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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years ago

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TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Part Two: Batwoman

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episode airs in the U.S. so if you haven’t yet seen the episode or are waiting to watch the crossover all in on, don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

I was right, and I’m so annoyed they couldn’t keep the high momentum of the first episode here. Where Part One felt like an epic and grand high-stakes crossover opener, Part Two feels more like the typical and somewhat formulaic Arrowverse episode. The problem with that is, it’s supposed to be both! I don’t quite get how the episode that had the most elements I was looking forward to fizzled this much.

But now with the true enemy finally revealing himself, and the promise of more Paragons to find, can Crisis save itself while it destroys the Multiverse?

Avenging the Fallen:

So the episode opens with the three main women of the Arrowverse, Kara, Sara and Kate, drinking in memory of Oliver. I have to say, I know this is a Batwoman episode and these three women in particular do often preach girl power and all that, but the fact Ray isn’t there at least does just make it seem like they wanted this girl power moment, and as Kate said, the Multiverse is still in danger.

As I mentioned when talking about Batwoman in my Elseworlds review, there were problems that fortunately have been fixed by Batwoman the TV series mostly, I still don’t like the fact she’s not a red head, I still don’t like how similar Ruby Rose and Erin Richards look because it’s distracting to me. Even a choppy bob style as Kate has in the comics would differentiate the two more for me.

That being said, Ruby Rose sold the dry cynical humour here as she does in her own series. I loved how she left the drink here but later wished she hadn’t, in that same scene when the Monitor reveals Batman’s secret identity how she demands discretion from the team was funny, Kara finding Earth-99 Luke Fox attractive and Kate finding it weird I thought was hilarious and Ruby Rose sold that very well for me.

Also, for all Kara’s mourning about her lost planet, there was no confirmation on where Alex, Brainy, J’onn, Nia, Kelly or Lena were after the climax of Part One. I know Brainy and I think J’onn are in future parts of this crossover but it would have been good for a side comment saying where they are.

Speaking of mourning, my god Mia goes hard here. It’s funny because in last week’s episode of Arrow, Oliver was all for Diggle finding a way to get Mia and William back to 2040, yet Mia is still around and making understandably emotion-driven but drastic decisions and both Barry and Sara, who are supposed to be older, wiser and more level-headed particularly in this area, are going along with it.

Barry especially, I believe, feels that if he can help Oliver cheat his fate then maybe he can as well considering that Iris has now got the idea that with The Monitor being wrong about how Oliver died maybe Barry won’t die either, that’s just stupid to give someone who has already accepted his fate and has been known to make the stupidest decisions going (Flashpoint) when he feels he can change it.

Mia decides to use a Lazarus Pit to resurrect Oliver and, like I said, both Barry and Sara agree. Sara does need some convincing I grant you and Caity Lotz does sell that she is never fully on-board with the idea, and why would she be because she knows first hand what the pits do.

I did appreciate the Nyssa mention, I just wish she had been their guide to the pit on Earth-18, instead we get a mini-fight between Mia, Sara and an unaltered Jonah Hex.

I did kind of guess Hex would appear as soon as the location was revealed as North Dakota, and to be fair I didn’t really see where Jonah Hex would fit into this crossover, so I am glad they found a space for him.

I also like that Constantine has something to do finally, because I am tired of just seeing Sara and Ray, as much as I love Sara and tolerate Ray, it’s called Legends of Tomorrow and currently I think has the biggest main cast out of these shows...so why am I being drip-fed Legends with now the addition of Constantine and Mick...again I do enjoy both of them but give me the god damn team.

Barry and Constantine bring Oliver to the Lazarus Pit and, as expected, Oliver emerges as an out of control rage monster that Stephen Amell does not sell quite as well as Caity Lotz or Willa Holland previously have.

I guessed Oliver would somehow be brought back, because while the Arrowverse execs try to say “We killed him off in part one to show no one is safe”, it was an eye-roll for me because you’re not going to kill the original main star of the Arrowverse in the first part.

My only issue with it is it happened so quickly, there was no time really to miss him because he was dead at the end of part one and suddenly they’re talking about bringing him back.

Sara had an entire season between death and resurrection and Thea’s resurrection came with great sacrifice on Oliver’s part joining the League of Assassins. Here, we had Constantine saying that the antimatter was making him lose his magic so he couldn’t bring back Oliver’s soul like he did for Sara, which only makes me wonder why they’re wasting time trying to bring someone back rather than stopping existence from dying.

Paragon Pursuit - Bat of the Future:

Okay so, apparently The Monitor has recently discovered seven Paragons across the Multiverse that can come together to defeat the Anti-Monitor. He knows this from retrieving the Book of Destiny from the timeline which was the McGuffin in Elseworlds last year.

Fortunately four of these paragons are known to The Monitor, the Paragon of Hope is Kara Zor-El and the Paragon of Destiny is Sara Lance. I got why this worked because Supergirl’s main brand is all about hope and she’s from a parallel world while Sara is of Earth-1 tying into the fact these seven Paragons are spread across the multiverse.

The Monitor tells the team that two more Paragons are to be found on different Earths, the first is the Bat of the Future on Earth-99 which Mar-Novu name drops as Bruce Wayne, much to Ray’s surprise and Kate’s annoyance.

Again I am actually enjoying Brandon Routh in this crossover, and cannot understand why he isn’t at this level on his own show.

Kate and Kara go to Earth-99 where they come across a dilapidated Wayne Manor, which looks more dishevelled than the one from the DCEU, and meet Earth-99 Luke Fox...who I had to double-take to ensure it was in fact Camrus Johnson partly because of how different he looks not geeked up and also because he is the only other main character of Batwoman to appear in this Batwoman episode.

Now I get that none of the other supporting players are vigilantes at this point, but not even Earth-1 Luke Fox making an appearance is slightly unfair, and you could argue that during Invasion! None of Supergirl’s supporting players were involved, but Supergirl still had an episode in that week which featured its main cast.

Again also Kate’s reaction to Kara finding this Luke attractive was probably my favourite moment in the episode.

Once forcing their way inside, Kate and Kara meet Earth-99 Batman, Mr. Kevin Conroy. I was so looking forward to seeing this veteran Batman voice actor in live-action and when you don’t see him talking, he sounds a lot like Batman of the DCAU, the only problem is I was promised Kingdom Come Batman and didn’t really get that.

I don’t know Kingdom Come that well but I thought Batman was supposed to be the main force of good left in the world, yet not only is he killing his rogues as displayed in his trophy case, including a Riddler cane which I also own, but he also killed Superman.

It’s at this point that Kate and Kara realise that this Batman is not the Paragon of Courage they were sent to retrieve and at that point Batman turns on Supergirl apparently hating Kryptonians.

Now this is where it gets interesting because before this, there is actually some good character moments for Bruce and Kate where Bruce tries to make Kate see that where he is in his mindset is where she should be, not trusting anyone, not believing in anything, just becoming the night basically.

It echoes similarly to what Lex Luthor tried to install in Lena last season which eventually worked as we know and it apparently maybe worked here because, even though Kate saved Kara from her doppleganger cousin, she still kept that Kryptonite wrist strap of his...what does she plan on doing?

Anyway before the Kryptonite reveal, we see Kate and Kara return to base where they tell The Monitor they failed retrieving the Paragon, but The Monitor reveals that the Bat of the Future and the Paragon of Courage is in fact Kate herself.

I don’t know how to feel about this, I love the fact Batwoman is being spotlighted even though she is the new girl, however, it does seem like the only reason she is the Paragon is because this is her show.

Also to have two Paragons from the same Earth? Not exactly far spread out.

Paragon Pursuit - Reign of the Supermen:

While Kate and Kara are on Earth-99, Earth 38′s Clark and Lois, and Iris for some reason, scourer the Multiverse for the Paragon of Truth, which is revealed to be a Superman...but which Superman.

Well just before they head off a spanner is thrown into the works in the form of Earth-38s Lex Luthor. We knew Jon Cryer would be back, I thought he would have returned in the Supergirl episode but we also see at least three other versions of Superman here so why not.

Anyway Lex steals the Book of Destiny because the Monitor apparently brought him back to be duped by the supervillain, shocker, and Lex travels the Multiverse killing off Supermen.

Clark, Lois and Iris first arrive on Earth-75 where they are too late because Earth-38 Lex has already killed this version of Superman who lies dead on the big screen with his Lois mourning the loss.

Their second attempt sees them arrive on Earth-167, which is the vaguest Easter-Egg reference going as it refers to Smallville co-producer Al Gough’s year of birth 1967...

When Tom Welling said he and Erica Durance were only in one scene they weren’t kidding, however I loved it. I am a massive Smallville fan, it was my proper Superman introduction, these versions of Clark and Lois are my Clark and Lois and that’s not going to change.

The decision for Clark not to have powers here is a weird one because they highlighted the fact that the Smallville Comics which followed the TV series would count as canon, yet aside from returning to the Kent Farm nothing we learn about Clark and Lois here was mentioned in the comics.

Also Clark and Lois have daughters, I’m not sure who they’re supposed to be but I’ve only ever known them to have a son...Jonathan...and since when did all the Supermen need to be Superdaddies anyway?

Anyway Earth-38 Lex shows up and Clark has the great confusion of wondering why Jon Cryer doesn’t look like Michael Rosenbaum, it is again sad that Rosenbaum didn’t reprise the role, but to have a Lex Luthor going up against multiple Supermen was still quite cool.

When Clark reveals he gave up his powers, most likely to be a father and family man, it did just seem like a cheat way for the writers to say “Yeah we have Smallville’s Clark Kent, but he won’t be part of the action”. Which as a Smallville fan is painful because I wanted to see Tom Welling in the tights, flights and action!

Also once Lex and the heroes disappear, Smallville’s Lois arrives and I have to say, she looks exactly the same as she did back in 2011 but different to how she looks as Alura Zor-El. Maybe it’s the choice of farm clothes as opposed to regal dresses but this is Lois Lane I had through my teen years, everything from the fashion to the hair, to the voice. I wasn’t crazy about the laugh because it seemed a bit forced, but she called him Smallville straight after and spoke in her high-energised way so I was happy.

The final stop was on Earth-96 which is a reference to the year the Kingdom Come storyline came out, it was confirmed that Brandon Routh would be Kingdom Come Superman but also the version of Superman from 2006 Superman Returns which Routh starred in.

We meet, or are reacquainted with,Routh’s version of Clark Kent. I have to admit I never much cared for Superman Returns, possibly because Smallville was on at the time and that version had already won me over. But I do know that Brandon Routh drew a lot of inspiration from Christopher Reeves and his portrayal of the character and you can clearly see that in both his fashion and acting.

I want to say it’s sad to see that pretty much all of Superman’s supporting staff at the Daily Planet are dead, Sam Huntington in my opinion was a decent Jimmy Olsen, but if this was Smallville’s Daily Planet staff all killed I’d be distraught.

Again I am comparing a lot but they are literally scenes apart from each other here.

Anyway, just as it’s confirmed that Brandon Routh’s Superman is the Paragon of Truth, Lex Luthor appears and decides he’s fed up with killing Supermen...we’ve only seen him kill one but there you go, and decides to turn Kingdom Come Superman against Earth-38 Superman in order for his now puppet to kill the other one.

I have to say, this was another weak battle sequence, I know it’s really CGI with two Supermen flying around, but neither Brandon Routh or Tyler Hoechlin have really sold flying as Superman to me that well anyway.

Lois finally does something and knocks Lex unconscious while she and Iris, who I cannot understand why she even came along at all, try to use the Book of Destiny to fix Kingdom Come Superman.

Eventually Lois gets through to KCS by appealing to his love for humanity and for his lost Lois. This breaks him free of the book’s control just in time before he snaps Earth-38 Superman’s neck.

With Lex detained, the heroes all return to base where they set up a machine to search for the rest of the Paragons.

Harbinger’s Headache:

This sounds stupid but genuinely is what happens, since the start of the episode when Mar-Novu reveals the Book of Destiny, Harbinger starts to get headaches, this does alert her to the fact Lex Luthor is stealing the book but also puts her in the pathway of the Anti-Monitor.

Yes we finally see the big bad of the crossover in all his...glory? He looks ridiculous! His concept artwork does make him look like Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse but the actual thing we get just looks ugly.

I will give a minor positive and say it is better to see him in the show than he looks on the promotional images because I get the feeling lighting is not this guy’s friend and we meet him in what looks like the hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Mick Rory, Baby Whisperer:

Again, this sounds stupid, but I wanted to highlight this for a couple of reasons and to spotlight Legends of Tomorrow because it doesn’t look like this crossover is doing that.

Firstly, this Mick Rory isn’t our Mick Rory, this is in fact the Mick Rory of Earth-74...why is it called Earth-74? I don’t know because originally there were only supposed to be 52 Earths, then Earth-X came about and now we have Earth-167 so I’m making my peace with them making it up as they go along.

Anyway, Dominic Purcell has grown on me since he was first introduced on The Flash. I think once you accept the fact that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is essentially a piss-take because that is what it’s become then you accept why the characters do what they do, and not only turning a Flash rogue into a hero/legend is understood but also having him be a writer, have a rat as a pet and be good with babies is also understood.

We see that Earth-74 has a Waverider and did have its own version of the Legends before they all disbanded, Mick has taken command of the Waverider as seemingly his home where he is a struggling writer and his only companion is the Waverider’s A.I. Leonard...Wentworth Miller is back! As a disembodied voice, I would have liked to have at least seen his floating blue head but no we get the voice which is fine by me to be honest.

Once Harbinger commandeers the Waverider ad brings it to Earth-1 with Mick on board, he seemingly becomes the only person on board who Jonathan won’t cry for...not his mum, not his dad, not his aunt...a gun wielding alcoholic hot-head...great choice kid.

It is the lowest form of comedy side-story going but it is still nice to see them at least attempt to include the Legends and particularly Wentworth Miller in some form.

Easter-Eggs:

Superman III:

Alright so this is a clever throwback as this version of Superman Brandon Routh is portraying may be repackaged as Kingdom Come Superman, but he is also the same Superman Routh portrayed in 2006′s Superman Returns, who in turn is the same Superman Christopher Reeve played during the 80s, one movie Reeves was in was Superman III where Superman’s human and Kryptonian sides physically fought each other.

This plot point has also been done in Smallville briefly during the opening episode of Season 4 but not to the same degree as here or Superman III.

Smallville:

So many Smallville Easter-Eggs in one small scene, the first was the mention of Smallville’s Lex Luthor being the President of the United States of America. In a vision of the future Lex Luthor was indeed president and during the flashforward epilogue of the Smallville finalé he was running for president.

I also appreciated the time joke that Lois made when she said that it’s taken about a decade for Clark to “make a funny”. In real-time it has been almost a decade since Smallville finished as it was 2011, whereas now it is 2019.

Captain Cold:

Some things never change and whether he’s a doppleganger of the original or an A.I. version of the man, Wentworth Miller’s charm oozes out.

When Harbinger arrives on the Earth-47 Waverider, she notes that she is aware of who the A.I. is and he responds with his classic line “Always pleased to meet a fan”, this he has said a couple of times firstly in Season 1 of The Flash and then again with the Legends.

This was a great episode on reflection but in terms of ramping up the drama and grandeur of the crossover it did need work. Hopefully it’s only a minor bump before tonight’s third part, which promises a sizeable cliffhanger before the Christmas break.

So that’s my review of Crisis on Infinite Earths: Batwoman, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.

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rivaltierno · 5 years ago

Photo

I’ve been meaning to update Mmeeie’s profile + reference art for a bit now, and after a good two weeks of work on it, I’ve finally done that.

The updates to her design is mainly just the different color palette, though her profile is changed a bit more. Most notably, I significantly fleshed out her backstory and added sections talking about the most important relationships she has. I also tweaked a couple other things like her personality and explained some of her powers more in-depth.

The profile itself is written under the cut, but before that a few notes to help clear up some things that may be confusing while reading it:

- I don’t know the names of the DC Earths, so I just tried to vaguely describe each universe she went to in her backstory. If it’s not clear, the universes she went in order are: the Hanna-Barbera Superfriends cartoon, the 2003 animated Teen Titans series, the Teen Titans Go! cartoon, and the Static Shock cartoon.

- Since Teen Titans Go! has no consistent timeline (or continuity in general really), the timeline part of her backstory is based on Static Shock (or how I’m interpreting its timeline at least). She first goes to the Static Shock universe in mid-Season 3 (between “Showtime” and “Romeo in the Mix” specifically), and then the second time is in early Season 4 during the episode “She-Back!”.

- I’m operating under the idea that these universes have parallel timelines of sorts, which is why the modern-day Teen Titans Go! universe exists at the same time as the early 2000s Static Shock universe and Mmeeie can so easily jump between them. (Since the Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans crossover movie those had universes interacting with no timeline trouble I’m going to say that's kinda canon anyway.)

Name: Mmeeie (pronounced as the letters M-E)

Other Aliases: Emmy Maxwell (only used while in human disguise)

Species: Fifth-Dimensional Imp

Age: 15

Gender: Mmeeie doesn’t know nor does she care to find out. Will dismiss people if asked what her gender is.

Pronouns: She/Her; no pronouns (when back home in Zrfff)

Sexual Orientation: Attracted exclusively to girls

Birthday: December 1st (Sagittarius)

Home Location: Zrfff, Fifth Dimension

Alignment: Neutral, leaning towards Chaotic

Height: 2′9″ (normal), 4′9″ (human disguise)

Weight: Weightless

Physical Description: Short and fat. Dark green eyes and matching hair, her hair pulled into low-hanging pigtails, the ends perpetually curled upward. Grayish-blue skin color.

When in her human disguise, still short and fat. Blue eyes and black hair, her hair worn down and the ends still pointed upwards, but split into two sections on each side. Pinkish-white skin color

Clothing Description: A green full body suit with a high popped collar and gold-colored insignia with the letters ‘M’ and ‘E’ inside a pointed-down triangle on the chest. Gold-colored gloves reaching just above the elbow, gold-colored boots reaching just below the knee and curving down in a ‘V’ shape at the top, a gold-colored belt wore at the waist and curving down in a ‘V’ shape, and a gold-colored headband. A light orange flight disc with boot-shaped latches on top.

When in her human disguise*, an orange t-shirt with a "Burger Fool" logo on it and a light blue-and-gray stripped long sleeve undershirt. A calf-length dark blue denim skirt. Tan boots with pale yellow fluff at the top. A light blue headband with orange butterflies on it, and five jelly bracelets (two orange, two tan, and one black) on each arm. A light orange walker. *Note that the clothing for her human disguise changes based on the universe she's in to try and blend in better. The clothing seen/described here is specifically for when she's in the "Static Shock" universe, since that's really the only time she uses this disguise at the moment. The walker stays the same, however.

Powers/Abilities:

Reality Warping: Like all Imps, Mmeeie has the ability to change reality to her own desires. She mainly uses this power to transform objects/create new objects, though she will sometimes use it to change the physical environment around her into something else.

However, her ability to create new environments is noticeably weaker than her ability to change objects. This is partially due to her inexperience in using her powers (as she simply creates new objects more often in her daily life than changing the physical landscape of things), and partially because wide-scale changes such as environmental ones requires a lot more focus from her, which she doesn’t like to give most of the time.

She also has difficulties disappearing objects once she’s created them, again due to still learning to fully use her powers. This is why she prefers to summon up objects that can easily be gotten rid of (money, food, etc.). To give the illusion that she can just as easily disappear them, however, she hides them away in a pocket dimension she has access to, since that’s where she keeps all of her things when she’s traveling around anyway.

Likewise, her objection creation is limited to only items without a consciousness, so if she wanted/had to create something that was alive, she couldn't summon up an animal, but could a plant. This is because only adult Imps are able to properly create consciousness for their items, which is also why Mmeeie isn't able to bring inanimate objects to life with her environment-warping abilities.

Mild Omniscience: Also like other Imps, Mmeeie is omniscient, though it’s mild. Her omnisciency level requires her to be both physically in a particular universe and near the people she wants to learn about to fully gain knowledge about them. For example, she could learn everything there is to know about a person, including everything they’ve ever done and why, within a minute or two just by looking at them, but she has to be in close proximity to them for it to work, and she can only do it to one person at a time.

This is only the case for learning about people, though; to fully learn about a universe’s history and past major events, she simply just has to be in the universe proper, not near where the actual events took place. However, she tends to focus on just events that particularly interest her or she’s asked about directly, as learning about events/history takes a lot more focus than learning about people, and like with her reality warping, she doesn’t like to give it most of the time.

Further, she can learn about current/active events without being in a universe physically. She has the ability to open “universe windows” to other universes and peak in on them. She can’t interact with the universe’s inhabitants through that window, and can only watch one event in that universe at a time, but she can see everything that’s going on without anyone else being aware of it. She can also open multiple windows at a time if she wants to, but the images get blurrier/less detailed if more than one is being used.

These limitations to her omnisciency are mainly due to her age - only adult Imps have the ability to gain full knowledge of a universe’s history and inhabitants instantaneously - though some of them, such as only being able to have one clear window at a time, is due to her still learning to fully use her powers.

Teleportation: Teleportation is Mmeeie’s method of traveling between universes/dimensions, though it can also be used on a smaller scale to get from place-to-place as well. Similarly, it is also her preferred method of movement when she cannot use her flight disc.

