generalpeacepizza

[nullians]

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[seqka711]

Ranking the six main boy/girl ships in Yu-Gi-Oh from best to worst!

Not all main girl ships are created equally, I'm afraid. Let's take a look at each ship and see what's up! (Except Sevens because as I mentioned in a previous post, I am way too far behind to comment on anything in that show.)

First up is Anzu and Yugi! And YES I do ship them! However, I don't ship Atem and Anzu. Anzu was friends with Yugi, and started to see him in a different light when Atem started showing up. However, those changing feelings also started to influence her feelings about Yugi as well. We saw that in Duelist Kingdom. Then in season 2 when she realizes they're two separate people, she gets really confused! Anzu doesn't know how to feel anymore! Then Atem and Yugi are both playing wingman for each other, so that's not helping matters. I don't really ship Atem and Anzu because Atem just doesn't seem super interested in their date. I know he had other things on his mind, but if they wanted me to ship it, now was the time to show off some chemistry and they didn't.

We saw in GX that Yugi grows up to look just like Atem and he also grows more confident over the course of the series. After the end of Duel Monsters, I think they're both too hurt by Atem's passing to be digging on each other. But, distance makes the heart grow fonder, and I feel like she's gonna come back from the states and have some heart-pounding feelings when she sees him again. And Yugi's feelings didn't change, they were just put on the back burner. So hopefully when they meet back up, sparks are gonna fly! At least, I hope so. <3

~

Next up is Asuka and Judai! When I watched their first duel, I was 100% on board with this ship. They were cute, they had great banter, it was a fair fight. I loved it! But over the course of the series, I started losing interest in their relationship, fast. By the end of season 2 I was pretty convinced they had abandoned Asuka x Judai for Asuka x Manjoume, and honestly, I was 100% on board with that, I love a good romcom couple and those two have dysfunctional romcom energy. Plus they had evil power couple vibes when they were running the Society of Light together, so I thought for sure they were gonna have Manjoume and Asuka be better friends post possession.

Then season 3 came a long and I was like "woah, they DID do that on purpose! I was right!" when we saw the Judai x Johan x Yubel love triangle they spent the entire season on. Asuka and Manjoume were of course relegated to background characters, as was everyone who wasn't a transfer student. And then the series ended with a pretty definitive Judai x Yubel ending and I was like "cool I like it".

But then season 4 made me question everything by making it clear that Asuka was still crushing on Judai?!?! Uhhh.... what? You haven't mentioned this crush in OVER TWO YEARS ASUKA. You've both changed so much! I thought the whole point was "she had a fleeting crush on him in year 1, but people change and so do our feelings"! I thought they had her fall out of love with him on purpose!! You're telling me the writers just wanted us to ASSUME she was still in love with him this whole time?!

I honestly love the whole "had a crush on him, now that I know him better, he's an amazing friend but I don't like him that way anymore" dynamic and they RUINED IT so bad. And for what? To say "well they fought the whole time, but now look! They can tag duel together!" Well, jokes on them, because a few episodes later Judai and Johan will show off some of the tightest teamwork in the show and I'll have to throw Asuka x Judai in the trash. </3`

~

Yusei x Aki!!!!!! AHHHHHH I LOVE THEM. Their first duel is very romantic in my opinion. Yusei lives to help people, and it's actually a flaw of his that he'll help people no matter the cost. Usually that's sort of a "who cares" flaw in a protagonist, but for Yusei, it adds a lot of depth to his character. The reason he helps people even at the cost of himself is because he feels enormously guilty due to his parents' involvement in Zero Reverse, and he feels like he owes the world (but especially Satellite) everything. Yusei tried to go to jail in Kiryu's stead, but failed, and I think that only compounded his guilt even more.

Then, when Yusei sees the chance to help Aki, he does it. He's scared of her, but he rallies his courage to face her so that he can help her. And it's only natural that Aki would fall hopelessly in love with him after he continually put himself at risk over and over again JUST to help her. I love the episode where she rescues him from being kidnapped and then accompanies him on a riding duel. I think it hits me harder because it reminds me of how much I want to drive a motorcycle but can't because of reasons I won't go into. But part of her desire to learn to riding duel is because she wants to feel the same things Yusei feels. And that's so cute!

Unfortunately, I do have a certain headcanon that gets in the way of my shipping desires. I won't get into the whole headcanon, but I think Yusei might have ended up time travelling back in time to fix Zero Reverse and prevent Zone's future. And Aki wouldn't have come with him because we see her in the flashforward. Yusei is still giving her strength though. And I like to think that maybe a much older Yusei was able to help a much younger Aki control her powers and not enter a cult in the new timeline. And if my headcanon isn't true, then GET MARRIED AND HAVE BABIES GUYS. <3

~

On the one hand, I love Kotori x Yuma. They’re so adorable! Not only is Kotori surprisingly self-aware of her crush (usually the YGO girls love to deny it) but Yuma clearly treats her differently from the rest of his friends, even though he doesn’t know why (yet). Kotori’s confession at the end of the show is SO CUTE AND ADORABLE and Yuma accepts and I love it!

But… I can’t love it as much as I WANT to love it. Kotori’s character, especially in Zexal II is kind of boring. I liked her a lot in Zexal I actually. I thought it was fine to have a character not duel as long as she was doing something else. In season 1 she occasionally gets shit done. Or she’s there for comic relief like when she’s riding the duel coaster. Or arguing with Orbital 7. It wasn’t much, but it was something. In season 2, she’s a total non-entity. I thought the duel where she gets possessed was very funny, but I almost wish that her getting possessed by a Barian was played for drama rather than laughs.

I think what could have been cool is either a) after she can hear Astral, her and Astral team up for a duel or b) when watching Yuma she started to memorize his strategies. Or both. Or neither, just get this girl something to do BESIDES watch Yuma! In the end, my love for how adorable these two are is always somewhat soured by Kotori’s squandered potential. <3

~

Speaking of squandered potential, Yuzu and Yuya are next on the list. I love these two A TON! I’ll be perfectly honest and admit my biases here, I am NOT the biggest fan of Arc-V. The show had a lot of problems, and I’m harsher on it than most.

But one thing I really did like about the beginning of the show was Yuzu! She was independent, driven and her dueling was getting better as the show progressed. Just like Kotori, she became a non-entity in the latter seasons. However, I ship Yuya x Yuzu more than I ship Yuma x Kotori because Yuya was always keeping Yuzu in mind during the latter seasons. So it still felt like the ship was in focus, whereas with Kotori x Yuma, the ship kind of disappeared since more important things were going on. For Yuya, nothing was more important than getting Yuzu back, so really I had no choice BUT to ship it. How could I not? It was so sweet! She was his whole world! I wish we got more scenes with the two of them together though. Them never tag dueling is a crime against humanity. Also its total BS that only Yuya and Yuzu got to come back, but whatever, I guess. I was happy that the two of them reunited and even HAPPIER that the show was finally over. <3

~

Last and basically least, Yusaku x Aoi. Or Playmaker x Blue Maiden. I’ll be honest, I don’t ship this at all. The show doesn’t go through any effort to get us invested in their so-called “relationship” and if I had watched this show on its own, unaware of the series’ tropes, I wouldn’t have assumed they were a “ship” at all. With Judai x Asuka, I actually liked the fake out (at least until S4 when I wondered whether or not the fake out was actually on purpose or if the writers are just morons) but with Yusaku x Aoi I get frustrated because it wouldn’t have been that hard to GIVE them some chemistry. They’re both interesting characters, and I think Aoi and Yusaku could have had an interesting dynamic if Aoi had learned Playmaker’s identity a lot sooner.

What I think the show should have done was have Aoi discover Playmaker and Soulburner’s identity at the same time they discovered each other. Then have Aqua come into the fold a lot earlier. Trios are popular in fiction for a reason, and I think Yusaku, Takeru and Aoi would have been an excellent trio. Specifically, with both Yusaku and Aoi being so reserved, their relationship would be very understated. But that’s not a bad thing. It just means that the writers would have to put more focus on the little things. Like, maybe after a while of being friends, Yusaku sits next to her in class. That would be a small thing for other people, but for those two, that’s huge! I could also see there being a fun episode where Ai tries to trick them into going on a date but fails spectacularly. The two of them end up spending time together to foil the plan. That could be really cute! LITERALLY ANYTHING is better than NOTHING.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t ship this because the writers thought they could get me to ship it just by having boy meets girl and then having them shake hands over a hundred episodes later. And no. I refuse. I need a LITTLE more than that, please and thank you. </3

~

That was a very long post! All in all, 4/6 ain’t bad at all! Or maybe it’s more like a 3.5 since I only gave Kotori and Yuma a small heart? It doesn’t really matter, I’m a multishipper. At my heart and soul, I’ll ship anything. Like I said I don’t ship Judai and Asuka, but I totally have shippy fanart of them on my phone, lol. It’s more like… which of these ships would I defend in court and which ships do I only like because I’m trash that’ll ship anything?

Oh, I guess I did title this as a ranking... Well, I'm sure you can figure out my most and least favourites by how much I used caps lock, so it should be fine.

Give me ANY Yu-Gi-Oh ship (straight, gay or in between) and I’ll dissect it like I did these six.

[lizacstuff]

Edser/SCK anon asks (36 spec)

I accidentally deleted an ask that was interesting, if you don’t see yours here, resend it!

(Asks below the cut)

Anonymous said: Do you think that scene of Eda confronting Selin about it is the end of the episode? I'm so drained, Liza. When will this suffering end?

Oh honey, we have SUFFERED. We have. No doubt about it, but I’ll talk more about that in a minute. (We can overcome) 

First the fragman, could it be the end of the episode? I suppose so. It’s no fun thinking that it might be the cliffhanger and we have to live with that for 11 days instead of 4, but here’s the interesting thing, according to people who look closely at these things, the outfit Eda was wearing when confronting Selin, Hande was wearing that today while filming at Art Life. We also know that at Art Life the set was dressed for some sort of party or event. An event that had the word ‘love’ on the table. So which comes first? The confrontation with Selin or the Art Life scenes that do not include Deniz or Selin?? I don’t know.  The other wild card factor is Bige’s availability. I’m sure most people have heard by now that, sadly, her father passed away this week. This show does not work on a timeline where they can wait.  So they might have had to write her out of a few scenes already in this episode, and it’s unknown what her availability will be for next episode. That could end up changing things a bit, so we’ll see.  Maybe there will be a second fragman that gives us more context.

Now back to feeling drained by this storyline. I get you. I feel you. But here’s how you shake if off. Boil it down for yourself. Why do you continue to watch this show? I’m going to guess it’s for the same reason I continue to watch this show.  Edser. Eda and Serkan are still magic together in every single scene, and Hande and Kerem’s chemistry can turn even the most turgid, ill-advised story or scene into gold. They are worth watching whether they are looking into each other’s eyes or reading the phone book.  

So... my advice is to emotionally distance yourself from the plot. The plot is just the device to keep these two actors on screen together playing these two characters. And that sentence is truer for this show than for any other show I’ve ever watched (and I’ve watched A LOT of shows.) It’s all about these two characters and these two actors. So ultimately the plot doesn’t matter. Let the plot go. There is nothing to worry about, Edser is endgame, Edser is the reason this show exists, they are all the matters on this show. So knowing that, just enjoy their individual scenes, appreciate them for what they are and don’t tie yourself into knots over the nonsense these hack writers throw at us. It will all be fine in the end. 

