#sort of another parallel with owen and his mother in that way

[aemiron-main]

ARE THERE ANY OTHER CREELS I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT??? (Is Sam Owens Victor Creel in the Edward Timeline?)

Okay. Bear with me, guys. Open your minds to this curiosity voyage, PLEASE.

So, Sam Owens. The weirdly mysterious guy who’s connected to a lot of things and knows a lot but can’t quite be pinned down. I think he might be Victor Creel from another timeline. PLEASE hear me out on this one.

So, the parallels between Victor’s costuming and Owens’ costuming have haunted me for a long time. Owens wears the same sort of beige cardigan with dark buttons that Victor wears on the porch, and in general, they share the “cardigan with collared shirt”, look.

But there’s even more parallels. For example, this shot parallel:

And both of then referring to “evil”:

And obviously, we have this Victor, in Pennhurst, so this one cant be Owens:

If this Victor/Pennhurst Victor has a son named Henry, though, and a daughter named Alice, what about the Edward timeline Victor? What about the one that had a wife named Alice and a daughter named Virginia? What happened to him?

Well…

A slightly different Victor, from a slightly different timeline.

“Isn’t the Victor that we see in Pennhurst older-looking than Owens?”

Yes. Which tracks PERFECTLY because the Edward timeline Victor was 35 in 1959, whereas the Henry timeline/Pennhurst Victor was 40 in 1959 and 67 in 1986. Which would put Owens/Edward Victor as 62.

And Paul Reiser himself is 67 now, so he definitely wasn’t too young to play a 62 year old.

We also see Owens call possessed Will “son,” which, if Edward is Vecna, and Will was possessed by Edward/Vecna, and Owens is Edward’s father, making Edward his son….

We also have the whole scene with Sullivan showing up to Owens’ house.

Owens specifically holds a photo of Connie Frazier- who is likely Edward timeline Alice Creel/Mother Alice and therefore would have been Owens’/Victor’s previous wife before the Creel murders happened/pre-1959/before Connie-Alice seemingly got her mind wiped by the lab, and the scene also cuts to a flashback of Connie’s death, to really hammer home the Connie/Alice aspect of it.

We also have the pillow with the roses on it RIGHT behind Owens during this whole scene (and he later sits on it)- roses, very similar to the roses on the window of the Creel door.

And we also get this line from Sullivan when he’s at Owen’s house:

A problem that Owens created… Almost like the problem is his son. Almost like his son is Edward/Vecna (the problem). Almost like Owens has/had a son that his post-Connie/Alice wife calls “Peter.” Almost like there was a “Peter,” in the lab that Brenner calls on the intercom, and almost like “Peter Ballard,” was the casting name for 001/Edward/Henry. And also the fact that Sullivan says that it was Owens/men like Owens who created this problem in the first place. First, almost like 001…..

And there’s also the fact that Nancy uses the fake name “Ruth,” when visiting Victor in Pennhurst, and that “Ruth, Nevada,” is where Owens lives, creating yet another tie between Owens and Victor.

We also have THIS line from Sullivan towards Owens:

Which, this is a WHOLE other analysis in and of itself, but there’s been something scratching at me regarding the parallels between Brenner and Mother-Virginia Creel, and if Brenner is SOMEHOW Virginia (even in the sense that there’s some weird Thing-esque shapeshifting shit going on and he pretended to be her which is also interesting considering this post that I made about how “Victor,” in the Massacre at Hawkins Lab Creel sequence holds Henry/Edward the same way that Brenner holds El), and if Owens is Victor, then that would make the “mommy and daddy,” comment track as well.

Owens also talks about how Brenner is overestimating One- almost like he knows One. Almost like he still views him as a child/less of a threat…

And there’s also the fact that in the Indianapolis Gazette/Edward timeline, Victor was found wandering along the side of the road on the morning of the murders, and like I talked about in this post, the description of him as being “slight,” and lacking fine motor skills, may point to Victor having been at Hawkins Lab for much longer than a single night. And I don’t know which Victor is which, but if Victor was in the lab on the night of the Creel murders in Edward’s timeline, then who the hell was at the Creel house? Especially since again, the “Victor,” ay the Creel house that night holds Henry/Edward the same way that Brenner holds El. Anyway, that’s a whole other can of worms.

I think that one of the Owens is Edward’s father and the other one is not (as Edward doesn’t exist outside the Edward timeline), depending on the timeline. And there’s a chance that either a.) Peter was a fake name for Edward or b.) Peter was Owens’ actual son in the timeline where Owens was NOT Edward’s father/is NOT victor creel (the Henry timeline). I’m still digging into this more to click all of the pieces together, but just wanted to get it out there today.

#stranger things #sam owens #victor creel #st creel timeline weirdness #sam owens is alternate timeline victor creel

[chirpsythismorning]

How can you still think that Henry is not El's father? Look at this parallel! No hate, just trying to understand

https://www.tumblr.com/bylertruther/715418989849870336?source=share

This is the first time I’ve seen anything more substantial than the Darth Vader/Luke parallels, so I am intrigued! It is technically Vecna saying both things, both times. We see him do this with El in s3 and then Max in s4 with This will all be over soon, so he does have a penchant for repeating things for dramatic effect. BUT the fact that it is a father/daughter dynamic in this case, is quite incriminating. 

The main thing that puts me off with this theory is that it would be quite predictable? There were a lot of fans acknowledging the Darth Vader/Luke parallels between Henry/El on Reddit when s4 first premiered. Though to be fair, even now no one really takes the theory seriously, despite it being something a lot of casual fans picked up on and still bring up for discussions on there, so at least there’s that? But still, that’s just another reason why it sort of puts me off, the idea of it being this big revelation in s5, despite it being something people easily hypothesized only to discard just as quickly, and how that would be kind of disappointing? I think it being easy to guess is also why I was convinced it was simply put there as a misdirect to block people from finding out the truth?

And yet, this is pretty interesting to me and so I am intrigued at the very least!

I am convinced Joyce is El and Will’s mother though. Like 100%. Terry is very obviously placed as a misdirect, as is Lonnie (reminder that the Duffers love misdirects/red herrings).

Technically, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Joyce to be their mother AND Henry to be their father, being that El/Will would have been born in 1970, when Joyce was 28 and Henry was 23? However, we’re also getting the play The First Shadow, which is set in 1959, when Joyce was 17 and Henry was 12, so I feel like it would be weird to establish them crossing paths all the way back then and again later in life, only for her to get pregnant? Regardless if it was like done in the lab or not, it would just be an odd choice, that's all I'm saying!

With that being said, IVF does exist. The first successful IVF procedure wasn’t until 1978, so 8 years after El and Will were born. But this is a TV show and so years can be off from time to time. This would also be a lab doing this, a lab that is known for not reporting dangerous procedures performed on unsuspecting subjects, so I wouldn't go as far as to say it's completely out of the realm of possibility.

I also do think that Henry is heavily queer-coded, so it’s likely we could get a backstory for him in s5 that sort of delves into that part of his life, and how his perceived queerness might have been what got him involved with doctors prior to Hawkins Lab. This was alluded to, with him saying he’d been poked and prodded for years, with the language surrounding it being directly tied to his queer-coding.

