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jellyshark-png · 6 months ago

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MK1xF1 AU – by Shark :3

alright alright it is FINALLY HERE but before we get started in this big ass post, just a few silly disclaimers !!

expect some MAJOR inaccuracies (this is mostly for my diehard f1 fans hello :3),, i am by no means an expert, in fact i got into f1 VERY recently so pls bare with me

lets understand that, from a physique standpoint, tomas and kuai WOULD NOT REALISTICALLY BE IN F1– however we choose to ignore that for the sake of the brainrot teehee

not every character will be included, so pls don't get mad at me if your fav is not in this AU– its a working AU and these are all coming off the top of my head

anyways, enjoy me yapping!

just a few definitions to understand the positions and other terms i'll be using throughout this post :'D

Team Principal – basically owns the team, kind of self explanatory HAHA Race Engineer – these are the people that speak to the drivers while they're racing! now, realistically speaking, every driver gets their own race engineer, but in this case i haven't done that bc,,, well there's only so many characters :') Pit Lead – another self explanatory position, but this is the lead/manager of the pit crew! (is this an actual position ?? idk but we're going with it) Formula Series – so Formula 1 isn't the only race in the series, there's also F2 and F3– these are the races you basically go through before you get into F1! there's other races in the series, but these are the ones i'll focus on. Drive to Survive/DTS – this is a netflix series revolving around F1 and i will say its the most dramatic depiction of the sport + all the fake hate between racers shown ?? and using clips and such out of context ?? yeah you get the picture.

F1 TEAMS

MERCEDES-AMG PETRONAS F1 TEAM

Team Principal : Hanzo Hasashi (i know it says mk1 but shhhh) Race Engineers : Bihan Pit Lead : Syzoth Racers : Kuai Liang and Tomas Vrbada

Mercedes comes up as a long time rival to Oracle Red Bull Racing and Ferrari Scuderia– expecially with such a close bond between the brothers. Bihan started off as the team's strategist before his farther stepped down as race engineer, thus banding the baton to Bihan and making him the youngest race engineer on the grid. Tomas and Kuai are steady but strongly defensive racers, Tomas joining in a bit later in the game starting as a rookie reserve driver for Mercedes in the first half of the previous seasons. Now they fight on together in the world of F1 side by side as a strong unit.

extra! - i remember reading someone's headcanon abt kuai liang being taiwanese,,, so im gonna say bihan and kuai liang are half chinese half taiwanese (chinese dad, taiwanese mom), and so in this case, kuai liang would represent the taiwanese flag while tomas ofc represents the czech republic flag!

FERRARI SCUDERIA F1 TEAM

Team Principal : Jackson "Jax" Briggs Racers : Johnny Cage and Kenshi Takahashi

Before Oracle Red Bull Racing's renaissance in the new generation of F!, Ferrari Scuderia was at the top of their game for years and years. With Johnny and Kenshi being in the sport much longer than the newcomers, it's no denying that they are the winning classics of every race season– many looking forward to their assertion in the races. Johnny drives more aggressively, though with a lighter bounce in his step, a bit of bantering almost while he's racing wheel to wheel. Kenshi, on the other hand, is smooth and sly in the way he overtakes every racer, always sidling just behind a racer's line. Although they've raced for much longer, they still hold true as being one of the big three amongst Mercedes and Red Bull Racing.

extra! - 100000% johnny and kenshi do not work well at first when they become team mates, and people honestly would've preferred them as rivals in opposing teams– but over time they'd put aside their differences and slowly find out that they actually work really well together, despite their opposites in driving style and personality.

ORACLE RED BULL RACING F1 TEAM

Team Principal : Geras Race Engineer : Liu Kang Racers : Raiden and Kung Lao

Oracle Red Bull Racing saw its first golden age with now race engineer Liu Kang, setting the standard for F1 in his time and winning world championship after world championship, dominating each race until his retirement as a racer. Today, Raiden now follows in his footsteps, and alongside him his childhood best friend, Kung Lao. Starting out, they weren't actually in the same team– opting to race against each other in opposing teams to keep their rivalry alive once joining F1. Over time, and after many second driver switches, Kung Lao finally joins Raiden in Oracle Red Bull Racing, making them THE golden boys of this generation's Red Bull racing team– an absolute killer duo to fight against long standing Mercedes and Ferrari.

extra! - irl, red bull is NOTORIOUS for constantly switching out second drivers, and so kung lao would get a lot of flack– and his first year in red bull would not be as great until around the second half of the season :'))

TIMELINE

here, i'll be explaining the timeline of each of the racers' moves throughout the teams– this is going from 2020-2024 (and to preface, whenever i do talk abt mk1xf1 stuff, assume its all taking place in 2024 unless told otherwise). im gonna pray all of this makes sense HAHA

*also there's usually two drivers per team ofc, but i cannot be bothered to do any placeholder drivers for each team, so the second driver can be up to your interpretation!

2020

kuai and kenshi in aston martin (have been since 2019 as well, maybe 2018 i havent fully decided)

johnny has been in RB toro rosso for a year since 2019 (technically speaking its called visa cashapp rb now but like,,,, you guys that name is so awful LMAO)

raiden and tomas enter into their first year in F1 in williams

kung lao enters his first year in haas

TEAMS Aston Martin : kuai liang and kenshi takahashi RB Toro Rosso : johnny cage Haas : kung lao Williams : raiden and tomas vrbada

2021

kuai and kenshi stay in aston martin

johnny stays in toro rosso, and tomas makes the move to toro rosso

raiden moves to mclaren

kung lao stays in haas

TEAMS Aston Martin : kuai liang and kenshi takahashi RB Toro Rosso : johnny cage and tomas vrbada Mclaren : raiden Haas : kung lao

2022

kuai makes the move to oracle red bull racing (BY THIS TIME liu kang is actually still racing, and retires by the end of the 2022 season)

kenshi makes the move to williams, alongside kung lao

tomas and johnny stay in toro rosso

raiden stays in mclaren

TEAMS Oracle RB : kuai liang and liu kang Williams : kenshi takahashi and kung lao RB Toro Rosso : johnny cage and tomas vrbada Mclaren : raiden

2023

raiden moves to oracle RB after liu kang retires, kuai stays in oracle RB

kenshi stays in williams

kung lao moves to RB toro rosso to replace johnny, tomas stays in RB toro rosso

johnny goes to mercedes

TEAMS Oracle RB : kuai liang and raiden RB Toro Rosso : kung lao and tomas vrbada Williams : kenshi takahashi Mercedes : johnny cage

mid 2023 – 2024 (current)

johnny signs into ferrari in the middle of the '23 season

kuai liang signs into mercedes in the middle of the '23 season

kung lao signs into oracle RB, raiden stays in the same team

kenshi then signs into ferrari by the end of the '23 season

tomas signs into mercedes for the '24 season

TEAMS Oracle RB : raiden and kung lao Ferrari Scuderia : johnny cage and kenshi takahashi Mercedes : kuai liang and tomas vrbada

Misc. Stuff :D

this is where it gets super fun bc now i yap EVEN MORE abt the extra shit in this AU

the ages✨ bc i assume everyones curious abt this perhaps HAHA and this is in conjunction with being in the current year 2024 and these are all ranges bc,,,, im indecisive and dont know what age to actually make them

liu kang and geras : late 30s, very early 40s (maybe like,,, 37-41 ??)

hanzo hasashi and jax briggs : early 40s perhaps

kuai liang and johnny cage : late 20s, early 30s (so kuai around 27-29 and johnny 29-32)

kenshi takahashi and bihan : early 30s (maybe a year older than johnny ? like if johnny is perhaps 30 then kenshi would be 31– then bihan is liiike idk 32-33)

kung lao, raiden, and tomas vrbada : early-mid 20s

the rookie trio !!! lets get into it :333

raiden, kung lao, and tomas all entered into F3 around the same time! they moved up in the series and all entered F1 the same time as well (for my F1 fans, think of them as lando, george and alex)

as ages go, raiden is the oldest, then tomas, then kung lao being the youngest of the three :3 and for laughs– tomas 10000% holds it over lao's head that hes older than him (probably only by a few months too HAHA)

this isn't specific to the rookies, but theres a "twitch quartet" (twitch streaming btw) in the irl world of F1 (lando, george, alex and charles), and so in this AU, the twitch quartet would be the rookies + johnny cage bc i think that dynamic is absolutely hilarious HAHA

these three would be considered the new era of F1, whereas kuai, johnny and kenshi are considered the older bunch teehee

liu kang as a racer oooohhhh AUUUUGHFDK

liu kang would've been absolutely ICONIC during his time, think sebastian vettel– that's his kind of notoriety

so when he announced his retirement, it would've absolutely devastated the F1 community, even if you weren't a liu kang or red bull fan, it would still hit you where it hurts

he'd truly set the bar standard for what an F1 driver should be like idc idc

but when he announced his return as a race engineer for the oracle RB team, everyone cheered :3

the controversial era that is 2023-2024 + the hit netflix series Drive to Survive

i know for an absolute FACT that when kuai and tomas signed into mercedes there was a lot and i mean A LOOOOTTT of speculation and hate for them bc of the familial ties

and perhaps a similar issue with johnny joining ferrari bc i headcanon him to have some italian roots (so people would speculate that he had someone in the inside idfk LMAO)

but this would be CAAAANDY for the show Drive to Survive bro it would be HAVOC

speaking of DTS– once kung lao signed into Oracle RB, they 100000% villainized him and even made it seem as though he wanted to take raiden's spotlight as the first driver (which is not the case holy hell HAHA)

but with that, a lot of fans that came from DTS despised kung lao, and probably still do– they just refuse to see that they're literally childhood friends LMAO

some dynamics stuff and jumping between eras and whatnot bro this is getting way too long HAHA

at the beginnings of his F1 career, tomas would be EXTREMELY tense and even tone down his playful personality to come off as more "serious" and professional– but when he joins RB toro rosso with johnny, he aaaaabsolutely helps him out of his shell and proves to him that you don't have to be so serious in the sport. it would just be a lot of pressure on tomas' part to prove himself, esp with being in kuai's shadow :')

and in a similar note, when kung lao joins williams with kenshi, he kinda learns a bit of humility from kenshi and brings down his rowdiness, actually hone it to be a better driver in the long run. AUGHGHKDFJ dude kenshi and johnny as mentors heals my soul idc

kuai and kenshi in aston martin would have been KIIIILLLEERRR they would've put aston martin as actual competitors in the constructor's championship LIIKEKEK so iconic + they'd be the heartbreakers of their time with the two being at their prime and much younger UGH

LAST THING I PROMISE this is just a bunch of extra tidbits if you care to read– and if you've actually made it this far uhhh,,,, congratulations BAHAH

kenshi has sensitive eyes, so he has his helmet visor specifically tinted for that + does wear shades inside and ykw its a godsend the Ferrari is sponsored by Raybans HAHA

to tie to that, johnny just has AT LEAST two extra pairs of glasses on him, and he says its for himself but really its just in case kenshi somehow forgets his own shades somewhere or his own pair broke (ya gotta love them)

raiden and lao's rivalry is IIINNNSSAAANNEEE haters can hate all they want, but their on track fights are so incredible to watch and people think its a miracle that they're still as close as ever

ALSO BRO madam bo would have 10000000% funded their karting career SHES THEIR NUMBER ONE SUPPORTER IDC WHAT ANYONE SAYS !!!!!!! she sponsors them too, is always in whatever commercials they do and theyre your typical cheesy but memorable asian commercials

random but with raiden and kung lao both being chinese, they both represent the chinese flag, and so did liu kang !!! you'd catch them all in cantonese– though unfortunately cannot speak much with kuai since he speaks mandarin HAHA

during their time in williams, lao and kenshi definitely taught each other their own language just a bit, but lao definitely learned most of the "bad" words in japanese LMAOF

johnny italian yes (cmon just look at his nose) ??? and he's fluent case closed– but also its funny to see his onboard videos of him gesturing to other drivers when he's angry

bihan has the same notoriety as toto wolff– he's the one mf everyone simps for and ISN'T AN F1 DRIVER

this has already gone for a long time LMAOKSJDFH but if you have any other questions or would like me to make some comparisons of the actual drivers vs. the characters, my ask box is open !!! anyways thank you for reading this LOOOOONNNGGGG post and i hope to make more mk1xf1 content :'))))

#shark's mk1xf1 AU #mortal kombat 1 #mk1 #mortal kombat #formula 1 #f1 #alternate universe

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gaybabything · 10 months ago

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OOOH I love those AUs! Also, yessss to almost all of shows you listed. I really liked TOH but I've never really watched any other iterations of tmnt other then Rise.

Hmmm foods... I really like cherries. Also BBQ chicken!

And I do! I draw and write. :DD

What's the back story behind your profile picture? It looks very strange and fun. Do you have any AU ideas/ head cannons you'd be willing to share with me?

-🌻

I am also a big fan of cherries and BBQ chicken!

For my profile picture, it was just a silly little meme I found on pinterest like 3 years ago and decide I would use it cause it was funny!

As for headcanons, for some reason I always hit all my favorite characters with the transgender beam. Like, Jim Hawkins from treasure planet? Bam, transgender. Jim Lake from toa? Bam, transgender. Leo from every single tmnt iteration? Bam, transgender. Zuko? You guessed it, he transed his gender. The list goes on. (Also I forgot to mention Danny Phantom, Gravity Falls, and HTTYD on the last post)

Other headcanons include:

1. All of the Rise turtles besides Mikey love taking baths/swimming cause they're all aquatic. When Mikey was little he'd throw the biggest tantrums ever during bath time while all the others were practically falling over eachother to get in the tub.

2. There had to have been times when the boys snuck out and to the surface when they were little. (Probably how they met April). There was probably a time when they got cornered by a dog or something when they were still little and it was up to Raph to protect them. This gave him a crippling fear of dogs for years until he met a really sweet pit bull. Cause just like him, people look at those kinds of dogs and immediately think "big and scary and will hurt me" but in reality they're absolute sweethearts. Now he's pretty much over his fear.

3. Billy Bones and Captain Nathaniel Flint were totally gay and in love. I will elaborate if you ask but I'll just leave it at that for now.

4. When Hakoda finally properly meets Zuko, Aang, and Toph he just automatically adopts them. They all practically have "adopt me" written in bold letters on their foreheads. He is now the proud father of 5 kids, a lemur, a sky bison, and whoever/whatever else his kids decide to bring home.

5. Now I'm just gonna talk about Tales of Arcadia ROTT for a bit. If you have not seen the show or movie, then I'm incredibly sorry about this long ass rant I'm about to go on. Feel free to skip the next 10 paragraphs.

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING FOR TOA ROTT BELOW THE CUT

In the end of TOA ROTT, Jim was not thinking clearly at all. He had just watched his best friend, one of his father figures, and so many of his other friends die. His entire world was crashing down on him, and he just wanted things to go back to normal. When he used the Chronosphere, he wasn't actually fully in control of how far back it took him. He was just desperate to go back to a time where his friends and family were safe. The sphere picked up on that, and took him way back to the very beginning before anything bad ever happened to him and his friends.

When Toby showed up, alive and 2 years younger than the one he just watched die, all he could think was that he needs to keep him safe this time. In the first timeline, he had the amulet, Claire had magic, and all of his other friends (aside from Steve and Eli) were magical creatures or warriors. Toby was just a human with a hammer. In his messed up state of mind, the only way he could think to keep Toby safe was for him to have the amulet instead. The amulet had saved Jim's life a bunch of times, so it would protect Toby if he was the trollhunter.

I think after things had calmed down, and Jim had a chance to properly think about what he had done, he would regret this decision immensely. Because being the trollhunter puts a major target on one's back. Yes, the amulet protects Toby, but it also curses him with the burden of being some great warrior and protecting an entire species. This would just crush Jim with guilt, because he knows the struggles a trollhunter goes through and he just doomed his friend to them.

Also, the past 2 years of Jim's life was essentially erased. He's 2 years younger, has none of the scars that he's gained over the past 2 years, and is basically in a body that is no longer his own. People who were his friends, his family, the day before, are now back to being enemies or have simply no idea who he is yet. Hell, he was a troll for a year, and suddenly he's back to being a scrawny 15 year old with no proof of what he's been through other than the mental scars. He's barely the same person. He has so many issues. You know he has ptsd, anxiety, and probably body issues because again, he was a troll, and now he's back to being a 15 year old human boy. (Also I headcanon him as trans so him suddenly detransitioning by 2 years would definitely fuck him up a bit.)

His mannerisms have changed, he has different habits than before, and now he has a huge variety of triggers that no one else knows about anymore. For everyone around him, it must seem like he was suddenly replaced with someone else. This causes a lot of tension and issues with people like his mom and Toby.

And Claire. For him, just yesterday they were in love, they had spent the last 2 years of their lives fighting side by side, growing as individuals together. He was probably planning on proposing to her. And now she doesn't even know who he is. Not to mention he is mentally 18 now, and she is back to being only 15/16. I feel like even though he promised her before he went back in time that he would never give up on winning her back, he would be hesitant to do so now. He would probably wait until she's older to try and pursue their relationship again, which would likely tear him apart.

And don't even get me started on everyone else. Blinky was literally his dad. And now he doesn't even know who he is. I imagine that being around Blinky again would be difficult for him. Just yesterday, Jim could call this man "dad". Now, Blinky is back to having 0 parental instincts for this kid and is probably weirded out by Jim's behavior at first. With Toby being the Trollhunter, Blinky would be more focused on him. Jim would essentially be kinda cast aside at first. I imagine he would feel like he's being abandoned again just like with James Lake Sr. Same thing with Strickler. The guy was his step dad, and now he's suddenly back to being an evil changeling who wants to kill them.

And all the little things, that to him are perfectly normal, are no longer known by anyone else. All their inside jokes have lost their meanings. And he knows personal things about people who don't even remember his name now. I imagine that there would be times where they're all hanging out, having a good time, sharing memories. He'd bring up something that to him, is a treasured memory shared by all his friends and family. Only for no one else to understand what he's talking about. He'd have to play it off, say it must have been a dream or he was just remembering things wrong, and it would kill him inside.

And everyone who hangs around him would know that something is off. Something is wrong with him. They would all pick up on the fact that something happened to him, but he never says what. For Toby and Barbara, this would be especially distressing. To them, Jim just suddenly woke up one day a completely different person and they have no idea why. And it's not like he can just admit that he's from a doomed future and has experienced unspeakable horrors.

Okay I have so much more to say on this topic but it is getting long as hell. I honestly should make this a separate post but I'm too lazy for that :/ Also so sorry again if you haven't watched TOA and have no clue what I'm talking about right now...

Anyways! More questions for you! Do you have any au/headcanons you want to share? (Literally any fandom you want to talk about). What are your top favorite colors? And what do you like to write/draw?

#I went a little overboard on the TOA stuff...#tales of arcadia #toa trollhunters #tmnt #🌻 anon #I am very much enjoying this tho!