She is also able to take objects/others along with her when she’s teleporting, but only if she’s directly holding onto them. She can’t teleport objects/others by themselves, either, again due to her inexperience with her powers.

Weapons: Mmeeie can conjure up weapons, though she she very rarely uses them as she’s not a physical fighter. Since these weapons are mainly just for fun/show, they are cartoony looking, being black, magenta, cyan, and yellow in color. Her favorite is the giant mallet, though she has a saw blade and a laser gun as well.

Personality: Mmeeie’s main goal is to enjoy herself and live life exactly as she wants it to go. Due to being an Imp and having the powers that comes with it, she views herself as inherently better than most others. She puts her own thoughts and desires before everyone else, only taking others seriously and considering their feelings if she’s fond of them. For everyone else, she enjoys bothering and inconveniencing them just to bother and inconvenience them, ignoring all of the consequences and criticisms that doing so brings.

Despite her self-focused thought process, however, Mmeeie does legitimately enjoy having close relationships and hanging out with others, and was genuinely distraught to find out that her ego and constant ribbing of people weren’t endearing traits to those in other universes like they were on Zrfff. For those she’s fond of, or at least wants to gain some kind of acquaintanceship with, she does attempt to curve her personality to be more likable, but that generally results in her just being overbearing and inserting herself where she wasn't asked to be.

Like other Imps, Mmeeie does enjoy playing games and making deals. She takes deals very seriously, making sure the rules are followed as closely and getting very upset if someone breaks them. She’s also very particular about who can play her games - she makes sure civilians and other people who didn’t agree to play never get involved, feeling like it would be too dangerous for them to do so. Even with that concern, though, her games rarely get violent or even that physical, as she doesn’t find it fun to put people in serious danger and would much rather play a game that involves outwitting or annoying someone. If her games/actions do get physical, it is a cartoony style of violence, one that doesn't leave lasting damage to her or the person attacked (ex. being bonked over the head with an oversized hammer), and likewise serves more as a distraction than an actual attempt at fighting.

Likes:

- Seagulls

- Loud Music

- Layered Clothing

- Puppets

Dislikes:

- People named Richard (She just hates the name that much)

- Being compared to/called a “Mite”

- Authority figures

- Pizza

Fears:

- Animals with long necks [Giraffes, Geese, etc.]

- Very large animals [Giraffes, Elephants, etc.]

- Being mind controlled

Family: Ooccaaer (Father), Ttooniee (Father), Glldngllb (Grandmother)

Love Interest: Jayna (Teen Titans Go!)

Notable Relationships [more in-depth]:

Zrfff

Family: Mmeeie gets along very well with her family. They’ve always been very supportive of her, including when she decided to become the first one of the family to become an ‘adventurer’, and she’ll always defend their decisions when people in other universes question how they raised her.

However, there was a divide in how she was raised in a major way: her father Ttooniee and her grammy taught her to be very proud of her power and to ignore anyone trying to stop her living the way she wants to, while her father Ooccaaer taught her that, even though she is indeed more powerful than those in other universes, there does need to some level of order in the world and that never thinking about others will only lead to trouble.

This never caused any fights amongst her family, but it did cause confusion for Mmeeie when she was first out on her own and couldn’t rely on her family to make important decisions for her. She tries her best to blend the two viewpoints together, but that usually results in her coming off as a hypocrite to those around her.

Mr. Mxyzptlk: Like most Imps, Mmeeie idolizes Mr. Mxyzptlk. She grew up hearing stories of his amazing adventures and exploits, and since she dreamed of leaving Zrfff and exploring the multiverse some day, she wanted to be just like him. When an opportunity to study under him came she took it, taking everything he said to heart, even if it wasn’t very much.

Mr. Mxyzpltk, however, doesn’t think much about Mmeeie. He views her more as a means to the end than a true student, and only ever interacts with her when it is convenient for or required of him.

Teen Titans Go!

Robin: At first, Mmeeie and Robin were just each others’ rivals, trying to one-up each other in an on-going competition to see whose the best. They clashed heavily due to how similar their personalities are, with them both demanding everything be their way or the highway and both being willing to mess with other people to get that to happen. However, they quickly realized that because they're so similar, they could confide in each other in a way that they couldn’t with others/without a feeling of being judged, and began to do that as well.

They’re still not really friends, as Mmeeie is willing to pull out more dangerous game just for him and Robin enjoys it when she gets herself caught up in them, but at the end of the day they can still laugh it off and do appreciate the relationship they have.

Starfire: Starfire was Mmeeie’s first full-blown crush. The two of them got along really well at first, bonding over the fact that both of them were still learning the ropes about certain parts of Earth culture and that they both enjoyed making fun of Robin. However, Mmeeie eventually realized there was a major problem preventing a relationship between the two of them: Starfire wasn’t attracted to her in the slightest, and didn’t even seem to realize Mmeeie was flirting with her. Not wanting to lose her friendship with her, Mmeeie simply pretended the crush never happened (not that Starfire would have minded if she knew). Starfire is still her favorite person on that particular Titans team, though Starfire doesn’t view her as anything more than a causal friend.

Jayna: Mmeeie and Jayna hit it off right from the start: Mmeeie admired Jayna’s dedication to her family, as it reminded her of her own family life, and Jayna not only was glad there was someone capable of being assertive when she wasn’t in the mood, she actually appreciated Mmeeie’s direct and constant affections for her, as (naturally) she did enjoy being treated a separate person from her brother despite their closeness.

As they grew closer, Jayna became one of the few people Mmeeie trusted to be actually caring when she suggests Mmeeie try and improve herself, and not just be critiquing her “for no good reason”. Mmeeie does try to tone down how overbearing she is with Jayna to a more causal level to keep her more comfortable, and even starts to truly consider how Jayna feels when doing things around her (and not just in a “oh pretty girl” way). Jayna, likewise, indeed does actually care about Mmeeie, and does really think Mmeeie does mean well and just needs to learn how to control herself better.

Within a year of meeting one another they decided to try starting a romantic relationship together, and while they haven’t been on any major dates, they (especially Mmeeie) do actively refer to each other as “girlfriend” to other people.

Zan: Mmeeie didn’t think too much about Zan at first, viewing him just as “Jayna’s brother”. She ribbed him just like she did everyone else, and was pretty pleased that he seemed fine with it. However, as she spent more time around him, she realized that the only reason he didn’t complain like most others did was because he was used to being the butt of the joke. Since they had somewhat bonded by then (and also because she wanted to cover up the sudden guilt she was feeling for the first time), she decided to throw herself into defending him and truly trying to become his friend.

Zan, for his part, was overwhelmed by the sudden change in Mmeeie’s treatment of him but did appreicate it - especially since it meant she was treating him like his own person instead of just “Jayna’s brother”. He was receptive to it, and they ended up forming a relationship around trying to improve one another; Mmeeie trying to get him to become more assertive and Zan trying to get her to consider people’s feelings more often and not just when they directly impact her. (Neither of them have been partially effective so far.)

Static Shock

Static: Mmeeie decided that Static would become her rival without her even asking him about it first. In her mind, all she had to do to get him to agree was show off her amazing powers and constantly praise him, which she proudly did. Despite from the slight ego boost her praise gave him, Static was annoyed by her badgering and spent most of the time trying to ignore her, having to angrily trick her into leaving by the end of it. Mmeeie was in complete denial of this rejection, however, assuming it was all acting on the part of their “rivalry”.

When they met for a second time, Mmeeie’s view of Static was slightly more nuanced - but only because she was mad at him for how he was treating Shebang, as that shattered her view that he was a flawless hero. She actually felt a bit betrayed because of it, which Static was able to use to his advantage once he was able to properly confront her again, since she was too emotionally distraught to be as tricky as she usually was.

After Static realized all this was Mmeeie’s strange way of saying she liked spending time with him, he was slightly hesitant to send her back. He did think there might be potential for her to be a halfway decent person - that and having someone with reality-bending powers on his side would be very useful. He did end up still convincing her to leave, of course (as he didn’t want her to stick around that much), but made sure she knew she was welcome back at some point in the future. Mmeeie gladly accepted his offer to return.

Gear: Mmeeie and Gear hated each other at first, with most of the tension coming from Mmeeie’s side. Between her irrational hatred of people named Richard and her belief that Gear was inferior to Static, she took every chance she got to insult and belittle him. Much to her anger, however, Gear retaliated against this and treated her the same way.

Their relationship didn’t improve until outside forces intervened, convincing Mmeeie to consider Gear as a person (and not just a name to hate) and to start treating him with some basic decency. However, even with this change in Mmeeie’s behavior, the two of them still regularly bickered with and insulted one another; they just learned to tone it down when they had to work with one another. Their relationship just changed from pure hatred to reluctant and undesired acquaintanceship. Mmeeie prefers it that way, though, because it gives her an “acceptable” way to act out her instigative nature. (Gear, for his part, doesn’t like to think about their relationship at all, ever.)

Shebang: Mmeeie was attracted to Shebang the moment she met her, both literally and because she felt a connection to her due to their shared desire to make friends. She was incredibly perturbed by the fact that Static and Gear found her annoying, when clearly she was just trying to be nice and offer her friendship to them, which she didn’t even need to do because she was obviously better than the both of them anyway. Because of this self-projection, Mmeeie decided that she was going to be Shebang’s friend, following her around out-of-uniform and purposefully annoying anyone that was even slightly rude to her.

On the one hand, Shebang herself was annoyed at Mmeeie’s actions, finding her to be overbearing and trying too hard to be her friend. But on the other hand, she did appreicate that she seemed to be the only one who wasn't actively avoiding her and was at least attempting to understand her point of view. That, and because Mmeeie’s plan actually somewhat worked and got Static and Gear to quit complaining about her so much. Because of this, Shebang did, albeit hesitantly, vouch for Mmeeie in the end, and was the first one in that particular universe to try and talk her into being more considerate and to think through her actions. (Mmeeie was more receptive to Shebang’s requests because she was already fond of her, but it was still an uphill battle.) She still doesn’t consider Mmeeie that close of a friend, though.

Backstory:

There was nothing about Mmeeie’s childhood that inclined her towards becoming an adventuring Imp more than others her age; no one in her family had ever left Zrfff before - which they were perfectly content with - and she knew very little about the universes existing outside of the Fifth Dimension. In fact, due to one of her fathers, Ooccaaer, working as a court clerk for the Imp court system, she had knowledge about some the more illegal and morally questionable activities adventuring Imps got into that the general public didn’t know, so she even knew that not everything was what it seemed when it came to traveling to other universes.

However, none of that ended up mattering, as Mmeeie fell in love with the idea of becoming an adventuring Imp the moment she heard Mr. Mxyzlptk’s stories for the first time. She adored the theatrics of them, the cunning and wit he had, and most of all, the idea of having a personal rival to compete with, especially if it was someone as famous as he said Superman was. This desire for adventure grew each time Mr. Mxyzlptk returned to Zrfff, and she decided that she was going to leave to explore the Multiverse the first chance she got.

And, at the tender age of 13, she got it.

During one of Mr. Mxyzlptk’s trips back to Earth, he decided to start an “internship program” to help give back to the community that loved him so much; he would select a lucky few young Imps to teach the ways of multiversal travel and relations, so he could make sure the next generation got to experience the joys of adventuring. In truth, it was just a stunt to further deepen the general public’s adoration of him, as he knew perfectly well that the only reason the court never punished him too severely was because they feared a full-on riot. But it was still a successful stunt.

Mmeeie was one of the many young Imps who auditioned to be part of his program. Her plan to win Mr. Mxyzlptk over was to focus on explaining how much he inspired her and how much she would “appreciate the opportunity” to work with him and be the first in her family to travel outside of Zrfff (she made sure to later thank her family for that line in particular). She didn’t think that would be particularly impressed by her powers, anyway, since literally every Imp could do the same things, and she wanted to make herself stand out as much as possible. That and a little praise never hurt, either.

Much to her joy, her plan worked, and Mmeeie was chosen to “study” under Mr. Mxyzlptk. He told her it was because he was impressed with how close she was to her family - closeness is a key component in having a good rivalry with others, he explained - and how supportive they were of her. Unbeknownst to her, however, the real reason she was chosen was because her father was a court clerk, and Mr. Mxyzlptk wanted to leverage that to get some influence into the court system, even if he had to start at the lowest level. If Mmeeie’s explanation of her father was correct, then he certainly wouldn’t risk ruining his child’s happiness by not listening to him, right?

The training Mr. Mxyzlptk gave his chosen students was just a crash course into the powers they had but didn’t really use on Zrfff, such as how to tap into their omnisciency powers and how to tune their teleportation to the proper frequencies so they could get into any universe they want. That was it. No etiquette on how to act in other universes, no suggestions on what to do when they get there, not even a list of the universes that existed. Just “these are your powers so go use them however you want”. Mr. Mxyzlptk promised it was more fun that way, and reminded his students that they were the powerful ones, so it should be those in other universes listening to them and not the other way around anyway.

Mmeeie was a little disappointed with the training she received, as she was hoping to get more information from Mr. Mxyzlptk on how to get a proper rival, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. Especially since her family actually seemed pretty pleased with what she had learned; her father Ttooniee and her grammy were both glad that his lessons focused on maintaining personal pride even in under pressure from other universes, and her father Ooccaaer was relieved to learn that he was sending her off on her own instead of roping her into one of his schemes. With her family believing that she was indeed properly prepared to go adventuring, and with them reminding her multiple times that she could return home whenever she wanted to, Mmeeie went off to explore the universes outside of Zrfff.

Her initial plan was just to follow in Mr. Mxyzlptk’s footsteps until she figured out what to do. The first universe she decided to visit was one that he often told stories about, one in which the Superfriends was the premier hero team. Adopting, with some slight alterations, the uniform the Wonder Twins wore (her favorite amongst the team members she saw there) so she would be taken more seriously, Mmeeie stormed into the universe demanding that Robin be her rival. Since she didn’t know what made a proper rival, she decided that someone she wanted to personally fight would do, and besides, Robin was as well-known as Superman, right?

This plan did not go well for her. Due to the Superfriends already knowing how to deal with Imps because of their past interactions with Mr. Mxyzlptk - and the fact most of them were grown adults and Mmeeie was barely a teenager, which they made sure to reminder her of - they quite easily outsmarted her and convinced her to leave. Humiliated, Mmeeie vowed to avoid all superhero teams with adult members when searching for her next universe.

Staying with the idea that becoming rivals with a Robin was the best way to go, Mmeeie looked around until she found a universe where not only was Robin not working with his Batman at all, but he and his team of fellow teenage heroes seemed to be the only team around, so she wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of adults ruining her plan. So she stormed into that universe, again demanding that Robin be her rival.

This plan also did not go well for her. Much to her shock, The Teen Titans of that universe informed her that they had dealt with an Imp before as well, though that shock quickly turned into anger when she learned it was a Mite they interacted with. Offended at the comparison, she spent more time screaming at Robin than trying to convince him to be her rival, and the Titans were able to use that frustration against her to get her to leave on her own.

Fortunately for Mmeeie, however, the third time was a charm. It didn’t take long for her to find the next universe to go to; she just hoped over to one that was like the previous one she tried but with everyone being very small in stature. When she declared that the Robin of that universe was going to be her rival, that Robin jumped on the opportunity, even reassuring her that he was totally just as famous as Superman. Not only that, that Robin was even more punchable than the previous two, so Mmeeie felt that this universe was were she needed to be.

She spent the next year there, becoming very fond of it in the process. Mmeeie’s rivalry with Robin remained steady, with her often tagging along on the Titans’ adventures just to bother him, his teammates encouraging it most of the time. Through these adventures she developed a mild friendship with the rest of the Titans, most notably Starfire, who she got a major crush on (though it was unrequited and didn’t last long).

In that time, Mmeeie also met the Wonder Twins of that universe. She was immediately smitten by Jayna, and Jayna actually liked her back. (Mmeeie was more indifferent to Zan, though.) She began to spend her time split between the Titans and hanging out with Jayna (and Zan), with the latter being a good influence on her; because she was spending more time with the Wonder Twins as opposed to the more selfish and impulsive Titans (or anyone from back home on Zrfff), Mmeeie began to realize new things about herself, like how she still felt proud of herself even when she did consider Jayna’s feelings along with her own, and how she was starting to feel guilt for how mean she was being to Zan without him ever doing anything to her. These self-realizations didn’t impact her relationship with anyone outside of Jayna and Zan - in fact, it only made her act angrier towards Robin, because she had to get her inconsiderate feelings out somehow (and their whole rivalry was built on that fact anyway) - but it was something Mmeeie kept in the back of her mind the more she stayed in that universe.

Then one day Mr. Mxyzlptk arrived to “check up” on her. In truth, he didn’t actually care how she was doing, but had to keep up the image of mentoring her and the other young Imps. He stayed long enough to take brief, mental notes on what she had been doing to report back to her parents, and then offered a couple of general pieces of advice before leaving, pointing out that staying in just one universe doesn’t really count as ‘traveling’, and reminding her that Imps don’t let those from other universes tell them what to do. Oh, and to call her parents more often.

Though he barely told her anything, Mmeeie took everything she did get to heart and decided to get moving again. However, remembering the embarrassment she felt traveling to different universes beforehand, and not wanting to completely lose the relationships she had already built in this universe, she decided to take a different approach. She would pick a universe she knew ahead of time that she would want to stay in, and divide her time between it and her current universe, making sure to go between them enough to still qualify as ‘traveling’. She didn’t have other ideas on how to judge this universe choice besides her previous plan of finding a rival, however, so that had to be modified as well.

Trying to keep in mind the whole “considering others’ feelings” thing while not going against her Imp heritage, Mmeeie decided to find a universe with two rivals for her - one that she could compete with in an angry, serious manner like she and Robin did, and one that could compete with in a more causal, relaxed one. This meant more ‘research’ into the universes themselves had to be done before she left, but that’s what universe windows were for.

Her plan to only focus on universes with teenage heroes being the premier heroes didn’t change, but her desire to have a famous rival did; She promised Robin he would be her only rival using that codename, so she strayed away from universes that had other Titans teams and instead focused on ones with heroes she hadn’t necessarily heard of before.

During this research she found a universe with a high percentage of superpowered youths, yet Static was the only teenage hero she could find at that moment. Since he just so happened to be working with the Justice League at during that time, she was going to just skip over his universe, until she saw him go against the League’s commands in order to save his friend. That got her full attention. In fact, it got her full adoration.

It didn’t take long for Mmeeie to decide that Static would be a perfect person to have a causal rivalry with, and fortunately for her, it wasn’t much longer before she found someone to have a more serious rivalry with, either. Watching Static’s adventures a bit more, she learned that the friend he had to save also had powers himself, and his name just happened to be Richard. It was like she was destined to be in that universe.

Wanting to avoid the mistakes she made in previous universes, instead of storming into this universe demanding Static be her rival, she stormed in and started praising him hoping that it would get him to listen to her. Static still ended up ignoring her, however, since she happened to arrive while he was in the middle of a battle. Upset that he wasn’t paying listening to her, she tried multiple things to get his attention, up to and including kidnapping Gear, which gave her a chance to go ahead and start up her rivalry with Gear. In her opinion, it was very successful; The two of them spent the time waiting for Static to arrive either yelling at one another or trying to beat each other at trivia games, which is exactly what she wanted.

Once Static finally found where she was, Mmeeie tried again to praise her way into getting him to listen to her, but that kept getting interrupted by her needing to snap at Gear everything time he said anything. She was able to get one thing through during their muddled conversation though: she would leave if Static played along. So, wanting to get rid of her, he made a deal with her that he would become her rival if she left for a while to give him time to “think about how to do it properly”. Mmeeie whole-heartedly agreed, leaving thinking that she successfully got herself two more rivals.

She spent “for a while” back with the Wonder Twins and the Titans, continuing to develop the relationships she had in their universe, most notably starting a romantic relationship with Jayna. (She also started calling her parents more regularly during this time.)

When it was time for Mmeeie to return to Static’s universe, she did not get the greeting she was expecting. In fact, she was barely noticed at all, as Static and Gear were busy dealing with the return of a different person she didn’t know, Shebang. Watching over the situation for a little bit, she decided that Shebang was actually the one in the right, and became greatly upset over how Static was treating her. She flipped her script, starting to praise and focus all of her attention on Shebang instead, and berating Static when he questioned the change in attitude.

This just created a new host of problems between her and Static - not to mention that she wasn’t having a great start with Shebang either considering how overbearing she was being - and unlike before when Mmeeie was confident enough to ignore these issues, she was now too frustrated to do so. So when that visit ended like the last one did in an angry debate, she ended up admitting more than she intended to about why she wanted to connect with a rival so badly. This admission did get the situation to calm down a bit, though it left Mmeeie embarrassed.

It also put Static in a predicament. On the one hand, he could tell that she honestly did want to be his and Shebang’s friends, and thought that she could be a decent ally in battle if she just focused her powers. But on the other hand, he could also tell that it would be a long while before she got the point of dealing with others in a more appropriate way - espeically if her treatment of Gear was any indication - and he didn’t want to spend all his time teaching her how to be a better person.

So Static made another, more legitimate, deal with her. Mmeeie would be allowed to come back and hang out with him and everyone else, but only when they specifically asked for her. (Since she could set up “notifications” of sorts on her universe windows that alerted her whenever something she was looking for happened, it wouldn’t be an issue for her to find out when that was.) That way, they could still maintain a relationship, but without being overwhelmed by her. Of course, Mmeeie agreed to that.

