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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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June 25: 2x24 The Ultimate Computer

Belated notes on my watch of The Ultimate Computer yesterday.

Kirk’s definitely in Captain Mode today. You can tell when he’s on edge and suspicious and serious.

Yet another old Kirk friend. Does he know everyone in Starfleet?

War games lol. But it’s “not the military.”

Spock is super into this computer.

A-7 Computer Expert Certification.

The crew’s not needed? Wow, okay, this is going to end badly.

“This gadget.” How do you really feel, Kirk?

And there’s Spock literally making faces behind the Commodore’s back. He is soooo that type. He’s like “Jim, are you hearing this? Can you believe this guy?”

I’m insulted on Kirk’s behalf right now. Replacing people with machines so blithely is offensive.

Of course Bones doesn’t like it.

Oh yeah triumvirate walking scene. I love them. it takes so little for me to think ‘what badasses.’ S2 is really stepping up this dynamic in particular.

And Spock is comfortable enough around Bones to be sassy around him

Oh no, the computer is already glitching, and there is no backup and no plan B.... Bones is completely right in his assessment. This is essentially a Titanic situation: way too much hubris involved. Nothing can go wrong so nothing will go wrong so we’ve planned for nothing going wrong!

McCoy has BFF Clearance. He can go wherever he wants.

“It’s the M-5? What happened to Ms 1-4?” Channel #5.

Ahhhh little gratuitous touch to Spock’s arm. They’re In Love.

“There are certain things men must do to remain men.”

“The right computer finally came along.” Damn Bones.

Jim’s suspicions about the computer coming right after that line make it look like he’s jealous that Spock likes it so much.

He’s getting a “red alert right here.” Computers don’t have that kind of intuition.

Jim’s so thoughtful and self-aware. He really cares both about his instincts and about interrogating those instincts for bias and unreasonableness. This is giving me real S1 vibes: the quiet, intelligent, idealized hero Captain at the fore.

This whole scene is perfect, eminently quotable, and sounds exactly like something that could have been written about automation in 2021. You’re okay with it when it’s happening to someone else but then the computer comes for YOUR job....

Uh-h, M-5 is turning off all the lights...

Space merchant marines... good to know.

HOW are the Captain and CMO “non-essential personnel”? The first sign that M-5 is illogical. They should bring some doctor on the landing party mission given that uh humans are going on it and might get injured.

Anyway I can’t wait for Kirk to destroy this bitch and save the day.

Lol it turned off the lights on Bones in sickbay.

Damn, now it’s trying to take Uhura’s job too!

Chekov is so bored.

Spock wants to serve under one man and one man ONLY. Loyalty to one man... sounds like a wedding vow... and Kirk looks so soft...

So, if Spock has to describe to McCoy what that (unnecessary bitchy and catty) “Captain Dunsel” remark means, by saying that it’s a phrase that “midshipmen use at Starfleet Academy,” is this to imply Bones didn’t go to Starfleet Academy?

He’s never felt so at odds with the ship.... a lover’s quarrel...she’s cheating on him with another man...

Jim Kirk, certified Poetry Nerd. He’s such a romantic.

So glad Bones got him a drink so he can return to the bridge and a possible emergency with just a little bit of a buzz going.

Spock in the chair...

Huh, an automated ship with no crew. Interesting concept.

Oh no M-5! She’s got control of the ship and she won’t let go!

Kirk’s face when Enterprise attacks.. the betrayal... his beautiful lady used for mindless destruction.

“Only a robot” ship--! Bones is insulted.

Kirk orders the computer turned off but we’re only halfway through the ep so...

....And the computer is sentient now.

That was the shortest Captain’s Log ever. “The computer has taken over the ship the end.”

Scotty’s like, “...Well what if we just unplug it?”

Okay so now they only have 19 crew.

Spock and Bones are on point today. “Don’t say it’s fascinating.” / “I won’t. But it is... interesting.” This bitch knows exactly what he’s doing.

The computer isn’t a child, guys!

We need powerful computers “so men don’t have to die in space”--like uh that man your computer literally just killed?

I don’t get Daystrom’s logic at all. He talks as if people, like, needed to do work in space, to survive or something. We don’t need to. We want to! We want to go out and meet cool aliens! This guy is no fun.

What is the thing “greater” than fact finding in space that the robots are going to free us to do? Like what is more impressive than SPACE? I don’t even get that.

Time to mix up fake sci fi world-building references with real references! The Nobel and Zee-Magnee Prizes. Sitar of Vulcan.

A theory emerges... the computer acts illogically...Daystrom won’t let Spock near it... I know this isn’t where this is going, but it kind of sounds like they’re implying it’s a scam, lol. He sold an idea he didn’t have so it’s like.. not a real computer.

Spock’s little protege, Chekov.

“We have been pursuing a wild goose.” Aw, bb’s trying so hard to be colloquial. (Also he 100% learned that phrase from McCoy in The Gamesters of Triskellion and now he’s trying it out on Kirk...when McCoy isn’t around.)

“Not to offend you by using the h-word, but... could it be... human?”

Kirk’s really mad at Daystrom now.

The Commodore really set up that dramatic turn to camera there.

Poor Kirk. His ship is being used for evil.

“They can’t destroy the ship, what would happen to the computer?!” Yes, the computer. And the other 19 people and himself but mostly the computer. Daystrom really has lost it.

I love the actor who plays him, though.

“You are great. I am great.” Nothing weird happening here.

Spirk attack! (Spork it out.)

Spock’s way too sure Commodore Wesley is about to die. “He was decent, it’s a shame the ship I’m on is gonna kill him.”

And now another round of Kirk versus the computer and Kirk’s logic wins.

M-5 should argue that it did not commit murder, it committed homicide in self-defense. But then Daystrom didn’t program it with a lawyer’s brain.

It’s uh just gonna leave? Not turn the lights back on?

Kirk is so smart! I know I say this all the time, but it’s true! He knew what to do to save the ship because he knew Bob Wesley. He had formed connections, he had experience and knowledge that doesn’t come from logic. He is not replaceable!

McCoy’s like “Spock, fight me. Debate me Spock. Fight me. I’ll be fun.”

Spock HAS answered the computers versus humans question--he likes humans. He wants to be surrounded by humans.

That was really good! One of the better S2 episodes. Great Kirk, great triumvirate--as a trio and all three sides of the triangle--great sci fi concept, great guest star, great social commentary--still 100% relevant today.

i definitely have to think more about the ‘human computer’ concept. I liked that they specifically went out of their way to explain why the computer was human, how that was part of its design, and then tied that into its creator, his background, his belief system, and his insecurities. I feel like most ‘sentient computer’ or ‘advanced AI’ narratives just assume a computer that’s powerful enough will eventually be alive, which is not something I believe. The scariness of advanced AI to me is the incredible power it has to act quickly, but in a complete black-box way: you can’t literally see the logic string of its thought processes, and nor can you figure them out easily or completely using the creators’ intentions or logic because the machine has ‘learned’ since its inception, and its learning processes are not human. There is a real alienness to them that I find scary. And I do think this ep captured that nuance in M-5: it has the speed and abilities of a super computer, the “human” qualities of its creator for well-explained reasons, and the unpredictability of a mechanism that is NEITHER human nor human-controlled tool. And of course the ep’s ultimate thesis--that humans cannot be completely automated or replaced, and that we should not want to automate or replace humans--is comforting and of a morality I can and want to agree with.

This was also one of those eps that made me curious about the differences in AOS and TOS Kirk--in other words, an ep that relied on his history with Starfleet and his experience, on the reality that he’s a 34 year old man with 15+years of experience in the Fleet. Time, experience, connections, these aren’t things you can replace no matter how smart you are, and I feel like it would have been interesting to see AOS!Kirk deal with some situation that is trickier for him because he’s a Captain with a startlingly small amount of institutional experience. It’s not just about being young or generally inexperienced, in other words--it’s about NOT knowing every Captain, Admiral, and Commodore in the service, it’s about NOT having friends across the galaxy because he just hasn’t had time to make them. Even in deep space, that matters. And I think it’s something that I appreciate more as an adult myself, with actual real world experience of the importance of connections and experience and time, especially in sort of insular or smaller work communities.

Anyway, next is Bread and Circuses! Another great ep for the triumvirate. I can’t believe we’re almost through S2!!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #2021: fandom thoughts

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midnight-in-town · 6 years

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Rin has been my favorite AnE character since the beginning. Such a sweet guy, and an interesting take on the traditional Idiot Hero. I like Kato's take on several of the Shonen manga archetypes for that matter. What are some of your favorite reconstructions of familiar character types in AnE?

Hey Anon! To be honest, I can’t say I’m that aware of the usual shonen archetypes considering that I read seinen more. :) And I’m not a literary reference, so it’s kinda hard to use the right words too.

That being said, Rin’s a fave too, with Mephisto, Shiro, Shura, Shiemi… and the rest of the cast. xDD So I’ll try to answer you.

For Rin, I like how he doesn’t simply get stronger with each arc, but he grows up on many aspects at once. Sure, first he learnt to control his flames, then he learnt to focus his attacks, and then his sword was broken in ch98 destroying the seals over his power, but otherwise each arc gave Rin other things to focus on.

In fact, I like that it’s not just his nature as a demon that he has to deal with, but also the consequences of that with the people around him. Like, as the story begins, we see Rin as kind of a loner, because he tries to fit in but can’t.

So having friends (and falling for Shiemi) was a really new experience for him, one he’s enjoying but that he still has to learn about sometimes:

And as he’s getting better with that, that’s when the one constant in his life so far…

shatters. Mostly though, I love Rin because he’s… so sweet, as you said.

Initially, he was presented as your usual Shonen hero indeed, especially with his goal to defeat Satan after Shiro’s death, but slowly the whole story moves on from that. That goal of his is less and less mentioned (which is not typical of usual shonen heroes who tend to cling to their goals in my opinion) as Rin is simply going through life and now…

And in my opinion we went from “beating Satan’s ass” to…

…a slight difference I really enjoy, even I’m no fan of Satan (and I want to see him lose).

Similarly for Yukio, who’s as much a main character as Rin is, his angst defies usual levels you have for characters of a similar type and what I love is that it’s really building up throughout the whole story: Shura showed signs of having noticed it before Toudou was introduced, we found out that he was already preoccupied back when Shiro was still alive (ch93), up till his own despair and pure self-loathing got the better of him.

And I really feel for him and his illustration of the “fallen angel” trope. I mean, I’m the first to say it’s easy to roll your eyes and hope that he’ll stop seeing everything in the darkest black, but it’s the slow unravelling to this state through so many arcs that makes it so impressive and seemingly impossible to solve at the moment.

A lot will probably have to happen before he’ll manage to come back.

The thing is, we all knew Yukio was going to break down at some point. He got some sort of a recess with the Aomori arc, but before we eventually reached the anti hero/fallen angel level, we passed by attempted suicide and that gave a whole new tone to the manga (especially since it’s shonen) in my opinion.

I said before that there is a lot of cliché tropes about twins in manga that I don’t really like: the good twin/bad twin trope is one, but by showing us the extent of Yukio’s issues before he completely fell into the abyss, I find that Sensei is avoiding cliché once again.

And both for Yukio and Rin, I like that romance took a more unexpected turn that one could have expected at first, at least in my opinion. :)

Moving onto Mephisto, I love the fact that he’s both literally The Chessmaster…

and incredibly powerful as Samael, but his behavior most of the time doesn’t reflect that.

…Which is usually the case with the clown type (looking at UT in Kuroshitsuji, or Checkerface in KHR, same for the Clowns in TG even if it’s Seinen), so this part isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s more how his true nature was never exactly hidden and yet he can still completely surprise us on many things.

That’s why I really enjoy the theory that he might be the big bad, as far as the twins are concerned, because knowing he’s on Assiah’s side, you tend to think that even if he’s an ass at least he’s on “our” side, when it might be more complicated than that. :)

Plenty of others reasons to appreciate Mephy’s character though, as I shared here. :)

For Shura, it’s mostly a matter of contrast. She’s The Mentor, but she’s not particularly acting responsible otherwise (due to the thing with Hachiro), because her motivations are initially related to her own pet peeve (Shiro).

She’s also without a doubt the hottest girl of the whole series (not a big fan of Iblis and her three eyes personally) and yet her behavior once again doesn’t fit what you’d expect of this kind of characters in other shonen series, again just in my opinion.

She’s not a dignified or proper lady, who bats an eyelash and everyone is wooed, or who behaves coldly/unaffected to others: she used to be a heavy drinker, she’s hardly ever serious, she loves getting on people’s nerves on purpose, etc.

Again, this is related to her issues with Hachiro (and Shiro), but I like that the fact she’s Hot™ (trademarked by Mephisto) doesn’t mean she can’t be powerful, or Rin’s mentor, or getting on people’s nerves, or insulting her superiors, etc.

Just like I enjoy the fact that she can dress scantily (probably because she likes it) and that doesn’t mean she’s a hoe or only about fan service, as we could see Shiro lecture her on the subject, in ch78.

Maybe I’m not explaining super well, but it’s really about Sensei not being too over the top with any character and that shows up in Shura as well:

she’s Rin’s mentor but sometimes she’s at a loss with what to do;

she’ll do anything to protect the twins but she still gets scared by Mephisto’s shenanigans;

she’s older than the boys but she still needed their help with an issue even Shiro couldn’t help her with

after the Aomori arc, she started to act more mature in general because the twins are going to need her, etc.

Again, it’s really a thing for most of the cast, but I like it even more in Shura’s case, because, even with just the way she dresses as an example, she really could have been a shallow character but Sensei managed to weigh in everything properly.

Now, as far as Shiro goes, I love how Sensei deconstructed his character through several flashbacks, slowly shedding his coat of “the perfect dad” he seemed to be after sacrificing himself to save Rin in ch1.

Oh sure, he was a good parent, but not perfect as we can see with Yukio or even Shura and that is something that we needed to make clear, both for the plot but also for the twins’ sake.

Speaking of the plot, I like that Shiro’s a walking mystery very plot-relevant and not just The Hero’s Father Figure Who Died Helplessly. It would have been very easy to make Shiro a symbol Rin was becoming stronger to get revenge for, but it’s about so much more than that.

Because if Shiro is a symbol of anything, it’s about how the Order is full of bullshit and enslaving the pawns that are necessary to them…

…as Mephisto made sure we got right:

Even now that he’s dead, I have doubts about Shiro being free from whatever he’s supposed to owe the Order/Mephisto. So yeah, he’s so much more than the Dead Symbolic Hero or whatever trope he’s supposed to illustrate, in a very tragic way actually, and I love that!

And finally about Shiemi (because I really gotta stop somewhere), what can I say besides the fact that she’s a very surprising one. :D

We’ve been getting many character arcs ever since the beginning and yet it was so unexpected to me when it turned out she was going to have her own and that it’d be so very main plot-relevant. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, since everyone in the main cast gets one, but I still definitely wasn’t envisioning anything at all like the theories about Shemihaza before we hit the current arc!