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grison-in-space · 3 months ago

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man I want to try and sketch out my special interest in dogs now because it's nothing like so neatly contained.

for one thing it's very specifically entangled in communication itself, which is what brought me to the whole study of behavior in the first place. Also insofar as a lot of my basic social skills are built off a level of understanding and applying dynamics first observed in dogs, and I used to practice my human social skills by chatting up people in dog parks. (Including checking to see if they did actually want to talk to me!)

for another, genetics: molecular (all those coat patterns and epigenetic plasticity!) and population (all the glorious diversity and history that comes with dog breeding)

for another, history and culture. I have trailed curiosity about dogs as seen by other peoples and cultures from mine into some interesting places, on both a macro and micro scale. What do other people think about dogs in myth? economically? What uses do they have? What level of attention to breeding do the people have?

for another, politics: the very first place I found talking about dogs when I toddled towards the Internet in about 95, 96? It was the JRTCA, facing down the impending reality of AKC recognition, and it was very clear and very explicit that there was a politics to this. anyway, it's dogs: pit bulls, spay/neuter, responsible breedership, cropping/docking: what can we do with our dogs, where can our dogs live, what kind of dogs can we have? it's all politics, both within and between camps, all the time. Dog people gave me my first taste of politics on a small scale, one I could wrap my head around easily as a small autistic child.

Law! Nutrition and the food supply chain! Vaccine hesitancy! Cultural constructs! Invasive species! Public health! Bizarre transmissible cancers! Genocide! Hunting! Con artists! Hair care! You name it, there's a dog related entry way to learning a little more. It's so comforting.

It's like a helpful giant, structured interest sticky zone with tendrils into almost anything you could think of. And it self organizes, because you always care about all the appended connections because they're always interesting and salient to you, so you have good ways to keep them from getting confused with one another. Marvelous.

#actuallyautistic

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ahkaahshi · 4 years ago

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how they handle the wedding planning process [scenarios]

pairings: hirugami sachirou; oikawa tooru; miya osamu x fem reader

genre: fluff, humor

warning(s): two swear words. that’s it, surprisingly enough.

Hirugami is well known for being cool as a cucumber under the most intense of conditions. It’s a skill he's refined over the years, and, boy, does it come in handy during the wedding planning process. If you’re stressed, he’s there to calm you down. If you’re doubting decisions you’ve made about your dress, venue, food, or literally anything else, he’s there to reassure you that right or wrong doesn’t matter, as long as the two of you are happy together and in agreement.

Not only is he a seasoned professional in the arts of remaining calm, but he’s also a skilled crafter. Yes, that’s right. This man will go HAM in the arts and crafts department. Think you need to hire someone to make cute invitations and a table decorations? Think again. Hirugami’s on it, and at only the cost of a few kisses an hour. If he’s workin’ overtime, he might request a lil shoulder rub every now and then, but talk about a good rate! Plus, he does a great job and you know what he makes is special because he put his heart into it.

“How’s it going, Sachirou?” you ask with a gentle sigh as you walk into the living room from the kitchen with a bag of chips in hand.

From where he’s sitting on the floor, focused on his work, he lifts his head and directs a gentle smile your way. “Good. I’m almost done with the invitations now,” he responds and returns to his duties once more.

With half a chip in your mouth, you pause for a moment to marvel at the sight before you. At the center of a sea of craft supplies sits your tall fiancé, looking calm and controlled as ever while his nimble fingers place appliqué decorations onto one of the many strips of paper in front of him. He’s wearing golden glitter on his cheeks like war paint and has his crafting weapons--paint, brushes, markers, and ribbon--neatly arranged within arm’s reach. The way he grabs what he needs without glancing away from his work for a second reveals just how much time he’s spent on this project.

Feeling your heart warm at his efforts, you continue walking through the room so you can carefully sit down beside him and spend some time with him. You don’t even have to utter a word for him to know you’re stressed.

“Just get off the phone with your mom?” he wonders. Your arrival warrants a break, so he backs away from his project for a moment and sticks his hand in the bag of chips you’re cradling.

You nod in response to his inquiry and mention, “She’s been driving me up the wall about all the little details. I know she means well, and all, but she’s just stressing me out.”

A hum echoes from behind his lips as his eyes move to yours. You think he’s going to say something reassuring or inspirational once he's finished munching, but, instead, he dips his fingertips into a container of glitter and spreads it across your cheeks in two, long swipes.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, you murmur, “What the heck are you doing, Sachirou? I need you to stay sane.”

“(L/n), (f/n)--soon to be Hirugami (f/n)--you are now a wedding warrior,” he announces, an amused grin forming across his lips. A moment of silence passes as you mentally question his state of mind. Maybe he hadn’t been the same since he’d left for the craft store earlier. “Which means,” he continues, pausing to press a kiss against your lips, “you’re strong and you can do this, okay? We’re in this together, so I’m right here with you, baby.”

His words and actions bring that reassurance that you’d been seeking in a goofier way than you’d anticipated, but one that you appreciated nonetheless. You utter a gentle promise of love to him that he returns and seals with another kiss placed on your forehead.

“Should I let you get back to work, then, wedding warrior?” you ask.

He nods and replies, “I’ll collect all my hourly kisses when I’m done.”

Oikawa is a methodical guy who always wants to be in control. Because of this, he’ll be just as hands-on in the wedding planning process as you are. In fact, there will be multiple times when you’ll have to tell him to step down, or you’ll argue because of your competing visions. However, his love for you will trump any desire of his to “win”--in terms of disagreements over certain aspects of your wedding--and he’ll always want to pick the option that will make you happy. Though, keep in mind, it may take him a bit of time to understand your point of view and come to terms with it.

While having a helicopter mom of a wedding planner for a fiancé might not be every woman’s dream, he is very helpful and you can always be assured that you’ll never have to shoulder the entire burden of the process yourself. It’s tiring! You don’t want to do it all by yourself, and that’s why you can be thankful that you have someone to share the workload with. If he’s busy at practice/training over the weekend, he knows that you’re working hard at home. Likewise, while you’re at work, you know you can trust him to get things done in your absence. He won’t let anything slip through the cracks, so you’ll never have to worry about the job getting done or any details being forgotten. You’ll just have to make sure you’re planning a wedding for the both of you, not for just one of you.

“No, I don’t like those floral arrangements for the tables.”

Oikawa’s lips settle into a frown upon hearing you express your discontentment with his idea. “Well, I don’t like the arrangement you like, either, (f/n)-chan, so what do you wanna do, then?” he grumbles.

As your gaze wanders around the shop filled to the brim with different varieties of flora and fauna, you take a deep breath of the air tinged with the potent scent of roses. You don’t like the way your fiancé’s looking at you right now or how he has his arms crossed in front of his toned chest as his foot taps against the floor with impatience.

“Tooru,” you groan quietly and shoot a withering glance towards his shoe, “Come on. These aren’t the only options we have.”

He retorts, “But we really don’t have the time to spend looking for another florist. And I think these arrangements are perfect. They match our color scheme and they look classy.”

You shake your head and take your bottom lip between your teeth. “I’m sorry; they’re just not what I envisioned. Besides, we don’t have to find another florist. Why don’t we just go around the shop with him and pick out some flowers we both like?”

There’s a long silence as he wrestles with the idea of compromise and his pride. Getting him to sacrifice the latter is harder than pulling a chew toy out of a pit bull’s mouth. But, for you, he’s willing to entertain the idea that he doesn’t always have to be right, since what he always wants is for you to be happy.

After a few moments pass, the expression on his face softens and his hand finds yours. He takes a long look at the engagement ring glittering on your finger before he presses a gentle kiss against the back of your hand and gives it a squeeze. “Okay,” he concedes, “let’s do that.”

A small smile graces your lips as you peck his cheek and give him a soft pat on the shoulder. “I know you just want everything to be perfect, baby, but let’s work together, okay?”

He murmurs in agreement and plants another kiss on your lips. “As long as I can have my milk bread on the menu, there’s no need to worry.”

“I’m glad your milk bread is worth the cost of including those embarrassing baby photos of you in the slideshow.”

“Don’t remind me, princess. Now, let’s go look at flowers.”

Osamu is more laid back by nature, and, while he’s willing to help, he probably won’t sweat the fact that you two have a huge event coming up. He won’t be getting into a tizzy about the ins and outs of wedding planning, so he often comes off as being apathetic about the whole thing. This can be extremely frustrating for someone who loves to plan and fusses over every, grueling detail of the event. However, it’s important to understand that his hands-off approach comes from his trust in you rather than from laziness.

Because he knows you have everything under control, he’ll be a part of the process by taking on a supportive role. Truth be told, he really does care about the fact that you’re getting married. He wants nothing more than to be with you for the rest of his life. So, if you want an opinion, you can go to him and he’ll help you. If you want him to make a decision, ask him and he will. If you need him to do anything, let him know and it’s done. Otherwise, he’ll just make sure you’re well taken-care of while you handle things.

Oh, and don’t even bother looking into catering options. That’s strictly his department and he’s an expert. Let him work his magic.

Your (e/c) eyes burn with strain as they flicker between the bright screen of your laptop and the notebook resting on your leg. For the umpteenth time that evening, you try turning down the brightness only to find that it was already at the lowest possible setting. This causes a small groan to echo in your throat as you scan the webpage tirelessly for any information you can find about each potential wedding venue you’d been considering.

The only thing that gives you pause is the sound of footsteps padding across the wooden floor behind you. Looking over your shoulder brings your attention to your fiancé, who’s dressed in his sweater and boxers, sporting a disheveled head of dark hair.

“(F/n)?” he utters, steel-colored eyes shifting over to your form, “What’re ya doin’ up? It’s fuckin’ two in the mornin’.”

Shaking your head and brushing strands of your own, messy hair away from your face, you explain, “I was too stressed to sleep. I can’t sleep until I find a good set of venues to look into tomorrow.”

Though he wears a clear look of disbelief on his features, he doesn’t try to stop you, since he knows that won’t get him anywhere. “Fine. But don’t be complainin’ when you’ve got a headache tomorrow, love.”

His words are dry and sharp, but you know the intentions behind them are warm and soft, so you don’t argue or huff in response. Instead, you turn back to your laptop and continue your research.

When you tear your gaze away from your work once more, it’s because Osamu’s at your side, offering you a mug filled with warm tea. “Come back to bed once you’ve finished this, alright?” he bargains as you hook your fingers around the handle and bring the drink to your mouth. You nod wordlessly, and he glances over at the notebook perched on your thigh. “Need any help?”

“I’ll need some tomorrow, but I'm okay for now. Thanks, ‘Samu.”

He places his hand on your shoulder and swoops down to press a kiss against the crown of your head. “I wantcha back in bed by three. If ya stay up later than that, ya start gettin’ all grumpy, ‘nd you know it.”

You chuckle and reassure him, “I know, baby. I promise I’ll be in bed before then.”

“Hey,” he speaks in a tone that’s more tender than that he’s been using, making you look up at him expectantly. “Whatever place ya pick, it’s gonna be great, alright?” You try not to giggle at the way his words are ever so slightly slurred by his fatigue as he continues, “As long as yer happy ‘nd the bank ain’t broken, we’re good.”

“I love you,” you coo against his lips in the moments before they meet with yours.

“I love ya too, babe,” he responds when the two of you pull away, “I’ll be awake, waitin’ for ya ta come back, so don’t be late.”

You scoff, “Oh, c’mon, ‘Samu, you were never awake to begin with.”

He clicks his tongue and places his finger on his chin in an act of contemplation before waving you off and trudging back to your bedroom. “Shit, ya got that right. But if yer up past three, I’ll know it. Trust me.”

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aboveallarescuer · 4 years ago

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Daenerys Targaryen in A Storm of Swords vs Game of Thrones - Episode 3.10: Mhysa (& 5 things to understand why Dany's character and storyline matter)

In this series of posts, I intend to analyze precisely how the show writers downplayed or erased several key aspects of Daenerys Targaryen’s characterization, even when they had the books to help them write her as the compelling, intelligent, compassionate, frugal, open-minded and self-critical character that GRRM created.

I want to make it clear that these posts are not primarily meant to offer a better alternative to what the show writers gave us. I understand that they had many constraints (e.g. other storylines to handle, a limited amount of time to write the scripts, budget, actors who may have asked for a certain number of lines, etc) working against them. However, considering how disrespectful the show’s ending was to Daenerys Targaryen and how the book material that they left out makes it even more ludicrous to think that she will also become a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire, I believe that these reviews are more than warranted. They are meant to dissect everything about Dany’s characterization that was lost in translation, with a lot of book evidence to corroborate my statements.

Since these reviews will dissect scene by scene, I recommend taking a look at this post because I will use its sequence to order Dany’s scenes.

This post is relevant in case you want to know which chapters were adapted in which GoT episodes (however, I didn’t make the list myself, all the information comes from the GoT Wiki, so I can’t guarantee that it’s 100% reliable).

In general, I will call the Dany from the books “Dany” and the Dany from the TV series “show!Dany”.

Because I'm about to review one of the most controversial scenes in show!Dany's journey, I think it's important to take a holistic look into her character and storyline first. So, before I start talking about what happens in the episode itself, I am going to address five key things that need to be understood in order to fully appreciate Dany's character and storyline in the books:

Dany's abolitionist crusade's humanitarian importance.

Dany's character motivations.

Dany's background and identity.

Dany's storyline's historical inspirations.

A holistic view of ASOIAF in order to avoid double standards against Dany.

Ultimately, the show writers didn't understand any of these points, which informs their mistakes in their adaptation of Dany's storyline in this episode and beyond.

1) Dany's abolitionist crusade's humanitarian importance

Time and again in the books (particularly in ASOS and ADWD), GRRM reinforces that slavery is wrong by displaying what became normalized during the thousands of years it persisted. Examples include:

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to say that the Unsullied aren't men and to take measures to dehumanize them.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to force five-year-old children to train every day from dawn to dusk, to the point of only one in three surviving such harsh conditions.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to force the Unsullied to stand for a day with no food or water to prove their discipline and strength.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to change the Unsullied's names every day so that they lose their sense of individuality.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to force the Unsullied to go to the slave marts to kill a baby before its mother's eyes to prove that they are not weak.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to make the Unsullied drink the wine of courage to feel less pain and endure any torture, such as having their nipples cut off.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to give the Unsullied puppies only to kill them a year later (and, if they don't, they are fed to the surviving dogs).

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to casually whip people when they mildly annoy them.

Astapori slavers thinking that it's okay to send a girl of nine to kill bulls and to send three small boys (one rolled in honey, the other in blood and the other in rotting fish) to confront a bear in the fighting pits.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to leave the Astapori starving, which led them to eat cats, rats and leather.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to hunt down the Astapori and burn the entire city.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to open a slave market.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to whip people until there is only "blood and raw meat" in their backs.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to command two dwarves to breed.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to force a teenage girl to be naked publicly so that they can sell her at a better price.

Yunkish slavers thinking that it's okay to actively spread the bloody flux through Meereen by throwing infected corpses.

Meereenese slavers thinking that it's okay to burn the fields and crucify one hundred and sixty-three children to intimidate Dany.

Meereenese slavers thinking that it's okay to target and murder freedmen to intimidate Dany.

Meereenese slavers thinking that it's okay to pay freedmen low wages and then complain a) about how there are too many beggars, thieves and whores in the city or b) about how the rights and customs of the craftsmen's guilds should be respected.

Meereenese slavers thinking that it's okay to reopen the fighting pits and abuse the freedmen for the nobility's entertainment.

Meereenese slavers thinking that it's okay to send two dwarfs to "fight" against a lion.

Meereenese nobles thinking that it's okay to scourge and rip out the tongues of people who disagree with or know something that it's convenient for them.

And this list only covers human rights abuses that take place in Slaver's Bay (which was the center of slave trade until Dany's arrival). Unfortunately, slavery is so widespread that it helped to build almost the entire continent's economy. The Dothraki and the corsairs of the Basilisk Isles enslave and sell people from different lands to Slaver's Bay. In Volantis, it's estimated that four of every five men are slaves. People from multiple places of Essos are sold into slavery, from Slaver's Bay itself to Qarth to the Dothraki Sea to Lhazar to the Free Cities.

In such an oppressive and devastating scenario, Dany's abolitionist campaign is essential to guarantee that people are no longer desensitized to and systematically allowed to dehumanize others. In-universe, that's why the vast majority of the former slaves love her and why later we get an entire storyline showing what the slavers would do if Dany chose not to be as forceful as she was in ASOS. Doylistically speaking, that's why her actions against the slavers are linked to her upcoming part in the War for the Dawn and to her messianic role as Azor Ahai (as this edit and its quotes excellently illustrate): Dany's war is one that should also involve all of humanity.

Are the show writers aware of this?

Nope.

They may have succeeded in depicting the amount of brutality and suffering that comes with the training of the Unsullied, but, in light of the show's ending, I think that was accomplished mostly because they were interested in shock value rather than in making the audience recognize that show!Dany's crusade was altruistic at its core. This was clear in their interviews: instead of focusing on how vital Dany's actions were to promoting human warfare, Benioff focused on her so-called ruthlessness and ambition when he talked about why she sought an army in Astapor and Weiss focused on her capacity for cruelty when he talked about her attack against the Astapori masters. I've already addressed in which ways these statements about Dany are inaccurate (and detrimental to the understanding of her storyline) in my reviews of episodes 3.3 and 3.4, so I won't belabor the point; instead, I'm only bringing them up here to emphasize that D&D were never (fully) aware of the humanitarian importance of Dany's crusade. That's why they didn't add the moment where Dany says she remembers what it was like to be sold and feel afraid. That's why they didn't show the Unsullied choosing not to side with the slavers when Dany gave them another option. That's why they didn't include the Astapori freedmen who chose to follow Dany in their adaptation. That's why they didn't remember that Dany's main problem prior to the battle of Yunkai was to find a way to take the city and spare freedmen's lives at the same time. That's why, on season four, they will only bother to depict political decisions that paint show!Dany in a negative light (and leave out all of her successful ones). That's why, on season five, they will make her storyline's lesson be about the need to conform to the Meereenese (i.e. slavers') traditions rather than about the need to carry on with her revolution like in the books. That's why, by the end of the show, they will say that Dany burning of King's Landing and its citizens was "a natural outcome of that [...] willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies" and how "her brand of revolution" stems from her "not seeing the cost". That's why they think there isn't any negative implication in arguing that burning slavers is a slippery slope to burning innocent people: they completely missed the point of her storyline and turned it into slavery apologism. Dany conquered these cities because there was no other way to free the slaves (as ADWD reinforces). Dany conquered these cities precisely because she saw the cost, even in the show (but then, they are such bad writers that they often misunderstand the implications of what they depicted).

And what I said above doesn't even take into account that they completely ignored (and I suspect probably never realized in the first place) the connection between her crusade in Slaver's Bay and her messianic destiny. It's no secret that they've always downplayed the magical elements of the books in the show as a whole. When it comes to Dany, that removal was particularly detrimental because the magic was used by GRRM to emphasize that Dany's actions were righteous.