She now spends her time between staying with the Wonder Twins and Titans in their universe and working on her relationships with Static and his friends in their universe. She does tend to stay in the former universe more often, since that’s not only where her girlfriend lives, but where she doesn’t have to focus so much on self-reflection and can just enjoy herself more freely, but she still appreciates the time she gets to spend in the latter when Static calls upon her (especially since these requests slowly start to increase in frequency the more she gets to know everyone there).

Other Important Notes:

- Mmeeie can levitate and fly. However, while she can levitate without issue, her flight is very slow and unbalanced, usually leading to her hurting herself, or at the least getting incredibly frustrated. She uses a flight disc to help her get around, with latches to place her feet inside so she can’t get knocked off of it. When in her human disguise, the flight disc becomes a walker.

- Mmeeie's parents and grandmother are apart of the younger generation of Imps who embraced the use of vowels in naming, hence Mmeeie's and her fathers’ names mainly consisting of vowels, but her grandmother’s not having any at all.

- The act of spelling/saying her name backwards will not banish Mmeeie back to Zrfff.

Trivia:

- Mmeeie speaks in an unnaturally high, chipmunk-like voice. When in her human disguise, her voice is more natural-sounding, but is still high-pitched.

- Mmeeie is squeamish around blood and other serious (i.e. non-cartoony) injuries.

- Mmeeie picked up juggling as a nervous habit and is actually quite good at it.

- Mmeeie gets inebriated when drinking apple juice, but not drinks with actual alcohol in them.

#mmeeie #DC oc #mod's art #i'm actually super proud of the art for the ref though idk what about it i like so much

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wandering-----wonderings · 5 years ago

Photo

A glimpse inside everyones favorite hyperpolyglot, Sydney Bristow. (Yes, I childishly cut Danny out of the picture because I prefer Sydney with Noah, but I like this picture, so there you go.)

Let's start this off with a quick quote from Recruited: I speak five languages (six if you count pig latin. From Shadowed, we also know this: for SD-6 agents, mastering five or six languages was the bare minimum. So right out of the gate, before she even starts working at SD-6, she's already met the 'bare minimum' requirement. Sort of; I'm not sure if SD-6 would count English - or pig latin for that matter.

My current wondering is: what five languages (six including pig latin) did she know before starting SD-6? English would be 1, obviously, and Pig Latin would make two. I'm assuming she's counting her Spanish and Mandarin college electives when she said that (unless she already spoke those languages and just took them as electives to get more of a background on them), so that would be 3 and 4. So what were 5 and 6?

Truthfully, I have no idea. Wikipedia has a list of her speaking 30 languages: English, Russian, German, Greek, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian.

Now this is completely a supposition, but the Wikipedia list doesn't mention Latin - it doesn't mention pig latin, either - but I would think that one of the languages she knew before coming into SD-6 would be Latin; it just ... sorta seems like it would be the first language she would learn with her being as studious as she is since, while being considered a dead language, it's still quite present in today's world, especially in the sciences. So my guess for language-number-5 would be Latin.

The sixth language is more of a long-shot. Seriously. In the pilot episode, in the SD-6 briefing room, we hear this:

Sydney: ''What is that? Hieratic?'' Sloane: ''Good try. That's what I thought. Actually, it's demotic. Taking notes in ancient languages was just one of Muller's quirks.''

A quick Google search showed this:

Now, she obviously doesn't know Hieratic or Demotic, otherwise she would've been able to translate right off. However, she was able to recognize it. So my theory is that she either learned the 'parent language' or one of the other 'child languages'. None of them are on the Wikipedia list. Most kids are interested in hieroglyphics but usually not enough to actually learn them (at least, such was the case with me), but I think we can all agree that when it comes to languages Sydney is a bit different - in a good way. So my long-shot-of-a-guess is that her 6th language is 'Egyptian'. Granted, she'd been at the agency for about seven years when we see her in the pilot episode so she could have learned it within that time.

Now that we've done that, let's review her language history in the books (at least, all of the one that I can remember off the top of my head). (I don't think she spoke in anything but English in Sister Spy, Father Figure or Skin Deep, but I may be wrong.)

Recruited: she's taking Spanish and Mandarin as electives, and she also says that she can speak a total of six languages (prior to being recruited)(see above). Spanish is also used later in the book. A Secret Life: she's was trying to teach herself Russian. French was used in this book, but she couldn't understand it. Disappeared: she had to learn Romanian (which she was distracted and didn't do too well at, but I assume she went back and learned it properly later). She also states that after the events in A Secret Life, she came back to L.A. and learned French as if her life depended on it. Free Fall: had her brushing up on one of her ''better languages'' - French. She was also able to translate an one-sided phone conversation she was eavesdropping on, from Russian. Infiltration: her Russian is described as amazing (and at times she'd been ahead of her SD-6 tutor), she says the Romance languages had been easy to learn (I haven't got a clear answer as to how many there are), Japanese took an impossible amount of concentration, and says it was difficult to keep the Oriental languages straight when she threw Cantonese and Mandarin into the mix (which, she should have already knew a fair bit of Mandarin since, as stated above, it was one of her electives). Vanishing Act: speaks in 'flawless' Dutch. (Also, she asks a woman working in a bookstore if she has any first additions of Chekhov, and when the woman ask if she wants it in English [the book], Sydney says she wants it in Lithuanian. This doesn't necessarily mean she speaks Lithuanian since it was a code phrase and it's not listed in her Wikipedia languages, but maybe she learned at some point.) Shadowed: she had recently brushed up on her Greek, and had learned German at some point.

Think about that for a minute. Did you catch what I did? She was recruited in the fall of her freshman year (a few weeks into the school year) and Free Fall says this happened in September. Shadowed itself happens in October of her sophomore year. Which means, Sydney learned 11+ languages in a year. So, aside from learning stuff for school, learning bank stuff (so she would be able to lie more efficiently to anyone who asked what she did on a daily basis for Credit Dauphine), and learning cool spy stuff and going on missions, she managed to cram in 11+ languages amidst carving out time for a social life with Francie (and a few dates with Noah) in one year's time. At the age of 19 and 20 years old. If you didn't think she was superwoman before, you should now.

Not to mention, that that's just the languages she speaks. While Sydney's trading card lists her languages as ''numerous'', she obviously knows a various amount of codes and ciphers as well; which, to me, counts as a language. We know she knows Morse code (2x18) from her mother's earrings, the Substitution cipher from when her dad encrypted her crossword puzzles (4x12), and Skip Sequencing Cypher Text (2x19) from when she was trying to get a message to Vaughn and an ever-helpful Weiss. That's just the ones I can remember right off, I'm sure she knows quite a few more.

As a side note, on Noah Hicks' trading card, it claims he only speaks three: English, French, and Russian. Oddly enough, the Russian was episode based while the French happened in the books - it's odd because I like to find what's different between the show and novels, but that's something that lines up. I'm sure he knows more languages - as it's said, five or six was the minimum - but it's not stated in the novels, the show, his Wiki page, or his trading card.

((Update: Ok, so two things. One, one the back of her season 3 trading card, it has one of Sydney’s languages as Taiwanese, so I guess that bumps her (known) total to 31 languages. Secondly, I did forget about a language from Vanishing Act; ''... a circle filled with words in what Sydney immediately recognized as Latin.'' Now again, it said she recognized it and not knew it (though, that’s probably the same thing for her), but I feel it’s further evidence supporting my theory.))

#Alias #Sydney Bristow

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drink-n-watch · 5 years ago

Text

I say this every week and every week I fail, still I’m going to try to keep this post to a reasonable size. At least on my part. I have been rambling on way too much! That doesn’t mean we’re going to skip over the important stuff, like for instance: Matt how are you?

I’m fine (aside from some random back pain)! How are you doing Irina?

I have a huge cold, I guess I’m doing Canadian?

I’m not sure if this is a freaky coincidence or if I’m a low-key psychic but this week’s Psycho Pass was an illustration of what I was talking about in my post last Thursday. Essentially, the production values took a visible step down. To be fair, Psycho Pass is a stunning looking show and it’s unsurprising that it couldn’t keep that level up for an entire season.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed art consistency go way down and CG integration get a lot less smooth in this episode. Fortunately, with Psycho Pass being so detailed to begin with, even pared down versions of the art still look pretty good. Nevertheless it has definitely looked better:

Of course I pay way more attention to technical details than most people. In all likelihood most viewers didn’t really notice! Did you?

I was very distracted by how off-model practically every character looked in any medium or long shots–I think having to produce a 45 minute episode in such a time schedule is proving too much for the production staff. But you are correct, even at its most inconsistent it’s still a strikingly good-looking show.

As division 1 continues to slowly hunt down the Foxes, we finally get a bit of background regarding the mysterious organization. It seems that there’s a whole group of Makishima’s out there and they are organizing against the system. An underground criminal outfit full of people with magical every clear hues.

It strikes me that this may have been an inevitable outcome. In a Sybil controlled society, evolution was bound to quickly create a bunch of mutants capable of controlling or at least maintaining their hues. The brain is really fantastically adaptable. I mean just the advent of smartphones has already physically changed the neural net mapping in younger generations. With something like Sybil, that has a high impact on every aspect of a person’s life, the change is going to get accelerated for sure.

It’s actually a brilliant bit of world building in my opinion but it could very well be entirely in my head. What’s your take on it Matt? Also I realize that my interest may be a bit niche, so don’t hesitate to jump in and talk about whatever you like.

What was that about trying to keep this post to a reasonable size and not ramble too much…? If we’re talking about things I like, I really enjoyed the absurdity of Karina delivering a political speech about religion and then without missing a beat transitioning into her idol outfit and performing a song.

We already have story threads regarding white collar fiscal manipulation with nationwide impact, neuroscience in the unique universe of Psycho Pass, shadowy mastermind puppeteers, a criminal organisation of uniquely advantaged people, Kei and Arata’s very peculiar background and personal arcs, racial tension and high level political intrigue.

And now, we get a religious angle. Do you think that the narrative is going in too many directions and is risking to lose focus or do you figure the more the merrier and it should add a few?

This show wants to do and say a lot and while I think everything it’s wanting to do and say is important it’s very much at the point where if it tries to do much more it’s going to collapse under the weight of itself.

It seems the rise in terrorist activity happening in the city right now is linked to a church of some sort. Or at the very least, a lot of its members are involved. The latest bomber having joined in hopes it would help him get in a better place spiritually and clear his hue. Of course, the are also leaving calling cards all over the place so they must have something to do with it as well.

Although were a lot of things happening in Psycho Pass already, I’m actually rather interested by the religious aspect. There’s something fascinating and terrifying about a “Sibyl sanctioned religion”. And religion does odd things to people and their psyche in the best of times, I can’t wait to see what it can do under these circumstances.

After all, we are what we believe!

It seemed a bit weird to me that the show never really mentioned religion before and now suddenly it’s all anyone’s talking about. I realise it’s because it’s currently integral to the plot but I think it would have been better world-building had someone mentioned ‘Heaven’s Leap’ in any of the previous episodes–even in passing–especially since it’s apparently a big deal.

We got to meet 3 very different spiritual leaders from 3 very different religions. I am not a religious person in real life. I grew up in a place and time where it was more or less outlawed and it has just never really been a big part of my life. But I’m not someone who dislikes religion either. In fact I find it very interesting. I just don’t have much experience with it.

This is why, to me, despite the outward differences, all 3 of these guys sort of seemed the same.

That sounds like a bit of social commentary on religion in general, Irina! If we’re looking for a parallels with real world religion I suppose ‘Heaven’s Leap’ is supposed to be some sort of Jehovah’s Witness / Scientology hybrid and the CRP is some vague version of Catholicism. And then there’s just straight up Buddhism.

*It wasn’t..I literally meant they seemed to be built around the same character archetype not that their religions are the same. Don’t know if all religious figures in real life are that similar.

Because of all the different themes season 3 of Psycho Pass has been exploring, I wasn’t sure what the main focus would be. 5 hours in, I think it’s going to explore the effects of culture clash in an authoritarian society with thought crime. That’s a pretty ambitious goal. Even if it doesn’t manage to quite pull it off, I’ll be impressed by the effort! I know you think that speculating on where a story is going is not good but I would love to have your thoughts on it, Matt.

It’s not that I think it’s not good, my writer brain can’t help but speculate, it’s just I’m happy for a story to play out however the writer of the piece wants it to play out–I’m a bit of a bad critic in that respect. Whether this show is wanting to have a grand specific theme like you mention or just paint a broader canvas of the complexities of living in such a regimented world I’m not sure but it’s still interesting nonetheless.

This is probably nothing…But Arata’s house really looked like the division 1 mandated psychiatrist’s house in the first season. I’m almost 100% certain it’s not the same because it’s in the middle of the city, while the other one was in the countryside, but the architecture is similar. I wonder if it’s significant in any way.

Probably not.

I thought the design looked familiar, I don’t know if this is the kind of show that’d just forget its own world-building like that and this not be important but then again who knows!

So Matt, what were your thoughts on episode 5?

Honestly probably my least favourite episode so far. Sure the allure of something new with the religion aspect is interesting but the overall episode itself felt like a bit of a downgrade and not just with the off-model character art. Some scenes felt too fast paced while others felt drawn-out and Arata not being able to use his ‘mental trace’ felt like artificially handicapping the story for the sake of not using its own “cheats” to find the culprit. It’s by no means bad, nor even mediocre, it’s pretty great and had a lot of excellent character moments and interesting expansions to the overall world. I’m just worried the writer of this series may have bitten more off than he can chew. What about you Irina, I’m guessing you enjoyed it more than last week?

I liked it way more especially in the second half. And I’m ok with Arata not using his trace since it was set up properly how dangerous it is for him and how weak he is right now, fresh out of the hospital and all. Not to mention that using extreme empathy on someone who could very well be mind controlled sounds like a quick way to get himself mind controlled. These guys are detectives, they should know better.

I enjoyed it. I like when the story slips into speculative fiction and I found the pacing much better than in the last arc so to me it was a plus rather than a drawback. I have a feeling we are enjoying very different aspects of the season.

Psycho Pass s3 ep5 – Leap of Faith I say this every week and every week I fail, still I’m going to try to keep this post to a reasonable size.

#action #anime #Collab #crime #drama #Psycho Pass #sci fi

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maditationweb · 5 years ago

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Jedi Philosophy

I, like many, grew up with dreams of wielding a lightsaber, learning the ways of the Force and becoming a Jedi. I suppose it's something that I never fully grew out of, as I trace my now long history and training in the martial arts to the classic tale of Star Wars. But as we grow older, we're supposed to forget about our heroes, and let childish fantasy be forgotten. While this may seem like prudent advice, I believe that it is the loss of our dreams that rob us of far more than childish naiveté.

Nor does it seem that I am unique or alone in this position. Starting in 2001, national censuses of many countries started to receive responses to a citizens' religion as "Jedi". And why not - the image of the Jedi is a potent one: a spiritual warrior, dedicated to both uplifting others as well as developing his own skill, focus and inner power.

And yet, it is a myth; a thing of childish fantasy. What possible reason, aside from a fear of growing up and facing the world on adult terms, could we have in holding the ideal, image and philosophy of the Jedi in such regard that so many would report it as their religion? I don't think any of the census jedi actually own a lightsaber (at least not a working one), or have cultivated their connection with the Force to the extent that they are able to lift small cars into the air with a thought and a gesture. And yet, our fascination with the impossible remains.

You see, our minds are, on an evolutionary standpoint, rather new to the whole language gig. 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, our early ancestors were more focused on skills of survival than on social communication and deciphering the atom. What that means is that our minds are good at remembering (and imagining; the two are not that far apart) visual stimuli (originally categorized into 'things I can eat' and 'things that can eat me'), and spatial orientation ('things I can eat can be found here, things that eat me are over there'). As we began communicating with one another and developing language, we didn't abandon these things. We began to tell stories and myths - some to entertain, some to make sense of the things we could not understand in the world. The new power of language didn't rewrite our minds, it adapted itself to what was already there.

And within this framework of storytelling and mythology, the foundations of how we relate to and understand our world is found. I'm not trying to dismiss scientific understanding - far from it. Science is the mechanism that has allowed us to take the unreal and make it real howtomeditatelikeaJedi.

For starters, another value of the mythology of the Jedi is that it belongs to us. I'm not trying to challenge the copyright or the legal ownership Mr. George Lucas has on the franchise he created, I'm pointing out that the myth that we have all grown to connect with is OURS in the same way that the stories of Hercules and the Argonauts belonged to the ancient Greeks. There is no baggage there, no traditions from a bygone era. At the same time, the philosophy Mr. Lucas used in the movies had real world inspiration: primarily the warrior philosophy of the Japanese Samurai, Bushido. It's also where inspiration of many of the costumes came from - in fact, Star Wars, Episode IV was BASED on an old, black and white, Samurai movie called "The Hidden Fortress".

My purpose in outlining all of this is to establish that while Star Wars and the Jedi are completely fictional, this does not preclude them, or the philosophy we can draw from them, from being significant. Joseph Campbell is the most famous researcher and philosopher who analyzed and discussed the power mythology has in reflecting our own inner journey, and I encourage anyone who is interesting in learning more about this phenomenon to look to his works for further knowledge.

This leads us to the topic at hand: the philosophy of the Jedi themselves. Most places I've visited on the web typically draw reference and quotations from the Star Wars movies and books and extrapolate based on the author's interpretation of them. However, as we saw above, the roots of Jedi philosophy lay in Bushido (primarily), and in the traditional warrior culture and philosophy of many other cultures. To fully appreciate the philosophy of the Jedi, it is beneficial to understand where these.

There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force. -The Jedi Code (Based on the meditations of Odan-Urr)

This is the traditional Jedi Code which you can find many interpretations of throughout the Internet (just Google "Jedi Code" and you'll find a raft of them).

1. There is no emotion, there is peace.

Most interpretations of this tenant agree that it is not referring to REMOVING emotions (come on, it's not like we're talking Star Trek here...), but in learning to not be overwhelmed or controlled by them. On the surface, it warns against the passionate abuse of power - to strike out in anger, fear or revenge is to give in to the Dark Side.

Yet we need to look deeper to fully appreciate this: remember that a Jedi's greatest foe is himself, not some external enemy. The Jedi seeks not to become passion-less, but free from the limiting perception, the 'tunnel vision' that we will touch again in the third tenant, that overwhelming emotions can bring. At the same time, this tenant powerfully expresses the position of the Jedi to become responsible for the peace around him. Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is our ability to cope and adapt to it. There are a thousand legitimate reasons we may or may not be as happy, successful or content with our lives or whatever situation we may be placed in. While we can often point to a person or thing that prevented us from achieving, the Jedi realizes the real enemy is within himself, and it is always cloaked in an emotion - be it fear, anger, or more deceptively... pride.

2. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

This is another well travelled but often misunderstood (or at least only partially understood) tenant. Yes, it refers to a Jedi's dedication to learn, grow and become greater tomorrow than they are today. It refers to their dedication to truth, especially when faced with knowledge that is uncomfortable or inconvenient. But... too often we associate the concept of knowledge as something we gain from the OUTSIDE. But the greatest challenge, the greatest place of ignorance any of us will face, is our lack of understanding and knowledge about ourselves.

The Chinese General and master tactician Sun Tzu wrote, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

The message is to observer yourself truthfully, examining even the 'nasty bits' that we would prefer to pretend don't exist. When we do, as strange thing happens: those dark places become illuminated and cease to be hooks where the Dark Side can take root.

3. There is no passion, there is serenity.

In many ways this is a repeat of the first tenant - which isn't a redundancy, it only stresses the importance of the first tenant. At the same time, it also contains additional meanings.

It is very similar to the concept in Japanese Bushido known as "No Mind" - not as in "mind-less" but as in a state completely free from distraction. The mind, powerful as it is, can travel to any point in the past (memories), future and any place in between (imagination). But when the mind is still, calm, and free of internal 'chatter', the capabilities of the individual become incredibly heightened.

Even without talking about a 'Force', this is true. The mind at peace is capable of lightning fast reaction and response - there is no doubt, fear, pride or anger to cloud its actions. Martial artists strive to understand and make this state of mind habitual though meditation - in the same way that the Jedi do. The best way to describe this state is that of a tornado - the outside of the tornado is chaotic, furious and powerful, yet the center is calm. So too is the Jedi's mind, even when there is chaos around it, it has a calm, uncompromising inner center. For the Jedi, this state of mind can also be referred to being "one with the Force."

4. There is no chaos, there is harmony.

Ah, harmony... something martial artists have been talking about for hundreds of years. Of course physical balance (harmony of the body) is part of this, but this we understand is an extension of the mental balance within the Jedi. If the mind is frantic, distracted or troubled, it is obvious in the physical stance and posture. Balance is often depicted as the "Yin/Yang" symbol in Chinese philosophy, in a similar way that the Jedi depict the force as "Light" and "Dark". It is a depiction of opposites: hard and soft, left and right, up and down, inner and outer. More importantly (again, for our current purposes) is that these opposites are in a state of constant CHANGE. Hard WILL BECOME soft, and soft WILL BECOME hard. The longer something remains at one extreme, the closer it comes to becoming its opposite. This is the natural law of the universe - when we work against it, we become weaker. When we work with it, we are able to cultivate more power and energy to accomplish our goals.

