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neokad · 4 years ago

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Phantasy Star II - The 1989 JRPG that could

(This post is dedicated to @kuukigajan, my best friend, whom motivated me to post here again, so... I hope you'll enjoy this!)

This game. This freaking game.

I'm gonna say it right now: this post will contain massive spoilers about pretty much everything in Phantasy Star 2's story, so if you do plan on experiencing this game fresh, I strongly advise you to not read this post at all beyond the first paragraph, but... here's the gist of it: Phantasy Star II is one of the most important and groundbreaking JRPGs of its time, and I just did not believe this game was from 1989, at ALL. For that and a few other reasons, it has become one of my new favourite games of all time <3

In fact, I do want to start with the one big flaw of this adventure so that I can just gush about everything else that's brilliant about PSII. I have to be honest: the dungeon design in this game is horrible. Now to be fair, it does make the many places you visit more memorable, but well... there's a rumor floating around that an actual trainee made the layouts for the dungeons - and since this game was a bit rushed for the Genesis's launch, the devs just didn't have time to replace the... stuff he submitted. And let me tell you, this rumor makes sense: PSII's dungeons are too big, too maze-like, too confusing and also FILLED with strong enemies. And in a game where you don't get a way to save anywhere until the midway point, it can make your adventure very frustrating and potentially grindy because of that... Now I wouldn't say that PSII's nearly as bad in this area as say, the original version of Dragon Warrior or ironically the first Phantasy Star, but the dungeons can totally make you feel like the game's harder than it actually is, at least without a map.

Thankfully, you should never feel bad for using any maps or guides with this game! The execs at SEGA at the time made the very smart decision to include a walkthrough with each copy of the game, including maps, tips, secrets and more! Said guide does encourage youto not look at it as much as possible but... it's totally fair to just use this, without any shame!

And that is a great thing, because... with you armed with this piece of paper, Phantasy Star II can finally show you its actual brilliance.

The game's plot starts off a thousand years after the events of the first Phantasy Star game. Since Alis and her party defeated Dark Force, the inhabitants of the Algol solar system - and its three planets of Palma, Motavia and Dezolis - have enjoyed relative peace. However, at a (to my knowledge) unknown point in time, a computer entity known as Mother Brain has started imposing itself onto mostly Motavia. This, over time, has actually given many benefits to the region: the once deserted wasteland was given rain, water and crops, so that it could finally host viable, comfortable civilizations. The citizens that lived here could finally ditch their (arguably) nomadic, harsh lives in favor of comfort, pleasant weather and more. And most importantly, Mother Brain allowed its citizens, save for a few, to ditch their current jobs and live a life of laziness, without any obligations or pressure to do anything other than well, existence. This is reflected many times during the game through NPC dialogue, too!

It is on such a setting that our protagonist, Rolf, wakes up from a strange nightmare. In it, we see Alis batting Dark Force and struggling in doing so, but as soon as he realizes this, Rolf wakes up in cold sweat. He then proceeds to calm his nerves, realizing that no such dramatic events could possible happen to him - after all, he and many others have been under the universal protection and care of Mother Brain, whom at this point, has provided all of their needs for centuries. He then gets out of bed and goes to the central tower, where we works as an agent in case some things do go wrong.

And gone wrong things have! His superior informs him that biological monsters, which had been created and bred in the Mota biosystems laboratory, have gone rogue and infected the regions of Motavia at a rapid rate. Because of this, Rolf is asked to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Once he gets home to prepare for his journey, he is ambushed by best girl Nei, who has been rescued by him many months ago from the clutches of a serial killer. She does not want to be left alone anymore, and since she is also worried for Rolf's sefety, asks him to accompany him on the mission. Naturally, Rolf accepts.

Here, I do want to bring up Nei in more detail! She's in fact, the first of PSII's brilliant story-gameplay interactions, and here's why! Nei is in fact, a crossbreed experiment between a human and an unknown animal with cat-like features, but here's the thing: this said experiment was a failure. Because of this, Nei is only one years old, and yet her physical and mental age are progressing way more rapidly than they should. And you can feel this effect on the game itself: she needs way less EXP than any other party member in the game to level up, and because of this she will skyrocket in levels way beyond the rest of your crew... with a catch. Because of the nature of the experiment, the genetic code inside of her is slowly being messed up and corrupted, which not only causes her level ups to be less valuable than anyone else's, but it also becomes an important plot point later... Unfortunately, despite her absolute cuteness, her status as a half-half made her a victim of bullying, racism and so much more, which is... pretty messed up to bring up at the time not gonna lie o_o

Starting up the journey, the party discovers that rogues have destroyed a neighboring city, and it just so happens that their base is situed at Shure, the first dungeon of the game . One assumption I like to make from this scene is that life has become so easy and careless on Motavia that people just went and did crime out of pure boredom, because life just wasn't thrilling enough anymore with Mother Brain doing everything it could for its inhabitants...

However, upon climbing said tower, Rolf and Nei find out multiple dead rogue bodies, whom have been presumably murdered by the many biomonsters roaming the place. They do, however, manage to find some dynamite and most importantly, a letter. This piece of paper informs our heroes that the daughter of a Darum, the very same person that tried to murder Nei months ago, is held captive in another tower, which explains why he turned to crime in the first place. They then decide to do the obvious, which is to rescue daughter Teim in her captivity location. Once they meet up with her, she explains her desire to talk to her father to set things straight and sway him from the life he's been getting into, as well as hide her from the surviving rogue members with the help of a veil. Our group manages to meet up with Darum, but... her daughter asks the party to stay put, as she does not want them to interfere with her as she explains things to her father. However, in the heat of the moment, she forgets to remove her veil, which causes Darum to not recognize her. In his confusion, he murders her own flesh and blood and sits there, stunned, as he watches the reason he caused many untold atrocities... wither away below him. Shocked and going insane by this situation, he sees no other way out... but to commit suicide with the help of a bomb.

It gets worse.

While this scene was tragic and brutal to say the least, it does allow Rolf to cross the previously guarded bridge where Darum was always located, which allows him to investigate his mission further.

I do want to make a sidenote here actually! Phantasy Star II does include eight playable characters, but unlike Rolf and Nei they do not join you at fixed intervals - instead, they will become available in your home town of Paseo once conditions are met. Sadly while they do have a recruitment quote, a few lines and a backstory, they do not have an impact on the main story in any way. This does blow as this means PSII does not have much in character development and interaction, but I did want to mention that there’s more to this game than just Rolf and Nei :P

Upon exploring the regions of Motavia, the party manages to make its way to the Biosystems lab, and what they find here is horrifying to say the least. The lab is in horrible shape, with cracked floors everywhere. On top of that, there is no one inside the lab anymore, it being completely deserted, save for some horrible-looking creatures being kept insides tubes, decorating the now sinister looking building... Because of this, Rolf deems it safe to pick up the recorder inside the lab, to analyze it and try to find out just what exactly went wrong - if anything at all - to hopefully figure out why the world has been sacked by biomonsters. And sure enough, the gang make its way back to Paseo. After handing over the recorder to the library located in Paseo’s Central Tower, it is now made clear: the biomonsters were caused by a large amount of energy used in a very short amount of time in those labs, causing them to mutate extremely rapidly. This had the predictable but unfortunate effect of ruining the natural order of the ecosystem, which is why these species are wrecking havoc without control. The librarian giving this information also makes the following connection: this outpour of energy must have come from Climatrol - another lab which regulates the weather of the terraformed planet so that it can sustain its new shape. Following this, Rolf and co. take a few steps to reach Climatrol - and I want to highlight a specific one!

The story somewhat pauses until then, but one of the dungeons you’ll go through is a garbage dump... and one of the treasures is a jet scooter you can use! Sounds cool, right? Well it is, but even such a cool object has been abandoned by the lazy society, since teleportation is much more convenient to them. I just thought it was a really neat detail, that’s all ^_^

Once making their way through the relatively normal Climatrol, something does wait for them at the top of the building... something... unsettling...

This is Neifirst. She was another failed experiment just like Nei, sharing the same biological data as her. However, unlike her sister, her creators tried to kill her on the spot due to her status. This made her enraged against the species that gave her life, and as an act of revenge, decided to unleash this bio catastrophy to slowly wipe us out. This is where another truth is revealed: Nei did not come with Rolf just to protect him, she actually wanted to put a stop to her sister, because while she did dislike being treated like a freak or a monster, she never wanted to hate her species as a whole... It remains that she still wants to stop her sister’s plans, and despite Rolf’s protests, the two engages in a fight. However, due to Neifirst being much stronger, Nei sustains heavy damage and is incapacitated. But, this is where the rest of the party comes in, and thus they finish the job and kill off Neifirst dead in her tracks, Rolf then quickly rushes in to his dear friend’s side, but as he does... it’s too late... Nei is dead.

This is yet another reason why Phantasy Star II is such an important game: it is, to my knowledge, the very first JRPG in which a major playable character dies permanently. Heck, Rolf even tries to bring her back through the local Clone Lab - because yes, citizens have access to eternal life by cloning their bodies until the end of time - but... since Nei’s genetic code was degenerating rapidly, they could not clone her body anymore. And, since Neifirst was also defeated, it is also impossible to get a fresh code back from anywhere in the world. Nei is dead. And you cannot do anything about it.

But don’t worry! It still gets worse!

But just as you’re about to find a way to fix this, it turns out that Climatrol has collapsed, which caused an immense flood all over the world. Since the government - and by extension, Mother Brain - isn’t happy about this, you are now considered a fugitive, a criminal. You are now the bad guy, and you are wanted for treason. 1989, anyone??

This is where the second brilliant story-gameplay integration of Phantasy Star II happens. Where until now you’ve only fought mutated monsters due to the outbreak, the government has now sent thousands of carious cyborgs and robots against you - and lo and behold, this is now the only thing you are fighting in both the overworld and dungeons, and the previous creatures are now nowhere to be seen. THAT’S REALLY SMART. Now sure, even if you are considered evil to many, you still task yourself with the task of unflooding the planet, and to do so you simply reactivate all four colored dams in the continent. However, upon reactivating the fourth one, your party is suddenly ambushed by a trio of robots sent by the cops, and this time? They succeed in capturing you. Your party is now sent in chains on a hovering satellite, as you are sentenced to slowly wither away and die in there without any trial of any sort, simply because you went against Mother Brain’s dear wishes...

But, something goes amiss. The sattelite starts to malfunction, and is now set to crash on one of the three planets of the Algol system. And despite you all trying to alter its course, it is too late. The satellite crashes onto Palma - the planet of the first Phantasy Star game - and it is gone.

That’s right! The planet in which many players took the time to save with Alis’s gang, to have a huge dungeon crawling adventure, the planet where you defeated Lassic in a glorious fashion. GONE. In only a few seconds. But... what about yourself? Well, you actually died! But a space pirate wandering close to the crash site pulled out your remains and cloned everyone’s body back to life... which makes you technically not yourself, and also dead, for the remainder of the game! ...May I remind you this game was developed in 1989?

Tyler the space pirate then escorts the zombie party back to Paseo, but not for long - you see, your commander, who hasn’t truly approved of Mother Brain’s actions against your group, allows you access to a spaceship. This is a big deal, because space travel as a whole has been banned ten years ago due to a major accident in which Rolf had lost his parents, and thus, the one stationed in Paseo is the last one remaining on the planet. But sure enough, Rolf takes the opportunity and travels to the ice planet of Dezolis, or Dezo.

And honestly? Even though this next part has nothing to do with the main story, it’s probably one of my favourites in the entire game. In this section, you simply must make your way through an abandoned space station, which has not seen use in years. At first, you’d think it was somewhat related to the spaceship incident, but as you explore this space station, you find a bunch of animals and newspapers lying around. You not only find some irrelevant ads about various products, but also news flash about a horrible gas spreading throughout the station, begging every inhabitant to evacuate immediately, which... definitively implies a very bleak fate to the place and its inhabitants o_o

And on top of this unsettling setting, this is the first time you get to hear “Silent Zone”, my favourite track in the game. While the rest of the soundtrack is very upbeat, catchy and all around excellent, this track in particular is very... sad, desolate, lonely, in spite of it being just as catchy! It all combines for a brilliant example of “show, don’t tell” that really sets the mood perfectly to me <3

Either way, upon exploring more of Dezo - a frigid wasteland with few inhabitants - the party gets to meet up with Noah, a party member from Phantasy Star I! After reawakening from a cryogenic sleep, he then reveals that unlike Paseo and Motavia, Dezo basically never submitted with Mother Brain’s control and benefits simply because they did not want to live a life without any struggles. Unfortunately, this is also where you learn that Paseo came to terms with this *after* being to MB’s whims and as such, you can connect the dots and realize that the satellite crash was no accident after all... it was all planned.

Noah, however, knows about how deeply MB has ruined everything for the inhabitants of Motavia and thus tasks Rolf with collecting eight legendary ancient weapons all throughout Dezo, located within some ruinous, empty, cold dungeons which make for stunning atmosphere and presence, believe me!

Once that’s done, he then entrusts Rolf with the ultimate Sword and, thanks to kinetic abilities, sends him and his troupe to the space station housing Mother Brain. And once there, for the first time in centuries, a human being has met with Mother Brain.

And of course, the computer scoffs at those rebelling against her. She laughs at how they think they’d want a life with struggles, wtihout comfort, without anyone providing their needs, when work and hardship seems so uninviting on a desert wasteland like Motavia, or a frigid hell like Dezo. And yet, after a (pretty difficult!) battle, you emerge victorious! Or do you?

After the victorious outcome, Noah senses some additional presences beyond Mother Brain’s spot, and urges the party to investigate. And then... I don’t think I’ll even explain it in words. Please watch what happens. It is disturbing.