Other examples of why she’s kept on surprising me throughout the story: the first time we meet her, she’s this helpless and mourning girl who’s been possessed by a demon, then she gets used by Izumo upon trying to make friends. I’m sure you remember that girl.

And yet she saved Paku and then everyone else in Neuhaus’ arc immediately after. Same in the Kyoto arc: she was as pissed and scared as everyone (not counting Izumo) about Rin’s origins, but she was the first who managed to admit how misguided she was when she realized how much he suffered about being different.

What I’m trying to say is that Shiemi constantly surprised me and also other characters in the story (for example), despite the fact that Sensei wrote plainly what her character was about very early on in the story:

So yeah actually she helped Paku, she helped Rin, she helped Izumo, she tried to help Yukio, she saved everyone from being burnt by Rin going Satan 2.0… And now she’s in trouble with the Vatican.

In a way she’s more the typical Shonen Hero than Rin is, when she’s supposed to be the Main Girl, lmao. For example, everyone found out about who Rin was pretty quickly in the story, meanwhile…

…her own identity is more of a secret than Rin being Satan’s son or Mephisto being a high-level demon and something both characters and readers are getting angsty about.

And, as I tried to explain above, Rin’s currently more involved with acknowledging where he comes from and bringing his brother back over having to save the world or denouncing that the Order is probably really no better than the Illuminati.

Even his goal of defeating Satan, which is very Shonen-like, hasn’t been mentioned in a long time now. Meanwhile Shiemi’s character arc directly delves into how shady the Order is as an organization…

and this might indirectly lead us to her having to play a very important role with protecting everyone from Satan/the Illuminati (whether it’s by her will or not).

Of course, Rin’s own journey in the past is showing us many of the Order’s dirty secrets but the point is for Rin to learn about the past so that he can bring Yukio back (what he wants) and possibly defeat Lucifer (what Mephisto wants). When it comes to the state of the world with the opening of the artificial Gehenna gate, for now it’s not exactly Rin’s problem, but it might be more related to Shiemi’s arc if she’s truly related to Shemihaza (because of the Grigoris).

It’s probably badly summarized, but that’s how I see it. xD As I said in the beginning, I’m really not good about precisely describing shonen archetypes, so this may not be making any point. I just like AnE because I find that Sensei does manage to avoid making her characters a bunch of stereotypes easy to read through, in a very realistic way. See below, with Lightning’s example:

Even Arthur, who’s presented as the most stereotypical dude in the whole cast in my opinion, might be hiding his game better than most of us can probably imagine.

That’s what I like the most when it comes to what you were asking about. :) Kato-sensei is an excellent writer because of this amongst other things.

Sorry it took me a little while to answer you Anon, but I had a lot I wanted to write and it was actually very hard to explain. I hope this answered your question at least a little though. Have a nice weekend! ^3^

#ao no exorcist #okumura rin #okumura yukio #fujimoto shiro #mephisto pheles #kirigakure shura #moriyama shiemi #lightning #lewin light #arthur auguste angel #personal #anon #answers #my analysis

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halekingsourwolf · 7 years

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Writing a Compelling Backstory

So I’m watching THIS youtube video right now all about how to create a compelling backstory for your characters. (The channel is great, I recommend checking out their stuff if you’re interested in writing theory and story-building in general.) It’s using Avatar: The Last Airbender as an example, but as I’m going through it, I can’t help noticing that it showcases exactly why Derek Hale is such an immediately compelling character on Teen Wolf, while our “hero,” the main protagonist, is a lot harder for many of us to get behind.

Here, the creator describes the difference between a serviceable backstory and a compelling backstory. A serviceable backstory is one in which something bad happens to the main character. This is more or less what we get with Scott. His life is pretty much fine and dandy until he’s bitten by the Alpha, propelling him into the supernatural world and kickstarting the events of the show.

A compelling backstory is one where something bad happens to the main character and they blame themselves for it. This, right here, is Derek Hale.

The video suggests that what makes this so much more engaging to viewers is because we’re no longer just watching an external conflict –– here, Scott figuring out how to defeat the Alpha and get on the team/get the girl, etc –– but the internal conflict of overcoming your own personal demons. Derek, throughout the series but season one especially, seems to have a much more personal stake in everything going on than Scott does. He doesn’t just need to defeat Kate or avenge Laura’s death, he needs to overcome his own feelings of inadequacy and past failure, needs to confront his own fears, his trust issues, his guilt, and so when he finally succeeds –– when he faces down Kate later in the series, when he evolves, when he starts to find family again or even when we finally see him smile –– we feel that victory so much more deeply, knowing what he’s overcome to reach that point.

To quote the video directly: crafting a backstory like this forces you to have character development. Think about it like this: if your story is only about getting revenge on whatever force caused the protagonist harm in the past, then you can write a whole story without the main character growing or changing. But if the bad thing happened to them by their own hand, at least in part, or at least in their own mind, then it’s practically impossible to write that story without having the main character confront themselves and their inner demons.

Scott, meanwhile, is never really shown to have that kind of internal conflict. Yes, he has to battle his wolf instincts, but even they are shown to be more or less external –– something inflicted on him like an infection or a disease that he’s hoping to be cured of –– making even his negative behaviors throughout the season something else’s fault.

It’s the wolf, it’s the curse, and ultimately the fault of the Alpha. Now, I’m not arguing that Scott is at fault for his actions under the Alpha’s control or when he loses control of his wolf early on. I’m arguing that this setup, as a storytelling device, is far less engaging and makes Scott less interesting and relatable as our protagonist.

But this isn’t just the case of the story failing to set Scott up in an engaging way. This is also a consequence of his characterization. Throughout season one Scott blames Derek and/or the Alpha for the situations he ends up in. Fair enough, at least on surface level. He was bitten, an external force worked against him, that’s fine. In season two, though, his lack of ownership becomes even more apparent as he makes several questionable decisions which harm others (ex: his “master plan” and letting Allison blame and attack Derek and his pack for her mother’s death) without ever being given a moment of personal realization about the negative results of his behavior. And the frustrating thing is that these situations would have been perfect setups for the kind of compelling character development described in this theory. As the video states:

Characters have to recognize their flaws before they can grow.

If Scott had recognized Allison’s descent into a more black and white hunter mindset as a result of his lie, if he’d discovered Isaac injured by her arrows perhaps and realized that his actions had caused her to start down a dark path, and resolved to fix it, to save Allison from herself... that would have been an incredibly engaging narrative. Seeing Scott take ownership of his own actions, seeing that burst of intense character growth as he resolved to fix his mistake, pull her back, and behave differently in the future... this is the kind of character building that would make viewers engage and empathize with a hero.

But the show, not recognizing this aspect of story writing and maybe afraid of having their hero falter in the eyes of the fans, made sure to steer clear of this path despite easy opportunities. As a result, Scott’s conflict is nearly always external –– having an enemy to fight, confronting other people who put him in bad situations –– and that makes him a far less compelling and far less sympathetic character than someone like Derek, whose initial struggles and self-doubt turn every victory into a triumph in the minds and hearts of the viewers.

Anyway, this ended up being much longer than I intended, and I know a lot of this conceptually is stuff covered by fandom ages ago, but I highly recommend checking out this video and I challenge you not to see the ways this narrative device perfectly encapsulates Derek Hale.

#derek hale #tw meta #writing stuff #anti!scott mccall #i really didn't mean to super-bash scott in this #oops #it's just such a solid comparison

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goddamnitaisha · 7 years

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Please list your top 5-10 would-bang characters, possibly segmented by gender/sex if it makes sense to, in descending order. I need to know how similar we are. :D

I’m laughing SO HARD because we probably are similar. I mean, @lilly-white has such good taste. I will immediately answer this question.

Usually, if it has silver hair I probably want to bang it.

Lastly…. Okay, yes, now the list. No actually, I’ll place the list at the top of this answer and then place all the TMI/too-much-information text under a readmore.

T H E L I S T

Iason (Ai no Kusabi) King of all Seme characters. Since this list is just about banging characters, I have to put him on top.

Sephiroth - (FF7) my interpretation of him post-Nibelheim: a sane, arrogant, brilliant god and wreck of a person.

Lotor - (Voltron Legendary Defender) See how high he is on my list? I have him in my ‘to cosplay’ list with not his name but with the text: “I HAVE SUCH A TYPE”. There is nothing about him that I don’t love.

Orochimaru (Naruto) His voice, his arrogance, the cheekbones, and the things he could do with that long tongue.

Uchiha Itachi / Sasuke / Madara (Naruto) I’ve been trying to choose between these three for 10 years now) (I like the artwork interpretation of the Japanese fan-artist ‘Lily’ best.)

^That is my hard-bargained top 5 in that order. Now comes the rest. I still love them tons and tons, but not as much as the ones up ^there.

Kisame (Naruto) (japanse voice actor) Terrifying face/reputation/fighting methods since he has no qualms with sawing someone’s legs off. But he would make the perfect father of a child. He is muscled, chatty, caring, thoughtful, loyal, sweet, protective and reliable. If I could bang him, I would not prick but punch holes in the condoms.

Skulduggery Pleasant (books by Derek Landy) ASREON DONT JUDGE ME. He is funny, powerful, reliable, cuttroat and has this dark edge that I really dig.

Loki (as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston) Anywhere in the timeline after he arrived on Earth. I like him under Thanos control, as I like him as ‘shit annoying little brother’. I like it when he is smug: “It buuurns, doesn’t it?” (Avengers) and when he is indignant: “We are not doing ‘get help’.” (Thor: Ragnarok) yet still plays along in the end.

Oikawa (Haikyuu) because his killer volleyball serve is too sexy, as are his mood switches and his I’m gonna fuck you up-grin. He get to me every time. (Kageyama is also somewhat a fave.)

Lord Carden - Bloodlines (Character from my needs-a-rewrite novel series, Bloodlines. Yes, I want to bang an OC, but in my defence, Lilly also once mentioned wanting to bang him. My friend Jack did too. He is a mix between Iason and Kisame: cutthroat and sexy but best dad.)

Embarrassing TMI & disclaimers & characters that didn’t make the list, are all under the cut!

Disclaimers:

The order listed below is from top(best)-down(last) and always subject to change depending on my mood and fandoms.

These are characters I would want to bang - not the ones I would sign up to spend the rest of my life with (in most cases that’d be an awfully short life).

I may change this list if anyone brings in better suggestions.

I can’t decide whether I want to sleep with these people, or want to be these people (role models).

TMI

I’m still in the process of trying to figure myself out. I have lived my life as a loner or as a quiet follower (because speaking up was often discouraged in my social circles).

BUT

My younger brother recently pointed out to me that in almost every relationship there is a leader (the person who initiates plans and decides what and how) and a follower-guardian (who protects the leader from doing anything stupid, this person says “that’s not a good idea” and when they put their foot down it’s DOWN and the leader can do nothing but respect it.)

My brother told me that I’m a leader type: the person that initiates wild adventures. Not the follower-guardian. So OKAY, I’m a leader who thinks she is a follower? I don’t know if I’m sub or dom.

There is this quote I’m trying to remember, said by either a gay guy or a powerful motherly woman who helps the girl-protagonist. An american production. Intonation is kind. Couldn’t find it with google. Goes something like this:

“People won’t know whether they want to hate(/fight?) you, want to fuck (/sleep with) you or if they want to be you~

That’s the quote I want to put in here.

What I usually fall for in a character:

Most of the characters I want to bang are calm, self-assured, don’t get worried fast, and are good at what they do. They firmly hold to a certain view of life. They can hold their own in a discussion. They are NEVER lazy, they are hardworking. They never have a nihilistic approach to life, they want to gain all they can get. They have an arrogance that tastes like honey to me. That cheeky, taunting, unimpressed, underhanded, self-assured, i-know-I’m-right, tone is a drug to me. Some examples are: - “Are you sure about that?” and - “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and - “Is that the best you can do, Cloud?” and - “Foolish little brother, you’re not strong enough, ku ku ku…” That degrading tone that puts me on my place and him on a pedestal…! Yes, I find that finger-licking attractive.

But I can never figure out if those tones appeal so much to me because they are spoken from a leader perspective as if to discipline a pet, or from a follower/guardian perspective that calmly undermines the leader’s bad idea. (”Sure Mr. King if you want to follow that route… but I’ll stay here and wait until you come back”)

My current running theory is that I’m a leader who thinks she’s a follower? I’ve not levelled up enough in life to decide where I am as a sexual partner as sub or dom or switch. I’ve been a service top/service dom to 2/3rds of my partners and in the 1/3rd of the occasions I did enjoy being sub but maybe that’s because I prioritised myself there. Usually I focus on my partner and aaaah I’m rambling RAMBLE RAMBLE. tl:dr; I need to get laaaid and figure this ouuuut with a person I truuuust.

Characters that didn’t make the list, but which I wish I could include somewhere in a top 30 are these listed below. You can tell by the bolded font which names I took out of my top 10.

Maleficent (Angelina Jolie)

Cersei (Lena from Game of Thones)

Icy (Winx Club season 1)

Wonder Woman (as portrayed by Gal Gadot) because she’s a perfect. Marvel Studios gave me a female hero and a female superhuman but they did not give me a female superhero. DC did. I’m such a fan of her.

Lestat

Mai Valentine (Yu-Gi-Oh. But that says little, I’ve had crushes on almost the entire cast. Mainly Seto Kaiba and Yami-Yugi.)

Victor (Yuri-on-Ice) when he wasn’t shown as a person with feelings but still had his idol status.

Riddick - but then again, who wouldn’t do Vin Diesel as Riddick? Especially the second movie.

Aranea (FF15) She was wonderful as a character but I am still salty she was a bit of a disappointment in the narrative, I expected she would be more involved in the narrative of the game.

V (from V for Vendetta the movie) - again the humour, dark past, power, reliability. I fall in love with him every time I watch the film. But I don’t know if I would do him with his mask off? I like the grandiose idea of him.

I’m going to risk burn marks and put Azula (Avatar series) on here.

Tahno (Avatar Korra series)

Suitengu (Speed Grapher) LYRA YOU MUST WATCH THIS. LISTEN TO LILLY. AND TO ME. WATCH IIIIIIT.

Rufus Shinra - (FF7 ACC)The smug remarks, power, face, count me in.

Pitch (Rise of the Guardians)Light (Death Note manga)

I will always love Riku (Kingdom Hearts) But since he’s so dear to me and part of a franchise for children, I don’t want to think about having sex with him but I totally want to. It’s a grey area. I like him especially when he is lost in darkness and arrogant. But honestly, I really like him in all timelines. I was not ready for KH3′s version. I will always love Riku.

