the fact that they take drugs and drink alcohol to excess, the crew probably took drugs and got drunk in front of a young Fabian, and Bill offered drugs to his friends upon meeting them.

History of using weight-controling methods and dieting: Fabian exercises a great deal. He skips meals. He has a limited number of things he will eat. There is a lot of evidence to back this up.

Limited social networks: This was a HUGE issue before high school. Fabian was very isolated. He had no friends, limited social activities, and lacked proper social support. Recently, he's been skipping class exclusively which on top of smoking a lot, puts distance between him and other people.

Long story short? Our boy is at risk. Big time.

****

List of common signs of eating disorders (including anorexia)

Limited food intake: Seen when he has mostly protein smoothies, his mother tries to give him limited rations, and when he refuses to eat with his friends more and more as the series goes on. The first incident of it was in Cool Kids, Cold Case where Fabian refused the food he was offered on two separate occasions, passing it to Riz both times. Once was after the battle with Daybreak and being stuck at the police station a good while. The other was when the teens were hanging out at Riz's appartment when Sklonda got takeout. Fabian's mom also makes him earn food as seen in the live show. This mentality could have very well been internalized, even with Cathilda there to try and give him more.

Excessive monitoring of the calorie and fat content of food: He worries about empty calories, how fattening something is, and removed the cheese from a slice of pizza and dabbed the oil

Fear of being “fat” or in a shape that is not the ideal: In episode 1 of season 2, he is very preoccupied with staying trim and tight.

Excessive exercise: He exercises who knows how long every morning plus for Bloodrush plus the times outside of that

Food rituals: This is interacting with food a certain way (like small bites or how it's prepared) which causes anxiety when not followed. The pizza event might be one, but it's hard to say without a pattern.

Sleeping issues: Fabian has issues with sleeping, dreaming, and nightmares. His father confirmed this and he himself mentioned his nightmares.

Weight loss: By comparing his previous official artwork with his new official artwork, it's easy to see that Fabian looks visibly thinner. He's also VERY cut. (very defined muscles requiring very little fat) for his age. He was muscular last year sure, but his chest and abs are much more defined this year. Being that cut means that despite how muscular Fabian is, he has been eating less and probably doing fat burning exercises, getting a lot of his nutrition from multivitamins and whey, and would have less energy than normal.

Negative energy balance/chronic fatigue: This is only a possibility, but it deserves being mentioned. If this is going on, it puts a spin on some of Fabian's other actions in season 2, episode 1. He showed up late on move in day and didn't really move anything (just carried a book), which might have been a character thing, but could have also been because Fabian is running on empty and capable of things like adrenaline fueled busts of energy, but otherwise dealing with low energy and fatigue.

Also, Fabian is smoking now which works as an appetite suppressant as is common among those with eating disorders.

(Signs with no evidence as of this post: problems with body image, denial of low body weight, cold intolerance, mood swings)

~*~*~*~*~*~

TLDR: Fabian is showing a lot of symptoms of an eating disorder and also over a dozen risk factors. The number of both is substantial enough to see a pattern. Enough that I sincerely hope that it's acknowledged during the season because if Fabian does not have an eating disorder, he is at substantial risk of developing one.

PS: I know it's data heavy, I might have missed a few things, and it could be totally wrong, but I seen enough there that I thought it might make for a solid theory. D20 is no stranger to heavy subjects and I think if they do cover it, they will do a good job (as always). If they don't, I still learned a lot making this theory and maybe a few of you will as well. ^_^

#fantasy high #fabian seacaster #d20 theory #dimension 20 #d20 #theory #tw eating disorder #tw anorexia #tw anxiety mention #tw abuse mention #tw violence mention #tw trauma mention #fantasy high spoilers #tinfoil time

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internetremix · 5 years

Note

In IR lore, what are the personalities of your personas? Basic likes and dislikes?

Kristen: Goggles is An Child and behaves as such. She's very cheerful, very curious, a bit mischievous and also 100% obsessed with making fanwork of her internet family... like a goddamn weirdo. She'll usually be hanging out with everyone, spot some sort of inspiration, squeak with joy and then rush off to write or draw. She's also the defacto leader of the Smol Squad, which is composed of herself, Shyner, Jojo and Chi-chi, and she's usually the one squeaking out ridiculous plans in muppet for dumb shit like stealing cookies and trying to trap people in fanfiction scenarios. She likes to help and can often be found doing such things as assisting Xander in his many schemes or just popping up to provide shit like charts or hold things for other people- basically whenever it would be funny to have some goddamn muppet backing something up.

She loves plush toys, particularly Crockernanner, and also loves sugar, star decorations, and cuddles. She likes being picked up and loves attention, and she's pretty consistently attached to at least one person, often her big brother Split if she's not with the Smol Squad. She is in eternal war with Phill since he bullies her constantly, and will occasionally try to set up elaborate traps for revenge only to fail miserably. Also she's a huge weeb. She does not like to sleep and will often go days without it before being dragged off by some bigger person to take a goddamn nap you ridiculous child. She is also very afraid of thunderstorms, she doesn't like loud noises or the dark.

She also has... various flaws and problems. But those are spoilers and I have no idea when/if we’ll be doing story stuff with IRsonas so I don’t want to give too much away with that.

Sorry this is very long, I think about my child a lot.

Jojo: JoJo is also a very happy child... like, stupid happy all the time. Like, they don't really have a concept of being angry. they're either manic happy or a bit sad. They love to find any way to make anybody smile or laugh, whether it be a somber happy, or a crying fit of laughter. They thrive off of happiness. They're a bit mischievous as well, and will try to play pranks and swipe things to chew on. They'll just appear in random places you'd never expect. like, in the pantry, the vent, or in your drawer. They chew things all the time to keep their dragon teeth sharp! They do tend to come off as obnoxious and kind of useless sometimes? But that's ok.

They love happiness, rocks, swimming, sandwiches, Vanilla coke, coffee, pianos, stars, ghost stuff(horror genre), and laughter. JoJo is pretty similar to Goggles now that I think about it x_xJoJo is best friends with Phill, and will always be on him in some way. Like his leg, back, holding onto his scarf by their teeth, etc. They're also very close with Goggles and Shyner, and Scott (even though Shyner tries to chase JoJo off with knives, JoJo will take it as a game of tag or something)JoJo doesn't like being yelled at or being told to go away. They get spooked easily by loud noises. They always get paranoid when they think someone is mad at them and will go to ungodly lengths to make them not mad or slightly annoyed with them, which sometimes makes people more annoyed with them than they were before.

JoJo is just an exaggerated version of me XD

Atwas: Atwas is fairly easy going. They make light of things often, and often hide serious sentiments behind jokes. They’re the type to roll with goofy and silly situations, and are very “yes and” type that enjoys escalating things in the name of light-hearted fun. They enjoy playing pranks, especially ones that take advantage of their hologrammatic nature (being able to enter and ‘possess’ electronics is something that they take advantage of often). Being technically in the cloud and a part of the internet at all times, they will often chime in with fun (often unrelated or humorous) metrics about situations and people as they occur—and often forgets that having a HUD isn’t something everyone has access to.

Being ‘technically’ invulnerable, atwas isn’t phased by the more dangerous things that go on in the IR tower, but usually prefers being a spectator or commentator as opposed to being an active participant in general shenaniganry. They don’t have any particular animosity towards anyone, and will occasionally help manage technical parts and functions of the tower.

They enjoy things like tech, cold weather, tea, fun statistics, darkness; and aesthetics like Film Noir and Retrowave.

They dislike things like excessively hot weather, being interrupted, getting too personal, having to put in a lot of “effort”, and being out of the loop.

Shyner: Shyner can easily be summed up to a tsundere in denial, and is the definition of an agent of chaos. If something goes wrong, she’s the one pouring a trail of kerosene to let the fire spread. She's loud, impulsive, and really doesn't give two shits. While quirky and charismatic, she’s also sarcastic and witty, reveling in the amusement of making fun of others. She’s often stubborn and impatient, thinking highly of her own beliefs and angered by those who dare to challenge her ideals. She also lacks a filter, and enjoys garnishing her words with colorful profanities. Filled with gripes of past trauma, she’s engaged in a constant internal war of turmoil and grief. She’s incredibly cautious and closed off around those she doesn’t trust, and can be very selfish. Despite this, she’s loyal to the few people she cares about, going out of her way to put them first if a dire situation were to arise. She’s also very sneaky and mischievous, often finding amusement in spying on others. Her MBTI is INTP-T.