Anonymous said: I kinda find it funny that what Erdem suggested turned out to be the way Serkan got his memory back. It was a scene fit for a romcom. Obviously it wasn't how I pictured him to remember but at this point I'll take it. Lol! Erdem should be a fortune teller or something!

You’re right. Erdem was on the right track. It would have been funnier if Erdem had hit him to get his memory back and once it worked, then Engin could have held Serkan down, while Erdem continued to bonk him in the head to bring back more memories.

Anonymous said: i totally feel the mixed feelings with the fragman, but it seems like its an ep with great edser moments where they're together and trying to solve this problem, at the same time they just couldn't keep the drama out of the fragman this time?! at a time where everyone is relieved and positive for the first time in weeks?! just seems like a bad move by the production imo and i'm not even that concerned with the plot like others are. another anon said this, but there is def selin fatigue

Selin fatigue is real!!!! But to be honest I was in Selin fatigue by ep 29. And it’s just gotten worse episode by episode. (though we had a bit of a reprieve from her in 34-35) but the fragman brought the fatigue back with a vengeance. The producer has tweeted before about how the show has to have drama, so, I guess that’s where we are. Drama. They think this is what sells, I guess?

They produce those fragman’s with the Fox viewer in Turkey in mind. So perhaps that’s the kind of tease that works well there? I have no idea. Honestly, I think they’re not worried about online fans and international fans because they know we’re so invested that we won’t give up. 

Anonymous said: Normally i would also calm down with the pregnancy thing, it’s probably selin’s last desperate attempt at keeping serkan BUT you know why it scares me? Because they’ll probably introduce the “Kemal is Serkan’s biological father” storyline and I hope that it’s not correlated to selin’s fake pregnancy...like, Serkan would never leave Eda but this Kemal thing will probably remind him how he never had a real father growing up so i hope this doesn’t push him to be by Selin’s side. However, it’s also true that I really don’t think that he and Selin had s*x so I also don’t think they can follow this path. I’m so confused I think we just need to wait and see haha

Yes, we need to wait and see. I see no reason to go down this speculation path unless we’re forced to, because it seems very unlikely to me. Clear it from your mind, and then, if the worst happens, we’ll deal with it then, not now. 

Anonymous said: Idk if u follow sck news on twitter but they posted pics/vids from set today in the office and it looks like a party with food and a sign that says “better together”. Someone commented a theory that serkan will orchestrate a surprise engagement party for eda while she talks to Selin and the ep will end with her turning down the proposal bc Selin is “pregnant” and then we have to wait for the next ep for serkan to tell her it’s not possible 🤡🤡 what do u think?

Yep, I follow sck news, who doesn’t? ;) I think this speculation is plausible, and as long as she’s upfront with Serkan about why and Serkan is able to shut it down immediately next ep, then I can live with this as a cliffhanger. 

Anonymous said: Part 1. You mentioned in a previous ask how Engin didn't tell Eda that Serkan remembered everything when he made it in time for the wedding. Honestly his lack of action was not surprising, upsetting or disappointing. That's just who Engin is. He's a talker, not a doer. Engin is Serkan's friend similar to how Ceren and Fifi are Eda's friends (I'm talking pre amnesia plot). They care about their friend's happiness. Engin has always talked reason to Serkan especially about his feelings for Eda.

Part 2. But Engin's reason for doing that is Serkan's happiness. Of course he wants Eda's happiness but mostly only because it's tied to Serkan's happiness. He has stood up for Eda before like when Serkan accused her of working with Kaan or when he said she deserves to know the truth about her parents death, but whatever Serkan says goes. He never acts in opposition to him. So if Serkan says he won't stop the wedding, Engin isn't going to do anything despite believing Eda should know the truth.

Here’s the problem with this, it’s not just him not caring about Eda. It’s him not caring about Serkan. He should have done it for Serkan, knowing that Serkan would regret his inaction the rest of his life.  It costs him nothing to tell Eda at that moment and let her make the decision. 

That’s one of my biggest problems with this cockamamie plot. From the first Fragman of 29, I said it was impossible that Selin could have hidden him away and rekindled her relationship with him because the other character wouldn’t allow it. Oh but they did. This storyline ruined pretty much every single supporting character, (outside of Melo) because otherwise, if they would have acted in-character or even like normal humans, it never would have worked. And that continued all the way up to this stupid fake/real wedding.  Writers... if you have to ruin every supporting character to bend and twist and make it so your antagonist isn’t immediately jailed or carted away to a mental hospital, that is a sign that it doesn’t work and you need to go back to the drawing board. 

Anonymous said: I have to say, they really do well with the casting on SCK. Especially when they want actors who look like they are related. Eda and her grandmother looked like they were related. It was great casting. Now Serkan and the new character look like they could be related. They have similar features. If the point is for us to speculate that they are father and son, I think they did a good job.

Yes, they really do. I’ve also always thought that Neslihan looks like she could be Kerem’s mother, they have the same coloring. Evrim looks like she could be related to Hande.  They have done a great job with that. 

Anonymous said: That fragman for ep 36...part of me wants to hope that it will all be solved pretty soon, since we got edser separated for so long we deserved them together now. But part of me also knows these writers suck so I’m expecting the worst. I just wanted edser together again 😭

You and me both, babe.  You and me both. 

In the meantime, lets remember to enjoy this show while it lasts. And if we can’t enjoy the plot, as I said above, let’s think about the things we can enjoy.  So if in this episode there are a dozen great Edser scenes and then one that rips out our hearts... let’s concentrate on the dozen, okay? The one that rips out our hearts will resolve itself soon enough. 

[chibimyumi]

What do you think about Yuta's new role as Kijima? After his mindblowing performances as der tod and sebastian, this role just does not seem to fit his status as TOHO prince and favourite cow(it's just my opinion though, no offence). But still our yuta-bab is working as hard as he did for any other roles.

Dear Anon,

What I think of Kijima? Oh gosh… don’t get me started… Well, HERE WE GO～! (You can thank @akumadeshitsumon​​ for this, this is their terrible idea.)

Kijima and Plot Relevance

Kijima is a new character added to the original novel ‘Top Knife’, and it is very obvious that this character was just shoe-horned in there. The characters of ‘Top Knife’ are not badly written, but because Kijima is new, every time they interact with Kijima it feels incredibly forced. ESPECIALLY Sachiko.

Sachiko is this 26 year old brain surgeon who finds herself lacking in every way. Obviously, being 26 and brain surgeon is very unlikely, but regardless, her having the least experience and getting her ego ‘tamed’ wasn’t necessarily a bad thing story-writing-wise. However, her ‘inexperience’ is entirely conflated with ‘the least professional person you can imagine ANYWHERE, to the point of being law-breaking’.

Why do I mention her? Because she is the only connection Kijima has to the main plot. Sachiko’s total lack of professionalism is played up as ‘cute’ and ‘pure’, and now 5 episodes in, her only role so far is THE girl who is in love. After meeting Kijima and having spoken to him ONCE, she finds herself head-over-heels for him, and at work she becomes this romance-drunk, worthless piece of… She is very much reduced to the ‘tell-don’t-show-device’ to tell the audience how DESIRABLE Kijima is, even though he:

Has hardly got any screentime.

Is a total sexual molester in whatever little screentime he has.

Kijima is supposed to be this ‘project’ that Sachiko will probably have to conquer, she is supposed to “cure” Kijima of his playboyitis (spoilers, it doesn’t work that way.)

My and Furukawa’s opinion on Kijima

Skirt-chasers are NEVER nice, for they are the manifestation of the hetero male entitlement, and I hate such characters because they are usually portrayed as “a fun guy who just needs to find ‘the right girl’ to cure him.” As mentioned above, 5 episodes in, and we are already sure that this is the character-trajectory.

In episode 1 Kijima was already introduced as this condescending man who sees women solely as pretty play-things. In episode 2 we see him showing a more charming and compassionate side to Sachiko who was about to cry, but immediately after that scene, he walks to another girl and sweeps his fingers across her waist as he passes by. Eeeewl. In episode 4 his female customers order alcohol, and Kijima just keeps adding booze to the women’s cups without them asking for it (which is SHADY as hell?) Unsurprisingly, Sachiko drinks too much and she falls asleep at Kijima’s bar, so he drapes a blanket over her, and sleeps next to her. It’s a public TV series, so obviously nothing explicit happens, but the subtext is clear as day.

TOHO’s Prince vs Kijima

Dear Anon, you are very right, the way Furukawa plays Kijima does indeed not quite fit his ‘Imperial Theatre’s Prince’ image, and I am sure the producers would now also agree with you.

As mentioned above, Kijima Tatsuya is an OC and his ‘official’ title is ‘The Bewitching Prince (悩殺王子・Nousatsu Ouji)’. We need no second attempt to guess how this is a blatant reference to Furukawa’s TOHO Prince status. Unfortunately (or ‘fortunately’, depending on from whose perspective you look), they cast the most passive-aggressive, pedantic and opinionated actor TOHO has.

The premise of Kijima’s character was just ‘a skirt-chaser’, and when Furukawa asked the director what their vision was, they told him: “the lovable kind you just can’t hate”, to which Furukawa replied: “I learn something new every day.”

It is obvious that Furukawa really feels uncomfortable with this character as he has frequently expressed so even in public interviews. He needs to remain diplomatic of course, but he keeps emphasising how Kijima Tatsuya is the polar opposite of the kind of person he is while shoving passive-aggressive comments in about what kind of person Furukawa himself wishes to be. While playing Kijima, Furukawa has removed any of the charms that is conventionally attractive. Kijima is obnoxious, loud, imposing, condescending, rude, obnoxious, full of swagger, and obnoxious. He plays Kijima for what he is; a disrespectful misogynist. Fans were quite in shock at the beginning, but they seem to have fallen for this person nevertheless. It seems that Furukawa is the living trope of ‘so beautiful, it’s a curse’, because many fans indeed don’t look past his handsomeness.

Furukawa seems to be trying very hard to distance himself from this character by frequently saying: “I love acting”. Even though he is normally unforgiving towards himself when he makes any mistake, for almost every single SNS video he makes a point out of inserting bloopers to help remind people Kijima is Kijima, Furukawa is Furukawa.

Cowjima

‘Top Knife’ is capitalising on Furucowa’s popularity in such an obvious way it’s painful to watch. Furukawa himself is an absolute techno-noob, but even before the series started they gave him and only him an Instagram, an official website, TikTok, and what not. Sachiko is reduced to an empty hopeless romantic self-insert, and when Kijima’s POV flirting videos were published, I got confirmation why.

The producers of ‘Top Knife’ want to market this skirt-chaser-to-be-conquered-by-the-right-girl, while also throwing Watcher x Kijima videos at us, making us all know that besides Sachiko, Kijima will also flirt with any watcher. They really are trying to eat the cake and have the cake >.>

Conclusion

I hate Kijima with a fiery passion, but I am grateful that Furukawa sees the problem of this character and is giving it his all to make it obvious how obnoxious skirt-chasers like Kijima Tatsuya are. I am laughing at the irony of ntv thinking to have cast the charming Prince of TOHO for this role, but then ending up with exactly what they didn’t know they had ordered.

[bookishreviewsblog]

Marie Lu: Rebel (Legend #4) | Lara

Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel. With unmatched suspense and her signature cinematic storytelling, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Marie Lu plunges readers back into the unforgettable world of Legend for a truly grand finale. Eden Wing has been living in his brother’s shadow for years. Even though he’s a top student at his academy in Ross City, Antarctica, and a brilliant inventor, most people know him only as Daniel Wing’s little brother. A decade ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. But Day is no longer the same young man who was once a national hero. These days he’d rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind. All that matters to him now is keeping Eden safe―even if that also means giving up June, the great love of Daniel’s life. As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own . . .

