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hellsbellschime · 3 years ago

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Why Jaime Lannister's GoT Ending Was Actually Bad

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Nearly every aspect of the end of Game of Thrones earned ire from the majority of the show and book fandom, but one aspect of the show's conclusion that seems to have frustrated fans across the board was the ending for Jaime Lannister. More specifically, that after a seemingly solid and nearly complete redemption arc, he returned to Cersei and King's Landing to die in a manner that somewhat works as a metaphor but didn't resonate well with the audience at all. And, while Jaime's ending was a flop, it didn't fail for the reasons that many viewers seem to think that it did.

The Lannisters are obviously some of the most complex and important characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, but one of the most interesting aspects of their family dynamic is that it was established far before the contemporary storyline actually began. And, while Game of Thrones seemed to paint it as if Cersei was a source of toxicity that Tyrion and Jaime couldn't get out from under the thumb of, the truth is that the bad apple that spoiled the bunch was never Cersei, it was always Tywin.

One of the most meaningful and important themes of George RR Martin's work is the long-term effects that abuse has on children, and there isn't really any example that is more present and potent than the horrific effects that Tywin's abuse had on all of his children, and how it affected them in different ways.

Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion all have some of the most intriguing points of view in the entire story. And one aspect that all of their POVs seem to share in common is that while nearly everyone in their world perceives them as a villain, they all see themselves as victims. And the truth is, both sides of this coin are correct.

Yes, the Lannister children have done many horrific, irredeemable things in their lives, but they have also been the victims of extremely traumatic abuse that understandably altered their outlook on the world and on themselves in general. There is a balance between victim and perpetrator that needs to be struck with their characters, but one of Game of Thrones' bigger flaws was its inability to do that.

Unsurprisingly, nearly every character's book point of view grants themselves more sympathy than they should. Almost everyone sees themselves as a better person than they are or is capable of rationalizing away their bad deeds and focusing on their more positive decisions and personality traits. But this is of course one of the many ways in which George RR Martin utilizes his POV traps.

Translating a story that is told through the eyes of the characters themselves and filming it from a more objective third-person perspective means that plenty of important information is going to be lost in that translation. But one of the fatal flaws when it comes to the Lannisters is that, while Game of Thrones does still present Cersei as pretty forthrightly villainous, the narrative pretty drastically whitewashes Tyrion and Jaime. Essentially, it seems to take Tyrion and Jaime at their point-of-view word and treats them like they're much better people than they truly are. Thus, Jaime's ignominious end with the supposed biggest baddie of them all feels like a betrayal of his character development when it really shouldn't be.

Every character needs to be held responsible for their own choices, but the downfall of House Lannister really does rest in the hands of Tywin, and Game of Thrones ignoring that fact did a disservice to every one of the Lannister children in one way or another.

Yes, out of all of the Lannisters, Jaime was as close as Tywin could get to the golden child of his dreams, but it's easy to overlook that while Jaime may have been the favorite on the surface, every single one of Tywin's children was disgustingly mistreated, and the effects of his abuse all showed themselves in different malignant ways.

While Jaime may have gotten preferential treatment over his siblings, Tywin was never anything other than a terrible parent, and more importantly, Jaime's superior treatment only told him exactly how he could expect to be treated if he ever failed to live up to his father's high ideals. And of course, in many big and small ways, he did ultimately fail to live up to Tywin Lannister's exacting standards.

Tywin was a terrible parent because he was an abuser, but he also raised his children with his own values of pride, entitlement, and superiority. Obviously, the notion that they were simultaneously failures who had earned their own mistreatment but were also Lannisters who deserved to be above everyone else is opposing perspectives that are in constant conflict with one another, but it also seems to be how Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion see themselves as constant victims while still perennially victimizing others.

George RR Martin has repeatedly discussed that one of the strongest themes of his work is the idea of the human heart in conflict with itself. Game of Thrones lost the plot with this in nearly every character adaptation, but Jaime's was one of the worst, largely because he is a character who has done some of the most monstrous and most heroic things in the story. He is both the man who doesn't hesitate to murder a child and the man who stopped a king from slaughtering thousands, and therefore his inner conflict is extremely vital.

Jaime's character arc in Game of Thrones follows a classic redemption arc almost perfectly, but that clearly doesn't seem to be the intent behind the character in the books. Yes, there is a part of Jaime that wants to be redeemed, but he does often revert back to his more brutal and nihilistic side, and his desire for so-called redemption seems to be driven more by how he wants the world to see him rather than how he wants to be.

And in that sense, the show did him a great disservice. Because there are many ways in which Jaime hasn't healed from Tywin's abuse, but the fact that he still seeks the approval of others in a rather superficial manner rather than developing a deeper understanding of true honor and justice is one of the clearest indications that, while Jaime does want to get out of the path that his father laid out for him, he is still crippled by what Tywin told him being a Lannister meant. And ironically, Tywin's belief about what being a Lannister means has essentially trapped all of his children into trying and failing to live up to that example simply because they can't survive unless they do.

Because ultimately, it's not necessarily just about what Jaime, or Cersei, or Tyrion wants. At some point, every single one of them has made obvious indications that they don't want to be a part of the legacy that Tywin Lannister laid out for them. But, when Game of Thrones presented Tywin as a super-intelligent master strategist instead of a completely unnecessarily violent and aggressive asshole, it made all of the Lannister children's choices harder to understand.

Both in the A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones fandoms, Tywin is typically put up on a pedestal, and that's completely baffling. Many viewers and readers perceive him to be brilliant and badass, but everything that Tywin is famous for actually makes him seem like a complete moron upon further contemplation. Winning battles by absolutely obliterating your enemies is a terrible precedent to set for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that it essentially requires all of the Lannister children to maintain this scorched earth policy because Tywin's hyper-aggressive superiority complex has put them in a position where they almost always have to choose to kill or be killed.

And, his cruel and dishonorable behavior as well as Jaime's reputation as the Kingslayer essentially guarantees that even if Jaime completely changes as a person and becomes the hero he wants to be, he really can't ever become that in the society that he lives in simply because the stigma around the Lannisters is something he can't escape.

That is one of the great tragedies that Game of Thrones failed to articulate, and that is one of the biggest reasons why Jaime's character conclusion was so off-putting to the audience. Because the audience saw the result of where this character arc would naturally go, but the story never actually took the steps to get there. In fact, the show went out of its way to erase a lot of the obvious building blocks that are leading up to both Cersei and Jaime's demise that makes it clear that, while they're obviously responsible for their own choices and actions, the groundwork that Tywin's abuse and cruelty laid and set in stone was something that they couldn't control, prevent, or undo.

Game of Thrones largely presented Jaime's characterization with the implication that if he could only escape Cersei, he would be a good man. But the reality was, if only Tywin hadn't been his father, then all of his siblings would have been better people. They may not have been good, but they almost certainly wouldn't be the kingdom-destroying villains that they became.

I also think the TV series likely bungled his character in that his story is meant to be a subversion of the classic redemption arc rather than the straightforward bad guy to good guy story that Game of Thrones told. George RR Martin obviously doesn't like flawless characters, and nearly every person in A Song of Ice and Fire does good things and bad things all the time, they never go in a straight line from point A to point B. So, of course it was going to be incredibly jarring when the show did move Jaime in a straight line from point A to point B and then abruptly gave him an ending that is probably somewhat similar to his end in the books.

But with that in mind, for all of the faults in Game of Thrones and the way they handled Jaime's character arc, I don't really understand the idea that his character was ruined by his ending either. These characters are clearly designed to never be just one thing, and if Jaime killing King Aerys or trying to kill Bran doesn't singularly define his character, then going back to Cersei in the very end shouldn't either.

#anti got #anti game of thrones #jaime lannister #cersei lannister #anti tywin lannister #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #jaime lannister meta #got meta #my videos #Youtube

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cienie-isengardu · 3 years ago

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Can you do headcanons on SubScorp (Kuai Liang / Hanzo Hasashi) and the evolution of their relationship, please? ♡

Sure, just please keep in mind that rock has a better romantic sense than I ever will. I’m not a shipper in general and SubScorp has a lot to overcome in my mind to even get close as friends but I will do my best! In advance, sorry for the long text and especially opening. My hand slipped but I needed to build the romantic headcanons on something.

Oh, and I kinda threw away the canon timeline here and there and went with how I would write their relationship (and story, I guess) if I was given the chance.

At the beginning, Hanzo and Kuai were bitter enemies and their hate for each other was the exact reason why Quan Chi kept them working together. The revenants were creatures of vivid emotions, twisted and corrupted by Netherrealm fire. So the stronger they hated, the mightier were their unnatural powers. But there was also a more sinister reason: Quan Chi kept them together, day after day, because it amused him to watch how Sub-Zero and Scorpion wanted to hurt each other but always were defenseless against his magic, always blindly obedient. To have two deadliest of enemies as slaves under his power was the best perk of necromancy.

When they were revenants though, Quan Chi’s cruel joke meant nothing. Kuai Liang had no free will, no remorse, only hate and pain to go on. Hanzo could - should - run away, but didn’t. He was broken in thousands of little ways and it was easier to follow orders, to not think than take responsibility for his own choices, to face the utterly devastating feeling of failure. It wasn't a good life - it wasn’t a life at all, but it was all they had.

After so many days turned into weeks turned into months, the constant presence of each other became the punishment and the salvation at once. They hated each other and this hate never truly left them for a moment, never let them feel peace of mind. They hated each other but it was an emotion that bonded them together, grounded in reality, made sense in an otherwise senseless world.

Hanzo and Kuai Liang got used to each other that the presence of mutual disdain was as normal part of their cursed life as breathing for a living person.

But then Quan Chi lost and suddenly they both were brought to life against their will. The first weeks were the worst. They were victims of dark magic, everyone was saying but none of them was a killer responsible for thousands of brutal deaths. Not like Hanzo and Kuai Liang and because of that, the burden of guilt was their alone. A burden they didn’t want to share among themselves, so they sought out different paths to find some solace.

For Hanzo, there was nothing to come back. The home of Shirai Ryu was destroyed, devastated beyond any measure. He still heard clearly Quan Chi’s voice in his head, how he failed his clan, how shamed his wife and child. Hanzo felt dirty and unworthy and utterly lost. The once mighty Scorpion was now a wreck, a directionless nomad.

For Kuai Liang, the home was Lin Kuei but it was taken by cyber monsters without souls. Once he returned to living, those monsters hunted him restlessly. For years he ran and hid and killed and killed and killed and killed until he was ready to face Sektor and reclaim what was once his. An honor and a purpose in life, so he could find Scorpion and kill him for brother’s death. But then he learned dark secrets of the clan and even darker truths that changed everything.

Because of that, Kuai Liang invited Hanzo to Lin Kuei Temple, offered peace and a new start, a way to atone for all crimes and sins they committed arm to arm during war. Above everything else, offered the truth that finally set them both free from their cruel past.

They did not keep in touch then though. They met sporadically, when Raiden asked his Champions to assist in this or that little crisis. To hunt the demons that somehow survived the war, to find oh so rare, mystic artifact or two, or do a quick job in the Outworld. They were assassins after all and Special Forces the heroes who shouldn’t dirty their hands.

During those meetings, Hanzo and Kuai Liang tried to stay as far as possible without making a fuss about it. During missions though there was no one who could safely separate them, and thus save them from painful memories of the past.

It was terrifying to Hanzo how much he missed Sub-Zero’s cold presence at his side, even if the so well known hate for Bi-Han’s death still hid beneath the cryomancer's skin like a furious, wild beast, always present, never forgiving, kept in check only by Lin Kuei’s iron will.

It was terrifying for Kuai Liang how well he still understood Scorpion’s body language even though the ninja tried so desperately to hide scars left by Quan Chi on his soul, all those unsaid horrors he experienced, all the doubts and pain and self-hatred that burned as hot as Netherrealm fire that twisted them both.

But those sporadic joint missions alone weren’t what helped them connect once and forever.

Ironically, it was the guilt that let one understand so well the other, to know when it was a good time for jab and when not to speak - not to see - raw pain that both so hard tried to bury under their respective masks, of cold politeness and hot devotion to the past. Surprisingly, it was also the arrogance of united governments that wanted to use them to expand Earthrealm’s control over wild Outworld yet did not see them as human beings. To be seen as a useful tool but never truly welcome wasn’t anything new for any of them. Kuai Liang and Hanzo were a relic of a dark past that should have died years ago yet were too stubborn to just yield and blindly follow orders even again. This burning desire for independence and search for their lost humanity built a common ground, the bridge between past hate and empathy.

This, and their shared disdain for Johnny’s never ending jokes. In the past, every time the Champions of Earthrealm met in the same place and Cage opened his mouth to talk Hollywood's weirdness, Hanzo got closer and closer to Kuai Liang. There was no word of recognition or permission - one look at each other and they understood perfectly it was either stay strong together and endure this senseless, annoying wave of words or do something regrettable.

And because they already had enough guilt to worry about, Sub-Zero and Scorpion simply stood arm to arm, like they did during war. Somehow that comforting familiarity grew up into something much stronger; not yet friendship but unity anyway. Time did not heal them but the mutual hate faded little by little, day after day until pain was nothing more than bitter ache they simply learned to live with.

Despite everything and everyone, Hanzo and Kuai Liang got to trust each other, to rely on a bond that was once a cruel Quan Chi’s joke.

Sub-Zero was the person that accompanied Hanzo to the Shirai-Ryu clan’s ruins, so he could finally bury dead ones left there forgotten by the world. Hanzo should have done that long ago, he knew, but the claw of fear clung to his heart for years and would not let it. The fear that Hanzo Hasashi never truly existed and he was a fraud, another lie begotten by Netherrealm. That there was no Harumi nor Satoshi and in the end he clinged so desperately to a nightmare that never was true to begin with. A nightmare for which he murdered the wrong person and brought someone else this maddening pain.

Seeing the ruins of home - the once so familiar bodies now just flesh spread out, glistening bones scattered everywhere, ripped and crushed, forgotten - was like dying again. Hanzo broke down and for the first time in a decade allowed himself to cry. Kuai Liang was there by his side, offering no wise words, nor comfort. He simply sat there, back to back with Hanzo, so he could know he wasn’t truly left alone this time yet quietly like a shadow to not disturb his grief. Hanzo would never forget this kindness for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t forget the sacrifice made that day by Sub-Zero to come to mortuary ruins, to bury another clan slaughtered without mercy in the name of madness and spite.

But with pain came also relief, that his memories were truly his and not another sweet lie whispered to his ear by a twisted sorcerer.

(Kuai Liang came here because it was the right thing to do. To pay respect and melt the dark past into a better future in which Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei could be an ally, maybe even brothers in arms. He came for Hanzo, because no one did that for him, when he had countless bodies of comrades to bury after Sektor’s defeat and no one should be forced to do so alone. He came there also for himself, to see and be sure Bi-Han wasn’t part of the heartless crime. The hallmarks of a frontal attack, chaotic destruction and coarse, devoid of surgical precision violence were proof it wasn’t Bi-Han’s work. His brother would never be so sloppy, so random in his attack. He even told so Hanzo, in this moment of relief and social clumsiness and Scorpion just looked at him with the reddened eyes and did not burst in flame of anger, just… accepted the truth and Kuai Liang said no more about it.)

Scorpion was the person that stayed at Kuai Liang’s side when Frost betrayed her master and disappeared without a trace. He never liked the cryomancer girl - she reminded him too much of Sub-Zero who sought him for brother’s death. Young and brash, untamed, always snarling, spitting with venom in their face. But above everything else, Frost’s anger burned too hot like his own and he hated to look at her and to see himself.

Maybe losing such a precious student - an heir - was like losing a child. Hanzo understood this crushing feeling but there were no right words to offer. Even if he knew them, Sub-Zero did not want pity, did not want to talk. All he needed was a space to unleash fury and pain, the excess of emotions too large to bury them in the tomb of a cold heart. And so day after day, night after night, the ice and fire clashed over and over again until all muscles burned and the ache brought finally some peace. Not much, but enough to let Kuai Liang not dwell on his failure and focus on Grandmaster’s duties.

(There was something off about this whole situation but Hanzo couldn’t pick on what exactly. Kuai Liang had secrets he didn’t share, not yet and Hanzo respected his wishes, trusting Lin Kuei’s word. So far, Kuai Liang never had let him down. Scorpion trusted and it was terrifying on its own).

Those were the little steps into a path that brought them closer. It wasn't love for each other then, not even romantic infatuation, but love for the lost one, for family that was once but no longer. They understood this grief too well.

The first time Hanzo felt the pang of love, he and Kuai Liang were debating about the proper course of the upcoming mission. They were sitting in Hanzo’s room, with an open door leading to the Fire Garden. Then, without warning came spring rain and both looked out on instinct. The air was filled with the freshness of trees and flowers coming back to life; a freshness they breathed in greedily to wash out the taste of Netherrealm ash forever.

On that day, everything seemed to be in the right place. Just the two of them, sitting arm to arm delighted by the simplest things in life; a warm rain, nourishing garden, a steaming mug of tea between all of this. There was a peace Hanzo did not feel for ages and the sound of the rain and steady breath of his companion lulled him into half-sleep, half-awareness.

On that day, Hanzo wished to keep this moment forever.

The second time Hanzo felt something toward Kuai Liang, it was on Lin Kuei’s training ground. They spared, like they always did in their free or stressful time, but for whatever reason, Kuai Liang smiled at him, this soft, weirdly cocky smile he rarely shows in company and Hanzo looked at it for a few seconds too long before he understood how fast his heart beat, how warmness filled him - not the Netherrealm fire that burns through his muscles and bones, but warmth that he felt only around his wife and child. He wanted to kiss those lips, to feel its coldness on his own. It was wrong on so many levels and he did what he always does in times of overwhelming emotions he didn’t like. He disappeared into flames and ran the hell away from Sub-Zero’s smile. The burned holes to this day were the proof of his shameful panic.

Where did such obscene thoughts come from, he did not have an idea. But the guilt for having them even for a moment about Kuai Liang - any man, really - was too heavy, too suffocating to face Sub-Zero. So Hanzo avoided him for weeks.

And yet, he came back to Lin Kuei Temple. And again and again and again. Despite the burning shame, he sought out Kuai Liang, because only around him, the Netherrealm’s cursed fire cooled down enough to allow him to breathe.

So he danced, between disgrace and this weird feeling of happiness, of living again. Of seeking out the cryomancer and running away from horrific emotion he didn’t know how to get rid off, how to tame.

(Hanzo loved Harumi with all his heart. How could he love - desire - anyone else? And a man whose brother he unjustly killed?)

Kuai Liang decided to not discuss Scorpion’s emotional swings until Hanzo figured it out for himself what he truly wanted. There was no point to get involved into some sentimental drama if there was no hope for sensible agreement.

The Lin Kuei always desired a new generation of warriors, so sex wasn’t any taboo. Some warriors sought comfort in the arms of strange women and men, some between each other. Sex wasn’t forbidden but the emotions were. To feel loyalty or worse, love, to a fellow warrior instead of trusting the masters was a crime.

Kuai Liang did not feel any sudden pang of love toward Hanzo, nor any desire for physical contact. Romanticism never was part of any cryomancer’s nature. He missed his brother and Smoke, but year after year the pain of loss dulled enough to leave him with nothingness. Kuai Liang knew only this: somehow Scorpion became the only source of warmth that kept his heart from freezing completely.

Kuai Liang didn’t have a proper name for what twirled in his soul - a friendship or a love, how one could tell those apart? He wished his older brother or Smoke was there to tell him it was alright to like - care for - Hanzo, but both were dead and twisted into monsters. It was just him and his fragile, scarred heart to judge what was right and what was not. And hope Bi-Han would forgive him the weakness.

They find the balance that keeps both safe, warming the frozen heart and cooling down the neverending flame of anger. For a decade or so, it worked well.

But then Hanzo killed Quan Chi and ruined the chance to free revenants from sorcerer’s curse. The Champions of Earthrealm never liked Scorpion to begin with, now he was persona non grata. Rightly so. Imprisoned, he awaited their judgment. Scorpion could easily escape but chose not to - he was ready to face the consequences yet there was no court nor punishment. The Grandmaster of Lin Kuei came for him and made it clear to all representatives of the united governments and army that he will with Hanzo at his side, over their dead bodies if need be.

Twenty years was not enough time to forget what they together were capable of in fight. How dangerous and experienced murderers they were. No one dared to stop them when they left military base together.

Kuai Liang did not rely on words to show his feelings. Deeds always spoke more than any pretty speech. He was disappointed yet he still came for Hanzo. He saw Scorpion’s arrogance, egoism, breaking point and still came and that only made Hanzo love him more. For the first time, he did not feel shame or guilt for loving - and being loved - by another man.

Hanzo Hasashi’s choice almost brought destruction to the world yet somehow, this tragedy made them inseparable for good. It wasn’t always easy - they argued, for fun and for real and there were still rare days when it was only wise to stay away from each other. Like the day of Bi-Han’s unjust death and the lost chance to bring Harumi and Satoshi to life. They were beyond the primal hate yet some instincts were too strong to risk destroying what they built for themselves over the years.

Somehow through the years they changed from Sub-Zero and Scorpion to Grandmasters of their respective clans and from those to just Kuai Liang and Hanzo.

Hanzo wasn’t used to being so casually called by name but he liked the change. It was Sub-Zero’s voice, he suspected, that made him feel so attracted. At the same time, he felt honored when Kuai Liang told his birth - forbidden - name. He knew it already, for years, but it was different to know and be told, allowed, to use it freely.

Hanzo’s turbulent relationship with other Champions got worse once his student, Takeda started dating Jaqueline Briggs. The Champions distrusted and disliked him and he didn’t feel any need to reconcile with them. Kuai Liang was disappointed in him for treating the girl coldly but everytime asked why he still bothered to deal with Shirai Ruy Grandmaster, the answer was one and the same - he is my equal. For Hanzo it was the most beautiful and terrifying declaration.

(At the same time, everytime Hanzo heard someone accusing Sub-Zero of being cold, heartless, untouched by trauma, the anger burned him wholly. Who were they to judge, to mock Kuai Liang’s pain that hid so well under polite words and calmness? He did not care what people said about him, but would not stand any mockery against those he respected - loved - so much.)

Then of course another immortal being decided to screw up everything and messed up timelines. The younger, brash and mad version of Scorpion wasn’t something that Hanzo and Kuai Liang actually wanted to see, nor the repeat of Cyber Lin Kuei. Then Hanzo died and woke up, again trapped in Netherrealm. So he ran at the first chance, thinking more about Kuai Liang than about his own fears of burning alive in hell forever. The sight of Sub-Zero in hell should have alarmed him - and it did, for a moment, scare Hanzo that the other man died too which was an unbearable thought. But Kuai Liang was alive and so, so determined to bring him back home. If that wasn’t the loudest, the most tangible declaration of love, what else could it be?

And so, like twenty years ago, they fight side to side, like one body and soul. And destroyed, killed, tore apart demons and hellspawn, everything and everyone that stood in their way to freedom, to safety of Earthrealm’s boundaries. First time in ages, they could unleash their anger at those who hurt them, enslaved, and used. It felt so good, so right to be a storm of vengeful fury that frightened even the mighty Netherrealm. They were alive and together and nothing, no gods, titans or destiny, could stop them.