What this does remind me of though is Aliens (1986), which Paul Reiser aka Dr. Owens also starred in. His character Burke comes off one of the good guys early on, with him even making the classic, I’m one of the good guys jokes (same as Owens does in s2), only to end the film being the one who had been directly working against them, from the very beginning. According to the original script, he even refers to our lead character as 'kiddo' A LOT, which Owens also does throughout the series with Will in s2 and El in s4. In the film, it’s alluded to that his character signed a document setting all of this in motion, dated 6/12/79, which… fucking interesting considering what revelations we could still have in store for in regards to the lab's true origins in s5.

And so, could the lab have impregnated Joyce via IVF with Henry's sperm? Arguably, it's possible!

Maybe Henry and Joyce didn’t interact in the 70’s, but perhaps after being away from the lab for a short time, Henry was for the first time in his life in an okay place, maybe he even experienced his first love, only to lose him, with the lab perhaps taking advantage of his vulnerability, roping him back into a permanent life there? And then maybe, a few years pass, and with him being unaware, they used his DNA to impregnate Joyce? 

This could then follow the whole one kid is in the experiment group (El) and one kid is in the control group (Will) theory?

This would also perhaps fit into the Brenner being tasked with focusing on the experiment group (El) and Owens being tasked with focusing on the control group (Will).

This does remind me a lot of a couple scenes in particular...

4x05: The Nina Project

This sequence above is almost a direct parallel to El's series long recurring flashback of Terry (2x07: The Lost Sister):

El calling Terry her home, warranted a correction, because no, Terry is not El's Mama, nor her home.

And thereby repeating that scene in a sense, with Brenner saying You're home now. You're home, this time with no follow up to correct it? And with a shot that looks very freaking in terms of what the blocking could possibly signify?

Could this mean that El's home is the lab then? She was born (conceived) in the lab, which is why that is more the truth than the assumption that Terry is her mother? (El also gives off Will vibes in some of these close-ups above, where you cant see her hair length. Instead what we get is the notable Byers bob, which is interesting...)

4x08: Papa

Then there's this...

We have both Brenner and Owens attending to El, as she is having flashbacks to her birth.

And AGAIN we get this focus on this female doctor (who appears to also be rocking the Byers' hairstyle....). This is after El has finally been faced with the 'truth' regarding the massacre at Hawkins Lab, and so why are they wasting all of this crucial time having El stare in the direction of where this woman is standing, literally squinting with a confused expression? She literally looks at this woman more than she does at Brenner and Owens (that close-up of El staring directly at her before she gets the first flashback is so insane, I want to scream) And why does she appear to have identical nail polish to Terry in her flashback, with them being juxtaposed back to back in those shots?

I think that what this all could essentially mean, is that our understanding of El's birth is not what it seems.

We hear 2 baby's crying during her flashback right before she banishes Henry to the upside down in 4x07. We see that there are inconsistencies with the flashbacks, with us even seeing a baby in the womb at one point, from the perspective of El who is also in the womb, meaning she was looking at another baby alongside her??? And we even get from Terry's flashbacks a moment where one baby is being held by Brenner, followed by him looking back to the source, almost confused (bc there's one more?)? And so that then begs to question if this was an intentional twin birth, or it just ended up being the case?

I guess with all of that at play, it's hard for me to distinguish what is real and what isn't anymore.

I mean, isn't there an official still of Henry at Project Nina? Did we just scurry past that without thinking about the implications of it?

That opens up a whole new can of worms because it begs to question, again what is real and what isn't real, even further? How much are the lab in control of what is going on? Do they know what Henry's plan is based on some type of secret information we don't have? Or are they also pawns in Henry's game, making choices without even realizing that he is behind them because he is playing with time?

I guess I don't really see why Henry would turn back the clock though, in this context? Like going back to 59 and what happened back then, which led to all of this coming into play? I just struggle to understand how that would be dealt with in a way that wouldn't feel sort of like, why tho?

I also as of now subscribe to this being a time loop situation based on evidence that goes back to the very first episode. So when there's time trickery involved, I guess it's just a lot easier for me to imagine Henry turning back the clock for a specific reason, with it being in relation to Joyce and Hopper specifically (and the vague plot of the play thus far supports that possibility more to me?)

Basically the crack theory I'm subtly subscribing to rn, is that something horrible happened in the OG timeline in relation to Will/El. I think Lonnie could have been involved, and it's likely the lab was involved in covering it up because they were responsible for him as he was a volunteer who went haywire basically.

And so Henry, turning back the clock, is him making an attempt to give Will and El a second chance in a world that he views as a horrible place that let him (and them) down.

I think that could fit into Henry's motives being a lot more justified than we are expecting, with him experiencing both being impacted by the lab and having to deal with societies demands of him fitting their mold.

I am intrigued at the very least by the prospects of this being like a plan from the lab, with the focus on eggs/demogorgan imagery being inspired by the movie Aliens. I can't think much further how that would work, but I can imagine it at least!

And no offense to you, but this combined with the Darth Vader/Luke parallels still doesn't quite manage to outweigh all the foreshadowing connected to Hopper, which goes all the way back to s1, literally right after the opening credits of the pilot episode. Whereas this is starting to only be added into the narrative in s3 (barely!).

While I will continue to be open to anything and everything, I'm still leaning more towards this being a misdirect, just as Terry and Lonnie were, for an audience that has a lot of surprises in store in s5, which they couldn't see coming in the first place because of all the red herrings they fell for easily along the way.

TBH I see more connecting the Creels to the Wheelers in terms of a secret familial revelation. And I don't see that being something that would happen simultaneously with this, so for that reason, I'm out (for now at least!).

#stranger things #willel twins #willel literal twins #joyce + hopper = willel twins + jon #henry creel #stranger things theory #the main thing that makes me open to this is the Aliens (1986) implications #otherwise I don't think i'd be able to wrap my head around it #i think there's also so much we don't know about the labs goals #in tandem with what henry (vecna)'s true goals are as well #are they going in tandem with each other? #is one side unaware that they are inadvertently benefiting the other side? #if will/el's existence was planned by the lab #then wouldn't that mean that they were born for a specific reason? #whereas all the other kids there are from random places all over the world? #it's just too much shooting in the dark for my comfort #I am however very convinced will/el are twins #and i think hopper/els flashbacks read as false memories #which just begs to question why hopper has false memories in the first place? #and why the lab would put them there? #like i just think it all connects more than we realize #and it being hopper who has been their dad all along #is just a lot more beautiful of a s5 revelation to me than ivf connecting joyce and henry? #only for them to give us a play where Joyce could potentially interact with 12 year old Henry?? #idk #I wont rule it out bc you never know! #then there's also the connections to the creels and the wheelers #which also feel like they could be misdirects but also not? #you never know if you're falling into a trap #so it's just a matter of looking at it all and seeing what holds the most weight in terms of it being like a huge series long epic

[introvertbard]

Yet more Anakin musings

I accidentally deleted my near-finished draft about this, and now I have to type it back up, so a lot of my original parallels will be missing, ugh. Content warning for slavery and especially the lack of autonomy that comes with it.

So it’s no secret that Anakin’s unhealthy attachment to Padmé gets stronger every time a humanoid male so much as blinks in her direction, and he overreacts so damn much.  I was just wondering how the powerlessness of his secret marriage, where he is Padmé’s husband but cannot ACT LIKE IT in public, is yet another way that he might consider the Jedi to be slave-owners under a different name.