“Because sometimes, broken pieces find a way to make a new whole.” Call me a believer because my faith in sequels for series-that-should-have-ended has returned. My honest opinion of books like these? Fanservice. But! But, Marie Lu did leave a lot of things unfinished at the end of her Legend Trilogy, especially the outcome of June x Day reunion ten years later, so I actually took my skepticism goggles of and decided to give this release a shot as more than just a lengthy closure. It’s been ten years since he escaped the Republic’s cruel experimentation labs and Eden’s still living in his Day’s shadow from his past days as Republic’s hero. He is the brightest and most accomplished student in the entire Ross City, but wherever he goes he can’t escape from being called “the brother”. Ross City is all bright and shiny – Antarctica is the world’s most prospective nation, or well, only for those who live on the good side of the town. The Level System isn’t as fair as it seems, and the disaffected population of Undercity is getting bigger. Aside from mob, drugs and crime lords, it is mostly known for street drone races, by which young Eden feels slowly attracted to as the only place where his talent is truly appreciated. He found the way out from his demons in the thrill and glory of building the best drone on the streets, but breaking the law is getting kind of hard when his brother is working for the Antartica’s Intelligence System. Day only wishes his rebellious brother was the only problem, but a vicious and coldblooded murderer Dominic Hann has found his way on the top of the Undercity and has a few interesting ideas about changing the way of the Level System. In the time of June and Elector Primo’s arrival, things quickly escalate from bad to terrible. “Because, sometimes, being patriotic means calling out the problems rotting away your country. I'm not saying we don't want to work with you. But we represent millions of voices you're not hearing right now. If you want to preserve the spirit of what made Antarctica a world leader, to begin with, you should take a look at your blind spots.” Marie Lu is one of my favorite YA authors and reading this book reminded me precisely why. Her simple and easygoing writing makes any story and every scene readable – her words feel so ridiculously natural, her stories flow like rivers of thoughts she puts together exactly like she wants them to be. Her work is so easy to follow, interesting but not overwhelming, with just the right amount of dynamic action and character development. I devoured this book, if not for anything else, then for the thrilling descriptions of the underworld, new scraps of Lu’s old, but never forgotten the dystopian world and Eden’s desperate fight between the things he believes in and the right thing to do. Despite my infinite love for this book’s plot and framework, I felt like I couldn’t connect myself with it completely. For the most part, it goes back to characters and my utter disinterest in almost anything about them. June and Day, as the old heroes and guys I still have mixed feelings about, shouldn’t have such an important role in a story ten years after their time, but they managed to find themselves in the center of the action, yet again. It’s not that I have anything in particular against them, but except for Day’s recovery and their final getting together after ten years, they should have been sided so Eden gets some spotlight. And there is Eden, who is probably one of the least interesting characters I’ve read in a while and his love interest whose name I’ve already forgotten. The former has changed his personality about 20 times in the course of the book, while the latter has no personality at all and is just there for the mere purpose of a nice cute girlfriend. I know I’m mean, but I really couldn’t see anything that will interest me in these characters’ development. It was a nice addition to the Legend trilogy, although it could’ve gone without it. I still don’t know how I feel about this book, but I wasn’t a big fan of Legend either so I guess that settles it. It was nice to get some closure after that sad-ish love story, even if it was a bit of fanservice.

[mentalmars]

What are Sirens and why are they important in Borderlands 3?

What are Sirens and why are they important? Gearbox director of narrative, Randy Varnell, told me that Sirens will play a big role in Borderlands 3. Sirens have always been special, however, it has never been explained why and in Borderlands 3 we are going to find out a lot more about them. What are sirens? Sirens are exclusively woman, they have mystical powers that exceed those of someone that’s from a normal humanoid race. In an audio log of handsome Jack, we find out that there can only be six sirens at once in the universe. They are recognizable through the tattoos they have on their body. The Siren tattoos only appear on one half of the body and glow up when using their powers. Eridium Eridium is a new element that can be found in Borderlands 2. Throughout the game, this ore served as a rare currency. It was released onto Pandora after the events of the first Borderlands. In that game, the Vault Hunters opened an Eridian Vault.  Eridium also greatly enhanced Siren powers when they consumed this mineral. Because of this correlation, Patricia Tannis suggests that there could be a connection between Sirens, the Vaults, and the Eridians. However, a noteworthy thing to mention is that this connection between the element and Sirens does not apply to individual Siren. In one of the ECHO logs, you can hear Angel mention that Maya has no previous connection to Eridium. Count the Sirens One of the secret codes that were hidden in the Borderlands 3 trailers was, count the Sirens. This is a clear indication of their importance. Who are the Sirens in the Borderlands universe? Lilith Lilith is one of the playable characters in the original Borderlands and she is also the first siren we got introduced to. In the first game, Lilith is able to Phasewalk, she can leave this dimension for a short time. Upon entering our dimension again she can create a nova blast, which we see her do in Borderlands 2 and 3. Commandant Steele (dead) Steele was the main antagonist in the original Borderlands, however, her storyline got a bit lost during development as gearbox needed to cut the 3rd act of the game. While Steele had the siren tattoos we never saw them in action as she simply died while opening the vault. She was taken out by one of the tentacles of the destroyer who was imprisoned by the vault. Maya Maya is the second playable siren, she is one of the six vault hunters in Borderlands 2. Maya has the ability to Phaselock her enemies. Angel (dead) Angel, who was handsome Jack’s daughter, also turned out to be a siren. Her power was called Phaseshift, with this, she was able to interact with computer terminals at a distance. When you meet up with Angel you find out that she is imprisoned by her father and commits suicide for the greater good. Amara Amara is the new playable Siren in Borderlands 3. She is a confident, capable brawler with the ability to summon ethereal fists, Amara uses her Siren powers to smash her enemies. From an echolog  in the Commander Lilith DLC, we learned that she has been actively fighting as a Siren during the events of Borderlands 2. Tyreen Tyreen is one of the Calypso Twins, who are the main antagonists in Borderlands 3. It’s confirmed that she is also a siren and she wants to open up all the Vaults and claim all their powers. Her motivation is unclear at the moment. We do have the hidden message that mentions; Honor the Father. Troy Troy is the weird one of the bunch. He clearly has Siren tattoos. However, as previously stated, Siren powers have always been exclusive to women. How is it possible that Troy gained these runes? We know that Tyreen can take powers and claim them for her own. Is she also able to give these powers to others? I have been scratching my head about this for a long time. I considered them being twins and therefore shared some of the same cells. But this would be more likely when you have identical twins and that’s clearly not the case. Is the blood that runs through the babies and the mother the connection. Maybe. But then in a recent interview with Borderlands 3’s Creative Director, Paul Sage,  we learned that Troy and Tyreen are conjoined twins. This also explains why Troy has 1 mechanical arm. They were actually linked to each other. Ava Then there is Ava, the little girl that hangs around Maya all the time. I noticed that a lot of people think that she is also a Siren or someone that is learning to be a Siren. My findings currently suggest that Ava isn’t a Siren. However, Gearbox is very mysterious about her.  I like to see a plot twist here and be surprised. Are Sirens Born? This ties into the whole Ava story arc. Are Sirens born? If you ask this question to a Gearbox Developer, they will say that’s a really good question. However, they won’t give you a definitive answer and refer back to, Sirens are very important in Borderlands 3. That said in an interview with Borderlands 3 writer, Danny Homan,  ScreenRant asked ‘if existing people can become Sirens’. Um, that’s an interesting question. I mean, there’s a lot of ways that someone can become a Siren. It’s not a de facto X-Men kind of thing. There’s some different conditions that kind of arise. Yeah, Sirens are unique and I feel like we like to keep it a little amorphous. What we like the most is when fans kind of create their own myths and stories about how this kind of stuff happens. As a writer we try not to definitively say one thing because there’s a lot possible.  Danny Homan Again while we don’t get a definitive answer here. This also reminds me of Star Wars The Phantom Menace released. Back then George Lucas tried to explain the origins of the ‘Force’ and not everyone was happy with the whole midi-chlorian count thing. Leaving it in the middle and not defining it is probably a good thing. This keeps things mysterious and a lot of escape routes for future titles. Siren Timeline Looking at all the currently known Sirens and their (estimated) ages, I’m running into an issue. Because if Sirens are born as babies then Gearbox might already be cheating. In this case, Troy would be the 7th Siren and there can only be 6 in the universe.  Because Ava was alive before the events of the original Borderlands and wasn’t born after the death of Commandant Steele, she cannot be the replacement Siren of Steele in that sense. Transferable Powers We know that Tyreen can someone else’s claim powers for her own. And if Sirens are not born, do these powers manifest in a person. Are the powers a gift or maybe a parasite that need a new host from time to time.  We know that Lilith had her Siren powers as a kid as she was teased at school for having them.  Maya was identified as a Siren when she was an infant. However, when we look at Angel there is a photo of her in Jack’s office that shows her without tattoos. Did Angel obtain her powers later in life or is this just an ‘oopsie’ by Gearbox? It’s currently not known how the others got their powers.

Continue reading on https://mentalmars.com/blog/what-are-sirens-and-why-are-they-important-in-borderlands-3/

[josiewinters1999]

What It Feels Like 6

Rocket Raccoon x OFC (Willie)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Summary: Willie awakes to find herself in The Collector’s gallery. She knows she has to escape... for Rocket.

Contains: Angst, fluff, feels, cursing, violence, really gross stuff for a hot minute

A/N: It has been forever and a day since I’ve uploaded and to my [5] fans, I’m so sorry. If you are reading this, thank you for coming back after my long absence and I hope this part is worth the wait. I’m actually pretty proud of it tbh. If you guys like this enough and I keep getting the time/motivation to work on it, I hope to extend it and add the other Guardians. Also, I’m thinking about starting up and writing about Willie and other characters, in her “canon” timeline (aka, the one I have meticulously planned out in my head). Drop a comment and tell me what you think of the story or anything I’ve proposed. And as always... enjoy!

The morning was just like any other; the alarm clock went off, he got up, dressed himself, and went into the control room of his ship. However, when Rocket realized upon entering that it was missing a certain person and all the comforting ambiance they produced, he felt his heart sink in his chest. Today was going to be a long lonely day.

He makes his way to the coffee machine, ready to brew himself a cup since Willie wasn’t there to do it like she typically did. With a drowsy paw, Rocket grabs the coffee and begins making the pot.

As the water brews, the raccoon’s distorted reflection grimaces back at him from the coffee pot. He crosses his arms and looks away, not wanting to be reminded how miserable he actually is. Brown eyes gaze across the common room of his modestly sized ship. On the table where he and Willie would normally be sharing breakfast, he spots his holocommunicator.

All the muscles in his body tense the second his eyes lock on it. He slowly makes his way to it, afraid he might startle it somehow if he’s too quick. It looks back up at him, almost begging him to make the call he so desperately wants to make.

Furry paws grasp the tablet and hold it feebly. It’s only been one damn day, his mind tells him. What could possibly have happened in one day? The voice of his conscious didn’t stop Rocket from wanting to make the call.

If I could just hear her voice one more time... his small fingers punch in her name and got to hit the ‘call’ button but stop in an instant, mere millimeters above the surface of the device.

