#& will definitely feels it too after the things jacob did for them/the sacrifices he made

[fenixburned]

anyway i'm just thinking so much about reckless & the whole "guilt is a strong motivator, sometimes stronger than love" theme & how pivotal it is when it comes to will's relationship with jacob specifically :))))))

[scssrd]

the return of britpop and the hair that follows

Tuesday, September 24.

these days i’m not much of a social butterfly. i’ve been behind on work for quite some time but when i’m not editing pictures for my portfolio, i’ve been reading and painting. both very quiet, solo activities. every sunday, my girlfriend and i go to Park Pantry, the most Long Beach diner there is, to people watch and get some time outside. a few weeks ago, while we were sitting on the patio, a normal-looking white man in a polo shirt walked by and complimented my haircut. it was then i realized Oasis must be getting back together.

Oasis was never really my jam. if anything, i’ve always preferred Blur, but i can admit Oasis was onto something. no, i don’t want to talk about their music. does anyone really have anything new to say about Champagne Supernova at this point? god no. i just want to talk about their hair. if the band is coming back after all, wouldn’t their hairstyles, too?

i’ve always loved the look of mod styles. the heavy fringe, grown out sideburns, and wispy necklines always felt very androgynous to me. i don’t feel like myself when i’m wearing a style that feels too feminine or too masculine, and a chelsea or mod cut feels like the perfect mix of both. another feature of the mod i love is structure. it’s the best word i’ve found to describe this look. it’s not about bluntness alone, in fact it can still be more varied or textured. it’s about having a more definite shape, a shape that is cut into the hair and helped but not made entirely by styling. people are busy, and they don’t want to sacrifice good hair. they want to pay someone to give them good hair in the form of a cut that is easy to wake up and brush into place on the daily, maybe rake a dime-sized amount of styling paste through and call it a day.

with most of the hair on the top, sides, and back removed, either buzzed out of the way or gently razor cut to lay down versus stand straight up, it’s hard to wake up with bedhead. even in the slightly longer version of the classic britpop shapes, the mod cut, the layers build on top of themselves to create a certain amount of weight. that weight forces the softer hairs around your face to lay down and behave, perfect for people with unruly cowlicks or whirl patterns.

here’s some of my favorite britpop-inspired shapes:

1. credit to coiffeurstory on instagram.

soft and romantic whisps. gentle curls cut into a sculpted chelsea cut, showcasing the model’s head shape. seeing the outline of someone’s skull is very intimate, it makes the haircut very personal. as this grows out, it’ll take on the shape of the classic shag with lots of playful twists around the hairline at the face and nape.

2. credit to coiffeurstory on instagram.

sharp and jagged layers, cut and styled into spikes at the crown and bangs. heavy sideburns are cut to retain weight and substance around the ear which shows off the heavily-contrasted texture elsewhere. with mostly triangular and some square shapes, the haircut has a much more masculine finish despite the longer length.

3. Ian Brown of The Stone Roses.

a more mellow take on the mod cut, bordering on shag. the layers are more organic and fluid, creating curves rather than points. not spiky, but wavy around the face and nape. the bangs are cut square and heavily textured to avoid things feeling too blunt. very wearable, very 90s style.

4. Noel Gallagher of Oasis.

much shorter, cropped even, without the risk of looking bland or monotonous. the texture is accentuated yet effortless. it doesn’t look like he’s styled his hair much at all, but the cut itself is very interesting to look at. interesting and casual. not too loud or flashy. perfect for the shy mod.

5. Katie Sketch of The Organ.

a very gay take on a classic shape. almost a shaggy, chelsea-ish pixie. katie notoriously did her own hair, even styling it herself in this marc jacobs campaign. her natural hair texture makes this cut even better, the twists fight against straight lines and create a slanted and lived in vision.

xoxo, fig

[troquantary]

Cutting Hair as Punishment in the Twilight Saga

Okay, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts around this into a sort-of-essay format for a while, because I find it disturbingly mean-spirited: Meyer has a pattern of using hair-cutting as a form of punishment for characters, especially female characters, who fail to embrace Bella and the Cullens with open arms. I’m talking particularly about Leah and Lauren, both of whom, while not outright antagonists like Victoria or James, are situated along with Rosalie as “against” Bella throughout the series. The Quileute pack, meanwhile, is situated largely “against” the Cullens, meaning Jacob and the rest of the pack get the Haircut of Shame, too.

(Also, I’ve been creeping through @panlight ‘s blog because I thought she had a recent post relating to this -- I was probably thinking of this submission and her addendum, which does discuss Meyer’s “punishment” of certain characters, but that post was about characters suffering for not waiting for True Love, or daring to do the Devil’s Tango before marriage. Still, it’s on-theme and very much worth reading, like all her stuff!)

So here’s the general outline: first I’m gonna talk about the shapeshifters and how their overall lack of choice frames cutting their hair as something forced on them and therefore punitive. Then I’m going to discuss Meyer’s FAQ response where she reveals that Lauren was tricked into cutting off most of her hair over the summer before New Moon, and how this adds an extra fun misogynistic element to the hair-cutting theme with respect to Lauren and Leah. I also use way too many words to do it, sorry.

Punishment | The Shapeshifters Are Given No Other Option

I don’t have the background or knowledge to discuss the significance of long hair to indigenous culture and identity in detail, and my understanding is that different tribes ascribe different meanings to it. What I’ve read it about it suggests that, generally, long hair represents strength of one’s individual spirit and of the community. It’s a source of pride, and is only cut off voluntarily in extraordinary circumstances, often as an expression of grief, or to mark a significant life change.

This sort of works in the context of the shapeshifters all cutting their hair -- phasing into a giant wolf, discovering the existence of the supernatural, and assuming the role of protectors is a major life event for these characters. But the negative associations make it a troubling choice on Meyer’s part, and that’s without even getting into the problem of her imposing her own worldbuilding onto the legends and culture of a real tribe. Because of the lack of choice involved in becoming a shapeshifter, the whole situation feels like a scenario in which the Quileute characters have their hair forcibly cut -- a degrading and traumatic act that (depending on their particular tribal belief) might symbolically sever them from their sense of cultural identity and connection with the rest of their tribe.

It all kind of begs the question: why does Meyer even have shapeshifting work this way? What narrative utility is there in having the length of their hair in human form determine the length of their fur as wolves, thereby compelling the shapeshifters to cut it so it isn’t a physical impediment? It’s another sign of the changes in Jacob, sure, but he’s already being uncharacteristically cold and distant, plus suddenly has the physique of a fit twenty-five-year-old; Bella already knows something’s very wrong. His short hair is just another jarring thing for Bella to notice and mourn, like the loss of Jacob’s “baby face” and general sunniness.

It does work as a symbolic thing, representing another sacrifice Jacob has to make and the change in how he now has to perceive himself -- but he’s already got a literal giant wolf form to represent that change in identity/self-perception. Forcing him to cut his hair too just feels like piling on. My argument here, which I hope will be supported when I discuss Lauren and Leah further in, is that it’s not just piling on, but actively punitive -- because much like Leah and Lauren are “against” Bella, the pack at large is “against” the Cullens pretty much through the end of the series.

The Quileute pack is definitely not a Cullen fanclub. The entire purpose of their existence is to destroy vampires, and the truce they have with the Cullens isn’t friendly. They still don’t particularly like or trust the Cullens even after allying with them in Eclipse, and in Breaking Dawn Sam is fully prepared to go to war against them to enforce the treaty. Bella expresses frustration with Jacob and the pack for not appreciating the Cullens more, yet is curiously less willing to scold Alice, Edward, or Rosalie when they call the Quileutes dogs and complain about their smell. (I think she might reprimand Edward for it at some point, but I don’t remember the exact passage.) Bella even starts throwing around “dog” and “mutt” as an insult herself -- I think we know whose side ol’ “Switzerland” is on, here, and whose side Meyer is on as well. The Quileutes aren’t exactly enemies, and in fact are crucial to the Cullens’ survival in both the newborn and Volutri conflicts, but they’re punished nonetheless because they aren’t wholeheartedly Team Cullen from the get-go.

So to explain why I’m so convinced that there’s a link between hair-cutting and punishment in particular, let’s talk about Lauren. There’s a definite gendered element to it this time, too -- by being tricked into cutting her hair, Lauren isn’t just diminished/shamed, but rendered (*thunderclap*) unfeminine.

Lauren Was Rude To Bella Like Twice, Let’s Humiliate Her

I think Meyer’s answer to the question “What happened to Lauren’s hair?” on her FAQ page speaks for itself:

Ha ha. I had fun imagining this one—I only wished that it had fit into the book somewhere. Lauren fell victim to the “model discovered in the mall” scam. An alleged modeling agent approached Lauren in a mall in Victoria, B.C., and told her she was a natural model. Lauren ate it up. The agent told her that if she did something edgy with her hair, and took some high quality head shots, her future was assured. Lauren followed the instructions—dropping fifteen grand on the pictures taken by the agent’s partner—and waited for her career to begin. She’s still waiting. Snort.

It’s pretty obvious that this was done spitefully. Here’s the list of Lauren’s crimes against humanity Bella at this point in the series: 1) she was jealous of the attention Bella was getting as the new girl; 2) she talked behind Bella’s back once, saying Bella might as well just sit with the Cullens now (and she isn’t wrong); 3) she eyed Bella “scornfully” the day of the La Push beach trip; and perhaps most damningly, 4) she’s blonde.

Post-haircut, she has the gall not to be thrilled that Bella’s deigning to speak to the lowly non-Cullens again, then sides with Jessica after Bella uses Jessica to make a point to her dad, is shitty company, and then risks getting them both raped and murdered in Port Angeles so she could get off on her hallucination of Edward’s voice.

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that long hair is tied to patriarchal notions of femininity and attractiveness. Women with short hair are still derided for being ugly, or assumed to be lesbians in a derogatory sense, or simply considered less feminine and therefore less desirable/worthy (because a woman’s worth depends on her desirability, after all). For many women and girls, losing their long hair -- whether because of illness, or gum getting stuck in it, or whatever -- is very upsetting and a hard blow to their self-esteem. Just look at Alice as an example of Traumatic Short Hair; her hair was shorn like that because she received electroshock “treatments” in an asylum. (Although in Alice’s case, I don’t think her having short hair is punishment, but a facet of the traumatic backstory all female characters in Twilight have to have for some reason. Plus, she started the series with short hair, which distinguishes her from the pack and Lauren, who were tricked or compelled into cutting their long hair during the series.)

But Lauren’s so bitchy, so she deserves it, right? Ha ha, she was mean to Bella and cared about her appearance too much, so now she’s ~ugly!

Leah Has It the Worst and It Makes Me Want To Burn Everything

The misogynistic aspect of hair-cutting as punishment is taken up to like, twelve with Leah. Not only does she suffer for being “against” the Cullens along with the rest of the pack (and Bella, too, so extra sinning), but she suffers uniquely for being the only female shapeshifter. A bunch of teenage boys regularly see her naked body against her will. Her previously devoted boyfriend imprints on her cousin/best friend, Sam dumps her and can’t even explain why, and the whole pack -- including her own brother -- resents her for being upset about it, even though she can’t help the lack of mental privacy. Because of that same lack of mental privacy, she has to hear every gripe the boys have about her, plus every enthralled thought Sam has about Emily while she’s still deeply wounded by their breakup.

She blames herself for her dad’s death, because she phased at the wrong time. We don’t get any indication that her fellow shapeshifters or the elders are trying to reassure her otherwise.

And of course, because she’s a shapeshifter, she has to cut her hair. In addition, because Leah’s a woman, this has the same misogynistic connotations as it did with Lauren. In Leah’s case, though, the de-feminization is compounded by her sudden infertility. It’s clear that Leah attaches her sense of womanhood to her fertility, rightly or wrongly -- she bitterly calls herself a “genetic dead end” in Breaking Dawn and thinks of herself as a freak. She feels like there must be something wrong with her, some un-womanly flaw, that made her one of the shapeshifters at all.

Then, just when Jacob starts to see her as a human being worthy of compassion, he imprints on Renesmee and doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything else anymore. No more bonding with Leah, no blooming friendship to help her heal and come to terms with the new realities of her life. (This is one of those dropped threads that aggravate me to no end -- what was the point of having Leah opening up to Jacob, or starting Jacob on the path of realizing he was being a dick to her this whole time and that she’s a person with  value, if he was just going to spend the rest of the book as Renesmee’s love-zombie and never think about it again? Disgusting.)

Leah was a lot more forgiving of Jacob than he deserved at that point in the story, for all the good it did her -- I think she’s mentioned maybe once in Book 3 of Breaking Dawn. At least she got her god-tier moment of yelling at a deranged, pregnant Bella Swan.

Speaking of Bella...

I’m just going to note, for no particular reason, that in Breaking Dawn we get to hear explicitly that Bella’s got hair that falls “almost to her waist” and that she looks like “a freaking supermodel” because she’s so “beautiful and pale.” It just strikes me as a telling contrast at this point.

[fatiguing-thoughts]

What's one common trope given to each of the wolf pack that you just dont vibe with?❤

Commonly Given Tropes That I Don’t Vibe With

ok but i went a little overboard with this and elaborated so much more than i needed to

Sam: Everyone hates him for being such a hardass and for what he did to Leah. And I get it, I do. But a supernatural change in your life at such a young age where nobody knows how to really help you is beyond difficult. He had to grow up like overnight, at 19 he became “pack dad” as he watched all these children around him go through what he did, but he didn’t want it for them either. And then to make matters worse, he imprinted on his girlfriend’s fuckin cousin. He loved Leah, and he still did after Emily. It was out of his control and it tore him up. It’s a shitty fuckin situation and I feel so so bad. 

Jared: Everyone thinks Jared is just such a smartass. I mean, he definitely was, it was well within his character. However, I think he has a lot more substance than that. He’s unwaveringly loyal. I think he values his relationships of all types more than anything. I just, I think this goes over a lot of peoples’ heads. He’s got a lot of love to give, I swear it. He may be a snarky boy, but he’d definitely do anything for the people he loves. I wish we got to see more of that, he is a character with a lot of substance. 

Paul: Don’t even get me started. Hothead. Hahahahaha, his only personality trait is that he has anger issues, so funny! Let’s be real here, he comes from a broken family at a young age. He doesn’t have a mother in his life and that is something that causes a lot of issues! Not to mention that being a teenager is hard in itself, your body is changing and things are weird. Now let’s take into consideration that these are no longer normal hormones, his body is basically changing overnight to let him transform into an enormous wolf that has to dedicate his life to killing vampires posing a threat to him, his friends, and family. Everyone on the reservation, even. Forks, too. He had to sacrifice his entire life to do this, and he wasn’t exactly even-tempered to start with, and it’s known this change totally ups your irritability, hell it even made Jacob angry. Let’s be real, his anger issues are something to be considered other than “oooh angry hot boi 😈” jeez 

Embry: Embry, bb boi Embry. I love his character so much. I think the whole thing about Embry is like haha Embry’s so funny and goofy but in reality the kid struggles a lot. He’s constantly fighting with his mom because he for whatever reason can’t tell her about the pack or anything. He’s grounded “until forever” and always feels like he’s disappointing his mom even though he’s really just doing his best but like in reality he’s always in trouble or “grounded indefinitely.” The transformation put a huge strain on their relationship. Now, on top of that, he knows now that one of his friends might be his half fuckin brother because he literally doesn’t even know who his father is because his mom won’t tell him. So he’s got not only daddy issues, now he’s getting some mommy issues. This kid has a lot going on and I’m sure he’s struggling more than he leads on. 

Jacob: Jacob. The sunshine. I will be talking about angel boy Jacob in New Moon. I hate that he’s only seen to be in love with Bella. I would rather see it as him being loyal, supportive, and selfless. He would’ve done anything to put a smile on her face, he was caring. Jacob would’ve done anything for his friends, it was so beautiful. He was described to be the sunshine, he was full of love. No matter how down he was, he was always there to be the shoulder to cry on, no matter how much he needed one. I love this Jacob, I just want to give him a hug and tell him that everything will be okay. 