2) Dany's character motivations

Here, I want to explain why Dany a) fought against the Ghiscari slavers and b) will fight for the Iron Throne in Westeros. This will only cover what's necessary to make my point clear; for more on Dany's intentions, see here and here and here and here and here.

a) Why Dany fought against the Ghiscari slavers

I've argued before that Dany is an accident revolutionary for a couple of reasons. She went to Slaver's Bay because she wanted an army (something that her detractors often use to harshly criticize her), yes, but what was primarily driving Dany was not self-interest/ambition (and it wouldn't matter if it were in the grand scheme of things, considering what other Westerosi feudal lords have done in the name of power), but rather her previous experiences with poverty, which understandably enhanced her desire to have agency. Additionally (and perhaps most importantly), she didn't know how the slaves were being mistreated; if she did, she most likely wouldn't have chosen to turn to Astapor in the first place. But that's partly why her storyline resonates with so many readers: as she gathers more information about the world and its problems, her moral and political values change along the way too. In this case, after finally witnessing the Unsullied's training and being confronted with the dilemma of buying them or leaving them, Dany chose another option: freeing the Unsullied and fighting against the masters instead.

Afterwards, Dany stayed in Slaver's Bay solely because she wants to abolish slavery. If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have questioned on what grounds should a monarch rule. If her intentions weren't selfless, she would have taken the Yunkish masters' wealth for herself rather than just demanded that the slaves were compensated for their unpaid labor. If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have been so hard on herself for her mistakes on Astapor. If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have given the nobility and the freedmen equal voice at court (and her desire for equality was pointed out by GRRM himself). If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't be so insistent on reforming Meereen (which is an expensive endeavor). If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have provided medical aid to the Astapori refugees. If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have given food to the poor. If her intentions weren't selfless, she wouldn't have sacrificed her own personal happiness and bodily autonomy. And so on. Again, I'm not trying to be thorough here, I'm just offering key examples that prove that Dany's campaign is driven by genuine compassion.

b) Why Dany will fight for the Iron Throne

I've said before that Dany doesn't want power for its own sake, but rather because it's a mean to the ends that she actually desires: home and duty. These two essential goals aptly inform why she wants to take back the Seven Kingdoms.

Dany's sole aim that can be considered selfish (i.e. that only focuses on her own benefits) is her desire to find a home, be it somewhere to belong to or someone to rely on. Even then, though, that's more than understandable considering a) that she is an exile who never got to stay on one place or trust her caregiver, b) that everyone in the continent where she was born believes in birthright and c) that every feudal lord is willing to wage war to retain their influence and wealth (more on that in item 5).

Dany's duty, on the other hand, refers not only to her (self-imposed) duty to the helpless (already laid out above), but to her ancestors too. So, even if her upcoming war in Westeros won't be primarily motivated to help the underprivileged (though she still has them in mind), it is still largely self-sacrificing as well (and far from being enough to describe her as power hungry like her detractors do).

Are the show writers aware of this?

Nope.

When it comes to her fight against the Ghiscari masters, Weiss did say that Dany "is driven by a kind of a deep empathy, a much deeper empathy than probably anybody else in the show" back in season four. On the other hand, that statement is rendered moot by the fact that D&D dismiss her actions in Slaver's Bay as a "willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies" and as a "brand of revolution" that stems from her "not seeing the cost" by the end of the show. In other words, they a) made her anti-slavery crusade about her so-called ambition, b) downplayed her selfless goals and its humanitarian importance (failure in item 1) and c) turned her storyline into slavery apologism.

When it comes to her fight for the Iron Throne, there's never any interview where they focus on her desire for home and belonging or on her duty towards her ancestors, which also explains why these motivations were rarely shown onscreen. That they villainize her for pursuing the Seven Kingdoms displays their failure to understand item 5 (below).

3) Dany's background and identity

Dany isn't a typical queen. She is the only one who lived in poverty, began the story as a sex slave and then turned into a revolutionary thanks to her own choices. She is the only female character whose power isn't derived from her male relatives; in fact, she is specifically set apart for overcoming hardships that they didn't. She is the only queen whose political power is intertwined with her magical destiny (which is partly realized thanks to her actions). She is the only she-king/queen regnant/independent female ruler of the story. She is the only female ruler a) who received an arc that we got to see unfold through her perspective and b) who was depicted as politically savvy, despite having been thrown in the hardest political scenario of the series.

In relation to the Dothraki, Dany is not just a white woman among people of color. She was a child bride forcefully married to and raped by a Dothraki khal. She, like Irri and Jhiqui, was part of a family that was displaced, which led to their enslavement. She assimilated to Dothraki culture and was able to discern the good (the bond between bloodriders and a lifestyle that allows for a stronger sense of equality) and the bad (rape and human trafficking being normalized in their culture). She was the first example of female leadership to her bloodriders and khalasar and the one who set a precedent that men and women can be equals. She genuinely cares about her khalasar's well-being. She is poised to unite all the khalasars in the future. It's important to discern her character from GRRM's and D&D's writing (more on that in item 4).

In relation to the Ghiscari slavers (and not to the Westerosi nobles), Dany is viewed as a foreign monarch.

In relation to the freedmen, however, there's more to it. Like them, Dany is a former slave who was forcefully exiled from her homeland and now belongs nowhere. Unlike the slavers (who are united by Ghiscari heritage), the actual oppressed group come from many places and have different ethnicities and traveled extensively. Similarly, Dany was born in Westeros, grew up in the Free Cities, spent a significant time in the Dothraki sea and ruled in Slaver's Bay. Dany may be considered a foreigner by the slavers, but not by the freedmen, because they are all displaced people. Their connection (which the author emphasizes in both AGOT and ASOS) further shows that slavery in ASOIAF is not based on race and ethnicity (more on that in item 4).

The reasons above also explain why it is meaningful that Dany is AA/TPTWP/TSWMTW: many men (Aerys, Rhaegar, Aegon, Viserys, Drogo, Rhaego) had to die so she could become who she was meant to be, which further emphasizes that, as much as certain people want to pretend otherwise, Dany being the chosen one is not what the readership tends to expect.

I would argue that it's very important to have a basic understanding of various forms of oppression and acknowledge the multiple social groups that Dany belongs to in order to recognize her character's and storyline's significance. By being aware of them, one can understand, for example,

a) why Dany is not "too obvious" a glorified savior for her story not to have a twist by the end (That tends to happen because these detractors only see her as a white noblewoman, but, considering her identity as a whole, she is exactly someone who the readership wouldn't think of as the hero) or

b) why the story would be offensive on many levels if it ended with Dany going mad and/or becoming a villain (Why would GRRM do that to the one character who was exiled and enslaved and who, thanks to her own intelligence and compassion, got to fight against systemic oppression because she herself knows "how it felt to be afraid"?) or

c) why the theory that Dany burns King's Landing is offensive regardless of whether she does it accidentally or not (Why would GRRM have his sole queen regnant, i.e. the only woman whose power isn't derived from a man and who gets to make decisions concerning warfare like men usually do, be overly defined by violence in a way that his kings don't have to be? Why would he use her anti-slavery crusade as a device to make her care less about collateral damage and then be responsible for atrocities of such magnitude? It may still happen, but it definitely warrants criticism if it does)

Are the show writers aware of this?

Nope.

On the one hand, Weiss did previously acknowledge that Dany's past experiences inform her current attitude ("She's always been very negatively predisposed towards slavery because she knows what it feels like to be property, I mean, she was a very fancy slave for all intents and purposes, she was somebody who was sold to another man, taken against her will and I think that her feelings about slavery have started to really inform her reasons for wanting the Iron Throne").

On the other hand, if they really understood the significance of her background, they wouldn't have made the northmen hate her for being a foreigner and portrayed her being in the wrong. If they really understood the significance of her background, they wouldn't have thought that show!Arya killing the Night King (which wasn't supposed to have happened) or show!Sansa becoming queen (which made no sense since that would motivate other regions to demand independence from the crown as well) would be interchangeable with show!Dany's downfall and prevent them from receiving criticism regarding the misogyny in their writing.

4) Dany's storyline's historical inspirations

In the words of the author himself,

The Targaryens have heavily interbred, like the Ptolemys of Egypt. As any horse or dog breeder can tell you, interbreeding accentuates both flaws and virtues, and pushes a lineage toward the extremes. (x)

The Dothraki are partially based on the Huns and the Mongols, some extent the steppe tribes like the Alvars and Magyars. I put in a few elements of the Amerindian plains tribes and those peoples, and then I threw in some purely fantasy elements. It’s fantasy.

Are they barbaric? Yeah, but the Mongols were, too. Genghis Khan — I just saw an interesting movie about Ghengis Khan, recently. I’ve read books about Genghis Khan, and he’s one of history’s more fascinating, charismatic characters. The Mongols became very sophisticated at certain points, but they were certainly not sophisticated when they started out, and even at the height of their sophistication they were fond of doing things like giant piles of heads. “Surrender your city to me, or we will come in and kill all the men, rape all the women and make a giant pile of heads.” They did that a few times, and other cities said, “Surrender is good. We’ll surrender. We’ll pay the taxes. No pile of heads, please.” (x)

And meanwhile, you've got Daenerys visiting more Eurasian and Middle Eastern cultures.

And that has generated its controversy too. I answer that one to in my blog. I know some of the people who are coming at this from a political or racial angle just seem to completely disregard the logistics of the thing here. I talk about what's in the books. The books are what I write. What I’m responsible for.

Slavery in the ancient world, and slavery in the medieval world, was not race-based. You could lose a war if you were a Spartan, and if you lost a war you could end up a slave in Athens, or vice versa. You could get in debt, and wind up a slave. And that’s what I tried to depict, in my books, that kind of slavery. (x)

These interviews show that Dany's storyline's historical parallels are mainly ancient civilizations (which explains her parallels with Cleopatra or the Ghiscari pyramids' closeness to Egyptian pyramids or how the duels in the fighting pits resemble the Roman gladiatorial games or the similarities between the Unsullied's training with Sparta's training of young boys or why tokars are togas), which, in turn, prove that GRRM is not attempting to write a critique of white saviorism. Indeed, that he reduces the Dothraki and the Mongols to being "barbaric" and refuses to give any individuality to his Dothraki characters confirm that he's the racist one here. Even the parallels that he draws between Dany's storyline and the American Civil War and Reconstruction are non-racialized in nature.

Also, even if GRRM and D&D weren't racists, the racist imagery in Dany's storyline (especially show!Dany's) doesn't make Dany herself a white savior; as @yendany explained before, white saviorism is about:

a) glorifying whiteness/western culture or an individual white person at the expense of people of color. Neither version of Dany fulfill this requirement because Dany was raised in Essos and doesn't force Ghiscari people into adhering to Westerosi or Valyrian culture and slavery, again, isn't race-based (which is why the Dothraki are portrayed as oppressors). The show ending only reinforces the latter point (more on that later).

and/or

b) a white person providing help to people of color in order to serve their own interests. Neither version of Dany fulfill this requirement because their compassion and humanitarianism are genuine (and necessary), as shown in items 1 and 2 above.

Are the show writers aware of this?

For the most part, nope.

On the one hand, they were involved in the show's production, so they had to be aware of the obvious parallels between Dany's storyline and the Ancient Mediterranean world (though not enough to hire extras of multiple races and ethnicities or to let show!Dany wear togas). Also, Benioff once stated that "there always seemed to be this sense of manifest destiny with Dany", which implies that they were aware of the white savior criticism surrounding her character and storyline (though probably not enough to question its validity based on her characterization).

On the other hand, they never cared about making any improvements from the racism in the books, and the ending is clear proof of that. Before season eight, I'd seen many people argue that the Unsullied and the Dothraki were used as show!Dany's props to emphasize her "goodness". Instead, it's the other way around: they were never meant to be "good" on their own, in fact, they were only portrayed as "good" because of show!Dany; by the end, when show!Dany was villainized, they were as well. Indeed, people of color like show!Missandei and show!Grey Worm suddenly became more aggressive while the white men in show!Dany's team (show!Jon, show!Tyrion and show!Varys) were portrayed as the rational/pacifist ones, reinforcing that there was never any attempt to provide race-related social commentary in the show (or in the books, for that matter). If there had been an attempt (poor and offensive as it would still be), the Unsullied and the Dothraki would have been depicted as the Mad Queen's victims (which only the Westerosi smallfolk and the Lannister armies (i.e. white people) got to be) rather than the Mad Queen's evil army.

5) A holistic view of ASOIAF in order to avoid double standards against Dany

I could mention more double standards than the four below, but my intention here is not to be comprehensive, but rather to provide some of the key examples of double standards used to criticize Dany's eventual campaign in Westeros and to accuse her of white saviorism.

Yes, Dany wants to wage a war to take back her homeland, but so did Robb when Winterfell was taken. (Unfortunately, Stannis may do the dirty work for the Starks in TWOW.)

Yes, Dany wants to take the Seven Kingdoms and the Starks "only" want Winterfell, but what matters is not the size of the area they are claiming, but rather the fact that the system that they are all working under (i.e. pseudofeudal monarchy) rewards birthright, exploits the labor of the peasants, encourages wars for petty reasons and perpetuates social inequality.

Yes, Dany will eventually be willing to use dragonfire to accomplish her goals, but fire was used by several parties against their enemies. The Ghiscari slavers used it. Stannis Baratheon used it. Tyrion Lannister used it. Jon Snow used it. The brotherhood without banners used it. If they had dragons, you can bet that they would have used them (and probably would have been less reluctant about it than Dany).

Yes, Dany's storyline has racist elements, but so does the Starks' origin story and Tyrion's storyline and the Martells' creation. In fact, if we're talking about racism, it can't be overlooked that Dany is the only white main character who interacts with, cares about and fights for people of color, while the other white characters remain isolated in Westeros and ignorant of their struggles. It can't be overlooked that GRRM wishes he had made Dany (and none of the other main characters) a Black woman. That people of color aren't given more prominence in the narrative is GRRM's fault (see item 4), not Dany's.

When all's said and done, Dany is not doing anything that could be considered morally wrong that other people didn't do, but she is taking large-scale actions solely due to her compassion that no one else is. That's because GRRM chose to set her apart from the other claimants by placing her in a storyline where she gets to advocate for the oppressed and have larger concerns than her claim or how her family was wronged. Does that make her look "too good"? Well, you just have to look at Jon to see that that's not true; both are flawed and imperfect, but still compassionate, intelligent and, ultimately, not as morally grey as most of the other characters of the series.

Are the show writers aware of this?

Nope.

I would say that the root of the problem in the show writers' depiction of show!Dany stems from the fact that they don't look at the events from the perspective of the lowborn.

If they would look at her actions in Slaver's Bay from the point of view of a freedman, they would understand why they were righteous (failure to comprehend item 1); instead, they talk about how her cruelty "grows" because she hurt people who hadn't done anything to her personally (which shows how easily they empathize with the slavers) and focus on how she is becoming a threat.

If they would look at her actions in Westeros from the point of view of a peasant, they would understand that a) every single lord exploits their labor, b) that Dany is not doing anything that the the lords wouldn't do (which is why the kingdoms constantly warred with their neighbors before Aegon's Conquest) and c) that the lords never waged war specifically to protect the oppressed like Dany did (see items 1 and 2), which is why Northern independence (or Robert's Rebellion) is not morally superior to Dany's campaign for the Iron Throne.

Because they couldn't understand any of this, they portrayed show!Dany's war effort as worse than the other characters' and ended up villainizing her for her ambition and use of violence when they never did so with the other characters, which creates offensive double standards and highlights the misogyny (i.e. controlling and punishing women who challenge male dominance) in their writing.

Now I'm going to go to the scene itself in order to demonstrate how it particularly exemplifies the show writers' failure to understand these five key things about Dany's character and storyline.

Scene 13

BARRISTAN: They will come, Your Grace. When they’re ready.

DAENERYS: Perhaps they didn’t want to be conquered.

JORAH: You didn’t conquer them. You liberated them.

DAENERYS: People learn to love their chains.

In the books, there's never any suspense about whether the newly freedmen will come out or not:

On the morning of the third day, the city gates swung open and a line of slaves began to emerge. Dany mounted her silver to greet them. As they passed, little Missandei told them that they owed their freedom to Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and Mother of Dragons.

“Mhysa!” a brown-skinned man shouted out at her. He had a child on his shoulder, a little girl, and she screamed the same word in her thin voice. “Mhysa! Mhysa!” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

As we can see in the quote above, not only there's no suspense, Dany is mounted on her silver and doesn't have to make a speech to make sure that the former slaves can trust her and hail her as mhysa. Indeed, that's my biggest issue with the speech: it's built on the show writers' assumption that show!Dany needs to "[wait] to see if she is a conqueror or a liberator" in the eyes of the former slaves.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are people who dismiss Dany as a violent conqueror in the books. The Meereenese slavers (i.e., the ones who think they have the right to sell people and exploit their free labor and who suffered a major blow when Dany challenged their way of life, which doesn't exactly make them a reliable viewpoint in a storyline with something meaningful to say) do so:

“...When my people look at you, they see a conqueror from across the seas, come to murder us and make slaves of our children. A king could change that. A highborn king of pure Ghiscari blood could reconcile the city to your rule. Elsewise, I fear, your reign must end as it began, in blood and fire.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

The Yunkish slavers (i.e., the ones who think they have the right to sell people and exploit their free labor and who suffered a major blow when Dany challenged their way of life, which doesn't exactly make them a reliable viewpoint in a storyline with something meaningful to say) do so:

“If even half the stories coming back from Slaver’s Bay are true, this child is a monster. They say that she is blood-thirsty, that those who speak against her are impaled on spikes to die lingering deaths. They say she is a sorceress who feeds her dragons on the flesh of newborn babes, an oathbreaker who mocks the gods, breaks truces, threatens envoys, and turns on those who have served her loyally. They say her lust cannot be sated, that she mates with men, women, eunuchs, even dogs and children, and woe betide the lover who fails to satisfy her. She gives her body to men to take their souls in thrall.” (ADWD Tyrion VI)

Dany herself (who, we shouldn't forget, has a tendency to be self-deprecating) also does so. It's the reason why she thinks it's her duty to stay and rule Meereen:

“Aegon the Conqueror brought fire and blood to Westeros, but afterward he gave them peace, prosperity, and justice. But all I have brought to Slaver’s Bay is death and ruin. I have been more khal than queen, smashing and plundering, then moving on.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

However, the Yunkish envoy's vicious reaction (in both canons) to Dany's request that the Yunkish nobles free their slaves shows that Dany couldn't have freed the slaves (and become a liberator) if she hadn't taken the city (and become a conqueror). She is both conqueror and liberator and these titles don't contradict each other, they inform each other (just like mhysa and mother of dragons). That's something that the former slaves are aware of, because the vast majority of them do want freedom and are grateful that Dany intervened - we see it in Astapor, where the Unsullied chose not to obey their former masters while they were attacked because Dany gave them a choice to fight for their freedom, which they took (and the show didn't depict); we see it in Yunkai, where the former slaves embraced and hailed Dany as their mother right after they met her (and she didn't have to make a speech to prove that they should be freed because they themselves wanted to be freed); we see it in Meereen, where "the fighting slaves [...] led the uprising that won the city for her" and "cheering slaves lifted bloodstained hands to her as she went by"; we see it on Tyrion's POV, where many slaves doubt that Dany would make peace with the slavers and want her to smash the Yunkai'i. To portray them as gullible and dependent on show!Dany's speech in order to embrace freedom (when, again, that was never a question for them in the books) means:

Overlooking their motivations in the books.