Last notes:

To summarize, I like murder + power + strong worldview + smug undermining comments + smirks.

I think it is curious that I only listed male characters in my top 10. It seems that I am not as bisexual as I thought, or that modern media fails in adequate female gender representation. I could not have been offered enough female characters of the Wonder Woman quality. Now I’ll post this answer before something glitches and I lose all I typed.

Hope you liked this!

#ask #answer #Are we somewhat the same in our character choices?#lyrasanzennine

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valjar · 7 years

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Some thoughts about JASPER and Ignys Jasper -Part 3- A comparison

In Part one and two of this trilogy, I have written down some thoughts about JASPER and Ignys Jasper. About their nature, who and what they are. Now here is why I started this in the first place. How Jasper and Ignys are similar and why Ignys could be called a character analysis on Jasper in her early stages.

(Part 1 - JASPER) HERE

(Part 2 - Ignys Jasper) HERE

As the other posts already indicated, there are striking similarities between JASPER and Ignys. Some were intentional when I wrote Ignys, but most were not. We don´t even know that much canon meta about JASPER after all. Sadly. Not yet. So, this post will also lean a bit into theory territory and can be debunked by canon, but I have the feeling that some of these hold some water in the end. First, I´ll list the similarities, then I´ll write a bit about them and then the differences. Then I´ll look on what drives the two and what makes them the most powerful and how that is linked between them.

Similarities between JASPER and her descendant Ignys Jasper Firewalker:

1. Both have a long and decorated and eventful military past

2. Both have quartztypical bodytypes and fighting skills and styles.

3. Both are extremely strong.

4. Both possess indomitable willpower

5. Both ALWAYS keep going. No matter what if they must.

6. Both are strongly influenced by their emotion.

7. The (red) Jasper is regarded as “the supreme nurturer” and both have abilities and traits in that direction.

8. Both had an extremely abusive and toxic relationship with a Lapis Lazuli. Jasper with the gem Lapis Lazuli and Ignys with her descendant Lapis HOPE Lazuli.

9. Both are linked to the ocean in powerful and mysterious ways.

10. Both have lost a Diamond they cherished deeply and suffer from it greatly.

Ok, here´s the list. Let´s get down to detail. The topics are in no intended particular order.

1. Ignys and JASPER have both a long and decorated military past. Both have been in positions of command and both are hailed as heroes by certain people and gems. While Jasper is a gem and has been in the military over 5000 years, Ignys is a hybrid and served for 25 years. Jasper is hailed as “the ultimate Quartz, who took out 80 crystal gems before sundown upon emerging” (see PART 1). Ignys is hailed as an ultimated unit, too, but in different ways. Where Jasper is hailed for her strength and strategy, Ignys is hailed for her adaptability, strategy AND strength. Ignys is much more finetuned and refined. What kind of commander Jasper was is not quite known, but there is a popular headcanon/theory that she has been some kind of general. Ignys WAS a general. She was the youngest general to EVER exist. Due to her tremendous physical strength and, more striking, stamina and adaptability and her strategy and intelligence, she flew up through the ranks.

She helped improving the army and the Red Fortress, the elite force she served in for 20 years of the 25, much to the delight of all and was overall a very good and charismatic leader with a strong codex of honor, like for example to not hurt non combatants/those not involved in the fight. Jasper shows the same trait. In "The Return", she shows no interest in harming Steven, because, to her, he was a human non combatant. Only after he reveals himself as a gem hybrid and in possession of the gem of THE Rose Quarz, she attacks him, but only knocks him out. Ignys would do the same. She would in a fight/battle rather subdue or incapacitate her opponent than seriously harm or even kill them. Both adapt to the environment they fight in quickly. Example: Fighting in and around water. Normally gems, that are not water gems, don´t really have anything to do with water and therefore probably not too much experience with fighting with/in/under it. JASPER adapts to it through the whole Malachite situation to a point, where it´s very hard to make out, who of the two is steering the fusion at the moment and Jasper appears to find her way and target under water swiftly and efficiently (see Alone At Sea) and has no longer any problem with going into it (see Crack The Whip). Later this will only deepen, despite a short period of Malachite related PTSD reactions around water (wether it happens in the show or after it is not yet known, but I root for in the show, like late season 5 or season 6). Ignys on the other hand is made and born for fighting in/around and under water. As already mentioned in PART 2 multiple times, Ignys is a diver with tremendous abilities and paired with her military elite training, she is a highly valuable and sought after type of unit, what makes her word gain weight and her raise through the ranks as well and is a major contribution to how she could be the youngest general of all times (usually generals are 60 years and older and have most of the times at least 30 years of military service under their belts). Both JASPER and Ignys will be matriarchs of an own court-like structure at the peak of their power, which they fiercely protect. More to both´s role as matriarchs later.

2. Ignys and JASPER share bodytype and a lot of their fighting style. Both are very tall, muscular, massive and percieved as beautiful. They also share a lot when it comes to fightingstyle. Both remind of the Quartz they are. Jasper fights with massive power, but also with strategy, but the strategy can be overriden by anger or distress. The quartztypical fightingstyle has a lot of kicks and punches and yanking and shoving around. Both are not afraid to tank away a lot of hits and damage, making both very resilient and tough. If they would have to pick a martial art, they would both pick kickboxing and would both excel at it. Even though, they share basics and quartztypical patterns in their fighting styles, there are also clear and striking differences: While Jasper prefers to stay on land, Ignys prefers the water more and more, the older she gets. Ignys blends in with her environment and fights along from stealth, JASPER prefers to face her opponents rather head on, the moment the fight has begun. She uses her strength and speed to her advantage. Ignys relies more on her endurance, adaptability and dexterity and then puts a lot of strength in to, preferably, one, well placed move. Ignys has a much wider palette of styles than Jasper. She also shows patterns of Pearl, where her fighting looks almost like dancing for example. The biggest difference between JASPER and Ignys is, that JASPER is an almost total land unit and Ignys can do both, but is more a water unit, given her talent in it. JASPER is offense/tank, Ignys is defense/tank, at least strength and resilience wise.

3. Both are extremely strong. This one is self explaining. Ignys is part JASPER and Diamonds, so she possesses tons more strength than a normal human her size/age/sex would. Ignys can lift twice her bodyweight. With a body weight of 551 pounds, that would make 1102,31 pounds, so, A LOT! This strength shows in their fighting and in their mastery over their body/form a lot. Further, they share trememdous mental strength, that can further amplify their physical strength.

4. Both, JASPER and Ignys are known for their willpower. Once they want something done or deem it right, they WILL get it done, especially when it is in sync with their codex of honor. This willpower allows them to bear and endure even the impossible and in Ignys´ case allows her go WAY past her limits. Both cannot be controlled via psychic means, nor can they be seduced. There was a period in both´s existences where they could, but as they both get older and more in sync with themselves, they can less and less. Especially Jasper will get her mental and emotional autonomy by season 6 and beyond, which will make her effectively immune to seduction and bribing and mind control, much to the dismay of Lapis Lazuli and homeworld, who still lowkey want that. In Ignys´ case, the person, she has to free her psyche from, is Lapis Hope Lazuli, her abusive ex. She falls less and less for her traps and lures and both, JASPER and Ignys, end up standing rigidly behind their codex of honor.

5. As their will already indicates, Ignys and JASPER keep going. No matter what. No matter how hard and how bad and no matter how painful. JASPER goes through millenia of grief, Malachite and abandonment, without really showing it caving under it. Only in Earthlings, we see Jasper broken and vulnerable to the point of no more self restraint, something that had already taken form in Alone At Sea. Ignys goes through decades of grief, through the horrors of war and the aftermath of an abusive relationship and wrestles with the horrid current of Dark Rock Cave this way. Ignys sees her student in a life threatening situation, after latter has fallen into the currents off Dark Rock Cave and despite those being so strong and despite them being cursed and inescapable, Ignys goes after her student. And she fights and fights and fights and keeps going, until she has saved her student. No matter how hard and dangerous it is, no matter how out of breath Ignys is. Especially the(free)divers among you will know, how hard it is to keep going when you are out of breath and how dangerous that is. JASPER even says in Crack The Whip: "Jaspers don´t give up. Jasper keep going until we get what we want!", so it DEFINITELY runs in the JASPER lineage to be willstrong, which is amplified by the Diamond information in Ignys (see PART 1 and PART 2). Ignys´ will will be put to the ultimate test when LEVIATHAN, a demon from both, her and JASPERs past appears and threatens everyone. JASPERs test will be much less flashy, but not any less deep, meaningful, interesting and hard.

6. JASPER and Ignys are both strongly influenced by their emotions and their mindscape. It can either be their greatest power or their greatest Kryptonite, depending on what is going on inside them at the moment. When JASPER feels triumph or a good reason to fight, she gets empowered by it. Even by a temporary good feeling. Something, she believed Malachite would give her and she deemed worth fighting and searching the whole ocean for. For Ignys it was and is saving lives. The first time we see that is in "Rising Tides - New Skies", where Ignys saves her student from drowning in Dark Rock Caves horrid and cursed waters. Ignys and JASPER are both strengthened by the feeling of doing the right thing and weakened by the feeling of help- and/or powerlessness. Jasper, when she was forced to see the corrupted gems run away in "Earthlings" and Ignys, when her ex, Lapis Hope Lazuli comes back and intrudes in her life uninvited after 30 years. Lapis Hope Lazuli is Ignys´ biggest Kryptonite, as well as being reminded of her shot mother. JASPERs Kryptonite will be Lapis, Malachite and the reminder of her past, probably directly Pink Diamond and her own self loathing and doubt.

7. Coming back to what makes Ignys and JASPER strong, it´s important to know the spiritual meaning of the gemstone Red Jasper. The Red Jasper is called "The Supreme Nurturer" and that means, that it provides energy, stability, to an extent healing and of course protection and grounding to the ones around them. That is the ideal and natural state of this Jasper´s energy. So it´s for JASPER. After the events in the show, or mid/late in season 6, JASPER will discover this side to her. She will find herself at her most powerful, when she protects or helps others. A thing, that will make her a matriarch later on to a lot of Quartz gems and others, who find protection with JASPER and her new allies in the homeworld/earth conflict and finally live around her in an almost courtlike structure. Ignys discovers, that love is her greatest enhancer every time she protects or saves someone. Especially children and her students. When she saves her student, Ignys feels an immense surge of power in her. This becomes stronger and stronger, as she gets her girlfriend Imogen Morganite, who she will protect from LEVIATHAN. Her love for Imogen will ignite a global love for every living being, a nurturing energy, that will be so strong, that Ignys reaches her ultimate power. A power that allows her will to be overcome the process of actively dying and allows her to fight herself back. JASPER lacks this ultimate, because she can´t die the way people do. Ignys, even more than Jasper, is willing to go through literal hell to protect her loved ones. Love gives both, especially Ignys, unfathomable power.

8. Both had an extremely abusive relationship with a Lapis Lazuli. JASPER had one with Lapis Lazuli, the ocean gem and riptide queen herself and Ignys with a descendant of said Lapis Lazuli, Lapis HOPE Lazuli. While Lapis the gem trapped JASPER in a fusion in the ocean, Lapis HOPE Lazuli "trapped" Ignys much more lowkey and non physically. Both had a really hard path with communication, openness, gentleness and respect and in both cases the "big and strong one" was the victim. Yes, in both relationships both were abusing each other, but JASPER and Ignys ended up on the recieving end of the abuse MUCH more often. In both cases, unspeakable things were done to the Jasper part, that barely even get mentioned, because both Jaspers are barely capable of ever really talking about it. Unlike JASPER, Ignys will find a way to talk about to Imogen and both abusive relationships are intertwined with each other. Ignys and Lapis HOPE Lazuli are the second generation to this relationship and those two will have to work on it to bring the demons of the past to peace at last. Unlike JASPER, Ignys completely embraces this duty to the past and does her hardest to resolve it and is ready to forgive Lapis HOPE Lazuli. The big showdown between Ignys and LEVIATHAN is the point where the fate of their intertwined fates will be decided. Either, Ignys, the dragon will win and Malachite/LEVIATHANs energy will find peace or LEVIATHAN will win and cause unspeakable chaos and calamity. Both JASPER and Ignys are deeply traumatized by what they experienced, but somehow both find a relationship, that is not abusive and they are happy with. Ignys and Imogen´s relationship is the good, healthy and happy counterpart to this relationship and that one is linked to the relationship between JASPER and Laura Tiger´s Eye, a very early 10% gem hybrid.

9. JASPER and Ignys are linked to the ocean/water in mysterious and powerful ways. This one should actually be evident from what is mentioned in PART 1 and 2. This link started with Malachite and is possible because Lapis has "written" a "code: ocean" onto Jasper and Malachite has passed on some "codes", too. To understand this, you have to imagine gems as a kind of mobile, sentient supercomputer. Their gem is their hard drive and their "Lightbodies" are their screens, that are actually more of holoscreens. This allows them to be tachnically immortal, independent from organic needs and to shapeshift swiftly and to have a wide variety of powers. All these attributes are like "Apps" written on the gem during the creation process, like the knowledge of your purpose and who to be loyal to. These "Apps" or "programs" set limits to the gem of what they can do. They can only shapeshift to a certain extent and only reform with (slightly) different clothes, but not with different bodies. Normally, those "codes" barely get changed at all, so the gem doesn´t get to change either. No growing up, no change of purpose and change of mindset is extremely hard. Fusion on the other hand CAN add different codes to a preexisting "App" or write an entirely new "App" altogether. Such a new app can be a new power or a perspective and of course a different appearance. They create a new "model" of "computer". The longer those two gems stay fused, the more likely it is that new information gets written onto the gems of the components and those keep these changes even after fusion. Example Garnet and Malachite. In Garnet, two complementary gems with clashing abilities live in a permafusion. They have created the new "app" electricity-type power and have a different appearance to the two gems Ruby and Sapphire. Also the "app" of Sapphire, future vision, gets changed. It shows now many possible outcomes of a future, unlike Sapphire, who only gets to see one outcome. Ruby gets to use Sapphires "App" future vision and has so built it into her life and mindset, that she doesn´t really want to live without this perspective andymore (see Jailbreak, where Ruby sits in the cell and is pretty desperate). Garnet is a fusion of extremely rare and extremely common and is a healthy fusion. Malachite on the other hand is a toxic and not very stable fusion. She is a fusion of JASPER and LAPIS LAZULI, both perfect individuals of their gem type. JASPER has the "Apps" spin dash, extreme strength, endurance and durability. Lapis has the "Apps" flight through water wings, extreme hydrokinesis and experience in the/under water. Malachite is held together by Lapis´ tremendous willpower and hate and her information is forced onto Jasper, who is held underwater 24/7 for a whole year. That made Jasper adapt and she began to percieve the water-information as a rush of power and after unfusing, she wants it back. JASPER totally takes in the experience and and confidence in/under water and claims this power and learns to love the deep more and more. If Lapis misses anything, is not known. It´s only known, that she lowkey missed JASPER as a grand total, but I think she rather misses the feeling of being able to take out her stuff on an other. This information of this past fusion now sits in the gems and can be passed onto hybrids. And so Jasper did, but not every hybrid individual actually displays this information the same, if they display it at all. Same for Lapis Lazuli. But Ignys and Lapis Hope Lazuli do. They display talent, confidence and experience in/under water perfectly. Due to them being more than 60% organic, they display this power much differently to the gems themselves. They display this as extreme diving talent and capabilities. So, all in all, organic beings (hybrids) display the same ability much differently as a gem. Ignys experiences this link with the water as an intimate relationship of love, trust and respect. For Lapis Hope Lazuli, the water is just a power. Her relationship is not as deep as Ignys´. Same for Jasper and Lapis Lazuli the gem. Actually, Ignys´ relationship with water and the deep is unique. She gets from water power, strength, refuge and inspiration. To a point, where Ignys, under certain circumstances, can reach and enlightened-like state for a certain period of time. That shows in "depth´s clarity" and "phoenix" (a power, that makes her will so stubborn, that she can save herself from actively dying or even actively bring herself back from death. It only works, when she hasn´t been dead for too long and she can remove herself from the situation quickly. It causes terrible heat and exhausts her massively and she describes it as very painful.)