Kuai Liang and Hanzo did not talk much about their last visit in Netherrealm. What happened there was their and only their moment to relish, incomprehensible for bystanders. It was weird though, to come back to live and face his younger, stubborn self. Kuai Liang did not like this Scorpion much and to be honest, Hanzo did not like this version of himself too. It was Scorpion from the darkest time in their past, when only mutual hate connected them. At the same time, there was something amusing to see himself so awkward and uneasy everytime when Kuai Liang and older Hanzo sat so closely, relaxed and calm, like it was the normalest thing to do. When they acted like halves of the same soul.

Kuai Liang never was keen to show any romantic gestures but sometimes he took Hanzo’s hand to emphasize clearly what they were. Hanzo was always surprised by Sub-Zero’s openness and filled with joy, whereas his younger self was confused as hell. Hanzo suspected he would soon need to talk and explain to his younger self what he and Kuai Liang were to each other. Why they needed each other so much and how loving someone else other than Harumi was not dishonor. After all, love wasn’t sin nor weakness.

#mortal kombat #my replies #kuai liang #hanzo hasashi #sub zero #scorpion #my headcanons #long text #not sure if this is enough about romantic aspect of their relationship #and i will forever see kuai liang as asexual aromantic sorry not sorry at all #hanzo is emotional wreck #kuai is depressed and somehow they could work i guess?#thank you for ask!#i have more to say about the mk11 storyline but the text was already too long to bring bi han into the emotional life of his lil bro

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the-writer-reem-shadili · 3 years ago

Text

#Guardians of the temple Ankhritos

Cursed Book of Temple Keepers #

( a novel )

✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍

By Reem Shadili

Translated to english

part One ( 1 )

✍✍✍✍

"The Cursed Book", that might sound like a proper title for a movie, right??

Starring as James Bond

Fida in all international cinema halls.

But hey!!

Does the hidden government allow this??!!

Does the one-eyed antichrist allow this??!!

I don't think so at all, it's impossible!!

Because this book is one of the most dangerous cursed books on the face of the earth, which caused wars and bloody epics for kings who suffered from horrific endings, including revolting and chilling, and princesses and princes from royal families whose end was tragic because of this cursed book that, if it entered a land, a city, or a palace, but made Whoever in it is like the dead, and the ghosts of demons play and plunder during the day and howl at night, and lie in bed with the great people, having sex with ease and giving birth to the young demons who will rule the world later, after their blood is mixed with the blood of royal humankind.

It is a book that makes everyone who reads it crazy and unbalanced, making everyone who reads or touches it wish for death.

Because it is the gateway of demons to the human world,

Therefore, reader, do not be alarmed by what you will read in this novel, for the truth is more difficult to say once or to believe a single sentence, not only now, but as it has been throughout the ages.

The truth will not be seen in its entirety, because not all minds comprehend the events and observations going on around them.

And not all souls can stand the truth that is stripped of all artificial paint or colors with the taste of sugar and vanilla.

In this talk, you will know many things that you are not aware of... but let me tell you something very important...

I'm just telling you the truth,

And because the truth is absent from you, I will tell you in parts, piece by piece.

And because your small mind may not comprehend these great things.

So focus on me well, from now on you will only hear my rough voice in your big ears.

Where do you want to start?!

Shall we start centuries ago?

Or do we start from the terrifying palace (Satan Caesus)??

Or do we start with the era of the pharaohs??!

Or from the time of "George Washington"??!!

Or do we start with the church in which “George Bush” learned and how he came to see God in his dreams, and how he used to give him orders to conquer the world??!!

Or do we start with the bohemian jungle??!!

Or from the time of the Soviets??!!

Or from the time of the great conspiracies??!!

Or from the Church of Vice and Sorcery??!!

Or how do the "temple guards" practice immorality in

Daylight with the people of Lot??!!

Or how did the “temple guards” come to rule the world from money to politics to women to rulers??!!

Or are we talking about the influence of the underworld on the world of humans and how they can control them??!!

Or are you afraid and want to know only the part that interests you in how to get rid of this bad world, the world of immorality and demons. And how to get rid of them and overcome them all??!!

What do you think??!!

Are you afraid??!! Are you afraid??!!

I apologize to you, the reader, and you, the reader, but the truth is in order to be able to know it, you must also know the dark side of it that controls it, otherwise there is no salvation for you without knowledge.

The question now is: Have you chosen the topic you want to talk about?!!

Or are you confused and he is confused as usual??!!

So let me choose for you, um, what do you think?

Shall we start from that (church) which is in the middle of the city of Rome, the “Church of Saints and Mujahideen” who left

The world and what is in it, that they may worship their “god.”

This is the desired day when the bells are sounded and human sacrifices are sacrificed to be presented to their bloody god, the “God of Light” “Lucifer” as they describe it, so I tell you do not panic.

Do not be afraid of what you will know and hear in a world full of darkness.

Do not run away, dear reader, and do not close your eyes when the scene shocks you, so I warn you.. If you cannot, do not approach this church, because it is the church of Satan.

And do not approach this novel because it is my story..not

The writer's novel.

Come on then I will take you with me from history to history and from dimension to dimension and from layer to layer, if you are not psychologically prepared, do not continue reading, and run away very far..even without shoes.

So, would you like to enter that church with me???

Do you see it now??!!

It's right there where it was hundreds of years ago.

We will not enter through the big door, but from

《Pastor Lombardo's Entrance》This entrance will lead us to what's under the church, let's go down the narrow stairs quietly, we are now six floors underground, and now tell me do you smell this??!!

It is the smell of satanic "incense" to prepare the place,

Do you hear those loud noises???

They are not the sounds of celebrations, but rather the sounds of people being tormented.... Yes, it is. I told you that if you are not ready, go back, do not enter with me through this door, because if you enter it, you will not leave it until you complete the novel

Yes, as I heard, it is not a threat, but a warning!!

If the decision is up to you,

.........thought

.........Think well

.......... Rethink

So you decided to continue the novel, right??!!,

Well, I'll open the door quietly...

Do not be afraid, because they will not see you, because you are hidden from their red eyes.

But .... if your soul is foul and they smell your scent, do not blame me ... I have nothing to do with it,

They can reach you anywhere on earth

If you are the owner of a bad breath, be sure that you will see them tonight, and they may torture you and the Jathoom may visit you... Yes, the Jathoom... But please tell me if someone visits you, you may be innocent... Only I can help you get rid of them.

So try to enter quietly.

Come on in, do you see this blood scattered everywhere and these bodies??!!

Exactly here the (vampires) of the human beings were celebrating sacrifices, do you see that man standing there in the middle of the circle cheering incomprehensible words??

Yes, that person who wears a red cloak,

It's the head of the church 《Antonio》 cast a spell to bring demons, do you see those naked girls there and handcuffed on the table??

They are the sacrifices of (Satan Caesus) and his disciples.

Now in the presence of “majestic” priests and veteran clergy will declare their allegiance to “Lucifer”, so be prepared that you will see the most heinous crimes,

It is a crime of survival,

crime of force,

crime of lust,

crime of pleasure,

That's how they call it

...

After slaughtering the sacrifices and drinking their blood, the declaration of loyalty and obedience is an obligatory matter.

So do not look at those naked and stripped bodies lying on the church table,

And leave you those beautiful women who are standing there while they are having sex in the most horrific way possible, because they are in fact just demons in human form, Here in this world that you entered with your feet, you will see and hear the ugliest words and the worst possible letters.

Here in this world you will see the dead eating the living, then you will see them eating the children while they are alive.

And you will see who among them still drinks blood and practices vice with the priests who claim to protect the sanctuaries and and and ... and all

These slogans...

Forget everything they say on TV .

and color magazines, all that absurdity,

Never mind, oh, hear me well, and do not look there, for I see those looks that made you see the world in black, and listen to those words that I shall say to you, perhaps they

Never leave your thick head

Do not believe a religious man whose eyes are round... Nor a politician whose eyes are glaring... Nor a man who claimed your friendship and eyes on your life and your pocket... Do not believe anyone... Because the time of friendship

is over , Just believe in yourself...Believe in yourself,

Did you know who I am??

No of course . . . .

You certainly will not know me.

How do you know who I am??!!

But it's okay. I will tell you my news. I am the servant of the Bible. My name is ( Jamon Lombardy ), from the village of ( Jericho) , and my mother is from the town of Khan Yunis. I wrote this book with ink of blood. Anyone who reads it will be cursed, and it is a forbidden and cursed book. .

You will ask me why??

And I will tell you the story and the truth that you will not know in

any other place.

I will be very frank with you to the point of astonishment,

Five thousand five hundred years ago I made a deal with

(Lucifer) in order to convey all the secrets of the underworld to this book, but on its terms and requirements, and in exchange for it that I obtain supernatural power and life without death .

I was a very ordinary young man from a Jewish family, plowing the land and watering the crops. All the girls and women of the village wished to see me, and because I had the physical strength and intelligence that made me special and among the strongest of the village’s youth, a rich man asked me to be his bodyguard who guarded him from bandits, For a very large sum of money, I agreed at once because it was an irreplaceable opportunity.

He was a wealthy man, and had a luxurious mansion, which he filled with all that he wanted, but he had no wife or children. He was a reprehensible man, with a hump on his right shoulder, glaring eyes, and curly hair, and they called him "Komoro bethawon "

Throughout my work with him, I did not see him eat like humans, sleep like them, or even look at women!! ,

Sometimes I saw him entering the palace door, although I'm sure he never came out!!

How did he get out again??!!

After a year, completely and completely, he asked me a very strange request,

He asked me to share his dinner with him, and the problem was that his dinner was disgusting. Every day he ate one of the children who were kidnapped at sunset, in addition to drinking the blood extracted from their bodies. At first I categorically refused, but he took me to a room I don't know about. Although I know the palace, inch by inch, but it was the first time I saw this room, as if it had no end, filled with gold, mountains like mountains my eyes had never seen before, treasures and statues of gold, something like an incredible imagination.

While I was touching those jewels and that stored gold, the owner of the palace called "Komuro" spoke softly, saying: Do you see all this gold?

I said to him with confidence: Why are you not afraid that I will kill you and seize everything you own, especially since you have no family, and I am a strong young man that no one can confront me??!!

But he laughed loudly and turned to me and said, "I hope you'll try just to see what happens to you, handsome one."

While (the owner of the palace) was leaving that room, I saw bright eyes everywhere, and they were scary eyes, so that they started making noises like the sounds of wild beasts, which made me go out quickly, as soon as I came out until I closed the door hard as if someone had locked it, I went quickly Behind "Komoro bethawon "

And I ask him and I say: Who the hell are you??

Who was in the room??

But he did not pay any attention to me. He sat down on his chair and asked me to sit down to share his supper, while he drank his glass full of blood. All my prey trembled with fear, and I, who had never been afraid in my life, sat down and shared dinner with him, though it was disgusting to the point of nausea.

My plate was raw, uneven steak with blood still on it.

But all my thoughts were in that room full of all those treasures and precious gold, I was thinking how I could get it and it had its guards guarding it, so there was no solution to take all those treasures except with this "cursed dinner", I said it was dinner for one day and it became From the rich, it's okay.. I will bid farewell to poverty once and for all, and I will bid farewell to the miserable life I was living,

Today if you ask me do you regret that night??

My answer: I have reached a point where regret is no longer useful.

This heart no longer feels remorse or fear,

My body is empty of feelings and emotions.

And I reached the point to be or not to be.. It's only the end,

After we finished dinner, he asked me to go down with him to the basement of the palace, there in a room I had never seen in my life. It was a black room filled with half-human monsters and snakes. As soon as they saw me, they threw themselves on my body and tore my clothes and had sex with me over and over again without my will. I was as if I was a tool to satisfy their sexual instincts, and as if they were thirsty for sex with a human being, I could hear them screaming in different voices??!! ,

As for me, I did nothing but be completely submissive to them.

On the morning of the second day, he asked me to go with him to the same room, but I refused, except that he told me this time it would be different,

When we went down, no one was there but a small desk, red ink and a blank book, and he asked me to carry everything

Found in these leather manuscripts to the book,

When I asked him what this was, he said that it was the "Secrets of Solomon" and that I had to write them all with this red ink, which is the blood of cursed demons mixed with the blood of men.

The wrongdoers and the blood of virgin girls.

Throughout my time in that room from which I did not come out, I could hear frightening noises until morning, except for those serpents that would circle around me every night until the last third of the night and then disappear after they had sex with me

Until I completed (The Cursed Book), which took me forty days, which was full of incantations, types of magic, how to use them, their rituals, and the names of demons and servants of the underworld.

And on the last night the serpents came and brought me news that they had given birth to me young serpents and that they were my children. My shock was indescribable... Four serpents gave birth to thirty-three serpents. The upper half looked like humans and the lower half looked exactly like a serpent, except for one that was completely human, except That her eyes are like the eyes of a serpent, I called her "Leona"

After forty days I came out of the room with the book in my hand and thirty-three serpents named after my name (haha)

really strange,

(He is the one who can sleep and wake up in the morning, he has the flu and he does not have a clogged soul to eat, not even how many dishes are stuffed.. but he enters a room and when he comes out, he has a pile of meat, excuse me, life, in the name of God, Masha Allah.. Thirty-three live except one and a cursed book.. From you to God, Komoru... Haha)

It was " Komoru bethawon"

He is waiting for me in the gold room, and he is happy to say to me : Today you have the right to all this wealth.

Surely you will die now of envy and wish you were in my place, forty days have passed and I will become one of the richest... Rather, one of the richest men on the face of the world.

But I apologized to him and asked him to leave me alone , I was no longer greedy for that gold or that wealth , My intuition was telling me that it was not the end... but only the beginning....

And my hunch is true.

And because I am talking to you from the underworld .

Here there is nothing like above .

There is nothing like humans .

Nothing like what you know .

There is nothing here but murder, sex and conspiracy.

Here you hear them plotting against human beings, how to kill them and enter them into wars, and how to make them obsessed with sex and money.

Here no one sleeps but a little as if they are taking an evening nap .

Here everyone is practicing with everyone .

Here there are no morals or mercy .

Here there is no emotion or comfort.

Here you are either with them or you will never be .

It is a base...!!

What did you say, reader ??!!

Did I hear you correctly ??!!

Are you asking me what I did ??!!

The question itself is wrong,

You have to ask me what I have become ??!!

"Four thousand years later"

Do you see what I see today??

Do you smell this scent that fills the streets??

The world is struggling with death, all the streets of Rome are fighting

black death again .

Today is Sunday of the year 2020, I am here witness to the terrible event, in the middle of " the Vatican" , witness to the history of " Rome" and "europe" with this outbreak.

It's a "devil epidemic."

Whoever believes in him become one body, and whoever does not believe in him turns away from him, but he is one of our secrets, we are the hidden world .

Don't tire your little mind thinking, we don't get anything wrong,

We are "holy"

You make me laugh....because you are arrogant, arrogant, and a selfish person who only thinks of himself, yet you want to know everything, you curious one.

Listen to me well.. it is one word I will say, and because the journey is still in its beginning and we are still in the first chapters, then hear me :

It is the epidemic that we have been working on for centuries to kill humanity and reduce its increasing growth!!

Do you think this pandemic is the last??!!

So, you are naive and stupid !!

İt's just because...

it's only the beginning

✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍.

End of the first part of the novel

" Guardians of the Temple "

" Ancheretos"

✍✍✍✍

______

I apologize to the reader for the harsh terms and images that were mentioned by the central character in this novel, but they are scenes of their filth that explain the truth.

🙏🙏🙏

#Reem_shadili

#simon & schuster #roxanna macmillan #margaret macmillan #hachette #penguinsofinstagram #penguin random house #simon schubert #simon & schuster #fantasy books #bookaholic #bookstagram #book quotes

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hangingslothcentral · 5 years ago

Text

a hp theory nobody asked for

i have said this before but i am pretty sure that dumbledore leaving harry with the dursleys was a deliberate attempt to make him develop an obscurus.

from the crappy fantastic beast films we know that dumbledore was aware of obscurials and how magical children develop them, but i think he’d have known about them even prior to that. i’ve seen a bunch of people suggest that Ariana was an obscurial; it certainly fits with what we are told about her in the books. after being attacked by muggle children she was afraid of her own powers and tried to bottle them up, until they began to explode out of her at random. Ariana is described as ‘unwell’; this is not just a case of trying to repress her powers, it as though they have turned inwards, infecting her. this is more or less what an obscurus is; a dark manifestation of repressed energy don’t get me started on queer coding so help me.

remember how Grindelboy was all up in Creedence Barebackbone’s grill because he could tell there was an obscurial nearby, but he had no idea that someone could be in control of an obscurus to the extent Creedence was? remember how fascinated he was by the possibility that he COULD be in control, the moment it became clear that it was Creedence with the obscurus? i wonder what it could possibly have inspired all of this interest in obscurials. could it possibly be that his summer boyfriend’s little sister was one, a little sister who he and Dumbledeedoodah had been planning on dragging all around the world as they completed their nefarious schemes toward building a new world order? the same little sister that died in the crossfire between Grindrbubbles, Dumblebum and Dumdedum Junior, during a duel that broke out over whether or not she would be able to join them on their travels?

Dumbledore is not the saint air-head Harry makes him out to be. he’s got layers, like an ogre, and there was a reason he and Grindelwald were such a power couple. They saw the same potential. Where they disagreed was what that potential could lead to, and the lengths they were willing to go to unleash it. It’s not so much that Grindelwald crossed a line; it’s just that he crossed a different line to the one Dumbledore might have crossed. Ariana’s death and Dumbledore blaming himself for his part in it might have been enough to convince him that he and Grindelwald were not alike but it is not enough to convince me. I reckon as soon as Dumbledore heard about Creedence he was fascinated. Creedence is something Dumbledore never thought really possible; a person in control of their obscurus. Potential.

Now, regardless of what is to happen next in this absolute shitshow of a franchise the Fantastic Beast series, how we go from the events of the last movie to Dumbledore showing down with Grindelwald and locking him in the prison they designed together to hold their political enemies, I think after the whole shebang Dumbledore would have almost completely given up on the institution of the potential power of obscurials. Until a lil prophecy shows up saying the one to destroy the Dark Lord will possess power the Dark Lord knows not.

At this point Dumbledore is theorising Voldybaldy has horcruxes etc etc, he’s seen him perform great feats of magic, and sure, he’s talking about this whole POWER OF LOOOOOOVE A FORCE FROM ABOOOOOVEEEE thing but honestly, really, do you think that’s what he was going on to begin with? He knew damn well what had happened to Petunia’s relationship with the magical world and even if he couldn’t anticipate the Dursley’s abuse and neglect of Harry he damn well would have known it was happening once it had started. This is Dumbledore. Grindelwald fucking, ‘For the Greater Good’, schemes nobody else knows about, Dumbledore.

Once Harry gets to school, Dumbledore REPEATEDLY allows him to come into harms way. He gave Harry the cloak. He sent Hagrid to pick up the stone when he had Harry with him, not before or after. I suspect he may have placed the Mirror of Erised somewhere Harry might stumble across it. Why is this noteworthy? Well, in Dumbledores big ‘I’m sorry i’m a wanker’ speech to Harry near the close of Order of the Phoenix, he says to Harry that he was overwhelmed by how ordinary Harry was. He says this to Harry as though relieved, but i don’t think he was. i think he was disappointed. he was leading Harry like a lamb to slaughter and was disappointed his plan to have a magical weapon of mass destruction hadn’t gone to plan. Repeatedly Dumbledore pushes Harry into dangerous scenarios, or else allows him to endanger himself with a bit of light encouragement. He’s the most powerful wizard alive; there was a way he could have reversed what happened with the Triwizard Tournament, or else found a way to have Harry participate without him actually being in any danger, like having him forcibly forfeit every task (we know forfeits are possible because of Fleur with ze grinylows). But he doesn’t do that.

After all of that fails and Voldy comes back, Dumbledad pushes Harry away for the entirety of OotP. He could have done more to resist Fudge. He could have done more to resist Umbridge. There were a thousand things he could have done but didn’t. He chose to distance himself from Harry, knowing, KNOWING Harry was on the edge, seeing that. Hoping all the while this would be the thing, the trauma that causes it to happen; he would develop an obscurus and that power, that raw, visceral magic he’d seen in his sister and in Creedence, that would be on his side. And he would bring down Voldemort, and the wizarding world would rise anew, and a new kind of magic user would exist, more powerful than before, and firmly, definitively, and wholeheartedly on Dumbledore’s side. Harry is Dumbledore’s man, through and through. Despite everything he did to Harry, Dumbledore made sure of that.

And that’s why Dumbledore is the worst.

#harry potter #i know i've overthought this a lot #dumbledore #obscurus #harry potter imagine #hp #hp imagine #harry potter theory #dumbledore is the literal worst

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anotherkpopvictim · 4 years ago

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Into a New World (Through the Gate) - BTS OT7 Fantasy Story Chapter 1

(Pic Source - Jaiho? (I found this on a pinterest but I don’t think it was this person’s) ((Edit is by me tho))

A/N: Hi, so, this is a multi-chaptered story that I’ve had swirling around in my head for a while. I’m not sure how many chapters it’s going to be, and I’m not sure how often I’ll update (especially because I have a few other stories I need to update first) but I will finish this story one way or another.

Happy Birthday, our Hobi <3

Relationship: BTS X BTS

Rating: T (for now)

Words: 2928

Hurt/comfort, fluff, fantasy

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Chapter 1: The Banishing

Worldbuilding Notes on Fairies:

The origin of how fairies came to be is rather unknown. Their attributes and used honorifics suggest they are of Korean descent.

Fairies can be creatures of trickery. Though not inherently evil, fairies possess the ability to manipulate easily if they so please (not all use this ability, though). While they can also sometimes use aura reading to detect whether someone is lying or not, a fairy’s downfall is that they themselves cannot lie. Despite this, they are talented at twisting words and finding loopholes in different situations.

A Fairy’s magic ability is similar to that of witches, but it is easier for them to learn as they are born with a close connection to magic itself, while witches spend years and years learning to connect with magic. Fairies are often good spies as they have their smaller form that can easily hide. Fairies are born with a given color - the color of their hair and eyes. These colors represent common personality traits (though not always 100% accurate from person to person, and not all fairies have all the traits the colors represent). A mix of two or more colors just means that the person has personality traits of multiple colors (i.e. a very dark blue would have traits of both blue and black).

(Link to the basis of color symbolism I’m using - https://www.color-meanings.com/)

Colors and their meanings:

(This part is optional to read, but I will be using this as a basis for fairy personalities in the story)

Red - The color of passion and energy. Red draws attention like no other color and radiates a strong and powerful energy that motivates us to take action. It is also linked to sexuality and stimulates deep and intimate passion.

Orange - The color of enthusiasm and emotion. Orange exudes warmth and joy and is considered a fun color that provides emotional strength. It is optimistic and uplifting, adds spontaneity and positivity to life, and encourages social communication and creativity. It is a youthful and energetic color.

Yellow - The color of happiness and optimism. Yellow is a cheerful and energetic color that brings fun and joy to the world. It makes learning easier as it affects the logical part of the brain, stimulating mentality and perception. It inspires thought and curiosity and boosts enthusiasm and confidence.

Green - The color of harmony and health. Green is a generous, relaxing color that revitalizes our body and mind. It balances our emotions and leaves us feeling safe and secure. It also gives us hope, with promises of growth and prosperity, and it provides a little bit of luck to help us along the way.

Blue - The color of trust and loyalty. Blue has a calming and relaxing effect on our psyche, that gives us peace and makes us feel confident and secure. It dislikes confrontation and too much attention, but it is an honest, reliable, and responsible color and you can always count on its support.