Her hobbies include stargazing, ghost hunting, spying, and Satanic worship. She enjoys melancholy vibes, horror movies, animals, thunderstorms, and has an unhealthy obsession with sweets. Yes, this child will stab you without hesitancy if you take her cookies. She dislikes seafood, big crowds, kiddie leashes, and is afraid of experiencing intense emotion she doesn’t understand.I love my satanic smol bean very much. If I may be so bold as to dive into the nitty-gritty psychology, Shyner possesses many flaws, a lot of which I personally struggled with growing up. She is a reflection of my past self, some gripes with my current self, and the perception of how I could have turned out if I hadn’t met my family at IR. Hiding behind the exterior of being a merciless bully, she still has an intense internal desire to be a good person, but gets frustrated and often derails herself in the process of fighting her desire to act on impulse. She keeps most relationships with people at arm's length, fearing that if someone were to think highly of her, it would only be a matter of time before they’re disappointed. If we were to go full-fledged story mode, she would most definitely have an intense character redemption arc, making the revelation that being shitty to those who care about her isn’t the way to run from her problems and hide away from her own sense of self-insecurity/hatred.

Phill: Phill likes mischief, bad jokes, sexual undertones, Jojo, sexual overtones, bullying Kristen, and the colour pink. That's it xD

Jojo: :D yay

Alex: Alex don't give a shit but is for whatever reason the bossman and is also as powerful as silver age Superman, just don't try actual murder of the crew and he won't yeet you into the sun

Moon: 2019 Moon is an idiot. If we didn't know any better, we would assume he was born from nothing but an old head of lettuce in Satan's refrigerator. Think like Scott from Monster Prom, but different. He knows his right from his left, but the compass is still just "NESW" to him. Impulsive, lovable, and kinda loud, this muscley dumbass will do practically anything you tell him to if he finds it enjoyable. When paired with a few people, he works well as a second to many dynamic duos. Brodingles and Moon/Split and Moon are two really good ones, dangerous shenanigans ensue. Can and will rap like a beast, any challenge to a freestyle will result in a career ending and a death being sentenced. Extroverted people pleaser, definitely shooting high to perform and when adapting to a character, goes a little too hard. This man played Gander in Charlottes Web and didn't stop making goose sounds for months. Did I mention he's also a disney princess? Singing, animals, mortal enemy falling to their death? Everything

Dawn: ToonWolf/Dawn's personality falls within the confines of recklessly adventurous who doesn't think things through entirely. They like to try and rope others into going on various hikes, treasure hunts, mythic/cryptid searches, etc. Unapologetic sailor mouth. They will fight for friends and family. Various animals, trinkets, treasures, and cool but useless garbage are brought back to the tower often (oops theres a liiiiiiitle bit of hoarding). Sometimes those animals consist of dogs, cats, lizards, bears, wolves, The Great Noble One, horses, lions, elk, you get the idea (Can I keep them?Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaseeeeee??????????).

Overall they are most comfortable and relaxed in/around water and likes a whole lotta things including sailing, swimming, adventure, stargazing, animals, mythology/legends, friends, family, and drawing.

They dislike waking up early, limitations, being talked down to, boredom, desert/hot/humid/dry weather, coffee, and the movie "Cube"

Tex: Tex is an avid cryptid detective + has a surprisingly good intuition when creating conspiracy theories about them to follow. Mm lots of memes and disguises. Smart, but usually just off on their own thinking about other stuff.Totally has a wall in their room dedicated to figuring all the cryptids out with like, red string and everything.

#whole crew #ask the ir crew #irsonas #sorry I know this isn't everyone we have a big crew and not everyone is up to answer this stuff #Anonymous

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fortunatelylori · 5 years

Note

What I find so frustrating about Jon is that he never seems to learn his lesson about poor communication. It happened with tragic consequences in the NW, and it happens again in s7. He was so offended that Sansa publicly disagreed with him, and I get that it's because of his own insecurity and he felt undermined, but it never occurs to him that she wouldn't have HAD to if he'd discussed it with her beforehand and given her an opportunity to express her concerns privately. Will he ever learn?

Hey, nonnie!

First of all, I’d like to apologize for taking this long to answer. You guys have been sending me a lot of asks, which I love, so it’s taking me quite some time to go through all of them. On a general note, I sometimes prioritize answering asks that come as reactions to one of my posts or that are related to newly released info/promo/photos because I feel that letting those asks sit in my inbox for too long kind of defeats the purpose of them. Which means I don’t always go in a chronological order when answering questions. So if you see that I haven’t answered your ask, please don’t get discouraged. It’s very likely that it’s sitting there waiting for me to find time to give an in-depth answer.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s do this, nonnie!

Btw, love the sheer exasperation coming off of your post. What woman hasn’t asked the “Will he ever learn” question at least once in their lives. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, indeed. :)))

I actually thought that this would be a good time for me to talk a bit more broadly about what I think Jon’s major two flaws/issues are at the moment and why I feel it’s important for him to overcome them, particularly in the likelihood of him becoming king at the end of season 8.

The first one, as you already pointed out in your ask, is poor communication or, even more generally, his tendency to act as a lone wolf.

This is a bit of a pickle for me because it’s one aspect, I feel, where book Jon differs from show Jon. I think book Jon displays lone wolf characteristics prior to his death. He essentially cuts himself off from his Night Watch brothers, sends Sam to Old Town and seems to take to heart Ned’s mindset of what being a leader is, which is to say that you can love your men but you cannot be their friend. Book Jon applies that to his Night Watch command and it’s in part the reason why he ends up being killed. He just becomes isolated and alone which in turn makes him vulnerable.

Show Jon, I feel, doesn’t do that. Sam leaves for Old Town because he wants to go, despite Jon’s apprehensions and desire that he stay. He explains again and again the importance of the alliance with the Wildlings to his men and takes Ed with him to Hardhome. In private, he attempts to make Ollie see his reasons for making this decision. So I wouldn’t say that poor communication is what gets show Jon killed.

What gets show Jon killed is Allister Thorne, essentially. For one, there is a strong personal animosity there that shouldn’t be underestimated. For two, I genuinely believe that Allister Throne is committed to the Night’s Watch and sees Jon as a dangerous element that needs to be stopped. So he gets his allies together and they plot against him. I don’t think the rest of the group is really as personally invested in the assassination as Thorne is, they’re simply his followers.

The one glaring exception is Ollie whose motivations for killing Jon are deeply personal and, perhaps, from all of them, the one that is most understandable. He sees what Jon is doing as a personal betrayal and he is essentially taking revenge. It’s interesting to note that Ollie’s actions are the ones that hurt Jon the most and the first thing he remembers when he comes back from the dead. In many ways, I still don’t think he’s over Ollie killing him or that he had to execute him for it.

Also important to mention here is that post-assassination, Allister and his group do not receive the support they were perhaps expecting. Ed and a few men loyal to Jon go as far as to oppose them outright and the rest of the Night’s Watch accept what happened because there is seemingly nothing to be done. Which is why when the Wildlings storm Castle Black, most of the Night’s Watch isn’t exactly chopping at the bit to protect Throne and his knife wielders.

The reason why I say all this is because I feel like Jon’s lone wolf tendencies are very much a product of his resurrection and the betrayal he suffered through at the hands of men that called themselves his brothers. He’s naturally a man that values collaboration and communication, over imposing his will unilaterally.

So in that sense, I do think in time he will get back there and be more open to communicating and debating his decisions. His communication issues are very much like Sansa’s trust issues. They’ve both suffered traumas and had their confidence in people abused and shaken, so they’re both reluctant to opening up fully. Also it’s important to note that once it becomes clear to him that Sansa feels excluded and wants her opinion heard, he adjusts and asks her opinion when it comes to Tyrion. So he is trying. That’s something. :)

There’s also a point to be made to what I believe are the differences between the two instances where Jon blindsides Sansa with his decisions, because I don’t think his motivation or intentions were the same in both of them.

In the undermine me scene, I don’t think it occurs to Jon that Sansa would disagree with his decision to pardon Alys Karstark and Ned Umber. In his mind he is making the decision his father would have made (I’m not sure Ned would have done that but Jon tends to idealize him to a degree) so he thinks Sansa will have the same view on the subject as he does. In that sense, I think he’s genuinely surprised that Sansa disagrees with it. He decides to focus on the “undermining” aspect of her disagreement but I think in many respects that’s him deflecting what it truly bothering him which is that he feels Sansa doesn’t trust him enough to have faith in his decisions and that she would be so adamant to punish two young children.

So his reaction to her challenging him is very personal and is a sign of deep vulnerability when it comes to her that he’s trying (not very well) to hide under some sort of political savvy pretense.

Then there’s the scene where he announces to the Great Council that he has decided to go to Dragonstone. Sansa is naturally shocked by this because they’ve already discussed the subject and both her and Davos tell him not to go.

The interesting thing about this scene is that Jon isn’t surprised by her reaction this time. He looks as if he’s expecting it actually. On top of that, Davos is surprised as well which means he didn’t discuss it with him either.