Quil: Oh Quil, my boy Quil. I feel like everyone just thinks he’s kinda a dumbass for some reason. Like we don’t see much of him in the movies but I truly think Quil is actually super intelligent. I think he has more depth than he’s ever given credit for. Like when he told Bella that he was afraid to be next to be recruited to Sam’s “gang.” He knew he was next, he’s intuitive. I just wish more people saw Quil to be what he is, not just Jacob’s goofy friend. Well, he is Jake’s goofy friend but he’s a smart guy! I think he’s lowkey super intelligent. 

Leah: She’s known to be a bitter bitch. I can’t stand this and honestly I think she’s one of the most caring people in the series. I don’t care that she gave Bella the cold shoulder, in-fact I give her props. The love of her life left her for her cousin, now she has to share thoughts with him and the guys who give her shit for her feelings. I don’t blame her for being so displeased all the time. Like she keeps getting the shit end of the stick the entire series, it sucks. She tries to protect Jacob, but he hates her for it even though she’s right. She then has to protect Seth, because she loves him more than anything. Her father died and she had to deal with not only that but then her mother dating Bella’s fuckin father, Charlie, making Bella her damn step sister. Shit’s whack and I’m so sick of hearing people say that Leah was a bitch. 

Seth: Baby boy Seth, everyone’s favorite little ball of sunshine. I have an issue with the fact that Seth will always be portrayed to be perfectly bubbly, happy, and sweet. Sometimes, I just want to see him react to something. I feel so bad about his father passing, We only see him react minimally when it comes to Bella and the demon baby. I just would like to see an angry or frustrated side of Seth, a side that doesn’t forgive everyone for everything so quickly. I know deep down he probably struggles listening to everyone rag on his sister in the mind link. It’s probably conflicting to take orders from the man who broke your sister’s heart. I love that Seth is the nice, innocent boy but I know this kid faces inner turmoil. I just wish we got to see more of it.  

[louisapennyfeather2021]

Newsies/Teen Wolf AU

Title: Unleashed

Summary: Mike and Ike take things too far. Jack decides he's had enough of it.

A/N: Hello! This is a scene from Season 3a, episode 4 of the MTV show Teen Wolf. If you haven't seen it, basically the twins try to get one of the werewolves to kill someone and the main protagonist decides to put an end to it.

Warnings: Violence (not horrible), claustrophobia, panic, near death experience, mentions of PTSD.

***

"The two of you will wash all the boards in this hall. Reshelving the library. Restocking the janitor's closet." Katherine glances to the girl sitting in front of her and instantly tenses. Out of all people she could get detention with, it had to be her. The girl who tried to kill Katherine and her friends not once, not twice, but multiple times.

"Mr. Harris-" Katherine pauses when the arrogant excuse of a chemistry teacher turns his stoney glare on her. "Um, does it have to be with her?"

"Now that I know you prefer not to, yes. You have to be with her." Mr. Harris hands Katherine the keys to the janitor's closet before turning, not notices to obviously expression of anger and annoyance on Sarah's face. Katherine isn't much better, although she hesitantly follows Sarah to the janitor's closet down the hall from Mr. Harris' classroom. Katherine grabs the cart full of different sanitary items to restock and begrudgingly follows the hunter. She waits in boredom once they reach the closet, waiting for Sarah to unlock the door. As soon as it's open, Katherine tenses and her breath catches in her throat.

It's small. Too small. The only way too escape is through the singular door which has no window. What if they get locked in? What if no one comes looking for then after they've been missing? What if-

"Are you okay?" Sarah's slightly bored tone brings Katherine out of her minor panic. Her face heats up because she knows that Sarah knows. Sarah knows about what Katherine's father did. She knows about the freezer. She knows everything.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just not a big fan of, um, small spaces." Katherine hesitantly follows Sarah into the closet, pulling the small cart in behind her. She leaves the cart halfway in the doorway to act as a doorstop in case the door shuts. Sarah starts stacking wrapped rolls of toilet paper while Katherine restocks the box of mop heads.

"Can I ask you something?" Sarah suddenly asks, not facing Katherine.

"Do you have to?" Katherine huffs, generally hoping to avoid any unnecessary exchanges. She can act civil around Sarah, that doesn't mean she'd ever go out of her way to give the annoying hunter even a smile.

"I guess not. i'm gonna ask anyway. Did you tell anyone that I was at school the other night?" Sarah's voice wavers just a little bit.

Ah yes, the night Sarah went against everything her and Davey agreed on to help save Smalls and Sniper from slaughtering the entire town. Katherine had been chasing the two rapid werewolves into the high school when a flash of bright light went off and both wolves retreated into the school. She had looked up to see none other than Sarah Jacobs standing on the roof of a bus, bow and arrow in hand.

Katherine knows her and Davey decided to stay out of the supernatural. Davey broke that pact when Jack managed to convince him to help track Sniper and Smalls, although it took a lot of convincing. Sarah seemed to have broken the pact long before that, seeing as she was the reason Sniper and Smalls had escaped in the first place.

"Was I supposed to?" Katherine lets out a deep breath, already tried of the conversation. She has enough to deal with already, with the twins still being around and Spot having found his little sister who he thought was dead. It's all a mess.

"It would make me really happy if you didn't." Sarah seems to relax just a bit, enough for Katherine to notice. She scowls at the back of the hunter and continues slowly stacking mop heads.

"Yeah, well, you being happy really isn't a big priority of mine, since you stabbed me, what, 20 times with knives." Katherine can sometimes still feel the blades. It was the night they found Hotshot and Snyder. Spot had made it clear that Hotshot couldn't leave alive, but Sarah and Jack were dedicated to keeping him alive. Personally, Katherine could care less. Hotshot was a dick, but she only gave up when she was repeatedly stabbed with multiple knives.

"Actually, they were Chinese Ring Daggers, but-" Sarah turns and immediately cuts herself off when she sees the way Katherine's eyebrows pinch together. "Oh, um, sorry."

"Was that an apology?" Katherine can't lie and say she isn't shocked, she's never not butted heads with Sarah on literally everything. An apology from Sarah to Katherine, especially since Katherine is friends with Spot and Spot did kill Sarah's older brother, is definitely not expected.

"Would you accept an apology?" Sarah asks and Katherine can see she actually means it.

"Um-" Katherine goes to answer, but she's cut off when something crashes into her and throws her against one of the shelves in the small room. She quickly stands up, ignoring the slight pain in her back, to see the supply cart now tipped in the room and the door slammed shut. Her eyes widen and she unintentionally starts breathing harder as she kicks the cart aside and pushes on the door.

"No, no, no, no." She mutters as she jiggles the hand countless times and pushes against the door. The handle turns, but the door doesn't budge. Even with the strength being a werewolf gives her, she can't move it the slightest.

"Maybe it's locked from the outside." Sarah offers, hoping to calm down an obviously panicked Katherine. It's not hard to tell that Katherine is panicking because of all those years living with her father and everything he did to her.

"No, there's something against it." Katherine starts frantically hitting door and pushing against it, effectively startling Sarah. She tenses when she hears an almost inaudible growl and she instinctively searches the room for anything to defend herself with.

"Okay, okay, okay. Okay, uh, all right. Just relax." Sarah starts to slowly panic, knowing she's in a locked room with a ticking time bomb.

"No." Katherine doesn't even leave room for argument as she starts knocking harder on the door, maybe in hopes of getting someone's attention. Sarah tries to get her to relax, to take a deep breath and realize she isn't with her father and that someone will eventually find them.

"Katherine!" Sarah finally yells loud enough to get through to the girl.

At least, that's what she thinks.

She's about to relax when she hears a louder growl. She watches in curious horror as Katherine turns around, her eyes glowing yellow and the tips of razor sharp fangs hiding behind her parted lips.

"Katherine, don't-" She hardly gets the words out before she's roughly pinned against one of the shelves, claws digging into the skin of her arms. Katherine growls low, her eyes feral. Sarah only stares wide eyed for a second before she starts screaming. She knows if she's stuck in here with Katherine, she'll die.

"Katherine, come on! Katherine!" Sarah manages to fight off Katherine long enough for the door to suddenly burst open and Katherine to disappear.

"Katherine!" Sarah jumps as Jack yells, although it's more of a growl. Sarah can see Katherine on the floor, her shoulders and chest heaving, although her fangs and claws have retracted. Her eyes eventually stop glowing yellow and turn back to their natural shade of brown. Her eyebrows quickly pinch together and confusion is evident on her face.

"Hey, Sarah." She flinches as Jack steps closer to her and she notices how tightly she's holding one of her wrists.

"I'm fine, really." Although she's scared out of her mind and she's never gotten along with Katherine, she knows it's not Katherine's fault. Something happened and Sarah knows better than anyone what PTSD can do to a person. She can also tell by the pure fear, shock, and confusion on Katherine's face.

"I'm- I'm sorry, I didn't- I didn't mean to do that." Katherine stumbles over her words as she rushes them out, her body subconsciously curling into itself. "I'm sorry."

"I know. Jack, it's not her fault." Sarah can see the skepticism on Jack's face. She knows Jack is still hesitant to trust Katherine.

"I know. I guess the twins want to get you more than angry. They want to get someone hurt." Jack sighs, shaking his head. He knows that if Katherine or any of the others lash out, it'll cause chaos that will only give the Alphas more of a reason to convince Spot to join them.

"So are we going to do something?" Katherine sits up straighter, although she doesn't look anyone in the eye and she keeps her knees close to her chest.

"Yeah. I'm gonna get them angry. Really, angry." Jack narrows his eyes and that's all it takes for the three to start planning.

***

"You know that there's a temple in Calcutta where they used to sacrifice a child every day? That's every day a dead baby, Albert, every day! Hey, you want to know what today is? It's dead baby day. Oh, no, wait, that's every day, because every day is dead baby day, yay!" Race throws his arms dramatically, only cringing slightly as some lower classmen pass them with odd facial expressions.

"Why are you telling me this?" Albert sighs, continuing his trek towards the other side of the school.

Race huffs dramatically, already knowing the attempt is futile. Ever since the deer, then Albert's dog, then the birds, he's found the pattern. Everything weird is happening in threes. So far, there's been three animal panics and three virgins killed. The only problem is, now he thinks whoever's causing this is going after protectors or something, he still hasn't found out that pattern.

"Because Jack's dealing with the Alpha Twins, someone has to deal with this!" Race raises his eyebrows, although they pull together when he sees the slight confusion on Albert's face. Albert drops walking, a far off look on his face. "You don't know about the twins?"

"Alphas?" Albert narrows his eyes in thought. It makes sense, even if he didn't know about it. Of course he'd never admit that, Race would find it too satisfying. Plus, nothing is ever normal in this town.

"Mike and Ike." Race confirms, waiting to see why Albert stopped walking. He wonders if maybe Albert doesn't know, but then he remembers Albert is a literal genius.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I knew." Albert starts walking again, not waiting as Race runs after him and falls into step with him.

"Okay, okay, good. So look, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that the murders maybe come in threes. Ancient people love things in threes, right? So maybe first it's three virgins, and then, I don't know, maybe it's three people who own little dogs." Race nearly falls on his face as Albert comes to a sudden stop.

"I own a little dog." Albert glares at Race, although he can't deny the slight fear he now has. He notices the slightly guilty, slightly suggestive look on Race's face that goes along with a sigh and Albert scoffs before storming towards the other side of campus with Race in tow. "I'm not getting rid of my dog."

"Would you just think about getting rid of your little dog?!"

***

It's last period when everything falls into place. Albert and Race are in their respective classes as the warning bells rings. Mike and Ike sit in their class, both bored out of their minds since their plan to make Katherine snap failed.

But a plan has been set in motion.

"How long is this going to take?" Katherine huffs, her arms crossed as she stands next to a shiny, new motorcycle. Not even seconds later, the bike roars to life and Sarah stands up with a pair of tweezers in hand. Katherine offers her and impressed look before throwing her leg over the bike and positioning herself comfortably on it. She jumps only a bit when Sarah's suddenly right next to her, gesturing to the handle bars.

"Okay, pull back with your left hand. Kick down to put in gear. Front brake. Throttle. Back brake for stopping." Sarah turns her head and both girls are suddenly very aware of how close they are. Despite the earlier problem and past problems, Katherine knows Sarah saw her in a vulnerable state earlier. The fact that Sarah recognized this and didn't blame Katherine created a whole new level of trust. And maybe sparked something new. Sarah suddenly backs away, far enough so she won't risk getting hurt by the bike. "Try not to crash."

Meanwhile, Jack is all but running across campus to get to his last period class. He can't help the slight grin when he sees and open desk next to the twins and he squeezes the strap of his now heavy backpack anxiously. He makes sure to sit down loudly, enough to catch the twins' attention through the chatter of the classroom. He drops his bag and immediately notices how the twins both turn at the sound of metal hitting against metal in the bag.

As class starts and Ms. Blake, the English teacher, starts talking, Jack calmly opens his bag and pulls out a large rod.

"Looks kind of important." He can tell by the wide eyes of Mike and Ike that both recognize the motorcycle part. Dismantling one motorcycle wasn't too hard and it won't be hard to put back together, but the look of pure anger and confusion on Mike and Ike's faces is worth it. With a smirk, he pulls out a gear and spins it on his finger. "I have no clue what this does."

Both twins turn to each other before the sound of a motorcycle revving meets their ears, only loud enough for their enhanced hearing to catch. Jack carefully packs the gears back in the bag and zips it, waiting for the unavoidable break.

"Wait, Mike, don't!" Ike hisses as Mike bolts from his desk, the motorcycle engine getting closer. Mike runs down the hallway towards the sound to see none other than Katherine slowing the bike as she reaches Mike, eyes narrowed and a small smirk on her face.

"Get off my bike!" Mike yells as he grabs the handle bars, his shoulders heaving and anger behind his voice.

"No problem." Katherine revs the engine one more time before getting off and hurrying towards an open stairwell. It's at that moment that Mike must notice what just happened, especially as multiple classroom doors open and the hallways slowly fill.

"You have got to be kidding me." Mike's head snaps up to see an angry and shocked Ms. Blake, followed by his entire English class. He grips the handles of the bike tighter, knowing there's no way out of this without him getting in trouble for what happened with Katherine and Sarah earlier. "You realize this is going to result in a suspension."

Mike notices movement out of the corner of his eye and he looks over to see a smug Katherine standings next to Sarah and Jack, all three trying to hide smirks as they discreetly high five each other.

Although they successful angered at least one twin, probably both actually, they don't anticipate the retaliation that will soon follow.

***

A/N: I hoped you like it! This is one of my favorite scenes from Season 3a of Teen Wolf and although it doesn't make sense, I can drop a season synopsis to help it make some sense. If you really want to understand, all the seasons of Teen Wolf are on Amazon Prime, u seriously recommend watching them. It's kind of cringy, but only because of 2010/2011 CGI.

I'll probably try to write more of these to go more in depth with characters, some will be sad and others funny or both, but I promise I will try to make some more fics like this.

Feel free to send me an ask or episode recommendation that you'd like to see! I'd love to write different scenes from different seasons for you guys, just let me know what you want to see and I can work on it!!!!

[queenofcats17]

Can you write the scene where thomas says it's my machine drew i'ts mine and buddy meets thomas before leaving after getting fired with henry in it? henry scratched the back of his head with his white gloved hand in guilt he And His wife allison had known about the machine

I am not opposed to this.

I may have gone a little overboard. ^^”

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

“It’s my machine, Drew, it’s mine.”

“You ruined everything and I’m going to have to fix it. It’s my machine and your mess. Now get out.”

I heard it all. Everything Mister Drew said. But I didn’t really manage to absorb it at the time because all I was focused on was the word “machine.” I watched as Tom, Henry, and Allison slowly headed toward the elevators. Mister Drew turned and swung open one of the doors himself, not even really noticing I was right there. He stormed back into the party. And the door closed behind him.

I turned, walking quickly away from the doors, from the party. Following Tom, Henry, and Allison. And then I was grabbing Tom by his shoulder. Trying to stop him. Needing to stop him.

Stop him I did.

He spun on his heel in something like instinct and stared at me like I was insane.