She left you his darker side scolds him. She doesn’t need you and you don’t need her. Face scrunching up in anger, the raccoon throws the communicator back onto the table and returns to his coffee.

***

The space is still and stagnant, air not moving in any direction. It smells of plastic, harsh cleaning chemicals, and something foreign. Behind her eyelids, Willie can sense there was a light on.

Voices in the distance are muffled by a what sounds like a wall. They’re deep, masculine, and many. Mind not yet a full functioning, Willie is unable to translate and blows off the noise as the radio or television.

In her space, the Gallifreyan stirs, finding her position uncomfortable. The pain in her head suddenly catches her attention and her whole body winces. The sound outside her space changes from voices to loud thumps, each one increasing in volume before stopping.

Bang bang bang.

The sound of a fist on flat glass is enough to jolt the woman awake. She springs into a sitting position and makes the horrible choice of opening her eyes.

Flickering and humming fluorescent lights above her magnify the pain throbbing in her skull to levels unbearable. Raising a hand to shield her eyes, Willie squints, hoping it will help her focus.

The blurry room slowly starts to become comprehensible. There is a man standing above her with a wide, wicked smile on his face. He waves sarcastically as he bends his knees. His blue skin, black eye, and bloody lip make the Kree man instantly recognizable.

Too weak to make a rebuttal, Willie just snarls and the man laughs, his voice now being clear and understandable, “Not so tough now, are you, you stupid bitch?”

Willie’s memory suddenly comes crashing into her like a runaway train.Landing in Knowhere, going to her ship, having a smoke at her table in the bounty hunter’s bar, the fight in the bar, the fight in the alleyway, all while she was trying to get back to Rocket.

Rocket. Oh God…

One of the men from the alleyway steps up and pulls back his friend taunting Willie, “Come on Agron, let’s just let the man pay us and get out of here,” he leans into the blue skinned Agron, “this place gives me the creeps.”

Agron looks between his friend and his catch in the glass cage before walking away. This gives Willie a second to fully survey her surroundings.

Feeling a stiff, scratchy feeling on her skin, she glances down. She was now clad in a crisp, clean, white jumpsuit and matching socks. She feels a pain in her neck. Reaching up,she feels a small metal disk under her skin. Having used them on others before Willie knows exactly what its purpose is; electric shocks. Shifting to be on her knees, she crawls to the edge of the square enclosure. Peering out into the area outside it, she looks up and out at the vast storage area.

The ceiling seems to stretch on almost forever, receding into blackness as the items hanging in it begin to disappear. Hundreds of glass cases similar to Willie’s reach into the space above, each one filled with a different, rare creature.

Willie had heard many things about this man and had evaded his grasp many times by the hairs on her neck. Finally being in his care, in his glass case looking out, was something Willie had prayed she’d never see. Suddenly feeling light headed, she falls back onto the seat of her jumpsuit, the world before her becoming blurry.

In the distance, she sees three indistinct figures. The smallest of them hands something to the other two before they walk away. On the brink of fainting, Willie doesn’t notice the figure’s movement until he begins to finally come into focus at the edge of her tank.

He is slightly taller than Willie and wears a luxurious white fur coat draped over his shoulders, it’s hair matching that on his head perfectly. His tailored purple suit underneath oozed elegance and wealth. Wealth, Willie is now starting to realize, built on blood… blood like hers.

With straight perfect teeth, he grins at Willie like a passerby would grin at a cute dog. He bends his knees, purple fabric around them straining slightly. “Look… at … you,” his words were slow and full of pride, “After all this time I never thought I’d have one. A Time Lord. The last Time Lord,” he trembles slightly with giddiness, “And she’s all mine.”

“Jokes on you dumbass,” Willie grins back, “I’m not actually a Time Lord. I’m a Woodlander. We’re a different breed.”

The Collector stands, fixing his now lightly wrinkled clothes, “Makes no difference. You’re the last one left.” He looks back at her with a devilish grin, “You’re one of a kind.”

***

“I wish we could stay like this forever…” Willie sighs, rubbing the fur between Rocket’s ears gently with her long pale fingers. He grips her shirt tighter and smiles, inhaling her scent deeply. She smelled of cigarette smoke, tangy soap, and something distinctly Willie.

Curling into her side, Rocket can feel her warmth radiate onto him, the clear blue sky above him and the crisp wind completing the scene. “We can stay like this as long as you want baby,” He mumbles happily.

Willie furrows her brow, “We can?” The worry in her voice drains Rocket’s joy as he sits up to look at her. Her skin was perfect without a single blemish on it, like it had been airbrushed. “Why couldn’t we?” he asks, concern evident.

She brushes her vibrantly colored yellow hair back, looking up at the raccoon, “I don’t know.” Her hands find a blade of grass beneath her and twirl it in her fingertips as she continues, “Maybe because we shouldn’t be together.”

Rocket grabs her hand and holds it in both his paws, “Baby, we can do whatever we want. Who was it that made the rules of who can and can’t be together?” Her blue eyes glance at his hands and then back into his eyes.

“Don’t you love me?” the raccoon asks, deep brown full of worry. She only smiles, gracing his cheek with her free hand, “Of course I do. I always have.”

For a moment, time stops, the birds stop chirping, the clouds stop floating, and the wind comes to a halt. Willie’s warm smile is enough to last Rocket a lifetime. Her plump red lips turn upwards as she speaks in a low voice, “Rocket, I lo-”

The moistness under his chin wakes Rocket from his dream. Groggy and half out of it, he sits up, looking at the puddle of drool in his lap. Wiping the now cold liquid from his cheek, he looks at the clock on the ship’s console.

2pm. It’s barely past noon and he’s already bored himself to sleep. Living without Willie is harder than he thought it would be.

His hands tingle as if they really had just been touching Willie. He sighs, heart heavy and the images flashing through his mind. Rocket realizes he feels empty without her.

But again, her face, her real face, not the one in Rocket’s dream comes to mind; sunken in, covered in scars, nose crooked, and eyes permanently full of disdain and disappointment. The sight hurts just to think about. Hurt soon turns to anger and he clenches his fists around the armrests of his captain’s chair.

“Fuck her. Never needed that junkie slut crowding me anyways.”

***

Whenever Willie got any reprieve from being watched, by either The Collector himself or by one of his pink skinned minions, she searched her cell fervently. Top to bottom she looked for something that could get her out.

Fingers tapped, poked, and pried at every corner and seem of the glass. It was sealed tight, the only opening was the air vent above and Willie had already rubbed her fingertips raw trying to feel for a weak spot or anything she could wrap around her fingers to help in her escape.

Willie was beginning to learn the hard way how things work as a toy in The Collector’s box. Twice a day, every day, you were delivered food. The food was bland but kept you alive and healthy, just the way he wanted you.

When it was feeding time, you were told to get into position at the opposite end of your tank. This position consisted of you kneeling, ankles crossed and hands interlocked behind your head. Something you can’t get out of very easily.

The pink skinned girl would then open the door and carefully set the food down before shutting it and leaving. If you moved, she hit a button on the device strapped to her wrist and an electric shock powerful enough to make even Willie seize up would flow through your body, leaving you a sloppy mess on the floor.

Days passed, and many times Taneleer himself would come to just stare at the blond Gallifreyan in her case. Petting his fur coat like it was a living animal, he stared her down, grinning wildly and almost fondly at her. Every time, Willie would curse him, promptly earning her a shock slightly more potent than the ones delivered by the assistants.

Getting out of this place is going to be tough, that much was clear.

***

Willie lay in the dark on her back. The Collector knew better than to give her anything in her case so she lay on the bar hard floor, staring at the grey ceiling, its only features being the light, now dimmed, and the air vent.

Nine days. It had been nine days. Why hadn’t anyone come for her? Where was Rocket? Hadn’t he seen her getting pulled away? Willie thought, hands folded on her stomach. Then it hits her. Rocket doesn’t care. He’s pissed I left. No one is coming…

Her thoughts and potential tears are interrupted by footsteps in the distance. She sits up, crawling to the nearest glass wall. She sees one the cleaning ladies scurrying in, a bucket in one hand and a wad of rags in the other.

“Hurry!” The Collector’s voice is distant, quiet, but unmistakable. “He isn’t going to clean himself now is he?” he shouts and the girl only runs faster.

After watching the pink girl disappear in the sea of dimly lit glass cases, Willie watches Taneleer emerge, steps angry and swift with his less formal, more comfortable night coat flowing behind him.

With the excitement seeming to be over, Willie sits back, listening intently. She could barely make out the sounds of cleaning. The slosh of water, the squeak of clean glass, and the occasional sob from the woman doing the dirty work.

Some time later, the assistant comes back, wet rags inside the bucket of now dirty water. Head to the ground, tears trail down her cheeks and she briskly speed walks out of the gallery hall.

Eyes trained on her like a hawk, the wheels in Willie’s head turn. She feels the blood rush through her body and a hunger form in her stomach; a hunger she hasn’t felt in a long time.

If she wanted to get out of this place, she was going to have to do it the dirty way.

***

Hours passed and her instinct was telling Willie it was turning from night to dawn. The creatures around he were beginning to stir and the hall seemed more alive than it is at night. The Collector comes out to gaze upon his prizes while his entourage of assistants come around with carts full of food trays.

The one that typically fed Willie approaches her tank, tray in hand and cart at her side. She gives a look to Willie and the blond glares at her, asking her to assume the proper position for feeding.

As she kneels, interlocking her ankles and hands, the woman slides the glass door open and sets the tray down before swiftly exiting and going on with her route.

Willie gets up and stares at the food as it practically stares back at her. The tray was like everything else in her tank, white and clean. Perfect, just the way he liked things. It disgusts her and makes her yearn for freedom even more.

Angrily grabbing the food and sitting it on her lap, she begins shoveling it into her mouth, waiting for the perfect opportunity to carry out her plan. She watches the people bustle about, going from tank to tank until their carts are empty. They then roll out in an almost single file line, ready to return in an hour to collect the empty trays.

Finally alone, Willie checks one more time to see if the collector is near. Without the man or any of his minions in sight, Willie sits back hearts racing. If she was going to do this, she’d better hurry.

With no more food left on her tray, she leans forward, looking down at the floor. She gets on her knees, pulling her hair over her shoulders and opening her mouth wide. She takes a deep breath, squeezes her eyes shut tight, and reaches her long fingers down her throat.

There was only a couple other times she’s ever had to do this, and being nervous always made it harder. She forces them deeper and harder down her throat, feeling around to find that sweet spot that will give her the results she needs.

Feeling herself gag, she knows she’s found it. Pressing harder still, she gags more and more. Sweat seeps from her pores, worry that she’ll be caught tickling her stomach. Soon enough she gags one last time and a waterfall of sloppy puke gushes from her mouth and onto the floor by her knees.

Coughing while the last bit comes out, she pulls her fingers out, licking them clean first and then wiping the excess saliva on her leg.

Surely when the lady came to take her tray, she’d see the mess and have to spend a good amount of time to clean it.

Willie’s prediction comes true sooner than she had hoped when Taneleer steps out from behind the row of tanks next to her and see her sitting in her own filth. Glaring at the Gallifreyan, she fakes stomach pains and curls into a corner, trying her best to further the illusion.

The Collector’s face heats up and turns a deep shade of read, “Carina!” he shouts, almost loud enough to make the glass shatter. Quick yet light footsteps rush to his side, “Yes, master?”

He forcefully grabs her arm and jerks her, making her look at the state of his prized piece, “What is this? Are you trying to kill her?” Stuttering but not actually responding, Carina’s mouth opens and closes nervously. “Clean it up...” Taneleer barks into her ear. She nods and rushes off to get her supplies.

