#(i say as if we could compare to the extensive evils of first-past the post)

[laurelwreathring]

show me the local election result predictions show me the predictions show me them show me show me show show me show me

[pentatonicpython]

What I'm about to write is potentially a huge confession about who I am as a person. Some time in the future I'm sure to look back at this post and either cringe at how dumb I was or be disgusted by how horrifying my current take on life is.

I don't understand Morality

And when I say that I don't understand it, I don't mean that I don't have personal morals or Ideals. Quite conversely it seems as though, at least compared to the typical person in my society, I care a lot more about Ideals and Morals than others. To an allistic person, personality and Ego are based on social factors, but to an autistic person the self is based on Ideals, Morals, and interests.

It's not just that I have opinions about things, to me my opinions ARE who I am. They are the definition of my personality, my life, my mind, my everything. This makes my current confusion with the nature of things all the more labyrinthine. To question the nature of ideals and morality is to question my existence as a person.

To begin to explain what I mean, I think I first have to talk about the differences between Objective Morality and Subjective Morality. A system with objective morality would imply that there is Inherent "Good" and "Evil" in the world. By extension it would mean that people, places, things, and actions all have the ability to be wholly good or wholly evil, not just as a consideration or opinion of the observer, but as an inherent fact of their existence. The opposite of this, subjective morality, would imply that all matters of morality are subject to perception and bias. This would mean true good and evil don't actually exist, but rather are matters of the ego itself or act as social constructs.

The skeptic in me sees no proof of a universe in which Objective Morality is real. Part of me thinks it would almost require a world veiw that involves some sort of universal higher power, or in the very least a spiritual reality to the human psyche.

As an atheist I see no compelling argument here, however it's undeniable to me that there are certain things in this life I personally would consider undeniable Evil.

Placing this concept on the back burner I'd like to talk about sort of the inciting incident for this existential rant. I was watching a negative review of one of my favorite shows "Steven Universe" and in the review the narrator heavily criticized the redemption arc of the great diamond authority, which to those unfamiliar with the show, are essentially space fascists. According to the narrator there are people that cannot and should not ever be forgiven or redeemed. To be completely honest I some what agreed with this take.

Where I take dilemma is, within the list of things the narrator declares "Unforgivable and Irredeemable" lies Abuse. At this point anyone reading this might be able to see how this concept is starting to unpack my more subjective veiws on reality.

I myself believe I have been raised in a dysfunctional family rife with abuse. My immediate family was more so psychologically and emotionally abusive, but my extended family was also physically and sexually abusive.

When I look back Instead to realize that I myself must have been abusive and toxic by nature. To some unknown extent I might still be. If they are unforgivable and Irredeemable, that must mean I am unforgivable and Irredeemable.

It's easy to sit back and tell myself that I was just a child or that "hurt people hurt people." It's very tempting to delegate my toxic past or abusive behaviors as beyond my control, but I feel personally that if I do I will never become a less toxic person. Try as I might to improve, according to this line of reasoning I am already unforgivable and Irredeemable.

I think the problem is that when someone does something we consider to be wrong or immoral we believe they have either done it out of corrupted character or ignorance. My previous behavior could be an example of corrupted character, I was acting in the way that I did due to my environment. Today I am likely abusive out of ignorance, and this post also serves as a self admittance of ignorance. Effectively there is no "middle ground" where someone can be ignorantly Evil. The mere status of being ignorant is Evil.

I'm not sure wether this makes me a horrific monster incapable of seeing or doing good in the way others are, or if humanity in general has built it's entire existence on understanding, utilizing, and perfecting something that cannot be understood or used in any capacity. Potentially because it does not exist

[lololollywrites]

Yeah. I don't entirely disagree with the first half of this argument, but it's an incomplete one to make - one that only takes her early life into consideration. I think that had John and Sherlock discovered her assassin past BEFORE she shot Sherlock, they would have understood. To some extent, at least. Sherlock even says he wants to help her in Magnussen's office, likely having immediately deduced that piece of her history upon seeing her holding a gun. He and John are not moral prescriptivists nor are they strict rule followers; they understand that what is right is not always what is legal, and thus we root for them. Sherlock tortures the cabbie - a proven serial killer - to glean information (ultimately about Moriarty) that could be life-saving. Morally grey, certainly, but on "the side of the angels". John later kills the cabbie for the same reason - he correctly weighs Sherlock's life as more important.

Mary's not exactly the same sort of altruist as John and Sherlock. She was getting PAID to kill (we see more than once that Sherlock will work cases for free and often forgets about the check; he also routinely assists the unhoused population. In contrast, look at the disdain with which Mary spoke to Wiggins in disguise on her way to meet Sherlock - when she thought no one was watching - to compare their general attitudes toward those less fortunate), and it's implied that she did some horrific things and killed people much more innocent than Magnussen. He did have dirt on her, after all, and I'd hazard a guess that it was more extensive than her simply having worked as an assassin. Many of us believe she may have even been hired by Moriarty simply due to the timing of when she met John, and the way in which others described her character was less than rosy. ("Bad girl! Bad, bad girl!" <- Not what someone like Magnussen would say upon discovering Mary is out there killing only terrible people like some sort of avenging angel, is it?)

Sure, she despised Magnussen, but I feel like it's largely because of the fact that he was blackmailing HER. She may have had a moral objection to his overall modus operandi as well, but the problem is that we don't have enough evidence to support this. She could have implied so (dispassionately as she did) simply to gain sympathy from John and Sherlock, as she knows that's how THEY operate. In contrast, Sherlock hates Magnussen (and says so more than once, with emotion and intensity) because he preys on anyone different and uses their weaknesses against them (it hits a bit close to home for him, particularly considering the original time period during which the character was written/the danger at that time of being closeted).

POOR WRITING is the biggest reason many of us dislike Mary, not because she's an inconvenient female character that gets in the middle of the Johnlock dynamic. If she were more well written, I personally would have welcomed more of that sort of tension, and I DID like her before HLV. The poor way in which she was written tells us that she was NOT A GOOD PERSON.

What this post, though insightful, ultimately disregards is Mary shooting Sherlock. That's the #1 reason we hate her. Sherlock knew she was an assassin in Magnussen's office, but hadn't yet jumped to the conclusion that she was evil; it's why he confidently said "No, Mrs. Watson. You won't" ...Because someone like him or John WOULDN'T HAVE, even despite their lack of adherence to the law. Mary's reasoning for this (or, rather, the fabricated reason Sherlock handed to her that she didn't argue against) is completely ridiculous. Even if we believe her excuse at face value, that she didn't intend to kill him, the fact remains that he DID almost die. He flatlined. So even in the best-case scenario, she risked Sherlock's life (knowing he'd need an ambulance immediately only supports that fact). She also caused him immense physical pain and months of recovery for what was ultimately a selfish reason. And that's... okay?

If we use some logic, it's clear she DID try to kill Sherlock, and likely that Sherlock didn't want her to bolt and was worried about John's safety and the safety of the unborn baby should they have pursued her ("Keep your enemies closer" in a literal sense). MAGNUSSEN was the one reaching for his phone after Sherlock went down (watch the scene back, it's clear) and therefore the one more likely to have dialed 999, if only just to save his own skin and keep Sherlock alive for his sick little games.

Mary AGAIN brought her gun to meet Sherlock in the unfinished building. WHY?????? There is NO REASON to have done that if she didn't want him dead. She knew Sherlock wouldn't have shot her or tried to hill her. He was, quite literally, almost dead on his feet. She was cold and murderous to him up until John was revealed at the other end of the corridor, then suddenly she was emotional... after having not expressed any remorse to Sherlock just beforehand and having threatened to kill him. Yet again. I will ALWAYS contend that the initial shot was "surgery", sure, but not in the way poor Sherlock tried to argue. It was one designed to cause a slow death (rather than an instant one) to keep John distracted long enough not to pursue Sherlock's killer and catch her.

John killed the cabbie for Sherlock. Sherlock killed Magnussen FOR JOHN, even knowing that it would likely cost him his freedom and the man that he loved. Mary tried to kill Sherlock FOR HERSELF. There is a very clear difference here.

S4 writing is so baffling that I don't usually try to dissect it, but I do argue in one of my fics that Mary jumped in front of the bullet in the aquarium because she knew her past would eventually catch up to her and she'd end up dying the villain, if not at Mycroft's behest (there's no way he'd just let it all go, not for much longer - I've always thought he was waiting until she had the baby). Instead, she dies a self-sacrificial hero, redeeming herself in John's eyes. AND her death was like one final stab against Sherlock. She technically saved his life, but knew it could cost him John, especially because she knew about John's latent feelings for Sherlock and how his guilt for those feelings could easily convert into vitriolic hate as he blamed himself for Mary's death.

Mary's also the one who cruelly led Sherlock down his suicidal spiral with that dumb video of hers, USING HIS WEAKNESS and low-self-esteem against him (who else did that??), and the same one who threw in that "I know what you could become" line. She'd been aware ALL ALONG of what was going on between them. She played them, and I will always believe that. A sane person would have said, I don't know, "Talk to John and be honest with him for once in your life", not "Almost kill yourself so John is forced to save you and both of you go through even more unnecessary trauma." But what do I know?

In a situation in which he could have saved himself by shooting Mycroft or John, Sherlock instead chooses to shoot himself. If that doesn't show the contrast here, I don't know what does.

Listen carefully to what Mary says: “people like Magnussen should be killed, that’s why there are people like me”.  She’s the type of person who kills people like Magnussen.  And what type of person is Magnussen?  According to Sherlock he is ‘the Napoleon of blackmail’ who runs the Western world from Appledore, using the “greatest respository of sensitive and dangerous information anywhere in the world”.  And as long as Magnussen has that information “the personal freedom of anyone you have ever met is a fantasy”.  He’s not a very nice person, in fact, he’s a pretty nasty guy who turns Sherlock’s stomach.  When Magnussen flicks John’s face at Appledore he tells him ���I know who Mary hurt and killed.  I know where to find people who hate her.  I know where they live.  I know their phone numbers.  I could phone them right now and tear your whole life down.”  He could set these people on Mary, and they obviously wouldn’t call the authorities to have her arrested and properly tried in a court of law.  They would hunt her down and kill her.  Probably not very nicely, because they are not-very-nice people.  So Mary may be right, people like Magnussen should be killed; that’s why there are people like her.

Who else has killed someone?

and then justified it as the killing of a not-very-nice person who deserved to die?

Remember that when John shot the cabbie Sherlock was voluntarily taking the pill - he wasn’t being coerced.  This means that John cannot avail himself of the “defense of other” defense to murder (akin to self-defense except that the homicide is committed to defend the life of another person, not yourself).  Sherlock confirms this when he tells John that he wasn’t really going to take the pill (true, John doesn’t believe this, but he does acknowledge that Sherlock was voluntarily risking his life to prove he was clever, because that’s how he gets his ‘kicks’).  John actually committed murder that night and then threw the murder weapon in the Thames.  Nevertheless, we love it when they giggle at the crime scene and then go off to dinner together. 

Also remember that after John shoots the cabbie Sherlock tortures him to force him to reveal Moriarty’s name telling him “you’re dying, but there’s still time to hurt you”.

Finally, remember who actually does kill Magnussen:

So don’t be too judgmental of Mary.  Both John and Sherlock have committed murder to save each other.  I don’t hear anybody criticizing them for doing this - in fact they are praised for doing so.  So why the double-standard when it comes to Mary?  Is it because we don’t know her back-story?  Sherlock has deduced that Mary was an intelligence agent, but he does not know what country she was serving. By her blonde hair I suppose we are to assume she is Russian, but that could be a red herring.  Sherlock trusts her, maybe, because, like him, she is on the ‘side of the angels’, even if she isn’t one herself. 

The fandom shouldn’t complain when John Watson’s wife turns out to be an assassin, because if the fandom likes Sherlock Holmes, and the fandom likes John Watson, then it is, indeed, what the fandom likes.

[ruby-whistler]

Why c!Dream should (and probably will be) redeemed

Hi! I’m bad with intros. You’ve read the title, so, let’s start with the definitions.

In this essay, we are considering the popularized definition of “redemption” instead of the classical one, which is, as per the Oxford Dictionary, “the act of saving or state of being saved from the power of evil; the act of redeeming.” That’s not however the way the word is used in fandom and media.

/dsmp /rp

The definition of redemption I’ll be working with in this essay is not forgiveness by the people who c!Dream has hurt, nor is it removing himself entirely from his past actions, but moreso the decision to change for the better and abandon destructive mindsets for himself and others.

A “redemption” in a narrative sense would be circumstances and a character arc that would allow that kind of healing and betterment.

I’d like to start this off by the fact that being “irredeemable”, in this sense, also doesn’t exist; redemption is a thing of conditions and choice, not of being allowed by someone else. You can’t gatekeep healing from people who seek it, just to be clear, and that even goes for people who have done terrible things.

Since I understand there is a lot of concern for c!Dream’s past actions, here is a post from people who are much more fit than me to speak on the matter, about the way in which they see a possible c!Dream redemption arc.

Another disclaimer, I am not going to be considering c!Dream only from the perspective of c!Tommy in this essay. c!Dream appears in other people’s perspectives and he himself has his own, unseen perspective. As a character, he is an individual person in his own right rather than just the antagonist of c!Tommy’s story, and so I do not have much concern for their narratives intertwining too much should this writing choice occur.

I’d also like to note that redemption is, in this sense, always a positive thing for everyone involved - someone who’s been prone to doing bad things in the past deciding not to do them anymore and try to change, or just simply heal enough to consider it, isn’t going to have a long-term negative effect in any of the characters, but rather the other way around. Healing is an unlimited resource, and the victims do not have to heal first for the person who hurt them to consider being better.

Here’s a well-written thread on Twitter that elaborates a bit to finish off this point, and let’s move on to actually talking about redemption in the context of the Dream SMP, and c!Dream specifically.

Why a c!Dream redemption arc is not only a good writing choice, but in this case the only good writing choice;

c!Dream, as we all know, has been subject to mental and physical abuse to the point of straight up torture by both c!Sam and c!Quackity (to different extents). He has been in indescribable amounts of suffering for the past 74 days at the time this essay will be published. That is six and something times the duration of the entire exile arc in canon.

Whatever the interpretation of his words in prison is, what is undeniable is first of all the fact his mental stability is absolutely crushed at this point, second that no human being could possibly ever deserve to undergo this, and third, his stay in the prison is showing off his humanity and making him out to be sympathetic.

Now, consider this; how would it feel if c!Tommy died at the end of the exile arc? Empty, there would be no catharsis to such an end, especially because of all of the hurt he’d gone through. Objectively, a bad writing choice.

Let’s compare, narratively of course, this situation to the prison arc. Even though I would never say one of them is “better” or “worse” than the other, since both are terrible and undeserved, c!Dream’s current state checks off all of the boxes that would make his death unsatisfying in the storyline; even if people want him gone, there would still be the dissatisfaction at the current build-up and why they even did it in the first place (it really wasn’t necessary to anyone else’s story to make him out as a victim, and yet they did) if they were planning to kill him off anyways. And since the prison arc is naturally meant to induce sympathy, even from an angst perspective it would simply not make sense within the themes and writing of the plot.

So, c!Dream can’t die, and he also can’t stay in the prison forever - the build-up must lead to something, which is logically a breakout. Great… what now?

Well, the Dream SMP prides itself in accurate representation of trauma and mental instability, specifically cc!Tommy and cc!Dream who have pulled it off incredibly during the exile arc.

Now, undoubtedly, after the prison, c!Dream is going to be just terribly traumatized- considering the writers’ past creative decisions, would it make sense for him to play the role of a dangerous, heartless villain in other people’s stories, while completely ignoring the logical fallout of what he’s been through?

In my mind, no. The most possible result is that cc!Dream is going to rightfully portray someone who’s been hurt so much he is broken, scared and tortured into submissions over months of agony and slowly stripping away of his agency, his dignity, his humanity. And that is… not going to be pretty, nor is he going to be in any way the same as before.

After everything, I’d be surprised if he can properly look at shears without shaking. That’s not villain behaviour, that’s the behaviour of someone who needs help.

Which leads me to another point, which is relatability. Believe me or not, there are people out there who heavily relate to c!Dream because they have been through things that allow them to see themselves in the character - abandonment, mental illness, etc. - or who have had destructive mindsets they have struggled to let go of in the past.

To them, as well as to the viewer, redeeming c!Dream could actually be a very good example, showcasing that anyone who has done bad things or has been hurt in the past can learn that it is possible to be better, to move on, to not be stuck in a loop but to actively seek help and then use that support to find the path to healing.

Making c!Dream a better person, who in a way, wins over his past, over his trauma, over the hurt he’s caused, and manages to actually get better… is inspiring, in a sense. It shows that you can abandon unhealthy mindsets, you can find a support group of people who care about you, you can make your life better simply by deciding to be better and then sticking to that, no matter how difficult the process.

This is why I believe that redeeming c!Dream would not be bad writing, but quite the opposite, and that the prison arc is an obvious set-up. Alright, but how does that work with the character? How could someone so widely hated mentally improve in such a seemingly violent and terrible environment? Would it even make sense within the context of c!Dream’s character so far? Well,

Why c!Dream has the capacity for healing and the Dream SMP the ability to provide it;

First of all, let’s remind ourselves that through c!Dream’s entire spiral he wasn’t ever directly given a chance to change. He was regarded as someone to defeat in order to accomplish a happy ending, or as someone who needed to be removed in order to achieve power on the SMP. Ever since the 16th, which is when the corruption of the character is the most obvious, there have been no attempts to reach out or to help him. I do not blame the characters for this - I am simply pointing out that since it has never happened before, we do not know how he would respond, and that, after everything he’s been through, any bit of kindness or compassion towards him will be a new concept he will have to learn to deal with somehow.

This point is especially driven home by the fact that both c!Quackity and c!Sam would often tell him he is a monster who deserves nothing but to suffer, and that what he’s going through is never going to amount to all the hurt he’s caused - basically removing any possibility for ever getting better (because by this logic, he doesn’t deserve support, and he doesn’t deserve to get better) from his line of sight.

He also hasn’t had a support system since shortly after the 16th, when his friends left him over c!George’s dethronement and made no effort to mend their relationship afterwards. c!Dream isn’t used to having allies and people on his side, but to being hated; again, wouldn’t that mean positive reinforcement could very well be all he needs to make the choice?

His bad mindsets - attachments are weakness, ends always justify the means, people will consider you a bad person no matter what you do - have been continuously proven right by his environment, even in prison. Any kind of subversion, plus an explanation as to why they are wrong, could be of great help to c!Dream.

Just another disclaimer; I do not believe c!Dream would change thanks to the treatment in prison, but rather despite it. His mental stability is non-existent at that point, and in order to get better he needs genuine emotional support from the people around him as well as to heal before he can redeem himself.

Alright, but… c!Dream has hurt a lot of people. Who would be fit to help him?

Let’s start off with the worst option and why it’s impossible the writers would even attempt this; c!Tommy.

c!Tommy has no responsibility to help or ever forgive c!Dream - not to say he could. The two, as it is, would drag each other down instead of helping in any capacity, and only make matters worse. The two of them shouldn’t even interact in the best case scenario - the best thing for both of them would be if they got enough healing and support individually that they could live around each other and not get their trauma or toxic habits triggered when interacting for whatever purpose of the plot.

So, if not c!Tommy (and c!Tubbo neither by extension), who could redeem c!Dream?

Well, he can’t do it on his own for sure. Being in nature with animals is nice, but further isolation from other people would merely help with the prison trauma, not with the state of his tendencies when interacting with others. He, once again, needs positive reinforcement from other people for him to heal properly.

There are two main options for this in my mind, and then there’s a few individuals he could also find comfort in, including people from both groups or those unaligned.

1) Kinoko Kingdom

From the people of this new country, c!Dream has never negatively interacted with c!Karl before, he has never hurt c!George and he hasn’t directly harmed c!Sapnap. Although the relationship with his old friend group could be difficult to rekindle, none of them have grudges against him that are too personal, and they have been canonically close friends since the beginning of the SMP, so it would be very much possible to rebuild burnt bridges. They’d be familiar, and with the addition of c!Karl they could be a good source of comfort for c!Dream after he either breaks out or is released from prison - just gotta convince c!Sapnap not to kill him first.

