#THAT'S when he recognizes how his own actions directly endanger people and that's when he suffers the most (going to Hell World) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lazyliars · 4 years ago

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So c!Slimecicle and c!Quackity's relationship is specifically engineered to kill me, specifically.

How DARE they give Quackity a morality pet. This is unacceptable and it will unarguably break my heart into little itty bitty pieces.

It's almost comical how hamfisted their dynamic is to lend a softer, sweeter facet to Q when all of his other relationships are darkening so severely, but it works.

cc!Charlie is playing the childish newcomer SO WELL and c!Quackity doesn't feel out of character when he's so proud and excited to show him capitalism and gambling, and how genuinely scared he seems when Charlie was on the ledge.

Seriously, he was offering to lessen Charlie's debts and PAY HIM not to endanger himself.

His promise to protect Charlie? Reads wholly sincere. And Charlie responding that he would protect Q too, like everything else he says, is also devastatingly honest.

"I take care of the people who take care of me."

Yeah. Yeah.

But on the other hand, this is also kind of horrible.

It's unclear how much of an "adult" c!Charlie is - it's implied that he's hundreds of years old(?) and the form he's taken isn't childish. But his understanding of human beings, and humanity in general, is so limited and not fully formed yet.

While I don't want to infantalize him, I think it's also worth keeping in mind that his agency in this situation is... tenuous. He has his own logic and understanding of the world, but it's not one shared by others.

Further more, Quackity directly refers to him as "not old enough" and Connor seems to view him as younger when he humors him - not in an insulting way, but in the way you might if a child was helping their parent at work and trying to be independent.

All of this means that the power imbalance present in their dynamic is dangerous, for both of them.

Quackity is spiraling hard right now, and it bodes very badly for him that the person he vocally describes as his "best friend" is a slimeguy he met a week ago at most, who is, among other things, deeply impressionable.

Now, we've only had two proper lore interactions, so I ask this next theory be taken with a grain of salt...

But in thinking on it, the relationship between c!Quackity and c!Slimecicle could be leading into a parallel to c!Tommy and c!Dream in exile.

Now, I know that seems waaaaaaay off, I really do. And Quackity hasn't done anything to hurt Charlie, and nothing that he has done to him reads to me like abuse. I am not saying that I think anything in the situations are morally or even physically equivalent, because they aren't.

The worst Quackity does is put Charlie into debt, which we'll get to-- But it doesn't have the same tone as any of exile - it's not treated in the text as "bad" in the same way.

But when I say "parallel" I mean that it echoes certain qualities. Quackity is already having an arc that parallels Dream's in some ways - cutting out/losing attachments, doing darker and darker things for reasons that are esoteric to the viewers, and manipulating multiple people who are in dark places.

And in that vein, one thing that Dream was always adamant about was that he and Tommy were friends. He went so far as to say that Tommy was his only attachment.

In watching Quackity and Slimecicle have this funny, sweet friendship, it's easy to forget that Charlie isn't just his best friend, he's his only friend. Quackity has lost or privatized all of his meaningful connections to other people.

And that's hardly fair to Charlie, who is brand new to humanity and doesn't have the tools to recognize the drastic power imbalance between them, or the support network necessary to help him if he loses Quackity. Quackity is also the only thing that Charlie has.

And Quackity happily putting Charlie into debt so that he can make him work for him, I'm sure was originally a purely practical idea to net him a useful pawn, now reads as more desperate; the actions of a man who was painfully reminded of what friendship feels like and wants to keep this one little connection he's made.

If Charlie is in debt, he has to work for Quackity, which means he has to stay. He can't leave him, like everyone else. (Nevermind the fact that Charlie would have definitely said "yes" to helping Quackity without any debts or payment involved.)

Through this lens (and again, we only have two interactions, so grain of salt--) it does mirror Dream viewing Tommy as his "friend" to the point that he wanted them to become "immortal" together.

While Quackity has sunk pretty low, I don't think he'd ever sink that low, and even if this parallel IS the direction they're going, I don't think they'll take it there entirely - I feel like it would be more likely that Charlie might be the thing that pulls Quackity back from the edge, if he does indeed hurt him and realizes it soon enough.

All of that is just my personal impressions as to where the story might be going. It could be completely different from what I'm expecting, I really don't know.

And none of this is to say that the relationship developing isn't genuine - I think it really, really is, and that's what is so heartbreaking about this; Quackity is still on his villain arc, he's still spiraling, but now we have this stark reminder of the caring person he used to be-- and still is, deep down.

This is going to hurt so fucking bad. I'm hype.

#Quackity #Slimecicle #Charlie Slimecicle #Dream SMP #Dream SMP analysis #las nevadas #abuse mention

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muertawrites · 5 years ago

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Two Halves - Chapter Five (Zuko x Reader)

Part Four

Word Count: 3,300

Author’s Note: I was up until 4am finishing this on Thursday night, and honestly, the way my single brain cell was barely functioning at that point, I’m surprised this even got done, let alone that it got done relatively well. We’re also getting super close to 1,000 followers, so if you like this series or any of my other works, PLEASE subscribe! I’ve got some fun stuff planned once we get there that I’m really excited to start planning!

~ Muerta

Despite their rocky beginning, your first few weeks as Lady of the Fire Nation go surprisingly well. After your conflict with Advisor Lin, everyone begins to treat you with newfound respect - even Zuko. Your first breakfast together was the last time he advised any of your aids to be moderate or keep their distance from you, instead encouraging them to speak to you as directly as they would him, openly reproving them when they treat you as if you aren't capable of grasping everything they face you with; of course, you very much feel like you aren't, remaining stoic during morning briefings in the dining room while inwardly panicking, hearing everything but only able to decipher about half of it. You’re lucky you’re still shadowing the Firelord, learning your place and duties; once you’re sent out on your own, you have a feeling you’ll drown before you even get the chance to tread water.

Protective as he is, Sokka arranges to stay in the palace until you’re completely settled, stating that it’s his duty as the chief ambassador for the Southern Water Tribe; you know that the real reason is because he’s worried to death about you, trying his hardest to keep up the tough, unflappable big brother act for nobody's sake but his own. Toph also decides to extend her trip, quite concerned herself but mostly using the political tension as an excuse to catch up with you, Zuko, and Iroh - you don't mind, since having her around is an endless comfort to you, and you often invite her to sleep in your room so you can pretend that you’re just two friends enjoying normal young adult lives.

Each day spent in Firelady prep school is a new lesson in what exactly the role means, and you’re quickly finding that it’s much more than observing any of the first ladies of the Water Tribe could have ever prepared you for. They were considered accessories to their chiefs, appearing beside their husbands mostly for aesthetics and only truly serving the purpose of giving birth to sons to take his place; as the Firelord’s wife, you’re seen as an extension of him, and he an extension of you. Your people view you as the monarch and matriarch of a massive, powerful clan, and expect you to live and act in sync with one another for the betterment of your children, both literal and metaphorical. Nation comes before everything, any action that could suggest intentions otherwise criticized with the utmost scrutiny; disgrace is all too easy, while honor seems near impossible.

You have tea with Zuko every night before bed; the more you learn about the culture of his upbringing, the more you empathize with his younger self.

“I understand now why you were so angry,” you admit to him one night. “They make you feel as if just being human were a mistake. I'm already frustrated - I can't imagine what seventeen years of it was like.”

Zuko hums, his face taking on a wistful, somber expression.

“That's what my father did to me,” he explains. “Everything was wrong, even if it was what felt natural.”

He takes your hand in his, his thumb grazing over your knuckles as he gazes off in thought.

“We can change that, though,” he tells you. “Things already feel better with you here.”

For a country that just ended a century long war in which they were the main aggressor, you would think that your advisors would put more energy into matters of diplomatic affairs than your image.

“I'm just uncertain what a choice like this could make the nation feel,” Advisor Yong says. “We’re already walking a very delicate line.”

You stand in one of the palace’s many meeting parlors with Zuko, Advisors Yong and Sung, Sokka, Iroh, and the royal seamstress, pouring over multiple yards of fabric she's brought for the robes that will immortalize you in your wedding portrait. For the past forty-five minutes, you've been debating whether you should be pictured wearing Fire Nation or Water Tribe clothes - the proceedings have been dismal at best.

“The representation of our tribe is important to our people,” Sokka replies to Advisor Yong. “We’ve been small for decades, and mostly because of the Fire Nation - she should wear a traditional dress.”

“But certain people in our nation are still very put off by the idea of a foreign queen,” Advisor Yong argues. “A man was already killed over the matter; embracing it so fully could spark anger and endanger her and the Firelord even more.”

In the time you've spent with Advisor Yong, she's grown to be your favorite of anyone within the royal council. Her small stature and plump, motherly features make her seem gentle and subdued, but her kindness only runs so deep; when faced with confrontation, she's like an angry bull - fierce, but in a way that's so swift and graceful, you barely notice her goring into you until she's shredded you to pieces. She's been one of your most supportive council members as well, guiding you in matters of proper Fire Nation etiquette and culture and sticking her neck out farther than could possibly be expected to keep you safe. You can see Sokka getting irritable, but you know she speaks with a voice that only has your best interests in mind.

“Perhaps we should consider the external perception,” Advisor Sung suggests. His soft spoken manner is a welcome reprieve from the increasing bitterness in Yong and Sokka’s tones. “Yes, it's quite important that the Southern Tribe is recognized, and doing so will present a compassionate image of our nation. On the other hand, however, having our lord and lady in different traditional dress could suggest division; picturing them as the same would imply a more unified pair.”

“Maybe we should put Zuko in a Water Tribe outfit,” you suggest flatly. “Make it look like we’re pushing you guys around for a change.”

Zuko snickers beside you, raising a hand to his mouth to (ineffectively) stifle the sound under the guise of a cough. The rest of the room is deathly silent, its occupants either oblivious to your sarcasm or deeply unamused by it.

“I believe what our lady is trying to convey,” Iroh chimes in, “is that we have hardly taken her own thoughts into consideration. After all, it is her marriage and her people she must represent.”

“Okay, so what do you think?” Sokka prods, turning to you. “Do you want to wear Fire Nation clothes or Water Tribe ones?”

You sigh, dropping your eyes to the mixture of red and blue fabric sprawled out before you.

“Honestly? I don't know,” you confess. “There are too many issues with either choice. I think we need more time to gauge how people react to me just being here before we decide.”

“My lady, I understand,” Advisor Yong says, “but as cautious as we have to be, we can't be too hesitant; you can’t possibly hope to bear children in a few months’ time if we can't come to a decision on something like this in a timely manner.”

You and Zuko both jolt, instinctively backing away from one another.

“Children will come much later,” Zuko sputters, his cheeks turning the same shade as his robes. “Right now we have to focus on getting the people of our nations to agree with each other.”

“And children are an important part of doing so,” Advisor Yong explains. “They’ll serve to physically embody the union of the two nations; the sooner you become pregnant, my lady, the quicker we may resolve the issue.”

“I’m not going to bring a baby into this world just to be a political pawn,” you snap, a bit more harshly than you intend to. “That wouldn’t be fair and I couldn’t do that to my kid.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Zuko glance at you with an expression you can’t quite place. You want to reach for him but restrain yourself, feeling strange about showing him any sort of intimacy with an audience.

“We need to decide what will be done about this portrait before we decide what will be done about heirs,” Iroh agrees. “We should give our lady more time to think on the matter. Could we spare another day?”

Advisors Yong and Sung look to one another, Advisor Sung nodding his compliance. Advisor Yong also concedes, her tone almost apologetic when she speaks.

“Another day will be just fine,” she says. “We’ll leave the final decision to you and your husband, my lady. Have Rina bring your instructions to the seamstress when you’re ready.”

Your stomach flutters manically when you hear the words “your husband”. Advisor Yong has never referred to him as such, only ever calling him “the Firelord”; somehow, coming from her, the title feels much more significant than just the result of an arranged marriage.

You flop down in the grass beside Zuko, burying your face in the sleeves of your robe. He chuckles, tossing another apple peel to the turtle ducks in the courtyard pond.

“At least they’re being nice,” he consoles you. “Advisor Yong called me a coward in front of the whole council when I told her I wasn’t sure about getting married. She was right, but it’s hard getting your ass handed to you by someone who looks like a sweet little grandmother.”

You sigh, rolling over onto your back and tilting your head to look up at him. He gives you a faint, assuring smile, which you can’t help but return.

“I totally understand why you snapped when we were kids,” you tell him. “I’ve been here less than a month and I already want to go apeshit. Did you know that one of our advisors told me to take my betrothal necklace off the other day? The slimy little bastard waited until you left the room to do it, too! He told me it made me look less like a ‘naturalized Fire Nation woman’, and I told him that anyone who expected me to look like one was either stupid or delusional. And what, we need to have kids right way for the sake of political leverage? That’s horrible! What kind of monster brings a child into the world just to use them their whole life??”

You draw back when you notice Zuko’s fallen expression. You’ve sat up by this point, and your near-screaming has scared the turtle ducks to the other side of the pond. You feel your heart drop into your gut, wishing you could take the words back.

“Oh, Zuko,” you breathe. “I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

Zuko shakes his head, closing his eyes and taking a deep, measured breath. You watch his chest rise and fall, his shoulders loosening as he exhales. When he opens his eyes again, he meets yours, the knot between his brows unraveling.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. “I know. My father was a monster. And my mother… she just did what she was told. I never realized how much she sacrificed for me until she was gone.”

You inch closer to him, warily reaching for his hand. He takes it, lacing his fingers with yours and gently tugging you to sit beside him, reclining against the trunk of an ancient maple tree. He leans into you, clutching your hand tightly.

“Sometimes I wish the worst thing he did to me was use me,” he laments. “Then maybe I wouldn’t have done such awful things to the people who loved me.”

“Zuko,” you whisper, tightly squeezing his hand, “you’re not your father. Just the fact that you asked me to marry you proves that. You didn’t choose your family based on who would make you powerful. You chose me because you love my siblings, and they love you, and that’s exactly why I agreed to be with you. I never met your father, but I know for a fact that he never knew love like you do; he wouldn’t allow himself to because he thought it was weakness. But you’re so much stronger than he is, and could ever be, because Katara and Sokka, Aang and Toph, and Iroh - all of us are here with you. You allow yourself to show weakness in loving us, which is the bravest thing you could ever do. You are nothing like Ozai.”

To your surprise, Zuko smirks at you; the corners of his eyes glimmer with the buds of tears, however, and the rest of his features don’t rise to match the expression on his lips.

“No wonder Uncle likes you so much,” he says. “You sound just like him.”

You scoff, punching him in the shoulder. He laughs, playfully tossing you over his lap and pinching the soft sides of your stomach, an area he discovered was sensitive by accident one day whilst he was walking you through the palace; you giggle hysterically, trying in vain to fend off the attack. He retreats after a little while, sighing as he cradles you in his arms - your head presses to his chest while his chin rests atop your head, hugging you tightly in a way he hasn’t done before. You wrap yourself around him, arms latching about his waist to hold him just as closely.

“I won’t let them pressure us,” he assures you. “We’re family, and we have to take care of each other. That’s all I ever want to do for you.”