Water for example is soft, yet given time will erode the hardest stone. In the same way, if we try to get stronger by overworking our minds and bodies, we will end up insured, over-stressed and weaker. Understanding the natural law of balance is essential.

An old Buddhist fable goes that three monks one day walked down to the river for some water. This particular area of the river had fast and unforgiving currents, and was well known as an area where people who have fallen in had drowned. As they arrived, they noticed an old man on the opposite bank slip and fall into the water. Frantically they raced about calling to the old man and trying somehow to help, seeing his head bob up to the surface just before quickly being drawn back down. After what seemed like a hopeless time, they began to mourn the loss of another life to the unforgiving river.

Suddenly, farther down the river, one of the monks spotted the old man walking out of the river laughing to himself at the folly of it all. Racing over to him, they found he was in fine health, if a bit embarrassed at having slipped into the river.

"How is it," the monks asked, " that you have survived these rapids, when so many others, many far stronger than you, have lost their lives here?"

"Simple," replied the old man. "When the current brought me to the surface, I took a deep breath. When it pulled me down, I didn't fight it, I just held my breath and waited for the current to bring me to the surface again."

At first, this interpretation does not seem to jive well with the depiction of the conflict we see between the Jedi and the Sith, but I disagree. Remember the second tenant, we must seek knowledge over ignorance, especially within ourselves. The Sith are examples of warriors who have forgotten this, and allow themselves to place power over wisdom, while the Jedi, understanding the natural law of change, achieve balance of the Light and Dark forces that naturally exist within us all. This is what is means to walk the Path of the Light Side - it is walking in balance.

5. There is no death, there is the Force.

This is similar to the Samurai maxim to ``embrace death,`` since a return to the Force is still an end to a Jedi`s life as he or she currently knows it. In embracing death, in accepting the eventual end of his life, the Samurai lets go of any remaining fear that holds him back. At the same time, knowledge of one`s mortality heightens one`s appreciation of life, both one`s own and others.

This is also the ultimate expression of non-attachment, and accepting the knowledge that all things are transitory and impermanent. To remain attached to any person, place or thing is to open oneself up to suffering, fear, anger... and the Dark Side.

And yet, as the old saying goes, ``the more things change, the more they stay the same.`` When we accept change as inevitable, we realize that while friends, for example, may leave us, new ones will move forward to fill that void. Such is the way of the Force.

#jedi #meditation

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pass-the-bechdel · 5 years ago

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

100% (thirteen of thirteen).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

41.16%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Seven, so just over half. Three of those are 50%+.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

Zero.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-four. Thirteen who appeared in more than one episode, five who appeared in at least half the episodes, and two who appeared in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Thirty-nine. Eighteen who appeared in more than one episode, seven who appeared in at least half the episodes, and one who appeared in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Not nearly as good as you might expect or hope. As with previous seasons, the show’s most impressive content is not the feminist stuff at all, and on the feminist front it feels sometimes as if the show spends more time denouncing different aspects of the feminist movement as ‘the wrong kind of feminism’ than it does declaring and upholding the aspects it does approve. I tend to feel that it spends time talking the talk on women’s issues, but doesn’t often get up to walk the walk (average rating of 3).

General Season Quality:

Easily better than the previous two seasons, despite a deflated ending. It takes a much more focused approach to its storytelling in the beginning of the season, in a manner which briskly becomes refreshingly confronting and leads in to a powerful middle. Unfortunately, it never sustains quality for very long, and overall the show still suffers for being too easily distracted. It’s not infuriating, but it can be frustrating.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Ok, let me explain something about myself first, something I’ve mentioned in other (non-Crazy Ex) posts which have gone live long before this one will, but for anyone who missed it in any of those other places, here it is: I am, right now, pregnant. In fact, I am pregnant with a child conceived non-traditionally with a gay friend of mine, and as such, Darryl’s non-traditional quest for biological parenthood in this season struck a very personal chord (though, unlike Darryl, I used the phone-a-friend option as my first choice, not a fallback. Would recommend, if it’s ever relevant to your life). I bring all of this up because I can categorically declare that there are certain plot threads that you absolutely will NOT have the same reaction to if you don’t have that very personal chord being struck, and even moreso if that chord is relevant to your life right now, rather than being something that you’ve experienced in the past but has since slipped from the forefront of your attention. Thus, when I talked about feeling like the emphasis was in all the wrong places for Darryl’s part of the narrative, and expressed irritation with Heather’s pregnancy and birth? I sure ain’t mad about it for no reason. I am extremely, extremely aware of what those processes are actually like right the heck now.

I’m not going to linger on all the details, but I am particularly annoyed at the writers for dropping the ball on the pregnancy/birth part, specifically because it’s something which is so often badly dramatised in tv and film already, and the writers not only know that, they openly reference it as if they’re somehow doing better. The same way that medical professionals sometimes find it too frustrating to watch hospital dramas because of all their inaccuracies, or someone in law enforcement might cringe their way through all the egregious breaches in procedure in a cop show, there’s always a significant risk that anything depicted in fiction will make you want to tear your hair out over the way the plot warps or disregards reality that is pertinent to your life, either through a lack of proper research or understanding of the subject matter, or a conscious choice to prioritise desired storytelling beats/developments over actual logic and realism. Suffice to say there are a LOT of concessions Crazy Ex-Girlfriend asked me to make to their storytelling with this little subplot, some of which most people who have never been pregnant wouldn’t notice, and yes, some of which I would probably dismiss if I were not in the midst of the reality right now. I’m someone who has been present at actual births before and has been raised with an above-average understanding of what’s involved, so I’m used to gritting my teeth and hoping to just not be too annoyed by the way pregnancy and birth is typically depicted on screen. The fact that I am currently immersed in the reality of preparing to give birth makes me less forgiving of fictional contrivances, yes, but in the case of this show’s approach, it’s also more than that: it’s the fact that this show actively promotes itself as a feminist text. And if you’re gonna do that, and criticise the way other things (”written by men!”) depict labour, but then you also choose not to include any education/empowerment of your pregnant character, rattle off a variety of (uneducated, disempowered) cliches anyway, and then handwave it all with ‘nevermind, she just got an epidural!’ as if that ‘solves’ the difficulties of birth (and post-birth recovery, for that matter), frankly that’s just...a really unimpressive failure of feminist storytelling. Congratulations, you neglected the subject completely, at the same time as actively claiming your intent to do better than all that written-by-men schlock out there! What a tiresome charade this turned out to be.

Setting that aside though (difficult for me, as I am...very preoccupied with it), there was actually a good lot of things to like about this season, even if I do still feel that I ultimately have more criticisms than I do praise. Having Rebecca actually reach crisis point in the form of a suicide attempt, and consequently getting a diagnosis for her mental disorder and finally being able to move forward in learning to live a balanced life with BPD? Frankly, it’s not a move that I anticipated, and if you’d asked me where I thought Rebecca’s mental health plot was heading, I probably would have just shrugged it off as an unfocused thread where the ultimate goal was just ‘figure out how to be happy on your own terms instead of defining happiness through someone else’ (which is solid advice, but generalised advice, not something that would require the show to commit to a genuine mental illness). Acknowledging that Rebecca’s behaviour comes from a more distinct source than just the nebulous idea of being ‘crazy’ is a vitally important development, and it ushered in some of the best storytelling the show has offered thus far, at least when the plot maintained steady focus and made an effort to be responsible and mature in its exploration of the issue. As ever, there were still times when the show used Rebecca’s mental state for comic relief in a manner which made me uncomfortable, and times when I couldn’t interpret the intentions of the narrative - I have come to the conclusion that this show and I are on completely different wavelengths, which makes us a bad match, regardless of any elements which I do appreciate.

On the subject of things I appreciate, I’m going to discuss the true character highlight of the show, someone I wanted to talk about after last season, not realising that if I held off until this review instead, he was gonna wind up so terribly underused in the meantime that it’s almost weird that he’s still technically part of the main cast at this point: Josh Chan. Josh Chan is...kinda the most believable part of this show, both in the bumbling good-natured balance of the character himself, and in other character’s feelings about him. Being able to buy the idea that someone would give up their whole life as they knew it to chase after this guy is kinda important to selling the concept of the show from the outset, and honestly, Josh Chan is the only time I’ve ever seen a central male love interest for whom the hype seemed to make sense. Is he perfect? Not by a long shot, but that’s fine because ‘perfection’ is as conditional as it is unattainable. The problem with male love interests, often, is that they’re written by heterosexual men who treat the character as some kind of masculine wish-fulfillment, a combination of ‘guy I wish I could be’ and ‘guy I think women should want (me)’. Josh Chan is a great example of a love interest written by women for women: he displays positive masculine-coded traits (protective, physically capable), while rejecting negative, toxic-masculine elements (aggression, possessiveness), and he embraces key ‘feminine’ traits (non-threatening, kind, soft, emotionally expressive, family-oriented), while his flaws are unobtrusive and potentially even endearing (the main one is that he’s quite stupid, which is something a lot of straight women will happily admit to liking (at least in theory), and other traits such as Josh’s childish streak can be a source of joy under some circumstances, as well as being something Josh mostly keeps a hold on so that it doesn’t become a burden to his partners). Also, it would be remiss of me to neglect to mention how refreshing and meaningful it is to have an Asian male love interest. I really enjoy not being bored to death by Josh Chan, and I am annoyed at how little of him we got this season while we wasted time with that generic slice of white bread, Nathaniel. Bring back the Chan plots, season four. Do it for me.

#Crazy Ex-Girlfriend #Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three #Bechdel Test #female representation #full season review #Crazy Exgirlfriend

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centaurianthropology · 6 years ago

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The Magnus Archives ‘The Show Must Go On’ (S03E36) Analysis

You know that slow build? That treading water feeling we’ve had for the last couple weeks?

The shit has started to hit the fan.

Come on in to hear my thoughts on ‘The Show Must Go On.’

So we open with Elias calling everyone except Melanie into his office to play them a tape. Melanie is … elsewhere. Elias offers them help, and believes the statement to be useful against the Stranger.

The statement is old, by Abraham Janssen about a mechanized chess playing robot created by Wolfgang von Kempelen (whoohoo! Another actual historical figure!). And interestingly enough, this may be one of the oldest statements in the Archive, dated from 1787. Even ‘Schwartzwald’ was previously dated from an event taking place in 1815. This makes it not only old, but makes it a statement that predates the Magnus Institute by 31 years. How long was Jonah Magnus collecting statements of the supernatural before he officially founded the Institute? Was he the first Archivist, as it seems that he did indeed collect proper narrative statements in the same way that Gertrude and Jon did?

It sounds as though the Turk was what Nikola is now. It wore the gorilla skin. It went from automaton to avatar, and it danced. The speech machine provided the music, the sacrifice was the creator of the being in the first place (possibly indicating the fate of Joseph Grimaldi).

And by the end of the ceremony, all the automata were half-human, indicating that the Unknowing will bring inanimate beings closer and closer to human. It’s essentially one massive plunge into the Uncanny Valley.

Whatever happens at the end of the ceremony, it sounds … fairly Lovecraftian. And by that I mean, almost impossible to properly describe. The narrator’s description goes completely off the rails, and would likely require some line by line analysis to try to tease out what was happening in reality, and that’s assuming there’s anything relatable happening in reality. It could well be that, during such a ritual, we really do enter full-on indescribable cosmic horror.

What’s also interesting is that another avatar stopped it before its completion, but not an avatar of the Beholding. Gertrude assumed that the avatar acting against the Stranger was one of the Slaugher, but I’m not altogether certain it couldn’t be the End as well. Still, the Slaughter makes the most sense. It seems like there’s always one or two avatars that end up trying to stop the rituals (though it’s unclear whether they would try to stop their own. Gertrude would, but the Soldier might not).

The ceremony itself was stopped with relative ease, because it turns out that an intricate dance to end the world gets stopped pretty hard by a cannon. It also helps that during the rituals there is a degree of profound vulnerability. Add an explosive to that, and it’s fairly direct. It was even enough to tempt Gertrude, at least for her plan B. She had other unknown preferences, possibly for something more subtle. We know she had plans for the gorilla skin, but there may be other plans as well.

Our team today, on the other hand, are all on board for plan B, or at least Jon, Basira, and Daisy are. Melanie and Martin stay behind, likely to take on Elias. Intitally, I thought splitting the team up like this, and particularly pitting Martin and Melanie against Elias, seemed dramatically stupid. But on consideration, I think I get it. Elias has to be distracted for any plan to work. And while Martin is apparently a bit distracting, I imagine that the Unknowing would be the ultimate distraction. There might not be a better time to incapacitate him, even if it means that Martin and Melanie are going to be the ones to do it.

But how could they do it? What could they utilize that would be enough to take down a proper monster like Elias? I have a few ideas: first, there is the spider table. If it trapped the Not-Them, could they be planning to trap Elias in the same manner? Another is the tunnels. Robert Smirke designed them to nullify powers. Could they plan on trapping him down there where his abilities are cut off? Basically a prisoner beneath the Institute?

But despite this being potentially perfect timing, Tim is right. This is going to go wrong. This is going to go badly wrong because it’s horror and our protagonists are disasters. I’m just not certain where it’s going to go wrong.

Between Tim’s comments and Daisy’s comments I’m not sure which of them is gunning for Jon harder at this point. Tim is nihilism personified at this point, and blaming Jon seems to bring him comfort. So he blames Jon and hopes to kill him and Nikola together.

And that? That makes me wonder if the Soldier isn’t going to make another appearance. Tim is coming in with an axe, and he really doesn’t care who dies, and it sounds more and more like Tim might be setting himself up to become an avatar of the Slaughter.

Daisy, meanwhile, cannot be unaware of Jon’s ‘becoming’, especially after her reaction to Elias’ comment about it (I have little doubt he did that specifically to make her less trusting of Jon, if she was at all trusting to begin with). As a hunter, she practically smells the supernatural, and she’s hated Jon since he first compelled her. He’s a monster in her eyes, albeit a monster currently aligned with her desires. But I have the strong suspicion that killing him and stopping the Unknowing in one fell swoop is going to be her ideal.

That leaves Basira with her to stop her killing Jon. And the question to my mind is whether she can do it by talking Daisy down, or whether Basira is going to have to kill Daisy to save Jon. Either way, Daisy is about to the end of her tether, Basira may well have to make difficult and life-changing decisions, and when all these things collide I think everyone is in enormous danger from far more than Nikola Orsinov.

But let’s not count Nikola out. She’ll be wearing the skin of an Archivist, and I’m not sure what effects that might have. If any of Gertrude’s powers transfer over, that could pose a huge challenge to Jon, who might get his own powers turned back on him. But on the other hand, Gertrude was canny and dangerous. Is it possible that her last plan to avert the Unknowing was her own body? Could she have rigged herself to destroy Nikola and the Unknowing with her own skin? If anyone would be capable of that, it would be Gertrude.

Conclusions

Things are heating up now, and with a proper description of the Unknowing—as well as a way to stop it—in hand, things seem to be going along in a proper direction. But trying to enact two very complicated and dangerous plans while separated is going to be incredibly dangerous. Martin and Melanie are two very vanilla mortals facing down a very powerful monster of the Beholding. Jon is walking straight into potential death with one ally and two total loose cannons with him (possibly literally), one of whom has an axe and the other who has C4 and a potential to kill him along with the mannequins. These are odds that leave Jane Prentiss and the Not-Them in the dust, and it’s not even the only fight that will be fought during the Unknowing.

With four more episodes this season, something has to go wrong. Badly so. Maybe everything goes wrong. The one thing I’m convinced of is that we have no idea how this is going to play out. We speculate every season. We think we work out what’s going to happen, and then Jonny takes the story into a hard left turn. So, as clear as things feel right now, I don’t think they’re that clear at all. The Unknowing may be different, as was mentioned in this episode. Daisy or Tim could have any number of alternative plans for the Unknowing and for Jon. The interaction between Nikola and Gertrude’s skin could change everything. Martin and Melanie and Elias’ situation could play out entirely unexpectedly.

EVERYTHING will probably play out unexpectedly. I guess what I’m saying is that everyone ought to brace themselves, and don’t get at all comfortable with what you think might happen. We still have four episodes to go.

#The Magnus Archives #analysis

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gwydionae · 6 years ago

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How to Break Paultin Seppa in One Storm or Less

(...this is ridiculously long. It is an actual, literal essay. If anyone somehow reads all of this then cheers! Critique and discussion welcome - I am running on so little sleep right now, I’m only kinda sure this all makes sense. XD)

"I honestly have no idea what guides you or spurs you." - Evelyn to Paultin, ep 93

I find Paultin to be a very intriguing character. He is a man who chooses his words carefully and prefers to show his true colors through his actions. But episode 93 brought out a side we really hadn’t seen before, and suddenly those carefully chosen words were a lot more revealing than they’ve ever been for those willing to really think about them and compare them to some of his more recent actions. In the past, he had a very self-centered attitude. It’s not that he didn’t care about anyone else at all, but his own self worth was simply far more important. But over the course of the campaign, that has been changing, and that couldn’t have been more evident than in episode 93. So just what is guiding our drunken bard’s actions of late, how has Evelyn not noticed, and why should all of this be a point of concern?

Quote A: "It wasn't about [the mandolin]. It's about something now... I'm not even sure if... that's even the right decision anymore." - Paultin to Evelyn, ep 93

The above quote is very cryptic. Paultin is vague, clearly not wanting to bare his soul completely, and instead of answering Evelyn’s question about what it means, he avoids it in favor of offering up a confession about how he finds he can’t bring himself to leave the Crew. This is something Evelyn is glad to hear, and thus she is distracted and the point gets dropped. But I think the answer can be found in the episode itself, and it ties directly into his current mindset and motivations.

There is a specific confession that he makes to Evelyn that I’m going to use as the foundation of most everything I’m going to bring up, and that is where he tells Evelyn at the end of the episode that he "felt like [he] was ready to get rid of the last reminiscing pains of [his] past and embrace what felt like a new family." His use of the word “family” here is what is most important. He has barely used the term “friends” to describe the Crew up to this point, and suddenly we hear him use a much more intimate descriptor. To consider a group of people you have no blood relations to as your “family” would imply a very close bond. He may not be able to put his finger on why, but these are people he wants to be around, and his actions of late do reflect that.

The obvious example is the sacrificing of the mandolin. He tells us exactly why he thought it was time to part with it in plain language, something he doesn’t do often. But it makes sense that he would spell this out specifically as Evelyn seemed really hung up on it. She couldn’t see it for what it really was: a way for him to continue on with his new family. Yes, it was a way of cutting ties with his past, but as he said in Quote A, it wasn’t about the mandolin and what it represented. It was about keeping all of them safe, because you can’t keep traveling with people if you’re all dead. That is his current motivation: keeping him and his party safe.

But then what does the second half of Quote A mean? He gave up his mandolin to protect everyone, but now he is regretting it. Why? The obvious assumption is that he’s upset because it was wasted, an unnecessary sacrifice since Diath and Strix ultimately offered up the bomb anyway. But I think it goes beyond that, and a very specific incident during the storm highlights this perfectly.

When Strix first goes overboard and Paultin is the only one free from his bonds on the ship, he instantly uses Locate Creature on her as if he had a plan. But when he hears she is about 500 feet away and underwater, Nate freezes. If I had to guess, I’d think he was maybe planning to use Animate Object on the rope to reach down and grab her, but that’s way too far for that. So he scans over his list of abilities and spells… and he comes up with nothing. He can’t think of a way that Paultin can save Strix given the circumstances. And so he has Evelyn break out of her ropes. Why?

Because she can fly.

Paultin can’t get to Strix as he is now, but just hours earlier he had a mandolin that he could use to cast Fly on himself. But he gave that up. And now instead of being able to protect a member of his new family, he has to endanger Evelyn as well. If his motivation is to keep everyone safe, this goes directly against that. But what about when he tells her he’s “not one to throw [his] life away?” Am I maybe overthinking this and he simply doesn’t want to risk his own life?

I believe there is solid evidence to support that this is not the case. In episode 86, when only he and Diath were left alive or conscious, he took it upon himself to fly up and face the balhannoth alone. In 87, when they stumbled across who they thought was Acerarak, he charged ahead of Diath and Strix, even offering to shadow him with Mislead while the others waited behind until he had a better idea of what was going on. In 90, he turns invisible when guards come down on them, but rather than using it to escape, he breaks it once he is aware of the situation in order to try and talk with their accuser to get his party members free and ultimately gets himself captured as well.

There is even a situation just prior to Strix falling overboard in 93 that, when viewed through Paultin’s relatively newfound protector instincts, comes across much differently than what actually happened in game. When she got free of her ropes to cast Counterspell, Nate wanted to use Animate Object. The assumption was that he was going to do it to free himself, but what if his plan was to use it on Strix’s ropes? This would keep her tethered and safe while still allowing her to cast a spell he thought could save all of them. It would also explain his reluctance toward using Dimension Door, a lower level spell and one he has a lot more familiarity with. And note that when he did use Dimension Door, he transported himself directly next to her, and when the wave came, Nate was upset because he was “going to do something,” and I don’t think it was a celebratory high five. I think he wanted to, now that his hands were free, tie them both down. It’s why he popped up directly next to her, so he could save them both at the same time. This is all speculation on my part, but considering that we now know he thinks of them as family and wants to protect them even if he has to risk his own safety, it makes sense.

