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ginkgomoon · 4 years ago

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Helios- A Character Study

I have always been fascinated by Helios so I’m especially excited about this post! If there’s any other additional information you would like to add, ask, or discuss, feel free to send an ask or a post so I can adjust and clarify for you. But before that, I have other things I want to add that are important regarding my blog- I will be expanding and analysing other characters in MLQC, so not to worry Victor, Kiro and Lucien (and Shaw, Eli?, Savin?) stans! I has't not hath left thee! In addition, before every analysis/study that I do, I will post a hint (such a quote) that will foreshadow the upcoming character/topic I will be covering. I know it’s not necessary and literally nobody does it but this is great fun for me so I also want to try to make it fun for you guys to approach my blog and my work! This is a spoiler buffet. Please don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled! This is probably the longest post ever on my blog so enjoy :)

“You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.” -The Dark Knight

Who is Helios?

??: Do you know what Helios means? The mocking in his face had returned. He suddenly came close and placed his hand on the window behind me. I was imprisoned in his arms and couldn’t move. His eyes drilled into my own. I felt that if I showed even the smallest hint of discomfort or fear, he would use that as an excuse to push me away. MC: Helios is the sun god from Greek mythology- ??: I don’t like that name.

Helios is the God of the Sun, sight and a guardian of oaths. He is seen to be riding a golden chariot to bring the sun across the skies each day from east (where the sun rises) to west (where the sun sets).

Kiro has lots and lots and lots of sun, light, dark and shadow imagery attached to him. Kiro is noted to be everyone’s sun, especially for MC and vice versa as she’s noted to be the one to chase the darkness away with Kiro following through. When he has those stage moments as his idol identity, it’s expected for him to be the guiding light (especially for his fans, the Kirophiles)- “the sun” and “hope” as to what “Kiro” represents, without any impurities associated with that persona. Which is ironic for Helios, who dressed mostly in black without the blonde hair, to have that same name as the God of the Sun working in BLACK SWAN- the organisation with the name literally having “black” in it as well.

“If Kiro is this exuberance and this life, Helios is the opposite of that. It’s what if we took someone who stopped finding reasons to be happy, who stopped finding a lot of things to be passionate about and was just trying to get on day by day- they react to the things that happen to them, rather than going out to look for adventure. Helios lacks a lot of emotion that Kiro has.” -Sean Chiplock, Kiro’s VA

Kiro and Helios

“If I had a dark side… I should hide it from others, right…? Can I really be imperfect?”

There had been a lot of discussion around Helios in relation to his transformation, whether he was acting and what Kiro’s connection with BLACK SWAN is.

To clarify, yes- Kiro is Helios. Helios is Kiro. Just like how Kiro admitted to MC that he’s also the hacker KEY. Helios is just one of the personas that Kiro has (which I will expand on in a future post). This, however, does not hinder negatively on Kiro’s personality, but introduces us to another side of him, one that shows effective in-depth characterisation. Especially when we first view him as the cheerful idol with the power to passively attract others. Kiro first gave off the certain impression to Sean Chiplock that you “don’t take off the calm and quiet person, because you don’t want to see the other side of them”.

Kiro and Helios, which one was the real him? Neither? Or both? -Clinic Date

Before MC has her first encounter with Helios, we have to look more into Kiro’s background and childhood.

Kiro was experimented on as a kid. He didn’t know his name, his birthday or where he came from. Through the experiments of genetic modification, he obtained his evol. Only when MC and the original KEY came to him, did he really strive to fulfil his sense of purpose of “we shall stand in darkness as we defend the light”, and also to protect MC back. His mentor used to be the original Helios, one of the twelve-ranking positions in BLACK SWAN, but went missing when Kiro was 15. Been given the name Kiro, using his idol identity, accepted this as Helios and as of the leader of BLACK SWAN to rid Leto- the true evil of the Season 1 timeline.

It is evident that he does genuinely care about his fans, his career and music despite all of this. This aspect of him is very much true (we see that he exposes a person scamming his fans in Chapter 3 and that in his various dates he dedicates his work to comforting his fans in their everyday lives). However, with this much love and support from everyone with very few knowing his true intentions and darker past, it is easy to “trip up” upon these identities, in a way that he would feel so lonely (as I reiterate what I said above) that everyone would think he’s the perfect man (not saying he isn’t because we all know he is!) without any troubles or experiencing difficulties climbing up the ranks to be where he is now- especially with his evol being charm and control. He would wonder if it’s really him or his evol making people act this way towards him (why he has this much love and attention).

In reality, every teacher who has met him adored him very much. But because of this, Kiro always remained in fear. From the beginning to the end, he had felt that the love and care from others was akin to smoke - surging at first, but from thereafter, dissipates gradually. -CN Stunning Young Idol Rumours and Secrets

He’s like a little sun with no dark spots at all. No wonder people say people say he has a super power. He seems to be loved by everybody… -Chapter 3-1

“A lot of people adore me, but only when I’m doing my thing on stage. They wouldn’t want to see me now...” -Visiting Hours Date

It would be incredibly hard for him to keep this standard and uphold these burdens with his identity as Helios and KEY as well- where everyone would believe those personas of him to be the “vice”- the “evil”, in morality play. Because when the people who love you only know and love this side of you, what becomes of you when you lose it all?

Superstar Kiro was a little angel who received the admiration and respect of thousands and thousands of fans. What the hacker KEY sounded like was someone with malicious intentions.

Kiro didn’t know which one of his identities was more famous. Though of course, nobody would correlate these two polar-opposite identities together. -CN Heavens Home for Children Rumours and Secrets

He always looked so carefree in front of people, smiling and laughing. But when he was alone in the corner, he always looked so solemn and tired. Countless times, Savin had wanted to talk to Kiro about his work, life and feelings but with just a few words, Kiro would always put him to ease. -That Boy Makes Me Worry Rumours and Secrets

However, behind his brilliant smile, I could occasionally feel something different. It was like paper that couldn't be penetrated. After all, he was a superstar. Ordinary people like us wouldn't understand their world, they must have one or two faces of their own behind the screen. -Secret Base Rumours and Secrets

In the makeup room, sitting on the sofa, Kiro had lost some shine he had under the spotlight and looked a little bit exhausted. -Confession Date

In a way, Kiro still staying so pure and happy when others are around is because he doesn’t want people to suffer like he did. He had an extremely rough time when he was young, but his beliefs, light and hope that MC gave him allowed him to fight for better days.

I then thought about the superstar Kiro many years later, who was always shining and effortlessly charming. This made me really sentimental. How many things must he have been through to become strong enough to bring light to other people? -Echoes of Time: Parisian Salon

She looked so pretty when she smiled, and she also had a father who loved her dearly. She was definitely… someone who deserved to live the most. -CN Top Experimental Subject Rumours and Secrets

His dazzling smile conceals something underneath, just like how the dazzling sun shrouds darkness underneath. Hidden in the depths of his own secrets are things even darkness doesn’t know of. If darkness had a mind of its own, it might think it doesn’t fit with this pure and simple youth. Just as how everyone thinks of him as a simple, innocent Kiro, the sunlight casted on him, able to pierce through him completely, with rays of light refracting onto the floor. Actually, since a very long time ago, he no longer was a youth… But now, for her sake, he’s willing to become a youth again. -CN Youthhood Rumours and Secrets

The thing I like most about you is that you never admit defeat and you always stay positive. Every time I see you it's like you’re this brilliant sun and I feel charged of energy. Maybe all the lonely times I’ve been through... was so that I could meet you. -Confession Date

When they were younger, they were together as test subjects for evol. MC promised him donuts. He gave her a stuffed teddy bear. Kiro tried to help MC escape but they got caught and separated. They had spent quite some time together, so Kiro would be able to recognise MC once they had met again. Kiro had to replace another child for a top experiment, and the workers thought he’d die anyway as he was too weak. But still, he had survived and became the first and only successful subject. MC showed him that there was kindness- light- that still existed in the darkest of places. And in the darkest parts of his heart, there was MC to light those areas up for him :)

“Look, this world is so beautiful, and you don’t need to be afraid anymore.” But till now, he has yet to find her. But he remembers her eyes. And one day, he will find her within a vast sea of people.

Kiro remains speechless- quietly listening to the little girl speak. The little girl struggles to pull on his hand. Their fingers interlock together, the warmth from her palm gradually coursing into Kiro’s heart. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.” Kiro turns to look at her - to look at her perseverant brown eyes, looking at how the corners of her lips turn upwards. Kiro slowly learns how to curl the corners of his own lips from her. It’s the first smile to have appeared on his face. “This time, I’ll be the one protecting you.” Kiro says excitedly. He stands outside the airport, staring directly at the sun. “I’ll find you, and protect you. I even have a mountain of souvenirs stored in my luggage- I’ll give them to you! And my purest heart - I’ll give it to you too!” -CN Youthhood Rumours and Secrets

Helio’s Transformation

“Because only you can awaken me from darkness, no matter when.”

When Kiro transforms to Helios, it mainly affects his physical appearance. His hair grows longer and changes to colour, and his black (and super cool) NIRVANA tattoo appears. When he is weak, the tattoo fades (seen in Clinic Date.)

Nirvana- a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

I looked at his silver hair. It looked very natural with no signs of hair dye. In the serene moonlight, it was very beautiful. It wasn’t dyed, and it didn’t look like it turned silver because of an illness or something. -Chapter 17

Helios’s ring also plays part of his transformation. This is ultimately connected to BLACK CABIN and the 1908′s White House Explosion- when evol was born. From this high-dimensional space, Kiro is able to take on as Helios- who also known to be BS’s first generation of god. He can change upon his will, and influences from BLACK CABIN/QUEEN can cause him to lose control.

The golden hair mixed with the bright silver. He raised his finger, and the silver ring flashed. He muttered quietly, as if speaking to the ring and to himself. -Behind The Curtain Part 6: After Returning

Moonlight shone through the window, illuminating his silver hair with a golden glow for an instant. He buried his face in his right elbow, and large beads of sweat formed on his brow, as if a kind of uncanny transformation was occurring. “NOT NOW!!!” He howled hoarsely, his eyes now golden in the darkness. Residual power inside the Quarantine zone appeared to be affecting him. Violent forces jolted in the tiny space, and coursed through his obsidian ring. -Night Watchman Rumours and Secrets

Chapter 14

He turned and looked at me, his face a pallid white. His smile was still gentle. Suddenly, I felt intensely uneasy.

MC: “We’re going in, right?”

Kiro didn’t answer, his eyes intent on me gleamed with a flash of golden light above. When I looked carefully, I discovered his eyes turned into this exquisite gold like pure amber, or crystallised time.

Kiro: “I command you…”

I have never heard him sound like this before. Stiff, stern and solemn.

“All within my range of control belongs to me. Now walk onto the rooftop, lock the door, and don’t let anyone in… including me... Don’t be afraid. You’ll be okay. I said before, I will definitely succeed this time. I will always protect you.”

In saying this, he believes that his own sacrifices are necessary, no matter what the situation is. Kiro is willing to dim or even smother his own light and sun for MC to be safe and happy.

A black figure suspended in the air behind Kiro, just like scythe-toting Death himself… I seemed to see a golden-winged bird fly by, like a ray of light crossing the sky, leaving a temporary light trail in my vision.

“Death”, “golden-winged bird”, and “light”.

This sentence was highlighted in the chapters’ outline from the chapter contents. This implies the symbolism of the phoenix bird- the mythical bird that rises from the ashes and is reborn again. Kiro was captured by BLACK SWAN as punishment and had undergone modification- and was resurrected as Helios.

Chapter 17

He was standing in front of me. Half of his face was hidden in the shadows, but I could see the sharpness of his eyes and eyebrows. He took the notebook away from my hands before I could finish my sentence.

As MC gets tied to the table, flashbacks from suppressed memories emerge. We see Kiro and MC together being test subjects. (Fun fact- Kiro and MC’s blood type is O!)

White walls. A deserted lab. A cold med table. And a blond boy with agony in his face. Next to him lay a brown-haired girl who was unconscious. …Was that me? I looked at the blood pouring out from the IV. Tears came from my eyes. Kiro… Our lives were connected long before. But where are you now?

She finally realises that Kiro was that boy from the orphanage.

AND I JUST REALISED SOMETHING. HAS HELIOS NEVER OUTRIGHTLY ADMIT THAT HE’S NOT KIRO? LIKE HE NEVER SAID “NO”??

MC: Are you really not Kiro?

??: How long are you going to keep calling me by that wrong name?

(Yes, it’s technically the wrong name because right now he’s called Helios but he’s also technically still Kiro!)

He didn’t sound particularly annoyed, but I felt saddened.

MC: I…

I looked at his face. Every line, feature- they resembled Kiro, but at the same time wasn’t.

MC: I’m sorry… I must be wrong…

I hung my head low. His face may resemble him, but his expressions were so unlike Kiro and I didn’t want to see that.

But my intuition told me that my hunch was not wrong. If that was correct, then one of my paths was already sealed.

Helios: What makes you think that I wouldn’t? You already know where I’m from. Why are you being so naïve? I shook my head. MC: Kiro wouldn’t do this to me… An unknown emotion flashed in his eyes.

Poor Kiro, having to pretend to not know MC and act so cold towards her. It must have been incredibly hard and painful for the both of them. Please just LET THEM BE TOGETHER.

Kiro isn’t risking MC see this darker side of him. He truly doubted if anybody would accept him as Helios, because he was just so used it before as an idol having to act so perfect on screen, showing everybody what they wanted to see.

“MC. Step a meter away from him, and close your eyes.

The golden flashes in his pupils were the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.

“I command you to forget what just happened. And I command you to forget about me. Remember, I’m just Helios.”

My memories were being erased bit by bit. Kiro was fading from my sight. His smiles, his eyes, his warmth… all of them became vague like a fog and disappeared. I tried my best to hold onto them, but it was all in useless.

Kiro… Even the name I tried to hold on till last was wrenched away from me. He watched silently as MC closed her eyes and blacked out in his arms.

“I’m sorry…”

He apologised again quietly. His eyes that once held warmth and brightness were again now filled with shadows.

“I will find the truth that you’re looking for. I don’t want you to bear that heavy burden. I’ll come back to you some day, but not today. Don’t remember my dark sides. In your eyes, I will always remain Kiro to you. After I take care of everything, things can go back the way they were between us. This time, I’ll make sure that you don’t have to wait long.”

“He looked a lot like Kiro. But it wasn’t him.”

In my palm was a small candy glistening in the sunlight. On impulse I unwrapped the paper and put it in my mouth.

MC: Apple flavour…

It somehow crossed my mind that it was Kiro’s type of flavour.

He wants MC to still have faith in him, and to trust in his abilities to protect her, as the candy is a motif for their relationship and exchange towards each other. (This was the same back in the orphanage when they were together too.) However, as his identity as Kiro, not the Helios she encountered. (Dramatic ironyyyy)

“We shall stand in darkness as we defend the light.”

Thorns Date

In the photo, Kiro looked completely different from what he usually looked like. On the glistening water, a youth held a birdcage, with a glint of melancholy in his drooping eyes. This was the last set of photos before quitting.

Kiro asked for my praise with shiny begging eyes, as if the prior sorrow and blue were all my illusions.

We stood very close to each other, yet at this moment, I felt there was a formed gap between us.

“MC, do you think the imprisoned bird can get out of the cage?”

There seemed to be a ray of golden light flashing through my mind but I couldn't catch it. (The thought that Helios came to see her?? Yes.)

I remember his distance, his apathy, yet puzzling familiarly.

Helios saw the magazine falling from my bag, his face flashing with complicated emotions I couldn’t comprehend. And I felt the familiar feeling of being touched deep in my soul.

“You like gazing at me a lot.”

Standing at the edge of the dark abyss, he opened his arms and leaned backward without hesitation. He fell straightly like a folded winged bird in the moment. (Similes, metaphors and symbolism galore!)

I sat on the ground limply and closed my eyes to avoid the dazzling light. This scene felt so familiar as I had experienced such a farewell.. Why?

My senses told me this man was Helios, yet the feelings from deep of my heart were so real.

“Helios! Do you… know how the imprisoned bird can get out of the cage?”

“Why do you think I will answer this question?” Behind such eyes, there seemed to be something else I couldn’t make out in the shadow.

I seemed to see him unfold a pair of black wings on his back and about to flutter away. No more cages could imprison him and nothing could make him stop. Helios walked from the bright light into the shadow.

He recalled her last question and her sad and confused eyes. Suddenly he recalled an ancient story. There was a kind of bird. It was always trapped in the thorns of fate from the moment of its birth. If the most beautiful thing was doomed to be exchanged with the deepest pain. He would overcome all obstacles to come back to her. And be her sun again.

The story that Helios recalled could be The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen.

In Ancient China, one of the forests lived a nightingale, who sang so beautifully everybody would stop and listen. The nightingale was renowned to be the best wonder out of all the things that the travellers abroad had ever seen. However, the Emperor of China didn’t know that such a bird existed, and demand to have it found.

The bird had come willingly to sing for the Emperor, singing so sweetly that tears came out of everybody’s eyes. The nightingale lived in the court thereafter, until one day the Emperor had received a mechanical copy of the bird, golden with precious gems and all. The nightingale had left, and all the courtiers had said that it was an ungrateful creature. It was therefore banished from the empire.

The mechanical bird had stopped working, only being able to play once every year. Five years had passed, and the Emperor fell ill that nobody expected him to live. Death had arrived to the Emperor as he prayed for the bird to sing a note. The living nightingale had appeared again, and had come to sing out of trust and hope for the Emperor. Death went to look at the Emperor’s renowned garden as the Emperor was thankful for the bird’s singing. She sang again, and the sun rose through the window and as everybody thought the Emperor had passed. The Emperor wanted the nightingale to stay by his side but it refused. It cannot live in the palace, but promised to visit the Emperor to sing to him.

Similar to Chapter 14, in this date, Kiro is represented as the bird, trapped in the cage. He had to release what everyone wanted him to be- Kiro, the shining sun/bird trapped in the cage under their control- ironic how his evol is absolute control because his charm would have drawn people this way in as a result. And the only way to be free was to be resurrected, to escape, to disappear from public view- to become free as Helios.

Light Pursuit Date

“Will you forget me?”

Kiro was becoming faint like a water mist. Panicking, I reached out to grab him but he slipped away from my fingers. An invisible wall had come between us and I couldn’t get close to him. This one step was like an unbridgeable gap between us, but it was like a line that we could never cross.

Will I forget Kiro? That sudden question in my head became clearer, and made me tremble in panic.

He had the name of a sun god, but even I couldn’t feel any bit of warmth.

MC: What is Helios here for?

Helios: We meet again, MC.

This was the first time that Helios called me by my name. He was brusque as ever, but there seemed to be a small amount of yearning in his voice. He did not act the way like the Helios that I used to know. His attitude and manners were surprisingly refined… like he was acting out a whole different persona.

The music changed into Por Una Cabeza- the tango song that I was very familiar with.

(I absolutely love the intertextuality that the game has. It’s a Spanish tango song that was also appeared in Scent of a Woman starring Al Pacino where the tango scene featured a blind man dancing with a woman who didn’t know how to dance and was scared of making mistakes. This correlates perfectly for MC and Helios. MC’s body is reacting to Helios as if he was Kiro...)

I didn’t drink, but I felt drunk somehow. Otherwise how else would this reachable warmth and illusion of intimacy familiar?

We were so close to each other, but the distance between us was only one step away, but a step we could never cross.

Helios looked up when he heard my voice. His eyes seemed to have trouble focusing. His blue eyes wavered like a lake sprinkling with sunlight. Surprisingly, there was sorrow, and naivety in those usually unfeeling eyes.

He lowered his head and his chin rested on my shoulder. I have never seen Helios so vulnerable. His hands were wrapped around my waist, leaving no space between us. Helios didn’t answer and continued to keep me pressed to his body. There was a deep aura of loneliness and bitterness about him that was barely discernible from his cold exterior.

Because to me, you were familiar to someone I deeply care about. Because my soul resonates when I am close to you. Because…. of a ridiculous assumption. Did I reach the edge of truth? Or was I just deceiving myself? A thick fog was obscuring me from seeing the truth clearly. I didn’t continue talking or thinking. MaybeI was so vaguely aware that this was the closest I could get to him. Only one step away but a distance I could never close.

MC is also scared. She’s in turmoil. She wants to know the truth but she’s also sitting on the fence with it. Especially due to the memory wipe. It’s like, “maybe it’s better if I don’t,” and “I think you are that someone I care so much about but I can’t be sure about it because even if I ask you, you won’t tell me, and I don’t know what to do.”

Stardust Date

Kiro: That’s right. I’m going to a far, far place. And I will stay there for a very long, long time. Don’t cry when you start missing me. MC: I’m not going to cry!

Kiro: But I will. So promise me, alright? Don’t forget me, even if I leave.

Two days afterwards, I heard him talk to someone on the phone. I’m pretty sure it was his voice, but it sounded like he was a completely different person.

What was he trying to hide? Did it have anything to do with his “leaving”? Was it out of his own will or was he involved in something under duress?

The confident smile on his face as he glided his fingers across the keys fluently, showed his passion for this show. As songs were played after another, he became more focused. I could tell from his expression that he was fully immersed in this performance. As long as he was given a stage and music, he’d become the centre of attention no matter what position he was in. However, the more passion I saw, the more I was scared for his “leaving”. He is the sun- what will happen to his supporters when they lose him? And what about me? What will happen to me?

Light and Shadow Phone Call

MC: Is that melancholy in your voice? It’s unlike you to be down like this.

Kiro: Really? Does everyone think I’m that shallow?

MC: Of course not. But you are the brightest and warmest sun, so it’s easy to be touched by your optimistic side first.

Kiro: But right now, the sunlight is getting too strong that it’s scorching…

MC: Hmm? Is it? right now it’s sunset where you are?

Kiro: Yes. I’m sitting atop of Namibia’s Dune 45 and everything is red. Even the sun is sinking low.

MC: Soon, it will sink beyond the horizon.

Kiro: Yes… Miss Chips, Since you say I’m like the sun, and the sun eventually sets...