You nestle into him, curling your body closer to his while your arms squeeze at his sides. He kisses the crest of your head, a rare display of affection he’s only done a handful of times - it makes you realize that even when you were teenagers, and Sokka started to make serious suggestions about keeping his promise of marrying you after Hakoda left you in his care, he never once made you feel as safe as Zuko does.

“I hope I wasn't interrupting anything with my invitation,” Iroh greets you when you arrive at his chambers.

Before your nightly pot of tea with Zuko, a messenger came to your quarters telling you that Iroh wished to see you; when you asked why, the messenger told you that the general wanted to teach you to play Pai Sho. You looked to Zuko quizzically, wondering what was so important about knowing how to play a board game that you needed to be summoned so late in the evening, and he sent you off, assuring you that, knowing Iroh, it was worth taking up the offer.

“Just Zuko’s tea,” you tell him, “which, if it weren't for his company, I think I'd bail on every night.”

Iroh chuckles, leading you inside and lowering you onto a cushion on one end of a large Pai Sho table; he takes the other seat, smiling good-naturedly at you.

“Unfortunately, my nephew has never quite taken to the art of tea brewing,” he says, “no matter how many times I've tried to teach him; I take comfort in the fact that he's much better with a sword than I am, instead.”

You grin, watching as the old man spreads a set of tiles across the game board.

“Do you know of the significance of Pai Sho within the royal families of the Fire Nation?” he asks; you shake your head in response.

“It is traditionally learned as a way of teaching our young leaders to rule with strategy,” he explains. “It is meant to teach a balance between inner passions and outward logic, as well as how to observe one’s peers; those who practice Pai Sho diligently know how to pinpoint an opponent’s weaknesses while understanding and controlling their own, keeping others from using their shortcomings against them.

“Each tile has a meaning,” he continues, “and represents a different positive or negative attribute. They may only move in certain ways, but can change their effect on the game based on how the player chooses to use them within each environment. For example…”

Iroh goes on to explain each tile and its movements to you, walking you through each element of the game and practicing different tiles with you until you can actually place them in a somewhat skilled way. When you're comfortable, he plays a simple game with you, aiding you in which possibilities cause which consequences and pointing out ways you can better defend your side of the board. You play five games with him in total, never winning but trying as if you stood a chance against such a skilled player as him.

When you lose the last game, Iroh removes the last tile you played and replaces it with the white lotus - you quirk your brow, wondering why that would be the better move.

“I thought the white lotus was a weak tile,” you question him. “Why put it up against something as strong as the flame tile?”

“There are no weak tiles in Pai Sho,” Iroh instructs you, “only ones that are often overlooked. Sometimes we must look at things from a different perspective, you see; manipulate the odds by doing something unorthodox and unexpected. If your opponent cannot anticipate your actions, they cannot overcome you.”

Iroh removes the white lotus from the board, taking your hand within his and placing it in your open palm. He folds your fingers over it, closing your hand between both of his.

“Keep this with you,” he says. “It may help you someday.”

“But won't your board be incomplete?” you ask.

Iroh chuckles, giving you a mischievous wink that makes you feel almost as if the man is in some way omniscient.

“I have plenty of others,” he assures you. “It will do much more good in your hands.”

The next day, you accompany Rina to the seamstress’s workshop, wanting to give her the instructions for your portrait dress yourself. When you tell her this, Rina is clearly confused - she gently attempts to explain to you that it isn’t necessary, that she’s supposed to handle these sorts of things for you, but once you reveal what you have in mind, she shifts completely.

“The council is going to hate that,” she says. “I think it’s a great idea. I can take you to the seamstress, come with me.”

When you relay your plans to the seamstress, she’s also shocked - her eyes widen, and she physically backs away from you as if even considering following your orders will get her executed for treason.

“Are you sure?” she asks. “It isn’t what the Firelady would typically do…”

“And I’m not a typical Firelady,” you reply, your tone bright and straightforward. “I’ve been asked to do what will create compromise, and this is the best compromise I can think of; I’m simply doing what I’m meant to.”

The seamstress agrees, but only after you give her your vow that she won’t take any of the blame should the idea backfire (you're in charge, after all, so what can anyone do? She’s just following orders.)

In white fabric, she makes a set of robes for Zuko and a dress for you, each including elements crafted in Fire Nation and Water Tribe tradition. She then takes each set to its own vat of hot water, adding blue dye to one and red dye to the other - she places the pieces in, looking nervously up at you as you approach the twin cauldrons.

“I just want to make one last adjustment,” you tell her.

Before she can respond, you take a bucket of blue dye and a bucket of red and tip each one into the opposite vat. The garments swirl as if caught in the midst of a tempestuous storm, the dye bleeding into the pristine fabric until it stains a shade of vivid, furious purple.

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sedentarysecrets · 4 years ago

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i could write essay after essay about the hunger games but

the way peeta grew up in an abusive household hearing his mother constantly talk down on people living in the seam and refused to subscribe to any of it and instead was just a genuinely kind person while katniss had to take care of her family from a young age forcing her to be calculating and even cold if it meant the survival of her family. so when katniss volunteers she is immediately thinking of strategy and how to survive because now it’s not just her family watching but the entire country whereas peeta allows himself to be sad and even impressed by the capitol when they arrive!!

katniss as an narrator is SO GOOD because she doesn’t understand peeta’s kindness!! she doesn’t understand what he means by not being a piece in their games because she has only been focused on her survival for so long that anyone who endangers her or her family is the enemy. but peeta could see all along how the capitol was dividing its people to distract from their wrongdoings. he knew every kid reaped was innocent and he had no reason to consider them an enemy besides the capitol forcing it. and it takes katniss all of catching fire to learn this after being personally threatened by snow!! and for so long she believes peeta is the option the capitol chose for her when in reality peeta wasn’t playing up a strategy in the first games he truly was just in love with her. and the second she didn’t reciprocate he backed off and apologized because he just loved katniss as a person!!

up until mockingjay katniss thinks discerning her feelings for gale and peeta is deciding between the rebellion and playing into the capitols wishes. but peeta is just as rebellious!! he immediately calls out the overconsumption of the capitol and even directly mocks plutarch to his face about seneca’s death! but the major difference is peeta recognizes the significance of human life. gale’s involvement in the rebellion was just death, he targeted anyone and everyone from the capitol without a second thought. but katniss had been in the capitol and knew that not every there were bad people, but they were purposely misguided by snow to not acknowledge the wealth and social disparities in the districts. they didn’t even know the districts were rioting!!! they only knew about food and fabric shortages!!!

even when peeta is being manipulated by snow to call for a cease-fire he’s right when he warned about the loss of life and katniss realizes that! after watching 22 people die in the first games and even more in the quarter quell and having her home destroyed she realizes that maintaining these social divisions is not worth it! viewing the capitol people as the enemy is exactly what they want! as soon as the government is actually held accountable for its actions that’s when it falls apart.

that’s also why prim’s death is so important! she’s the reason katniss was ever involved in the games and her death just shows how pointless all of it was. after fighting and fighting for her family’s protection she loses her sister to a trap designed by her best friend. the war was over by this point! the bombs were just a symbol of cruelty towards an enemy that wasn’t even an enemy.

and all of this again is reflected in peeta when he’s hijacked. he was forced to view katniss as an enemy because he was literally brainwashed and it took years for him to recover and come back to his own thoughts. the end of the war is the first time peeta and katniss are finally on the same page. katniss doesn’t have to worry about her family’s survival anymore and peeta has his own autonomy to live life as he pleases without the influence of his mother or snow or anyone. that’s why they so painstakingly make a book of all the people who died!!! because every life mattered and snow’s government had to held responsible for that.

#thg #i’m sorry this was just rambling but i have SO MANY THOUGHTS

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 5 years ago

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 36: AMJ #6.3

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Welcome back as we finish covering AMJ #6. As always, look at previous instalments if you want the full context of the pages we’re about to look at.

On the next page MJ’s inner rehearsal continues.

She rehearses justifying her priority as getting civilians out of the way. She continues by hoping Peter will then forgive her and hoping she is doing the right thing.

Whilst she is thinking this to herself Oni has pointed his fingers at her and pretended to shoot her. He then disappears into the crowd.

Mostly, this page’s problems are merely a continuation of the last few.

MJ is a filthy liar and banking on Peter forgiving her. This is weird because if he swallows her lies then he’d have nothing to forgive her for. The fact that she’s thinking that to herself proves she is aware she has done something wrong and wants to be forgiven for it.

But the dialogue just doesn’t marry up.

Her real actions are something that she’d understandably wished to be forgiven for since she idiotically pursued Oni and then endangered innocent people. But she’s planning to lie about how things happened in such a way that she frames herself as guiltless. If her priority was to protect innocent people how could Peter ever regard that as a wrongdoing?

And to repeat, she is doing something wrong here. She is endangering civilians to save herself. The dialogue even acknowledges this by having MJ claim her priority was keeping civilians away from Oni in spite of that same panel and prior panels surrounding Oni with civilians.

Oni apparently wants to kill Mary Jane. Maybe he’s just that insane or sadistic. Maybe there is a personal vendetta going on. But from MJ’s POV he simply seems to want her dead because she is a witness. Which doesn’t add up because she literally doesn’t know what he looks like under his mask. She can’t helpfully contribute to an investigation or a trial.

Shit, he’s just been spotted by how many people in the crowd? True, he’s not broken any laws but he did just mime killing MJ in front of them and his attire clearly marks him out as suspicious. But he clearly doesn’t care.

Not to mention, if MJ had stayed on the studio floor wouldn’t there be several cameras on her? If MJ believes Oni doesn’t want witnesses and if Oni really doesn’t want witnesses then staying in sight as much as possible would’ve been the best defence possible. Instead MJ followed him to a more secluded area like an idiot.

The pacing and art though is again fantastic. Very spooky. Very creepy. So good job there.

The art however takes a dive on the next page. Peter is still waiting for MJ at the restaurant and trying to contact her by phone. Meanwhile, MJ catches a cab and pays extra to get to her location ASAP.

As MJ speeds away in the cab, Peter gets through on his phone. Unfortunately for him it isn’t MJ. It’s (seemingly) Oni sans his mask; just in case you thought he was maybe a literal demon. He hangs up and mails a cab of his own whilst Peter tries to get through again.

The art here is simply inferior to most of the comic thus far. Other than that all I got is that Peter’s dialogue is kind of cute.

Whilst there is so much stupidity with Oni I will admit to being curious and that the framing of him within the story effectively conveys him as a threat and a spooky one at that.

Also, the background when he gets a cab seems to be greener than I imagine inner city New York to be. Is he a teleporter? Or was it just an artistic mistake.

MJ reaches her destination, which turns out to be a police station. She rushes in and tells the woman behind the desk that she’s never gone to the cops before. She tries to report the murder unfortunately lacks any I.D. She left her purse in her dressing room to get away from Oni. The policewoman asks if she has anyone she can call to confirm her identity. As she says this we see Peter back at the restaurant.

MJ however also left her phone behind, it is now in Oni’s possession. Unfortunately she doesn’t have anyone’s number memorized. That’s when some detectives notice her.

Meanwhile, Oni uses MJ’s phone to contact Peter whilst spying on him. Peter answers the phone and says whilst he doesn’t know why MJ is unreachable he’s going to figure this out and come find her.

Back at the police station the detectives recognize MJ’s description of Oni and confirm it was him. MJ admits she didn’t see his face and asks if this is just some big misunderstanding. She wants to go home but the detectives tell her she can’t.

Let me get this straight.

Mary Jane doesn’t go to the police when six villains are after her and many other innocent people.

She doesn’t scream for help in a crowded TV studio.

She doesn’t get security guards to help her.

She doesn’t call peter for help either.

She internally plans to lie to Peter that she went after Oni herself in order to protect civilians and not use anyone else as a shield.

But then she absolutely uses people as a shield.

She endangers the cab driver (and technically pedestrians too as he was driving unsafely) to get her to the police station.

She endangers the police officers and anyone else inside the station by just being there.

And she wants them to help her, which would be no different than if she had asked for help back in the TV studio.

Can we see how that is a whole big mess of contradictions.

I’m not saying an in character MJ wouldn’t go to the police about this. I’m just saying an in character MJ would’ve sought help from others before this moment as well. And that the story is contradicting itself.

Also, I can maybe understand her not going all the way back to her dressing room. But not going back to get her phone? She really didn’t have time to do that? The guy left! And the guy was leaving before she chased after him. He is absolutely not after her. He is not hot on her heels. And again there would be no reason for him to be nor any reason for MJ to think he was. He. Was. Wearing. A. Mask! She can’t identify him. She is no risk to him!

And if she was really so concerned for her own safety why the fuck wouldn’t you go get your phone and then rush down to the police station, calling them or Peter or other heroes for help en route? Fuck, why wouldn’t you ask for security guards inside the studio to protect you. Or at least accompany you en route to the police station. Comparatively she would be in less danger that way and have more time to react.

It’s not just that this stupidity and impracticality is out of character for MJ in general, it’s even contradicting how Williams herself has been framing MJ in prior issues. In those issues MJ was framed (justifiably or otherwise) as uber capable. And supremely pragmatic and practical minded. Shit, she’s managed to evade super villains who are after her and even a mind controlled Spider-Man. She really couldn’t be reliably certain she could keep herself alive long enough to get her phone and then get to safety?

The situation she is in now has put her and others in comparatively much more danger than if she took the relatively minimal risk of retrieving her phone and contacting Peter. If nothing else, even if that was a risk to her personally it would’ve better ensured that Oni would not get away with his crimes as MJ would’ve informed someone she knew could continue pursuing him even if she died.

And now, because she didn’t do that, Oni has a weapon to use against her, Peter, her oh-so-precious film friends and anyone else she cares about. Good job Williams. You sure did write MJ as clever there didn’t you.

Williams inadvertently lampshades the gaping hole in her story here by having MJ outright acknowledge that she didn’t see Oni’s face. So, what the Hell is her witness testimony worth then?

I also don’t understand the line about this being some kind of misunderstanding. She saw Oni murder someone. If police officers know him then how could there be a misunderstanding. She’s not an idiot, so the context clues would be clear. They know him because he is a known criminal. Nothing to misunderstand there.

As for her not having anyone’s number memorized, I’m going to give that a free pass. You could argue Peter got a new number recently or that MJ has just neglected to memorise it. Some people are just bad at memorising numbers even if it would be practical for her to have at least Peter’s number committed to memory.

However, this doesn’t mean she can’t get in contact with anyone who could identify her. Maybe she doesn’t know anyone’s cell phone number by heart. But surely Osborn Industries, the Avengers, Stark Industries, Empire State University or the Daily Bugle have publically listed numbers.

She could put a call into them and eventually would get a hold of her friends Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Jarvis, Harry Osborn, Liz Allan, Curt Connors, Ben Urich or Joe Robertson. Shit doesn’t J. Jonah Jameson have a podcast. Doesn’t that have a publically listed contact number? Alright, maybe none of them are available right this moment or getting a hold of them won’t be as quick as dialling them directly. But sooner or later she could get through to someone and get a message out to Peter. Or contact them or Peter later if she is still bereft of her phone.

As for the Peter panels are good and bad. Good because Peter is very in character here. Bad because of the weird yellow colouring to it and because his Spider Sense isn’t alerting him to Oni’s presence.