2) The Syndicate

From the Syndicate, c!Dream has never directly interacted with c!Nikki, and from what I know of her character she never seemed to be very affected by his actions - even doing his work for him when he was planning to burn down the L’Mantree. c!Techno is an ally who doesn’t have anything against him, and as for c!Ranboo, here is why I believe c!Dream being in the Syndicate could be positively influential on his character arc as well;

c!Ranboo and c!Philza have had a conversation about change, during which c!Ranboo made it clear he thinks everyone can change except for c!Dream; who, in his mind, is “too deep down the rabbit hole”. c!Philza replied that he thinks anyone can change if given enough time.

… you see what I’m getting at?

c!Dream has been implied to be an ally to c!Ranboo’s enderwalk state (or the state when he has access to his full memory), and hence would most likely not behave negatively towards him at all. While it might make it more difficult for c!Ranboo to deal with his own issues, it might also give him more motivation to get to the bottom of it as well, especially since he now has access to the person who, presumably, started this all. While this is going on, c!Dream would show himself in a much different light than c!Ranboo sees himin, which could lead to confusion, realization of the flaws in his own logic, and hence, positive character development.

Here’s a great post about why c!Techno as a character could be a great asset in c!Dream’s healing process & redemption, and why there is not much need to worry about him not knowing or finding out about c!Dream’s actions.

Of Kinoko Kingdom and the Syndicate, as far as I know, neither c!Tommy nor c!Tubbo have ever been directly involved with these groups, nor are they planning to.

Another important point to make is that, while c!Tommy needs to be kept away from c!Dream in order to heal properly, the same goes for c!Quackity and c!Sam in c!Dream’s case. While c!Quackity has high chances to interact with either Kinoko Kingdom or the Syndicate in the future, there’s an even higher chance, in that situation, that c!Dream would be offered protection, which is also important; there is no healing from trauma without the knowledge of safety, to some degree.

So, this was an essay as to why I think c!Dream’s recovery and redemption (one needs to come before the other, naturally) is not only extremely possible but also could be pulled off well and have a positive impact on both the characters, and the audience.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x02: The Talking Dead

Okay, I DO have a details post, which will go up tomorrow. Because Emily was a guest on TTD this week, I thought it would be more important to post this first this week.

P.S. Apologies for the low quality of the pictures. I wasn’t able to get my usual screenshots this week, so I had to take pics of my TV. ;D

Right off the bat, let me say there weren’t any huge, smoking guns about Beth’s return in the episode. In other words, not much that the general audience (GA) would pick up on.

But we’re not the GA, are we? LOTS of suspicious dialogue and symbolism came out of this. Way more than we usually get from TTD. So, let’s dive right in.

The first thing was in the introduction. When Chris Hardwick was introducing his guests, as he always does, he used the phrase, “Beth is back!” That sort of thing always catches our attention and makes us side-eye.

@wdway​ observed that Emily’s outfit was a mixture of black and white/cream colors, Xs, and diamond patterns. In the past, I might not have been entirely swayed by that. (We’re assuming she chooses her own clothes, right?) But there have been too many times in the past when similar things have happened. Like for the S8 premiere when she wore that bright pink top that looked exactly like the pink bra ashtray in Still? Yeah, I’m no longer convinced Emily ISN’T dropping hints through her clothing.

It was also observed that her hair was very long. Whether extensions or not, it was very long (Beth length) and very blond. Might have been another hint.

One of the first questions Chris asked he was what she thought of Maggie’s SURVIVAL. That’s important both because it’s a question about someone who was left for dead surviving and also because Maggie crawling under the train was a direct parallel to Glenn, who was a direct parallel to Beth. So I was definitely side-eyeing that.

At one point, Chris referenced the Commonwealth interrogating people before letting them in, and he asked if Hershel had done that at the farm, would Rick’s group have made it past the screening process. Emily, overall, said yes. But Josh (McDermott who was on with her) said Shane wouldn’t have. They then started talking and making typical fandom jokes about Shane’s craziness.

The reason this made me smile is because Emily often deflects questions by saying she doesn’t remember, or doesn’t know, or that she no longer keeps up with the show. But here, she talked about specific characters and events in specific parts of a season 9 years ago as though she’s VERY familiar with it. It was like, “oh, but that character didn’t do that until minute 32 of episode 8 of season 2. But I don’t know. I don’t really keep up with things anymore.”

Okay, I’m totally exaggerating there. She wasn’t that specific. But that’s what it felt like. The little fibs she tells to keep people from suspecting Beth’s return are showing.

In talking about the significance of Maggie giving Negan a gun, Lauren said something kind of interesting and Beth-ish. She said, and I paraphrase, that Maggie is struggling to hold onto the person she was, rather than giving into who she might become. Just very reminiscent of Beth’s line to Daryl from still. “You gotta stay who you are, not who you were.”

Chris then asked what Beth would have thought of the current Maggie. And he asked specifically, “Would she even recognize her?” Now, of course he meant that in terms of recognizing who she’s become, because Maggie has changed so much as a person since Beth’s death.

But given the memory loss theories and all the surrounding evidence, we really think there’s a good chance Beth won’t recognize Maggie right away. So that was a huge hint to drop.

See what I mean? It’s not that they talked about Beth’s return in a huge, smoking gun sort of way. Rather, they just dropped a lot of hints through dialogue and the way they phrased questions.

The other thing I noticed is that Emily, in answer to the question, said that without Maggie, everyone seemed adrift and as if they didn’t know what to do because they no longer had a leader (until Maggie showed up again) to tell them what to do. Especially since it didn’t directly answer Chris’s question, I felt like maybe Emily was hinting at Beth’s leadership. New sheriff in town, and such.

Then Josh brought the shiv to everyone’s attention. I don’t think I mentioned this yesterday. If not, it will be in tomorrow’s Details post. But we saw Eugene wheedle a piece of wood into a sharp shive/spike and stick it into his sleeve. It was very reminiscent of Beth hiding the scissors in her cast in Coda. And Josh specifically called attention to that scene. He actually compared it to Terminus, rather than Coda, because we saw them trying to create makeshift weapons in the train car in 5x01. But still, it’s all season 5 and revolves around Beth’s arc.

Actually, as they went along through the episode, they did callbacks to various things in S5 a BUNCH of times. Kind of convenient given that Emily is sitting on the couch next to him, no? Both Lauren and Josh mentioned Terminus multiple times in various ways. Which works because Eugene’s group has been around a lot of train cars these past few episodes. But the thing is, they didn’t really equate Eugene’s storyline directly with Terminus. They were simply finding ways/reasons to randomly mention it.

They also brought up Noah’s death multiple times, comparing Gauge’s death to it, since in both cases, people watched them die horribly from behind a glass partition. Totally makes sense, but yet another tie to Beth by really talking about Noah a lot.

Lauren, talking about good vs evil and what people are capable of, a la Maggie’s disturbing cannibal story, said it wasn’t just about what outward choices people make. She pointed to her chest and said, “it’s what’s in here.” That just gave me huge Beth feels from Still, when she said, “…or it kills you. Here.” And pointed to her chest in the same way.

It just felt like they were invoking Beth a lot during this episode.

This next one was kind of the big kahuna. Chris, just out of left field, looked at Emily and asked, “Will Daryl prove Beth right? Will he be the last man standing?”

And that’s important because it has nothing to do with this discussion or this specific episode. Daryl wasn’t even in this episode.

And I have to acknowledge that there’s a good chance Emily was supposed to be on last week, and her appearance was pushed. We just don’t entirely know what happened there. So possibly, they would have asked this last week during a more Daryl-centric discussion. But still, Chris didn’t say that. It wasn’t like, “Oh you were supposed to be on last week and we wanted to ask this…” No. He just launched into it.

Furthermore, Emily knew exactly what he was talking about. Yes, it’s a well-known line of Beth dialogue from Still that she probably would have been familiar with either way, but even so. The “will Daryl prove her right” came directly from Daryl’s origins episode. So again, despite “not keeping up with the show,” she clearly watched the Origins episode and knew what Chris was talking about.

A couple of suspicious things in her answer:

She essential said yes, that she believes Daryl will be the last man standing. But she also said she didn’t think he would be the ONLY last man standing. Then Chris made a joke saying (and I paraphrase), “Yeah, it’s not like Beth could have said, ‘Daryl, you’re going to get a spinoff.’” And they all laughed and joked about it.

Let’s consider her statement first. She said he wouldn’t be the only one who was standing last, but how would she know that? If she doesn’t follow it anymore and is only associated with it as a previous, deceased character, how would she know that.

And yes, you could argue that this was conjecture on her part, but she said with such…I don’t know, authority? As though she knows something we don’t.

I think you can interpret this one of two ways. The first is what I’ve hinted at above: that she knows others besides Daryl will survive to the end of the show. And I totally agree with her on that. While most of us believe, I think, that Daryl will live until the end, I think plenty of others will, too. Rick and Michonne. Probably Carol and Zeke. Hopefully Maggie, though I’m a little more worried about her. You get the idea. But once again, why would Emily know anything about that?

The other way you could interpret it is that this is a statement about Daryl not being alone. He’ll be the last man standing, but he won’t be the ONLY one. He won’t be alone in that, because Beth will be by his side.

And here’s your friendly neighborhood reminder that in an interview with Larry King prior to S5 airing, Gimple confirmed that Daryl will find love in the apocalypse at some point.

Then there’s Chris’s statement about the spinoff. Now, that came from Chris rather than her, but it was still a really random reference. For me, what Chris does or doesn’t know is kind of irrelevant at this point. I personally believe he knows everything and is fully in on Beth’s storyline. But even if I’m wrong about that, these questions come from tptb. If Chris recognizes their significance, he’s being instructed to ask them and direct the conversation in a particular way.

And they way he threw in this mention made it seem like he was equating Beth with the spinoff in some way. Even the way he said, “there’s no way Beth could have known to say…” the thing about the spinoff struck me as interesting. Because back then, I truly don’t believe the writers knew anything about the spinoff. As I like to say, everything changed when Kirkman abruptly ended the comics and the writers decided to pick up all the characters and story lines and move them to a different vehicle: the spinoff. Probably for legal reasons. But they couldn’t have know that would happen back in S4.

There’s also the unspoken implication that, while Beth couldn’t have “known” about the spinoff, she didn’t know about other things. Like her return and Daryl’s fate.

Emily even told a story about how when they were getting ready to film the porch scene for Still, both she and Norman were hounding Angela Kang (not the show runner back then, but the writer of that episode) about the last man standing line. They both wondered if it was some kind of foreshadow. She implied they were both worried that Daryl would die soon because of it.

A few things about that. 1) I don’t think either of them actually believed Daryl was soon to die. I seriously doubt that. This is just one of those stories they tell to illustrate a point. Which leads me to my next point. 2) Clearly they are implying that this IS some sort of foreshadowing. They’re just not being specific about what it foreshadows. 3) Keep this in mind--that they were both asking about what a certain line of dialogue might foreshadow--the next the time actors try to claim they have no idea what anything means or what’s going to happen next. They’re VERY aware of how the writers put these symbols in and are constantly wanting to know where the show is going, just like we are. 

So yeah. I was definitely a fan of that whole discussion.

The Inside the Dead portion referenced some interesting Easter eggs, including Gorbelli foods (seen in Tara’s backstory in S4, which had lots of Beth parallels) and Duane Jones Whiskey (alcohol, Morgan, etc; we’ve compared that with Beth before). Kinda small potatoes, but still important.

I missed part of this next question, but they asked Emily something about whether she thought the Commonwealth is going to turn out to be a good thing and helpful to Alexandria. She said no. Again, maybe not a smoking gun but given that we think she’s most likely coming through Eugene’s story line, it might have been a hint.

They asked her about the Eugene/Stephanie story line, and she said she was excited for any love story in this world. *coughs Bethyl hint*. She also said she’s suspicious of ‘Stephanie’ (emphasis mine) *coughs plot hint*.

For the quiz, they talked about how many walkers Dog killed in the episode (1). Where Mercer said he went to school (Westpoint). What was interesting, is that they kinda gave something away there. After giving the answer, it said, “Mercer didn’t go to school there, but the actor that played him did.” So, they kind of hinted that Mercer SAID he went to Westpoint, but was lying. Just more evidence that Eugene’s group is being lied to and manipulated. Finally, they had a fill-in-the-blank of Eugene’s dialogue. It was when he asked how he was being processed. And one of the options was “as in bologna and other meant stuffs…” (again, I’m paraphrasing; forgive me if my wording is a little off). Anyway, it said at that moment, Eugene was thinking about Terminus. So, just another callback to that story line in S5.

Near the end, Chris asked Lauren and Emily what they miss most about working together. Lauren’s replay was, again, suspicious. She said Emily was “such a bright light,” which we equated to Norman’s famous description of Beth as Daryl’s light that “went out.” She also talked about how it was a testament to Emily’s goodness that she’s “being so missed.” Which made me think of, “you’re gonna miss me so bad when I’m gone, Daryl Dixon.”

Finally, even before the episode aired, @wdway had a theory about Emily being in the studio for the episode, rather than via satellite. Well, I guess it was more of a hope than an actual theory. Now that the episode has aired, it’s an actual theory. 

See, she had a hunch that maybe the Commonwealth story lines (what Josh should be filming right now) might be filmed in studio, rather than on location in Georgia. And there IS an AMC studio in L.A. What we saw--Josh in person on the show while Lauren was there via satellite because she’s in Georgia--does seem to back up this idea. Or at least the possibility. 

The fact that Emily was also there in person could be a coincidence. But it could also possibly mean that she’s filming in studio for the Commonwealth story line as well. @wdway​ thought of this because we think she’ll first come through Eugene’s arc, and none of the Commonwealth stuff is being filmed on the main Alexandria lots where people generally look for spoilers.

Not something that can be proven either way, of course. But a great theory that I’m 100% behind! 

Okay, that’s it for TTD (but that was a LOT) and it makes me super happy. Together with the screeners not being able to talk about episodes moving forward, I think we’ll see Beth very soon. Any references in TTD that I missed?

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, Part 1

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. I am a 30-something European woman, and therefore may not view the matter from certain angles. That said, I'm always open to more input from others. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. If we can make this a team effort, I would love that.

The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. I am of the firm belief that characters are no more than a tool created to serve a narrative purpose, therefore the question I'm posing is whether or not Barok van Zieks serves this purpose. That's all I'm doing here.

I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent.

It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. He's not real anyway, so he can't suffer from it. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people. If you know you're morally in the right, there should be no need for insults to begin with. Let's keep this conversation civil and constructive! As the first post in a series, let’s first start by examining the expectations we would have for a character like this. The purpose he was meant to serve.

1: Expectations

As I said in a different Barok-related essay, the main prosecutor of any Ace Attorney game has been, and always will be, an antagonistic force. Not a villain, not even necessarily someone who exhibits immoral traits. (Hi Klavier!) Just someone who impedes the protag’s goal of getting a not-guilty verdict. In order to have an effective antagonist, they need to mirror the protag's weaknesses back at them. Ace Attorney does this quite well, as the prosecutors represent the obstacle/turmoil that the defense needs to overcome. Often times, the prosecutor is also tied to a pivotal moment in the attorney's past, making sure the strife is quite personal.

Considering the game's plot and settings, it would've been difficult for Barok to be tied to Ryunosuke's past. (He is tied to Asogi's past, funnily enough, but that's a matter I also addressed in that other Barok essay.) So instead, Barok represents Ryunosuke's struggle in more of a figurehead capacity. I've seen people dub him the 'CEO of Racism', and I'm not gonna lie, in a way that's correct. Barok was designed to be the mouthpiece of the harmful sentiments Japanese exchange students would have encountered in the 1900s. By extension, since Ryunosuke is an exchange student unfamiliar with the British courts (or even courts in general), the prosecutor would target the fact that Ryunosuke 'does not understand how things are done here'. Which he does- a lot. This makes it all the more satisfying when Ryunosuke proves him wrong by outsmarting him and using Britain's own laws (such as the closing argument) against him. So yes, you may hate Barok for uttering racist sentiments and dismissing Ryunosuke's abilities, but the ultimate goal here is that Barok's defeat is made sweeter as a result. The narrative end-game is Ryunosuke's triumph and validation in the courtroom.

Was there a different personal struggle Barok could have represented? Yes, but also no. Sure, his vendetta could have been strictly with the Asogi family and Ryunosuke could have admitted to carrying Asogi's resolve, not knowing what it meant. Though that would’ve implied very early that Asogi had a history of sorts in Britain and would’ve destroyed some of the surprise we experience in game 2. Alternatively, there was also the 'parallel' antagonist angle. The sort of villain who says the line “we're not so different, you and I.” The antagonist who shows what happens when someone with the same skills or motivations follows the wrong path, which emphasizes the right path for the protagonist. However, I can't see that working in the plot of this game.

A purposeful decision was made by the writers to have prejudice be a central theme of the plot. This is the matter that hits the hardest in an emotional sense. Therefore, having Barok be the centerpiece of this prejudice ensures he leaves the biggest narrative impact.

---

However, another long-running aspect of the AA prosecutor is the redemption arc, so let's turn our attention to that!

I'm not going to put too much effort into explaining this, I just want to talk about the requirements of a redemption arc. We all know these types of arcs, a lot of Ace Attorney prosecutors have them. We see them in fiction all over. Noteworthy examples of redemption arcs done well include Zuko from The Last Airbender, Michael from The Good Place... For argument's sake, let's toss Edgeworth in there too. I'm not saying Edgeworth's arc is done well, but at the very least it is accepted by most as something that served its intended purpose. I've never seen anyone question Edgeworth's transformation.

See, what we have here is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to what people expect to get out of these types of arcs. Redemption in itself is only 'deliverance from sin' or 'being saved from evil'. It's the thought that a horrible person can still see the error of their ways before it's 'too late'. However, when it comes to absorbing media, often a character gaining knowledge that they were in the wrong isn't enough to satisfy the audience. Would Edgeworth have had a satisfying redemption arc if he'd acknowledged his arrogance and dirty tactics, only to retire as a prosecutor? No way. We needed him to return in the following games to give us an update on his status. Standing in court as a defense attorney, at the risk of damaging his reputation, was the moment we knew he'd grown for the better.

What we require for the arc to come to a good conclusion is atonement. The character in question must not only apologize for their actions, but repent in a more active manner to show that they've changed their ways. Following that, the atonement must be acknowledged by others. So for example, Zuko joins the ATLA gang to help them in any way that he can until even the most skeptical of the group, Katara, acknowledges his transformation into a better person. Now add to this the notion that the character's atonement must be virtuous and sincere. The Good Place is a fascinating look into the debate of 'is it ever too late for a person to change?' and the moral complications of changing in the first place. If you're only doing good things because you want to be saved from damnation, are you being a good person or are you being selfish? There's such a thing as corrupt motivation; only doing good because it is expected. For example, does sponsoring a library make Magnus McGilded a good person? It does not, since he's only doing it to boost his own reputation and have people believe he's selfless.

As a final note, I want to ask: Does a redemption arc require a backstory to justify the character's immoral ways? Personally, I don't think that it does. It's good to have, since it allows an audience to empathize with the character and give them more of a reason to root for them. It turns the redemption arc into a tale about overcoming past trauma. However, it can backfire when done badly and lead to frustration. (I'm looking at you, live action Disney movies!) Some characters are evil just for the sake of being evil and even then, they can turn over a new leaf because they realize it is just so much more rewarding to be good. Just look at Michael from The Good Place.