Kiro: If I have a dark side, I should hide it from others, right?

MC: Why should you hide it?

Kiro: Because, I don’t want to show you and I don’t want to disappoint others.

MC: But you’re just you, Kiro.

Kiro: I am who I am?

MC: Yes. Why can’t a sun have shadows? Even the real sun has sunspots! People who really care for you will love both the warm sunny side and the occasional dark, depressed side.

Kiro: But I always feel...

MC: Everyone has a side they want to hide in the shadows. No one is expected to be required as perfect. That applies to my little sun as well.

Kiro: Can I really be imperfect?

MC: Absolutely. To me, all sides of you are worth cherishing.

Kiro: Thank you, MC.

MC: What’s there to thank?

Kiro: Because… only you are willing to see the weak and plain side that I’m hiding and accept both my light and my shadow.

MC: That’s why I’m your own personal tree hole! I’ll keep your sorrows tucked away for you!

Kiro: Thank you Miss Tree Hole. I’m so lucky to have you. In fact, you are my sun who gives me light to embrace the world every morning. Thank you, for always being there by my side.

This call is so significant for Kiro, and his battle between light and dark. After his evol went out of control, he’s afraid of hurting his fans and MC. Similes and metaphors are used to compare his evol/different personas as the sun and how it will soon go down. He confronts the truth that he will also have to leave the public view soon, and uses this opportunity of the call to confirm what MC thinks if he had imperfections/shadow sides. And of course, to thank her before he leaves.

Chapter 21 (Winter World)

He was so fast that his moves were a blur. He dodged every attack and landed his own with grace and strength. It was like watching a silver moonlight dancing in flowing moves.

“You seem to be completely ignorant about how weak you are.”

I was trapped in a little cage he made with his body against the wall. The cruelty in his face crumbled the last of my shields. he didn’t stop there. He leaned in with his whole body hemming me into the confined space he created.

Helios: Weaklings should learn to survive on their own. No one will teach you that.

MC: I don’t want to be a weakling forever.

Helios: Then you better figure out how to become stronger.

He dropped his sarcastic tone. Instead, each syllable fell from his mouth with upmost earnestness.

Helios: Use all your strength. Every method you can think of. Abandon your past...even abandon yourself. If you can’t do that, then just go back tot the world you came from.

1562 clutched tightly on his friend’s blanket, refusing to let go. However, in the end, he was shoved onto the ground because his strength was too weak. He had collided so hard that he couldn’t get up for a long while. -CN Top Experimental Subject Rumours and Secrets

If MC hadn’t come, then there would be no real sun in his life. He would only have artificial light. And he would be right- Helios would be just Helios. He wouldn’t bother much about fans or music, but using this identity to climb the system. He had to learn the hard way on how to survive. Nobody was there for him, thus it would be harder for him to feel empathy towards others in situations other than this.

The sun had risen completely. The increasing bright light drowned everything that belonged in the darkness. Helios remembered that day a long time ago. In the darkness, the withered hand touched his head and said faintly, “become Kiro, be the so-called “sun”.

At that time, he had lowered his eyes, nodded blankly, and simply walked out into the night, emitting a false light that was not his own. But today… Helios looked off into the distance, and seeing the dazzling morning light, he remembered the girl… At that moment, he saw the real sun. -Between Light and Darkness Rumours and Secrets

From “Behind The Curtain”, MC fell into the space-time gap and was saved by Helios. Even though he couldn’t see her as they were in different dimensions, she could be influenced by him. This wasn’t the first time that he’s tugged on that bond tying them together to BLACK CABIN. Thank you Helios also for helping bring MC back to her original world.

Chapter 28

Kiro: You should know about everything that I’ve done.

MC: I know that... you’re Helios.

Kiro’s eyes flickered and blinked at me. The golden hair under the now eclipsed sunlight seem to have an extra glow to it. Kiro: Is my name really that important?

MC: Why did you hide it from me? I trusted that you would tell me. That no matter what name you had, you really wouldn’t change...

Kiro: If a superhero were to turn into an arch-villain, would those who always believed in him lose hope? What he want most is for you to be a fairy, free of all cares. Not getting hurt, not getting worries, whose only responsibility is receiving signals and joy and happiness.

Kiro: However, if she is determined to go do something difficult, and she wants to bear this burden on her own... then I wish for her to be a little superhero, who can fly through it all with ease.

Chapter 29

“Don’t get all angry. The person beside you didn't even notice any difference between us. Or put it another way, it seems that “you” aren’t important in this role that you’re playing. Anybody can replace you.” -Anole

Anole is wrong (and just jealous). MC did notice, and plus, he probably wouldn’t have survived in the top experiment that Kiro had undergone in the orphanage. That was something only Kiro would have survived, with his willpower and determination in his heart to make a better life for himself and MC- something that Anole clearly lacks.

I had never seen Helios laugh before. His smile wasn't as dazzling as his golden-haired counterpart’s, but one could say that if the former him was the sun, then his smile was now a gentle moon.

THE IRONYYY. Helios is finally okay with showing this side of him to her, from watching her go through trials and tribulations in the Winter World with the other Helios- of course he wouldn’t want any danger to be near MC, but knowing that she can handle anything after all that she went through, he now knows that it’s better for her to be with him instead. Also he learnt how to smile from her and now he’s smiling again as Helios and I’m just so happy

Whether in the face of violent, nefarious enemies or a wave of blood and bullets, he’d never shown any fear. I got the feeling that he was somehow nervous, or even afraid. Was it because he had to return into the spotlight, back the shower of roses and applause?

Well… when he decided to give all that up and step into the darkness with no turning back, what was he thinking then?

He leaned on the wall and rested awhile, staring intently at the black tattoo on his right arm… he looked at himself in the mirror. His silver strands of hair were tingled with gold, as if bathed in sunlight. And for only that one time, he didn’t avert his gaze from the desire in his eyes. It was like looking at a self portrait—so distant, yet so familiar. It was only now that he realised: this was the moment in his life most worth reliving. Once again, he had become Kiro.

In the PV/Karma (photo down below), we see him wearing black- not as Helios but as Kiro! Again, ironic how he’s holding a comeback concert he’s wearing black, a colour that represents darkness and shadows. It had been noted in the Snooper Rumours and Secrets that this is way out of Kiro’s style wardrobe. However, this signifies a range of things. The two personas are “merging” as he no longer hides this persona to MC- they’re one in the same. It has always been this way and will never change. The colour black also means power and authority, but can mean fear and grief. This is the same outfit when Kiro was doubting himself in the Light Pursuit Date as well.

Right now, if we’re talking moon phases, Kiro right now is in “the void”. Meaning he’s “nowhere”. He’s Kiro but he’s also operating as Helios. He feels nervous to go back but it does come so natural for him to be in the spotlight. He feels stuck at crossroads with himself, especially when he got forced back to perform by Anole.

Ultimately, it’s like he’s saying “no matter what becomes of me, I will always stay true to you.” And I think this is perfectly translated as Kiro says,

“Miss Chips, wait for me.”

(”Wait for me as I fight for us both. So you don’t have to suffer.”) But we suffer either way.

His light and sun has always come from MC. He will always keep running towards his sun, no matter which persona he embodies. This, we can be certain on. (New Season 2 Chapters please don’t oppose this LOL.)

“I await you at the end of the opposite path.”

#26 pages long #I actually love his voice so much #mlqc #mlqc kiro #mlqc helios #helios #mr love queens choice #love and producer #mlqc cn #mlqc en #恋与制作人 #mlqc analysis #mlqc translation #mlqc zhou qiluo #zhou qilou #kiro #mlqc spoilers

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kaypeace21 · 4 years ago

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El and “post institutional syndrome” (psych analysis)

Before I go in depth with this condition. I wanted to discuss the unique real life case of Genie (whose experiences most closely resemble El ‘s) . And , because of this , could possibly give us insight on how El’s past may affect her psychosocial development .

“Genie had spent almost her entire childhood locked in a bedroom, isolated and ab*sed by her father for the first 13 years of her life. The social worker soon discovered that the girl had been confined to a small room, and an investigation by authorities quickly revealed that the child had spent most of her life in this room. The windows were curtained and the door was kept closed.”

“At this time, she could only speak a few words -- including "stopit" and "nomore."

“While her circumstances until that point were undeniably tragic, they also presented an opportunity for psychologists, linguists, and other researchers to study psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive development in an individual who had suffered from severe social isolation and deprivation. In particular, the discovery of Genie presented an opportunity to study whether a child who was past the so-called "critical period" for language acquisition could learn to speak a first language.”

“The case was important, said psycholinguist and author Harlan Lee, because ‘our morality doesn’t allow us to conduct deprivation experiments with human beings; these unfortunate people are all we have to go on.’

* Brenner not only kept her in isolation via her room but even put her through severe deprivation via solitary confinement as punishment. Putting her in a completely barren dark room for hours.UN Special Rapporteur Juan E. Méndez warned ,”Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to t*rture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment when used as a punishment, indefinitely, or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.”

“After assessing Genie's emotional and cognitive abilities, Kent described her as ‘the most profoundly damaged child I've ever seen … Genie's life is a wasteland.’ She began to experience more developmental progress, but remained poor in areas such as language.Susan Curtiss worked with Genie to teach her English. Genie soon developed a rather large lexicon and was able to express herself. But despite extensive training, she remained unable to produce grammatical sentences. Here is a transcript of one of her reports of her time in the hands of her father:

Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry ... Not spit. Father. Hit face—spit ... Father hit big stick. Father angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Me cry.”

“According to Lenneberg, the critical period for language acquisition lasts until around age 12. After the onset of puberty (at 13), he argued, the organization of the brain becomes set and no longer able to learn and utilize language in a fully functional manner.The case of Genie confirms that there is a certain window of opportunity that sets the limit for when you can become relatively fluent in a language. Of course, if you already are fluent in another language, the brain is already primed for language acquisition . If you have no experience with grammar, however, Broca's (an area of the brain) remains relatively hard to change: you cannot learn grammatical language production later on in life. But the abilities to understand language and produce language in ways that do not rely on grammar largely make use of Wernicke's area in the temporal lope. This area is capable of expanding and rewiring throughout life—even after the teen years. The case of Genie confirms this. Grammar was beyond reach for her. But language comprehension and storytelling were not.”

So El struggling with grammar in some sentences but not in others and improving in grammar unlike Jennie- could possibly be because unlike Jeanie, El was 12 when rescued vs Jeanie who was 13?

“Researchers were also left to wonder whether Genie had suffered from cognitive deficits caused by her years of severe neglect or if she had been born with an ‘intellectual disability’. Most believed, the permanent mental impairments and ‘developmental delays’ Genie exhibited (upon being assessed ) were the result of the isolation and deprivation she was subjected to.”

For those confused about certain terms just used. “Developmental delays appear before 22 years of age. They are life-long disabilities that affect one or both physical and cognitive functioning. ‘Intellectual disability’ encompasses the “cognitive” part of this definition, that is, a disability that is broadly related to thought processes. People with intellectual disabilities are known for having below-average IQ/cognitive abilities . ID can be caused by a myriad of things- including physical and genetic factors, problems during pregnancy or at birth, health issues at an early age, exposure to environmental toxins, or non-physical causes such as lack of stimulation.”

*DISCLAIMER before we begin: I’m saying this now, cause I expect bad actors to try and cancel me. El , even if she has an intellectual disability- is still a human being with many aspirational character traits- that people can admire or aspire to have . She’s kind, selfless, brave, and resilient. People with ID can still function and have jobs, make decisions, and learn new skills too. And they have human emotions like everyone else. if you are “offended” that I say a character you like may have ID - and are pissy you related and empathized to a character that you would otherwise have ‘othered’ cause they have an intellectual disability. Me, an autistic person, (who the fandom has bullied for being autistic) is not the ableist one for simply saying she may have an Intellectual disability .Being angry by the very idea a character you like has a condition , and saying it’s “offensive”/”insulting to them” (is ableist). And in a sense dehumanizes these people who are greatly underestimated and mistreated by society already. you don’t have to agree of course- but don’t try to smear me for stating my opinion based on the psych papers I’ll be discussing. I love El, and have a cousin with ID, so no this isn’t me insulting El. The Duffers said they wanted to give a voice to those “othered” by society- and people who aren’t neurotypical could easily be on the list. The Duffers having us love, relate, and empathize with a character such as this wouldn’t be a bad thing- but good rep .So now I’ll continue with the evidence that alludes to El possibly having ID.

Post institutional syndrome

“In clinical and abnormal psychology, POST INSTITUTIONAL SYNDROME- refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in remote institutions (such as orphanages). “

“Growing up in such an environment can change the brain for good.Institutionalization in early childhood can alter a child's brain and behavior in the long run.The ongoing nature of chronic neglect significantly impacts the brain in infancy and early childhood. It suggests that the specific ages of approximately 6−18 months old , may be especially sensitive to developing deficiencies in orphanage environments. “ (*Making El who was raised in such an environment since birth quite susceptible ).

“According to Perry (2002), neglect at this phase impedes formation of neurological pathways essential to communication in the brain. They found that early institutionalization changed both the structure and the function of the brain. Any time spent in an institution shrunk the volume of gray matter, or brain cell bodies, in the brain. Kids who stayed in the orphanages instead of going to foster care also had less white matter, or the fat-covered tracts between brain cell bodies, than kids who, at a young age, moved in with families.Staying in an orphanage instead of foster care also resulted in lower-quality brain activity as measured by EEG.”

“Neglect may be the most detrimental maltreatment type on brain development.A child’s neurocognitive and emotional development rapidly moves towards a downward spiral following extended time in an institution.Normal development may be disrupted by deprivation associated with neglect and can result in dysregulation of neural systems during vulnerable periods of brain development, leading to pronounced neurocognitive deficits due to maltreatment.There are many outcomes related to this disruption in brain development: delays in development of IQ , delays in language, cognitive delays that impact learning, and difficulty with behavioral inhibitions, social emotional functioning and well as impaired attachment (Wilkerson, 2009; Barkley, 1997).”

“Low-stimulation environments can lead to lower scores on intelligence and language tests. Neglect is the type of maltreatment most strongly associated with delays in expressive, receptive, and overall language development.interpersonal interaction is necessary for the acquisition of early language, and these interactions may be limited for children that have been in institutional settings or have experienced physical or emotional neglect.Speech and language delays along with social-emotional delays are very common as the child continues in the institutional environment.”

“Compared with youth that were not neglected, children demonstrated lower cognitive and language scores and more behavioral problems.Higher IQ could be predicted by language scores and an absence of externalizing behavior problems. When comparing the neglected children: shorter time spent in a stable environment, lower scores on language skills, and the presence of externalizing behavior problems predicted lower IQ.”

“The cognitive development of institutionalized children has been studied for more than 60 years. Between 1930 and 1950 a first wave of studies documented that children in institutions often showed a low IQ and severe language delays (Crissey, 1937; Durfee & Wolf, 1933), and children’s orphanages have been considered “natural experiments” on the necessary conditions for intellectual growth (MacLean, 2003).For example, Rutter (1998) found that the mean IQ of children leaving institutional care in Romania shortly after the fall of Ceausescu was about 50 (population mean = 100). Similar results were shown with Dennis in (1973) who addressed the question of how large the cognitive delay of children in orphanages was compared to children adopted into families. He studied children who were abandoned immediately after birth and were reared in children’s homes in Lebanon.Dennis found that at age 11, the average IQ of the adopted children was within the range of normally developing children, whereas the non-adopted 11 y old orphans still living in these institutions were diagnosed as Intellectually disabled.At his followup, when they were 16, these same girls at the Zouk institution had an average IQ going just above 50. While, In a meta-analysis of 75 studies, van IJzendoorn et al. (2008) found that children living in institutional care scored on average 20 points lower on intelligence tests than children who were raised in families.”

“These later studies also revealed that the percentage of time spent in institutional care was significantly and negatively correlated with full scale IQ, verbal, and memory scores. And that 12 years of institutional care, from birth to 12 years of age, showed placement into foster care did not increase iq points .The only cognitive improvement of placing these children in foster care at age 12 -was on working memory. While the only cognitive improvements of taking the children out of the institution by 8 years old was on processing speed. “

pics for proof if you don’t believe me-

* Meaning realistically El who was in such an environment (from birth to 12 years old) may learn new things after being placed in foster care (like with Hopper or the Byers)-but her Iq would never improve to the point of being neurotypical- she’d always have an intellectual disability.

Intellectual disability

“People with intellectual and learning Disabilities may have deficits in speech production . Impairment of speech production is among the most commonly reported difficulties in children, adolescents and adults with ID . The children, including some with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities may lack in phonological development in their speech. These children also exhibit many articulatory deficits, delays in expressive language and show significant limitations in grammar and syntax development compared to those their age (without an iD). They often speak in subdued tones or use explosive voice modulations .Some speak quietly, while in others vocal intensity varied from utterance to utterance. “

“Intellectual disability is identified as mild , moderate, severe or profound.”

So, if based on average of Iq of children raised in orphanages (from birth to 11,12, or 16 years old). El would have a mild intellectual disability (and an Iq possibly around 50).Of those affected with ID, about 85% fall into the "mild" category.

Mild intellectuality disability disorder symptoms:

-”being fully independent in self-care when they get older (brushing teeth, dressing themselves, cooking, taking public transport, etc)”

-having problems with reading and writing (having math/reading skills between a 3rd- 6th grade level).

-having an IQ range of 50 to 69

-social immaturity

“Iq below 70 isn’t the only marker for diagnosis. But, also issues in adaptive functioning are usually used for diagnosis. Three areas of adaptive functioning are considered:According to the DSM-5 (APA, 2013), the signs and symptoms of adaptive functioning deficits across 3 domains (conceptual ,social and practical) for a mild intellectual disability are:

Conceptual Domain

”Slow language development (children learn to talk later, if at all). Or problems learning to talk or trouble speaking clearly.”

”Difficulties in academic learning ( such as having math/reading skills between a 3rd- 6th grade level).”

* El can read but still struggles with proper grammar ( verbally and through her writing) .She’s even reading an english-learning book. Her unsteady handwriting/ lack of apostrophes hint she’s still learning to write (despite her reading abilities) . And at 14 she doesn’t know what a state is-specifically Illinois which she visited 6 months prior.

”Difficulty understanding academic and abstract concepts of time “

*She didn’t start learning how to tell time until 12, and only seemed to master it at 14.

“childish behavior inconsistent with the child’s age.”

*14 y old El and 5 y old Holly both having a thing for teddy bears, in s3/2.

”Problems with abstract thinking, short term memory, and cognitive flexibility”. (”Abstract reasoning tasks include the ability to understand subjects on a complex level through analysis and evaluation and the ability to apply knowledge in problem-solving.”)

(”Cognitive flexibility has been described as the mental ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts, and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.”)

*This one is a bit iffy, cause there’s a few explanations to the s3 example. El and Mike lie to their friends about her curfew.Yet the next day she is confused and says Mike wouldn’t lie to her - cause “friends don’t lie” All despite the fact she and Mike lied to Dustin, Max, Will, and Lucas the day before. So either she doesn’t understand the concept of hypocrisy because she lacks cognitive flexibility (or just doesn’t care about the hypocrisy)- aka her and Mike can lie to their friends, but she’s upset when they lie to her, (and she’s fine if Mike lies to everyone but her) ? Personally,I think she doesn’t grasp the concept of hypocrisy yet. Or she didn’t even realize she was lying and believed Mike was right about her curfew. Or bad writing. But given the concept of lying being prevalent to the season- I lean to Mike accidentally lying to her about her curfew (and El thinking her curfew was 4:00) . Or (more likely) El lies and doesn’t have the cognitive flexibility/abstract reasoning to understand that being upset Mike lied to her but not upset Mike (and her) lied to their friends is hypocritical. She also lied to Mike and pretended she didn’t hear the confession at the cabin for 3 months. She ‘forgave’ Mike but she never noticed Mike didn’t even apologize for lying just being ‘jealous of Max’ (despite lying being the thing she was upset and dumped him over in the first place). Anyways back on topic-

Social Domain

“Receptive language that may be limited to comprehension of simple speech and gestures.These students struggle to differentiate concrete and abstract concepts. Figurative language (metaphors, similes, idiomatic expressions, etc.) is typically quite confusing to them.”

“trouble understanding social cues”

“Limitations in language and communication skills.More concrete and less complex spoken language (if used), compared with peers. Limited vocabulary and grammatical skills.”

Practical Domain:

“May function age-appropriately in personal care (brushing teeth, dressing, going to the restroom etc).”

Early signs and symptoms of intellectual disability:

El has most of the signs...

-”Have trouble speaking or experiencing delays in speech, trouble understanding social norms,Challenges with problem-solving and logical thinking, Behavioral problems like extreme temper tantrums (breaking windows, pushing max, throwing food on Hopper and the girls in the mall), Having difficulty understanding the results of his or her actions (for instance like not understanding why spying on an ex is wrong).”

“If your child has ID, they may experience some of the following behavioral issues:aggression, Dependency, lack of impulse control passivity, stubbornness,low tolerance for frustration ,difficulty paying attention (She’s exhibited all of these).”

Other traits of Post institutional children

“poor self concept” (One's self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to "Who am I?".)

“problems with coping and regulating emotions ,poor impulse control, and aggressiveness.”

“Studies have repeatedly shown that children with disrupted attachment who have experienced neglect have problems coping and managing emotions, “

“inappropriately demanding and clinging”

“indiscriminate friendliness”

“44% of institutionalized children showed high levels of indiscriminately sociable behavior as contrasted with 18% of children who had never been institutionalized.children who were indiscriminately sociable as 8-year olds were not indiscriminately sociable toward adults as 16-year olds; however, these children were indiscriminately sociable in their relationships with peers (those their own age). Thus, it is possible that indiscriminate sociability serves as a marker of later problems in social relationships, even though manifesting differently by the teen years.That friendliness was probably an important coping technique in their socially starved early lives. What's interesting is it just doesn't go away.Indiscriminate friendliness may also be tied to the amygdala. In a study using fMRI, Aviva Olsavsky, MD, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that when typical children (4-14 years old) viewed photos of their mothers versus photos of strangers, the amygdala showed distinctly different responses. In children who had been institutionalized, however, the amygdala responded similarly whether the children viewed mothers or strangers. That response was particularly notable among kids who exhibited more friendliness toward strangers. Attachment and behavior problems, indiscriminate friendliness, and lower IQ seem to go together in the same children.”

