#and also how it ties into the overarching theme of fate too

[cuntstable]

guy whos so bored hes about to do analysis on how class is written about in jojos silly journeys

[notjanine]

The crown is always a burden, but it cannot be borne if you cannot stand.

Black Sails - XXIV.

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Let’s talk: Film Out - lyric and MV analysis (+ BU theories) - Part 1

by Admin 1

From infinitetab: Hi Admins! Were you able to see the MV for Film Out?

Mostly to Admin 1 (though both can chime in!) who posted the related post and talked about BU theories — how did you feel about the MV? Do you think it ties to the BU picture? Since it was a Japanese song of theirs I didn’t really connect dots just yet, but now I feel like I need to re-watch this with my conspiracy hat on, as well as their other Japanese MVs to see if there is a connection haha — did I miss it or were there some shots from the teaser that weren’t in the final version?

(Admittedly, I don’t know much about the BU and all its theories/plots/interconnectedness — I’ve been interested to look into it but didn’t know where to start haha — do you have any resources/posts you’d direct a newbie to?)

Thank you for all your lovely thoughts via your posts. Have a good day! ☀️😁

We were indeed able to see it, I even watched it a bunch of time to take note of different details and so I’d be able to try and figure out how to even begin writing a proper reply to this since there is a lot to discuss. The funny thing is, I said to myself hey, let’s try to keep this brief, okay? But it’s me so who am I even trying to fool with that one.

I’d like to preface this by saying that, looking at the lyrics and the meaning of Film Out, the MV, which fits it beautifully, doesn’t have to necessarily connect to the BU but there are many parallels and things that fit a little too well to just be a coincidence. So, while it doesn’t have to connect, and therefore I don’t have to be right with literally any of my thoughts, interpretations and theories, there is a chance that both is true at the same time. Unless they’d tell us, we’ll never know, but isn’t this truly the fun of it all? Finding clues and piecing together the BU? After all that’s what we used to do for a long time until BH decided we were too “stupid” to get it, so they helped us with additional content in hopes of it making things clearer. It did, but it also made it all even more complex and hard to grasp.

This analysis will be split up into two posts:

Part 1 – the meaning of the song/lyrics – in short it could be summarized by a sense of longing/yearning for something that once was, or even never really was at all, like a phantom pain or Schrödinger’s memories. It’s the beauty of how ephemeral everything in life is and how memories are sometimes all we have left or can hold on to, even if they aren’t necessarily real at all.

Part 2 – Film Out MV and the BU – a brief explanation of what the BU is, an introduction into the plot and where to start if you want to get into the BU, and how the MV fits in with it and what the different scenes could mean and be interpreted as, as well as a few additional overarching theories for the entire MV instead of particular scenes.

Part 1 – the meaning of the song and a (very) brief analysis of the lyrics:

According to articles and some of our Japanese translators who are able to grasp the deeper nuance of Japanese that does not perfectly translate into English, the song is about this feeling of longing for someone/something that was once there but is no longer, or even the longing for something that was never even there in the first place.

You, in my imagination

Are so vivid

As if you are right there

But I reach out my hand

And you suddenly disappear

(here our translators, specifically kookceptional, noted how disappear, or rather vanished, in this instance describes a sadness from the inability to control the disappearance of someone who was never actually there.)

It’s this idea that you’ve honed in so deeply on your memories that they’ve become vivid, almost real, making it only so much harder to accept that they are just memories, or even just figments of your imagination. The lyrics also talk about projecting those memories across a room, like a movie or pictures, captured memories, two glasses that have been left untouched, these sounds and smells that bring you back to those memories over and over again and make you only cling to them so much more desperately. It causes you bursts of pain, as the lyrics suggest.

There’s also mention of how when you reach out, you/that something disappears, it’s like when you observe something beautiful, like cherry blossom petals falling from a tree and drifting through the wind, but once you decide to take a picture of it, by the time you have your camera/phone in hand, the moment is gone. It can’t be repeated in that exact same way once again, and instead of existing forever in a picture, it’s now only part of your memory. But over time, no matter how hard you’ll try, that memory will fade, too.

Of course, like with many BTS songs, there are many ways of interpreting the lyrics and meanings, of how you associate them with different feelings and even your own experiences, the fact that the same words resonate with us in different ways.

It’s also worth noting that Film Out is part of an OST for the Japanese remake of Signal, therefore the lyrics might have connection to the movie. Fun fact: Signal is the remake of a K-Drama with the same title from 2014 but there’s also a Japanese TV show that, too, is a remake of that K-Drama from 2018 and its opening theme was BTS’ Don’t Leave Me. The premise of the show/movie is that a walkie talkie allows two detectives, one from 2015 (cold case profiler) and the other from 1989 to solve crimes together and even try to prevent them.

Personally I’ve never seen the K-Drama nor the Japanese version so I can’t really speak on the connection between the plot of the show and the song, but if they truly manage to prevent cases from ever happening, that would mean knowing of something that was never even there, like the memories of someone who was never even there in the first place like in Film Out, though even as I type it, it sounds like quite a stretch.

If some of you have seen either, please do comment if there’s a connection to be made here or not.

A thought I had while thinking about Film Out and its meaning/lyrics was that there could be a connection loosely drawn between Let Go (here though I feel it’s important to know how deeply meaningful and weighted of a song Let Go is, seeing as it was written and released in a time where Bangtan considered disbandment and this song would’ve, in a way, acted as a sort of farewell, so again take these thoughts of mine with a grain of salt since even I’m a little iffy on if they’d connect such a deeply meaningful song to another one written for an OST), the thought that you are ready to let go of that person/thing, to say goodbye and move on, but then in Film Out you realize that you can’t, that you’re still holding on to them and trying to piece together this thing you had, this person, but that is now gone, vanished like smoke never to return again.