“Hey, don’t grab him,” Henry said, prying my hand off Tom’s shoulder.

“I heard you say something about the machine,” I said.

“Oh, so you eavesdrop too.” He was looking at me with daggers in his eyes.

“Tom, it’s okay, I know him,” said Henry.

“He’s the gofer at the studio. Buddy,” added Allison.

I stared at her and Henry for a moment. How on earth did they remember me? I could kind of understand how Henry might, he’d saved my ass from getting fired. But Allison? I was stunned that someone like her would even notice I took up space on the planet.

“That doesn’t excuse him grabbing me,” said Tom.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but you said something about the machine and I need to know.” I stopped. I could tell they were all taken aback by me. By what I’d said. I wasn’t sure if I should go on.

“How do you know about the machine?” asked Tom, moving a step toward me. He might have looked elegant, but I noticed how well he filled out his sleeves, how his arms strained against the fabric. I definitely didn’t want to get into a fight with this man.

“Sammy?” Henry asked.

I nodded.

Tom sighed loudly, and Allison gave his arm a squeeze. “Should have figured,” he said. But he didn’t say anything more.

I don’t know where I found the courage, but I guess I channeled some of Dot’s directness in that moment. I was so tired of people not quite saying things. Of only getting part of the story. “What is the machine? What’s it for? And why did Mister Drew fire you?” I wanted to ask more questions than that. I wanted to ask if he thought Mister Drew was evil or good. That last one I wanted to ask Henry too. I wanted to ask about the ink and Sammy. About the creature, the violinist. But I also knew that too many questions confused people.

I know now when I ask myself too much I start to shut down. He starts to whine. We don’t like it.

Tom took in a deep breath and glanced around the plush foyer. “Fine. The machine was meant to create...” He paused. “Characters.”

“Like the mascots inside?” I asked. This didn’t sound that odd. They already made toys, why not have a machine that made large Bendy costumes?

Tom shook his head. For the first time I realized he wasn’t just holding back out of stubbornness. He was...scared.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this...” he said, shaking his head.

“He’s already involved.” Henry put a hand on Tom’s shoulder. He looked at me and gave a nod to keep going.

“Look, I know about the...ink,” I said. “And I know...about...” I stopped.

Tom looked at me carefully. It was hard maintaining eye contact with him. I just wanted to look away. At anything else. Finally he said, “You know about it.”

“Don’t call him that.” Henry’s voice came out sharper than anything I’d ever heard before. “He’s not an it.”

“It’s not Bendy, Henry,” said Allison quietly.

“He doesn't have to be!” Henry insisted.

I must have had a pretty confused look on my face, because Tom let out this big sigh.

“Okay. Okay,” he said, making a decision. “Okay. It wasn’t mascots. Nothing like that. It was...a way to take the cartoons and make them real. Not people in mascot costumes, but actual, real versions of the characters.” He looked at me in this way that said, “You get it?” I didn’t think I did.

Allison interrupted. “Think of it like a printing press, but for...people.”

“People?” I asked.

“More or less,” Henry said.

“No, not more or less. Please,” said Tom, shaking his head. “I don’t want you two involved in this.”

“We already are, Tom. You can’t make us not care because we care about you. What you helped create was astonishing.”

“What I helped create was monstrous and you know it,” he snapped back at her.

Allison had to hold Henry back, because he looked ready to start throwing punches.

Tom shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. But we should go. I’m certain he’s called security.”

Tom nodded. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said. Then he looked at me with that intense look again. “It wasn’t my fault.”

The word “it” stood out to me. He was saying he wasn’t to blame, but also, I thought maybe he was saying that “it”, the “it”, also wasn’t his fault. I didn’t know for sure. But my gut clenched. Dot, I thought to myself. She was alone with “it”.

“What wasn’t?” I asked carefully.

“He fired me because it wasn’t my fault,” continued Tom, not really listening to me anymore. “He fired me to blame anyone but himself.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “But he still kept the machine. And that’s Gent’s invention, I helped invent it, and he took away my right, my design, everything.”

“Just like he did with me,” said Henry bitterly. “Make you do all the work then take all the credit.”

“How could he make you do that?” I asked.

He turned slowly and shook his head. “Not all of us are well connected, son. Not all of us have chances. Especially to get a job as an engineer when I ain’t had no proper education or training. No one of any status had given me that kind of respect since I was working on planes during the war. I trusted him. He paid me extra. He had a legal contract with Gent. Treated me like a real businessman. But I didn’t read the fine print.”

I didn’t know what to say to all that. I just stood there.

“We all trusted him,” said Allison. “I don’t know anyone who really understood what they were signing.”

“That’s what he does,” Henry laughed bitterly. “He takes talented people who have nowhere else to go and makes them an offer they can’t refuse.”

My gut now felt funny. Not clenched anymore, not butterflies, just a weird kind of ache.

“Let’s not forget Susie,” Allison added.

Tom sighed.

Henry winced.

“Who’s Susie?” I asked. Hadn’t Norman also mentioned something about her.

Allison looked at me sadly and shook her head. “That’s not the point, Buddy. The point is everyone here agrees that Mister Drew owns whatever we make. Drawings. Stories. Songs. And” --she looked at Tom-- “inventions. It started with Henry and it continues with the rest of us. It’s the sacrifice we made.”

“We give. He takes,” said Henry. There were tears in his eyes.

I was processing everything they were telling me. It was all coming crashing down, all the walls I’d put up in defense of Mister Drew. I just couldn’t hold them up anymore, and I was getting buried under them.

“Now we need to go, and you take care of yourself. And take care of that writer girl. She’s swell,” Allison said with a small, sad smile.

“She’s the one who takes care of me usually...” I said.

The feeling in my gut grew stronger.

“Get out while you can, son,” said Tom as the elevator opened and they stepped in.

The doors closed and I was alone. The sounds of the party wafted through the doors, but now they no longer tempted me. They just made my uneasy feeling worse. I shouldn’t be here, I thought. I shouldn’t. I should be with Dot. And Jacob. I don’t belong here. I belong with the people who I care about. Who care about me.

[iscariotsdeputy]

Analyzing Staci Pratt’s Character Arc

    Julian Bailey once said, on February 13th, 2019:  “Yeah, Staci has a real character “arc” and he’s way more complex than he lets on at the beginning…”. And I, Sam, your local Staci Pratt enthusiast, am here to explain why Staci is a deeper character than everyone’s favorite douchebag son. Now, you may look at me and say, “Sam, you dumbass, it simply ain’t that deep.”, to which I say you are completely valid, but you can and should bear with me here for a second. And yeah, you can reblog this if you wish.

    Far Cry 5 opens in the small, backwoods locale of Hope County, a completely fictional place in Montana that’s actually inspired by southern Montana. Early on, it’s set up that there’s this heavily armed religious group that has taken roots in Hope County. And guess what? The cops are doing absolutely nothing about it. That is, until one fateful 2:37 AM. The Hope County Sheriff’s Department and one U.S. Marshal have decided to finally arrest Joseph Seed on the suspicion of kidnapping with the intent to harm.

    Now, as you sit in the back of the chopper with Sheriff Earl Whitehorse and U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke, two Deputies sit up front, flying the ‘copter and pressing buttons like it’s nobody’s business. Their names are Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt, for the intents and purposes of this post, I will be focusing on Staci Pratt.

    Not much is known about Staci Pratt pre-game, except for the fact that an NPC says “Deputy Pratt always came off as a bit of a douchebag, but that doesn’t mean he deserves what Jacob’s doin’ to him”. Throughout the first cutscene, you can occasionally hear some wise cracks from Staci, and although less noticeable, Staci does mess around with Joey up front, offering her his flask and whatnot. Now, Staci’s wise cracks come in the form of hazing the Rookie Deputy (“Maybe we shoulda brought Nancy along with us instead of the Probie. These Peggies wouldn’t fuck with her”) or disrespecting Joseph Seed (“Crazy motherfucker”).

    If you think that Staci calling Joseph crazy is the only time Staci is disrespectful to his elders, you’d be incredibly wrong. Now, it’s not exactly “disrespectful”, but it shows a moment of doubt that Staci has towards the orders of Sheriff Whitehorse. When Whitehorse tells Staci to set down the helicopter, Staci does nothing at first. He just keeps the helicopter completely still and doesn’t move it. He’s completely silent too. Staci does nothing until Whitehorse says “Pratt” and Staci quickly says “Roger that”, like he was snapped out of a thought. So, this is where we set up Staci’s character arc:

    Confusion. Staci’s character arc is moral confusion and also confusion of one’s identity. As of right now, let me quickly state who Staci is: A guy who’s a bit of a douchebag and he doesn’t believe in a word that Joseph says.

    Let’s fast forward to when the Rook eventually goes to the Whitetail Mountains. When you reach these mountains, more often than not, you will hear THIS BROADCAST before you see Staci again. Now, you may say, “Sam, he could’ve just been reading this”. And yeah, definitely, he was reading. The way he stumbles through it and says it so blankly is a very obvious way to say “Yup, that’s false emotion”. So, if I were to put it on a timeline, this had to have been recorded when Staci was first taken in. Maybe within the first week or so of his capture. But, something I didn’t realize at first when I listened to it. Basically, the whole time, it sounds rehearsed. It sounds faked. It sounds like Staci had a gun to his head. But then get to the end. Around 1:10. Please listen close to when Staci says the phrase “Train, Kill, Sacrifice in the name of The Father and The Project at Eden’s Gate”. You hear him, right? Suddenly, he lights up. Suddenly his voice is more gruff, more emotional, more angry. Those cue words, that phrase, and Staci is there again. No stammer. No blank slate. Those are words that Staci believes in.

    So, no matter if he doesn’t believe in Joseph normally, as soon as he hits those cue words, his heart is into whatever’s conditioned along with it.

    While you’re running around the Whitetails, you’ll hear some NPCs talk about Staci.

My favorite thing is that a few people say “Friends might not be friends after Jacob’s done with ‘em.”, “He might never come out of it. The very least he’ll never be the same guy he was before. Not ever.”, “There’s not much of the old Deputy Pratt left. Jacob made sure of it.”

    Alright folks, now we’re at the first time you see Staci in person again. Actually, it’s entirely possible from this clip that Staci is the one who carried your sorry butt to get conditioned. Now, it’s harder to notice because Jacob Seed may believe in culling the weak, but he doesn’t believe in proper lighting: Staci has scars. Staci is roughed up. He went from THIS to THIS. That is the reverse of a glow up. That’s a blow up. In this scene, Staci gets one line: “You shouldn’t’ve come for me. You should’ve run.” Also, the minute Jacob shows up, Staci literally runs to get in his spot. He runs to the back, gets out of Jacob’s way, and just stands there. So, in the time that Jacob has gotten his hands on Staci, our douchebag Deputy has suffered some major wounds to his pride. Believes both Rook and Him were both better off by leaving Staci in the mountains.

    BUT HEY HE GETS MORE LINES IN THE CONDITIONING SEQUENCES HA HA GOD I’M IN PAIN.

    Hey, hello there, welcome to the Time Break (Part I). What’s the Time Break, you ask? This is where I shamelessly yell about Staci’s voice lines because some of them don’t really fit into a specific point in time (You hear them after you free Stace, but these are just like “hey fun fact Jacob eats a kitkat bar the wrong way i wanna die” reminiscing things) , but they really just reveal facts about Staci’s mental state. Hint: It’s not good.

“Jacob took me on one of his hunts. Only we weren’t huntin’ any animals. A couple of prisoners had escaped. They didn’t get far.” FROM THIS AUDIO

Can I point out how at the end of this line, Staci laughs a lil bit? His voice lightens like he’s amused.

Also, Jacob took Staci on a hunt. It sounds like it was just the two of them hunting people down. I feel like it was a way to “”””reward”””” Staci and get him more chill with pulling the trigger on helpless prisoners.

“I had to help round up the wolves. Y’know, to be made into Judges. They were so scared. So scared.” SAME AUDIO AS ABOVE

This is fairly self explanatory, but yeah, this poor man had to round up scared, whining wolves and lead them to their deaths, essentially.

“I had a dream once that Jacob took me on a hunt. We shot some deer and he asked me to skin ‘em. As I was cuttin’ them open, they changed. It wasn’t deer. I...I don’t think it was a dream.” THIS AUDIO

STACI PRATT HAS SKINNED A HUMAN BEING A HUMAN PERSON A REAL ASS PERSON NOT A DREAM LITERALLY SKINNED A PERSON ALIVE Okay, in all seriousness, I believe Staci was going through his conditioning, which is why they changed. Or, worse, Staci hallucinated it in order to justify his behavior. Either way, Jacob Seed stood and watched as Staci skinned somebody alive under the pretense that he was just skinning a deer.

Finally, here’s Staci singing Only You   

    Hey there, buddy. Welcome back from The Time Break. Now, let’s keep moving right along through Staci Pratt’s suffering to the next cutscene, again, this is a one line scene. It’s when Joseph comes to speak with Rook about sacrifices and Rook wakes up to hear Staci “They want you to be strong. One of you will be strong.” And once again, Staci finds himself interrupted by Jacob and as soon as Jacob gets there, Staci moves to stand right in Jacob’s line of sight. First he stands on the right of Jacob, but when Jacob turns, Staci rushes to be on Jacob’s left so Jacob can still see him.

    Now, let’s go to the next scene where Staci has no lines, but he’s there so let me analyze those body expressions and movements. Pardon my French, but Staci is doing his fucking best here. Like, poor dude has to rush to give Rook their mystery meat and then has to shave Jacob’s beard, then washes Jacob’s hands, and then hands the canteen over to Jacob. The most interesting thing here is the whole shaving nonsense because Staci has a literal knife to Jacob’s throat. Staci has a knife, right there, and he doesn’t slit Jacob’s throat open. He doesn’t kill Jacob, even though he has a very good opportunity. Why? The poor bastard was conditioned to believe that without Jacob, he had no purpose. Jacob is the leader. Jacob is strong. Staci can’t do it. Staci is subservient to Jacob in every way. So no, Staci isn’t going to kill Jacob. Staci is lost without Jacob.

    Are you guys ready to commit treason? STACI SURE IS. BUT FUN FACT, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY DON’T THINK STACI THOUGHT OF IT HIMSELF. Let me run through the whole scenario real quick. Staci sneaks out, avoids the guards, goes to Rook, frees Rook, tries to warn Rook about their conditioning, and then shoves Rook onto the truck to free them. Staci thinks he’s being a hero. Staci thinks he’s doing something on his own, but he’s not. Now, why do I think Staci didn’t think of this himself? Because Staci said it himself.

    He (Jacob) gets in your head.

    Now, please tell me, how Staci would evade capture? He yelled at another prisoner that they weren’t strong. He alerted the Judges there because they started barking when Staci freed Rook. Also, it’s funny how there are no guards out there in the cage area. Nobody watching the prisoners. And how there were no guards that caught Staci and Rook on the way up to Jacob’s office. And that Jacob wasn’t in his office. And that there is a bag of weapons there that anyone would have noticed. Jacob sees everything, we learned this early on. He has security cameras everywhere, just like Eli. Anything Staci did, Jacob or a guard would have noticed. And yet, the alarm finally sounds off just as Rook is about freed. And when you wake up, the truck is all abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Staci was set up. Jacob orchestrated that and let Staci run through the motions.

    It was a test. And Staci failed. Staci was weak and traitorous. And we all know what happens to our traitor…

    He’s strapped to a chair. He’s publicly humiliated on TV. He’s strapped to a chair in a cold, wet, dark bunker. He is left to die. He will starve and dehydrate. He will rot. When he passes, his body will get thrown to the wolves. And the video ends with Staci crying to help. And guess what?

    When you find Staci again. It turns out that he has been listening to that video for days, it has to be less than 7 because he would have dehydrated by then, most definitely. Imagine if you were in his spot. Imagine if you were left to die and all you got to listen to was a video of you being called weak and traitorous, and then you crying for help and crying for Jacob to not leave you there. It’s awful. It’s horrendous. And it leads to a major change in Staci Pratt.