(We have to admit she attached herself rather quickly to Max, and Kali after only a few days, same goes for Mike and the boys she knew for only a week).

“cognitive delays, particularly speech and language deficits.” (we’ve covered that)

“quasi autism (is a term used to describe autistic-like difficulties and traits following very severe social deprivation in the first year of life.) About 10 % percent of the children adopted from Romanian orphanages after 6 months of age were diagnosed with autism sometime in childhood. And of those who stayed in the institution to age 11, 8.5% with an IQ >50 , fit the “quasi-autism” profile (meaning they fit some but not all autistic traits). The results showed children with ‘autistic features’ usually experienced longer durations of severe psychological privation, than other orphans.”

El does have a few traits that some people on the spectrum have.

-” Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use echolalia, which means they repeat others' words or sentences. They might repeat the words of familiar people (parents, teachers, friends), or they might repeat sentences from their favorite video.”

(X)

-”Some children with ASD also have delayed speech and language skills.some children are even selectively mute. “

- ”Talk in a flat, robot-like tone” (obviously not all asd people. But I do think El’s voice in conversation can often be quite monotone).

- Many autistic girls on the spectrum also have disordered eating patterns . This can include simply eating the same foods over and over again (cough her eggo obsession). And although “disorder eating” and “eating dis*rders” are different.”Previous research has found that autism and eating disorders can occur together, as 20-30% of adults with eating dis*rders have autism (despite being only 2.2% of the US population).”

-“Has obsessive interests” (her whole room is covered in Mike related stuff like he’s her special interest- my gay ass has no idea if a whole room covered in bf related stuff is ‘straight little girl normal’ or a bit obsessive- but I lean to the latter, especially when compared to Max’s room XD)

-” difficulty understanding social cues .” (covered that)

- “And she is sensitive to certain noises (thunder etc)”

Alright, thanks for listening. Of course, this analysis is if the Duffers went the realistic route-which I do lean to them doing. One of the stephen King movies “dream catcher” was cited as inspiration for Stranger things . It even had a boy with ID who spoke in broken english, carried around stuffed animals, and had the superpower of being able to track people (just like El) . And he retained broken english/his interest in stuffed animals in adulthood.Of course her fitting the psych criteria I listed could have other explanations.El can most certainly learn and improve in academic skills, language, and social skills even with an Intellectual disability. But honestly, even if El had an Iq of 160 she would (at least initially) struggle tremendously given the lack of education and neglect/ab*se she’s dealt with.But, I’m excited to see El gain independence as she learns more about herself and the real world (and maybe heal from some of her tr*uma).

But if we’re talking academically-she doesn’t know basic geography or what a state is at 14.She’s still learning how to speak and write with correct grammar at 14.She only just mastered how to tell time at 14 . Does she even know how to add, subtract, multiple, and divide, let alone algebra (knowledge needed for highschool) ? Or basic science knowledge also needed ? No way would she’d be ready to go to highschool in s3 (like the others already attending, during the ending-time skip). If we were being realistic- she’d be held back a few years and or in remedial classes, or special school, etc. The kids in middle or highschool who don’t know her circumstances wouldn’t be understanding of why she has little knowledge of social norms, expressions, language issues,etc. El has only interacted with 4 kids her own age for 3 months (9 months with Mike) and was in a year of isolation with Hopper (being taught social norms via tv- which is not the best teacher) .This was hardly ‘typical socialization for a kid her age’. Unlike, the rest of the gang who interacts with many kids on a daily basis.How will she be in an environment with this many kids? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was sadly bullied.Regardless, I’m looking forward to El’s character arc of trying to assimilate to the ‘real world’ as she grows into her own person-most likely there’s some good in her journey and not just bullies along the way. :)

#el hopper #jane ives #stranger things

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cptsdstudyblr · 4 years ago

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Cults & Religious Abuse PART 2: So you’re in a cult?

If you don’t want to see this series, you can block #cptsdstudyblrreligion

tw// cults, religion, religious abuse, religious trauma, mentions of other types of abuse

PART 1: Q & A

In this post I will be speaking somewhat specifically about my experiences that led to religious trauma, so please be cautious when reading this post. The tips and resources are at the bottom and are bullet points, so feel free to skip to there if you aren’t comfy with the post itself.

Maybe you were raised in a religion, maybe you or your family joined a religion later in your life, or maybe you’ve gotten involved in a cult in some other way. But one day you wake up and you realize that you need to get out. But how? In this I’ll be sharing the basics of my experiences in a cult-like fundamentalist religion, how I got out, and some resources I think are helpful for people in similar situations.

Before I get into the details, I want to make one thing clear: I am not a woman. I am non-binary. However, I was raised a woman and that was a huge part of the way these experiences affected me, so I will be including that perspective in this post.

I also want to make it clear that I am not against religion in general or against people practicing religion. This post is not intended to attack religion as a concept, but to shed light on specific extremely harmful religious practices.

My family’s relationship with religion is on the complicated side, but I’ll briefly explain it for context. Both of my parents were raised fairly generically Catholic. My grandparents on my dad’s side are now loosely Catholic, but don’t explicitly practice religion. My grandmother on my mom’s side has since converted to protestant Christianity at my mom’s suggestion. My dad has been either apathetic or even hostile towards religion for as long as I can remember and rarely attended church with me and my mom, but my mom has always been religious. These are the primary influences in my life, as I’m not close enough to any other family members for their religious beliefs to have had significant impact on me.

My mom is where it gets complicated. Although she was raised Catholic, she explored protestant Christianity starting a few years before my birth and quickly converted. For most of my actual childhood my mom was a pretty average protestant Christian. We moved a lot, so we attended churches in a variety of denominations, including several more charismatic and prosperity-gospel based megachurches, but when I was around 9 years old, my mom fell down a rabbit hole of Messianic Christianity through one of these churches, which I believe is where it all started to fall apart. Just to clarify, although this group of beliefs is technically referred to as Messianic Judaism, I refer to my experience with it as Messianic Christianity as I am in no way Jewish (and thus feel uncomfortable calling my religious experiences Judaism) and the messianic movement is harmful to actual Jewish people.

This move into Messianic Christianity pushed my mom to start rereading and reinterpreting the Bible and she consequently decided that she was not enamored with the teachings of the church we attended at the time. I strongly believe that her understanding of that study was also heavily influenced by the domestic violence and instability going on in our home at the time, as she was unable to connect to the overwhelmingly positive messages that our church preached. So, she moved us to another church. This was a church we had attended some in the past while trying to find a home church after a move, but hadn’t really stuck with, so it wasn’t an entirely new church. Because of this, I generally say that I attended this church from the age of 9 although we did not attend this church consistently until I was around 11. This church was a nondenominational Bible church closely associated with Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, which is pastored by John MacArthur. I’d encourage you to take a look at the basic teachings of John MacArthur and of this church in some depth as they are already quite problematic. The linked article is really just one example of the kind of teachings that are prevalent here, and I’d encourage you to follow this rabbit hole as far as it takes you because it’s fascinating.

The church that we moved to was extremely fundamentalist. Unfortunately, I’m not comfortable linking the actual church for fear of doxxing myself, but the teachings of this church are pretty much exactly in line with those Grace Community Church and the other organizations I will mention soon. This church also unofficially followed the teachings of the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP). When I say unofficially, I mean that my church was not publically associated with IBLP, but they were definitely associated with IBLP in reality. And again, I’d really encourage you to browse through their website to get a feel for their teachings. However, as a basic summary, if you’re familiar with the Duggar family from the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, they are members of IBLP and everything they teach was taught fairly similarly at my church. I won’t go into the details of what the teachings were, but they were about as fundamentalist Christian as you could come up with. Sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, abuse, etc. but turned up to 11/10. And it was a very closed circle. So how did I get out and end up where I am now - a bi-romantic asexual non-binary university student studying STEM at an incredibly liberal university?

It wasn’t easy. But I did get somewhat lucky. Unlike 90% of the kids at my church, I was not homeschooled after 8th grade. Instead, I went to a private Christian school - this was definitely still harmful and contributed to my trauma but it did give me opportunities to be exposed to people and ideas outside my fundamentalist Christian bubble. It also encouraged me to attend university, as it was expected of all graduates from that school. My dad wasn’t religious, and he and my mom divorced right before I graduated from high school. Additionally, my mom did encourage me to continue my education despite the teachings at our church. I’m not sure why she encouraged this, but she did. So I got lucky that things in my life pointed me in a direction of further education. And I got further lucky that the main school in my state is the school it is. It’s a school that is incredibly left-leaning and secular, and ultimately it pushed me extremely far outside my comfort zone.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that made it easier for me to get out of this situation, but I did still have to work for it. Here are my suggestions for surviving a cult-like environment and for eventually getting out:

Do everything you can to expose yourself to other ideas and beliefs. I assume that if you recognize you’re in this type of situation and want to escape, you already know that you disagree with the beliefs that are being forced on you at some level. But it’s important to further educate yourself where possible and figure out your beliefs. Figuring out what you believe and being committed to it is key in being able to stick to leaving your environment. If you know you disagree, but you can’t articulate why you disagree or what you believe and you aren’t committed to your beliefs, you will be very easy to convince that you are wrong and you will be very easy to manipulate.

If you’re on tumblr reading this, you probably have access to the internet, so use that to your advantage. Research things, read articles, and involve yourself in discussions. If you struggle with internet access, you can read books, magazines, and newspapers at your local library and potentially even join clubs through your library or school. Not everything you learn has to be political or about religion. Reading and learning will broaden your horizons, give you concrete interests outside religion, encourage you to learn about things that make you uncomfortable, etc.

If you are involved in a religion that has a text, read it critically and read nonreligious analyses of it. You don’t necessarily have to agree with these analyses, but thinking critically about the text you’ve been raised to take as complete fact will help you realize what you actually believe.

Find others who agree with you. In high school, I had a couple of friends at church who were “rebels” too, and we’re still friends to this day. We moved on together, and it really helped me be able to get out because I wasn’t doing it alone.

If you have to physically leave to get away, make sure you have enough money and have a backup plan. If you leave and are forced to come back for any reason, leaving again will be infinitely harder. If you leave, make sure it can be for good. It doesn’t necessarily have to be permanent, but if you come back it has to be on your own terms and not out of necessity.

Don’t get yourself kicked out and be safe no matter what.

Some resources I think are helpful:

Find an LGBT Center (US only) - LGBT centers are incredibly helpful for issues that go beyond being LGBT+, and if you’re eligible to use them they can be a great resource

The Trevor Project - LGBT+ resources and crisis lines

Tumblr post describing what to do if you’re homeless - It’s from Tumblr, so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems like pretty solid advice.

How to leave a cult - Very basic guide, but has some good advice.

Quiz to help you figure out your political beliefs (US based, but has some other countries as well) - I’d suggest taking this a few times as you develop your beliefs, and I’d also suggest clicking “more questions” as many times as possible in every category to ensure that you cover a broad range of topics.

How Ideology Colors Morality - about how morality frames US politics

Ethics - a good place to start when looking at different ways of analyzing ethics. My high school ethics class is a huge component in why I questioned my own beliefs. Ethics is an eye-opening topic.

List of all the religions - exploring different religions and belief systems helped open my mind to new ideas and ways of thinking about the world

If you want me to help you research something or find resources for a specific situation, feel free to message me or send me an ask and I’m happy to help (you can also ask me other questions, my asks and DMs are always open!)

And as always, if I made a mistake or linked a bad resource, please feel free to let me know so that I can correct the issue ASAP. I always try to do my research thoroughly, but things can slip by since I am but a human. Thank you!

#cptsdstudyblrreligion #cptsd #ptsd #trauma #religious trauma #religious abuse #religion #christianity #fundamentalism #ex fundamentalist #cult #ex cult #fundie #ex fundie #ex christian #christian

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alatismeni-theitsa · 4 years ago

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Hi, I came over from Greek-mythologies and was the anon that asked her about mythological surnames in Greece :) i haven’t really figured out the specifics of the story yet so I can’t ask anything that specific haha but if you don’t mind would you tell me what surname endings are like in different Greek regions? One of the (1)

One of the names I’m thinking of using has used to different endings -ides and -idis (Heraclides/Heraklidis) and I’m just wondering if this is a translation issue or if it comes from two different places.

I don’t really need anything that’s too mythology centered but any surname that can be loosely traced back to Greek mythology if that makes sense. For example I was thinking of using Angelos since it’s theorized that Angelos was a Greek goddes that was equal to Hecate, and Angelos was also used as a surname for Artemis in Syracuse. Even though today Angelos is more of a Christian name I believe.

________________________________________________________________

Wow I was actually being productive and made a small list today, after a bit of research. I am also neglecting important responsibilities but fuck them, I can’t do this any more.

SOOO, GREEK SURNAMES

I would avoid the surname Aggelos/Angelos. This word means “messenger” in Greek and that’s why we called angels that way. However, it’s strongly associated with Christian angels for the past 1.500 years so I wouldn’t recommend it.

-ides is the Englishized version of Greek -idis. Anglophones tend to make our “ee”s to “eh”s and out “th”s to “d”s. And here -klidis became -clides. The Greek spelling is Iraklidis or Iraklithis (because it’s δ and not ντ). When you see Δ/δ it’s pronounced like “th” in “the”. English spelling is based in Latin AND inconsistent so nobody usually people with that surname prefer the English way on international platforms.

I have found a site with Greek surnames and information about them and I will leave it here so you can have many options. (Greek spelling differs from English. This will be the English spelling. I don’t know which one you want to use.) (Link to site)

My selected few are:

Georgiou Ambrosios Alexopoulos Ambrosia Andreadis Andreas Andris Anthis Antoni Antoniou Antonopoulos Argyros Artemios Athanasios Callistos Cosmos Economides Economos Economou Eliades Elias Eliopoulos Fotopoulos Galanos Georgas Georgiades Georgiadis Georgiou Georgopoulos Halkias Grivas Harris Kouros Ladas Lagos Lambros Leonidis Maheras Spathas Mavros Mellas (Black or Honey) Myron Nikitas Pagonis / Pagonidis Palas / Pallas Sideris Stathis Stratis Vasilikos

Thalassinos (of the sea) is another good choice, I think!

You can find their meaning in the site

Contact me to give them a more usual form or discuss their various forms

>>> Another site with surnames and meanings (Link)

If somoene is son of Zeus and his surname is Dios or son of Ares and his surname is Areos, then it would be super obvious who he is. Just so you know, for plot purposes xD

How do they work:

Basically, they don’t work. A lot of our surnames were probably given when someone was high with 50 kilos of poppy sniffing. “One bowel“? Yes. “Son of Pigeon“? Yes. “Owl”? Why not? “The son of the garlic smelling dick”? HELL YEAH

But we also have epic ones like Silver, and Gold and other precious stuff.

But there are some rules. Because PATRIARCHY men take the direct surname of their fathers, continuing their line, and women take the surname with the change “the child of“. Of course many men already have surnames signifying they belong to the family. To showcase what I mean: A man will take the surname Papadopoulos (direct surname) and the woman will take it in the form of “Papadopoulou“ signifying she belongs to the line of Papadopoulos. The man will take the surname Vlachos, the woman will take the surname Vlachou.

We can distinguish surnames according to their meaning in four major categories, which indicate respectively baptismal name, origin, profession and nicknames (or nicknames).

Patronymics: Those who use baptismal names for their roots, along with nicknames, are the most common type of family names. We find them in nominal case (eg Kostis, Georgis), in genitive (eg Georgiou, Dimitriou), but also with many suffixes or diminutives (eg Stefanidis, Athanassoulas).

Matronymics: Those which are based on the mother's name, for example Costas Eleni (ie Kostas of Eleni). They are quite rare and are also divided into categories depending on the profession of the mother or her husband (Kalograia, Makaronous, Mammis, Tsagarina), the origin of the mother (Amourgian, Arapini, Vlacha), and even the… defect of the mother (Vouvis (=mute), Kambouras ( = hump)).

Ethnic: They are the surnames which state the origin and reveal the place where the person who has the name was born or lived. They usually refer to villages or wider geographical areas and their suffixes are dozens. The most common are:

-(i)otis, Tsirigiotis, Lepeniotis, Andriotis, Epirotis etc [-(ι)ώτης: Τσιριγώτης, Λεπενιώτης, Ανδριώτης, Ηπειρώτης κτλ. ]

-itis: Beglitis, Politis, Argirokastritis etc [-ίτης: Μπεγλίτης, Πολίτης, Αργυροκαστρίτης κτλ. ]

- ianos: Koutalianos, Elekistrianos, Psarianos, Sakaretsianos, Xrysovitsianos etc [-ιανος: Κουταλιανός, Ελεκιστριάνος, Ψαριανός, Σακαρετσιάνος, Χρυσοβιτσιάνος κ.α. ]

-inos: Patrinos, Parginos, Zakinthinos, Kalavritinos [-ινός: Πατρινός, Παργινός, Ζακυνθινός, Καλαβρυτινός ]

-aios (-eos): Kerkyreos, Romaneos etc [-αίος: Κερκυραίος, Ρωμαναίος κτλ. ]

Professional: Surnames that denote professions that are lost in the depths of the centuries. From the Byzantine years (Ambelas (vine farmer), Lachanas (lettuce seller), Zonaras (belt maker), Kampanaris (bell maker), Grammatikos, Palaiologos, Doukas, Logothetis) to modern Greek (Geladaris (cow man), Arkoudaris (bear man), Perivolaris, Psaras (fisher), Samaras, Koureas, Asvestas, Vagenas, Voskanidou (of the sepherd)).

In Greek those surnames are: (Αμπελάς, Λαχανάς, Ζωναράς, Καμπανάρης, Γραμματικός, Παλαιολόγος, Δούκας, Λογοθέτης) and (Γελαδάρης, Αρκουδάρης, Περιβολάρης, Ψαράς, Σαμαράς, Κουρέας, Ασβεστάς, Βαγενάς, Βοσκανίδου).

Nicknames: They are the main body of surnames together with patronymics and come mainly from characterizations based on physical (Vrachnos (coarse voiced), Zervos (left/weird), Kambouris (humping), Leventis (brave)), spiritual and moral qualities (Viastikos (Hasty), Agelastos (Sullen), Thlimenos (Sad), Katergarakos (Cunning)). However, they can also come from analogies with animals (Alepoudelis (fox), Gatos (cat), Zygouris, Lykos (wolf), Pontikis (mouse)), with plants (Garoufalos (carnation), Karpouzis(watermelon), Piperis (pepper), Revithis (chickpea) ) or indicate kinship and age (Eggonopoulos (of the grandchild), Kanakaris (beloved son), Orphanos (orphan), Papoulias (grandfather), Pateras (father)).

(Βραχνός, Ζερβός, Καμπούρης, Λεβέντης), (Βιαστικός, Αγέλαστος, Θλιμμένος, Κατεργαράκος). (Αλεπουδέλης, Γάτος, Ζυγούρης, Λύκος, Ποντίκης), (Γαρούφαλος, Καρπούζης, Πιπέρης, Ρεβίθης) (Εγγονόπουλος, Κανακάρης, Ορφανός, Παπούλιας, Πατέρας).

The suffixes can show us descent from a certain Greek area:

-ithis/-ides: Pontus [-ίδης: Πόντος (Τουντουλίδης, Κοντογιαννίδης, Πετρίδης) ]

-athis/-ades: Pontus [-άδης: Πόντος (Γεωργιάδης, Καλγρεάδης, Φωτιάδης) ]

- outhis or -outhas / -oudes or oudas: Macedonia or Thrace [-ούδης ή - ουδάς: Μακεδονία – Θράκη (Λαμπρινούδης, Νικολούδης, Σπανούδης, Φραγκούδης, Ψαρούδας, Μαρούδας) ]

- oglou: Minor Asia [-όγλου: Μικρά Ασία (Πεσμαζόγλου, Κουρατζόγλου, Ασλάνογλου) ] -oglou comes from the Turkish language. It means “child of“

- akis: Crete [-άκης: Κρήτη (Παπαδάκης, Σαββάκης) ]

- akos: Mani [-άκος: Μάνη (Παντελάκος, Δημητράκος, Μαυροειδάκος) ]

- poulos: Mainly in the Peloponnese [-πουλος: Κυρίως στην Πελοπόννησο (Νικολακόπουλος, Αβραμόπουλος, Ανδρικόπουλος) ]

-atos: Cefalonia [-άτος: Κεφαλονιά (Δημητράτος, Γιανουλάτος, Γερολυμάτος)]

- elis: Mytilene [-έλης: Μυτιλήνη, Αϊβαλί, Λήμνο, Ίμβρο (Παπαδέλης, Χαμαλέλλης, Χωριατέλλης, Ξαφέλλης, Κοντέλλης)]

- ousis: Chios [ -ούσης: Χίος (Χαλκούσης,Παϊδούσης) ]

You can apply most of suffiexes to the four main categories and make variations. You can have Zervos, Zervakos, Zervoglou, Zervides etc. Some may not seem so “realistic” but, by God, I have seen the strangest Greek surnames and nothing surprises me any more.

There may be some areas this post doesn’t cover. If you have chosen the area I could find surnames from there.

#answered #greek surnames #surnames masterpost

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wexhappyxfew · 4 years ago

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SHANNON!! HELLO MY FRIEND ☺️☺️ hope you're having a lovely day!! Okay you know I absolutely your character Death, so whatever you want to talk about with him :)

KRYSTAAAA hello my friend! I hope you are having a great day yourself! You sent this yesterday but I wanted to take my time with this as discuss one of my *FAVORITE* things about Death in this post - appearance and reasons WHY he appears this way. I know we don’t see actual images, but I try to work with the description in Landslide to give Death, in my personified way, an appearance - because in my mind he has an appearance, quite similarly to a man - LET ME STOP MYSELF WE’LL GET INTO IT BELOW HAHA!!! AW THANKS!! :,) I’m so glad you enjoy it truly, that means so much and I’ve worked to really develop Him and His character all together along with His role with Natia because it is one of the most important connections Natia holds with someone in Landslide - even though they can’t ever speak - AGH I LOVE IT!! Let’s get into it!