Example:

If my fate is to disappear like this, then this is my last letter

Penned words, written then erased (therefore words that never were/never came to be)

Feelings for you, so many to let go

Unpuzzle my lego

At a level where it can’t return to its original shape

(…)

Before we say goodbye, let go

But I’m lost in the maze of my heart (FO: From all the memories stored in my heart)

From stereo to mono

That’s how the path splits

The lyrics for Film Out are translated in the actual MV, but I also thought I’ll add the translation done by kookceptional as well as ttokminnie since they add a lot of valuable language context and nuance:

These concepts are also shown in the MV with Seokjin as the narrator watching the scene inside the room (note how all seven are inside it) but they are frozen, like this picture of how times were once so happy and they were all together but as the MV progresses, the members vanish as Seokjin watches on, the room quite literally explodes as though his memories are obliterated (by the realization that they were never real in the first place? That their time ran out?) and thus can’t be pieced together again, or maybe it was all just an illusion all along. It feels like Seokjin is watching those memories being projected, a film from inside of him being played outward, so seemingly close and real yet he can’t reach it, can’t be part of it again, can only feel the pain these memories have left behind.

[theshinobiway]

I read your other two posts about shipping nejiten and why you dont. I think you make good arguments about how marrying neji would take away tenten's freedom but I was actually wondering about how you view the ship from the perspective of someone who is married? Sorry of that doesn't make sense. I mean like how compatible you think their personalities are if the story was written differently.

Hey there anon!

So this will be my third time addressing the pairing and not to say it's any fault of yours, but I hope it's the last.

I care most about what makes a character develop in a way that is meaningful and beneficial for the overarching story. This extends into the pairings I choose to ship. I've also never been a big shipper to begin with and I'm indifferent to most pairings from any show I watch.

I also am married. Personally, fictional ships or shipping wars do not interest me in the slightest. I'd rather focus on my own, real, interpersonal relationships.

To expand on why I don't like talking about this pairing in particular: it's because I have been openly harassed by fans of the pairing both on this blog and on a previous blog that I eventually closed because my inbox blew up with angry stans that, a few years ago, I was not mentally equipped to handle. I've responded to around two to three asks openly on the blog, but at this point I've deleted in the range of 10-12 messages that I did not see fit to dignify with a response.

I figure that most of these comments come from underage followers who are too immature to understand complexities of romantic relationships or are simply too disinterested in talking about the literature to have open discourse with. They just want to ship what they believe the characters are like, have headcanons, and ignore the evidence contrary. As an adult, I have to handle this with patience and understanding. I'm not about to rage on any anon follower because I don't know their age or personal circumstances. And frankly, a fictional pairing is not worth tearing someone down over–I speak from experience.

Now, on to answering your question in full:

When it comes to the narrative, there isn't a common thread (theme, motif, storyline, etc.) that ties Neji and Tenten together. They both have the goal to get stronger, (As is the theme of team Gai at large) but Neji's story is MOST closely tied to Hinata/The Hyuga, Lee, and Naruto (in that order.) All three of those characters are sufficient enough to spur Neji's growth in his own arc. Tenten's support as a teammate is also sufficient enough. They are good battle partners (combining long range and short range) but the same is also said for Tenten and Lee. There's nothing special here. Nothing that screams "chemistry" or that "stands out."

The reason people love pairings such as SnS, NaruSaku, NaruHina, Sasusaku, SaiIno, ShikaTema, etc. is because all of these pairings have two partners that can equally contribute to the other's growth. Neji and Tenten simply do not have this. Tenten adds nothing to Neji that he does not already have: her support already comes from multiple other people in his life that understand his situation better. Tenten is often shown having a more common thread with Lee: they are both ninja that came from no special background and are overcoming their own weaknesses to pave their own path. You might say Tenten could humanize Neji or humble him, but Naruto and Lee already do that. Neji's closest female relationship is with Hinata, and that's where we see him become softer and more patient. Hinata is the one that humanizes Neji the most, and it's because they also share a same arc: literally, the Hyuga clan arc. She has the emotional intelligence to reach Neji and the position to make him believe in the determination of the once-talentless. That's THEIR arc as siblings.

I would also like people to ask themselves what exactly Neji can offer Tenten. In the reverse, I strongly can affirm that Neji does NOTHING for Tenten. He can train with her? So can the rest of her team, and she does. He can encourage her? So can the rest of her team, and they do–far more than Neji. He can calm her down when Gai/Lee do their antics? Okay, but is being a walking pacifier really a great foundry for a relationship? (Also, as Tenten gets older, part of her personal development is finally accepting her own goofy side and joining in!) In fact, his relationship and subsequent would inhibit her stated goals and dreams.

Tenten flat out does not want to have a traditional, feminine lifestyle of getting married. And as a married person, it's not impossible to understand why! Relationships and marriages are HARD work! It's not sailing into the sunset with kids and a house! They require commitment and upkeep! Sacrifice! They are a huge stressor (even the best marriages!) and you must balance the feelings and dreams of another person when you are deciding your future and make personal sacrifices.

Tenten wants to follow her hobbies and her dream is one of self-determination. Marrying Neji means introducing a rigid, hierarchical clan structure for which Tenten has no experience/interest in and is ill-prepared to handle. Her blunt, insensitive attitude would not fare well in the formal atmosphere of Hyuga affairs–this isnt a shoujo of rich guy/average girl. This is a shounen. She'll be expected to raise children and retire/hiatus from her career. This expectation does not help her goals or dreams and effectively halts her personal development.

In fact, had this pairing actually happened, shippers might have been happy that their pairing "made it," but I have no doubt that people would have ALSO called Tenten yet ANOTHER victim of Kishi's 'housewife' troupe next to Sakura and Temari. Making her Neji's wife erases what little personal identity and development she had. Why would you want to put the ONE woman who pursued her career and goals in a relationship and erase that? Because they have an aesthetic? I surely hope you never then complain about the fates of Sakura or Temari, then!

And on that note, "fixing the writing" to where Tenten is an 'empowered working mom' does NOT address Tenten's personal desires. I see this most often discarded in favor of ANY of her ships.