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Yeah. We, the humans, were destroying our planet, Earth. Thus, we escaped through this spaceship to avoid extinction, and found the Algo system. It then, to our species, only seemed logical with so few numbers, to instead slowly weaken the population of all three planets with Mother Brain, making it then easy (although a very long process) to get rid of the population and start anew, even if it meant genocide. What I love about this twist ending is not only how it’s presented: the creepy music, the way you did *not* expect it at all, the number of humans on the screen at once, and so on... but also, how you don’t even know for sure how it ends. You don’t know if Rolf, Rudo, Amy, Kain, Hugh, Shir, Anna... if any of them survived. But it looks grim. It looks like we lost. And it looks like everyone we fought and tried to save... will rot until the final days anyway... Phantasy Star II... is important. Sure, I could talk about how the game is challenging due to how both your party members AND the enemies are very capable in battle or the stellar, catchy, memorable soundtrack... but its story... is stunning. In 1989, we were still used to princesses being saved by armored heroes from dark dragons. We were used to things going all well in the end. But in 1989, Phantasy Star II taught us many things that would become staples in the future of JRPGs: Yes, your cherished ones may die with you not being able to do anything about it No, you may not be able to save everyone you’d like to. Yes, your actions might make things worse for yourself and everyone else. No, things aren’t quite as black or white as they seem. And no, you might not always win. Phantasy Star II is a masterpiece. It’s a bit hard to approach this game today, but with a guide, this game is a must play. It’s unique. It’s ambitious. It’s chilling. And I adore this game to pieces. Thank you for reading, somehow <3

#long post #phantasy star ii #phantasy star #jrpg #sega genesis

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tsunfucker · 3 years ago

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The End of Evangelion [Theatrical Trailer]

(Screen text: So, everybody just go and die...)

Staff (in Japanese alphabetical order)

Random women's voices: You don't really know if it's love until after the infatuation stops. Men just want a mother figure who'll spoil them. Men...You doit with them once and they think they own you. Ritsuko? Yeah, that's okay,too. You'll be sorry for that. That's not romantic in the least. Men are all scum... Don't think I'm going to forgive you!

----------------------------------------- TITLE SCREEN: THE END OF EVANGELION Neon Genesis Evangelion Cinema Edition - Air/Sincerely Yours (My Pure Heart For You) -----------------------------------------

(Screen text: Then, why are you here?) (Screen text: ...Is it okay for me to be here?) -----------------------------------------

Premiering July 19 (Sat.) Advance tickets including original poster on sale. General admission: 1500 yen Students: 1200 yen Created by the EVA Production Committee (Project EVA) Distributed by Toei Studios, Inc. This film is animated. -----------------------------------------

TITLE SCREEN: THE END OF EVANGELION Neon Genesis Evangelion Cinema Edition - Air/Sincerely Yours (My Pure Heart For You) Premiering July 19 (Sat.) Created by the EVA Production Committee (Project EVA) Distributed by Toei Studios, Inc. -----------------------------------------

Toei Studios, Inc. logo in triangle

Eirin (Eiga Rinri Kitei Kanri Iinkai = Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee) registration in circle

(Vertical screen text: Neon Genesis Evangelion Cinema Edition)

The End of Evangelion Episode 25: Air/Love is destructive. :Translated Script

OPENING SCENE Shinji stands silently before the lake created by the explosion of EVA-00, triggered by Rei in episode number 23, which also destroyed Tokyo-3.

SCENE: Hospital - 1st Cranial Nerve Department Shinji in Asuka's hospital room (No. 303), Asuka lying in bed -----------------------------------

Background announcement: Sections 2 and 3 of the East Wing will close at 6 p.m. today. Staff are requested to finish all work by 4: 30 p.m.

Shinji: I... I'm scared of both Misato and Ayanami... Help me... Help me, Asuka. Hey... Wake up! Come on... Wake up! Come on... Hey... Asuka... Asuka... ASUKA!! Help me... Help me... Help me... Help me... Help me! Call me an idiot like usual! HEY!!

(Shinji shakes Asuka roughly so that she rolls onto her back... Her hospital gown opens to reveal her naked except for her underwear... Shinji locks the door to the sickroom and his breathing gradually becomes faster and heavier ending with a muffled grunt (off screen). He stares down at the ejaculated fluids covering his right hand.)

I... I'm scum...

----------------------------------- TITLE SCREEN: Episode 25 - Air -----------------------------------

SCENE: NERV Command Center- Makoto, Shigeru and Maya talk as they sit in the dark and drink coffee. -----------------------------------

Maya (off screen): What!? Total prohibition of access to and from Headquarters!?

Makoto (off screen): I guess we're still at First Level Alert...

Maya (off screen): Why? Wasn't Kaworu* the last angel? (*Literally: "that boy")

Shigeru: That's right. All the angels have been destroyed.

Makoto: Isn't there supposed to be peace now?

Maya: Then, what'll happen to NERV? and the Evas? I wish Dr. Akagi was here...

Shigeru: NERV will probably be disbanded, and who knows what'll happen to us.

Makoto (off screen): We'll just have to stick it out until the Instrumentality Project starts.

SCENE: Misato in her car - turnout overlooking the new lake (Tokyo-3) -----------------------------------

Misato (to herself): Having reached its limit as a colony of flawed and separate entities, Humankind is to be artificially evolved into a perfect single being. The Instrumentality Project... An ideal world... And to achieve this the Committee plans to use not Adam or NERV, but Eva. Just like Kaji predicted.

SCENE: SEELE monoliths - Gendo and Fuyutsuki -----------------------------------

SEELE 01 (Keel): The promised time has come. With the Lance of Longinus now lost, complementation using Lilith is impossible. Our only hope is to proceed with EVA-01, Lilith's sole clone.

Gendo: While different from SEELE's scenario...

Fuyutsuki: Humans have existed to create Eva. (ambiguous)

Gendo: Humans should evolve into a new world. That is the purpose of the Eva series.

SEELE 09: We have no intention of giving up our human forms simply to enter the Ark called Eva.

SEELE 12: It is merely a rite of passage... To bring about the rebirth in those who are imprisoned.

SEELE 05(?): The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth.

SEELE 04(?): A sacrament to unite God, humans, and all other life forms in death.

Gendo: Death gives birth to nothing.

SEELE 01 (Keel): Then death is what you shall have.

(SEELE monoliths disappear)

Fuyutsuki: Humans exist because they have the will to live... And that is the reason she remained within Eva.

SCENE: Rei lying in bed in her apartment. She wakes up (looking surprisingly like Yui), looks out the window to see the full moon illuminating the night sky, and leaves. Gendo's glasses lie twisted and broken on the floor behind her. -----------------------------------

SCENE: Shinji lying awake in his room with his headphones on The tape counter reads 00:00:00 and the battery indicator flashes empty. -----------------------------------

SCENE: The new lake (The ruins of Tokyo-3) -----------------------------------

SCENE: NERV Computer Room Misato hacks into the system using a laptop computer. -----------------------------------

Misato: So, this is the truth behind Second Impact... (Screen flashes and alarm sounds) Have they noticed me!? No, that's not it! It's starting!

SCENE: NERV Command Center Alarms sound... emergency indicators light... -----------------------------------

NERV operator (background - male): No. 6 net - audio communications severed! Goura ground circuit, inoperative!

Fuyutsuki (to phone): Switch the left side over to blue emergency communications! Use the satellites if you have to! That's right! What's the situation on the right?

Person on Phone: Negative! All outgoing network and data lines are being cut off!!

Fuyutsuki: Are they after MAGI?

Shigeru (off screen): Data entry from all external nodes. (on screen) They're hacking the MAGI system!

Fuyutsuki: Just as I thought. Is it coming from MAGI-2 in Matsushiro (Tokyo-2)?

Shigeru: No, it's at least 5 MAGI type units. Hacking verified from Germany, China, the U.S....

Fuyutsuki: SEELE is mustering all of their forces. 5 to 1 odds... Not good.

Shigeru (off screen): No. 4 firewall breached!

Makoto: Locking the main database... Negative! We can't stop their invasion!

Maya (off screen): It's entering a deeper level! (on screen) Even the back-up circuit can't stop it!

Fuyutsuki (thinking): This is bad... Capture the MAGI system and you capture everything.

SCENE: Ritsuko in her cell -----------------------------------

Background announcement: General Quarters: Second Level Alert! Repeat - General Quarters: Second Level Alert!

(Cell door opens)

Background announcement(cont'd): All personnel report to designated posts at once.

Ritsuko: I know... MAGI's self-defense system.

Security staff at door: Yes. Lt. Ibuki at the No. 2 Command Center has the details.

Ritsuko: Even an abandoned woman has her uses... How egotistical.

SCENE: Misato approaching Command Center with phone -----------------------------------

Background announcement: Second Level Alert currently in effect! All B-floor non-combat personnel evacuate at once.

Misato: Status report?

Makoto (on phone): Hyuga here. Tokyo-2 has just issued Special Order A-801!

Misato: 801?

Makoto (on phone): That's right. Abolishment of special legal protection for NERV and transfer of all command to the government of Japan.

(Elevator door closes)

(NERV Command Center - Maya and Makoto)

Makoto: It's an ultimatum... Yes, and MAGI is being hacked. Things aren't looking good.

Maya: Ibuki here. Dr. Akagi has just begun protective countermeasures.

(Misato appears on elevator)

Misato: Ritsuko!?

(Ritsuko inside MAGI)

Ritsuko: (thinking) Am I acting foolish? Men and women are so illogical... (speaking) Isn't that right? (reaches up to Casper) Mother...

(NERV Command Center)

NERV operator (male): Goura ground circuit recovery rate up to 0.2%

Misato: How much longer?

NERV operator (female): No. 3 cable, Hakone back-up circuit still inoperative.

Makoto (off screen): We should just make it. Dr. Akagi is amazing, one more minute to the end of page 120... And only two-and-a-half more minutes until deployment of a primary firewall.

Misato (thinking): Just hacking MAGI? They're not going to let us off that easy... probably.

Fuyutsuki: MAGI is only the first skirmish. The bastards' objective is the direct take-over of headquarters and the two remaining Eva units.

Gendo: Yes. With not only Lilith, but even Adam in our hands....

Fuyutsuki: No wonder the old men are so worried.

(MAGI displays turn green)

Maya: Hacking against MAGI has been stopped. (off screen) A Danang Type-B defense screen has been deployed. External access is impossible for the next 62 hours.

(Ritsuko emerges from MAGI)

Ritsuko: See you in a bit, mother.

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

SEELE 06: Ikari has executed a Type-666 protection program on the MAGI system. It won't be easy to breach.

SEELE 07: It appears that we will have to forego acquisition of MAGI.

SEELE 01: I had hoped to solve this peacefully, but that is not possible now. Take over the entire headquarters directly, at once!!

SCENE: Road by the lake - JSSDF officer with military phone -----------------------------------

JSSDF officer: Commence operations as planned.

(Soldiers pop up... aircraft fly... tanks and missiles fire... all hell breaks loose)

SCENE: NERV Command Center Alarms sound... Screens go blank... -----------------------------------

NERV operator (female): Radar sites 8 to 17 have gone dead!

Shigeru (off screen): JSSDF tech battalion advancing through Goura defense perimeter!

Makoto (off screen): Two battalions approaching from Gotemba!

NERV operators (background): Three air squadrons confirmed approaching from Mishima. Close down Futagoyama and Komagatake routes at once! Invasion through Goura 2nd defense perimeter point A... Currently engaging enemy.

Fuyutsuki: It seems that man's ultimate enemy is also man.

Gendo: General quarters. Go to First Level Battle Stations.

Maya: Battle Stations!? (whispered) But the enemy isn't an Angel... They're human like us.

Makoto (whispered): But they don't think that way.

SCENE: Outside NERV War scenes... NERV guard stabbed in back... Gates open and alarm sounds -----------------------------------

NERV Soldier: Hey, what's going on? Hello!?

NERV Lieutenant: What's going on?

NERV Soldier: The south hub-station...

(Truck explodes... Black suited troops move in.)

SCENE: NERV Command Center - More alarms... -----------------------------------

NERV operators (male): Daigatake tunnel cut off! Fire at West No. 5 freight entrance! Invading forces have entered Level 1! (female): South hub station off-line!

Misato: The forces attacking the west side are a decoy! If their real target is the Evas, they'll be going after the pilots! Have Shinji stand by at EVA-01, quickly!

Makoto: Affirmative!

Misato: Where's Asuka?

Shigeru: In sickroom 303.

(Shot of Asuka lying in bed)

Misato (off screen): Put her into EVA-02 anyway.

Maya: But her synchronization with Eva hasn't recovered yet.

Misato: Yes, but she'll definitely be killed if she stays there. The best place to hide her is inside EVA-02.

Maya: Affirmative! (to headset) Stop medication to pilot. Prepare for launch!

Misato: As soon as Asuka is inside EVA-02, hide it in the underground lake. It'll be found almost immediately, but it's better than leaving it in the cage. Where's Rei?

Shigeru: Whereabouts unknown... Unable to locate!

Misato: She'll be killed. Find her, quickly!

(Rei floating in LCL tank)

(EVA-02 launch)

Makoto: EVA-02 launched via No. 8 route. Stabilize at a depth of 70 meters.

Misato: Launch EVA-01 next! Deploy it inside the Geofront!

Shigeru: Negative! The pilot hasn't arrived yet!

Misato: What!? (Shinji verified on monitor screen) Oh, no....!

Background announcement: Closing all Central Dogma barricades up to Level 2. All non-combat personnel, evacuate via route 87.

(Shots of gates and barricades closing throughout NERV)

(NERV Command Center)

Shigeru (off screen): No. 3 underground barricade destroyed! Enemy Forces invading Level 2!

Fuyutsuki: The JSSDF have committed almost an entire division... It's only a matter of time before they take us over completely.

Gendo: Dr. Fuyutsuki, take care of things here.

Fuyutsuki: I understand. Give my regards to Yui.

(Shots of fighting and mayhem)

(NERV Command Center)

NERV operators (male): No response from Group 2! Communication with No. 77 Computer Room negative.

Shigeru: No. 52 monorail destroyed!

Background announcement: Explosion confirmed at No. 3 hub-station. Numerous dead. Damage unknown.

Makoto: This is terrible. Even Angels would be better.

Misato (thinking): It's no surprise... We're not used to killing other humans.

(More shots of death and destruction- female NERV officer drags the body of her comrade down a passage way, only to be struck down by a barrage of bullets from an invading JSSDF soldier)

JSSDF officer: Cut the cables starting with the red ones...

(NERV Command Center)

NERV operator (male): Level 3 Block B invaded! Defense impossible!

Shigeru (off screen): Enemy also confirmed in Block F! Main Bypass under crossfire!

Misato: Abandon Levels 1 to 3! Combat teams, retreat! Release Bakelite into all passages and pipes up to Section 803!

Shigeru: Affirmative!

(Shot of Bakelite being released)

Background announcement: Commence Bakelite injection from Section 703. 30 seconds to completion. Commence Bakelite injection from Section 737. 30 seconds to completion... (continues)

Misato: This should slow them down a bit.

Makoto: Major Katsuragi! No. 47 route has been cut off... Group 3 is unable to advance! If this continues Shinji will be...!