SO -- we are going to work with 4 general images that I’ve always envisioned Death as and I’ll really talk about WHY I have Him as such because there are reasons why these pictures are the way they are and why I decided on these pictures for Him!

Let’s solidify two things first!

(1) When I created Death in general, I wanted to make Him a male, just because I saw Death as male in my mind and for the dynamic of the story it would work best. But for a spin-off from Landslide (there may be a few!) I’ve thought about digging into another aspect which is - in this sort of fic, Death is seen in the way the seer wishes to see Death, which I think is pretty cool! There’s a reason though Natia sees Death as male....ahem...Agent Mortem I’m looking at you.

(2) The two important things to touch on with the Death I’ve created - cloaks and wings - cloaks (+hood) have been broguht up a various amount of times already for Death n the 26 chapters of posted Landslide chapters and content BUT we have yet to discuss wings. I can’t jump TOO into that yet exactly, but that is the second most important aspect of Death I’ve crafted together! Keep that in mind!

OKAY...now that we have all of that put together, let’s jump into it - 4 pictures, 4 ideas - WE LOVE TO SEE IT!! There may also be a cut somewhere below - idk where, but it’ll be there! Enjoy!

AND AS A SIDE NOTE - THESE IMAGES ARE FROM PINTEREST SO NONE OF THESE IMAGES ARE ACTUALLY MINE OR CREATED BY ME!!!

FIRST IMAGE: This is probably the best, accurate description and image of Death in my eyes at least - I’m sure the readers have envisioned Him differently (just imagine He has a cloak on and it’s covering His head LOL!) - but in many ways this is my portrayal of how I envision Death. Almost looking as if he is a regular man - dark tousled hair, a grey coat, dark boots - the works! But he’s quite sad, this wandering person, aimlessly moving about and he’s quite grief-filled. And so, that’s a reason I particularly love this photo because we get the head focused downward to convey this portrayal of grief and how consuming it is. I really wasn’t out to make Death this emotionless person who just takes and takes - I wanted in my portrayal to show how much pain he holds - and how he is protecting Natia with all His might from someone like Himself because He can’t bare to do His duty that He has for eternity on Natia.

AND THE WINGS!! Okay, wings - we get more into the wings at the end of part 3 and extremely expanded in part 4 - but wings are extremely important. They are in fact black and feathered - I begin to reference him at the end of Part 3 as if he were a ‘Father of Ravens’ in a sense because of what a raven represents and for Death’s character I feel that is very true to his character specifically His role He takes in with Natia. You might even see him int he form of ravens as we come particularly out of Bastogne and the weather gets warmer - it will be very prominent.

I would say this is my absolute favorite - if you ever need a reference - this is image is 100% what I would have crafted for Death if he were portrayed in a picture!

SECOND IMAGE: Here is an absolute FAVORITE!!! (1) We know Natia sees Death essentially as male (for various reasons regarding Agent Mortem who literally is Agent Death or Agent of Death if we want - but that’s for another ask!) and so this I would say is a very good representation of the wings + ravens + eyes + profile of Death. The narrow-eye expression of his facial features if very prominent - Natia does much of the same - and let’s just say Death has picked that up as well. He sees the world really in blacks, whites and greys - similar to how Natia views the world because of Agent Mortem ( a morally grey character) and so I really took all of that and worked with it in this way! Natia, Death and Mortem are the mains in my mind and so they all see the world in grey - but who will break from that? They’re all connected with one another in many ways - who will break that?

But yes, in this picture, I go off the fact that in Landslide, Death will take the form of a raven as his best chance to get closer to Natia, to even try and interact with her and that is very prominent at the end of Part 3 and all of Part 4 and even some postwar!

THIRD IMAGE: OKAY - so here is where we get into more of the ‘cloaked figure’ that encompasses Death and this image of his cloaked figure. The cloak hides quite a lot of things and one of those things are his wings - which don’t really make an appearance until the end of Part 3 for various reasons! Which I can’t say just yet :) But it also hides his face - his expressions - why might you ask does he want to particularly hide that?

Let’s reference the most recent chapter update - Chapter 26, entitled Weapons Don’t Weep. (1) Natia is in fact a weapon, not only crafted by War, who makes his somewhat annual appearance, but also my Agent Mortem - who’s to say Death might’ve also crafted her? (2) Death and Natia have a unique connection - they can’t communicate through words, they can’t really communicate through much if you think about it - just feelings, emotions, thoughts. SO - this just adds onto evidence of how Death actually can control her a bit. The chaos that ensued at the end of Chapter 26 was a precursor to that - he can control her chaos, she can’t control his. The closing of his eyes - he uses a cloak to hide that he is abusing his power of control on her - and letting chaos warp her. NOW THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING - A MERE PRECURSOR AS STATED. We’ll get into it much later on and why, but the cloak covers wings + facial expressions for good reasoning.

AND THE HORSE YOU MAY ASK? Well...I did call Natia a dark horse right? The definition of a dark horse is “a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.” Not only is Natia a lone wolf BUT she is very much a dark horse - you don’t know much but she manages to win her battles - she may not win the war, but she will wage a battle and win what she must to survive, that’s the name of the game currently. Plenty of times in discussion - it’s like Death and Natia at a game of poker, in a black room (as described by a friend!!) and that’s very real almost every chapter that is written and published - a tension continually building, awaiting to see what will happen next, and just a constant build off of that over and over again. She takes on the persona of a dark horse more often than not - she’s underestimated, never entirely trusted, yet she survives?! People start to take that into consideration, especially in Bastogne - BUT THAT IS FOR ANOTHER TIME!!!! :D

FOURTH IMAGE: OKAY NOW -- this is sort of the expected image - Death with his cloak, a cane, dark gloves, shadowed face that you can’t see. This is the image I imagine when I am writing and Death is sort of watching Natia from afar - purposely I place him in those scenarios for various reasons depending on what is happening in that time during the story. And this is the image he sort of takes on. I don’t have many notes particularly for this image, only simply the fact that this is what masks what is portrayed in the first image - it covers the wings, the facial expressions, the man that is evidently underneath and simply that a man - yet a being forever wandering aimlessly, doing his duty given for all of eternity. But I really think this is what most will remember the Death I chose to personify him by! :D

OKAY SO THIS WAS SERIOUSLY JUST SO FUN OMG!!! This is the first time I’ve used pictures to really dig into what I’m getting at with characters - especially handling a character to the capacity in which Death withholds - there’s a lot to unpack with Him! But I truly hope you enjoyed this - I’m always happy to do more of these for any of my characters - especially even War, or Natia, or Agent Mortem - I might even just do it for fun who knows - OF COURSE WHEN I HAVE TIME HAHA!!! But I really enjoyed this so thank you for indulging and enabling Krysta!!! This was super fun to give my in-depth take on someone like Death and how I decided to craft and personify him!

#band of brothers #landslide #bob fic #bob oc #natia filipska #natia + death #we have some pictures we have some descriptions #we have analysis #we have just a whole lotta stuff to unpack here #YEAH ITS QUITE JUST CHAOTIC THIS ENTIRE THING BUT WE LOVE THAT DONT WE!!! HAHAHA

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fe8meta · 5 years ago

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The War’s Legacy

As a volunteer archivist at a local historical site, I’ve worked closely with books and documents largely between 150~250 years old. (If you’re curious, mostly regarding the period between the American Revolution to the Civil War, plus the anti-slavery movement. There’s also more “domestic” stuff like agriculture, science, mathematics, and religion.)

It got me thinking: In Magvel, how will the war, and the people who participated in it, be remembered? Most characters have a good portion of their lives left to live after the war too, but for those who are remembered down the line, their participation in the war will probably be their biggest accomplishment.

To start things off: more likely than not, anyone who wasn’t royalty or an important military figure is probably going to get forgotten, especially if fighting in the war was their only achievement.

(From my experience as an archivist, I’ve noticed that a great deal of people who were seen as the big movers and thinkers during their time have been lowered to one-note and forgettable in some 150-ish years of history. That’s not a lot of time!)

I think the list of characters who are remembered decades after their deaths on a continental scale (some characters may remain important figures in their own communities) would be the royals, the generals (Seth plus the Imperial Generals), and the Demon King (plus his cult).

The Royals

Ephraim: Regarding the war, Ephraim will probably get his war strategies and accomplishments written about. I expect a great deal of historians (particularly Renaian ones) debating his decision to abandon his homeland and bring the fight into Grado, though his later decisions will probably receive praise.

Eirika: Honestly? I think she’ll largely receive praise from future historians. Despite getting tricked at Renvall and the blunder of losing the Sacred Stone (on her route), I think historians would agree that her calculations were solid based on the information she knew at the time. Even if she had Seth advising her, she had no formal training in tactics or the art of war, making her achievements even more impressive.

~ / ~ / ~

Innes: Like Eirika, I think he’d be validated by historians, particularly for being the only one to actually predict and prepare for a wartime scenario. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but based on what we know of him story-wise, he probably would go down as one of the best leaders of his time.

Tana: She’s gutsy and I think she’ll at least become a popular figure for young women. Some historians may lambast her earlier captures attributable to her inexperience, but hey, if she got out alive than it’s not too bad. I think later in life, being largely free to do whatever she wants (within reason), she’d continue onto a path of public service, which she can probably gather great acclaim for.

~ / ~ / ~

L’Arachel: I think a lot of attention will go towards her theatrics. If you go with the idea that L’Arachel doesn’t actually lead her country (see the Solo Endings JP vs. EN post for details), I think her relationship with the other royals and how she’s involved in continental politics will be the primary focus in biographies. (She also, perhaps not coincidentally, has supports with all the other ruling royals, discounting Tana as she canonically never lands in a leadership position.)

Joshua: Joshua’s reputation will be very, very mixed down the line. He’s still has wanderlust and a gambling addiction, and regardless of his accomplishments as a king and Jehanna’s glorious revival, neither of those traits are a particularly good look. Not to mention that he abandoned his duty as prince for a solid 10 years, and then left Jehanna to its own devices again while going to stop the Demon King.

Even in Joshua’s dialogue after the final battle, he talks about returning to Jehanna in an almost resigned manner; no doubt he knows full well that he might not be received with open arms.

~ / ~ / ~

Lyon: Oh boy, what to say about Lyon. There are a lot of different ways this can go, branching from 3 options: Lyon’s involvement in the war is revealed in full, Lyon’s involvement is revealed but doctored to paint him in a more sympathetic light, or it gets entirely covered up/omitted and he goes down in history as an unfortunate casualty of the war.

No matter how you slice the first two options, Lyon’s legacy would definitely be extremely mixed, leaning towards the negative side. Not only is he on the wrong side of history, he’s also forced basically half the continent into the wrong side of history and ruined their military and did some very amoral things (reviving his father to use as a puppet, and by extension lying to the public, etc). Even the best doctoring can probably only redeem Lyon’s reputation from “the deepest depths of the sewers” to “neck-deep in the sewers.”

In the case where Lyon’s involvement in the war is covered up, it’s still only a matter of time before someone figures out the truth. With enough time, it can be relegated to a highly plausible and hotly-debated theory, but even so, it’s simply a matter of time. For an additional dose of irony, in this scenario, perhaps Grado nationalists down the line twist Lyon’s war into something “assertive” and depict it as the “correct” thing to do, when it was really anything but.

Vigarde: He’s in the same boat as Lyon. It really hinges on how the royals choose to depict Lyon’s situation to the public, because that will directly affect how Vigarde is seen. There’s little doubt that puppet!Vigarde’s actions probably destroyed popular opinion of him during the War. Whether he is redeemed on account of his situation or not is up for debate.

(Because the game doesn’t delve into Fado, Hayden, or Mansel much, I don’t have enough input to say how they’ll be seen by future historians.)

The Generals

Seth: He’s going to go down in history as a badass, let’s be real here. Took an attack from Valter himself to protect Eirika, didn’t let the injury debilitate him from fighting on the frontlines, mentored Eirika in the art of war during life-or-death battles, guided the twins on their journey, and continued helping them after the war’s end. Guy got things done, regardless of his personal sentiment about failing to protect King Fado.

Syrene: Technically a commander and not a general, but close enough that I’ll consider her. She... honestly doesn’t do that much on-screen. Doubtlessly she’ll be best remembered (on the battlefield) for being overpowered by the remnant of Grado’s forces, but at least she lived and (by the player’s discretion) kept all the villagers safe, so that’s something. At the very least, a coward she is not.

Carlyle: He’s going down in infamy. Like, his story can be crudely summed up as “I was loyal to Queen Ismaire partially because I wanted to bang her.” Yeah, that is not a good look. There isn’t even any interesting speculation or interpretations to make of his situation. He probably ruined the reputation of the Jehannan Army while he was at it.

Honestly, the only thing that would salvage his reputation is the fact that everyone who heard his confession is dead by the end of that battle. (Technically the map was a Seize Throne and not a Rout, but let’s be real -- we killed those guards.)

~ / ~ / ~

Duessel: The only Grado general to make it out alive. He’ll probably get a mixed reaction; those who praise him argue that he made the morally correct choice and had the nation’s best interests at heart. Some may criticize him for not acting sooner, while others may very well despise him as a traitor to the nation.

Selena: Another set of mixed reactions, though inverse from Duessel’s. She remained loyal to Vigarde to the very end, but people will debate where a knight’s loyalty should lie. It would also invite much debate over the ethics of Vigarde’s recruitment methods and whether it was a thinly-veiled manipulation tactic that citizens from poorer areas will fall for because it’s the only way to improve their livelihoods.

Glen: He’s like Syrene, except he died without doing much. If someone is interested in finding out more about him before his death, at least they have Cormag to interview. Depending on whether his two adjutants survived against Valter’s goons, if someone tracked them down, they might get a story out of them as well. That said, his history with Valter would probably be of great interest to Valter’s biographers.

~ / ~ / ~

Valter: Historians, psychologists, and scholars will have a field day with him and his circumstances. From his upbringing to his descent into madness and subsequent exile, to his reinstatement and brutality during the war before his ultimate death, there is a lot to unpack with him. People tend to have morbid curiosities and oh, will Valter sate that appetite.

Caellach: Caellach will probably be praised for being good at what he did even if he was ultimately on the wrong side of history. Since he started off as a mercenary, I feel like people won’t judge him too harshly. His potential betrayal and murder of Aias will be an interesting chapter to write about, though, since historians may have access to more knowledge on their pre-war relationship that we players don’t have.

Riev: He’s ugly, a Demon King cultist, and directly responsible for Lyon’s (and by extension, Grado’s) downfall. He’s going to be reviled for sure, though he will spark some interesting discussion relating to his history with the Rausten Church. A lot of speculation on how he came to became an adherent of the Demon King... or not, depending how whether that kind of talk is suppressed.

After all, if a former bishop converted, it not only challenges the legitimacy of the Rausten Church, it would also pique the interest of those who want to see what made Riev change his mind. And should someone also adopt his ideology, the continent can’t take another Demon King revival attempt.

Which leads me to...

The Demon King

Now, this will be a little game called “How many generations will it take before the Demon King gets relegated to a legend that no one believes in again.”

It’s also pretty important that the Demon King is not completely destroyed; he just no longer has his huge menacing body to use and will have to make do with those fragile human flesh sacks. But his soul is still intact, and if nothing is done to get rid of it for good, it’s setting up for a Part 3.

Like with Lyon, how information about the Demon King is handled by the characters after the world will probably have a huge impact. Not to mention the many implications the circumstances around his possession of Lyon has. Dark/ancient magic will most certainly face a resurgent wave of discrimination, far more than seen before. (Magvel was, from what we could see, largely apathetic about dark magic before Lyon’s attempts to redeem its name. Ironically, his actions will rekindle hatred towards it.)

As aforementioned, educating people on the Demon King and how dangerous he is may help ensure that nobody tries to mess with him again. On the other hand, it may inspire copycats who for whatever reason want the Demon King to be revived. (The game also never followed up on the implication that there’s a cult that worships the Demon King; we killed Riev and Novala, and destroyed Fomortiis’ body, but there may still be more members lurking in the dark.)

Meanwhile, trying to bury information about Fomortiis can also backfire down the line, especially if people don’t learn what the Sacred Stone is for and one day crack the seal open for one reason or another. (And we saw how well keeping the true Stone hidden behind trinkets while keeping its wearer in the dark of its true purpose went.)

This is making me imagine Demon King apologists down the line that provide an “alternative history” about the war and how it’s all some ancient conspiracy to lock him away and he “isn’t actually bad, just misunderstood”...

Oh hey, isn’t that the direction Dragalia Lost’s main story is going in?

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 5 years ago

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 10: MJ has too much faith in the POSSIBILITY of redemption

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Last time I examined how MJ was repeating Peter’s ‘original sin’ in allowing Beck to not face justice. However I also raised the idea that the situation is different as Beck/his crew are arguably seeking redemption. Does that hold up to scrutiny? Well that’s what this instalment is all about.

At face value the crooks in the story certainly seem like they are seeking redemption.

Beck in particular is trying to make some form of amends and produce something good before he dies. It’s an opportunity he wants to extend to his fellow criminals (along with former felons).

Is shutting down this opportunity really something Mary Jane would do?

Yep.

Let’s ignore for a moment how MJ’s efforts to help her friend Lorraine failed and she was totally tricked by her. After all Lorraine might’ve been doing something illegal but she was the real victim in that situation.

Instead let’s look at some examples from Spider History where Peter encountered seemingly reforming criminals.

Black Cat

The most significant is perhaps that of the Black Cat; a.k.a. Felicia Hardy. Mary Jane doesn’t necessarily have an in depth knowledge of the ups and downs of Peter and Felicia’s relationship. But she would know that for a time Felicia was a criminal who reformed into a fellow crime fighter and then betrayed Peter by framing him for a crime. This all came to light in Spec #129.

Felicia reformed again after that and, after a very rough (somewhat violent) start, befriended MJ and became an ally to Peter. One of the key events that led to the thawing of Felicia’s relationship with the Parker family was her aiding a temporarily depowered Spidey. This occurred in ASM #342-343.

In these issues she helped the powerless Spidey defend innocents, protected him personally and bought time for him to regain his powers. These events entailed risking her life, enduring several injuries, losing her own powers (again temporarily) in the process. Specifically she had to single handedly battle a group of villains most of whom were beyond her weight class.

During and after these events Felicia showed signs of sincerely learning to love the Parkers’ friend Flash Thompson and wanting to start a new (costume free) chapter of her life with him. This was particularly notable because she had previously been dating Flash as a way to get back at Peter for marrying Mary Jane.

However, over consequent years though Felicia vacillated between anti-hero and outright criminal. Many people regard some of these takes out of character for Felicia post-OMD.

However, even before OMD Felicia was still vacillating in her moral alignment. Case in point, in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #5, Felicia reveals she is working for the gang lord known as the Owl. Although she claims she has boundaries she won’t cross whilst in his employ, Peter is still unhappy with her new job.

The facts are Felica was never consistently on the straight and narrow, a fact Peter and MJ were all too aware of.

Sandman

Perhaps a more apt example can be found in the case of the Sandman; a.k.a. Flint Marko. In Marvel Team-Up #138 Sandman was trying to go straight. In the course of the story he defended his neighbours from the Enforcers and actively saved Spider-Man’s life in the process. After the battle Spidey presumes there are outstanding warrants for Sandman’s arrest and tries to bring him in.

Sandman calmly explains he’s trying to reform and requests Spidey let him go. Spidey contemplates the idea because Sandman seems sincere but also considers that he’d be repeating the same mistake he made with Uncle Ben. As such he apologetically explains he can’t take the risk and prepares to apprehend Marko.

Unbeknownst to Spider-Man the last crook standing tosses a grenade his way. Sandman warns Spidey and intercepts the blast, both actions saving Peter’s life.

Spidey leaves the scene uncertain if Sandman survived and how to feel about his alleged attempts to reform.

Spidey and Sandman encountered one another again in ASM #280-281. By chance Marko came across Spidey and mercenary Silver Sable at the mercy of several super villains. He once again saved Spidey’s life.

Soon after this Silver Sable officially hired him. It should be bared in mind that Sable has access to advanced weapons and highly trained soldiers. Perhaps more importantly though, as the ruler of Symkaria she was international political resources. As such it’s likely that Spidey figured Sandman’s outstanding crimes were either pardoned or he was working off his debt to society. And were he to hypothetically get out of line Sable had the resources to reign him in. Later Sandman would join the Avengers, which would be enough for most people to give him the benefit of the doubt, including Spidey or MJ.

Sandman’s alignment with both Silver Sable and the Avengers was a matter of public record. MJ would’ve heard about it just via osmosis; Avengers activities are normally big news after all. Even if she hadn’t, Peter would’ve talked about it because (as discussed in prior instalments) he usually clues her into his super hero life. Sandman being one of the few villains of his to have reformed? That’d not be a topic that’d go undiscussed.

However, for reasons we need not cover extensively, Sandman returned to crime. This too was a matter of public record and MJ was very aware of it since Sandman tussled with Spidey during this time. If nothing else she’d have known he was a villain again from his alliance with Doc Ock in ‘Ends of the Earth’.

Venom

Another Spidey villain who flirted with reform was of course Venom. There have been many ups and downs in Peter’s relationship with both the Venom symbiote itself and its most famous host Eddie Brock. For the purposes of this essay though we’re just going to be focussing upon events that transpired in the 1990s.

The first of these occurred in ASM #362 where Peter controversially formed an alliance with Venom to stop his sadistic spawn Carnage. Peter banked upon Venom’s sense of justice and desire to protect innocents as a way to gain his aid, but he also had to promise to allow Venom to walk free when their mission was complete.

As it turned out though that was a risk Peter wasn’t willing to take. This was he had secretly plotted for the Fantastic Four to capture Venom once Carnage had been dealt with.

It’s worth remembering that Mary Jane had had a particularly bad experience when Venom first showed up and dealing with him was as much for her protection as for the world’s at large.