What's more effective than a backstory, in my opinion, is smaller details to humanize a character. Humanization can also lead to empathy, perhaps even relatability, and helps us believe that they're capable of change. We need to be told that a character has their own fears, their own flaws, their own odd little habits which deviate from the norm... Again, I'll point to Michael from The Good Place for this. Another humanization tactic, which we see employed often in Ace Attorney, is to display a prosecutor's likes and hobbies outside the courtroom. Edgeworth's fanboying over the Steel Samurai, Blackquill's love for birds, Nahyuta's willingness to stand in line for hours to get his hands on a delicious burger... I've feel ya, Nahyuta. This tactic is more readily employed in Ace Attorney because it's difficult to place a prosecutor in a position of weakness before the final showdown. You can show them tending to hobbies during Investigation segments, but you can't show them waking up from a nightmare or wondering whether their father loves them. Well, not until case 5 of that game, anyway. By then, it's too late to serve as the sole humanization factor. Did Van Zieks need to be redeemed at all? The way I see it, the only correct answer is yes. What do we want to see in our world? Do we want people who hold racist prejudice to acknowledge their faults and become better, or do we want them to die clinging to their shitty moral compass? Do we want a world where everyone learns to get along, or do we want a world where people continue to be in the wrong and act like assholes until they inevitably get punished by law for something or another? Van Zieks needed to be redeemed in order to teach that valuable lesson that it’s never too late to be a good person and that it pays to be a good person.

So to summarize, what we needed from Barok van Zieks was the following:

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke's biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

This leaves us with the question: Does the game deliver on these points? Well, let's boot it up and find out! Stay tuned for The Adventure of the Runaway Room! (as a warning, it’s gonna be LONG)

[hongism]

mists of celeste ➻ five

➻ pairing: ??? x fem reader ➻ genre: space au, pirate au, space pirate!ateez, angst, eventual smut ➻ Word Count: 3.9K ➻ Rating: pg-15 now/M later ➻ Warnings: language, violence, guns and weaponry, blood, future warnings tba ➻ summary: Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you

⇐ previous | next ⇒

mists of celeste act one part five

​

“Lieutenant. Nice of you to join us,” Yunho greets as he steps around the foot of the bed. You instinctively pull yourself up and sit up straighter. “Captain. You as well.”

“Let’s just get to business, Yunho.” Hongjoong steps out from behind the lieutenant’s back, dark eyes boring into you. “I want to get this over with.”

“O-Of course, Captain,” Yunho stammers. He moves around the bed to stand across from Hongjoong. “She has been making a quick recovery over the past couple of days. I expect a full recovery by the end of the week if not sooner. Vitals are all steady and manageable despite a lowered heart rate; however, she says that she’s not feeling any adverse effects from it.”

“Hm…” Hongjoong hums and glances past Yunho to look you in the eye. “I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure of formally meeting me. Captain Kim Hongjoong of The Horizon. This is my lieutenant, Park Seonghwa. Of course, you may know us by other names seeing as you are military – or former military, was it?” Hongjoong pauses, the silence giving you an opportunity to respond, but you opt not to and instead stare back at the captain with blank eyes. “Scourge of the Black Sea and the Lieutenant of Death. And you, Miss L/N – the Ghost of Eros. Such a distinguished group of criminals all gathered in one place. I should’ve known you were much more than a petty soldier considering that you’ve got a mean right hook. You knocked Seonghwa on his ass so handily I thought he was going to die of shame.”

There is a lilt of humor to Hongjoong’s tone and only a sliver of vehemence and anger. The man’s presence alone is intimidation at its finest yet the mellifluous voice harbors none of that same intimidation. It’s a strange game he’s playing – dancing between cruelty and a carefree attitude – and you can’t figure out what his true intentions are.

“You don’t seem upset by the fact that I put your lieutenant on his ass,” you say, voice coming out surprisingly steady and even compared to how you’re feeling at the moment.

“Me? Upset? Of course not. It’s not my job as a captain to be upset for my crew. If he’s upset about it then that’s his problem. It only becomes mine when he fails to separate those feelings from doing his job properly. So, Lieutenant, are you upset?”

“No, not in the slightest,” Seonghwa answers, eyelids falling shut as he grins at you again. “More embarrassed than anything, getting my ass handed to me by a person who was injured.”

“Not because I’m a girl?” You inquire and dip your chin down a little bit.

“Not even close. It’s not about your gender – never was frankly – solely because you were injured in your obviously dominant arm.” Seonghwa folds his arms over his chest, seeming to puff it out a little as he matches your stare with an equally firey one of his own. Despite admitting weakness, he exudes confidence and power. It hits you at that moment. The strange aura surrounding each member of Hongjoong’s crew, and including the captain himself, makes sense as the puzzle pieces slip together in your mind.

These are criminals of the highest degree, men with extensive records and crimes that would take days to write down, and for some reason, that fact did not sink in sooner. Yes, you’ve had many an encounter with criminals. This should be nothing new for you but these men are far different than the petty criminals you had to deal with when part of the military. Even though you are considered to be one of them, a criminal on the same level as them, someone just as evil and cruel and merciless, you don't feel that way. A surge of fear courses through your body. Any one of these men could end your life in an instant with zero remorse or care. 

“What d-do you plan to–to do with me?” You direct the question at Hongjoong although it’s a struggle to drag your eyes off of the pretty lieutenant.

Another hum leaves the captain’s lips, and he looks away from you to stare at the ceiling for a moment. “Part of me wants to drop you out an airlock for attacking my lieutenant, sneaking aboard my ship, and stealing from my cargo hold. However, that is not what I’m going to do. I am merciless, yes, but I could drag your pain so much longer if I really wanted to. So give me a reason not to do that first.”

“Captain…” Seonghwa cuts in, reaching around Hongjoong to block his line of sight. “That isn’t the best idea. There is no point in torturing her if she can be useful.”

“Oh, so knocking you out counts as being useful nowadays?”

“Logic, Hongjoong. Think logically rather than emotionally. There are benefits to keeping her alive and well, especially considering who she is. Ghost of Eros isn’t a name thrown around lightly these days.”

“Yet there are also detriments to keeping her here.”

“If it’s space you’re worried about, we have more than enough of it. Plenty of empty rooms. She can stay in the med bay until she fully recovers then move into one of the empty rooms, no?” Seonghwa glances over to Yunho, who nods along with the words with fervor.

“Absolutely,” he says in a clear tone. “She should be ready to go any day now, and if we move her into one of the empty rooms, I can run post-operation checkups there rather than here.”

“You could also run those checkups from the brig. We have plenty of space down there as well,” Hongjoong argues, pushing Seonghwa’s extended arm out of the way.

“Be smart, Captain.”

“What are you insinuating, Lieutenant?”

“That you are thinking with your heart and not your head!” Seonghwa protests, voice climbing in volume. He steps around Hongjoong to face him head-on. “We have the space, and more than enough of it, so there is no point in putting her in the brig.”

“She is nothing more than a stowaway. That is reason enough, no?”

“No, because you never put Jongho in the brig for being a stowaway.”

“Jongho was useful, and he was barely a stowaway when I knew he was aboard the ship from the second we left that planet.”

“How do you know she can’t be useful as well? Hongjoong, at least give her a chance to be useful and carry her own weight until the next stop. You can dump her there if you don’t want her then.” The phrasing of Seonghwa’s words brings a scowl to your lips.

“Excuse me,” you intervene, climbing to your feet with shaky legs. “I am not an object or a piece of property that can be “dumped”!” Seonghwa shifts to look back at you.

“I’m sorry. I… That wasn’t what I meant to say,” he tries, the remorse evident in his furrowed brows. You return the apology with a half-hearted glare.

“In order to be useful aboard my ship, she needs to be able to shoot a gun,” Hongjoong cuts in and effectively redirects all attention back to him. “According to Yunho, that may not be a possibility anymore.”

“Wh–What?” You ask. Eyes find Yunho’s, and the second you make eye contact he glances away from you rather than facing you. “What the fuck?”

“Oh, you didn’t even tell her?” Hongjoong laughs. “Nerve damage.”

“Nerve damage?” You echo, a tremor rising through your body. Your legs fail to support you any longer, and you fall back to the bed.

“It’s not bad–”

“Not bad? Not bad compared to what?”

“It isn’t debilitating.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me sooner? Seeing as oh yea, it’s my fucking arm!” Yunho winces at the scathing rage in your tone.

“I wasn’t sure about the extent of the damage. Sometimes injuries like yours show nerve recovery over time. I needed to see if that was the case with you. There was – I didn’t want to tell you out of fear of upsetting you without knowing for certain what’s wrong.”

“If it makes you feel any better, you can still pull a trigger,” Hongjoong comments.

“But not aim a pistol as well as I used to,” you finish his train of thought, and he nods in affirmation.

“I don’t know if this will help but... we can correct some things through physical therapy and strengthening. Regain the ease you had with aiming,” Yunho offers, a sympathetic smile playing at his lips.

“But… I thought she didn’t need a fully functioning arm?” Seonghwa inquires, eyes finding Hongjoong.

“Huh?”

“To aim a sniper. You don’t need a fully functioning arm,” he elaborates for you. Your eyes fall into a sharp glare.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means I know who you are. Ghost of Eros isn’t your only nickname. It only took one search in a military database to see who you are. Y/N L/N, wanted military traitor formerly of the operations assassinations and peace control units. Highly dangerous sniper. Wanted for theft of military property, desertion, capital betrayal, larceny, arson, evasion of arrest, the list goes on. Oh, and putting a bullet in the head of the King of Eros.”

Having someone list off your crimes is not as appealing as it would seem, and your shoulders fall further with each crime listed until Seonghwa mentions the last thing. It has you sitting up straight again, staring him down with such intensity that he actually seems surprised.

“It’s a hefty bounty on your head,” he continues in a much lower tone. “But an even heftier asset.”

Hongjoong releases a huff. “I have to agree with him on that, even though I don’t particularly want to. And yet I can’t help but wonder what drives a person to desertion?”

You refuse to answer the question. Instead, you press your teeth together, clenching your jaw and opting to remain silent in the face of the notorious captain.

“Putting a bullet in the head of a king is a pretty good reason. But that still begs the question: why put the bullet there in the first place?” Your chin dips closer to your chest as Hongjoong drives the metaphorical knife deeper into your chest. “I’ve put many a bullet in people’s heads; however, I’ve never had the luxury of doing it to a king. I have to say it’s quite interesting that you would murder someone like that.”

“It wasn’t murder,” you spit out. Your eyes find Hongjoong’s, and you find a taunting gleam in them. Perhaps this is what he wants – to drive you to a breaking point and see you lash out, and if he continues on like this then you won’t be able to resist the urge.

“Oh? Were you paid to do it then?”

You ball your fists around the sheets beneath you rather than responding. Your only answer is the continued glare you send his way.

“Stop it.” It’s Yunho’s voice that cuts in and bleeds through the mounting tensions between you and Hongjoong. “Stop, Hongjoong. She obviously doesn't want to talk about it. You don’t need to keep pushing it.”

“Stand down, Yunho. Are you the captain?”

“No, but–”

“No. You are not the captain and as such, you cannot tell me what to do. If I am even going to consider making her part of my crew, then I need to know her intentions.”

“I’m not going to kill any of you, if that’s what you mean.”

“How can I be sure of that, Miss L/N? Give me solid proof that you are a gentle and merciful soul. From what I can tell, there is none.”

“I am merely doing the same thing you and your whole crew are: just trying to fucking survive.”

“And what about when survival means killing someone? What would keep you from killing someone in my crew to survive?”

“Forgive me in advance for asking the same question of you. What would keep you from killing me when it comes to survival?” A huff escapes your lips, eyes stabbing daggers into Hongjoong’s form, and you extend the arm with the IV sticking out. “Take the IV out. If he wants me to shoot, then I’ll do just that.”

Both Seonghwa and Yunho whip their heads in your direction, Seonghwa’s eyes nearly bulging from his head. Yunho opens his mouth to retort but you still him by redirecting your glare to him. He moves towards you and slowly untwists the IV, leaving the catheter in place. Before stepping back though, he folds his fingers around your forearm and leans close to your ear.

“Seonghwa’s holster is on his right leg,” he whispers against the shell of your ear. The tall man leans back before Hongjoong or Seonghwa can comment on his odd behavior, and you barely process their expressions because your gaze moves for the gun lingering on Seonghwa’s right leg. You get to your feet with a fake sense of weakness.

In a split second, you dart for Seonghwa’s gun and jab the flat of your left hand against the back of his knee. Your right snatches the pistol from his holster with little trouble as Seonghwa is crumpling to the ground. You spin around while he falls, the barrel of the pistol finding a new home between Hongjoong’s eyes. He doesn’t flinch, nor does he move. His expression remains blank and unfocused. Seonghwa recovers, jumping up at exclaiming at the sight before him. Hongjoong lifts a hand and places it against Seonghwa’s chest.

“Stand down, Hwa.” Seonghwa listens to his captain albeit with great reluctance, and you try to steady your hand.

As silence overtakes the room again, the faint sound of the gun rattling against your quivering hand rises. It isn’t that you are afraid of firing the gun; you have shot a man just like this time and time again. You physically cannot get your arm to still. It’s twitching and shaking against your will, and no matter how much you focus, it doesn’t stop.

“Would you really fire the gun?” Hongjoong asks with his steely cold tone.

“In an instant,” comes your scathing response. “But that’s not what you want from me.”

“Hongjoong…” Seonghwa mutters. Out the corner of your eye, you can see his antsy moments, bouncing his weight from one foot to the other and ready to jump you for pointing a gun at his captain.

“What is it I want then?”

You blink, and Hongjoong is gone from sight. The gun clatters against the ground, pain spreads across your wrist, but it is nothing in comparison to the pain that sears through your whole arm a moment later. Hongjoong appears in your vision, standing beside you with his hand clenched around your bicep, directly over your recovering wound. A sadistic smile creeps across his features. Fingers dig into the bandage and push past the fabric to stab a finger into the hole covered by stitches. A loud cry of pain leaves your body. White blinds your vision, your legs give out under you, and Hongjoong holds you up with his tightening grip on your arm.

“Stop!” Yunho cries out, attempting to step between you and Hongjoong. “Fucking stop, Hongjoong! You’re hurting her!”

“Listen to me,” Hongjoong hisses. He yanks your arm, finger still pushed in your wound. A weak sob falls from your lips next. “Stupid ideas like that are the last thing I want.” His grip leaves your arm, but the pain doesn’t. It lingers, burns, seeps through your limb so much that you can barely think straight. His foot darts out and kicks Seonghwa’s gun in the man’s direction. “You can stay for the time being. However, the second I decide that you aren’t worth my trouble anymore, I will dump you either in space or on whatever planet is nearby. It’s your choice. I suggest you choose wisely next time.” Hongjoong stands up straight, face leaving your line of sight, and you watch his back retreat as he strides out the door, dark brown cloak billowing around him as he moves.

“Oh my god,” Yunho mutters. He is by your side in an instant, one hand finding purchase on your waist, and the other gently holds your arm. “Oh my fucking god. I can’t believe he did that.” He helps you back onto the bed then sits down beside you to pull the now bloodied bandage away from your skin.

“Are you okay?” The question comes from Seonghwa, but you can’t focus on him due to the pain in your system.

“He did a fucking number on my stitches.” Yunho sighs and gets up from the bed. “I’m gonna grab and needle and some thread, I’ll try my best to fix it quick. I will need to sterilize again as well as use some numbing ointment to just help with the pain.”

“It-it's okay,” you murmur, words slurring together. Seonghwa comes closer to the bed. He sits down beside you, careful not to touch you. When you feel the dip of the mattress, you tilt your head in his direction and blink at him in confusion. A smile decorates his lips, one that isn’t cynical or cruel, just one filled with sympathy.

“I’m sorry about your arm.”

“It’s fine. Not your fault anyways.”

“Yes, but I’m sorry for his actions. He’s too rash and thinks too much with his heart.”

“Oh, so he has one?” You joke. Your senses are slowly returning to you, words becoming more clear with each one spoken, and your vision is growing less fuzzy by the second.

“Surprisingly, yes.” Seonghwa chuckles, the sound as pretty as his face. “By the way… I have no hard feelings about the near concussion you gave me.”

“How nice of you.”

“Were I in your position, I would’ve done the same. If not worse. Especially seeing as you were wearing a military uniform. I was planning on killing you then and there before I felt the brand on your arm.”

“That damn brand seems to be a hot topic among you all.”

“You have to understand: it’s not every day we meet someone of your fame and caliber.” Seonghwa’s lips curl as he speaks. “Once Yunho redresses your arm, I can take you to your new quarters. They’re all ready for you.”

“What do you mean? How can they be ready already? Didn’t he just make the decision now?”

“Well, no. Apparently, he decided a while ago on his own accord. Hongjoong isn’t one for spur of the moment decisions. He takes a lot of time to decide on things, so I know for certain that he thought about whether you would stay or go for a long while. Thus, he most definitely decided prior to today.”

Yunho returns to the bed, medical supplies in hand along with another bottle of vodka.

“I, uh, I don’t have the belt this time so you may just want to grin and bear it. I would say bite down on a finger but you might take it clean off.” Delicate fingers find your left wrist, curling around them, and you glance over at Seonghwa.

“Try to focus on me instead of Yunho. It might help take some of the pain away.”

“I highly dou–” You’re cut off by your own scream, cold liquid pouring over your skin. Twisting, you press your fingers against Seonghwa’s hand and he grips you with an equally strong hold as Yunho sterilizes your wound.

“All done, all done,” Yunho announces. The stream of cold ceases but your arm still throbs even as Yunho dabs white ointment across it. He massages it into your skin with gentle touches. Once it goes clear, he pulls back and retrieves his small needle. “You don’t need to watch this bit if you don’t want to. I know some people are afraid of needles.” Despite Yunho’s warning, you continue to keep your eyes trained on the wound and watch as he pinches your skin together. The numbing gel he put across it worked quickly; you don’t feel a thing except for a strange heavy pressure on your skin.

“It’s fascinating work,” Seonghwa mutters, leaning forward to watch Yunho work as well. The healer laughs in response.

“It’s simple stuff actually. Nothing much to it.”

“Simple to you maybe but not anyone else.”

“It’s my job after all.” Yunho shrugs, hands remaining steady on your arm. “And I’m damn good at it, so it ought to be simple to me.”

It takes less than a minute for him to remove the old stitches and attach new ones. He works so fast that you think if you had blinked you would’ve missed the whole thing entirely.

“There, all done! It’s a little irritated from being jabbed at like that, but now that I’ve got the new stitches in, it should be just fine. The numbing ointment will wear off in an hour or so. If it hurts drastically then be sure to come back and tell me. I can get you some medicine if needed.”

“Is she all good to go now then?” Seonghwa asks. He unfolds his hand from yours, and you hadn’t even realized that you were still latched onto it all this time.

“Yep! Almost mint condition. You’re welcome.” Yunho sends a wink your way, cheeks scrunching up as he smiles. “You are free from my care at last. Don’t go messing anything up now, I patched you up perfectly. I don’t want my talent to go to waste, after all. I will check up and see how my stitches are holding up later today though.”

“Aw, have you got your post-patient loneliness already?” Seonghwa asks. Yunho responds with a scoff and swings a loosely clenched fist in his direction, which Seonghwa dodges with ease.

“Do be careful though. You still aren’t as strong as I had hoped you’d be. Walking too much will most likely make you lightheaded and woozy. Seonghwa, if she collapses, I’m blaming you.”

“Aye aye, Captain Yunho.” Seonghwa mocks the healer by bringing his hand up to his head and saluting him. “I’ll keep the princess on her feet.”

“Oh wow. Thanks, pretty boy. I feel oh so safe now.” You push yourself off the bed. Despite the shakiness in your legs, you step forward and trail after Seonghwa as he heads out the med bay. Before you step out of the room completely though, you hesitate in the doorframe. Yunho catches your lingering gaze as though he was expecting it. “Thank you again,” you say. The smile that comes to Yunho’s lips is neither cocky nor patronizing.

“Of course. I’m glad you made a good recovery.” He turns back to the bed where you were just seated but thinks twice about it and looks back at you. “Don’t be a stranger either. My door is always open for whatever you need.” He passes another wink your way, and the cheeky action has you choking on air. His laugh resounds in your ears as you move out of the room, shaky legs carrying you to Seonghwa’s side where he waits for you to catch up.

“Alright, follow me. If you get to feeling weak, just let me know and we can pause or I can help you along.” He pushes a loose strand of black hair from his forehead, and as the strands move you catch sight of a small emblem cut into his undercut. It disappears before you can fully examine it, however, and you have to move your gaze before Seonghwa notices your lingering stare.

“Wait–” you call out, and Seonghwa stops in his tracks. “I… I have a question for you before we go.”