Finally, MJ says she’s never reported a crime before. This is abject horseshit. The central plot of Amazing Spider-Man #127-128 revolved around Mary Jane witnessing a murder (noticeably by an unmasked villain) and being targeted by the killer. Peter encouraged her to give a statement to the police and the climax of the story was all about her attempt to reach the police station to do just that.

On the final page the detectives explain that Oni is a professional killer. MJ brushes him off as a Maggia goon and says she was worried there for a moment. However, the detective reveals that the F.B.I. have been pursuing for years, however all their witnesses have wound up dead.

MJ reaffirms that she is very well protected.

But the detectives won’t have it, explaining his body count is unparalleled.

MJ is still flippant and tries to leave. However, the detectives have arranged a helicopter to take MJ away. The F.B.I. are going to take her to a secure location out of the state. MJ asks what would happen if she refuses and the detectives explain they’d arrest her. They further explain that her stay out of the city will last until they are sure Oni won’t come after her.

And so Mary Jane is relocated to Anaconda Montana.

Jesus, so much to unpack here.

Let me start with the smallest point. MJ has her boots. Not just a pair of shoes. They are very clearly the same boots she was wearing earlier on, the ones she took off to play the bowling game.

The best faith interpretation of this is that between her arrival at the station and her helicopter arriving they retrieved her boots for her. This would then logically mean MJ would know her phone is missing and should by rights wonder if maybe Oni has it.

The worst faith interpretation of this detail is that MJ made a point of going back for her boots. Meaning she absolutely would have had time to retrieve her goddam phone but didn’t.

Moving on, let’s talk about MJ’s flippancy. First of all, she was clearly scared of the guy before so I don’t know why she’s pretending like he was no big deal. Even if he is a normal person he’s still dangerous and MJ has nearly been killed by regular criminals several times. She was terrified of her stalker during Howard Mackie’s run; see part 17. True, he was in fact super powered, but she didn’t know that. To her he was just a lunatic with some bombs.

Shit, in AS #386-387 a deranged fan with a gun nearly killed her once which freaked her out.

And a non-powered Maggia hitman once assaulted her and injured her arm. Maybe you’ve heard of him, his name was Tombstone!

Not to mention the Kingpin is basically in the same league as this guy. MJ would know the Kingpin is no joke, he nearly killed Aunt May with a hired gun!

So this is nothing to be flippant about, just because Peter could sort him out with ease. And again, if he was such a non-issue why was she running from him in fright earlier? Why was she most intimidated when he was seemingly pulling a gun. He had displayed no signs of super powers so she obviously was scared of him as just a normal crook.

The issue of her being a vulnerable witness is also idiotic for reasons I’ve already detailed. Why would Oni want to eliminate witnesses? The police already recognize him by his mask and reputation. But if he, MJ and the cops are aware MJ never saw his face then she’s useless as a witness. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and effort to regard MJ as a potentially important witness.

Additionally I am 99% sure you cannot be arrested for turning down witness protection. Obviously the police are capable of violating the law but the story frames it as something they are well within their rights to do. Additionally, as I’ve

As for the new status quo set up here, it’s just utterly contrived. So after five issues we’ve totally upended the status quo we had before for something totally different. The story is clearly designed to isolate MJ from her contacts, hence the stupidity of her lacking a cell phone and not having any numbers memorized.

As I explained above, there are other ways she could contact Peter, her loved ones, her co-workers or her other super hero friends. But to add to that she could also simply e-mail them. She doesn’t know Peter’s e-mail address either? She doesn’t know anyone else’s? She can’t find the Bugle’s e-mail address?

Finally I have just four points to address:

One of the detectives claims MJ is his daughter’s favourite actress. The intention I think is treating MJ as a notable star when she really isn’t, event he recap page points that out. But you could argue his daughter just really liked Secret Hospital or Lobster Man I guess

Oni’s body count is unparalleled huh? So this one guy has a higher body count than fucking Carnage?????? Let’s pretend the cop was speaking within the context of hired killers or more street level crime. This random guy’s body count is higher than Elektra’s? Bullseye’s? Deadpool’s????????

In this brief podcast interview Williams revealed that this arc will be based upon some of her own personal experiences working in Montana. So, that’s 2/2 arcs where Williams own life experiences are the basis for the status quo. This was problematic in issues #1-5 because Williams contorted MJ’s role as an actress into that of a producer, which was her actual work experience in Hollywood.

In this second arc though it seems even worse because she has essentially had MJ hijacked from any familiar status quo and will seemingly be imposing her life experiences upon MJ. In other words the latter arc had Williams pivot MJ towards her own life experiences, where as this one has her shoe horn her into them. Perhaps Williams should mine ideas from Mary Jane’s personal history as opposed to her own.

Remember how the solicit promised MJ’s first stop was going to be Peter and that we were finally going to address her lying to him about Mysterio?

Yeah, the issue literally never has them talk to one another and has now set up a status quo designed to keep them out of contact with one another.

So not only did the solicit for this one issue lie, but by having this new storyline exist at all (rather than end the series last issue) Marvel have extended MJ’s absence from Spider-Man’s stories and his own absence from her own title.

This shit is exactly why I argued that an Mary Jane solo-series was a bad idea!

Finally we’re going to look at the letters pages.

I’m not going to meticulously break down each letter or each response. Rather it’s Williams’ responses (the orange text) I’m interested in.

She regards MJ as deeply heroic, even though she used human shields this issue and is allowing a criminal.

She regards Mysterio as just a film nerd. An ‘artiste’. This heavily implies to me that she undeniably sees him as anything other than a really terrible person. I mean I already knew that but a part of me wondered if there was still some sneaky rug pull planned. Apparently not.

She just adores MJ and Beck’s ‘working relationship’. Check out her penultimate response for more details. Again, no rug pull planned. When she framed Mysterio as sympathetic and MJ chummy with him it came from a place of absolute sincerity.

I hope this series wraps up permanently with issue #10 and the next time we get a MJ solo book a writer with some common sense gets the chance to do it.

As of this writing (but not necessarily of this posting) I’ve finally caught up with the entire series. Next time I’m going to do something a little different. Inspired by the letter pages above we are going to discuss just why people like this train wreck so much.

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

#Leah Williams #amazing mary jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Mysterio #Quentin beck

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crystalelemental · 5 years ago

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Antagonists of Elibe

When I was writing up the Limstella character piece, there was a point I wanted to fit in but couldn’t find a good way to introduce without breaking the flow. My wife insisted I should make a separate post about it, so here it is. The main point is that, across both Elibe games, a big emphasis seems to be placed on empathy and understanding the other side of things, and how that ties in to the antagonists, how they’re presented, and why each outcome is so impactful to me, personally.

Empathy in Elibe Starting with the main prospect, I think empathy is kind of a central theme for Elibe. Not in a specific sense, but in the broad sense of having empathy and compassion for all life, not just your own. Our protagonists, Eliwood and Roy, are almost entirely defined by their kindness, understanding, and acceptance of others.

Eliwood’s supports with Ninian are entirely around this. Ninian is hesitant with him at first, and with others, given her history. Her mother was killed in a war with humans, the remainder of her people were driven into exile beyond the dragon’s gate, and as a high-profile oracle in their world, she deals endlessly with the dragons who seek revenge upon humans to reclaim their world. Dragons and humans have always seemed to have bad blood for one another. Yet here’s Eliwood, who can honestly tell her that her background doesn’t matter.

Ninian: “It’s strange. All of you treat my brother and me so...normally. Doesn’t it bother you? Our powers, our looks. We’re different from...people...” Eliwood: “Has that been bothering you? What’s wrong with being a bit different from other people? When I look at you, I don’t see other people. I see Ninian. A normal, kindhearted girl.”

The entire basis of their relationship is because they can look past the differences, and find commonalities. They’re able to see the good in the other, and that in turn paves the way for Roy.

Roy is similarly able to see the good in everything. He comes to the aid of others, and seeks to protect all life, not just his own. This culminates in his battle with Zephiel, his proclamation of faith in the good in humans, and finally his decision to protect and save Idunn. The entire focus of these games is about a family starting to correct the ills of the past, and reaching out to the other side in friendship. Sound familiar?

I feel like Fire Emblem, as a series, really likes to play with this. It’s the entire basis for the Tellius games, and is the central theme of Fodlan, which is why I believe Claude’s route is the true route. But that’s something for another day. The main reason I bring this up is to shift into the antagonists, and how their actions and histories play with the central theme.

Zephiel I’m gonna start with Zephiel, since I have the least to talk about with him. Zephiel’s history is that, as a child, he excelled as a leader, a soldier, at pretty much everything. Yet his father only hated him for it. He believed that Zephiel could not possibly be his legitimate heir, and felt jealousy toward Zephiel’s accomplishments. So much so that he tried to have Zephiel assassinated. Twice, if Binding Blade’s explanation if different from the event in Blazing Blade. Zephiel has grown up surrounded by hate, even within his own race. Humans from different countries can’t even get along, and everything with them is about seizing power and siding with those who are strong. The entire progression of Biding Blade is to accentuate Zephiel’s point: every minor antagonist sides with Bern for selfish motivations. Humans can’t be trusted, so we should turn leadership over to dragons, who will do a better job.

Roy disagrees, and because we’ve lived the adventure with him, we can see Zephiel’s point, but we also see Roy’s. Whenever something has gone off course, humans corrected the problem. Turning leadership over to dragons to rule is just keeping the same problem, but changing which hand is holding it. Dragon leadership alone would be no better, and the true ending route confirms this belief. We learn about the earthly dragons, how they chose to lead and respond to the Scouring, and the lengths they went to. They’re no better than humans. They were willing to torture a child into becoming a living weapon for them, claiming survival. But we know from Blazing Blade, if survival were all they sought, they could have fled beyond the Dragon’s Gate. This was an act of domination against humans, and Zephiel’s aim was to facilitate that dominance.

Zephiel serves as a villain because he fails to empathize with the full picture. He’s simply lashing out at humanity, which has done awful things to him, in fairness. But he’s willing to deny any wrongdoing on the part of dragons, and willingly uses Idunn as a tool of war, just as the dragons did before. That’s the villain path. Even if Zephiel truly believed that humans are better off living under dragon control. Even if Zephiel believes that dragons were less cruel than humans. The fact that he’s willing to sacrifice and use the lives of others to achieve an ambition is where he’s gone wrong. Life cannot be sacrificed for a greater good, and that alone is what sets Zephiel up as the villain.

Nergal Nergal is very similar to Zephiel, but in a different direction. For those not familiar with his history, Nergal was alive at the time of the Scouring. He was a practitioner of the dark arts, who had married a dragon, and even had two children with said dragon. However, when the Scouring was picking up, his wife was captured by humans. Nergal set out to get her back, but left his children on the Dread Isle near the Dragon’s Gate, and told them to pass through it if he hadn’t returned in ten days’ time. Though he sought to keep them safe if he failed, the end result was that Nergal was too late to save his wife, and then too late to return to his children. His family was gone. For hundreds of years, he wandered the world, until he met Athos, a hero of the Scouring. They traveled together for a time, and eventually found Arcadia, a hidden oasis in the desert where humans and dragons lived in harmony. It was here that Nergal found the secret art of manipulating quintessence, known only to dragons, and likely divine dragons. Using this art, Nergal would kill living creatures, and began to create Morphs, entities with human likeness, but allegedly no emotion or drive beyond serving their creator. I talked a lot about whether this is true in the Limstella analysis, so please refer to that for the rebuttal.

The point is, given the history, Nergal is set to be a sympathetic villain, much like Zephiel. He lost his entire family to a meaningless war, found a way to possibly revive his wife, then loses his reason for this and seeks only power. It’s a tragedy, right? Well, yes, but honestly I think there was no other outcome.

When you dig into Nergal, there’s one thing that’s clear: Nergal steadily lost himself. It wasn’t all at once. When Athos confronts him, it’s unlikely he’s lost himself completely by this. And even if he had, starting out, Nergal knew what he was doing. He weighed the choice, and determined that sacrificing other life to bring back his wife was a good trade. There’s no empathy for other life, only its use for his own purposes. He doesn’t see past his trauma.

What’s more, Morphs clearly have souls. They think and feel. Limstella’s dialogue makes this clear, Kishuna’s existence makes this clear, Canas and Renault’s supports make this clear. Yet it’s very directly stated that Nergal creates his Morphs, then abandons them. Unless they’re part of his ultimate goal, he has no use for them. And he makes a lot. When Kishuna was created, he was, I believe, #252. This was when Nergal still had care for his successful creations, as opposed to the later flashback where he’s telling Kishuna to rot as a worthless creation. Even before Nergal devolved to the point of only seeking power, he was creating life and casting it aside, as if it were nothing. He even tells Kishuna that “it won’t do to refer to you as a number,” implying that most of his creations are just numbers. He thinks very little of other life, even from the start. There was never enough care for others, and thus this path to villainy was almost guaranteed.

The Limits of Empathy The previous two antagonists bring up a compelling thought: what are the limits of empathy? When has a person gone too far to give consideration to the past and circumstances that led them here? I think Eliwood’s confrontation with Nergal sums it up nicely:

Nergal: “It confirmed some things for me. That trust brings betrayal. That friends bring weakness!” Eliwood: “If that’s what you learned from your encounter, then you are a fool. Do you believe for a moment, than when Athos struck down his dearest friend, he felt nothing?! His heart was torn in two, and yet you refused to understand that! Nergal! I will defeat you! Here! Today! But, even now there is no hatred in my heart. You, who were born human. You, who lost the heart that defines your humanity... For you, I have nothing but pity.”

There are two answers. One is “never.” Even at the end of their conflict, Eliwood never holds hate for Nergal. After everything, there’s still a level of human connection that triumphs over hatred. The second is, when they become dismissive of other life. Nergal was always dismissive, and when Athos fought against him, all he learned was that friends betray you, rather than that his actions were wrong.

I’ve only played Binding Blade once (as opposed to the like 50 times I’ve played Blazing Blade), but I don’t recall Roy holding any hatred for Zephiel, or anyone else, either. Rather, he recognizes that what they’re doing brings harm to people, and seeks to stop them because he must.

That’s the limit these games suggest. When someone is actively endangering life, using life as a tool for their own gains. That’s when you can’t let understanding of their circumstances stay your hand. But it’s equally important to never lose that empathy, that heart that defines humanity.

Idunn Idunn is the odd antagonist out, and my personal favorite of the three. Idunn’s history is...honestly the opposite of the other two. She embodies the first answer but neglects the second. Idunn is a divine dragon. During the Scouring, the earthly dragons sought aid from the divine dragons, requesting the creation of War Dragons. They were losing the war because dragon reproduction is significantly longer than human reproduction, and so they were essentially outnumbered. War Dragons could be spawned by divine dragons, likely in a similar fashion to the creation of Morphs, and could turn the tide of the war. The divine dragons refused the request, and left Elibe entirely. Except one.

Idunn was the only one to hesitate. As it’s explained in the endgame of Binding Blade, she felt empathy for the earthly dragons, and worried about their circumstances. This allowed them to catch her, and subsequently destroy her soul, creating the Demon Dragon that would obey their commands to flood the world in War Dragons. When the dragons lost the war anyway, Idunn was sealed away for 1000 years, until Zephiel awakened her. Zephiel then used her to again bring War Dragons into the world, in an effort to turn the world over to dragons.