At the conclusion of their next encounter (ASM #375), Spidey and Venom made another arrangement. This controversial deal amounted to Spidey allowing Venom to walk free in exchange for Venom staying away from him. Peter’s rationale for this deal was born from a ‘live to fight another day’ mentality as he was exhausted and would’ve likely died had he continued to fight Venom. Mere moments after agreeing to this though Peter tried to tag Venom with a spider tracer.

The very next story though (Venom: Lethal Protector) a recovered Peter tracks Venom down all the way to San Francisco and attempts to bring him in. Peter even acknowledges Venom being a disturbed killer and that his talk of ‘protecting innocents’ is bull.

During the course of the story Venom at times helped Spidey. But more importantly he refrained from killing Spidey (his life’s ambition) and asked for his help in saving countless innocents at the story’s climax. This was enough for Peter to temporarily help Brock again.

During the final battle Venom had no choice but to go through flames; fire being one of the things symbiotes are especially vulnerable to. Spidey is shocked by Venom’s selflessness, especially when Venom commented that Spidey himself would’ve done no different.

At the end of the story Peter tells MJ that he now believes in Venom’s change of heart, but qualifies that he’s returning to NYC in part because he can’t hunt Venom forever.

Essentially these experiences convinced Peter that Venom was sincere in his desire to turn over a new leaf, but that he should still be brought to justice nevertheless.

Inevitably Venom returned to his old ways and from there vacilated wildly in his moral alignment. As one of Peter’s most famous foes Venom’s activities were heavily covered in the news. Peter and MJ would’ve also kept an ear out and kept one another informed due to how personal Venom’s vendetta against them was and how dangerous he was. Basically MJ would’ve been aware Venom was rarely consistently on the side of the angels.

Boomerang

Next up we have a much more recent example, Spidey’s roommate Fred Myers, a.k.a. Boomerang. I would ask you to bear in mind that at the time of writing this I have only read up to ASM v5 #36 so events after that issue might further support or undermine my arguments.

One might argue that MJ giving Mysterio and his crew a chance at redemption is no different to Peter doing the same for Boomerang in very recent stories. However, there are very important nuances that differentiate the Peter/Fred situation to the MJ/Beck situation.*

The most important of these was that Myers got a full pardon for all his past crimes following H.Y.D.R.A.’s defeat in Secret Empire.

Boomerang committed crimes after his pardoning, notably robbing a museum. However, for reasons that baffled and concerned Spidey the mayor (Wilson Fisk, the ‘former’ Kingpin of Crime) allowed Myers to escape and even spun his crimes in such a way to exonerate him.

Spidey did let Boomerang initially escape but his rationale was purely because he didn’t know what Fisk wanted. This might seem contentious but it adds up when you think about it. If Fisk were the mayor then apprehending Boomerang would be tantamount to delivering him directly to Fisk, who is a far more powerful and dangerous threat. This logic would then extend to when Myers became Peter’s roommate.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, especially when bringing them in could potentially help a much worse enemy. In the meantime Myers living with Peter could allow him to monitor him (using a spider tracer) and gather valuable information about what he (and Fisk) were up to.

Peter remains sceptical and lays out his concerns directly to his other roommate Randy Robertson.

In ASM v5 #6-7 Boomerang took Peter (out of costume) to ‘The Bar-with-no-name’ (a hang out for super villains) for a trivia night. One might argue this situation echoes MJ being surrounded by super villains on her film set. But what distinguishes this situation from that one is the safety Peter’s abilities afford. He’s taken on groups of baddies before and most of the ones here are B-listers at best. More importantly though is that this presents an opportunity for Peter to gather valuable information, a fact that is framed as the reason he sticks around.

True, he also begins to enjoy himself but he also begins to empathise with them through spending time with them. Nevertheless he acknowledges that tomorrow he will be back to trying to catch them.

Peter’s reluctance to turn them in immediately can be viewed as a human flaw on his part. He empathises with the villains up to a point and begins to genuinely enjoy himself. Isn’t Mary Jane allowed to be flawed as well?

Sure she is, except MJ’s ‘flaw’ in AMJ is markedly worse than Peter’s here. In AMJ Mary Jane is complicit in several crimes via her silence and is allowing dangerous crooks with outstanding warrants for arrest to operate freely. Peter might be somewhat in the wrong for not turning them in then and there, but he at least intends on apprehending them eventually and in the interim uses the opportunity to gain information that will over all help combat more crimes. In theory he could simply put a call through to the cops or the Avengers that night. MJ on the other hand seemingly has no plan to apprehend the criminals she’s working with at all.

As the story progresses the Kingpin puts a bounty on Boomerang’s head prompting the assembled crooks to turn on him and Peter. The pair are forced to fight their way to freedom, during the course of which Boomerang provides some cover for Pete and a weapon to defend himself with.

At a critical point in the battle Boomerang selflessly takes a nasty hit meant for Peter; which leaves the latter shocked and baffled.

After Pete buys a little time Fred follows this up with an exploding boomerang and shoves Peter to safety.

Fred reveals he refrained from using his explosive earlier because he genuinely loved the bar; further exemplifying his sincere desire for companionship. In spite of this Peter still doesn’t regard Fred as redeemed nor reformed. Fred then confesses that he created robot duplicates of his old gang members (known to readers as the Superior Foes) due to missing their companionship and recognizing that his betrayals of them left him lonely. Moving in with Peter and Randy seemed like a second chance to him and Peter, in spite of his better judgment decides to give Fred that second chance.

What differentiates this from what MJ is doing (besides Boomerang not being half as bad as Mysterio and not backed up by a whole crew of crooks) is that Peter is giving Fred this chance after he has actively demonstrated redeeming qualities.

Fred might be lying about his desire for companionship (just Mysterio might be lying to MJ about everything else) but Fred didn’t and couldn’t have faked saving Peter’s life at risk to himself.

Actions speak louder than words and in AMJ all Mary Jane has is the word of a notorious deceiver that neither he nor his crew are up to no good and will behave themselves…you know apart from all the crimes he already fessed up to like identity theft.

In fact all of the instances listed above involve the criminals actively demonstrating redeeming behaviour. Typically these have taken the form of risking their lives to protect innocents and/or their enemy Spider-Man.**

However Peter has also not trusted them blindly.

In Felicia’s case she lost her powers so her ability to commit crimes was reduced and she had saved his life and been a crime fighter enough that it’s likely he felt she deserved yet another chance.*** In Sandman’s case he began working for someone who could arrange for his legal situation to be straightened out and had the means to keep him under control too. In Venom’s case Peter recognized his change for the better but never fully trusted him, merely letting him go because he was physically unable to find him. And in Fred’s case turning him over the authorities could prove worse than temporarily allowing him to walk free whilst Peter kept a close eye on him.

Mary Jane was either a witness to these incidents or at least would’ve likely heard about them from Peter. As I demonstrated in parts 3-5 Peter shares most of his experiences with Mary Jane. Additionally, her own sense of justice and responsibility is clearly shaped by Peter’s (to some extent).

So in the case of a guy she has no means or monitoring, can’t be sure she’s keeping an eye on because he’s a master illusionist (who literally has highly convincing holograms/robot duplicates), has no reliable means of restraining and has never demonstrated any redeeming actions to her she should NOT be trusting him to go straight; let alone a whole crew of villains…

…But if you are reeaaaaaaaaaalllly still unconvinced…let’s talk about the Black Fox.

The Black Fox

The Black Fox is an elderly gentlemen thief/cat burglar that Peter had an encounter with back in ASM #265. The story ended with Peter learning that the Black Fox’s latest scheme was merely his last after which he hoped to retire and be with his family. In response to this Peter helped the Fox escape, although he recovered the stolen goods first.

Years later in ASM #305 Spidey again encountered the Fox who in fact hadn’t retired. And yet Spidey once again let him go again out of pity.

In ASM #349 he once more found the Fox in mid-crime and let him go again. Afterwards Peter confessed to MJ that this cycle of behaviour with the Fox was deeply upsetting him.

Spidey allowing the Fox to go free once again actually resulted in a major incident involving Doctor Doom of all people!

After a concussion induced conversation with Uncle Ben (a creation of his subconscious) Peter realized his leniency on the Fox was born from a general sympathy for older men (who naturally reminded him of his uncle).

Having resolved his issues Peter was then capable of bringing the Fox to justice.

Mary Jane was obviously aware of this adventure as Peter actively talked to her about her hang ups with the Fox during the course of it, and it would be baffling to believe that he wouldn’t have then told her he brought him in eventually.

If MJ is aware of how Peter’s morality played out here, the repercussions of his leniency on the Fox and the internal strife caused by letting him go there is no way in Hell she’d make the same mistakes with Mysterio. She doesn’t even have the same excuse as there is no huge trauma from her youth inclining her to be unreasonably sympathetic to Beck or his crew.

The Black Fox is honestly nowhere near as dangerous, manipulative or as unethical as Mysterio. If the Black Fox deserves to face justice for his far less damaging crimes, then Mysterio and his cohorts ethically shouldn’t be given a free pass by MJ or even the chance to do something good before they’ve paid their debts to society either.

The situation with the Fox proves the dangers of simply giving criminals the benefit of the doubt blindly, whilst every other reforming or reformed criminal has either proven themselves somehow or done so within some kind of controlled environment.

That wasn’t the case for the Fox, and it certainly isn’t the case for Mysterio from MJ’s point of view.

Finally let’s talk about one very significant instance that some might bring up to counter all I’ve said above.

Let’s talk about Mary Jane’s father.

Phillip Watson

You will recall in the last instalment I examined how MJ ultimately turned him into the cops for his crimes for the greater good and even at the risk of her sister’s freedom.

Well in the Clone Saga they met again. MJ felt compelled to settle some unfinished family business and thus confronted her sister and then (separately) her father.

For some context not only had her father committed a crime, not only had he exploited MJ’s sister Gayle and thereby caused her to wind up arrested, but in her childhood he had routinely verbally abused both girls along with their mother and physically assaulted Gayle once.

MJ had major beef with her father over this and hadn’t let it go by the time she met up with him again in ASM #292. In said issue she even referred to him as ‘Phillip’ rather than ‘Dad’, father, etc.

It could be speculated that her decision to turn him in might’ve been influenced by this bad baggage. Although she was also uncertain of that due to her attachment to him and possibly perceived guilt over her parents’ break up.

In Spec #219 MJ nervously confronts her father. After making some small talk she is enraged when she sees he’s kept a picture of her mother. She feels that after how he treated her he doesn’t have that right.

However her surprises her when he breaks down in tears admitting he’s ashamed of how he acted and that he’s haunted by how he hurt and abandoned MJ’s mother. MJ connects with this, drawing a comparison with how she abandoned her sister Gayle in her time of need. She even states this to her father.

Spec #119

She manages to emotionally connect with her father and even forgive him. Whilst it’s only a start she feels complete and like in some way she has her family back, which fills her with joy.

You could take this situation and make a strong case for MJ being willing to forgive Mysterio right?

She did it for someone who had been a criminal and personally hurt her and her family in a very serious way. So why wouldn’t she extend that so someone who had also harmed her and her family. Harmed them in ways that might be argued to be not as bad as her father?

The problem with such a comparison is that it’s not exactly a fair equivalency at all.

To begin with, though he had been a criminal, MJ’s father had served his time and faced the legal repercussions for his crimes. MJ had no hint that he was in the midst of committing any other crimes when she reunited with him, nor that he’d be likely to go on to commit any crimes.

Even the crimes h had committed were far less numerous and far less bad than those in Mysterio’s criminal career. MJ’s father for instance never drugged and sexually violated a teenaged girl or attempted murder. And given his age, health, intelligence and history the chances of him committing further crimes if

Now there was a lot of emotional baggage and pain MJ carried in relation to her father but as evidenced in ASM #292 her feelings towards him were not black and white. A part of her felt some combination of guilt and loyalty towards him. Furthermore, when we learned of MJ’s past in ASM #259, she also revealed that following their separation, she tried to write to her father a few times.

Why would MJ as a tween/teen do such a thing? Why try to connect with someone who abused her and her loved ones, someone she intellectually knew was bad for everyone concerned?

The sad truth is such things are often happen in real life in similar situations. It is born from an immensely strong natural and innate need within all human beings to form bonds with our parental figures.****

MJ’s earliest (and therefore some of her most formative) memories involve her father, about how (in her mind at least) she loved him and he loved her. How he was the one man in her life who was supposed to always love her no matter what.

So even if he wound up far from that ideal, there is still a yearning within MJ on some level for that. Hence her attempts to reconnect with him both in ASM #259 and Spec #219, along with her uncertainty in ASM #292.

And that’s the single most critical difference between this situation and the one with Beck.

Beck is not her father.

She hasn’t got any positive emotional attachment to him (imagined or otherwise) nor is there a potent need within her to have one.

From her point of view he is simply a very bad and very dangerous person who has done horrible things, has hurt her and hurt the people she cares about. Someone who is doing something very bad right now and who stands a very strong chance of consequently doing further bad things that might harm other people (including herself and her loved ones).

Not to mention her father was not a slick professional liar like Mysterio was. MJ has no reason to believe his emotional breakdown is a performance whereas with Beck it’s extremely possible that he is just acting.

There is one other aspect of this example to explore though. Namely how MJ saw herself and her father as kindred spirits. Is it possible she sees herself and Beck in a similar light and thereby affords him the benefit of the doubt? Well, that’s a topic for another time.

Suffice it to say that all the experiences we’ve looked at would give Mary Jane a belief in redemption…but not a blind faith. For her there would have to be particular factors in play to justify such faith in the first place and neither Beck nor his crew fit those factors whatsoever.

Thus MJ would not give them a chance, at least not under these circumstances. In fact, in Mysterio’s case, she wouldn’t give him a chance under pretty much any circumstance. This is because, however much sympathy MJ might hold for the death of a fellow human being, her sympathy would only go so far for Mysterio. It would most certainly not stretch to believing him capable of redemption.

That’s a subject more for next time though.

*There are certain obvious physical differences in these two dynamics, but we’ll discuss those another time. Right now we’re strictly looking at MJ giving Beck and his crew a chance to make good.

**One could argue in saving Peter’s life he owes them at least the chance to prove they can turn over a new leaf.

***Of course we could just say his old feelings for her were affecting his judgement, but obviously that wouldn’t be a factor for MJ and Beck.

****There are countless examples of this within real life and fiction, a particularly poignant example can be found in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Will Smith’s character is presented the chance to reconnect with his father who abandoned him as a child and ultimately takes up the opportunity. When his father abandons him again he tries to shrug it off but his anger and grief is immense.

P.S. I shouldn’t have to spell this out but I will. Beck claims in AMJ #1 that he is trying to do something good by making his movie and giving fellow crooks a chance to help him. Despite the issue’s framing this absolutely would not count as a good deed. Not to MJ and according to just common sense.

Making a movie or a piece of art is not inherently a good thing. Even if it was as good deeds go it’s not the most meaningful or helpful. Certainly not the most actively helpful thing Beck personally could do.

It certainly doesn’t constitute a good deed when you consider the subject matter of the movie is himself. This is just a criminal’s vanity project which he is making with the aid of other criminals. Nothing more.

It is hardly equivalent to protecting innocent people or risking your life as many of the above characters did.

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#Leah Williams #Amazing Mary Jane #Mysterio #Quentin Beck #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #mjwatsonedit #spider-man #peter parker #Black Cat #Felicia Hardy #Sandman #William Baker #flint marko

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bloodraven55 · 5 years ago

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The Potential of Glimmer's Villain Arc

Okay so a lot of people have been theorising about what's coming next for Glimmer's character with everything that's happened in Season 3. And I have plenty of thoughts of my own so this is going to be my longest analysis post in a while. I'll put it under a cut for ease of reading, and I hope y'all enjoy!

So as an introduction let's briefly look at where Glimmer is now. She's getting ever closer to Shadow Weaver, and we all know how well that ended for her father, plus the loss of Angella is undoubtedly going to be hugely traumatic for her, especially because as she herself says she assumed that Angella would always be there since she was immortal.

Angella is gone, Adora is going to be under a whole lot of mental strain of her own due to the revelations she's had about her past and the pain of having lost both Catra and Angella for good as far as she's concerned, the rest of the Princess Alliance aren't exactly around a whole lot at Bright Moon, and it doesn't look like Shadow Weaver is going anywhere any time soon as long as there's power to be had and the Rebellion is where she can best work towards her own goals.

What I'm saying is, Glimmer likely isn't going to have much of a support system except for Bow next Season, and she's in a prime position for Shadow Weaver to employ similar manipulation tactics and methods of abuse on her as she did on Catra and Adora. Glimmer has no real experience with that type of abuse and manipulation, or any real frame of reference to understand the more nuanced form of evil that Shadow Weaver represents, and so she probably won't realise that she's being played and pushed down a darker path until it's too late.

So with that basis established let's look at some of the other signs that seem to point towards an arc of this sort for Glimmer.

One very significant thing is some of the cinematography in Moment of Truth.

First Glimmer is positioned directly in front of the image of her father in this shot, showing us that she's figuratively as well as literally taking the same position as Micah with regards to becoming Shadow Weaver's pupil. Note that she’s standing in darkness rather than in the light in this frame as well, because that’s going to be important going forward.

It’s also very telling that this shot comes right after Glimmer argues with her mother about the best course of action and first suggests accepting Shadow Weaver’s help. The visual symbolism of her replacing her father on screen reflects her taking the first step towards filling the same role as him in the story as well.

Then we have Glimmer flat out stepping from the light into the darkness as she decides to perform the spell with Shadow Weaver. Which is extremely Not Subtle.

Plus the angle of the following shot making Shadow Weaver's outstretched hand look bigger and more striking to highlight the threat that the offer poses.

And finally there's the way that the scene where they actually do the spell is framed. Shadow Weaver's hand extends through the circle, like a barrier is being crossed metaphorically, and again it fills the screen to make it seem threatening and imposing.

Meanwhile when we get the reverse shot, which I might add is clearly meant to actually be from Shadow Weaver's perspective, Glimmer looks very small and very young, an uncertain and far less powerful figure ripe to be taken advantage of.

There is no way that the tone of this scene was accidental. Without any dialogue being exchanged it's telling us that Glimmer is going to suffer for this choice---it's telling us to be worried---and it's honestly a masterful piece of television.

Another aspect that isn't hugely noticeable on first watching is the undercurrent running through the show of Glimmer's desire for power. She's not obsessively power hungry the way Shadow Weaver is, that's for sure, but she does often demonstrate annoyance at her own limitations.

"Glimmer is frustrated by the constraints of her magic, by the constraints of being a princess, the daughter, of this immortal queen — her mother is this kind of immortal, untouchable angel and her father was the best sorcerer that Mystacor has ever seen. And she’s in the shadow of that." (x)

This quote from a recent interview with Noelle Stevenson pretty much spells it out, and I don't think I need to mention the importance of the use of the word "shadow" here.

With all of that covered, I want to move on to something I haven't seen talked about as much, which is the ways that Glimmer and Catra are paralleled in the story.

"In some ways I think [Glimmer]’s a little bit of a mirror to Catra, although neither of them would ever admit it."

I find this quote from the same interview incredibly intriguing, and it gives me lots of ideas about not only the potential development that a villain arc for Glimmer could bring to her own character, but also the development it could bring in terms of her and Catra as foils for each other in the narrative.

For a start, Noelle then goes on to talk about how "it’s always been this kind of like losing battle for [Glimmer]" and I would like to point out the resemblance to Catra's lines about how she "never gets to win" and "if [she] wins a battle [she] loses the war", because this really does seem to foreshadow that Glimmer could end up in a similar place next season to where Catra was at the end of Season 3.

"So when someone comes to her and offers her more power and the ability to actually really save the day and prove her worth, she takes it. Glimmer’s also sorta crossed the line in the sand this season."

This part of the interview I want to bring up just to further prove that the way these things were written this season was certainly deliberate and it isn't reaching to draw these conclusions from them. It's apparent that the writers are very aware of what they're doing in terms of Glimmer and Catra's character arcs and the possible link between the two so I simply wanted to include this quote to give my analysis here a more solid grounding.

The one thing I'd like to pick out of that as well is the idea that Glimmer is looking to "prove her worth", which is something that has been the core of Catra's decision making throughout most of the show so far. In the past it was Catra making bad choices in an attempt to get respect and admiration from Shadow Weaver, and now I believe it will be Glimmer's turn to do the same.

But beyond that, I want to wind the clock back to the beginning of Season 3 for a moment, specifically to when Glimmer asserts that "evil people don't change." Adora is quick to point out that that is an extremely reductive mindset to have and far from always the case, though she does so by applying it to completely the wrong target in the form of Shadow Weaver who is almost certainly not going to be redeemed in any way, but that got me thinking about how Glimmer flirting with her inner darkness could be utilised in the story in exceedingly interesting ways.

The most obvious path is that through having to redeem herself for bad decisions that she made for understandable reasons, Glimmer would come to realise that things aren't as black and white as people being good and evil but rather there is far more nuance to be found with regards to morality. Basically, she would gain a greater understanding of what it means to be good or bad and the possibility of redemption first hand and grow to acknowledge that she was wrong to oversimplify it down to a binary choice of people being immutably good or evil and never able to change.

However, I would also like to discuss how Glimmer's villain arc could intersect with Catra's redemption arc. Glimmer has always balked at Adora's attempts to get through to Catra, telling her that Catra is evil because she's with the Horde and dismissing the notion of a redemption for her. But if Glimmer sinks to that same point---if she hits rock bottom the way Catra did---and she sees Catra pick herself back up and rebuild herself successfully to become a better person than she was before?

Well, then that could provide some amazing inspiration for Glimmer to then follow in her footsteps and break free from the cycle of Shadow Weaver's abuse herself as well. Add Catra getting to see that the Princesses are far from perfect but fallible people just like everyone else on top of that, and both Glimmer and Catra would evolve as part of the same arc and come out of it with a much stronger understanding of each other and just how people work in general.

Lastly I want to bring up this quote that I’ve put below from a recent convention.

"Interesting foil! Catra is a secretly sweet person with her darkness on the outside. While Glimmer is the opposite."