The Collector looks Willie up and down one last time before storming off in a rage. If he were to stand and watch any longer, he knows he would most likely scream at Carina the entire time.

Unable to hold it in, Willie grins. Perfect ,she thinks. Within a few more moments, Carina comes back with the buckets, chemical solutions, rags, and sponges needed to clean Willie’s vomit.

Willie begins to tingle with anticipation. Carina doesn’t even bother to say anything to Willie before sliding the door open. The Gallifreyan’s eyes go wide in excitement as she stares at the woman’s wrist and the device strapped to it.

Carina wets a rag and kneels, beginning to wipe the floor. Every second seemed to drag on for years and Willie felt like she did in the forests of her home; nervously excited with a certain insatiable bloodlust as she waits in the bushes to kill her next meal.

Soon the weak prey turns her back to re-wet her rag. The predator lunges forward silently and swiftly, grabbing her by her throat to silence any screams. Prey’s eyes go wide and fingers claw desperately at the suffocating firmness around her.

Willie drags Carina into her tank, through the mess on the floor and up to her chest. The blood pumps through her veins, adrenaline making her stronger and eventually she can feel Carina’s spine in her palm, so close she can feel the bumps in her vertebrae.

The woman’s pawing becomes softer and softer, her pleaing grunts becoming quieter and quieter. Eyes roll up into her skull and she goes limp and heavy in Willie’s hands. Willie reaches down to her wrist and unstraps the device that controls the disc in her neck.

Strapping it on her own wrist, Willie begins punching every button she can find. How the hell do I turn this thing off? Her mind panics. Suddenly there is a beep and Willie quickly prays to every God she knows that that has done it.

Her head darts from side to side as she emerges from her tank for the first time in over a week. Not a soul is in sight and the coast is clear.

She steps swiftly and quietly through the gallery, keeping herself as concealed as possible. She weaves between the rows of glass cases, the creatures and plants inside watching her in awe as she does the thing they all wish they could do; escape.

The door has to be here somewhere. Her mind races and her pores leak profusely as she frantically searches for the exit. Each row only leads to nothingness and Willie starts walking faster and faster through them.

Finally, a grand archway presents itself at the far end of the gallery, barely within view. Face lighting up with relief, Willie makes her way to it, confident and giddy.

“You!” a deep male voice grunts behind her. Her body tenses up again and she whips her head around to see the voice’s owner. The Collector stands down the row from her, Willie equidistant between him and freedom.

She sprints as fast as she can for the door. Taneleer reaches his wrist up to push the button on his device to slow her down. Nothing happens. He presses it again and looks up. She is still running, and alarmingly fast.

His heart tenses and he shouts, “Get her!” No one rushes to his aid and he runs after her himself. Willie reaches the archway and dashes out into the familiar streets of Knowhere.

Luckily there was a crowd and she soon absorbs herself into it, hiding herself in the swarm of bodies lining the strip. By the time Taneleer emerges from his gallery, she is gone. He looks down at his wrist computer again and see a red dot on a radar. “You’ll be mine again...”

***

Weaving quickly through the crowd, stealing the paranoid look over her shoulder, Willie looks everywhere for The Collector or his goons. She’s certain they are right behind her.

After walking the streets and not seeing any sight of them for an hour, she relaxes. She’s outrun them… for now. Willie looks down at her vomit and sweat stained jumpsuit. If she wants to blend in and get off this planet, she’s going to have to change clothes.

She desperately searches the streets for where her ship was parked prior to her kidnapping. That comforting and familiar empty space between two buildings was a sight for sore eyes. A bright smile spreads across Willie’s lips and she runs to her ship. She can’t wait to throw open the doors of that fantastic invisible box and-

Reaching the space, she runs right through it. Where her ship should have been is empty. Her ship is gone.

Willie begins to panic, “No…” she whispers. She frantically feels the air for it. Spinning in circles like a mad man she searches for something that isn’t there. “No,” she repeats. “No no no.” She stomps the ground in anger. “He took it. Taneleer Tivan took my fucking ship.”

She gazes back out into the alleyway, “I need a phone…”

***

Hanging his ammo belt up on the rack at the entrance of his ship, Rocket sighs. Jobs just don’t satisfy him like they used to. The rush of blowing something up and taking someone down just doesn’t get his goat anymore.

They used to give him a sense of fulfillment that satiated his core like a desert flower getting its yearly rain. Things are… well… different now. He knew deep down why, but would never admit it to anyone, especially himself.

With heavy limbs, he trudges to the kitchen. Bounty hunting can sure work up the appetite. Rocket steps on his small ladder to reach the top cabinet. Before he can even fully grasp the handle of the door, the holocommunicator on the dining table rings.

His movements stop. He debates whether he should let it ring out or if he should walk over and reject the call. Either way, he didn’t feel like talking to anyone. The raccoon returns to the task at hand and opens the cabinet.

In the background, the ringing stops. “Guess they didn’t want to talk either.”

Reaching into the cabinet he pulls out a box of food and begins preparing it. He pours the contents of the plastic container into a plastic bowl, sighing with tired eyes and feeble fingers.

The ringing begins again and Rocket growls to no one in particular. Teeth bared, he angrily looks over his shoulder at the table muttering to himself, “Can I not sit down for five goddamn minutes?” Eventually, the ringing stops once more.

Tension releasing, the raccoon takes his food and walks to the captain’s chair to eat it. As he passes the table and holocommunicator sitting on it. It begins yelling at him again, almost as if it knew he was walking by.

Angry beyond comprehension, he slams his food on the table, a few bits of it falling out onto the surface of the tabletop. “Who could it possibly be?” he shouts at the top of his lungs. He picks of the glowing translucent blue tablet and reads the message:

Voice Communication. A3-Sector B09

The code at the end was instantly recognizable to Rocket. It told the raccoon that this call was coming from Knowhere. But why? At this point, Rocket’s anger has subsided and curiosity is slowly taking its place.

Slowly, he takes his paw and taps the accept button. Immediately he hears a hustle and bustle in the background of the call, confirming this call was where the communicator said.

“Hello?” the raccoon’s voice is unsure.

“Rocket!? Oh thank God I was starting to think you wouldn’t pick up,”  distinctive voice worries to him. It was shaky and scared.

Rocket’s heart drops at the sound of it and he nearly faints, “Willie?”

She smiles on her end, “Yeah it’s me.” There is a pause as she swallows nervously, “Rocket, I’m in trouble. I need you.”

Rocket opens his mouth to offer his assistance but is suddenly reminded of the full situation. She left him. She left him after he poured his heart out to her. She doesn’t deserve his help. “Why should I help you?” he grunts.

Willie almost chokes at those words, “What the hell do you mean? Rocket, please. I need your help. I’m stuck here.”

He only shrugs, “Sounds like a personal problem to me.”

The Gallifreyan bites a lip and lowers her voice, “Rocket, listen. I’m sorry for how stupid I was being. This whole thing with our feelings just is kinda hard for me…” she sighs, “I… I shouldn’t have left. I really had no reason to except that I was scared. But trust me when I say I tried to get back to you. I really did.”

Tears welling in his eyes, Rocket tries his best to make it sound like he isn’t crying, “Then what the hell stopped you?” he spits.

“I was kidnapped!” Willie shouts, her voice going through the communicator and filling Rocket’s ship.

He is taken aback by this, “Y-you were what?”

The woman lets out a deep breath, “The Collector got me. He’s been after me for years and he finally got me. It’s a wonder I was able to get out.” She anxiously scans the crowd as she speaks into the communicator on the Knowhere streets, “I think he still might be on my tail though. Can never be too sure. I need to get this stupid thing out of my neck. How soon can you be here? Because I am dying to kill this piece of shit.”

“Willie…” he trails off, unable to think of what else to say.

“Please Rocket, I need my big man to come rescue me.”

His heart flutters and he smiles, “I love you,” he blurts out.

Willie sighs, grinning like mad, “I think I might feel the same.”

The smile on Rocket’s face couldn’t be wider, “Lay low for a while doll. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

***TAG LIST***

@animeaniseed @youralienfriend @fandoms-4-life0000 @groovy-bouquet-starlight @okie--loki @tara-jadet1ffen @rosaufyuniverse 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Fear 4x08: Analysis

***Spoilers for FTWD 4x08 abound. Don’t read until you’ve watched!*** 

 Okay, let's talk about FTWD. Of course, will start with Madison's apparent death. Yeah, I'm not at all convinced. I'll explain why as we go along, but there are way too many symbols around her that show that she's really alive.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that she has, for all intents and purposes, left Fear. They gave her a big sendoff and I don't think we'll see her again anytime soon. But I do think that either 1) she will show up again after several seasons, or 2) she’ll show up in regular TWD.

Also understand that I don’t actually care that much about Madison’s character. I’ve never cared much for her and I’m not gonna start a Madison Team Delusional. I’m just saying this is what the symbols are telling me, and I won’t be at all surprised if we see her again in the future.

I also agree with at @wdway, who pointed out that with Madison gone, there's not another strong leader in this group right now. Sure, Alicia or Strand could evolve into a strong leader very easily, but for right now, there is no obvious choice to replace Madison as leader of the group. All that points toward the two shows (TWD and FTWD) possibly merging sometime soon. If they do merge, we don't know if Fear will continue to be its own series, or just become part of TWD. If it does become part of TWD, then Madison showing up again will have to be in TWD. Of course it's all conjecture for now.

The main reason I think she's alive? 

No body. Once again, they didn't show us her death. I kept waiting to see her get overwhelmed by the walkers. She never did. It's implied that she did, but we didn't see it. Because of my theories about Rick, even if she had been swarmed and gone under the horde, I might not have been 100% convinced.

About the only thing that would have 100% convinced me she is dead would be if we'd seen her be bitten by one of the walkers. Had her throat ripped out or something. Something she couldn't come back from. We didn’t see that at all. In fact, in the end, she threw her little fire stick into the crowd of walkers and started them on fire. They were still good distance away from her at that point. Theoretically, she could have used the opportunity to slip away to some passage or path that we couldn’t see. How or what would it have been? I have no idea. The camera stayed very close on her face and we couldn't see much of what was going on around her.

I’d also like to point out something very similar to this happened with Daniel in S2 of FTWD. He was in a building that was burning very closely around him. They never explained exactly how he got out. He simply figured it out. Found some way to escape. Lots of fans complained that it was terribly unrealistic that he would've gotten out of that building, but he did. That makes me think Madison did to. Who cares if it’s realistic? I’m not arguing that it is or isn’t. Just that there’s a precedent for it in FTWD.

And another thing: Althea drove her truck into the stadium where there were hundreds of burnt walkers. Another way they could have confirmed Madison’s death would have been to see her as a walker. Would have been super-easy. Nope nada.

Let’s go over some of the signs and symbols that I saw in this episode that had major Beth parallels, which adds to the idea of a death fake out for Madison.

First off, I thought this would be a major parallel to the prison falling. And there were some broad parallels to that for sure. Overall, this episode had closest to ties Still.

When Madison first happens upon Althea's camp (in the past) we see bottles hanging from a rope that Althea is using as a warning system against walkers. We’ve seen that more than once, but the first time we saw was in Still.

It also occurred to me that Naomi and Morgan, as a pair, had some small parallels with Beth and Daryl in this episode. They both jumped out of Althea's van and ran into the stadium to get medical supplies. Some of their dialogue caught my ear.