(Shot of Shinji hiding)

(NERV Command Center)

Misato (off screen): All non-combat personnel avoid close combat. (Misato takes out and loads her pistol) (on screen) The enemy are professionals... If you can't fall back to the Dogma, it's better to surrender. (whispered to Makoto) Sorry, take care of things here.

Makoto: Sure.

SCENE: Outside NERV -----------------------------------

Background: Mt. Futagoyama under control - Seal off Nagao Pass at once! *afirmitive* Visual confirmation of No. 1 Command Center explosion...

JSSDF Division Commander: This is more difficult than expected.

Sub Commander: We never get the easy jobs.

SCENE: NERV Command Center Makoto and Shigeru take out and ready small arms. -----------------------------------

Makoto: This is bad... We were never equipped with full-scale anti-personnel defense systems.

Shigeru: Yeah. Only counter-terrorist measures at best.

Makoto: If the JSSDF mounts a serious attack, we don't stand a chance.

Shigeru: Come to think of it, the reductions in funding for anti-personnel defense measures probably had this in mind from the beginning.

Makoto: That's entirely possible...

(Explosion in Command Center... Attacking forces move in...)

Background: No. 2 Command Center - Invaders on lower left floor.

Shigeru: (Handing pistol to Maya) Release the safety.

Maya: I... I can't shoot.

Shigeru: Of course you can! Just pretend this is training!

Maya: But I wasn't shooting at people, then!

Shigeru: Idiot! Shoot, or we're going to die!

----------------------------------- TITLE SCREEN - THE END OF EVANGELION EPISODE 25' - Love is destructive -----------------------------------

SCENE: Rei, staring into the tank containing the remains of her destroyed counterparts -----------------------------------

Gendo (off screen): Rei... I thought you'd be here. (on screen) The promised time has come. Let's go.

SCENE: Dead NERV personnel litter the passageway -----------------------------------

1st soldier (off screen): Level 2 completely secured, over.

2nd soldier (on radio): No. 2 Command Center - Still unable to secure original MAGI system. Currently engaging enemy on lower left floor.

JSSDF officer (on radio): Commence heat dissipation procedures on the fifth Malbolgia at once.

(NERV officer raises arms in surrender - JSSDF officer fires a round into his head, places his foot on the body, and fires two more shots.)

JSSDF officer (female): Eva pilots are to be terminated on sight. Unconditional execution of non-combat personnel authorized.

JSSDF officer (on radio): Yanagihara and Shinjo squads, enter lower levels immediately.

(Shinji hiding... and found by three JSSDF soldiers)

Soldier: 3rd pilot found - will proceed to eliminate. (Places barrel of gun against Shinji's forehead) Nothing personal, kid.

(Misato charges in firing to the rescue)

Misato (cynically): Nothing personal here either... (Shoots soldier) Come on... Let's get to EVA-01.

SCENE: Misato and Shinji in parking lot- Misato listening to enemy movements on a dead soldier's radio -----------------------------------

JSSDF radio: Yamagishi squad at No. 7 cage, report your status, over. Purple unit secured. No problems with Bakelite infusion. Red unit appears to have been launched... Currently searching for launch route used.

Misato: Damn! They're trying to prevent physical contact between Shinji and EVA-01. There's no time to lose... Quick, Shinji... (pause) Do you want to run away, or go to Eva? - Pick one! (Shinji says nothing) -If we stay here we'll die for nothing!

Shinji (whispering): Help me, Asuka... Help me...

Misato (exasperated): Hiding behind a girl at a time like this!? Running from reality... Lying to yourself!? Doing things half-assed is the worst thing you can do! So, stand up! Stand up!!

Shinji (whispering): No... Let me die. I don't want to do anything.

Misato (angry): Stop talking like a spoiled brat! You're still alive, aren't you? So, do all you can to keep yourself alive, and then die afterwards!

SCENE: NERV Command Center The battle continues... -----------------------------------

Fuyutsuki: Forget about here! Give top priority to isolating the Terminal Dogma!

Makoto: Everything else has been destroyed... Why don't they just blow up the Command Center, too?

Shigeru: I'm sure they'd like to take us out in a single blow, but the original MAGI system is right below us.

Makoto: They want the MAGI system intact, huh?

Shigeru: But we're defenseless against BC (biological and chemical) weaponry. If they use those, we're in trouble.

Makoto: N2 weapons, too...

(As if by coincidence, an N2 warhead drops, opening up the Geofront)

Shigeru: Speak of the devil!

Makoto: Isn't that a bit extreme!?

Fuyutsuki (smirking): Playing a bit rough, aren't we?

(Numerous missiles strike the Geofront directly)

Maya: Why do they want the Evas so badly!?

SCENE: Misato and Shinji in Misato's car - Scrapped Eva prototypes. -----------------------------------

Misato: They plan to initiate Third Impact - not with Angels, but by using the Eva series. 15 years ago, Second Impact was caused by humans on purpose. (Flashed shot: Second Impact) But that was in order to minimize the damage by returning Adam (flashed image: Giant of Light) to an embryonic state (flashed image: Embryo in attache case) before the other Angels awoke. (flashed image: graves) Shinji, we humans were born from a being called Lilith, who is the source of life just like Adam. We are the 18th Angel. (flashed image: DNA) The other Angels are possibilities of what we might have become - humans that gave up human form. (flashed image: Kaworu - Rei) Sadly, we had to reject each other - even though we're all human... Listen, Shinji... You must destroy all of the Eva series. It's the only way to stay alive.

SCENE: Office of the Prime Minister of Japan (Sounds of construction in the background) -----------------------------------

Prime Minister: The phone lines have gone dead.

(Screen text: Nagano Prefecture, New Tokyo-2 Prime Minister's Residence, No. 3 State Office)

Secretary: Yes, sir. Ballistic warhead impact was confirmed three minutes ago.

Prime Minister: The Instrumentality Project that NERV was secretly researching... Initiating Third Impact to annihilate mankind... The mere thought sends shivers down my spine.

Secretary: Humans must be the only creatures able to despise their own kind.

Prime Minister: All that's left is to take care of the NERV headquarters facilities.

Secretary: Do you want Germany or China to undertake the re-development?

Prime Minister: No - We won't be taken advantage of. Seal it up for 20 years, just like old Tokyo.

SCENE: Outside in the Geofront. -----------------------------------

1st soldier (on radio): Surface heat receding. High-pressure steam discharges have also subsided.

2nd soldier (on radio): Initial location of all units completed.

JSSDF Sub Commander:: Dogma Level 3 and the purple unit have been secured.

JSSDF Commander:: And the red unit?

Intelligence officer: Found in the underground lake at a depth of 70 meters. The pilot's status is unknown.

SCENE: Asuka curled up in the fetal position inside EVA-02 Entry Plug -----------------------------------

Asuka: ...I'm alive...

(Shots of depth charges firing and exploding around EVA-02)

Asuka: (Whispered at first then repeated growing louder and stronger) I don't want to die... I don't want to die... I don't want to die...

(Another voice mixes with Asuka's)

I don't want to die... (You're still alive) I don't want to die... (You mustn't die yet) I don't want to die... (You must live) I don't want to die... (I won't let you die) I don't want to die... (Don't kill me) I don't want to die... (You're still alive) I don't want to die... (I won't let you die yet) I don't want to die... (You must keep living) I don't want to die... (Die for me!) I don't want to die... (You mustn't die yet!) I don't want to die... (Die!) I don't want to die... (You're alive!) I don't want to die... I don't want to DIE!!

(Flashback to Asuka as a child with mother)

Child-Asuka: Mama... So this is where you've been? Mama!

(Asuka clasps her mother's hand and EVA-02 awakens.)

SCENE: Geofront lake -> Giant cross-shaped explosion -----------------------------------

1st soldier: What the!?

2nd soldier: Did we get it!?

(EVA-02 emerges and starts fighting)

Asuka (thinking): Mama... Mama! I understand now... The meaning of the AT Field. It's always protecting me! Always watching over me! (speaking) Always... always together! Mama!

(Misato and Shinji in Misato's car)

Maya (on radio): EVA-02 has activated! Asuka's okay! She's alive!

Misato: Asuka!?

(Asuka fighting)

JSSDF officer: The cable! That thing's power cable! Concentrate all fire power on the cable!

(Cable is severed)

Asuka: Shit!! Even without the cable... I still have 12,000 plates of special armor... and my AT Field! I can't lose! Not against you!!

(JSSDF forces are easily beaten by Eva-02 and Asuka)

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

SEELE 01: The loathsome Evangelion... Do they stand in our way yet again? It seems that one must fight fire with fire.

SCENE: EVA-05 to -13 released -> Asuka -----------------------------------

Asuka: The Eva series!? They've been completed?

(NERV Command Center)

Fuyutsuki: Deployment of all nine units equipped with the S2 system!? Isn't that a bit excessive? Or, do they plan to initiate it here!!?

(Eva series land)

Misato (on phone): Listen Asuka. You must destroy all of the EVA series. I'll have Shinji there to help assist you soon. Do your best. (changes lines - to Makoto) We can get to EVA-01 via emergency route No. 20, right?

Makoto (on phone): Affirmative. We've secured three seperate power sources just in case. As long as you enter within three minutes, you can reach the No. 7 cage directly.

(Misato starts dragging Shinji)

(Asuka in EVA-02)

Asuka: I have to destroy them all? Is she forgetting she's talking to a convalescent? Nine units in three and a half minutes... That works out to only 20 seconds apiece!

(Asuka attacks)

Asuka: Erst! (German: "That's one!")

SCENE: Misato and Shinji - Emergency Elevator R-10-20 -----------------------------------

Misato: Here it is.

(Shots fire... Misato is hit, but they enter the shaft and the door closes)

1st soldier: They got away...

2nd soldier (to radio): Unable to terminate target. Standing by for orders to pursue...

JSSDF officer (on radio): Negative. That area is scheduled for demolition. Pull back immediately.

2nd soldier: Yes, sir.

(Misato and Shinji in passageway)

Misato (slumped against wall - labored breathing): Th... That should hold them off... for a while. I'm okay... It's not as serious... as it looks. (staggers to feet and opens gate) There's still power - We can make it.

(Misato pins Shinji against gate)

-Shinji... from here out you're on your own. You have to make the decisions by yourself - without anyone's help.

Shinji: I... I can't do it. I just can't... I can't pilot Eva if it means I'm going to hurt or even kill other people. I have no right to do that. I thought that piloting Eva was my only choice... But I was just fooling myself. I don't understand anything - I'm not worthy to pilot Eva. There's nothing that I can do for other people! I've done terrible things to Asuka, and even killed Kaworu... There isn't a shred of kindness in me! Only dishonesty and cowardice... If I can only hurt people, then I'd rather not do anything at all!

Misato (angrily): I'm not going to feel sorry for you. If you don't want to be hurt, then just die without doing anything at all!

(Shinji starts crying)

-Crying won't help you now!

(Misato's tone becomes gentler)

-You hate yourself, right? That's why you hurt other people... Because you know that hurting other people is more painful than hurting yourself. But, no matter what happens, remember that it was your decision. And that makes it worthwhile, Shinji - Because you decided by yourself! So stop lying to yourself... Think about what you can do... And then live with your decisions.

Shinji: But you're... you're not me! You don't understand anything about ME!!

(Misato slams Shinji against the gate)

Misato (harshly): So what if I'm not you!? Are you just going to give up now!? If you stay here and do nothing, I won't forgive you! I'll NEVER forgive you!!

(Misato's tone changes to desperation)

-Nobody's perfect. You realize that you've made a mistake, and then regret it... That's all I've ever known. Nothing but empty happiness and hating myself. But... I feel like I always grew from the experience!

Misato (gently): Listen, Shinji. Pilot Eva once more and find yourself. Pilot Eva to face the questions "Why did you come here?" "Why are you here?" Find your own answers. And then... after finding yourself... come back to me.

(Misato places her cross in Shinji's hand)

Misato: It's a promise. Now, go.

(Misato kisses Shinji deeply)

Misato(sultry voice): That's a grownup kiss. We'll do the rest when you get back...

(Misato pushes the stunned Shinji into the elevator and then collapses)

Misato (weakly): If I knew it would end this way... I would've done like Asuka said... And changed the carpet... Right, Pen-pen? Kaji... did I do all right?

(A ghostly Rei stands above Misato, then an explosion -> Shinji crying in elevator. Looking at Misato's blood spattered cross and tasting her blood in his mouth, Shinji slides into the corner, sobbing.)

SCENE: Asuka fighting Eva series -----------------------------------

(Shinji standing in front of EVA-01 encased in solidified Bakelite)

Asuka (on speaker): Jeeez! Don't they ever stop!? And I can't even count on that idiot Shinji!!

SCENE: Terminal Dogma - Gendo, Rei and Lilith - Ritsuko sitting at edge of LCL pool -----------------------------------

Ritsuko: I've been waiting for you.

(Ritsuko stands and draws a gun... Asuka fighting... Back to Ritsuko)

Ritsuko: I'm sorry... I secretly altered MAGI's program earlier. A daughter's final request... Mother... die with me.

(Ritsuko presses something in her pocket, but nothing happens.)

Ritsuko: It didn't activate? Why!? (Pulls portable terminal from pocket - Casper-3: Rejected)

(gasp) Betrayed by Casper! How could you, Mother? Choosing your man over your own daughter...

(Gendo draws his gun)

Gendo: Ritsuko Akagi, I truly... (Gendo's lips move, but you can't hear him.)

Ritsuko (surprised, but then smiles): ... Liar....

(Gendo shoots Ritsuko, who falls back into the pool of LCL before a ghostly Rei.)

SCENE: NERV Command Center The battle rages on - Maya monitors EVA-02 via laptop computer -----------------------------------

Makoto: What's happening outside?

Maya: Less than a minute before EVA-02 reaches its operational limit! At this rate, Asuka will...!

(Asuka fighting the Eva series)

Asuka: I can't lose!

(Shinji sitting in front of EVA-01)

Asuka (on speaker): Not with Mama watching me!

Shinji: Mama... Mother?

(Back to Asuka fighting)

Asuka: These are the last ones!

(As Asuka finishes off the last Evas, one of the Eva series' swords comes flying at her... She stops it with her AT Field, but it turns into the Lance of Longinus)

Asuka: The Lance of Longinus!?

(The Lance pierces the AT Field, then EVA-02's head... Asuka shrieks and EVA-02 powers down... Asuka clutches futilely at the controls)

(NERV Command Center)

Maya: Internal power source depleted... Operational limit reached. EVA-02... down. What!? The destroyed... Eva series!?

(Eva series reactivates)

Maya: The Eva series have reactivated!

Shigeru: Are they're going to finish her off!?