10. Both have lost a Diamond who they cherished deeply and they suffer a lot from it. JASPER lost Pink Diamond and Ignys lost her mother, Magenta Diamond. Pink Diamond got shattered during or shortly before the gem war/conflict. Who actually shattered her is not quite known yet. Magenta got killed by a, for a very long time, unknown person, too. She got shot. Both, Ignys and JASPER were helpless witnesses of their Diamond´s/mother´s demise. Jasper searched for the guilty and thinks it was Rose Quartz, like many do and tries to cope through revenge plans, but those backfire horribly. Ignys on the other hand swore, that no one would ever die through violence, if she could help it. Both made, motivated by those deaths, questionable and too many times, wrong life choices, that lead to their suffering and that of many others. Both finally realize, that trying to revenge violence with more violence won´t lead them anywhere but into a downwards spiral. Both discover a different job, outside their decorated military life, where they can protect, nurture and save life instead of killing it. Unlike Ignys, who becomes a teacher at the Beach City Capital School and stays one, JASPER changes her "jobs" many times, before she finds that one for her.

So, that has been an awfully long post and one or too many times I have drifted a bit astray, but I needed to write that down. To all those, who have read to this point: Thank you so much!

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omegangrins · 4 years

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[Kingsmen 3: The Golden Service] Harry Hart turns "villain"

TL;DR: The Lepidopterist is the *perfect* name for a "colorfull" megalomaniac who's trying to save the world via villainy.

I've allways had a nagging feeling that Colin Firth's Harry Hart is destined to become a villain. Like Valentine and Poppy, our Hart will break.

Why do I think this? Let's start simple:

1) "I always felt that the old Bond films were only as good as the villain. As a child, I rather fancied a future as a colorful megalomaniac."

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Now you could take it as face value veiled metaphor in their cat and mouse game. A game recognize game moment. Though when you look at it from a character angle, it is rather apparent that Galahad is not lying here. Look at the giddy nature in which they both talk about the subject. Almost lost in a moment of childhood nostalgia. Neither man is lying. So if Valentine tried to save the world like his younger self wanted, then it stands to reason that Harry has that childhood dream himself.

Harry even has a flair for the dramatic already. "Manners maketh man" is all about him causing a dignified scene to teach a lesson to all watching. In the Freebird church scene, you can see it BEFORE he starts fighting because of Valentine's machine.

Feels like a simple "I'm going to the bathroom" or "I'm hot and need to breath outside for moment" would have sufficed and gotten him out of there without hassle from the crazy Baptist and he KNEW that but didn't care. Arthur implies this subversiveness in their conversations about choosing candidates. Then there's the *way* in which he kills everyone there. Not just defense or trying to kill quickly but lots of slow, painful, and fucked up deaths. The killing is Valentine but the style is ALL Harry. It's part of the reasons he's disgusted. Not the enjoyment, but the ease with which he turned so gleefully. That slow motion fade in smile in the middle is proof of this. Harry *wanted* to punish those people the same way Valentine did. That's proven by what he says at the start. (Don't blame him either, just character commenting. Fuck those people.) Part of me thinks the Freebird is playing in *HIS* head. He's a bird freed by blood.

2) The Lepidopterist

I know the clip is from Venture Bros but it's meant to show how two "good guys" became bad. Kinda the perfect coincidence. But I digress... it was a shameless plug to #SavetheVentureBros. 😎😙😍

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The hobbyist collecting of insects, fauna/flora, and what-have-yous has looooong been a trope of "colorful megalomaniacs".

Then there's the added bonus that The Lepidopterist sounds like the *perfect* name for a Bond villain.

Butterflies even symbolize death and rebirth and the violence inherent in transforming something for the better.

Is Harry's butterflies a set-up foreshadowing to his coming transformation from "hero" to "villain"?

"I doubt whether I'd work for anyone who drowns their employees. I want to go home. I want my butterfly collection. I want to see Mother."

3) As we know, all the best villains are ones we sympathize with and understand WHY they do what they do. Valentine was trying to solve over-population and save what he could of the species so it wouldn't happen again. Poppy wanted drugs to be legal, partially for vanity reasons but mainly for anger at global government hypocrisies (the same governments which had their heads blown up for trying to kill humanity for their own gain). Wouldn't it fit perfectly for Harry Hart to have seen the horrors inflicted by the world governments and the corruption of not only Statesmen, but his beloved Kingsmen themselves, and say "No more." What's he gonna feel when he finds out Arthur sold the Kingsmen's soul and got him killed? How long has the "shoot the dog" exercise been in practice? Why is trying to drown someone thought of as a reasonable way to help them? Does the rot go to the core? All things any reasonable person would ask after being shot for an organization that was just blown up by a drug dealer.

"When I was shot, can you guess what the last thing was that flashed through my mind? It was absolutely nothing. I had no ties. No bittersweet memories. I was leaving nothing behind. Never experienced companionship, never been in love. And in that moment, all I felt was loneliness and regret."

Who's to say what he would do or the methods he would take, but villains are merely people casting shadows in the way of the light.

4) I put this last because it's more pun than the others and because I only realized it while writing their names out loud. Valentine. Poppy. Hart. A valentine is love, poppies symbolize death, and a heart combines both (a Hart is also the name for an adult male deer over the age of five but I'm not British enough to understand what the fuck that has to do with anything.) There's also Richmond Valentine/Rich Man Love (Rich dude saving the world). Poppy Adams/ Poppy of the Earth (Death of the World). And finally Harry Hart/Harry Heart. An attacking heart. Yeah, that's the old definition of "harry". To harass. (Or Power Ruler of the Five Year Old Male Deer. This isn't an exact science 🙃 ). Honestly, as I write these out, the puns become the hardest piece of proof for me. Brits love a good wordplay foreshadowing.

"... this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

AND what else do they have in common? They're all things associated with the color red. And what's red?

BLOOD.

Sorry, couldn't resist the touch of drama. 🤣

P.S. I know it's not really related but I also subscribe to the Poppy is a former Statesmen theory as well.

Making this an even more thematic connection. Good guys gone villain because of shitty situations.

Edits

5) HE'S WEARING AN EYEPATCH!!! How autistic am I that I missed that in my explanation. Eyepatches just seem that normal to me but they're like the ultimate villain accessory. Unless you're a pirate.

6) /u/Bespoke3 pointed out how the one thing keeping this from happening is Eggsy and Harry's relationship, and I contended that it was true. While making an interesting movie, you need a sufficient reason for those two to be on opposite ends of each other. And in rambling through comments, I found it. This is why you write shit outloud:

It's Princess Tilde!

The first movie showed that world leaders would gladly sell their souls to save themselves, Princess Tilde being one of the few exceptions. The second showed that even after those figureheads exploded (see what I did there 🤣), there was still terrible people left in charge making even worse decisions.

What if Harry's plan is to attack all of the "leaders" of the world as a way to show people they have the power to govern themselves. This would put Princess Tilde, and moreso her family, directly in the line of fire and force Eggsy's hand to intervene and choose.

Save the girl or save the world.

7) As /u/baddestmofointhe209 pointed out, Harry *was* shot in the head. That kind of thing does tend to mess with people after the fact. Maybe turning villain isn't such a stretch. Not evil, but morally grey.

8) My wife was telling me about how Colin Firth has allways wanted to play the villain too.

"Whenever you take on playing a villain, he has to cease to be a villain to you. If you judge this man by his time, he's doing very little wrong."

“I’d never rule out a part in Doctor Who or Torchwood – especially Doctor Who, I’d also love to play a villain like Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes."

9) Thanks to some pushback from /u/The-Reddit-Giraffe, I decided to Google Kingsmen 3 rumors and stumbled on this little nugget about it, and specifically the Harry/Eggsy relationship:

"I'm really not allowed to say anything, but there is a script. It's a really neat idea."

Outside of it telling the finale of Eggsy and Harry Hart's story, we don't know all that much about the plot for the third movie.

"People will either freak out in a good way, or freak out in a bad way, but they will freak out," Vaughn teased. "We're literally finishing the script off as I speak – but they go on a journey that, if anyone sees it coming, then I'll give up."

To which I would like to thank YOU. This is why I love being shown how I could be wrong. I can't help but feel like this is EXACTLY what they're talking about. You don't have a script finished that fast if you didn't already know where you were going with the first two.

It HAS to end like this. Now I can't see any other way. Maybe The Rock is the Big Bad they have to team up to stop at the end but I will say with 99% confidence that Harry Hart will turn rogue for the first 2/3 of the movie.

10) This wouldn't be the first time I was right about something like this either.

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mkmoonchildastrology · 7 years

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Archetype Profiles for Nodes (past life information)

Found this very interesting perspective on http://www.radicalvirgo.com/2011/03/astrology-and-past-lives.html

South Node in Aries

Mars conjunct South Node Archetype: The Warrior

Place: England

Time: A.D. 61

I am Bodicea and it has fallen to me to stand up for my tribe. I have to protect and defend my people and when the invaders are in the way. I have to assert our rights and deal with them. I live in the moment - it’s the only way to get things done! None of this past-life nonsense for me.

The past life gift I bring with me is to be my authentic self.

Mars square to the Nodes:

This signifies the need to integrate the warrior aspect harmoniously into life.

North Node in Libra:

The karmic mission is to promote peace, to harmonize with another in close relationship, marriage or business partnership.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Aries and Libra:

This entails knowing when to assert yourself, when to be peaceful, when to be selfish and when to yield.

South Node in Taurus

Venus conjunct South Node

Archetype: The Artist

Place: Lemuria

Time: 60,000 BC

I am Croar and I live close to the earth and nature and am inspired by its beauty. I reflect that love by creating pots and tools, making them as fine as I can using the natural materials around me. I love my family and our animals but my connection with the Earth is stronger than anything. I’m a troglodyte, engraving petroglyphs, and dodging pterodactyls!

The gift I bring with me from my past life is an appreciation of the beauty in nature, and an ability to express this through art forms.

Venus square to the Nodes in Fixed or Mutable Signs:

This creates a greater challenge to express relationship and Art in a wider way which takes into account the needs of a group.

North Node in Scorpio:

My karmic mission is to face the transformative nature of life, including my own fears, and to search for the hero within.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Taurus and Scorpio:

Balance between the material and non-material worlds and to understand when it is time for new beginnings when forms in life are to be sustained and supported and to know when the time is right for endings.

South Node in Gemini

Mercury conjunct South Node

Archetype: The Teacher

Place: America

Time: 1920s

I am a born teacher. My name is Carina and I live in Chicago in the 1920s. I am stimulated by all the exchange of views going on here, and the inspiring architecture. My friends discuss the evolutionary theory of Darwin and the new science of Psychology as developed by Sigmund Freud. Very interesting in theory, but I wouldn’t actually want to go to see an Analyst! I love knowledge, and I love my subject, and that’s what motivates me.

The gift I bring with from this past life is the ability to focus the mind and the mental agility to communicate my knowledge to people.

Mercury square to the Nodes in Mutable Signs:

The drive to communicate can sometimes be taken to extremes or be inappropriate, or result in losing sight of other more instinctual needs.

North Node in Sagittarius:

My karmic mission is to widen my area of consciousness and to explore mentally, if not also physically.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Gemini and Sagittarius:

To master the principle of communication and understand at what point in the continuum information needs to be placed.

South Node in Cancer

Moon conjunct the South Node

Archetype: The Parent

Country: Africa

Time: 1875 A.D.

My name is Ndola. I live in a roundhouse, as part of a community and tribe. I am an elder, right now devoted to my grandson, the newest member of our tribe! I am happy as long as the milk is flowing for our babies. Mother Earth sustains us, and we collectively honour her, in ritual and ceremony. We also use her special plants and herbs for our healing. Whenever I hear our drumbeats, I attune to her rhythms. Our tribe lives and moves as one, trance dancing to the patterns of the bright star Sirius.

The gift I bring with me from my past life is the ability to bring my tribe together.

Moon square to the Nodes:

A need to build constructively the power of nurturing in your life.

North Node in Capricorn:

To understand the need for structures in society, which can serve the needs and emotions of the people.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Cancer and Capricorn:

To balance responsibility and nurturing in a supportive lifestyle for yourself and your loved ones.

South Node in Leo

Sun conjunct South Node

Archetype: Royalty Place: Egypt

Time: 44 BC

My name is Cleopatra and I am Queen of Egypt. Don’t you believe me? I know, you’ve heard it all before. Everybody wants to be me or thinks they are me! But I am really the Queen. Can you not tell I have the taste, and the breeding? I want to express myself and be creative and joyful, and in order to do that I need to be in control of my world and all the subjects in it. My Soul Group is working on divine rights (or diva rights). My leading man Mark Anthony and I, we’ve have had our ups and downs, but you’d expect a little drama in the life of a Queen.

The gift I can bring to my current life is a sense of self-worth (if I can allow it in), keeping the crown jewels of nobility, integrity and self-esteem.

Sun square to the Nodes:

May bring the urge to challenge power in others or in society. Need to foster positive models of power.

North Node in Aquarius:

Working towards ways of being in groups without dominating but in an empowered way.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Leo and Aquarius:

Ability to stand in own individuality and in a group and contribute in a positive way without overpowering others.

South Node in Virgo

Mercury conjunct South Node

Chiron conjunct South Node

Archetype: The Craftsperson

Place: Switzerland

Time: 1850

My name is Hans and I am a specialist precision watchmaker in Zermatt. People don't try to take the trouble to do a fine job anymore, but here I uphold that tradition and hope it continues in generations to come. I do not presume to understand the world, but I know my place in it. I start with a spotless environment--you won’t find any dust in my watches!