Purple - The color of spirituality and imagination. Purple inspires us to divulge our innermost thoughts, which enlightens us with the wisdom of who we are and encourages spiritual growth. It is often associated with royalty and luxury, and its mystery and magic sparks creative fantasies.

Pink - The color of love and compassion. Pink is kind and comforting, full of sympathy and compassion, and makes us feel accepted. Its friendly, playful spirit calms and nurtures us, bringing joy and warmth into our lives. Pink is also a feminine and intuitive color that is bursting with pure romance.

White - The color of purity and innocence. White is a true balance of all colors and is associated with cleanliness, simplicity, and perfection. It loves to make others feel good and provides hope and clarity by refreshing and purifying the mind. It also promotes open-mindedness and self-reflection.

Black - The color of power and sophistication. Black is an incredibly strong and intimidating color that exudes authority and makes us feel secure and protected. Often seen at formal and prestigious events, this mysterious marvel arouses and seduces our senses with its elegance and sexiness.

Gray - The color of compromise and control. Gray is neutral, conservative, and unemotional. It is practically solid as a rock, making it incredibly stable, reliable, and calming. It has a peaceful, relaxing and soothing presence. Gray avoids attention but offers mature, insightful advice to anyone who asks.

Brown - The color of stability and reliability. Brown is dependable and comforting. A great counselor and friend full of wisdom. You can count on its help if you need an honest opinion, support, and protection. It stabilizes us, helps us stay grounded, and inspires us to appreciate the simple things in life.

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

Hoseok listened to his older brother babble on to the other five high council members, trying to manifest the courage to speak up to him about what had been weighing him down since the last meeting.

Minseok, his brother, was not a bad person. However, he also wasn’t necessarily a good person either. As the crowned King of the Fairy Kingdom of Aurora, he wasn’t the worst candidate in their long history, not by a long shot. Hoseok had watched him exile a butler after he brought him an indigo-colored robe instead of a dark purple one by accident, but had also seen him send fresh-baked loaves of bread to the orphanage nearby as a treat for the children. He was a man capable of coming up with creative solutions but sometimes allowed his power and authority to cloud his judgment.

An enigma, his brother most certainly was.

This was why Hoseok was so nervous to bring up the topic on his mind. He wasn’t sure how Minseok was going to react, though no one ever really knew. Nevertheless, he needed to give it a try, for the good of their people.

“King Minseok,” Hoseok addressed, standing up from his seat when a lull came in the conversation. He bowed politely towards his brother. “There is a concern of mine that I needed to bring up, brother.”

The older man with a head full of shocking dark purple hair and eyes the same color looked at him curiously. “Yes, Hoseok-ah. What is the matter, brother?”

Hoseok gulped against the lump forming in his throat and forced himself to speak. His brother was being kind right now, but he knew the man could turn on a dime. “The army, brother. They have been urging us for some time now to give the soldiers more time before sending them to war.”

Minseok raised an eyebrow, “We have an alliance with the jinns, a promise to fight with them against the demons.”

“I know, my King,” Hoseok replied. “But our soldiers are being slaughtered on the battlefield. If we could change the laws in place and give them a few more months of training to build up their skills-”

“So, what you’re saying is that I should spend more money and time on our soldiers when the war they are fighting isn’t to be a long one?” The King asked, interrupting Hoseok’s words.

It was predicted that the jinns were going to win the war with the demons, though it was a slow process. “We’ve lost thousands of our citizens, Minseok-hyung.” Hoseok urged. “Lives were lost when they could have lived if only they had more skills and endurance. The captains have been coming to us since they realized the pattern months ago.”

Minseok furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance. “We already give so many resources to the military, we don’t have anything to spare.”

“We’ll find some, we’ll find a way-”

“ENOUGH!” Minseok boomed, standing up from the throne and slamming his hands down on the table. “The way the laws are written right now give our soldiers plenty of time to refine their skills before they are sent off to fight. More soldiers come back than don’t and that’s more than we could ask for. I will not spend another second on this unimportant topic when there are other issues to be resolved.”

“But, hyung,” Hoseok pleaded. He knew he should just shut up, but the worried words of the captains wouldn’t leave his mind. “Perhaps you could just allow some of the captains to tell you their worries personally. I really think that we need to-”

Minseok’s dark purple hair began to lift around his golden crown, glowing and sparking with magic. That was when Hoseok knew it was over for him.

“Hoseok-ssi, you know better than to talk back to your King!” his brother hissed.

“Hyung, my King, I’m sorry-”

“You’re banished!”

Hoseok nearly choked. “W-What?”

“I’m banishing you from Aurora. How dare you rebel against the King!” Minseok raged, motioning for guards to grab onto Hoseok.

Hoseok could see the anger in his brother’s eyes, the betrayal, and knew that there was no changing the crazed, overdramatic sentence given to him.

“Minseok,” Hoseok looked at his brother with one final plea, “Please don’t do this. I didn’t mean to offend you in any way.”

Minseok snarled, his bright purple hair starting to glow and move as his power began to build up inside of him. “You’ve betrayed the crown. You’ve betrayed me. There is no place in Aurora for you any longer.”

Hoseok bent his head, knowing that his brother had truly made his decision and nothing he could say would change his mind. His own shocking orange hair lay flat against his head, no spark of power anywhere to be found - a sure sign of any fairy’s defeat.

The five councilmen who were occupying the table with the two brothers sat in silence, eyes sympathetic as they watched Hoseok being escorted out of the room.

There were ten guards that led them towards the Gate that was situated just outside the castle walls, two of them holding onto Hoseok’s arms like he was going to even try to get away. He knew better than that.

A misty, swirling wall of fog lay just behind the golden bars of the Gate. Hoseok could only watch with a defeated look in his eyes as his brother opened the right door of the Gate and then turned to look at him.

“Jung Hoseok, you are hereby banished from Aurora under my authority, King Minseok of the Fairy Kingdom. Shall you ever choose to return, you will be greeted with death.” Minseok snarled out his brother’s sentence with such malice it made Hoseok cringe. Then the King turned to the two guards holding Hoseok’s arms and ordered, “Throw him through the Gate.”

Hoseok, whose heart was racing with fear in his chest, didn’t fight the two men at all. As he was forced forward, he shut his eyes tightly and braced himself. He merely accepted his fate as he was pushed harshly into the swirling fog.

Now, Hoseok had never traveled worlds before, so he hadn’t ever experienced what it was like to go through a Gate before.

At first, it felt as if he was falling at a great speed, the breath snatched from his lungs. Then, he suddenly felt himself slow down before dropping onto some sort of hard surface.

Laying on the ground, Hoseok was reluctant to open his eyes. He knew that he must be on Earth now, as Earth was the center of the worlds, but he didn’t know exactly where. He couldn’t hear much besides the ruffling of some leaves in the breeze and birds chirping happily. The temperature was slightly cooler than he was used to, and his attire of matching silk shorts and a shirt certainly didn’t do anything to keep him warm.

Taking in a brave breath, Hoseok opened his eyes and took in the scene before him. He was in a forest lush with tall, green trees. Pretty blue flowers bloomed in patches on the ground, bringing Hoseok a bit of relief. Surely the place couldn’t be too bad if there were beautiful flowers blooming, right?

From Hoseok’s limited knowledge of Earth, he knew that it was the center of the realms and welcomed those of all supernatural backgrounds. While most supernatural beings had their own realm to call home, there were a few that didn’t. Vampires, shapeshifters, and witches lived primarily on Earth. Creatures like jinns, goblins, demons, and yes, fairies, all had their own realm.

Gates only existed between Earth and these worlds, but they were plentiful all across the Earth. Most Gates were situated in Gate Stations (just like a train station) but there were some that were simply situated in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, it appeared that Minseok had to make things even more difficult for his brother by sending him somewhere obscure. Hoseok hadn’t had the chance to see exactly where he was sending him to. A childish move on the older man’s part.

“Well, gosh marbles!” Hoseok shouted into the trees as he stood up and dusted himself off. “What am I going to do now?”

Where was he to go? What was he to do? The Fairy Kingdom was all he had known his whole life.

“E-Excuse me?”

Hoseok yelped with a start at the sudden voice, his head whipping around to find the source. He caught sight of a young-looking man peeking out from behind one of the trees to his left. He had big, curious doe eyes and didn’t appear to be much of a threat, but Hoseok knew from experience not to let his guard down.

“W-Who are you?” he asked, kicking himself when he stuttered.

The young man came out from behind the tree, revealing his all-black ensemble; jeans, a leather jacket, and some army boots. Hoseok remembered reading that fashion was quite different on Earth, but he was still surprised. “I’m Jungkook. Who are you?”

(JKs look) (except no beanie)

“Hoseok,” he replied cautiously.

“Did you just come through the Gate?” Jungkook asked, head tilting towards said Gate right behind Hoseok.

“Yes.”

Jungkook hummed thoughtfully. “No one’s come through that Gate in years.”

“Oh...” Hoseok said intelligently. “Um, could you perhaps tell me where I am?”

“Well, I would assume you at least know that you’re on Earth, but more specifically, you’re just outside of Seoul, South Korea.”

“South Korea...” Hoseok repeated, wracking his brain for anything he knew about this place. He knew that he’d heard of it, but he wasn’t sure where from.

“You’re a fairy, right?” Jungkook asked, rather excitedly. “Many fairies seem to have Korean in their blood. So technically, you’re in your ancient homeland!”

Ah, Hoseok thought, that makes sense. Fairies were rather sheltered about things outside of their own Kingdom, so while Hoseok had heard that they were possibly descendants of Earth’s South Korea, he didn’t know much about it at all.

Hoseok blinked at the smiling young man before him, whose grin and scrunched-up nose made him look uncannily like a rabbit, not to mention his adorable front teeth.

“Ah, sorry!” Jungkook turned a little sheepish. “Ever since my Jimin-hyung came, I’ve really wanted to meet another fairy so badly!”

Hoseok didn’t have time to register that apparently, South Koreans used the same honorifics as fairies, as the more important part of the young man’s statement caught Hoseok’s attention. “You know another fairy?”

“Mhm,” Jungkook nodded his head dutifully, his shaggy dark brown hair bobbing up and down with it. “Jiminie’s color is pink. And he lives with us.”

“Us?”

“Me and my hyungs! There are six of us. We live just a couple miles away from here.” Jungkook answered with a fond smile.

“A pack, huh?” Hoseok gave the young man a once-over when he realized he had no idea what creature Jungkook was. “Are you...human?”

Jungkook shook his head before opening his mouth and pointing at some very tiny but pointy incisors that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “I’m a vampire, like my Yoongi-hyung. I was obviously a human, though, before he saved me.” Jungkook’s smile faded a bit as he seemed to get lost in a memory.

“A little vamp, I see,” Hoseok replied, feeling like he needed to lighten the mood. “How old are you?”

“I’ve been a vampire for seven years, and I was twenty-three when I was turned.” A pretty young vampire then. Hoseok had read about vampires who lived to be thousands of years old.

“Well,” Hoseok began with a gentle smile, “I’m one hundred thirty-eight, so I guess that makes me your hyung.”

Jungkook let out a sigh of relief. “Good, I don’t like being a hyung.”

Hoseok chuckled at the younger’s adorableness before he remembered where he was and what had conspired for him to be here.

Jungkook must have noticed his expression sadden because he gave a little gasp. “Hoseok-hyung, do you need somewhere to stay? I’m sure my hyungs wouldn’t mind housing you for now.”

Hoseok honestly questioned the young man. Who in their right mind invited a total stranger into their home? Jungkook the baby vampire, apparently. Hoseok doubted that he had any nefarious ulterior motives for inviting him, as fairies were fairly good at reading others and he didn’t sense anything from him, but it was strange nonetheless.

However, Hoseok really didn’t have anywhere to go or any money to get a place to stay. He’d been thrown out of the only world he’s ever known and didn’t know what he was supposed to do. And he was tired, just plain tired from the eventful day.

So, he gave the only answer he really could.

“I would love a place to stay, Jungkook-ah.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

A/N: So...what did you think?

I’ve never written anything in the fantasy genre but I’ve been loving so many fantasy fics lately that I just had to take a try at it. I don’t know much about the specifics of the different supernatural creatures in legends and such, so these will mostly be of my own making, but with some common traits you probably know.

Please do not expect me to update this for a while, as I need to update a few other stories first, but I will not abandon this fic.

I tried to make it clear that Hoseok’s brother, Minseok, has an unstable mentality, and thus feeling like his brother betrayed him over something rather ridiculous and banishing him seemed reasonable to him.

Please leave comments and likes as they fuel my motivation to write exponentially <3 And if you have any suggestions now or in future chapters for what you would like to see, I would love the ideas and will try to work them into the story (though I don’t have much solidly planned just yet anyways).

---

So far we know:

Seokjin - ?

Yoongi - Vampire

Hoseok - Fairy (138)

Namjoon - ?

Jimin - Fairy

Taehyung - ?

Jungkook - Vampire (30)

(I think you’ll meet the others in the next chapter!)

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sasorikigai · 5 years ago

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Ask the mun! || @paindealt || accepting

☯ : Greatest challenge to writing your character?

Hanzo: That his rudimental nature is founded on wrenching heartache and vitriol wrath. While I too, have my personal traumas and PTSD to a certain degree, Hanzo/Scorpion has gotten one of the most worst ends as a character, going through numerous character alignments, growth/regression, and then one of the best redemption arcs I’ve ever seen in the history of storytelling and lore (MK11) and such disappointing and anticlimactic ending of all time because NRS cannot give this man a break. It’s hard being a man who is severely and chronically depressed, and also a loner with a death wish with a flaring hot temper and impulsiveness, when Hanzo’s mun is far from being someone who would in the end, only think of himself thinking he was taking revenge for his slaughtered family and clan (living for the others). And I couldn’t ever live with a harrowing survivor’s guilt, gnawing his heart, mind, and soul.

Kuai: He’s one of those characters who APPEARS he’s phlegmatic, very much self-controlled and has all of his shit together, but his insides are irreversibly fucked up as he struggles with a lot of things, including proper, normal social interactions and specifically personal intimacy and romantic/sexual relationships. Kuai Liang has all the capacity to make him one of the most greatest characters; he’s complex, enigmatic, holds opposite facets, which to me, signifies that he’s got more than one meets the eye. He is ferocious, merciless, and brutal in kombat, while immensely merciful, kind, and sympathetic in personality. He has abundance of patience and often come off as mellow and peaceful, not wanting to fight nor kill unless he absolutely has to. Capturing such complexity he naturally has has been the greatest challenge for me, and he’s one of those characters that are very hard to nail.

♫ : Are there parts of your own personality that you reflect onto your character? How do they work?

Hanzo: I can definitely relate to his depression and how that alone governs his thought. Yet, he is such a pessimistic optimist in a sense that he continues find the reasons that he must live upon. Before being resurrected to Scorpion had been the sustenance and sanctity of his family and clan, and as Scorpion, his hatred towards the world and all-consuming vengeance carries him forth, making him the most entrusted enforcer of Quan Chi’s army and even the wicked sorcerer admits that he would have Hanzo Hasashi over a thousand of Moloch, the master torturer of the Netherrealm.

Kuai: The enigmatic quality he holds; while he’s capable of experiencing such wide scope of emotions, they are filtered and halted by the stronghold of his hardness, his calm and collected stoicism. Those who don’t know him in-depth would comment about how his heart would be frozen and he could be so unendingly merciless, even towards those who he loves (Hanzo, Frost, etc.) as he says one thing, but means the other. His awkwardness when it comes to social interactions, and even when he craves intimate touches (being touch-starved), yet freezing up like the winter lake is definitely relatable.

#✗ breathing iron and rust (outofkombat)#✗ the ineffable testimony of spawned hellfire (scorpion)#✗ bone-deep chill of despair (sub-zero)#paindealt

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authoratmidnight · 6 years ago

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You know, I think the one thing that really, baffles me, about the hate that Ryoken gets (both just the character and in relation to being shipped with, anyone but esp the protag) is that the one main argument I see for why he’s a “bad person” is due to his actions in season 1 the consequences of them had he succeeded.

But like, since WHEN has ‘this character did bad things and hurt/almost hurt innocent people’ ever stopped anyone from liking villains/antagonist in this series or stopped them from shipping them with the protagonist/other characters.

Like, this argument could be used against TONS of different YGO characters(including many of the rival type characters) that I see people drooling over all the time.

Case in point a non comprehensive list (and before anyone thinks I’m trying to say you can’t like these characters, I’m not. In fact *I* like a number of these characters) Also heads up for minor spoilers for all the series since a number of antagonists/villains made this list:

Seto Kaiba: In the manga he was the first villain/antagonist and actually tried to straight up MURDER Yugi and his friends. In the anime this wasn’t present (save for the Toei anime) however he was still, at the very least, a bully who would verbally tear down anyone he saw as ‘beneath him’ (so everyone) and was condescending and belittling and tried to blow up the tower the Battle City finals were in, while people were still in it! We call that manslaughter folks.

Pegasus: Multiple counts of kidnapping and soul stealing

Yami Malik: Killed his own father, attempted murder of Rishid as well as the rest of the cast.

Yami Bakura/Thief King Bakura: The main/end game antagonist of the series. Also in the manga he murdered Pegasus.

Dartz and his Orichalcos group: Mind control, kidnapping, stealing souls, trying to destroy the world. Typical villain fare. Also Dartz fucked up Valon, Rafael and Amelda’s lives and caused many, many deaths.

Takuma Saiou: Literally started a cult and tried to destroy the world (granted he gets a slight pass cause he was being possessed)

Judai Yuki: Commits multiple acts of mass murder as a tyrant king.

Yubel: Possesses multiple people, kidnaps Johan, tries to destroy multiple worlds at once by fusing them together, hurt Judai by hurting his friends.

Jack Atlas: Stole his best friend’s D-Wheel and best card and leaves him and a child out to drown in the ocean as he fucks off to The City.

Kiryu: Nearly killed a man. Joined the Dark Signers and tried to destroy the world.

Placido/Jose/Lucciano/Aporia: The main antagonists of the last half of the series. Attempt to kill various members of the cast at various points in time and their end goal involves the total annihilation of Neo Domino(kill millions/billions to save the world,allegedly). Lucciano nearly kills Rua in their first fight when he’s flung off a bridge and as Aporia attempts to kill Rua, Ruka and Jack during the final arc and actually succeeds causing the death of one of them (for a short time anyways, they get better)

Paradox: Literally travelled back in time to murder Pegasus and also caused the deaths of a number of innocent bystanders in the process.

Any of the Arclight siblings (Chris/Thomas/Michal): Thomas is arguably the worst of them in terms of what he did but they all at various points do pretty awful things (mainly at the behest of their dad). Chris kidnapped Haruto, Thomas was responsible for what happened to Rio, Michal killed Astral (temporarily)

Kaito: Ran around stealing people’s souls to obtain their Numbers cards and just left their soulless bodies lying around.

Any of the Barian Emperors: Like, pick on. Either as a Barian or in their first life they probably did bad things (or in both lives in Vector’s case, who committed mass murder by way of slaughtering his entire country in his past life as well as turning his own allies into puppets/trying to kill them in his Barian life)

Don Thousand: The main villain of the whole damn series who wants to destroy the Astral World, and Earth, basically all life. Also screwed over the lives of the Barian Emperors and his influence on them also indirectly caused the deaths of MILLIONS.

Yuri: Responsible for multiple kidnappings and cardings of innocent people, all things he did very willingly and remorselessly.

Actually just about anyone from Academia’s side of things at some point in time.

Arc V Kaito: Literally went around carding anyone who stood in his way, friend or foe.

Zarc: Again, the end game big bad who literally DID destroy the world, then came together and tried to do it again

Like, I have seen love (and in some cases lust) for literally ALL of these characters (some more than others) and some of them have MASSIVE shipping fan bases and pretty much all these characters were either villains or antagonists at some point in the story. But I rarely-if at all in some cases-see people going ‘you only like X because they’re hot’ or ‘X did all these awful things you shouldn’t like him’ about these characters. And make no mistake, people do like some of these characters cause they think they’re attractive (also, what’s wrong with that anyways? I’m shallow enough to admit I like some characters simply cause they’re really pretty).

Interestingly, Ryoken, esp in the first season, fits the definition for an anti-villain (like the opposite of an anti-hero) more than he does just straight villain (at least once we get context for his actions)

‘...a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately villainous. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there are evil.’

-TVTropes

Which is, basically what S1 Ryoken was doing, though mostly at the whims of his father. He wanted to destroy the Ignis in order to save humanity, it’s just when the first few attempts failed, he went along with his father’s final, last ditch effort to deal with them which was the Tower of Hanoi (and make no mistake, the Tower was 100% Dr. Kogami’s idea, Ryoken went along with it cause, family loyalty). The results might kill a great number of people, but if it destroyed the Ignis then it would ultimately save even more in the long run. A heroic goal (saving humanity) with a not so heroic way of getting there (nuking the internet and potentially causing a massive loss of life in the process).

I’m not saying you have to like him, god knows I dislike a number a characters, including some of the ones mentioned here, but like, it just feels like a weird double standard to use these arguments against Ryoken, but never on any of these other characters. Or at least not to the same extent that they’re used on him.

And this is just YuGiOh characters. I can 100% guarantee you that there are characters in other series that have far worse things than Ryoken ever did that are massively loved/praised by their fandoms (and also got redemption arcs). Vegeta is the first one to come to mind (and he *actually* killed people).

#yugioh #long post #vrains #some salt #at least he doesn't *actually* have blood on his hands does seem to feel remorse for his actions #can't say that about some of the ppl I listed

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lady-griffin · 6 years ago

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Will the Game of Thrones Ending be the same for the books?

In short, yes and no. And no and yes (a very GRRM answer).

Honestly for me, the biggest problem I have with D&D’s ending is I don’t think they put in the work nor earned that ending. It felt rushed and it felt like they wasted time on things that didn’t really matter and not so much that they left things unfinished or ambiguous for the future, but just didn’t take the time to finish their own story.

Certain endings don’t make a whole lot of sense, because we don’t know a lot of the details nor does it line up with what they’ve changed in the story or have previously set-up in the show, let-alone this current season or the final scenes themselves.

But I can imagine that the show’s endings are the bare notes for the books. Hitting the same points, but lacking the more complicated and nuance aspects to those endings.

This turned out to be more of a rant and longer than I ever intended.

King Bran

I don’t see D&D making Bran king, unless it’s GRRM’s ending. I just don’t. I just can’t see that.

I don’t want to speak for them, but it’s in my opinion, that they cared very little for Bran’s story. Or at the very least, struggled with adapting it from book to screen.

I could see Book!Bran becoming King. Not for the reasons the show give us.

Saying he is the best choice because he has the best story, is complete bullshit and a terrible reason to elect someone into a leadership role. Just terrible.

Especially since Show!Bran’s story, due to D&D, was one of the weakest of the show. Since they written him out in season 5 and it seems like we barely spent time with him as an actual character, since he became the Three-Eyed Raven.

And to be fair, it’s not a clear fit for Book!Bran to become king. Right now, it’s unclear if Book!Bran will be as emotionless as Show!Bran. So, there’s that. And Bran is going down a very dark path as the Three-Eyed Raven, in the books, so him becoming King, also depends on how dark that path goes and how dark Bran gets.

There’s also the snag that within the show, Bran’s story seems incomplete.

What did warging and seeing the past and more importantly being able to affect the past have to do with Bran’s story? Or the entire story, in general?

We don’t see Bran do anything (except warg into ravens during the battle) actively against the NK or even to get the position of king. So, what’s the point?