What that tells me is that the reason why he doesn’t talk to Sansa beforehand is not a matter of poor communication in this instance but rather that he chooses not to tell her. The question is: why?

Jonsa fans have theorized that Jon finds it hard to be alone with Sansa because of his personal feelings for her. That may very well be part of the reason for it but, more importantly, I think he doesn’t talk to her beforehand because he doesn’t want to be talked out of leaving.

Let’s put it this way: Jon Snow is not an idiot. He knows going to Dragonstone is dangerous and risky. He knows that he might get killed or captured. He knows all of the things that Sansa tells him during the Council. But he still feels like he has to go because he needs men and dragonglass and dragons. So he avoids the council of Davos and Sansa, in particular, because he doesn’t want to hear the reasons why he shouldn’t go, he doesn’t want to think of the risk he’s placing Sansa in by leaving her alone and he tries, instead, to convince himself that all will work out well.

Which brings us to Jon’s second major issue and one that, unlike his poor communication skills that need some adjustment but are not, in my view, catastrophic in the grand scheme of things (we all have flaws, after all), jeopardizes him and those he loves time and time again. And one that he really needs to get a handle on if he is ever to be a successful king:

His “1st ranger” mindset:

Sansa: Then send an emissary. Don’t go yourself!

Jon: Daenerys is a queen. Only a king can convince her to help us.

Jon: The Free Folk will help us.

Davos: They won’t follow Ser Jorah.

Jon: They won’t have to.

Time and time again we’ve seen Jon put himself at great risk and offer himself up for dangerous, almost suicidal missions. In theory, all of this has the makings of a hero which is great but, as D*ny puts it, heroes don’t tend to live very long because they end up doing stupid things.

In order to understand where this issues comes from, we need to look back to what Jon first stated he had ever wanted, which was to be a ranger in the Night’s Watch and, in time, 1st ranger like his uncle Benjen.

While all the men of the Night’s Watch are expected to bare arms in the case of an attack, the rangers are the real soldiers of the order. So in essence what Jon always wanted to be was a warrior.

Which is great, except that as early as season 1 he’s been constantly derailed from that desire. He wanted to be a ranger but became Joer Mormont’s stewart instead, something he felt was a punishment. It took Sam to point out that the Lord Commander asking for him personally meant that Jon was being prepared for command. But that didn’t seem to make Jon all that happy because and I quote:

Jon: I just … always wanted to be a ranger!

So while everyone around Jon realizes that he is made for leadership, even as he displays alpha tendencies galore, Jon’s dream was to be a follower, not the ultimate authority. I think that hankers back to the hierarchy within the Stark family where the only Stark child actively prepared for leadership was Robb. Incidentally we see Robb embrace that role quickly and effectively because it’s something he always expected he would have to do.

Jon’s first instinct is always to put himself at risk over other people and particularly post-resurrection he’s become quite careless with his life.

He suggest one on one combat against Ramsay, scaring the living daylights out of Sansa. During the battle of the bastards, fans tend to focus a lot on Jon’s charge in trying to save Rickon. I don’t really take that into account as much because it seemed like a natural reaction of a man desperately trying to save his kid brother. However, during that same battle, he charges singlehandendly against an army not once but twice: Once after Rickon is killed and the second when Ramsay runs from the battlefield (once again terrifying Sansa - no wonder the poor girl tells him over and over again that he needs to be smarter).

And this trend continues in season 7 as well when he not only offers himself up for the wight hunt but also charges the zombie army on his own instead of getting on the freaking dragon.

That’s very much the mindset of a warrior ready to face off against impossible odds but it’s not something Jon is allowed to do anymore because:

Davos: You can’t lead a raid beyond the wall. You’re not in the Night’s Watch anymore. You’re King in the North!

Exactly, Davos! Exactly!

Jon can’t go around charging head first into impossible to win situations because he has a responsibility to the people he’s leading and because without him, the entire army/kingdom disintegrates.

And in a way, I think Jon knew that at some point. During the attack on the wall by Mance’s forces, Jon acts not only bravely but strategically and decisively. And it’s the result of his good decision making that Grenn ends up dying.

I think the guilt from that decision never left Jon which is why now he ends up preferring to put himself at risk than ask others to do it.

But, unfortunately for him, Jon Snow was never meant to be 1st ranger. He is meant to be king and a medieval king, while needing to be a warrior, also needs to be a commander and a strategist, one that at some point will have to send good men, loyal men to their deaths. And he needs to learn to live with that.

Which in essence is the real lesson that needs to be learned from book Ned’s commentary on the difference between a leader and the men he has under his command.

Thanks for the ask, nonnie!

#jon snow #jonsa

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diloph · 5 years

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Pardon me, but it seemed from some of your posts on KOTM that you didn't like Mark Russell that much. I know he was a cliche everyman type, but what exactly made him any worse than others in these movies?

I apologise if this isn’t my most coherent answer. I’m a little bit stressed at the moment, trying to finish the next chapter of IIID and create relevant, if poorly assembled memes before the Invader Zim movie is released.

To be honest, some of it is a bit tongue-in cheek. Making fun of the most visible character in the film, considering that he hates Godzilla with a burning passion, is just a little bit of fun. It’s like how I refer to Rick Stanton with disdain sheerly because he’s somewhat based on Rick Sanchez, who I don’t dislike either.

The film isn’t about Mark: King of the Fathers anyway, so if I completely despised him, I could just zone out during his scenes, or skip them when the DVD comes out.

But… some of it wasn’t so jokey. He’s still an okayish protagonist, I’ve got nothing against the actor himself and his acting is fine. Still, Mark was loud, abrasive and hated Godzilla; you know, things that grate on my nerves when it comes to a 2+ hour Godzilla movie and that made the character… trying.

We’ve had them before, but Godzilla was generally more villainous and obviously, we feel sympathy and camaraderie with him as the title character and we are here to see him do cool things. Having a human protagonist who hates our cool monster protagonist makes sense in universe, but ultimately, it’s not what we’re here for. We can tune that out.

As for what makes me dislike Mark… for starters, he’s kind of a prick. I once saw somebody describe him as the type of guy who thinks that if he speaks loudly enough, shouts enough, he’ll get his way. I can’t say I blame them, in that first meeting with MONARCH, he’s downright hostile.

He’s also, for whatever reason, the guy that everybody turns to in the crisis. He might have a background in bioacoustics like his ex-wife and animal behaviour besides, but apparently nobody else at MONARCH is capable of doing things without the express instructions or approval of everyman Indiana Jones. Military procedures, common sense, the desperate plan to revive Godzilla; everybody seems to defer to him really quickly.

It took me out of the movie. I understand that he’s meant to be our relatable protagonist, but it’s a little bit jarring and it happens multiple times. Mark is either issuing instructions or is along where he shouldn’t be, given control of a situation where by all rights he shouldn’t have any other than spur of the moment hero stuff.

It’s like he believes that nobody has any common sense and frustratingly, a couple of times the narrative agrees with him or at least proves his actions right. For example, when Colonel Foster tries to brief MONARCH on the actions of Jonah and the terrorists, he shoots down her theory and proceeds to go on a rant as to why we should Destroy All Monsters.

He’s right, as Jonah wants to free King Ghidorah, but he has this frustrating “protagonist only” habit of noticing threads that other characters really should (nobody seems to notice that the Titans are attacking capital cities or at least very densely populated areas until he points it out), then speaks about it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Which when MONARCH is meant to be staffed with scientists of multiple disciplines veers back into the incredulous. I can suspend disbelief when it comes to giant monsters, I don’t excuse people not seeing what’s in front of them.

And as for the moments where he really shouldn’t be issuing instructions, take a look at when Rodan is freed by Emma Russell. Serizawa instantly defers to him (I think that Mark might have been his senior before he left MONARCH and BOY do I want to talk about that plan later on) to cook up a plan instead of… himself (Director of MONARCH, or at least I assume so) or again, Foster, who controls the planes and men he wants to send at the giant pterodactyl that just shrugged off a molten lava flow.

Given his characterisation as an angry, driven father who is desperately looking out for his family after being bereaved by monsters and is butting heads with the scientists at MONARCH, I think it was an attempt by Legendary to recreate Joe Brody. Bryan Cranston’s character in the previous film was killed off too early and was featured in a lot of the trailers, giving a wonderful performance. When he died to be replaced by his son, Ford, it caused a backlash as a result.

Mark being that angry, snarky character definitely shares some similarities. But while Joe was a crusader for the truth and more than a little bit obsessive, he was trying to pierce the veil as to why his wife died, without realising that it drove his son away from him. He was trying to reveal this great coverup to the world and spent the rest of his life doing so with such conviction that he appeared crazy.

Mark… doesn’t have this driving force. He lives in a post-San Francisco universe. Monsters Exist and everybody knows it.