✧✧✧

a/n: hello hello it’s tuesday my dudes ;) another chapter down, and most of the buildup and exposition doNE so things will be picking up in speed from here on out so yAY

taglist: @faeriewoobin​ @sugarrimajins​ @atinyinwonderland​

rather than sending me a ko-fi, i ask that you consider donating to the BLM movement!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

[af1899]

Quitting for an undefined time

Hello everyone.

Just going to announce that I'll quit for an undefined time from Tumblr, I don't know when I'll return, and if I'll actually do it, so that's why this period is "undefined", I'll explain below for anyone that wants to know why.

The reason is that I feel my thoughts posts take hours to produce I could allocate for other activities (I mainly need to look for my first job, focus on my studies and of course have fun exploring new media franchises or revisiting familiar ones), and said posts easily go under appreciated with almost non-existent traction these get (specially when I compare them to specific posts like when I talked about Resplendent Deirdre in FEH), I don't seek to be someone popular like any artist or YTer, just that I could know in some way I'm helping people somehow and providing them something they want to read.

I do realize that these tend to be rather extensive in length, and often having more info than what's needed, but it's difficult for me to try to compress my explanations, if I don't, I get a feeling I'm not making myself understood as I would expect to.

And no, it's no greed for likes, reblogs or wanting to become an AW, again, I said I don't want to be popular, and I'm certain I don't care about statistics any more than people, y'all matter in one way or another to at least someone I'm sure, and I don't see people as source for stats, though I'll admit I once committed that mistake even though it was clear it wasn't with any kind of evil/greedy/negative intent, but it's best we don't indulge on details, I really hate reviving old quarrels even if they don't have anything to do with me, and would rather focus on besting myself or contributing to a healthier and more comfortable environment in any community I take part, if I want to reflect on my past mistakes, I'll eventually come to it myself as long as I'm not pressured to do so. I say all this because I once made someone feel that way, so I don't want that to happen again, and want to make sure I value you as people, not as a tool to boost my stats.

Anyway, thanks for anyone who chose to stick around and take time to read my posts and I hope that these managed to help you somehow, but it's long past time I found something hopefully more productive to do, and I need to move on from doing any activities that take time and have almost no worth compared to the time I spend on doing these.

I still loved the environment here at Tumblr, and how introvert friendly it is, I felt at ease posting here in a sense, and looking into other's posts too.

See you someday!

And if you want to find me on social media and chat, you might ocassionaly find me on GamePress Community where I appear randomly, you may DM me if you wish and I'll reply soon as I see it. I also use Reddit, which does allow private chatting, but we don't have the same liberties and I enter from time to time just to look at datamine posts or art. Discord is off-limits though, I don't use it, and I have my reasons to not to want to create an account.

[gone-series-orchid]

If there ever does happen to be a Gone TV shows, is there anything that you would want them to do/ change?? I've been thinking about it a lot recently and I think it has the potential to be good but at the same time I feel like (and this is such a rare line of thought from me) if they strictly stick to canon it could be...uncomfortable??

that’s an interesting thought! i think i get what you’re saying. there's a lot of distinctly uncomfortable moments in the series that i think mg didn’t really think through the implications of (like caine’s veiled rape threat to diana that i guess isn’t supposed to affect our feelings toward him to such a degree that we don’t want him to get redeemed, lots of caine being evil for the sake of it, sam being horrible to astrid because she wouldn’t have sex with him, everyone being racist to edilio in the first book and then it...never really comes up again except for the human crew’s cartoonishly evil bigotry which also doesn’t have lasting impact on the fayz after zil and lance die). oof, and that isn’t even touching all the ableism informing little pete and the misogyny you detailed in your post!

if there was anything i’d like the show to do, it’d probably be to streamline the plot a little. like, i love the series, but it gets super messy. the events that happen in individual books seem to rarely carry over aside from major character beats. i love the books’ individual contained subplots, like those that center the perspectives of duck zhang and hunter and zil, and i really hope the tv show maintains them without minimizing them. i think they do a lot to flesh out the fayz’s general population and the scale of morality mg is dealing with. and of course i really hope they adapt orc’s subplot, which is my favorite. but i think some other stuff could be minimized--i liked orsay, but what was the point of giving her a pov? she lessened in importance almost right off the bat once she entered the fayz; she was just a tool for nerezza. and nerezza herself seems like an odd character. i really enjoyed lies for astrid’s arc and the general focus on the fayz’s politics/morality, but honestly i think the tv show should cut back on nerezza and focus on the human villains, meaning zil and the human crew...honestly i think most of my suggestions would be on the structure of the show throughout its seasons (i’m thinking idealistically, of course), because tv shows are so different from books. i guess i worry about the focus being all over the place because there’s so many different povs throughout the books! speaking of...

this may completely contradict my prior point but i literally love the rotating povs of the books and i kind of wish that would be amped up a little in the show? like, instead of being mostly focused on sam with subplots focusing on other characters scattered throughout, i’d love if it was a little more of an ensemble show. in the first season (which i imagine would adapt the first book), i’d really love maybe a few scenes showing off howard and orc’s characters in more detail. we get that scene in gone where orc reveals his father’s abusive nature, and that’s definitely essential if they want to give him some pathos and set up his arc, but i’d love to have little moments where the audience just sees the kids of bully row just vandalizing stuff and messing around. like, establishing that as dumb and bullying as they are, they’re still just kids, and they’re nothing compared to the outright villainy of caine and drake. we get that vibe in the first book, definitely, but i think we’d need more scenes establishing that. i’d love it if we saw that there are certain lines that howard and orc as bullies wouldn’t cross. that would make us feel even more shocked when orc accidentally murders bette. also, i hope we’re shown that scene in the show instead of just being told about it like in the book.

i also hope that the first season gives astrid, like, an actual job/role to fill? there’s like a line in gone where sam calls her his assistant, but i kind of wish she’d be deemed the fayz’s resident researcher or something, preferably before she gets together with sam (which i’ll talk about later) so that the only job description the audience has of her isn’t “sam’s girlfriend.” i also really want the show to give us a couple scenes establishing astrid and edilio as potential leaders of the fayz as well, not just automatically discounting them because they’re not the protagonist. sam can still eventually come out on top, i guess, because it happens in canon, but at least let the characters discuss it in more detail.

also, i want little pete to have an actual relationship with astrid! show how much they care for each other in their own way. astrid can still have her negative feelings toward the responsibility she has in taking care of him, but alongside that should be love. astrid should also keep working with him on his therapy as a means of communicating with him more effectively, which is something i’m super frustrated no one thought to do in canon!

as for character relationships...i sort of wish astrid and sam don’t get together in the first season. focus on building up their friendship first. sam can still have his crush, but there should maybe be some tension whether astrid reciprocates or not. remember that weird plot point where it’s revealed in the later books that astrid was manipulating sam in order to get his protection? even though there’s like...no indication of that in the first book? bring that in from astrid’s pov, with her realizing how dangerous the fayz is (maybe after bette dies). make it ambiguous whether she’s really romantically interested in him. give her sympathy; show her fear for herself and her little brother’s safety. and show sam and her friendship! but also there’s ambiguity there. that maybe could be a cliffhanger for season 1--is astrid tricking sam, or does she really like him? bonus: it’s her that initiates their first kiss, preferably at the very end of the season instead of happening midway through, just before sam goes off to battle. though sam has a crush on astrid, she’s not his reason for not poofing; instead, he thinks of his friends and the innocent kids he’d be leaving behind to the mercy of caine and realizes that he has a responsibility he can’t shirk.

also...flashbacks!! i’d love it if we got flashbacks through each episode (with the focus being on one individual character per episode) of the characters’ family dynamics. would give the characters more depth and pathos right off the bat. maybe leave off on that for antagonists like drake and caine though. speaking of--show diana’s better qualities!!! show her fear of the rapidly escalating events happening at coates, show her tenuous grasp on caine, show the vulnerability behind the mask of glib snark. maybe she reveals this vulnerability when she’s alone. maybe show her trying to persuade caine not to string up andrew in order to observe the proof. show her looking on in horror at the kids’ cemented hands. little things like that can go a long way to humanize her. also, show the casual sexualization she’s subjected to by her peers at coates--maybe that could be part of the reason why she doesn’t leave immediately after caine does evil stuff. maybe she feels like she wants revenge for the things she suffered in the past from her classmates. it’s a misplaced sense for vengeance, but it’s still sympathetic. and diana can realize “oh, this was a huge mistake” the minute things get real. make her desire to be caine’s queen an extension of her trauma over her past powerlessness, subjected to the abuse of her mom’s boyfriends. don’t necessarily make her a wilting flower, keep her pettiness and meanness, but give her a little more humanity!

also--okay this is more of a self-indulgent thing but--i’d like more scenes between orc and astrid! just a few, just to flesh out their relationship a tiny bit in the first season so the coates scene* comes off as powerfully as possible. remember when orc was okay with drake potentially torturing astrid because he didn’t want to lose face in front of sam in the first book? because he was too prideful to admit he cared for her? show astrid reacting to that! show astrid using that to attempt to sway him to her and sam’s side! maybe there’s a moment where, in the scene where the kids see orc’s growing mutation, orc catches a glimpse of the bruise on astrid’s cheek from drake’s slap and feels visible regret. maybe astrid notices that and tries to subtly manipulate him over to the side of good, while still having genuine compassion for what’s happening to him mutation-wise. i just think their dynamic is so good and i’d love for astrid to utilize one of the few personal connections she had pre-fayz.

anyway, this is getting way too long, so i’ll cut it off here. sorry for the length! thank you very much for the ask! :)

*the coates scene in plague is one of those few scenes in the series that comes off as exactly as uncomfortable as mg intended, imo. like the implications probably should have carried over to orc’s arc a little more but still! i want it to be preserved in the tv show. it could be so good! the writers would have to tread lightly, but if they get it right, it could be phenomenal (in my obviously biased opinion lol).

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Top 5 relationships in The Mortal Instruments

Lets be real the shadowhunter chronicles has grown into a huge world world with more characters than could ever all stay in one in any one institute (and remember institutes are for some reason designed to accommodate the same number as nice hotels) and because so many of them interact we have had some pretty cool characters and some pretty great relationships. I thought I would make ranking lists ranking the my personal favorites for members of family as well relationships in each series. IMPORTANT: When I say “relationships” I am not being specific to any one type of relationship (romantic/family/friend). I just mean two characters who share a type of bond.

Since The Mortal Instruments or TMI, came out first I will start with it. 5 relationships in TMI who have really well done dynamic’s and I want to take this opportunity to spotlight them below

5.) Jace & Church

Aww Church, he was doing the grumpy cat act before it was cool. Everybody loves Church. Church loves Jem and likes exactly one person per series/generation. In TMI the one person Church likes is Jace. Now other instances you could argue that Church liking Jace is just another attempt of CC to enforce that Jace (mr. blond hair, gold eyes, gold skin, takes a bath in golden spaghetti) is the golden boy and everybody should like him. But once you look at who Jace and Church are as characters (what character Jace has that's not referenced by his aforementioned coloring) them being buddies makes a lot of sense. For one thing we know from the falcon story that Jace is fond of animals that have adittutes, which Church certainly does. The first time he made friends with such an animal Valentine... But Valentine is gone when Jace meets Church, and none of the Lightwoods mind if Jace wants to goof off with the cat (to them that’s probably one of the least reckless things Jace likes to do). So for Jace Church is in essence a way to reclaim part of his childhood that Valentine tried to twist and corrupt.

On the other side I love how respectful Jace is of Church’s boundaries. Guys Church has a past as extensive and hard as any other character in TSC. HE has been both a pet and a wild cat many times over, he ha been treated well by some humans, and horribly by others. This is no purring kitty-cat that is going  to just climb into someones lap wanting hands run through his fur or to be picked up and carried around. No Church doesn’t like that. Jace understands this, and never tries to force Church to let him handle him. IF Church wants Jace to touch him he will take the initiative and walk up to Jace’s leg. If not Jace is perfectly happy to hang out in a room or follow the cat at a distance, pretending to chat with him. I saw a post that said that even after Church got reunited with Jem (churches OTH) Church still considers Jace his buddy and they hang out during visits, that is precious.

4.) Alec and Magnus aka Malec

Aww Here they are, fandom darlings and CC’s poster couple for LGBT+ inclusion. I promise that is not why I put them on this list. I actually never give characters or couples brownie points for being same sex or anything like that because so many writers try to get away with making “Gay” a characters whole personalty or squeezing in characters for the sole purpose of saying “look inclusion, look I can be woke” and then they don’t consider it necessary to put the level of characterization they would into a straight character in. I do like inclusion and feel it is important, but only when it is fully developed to the best of a creators abilities.

Now I will admit here that Malec are only my second favorite romantic couple in TMI. That being said I do really like them. I like the pace that their relationship develops at. When other couples did the whole love at first sight or suddenly inexplicably in love. Malec moved at what I consider a pretty realistic pace and you could easily follow their journey. In book 1 they met at a party and decided the other was pretty cute, started to spend time together on occasions, started to like each other, then started to really like each other. It’s  not until  the very end of book 6 where you fee like the two are really committed to the whole “Okay it’s you and me till the end” idea, and you are glad to finally see them there.

That brings me to my second reason for liking Malec. They are a hot mess, as all three main couples are, but unlike with the other two Malec never pretended to be anything other than a hot mess. If I compared Malec to Clace i would say that Clace follow a pretty typical fairy tale formula: I met you and I loved you, then the evils in the world conspired to keep us apart, but I fought my way back to you and now we can live happily ever after. Malec aren’t like a fairy tale though. They are that high-school/early college couple who are consistently on and off. The rocks in their path aren’t “evil forces” it’s just them. Just the fact that they both have a tendency to be whinny, stupid, jealous, controlling, a!@#$”s to each other. Honestly if they didn’t care so much about each other, then they would be a really toxic couple. But they do care a lot about each other. They hated when they were always fighting. They hated seeing each other so sad. But they couldn’t just forget about their problems or pretend them away. So many times throughout TMI Malec would find themselves at a cross road where on one path they force themselves to change and see if that made their relationship better , and another path were they decide that it is just to much to and call it quits. They broke up twice because they got to times where it was just to much to keep going the way they were and neither were ready to change. But then they couldn’t stop thinking about the other or missing the other. So, when they met up again they would always reconcile and be ready to put in the work to change their relationship for the better.  Looks like those changes worked out given that years down the line we see then happy, married with two kids, happy at their jobs, hosting social gathering with their friends as apposed to before when they would always spend then picking at each other or having an outright fight.

Malec are not perfect, TMI never pretends they are. They are both a lot to deal with and at least a few times one of them will slam their hands down on some surface, and I as a reader found myself wishing I could bring my hands down on the pair of thems heads. But I consider Malec a pretty gritty look at what any couple can be like at their lows, as well as the highs they can reach if they are willing to put in the time and work, and exactly why some are willing.

3.) Maia and Bat

What? What was that? If Malec are only my second favorite couple in TMI then who is my favorite? Oh, it’s Baia. Baia is like literally the perfect couple. They met years ago became best friends, tried dating and went back to being best friends when Maia-who had just gotten out of an abusive relationship and was still recovering- told Bat that was all she could handle. Their friendship is shown in the background throughout books 2-5 and we see that they always have each others backs. We see Bat is always their for Maia, always trying to take her out as a friend and convince her to have fun. Maia supports Bat’s DJ career and talks about how much she admires him for perusing such a normal mundane life because (regardless of the fact that they aren’t normal mundanes) its what he wants. Their relationship is brought to more of a focus in book 6 when shadowhunters leave, demons attack and their fellow downworlder start staging uprisings. Both of these two are still so young, and now (with their Alpha away indefinitely) their whole world is falling apart. Fixing this isn’t their job, no one has tasked them with it, but its the only way to keep themselves, each other, and everything they love safe. SO they make the choice to take action. Like everything in their lives since they met, they make a point to always support each other. Bat challenges an aggressive wolf for control of the pack because he has sen this wolf go bully those close to Luke and is determined to protect Maia. When Bat goes down in the fight Maia tags herself in and fights to protect him. When Maia wins she wakes up Bat isn’t upset or embarrassed that she had to save him, He immediately throws support to her as his Alpha. One of Maia’s first act is to make Bat her Beta because they are a team and their is no one she trusts more. They rebuild their pack and the Predator Lupis together, and also get back together. But that is less important because no matter what their relationship they have always and will always be there. 

Seriously when every other couple acted stupid, was over dramatic, were never sure where they stood with each other; Maia and Bat were true friends, true love, and unwavering in their support. So what keeps them from being number 1 on this list? Well were still a background relatonship for most of TMI (a lot of the fandom either didn’t remember or didn’t care that they got together at the end or that they were even friends). Also knowing CC and general media aimed at TMI’s age group I have to unfortunately believe that if CC had wanted to bring more focus onto Maia and Bat,then she would have made them way more dramatic and less awesomely supportive. Moving on

2.) Valentine and Luke

I can hear the gasps from here. No, not read that wrong, it really says Valentine and Luke. How could I talk just get praising a supportive pair only to go and talk about a pair that betrayed and tried to annihilate the other? Well for one thing I will remind you Valentine and Luke whole dynamic is friends to enemies. As that they really work. Luke never had what it takes to be a shadowhunter on his own. He says himself that he couldn’t bear easy marks, he couldn’t do simple training exercises, he was miserable and ready to just drop out and give up. Then Valentine “came into my room and offered to train me”.  Even in the future Luke says that in their first interactions that Valentine saved him. That he is the one who made Luke into a shadowhunter. Well truth be told Valentine made Luke more of an assistant Shadowhunter, to him, but it is still farther than Luke was getting on his own, and its completely genuine when he says he loved and worshiped Valentine. You see why he was so blind to what Valentine (Stop trying to pretend you were always in the right Lucian) what both of them were becoming. Valentine gave Luke a life as a shadowhunter, and then he took it away. Valentine thought he was covering himself, that he was getting rid of a doubtful ally before he had a chance to become an enemy.

Getting Luke turned into a werewolf was easily the biggest mistake of Valentine’s life. Shadowhunter Luke was never able to do anymore than listen to Valentines orders and carry them out with no thought but how much doing so would please Valentine (Shadowhunter Luke= Valentines pet lap dog.) Werewolf Luke could say no. He could fight Valentine to a stand still at least, beat him at best. Werewolf Luke had knowledge and insight as to the needs of both Downworlders and Shadowhunters, and used that knowledge paired with Valentine’s impediment threats to rally the downworlders and get them to force the clave to give up 4 seats on the council. Because of Luke Valentines war caused Downworlders to get more rights instead of less. (Shadowhunter Luke=Valentines pet lap dog. Werewolf Luke= has more brains and skill than Valentine) Valentine thought he was getting rid of a potential threat when he had Luke turned; instead he gave his strongest supporter the push needed to break away from him, and the motivation to take become the man who had enough power to foil all his plans. That their is Irony at its finest my friends. I love it.

And Now 1.) Jace and Simon

This is hands down the best relationship in TMI and should I ever make a top 5 relationships This one will definitely be in it. How can they not when they are literary the TSC equivalent of Batman and Superman. (I mean that quite literally by the way. Jace is Batman: A hero who lived a life of pain and loss and used that as a motivation to protect people and prevent harm. Simon is Superman: A hero who wasn’t born into this world, these people weren’t always his people, but he decided that this was his home now and he was going to make it a better place.) There are so many things I love about these two I love how well their relationship was paced in how as they got to know each other more they transitioned from enemies to rivals to friends to family. I love their banter. these two together make me laugh more than any other pair. The number one thing I love about Jace and Simon is how careful CC was to keep them standing on Equal ground.