Idunn is such a unique case to me, because the only defining personality trait we get from her is her empathy. She couldn’t just abandon the earthly dragons without attacks of conscience. Yet because of that, she was captured and betrayed. The divine dragons were right to leave the earthly dragons behind, knowing what they would do. Perhaps it’s because Idunn was young, or perhaps it’s because she was a divine dragon and had never associated with the earthly dragons or humans, but she didn’t understand that some people could be cruel. She didn’t realize that, despite feeling that empathy for the dragons, there was a good reason to turn them down.

It also established another important point. Jahn, the last dragon standing with Idunn, expresses that dragons don’t have emotions, and that dragons and humans could not possibly live together because of these differences. He calls Brunnya incomprehensible, and seems to look down on emotion as a weakness exclusive to humans. Yet we see that empathy from Idunn, we’ve seen Arcadia where humans and dragons do coexist, and in Blazing Blade we see Ninian and Nils, who are definitely expressive. Jahn seems to have internalized this sense of hatred toward humanity, such that he rejects any possible similarities to connect with. Jahn is a symbol of the hatred the dragons had toward humans, and likely that humans felt toward dragons. Idunn and Jahn together paint the picture that dragons and humans are more alike than they seem, and that the earthly dragons made a choice to continue the fighting, and to continue hating humans.

This isn’t lost on Roy, either, whose final act is one of compassion. In absolute threat level, Idunn is a bigger risk to keep around than Zephiel ever was. Zephiel started a war, but Idunn had the potential to endlessly flood the world with war dragons, and end humanity entirely. Yet in applied threat...Idunn was never a threat at all. She was a victim of the war, someone who never sought to hurt anyone, and never had a choice in her role. Comparatively, Zephiel and Jahn both cast aside consideration for her and others, and sought to use her as a weapon for their own ends. Roy’s final act is stopping Idunn from carrying out her orders, but then saves her life, bringing her to Arcadia to restore her soul. Chronologically, this is when the mistakes of Elibe’s past are finally righted, and relations between humans and dragons can begin on a grander scale. In any other circumstance, had someone cast aside empathy when doing what needed to be done, Idunn would be killed and a threat removed. It is specifically because Roy maintains empathy toward others, even his enemies, that old wounds can finally heal.

Conclusions Elibe is still my favorite. Blazing Blade may have been my first game, but I really feel it holds up, even now. While there are people who say the stories aren’t that strong, or that the casts aren’t that strong, I feel like what stands out with Elibe is how it integrates its themes and the understandable nature of their villains. A lot of games in the series either don’t go for sympathetic villain, or try in a way that doesn’t quite hit home. The Blades games manage to present villains with a compelling and sympathetic history, while simultaneously expressing that some people are beyond redemption. And I think that’s a good balance to strike. It’s important to always consider what impacts another, and what their lives were like. But there have to be limits in what’s tolerated based on a sympathetic past, and sometimes you do have to stand against someone who’s wrong, no matter what they’ve been through. But at the end of the day, the one thing you can’t abandon is that empathy for others. Even when taking a stand against evil, hate can’t be the reason you do so.

#fire emblem #fire emblem binding blade #fire emblem blazing blade #idunn #nergal #zephiel #the nergal section is what I wanted to work into the limstella analysis #but I couldn't find a way to do it without breaking the flow

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lexi-the-twilight-dragon · 6 years ago

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Sooooo I said I'd write a fic regarding my dream ending to S17, so of course I had to finish it before S17 came out. Holy shit this fic turned out much longer than I expected, but I'm not sure an increase in length = a increase in quality? I did it tho, so here it is.

BROTHER TO BROTHER

That's when Grif notices something he never has before.

FANDOM: Red vs Blue. S16 spoilers. RATING: Angst/Fluff. WORDS: 1736 CHARACTERS: Grif, Doc (He got smashed into a wall and walked away from an explosion completely unharmed in S8, I think he can survive falling off an at most 442m building), O'Malley (mentioned?), Huggins (please tell me she's not permanently dead, RT), Deke Dufresne, OCs

To say the whole time-travel-fix-the-past-nearly-fuck-up-the-universe adventure was insane is a serious understatement. They were only trying to get some pizza for fuck's sake!

And honestly, when it's all over, Grif doesn't know what to do. How do you avoid getting dragged into other people's bullshit? He used to think he was good at that, but not so much anymore. (Pretty much since Wash showed up, huh.)

But it's over, it's finally fucking over, and for at least the next hour, they're safe. And yes, that's a "they". His friends are assholes, but that doesn't mean he wants to lose any of them. Not anymore.

That's when Grif notices something he never has before, and he knows full well what trouble his and the others' lack of notice caused.

He notices a distinct lack of a certain color that was here a few minutes ago.

Purple.

He catches the medic disappearing through the hills a little ways away.

"Hey Doc!"

Doc hesitates for a split-second, but doesn't stop walking.

"Doc, wait up!"

Doc starts walking faster. Grif nearly loses him again in the twists and turns of the landscape.

He wonders if this is what it looked like when he quit.

"Frank, stop!"

It's a name no one's used in fuck knows how long. Grif isn't sure he's ever used it. The medic has been 'Doc' to everyone for so long that Grif hasn't the faintest idea why he even remembers his real name at all. But he says it.

And Frank stops.

"Where the hell are you going?" He doesn't say it like an accusation, because it isn't one.

"What does it matter where I'm going?" Frank replies, barely even turning his head, "All that matters is that I'm away from you."

"... You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do. As long as I'm far enough away from anyone I could endanger, I don't care what happens to me. Maybe I'll even find my own little dimension again. Anything to keep everyone safe."

"Doc- Frank, you can't blame yourse-"

"Yes I can!" Purple armor breaks the stillness to whirl around and face orange. "I can because it is my fault! I can't..."

His voice cracks, and the anger seeps out of him as he takes a breath.

"I can't control him anymore, Grif. Who knows how long it will be before he takes me over again. Before he uses me to hurt more people. To hurt, to kill, to destroy..."

His hand flies for his Magnum, and Grif grabs his rifle just as fast. He doesn't actually want to hurt Doc, but if O'Malley were to take control of him again...

The pistol skitters across the ground some feet away.

Frank's arm doesn't move from where he tossed it, his visor and likely gaze lowered to the ground, and when he speaks again the tears are audible.

"You can't... trust me anymore. I don't trust me anymore. I'm more monster than medic, now."

He raises his head, and sees the rifle still in Grif's hands. Grif instantly regrets his actions.

"Actually," Frank says, "yeah, that's a better idea."

He raises his hands a little over his head and faces Grif squarely.

"Can't hurt anyone if I'm dead."

Grif hates the tone in his voice. It's the tone of someone who has accepted, and embraced, the fact that he's going to die. He's heard it in Simmons' voice, in front of the firing squad. He's heard it in Sarge's, on the Staff of Charon. He's heard it in Bitters' more times than he'll ever be comfortable with.

He'll never forget hearing it in Private Mayhew's as she bled out in his arms after the colony massacre.

But acceptance and a request are very different things. Frank is asking for it, and he's asking Grif to be behind the trigger. His hands are shaking already.

In theory, it's to protect other, protect the others. And from how the purple-clad medic sounds, it's be a mercy kill, too. In reality...

"No," Grif says, reholstering his rifle, "I can't do that, Frank."

Grif doesn't need to see his face to see the crestfalled expression on it. "But... but Grif, I'm a danger to everyone, you have to-"

"I can't do it, man. I'm sorry."

"Please!"

Purple shin-plates hit the ground as their owner falls to his knees.

"Please.. I can't... take this anymore. Just... end it, please."

If there's a tone that Grif hates more that that of someone who's accepted death, it's that of someone begging for it.

He kneels in front of the medic and clasps onto his shoulders.

"Look, I don't know exactly what you've gone through. I haven't grappled an evil AI for nearly as long as you. I haven't been stuck in an alternate dimension. But I do know what it feels like when your worst enemy is in your own head. And you know that I know, because that's something else O'Malley did to you, isn't it? Forced memories of all the people it jumped through into your head? It's the only way you could have known what my childhood was like.

"You're not a monster, Frank. You're you. You're Doc. You're our dorky, health-obsessed, pacifistic medic. I can't kill a guy like you, split personality or not."

Frank's visor is locked with his for a grand total of two seconds after that before he wraps his arms around Grif's own shoulders and breaks down into sobs.

Grif doesn't know what'll happen from here. He doesn't know how or even if Doc can be helped at this point. But, also at this point, he can't bring himself to abandon the poor guy.

And maybe, it occurs to him as Huggins flies around the corner looking for them, maybe the past can be fixed after all.

Doc didn't know what to expect when the orange-clad soldier got up from their semi-hug to go whisper conspiratorially with the cosmic light-ball.

He knows even less what to expect when Grif goes and grabs the frickin' time gun O'Malley had betrayed him with earlier. Are they going to exile him after all, only in a different time period?

Grif wordlessly pulls the trigger, and gestures at Doc to follow him through.

Doc follows him through.

The first thing he notices is an astonishing amount of green. His entire view consists of trees, ferns and undergrowth that greatly mottles but doesn't completely obscure the sunshine. There's the constant chortle of birdsong and other animal noises that instantly tells him that this is Earth. And if he listens hard enough over it. he can hear the trickling sound of a river.

His blood runs cold when he recognizes exactly where and when Grif has brought him.

"Th-this is..."

His spluttering is cut off by a distant cry of "Deke!" and the sound of splashing.

Through the undergrowth, down on the river's edge, he can see them, see himself. Two coffee-skinned boys, brown hair plastered to their faces as the panicked elder drags the limp younger onto the bank.

"Deke! Deke, can you hear me? Please wake up!" Young Frank DuFresne is shouting, though his brother is held close to him. The boy didn't know what else to do.

He didn't know how to save him.

"What are you waiting for?" Grif's voice tears his gaze away.

"W-what?"

The orange soldier turns his head to look directly at him. "He needs a medic. Go."

Purple helmet looks to the riverbank, back to the orange, then is shoved into the other man's hands.

"Thank you."

He tears into a run, tossing aside all vegetation between him and the bank. Between him, himself, and his little brother.

"Hey!" He drops to his knees as the younger him looks up. He knows merely from memory that the river water dripping down his face is mixed with sting tears.

"I'm a medic. I can help. His name's Deke, right?"

Young Frank nods vigorously. "He's not breathing, what do I do?!"

Hearing himself the panicked, even in clearly justified circumstances, makes it hard to keep his own voice level.

"We need to get him up onto more solid ground, I can treat him there."

A further few feet gets them some firmer ground. Not by much, but Doc doesn't want to waste any precious time.

"Lay him down here."

His movements are calm and practiced as he placed one palm over Deke's chest. Call him an unqualified medic all you want, but he has never forgotten how to do CPR properly. And this right here is the exact reason why. Even if he's internally dealing with the whirlwind of emotions of reliving the worst day of his life. But he can change that.

He will change that.

Deke remains unresponsive after one, two, three, four rounds of compressions as Young Frank watches in wide-eyed concern. But after the fifth, Deke's eyes fly open, and Doc rolls him on his side so he can cough up the water dislodged from his lungs.

"Deke!" Young Frank looks ready to pounce atop his brother in delight, but the older one stops him.

"He needs an ambulance."

Young Frank nods, before scrambling off through the trees to what Doc knows is his childhood home, where his parents are probably sitting on the porch drinking tea and waiting for their boys to come back from playing in the forest. Funny how things seem from a different perspective.

It's decided that Meredith DuFresne should ride to the hospital with her son in the ambulance. Frederick and Frank will travel behind in the car. It may take some recovery, but the paramedics say he's likely to survive thanks to the timely response.

Deke will survive. It's a dream come true in so many ways.

"Hey, mister!"

Young Frank catches the man in purple as he walks away.

"What's your name?"

The man looks at oddly for a second, then smiles.

"My friends call me Doc. I'm... a travelling medic."

The boy smiles back, then wraps his arms around the man's purple armor.

"Thank you, Doc."

Doc ruffles his hair, "Just some simple CPR. Might be a good thing for you to learn, huh?"

Frank looks up at him. Funny, Doc looks a lot like his father. Maybe he's a cousin or something?

"I will. I promise."

He lets go, and the man in purple disappears back into the forest.

A/N: Guess who jumped head first onto the Doc-Love Train with the recent season? Not that I ever disliked Doc, but being brutally honest, he was never really around long enough for me to get as attached to him as I was to the other Blood Gulch Crew. Season 16 tho... my jaw nearly hit the floor with his backstory monologue. It puts everything about his character in a whole new light. Why is there hardly anything about it on the interned? There needs to be more about it on the internet. So here's my piece. Even if I'm not completely happy with it.

#red vs blue #rvb #Dexter Grif #frank dufresne #deke dufresne #<-- needs to be a tag guys #s16 spoilers #s17 ideas #editing what editing #literally a one-shot even though it's long #i tried

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demuestramecnco-blog · 6 years ago

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alliance (joel pimentel prince au)

pairing: joel x original character

rating: mature

summary: Elizabeth and Joel were set to be married since a very young age. After an unfortunate occurrence, Elizabeth must seek sanction in Joel’s kingdom. They haven’t seen each other in years and must now figure out how to love one another as they will rule together one day.

part 3

The kindness of the king and queen had shocked me at first. Two weeks after my arrival however, I quickly realized they must be diplomatic. They cannot be mean to a guest of the court when all are watching.

Their kindness was running thin. Deep down in my heart I knew it was not going to last.

knock knock

The door opens before I can grant permission to enter. “Your grace I’m sorry but this is urgent” Gwen says, sweat dripping for her forehead. “What is it? What has happened?” I ask.

“Your ladies have arrived. They’re not in good shape.” My heart drops at the revelation. I did this to them. I left them there alone.

“Where are they now?” I ask already rushing to the door. “They’ve just pulled up at the shore your majesty.”

I hold my dress up as I run through the castle ignoring any words spoken to me. I run and run until I meet the faces of my ladies in waiting from home. “You’re here!” I exclaim.

“Y-y-yes my queen” Allie says, bowing while clutching her side. “What happened to you all? Who did this? I will have justice.”

“They were men from our kingdom, our own men who are working with the kingdom of Gale. We think they were the same men who killed your parents. You must help your aunt you have to help us K-Kedon is falling” Grier bursts into sobs after explaining.

“Hush now you’re safe here. Our kingdom will not fall not with me as it’s queen. To hell with those men and any traitor who dares threaten my crown.”

Allie and Grier have smiles on their faces but their eyes are tired and sad. “None of that now you must go rest. I will have trusted workers help you settle in.” I look around for a sign of anyone. “Guards!”

The two men passing stop in their path at my voice. “Your grace” they say. “Help my ladies to their chambers please. I would do it myself but I have business to attend to.”

“Of course your grace.” I hum, rubbing gently on Allie’s arm. “Go rest.”

—

Anger courses through my body most likely showing through my rough steps and cold eyes. “Your grace the king and queen are having a private meeting with the prince you cannot go in-“

“Do not tell me what I can and cannot do!” I push past the guard and enter the throne room. “What is your business here child?” the king asks. “I need your help.”