Tenten's purpose in the story is to show a woman who branches out from the norm. I also seldom see a woman in any story who is as balanced and flawed as she is while still being lovable. Also, despite relegating the other kunoichi to housewife status, Kishi deliberately let Tenten be a single woman who is not criticized for her decision. Japan itself still has a traditional mindset in that regard, and seeing the other cast members treat Tenten as normal–not even commenting on her relationship status–is a quiet, but no less significant addition to the story. It normalizes career women in a traditional atmosphere.

Gag about her store aside, Tenten's shop isn't doing poorly because she's a bad businesswoman or a spinster. It's been clearly stated by Tenten herself that it's because they are in a time of peace. Again, a small but significant detail that gets overlooked in Tenten's story. As Boruto progresses and war seems to loom on the horizon, I have no doubt her shop may get more business soon.

Tenten and Neji have the making of good friends and comrades with some common ground, and it's for the betterment of both of them personally that they stayed that way throughout the series. Good relationships add to characters and stories–they don't take things away.

Hopefully this finally puts my full opinions on the matter to rest. Fandom can do whatever it wants, but I'd like to not see any more of the ridiculous "pairing war" nonsense pop up in my inbox. Nejiten has FAR better reasons to stay platonic than it ever will to become canon, even in a rewritten story where Neji lives. If you want a pairing with this aesthetic but actually have chemistry and a shared narrative, look at Ren/Nora of RWBY (which, coincidentally, is actually one of the few pairings I enjoy.)

Thanks for contributing to the blog!

[powerbottomblake]

RWBY:Ragnarok or predictions on the Atlas arc

Building on my previous post about how the RWBY arcs parallel seasons and the archetypal narrative structure linked to each season, I’ve established that Atlas corresponds to winter, aka themes of darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos, and the defeat of the heroic figure, but what I’m going to be developing here is how winter is linked to Götterdämmerung myths, a.k.a Ragnarok, otherwise known as the death of the gods in Norse mythology. So yes, Atlas is definitely a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Time for our heroes.

The thing is, that isn’t the only Norse mythology allusion tied to Atlas, be it the cast, the location or the events of Ragnarok itself. This post will be about delving into all of these allusions and find how Ragnarok’s narrative beats find equivalents in RWBY and how it might help predict the Atlas endgame (or at least part of it) as well as figure out some general plot points.

But before that, I feel like you need to familiarize yourself with the G.U.N theory (though I don’t know if I’m 100% in the scope of it with this post). I think the person that best explained it in a concise way would be @alexkablob in this post but basically the nitty gritty of it is that all RWBY characters aren’t allusions to a single myth but have layers of different allusions to several myths, and decoding them makes it possible to predict the beats of their narrative. Think v6 made it all too obvious with how Adam was Prince Adam (a.k.a the Beast before any character development or growth), the Rose curse and Gaston all wrapped in one (plus some references to Anakin Skywalker too apparently!); or how Yang is Goldilocks, Beauty and the Beast simultaneously (amongst others).

So characters that you know are allusions to a certain myth/fairytale, might have allusions to other ones, less obvious but still just as significant in determining that character’s fate and their overarching character arc, and the Atlas arc of the story is just full of these other allusions, all Norse mythology themed.

I’ll start with the allusions tied to the central figure of Atlas’ plot, aka the man himself, James Ironwood, then branch out on the connected cast’s allusions and how they’d fill their respective roles in Atlas’ version of Ragnarok.

So, as we all know James Ironwood is supposed to be our Tinman from the wizard of Oz. Thing is Ironwood also refers to a location in Norse mythology, Járnviðr (literally old Norse for Iron-wood), where a witch gives birth to giant wolves that are alluded to as Fenrir’s kin, one of them in particular being dubbed snatcher of the moon, who will swallow the moon come Ragnarok.

Before delving deeper into this, who is Fenrir?

Fenrir is a monstrous wolf who’s bound until comes Ragnarok, where he breaks free, wreaks havoc on the realm of the gods, and kills Odin, the patriarch of the Norse mythology pantheon and one of its most powerful figures.

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that CRWBY will merge all the monstrous apocalyptic wolf figures into one because that’s the decision that makes the most sense, and I’m gonna refer to it as Fenrwby to differentiate it from the original Fenrir (listen I couldn’t come up with anything else).

So now we’ve established that Atlas harbors or will get invaded by this giant wolf, Fenrir, who announces the apocalypse and swallows the moon.

Damn, I wonder which character is always closely associated to moon symbolism, incidentally also alluding to a tale called Dead Moon (again @alexkablob got you covered) and whose death circumstances are still a mystery till now?

That’s right I think Fenrwby will be confirmed to be the reason Summer died. Another point that absolutely convinces me of it is that he(it?) refers to. A gigantic evil wolf. Or you could say. A Big Bad Wolf. And guess where Little Red Riding Hood is headed right now?

But before eating Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf eats the grandmother first.

Yeah, this might very well be the last time Maria’s making the trip to Atlas.

But let’s go back to Ironwood. There’s yet another allusion to him and that’s the Norse god Tyr. Tyr was a war god, but also presided over law and justice, which aligns with Ironwood being leader of the military, headmaster and even has the Council (which I assume is executive and judicial power) bow to him.

Tyr’s most striking act and for which he’s most known though is that he’s sacrificed his arm when the gods first bound Fenrir, the arm the wolf bit off being the right one, and lo and behold:

James Ironwood is indeed missing a right arm (well a whole right side because he’s also Tinman, but you get me). From this we can already surmise that the mission Summer was sent over to was probably the containment of Fenrwby, and it cost Summer her life and Ironwood his right side.

That leaves us with one question: who/what is Fenrwby and where did he come from?

We’ll have to go back to the original myth for a bit here. In Norse Mythology, the trickster god Loki fathers three children with a giantess:  Hel, a woman that becomes a sort of queen of the Underworld, the world serpent Jörmungandr and the world wolf Fenrir. All three siblings are prophesied to be big trouble to the gods but what sets Fenrir apart is that:

He’s the one foretold to announce Ragnarok; his unbidding decides it

He’s the one destined to swallow Odin himself whole

He’s the only “hellish” sibling who’s raised right where the gods live, in Asgard

Beyond the similarity in how the names sound, I do believe Atlas’ design takes after Asgard and is meant to symbolize it.