Now, that’s not to say he doesn’t have reasons for acting as he did. He lost his son and has driven a wedge in between his family via his drinking problem (but let’s face it, compared to unleashing the Titans by starting off with Space Dragon Satan, he’s taken it comparatively well) but he acts as if he’s the only person who has ever lost something to Godzilla and the rest of the monsters.

Even when that happens to characters in the film, Mark still acts like that and it doesn’t make him look like the grim, determined hero, it just makes him look like an obnoxious dick. It isn’t his way of coping with the trauma of loss, he just… does it.

Part of me does get why he’s annoyed and angry with MONARCH’s attitude towards the Titans. He’s correct that they’ve been keeping secrets, dangerous ones at that, but equally the kaiju are living things. They’re dangerous and unpredictable, yes, but MONARCH have been taking precautions; killswitches are present in even the supposedly benevolent Titan’s chambers like Mothra and as far as they know, all of the Titans bar Godzilla are dormant and those that aren’t are kept in check by him. Had the Ghidorah Crisis never arose, we may never have seen any other Titans for the rest of human history.

But he treats everybody around him like an idiot with little to no prompting. Mark is brought on as a consultant and he then proceeds to dominate the scene, either through his decisions in universe or the part written for him out of it. He gets the last word, the last say on a plan or a witty remark or whatever.

And some of that costs lives. Actually, no, a LOT of it costs lives.

So, to start off, when the operation in Antarctica goes tits up, Mark grabs a handgun and goes into Outpost 32 by himself (though what he and the central nervous system of MONARCH were doing on the ground and not supervising from the Argo remains to be seen, but I digress). He stops Jonah and the terrorists on the walkway… screwing up Foster’s attempt to take down Jonah, forcing her to snipe his henchman in order to save Mark’s life.

This leads to King Ghidorah waking up. Not going to extend him a great deal of blame for this one, as with a sniper present, Emma or Madison would have been forced (or “forced” in the former’s case) to retrieve the detonator and the Six-Eyed, Six-Horned, Flying-Golden-People-Eater would have gotten loose regardless. Hell, I spotted clues that he was gearing up to wake up without Emma Russell’s help.

In a narrative sense, its his character that also sets up Vivienne Graham’s death. If he hadn’t been stuck in the tangle of wires and metal aboard the Osprey, she would never have needed to stay behind to help and subsequently got singled out by King Ghidorah.

I’d definitely agree that this is more of a personal thing on my part, as I’d wanted to see more of Vivienne’s character thanks to her actress’, Sally Hawkins’ work in The Shape Of Water and that in the previous film. But in a way, he is still sort of responsible for her being written out and replaced with the vastly less interesting replacement characters of Rick and Mor- erm, Sam.

That said, I know that Ghidorah is 100% to blame in universe. He killed her because he was a bastard and I wanted to him to be a bastard, so the monkey’s paw curled a finger there, so that’s egg on my face. It certainly did wonders for establishing him as a monstrous villain who we love to hate.

I’m not wholly unsympathetic to Mark. Like I said before, the pain of loss over the 2014 attacks hurt him badly and the film doesn’t shy away from this. Mark’s descent into alcoholism is noted by both himself and his family as a rough time for all involved, part of the reason he left MONARCH in the first place. Having his daughter and ex-wife seemingly kidnapped by dangerous ecoterrorists who plan to unleash giant monsters to mass-cull humanity also wears his patience thin, as you might expect it.

But he keeps this… horrible attitude throughout the movie. The world is literally going to shit, another monster is about to be unleashed and he asks if MONARCH have had enough common sense to evacuate the town of Isla Del Mara and if Rodan has had a cutesy name all picked out from mythology for him ahead of time.

Fuck me, if I was Serizawa, having just lost my protégé and quite a few well-meaning soldiers who were trying to rescue somebody who turned out to be a massive ecoterrorist nutjob, I would have floored him. There is a time and a place for snarky comments and it is not after at least twenty people you worked with are dead and BILLIONS MORE MAY FOLLOW.

But now, one of the points that really got me disliking Mark Russell follows here. The scenes that start at Isla Del Mara and the luring of Rodan to King Ghidorah, all the way up until the detonation of the Oxygen Destroyer.

Rodan emerges from the volcano and asides from spreading his wings and roaring, doesn’t do much. He spots the incoming Argo and its entourage and narrows his eyes. Uh oh! Surely, at this point, the dastardly destruction god would leap from his perch in an attempt to chase this challenger from his territory?

Um… no. No, actually, he stays put.

Now, I get that Rodan might not have stayed that way for very long. From the ensuing chase scene, I can gather that the Monsterverse’s version of Rodan is a bit of a dick, but he still didn’t start the fight.

Instead, what happens is that Serizawa asks Mark what they should do and Mark comes up with the plan to get Rodan to fight King Ghidorah in the hopes that one will kill the other and that would at least solve one of their problems.

Sound in theory, yes, but it is not sound in execution. At all.

So, that little town that Mark kicked up quite a fuss about? As you might have noticed, it’s lying between Rodan and the Argo and is part of the reason that the big ol’ bird should be lured away, to complete the evacuation.

Mark’s brilliant plan has the jets surrounding the Argo to blast Rodan and 180 the superplane in order to get him to chase… without factoring in THE TOWN BETWEEN THEM AT ALL.

I get King Ghidorah was closing in. I get that Rodan is a wild, unpredictable animal who could go off the chain at any moment. But there was absolutely no time to get the ARGO to move a little ways around the island before beginning the attack? At worst, Rodan would make a dive for them anyway, but that’s what the jets are sent in to distract him are for. To grab his attention and then lure him to the Argo, which would then take him to Tricephalopathic Terror Town anyway.

As a result, Rodan utterly OBLITERATES Isla Del Mara simply by passing over it and so many of the people they were trying to evacuate die a horribly pointless death. It never once passes his mind (or let’s not beat him down solely) or that of anybody aboard the Argo that a creature with wings that size that can fly would generate an unbelievable amount of force simply by flapping once to create lift? He’s also dripping lava, so even if the hurricane level winds that follow him weren’t an issue, having something with that amount of residual molten rock passing overhead doesn’t seem like a healthy thing to expose Isla Del Mara to.

Further dislike ensues when one of the miraculously surviving Ospreys issues a mayday during the Rodan/Ghidorah fight and the cargo doors are jammed. Mark the Hero leaps up with gritted teeth and desire to get things done, asking the way to the hangar. After all, he’s had miraculous problem solving abilities so far, why not?

“Which way to the hangar?” he asks.

Sam, a character who I’m even less fond of, stands up and offers to show him the way. Fairly brave, considering that the Argo is rattling like a leaf in a thunderstorm as two daikaiju battle nearby. I found the character annoying and sort of… pointless, but I admire that bit of bravery.

“Anybody else?” Mark asks, making a face.

Dude. The man just offered to help you and people need that help. Get off your high horse, swallow your pride and just go without comment. God knows how many people your stupid plan just got killed.

The two run to the hangar and a crewman explains the door is jammed. Mark decides to drop a hanging Osprey onto the doors to get them off… without suggesting it to the crewman. He just fucking goes for the buttons, expecting his usual “my plan will work” attitude to succeed.

At last, one of Mark’s harebrained schemes is met with reasonable resistance for the first time and the crewman attempts to wrestle him off, before Mark Is Proven Right Again. But even suggesting it, getting a refusal and then doing it is more heroic than just going for the damn buttons like a lunatic.

He would have looked damn stupid if the weight of the Osprey wasn’t enough to open the doors and it instead just blocked them. The falling aircraft also almost hits the airborne one with its civilian payload as it also wasn’t warned, so again, he took an unnecessary risk that came off lucky because he couldn’t find the time to say “I have an idea”.

To round out the trifecta of what makes me dislike Mark in these scenes is what happens when the rest of the scene plays out:

Gravity Beams spew from Ghidorah’s mouth and blast Rodan into the ocean, defeated. Not satisfied with just this victory, the Golden Demise locks his terrible gaze on the Argo and with a sickening, gleeful cackle, closes in on the plane and its freshly arrived civilians.

All are stunned into a horrified silence. Even Mark, who has been having Unreasonable Protagonist Luck up until this point, bricks it.

“Oh, God.” he pleads.

God answers and he erupts from the ocean.

With a deafening roar, the mighty form of Godzilla slams into King Ghidorah with the force of a collapsing mountain. His dynamic, mid-air leap is enough to drag the foul hydra into the depths of the ocean and Godzilla proceeds to hold him there.

Ghidorah attempts to resurface and fly away, or at least lash out at the Argo in spite, but there Godzilla is again, yanking the head back underwater, biting and rolling like some mountainous crocodile, pinning the alien dragon under his weight.