The gift I bring with me to this life is the ability to apply myself in my work and attend to detail. My nervous system remembers the patterns of coordination I used in the past.

Mercury square the Nodal Axis

- A need to be more sensitive and alive to varying demands in teaching roles.

Chiron square the Nodal Axis

- Very individualistic. Can find unusual solutions to problems.

North Node in Pisces:

Subtle ways of being, and of giving service. Perfecting the spiritual path.

Integration of Nodal Axis of Virgo and Pisces:

The ability to give service, in the community and in the world.

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar.”

~ William Wordsworth

South Node in Libra

Venus conjunct South Node

Archetype: The Diplomat

Place: Ancient Greece

Time: 421 BC

My name is Demis. I live in Corinth and try to smooth relations between Athens and Sparta. I can see both their qualities and greatness and feel that I can bring them together. There are plenty of people practising the art of war, but not enough cultivating the art of peace. I love justice, too, having been educated in philosophy and law and hope one day that all people will accept the balance it brings. I am proud, too, of the artistic achievements of my country, which I think are outstanding. For beauty is truth and truth beauty, as you can see on this urn that I have before me. Maybe one day a poet will capture that essence.

The gift I bring with me to this life is the ability to bring people together by emphasizing their similarities, and creating harmony. Deep in my heart, I desire peace.

Venus square the Nodal Axis in Cardinal or Mutable signs

The path of true love does not always run smoothly. Dedicated to working out karmic relationships and to working problems out peacefully.

North Node in Aries:

To develop individuality without fear or guilt. To learn self-assertion.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Aries and Libra:

This entails knowing when to assert yourself, when to be peaceful, when to be selfish and when to yield.

South Node in Scorpio

Pluto conjunct South Node Archetype: The Seafarer

Place: Scandinavia

Time: 1002 A.D. My name is Erik and I am a Viking. I have a lot of emotional drive and energy. Weaving through our local waters, I just have to look into the fjords to regenerate myself. I couldn't live my life cut off from that source like some lands we have visited. I like a challenge and don’t necessarily do things the easy way. The force of the Norse gods is with me!

The gift I bring with me from this past life is to be unafraid of deep water, whether in nature or in one’s own psyche.

Pluto square to the Nodes:

To see the challenges of life and society and not to shy away from them. A bit of a revolutionary.

North Node in Taurus:

Working towards a more creative and constructive lifestyle or spiritual path.

Integrated Nodal Axis of Taurus and Scorpio:

Balance between the material and non-material worlds and to understand when it is time for new beginnings, when forms in life are to be sustained and supported, and to know when the time is right for endings.

South Node in Sagittarius

Jupiter conjunct South Node Archetype: The Explorer

Place: South America

Time: 1836 A.D.

I am Rodriguez and I am an explorer. I have been everywhere, searching for...something. Last year I came across an ancient temple, pyramid-like, resembling something from Babylon. Hidden away behind thickets it was. I'm a Christian but I've always been fascinated by the sacred, where man communes with God or the gods. Anyway, you'll never believe it (why am I telling you this?) but I ran. I ran right away because I couldn't handle the responsibility! It's the thrill of the chase, for me, with temples.

The gift I bring with me from this past life is open-mindedness, especially towards other religions.

Jupiter square to the Nodes:

May have the Explorer Archetype in past lives and may need to balance your restlessness in this lifetime. There may also be residual religious guilt to release.

North Node in Gemini:

The need to focus the mind and develop the Inner Teacher

Integrated Nodal Axis of Gemini and Sagittarius:

To master the principle of communication and understand at what point in the continuum information needs to be placed.

South Node in Capricorn

Saturn conjunct South Node Archetype: The Politician Place: Russia

Time: 1905 My name is Piotr, and I whisper in the corridors of power. But even the whispering has rules. You speak

only when you are spoken to

by someone above your rank. You only speak that which is necessary and the bare minimum and for a serious purpose. Every word is weighed carefully. And information is classified, on a need-to-know basis. Sssh! I cannot tell you anything at the moment. Sometimes you'd think this was an old Trappist monastery.

The gift I bring with me from this past life is discipline, the ability to be measured and work quietly towards my goal.

Saturn square the Nodal Axis:

Being so focused and goal-orientated, there’s a need to remember to keep the heart open.

North Node in Cancer:

Family values and parenting nurtured and the strong sense of the tribe and its needs.

Integrated Nodal Axis for Cancer and Capricorn:

To balance responsibility and nurturing in a supportive lifestyle for yourself and your loved ones.

South Node in Aquarius

Uranus conjunct South Node

Archetype: The Technician Place: Atlantis

Time: 50,000 B.C.

My name is Barbarella.

I live in Poseidia, and I am androgynous, but that might change in the future. I use lasers and crystals in my work, and my group is helping to develop a large crystal we call “the Collider", which has great potential. Tremendous intelligence is networked within the group, and I’m excited by all the new developments. I certainly know the work we do is powerful… sometimes I do wonder about the consequences but brush any such thoughts aside. It'll be fine. I'll just press this button and....

The gift I have brought into my current life from Atlantis is future vision and a love of progress and technological advancement. I have the capacity for dispassionate scientific thought.

Uranus square the Nodal Axis

: Indicates the need to apply knowledge and inner knowing ethically and safely on behalf of groups and society. There is a desire to shake up the existing order.

North Node in Leo:

The need to develop a stronger relationship with one’s own power, the integration of the personality, and to strengthen self-esteem.

Integration of the Nodal Axis for Leo and Aquarius:

Ability to stand in one’s own individuality and in a group and contribute in a positive way without overpowering others.

Confusion is the highest state because it comes just before knowing. ~ Suzuki

South Node in Pisces

Neptune conjunct the South Node

Archetype: The Mystic Place: Polynesian islands

Time: 1200 A.D.

My name is Enui, and I come from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Well part of me lives here, but I come from other places, too.

We have a mystical consciousness, moving and shape-shifting in and out of different dimensions. As a fishing race, sea creatures are sacred to us, especially the Turtle. I have seven parallel lives, including one on the Pleiades. I can see you find that hard to believe. Why limit your consciousness?

The gift I have brought forward into my life is multidimensional consciousness, a way of being which is still in the memory banks for access.

Neptune

square to the Nodes:

Confusing to yourself and others, but at the same time challenging them to open their minds, confusion being part of the transition state.

North Node in Virgo:

The karmic mission is to hone your skills, be aware of detail, moving away from scattered thinking and action.

Integration of Nodal Axis for Virgo and Pisces:

The ability to give service, in the community and in the world.

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agentem · 8 years

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Emily Watches Iron Fist, Episode One

Is Colleen in this one?: Yes, appears 21 minutes in.

Is Claire in this one?: No

It opens with his fucking bare feet on the sidewalk as he returns home. I thought I told this guy I didn’t want to see his fucking gross bare feet anymore. (This makes me wonder what Jason Mantzoukas feels about this series. He’s mentioned IRON FIST on HDTGM. I wonder if they would do a HDTGM of a TV show? Asking for a friend.)

I’ve already tuned out. Sorry. So Danny walks around midtown while Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean” plays. I miss how the music in Luke Cage meant something already. And how the show had a tone and shit.

Danny goes to Rand Corp and asks for Harold. I feel like I’ve seen this clip online.

He finds a screen and watches a video about the Rand Corporation, which Danny says is “new.” It shows us Wendall and Harold smiling and shit. Then security throws Danny out.

No shirt, no shoes, no service, dude.

So Danny beats up the security guys who are just doing their job, really. I wish they had said something or been rude in some way. I just feel bad for them. The show makes the odd choice to put the fight--our first look at the Iron Fist in action!--in slow motion. Unless your action is incredibly fast, which this isn’t, I don’t think slowing stuff down makes it cooler. The choreography is fine but I think they are actually doing it a disservice, making it look quite rehearsed.

He steals a woman’s keycard and blows past a secretary to go into Harold’s office. But ward is in there. Joy just happens to walk in. Danny is like, “it’s me!” But they don’t recognize him.

Ward gets angry because he thinks this homeless weirdo is pretending to be his dead friend and asking to see his dead father. Joy is freaked out. She says he sort of looked like Danny. Ward assures her it was not Danny.

Security comes again, and Danny holds his head like he has a headache. What he’s having is flashbacks to the plane crash and the death of his family.

All of this seems too much too fast. Ward and Joy play the above scene like it is super serious, while Finn Jones clearly thinks it’s a comedy. But there isn’t any comedy beats to it. I actually think that was probably a good choice and it would’ve played better if Ward and Joy were like, “Whoa, weirdo.” Maybe if that had happened before? They got fake Danny Rands all the time?

But Marvel probably didn’t want to establish a joke-y tone since they think the Netflix shows should be super gritty, or whatever. But you have to admit it is hard to take Danny seriously here, in his dumb dirty hippie clothes and no shoes.

The flashback then swings us again into the super dramatic! (The tones are fighting each other and it’s not even the first ten minutes.) But then switches to the elevator and the guards telling Danny they don’t give a shit about him. Danny replies that guard reminds him of “Billy” whom he guesses retired.

Awkward opening scene is awkward. Clearly the filmmakers are finding their way as they go, which OF COURSE contributed to the early negative reviews of the opening episodes. . Very different from Luke Cage and Jessica Jones whose creators had a clear point of view from the jump.

Danny then heads to a brownstone near Gramercy Park. “Danny, Mom and Dad” was drawn into the concrete in front of the building. You know whoever bought that after the Rands would’ve had it removed. Weirdly, he finds the key in its usual hiding place but the key no longer works. Did nobody notice the key in this completely obvious hiding spot when it was sold?

Danny leaps up onto a balcony with an improbably open window and just lets himself in. Poignant music plays. He looks at books along the wall and has AN EXPRESSION. But in this moment I am not sure if the room is as it was when he left (which seems improbable) or has been redecorated. I’m confused. We finally see a photograph of Joy and Ward... which means... they moved into their dead friends’ place after he died?

WEIRD.

A dog barks and Danny approaches it warily. He does something kind of meditative and the dog becomes friendly. It would’ve been cooler if the dog were old and recognized him. But at least Danny and Luke are on the same page regarding “we don’t hurt dogs.”

Danny goes back into the library-type room and finds more pictures of their families when they were younger, Joy’s degree from Columbia, Then he goes upstairs to the roof garden where he is flashbacks to them playing as kids.

Again, I say it is WEIRD that the Meachums kept the Rand’s house after they died.

Young Danny, Ward and Joy play Monopoly on the roof. We get some heavy-handed clues that Ward is kind of a douche who follows in his father’s footsteps. The Rands arrive home and little Danny calls, “We’re up here!” Ward gets mad and stomps on Danny’s foot saying some stuff about how his mommy and daddy give him hugs and kisses. He knocks the pieces off the game board dramatically.

Danny goes downstairs and sees Joy coming home from work. So she lives here? In her dead friend’s old family home? WEIRD. It’s still weird. You can’t convince me otherwise. And if later on we get some monologue from her about how she always wanted to be part of the Rand family and not her own, then I think it’s even fucking weirder.

Like a creeper, Danny watchers her for awhile then leaves. He could’ve at least “borrowed” some shoes while he was there.

Suddenly it is nighttime, and Danny is just chillin’ in Gramercy Park. He takes some stuff out of his backpack, an old walkman-type device, a leather-bound book, something else I can’t make out. He pops in the earbuds and listens to music and reads.

Another missed comedy opportunity. If he were listening to some random pop song from the 2000s, like Britney Spears. Oh I would’ve loved that.

Anyway, another homeless(?) man approaches Danny and introduces himself as Big Al. Big Al has an iPhone and says “you can find anyone you want on the internet!” Danny asks him to look up Danny Rand. The poor actor who plays Big Al has to explain that this kid died in a plane crash. Then he asks him to look up Harold Meachum. Also dead, we’re told.

Big Al says you can get shoes at a specific shelter. THANK YOU, BIG AL, YOU ARE THE HERO OF THIS SHOW.

Danny kind of laughs at him and is like, “I guess people think we’re pretty much alike.” Fuck you, dude. Don’t laugh at Big Al. He’s the hero of the show!

Probably offended, Big Al gets up and leaves.

The next morning, Danny creepily accosts Joy outside her building. He tries to tell her dumb random facts to make her believe him and she’s like “you could’ve looked that up on the internet.” Annoyed, Danny says she lives in his house which clearly even he thinks is WEIRD. She says it is her house now. Danny dumbly says, “Yeah your dog is kinda scary,” giving away that he went through her stuff last night. She starts to get annoyed.

Danny wanders into the street, like a dummy, and is nearly hit by a taxi which he jumps over in weird special effects. Joy is like, “whut.” Danny walks away.

He does tai chi or something in Gramercy Park, communing with an eagle (bird of prey of some type?) flying over the city. When someone puts money in his cup.

IT’S COLLEEN WING. OMG. I’m so excited. It’s her! And she’s nice to crazy homeless guys! She’s putting up fliers for her self defense classes.

Danny tries to give the money back to her, but she won’t take it.

He says her name, “Colleen Wing.” Then starts speaking to her in Mandarin. She replies in Mandarin, and he starts speaking again. Then she cuts him off and says she speaks Japanese or English. That she hasn’t spoken Mandarin since she was a kid.

I’ve seen this scene criticized online, that he would just start speaking Mandarin to her. And I agree that is weird to assume she knows the language. “Wing” is also a Chinese name, so perhaps him stating “Colleen Wing” indicates he recognizes her ancestry. It doesn’t excuse the idea that she MUST know Mandarin. But it’s pointing out an inconsistency in the Marvel universe, that Colleen is trained as a Japanese samurai and ninja, yet she has a Chinese name. (Jessica Henwick, the actress who plays her is half Singaporean-Chinese and half white.) Am I giving them too much credit here to think that was the purpose of the scene? Probably.

Danny asks her for a job.

Colleen is like, “Um, you’re a homeless man I met in a park who just kind of insulted me?” She says, “I already got someone to clean up.” ZING!

I love her. Have I mentioned I love her?

She leaves and I feel sad and bereft. The show cuts to Joy at the Rand building. She’s telling Ward about her encounter with Danny that morning. Ward decides he’s an insane, homeless acrobat. Joy wonders if maybe they should talk to him and see if it’s really Danny. Ward is like “Nope.” This is a crazy person who is playing on your emotions, making you want to believe your friend is back. That is dangerous. While we’re clearly meant to see Ward as the bad guy, especially considering his youthful Monopoly tantrum, I think he’s right here. It could be a con man, who is trying to get money out of them.

Ward lays out a theory that this is corporate sabotage. They are just about to announce their expansion into China, and someone shows up claiming to own half the company. I don’t know if I believe that. But there could definitely be a con artist trying to cash in on a missing dead, rich kid. Just look at how many fake Anatasias there were, and that was before the internet.