Giving them less agency in comparison to the books.

Downplaying the level of human destruction that the slavers perpetrated (and which led the slaves to want to rebel), which shows their failure to understand item 1.

Equating show!Dany to the slavers as a foreign monarch in the former slaves' eyes when, in the books, she became a cult figure right from the first moment that they saw her. This also shows their failure to understand item 3; as I said above, she is not just a ruler, she is also a former slave who was banished from her homeland and doesn't belong anywhere. That makes it all the more meaningful that she, thanks to her own actions and principles, ended up becoming a revolutionary. Failing to understand this is why the show writers felt that she had to make a speech so that she could "compensate" for her actions as a conqueror (which were righteous to begin with).

Now, one might argue that I'm being too nitpicky here, but I didn't make it a secret in the introduction to these books vs show reviews that they are being written with the hindsight knowledge that the show writers will attempt to vilify show!Dany. One way that they will do so is to turn the freedmen against her in the later seasons, which is something that never happens in the books (which is why I'm wary of how her speech here already indicates that her connection to the freedmen is being downplayed). As I just said above and will reiterate: the show writers never really grasped the humanitarian importance of her crusade (item 1) or why she's seeking the Iron Throne in the first place (item 2). The show writers never really understood that the former slaves weren't united by culture or race or nationality and that they still had a connection with Dany as exiles sold into slavery (item 3). This is why they thought it was okay to make her the final villain of their series.

JORAH: You didn’t conquer them. You liberated them.

DAENERYS: People learn to love their chains.

First, show!Jorah being the one shown explaining to show!Dany that she is a liberator is really annoying since she is the former sex slave who chose to become an abolitionist and he is a slaver himself who is an apologist even in show canon.

Second, there are different ways to interpret show!Dany's line above. @daenerys-targaryen interpreted it as show!Dany referring to herself and how she fell in love with Drogo while she was his slave. @queenaryastark interpreted it as a way to express Tyrion's thoughts about how it's easy to grow accustomed to being a slave in ADWD. These are all valid readings that can coexist with my own: that the show writers only added this line in order to make show!Dany's storyline "more complex" (in their eyes). We see show!Dany having to "[wait] to see if she is a conqueror or a liberator", after all, which is a question about her "internal struggle" (which, again, makes no sense to overfocus on since Dany wouldn't be a liberator if she weren't also a conqueror) that the show chooses to hammer home in comparison to the books (where it's made clear that most of the former slaves know that they want to be freed). This added question a) undermines how significant it is that Dany is an active hero who chose to fight for the slaves when she didn't have to in a time and place where no one else cared about their plea and there was no conception of universal human rights (failure to understand items 2 and 5), b) downplays the message that the use of violence can be morally righteous (because it creates a false dichotomy between conqueror and liberator, like the fandom does with mhysa and mother of dragons; unfortunately, both showrunners miss the point - Weiss thinks that show!Dany's empathy and cruelty grow in Astapor and Benioff focuses on how she's becoming a threat; failure to understand items 1 and 2) and c) equates show!Dany to the slavers as another foreign monarch in the slaves' perspective (failure to understand item 3), which, in turn, portrays slavery as if it was merely a typical cultural practice rather than a crime against humanity like how it's portrayed in the books (failure to understand item 1). Things are definitely going to get worse in the next seasons (e.g. "mhysa is a master", the addition of a prostitute who hates show!Dany because she's "ruining" Meereenese "traditions", etc), but the cracks were already apparent in season three, which is arguably show!Dany's best season.

MISSANDEI: This is Daenerys Targaryen, the Stormborn, the Unburnt, the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, the Mother of Dragons. It is to her you owe your freedom.

DAENERYS: No. You do not owe me your freedom. I cannot give it to you. Your freedom is not mine to give. It belongs to you and you alone. If you want it back, you must take it for yourselves. Each and every one of you.

This scene plays out differently in the books:

“Mhysa!” a brown-skinned man shouted out at her. He had a child on his shoulder, a little girl, and she screamed the same word in her thin voice. “Mhysa! Mhysa!” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

As we can see, a) Dany is not shown correcting Missandei on what freedom entails like it happens in the show and b) Dany never has to give the former slaves a speech in the first place.

I'm of two minds about this speech. On the one hand, show!Dany's speech does highlight her humanitarian intentions in this endeavor: instead of seeing the freedmen as things to be sold like the slavers did, she views them as people who are able to make their own judgments and choices.

On the other hand, a number of issues were caused by the show writers' inability to be faithful to the books. The intentions behind this speech are distasteful since it seems like (the show writers think that) she needs to persuade the former slaves to follow her, which takes away their agency in comparison to the books (where, as I've repeated numerous times by now, they wanted to be freed; failure to understand item 1) and holds show!Dany to a higher standard than the other characters of the series (who, either in Westeros or Slaver's Bay, all believe in and live under an absolute monarchy, with the only difference being that their dominance over the lowborn became normalized over time in a way that show!Dany's didn't, which causes her to be judged by today's moral standards by the show writers; this failure to understand item 5 will only get worse over time, as we all know), which is particularly aggravating because it undercuts the fact that show!Dany is the only one who cares about and fights for the former slaves (failure to understand items 2, 3 and 5).

Another thing that makes me bitter about this speech is that, despite portraying show!Dany positively, it will be used (alongside all of her other speeches), in retrospect, as evidence that she was always set up to burn thousands of innocents in King's Landing:

BENIOFF: What's interesting about it is that she's been making similar kinds of speeches for a long time and we've always been rooting for her and this is kind of a natural outcome of that philosophy and that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies and it's just not quite as fun anymore. (x)

Much has been said about how the show fell right into slavery apologism by supposing that burning slavers is a slippery slope to burning noncombatants (failure to understand items 1 and 2) and about how offensive it was that it villainized the one queen who had a particular place in the narrative due to being an exile, a former sex slave, a revolutionary and the only independent female ruler who wasn't depicted as evil (failure to understand item 3). I would also add that the vast majority of the evidence about show!Dany's "villainy" (which betrays a failure to understand item 5) was either exaggerated or invented. For example, aside from the speech that she gave to her khalasar in the first season, all of show!Dany's speeches were added by the show writers, including this one. In fact, it's ironic that, throughout the course of AFFC/ADWD, Dany was the only one of the three main political leaders who was not shown by GRRM giving speeches to the unprivileged:

Jon waited until the last echoes had faded, then spurred his palfrey forward where everyone could see him. “We’re feeding you as best we can, as much as we can spare. Apples, onions, neeps, carrots … there’s a long winter ahead for all of us, and our stores are not inexhaustible.”

“You crows eat good enough.” Halleck shoved forward.

For now. “We hold the Wall. The Wall protects the realm … and you now. You know the foe we face. You know what’s coming down on us. Some of you have faced them before. Wights and white walkers, dead things with blue eyes and black hands. I’ve seen them too, fought them, sent one to hell. They kill, then they send your dead against you. The giants were not able to stand against them, nor you Thenns, the ice-river clans, the Hornfoots, the free folk … and as the days grow shorter and the nights colder, they are growing stronger. You left your homes and came south in your hundreds and your thousands … why, but to escape them? To be safe. Well, it’s the Wall that keeps you safe. It’s us that keeps you safe, the black crows you despise.”

“Safe and starved,” said a squat woman with a windburned face, a spearwife by the look of her.

“You want more food?” asked Jon. “The food’s for fighters. Help us hold the Wall, and you’ll eat as well as any crow.” Or as poorly, when the food runs short. (ADWD Jon V)

“What is the meaning of this?” Cersei demanded of the crowd. “Do you mean to bury Blessed Baelor in a mountain of carrion?”

A one-legged man stepped forward, leaning on a wooden crutch. “Your Grace, these are the bones of holy men and women, murdered for their faith. Septons, septas, brothers brown and dun and green, sisters white and blue and grey. Some were hanged, some disemboweled. Septs have been despoiled, maidens and mothers raped by godless men and demon worshipers. Even silent sisters have been molested. The Mother Above cries out in her anguish. We have brought their bones here from all over the realm, to bear witness to the agony of the Holy Faith.”

Cersei could feel the weight of eyes upon her. “The king shall know of these atrocities,” she answered solemnly. “Tommen will share your outrage. This is the work of Stannis and his red witch, and the savage northmen who worship trees and wolves.” She raised her voice. “Good people, your dead shall be avenged!”

A few cheered, but only a few. “We ask no vengeance for our dead,” said the one-legged man, “only protection for the living. For the septs and holy places.” (AFFC Cersei VI)

In fact, the Dany of the books is never shown giving a speech after AGOT. This is not to say, of course, that making speeches on its own makes show!Dany "darker" (indeed, the show writers were often unaware of what they were writing) than Dany, I'm only pointing out that they never existed in the books.

Mhysa!

DAENERYS: What does it mean?

MISSANDEI: It is old Ghiscari, Khaleesi. It means “mother.”

First, unlike in the show (where the freedmen only shout "mhysa!"), the freedmen of the books call Dany "mother" in lots of different languages:

“Mhysa!” they called. “Mhysa! MHYSA!” They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. “Maela,” some called her, while others cried “Aelalla” or “Qathei” or “Tato,” but whatever the tongue it all meant the same thing. Mother. They are calling me Mother. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

It's only fitting that the freedmen of the books come from different places and have different races and ethnicities (which the scene above reinforces); not only that connects them to their mhysa (in that they are all people exiled from their homelands and forced into slavery), it is a culmination of Dany's tendency to culturally assimilate, which was already noticeable with the Dothraki. Unfortunately, this doesn't come across in the show because they hired local extras from Morocco (failure to understand/depict items 3 and 4).

Second, as @rainhadaenerys pointed out to me in a conversation, show!Dany makes a speech (which, again, was added by the show writers) in Valyrian in this scene and all the freedmen understand it, which can make sense since most modern Ghiscari continued to speak in the language of their conquerors and the former slaves all probably stayed in Yunkai long enough to learn the language. On the other hand, this will later be contradicted in episode 4.6 when show!Dany will need show!Missandei in order to communicate with a goatherd. In the books, she interacts directly with all of the freedmen, to give some examples:

In the afternoon a sculptor came, proposing to replace the head of the great bronze harpy in the Plaza of Purification with one cast in Dany’s image. She denied him with as much courtesy as she could muster. A pike of unprecedented size had been caught in the Skahazadhan, and the fisherman wished to give it to the queen. She admired the fish extravagantly, rewarded the fisherman with a purse of silver, and sent the pike to her kitchens. A coppersmith had fashioned her a suit of burnished rings to wear to war. She accepted it with fulsome thanks; it was lovely to behold, and all that burnished copper would flash prettily in the sun, though if actual battle threatened, she would sooner be clad in steel. (ADWD Daenerys I)

So, while here she and her people are at least connected by the fact that they understand what she is saying, even this will be undermined later (and they don't have the budget as an excuse for this one; failure to understand items 3 and 4).

Third, as I noted in episode 3.5, why the heck do they have show!Missandei call show!Dany "khaleesi"? It makes no sense since she's not familiar with Dothraki culture and never knew Dany when she was Khal Drogo's wife.

DAENERYS: It’s all right. These people won’t hurt me.

DAENERYS: Fly. Let me pass.

There are differences in the execution of Dany's meeting with the freedmen of Yunkai from books to show. She mounted her silver to meet them and the crowdsurfing never happens:

On the morning of the third day, the city gates swung open and a line of slaves began to emerge. Dany mounted her silver to greet them. [...]

The chant grew, spread, swelled. It swelled so loud that it frightened her horse, and the mare backed and shook her head and lashed her silver-grey tail. It swelled until it seemed to shake the yellow walls of Yunkai. More slaves were streaming from the gates every moment, and as they came they took up the call. They were running toward her now, pushing, stumbling, wanting to touch her hand, to stroke her horse’s mane, to kiss her feet. [...]

She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

What we also miss onscreen is that, onpage, Dany sees the freedmen as her found family and realizes that the moment fulfills a prophecy that she saw in the House of the Undying. I'm going to talk more about this moment later in the section where I comment on D&D's Inside the Episode, though.

Now, we get to this moment, which was (and still is) heavily criticized due to its racism.

An in-depth discussion of the racism in Dany's storyline and in ASOIAF in general goes beyond the scope of this meta; I recommend that you read @yendany's metas instead. It must be acknowledged, of course, that this is a racist scene for employing Moroccan extras as former slaves in order to prop up a British woman and being completely insensitive to Africa's colonial history. However, that's the show's production's fault, which continued to be tone-deaf about race-related issues and diversity in general through the years.

That being said, my main purpose here is to address in which ways the TV series diverged from Dany's character in the books and, consequently, undermined show!Dany. So, instead of talking specifically about the racism in Dany's character and storyline (about which people have already discussed a lot elsewhere), I want to focus, instead, on the ways that the discussion centered around the racism in Dany's character and storyline tends to be uninterested in analyzing the merits of Dany's character and storyline. This reinforces that these detractors' problems most often relate to a) either GRRM and the show's writers and producers rather than to Dany's character herself or b) their own biases:

Dany's abolitionist crusade's humanitarian importance: Do they remember in which ways the slaves were being mistreated, exploited and dehumanized before Dany's interventions?

Dany's character motivations: Do they know that Dany conquered cities just so that she could end slavery rather than because she wanted to exploit Slaver's Bay in any way? Are they aware of the many sacrifices that Dany made in order to free the slaves and rule in Meereen? Do they know that Dany doesn't want the Iron Throne for its own sake, but rather that she wants it so that she can find a home and fulfill her duty towards her ancestors?

Dany's background and identity: Do they take into account that Dany is not just a white woman, but also a former sex slave and a refugee who was forced to culturally assimilate in order to survive and who now belongs nowhere just like the people that she's freed?

Dany's storyline's historical inspirations: Do they know that the slavery that GRRM wrote is primarily inspired by the ancient world and, therefore, is not race-based? Do they know that GRRM himself is tone-deaf about race-related issues and that this is apparent in all of his story?

A holistic view of ASOIAF in order to avoid double standards against Dany: Do they take prevailing cultural norms and other characters' actions into account when they judge Dany's ambition and use of violence negatively? Do they also take into account how Dany's selfless deeds compare to most of the other characters'? Do they also acknowledge and criticize the racism in other characters' storylines?

The vast majority of Dany's detractors (which include D&D) don't take these questions (which do not exhaustively cover all of the misconceptions surrounding her character by any means) into account and/or don't know the text well enough to answer them properly, which means that they are prone to grossly distorting her motivations and/or her storyline's thematic messages in order to address racial issues that should not be used to judge Dany's character because the author himself is unaware of them and does not intend for them to come across. As a result, people lose track of Dany's actual characterization and her storyline's intended social commentary and forget that she is a part of several marginalized groups herself, leading to pretty nonsensical takes in the fandom, such as "Rhaenys should have been Dany".

So, because a) the issue of racism in Dany's storyline was already well-covered elsewhere and b) fandom climate has proven that many people who talk about this issue tend to do so in bad faith, I consciously decided to focus on these five things that should also be remembered in this discussion (and that have more to do with the purpose of this meta anyway).

My comments on the Inside the Episode 3.10

Benioff: We see her get an army in episode four, and here in the finale you see her get her people, really, because she's got, she has her Dothraki followers that don't number very many, and she's got the people she's freed from the other cities, but now she is, it's not just - it's something even more, something almost even more religious about it than just a queen, I mean, she's the mother of these people.

Weiss: And it creates a whole new dynamic between her and the people that she's fighting for that she's gonna have to deal with in the future.

Benioff: The way they treat her, the way they lift her up and she is... something that has its... A revelation from a prophecy and that glorious destiny is coming true.

Weiss: Here it seemed like it was really important to let us know just how many people were counting on her to see the full extent of, mostly, the full extent of her army and the tens of thousands of people who flooded out of these gates to pay tribute to her. And then, keeping the dragons in play because they're always such an important part of her identity, we just want to tie all of that together in one great shot.

There's a lot of wrong here, so let's unpack this statement by statement.

We see her get an army in episode four, and here in the finale you see her get her people, really,

As I already noted in episodes 3.4 and 3.5 and will repeat: the show writers seem to have forgotten that thousands of refugees from Astapor chose to follow her to Yunkai, so she had already "[gotten] her people":

Yet even so, tens of thousands preferred to follow her to Yunkai, rather than remain behind in Astapor.

[...] Dany could not bring herself to abandon them as Ser Jorah and her bloodriders urged. I told them they were free. I cannot tell them now they are not free to join me. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

Indeed, her main struggle during the battle of Yunkai was to find a way to take the city and free its slaves and prevent too many of her freedmen from becoming casualties:

Dany considered. The slaver host seemed small compared to her own numbers, but the sellswords were ahorse. She’d ridden too long with Dothraki not to have a healthy respect for what mounted warriors could do to foot. The Unsullied could withstand their charge, but my freedmen will be slaughtered. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

she's got, she has her Dothraki followers that don't number very many,

Dany still considers her Dothraki followers a khalasar in the books and finds their support invaluable despite its small number and what the show writers had her think in the S3 premiere (i.e. that she doesn't have a true khalasar):

Her khalasar was tiny, some thirty-odd mounted warriors, and most of them braidless boys and bentback old men. Yet they were all the horse she had, and she dared not go without them. The Unsullied might be the finest infantry in all the world, as Ser Jorah claimed, but she needed scouts and outriders as well. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

she is, it's not just - it's something even more, something almost even more religious about it than just a queen, I mean, she's the mother of these people.

And it creates a whole new dynamic between her and the people that she's fighting for that she's gonna have to deal with in the future.

Dany was already acting as mhysa way before she was considered one, which we saw from the way she cared about the Lhazareen women to her bloodriders to the slaves in Astapor:

“You heard my words,” she said. “Stop them.” She spoke to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. “Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape.” (AGOT Daenerys VII)

“Sheath your steel, blood of my blood,” said Dany, “this man comes to serve me. Belwas, you will accord all respect to my people, or you will leave my service sooner than you’d wish, and with more scars than when you came.” (ACOK Daenerys V)

“...Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”

“Some kings make themselves. Robert did.”

“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no justice. Justice ... that’s what kings are for.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

One might argue that this event strengthens the sense of responsibility that she already had for these people, but it's not true that there was a radical change in their dynamic after this moment... In the books, it was simply a culmination of what Dany was already doing the whole time.

The way they treat her, the way they lift her up and she is... something that has its... A revelation from a prophecy and that glorious destiny is coming true.

The way that Benioff puts it makes it seem like show!Dany expected the devotion of these people (in a way that seems related to what they assume to be her self-interest and entitlement), which irks me in hindsight knowing that a) they will use this assumption to tear her apart in the last season (after all, one reason why they had show!Dany fall was that she found no love in the North) and b) it's not accurate for her book counterpart.

Is it true that she notices that one prophecy was realized in this moment in the books? Yes.

Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. “Mother!” they cried. “Mother, mother!” They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them ... (ACOK Daenerys IV)

Ser Jorah urged her to go, but Dany remembered a dream she had dreamed in the House of the Undying. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

When it comes to Dany's motivations, though, one must take into account that a) Dany herself is not aware that she has a great destiny (nor does she want to have one) and b) the prophecies are most often intertwined with her desire to find a home, a family, companionship, belonging. This scene is no exception; before it happened, Dany had reflected on how her House would end with her due to her infertility:

She felt very lonely all of a sudden. Mirri Maz Duur had promised that she would never bear a living child. House Targaryen will end with me. That made her sad. “You must be my children,” she told the dragons, “my three fierce children. Arstan says dragons live longer than men, so you will go on after I am dead.” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

Fittingly, then, the chapter ends on a more positive note: her found family is now not only composed of dragons, but of thousands of people who she is delighted to meet:

“What are they shouting?”

“It is Ghiscari, the old pure tongue. It means ‘Mother.’”

Dany felt a lightness in her chest. I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again, and others took up the cry. [...]

Ser Jorah urged her to go, but Dany remembered a dream she had dreamed in the House of the Undying. “They will not hurt me,” she told him. “They are my children, Jorah.” She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. “Mother,” they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. “Mother,” they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. “Mother, Mother, Mother!” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

As I said before, this scene is interesting because it associates Dany's role as a queen to her role as a mother. This connection arguably not only relates to gender issues, but also to how Dany's empathy runs so deep that she goes as far as to consider all of the ones who can't protect themselves her children: because she knows what it is like to be in their position, she will be the one who, instead of focusing on heritage and feudal ties and lands, empowers them and keeps them safe as best as she can.

Unfortunately, the show writers never understood any of this because of a) their lack of knowledge of the source material and, in particular, Dany's character, and b) their misogynistic assumption that a powerful and revolutionary woman must be, deep down, vain, selfish, unhinged and reliant on the men around her (even while they're unable to depict her as one).

And then, keeping the dragons in play because they're always such an important part of her identity, we just want to tie all of that together in one great shot.

While it's not untrue that the dragons are an important part of Dany's identity, I can't help but look askance at this statement. D&D thought that it was important to portray show!Dany as helpless without her dragons in season two, after all:

Benioff: Dany is so defined by her dragons, they're so much a part at this point, they define her so much that when they're taken from her, it's almost like she reverts to the pre-dragon Daenerys, you know, everyone is a bit defined by who they were when they were an adolescent, you know, no matter how old you get, no matter how powerful you get, and Daenerys was a scared, timid, abused adolescent and I think when her dragons are taken for her, all those feelings, all those memories and emotions are triggered and come back and all the confidence that she's won over the last several months, it's as if that just evaporates and she's back to being a really frightened little girl. (x)

In the books, Dany doesn't need to be humbled by having her dragons taken from her. Her lesson is the opposite one: she learns that, despite having dragons (which are never taken from her), they are not going to be of help if she wants to gain people's loyalty. Instead, she is going to have to earn people's loyalty, which is why GRRM has Dany's perspective front and center in the books - she is the one who deeply empathizes with the slaves based on her past experiences, she is the one who chooses to start an anti-slavery campaign, she is the one who concocts the battle plans to conquer the cities, she is the one who decides to stay and rule Meereen and so on. The dragons served as the bait to deceive the Astapori masters, but her plan went way beyond the dragons, as well as the ones she made in Yunkai and Meereen.

On HBO, they think that show!Dany is "so defined by her dragons" and that "they're such an important part of her identity" to the point of portraying her as incompetent without them, which they will do again in seasons four and five with their poor adaptation of her ADWD arc (where the dragons were shown as a hindrance and Dany still held things together really well considering the huge problems that she was dealing with). And then, in the end, as we know, they will turn the draconic imagery that once meant freedom in the books (and arguably in this scene as well) into another sign of her villainy in a wing shot that, iconic as it has become, is as subtle as adding devil horns in her head.

Show!Dany's clothes

Does anyone know why is show!Dany using this accessory with her dress? I assume it's a chest pad, but I'm not sure. If anyone has any ideas, please share them with me.

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #asoiaf vs got #asos vs got #a storm of swords #s3

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alittleprincehwa · 4 years ago

Text

since childhood ──── ₊˚.𓂸 park seonghwa

pairing ─ ₊˚.𓂸 park seonghwa x gender neutral reader

genre ─ ₊˚.𓂸 angst, fluff

synopsis ─ ₊˚.𓂸 you never believed the saying " never fall for your best friend. " until now.

tags ─ ₊˚.𓂸 childhood best friend seonghwa |

words ─ ₊˚.𓂸 5k+

alexa play ─ ₊˚.𓂸 click here

You walk along the empty neighborhood. The same place you grew up in. Only the reminiscence of your youth remains intact. The lights were the only thing keeping it from complete darkness. Your feet kicked the small rocks and pebbles along your way. It was already midnight, but the caffeine you consumed early morning made you restless.

The wind rushing through you gave you shivers down your spine. Your different layers of clothing kept you from the cold of early winter. When you pass a rather familiar house, you let out a shaky breath that condensates through the chilly air. Despite your heavy clothing, you could still feel the cool winter. You recently arrived back at your hometown due to your school's yearly winter break. You couldn't pass up the opportunity.

You continued strolling through the quiet road. You often remember the pieces of childhood memory to your highschool years. You had many childhood friends since your mom was quite a social butterfly, so she insisted that you had to be friends with the neighbors.

You yourself were completely distinct from your mother. You were a shy child. You couldn't make much friends. Your worries got the best of you, making you distance yourself even further. Well that was until you met him. Park Seonghwa. Two houses away from yours. You first met him when you were playing on the community playground. There weren't much kids so it was perfect for you.

You saw a certain toy that appealed to you. You were too fascinated by the toy to see that another kid also had a plan to play with it. You ran and pick up the plaything. But before you could, another hand reached for it. You look to where the hand was from and saw a boy staring at it with sparkling eyes. He was too engulfed with the thought of the piece of plastic to play with to notice you. You could clearly remember what he wore. A plain white shirt accompanied with a pair of black pants. He had a bucket hat that fit his head perfectly.

When he did, he let out a sound that somehow embodied a growl. You were also a competitive child. You wanted to play with it, and you were definitely not letting a boy just take it. Your other hand reach out and pull the toy to your direction. The boy that was slightly taller than you, grabbed it aswell. It quickly escalated, you were both pulling for the thing and the idea of picking another one didn't seem to come to your mind.

After minutes of grunting and struggling, the other kid managed to get the toy out of your hands. What he didn't know was that he hit you on the head when he attempted to take the toy you desperately wanted. For a moment he was celebrating in victory. But paused when he heard a sniffle. You did what any child would do if they get hit, cry. Your cries going louder and louder as you felt the pain.

The boy stopped his victorious moment and looked at you. He himself didn't know what to do. He dropped the toy and scrambled to you. He teared up at seeing such a cute girl cry. He started to regret what he did. Soon his cries were mixed with yours. Both of your mother's heard the sobs of their children and rushed to help you. Your mother picked you up from the ground and checked your head. It turned out it wasn't that bad, you only needed to wear a patch on your forehead.

The other boy was even more sad than you. He felt bad for hitting you. He wanted to apologize but didn't know you. So instead, he asked his mom. He waddles to her side and nudges her leg. He begged his mom to take him to your place. His mom gave in and helped his crying son.

As your mom answered the door, you peak from the other room. You saw the same lad that whacked you awhile back. After a few exchange of words between the adults, your heard your mom call out to you. " Y/n-ah! The boy earlier came here to apologize! " She said. You pout as you walked like a penguin to the front door. You kept looking at the floor, too scared to look at him.

Your mom gestured you to wave at the fellow infront of you. You finally look up and wave at him. Your face brightened up when you saw him carrying a tub of ice cream and a poorly written apology card. You and your mom invited them in. You both settled in the living room couch. Eating the ice cream as he apologizes. " I'm sorry... I'm seonghwa by the way. Wanna be friends? " He reached out his hand as he flashed a smile You accepted the apology and shook his hand while a movie played in the back. And in that moment, you both clicked and became inseparable.

Highschool rolled around and you two were still glued together. Being caught doing the most stupid of things together. Eventually you started feeling weird around him. It was the little things he did that made him so attractive. The things you two would do together. He would walk you home everyday, not missing a single day. You two would get smoothies in a nearby convenience store, playing with the different flavors. The small things such as loosening the first few buttons of his school uniform. How he looked as he runs his hand through his hair.

You kept these weird feelings to yourself. You soon regret hiding them when he started dating. It was a sight to behold everytime he would sling his arm around another girl's waist or shoulder. You were lying if you said you weren't jealous. You supported him through his relationships that mostly didn't last long. You always comforted him during every breakup. He didn't know how envious you were inside.

He then also felt an unusual sensation in the pit of his stomach whenever you two would come in contact. It continued like that for a few weeks or so. The tension grew heavier in every moment you two would be in the same room. You couldn't speak without feeling hesitation. He couldn't touch you before his heart would beat faster. Anything the both of you did made the other fall in love even more.

It was the spring of your school year, school coming to an end soon. Most students joyful of taking a break. Others sad that they couldn't see their friends. You were one of the happy ones. Seonghwa was one of the only people you knew. Seonghwa mustered up all his courage and asked you out to watch a movie. You agreed to it as it reminded you of one of the first things you two did when you were little.

You blushed at the idea of being on a date with with seonghwa. You dressed yourself in the prettiest clothes you had and made sure you combed your hair well. You happily skip to the theater that wasn't too far away. To your surprise you saw seonghwa with another girl by his side. You were disappointed and upset. But were you surprised? No. You realized he invited you just so you could third wheel. A frown appears on your face the whole time.

You grew even more furious as a minute passes. You couldn't mute the sounds you could hear from beside you. Your blood boiled when you heard kissing sounds. You had to sit there for another hour and a half. You tried to endure the anger that was oozing out of you. You sat there beside the two. You focused your eyes on the big screen with glossy eyes.

The movie finally ended and you three, including his hook up of the week, and walk towards the exit. You fastened your pace, not wanting to be caught between them again. Seonghwa was too invested in the conversation he had to notice you were already ahead of the crowd. You storm out of the theater and walk down the sidewalk with a single tear escaping your eye.

Seonghwa said his goodbyes and jogged to meet up you. He was about to talk to you, but that was until he saw your face. He stopped, " Was the movie that sad? Why are you crying? " He asked. You scoffed at his question and continued pacing. He asked once more, hoping to get an answer this time. " Come on y/n tell me! " He urged you. You bit your tongue, trying not to explode on the spot.

You failed to stay quiet and finally say " I can't believe you had the audacity to invite me just to third wheel! " You ruffled your hair with your hand, massaging your scalp. " Third wheel? No you don't understand that was my fr- " You couldn't listen to his excuses anymore. You were fuming at this point. Steam almost came out your ears. " Bull shit! Do you think I'm deaf? I can actually hear you two making out beside me! " You yell.

You were glad nobody was there besides you and seonghwa. Nothing to be heard but your voice. Lustrous tears race down your skin. You couldn’t hold back anymore. You two stood inaudible rather than in tranquility. Not able to say anything due to the inking of peer pressure. With much silence, you finally spoke “ Don’t you get it? I like you seonghwa. “ You whisper. " I had to watch you everyday make out with a girl infront of me. But what did I do? I supported you. I just wanted you to be happy. ". You didn’t expect him to reply. You just wanted to get it off your chest. You felt relief, but pain was still lingering.

Just like when he was little, seonghwa was baffled. He didn’t know what to do. You turn your heel to lash out. But couldn’t when a hand caught your wrist. It was intuition that made him reach out for your hand. Speechless, the only thing he could do was look at you. Your eyes filled with hurt and betrayal. He couldn't help but withstand the guilt. " Why didn't you tell me...? " He let out with a low tone. You look down, avoiding his sharp gaze. Your driblets of tears meet the pavement under you. " What difference does it make? " You pushed him off you. You glance at him one more time before running.

He stepped back to avoid falling. You pace the opposite direction, back to your house. You wanted to scream at him, take out all your anger. But you couldn't find the courage to do so. You could only walk farther. The distance between you both widens. You didn't believe in the saying " Never fall for your best friend. " until now. You could hardly walk, too occupied in crying your heart out. Dreading everything that happened today.

For days, weeks, you hadn't spoken a single word to seonghwa. As childish as it sounds, you didn't want to see him. You endlessly cried. An indescribable feeling lingers in your heart. He didn't mean it right? You wished all your thoughts could disappear for a day. They wouldn't leave you alone, constantly reminding you of him. You thought avoiding him would bring you peace, it only ended in chaos. You couldn't get up, you barely ate, nothing gave you the motivation to continue on. Stuck in your bed, nothing but your thoughts accompanying you.

Your mother grew worried. She'd constantly check on you and ask you if you were okay. But all she got was silence. Today perhaps was different. Somehow, you grew tired of lazing on your bed and crying. You wanted to get some fresh air. You wanted to get over him. You didn't realize it was early morning. Three o'clock to be exact. You changed out of your clothes and into a pair of grey sweatpants and a black hoodie.

You quietly tiptoed your way out of the house, careful not to wake up your sleeping mother. You let out a sigh of relief once you close the front door. You take a step as you inhale the outside air you greatly missed. You place your hands in the sewn pocket of your worn hoodie. You walk down the quiet and still vicinity. You kept your eyes on the dull grey road.

You walk yourself to the playground. Since you knew the directions, it wasn't too hard. It was from when seonghwa would knock on your house and invite you to play. You halt once you finally arrive. The walk felt like forever, your thoughts distracting you. You hum a song along the way. You look up and see the familiar place. Just looking at the playground itself brings back many memories. Your dry lips form a small smile. You walk across the sandbox and near the swing set.

You silently sit on the swings, kicking the sand to push yourself. Soon enough, you started swinging slowly. You kept a slow pace. You sigh once more while you look around. Scanning your surroundings while the sound of trees swaying could be heard. Everything resembles him. Everywhere you look, you could see flashbacks. The slides, the seesaw, and the monkey bars.

You suddenly heard footsteps. You snap back to reality. Your hooded head darts to the sound. The swing you were on also halted, your hands gripping the chain harder. Upon locking eyes, your breath hitched when you saw the familiar eyes. Your lips parted, eyes glossy. ' What great timing! " You thought. It stayed like that for a minute. Neither of you believing the other was feet away. You felt terrible. The seconds of just staring at each other. But did you look away? No, you couldn't. You felt happy to see him, by part of you wished this wasn't happening.

The head of black hair, the usual clothes he wears. His tall slim figure. Semi broad shoulders- you knew too much about him.

His black orbs contrast with yours. He couldn't take his eyes off you. His eyes were glued to your figure. You were definitely not in the best state. Your puffy eyes, runny nose, red cheeks made it obvious. Your usual cheery smile was replaced by the opposite. Your staring continues for a minute. Guilt still filled seonghwa's heart, and the look on your face made it worse. It felt as though time slowed down.

He then walks towards you, his footsteps the only audible thing you could hear. The closer he got, your eyes looked elsewhere. The swing next to you move. Still, you avoided his eyes. The heavy tension was clearly present. It took a while before either of you spoke up. Each of you had too many emotions. The sound of metal creaking, mixed with the tension you both had.

" Don't you remember? " He quietly mutters. " When we were both just little kids. " He continues. You slightly smile, it felt as if it were yesterday. Oh, how you wished you could go back to that time. Where you didn't have to worry about anything. You were just happy with him.

You let out a chuckle, a dry one. You couldn't form any words. Nothing to say. Nothing came out of your mouth. Seonghwa took this as an opportunity. There have been things on his mind that he wished to bring up to you. But he couldn't just simply talk to you. Not after what he did. He was at loss, why was he so ignorant? Why didn't he pick up on the small signs you did, like tidying your self every time you see him, how your cheeks turn a shade of pink every time the two you were approximately close to one another, and how your eyes would turn dark whenever he touches another girl in front of you. It was the little things that were important. It was the little things he missed. He couldn't fathom how much he regrets it. He berated himself. What else could he do?

He turned his head to see you. He didn't expect to see a smile on your face. He could see the hurt in it. He could feel all the pain you had to endure. He couldn't take the amount of guilt he felt. He broke down. He buried his head in his slender hands. His arms rested on his lap. Tears spilled out. As he quietly sobs before you.

Your eyes widen when you look at him. You didn't expect him to be the one crying. Concern and pity took over you. Never once in your life did you see seonghwa crying. You get off the swing and walk to his side. You kneel in front of him. You extend your arms to his face. You place your petite hands against his large ones. You could feel the warmth you've been longing for the past weeks. Your thumbs graze over his knuckles. You observe how drops stained his hoodie. " I know what you did wasn't intentional... " You spoke, breaking the silence.

You push away his hands that were covering his face. His cheeks and nose were stained with his running tears. " Hey, it's alright, it's not your fault. " You push his bangs away. Then you got to see his eyes, his eyes a bit red, his plump lips parted. " Don't cry seonghwa, it's not that big of a de- " Before you could finish speaking, seonghwa engulfed you in his arms.

He lunged towards you, wrapping his arms against you as one holds your head. You were too shocked to do anything. You both felt the impact when you fell in the sandbox. You didn't know what to do with your arms. " I'm sorry y/n. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so fucking sorry. " He cried against your covered chest. You grip the sleeves of his hoodie as you felt yourself tear up as well. Your bottled up feelings were too much. The bottle was too small. You inhale before close your eyes to feel your tears run down.

" I'm sorry. For catching feelings... " You sob. You were both crying at this point. With nobody around. Nothing to be heard but your cries. You ruffle his hair while you felt your jawline being stained with tears. Your clothing was starting to stain from the tears of the male before you. " Why am I so stupid y/n...? " His voice deep.

You lift his head. Caressing his cheek, you say " It's my fault for falling for you. ". You pull his face towards yours. Crashing your lips on his. Temptation got the best of you. Seonghwa's eyes went wide. Seonghwa didn't think twice before kissing you back. Butterflies appeared in both your stomach. This wasn't anything you two ever encountered. This didn't feel the same when he kissed other girls. Your lips moved in sync, rubbing against one another. His hands trail up and grip your waist.

From an outsider's perspective, it was just a bunch of adolescents having their first kiss. But for you and seonghwa, you didn't care. You wanted nothing but him. Him and him only.

You pull away for a breath before going back in. Each other's tongue moves against the others. The kiss was soft and passionate. It felt like your lips we're made to fit his. Coincidentally, you two open your eyes at the same time. You deeply looked into his. His look had a hold of you. Your eyes made him weak. You both pull away. Breathing heavily. You quickly hug him, hiding your face in the crook of his neck. He sits himself and you up. Careful to you. Treating you like glass.

This was the most endearing part for seonghwa. He had no choice but to tell you. He took a sigh before speaking. " Y/n-ah... ". You hum in response. You were curious about what he had to say. Anxiety slowly eating you up. Was the kiss bad? Were you a bad kisser? But what he said shocked you. Left you speechless. You hadn't expected this.

" I'm going to Seoul. " He says.