Joel walks over to me with open arms. “I heard about your ladies I’m so sorry.” I deny his hug by pushing him away from me. “My men are in need of reinforcements. I’m humbly asking for a few weapons and even fewer men to aid them in crushing the rebellion in my land” I say looking directly into the kings eyes.

“You’ll have me risk my men and lose weaponry to crush some rebellion” he replies, laughing bitterly. “This is not just some rebellion! Those rebels are working with the kingdom of Gale. If my kingdom falls how much longer do you think it will take for them to come here and damn us all to hell?”

The king stands up in his seat, “we are strong enough to take them. Do not come in here talking politics as if you understand anything.”

I scoff, “you may be right about that. I’m still learning the politics of being a ruler but I am well versed in the betrayal of court. I knew your kindness would be shown to me no longer.”

“Then leave us be we are attending private matters. It’d be best for you to go to the chapel and pray for your people” the king says, dismissing my presence. “I could do that” I being.

“Eli please” Joel whispers. I hold my hand up to silence him, “but I will not. Before I came here I sent out two riders who are far beyond the woods by now. You think I am a fool? That I do not know what these private matters are about? You are discussing the famine plaguing the villages while we all sit here comfortably with more than enough grain to share. I explained this in letters that will reach the villages if I do not send word to my men. They will start their own rebellion and may even join Gale’s mission of destroying us all.”

The queen takes a stand as well, “you would defy the king and queen of Laika? After all we have done for you?”

“You deny me the help I need to save my kingdom when my engagement to Joel, our alliance, promised just that. The alliance was written up to strengthen both of us against our common enemy but now I am not sure if that enemy has become you. Your kingdom will not suffer by giving me a group of five soldiers and a few weapons. Now tell me, what will you do?” bitterness and anger drips with every word making me, for a second, not even recognize myself.

“I will have your head for this” the king says. “Father!” Joel yells. “That will only start uproar from my loyal subjects and you know that you sat in the middle between Kedon and Gale you will be pressured by violence from both sides. That aggression may be for different reasons but it will tear you apart. So I ask you AGAIN, what are you going to do?”

The king and I are in a stare down. Two royals with realms to think of standing head to head in this unexpected battle. “I do not want to make an enemy out of you but I’d watch your tone with me in the future. Joel will accompany you to gather the men and weapons you need” the king says finally.

“We were discussing something though, what of that?” Joel asks. “You can join our discussions again when you get your fiancé under control” with that the king alerts the guards and dismisses us from the throne room for good.

“What was that?” Joel asks when we get far away enough. “That was me looking out for my people. I will always put them first as you should put your people first. I will not ask you to choose between them and I so please do not ask me to explain myself this time” I reply. “You were about to start chaos! You cannot do that Eli” he stops walking and places a hand on my shoulder.

“We do not have time for this right now. We must deploy men immediately” I shake his hand off my shoulder. “We are finishing this talk later.”

—

Joel stares at me intently. He has not said a word since we finished our task and went back to his room to talk. “Are you-“

“Don’t talk” he interrupts. Sometimes I wonder if he knows that his eyes tell everything he is feeling. He is conflicted about my actions. I think a part of him understands but he is mostly angered about the way in which I spoke to his parents, to the king and queen of his beloved home.

“Please let me explain” I say quickly to be sure he does not stop me. When the only answer I get is silence I take it as my cue to speak. “I apologize for how I spoke. I apologize for endangering your people. I was angry, lost, and needed to take action immediately. That is the only plan I could come up with in such short notice.”

“Why didn’t you ask for me first? Instead of writing those letters instead of all of it.”

I take a step toward him carefully. He does not flinch or move away from me so I gently place a palm against his cheek. “I had to act quickly. I can tell your heart is good and you would’ve tried to reason with your father as I briefly tried to. He is a king and does not listen to anyone other than God. This was the only way for me to get through to him.”

“And you? You are a queen. Do you listen to anyone? I am to be a king does that mean I do not have to listen to others?” his tone grows harsher with every word. “If that is the type of king you want to be then yes, go ahead and do that. I will listen to you now and come to you first with any future problems I may have because that is the kind of queen I want to be. Who I was in that moment cannot and will not define me. Please forgive me if you can.”

He sighs, “I can understand why you did what you did. I will forgive you given time.” He places his hand over mine and rubs his thumb against my skin. “Plus you look hot when you’re thirsty for justice.”

“How can you say things like that in such a moment?” I laugh. I cannot help but laugh at his words. “I can’t help it I am a man.” I shake my head, “nonsense. When you’re sparring and ordering the guards around I think you look heavenly. I have those feelings about you too.”

“Well then I guess I have less self control than you do” he replies. “Are we okay?” I ask. In response he connects our lips. All the emotions of the day are poured into the kiss.

“We are” he replies.

#cnco #cnco fic #cnco imagine #joel pimentel #joel pimentel imagines

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awed-frog · 7 years ago

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tl;dr: nope

I got a couple of anon asks about this, and I’m also tagging @twist-shout-and-shells because they asked me to, but I have to say - I don’t know anything about comics, I don’t know Marvel at all, so this review is just a meaningless rant. Like, I know so little about this universe that the first superhero movie I ever saw in my life was Thor, and the only reason they got me was because my mythology-loving ass assumed this would be about the actual god, you know?, so that was a very confusing two hours. Anyway - after this, I’m done with them. The ridiculous hype campaign they created around Infinity War actually activated my crow brain, which means I rushed to the theater because I was sort of expecting this would be a shocking masterpiece and any spoiler would ruin it for me, and - yeah. Never doing that again. Because, whatever - they do manage to come up with some good writing from time to time, and Black Panther’s success had made me hope they’d finally recognize that a solid, coherent and meaningful story is really the first thing you need, but apparently not?

Ugh.

Anyway, here are main reasons why I didn’t like Infinity War.

1) No, we don’t need a new plague

Problem number one with this movie is that it fails to take into account that our IQ as a people has dropped about twenty points over the last thirty years (and I’m not even joking) and that means even a guy nicknamed ‘Mad Titan’ is actually given the benefit of the doubt (I don’t remember anyone thinking Hela might have had a point, but then again, women are known to be emotionally compromised at all times, right, so all that rage was probably PMS and crazy bitches, amirite?, can’t live with them, can’t live without them). And here, predictably, is the result:

I even checked Breitbart so you wouldn’t have to and while they seem confused as to whether they should support this movie or not (don’t watch because Captain America is played by ‘Comrade Communism’, do watch because Chris Pratt is a Good Christian Man), it’s still clear to everybody over there that Thanos, “an environmentalist wacko obsessed with salvaging the natural resources of the universe” is “espousing liberal jibberish”.

So, I’m going to keep it short and mostly sourceless because I saw a lot of people discussing this, but just to be clear: yeah, it is worrying that human population has basically tripled in thirty years, but the correlation ‘more people = more damage & fewer resources’ isn’t as clear-cut as some like to think. Also, research shows that women being recognized as human beings - that’s the actual way to solve this problem (see also x, x), which means that if Thanos had meant business, he could have used those frwaking stones to build schools and family planning centres.

2) Your plan against evil can’t be just saying no

This is probably what bugs me the most both in fiction and IRL: saying ‘Trump is a moron’, ‘capitalism is bad’ or ‘genocide is wrong’ is not a political program. It’s a moral stance, and kudos to you, but if you want to make the world a better place, you need a lot more than that. But, nope - IW fell into this trap with such relish I can actually believe no one saw this as a problem - at all. When Thanos pointed out, rather smugly, that decimating Gamora’s planet had led to a new era of happiness and prosperity, she didn’t react in any way. We never saw Tony or Shuri mentioning the outlandish, extravagant idea that better and greener technology could actually save us all. We never saw anyone point out that when the richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, wiping out half of a Nairobi slum isn’t likely to do much for the environment. I guess it wasn’t relevant to the plot?

3) Turning your audience against the good guys = dick move

That said, our planet is objectively in bad shape, and writers and artists who are (or like to think of themselves as) engagés are more than welcome to discuss this - for all her faults, JK Rowling did that to perfection in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, focusing on the importance of conservation and taking a clear stance against animal trafficking. Other movies, of course, went a lot farther than that: my movie rec of the day is Okja, a masterful and soulwrenching look at how capitalism manages food production. But IW, on top of everything else, manages to be an anti-green movement movie? As if that was needed in any way? Apparently comic!Thanos’ goal was to impress Lady Death or something, and maybe they should have gone with that, because to me, movie!Thanos’ plan sounds like an ill-conceived and unfortunate parody of the green movement. In fact, eminent biologist E. O. Wilson’s Half-Earth explores this exact possibility - which is not about killing off 50% of the population, thank you very much, but about improving agriculture and urban structures so we can leave 50% of the world to the rest of the ecosystem. And maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it a bit weird the book came out at about the same time when IW’s script was being written? I try not to be a paranoid nutcase, but come on. Because what the movie does is that it turns Thanos into a sort of green Hitler whose only focus is the environment (“But he was a vegetarian!”), cue the creepy final shot of him going all ‘Schwarzy in the forest’ surrounded by clean-water creeks and happy animals while we are left counting our dead. The metaphor couldn’t be more obvious, and to be honest it is most unwelcome. Time and place, guys? I really haven’t seen something so revolting since I got to the end of the Da Vinci Code and realized atheists were the true monsters all along.

4) Being a hero doesn’t mean saving your friends

So this is starting to become a trend, and seriously, enough. If you’re a hero, then you need to think of something greater than yourself, and this is why your life will suck and suck and suck until your untimely death. Deal with it? And I can understand Loki giving up the Tesseract for his brother, because he’s always been more of an anti-hero than a hero, and his morals are shot to hell in any case, and I’ll forgive Dr Strange because he clearly saw something we didn’t, but what the hell was Steve thinking? Seriously, I keep seeing posts about how Pure and Noble Steve is, and guys, did we even see the same movie? Bringing Vision to Wakanda meant endangering an entire nation, and thousands of people there paid for that choice with their lives. It’s because Steve insisted in not seeing the big picture - or accepting Vision’s own wishes - that Thanos even succeeded in the first place. If they’d destroyed the stone, Thanos would never have gotten his hands on it, and Wakanda would not have been attacked by a horde of alien demons. Sacrificing hundreds or thousands of nameless (black, African) warriors to keep one (white) man safe is not heroism - it’s cowardice. It’s assuming your own feelings and your friends’ lives count more than the lives of strangers, and this is the exact opposite of how a hero should think. Not that I’m surprised, since Steve already condoned the destruction of half of Bucharest to save Bucky, but whatever. Compare and contrast with Tony, by the way, who first tried to destroy the Time stone, then chose to sacrifice himself to save someone he didn’t even like? Yeah, that’s more like it. #TeamStark

5) Every single woman is defined by her relationship to a man

With the caveat that no emotion, connection or motivation is throroughly explored in IW because it’s an action-packed movie during which people never speak an honest word to each other (relying instead on posturing, movie quotes and sarcastic remarks), here is basically what happens: men have things, and women have men. Tony’s journey is mostly about saving Peter and also sacrificing himself for the world. Steve is all about his friends and various heroics. Dr Strange is a sort of ascetic monk playing the long game. Thanos wants to save the universe or something. And Vision is on a quest towards humanity? Maybe? But the women - Gamora is important because she’s Thanos’ daughter. Scarlet Witch is important because she loves Vision. Natasha (I think she’s in the movie? I don’t actually remember if we hear her speak) is on Cap’s side because Cap. Pepper only appears to remind us of what Tony has to lose. Exceptions to this rule include Shuri, whom IW didn’t quite manage to destroy; Loki, who was always female- and queer-coded, so I’m not surprised he ends up dying for the handsome and suitably Aryan hero; and arguably Starlord, who mostly fights for Gamora (what is a virtue in a woman, however, is a weakness in a man, because Starlord ends up fucking up the plan because of his love for her). And I know they probably tried to compensate for the complete lack of women in the movie by highlighting how powerful Scarlet Witch is and focusing so much on Gamora, but I’m an annoying person, so that didn’t work for me. Because, again, Scarlet Witch is a 2D character plucked directly from a Victorian dictionary’s definition of ‘woman’ (while the menfolk around her worry about the possible demise of the Entire Earth, there she is, channelling all her energy in being a good and loyal companion to her robot husband) and Gamora has no more control over her life in this movie than she had as a child? Her main narrative purpose in IW is to make us feel bad for her boyfriend and father, who’re both driven to kill her (for very different reasons) and suffer for her death (and don’t get me started on Thanos suddenly loving someone and what a stroke of luck, the one person in the universe he gives a damn about just happens to be standing next to him on top of a cliff when he needs to kill her). Seriously, why is it that female characters’ concerns still begin and end with romantic love? This trope that romance is the most important thing for every single woman needed to die, like, yesterday.

6) None of that actually means anything

Look, I’m a sucker of time-travel of any description, but I also think time-travel must be done honestly or not at all. Movies like Back to the Future or Arrival both use time bending to great effect, because the stakes are real and painful and there are all sort of complex decisions facing our heroes. But IW doesn’t care about any of that. The existence of the Time stone is not about ethical dilemmas or even turning up the drama to eleven - the one purpose of that thing is to make us hope that our personal fave is not dead after all, so we’ll keep watching this stupid franchise until the end of times. That finale could have been innovative and heartwrenching, and instead we already know it wasn’t. Samuel L. Jackson is apparently confirmed in Captain Marvel, which will be released next year, and we also know they’re working on Spider-Man 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2 and Doctor Strange 2. Capitalism has very nearly killed the possibility of creating a well-written and gutting story, because the rule is, If it makes money, it goes the fuck on. Hence TV shows which no longer make any kind of sense but we all keep watching out of nostalgia, affection for the characters or dissatisfaction with our own lives, and also franchises which stretch the plot to new and boring limits (for instance, it beggars belief that Tony and Steve didn’t even meet in IW, and their fight never came up at all: I guess we’ll have to wait for IW 2, or Avengers 37: The One with The Talk). And here, again, studios are so greedy that they willingly disregard the fact audiences will reward ‘complete’ stories: for instance, Logan was critically acclaimed and made tons of money, but the risk of ‘permanently’ killing off a beloved character is still considered too high. And playing it safe actually works: IW costed $320 million, which is about 5% of the studio’s budget, and that investment has already been repaid in full (the movie made double that in the first two weeks).

(Meanwhile, 21st Century Fox gained more than one billion dollars from Trump’s TAX REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN - probably a disappointing amount of money for owner Richard Murdoch, who has a net worth of 15 billion and is known to use some of that hard-earned cash to support laudable & important causes such as the privatization of public education, but hey, we all need to make do and move on, right? Right.)

So this is mostly it. To be fair, IW was mildly entertaining, and I thought they sort of did a good job in juggling twenty leads - we got no character development at all and no meaningful dialogue, but we saw everybody at least once and their lines were funny? Some moments were genuinely good despite a couple of bizarre plot points (I’m still unclear on why Strange didn’t create a circle of fire around Thanos’ arm, and very tired of the overused ‘Yeah, let’s save the most powerful weapons for last’ trope), so I wouldn’t say this was the worst movie ever made, but as I said, I’m done. I’ve given more than enough money to this franchise, so when IW 2 comes out, I think I’ll be a boring adult and watch it on TV as I’m doing my ironing or something. Good times.