Danny then accosts Ward in the parking lot, getting in his car. Ward tells him to stop but jumps in the passenger seat. Danny’s like, ”Sorry! I haven’t driven since my dad put me on his lap and let me drive around.” Again, this is Jones playing Danny as a kind of wide-eyed goof ball. He seems to think driving is so cool.

Ward pulls a gun out of the glove compartment and tells Danny to pull over. I’m wondering where he thinks Danny can pull over in a parking garage.

Then a kind of rage comes over Danny. He’s like “I have been met with nothing but anger and hostility since I got home!” Then he grabs the gun and points it at Ward, kind of gleefully saying, “How’s it feel? Not so good, right?” Danny is very creepy and not-likeable in this moment. And it’s strange that he was so calm only seconds before. I don’t remember Iron Fist having Wolverine-like berserker rages.

Ward, pretty heroically defiant here, says, “You will never get a penny from us.” Even though Danny is clearly crazy. Danny says he doesn’t want money he wants answers about his family.

The actor who plays Ward (I should look this up), then tells the backstory of the Rand family, how they died in a plane crash over the Himalayas. How the bodies were never found. Danny wants more but Ward says that’s it.

Danny accuses Ward of being a dick as a kid, putting him in freezers and putting a dead frog in his food, stuff like that. This clearly resonates with Ward who, nonetheless says, “None of that is true.” And demands DNA or fingerprints to prove this is Danny. Danny says he doesn’t have any of that, which is really his own fault. Couldn’t he get dental records or something? Think, man!

Danny, fully unhinged, starts driving super fast up the parking lot to the roof, saying this is what it was like to watch his mother die and know he and his father were next. (How is this situation similar at all?) He nearly drives them off the roof, while having flashbacks, only to swerve at the last minute.

Cut to Danny alone in the park listening to his Britney Spears. Big Al brings him a sandwich saying he thought Danny might be hungry. Seriously, hero! They have a chat about society and hunters and gatherers and the Buddha. Danny states definitely that his purpose in life is to protect K’un L’un which begs the question ... why are you HERE?

Happily we then cut to Colleen’s dojo. Yay HEART COLLEEN. Danny shows up at the end of a class to talk to her. She asks if he’s here for a lesson and he offers up the money she gave him. She says that will only get him a cup of coffee down the street and Danny says he never had coffee before.

In Luke Cage world, I think that means he’s a virgin. Right. RIGHT?!?

Colleen suggests he could also get a pair of flip flops because CLEARLY HE NEEDS SHOES. Yes, good thinking, Colleen. Danny is like, “Nah I’m good.”

Bro, you are not good. Your feet are gross. At least wash ‘em.

Danny says he wants to challenges Colleen’s master. Which, dude, lemme stop you there. Colleen is her own master. I am more offended by this than the Mandarin, tbh. She’s like, I’m the master and I don’t accept your challenge, GTFO.

He asks if she teaches kung fu and she’s like, nope. He again offers to teach for her. And she’s annoyed. Rightly, he’s annoying.

Before he leaves, because she is way nicer than I am and a HERO she gives him shoes (kind of martial arts shoes, with a toe?). Finally! Yes, Colleen. Thank you. I don’t want to see those dirty ass feet anymore.

As he’s putting the shoes on outside, some guy attacks him randomly. It’s the security guard from Rand that reminded him of Bill. There’s two other guys with him. Danny fights them and Colleen watches out of her window.

Because she’s a fucking hero, she descends the fire escape of her building with her sword to help him out. Danny knocks out one and throws away his gun while Colleen watches, like a badass.

Then there is a random street fair. I call bullshit on this. It looks kind of like Chinese New Year, they have the dragon on sticks. But Lunar New Year is in the Winter and earlier when Danny was in the Park, there were flowers on the trees. It’s also not nearly big enough to be NYC’s Lunar New Year celebration. Nor of there any Year of Animal? People just have glow sticks? So it’s like a vaguely Chinese rave in the streets?

Danny buys a mask (with Colleen’s money) off a street vendor. I don’t know why he would think this would make him less conspicuous? All I can tell is it would make the fight scenes easier because the stunt double doesn’t have to hide his face.

There are bubbles and birds in cages. WTF celebration is this supposed to be? I’m a white girl who has only been to two Chinese New Year parades. It wouldn’t honestly make me feel better if someone could tell me this was a real thing.

Masked!Danny, disarms another bad guy. Then another. This time he demands to know who sent him. The security guard says it was Ward, which I thought was pretty obvious. Danny is not that bright.

Colleen watches. When Danny turns to where she was standing second ago, she is not there. Colleen is mysterious and cool.

Ward is eating when he gets a call. He calls someone else and sets up a meeting about the “situation.” He then goes to a cool art deco building (where is this?) in a Hyundai (whhaaaat?). They draw this out big time. But he’s meeting with... his dead dad! (Played by David Wenham, of being Faramir in Lord of the Rings fame.)

Faramir and Ward have a weird discussion about loyalty before getting to the matter at hand. Ward insists the Danny is a lunatic. Faramir wonders if it is Danny does that mean his parents are also still alive. Good question! Faramir has other questions too and says that’s why you can’t just send someone to beat him up. Faramir says he’s going to take care of this one and tell him exactly what to do.

Then we cut to the park, where Danny finds Big Al with a needle in his arm (!!) dead. I’m annoyed about this. We had no reason to believe Big Al was an addict. You gotta foreshadow that shit. Just because he’s homeless doesn’t mean he MUST be on drugs.

Danny prays over Big Al’s corpse and notices a bird tattoo on his arm. Ominous music plays.

Cut to Rand building in daytime, Danny just waltzes into Joy’s office. The security guards who recognized him must all be out sick that day? He tells Joy her brother tried to have him killed.

They have a boring conversation. Danny tells the story of the plane crash, getting his headache face again. Oh no, it’s not headache face. That’s Finn Jones’ acting face, I guess. Joy has put something in his tea. He passes out on the floor, flashing back to K’un L’un before waking up in a mental hospital.

Danny remembers the plane crash and waking up in the snow with Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean” playing. Oh see I didn’t even realize that song was from 2001. If it were Britney Spears I would’ve gotten it!

End episode. This post was long. I need to do shorter ones in the future or this will take weeks.

#emily watches iron fist so you don't have to #danny rand #finn jones #iron fist #hate watching #recaps #iron fist s1 ep1 #snow gives way

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fabricati-diem-pvnc · 8 years

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The homosocial relationship of Bunny and Raffles

“Note: Over the course of #rafflesweek, I will post five excerpts from my master’s thesis on E.W. Hornung’s Raffles stories. While each part can be read on its own, I recommend reading them in the order they are posted.

This is Part 3.

(Please see the end for footnotes and works cited.)

The importance of homosocial1 relationships in a segregated society

In the nineteenth century, the segregation of men and women into a public and a domestic sphere meant that, once a boy had left his home for a public school education2, the only possibility for intimacy with a member of the opposite sex was through marriage. It is hardly surprising, then, that bonds between members of the same sex became an important source of emotional intimacy in the Victorian era. In fact, the ability to form friendships was considered “essential to the development of social and spiritual faculties” (Oulton 2007: 8). Close attachments between public schoolboys were often the first form of intimacy middle-class men experienced (Poovey 1995: 140). Sometimes, these friendships would transgress the boundary between platonic and sexual; while this was obviously not encouraged by the authorities, many public schools silently tolerated it (Sedgwick 1985: 176).

In his novel Coningsby (1844), Benjamin Disraeli praises the singular passion a schoolboy friendship could offer: “All loves of after-life can never bring its rapture, or its wretchedness; no bliss so absorbing, no pangs of jealousy or despair so crushing and so keen! What tenderness and what devotion; what illimitable confidence; infinite revelations of inmost thoughts; what ecstatic present and romantic future; what bitter estrangements and what melting reconciliations; what scenes of wild recrimination, agitating explanations, passionate correspondence; what insane sensitiveness, and what frantic sensibility; what earthquakes of the heart and whirlwinds of the soul are confined in that simple phrase, a schoolboy’s friendship!” (Disraeli 1927: 45-46)

However, these passionate friendships were expected to be confined to the excesses of youth. Self-restraint and moderation were important aspects of a gentleman’s identity, while an overly emotional character was perceived as being weak and effeminate (Waters 1997: 74). Consequently, once the adult man entered society, his only respectable option of experiencing passion and intimacy was within the confines of marriage (Oulton 2007: 44).

In a society where men spent the majority of their time in the public sphere and thus away from home, homosocial relationships still formed an important part of their adult lives (Poovey 1995: 125-126). While Victorian gender ideology posited that marriage was the ultimate source of love, women’s assumed limited mental capacities did not allow for an intellectually stimulating environment at home (Oulton 2007: 43). The prime location to engage in meaningful conversation – for bachelors and married men alike – was the institution of men’s clubs. Being primarily an extension of the male communities formed in public schools and universities, these clubs also offered men the opportunity to pursue homosocial relationships in a quasi-domestic space that emphatically excluded women (Showalter 1991: 11-12).

The late-Victorian ‘homosexual panic’

As the nineteenth century neared its end, same-sex friendships, especially those between unmarried men, came under increasing scrutiny. A wave of sexual scandals beginning in the 1880s3 fostered the view among conservatives that England was entering a phase of moral and social decline (Taylor 2007: 14). The newly emerging discipline of sexual theory (known as ‘sexology’ at the time) stressed that, far from being an individual quirk, sexuality was fundamentally social in nature (Kaye 2007: 54-55). Within the Victorian worldview, heterosexuality was not simply a vehicle for enforcing the patriarchal structure of society through the dominance of wives by their husbands (Waters 1997: 17). One of the main functions of the family, in fact, was the furthering of English society through procreation: the nurturing attention of a mother and the example set by a patriarchal father were deemed key factors in raising obedient children who would become valuable members of society (Purchase 2006: 65-66).

Consequently, any violation of the ideal of compulsory heterosexuality was perceived as a direct threat to the stability of English society. The main catalyst of this late-Victorian ‘homosexual panic’ (Sedgwick 1985: 89) was the trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895. Alan Sinfield has pointed out that the trial exposed the role a public school education played in the formation of a homosexual identity: “[…] despite the official taboo, [public schools] contributed, in many instances, an unofficial but powerful cultural framework within which same-sex passion might be positively valued. The poetry of boy-love, towards the end of the nineteenth century, presents the virtues of same-sex passion as elaborated and eroticized versions of the standard public-school virtues – service, physical vigour, hero-worship and personal loyalty.” (Sinfield 1994: 65-66; emphasis added)

Although it was Oscar Wilde’s lifestyle that was on trial and not his writings, The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence during the proceedings (MacLeod 2006: 138). This had far-reaching consequences not only for Decadent literature in particular4, but also for British fiction in general: the moral panic sparked by Wilde’s conviction led to a period of censorship which heavily curtailed the publication of works with clear or suspected homosexual leanings (Showalter 1991: 171). In this social climate of ‘homosexual panic’, authors had to make doubly sure that their depiction of male homosocial relationships would be beyond reproach. One option to achieve this was by portraying one member of the relationship as being unwilling or unable to form passionate bonds5; more common though was the repeated affirmation of the protagonist’s heterosexuality, especially if the narrative was otherwise centred on his close friendship with another man.

A half-hearted attempt at heterosexuality

Published in the wake of the scandalous Wilde trial, E. W. Hornung’s Raffles stories take pains to establish the heterosexuality of the two protagonists. The Amateur Cracksman (1899) has both Bunny and Raffles interact with women: in “Gentlemen and Players”, Bunny spends a dinner at Lord Amersteth’s estate in intimate conversation with Miss Melhuish, while Raffles is shown flirting viciously with a young Australian adventuress in “The Gift of the Emperor”. The same story also has Bunny comment on Raffles’ experience with members of the opposite sex: “Is it conceivable that a man like Raffles, with his knowledge of the world, and his experience of women (a side of his character upon which I have purposely never touched, for it deserves another volume) […] could find anything but nonsense to talk by the day together to a giddy young schoolgirl?” (Hornung 2013: 103; emphasis added)

The Black Mask (1901) introduces two former girlfriends of A. J. Raffles, the Italian peasant girl Faustina (“The Fate of Faustina”) and the Spanish artist Jacques Saillard (“An Old Flame”), while Bunny is provided with an unnamed ex-fiancée in A Thief in the Night (1905). Finally, Mr. Justice Raffles (1909) reveals that, before she became engaged to Raffles’ friend Teddy Garland, Camilla Belsize was courted by Raffles for a short period of time (Hornung 2013: 507).

While these instances may have satisfied the censorship and readers at the time, a closer analysis of the stories somewhat complicates matters. In fact, it becomes readily apparent that, while heterosexual relationships are referred to in the Raffles stories, their possible threat to the close bond between Bunny and Raffles is consistently deflected so that the narrative can focus on Bunny’s feelings for Raffles instead (O’Brien 2015: 659).

Who needs women when there’s diamonds to steal?

This deflection of heterosexual relationships is achieved through various means. Firstly, the character’s interactions with women in The Amateur Cracksman are ultimately not romantic in nature. In “Gentlemen and Players”, Bunny’s conversation with Miss Melhuish is portrayed as anything but flirtatious: rather than exchange pleasantries, they discuss the suspected imminent burglary of Lord Amersteth’s estate; while Miss Melhuish is talking, Bunny is more interested in watching Raffles than looking at her6; and once the women have left the room, Bunny’s only comment regarding Miss Melhuish is that she has a tendency towards “indiscretion” (Hornung 2013: 38); he then promptly forgets all about her for the rest of the story. Far from serving as a possible love interest for Bunny, then, the main function of Miss Melhuish is to alert him to the danger of his and Raffles’ possible detection by the police (Rowland 1999: 136).

More significantly, while Raffles does spend a considerable part of “The Gift of the Emperor” flirting with Amy Werner, it is soon revealed that his true object of desire is not the young Australian adventuress, but a priceless pearl in the possession of Captain von Heumann, who is also interested in Miss Werner (Hornung 2013: 103-104). By positioning himself as a rival for Amy’s affections, Raffles forces von Heumann to up the stakes of his courtship. Desperate to win the Australian woman back from Raffles, von Heumann shows the pearl to Amy Werner to impress her; with a little coaxing, Raffles gets her to reveal the precise location of the pearl to him, which finally enables him to steal it (Hornung 2013: 106). This whole episode is an example of a male-male-female erotic triangle that is centred around the concept of the ‘traffic of women’. As Sedgwick defines it in her influential book Between Men (1985), “[…] traffic of women […] is the use of women as exchangeable, perhaps symbolic, property for the primary purpose of cementing the bonds of men with men.” (Sedgwick 1985: 25-26). As has been demonstrated, the primary purpose of the romantic rivalry in “The Gift of the Emperor” is not to cement a closer bond between Raffles and Amy Werner; on the contrary, since Raffles’ true object of desire is something that belongs to his purported rival, his flirting with Miss Werner is only a means for him to get closer to von Heumann. Thus, Amy Werner does not represent a permanent threat to Bunny’s and Raffles’ homosocial relationship; and as Raffles’ interest in von Heumann is merely based on his being in possession of the pearl, von Heumann is also in no position to endanger Bunny’s friendship with Raffles.