(Eva series flock over EVA-02 and rip it apart like carrion birds)

Makoto: What's happening?

Maya: (gagging) I can't look! I... I can't watch anymore!

(Maya's laptop shows EVA-02's body display blanking out piece by piece.)

Makoto: This is...? EVA-02!?

(Geofront, where EVA-02 is being ripped apart)

Asuka (snarling): I'll kill you... Kill... kill... kill you... Kill... I'll kill you... I'll kill you all... (repeated)

(EVA-02 attempts to reactivate)

(NERV Command Center)

Makoto: Berserker?

Maya: Asuka! Stop!!

Asuka: Kill you all... I'll kill you... I'll kill you all... (repeated)

(Asuka's arm splits in two as a Lance of Longinus splits EVA-02's arm - Eva series impale EVA-02 with their lances)

(Maya gasps - Shinji sitting in front of EVA-01)

Maya (on speaker - screaming): Shinji!! EVA-02! Asuka! Asuka... she's...!

Shinji: But I can't pilot Eva... There's nothing I can do...

(EVA-01 breaks free from the Bakelite and clutches at Shinji)

Shinji: Mother!?

(Terminal Dogma - Rei and Gendo)

Gendo: Has EVA-01 finally awakened?

(NERV headquarters pyramid explodes upwards in a giant cross which turns into wings - EVA-01 appears howling in the Geofront with a demon's face and a set of wings)

JSSDF Sub Commander: Evangelion Unit One?

JSSDF Commander: It's the devil himself!!

(Shinji subdued inside EVA-01 entry plug)

Shinji: Asuka...

(Shinji sees the mangled remains of EVA-02 and screams)

Shinji: AHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(Screen text: To be continued )

-Episode 25 End Credits spiraling in helix with end theme, Thanatos: If I Can't Be Yours)

The End of Evangelion Episode 26: Sincerely Yours/I need you. :Translated Script

Screen text: I wish to express my deepest thanks to all the staff, cast, friends and especially the five young ladies who helped to bring this picture to its conclusion once again.

Thank you, Hideaki Anno

Red Cross w/ black text- THE END OF EVANGELION ----------------------------------- SCENE: Terminal Dogma - Gendo and Rei before Lilith -----------------------------------

Gendo: Adam and I are now as one... For this is the only way to be with Yui again. The forbidden joining of Adam and Lilith.

(Rei's arm falls off)

There's no time... Your AT Field can no longer hold your shape. Let's begin, Rei. Release your AT Field, the barrier of your heart. Complement your imperfect heart, leave your useless body... Merge all souls into one. And then, take me to Yui's side.

(Gendo places his hand on Rei's left breast and begins to merge with her)

(Rei cringes as waves of pleasure course through her body, a small gasp escapes her lips.)

----------------------------------- TITLE SCREEN: Episode 26 - Sincerely Yours (My Pure Heart For You) -----------------------------------

(EVA-01 in Geofront - Shinji subdued inside EVA-01 entry plug)

Shinji: Asuka...

(Shinji sees the mangled remains of EVA-02 and screams)

Shinji: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

(Terminal Dogma - Gendo and Rei)

Rei (startled = unspoken): Ikari...!

(EVA-01 bursts free of its restraining plates and its wings form into a cross)

(The Lance of Longinus pulls free of the moon and flies toward earth as if drawn by EVA-01)

JSSDF Intelligence Officer: Unidentified object approaching at high-speed from the outer atmosphere.

JSSDF Commander: What!?

(NERV Command Center)

Fuyutsuki: No!... Not the Lance of Longinus!?

(The Lance of Longinus stops just short of EVA-01's throat.)

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

SEELE 01: At long last our hopes are to be realized.

SEELE 04: The original Lance of Longinus has returned as well.

SEELE 09: While somewhat fewer than planned, it will have to do.

ALL (chanting): Return the Eva series to its rightful form. Evangelize humankind and restore us to our true form. With indiscriminate death and prayers, we return to our original state.

SEELE 01: And let all souls find peace. Now, let the sacrament begin!

(EVA-01 is crucified by the Eva series and lifted upwards)

SCENE: NERV Command Center -----------------------------------

Makoto: EVA-01 has been captured!

Shigeru: Altitude 12,000 meters! ...and rising!

Fuyutsuki: SEELE bastards... Do they plan to use EVA-01 as the well of souls!? ¹

(Eva series release EVA-01... Shinji in entry plug with marks on palms)

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

SEELE 09?: EVA-01 has been marked with the stigmata (sacred insignia).

All (chanting): To restore the Tree of Life!

SEELE 01: Our servants, the Eva series...

(Keel appears) Their existence has all been for this one moment.

(Eva series move to the positions of the Sephroticum and shine in circles around the cross of EVA-01)

SCENE: NERV Command Center) -----------------------------------

Shigeru (off screen): The Eva series have opened up their S2 systems!

Makoto (off screen): Dimensional values inverting! They're going negative! Measurement impossible... Numerical expression invalid!

Fuyutsuki: An anti-AT Field...

(Eva series form into the Sephiroticum (Tree of Life))

Maya: All the data are just like 15 years ago! Then... this really is... The prelude to Third Impact!

SCENE: Outside NERV -----------------------------------

1st soldier: S2 system level critical!

Background: Abort operations! All units pull back at once!

2nd soldier: We... We can't maintain molecular attraction any longer!

JSSDF Commander: Mission... failed...

(A massive explosion envelopes the Geofront)

SCENE: NERV Command Center shaking from the force of the explosion -----------------------------------

Shigeru: Direct impact! Surface layers melting!

Makoto: Second wave excavating the headquarters periphery! It's exposing the outer hull!

Background: Main JSSDF force annihilated!

Fuyutsuki: They're just physical shock waves! Set the absorbers to maximum level - It should hold!

(The explosion expands outward from the Geofront, revealing the egg of Lilith: the Black Moon)

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

SEELE 08/09: With the Purification of the Red Earth... That bespeaks time eternal...

SEELE 11: First, return the Geofront...

Keel: To its true form.

(Pull-back shot of the Earth and Lilith's Egg)

Fuyutsuki (off screen): The egg of Lilith... the genesis of human life... the Black Moon... We have no desire to return to that empty shell, (on screen) But even that depends on the will of Lilith.

SCENE: Terminal Dogma -----------------------------------

Gendo: It seems to have begun... Rei, take me to Yui's side.

(Rei's abdomen tightens around Gendo's hand)

Gendo: What!?

(Rei absorbs Adam's embryo along with Gendo's right arm, and rejects Gendo)

Rei: I'm not your doll.

Gendo: Why!?

Rei: Because I'm not you.

(Rei's arm reforms)

Gendo (strained): Rei...! Please! Wait... Rei!

Rei: No. Ikari is calling me.

Gendo: Rei!

(Rei ascends to Lilith)

Rei: I'm home...

(Screen text: Welcome back.)

(Rei is absorbed into Lilith... Lilith's heart starts beating... Her legs reform and she descends from the cross... The mask of SEELE falls off and Lillith takes Rei's form)

Gendo: Rei...

SCENE: NERV Command Center -----------------------------------

Shigeru: Unidentified high-energy source approaching rapidly from Terminal Dogma!

Makoto: AT Field verified! Analysis pattern blue!!

Maya: It's not... an Angel!?

Makoto: No! It's... a person!? It's human!

(Lilith-Rei rises through the Command Center... Lilith-Rei's hand passes through Maya, who shrieks in terror)

(Shinji inside the suspended EVA-01)

Shinji: Damn... Damn... Damn... Damn!

(Lilith-Rei appears)

Shinji: Ayanami...? Rei...!?

(Shinji screams as Lilith-Rei focuses on EVA-01 and cups it in her hands)

Shinji: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHH!!!

SCENE: SEELE monoliths -----------------------------------

All (chanting): Evangelion Unit 01's pilot... Complement humankind with your imperfect ego.

Keel: The moment of the Third Retribution has come.

(Eva series form into pattern)

SCENE: NERV Command Center -----------------------------------

Shigeru: The Eva series' AT Fields are resonating!

Makoto: And amplifying further!

Fuyutsuki: Has the assimilation with Rei begun?

(Eva series take Rei's laughing faces... Shinji/EVA-01 scream and EVA-01's core is exposed... Shinji clutches futilely at the controls)

Shinji: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! ASUKA!!! AHHHHHH!!!

Shigeru: Psychograph signal down!

Makoto: Destrado² materializing!

Fuyutsuki: Surely the pilot's ego can't take much more...

SCENE: Shinji, curled into a ball within Eva-01's entry plug -----------------------------------

Shinji (whimpering): No... No... No... No... No... No...!

Kaworu (off screen): Do you want it to stop?

(Lilith-Kaworu appears)

Shinji: Is that where you've been? Kaworu?

(Shinji resigns himself to Kaworu's outstretched hands... The Lance of Longinus approaches EVA-01's core)

SCENE: NERV Command Center -----------------------------------

Shigeru: Solenoid graph inverting! ego barrier weakening!

Makoto: AT Field shifting to pattern red!

Fuyutsuki: The Fruit of Life possessed by Angels, And the Fruit of Wisdom possessed by humans...

(The Lance penetrates the core and merges with EVA-01 into the Tree of Life)

Fuyutsuki (off screen): Having obtained them both, EVA-01 has become like a God. And now it has been restored to the propagule of souls... the Tree of Life. Will it become the Ark to save humankind from the nothingness of Third Impact? Or the demon that destroys us all? Our future lies in the hands of Ikari's son.

Maya (clutching at Shigeru's sleeve): Did... Did we do the right thing?

Shigeru: How should I know!?

(Lilith-Kaworu transforms into Lilith-Rei with hands cupped around EVA-01)

Yui (voice): This Rei is your heart... Your very hopes and dreams...

Rei (voice): What do you wish for?

SCENE: Inside Shinji's Mind (In a park - Shinji as a child) -----------------------------------

Shinji (voice): I see... It's just like when I started the cello. I thought that if I came here, I could find something...

Child A: Come on, Shinji!

Child B: Let's build a castle!

Child-Shinji (smiling): Okay.

Child A: Oh, here comes Mama!

Child B: We have to go home now!

Child A: Bye-bye!

Child A and B (laughing): Mama... Mama!

(Shinji builds a pyramid (NERV headquarters) alone, and then destroys it... Crying, he starts to build again)

(Random thought sequence - inside Shinji's mind)

Asuka: Jeeez! I get so pissed off whenever I look at you!

Shinji: Because I'm like you...?

Child-Asuka (crying): Mama!

Asuka (sleep-talking): Ma... ma...

Shinji (staring at Misato's cross): Mama...?

Misato (voice): I wasn't able to become Shinji's mother after all...

(Kaji's and Misato's college apartment)

Misato: Mmmm, let's do it.

Kaji: Again? Aren't you supposed to meet your friend at school today?

Misato: Hmm? Oh yeah, Ritsuko. It's okay, we still have time...

Kaji: We've been cooped up here for a week now...

Misato: Yeah, but I think I'm getting the hang of it... so come on...

(The lovemaking begins and continues in the background)

Misato: I probably just did this to prove that I existed.

Asuka: How idiotic! It's just two lonely adults comforting each other.

Ritsuko (precisely): We want to feel needed, even if it's only physical.

Misato: I feel wanted, and that makes me happy.

Asuka: It's just an easy way for you feel that you're worth something.

Shinji (disgusted = thinking): This is Misato? She does... this?

Misato: Yes, this is also me... The melting into one another's hearts... The me that Shinji doesn't know. Reality does involve pain, but you just have to accept it.

Asuka: Aaahh... I wonder if I'll act like Misato when I grow up?

(Shinji and Asuka in Misato's apartment)

Asuka: Say... wanna kiss?..

Misato: You mustn't!

Asuka: Or are you afraid?

Misato: It's not something kids should do.

Asuka: Okay, here goes...

Asuka: You don't understand anything! Stay away from me!

Shinji: (Hand twitching) ... I do understand.

Asuka: No you don't, you IDIOT! (Asuka kicks Shinji - Shinji's hand convulses) You really think you understand me!? You think that you can help me? That is so ARROGANT! You couldn't possibly understand me!!

Shinji: How can I understand... If you don't say anything? You don't say anything... You don't talk to me... How can I understand you? It's IMPOSSIBLE!!

Rei: Ikari, did you try to understand?

Shinji (sulking): I tried...

(blue image of Shinji in Asuka's sickroom from 'Air')

Asuka: Idiot! I 'know' about your jerk-off fantasies of me. Do it again like usual... I'll even stand here and watch.

(Rei, Asuka and Shinji inside an empty train - Asuka standing over Shinji)

Asuka: If you can't be all mine, then I don't need you!

Shinji: Then, be nice to me...

Asuka/Misato/Rei: We are nice to you.

Shinji: LIARS!! You're all just hiding behind a smile! You just want to keep things ambiguous!

Rei: Because the truth hurts us all... Because it's very, very distressing.

Shinji: But ambiguity only makes me insecure.³

Rei: That's just an excuse...

Shinji: But it makes me afraid... Afraid that I won't be needed again someday. It makes me uneasy! It worries me! Let me hear your voice! Interact with me!! Care about me!!!

(Shinji and Asuka in Misato's apartment - Asuka sitting dejectedly at table)

Shinji: I want to help you in some way... and to be with you forever.

Asuka: Then, don't do anything. Don't come near me anymore... Because all you ever do is hurt me.

Shinji: Asuka, help me! You're... you're the only one that can!

Asuka: Liar... (Shinji cringes) To you, anybody will do! (Asuka gets up from table and backs Shinji up against the wall) You're afraid of Misato and the First... and of your mother and father, too!

Shinji: Asuka...

Asuka(cont'd): You're only using me as an escape - because that's the easiest way not to get hurt!

Shinji: Asuka, help me!

Asuka: Because that's the easiest way not to get hurt!

Shinji (desperately): Please, help me!

Asuka (angrily): You've never really liked anyone!

(Asuka shoves Shinji, who crumples to the floor, taking the coffee pot with him)

Asuka (angrily): You're all you have! But you've never even learned to like yourself!! (staring disdainfully down at Shinji lying helplessly amidst the spilt coffee) How pathetic...

Shinji (weakly - getting to his feet): Help me... Somebody... Somebody help me... Help me... Help me... Me... Help ME!! (throws the table aside) Don't leave me alone! Don't abandon me! Don't kill me! (picks up a chair and throws it at Asuka's feet)

Asuka (coldly): ... No...