I meant they weren’t equal when it came to who had Clary’s affections. No Jace won that battle the moment Clary ditched simon, who was in the process of asking her out, to go find out who Jace was and what he was doing at the club. But lets look at virtually every other factor. Both are young men only 16 who have suffered the loss of a loved one before and are fiercely loyal and protective of the ones they have left. Neither are always sure who they can trust. In book 1 Jace is introduced s having vanquished more demons than anyone else in their age group, Before the end of Book 1 Simon is revealed to be skilled in archery and uses that skill to vanquish an incredibly dangerous Greater Demon. In book 2 Simon dies then is brought back from the dead to rise again, Jace does the same, through admittingly different methods, one book later. Jace is from a powerful race of hunters (shadowhunters), lets make Simon a member of a another powerful race of hunters (vampires and then Shadowhunters). Oh it looks like Jace has extra gifts his blood is special. Jace gives Simon his blood and Simon now has extra gifts to. Both of them have been hunted over their gifts, both have tried to help and protect the other. Jace giving Simon that Blood was a huge sacrifice and then he sacrificed for him again by admitting what he did to Valentine, knowing it will anger Valentine and could cause him to lose love for Jace. So in the second half of the series Simon starts Sacrificing for Jace. He gives up not only the mark of Chain which protected him from harm, but also a beloved memory connecting him to his own late father. Jace showed Simon a lot of the Shadoworld, and Simon returned that by teaching Jace aspects of mundane life. He told him pop culture references, let him stay with him in his apartment, taught him to play video games, and even took him grocery shopping. (Ask me why Jace seems more human when he is with Simon yet more like a fantasy man with Clary)

After reading Tales From The Shadowhunting Academy I will say that Jace was the ONLY one of the TMI gang who deserved to get Simon back. He is the only one who ever seemed to think about how Simon must be feeling or made any effort to be there for him. Alec and Magnus ignored Simon and acted like they didn’t care that he was back, while Isabelle and Clary were both incredibly selfish and only seemed to think of themselves. They actually had the audacity to blame Simon for not remembering them, and make him feel more like crap for not being able to just walk back into a life they knew he couldn’t remember, knowing that he sacrificed his memories to save THEIR lives. Clary Isabelle I am so disappointed in you ladies. Jace you are doing great.

Ending this to anyone wondering if at this point if I ship Jimon; Yes. I think they would have made an awesome couple. I also think they are awesome as friends and brothers in law. Any way you slice it Jimon is top tear writing

This has been my top 5 TMI relationships. I will do a TID top 5 when I either learn how to make these smaller, or have the time to do one this long again. Heads up it will probably be the second one.

[mysterious-prophetess]

so, I just finished watching the Snyder Cut of Justice League

And since I did watch the Theatrical Cut or Josstice League (and own that on Blu-Ray) I thought I’d compare and contrast.

From here on out the Theatrical version is Josstice League and Snyder Cut is Snyder Cut

First, the things they have in common: A lot of the plot beats and characters appear in both with the exceptions that are probably obvious.

But the story still is

“Space Invader from beyond the stars is on earth searching for magic macguffins to end life on Earth as we know it forces Bruce and Diana to recruit a team of other metas to stop this and they end up reenacting Re-Animator with Superman/Clark who died in Batman v Superman with the MAcGuffin and the MacGuffin Ship from Man of Steel and in the end, though shit gets weird in Russia, they save the world and resume their lives in slightly better shape than before.”

Now onto the contrasts

I’ll hit the low hanging fruit and go with Tones first.

Josstice League’s tone could flip-flop wildly. Which, since they were trying to mimic the MCU’s tonal flip-flopping (by even hiring the same guy who set it up with Avengers) makes some sense.

Snyder Cut isn’t without levity but it doesn’t do the drastic veers that Josstice League did.

There are some things I liked better about Josstice League, believe it or not.

While the tone shifting like it did was very MCU copy-paste at times, there were character moments of the Flash from Josstice League I enjoyed.

I even liked Diana’s little heart-to-heart with Bruce from Josstice League.

I also liked Bruce being behind bringing Lois into the fray post their attempts at science based necromancy calling her “the big guns” even if that sounded way more like Tony Stark than Bruce Wayne.

One final compliment I can give Josstice League was the soundtrack. I like the music I like and I liked the music they chose.

The scenes that the Snyder cut extended were a 70/30 split of me liking the extensions with a 30% split of them thinking “You know, I get why they cut this” and this being the character set up scenes. Flash’s sequence is ok, and so is Cyborg’s, but the Aquaman one with Bruce and Diana’s foiling of a bank heist felt too drawn out. Aquaman interacting with Atlanteans sequences are mostly needed to establish the other characters and how he got the trident and costume change.

It’s neat to see how things got into place for each scene but.....if this was a book I was editing, those would be the darlings I’d have told Snyder to kill.

The extra characters were folded in seamlessly. It was nice to see Willem DaFoe’s Aquaman character get an appearance since he’s a big player though the change in hair style was jarring.

I was stoked to see Martian Manhunter. So stoked.

I was also pleased by the revised Steppenwolf design. Before, he just seemed like....I can’t quite put it into words eloquently but Josstice Steppenwolf looked liked an early 2000′s CGI cutscene character crossed with a few of the Orcs from Lord of the Rings and an orc from Warcraft the failed movie. Just off and not much of a villain.

This one is a major improvement and it’s pretty clear he’s a grunt the whole time.

Was very excited to see Darkseid in a major movie.

Now all they need to do to make me happy is use Brainiac in a live action movie. Yeah, I know he’s been live action a couple of times but not in a major movie.

For the most part, the action of Snyder Cut just felt better.

The quiet scenes also felt better.

Problem is, the length makes watching this in one go not really a practical thing. I know there are chapter marks, so kudos for that, but this film isn’t perfect.

The Length thing is a nitpick. Since this is a special home-release, I don’t care as much as usual about length but I really have opinions on movie lengths for theatrical stuff partly from being a movie goer back when that was a possible thing to be AND from working in a movie theater. (I’m of the opinion that keep theatrical releases to 150 minutes or you’re just being an over indulgent jerk of a studio)

Now onto actual problems.

First is that I both love and hate Snyder’s Snyder-verse.

So, I hate the Grittier Superman Snyder came up with in Man of Steel wherein Superman is less Paragon and more like a Punisher type. Same goes for Batman in Snyder-verse (since he’s not a fan of guns and the whole doesn’t KILL people rule)

If any come at me with “but that’s because he’s too simple a character otherwise” I’ll direct you to Overly Sarcastic Productions’s better worded video essay about paragons not being boring/simple.

But Snyder does have good ideas for a general shape of his universe, and he also is pulling in more comic book source material into the films, which I love.

but his universe is always darker and grimmer than necessary and sometimes his aesthetics are weird.

Speaking of that-that weird destroyed future timeline wherein Supes is working for Darkseid.

Can’t say I like the aesthetics of it. Can’t say I like how Batman is portrayed in it either and no, not a fan of Mera or Joker’s presence. I’m able to admit that this is due to both of the actors portraying them. Though, I also really don’t like the Suicide Squad Joker.

Superman going evil isn’t unheard of in story arcs. See animated Justice League story arc wherein the Flash was killed by Lex Luthor.

Making Lois the key to his heart also isn’t a bad idea. 

It’s just the moment the movie threw that in just before the end, I rolled my eyes at it. I also thought the Lex Luthor bits were a bit superfluous, at first, but hey, it explained Deathstroke the Terminator (and gave a name for the face of his terrible future counterpart).

So, yes, I enjoyed the Snyder Cut for the most part. Should it come to physical media, I’ll probably purchase it.

Comparing the two films isn’t quite fair, but Snyder Cut just looks better over all.

I’ll give the Josstice league credit for being shorter-easier movie to sit through, with some dumb moments enough for fun and maybe even a scmaltzier ending at times but it just looks like the second draft of something next to a final draft with the Snyder Cut.

Snyer’s Cut’s polish is nice, but the length does undermine it.

So, actually both versions are fine but one clearly looks like it had been smashed and glued back together while the other is smooth and seamless with more consistency over all.

Like what  you will.

I like both but Snyder Cut is, to my eyes, the better put-together film.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Something I noticed: Ozpin and RWBY both came up with outlines of plans but have nothing concrete. Both were rejected, not because said plans, but because they lied to their allies and the lies were revealed at the worst possible time, place and way.

…Hmmmmmmm….I dunno about that Miki-chan. With all due respect, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one point m’friend since I wouldn’t go as far as to say that RWBY actually had a plan; at least not one that went beyond withholding the truth from General Ironwood.

Since we’re comparing Oz’s actions to that of RWBY’s---Oz was the only person with a legit plan---one that more or less worked successfully in his favour for the past few lifetimes. You know what I just realized? The only thing that Oz didn’t have a plan for was a way to stop Salem and that was technically the ONLY relevant piece of information that he withheld from his allies; inclusive of our heroes and the members of his inner circle.

Other than that, Oz told them everything else that he knew and had things in place for.

The existence of the Brother Gods, the Maidens of Magic, the true purpose of the huntsmen academies as strongholds for the Vaults containing the Relics and the identity of Salem herself---our heroes (mainly the RNJR group at the time) garnered all this info through Qrow Branwen who would’ve have been able to pass it onto them if Oz hadn’t disclosed it to him in the first place.

Herein lays an issue I have. It’s for this reason why it bothered me (and still bothers; mind you) how in RWBY V7CH4, the CRWBY Writers---mainly Eddy ‘Double D’ Rivas---had Qrow Branwen deadass tell Ruby that her choice to withhold information from Ironwood is no different from Ozpin’s deceit since according to him, Ruby is choosing to place her trust in others.

“…Oz only trusted himself with the whole truth. You’re trusting others but you’re making sure they prove themselves first. I think that’s a pretty big difference.”

… I have never heard so much wrong in one sentence from a character I like. Brace yourself Miki-chan and to anyone who happened to be reading this response post for I am about to go off on small tangent as to why I strongly dislike this one line from V7 and why it peeves me so much that this dribble came from Qrow Branwen.

If this line had been said by any other character; I probably would’ve been fine with it. If it had come from someone like Yang or Weiss or Blake or anyone of our other young huntsmen characters who didn’t know Ironwood personally then I would understand for them to have this impression of him since V7 is technically our group’s first time getting to really know and understand the General through working with him and his associates.

But the fact that this line was said by Qrow of all people is such a huge contradiction in my eyes. No matter how I look at it; it felt incredibly off to me to have Qrow say something like this regarding the team’s choice to deceive the General. It was off to have Qrow say this to Ruby when outside of Oz; Qrow is the only other person who knows James given the fact that the two were forced to work together via their association with Oz as members of his Inner Circle. Qrow may not share the same rapport and level of respect towards James like Oz once did---on the contrary, back in V3, there a bit of tension between Qrow and James given the Branwen man’s displayed disagreement against the General’s actions during that season. Needless to say, in spite of their differences in the past, Qrow still knew the General a lot better than Ruby and the others to gage the type of man he is. So to have Qrow condone his own niece and their entire group deceiving one of their own allies; especially given the events of V6 is SO bothersome to me.

And I guess the biggest reason as to why this bothers me so much is because, if I recall correctly, back in V3, Qrow literally instigated a courtyard battle with Winter Schnee because he detested how Ironwood had went behind Ozpin’s back to get the Vale Council to waver in his favour for bringing Atlas military forces to Vale for the Vytal Festival despite Oz voicing his oppositions about it earlier in the season.

“…Despite what the world thinks; we’re not just teachers or generals or headmasters. The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies; we’re the ones that keep the world safe from evils no one even knows about. It’s why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows so you tell me James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you being discreet or did you not just give a damn?!”

Qrow didn’t like it went Ironwood went over Oz and did his own thing so it feels awkward to have him basically do the same thing to Ironwood here in V7 especially coming off of V6 where part of his anger towards Oz was because he had kept such a huge secret even from him---one of the people he claimed to have trust.

This brings me back to my biggest gripe with this quote from Qrow. How can Qrow imply that Ruby’s deceit is no different that Oz due to him ‘only keeping the whole truth to himself while Ruby only told it to people she trusted after they had proven themselves worthy of her trust’ when…Qrow himself is an exemplar of Oz’s trust.

So was Ironwood!

As a matter of fact, let me share a quote that Qrow himself said back in V3 that justifies my point. This was taken from the same episode that I mentioned before--- RWBY Volume 3: Chapter 3- It’s Brawl in the Family.

“…Despite what the world thinks; we’re not just teachers or generals or headmasters. The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies; we’re the ones that keep the world safe from evils no one even knows about. It’s why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows so you tell me James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you being discreet or did you not just give a damn?!”

“…Discreet wasn’t working. I’m here because this is what was necessary.”

“…You’re here because Ozpin wanted you here! He made you a part of this Inner Circle and opened your eyes to the real fight that’s in front of us!”

Referring back to what I said earlier---our heroes (meaning JNR_RWBY) eventually learnt the truth through sources like the Branwen Twins. V4 was when Qrow told RNJR the truth and V5 was when Yang and Weiss heard it from Raven.

However, neither Qrow nor Raven would know any of this info if Oz hadn’t trusted them with it in the first place. And Oz only trusted them because, just like Ironwood, they had proven themselves worthy to be drafted into his inner Circle of allies. After all it was stated back in V5 that Ozpin had his eye on Team STRQ the minute they were assembled, just as how he had his eye of RWBY.

“…Your Uncle Qrow and I didn’t attend Beacon to become huntsmen. We did it to learn how to kill huntsmen. Daddy and uncle left that part out, hmm? Aside from the Grimm, huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counterforce. And Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child’s play compared to what we’d already been through. We were good. So good, that we caught the attention of Beacon’s very own headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping his eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew, but it was Team STRQ he was interested in…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should’ve. Sound familiar?”

“What’s your point?”

“How much do you know about Professor Ozpin?”

“He was…a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters to be appointed to a school.”

“Because that’s how he planned it. Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers inside every academy on Remnant that are loyal to him and no one else.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! How could he have---No. Why would someone even do that?”

“Because old man Oz has a great and terrible secret. One that could spread fear across the world. One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and once I knew, there was no good back…”

This was taken from RWBY Volume 5: Chapter 6 – Known By Its Song. I just want to draw attention to the part where Raven told Yang and Weiss that Oz entrusted the members of Team STRQ with presumably the same information that gave the members of his Inner Circle .

This is why Qrow’s line from V7 is like his name; a load of crow; in my opinion. Ozpin kept the whole truth to himself? Ruby is different because she only trusts people with the truth until they’ve proven themselves?

…Even though, that is EXACTLY what Ozpin did with Team STQR and his Inner Circle? The only exception with him being the truth about Salem’s immortality. Speaking of which; how can Qrow imply that Salem’s immortality is the whole truth given everything our heroes (and by extension, the audience) have learnt over the past couple of seasons?

As a matter of fact, let’s take a gander at this so-called “whole truth” that Qrow Branwen spoke off; shall we? Allegedly, Qrow had implied that Oz failing to mention the fact that Salem is immortal and therefore undefeatable to be the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth, right? But this simply cannot be the case since, as we know, there is a whole bunch of other stuff that also falls under that category. Basically, the whole truth can be divided into the following. 

Salem the True Leader of the Grimm

The Brother Gods

The Maidens of Magic

The Relics

The True Purpose of the Huntsmen Academies

Oz and Salem’s History

Our heroes first learnt all this information from the Branwen Twins. As I stated before, V4 was when Qrow first told this to RNJR during his rendition of the Tale of the Brother Gods and this was ultimately followed up a bit in V5 when Raven passed on what she knew about Salem to Weiss and Yang.

While I understand that Salem’s history with Ozma that led to her curse of immortality is an important piece of information; I’d hardly call that the “whole truth”. It’s not even half of the whole truth. It’s only a very small fraction compared to everything else on the board. What about all the stuff concerning the Maidens? The Relics and the Vaults? The Brother Gods. All of that information falls under this so-called “whole truth” that Qrow implied to Ruby and as I’ll repeat again, Qrow was only able to do this since Ozpin told it to him.

Referring back to Raven’s quote from V5CH6, Qrow was among the few people that Oz chose to trust with everything.

While he didn’t tell them about Salem’s immortality, he did entrust them with everything else. Therefore Oz didn’t trust only himself with the whole truth. The only information that Oz kept to himself was the one piece of info he didn’t have a clear plan for. A clear method of stopping Salem is the ONE thing that Oz couldn’t account for since even after living many lifetimes, it’s the one thing that he and his predecessors had failed to come up with a solution to.

But for everything else, Ozpin had things put in place. The protection of Maidens of Magic by erasing them from the public view and knowledge. Having the four huntsmen academies double as a fortresses to hide the Vaults keeping the Relics away from Salem and her forces. Designing the vaults in such a way that they can only be opened by a Maiden of Magic and creating the huntsmen class---warriors trained as humanity’s protectors to safeguard the world against the plight of Grimm---all of this came according to Oz’s plan. Well…the Wizards’ plan.

It’s just like Raven had said back in V5. Oz had a plan for mostly everything---a plan that worked in his favour for his lifetime as the Headmaster of Beacon Academy and during his life as the King of Vale, contributed towards the People of Remnant being able to live eighty full years of peace and harmony within the kingdoms in the aftermath of a war that spanned for ten years.

Oz even had a plan in the event of his death and inevitable rebirth. What was it that he told RNJR back in V5?

“…But I thought the headmasters all took their orders from you.”

“That was the intention. Four lieutenants I can trust, especially during times of reincarnation…”

That was taken from RWBY V5: Chapter 3 – Unforeseen Complications. Oz had people he trusted. Qrow was among those people.

The one thing Oz did not have a plan for was how to deal with Salem, but in spite of this, he fell back to focusing all of his efforts on the main mission that the God of Light first tasked to Ozma.

“…Mankind is no more; yet your world remains and in time, your kind will grow to walk its face again. However, without our presence, they will be but a fraction of what they once were. Creation, destruction, choice and knowledge were the ideals upon which humanity was made. Now I leave them behind with the hope that you may learn to remake yourselves. If brought together, these four relics will summon my brother and I back to your world and humanity will be judged.

If your kind has learned to live in harmony with one another and set aside their differences, then we shall once again live among you and humanity will be made whole again. But if your kind is unchanged. If you demand our blessings while still fighting amongst yourselves then man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence. Until your task is complete, you will reincarnate but in a manner that ensures that you are never alone…”

In the Lost Fable, the God of Light never told Ozma to stop Salem. She wasn’t supposed to be his priority. On the contrary, Light attempted to sway Ozma from pursuing Salem entirely since he already knew of her fate.

“…I’m sorry but…that world just isn’t dear to me with her. If I may, I’d rather return to the afterlife to see Salem.” “You will not find her there.” “…You mean…she isn’t gone?” “Salem lives. But the woman you hold dear in your memories is gone. Heed this warning. Where you seek comfort, you will only find pain…”

Taken from RWBY Volume 6: Chapter 3 – The Lost Fable. From the beginning, Ozma’s purpose was never to stop Salem. He, and by extension his other lives and successors, were supposed to work towards uniting humanity and ensuring that the world doesn’t fall to ruin in the event of the Gods’ Return.

It’s why the efforts of the King of Vale---King Phadrig as I’ve dubbed him--- were so extraordinary to New Remnant’s history. You can say that during that lifetime with that successor, Ozma succeeded in fulfilling the duty he was given.

As the King of Vale, he helped unite the world during a time of war and peril. Could you imagine what would’ve happened if the Brother Gods had been summoned back to Remnant during the first Great War?

But here in lies a question I now wish to ask--- why didn’t King Phadrig summon the Gods back to Remnant after the Great War had ended?

After all, he didn’t just end the war but also put things in place to ensure that Remnant never fell to war again. Through the efforts of the King, the People of Remnant were able to enjoy 80 long years of peace and prosperity among the four kingdoms for the most part. There was even the establishment of the huntsmen academies to train Remnant’s next generation of heroes against the Grimm.

Even still, why weren’t the Gods brought back then? I’m guessing that the King of Vale probably perished before he got a chance to summon the Gods. In the RWBY World of Remnant episode on the Great War, it was eluded that King Phadrig used three of the Relics---Choice, Creation and Destruction to finally put a stop to the War during the Vacuo Campaign. So I’m wondering if there was a penance that Phadrig had to pay---a sacrifice he was forced to make with his own life as a means of ending the war after which he didn’t have enough time left to summon the Gods but…the least he could do was ensure that no matter what happened, Remnant would be safe and the Relics kept out of Salem’s grimm-y clutches. 

I’m going to assume that, much like in Ozpin’s case, the King must’ve left ‘specific instructions’ to allies he most trusted in those days for them to carry out his mission in his place after he died until his successor---Ozpin---would appear sometime down the line.