--

Anakin grew up as a slave on Tatooine, and I wonder just how FRAGILE the idea of marriage would be for the poor folks there, and especially the slaves.

All sorts of shit can happen--a raid or a gangster fight in Mos Espa will kill one of you while you’re just doing your business, and then the survivor has a VERY high likelihood of going from “free” to “slave” by the next morning. But even if you both survive, there is no guarantee that your impending new master wants two new mouths to feed, and there’s a small chance that you can go rescue your spouse.

You could be injured; you could have relatives and children to feed at home; you could just NOT HAVE much more than a blaster and a speeder, compared to the Hutts who have DOZENS of people at the palace alone.

Cliegg Lars tried to rescue Shmi from the Tusken Raiders with a posse of thirty moisture-farmers. They came back with FOUR, and Cliegg was missing a leg. I’m pretty sure that the reason he felt like he could do that was because 1) Owen is grown already, and 2) he’s got a girlfriend for support. A newly disabled man would NOT be able to get enough help on a farm from a young child, especially one who is ALSO traumatized from losing his stepmother to raiders.

Meanwhile, on the lesser end of the scale, some merchant might be doing business with you, a moisture-farmer, and they end up taking a shine to you or your spouse or another HOPEFULLY GROWN relative, so they offer to spend the night in exchange for [buying less water] / [paying more money]. And it’s like, very few people WANT a relative and especially a spouse to be prostituted if they can help it, but the merchant has more money, more rank, and at least a COUPLE of trained guards around to take care of their cargo. There is also a very high risk that refusing to sleep with them means they’ll stop doing business with you entirely, so can you AFFORD to say no?

So here’s Anakin Skywalker, who grew up enslaved with a single mother on the ass end of the universe. Nine-year-old Anakin couldn’t protect his mother or himself from their masters, because nine-year-olds are tiny and they’re not supposed to take on adult responsibilities--but even if he was older and bigger and stronger, he would NOT BE ALLOWED to protect her.

He knows this because Shmi wasn’t allowed to protect him. Watto’s got a gambling habit and he forces Ani to enter in podracing as a child. It’s dangerous as fuck, and humans are ill-suited for it. Shmi is terrified for his safety, but she is not allowed to tell Watto to stop endangering her child, because he is legally Watto’s property. Anakin is not allowed to refuse running in Space-Nascar.

“But he’s GOOD AT IT, and he’s got THE FORCE to help him!” Yeah, but Anakin’s pilot skills and Force-sensitivity really only amount to letting him survive long enough for Watto to... what? Keep fucking gambling with him?

Talented slaves are still SLAVES, they’re just more exciting than regular ones.

Shmi and Anakin have tracking chips on their bodies that their masters could detonate if they get too “difficult,” or try to escape.

Anakin and Shmi and other slaves who got implants don’t know where the chips are on them. Anakin is trying to make a scanner to locate them, under Watto’s nose. The slaves were most likely sedated, implanted with it during some other medical procedure, or they were just too young to remember.

Even without the chip, Watto could “just” beat her, or Anakin, or BOTH OF THEM, for protesting. He hasn’t done it (in canon?), but their former masters or other slaves’ masters do, and this threat hangs over Anakin and Shmi all the time. He hasn’t beaten them, but other people beat their slaves.

Ten years later, Anakin is grown up and married to Padmé--but he’s not supposed to be married as a Jedi, or he will be expelled, and her own reputation is definitely at stake if people know she's “corrupted” a high-profile space-monk, so he’s now forced to watch men hit on her or try to ask her out for dates. Are you really “married” if you can’t ACT like a husband and wife in public?

Can you get married if you’re a slave? What does that MEAN for them? Their spouses would be pimped out to their masters’ clients, or be forced to have sex with the masters themselves. Poor people would get solicited by rich folks, and forced to weigh their emotions versus money/resources. Or they just wouldn’t be able to protect their loved ones from assault by people with more social status, more money, more blasters, just more of everything, and you have to DEAL WITH IT and pick up the pieces as best you can.

And in real life, marriage between slaves could be seen as a “positive” in that “YAY, YOU GET MORE SLAVES!” Or “look, I’m not THAT bad--I let you have RELATIONSHIPS!”

It could be seen as a neutral because you can’t micromanage EVERY SINGLE PART of your slaves’ lives, so what’s the harm if they keep doing their jobs?

It could also be a “negative” because now the master has more mouths to feed, and humans take a long time to grow up, or their once-obedient slave starts acting up when their spouse/relative gets pimped out or forced into dangerous jobs, and now you have to sell one off (or THREATEN to sell one of them off) to keep them quiet.

And with Anakin growing up to be Stonking Hot Hayden Christensen, who was already solicited/lusted-after by multiple women as a forbidden-fruit Jedi, I can only imagine how much WORSE that would be on Tatooine if he had still been a slave and at the mercy of whoever wants him.

Adult slaves would almost certainly be compartmentalizing “non-coerced sex,” with no power or resources attached, compared to: “sex for money,” “sex for physical safety,” “getting barked at by their master to sleep with someone,” and all the other ways that they cannot control their sexual relationships.

It reminds me of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s dialogue before their final battle in Revenge of the Sith--everyone knows he has a hard time taking responsibility for himself, but I also find it telling that he doesn’t blame Padmé either, at least not for long.

When Obi-Wan gets out of the ship, Anakin at first calls Padmé a liar and force-chokes her in a rage, but he gets this horribly confused look on his face and THEN he starts screaming at Obi-Wan:

“YOU TURNED HER AGAINST ME!”

She said she loved him thirty seconds ago. She didn’t WANT to turn against him, she didn’t WANT TO lie, she didn’t WANT Obi-Wan to kill him--but he made her do it, because slaves don’t get choices.

“YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM ME!”

Obi-Wan wants Padmé or their child or both. She wants to stay with Anakin. She’s carrying Anakin’s child. But Obi-Wan will take her anyway, because slaves don't get to pick who they want.

OBI-WAN MADE HER DO THINGS SHE DIDN’T WANT TO DO! THAT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME ON TATOOINE! This totally makes sense to Anakin’s formerly-enslaved and Sith-fueled brain!

Shmi could not protect her son, and Padmé cannot protect her husband, and Anakin couldn’t protect his mother, and now Anakin cannot protect Padmé or Baby Skywalker, and he’s seething like a cornered animal.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan is clearly having an entirely different conversation, because he thinks Anakin is 1) an equal and 2) in his right mind.

Like, the man just kept telling Anakin to “LET GO OF HER!!!” With words. After rewatching the scene years later, I just keep thinking “OBI-WAN, SHE CAN'T BREATHE! YOU GOTTA FUCKING TACKLE HIM! OR PUNCH HIM! USE THE FORCE! DO IT NOW!”

But that’s also me 1) watching this from my safe living room, and 2) being a fairly normal person, who was not indoctrinated by warrior-priests to chant away your hard emotions.

So Obi-Wan didn’t know, or didn’t realize, or didn’t want to admit, that Anakin is going off the rails, and in times like these, you need to fucking MAKE HIM stop choking Padmé. But now she’s unconscious and Anakin’s screaming at Obi-Wan and he’s IGNITING HIS LIGHTSABER.