Unbeknownst to our hero (Godzilla, obviously), the military has deployed the terrible Oxygen Destroyer in an attempt to Destroy All Monsters, giving only a cursory warning to the Argo to get out of there and fast. Mark makes his way onto the bridge and is informed of the decision.

“But he… he just saved us!” says Mark.

No, wait, he didn’t say that. Hold on…

“They… they didn’t even let us get clear?” says Mark.

Uh, no, sorry, trying again.

“Well, it’s not the worst idea.” he says.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK. YOU.

I get that you’re mad with Godzilla. I get that as the title character with a long history, we root for the kaiju more than anybody else. I get that he took your son from you, but twice… TWICE NOW, he has saved you and the people around you with PERFECTLY TIMED ENTRANCES. Even if it was just a coincidence, I’d be at least slightly more forgiving of the lion that killed my brother by accident if it jumped in front of a tiger that was slaughtering people left and right before it leapt at me.

Twice.

There’s not even a hesitant “oh, but he did help us”. Not even a shocked disbelief that the military has a weapon that they think will kill not just one, but two (because I’m willing to bet he thought Rodan was dead) Titans, much less them firing it without warning right on top of their position. Just a “well, fuck ‘em” shrug.

Godzilla nearly dies, Ghidorah seizes control of the Titans and sets about starting the apocalypse. Finally, Serizawa says what I’ve been thinking for quite a while and says “Well, it looks like you got your wish, Mark.” with a mixture of anger, sadness and disgust.

I could go on; the Titans are rampaging and Mark goes to leave Castle Bravo to strike out on his own and rescue Madison, despite the fact that he knows that Emma will probably try to keep her safe in whatever secure hidey hole she and the Kaiju Cultists have holed up in. In the novel, he’s outright going to steal one (also his first instinct when confronted by an alpha wolf in the novel, is to blow it away with a sidearm, before realising that’s absolutely callous and horrible and tries submissive behaviour tactics instead. So hey, Movie Mark is a slightly better person than Book Mark).

Mark suggests the nuke plan and goes down with Serizawa, Chen and Rick Sanch- Stanton. Everything goes sideways and he doesn’t even fucking blink when Serizawa decides that somebody’s gotta do it manually.

Back aboard the Argo? How does he break the news to Sam, the only member of the MONARCH team that wasn’t there? Shoving Serizawa’s notebook into his chest, saying that they better not screw this up and not even fucking pausing to tell him what happened.

Mark’s self-centred attitude keeps coming back and it gets people killed. My second time viewing this film, during the two confrontation scenes with Godzilla, I wasn’t getting the “There is a massive threat in my territory!” vibe from the King of the Monsters, I was getting a “Who the hell is this asshole and why does he hate me so much?” feeling from Our Glorious Boy.

It’s a recurring theme too. Mark experiences loss, but he feels as if his loss is the only one that matters. Both he and Emma do this to Madison and it makes me mad that in trying to cope with their own loss, they shunned the one remaining child they had left. By the time they realise that, the world is literally about to end and they’re still bickering at one another.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m very vocally critical of Mark and Emma’s treatment of Madison. Both she and Mark decide to put their own ways of coping with their son’s death (constructing a device to allow for the orchestration of mass human death and convincing oneself that it’s the correct course of action/drinking booze) above Madison’s own well being.

When the chips are down, of course, they care for her and ultimately risk their lives to save her, but… congratulations for the bare minimum parenting, guys? Physically, they want her out of harm, but mentally she should either fall into line with Emma’s thinking or be there for Mark.

Godzilla and Mothra feel more like her bloody parents in this film (Godzilla saving her life when she was facing down the literal fucking devil and Mothra’s gentle interaction at the temple and reviving her from death when she appeared to have died in the novel) than the other Russells do. Both fill the archetypes of “Father” (tough, stern, but ultimately your protector) and “Mother” (gentle, nurturing and wonderful) better than the people do.

…yeah, alright, that one is a stretch, but I had that idea a while ago and I wanted to put it to paper.

In short, I’m mad at Sad Mad Dad because his character shoves the waaaaaaaay more interesting, compelling and sympathetic characters of Serizawa, Graham and his own daughter (and the actual goddamned non-monster hero of the movie), Madison out of the way of main character-ness, just so we can have somebody who is about as pleasant to interact with as a cactus.

King of the Monsters is a film that has a lot of sacrifice in it, good and bad. Emma wants to sacrifice most of humanity to save the planet. Serizawa sacrifices himself to save Godzilla and thus, the planet. Mothra sacrifices her own life to save Godzilla from King Ghidorah and so does Emma, to save her family and as redemption for her sins.

Even Madison was also ready to at least risk her own life to distract the Titans and King Ghidorah if it would even slightly disrupt his efforts to conquer the planet. She goes against terrorists, her own mother and a demonic, nigh-omnipotent being of malicious intent and faces him down with a defiant roar of her own when it looks like the end.

But Mark doesn’t sacrifice. He wants his daughter back, but he never takes a hit. Other people die for him, as a result of him and he doesn’t even recognise it. The world is at stake and he keeps his focus on his own desires, ignorant to the people around him because only his loss matters.

He might not be the genocidal monster in the film that Emma was, that Jonah and of course, Ghidorah certainly were. But he has a very narrow and dispassionate world-view and outside of certain cartoons with comedic circumstances, I don’t care much for that at all.

TL;DR: Madison should have been the central protagonist, because I like her more.

#Godzilla #Godzilla: King of the Monsters #Mark Russell

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softshouyous-archive · 5 years

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do yona!!!

AHHH HELLO LOVE THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! i smiled so much when i saw this ask last night thank you for enabling me hehe (under a read more because i . am very chatty today JFLKG)

don’t watch period | drop if not interested within 2-3 episodes | give it a go, could be your thing | 5 star recommendation (please it’s so funnie, there is amazing chara dev, oh no i forgot my last point gfjg) (the manga esp is so amazing omg thank you miss kusanagi)

fav characters: yona: she is SO strong god i . god i love her sososo much i’m tearing up just thinking about her hjkgdfhgfjdhg her chara dev is SO amazing oh my god. if you watch the first episode and then read one of the most recent chapters you’d just be stunned at the difference . i love my queen i was going to go on some more about my other faves but this would get Long so i’ll just list them: the four dragons, yoon, and lili least fav characters: gogi (goji??) and perhaps the king that they’re facing off rn, i forgot his name jkghgdfjghffav relationship: hak and yona and hak and jae ha GDFJLKGJ they’re so dumb gdjksgk OH and yona and lili fav moment:omg okay honestly my memory of yona is like . super bad esp since i sped read it like . maybe a year or two ago gdfjkghdfg so i forgot a lot, though i plan to reread soon hehe (~: i actually reread the arcs where lili appeared and wow

like okay first . yona saving lili from that guy who was on nadai??? drop kicking him and then turning to lili to ask if she’s all right??? please that was really cool.... and also like. i really love how lili saw yona and was inspired to change because of her??? like she realized her own flaws/insecurities once (?) she saw yona’s strengths and was like shit dude??? when she realized her flaws i feel like, hm how to say gdfjghjf yona’s strengths helped her improve in the areas of herself that she was unhappy with?? that just makes me feel . so warm like. wow . gjdfksgjfkd but yeah she wanted to change things > her dad wouldn’t let/help her > and she was also. really scared?? but i feel like seeing yona’s displays of courage really helped her be more brave !!!! for ex, when they were staying at the inn where the guy responsible for nadai was at, yona put herself out there and protected lili and tetora. lili questioned yona’s actions and asked if she was scared and said that she wasn’t strong. yona pretty much agreed with those things but was like ‘even though i’m scared, i have to protect you both’ (or smth) and just. wow . that really. Does Something you know??? and i just love yona so much for that she’s so admirable like putting yourself out there even though you’re scared??? i..... h. and wow i’m really going off track . i feel like that all really fueled lili’s next actions of taking the golden water seal and making all those decisions for the better in order to try to get rid of the nadai. if i remember correctly, even though she was scared and knew of the repercussions, she still went on because of the courage she saw yona had and because she really cared about her nation and i just !!!!! fuck man !!!!!!!! she’s so strong and that made me so happy to see that she wasn’t held back by her fears and that she was willing to sacrifice things for the better like . god man .