Once upon a time, I shared a RWBY Musing with an analysis on the Ozma Cycle, during which I deduced that following the death of a Wizard, it possibly takes up to 50 years before his next reincarnation. Given the fact that Oz felt the need to leave specific instructions in the event of his death and the reactions of the villains when they discovered that he had returned so soon (according to Tyrian Callows in V6), I’m left to believe that, unlike other representations of reincarnation in media that happens instantaneous, in RWBY, there is a huge time gap in the Ozma Cycle leading to a new Wizard being “born” in a different period in Remnant’s history.

That’s my hunch. The one except so far has been Ozpin’s rebirth into the mind of Oscar Pine.

I’m still waiting for the show to address this. There seems to be something very unique about Oscar’s case in the cycle. Not only is our veteran little prince the youngest within the Ozma Cycle but his pairing with Oz seems to be premature given that past incarnations have been older with a longer time gap. But…that’s a talk for another time.

Overall what I’m mainly trying to say here Miki-chan is that I really, really cannot compare Oz and RWBY; at least not on the grounds you presented. It’d be like comparing; not even an apple to an orange; but like a cherry to a full-sized watermelon. Between the two factions, Oz is the only one between them who had anything remotely resembling a concrete plan.

The only place where Oz fell short is not having a defined method of stopping Salem. That as much is true. But in spite of this, Oz kept working diligently to uphold the time of peace that his predecessor has worked to create following the Great War. He may not have had a way to stop Salem but at least he still had the failsafe that his past lives had put into place. It’s like what Jinn said in the Lost Fable.

“…Thus began a long and painful cycle of death and rebirth for Ozma. Some lives were spent in mourning, many were spent attempting to forget it all but no matter what, his mind would eventually turn back to the task he had been burdened with.

 And as the centuries went on, Ozma began to learn the importance of living with the souls with which he had been paired. But no matter where or how he lived, her presence was always felt. If humanity were to ever stand a chance at being united, one thing was clear…

“…He had to destroy Salem.”

“Knowing he could never rid the world of her through any mortal means, Ozma sought out the power of the Relics. Armed with my knowledge, he believed he could fulfil his promise to the God of Light…”

Was Oz wrong for withholding this information from allies he deemed he trusted? Yes. I’m not faulting our heroes for being upset with Oz about that. But at the same time I don’t particularly like the idea of the narrative having most of the characters bastardize Oz actions since when you look at the whole picture, Oz’s actions were just.

RWBY on the other hand, I still can’t rationalize their actions towards Ironwood at all. It wasn’t that Oz lied or didn’t have a plan or didn’t trust others.

He did. He did trust others. 

That’s why his whole Inner Circle exists in the first place. He didn’t lie entirely. He told his allies all the information for the things he already had planned for. He just didn’t tell them about Salem because she’s the only thing that he didn’t have a plan for. And after RWBY forced the truth out of him, he had no choice but to tearfully admit his failures in that out of shame and remorse.

But even then. I STILL understand why Oz and his past selves did things the way they did. It’s exactly as Oscar rationalized in V7. Oz didn’t tell anyone the last bit of truth concerning Salem since he didn’t want them to lose hope. 

Because fighting an enemy who you know can’t be killed sounds like a hopeless cause. 

Hence why we saw characters, like Raven Branwen, either abandon the fight all together or straight up join Salem out of fear for their own survival as in the case of Professor Leonardo Lionheart.

I’d even like to bet my bottom dollar that Ozma gave up as well. Probably more times than he can count. My theory is still that Ozma possibly became the Hermit AFTER Jinn’s revelation. 

According to the Lost Fable, Ozma gave up several times but no matter of how many times he tried to quit, at some point he always came back to the mission he was given---to unite humanity and save them from damnation.

And what’s remarkable is that despite learning the truth about Salem, Oz and his fellow Wizards never gave up. At some point, they always got back up and did what they could to fulfil their god-given duty and the King of Vale was probably the first time in a long time where Oz actually succeeded.

Norman the Inquisitor found the Relics and learnt the terrifying truth about Salem from Jinn. Isaac the Hermit created the Four Maiden of Magic. But it was King Phadrig---leader of Vale who used the knowledge and tools left behind by his past lives to end the first Great War and bring about an era of peace. It was in his lifetime shared with the King where Ozma finally succeeded in uniting humanity.

But in doing so, he also knew that it would only be a short-lived peace if he didn’t find a way to stop her. Hence were Oz comes into this mix. All that was left for Oz to do was uphold the peace the King had built while working to figure out a way to stop Salem once and for all.

In his pursuit of this solution, I think Oz probably suffered one of the hardest failures; more so than Ozma or Diggs. Despite his own efforts, Oz failed in discovering a sure way to stop Salem. Not only that but he additionally failed in preventing her and her pawns from undoing nearly ALL the work that the King had worked to achieve.                                                                      

Needless to say; even though he didn’t have a plan to stop Salem, at least Oz had the knowledge and experience that he inherited from his past lives to fall back on some form of a back-up plan to say the least. 

Team RWBY, on the other hand though, what even was their plan, exactly? 

Compared to Ozpin, can I even call their actions towards Ironwood a ‘plan’? No. Not really. From my perspective, it’s safe to say that RWBY did not have a plan. At least not one beyond just simply lying and withholding the truth from the General for as long as they could which was foolish of them in the first place; especially after how they treated Oz. If anything, the only thing RWBY had was intentions. An intention to keep deceiving someone who was supposedly their ally and was willing to trust and work with them so long as they gave him that respect in return.  

But in his pursuit of this solution, I think Oz probably suffered one of the hardest failures; more so than Ozma or Diggs. Despite his own efforts, Oz failed in discovering a sure way to stop Salem. Not only that but he additionally failed in preventing her and her pawns from undoing nearly ALL the work that the King had worked to achieve.      

Now that I think about it, I guess I can say that this is one part where I can say that I do see a bit of  your point Miki. Team RWBY didn’t have a clear plan and figured they could prolong the inevitable by seeing how long they could continue to deceive the General until they figured out an alternative.

To some degree, it was the same for Oz too. Similar to RWBY, Oz didn’t truly have a clear plan to stop Salem either. The most he had to work with were the tactics and strategies left in place for him by his predecessors in his memories.

In looking at it from this angle, the upper hand that Oz had over RWBY was experience. Based on their actions in recent season, the impression I’m getting now is that none of our young heroes fully understood the gravity of Oz’s past actions. You can almost say it’s like watching children playing adults when they don’t fully understand the weight of all the important decisions that the adults have to make in given scenarios. 

And this fits in with our heroes since RWBY are children compared to Oz who is the old soul with wisdom built upon life times of strife and triumphs. And in handling things the way they did; I think RWBY completely missed the mark and wound up moving rather foolishly in comparison to Oz.

This is especially reflected in their whole treatment of Ironwood. Because take a look at this---

Oz may not have told Ironwood the truth about Salem …but he still kept him in the loop. Remember that Qrow quote I shared earlier about Ironwood from V3. Ironwood was only brought into the Inner Circle because Oz wanted him there. Oz made it an active choice to include Ironwood. It was Oz’s decision first hand to place his trust in Ironwood. And even when Ironwood acted out of place or did things that Oz disagreed with; even then, that didn’t stop Oz from trusting him. He still shared with him the same information that he told all of the people he chose to trust; for better or worst.

This is the REAL difference between RWBY and Oz. Not Qrow’s nonsensical statement about Ruby choosing to trust others with the truth when they proved themselves to her. Get out of here with that.

The difference between RWBY and OZ is that Oz trusted Ironwood. Despite the soldier’s flaws; even when he didn’t agree wholeheartedly with his choices, Oz trusted Ironwood because he was willing to see the good in what he was trying to do. And in return, he received Ironwood’s full trust and loyalty.

RWBY on the other hand, took one look at the state of Mantle and rather than try to see the good in the General’s attempted actions, they---or rather Ruby--- immediately misjudged him and deemed him untrustworthy…even though, he’s supposed to be one of their allies who they risked everything to meet with in Atlas?

Even when Ironwood went out of his way to prove that the group could trust him as he was willing to work with them, they never did truly reciprocate that. Not only does this highlight just how wrong RWBY (well technically Ruby) was, it also adds another layer of lunacy to Qrow’s comment from V7CH4.

“…Oz only trusted himself with the whole truth. You’re trusting others but you’re making sure they prove themselves first. I think that’s a pretty big difference.”

Yes Qrow; because Ironwood rightfully arresting you for illicitly commandeering an Atlesian airship and entering the kingdom while at the same time choosing to turn a blind eye to your clear crimes; returning the Relic to you (as opposed to putting it inside of a highly secured vault) while at the same choosing to accommodate you guys during your stay in Atlas while also being a LONG STANDING ALLY OF OZ THAT YOU YOURSELF KNOW AND HAVE WORKED WITH isn’t proof enough that he should be trusted?

…Really?

 I can’t compare RWBY to Oz. I mean… I can but…it’s NOT really the same, y’know what I mean? It’s like I can compare them but at the same time there  is no real comparison, you get what I’m saying if that makes sense?

No matter which way I look at it, I always return to my original opinion that Oz’s actions and mistakes are far more justifiable and sympathetic than RWBY’s. 

And in doing this post, it just adds another reason for me to not be okay with their actions in V7.

RWBY---well Ruby---was immediately wrong the moment they chose to lie to Ironwood. And what’s worse about is that their actions made them look like hypocrites given how they lambasted Oz for withholding the truth from them, only to turn around and do they exact same thing to an ALLY just days later. It still bothers me when I think about it. But for the most part, I hope I actually answered your inbox Miki-chan.

Sorry if this answer took so long for me to respond. It actually took me a while to come up with a decent answer because there is really a lot I can say on this topic. I don’t even think I covered everything I wanted to say but this answer is already 7 pages long in MS Word sooo….I think I will leave it at this for now XD Even still, I hope I answered you and if I did, please do let me know if you can.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[vaguely-concerned]

I am reading the Rogue One visual guide and I’m going to ramble at you about it

Starting with Baze and Chirrut facts because nothing is more important than Baze and Chirrut

- The Guardians of the Whills believe very deeply in the Force but their cosmology doesn’t center any fight between light and dark and they believe mortal minds can ‘encompass the totality of the Force’ with the right training (seemingly even for non-Force sensitives). *thinks of a little green baby who’s going to need some help with his place in the universe one day and how reductive the light/dark side dichotomy can be* good to know good to know. yes everything eventually comes down to baby yoda and his poor stressed out dad. protect them

- “Opposites in balance. Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus share a homeworld and a history, although they strike a compelling contrast. Baze is a hardened pragmatist, while Chirrut’s faith flourishes even in trying times. They both claim to act as the protector of the other.” 

in every way they are #goals. bffs/partners to lovers is Everything. ‘They both claim to act as the protector of the other’ is very funny and very sweet and very true; my favourite thing

- this book describes chirrut as baze’s ‘best friend and moral compass’, which is a funny way of spelling ‘husband of 30 years’ but who am I to criticize 

- baze is just. he’s so good. they say here pragmatism is his biggest trait but you can tell how much love has been at the center of him (and probably continues to be under it all) from the totality of his rage. I don’t think you can be this deeply hurt without loving just as deeply first. (like chirrut says, he used to believe more than anyone and now he’s thrown aside literally everything about the guardians except chirrut) it’s like he’s suffered a moral wound just seeing what’s happened to his home and it won’t heal and it never does, he just loses chirrut too and then at least it’s over. jesus christ it’s so soul crushingly sad in a quiet undramatic way 

- “Though both are Guardians of the Whills, Baze and Chirrut could not be more different in their approach to combat. Traditionalist Chirrut still carries weapons associated with the ancient order, while Baze adopts an implement of modern warfare. Their methods suit them individually, and both are effective extensions of their distinctive personalities. Though Baze may chide Chirrut for his antiques, and Chirrut may decry Baze’s reliance on soulless tools, they trust each other’s defences to such weapons.”

THEY TRUST EACH OTHER’S DEFENCES TO SUCH WEAPONS. YOU HAD TO WORD IT LIKE THAT HUH. YOU HAD TO GO AND MAKE IT CLEAR THEY’RE EACH OTHER’S MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. WHAT. THE FUCK

- it’s implied baze’s hair used to be shorter when he was a Guardian! he’s just let it grow past what’s customary for them (and an excellent choice too his hair is wonderful)

- his repeating blaster is described as ‘modified and highly illegal’ hahaha

it also weighs 30 kg and is meant to be mounted on a tank

baze is the best

- chirrut built his own lightbow! apparently used to be a thing the guardians did to symbolize the end of their training. I wonder if baze used to have one too? even more I wonder if they’ve always been part of the same uh ‘divisions’ or what have you within the guardians, because I think there are some implications that baze has been more of an assassin/focused on violent conflicts even before the empire came and chirrut hasn’t

- this book does not adequately capture chirrut’s trickster/funny side, making me wonder how much of that was an addition by the actor and how much was planned out

- honestly... more baze & chirrut (well baze/chirrut let’s not play here) prequel books WHEN. what does their living room look like (because we do know they live together) how did they meet, when exactly did baze lose his faith and chirrut his sight, what was their first kiss like 

inquiring minds want to know (it’s me I want to know) 

- unless the wording is deliberately misleading here chirrut was not born blind (though he won’t discuss how he ended up this way) and he’s learned his current fighting technique over a prolonged period of time 

- bodhi is a bit of a gambling addict! and specifically one who’s pretty good at it; even after the empire knows he’s a defector he gets past their restrictions because he’s saved up all the credits/favours/even id-vouchers he’s owed by other imperial grunts fsdhfksdjf precious I love him 

- saw gerrera’s medical droid a) has been modified so its programming won’t stop it from being able to dispense drugs at dangerous intervals, b) professes sheer bafflement that saw is still alive and c) is ‘frequently deactivated to prevent it from building an ethical case to discontinue treatment’. I find the whole thing darkly hilarious.  

- there are literally whole subplots going on in the crowd scenes on Jedha about a mad evil surgeon who ‘decraniates’ people (essentially turning them into mindless servile husks with all of their head above the nose cut off, somehow), a masked cop from the Milvayne Authority who’s gone rogue to do the right thing and hunt him down against orders, a death cult, a bunch of different religious sects, a translation droid who has befriended a group of local orphans and shares his credits with them so they can eat and he’s SAVING UP FOR A PROCESSOR UPGRADE SO HE CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF SPIRITUALITY ;_____; what the fuck I want a tv-series about this droid IMMEDIATELY 

- this book shows you just how crucial K-2 is as an asset and what a masterstroke cassian’s reprogramming of him is... and it says some very, very sweet things about cassian as a person under all the trauma and spy stuff that he essentially treats him as his best friend instead of a tool. cASSIAN he deserved to survive and have SO much therapy ;_____; ah well at least we’re getting a prequel series about him right? pls be good

- oh cassian was a proper separatist during the clone wars! he probably has some very interesting points of view about the republic pre- and post empire huh (this is what I love about the clone wars era; they have built SUCH a believable and interesting political world here, all shades of grey. there were separatists with very valid points even thought they were lead by a guy named COUNT DOOKU played by CHRISTOPHER LEE, the first sign that you should look inwards and ask yourself... wait are we the bad guys)

- it’s so much more understandable to me now who in the rebel leadership is for following jyn’s plan and who is not. (namely: the ministers of finance and industry are both Not Into challenging the empire directly, kind of understandably)

in depth description of weapons technology... I sleep. deep dives into the political structure of the alliance leadership and their backgrounds and motivations? I have never been happier

(this. sort of should have been in the actual movie tho things would have made more sense)

- BAIL ORGANA Leia’s actual dad out there lookin’ fiiine, being righteous and good, almost making me forget he’s going to die SO SOON oh fuck :( 

- orson krennic is, presumably straight faced, described as ‘a cruel but brilliant man’ which is PATENTLY LUDICROUS because krennic is by literally every indication a fucking idiot, he needs galen to do all the real work for him, he mouths off to DARTH VADER and then tarkin just effortlessly swoops in and fucks him over in the end, easily outmaneuvering him... orson krennic is a fucking loser I don’t care if he’s the one who introduced brutalist architecture to coruscant

lol lol lol *arrow pointing towards krennic’s head* ‘Keen mind dissects architectural puzzles and conspiratorial plots’ okay I see what happened here orson krennic wrote this book 

- oh galen erso is kind of one of the most interesting and heartbreaking characters in all of star wars. (and I do not say this just because of mads mikkelsen’s cheek bones) he’s incredibly intelligent but from a really poor family and wanted to eliminate the difference between rich and poor and invent a new form of infinitely renewable energy... and technically he did achieve that, except his old college buddy orson krennic immediately found a way to use his technology for genocide and he didn’t realize until it was too late :’) there is something so comforting in the fact that in the end galen still got the last laugh in the most epic but unsung way. he’s the sort of quiet Magnificent Bastard who doesn’t even care he’ll never get the credit as long as it worked. u did good on that one jyn

also several of the scientists galen is leading on eadu are in the same category as him -- captured and forced to work for the empire. so that’s great and not at all upsetting 

- galen and lyra’s falling in love story is kind of sweet (though naturally it pales against baze and chirrut’s whole deal but then who could compare) and the sheer effort and detail that’s gone into building the farmstead in the beginning we end up seeing for 5 minutes... dude (it feels very convincingly like somewhere a family would live though) 

- *sees that ‘databook’ is a concept that exists apparently; groans in fic research I thought ‘holodisc’ might do the job but maybe this is a better fit*

- I will say that my largest gripe with this movie is how glaringly unnecessarily male it is. there’s literally no reason for most of the rebels and ESPECIALLY all of the scientists to be male but here we are. 

well the stormtroopers could all canonically be any gender behind the armor so uh that’s. something lol

- despite being all desert-y jedha is apparently quite cool! temperature-wise I mean though the huge ancient statues lying everywhere are pretty awesome too

- wow stormtrooper armor really does just suck huh. it’s like ‘well it might protect you from a blaster bolt if you stand upwind and angle yourself just right, who knows’. I guess this is why everyone and their grandmothers are drooling over mando’s beskar lol

- star wars’ insistence on sticking to single-biome planets is so silly and I love it. stick to that incomprehensible world building decision lucasfilm I respect you

- mon mothma! basically the most important character in the star wars universe who most people won’t know about lol she’s like the anti-palps. for the most part she is one of the most Big Goods in all of star wars (along with bail) but also she’s played by the actress who voices moira in overwatch so I do instinctively distrust her whenever I hear her talk haha. called palpatine a ‘lying executioner’ to his face which is both admirably bold and remarkably restrained, considering all the things palpatine is.

- oof the two people mentioned the most on anakin/vader’s pages are palpatine and obi wan. that’s. hurtful and bad and awful. the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making me watch ‘clone wars’ because watching ‘clone wars’ actually made me care about anakin skywalker :(

-ah shit this is a lot of pages about pasty empire dudes i’ll uh come back to these lol

[droxley]

pray for the wicked

pray for the wicked is considered the shittiest panic! album by many. they say that the music gets boring, and the lyrics are meaningless. while i do agree that the music can get boring, the lyrics don’t seem as meaningless as they seem at first glance. in fact, if you look closer at the lyrics, you can see that they’re actually a lot darker than they seem. while they aren’t as poetic as they were before the split, they can still require a bit of unpacking, which will be happening in this post (or an attempt at it).

DISCLAIMER: ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE IDEAS. I AM IN NO WAY CLAIMING THAT THIS IS WHAT THE LYRICS ACTUALLY MEAN. not all of these ideas are mine; i have had a handful of friends online who have helped dissect the meanings.

1. (fuck a) silver lining

brendon has said that the message of this song is that essentially nothing is good enough, that you should never let anything be good enough. while the mindset of “nothing is ever good enough” is a good mindset to have, if you’re a perfectionist/have anxiety and what you create isn’t ‘good enough’ for you, it can tear you down.

“no wings of wax or endless mountains” - these are both most likely referencing the greek myths of icarus and sisyphus. icarus and his father daedalus ran from king minos from crete, via wings made of feathers and wax. however, icarus, having too much fun, flew too close to the sun, causing the wax to melt and the feathers to fall off. now wingless, icarus fell down to earth. sisyphus was doomed to roll a boulder up a mountain for eternity. the catch was this: every time he got near the top, the boulder would roll back down the hill, forcing him to start over again. by saying that there will be none of these, brendon’s essentially saying that the misfortunes of icarus and sisyphus aren’t going to happen.