Another means to deflect the threat heterosexual relationships pose to the close bond between Bunny and Raffles is to situate them outside the main narrative. Faustina, the peasant girl Raffles falls in love with during his hideout in Italy, ends up dead, shot by a member of the Camorra; both Bunny and the reader learn about this only after the fact (Hornung 2013: 152). When a chance meeting between Raffles and his ‘old flame’, Jacques Saillard, leads to her pursuing him again, Raffles is not only clearly uninterested in rekindling their relationship, but he even goes so far as to fake his own death to get away from her (Hornung 2013: 204). Finally, when Bunny realises that Raffles still has feelings for Miss Belsize and confronts him about it, Raffles’ explanation for not resuming his courtship is quite illuminating: “Sooner or later I should have choked her off, so the sooner [I ended it] the better. You play them false, you cut a dance, you let them down over something that doesn’t matter, and they’ll never give you a dog’s chance over anything that does.” (Hornung 2013: 508). On the one hand, Raffles paints his rejection of Miss Belsize as selfless: he seems to consider himself unworthy of her, so he claims to have set her free for her own good. On the other hand, his generalising comment about the fickleness of women runs counter to his purported high opinion of Camilla Belsize, and his obvious unwillingness to work towards a stable marital relationship – with Miss Belsize in particular and other women in general – strengthens the impression that Raffles is simply uninterested in matrimony (Freeman 2007: 91).

In Bunny’s case, his failed engagement forms a sort of frame narrative to his relationship with Raffles (O’Brien 2015: 659). The engagement ends two months after Bunny and Raffles’ first coup together: in “Out of Paradise”, Raffles manipulates Bunny into unknowingly breaking into his fiancée’s home; as she catches Bunny in the act, this naturally puts an end to their courtship (Hornung 2013: 246). She doesn’t appear again until after Raffles’ death, when a chance encounter between her and Bunny leads to him receiving a letter from her which hints towards a possible future reconciliation (Hornung 2013: 365-366).

Blurring the lines

The overall lackluster portrayal of Bunny’s and Raffles’ heterosexual relationships has been commented on by several critics (see, for instance, Freeman 2007: 92, and O’Brien 2015: 659), and it has led more than one critic to interpret Bunny’s close friendship with Raffles as (at least latently) homosexual in nature (see, for instance, Rance 1990: 6-7, and Rowland 1999: 136-137)7. One of the arguments in favour of a homosexual relationship used by these critics is the emotionally charged language Bunny uses when talking about Raffles. There are several instances in the stories where Bunny expresses jealousy towards possible rivals for Raffles’ affection: once towards Amy Werner in “The Gift of the Emperor”8, and two times towards Teddy Garland in Mr. Justice Raffles9. At the same time, Bunny openly speaks about his devotion for Raffles: “It was Raffles I loved. It was not the dark life we led together, still less its base rewards; it was the man himself, his gayety, his humor, his dazzling audacity, his incomparable courage and resource.” (Hornung 2013: 247). Even Bunny’s former fiancée is aware of his deep feelings towards the man: “I know that Mr. Raffles was what he was because he loved danger and adventure, and that you were what you were because you loved Mr. Raffles.” (Hornung 2013: 365; emphasis added). Finally, “Out of Paradise” establishes that Bunny doesn’t distinguish between the love for his fiancée and the love for his friend: “Raffles had cheated me. Raffes had completed the ruin of my life. I was done with Raffles, as she who shall not be named was done with me.” (Hornung 2013: 246; emphasis added).

Apart from the emotionally charged language, the depiction of Bunny’s and Raffles’ lives as being closely interwoven has also led to a homosexual reading of their relationship. Their friendship is their respective primary relationship – neither women nor men are ever shown to rival Bunny’s intimacy with Raffles and vice versa, and neither of them shows any inclination to start a family within the confines of the main narrative. During the four years before they are uncovered, Bunny and Raffles enter each other’s rooms at all hours of the day, often spending long stretches of time in each other’s company; at one point they even possess keys to each other’s rooms (Hornung 2013: 360). When Raffles announces in “The Chest of Silver” that he has ordered for a telephone to be installed in his rooms at the Albany, Bunny’s first reaction is: “‘Good! […] Then we shall be able to talk to each other day and night!’” (Hornung 2013: 249; emphasis added). After Bunny and Raffles are reunited in “No Sinecure”, their lives become even more entangled with each other: with Raffles posing as an invalid Australian and Bunny playing the role of his male nurse, they start living in the same flat together (Hornung 2013: 124). As they are now outcasts of society, their days mostly revolve around each other, with only their infrequent burglaries breaking the monotony of hiding inside during the day or spending the nights on the rooftop of their flat (Hornung 2013: 131). After Raffles lets Mr. Maturin “die” to evade Jacques Saillard’s advances in “An Old Flame”, he and Bunny finally move to Ham Common together under the guise of brothers, adding a familial tie to their already close relationship (Hornung 2013: 206).

From a modern perspective, these examples can certainly be used to construct a homosexual reading of Bunny’s and Raffles’ relationship; however, viewing the stories within the cultural context they were written in doesn’t fully support this interpretation. Bunny’s intense loyalty towards Raffles, his hero-worship, and his readiness to be at his service recall the virtues fostered in the environment of a public school (Sinfield 1994: 66). In fact, Bunny’s jealousy and devotion are reminiscent of the passionate schoolboy friendship described by Benjamin Disraeli in his novel Coningsby (Disraeli 1927: 45-46). The expression of such intense feelings by an adult man towards another may have been somewhat suspect even for readers at the time, but certainly not to the extent modern critics tend to expect (see, for instance, Rance 1990: 6-7).

There are several explanations for the lack of moral outrage accompanying the initial publication of the Raffles stories. From a genre standpoint, fin-de-siècle crime fiction was in general intensely homosocial in nature: the adventurous plots with their murders, burglaries, and exciting chases through the London streets did not mesh well with the domesticity of middle-class family life (Freeman 2007: 89-90). Another possible explanation is the overall structure of the stories as an adult form of the school story10. The school story was a genre made popular by Thomas Hughes in the mid-nineteenth century; novels like Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857) charted the growing-up of the young protagonist and were set in the world of public schools (Waters 1997: 75), thus making them another representative of the coming-of-age novel. The Raffles stories can be interpreted as a school story set in the adult world: “[…] the prank becomes a crime, and the master a police detective.” (Green 2003: xlvii). The overall lack of sadistic violence in the stories11; the essentially harmless burglaries in stories such as “The Criminologists’ Club” and “The Field of Philippi”; and the overall sense of crime as adventure certainly add to the surface impression of the Raffles stories depicting a series of pranks by public schoolboys rather than the heinous crimes of hardened criminals (Rowland 1999: 177).

“He had dragged me thus far to the devil, but now he should lead me dancing the rest of the way”

Ultimately, the question whether Bunny and Raffles’ homosocial relationship can be read as homosexual or not deflects the true point of the stories, which is the portrayal of their friendship as unhealthy and abusive. In fact, a closer examination of Bunny’s and Raffles’ friendship reveals that, far from portraying it as a glorified example of same-sex intimacy, the narrative actually depicts their friendship as a destructive force that almost ends with the figurative death of Bunny’s self.

O’Brien has described the nature of Bunny’s and Raffles’ relationship as being “love as abasement, as weakness not strength” (O’Brien 2015: 659), and from Bunny’s point of view, this is certainly true. The inherent power imbalance of their friendship has already been established: by controlling the planning and most of the execution of their crimes, Raffles persistently keeps the upper hand in their partnership. He often withholds vital information from Bunny, yet berates him when he ends up botching a task because of it12. While Bunny is clearly hurt and annoyed by this, he never actually tries to turn their relationship into a more equal one. This is primarily based on his perceived inferiority to Raffles. Early on in their acquaintance, Bunny describes their relationship as the “subjection of the weaker nature to the stronger” (Hornung 2013: 5). Raffles’ persistent sidelining of him in their criminal exploits further contributes to Bunny’s excessive lack of confidence. Yet, it is revealed in several of the Raffles stories that Bunny is actually quite resourceful on his own: in “A Trap to Catch a Cracksman”, Bunny manages to rescue Raffles from the eponymous trap, and in “The Last Laugh”, he saves Raffles from certain death at the hands of the Camorra. As soon as Raffles is able to take control again, however, Bunny voluntarily retreats: “[…] with Raffles in his right mind, I had ceased to apply my own, or to carry my share of our common burden another inch. It had been an unconscious withdrawal on my part, an instinctive tribute to my leader […].” (Hornung 2013: 328-329; emphasis added).

Over the course of the Raffles stories, Bunny’s sense of self is slowly but surely corrupted by Raffles’ influence. The most obvious example of this is his name. Throughout the main narrative, ‘Bunny’ is the only name that is ever used to refer to him, be it by Raffles or by himself. As this is a nickname given to him by Raffles while they were at school together13, the name ‘Bunny’ already ties his sense of self directly to Raffles. Even before their cover is blown in “The Gift of the Emperor”, Raffles is Bunny’s closest friend; after that, they become their respective only friend and are in the “constant society” of each other (Hornung 2013: 199). Finally, their move to Ham Common coincides with Raffles assuming the identity of Bunny’s brother “Ralph” (Hornung 2013: 206). Apart from being his only friend and constant companion, Raffles has now also become Bunny’s only family14.

Even more apparent is the moral corruption Bunny suffers through his relationship with Raffles. After their first burglary together, Bunny is convinced he is now past all redemption: “What does it matter now? I’ve been in it once. I’ll be in it again. I’ve gone to the devil anyhow.” (Hornung 2013: 17)15. Throughout their first years together, Bunny is able to retain at least some sense of morality. In “A Costume Piece”, for instance, he can’t bring himself to strike a servant unconscious, even though it would aid him in his escape (Hornung 2013: 28). After his arrest and subsequent jail sentence, however, Bunny’s values have noticeably shifted. While he still remains mostly clueless during his and Raffles’ criminal exploits, he is now “not unprepared for violent crime”: “One does not do eighteen months for nothing.” (Hornung 2013: 128). How far Bunny is actually willing to go is proven in “The Wrong House”, where he is ready to shoot into a crowd of unarmed schoolchildren in order to free Raffles from dire straits and, later in the story, actually strangles one of the boys to the point of unconsciousness (Hornung 2013: 209-211).

Bunny is quite aware of the destructive influence Raffles has on him, but his loyalty and devotion to “the dear rascal who had cost me every tie I valued but the tie between us two” (Hornung 2013: 121) is unshakeable. In the end, he even follows Raffles into war; while Raffles dies on a battlefield somewhere in South Africa, Bunny is shot in the leg, which leaves him “more or less lame for life” (Hornung 2013: 229). And yet, Bunny’s story ends on a somewhat positive note: the letter he receives from his former fiancée in “The Last Word” offers him the promise of friendship and maybe even love (Hornung 2013: 365-366). Thus, while his relationship with Raffles morally corrupted him and led him to the brink of death, in the end Bunny realises that redemption is indeed possible for him. Now that the object of his devotion and villain-worship is dead, Bunny is finally free of Raffles’ influence and can try and return to a more respectable life, exemplified by the forgiving letter of the woman he once loved and may love again.

Footnotes:

1The term ‘homosocial’ describes “social bonds between persons of the same sex” (Sedgwick 1985: 1). Contrary to the concept of homosexuality, ‘homosocial’ can be applied to any form of same-sex bonding, not just relationships of a romantic or sexual nature (Poovey 1995: 125).

2At this time, women were usually taught at home or sent to separate, more local schools (Morgan 2007: 47).

3These included, among others, W. T. Stead’s investigative piece of journalism “The Maiden Tribute of Babylon” (1885), which disclosed the then-rampant problem of child prostitution to a wider public, and of course the aforementioned trial for homosexuality that led to Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment in 1895 (Showalter 1991: 3-4).

4The publication of several Decadent works was interrupted and delayed, among them Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds, which, although it had already been completed by 1895, was not published until 1897 (Sedgwick 1985: 216).

5A famous example of a male character extremely disinclined towards marriage is Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: “All emotions, and [love] particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. [Sherlock Holmes] was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen […].” (Doyle 2003: 239). Other possibilities to bar one of the characters from marriage were physical debility or an unhappy prior marriage (Oulton 2007: 6).

6“I looked at Raffles. I had done so often during the evening […].” (Hornung 2013: 37).

7This interpretation also serves as the basis for Graham Greene’s 1975 play, The Return of A. J. Raffles, which clearly establishes both Bunny and Raffles as being homosexual.

8“I resented her success with Raffles, of whom, in consequence, I saw less and less each day. It is a mean thing to have to confess, but there must have been something not unlike jealousy rankling within me.” (Hornung 2013: 103-104).

9In chapter 2 of the novel, Bunny complains about the sudden “mushroom intimacy” between Raffles and Teddy (Hornung 2013: 374). In chapter 6, Teddy’s fiancée, Camilla Belsize, reveals she is also not too happy about this intimate relationship with Raffles, and Bunny comments: “[…] I knew the nut, and had tasted its bitter kernel too often to make any mistake about it. Jealousy was its other name.” (Hornung 2013: 406).

10This connection has been pointed out by many critics, including Richard Lancelyn Green, Colin Watson and George Orwell.

11While the stories do contain a certain amount of violence, most of it is not particularly graphic or sadistic. One exception is Raffles’ torture by the Camorra in “The Last Laugh”, but even that is only hinted at and not described directly (Hornung 2013: 166).

12In “Nine Points of the Law”, for instance, Raffles’ plan for stealing a painting always involved switching it with a fake, but he never informs Bunny of this. When Bunny, believing Raffles has failed in executing his plan, ends up stealing the fake instead, Raffles scolds him for having “undone one of the best things [he] ever did.” (Hornung 2013: 83).

13In “The Ides of March”, Raffles’ “kindly tone and kindlier use of [his] old school nickname” are what finally convince Bunny that he will help him (Hornung 2013: 5).

14The first story establishes that Bunny has no family left by the time he meets up with Raffles again: “I have no people! I was an only child. I came in for everything there was.” (Hornung 2013: 3).

15In contrast, Raffles never exhibits any moral qualms about his identity as a criminal. On the contrary, he even teases Bunny about his “conventional view” of life: “Human nature was a board of checkers; why not reconcile one’s self to alternate black and white? Why desire to be all one thing or all the other […]? For his part, he enjoyed himself on all squares of the board, and liked the light better for the shade.” (Hornung 2013: 102).