and i just love their friendship besides that like when they hung out in the tent and just their convos are so fun!!!!! i love that yona is lili’s first friend like i think that’s so cwute ))): i would die to see an ova or an extra story of just them hanging out and having fun like god i really love their bond so much like every time they’ve had to part i get so emo like no please stay together T___T and i also really love that they’re both figures ??? of royalty in some sense idk why i think it’s kool gkjdghfdoh and that guy who tried to kill yona after they were exiled, his chara dev was great i love and appreciate that gjkfdhgjf

headcanons/theories: oh BOY i WISH i had some ugh but my brain and its lack of creativity ://// oh wait hm maybe i would like to think that hak one day is able to move on and receive some sort of closure from what soo won did ???? like i completely recognize that it’s super hard to recover from what happened ://// like god his. anger from when he first saw soo won again???? like zude . i feel like that was illustrated vvv nicely but it was also so sad to see how mad he got bc it just means that he’s hurting so much you know ))): like his anger and pain was so strong that it was so difficult to hold him back ))):

hm i like to think that the night of when that happened, yona just sits with hak outside and he just starts talking about his feelings and yona is just there listening because hak doesn’t really talk about his feelings )): he usually keeps the Cool and Strong front for Princess Yona but those feelings are bound to come out one day, and that day was after seeing soo won again. he goes on about how it felt to see him again and you know about how he just felt so betrayed and hurt, about how ‘i refuse to believe that the gentleness we were shown was fake’ (as said by yona but i like to think that hak feels this way too) and i just feel like that makes it so much more painful because. you have someone who was your childhood friend who was really nice to you and who you had a lot of fun with. then one day they turn around and suddenly take the life of someone very important to you. you want to hate this person and detest them and lock away any memory of them, but it’s hard because you have fond memories of them, they were a good person to you. so then it’s like how do you feel??? i feel like it leaves them feeling vvv conflicted and torn. and it’s just so. heartbreaking to hear hak express his feelings like this esp because she can Feel his hurt. they’re sitting side by side and it’s dark with Minimal moonlight but she can still see the slight tears ): she can’t hear him crying because he’s talking normally and masking it somehow gjdkfhgjf but she gently puts his head on her shoulder and takes his hand and i die unpopular opinion: hm i sadly don’t see that many akayona opins in general so i don’t know :/// oh hm one of them may be that i don’t really like soo won??? gdjkghf like i’ve seen some people say they like hm... and i honestly don’t know how to feel??? i’m trying to pay more attention to his character during my reread and right now i’m Conflicted because . you know gjdkfghdfjgf but hm he is interesting thoughhow’d you find it: OH boy so i have a friend who i watched anime with during my last year of hs and she recommended that we watch yona!!! it was sososo funny omg the anime is so fun!!!! i really loved it and decided to read the manga and oh Man am i so happy that i did because it shows way way more than the anime does and it’s SO good SO amazing i love

random thoughts: zude i feel SO sad for zeno ))): okay before i go into it, first can i just say. the fucking TRAUMA of everyone seeing his power for the first time???? when he got cut up and got his HEAD cut off ???? like miss kusanagi did not hold back with that and showed it i gjdghj and god yona’s expression when that happened like the HORROR on her face i . even though he ended up being okay, i don’t know how someone can recover from that trauma you know???? of seeing a loved one get their head taken off like that??? like god....

but anyway onto my point gdjfklgf i feel so sad for him because of his immortality )))): like he’s going to go through his life meeting and bonding with so many people that he’s going to eventually lose )): as he goes through out his life, he must get sad thinking about the people who he’s lost and how he can never talk to them again no matter what. he carries these memories of loved ones and i think that SUCKS i would literally just want to die i don’t think i can deal with a loved one dying, and for that to happen again and again forever???? like..... zude

also jae ha is so stupid i love him

#oh..... this got way way longer then i intended GJDFLKG i hope it made some sort of sense hgjkfdg #also dont take the hc seriously i don't know how to come up with hcs hgjkfdg #long post #thank you again anon love you hope you're doing well <3 #anonymous #lovemail

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crescentmoonrider · 6 years

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Regarding bloodbending

A viper-lizard’s tales, my long-running fic, has recently reached a chapter I was really anticipating, namely Katara discovering bloodbending on her own (or well, it was Jet’s idea because when isn’t it, but still, no Hama). And that got me thinking about the practical aspects of bloodbending, and about the way it is treated in the show.

The following will be my thoughts on the matter

(Note : bloodbending as developped in canon will be spelled as such, while the subset I explore in Viper-lizard will be spelled blood-bending. Canon includes both the A:tla and LoK shows, but none of the supplementary materials because I am not familiar with these.)

So. Bloodbending.

In canon, no form of bending is presented as “naturally evil”. We get to see airbending used for play and music and baking, waterbending heals and is used by the Northern Water Tribe to allow for transport inside their city, much like earthbending is used for postal services in Omashu, and firebending... well, firebending gets dragons, I guess. Let’s blame it on the war and their militaristic society for now, because that is a whole other discussion.

No form of bending is naturally evil, and their subsets and various usages aren’t either... that is, with one single exception.

Bloodbending is universally understood as a “bad” form of bending. That is true in A:tla, where it was developped under extremely painful circumstances and used for terrible purposes afterwards. Where Katara’s learning of it is painted as terrible for her, and where the only time she uses again is when she is closest to becoming, in the words of Aang himself, “like Jet”. Not exactly a good path to follow, then.

In LoK, this becomes even more obvious, as Katara has bloodbending outlawed, and the two main antagonists of Book 1 are bloodbenders. Yes Tarrlok is a main antagonist too, fight me. Again, the circumstances surrounding the act of learning it are traumatic, again it it only used for nefarious purposes. With now the added horror of taking one’s bending away, an ability until now only demonstrated by the Avatar and used with a lot of caution.

What, then, makes bloodbending so unilaterally evil, in a show that is usually so nuanced ?

I have seen people arguing that bloodbending could also be used for healing, and as such outlawing it was a terrible idea, a thought that resonates a lot with my own headcanon that Hama was a master healer and was therefore more likely to think of the possibility of bending blood in the first place (coupled with an intimate knowledge of anatomy that would no doubt help a lot).

I have also seen one reddit thread arguing that the reason bloodbending is so evil is because it is a metaphor for rape, because of the loss of control it causes and the trauma that seems to surround its practice, and found that it made a lot of sense.

The way I implemented it in my writing was something of a middle ground.

See, chi plays a very important role in bending. It’s what allows bending in the first place, yes, but some forms are even more closely related to this concept. See, for example, the way firebenders create their own flame. In the same vein, water healing is probably highly affected by it too through its relation to life, even if it can only heal injuries naturally (as shown in The Painted Lady, when Katara has to steal medicine from the factory in order to be able to heal the sick).

Chi is life energy. It flows around the body following specific paths, in which there can sometimes be clots that result in a diminished flow, and sometimes even stop that flow. Chi is, in many respects, very much like blood.

Back to bloodbending. The way this form of bending is presented in canon, we only see it used to manipulate one’s body or, in Amon’s case, to block one’s chi. (While the method isn’t explicit, it is clear that this is what happens, otherwise taking someone’s bending away would be impossibe.) We now have a connexion between the two, stronger than it just being bending.

In my interpretation, bloodbending bends one’s blood, yes, but by doing so it also goes against the natural flow of chi in the body. And that is where things get bad. Chi is life energy, disrupting it is guaranteed to have negative effects on the victim. And perhaps even more than that, lasting consequences on the user.

Push and pull, remember ? The basics of waterbending. If you use your own life energy to pull at someone else’s, what do you think could happen ? My guess is on it pulling back. Bloodbending is about control. Absolute control. But it being absolute, it affecting something that really, really doesn’t want to submit, can only mean the push and pull it must exert has to be extremely strong. And, following the previous guess on an action-reaction phenomenon, so will that reaction.

My understanding is that prolonged or repeated use of bloodbending poses an enormous strain to the bender’s mind, but that strain can probably be felt (partially) just from some minor bloodbending.

If I had to give specific consequences... dissociation. Obsessive thoughts, sometimes associated with compulsions. Patterns. Those are also commonly (though not always all of them) found in reactions to trauma, and the obsession part is the most coherent with canon (getting revenge, purging the world from bending, gaining power and control). Hama also exhibits very specifics patterns in regard to her obsession, though these are mostly linked to the restrictions bloodbending knows in A:tla. The dissociation is mostly here because I believe bloodbending affects the user’s emotions on another level than the obsessive one, and I couldn’t think of a better term. Compulsions often go hand in hand with obsessions in disorders (but not always), hence why I included them in this (sometimes).

I also thought of compulsions as a disruption of control, which is a very important theme in bloodbending. Dissociation would then be an effort to keep control over one’s emotions as a reaction to the other effects.

So, bloodbending is bad because it affects chi badly, and that in turn has some heavy consequences on the bender.

But I did say I was taking a middle road.

I talked, in the previous part, about canon only ever using bloodbending to manipulate one’s body. But what about, quite literally, blood ? Flowing blood, blood that you can see, even blood that isn’t in someone’s body anymore.

This is where blood-bending comes into place (remember, the spelling of these two is different).

The way I conceived this in A viper-lizard’s tales is this : bloodbending can, in A:tla times, only be used during a full moon. Blood-bending doesn’t have this restriction.

Bloodbending is absolute control. Blood-bending is, at most, partial control.