As well as again emphasising that Glimmer and Catra are in some ways two sides of the same coin, this would definitely seem to back up my theory and indicate that Glimmer has depths that she herself doesn't even understand that are now going to be pulled to the surface by Shadow Weaver.

To add to this, in the interview I drew from earlier Noelle comments that "the way this season ends has major repercussions for Glimmer. It throws her into a world that she never expected to be in." I think the second half of that quote is key. Glimmer never realised that she had this darkness within her, let alone expected to tap into it, and this is why it could lead to serious growth for her as a person to discover the worst of herself and in the end choose to cultivate the best of herself despite that.

There’s one more layer to the Glimmer/Catra aspect of all this as well if you combine this theory with the concept of Micah being alive and mentoring Catra during her redemption process. Because it would link Glimmer and Catra even more closely and beyond that it would create a great call back to the fact that this arc started with Glimmer being paralleled with her father.

And if Catra does work with the Rebellion at some point in the distant future, this could also serve as a starting point for the two of them constructing a friendship using the foundation of that shared similar experience (and also a shared father figure potentially) as they learn how to be part of the same team. It might also play into restoring Adora's faith in the people around her as seemingly losing Glimmer to darkness so soon after losing Catra the same way would undoubtedly nearly destroy her and it would give her some much-needed motivation to see both of them pull themselves back from that.

Anyway, there we have it. Those are all of my thoughts on why I do definitely see some kind of villain arc for Glimmer, and how I think it could be an excellent addition to the show for a number of reasons. Thanks for reading and see y'all next time.

#she ra #spop #glimmer #shadow weaver #catra #adora #she ra glimmer #she ra shadow weaver #she ra catra #she ra adora #spop glimmer #spop shadow weaver #spop catra #spop adora #she ra meta #spop meta #my meta

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dukeofriven · 6 years ago

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Okay, I’ve looked into the Young Wizards series and... I have questions. It seems to be just the usual fantasy where light is good, dark is evil, and thinking is bad. I read the whale book a long time ago and didn’t think it was very interesting, but it was a long time ago. I also saw you mention an asexual character? Are they a good person and not the usual heartless freak stereotype? Even then, I’m not sure if one positive rep is worth reading a series it seems like I wouldn’t enjoy. Any help?

Young Wizard is the most thinking-positive book series I can think of. If I wizard doesn’t know their shit, the die. if they go to the moon not knowing their exact breathing rate and take along enough oxygen for the trip they asphyxiate to death. The entire point of the wizardly speech is that before you utter a syllable you have to think about what it is you have to do - not just from a technical standpoint, but in accordance with that most important precept of the Wizard’s Oath, that a wizard “will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened.” At its best it is a philosophic musings on just about anything you can think of, especially as the series goes on and kids who started as 12 year olds find themselves facing adulthood. What does it mean to kill in the service of life? What does it mean to take you human biases out into the universe when you find yourselves facing aliens who don’t even think of the same dimensional plane as you? Questions are constantly asked about morality, love, mortality, the ritual of death, the right and wisdom of youth employing agency and - as the books go on, the nature of gender, of sex, of the importance of so complex a relationship as friendship.If you’ve only read the first book then yes, its presentation of good and bad are written more overtly in terms of light/dark than later books. Even by book 2, however, the protagonists spend most of their time becoming a bloodthirsty, violent shark (one of the series’ best characters), and they (the protagonists) have to unlearn their biases and thinking this shark as ‘evil’ just because he kills and consumes without hesitation or remorse. he is not evil, merely different, his purpose in life -and in the ecosystem - exactly what the Earth requires: to change his nature based purely on human notions of morality would be itself an amoral act.In Young Wizards dark is many things, but is never evil in and of itself - it is merely an absence of light, which is not intrinsically virtuous either, just a state of photos. Evil is always evil - it is corruption unlike that of useful fungus, natural decay, ordinary rot that happens in any properly cyclical system - it is an aberration in the natural order. It is not change, or the cycle of beginnings and endings, but entropy itself, of suffering out of a cruel and malicious presence in the universe - who may be neither so cruel, nor malicious, nor as evil as anyone might have first presumed. As the books go own so too does the morality within them change too: simplicity is often the first casualty of learning the world is a complicated place.Now, up-front, the only openly asexual character is a late-comer to the series , though she has a bigger presence if you read the supplementary material. That being said one of the series’ major characters has an intense relationship with another that they themselves are still struggling to try and define as they learn more about another. From our current vantage point in the series (which is far from over) it most resembles that which we would call ‘queerplatonic’ - intense, at once adversarial and supportive, incredibly close without being sexual, but also still something they are working out (which is difficult in some of the alter books as Big Events happen that make easily solving knotty questions of relationships harder than usual).So if you’re looking for an out and proud asexual character to be an obvious part of the series from book one, this will disappoint you in the short term, with the caveat. however, that sexuality comes into the series slowly as the characters reach and undergo puberty. In the first book they’re nowhere near that yet: sex and their relation to it isn’t even on their horizon, they’re just kids. its not even until book four that the idea of intimate relationships starts to occur to anyone, and even then they’re first interactions with puberty are more focussed on seeing if wizardry can be used to talk pimples out of existing. If you find that description of the queerplatonic relationship - as much as I am being purposefully vague to avoid spoilers - too vague, and you’re hunting for something more immediately about the adventures of someone openly self-identifying as asexual this may not be the series for you. If you’re someone who feels uncomfortable with any discussion or depictions - however g-rated - of sex then the later books, and especially the short stories (which deal with, amongst other things, an in-depth look at the indescribably complex socio-biological history of one of the series major alien characters and their species), you may find the later series not to your tastes.However: Diane Duane, the series author, would rather be thrown into a star than ever write a series that didn’t encourage children to think. I hold her up in opposition to Harry Potter precisely because she actual cares about morality: unlike Rowling’s cut-and-dried Calvinistic determinism, Duane gives readers no such easy answers: while the books are never so dark as to trick its characters into doing something seriously heinous, its not afraid to sit them down in front of the hard questions and say “other people can’t make these decisions for you: you’ve to make a choice even if none of your options are ‘good’ ones.” Good might be virtuous, but that doesn’t make it safe, and just because you’re one of the good guys doesn’t mean you’ll live to see eighteen.Oh, and yes, the asexual character’s a fucking riot - unquestionably one of the good guys, as are the series other queer characters, neuro-divergent characters, and characters for whom mere human concepts of gender and sexual modality would be not only inappropriate but downright inapplicable.Is it the greatest representation ever? No, of course not - but Duane knows, going so far to rewrite an entire book of the series to update it with a decade’s worth of new autism research and to listen to the input of her autistic readers who said the original didn’t represent them right. Diane Duane was writing polyamorous multi-species queer-celebrating fantasy novels when she was cutting her teeth of Star Trek back in the eighties - i can’t think of another fantasy writer who has tried so hard for so long to not rest on her privileges and stay confined in the heteronormative tropes of multiple genres.I think she’s worth reading. i think she’s worth reading more now than I did when I first read her as a kid. The New Millenium Editions (the updated, modernized books) which cover the first nine books are on sale again. (One of these days i will post my Preferred Reading order for the series, but the short version is that there are ten novels, two novella collections, several shorts stories, and three spin-off, for-adult books about cat wizards that are still waiting on a re-write to make them line-up with the canon timeline).Look, I think these are some of the smarted, most-thought books ever written - a refreshing change not only from a young adult market saturated with ditzy, consequence-free escapist fantasies, but also media so up their own ass that brutally murdering their own characters is the way they demonstrate maturity. the first book, with the youngest version of the characters, may be a stumbling block if you’re not used to reading about kid-kids, but it very much is a series about growing up - and how much more complicated that is than pop-culture always seems to suggest.

#diane duane #young wizards #ya fiction #jk rowling #swoodthis

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angel-princess-anna · 5 years ago

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APA’s Take on Downton 2019

First of all, whoever had the brilliant idea to have a 10 minute recap of the show before the film and include *those* scenes from S4E3 like.... it did not set a great tone for me. I had warning thanks to some awesome friends who messaged me, but yeah.

Anyway though here’s my very opinionated thoughts. For reference, here are the A/B spoilers.

tl;dr: this film did not give me anything I wanted, and really wasn’t about the characters, it was about making money. It felt like it was a farce, not a sequel. And Anna was grossly out of character. S6CS remains my ending.

This is my personal opinion, after one viewing so might be a bit knee-jerk; super long; contains major spoilers:

(sorry I get really rambly and repetitive towards the end)

One of the main overall issues was that the pacing was... bad. Like the TV show has short scenes but this was like... on speed. And a lot happened off screen and was just mentioned. Everything was very, very rushed. And it felt sloppy to me.

And it wasn’t so much that it was because there were too many storylines. Because there barely were any personal storylines!! And’s what was lacking. The heart of the show isn’t Downton the house; it’s the characters.

Something that I’ve always thought about the show, is that your opinion on an episode or season really does depend on your favorite characters (and/or why you like the show overall). And it’s the same for the film. It’s an ensemble show and that’s the nature of it. An add-on movie therefore needs to appeal to fans of all and it does not imho.

I’m an Anna x Bates fan, and a downstairs fan. And I went in thinking, well this is gonna be pretty classist to believe that all the servants would still want to be there in 1927 (the year however is not that clear in the film). But you don’t even really have time to think about what should be going on, because it’s such a rush of a bit of preparing and then the weekend of the royals being there. There was no time for organic personal storylines, more or less. Thomas got a tad but tbh, less than I thought he would?? Daisy and Andy are apparently engaged but don’t even act like it?

The film isn’t a true sequel to me because it’s not showing us where these characters would go with their lives after the show. The plot was chosen first and it’s obvious.

And that creates a feeling of disconnect that makes the film seems isolated from the TV show. Like it wanted to be stand alone, but also had to juggle using established characters. But it could not honor the 52 episodes before it. And I mean, you can’t cram everything people loved about the TV show into 2 hours, no matter what they all say. However, the most major issue is that the film is plot driven, whereas the show was character driven.

As I feared, the downstairs characters were caricatures. They more or less all shared one plot, or facets of it (barring those mentioned above). Even upstairs really didn’t have as much going on either personal life wise other than Edith and Tom (well and the new characters, but it shouldn’t be about them at all). But that is a fraction of the cast. This is not at all Downton Abbey to me, with several interwoven plots. There wasn’t 22 plots lines, nor 11 even if divide them into one plot per couple.

I primarily wanted to see Anna and Bates with their son, their much longed for child. But he was barely in it for five seconds, with only one of his two scenes actually with his parents, which undermines his symbolic importance in the TV show.

I really did fear Anna being out of character and concocting a stupid scheme. And then it turned out to be worse. She drugged someone and blackmailed another. W T F. It’s like Fellowes forgot who she is. Like okay she wasn’t drugged in S4 but that is really disturbing all the same, and why would Anna blackmail someone after she herself has suffered at the hands of it (i.e. Vera).

And of course while I am super super glad that Anna and Bates are happy and not being traumatized, I also would have like a sense that they overcame a lot to get this point, and that vibe is just so missing that it makes it seem like their film counterparts don’t have their TV show plots as a backstory. Hell, we barely actually saw that they were happy, given that their child was in one scene with them??? Where was the “devotedly raising their son” that the TV Guide promised???

I mentioned this in the spoiler post, but you know S3CS and the Marvelous scene? Why didn’t I get something similar with Bates toasting Anna??? You can be lighthearted and still be poignant. And that is what is missing. It wasn’t poignant with them at all.

I mean it makes sense that it’s not tragic and of course I didn’t want it to be. But it lacks depth and cheats the characters. Having a fun romp is nice, as is levity, but DA also needs to be poignant, or it's meaningless and superficial.

Like the happy part with them is really that they saved the day and the honor of Downton. Yeah nope. I had thought I was gonna complain about how they put the honor of Downton first before their child, but because of the short amount of days covered in the film, it kinda makes sense as to why we didn’t really see him but it’s that Fellowes put honor of Downton first before their child when he wrote this plot. We could gotten at least had a line of Anna saying to Bates, ugh the royal visit means less time with our kid.

“It’s got everything all the fans want”, except not only did I not get Anna pregnant again nor a whiff of a hotel (which I knew were pipe dreams but when you tell me the show is over and I can dream up my headcanons... LET THEM HAVE THEIR DREAMS!!), but I didn’t even get to actually see my favorite character again. Fellowes changed her personality to fit his plot, and it stinks. This is what happens when you make a plot first for what was a character driven TV show.

I cannot understand why Fellowes thought, ah yes, the favorite storyline people had of Anna's was Anna Bates Investigates. I'll pepper it with "fight fire with fire" and then make her... drug someone and commit blackmail??? (and remember why she said that line in S1E5? because someone was directly happening to the man she loved. Yeah). Instead you know, showing her happy with her family. The Anna at the end of the TV show is not the same Anna as S1 or S3. She had to overcome so much. While of course I don’t want overt references because I want her to have healed and moved forward with her life, film!Anna seems to have no knowledge of her past.

Why is this weird scheme Anna’s plot in the first place? It’s even worse than I thought it would be??? Because Anna has always been labeled a Good Person and also the “moral center” were we supposed to think that what she did was a good thing? Did he confuse her with O’Brien? Do all lady’s maids need to scheme and Anna hasn’t done enough of that??

And when you have been through a lot of horrible traumatic things, you want more mundane stories. Not some weird out of character mess. I’m very defensive of TV!Anna, but her two subplots are being rightfully panned.

Even though Brendan was also doing a play during filming, Bates managed to be in it decent amount. He didn’t really have plot beyond being in on the one scheme of Anna’s but tbh I didn’t need him drugging people either.

I know I ought to be grateful that Brendan was able to be in the film and that Bates is like... live. But tbh I feel like I deserve more than that. They could have made better use of Brendan’s time.

Also having BB (who I will still refer to as that because again, I don’t like the film’s name choice for him, and clearly he had no canon given name before now) in only one scene with his parents and then the gallery scene with the nanny like. Nope.

Again, I get Brendan’s limited availability but I really could have used A LOT more Bates Family moments, considering how long it took them to have a child. And... not like Joanne wasn’t available and they could have had Anna doting on him more. It’s just the one scene for a hot hot second. Like we had more of him in the end of S6CS and he was literally just born. YEAH.

Like Anna went through a lot to have him, and I get that filming with kids can be a struggle but for a woman who once said “when a woman loves a child, it must stay with her,” she might like... spend more time with her kid than work on her schemes. Fellowes basically stripped her of the one dream she got fulfilled after all the trauma, along with her morals. What she did here is not strength, let me say that.

It’s one thing to shove off the Crawley kids, but it’s for not a couple who not only longed for a child, but also is working class, and who we have always known would take an active role in their child’s life...

But yeah the lack of shippy scenes, like Fellowes wtf, married couples can be romantic, and I got no kiss. I have to wonder if that one still is from a deleted scene.

I mean I love teamwork stuff! But with A/B you can't just give me that and say "here have this it's shippy, haha #TeamBates!", (Team Bates has three people on it now though!!) and the film is lacking actual romantic moments or family moments. And a lot of Anna’s plot happened off screen so it’s not like we even saw him discussing it with her???

And sorry Mary, but one of those scenes with her could have been swapped to Anna with her child. And the friendship lines were so... again... just there, when it could have been really nice. And the scene where she mentions staff leaving to Anna and I’m like... can Anna and her family leave and get their hotel? No?? Did they give up on that dream??

(On a shallow note, the wigs were horrendous in this. Mary’s bangs/fringe was horrid, and I’ve already voiced my opinion about how I don’t think Anna would ever get a bob and damn that wig was so wiggy. Pro tip: if you have to use a wig, don’t cheat and use ones you just plop on an actress’s head. I think the hair was a sign of how out of character Anna was gonna be in this film.)

I get that the more mundane things isn't as exciting for the casual audience for a film, but if Fellowes wanted this to be sequel to the TV show, it can't be some throwaway thing. He has include furthering the characters' lives. And instead he stuck them in stasis, and forced them into these plots because he came up with it first versus writing what was logically next for them.

And that’s because Fellowes didn’t want many status quo changes (along with wanting it more stand alone and time constraints). I honestly am unsure what the scene with Violet is really saying. At a different time I would have said that if Violet died, that was the end, but maybe it was saying that Downton the franchise will continue without Maggie Smith as Downton the estate will without Violet (also that scene with Violet and Mary was the few that had depth in the film; Thomas could have been deeper imho but at least he had something).

I get that some people don’t mind filler, but the TV show overall was a serial, and if this is the new ending, I need more than filler. A/B got a baby out of the finale, what did they get out of this? Just stasis. That’s not an ‘ending’, time really hasn’t moved on, has it?

Clearly, the issue is that S6CS was written as the end, and the film only has that feeling with Violet and her health. The Bateses needed to leave and get the hotel. I guess maybe Baxley isn’t canon in Fellowes’ mind after all, but at least figure out what is going on with Daisy and Andy??

I have said this approximately 1 million times, but what I love about DA is the characters. If you aren't gonna build off of 6 series of backstory and go with the organic plot of the characters' personal lives, then no thank you. This film fails to be Downton Abbey to me. It fails to be a continuation.

Anna and Bates deserve more children, they deserve the hotel, they deserve the world after all the pain and suffering. They deserve all their dreams. You all know I love their son so so much. But what they got in the film was not enough. This was crumbs of what could have been.

Things could be worse but this was... not. good. And I fear that any subsequent films, if they were to do them (without Violet/Maggie??)... would also not have an sense of an ending. Let alone an ending. Which S6CS had, and was super poignant. The TV show left me in a good fulfilled place. This is a tacked on add on doesn’t do that at all for me.

And if Fellowes is holding off on certain things for future sequels, then when does it end? Do Anna and Bates only ever get the hotel if Joanne says no to sequel to the film (it would be easy for Brendan to say no)? Are we still gonna end up with more shallow plots that don't advance the characters' personal lives? Because when would Fellowes know to do that if there's literally never an ending again? BB came at the end of the show because Fellowes stalled on it on purpose for their child to come at the end. What was the end anyway. The film wasn't the future that they were set up to have.

I get that there was only two hours and you can only do so much. But that also proves that there was no reason to do this film if there wasn’t that many established loose ends to wrap up. And what I consider loose ends (e.g. A/B and the hotel), were ignored.

While yes, the TV show did continue because it was successful i.e. money, Fellowes had an idea because it hadn't ended yet. A/B potentially will never have more children or leave DA and get the hotel all because of greed. We could dream of those things still where the TV show let off. Now... I don’t even know. And it really upsets me that they took that from them. And from me. BB was my reward for staying when I should have raged quit (i.e. S4E3). There’s more to Anna and Bates’ lives than just being loyal servants. Quite a lot. So it’s kinda insulting.

But we are supposed to be happy they are alive! Be happy no more trauma! But I mean, it cost Anna her characterization. I didn’t suffer though several years of pain and misery for the movie to just be filler and OOC. I’m going back to the S6CS as my ending where Anna was actually in character.

If this was a film to a totally unrelated to Downton Abbey that Fellowes wrote, with a whole cast of characters that never existed before in some other castle, it would be a glitz fun romp (that’s light on human drama) but you just cannot force characters with 52 episodes of development and exposition into these "roles" for this plot driven film.

But for me, this is not at all what I wanted if we had to have this film.

#da 2019 #da movie spoilers #film: anna #film: bat #film: anna x bates #film: baby bates #film: my meta

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formerlyrunephoenix6769 · 6 years ago

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Catra: Journey to Redemption.

(Long post and spoilers for Season 1 SPOP)

In the run up to the release of ‘She-Ra: Princesses of Power.’ season 2 on April 26th 2019, I have been seeing lots of posts about our resident, ‘misguided; villain and all around badass who knows damn well how to rock a suit.

Yes, of course, I am talking about Catra!

The nature of the posts I have been seeing have all had a similar vein or sentiment.

“Give Catra her redemption arc.” or “Start Catra’s redemption arc.”

I am just as hopeful as the the next person for Catra to have a redemption arc, if that is in fact what Noelle Stevenson and the rest of the team have planned for the character. But one thing I will say, is ‘patience’ and a small warning to be prepared,

Catra is going to get much worse before she can even begin to get better!

Catra could not possibly even begin to start on a path of redemption by the end of S2 because at the end of S1, she hasnt even begun to explore the full depths of her villainy. (Being we dont know exactly how many seasons are planned, or what the overall narrative end goal is when it comes to the final conflict and Good triumphing over Evil, much of this is speculative.

We can however use Avatar Last Airbender and the industry standard of best Redemption Arc ever, in all mediums, Zuko, and their timeline, which I think Noelle Stevenson said in an interview that if a redemption arc was to occur, that they would like to do something that could stand next to Zuko’s redemption arc.

I will also be using Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, and his hero’s journey map as a resource but try implement it for villains)

If you would like to take a look at my thoughts on redemption arcs in general the feel free to check out the link below.

https://formerlyrunephoenix6769.tumblr.com/post/182640410231/are-all-villains-redeemable

I’ll be covering similar sentiments here.

Ok first.

TIMELINE:.

ATLAB is only 3 BOOKs long, however the number of episodes, 61 over all, containing 20 minimum in each Book is far more than SPOP’s standard 13, meaning that technically Zuko’s redemption arc played out over just under 6 SPOP seasons, meaning that Zuko’s penultimate episodes, detrimental to his redemption arc, ‘Blue Spirit’ episode 13 in Book 1 and ‘Zuko Alone’ Episode 7 of Book 2, didnt technically take place until till the end of season 1 and half way through season 3 ... going off an SPOP standard time.

Meaning there was over a season and a half between Zuko doing something right for the wrong reasons and also then moving off to really begin the start of his redemption arc in earnest, which he continues to struggle with right the way into Book 3 ( season 5/6)

The difference here, I would also like to point out is that Zuko at the very beginning of ATLAB is already technically way ahead of Catra due to him being physically away from his ‘abuser’ and direct control of the life long indoctrination. He also has one up on Catra at this point as he has a ‘Mentor/Guide’ helping to facilitate the transition and help him see the error of his ways.