Works cited:

Disraeli, Benjamin. Coningsby or The New Generation. 1844. The Bradenham Edition. Ed. Philip Guedalla. Vol. 8. London: Peter Davies, 1927.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories. Vol. 1. New York: Bantam Classics, 2003.

Freeman, Nick. “Double Lives, Terrible Pleasures: Oscar Wilde and Crime Fiction in the Fin de Siècle.” Formal Investigations: Aesthetic Style in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Detective Fiction. Ed. Paul Fox and Koray Melikoğlu. Studies in English Literature 4. Stuttgart: ibidem, 2007. 71-96.

Green, Richard Lancelyn. “Introduction.” Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman. E.W. Hornung. Ed. Richard Lancelyn Green. London: Penguin, 2003. xvii-xlvii.

Greene, Graham. The Return of A.J. Raffles: An Edwardian Comedy in Three Acts based somewhat loosely on E.W. Hornung’s characters in The Amateur Cracksman. London: The Bodley Head Ltd, 1975.

Hornung, E.W. A.J. Raffles – The Gentleman Thief Series: The Amateur Cracksman; The Black Mask; A Thief in the Night; Mr. Justice Raffles. Leipzig: Amazon Distribution GmbH, 2013.

Kaye, Richard A. “Sexual identity at the fin de siècle.” The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle. Ed. Gail Marshall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 53-72.

MacLeod, Kirsten. Fictions of British Decadence: High Art, Popular Writing, and the Fin de Siècle. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Morgan, Simon. A Victorian Woman’s Place: Public Culture in the Nineteenth Century. International Library of Historical Studies 40. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007.

O’Brien, Lee. “Wilde Words: The Aesthetics of Crime and the Play of Genre in E.W. Hornung’s Raffles Stories.” English Studies, 96.6 (2015): 654-669.

Orwell, George. “Raffles and Miss Blandish.” 1944. The Complete Short Stories of Raffles – The Amateur Cracksman. E.W. Hornung. London: Souvenir Press, 1984. 25-38.

Oulton, Carolyn W. De La L. Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.

Poovey, Mary. Making a Social Body: British Cultural Formation, 1830-1864. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Purchase, Sean. Key Concepts in Victorian Literature. Palgrave Key Concepts. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Rance, Nick. “The Immorally Rich and the Richly Immoral: Raffles and the Plutocracy.” Twentieth-Century Suspense: The Thriller Comes of Age. Ed. Clive Bloom. Insights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1990. 1-21.

Rowland, Peter. Raffles and His Creator: The Life and Works of E.W. Hornung. London: Nekta, 1999.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Gender and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1991.

Sinfield, Alan. The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the Queer Moment. London: Cassell, 1994.

Taylor, Jenny Bourne. “Psychology at the fin de siècle.” The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle. Ed. Gail Marshall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 13-30.

Waters, Karen Volland. The Perfect Gentleman: Masculine Control in Victorian Men’s Fiction, 1870-1901. Studies in Nineteenth-Century British Literature 3. New York: Peter Lang, 1997.

Watson, Colin. Snobbery with Violence: Crime Stories and their Audience. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971.

#rafflesweek #crime and cricket #raffles #a.j. raffles #bunny manders #delicious meta #my stuff

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Episode 43: Maximum Capacity

“You know how I feel about shapeshifting.”

Steven Universe begins in the middle of the story, when Steven first reveals signs of his latent magical powers. This is a terrific jumping-off point, but it’s always been clear that the saga of the Crystal Gems predates him by many, many years. Rose is more often than not used as shorthand for the past, the way things had always been Before Steven (his birth being the second time she upended a longstanding status quo).

But we often ignore a critical period of time in the show’s history: the lost years between Rose’s death and Gem Glow. Surely there were some growing pains, considering the Gems are still uncertain about showing Steven the ropes, but implications and theories are all we get until Maximum Capacity.

History inundates every aspect of this episode. Obviously it consumes the plot and provides ample fuel for drama, but even its humor is derived from digs at pop culture history (Li'l Butler as a representation of 80’s sitcoms) and the viewer's own history with the show (the bait-and-switch reveal of Amethyst-as-helper depends on our knowledge of Pearl’s behavior). Few episodes commit so single-mindedly to one theme without a character up and telling us the lesson. Steven comes close in his big speech about letting things go, but it’s just ambiguous enough to use its obvious double meaning to its advantage.

There’s a huge layer of uncertainty to this episode that I just love. How much does Steven understand about what’s going on? There was a point in the show where the subtext of his speech about letting things go would’ve been lost on him, but he’s wised up enough to potentially get that he’s also talking about Greg and Amethyst’s baggage about Rose. But has he? We just don’t know!

The same can be said for the nature of Greg and Amethyst’s relationship. While I’m personally all for the interpretation that they clung together as kindred spirits after Rose’s death, and am fully against the interpretation that their history is romantic (Greg has shown no interest in anyone after Rose, he treated Amethyst like a child sister before Rose died, and her rant is more about losing a parental figure than anything romantic), I can’t ignore that there’s plenty of reasons for other fans to infer that they had a fling. Amethyst’s crack about seeing Greg’s junk aside, the knowledge that she’s roleplayed Rose in the past when the two of them hung out alone together is loaded as hell.

There’s no right answer to these things, and that’s perfect, because history is a fickle thing, especially to a kid like Steven.

Not to harp on Horror Club again, but Maximum Capacity is a sterling example of how to include Steven in an episode that’s not really about him. He’s focused on, for sure, but it’s all in service of our true leads, Greg and Amethyst. His self-enforced grounding is funny, but it also highlights a sense of responsibility that’s lost on two adults drowning in memories. His sorrow about Greg missing the fireworks may make us feel for him, but it also highlights how far his father has fallen. Steven gets to be his own character doing his own things, but he never distracts us from Greg and Amethyst’s story. And what a story it is!

While they’ve had few interactions to this point, Amethyst is notably more cordial with Greg than the other Gems—recall her casual greeting to him in Onion Trade and her hanging with him and Steven in House Guest. Amethyst is also more involved with human culture than her partners. That these two elements of her character are linked is a brilliant touch: of course Greg would introduce her to cheesy amazing sitcoms like Li’l Butler.

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It only becomes clear that their bingeing (a word that may be ugly but at least is clearer than “binging”) originated with Rose’s death when Pearl Pearlsplains the situation, but something’s immediately off with Greg when Steven realizes he hasn’t even slept. Greg has always prioritized being with his son, even to his detriment in the dreadful House Guest, and seeing him ignore Steven Time is troubling.

Thanks to our pinpoint focus on Steven's reaction to Rose’s absence for most of the season, we've barely touched on how it affected the rest of her family. Pearl gets vocally emotional about her at times, and Garnet treats her memory with the utmost respect, but Amethyst is consistently quiet on the issue (in no small part due to her condition in An Indirect Kiss). Strangely enough, Greg is similarly reticent about Rose; while his debut in Laser Light Cannon showed him reminiscing, playing the music she loved, and tearing up over her image, he's been a closed book ever since.

In that way, it's fitting that these two get the first round of Adults Miss Rose Too before Pearl steps into the ring. Maximum Capacity shows that their grief is just below the surface, ready to drag them not only into deep sadness but unhealthy coping mechanisms. Sure, there are more harmful ways to mourn than watching a show nonstop, but we gradually see it draw out the worst in our two heroes.

The occasional portrayal of Greg as lazy and absentminded has always been, well, lazy and absentminded: he’s the sole financial provider for his son unless the Gems have jobs we don’t know about, and he seems to run his own one-man business well, so the idea that he’s just a big galoot has never gelled with me. His core competence and responsibility means it hits like a truck to see him so sucked into the siren song of Li’l Butler that he forgets to spend New Year’s Eve with his son. I love how instantly he regrets missing the fireworks: as a good father, he recognizes the mistake and feels awful about it without anyone telling him to, and takes steps to fix it right away.

But then it’s Amethyst’s turn, and after an episode-long showcase of her most obvious flaw (laziness that outstrips Greg’s by a mile) she reveals the pinnacle of her self-centeredness. She’s apathetic to Steven’s feelings, then Greg’s feelings, and acts as if Greg is source of all her problems while indirectly blaming Steven’s existence for Rose not being there for her. I almost hate to bring up her middle child syndrome again so soon after On the Run, but it certainly manifests in her anger over her feelings and needs not getting enough attention.

Thanks to terrific writing, her obvious remorse, and Michaela Dietz’s outstanding delivery, Amethyst doesn’t become the monster that my descriptions of her actions might imply. But she deals with negativity by internalizing and exploding; she literally lets the garbage in her life pile up until there’s no more room. It’s far healthier to deal with baggage instead of pushing it aside, as Steven so helpfully points out, and therein lies my only issue with Maximum Capacity.

In an episode about the importance of coping with the past, we don’t actually get any lessons on the how. We learn what not to do, but rather than actually face his history head-on, Greg returns to find that all of his problems have been sorted out by someone else off-screen, no hardship required! Moreover, Amethyst is still holding on to all of his baggage when the episode ends, with the exception of a few items (including the frame that frames this amazing shot):

I’m all about the show’s ability to subvert a lesson, but it doesn’t seem intentional here, especially with a lesson this good. Still, Maximum Capacity is brilliant enough that I mostly give it a pass. Not every aspect of grief can be dealt with in eleven minutes, and besides, we have Mr. Greg to take care of the processing.

Future Vision!

This is our first look at Garnet and Pearl’s Dad Shirt Forms, which we’ll see again in...wait, never? What’s wrong with this show!?

Amethyst will turn into Rose once again in the movie, this time with an okay from Greg (and a song!).

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Not sure how we managed to get so many callbacks to Laser Light Cannon in one episode, including the broken picture that first prompted “If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs,” without a single reference to this alleged catchphrase. I’ve said before how silly it is that Greg never says this outside of Light Cannon, but it’s particularly silly here.

I’ve never been to this…how do you say…school?

This one’s a little more poignant than usual, but I guess I’ll take it, jeez Hilary.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Even if it doesn’t stick the landing, Maximum Capacity somehow tells a great story about grief and disappointment without being a downer. I’ve got no beef with downers, mind you, but Li’l Butler theme or no Li’l Butler theme, that’s a hell of a feat.

Top Ten

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

Maximum Capacity

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test

Future Vision

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

No Thanks!

4. Horror Club 3. Fusion Cuisine 2. House Guest 1. Island Adventure

#maximum capacity #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 7 years

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AK Monthly Recap: April 2017

It’s so strange that when I look back at this month, one random little memory comes to mind.

I was standing in the CVS on Broadway and 93rd St., fresh from a training session at the gym, picking up a bottle of coconut water, wondering whether I should pay my trainer more for analyzing my love life in between squats and deadlifts.

And then a song came on overhead — Sugar Ray’s “Someday.”

I was filled with nostalgia and warmth.

CVS was where I worked in high school; “Someday” was a popular song on the radio then. I remember the video, the band grooving on a beach in black and white, Mark McGrath all frosted tips and swaying hips. As it played, I moved over to the nearest speaker and danced a little bit, coconut water in hand, trying to pinpoint the feeling swelling through me.

Just close your eyes and I’ll take you there,

This place is warm and without a care…

The song ended too soon. I made my way to the self-checkout, feeling like something had been taken from me, but glad I had experienced it.

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Reading, Beverly, Lynn, and Boston, Massachusetts

Favorite Destinations

It was so nice to get back to Boston — I actually haven’t spent much time in the city proper since I moved to New York. I used to know Boston like the back of my hand; now that I haven’t lived there for six and a half years, I barely recognize some parts of it.

Highlights

Meeting my feminist heroes. This was a fantastic month. I had no idea I’d be meeting feminist icon Gloria Steinem! My friend Amy invited me to an event honoring Dr. Willie Parker, reproductive rights advocate and author of Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice.

(John Oliver was there, too, and gave a hilarious introduction. Olivia Wilde was there as well, as an attendee, and I cracked up when Amy said, “Hey, Olivia, your backpack is unzipped so I’m just zipping it up for you now.”)

I got a chance to briefly chat with Gloria and tell her about the work I do to fight gender inequality in the travel blogging industry and elsewhere. (“Travel blogging. That’s interesting,” she said.) “I’m continuing your work,” I told her. “No,” she gently corrected me. “You’re continuing your work and I support you.” My heart felt like it was about to burst.

I also met Lindy West, one of my favorite writers in the world, whose book Shrill I named one of my favorite reads of 2016. She was giving a reading at the NYU bookstore. We had a nice discussion about the ramifications of standing up for your beliefs when it can negatively impact your career.

Enjoying flower season in New York. I’m glad I actually got some good photos this year! The cherry blossoms are so beautiful. Spring is one of my favorite times of year in the city. I love when you can ditch a jacket and have a coffee or drink outdoors.

Trying out crazy treats in New York. I’m on a mission to photograph some of the crazier foods in New York, so I waited in line for a cronut at Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo (and ran into two lovely readers while doing so!) and tried the fish-shaped ice cream at Taiyaki in Chinatown. Pro tip: if you want a cronut, go right when they open.

Trying out vegan restaurants in New York. No real reason for it; I just happened to try a few this month! I know I have some vegan and vegetarian readers, so here are some tips: if you want something high-end, check out Candle Cafe on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side. I loved the “lasagna” with tomatoes, pesto, cashew cheese, and thinly sliced zucchini. For something more casual, try out Sun in Bloom in Park Slope or Tribeca. They make sandwiches in collard green wraps and they got me to say the most Brooklyn thing ever: “What’s your Brazil nut latte like?” (It’s actually really delicious; you should get it, too.)

Returning to the Boston Marathon. The last time I attended was 2013, the year of the bombing, which was a very scary day. You can read about my experience here. I always find the marathon to be a moving event, and it especially was for me this year. I also got to cheer on my friend Matt, who is an avid marathoner but was running his first Boston.

Spending Easter at home with my family. It was a good time to go home. I also got my chowda fix at Legal Sea Foods. If you want the best clam chowder in Boston, that’s where you go (and don’t even THINK of getting the low cal version); if you want the best seafood chowder in the world, go to The Maine Diner in Wells, Maine.

Hanging out with a cool puppy with a bright future. My sister volunteers for Puppies Behind Bars, an organization where prisoners train puppies to become service animals for wounded vets. The puppies need to be socialized outside of the prison on a weekly basis, so Sarah gets to have a puppy stay with her overnight a few times a month. I loved hanging out with Waldo the black lab; he was so sweet. Also, you can bring a service animal anywhere, which is pretty cool.

Challenges

Overall, this was a very good month, and I’m grateful for that. Nothing worse than a traffic-filled bus back to New York that took nearly seven hours as opposed to the usual five.