For further reference here’s Marvel’s take on Asgard:

And here’s our first look at Atlas:

Atlas even has those threads attached to Mantle below which I suspect act as anchors + elevators/transportation conducts (most of it probably dedicated to Dust transport) between Mantle and Atlas, but also are a visual reference to Yggdrasil's roots, the Norse world tree, extending from Asgard to the other realms below.

So Fenrir is raised right in Asgard, but the wee pup is growing at an alarming rate (plus is prophesied to destroy all of it) so none of the gods is keen on approaching him. None except one brave god that is the only one to get close and feed him. And who would that be? That’s right, Tyr a.k.a our basis for Ironwood.

Ironwood hosting and hand-rearing a monster that will ultimately cause Summer’s death and the Atlaspocalypse sounds extremely unlikely, but there’s one scenario where this makes sense.

Atlas is known for its technological advancement and its constant development of new weaponry. I believe Fenrwby was born out of such a project, under the general leadership of Ironwood, but someone must have taken the experiments too far and ended up creating something so terrible Summer Rose herself (and maybe all or a combination of the remaining STRQ team), a silver-eyed warrior, had to be dispatched to neutralize, dying in the process.

Now is the time to remember that Fenrir is Loki’s son. In the original myth, Loki, an Asgardian god, gets eventually banished and during Ragnarok sides with the enemies.

So we’re basically looking for a disgraced Atlesian, who was possibly a scientist and is now currently working with the enemy.

And here is our Loki, none other than Arthur Watts himself, whose fallout with Atlas is yet to be explained.

I believe the reason he left Atlas was because he’s the one responsible for Fenrwby’s creation and in its immediate fallout, evaded arrest.

Another reason that leads me to believe Watts is our Loki is that Loki’s ties to Hel, Norse queen of the underworld, who was described to be “half-black and half flesh-colored”, which is a dead ringer for Salem.

Arthur Watts’ name also seems to refer to Arthur Conan Doyle and John Watson, the first one being the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the latter his dutiful companion and side-kick, so I believe Watts might be a combination of (evil) Sherlock and Watson. This is further supported with how Watts’ appearance seems to be a blend of both (Watson is described as tan, with a strong build and a moustache and Sherlock as tall and lean) and his outfit being Victorian-era inspired. He is referred to as Doctor by Salem, first to affirm his status as fallen scientist from Atlas but also most likely as a nod to Watson who was a skilled doctor and often would be referred to as Doctor as well. Sherlock Holmes is known to be an emotionally detached analytical machine with a caustic (and at times callous) kind of humor, having a usually dispassionate and cold demeanor, all of which match what we see of Watts. How is this linked to our Ragnarok? Well one of Sherlock Holmes’ most well-known stories, one where incidentally Watson has a very proactive and prominent role, is the Hound of the Baskervilles. The story is itself based on the legend of a “monstrously evil man” who sold his soul to the Devil (Salem) and after his death led a pack of phantom, evil hounds.

Evil hounds, monstrous wolves...Watts always gets linked to big bad canidae one way or the other.

Which brings us to our next question: now that we know who made Fenrwby, what exactly is Fenrwby?

Ok so this is the part where the theory gets tentative because there isn't much to go off of, so bear with me.

Watts is partly based on Sherlock Holmes, who is indifferent and detached usually, unless he's in the midst of an investigation. He then turns driven, getting tunnel-visioned and borderline obsessed (he can even go without food for so long he faints) until he solves the mystery. I think Watts is much the same. He carries himself with cool composure mostly but there was one instance where he showed a sort of zealous fascination: when he saw the seer Grimm.

Ok so I have an inkling that Watts is fascinated by the Grimm, and his forbidden experiments involved Grimm creatures. This is further supported by the Baskerville allusion to a pack of phantom hounds, which could very well reference the Grimm.

So going off this, Watts experimented on Grimm - since Atlas is very much wolf-themed, maybe Beowolfs? - and out of them he made Fenrwby.

But what could possibly be combined to Grimm in a way that’d defeat the combined forces of Ironwood (whose entire right side got severed) and an experienced silver eyed warrior like Summer?

I think we can make an educated guess based off the two major technological breakthroughs we got to witness during V1-3, namely Penny, the first synthetic being able to generate aura and the aura transfer machine. You’ll have guessed it, I think Atlas was dabbling into aura experimentation and Watts rerouted it to his own Grimm endeavors. What if he succeeded in equipping Grimm with something similar to Aura? Something that would hijack the Silver Eyes. I’m just bouncing ideas here but I’m pretty sure Fenrwby is the result of Watts tinkering with Aura and Grimm, and I think Watts staying with Salem is in large part because she’s the crystallization of the divide that fascinates him, being both human (having a soul, so in theory having aura) and grimm. Salem is the long running case study Watts is pursuing in a way.

So. Now that we’ve established what Fenrwby might be and who is behind it, we can delve into the narrative beats of Ragnarok. I made a synthetic list of Ragnarok events that seem relevant and connect to RWBY as a narrative:

Fenrir swallows Odin

I think Ozpin having Odin references in his character is common knowledge enough in the fandom. Odin is the king of Asgard, is associated with wisdom, knowledge and sorcery amongst other things, and is known for having two raven familiars (Raven and Qrow), all of which fit Ozpin.

What could Odin being swallowed mean for Oz and Oscar?

Of course, this could simply be an indication of Oz/Oscar fighting Fenrwby with Ruby, and losing.

But we can take it further. Oz lives inside Oscar through the merge between their souls, their auras connecting. We’ve established Atlas has been studying and experimenting on aura; Watts has most probably even toed the line of what is morally acceptable in terms of experiments. What if Fenrwby, or one of the machines Watts has been “tinkering with”, is able to sever the connection, effectively trapping Ozpin’s soul or at least sending it in another reincarnation cycle? This is a reach, I’ll admit, but something about Odin being swallowed somehow does not bode well for Ozpin.