Canonically, the novel of ROTS says Obi-Wan left Anakin on Mustafar because he couldn’t bring himself to properly kill him, so it is also very likely that Obi-Wan was fucking shocked out of his mind and couldn’t bring himself to HIT Anakin, his padawan and brother-figure, not even to make him stop choking Padmé.

-

Musings on Anakin’s Mental Damage Loop:

So Anakin calls Padmé his wife and he calls himself her husband, but they are publicly not-married because the Jedi can’t get married. He cannot protect her from men who think she’s single, like his mother couldn’t protect him from being a living gambling chip, like he couldn’t protect his mother from Tusken Raiders.

And he calls himself free, but he can’t bear to leave the Jedi Order because that is all he knows, and he thinks he owes them something, and he believes them when they say he’s Special, and he is always hurt when The Masters Do Not Love Him.

He wants to free the slaves when he’s nine years old, but ten years later, he wants to be a master of the Galaxy. He says he will be a Good Master, because he once lived in terror of Bad Masters, and he knows what they do and he knows that he Will Not Do That. He doesn’t realize that he shouldn’t want to be a master, that he’s just going in circles with who gets to be in chains this time, BECAUSE THERE’S NO THERAPY IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY.

And he calls himself An Adult, but he runs off against orders, he flies too fast and lands too hard, he sulks or throws tantrums at twenty years old, because he has learned that Bad Kids Get ACKNOWLEDGED, even if it hurts and he hates being treated like a child, because he’s acting like a child.

He keeps saying things he does are not his fault, because Slaves Don't Get Choices. He WANTS TO be a person, he WANTS TO make choices, but he doesn’t realize he already is a person and he’s made choices, lots of them. That’s almost certainly a part of why he’s so reckless--because at his core, regardless of what he says or believes, maybe Anakin’s still not used to the idea that his actions matter to people, because slaves don’t matter to people.

Anakin hasn't broken out of his conditioning because the Jedi unknowingly ENFORCE it, both with their hierarchy and with their mishandling of him as an individual. They’re barely equipped to deal with REGULAR children, let alone a damaged kid that was freed from slavery last week, so ten years later, they think he’s just acting up like regular people do, and they dress him down for being foolhardy and tell him to SHUT UP AND LISTEN. They don’t know why this makes him MORE mad, why he won’t control himself and acts foolhardy again, and rinse and repeat.

Because what kind of CONTROL has this man known? Not when he was born into slavery, not when Another Master bought him and his mother, and not when Another Master gambled him off WITHOUT his mother. And he is not able to control when Qui-Gon dies, when he’s taken from Shmi, when he gets a crush on the very first pretty girl he sees, because he’s not used to dealing with death or loss or affection as a Person Who Experiences Things, instead of a Slave That Things Happen To, and so the emotional tidal waves of PRETTY GIRL IS NICE TO ME and MOM ISN’T COMING ON THE SHIP and QUI-GON JINN IS DEAD and OBI-WAN IS MY NEW MASTER overwhelm the poor kid, like they’re forces of nature.

He wasn't in control when someone drafted him into a war and told him to go on this mission or that mission, or that one and that one and that one, for three fucking years.

He cannot control Padmé Amidala, or Shmi Skywalker, or Ahsoka Tano, or Obi-Wan Kenobi, or anyone else he loves in his too-hard-and-too-fast manner, and he clutches them in his vice-grip because he knows they soothe the frothing pain in his soul, but he thinks he needs other people to make the pain stop, because he thinks he can't control himself.

#anakin skywalker #star wars #content warning #slavery

[novelconcepts]

What are your thoughts about Charlotte Wingrave?

Sort of depends on the day and on how willing to be charitable I'm feeling. Usually I think she was a good-hearted woman doing her best, cursed to doomed romance by Viola Lloyd's gravity, but that she wasn't a terribly present figure at the house or for her children. I suspect her story with Henry is meant to parallel that of Jamie's mother--a woman left behind to wrangle children, looking for some measure of life where she can find it, even to their detriment. And, since most of our looks at Charlotte come through the lens of her very young daughter's memory or her illicit lover's, we never really get a clear picture of who the woman was outside of Mother or Mistakes. It makes her the least well-rounded woman in the cast.

I think the most we can actually tell of her comes from Hannah's flashbacks--where she seems well-meaning, but the sort of kind that comes with a don't look too closely tag on it. She wants to help Hannah, but she doesn't really seem to be seeing her or truly listening when Hannah speaks. It's sort of an "of course you'll move in here. of course you'll sell your house. of course" rich white woman mentality that doesn't take into account, really, how Hannah is feeling or what she actually wants. In a way, that almost plastic kindness is what traps Hannah in the gravity well. The show doesn't devote a ton of time to unpacking that, but it always leaves a weird taste in my mouth, how Charlotte handles that whole deal--that strange blurring of "you're my employee, but I'll call you family" vibe. That said, "He may not be dead, but nobody’s perfect, are they?" is one of my absolute favorite lines in the entire show. Impeccable delivery.

#ask #the haunting of bly manor spoilers #charlotte wingrave #i think the actress does a fantastic job with the role--for what there is of it #but she's basically a ghost to her family even before she's gone. dominic is the same. they mean well but they replace #present parental affection with talismans and phone calls #which is always interesting to think about. and terribly sad. to think these kids have been missing them much longer than they've been dead #sort of another parallel with owen and his mother in that way

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Jordan Claire Robbins, The Umbrella Academy

If you’re a fan of The Umbrella Academy, you probably recognize Jordan Claire Robbins, who stars as Grace/Mom along with Ellen Page, Colm Feore, and Tom Hopper. Jordan's other tv credits include Netflix's Anon opposite Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen, Supernatural, Man Seeking Woman, and SyFy's 12 Monkeys. Before she set her sights on acting, Jordan had a successful career in modeling. When she's not on our screens, she enjoys singing and playing the piano. Jordan hails from Bermuda and currently resides in Vancouver. She took a few minutes to chat with us about The Umbrella Academy, funny moments on set, and more. Check it out:

Despite the creepy Stepford Wife vibes, on balance, Grace has been a better parent than her maker. What is it that drew you to the role?

I love that there is more to Grace than meets the eye. The writers did a brilliant job of revealing Grace’s depth as the first season went on, while also constantly making you wonder what she was capable of – she’s such an enigmatic character. There were all these beautiful flashback scenes where she was the perfect mother figure she was programmed to be, but also moments when you see a dissonance of sorts when she can’t protect the children from pain inflicted by their father figure. And when the story starts off she’s a shadow of what she once was. She’s lost under this faulty programming and she has so much to fight against to find her own voice. Then when she is given another chance at life she’s this different version of herself, one that makes her own choices and has agency for once. It certainly kept me on my toes, getting to play these different versions of her and also finding a balance between perfectly programmed AI and a hidden humanity, a consciousness I believe she developed over her years with the children. I also really loved how Grace’s story, while being very distinctly non-human, mirrors the life women led not that long ago. I did a lot of research (one of which was Stepford Wives!) to have a better understanding of the template Grace was built in as a 1950’s housewife, and was just so struck by how trapped they were in the gender role of being the perfect wife and mother, to never push back against what society expected of them. There were so many obstacles to them feeling free and empowered, just like Grace. Her inability to leave the house, and totally losing the identity and purpose she was programmed to have when the kids left, felt like such a beautiful, heartbreaking parallel to what so many women have struggled with through history and I loved being able to tell that story.