Alicia nearly blew them up. Althea got on the walkie and asked if they were okay. Morgan answered, "We’re good in here. You got out there?" Just reminded me of the whole “We’ll Be Good” thing. (Sorry the picture is blurry.)

Later, Morgan says, "You okay?" several times to Naomi. Finally, they realize Alicia is in the van is going to kill Naomi. Morgan tells her to stay hidden. He says he'll go out because Alicia doesn't want to kill him and Naomi can talk him through helping John on the walkie. He didn’t get the chance to do so because Alicia shows up, but we had them standing at a broken window, and Morgan was going to go out the window and up the way while Naomi stayed behind. A very Alone kind of situation.

Major focus on a bridge while Madison told Althea her story. (Bridge Theory: X, X). Even looks like the Danville Bridge.

Madison also told Althea a story about an injured bird. Of course, Beth is the Songbird, but remember that in 4x09, she was actually represented by an injured bird. Carl was walking around the pudding house and opened the door to one bedroom and he saw an open cage and a dead bird on the floor. You can read about the details HERE. But, together with all the other Beth symbols in that episode, it was a clear foreshadow of Beth being shot at Grady.

So Madison starts telling the story about an injured bird. She even talked about the kids digging up worms to feed it. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but I couldn't help but think of Daryl eating the worm and 5x10. I kept thinking that Madison would say the bird died. It was very sad story and in the story she expecting the bird to die. But in the end, it lived. Her children nursed it back to health, even though it took weeks and weeks. So we have a symbolic story about an injured bird who should have died by all rights, but was nursed back to health and eventually took flight again.. Sound like our Songbird?

And let's not overlook the fact that John is going to live! Yea! Naomi said he would be all right, and that's as good as a confirmation, because we know they use dialogue foreshadows in this show. Remember, I said HERE that him being shot was an exact parallel of Coda. So, because he lived, it's yet more confirmation that Beth also lived.

When the stadium went down, things got really interesting. The walkers looked a lot like the ones TF thought in Alexandria in 6x09. But here we have an opposite situation. They talked about how the people at the stadium had no faith in their home or in Madison as a leader. They didn't stay to fight the walkers but ran from them, and all died because of it. In 6x09, we the people believed in their home and in their leaders (Rick and Michonne) so they worked together to fight the walkers. All those who fought them lived and were able to save their home. Interesting.

Naomi also says at one point that she tried to talk everyone out of leaving. But, "I couldn't change their minds." It just reminded me of Beth saying to Daryl, "what changed your mind?" And once again it's a matter of faith. Her faith and goodness were able to change his mind, which helped him to keep going. Because Naomi couldn't change the minds of the people at the stadium, they all died.

Madison also said to Alicia of the stadium, "I thought you needed it to stay who you are." So another example of the, "stay who you are, not who you were," theme.

Then there’s Madison’s line and the title of the episode, "No One's Gone Until They're Gone." This is more of the “Gone” theory, and it's definitely true Madison. No one in her family watched her die. No one was there when it happened. None of the viewers actually saw her die. We saw her appear to die, but as for right now, she's just gone.

This number also really jumped out at me. Notice the 407 behind Madison. I've noticed it several times throughout the season, as it's painted on the wall of the stadium, but couldn't figure out what it might be pointing to. It's very prominent in this last shot of her right before she apparently dies.

Guys, 4x07 was one of the Governor episodes before the prison went down. In 4x06, we had some major Beth foreshadows, but 4x07 was where the Governor actually returned to the prison and TF. He did so as a villain and brought the prison down, so perhaps Madison will return either as a villain or with villains? Whatever it ends up being, I’m seeing 4x07 as a major return symbol.

Then there's the crowning thing that makes me super suspicious of Madison’s death, and also makes this episode like Still. A song called Love, Love, Love by the Mountain Goats plays the end. For those who don't know The Mountain Goats sang Up the Wolves at the end of Still. I recognized the voices right away and quickly jumped online to make sure I wasn't imagining it.

Tomorrow or Thursday I’ll do an in-depth analysis of the song lyrics. I’ve looked them over and they're VERY interesting. They give credence to both Beth and Madison still being alive. But I don’t want to do that today because this post will be too long.

But once again, we had something been burned to the ground, we had burnt walkers walking around, we have a blonde that went missing, but we never saw what happened to her body. And we had a song by the same group that setting up the walls in still.

I’ve said from the beginning of this season that Madison has had major parallels to Beth. It was odd because I never really liked Madison. She was kind of the opposite of Beth in the past, which means they purposely changed her character for this season. And then she just happens to die suspiciously with all these symbols around her in the same season they’ve given her all these death parallels?

Madison, dead? Yeah, I'm not buying that at all. Thoughts?

[alwaysanotherooc]

Can you do a quinn x mc angst relationship ask, if you're still doing it?

YES. I WILL ALWAYS. I love Quinn so much, oh my go. Thank you for this, lol. Send me a Choices couple and I’ll answer angsty questions! 

Do they have a lot of arguments? Hardly, Quinn and MC almost NEVER fight, but when they do it’s because Quinn won’t let MC fuss over her when her disease is acting up, and Quinn feels smothered by MC.

Who apologizes first, and in what way? MC apologizes first for overstepping their boundaries, but Quinn apologizes immediately after for being so stubborn.

Who has more insecurities? MC, definitely. They think Quinn is too good for them. Quinn isn’t much better, she’s afraid MC will leave her for someone who’s ‘whole’.

Who gets more riled up? MC. It takes a hell of a lot to make Quinn angry, because she’s usually very calm and quiet about most things.

How do they hide their pain when they’re upset? Quinn is very used to hiding when she’s in pain, from doing it her whole life in front of her parents, so she hides it under smiles and being extra kind to other people. MC hides their pain by acting like everything is completely fine no matter what, because MC is a fake it til you make it kind of person.

Who tries to make up first? MC, but Quinn is right there with them.

Would they hate-fuck if they were mad at one another? I…don’t really think so. I think they’d still be the type to go to sleep in the same bed after an argument, but I don’t think they’d be interested in having sex.

Do they hold grudges? Neither of them would be good about that sort of thing, they feel really intense anger during the argument but if flares out almost immediately. 

Is there something big that could potentially tear them apart if it was revealed? I think the only thing that could tear them apart is if MC broke it off during an argument, I think both of them are very aware that nothing outside themselves can hurt their relationship.

If something already happened to tear them apart, what would make them come back together? Well yeah, obviously, when MC gets their head on straight and realizes they acted like a jackass. It’d take some major appeasing, but Quinn would take them back.

What’s their favorite pastime when they’re upset? Baking. It’s Quinn’s happy place, and baking with her always makes MC feel more at ease too, because if Quinn’s happy, then they are too. It’s just how it works.

Who do they confide in when shit hits the fan (besides each other)? MC it’s Diego, for Quinn it would either also be Diego or it would be Michelle and Grace and Estela, I picture the four girls growing extremely close both on and after the island.

Is it hard for them to talk about their feelings openly with each other? Nope, not at all. Quinn loves talking about how she feels about MC, and she makes it easy for MC to talk about how they feel about her.

Who grieves more when the other is away? Quinn. She’s a very emotionally based person, she feels everything very keenly and deeply.

Who misses the other more, or really thinks about them more? Quinn can hardly keep MC off of her mind at any point, but when they’re arguing, it’s MC who can’t stop thinking about her. Quinn usually tries to focus on literally anything else.

Do either of them have a special item (an article of clothing, a necklace, a book) that they use when they miss the other? Quinn probably has a necklace or a charm bracelet that MC gave them as a ‘We Escaped Murder Island, Yay’ gift that she holds near and dear to her heart, and when she and MC are fighting she’ll unconsciously touch it a lot. MC wears one of Quinn’s ponytail bands around their wrist, and they can’t stop twisting it every time they think about her.

Who cries more? Quinn, but it’s a very close tie. They cry a little more than the average couple during a fight.

Do either of them have the other’s stuff lying around their house? Oh God, yes. Quinn leaves her stuff ALL OVER MC’s apartment before they move in together, and MC loves seeing her things in with theirs.

Do they tease each other while in a fight (whether it be with themselves or just general teasing)? When they’re fighting there’s no playful element to it, but when they’re not fighting, they tease each other all the time. They’re constantly flirting, they never stop.

Do either of them have any vices? I really don’t think so.

What’s the thing they miss most about each other? MC misses Quinn’s smile, and Quinn misses the way MC holds her.

What’s their go-to breakup/angst song? For MC it’s ‘Hello’ by Adele, for Quinn, it’s ‘Lost Boy’ by Troye Sivan. 

Who’s more jealous? Neither one is very jealous. They got through the island just fine and they know how much they love one another. And also, they know the other isn’t going to leave them for someone who didn’t share that horrible experience with them, and all their friends are taken, so…

Who is the first to forgive? Quinn, as MC is the one who apologizes first.

What’s the one deal breaker for either of them (lack of communication, fear of commitment, etc)? Quinn and MC are totally devoted to each other, but sometimes Quinn gets really freaked out by how much MC loves her, and she’s still worried that one day she’ll die and leave them all alone, so she doesn’t want to take their relationship a step further, to the eternal frustration of MC.

Who would take longer to let go? They’re both pretty good at letting go.

Which is more afraid of confrontation? Quinn, she HATES confrontation, it reminds her of the island and that’s never a good thing.

Who’s the first to distance themselves (if either)? Quinn, she’s afraid of hurting the MC.

Who’s more patient? MC. They’ll wait forever for Quinn to realize they’re never leaving her, for her to be ready to take more steps forward in their relationship.

Who’s the first to blame themselves? MC. After the island, they take everything awful that happens to their friends and blame themselves for it, no matter if it’s their fault or not.

Who’s more likely to do something out of spite? I mean, neither of them, but Quinn is much less likely to do something to spite someone.

Who would be the first to say they hate the other? Neither of them would ever say anything like that to the other one. After the island, they’re aware that anything they say to one another could be the Very Last Thing, and they’d never be able to live with themselves if the Very Last Thing they told the other one was ‘I hate you’.

Who worries more? MC. They’re constantly worried about Quinn. She’s more happy-go-lucky.

What scent reminds them of the other? Quinn smells like vanilla and strawberries, and MC smells like sandalwood.

Do they have any regrets (regarding the other, or just in general)? Quinn still regrets not ‘being able’ to keep her parents together. MC regrets not keeping everyone safer on the island. Any of them getting hurt in any way shape or form was too much in MC’s opinion.

Who’s quicker to walk away if a situation gets heated? Quinn. She’ll want to walk away and let their tempers settle down, MC would want to settle the argument immediately. 

Who is more prone to anger? MC by default, Quinn isn’t prone to anger at ALL.

Who cries more in an argument? Quinn would, at first, I think but her crying would make MC cry too.

Does it take a lot for it to get to the point of yelling? Oh yeah. Whenever they fight it’s always days or even weeks in the making.

Who sleeps on the couch after an argument? MC. They wanna give Quinn space when she asks for it.

Who’s more likely to protect the other? MC. They’ve been doing it since Day 1 on the island, they’re not about to stop.

If one of them gets injured, who worries more? MC worries CONSTANTLY about Quinn, and every time she so much as stubs her toe, MC has horrible flashbacks to the island and seeing her hurt.

Who would be more afraid of the other’s death/harm? Quinn’s scared of MC dying, but MC has nightmares and, once while sick and hopped up on NyQuil, hallucinations about visions of Quinn dying, her Idol, and watching her being dragged to the bottom of the ocean by vines, the shadow of something huge swimming closer and closer.