(Shinji strangles Asuka - Komm Susser Tod (Come Sweet Death) begins to play)

SCENE: Third Impact (Psychological scene - Flashing, random shots: crayon drawings of death, fish in a bucket under the sun, a dog lying dead on a street, fish head in a jar...) (Flashing screen text: "Evangelism", "Dead Sea Scrolls", "Shito", Various episode titles from the TV series, etc.) -----------------------------------

Shinji: Nobody understands me.

Rei: You didn't understand anything.

Shinji: I thought it was supposed to be a world without unpleasantness... without uncertainity.

Rei: Because you thought that everyone else was like you.

Shinji: Betrayed! You've betrayed my feelings!!

Rei: You've misunderstood from the start. You simply assumed without asking.

Shinji: Nobody wants me. So, everybody just die.

Rei: Then, what are those hands for?

Shinji: Nobody cares whether I exist or not... Nothing will change. So, everybody just die.

Rei: Then, what is that heart for?

Shinji: It'd be better if I wasn't here either. So I should just die, too.

Rei: Then, why are you here?

(Shinji as a child, crying with a large travel bag next to him)

Shinji: Is it okay for me to be here?

(Screen text: "Silence")

Shinji (screaming): NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

----------------------------------- SCENE: NERV Command Center -----------------------------------

Makoto: Pilot's response has infinitely approached zero!

Shigeru: Eva series and Geofront passing through the E layer! -And still rising!

(Shot of Black Moon rising)

MAGI announcement: Current altitude 220,000 km. Entering F layer.

Makoto: All Eva units - still active!

Shigeru: The Anti-AT Field from Lilith... it's expanding further! It's materializing!

(The earth's surface under the Black Moon turns white spreading outwards and Lilith-Rei emerges, cupping the Black Moon in her hands)

Makoto: Anti-AT Field critical limit exceeded!

Shigeru: No...! If this continues, individual life-forms will be unable to maintain their separate entities!

(Lilith-Rei spreads her wings)

Fuyutsuki: The Chamber of Guf (Hall of Souls) has been unsealed... Has the door to the world's beginning and end finally opened?

(Souls begin to gather around the Black Moon)

(Countless Reis begin to turn people into LCL)

Rei(s): The world is overflowing with sadness. People are surrounded by emptiness... And loneliness has filled their hearts.

(In the Command Center, Makoto is dissolved into LCL by a smiling apparition of Misato... Shigeru dissolves while cowering under the console trying to escape from multiple Reis)

Fuyutsuki (smiling at Yui floating above him like an angel): Ikari, did you finally meet Yui, too? (dissolves into LCL)

Maya (hands trembling over keyboard): AT Fields... Everyone's AT Fields are disappearing. Is this the answer? Is this what I was searching for? (Ritsuko appears- quickly types on Maya's laptop) (gasp) Dr. Akagi...!?

Ritsuko: Maya...

Maya: Ritsuko! Ritsuko! Ritsuko! Ritsuko! Ahh!

(Maya dissolves into LCL - as her dismembered hand flies across the screen, the words "I need you." are visible on the PC display)

SCENE: SEELE monoliths vanish one after another -----------------------------------

SEELE 01: The beginning and the end are as one. Good... Everything is as it should be...

(Keel appears... and then dissolves into LCL, leaving behind the mechanical remains of his lower body)

SCENE: Gendo lying on floor in Terminal Dogma -----------------------------------

Gendo: I've been waiting for this moment for so long... To finally be with you again, Yui. When I'm with Shinji, I only hurt him. So, it's better that I do nothing.

Yui: So, you were afraid of Shinji.

Gendo: I don't believe that I can be loved by others... I'm not worthy of love.

Kaworu: You're just running away. You simply reject the world before you get hurt.

Yui: Afraid of the shapeless, invisible barriers that separate people...

Rei: You just closed your heart to others.

Gendo: So, this is my retribution. Forgive me... Shinji.

(Demon-like EVA-01 bites Gendo in half... Rei II picks up Gendo's fallen glasses. The three clones of Rei stand together.)

(Eva series impale their cores on the Lance replicas with gasps of ecstasy... Countless crosses spring up as a red wave speeds across the earth's surface... Souls flow from the Earth to the Black Moon and then into Lilith-Rei's hands... An eye appears in Lilith-Rei's forehead into which the EVA-01/Lance cross plunges itself and disappears...)

SCENE: Inside Lilith-Rei - Shinji hears laughing voices and sees countless spirit-Reis flowing towards a red core -----------------------------------

Shinji: (gasp)Ayanami... Rei?

(Inside Shinji's mind - Flashing psychological scenes)

Random voices (Asuka, Misato, etc.): I hate you. I wouldn't be caught dead with you! Don't get me wrong... Do you really think I could ever like you? You have nothing to do with my life anymore. Get away from me! ... and don't call me anymore! Stubborn bastard... Don't follow me around anymore. Your type makes me sick! I'm sorry... (laughter) We're nothing more than friends. Annoying bastard... Why don't you learn to give up? There's no way I'd ever go back to you. I HATE YOU! Go away! (laughter) It'd be better if you'd never been born. Dammit, get away from me! I hate you! You're a pain in the ass! (laughter)

(Asuka's voice) Wimp...

(Shinji, lying on his back)

Misato (over Shinji): If it's that painful, you can stop.

Rei (over Shinji): If you really don't like it, you can run away.

Misato (voice): Do you want to be at ease? To feel at peace? Do you want to become one with me? To have our bodies and souls... become one.

Asuka (voice): But, if I have to be with you, I'd rather die!

(Empty theater - Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude (Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring) begins to play... Real-life scenes of urban Tokyo)

Shinji (voice): Hey...

Misato (voice): What?

Shinji (voice): What are dreams?

Misato (voice): Dreams?

Rei: Yes, dreams.

(Packed theater)

(Screen text: Do you feel good?)

(Three girls standing still in crowd)

Shinji (voice): I don't understand... I don't really understand reality.

Rei (voice): So, you can't understand the gap between other's reality and your own truth.

Shinji (voice): I don't know where to find happiness.

Rei (voice): So, you can only find happiness in your dreams.

(Crowded street- camera focuses on three individuals; dressed as Misato, Rei, and Asuka)

Shinji (voice): Then, this isn't reality... Because no one is here.

Rei (voice): Yes, it's a dream.

Shinji (voice): So, I'm not here either.

Rei (voice): You were trying to remake reality with convenient fantasies.

Shinji (voice): Is that wrong?

Rei (voice): You were using fabrications to escape from reality.

Shinji (voice): Can't I dream alone?

Rei (voice): That would not be a dream. It would just be compensating for reality.

(Packed theater -> empty theater)

Shinji (voice): Then... where is my dream?

Rei (voice): It is the continuation of reality.

Shinji (voice): Where is... my reality?

Rei (voice): It is at the end of your dream.

(Flashing Japanese text and images)

SCENE: Blood/LCL gushes from Lilith-Rei's neck as she leans backwards Shinji and Rei merged together in the sea of LCL -----------------------------------

Shinji: Ayanami... where are we?

Rei: This is the sea of LCL... The primordial soup of life. A world without AT Fields... without your own shape. An ambiguous world where it is impossible to tell where you end and other people start. A fragile world where you exist everywhere, and thus exist nowhere.

Shinji: Have I died?

Rei: No, everything has just been joined into one. This is the world you have been hoping for... your world.

Shinji (releasing Misato's cross from his left hand): But... this isn't right. I don't think this is right.

Rei: If you wish once more for the existence of others, the barriers of the heart will separate everyone once more... And the fear of other people will begin again.

Shinji: That's all right... (disengages Rei from him and clasps her hand) Thank you.

(Shinji and Rei, Shinji's head lying in Rei's lap)

Shinji: I feel that there were only hateful things there. So I'm sure it was okay to run away. But there was nothing good in the place I ran to, either. After all, I didn't exist there... which is the same as no one existing.

Kaworu: Is it okay for AT Fields to hurt you and others once more?

Shinji: I don't mind. But, what are you two within my heart?

Rei: Hope. The hope that people might be able to understand one another.

Kaworu: And the words 'I love you'.

Shinji: But that's just pretending - a self-intoxicating belief... like a prayer. It can't possibly last forever. Sooner or later I'll be betrayed... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real.

SCENE: Shinji rejects Human Instrumentality, Lilith-Rei collapses backwards and her wings vanish... EVA-01 breaks out from Lilith-Rei's eye and grows wings... The Black Moon divides into sections and explodes, showering Lilith-Rei with LCL which falls to Earth and spreads outward...) -----------------------------------

Kaworu: Reality is in an unfamiliar place, and dreams are within reality.

Rei: And the truth is within your heart.

(Lilith-Rei's body begins to fall apart)

Kaworu: For it is the hearts of people that create their appearance.

Rei: And new images will change peoples' hearts and appearances. Images... the power of imagination... The power to create your own future, and to make time flow.

Kaworu: But people must act of their own free will, or nothing will change at all.

Rei: So you must find your lost self on your own... Even if you lose your own words, or become lost in others' words.

(EVA-01 grasps and splits the Lance of Longinus... The Lances impaling the Eva series burst and disappear)

Rei: Anyone can return to human form as long as they can imagine themselves in their own heart.

(The Eva series go silent and fall to Earth... Crosses rise into the heavens)

Yui (voice): Don't worry. All living things have the ability to return to their original form... and the heart to go on living. Anywhere can be heaven as long as you have the will to live. After all, you're alive... and you can find the chance to achieve happiness anywhere.

(Rei appears before the now silent EVA-01... EVA-01, the Lance, and millions of crosses continue to ascend into space)

Yui (voice): As long as the Sun, the Moon and the Earth exist, everything will be all right.

SCENE: Water drop- Yui caressing Shinji's cheek -----------------------------------

Yui: So, you'll be okay now?

Shinji: I still don't know where to find happiness... But I'll continue to think about whether it's good to be here... whether it was good to have been born. But in the end, it's just realizing the obvious over and over again. Because I am myself.

(Shinji emerges from the sea of LCL... Lilith-Rei's head splits)

Shinji: But mother... what will you do?

(Flashback to 13 years ago - Fuyutsuki, Yui and infant-Shinji)

Fuyutsuki: Humans create Evangelion to copy God... Is this our true goal?

Yui: Yes. Humans can only live on this planet, but Evangelion can live forever... together with the human soul that dwells within it.

(EVA-01 and the Lance of Longinus float in space)

Even after 5 billion years, when the Earth, the Moon, and even the Sun have disappeared, it will still exist as long as even one person still lives. It will be very lonely, but as long as that one person still lives...

Fuyutsuki: It will be the eternal proof that humankind has existed...

Shinji: Good-bye, mother.

----------------------------------- TITLE SCREEN - THE END OF EVANGELION ONE MORE FINAL: I need you. -----------------------------------

SCENE: Lilith-Rei's split head... Misato's cross nailed to post... Silent Eva series stand crucified in a LCL ocean... Waves of LCL gently lapping at the shore... Asuka and Shinji lie side by side on the beach... Shinji turns to see Rei standing over the LCL sea - then Rei vanishes... Shinji moves over Asuka begins to strangle her, but with a caress of his cheek, she stops him and he starts sobbing uncontrollably. -----------------------------------

Asuka: How disgusting.

(Screen text: Fin)

-blank screen-

Notes:

1- Literally, "as a medium"

2- Destrado: According to the theory advocated by E.Weiss, the energy of the self-destructive impulse. It is the antonym of Libido. Its meaning is different from the energy of "Instinct of Death", advocated by P. Federn, the master of Moltedor-Weiss.

3- Literally, "pushes me into a corner"

'Ego': The barrier of another or one's self.

"blank screen": In the original Japanese release of the film, after the screen text, 'Fin.' is shown, the screen goes completely black and no ending credits are shown. Audiences waited in the cinema for around 5 minutes to make sure the film was really over.

#dsmp #dream smp #dsmpblr

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im-totally-not-an-alien · 4 years ago

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Final fantasy 7 prompts #67

1. Tifa was trying really hard to teach Aerith how to fight hand to hand but...Aerith was terrible at it.

Little did she know that Aerith was purposely messing up so that Tifa would correct her staces and catch her when she fell.

2. Barret pissed Cid off, so now Marlene knows about twelve new curse words.

War breaks out between them

3. Tifa holding a chained up Sephiroth in a bridal carry while Genesis laughs

4. Sephiroth calling Cloud and the blond immediately hanging up on him.

If he's not going to pick up for his family then there's not a chance in hell he'll pick up for Sephiroth...even if he had been calling to apologize.

5. Bayonetta and Sephiroth bonding over crappy father figures and good fashion.

6. Au where instead of defecting in Wutai, Genesis returns to Midgar as scheduled and then proceeds to cause as much mayhem as he can. He has a hitlist of all the people he wants to torment.

The president? Enjoying permanent frog statis in the slums sewer systems.

Heidegger? That Tonberry was particularly aggressive.

Hojo and Hollander? He doesn't want to know what was in those vials. Especially since they turned the scientists into monsters...not that they weren't already monsters in thier own right.

He was near giddy when Rufus sent him and Sephiroth to finish them off.

Though, just to be petty, he also stole all of Sephiroths chocolate stash and hid it in Renos desk, leaving a subtle trail of crumbs behind.

A trail Sephiroth wouldn't miss.

7. Cloud gets slapped by one of Jenovas tentacles mid fight and lands in a dimension where everyone except him is a frog. Everything is proportionally sized for frogs, even skyscrapers.

Needless to say, Cloud is thoroughly amused, even as little frog SOLDIERS tried to attack him. It tickled.

8. Genesis wearing designer sunglasses and wielding a super soaker as if he's a secret agent.

Bonus points if it has Aeriths water in it.

9. His breath caught in his throat. The air around them seemed to freeze, like a paused movie, nothing seemed to move. The only things that assured him this was real was the feeling of sweat and ash on his skin and the smell of Tifa's blood in the air, as Sephiroth lifted her struggling form higher and higher.

No one dared move. They knew it would only take a single flick of the madmans wrist and the blade would slice through her heart. Green eyes met blue.

"You know what I want, puppet. On your knees. I want you to beg for forgiveness."

Cloud obeyed.

10. Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis are all yeeted into the future by unknown means and are eventually confronted by a stranger in a red cloak who takes them in.

Genesis for one, approves of the mans fashion sense and flare for the dramatic. Sephiroth has a headache...which may or may not be theater related.