So getting back to Quote A, I think we have found our answer: he was questioning whether sacrificing the mandolin was the right decision because even though it could have saved them at the time, that meant he didn’t have it when he needed it. If he had held on to it, he could have left Evelyn tied up on the ship while he flew out to find and save Strix. One less person would have been put in harm’s way, and as we know, Evelyn was the one who ultimately took the biggest beating and even fell unconscious. She was saved, but what if those merfolk hadn’t shown up? No doubt Evelyn rather excitedly recounted her tale to all of them once they were safe; just think about how this news would affect Paultin, knowing that he was the one who put her in that situation because he had ditched his mandolin mere hours earlier.

The one who had told her to stop rushing into things and dying all the time had sent her “into the fire” to die because he had gotten rid of the tool that could have prevented it.

It’s honestly no wonder Paultin seemed so depressed by the end of the episode. He had talked a big game, acted like he had all the answers, and then by jumping to conclusions - Counterspelling the giants - and being “self-righteous” - not trusting Evelyn to handle the dragon turtle and discarding his mandolin - he had nearly gotten them all killed. He is not solely to blame, of course, but the juxtaposition of what he had just scolded everyone else for and his own actions is not something I think went unnoticed by him.

Quote B: “Why are you even here to begin with?” - Evelyn to Paultin, ep 93

And this is where Evelyn directly comes into play. Her asking Quote B to Paultin, while very harsh, is not entirely unwarranted. If you think about the examples I gave that prove that Paultin’s current motivations are keeping everyone safe, these either occur after this question was asked (their talk at the end of 93) or while Evelyn was dead (86, 87, and 90) or simply due to her not being privy to Paultin’s thought process (during the storm in 93). Think of a lot of the interactions she has had with Paultin recently, though.

In episode 92, he claims that he wants to give up the mandolin because he doesn’t want to die, and he offers it in a very agitated and angry way. It doesn’t seem like it’s something he wants to do. Earlier in that same episode, when he found her after being attacked in the bathhouse, he didn’t even bother to ask what happened or if she was ok, just bluntly telling her to make it outside as soon as she could. In 84 after being freed from the ring’s control, he completely ignored her, and the first words he says to any of his party are an accusing “what did you do” to Strix. And in 73, she asks him why he decided to come with them in the first place, and he says that it was “a coin toss” and that “unknown seemed more interesting than boring.” Add on top of that his disappearing acts in 69 and 65 and “Grung high” during the Yabanug fight in 68 (due to Nate’s absence, but still notable) when the Crew could have really used his help, and Evelyn does have a lot of evidence pointing toward Paultin not really caring about anyone but himself. And you don’t need to travel with a party that gets you killed if that’s what you care about, hence her question.

There is one big problem with Quote B, though, and that’s the discussion Evelyn had with Paultin in the Shadowfell in episode 85. During the conversation, Paultin openly admitted that he never “really felt like a contributing fourth,” but when he saw the Ring of Winter, his thoughts were, “That’s it! That’s how I can contribute. That’s how I can become the fourth piece.” In the end he realizes he had made a mistake, but the point is that he openly admitted to wanting to help the Crew. A truly selfish person wouldn’t do that. They would have wanted the ring for its power and not felt guilty about it nearly backfiring on him. But instead he not only openly admits he was wrong, he apologizes and says that he wants to make it up to them. For Paultin who keeps feelings and emotions so close to his chest, this is akin to holding up a bright, neon sign that flashes “I CARE ABOUT ALL OF YOU.”

But Evelyn doesn’t pick up on any of this. She is too focused on her own problem to read between the lines and realize that he is admitting that he cares about the rest of the party. To be fair, Paultin had brushed off what he had overheard her praying about right before this, and it was clearly weighing on her. My speculation would be that it was a topic he simply wasn’t ready to discuss openly yet, but that still doesn’t mean that Evelyn would be ok just ignoring it. So I don’t blame her for being so single-minded in this instance. But the point is that Paultin had already given her - and her alone - solid, verbal evidence that he is sticking around because he cares, and still she is the one to ask him Quote B. He knows that Evelyn listened, but she hadn’t actually heard a word he said.

After Diath apologizes for not listening to him during the bomb incident in episode 92, Paultin says “you listen to me” to Simon, but it’s possible he could be thinking of instances such as the above mentioned scene with Evelyn as well. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear he wants to be heard and taken seriously. But even after his harsh warning about jumping into things at the beginning of 93, when the storm hits, Strix still instantly puts herself in harm’s way by Misty Stepping out of her ropes. All you have to do is watch and listen to Nate’s reaction to this - a long, loud sigh - to know what he’s thinking: she didn’t hear a word he said earlier about not being reckless. Nothing has changed. Still no one is listening.

But then he messes up. His plan is flawed and puts everyone in danger as was discussed above. And how does he react to this? By not saying a word for six days. Why should they listen to him when he makes the same mistakes he calls them out on, after all. Combine that with Paultin’s motivation of wanting to keep everyone safe, the fact that he scolded everyone else and then fell prey to his own words, and Evelyn - the only one he had opened up to about why he wanted the Ring of Winter - questioning why he was still with them, and it’s not hard to see why he’s choosing to stay silent by the end of 93.

But there is still one more thing weighing him down, and it’s directly addressed in Quote C:

Quote C: "The problem is, none of you are survivors. And it's getting - it's so much. It's getting to be way too much." - Paultin to the Crew, ep 93

What, exactly, does he mean when he says they aren’t “survivors?” Strix has proven that she could survive by herself for fifty years, so it can’t be “survivors” in the sense of “someone who can survive on their own.” But think about what he says before and after this:

“...I’m really just getting so sick of everyone just being, like, ‘No, me! No, me! Let me do it!’ It’s like - this is why every other day we borderline die.”

“There’s other ways to solve problems than just, like, ‘Oh, let me jump into the fire!’”

“You say, like, “Oh, I care about ma friends [...]” and yet you’re still just like, ‘Oh, well, ya know, I’ll still just go and get myself killed.’”

This is what Paultin means by them not being “survivors” - they don’t care about themselves. Diath, Strix, and Evelyn all want to keep everyone else safe, but they aren’t selfish enough to care about what happens to them, to care if they themselves survive. This is what he means when he tells Evelyn to “stop thinking about yourself by thinking about yourself.” He is saying that she should stop thinking so much about what she wants and think a bit more about her own well-being. This is his very cryptic way of giving her a similar message to what Zaress gave her in the afterlife: it’s ok to be a little selfish. He’s not referring to things like wanting power like he did with the ring, he is simply saying that they shouldn’t be so quick to throw their lives away.

Paultin wants to keep his party safe, including himself. He has proven this. This is his current motivation. But the rest of the Crew are different. They are only concerned with keeping everyone in the party aside from themselves safe. And as evidenced by his emotional blow up over the issue in 93, this is what is ultimately starting to push Paultin to his breaking point. While three of his friends are working to keep three people safe, he is the only one protecting all four. And that is a big job with a lot of responsibility - responsibility he, frankly, is not fully equipped to bear, and I think he knows this. He is trying so hard, but as we saw during the storm, doing that by himself proved only that he knows no other way to do that than by mimicking the ones around him whose self-destructive behavior he disapproves of so much. And it leaves him questioning his actions (“Maybe I should have just held onto [the mandolin].”), his motives (“I'm not even sure if... that's even the right decision anymore.”), and his future (“I can’t bring myself to leave, and I don’t know how to feel about that.��).

This is what he means by “it’s getting to be way too much.” The pressure and anxiety was already getting to him before the storm, and everything that happened in 93 only made it worse. He admitted before the storm that their constant self-sacrificing was “a toxicity [he didn’t] want in [his] life,” and the events during said storm only proved that he couldn’t handle it nor, apparently, change their mind about the issue. If he was being pushed to an uncharacteristic emotional reaction before the storm, just think of how hard all of this must have hit him afterwards.

Everyone risking their lives recklessly. His words constantly falling on deaf ears. Not listening to his own advice and putting everyone in danger as a result.

Completely failing in every way, in his every attempt, to do what he cares about most: protect his new family.

This is his current motivation. This is what has been driving him for a while now. And in one day, everything - short of dying - that could beat that down from all possible angles and leave him broken and defeated did so. Everything is likely beyond “too much” at this point, and if he weren’t currently stuck on a boat, I think there’s every possibility that someone like Paultin who isn’t used to caring about anyone but himself could step away. For someone like him, the easiest way to make it not hurt so much is to remove that “toxicity” from his life. With most things, he copes by drinking until he is numb to such feelings, and as he’s “drinking more than usual,” that is obviously the route he is currently trying to go to deal with everything. But if that doesn’t seem to be working for him and nothing else changes in regards to the issue before they reach Waterdeep, it is entirely possible the Crew could find themselves one person short. Maybe this is why it takes Paultin so long to respond when at the very end of their conversation Evelyn says that she’s glad he hasn’t left yet. Maybe he knows that such an option is more on the table than it’s been in a very long time.

Now, this is, first and foremost, a D&D show put on for entertainment. We have seen in the past that both Chris and the cast are willing to bend a few things to make sure that the cast member’s characters don’t stay separated for very long - Anna’s recent separation ties with Nate’s stint in Ravenloft in season 1 at about five episodes for each before they are reunited - so there is a very real possibility that no matter what happens, Paultin’s not going anywhere, and if he does, it wouldn’t be for long. But speaking strictly from a character perspective, Paultin leaving a group that he’s constantly watching be reckless and die without being able to help them overcome that wouldn’t surprise me. I love that his concern for his friends - his family - is what is currently guiding him. Now I can only hope that the rest of the characters come to realize that and see the negative effect their unnecessarily self-sacrificing actions are having on one of their own before it’s too late.

#dice camera action #waffle crew #paultin seppa #wafflecrew #i had a lot of thoughts ok #now to sleep...#i'm so tired you guys #gwy writes a literal essay

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tinkdw · 7 years ago

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13x15: the moral of the story

I am so happy because I was struggling with the point of some of the negative stuff going on this season so far... So, this episode was just one big confirmation of my meta of 13x14 and how it was addressing morality very heavily this season with their choices leading either to an upwards or downwards finale and addressing the underlying theme of morality since the pilot.

To have it addressed as a point purposefully made and a whole episode dedicated to it to make us think about it is frankly a relief!

It’s on purpose, it’s for a reason!

Good :)

Morality has always been an underlying foundation of the show. The themes, the plots are family, love, faith etc but under it all, as with most stories we have the foundation of morality, that good things happen to good people, that doing things for the right reasons is important.

It’s been consistent that when they do things for others they win, when they do things that put others in danger out of desperation for each other (ie 8x23 and 10x23) bad things happen.

This is consistent and this is a very common narrative, see this post where I mention very quickly the hugely blatant ones of Star Wars, Harry Potter and Buffy just off the top of my head, because stories don’t just exist in a random void, there is always a moral to a story, usually that it’s always better to be good and heroes are selfless.

Anyway, this episode gave us many meta points. In itself I wasn’t totally enamoured with the semi-noir genre attempt, I was very interested by the boys’ interaction with the story but I was a bit bored by way too much going into peripheral people’s stories etc and it could have been done in a more fun, blatantly emotive way, but the meta side and the side that was clearly making a point I loved.

1. Dean is worried for Cas dodging bullets in Syria. Now I have to watch what I say here as I already had antis using my mentioning Syria as an excuse to send me shit, but there’s a reason they chose Syria as Cas’ location out of any country in that region which could be relevant to the spell’s ingredients. I didn’t do this. The show did. For a reason. Syria is a place where currently immoral awful things are happening to good people. It is a horrific situation. Some people are doing awful things to other people in the name of religion. People are doing bad things for bad reasons and framing it as good reasons, this does not take away from the fact that it is incomprehensibly immoral and abhorrent. This was not an accident given the theme of morality in this same episode.

2. Separately to this, Dean is worried about Cas (as usual). Dean is shown as using two established coping mechanisms in this worry. Food (the pizza) and a Woman (the girl in the coffee shop). This is the same old coping mechanism when Cas is in danger / missing / dead.

3. Sam doesn’t know Dean. This is something that we see a lot in the earlier seasons and then sporadically since, but I love that this is coming back given we’ve had quite a few moments so far this season (and last) that have shown Dean is tired of keeping up the facade:

Dean: “you’re like a Boy Scout, always prepared!” Sam: “you’re like... I don’t know what you’re like.”

No shit Sam! The idea that Sam doesn’t actually know who Dean really is (because Dean sublimates and hides so much, particularly around Sam) is consistent and I can’t wait to have this explored textually.

4. Father Lucca giving us some lovely Dean/Cas faith material:

On the skull: “It means everything to my congregation. Imagine you woke up one morning and this thing you loved (...) was just gone, what would you do?”

Sam: “try to get it back”, looks at Dean.

*insert gif of Dean trying to get Cas back whilst saying he’s everything*

I mean?!

5. Father Lucca giving us some lovely morality lessons and exactly referencing Dean’s earlier comment and saying this is bad:

Dean: “Look this isn’t a perfect world we’re trying to save okay? And if I’m not perfect trying to save it, so be it”

Father Lucca: “Change it (...) the world’s not perfect but do you use that as an excuse? Do us use that to excuse your own sins? The world will never be perfect. If good men do good things it can be better”

Dean looks awkward but Sam is convinced to help him.

I mean this is a blatant No, Dean, that’s not what good men do, you need to find yourself again, this isn’t you or what you really stand for (see every time Dean wants to focus on saving one person with less regard of the bigger picture because it’s the right thing to do since the pilot).

Good men doing good things - not doing bad things for the right reasons, doing good things for the right reasons. Ie. in this episode’s instance getting the skull back for the priest is the right thing to do.

Father Lucca to Dean about Sam later: “ All good things beget good things and what you’re brother is doing is a good thing”

Now morally without knowing the outcome yet I thought hey! this should lead to something good for the boys as this is always the case, they did the right thing even though it didn’t benefit them and they should be rewarded, because it’s the standard heroes reward in every story.

Oh, look, in the end Father Lucca turns out to be the Holy Man that they were after the blood of in the first place so they get the reward by doing the right thing! Such accident! Much coincidence!

*Tink stares into the camera*

As an aside, @amwritingmeta reminded me of just how many Disney / fairytale stories they’ve been referencing recently too and these always have a moral to the story. Just saying.

Now, Sam clearly is fully on this path of wanting to do the right thing (he said it clearly in 11x01 that they had to change and he’s been trying hard ever since). Dean has been also doing this (eg 11x23) but he is very iffy in this episode and has been all season, see Dean being framed as bad when he threatened Kaia to save Mary for example, in this episode he has a real reticence re the main plot and not wanting to give up their goal to help Lucca for nothing, but also that whole I would murder someone who stole the impala bit, that wasn’t for jokes, that is... ick. This is supposed to be bad. Sam know’s it’s bad, his reaction is telling us we should see this as troublesome. Cas also last episode showed he is shady, unfortunately set on doing bad things for the right reasons etc and I know, I KNOW this was the “lesser of evils” concept but look my dudes it’s framed as bad, it’s framed as morally questionable and then this episode came straight afterwards begging us to consider these things. That is NO accident. Of course it’s not saying Dean and Cas are evil, it’s just, well, are they soon going to decide to take the ends don’t justify the means attitude or will it be after they’ve fucked up and released the next big bad, ie. opened the rift most likely. No matter what, it’ll end well, obviously, they’re heroes, it’s just a case of timing and dragging out the story. Whatever happens short term, clearly this theme is hella important.

Anyway, the final scene is just one big metaphor of morality.

Father Lucca is moral, he refuses to lie and still distracts the guy enough. He tries throughout the episode to do the right thing and ends up “miraculously” only being grazed instead of likely killed if the shot was 5cm to the left.

Bad: Margaret is greedy. She dies. The others are all greedy, avaricious, immoral and end up shooting each other. All the baddies end up killing each other in a huge lesson of repercussions of your shitty actions.

Good: Meanwhile, as per the above, the boys did the right thing for the right reason, they took the moral high ground and helped Father Lucca because it was the right thing to do even though it went against their own aims and they got rewarded for it by getting what they sought in the first place and getting it in a positive way.

Grey are: Not assuming that anyone is good or bad or anything until they prove themselves either way. Just because the bad guys all seemed OK to start with doesn’t mean they’re not all morally reprehensible, just because Lucca seemed bad to start with doesn’t mean he’s not the good guy and the most Holy Man etc. etc. etc.

=> Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Don’t go headstrong into a plan without thinking about the consequences on others. Do good things for good reasons and get rewarded for them.

*Tink couldn't stare into the camera any more than I am already*

Bonus: Dean now has faith and is helping Sam with his in a direct flip of earlier in the season. I wonder what changed! We just don’t know!

So yeah, honestly it wasn’t fun, uplighting, romantic or particularly characterful, but as an episode helping me, who had read the past episodes as very morally iffy and thinking about why they decided to frame these questions and make us think about it, why there was such a twitter/tumblr wank fest over Cas’ choices last episode, as to why they are doing this overall throughout the season and where this is leading...for all that, this episode was fantastic.

It told us so much about the structure of the season, why it’s been like this, what their point is, where it is going, why it is going that way and that is just great :)

#i couldn't add any gifs to this post it kept crashing so... sorry its word heavy!#spn 13x15 #spn 13x15 meta #tinks meta #morality #good and bad choices #spn themes #season darkest before the dawn 13

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getoffthesoapbox · 7 years ago

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[VKM Spec] Investigating VKM 14

We’re starting the year off on much more solid footing than we began last year--with VKM 13.5 and now VKM 14, the story seems to be headed in a better direction than before. I, for one, am relieved to see this, and hope this trend continues for the remainder of the story. We only take small steps forward this chapter, but the good news is, as far as I can tell, we don’t take any steps backward either.

The irony hasn’t escaped me that not three days after I complained about Hino’s storytelling tanking, she put out what is arguably the best action/suspense chapter she’s written since the end of the Rido arc. Either someone put a bug in her ear, or we’re headed in a direction that she’s actually excited about writing. Whichever it is, this is a distinct improvement to the lackluster writing and artwork we’re accustomed to, and it’s a welcome change. The old girl’s still got it in her. Let’s see if she can keep it up.

That being said, let’s get to it. Scanlations can be found in the usual places.

Obligatory disclaimer for the sensitives: This post is “zeki criticism” and “anti ky”. Please blacklist those tags accordingly.

Marking Time

The first thing that struck me when I saw the opening page of this chapter was the teaser line. I couldn’t figure out what it was about the line that gripped me, other than the obvious: it’s clearly a reference to the significant amount of time Zero’s been waiting for Yuuki to say something to him. But when I was flipping through volume 19 the other day, I realized what it was that had caught my attention--this teaser line in VKM 14 is a direct reference to Zero’s request from the original epilogue of Night 93, a request that apparently narratively is still unanswered from Yuuki.

So this teaser line is a callback to that chapter, and it also tells us several things:

Zero is still waiting for Yuuki’s reply to his request from Night 93.

VKM 9′s confession was not the answer to that request.

We are not going to be ignoring the events that took place at the end of the original series in order to move Zero and Yuuki’s story forward.

We will likely be revisiting the original series to sort out why Yuuki still hasn’t given Zero an answer after all this time.

While it’s disheartening to recall how long Zero’s been waiting for a response to his request in Night 93, at the same time I’m quite heartened by the fact that he (and Hino and her editor) does not consider his request properly responded to by Yuuki. This is a huge relief to me as someone who was not happy with Yuuki’s manner of confessing to Zero in VKM 9. One of the weights from my shoulders as far as this story is concerned has been lifted with this reference, at least for now. I’m now hopefully optimistic that we’re not finished with the revelations on Yuuki’s side about her past and her past choices, and I’m also more hopeful that we might actually get a legitimate confession from her about her true feelings for Zero in the future.

So as far as I’m concerned, this little teaser line was a great way to start the chapter. If this was all the chapter contained, I’d be happy enough, but lucky for me this is only the beginning of the goodies.

The Usual Suspects

This chapter really expanded the possibilities for the suspects behind the Vampire King bombings, but it also threw some of my theories right out the window, which is rather interesting. There’s a lot to unpack on this side of the plot, so buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride.

We begin the chapter with a secret meeting in the underground area between Maria and Kaien. @jadedmemories mentioned to me that if we take the title page as a canon “scene”, it’s quite possible Zero was listening in on what Maria and Kaien were discussing, as in, potentially he doesn’t trust either of them. It’s an interesting possibility, and one worth keeping in mind as future chapters unfold, I think. For now there’s not much to be done with the information.

It’ll probably be easiest if I separate this section by suspect and work through what we know and don’t know of each one. I made a funny list of suspects here for anyone who wants a more thorough review of each one, but for now I’m only going to discuss the most likely suspects and the ones that are relevant to this chapter in particular. First, we’ll start with some general observations:

The Vampire King’s True Purpose

Before this chapter came out, I was hesitant to make any guesses as to what the Vampire King mastermind was aiming for. But with three bombing incidents under our collective belts, a few potential purposes are starting to rise above the others.

With only the first two incidents, I was torn as to who the target of the Vampire King’s ultimate “message” was--I thought it could be Zero, Yuuki, Zero and Yuuki together, or the general efforts of Yuuki/Zero/Aidou/Takuma/Kaien to make the world more accepting of vampires.