Who ends up yelling first? Quinn, she’ll snap at MC and then all hell will break loose.

Who would be more likely to save who? MC. Are you kidding?

Who stays up at night brooding? Also MC. They can’t stop going over the argument again and again and again, guilt eating them up inside.

Who has more dreams/nightmares about the other? MC has a lot of nightmares about everyone from their experiences on the island, but they have the most about Quinn.

Who comforts who after a bad dream/event? They’re both there for each other, Quinn wraps herself around MC and starts humming after a bad dream, the soft sound bringing them back into the present, where they’re all safe and warm and happy. MC will pull Quinn in for a hug and let her know they’re there, for whatever she needs them to do.

Do they think about each other a lot? They usually can’t stop thinking about each other, lol.

If one of them were to come back after a long time, who would come to who? MC would be the one to come back to Quinn. It’d be a very happy reunion.

THIS WAS AWESOME! I love delving into the characters like this.

[reginasrandomthoughts]

Kill your heroes - an opinion on why The Last Jedi feels different

 (guys, you know the drill, I wanted to do something short, it became long, it is under the cut, I am tired, as per usual, so I probably lost my train of thought at points, if you are interested read it, if not not, if you wanna correct me at any point or discuss with me, please do so. I love a good talk)

 Even before I saw The Last Jedi I was aware that some people had issues with it. Chatter was that it mishandled Luke’s character and that it did not feel like a Star Wars movie, and I have to agree with it, It does not feel like the other Star Wars movies because it is purposefully trying to distance itself from them. Or, to quote my bae

                                “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to”

 This approach was a bit of a shocker to me as well, especially after The Force Awakens tried its absolute damnest to remind us of what the original trilogy was like. It was basically New Hope 2.0 with a few tweeks. TFA set up a pattern and expectations and The Last Jedi decided to shit all over it, but it didn’t come out of the blue. 

 TFA already sets up the scene: The victory at the end of Return of the Jedi was hallow, Palpatine’s death did not matter because the Empire rebranded and came back swinging and the New Republic fell apart. Everything fell apart and our heroes couldn’t keep it together. That is already pretty depressing. Even the Extended Universe, that had the same job of continuing from RotJ didn’t go that far. It was always “oh, there is still some Empire commanders fighting isolated battles”, “oh, some new invaders are coming”. It gave our heroes their victory so that was what we were expecting, but TFA already took it away from us. 

 Furthermore, it underlined that our heroes might not be as good of a people as we imagined. We knew nothing of Leia and Han’s parenting skills, only that their son ended up being the main enemy. (Yes, I know about Jacen Solo. Don’t spoil, not there yet in the Legends Era *spits into the corner*) Also, Han and Leia are not together. Their relationship fell apart and Han pretty much abandoned her in a difficult situation. Han also didn’t change, didn’t step up to be a better man and he also lost the Falcon, something that became very special to all the fans. And of course, Luke disappeared and we already know that he trained B/Ren. 

TFA already claims that our heroes are failures, or at the very least more flawed than we are willing to admit. 

Enter The Last Jedi.

The Last Jedi knows what the audience expects from it. And it deliberately refuses to give it to us. 

The greatest example is Poe. Poe is the new Han Solo: he has the swagger, the arrogance but also the skill. He is an amazing pilot but he hasn’t an ounce of respect towards the chain of command and thinks he knows better than everyone else. Now let’s see how the Star Warstm pattern works out for him:

 First action scene, he has an insane near suicidal plan but he pulls it off. But at what cost? Many people died, the bomber fleet is gone and we have to face the fact that there is like 3?4? Resistance ships left with roughly 400 people. Poe refused to get out of there when he was ordered to, many people died and in the end it was proven useless, because the First Order found them again withing 30 seconds. This already undermines our expectations: we expect them to get away with it like Luke did when he blew up Death Star #1. But this is not that Star Wars anymore.

 Now the next stunt is basically the same as in RotJ when the Rebel Alliance has to by time to knock of the shield generators. This time around they have to buy time so Poe’s insane plan of getting a codebreaker in there to get the tracker offline so they can get away. The stakes here are different: they aren’t fighting for victory, they stand no chance. They are fighting for survival. The bloody miracle that bought the Rebels their victory is devalued into something that now is good enough only to buy them a little bit more time alive. 

 And they cannot pull it off. Poe is a gambler. He likes the kind of high stakes, high rewards plans that Star Wars (Orige Trige) was known for. He acts as we expect him to act, but he cannot pull of the miracle. Finn and Rose bring back a codebreaker. Then get it. Smooth sailing right? It will be a close call but they will make it. Look, DJ even gives Rose back her necklace, he must be one of those Hollywood outlaws with a heart of gold who will come through when necessary. But no, they get captured and get sold out. Poe’s plan did not only fail, thanks to it the rebel transporters get picked out one by one. They loose so many people. Most of the Resistance dies because Poe wanted to make one of those Star Wars gambles and he couldn’t pull it off. 

 And I think this is why it was important? good? to keep Holdo’s plan a secret from the audience. We were emotionally invested in Poe’s plan. When he stages his rebellion we were with him, trusting this to go off well, bc that is what Star Wars taught us would happen. And then suddenly Leia comes in, wacks Poe’s takeover and we realize that there was a much safer way to do things. Something that would have worked if not for Poe. Is it stupid in universe? Most likely, yea. Holdo should have told someone. But from a message point of view it paid off. Poe pretty much managed to off the Resistance with his stupidity, but he learned his lesson. 

 The next classic Star Wars moment, the suicide run against the battering ram cannon (hello X-wing runs from New Hope) is one where he recognizes that he cannot pull it off. It cannot be done. Choose life, and live to fight another day. And that’s what he does and that is the good call, we see it because it almost costs Finn his life. 

 These insane last minute saves are such a great part of the identity of Star Wars. New Hope has it, Return of the Jedi has it, The Force Awakens has it, heck Rouge One is one big Ave Maria. We are conditioned to expect them to work, but here they simply don’t. That is a large part of why it might not “feel like a Star Wars movie”. 

 Another part of course, is the Jedi. Luke. Luke is the big legend, the idol, the savior of the galaxy far, far away and we, just like Rey, expects him to live up to it. But Luke failed miserably. He got arrogant then he got in way over his head, buying into his own glory and he made a mistake. He did not catch Ben being corrupted then he got scared and wanted to murder him, quintessentially spooking him into being Ren. Luke’s failure as a master and as FAMILY created Kylo Ren. And what did he do after? He ran away. Not the glorious hero we expected. 

 And if this is not enough then the Jedi, the universally accepted good guys of the Star Wars universe get shade thrown on them as well. We cannot pretend that oh, its Luke’s training not being complete. He was alone, of course he failed. He reminds the audience that Darth Vader was trained by Jedi as well, and why did Anakin fall? Because the Jedi demanded from him to kill his humanity. The Jedi order’s very code created Vader. And if that is not enough than the raise of Palpatine happened at the height of the Jedi’s power. Yet they got whiped out. 

 And that is not something that was invented in TLJ or TFA, it was in the Original and Prequel films. TLJ does nothing more than tear down the wall of nostalgia around these things and highlights how incompetent these people were. 

 And now let’s move on to Luke’s death. Luke’s death is Obi-Wan’s death: the old master facing the monster that was born from the student he failed. He dies pretty much the same way as well, short fight, gets killed, turns into a Force ghost. Why? Luke has to die because he is a part of the old Jedi order, because he is a failed hero but why does he get Obi-Wan’s death? Why make the purposeful call back? Because now we have context. It adds a layer to Obi-Wan as well. These are two man who are facing down their own mistakes and they are both arrogant about it. “Strike me down and I will stay with you forever” “Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”. They plan to haunt their killers, to be a reminder to them that there is some power outside if their reach. To choose how they die is the only victory they can achieve.

 But Luke here can be assumed to be trying to accomplish something else as well: Yoda told him to teach Rey his failure. Can he possibly be trying to show Rey that Ren is irredeemable? That would be a very Jedi thing to do, wouldn’t it? In Phantom Menace Yoda wants to throw away the obviously very talented and powerful Anakin because he is not a perfect Jedi candidate, Obi-Wan refuses to acknowledge Vader was ever Anakin for quite a while and of course Luke decided that Ben needed to be gotten rid of since he has a taint. The Jedi, Luke’s Jedi, demanded a kind of inhuman perfection and that has to die, especially since Rey shows to be different from them. A new kind of Jedi, a new kind of hero. 

Another aspect in which Obi-Wan and Luke’s death are similar is that they are leaving behind a new apprentice to take down the monster. But as we saw with Poe’s example’s, this is not that game anymore, so Luke’s gamble is not nearly as sure, especially since Rey is different than what Luke was. 

 And now let’s move to one more piece of deconstruction of the old Star Wars tropes. Vader and Luke vs Palpatine / Rey and Kylo vs Snoke. It plays out pretty similarly for a while but with a quite a bit of a difference: Rey cannot talk Ren into turning back to Ben. As we established, this is not how it will work anymore. A few nice words and an “I believe in you” won’t right the wrongs and save the world anymore. One of the bigger differences here is that Ren is not dying. For him turning back would mean something very different than what it did to Vader and anyway, Ren likes being Ren. He feels like he has a place where he is and that he was rejected in the chaotic world of the Resistance. Ren’s story wouldn’t conveniently end with a “yay I turned now I am dead” just so the good guys can pretend they saved him. 

 In many ways TLJ saw Ren come into his own. He, just like Rey and the audience clung to the nostalgia, he idolized his predecessor, Vader and in this film very early on was challenged in his identity as the new Vader. “you are no Vader just a kid in a mask”. So he destroys the mask. He destroys his pretense of being Vader. He does what Vader never did and makes a connection to someone on the light side of the Force. He is no mere petsy anymore either. The minute he rejects the Vader persona he starts acting on his own accord: he gets into his ship, he commands his small platoon and he makes the critical choice of not killing Leia. In the previous movie killing a parent was a step closer to the dark side, towards becoming Vader but now he rejects it. Is it that he cannot bring himself to do it this close to another? Is it that his commitment to the dark side is wavering? Or is it that he refuses to walk a path he does not truly wants to? At that moment he does not want Leia to die and from this perspective Leia’s survival makes sense.

 Tangent: I know that Leia surviving the way she did was stupid from an in universe perspective because she never exhibited Force control powers before and for her to pull something on this scale, but it makes more of a sense if you think about this as an unconscious thing. Pure survival instinct kicking in. AND it was important bc the TIE fighters showed us what Ren was supposed to do, they made sure we know that yes, he could have killed Leia. But he didn’t. So Leia was saved via Force Powers bc.... you know, Ren uses the force as well so it is a sorta weird stand in. Execution was weird here. 

 BTW, this was the point where Snoke signed his own death warrant. He wanted a new Vader but he ripped Kylo’s identity as the new Vader away from him, forcing him to look for something else to be. And part of that was rejecting Snoke’s demands to kill his still living parent, Rey and to be a petsy. Vader was a glorified henchman and REN refused to be one. So he offed Snoke. And with that Supreme Leader Ren was born. 

 Now, I use this title because it is very fitting at this point because Ren is pretty much the driving force, or at least the manifestation of the driving idea behind The Last Jedi. Ren stood on both sides and was disappointed in all of his heroes, all of our heroes. Leia, Han, Luke, Vader, heck even the new replacement Snoke proved to be a failure. Ren came out on the other side of the experience wanting to “Let the past die”. He says “Kill it” but only “if you have to”. He wants to get rid of all of this past nonsense, get out of the shadows of those coming before him, stop being a copy only there to repeat patterns and to live up to what other people expect him to be. 