11. Clouds life was wonderful. He and Tifa had finally tied the knot and were expecting a child. Everything was going so well

Then he came. It was always him. Sephiroth ruined everything, leaving Cloud covered in blood and fleeing atop Fenrir with three blond bundles. Cloud managed to find his way to a parallel world called Gigas, and appeared in a kingdom which was ruled by Genesis of all people. Thankfully they didn't use mako as a power source, but did have thier own version of the SOLDIER program (which he would forbid his children from joining). He doubted they would be able to stop his worlds Sephiroth if it came to that, but they would buy enough time for Cloud to grab his kids and flee again.

He was careful. Always so careful. He and his boys remained under this worlds radar for almost ten years, fleeing to different countries and hiding out in other kingdoms when people started looking too deep into thier identities.

But it wasn't enough.

12. Genesis returns and defeats Sephiroth once and for all. The world breathes a sigh of relief, only for Genesis to raise his sword against the W.R.O.

In some ways, Genesis was worse then Sephiroth.

13. Yuffie holding Frogged Sephiroth captive in a tiny cage and showing him off...but only Cloud knows he's thier arch-nemesis. He was trying his hardest not to laugh at the look of pure indignation the frog gave when Tifa called him "cute"

Cid happily placed a little pink bow on its head. "So he matches us"

14. Cloud visiting the orphanage and getting swarmed by children. He shot a panicked look to Barret as a few actually started climbing him and asking for autographs.

15. Au where everything is exactly the same but this AVALANCHE cell is also a band with no particular genre of music they stick to. They go around the world blowing up reactors in disguise and then preform the next day as if nothing happened.

The Turks know its them, but they can't seem to stop them, nor can they out them to the public without proof.

Bonus: In the spirit of Christmas, Sephiroth gets a gift.

He was expecting a bomb. Not a Cloud Strife body pillow.

(He loves it tho.)

#cloud strife #sephiroth #sefikura #ff7 #zack fair #art #ffvii #final fantasy vii #genesis rhapsodos #angeal hewley #final fantasy prompts #ff7 story prompts #story prompt #final fantasy 7 prompts #tifa lockhart #aerith gainsborough #cid highwind

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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“Pamphlets and ballads do not make the parallels between domestic and political tyranny explicit; nor do they explore the implications of the parallel, particularly the possibility that a wife's or servant's active resistance might be justifiable. Yet in narratives about murderous husbands, as in those about murderous wives, domestic violence reveals the contradictions that undermine marriage from within. These narratives particularly expose the violence that underlies, and is even produced by, the fiction of subsumption, of two becoming one. Rather than reproducing the "plots" most typical of actual instances of wife-killing- an angry husband who loses his temper, or "correction" (abuse) that escalates into murder- the pamphlets and ballads dwell on excessive, ingenious brutality.

Detailing husbands' violent refusals to act as protectors, partners, or lovers, these texts present the murders of wives as abuses not only of authority but of intimacy. They thus join with the accounts of petty treason that we have seen to articulate deep fears of sexual and domestic familiarities. In both kinds of narratives, spouses employ the physical vulnerability of the conjugal relation to assault rather than solace their partners' bodies. Representing particularly grotesque acts- throttling a bedridden invalid, clandestinely inserting poison into the vagina, roasting the murdered body as if it were meat- accounts of wife-murder depict husbands as enemies, rather than protectors or partners.

In presenting such intimate betrayals, many texts follow the model of the Judas kiss. After pretending to be reconciled to his pregnant wife, John Marketman, for instance, "took her about the neck Judas like as if he intended to kiss her, and all on a sudden thrust his accursed knife into, if not through her poor Heart, so that she fell down dead upon the spot." Another jealous husband, William Tite, perched his wife on his knee, kissed her and spoke lovingly to her, then "put his hand under her Apron, and ript up her bowels and belly, insomuch that the child which was in her womb, fell out on the ground, and sprawled before him." Thomas White, sitting close beside his wife, slowly and secretly maneuvered the point of his "scimiter" into his "pocket-hole" and "as he sate close by Her, he forc'd it in at her right Breast, and through her Body" to the amazement of others present in the room.*

In all these cases, the husband not only exploits his wife's trust and physical proximity but acts out his betrayal in an unseemly way. Hunt reviewed consistory court wife-beating cases from 1711 to 1713 and relates: "One often gets the sense, reading these cases, of acts designed specifically for an audience. Men persistently abused their wives in front of relatives." " Similarly, representations of those husbands who kill their wives depict the murders as simultaneously intimate and theatrical. Pornographically conjoining violence, eros, and performance, the murders force into visibility a disturbing connection between marital sex and violence against women. The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson Fish of Rye, Who Puysoned His Wife in the Strangest Maner That Hitherto Hath Bin Heard of (1598) explores this connection in even more extreme terms than the popular texts that begin with conjugal and end with the wife's disembowelment.

In this pamphlet, the profligate Robson secs his wife's life as an obstacle to his release from debtor's prison. To eliminate her, another prisoner advises Robson to mix ratsbane and ground glass, and wrap this mixture "in the skinne of a shoulder of mutton, to the quantity of a hasle nut, or lesse, and in the night when his wife should next come to lie with him, [Robson] should convey it into her privie parts, which bee would warra[ n ]t without danger to him shuld kill her." When Robson's wife next pays him a conjugal visit, by "a dissembling shew of friendship" he "constrain[ s] her to stay all night," during which time she enjoys "the dearest nights pleasure that ever woma[n] had." Those scholars who have commented on this text sanitize Robson's act.

One describes Robson's method as "filling his wife's genitals with a mixture of ratsbane and ground glass while she slept," although the text suggests that she was having sex with her husband, not sleeping; another describes Robson as "introducing rat poison into her vagina," decorously evading the means by which Robson "introduces" his carefully prepared depository." Clearly, Robson uses sexual penetration to poison his wife. Although the wife expects "pleasure" from sexual intercourse, physical intimacy empowers her husband to kill her "without danger to him," rather than mystically transforming husband and wife into "one flesh."

An account of a less devious murder, A True Rendition of the Most Humble Murther Committed by Thomas White ... upun the Body of His Wife Mrs. Dorothy White (1682), reveals a similar concern with the complexities and dangers when spouses become one flesh occupied by antagonistic wills. Citing Genesis ("'This is now Bone of my Bone, and Flesh of my Flesh"), the title page asserts the husband's obligation to love his wife as he loves himself. The text then recounts the breakdown of this marital ideal; through his "vitious Practices" and "the Abuse of Himself with lewd Women," Thomas White contracts "that Disease which commonly is the Consequence of Uncleanness" and transmits it to his wife: "'Thus you see a Man, who by the Laws of God and Common Natural Duty, was Bound by all lawful means to take Care for the Welfare and Preservation both of the Souls and Bodie, of his Wife and Children, Contriving and Resolving the Ruine of both."

After White infects his wife, he proceeds to threaten her against disclosure so that she does not seek adequate medical attention; the text presents his subsequent murder of her as the logical consequence of neglecting to cherish her flesh as his. In some accounts of the murder of husbands, a wife's infidelity leads to her husband's death; in these two texts, a wife's fidelity enables her husband to kill her, suggesting the dangers of "due benevolence" for women. Like discussions of wife-beating, then, these texts explore what it means to be one flesh when the occupants of this shared body are at odds. The construction of husband and wife as one flesh, like the legal fiction that the husband subsumes his wife, assumes that the husband's and wife's interests correspond.

In a vivid, often-cited image, Milton explicitly links the failed ideal of one flesh to tyranny. When husband and wife are incompatible, "instead of becing one flesh, they will be rather two carkasses chain'd unnaturally together; or as it may happ'n, a living soule bound to a dead corps, a punishment too like that inflicted by the tyrant Mezentius.” While Milton assumes that the husband is the victim of tyranny, writers more concerned that husbands themselves may act as tyrants similarly insist that the degeneration of "one flesh" into "two carkasses chain'd unnaturally together" subverts constructions of the subject and the couple as stable, self-preserving, cohesive: ''The wife is as a mans selfe. They two are one flesh. No man but a frantike, furious, desperate wretch will beat himselfe"; "What man will be so wicked as to strike, and beate, and ban, and curse his own flesh which is his lawful and absolute wife[ ? ]"

Yet accounts of wife-beating and wife-killing suggest that the masculine subject, and therefore the corporate subject forged when he subsumes his wife, could be fragile, fragmented, and self-destructive. Examining cases brought against brutal husbands in church courts, Martin Ingram argues that the community judged such men's domestic violence as a symptom of uncontrol and abnormality. For instance, in five cases of excessive, life-threatening wife-beating in Wiltshire, "all of the husbands involved showed signs of mental disturbance or instability." .. , One account of a husband's murder of his wife suggests that legal, literary, and moral texts so consistently attributed murderous husbands' actions to madness that husbands themselves might have exploited this convention.

The Bloody Husband (1653) presents Adam Sprackling as dispassionately calculating his own insanity defense immediately after murdering his wife. According to a servant's testimony, Sprackling, who "loved his Dogs better than he loved his Wife," enjoined the servant to help him slaughter them: "Now let us kill the Dogs, and then they'll say we are mad indeed."' Subsequently, Sprackling pleads in court "that he was mad when he kill'd his Wife; and that he knew not what he did." .... According to The Bloody Husband, Sprackling manipulates the convention of the mad husband, and even his public persona ("He loved his Dogs better than he loved his Wife."), to defend himself.

The servant's testimony that Sprackling calculated the effect of slaughtering the dogs combined with testimony that Sprackling "was of an habitual bloody disposition and practise" undermined the strategy and led to Sprackling's conviction. The narrative framing here (the story of the story that Sprackling devises) and the function of the courtroom as an arena of competing narratives draw attention to a cultural perception, produced and transmitted through popular accounts of actual crimes, that a man who would murder his wife was no longer a representative of order or authority. Like the emphasis on their instability, the emphasis on murderous husband's tyranny suggests that their actions bear no relation to acceptable assertions of domestic authority and reveal nothing about the distribution of power in marriage.

Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolneshire (1607), for instance, describes how John Dilworth silences his wife's justifiable complaints with several blows to her head, makes a fire, and then, "like a terrible torturing tyrant, tooke uppe the dead carcase, and laide it thereon, clothes and all, not forgetting to hang uppe blankets and coverlids before the windowes, to the end to hide the light this great fire did cast." By offering the demonic image of Dilworth reveling before his wife's smoldering corpse, "as it were rejoycing at that his most hatefull, horrible, and hellish fact, like a most gracelesse and mercilesse miscreant," the text sidesteps the issue of the husband's responsibility; at the same time it qualifies his claims to authority. Such exaggerated, grotesque characterizations evade the relationship between wife-murder and the dominant ideology of male supremacy.

…Like the peers who tried Castlehaven and the narratives circulating about his trial, however, most pamphlets and ballads deny transgressive husbands' attempts to justify their actions, labeling their interpretations of coverture as criminal and crazed. By the eighteenth century, conduct literature, legal discourses, and popular literature demonized wife abuse and "rhetorically" displaced it onto the lower classes, so that "wife beating became, for literate people, a particular mark of the inferiority and animality of the poor." Anticipating this trend, pamphlets remove "terrible, torturing tyrants" like John Dilworth from the continuum of husbandly authority, foreclosing the interrogation of husbandly power and its limits. While Heywood's An Apology for Acton ( 1612) suggests that murderous wives lurk everywhere in the disguise of the familiar and innocuous, a text such as Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders suggests that murderous husbands are monstrous exceptions, not husbands whose "legitimate" correction of their wives gets out of hand.”

- Frances E. Dolan, “Revolutions, Petty Tyranny, and the Murderous Husband.” in Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550 - 1700

#cw: domestic violence #cw: infanticide #frances e. dolan #history #renaissance #tudor #elizabethan #jacobean #stuart #dangerous familiars