You've successfully made the leap from modeling to acting. Do you think your experience as a model has helped you in your career change/expansion?

I think the more experience you have in life, the better an actor you can be. Modeling definitely gave me lots of practice getting comfortable being in front of the camera, not taking rejection personally, and being a part of telling a story. Modeling feels very collaborative, the same way acting is, and I think my years of physically transforming to contribute one part of a bigger picture at shoots really helped me understand the creative process that goes into every day on a film set. The biggest challenge for me coming from modeling to acting has been learning to embrace my imperfections, and be okay with letting the camera see them which felt very vulnerable and uncomfortable at first. In modeling there’s a ton of pressure to be this and that, essentially to be flawless, but playing a human being onscreen requires the opposite. Humans are complicated and messy, and the more you can embrace the unattractive parts of yourself the more depth there is to draw from.

In your free time, you like to sing and play the piano. If The Umbrella Academy were a musical, what would Grace's big number be?

Ooh, great question, music is such a huge part of the show, so a musical episode would have been amazing! I listened to a ton of music from the 40s and 50s to get into character, and in my audition tape for Grace I hummed Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ - it’s a funny coincidence because the moon ended up being such a huge theme in Season One. I think it’s perfect for her since it’s so romantic and classy, and because she was always longing for her children, for an escape from being under Hargreeves’ eye so the lyrics are fitting.  

If you could play any other character in the show, who would you choose, and why?

I think Klaus would be a blast to play, he’s so free with no boundaries or self consciousness whatsoever, but he’s also tortured from a lifetime of numbing his pain. Recognizing that I would not be a good casting choice for Klaus (and since I can’t picture anyone playing Klaus besides Robert) I think it also would’ve also been fun to play Cha-Cha, with her dry sense of humor and all of those great stunts. Plus I love Cameron and would love the chance to have scenes with him!

Can you tell us about any funny fails/stories that happened on set?

There’s a scene in episode 3 of season one when Allison and Luther are questioning Grace while she cooks them breakfast. I was supposed to cook eggs and bacon, plate the food into smiley faces, and then bring the plates over to them while avoiding their questions. But I’m not a great multitasker when food is involved and it was the last scene up on a very long day of shooting, so I somehow plated them two really sad looking frown faces. The camera was on me through the middle of them and when they got the giggles it was near impossible to stay in character. For the rest of the night the three of us had a hard time keeping it together – it actually turned out to be one of my favorite scenes, probably because we had so much fun shooting it!

What advice would you give to young people looking to get into modeling and/or acting?

I would say to make sure you stay connected to your sense of self. Neither are particularly easy industries, and it can be hard not to take rejection to heart, but the most important thing is being really grounded in yourself and what makes you happy. There really is no way to do any of this “right” and the most successful people are always the ones who own who they are because that’s the most endearing quality, so if you keep honoring yourself you can’t go wrong. Other than that, be a “yes” person when it comes to taking opportunities to learn and grow! The more you push fear aside and make it your goal to get out of your comfort zone, the further you will go and greater your work will be. The world needs more brave voices to share their stories.

Who do you look up to as an actor?

Jordan Peele is so incredibly talented, he’s obviously a master at comedy and he’s making such original, intelligent projects that look at social issues like racism in a way that’s never been done before. I would love to work with him one day. I’m also really taken with Phoebe Waller-Bridge – I love the boldness she brings to her work. Fleabag is so beautiful, raw, hilarious, and Killing Eve is brilliant, we need more strong female driven stories and she has such a unique voice. And I have always looked up to Helen Mirren. She radiates this strength and classiness while also being so playful and irreverent - and she makes aging sexy in an industry where women can feel so much pressure to stay young.

Thanks for taking the time, Jordan! Season two of The Umbrella Academy is now streaming on Netflix.

#entertainment spotlight #the umbrella academy #netflix #jordan claire robbins

[aion-rsa]

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3 Easter Eggs and References

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This article contains spoilers for Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3.

The third season of the Netflix and DreamWorks animated series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous pits the teenaged main characters against the Scorpius rex, a hybrid dinosaur like nothing they’ve ever dealt with before. They successfully defeat her, while simultaneously thwarting an attempt by Dr. Henry Wu to retrieve his research on the hybrids and dealing with the emotional impact of leaving their new found family.

This season has a good amount of references to the rest of the franchise, like we have come to expect from the show, and in the final seconds teases the possibility of a fourth season. Here are some notable Easter eggs and other references to the Jurassic World and Jurassic Park canon.

The Helicopter

In Camp Cretaceous season 1, which took place concurrently with Jurassic World, we saw Simon Masrani’s helicopter crash into the aviary from the point of view of our camp fam, instead of Owen Grady and Claire Dearing (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) as shown in the movie. Season three of Camp Cretaceous continues to show us events from the movies from another perspective, as the story overlaps with the beginning of Fallen Kingdom.

Yes, it’s been six months since the Jurassic World incident stranded our group of teenagers on the island, as we find out from the pilot of one of the helicopters that arrive near the end of the season. Unfortunately, they aren’t the rescue team the kids have been hoping for. They’ve come to find the remains of the Indominus rex and extract DNA.

Read more

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Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 2 Ending Explained

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In one harrowing scene, Rexy the Tyrannosaurus pursues a man dangling from one of the helicopters. He gets away, but his relief is short-lived when the park mosasaur leaps out of the water and devours him. If that scene gives you a sense of déjà vu, that’s because it takes place in the opening minutes of Fallen Kingdom, only this time we get to see it from the perspective of Darius, Brooklynn, and Yaz. Even though we didn’t see them in the movie, these kids were never far from the action. (And may have even caused it in this particular instance; Rexy was only in that area because she had been chasing after the kids.)

While that may be the most obvious connection to the timeline of the movies, the rest of the season has its fair share of references and homages.

Scorpius rex

Last season, the kids discovered a mysterious experiment known only as E750, which escaped her cryogenic chamber during the cliffhanger finale. This season, we get to meet her: Scorpius rex, an unstable and unpredictable hybrid made by none other than Dr. Henry Wu (played by BD Wong in the movies and voiced by Greg Chun in Camp Cretaceous).

She’s big, she’s bad, she’s covered in poisonous spikes, and she may be the most dangerous dinosaur on the island. Oh, and did I mention she can reproduce asexually?

Just like in Jurassic Park, when it is revealed that the dinosaurs can change their sex thanks to the frog DNA the scientists used to fill in the sequence gaps, our terrifying tree climbing friend Scorpius has developed the ability to produce offspring all on her own. (You go, girl. You’re a modern woman, you can juggle being a single mother and having a career screwing up ecosystems!)

Blue

Dr. Wu isn’t the only character from the movies who makes an appearance in this season of Camp Cretaceous. Blue, the sole member of the Velociraptor pack to survive the Jurassic World incident, crosses paths with the kids a few times.

Blue previously battled the Indominus rex in Jurassic World, and later takes on the Indoraptor near the end of Fallen Kingdom, but it turns out those weren’t her only experiences fighting hybrid dinosaurs. While I wouldn’t say she and the campers necessarily trust one another, Darius does save her life when she becomes trapped under a vehicle, and there is an uneasy alliance after that. Sort of an “enemy of my enemy” situation, with them having a similar goal to defeat the Scorpius rexes. (Scorpiuses rex?)