It feels incomplete, because Bran affecting the past has been building up to something…

1. His father heard him and turned back, but nothing more. A small ripple.

2. Bran wargs into Hodor, while he’s still connected to the past, completely damaging Hodor’s psyche to the point he can only say Hodor. This is a horrifying and traumatic event, but on an individual-level, not that big of a ripple

…These incidents are building up, so logically the third one will be a big thing….

But nothing.

Was Hodor the culmination of Bran’s powers? Because then what’s the point? It feels like there should be a third time Bran goes to the past and affects it, either with severe consequences (Mad King Burn Them All theory) or Bran being in complete control having learned from his mistakes and does exactly what he intended to do.

But nothing.

Bran uses his powers to see the truth about Jon, but in the show that almost barely matters. So, there’s just this big disconnect with Bran’s journey and what he does in seasons 7 & 8 and where he ends up.

Also, because we were cut off from Bran’s POV and how they executed the Rise of Bran & the Fall of Daenerys, Bran comes across as an amoral to evil mastermind, who at worst orchestrated all of this so he could be king or allowed everything (thousands and thousands of deaths) because “fate demanded it.”

Either way it’s not good. And on top of that.

Either Bran did nothing to become King, which feels unearned. Or he did a lot (or did nothing purposely) to become King, which again, is actually terrifying.

Bran’s magic may not be as overt or destructive as Daenerys’ dragons, but they’re just as all-powerful, which makes the story end on a weird note when you start to think about it and the implications and themes, particulary “power.”

We can argue that Bran doesn’t want power, like Daenerys. But he has it. And still accepted it, to be king. And indicated he knew it was going to happen...so, it’s a weird place to end when you start to think about it.

D&D were likely not trying to make Bran come across in the end as evil or at the very least not a terrifying amoral monster, but because they basically abandoned the actual character of Bran and focused on Three-Eyed Raven creepiness, it feels sinister.

There’s also the weird hiccup, that in GRRM’s work, knowing your future or a prophesy about yourself or believing you have a prophecy entirely figured out, basically dooms you. Especially if you’re in a position of power or seeking it.

So, it’s weird that basically the one person who kind of becomes omniscient in this world, get this coveted position of power with no doom on the horizon…that doesn’t sound like GRRM.

So, there’s a lot of snags with the idea of Bran becoming King.

But again, I just don’t see D&D making Bran king unless it’s GRRM’s ending. Like I can’t see them doing that. I see them making Tyrion King on their own or literally anyone else before Bran.

How exactly he becomes King and where the remainder of his journey takes him up to that point, we’ll have to see.

I can definitely see GRRM making it feel more than earned and fitting. Unfortunately, I can also see GRRM naming him Bran the Broken, so there’s that.

Dragon Pit Council

I can see the Dragon Pit Council or a form of it happening. And I think it will be more fitting and more touching for the readers, especially when you consider who will be on the council in the books. And I can see those book versions wanting to stay part of the 7 or 6 kingdoms.

Arianna Martell will most likely be on that council. And she will likely feel guilt and regret and possibly traumatized for her role as a Queen Maker with Mycrella and the death that awaits her and possibly Arianna’s role with F!Aegon. It’s also highly unlikely she will be a supporter of Daenerys (due to Viserys, Quentyn, F!Aegon). She might be more than willing to work with and within this new system due to her own previous lust for power and wanting to make amends and build a better world.

Willas or Garlan Tyrell will most likely also be on the council, representing the Reach. And due to the unknown future fates of their own family due to their pursuit of the Iron Throne, the Tyrell representative might want to take a step back as well. Especially if it is a similar to the fates of the Tyrells in the show.

Asha Greyjoy (Book version of Yara) could likely be part of the council (if Theon is also dead in the books), but she is more difficult to pin down, mostly because my memory is lacking (it’s been awhile since I last read the books). But it will most likely make more sense than Yara’s whole purpose in that scene.

And most likely… Robin Arryn will represent the Vale. Edmure Tully the Riverlands.

It’s highly unlikely Gendry will be part of this, but I can potentially see Edric Storm being a part of the council and representing the Stormlands.

I can see the council existing in the books.

It’s also possible that, in the books, the 7 Kingdoms afterwards might not be so much a single kingdom under one ruler. It might be more of the separate kingdoms working together, with the guidance of Bran.

Overall, though I think we will definitely get into the nitty gritty of how this new kingdom will work, with some strained tension and potential conflict and future struggles of making this kingdom work. Peace isn’t easy.

The actual scene itself happening...no.

Tyrion literally tells us why no one in this scene should listen to him, half of them hate him for helping a Tyrant who slaughtered an entire city and the other half (barely) hate him for helping to kill the rightful Queen who saved them from a tyrant. So, it makes no sense that they listen to Tyrion and it’s frustrating that Tyrion has to tell them to make the choice.

Also why does Tyrion who we were told just a minute ago is a prisoner and doesn’t get to speak, but than in a hot second, he gets to make a speech and decide the future fate of Westeros. Don’t get me wrong, I can 100% see Tyrion talking his way into making the decision, but that’s not what happens. They just let him talk, because the writes need Tyrion to be clever and smarter than everyone else in that scene.

Also, it makes no sense that Davos, Gendry, and Sam do not speak up for Jon. And even less sense that Jon would have to be punished, when the majority of the named characters in this scene, had a problem with Daenerys, had no feelings in particular towards her, or distrusted her because she was a Targaryen.

Also, why didn’t the Unsullied just kill Jon once he confessed or once they discovered him in the room? Why did they even keep him as a prisoner? They don’t keep prisoners for long. So why would they keep their worse prisoner alive? Why? And there are more things that just don’t add up in that one single scene and what follows.

But I think this is a bare bones and nonsensical version of what will happen in the books or some varying degree of it. Basically, a council of the major lords of Westeros seems very likely to be part of the future government of Westeros.

Tyrion, Hand of the King

I’m on the fence of whether that’s going to be part of the books or not.

To be clear, that’s not a punishment. It’s just not. If we really wanted to believe that Jon and Tyrion were being punished, they’ve should made Tyrion join the Night’s Watch and force Jon to be the Hand of the King. The two of them would’ve hated that.

And similar, to the reason for why Bran was elected King, I don’t see the reasons Tyrion was chosen being the reasons in the books.

1. Not wanting the position

2. No longer thinking himself so clever and wise

Are not good reasons for someone being elected into a position of power, they’re just not.

They are nice subtext and symbolic reasons for an author, but not for the actual characters of the story. One major problem I had with this last episode, was it felt way too meta.

So, it’s possible Tyrion becoming the Hand of the King will be more of an actual punishment for him or his own way of actually trying to redeem himself. (what the show was saying, but struggling with executing)

One possible fate for Tyrion (actually shown in the show) is that he won’t be remembered in the history books or the stories in the future. A tragic and unfair fate, but also a fittingly poetic sentence for a man who wants to be recognized and acknowledged.

Tyrion and Oberon discussed (I think) how it was the hands of certain kings who were the pivotal key to the future, but yet are not recognized for their accomplishments as they are attributed to the King….so that being Tyrion’s fate seems possible.

So is Tyrion just going to be the real power manipulating Bran?

Bran barely matters in the Small Council scene…actually he doesn’t, so that begs the position, what’s the point of Bran being King? Tyrion making the decisions and Bran being nothing but a figurehead is weird and rather pointlessly frustrating.

I can’t see Tyrion “manipulating” the closest person to be omniscient in this world. And the show is ending on an optimistic note. So, we can safely assume future nefarious deeds of Tyrion (intentional or not) aren’t been indicated by the creators in those finale scenes.

Tyrion’s fate still feels largely undecided for the books.

Show and book Tyrion are more than a bit different at this point, to say the least.

So, it’s possible that GRRM’s own ending for the character is more than a bit dark and twisted for this lighter and far more sympathetic version of Tyrion and D&D didn’t feel like they could do that to Tyrion. Particularly with Dark Dany. And with Peter Dinklage just being a break-out star and fan favorite.

The difficulty I have with Tyrion being hand, is I don’t see Tyrion being in a position of respect or power in the end. Tyrion is quite the tragic character. He has been unfairly vilified and hated for being a dwarf and has never been accepted by the masses.

While we may want them to recognize Tyrion for all the good he has done, that doesn’t feel likely. With Tyrion being suspected of killing Joffrey, actually killing his father (+ Shae) and possibly bringing Daenerys to Westeros or being on her side when she arrives and unintentionally sowing the seeds of rift between F!Aegon and Daenerys, it seems doubtful the people of Westeros would ever accept Tyrion. And I think there is a debate to be had whether they should or not.

There are actual reasons why people shouldn’t trust or forgive Tyrion, but rarely are those people’s actual reasons. So, Tyrion, since the moment we’ve known him has been unfairly judged and cast aside. And then Tyrion wants revenge and as he seeks justice for the way he’s been treated, leading him to some terrible and awful choices and to a dark place.

All of that only adds to the fuel of the vilified image of him that already existed, before he even did anything (since he was born).

Tyrion’s fate feels very up in the air and relies very much on what he’ll do in these next two books. So, him being Hand of the King in the end, doesn’t quite match up with where we see Tyrion currently in the story, but I can’t say it would never happen.

However, to be clear, the way it happened in the show was just complete bullshit.

Three Stark Endings

I’m not all that mad with Arya, Jon and Sansa’s endings. I can see those being possible endings for all those characters.

My problem is again, I don’t feel like D&D put the effort into said endings, so it feels rather hollow and beyond rushed.

It feels weird to end on Arya, Jon, and Sansa in that epilogue sequence. Because other than the Crypt teaser, the three haven’t really been framed together like that.

Bran, Arya and Sansa have been showed together way more than Jon, Arya and Sansa.

It’s one thing that the rest of the show doesn’t allude to that final sequence, but it’s even more out of place that this current season doesn’t have it. This finale seems very separate from the rest of the season and it’s so weird.

It just feels weird to end on Arya, Sansa and Jon when we didn’t even get Sansa and Arya’s immediate reaction to Jon Snow’s true parentage. So, it feels like an out of place ending for them.

Also, side note, it’s weird and so imbalance how we get so many different reactions of people learning about Bran being the Three-Eyed Raven or you know, just is that way now (despite how funny those are) and Jon being a secret Targaryen and heir to the Iron Throne (AND COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD) has become this interesting tidbit, that doesn’t really matter.

We really have been cut off from the Stark’s overall POV for this last season. And seeing the Starks go off on their own, separate from one another, is less sad and rather emotionally pointless, since we never really saw the pack work together as a unit.

Tyrion, Jaime and Cersei have more of an emotional connection and dynamic together. Which is fine and enjoyable to watch, but it’s weird that the STARKS who are supposed to be the HEART of the story, don’t honestly get the same kind of treatment.

And then there is just logical and emotional fallacies in this finale.

I’m not upset that the Starks are going their separate ways, but more so that we never honestly saw them together or even working together to get their “endings.” They’re also working individually, even screwing one another over by accident.

Their endings seemed to fall into place for them, which is kind of disappointing. Or in Bran’s case, kind of sinister, especially with the implications of what happens to Jon.

Arya Exploring Lands Unknown

I can this happening or a version of it in the books. I do have a problem with Arya repeatedly saying she was never going to return North, though. I don’t know why they kept having her say that.

Also, clearly Arya had to get her Stark sails and Stark ship (with direwolf carved in) from somewhere. Did she just stay in King’s landing? Or did she return to Winterfell and leave the day before Sansa’s coronation?

That’s not really important, but maybe if the emotions matched with what we’ve been given, I wouldn’t have these small nitpicks.

Also, Arya not getting a pack in the end, her literal family or not, is just beyond disappointing and feels empty. Arya fully embracing the lone wolf idea, is just so bitter.

Sansa, Queen in the North

Sansa becoming QITN honestly feels like the must genuinely bittersweet ending.

The North is independent and she is queen and respected (sweet), but she’s alone (bitter). It’s hard to imagine Book!Sansa’s family, not being there for her big day, though.

Why wouldn’t Arya wait to leave after her sister’s coronation? Why wouldn’t Jon be there to visit?

And in the books, if this scene or something akin were to happen, we might be able to picture some Northern faces. Such as the Manderlys, the Mormonts, the Karstarks, the Umbers and Glovers and the Reeds present, so it might feel less isolating. But in the show it’s pretty lonesome.

And on the Jonsa narrative, the two haven’t been brought together in the books…so it’s hard to say what will happen or if anything at all. I still stand by the fact that their scenes in the show are really weird if the show was going for platonic siblings. Really, really weird. But one line from the books, sticks out to me…

“No one will ever marry me for love” (ASOS, Sansa VI)

Perhaps Sansa is right. Perhaps the one person who does genuinely love her and want to be with her, will never actually marry her. That seems very bittersweet to me and quite the tragic love story.

Sansa’s ending feels like it could be her ending in the books. But again, like everything else it doesn’t quite line up for Sansa either.

Jon living on the Wall/Beyond the Wall

Possible.

I am a big fan of giving a character what they always wanted, in a tragic way. And it brings Jon full circle. Back to where he wanted to be in the beginning, back to where he struggled to be, back to where he became who he is today, back to where he wanted to leave.

Why exactly he goes back to the NW is where the problem really begins (let alone there suddenly being one again). Jon being punished to appease the likes of the council (despite most of them not caring for Daenerys in the actual show) and the Unsullied, seems really just forced.

It does seem in-character for Jon to do it as a self-inflicted punishment, though. Or similar to Aemon Targaryen, giving up his right to the throne/7K to allow his younger brother to create a hopefully better place. Or perhaps, punishment for breaking his vows to the NW.

But it’s not even up to Jon in the show. His agency in his own story is barely there (as it’s been for the past season). He’s not even there when the decision is made and the person who tells him is Tyrion, not his family, nor Davos his closest advisor nor Sam is supposed best friend.

The Council scene is all about Tyrion, despite the fact a good portion of the council likes Jon, is his family, he’s the true born son of Rhaegar Targaryen and he’s the one who killed Daenerys.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel like Jon’s “destiny and super specialness for being a Targaryen” will be undercut in the books, but in the show they not only undercut it despite going overboard with it explaining how Jon is the trueborn son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, but also undercut Jon’s own arc.

Jon will likely be the last official Targaryen, finally putting the dynasty and family to rest. And him rejoining the NW or going to live beyond-the-wall with the Free Folk is a way to do that.

But of course, there’s a lot more going on in Jon’s story in the books.

There is so much King emphasis for Jon in the books, so I’m not convinced.

But perhaps Jon is the rightful King, but won’t be The King in the end by choice.

Jon shouldn’t be the king because he’s the son of Rhaegar, but time and time again, Jon has shown he is a more than capable leader willing to make the difficult choice.

In the show’s own narrative, he killed his love for his duty to the realm. And he’s punished for it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like GRRM doesn’t have this world punish people for doing the right thing, but this just doesn’t add up.

There’s a lot of talk and videos about how the show’s ending does fit into the prophecies (book & show) and Jon was the only one capable of killing Daenerys, because he’s a Targaryen (Drogon letting him pass). But that is a terrible take away. Jon shouldn’t be special or be the only one capable to save the world from Daenerys because of who he is genetically, it should be because of who Jon is as a person.

And in regards to a Jonsa narrative. Similar to Sansa’s ending, Jon and Sansa have yet to reunite in the books so it’s hard to say. But let’s say some feelings and so on do develop in the books, this time, him returning to NW might be with a much heavier heart. Now he knows what he’s giving up and losing, now he knows what he’ll never have. That’s tragic and an ending to talk and cry about.

I can see Jon getting this ending or one akin to it in the books. But how GRRM goes about it is everything. Though honestly, just having Jon choose would be a huge improvement.

How they went about it in the show and Jon’s overall passiveness to his own narrative, just ruined it. He literally has to be convinced by Tyrion (and Arya) that Daenerys is a threat, despite already seemingly coming to that conclusion the previous few episodes.

Again, I know I’m repeating myself. The final montage of Jon isn’t the problem it’s how the narrative got there.

Daenerys’ Death/Mad Queen

Probably won’t go down like it did in the show, but it will happen in the books.

I’ve seen a couple of Essays and Videos of how to fix the final season, mostly with making NK being the big bad and Daenerys the true Queen of Westeros.

Which I think just shows how much people love Daenerys and how badly rushed Mad/Dark Dany was in the final season and I would argue how it felt like even the narrative wasn’t fully believing it.

Mostly with how Jon seemed to be frustrated, horrified and upset with Daenerys one moment and then in the next moment he’s willing to justify her actions and still somehow believe that Sansa and Arya would bend the knee or that Daenerys would allow Sansa to live after Sansa purposely told Tyrion the truth about Jon.

The build-up for Dark!Dany is there, people can’t just say it wasn’t. Daenerys has struggled with her two sides for quite some time. But, at the same time, if you need a whole meta conversation to explain and justify to your audience why this makes sense (Tyrion and Jon scene), you didn’t do a great job in sticking the landing.

The problem is that the show, in my opinion, has been building up to a different kind of Mad Queen. One who was absolutely ruthless, but wasn’t self-aware and starting to see any dislike or criticism as an act of treason. Getting increasingly frustrated, everytime she does the right thing or doesn’t use her dragons, she isn’t rewarded for it. And when she does use them, she gets her way (so why shouldn’t she use them?)

And to be fair, we did kind of get this…but also we didn’t. They kept “justifying” Daenerys’ actions. Or blame her ruthlessness on her mental state or recent events, but then they also back track on that.

So, it just seems like the showrunners weren’t entirely sure with which Mad Queen they wanted.

They go all the way with it, but then they take several steps back, but that just leads to more problems. For showrunners and a show that really does love GRRM for those gut-wrenching twists (Ned’s execution, Red Wedding, Hold the Door), they seemed to be so nervous and hesitant with the big and final gut-wrenching “twist.”

When Tyrion is a prisoner, his and Jon’s scene just doesn’t work. In my opinion, it might’ve worked better if Tyrion was the speaker for the audience and Jon wasn’t.

Tyrion has been trying to justify Daenerys time and time again and has felt like that audience view point for quite some time. But honestly that scene just doesn’t really work. Neither of them at that point should need convincing.

Daenerys death will likely be tragic and sympathetic in the books as well be done by Jon. She is a tragic character.

Unlike some of the other villains of the show, Jaime and Cersei for instance, where we first see them as villains and then with their POVs (and others) we see the humanity they’ve always had. They aren’t monsters, but complicated and messed up people who are more than capable of monstrous acts.

Daenerys is the reverse of that. We always had her POV, we always had access to her humanity. We see her as this sympathetic and abused princess at first and we see her grown to being this complicated character, who is genuine and well-intentioned, but also rather ruthless and is hardening herself for the Iron Throne.

We will likely see her as a ruthless villain in the end, maybe even mad, but I think GRRM’s intention is for us to also remember Daenerys when we first met her and see how far gone she is and also think of what could’ve been.

The throne room works and doesn’t work.

I love the House of Undying coming true and us realizing what it means or getting confirmation for it means. See that’s how you tie your show back the previous seasons, you don’t just reference previous lines in current scenes, to make it seem like you had this all planned out.

We see Daenerys as vulnerable and open, but also batshit crazy. She’s elated and happy she’s won, but completely oblivious to the death and destruction and villainy she just committed and had committed in her name. It works.

But it doesn’t, because it’s also a different kind of mad queen to the one that they’ve building up to and also even a different one from “The Bells.”

And Daenerys being thrilled and happy to see Jon could’ve also work.

Daenerys is so elated and happy she’s won now, that Jon’s claim doesn’t even matter to her, because she feels invincible So she’s more than willing to “rule together.” That could’ve worked… It really could’ve and shown how far gone Daenerys is.

But it doesn’t quite, mostly because Arya and Tyrion literally in the same episode tell Jon that he’s going to be next, because Daenerys will see him as a threat. Hell, Daenerys and Jon have a (not sexy) tensed filled moment, after her speech to her army.

Forget the rest of the season (you shouldn’t as this should all feel like one whole story) but all the scenes in the finale should definitely feel cohesive and consistent to the narrative. But it still feels like they are trying to do multiple things and they can’t, they don’t have the time.

Jon & Dany

I think their relationship will be complicated to say the very least in the books.

Daenerys with her desire for a true family and a true companion battling with her ever growing paranoia and lust for power and the Iron Throne. And more than likely her having encounter F!Aegon before Jon, which will likely go very bad, so her meeting another Secret Targaryen after that is just rife for conflict.

And Jon, I actually see Jon turning a blind-eye or ignoring some red flags about Daenerys, not necessarily because he loves her, but because he thinks he needs those dragons to defeat the Others.

Only for him to realize that they weren’t the key to defeating the Others like he thought and him realizing what he’s given power to, was all for naught.

The show has shades of that, but kind of just abandons it.

Jon might struggle with killing Daenerys in the books, as well. Killing isn’t easy and we shouldn’t’ want our heroes to be able to kill easily.

And Jon might also love Daenerys in the books or see her as a sympathetic human who is not quite the villain others make her out to be, but certainly not innocent.

Him seemingly flip-flopping from seeing her as ruthless Tyrant to the love of his life, from scene to scene, not so much.

I don’t see Jon killing Daenerys because of his love for her, if Book!Jon does love her, it will be despite it (what they were going for in the show, but not really succeeding with).

To be fair, their final scene is honestly the most romantic scene (stabbing aside) of these two. I believe that they both do love one another and it’s 100% doomed. If they had this level of feelings and consistency for all their previous scenes together, insead of Jon side-eyeing Daenerys and looking frustrated and unable to saying anything about her other than the vague “she’s our queen/she’ll be a good queen”, I would fully believe this tragic love.

Just to be clear, a fictional couple’s most romantic and believable scene being the very same one where of them kills the other is very bad.

But I think, Jon killing Daenerys in the books, is less “despite his love for her”, and more for the love of his (other) family, to protect them. Because that love is stronger. I think that will be more explicit in the books, than in the show.

Jon killing Daenerys not necessarily due to his feelings or lack of feelings for her, but because of his love for the Starks. It’s not so much about Daenerys (which is quite tragic), but the threat she poses to Jon’s family.

Daenerys will be betrayed for love. Meaning the person will do it out of love, most likely not out of love for her.

Cersei and Jaime’s Death

Highly unlikely.

Book!Cersei is a lot more mad and more incompetent than Show!Cersei and I think will be far more desperate in the end. I do think Jaime will return to Cersei in the books. Even to save her in the end, but depending on where Cersei is mentally at the point, she might be 100% willing to set the entire city on fire with Wildfire.

I think if you combined the Throne Room scene of Jon and Daenerys (X) with the Jaime/Cersei scene in the dungeons/caves, you basically get show!Valonquar scene, which might be the case in the books.

But it’s hard to say.

Cersei is definitely going to die. Jaime is more up for debate.

This was a lot longer than I ever intended and far more of a rambling rant and tangent, so I apologize (in case anyone ever reads this far down).

It’s not like some of these ending don’t or can’t work for the characters, it just feels like D&D didn’t put the effort into them and it feels like they learned that this was going to be the ending right before they shot the final episode.

It shouldn’t feel like that. Other seasons aside (we shouldn’t, but let’s give them the best chance), this final season should be one consistent and cohesive story narratively. The characters changing their minds and perspetives on things, should make sense.

Sansa in season 1 goes from loving Joffrey to willing to do anything to stay with him, to fully willing to push him off a ledge. And it works. Because Joffrey beheaded her father. It makes sense.

Cersei in season 8, goes from apparently sending Bronn to kill Jaime and Tyrion to being so happy to see Jaime and scared that Jaime is hurt when she reunites with him. And I’m not saying, what Cersei is witnessing at that moment (burning of King’s Landing, castle crumbling down) won’t change her perspective, but it still feels very jarring and sudden.