With this third incident, I believe the target of the Vampire King’s message is either Yuuki or Zero specifically and individually. The rest is smoke and mirrors to give the group legitimacy and to act as a screen for the true purpose. I’ll break down the two options for now and explain which one I’m leaning toward currently, but we can’t make any positive conclusions until we get more information:

Target A: Yuuki - Yuuki being the ultimate target for the Vampire King’s mastermind is on the surface the most sensible conclusion. The name “Vampire King” itself is a direct reference to Kaname that would strike her heart more than any other’s. The first attack happened to Yuuki’s friends, the second attack happened to her pseudo-partner, the third attack both threatened something she holds dear (children’s safety) and also stole her pseudo-partner from her (Zero’s kidnapping). If she’s the target, the Vampire King likely a.) wants to use Zero’s safety as leverage to stop her from doing something (likely the cure research, since she’s in charge of Aidou) or b.) wants to separate her from Zero for some reason or c.) wants to harass her and cause her pain out of a misguided attempt to “get even” for Kaname’s past actions, since she’s connected to him.

Target B: Zero - Although I think the Yuuki option has potential, ultimately my gut is telling me Zero is the true target of all of this insanity. And by target I mean he’s both the person to capture (literal target) and the person to whom the message of the group is meant to be delivered. The group’s name “Vampire King” will still reach Zero just as much as it would reach Yuuki--Yuuki, in this variant, is the “bait” to get Zero involved, rather than vice versa. So the first attack happens to Yuuki’s friends, which gets Yuuki involved, which gets Zero involved. But the second attack is deliberately for Zero, and the vampire who commits the action has an insult specifically for Zero, despite Zero not even knowing the guy. The third incident, in this scenario, is actually a decoy and a set up--whoever the Vampire King mastermind is, they know Zero will be in charge of the investigation, so they pick a target he’s sensitive to (children) and set up landmine explosives in an obvious location where he’s sure to be the first to try to help anyone who gets caught up in it. They may or may not plant info with Kain to get Kain to bring Yuuki (though right now I think Yuuki’s presence was a mistake and unintended by the Vampire King mastermind), and then while Zero’s distracted “saving” whoever gets caught up in the mines, he either dies or gets kidnapped (the true objective). If this is true, then the kidnapping is actually to get Zero before the Vampire King mastermind to allow the mastermind the opportunity to talk to him without a certain nosy pureblood’s interference. Likely, if Zero is the true target, the Vampire King mastermind is going to use Zero’s desire to save people as leverage to get Zero to do something for him/her: either a.) stop Aidou’s research, b.) separate Zero from Yuuki, or c.) help Aidou’s research to get Kaname back sooner, depending on the ultimate goal. They’d get Zero to help them by blackmailing him, using a threat against future targets as bait. Then they’d likely release Zero so that he can return to Yuuk on his own, but with the blackmail hanging over his head. For an example of how fun this type of plotline is, see Sherlock BBC’s The Great Game episode.

The reason I’m currently leaning toward Zero as the ultimate target of the mastermind is simply because Yuuki’s for the most part a fairly passive character and because of how long it’s been since the forge was created. If the mastermind was after Yuuki because of some grudge over Kaname, well, it’s been 50-70 years depending on how old Yori was when she died. That’s a long time to hold a grudge against someone who’s just related to the person in question. It’d be far better to just plan an attack against the forge itself, if the forge was the problem. As for other reasons to go after Yuuki’s loved ones, there really aren’t any other than maybe a bored Pureblood wanting to start a war and stop the coexistence efforts. Even if that’s true, this particular style of Vampire King activity doesn’t seem particularly effective toward that end. Especially when it’s highlighting the vampires as the problem, rather than simply being a declaration against Yuuki herself or her comrades.

If Zero is the person the mastermind is after, we have a lot more room to play. Zero has more enemies than Yuuki, and more people with animus toward him for his role as a Hunter and as Yuuki’s pseudo-partner. Zero also has unresolved pot threads about his special status as the only hunter twin to ever be born a twin, not to mention Takuma’s secret in reference to the Shizuka incident. On top of that, it’s been made very clear that his relationship with Yuuki is not approved of in most quarters, and the hunters (who would go after Yuuki, rather than Zero) for the most part seem accepting of his situation, thus they’re unlikely to be part of the problem. Zero also is potentially a cure component, which may be a factor, and he’s part of the reason the hunters aren’t killing vampires anymore (so if this is an action by the anti-vampire faction, Zero might be a prime target as an agent of improving the lot of criminal vampires and thus seen as an enemy to their agenda).

Again, at this time this is only speculation at best; we simply don’t have enough information to make any firm conclusions either way. I’m honestly not sure anymore how smart Hino is, so perhaps the most obvious conclusion is the best in this situation.

Kidnapped!

Zero’s kidnapping this chapter brings up a few questions:

Was the purpose of the bombing threat a decoy to lure Zero out and to kidnap him?

Is Zero’s kidnapping part of the Vampire King’s plot or is it from a second party?

Was Zero the intended target or was he captured by accident?

If Zero was the intended target, why? If he was captured by accident, who was the real target?

Did Zero orchestrate his own kidnapping for a reason?

It may seem kind of silly to bring up the idea that Zero might have had himself kidnapped but given how peacefully he departs from Yuuki’s side, it’s quite possible. There’s no sign of a struggle, and although he does look over his shoulder before he disappears, his expression isn’t anxious or shocked. Whatever he sees isn’t unexpected.

I’m not sure how likely this is, however, but if his kidnapping was a genuine kidnapping that leaves even more questions. Why was he not shocked to see the person kidnapping him? Why didn’t he struggle? How did the kidnapper surprise him and knock him out without a struggle or even a word of warning to Yuuki? How did Yuuki not notice another person was there?

There are a couple options I can think of. One is that the person who approached Zero was one he expected to be there (limiting our options to Maria, Goggles Guy, or Mimi), who perhaps covered his mouth with something like a chloroform-soaked cloth to knock him out. The other is that a person didn’t approach him--a pureblood blood creature did, such as Sara’s spiders or Kaname’s bats. If it’s the latter, he could be easily whisked away the way Kaname did for Yuuki in Night 60 or the way Touma did with his bats in Night 59 and 60. This would imply a pureblood is working with the Vampire King, though they may not be the mastermind. We know Yuuki has a hard time sensing the pureblood creatures, as it took her a few minutes to figure out the fake Kaname back in Night 76; it would be entirely possible for a pureblood to whisk Zero away quickly using these creatures rather than their physical selves.

All of this brings up some very interesting questions, which unfortunately we’ll have to wait two months (or perhaps more) to get answers.

Suspect A: Kaien

In my review of VKM 13, I mentioned Kaien as a potential suspect. After VKM 14, I’m leaning toward him being a red herring, as much as this pains my Kaien-detesting heart. =P

On the surface, he’s still a great candidate for mastermind of the whole operation. Here’re the points in his favor:

He meets Maria in secret and spills a “secret” to her.

He has time to plant the bombs.

Although he’s not at the scene of the crime, that could be because a.) he already planted the bombs, b.) the Zero kidnapping isn’t part of the Vampire King activities, or c.) he planted the bombs and his associates kidnap Zero, leaving him free to attack other towns.

At the mayor candidate rally, he talks about his ideals and runs off with a suspicious bag in his hand. (Thanks, @jadedmemories for pointing that out to me.)

That being said, here are the reasons I feel he’s a red herring now:

Yuuki got caught up in the mess, which I don’t feel he would have intended, and surely he’d know that this particular style of target would get her attention.

The target was a bunch of kids, which isn’t his style--although he has no problem putting teenagers in danger, he still looked after and cared for Yuuki and Zero as children and likely wouldn’t threaten kids.

Although we don’t find out Kaien’s secret, we do find out that he asked Maria to reach out to the Academy alumni, which (while perhaps a decoy) implies whatever he’s working toward is ultimately altruistic or at worst benign in nature and something he thinks other people will support.

Hino made a point in VKM 11 of showing Kaien has some regrets about how he handled his life, and she reiterated this in VKM 6 when he was talking with Yori’s dad.

His motives for committing these attacks (especially now that human children have been involved) seem fairly weak and counterproductive to his other stated goals.

All in all, while it’s still certainly possible that Kaien could be the ultimate mastermind or part of the Vampire King group, in the end I think he’s probably a red herring whose activities will end up helping Yuuki and/or Zero in the end. He does have access to a pureblood, Isaya, who could have helped him kidnap Zero, but there are also other purebloods who could do the same thing with potentially more motive.

Suspect B: Maria

Hino conveniently decided to bring Maria back after all this time in VKM 14. I don’t think she was brought back just to resurrect Yuuki’s limp jealousy over a man she’s been pushing away romantically for over 50 years. Depending on whether or not Maria has a role to play in the Vampire King group, the reason for her return will change.

It is possible she’s part of the Vampire King group, and we’re meant to suspect her. If she is a part of the group, however, I don’t believe she’s the mastermind. Before we get to that, let’s start with why she might be a potential suspect:

She randomly decides to help patrol the tunnels despite this being out of character for her, which Zero (being the most intuitive character of the cast) immediately points out.

She has a secret meeting with Kaien where she’s framed suspiciously.

When she talks about people being on the move thanks to the academy in the first scene with Kaien, Hino puts her speech bubble over the crime scene from later in the chapter. The framing is rather ominous.

She’s working with a human we’ve never met before, who has some ambiguous connections to the former academy.

We know nothing of her whereabouts during the last few years since Night 93. We only know at some point there was a scene where she sadly watched Zero walking away, which was during the original Night 92 epilogue and where she had her original hairstyle. When that scene was and what it was about, we still don’t know.

Hino makes rather a big deal out of her wish to protect “what” she loves like Ichiru. This might imply that, if she is involved with the Vampire King, she is doing it out of misguided altruism.

She’s clearly still interested in Zero romantically, even if she’s not actively pursuing him.

She and her human partner were patrolling the area near where the landmines were, yet neither of them noticed the landmines.

Her human partner has a suspicious line about suspicious things “lying around” right before Yuuki and Mimi step on the landmines.

It’s quite possible that the reason Zero isn’t shocked or startled by whoever approaches him from behind is because it’s Maria herself, who he expects to be in the area. He likely wouldn’t struggle against her initially if she was the one who kidnapped him.

I think it’s certainly possible Maria might be involved with the Vampire King, but it’s also possible that she’s not and her partner is, and that it’s a huge coincidence that she happened to be there at the time. If the latter, then her role will likely be to cause some small trouble for Yuuki and make Yuuki question some things about herself, as Maria’s role has been since arc 2.

If Maria is involved in this whole business, she’s certainly not the mastermind. She doesn’t have nearly the motive or connections to mastermind this. While she does care for Zero and has certainly worked with shady figures in the past (Shizuka), she usually is on the side of right or good--though she was Yuuki’s rival for Zero, she still helped her against Kaname and Sara. The only way I can see her being involved in this is if the mastermind has convinced her that Yuuki is bad for Zero and needs to be separated from him (hearkening back to her wish to protect the things she loves like Ichiru). Maria doesn’t love the kids at the kindergarten, and as far as we know she only cares about two things: Ichiru (who is inside Zero) and Zero. This makes it likely that the thing she wants to protect is Zero. If that’s true, then it’s quite possible she’s involved in his kidnapping.

However, it’s also possible that she (like Kaien) is merely a red herring. If she is just a red herring, then her open and honest confession of her goals and feelings is actually in the story to serve as a foil to Yuuki, who lies about hers. Maria’s open and honest affection stands in contrast to Yuuki’s inability to be truthful about her own feelings, something she’s struggled with for the entire story. Even if Maria isn’t involved in the Vampire King organization, she still serves a vital purpose in both making Yuuki reassess herself in the canon itself and also stands as an ideal to contrast Yuuki for the reader.

Suspect C: Goggles Guy

Maria’s human companion, who I have dubbed Goggles Guy in lieu of a proper name, has a few points in his favor as being partnered to the Vampire King group, but if he is partnered with them, that opens up a whole different can of worms as to why a human would be partnered with Level C and potentially noble/pureblood vampires to sow chaos and drag the vampires through the mud. His involvement with the Vampire King group muddies the waters of potential motives, but he’s suspicious enough that I can’t write him off simply because he makes things difficult.

Points in his favor as a potential member of the Vampire King group:

We’ve never seen him before, yet he knows enough about the tunnel threat to volunteer for the vigilante group.

Although his story about his grandmother may be true, we know nothing about the remainder of his background. He could potentially be from a hunter family and be bearing some kind of grudge.

Hino has him speak a suspiciously prescient line about suspicious objects being set up and returning to an “original objective.” On the surface, this line is innocent, but as a foreshadowing technique it may implicate him as the very one who set the landmines.

This is intuitive on my part, but Hino drew his goggles to be deliberately provoking--whenever a character’s eyes are hidden, that’s usually a sign to pay attention. There was no reason to remove his goggles when we first meet him and then put them back on his face right as he speaks his most suspicious line.

If the above points are true, he is, just like Maria, probably a pawn being used in the Vampire King mastermind’s ultimate plan. This guy just doesn’t seem to have enough going for him to be a mastermind in his own right, and certainly not one who could organize kamikaze Level Cs/Ds to bomb themselves.

But as with Maria and Kaien, Goggles Guy may also ultimately be a red herring. Points against him:

His motive for joining the vigilante corps seems legitimate and sincere; Hino doesn’t use any paneling or screentone tricks to make his story feel suspicious.

Even if he’s an angry member of the anti-vampire faction, it seems strange that he’d join an organization that utilizes vampires and looks down on humans (if we assume that the second suicide bomber was an accurate representation of the people involved with this group).

He’s a human, and should have more trouble kidnapping Zero than a vampire might.

His motives seem weak, despite how suspicious he looks.

We know nothing of this guy, which narratively renders him fairly innocuous, much like the evil purebloods in volume 19. Hopefully Hino isn’t going to repeat that mistake again.

Of the characters presented this chapter, Goggles Guy is the most likely to be involved in some way, though I doubt he’s anything more than a pawn ultimately.

Suspect D: Mimi

The last suspect really highlighted by this chapter is Mimi. I’ll cover the other options in the last sub-section together. Mimi’s only appeared in two chapters so far--VKM 6, where she annoyed Yuuki at the vampire lounge and later attacked Yori with the yankee doodle vampire, and now in VKM 14. Of the potential suspects this chapter, I feel she’s the weakest, but she is the last known person to have seen both Zero and Yuuki, and that can’t be discounted entirely.

Points in her favor as an accomplice to the Vampire King plot:

She has a known animus against Zero in particular and humans in general (Yori).

She’s a petty criminal and knows the tunnels very well.

She appeared suddenly this chapter after not being mentioned at all for a while.

She’s in the last panel showing Zero and Yuuki fighting the bomb. It’s quite possible she’s the one who runs up to Zero and knocks him out.

That being said, I really don’t think she’s involved at all. Reasons why I lean this way:

Mimi’s dumb as a box of rocks and can’t keep her mouth shut for two minutes flat.

Her narrative role appears to be filling in as the Yuuki sidekick character since Aidou is being used for other purposes and Zero has been removed.

She’s being used to help Yuuki articulate her thoughts in a sincere way, and these conversations would be seriously undermined by villainous activity.

She steps on the damn landmine. What conspirator steps on the landmine? Yes, it offers authenticity, but there was no guarantee she’d escape unscathed unless it was a dud she stepped on which we know it wasn’t.

Unless she’s speed running in that last panel that shows her head, she’s too far away to be the culprit who kidnaps Zero. The shot we see from behind her is also potentially a perspective shot of the person who DID attack Zero, and who IS running past her to get to him (hence the angle and speed).

Hino never paints her suspiciously in the chapter, unlike Kaien, Maria, and Goggles Guy.

There’s an interesting moment where Mimi points to Zero with Maria/Goggles Guy and demands to know why he’s not on Yuuki’s team and is on Maria’s. This is a potential narrative device foreshadowing the arc that’s about to come, with Zero “on the Vampire King’s side” due to blackmail, and Yuuki/Mimi having to figure out why. A device like this normally isn’t used for or by villainous characters.

It may be my bias toward Mimi talking here, but honestly she’s the most refreshing character in this story since Ai lost a lot of her charm and flatlined, and I’d hate to see her used for villainous purposes when there are plenty of other, superior candidates.

Suspect X: Everyone Else

I won’t go too deeply into the other options for the Vampire King mastermind this chapter, but a quick list of characters who are still potential masterminds despite not being directly involved this chapter:

Ai - Ai’s an unlikely candidate, but since we know she can wake up and go back to sleep, it’s entirely possible she’s somehow involved, rendering this whole Vampire King thing a big sham. Given how violent it has been so far, I think she’s an unlikely choice, but we can’t rule her out yet.

Isaya - Isaya’s not normally an active character, but he can be in the right situation. Perhaps he’s off his rocker.

Takuma - My favorite option, and the one who appears the most innocent and has the most potential for juicy narrative twists. He’s not in this chapter of course, but “someone” had to tip Kain off on what was going on, and we don’t know who that someone was.

Kain - An unlikely option, given he was one of the earliest victims, but still possible since he’s the one who gave Yuuki the intel.

Kaito - With the return of Maria, the first of the two anti-Zeki characters, it’s not a stretch to imagine Kaito might return as well to be a foil to Zero, especially if in the interim between Night 93 and VKM 14 Kaito was attacked and turned by a pureblood. Kaito has a distinct animus against vampires and purebloods, and he is not supportive of Zero’s relationship with Yuuki. There’s also a scene in Night 93 of Kaito watching over Zero hugging Yuuki which might feed into this possibility. Hino hasn’t shown us what happened to Kaito for a reason, and what that reason is may be relevant to this new plotline.

Other random purebloods/nobles/level cs/humans/hunters - The Vampire KIng mastermind could certainly be someone we’ve never met yet. I would be disappointed if this were the case, but it’s entirely possible. Who knows who or why this group has been cobbled together.

So as is evident, we have quite a bit of potential for who the Vampire King culprit is. Hopefully the next few chapters will give us some new information, but for now we can enjoy the speculation. ;)

A Breath of Fresh Air

Mimi is a complete delight this chapter. She brings back some much-needed humor in a natural way. She’s not enabling Yuuki or interested in babying her. She’s dumb, but has a sharp intuition, if pointed incorrectly. Hino’s incessant need for comedy plays off well with this character, in a way it didn’t with Ai. As someone who is uninvolved in all the drama of Kaname’s interference in everyone’s lives from the previous series, Mimi has a refreshing outlook that helps break the story away from the bleak shadow Kaname cast over all the characters.

I love Mimi’s assessment of Zero. It tickles me pink that she thinks he’s a cheater and off wooing all the ladies and that he “seduced” Yuuki. This just shows how off-base she is, but I do believe she is picking up on his dissatisfaction with his current relationship, and is just reflecting it back to Yuuki in her own unique way. What I love about her perception of Zero is that she has no idea that in reality he never even tried to steal Yuuki--Yuuki chose him, Yuuki latched onto him, and Yuuki wouldn’t let go of him. The only “seducing” Zero ever did was simply be a hurt and fragile boy who stood in front of Yuuki on a dark night. The rest was all Yuuki. But of course Mimi wouldn’t know any of this, so it’s cute to see her misread the situation. ;) It also is a nice reminder of how charming, handsome, and attractive Zero is--that he is a catch and one who rightfully should have his pick of the ladies, even if Hino won’t give that to him because, well, they’d clearly outshine our “heroine,” who wouldn’t be able to compete with a proper rival. =P

I also love that Mimi has no reverence for Yuuki at all, despite dubbing her “Yuuki-sama.” She also cuts through Yuuki’s bullcrap in a way none of the other characters seem capable of in recent chapters. She honestly is a better friend to Yuuki in this single chapter than Yori was in the past 13--and I don’t mean better as in better person, but simply better in the fact that real friends don’t enable bad behavior for an entire lifetime, and Yori enabled Yuuki whereas Mimi reminds her to stop moping and dwelling and just do what she thinks is right. It’s so refreshing, and I’d love to keep this girl around for a while.

Her simple foolishness is charming and fun in a way Yuuki’s false obliviousness is not anymore, and it acts as a good contrast to Yuuki’s fake attempts at playing such a character. With Mimi around, even more than when Ai was near, Yuuki is forced to step into the adult role she’s meant to have and stop playing the eternal child who doesn’t know her adult responsibilities. All I can do is tip my hat to Mimi and thank her for channeling the true spirit of the Eternal Fool, the very person who lights the way for heroes to become heroes. All heroes step through the Fool’s Way first, and it’s long past time for Yuuki to get her own journey started. If Mimi can light the way for her, I’d be quite pleased.

Welcome Home

I won’t cover Maria as a potential suspect in this section, but I do want to talk about her role as a character and why she has returned at this time to the story. This section will assume Maria is not a suspect, but even if she is, her function in this chapter doesn’t change all that much, it just gains additional layers. Assuming she’s innocent, though, she still brings some interesting and much-needed layers to the table.

Maria is an active foil to Yuuki this chapter. In many ways, she is Yuuki’s superior and is closer to living as Yuuki’s “ideal” than Yuuki is, and this is a factor that I feel is not lost on Yuuki. Here are the ways that I feel Maria is acting more heroically than Yuuki this chapter:

Maria finds out on her own about the terrorist attack using her own intelligence-gathering abilities. (Assuming she is innocent of being part of the Vampire King plot, of course.) Yuuki, on the other hand, is sitting on her thumbs at home and the information has to be brought to her. Maria is active, Yuuki passive.