“sunset shadows through the trophies” - not sure what this means, but the sunset and trophies come up again in this album. ‘trapped in your sunset bungalow,’ from dying in la. ‘they wanna celebrate my medals or they want to take my trophies,’ from hey look ma, i made it. ‘oscars and emmys and grammys, everyone here is a trophy,’ from roaring 20s.

2. say amen (saturday night)

“been travelin’ in packs that i can’t carry anymore; been waiting for somebody else to carry me” - a pack is another word for group, and to ‘carry’ can mean to lead a team to victory, especially if they’re not very good or dead. brendon could be saying that he’s been leading a group, and is now waiting for someone else to come and help him.

“if i try to change my life one more day, there would be nobody else to save” - if he tries to change his life, and by extension, himself, he’s saying that there would be nobody else to save. he either doesn’t need saving, or doesn’t think that he can be saved.

3. hey look ma, i made it

this song is supposed to be celebratory, and it is, mostly. there are a few parts, like when brendon talks about how his ‘friends’ want to take his trophies from him. brendon did make it, he got to the top, but it seems like he’s sacrificed a lot to get up there.

“all my life been hustlin’ and tonight is my appraisal; cause i’m a hooker selling songs and my pimp’s a record label” - brendon is literally comparing himself to a prostitute, calling himself a hooker and the music industry his pimp. while this relationship wouldn’t be too far from the truth, saying that he’s a prostitute can be seen as a bit extreme. after all, he has plenty of money, while prostitutes are there because they have no other way to get money.

“this world is full of demons” - the world is full of terrible people and things, yes, but brendon goes all the way to say that it’s full of demons. it’s also interesting that he chose the world ‘this’ instead of ‘the.’ it’s implying that there are more worlds than this one, and that just adds to the whole vibe in king of the clouds. however, this could also be saying that there are different worlds that can be accessed by doing drugs or drinking. 

“so i do the deed, get up and leave” - brendon is, yet again, most likely referencing prostitution. doing the deed is a way of saying having sex. as for getting up and leaving, well... prostitutes get paid, satisfy their clients, and then get up from the bed and leave.

“friends are happy for me or they’re honeysuckle phonies” - he’s essentially saying that ‘friends’ are happy for him, or they’re fake. as for ‘honeysuckle:’ the victorian language of flowers used honeysuckle to show devotion. if you keep that in mind, this phrase says that his friends are happy for him, or they’re devoted fakes.

“some are loyal soldiers while these other thorns are rosy” - this directly follows the lyrics above. he’s saying that some of his friends are loyal and stay with him no matter what (soldier), while others he calls thorns. by calling them rosy, he’s essentially saying that while they do look nice, they will still draw blood.

“and if you never know who you can trust, then trust me you’ll be lonely” - if you look at the previous two phrases, he’s split the people into two groups: those who stay by his side, and those who don’t. brendon could be saying that by not knowing which one of these you can trust, you can be taken advantage of and ditched.

“think i must be dreaming, wide awake and dreaming” - this just reminds me of king of the clouds, either because it sounds like he’s on something or disassociating. it’s probably supposed to be happy, because being a rock star was one of brendon’s biggest dreams, but since it sounds so much like king of the clouds (which doesn’t really seem all too positive to me), i just can’t hear it.

the song aside, if we look at the music video, it basically says that musicians are just easily replaceable puppets. also, if the amazing beebo is supposed to be brendon and his way to fame, then that would mean that brendon actually had a phase where he did cocaine. yes, he got better, but it’s also possible that he wouldn’t have gotten better.

4. high hopes

this is the song that really helped panic! be more recognized and really helped bring in more fans. say what you want about it (i personally do agree that it is overplayed and also rather repetitive but... listen to the instrumentals?), but this song is one main component in panic!’s success today.

“stay up on that rise and never come down” - you’re going to have to come down at some point. he’s at the highest point at this song, but the anticipation for when you’re going to come crashing down nearly overpowers that.

5. roaring 20’s

there’s a lot to unpack on this. buckle up.

brendon has said that this song was based off his time on broadway and kinky boots, but there seem to be references that could be based off touring.

“broadway is black like a sinkhole” - brendon was on kinky boots on broadway. he has said multiple times that it was a good experience overall. so then why would he say that broadway is black (a color often associated with evil), and like a sinkhole? it would be interesting to note that a sinkhole is something that’s caused by a collapse in the surface layer.

“this is the oddest of summers” - i don’t want to look too far into the fact that he chose to use the word ‘odd.’ there are a fair amount of synonyms, but he chose to use the one that’s in the album title of pretty. odd., which is interesting. on top of that, summers (or at least the day and night/sun and moon) seem to hold a deeper meaning in panic!’s lyrics. there are multiple mentions in pretty. odd. and v+v.

“the past on the pavement below me” - earlier in the verse, it is sung that the narrator of this song is on the rooftop. something on the pavement below them would probably mean that it got either pushed off, or it jumped. either way, it’s dead. brendon is essentially saying that the past is dead. but did he push it, or did it jump?

“my telltale heart’s a-hammer in my chest” - the tell-tale heart is a short story by edgar allan poe, narrated by someone who tries to convince the reader that they’re sane while describing how they murdered an old man. at the end, the narrator gave themselves up, as something caused them to hear a hammering noise that they interpreted as the heart of the dead man. why exactly brendon would put this reference in this song, i’m not sure, but referencing books/stories is something that has happened often, especially in afycso. it’s also interesting that he would refer to the telltale heart as his. in addition, using this reference adds to the overall vibe of the song. murder and insanity aren’t very happy things to be writing about.

“cut me a silk tie tourniquet” - silk is often a way of showing off wealth and status. a tourniquet is a way to help staunch bleeding. again, this just adds on to the imagery of the song. more blood.

“this is my roaring, roaring 20’s, i don’t even know me” - it sounds like brendon’s looking back at himself and who he was, and that he can’t even recognize himself at this point. this also sounds self deprecating in a way. your twenties are supposed to be around when you peak, as you’re still young, but have the freedom to do whatever you want. this idea is further helped by the fact that the word ‘roaring’ is put in there. (of course, that could just be a nod to the time period.) however, the ‘i don’t even know me’ just sounds like he’s getting high all the time and letting the past all blend together, like “look at me, i’m peaking, i’m out here getting wasted.” not remembering what happened is a side effect of excessive drinking and sometimes drug use, which seems to be a recurring theme in this album. the fact that excessive drinking and drug use is a repeating theme is... concerning, to say the least.

“roll me like a blunt cause i wanna go home” - brendon smokes weed a lot, as proven by his many videos and streams online. so much that it has apparently gotten into his songwriting. the ‘i wanna go home’ just sounds like he’s tired of what he’s doing and just wants to relax. if this song was inspired by his run on kinky boots, what exactly happened there? there were a few incidents where fans would shout and scream in his face when he came out after shows to sign brochures, which would make sense. brendon has anxiety, and if the fans didn’t back off, an anxiety/panic attack could happen. (there are already a few cases of this happening, one being in the sydney airport.)

“oscars and emmys and grammys, everyone here is a trophy” - saying that a person is a trophy doesn’t say very good things about that person. a lot of celebrities can be objectified by their fans, but be glorified objects. hence, a trophy. brendon could also be saying that people are often reduced to the trophies that they have won and aren’t considered human. either way, the overall idea of this phrase is not very positive.

“hallucinations only mean that your brain is on fire; if it’s lord of the flies in my mind tonight i don’t know if i will survive” - lord of the flies is about a group of boys who get marooned on an island and go insane. they initially try to keep some sort of order, but ultimately sink into chaos. at one point, some of the boys set fire to the forest to try and smoke out another one of the boys. this is most likely the part that brendon was referring to. it’s like his brain is the forest. he’s saying that he tries to keep his head and thoughts in order (lord of the flies in my mind), but it eventually sinks into chaos and he’s not sure if he’ll be able to survive.

“lighters up if you’re feeling me” - lighters are used at shows, often to show support/approval for a musician. the ‘if you’re feeling me’ would probably refer to the approval part. something interesting, though, is that during live performances of northern downpour, the band would ask everyone to specifically put their lighters up.

“fade to black if you’re not mine” - if you’ve seen the overture, or the video that was released to help tease fans for the release of vices & virtues, there is a bar scene. there’s one scene where there are two shadows in the foreground. they’re supposed to represent ryan ross and jon walker. i’m not saying that this is what brendon meant, but it’s possible.

“i just need a sign or a signal inside” - he’s just feeling hopeless and empty at this point, waiting for something to prove that he’s human, maybe. there’s a parallel in always from vices & virtues: ‘blink back to let me know that i’m skin and bone.’

6. dancing’s not a crime

“i’m still uninvited” - brendon has said that this song is about how he’s often the ‘obnoxious friend who’s always dancing in public,’ which, let’s be honest, isn’t a great title. he’s uninvited because he is that friend, but the ‘still’ is important to note. it implies that he hasn’t been invited in a while, which... hurts.

“i’m going insane and i don’t care” - he’s just become numb to everything. he could be literally going insane, or he could be feeling like he’s going insane because of various drugs that he could have taken.

“if you’re night crawling with him i won’t take it lying down” “don’t call me saint california if you’re at another altar” - both of these sound like brendon’s s/o is cheating on him, but... he’s happily married?

7. one of the drunks

this song is, rather obviously, about drinking. it also sounds incredibly disorienting.

“welcome to the club” - this phrase is often used to welcome people to a group, and is also sarcastically used to welcome people to a really shitty part of life.

“orange juice, pour out half the carton; gray goose, pour it, get it started” - these two are the ingredients for a cocktail called a screwdriver: half orange juice, half vodka, or gray goose, in this case. the thing that catches my attention is the fact that you’re pouring out half the orange juice carton. this is half the drink. you would have to use enough vodka to fill in the other half of the carton. if you said that the carton was maybe a liter big, you’d be drinking half a liter of extremely strong alcohol. and since it’s mixed with orange juice, you’d probably just drink more alcohol than you originally thought. this is... a lot of drinking.

“good times remedy your sorrows” - he’s saying that good times cure your problems, what you’re stressing about.

“baptize” - to baptize can be to clean yourself of all your sins. a lot of people resort to drinking to try and forget their sorrows, to drown them. this could be considered an incredibly twisted form of baptizing.

“don’t worry about tomorrow” - this might refer to the hangover that you would definitely have the next day. it is also, needless to say, extremely shitty advice. however, if someone were to follow it, they would find themselves blackout drunk, depending on how bad their issues might be.

“every weekend with your friends, every weekday when it ends” - every weekend with your friends is a bit... excessive, but normal for some people. it’s with your friends, so you’re having fun. however, ‘every weekday when it ends...’ i assume ‘it’ is the weekend. in which case, he’s saying that he’s partying every weekday, and since it says nothing about friends, he’s probably just drinking and partying on his own. which is a new level of yikes.

“it’s all good, i guess” - if the ‘i guess’ wasn’t in there, it would be fine. you’d be able to tell that he’s having fun, it’s all good. the addition of ‘i guess,’ just adds in a lot of doubt. is he not having a good time? this part also sorta sounds slurred.

“searching for a new high, high as the sun, uncomfortably numb” - he’s high, but wants to be higher, hence the ‘high as the sun.’ this might be because of being uncomfortably numb: a high is known to give you a bit of a buzz. maybe he’s just looking for that buzz, and consequently getting higher and higher.

“never dry, every day you’re thirsty” - in this case, i assume ‘dry’ means alcohol running out. being thirsty every day probably means the cravings for alcohol, which only serves to bring into the light how bad this person’s possible addiction is.

“bourbon high, sip it till you’re tipsy” - only sipping until you’re tipsy probably means you’re going to be drinking more. a lot more.

“night’s young, searching for a feeling” - there’s that numbness again. drinking a lot can help mute your feelings. the fact that it’s not too far into the night says a lot about how much this person drinks.

“round and round and round” - he could be talking about a round of drinks, or the fact that the room can feel like it’s spinning when you’ve had too much to drink. this part just sounds dizzying in itself.

8. the overpass

this song sounds like two people who are just pining for each other.

“let me hear you say something” - these two people haven’t talked in a while, or it’s been a long one-sided conversation.

“sorry to get sentimental tonight (that perfume lingers in your hair), it’s just that everything reminds me of things i thought i shouldn’t have to see again” - it sounds like he’s been having a good time, but the smell of *that* perfume just reminds him of something he thought he’d never had to think of again. brendon sounds like he’s apologizing for ruining the good times they’d been having.

“(you need me don’t you)” - this could have two ways of being read: ‘you need me.’ and ‘you need me... right?’

“meet me, meet me, at the overpass, the overpass; sketchy girls and lipstick boys; troubled love and high speed noise” - an overpass is a place where a lot of people would do things that are pretty sketchy and probably borderline illegal. the phrase ‘sketchy girls and lipstick boys’ just serves to cement that image, and ‘high speed noise’ would probably be referring to the cars or trains that would be passing by nearby.

“i know you wanna meet me, meet me at the overpass” “i have a shirt that keeps your smell, you keep one too in parallel” - it sounds like both of them are pining for each other, but chose not to do anything about it, or can’t.

“but i remember every time; every thing about you is perfect, down to your blood type; but i remember every time” - he sounds drunk in this, and the background vocals are mixed together, which just heightens that. the blood type comment is a bit creepy, and honestly sounds like one that you’d only make while drunk.

9. king of the clouds

brendon was high while writing this, and it’s possible that he was rambling a bit. however, the final lyrics are the edited version. he had to have revised the lyrics many times to get them to rhyme and to fit into the music. even then, the gist of the lyrics is that the narrator of the song needs to get high in order to escape from the world, and all that’s in it. it seems to be centered around insomnia and dissociating, and that is honestly sort of scary in itself.

“every day, i’m carl sagan in space to escape this old world, this old world” - carl sagan was an astronomer, along with a few other things, and his most famous work had to do with being the first to send physical messages into space that extraterrestrials would be able to translate. being in space means that there’s no sound, and all in all you would be incredibly isolated from the rest of humanity. brendon is escaping from this world, and he’s calling it old. from that, you can assume that he’s tired of this world. in hey look ma, he said that ‘this world is full of demons.’ another way of looking at this could be by considering ‘old world’ as africa, europe, and asia. ‘old-world’ can also be a way to say ‘old fashioned.’ so he could be thinking that he’s in ‘space’ to escape the old fashioned ways of thinking (homophobia, etc).

“some days i lie wide awake till the sun hits my face and i fade, elevate from the earth” - the lying awake part is probably about insomnia. this happens to people with anxiety a lot; probably has something to do with brendon and his thoughts keeping him up until sunrise. second part: brendon was, as stated before, high while writing this. to fade is another way of saying to get high, and to ‘elevate’ helps with that imagery as well.

“far away to a place where i’m free from this weight” - far away probably means to space, which in turn is probably getting high. this weight is probably gravity, which probably symbolizes his thoughts and stress. so, in short, brendon could be saying that he gets high to get away from his stress for a little while.

10. old fashioned

“from a kiss to a swill” - a swill can be a large mouthful of drink, such as ale. again, alcohol. this probably means that brendon and some other person kissed and drank.

“we were swallowin’ the nights like we had nine lives” - acting like they would stay young forever, partying a lot during the nights?

“seventeen so gone” - brendon was seventeen when he first joined the band.

“we were borderline kids with a book of disorders, medicating every day to keep the straightness in order” - brendon’s probably referring to the medication he used to be on that dealth with his adhd and anxiety. keeping the straightness in order probably refers to keeping his mental disorders in order.

“so pour out some liquor, make it an old-fashioned” “two dashes of the bitters, add some ice and you pour” - these lyrics reference how to make a drink called an old-fashioned. an old-fashioned is a ‘cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters, then adding alcohol… and finally a twist of citrus rind.’ again, the theme of drinking comes back.

11. dying in la

“the sun was in your eyes” - this could be referring to two things: the first being that the california sun can be extremely bright and blinding, and this could just be a way of saying that there is a sense of awe (‘you couldn’t believe it’). this could also be referring to the idiom ‘having the sun in your eyes.’ it means to be drunk. this person could be literally drunk, which wouldn’t be surprising, given the context of this album, or they could be drunk on the possibilities now that they are in la. however, i’m not sure if this is an actual idiom that people have heard and use often.

“riches all around; you’re walking, stars are on the ground; you start to believe it” - the hollywood walk of fame is located in la, and has the names of famous celebrities in stars that are embedded in the ground, as a monument to their contributions to the entertainment industry. these lyrics could mean that, surrounded by riches and seeing the names of celebrities, the narrator of this song started to believe in their own success.

“every face along the boulevard is a dreamer just like you” - this is most likely referring to the hollywood boulevard, a place where all kinds of people, including ‘dreamers,’ flock to.

“nobody knows you now when you’re dying in la; and nobody owes you now when you’re dying in la” - this could be interpreted as the narrator knowing no one while in la.

“nights at the chateau, trapped in your sunset bungalow; you couldn’t escape it” - this is most likely about the chateau marmont, located on sunset boulevard, in west hollywood. even the cheapest rooms are rather expensive, and the bungalows are amongst the higher end of the spectrum. the not being able to escape could be about not being able to escape how much money you have, if that’s understandable. the more money you have, the more media is going to be on your back about things, because that’s how this world works.

“drink of paradise” - this could be referring to alcohol, as it can help people forget their worries. hence, ‘paradise.’ a paradise is also a cocktail. yet again, the theme of drinking returns.

overall, this album is… quite a bit darker than i first imagined. thank you for reading all the way through if you did, and feel free to add on, whether it be other lyrics, or your opinion on the same lyrics.

[bigskydreaming]

Sorry about the stupid question, but wasn’t Ares kinda evil? He was in Percy Jackson at least, and that’s about all I know about Greek mythology

Hahaha, I mean, yeah he’s not exactly misunderstood, as far as most takes on him go. Supremely douchey, at the least. But then again, that kinda describes the vast majority of the Greek pantheon, both major and minor divinities alike….so I mean, he’s got plenty of company. Like I know in the PJ series, Poseidon is basically a pretty decent god comparatively speaking, but like….nah, he was definitely a major asshole in a majority of myths he showed up in. Demeter would definitely make your crops wither if you tried making a case for him being an okay guy, for instance.

But the take on Ares in that post you’re talking about still fits because in pretty much any myth I can think of, Ares is very much the type to be fully convinced he’s in the right at any given moment. He’s definitely the hero of his own story, and everyone else’s, as far as he’s concerned. So he would def object to being cast as evil.

It’s kinda like….so I mean, there’s definite reasons why Ancient Greek culture centered a great deal of focus on two different (and usually opposing) war gods, whereas most cultures usually only had one, or at least one prominent one and then any other war gods being more minor, satellite deities, kinda.

And yeah, Athena is almost always considered the ‘good’ or ‘civilized’ goddess of war - even though she definitely had a nasty streak at times herself - but it was usually more like….Athena was the goddess of wisdom, of strategy and tactics, the incarnation of war with PURPOSE and intent. Like, she embodied war in the sense of….a definite creation of human civilizations, wars that happen because human minds and motivations decide okay, we are going to war and here is why.

In contrast, it’s not really so much that Ares was considered evil, as that he was seen as more…brutish, unreasoning, impossible to sway with talk of peace or treaties or appeals to an enemy’s sense of mercy or such. Basically, he was Athena’s opposite in the sense that he embodied war as like…a force of nature, almost. Something primal, senseless, bloodthirsty, the kind of war that no one truly wins, whereas Athena’s domain was seen more as like…’noble war,’ or war waged for ideals, honor, stuff like that. A little known aspect of Ares is that he was also at times referred to as the god of storms as well as war. Not the heavens or skies in general, like Zeus or other sky gods, but storms specifically. The natural disaster kind, just powerful and overbearing and impossible to tame, just like, the wild fury of mindless nature that the best you can do when facing it is look for shelter and try and wait it out as best you can. Like, a storm isn’t technically evil, but that makes very little difference when the end result is the utter destruction of everything in its path, you know?