Daenerys goes from feeling threatened by Jon’s parentage to begging him (and implied threatening him) to keep it a secret no matter the cost to Jon and we have several characters repeat that she’s not going to want to rule with him, to her final scene being so happy to be with Jon and willing to rule together. And again, maybe her winning the throne makes her feel invincible even to Jon’s claim, but it feels sudden and jarring.

And Jon...just all over the place.

Okay I’m done.

#Game of throne #GOT #GOT finale #GOT ending #ASOIAF #D&D #david benioff #D.b. weiss #bran stark #Jon Snow #Daenerys Targaryen #Tyrion Lannister #Arya Stark #Sansa Stark #Cersei Lannister #Jaime Lannister #GRRM #George R.R. Martin

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pyropsychiccollector · 6 years ago

Text

Invel sighed exasperatedly as he trudged through the city of Hargeon, subzero winds and temperatures trailing in his wake. A flurry of snow and ice coated the people and buildings, practically turning them into ice sculptures. He had not expected to reach his destination so soon, but apparently Irene had disregarded His Majesty’s orders and employed her experimental Magic to tip the scales in their favor… Not that it mattered to her, since she had to have realized by now Emperor Spriggan had perished.

“I-Invel…?”

The ice mage raised an eyebrow as he halted and stared at the once proud Spriggan Shield crawling on the ground, arms still tied behind her back and cuffed with Anti-Magic restraints.

“Dimaria. Seems this operation was too much for you to handle.” Hands clasped behind his back, and looking every bit like a teacher scolding a student, Invel shook his head in disappointment. Dimaria hissed furiously at him.

“Don’t look down your nose at me, bastard…! What have you contributed?!”

Invel sighed theatrically.

“More than you. I’ve immobilized the enemy forces that have shuffled here as a result of Irene’s mischief.” He cut the ropes that bound Dimaria’s arms. The blonde looked up at him with an awed expression, not moving from her spot.

“Universe One…? Lady Irene really used it?!”

Invel’s gaze turned skyward.

“Indeed. You should have realized it yourself, after the intense Magic built up in the atmosphere. It was most certainly Irene’s Magic…”

Dimaria winced as she rose to her feet, glaring at Invel half-heartedly as she did so.

“You’re not going to get into a big shpeal about how she went out of line…?”

The ice mage scoffed at the notion.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures. Though our victory is a foregone conclusion, we have suffered… setbacks.” He muttered distastefully, turning to the side, away from Dimaria.

“You don’t say…” Dimaria rolled her eyes.

“Four Spriggan Shields have perished. Four.” Invel waspishly shot back, surprising Dimaria. “What’s more, we have lost our Emperor to this scum. We have no other recourse but to reunite the twelve and capture Fairy Heart. After that, we’ll exterminate Ishgar and Acnologia together, just as His Majesty commanded us to do.”

Dimaria went rigid as Invel revealed the worst news. It just wasn’t possible.

“The Emperor died?! Don’t fuck with me…! He’s immortal…!”

Invel coldly glared back at her.

“You can reject reality like an obnoxious child if that’s what you’d prefer, but the rest of us will be living in the real world. I saw it myself. His Majesty’s most vile creation came to end his life – wiped out nearly 100,000 of the men in the Western flank – and mortally wounded the Emperor with a Hellfire that I have never seen before. It was the most shameful sin of my life to follow His Majesty’s will and allow END to endanger him. But I will carry the burden of that blight on my soul… so long as I am able to fulfill His Majesty’s will for this wretched world. Ishgar and Acnologia will fall, that I have promised.”

Dimaria’s body trembled as her hands curled into fists. So the Emperor was truly dead… It would feel amazing to slaughter these Ishgar mages for that insult alone… But it did trouble her that Acnologia was still, in fact, a threat. Who was supposed to wield the Fairy Heart, now that His Majesty was no longer an option?

“Seems like events have been unfolding into a most fascinating tale…” A figure dropped down in a crouch from a nearby roof, but neither Dimaria nor Invel tensed at feeling his familiar presence.

“Neinhart.” Invel tersely acknowledged the man. “You look in better shape than Dimaria.”

Dimaria’s hackles rose at the insult to her honor, but she stayed her tongue. The fact it was a teenage girl that put her in such an embarrassing state was humiliating enough.

“Oh, the bastard landed a solid hit on me, I’ll give him that…” Neinhart bitterly admitted. “Still, they should have killed me when they had the chance, rather than show mercy… A coward’s attempt at ‘honor in combat.’”

“The Emperor did suggest this was a weakness of theirs… We will have to educate them just how fatal their naiveté is. Neinhart, when we reach Magnolia, you will summon the deceased Spriggan members. The full might of the Spriggan 12 will be put on full display!”

With this declaration, the three of them began their trek, which would most assuredly be short, given Irene’s meddling with the geography.

“You think she will have arranged the troops for us?” Dimaria questioned. Invel nodded sternly.

“Irene is a shrewd tactician. The best strategy for us would be to arrange all of our forces throughout and around Magnolia, while we harvest the Fairy Heart.”

“Thousands upon thousands of soldiers… All gathered in one place.” Neinhart grinned. “They were having a tough time as it was holding us back. No way they’ll be able to break through to save their precious weapon!”

Invel pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“This will be the final decisive battle… After we’re done with Ishgar, we’ll slay Acnologia, as planned.”

~*~

- Not even an hour ago… -

Cobra sighed with his arms and legs crossed as he sat on top of Happy’s enlarged head. The three of them were flying on this furball to the East to confront the toughest guy in Alvarez, and he had elected to come along because he caught wind of Mest’s less-than-honorable plans. He didn’t like knocking out a member of Fairy Tail, but Mest’s idiocy would’ve resulted in death, for sure… At least, if Brandish’s boasts of August were true.

“Oi, would you stop flippin’ out, blondie? Yeesh. You’re probably the last person I would’ve picked to represent Fairy Tail…” He rolled his eye as the Celestial Wizard squawked at him indignantly.

“STOP READING MY MIND, JERK!”

Brandish lazily eyed Lucy even as she nuzzled contentedly in Happy’s fur.

“He’s got a point. If you act nervous around August, he’s not going to take my request very seriously. And it’s going to be hard enough explaining His Majesty’s demise without your jitters make you seem suspicious…”

Lucy visibly deflated at Brandish’s words of wisdom.

“I know…” She sighed, head hanging low. “I just wish Erza, Gray, or even Mira could have come along instead of me… They’d be totally more level-headed about this, and would definitely know what to say to this guy.”

Brandish squished her cheek against the pleasurably soft fur.

“Just be yourself. Show him respect, but don’t try to sugarcoat it. If we want a chance of convincing him, he needs to get a good read on you as a person. He’s easier to negotiate with compared to Irene, but that doesn’t mean he lacks pride as a warrior for the Alvarez kingdom. Be ready to answer some tough questions.”

Lucy shrank in on herself even more.

“Just great…” She cried exaggeratedly.

Cobra frowned slightly as he eyed the green-haired buxom woman shrewdly. Before he could voice his next questions, however, a giant wave of magical presence overwhelmed their senses, and they knew just what that indicated. Staring down below, they locked eyes with the elder mage, who did not miss a giant flying cat in the sky. Lucy was frozen in absolute terror, unable to speak.

“August, the King of Magic…” Brandish murmured, conveying many emotions while maintaining eye contact with her comrade.

Cobra bit back a small grimace, marginally more composed than Lucy.

‘Definitely bad news… If we can’t make an ally out of this guy, we are screwed.’ The maroon-haired Dragon Slayer thought to himself grimly.

Soon enough, Happy touched down, and Brandish shrank him so they could disembark. The Dragon Slayer and the Celestial Wizard stood to the right and left behind Brandish, respectively. Lucy felt jittery as she poked her fingers together, while Cobra elected to stuff his hands in his pockets. For the Dragon Slayer, they were already in the lion’s den when they sensed this man’s presence; if they were going to die, there was nothing they could do about it.

As for Brandish, she kept a completely neutral expression on her face as she faced her comrade without hesitation.

“What are you playing at, Brandish?” August finally asked, ending the tense silence that pervaded the air.

“I have come to negotiate with you, August.” Brandish answered freely. The elder mage arched an eyebrow at her candor.

“Has Jacob been killed?”

Cobra pondered whether to answer that one, but Brandish cut him off before he could open his mouth.

“He was defeated at the hands of this man here.” She lightly nudged her head back at Cobra. “He isn’t dead, but he’s been taken prisoner. What of God Serena? He should have been with you.”

August clasped a hand over his heart solemnly.

“He’s here with me.” He answered simply. His gaze intensified, making Lucy shiver. Cobra would have joined her, but he was using every ounce of self-control to not let August’s presence overwhelm him. August continued, “Now then, do you mind clarifying what you meant by ‘negotiate’?”

Brandish took a deep breath before getting into the meat of it.

“I would like you to halt your advance.” Brandish made her plea. August, too, breathed heavily through his nose as he tried deciphering Brandish’s motivations.

“From what I can gather, it doesn’t appear you’ve been tortured… Am I to interpret this as betrayal?”

Brandish shook her head solemnly.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. I am and always will be a loyal citizen of Alvarez, through and through. It’s just… I cannot find any meaning in this war.” She voiced her doubts as clearly as possible.

August’s face became grave as he glared at Brandish.

“Those very words are in direct betrayal of His Majesty’s will. Need I remind you we Spriggan 12 have dedicated our minds, bodies, and souls to His Majesty? If, in spite of that, you still cannot comprehend why you must fight for his cause… Then you are nothing more than an enemy who must be eliminated.”

Lucy grew ghastly pale with how oppressive the atmosphere had become. Even Brandish had lost color in her cheeks, but she stood her ground. Cobra clenched a fist in his pocket, gritted his teeth to steel himself, and looked August in the eye.

“… About that.” He breathed steadily to take control of his nerves as all eyes were on him now. “Your ‘Emperor’ was killed not too long ago… Apparently by his brother, a Dragon Slayer in this country by the name of Natsu Dragneel.”

August’s eyes widened at this bit of news. Brandish knew that was quite the feat to accomplish; and she too braced herself for August’s potential rage at this bit of news. She hadn’t known how to approach that topic… and perhaps that was why Cobra had taken one for the team in relaying that information.

“His Majesty… is no more?” August’s voice was eerily quiet, his expression now indecipherable.

“A-Aye…” Happy spoke up for the first time since arriving. “I heard Zeref say that if Natsu killed him, Natsu would die, too… And Natsu definitely died!! I tried to stop him, but Natsu killed Zeref anyway!”

Tears streamed down Happy’s face as he sniffed, looking up at August. It didn’t matter to him if August killed him out of spite… He’d already lost Natsu, and that was painful enough.

August’s face hardened, which was exactly what they had all dreaded.

“If His Majesty has passed on, then there is even less reason to spare these people, Brandish. You know this.”

Finally locating some more resolve within her, Brandish shook her head swiftly as she stared right back at August unflinchingly.

“On the contrary. You know as well as I… that His Majesty had a secret desire kept hidden from most of his subjects… The very reason he went away for all those years was because he was struggling with himself, whether he should live or die!” Her voice was raw with emotion. It was difficult for her, too. Zeref had taken her in and shown her how to use Magic after her mother passed away… But even she could not deny that he harbored a suicidal nature. Because he had been forced to endure centuries of immortality…

“…” August didn’t say a word as Brandish became more sure of herself. Again, it was impossible to see or feel what he might be thinking… Not even Cobra could hear his thoughts.

“Please, August… list to me. What His Majesty attempted to achieve is absolute genocide, and nothing less. The Dragon King Festival… Ragnarok… Call it whatever you like, but in the end, it amounts to nothing but a one-sided massacre! This war is nothing but murder. It’s not a clash of noble ideals between our two countries… Surely you can tell that much?”

August stared down at the ground, deep in rumination. Lucy and Happy looked on hopefully, while Cobra was a little more guarded in his expectations. Brandish pressed on with her pleas.

“I know that among the twelve, none are wiser than you. That is why you must realize at the end of the fight, there will be no future! All that awaits us… is an empty abyss…”

August looked back up at Brandish with another unreadable expression.

“Where we are headed at the conclusion of this battle was to be decided by His Majesty. With him now deceased, it falls to us to finish what he started – whether you like it or not, he decided to…” His mouth became a thin, grim line as Brandish cut him off shrilly.

“Think for yourself!!!”

“M…Maybe you shouldn’t have laid it on so thick… Just a thought…” Lucy winced, hiding behind Brandish. But the Spriggan Shield ignored her.

“That is what I have decided to do…” She turned to the side so there was nothing between Lucy and August as the elder mage stared her down. “I have reached the conclusion that these people are not evil… far from it.”

“Th-Thanks…!” Lucy sweatdropped as she tried not to wilt under August’s intense gaze.

August turned his attention to Cobra first, however.

“You were the one that defeated Jacob… Tell me. Did you take him alive to use as a hostage? Or were you perhaps too weak of heart to end his life?”

Cobra kept his expression firm and made sure to look August directly in the eye. He knew that this was a crucial query.

“Listen, I’m no seraphic saint. Blondie here can tell you that I used to be a scumbag of a criminal… And maybe I still am. Who can honestly say whether I’ve atoned for all the shit I committed as a member of Oracion Seis? I’m the Poison Dragon Slayer, for fuck’s sake. That should tell you how many lives I’ve taken.” He shook his head somewhat exasperatedly as Lucy wordlessly begged him to shut his trap. Even Brandish was looking at him in shock because of his frankness. “But… As for that Jacob guy… Kami knows I didn’t take him down just to hold him over your head. You wanna take him back? I won’t stop you. That said, the rest of those Fairies? They’ll probably try, but only if you aggress them. They could probably understand how you feel about camaraderie – that whole Guild is about friendship, harmony, and all that crap. But it’s because they’re so honorable that they hold that Jacob guy prisoner. ‘Cause he basically held the Guild hostage to get what you guys wanted.”

“…” August fell silent again as he pondered Cobra’s words. Brandish took this opportunity to press her advantage in the negotiations.

“You see? Even a former criminal was able to come this far, thanks to Fairy Tail. If you would just talk with these mages of Ishgar, I am certain you would see they mean us no ill will. They fight because we struck first. They invaded our land because we had their Guildmaster as our effective prisoner. August, I beg you… at least try talking with them.”

August took one final deep breath, once he had mulled over Brandish’s plea for negotiation.

“Well… I suppose… I would sooner listen to what they have to say than make a fool out of you, Brandish.” August nodded his head slowly, stiffly. “As leader of the twelve, it falls to me to decide how we proceed from here.”

Lucy heaved a sigh of relief as Happy cheered, and even Cobra’s mouth twitched up a little the tiniest bit. But even so, from what August could discern from them, it was all genuine; they knew by his reputation that fighting him would be suicide, so he was used to such reactions. It was Brandish’s reaction that perplexed him the most.

“You’re the best, Grandpa~!” Brandish cutely mewled as she looked up at him gleefully. August frowned at the title.

“I have no recollection of you ever being my granddaughter…” He remarked dryly.

“But to me, you’ve always been my Grandpa~!” Brandish chirped adorably. Lucy sweatdropped as she hoped and prayed to all deities out there that Brandish’s eccentricity wouldn’t ruin their chances of negotiation… Cobra just sighed as he raked fingers through his hair.

“As touching as this is… Makarov is gonna want in on these negotiations. Is it acceptable to move this meeting to Fairy Tail…?”

Lucy stared gobsmacked at Cobra speaking for all three of them. But she dared not speak contradictory to him, after he’d made that offer. August raised his eyebrow at the Dragon Slayer.

“You would invite me, even though that was my destination to begin with…?”

Cobra shrugged nonchalantly.

“Call it a token of goodwill and trust. I’m not exactly fit to speak for a Guild I’m not even a part of… And blondie there is just a plain ol’ member, not even S-Class. I don’t think it’s proper for us to make promises that Makarov might decide we aren’t able to keep…”

August nodded indulgently.

“I see your point… Lead the way, then.”

They hadn’t even made it a few feet before something was obviously wrong. Something strange was in the air… Like some Magic was taking hold of all the land in Fiore.

“Wh-What is this…?!” Lucy yelped, looking around in bewilderment.

Brandish and August appeared they were in the know, and it was August who was the most severe…

“Irene, you wouldn’t dare cast that Magic…!”

“Universe One…” Brandish murmured.

Before Cobra could even ask what ‘Universe One’ was, there was a bright light that blinded them and eclipsed everything around them, even the landscape. And then they knew no more…

~*~

- Present –

Laxus massaged his head as he sat up. The last thing he remembered was taking down Wahl, and then he needed to lay down for a while, since he was recently cured of those Barrier Particles in that same battle. Looking around the forest he was suddenly now in, he sighed tiredly and wondered just how the hell he ended up here. He stood up and donned his coat, which wasn’t far out of reach.

“It seems you’ve made a full recovery…”

Laxus craned his head around at the source of the voice. The figure approached casually, and the Dragon Slayer knew there was no need to fight once he registered the hair and face.

“Ahh, Mystogan. Or… Jellal, I suppose I should say. You have any idea what’s going on?”

Jellal shook his head, regrettably.

“I would wager that the enemy somehow changed the landscape to fit their advantage. We aren’t near Hargeon anymore; instead, I believe Magnolia is close at hand.”

Laxus’s mouth gaped slightly.

“Magnolia…? That’s one hell of a Spell for them to just whip out… If they could do that, why not do so in the beginning?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know any of the details,” Jellal remarked. “It’s a very new type of Magic, since I had never even heard of something of this scale in legends… But my senses don’t lie. We’ve definitely been moved around, geographically. And I imagine it’s not just us – there’s no point in setting just the two of us back in Magnolia; Alvarez doesn’t want anything from Hargeon, and Kagura and many others are still powerful enough to deal with the threat in Hargeon.”

Laxus crossed his arms patiently.

“You’re right… None of it adds up, unless their purpose was to move their own forces into Magnolia and take our First Master… Or more accurately, the ‘Fairy Heart’, which houses our First Master’s body… it’s got infinite Magical power.”

Jellal’s eyes widened a bit in realization before he inclined his head.

“I see… So that is one of their goals in this war. I had not heard that bit of information yet…”

“Yeah, well, we weren’t going to drag anyone into this struggle in the first place, but it kind of got too big for one little Guild to handle, when Alvarez threw everything our way. In order to survive, getting help from the other Guilds was necessary. Having Crime Sorciere’s power backing us up will also be appreciated.”

“Since Natsu did the difficult part and killed Zeref, the least we can do is help crush Zeref’s forces.” Jellal affirmed. “Meldy and I were helping out in Hargeon, while the former Oracion Seis were headed for the battlefield in the North.”

Laxus grimaced slightly and dipped his head respectfully, shutting his eyes.

“I see, you heard about that Pyro as well…”

“The enemy brought him back to fight Erza,” Jellal revealed, causing Laxus to growl in rage.

“Bastards… Alvarez has a lot to answer for!”

Their discussion was broken up as a few more joined their party.

“Heeey! Laxus!” Wendy called out to her fellow Dragon Slayer as Charle carried Chelia over her shoulder, and Gray, Juvia, and Lyon walked beside them.

“Jellal, too?” Gray mumbled, hands stuffed in his pockets. “You guys know where we are?”

“Close to Magnolia.” Jellal answered. “We’re going to need to head straight there; I have a feeling that Alvarez has rearranged the board in their favor, so now we will have to take back Fairy Tail.”

“You really think Alvarez has that much power to cast such a Spell?” Lyon wondered, skeptically.

“It’d have to be someone from their side…” Charle mused. “No one we know has a kind of Magic that can move us from Hargeon to Magnolia…”

“It must be one of the Spriggan 12.” Juvia stated, frowning.

Lightning crackled around Laxus’s fist as he clenched it at chest level.

“It doesn’t matter what they did… They messed with our friends, our Guilds, so they’re not gonna get any mercy from me. Let’s head home… to Fairy Tail.”

~*~

“Wh…What is this…?! Everyone’s gone again?!” Mavis asked in horror as she once again stood in a Guildhall bereft of anyone. She could feel some bizarre Spell had been cast… But it was on such a wide scale that Mavis couldn’t believe such a Spell existed.

And she’d been so happy when Cana had managed to free her body from that crystal, too… But now, she was alone again…

“My, my… That’s very rude. I’m here, you know.”

Mavis gasped as a scarlet-haired woman, dressed like a witch, casually strode into the Guildhall. The strange woman’s Magic power was incredible… obscene… It was on an entirely different scale from that assassin’s strength, and he’d been more powerful than Makarov!

“Y-You…!” Mavis choked out, but the redhead wagged her finger.

“I wouldn’t get any ideas about trying to escape… Why don’t you come outside, and see for yourself?” Turning on her heel, the woman exited the doors to the Guildhall. Reluctantly, Mavis found herself slowly following after her. The sight she saw next… chilled her to the bone.

The landscape in Magnolia had been shifted greatly. The Guild was now on top of a hill, and at least one million soldiers were arrayed in an overwhelming formation at the base of the hill, easily encircling it. What’s more, there were some others just outside the Guildhall… a couple of them had even been locked up, in the Guild’s prison.

“Your comrades are currently making their way here, in order to take back the Guild.” The woman told Mavis, placing a hand on the blonde’s shoulder. “I do wonder, will they be able to break through our defenses? I cannot wait to find out~…”

Ajeel cackled.

“Not a chance in Hell!!! Not as long as Ajeel the Great is here, standing in their way!”

Jacob snorted beside him.

“That so, bigshot? I seem to recall you losing quite pathetically…”

“Look who’s talking, asshole!!” Ajeel fired back. He then donned a terrifying grin. “That fluke ain’t gonna happen again.”

“Naturally…” Jacob darkly agreed.

August strode up to Irene and slammed his staff on the ground. Brandish trailed behind him.

“Irene… you are out of line! His Majesty forbade you from using Universe One… and you know why.” The elder mage glowered at her, which Irene met with an even stare.

“His Majesty was killed, thus leaving the leadership of Alvarez in the hands of the Spriggan 12… And I have captured our target. You have no room to criticize me, O Mighty King~…” The redhead demurely responded. August’s face darkened.

“I am the General of the Spriggan 12, Irene, not you… And I gave my word to the mages of Fairy Tail that I would be open to negotiations. This war has taken a toll on both sides.”

“Truly?” Irene’s grip tightened on Mavis’s shoulder. “You, of all people, would forgive the fact they murdered our Emperor in cold blood…? And what’s more, you would abandon your pledge to make his will for this world a reality?”

The air between the two strongest mages of Alvarez grew frigid and heavy as they glared at each other. Mavis, Brandish, Jacob, and Ajeel were frozen in place with how much tension there was. But then, as if to break the stalemate, Invel’s voice cut in like a knife.

“I am afraid you are the one out of line, Magic King…” He stopped a short distance from the two, hands clasped behind his back. Dimaria and Neinhart were both behind him. “With His Majesty’s demise, it falls to us to avenge him, as well as kill Acnologia and humanity, such as his will dictated. There is absolutely no reason to even entertain ‘negotiations’…”

August slammed his staff on the ground once more, asserting his authority.

“I, too, followed His Majesty’s will unconditionally… But we must also remember: His Majesty wished to die. For centuries as he traveled the world and built Alakitasia from the ground up… his one and only wish was to have his immortal life extinguished. This desire to eradicate humanity and Acnologia together… was borne from the bitter despair of being unable to perish. We have no reason to carry out genocide, when his true dream was finally realized!”