    When you meet again, Staci says the line, “Rook, are you real?”. This indicates that Staci had been sitting down there, having hallucinations about Rook and other people. When you free him, he falls to the ground. When he gets up, he says that he was weak. He says that maybe he deserved to die, to starve, to be stuck down there. Then, he takes a sledgehammer, and surprisingly after starvation and dehydration, through that sheer adrenaline and strength, he takes that hammer and smashes everything in sight. Then he takes a gun, says he’s strong and that the people who made him strong are now weak. And that they must be culled.

    WOW THAT’S BAD, HUH?

    YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR?

    Welcome to Time Break (Part II). Now, we’re going to see some of Staci’s lines that happen after you free him and get him to the Wolf’s Den.

“We could’ve died. We could’ve died. And maybe..Maybe I deserved--NO, NO, STOP STOP! The weak! The weak must be culled!”

“Maybe we didn’t survive that crash. Maybe all this is purgatory. We have to atone for all the shit we’ve done before we can leave this place. We have to suffer before God will grant us salvation.”

“Train, hunt, kill, sacrifice.”

“I can’t take it anymore.”

“Jacob. His experiments. He takes us. Owns us. Speaks to us. He hears us.” THIS AND ALL ABOVE IT IS THIS AUDIO

“He was right! He was right! I knew it! I fucking knew it! Shit, Jesus, help us…”

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 

“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.” (This happens when the bombs go off)

“It’s just gonna get harder. They want an offering. A Sacrifice.”

“I’m trying. I’m trying my best, you have to know that.”

“The whole time I was locked in that room I just kept thinkin’ about how I got here. Y’know why I became a cop…To get laid! That was it! It was a whim! And then after a while I tried to convince myself that I did it for the “greater good”. To help people. But I can’t. I know that now. Jacob taught me that.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore. I don’t even know who I am.”

“I...I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now. Protect and serve? Out here? There’s no law anymore, Rook. Look around! Someone shoulda been here by now! Nobody gives a shit about what’s happenin’ here. We’re on our own. Survival of the fittest. The weak and the strong.”   ALL OF THAT WAS THIS AUDIO

If you resuscitate Staci, he says “You’re like my Guardian Angel!” 

Alternatively, if Staci’s in pain, he’ll beg The Father to stop his pain.

“This place...do you know what it is? A protector from what’s to come. But it isn’t inevitable. He said to me that you could stop it. But only you, Rook...Only you...But if you don’t...if you don’t listen...if you don’t...We’re all gonna die. Either down here or up there. It won’t matter. We can’t stop it...The Father...He sees what’s coming...He’s right…” FROM HERE

“Nobody’s gonna take anything from me again. Ever.”

“You see that, Jacob?! Who’s weak now?!”

“I’m alive, but I’m weak...weak. Need to be strong. We are meat. We are all meat.”

Also here are four fun videos of what happens when you initiate combat with Staci Pratt: ONE    TWO   THREE   FOUR

    Now that we’re free from the final Time Break, let’s talk about the end of the game. First things first, let's talk about the common factor between the two endings, the confrontation with Joseph. This is when Rook turns and sees Joey and Staci forced down on their knees with guns to their heads. Joseph says that you can go in peace and there’s this exchange between Joey and Staci Joey: Go in peace? You’re fucking insane. Staci: Is he? We never should’ve been here in the first place.

    Then, in the Resist Ending, as he sits in the back of the car, Staci screams a Hail Mary and then he yells about how Jospeh was right. How Joseph was fucking right. Also, Staci is sitting right by Joseph as he screams that all, so you know Joseph hears him.

    Now, to the Walk Away Ending, as soon as they’re let go, Staci is shaking as he gets up and has his hands up to show he isn’t a threat. His back is hunched and he makes himself look small and he’s literally shaking like a leaf. Joey and Earl fight and he rushes to get in the truck. Staci sits in the back with his hands in his lap and staring at the floor. He stays silent until Whitehorse brings up coming back and fighting again. And all he does is say “No. No way. I’m not gonna be a part of this. You heard what he said.”

    I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, I really do, but I’ve realized that I seriously need to come to a conclusion here. So, let’s go back to where this all began. We started with Staci Pratt, the douchebag cop who had wiseass remarks to every situation. Though Far Cry 5 follows the arc of a young, Rookie cop who faces something they were never prepared for, there is an arc to Staci Pratt’s character and it’s a path of confusion and not knowing who he is or where he belongs anymore.

    One of the first things Staci does is insult Joseph, and by the end of this story, Staci Pratt believes in Joseph Seed and the Project and culling the weak. Staci’s character arc is so much breaking and breaking and breaking and then being rebuilt in the visage of the Project. In an essence, Staci develops and destroys himself at the same time. Pardon me for a pun, but Staci Pratt is a far cry of the man he once was. As Whitehorse and Joey still fight for the Resistance and loathe Joseph, the same cannot be said with Staci.

    He believes is Joseph, but all of his friends are in the Resistance. He is every single one of Jacob’s lessons, beliefs, manifestos, plans, all shoved into one person. He is a living legacy of the man who orchestrated Eli’s murder and yet he’s sitting there in the Wolf’s Den. And yet, he was treated like shit in the Mountains. He was treated as lesser. Even, throughout this all, Staci’s belonging is a topic that really has no proper place.

    When Jacob Seed said that Staci would die in the bunker, he wasn’t wrong.

    The old Staci Pratt died a long time ago, and now there’s a new man living in his place.

[marymay-fairgrave]

Underestimated

CHARACTERS: Deputy Irina Carter & Jacob Seed

WARNINGS: None

WORDS: 1,254

RATING: Teen & Up

SUMMARY:

Jacob, a few of his Chosen, and a couple of his Judges had caught up with the Deputy sometime around dusk a week ago and he had laughed, oh how he had laughed, to see her strung up in the tree, foot caught in a rope trap and long, light brown hair sweeping in the dirt, with a scowl on her face that could strike a man dead.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

This is @veinereastath‘s FC5 Birthday Bash gift! While the Deputy isn't named in this (I figured Jacob wouldn't know it by this point), I definitely had your OC Irina in mind when I wrote this (I put in a few things like hair color, Jacob considering her his protégé for that mentor dynamic you mentioned in your tumblr posts about her, speaking a different language to the wolves, and I assumed that since she already had her own wolf, Lilith, she'd be able to train other wolves as well). Plus, I kind of felt like it set her up to become the Tyrant of the North later if she could control animals! This is far-fetched in assuming wild animals can be trained in a week, but I hope you like this, at least a little. Apologies again for this being a few days late!

       Jacob had underestimated her every step of the way, he could see that now. He had known that she was strong (although he would have never told her as much to her face), but he hadn’t really thought about all the ways she would best him in the end. The endgame was still for her to kill Eli and then himself – he was a necessary sacrifice, if Joseph was to be believed, a seal to be broken – and that plan was coming along well enough now that should wouldn’t be able to stop the it if she even understood what was coming, but there were still little ways that she always managed to surprise him, little ways that managed to delight him in a sinister way.  

        Jacob, a few of his Chosen, and a couple of his Judges had caught up with the Deputy sometime around dusk a week ago and he had laughed, oh how he had laughed, to see her strung up in the tree, foot caught in a rope trap and long, light brown hair sweeping in the dirt, with a scowl on her face that could strike a man dead.

       He cut the rope and let her fall to the ground and gave her a warning that the music box would come out and the bliss arrows would fly if she tried anything. She didn’t say a word, but she didn’t really have to anyway; she knew she was outnumbered and her weapons had already been confiscated while she was strung up in the three. She’d have to be an idiot to try to fight her way out of this one. And besides, Jacob knew she worked best when the element of surprise was on her side and she had already lost that for the time being.

        When he thinks back on it later, pouring over the details of the whole thing while the entire Center sleeps, he thinks she probably started hatching her escape scheme then and there as she followed them to the cult truck nearby. As much as her anger fueled her, she was reserved enough to plan. Jacob liked to think that about himself too; the payoff was always sweeter when the plan went to perfection.

        When they had got back to the Center, Jacob had stowed her away in a cage for the night, side by side with his Judges. He let Pratt give her a bowl of meat, pushing the bowl through the bars like he did with all the prisoners, and had watched with satisfaction as she glared at Jacob instead. “Eat up, Deputy. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

        The Deputy practically growled in response, but said nothing and refused to eat. Jacob didn’t bother to linger at her cage like normal, preferring instead to prepare for the Deputy’s morning training, but much later on, when everyone should have been asleep, he looked down on her in the yard from his window. The first tip off that she was up to something was the quietness of the hour; usually the wolves yipped and howled at this time of night, a white noise of misery that Jacob was fairly fond of for its consistency alone.

       He had strained to see what she was doing in the dark at first, but his eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light. She was standing, faced towards the wolves in the next cage over and the wolves were lined up at the bars, but they weren’t behaving like wolves at all. They were behaving like obedient dogs. She extended her arm once and they sat. She extended her arm again and they snapped in the air, catching the meat she tossed their way.

       It hadn’t occurred to him then that she was training the Judges and admittedly he did not pay much attention to her nightly training sessions for the whole week. He should have.

       The Deputy was something to behold during her training: vicious, capable, efficient. If they had been on the same side, the Resistance would have been squashed ages ago. Jacob followed her along as she made her way through the course, watching from the suspension walkway, above the rooms she traipsed through. She raised the gun he left for her on the course and rarely hesitated to shoot, killing the other nameless recruits and running down through the maze he’s created for her to run. He noticed after the third run or so that she’s most comfortable with scoped weapons, and the best with the SA-50 sniper rifle, so he leaves her that more often than not. The end sacrifice is the only one she usually has trouble doing, her finger poised over the trigger, panting from the exercise, but she took the shot. She always took the shot.  

        Around noon, Jacob calls it for the day, to the relief of everyone. She had to be hungry and she has been doing so well that if let her keep going no recruits would be left by the end of the day. He gathered her up in his entourage of Pratt, another Chosen named Isaac, and a couple of Judges to head back the Center, but they don’t get too far before the Deputy makes her move.

        She threw a hard kick into Isaac’s calf, just below his knee, and in a fluid motion on his way down, she grabs a gun from his holster. She clicks her finger once and says something in a language Jacob doesn’t completely recognize (it’s a Nordic language of some kind, that he’s sure of, but which he doesn’t know) and the Judges at Jacob’s side immediately turn on their master and snarl at Isaac on the ground. The whole thing happened quick enough that even Jacob had no time to pull a weapon from his own holster.

       This is when the horrible revelation sets in, a week too late: she had been training the Judges at night when they were in their cages. Of course.

        The Deputy unclicked the safety of the gun and held it up toward Jacob, a glint in her eye. He recognized the expression – pride. He should have been furious or embarrassed or both for her getting the upper hand on him, but he wasn’t. He feels proud too. As sure as Joseph was that the Deputy would cause the Collapse because God told him so, Jacob was sure of it now more than ever. His protégé. The way he will live on long after he is gone.  

        “Get on your knees,” she commanded, voice lower than normal, “And don’t even think about grabbing for that music box, Jacob, or so help me these wolves will tear off both you and your minion’s faces.”

        Jacob complied with her demand, but chided her, “Deputy, do you have any idea at just how much trouble you’re in?”

        She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me, old man.”

        “There’s no place you can run, that I can’t find you. You know that right?”

        She smiled wickedly, “How about Holland Valley, Jacob? Are you going to cross over into another herald’s territory to find me there?”

        Smart ass. When he didn’t respond, she laughed and began to back away from the group, her eyes never leaving his until she entered the truck and sped away, loose gravel and dirt flying up from the tires. By the time a search party was out and gunning for her, she had already crossed over into the Valley and disappeared.    

[unclefungusthegoat]

Far Cry 5 Theory: Joseph Knowingly Manipulated His Family To Represent the Four Horsemen... And Knew That They Would Die For It

Hi all! This is LONG- 1977 words plus pictures, but I hope it’s worth the read! This is just my opinion! Also, I would just like to say now that I love Joseph, and I’m sorry.

Watching back the eulogies Joseph delivers after his sibling’s deaths has left me wondering…

How did Joseph know that their deaths were the seals being opened?

Because I can’t get the notion out of my head, that if Joseph indeed engineered the ‘Collapse’, as is one theory, or even if he simply had heard that it was coming, then surely he had an opportunity to orchestrate all of the symbolism that surrounded it?

For example, grooming himself and his siblings to represent the Four Horsemen?

In the Book of Joseph, he writes:

“The Voice did not show me exactly how it would all end.”

And, interestingly:

“I hope the Voice condemned each person to the ending he or she fears most, to know that it would take back what it had given without pity in a final multi-pronged curse. It was inspired by the cruelty of mankind, we who kill, lie, and steal what others hold most sacred. No one is innocent. Each person will experience the end they dread.

Joseph was never told that this event would take the form of the Horsemen from the Book of Revelation, but that is how it comes to pass.

Surely if Joseph believed that God gave him a revelation, then he would turn to the scripture named for such a prophecy to make sense of it? The scripture he would remember his Father ranting about when he was a child?

And he then made a conscious choice for that to be the narrative?

And I believe that he manipulated his siblings into fulfilling the roles of the Horsemen, knowing that it would eventually lead to their deaths, because this was the end he dreaded most.

JOSEPH - CONQUEST

Joseph took the role of Conquest- to conquer those who want to be saved. Conquest is sometimes interpreted as Christ himself, and it’s very likely that Joseph, the ignored middle child, forsaken by the world, would want to be seen as a Christ-like figure- noticed, listened to, worshipped, loved.

He craved what every cult leader desires.

Power over the weak, over people like Jacob, John and Faith.

I do not think he sought Jacob and John with the intention of making them his Horseman, but came to the decision upon the discovery of John’s career and subsequently, Jacob’s military file.

It was a coincidence that John, the lawyer, could be represented by Scales, of Famine or Justice. And Jacob with the Sword of War. But Joseph would see this as proof that his brothers were a vital part of God’s plan- and must then truly be the Horsemen.

It all fit the narrative he chose to believe.

And so he set out to shape his siblings into those roles.

The Herald’s symbols, that correspond with those of the Horsemen, are built  into the Project’s architecture, meaning that they have been part of the cult’s symbolism since long before the game’s events.

Surely Joseph must have asked them to adopt those symbols?

And then he used their assigned Horsemen not only as inspiration for their jobs within the Project, but also for how to manipulate them into performing those roles.

JACOB - WAR

Joseph took advantage of Jacob’s trauma he suffered during WAR, to shape him into the Red Horse.

Jacob knew of Joseph’s role for him and I think he’d known for a very long time- since being reunited with his brothers.

He talks to the Deputy directly in game of how his purpose is to act as Joseph’s sacrifice. He knows exactly how it will end for him, and his words- ‘you did everything he said you would’- just confirms this. Joseph has told him that the Lamb will open the seven seals.

Jacob was a hollow shell of who he once was in the homeless shelter. It was Joseph who nursed him back to health, feeding his broken mind with his propaganda, with the Horseman narrative. It can only be assumed that he convinced Jacob that his death, as well as John’s, would be necessary to wage war on a world of evil, manipulating Jacob’s mindset from the military that sacrifices must be made. Why else would Jacob allow Joseph to manipulate their youngest brother?

The weak ‘have their purpose’. So what if, after everything they went through, the Seeds think of themselves as weak, and their purpose is as Horsemen, as sacrifices to bring about Eden, where the strong will live on?

Jacob is the least religious of the brothers and so whether he truly believes himself a ‘Horseman’ is questionable. He simply views himself as a brother doing his duty, supporting Joseph in this new war against the corrupted world.

And if that means death, so be it.

JOHN - FAMINE

Joseph took advantage of John’s need for love- he starved him of it, created John’s own personal FAMINE, so that John would pursue the path that Joseph laid out for him- becoming the Black Horse.

Joseph directly warns John of his own impending death. There is no indication of when the voicemail was left, but I believe that it’s an old message from before the Reaping, and it was Joseph trying to prevent John from being killed at the incorrect moment. If he antagonised the Fall’s End residents too much, Joseph knows that they would take him out.

He cannot let that happen.

The Lamb must be the one to kill John.