Its also interesting to consider the role cultural bias plays in even ancient mythologies. Like how we talk about how history is written by the victors, they decide what gets remembered and in what light…that’s kinda a key component of the Athena/Ares dichotomy too. Its not really a coincidence that Ares is the older of the two…both in terms of worship, like in the sense that he was around and having myths told about him long before Athena arose as a popular divinity in Hellenistic cultures…and in the sense of like, how even in the myths themselves, or at least the myths that lasted and make it through the millennia in the form we remember them and tell them today, Ares is literally the older of the two, in terms of age, with Athena being born long after him.

Like, we talk about the Greek pantheon as the gods of what we usually think of as ancient Greece, like…city-states like Athens and the like, the Greek civilization that built the Parthenon and practiced democratic ideas and were famed artisans and such…but the entire lifespan of THAT ‘ancient Greek civilization’ is still only a relatively small piece of the overall history of the region. The Greek gods as we know them today, were around in various forms for literally thousands of years before that…or at least some of them were. The older Greek gods, culturally speaking, are the ones who are more linked to primal, elemental forces of nature, embodiments of the natural world moreso than specific cultural ideas such as art, music, beauty, wisdom/strategic war, revelry, etc. And over time, as cultures of the region mingled and consolidated and grew into the broader, more widespread civilization we tend to label ‘ancient Greece’ in most of our minds….new gods got added to their myths and merged with the older, more elemental deities into one cohesive pantheon. And that’s why the gods of natural forces like lightning, the sea, the earth, sky, the sun, etc….they were the oldest gods in the Greek pantheon, age wise….the children of the Titans, along with those Titans who’d sided with them in the war against their parents, like Helios, etc. And its these gods’ children, for the most part, who embody the ideas born of human cultures and civilizations, and thus make up the younger generation of Olympians, like Aphrodite, Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes, etc. And of course, Athena.

Ares and Hephaestus exist in a kinda weird, in between state, like one foot in one ‘generation’ and the other foot in the younger one…because they’re examples of deities who were around for a long time in previous cultures in various forms….but kinda evolved along with the changing ideals and priorities and focal points of the various Hellenistic cultures that told their stories. Or not evolved precisely, that’s not the word I’m looking for, its got some less than accurate or great implications here, but…like essentially, in their oldest, earliest remembered ‘versions’, the gods we know now as Ares and Hephaestus were primarily associated with natural forces, just like Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, etc. Proto-Ares, for lack of a better description, was more a storm god than even a war god, initially, while Hephaestus was pretty definitively a god of fire. But for various reasons, their stories changed along with the cultures that told their stories, without ever actually replacing them with newer, younger, ‘gods of civilization,’ the way the older Greek gods replaced the Titans in the mythological cycle, and their children were destined to do the same to them. 

So by the time the Greek pantheon had solidified into the Olympians as we think of them today…..Ares and Hephaestus were added into the Olympian pantheon as part of the second generation of gods, like Aphrodite and Athena and Apollo….but were distinctly the oldest of that generation, the first sons of Zeus and Hera, and thus why they’d been around so much longer than the younger gods, mythologically speaking. And in the process, they’d ‘shed’ most of their more primal, nature-related aspects, as the storm god and fire god, and become more associated with where those forces led humanity once harnessed. Ares thus became the idea of war, but early war, as the emerging Greek civilization saw it, and by extension him…’primitive’ war, senseless violence and brutality that the Greeks of the more modernized era of Olympian worship saw themselves as having outgrown…and thus requiring the birth of a newer, younger, ‘more civilized’ god of war, a war god for the modern age of a more enlightened Greek culture and civilization, in their eyes….hence, the rise of Athena in both the myths and Greek culture as a whole. 

(Though technically, Athena’s actually one of the older deities of the region too, with roots tracing all the way back to the earliest Hellenistic civilizations, but she was ‘updated’ in much the same way as Ares & Hephaestus, but even moreso, to the extent that its much trickier tracing her all the way back to her earliest depictions). 

All of which is why I’d say its not that the idea that Athena = good war goddess/Ares - bad evil war god is necessarily wrong, per se….its more that its not the most accurate way of describing their dichotomy, and their relationship with the ancient Greeks of this era. The surviving myths we have most definitely characterize Ares as nasty, ill-tempered, prone to jealousy and fits of rage, always eager for a fight and hard to talk down from one….but also, he tends to be characterized as pretty stupid, overall, like…his only advantages tend to come from sheer strength and brute force, his willingness to inflict relentless violence without stopping or showing mercy, etc. And this is the part where I said its like how history is written by the victors. These are the depictions of Ares that survived til today more or less intact, widely proliferated, etc….even though Ares has had a very very long history tracing back thousands of years before those stories first were told, and has been many different things to many different cultures in all that time. 

But the disdain for him that’s clearly visible in pretty much every surviving myth….that’s more about how like….the ancient Greeks telling those particular stories, recording them, passing them down….this disdain was basically their way of saying they’d outgrown Ares and the kind of senseless war he embodied, and why they ascribed to Athena’s more ‘civilized’ type of warfare, one that valued culture, and strategy, and tactics, and the OUTCOME of war, rather than the ACT of war itself. Essentially a culturally meta way of saying Ares’ kind of war, and wars of a type he would champion….this generation of ancient Greeks wanted to convey that all that was beneath them, that they’d evolved as a culture past that kind of senseless brutality and at this point had very little use for Ares and everything he represented.

(For the record, I’m not necessarily agreeing with their self-assessment, lol, as uh, lots of the wars conducted by the ‘ancient Greek civilizations’ at even their height, could still very accurately be termed senseless, brutal and bloodthirsty. Its more just about how any civilization that prides itself on well, how civilized it is, generally tends to look at what came before them as more primitive and uncultured. Whether or not that’s as accurate as they’d like to believe. Kinda like how we, as a modern society, would generally term ourselves more civilized and cultured than those particular ancient Greek civilizations, but uh, that doesn’t actually mean we’ve got a leg to stand on about modern warfare being any less senseless, primitive and needlessly violent than any waged 5,000 years ago, y’know? Anyway, this is purely an eye of the beholder kinda thing, more just about the kinda lens the myth-tellers of that era were viewing their gods and their stories through. Allegedly. I mean who the fuck really knows, I wasn’t there.) 

And just for the hell of it, by a similar token, it could probably be argued that the myths making a big deal about Hephaestus being so ugly and misshapen by Olympian standards…you could probably make a case for that having a lot to do with Hephaestus’ age, culturally speaking, and how he was associated as much with older ‘more primitive’ cultures as with the more modern age of Olympian worship. Just as Ares became less and less associated with storms and more tied to violent war, Hephaestus moved further and further away from his origin as a primal fire god, to a more specific, newly added niche as a god of invention, craftsmanship, a patron god to blacksmiths. There’s stuff that could be said about the correlation between fire as a potentially destructive force, an almost violent or ugly aspect of nature that only held ‘value’ to humanity once tamed and shaped into a controlled force that had something to offer human culture, in the form of how it could be used to forge weapons, craft new technologies, inspire innovation, etc. Like…the thing about Hephaestus the Olympian is he was a popular god, in the sense of having a big cultural impact, occupying a fairly large focal point in civilizations of the time. But he wasn’t necessarily a well LIKED god. Nobody was pouring out libations to him if they could help it, he was kinda…there, because he was useful and needed, while still being a deity and presence that wasn’t entirely comfortable to be around or in the presence of, sort of. Personally, I think that all links back to how he’s referred to as being hideous to look upon, someone the other Olympians didn’t necessarily want near the rest of them, even as they petitioned him to make them weapons….like, I think you can see here the vestiges of him as the embodiment of fire, even as he’s less associated with that in this time period, and his focus narrowed more specifically to what fire MAKES. Like, the general idea of him, culturally speaking, being that we need him, and we know it, but he and the primal forces at the root of his divinity are like….not something its a good idea to be entirely comfortable around? Kinda the awareness that no matter how far civilization had advanced by then, it was still understood that like….there was still something primal, primitive about fire, that was never going to be possible to fully tame, to make totally civilized. That it’s a force of nature that can be harnessed, but. Bah.

Okay so I’ve been writing all this while waiting in the doctor’s office because boredom plus I’m a slut for mythological analysis and theorizing, buuuuuut I have to go be like, a person with an actual to do list today so I can’t finish this right now but also I don’t know if I’ll get around to coming back to it and finishing it so I’m just posting it as is, for whatever interest it holds as is, because plus it’s not like…..this is the answer anon was likely looking for to a pretty simple question haha, I just like, get carried away when talking myth stuff.

Also standard disclaimer I have to put on all my myth posts apparently haha, I am not a scholar, fuck academia, all of this is just my own personal musings based on my own personal research just because, and no I will not cite sources because I literally do not have time, this is just me talking about shit that interests me and my take on it, I am not suggesting this is the right or only take or should be taught to impressionable school children, lol do not @ me about how I’m misleading the innocents of tumblr who trusted that I, random tumblr user, should be construed as the sole authority on this topic like. I have reasons for adding this disclaimer and they are the thirty thousand fucking obnoxious ‘fight me for being wrong about Loki’ notes the last time I thought waxing mythologic was a good idea, and I have no interest in a sequel to that. LOL. Disclaimer over. Find the post interesting and worth looking for more thoughts on similar or even contesting lines elsewhere, or like, don’t. Just don’t go looking for me as target practice because my nerd take was controversial, lol thank you and have a nice day.

[xarciel]

Why Megatron’s Redemption Arc Falls Flat - Part 2

So I realised as I was writing this that I have way too much to say for a single post. There’s a lot to unpack in the metatextual promotion of Megatron in s2 of MTMTE and LL, so instead of this being Part 2/2 as expected it will be Part 2/??. I’ll update the links at the bottom if/when more posts gets written.  

Since his introduction to the crew at the beginning of Season 2 Megatron has fundamentally changed the way the ensemble cast interacted and resolved situations. This is to be expected, of course, since Megatron is a divisive, dynamic character, but the issue isn’t that this /has/ happened, but /how/ it has happened. Specifically, Megatron is positioned as the main protagonist in the ensemble, at the expense of other characters’ arcs.

To make Megatron sympathetic we see the same four steps used throughout the series: -> Raise an issue as something current Megatron cares about -> Retcon the issue through flashbacks as something that Megatron has always cared about -> Resolve the issue in the present, allowing Megatron to show off his ethical ways -> Refuse to acknowledge specific actions taken by Megatron during the war, and preceding the start of MTMTE

This is used in conjunction with positioning all those against Megatron’s rehabilitation as villains (Rodimus on Cybertron, Starscream at the trial, Getaway on the Lost Light and the DJD on Necroworld), ensuring that we get plenty of shots of Megs looking sad (I counted 42 in MTMTE, not including #50-55) and introducing new, even more heinous villains (the DJD) to undermine Megatron’s atrocities up to this point. We’re given extensive monologues from Megatron as his journey progresses, and when he does act in ways that undermine his redemption the story sweeps them under the rug, focussing on other more positive areas instead.

A simple example: Megatron hates mneumosurgery. He considers it a violation of the highest order, as no-one should be able to alter the mind or mental state of another without their permission. At the beginning of Season 2 however, he permanently activates Trailcutter’s FIM chip without his consent, and aside from a single line from Trailcutter this is never brought up again. This is, in fact, altering Trailcutter’s mental state without his permission, but because it’s not done in the same invasive way the narrative skips over the ethical ramification of Megatron’s actions, to focus on the positives they bring.

On the subject of mneumosurgery, this presents the perfect Raise, Retcon, Resolve method described above. Issue #28: Megatron’s hatred of mneumosurgery is Raised when Optimus offers using it as a way to expedite Megatron’s trial. Issue #34: Megatron’s hatred for mneumosurgery is Retconned to stem from a lobotomisation he was forced to undergo by the Functionists when he was still a miner. Issue #48: Rodimus orders Chromedome to use mneumosurgery to determine Atomizer’s guilt in the attack on Megatron - Megatron Resolves his status as the more moral of the pair by being against this use of mnuemosurgery. The Refuse step comes into play with one of Megatron’s schemes from #14 of Robots in Disguise, which takes place roughly 12 months before #28. This issue involves Megatron revealing that he has had Prowl under mind control via Bombshell for months, using him to grow Decepticon sympathy and having him commit atrocities as a Decepticon plant. Nowhere in MTMTE is this even vaguely referenced- pre-MTMTE Megatron is never reflected on within the text.

The fact that the narrative simultaneously punishes Rodimus and Optimus for committing morally questionable actions for good reasons means that Megatron is portrayed in a more positive light than his actions deserve. We are shown, and focus on, Megatron’s suffering from mneumosurgery - the more complex arguments from the practice are laid aside in search of a simple morality arc.

To help further develop sympathy for Megatron, the narrative introduces a new set of villains to replace and even outstrip the atrocities Megatron has committed in the past. This group, the DJD, commit heinous acts against established ensemble characters and their own faction for personal and professional pleasure, and are shown to be incalcitrant to change, even when negotiating with Megatron. Language used by Megatron to describe them repeatedly emphasises his opinion they are more morally corrupt than he ever was, calling them ‘the biggest monsters of all’ and ‘the dark side of the Decepticon cause’. This both distances Megatron from the DJD in the readers minds, and again reinforces the idea that Megatron is no longer the evil mastermind from previous arcs, furthering his redemption arc without any significant character growth on his end.

In the lead up to the Dying of the Light two issues are dedicated to recalling the specific atrocities committed by Tarn on Skids during the war, specifically to prime the audience for the DJD’s appearance as main villains in the finale. Simultaneously, Megatron is undergoing a vow of pacifism, using the four steps to invite audience sympathy and further drive a wedge between past Megatron and redeemed Megatron. Raise: #32 - Megatron talks with Ravage about how he is tired of fighting Retcon: #37 - Megatron the miner originally promoted ‘non-violent direct action’ Resolve: #49 - Megatron takes a vow of pacifism Refuse: Megatron the gladiator, the assassination of the Senate, literally anything from the last 4 million years

While undertaking this vow of pacifism, however, Megatron fails to consider the impact of it on those around him - specifically, by marking himself as a strict non-combatant, he refuses to provide back up to the LL crew in any situation they may need it. Compared with other pacifistic characters such as Ratchet and Rung, this simplistic ‘fighting is bad’ policy demonstrates how Megatron is rewarded within text without considering the issue on a complex level. He is granted moral superiority by simple virtue of refusing to fight, even if his decision may lead to preventable deaths. This view is ultimately self-centric - when compared to Drift’s arc and how he uses his skills to protect others as redemption for committing crimes against them in the first place, Megatron’s redemption is tea tray shallow.

The issues of how Megatron is positioned as sympathetic through framing those against his rehabilitation as antagonists is a post for another time (since this one’s already getting pretty long), but consider the following: from issue #28 to issue #49, there are 42 panels of Megatron looking sad. These panels come either as individual closeups, or panels where Megatron is in the mid-ground and additional body language as well as his face are used to convey his sadness. Once you remove the DJD and Scavengers issues, this is 15 issues, and roughly three panels per issue of Megatron looking sad. This strong emphasis on Megatron’s feelings, and specifically his negative emotions, are used to create sympathy for him by using basic story-telling techniques - to use an old fashioned term, Megatron is being Woobified.

Making Megatron into a ‘relatable’ character was not something that happened in MTMTE by accident. There was extensive planning on the story and art side to make sure that Megatron came across as sympathetic, even though through his actions Megatron never truly shows much evidence of redemption. The Dying of the Light and the Functionist Universe arcs are entire suitcases that still need unpacking here, but for now I’ll leave it with this: a redemption arc is a character making up for past mistakes - a process of self-reflection and action taken to make amends for things they’ve done in the past.

Where is it that we see Megatron making amends for those he’s hurt in the past?

[Link to Part 1]

A quick recap on Megatron (and his sad faces), issue by issue for those interested:

#28: Megatron argues that ‘tampering with someone’s head’ (accessing or altering their mental state) is the one place he will not go. Rodimus tells him he deserves to die for his crimes, and we get 3 panels of Megs looking sad. LL members graffiti his door and Whirl attacks him. Megatron tells Whirl that Whirl is only alive due to Megs’ mercy because of their interactions 4 million years ago.

#29: Flashback to the trial: Starscream says Megatron deserves pity - 3 panels of Megs looking sad. Megatron permanently enables Trailbreaker’s FIM chip without his consent (thereby altering his mental state).

#30: More flashbacks to the trial - Megs gives his statement, manipulates the trial using a legal loophole to avoid judgement and issues a public renouncement of the Decepticons (under duress by Optimus) - 8 panels of Megs looking sad.

#31: Megs is accused of being responsible for crew members disappearing - 3 panels of Megs looking sad. When Nightbeat works out the cause Megatron berates him and blames the disappearances on Nightbeat for not being faster, even though knowing the cause could not have prevented it.

#32: Megatron is accused of killing crew members as the corpses bear wounds from a fusion cannon - he agrees to stay stationary while the others investigate further. We learn Megatron destroyed his signature weapon (under duress from Optimus). Megatron discusses his change of heart with Ravage, describes the DJD as ‘the biggest monsters of all’. Speaks of how old and tired he feels - 7 panels of Megs looking sad.

#33: the team wants to save a planet from destruction, Megatron says it’s not worth it because the planet doesn’t contain Cybertronians. Skids confronts him on his xenophobic views.  2 panels of Megs looking sad. Megatron reveals he can help the team as a last resort. Convinces Ravage to remain on the LL by arguing that he has seen ‘the dark side’ of the Decepticon cause. #34: Flashback to Megatron’s beginnings as a miner on Tarn. Foundation of Towards Peace and the Decepticon manifesto are retconned to being about equality only, and contain no xenophobia. Megatron loses his friend Terminus and is lobotimised by a mneumosurgeon - 6 panels of Megs looking sad.

#35: Megatron loots Trailcutter’s forcefield generator from his corpse. 2 panels of Megs looking sad. Megatron further distances himself from the DJD when Rodimus comes to see him, and the discussion of Megatron’s connection with the DJD is swept under the rug by the next plot thread. Megatron’s role in Trailcutter’s death is never revisited.

#36: Megatron speaks to Orion Pax from 4 million years ago about his moral dilemma - 2 panels of Megs looking sad.

#37: Flashback to the bar fight that got Megatron arrested - this fight is retconned to be caused by the modern day LL crew. Megatron’s manifesto is retconned to originally be about non violent direct action, with Impactor the one who dragged Megatron into the bar fight that gets him arrested.

#38: Megatron attacks Perceptor and demands to be sent through time. Magnus brings him under control. Megatron warps his behaviour from attacking to ‘remonstrating’ and offers no apology for it. The LL crew discovers how much the universe would have benefited from Megatron’s death and tries to enact it, but are betrayed by Whirl’s hatred of Functionism - 4 panels of Megs looking sad.

#39: The DJD find out about Megatron’s renouncement of the Decepticons and decide to continue their work regardless.

#40: Megatron is tricked by Ratchet into giving a poetry reading at ‘Visages’ which nobody attends. Megatron steals one of the time briefcases, which Rodimus and Perceptor are destroying.

#43: Megatron’s intuitive human avatar wields a Decepticon cane, which he discards when he realises its existence. 1 panel of Megs looking sadly at his old age in a mirror.

#44: Megatron agrees to detouring the ship to Necroworld as a way to postpone the search for the Knights. Megatron finds his field of death flowers while a monologue from the Necrobot about how all Cybertronians are killers is superimposed on the page. 1 panel of Megs looking sad.

#47: Megatron wakes up to find Tailgate beside him with mneunosurgeon needles on his fingers. He grabs Tailgate by the head. Cyclonus enters to this scene and attacks Megatron, leaving him with a dent in his head and a hole in his chest.

#48: Megatron apologises to Cyclonus, says he was not going to hurt Tailgate. The ethical question of Rodimus instructing Chromedome to probe Atomizer’s mind is called into question by Cyclonus and Megatron. Flashbacks to Skids time on Grindcore, where Tarn is the principle villain.

#49: Megatron refuses to fire on Sunder, even as he attacks the entire crew of the LL, states he is now a pacifist. Megatron attempts to persuade Rung to continue in his role, attempting to sweep Rung’s mistakes under the rug. We witness the full horror of Grindcore as Tarn’s pet project.

[Issues #50 onwards coming when I get around to it]