Invel sighed airily, inclining his head slightly as his eyes closed.

“Such hubris, from our so-called mightiest mage…The circumstances for His Majesty’s desire for genocide are immaterial. It was his will that we would rise up and defeat Acnologia. And it was also his will that we would crush Ishgar under our heel…” Invel’s eyes snapped open as he coldly glared at August. “You are unfit to lead the Spriggan 12, if you can no longer recognize that much. You are relieved of your position as ‘General’…”

August’s eyes narrowed.

“You would dare to presume to have such authority, Invel? Only His Majesty wielded that right…”

“Zeref is dead, and so the leadership falls to you, me, and Irene.” Invel spoke matter-of-factly. He eyed the scarlet-haired woman. “Tell me, Irene, what is your opinion on this subject? Do you believe August is fit to lead?”

Irene grinned darkly as she did a small curtsy.

“Oh, I certainly agree, Invel… The Magic King does speak some bizarre things. I have sent Acnologia far away with Universe One, and Fairy Heart is within our grasp.” She placed her hand on top of Mavis’s head and gripped harshly. “We should begin the harvest of Fairy Heart immediately.”

Invel nodded sternly.

“Agreed. I will leave that task to you, and oversee our defenses personally.” Invel then regarded August once more. “You have this one chance to help us willingly, August… If you will not cooperate, I will find ways to persuade you.”

August’s face darkened once more, and he raised his staff to cast a Spell, but he was distracted when Brandish cried out in pain from behind him. He turned, alarmed, and witnessed one of Invel’s slave collars around her neck.

“Invel…!” August’s voice boomed with authority, but the ice mage wasn’t having any of it.

“It is no secret to us that, no matter how trivial that intimacy may be, you are close enough with Brandish that you would not see her harmed in any way…” Invel replied frostily. August knew he was not bluffing; he could make Brandish kill herself, so long as she had that collar on. “Now do as I say, and crush Fairy Tail alongside us!”

August shook with unbridled rage, but for the moment, he did keep himself in check… With a ferocious snarl, the Magic King stormed off. Only once August had gone did Invel release Brandish.

“The same will apply to you, Brandish… We will need every member of the twelve for this operation to succeed. I would rather not have to force my hand…” He spoke with a clinical coolness before striding off, himself. Brandish glared holes in the back of his head, but did not pursue him. Dimaria was the next one to approach her.

“Randi…” Dimaria greeted.

“Mari.” Brandish greeted back.

“I had heard you were captured. They didn’t treat you horribly, did they?”

“No…” Brandish responded tersely, and widened her eyes when Dimaria abruptly wrapped her in a hug.

“I won’t say any of those awful and cruel things to you ever again!” Dimaria sobbed. “I’m gonna pay those fiends back tenfold for laying their hands on you…!”

Brandish could say nothing in response to Dimaria’s emotional display. She was still so shocked by how quickly things were spiraling out of control, and she was still so angry with Invel disrespecting August and threatening her life… Even if she was still a loyal citizen of Alvarez, she was not loyal to Invel anymore… No matter how much he asserted his authority as Chief of Staff.

A light glowed nearby, as Larcade Dragneel was summoned by Neinhart.

“Friendship is one of the world’s greatest beauties…” The strange man chuckled to himself.

Mavis whirled on the man as she got a feel for his power.

‘That person’s Magic… What on Earthland… just what nature of Magic is that?!’

Irene smirked, still gripping Mavis tightly.

“Larcade was supposed to be the proverbial secret weapon, in His Majesty’s initial designs… Sadly, now that he is but a Historia, that potential has diminished to being just a strong fighter for us… I very much doubt he could defeat Acnologia in his current condition.” The redhead mused.

Neinhart could feel some sweat drip down his face as he conjured the other three Historias.

“Conjuring four Spriggan 12 members’ worth of Historias certainly takes its toll on me, I must admit…”

Bloodman cackled.

“I see… So I hath returned from the depths of the underworld…”

“Well, well, would ya look at this… the twelve have all gathered together… Ahyahyahya!!” Wahl cackled as well.

God Serena did a little eccentric dance of his own.

“Hmm…! Ho, ho, ho!” The Dragon Slayer struck a pose. “God Serena of the Eight Dragons… has been resurrected!”

Neinhart growled as he glared at the four Historias.

“I would like to remind you four that you’re already long dead. I’d advise you to protect me diligently, lest you disappear from the living realm… permanently…”

“Just leave it to godly me!” Serena boasted arrogantly.

Irene made a grandiose gesture with her free hand.

“One million soldiers… the twelve all reunited… Truly a magnificent sight to behold!”

Invel walked to the edge of the hill, hands still behind him.

“We have assembled a perfect, impenetrable battle formation… Do you still dare to come here, Fairy Tail?” He asked rhetorically. His tone took on a frigid tone once more. “I shall not allow you to see tomorrow…”

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echodrops · 6 years ago

Text

Issues with Voltron Season 6 (Part 2)

A continuation of my extremely long vent about the most recent Voltron season.

<- Part 1 is back here.

This time, it’s all about Lotor!

3) Lotor’s entire character makes no sense.

This is such a mess that I really don’t even know where to start. I’m just gonna make a bullet list and then try to break things down from there:

Lotor’s endless drive to harvest quintessence is never grounded in a visible need; therefore, the extent to which he is willing to go to get that power feels entirely unjustified.

The executive producers, VAs, and the show itself went out of their way to flat out tell us that Lotor is a “genuine” character who meant well and really did want to bring peace to the universe--which leads to the frightening conclusion that the EPs think someone who engages in genocide can actually be genuine about wanting peace.

Lotor’s casual disregard for life is utterly at odds with someone who would genuinely want peace--and even more at odds for someone who had actual Alteans to learn from, which leaves the viewers confused about his motives in a way that is terrible for young watchers and bad even for older viewers.

The extent to which the rift influenced Lotor’s actions throughout the course of his life is never clarified, leaving viewers completely unsure whether he would have taken any of the actions he did without the influence of the rift. Clone Shiro in this season tells us the rift only amplifies evil that already exists--ergo, Lotor is, contrary to everything we’ve been told--not genuine about wanting peace and is, instead, at his core, evil. The conflicting messages here are ridiculously unorganized.

Lotor’s desperation to regard himself as a member of the Altean race is almost unspeakably horrific in retrospect, and the fact that the show went so far out of its way to portray him as a person who saw himself as Altean and nevertheless chose to murder them by the thousands is disturbing in the extreme. Even more unsavory are the implications this entire thing has for mixed-race people, since the show also went out of its way to treat Lotor as a mixed-race character--and then gave him absolutely nowhere to fit in. And that’s not even mentioning the implications for abuse survivors...

The idea that Lotor’s feelings for Allura were real is so gross I almost can’t even bear it--and this as someone who was FIRMLY on the Lotura ship before season six. If you can go from claiming you love someone to wanting to kill them in one line of dialogue, your feelings weren’t real! That’s all there is to it. “But he was corrupted by the rift!” Except the rift only amplifies what was already there, right?

Okay so, let’s just start with that first idea, because honestly, fixing that problem could actually have fixed many of the others. We know that Lotor’s plan is to harvest the infinite quintessence between universes in the rift. Sure, makes sense. Except for the part where the reasoning behind that plan is never examined in detail. Why does Lotor need that much quintessence? We viewers assume that it’s because the entire Galra Empire runs on quintessence--that the empire will crumble without a constant supply of energy. I can only guess what we, as viewers, are supposed to believe that this will be a terrible thing and that, at this point, the universe actually needs the Galra Empire in order to survive... Except that’s surely only true in a significantly smaller capacity. There are undoubtedly planets that rely on Galra technology in order to ensure survival--but not every planet. Probably not even MOST planets. The Galra Empire does not need to exist in its current capacity by any means--significantly scaling back on the expansion efforts alone would easily save the amount of quintessence necessary to begin transitioning Galra-dependent planets to independence from both the Galra Empire and quintessence use.

The only conclusion I can come to here, and the one I think the writers want us to come to, is that Lotor had no intention of ever dissolving the Galra Empire and freeing the universe from his control. Which is all well and good. Power is appealing, especially to someone like Lotor who likely desired that power his whole life. As far as villains go, this is stock behavior and I totally get it--what I don’t get is why in the world any of our intrepid heroes bought into this? When I said there was an idiot plot raging, this is exactly what I meant.

Viewers accept Lotor’s plan because we know he’s villain-coded. But the team supposedly believed him to be a good guy--in what way, and in what universe, would have supplying the Galra Empire with infinite quintessence helped anyone except the Galra Empire? “No, no,” you might say, “Lotor convinced the team that the Galra Empire was only expanding because they needed to harvest quintessence from other worlds! Without that need, they would have stopped oppressing other planets, obviously!”

Great--except they seemingly weren’t using that quintessence for any purpose but to continue expanding! The show never--at any point--shows us the Galra using the quintessence they harvest for any purposes other than evil. There’s never any moment of “Actually, we need this quintessence to power lifesaving hospital technologies for our sick and elderly!” or “We use this quintessence to amplify our food production so that we can feed all our children!” This isn’t something you should leave it up to the viewers to assume--the writers needed to do this work at least in part, to ensure that Lotor’s entire plan made sense in the first place. Until we really SEE the need for the quintessence, Lotor’s entire scheme looks like nothing more than a power-hungry bid for endless energy to continue fueling his dark empire--and our heroes look like the complete and utter idiots who thought that sounded like a good idea.

Pidge’s lines from this season confirm that Coran really did share the entire story of what happened to Zarkon back in the day with all the paladins. This means that Allura--knowing that it resulted in the zombification of Zarkon and Honerva and ultimately the death of her father--still went with Lotor into the rift in this season. I can hardly fathom the degree of idiocy it would take a real woman to choose this course of action. Poor Allura did not deserve this treatment.

Which leads into the second issue: it’s impossible--literally impossible--to see Lotor as a genuine character who really did want to bring peace to the universe unless a serious need for endless quintessence is properly articulated. There are plenty of powerfully advanced races like the Olkari who do not appear to fuel their creations by harvesting life energy. We, as viewers, cannot buy into the idea that Lotor absolutely needs this quintessence--enough that he is willing to kill thousands of people--without that need being better explained on screen.

Because it never was, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the writing of the show that makes Lotor’s treatment of the captive Alteans seem justified. The show didn’t portray this as a difficult choice for Lotor to make, didn’t give him a scene where he had to choose between say... one or two Altean lives and harvesting enough quintessence to save a whole planet or something. We never see him do ANYTHING positive with the quintessence he harvested from the Alteans or even expressing any regret for the act of harvesting it in the first place--and yet we’re somehow supposed to believe that he “genuinely” wanted peace for the universe? That he meant well? That he did what he “had” to do? Are the EPs literally crazy?

Nothing from the many interviews about Lotor’s character makes sense. This is not a portrayal of the nuanced, complex villain we were promised--even the show’s depiction of Zarkon as a semi-well-intentioned extremist was more believable and sympathetic!

By definition, a complex villain is one whose motivations are deeply explored and even more deeply-rooted in their actions, who exhibits enough “human” qualities to make the character compelling even as we recognize his or her evildoing, and whose actions, in turn, have logic behind them--the line separating a complex villain from a complete monster is that the audience can, at the end of the day, understand why the villain made the choices they made, and come to the nerve-wracking realization that, in that specific character’s shoes, we too might have made the same choices.

Because we’re never given deeper insight into Lotor’s motivation--never really shown why that quintessence was so very important to him--any degree of complexity, humanity, sympathy, and relatability Lotor had is chucked wholesale into the garbage after “The Colony.” How are we as viewers supposed to “genuinely” buy into Lotor’s rhetoric after this, to believe he wanted peace despite being seemingly remorseless at the slaughter of thousands of people?

At best, all the EPs’ talk of Lotor being authentic and complex and meaning well was empty air to hype up the audience. At worst, the writers of this series actually think they can actively include Holocaust imagery into their show and then still call the perpetrator of it “genuine.” I don’t know whether to be mildly insulted or outright infuriated.

I won’t even touch on the gross implications this whole thing has for real life abuse survivors, given that it implies they can’t rise above their parents’ actions. (Even worse that Haggar’s motivations continue to be unclear--is she headed to some kind of redemption, instead of being the supreme villainness she SHOULD have been all along?) Other people have posted about this issue and probably have more personal experience with the topic, so they can express that part better than me.

But I do want to talk about the whole super gross implications this has for mixed-race people, since that’s a little closer to my personal realm. In a previous post, I cautioned that Keith should not be read as a mixed-race character and that doing so was dangerously reductive of the show’s narrative. I still hold to that--because the show clearly has NO interest in portraying Keith as a mixed-race person. He’s literal walking, talking proof that you can include something in your show and still not have it be “representation.” Despite his alien mother being shown on screen as part of his life, there is still zero effort on the part of the show to portray Keith as actually part-alien or deal, with any degree of seriousness, with the emotional, psychological, and social implications of his being a mixed-species character. It’s simply not part of his narrative and, at this point, I somewhat doubt it ever is going to be. Keith’s being part-Galra is little more than flavor text and a convenient excuse to get him out of Team Voltron during the Clone Shiro plot line.

But Lotor is a totally different story. The show writers went out of their way to emphasize his existence as part-Galra, part-Altean, and to deliberately portray him as--up until season six--deeply longing to be discover more about his Altean heritage, to be part of that culture, and to seek--supposedly--the same aim as his Altean ancestors: universal peace. We’re led to believe that for him, Altea was something that existed like a fairy tale, something that he desperately craved to learn more about his whole life. Therefore, his coming into contact with Allura was painted (in the show!) as a chance for him to learn more about his other half, to finally come to truly understand what it meant to be Altean, to learn not from artifacts but from a real person who could understand his goals, desires, and beliefs. He began referring to himself as Altean. He called Allura’s people his own. We were supposed to see this part as “genuine.”

And then “The Colony” came in like Miley Cyrus to utterly undermine all this emotional labor the previous seasons had been building up. Lotor didn’t need to learn about Alteans from legends--he had ACTUAL ALTEANS he could have spoken to and spent time with. He didn’t need to treat the Altean culture like an anthropological study--he had real Alteans who were happy enough with him that they would have welcomed him living among them. I’m sorry, let me just go back over this point one more time: By virtue of the location of their colony in the time-space abyss, he could have spent literal years living among the Alteans and no one in the Galra Empire would have noticed.

He had every opportunity to connect to the people he supposedly idealized so much--the people whose values he claimed to espouse--the people he is related to--and he instead chose what? To run some like weird captive breeding program to build up stock for his quintessence draining plans as if they were animals, rather than a people of which he supposedly sees himself a part.

As a pure, complete monster type villain, this is actually pretty compelling. It is indeed the story of many REAL cultures around the world, who now deal with mixed-race individuals (namely half-white/half-minority people) coming back and trying to appropriate or capitalize on the minority culture that makes up their other half. (As a personal aside, I’m half Native American, a registered member of my father’s tribe, with grandparents who were essentially kidnapped and forced to attend Christian schools--and there’s a very good reason that I don’t attend any tribal events or attempt to assert myself into Native American spaces: because I recognize that, by virtue of being mixed with the race of my own grandparents’ oppressors, minority spaces are not a place where I belong.) All that to basically say that if the writers had committed to making Lotor a pure villain, this would actually have been a very realistic and tragic point, and his desire to be seen as Altean could have (should have) been treated as a deeply insidious attempt to gain even further control over his victims and to more potently manipulate Allura.

But the writers didn’t commit to that. They and every additional piece of information about Lotor given outside the show waffles painfully, leading to the implication that Lotor really did want to see himself as Altean, that he really believed he could follow in Alfor’s footsteps to bring peace to the universe. Which is honestly more fucked up than I really have any words for, because it directly implies that mixed-race people do not ever--perhaps cannot ever--fit in. By bringing up this issue of race, placing Lotor in that liminal zone, making him express a desire to be part of one of the cultures that make up his genetic background--and then effectively ending his story with “And then he killed thousands of the people he wanted to be a part of for profit!”--the writers might as well have said “He can’t be Altean because he’s too Galra” while also saying “But honestly, he’s genuine at heart--he’s much too Altean to be Galra!” The writing of the show created a situation in which there was no place for Lotor--and then made Lotor look like the bad guy for it. What the hell kind of message does that send to real mixed-race kids out there? YIKES YIKES YIKES YIKES.

And I’m saying all of this as a Lotor fan! Lotor was a favorite of mine in the original Voltron, and a favorite of mine here in Legendary Defender too. Whether they painted him as a complete monster or a redeemable anti-hero, I wanted to love this character. But the wishy-washy, conflicting messages the writing of the show is giving is beyond frustrating. I would have loved a pure villain Lotor--a true magnificent bastard, a master manipulator. I would have loved a misguided anti-hero Lotor. But a character placed half-way between not by intentional design but by clumsy and callous execution? Sorry, I can’t accept that. I love Lotor, so seeing him done so dirty by bad writing is one of the premiere moments that made me realize I can finally give up on this iteration of Voltron ever truly becoming great.

I still had more to say, so here’s:

My Issues with Voltron Season 6 (Part 3)

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mrsunderhill678 · 4 years ago

Text

oH gOd tHe wRiTiNg dEmOnS pOsSeSsEd mE aGaIn!!

“I've lived my whole life in a single mile, no wonder I remain stagnant. Highways littered with broken bones and roadkill, why must death follow me? I am no commander of death, I am just a man, and I fear the stench that wafts around me.” - Houston Cavanfinch

“Am I just a corpse, reanimated again and again to face the same fucking horrors?” - Houston Cavanfinch

“For if life is pain, the past is torture, and the future is a weapon, the only thing that could be peace, is nonexistence.” - Houston Cavanfinch

“Though my soul sinks into darkness, I must realize, again shall it rise at dawn, washed in new light. Though my heart lies heavy in my chest like stone, I have to learn that I can lift that weight if only I breathe.” - Mekhi Winstead

“I've spent my life defending the defenseless, so no one defended me. If you fight for those who can't, you forget to fight for yourself. You raise your gun in the name of another and forget to use it in your darkest hour. Because eventually, when you raise that gun for a thousand names, you forget you have your own.” - Mekhi Winstead

“I refuse to believe that there's no good in the world, because if there was no good, there'd be no people.” - Mekhi Winstead

“I imagine my life iz simply damage control. I am a focus test, and ze moment I find myself crawling to ze top, zey alter ze description and leave me at ze bottom of my failure, simply because life changed my goal.” - Cillian Suchett

“Olympus haz seen Hell on Earth simply because he imagined it, he haz seen angels fall because ze thought provoked him. He stirs a thousand varriors to action only to realize, zey stand against him.” - Cillian Suchett

“V'one by v'one he can vatch us fall, v'one by v'one he can vatch us rise like smoke from fire.” - Cillian Suchett

“Time is his opposer, no dynasty has ezah survived her wrath. No man, no kingdom no creature on God's Earth has withstood Time's wrath, because if she can wittle mountains and turn rivers into oceans, she can cause Olympus to vhither, to fade to bones, and though his skull shall forezah grin, no v'one vill remember ze man who defied history.” - Cillian Suchett

“Vhat is a god to time?” - Cillian Suchett

“You need a couple bucks the world will give you a penny, ya need a life worth living and life gives you a fucking noose.” - Robin Von Lamperts

“This world is kill, or be killed, slaughter, or be led to it. You can't survive without earning it, these days.” - Robin Von Lamperts

“Hope won’t kill a motherfucker but I just might.” - Robin Von Lamperts

“Life will never give you what you need, don't go begging for pennies when you hold a dollar bill, don't go begging for a life well lived when you haven't earned it. Fix your tie, breathe in, breathe out, and realize, life wasn't meant for you, it was meant for those who'll fight for it, and survive because they fucking deserve it.” - Robin Von Lamperts

“Life is pain, but at least it's not hell. Though I've got to wonder, why would a loving God constrict us in a world bound with cruelty?” - Kat Warden

“I'm lost, walking on cracked ice, hoping someday I'll drown. Maybe then a hero will run to the ice, only to realize the right thing to do, is watching me sink.” - Kat Warden

“In the pursuit of greatness I found death. I'm alone in this world, the sun has ripped my shadow from the concrete and left me with my regret.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I'm blind to myself, I worry I've lost me, or perhaps I never met me. I fear I am my trauma and nothing more. I am so haunted by the man I am and was, I fear the specter that rises from my grave.” - Burasbley Highersman

“Time is so achingly slow, the seconds tick by and they feel like years, I'm trapped in the ticking of the clock, waiting for the damn thing to strike twelve so I can finally rest in peace. But the ticker's broken, it doesn't go forward, it only rewinds and reminds me, I'm cracked.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I fear that if I met all of me all at once, I'd perish, because with that much pain, how can a man survive? Instead, I can only breathe and call it getting by.” - Burasbley Highersman

“My demons lurk just beneath my skin, battling me from within, locking me in superstition and grief.” - Salvation Sinfritz

“I do not own myself, I belong to another, I am a puppet in the play, dancing, forgetting someone else holds my strings. And if they so please they can rip the strings from my back and leave me with my scarred flesh.” - Salvation Sinfritz

“I have died a thousand times, and I wonder if ever I was meant to live.” - Salvation Sinfritz

“I have seen the worst the world has to offer, for I have stared into the river that bares my reflection. I am the ugliest parts of this world, wrapped into a mortal vessel that can bleed, bones that can break and flesh that can be cut.” - Starburden Vaganrok

“What's a god to a man who is doomed? What is the after life to a man that seeks to conquer? If I can conquer myself, then the gods should fear what I strive for next. They created me, but do not hold the power to contain me.” - Starburden Vaganrok

“I stare into my reflection, and watch as the water ripples, for every man slain leaves a ripple in time. I end lives as I would toss a pebble into the sea to watch the water create waves that mean nothing to the tide.” - Starburden Vaganrok

“The enemy is me, because I'm apart of the problem, man! My mouth is shut because I fear the punishment the powerful shall give me, but in the end, all that does is transfer my pain to another.” - Leopolo Diamon

“The rule was never golden, no one will treat other's how they wish to be treated. To a man in power, every one is a stepping stone, the stairway to heaven is paved in good deeds, but to those who don't know grace, the path out of hell is paved in the backs of those they can step over in order to reach heaven.” - Leopolo Diamon

“The rule's broken, and has only been painted gold, to us, it is precious, but fool's gold never brings us anything, after all.” - Leopolo Diamon

“I read between the lines of the scripture, I blur the lines between light and dark, holy and sinful. Am I a saint, or a duality?” - Graham Davison

“I am a prophet of a different kind, sipping poison and preaching it's taste to those in the pews.” - Graham Davison

“We are born sinners, but I never made a name for myself amongst the rubble, I am filth and dirt, grime on the bottom of a dog's paw.” - Graham Davison

“I heard long ago that God loves all, but does he love those who says Amen as a curse? Does he love those who's prayers are damning? There's blood in the water of my lies, and these days, I'm begging to bleed.” - Graham Davison

“Before God said, "Let there be light," was it all dark? And did he ever look into my soul, and whisper, "Let there be dark?” - Graham Davison

“The path to hell is paved in my belief, and the stairway to heaven is paved in what I cannot have.” - Graham Davison

“Do not damn us, for what we could not survive. Monsters do not exist, except for in the minds of those who seek to demonize a vulnerable man.” - Nak’Tilli Sinsbane

“These terrors of my life are forgotten by me, but remembered by those within that hold it. Life is beautiful, even when you're different, even when you're fragile.” - Nak’Tilli Sinsbane