Thor fights Jörmungandr

Can’t talk about Norse mythology without talking about Thor! And incidentally we have someone in the main cast based off him. I’ve always found it weird how V4 gives Ren a comprehensive backstory but never an explanation for how Nora is just there, beyond “random Kuroyuri orphan”  (How did she get orphaned? Why was she in Kuroyuri? Who were her parents?). I think Nora’s backstory will be fully explained in Atlas as I have a feeling Weiss isn’t the only one coming home. Thor’s home is Asgard after all.

So Thor fights the giant serpent that is Loki’s other son and Fenrir’s brother. One of Jörmungandr’s most striking features is his venom, as he’s described spraying it through air and sea, and it’s how he kills Thor even as he’s slayed by him, poisoning the god to his death.

Our Jörmungadr equivalent thus needs to wield poison, and be sired (or fixed) by Loki aka Watts. That would be Tyrian.

I believe we’ll have the second round of Team JNR vs Tyrian - as foreshadowed by Tyrian’s interest in Jaune - and it’ll end with Tyrian dying and Nora being gravely wounded.

The frost giants join the fray against the gods

I’ve already expanded on this in my previous post, but Jack Frost, Jacques’ fairy tale basis, is said to be based on the norse frost giants. This, coupled with the “Jack and the beanstalk” references, pushes me to think Jacques is going to betray and cause the death of Ironwood and help team W.T.C.H steal the relic.

Gamr, another big hellish hound, kills Tyr

Gamr is another monstrous hound who breaks free of his bindings in Ragnarok. As I said before, I believe all hounds/wolf imagery is going to be compounded in a single entity in RWBY (especially when they sometimes share identical characteristics), so this is Fenrwby getting free of whatever binding Summer put him under (maybe the Silver Eye power petrified him the way Ruby did the giant Nevermore?) and killing Ironwood.

Surtr, a fire giant from Muspelheim, the realm of fire, covers the entire world with fire with his flaming sword

Surtr is a fire giant that guards Muspelheim, a hot and glowing land of fire, and who sets the world on fire with his flaming sword at the end of Ragnarok. This signals the destruction of the world, but also announces its rebirth with the surviving gods and humans meeting afterwards and leading into a new era.

So the guardian of a sword of destruction (Vacuo’s relic), coming from a hot unforgiving land (Vacuo), crashes the fight. I believe this is when the Summer maiden gets introduced, and she uses the relic to end the fight and save the thoroughly defeated team RWBY so that everyone may escape to Vacuo as Atlas’ destruction is complete.

So, to TL;DR this extremely long post:

There is a Big Bad Wolf kind of monster/entity in Atlas I’m tentatively calling Fenrwby

Watts created this monster by dabbling into forbidden experimentation, probably on aura and grimm

Summer Rose sealed said monster but at the cost of her life and the fight cost Ironwood his right side

Fenrwby is unleashed on Atlas, either by Team W.T.C.H, accidentally by Ironwood, or a combination of both

Jacques sides with W.T.C.H and helps them steal the relic

Fenrwby kills Ironwood and Maria

Oz is either defeated, sealed away from Oscar or sent in another reincarnation loop

Nora is from Atlas and we get her extended backstory

Team JNR fight Tyrian and are able to defeat him but Nora is gravely wounded

the Summer maiden arrives in a bind and with the relic of destruction ends the fight and takes team RWBY to safety

[ultraericthered]

Star VS The Wasted Story Arc Potential

These are the story arcs, character arcs, and subplots we were given throughout the run of Star VS The Forces Of Evil, showing exactly why S2/TBFM > S1 > S4 > S3 overall.

The Transfer Student Saga: Season 1 was a largely slice-of-life affair that gave us only two story arcs - the Castle Avarius story arc and the St. Olga’s Reform School story arc. Both arcs spanned about six or seven episodes out of the 13, some of them even intersecting with each other, and both were done exceptionally well in how they built to their surprisingly dark conclusions.

The Corrupted Magic Saga: Season 2 plus the Battle For Mewni TV special gave us the Magic On The Fritz story arc following off from where the Castle Avarius arc had ended, and it’s bar none the most solid arc the series ever had. Season 2 also featured the Jarco Romance & Star’s Crush subplot (featuring in “Sleepover”, “Naysaya”, “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown”, “Running With Scissors”, “Just Friends”, “Face The Music” and “Starcrushed”) , the Miss Heinous On Earth subplot (featuring in “Goblin Dogs”, “Gift Of The Card”, and “Heinous”), the Marco VS Tom subplot (featuring in the episodes “Mr. Candle Cares”, “Friendenemies”, and “Nayasaya”), Ludo’s character arc, Buff Frog’s character arc, recurring points like Star’s friendship with Janna and Marco’s friendship with Sensei, and some Butterfly family stuff coming into play time and again, in this season and the next. All of it was overall well balanced and solid.

The Butterfly Secrets Saga: Season 3 was centered around the Return Of Eclipsa/Reawakening Of Meteora story arc, and this is where the show’s overarching plot started getting messy - the “Return Of Eclipsa” part got sidelined no sooner than it began, and the “Reawakening Of Meteora” part came midway through yet took ‘til the last four episodes to actually take off and bear fruit. In the meanwhile, the season was left juggling the romantic shipping subplots of TomStar, the Jarco breakup, Marco and Kelly, and the increasingly forced Starco teasings, Glossaryck’s return subplot that just consisted of him acting animalistic and screaming “Globgor!” all season long until the very end delivered the payoff, Marco As Star’s Squire subplot that didn’t really go anywhere after it was introduced (”Lint Catcher”/”Trial By Squire”, and that was it), Buff Frog As Mewni’s Monster Expert subplot that died an even quicker death after it was introduced (”Starfari” and “Is Another Mystery”), Star’s Butterfly Form subplot that only featured in three episodes (”Sweet Dreams”, “Night Life”, and “Deep Dive”), Mewman-Monster Tensions subplot that thematically tied into the main story arc but only popped up in like five episodes (”Starfari”, “Death Peck”, “Monster Bash”, “Is Another Mystery”, and “Tough Love”), Tom’s character arc which was actually pretty good, Ludo and Dennis which only featured in a single episode but was also pretty good, and at one point there was even a brief return to Earth ‘cause Mrs. Diaz was pregnant with another baby and Marco was to be a big brother (”Marco Jr.”). While the season and it’s main arc got a two-part finale that managed to stick the landing, the season was overall bogged down by way too much for it to handle properly.