But Joseph warns him of his death again at the river, when he tells John that the Deputy must atone - that the Lamb must stop opening the seals - or the gates will be shut to him. In other words, he must stop the Collapse or he will die. He knows John will not be able to achieve this, but insisting that John continue to interact with the Deputy, promising love and reward if they atone, just ensures that John will die by their hand.

However John, despite his obvious intelligence, seems unaware that he will not live to see Eden. His confident bravado, his triumphant swaggering, his fear of failing Joseph- this is not the behaviour of a man who knows he is doomed.

As he dies, he tells the Deputy that ‘We had a plan’. He says that everyone is ‘already safe’, no doubt including himself in that. Joseph, after all, had already saved him once. Why wouldn’t he save him again?

John is a coward, a man who never gets his hands dirty unless he can fully control the situation. A man so used to speaking empty words, that he probably promised to follow Joseph ‘unto death’ without truly considering what that meant, without believing that he would actually ask that of him. And Joseph could not be sure that John would see it through if he knew the truth. So instead he promises John what he is starved of, love, knowing that he will pursue it to his death.

FAITH - DEATH

Joseph threatened DEATH to Faith if she did not become the Pale Horse- the same fate that had befallen the first Faiths.

Why does the Project need a Faith? In the Book of Joseph, he never actually justifies why the “role” exists. The general feeling is that she is used by Joseph to replace his wife, or his daughter. But, here’s the thing:

Joseph says that the Voice asked him to recruit John and Jacob. But then he goes on to conscientiously seek out a Faith. To me, this reads as Joseph making a definitive decision to begin putting everything in place for his Collapse to be initiated-

By preparing a fourth Horseman.

Rachel presents two versions of her story and she tells them both as the truth.

The Faith who she speaks of first - the ‘saved’ Faith - believes she has been given a ‘purpose’, a new chance at life. She ‘no longer wished to die’. If Rachel knew of her newly found purpose as Horseman and sacrifice from the beginning, then this is contradictory. She would not have willingly agreed to the role if she knew it would end in death.

So I feel both of her stories are true. That she felt ‘saved’ when she joined the cult but was ultimately threatened into becoming Faith.

And I think Rachel only discovered her role as Horseman when it was too late for her to escape. She may have learned from messages left by the previous Faiths, those who had already been killed for refusing to be the Pale Horse. She may have only realised during the game’s events.

But she says to the Deputy ‘It was always going to end this way’. She knew it was an inevitability. And saying those words is a confirmation to herself that Joseph had always intended her to die for his vision.

SO WHY?

I believe that Joseph loves his brothers.

But he believes so fiercely in the Voice that he murdered his own daughter to prove his loyalty. It is not a stretch of the imagination that he would sacrifice his siblings too. They are tools by which God’s word will come to pass. They are his ultimate test of faith.

And yes, he cries over their deaths. But he never truly does anything to prevent them from being harmed. He encourages them to provoke and convert the Deputy, knowing that it is futile, since the dream of reaching Eden relies on those seals being opened.

Including the Fifth seal.

If his Collapse and his new Eden were to come to pass, then the Fifth seal must be broken.

He expected his brothers to swear loyalty unto death to him. He asked the same of Faith, when he made her take the leap.

The Fifth seal is of martyrs before the altar, ‘the souls of them that were slain for the word of God’.

The most faithful.

Who else would he have imagined these martyrs to be?

THE EULOGIES

Joseph may knowingly have sent his siblings to their deaths, but I don’t think he did so without emotion. Just look at the eulogies:

Just like so much of what John says in game, Joseph, in John’s eulogy, could be projecting his own sins onto the Deputy:

‘He was easily preyed upon… those responsible for his death will be punished’- Joseph could be acknowledging his own manipulation of John and pledging his intent to atone for that sin.

Greg Bryk has said that Joseph has empathy:

‘...he was a weapon without a purpose. A warrior without a legacy.... You are his legacy. All of you willing to protect our family from the Collapse… Jacob’s death will not be in vain.’ - Joseph acknowledges Jacob’s purpose to protect (by being a sacrifice), and that he gave him this purpose. Did he believe that an act of mercy, giving Jacob what he truly desired- peace in death?

And for Faith:

‘I put my faith inside her and she became angelic’ - Joseph is admitting to putting his ideology in her head, and that he views her as otherworldly, holy, made that way by his own hand.

SUMMARY

Joseph wanted to see the Day of Judgement incinerate the world that treated him so badly and what better way to enact his revenge than to literally become the Horseman who unleash horrors upon the earth?

But he doesn’t consider himself perfect. The eulogies prove it. He knows he is not innocent and will face judgement from God, along with the rest of mankind.

And so the loss of his brothers? 

They were the price he CHOSE to believe he must pay, the price the Voice demanded of him so that he, always overlooked, ignored, forsaken, may become a God in his new Eden.

Just as he wrote in his sacred book:

“Humanity is incredibly imaginative when it comes to self-destruction”.

And their deaths were, as he had foretold would come to all sinners:

The end that he dreaded most.

[boleynns]

“For the Throne” Album - potential clues to S8

I somehow just noticed that the entire “Inspired by Game of Thrones” album was released (they had only release the first 3 songs when I checked about 2 weeks ago), and I listened to the entire thing while taking notes. TLDR take-away: strong evidence that artists were given plot-points for S8, strong evidence of a betrayal for love, lots of fire, and (I think) major arrows towards Danni’s journey for the rest of the show.

Disclaimer: confirmation bias exists, and I love the idea of Danni burning down King’s Landing, so I can’t help but read into that. If the idea of that plot point bothers you, this might not be the lyric analysis you want to read!

Kingdom of One by Maren Morris

This was one of the ones released after (I think…) ep. 1, though it does have some hints to future events.

“First light, sacrifice” (Melisandre dying)

“Bird’s eye, saw the signs” (Bran)

“All you can give, all you can bear, all that you longed for, nothing compares, but nothing is sacred, no one is safe, so you wanna play God? Is that all you got? Would you sell your soul, burn it all, everything that you love, finally become second to none in a kingdom of one?” If this chorus is in-line with the rest of this song, this to me screams: Danni lost nearly everything in the Battle of Winterfell - Jon (parentage reveal), potentially Rhaegal (not that he died, just that he’s kinda Jon’s dragon now), the Dothraki, most of the Unsullied, and her most trusted advisor and friend in Jorah, and now there’s no point in not just burning everything down.

If I squint, the chorus could be about Cersei (everything she’s loved before doesn’t matter next to power, she burnt down the Sept and once Jaime left effectively became a “kingdom of one”), but overall it doesn’t seem to emotionally fit her as well, and Cersei has no involvement with the other Winterfell characters alluded to - nor any involvement in the battle. Also the song ends with even more fire (“burn it all”, “ash to ash, dust to dust”).

Power is Power by The Weekend

I know this song has had a lyric video, but I think it’s still worth examining. “Power is Power” (those words, not the song itself) is obviously a Cersei line, but the first verse seems very Night-King-oriented (“I was born in the ice and snow, with the winter wolves, in the dark alone”)

The chorus though then goes into something that could fit Cersei or (probably) Danni as well (“A knife in my heart couldn’t slow me down, cuz power is power, now watch me burn it down”). There are many, many, many “burn it all” references through this album, and while Cersei did use wildfyre on the Sept, Danni’s whole thing is “Fire and Blood” so it just seems inevitable that it’s her burning the Red Keep/King’s Landing.

“I die looking up at your face…Only love could kill me, God bless” Could again fit Cersei (with the theory that Jaime kills her) or Danni (betrayal for Love)

“Heavy is the crown, but never for a queen” Again, both Cersei and Danni, but again the song ends with “Now watch me burn it down”.

Nightshade by The Lumineers

Pretty much about the collective group in the S7 excursion beyond the wall. The second verse is interesting and very specific — about a single rider who saw the Army’s footprints, who swore an oath and with their life would pay, and also mentions “80 miles from home”. Seems like it’s about Benjen who was a rider, a Night’s Watch member, and a Stark from Winterfell (not exactly 80 miles, but I’m assuming that number was more chosen for rhyming purposes).

The 3rd Verse (“We were surrounded and the ending was near, all of the sudden, a ranger arrived, a savior appeared - made it to safety, but the devil was here”) again about Benjen (ranger) arriving to the S7 fight beyond the wall.

Originally I thought the chorus wasn’t really thematically relevant to the rest of the song (each chorus ends with “It was all for the throne”), and it seemed more like a general allusion to the marketing for the season, but also could be that the whole Beyond the Wall excursion was literally only to gain Danni a temporary truce in her perusal of the throne.

Hollow Crown by Ellie Goulding

The song overall is about a House of Cards (“paper castle”, “hollow crown”, all things that are flimsy and won’t last) and again mentions “burn it down”. And again pretty clearly seems like a Cersei & Daenerys song about the other being the fake queen and how it’ll end with Dany burning the Red Keep.

The first verse is all about paranoia (“Is there anyone you trust ‘round here”, “Keep a knife under your pillow”, “You got everyone against you somehow”, “It’s become an obsession, look at your refection, look who you’re becoming right now”): while this could still fit either of them, the “look at who you’re becoming” seems more Danni-relevant as Cersei has always been this way.

Baptize Me by X Ambassadors and Jacob Banks

Perhaps about Theon? A lot of water imagery, mentions of redemption and praying for a savior, but overall of all the songs on the album this one is the most vague and generic country-rock. Maybe I’m being stupid for not getting who this song is about, as it doesn’t even completely fit Theon completely, and just doesn’t sound like any character we know specifically. I’m really not into this song, and ends up just sounding like a guy in our world singing about God instead of a Game of Thrones character.

Too Many Gods by A$AP Rocky & Joey Bada$$

Overall about a lot of wars, a lot of gods, etc. Good song! Definitely specifics about the show (thrones, ravens, etc.) that could be about Jon, but kind of mainly about the futility of war and all the pain it brings. Some interesting single lines:

“It’s just too many laws” - reminds me of Jaime’s “They make you swear and swear” speech.

“Strange screams down the corridors” — Arya running through Winterfell’s halls

“I had a dream I woke up a king in a peasant body” — Jon post-parentage feelings, not feeling like he should be a king?

“Still and silent, writing papers, flying ravens with a message about me” — Anytime I read/see S8 stuff mentioning raven scrolls all I can think of is Sophie Turner saying she was given a raven scroll from S8 as a souvenir, and I want to know what it means. So that is all I can think of with this line.

Turn On Me by The National

Musically, this is my favorite song on the album. Great lyrics, great atmosphere. The lyrics seem to point to the song being about Jon from Danni’s perspective. Starts off about the rhythm of the ocean under the moon (boat!bang), and specifically mentions “And your mother’s angst the day you were born, the day you cut her down” (Lyanna dying in childbirth). For a bit I thought it could be about Tyrion, but the rest of the song is dealing with the betrayal of an intimate relationship which doesn’t really fit with him.

The second verse is a total mystery to me that may be solved in retrospect, but its very poetic (“Do leaves fall in perfect sentences? Do maggots crawl your name?”).

“Do mirrors laugh at you behind your back?” — this is the second reference to mirrors, after the line in “Hollow Crown”

“Does your family think you’re too far gone, do you wonder if they’re right? Are you different than you used to be? Are you alone somewhere tonight?” — Danni & Jon post-parentage. The Starks clearly not interested in Jon taking on a Targaryen identity.

“I’ve gone too high, I’m way too far, I’ve no idea where you are. Will I see you when you turn, when you turn on me? When I turn around will you be there, at the center of the world like you promised to be? Will you suddenly seem like a stranger? I can’t tell anymore what you want from me.” — Again, whatever Jon and Danni had in Dannie’s eyes has been ruined by the reveal, and her worry is that he’ll turn on her.

From the Grave by James Arthur

“crown of roses in your hair”, potentially about Rhaeger and Lyanna? A lot of “I’m far away, but I miss you and want to come back”. Not to mention it’s called “From the Grave” and they’re both dead, and within the song it sounds like the singer is speaking from the grave. Another vague song.

Me Traicionaste (“You Betrayed Me”) by Rosalia

It’s in Spanish so I had to google translate the lyrics, but the sound is very haunting and it’s literally called “You Betrayed Me” HELLO.

“I came to meet you even though I knew, Oh, you designed it, Bye, you betrayed me, Oh, love you do not see it”- Which is straight-up Political!Jon in one stanza. You can squint and see Tyrion or Varys betraying her, but she’s not in love with either of them so seems much less likely.

When I Lie by Lil Peep

“Stick that needle in my eye, just lost my peace of mind, I’m not evil be design, but I feel dead at times”.

“All my friends are really dead, still hear their voices in my head”.

This one is hard to pin down, as the lyrics are very specific but somehow vague at the same time. I’m wondering if “needle” is Arya’s Needle, and potentially this is about Cersei? Or someone else that Arya will kill with Needle? The song uses “lie” as both “not telling the truth” and “laying down”.

Love Can Kill by Lennon Stella

“I wasn’t thinking when I told you to stay, it was just too hard to push you away, you don’t know that you’re in over your head, I’m afraid I’ll push you over the edge” — Another mystery song! The rest of the song is about this relationship that needs to be let go of even though they don’t want to, and how one of them is not safe because of it. 

I thought about it being Danni & Jon, but I don’t think it makes sense. 

The only thing that has already happened in the show that fits the lyrics is actually Tyrion and Shae - him saying he needs her to leave even though he doesn’t want to, her being in danger, the consequence being life or death...but that relationship was a long time ago and doesn’t really feel important enough to merit a song, so who knows.

Wolf at Your Door by Chloe and Halle

Just from the title I immediately though of Jon at Dany’s door on the boat, but this song actually encompasses all of the remaining Starks (though mostly focuses on Arya).

“A wolf creeps softly in the snow, a knife between her teeth she roams, for she is now a stranger” - Arya using her faceless man skills to sneak into the Godswood with the Catspaw Dagger.

“Chasing a fairytale, chasin’ a lie, but everything changes, and everything dies. You preyed on my innocence, tried to bury my name, but now there’ ice in my veins” — Sansa wanting to be a princess in a fairytale that wasn’t real, her family dying, being used by everyone as a pawn, but coming out the other side.

“There’s a wolf at your door, there’s a hound at your heels, there’s a snake in your bed, tell me how does it feel?” — Maybe about Jon — the wolf at your door, and he’s sleeping (or was sleeping) with a “dragon” (might be a stretch to snake, but whatever). Or he’s the snake in someone’s bed?

“When you let the wolves in, you let the wolves in. When you think that it’s over, I swear, we’ll be there” - A Time for Wolves bitches!

“Up from the ashes, run through the fire, Down by the blade that bled us the same” — clearly about the Catspaw Dagger being used against the Starks and then Arya using it to protect them. 

I’m lit by this song’s lyrics.

Pray by Matt Bellamy

This song uses direct clips of Melisandre’s words while bringing Jon back to life in S6, but then the English says “Pray with me, we can bring her back” which…is someone (Dany? Sansa?) else going to die and then be brought back to life? A woman hasn’t been brought back before in the show (as far as I remember) so it’d need to be talking about in future episodes. Color me curious.

[avengers-nextgen]

The Year Between VIII

Being home was something Nathaniel missed. He missed the smell of his room, the familiarity of the layout, the perfect comfiness of the couches, and most importantly his mother’s cooking.

Nathaniel felt at ease, relaxed, and he was thriving in the peaceful environment. It was good to see his parents happy together-Nathaniel knew the distance was hard at times-and his Dad had a knack for making his mother laugh. The sound always made Nathaniel smile.

But he wasn’t alone for long. His siblings would be staying over as well. At first, Nathaniel was excited, and that quickly changed to nervousness. He hadn’t seen them in ages. In fact, he couldn’t really recall the last time they’d all been together.

Sensing Nathaniel’s nervousness Clint pulled his youngest child aside. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. They all sounded excited from what your mother told me. Besides, maybe they’ll like a few of the stories. Yeah?”

“Right, yeah.” Nathaniel nodded, offering his dad a light smile. “Hope they haven’t changed much.”