If used on spilled blood, blood that isn’t in contact with the place it comes from anymore, then blood-bending is a simple matter of waterbending. Slightly harder, but only very slightly, because of the remants of the owner’s will/feelings/thoughts - anything personal transmitted by chi. But there is no direct contact between the two life energies, no disrupting the natural flow of chi, no absolute submission to go with absolute control.

It is, much like every other form of bending, morally neutral, with no intrinsic damaging consequence for either the bender or the owner of that blood.

Blood-bending used on an injury is closer to canon, but not quite the same. Because the focus is on external blood, the control is lesser, and as such only the injured limb can be manipulated. Still, the push and pull is much stronger than for spilled blood in this case, as there is a flow of chi to be disrupted in order to gain control, and there is therefore a feeling of something pulling back at the bender, though weaker than in the case of bloodbending.

Consequences for the person whose blood is bent are also existing, but more limited than for bloodbending.

While I am at it, I’m going to talk about healing, and why it doesn’t have the same kind of negative lasting effects. Within the theory I developped here, these negative consequences are a result of disrupting the natural flow of chi, of infringing on someone’s will, in a way. Healing, on the other hand, goes with the flow, and simply helps out a little.

(I tend to see the combination of water healing and medicine as an application of osmosis, therefore slightly different from the healing of injuries.)

#atla #lok #bloodbending #katara #hama #tarrlok #amon #noatak #the last airbender #yumi writes #for once this tag isnt used for creative writing oh lord i cant believe i did an essay #i wrote this in 2 hours from 1am to 3am why am i like this #currently writing my zuko fic #oh wow another tag with unusual stuff in it too now #cant believe im actually putting serious things in my fic commentary tag now #a viper lizard's tales #if you enjoyed the essay please read the fic i actually put that much thought in many elements of it #especially cultural ones bc thats my thing but not only those #you can also ask me about my thoughts on other forms of bending thats cool too

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tamsythepansy · 6 years

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VOY: “Workforce”, the transest Star Trek episode ever

So. There’s a two-part episode of Star Trek: Voyager (“Workforce”) in which the crew all find themselves living out new lives as vaguely Fordist industrial workers on a planet called Quarra, all memory of their real lives having been artificially suppressed.

Imagine my surprise when, rewatching it years later, the bogus diagnosis they’re given as their memories start to resurface is...

...which also happens to be exactly what my partners have been reminding me for the last two months (bless them). I giggled.

Lo and behold, it happens to Tuvok as well:

Now, I get that it was the turn of the millennium and this hadn’t really entered the lexicon yet, but... this is just the tip of the iceberg. Watch along with me and see how it all plays out:

Tuvok, of course, is the first to experience memories of his real life breaking through the facade, has a panic attack, and is hospitalized:

Well, if this isn’t relatable to multitudes of trans and non-binary Star Trek fans, I don’t know what is. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Of course, the ‘treatment’ for Dysphoria Syndrome involves suppressing the offending memory engrams, so the patient can peacefully return to being a cog in the cisheteronormative machine Quarran power distribution facility (read what you will into that). As the expert on Dysphoria Syndrome himself later puts it:

Sounds like an allegory for LGBTQ conversion therapy to me, I mean, what?

Anyway, Seven realizes that Tuvok might be on to something, and heads to the mental health clinic to get a gender assessment investigate:

Stepping into the realm of the purely serious for a moment, I *have* sort of read Seven’s character arc as a plausible trans allegory, and it’s pretty compelling: having her true identity suppressed at an early age, and finally being forced to confront it in adulthood; processing layers upon layers of trauma just to function as an individual; being rehabilitated by a circle of strong, compassionate women, each with their own identity issues (plus the medical wizardry, overeager cisheteronormative life coaching, and starry-eyed / vaguely inappropriate crushing of The Doctor, I guess, so yeah); struggling to reclaim her human (/feminine) sense of self even while the effects of her Borg (/patriarchal) upbringing have thoroughly warped her thoughts (even as they continue to give her superhuman resilience and insight). I’m sure there’s even a comparison to be drawn to transfeminine desirability politics — Seven is continually presented both as an extremely conventionally attractive human *and* as a mysterious cyborg whose embodiment and manner communicates an often-threatening sense of Otherness — but I’ll leave that for a future discourse. I’m honestly spitballing a bit with all of this, but to see it so explicitly referenced, intentionally or not, is quite something.

So, Seven asks the obvious question, and it turns out that, while being trans is undoubtedly a Real Thing, the specifics are... inconclusive:

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the fact that we’re finally starting to see gender doctors who actually understand us in all our nuance, because...

...we already know this is bad news. (Paging Dr. Harry Benjamin.)

Anyway, the compassionate gender doctor goes to the conversion therapy doctor to see what’s up, because clearly something over at the power plant is turning people trans:

One important takeaway from this story is “never walk away and leave your work computer unlocked”:

I get it, though! On a planet ostensibly without Tumblr or OKCupid, trans community is just really, really hard to find. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The compassionate gender doctor soon notices a pattern:

...mm hmm, it all started when a genderqueer person sneezed in the employee locker room, and somehow the conversion therapy doctor wound up with his hands full as everybody in the office came down with a bad case of The Trans.

Finally, the compassionate gender doctor is determined to be just a little bit too sympathetic to these gender deviants, and the now-canonically trans but still awesome at passing Seven of Nine comes to the rescue:

As if this weren’t trans enough...

...check out the subplot featuring Jaffen, a co-worker with whom Captain Janeway has an adorable but bittersweet whirlwind relationship. Though Jaffen presents as male and uses he/him pronouns, THIS TOTALLY HAPPENS, and its implications are never made clear:

Though this is set up as the punchline of a “your father” joke, Jaffen isn’t just fucking around here. Tuvok knows what’s up, and proceeds to Vulcan-splain the joke right back to him:

Which begs the question, how do Norvalians procreate, anyway? Are they clones, like the Vorta? Do they deposit their genetic material into pods, like the J’naii? Do they pick up ready-made offspring, like the Kobali? Whatever the intent is, it has serious implications for whatever kind of relationship he and Janeway would have (like, it’s not on the cisheteronormative trajectory of sex and babies, at the very least). So, bear with me for a moment, because this is my honest-to-goodness fan theory:

(okay, I admit I just had that image lying around, and this seemed like as good a moment as any to use it.)

What if Norvalians reproduce parthenogenetically, leaving the entire need for a biological “father” out of the equation?

This could mean one of two things: as with terrestrial Komodo dragons (I think), parthenogenesis happens but binary sexual reproduction is still an option (which honestly doesn’t seem like the most likely explanation, given the way Jaffen and Tuvok both frame it), *or*, as with terrestrial whiptail lizards, parthenogenesis is the default, and male (i.e., sperm-producing) offspring are extremely rare and/or usually infertile.

So yeah, okay, they reproduce parthenogenetically, Jaffen is a rare male and is probably infertile, and therefore the Jaffen/Janeway relationship is more about companionship and cooperation than sex and babies. I’m fine with that, and I actually find it quite heartwarming.

But, with that in mind, do we need to assume that Jaffen is male, whatever that means for his species? After all, whiptail lizards engage in female/female courtship behaviour, which somehow makes them more fecund — and remember, it’s the Delta Quadrant; we’ve seen enough weird sex shit by Season 7 (cf. “Elogium”, “Favorite Son”, “The Disease”, “Ashes to Ashes”, off the top of my head) that we can reasonably conclude that all bets are off.

My interpretation? Jaffen is an honest, gallant, leather-waistcoat-rocking, he/him pronoun-using, parthenogenetic Space Butch. Maybe I’ve spent too much time on Sapphic Star Trek Tumblr, or have finally disappeared up my own genderqueer ass, but I’m convinced it’s the simplest explanation that’s congruent with the facts.

[I just spent a bunch of time trying to find the “Captain Janeway is a closet lesbian, change my mind” meme, but no dice.]

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, it’s time for me to deliver on the non-binary trans lesbian Star Trek shitposting that I’m usually all about. Having been closeted for a long time, I know a thing or two about relationships that seem straight on the surface but are actually hella queer under the hood, so to speak. Just look at these two u-hauling it on the third date (it’s adorable!):

This also seems really gay for some reason:

And, at the end of the day, he’s a good ally:

Watch the whole episode for the obligatory Sad Lesbian Ending.

The icing on this three-tiered Tholian gay wedding cake

...yup.

[Thanks to Em for subtly egging me on (ha) and Bry for putting up with me procrastinating all night. Love you both.]