“People paint me as a monster, they conjure up images in their heads of a killer with a bloodied knife and seven personalities meant just to end you, but that's not true. I am human, we all are, and we all have a right to live.” - Nak’Tilli Sinsbane

“We are strong, we refuse to be buried under the hate. I'll never understand how a man could damn something for the simple fact that in their mind, it doesn't exist. Life is a beautiful masquerade of everything we've been through, the good, the ugly, the horrible, we are everything we should be and everything we've ever wanted to be. And it's okay, to be who you didn't think you'd be.” - Nak’Tilli Sinsbane

“Do not bury yourself under something you can never change, and please, if life treats you like dirt, remember flowers grow from the soil.” - Nak’Tilli Sinsbane

“I do not seek my cure, I seek the vial from which I was first poisoned. Perhaps it is in death the missing gaps of my life shall flash before my eyes.” - Angelo Lariplank

“They call me mad man, they call me sinner, they call me beast, but I am human, and that's all I've ever been.” - Angelo Lariplank

“I cannot close my eyes, for I fear what I may do in a single moment of darkness, let alone a night of it.” - Angelo Lariplank

“Isn't it strange, how we're the killers of our own destiny? God could watch over us, but he can't save us from ourselves, he gave us free will and forgot that with the connotations of destiny, comes lack of control. With fate, comes the morbid reality of being pulled along on string and twine that you do not weave.” - Angelo Lariplank

“Umanity 'as been a doomed race ever since God gave Adam and Eve da' choice 'a sin. Look at us now, squabblin' amongst bloody rubble, New York is a graveyard 'a concrete specters and railroads, lost in da' false image 'a freedom.” - Dimitrious Ricondo

“Dis' world ain't a bloody brave one, it's given us everyfin', and we've given it fuck all.” - Dimitrious Ricondo

“It's a soldier's job ta fight da' oppression 'e sees every day, but most men just stay silent. If your mouth's shut you're part 'a da problem, da empire 'a silence is deadlier than da brotherhood 'a action.” - Dimitrious Ricondo

“Da weight in my mind would break me neck if I let one more ounce 'a regret in.” - Dimitrous Ricondo

“I am a man forged in da' fires 'a my own self worf', burnt down ta ash by all I was so I could become all I am. Da' strongest men are da' ones who 'ave let pieces of themselves die so they can live on.” - Dimitrious Ricondo

“Life ain't about da' end 'a it, it's about how long you're willin' ta stand. So what'll ya do, mate? Die wif' no name worf' rememberin', or live wif' a name dat meant everyfin', ta da ones who stood by your bloody side?” - Dimitrous Ricondo

“It would be just as cruel to lie to me as it would be to tell the truth, either I'm crazy or a monster, I can't handle both.” - Carson Brady

“My thoughts are nagging jesters, juggling truths and lies, turning them into a powder I can't fucking differentiate from. Besides, aren't truth and lies just different shades of the same damn spectrum?” - Carson Brady

“Am I just a Queen's fucking Gambit? United we stand, united we fall they say, until the moment the pawn becomes unnecessary. Am I the pawn sacrificed for an advantage against the enemy?” - Carson Brady

“We are a united nation divided by our fucking unity.” - Carson Brady

“They say united we stand, united we fall, but if you look just a little closer, you'll find that united we stand, alone we fucking fall.” - Carson Brady

“Have you ever thought that you're not yourself, that to die, would be to finally be you?” - Romulus Sparrows

“All I have is my revolver, but, this little thing? It only kills the bad ones. The false prophets, the men selling a false dream, those who wish me harm. And sometimes, me.” - Romulus Sparrows

“Everything slips through my fingers eventually, so I wouldn't be surprised if I already have.” - Romulus Sparrows

“Perhaps old Romulus has gone mad, perhaps, I'm not even here, sometimes I fear I am another's delusion. For all I know I am a figment of imagination, the false light to someone else's mosaic.” - Romulus Sparrows

“I fear all that stands, all that walks, all that breathes. I can hear the whispers of the trees and in the song of the birds is blood and the sins of many. They who fly see all, friend. They soar above us and rule the skies, whilst we have only the land to wander. And it is no glory at all, living in a world gone made whilst you yourself are mad.” - Romulus Sparrows

“I am no creature so grand, often I wonder if I am just a peasant, and every shadow is a king whom I shall bow to. Does every speck of darkness wear a crown? Is all light enslaved to the shadow?” - Romulus Sparrows

“I heard long ago that the man who questions all is the man who must be questioned, and if I hold so many questions about the world, am I the single one I can't answer?” - Romulus Sparrows

“In a world of the brave and the soldiers, how can a coward like me survive? Do I sacrifice myself and become one of the brave, or am I supposed to be another corpse crushed under the snow? I've seen too many goodbyes, and too few hellos, I'm scared of the future, because it's a fight, and I'm no warrior. I've lost so much, how am I to understand myself when the people that made me who I am are... Gone?” - Diamond Valos

“I was never strong, I've always been the one crushed under the rubble, and with a spirit so weak I must wonder, when the day dies, as shall I?” - Diamond Valos

“In River I see who I used to be, but even now I can see that changing. Perhaps, every remnant of the scared girl I used to be is dying, and I have to rise anew. In this brave new world... I suppose I must be brave, too. If I'm to pick up a blade, I'll do so in the name of love, in the name of Madeline.” - Diamond Valos

“My life will never be complete, not without those I love, but the life of the man who put them down, will be. But is it still a sin, to kill a man who's killed? I fear I'm damning myself, but if that's the price of keeping my promise... So be it. So be it.” - Diamond Valos

“Maybe I'm the one who suffers and carries on, or maybe I'm just running like a wolf on the path that leads to the hunters, but so long as I carry Madeline's promise in my heart, and River in my arms, I will run. I will fight. I will be something more than who I was. Because the girl I was isn't strong enough to survive this world... Perhaps she's not dead, but reborn, baring the war-paint of her promise, and the scars of her tomorrow with not fear... But for once in her life, with pride.” - Diamond Valos

“Love is no war, we're not soldiers of hearts and valor, we're people, living, breathing, people, and isn't that all we can aspire to be? War can come our way but we'll fight, we're lovers and soldiers, facing a war some would say we can't possibly win, but they forget that the sun rises after every period of darkness. And even if clouds blot the sun, and rain patters down, we can find solace in the fact that flowers will bloom from the tragedy, and the harvest of our love is so much greater than what our enemies choose to reap.” - Rea Myers

“My whole life I've known love, my fathers have always taught me that love was never meant to be a burden, it was always meant to be a dance. Sure, it's tiring sometimes, but when have you ever seen someone on the dance floor without a tear in their eye? Tears don't always mean pain, tears are just the language of emotions we can't speak.” - Rea Myers

“I will dance through this life with a smile damn it, war will not break me down. It can rain, I can bleed, I can be put through hell but damn it! If I don't come out smiling what's it for? If I have love, and I have people I can rely on, and if I have myself and my smile, I'll never fall. I'll always be okay, because war is a fight, and love is my shield, my ax and my army.” - Rea Myers

“I am as much a part of nature as war is peaceful, I am rotted and cruel, corrupt and dark, my roots weren't never burrowed, just dug out from the soil and left to fester.” - Samuel Envers

“Oh lord take my soul, bless my little black heart, I've lost who I am and gained everythin' I should be. From two gallows do I swing, ropes of war and strings of morality, frayin' and beggin' to just let me go. I am a blood stained feud between me, myself and I, and I've learned, two wars do I face. One is fought with blades and guns, the other fought between red and black blood, both fightin' for dominion and leaderhood.” - Samuel Envers

“You could face me in all your glory, but you'd die in it.” - Samuel Envers

“All it takes ta make a widow is a dead man, and all it takes ta make an orphan is two.” - Samuel Envers

“Lay me at the bottom 'a the river, drown me in the blood I've spilled, cause the only possible thing that could make me apart 'a nature, is my burial.” - Samuel Envers

“Secrets bury you underneath themselves, but despite the secrets I hold in my heart, I can claw my way out of this coffin and rise again. The dark has tried so long to bury me, but in one way or another, love always shields me. It keeps me safe when I forget to fight for myself. And I have Zoey to thank for that, in her eyes I can see the rising of the sun and in her heart I can hear the ocean wave's lapping at my legs, beckoning to peace. She's in my heart and my soul and I wouldn't have it any other way.” - Linda Prattens

“My strength is built upon every lie that threatened to break me, and here I stand, unbroken.” - Linda Prattens

“I don't intend to just survive, do you really think the flower doesn't bloom again after the killing frost? Nothing good ever stayed down.” - Linda Prattens

“I'd ask for an amen and a couple of prayers if I thought it'd save me, but I've spent so long with the lord I fear he's abandoned me. Someone I used to know always told me secrets bury you underneath themselves, but she never told me just how deep they dig. I fear I'm so deep down in the dirt that God can't hear my cries, for I can't say anything past the soil in my throat.” - Jett Layden

“The only thing that'll save me is grace, the kindness of the human heart. But most people don't have that, these days. The world ripped it from them and left nothing but a heart of black.” - Jett Layden

“But oh father tell me, do we get what we deserve? Does karma exist, or is that just a concept of man to justify revenge? I do not wish harm and those who have wronged me, only peace in their hearts and a revival. I was born a sinner, but I don't got to stay that way. If I became karma, I'd become vengeance, and if I become vengeance, I become Judas. I become King Saul, and I have no intention of becoming a traitor to myself.” - Jett Layden

“Da strong always seek ta break da weak, for dey fear what'll 'appen when da weak become da' strong. You should fear da' pup that bares it's teef' and grows inta it's fur, aye?” - Rowena Joy

“We can't change who we were wifout changin' who we are.” - Rowena Joy

“Ya can live life in fear dat it one day will end, or you could live life knowin' it nevah ends so long as you leave goot memories in da 'earts 'a those who loved ya.” - Rowena Joy

“Wif da love 'a family standin' by my side, 'ow could I evah lose?” - Rowena Joy

“Love and be loved, fight if it means sumfin' worf' fightin' for, and it's my belief, dat if you 'ave nuffin' worf' fightin' for, you 'ave nuffin' worf' livin' for. So I spose wif' family and love by me side, I 'ave sumfin' worf' fightin' for, sumfin' worf' breathin' for, and when da sun sinks inta da night, I ‘ave sumfin' worf dyin' for, sumfin' worf' breathin' me last for. And dat's all I evah bloody need, mate.” - Rowena Joy

“Life isn't about the consequences, it's about what ya did to earn em, and I think, if I always fight for truth, all I'll get is freedom, huh? The truth can be so hard to find, you've got to dig for it some days, because others find themselves burying it. But I won't stop digging until I find the truth, because it was never meant to be buried.” - Jamie McGary

“Liars are more common than good men these days, but hey, even if the many outweigh the few, the few can still fight.” - Jamie McGary

“Something you don't know is always worth learning.” - Jamie McGary

“War can come, but we'll fight, our fists are enough to survive the battle and our hearts are enough to keep us going.” - Jamie McGary

“Some see impossible as a roadblock, but I see it as an invitation to something greater, something new, and something worth learning.” - Jamie McGary

“These midnight thoughts are all I got, cause I can only see as far as the palm of my hand.” - Kristoff Washko

“I am so lost in these halls that I've forgotten what it was to be found. Perhaps one day I'll find Neverland, or perhaps, I'll never land. You could pray for me, but that won't save me in the land of no salvation.” - Kristoff Washko

“I am beaten down and bruised, trodden over by the overwhelming majority, no one cares about the missing man, all but those who knew him.” - Kristoff Washko

“There was a time I could look death in the eyes and say, "You won't kill me, not like you could," but now I look him in those crooked eyes of his and say, "Fulfill your promise, motherfucker." - Kristoff Washko

“I won't be the last one standing, nor will I be the first to fall, for so many have fallen before me. I'm just one of the many to fall.” - Kristoff Washko

“Life has never favored me, I am a victim to it, a prey to the great beyond, but as long as I can run, life cannot catch me.” - Karolina Firesbane

“I've learned that the strongest bonds come from the hardest situations, and I look at my daughter, knowing that though it's been so, hard, she's worth it.” - Karolina Firesbane

“My whole life I've been drowning in darkness, no wonder I'm drawn to the flame. It conquers the dark and brings warmth, yet it has the same power as the dark, the same ability to destroy. It reflects human nature, as often we fight fire with fire. I have been at war with rival tribes, but war never brought peace. All war brings is death and another war if you're lucky enough to survive. No war ever brought us love. All it gave us was something to fear.” - Karolina Firesbane

“Blood has spilled on the grass and corrupted nature's pallet, the dead rise and give us every reason to fear death itself, for it no longer sets us free. Beasts of wax candle flesh and hungry eyes hunt us down, death has sent his reapers to hunt us. In this new age, we're all prey, and all we can do is pray.” - Karolina Firesbane

“I am a warrior, and though death wishes to hunt us, I will not go down so easy. As a child I was made strong, and in the reflections of the river I see not a beast, but a loved woman who knows what it is to hunt and be hunted, to love, and be loved.” - Karolina Firesbane

“It's a brave new world out there, no wonder soldiers are rising up and farmers find themselves picking up their shovels and marching into war. Perhaps we've learned you don't have to be a soldier to lead a revolution, all you need is a dream, and the will to catch it.” - Shilo Heartsworth

“Primaline always told me that the life of a soldier is one bound to a code of honor she didn't follow, and I've learned that most soldiers ain't honorable, just lookin' ta kill. It ain't bout the gun in your hand, it's bout who the fuck you are. A gun can kill two men with a single bullet, the one it's aimed toward, and the one pullin' the trigger.” - Shilo Heartsworth

“So farmers, soldiers and saints, raise your pitchforks, guns and crosses, cause all ya need to power a revolution is a dream of something greater. This world weren't meant ta die, and neither were we. So be greater than the cause they give you, be greater than the cause you gave yourself, cause our destiny ain't ta bleed out, our destiny, is to God damn live.” - Shilo Heartsworth

“You can see life as a struggle, or an opportunity to change and grow. All you ever need to get by, is a new perspective, and a brave smile to push forward into the unknown, because that's all we can strive for, really.” - Vinceta Dalliinfritz

“Life only wishes to kill the ones who fight because they're on the front lines. But in your life, the front lines is where you should be. Fighting for yourself and those you love.” - Vinceta Dallinfritz

“I've seen pain, I've seen blood spill and good men die, but I won't let life break me, I won't let my sorrow be my coffin.” - Vinceta Dallinfritz

“Humans aren't monsters, we just mimic them thinking it our destiny, but no human ever became a wolf, no man ever grew claws and howled into the night. We're all human, it's time to start acting like it.” - Vinceta Dallinfritz

“Life isn't about a twenty dollar bill or a raise, it's about family, man, family and love is all you ever need. I was a man with nothing, but look at me now, I couldn't be happier with the choices I've made, even the ones that ended in failure. I once looked at all my mistakes and said to myself, "Man, how could you do that?" But now, I say, "What did you learn?" I've learned through every experience I've ever had, I'm a culmination of every day I've lived, and maybe I'm not a masterpiece, but none of us are. I don't want perfect, I've found everything in the mess of it all.” - Glenn Drewell

“My wife, Kiasha, she's my strength, I can look into her eyes and know, she's the better half of me. She'll always be my number one, two and three. I've learned that even a man with nothing, can have everything if he has love. For himself, even. My life is a whole lot more than good enough, I'm proud to be me, and I'm proud to look at my family and see something worth fighting for it.” - Glenn Drewell

“My kids, man, my baby girls, I can still see them at the age of five, baking cookies with Kiasha, throwing flour at each other. It was the biggest war of the century, the battle of flour and cookie dough, they even dragged me into it. My favorite shirt still has bits of flour coming off it.” - Glenn Drewell

“I don't got a twenty dollar bill, I don't got a high paying check or a single cent in my wallet, but I do got family, and man, isn't that what matters? As far as I'm concerned, I'm the richest man alive, because in the eyes of my family, I see all the wealth and diamonds in the world, and God, if I had one thing to say, it's that, "It's worth it, man, always.” - Glenn Drewell

“I ain't a hero, I ain't a saint, just a man doin' what's right in a world that gets on it's knees and begs for my death.” - Malik Druvebecker

“I won't stand for the murder 'a the weak, you shouldn't have ta swoop down and cut the throats 'a the weak ta become one 'a the strong. In my eyes, that makes ya weak, and one 'a the real strong ones gon' swoop down and cut your throat.” - Malik Druvebecker

“Justice flows in crimson rivers and corpses in the crick, and sadly, it ain't the cruel that fill this river 'a souls.” - Malik Druvebecker

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, Cyrus Hollow, but it's me, who's gon' break you. You have seen this world through eyes tinted red and cruel, but if you're the devil, I'll act as the sinner if only ta be sent ta your burnin' sanctuary, just ta slit your throat. I got two bullets in my chamber, etched with a name that is yours, and a name that is mine, and I've been waitin' to pull the trigger ever since you took my life and made it another of your fucking conquests.” - Malik Druvebecker

“Hell's gone, all the devils are dead, the angels lay painted red on the damn floor, all that's left is humanity, and ain't that the cruelest fate 'a all? To be stuck in a world 'a monsters trapped in human skin?” - Malik Druvebecker

“I've spent so long hunting the man that took everything from me that I almost took everything from myself. I've taken up my own beck and call, and it almost cost me everything.” - Octavia Cross

“I'm a crack in my castle of glass, I'm the only shard left, lying in a kingdom of rubble. Centuries could pass and I'd only dig deeper into the dirt.” - Octavia Cross

“I fear I can't rely on myself, there's blood on the writing of my tale, my history is stained with blood money, regret, and memories I never had. Empire's fall in a single day, and I suppose the empire of me fell the day Walt ran with my daughter in his fucking arms.” - Octavia Cross

“Perhaps Neverland isn't for just the lost girls and boys, perhaps it's for anyone who ever dared have a dream when they couldn't breathe. Sometimes, the only thing keeping you alive, is a dream, something you can't quite reach, but you have to believe you will.” - Patricia Wellburn

“Most of those I lost still walk.” - Patricia Wellburn

“I think life is about more than what we've lost, it's about what we've gained. My life has been sorrowful, it's been full of pain, heartbreak, but at the end of my rainbow I found love, family, a dream worth having. If I stand tall in the face of my fear nothing can break me, I'll always stand tall, even if I'm a little smol. So long as my heart beats, I will love, and so long as I have Macy, and I have Luna, I'll be alive. Because it is in their hearts that mine learned to beat. I no longer hold on to the sorrows of my past, because I hold onto the people I love, it is with them that my sun rises, and in me their love blooms.” - Patricia Wellburn

“Love can never be selfish, but hate always is.” - Enzo Evans

"The end of over a million lives knocks at my door." - Cedric Popovici

"The gods don't seem much interested in fair, my friend. Look at how the dark outnumbers the light of the stars, how the shade of the trees overwhelms the light that trickles through. This world is darker than you would like to believe, because if this world was kind, I would not exist." - Valskirith Deskgrotirr

"I am nothing more than a piece of flesh stuck between Dr. Emory's teeth." - Changreta Alderbright

"I'd say I'm a tragedy, but dose' one day bloody end." - Angel Benson "The pullin' 'a this here trigger is like the beatin' 'a my heart, it's the only fuckin' thing that keeps me alive." - Sampson O’Connel

“You want to fuck with the O'Connels on the off chance that you'll make it ta sunrise?” - Sampson O’Connel

"I have fought wars in countries you ain't heard 'a, killed men with names I never learned, and you, Mr. O'Connel, are no fucking different. You want a fight? I'll give you war." - Casimiro Boheken

"And what're you gonna do, huh? Fire bullets off til' ya run out? Cause you will. You don't have enough God damn bullets to cut the head from this dynasty." - Casimiro Boheken

“Those who built the tower of Babel never expected ta fall, the confederates who fought the civil war didn't expect ta lose, and the human population didn't expect ta fuckin' plummet. Your threats don't mean a damn thing ta a man who expects ta die, general. So pull that trigger, or don't, either way, I win." - Sampson O’Connel

"As a soldier you've spilled so much blood, now you'll fuckin' drown in it." - Clayborne Pettygore

"You wanna kill me, that it? Now Natasha, you can kill a man with good intentions, but that don't make you a good man, makes ya just as much 'a killer as the man lyin' in a pool 'a his own blood. Sure, you can put me down, think yourself high and mighty, but you're just a killer like the rest of us, so don't come preachin' ta me with your bullshit, cause I see right through it." - Clayborne Pettygore

#writing #author #character dialouge #dialouge #oneliners

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crimethinc · 7 years ago

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Restless Specters of the Anarchist Dead: A Few Words from the Undead of 1917

This year is the centennial of two revolutions in Russia: one in which the people toppled the Tsar and another in which the Bolsheviks seized state power. Within twenty years, the Bolsheviks had executed or imprisoned most of those who carried out the revolution. Today, as the hashtag #1917live trends on twitter, we should remember the #1917undead, the anarchists who strove to warn humanity that statist paths towards social change will never bring us to freedom. Some of them, like Fanya and Aron Baron, were murdered in cold blood by authoritarian communists in the Soviet Union. Others managed to survive, betrayed by their supposed comrades, to witness the totalitarian results of the Bolshevik coup. Their voices cry out to us today from the grave. Let’s listen.

Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin had sought total centralized power in the name of the proletariat, promising that this was a step towards the “withering away” of the state. From this historical vantage point, their cynical efforts to blot out any model for social change besides the tyranny of state capitalism are clear enough; if it is still difficult to envision what anarchist revolution might look like on a massive scale, we can blame those who systematically exterminated anarchists in the name of socialism. Being the foremost opponents of tyranny, the anarchists were among the first victims of Soviet prisons and firing squads. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and many others tried to warn the world of the horrors of Lenin and Stalin, but most people only learned about the gulag archipelago much later from Aleksandr Solzenhitsyn.

Mikhail Bakunin

Although Bakunin passed away more than 40 years before the Russian Revolution, he predicted exactly what would come of Marx’s authoritarian prescriptions for socialism. Those who attempt to excuse Marx, suggesting that Lenin failed to apply his instructions correctly, should take note that Bakunin saw the tragedies of 1917 coming a half century in advance.

Scrutinizing Marx’s conduct in the revolutionary struggles of the 19th century, rather than the books he wrote, we can see today what Bakunin saw then. Marx began his career in the 1840s by attempting to form revolutionary cabals, then purging everyone who did not toe his ideological line—especially working class thinkers like Wilhelm Weitling and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who were more suspicious of the state than he was. Marx mocked Bakunin for attempting to foment an uprising in Lyons in 1870, though it was precisely the absence of other revolutionary footholds in France that doomed the Paris Commune in 1871. During the Paris Commune, Marx sent Elisabeth Dmitrieff, a twenty-year-old with no experience, to assume control of women’s organizing in Paris, intending to supplant organizers like Louise Michel who had been active for decades. (After the Commune, Dmitrieff disappeared from radical politics, a casualty of authoritarian burnout.) After the Commune fell, Marx took advantage of the fact that the participants—most of whom did not subscribe to his politics—were slaughtered or in hiding to speak on their behalf, announcing that the Commune confirmed all of his theories. In the First International, Marx passed unpopular resolutions in closed-door meetings while the opposition were imprisoned or in exile, rigged majorities at the congresses, and finally attempted to kill off the organization entirely by moving its headquarters to New York when it became clear he could not control it. (Although most historians pass over this, the International survived for several more years as a topless federation run on anarchist principles, whereas the Marxist splinter group became immediately moribund.) Afterwards, from the safety of his study in London, Marx continued to mock Bakunin and others who risked their lives in uprisings while emphasizing that workers should join political parties and subject themselves to party leadership. Marx was no enemy of state oppression.