#infinity war #iw #iw review #infinity war review #marvel universe #there you go #i think everyone has seen it by now?#here is my take on it #sorry to be annoying

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years ago

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I want to talk about that plot hole in Spider-Man: Homecoming because yes it is absolutely a plot hole.

In the Act 2 climax of the film Spider-Man has disobeyed Tony Stark by both hacking into his high tech costume to unlock it’s advanced features, investigated the Vulture’s gang and gone to a weapons deal on a ferry which, due to his actions, has gone very wrong and resulted in the destruction of the ferry, endangering hundreds of people.

Then we get this scene.

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The plot hole is the whole “I’m nothing without this suit!” line.

It simply doesn’t make sense, not from an in-universe point of view, not from a character point of view and not from a story point of view.

Let’s put aside for the moment how this is the film further exploiting the typical 1980s John Hughes ‘coming of age’ story structure to the point of being a John Hughes superhero movie more than it is a Spider-Man movie.

Instead let’s consider this.

Peter is really, really not nothing without his suit.

He has IMMENSE superpowers, superpowers that in his previous movie appearance (which was recapped for us at the start of this movie) showcases him holding his own among multiple members of the Avengers and their affiliates, even taking a few of them down. In fact it is specifically his plan and actions that directly lead to the defeat of literally the biggest and most powerful member of the opposing side, Ant Man/Giant Man. Hell in the course of the battle he not only disarms CAPTAIN AMERICA but is outright complimented by him!

All this was preceded by SIX MONTHS of him using his incredible powers to alleviate more mundane forms of crime in Queens. Which presumably occurred after he went through some version of his traditional superhero origin that is so well known they felt no need to even mention it in any of his MCU appearances to date.

Just in case you didn’t remember that story it involved Peter realizing he had incredible powers, using them selfishly for awhile then neglecting to use them to stop a common criminal who wound up murdering his uncle/father figure making him realize that in having his powers it obliged him to use them to help those in need when and where he could.

Which is what those six months of action were all about prior to him being personally headhunted by basically the richest man in the world/greatest inventor/second-in-command of the goddam Avengers!

And prior to his airport battle he had no fancy suit. In fact during and in the two months AFTER that airport battle the fancy suit he did have did not particularly enhance his crime fighting/super powered abilities. The suit’s most useful features were that it helped him see better and he could get in and out of it very quickly. Sure, there were spider tracers too but as far as we know he used those ONCE and they hardly amounted to enhancing him.

In Act 2 of the movie Peter unlocks additional features of the suit that ARE supposed to enhance his abilities although due to his inexperience and naiveté they actually compromise his effectiveness more than help him.

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Then maybe one week later Tony confiscates the suit as we see above.

No matter how you slice it Peter is dead wrong to assert he’s ‘nothing’ without the suit.

It doesn’t make sense whether he’s talking about the special features he unlocked that tripped him up or before that when the suit didn’t actually change much about how he operated at all.

Now you might say ‘but it’s not a plot hole because from Peter’s point of view he feels he’s nothing without the suit. C’mon he’s a teenager! Teenagers are emotional. Teenagers are dumb!’

Well putting aside how in light of recent tragedies in America I think a lot of us have been re-evaluating how ‘dumb’ teenagers are, this still doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Peter isn’t a dumb teenager, he literally goes to a school specializing in science whiz kids.

Moreover he literally points out earlier in the movie when arguing why he should have the special features unlocked that he might be a kid, but he’s a kid who can ‘stop a bus with his bare hands.’

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If he does in fact know this about himself and recognizes it and is using it as an argument in his favour then that means he is aware he isn’t ‘nothing’ without the suit, the special features of which I will remind you he had for maybe a week.

That’s not even touching upon how ‘he’s a teenager’ isn’t a carte blanche excuse for the character to act any way you wish. Consider the single most influential piece of young adult fiction of the last 20 years, Harry Potter. The lead characters of those 7 novels begin their story at age 11 and age up to 17 years old by the final book.

At no point do they arbitrarily act in ways that do not make sense from an emotional or internal characterization point of view.

For Peter to honestly in his confrontation with Stark and the consequent scenes afterwards honestly believe he is nothing without the suit (to the point of seemingly temporarily retiring as a superhero) would be the equivalent of Harry Potter by book 5 not realizing, hey he’s famous and knows a few tricks to defend himself in tricky situations.

It’s utter bullshit story telling for Peter to believe he is ‘nothing’ after fighting crime on his own with his entirely organic super powers for eight months straight!

What’s worst of all from a character POV though, is that it royally shits on Spider-Man’s origin and motivation.

In the comics Spider-Man might from time to time in his duty, but that’s mostly the product of a monthly serialized comic book running decades. In a smaller, more concise medium like film the rules a bit different and for Spider-Man to basically forget or ignore his origin like that makes no sense and is dreadful characterization.

And no, that isn’t what happened in Spider-Man 2. In Spider-Man 2 Peter was fully aware of his duty but believed himself released from it by losing his powers and temporarily chose to give it up for the sake of having a life of his own. He didn’t forget or casually ignore his motivation in light being distracted by anything resembling Homecoming Spidey’s issues with his suit.

Homecoming Peter essentially off screen learned that having his powers can make a difference even on a small scale by saving one innocent life (something he clearly hints at when meeting Stark in Captain America: Civil War) and is driven by that for six months before the death of his father figure gets overshadowed by the prospect of being an Avenger, something he (in spite of Stark’s direct advice to be a ‘friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man’) invests an all or nothing binary belief in. Either he’s an Avenger hopeful with a high tech suit gifted to him by one of their members or he’s ‘nothing’.

Because...screw stopping common crooks who might by chance shoot someone’s uncle I guess.

It’s totally disingenuous to who Spider-Man is and makes no sense with his established history or characterization. It wouldn’t even make sense if his origin WAS drastically different to what we all presume it to be. Which again it’s not because that’s why they never showed it to us.

The cherry on top of this gaping problem and hole in the movie is that it’s literally the crux of Peter’s arc and ‘coming of age’ story. After six months of being a superhero he needs to learn he is nevertheless not ‘nothing’ without this material possession he’s had for two months, that potentially enhanced his abilities for maybe one week.

It’s so central to the plot and character arc of the movie that the culmination of Peter’s journey is him using his purely natural abilities to free himself urged on by Iron Man’s words dispelling the idea that he has no value beyond a piece of equipment he wears.

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The fact that that message was so central to the movie proves beyond a doubt that the movie wasn’t trying to sell you on the idea that Peter was just a teen going through a dumb phase or something to that effect. The idea was that he truly deeply believed it and that we should believe it too.

The movie from the confrontation with Tony onwards isn’t trying to make us the audience wonder ‘if Spider-Man will REALIZE he’s more than the suit’. It’s actively trying to make us wonder if he’s more than a suit at all. Sure we all know he is because we’ve seen these types of stories before, but that doesn’t mean the movie is actually engaging with the audience in the former way as opposed to the latter. The emotional stakes for the audience are still ‘will he turn out to be more than a fancy suit’. Or at least that’s what the film wants those stakes to be for the audience leading into the rubble scene.

When Peter frees himself we aren’t supposed to be cheering because we’re happy the lead character whom we’re supposed to relate to (a general rule for these types of movies but especially for Spider-Man as it’s practically a tagline of the character) finally catches up with what we’ve always known about him for the last 20-30 minutes.

You’re supposed to cheer at the revelation that yes Peter IS more than the suit and share that revelation WITH him as he proves it to himself.

Except it makes no sense because of COURSE we know he’s more than the suit. Not because of any amount of genre savvy but because the previous appearance of the character as well as THIS movie already showed us that and if that wasn’t enough had Spider-Man himself tell us that!

THAT is why this line, this moment, is ultimately a plothole.

#spider-man: homecoming #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #iron fist #Tony Stark #Avengers #captain america: civil war #Ant Man #scott lang #Uncle Ben #Ben parker #Spider-Man 2

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d-cockroach-blog · 7 years ago

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@aquaburst07 (bruh this became so long that asks dont cut it)

For a variety of reasons actually!

Before we begin, however, I want to make this clear: I have nothing against shipping or having certain ships. If anyone out there ships Keith and Acxa, that’s your ship and you’re entitled to it. At the same time, I’m entitled to my theories.

Now without further ado let’s begin.

First off, let’s look at what canon has depicted so far of the relationship between Keith and Acxa. Usually, when people talk about them (even people who support the siblings theory), they only refer to the famous scene where Keith and Acxa face off in “Tailing a Comet” in season 3. But what I’ve noticed that except for a few people (@radioactivesupersonic being one, and they have some interesting thoughts/speculation on the theory that I suggest checking out) no one really discusses this particular scene:

I admit, when I saw season 2 back in January (???) I thought that the Weblum Galra was gonna be a Red X sort of character (remember the original Teen Titans?) who would serve Keith’s rival and perhaps have some sort of connection to Lotor. Later on after Acxa’s face was revealed in sdcc and the dynamic of Lotor and his squad was established, I thought that while Keith and Acxa were definitely going to have a rivalry (and as an extension, Team Voltron vs. Team Sincline) and the fact that they worked amazing with one another signaled a potential alliance between Team Voltron and Team Sincline down the road.

But now in lue of season 4 and the dissolution of Team Sincline and the generals are at odds with Lotor, the chances of alliance in that respect is kinda low. (And I don’t support the theory that the generals are going to reunite with Lotor). Not to mention season 4 seemed to establish a rivalry/parallelism between Keith and Lotor, and the generals seem separate from it with Acxa having an agenda of her own.

But that leaves us with the teamup. Why emphasize how great Keith and Acxa work together if there’s not going to be rivalry + alliance going on?

And look at how well they work together. The show makes a point of showing them covering each other’s backs and Keith protects Acxa with his shield from blasts from the immune cells. Comparing this with other fights in the show, even the ones where it involves Team Voltron vs. common enemy, the show never makes an specific choice to have the characters work so well in sync with one another, not even Keith and Shiro, a choice that would be well expected. In fact, the only characters whose fighting style parallels this Keith and Acxa’s in this scene is

Pidge and Matt, the only canon sibling relationship in the show in which both parties are important to the plot. And taking it further, notice how that particular shot with Pidge and Matt parallels these shot of Acxa and Keith, down to the similar backgrounds:

The coloring is different of course, but that could indicate that the same way we have siblings that are partners-in-crime with Matt and Pidge, we might be getting rivaling siblings with Keith and Acxa. And given the parallelism between Keith and Pidge as the arms of Voltron, outlined very well by @radioactivesupersonic here, it makes sense that Keith’s family situation would be the inverse reciprocal of Pidge’s.

There’s also the matter of the nature of the partnership. I’ve mentioned it before in this separate meta, but note how Keith responds to Acxa. He gets real attached real quick. Don’t get me wrong, Keith is a very loyal individual, whom we see goes back rescue Regris in “Code of Honor” and sticks with Allura when she attempts to hand the comet over to the alternate reality Alteans in “Hole in the Sky.” But Acxa, as Keith noted by her empire insignia, is with the empire, and Keith has already made clear how he feels about them back when he fights Zarkon, and for the most part, he usually never hesitates when fighting a galra solider or commander, even after his origin reveal.

Here you can see how bitter, almost tired he becomes after Acxa betrays him. Given how pragmatic Keith is, you’d think he’d expect something like this to happen. And yet, here he is assuming the best out of an imperial soldier. It’s almost like he sensed that there was more to Acxa than her empirical position? And even with his bitterness towards her, Keith never anticipated Acxa being on Lotor’s side?

Look at his surprised expression here. It makes one wonder if Keith had some sort of preconceived notions about Acxa? Again, tying back to the idea that Keith somehow knew deep down that there was more to Acxa than there seemed to be, and Keith does value her in particular…

With that in mind also consider the fact that Keith and Acxa are really similar to one another.

Like something I noticed since sdcc is that Acxa what in Spanish we call an “aire” (translates directly to “air” in English, but more appropriately referred to as an “aura”) of Keith. What I mean is, that in a lot of ways, is very similar to Keith that is not present with other characters, even parallels such as Lotor and Allura. Things such as mannerisms, personality, and character.

For example, let’s look at Keith for a moment. What is one of the iconic things what we think about when thinking of Keith?

It’s him crossing his arms. It’s so iconic that Allura emulates this when she plays Keith in “the Voltron Show!” And guess what Acxa tends to do as well?

It’s not the only thing either, Acxa makes a number of Keith-ish faces too.

(There are more but I’m in kind of a rush now. I’ll update this later)

And personality-wise, at first they don’t resemble each other much. But consider their loyalty to their respective leaders, Keith with Shiro and Acxa with Lotor. Acxa ditches Lotor later on of course, but not without inner turmoil. Both are quite pragmatic to a fault, with Acxa alling herself with Keith in the Weblum because it benefitted her plan. It can be compared to Keith’s pragmatism in s1 when Allura was captured and Keith had hesitated to save her, because he knew that it would endanger the lions.

But most of all, what I find oddly similar between the two of them is their fighting style? Every character in the show has their own unique fighting style, in Team Voltron this quite pronounced. Keith in particular is known for his aggressive, close combat, and Acxa is frankly the same. Like compare:

Heck when they fight they cancel each other out.

People call out parallelism between them but I don’t see it. When we see parallelism in the show, think of how Allura’s speech to the coalition in “Changing the Guard” is a direct foil to Lotor’s speech to the empire. Think of how Lotor outwitted the paladins, only for Allura to outwit him. Think of how Keith’s on his own in season 4, and Lotor as well. What is the common denominator here? Each parallel here are in similar situations, but ultimately resulting from different circumstances. And in terms of personality, there are similarities but ultimately they are very different. Their actions, behaviors, and personality quirks are different as well.

To top this all off the last similarity that Keith has with Acxa is well their designs. Like look, I know that Studio Mir has a particular anime-esque style where it’s so easy to fall into same-face, but if I’m quite honest vld doesn’t really suffer from it?

Like for the most part, all the characters on the show are unique in some form or another, even if they share certain characteristics with one another. In fact, the only times I could recall the show being explicitly same-face besides Keith and Acxa are with Pidge and Matt, and Allura and her mother, aka people that are biologically related to each other.

And really, there has to be a reason why the show made a point to explicitly depict Keith and Acxa’s face like this in these shots, subtle foreshadowing?

Like really if it were just to for Keith to recognize Acxa as the the galra from the weblum, why focus on Keith’s face, whose expression she mirrors here? Like, the focus on Keith’s surprise and the flashback would of been enough. The time allocated to showing each of their faces was long enough to allow the viewer to get a good look at them, which given their faces, is surprisingly similar.