You furrow your brows in confusion. " Wh-why? Seoul? What will you do there? " You look at him, puzzled. He took your hand in his before speaking again. " I passed y/n. I made the audition. " He said. Then it hit you. The audition. The one he took a month ago. He always dreamed of being an idol. From middle school, he'd endlessly talk to you about all the idols he listened to. You had to witness him singing. You completely forgot about it. " O-oh. " You replied. He saw your expression change. You look down. Not sure how you should respond.

" Well...congrats! " You look up and beam. You put on a smile. You were happy for him. But not entirely. Just when you were ready to forgive him. It felt like a pang. You were holding in more tears. You were happy he couldn't see through you this time. " I'm gonna miss you so much. " You hug him tighter. He takes in your scent. He takes note of how your trembling. Shaking because of the cold wind. But also because you were scared. Scared of losing him. Your one and only friend. The one you've been with since childhood. You knew you had to let go of him. But it's easier said than done. Will the distance worsen your relationship with him?

He pulls back and takes off his jacket. Revealing a white shirt underneath. He puts the warm clothing over your head and arms. You gleam inside at the scent of him. He takes you in his embrace once more. Inside his arms, you felt so comfortable. With him is where you belong. The sand particles getting in your hair. You knew you couldn't do anything and decided to cherish this moment.

And so the day arrived. The day where you had to bid goodbye to seonghwa. The ride to the airport was worse than you anticipated. You two looked comfortable, but there was definitely a bit of uncertainty. Specifically, because of the unspoken kiss, you two had shared. You and seonghwa pretended as if it never happened. Your parents drove you both. The long ride making you drowsy. You had a long way to go and your eyes were getting droopy. You had no clue you were leaning on his shoulder. By the time he realizes, you were already in deep slumber.

Seonghwa glanced at you, only to notice you were quietly snoozing. He tucked away a strand of hair behind your ear. He feels blood surge to his cheeks. And his mom seemed to notice. " Seonghwa? Are you alright? You seem red. " She asks, concerned. " N-no I'm fine! " He smiles. He instantly looks away and stares out the car window.

He secretly took glances of you throughout the entire car ride. Observing your perfect features. He knew he would greatly miss you. He'd wake up starting tomorrow knowing you're nowhere near him. He couldn't just walk up to your house again. He was gonna be alone.

You jolt awake when you felt the car stop. Your eyes were still half-closed. You look to your side and see seonghwa gathering his things. He turns to you to wake you up. But you already did that yourself. He smiles when he sees your awakened self. He extends his arm and fixes your messy hair. After that, you both just look at each other. This bittersweet moment all to yourselves. He continued caressing your hair. " I'm gonna miss you y/n. " He pouts. " Not as much as I will " You laugh. He smiles, at least you laughed before he left. He pulls you to a hug. He sneaked in a kiss on the cheek while doing so.

When you two parted ways, it wasn't a happy moment. Sure you wanted him to achieve his dreams, but part of you didn't want him to go. But all you could do was smile and wave. And so your feelings continued to latch on. You often thought about him. If his life was better there, did he find friends? For the first few months, you two often talked. But as more days progressed you and seonghwa grew busier. No time for one another. You two hadn't contacted each other in months. You could catch yourself frequently thinking if he ever forgot about you.

Five long years passed. Every day you waited for a call, at least a text. It continued like that for months. You were still hoping. Hoping he'd contact you once. That hope eventually died out. You figured he was too occupied to even talk to you. You'd be lying if you said you weren't sad.

Now it's the present.

You continued walking. Breath shaky due to the temperature. Your boots made a sound that echoes through the street. Your hometown brought back many memories. Both happy and sad. You had nothing to do, so walking around seemed to be your only option. Your surroundings were dark, but it didn't scare you.

You settled down by a nearby bench. The trees swayed with one another. You took a deep breath, your hand slips through your pockets, and grip your earphones. You connect the wire to your phone, playing your recently made playlist. The shuffle landed on a song you quite loved. You hum to the beat of the song, tucking away a thread of hair the same way he did. He may have not known, but you were awake the whole time. Trying to fall asleep but couldn't.

You chuckle at the faint memory. It may be years later but you still could recall it. Despite your best attempts of forgetting it, it popped up at the most random of times. Why Park Seonghwa? When can you stop haunting me?

You sigh and thought of something else. You didn't notice a figure moving until you felt your right earphone being pulled. Your reflexes acted up and threw a punch to whoever grabbed it. You wanted to scream, but before you could you heard a groan. You looked down and saw a coated boy with dyes hair, holding his cheek from the impact. The adrenaline wears out. You panic, you just punched someone. " Oh my god, I am so- seonghwa?! " Your eyes wide the moment he turned his head to you. He faintly smiled back, still recovering from your assault.

" What are you doing here...? You raise both your brows. " Nothing much...just wondering around. " He admits. You stood up, brushing off the dust on your jacket. " Aren't you supposed to be in Seoul? " You asked with a hint of bitterness. You roll your eyes. Seonghwa too stood up. You wanted to walk away but he ended up walking with you. " What's wrong with visiting my hometown? " He shrugged. How could he just talk to you casually after years? " It's been five years seonghwa. " You stop in your tracks and look at him. His expression quickly shifted from joyful to shameful.

" You can't just waltz back to my life and pretend that you didn't talk to me for five whole years! " You spoke. " L-look I- " You interrupted him. " And I'm not done! Yes, I get that your busy but you couldn't at least text me once? Can you imagine what I felt? I stared at my phone endlessly waiting for a text from you! " You pause, taking a deep breath. " It's late. You should get going. " You mumble. " No, listen to me. " His fingers clutch your wrist. You had no option but to listen to him. So you stood there, both ears open.

" I was also waiting. At one point I thought you got over me. I thought you found someone else... " He explains. You took a few seconds to process it. " Tch. " You grinned. Then unexpectedly you pulled the tall male into a hug. " You know I would never forget about you right? " He mumbles against his chest. He smirks just before snuggling you back. " God I missed you so much " He places a kiss on the top of your head. You felt yourself blush. When did he become so flirty? What did Seoul do to him?

" I missed you too... " You shyly say. You only hug him tighter, finding consolation in his warmth. All of a sudden you felt one of his fingers lift your chin up. You felt the world around you stop as he leaned in slowly. You didn't get a chance to pull back. But the thing is, you didn't want to. You stood still, waiting for when your lips would meet his. You both close your eyes when you felt each other's lips. He backed you up. Eventually, your back met the wall. You were trapped in between him and the wall behind you. This felt like what happened years ago. Your breathing steady as the kiss progressed. Over the years he too developed feelings for you. And your feelings for him never went away. The entire time you two shared the kiss, he was sweet and gentle with you. " You don't know how much I missed you " He seductively said before pulling you into another kiss.

You felt his tongue lick your bottom lip, conceivably asking for permission. You did as so and gave him entrance. It hastily escalated from a sincere kiss to a makeout session. You pull back, somewhat worried. " Seonghwa we can't do this here! We'll get caught! " You whisper-yelled. He wipes off the smudged lip balm with his thumb. He grins before stepping back. He laces his fingers with yours. He pulls you by his side, sauntering with him towards the path of your house. Your small figure beside his was an adorable contrast.

" Does this mean we're official...? " You ask, slightly embarrassed. You both continued walking. " Of course, love. " He leans down to peck you on the lips, " I've loved you since childhood. ".

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spookyscientistskeleton-moved · 4 years ago

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📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂

Send 📂 for a random but completely useless headcanon || Against my better judgment, still accepting

Hoo boy. Gonna focus on the Grillbies here, and tack on an extra one so I can have a solid four-per-flame.

Despite cultivating a personal aesthetic of “the sleaziest punk rocker you know,” Ferno’s also a sucker for the least punk rock thing ever, that being old westerns. He bought a few Clint Eastwood movies off Gerson after they ended up in the dump, and knows them pretty much line-for-line. He has absolutely dropped an “I’m your huckleberry” around Fell before.

I’m soft on the idea of my various Grillbies adopting a dog up on the surface. Ferno takes in an abandoned pit bull puppy he caught in the alleyway next to the club. He named him Hellraiser after the Ozzy Osbourne song, but he is, in fact, the sweetest and most affectionate dog that has ever existed.

He keeps bartending even after he gets sober. It’s really tough sometimes, and he knows that there are definitely people in his life who... worry that he might fall off the wagon, but over time, with a lot of dedication and support, he’s eventually able to quit drinking for good.

He never quits smoking though. Ferno isn’t really a creature of habit (almost out of defiance to military service being such a routine-based system), but he’s extremely particular about when he takes his cigarettes. A smoke in the morning when he wakes up, a smoke at the dog park when taking Hellraiser for a walk, a smoke before opening up the club for the night, and a smoke after he closes up. And of course a smoke after sex. Always.

Grillby’s dog is an adopted elderly bloodhound named Lizzy (named for the song Dizzy Miss Lizzy). Her more active days are behind her, and she spends most of her time napping in her bed in the bar’s kitchen or by the couch in Grillby’s apartment. Even if she doesn’t get up, her tail always wags when Grillby walks into the room.

He was betrothed to a woman in his village before the war. They got along well, but while he cared about her, there wasn’t really any ~romance~ between them. A very tiny, shameful part of him was relieved when he went off to war, since it postponed their wedding. He felt all the guiltier about it when the Fire Elemental village was destroyed, killing everyone there, including his fiancee.

He used to smoke, quite a bit actually. He quit, for the most part, buuuut still has a smoke after sex sometimes. He likes the intimacy of sharing a cig with a partner in the afterglow.

For as rowdy as parties in Snowdin can get sometimes... he really likes when people have parties at his bar. Birthday parties (he always bakes the cake from scratch), weddings (he catered Dogamy and Dogaressa’s entirely by himself), whatever, he just likes seeing people hanging out and having a good time.

His dog is a little Maltese named Queen (for the song Killer Queen). Sometimes his baby flamelings snuggle with her for warmth, and she cares for them like a mother. She has her own Instagram page. It has a pretty sizable following.

He is the only one out of my Grillbies who doesn’t smoke and has never smoked, as he absolutely hates the smell of it.

He loves aromatherapy and bath bombs and shit but is quietly heartbroken at the fact that he is made of fire and thus cannot bathe. He just... incinerates bath bombs with his magic and uses them almost like perfume, but it’s just not the same.

Ferno and Grillbz have motorcycles on the surface, but he has a classy little lime green Vespa. He adds a sidecar for Blue.

#puzzlebones #long post ///

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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15 Hardest PlayStation One Games of All-Time

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The PlayStation is fondly remembered for its classic collection of revolutionary games, advancements in 3D technology, and CD player functionality that let you easily play the Men in Black soundtrack whenever you wanted. As you’ve probably guessed from the title of this article, though, it’s also the home of some of the hardest games of the ’90s.

The PlayStation may have helped move us out of the arcade era and its notorious difficulty levels, but with the challenges of 3D game design came a new set of in-game challenges that tested a generation of gamers in ways that they simply were not prepared for.

Even after we’ve grown accustomed to the machinations and expectations of 3D game design all these years later, I suspect that many modern gamers would struggle to beat the 15 hardest PlayStation One games ever.

15. Crash Bandicoot

One of the funniest things about the release of 2017’s Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was watching everyone suddenly remember that the Crash Bandicoot games were absurdly difficult.

Despite their linear design, the Crash Bandicoot games demanded a level of platforming perfection that proved to be elusive enough at a time when modern video game graphics, cameras, and controls made the remakes of the Crash Bandicoot games much more accessible but was nearly impossible to achieve in the early days of PlayStation gaming.

The later Crash Bandicoot games made things slightly easier, but the first title’s combination of intentionally challenging obstacles and a few questionable design decisions make it one of the most truly difficult games of its era.

14. Fear Effect

The original Fear Effect games are awkward to play today for a lot of reasons (casual racism and strange “softcore” cutscenes, for instance), but if you find yourself struggling to make it through these titles, it’s not just because they haven’t aged especially well. Fear Effect was an incredibly difficult game even for its time.

Essentially a blend of Resident Evil-like controls, point and click adventure puzzles, and awkward stealth sequences, Fear Effect is like a Hall of Fame for the most challenging and infuriating gameplay concepts of its era.

Fear Effect 2 might even be harder than the first game, but the nod here goes to the original for featuring one of the most uniquely difficult gaming experiences the PlayStation has to offer.

13. Driver

22 years after its release, I’m still convinced that Driver is a prank. How else can you explain developer Reflections Interactive’s decision to make this game’s tutorial mission one of the hardest levels in video game history?

Driver’s first level requires you to complete a series of complex maneuvers in a confined space while racing against a way too short time limit. To make matters worse, the game often fails to recognize when you’ve properly completed a maneuver, which means that you might not pass the test even if you’ve somehow mastered the game’s most complex movies the first time you’re ever asked to perform them.

If you’re one of the many who has never beaten Driver’s opening level, you may be shocked to find that there are difficulty spikes later in the game that are even more difficult than its notorious opener. At least this game is still better than the sequel.

12. Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey

Oddworld’s unique puzzles and strange core mechanics would have made it challenging enough for players just trying to figure out what’s expected of them, but this game goes one step further by employing some of the most unforgiving level design tactics in PlayStation history.

Your margin for error in this game rarely rises above zero as gunfire and traps constantly threaten to end your fun. While that kind of unforgiving gameplay makes sense in something like a bullet hell title, it can be frustrating to work with in a puzzle game where your trial and error attempts are hindered by an additional series of wrong moves.

Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey is clearly meant to be a difficult game, but knowing that doesn’t make it feel any less unforgiving.

11. Rayman

As strange as it may seem given the evolution of the franchise over the years, the original Rayman is by far one of the hardest games of the ‘90s and arguably one of the hardest platformer games ever made.

Unlike other platformers that challenge you with rewarding gameplay that requires precision movements, most of Rayman’s challenges can be best described as “bulls***.” The slippery slopes and spiked pits spread generously throughout levels might kill you, but the game’s bizarre enemy spawning system that makes it practically impossible to anticipate their placement certainly will.

If Rayman isn’t one of the hardest games ever made its certainty among the most frustrating.

10. Vagrant Story

For years, fans have called Vagrant Story one of the most underrated PlayStation games and one of the most overlooked RPGs ever made. It deserves both those titles, but I think Vagrant Story also deserves to be remembered as an absurdly difficult epic.

Initially, the challenge of Vagrant Story comes from learning its unique combat system that often leaves you feeling helpless. Even after you’ve made sense of the basics, Vagrant Story’s brutal bosses, clever traps, and even “basic” enemies will constantly make you wonder whether or not you can ever really master what this game throws at you.

Like Dark Souls, Vagrant Story’s difficulty is very much part of what makes the game work as well as it does. Appreciating that doesn’t make the game any easier, though.

9. Heart of Darkness

Never heard of Heart of Darkness? I’m not surprised. Even for its time, this was a relatively obscure title that is now fondly remembered for its visuals, excellent story, and interesting gameplay. Mostly, though, Heart of Darkness is remembered for its nearly unrivaled difficulty spikes.

In fact, Heart of Darkness could give Driver a run for its money in the battle between games with the most absurdly difficult opening levels. Enemies swarm you in this opening section like you’re playing a bullet hell shooter, but the game controls like a particularly clunky FMV puzzler. Even if you know what you’re doing, it’s incredibly difficult to respond to the on-screen action in time.

Things get slightly better from there, but I’d still say that most gamers will not have the patience for this game’s labyrinth levels, bewildering puzzles, and often painful controls.

8. Blasto

To be fair to Blasto, this PS1 action game was probably released a generation before technology could properly support it. In another timeline, it might have turned out to be as good as the first Ratchet and Clank game. To be even fairer to Blasto, it starred the late Phil Hartman who always went above and beyond for everything he did, including the voice work for this game.

With all of that out of the way, let’s focus on Blasto’s real reputation as one of the PS1’s most reliable sources of broken controllers. It’s bad enough that this game’s slow movements and dodgy camera make even basic sections challenging, but the fact that many levels have no barriers to speak of means you spend most of your time falling to your death while trying to complete even simple jumps.

This is a truly painful gaming experience that snared many unsuspecting gamers with its charm and front-loaded good ideas.

Games

15 Hardest Sega Genesis Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

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15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

7. Einhander

While not the most difficult 2D shoot ‘em up ever made, Einhander was high-profile enough to lure in many early PS1 adopters who were completely unprepared for its retro difficulty level.

Rather than throw as many enemies at you as possible and call it a day, Einhander increases the health pool of the average enemy while requiring you to navigate some truly devastating death zones. The impact of that design decision really comes thorugh in the game’s boss fights which task you with taking down massive foes who employ complex and shifting attack strategies.

This is a truly great game that stands the test of time, but don’t let its looks and sounds convince you that Einhander is anything less than a classic example of “NES hard.”

6. Irritating Stick

Yes, the game’s title gives its difficulty level away, but to truly appreciate how frustrating Irritating Stick is, you’ve got to play it for yourself.

Irritating Stick is like a blend of Super Monkey Ball and the board game Operation. It requires you to guide a small ball through a series of themed mazes that leave you almost no room to safely maneuver. To make matters worse, you have to race against a constantly ticking clock that’s absurd restrictions essentially require you to truly master this game within a few levels. Of course, true mastery may not be possible for most players as each level seems to add a new wrinkle that makes you wonder how you will ever get through in time.

Oh, and I have to give a special shout-out to the game’s announcer who screams “Watch out, you’re too close to the edge!” whenever you’re near the game’s barriers. Yes, I know I’m too close to the edge, now kindly leave me the **** alone.

5. Incredible Crisis

Remember that scene in Metal Gear Solid when you had to mash the Circle button to survive the torture device until it felt like your wrist was going to break? Well, imagine that scene stretched out across most of a full game. That’s Incredible Crisis.

Incredible Crisis is a collection of eclectic minigames that often require you to mash buttons as fast as humanly possible. Actually, I take that back. No human can be expected to survive this gauntlet of finger destroying terror. Oh, and if a minigame doesn’t require you to furiously mash buttons, that means it’s only going to destroy you in some other strange way.

The bizarre set of skills required to beat this game means that it may even frustrate gamers who otherwise seek such challenges.

4. Tomb Raider 3

Yes, the first two Tomb Raider games are difficult. However, part of their challenge (especially today) stems from their ambitious design which was often ahead of what you could reasonably expect from video game technology at the time.

Tomb Raider 3 is on a different (difficulty) level, though. Even if the game didn’t add a ridiculous number of spikes, boulders, pits, and traps waiting to end your run before you know they’re there, its bewildering level design that tried to recreate the experience of having no idea what you’re doing in the middle of a dark tomb has broken even diehard series fans.

Despite its better moments and incredible pedigree, it’s genuinely hard to recommend this game to anyone but masochists. I genuinely don’t know if it’s possible to beat this game without a strategy guide or walkthrough.

3. Nightmare Creatures

There’s a degree to which early PlayStation games were fundamentally unprepared to handle the challenges of 3D action/adventure game design. That means that any additional difficulties added to that underlying level of challenge make some games of that era nearly impossible to properly play today.