It would also appear that Blue and the other raptors, along with their trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), might have been a little bit famous before the fall of the park, at least in dinosaur nerd circles. How else would Darius know how to mimic the nonverbal signals used by Owen to communicate with the raptors?

The Kitchen

While trying to get a compass back from the Compsognathus that stole it, the kids stumble upon the original Jurassic Park, which is rumored to be either haunted or cursed by the spirit of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough). And of course, no visit to Jurassic Park is complete without a trip to the visitor center. Nature has taken over the iconic building where we first met Mr. DNA, and where the first of many dramatic showdowns between Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor marked the dénouement of the first film. Ferns and vines have turned the center into something resembling a greenhouse, and the Compies have built nests on old scaffolding and near the atrium ceiling.

And then, of course, there’s the kitchen.

When one of the Scorpius girls follows the kids into the visitor center’s kitchen, you can’t help but be reminded of Tim and Lex (Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards) hiding from the raptors in the first Jurassic Park movie. References to that scene abound, most noticeably the dinosaur’s breath fogging up the round window in the door, but this isn’t just an Easter egg hunt. Rather, the scene parallels the original to show the differences between the clever raptors and the… not so clever Scorpius.

The original raptors are careful, methodical, as they stalk John Hammond’s grandchildren through the kitchen. They move with a purpose that shows us just how intelligent they are.

Scorpius Rex, on the other hand, can’t open the door handle and chooses instead to just bash through it like the chaotic neutral she is. Less of an apex predator and more of a panicking cat with a balloon static electricity’d to her butt, Scorpius is still dangerous, perhaps even more so because she is unpredictable.

At the end of the scene, in one final blink and you’ll miss it nod to the original, an instantly recognizable soup ladle is one of several kitchen utensils sent flying through the air. The season ends with most of the storylines wrapped up and the kids seemingly on their way to safety on a boat headed for Costa Rica. Except… remember the door handle in the kitchen? Turns out, boats have the same handles, and one of them is jiggling in that distinctive raptor way.

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Do we have a stowaway? We’ll find out if we get a fourth season.

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous season 3 is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3 Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[earthnashes]

LAST OF UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

I started playing the very second it was made available to play and just finished it last night at like 4 in the morning. And of course it destroyed me. I love this series man so much man. ;w;

SO! I don’t usually do this but I’m like, fuckin’ dyin’ to talk about it a lil bit so if ya have plans to play it, SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT. <:

-Aight so lemme just say right off the bat that this game is fucking. Gorgeous. The environments, lighting, visual design, the level design, everything was spot on. And don’t get me started on the CHARACTER MODELS. AND ANIMATION. Like bro that shit was lifelike in not just appearance, the characters emoted and carried themselves with so much life they felt legitimately real. They were all so unique too; characters had unique special ticks to just them (Like Ellie pinching her fingers when nervous or upset, or Joel standing taller and squaring himself when talking about hard subjects like he’s bracing himself for it, or Jesse giving his stunted headtilt when he talks) and expressed in a way that was just. Bruh. Aight I’mma stop but fuckin hell what they pull off with the characters in specific in LoU (both part 1 and 2) is just somethin’ outta this world.

-For anyone interested in playing it, the game is roughly 22-30 hours long if you’re just focused on the story, and much longer still if you take the time to explore and find all the little secrets. Some secrets include unique cutscenes and dialogue that are well worth the look; I haven’t found all of ‘em yet but I’m considering trying a completionist playthrough.

-Joel’s death fucking destroyed me. I’m in no way surprised he died, but it hurt regardless, just how quickly things went south for him and Tommy there. And ELLIE. FINDING HIM AND WATCHING HIM GET REKT WAS PAIN INCARNATE. Set the tone hella hard and I’m fuckin’ here for it.

-I’m not gonna lie I fully expected to dislike Abby given she rekt Joel, even though I figured it was for a pretty good reason before it was revealed her pops was the doc Joel killed. But damn. I really enjoyed Abby, a lot actually. From a gameplay standpoint I dare say I enjoyed her section more than Ellie’s since you were BLASTING ENEMIES with those fuckin’ GUNS of hers. And by guns I mean her arms’, jesus she was shredded. As a character, she felt a lot like Ellie from a different perspective and mindset, and I really appreciated the reflection the two of them had. Two sides of the same coin, basically. Also I really, really liked how killin’ Joel brought absolutely no peace to Abby at all, and you caught her beginning to regret it. And it kinda sorta acted as the catalyst to her shift in how she viewed the world. I think that’s a good portion why she latched onto Yara and Lev so hard. Perspective is everything, and there is always more than just one side of a story.

-In the same vein I had a blast learning more about Abby’s friend group, dynamics, how she lived, who she worked for and her past and everything. Of them all I think I liked Nora the most, but Mel and Manny were both reaaaalll close seconds. O:

-Speaking of, DOGS. DOGS DOGS DOGS. So many dogs man and you got to play with and pet them! Fuck yeah. That should be a rule in gaming; if you have a cat or a dog in the game, you should have a button to pet it. Also good gorl Alice is best doggy don’t fight me on this. uwu

-Jesse and Dina were the beez knees I fuckin loved them man. They were exactly the sort of folks I can see Ellie being best friends with. ALSO, this one isn’t major, but I really appreciated that there was no love-triangle here? Dina and Jesse dated, smashed, didn’t work out but they still remained good friends. Ellie’s first reaction to seeing Jesse is to confess that she and Dina kissed, and Jesse readily accepted the fact that Dina moved on (and he had too). It’s just refreshing. No bullshit love triangle there, just three people who really understood each other. Also jesus christ, I really didn’t want Jesse to die. Goddamnit. But I’m so glad they didn’t kill Dina too like, I was fully prepared to see her get fucked up. Base rule of LoU: anyone you like has a high probability of dying. ;w;

-BRO THINKING OF JESSE, ELLIE, AND DINA MADE ME REALIZE THE PARALLEL OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO MEL, ABBY, AND OWEN. Ellie’s triangle was essentially non-existent; no feelings of betrayal or anger, just understanding and love, like there was a deep-seated bond here that would weather anything. If Jesse had lived, I wouldn’t doubt he, Ellie, and Dina would have lived together to raise the baby together. Meanwhile Abby’s triangle had Owen seeming to unable to let go of the past he and Abby had together, that poor bastard was still in love with her, and how that supplemented the slow deterioration of all three’s friendship. I was sad to see Mel turn on Abby the way she did but like. I mean.  Dude was ready to leave Mel in the dust for Abby despite HIM GETTING MEL PREGNANT. Abby also kinda did drag everyone into this, even if it was of their own violation. Oof. Though it did feel like she was angry at both Abby and Owen equally, not just blaming Abby for everything there... or at least the romantic relationship part. Honestly probably one of the few times I actually enjoyed a love triangle in a story, or at least of this caliber.