“Trust me-no matter what- they are still the same kids that played with you as a baby,” Clint laughed before ruffling Nathaniel’s hair. “I will never forget the time you got a LEGO stuck in your nose.”

“Not entirely my fault.” Nathaniel held his hands up in defense. “I was unsupervised.”

— — —

It was during dinner that the doorbell rang. Nathaniel glanced up from his plate and looked expectantly at the door. Cooper was the first to be greeted. From what Nathaniel could tell he looked exactly the same. Still single, still mischievous, and most definitely a Barton.

“Hey Nate,” Cooper nodded at his baby brother before hugging their father tightly.

“Hey,” Nathaniel smiled, scooching his chair over to make room for the additional member. “You look the same.”

“So do you,” Cooper remarked upon taking his seat. “Lila’s on her way, she’ll be here in about five minutes.”

“Perfect!” Laura smiled happily. Nathaniel could tell just by looking at her that this meant a lot. She hadn’t had all of her little babies back home together in ages. “We can wait for her to arrive before eating.”

“Awe,” Cooper groaned. “I’m hungry, we still have to wait for everyone at the dinner table?”

“Yes,” Clint rolled his eyes, “that’s been the rule since you were born knuckle head.”

“I’m only kidding.” Cooper assured them. After a moment or two of silence a knock on the door was followed by Lila poking her head in to see what was going on.

“Sorry I’m late.” She winced.

“Oh honey it’s fine,” Laura was already hugging Lila before she was half way through the door.

What surprised Nathaniel though, was the man and child. He gawked warily at them for a moment before Cooper took notice.

“Oh, that’s Jacob. He’s Lila’s husband, and that’s their daughter.” Cooper gestured to both individuals flippantly.

“Lila’s married?” Nathaniel stammered.

“Has been for three years.” Cooper nodded.

“How did I not know?” Nathaniel frowned.

“You couldn’t make it remember? Hero stuff.” Cooper shrugged. “The invitations weren’t that grand either. You know how Lila is-it probably got lost in the mail or something.”

Nathaniel swallowed hard and stared down at the table. His ears buzzed with background noise and his senses seemed to be turning off.

“Pleasure to finally meet you,” A smooth, gruff voice alerted Nathaniel to the outstretched hand.

Nathaniel didn’t take it. Instead, he looked up at Jacob with a blank stare.

“Oh, Nathaniel!” Lila scooped up the one year old girl who looked to be nearly two.

“Yeah?”

“Say hi to uncle Nate.” Lila smiled and the little girl regarded him with wide brown eyes. She shoved a fist in her mouth and simply stared.

“I didn’t know you had a daughter.” Nathaniel replied with a strained voice. “Let alone, that it’s been almost two years from the looks of it.”

“She was premature by a couple months. Lots of time in the hospital unfortunately,” Lila sighed, running a gentle hand through the little girl’s tuft of sandy brown hair.

“Maybe a phone call would have sufficed.” The atmosphere had grown unbearably awkward and tense.

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Lila frowned worriedly. “You have a lot on your plate.”

“Right, which makes knowing I’m an uncle completely unimportant?” Nathaniel glanced about the room studying everyone’s face. “I’m not busy all of the time. I just-“

The little girl started to cry and by the way she was gnawing on her fist it was clear she was hungry.

“Aren’t usually home,” Cooper concluded as he fiddled with his fork. Nathaniel’s grip on the edge of the table tightened.

“Here, I’ll take Ellie while you sort things out.” Jacob carefully took the crying infant from Lila and kissed the top of her head.

“Ellie?” Nathaniel questioned coldly. “Ellie?!”

“Nathaniel...” His mother chewed on her lip nervously.

“You named your daughter after my girlfriend?” Nathaniel’s voice was shaking.

“I thought you’d like it, she looks like her...” Lila explained. “I was thinking of you.”

Nathaniel was at a loss for words. How could Lila possibly think that naming her daughter Ellie was a good idea. Let alone stating what Nathaniel had already noticed: the baby looked like Ellie too. He didn’t want a reminder every day, didn’t want his only niece to wonder why he looked at her so sad, and he was ready to snap.

“So, dinner?” Cooper asked hopefully.

“Eat your damn dinner!” Nathaniel yelled standing up so fast his chair toppled over.

“Come on, don’t do that. You can’t ruin this for mom.” Cooper frowned.

“Don’t you dare pull the guilt card on me.” Nathaniel hissed. “You’ve always done that.”

“Not true.”

“Yes it’s true! Do you know how many times you made me feel like shit because you thought Dad loved me more?” Nathaniel glanced between his siblings. “You think those early morning hours were full of fun? My fingers would bleed! I trained! I didn’t play!”

“You chose to be his prodigy.” Lila sighed.

“Because-“ Nathaniel had never told anyone, he’d made a promise not to, but he wasn’t going to hide it anymore. “Because I was tired of seeing dad so beaten up and run down. He needed someone to take over. Mom needed someone. You needed someone. I wasn’t stupid as a kid, I knew each time he left there was a chance he wouldn’t be walking through that door.”

“Don’t make this some self righteous act. You don’t have to convince anyone here that you’re hero material.” Cooper snorted. “It was clear from the moment you were born that you were going to be better than us. You were named after a hero.”

“You have no god damn clue what my job is like!” Nathaniel didn’t hesitate to tug off his shirt exposing scar covered skin. “Do you have this? Do you look like a cutting board? No. Did you miss high school prom to stop a robbery? Did you miss a date because of a serial rapist? Did you miss the second round of your girlfriend’s cancer treatment? No!”

“We know you made sacrifices Nathaniel,” Lila spoke quietly, being less of a confrontational person than Cooper.

“But you’re not willing to act like I’m part of the family.” That was it. That was the most painful part of the entire situation. “Because finding out that your sister is married with a kid is a perfectly natural dinner discussion when you could have picked up a phone.”

The room went quiet as Nathaniel tugged on his shirt and marched to the door. He was nearly there when Laura caught his arm. Her eyes were full of tears and it broke Nathaniel’s heart to look at them.

“Sweetie...”

“I’m sorry I ruined dinner mom,” Nathaniel croaked, leaning into her hand that rested gently on his cheek. “I’m gonna go for a walk.”

— — —

Nathaniel wandered to the old archery range about a mile from the Homestead. It was the very place he shot his first arrow. The stars were bright, the moon was full, and Nathaniel sat in the grass to cry.

He felt horrible, he’d ruined his mother’s dinner, yelled at his siblings, rejected his niece, and botched his first impression with Jacob.

A soft sound of footsteps signaled his father’s approach. “I don’t want a lecture Dad, not now.”

“I’m not here to lecture.” Clint promised, kneeling beside his son. “Look at me.”

Nathaniel shook his head no, but Clint cupped his son’s chin, and carefully turned Nathaniel’s face towards his own.

“I’m looking,” Nathaniel tried to make a joke but it didn’t work.

“Why didn’t you tell me the reason you took an interest in archery?” Clint’s expression looked pained. “You’re my son, it was never your job to take care of me.”

“I wanted to protect you,” Nathaniel cried, a silent tear slipped down his cheek.

“Why?”

“Because heroes don’t have anyone to look out for them.” Nathaniel had asked his father a similar question when he was young. ‘If heroes protect everyone who protects them? Who protects you?’

Clint shook his head in disbelief before crushing Nathaniel with a hug. “You’re a miracle.”

“No I’m not,” Nathaniel protested. “I tend to mess everything up.”

“Actually, I think you tend to fix things.” Clint sighed, running a hand through Nathaniel’s blonde hair. “Your mother is chewing into your siblings right now.”

“What?” Nathaniel startled. “No, I didn’t want them to get in trouble-“

“But you’re right,” Clint interrupted, “they’ve kept you out of the loop. While the reason is honorable it’s obviously hurt you. Which reminds me: why do you never tell people when you’re hurting?”

“Because I don’t want people to think I’m depressed again,” Nathaniel sniffled, “and I have small things to be sad about compared to what other people have to be sad about.”

“I’m going to tell you something very important,” Clint gave his son a stern look, “The idea that someone always has it worse than your current situation is bullshit. If everyone thinks that, then the person who has absolutely nothing: no family, no friends, no home,no money, etc. will think the same thing. Even if they-out of billions of people-are in the worst situation possible.”

“But-“

“Someone who has it worse than everyone else will believe their plights don’t matter. They will assume that someone else has suffered more even if that person doesn’t exist.” Clint studied his son’s face carefully, “Which means that everyone’s pain is worth acknowledging no matter how big or small it is. Do you understand? I don’t care if you tell me you’re in pain because you stubbed your toe, or if you’re in pain because it’s Valentine’s Day.”

Nathaniel laughed lightly at his father’s hidden joke. “Okay.”

“Now, you don’t have to go back to dinner unless you want to,” Clint stood tugging Nathaniel to his feet, “but at least say goodnight to everyone.”

— — —

Nathaniel peered into the crib with a heart full of mixed feelings. The baby was beautiful. Even despite the health complications that remained from such an early birth. She’d been born with partial hearing loss, resulting in auditory processing issues, she was behind on the weight curve, and her cognitive functions had been damaged by brain inflammation.

Still, it was difficult to look at someone so small and helpless without Nathaniel reliving one of the darkest times in his life.

But the part of him that had vowed to take care of Ellie was resurfacing and he couldn’t look at the sleeping baby with detest anymore. She would need help, someone patient, someone kind, someone who had been through the ringer of health issues before, and Nathaniel wanted to be that person.

His phone interrupted the silence with a soft ring. He glanced at the screen to see a vaguely familiar name: Chloe Strange.

“Sorry kid, I gotta go.” Nathaniel whispered. “‘Night Princess Ellie...fairest of them all.”

[happymeishappylife]

Mass Effect

Having now played through the original trilogy of games, I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite series. It’s so well built and so well detailed that it really does feel like your travelling the universe. And the storyline of this lone human commander, discovering and saving both humanity and the universe from the reaper threat. And your choices play a huge impact on the game, not just in each game, but carried over in all three. Which is why I can’t wait to replay it and make different choices.

I played each game aiming for being a paragon, the ultimate hero and beacon of hope. Mainly because, why be mean if you don’t have to? But also, by being a hero and befriending all your comrades and learning their stories, you had empathy to appeal to aliens in the third game to help you in your hope to save Earth. And you do amazing things like curing the genophage of the Krogans and allying the Geth and the Quarians. Universe long problems, solved by one human. Pretty impressive. And it creates great character arcs with your companions.

So in the first game, one of the first major choices you have to makes is saving one of your human lieutenants from death. I chose to save Kaiden because in the heat of the moment, he sounded scared and incapable of completing his mission, while Ashley sounded competent and courageous even in the face of death. And the callbacks to Ashley in the later games was fitting and sad because that weight travelled with Shepard for so long. Then in the second game, not only do you get to do that again, but you have the pressure of doing it with all nine of your comrades. I felt pretty good during the suicide mission that I had made the right calls. I did all the missions to gain the loyalties of my crew so that helped. And I knew everyone’s strengths and weaknesses going in. But even though I knew he wasn’t a fighter, I didn’t send Morbin back to the ship only because I thought the human survivors needed protection. So Morbin didn’t survive and that sucked because it wasn’t an active choice. And his death meant he never got to see the reversal of his work on the Krogan genophage in the third game. But you get to see other painful deaths in the third game because of your choices in the second. Watching Thane take on an assassin on his dying breaths to then be surrounded by his son who you reunited him with at his death was hard. Seeing Legion sacrifice himself to save the rest of the Geth and prove that the Geth could be more than just machines was the whole reason I chose to synthesize at the end of Mass Effect 3. Because while destroying the Reapers sounded good, it came at the cost of the progress made with the Geth and also EDI who had gained some humanity despite being an AI. It felt good and worthy at the end and I’m satisfied with my choice.

And on top of just the general character story your characters have, you also get into the messy world of relationships, but that matters too. I didn’t ever intend to romance someone but I learned like real life, if you listen and are nice to people that apparently means you’re interested in them. Whoops. So Kaiden was my lover in the first game (thank god they turned down that scene after Mass Effect 1 O.o), but when you get resurrected by Cerberus and work for them in the second, he gets scared, whiny, and annoying to the point I was glad that he was not really in the second game after the run in on Horizon where he blows up to you. Which is also why, while I felt bad he was injured in the third game, I had no intentions of getting back together with him. It did suck though that I didn’t get a goodbye from him at the end of the game though because I thought it was amicably done, but oh well. Jacob was the one I romanced in the second game. Mainly because while I quickly learned Samara, Garrus, and Thane all had a thing for me, I thought Jacob was just cool. The fact that it never felt like it was a long lasting thing either, made it feel better, whereas with Kaiden it was trying to make you believe you were soulmates. Had I met Jacob again early on in the third game, maybe I would have gone for him again, but at the same time meeting him and finding out he was with someone else and happy and that he was okay learning I had found someone else already, made it seem like cool, we’re still good friends. Loved it. And then I loved the fact that in the third game, you could totally get a fresh start and be with someone else, and this time I loved actually trying to win over Samantha Traynor’s affection. She was smart, brilliant, and funny. I’m just sad that because I made Shepard a legend, there was no white picket fence, kids, or dog in their future. Poor Sam.

But that was the fun of it. I would love to play again and try other romances and see what happens on those paths. I would love to try and play as male Shepard and see how that changes. And I am curious just how different the storyline would be if you played with the intention of being a renegade. Mainly because I just don’t see how that works out for Shepard, but I think I am curious enough to play it though some of the really mean bits will be hard. Heck, even though I was angry at the Illusive Man and said I wanted to kill him, I didn’t at first in the last scenes with him because committing cold blooded murder didn’t seem right. Hence I failed my critical mission and had to try again, whoops. So who knows how a renegade playthrough will go. I’ll definitely replay these and I’m glad I gave them a chance again. Because they’ve become some of my favorite games.

[sinrau]

sara.ziegler ( Sara Ziegler, sports editor): It’s been an incredible couple of days in the sports world, with athletes using their voices in ways that are nearly unprecedented. The NBA is on pause again tonight, though games in the playoff bubble will resume tomorrow. Before games start up again, though, we wanted to stop and talk about what this strike has meant, what it might accomplish going forward and how the players are changing the conversation.

What did you all make of Wednesday’s strike?

chris.herring ( Chris Herring, senior sportswriter): I had already seen the reports about the Celtics and Raptors contemplating whether to call off their game Thursday. But then Milwaukee beat everyone to the punch by doing it themselves. And I probably should have seen that possibility there, given the Bucks’ proximity to the Jacob Blake shooting, and the vocal nature of their players concerning police brutality.

dubin ( Jared Dubin, FiveThirtyEight contributor): I think for me the biggest thing was the domino effect the Bucks’ decision not to take the court had not just in the NBA, but in other sports. WNBA players have been leading on social justice issues for a while now, and once the NBA players decided not to play, it made sense that WNBA players would follow suit. But seeing players from MLB, the NHL and even the NFL take similar stands was notable.

dre.waters ( Andres Waters, FiveThirtyEight contributor): The snowball of everything was what really caught me by surprise too.

I understood the NBA as a whole being active and speaking up, because that’s become normal. But, when I saw the MLB and NHL was when I realized just how big this could get.

chris.herring: Yeah. I was kind of stunned when the reports on Wednesday night were coming out about the player meetings. At one point, LeBron James walked out, and it briefly looked like the season might be over. I’m still thinking about what kind of statement that would have sent, if that had been the case.

I’ll wonder for a while what that would have done, or how things might have been different.

tchow ( Tony Chow, video producer): I remembered it took a moment to fully realize what was happening. Seeing the images on Twitter of the empty courts was pretty jarring at first, and you could almost feel a collective sense of “holy shit, this is big.”

dubin: Right. And at first, it just seemed to me like George Hill was going to sit out. He’d said earlier in the week that the players should never have come to Orlando in the first place, and then he was listed as inactive for the game.

Oh, and before we get into everything else: The coverage on NBATV was absolutely riveting. I thought Bob Fitzgerald and especially Jim Jackson did a remarkable job, and then Sam Mitchell, Chris Webber and more people kept rotating in and out and making it even better.

chris.herring: I found myself peeling away from all the coverage at times. Maybe that’s weird. But it feels weird that people have to put their pain on display for some folks to realize how serious the subject of police brutality — and the lack of justice when it happens — is in the Black community.