I guess that’s just my way of saying that Nightmare Creatures is indeed the nightmare it bills itself as. What would already be a challenging romp through a hellish world of monsters is made that much worse by the presence of an adrenaline system that effectively serves as a time limit and forces you to kill enemies as quickly as possible despite often being unprepared for them in every conceivable way.

Some games throw you into the water to teach you how to swim. Nightmare Creatures holds your head under the water as you lean because it fundamentally doesn’t want you to succeed.

2. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

The “fall” of the stealth genre from mainstream gaming in recent years has long disappointed genre fans who rank such games among their favorites of all-time. Yet, it has to be acknowledged that even the best stealth games were often difficult in a way that could immediately dissuade even tested gamers.

While difficulty is a given in many stealth titles, Tenchu sometimes abuses the privilege by going out of your way to remind you that you are weak. Maybe it’s because many of us were just excited to play a game where we were a badass ninja assassin, but the way that Tenchu required you to play it safe and employ trial-and-error tactics to survive its various challenges left many burying their hands in their face as they tried to understand what they were doing wrong.

Even after you appreciated Tenchu for what it was and even discovered what the game expected of you, it always found a way to force you to make that little mistake that would instantly end a run.

1. King’s Field

Is it cliche to name a game from eventual Dark Souls developer FromSoftware as the hardest PS1 title ever? For the sake of argument, let’s say it is. That doesn’t change the fact that even Dark Souls veterans will find themselves surprised by how difficult this game truly is.

King’s Field was pretty revolutionary for its time, which means that many gamers simply didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing when they booted up this title. What the most patient PS1 gamers discovered, though, is that King’s Field is basically a rough draft of Dark Souls combined with an especially difficult dungeon crawler. Even if the game’s ambitious 3D visuals and the jank they produce didn’t create additional challenges, this title’s brutal combat, a parade of traps, confounding controls, deliberately slow pace, and complete lack of direction even made hardcore PC RPG fans wonder what this game was and why it hated them so much.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

King’s Field doesn’t hate you, but it’s a testament to what the game was going for that it’s both clearly an early look at the next 25 years of gaming and a title that will likely still challenge generations to come.

The post 15 Hardest PlayStation One Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years ago

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Compare & Contrast: Trumbo vs Mank

It’s the rare movie that’s about screenwriting, and rarer still the ones about actual screenwriters engaged in their craft.

Recently two films about two of the most famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) screenwriters were released, and not only are they about actual screenwriters involved in writing scripts of actual films -- genuine classics in both cases -- but their protagonists are done in by the same group of antagonists (though to be fair, one film paints them merely as adversaries, not villains).

Yes, we’re pitting 2015’s Trumbo (directed by jay Roach, written by John McNamara off Bruce Cook’s Dalton Trumbo) nose-to-nose with Mank (directed by David Fincher, written by Jack Fincher), and may the best bio pic win.

First off, the bad: Neither film really jells seamlessly.

Both come across as a series of scenes, not a coherent story flow.

The dialog in both is too theatrical, too self-knowing though in the case of Mank’s Herman J. Mankiewicz, apparently a fair depiction of how he actually spoke (for the cheap seats: Like a pompous asshole).

Advantage: Mank because it never asks us to pity Mankiewicz as a self-destructive alcoholic no matter how brilliant his writing is. Mank’s struggles are more in the trenches -- even if those trenches run through the plush offices of MGM. Trumbo talks a lot about the struggles of the little guy but never really dips down to street level. For all its insights and good intentions, it remains a limousine liberal story.

You can’t do a Hollywood bio pic without having Hollywood celebrities in it, and for the most part Mank keeps the most famous names and faces at arm’s length.

Yes, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried) plays a pivotal role but virtually nobody today remembers the real Davies except as she was unfairly depicted in Citizen Kane.

Orson Welles is the best known name and face in Mank and Tom Burke does a top notch job of capturing him at his charismatic young genius stage. Other off screen personalities also serve to flesh out their roles adequately, including Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg, Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst, and Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer.

On the other hand, virtually none of Trumbo’s famous players look anything like their real life counterparts. Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas comes closest in a dinner theater level of resemblance, but Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson and David James Elliott as John Wayne are virtually unrecognizable as their actual counterparts.

Trumbo also features Richard Portnow as their version of Louis B. Meyer and it needs be said thar Mank’s Meyer is far more dynamic and compelling.

Props to Christian Berkel as Otto Preminger for coming closest to capturing the real persona behind the role, but then Preminger himself deliberately created a living caricature of himself for public appearances -- no matter how far over the top you go, he’s already w-a-a-a-y ahead of you.

Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper is fairly accurate in her portrayal of Hollywood’s original queen of mean / notorious gossip columnist and plays the role as close to an absolute villain as possible.

John Goodman and Stephen Root as producing brothers Frank and Hymie King are a delight, and Goodman simply backs up a truck and drives off with the picture every scene he appears in.

Advantage: Mank because less is always more.

In terms of direction and cinematography, Mank is filmed in gloriously luminescent black and white. Mank also plays with and explores the boundaries pf film making much more than Trumbo. Trumbo is an expertly made film, but a very conventional one.

Advantage: Mank

The key question for both is how accurate are they?

Truth be told, not very for either of them.

Oh, both films get their broad strokes down, but a lot of minor details are garbled or misrepresented.

Dalton Trumbo, for instance, did not originate The Brave One, which won him a best screenplay Oscar under a pseudonym while he was on the blacklist. That project was handed to him by the King brothers who acquired it from special effects legend Willis O’Brien (i.e., the guy who brought King Kong to life) but then stripped out O’Brien’s fanciful stop motion allosaur to concentrate on the story of a boy and his bull.

One understands why this aspect was ignored -- it would contribute nothing to the actual story of Trumbo -- but it is the height of irony that O’Brien’s participation was cancelled due to Trumbo coming onboard.

Likewise in Mank there’s a scene where Thalberg complains the Marx Brothers started a fire and roasted hot dogs in his office; in real life Groucho & his siblings roasted potatoes. One can understand Mank changing the menu -- the audience can “smell” a roasted hot dog easier than a roasted potato.

But enough fiddle-faddle! How well did each capture their central character and their dilemma?

Ah, there we have a split decision.

While Trumbo focuses on Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston), it also spends a lot of time with the struggles of his coterie of fellow blacklisted scribes.

Both Dalton Trumbo and Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldmam) fell under the curse of always being the smartest guy in the room, and when you’re the smartest guy in the room you grow impatient with all the others.

In Trumbo’s case, he runs roughshod of the eminently justifiable concerns of others involved in his crusade, and in the end his miscalculations of the era’s real politik led to the notorious blacklist and the rise of McCarthyism.

That he subsequently tries to mitigate this by creating an underground talent pool of ghost screenwriters is shown as positive in one sense and capitulation in another. Trumbo -- quite accidentally -- torments screenwriter Arlen Hird (a composite character played by Louis C.K. as if he were channeling the late Ricky Jay) , turning his already stressful life into pure misery.

Again, it is a tribute to Trumbo’s character -- at least the screen version of same -- that he recognizes the harm he inflicted and tries -- however inadequately -- to atone for it.

Herman Mankiewicz, on the other hand, was just an asshole -- a charming, entertaining asshole, to be sure, but an asshole nonetheless.

Both writers are laid low by far right politics determined to root out any and all “leftist” influence in Hollywood -- both the ideal and the workaday reality.

Trumbo depicts him as “a communist with a swimming pool” who enjoys the finer things in life while championing the largely unseen underdog.

The film doesn’t shy away from this and an encounter in prison with African-American felon Virgil Brooks (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is played as a reverse Shawshank Redemption in which Trumbo learns exactly how the underclass perceives his efforts on their behalf.

Mank makes more direct contact with this underclass -- while skewering Mankiewicz’ own hypocrisy in this area -- but Mankiewicz himself steers away from any direct involvement.

He’s bright and erudite and his scenes with Marion Davies do much to show the complexities found at the intersection of art / commerce / politics -- but in the end he remains more of a spectator (albeit a spectacularly self-destructive one) than a participant.

Mank creates the fictious character of Shelly Metcalf (Jamie McShane), a low grade MGM employee who makes anti-socialist propaganda for Hearst and comes to a tragic end.

This is part of what spurs Mankiewicz to a drunken rant at San Simeon aimed at Meyer and Hearst, and in the fallout of that, the inspiration for Citizen Kane itself.

This is where the two films share a profound overlap,

But with wholly contrary messages.

Both films try to humanize their players.

Mank gives Meyer, Thalberg, and Hearst very human and wholly believable reactions to Mankiewicz’ assholery -- they sincerely try to save him from himself and failing that, only then do they cast him quite literally into the outer darkness.

Yet in trying to humanize them it also shows their monstrous natures.

Hearst, escorting Mankiewicz out of San Simeon for the very last time, tells him the parable of the organ grinder’s monkey, and while the story is delivered in an almost sad patrician tone, the underlying threat and menace is unmistakable.

Trumbo, on the other hand, does a better job of humanizing its players, Hedda Hopper not withstanding (and she is depicted with deeply personal motivations, not purely ideological ones).

Quoting from the real Dalton Trumbo’s acceptance speech for his WGA lifetime achievement award, Trumbo the movie takes pains to recognize its story possesses no simplistic duality of good and evil, heroes and villains.

Both sides were caught up in a storm of societal change that swept the world and both sides did what they felt they had to do in response to it.

Trumbo doesn’t shy away from choices having consequences, but it recognizes the vast spectrum of gray in the middle.

Advantage: Trumbo

In summation: Two good but not flawless movies. Mank is the more fully realized one and all around better production, but Trumbo is then one that gives you the most to chew on.

#Compare And Contrast #Trumbo #Mank #screenwriting

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avaaudrey163 · 4 years ago

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Dangerous Dogs

Since the beginning of their domestication, dangerous dogs have been a part of the human world. Because of their intuitive guarding ability, they are used to protect livestock and even as police dogs or house pets performing tricks.

Noticeably intelligent creatures, dogs surely do make great and loyal companions. Although often described as "man's best friend", these creatures weren't naturally designed to interact with humans.

From time to time, there have been reported instances of dogs attacking owners or other people. Although extreme cases are rare, it is still important that we are aware of the dangers and responsibilities of having dogs. The following is our list of the ten most dangerous dog breeds in the world.

1. American Pit Bull Terrier

An aggressive breed, which is capable of killing almost any enemy. The incorrect upbringing of this dog is suicidal both for passers-by and owners themselves. Be careful!

Cytologists’' Comments: The American Pit Bull Terrier (or just the Pit Bull Terrier) is a popular breed in America, but it can be very rarely found in other European countries where it has been put on the prohibited list dog breeds.

2. Rottweiler

Animals are considered to be our little brothers. Dogs are certainly on the top of this list. Besides, it's often difficult to believe, that such a clever and kind type of pet as a dog can bite someone's limbs off.

The thing is, not all dogs are born to merrily bark at the top of their voices at the sight of stretched out hands. Thus we would like to present you the list of the most dangerous breeds, since, as it's said, forewarn is forearmed.

3. German Shepherd

German shepherd is an intelligent breed. That is exactly why it's trained to search and catch criminals. If a dog isn't stopped on time or an offender continues to resist, a German Shepherd as a law-enforcer will turn to a cruel killer.

4. Deutscher Boxer

Ancestors of Deutscher Boxers didn't play about in a ring but seized bulls and even bears. Thus it's better politely treat not only this type of a dog but its master as well.

5. Doberman

On the one hand, Dobermans are friendly. But if the master is in trouble, even slightly coming from another person, they begin to display their natural aggression.

6. Alaskan Malamute

If a Malamute got nervous or angry, it would be not easy to calm it down. Dogs of this breed can practically become out of control, Cytologists' Comments: Despite its formal resemblance to wolves, the Malamute is one of the most friendly and harmless dogs! For centuries, all sledge dogs were bred to get on well with both humans and their counterparts.

7. Chow

Being big game hunters by nature, these «fluffiest» without any difficulty will pin on two shoulders of any human. Cytologists' Comments: These «fuzzy things» were mistakenly taken for Char Pies hunting, guarding, and fighting dogs during various periods of history in China.

8. Perrot de Press Canaries

Dog Canaries were used as perfect big game hunters, besides helping their owners to stifle cattle. They were also famous for their participation in dogfights, smothering victims with ease. It kept this breed on a chain and butchers were the only ones allowed to keep this breed. Make friends with a Dog Canaries is not easy at all – these creatures are incorruptible.

9. Dalmatian

These guardians, always longing for sweeping everyone and everything off to make way for their owners, are often born deaf. That’s why to training a Dalmatian does no good as a rule. As a result, the animal grows uncontrollable and willful.

10. Siberian Husky

Theoretically, representatives of this breed are friendly enough. However, they are very similar to their wolf ancestors, what can sometimes awake fear in people, and fear in its turn arouses the animal instinct in the blood of almost any dog.

This breed developed during the 20 and 30-s of the past century is the only existed canine variety that was purposefully bred to hunt human. Soviet dog experts created the Black Terrier to guard detainees in camp prisons; its task was to make sure that they wouldn't escape, including at the expense of detainees' lives.

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pitviperofdoom · 5 years ago

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AA daemon ficlets are just really comforting and fun to write. So here’s another!

Maya’s POV is really weird to write because she’s a 170-year-old witch so like she’s still Maya but she also says dope shit sometimes.

---

The glass between them frustrates her.

It seems to Maya that whenever they talk face to face, there is either glass between them or the threat of glass hanging over their heads. And now she is free but the glass remains, because he has taken her place in that cage.

Because Redd White has put him there.

Aunt Morgan often speaks longingly of the old days, days that Maya is too young to remember well—when a witch could slay a man for an insult and no one batted an eye, much less put her on trial for it. Normally her aunt’s bitter words make her uncomfortable, as they once nettled Mia, but now…

Now part of her wishes she could turn back time two hundred years, just so she could put an arrow in Redd White’s heart herself. For Mother, for Mia, for herself, and now for Phoenix Wright.

He puts on a brave face for her benefit, his smile bright and reassuring even though it has to hurt, with his face bruised and ugly scratches across his nose and one cheek. The smile and the marks are nearly enough to blind her to the darkness beneath his eyes. But even if she couldn’t read his face, his dӕmon is too big to hide.

Mother knew how to read dӕmons, including human ones, because as queen it was a useful skill. She taught Mia before she disappeared. Now she’s gone and Aunt Morgan says humans aren’t worth their time, so it was left to Mia to pass on what she knew to Maya. Dogs are expressive dӕmons, she’s found, and Wright’s Dawn looks like she’s been caged for days, not mere hours. Her head is low, her tail between her legs, and her white fur is ragged and unkempt.

“Please tell me there’s something I can do,” she says. “You need evidence, don’t you? I’m not a lawyer, or a detective, but I am a witch. If there’s somewhere I need to search, or retrieve something, or question people—well, most people don’t say no to witches.”

“No,” he says firmly. “No, don’t do any of that. That’s what got me in here, and it’s what got your sister killed.” Maya swallows her anger and grief at the reminder. “Besides, I know a few things about White that I didn't before, and that’s what tomorrow will be about. He’s going to ‘prove’ me guilty by going up on the witness stand and lying. All I have to do is pick apart his lies until the whole story falls apart. Hopefully, I’ll get him to crack that way.”

Maya nods. She knows about that part of human legal customs, because Mia told her about it. It was one of her sister’s secrets to success. But it doesn’t feel like enough. “Isn’t there anything I can do?”

“Cheer us on tomorrow, I guess,” Dawn replies.

“I can do that!” she says eagerly, almost too eagerly. Aunt Morgan would be appalled at the display. “I can stand beside you in court, can’t I? Now that I’m not a prisoner anymore?”

He blinks at her, surprised. “W-well, I guess? You could act as my co-counsel, but…”

“I’ll do it,” she says fiercely. “You stood with me when no one else would, and you sacrificed your own freedom to give me mine. This is the least I can do for you, short of killing Redd White with my own hands.”

One of the officers shifts uncomfortably, and Wright splutters. “Okay, definitely don’t do that,” he says. “Because then you actually would be guilty of murder, and there’s not much I could do about that.”

“I won’t,” she says, offering a reassuring smile. “I don’t want to make this any harder for you. Even if I do think it would make things easier…” Wright gives her a pained look. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding. I’ll stand with you in court tomorrow, and maybe I can find a way to support you properly.”

“It’ll be fine.” Phoenix smiles again, wincing when it bothers his bruises. “Trust me.”

She wants to believe him, she really does. But Dawn’s tail is still between her legs, and the fear shines through in their eyes. There is no promise of victory, only tenuous hope.

Maya returns to her sister’s office that day, because there is little else that she can do but wait. As she approaches the building, she comes across a familiar face leaving it. In an instant she is wary, because the first thing he did upon meeting her was arrest her, and now that she’s free, she isn’t sure where that leaves them.

“Um... hello, Detective,” she says, and he startles like a big, ungainly rabbit.

“Oh! Y-yeah, hello, uh, Miss Witch! Detective Dick Gumshoe, at your service!” He stands rigidly before her, wide-eyed. At his feet, his pit bull dӕmon pants nervously and tries in vain to tuck her stubby tail.

“Can I go in?” she asks. “I won’t disturb anything, if you’re still looking…”

“By all means, Miss Witch! Don’t worry about disturbing anything, we’re finished here and the crime scene’s been cleaned up!” He shuffles out of her way, and she realizes that he’s afraid of her. And why wouldn’t he be? He accused her of her sister’s murder. A little over a century ago, that would have earned him an immediate arrow through the heart.

“It’s Maya,” she says, taking pity on him. “Maya Fey. Thank you.”

“No problem, Miss Fey! Sorry for yesterday, just doing my job, very glad to see you’ve been released! Have a nice day, ma’am! C’mon, Bobbie, let’s go.”

He and his dӕmon make a hasty retreat. Maya watches them go, then walks into her sister’s office. She sits down by the window where Mia’s body lay, and doesn’t move until her legs are stiff and achy, and the sunset casts long shadows throughout the room.

There’s a plant in the corner, still green and healthy, but the soil is dry to the touch. While she waters it, Zech flies to the desk to have a look at the computer. The distance tugs at their bond—another reminder of the ritual they haven’t completed, and that Mia won’t be there when they do.

When she’s satisfied with the plant’s condition, Maya goes to her dӕmon’s side to find the computer on and Zech scrolling through it. “What are you doing?”

“Just trying to answer an earlier question,” he tells her. “Since Phoenix already knows about Redd White, and we know that White’s dӕmon is—”

“A water moccasin,” Maya says. “Also known as a cottonmouth. I remember what Mia said.” On the screen, an encyclopedia article on the Felidae family slowly loads.

“I figured that was self-explanatory,” Zech says dryly. “So I thought it might be helpful to glean what we could from Mr. Edgeworth’s dӕmon. Starting with what she is. Maybe it'll give Phoenix an edge.”

“Makes sense.” Maya sits down in her sister’s chair, doing her very best not to think of it that way. “Let’s see what we can find.”

And they do. It doesn’t take them nearly as long as Maya feared, and she shares a triumphant look with Zech before sitting back and turning the machine off.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Zech says, feathers ruffling eagerly. “And rare, isn’t it?”