-Isaac, the leader of the WLF? He was cool as fuck. I love how much character they packed into him without even showing him too much. Like there was a scene where Nora mentions she tried to question Isaac about Owen and she said “he gave her that fucking look and told her to drop it”. Hell, when he was talking to Abby, he isn’t that much taller than her but he felt like he outright dwarfed her with the way he carried himself and how they reacted to him. I love shit like that man. But anyway fuck Isaac. uwu

-Not gonna lie I kinda wish I got to see the leader of the Seraphites, but it was hella cool to learn that she had been dead already and how the Seraphites operated with and without her. I don’t think I found everything regarding that specific point in game, but it sounded a lot like a peaceful religious leader who’s words and teachings were twisted to suit the goals of corrupt members of the tribe. She was essentially an equivalent to Jesus, at least to the Seraphites.

-I honestly really loved all of the characters introduced but I have to admit that Lev and Yara were standouts. Yara’s one hell of a big sister, lemme tell you, and the lengths she went through to make sure Lev was safe really shooketh me. AND LEV. MY CHILD. MY SON. To those of you who are familiar with the LGBT+ controversy around the game, he and Ellie are what people are complaining about. Ellie because she’s gay, Lev because he’s trans.

Lev in particular was heartbreaking. His tribe were outright hunting him for who he was, as well as Yara because she chose to protect him. The mindset the tribe had was pretty much isolated to them though.

And jesus. That scene with him and his mother? Fuck.

-YARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :( BRUH that scene pissed me off, fuck you Isaac, you bastard.

-THE SCENE. WHEN YOU PLAY AS ABBY. AND YOU FIGHT ELLIE. WAS SO FUCKING COOL. AND SCARY. Ellie man, that section really showed how efficient and smart she is. She legit tricked me a few times not gonna lie, like I thought she didn’t see me but she’d pretend she wouldn’t, only to ambush me with a FUCKING MOLY. Also the fact that the game outright says “hey uhhhhh you can’t actually take her head on, she’ll fuck you up in a heartbeat bro”. Welp. A really strange mix of horror and sadness and pride there. Hm. :/

-Mom!Ellie was so fucking sweet to see. And it made me catch a glimpse of hope that Ellie actively tried to soldier through for her fam’s sake. But she clearly had demons she had to confront and I’m angry at Tommy for disrupting her and Dina’s life, but it felt necessary. Still made me sick to my stomach to watch her go after Dina fucking BEGS HER TO STAY. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-Speaking of Tommy, it was so sad to see how much he fell after Joel’s death. It really showed just how much he was like his brother though; underneath a gentle man is someone you best not trifle with, and is very familiar with doing horrific things to reach a goal. Because fuckin hell, Tommy is legit a badass. That sniper part was SO. COOL. Aaaaand terrifying. RIP Manny. :/

-Bro, I’m very curious to see more about the Rattlers but. They were fucked up in a special kind of way. There’s no telling what they did to those people they captured and enslaved. Seeing Abby in the state she was in after seeing her throughout all the game in tip-top shape was painful. That poor girl was literally skin and bones and... just beaten down.

-ELLIE AND ABBY’S FINAL FIGHT WAS SO SAD. I HATED (but I loved) EVERY SECOND OF IT. I was so scared Ellie had fully lost herself there, when she threatens an unconscious Lev to force Abby to fight, who at that point, very clearly didn’t want to. Honestly. Ellie clearly didn’t either, far as I could tell, but it felt like it was the only way she knew how to confront everything. Fight it, until you kill it, or you die. It also felt like Abby understood that since she was in Ellie’s shoes once upon a time.

-I don’t care what anyone else says I’m so happy Ellie let Abby go. I’m so glad she chose not to go through with it. For so long Ellie has been angry and resentful about a lot of things, and she never got a choice once throughout the majority of her journey. As much as I will 100% agree with Joel sayin “fuck this supposed cure, fuck the Fireflies”, it’s not fair of him, or the Fireflies, to just outright take that choice from her, that she didn’t really have one to begin with. She was justifiably angry with Joel and the moment she chooses to try and forgive him, he dies. Another choice stolen away from her. The fact that she chose mercy despite everything, and it was prompted by a memory of Joel, the very reason she was doing this, is profound to me. Like she finally understood why he did what he did, and why he said he’d absolutely do it all over again. Hell, she probably even reached the understanding that her and Abby really aren’t that different from one another in that aspect.

-Ellie returning to an empty home, with Dina and JJ gone, was heartwrenching. I fully understand why Dina left and she honestly had every right to, but it still hurt man. :C AND ELLIE. PLAYING THE SONG JOEL MADE/SUNG FOR HER. ALWAYS KILLED ME. But this instance in particular was something else man like fuck I balled like a baby. Especially when it was followed by the fact that Ellie and Joel were on the cusp of mending their broken relationship only for it to be ripped away man. Goddamnit.

-ELLIE AND JOEL DUET NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FUCKIN HELL I love this game.

-----------------------------------------

So, this isn’t really a review more than it is me just sharing some of my thoughts on the game, but if ya want me to give it a rating? 10/10. If not a perfect score? At least a 9/10.

The Last Of Us as a series is one that’s moved me more than any other game I can think of honestly (outside of Telltale’s The Walking Dead), and just like the first one, LoU2 left me thinking about it for hours after. It’s thought-provoking, it’s compelling, it’s fun as fuck, aaaaand it’s made me cry like a baby a good number of times. I also really appreciate the fact that, in this game, they actually show the consequences of your actions. Like, they made you consider the fact that you aren’t just killing grunts to get to the next enemy or mowing through mindless drones. You’re killing people, who have lives, and friends, and families.

We got to see Joel for who he was: a very broken man, with a very dark past, who has done very horrible things in this shitty post apocalyptic world, but he is a father, and protective, and loving and thoughtful, who will do anything, anything, to protect Ellie. Blood or not, Ellie is through and through his child. But Abby only saw a monster, and could you blame her? He killed her father, and countless others, and she never got the full story. Just that a man came in and killed the entire hospital, put an end to even the smallest possibility of finding a cure, killed her dad in cold blood, and walked away no problem. And then it cycles right back to Ellie, where Abby becomes her monster.

It’s just some grade-A storytelling as far as I’m concerned, and I’m someone who usually prefers happy endings. LoU always leaves me feeling bittersweet but goddamn do I love this series. I’m kinda hoping for a DLC, to be honest? Like LoU part one, where you found out about Ellie and Riley. I wanna see what happens to Ellie; I get the distinct feeling she returns to Jackson and hopefully scrounges out some semblance of a decent life there, after confronting Tommy and (hopefully) making peace with Dina. But we’ll see! uwu

#earthsong talks

[faithandfairies]

About Emma being Owen, i think its right, also he was the person what grow up to torture Regina together with Tamara, in the process of the magic is unholy(this is what happened to Emma), its about abuse and religious things, i think when Regina is Evil, like being bad, she doesnt represents herself but the Emma's ID, so the ID killed the father, the inversion thing, the father was the bad one, and the ID killed him to save the child, what can be Henry or the pure part of the mind. Maybe both?

I agree, I do think that the conversion therapy is what happened to Emma. I’m on the fence on whether it actually happened to Regina as well.

Part of me thinks that both Greg and Tamara are actually Emma. They represent different parts of her or her story . The only part to Tamara’s story line we really got is that she had a grandmother she’d loved. I think that connects to Ruby and Granny which I think is another part of Emma’s story. I think aside from a father she knew and loved she probably also had a grandmother at one point. And possibly a mother given Ruby’s story with her mother.