With the 20th century behind us, Bakunin appears to us as the Cassandra of the 19th century, warning us against the butcheries, betrayals, and gulags to come. Whatever his own shortcomings, he remains a voice from the grave, urging us to beware of anyone who proposes that the state could render us equal or give us freedom.

“Liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.”

— addressing the League of Peace and Freedom, September 1867

“I hate Communism because it is the negation of liberty and because humanity is for me unthinkable without liberty. I am not a Communist, because Communism concentrates and swallows up in itself for the benefit of the State all the forces of society, because it inevitably leads to the concentration of property in the hands of the State, whereas I want the abolition of the State, the final eradication of the principle of authority and the patronage proper to the State, which under the pretext of moralizing and civilizing men has hitherto only enslaved, persecuted, exploited and corrupted them. I want to see society and collective or social property organized from below upwards, by way of free association, not from above downwards, by means of any kind of authority whatsoever.”

— addressing the League of Peace and Freedom, September 1868

Mikhail Bakunin.

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky himself deserves no tears from those who love freedom, egalitarianism, and human decency, as he personally oversaw the butchery of countless thousands of anarchists and other rebels in the course of the Bolshevik conquest of power. But early in his career, before he joined the Bolsheviks, he foresaw presciently exactly how Stalinism would arise from Lenin’s approach—how the party would substitute its own conquest of power for the proletariat, and a ruthless dictator then substitute himself for the party. The All-Russian Congress of Food Industry Workers later confirmed this in March 1920, on the basis of experience: “The so-called dictatorship of the proletariat is really the dictatorship over the proletariat by the party and even by individual persons.”

Despite this foresight, Trotsky still joined the Bolsheviks as a consequence of their apparent success in the revolution. When Stalin’s lackeys butchered Trotsky with an icepick, it was poetic justice. Trostsky died because he failed to heed his own insights, and above all because he broke solidarity with other foes of capitalism. He died because, like so many after him, he substituted pragmatism for principles, believing it would be more expedient to go rapidly in the wrong direction than to proceed slowly towards genuine liberation.

We can hardly remember him as a tragic figure, as millions suffered at his hands—but we can take his example as a cautionary tale.

“In the internal politics of the Party these methods lead, as we shall see, to the Party organization “substituting” itself for the Party, the Central Committee substituting itself for the Party organization, and finally the dictator substituting himself for the Central Committee.”

— “Our Political Tasks,” 1904

Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin was an old man by the time of the 1917 revolution. Desiring to legitimize Bolshevik authority with the reputation of a universally respected anarchist, Lenin maintained cordial relations with Kropotkin; Bolshevik propagandists took advantage of this to publicize the lie that Kropotkin was more or less in favor of the Bolshevik program. In fact, Kropotkin opposed their authoritarian program, as he made clear in a series of statements and protests. Far from endorsing Lenin’s seizure of state power, Kropotkin is quoted as saying “Revolutionaries have had ideals. Lenin has none. He is a madman, an immolator, wishful of burning, and slaughter, and sacrificing.”

Kropotkin’s funeral, on February 13, 1921, was arguably the last anarchist demonstration in Russia until the fall of the Soviet Union. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman and many other prominent anarchists participated. They managed to exert enough pressure on the Bolshevik authorities to compel them to release seven anarchist prisoners for the day; the Bolsheviks claimed they that would have released more but the others supposedly refused to leave prison. Victor Serge recounts how Aaron Baron, one of the anarchists who was temporarily released, addressed the mourners from Kropotkin’s graveside before vanishing forever into the jaws of the Soviet carceral system.

“Is there really no one around you to remind your comrades and to persuade them that such measures represent a return to the worst period of the Middle Ages and religious wars, and are undeserving of people who have taken it upon themselves to create a future society on communist principles? Whoever holds dear the future of communism cannot embark upon such measures.”

— Letter to Lenin, December 21, 1920

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Kropotkin’s funeral.

Nestor Makhno

After seven years in the Tsar’s prisons, Makhno was released from prison by the upheavals of 1917. He eventually became a leader in the anarchist forces that fought in turn against Ukrainian Nationalists, German and Austro-German occupiers, the reactionary Russian White Army, the Soviet Red Army, and various Ukrainian warlords in order to open a space in which anarchist collective experiments could take place. Makhno and his comrades repeatedly bore the brunt of the White Army attacks, while Trotsky alternated attacking them with the Red Army and signing treaties with them when the Soviets needed them to keep the Whites at bay. On November 26, 1920, a few days after Makhno had helped to definitively defeat the White Army, the Red Army summoned him and his comrades to a conference. Makhno did not go; everyone who did was summarily killed.

Authoritarian socialists have expended rivers of ink attempting to discredit Makhno and those who fought at his side in order to excuse this cold-blooded betrayal and murder. They accuse Makhno of authoritarianism in hopes of justifying a far more authoritarian state. They suggest that his struggle contributed nothing to the liberation of the proletariat, when in fact he was struggling against those who ruined and discredited the notion of revolution while ensuring that Russian workers would remain in subjugation for at least a century more.

Makhno and his comrades surely were not perfect; Emma Goldman records that some Russian anarchists questioned the anarchist credentials of the Ukrainian uprising. But history is written by the victors: there is so little information about Makhno’s achievements precisely because the Bolsheviks and other reactionaries sought to erase them from the historical record (just as a few Ukrainian nationalists have recently sought to appropriate and distort them). Fortunately, we can still read statements from the Makhnovist rebels in their own words describing their values and goals, and historical accounts from participants such as Peter Arshinov.

“State-socialists of all denominations, including Bolsheviks, are busy swapping the names of bourgeois rule with those of their own invention, while leaving its structure essentially unchanged. They are therefore trying to salvage the Master/Slave relationship with all its contradictions…

“While a bourgeois government strings a revolutionary up on the gallows, socialist or bolshevik-communist governments will creep up and strangle him in his sleep or kill him by trickery. Both acts are depraved. But the socialists are more depraved because of their methods.

“Government power will never let workers tread the road to freedom; it is the instrument of the lazy who want to dominate others, and it does not matter if the power is in the hand of the bourgeois, the socialists or the Bolsheviks, it is degrading. There is no government without teeth, teeth to tear any man who longs for a free and just life.”

— The Anarchist Revolution

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Nestor Makhno.

Lev Chernyi

After serving a decade in prison under the Tsar, Lev Chernyi was released in 1917 and participated passionately in anarchist organizing. On March 5, 1918, foreseeing the wave of attacks the Bolsheviks were about to launch against anarchist organizing in Moscow, Chernyi denounced the Bolshevik government, arguing that it was essential to paralyze the mechanisms of government itself. In April 1918, the Soviet secret police raided anarchist social centers around Moscow, gunning down at least forty people and arresting many more. The Bolsheviks claimed that the anarchists were engaged in “banditry” on account of their efforts to redistribute wealth and set up social centers around the city—accusing them of precisely the same activities that the Soviet government was carrying out on a much larger scale.

Chernyi was later captured and charged with counterfeiting in order to discredit him and take him off the streets. In August 1921, an official report announced that Chernyi and nine other “anarchist bandits” had been shot without hearing or trial. The authorities refused to release his body, leading many to conclude that Chernyi had actually been tortured to death.

Lev Chernyi.

Fanya Baron

After seven years in exile from Tsarist Russia, Fanya Baron returned to her homeland in 1917 to organize alongside other anarchists for social liberation. Within four years, she had been imprisoned and murdered by the Soviet secret police.

“This big-hearted woman, who had served the Social Revolution all her life, was done to, death by the people who pretended to be the advance guard of revolution. Not content with the crime of killing Fanya Baron, the Soviet Government put the stigma of banditism on the memory of their dead victim.”

— Emma Goldman, My Further Disillusionment in Russia

Kropotkin dying of hunger, Berkman by his own hand, Fanny Baron biting her executioners, Mahkno in the odor of calumny, Trotsky, too, I suppose, passionately, after his fashion. Do you remember? What is it all for, this poetry, This bundle of accomplishment Put together with so much pain?

— Kenneth Rexroth, “August 22, 1939,” written on the anniversary of the murder of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Fanya Baron.

Aron Baron

A Jewish exile from the Ukraine, Aron Baron organized with the Industrial Workers of the World and worked with Lucy Parsons in the United States before returning to revolutionary Russia. He fought alongside Nestor Makhno and edited the anarchist paper Nabat. After two decades of harassment, arrests, imprisonment, and internal exile, he was shot on August 12, 1937 in Tobolsk along with many other anarchists, including Prokop Evdokimovich Budakov, Zinaida Alekseevna Budakova, Avram Venetsky, Ivan Golovchanskii, Vsevolod Grigorievich Denisov, Nikolai Desyatkov, Ivan Dudarin, Andrei Zolotarev, Andrei Pavlovich Kislitsin, Alexander Pastukhov, Anna Aronovna Sangorodetskaya, Mikhail G. Tvelnev, Vladimir Khudolei-Gradin, Yuri I. Hometovsky-Izgodin, and Nahum Aaronovch Eppelbaum.

Fanya and Aron Baron and friends.

The Kronstadt Rebels

In February 1921, in response to Soviet crackdowns on labor organizing and peasants’ autonomy, the crews of two Russian battleships stationed at the island naval fortress of Kronstadt held an emergency meeting. Many of these were the same sailors who had been on the front lines of the revolution of 1917. They agreed on fifteen demands, and Kronstadt rose in revolt against the Soviet authorities.

The Bolsheviks attempted to portray the rising as the work of foreign reactionaries. Read their demands for yourself and decide whether this was the work of counter-revolutionary capitalists:

Immediate new elections to the Soviets; the present Soviets no longer express the wishes of the workers and peasants. The new elections should be held by secret ballot, and should be preceded by free electoral propaganda for all workers and peasants before the elections.

Freedom of speech and of the press for workers and peasants, for the Anarchists, and for the Left Socialist parties.

The right of assembly, and freedom for trade union and peasant associations.

The organization, at the latest on March 10, 1921, of a Conference of non-Party workers, soldiers, and sailors of Petrograd, Kronstadt, and the Petrograd District.

The liberation of all political prisoners of the Socialist parties, and of all imprisoned workers and peasants, soldiers and sailors belonging to working class and peasant organizations.

The election of a commission to look into the dossiers of all those detained in prisons and concentration camps.

The abolition of all political sections in the armed forces; no political party should have privileges for the propagation of its ideas, or receive State subsidies to this end. In place of the political section, various cultural groups should be set up, deriving resources from the State.

The immediate abolition of the militia detachments set up between towns and countryside.

The equalization of rations for all workers, except those engaged in dangerous or unhealthy jobs.

The abolition of Party combat detachments in all military groups; the abolition of Party guards in factories and enterprises. If guards are required, they should be nominated, taking into account the views of the workers.

The granting to the peasants of freedom of action on their own soil, and of the right to own cattle, provided they look after them themselves and do not employ hired labor.

We request that all military units and officer trainee groups associate themselves with this resolution.

We demand that the Press give proper publicity to this resolution.

We demand the institution of mobile workers’ control groups.

We demand that handicraft production be authorized, provided it does not utilize wage labor.

Two weeks later, on the 50-year anniversary of the Paris Commune, 60,000 Red Army troops captured Kronstadt, killing and imprisoning thousands. Just as the bourgeois republic that came to power in France in 1870 stabilized its reign by slaughtering the rebels of the Paris Commune, the Bolsheviks stabilized their reactionary seizure of the Russian revolution with the bloodbath at Kronstadt.

Apologists for the Bolsheviks have argued that it was necessary to slaughter the Kronstadt rebels to consolidate power for the Soviet state; perhaps so, but that is no argument for any state! If it was admirable and appropriate for the Kronstadt sailors to rise against the Tsar, it was equally admirable and appropriate for them to rise against the new tyrants.

The failure of the Kronstadt uprising is above all a lesson in solidarity: if the Kronstadt rebels had risen up in April 1918 when the Bolsheviks were carrying out their first attacks against anarchists in Moscow, the Bolsheviks might not have had a firm enough grip on state power to defeat them. What is done to the least of us will be done to all of us. This is why solidarity is such an important value to anarchists.

Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman, an anarchist who served 14 years in prison for the US for an act of vengeance against the union-busting industrialist Henry Clay Frick, set out enthusiastically for Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, only to discover that the state was just as authoritarian under Lenin as it had been under the Tsar. He was fortunate to escape alive. He summarized his experiences in The Bolshevik Myth, and also assisted with Letters from Russian Prisons, documenting Bolshevik oppression.

“Grey are the passing days. One by one the embers of hope have died out. Terror and despotism have crushed the life born in October. The slogans of the Revolution are forsworn, its ideals stifled in the blood of the people. The breath of yesterday is dooming millions to death; the shadow of today hangs like a black pall over the country. Dictatorship is trampling the masses under foot. The Revolution is dead; its spirit cries in the wilderness… I have decided to leave Russia.”

— Berkman’s diary, 1922

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman shared Alexander Berkman’s enthusiasm for the initial apparent triumph of the October Revolution1 and his dismay at its dismal results. She traveled with him to Russia, witnessed the first years of the revolution firsthand, and afterwards shared his conviction that Bolshevik authoritarianism was responsible for the results.

“Lenin had very little concern in the Revolution… Communism to him was a very remote thing. The centralized political State was Lenin’s deity, to which everything else was to be sacrificed. Someone said that Lenin would sacrifice the Revolution to save Russia. Lenin’s policies, however, have proven that he was willing to sacrifice both the Revolution and the country, or at least part of the latter, in order to realize his political scheme with what was left of Russia.”

— Afterword, My Disillusionment in Russia

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.

Errico Malatesta

Malatesta began his career as a revolutionary in Italy in the 1870s, working with Bakunin within the famously insurrectionist Italian section of the First International—arguably the first properly anarchist movement on record. From the start, he opposed statist models for social change, having seen how republican nationalism had only brought a new regime to power in Italy and reinforced existing social inequalities. He went to jail and prison again and again in the course of his efforts to open the way to freedom.

In the 1880s, when Malatesta’s former comrade Andrea Costa renounced anarchism, entered the Italian Parliament, and set out to convince the movement that electoral politics were the best way to seek social change, Malatesta sneaked back into Italy, despite facing a variety of unresolved charges in his homeland, and challenged Costa to a public debate. Costa attempted to weasel his way out of it, but was ultimately compelled to meet with Malatesta, then fled the city after being trounced in the discussion. Having won the argument, Malatesta went directly to jail.

Later, after escaping Italy concealed in a box of sewing machines, surviving an assassination attempt in New Jersey, and organizing one clandestine newspaper and uprising after another, Malatesta witnessed the 1917 revolution and the mass defection of anarchists to the Communist Party when the state communist model suddenly appeared more “effective” and “pragmatic.” If not for these wrongheaded conversions, there might still have been hope for emancipatory revolutions in the 20th century.

“It seems unbelievable that even today, after everything that has happened & is happening in Russia, there are people who still imagine that the difference between socialists & anarchists is only that of wanting revolution gradually or quickly.”

— Errico Malatesta, Umanita Nova, September 3, 1921

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Malatesta celebrating May Day 1920.

Victor Serge

Victor Serge started adulthood as an anarchist. However, after the Bolshevik seizure of power, he joined the Party and served them as a journalist, dutifully excusing the imprisonment of honest anarchists, the butchery of the Kronstadt rebels, and many other steps in the Bolshevik counterrevolution. In this regard, he is an example of the millions of rebels and common laborers shifted their allegiance from anarchists to statists after the apparent victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia.

How did it work out for Serge? A few years later, he was expelled from the Communist Party, thrown in jail, sentenced to internal exile, and in the end barely managed to escape the Soviet Union with his life. Had he remained faithful to his anarchist politics, he might have saved himself a lot of grief—and above all, he would not have been complicit in setting the stage for the slaughter and imprisonment of millions.

Peter Arshinov

Peter Arshinov participated in the anarchist uprising in the Ukraine alongside Nestor Makhno between 1919 and 1921, at which point he narrowly escaped the Bolshevik counterrevolution with his life. Fleeing west into Germany, he authored the History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918–1921). He also co-authored the “Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists.” Eventually, he renounced anarchism and returned to the Soviet Union to join the Communist Party, only to be purged and executed. If not even the original Bolsheviks were safe from Stalin’s Terror, it was foolish to imagine a former anarchist might be.

Fedor Mochanovsky

Once the Bolshevik Terror was underway, it became increasingly difficult to get information about what was happening to anarchists and other rebels behind the borders of the Soviet Union. Fedor Mochanovsky was one of countless anarchists who vanished in the course of this repression. By 1928, the Soviet authorities had moved Mochanovsky from the Butyrka prison in order to cut off international support, effectively disappearing him. He almost certainly died in the hands of the Stalinist state.

“In 1918 the Bolshevists organized an anti-anarchist front to seek the destruction of the anarchists in Russia. Throughout the land and in every sphere of life across the territory of the soviet republic, they took up arms against the anarchists. They shut down their presses and their literature. They shut down anarchist clubs and bookshops. They resorted to all sorts of means in order to undo the organization of their congresses and they arrested the anarchists. And when the opportunity presented itself, they shot them down on one pretext or another.”

— Speech of the anarchist Fedor Mochanovsky before the Petrograd Revolutionary Court on December 13, 1922

Max Nettlau

Near the end of his life, Max Nettlau, one of the greatest historians of the classical anarchist movement, having witnessed the Bolshevik victory and the subsequent nightmares of Leninism and Stalinism, summarized the essence of Marx’s political incoherence in a letter to a friend. This little-known excerpt casts considerable light on the contradictions within Marx’s thought, which have been the cause of so much misfortune:

I call Marx “triple-faced,” because with his particularly grasping spirit he laid a claim on exactly three tactics and his originality no doubt resides in these pan-grasping gests. He encouraged electoral socialism, the conquest of parliaments, social democracy and, though he often sneered at it, the People’s State and State Socialism. He encouraged revolutionary dictatorship. He encouraged simple confidence and abiding, letting “evolution” do the work, self-reduction, almost self-evaporation of the capitalists until the pyramid tumbled over by mathematical laws of his own growth, as if triangular bodies automatically turned somersaults. He copied the first tactics from Louis Blanc, the second from Blanqui, whilst the third correspond to his feeling of being somehow the economic dictator of the universe, as Hegel had been its spiritual dictator. His grasping went further. He hated instinctively libertarian thought and tried to destroy the free thinkers wherever he met them, from Feuerbach and Max Stirner to Proudhon, Bakunin and others. But he wished to add the essence of their teaching as spoils to his other borrowed feathers, and so he relegated at the end of days, after all dictatorship, the prospect of a Stateless, an Anarchist world. The Economic Cagliostro hunted thus with all hounds and ran with all hares, and imposed thus—and his followers after him—an incredible confusion on socialism which, almost a century after 1844, has not yet ended. The social-democrats pray by him; the dictatorial socialist swear by him; the evolutionary socialists sit still and listen to hear evolution evolve, as others listen to the growing of the grass; and some very frugal people drink weak tea and are glad, that at the end of days by Marx’s ipse dixit Anarchy will at last be permitted to unfold. Marx has been like a blight that creeps in and kills everything it touches to European socialism, an immense power for evil, numbing self-thought, insinuating false confidence, stirring up animosity, hatred, absolute intolerance, beginning with his own arrogant literary squabbles and leading to inter-murdering socialism as in Russia, since 1917, which has so very soon permitted reaction to galvanize the undeveloped strata and to cultivate the “Reinkulturen” of such authoritarianism, the Fascists and their followers. There was, in spite of their personal enmity, some monstrous “inter-breeding” between the two most fatal men of the 19thcentury, Marx and Mazzini, and their issue are Mussolini and all the others who disgrace this poor 20th century.

— correspondence with a comrade, c. 1936

Max Nettlau.

Luigi Camillo Berneri

The tragedies brought about by the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 did not end in Russia. Once there was a state that supposedly represented the revolutionary socialist agenda, revolutions and revolutionaries all around the world were sacrificed in cold blood to advance the imperatives that drive all states. As his temporary pact with Hitler illustrates, “Stalinism” was not a coherent ideology but a mishmash of all the things Stalin had to do to continuously pursue power for himself and the Soviet Union.

Not wishing any revolutionary movements to triumph elsewhere in the world that did not answer to his Comintern, Stalin made sure to undermine the anarchist and republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. The Stalinist faction within the struggle against Franco was small, but because they controlled access to resources from outside Spain and did not shrink from open betrayal, they were able to centralize control of the defense in their hands. In the end, many Spanish anarchists were murdered by Stalinists rather than by the fascists they were supposedly fighting together.

An associate of Malatesta and fierce critic of Trotsky as well as Stalin, Luigi Berneri was a well-known Italian anarchist organizer who traveled to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He was offered a position in the Council of the Economy, but refused to participate in the government.

When clashes between anarchists and the Stalin-controlled Communist Party broke out in Republican Spain, the house Berneri shared with several other anarchists was attacked. He and his comrades were labeled “counter-revolutionaries,” disarmed, deprived of their papers, and forbidden to go out into the street. On May 5, 1937, Stalinists murdered Berneri along with another Italian anarchist, Francisco Barbieri.

“What evil the Communists are doing here too! It is almost 2 o’clock and I am going to bed. The house is on its guard tonight. I offered to stay awake to let the others go to sleep, and everyone laughed, saying that I would not even hear the cannon! But afterwards, one by one, they fell asleep, and I am watchful over all of them, while working for those who are to come. It is the only completely beautiful thing.”

— Berneri’s last letter to his family, May 3-4, 1937; translation published in The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review #4, 1978

Luigi Berneri.

Park Yeol

The Soviet model for seizing power and repressing dissidents of all stripes spread far outside Stalin’s sphere of influence, sealing the fates of anarchists and millions upon millions of other people.

Park Yeol, the anarchist whose high-profile trial and imprisonment was dramatized this year in the South Korean movie Anarchist from the Colony, fought long and hard against capitalism and imperialism only to be disappeared by a state communist regime. After 22 years in prison, Park was released at the end of the Second World War, only to be captured by the North Korean army. He subsequently vanished.

Alberto Miguel Linsuain

The pattern that began in Russia in 1917 and then spread to Spain, China, and Korea repeated in Cuba and elsewhere around Latin America, too.

Alberto Linsuain was the son of a well-known revolutionary who participated in the Spanish Civil War. Linsuain fought against the Batista dictatorship and joined the rebel forces under the command of Castro’s brother, Raúl Castro. He became a lieutenant in the Rebel Army on account of his bravery in battle. After the armed struggle, he dedicated himself to union organizing. His fellow workers elected him General Secretary of the Federation of Food, Hotel, and Restaurant Workers of the Province of Oriente. When the communists began to take over the organized labor movement, Linsuain fought back. They threw him in jail without trial, along with many other anarchists who had participated in the revolution.

Within a year, he had died at their hands.

In Conclusion

When proponents of state socialism accuse anarchists of being sectarian for not desiring to work together for common ends, we have to ask: do we share the same goals, really? What can we have in common with those who believe that guillotines, courts, judges, prisons, gulags, and firing squads can do the work of liberation?

If history is any guide, partisans of the state will not hesitate to use those against us and anyone else that hinders their pursuit of centralized power. Tens of millions murdered by the state cry out to us from the 20th century, urging us to heed their warnings, so their deaths might not be in vain.