Maria is acting in the memory of her beloved and without his direct involvement and without any direct recognition from anyone. Yuuki only acts when she feels social pressure to do something, because it looks good in front of her friends.

Maria helps form and collect the members of the vigilante group. Yuuki sneaks around and drags uninvolved parties into danger.

Maria takes action despite the risks to her. Yuuki remains passive and uninvolved despite having immense power and political clout.

Maria is honest and forthright about her reasons for stepping in. Yuuki is cagey and unable to articulate why she is doing what she’s doing.

Maria’s activities bring the sincere admiration of Zero, while Yuuki’s bring only his irritation and concern.

Maria responds to Zero openly and sincerely, while Yuuki remains unable to express her true feelings honestly, despite knowing she should follow Ruka’s example.

Maria is acting out of a sincere desire to help, Yuuki to get attention and show off.

Again, the points above are assuming Maria is not a suspect. If she’s a suspect, some of the sincerity of her actions is diminished, but her role as a foil to Yuuki still remains intact because Yuuki believes she’s sincere.

I was chatting with @vampireknightmeta about why Maria comes across to me as sincere this chapter and why Yuuki doesn’t, and she brought up a brilliant point about the difference between the two (and the difference between Zero and Yuuki). I felt her point was very relevant and explains the difference well: Yuuki is the type of person who deep down knows that her natural inclination is not to do the right thing, and so tries to “act” like a good person. Maria (if she’s not acting duplicitously as a member of the Vampire King group) and Zero are the type of people who instinctively do the right thing because they are good people. They don’t have to act like good people, they are. This isn’t to say Yuuki isn’t a good person or doesn’t have the potential to be a good person--rather, it’s the difference between a person who follows laws because they’re “afraid” of the consequences of breaking them (and who, if there were no consequences, would do the acts that the laws warn against) and a person who follows laws because they genuinely believe the laws are good and are of benefit to themselves and others (and even if the laws never existed would choose to follow them on principle). The outcome is the same--both types of people follow the laws and would be viewed as “good” and “innocent” by bystanders looking in, but in their hearts the two are very different--one type is genuinely good and altruistic, the other is not but wishes they were.

I do believe Hino is trying to help Yuuki grow into such a person, a person who--although she is fully capable of great evil and great caprice--deliberately chooses not to be because in her core she truly has embraced altruism and genuine love. This hearkens back to VKM 3, where Yuuki talks about the seed of desire and her fears about it. Yuuki has never truly faced herself and the darkness within herself and the darkness she’s capable of creating, and because she hasn’t incorporated her shadow, she can’t actualize her full potential as a person the way Zero and (potentially) Maria can. Until you face your shadow, you don’t really know who you are, and I believe Maria’s return to the story (assuming she’s not part of the Vampire King plot, or even if she is) is meant to help Yuuki identify where she’s failing as a person, and why her relationships never unfold correctly. Maria’s role is always to help Yuuki course-correct, and I believe she is reprising that again this time. She represents a woman who isn’t relying on a man as a crutch, but who is using a past love as inspiration for moving forward, a direct contrast to Yuuki who is both using one man as a crutch and using a past relationship as a reason not to move forward.

By using Maria as a foil, Yuuki’s flaws as a heroine come into stark relief, and we can see more clearly where she needs to go and what she needs to do in order to achieve the happiness that surely she desires somewhere, deep down inside.

Closer to Shadow than Light

I’m feeling pretty darn ambivalent about Yuuki this chapter, and this section will reflect that ambivalence. There are aspects to what we saw unfold this chapter that I enjoyed and am pleased to see, and there are other things that I’m not so pleased with when I pull back to the macro level. Unfortunately they’re all kind of meshed together, so I’ll have to talk about them together. If anyone reading this is the kind of person who is defensive of Yuuki, I’d recommend just skipping this section and going to the next one. There’s a lot to deal with here, and I’m not going to be going easy on the girl.

Yuuki is more talkative and friendly this chapter than she has been in any chapter since Night 89. It almost seems like she’s had a personality transplant, honestly. She is actively trying to learn a new skill with Ruka, she opens up about herself and her feelings to Kain and Mimi, she’s more proactive and adventurous, she even openly admires and talks about Zero. It’s like we’ve been transported back in time to the Sara mini-arc, where she was running around doing her Night Class restoration thing. She treats Kain and Mimi better than she’s treated anyone since Night 89--she’s genuine and honest with both of them. While this is nice to see in general and is certainly a step forward from the lifeless doll she’s been recently, for me it feels like too little too late and makes me genuinely angry on behalf of Zero, Ai, Aidou, and Yori. Yuuki’s been dishonest and cagey with all of the people dearest to her for decades, yet all of sudden she’s now blabbing everything about herself to two people who aren’t even her friends. It’s frustrating that she’s kept this habit from her teen years, and it’s a sign of how little she’s grown in the decades since the final volume of the original series. And this is just the tip of the iceberg that is the mess that is Yuuki in VKM 14.

When we first encounter Yuuki in this chapter, she’s in her own home having a cooking lesson with Ruka. This fact is glossed over lightly due to the scene beginning in medias res, but it brings up some interesting questions:

Why is Yuuki suddenly interested in cooking? She’s never been good at it or interested in it in her over 70 years of life.

Does Zero know about these lessons, or are they a secret?

I wouldn’t find this lesson remarkable if this was during Ai’s childhood or right before or right after Yuuki and Zero became official. But it’s arguably several months after VKM 9′s official announcement, and the timing is suspicious for Yuuki to suddenly take an interest in being domestic where before she was content to leave it to the servants/Ruka (when taking care of Ai) or leaving it to Zero. It seems too coincidental that this sudden interest in being a more attractive and useful partner comes directly on the heels of VKM 13′s final scene; we don’t know how much time has passed since then, but clearly whatever transpired afterward led to Yuuki taking a sudden keen interest in improving herself. I’ll discuss the ramifications of this more later on, but for now it’s fair to leave this as a point of interest.

We begin the scene with Kain informing Yuuki of the next potential plot of the Vampire King group--to plant bombs under the sewers of the kindergarten and daycare centers. Why this group would broadcast their plans should be the real issue for the investigators--that alone should have been a red flag that their goals weren’t the bombing itself--but that aside, Yuuki gets herself worked up into a rage over the issue of children being targets. There’s an distasteful element of hypocrisy in Yuuki’s sudden desire to protect children that bothers me deeply as a reader. Yuuki declares very forthrightly that she won’t forgive anyone who targets children. Yet this is the same woman who spared not a single moment of regret for what Rido did to her real baby brother, the real Kaname, and free-passed and ignored what Kaname’s own crime of targeting Zero and Ichiru as children. For her to run around screaming that she won’t forgive anyone who targets children now, when she’s already done such a thing in the original series, is less than convincing and is outright distasteful in my opinion. I can only hope Hino recognizes this herself and doesn’t think Yuuki’s outrage in this scene is merely a cute way to show how altruistic and kind Yuuki is--because if that’s true, then that shows that Hino (and Yuuki) both think only criminals one doesn’t know are evil, and that the criminals one does know are excusable especially if they’re romantic interests, and that is reprehensible in the most vile manner. It’s okay for Kaname to target two innocent twins for Yuuki’s sake, but it’s not okay for the Vampire King group to do the same for their own reasons. The hypocrisy is a little too thick to be ignored on this one, and I hope Hino has Yuuki get called out on this later on in VKM.

On top of this, Yuuki’s outrage is rather out of proportion to the threat, especially with so many good people (including the man she supposedly cares about) on the case. It’s clear something more is going on beneath the surface than concern over the safety of children. Even Ruka, who is one of the most maternal characters in the story besides Yori, has a much more reasonable reaction to the news--she calls the perpetrators out for being despicable, but doesn’t let it steal her chill. Yuuki flies off the handle melodramatically and is rightfully stopped by Kain--she’s out of control, and her involvement isn’t going to help matters. Ruka’s solution works out well for Yuuki, but it read more to me like an adult stepping in to keep the peace rather than a genuine compromise. Still, Yuuki trying to be proactive is better than Yuuki sitting on her thumbs, so baby steps I suppose. The most damning news, and likely the real reason why Yuuki wants to get involved, is because Zero didn’t tell her this was going on and concealed it from her. She’s upset that he’s not involving her in the case, but also knows she has no right to get her nose out of joint because it’s his job. Sneaking in and sniffing around gives her an excuse to keep an eye on him. Trying to protect children is most likely a cover up for her real reasons for going. Yuuki always tries to look good in front of others to hide her real motives; typical pureblood activity.

This scene with Ruka and Kain isn’t just to establish Yuuki’s reasons for trespassing into Zero’s territory; it’s also meant to serve as a mirror, with Ruka and Kain’s relationship reflecting Zero and Yuuki’s. Remember, Ruka and Kain are a settling relationship, the one Zero and Yuuki should be if Yuuki genuinely loved Kaname and is just moving on with Zero as her second best option. If Ruka and Kain, who are a settlement pairing, are shown in a more positive light than Yuuki and Zero, it should serve as a red flag to a careful reader.

And that’s exactly what Hino does with this section--Ruka, the woman who settled for Kain, is shown behaving like a proper wife to him. She gets upset when he dismisses the importance of their time together as a married couple, she encourages him to do his best at his work, she expresses her explicit faith in and admiration for his abilities, and then she sends him off to do his duty while going about her day, having absolute confidence that he’ll return to her in the end. This woman, a woman who held favor for Kaname for nearly as long as Yuuki, is capable of being such a wife to a man she settled for, a man she clearly cares deeply about but who wasn’t her first choice. If Yuuki’s issues with Zero are simply her failure to move on from Kaname, she should be more like Ruka, not less.

Instead, Hino casts Yuuki unfavorably in contrast to Ruka. Unlike Ruka, Yuuki has no faith in Zero as a partner. Though she does admire him behind closed doors, she never openly speaks of her pride in him when he’s present, as Ruka does to Kain. She doesn’t appreciate his hard work or his efforts, she doesn’t nag him for time together, she doesn’t support his endeavors. Instead she frets over his safety and looks down on him because he’s not immortal like she is. She doesn’t trust that he’ll return to her, as she admits to Mimi later on in the chapter. Where did all this fear and distrust come from? It certainly didn’t come from the original series, at least not before she herself destroyed their bond in Night 88--she held a deep trust for Zero before then and didn’t fear for him during the Sara arc. In fact, she even said as much openly to him back then--she “wasn’t worried about him” even as she sent him to drink Sara’s blood. That same girl now has no faith in this man at all, despite all he’s done in the meantime. Something has gone terribly wrong, and from her conversations with both Kain and Mimi, she knows it too, even if she’s unwilling to face why.

Yuuki has her first semi-breakdown around Kain in this chapter, but she’ll break down around Mimi as well. She admits that she’s all scrambled, because she knows she should be more like Ruka but can’t quite get herself to that point. Instead of taking the time to sort herself out, she focuses on irrelevant things that won’t solve the real problems--such as interfering with Zero’s investigation. She basically says that rather than deal with the snakes in the garden, she’d rather go out and hunt the wolves howling outside the walls. This section reveals her real intentions for going out on this case--she’s not interested in protecting the children, but in preventing Zero from being involved. This mindset, as her own narration implies, will come back to bite her in the future. From some point in the future, she admits that during this period all she could do was eliminate the immediate fires, rather than preemptively planning for them.

What’s interesting about the way Hino frames this discussion with Kain (if it can even be called a discussion; it’s more like Yuuki talking to herself in front of Kain), is that Kain is clearly uncomfortable with Yuuki suddenly blabbing to him about her inner worries. This tells the reader a few things:

Yuuki and Kain are not normally close enough for these kinds of conversations to be normal.

Yuuki’s starting to crack under some kind of internal pressure to the point where she’s talking to people she normally doesn’t talk to.

Notice she doesn’t talk to Ruka about her worries, despite the fact that Ruka is a far better option for this sort of discussion than Kain. In the past, she did the same thing to Yori--when Yori tried to ask her about herself, she’d clam up (as she does in VKM 13.5) or deflect. Yuuki hasn’t talked about herself openly in decades, and so for her to start blathering her true thoughts now, well, that can only imply something...unusual...has triggered this sudden need to talk to everyone who’s not involved with Zero.

She does another thing that’s rather interesting during this whole scene with Ruka and Kain--she brings Zero up when no one else brought him up. Kain never once mentions Zero, only the hunters in general. Yuuki brings him up twice on her own when no one asked her to. This also implies that whatever it is that’s spurring her into action, it’s related to him and nothing else. Coming on the heels of VKM 13, I smell a rat that’ll need to be buried in future chapters.

This all would be more than enough to chew on if the chapter ended there, but there’s still more to unpack once Yuuki gets herself into the sewers. She’s joined by Mimi, the culprit of the attack on Yori in VKM 6, who has “reformed” (so she says) thanks to Yuuki’s intervention. Mimi’s a charming girl, and she brings some of Yuuki’s flaws and failures as a person into stark relief for anyone with a knowledge of the original series.

The first thing we find out about Mimi is that Yuuki’s helped her get her life back together after her crimes, and Mimi’s grateful to her. Yuuki flat out tells Mimi that the only reason she helped Mimi was to keep her from returning to her criminal ways. When Mimi acts like she probably hasn’t, Yuuki asks her if she’s really gotten her act together.

While this is a cute scene on the surface, and if this was any other character (Zero, Aidou, Yori, or Ai, for example) who helped Mimi, it would be just a funny character-building scene for Mimi; unfortunately Yuuki’s past history with a certain other criminal highlights another aspect of her hypocrisy this chapter: she judges Mimi for her unlawful actions, but she refuses to hold Kaname accountable for his--instead she blames herself, rather than Kaname, for his crimes in order to excuse him and absolve him of them. For her to judge Mimi, whose crimes are much lower on the scale of criminality than the man who fathered her first child, is a pretty classless and hypocritical move as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure Hino just meant this scene to be a cute example of Yuuki helping people, but it was a fairly tasteless choice in my opinion. As I said earlier in the Kain section, I can only hope Hino knows how tasteless this is going to come across and accounts for it with a reckoning later.

While Mimi herself is adorable, Yuuki is fairly gruff and curt with her in the first part of their scene together; it’s clear she doesn’t like Mimi and finds her to be useless at best, irritating at worst. Mimi’s worth as a character won’t appear until later, but we can already start seeing the role she’s going to play for Yuuki in the upcoming chapters: she’s taking Aidou’s place, since Aidou is now a serious character who can’t play the fool for Yuuki, while Zero is gone from Yuuki’s side. Mimi is here to point out the things Yuuki won’t say, and to hint at resolutions to the things Yuuki is running from, just as Aidou was before her during the second arc of the original series.

When Yuuki realizes Zero is one of the three people she’s sensing in the tunnels, she aborts her mission rapidly--her hope to capture the culprits before Zero gets involved is immediately quashed. She tries to backpedal before Zero notices her, but of course no one escapes the greatest hunter who ever lived, and certainly not two girls as blockheaded as Yuuki and Mimi. But the mere fact that Yuuki tries to avoid Zero highlights a few issues right away:

Yuuki doesn’t want Zero to know she’s there.

Yuuki didn’t tell Zero she’d be there.

Yuuki knows she shouldn’t be there.

Interestingly, earlier on in the scene with Mimi, Mimi mentioned that running into the association members is what she really doesn’t want to do, likely because they’re the most dangerous for vampires. Yuuki carefully ignores her comment, but we see here that Yuuki had the same intention, if for very different reasons.

Hino uses screentones to show Zero’s none-too-happy about the appearance of his pseudo-girlfriend in the tunnels. He and Yuuki look like they’re about to get into it, but then Mimi distracts Yuuki by insulting Zero, which pisses Yuuki off. Any ensuing argument is cut short by the sudden appearance of Maria, who Yuuki clearly hasn’t seen in a while. The two teams chat for a bit, and Yuuki grows increasingly tense the longer the discussion goes on.

As I mentioned earlier in the Maria section, Maria is another foil for Yuuki, much as Ruka is, in this chapter. Beyond being a general foil, she highlights some of Yuuki’s deep insecurities specifically about Zero. Yuuki’s jealousy in this chapter, while funny on the surface, actually serves to highlight some of the true sources of her real fears about Zero, the ones she conceals behind fear for his safety, which is a more appropriate fear than her real ones. The first moment that worries Yuuki is when Zero openly admires Maria for doing something brave that is out of character for her. Zero then tells Yuuki about information he learned from Maria, implying that he and Maria have a “world” together that Yuuki’s not a part of (of course, this only because Zero just ran into Maria, so this is just Yuuki’s perception, and Zero’s being very upfront and honest).

Yuuki watches (as does Mimi) this little world Zero and Maria are creating between them and becomes increasingly anxious with each moment. Mimi serves to highlight this for the reader, because Yuuki’s unwilling to let her true feelings be known other than some leaky facial expressions. Zero makes a comment showing he resents Yuuki hesitating about whether or not he’s cheating (the guy has waited patiently at least 70 years for this girl to have a real relationship with him; he’s no cheater and she shouldn’t be fretting over that--it’s insulting to him), and Maria quickly steps in to try to resolve the issue. Of course, the manner in which she does it just digs the hole further--she elicits a gentle response from Zero that continues to create a “world” around them that Yuuki isn’t a part of.

Maria’s interactions with Zero establish a few things for Yuuki:

Zero honestly compliments Maria, yet he doesn’t compliment Yuuki or appreciate her efforts.

Zero respects Maria, yet he doesn’t seem to respect Yuuki.

Zero openly shows affection for Maria, but not Yuuki.

Maria is open and honest with her feelings for Ichiru and Zero, while Yuuki remains closed.

Zero relies on Maria, but not on Yuuki.

Yuuki is diminished standing next to Maria; her efforts to be helpful all pale in comparison to Maria’s. Zero’s admiration and affection and attention are all directed toward Maria; Yuuki is an irritation and an afterthought to him (from Yuuki’s perspective, though of course that’s likely not true in reality). Zero is warm and affectionate and openly speaks about his beloved brother with Maria. The reality of all of this makes Yuuki surly, and she brushes Zero off with a curt goodbye rather than wishing him well as Ruka wished Kain earlier. Even now, Yuuki’s still failing to fully take her place at Zero’s side.

Maria stands as a symbol of what Yuuki should be: a woman who openly speaks of her affection for the ones she loves and who acts to protect not only the ones she loves but all the things she holds dear. Yet Yuuki’s failing to do any of this, and this is why Maria receives the reward Yuuki wants--Zero’s affection, respect, and admiration. But Yuuki hasn’t done anything to earn those things from Zero, and we’ll see this continues to be true even to the very end of the chapter.

Before I leave this section, I just wanted to mention one thing I found incredibly irritating about Yuuki’s reaction in this section. Yuuki’s spent 70 years moping over a guy who is “dead” in name only by Zero’s and Yuuki’s own choice in VKM 8; Zero’s spent the same amount of time silently holding his own losses in his heart without complaint. The reason Zero is affectionate and kind to Maria in this chapter is because of her connection to his own loved one, and he actually has a chance to talk about his loved one with another person who loved him, unlike Yuuki. Yuuki can’t even handle this much; she’s too busy focusing on herself to see how good this is for Zero, how healing it is for him, and how much he’s needed this. Yet, she gets to mope about Kaname and talk about Kaname to her daughter and all Kaname’s friends and Zero, but can’t even afford a single tiny conversation about Zero’s brother to Zero because *egads* Maria has feelings for Zero and Zero might find a girl who lets him talk about his interests more attractive than a girl who whines to him about his mortal enemy in nearly every conversation for the past however many decades. It’s absolutely preposterous and honestly I hope Yuuki pulls her head out of her rear sooner rather than later because I’m getting hellaciously tired of her narcissistic naval gazing.

That aside, we come to the most revealing part of the chapter--after this new stress on her psyche, Yuuki breaks down to talk to yet another person she’s not close to, because apparently that’s how Yuuki works through things. She admits to Mimi that she knows her fears for Zero’s safety are potentially overblown, but that she can’t seem to have faith that he’ll return to her. Mimi, being a bit dumb but a good girl at heart, thinks the solution is as simple as Yuuki just letting go and having faith, rather than focusing on her anxiety. But obviously Yuuki’s anxieties aren’t about Zero dying--oh, no, they’re about him leaving. Yuuki clearly is aware she’s not the best girlfriend and that there are other women who are superior to her, and that if she doesn’t take action soon, after VKM 13, Zero might actually start to consider at other opportunities that are definitely out there. Maria clearly still is an option, Yuuki’s own daughter is an option, and we know from VKM 5 that Zero has had other opportunities. This is the first positive sign that Zero’s outburst in VKM 13 has made Yuuki realize not all is well with him, and that the status quo is no longer good enough to lead him on into the future. Her “restart” plan is starting to fail, and she has to figure out why. This is the real reason she’s talking to random people like Kain and Mimi, rather than her friends or Zero--she doesn’t want anyone to know how bad things have gotten, or how close she senses Zero is of realizing he doesn’t need her or her Kaname baggage anymore.