I also think it’s possible that Emma somehow forgot a large chunk of her past due to some kind of trauma (i.e. car accident and subsequent amnesia or the actual loss of her parents like Dory) and that the story of her being left at the side of the road as a baby might not be true. It’s possible Emma actually only lost her parents at age 10, not as a baby. And that she had loving parents up to that point. I also think it’s possible that Regina might be the only person alive who still knows Emma’s true story aside from it being somewhere in Emma’s mind. Which might also be part of what Regina being the song in Emma’s heart means. She may be the only person who can unlock Emma’s past and help her remember that she at one point as a child had people that loved her very much. (Of course, I think one of those people was and still is Regina herself.)

Part of me also thinks that Emma at some point ended up with a church or a religious cult of some sort which I think is where Rumple, Blue  and Tinkerbell come in. Blue, who in Storybrooke is Mother Superior, a nun, along with Tink. And that is probably where the conversion therapy happened. I think Rumple may have been a priest, a corrupt one, with the same cult/church. His Dark One Vault carries a symbol that reminds of the Catholic Church. There’s also other stuff, like the fact that Blue supposedly condemns all evil, but did always help Dark One Rumple. I also think that Rumple and Regina’s story, the fact that he mentored her and the underlying themes of that relationship don’t bode well for her story with him either. And I think that Emma and Regina may also be connected through Rumple somehow.

As for the Evil Queen/ID thing, Shady has said that as well. The thing is that psychodynamic psychology which is where I think that falls isn’t my strong suit. So I know of it and I agree that maybe Emma projected part of herself onto Regina, and with the whole Snow being Emma’s Superego thing but other than that I don’t really have a psychological opinion on that.

I do agree that Emma most likely killed someone.

I go back and forth between it being her birth father and her foster father. Did she know her birth father? Was he a good person or was he the one who hurt her? Or was it a mentor? Not so much a father, but a father figure?

I go back and forth. Sometimes I think Emma had a loving birth or adoptive father who never hurt her but that she somehow lost. Owen’s father who might also be Henry Sr.

And then looking at Regina’s story with Rumple I think Rumple is the “bad father”. (Priests are coincidentally also actually called “Father”). And that he definitely hurt Regina. And it’s not much of a stretch to think he could have history with Emma too, where he hurt her.

What drives this home for me is that I’ve connected Rumple to Jefferson, the Mad Hatter.

And an important aspect of Jefferson’s story line is him kidnapping Emma and Snow, tricking Emma into thinking he has a limp so she’ll put herself in a vulnerable position meaning to help him. Rumple is the only character on the show with a limp, one that is also capable of disappearing. I also think Snow is young Regina. So I think Rumple hurt both of them. This story also connects Belle’s story and the whole Wonderland bit, since Emma drinks Jefferson’s tea and when she does, it puts her to sleep. And just before she falls asleep she drops the teacup, which could have led to the chip in the cup. The constant reminder that what Belle and Rumple ended up building wasn’t real. Just a girl believing she’s in love with her captor and both forgetting that she didn’t want to be there in the first place (Stockholm Syndrome). So that would make Emma Belle. Or Belle Emma. In the season 4 AU when Belle drops the cup and it chips it’s a reminder to Rumple that what he has with Belle there isn’t real and can’t be made real. That he isn’t a hero and never was even though Belle believes him to be one. They also have a baby in that reality.

And it makes me wonder if Henry isn’t possibly Rumple’s/Gold’s biological son. Also because they had Neal, Henry’s supposed father, and Gold merge at one point where they couldn’t tell who was whom. So maybe they’re one and the same and that is the reason Gold seems to be the only character on the show without a first name. Because his first name is actually Neal.

It would also explain Snow’s second child being named after Neal. A nod to his parentage. Since if Snow is Regina and Regina adopted Henry, well then Henry would be Neal Jr.

It also fits with Robin Jr. being named after her father, Robin. And the fact that a lack of real consent was also a part of her conception. It even fits with Emma and Regina promising Zelena to raise Robin alongside Henry together were anything ever to happen to her. Possibly paralleling Robin Jr. with Henry (Neal Jr.) in every way.

Then there’s the fact that Neal is dead and Rumple has also died. And the only reason Rumple is alive now is because Neal took his place in death. And the first time Rumple almost died it was through poison at the hands of Hook, one of the many parent killers on this show and possibly another representation of Emma and Regina.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this.

[aemiron-main]

Spines Twisted and Eyes Popped Out: “Mother” Edward, Jim Hopper, and Lab-Russian Prison Parallels

So, with all of the talk of Edward and sex change surgery and Brenner and birth, I started thinking about how often the Russian prison sequences parallel the NINA lab sequences, and Hopper and Henward paralleling eachother.

Specifically though, for this post, I thought about the scene with Hopper, talking about how the government lied to him & his comrades and how he was only eighteen, and how because of those lies, Hopper witnessed multiple birth defects. Let’s get into it.

Take a look at that scene:

There’s a lot here, and I’m staring directly at Edward and the concept of him giving birth and the initial attempts being failures/stillborn (he TRIED to recreate me, implies failures).

Look at Jim’s lines:

The ONES that made it back.

Crooked spines, eyes popped out (which is EXACTLY what Vecna does to his victims and what also happens to some of the NINA kids-so we have kids, associated with Edward, whose eyes are popped out and spines broken).

Jim talking about being “cursed” vs Victor talking about their home being cursed and Vecna’s curse.

And the next time being “cursed” is brought up, Dmitri says that Hopper is right about ONE thing:

There’s also the talk of “normal,” vs Henward talking about how something was wrong with him- Jim even says that things started going wrong.

I won’t be surprised if there were failed attempts to recreate Henward- stillbirths. And all of this happening because Jim and his comrades were given experimental chemicals that the government knew was dangerous but lied about- and the ST Suspicious Minds novel talks about how Brenner specifically had his own type of stronger LSD. I won’t be surprised if that’s part of what caused the stillbirths.

Speaking of stillborns, we also have "stillborns" vs "others were born". Others were born, and we don't know what happened to those others. We *assume* that they're the other lab kids, and some of them could be, but none of the other lab kids have El's powers, which makes me wonder if the other kids were created in some other way (some of them seem wild caught, others may have been with Henry as a father and a different mother etc etc).

Jim also talks about being “just a kid.” Which adds a whole other layer of horrifying subtext to all of this regarding Edward, especially with the context of the Henward "but I was just a child" line:

Especially with the fact that right before the "I was just a child" line, we get talk about how "they were becoming a part of me," which is. what happens during pregnancy. babies become a part of you. And the line about "so glad you were born" is the next NINA scene after the "they were becoming part of me" Nancy Crerel sequence scene.

And right after it, Henward talks about how it "nearly killed him," which, staring at the risks associated with stillbirths/miscarriages/that sort of thing in general.

And there’s also the “Uncle Sam” thing- I’m staring DIRECTLY at Sam Owens and the talk of Virginia’s great uncle and all of Owens’ Creel-associated imagery… something is rattling there. I posted here about wondering if Owens was Victor from another timeline, and he still might be, but I also wonder about him being Henry or Edward’s uncle- possibly Victor or Virginia (or Mother Alice)’s brother.

#stranger things #edward creel #mothergate #henward mother weirdness #st hawkins lab