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silly-bean · 4 years ago

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Full of Fire

A drabble in my Tsurugi AU. Read on AO3 here

Word Count: 2,631

~~~~

Genesis stares down at the Wutai camp in blatant shock. It’s one of the smaller camps in the region, vital due to its position; it occupies the only pass wide enough for the bulk of the ShinRa troops to continue moving northward without having to climb over the mountains. All their intel had stated the camp would be virtually unguarded. The Wutai troops had taken out the bridge south of them, and the way the mountains curved prevented ShinRa from attacking without repairing that bridge, removing the need for a heavy guard force. In addition, Tsurugi had been seen all the way across the country, having just conducted a successful raid on one of their camps. Angeal had reported in with the positive ID barely an hour before, giving Genesis and his team of 2nds the go-ahead for their own mission. So, how in all of Ifrit’s fiery hell was the swordsman standing in the center of the camp talking to the ranking officer?

The 1st ground his teeth as he watched Tsurugi conversing like he hadn’t teleported over 80 miles through the mountains in less than an hour. Even Sephiroth moving at his top speed and taking the most direct path would have taken 90 minutes at least, and he definitely wouldn’t be looking so unbothered afterwards. One of the 2nds shifted uneasily next to him.

“Lieutenant?” he asked, voice shaking slightly.

Genesis could feel the eyes of the entire squad on him and he tensed. This was his raid and he wasn’t gonna let some random Wutaian man who knew his way around a blade ruin it for him.

“We will proceed with the mission-” he felt the squad stiffen around him, “-but will alter the approach accordingly.”

“Permission to speak freely, Sir?” another 2nd - Major Bridges, he identified - asks.

Genesis nods, tearing his eyes off of the man in the camp to look at the SOLDIER.

“Didn’t we have orders to not engage if we encountered him, Sir? With all due respect, of course.”

The 1st growled and the rest of the squad shied away. Bridges did not, holding his ground against his Lieutenant’s growing rage.

This one has a spine. I might have to keep him around.

“That was a contingency given to us for open battle, Major. We are attempting a raid with the purpose of destabilizing their position to give enough time for a frontal assault.”

The 2nd nods, a considering look on his face.

“So, as long as someone - you, Sir, of course - holds his attention long enough for the rest of us to lay waste to the camp, the raid will be a success?”

Genesis blinks, stunned for a moment.

Oh, I’m definitely keeping this one.

“Very good, Bridges. Exactly what I was thinking.” He stands up, stretching his back out and smirking at the taller man. “When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end / the goddess descends from the sky.”

The whole squad groaned, and Bridges gave a short laugh.

“Where do you need us, Sir?”

Genesis turned around fully, taking stock of the squadron. He had 8 SOLDIER 2nds in total, though he only recognized Bridges and one other - a Sergeant Knightly - among them. He hummed, considering his options as he searched around for a stick to draw with.

“Bridges, take 3 and get to the other side of the pass. Knightly,” the named 2nd straightened at his name, “you take the other 3 and stay on this side.”

The 1st took his stick and drew a rough picture of the pass in the dirt. The squad clustered around him, previous nervousness lost as they settled down into a mission mentality. He drew a rough blob in the middle to represent the camp, and four x’s either side.

“Spread out along the sides of the camp, but do not let them know you are there.” He paused, drawing another x in the road and an arrow from it to the camp. “I will approach from the front, making enough of a racket to draw the Sword out to battle. When I cast a certain spell, you’ll know which one it is-”

One of the 2nds to his right snorted and received an elbow in the gut in response.

“-you all will move in. Try for their munitions and rations first and be quiet about it; we don’t need fires and commotion drawing Tsurugi’s attention away from me before you can do enough damage to force them to withdraw. We will rendezvous back here afterwards.”

He looked up at all of them, smirk widening as he took in their eager faces. He suddenly understood why the enemy seemed to favor guerilla tactics so much; it was fun planning ambushes.

“Understood?”

“Sir!” The squad saluted, standing up straight.

“Good. Bridges, take your men and go. You have 20 minutes to get into position.”

The 2nd nodded, and grabbed three others, giving a jaunty wave and calling out a “Have fun, Sir!” as he vanished into the forest. Knightly took stock of the remaining 3.

“Knightly, you’re clear to go as well.”

The man nodded, more subdued than his comrade and saluted again.

“Stay safe, Sir,” he said.

Genesis snorted. “I always am, SOLDIER. Get going or you’ll be scrambling to keep up.”

The four 2nds melted into the trees, footsteps silent as they traversed the undergrowth. Genesis let out a breath, centering himself.

“For you are beloved by the goddess / Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds,” he quoted, murmuring, before he straightened.

He ran his boot over the drawing in the dirt, scuffing it beyond recognition before he set out towards the southern road.

------

The sky had barely started to lighten when the camp came into view, his boots crunching in the dirt as he approached. He watched as the two guards spotted him and straightened, bringing their spears to bear. They didn’t react otherwise as he approached and stopped not 100 feet from the entrance, staring them down.

“I come to challenge Tsurugi,” Genesis stated, standing tall as he unsheathed his blade, but made no move to close the remaining distance.

The two exchanged glances, mumbling to each other in Wutaian for a few seconds before one of them relaxed their stance and went into the camp. All was quiet while they waited; the camp wasn’t awake yet - dawn still almost an hour away - so the only noises beyond the sounds of the forest was the faint flapping of canvas in the wind. The guard returned quickly, but Genesis only had eyes for the man with him.

The Sword, or Tsurugi as he was known to Wutai, did not look as if he’d run over 80 miles through the mountains in the middle of the night. He strode forward out of the camp with a calm confidence, assured of his skill and place in the world. His sword was slung casually on his back, hilt placed within easy reach on his right side. He stopped when he’d reached the halfway point between the 1st and the camp, planting his feet and taking a loose stance.

“You asked for me?” His voice was calm and smooth, as if he wasn’t preparing for a pre-dawn duel with an officer of the opposing army, his common surprisingly un-accented.

“That I did, Tsurugi,” Genesis answered, giving a flourishing bow. “The arrow has left the bow of the goddess.”

He felt the man’s assessing gaze sweep his form, but he did not react otherwise to the affirmation.

“You have me at a disadvantage, Challenger. You know my name but I do not know yours.”

Genesis couldn’t help but bristle; surely he had made enough of a splash to be known by the enemy.

“I am Lieutenant General Genesis Rhapsodos, SOLDIER 1st Class. You would do well to remember me.”

The man huffed what could be a laugh before nodding to himself.

“You must truly be desperate to prove your prowess in battle to seek me out rather than allow our paths to cross naturally. Very well.” He unsheathed his blade with a smooth motion, taking a simple ready stance.

This was the first time Genesis had even seen the man, let alone crossed blades, but he could read the easy confidence in him, in the set of his shoulders. The Sword knew what he was doing, knew his limits and probably treated his sword as an extension of himself. The SOLDIER could not take this fight lightly; he’d need every ounce of his skill and training to survive, let alone succeed in his mission. Genesis took a deep breath, centering himself and bringing his own sword into position. A beat of silence, as if even the world waited in bated breath, and then the SOLDIER was launching himself forward in a blur.

Genesis did not have the sheer strength and patience that Angeal did in battle. He did not have the grace and skill with a sword that Sephiroth so easily deployed. What he did have, however, was a blazing desire to prove himself and a natural talent with materia to back it up. So, even as he was moving to cross blades with his opponent, he was casting. The haste spell pushed his speed past what even the so-called Silver General could muster. Tsurugi, to his chagrin, seemed to have expected something and started moving before Genesis finished releasing the magic.

The man took a step back, lowering his stance and bringing his strange sword up to block the strike. Their blades clashed, ringing in the quiet of pre-dawn, and the impact cratered the ground underneath them. Dust kicked up in a circle, swirling in the wind generated by the clash as the sound echoed in their ears. Genesis flipped back, twirling through the air as he threw out a firaga, aiming for the ground beneath his opponent's feet. The spell connected with an explosion, kicking up another cloud as Tsurugi leapt up to dodge. Genesis didn’t waste any time, charging up a tri-firaga and letting it loose, directing the balls of fire to home in on the man.

The Wutaian batted the closest blast away before he landed, causing it to slam into another and explode. He then sliced the third one in two, causing it to disperse into smoke. Genesis launched himself forward again, bringing his sword around for a swipe at his unguarded left side and was met with cold steel. They paused then, both testing each other’s strength and the SOLDIER got his first look at Tsurugi’s eyes.

He hadn’t believed Sephiroth when the 1st spoke of the dull color, but there it was. It seemed positively criminal that such a man had such unremarkable eyes, but those plain green orbs stared back at him with indifference, no sign of strain in them at all. Genesis growled, the mako in his own flaring in anger, and he broke off the clash to bring his blade around in a quick series of jabs.

The man met his every strike with seemingly little effort, shifting his long sword between one-handed and two-handed grips as needed. Every one of Genesis’s strikes was countered and blocked with more ease than he’d experienced since he first began training. It was driving the SOLDIER mad, the sound of clanging steel ringing in his head and stirring up his rage. He cast another haste, rushing back to disengage before leaping into the air. On the way up, he charged up more tri-firagas, throwing them at the man still on the ground, not caring if they connected more so than doing their job in making a lot of noise.

The balls of fire ram into the dirt, the sound of the explosion echoing through the pass as a huge dust cloud erupts into existence. He allows himself a smirk as he hangs in the air; even Sephiroth had been caught unaware the first time he’d used that particular trick. He’s so caught up in his satisfaction that he almost doesn’t get his blade up in time to block as Tsurugi is suddenly above him, a trail of dust marking his path from the center of the blast zone as he brings his sword down onto the SOLDIER.

Genesis goes flying down, impacting the ground with another explosion of dust.

Shiva’s tits, he’s fast.

He coughs, trying to get the grit out of his throat, and his instincts ping, telling him to move. He throws himself forward, just barely avoiding the Sword as he slams into the ground behind him. More dust flies past him as he spins around, blindly tossing out a fira. The spell clears a hole in the cloud, allowing Genesis to see Tsurugi as the spell goes high, missing the man completely. The dust settles, exposing the crater generated from the impact and the SOLDIER feels the first tinges of fear rise in his throat. He swallows, pushing the unwelcome feeling down and reaching for exhilaration instead, so that, when he leaps forward again, his blood is singing with the thrill of battle.

------

Genesis does not know how long they’ve been fighting; it could be minutes, hours even. The sky has lightened since they started and he doesn’t think the sun has risen over the mountains yet, but he hasn’t taken enough of a breather to really check. Tsurugi is poetry in motion, each swing and block effortless in execution. If it wasn’t for the fine coating of dust and grit, it wouldn’t seem as if he’s been fighting at all. He hasn’t even broken a sweat.

In contrast, the SOLDIER is disgusting. He’s absolutely covered in dirt, blood is leaking from several slash wounds on his arms and legs, and sweat pours down his face. It’s taking everything he has to try to keep up with the man, and it still isn’t really enough. He has the distinct feeling that he’d have been dead several times over if Tsurugi really wanted it. In fact, the man has yet to show that intense killing instinct that Sephiroth claims he has.

He’s probably using this as a good workout, the bastard.

They break apart, Genesis panting as he lets his sword droop a bit. He watches Tsurugi lift his blade to re-engage when an explosion goes off in the camp behind them. The man stops, whirling around to watch the smoke rise as cries of panic start to go up. More shouts sound as more smoke starts to pour upwards, tents in various positions around the camp now alight. Tsurugi takes the sight in, blade falling out of its ready position. He sighs and slings it into his harness, turning back to the 1st.

“I see I have been outplayed, SOLDIER,” he says, tone almost amused.

Genesis allows himself to smirk, still out of breath. “I’m no idiot, Tsurugi, despite any reputation I might have for rushing into things.”

The man lets out what could be a laugh and shakes his head.

“No, you are not. I will remember that for later.” He starts walking back to the camp, steps just as smooth and confident as before.

Genesis sheaths his own blade and allows his stance to relax. Hopefully, he’ll have enough time to recover some of his energy by the time he reaches the rendezvous. He’s about to set out when he realizes that Tsurugi has stopped and is looking back at him, an almost fond expression on his face.

“Good fighting, Lieutenant Rhapsodos. I look forward to the next time our blades cross.”

Then, he’s gone, disappearing into the camp to evaluate the damage. Genesis feels a smile emerge, joy bubbling up from underneath the bone-deep exhaustion. It doesn’t leave his face until Bridges reminds him that they still have to make the 10-mile hike back to their own camp.

#tsurugi au #my writing #ff7 #final fantasy 7 #ffvii #final fantasy vii #time travel #swordfighting #genesis rhapsodos #cloud strife #my aus #my fanfic

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scope-dogg · 4 years ago

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Genesis Climber Mospeada: Final Thoughts

Mospeada’s probably most notable for being one of the three anime series that was frankensteined together to make the Robotech saga, alongside the more famous Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the less well know Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. However, it’s a series with a legacy of its own on its own merits in Japan and has had some degree of enduring popularity - the IP even has a new IP called Genesis Breaker in the works. So, is it good enough to warrant that?

In my opinion, only sort of. This is a series with some charismatic characters, cool mechanical designs, solid animation for its time and a great soundtrack, as well as an initially promising plot, but having just finished it I can’t help but feel like it didn’t quite stick the landing and ultimately didn’t manage to become something greater than the sum of its parts. Ultimately a plot that feels half-baked is the chief culprit for this.

The plot setup is that the Earth is invaded by a mysterious alien species called the Inbit, who manage to completely force humanity’s governments and militaries from the surface of the planet entirely. Humanity rebuilds on its colonies on Mars and eventually launches an armada to reclaim Earth, only for their invasion to fail. Refusing to give in, they launch a second armada some time later. Lieutenant Stig Bernard is a soldier who is part of this second invasion. Re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere goes poorly, and while Stig makes it through, humanity’s force is scattered, and his fiancé Marlene is killed during the operation. Grieving and all alone, Stig nevertheless must gather his resolve and continue with his mission to attack Reflex Point, a location in North America believed to be the nexus of alien activity. Along the way, he’ll gather up a motley band of new allies who’ll join him in his quest.

The setup isn’t that exciting on the face of it, but it’s the details that make it initially intriguing. The first voice the anime airs is that of the Inbit themselves, as they travel through space as a flicker of mysterious light, invoking the names of unfamiliar deities as they make their way to Earth. The mystique this sets up around them was the one thing that drove me on through the early parts - I wanted to know more about these strange invaders. The series guards this mystique closely however. For a long time we see nothing of them save the exteriors of the crablike battle mecha they fight with, and they drop hints as to their true aims and natures a little too infrequently. Eventually the show does make serious developments with them, but it feels like it comes too little, too late. When the resolution of the war comes about in the last episode, the solution feels like a copout more than anything, and it feels like the opportunity was wasted. Most of the episodes of the show technically advance the plot by getting Stig and the gang close to Reflex Point but the stories involved episode to episode too often feel like side stories that don’t build the world in a significant enough way.

Thankfully, the main cast of characters is mostly pretty good. Stig is a bit of a hardass and sticks rigidly to his duties as a soldier, which sometimes leads him into unnecessary conflict with others, but he remains sympathetic as the loss of his fiancé weighs on him heavily. Probably the most competent and interesting member of the group is Yellow, who’s a male soldier who moonlights as a female singer. Many of the more interesting episodes feature him as the primary character. Ray and Houquet are Earth-born survivors of the Inbit occupation who join the group to help out regardless and have something of a romantic magnetism between each other, and Jim’s a mechanic who has to overcome his own fears to live up to his duty. These are all pretty good characters, but there’s one massive exception to this, that being Mint, a young girl who joins up early on and proceeds to ruin almost every scene she’s in with her obnoxious personality and loud, shrill voice. Her gimmick is that she awkwardly hits on almost every attractive male character she runs into, which is pretty uncomfortable because she’s obviously meant to be prepubescent. This character was such a mistake that she managed to sour my impressions of the show as a whole in record time. She provides little to no utility to the other group members and it makes no sense for them to take a young child with them into the thick of combat on a mission to assault the heavily guarded fortress of a hostile alien race. I know how this sounds, me bitching about a little kid character, but she really was just that bad.