The pandemic has magnified it for whatever reason, and the players protesting did, too. But it shouldn’t take all this to draw attention to it. I’m glad the attention is there now, though.

dre.waters: The craziest part to me was when I saw Elle Duncan’s tweet about the only other boycott of a game in the NBA in 1961.

And seeing this boycott is about the same issue of racial injustice really hurt.

sara.ziegler: That’s a great point, Dre. Black athletes are still having to fight the same fights, 60 years later.

dre.waters: I guess I’m pretty young … so I had never heard much about the Celtics boycott. But as soon as I saw the tweet, my only thought was WTF…

dubin: It’s definitely uncomfortable to watch people process such raw pain on TV. It shouldn’t take something like that to raise awareness for an issue that’s been so glaringly obvious for so long, but if it did make even one person more aware and wake them up to how much it affects Black people (and specifically young Black men like the players are and the former-player commentators once were), I feel like that’s good.

What stuck out to me, too, was how proud it seemed like the former players were of the current players for taking this stand. That was a big part of what C-Webb said, and you’ve seen guys like Bill Russell say the same thing on Twitter and elsewhere since. Considering how often former-player commentators rag on today’s game and some of the players, it was pretty striking.

sara.ziegler: Kenny Smith walking off the TNT set was also very moving, to me.

I confess that I was a little surprised that they did decide to start playing again — I thought this was it for the season. Did that surprise you guys?

tchow: I definitely thought by Wednesday night, after hearing those reports about the meetings Chris mentioned, that the season was done. It was difficult to see how they would continue and get back on the court after that.

dubin: It didn’t help that the reports about the meetings were conflicting, depending on whose timeline you were following. I think that contributed to making it seem more like the season was over.

dre.waters: The reports about the Lakers and Clippers voting not to continue is when I really thought it was over, honestly.

sara.ziegler: And LeBron! Seems like it would be hard to keep going if your biggest star doesn’t want to play.

dubin: Right. When we heard LeBron walked out of the meeting, I thought it was done. But then within like a half-hour, we heard that the votes from the Lakers and Clippers were more of an informal poll. Or something. It was all a lot, obviously.

dre.waters: Who could imagine the playoffs without LeBron and two of the favorites to win the championship?

dubin: Plus, the Bucks were the first team to not take the court, and the day before, it was the Raptors’ Fred VanVleet talking about how the players need to “ put our nuts on the line ” to get something instead of just T-shirts and slogans. Those might be the four most likely teams to win the title. Their willingness to sacrifice so much for real change was powerful.

chris.herring: Yeah. The season would have been over — there would’ve been no coming back from that.

sara.ziegler: How strange will it be on Saturday to just go back to playing the games? I don’t really want to “go back to normal” right now.

chris.herring: It probably depends on who you’re asking. It might be a bit strange for some of the players. I truly wonder how someone like George Hill — who’s already said he doesn’t know why they went down to Florida in light of some of this stuff happening — feels at a time like this.

I think them coming back after a couple days will feel normal to a huge number of fans. And that, in some ways, is the problem. It’s certainly an enormous part of the challenge, with the media, too: Instead of focusing on issues, we inevitably shift our attention back to the games. It’s why stuff seemed to get through so much more at the beginning of the pandemic, IMO: There weren’t other things like sports to distract us from the reality of how shameful this stuff is.

dubin: I think that for the teams that make the second round, having their families be able to come down within a few days could be a source of relief. Not necessarily to distract from what they want to accomplish, but being away from their families when another shooting happened has to have played a role in so many guys just saying enough is enough and we don’t want to be a distraction right now.

chris.herring: Amen to that part. The family members who are quarantined are supposed to be able to join them on Monday.

tchow: I can’t imagine the story of what happened Wednesday night and why it happened will go away anytime soon? I’m sure there are fans or media personnel who can’t wait to go back to covering Luka Dončić triple-doubles and James Harden highlights and all that. But it’s hard to see a world in which the media at large goes back to business as usual and covering these playoffs without constantly reminding fans of what happened this week.

dre.waters: I’m really interested to see how they go about covering this going forward. Much like we’ve talked about all through the quarantine, what is the new “normal”?

tchow: Or maybe I’ll reword that. It will say a lot about the U.S. if, by this time next week, we’re only reading about the Lakers’ chances of making the Finals or if Russell Westbrook will return to play.

dre.waters: They mentioned in the statement that the league and networks will use advertising spots to promote civic engagement, etc. What does that actually look like?

dubin: Also, does that actually do anything? I saw Diana Moskovitz say that the NFL has been doing that for a few years, and I didn’t even know about it. Seems … not effective.

chris.herring: I keep saying how conflicted I feel about all of this in one sense: The decision to stop playing — not just for a day, but for the rest of the season — would have been monumental. It would have been the biggest statement you could possibly make. I think LeBron probably could have triggered something along those lines by himself.

I also think it would have been incredibly risky. Not every player could afford to do that. It could have triggered a lockout. But I also imagine it would have helped the players get a seat at certain tables and afforded them more power to ask for more action, or more money for certain things to tackle some of these highly systemic problems.

The feeling I had after hearing that, one day later, they’d agreed to go back to play was similar to how I felt when Colin Kaepernick settled his suit with the NFL.

No sense of disappointment on my part whatsoever. Because I know how much it must be to bear that weight on their shoulders. And it’s personal to their lives, as far as money and the ridicule they face by staying in that moment. But I will always be curious about whether more could have been achieved had they gone all the way with it and ended the season. We’ll never know.

sara.ziegler: I completely agree with you, Chris. I wish we could know what response would have had the best outcome.

tchow: What I would give to be in these meetings to learn how much it took for the players to agree to come back to play. Because this is such a drastic statement, I can’t imagine the players would agree without some reluctance. With the initiatives and commitments they announced, I want to know if the players think this is enough. Is it a good enough start? I have so many questions.

dubin: There has been some positive movement already:

Breaking: Senate Majority Leader @SenFitzgerald says the state Senate will convene Monday for the special legislation session called for by @GovEvers.

— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) August 28, 2020

That’s explicitly what the Bucks asked for in their statement.

sara.ziegler: Oh, wow.

dubin: But it’s something a lot of people have said the past few days: For all this to be on the shoulders of NBA players is asking way too much of them. It’s so much responsibility and so many different competing and possibly conflicting motivations. Even handling it the way they did is pretty incredible.

chris.herring: Absolutely, Jared.

That part is so important: It’s not their responsibility.

dubin: Like, a) it should not have to fall to Black people to fix systemic racism; b) it should not have to fall to young people to fix systemic racism; and c) it should not have to fall to young, Black people who are separated from their families at such a fraught time to fix systemic racism or anything else, really.

chris.herring: It’s so bizarre to me that they’ve done so much to shine a light on all this stuff, yet people still expect more of them, as if it’s not people that look like them that are being shot and disproportionately killed while unarmed. That they’d play in the middle of a pandemic that’s disproportionately infecting and killing off their community, and play in a bubble away from their families. That a number of them have started organizations to support voting reform. That a number have spent time talking about solutions with police and people in their cities. And yet people will hit them with a “ What about China? ” as if the players don’t actually care about the stuff in their backyards and their own communities.

(I also think a ton of people disingenuously ask that question, much the same way people ask “ What about Chicago? ” whenever a community of folks is rightfully up in arms over a police shooting.)

sara.ziegler: ^^^ THIS

dubin: Definitely agree with that. But also, it’s possible for people within the NBA (or outside it) to have been wrong on things relating to China and 100 percent right about this.

chris.herring: Absolutely.

tchow: From the statements we’ve seen both written and those that players have read aloud or said to the media, it feels like this action comes more from just exasperation and frustration. They are TIRED. And I think that sentiment can be shared by a lot of Americans right now.

dubin: It’s exhausting and frustrating to me, and I’m a white man who doesn’t have to physically fear for my life in every interaction I have with police. I can’t imagine how it is for people who have to live that reality every day.

chris.herring: I’m quite tired of people being held to a standard of caring about something that the critics don’t hold themselves to — especially when the players appear to be taking actionable steps on so many other human rights issues that are happening in this country.

dubin: Also tired of people pretending that because (some) NBA players make hundreds of millions of dollars, these things don’t affect them.

tchow: YUP

dre.waters: AGREED!

dubin: Also, every player in the NBA has family and friends who are not in the NBA. They also were not in the NBA from birth. They had to grow up into the people they are now. So, they didn’t always have this fame or money or influence.

And then something that doesn’t get talked about a lot: most NBA players are, comparatively speaking, HUGE compared to the rest of the population. In a world in which police can exaggerate the size of Black men to justify being scared and then using force, already being really, really big could make things even more dangerous for them.

dre.waters: That’s a great point, Jared.

tchow: Yeah, one thing I’ve noticed recently is the number of NBA players who are sharing NEW stories about the times they’ve been profiled by the police and a lot of their interviews to the media have acknowledged that “when I leave the court, I’m still Black” sentiment.

dre.waters: Watching all the coverage of this should be a reminder of that. How many Black commentators and former players have we seen still mention that they have the same talks with their families and loved ones that every other Black family has to have?

sara.ziegler: I hope that white fans are listening to that — and really hearing it.

chris.herring: I’m cynical. But I hope at some point I’m wrong for being that way.

What Happened In The NBA This Week?

[mavrisfanfics]

Request - Drabbles - Reader sacrificing herself for them

Ask:

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed 

Words: 331/192/354/178/362

Warnings: Angst (or trying to), Death, Torture, some Gore.

Notes: Tried to keep all under 400 words. Success!

I ran out of ideas for Connor and Jacob. After seeing your lovely messages, I decided to try writing again. I did it. It’s almost 3 AM and I wanna sleep. (Food and water ain’t a problem, sleep is my problem. Why do we need sleep?...)

Also, sniper rifles were created on the Victorian era. Whether the sniper is from a rival gang or hired by Templars is up to you.

In my opinion, Altair’s is the saddest. I loved writing for him so much that I rewrote his scenario I wanted to make it smaller. I really like it.

Hope you enjoy them!

Altair

He thought he was gone for good, on the floor, defenseless, Al Mualin seconds away from killing him. Until a deafening screech distracted the two and Al Mualin's reaction was to point the sword in its direction. Fearless, the girl tackled the older man away from Altair, sword piercing her stomach.

Altair watched, frozen, as she struggled to keep Al Mualin down, as if his sword wasn't piercing her.

"Altair!! Get up and fight!" She screamed at him. She grew weaker, yet she didn't stop struggling so she could buy Altair some time to recover. It wasn't until Al Mualin used the Apple to throw her across the garden and got up that Altair snapped out of it.

"Useless woman!" Al Mualin spat. "I don't even understand why I allowed a whore into my Order!"

Those words made Altair clench his fists, vision red, as he got up, grabbed his sword and attacked with deadly precision. Soon Al Mualin was dead, the Apple rolling out of his hand, but Altair couldn't care less for it. He ran to the girl.

Her white robes were stained red, as were her hands and lips. Her breaths were shallow and her eyes were becoming more and more dull.

"Hold on, (F/n), I'll help you." He said, trying to pick her up. She whined.

"No... I'm not gonna make it."

"Don't say that."

"It's true." She used her last strength to caress his cheek, staining it with her blood. The cold touch of the ring her had given her recently reminded him of a future they wouldn't have.

"I love you, Altair. Don't stop fighting for the right, like I did until the end..."

Her hand dropped, her breathing stopped, and his heart constricted into itself, shattering into tiny pieces.

He didn't cry then, nor that night, nor on other nights when he would watch the stars as he twisted his fingers around said ring.

All he did was fight until he met her again.

Ezio

Ezio had gotten reckless and got caught. Waiting in a cell in Castello di Sant'Angelo, he knew no one would come. It was hard for him to get in and out, his apprentices wouldn't be better.

But she did it. With the key to salvation and an angelic smile, she released him.

"Wait until we're safe!" She scolded him when he kissed her as a thanks.

All they had to do then was reach the top of the outer walls and jump to the river. But as they reached the top of the walls, an arrow pierced her leg.

"(F/n)!"

"Jump!" She screamed at him as he helped her up.

"I not leaving y-!"

She kissed him, stunning the assassin long enough for her to shove him out of the wall, and another arrow pierced her heart, an arrow that almost hit him.

Last thing his wide eyes saw of her was a weak smile before the water embraced him.

He never found her body to bury, just her impaled head at the entrance of the Castello as a warning.

It was a sight he'd never forget and forever regret.

Connor

They had split up to lose the guards more quickly. They should meet up outside the city, get on a horse and return to the Homestead. Mission was done.

Connor waited patiently, she could be taking longer routes so no one followed her.

But hours passed, night turned to day. A bad feeling was settling on his stomach, heavy like a rock, so Connor decided to look for her.

Hours turned into days, that turned into weeks. Soon all his allies and friends were looking for her.

He eventually found her locked up on a fortress not far. He fought his way in, fury making him more deadly and terrifying. After "persuading" a few guards, he finally found her.

And it was too later.

She was in a torture room, corpse tied into a chair, pools of dried blood staining the floor. Her body was littered with cuts, bruised, burns, broken bones, blood.

Connor's heart was as broken as her mangled body. He touched her cheek, eyes stinging. All he felt was cold. She was long gone.

"I should have made her easier to find. There would be no need to get my hands dirty to find you" An unknown voice said.

"Who are you? You did this?" Connor's throat hurt, it seemed to close painfully.

"You know, she was resilient, a fighter. No matter what I did, she wouldn't say where to find you. Yet you're here, her sacrifice was in vain. No matter, I will deliver you to Lee anyways." The unknown Templar said.

"You wanted me here?" Connor stood straight, more intimidating than ever, back still faced to the man.

"With the price Charles Lee put in your head? Anyone would."

"Well,…" Connor turned, fire burning in his eyes "You'll change your mind soon enough..."

Later, as Connor looked at her grave at the Homestead, he didn't regret what he did to that man. But he regretted letting her die alone, not coming when she screamed and cried for him, and not protecting her.

He just let his biggest love of all disappear, like he did with all he cared about.

Edward

"Don't tell them, Edward!" She cried at him, tears streaming down her face, gun pointed at her head.

The pirate was conflicted. Save his fiancé or keep the Observatory's location a secret. Rogers was eagerly waiting, knowing it was a matter of time before he gave in.

But she was skilled. She released her wrists from the ropes and slapped the gun away, before elbowing Roger's crotch. She then got off her knees and ran to Edward, who opened his arms to catch her in a hug.

Three gunshots rang, and her relieved expression morphed to shock and then pain. He barely caught her when she fell against him, two holes on her back spilling blood into his hands.

"Protect... Observatory... all costs... my love..." She begged.

She pecked his lips with her last strength, while he helplessly watched life escape his beloved's eyes.

He didn't chase Rogers, who no longer had leverage over him, only a price on his head from a heartbroken man.  

Edward simply cradled her lifeless body and let his silent tears clean her sleeping face.

Jacob

His arm was wrapped around her waist and hers around his torso. He was telling her a story of something Evie did as a kid and she laughed, free arm swinging the empty picnic basket back and forth. No Templar or gangs to worry about in that moment.

"You must have been so cute as a kid." She commented, trying to picture a mini-Jacob.

" 'Have been'? I still am, I'm adorable!" She released another laugh, and his heart skipped a beat.

"No, but you're definitely handsome."

Before Jacob could swoop down for a peck, the sound of a gunshot send the people on the street into a panic and something passed between their heads.

Jacob and his significant other were in a daze, the bullet that zoomed between their heads froze them and delayed their Assassin instincts. She caught a glint on a rooftop on the corner of her vision, and she finally reacted.

"Get down!"

Another gunshot was heard at the same time she shoved Jacob out of the way.

"(F/N)! Are you alright?!" He asked, gently rolling her off him and kneeling over her to check her.

His heart stopped.