Also one has to consider Lauren and Joaquim’s style of foreshadowing. Like for the past four seasons I’ve noted that the vld writers tend to plant subtle hints early on in the show – easter eggs if you will. Having Acxa meet Keith in the weblum, all alone so that her partnership with him is emphasized, with the only other person being Hunk, aka the guy who involved himself in the galra Keith thing, asking him questions and stuff. One could argue that Acxa appearing in season 2 and allying herself with Keith is a perfect example of this. The hints eventually get bigger eventually culminating in the reveal. Think back to the reveal of Keith’s galra heritage. It wasn’t until someone rewatched season1 till they realized there was hints overlaid that could indicate Keith as galra, and the hints only grew as season 2 rolled around. Frankly this seems to be the case with Acxa and Keith. Right now the clues are small, but as Lauren and Joaquim said in this interview back in season 3, Keith’s family is not a main focus in the show right now, but will come in later. Given their previous trend of foreshadowing, it could very well be that Acxa, Keith’s sister, is introduced as a character, but the nature of the relationship between them will not be focused on until the second half of the show.

And really, and Keith were to have family outside (and he seems to have, given Keith’s comment in “Stayin’ Alive” how he plans to find his family, while he might not know it himself, might be subtle foreshadowing as he could as very well said parents, also Lauren’s intentionally vague comments here) wouldn’t it be more interesting for said family member to not be defined by their relation as Keith’s family, or this case sister? Because frankly, that would be boring as heck if we’re introduced to this sibling character of Keith and the only notable trait they have is the fact they exist to be Keith’s sister. Canon Acxa is a character of own, whose motivations are (now) distinct from Lotor’s, distinct from Keith’s, and she has own friend group and backstory and character development. Frankly, I’d say that Acxa being Keith’s sister would only be icing the well-written cake.

(EDIT: Forgot to include links)

#bruh finding screenshots and editign them took forever #Acxa #vld Keith #Kogane siblings theory #vld #my asks #aquaburst07 #Voltron: Legendary Defender

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tesslahanline1991 · 4 years ago

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Reiki Cleansing Best Cool Tips

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Reiki Master Richmond Va

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What Is Osho Neo Reiki

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#Reiki Cleansing Best Cool Tips #Reiki Master Ottawa

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aint-ashes · 7 years ago

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Let’s Talk About Eugene: Chapter 7 (Part A)

Hey, everyone! We finally made it. Season 7, Episode 11: Hostiles and Calamities. This is the FIRST PART (there are 10 scenes total, 5 per part, and each separated into its own section) of the chapter where I will decode and debunk all the reasons that did and did not go into Eugene becoming Negan.

There are a lot of reasons, but I know this is the question that everyone wants answered (and the question that people make the most faulty assumptions about), so I’m going to give you three general reasons right off the bat. The rest will be unveiled through what we see in the episode.

So, let’s get to them: Why did Eugene become Negan?

1. It’s Negan’s world.

And the rules are different. In the pre-Negan world, there were predictable consequences for any action one might take (even though unpredictable circumstances may have prompted it). For example, when Eugene chose to endanger his life by biting Dwight, it was a predictable consequence that he, himself, would be injured or killed. He was shot—a negative consequence, but nothing that he didn’t sign up for.

The law of Negan is not the same. The qualities that Eugene so values in others have no stock in Negan’s world. Bravery and sacrifice are not rewarded in the same predictable manner as they were before. For example, when Eugene sacrificed himself in the RV, it was a predictable consequence that he would be killed in the place of his friends. The actual consequence was a mockery of his bravery by the Saviors’ refusal to legitimize it. For another example: when Daryl defied Negan’s rules and punched him in the line-up Glenn, who was following the rules, was killed as a consequence. Bravery and sacrifice no longer pay off.

It’s not the way the world is supposed to work. It’s a world without agency, because Negan calls the shots between life and death. It’s a world where the only thing that keeps you alive is your individual value to him; if you care at all about your own survival, then there is no room to care about anyone else. And if you do? Well, caring for anyone in Negan’s world is to put them directly in the line of fire. You must either surrender your humanity or the lives of the people you love.

There is no place for goodness anymore. That’s why Abraham is gone. That’s why Glenn is gone. Because they were a threat to the rule of law in Negan’s world.

This is not the world that Eugene is familiar with, and he must be cautious in the choices he makes here. To be useful is the only path with a predictable consequence: survival. And here, with nothing left to lose but his own life, he will do anything to protect it.

2. Eugene is trapped.

Let’s put it this way: what choice does Eugene have? When Negan himself walks into his room, holding Lucille up to his face, and offering him a choice between life or death (or, at the very least, safety or squalor), why wouldn’t he choose to become Negan?

To be honest, I’m not convinced that he would so eagerly and willingly ‘become’ Negan if he were prompted the big “who are you?” in front of his family in Alexandria. Eugene’s bravery has always stemmed from his desire to be worth something to the people he cares about—to protect them, and to stand in solidarity with them.

But he’s not with his family, and he’s not in Alexandria. He is held captive in the Sanctuary by Negan himself. He is trapped both physically and morally—what kind of person does it make him if he becomes a Savior? And does he even care? Eugene does not love nor respect anyone at the Sanctuary. There is no one there worth being brave for. All he has is himself, and because he no longer respects himself, even he is not worth being brave for. There is nothing about his identity worth protecting.

When asked the “who are you?” Daryl responded with his own name, because to remain who he is was to remain the strong, brave, and relied upon person that he was. To become Negan would strip him of this, and thus insult the memory of his deceased friends.

Eugene does not see himself as strong, brave, or relied upon. There is nothing, anymore, that Negan could strip him of that would make Eugene any less of a person. To pretend otherwise would be an insult to the memory of these same deceased friends.

As a consequence of his survivor’s guilt and his inability to protect the people he loves (and with a little push from Rosita), Eugene has by now accepted himself to be a coward. He is, as he was that night in the forest, afraid for his own life. And no matter how little worth that life may have, he cannot escape his fear of losing it. So here, in the heart of Negan’s world, he surrenders to it.

Eugene’s goal is to stay alive. He really doesn’t have any other choice.

3. Becoming Negan frees him of responsibility. (Not really, but from Eugene’s perspective…)

I think it’s clear by now that Eugene’s two worst fears are dying and the people around him dying. And which fear takes precedence depends on a number of factors (at this point, at least). But it’s undeniable that Eugene loves, respects, and wants to protect the people in his family. (If you want proof, you’re in luck! I’ve written six chapters about it.)

Becoming Negan not only secures a pretty permanent living situation away from his family, but also creates an entire identity apart from them. Being away from his family relieves him of the power to save them, and therefore relieves him of the power to be unable to save them.

Eugene still does take some responsibility for the wellbeing of his family, but that’s for next chapter.

SCENE: ARRIVAL AT SANCTUARY/EUGENE’S BEDROOM

Echoes of these reasons will recur throughout the episode, and new ones will pop up as well. So, ‘Hostiles and Calamities’. Let’s go.

Eugene’s entrance into enemy territory is about as terrifying as it gets. He’s just been uprooted from his home, from his family, presumably forever. He was quite literally pushed out of the gates of Alexandria, thrown in the back of a truck, and his head bagged. There is no guarantee that he will ever come back, that he will ever see anyone from Alexandria again.

He knows he’s headed for the Sanctuary. Eugene saw Daryl, back in ‘Service’, after he’d been held captive for a week. Everything that happened to him was apparent in his face—bruised, bloody, dirty, malnourished, exhausted. Eugene saw that the Daryl Dixon, perhaps the toughest and most stubborn of the survivors, had been beaten into compliance. Into silence. And the whole ride to the Sanctuary, blind and surrounded by armed Saviors, Eugene must be imagining all the ways in which they will torture him, too. If their methods could do that to Daryl, god knows what it would do to him.

When Eugene actually gets there, all he can immediately take in about his surroundings is the overwhelming roar of hundreds of walkers. He is dragged from the truck, and when the bag is pulled from his head, the first thing he sees is Negan. Accompanied by a welcoming party of Saviors who are kind of laughing at him. And now that he can see it, it’s suddenly very real; Eugene is in grave danger.

I don’t think he could be brave here if he tried. It’s just too much, and he’s so vulnerable. His freedom was sacrificed the moment he confessed to making the bullet, but as he enters the compound and the door shuts behind him, that fate becomes sealed. Eugene panics.

As the Savior Laura leads Eugene through the labyrinth of hallways and stairs, Eugene breaks down into hysterics. He resorts to begging. This is certainly a result of the fact that he’s living his biggest fear, but also calls back on that very first reason: this is Negan’s world, and the consequence of his building the bullet has not yet been revealed to him. He’s left to hang in his imagination of what Negan has in store, and that’s it’s own kind of torture—so, when Laura leads him to his own private bedroom stocked with furniture, food, and books, he’s extremely cautious.

Right away, the conditions in which Negan places Eugene are vastly different than the conditions that Daryl lived in. This is because Negan sizes up his individual prisoners and calculates what treatment is needed to sway them into Saviorhood; and Daryl and Eugene are on opposite ends of this spectrum.

Daryl, who was resistant and hotheaded, needed to be broken into becoming Negan. So, he was humiliated, starved, emotionally and physically exhausted, and completely controlled—Negan decided when or if he slept, what and how often he ate, what he wore, etc.

Eugene, on the other hand, is already broken. He is in a perpetual state of fear and grief, trembling and crying. So, Negan sets him up in comfort. He gives him his own space and a lock on his door to make him feel safe. He has a change of clothes ready on the rack, food in the fridge, and automatic status that entitles him to anything he might want at the Sanctuary. Negan recognizes that what Eugene needs is to be mended. And if he can do that for him, if Negan can make this terrified man feel safe enough to be useful, then Eugene is as good as his.

That’s reason number four for why he will eventually ‘become’ Negan: Eugene is made to feel safe at the Sanctuary. This reason comes up again at the very end, so I’ll go into it more later.

Half of the Eugene content in this episode is him familiarizing himself with the Savior lifestyle. The other half is Eugene testing the waters of embracing said lifestyle. Eugene’s exploration of his bedroom and the conversation with Laura is the beginning of that first half.

The most important piece from this conversation is that Eugene learns about the point system—and his reaction is important. When Eugene asks for potato chips, Laura explains to him that “#42 makes them”. Eugene confirms that the number is part of a coding system—a status tag for workers. When told that #42 would be making the chips fresh, Eugene immediately declines.

He doesn’t want to make more work for anyone on his behalf. He doesn’t want to be a part of how the Saviors treat their workers—who are given numbers instead of names.

That’s who Eugene is. He’s not the person who allowed nine people to die for him on the way to D.C. And he’s not Negan. He’s right in the middle, the kind of person who refuses to make trouble for anyone else. The kind of person who thinks about how his choices affect others.

That’s who he really is, but as he’s said before: the key to survival is allowing oneself to be shaped by the assigned environment. The Sanctuary is one hell of an environment to adapt to, but survival is all he has left. He’ll do anything for it.

SCENE: LAURA TAKES EUGENE TO THE ‘MARKETPLACE’

Eugene has an immersive experience in the marketplace as his next step into Sanctuary life. This is where everyone who works for points dwells.

The workers at the Sanctuary live in squalor. Negan himself said it: “You [could]…work for points, but you’re gonna wish you were dead.” We’ve seen the hardships of the workers through Dwight, Sherry, and her sister, through Amber’s look of horror when offered a demotion from wife to worker, etc. Some of them look almost as bad as Daryl did, hunger and exhaustion-wise, and Eugene surely notes this as he takes in his surroundings.

“They eat shit. We eat good,” Laura tells him.

This is a world apart from where he came. In Rick’s group, there was no hierarchy, at least in terms of provisions. Within the family, nobody ate less because they were worth less—if that were the case, Eugene surely would have starved by now. Even when he contributed nothing to the group, when he didn’t even know how to hold a knife or had never killed a walker, he was protected and provided for. And when the whole family was starving, he had as much wild dog in his stomach as leader Rick and distrusted Gabriel.

It’s different at the Sanctuary. It’s every man and woman for themselves (which harkens back to reason #1, again), and none of them seem to be winning the fight. When Eugene witnesses one young woman steal off of the table of another Savior, he appears scandalized and watches her as she disappears nervously into a crowd.

I can’t tell if he’s upset because she stole something, or because he realizes she’s desperate enough that she has to steal something, but my money would be on both. He has a dozen eggs and shelves full of vegetables in his own private fridge, plus unlimited access to anything in this marketplace, yet here, the people who keep the Sanctuary fed and running are starving. It’s a system he likely feels both guilty and glad to be apart from.

When Laura offers him a pickle, which he had asked for earlier in the episode, he turns it down. He’s standing by the same value that made him turn down the chips; and, after seeing the conditions of the workers, I’m sure he wants even less to be a part of taking anything from them.

But, Laura pushes the entire jar into his hands and says: “You want something, haircut, you take it.” This is forced adaptation. In this one action, Laura has forced his status on him—he didn’t ask for this ranking, but Laura insists that he act on it by taking the pickles for himself. This is how life at the Sanctuary works; and it’s your life, now, too.

The takeaway from this scene: the fact that Eugene is outraged by the minor theft (it appeared to be one item—food, I think, though I can’t tell for sure) will stand as a point of reference later in this episode. Again, this is a good indication of who Eugene truly is, as opposed to who he was forced to be, and later will try to become in this environment.

SCENE: DR. SMARTYPANTS

This episode has a pattern of letting Eugene get comfortable, then breaking out a Negan scene that scares him to death, rinse, and repeat. After his tour of the marketplace, Eugene meets with Negan for the first time since the bullet incident in Alexandria—and he is terrified.

Just the way Negan likes it. Although Negan’s goal is to put Eugene back together rather than break him, he starts off their conversation with a threat to let him know that he is not off the hook by a long shot after the day’s incident with Rosita:

“Well, Eugene…I know you remember Lucille. Now, you see this right here? You might have to get real close. That, my friend, is the bullet you made. Now, under normal circumstances, I’d be showing you that real close over and over again. But, Eugene, see, all I really want to know is if you are a smartypants. You know things?”

It’s the perfect setup. But Eugene, too terrified to speak without stuttering or finishing his sentences replies:

“I am indeed a smarty-pants. I taught myself to cast bullets. I found a machine shop with the necessary… I read a lot, and, um… although my memory is not considered eidetic, I don’t skim and I don’t scrimp. If knowledge is dropped, I do indeed pick it up.”

Negan laughs disappointedly and says: “Oh, you really are just some asshole.”

Danger! Danger! If Eugene becomes “just some asshole” to Negan, he becomes valueless. And the only predictable consequence in Negan’s world is that if you have no particular value to him, your odds of survival are significantly damaged. Also considering he’s pretty sure he was just threatened to be Lucilled, Eugene better think of something fast. Something impressive that will help him survive.

“No, I’m not. I have PhDs in biochemistry, as well as immunology and microbiology, and I’ve completed my doctorate, which makes me a doctor. Prior to the collapse, I was part of a 10-person team at the Human Genome Project working under Dr. T. Brooks Ellis to weaponize diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Fire with, you know, fire.”

Eugene is still scared, and it shows in his voice, but most of the stuttering and stumbling falls away completely as soon as he turns back to the script. This is a comfort zone that Eugene inhabited for a long time when traveling with Abraham and the others. It worked once before, and it works again—after the spiel, Negan is all ears for Eugene.

The lie serves as a hook; Eugene impresses Negan with a fake identity so that he’ll pay attention to who he really is, and what he can do. Negan’s attention, though intimidating, is a good thing—he’s on his way out of the red, as long as he can keep impressing him. In this way, the lie also gave Eugene enough of a security blanket to be able to think clearly when Negan decides to test him.