Technically, this puts Zuko’s character development on the road to redemption (OTRTR) at least ONE season ahead of Catra. Meaning that his moment of ‘doing something right for the wrong reasons’ in ‘Zuko Alone.’ does not take place until at least the end of season 2, SPOP standard time!

In other words...

It's going to take some time for a pussy riot to manifest.

Taking this into account.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES.

We can not continue without addressing the fact that there are many similarities and differences between the supposed ‘villains’.

Both were the Scape Goat to a favoured Golden Child yet their interactions with the ‘Gold Child’ are vastly different.

For Zuko, Azula was an antagonist. For Catra, Adora was an ally.

Both suffered abuse from their primary caregiver, both were belittled and chastised for supposedly being ‘lesser’. However the fundamental difference is their reactions, Zuko continued to attempt to receive his Father’s favour, whilst Catra, on the surface didn't care, resulting in acting rebelliously.

Both have issues surrounding self worth and how they express it is vastly different.

Zuko is hugely unaware of his ‘Empire’s’ indoctrination and the imperialistic rule, believing the propaganda he was raised with.

Whilst Catra is fully aware of the Horde and its intentions.

And I think this is worthy of note!

Their ‘villainy’ and motivations are seated in entirely different places.

Zuko starts out wishing to ‘reclaim his honour’, prove his worth in his father’s eyes, and reclaim his birthright as the heir to the Fire Nation throne, in the words of his sister,

It is only as he travels over the next SPOP SDT, 4 seasons that he realises his true purpose.

Catra, is aware the Horde is evil, is given an opportunity to leave, but chooses not to, instead she willingly sets herself on a dark path to gain power and prove her self worth to everyone around her, esp her abuser, step mom of the year, Shadow Weaver,

Thus setting up the whole shenanigans of SPOP season 1.

CONFLICT.

As I covered in my previous post in the link above, a redemption arc cannot occur without showing that the ‘villain’ is conflicted.

A redemption should be a slow burn, from starting point of why/how they are villains, also showing the seeds of discontent, inner conflict, conflict of their actions, conflict of their ideals, whether indoctrinated/learned/or their own misguided musings, then later a larger amount of focus should be placed on how they have overcome that villainy and change of perspective culminating with coming full circle.

What makes Zuko’s particular redemption arc so good is the work that goes into showing this. The time, the attention to detail, not being shied away from by the writers, that intentionally trickles down and infuses with the character’s essence of being.

Yes, Catra is conflicted about her relationship with Adora and what Adora means to her.

This conflict about her and Adora’s relationship was partially resolved with Catra taking Adora’s motivations the wrong way, due to her own issues surrounding her self worth.

This ‘resolution’ only serves to push Catra further down the a dark path.

But we have yet to see Catra conflicted about her actions and dont expect to see that happen until after we see her fully embrace her villainy, which by the end of S1, she was nowhere near close to doing. (See Triggers and Turning points)

Meaning that “Catra Alone” might not even occur until midway S3 and actual beginnings of feeling conflicted about her actions, until S4.

TRIGGER A TURNING POINT.

So we have discussed conflict. Conflict about ones actions can come about in many different forms, but it must be triggered by something that is enough to shake the core foundations of a villains motivations.

In order for it to be believable and carry weight, a villain cannot suddenly overnight go,

And the protagonists accept it at face value, as the audience wont.

A redemption should be a slow burn, from starting point of why/how they are villains and most importantly, focus on how they have struggled to overcome that villainy and change their perspective.

The link below is to a previous post, with an avenue of thought of what could trigger Catra on ONRTR.

https://formerlyrunephoenix6769.tumblr.com/post/182601000156/catra-could-she-be-a-lost-princess-and-if-so

Another avenue of thought is that Adora is gravely injured. I am not normally one for such an easy and over done trope but in this instance it is highly possible, because as it stands now, Catra has never nastily physically injured Adora, only She-Ra!

(When she raked her darn claws down She-Ra’s back. Showing that Catra see’s a difference between to two personalities and isn't as of yet willing to cross that line... Maybe crossing that line will be a stepping stone to embracing her chosen darker path?)

In fact, Catra has gone out of her way to avoid just that, much preferring to go after Adora emotionally.

FALLING INTO OLD PATTERNS:

Even after ‘Zuko Alone’ and the Ba Sing Say arc, Zuko begins on a false start redemption by bonding with Katara but by the next episode falls back into old patterns by choosing to side with Azula as the ties that bind and the potential to reclaim his birthright is too hard to ignore.

Which is totally normal for a teenager.

This adds so much depth to his inner conflict, a catalyst that later cements his realisation at his true purpose, ushering him through the gates of his redemption arc, towards trying to make amends with the protagonists before they can accept him.

Catra strikes me as someone who will never be wholly ‘good’, in the sense of the word when it is applied to Bow, Glimmer or Adora, but rather someone who will make super dark comments and morally grey suggestions of how to deal with an issue, which is what we have been shown of her from the very beginning.

It is hard to say is Catra will ever have this step in a redemption arc due to her already morally grey nature, this could very well be skipped over entirely.

Narratively speaking and characterization wise, this particular part of an arc could present itself not as a ‘false start’ but could come from ‘Subterfuge and infiltration’ , whereby Catra pretends to come to their side only for her to betray them later, for her own ends.

OR,

We could very well have a ‘false start’, where she is trapped with any of the protagonists and they need to work together to escape, similar to the aptly named ATLAB ep 40 ‘The Crossroads of Destiny’ and SPOPS s1e9 ‘Promise’, which would be a nice mirror, from a narrative standpoint, only for her to run off and return to the Horde once free.

Again note, that this false start occured for Zuko the very end of S3 SPOP SDT.

CONCLUSIONS.

Before Catra’s Redemption arc can come to fruition , we need her to go on her journey. Something akin to this, but for villains.

On this map, if Resurrection is Catra being genuinely accepted by the protagonists as being changed and truly on their side. I would see Catra as in between Meeting of Mentor (Hordak) and Crossing the Threshold into full blown villany

So, we need to see her,

1) Become a true villain.

2) 1st Trigger.

3) baby Conflict

4)False start, falling into old patterns

5) 2nd Trigger

6)Conflict and Realisation/ (Seizing the Treasure)

7) Through the Gates

8) Trial of Proof.

9) Acceptance/Resurrection.

We could be waiting for some time for a Catra redemption arc to kick in, and please dont be disappointed or frothing at the mouth if we dont see it starting in Season 2... No matter how much you want it out of the way so that ‘other’ things can occur..

Please keep in mind..

A good Redemption Arc has to be earned! And doing it well takes time!

MEANWHILE ...

There is ALL OF THIS....

I dont even know where to begin starting to unwrap all this tension and awkwardness.,

Think I’m going to leave that for a an entirely different post.

#spop #redemption arc analysis #character analysis #avatar last airbender #catadora #catra #adora #glimmer #bow #zuko #atlab #prince zuko #catra redemption arc #formerlyrunephoenix spop analysis #long post

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tonightinthewasteland · 6 years ago

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(Almost) all my Fallout OCs

because I can

Casey Lee Loomis

Location: Appalachia, Vault 76, Forest Region

Age: 35

Casey is outgoing, hyperactive, a social butterfly and sexual liberated little minx. He entered Vault 76 with his parents at the age of 10. (Rumor had it that Casey had his way paid but Casey passed the examinations fairly and properly) However, he never performed exceptionally in the vault career programs and was remained childish in personality in the close-knit village environment. Life was comfortable in the vault and the outside it seemed a million years away. Romantically, he had multiple partners. Bordem, a perpetual need for attention, and raging hormones had him starting his exploration at 15 with the vaults library intern and he experimented from then thereon. He married the head physician, Robert Covington, at 29. They separated at Robert’s request one month before Reclamation Day and left Casey stunned and hurt.

The Vault doors opened in late October, Casey left alone and met Nate Cortez mid-November by sheer accident. Being his first human interaction outside the Vault, Casey sticks to this half-feral man like Wonderglue and regales him with cheerful word vomit day and night. One way or another, they spend the rest of their lives together. They rejoin the Brotherhood in the west and eventually abandon it for a life similar to what they had in Appalachia. Casey leaves behind his two children and their mother.

Canonically, Casey kills Robert early 2103 out of unexplored hurt and rage then conceals the crime in the nearby river.

Senior Scribe Grise

Location: Commonwealth, Prydwen, Citadel

Age: 38 (yikes)

Grise is a cryptic, zealous, and eclectically perverse snake of a man whose sees both his existence and eventual death as plights of a martyr. He is a direct descendant of Casey Lee Loomis but, as with the entirety of his family line, has disowned his name. Grise is the last in a long line of scribes with little over 150 years of generational dedication to the cause. He has no children or spouse.

He’d always been an outspoken fundamentalist and loyal Maxson-line supporter, earning him the chance to join the transport party that escorted the young Maxson to the highly-respected Lyons. At the Citadel, he faded int the background of a well-established hierarchy, slowly making a name for himself by fair means, waiting all the while the day the young Maxson might take control.

His slow descent into madness began after Squire Maxson’s encounter with the Deathclaw. Feeding off the buzz over this seemingly impossible victory, he discreetly shared his views on the dynamic purity of the Maxson line and its necessity for a successful future. Under the cover of back-door think tanks turned sermons and coded radio chatter, the Cult of Maxson grew. Grise did not directly influence any political maneuvers but cultivated a volatile environment.

His views of Arthur Maxson had gone from respected prince to indomitable diety, unable to see Arthur Maxson’s true moral code and regards the Elder’s distaste for him as a test of loyalty and passion.

Anita Stallworth

Location: Appalachia, The Mire, Cranberry Bog, Watoga

Age: 39

Anita is confident, sharp-witted, hard-boiled by necessity, and hungry for control of her future. She was born in Maryland but moved with her family to West Virginia while she was still young. Appalachia was an up and coming area that attracted her family with its scenic landscape and lively political circle. The bombs dropped when she was fourteen and home alone. Her father was away on “business” and her mother was having spa treatments done at Whitesprings. Neither one was heard from again.

While ransacking her mansion, members of the Free States found, took her in and raised her into young adulthood at Harpers Ferry. Despite her dispel of them, she grew to respect their tenacity but hated the isolationist life. She left them for an exhaustive journey to investigate Whitesprings for info about her mother and found the place clean and empty. After that, she spent a decade wandering in and out of Appalachia, mostly sticking to the Mire and Cranberry Bog, assisting the various groups for a quick cap and never committing to any one creed. She worked as a hired gun at Fort Defiance until orders got too expensive for their taste.

Out to find the next bigger and better thing that might give her the edge, She finds her way into the Enclave after Robert(who is supposed to be dead but I can have AUs okay) has already established his position and quickly rises past him in rank to General. She remains in power with Enclave.

Robert Covington

Location: Appalachia, Vault 76, Enclave Bunker, transient

Age: 47

Robert is cold, analytical, immensely reserved about his predilections, and cares more for prestige and security than anything. He entered the vault at 21, not entirely finished with medical school but flash trained at the last minute by VTU for the role of Physician in Vault 76. His parents: Mother being an investment broker and father a steel mogel with a military contract, did not make the cut for entry. Leaving them behind, and their constant pressure for acceptance, was a small relief to Robert.

In the vault, he was private and kept to himself in downtime. Interacting briefly with others only at social events and holidays. An occasional drink and rare sweet were his small pleasures, along with old westerns and jazz music. Casey and he met by way of a routine eye exam with Casey complaining of poor vision. Casey’s impulsive energy, bold speech, and flash-bulb eyes attracted and excited him. Going against his limited morals and instead of recommending Casey’s to another doctor, he forged records to reflect necessary medical treatment to allow for extended private time and constant access to his patient, much to Casey’s enjoyment. At the peak of their secret affairs, he placed Casey on a homebound quarantine with access restricted only to himself. The Overseer caught wind of the quarantine by word of mouth and demanded an explanation as to why the quarantine was not reported. When she seemed unconvinced by his excuses and suspicious “records”, he attested that Casey and himself were in love and feared they’d be judged too harshly for their relationship. She believed him only after speaking with Casey directly but, only barely so.

To keep up appearances, Robert remained with Casey as a husband for six years until a month before Reclamation Day, considering Casey a liability to his survival in the wasteland. Canonically, he is killed by Casey within a year. Nonconically, he joins the Enclave after failing to be a successful wasteland doctor with Nate as a hired bodyguard and becomes Anita Stallworths personal chew toy.

Horace Beaufort

Age: 58

Horace is an ex-resident of vault 51. How he managed to escape the vault continues to be a matter of discussion and debate. I speculate that his role in the vault was to stir the pot or take advantage of chaos. He killed several of his fellow vault dwellers before leaving the said vault.

His prewar life was not glamorous. He enlisted young and was dishonorably discharged for fighting a fellow soldier in a bar. He called it “working out their differences” and they called it misconduct. The whole thing became a monkey he let sit on his back his whole life and refused to come back from. He saw pockets of brief jail time for more public disturbances and drunken disorderly, “dabbled” in drugs and tried his hand at married life. He has two adult children he barely knows and an ex-wife that hates his guts.

A post-vault world led him into an equally unglamorous attempt at raider life. He fell in with the Gourmands for a brief period as a “hunter”. He abandoned them all as the gangs began feuding. Somewhere in there, he met his best friend, Duke. @avaleon

He now lives in the forest region in an old shack selling old armor and eating anyone that happens to come around when he is hungry. Did I forget to mention he is a cannibal?

Milo Orson

Location: Commonwealth, Spectacle Island

Age: 36

Milo is career-minded (Elder Maxson’s favorite flavor of solider), a dry-humored freelance mercenary turned passionate Knight. His hobbies include killing undesirables on and off the clock and building secluded settlements for R&R.

While Paladin Danse had tank-like capabilities, Milo was more stealthy and the two complemented each other’s styles to make for a powerhouse two-man team. Sharing similar past times, the men enjoy each others company outside the battlefield at Milo’s personally designed Spectacle Island settlement for fishing, sparring, reading, and in-depth discussions. Milo designed and built a top floor suite for the Elder in the Airport, complete with its own shooting range and full bathroom. The Elder politely refused the gift and repurposed it for storage.

Despite his odd and indirect advances, Milo was the mastermind and main supporter of a black-body-suited shadow squad that gained Elder Maxson’s approval. Unofficially consisting of Paladin Danse, Knight-Commander Alton, Elder Maxson himself, and Senior Scribe Grise, this squad was loosely inspired by and created to emulate the disbanded Lyons Pride. The mission remained constant: eliminating hostiles seemingly overnight when no other squad would prevail. The shadow squad was titled Purity Control.

Senior Scribe Grise was forcibly removed from the squad after being caught taking night watches on missions just to stare at the Elder while he slept.

Vance Ainsley Alton

Location: Commonwealth, Citadel, Prydwen

Age: 38

Vance A. Alton is fiercely loyal, gentle in all things but war, cautiously private and confident in his skills as a soldier. He is a second generation Brother that has three constant loves: his Elder, his parents, and jogging.

Full bio here.

Jacob or “Jay”

Location: Commonwealth, Prydwen, Sanctuary

Jacob is somewhere between a blown fuse and a Furby with dying batteries that cheerfully declares your impending death from the closet you tried to suffocate it in. He is immensely charismatic and flawlessly disarming with the best of intentions. Until you have something he wants, of course.

After surviving the end of the world to wake up childless, spouseless, and alone, he became numb to consequence and moral choice. Joyfully, he played all factions against each other, bringing them together at the Battle of Bunker Hill at the cost of lives, intelligence, valuable resources, and relationships. He was commanded to choose his loyalties and he chose the Brotherhood for it’s unapologetic adherence to its duty to humanity. He attempted to continue relations with the Minutemen and lost their respect after participating in the killing of innocents in the attack on the Institute. He became Elder Maxson’s first Sentinal and drinks with Proctor Teagan in his downtime. As a side project, he oversaw the creation a tavern just outside the airport with the Brotherhood reaping benefits from the small economy that surrounds it.

“Jelly”

Location: Commonwealth, The Castle

Jelly is known only as thus and was previously married to Jacob. She is trusting and fair in her judgments and has a strong sense of justice for both the human and nonhuman. She survives the cryogenics unbeknownst to Jacob and joins the Minutemen after the fall of the Institute and the Brotherhood assumes control of the Commonwealth. Provoked to rage and hurt by their narrow-minded views, she attacks the Prydwen single-handedly, separate of any faction or companion. She massacres the entirety of the ship, sparing only children, and takes the Captain’s hat and Elder’ s Jacket as trophies. She is appointed the new general of the Minutemen and wears her trophies boldly as proof of her conquest. She finds new love and comfort with Preston and long-lasting friendship in Curie and MacCready.

#fallout oc #fallout ocs #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #my new vegas kids aren't here sorry

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isagrimorie · 6 years ago

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[January Meme] - Discuss leading ladies in Sci-Fi TV

"Discuss leading ladies in sci-fi television shows. Compare, contrast, who do you lovel who do you not?" via @cleoselene

I’ll limit this to a few shows: Star Trek DS9, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Doctor Who, Star Trek Discovery, The Expanse, Legends of Tomorrow, Person of Interest, Killjoys, and Star Wars.

Breaking shows down further:

Space SciFi:

Star Trek, Star Wars, Killjoys, Farscape, Firefly, and the Expanse

Under Star Trek I’m going to focus on Deep Space Nine and Discovery and for me, I’ll pick Kira Nerys as the main leading lady, and for Discovery there’s Michael Burnham.

It’s interesting to look at both of them coming from different eras in-show and IRL. DS9 is the first time Star Trek tries something a little more complicated. (Not that Trek hasn’t done it with TNG but DS9 tackles things in a more in depth way, due to being a station with a set of recurring characters).

Kira Nerys was a rebel, a freedom fighter against the Cardassian Occupation and sometimes she also gets called a terrorist. It’s not something Kira shrugs off too, she knows what she did in the name of freedom. She’s very clear eyed on that. If DS9 were written immediately after post-9/11 this would never be allowed.

Michael Burnham is also a character of her time, where Kira embraced the morally ambigous side of her, Michael's comfort level with violence and the number of people who died because of her bad judgement sits heavy on her shoulders.

She’s not used to that, she’s a Starfleet Officer, and as a Starfleet Officer who grew up in Vulcan it’s not a prospect she grew-up with. Michael had a set path, which was derailed.

Kira and Michael have different-life experiences and upbringing. One isn’t necessarily better than the other, just different. Kira grew-up in fighting a guerilla war. Michael was traumatized at a young age and grew-up in a very emotionally locked down household. Michael struggles to find her feet between the two, maybe three worlds she straddles over. Michael chooses to be Starfleet.

Kira didn’t want to be Starfleet and only started softening on that stance later in the series.

ATM though since Kira has a finished story, and because she’s stayed with me the longest, Kira edges Michael out a little.

Star Wars This is another formative show but it’s only really recently that I’ve become really invested in Star Wars, with one caveat. I’m invested in the animated arm of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

But! Princess Leia is the OG and she’s the template of most of the fantastic women in the ‘verse.

This top spot is shared together with Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka was Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice and is instrumental for making me like Anakin in the way the Prequel movies failed to do. The other reason why I love Ahsoka so much is because of how she developed from a really snarky kid to one of the best characters in the Star Wars ‘verse. She has a rich history and an incredibly enigmatic future.

Space Opera

Farscape: This is such a fantastic, zany and colorful space show. It’s grand in scale and the acting is phenomenal. Everyone is fantastic here and then there’s the Radiant Aeryn Sun, a soldier who grows beyond what she knows and becomes such a vibrant character on her own.

Firefly: Space Cowboys, it’s only one season and as things go now I am glad we only have one season. This show had a lot of women but for me, the stand outs were Zoe Washburn and River Tam.

Killjoys seem to be a spiritual successor of both Firefly and Farscape. It’s another zany show with twists that surprise me, and really really interesting world building. It is also a space show where the lead is unquestionably a woman, Dutch. A former assassin slave Princess who forms complicated and complex bonds with people.

Hard Space Fi

‘The Expanse' has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to complicated and complex women. I haven't started season 3 but I know the season adds on with more fantastic women with their own stories and agendas.

Chrisjen Avasarala is one of the more fascinating people in the show, she is a seasoned diplomat and politician who always took an "Earth First" approach. This comes in conflict with several characters on the show who each have theth own agenda. There's Naomi Nagata a' Belter' who wanted nothing to do with fights and causes and slowly re-learn 8 to be one.

The Expanse is such a rich and vibrant story that I think everyone can stand shoulder to shoulder together in the number 1 spot.

The Douglas Adams Sci Fi

I mean, not really but I don’t know what else to categorize both Doctor Who and Legends of Tomorrow

Legends of Tomorrow

Zany doesn’t even cover this lovable show. It started out kind of a mess in season 1 and then slowly the writers threw the rule book out and what started out as a story with a standard squared jaw hero (Rip Hunter) and an unfortunate love story (Sorry Hawks) is now one of the most queer friendly and irreverent shows. The new lead of the show is Sarah, a former assassin and she leads a bunch of misfits accidentally breaking time to save time.

Sometimes they make the Doctor’s exploits... who am I kidding, they’re almost the same level of crazy.

Doctor Who

Speak of the devil, and the Devil walks in the form of a shape-changing ancient alien (at this point) eldritch and their Blue Box. To use the TV Tropes parlance: Doctor Who is the Trope Codifier. Doctor Who is space show, a time travel show, it can even be a procedural. Doctor Who is not stuck in one genre. It can be different things in every episode.

The force of Chaotic Good in their universe, and because of the Thirteenth Doctor, Doctor Who joins the list. Thirteen is a continuation of the Doctor we know but she is also someone new. Thirteen is a work-in-progress. It is interesting, in a list of ex-assassins and soldiers as protagonists, the Doctor has the highest body count of any heroic character I know.

SciFi Procedural

Fringe

Olivia Dunham started as a fantastic character with her own flaws and complexity and enormous badass-ness... until the moment the showrunners lost interest in her and started favoring Peter Bishop over Olivia. I still love her but it’s tempered by the knowledge of what happens to her character in the later seasons. Olivia deserved better. Astrid deserved better. Nina deserved better.

Peter Bishop took a lot of air and it annoyed me that the final shot of the show is about Peter.