The New Mewni Saga: Season 4 was centered around the Solarian Threat/End Of Magic story arc, which was exciting enough yet feels like two different arcs smooshed together as one but with a flimsy grasp on how to make both arcs’ focuses complement each other well. In addition we got the Beach Day subplot that tied into the continuing romantic shipping subplots and the Fate VS Free Will running theme, the Moon’s New Life subplot that led to a horrifying place by the main arc’s end, the Ponyhead Show subplot that was just one big unfunny joke, an undoing of last season’s Marco As Star’s Squire subplot ‘cause it didn’t pan out, continuing of the Mewman-Monster Tensions subplot that tied even more heavily into this season’s main arc yet didn’t reach the conclusion it seemed meant to, Tom’s character arc, already good and continuing to get even better, Janna’s character arc which was a welcome surprise, Ludo and Dennis again featuring in only a single episode (plus a cameo in the finale) but still being great, and a brief Return To Echo Creek just to give a nice curtain call to the place and it’s residents prior to the big finale that would change the course of it’s fate. The season and it’s main arc was notably more focused and better done than Season 3, but it’s finale, the series’ finale, surprisingly failed to stick the landing the way all the previous finales had.

Now, here’s where I’m going to delve into the story arcs and overarching Myth Arc that I’m convinced Daron had all the ideas for but couldn’t properly pull off due to several varying factors with several varying forces at play and people at fault, including herself. 

First of all, I believe that following the 13 episode order of S1 and the success of the show’s promotion and premiere, Disney picked the show up for not 13 more episodes, not even 22 more episodes, but 26 more episodes - that’d be the length of two S1s put together and another episode order that animated shows typically tend to be picked up for. But only 22 of those episodes got put into what became S2, while the last four got made under a “SPE” production code to signify that they together made up a TV Special finale, “The Battle For Mewni”, which wrapped up the current story arc and could have possibly ended the series had 42 more episodes not been ordered and divided into the next two seasons.

Knowing that they had 26 episodes in which to tell a larger story following the first season is what led to Daron introducing Toffee and planting the seeds for that story in late S1. She and the other writers had the Magic On The Fritz story arc planned ahead by the time “Fortune Cookies” was written and made. Giancarlo Volpe’s involvement also helped make this arc the high point of the series. Daron also had some vague but not concrete ideas about the history of Mewni and the Butterfly monarchy that she started implementing with the characters of Glossaryck and Miss Heinous. So when did a full endgame plan and concrete ideas for the direction of the show’s storyline going forward emerge? Two different episodes in mid-S2 that set up it’s course: “Into The Wand” and “Page Turner”. Those episodes laid groundwork for so much that was yet to come, and this is how I think what to come was really meant to go:

Moon The Undaunted Arc: This is the S2/TBFM arc, which really takes off in the second half from “Raid The Cave” to “Toffee”, but was built up since S1′s finale, “Storm The Castle”. The story centers around Moon’s old nemesis Toffee enacting a plan for vengeance on her and all of Mewni, with Moon’s daughter Star and her enemy Ludo caught in the middle of it.

Eclipsa The Queen Of Darkness Arc: This is the S3 arc, which really took off in it’s second half following “Monster Bash”, but had received build-up during the Moon arc. The story centers around Queen Eclipsa being freed from her crystal prison as a result of Toffee’s death, which creates a stir within Mewni even as she’s held captive for trial. To complicate matters, Miss Heinous’ true persona of Meteora, Eclipsa’s half-monster daughter, awakens and goes on a vengeful rampage against Mewni, putting Star and her friends in the crossfire.

Solaria The Monster Carver Arc: This is the S4 arc, which really took off by “Junkin’ Janna” but had received build-up beforehand, including during the Eclipsa arc. The story centers around Eclipsa, now Queen of Mewni again, planning to free her monster husband Globgor creating a pushback from bigoted Mewmans, the most dangerous of such being Mina Loveberry, who embarks on a quest to revive the Solarian Super Soldier program and invade the kingdom in order to take out Globgor, Eclipsa, and all monsters in Queen Solaria’s name. 

Celena The Shy Arc: This is the final planned story arc, which pays off all that had been built up over the course of the series. The story centers around a dark magic infection spreading through the Realm of Magic and creating the greatest threat of all in the form of the darkest spell ever created, the total annihilation spell, going rouge and mutating into an abomination that seeks to bring destruction and death to all realms connected by magic, uniting not only Mewmans and monsters together, but four members of the Butterfly family destined to end the threat through the ultimate sacrifice. Star and Marco’s bond is taken to it’s conclusion as well, birthing a brand new united world and a new, purer form of magic in the process.

See, the story works it’s way backwards from the queens of Mewni given spotlight in the big Grandma Room scene of “Into The Wand”. Notice the problem with what we actually got, though? The Eclipsa arc ended up being tremendously undercooked and mostly poorly serviced in it’s season, and the final season shoved two entirely different arcs in it’s plot in an effort to bring the best ideas of both to the table and mix them together only to end up with a poorly executed mess and a weird, confusing, ultimately underwhelming letdown of a finale.

Had Daron gotten better writing talent to fully realize and competently implement/execute her ideas in practice and better calls from the Disney management (like more time, more Echo Creek, less fillers, less Starco crap), the seasons following “The Battle For Mewni” could’ve delivered MUCH better stories than what actually ended up on our screens. But it wasn’t to be, and SVTFOE ended up with above averageness where greatness should have been.