She was drowning in her own blood, a gunshot wound on the side of her neck spilling blood. She coughed, some of blood she was choking in falling out of her lips. The necklace he had given her was painted red

"No... nonono, (F/n)!!! Somebody help!" He caught, her bride style, and ran for cover, another glint reminding him he was in danger.

"Sweetheart, hold on, you'll be fine, you'll be fine..." His voice was weak. He was trying to reassure himself more than her.

She tried to touch his cheek, a weak smile painting her lips. But her hand fell before she could graze his skin, as did her smile. Her eyes lost their light, and her body stopped moving.

His eyes stung and his throat constricted painfully. He held her hand and laid his head on her chest. In a few seconds, they took her life, they took her from him. He couldn't hold his tears anymore.

A painful roar told London Jacob's heart's time of death.

[charismaticalpaca]

Nurturing and Empathy in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

(aka: why I REALLY LOVE. this movie)

( @mycroftumbrellaswag​ and I got together last night and were talking about how wonderful this movie is, and i was like “wait there’s an essay sitting in my drafts” so here it is)

----

Love defeats hatred. It’s the core theme of the Harry Potter series, evident from the first budding friendships Harry makes to the defeat of the most powerful Dark wizard of all time. Love is what triumphs in the end. 

This trait is shown most powerfully in J. K. Rowling’s mother characters. Molly Weasley adopts the parentless Harry like a son of her own, sending him Christmas presents when he has none, giving him a place to stay, and making every effort to put meat on his bones when the Dursleys have failed to. Narcissa Malfoy strongarms Snape into an unbreakable vow to protect her son, and later lies to Voldemort’s face regarding Harry’s death in the interest of both her own child and someone else’s. And Lily Potter’s sacrifice for Harry is what kept him alive long enough for the series to follow him through school, what made his touch unbearable to the seemingly immortal Dark Lord.

Rowling distills these characters into a few key qualities--empathy and nurturing--and instills them in the new cast of characters in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This time, they are not limited to the mother figures, but given to all four of the main characters. [Spoilers for, like, everything ahead.]

Newt's strength as a character and as a hero comes from his empathy, his desire to take care of and protect things (or people) that are small or hurt or discriminated against. He's not a typical action protagonist. Pop Culture Detective did a wonderful video about the portrayal of his character and how it runs against what we expect to see from a hero in an action film (this video inspired this essay OTL). Some critics dislike him as a character for being ‘weak,’ but he’s really showing a different kind of strength, one that we need to see much more in the real world.

Queenie could easily have been a traditional Strong Female Character™; the kind we’ve seen again and again in action/adventure movies. She’s beautiful, and she’s an exceedingly powerful legilimens. But she ends up being a lot more than that character. Alison Sudol said in an interview that “When I was first auditioning, Queenie was a traditional bombshell. I definitely never would have gotten the role if that remained the main focus because I never saw myself as that. She’s soft and nurturing, and we need more female characters like that to show young women you can be feminine and that actually can be a strength.” To me, she has a similar feeling to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman (tanking through no man’s land ten film minutes after “A BABY!! :’D :’D”), but she really shows an even softer nature than that. She avoids conflict, speaks gently, and takes a liking to Jacob that’s simultaneously nurturing and romantic. She’s sweet and feminine in the most traditional sense, but that doesn’t degrade her strength or her worth for a second--just as it should be!

Jacob, on that note, wants to open a bakery so he can make his grandma proud. Though I can’t recall whether it was mentioned in the final film, he served in the first World War, which would be enough to turn anyone against violence; rather than portraying him as a warrior, the film lets him be kind and a little bumbling and very good at baking (an inherently nurturing hobby).

Tina, a former MACUSA auror, is a self-made woman who wants to play by the rules of the system but starts to resist as she discovers how they hurt the people they're supposed to protect. This appears most prominently in her interactions with Credence (which got her demoted in the first place). She’s kind and compassionate and defensive of him, and hostile toward his abusers. 

And speaking of abusers, it stands to reason that characters without these nurturing, compassionate qualities serve as the antagonists in the Potterverse. Voldemort is utterly without love or compassion, as are the majority of his followers. But in Fantastic Beasts, Rowling takes it a step further. The antagonists of the film do not just lack these qualities, they are evil because of the absence of them where they should exist.

Mary Lou Barebone has taken in several children and cares for many others in exchange for their help furthering her own goals. The film clearly suggests that she is physically abusive to those living under her roof, Credence in particular. But she attempts to establish herself as their mother, as a caring figure to whom they should come for help--this contrast makes her, for the purposes of the film, an unforgivable villain. 

Graves, too, portrays himself as a protector. He promises help to Credence, but casts him aside when he realizes (wrongly) that Credence isn’t the obscurius he’s looking for. This is what reveals, to the audience, that we’re meant to despise him. Both he and Mary Lou were meant to reflect nurturing qualities, and sometimes appeared to, but clearly had their own interests in mind. It was this lack of empathy that resulted in Credence's rampage.

So Fantastic Beasts isn’t a typical action film--its heroes avoid violence, don’t participate in struggles for power, and have unconventional goals. Most of all, though, the movie frames compassion and empathy as the most desirable traits, not inner strength or the courage to overcome your adversaries. I want more movies like this--these are messages that are far more applicable to the real world.

[youweresoafraid]

The many flavours of Hannibal’s kills

Hannibal Classic

Hannibal’s classic MO is to mutilate his victim while still alive, to kill them, eat part of them, then display their body in an artistic tableau.  Examples of this are Jeremy Olmstead (the wound man), and presumably the couple posed as Botticelli’s Primavera.  The precise manner of the mutilation, the killing or the tableau may serve an additional purpose.  For example, Hannibal killed Dr. Nahn in the same way that Abel Gideon was killing his former psychiatrists – with the additional cannibalistic twist – as a way of reclaiming his identity as the Chesapeake Ripper from Gideon.

The victim’s death may serve the purpose of sending a message, and that may even be what prompts a particular murder.  But, at the same time, it doesn’t affect Hannibal’s basic MO.  He enjoys the power he feels mutilating and killing his victims.  He enjoys dining on their flesh.  And then he uses their body to create a work of art or to send a message.  Using their death for a more practical purpose (usually to send a message to Will, or to the FBI in general) adds a garnish to his enjoyment of committing the murder.

But there’s more to Hannibal’s violence than that Chesapeake Ripper persona.

Variations on a theme

Sometimes Hannibal has to omit one or more parts of his preferred MO, due to practical constraints.  In the case of Judge Davies, Hannibal mutilated the body after the man was dead.  This seems to be linked to the fact that he killed the judge in the courthouse, a dangerous place for him, with its greater than usual levels of security.  Hannibal had limited time, and was at considerable risk, so he killed Judge Davies and displayed his body as quickly as possible.  He does not even seem to have lingered to take a cut of meat from the corpse.

When he killed Beverly Katz, Hannibal seems to have carried out his mutilations after Beverly was dead, rather than before.  So why didn’t he just choke her into unconsciousness, or otherwise subdue her, then mutilate her while she was still alive?  Could it be that he respected her in some way, like he might have done with Miriam Lass?  It seems unlikely, given that he went on to humiliate Beverly by displaying her body in one of his murder tableaux.  It’s more likely that Hannibal simply wished to kill Beverly quickly, and get her out of his house, because he had no idea if she had backup, and if the FBI might come calling in the immediate future.

When it came to Abel Gideon, the man who had usurped the mantle of the Chesapeake Ripper, Hannibal certainly treated him to a very extended version of his murder process.  It’s not clear how long he kept Gideon a prisoner, but he certainly took his time with him.  He kept Gideon alive through repeated amputations, even coercing Gideon into cannibalising himself, to derive the maximum pleasure from his power over the man.  But when the time came to kill Gideon, Hannibal chose not to display Gideon’s body (or the parts of it that hadn’t disappeared into Hannibal’s gullet).  Instead, he decided that Gideon would be better off used to frame Chilton for the Ripper murders.

Then there’s poor old Rinaldo Pazzi.  Hannibal got to cut Pazzi open while he was still (briefly) alive, before finishing him off with a very theatrical public hanging and disembowelling – all very much to Hannibal’s taste, but he never actually got to consume any of Pazzi’s body.  Now, Hannibal was interrupted by Jack Crawford, but if he had intended to take any of Pazzi’s body parts, then he would surely have done so before he shoved the man out of the window.  Perhaps Hannibal was keeping his promise to Pazzi: he offered to leave without his meal if Pazzi told him what he wanted to know.  Or perhaps Hannibal was simply conscious that Mason Verger knew his location, and that he did not have time to do anything particularly elaborate with Pazzi, or his internal organs.

Hannibal’s killing of Cordell may well fit into this same category.  We don’t see the details, but I can imagine that Hannibal would find it fitting to do to Cordell what Cordell had planned to do to Will, that is, to immobilise him, cut his face off while he was still alive, and then kill him.  He didn’t bother to take away any other parts of Cordell’s body for later consumption, but that’s because he has other, more important, things to carry away from the Verger estate.

To go back to series 1, It’s likely that Hannibal didn’t take any meat from Marissa Schuur’s body, either.  Given that he was in the middle of a crime scene at the time, surrounded by law enforcement agents, and – perhaps more importantly – a long way from a refrigerator – it seems that Hannibal had to pass on that one for practical reasons.  He did, however, manage to mutilate Marissa before her death.  (Given the amount of blood on the floor, she must, surely, have still been alive when Hannibal impaled her on those antlers.)  And even though he was copying Garret Jacob Hobbs’s use of the antlers, he did manage to leave an impressive, disturbing spectacle for Will and the FBI.  (I’ve never been entirely sure whether Hannibal definitely intended to frame Will for the murders of Cassie Boyle and Marissa Schuur right from the start, but he was certainly considering it, which is why he took samples of both their DNA.)

All of this tells us that while Hannibal may enjoy all the different parts of the murder process he doesn’t need to carry them all out every time he kills someone.  They are not a vital part of an entire murder ritual.  Hannibal chooses to forego the mutilation, the cannibalism, and displaying the corpse if there is a good enough reason to do so.  That said, he does enjoy all the parts of the murder process, and will indulge in as many of them as he is able.

Self-defence

When circumstances are out of his control, and his life is in danger, Hannibal will opt for simply killing his opponent as quickly as possible, without any of the usual trimmings.  This is how he deals with Tobias Budge, and with the various kidnappers and guards that Mason Verger uses against him.  Hannibal is on the back foot, in immediate danger, and he makes no attempt to go for a slow kill.  In the case of Tobias Budge, Hannibal must have already decided that he would leave the body there for the FBI to examine, and therefore he does not cut any meat from the corpse.

Hannibal also saw Tobias’s death as an opportunity to rid himself of Franklyn Froideveaux.  He was clearly bored with Franklyn, irritated by the man’s attempts at friendship, and revolted by his poor manners.  I’m sure that Hannibal would have liked to indulge himself by giving Franklyn the full Ripper treatment – no doubt accompanied by a cheese course – and only the fact that he was a patient gave Hannibal pause.  There was also a possibility that Franklyn might talk to the FBI, that he would tell them things about Hannibal that might make them suspicious.  So as soon as Hannibal realised that he would have to kill Tobias he took the opportunity to rid himself of Franklyn too.

Georgia Madchen was not a direct physical danger to Hannibal, but she was a potential witness who could identify him as the murderer of Dr. Sutcliffe.  So Hannibal killed her, and he did so in a way that got around some of the challenges of committing murder in a building full of people working around the clock.  He didn’t mutilate Georgia, or eat her, but he did kill her in a quite spectacular way that left its own kind of grisly tableau.  And, at the same time, it presented him with a murder that could be pinned on Will.

Italy

When Hannibal was in Italy, his killings seem much less rooted in his old established MO.  The first killing that we hear about is the removal of the previous curator of the Palazzo Capponi.  We don’t learn much about that murder, and it’s entirely possible that Hannibal was up to his old tricks of mutilation and cannibalism.  But there was certainly no grand display of the body afterwards.  Dumping the body in the river, set in cement, sounds more like the work of the mafia than the artistry of the Chesapeake Ripper.

In some ways, it’s a question of practicality, as Hannibal sacrifices some of his bloodier amusements in order to continue his life in Florence.  But there’s more to it than that.  Hannibal’s murders in Italy are not just a change in MO, they’re downright erratic, even impulsive.  Unless caught absolutely unprepared, Hannibal has always been methodical in his killings.  It’s how he’s managed to escape detection for so long.  But his murders of Antony Dimmond and Professor Sogliato seem like spur-of-the-moment decisions.

With Dimmond, Hannibal must have known for a little while that he would have to kill the man who could unmask him as an imposter.  But Hannibal seems to have been in no immediate danger.  He knew that Dimmond was trying to blackmail him, and would therefore not rush to the police.  Also, Dimmond showed little fear of Hannibal, and it would, surely, have been possible to arrange a more elaborate way of getting rid of him.  Instead, Hannibal simply bludgeoned Dimmond with an ornament, and then broke his neck.  Hannibal no doubt ate some of the parts that he trimmed from Dimmond’s corpse, and he certainly made a very impressive – and communicative – tableau out of the rest of him.  But the killing itself lacked Hannibal’s usual calm control.

If Hannibal’s killing of Dimmond bordered on the impulsive, then his murder of Sogliato definitely crossed that line.  (I know, technically Sogliato’s death was Bedelia’s fault.  But let’s not forget that it was Hannibal who jammed an ice pick into the man’s brain.)  Because Hannibal acted so impulsively, he missed the opportunity to mutilate Sogliato before killing him.  And because even Hannibal knew that he couldn’t get away with another obvious murder so close to home he chose not to turn the body into a tableau.  But Hannibal did still manage to get his pound of flesh – all five quarters of it – from Sogliato’s carcass.

So what was going on with these atypical Italian murders?  There’s probably a one-word answer to that: Will.  Hannibal was emotionally shaken after Will’s betrayal, and was not acting entirely like his old self.  More than that, Hannibal was being deliberately careless about the murders he was committing in an attempt to make himself visible.  He wasn’t quite ready to throw all caution to the winds, but he wanted Will to find him and he was prepared to risk the Questura finding him first.

It’s all about Will

If Hannibal’s murder of Georgia Madchen was motivated primarily by self-defence, with the side benefit of framing Will, then the opposite is true when it comes to his killing Dr. Sutcliffe.  Dr. Sutcliffe may have posed something of a threat to Hannibal.  If he had talked to the FBI he might have revealed Will’s illness, and the fact that Hannibal had been aware of it, something that would have thrown suspicion on Hannibal.  But Hannibal’s main reason for killing Sutcliffe seems to have been to frame Will.  To achieve that end, he had to forego his usual Chesapeake Ripper MO.  So, while he murdered Sutcliffe he doesn’t seem to have mutilated him beforehand, and he didn’t take away any of his flesh for later consumption.  The body needed to be left in Sutcliffe’s office, in order to incriminate Will, so there could be no murder tableau, either.

But what was Hannibal thinking when he murdered Abigail?  He was genuinely saddened by Abigail’s death, but he went ahead and killed her anyway.  Did he think that he couldn’t get both Abigail and himself to safety?  Even so, he could have let her live, even if she was taken if for questioning by the FBI.  Did Hannibal see her as a threat to him?  Perhaps, but even if she told the FBI everything, what harm could that do?  (The fact that she was still alive actually removed one death from his – admittedly still huge – body count.)  Abigail might have been able to give away the location of his house on the cliff, but surely that wouldn’t have been catastrophic.  It’s not like he tried to flee there, anyway. Besides, Hannibal isn't concerned about Abigail's forgiveness, only Will's. And he’s looking at Will, not at Abigail, when he cuts her throat.

Hannibal had no practical reason to kill Abigail, and he had no emotional reason, either.  Abigail never betrayed him – but Will did, and Abigail was the one who ended up paying the price for that betrayal.  Hannibal chose to kill her, and to do so by copying what her father had done to her.  He didn’t enjoy her suffering, and even if he had had the opportunity to take a trophy, or to display her body, I don’t imagine he would have done so.  Abigail’s death did hurt Hannibal.  It’s just unfortunate that his desire to punish Will was stronger than his attachment to their surrogate daughter.