She clinches this with a thought that Zero smiled for Maria. That means Zero hasn’t smiled for her in a loooooong time if she is struck by his basic polite smile to Maria. He probably hasn’t smiled since Ai grew up, as we see in VKM 10 that Yuuki loves his smile for Ai and thinks that things are well because of it. But Yuuki doesn’t make him smile, and rightly so--she’s honestly a terrible girlfriend, and worse--a terrible friend. She can’t even do friendship properly with Zero anymore, much less the relationship and intimacy he clearly needs. For her to get envious over Zero smiling politely and even a bit fondly at another girl, she has to have robbed him of his smile for so long that even that sad sorry state of a smile seems brilliant to her. It’s pathetic, but perhaps it’s the wake up call she needs to get her act together.

Sadly, we don’t get any more reflection from her because of course Mimi just has to step on a landmine, and Yuuki follows suit. This yet again highlights the fact that Yuuki can’t seem to do a single thing right and always needs Zero to save her--far from saving him, he’s the one saving her. Mimi wonders if Yuuki will save her, to which Yuuki replies in the affirmative. But in Yuuki’s mind, her first instinct is to panic--rather than immediately dealing with the threat and expelling Mimi herself, she stands frozen, trapped in thought, until she senses Zero coming for her.

Despite my complaints about Yuuki in this chapter, this section is my favorite. Her fear and her love for Zero are actually palpable in this scene, more than we’ve seen since Night 88. She actually seems to care about Zero’s wellbeing here, which is more than could be said about her in previous chapters. Unfortunately, her care for his wellbeing has a darker underbelly--she stands around wasting time yelling at him rather than being useful and dealing with the threat before he gets there.

Mimi is clearly in danger (the bombs could actually kill her, unlike Yuuki), and rather than immediately getting Mimi out of the blast zone (the way Yuuki will do as soon as Zero arrives), she stands around shouting at Zero like a spoiled child. Their bombs could go off at any minute if Mimi or Yuuki moves at all, yet Yuuki’s wasting time yelling at someone who isn’t even at her side yet or in danger. Clearly it doesn’t matter to her if Mimi’s head gets blown off, so long as she “proves” that she can protect Zero. It’s foolish and stupid, and it just goes to show how much growing Yuuki needs to do and how useless she is unless she has Zero as a crutch.

When Zero reaches her side, instead of thanking him for coming (because, as always, his presence calms her mind and helps her focus), she goes all tsuntsun on him and snaps that she was going to deal with it herself. But she clearly wasn’t dealing with it--she was panicking and frozen and wasting time yelling at him and spinning her useless brains instead of focusing and doing something. She comes across not as a capable woman who is a good partner to Zero but rather as a petulant child who was testing Zero to see if he’d come running for her despite her protests. And as she surely knew, he came running to her side to save her, abandoning Maria in the process despite Yuuki playing the “bigger person” and telling him to stay by Maria’s side. If she were truly the capable woman she wants to pretend she is, she’d have already begun dealing with the bomb before he arrived to support her--that would have earned his admiration and praise. Instead, she’s uselessly standing around until he’s at her side, and then suddenly her brains work. Magical.

I do want to stress that it’s not at all that I truly believe Yuuki isn’t capable of courage, bravery, and being a useful member of the team. It’s the very fact that I know full well she’s capable of great courage and bravery (the Rido arc, the Sara arc) that makes her behavior this chapter so grating on my thinning patience. That’s the very reason why her behavior is so frustrating here--as soon as Zero is at her side, she instantaneously transforms into the capable woman she’s always been. She gets Mimi out of danger and starts dealing with containing the blast. If she’d just do this and trust Zero to support her and back her up, she’d find she likes herself a lot more, I think. That’s how they’ve always worked together, and for her to forget that after all these years shows how far she’s fallen.

There’s a weird moment when they’re bickering with each other where he touches her arm and her eyes go wide with shock. This to me says they’re really on the rocks if she’s shocked that he’s touching her. Their bickering itself only reveals surface-level issues which by now I think is clear aren’t their real issues. Yuuki does reveal she resents Zero not telling her about the investigation, so likely she’s upset that he’s not wanting her as a partner in crime anymore. But given how reckless and unreliable she is, and how for a long time she made them do things separately due to their bench agreement, it’s hard to blame him for not being a mind reader and knowing she wanted back in on the action. Really she’s just being unreasonable, and she knows it.

Of course, Zero then disappears before they can work through anything. Whether he’s been kidnapped or he disappeared of his own volition remains to be seen, but whatever is about to happen is surely to test Yuuki at last. It’s time for her to face being alone without a man to use as a crutch--no Kaname, no Zero, no Aidou. She might even grow from the experience. Wouldn’t that be something extraordinary?

The thing that bothers me a bit about how Hino’s handling Yuuki this chapter is that this sudden “action heroine Yuuki” is too little, too late. Yuuki’s failed as an action heroine since the second arc of the original series began. This girl spends more time sitting on her rear than she does helping anyone in this story or doing anything useful. Most of her “activities” are pointless and result in no lasting consequences. It’s honestly laughable that Hino wants to try to go back to the Yuuki who stood against Kaname and Rido at the end of the first arc of the original series, but we’ll see. Maybe she’ll surprise me. I doubt it though.

The Solitary Sun

The flip side of Yuuki this chapter is Zero. While Yuuki’s thoughts are laid bare for us to see, Zero’s are, as I predicted, hidden. No surprise there, because Hino probably doesn’t want any Zeki fans to run away, and a peek in Zero’s head would probably send the remaining readers bolting for the hills. Better to stick with Yuuki for now.

However, we have enough clues to theorize where Zero’s headspace potentially is this chapter. We learn that he’s actively hiding intel from Yuuki, including information about the vigilante groups, which Maria (her rival) is a part of. While the likelihood of him cheating is low, this does demonstrate a lack of reciprocal trust in Yuuki’s maturity and judgment.

It’s likely that Zero’s concealing of intelligence from Yuuki is partially motivated by the outcome of VKM 13. There are a few hints that he’s still unhappy about the unresolved issues from VKM 13--he becomes angry with Yuuki the minute he sees her in the tunnels (inappropriately so; despite Hino trying to play it off as a comedic moment, there’s really no reason for him to be that angry at an immortal woman taking part in vigilante activity), and he’s the first one to bring up Yuuki’s VKM 13 request that he not die during their bickering fest as they disarm the bomb.

Given that Yuuki wanted to avoid him this chapter and he’s displeased to see her, this implies he’s at the very least been stewing on VKM 13 for an indeterminate amount of time, even if he hasn’t yet taken any action or made any decision about them as a couple yet as a result of it. It does appear that publicly he’s still holding his position in their relationship--he’s openly bothered by her pause before she rejects the idea of him cheating, and he openly calls her the woman he loves during the bomb disarming. However, these also may be signs that internally he’s starting to wonder about their relationship and is over-emphasizing it in order to keep legitimizing it. His doubts may be crumbling the foundation of the relationship beneath his feet faster than he can rebuild. Not once in all of VKM has Zero called Yuuki the woman he loves. For him to be saying this now, on the heels of VKM 13, strikes me as a red flag, and not of the “Zero’s about to be kidnapped” foreshadowing flavor. If Zero’s pulling out all the stops and openly declaring his feelings before he’s happy with Yuuki, we’re at the end of the line. This strikes me as the last desperate push to make things right before they all fall apart and he has to at last admit the experiment was a failure. But we’ll see. The kidnapping might give him a reprieve.

I don’t have any evidence for this, but his behavior with Maria vs. Yuki this chapter brought up some questions for me. He openly admires Maria’s courage, despite her actions being against her regular character. Yet when Yuuki does the same thing, he doesn’t admire her actions or her attempts at bravery--he doesn’t encourage her, as he does Maria. I’m not sure if he’s doing this deliberately or if he’s just tired of Yuuki in general and thus can no longer be a supportive figure in her life. I think what he admires about Maria too is that she’s putting her life on the line in a genuine way, a way Yuuki can’t do because she’s a pureblood and thus doesn’t have to fear those things anymore. That’s something Zero may deep down wish he still had--the ability to walk the same lifespan with Yuuki, and to take risks together with her, as opposed to being the only truly vulnerable one of the two of them.

I also was struck by how he handled the moment when Maria was explaining how she had to insist he abandon her. Zero’s obviously a kind person, but it was a surprisingly manipulative move on his part to express his concern in the manner he did in front of Yuuki. It reminded me a little of an insecure man slyly trying to make his girlfriend jealous more than a sincere question. The rest of his interactions with Maria felt platonic and sincere to me, but that particular moment struck me as odd.

Overall, in the initial scene with Maria, Zero doesn’t give Yuuki much warmth at all. Mimi even picks up on it, though she immediately assumes he’s cheating (in other words, she misreads the energy, but the energy does exist). He’s deliberately warm and supportive to Maria. This might be genuine, or it might be manipulative on his part, I’m honestly not sure yet. A Zero who is capable of what he did in VKM 13 is a different Zero than i’m used to, and so he may have some new snakes in his heart than before. Hence, he might be capable of new behaviors that he wasn’t capable of previously. If Zero is sincere in his admiration of Maria, it shows that he can tell the difference between her efforts and Yuuki’s. He knows exactly what Yuuki’s up to (spying on him and snooping), but Maria (as far as he’s aware, of course) seems to be genuinely working toward a higher cause, which Zero admires.

That also says something about the state of how Zero feels about Yuuki that is truly heartbreaking for me. Zero used to admire her straight-forward gaze and her inner courage and strength and kindness throughout all of the original series. For him to now be at a point where he’s not even acknowledging what she’s trying to accomplish, that leads me to only two conclusions: 1.) he doesn’t believe her sincerity due to his suspicions about her true motives, or 2.) he’s so angry with her he can’t appreciate her right now. It could also be a combination of the two, which is particularly unfortunate.

The other thing I feel is lurking under the surface in Zero’s interaction with Yuuki this chapter is a sense that he feels resentful of her inability to trust him. He wants her to have faith in him and his abilities, as she once did when they worked together in the original series. I think he resents (on multiple levels) her obsession with his death--she’s not appreciating his life and is myopically focusing on something that may or may not come to pass. This comes out in his deep frustration with her at the end of the chapter; he hates the idea of being her damsel in distress that she has to rescue simply because she happens to be the longer-lived of the two of them. He still has his pride as a man and wants to protect her with his own skill, even if she’s technically stronger than him.

Some of this comes back to what I feel his true issues are lurking deep beneath the surface, which I mentioned in my review of VKM 13. His real issues center on a deep insecurity about his place in her heart versus Kaname. Kaname, on the surface, is a far better partner for her--he’s immortal, like she is, he’s older than she is, he’s more mature than she is. Zero is all these things as well, but he’s not “immortal,” only long-lived. If Zero is beginning to fear that Kaname (and Kaname’s lifespan) is what’s really at the center of Yuuki’s “fears” about Zero’s lifespan, then his outburst at the end of VKM 14 may be due more to his own insecurities than any genuine fear about the trouble Yuuki might get herself into. Of course, he loves her, so he doesn’t want her to suffer, but if he had faith in her (as he wants her to have faith in him), he’d know she could get herself out of any scrape she got herself into. So this to me indicates he’s really worried about something else, and that her “arms getting blown off” is more of an excuse than the real reason.

I want to do a write up on this separately at some point, but for a long time now (since before the original series ended), I’ve had this sense that Zero is the real shoujo heroine of this story, and that the traditional “character roles” have been gender-reversed. This chapter added fuel to that suspicion, because normally the shoujo heroine is the one who gets kidnapped so the hero can come valiantly rescue her. However, I don’t think this particular kidnapping is going to play out that way--honestly I still believe this kidnapping is meant to isolate Zero so a deal can be struck with him; I don’t think Hino wants him to be seen as the damsel in distress. But with everyone targeting him in particular, and with the purebloods wanting him in the past, and with him being labeled as special far more than Yuuki ever was or has been, the chips are stacking in his favor that he’s the “real” shoujo heroine of this story, and thus many of the heroine character beats are going to him rather than to Yuuki. This makes for a difficult road for Yuuki as a heroine, because she’s not traversing the masculine beats very well--she’s just not capable enough. The Hooded Woman was a much better character for those sorts of beats, but Yuuki’s just too damaged, fragile, and flawed to play them out correctly. We’ll see how it unfolds, but for now I’ll keep mulling this over.

Ships Passing in the Night

I don’t want to talk too much about Zeki as a couple, simply because they’re in a very frustrating spot and I’ve already labored over them enough separately. However, I do want to point out a few things about their situation together this chapter that struck me.

First is that I think it’s fairly clear that underpinning the whole chapter is VKM 13, which indicates a lack of resolution on the part of that chapter. I think it’s safe to say that nothing was resolved between them, and that Zero’s words to Yuuki (that her fear was her own curse on herself, rather than anything legitimate) hit home to her, while Zero is confirmed to not be buying any of the snake oil she’s selling with her “fears” for his life. We can see this in how they both behave in the chapter:

Zero’s behavior:

Zero’s the easiest, because the best way to prove he didn’t buy what Yuuki was selling in VKM 13 is to look at his behavior. If he’d bought into her fears as legitimate, he’d be doing a couple things this chapter that we don’t see:

He’d have told her what was going on with the investigation.

He’d have asked for her help in securing the scene of the crime.

He’d be making sure she was emotionally okay with the idea of him doing his job.

He’d be kinder to her for sneaking around to check up on him.

He would be taking precautions to ease her worries.

Zero does none of this in VKM 14. Instead he:

Hides what he knows about the investigation from her.

Gets outright angry when he finds her in the tunnels.

Is not taking any precautions to protect himself, and is instead protecting other people.

Throws her “curse” and her “worry” in her face in the middle of their bomb disarmament.

Flat out rejects her worries by pointing out that he hates the idea of her getting her body parts blown off, implicitly admitting that he’d rather die than witness that.

This all points to Zero not buying what Yuuki was selling in VKM 13, which I think puts to rest the idea that his “behavior” in VKM 13 was in any way shape or form genuinely a response to her fears and a “taking on” of her fears--he was mocking her then and taking out his frustrations on her, not “empathizing” with her or giving her what she wanted. If he genuinely felt her fears were legitimate, he’d be taking them into consideration in this chapter. I feel the case is closed on that at this time; now all we have to wait for is to find out what he was really upset about in that chapter, because now we know he was upset about something unrelated to her preposterous anxieties.

Yuuki’s behavior:

Yuuki’s behavior this chapter implies the opposite of Zero’s, another point in favor of Zero’s accusation that her curse was her own and not legitimate during VKM 13. If she felt her behavior in VKM 13 was legitimate and that her fears were legitimate, we should see some different outcomes from her this chapter:

She would be angry at Zero for getting involved in another case despite her fears. She would be upset with him for not taking her feelings into consideration. (Ironically, this is why she comments to Kain that she should be “worried” like Ruka--the fact is, she isn’t worried for his safety; her fears have nothing to do with whether he’ll get blown up or hurt or killed--they’re about something she’s not willing to face.)

She would be hunting Zero down in the tunnels openly to yell at him and drag him off the case.

She would immediately deal with the bomb herself without shouting at Zero when she and Mimi step on it, because that would prevent him (and Mimi) from being in the blast zone if she handled it promptly.

Instead of this, what we get is the following:

Yuuki suddenly wants to improve her cooking skills! (That’s a bit of an odd reaction to fearing for your man’s life.)

Yuuki has a sudden “need” to be part of the investigation just because she overhears what the target is, when she wasn’t interested before other than in passing.

Yuuki suddenly starts talking to random people about her issues, as if she realized she needs to work through them and get to the bottom of them. (She even flat out admits she’s a mess and can’t work through that mess easily.) This alone confirms she knows she’s full of horse manure and that Zero was right when he called her out in VKM 13.

She immediately has anxieties about Zero and Maria, despite all she and Zero have been through since the original series. Her anxieties aren’t even about Maria--they’re about Zero!

She envies Zero smiling at Maria! If her true issue was his safety, who he smiles at shouldn’t bug her in the slightest because she has a good relationship with him and is being genuine and sincere with him.

She admits to Mimi that she doesn’t even have faith he’ll come back to her. This is not about him dying--this is about him leaving her.

We see from Yuuki’s actions this chapter the first true hints (which her actions in VKM 12 support) that she’s afraid Zero is finally fed up and is thinking of leaving. That all she’s done to string him along and “keep” him is no longer enough--her blood’s not enough, sleeping in bed holding hands isn’t enough, being “platonic friends” isn’t enough. He has finally hit the end of the road with her “I won’t let you go but I won’t do anything with you” declaration in VKM 9.

What she’s afraid of isn’t Maria per se--Zero isn’t going to leave her for Maria. But what about some other girl she doesn’t know about? There are thousands of women for Zero to choose from--thousands who, like Maria, would openly appreciate him and react warmly to his advances rather than shutting him out and clinging on to the memory of a man who hurt him deeply. Yuuki’s real fear isn’t that he’ll die--it’s that he’ll live, but not with her.

Yet for her to keep Zero, she has to “clean up the mess,” which she herself admits is “hard.” So instead of doing the real work of dealing with her own issues, she goes off to play investigator and spy on Zero and play “hero” when she has no right to. Basically, this kidnapping is quite good for her, in my estimation, because it means she’ll have to start facing those things she doesn’t want to face--the real reasons Zero is unhappy with her and their relationship isn’t progressing. What’ll come of that is anyone’s guess at this point.

Zero and Yuuki’s mutual issues from VKM 13 bleed into their teamwork this chapter--although they still work together well, it’s not seamless like in their younger days. Yuuki trying to test Zero doesn’t help much, either--your partner isn’t going to respect you if you’re testing their loyalty when you yourself have been disloyal for 70 years. Seriously, why is Yuuki always one step forward, fifty back, I have no idea. It’s very frustrating for a reader, and I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for Zero to have to live with that.

Ultimately, I’m pleased as punch they’ll be separated for a while. But more on where we’re going from here next.

Past Reflections Echoing into the Future

If VKM 13 was VKM’s version of Nights 61-64, VKM 14 picks up as the inverse of the Kuran Manor mini-arc’s Nights 65-67. I suspect the parallels will continue into the future, which is why I expect Zero to “return” of his own “free” will after he’s been blackmailed by the Vampire King group’s mastermind to act “against” Yuuki (and thus parallel the Rogue Kaname mini-arc from the original series).

Because Zero was kidnapped, unlike Kaname in Night 67, this gives a different general atmosphere to this parallel to the original series, but ultimately the point is to separate Yuuki from the crutch she’s leaning on (Zero now, Kaname back then) and send her on a journey of self discovery, which hopefully this time will actually lead to growth rather than regression as it did in the original series in Volume 19.

I see us being set up for a new arc where Zero’s return gives Yuuki initial relief, but because he’s being blackmailed he has to protect her by pretending to break things off with her. In this process, he will likely say quite a few “true” things that actually do reflect his true feelings--the best way to fool your enemies is to fool your loved ones, and the truth is the best way to accomplish that. So while Zero is saying these things to keep her safe and in the dark about what he’s about to do for the Vampire King (and in order to keep other innocents safe, because Zero’s lovely and altruistic like that), Yuuki will “believe” what he’s saying, because he’ll be speaking the truth from his heart at last.

I suspect we’ll finally see that he has been afraid that she truly loves Kaname, despite what her blood tells him. We may see that he’s been contemplating bringing Kaname back for her again once the cure is in place. We may see that he’s open to the idea of disappearing from her life, because he feels he’s brought her nothing but misery. We may see that he feels Kaname was wrong in Night 93--that he doesn’t believe he and Yuuki were meant to be at all. All these fears and more are what could potentially be revealed on Zero’s side via this arc, and I would feel so relieved to see him finally speak these oppressive thoughts he’s clearly been suffering under for so long.

Even if none of this comes to pass and Hino has other less interesting reasons for these events, Zero’s kidnapping is the best thing that’s happened to this story since Night 87. Even though I didn’t get Zero walking out on Yuuki (which I would have preferred), the kidnapping still forces them to separate and (hopefully) will force Yuuki to begin to examine what’s wrong in herself and her relationship and why it’s gotten to this point in the first place.

This will work especially well if Zero does come back and is forced to act cold to her in order to protect innocents due to blackmailing from the Vampire King group’s mastermind. This would force Yuuki to have to examine how much she trusts Zero, how much of his words are true, and what all of it means for her. It’s a far greater test than what Ruka put her through when she gave her the illusion of Zero shooting her--because everything Zero will say to her here will be truth--perhaps incomplete truth, but still truth that she needs to acknowledge and deal with at last.

As for what else is coming our way, perhaps we might finally start seeing some movement on the cure. I’m quite looking forward to how that plotline mixes with this one, if indeed that’s what Hino intends for these two plotlines.

All in all, I think we’re still on track for things to unfold happily for our two star-crossed lovers, as long as Hino stops setting us back with detours. It’s time for Yuuki to get her act together and decide which man she wants in her life and what she actually wants for herself. It’s time for her to decide she prefers happiness to misery, whether or not she deserves it, and that Zero deserves happiness from her if she wants to stay with him or freedom from her if she wants to be true to Kaname. And since we know that he dies in her arms, I’d say chances are higher for the former happening than the latter.

And that, as they say, is that. Until next time!

#vampire knight #vampire knight memories #vkm spec #vkm speculation #zeki criticism #anti ky #vkm chapter review

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