#star trek shitposting #genderqueer shitposting #original content #original commentary #very long post #cw conversion therapy #cw dysphoria #non-binary lesbian #trans stuff #ember #discourse long and prosper #this got really unintentionally serious #cw transphobia #cw transmisogyny #cw sex mention #cw reproduction #tamsytalk

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darkzorua100 · 6 years

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So I honestly didn’t know what to expect from episode 41 of Vrains going into it. We knew it was going to be the first half of the Playmaker vs Revolver rematch but I honestly wasn’t expecting to be getting the plot dump this episode. I just figured the first half was mainly going to be focusing on the duel while the next two episodes were going to be major plot related. I’m very glad I was wrong because oh boy, this episode and the next two that follow are going to be so good I believe if we continue to get some answers and Revolver backstory.

And boy Revolver. We have a lot to talk about him because he is giving us some answers and the major thing we have been wanting to see from him since forever.

So first off, he confirmed the theory about the children being used to create the Ignises. We also got the silhouettes for all six of them shown and yeah. We know who three of those six are and this really is leaning towards the theory that Go and Aoi are two others since we saw what they looked like when they were younger. The final one is more than likely Revolver but that one wouldn’t be much of a shock honestly. I’m just wondering how they are going to BS Go and Aoi into being the last two kids if they are them since we know their backstories. Someone pointed out that this happened to Aoi before her and Akira’s parents got married, so that’s why Akira doesn’t know about this, and Aoi doesn’t remember herself since she repressed the memory of her trauma (as if she didn’t have enough problems already seriously). Go, on the other hand, I feel like is just going to be BS. However, Go doesn’t know about the Hanoi Project so maybe when someone finally brings it up to him, that might trigger something. I don’t know how they are going to handle that with those two honestly if they are confirmed in the future. I mean, I’m not surprised or will be surprised if/when they are confirmed, I’m just kinda disappointment since I was looking forward to two new characters coming out of this. I mean, I don’t want to have a big cast of characters since that always tends to screw Yu-Gi-Oh over at the end, but I hope we do get some more in the future because I love seeing new characters for this show and what they will add to the show as a whole.

We also found out that Ai was the sixth Ignis to come from this, making Yusaku the final child to be kidnapped more than likely since he was the one used to create that one. Ai’s real name, or code name I guess, is IGN006 and is making me wonder if this is why he was hated by his own kind, because he was the last one to be created and had flaws in him that the others didn’t or maybe he was more advanced then they were. Also, I wonder what the order was that these children were taken. If it was in the order that they were placed in their cells, then it looked like it would be Jin, Spectre, Go, Aoi, Revolver, and finally Yusaku. What I find strange about this order is that Revolver is number 5. You would think he would be number 1 but he isn’t, as far as we know anyway. It makes me wonder if Revolver willing chose to be apart of this against his father’s wishes, who didn’t want his son to get harmed from this or maybe he felt bad for the victims and felt like he had to take some form of responsibility for his father’s actions. Either way, if he is number 5, this would have been before Yusaku was here and if he was in the middle of during these tests, how could he have also been talking to Yusaku if he is indeed his “special person”? Again, this is hypothetically speaking because again, we really don’t know the actual order of the other Ignises just yet, or which Ignies were created from which children (even though some are more obvious then others) and Revolver could have finished his testing early to speak to Yusaku or maybe Revolver used his Link Sense, since he more than likely has it as well, to communicate with Yusaku even in his own testing room. Also, if Revolver was one of the kids, why was he rescued along with the rest of them if Yusaku stated it himself that his “special person” wasn’t one of the other kids and why would Revolver be apart of the kids in the first place if his father was running the project and should have just taken his son with him when it was over? More questions and not enough answers.

Also, no shock to anyone, Ai has been lying his butt off to Yusaku from the start. For what reason? Well who really knows at this point because Ai is continuing to lie and Playmaker and Revolver are both just done of his crap at this point. Hopefully we will get the full story for him in the next two episodes and after that, we will see who they real villain of this show truly is.

For someone who hates the internet so much, Revolver has just become the biggest meme for Vrains with his Mirror Force now. His deck is based around the card now and I wouldn’t be shocked if in the future, hopefully in this duel too, that he has/uses the other forms of Mirror Force because I would love to see what they look like in the anime since Mirror Force is just a pure light that destroys all the monsters, I want to see if Storming Mirror Force is just a giant wind storm that blows the monsters back to the hand or Drowning Mirror Force makes a giant wave and washes the monsters back into the deck.

So this episode ends with Playmaker’s life points being below a 1000. He still has a face down so I’m sure he could have saved himself from the first attack without taking so much damage but did it to use his Skill. I’m thinking he’s going to use it and pull out out the upgraded form of Firewall Dragon during this duel, giving us our first Link 5 of the show. Revolver has the same skill but still has all his life points. Watch as he uses a Blazing Mirror Force to cut down some of his life points to use his skill if the trap doesn’t end up taking out Playmaker, which it won’t, and if he does use his skill, watch as the Link Monster he pulls out has something to do with Stardust in its name. Or maybe that’s what Firewall Dragon’s upgrade is going to be called...oh wait, we already have a Stardust Dragon...Starlight Dragon maybe? The title is called "The Stardust Road's Guidance" for a reason. I don’t know at this point. I’m still trying to figure out how this duel is going to end since after 43 summary, I’m starting to think this duel is going to end in a draw, like the first time they dueled, and they are going to have a rematch in the real world (which I would VERY much want to see).

Oh and speaking of the RW...

WE GOT REVOLVER’S FACE REVEAL! HOLY CRAP! HE’S ADORABLE! LOOK AT HIM! GREY EYES! I WASN’T EXPECTING GREY EYES, really fitting if anything since he is such a grey area character, BUT THEY LOOK SO GOOD!

I wasn’t expecting this at all. I mean, I was thinking to myself that they could just randomly throw in Revolver’s face at any moment now but I didn’t think they would just do it in the preview. I mean, they did it for Ray but at least we had an idea what she looked like because of the Bracelet Girls but nothing for Revolver in terms of face wise.

The best part about this is that they technically still hasn’t revealed his face yet. This is Revolver in the past, not present day Revolver and boy, if people aren’t freaking out already, Revolver after puberty is going to be Zarc all over again.

I really hope this isn’t just a flashback of Revolver just narrating but actual events we are seeing from Revolver’s past. I want to hear his younger voice and if it is identical to the one that was talking to Yusaku so we can finally get our answer to that question. I also want a name reveal finally. We at least know his last name has to be Kogami, you know, if Revolver is actually his son, but as for his first name, I very much want to know what they are going to pick for him and the meaning behind it. We could also be seeing present day Revolver this episode so get ready for that if they aren’t saving that for the big face to face meeting of Yusaku and RL Revolver.

Also, another flashback I would like to see is if Revolver was present when his father was killed. Like did he actually see SOL killing his father right before his eyes? Revenge isn’t much of a character trait for Revolver, that is Yusaku’s thing after all, but I just want to see if that affected him or not in his way of thinking. Plus I would like to see just why he is doing this and just why he hates the online world so much. Was it due to his father being killed or is more to do with the Ignises?

I like to also bring up Revolver’s age in this. Five years before the start of Vrains, he was the Revolver we see today, since it looks like avatars don’t age since they are just avatars after all, that attacked the Cyberse. Five years before that was the Hanoi Project. Yusaku was six when that happened. If the Revolver we see in the preview was him during when the Hanoi Project happened, he clearly is much older than him, as most of us had expected. He looks around the same age as the Yuus and Bracelet Girls were when they were shown in flashbacks and they had to be about 11 I believe since the events that happened in ARC-V before hand were three years ago before the main story started and they were 14 in Yuya and Yuzu case in present day if I remember correctly. So Revolver has to be around 18-21 in age I would guess. I’m for sure my math is off and let’s watch as he turns out to be Yusaku’s age.

Speaking of which, when this whole thing over and Revolver is redeemed, because I would be more shocked if he isn’t, watch as he purposely transfers himself into Yusaku and Aoi’s school just to keep an eye on them (since Revolver knows who Blue Angel actually is as well). Yusaku would lose it and the shenangians that could come from that would be amazing. You just see Revolver sitting in his chair, minding is own business, and then out of nowhere, you see Yusaku coming up to him, asking to talk in private (since they would both know who the other is by this point), and everyone else is just so shocked because here was Yusaku Fujiki, the person who is known to not have any friends, let alone talk to anyway, starting a CONVERSATION with someone, with the new kid of all people, and then them leaving to go talk in private like on the roof of the building or something. That is just funny to think about seeing everyone’s surprised, especially Naoki if he is trying to start a conversation with Yusaku and he just flat out brushes him off to go talk with Revolver. I can’t be the only one that wants to see this happen and not just because of ship bait either. I feel like that could lead to some character development for both of them and we would be able to see more of the real world after being in Link Vrains for so long.

So there’s my inside of episode 41 for Vrains. I’m really happy we are getting some answers again and hopefully the next two episodes will be just as good with said answer giving.

#vrains #vrains spoilers #theories #Thoughts

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