Person of Interest

This show is so good. The final season might have dropped a ball a bit but man, I didn’t expect what seemed like a normal CBS procedural turning into a prescient, grounded cautionary Sci-Fi story.

It also is a show with a phenomenal set of characters and one of the best antagonist turned One of the Team characters in Root and then, later Sameen Shaw. If Fringe has superpowers and weird science Person of Interest is in a bit more grounded reality with one key difference-- Artificial Super Intelligence is real.

The show predicted the Snowden-NSA a year or two before it exploded, and it predicted that US elections could be tampered with.

So in this draft—- it’s really hard to choose, I love each of them for different reasons. Some stand a little bit over the others. This is a bit of a cop out, I know but I do love them all!

So, uh, DRAW!

#january meme 2019 #january meta meme #january talking meme #doctor who #tv: fringe #person of interest #farscape #firefly #star trek

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digikate813 · 6 years ago

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My Little Pony Re-Watch: Episode 51 & 52 A Canterlot Wedding

*I’m just going to be up front here. This is the episode, that made me a brony. This is the episode that made me realize how great My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic really was. For a long time, it was my favorite episode. So of course it’s one of the most divisive episodes in the whole series. So we’re going to approach this differently. Rather then go over events individually, I’m going to stick to talking points more in the style of my video reviews. If i didn’t we’d be here all day. So let’s do this.

*A big complaint about this episode is how Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, kind of comes out of nowhere. Maybe it’s just because I grew up with a lot of sitcoms, where siblings kind of appear out of nowhere with no previous establishment, but I just kind of accepted Shining Armor’s existence. Though it would have been fairly easy to introduce him sooner. Between the Grand Galloping Gala and Twilight holding her birthday party in Canterlot, it is weird in hindsight that he was nowhere to be seen during all of that. But again, it doesn’t really bother me.

*And i like the touch that his cutie mark is a shield and his most powerful spell appears to be a protection spell able to encase the entire city of Canterlot. It just adds more to my working theory of how talents and magic work.

*Twilight does have a bit of a right to be mad that she wasn’t told about this wedding until days before it’s supposed to happen. But hey, maybe that message that got burned in “Dragon Quest” was the announcement, idk.

*You want to sum up Pinkie Pie in one moment? The confetti sneeze. That is all

*Another criticism of this episode is the other character that appears out of nowhere, Princess Cadance. Now i don’t think the existence of another alicorn comes completely out of nowhere like many claim. Because there was that illustration in “Hearts and Hooves Day” that shows us other alicorns exist besides Celestia and Luna. And as far as we know, they’re all princesses. So this doesn’t break the lore necessarily, but I will agree that this at least was poorly established.Then again the show was never great at presenting Cadance’s role in the world, as we’ll go more into in the next episode.

*I will admit that her supposed love spell is both underutilized and morally questionable, but that’s not a discussion for this post. I think Silver Quill has covered everything on that topic.

*I used to hate the “Sunshine Sunshine Ladybugs Awake” rhyme and dance, but now that they don’t do it anymore, I feel a bit nostalgic towards it watching this again. Is that weird? It feels weird.

*And personally, I think the mystery behind why Cadance is so different from how Twilight remembers her works. Because while Twilight may know Cadance, we don’t. And therefore we can’t really tell what exactly is wrong even when the show tells us something is off. It’s not obvious what’s going on on your first viewing is what I’m saying. We’re just taking Twilight’s word for it that, if nothing else, Cadance has changed a lot. Being dismissive, insensitive, and hypnotizing her fiance to stop asking questions. But that last one probably isn’t that big a deal.

*The rest of the girls may be a bit too dismissive of Twilight’s feelings on the matter, especially after what they learned in “Lesson Zero” but Twilight does have a tendency to exaggerate and be paranoid. So I do get why they wouldn’t just take her word for it. It’s something that they could easily brush off as Twilight being Twilight and not as a red flag.

*Plus not Cadance is pretty good at being manipulative. Getting rid of her old bridesmaids so the Mane Six could fill in. Such a gesture makes it easier for the girls to get wrapped up in the planning and see Cadance in a better light instead of listening to Twilight.

*Lyra speaks! That is all, but when a famous background character finally talks, you acknowledge it.

*I love this episode, but Spike playing with the cake toppers constantly is a really lame way to keep him out of the story.

*Twilight confronting Cadance the way she did might seem like a dumb move, and maybe it was. But keep in mind. Twilight has tried alternatives. Her friends wouldn’t listen to her, the princesses are busy guarding the city, and when she tried to talk to her brother about this, she saw Cadance put a spell on him. She’s in crisis mode here, and wants something done to stop her. So she takes action into her own hooves. The only problem with this plan is that Twi doesn’t really have, proof that Cadance is evil.

*How much this plan backfires is kind of devastating. Even Celestia scolds her for this stunt! By the way the facial expression on Twilight when that happens is one of the saddest faces in the series.

*Then we get a really sad reprise of the previous song, but all anyone cared about was the cute little pointy pony style. It’s crazy how popular this style became! Some fan animation series are made just in this style. It is really cute, I’m just always blown away at just how popular it got, and still is.

*One of the best things to see reactions to in regards to this episode is when not Cadance engulfs Twilight in a ring of fire and sends her to the depth of Hell to cover her tracks! Okay it’s not Hell, but still. It was the best cliffhanger from the show for a while.

*How has the show never used these caves beneath Canterlot since this? I know there’s a line where they say that most ponies forgot these caves even exist, but could you imagine if maybe, the Diamond Dogs wanted to get down here or something? There’s potential to use these caves again, and I’m shocked the show hasn’t.

*And here’s where we learn what’s going on. That Cadance was replaced by an imposter. Now I knew what was going on because I knew who Queen Chrysalis was. That’s what led me to watching this episode. But the story is clever at revealing this twist. There are hints to fake Cadance’s true identity, but since we don’t know Cadance, we wouldn’t notice things like her magic looks different, unless you were paying very close attention to the flashback.

*Ah, This Day Aria. I’ve said that this is quite possibly the moment that sold me on the show for good. And i stand by that. The Disney Renaissance vibes you get from this gorgeous duet are powerful. Between the villain celebrating maniacally and the hero racing desperately, it creates tension and an amazing contrast, performed by the same voice actress. There’s even this clever bit in the melody of contrasting between an Authentic Cadance and a Deceptive Cadance. Everything about this song is marvelous! It’s a beautiful moment to watch play out, and a great way for us to see what the real Cadance is like. I love everything about it!! Obviously.

*I don’t think the way Twilight and Cadance escaped the hypnotized bridesmaids should be as funny as it is, but it is. It’s so funny.

*Queen Chrysalis’ reveal is epic! Her design is incredible and eye catching, her voice s sinister and distinct (I really miss that modulation though), and the introduction of Changelings into this world is such a great concept! The only part that’s kind of weird is that they never say Chrysalis’ name in the episode itself.

*Celestia finally gets to do something and fights back! Only to be immediately defeated. This is one of the most controversial scenes in the episode and i get why, but as far as the moment itself goes, I don’t really feel the same way. In the moment it’s a way to show just how much of a threat Chrysalis is while giving Celestia some agency. For the sake of tension, it works. No what bothers me is the larger trend this started of Celestia getting her flank whooped whenever possible.

*And I get why Chrysalis was surprised it worked. She would have had to take on Celestia eventually, but she might have figured she’d have her army with her by that point. So being able to get the job done herself gives her more of an ego boost in this grand plan.

*And do I even need to comment of the Mane Six battling the changelings? It’s AWESOME! The combat is exciting, there are a lot of funny moments, and between the return of the Party Cannon and using Twilight as a weapon of mass destruction, Pinkie is a master on the battlefield.

*This episode is also unique by being the first two part episode where the major threat isn’t defeated using the Elements of Harmony. Giving a great twist on expectations that I think gets taken for granted.

*Another major point of contempt with this episode is that Chrysalis just stands there and lets her enemies plot to defeat her. And I get that too. I do, but to me it’s not, completely unjustified. After all, Chrysalis’ plan has gone without a hitch. She’s managed to stop anyone in her way at every turn. Now that she’s taken away all major power, why should it be any different now? She’s deluded by her success and doesn’t see a way she can be stopped.

*The only way she is defeated is by something she wouldn’t expect. True and pure love. The changelings manipulate others to gain power from their love of the person they’re impersonating, and Shining Armor was their latest victim. Not believing his own sister because he’s literally being controlled by someone who says they love him. And it’s not Twilight or any of her friends who break that curse, but Cadance. The one who truly loves him. Simply by being there and expressing how much she cares about him. Add to the fact that Cadance’s magic centers around love, something Chrysalis might not have known, and you get an even bigger power boost. It’s pretty cool when you see it at first and beautiful when you think about it any deeper.

*Plus I love cheesy stories where love and friendship and bonds that make us stronger save the day. It’s really my jam and why i stick with the show. And this is one of the best demonstrations of it’s power.

*And the fun little trope twist of the princess saving the knight in shining armor. And then it’s both of them together that stops the villain.

*I know everyone’s made this joke, but because one of my most well know loves is Pokemon “Looks like Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again!!”

*Hey Twilight and Shining Armor’s parents are back! And they still don’t get any lines. Hooray!

*Props to Dashie for pulling off a Sonic Rainboom so flawlessly!

*Luna?! Where the hay have you been??!! Okay this is another complaint about the episode but this time I have to agree. Where were you??? The only props I’ll give here is that at least they acknowledged she exists. Unlike Return of Harmony.

*I personally think Twilight should’ve gotten more of an apology from her friends, but at least the message still comes across. Not only is there the power of love in it’s toxicity and purity, but also Twilight journey to persist even in the face of doubt. If something seems suspicious to you, especially when it effects the ones you love, pursue it. Investigate and see what you can do to help. And it’s because of Twilight’s actions that she’s able to reunite her brother with someone who genuinely loves him. You might not be able to save someone you love from someone who is just using them on your own, but you can do your best to find someone who can help them. Twilight may not have technically saved the day this time, but she played a very important part.

*Ending with a fun reception with a really catchy song and the reveal that Vinyl Scratch’s eyes are magenta and not red. Breaking the hearts of fan artists the world over... And isn’t that what we should really take away from this episode?

Screw the haters. This episode is amazing! I should really do a full video on this one because I truly love this episode. If anything, the criticisms has made me realize in other ways why I love it so much, and why it sealed the deal for me on this whole magical pony thing. So I suppose I should be grateful for that. There were a lot of other things I could have mentioned, but again, these are just supposed to be short thoughts. Like I’ve said, this is the episode that made me understand why so many people loved this show for little girls, and i will always be grateful for that. Next Time: The Crystal Empire!

#My Little Pony #MLP Rewatch Marathon #canterlot wedding #My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Review #analysis #MLP:FIM

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abyssiniana · 6 years ago

Text

«Have a Little Patience»

A Svemelle fanfic for @svenweek! I wanted to share my love for this underappreciated bean even though I’m a bit late for the event ;;;

Read it on >> AO3 << or under the cut.

The notion of time was something that very easily slipped between Sven’s fingertips, the sand in the hourglass showing palpable signs of passage in its rising levels but no footsteps whatsoever. He existed, he could think, he had needs and desires and fears, and shed a tear or two when he stubbed his toe like any healthy human being.

But time in space was a complicated matter, too slow or too fast or around dinner time, and in the enormous galactic scale, what was another loaded gun pointed at an Altean? The sense of purpose was diminished into a crushing nothingness in a reality where time was as ephemeral as life itself, a rush to get home earlier on a friday evening but the highway is never ending and the sun isn’t quite setting and you ignore the warnings about the ice on the sides of the road, keep your heavy boot on the accelerator and the road comes to an early end and you keep begging “It’s too soon, so soon, there’s so much to do--”

Now that he thought of guns, he realized, a frown darkening his Northern features - not like space had a credible “North” with associated general traits, he had to fix his vocabulary -; he never missed a shot unless he meant to, but he missed her head for more than a few inches, like, it wasn’t even close. It haunted Sven for nights in a row, but not the shot, the hell with the missed green light shot, it was her who tormented his mind. Gorgeous blanched gold in her hair and eyes of an amethyst freshly pulled from the depths of hollow agates in volcanic caves, skin pale but rosy on the cheeks and the tip of the perky nose. She was beautiful and perfect and the walking epitome of sugar, spice and everything nice but then…

Her marks.

Little crescent moons laying on top of her cheekbones, a gentle turquoise to go with her righteous attitude, determination worthy of a warrior in the eyes of a princess, delicacy and passion, simple attraction and downright want, a contradiction when Sven fought against everything her mere existence stood for.

An Altean. A sinfully, painfully, deliciously beautiful Altean.

Sven wasn’t sure of the nature of the contents the alien bartender had spilled into his glass, but whatever that lilac liquid was, it had traveled right down and hit him in a nasty spot; if he knew his intolerance well, which he did, the alcohol would be traveling right back up his throat soon enough. Nunvill more like Dumb-ville, Sven Holgersson’s hometown. Total population: one (1), en, uno, just this dimwitted nerd right here, with the buzzing neon arrow shaped sign above his head that read “THIS IS THE SOLE CITIZEN OF DUMBVILLE, THE IDIOT WHO ASKED AN ALTEAN, WHOM HE WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL, OUT ON A DATE”.

His forehead met the flat surface of the black counter at the intergalactic bar with a thud muted by the loud music that drowned the whole environment in this hazy cloud of induced comfort.

But time, yes, he had a point earlier. Time was an issue, much more so in space. Time zones were confusing enough back home on Earth, but with several quadrants and a multitude of gravitational pulls and people who simply did not carry a watch or share the same calendar, the blond Altean was late. Or so Sven thought. Maybe he was the one who was there too early; or maybe she wouldn’t come at all. Perhaps she was laughing with her assigned platoon, mocking the rebel fighter who had the nerve to forget his place, his ethics and morals and soldier training, for the selfish request of a pretty lady accompanying him for dinner.

Time was consuming and Sven was nursing it further away with a bad drink and broken hopes.

A pair of mutant gorillas regulated the entrance, determining if certain attendants were allowed inside - that seemed like a pretty useless or poorly done job since Sven had walked right in without being asked anything at all, the two guards excitedly discussing something in their native language. The bartender had several arms poking out of his sides, similarly to his friend Slav, only he was not nearly as chatty, thank the Lord. He offered no more than a nod at the orders and brought them back without as much as a smile, and that was as much as the customers were allowed to ask of him. That worked just fine for Sven. His exploring gaze evaluated the whole glass structure, the bubble shape of the aquarium in the center of the circular bar showcasing a pretty mermaid-like creature, her golden trinkets glistening in the faint blue glow as she danced with virtually rehearsed moves to a nearly mute rhythm, eyes like lifeless marbles. Was she even alive? Hard to tell. Almost as hard was to hear the ambiance music; unless he closed his eyes, it would be impossible to feel the theta binaural pulses, sound waves with a frequency that resonated in the theta range. It numbed the weight of his mind like some sort of auditive drug. Where was this lo-fi vibe coming from? Had he drank enough already, he would believe it was coming from inside his body rather than the embedded speakers in the limits of the area.

Why had he chosen this place anyway? The rush of the assault to an Altean commoner base allowed little time to chat with the enemy, and a pamphlet for this lousy establishment in an otherwise vacant moon was the closest thing he could grab and hold towards the girl with the excuse of an invitation.

Oh, how embarrassing it had been; were it physically possible to merge with the counter and hide his shame any further, he would, at the memory of his dumbstruck face pointing at the damn paper and then handling it to the girl with a collection of grunts because what were words when he practically brain farted in the presence of the most beautiful girl in the Universe? He hadn’t even gathered enough balls to open his mouth to speak; he didn’t ask her name nor offered his own. He simply pointed at the paper advertising the anniversary special with live music performances and and hoped she would pick up what he meant. She nodded so he assumed as much...?

You’re making an idiot of yourself, Holgersson.

Sven considered getting up to leave more than once - if he didn’t look anyone in the eye on his way out he might sell the lie that he had planned on going by himself all along and not been shamefully stood up - but when he glanced at the hooded figure who approached him, he immediately changed his mind.

In fact, his mind fuses went short-circuit and stopped working all together mid-action, as he was awkwardly half-standing up half-about-to-sit-back-down on the bar stool. It was her. She had come. He stuttered; after so long waiting, he hadn’t even thought of what to do should she actually join him.

Her dark blue cloak covered most of her face, nervous eyes glancing from side to side. He couldn’t help but to notice the bandages that covered the highest point of her cheekbones. Her marks were occult, skin reddened enough to make her beautiful eyes teary. Was she hurt?

“F-Forgive my lateness…” She whispered, as if it were a secret. As if they were a secret, but then it hit him that they really had to be. Were an Altean general to show up alone in a public bar, chances were she’d be glared to death, her presence terrifying those who were there. Certainly, she wasn’t allowed to leave her post as she pleased. Her absence could be reported to the Empress. Sven was aware that Empress Allura was nothing short of relentless when it came to underlings straying from their duties. This gorgeous Altean was taking a huge risk just for standing here, fraternizing with the enemy.

Was that why her marks were hidden?

Oh, she was breathtaking.

“I meant to appear sooner, but... There’s been a little incident.” Her face grew flustered as she fidgeted, her gestures frantic in a lack of words to explain. Sven wanted to say it was okay, that he was glad for the simple fact that he got to see her again - heck, he could die happy right about now - but his mouth hung agape, no words daring to spill through his parted lips. Her hand curled around his wrist and he was tugged towards the back of the establishment, a corridor leading to the bathrooms.

There were several outcomes to escaping to the darkest corner of a night bar; it was either the elected spot for a heated makeout session or the perfect crime scene. His body wouldn’t be found unless someone decided to take a piss, or when the closing hours approached and the establishment owner would come to check the bathrooms to make sure the clients had all left.

Whatever the sequel to this scape, Sven was enthralled enough to accept.

Good God, she was stunning.

“D-Don’t laugh.” She made him promise as soon as they were away from prying eyes, with an adorably prominent pout - which he did, immediately, with a series of nods - before she pulled her hood off, having it rest around her shoulders. Indeed there were bandages covering the upper cheeks of her face, a bunch of tiny outbreaks of swollen, pale red bumps.

“I wanted to hide my heritage marks… should anyone recognize me… I didn’t want to cause you trouble for being seen with me! My friend lent me her cosmetic kit but then my skin became swollen and it stung a lot and it burned and now it’s like this!” She explained rapidly, the words overlapping each other in the rush, only ceasing when Sven rose his hand to touch her face, inspecting the allergy from up close, the rash confined to the area where the cosmetic had been applied. “You’re probably regretting even asking me to come… I’m sorry, I look hideous!”

No. God, no, that was not it.

He had no way with words, being the stoic-faced introvert his friends always accused him of being; thus, resorting to a more physical language, his lips came in contact with the surface of the bandages, a soft kiss placed on each, ceasing the tears that had been absorbed by the gauze. She became redder, to be quite honest, but Sven didn’t pay much of a mind to it, keeping her cute face framed by his big hands, thumbs caressing her jaw with affection.

“Never say that. You’re beautiful.”

As a young kid, Sven had this little night lamp to help him overcome the fear of the dark (it wasn't cool for boys to be afraid, Ma said at the time); and it did help him, that device made him fall in love with darkness because the cutout stars and dots on the surface of the lampshade created a small universe in the confinements of the bedroom, making it so much more immense and deep and fantastic and full of mysteries beyond the cracks on the walls or the stains on the sheets. It made him dream of being up there, bouncing from star to star, riding on a meteor or sliding on the rings of Saturn. His dream did come true, however in a more practical sense. There was no sliding off rings - if anything he'd fall through them -, he didn't ride meteors unless he had a crisp to death wish - he was close to, at times -, and the concept of bouncing off stars was less of a theme park kind of thing and more of an everyday task that involved vargas of voyage between astronomical bodies and the bounce effect was felt with gunshots, screams and scrapes in his armor. It wasn't until Sven reached the vastness of space that he realized he had never really lost his phobia; he had simply... Accepted it.

He lay back down in the rented bed of a lodging in a distant Solar System, sweat making the sheets stick to the end of his back. He thought of Earth, he thought of home, and then realized the magnitude of the distance between that little mountain house in Norway and his training in the Galaxy Garrison. He thought of Voltron and how they failed to answer the call of the Universe, petty humans who blundered the only chance, how his friends had died for nothing and his former partner strayed from good to side with his Altean heritage.

Truth was so dark, so raw, so sad. A jarring stab wound that drained the blood out of a nearly dead corpse. The Universe fell enslaved to a race of crazed mind-controllers, driven by the fake belief that peace had to be implemented in people’s minds rather than achieved through fair negotiation and common-sense. Enough blood had been spilled, ten thousand years of turmoil, death, fear, a peace-through-strength kind of permanent panic. When would the Alteans come for the two lovers who defied their rule?

Sleeping Romelle shifted in bed next to him, cuddling closer to his side, her delicate little hand resting over his abs, her cheek pressed against his bare chest. He traced a finger near her eyes, calloused fingers hovering the soft skin; the signs of allergy around her markings had disappeared so long ago - it had been close to a year since they began their occasional encounters, their I love you’s hushed by the opposing sides of the war they stood for.

In this rented bed, there was no war. No slavery. No death. Just them and their unscrupulous love, handwritten by Shakespeare with the inevitable imminence of tragedy. She had snorted at the funny name when Sven first mentioned it, her accent making it hard for the playwright’s name to roll around her tongue. He developed his point further in that conversation; they were both risking so much for the little they had, but in the universal scale of their flaming hearts it was so worth it. Love was worth withstanding anything that was sent their way.

She represented the cutout stars in the darkness, the spark of light in a world swarmed by danger, consternation and the permanent fear of being caught.

Sven had come to terms with his childish fear of the dark, but only for as long as he had the stars in Romelle’s eyes.

#projects #svenweek #Sven Holgersson #sven x romelle #svemelle #guns of gamara #gog AU #VLD Sven #VLD Romelle #alteans are bad #Voltron: Defender of the Universe #Voltron legendary defender #vld #vld fanfic #Sven is a pining fool #a poet as someone pointed out on the Alt-Shiro BB server

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