Ren’s decision changes the game. The minute he decides on his new path, when he lets go of Darth Vader things shift: Poe’s final miracle happens before that, but after Ren changes his platoon wrecks the lead ship sending Leia into a coma, without the proper leadership the Resistance gets into a bad situation where Poe acts against orders trying to play according to the old rule book, he fails. Ren is not Vader, he is not Palpatine or Snoke, the same tricks do not work with him and the Resistance reaches some success only when they change tactics (e.g. retreat rather than do a suicide run against the battering ram cannon). 

 So Ren changed the game, he wants to burn down the old, so the question is what will remain or what will emerge? That is Rey’s job to answer. Ren tells us what the new trilogy isn’t but Rey should define what it is. What stays? What becomes new? Episode IX’s job will be to establish what the new Star Wars is like and yea, maybe the backlash will make Disney chicken out and revert to the old ways but I hope it won’t. 

We, the audience should learn to be a bit more like Rey and Ren and let go of the past, stop glorifying it and stop letting it define what the present and the future can be. 

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: Marc Guggenheim Will Keep X-Men Gold ‘Light and Fun’

For the past several years, Marvel Comics’ X-Men have had their hands full combating large-scale threats to mutantkind’s very existence. When you’re battling those kinds of existential crises, it can be hard to focus on making the world a better place for the humans that fear and hate you. So the X-Men have frequently had to distance themselves from or temporarily set aside the dream of their founder Charles Xavier; proving that man and mutants can co-exist by using their powers to protect and defend the world.

That all changes this April with the launch of the “ResurrXion” line of books, including the new twice-monthly ongoing series “X-Men Gold,” by writer Marc Guggenheim — the executive producer of The CW’s “Arrow” and “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” and a comic book writer who made his Marvel debut back in 2006 with the “Civil War” arc of “Wolverine” — and artist Ardian Syaf, formerly of DC Comics titles including “Superman.” “X-Men Gold” finds Kitty Pryde returning to the team she grew up with, now as the group’s leader, as she works to mutantkind into an all-new age of high-profile superheroics.

CBR spoke with Guggenheim about the book’s direction and keeping things “relatively light and fun” (at least at first, Kitty’s leadership position, the initial threats his X-Men will face and how they’ll interact more with the larger Marvel Universe than they have in quite some time. Plus, CBR has the first look at the covers to May’s “X-Men Gold” #3 and #4, both by Syaf.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #3 cover by Ardian Syaf.

CBR: Marc, looking at the line up for “X-Men Gold,” Kitty Pryde is on a team with her former best friend in Rachel Grey, an older version of a father figure from her youth in Old Man Logan, an ex-boyfriend in Colossus, and two close friends she pretty much grew up with in Nightcrawler and Storm. So at first glance it seems in terms of team dynamic this would be a nice homecoming for her, but is that necessarily the case?

Marc Guggenheim: It is. It’s certainly complicated particularly with respect to Peter, and some of my favorite moments from the first issue relate to their history together, but overall it’s a very empowering homecoming. Kitty is the “kid who made good.” She’s the apprentice who’s returning to become the master.

This relates to my goal of keeping the book — for the time being at least — relatively light and fun. The complexities that arise from the composition of the team aren’t dark and hand wringing-y. They’re meant to be really fun. If I can get you at least chuckling once an issue, that would be wonderful.

So, if you’ll pardon a bad joke, they’re the X-Men and not the Angst-Men?

Exactly. I think the X-Men have always had a certain amount of angst, but the thing that I’m trying to calibrate with “Gold” is not making the angst the driving force of the stories. I kind of feel like for the longest time — and I’m really using “E For Extinction” as the sort of jumping off point — that the X-Men have had a lot of angst, which was appropriate because ever since “E For Extinction,” the X-Men have been sort of fighting for their very existence, always facing some version of extinction.

I think one of the great things about ResurrXion — and one of the reasons it’s so aptly titled — is that the X-Men coming out of “IvX” have a new lease on life. The existential threats that they were facing have been tabled for the time being and that’s allowing the X-Men to look to the future in a way that they haven’t been able to in a very long time. We hit this point pretty hard in X-Men Prime.

Kitty Pryde is returning to the X-Men in a leadership role. What made you want to cast her in this position?

It started with a great love of Kitty. My first X-Men issue that I read was #139, which was the “Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde – Hope You Survive the Experience” issue. From the moment I was offered the gig, I knew I wanted to return Kitty to the team if the character was available. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was an opportunity to do more than scratch a nostalgic itch. I realized I had the chance to tell a very classic story: the story of the apprentice who becomes the master. To me, her becoming the leader of the team was the ultimate realization of that arc.

When I pitched it, I wasn’t so sure how people at Marvel would respond, and to my delight, that was the thing about my take that excited and energized everyone the most. It certainly energized me because it’s been a lot of fun to write Kitty as someone calling the shots. She’s really proving on the job that she’s learned a lot over her many years of being a member of the X-Men.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #4 cover by Ardian Syaf

Is she going to feel some of the weight and darkness that some of the other prominent X-Men leaders have wrestled with like Cyclops and Storm?

Eventually I would love to get to that point. I’m intentionally avoiding that right now because, like I said, I tonally want to start the book off on a lighter and more hopeful note.

But you’re right: It is true that Storm and Cyclops have have met with very challenging moral ends. It’s something we’ll definitely be dealing a bit with when it comes to Storm, but it’s more on Storm’s side of the equation than on Kitty’s. It would be really nice to cast that particular shadow on Kitty eventually, but before I cast shadows, I want to get some sunlight in there.

Another interesting dynamic that occurred to while looking at your line up is you have two characters that hail from nightmarish possible futures in Old Man Logan and Rachel Grey. What’s it like bouncing those two characters off of each other?

I’ve got an idea for a really cool scene between Logan and Rachel, but the right moment to have that scene hasn’t happened yet. The scene I have in mind does speak directly to the fact they both come from futures that just happen to both be lousy. What is it about the future that in any iteration, it always looks crappy? I want to get a little meta (but not too meta) about it, but I haven’t had a chance to fit that in just yet.

Superheroics will be an essential part of “X-Men Gold,” but what about the training of the next generation of mutants? Will that be a part of your book as well?

Yeah, it happens in the background because the book is very much focused on the active X-Men. What I think is very critical about the X-Men’s new status quo is that the mansion is full with students, so the X-Men still have to be teachers as well as heroes. They have to continue to training the next generation of mutants.

So, yes, the younger X-Men will very much be a part of the book. In fact, the students have moments in each of the issues I’ve written so far. At the same time, it’s a little bit of a balancing act, because I want to maintain the focus on our core X-Men.

“X-Men Gold” #1 cover by Ardian Syaf

I think balancing between your core cast and all the fan-favorite supporting characters that are part of their world is sort of the main struggle for any X-Men writer. Because even the mutant characters that might be considered C-list by some are other readers’ favorites. So how has it been balancing all of those things?

I always try very hard to keep some space for non-action moments. I think when you’re able to spend time just with the characters it gives you opportunities to interact more with the students and more with the fan favorite characters.

At the same time, different stories are going to lend themselves to different kinds of characters. So while we’ll always have our core group, Kitty is smart: If she needs a particular power or skill set from other mutants she has no compunctions against bringing them into the field. For example, Rockslide and Armor will help the team in issue #3.

What’s your sense of the X-Men’s rogues’ gallery? Is “X-Men Gold” a book where we’ll see classic foes? New villains? Or both?

I would say both. The first arc features a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. One might think, “Jeez, another Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?” But hopefully I’ve come up with a twist that makes this Brotherhood different from all the other ones that came before it. That team will feature some familiar faces and some new characters.

There are a lot of different things I’m trying to balance in the book. One of them is having new characters and adding new toys to the toy box, while at the same time bringing back characters that people know and love. The Brotherhood is a good example of doing a mixture of those two things.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects about the Brotherhood is the word evil is in their name. A lot of villains see themselves as the heroes of their own story. So to have “evil” as part of their group moniker suggests you’re dealing with a group that wants to take ownership of that word and embrace it. Is that true with this group?

Yeah they really should be called, the Brotherhood of Self-Aware Mutants. No, the truth is in this particular instance the “evil” is very intentionally included. There’s a secret to the team that connects directly to the reason for the word “evil” being in the group’s name.

Ardian Syaf’s art has a feel and flavor that reminds me of some of the past heroic eras of the X-Men. So it seems like he’d be a good fit for what you want to do here. What’s it like working with him?

I’ve got to give all the credit in the world to [Marvel editor] Dan Ketchum. I said to him that putting Ardian on this book was the best bit of casting; of matching an artist to a book.

I think Ardian’s style tells you everything you need to know about what the book’s mission statement is. His art is new and fresh, but it also harkens back to John Byrne and Jim Lee. There’s even a bit of Arthur Adams in there. So his style is very modern, but it also speaks to an aesthetic that draws on the influence of the ’80s and the ’90s.

Ardian Syaf’s cover for March’s “X-Men” one-shot, written by Marc Guggenheim, illustrated by Ken Lashley and setting the stage for much of the “Resurrxion” status quo.

Any further hints and teases you can leave us with about the tone, scope, and scale of your initial stories?

Because we’re double-shipping I’m keeping the arcs pretty short. They’ll be about three to four issues long. I’m really excited about that actually, because it’s made the issues themselves very dense. We’re not really doing any sort of decompression here. We’re telling very tightly compacted and constructed stories, and I’m trying very hard to make sure that each issue has a handful of moments that make that issue really, really special. There’s no sort of filler issues. I want to make sure that with each issue everyone is getting a lot of bang for their buck; that in those 20 pages there’s a lot of great stuff going on.

That structure is also a lot of fun. We’re going to tell a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants story in the first arc and there’s going to be a brand new kind of threat in the second arc. You’re not going to have to wait six months to get a different story. You’ll be getting stories on a much more regular and consistent basis, which I think harkens back to the feel of reading these books back in the ’80s.

In recent years it tends to be very easy to have the X-Men exist in almost their own corner of the Marvel Universe. Will we see some of the larger outside MU trappings in “X-Men Gold?” Will groups like say, S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, pop up from time to time?

Yes. The whole raison d’etre of the book and the team is that throughout the X-Men’s history they’ve sort of segregated themselves. They were either up in Westchester, or they were on Utopia, or they were in Genosha, or Limbo. They were never in the middle of the action; they always segregated themselves from humankind. What’s so great about Kitty’s plan is that she wants to put the X-Men front and center. They’re going to have relationships and interactions with humans. That’s the only way they’re going to combat the prejudice against mutants. The only way you fight ignorance is with knowledge and interaction.

So, yes, the X-Men are going to be smack-dab in the middle of New York, and as we all know there’s a lot of superheroes and stuff going on in New York. We will be seeing S.H.I.E.L.D. As people who read my last comic know [Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” comic book], I have a great affection for S.H.I.E.L.D. We’ll also be seeing other superheroes as time goes on.

We’ll be crossing paths with some big things happening in the Marvel Universe, as well. That’s really important to what we’re trying to do with “X-Men Gold.” The big mission statement of the book and the team is that the X-Men are interacting with the rest of the Marvel Universe in a way that they really haven’t in a long time.

“X-Men Gold” #1 is scheduled for release on April 5, with “X-Men Gold” #2 following two weeks later.

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