And when all is said and done, the biggest hindrance was the Starco romance. Fuck Daron Nefcy for pandering to the shippers and fuck anyone who told her that was a good idea.

[thornsickle]

How to resolve the saga: Why Luke’s journey in The Last Jedi reveals the fate of Ben Solo in Episode IX

How do we solve the end?

Kylo Ren, the last Skywalker, dies.

But ‘Ben’ survives...

The Legacy Saga = the breaking of the ‘Skywalker’ Curse

Watching a film after a long period of time of 'abstinence’ does wonders for one’s sense of perspective.

I actually had not watched ‘The Last Jedi’ properly since I purchased the Blu-ray of it during its initial release. So I hadn’t seen it properly for nearly a year.

What struck me upon re-watching it was that so much of Luke’s story speaks to the overall dilemma that his family has suffered from throughout the saga.

To put it simply, it is the curse of their name and the legacy that they have all left behind.

One of the reasons why audiences struggled with Luke’s journey in TLJ was because they viewed VI as the end. No problems. No loose ends. Everything resolved.

What Rian Johnson did, and quite rightly, during his search for a story, was to find a thread, a problem that had not been addressed yet in any of the previous episodes. A problem unresolved. And, quite annoyingly, he did. And that is what Luke’s final journey is all about.

For that is the only way Rian Johnson could see of feasibly making the sequel trilogy relevant to all that had come before. Without something unresolved from the original trilogy, it would leave the sequel trilogy with no reason to be made. For this, Rian Johnson must be applauded. I only hope JJ Abrams understood what Rian’s film was really about and plays his cards right.

Legacy can be a curse. This sentiment is clearly expressed when you look at Luke’s dialogue, particularly during his second lesson to Rey. They come to blows when they finally reach the main point of that scene. Luke’s journey is about reconciling himself with his legacy as a Skywalker and as a Jedi. Rey puts an idea in his head, a thought which he finally sparks into reality at the end of the film.

‘The galaxy may need a legend.’

If there is a theme, a main ‘villain’ that must be dealt with so to speak in the sequel trilogy, one could say that, at least theoretically, it is ‘legacy’ itself.

Perhaps ‘misunderstood’ is better description.....

What I realised during this repeat watch is that Kylo and Luke’s journeys are a lot more chained together than one would initially think. Rey and Kylo’s journey together is a subtle dance, a musical sequence where they are opposite each other, a mirror to each other as they try to bridge the gap between them. Rey is a mirror to Kylo; she is desperately trying to find her family name while he is desperately trying to rid himself of it. On reflection, his interaction with Rey is interesting. Her anonymity is something which, dare I say it, he is actually envious of.

‘You....... A scavenger.’

Luke and Kylo’s journey together is much more than just a simple construct within a single film. In many ways, they each must be burdened with one third of a story, the third being held by the one who came before them, Anakin Skywalker.

Both Skywalkers, cursed with the legacy of their family name, unable to reconcile themselves as individuals with their shadow selves, the image which they desperately have tried to make and uphold, only for it to be torn to shreds (Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren respectively).

Although Luke doesn’t have a separate name like his father and nephew, just because he’s on the light side doesn’t mean he doesn’t suffer from the same problems. Luke’s conflict highlights the overarching unresolved problem within his family. His nephew has the same problem; the inability to find himself because of his family name.

In many ways, the problem they face is not too dissimilar with another form in pop culture, who must deal with a dual personality and the question of legacy.

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy also deals with this problem; the two sides of our protagonist, Batman and Bruce Wayne. Which is his true self? How can the two co-exist?

In the Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce Wayne is aware of the power of legacy and image. It’s not a surprise, because he learned this through taking advantage of his family name. It’s no secret that, for him, Bruce Wayne is the mask, not Batman. There’s a reason why he’s born into a family with already a legacy of its own. Throughout the films, Bruce Wayne must attempt to come to terms with his identity as Batman and whether that too must eventually turn into a legacy....

For Ben Solo, he wants to destroy the very idea of legacy. He calls it the past, but what he really means is his family name. Rey desperately is searching for her family name while he is desperately trying to rid himself of it.

Luke too attempts to do this by cutting himself off from the force, the very symbol one could say, that distinguishes the Skywalkers for what they are.

Luke’s journey is perhaps misleadingly presented as a singular one with little outside influence. Rey and Kylo’s journeys quite clearly intertwine but Luke’s journey is actually a foreshadowing for what is to come for our final Skywalker.

Looking back, I think it is alarmingly clear that the element that Rian Johnson found which he felt would help legitimise the sequel trilogy’s existence was the problem of ‘legacy’.

While Yoda’s lesson to Luke is about failure, another important element in TLj, it’s overriding theme is about legacy as well. The legacy of the teacher, which Luke has yet to do for his nephew.

‘Pass on what you have learned.’

Looking beyond the constructs of the story itself however, helps to see that Luke’s preoccupation with the problem of ‘legacy’ is not in fact a random one, and ties back to The Force Awakens.

Kylo Ren’s preoccupation with Darth Vader, I believe, is what struck Rian Johnson as the key which linked everything together. Not the notion itself perhaps, but Kylo Ren’s problem with his family’s legacy. My guess is this is the thread which Rian saw could logically be the conundrum which Luke would be faced with. For if the mentor has failed to reconcile himself with this aspect, then it only makes sense that the student would also suffer the same problem.

In other words, Rian Johnson worked backwards, starting from TFA, rather than looking back at things from the perspective of what had come before.

I think Luke’s deception at the end of the film clearly shows this is what the director was thinking. In many ways, Luke’s embrace of legacy, is his understanding that it is, in the end, something intangible, an illusion. Like history, something to be remembered but not to be constricted by either.

Illusions are not without merit either.

So what does Luke’s arc show when it comes to Ben Solo?

Much like his uncle, Ben Solo will have to come to understand what the legacy of his family really means, it’s importance but also it’s irrelevance in the grand scheme of things. He has yet to reconcile himself with this, as is evident at the end of TLJ. His desire to create a new ‘order’ is still connected to his idea of his family’s ‘story’ and the ‘legacy’ of galactic power which they held.