The presentation, thankfully, is actually pretty good all round. It’s an old show that doesn’t do an amazing job of hiding it, for its time its quite solid. The mechanical designs are interesting - the Inbit’s crablike combat robots are fairely unique to look at for one, whereas the heavy hitter on the human side is the Legioss, a transforming fighter similar to Macross’ Valkyrie, albeit with a heavier, blockier profile. The most unique member of the mechanised cast is the namesake Mospeada, which are combat motorcycles that dynamically transform into heavily-armed power armour for their human riders. Animation featuring all of these is of a consistently solid level, and many of the battles are actually quite exciting. This is furthered by the fact that the show’s soundtrack is strong, including some really catchy and energetic vocal tracks.

As to whether this is worth a recommend or not, I’m a little on the fence. I definitely think this one’s more for people who appreciate the aesthetics of 80s mecha anime, because this one fits that bill really well. If you’re hear for an interesting plot, I think there are plenty of other shows that do the whole aspect of humans fighting mysterious aliens that do that schtick a fair bit better, most notably, and somewhat ironically, the original Macross.

Interestingly, there was an OVA called Love, Live, Alive released after the TV show. It’s set from the perspective of Yellow following the conclusion of the events of the series, as he looks back on everything that happened while performing at concerts. In effect, what that means is that it’s 50 minutes of the series’ more exciting battles and dramatic plot moments set to some of the best vocal tracks. If you’re on the fence about whether this show’s for you, but you don’t feel like taking a gamble on its 25-episode length, it might be worthwhile to just watch this OVA instead to get the super-digest version of it, though as a word of warning maybe it’s better to give it a miss if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy.

#mospeada #mecha #respect the robot

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aic-americas · 4 years ago

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Coronation Stone of Motecuhzoma II (Stone of the Five Suns), Aztec, 1503, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of the Americas

This stone, commemorating the beginning of the reign of Emperor Motecuhzoma II, was originally located within the ritual center of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the extensive empire conquered by the Aztecs between 1428 and 1519. The ruins of the city lie beneath downtown Mexico City. Known as the Stone of the Five Suns, this monument draws connections between Aztec history and the cosmic scheme. The quadrangular block is carved with the hieroglyphic signs of five successive cosmic eras, called “suns” in the language of the Aztecs. These eras were mythic cycles of creation and destruction that began in the time of genesis and continued with the birth of humankind and the period of Aztec rule. From “4 Jaguar-sun” in the lower-right corner, the eras proceed counterclockwise through “4 Wind-sun,” “4 Rain-sun,” and “4 Water-sun.” The X carved in the center represents “4 Movement-sun,” the sign of the present era for the Aztecs. The year “11 Reed” in the square cartouche refers to 1503, the year of Motecuhzoma’s coronation, while the day listed above it—“1 Crocodile”—corresponds to July 15, when the ceremony probably occurred. On the underside, the hieroglyphic date “1 Rabbit” denotes the beginning of things in the distant mythological past. The sculpture thus legitimizes Motecuhzoma’s rule as part of the cycle of birth, death, and renewal and presents him as heir to the world in the present era of creation. Major Acquisitions Fund Size: 55.9 × 66 × 22.9 cm (22 × 26 × 9 in.) Medium: Basalt

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/75644/

#aztec #artinstituteofchicago #artoftheamericas #museumarchive

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wintaer-bear · 4 years ago

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goldilocks and the three bears of truth

jimin’s in love with you, but like... not that in love with you. or conversely, men that have all the audacity but none of the emotional intelligence!

“No, no, no. Please don’t do that,” Taehyung hushes as he brings his more than big enough hands to your cheeks. You raise your gaze to meet his and his heart hits the floor. He knew you were upset, that much was obvious, what with you throwing the entire contents of the buffet table at him and ruining his Versace tux. He knew you were upset - that was fair. But never did it dawn on him that you were going to cry! It wasn’t fair that you were so pretty when he was trying to break up with you. “Please don’t cry.”

His words mean nothing... all men do is lie and you cry anyway, unmatched foundation leaving tear tracks down your face.

“Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?” You’ve never put on make up before, let alone own a bottle of Fenty, but you were too shy to ask the MUA at Sephora if they had some more opened samples in the back because like hell were you going to pay $35 for the entire bottle. You were desperate that much was true, what with Taehyung springing on prom at the last minute because turns out he was grounded but not like grounded grounded, but you were too smart to be both broke and desperate. You just picked the sample shade one lighter and hoped no one would notice. How were you supposed to know to blend all the way down to the neck? And what was it the mean girls said? Something about flashback?

"Why did you ask me to prom if you didn’t actually want me to come with you? Better yet, why did you ask me to be your girlfriend? You’re mean Taehyung! Just like the rest of your piss for brain friends. Mean!” You’re tearing off your own gas station corsage and slinging it at him. You wish it made you feel better, but it doesn’t. You just wanted him to hurt like you were hurting.

You should have known better. Should have seen it coming. Taehyung was everything your dad told you stay away from. He was head of the art club and missed homeroom too often, but he never got in trouble for it because, we’ll he could smile he way through anything. Your guarded heart included. He literally, got along with everyone, was nice to everyone. You just happened to sit next to him one day.

“__,” he says weakly, picking up the half torn flowers from the pavement. “I... It’s not like that. I didn’t ask -”

The boy in the shiny sequin dress jacket stops himself because while he knew he was a class A jerk, he wasn’t going to kick someone while they were down. Taehyung wasn’t about to dig himself a deeper grave with the sheriff’s daughter by telling you that he didn’t actually ask you to prom... he had just briefly mentioned that his parents hadn’t grounded for selling the entire contents of their wine cellar when they found out all the proceeds were going towards the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“Save it,” you say sniffling and grabbing the what’s left of the corsage from his hands and ripping what feels like your entire heart into pieces, what’s left of it anyway. “I don’t care. Jimin was right. You are a Gemini.”

“I don’t know what that means” he says with vehemence, “but I’ve never been to the gym in my entire life and Jimin’s an asshole so -”

"He's my best friend." You deadpan and cross you arms around your chest. He could break your heart but you wouldn't give him the power to break your carefully forged friendship with Jimin.

"And obviously in love with you so take everything he says about with me a grain a salt."

“Yeah, and you’re a Black Moon Lilith in Gemini and that alone trumps all your good traits. You’re basically 90% fickle with a dash of cunning, but I didn’t know cunning was just the elongated word of cunt.” You emphasize the last words, mostly because you’re hurt, but also because you’re angry and you’re not sure when you’ll get another chance to tell Kim Taehyung off again. “I mean... do you even like me? You haven’t even done as much as hold my hand since you’ve asked me out.”

“I just asked you out on Monday!”

“Oh come on, Taehyung,” you drag, angry and finding all the hurtful words in your vocabulary. “It’s not like you’re shy! I’ve seen your tongue down so many girls throats you’d think its the cure to lung cancer.”

“That’s different,” he winces. “And not fair.”

“Not fair?” You repeat, suddenly realizing this was all going in circles. You’ve liked Taehyung for the better of...like, forever. He was so perfect. Almost. He gets the endings of movies wrong and forgets his car keys too often, but Taehyung had a nice smile and ate all his veggies, was a little weird when it came to public speaking but who isn’t? Taehyung was every girl’s dream and... and avoided you like the plague up until you grew tits your senior year because no one wants to bone the sheriff’s daughter.

No, you were never invited to keg parties or homecomings. Not even your own best gal pals like to hang out with you in broad day light. You had to learn the status quo on your own so shave an eagle and call it bald, you about had a conniption when Taehyung sat down next to you in AP Bio.

“I like your hair clips,” he said causally. At this point, you weren't even sure he knew you existed. He sits and sports that grin you’ve been familiar with since grade school. The “I’m not in trouble you are” look. “They match your scrunchie.”

And by the end of the period you wonder how it escalated so quickly. Taehyung turned from being your lab mate to your soulmate in less than 90 minutes and you weren’t even mad about it. He was comfortable, he was warm and it was so easy to smile in front of him.

“Not fair?” You say again. “Mules are doomed to be both the genesis and the doom of their hybrid lineage because they're born sterile. That's unfair. No Taehyung this," you point back and forth between the three feet of air between you two "isn't unfair. This is the result of you doing what you do best and acting on a whim instead of examining if there’s going to be repercussions or if you'll hurt someone along the way. I was fine on my own! I had a plan and if you weren't going to be part of it, the least you could of done was to stay out of my way." You run out of air and you hate it because it gives him exactly one second to come back with a counter argument.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

And you believe him. Because Taehyung wouldn't be dumb enough to ask you to prom on purpose or mean enough to invite you just to overhear him talking about breaking up with you because "you were just too much."

"No one ever means to hurt anyone, Taehyung. Doesn't make the hurt any less," you breathe. You want to hurt him too. Why does he get to walk away unscathed? "Or the perpetrator any less guilty. You're a bad guy Taehyung,” you bite you lower lip to refrain from crying, but it comes out in sobs anyway. “And I hope someone breaks your heart."

You break away and immediately feel the lost of warmth. You didn't realize how close he was to you until he wasn't.

"You okay?" Jimin asks as you slam his passenger door shut. You don’t know how he knew to come get you. You had expected him to be on the other side of town doing God knows what at this hour, but somehow Jimin always knew.

He leaves the car in park and turns to you when you don't immediately respond.

"I’m fine," you say, going to turn on the radio. He immediately switches it off.

"Like just bombed your math test but your 6.0 GPA is still salvageable fine or ___ circa second grade with a blister on her hand doing the monkey bars fine?"

"For the the last time I beat you fair and square but I see you’re still eating my dust a decade later with that tone Park."

"Also for the last time. I let you win because you cried when the blister popped on bar three. I practically carried you on my back the rest of the way."

"Did not."

"I still have the scar on forehead where you stepped on me." He pulls back his hair and shoves said forehead in your face.

"The floor was lava." You shrug.

“Yeah, so is Kim Taehyung, but we’re not ready to talk about that are we?”

It wasn’t a secret that Jimin wasn’t fond of Taehyung. They just ran with different crowds. Always have. Where as Taehyung was president of the art club and volunteering at parks and recreations, Jimin was deciding whether or not to smoke the last ounce of weed he had in his back pocket or to sell it for profit so he could buy a an extra dessert for lunch tomorrow.

“Just as ready as you are to talk about the court summoning I found in hidden in your glove compartment.”

Jimin sends you a look and if you didn’t know him for the last decade, you’d miss the sliver of shock written on his otherwise impenetrable and cocky face. Jimin gives a low whistle.

“You could have just said no, but I see I don’t need to worry. 2021 Bitchy ___ is here to put up the walls and save the day. No need for niceties then,” he pins you with a look as he turns the ignition and does that thing boys do where they reverse the car all passively aggressively and hot. “I fucking told you so. I told you Taehyung was out for one thing and one thing only. He’s nothing but a player and -”

“I do not put up walls!” You interrupt and it catches Jimin off guard, he was ready for his Taehyung hating dissertation, to be the best friend you needed and to talk shit about your ex. Jimin was already in the drive thru line to order one of everything off the dollar menu. He was not, however, prepared for whatever the hell this was.

You’re crying, uncontrollably so, and rubbing your eyes with your palms in his seat. It’s ruining your make up but Jimin has never seen you any more beautiful. He’s never seen you so vulnerable as you hiccup to keep the sadness from escaping your very breath.

“And I’m not bitchy. I’m not sorry I don’t have mommy issues and feel the need to please everyone in her absence. I’m especially not sorry that I’m way too smart to get conned into losing my virginity because I think I’m in love. I’m not. But why can’t I be? Hmm?” And Jimin thinks it’s question for him before you continue.

“Why can’t Taehyung come to me if he’s got a problem with me? If he thought I was,” you air quote, “too much,” end air quote, “then why hang out with me?” You turn you back against the window so you can face Jimin head on, and Jimin wonders why the line is so backed up tonight of all nights. “Why even talk to me in the first place? What? Was I not what he was expecting? Am I too opinionated? Too loud? Too... god, I don’t know? Myself?”

"What?” Jimin says flabbergasted, and takes his yes off the car halted in from of him to make sure he’s hearing this right. Jimin can’t say you were the type run on emotions, but you have also never had a chance to react to such... turbulence. You’ve always been so reserved and in control, a defense mechanism he’s sure you’ve developed over time as the black sheep of the town. He knew you were dumb but he didn’t know you were dumb enough to think it was your fault that Kim Taehyung didn’t like you.

“Tell me the truth Jimin,” you deadpan. “Am I...,” and you struggle to get out the last part without crying. “Too much?”

“Yes,” he thinks. Completely, utterly, and without a doubt, you were too much.

You were too good for Taehyung. And too kind. And too pretty. In the winters, you were too warm and your cookies were too soft, your shampoo smelled too clean. You were too good at Catan... and you were...god... too perfect.

Jimin didn’t mean to fall in love with you. Just like he didn’t mean to kiss you the way he is now. Desperately and fervently, like it’s his first time kissing to put someone’s clothes on instead of off. But he doesn’t know how else to stop your thoughts from wandering. He doesn’t know how else to bring you back to the light where you belong. He didn’t want to see you cry. Jimin didn’t like it when you were hurt. But he especially didn’t like that you thought any less of yourself because of a boy.

Jimin takes it upon himself when you don’t immediately pull away and he wishes he would have just taken you home because now his plans were ruined.

There was a plan. Jimin had a plan.

You were going to go away to college and he was going to get a trade job. You’d come back to visit your dad for the holidays and Jimin would by default pick you up from the airport. He was a patient man. He had it all planned out. The two of you would skip the petty fights that came with individuals growing together and out pacing one another. It was easier that way. The two of you would just meet each other at the end. Jimin wasn’t willing to risk losing you in finding himself in these next few years.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Jimin didn’t want to rush it. He didn’t want to spook you with how much he wanted this, wanted you. Jimin knew. Whether it be ten years from now or several heartbreaks later, Jimin knew he’d accept you any way you came to him. But never in a 100 years he think you’d come like this. Broken and inconsolable in tears.

“I -” he starts to lie. “I’m high.”

“Men,” you scoff. “Men have all the audacity but none of the emotional intelligence. Jimin, your court summon is for a urine analysis so you really expect me to believe you’d shoot up and get high right before they’re about to break that beeper on your ankle? Even I know you’re not that desperate for a fix.”

He wishes you were right. You were the hardest drug he’s had and he’s wished he just stay clean because it physically hurt him to see how intangible you are right now. Even in your elaborate scheme to get another man to fall in love with you tonight, Jimin couldn’t help but want you more. You were exactly who you needed to be and he wanted nothing more than to protect that.

“I’ll ask you one more time,” you say with patience you’ve all but scraped up off the floor. “Jimin, do. you. like. me? Like, like like me?”

It wouldn’t be lie if he said no. He doesn’t just like you. Jimin is dumbfoundedly in love with you. He’s so deep in your pussy-sand without actually being in your pants that he wouldn’t know his left from his right.

Jimin debates with himself whether it’s worth the physical distance that awaits him if he denies you or if it’s worth the psychological and emotional damage that will come in confirming your suspicion. You were too good for him, that much was evident, but how was he going to make you believe that?

“___, I-”

“Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?”

“Yeah, I’d like a large order of FACTS please,” you spit out.

“Sure, a order or fries. What else can I do for you?”

“Maybe a double quarter pounder with a side of truth?”

“I’m sorry, did you say juice?”

You don’t mean to take it out on the employee behind the window. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when then you realize it’s HER workplace and perhaps you’re making it awkward but you were so hurt, and so confused, and you needed someone to take it out on and Jimin wasn’t helping, what with wallowing in his silence.

“$6.78 at the window.”

Jimin doesn’t know how to fix it. The entire drive back to your house and he can’t come up with the right words to say. He fucked up and he’s so so so scared to lose you.

#drafts #jimin drafts #bts drafts #park jimin

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