“Among humans, yes,” Maya replies, tickling his ruff feathers. “Almost unheard of, with witches.”

“Obviously.”

She’s not sure if it will help. But Mia says that court is a battle fought with information, and if Maya cannot fight with Phoenix tomorrow, then the least she can do is arm him.

Phoenix looks worse, somehow. He doesn’t look like he’s slept much, and beneath his battered smile, Maya can see that he’s scared. Dawn hardly looks any better. Her fur is still poorly groomed, her tail droops, and she presses close to her human like she’s afraid they’ll be separated.

“I’m fine,” he assures Maya when she asks. “I mean, if you think about it, however this trial ends up, I did what I said I’d do. Win or lose, you’re still innocent.”

She scowls, even though Aunt Morgan has always told her that it makes her look childish. “That’s not good enough,” she argues. “You’re innocent, too.”

“I know. And you know that, too. That’s what matters right now.”

“When this is over, everyone else will know it,” she reminds him.

She’s not sure how to describe the way his face softens at that. For the first time since yesterday, his dӕmon’s tail gives a tentative wag. “Thank you,” Dawn says softly.

“I’ve hardly done anything,” Maya answers, a little flustered.

“No, really,” Phoenix says. “You… it means a lot that you’re standing with me. With us. It really does. It’s just, we know what it’s like to have everyone against you but one person, and—” He hesitates. “I guess… thanks for being that one person, this time.”

“We haven’t done anything you didn’t do for us,” Maya reminds him.

The moment ends when Dawn goes rigid, and Zech lets out a warning croak, and Maya turns to find Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth approaching them, with his long-legged cat dӕmon stalking at his heels. This time, her hunter eyes pass over Maya and Zech to settle upon Dawn instead. Edgeworth’s eyes are likewise on Phoenix. Maya may as well not even be there.

“Wright,” Edgeworth says coolly.

“Edgeworth.”

Are lawyers always like this? If they were witches, the spells would already be flying. Human justice is a strange thing, if those who uphold it are at war with one another.

“I received a call from the Chief Prosecutor today,” Edgeworth says. He is straight-backed and composed as he speaks, his voice calm and conversational. At his feet, his dӕmon’s tail flicks from side to side, and her claws slide from their sheathes. Steady, serene, and ready to pounce.

“Did you?” Phoenix asks. He’s not quite as good at sounding calm.

“Apparently, anything that the witness says on the stand today is to be taken as the absolute truth,” Edgeworth goes on. “And the judge’s verdict will agree with it.”

“The judge, too?” Dawn yelps, pawing at the ground. Phoenix curls his hand into her bristling fur, either a calming gesture or a warning one.

Edgeworth ignores her. “I’ve been assured that any objection I make will be sustained, and any evidence I present will be accepted without question.”

Dawn starts forward, pulling against her human’s grip. “And you’re just fine with that, are you?” she growls.

“Dawn,” Phoenix warns her, tightening his fingers in her fur.

She pulls herself free to round on him, teeth bared. “Phoenix, the entire court is in White’s pocket and he’s telling us to our faces, I can’t just—”

“Save it for the courtroom,” he tells her shortly. His eyes haven’t left Edgeworth.

The prosecutor finally deigns to look at Dawn, if only for a moment. “I suggest you keep better control of your dӕmon, Wright. For an outburst like that, you’d be held in contempt. Though I suppose that would save everyone else a great deal of time.”

Phoenix shifts, in such a way that it’s almost a flinch. “So you’re saying I’m guilty, then,” he says, his voice tight. “End of story?”

“I’ll do whatever is necessary to obtain a guilty verdict.”

Maya sees red.

“How dare you.” He may be a head and a half taller than she is, but she is almost one hundred and fifty years older, and still young enough for her grief to boil over into fury. “Just yesterday you were convinced that I was guilty! Have you changed your mind so easily?” She feels Zech’s claws dig into her shoulder. “I’ll bet you don’t even have a shred of evidence that Phoenix is guilty! All you did was listen to that man’s lies and decide that your job was done!” Her eyes blaze. “Do you even care about finding my sister’s murderer, or would you rather cage another innocent and tell yourself it’s victory?”

The cat hisses at their feet, and Zech rasps out an answering challenge.

Edgeworth’s expression darkens, but he doesn’t back away. “Innocent? Can you even say for certain that he is? Or that anyone is?” His eyes return to Phoenix. “Criminals lie to escape justice, and they slip through the cracks thanks to cheap tactics like the ones I’ve seen you employ. All I can hope to do is have every defendant declared guilty.”

Phoenix holds his gaze for a moment longer, while Dawn growls and Maya swallows another furious outburst. But when Phoenix speaks, there is no anger, only sadness. “You’ve really changed, haven’t you, Edgeworth?”

In an instant, Maya’s rage plunges into ice-cold water. She looks to Phoenix in shock, and sees the answer to her question written all over his face.

It’s more than just the animosity between opposite sides of a conflict. There’s history there. As cold and aloof as Edgeworth holds himself, there is something deeply personal in this.

“…Don’t expect any special treatment,” Edgeworth says, and turns to go. His dӕmon glares balefully at them before turning to follow. The time for parley is over, it seems.

Except, it’s not.

Dawn steps forward. Her voice, laced with a growl, echoes in the lobby. “Thea.”

Halfway across the room, the cat dӕmon freezes. Edgeworth pauses as well, turning back to urge his dӕmon onward.

“Dawn,” Phoenix murmurs, but she doesn’t listen to him. She steps forward as far as their bond will allow, standing tall with her tail held high for the first time since Maya saw them in detention yesterday.

“Come on, Thea. This is wrong and you know it.”

“The only thing I know,” the cat replies calmly, “is that you are the defendant, and that makes it our job to find you guilty.”

“You’re being played,” Dawn growls. “I know you’re not in his pocket too, but you have to see that!”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” The cat takes another step toward her human.

“What happened to you and Miles?” Dawn demands. “Don’t you see what you’re doing?”

Edgeworth's face turns thunderous. The cat’s tall ears turn back, flat against her head, and she whirls around and storms back to face Dawn with a snarl. “What did you expect, Dawn?” she spits. “That we would throw away everything we’ve worked for, for—what?” Her lip curls back scornfully. “Childish sentiment?”

Dawn’s tail drops, and her white coat bristles with fury. When she finally speaks again, her voice is harsh with disappointment. “It’s not about sentiment, Alethea. I just thought you were smarter than this.”

Maya can almost hear the cat dӕmon’s claws scrape against the tile. Without another word, she whips around and stalks after Edgeworth.

Beside her, Phoenix’s hands shake. They don’t still until his dӕmon is within reach again, offering her fluffy coat to curl his fingers into.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m sorry, I just—”

“I know.”

“I couldn’t just—I had to say something—”

“I know.” Phoenix straightens up, his face set. “We’d better go in.”

This is their last chance for a private word. Maya catches him by the sleeve before he makes it to the door. “She’s a hybrid.”

He looks at her, confused. “What?”

“There’s a breed of cat called the Savannah,” she explains. “Though, it’s not really a breed in the truest sense. It’s made by crossing a domestic cat with a serval—that’s a wild cat from Africa.”

Her meaning dawns on him, and his eyes widen.

“I’m not sure if it helps,” she says. “Maybe it doesn’t. But hybrid dӕmons are said to indicate some kind of… split. A contradiction or duality in the soul.” She squeezes his arm in what she hopes is a reassuring way. “So, you could be right about him. He’s a hunter either way, but he may be more conflicted with himself than he lets on.”

The hope in his eyes is nearly enough to make her cry.

#ace attorney #aa daemons #tales from the pit

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yungimmortals · 4 years ago

Text

phone numbers | jaime (ft. risa)

date: december 26, 2020

summary: a long-overdue phone call, a heavy dose of salt in an old wound, and a very low battery

An unknown number flashed across his screen. Never one to pick up the phone unless he absolutely had to (and definitely not one to pick up when he didn’t recognize the caller), Jaime let it go to voicemail, tossing his phone onto his bed.

Swiveling in his desk chair, he spin in a full circle before returning his focus to the project he had been working on since getting back to his apartment earlier that evening. Christmas with Katie’s family had been fun; now it was time for Jaime to recharge. Restoring a vintage typewriter -- Jaime’s Christmas present to himself -- was the perfect thing to do. In the last hour, he had polished it, ridding the typewriter of years of rust and grime. All the type-levers were in place, all the knobs and buttons in working condition. Now it was time to work on the carriage lever and the platen, time to get the machine ready for writing.

Dismantling his typewriter was a delicate process, interrupted again by the ringing of his phone. “Where is it?” He mumbled, turning is his chair and taking a dive at the bed when he spotted his phone. Snatching it up, he recognized the same number that had called earlier but was saved the trouble of a debate as to whether or not he should answer it when his screen went dark once more. A moment later, a voicemail notification flashed across his screen.

Curiosity piqued, Jaime unlocked his phone, raising it to his ear to listen to the voicemail. The last voice he expected to hear drifted out of the phone’s speakers and he dropped it in surprise.

Jaime, it’s me. I need to talk to you. I hope this is still your number.

Without hesitation, he returned the call. There was one ring, then two, then three. Jaime bounced his leg up and down before spinning around in his desk chair, his stomach a pit of nerves. As the line continued to ring, he was almost positive he had imagined the voicemail. But then there was an audible click, followed by the sound of his sister’s voice.

“So this is your number. Rowan’s handwriting is absolute shit, I couldn’t tell if that last number was a seven or a four. Can’t believe she wants to go to art school with that chicken scratch.”

“Risa?”

“You sound surprised.”

“Well, I, er. That is-”

His sister’s laughter sounded tinny, far away. “Jaime, relax. Oh, and Merry Christmas. Did you get our card?”

Jaime switched the call to speaker phone and placed his phone on his desk. He stared at it blankly before scrubbing his face with his hands. “Card?”

“Yeah, Ro made you a Christmas card in her risography workshop. She’s building her portfolio for college but I’m sure she told you that since you talk, like, all the time.” Risa sounded bitter as she spoke, changing the subject quickly. “Anyway, I need to talk to you about something. Is this a good time?”

In eight years, his middle sister had never once called of her own volition. Even convincing her to be a part of Jaime and Rowan’s ‘family phone calls’, had taken a few years of their littlest sister badgering her. Now Risa was calling and it sounded important and Jaime couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He must have been silent for too long, he realized, hearing his sister clear her throat.

“Jay, if you’re busy, just tell me. I’ll find another time,” she said, though from her tone, Jaime could tell that if they didn’t talk about what was on her mind now, they likely never would.

“No! I mean, no, I’m not busy. I was just-- yeah, no, I’m here. What-- what’s up?” Jaime pushed his typewriter to the side before rummaging through his desk drawer for a notebook and pen (just in case he needed to take notes). He chuckled as Risa told him to buckle up, already welcoming the familiarity with which she was speaking to him, no matter how strange it felt.

“This isn’t what I’m calling about but I might as well tell you while we’re here. Dad’s sick. He said you cursed him or some shit, but it’s all bull. He went off the deep end a few years ago. Totally cuckoo. I figured you didn’t know, since you and Ro have your stupid agreement to never mention Charles to each other. Says he’s seeing things. Monsters and shit. Which I would call bull, but I remember that creepy guy. You know, the one waiter at the Dog & Pony that would always stare at you and Mom when we all went for dinner? He only had one eye. I don’t mean like an eyepatch. I mean one freaking eye, right in the center of his head. Don’t know if you ever noticed that, but I did.” Now that Risa had started talking, it seemed she couldn’t stop. “And that’s not the last time I saw something or someone weird like that. There’s a girl who works at the nature center in the park and I swear, Jay. I freaking swear that she melts into the trees. She’s a dryad right? I got lunch with your aunt last week and she filled me in on some stuff. I don’t know how she got in touch with us. Said something about your dad, I don’t remember. But, anyway, we got lu-”

“My aunt?” Jaime interrupted, feeling guilty for doing so, but not seeing where he could get a word in edgewise if he waited for her to pause.

“Oh, shit. Wait, there’s a picture, did I mention a picture? Before I forget. It’s with your card. I was digging through some of Mom’s trail crew stuff in the attic a while back, looking for her old boots, and I found it. It says ‘David’ with a heart next to it on the back. That was his name, right? Your dad?”

Jaime blinked, surprised at both the abrupt subject change and the mention of his father. He didn’t want the subject of his aunt to drop but the photograph won his curiosity. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Okay, so you’ll see it, but, like, it’s totally weird. There’s a lens flare on it but it’s, like, just across your dad. Kinda ruins the whole picture, you can’t see him at all. It’s like when you try to take a photo of the sun. Mom looks beautiful though, but she always did. I think they were at Otter Cove, and I know that was one of your favorite trails.”

Like trying to photograph the sun. Jaime almost laughed. Risa had no idea how close to the truth she was. Which reminded him, “You had lunch with my aunt?”

“Dude, yeah. And she’s, like, so cool. If you’re related to so many cool people -- myself and Ro included, obviously -- how did you turn out like this?”

He could hear Risa laugh on the other line and just rolled his eyes. He glanced down at his notebook where he’d written a collection of words: cursed, Cyclops, dryads in Acadia? The latter was underlined several times, whether from surprise or excitement, Jaime couldn’t remember. He realized his sister had started speaking again. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”

“I was saying, if you were paying attention, that we went to Geddy’s -- that veg place on Main? -- for lunch and she was telling me about some fancy neo-classical city? New Athens or some shit like that, I think. In New York. Is that where you live? Ro told me you were like, weirdly into Greek mythology one time. But honestly, that tracks with some of the stuff I’ve seen. Hey, how come your aunt was looking for me, not you? She said something about mist but it was. like, not even a foggy day. We could see out over the harbor. Crystal clear.”

“The Mist,” Jaime correctly automatically, then pinched the bridge of his nose. The list in his notebook grew longer as their call stretched on. “I don’t know,” he admitted, in response to Risa’s question about his aunt. “Did she tell you her name?”

“Artemis? Which I was like hello, weird, since I was literally just thinking about you and your Greek mythology phase. I asked if she was David’s sister and she said ‘if that’s what he’s calling himself now’. Do estranged siblings run in your side of the family or something?”

At that, Jaime made a choking sound, staring at his phone. The resulting crow of laughter from his sister made it clear that she’d been expecting, no, hoping for that reaction.

“Just messing with you, Jay. Relax. Anyway. She’s got this, like, wild grrl gang of hikers that travel the country? Gave me a pamphlet, told me to consider it. She said I could tell Rowan too, but when I did, Ro didn’t seem to care at all. She’s just got art school on the brain, I think. Your aunt had told me that would happen, said that the Mist was thicker around our sweet baby sister. But, uh, do you know what the Mist is? I’m, like, pretty sure you do since you corrected me a minute ago.”

“I-”

“Yeah that’s what I thought. So anyway, Aunt Artemis said you’re a demigod. Guess your dad’s name isn’t really David, huh? Last I checked, there’s no Greek god of boring dad names. Care to fill me in? Is that why I’ve seen some weird, like, mythological creatures around the harbor when we were growing up? Oh and Grandma Hana says hi.”

A distressed sound escaped Jaime’s lips. He had forgotten his sister’s habit of bouncing from subject to subject and here it was, smacking him in the face with more new information than he could handle at the moment. Christmas wishes had been exchanged with his grandmother the day before, so he didn’t have to worry about acknowledging that topic, thankfully. His brain was working in overdrive and he could practically feel Risa’s impatience, the longer he was silent.

“Jaime,” she prompted.

He sighed, massaging his temples as he stared down at his phone. “His name isn’t David, it’s Apollo. Artemis’ brother. They aren’t named after the Greek gods, they are the Greek gods. So yes, that makes me a demigod. And it sounds like...you can probably see through the Mist. At least a little more than most mortals.”

“Holy shit. And you never thought ‘hey maybe I should tell my sister this super freaking weird but also totally cool thing about me’? What the shit, Jaime!”

He opened his mouth to tell her that he hadn’t known until after he left, until after he read the letter their mother had left for him, but Risa was steamrolling ahead.

“Wait...wait, so that was the Artemis? Your aunt is the Artemis? And she- and she invited me to join her immortal Hunt?” He heard a muffled shriek, like she had covered the receiver with her hand. A small smile spread across his face. “Well, I’m saying yes...obviously.”

“Okay, hold on a second there. That’s a big decision, don’t you think you shou-”

“Oh no, no. I’m going to stop you right there. You don’t get to play the big brother card here, Jay. You don’t get to keep secrets for years and then tell me I need to think about accepting an offer from a goddess. And don’t say some shit about me looking after Rowan. She doesn’t need anyone to look after her. You’d know that if you were here. Honestly, she does a better job looking after me than I do her. Shit, wait. Does that mean Dad’s not crazy? Did you really make all those people sick all the time? Did you...make Mom sick? Isn’t Apollo the god of healing?”

“I wasn’t playing the big brother card!” He protested weakly. As she continued, Jaime blanched. Several times. First at the mention of his absence, then at the mention of Charles’ theories, and again at the mention of their mother. “I’m sorry,” he started, hoping Risa understood that he was apologizing for leaving. They would have more time to unpack that later, he figured.

"Charles is definitely still crazy. I didn’t make all those people sick. Mom either. I, uh, I only did it once. Made someone sick, I mean. It was a boy that bullied me at school during the years Mom was sick and Charles wouldn’t listen to me about it. One day the kid was beating me up and hitting me and, and I, I don’t know what happened. I pushed him and pushed? I don’t know, energy? At him, and I gave him the chicken pox or something, at least I think that’s what the school said. Chicken pox,” he scoffed, ducking his head, despite the fact that Risa couldn’t see him. “He’s the god of many things. Music, the arts, the sun. Healing, yeah, but plague and illness is the flip side of that.”

“Like the plague arrows he shot at the Greeks. Before you say anything, yes, I’ve read the Iliad. And The Song of Achilles, which, if you haven’t read it, you have to.” As if realized she’d gotten off track, Risa was quiet for a moment. Jaime was thankful she didn’t push him on the subject of his powers; he wasn’t sure what he would have said if she had. When his sister spoke again, she sounded farther away, her voice detached. “Artemis told me there are other children of Apollo. You have other family.”

It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation -- that was clear. When Jaime answered, he sounded tired. “I do, yeah.” Though his sister couldn’t see it, his expression was one of regret. “But it’s, it’s not like that, Ris.”

“I didn’t ask what it was like,” she snapped. After a moment of tense silence, he could hear her sigh. “I’m going to contact Artemis. Learn as much about your world as she’ll tell me. And then I’m going to join the Hunt.”

With a click, the line went dead.

Jaime stared at his phone in silence until the screen darkened, battery dead as well. He heaved a sigh, detangling himself from his desk chair to plug his phone into the cord on his nightstand to charge. So much for recharging, he thought to himself, knowing his own battery was dangerously low. Exhaling a groan, Jaime sunk onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling once more. To the constellations on his ceiling, he murmured, “That went about as well as it could have, all thing considered.”

#m: jaime #npc: risa #self para

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