When Eugene suggests molten metal to fasten the walkers to the fence, he shows Negan that he is able to make use of his surroundings and offer solutions to problems that nobody else could solve. He passes the test.

And then, something really interesting happens. Negan asks: “Did Rick have you doing this sort of valuable stuff for him?”

And Eugene doesn’t answer.

Did Rick have him doing that sort of valuable stuff? Not really! Rick pretty much ignored Eugene and anything he had to offer, in favor of working with other warrior- and leader-type people in the family (Daryl, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, etc.). Eugene had to find his own way to be valuable, including discovering a way to manufacture ammo—but in the meantime, coped with being pretty much useless to the group.

It probably worked out for the better that he was overlooked, because it forced him to come into his own as a survivor. Finding his own path made him as much a better person as it made him a better fighter. But now that he’s lost who he is, and doesn’t consider fighting or protecting to be a viable method of contribution from him, he’s back to having nothing but his knowledge.

And unlike Rick, Negan values that. That’s another reason Eugene ‘becomes’ Negan. Reason #5: his role at the Sanctuary gives him purpose.

DISCLAIMER!

I have to be careful here. It isn’t by any fault of Rick’s that Eugene feels more valuable at the Sanctuary than he did in Alexandria. Eugene’s top priority is different now: in Alexandria, the goal into which he poured all his energy was contributing for the group and keeping the others as well as himself safe. At the Sanctuary, Eugene’s only goal is to keep himself alive. There is much less opportunity for failure when only your own life is on the line; so, of course Eugene feels more successful in his goals at the Sanctuary.

Plus, Rick did come to value Eugene (for both his knowledge and his bravery) in 6x16, and was of course upset when Eugene was taken away. I don’t believe that Eugene holds it against Rick in any way that he didn’t use him for his knowledge. In fact, Eugene much preferred to be valued for his courage and sacrifice come season 6. He knew that, after what he’d done, he had to earn Rick’s respect and acknowledgement. He’s not bitter about it.

Let me repeat: BECOMING NEGAN IS NOT A BACKLASH AGAINST RICK!

Nevertheless, it does give him some form of worth—even if it’s not the worth that he had come to want for himself. It’s the only worth he believes he can have.

And he walks away from his first encounter with Negan, alive and with the beginning of a promise that he will keep living. We get that little devious smile, which I’m sure we all wanted to take as a sign that he had just secured the perfect position from which he could tear the Saviors apart from the inside. Unfortunately, it’s more of a “ha-ha-I-tricked-you-into-not-killing-me” smile. But, eh, I’ll take it anyway.

SCENE: EUGENE MEETS THE WIVES

When Amber, Frankie, and Tanya visit Eugene, I’m sure he’s aware that it’s a test. But it’s also, I think, a way to make Eugene more comfortable at the Sanctuary—this goes back to him needing to be mended rather than broken into becoming a Savior. If he sees that the Sanctuary has kind people (bonus points if they’re beautiful), that it’s not just filled with malnourished workers and stand-offish soldiers that seem to always be walking around with guns and sadistic smiles, Eugene may be more inclined to stay. Enter Amber (I’m not sure why), and Frankie and Tanya, who are friendly and charismatic, easy to talk to, very kind women.

It’s nice to have someone around who doesn’t call him “haircut” or wave a barbed bat in his face, but this video game night is also, nevertheless, a test in obedience; Negan has given Eugene a very strict and simple rule. All he has to do is follow it, and he simultaneously moves up in Negan’s book and gains a couple friends.

It’s important that the first thing we see in this scene is a close-up of the pickle jar. Pickles were something that Eugene specifically asked for, then decided against for moral reasons, but was forced to take anyway. So he might as well eat them, right? But the jar is still full. He hasn’t eaten even one of them. This will be another point of reference later, but for now it tells us that Eugene is still aligned with his real self; eating the pickles would make him feel guilty.

Throughout this scene, Eugene does a good job of passing Negan’s test. He avoids Frankie’s physical advances and masterfully redirects a question about the Human Genome Project, and somehow ends up able to show off his knowledge. It doesn’t get any better than that!

The most important part of this segment is when he and the wives go outside to play with science. Amber is not with this whole date-night concept; she’s here to drink and cry. When she tells Tanya “we’re just slaves,” she’s referring to her status as a wife to Negan.

Shortly after, Savior Keno comes out to check on the noise, and Eugene tenses up. After Keno is dismissed, Frankie tells Eugene to relax. “You’re one of us,” she says.

The lines “you’re one of us,” and “we’re just slaves” complement each other. Negan has Amber (and Tanya and Frankie) as wives so that they are at his disposal whenever and for whatever he wants. This comes in exchange for safety and excusal from the points system, which creates the illusion of a choice—marry me or starve.

Eugene’s position is not unlike theirs. He is living in the illusion of security, with a bedroom and status benefits. The ways in which Negan will use him are entirely different, but he is really only safe as long as Negan deems his performance useful and satisfactory. Eugene may think he’s given himself the upper hand in lying to Negan, but he’s still a slave, whether he sees it that way or not.

SCENE: TANYA AND FRANKIE ASK FOR THE PILLS

There is a parallel Dwight storyline in this episode that becomes really important to Eugene’s story, come this scene. When Dwight returns to his house and finds the letter from Sherry, he reads from her: “Being there isn’t better than being dead. It’s worse.”

Following that scene, Frankie and Tanya knock on Eugene’s door and ask him to assist Amber’s suicide. Now, since this ends up being a ploy, I can’t say whether Amber is actually suicidal or not—but from what I gather, she may be headed that direction. She very well could have expressed that she wanted to die, which spurred Frankie and Tanya to act on killing Negan instead; so, for the sake of getting inside Eugene’s head, I’m going to assume that Amber did express suicidal thoughts.

Eugene is immediately upset. He has seen the workers in the marketplace fighting for survival, stealing just to fill their stomachs, and yet Amber, who has guaranteed protection from Negan himself, wants to die just to escape it.

This is Eugene’s first look at something that becomes a recurrent theme at the Sanctuary: those who are best off survival-wise are those closest to Negan. And those closest to Negan are those least willing to survive. Eugene cannot fathom this; he fears nothing more than death, and will do anything to avoid it—he counts himself lucky that he’s passed into Negan’s inner circle. But now that he’s here, he is witnessing that even in Negan’s world there are parts of a person that aren’t worth giving up. Even at the cost of survival.

In fact, there are parts of a person that are worth dying to protect, whether that be freedom, or dignity, a semblance of your old self, or loyalty to your friends and family. Rosita once told Eugene that the people around him dying was worse than death itself—now, he’s learning that maybe there are other things worse than death, too. It’s not yet a truth for him, but a truth he’s seeing in others very similar to him.

The story will likely sway this way for Eugene in season 8, but I’ll save my theories for the end of Part B.

When told that Amber is suicidal, Eugene looks about to cry. Then, he scrambles for reasons that she shouldn’t kill herself. Now might seem like an awkward time to bring up that he still hasn’t eaten any of those pickles, but that and his immediate concern for Amber both go to show what Frankie tells him next:

“We can tell that you are a good man. There aren’t many of those left.”

No, there aren’t. There aren’t any good men left. The last of them died in that lineup while Eugene was quivering in fear for his own life. I know this is what he’s thinking when he looks away and says: “Truth of the matter is, I’m not good. I’m not lawful, neutral, or chaotic. None of the above.” I’m not like him. I’m not like them. I’m not who I thought I was.

This is the first time Eugene has said anything about who he is since “I’m a survivor”. He has never before come to the conclusion that he’s not a good person. Even back during the lie, he reasoned with himself that the benefits to his gullible companions would outweigh the costs to protect him.

But he is good. He can’t fight it. That’s why, when told that Amber will suffer without his help, he is as good as won over. While still deeply upset, Eugene is needed again. Not to save a life, but to save a person from her life. He is called upon to protect, and though Amber isn’t one of his family, he begins to nod when Frankie says:

“You are good, Eugene. You have to be.”

I know it sucks and it’s scary, but it’s time to be brave.

Not only does Eugene agree to help them, he agrees to help immediately. And in that moment, he’s not thinking of Negan or of himself. He’s not thinking of the consequences that may come of helping to end the life of one of Negan’s wives. He’s not thinking of how that would impact his own survival, should Negan ever find out.

He’s thinking of Amber, a girl he hardly knows, but whose agency and dignity, whose right to die in a way she deserves he is willing to put himself on the line to protect. And if that doesn’t show that he’s one of the last good men on earth, I don’t know what does.

Thus ends Part A, and Eugene’s wading into Sanctuary life. Part B will explore five more scenes in which Eugene goes all out and dives into Saviorhood. We’ll talk about his reasons for this dive and whether or not they’re contradictory to Saviorhood itself (teaser: they kind of are, lol), as well as more about why he ‘becomes’ Negan.

My goal is to have Part B posted before tomorrow night’s episode, because we’re getting lots of new Eugene content. Get hype and nervous! See you all tomorrow!

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newsfundastuff · 5 years ago

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Two years ago, 17 people died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Fla. In the intervening years, both those who survived it and those who observed it from afar have tried to figure out how something so terrible could have happened.That is understandable. Unfortunately, the tone of public debate on this matter was set early, and unhelpfully, on just one subject: gun control. The morning after the shooting, Parkland school superintendent Robert Runcie said that “now is the time to have a real conversation about gun control laws in our country.” Just a few days later, Broward County sheriff Scott Israel said: “While the people who are victims of mental-health illnesses in this country are being treated, in the opinion of this sheriff, they should not be able to buy, surround themselves with, purchase or carry a handgun. Those two things don’t mix.” David Hogg, a Stoneman student at school on that evil day, demanded national action on gun control shortly after as well. “We are children. You guys are, like, the adults,” he said. “Take action, work together, come over your politics, and get something done.” Hogg then helped spearhead a mass political rally in Washington, D.C., the next month, the “March For Our Lives,” that again emphasized this call for federal action on gun control.Those who survived something as horrendous as the Parkland shooting do not deserve unnecessary opprobrium. But the fact remains that it was not Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump, or the National Rifle Association who were responsible for the murder of 17 people on that February day. It was a depressing cascade of actions (and inactions) by local actors over a series of years, and even on the day of the shooting, that sealed the victims’ fate. The collective failure to recognize and accept this, even years later, may be a consequence of a political culture that insists on all problems’ being made national. In any case, it simultaneously does nothing for the victims of Parkland and does little to prevent future similar slaughters.This story turns, sadly, on the shooter himself. (As recent research has suggested that media coverage of mass shootings can inspire subsequent ones, it is best not to use his name.)The shooter displayed violent tendencies from a young age, and through multiple schools, all the way up to the day he killed those 17 people. As a young child raised mostly by an adoptive single mother, he often fought with neighborhood children. He tortured animals. He argued frequently with his own family, quickly escalating verbal confrontations to physical ones. At one point, he required a physical harness to ride the school bus without attacking other students. Throughout his grade-school and middle-school years, he physically and verbally assaulted students and bragged about his mutilations of animals. He attempted to commit suicide during a fire drill. When transferred to a school for students with special needs, he openly obsessed over guns and violence, at one point bringing a weapon to the school. He continued virtually all of these behaviors as he matriculated into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, getting into several fights, sending death threats to ex-girlfriends and others, openly proclaiming his desire to shoot up the school to anyone who would listen, dressing in full camouflage gear, bringing dead animals to class, and, once again, bringing weapons (knives and bullet casings) to school grounds. All of this happened before February 14, 2018; he was seriously punished for surprisingly little of it.Could hindsight be 20/20? After the fact, many of these school shootings seem obvious, and their perpetrators fit a similar pattern: young, isolated, troubled, aggrieved, male. But it is impossible to overlook the sheer number of times somebody actively warned about the Parkland shooter’s tendencies only to be ignored.Florida mental-health officials declined on multiple separate occasions to institutionalize him. On February 5, 2016, the shooter posted a picture of himself posing with a gun to his Instagram account with the caption: “I am going to get this gun and shoot up the school.” A woman alerted a Broward County sheriff about this; he said there was nothing he could do. There were literally dozens of police visits to his house over the years. After he entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas, something his therapist advised against, school staff held a meeting in which they pegged him as the likeliest school shooter among their student body. Eventually, he was forbidden from bringing a backpack to school. When ultimately forced out of the school for academic reasons, he trespassed on school grounds on the first day of the 2017–18 academic year. A YouTube account in his actual name commented on a video that he wanted to become a professional school shooter; the video’s uploader contacted the FBI, which did nothing. Another woman, a family friend, alerted both the Broward County sheriff’s office and the FBI about the shooter’s consistently violent Instagram posts; neither acted on the tip. And a former Secret Service agent warned Parkland officials of the likelihood of a mass shooting given their security protocols.Little, if anything, was done. Demonstrating a horrifying and ultimately damning passivity, a series of ostensibly responsible adults passed up every chance to thwart an increasingly obvious imminent evil.But the failures of those in charge at and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas did not end in the lead-up to the shooting itself. On the very day, their actions enabled, prolonged, and worsened the massacre. The shooter walked right onto school grounds through a gate that security protocols said ought to have been closed. When he got there, campus-security monitor Andrew Medina saw him, recognized him, and knew he no longer belonged at the school. He declined to initiate school security procedures, as Ty Thompson, the principal, had reserved that authority for himself but was away from campus. Medina radioed David Taylor, another campus-security monitor, who went into the building where the shooter had entered, then hid in a closet when he began hearing gunshots, also without initiating security procedures. Meanwhile, school resource officer Scot Peterson, the only other armed person on school grounds, had been informed of gunfire in the school — yet stood idly outside of the affected building for almost an hour, awaiting the arrival of Broward sheriff deputies. They too did little but wait outside the building. And finally, due to miscommunication, Jan Jordan, the captain of the Parkland district of the Broward sheriff’s office, thought that recorded security footage of the shooter was live and delayed allowing both deputies and medics into the building until it was “empty” (on the basis of out-of-date information).By the time officers entered the building, the perpetrator had already fled school grounds with evacuating students. It was a shocking display of incompetence, inaction, and indecision that allowed the Parkland shooting to become what it did. (This is not even an exhaustive account; read the book by education-policy writer Max Eden and father of Parkland victim Andrew Pollack, Why Meadow Died: The People and the Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students for more.)Seen in this light, the after-the-fact statements by Runcie, Israel, and others blaming the lack of gun control seem more like deflection than any genuine attempt to figure out what happened that day. For they would have to blame themselves, not pat themselves on the back for their “amazing leadership,” to get to the bottom of the events that unfolded. The proximate causes of the tragedy were choices various local actors made -- or, in most cases, did not make. They, not some far-off villain with only marginal influence on their day-to-day lives, deserve to be held responsible. As Pollack puts it in Why Meadow Died, “Parkland was the most avoidable mass shooting in American history.”As for Hogg and those like him, it is unfortunate that they followed the lead of these deflecting adults in seeking blame afar. They still have every right to be angry. But the proper target of ire ought to be the officials and policies that directly failed him and all the rest at Stoneman Douglas that day, those who lived and those who died. On the second anniversary of Parkland, let us hope that we can think clearly about the best way to stop anything like it from happening again.

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