There is no need to chase ghosts or to continue ‘the story’ which he speaks of to Rey. He does not need to continue it.

He can forge his own story.

If Rian Johnson believed that the final trilogy ultimately was about ‘legacy’, just as ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was, then perhaps it is only fitting that Episode IX is about the end of the Skywalker line as we know it.

But to truly bring the story to close, to finally make sense of this saga as a whole, this trilogy as a whole, it is necessary for Ben to live on. 

At the beginning of the story, Luke is brought into the world and protected through anonymity, his lineage seemingly unimportant. The obtaining of his name is the start of his journey, and his reclaim of it at the end of his journey, the reconciliation with his two halves, his literal and shallow self, leads to his finding inner peace.

I believe that in order to bring the conflict within Kylo Ren to a close, the same thing must happen, albeit in a different way. Luke’s purpose, the reason for why he did what he did, was to help Kylo Ren, in the end, come to understand the point of their family’s legacy and what it means. That is why Rey says, ‘Peace and Purpose’. The purpose of his legacy was to help spread hope within the galaxy, just as he did all those many years ago, but it was also to show his nephew the unsubstantial side of it, that it is in the end, merely what we claim to see in someone or something. It is just an illusion, just as ‘Skywalker’ is merely a name. Episode IX in many ways, should be the King Lear or Tempest of the saga.

So with that said, I think Kylo will have to realize this on his own, perhaps with a little help from his uncle and grandfather, but like The Dark Knight himself, I believe Luke’s arc in The Last Jedi very much points towards Ben Solo using the end of the Skywalker ‘legacy’ to finally resolve his conflict and disappear; leaving behind both his names, the ‘death’ of Kylo Ren finally bringing about that most desirable sense of peace spoken about since the beginning of the saga.

Ben must live as the last Skywalker ‘dies’ in order to reverse the entire story, releasing him and also all those who will come after him from the name and the ‘legacy’, while also using it like his uncle to bring about peace in the galaxy.

He will grow beyond those who came before him, finally achieving to let go of their legacy, something the others could not do, living with the inner peace which his predecessors never quite managed to find.

He is finally able to bring to his family that precious anonymity which Anakin Skywalker had started off with in the first place. In turn, Rey, like Luke, will rise as the start of the future of the Jedi, becoming a Legend herself, kick starting the next saga of this galaxy....

But what do you all think? Let me know :-)

[aigoootome]

7′scarlet - otome

The main screen changes as you unlock more routes. The main screen is very fitting in many ways as well, very very good..  This is a really lovely otome, with a lovely overall feel/meaning. It combines bitter and sweet really well.   Sweet childhood friends are the protagonists of this clsassicotome game.   I missed those kinds of moods in otome. It is a carefully crafted story with a good and discernible and most of all engaging premise. However, it does feel a little underdeveloped at times. But the writing and translation are delightful - I really miss such good translations. 

Story: A girl comes to a small,  seemingly inconspicuous town in search of her brother...but discovers more than she bargained for and meets a cast of characters. Strange things keep happening. The overall mood is that of a supernatural/urban legend kinda thing with moments of fairy tale beauty. 

some lovely locations: 

MC

MC as a child. She’s cute. 

I really like the MC. She's a girl thrust into unusual situations and on some routes, like Isora, she makes thoughtful decisions. Happy ends require trust and MC, say with Isora, considers the potential risk as Isora is a little suspicious but still decides to trust him. I liked that. She has integrity and is far from stupid.  It is explained what makes her so special. 

GAME structure There is a purposeful structure to the story and playing the routes, the story is unravelled piece by piece, each route adds something new, explains and also explains the links between characters, opens a new memory box.  

Route order: Hino > isora > Toa >sosuke > Yuzuki > true route (start a new game after completing others, true route will open next to character ending > secret character (start new game after completing true end)

Hino  childhood friend who is always there for  MC. Item of note: gun. He really wants to be MC’s knight in shining armour. He does his best but he’s got a long way to go. 

Isora   chef at the hotel. Item of note: strawberry cake. There was something really interesting about this character. Isora is sweet but can be a little intense, and the masked man really is right when he says that it makes Isora the perfect suspect - I do like that aspect of this character - I  had suspected him to be the culprit but then it was just appearances. It made MC's decisions all the more important: to trust despite appearances or not?   

Toa  A bit of a surprise character

Sousuke  the reliable, logical student of medicine who does his own investigating on the side. 

Yuzuki  the lonely heir  / owner of the hotel who has a different vision for things than his father. Had a tough cal to make once. 

The route order is how you play it and routes unlock after some others are played first. You start with Hino and Isora and the rest become gradually available as you complete more routes. 

It makes a lot of sense in the context of the whole story and needs to be done this way as each route reveals pieces of the mystery and explains the connection between characters, one route kinda ties to another in a certain logical chain.  Hino must be played first because he introduces the whole thing and then each subsequent routes not only logically fill certain gaps in the story (so: hino intro then we see isora perspective then  we see what happens with toa's concert then we fill the parts with sosuke going up the moutain...and then what happens to karasuma..Yuzuki route also explains the opening prologue and why mc is targeted..and then there's the rest of the unlockables that really complete the big picture. Each route is like a memory box that we help the protagonist to unlock. 

THEMES The overarching story is a little bittersweet but I just love how some things said on the routes that are purely happy complement the secret and true character routes. in fact...once the secret character ends, I got a strong feeling that yes...now the other routes can happen as we want, we can really choose which ending we want because the routes perfectly fit into the gaps created by every another. 

Yuzuki might be the best for me after the  secret character  Our hearts can be full of holes...but if we are lucky we will find someone to fill those holes for us, this is a really well put sentiment and to me, expresses the mood and point of the entire game perfectly.  

I really loved the secret character route.  The secret route is the definite end, a special story but it never invalidates the other routes. It is brief for a very good reason and it highlights the theme of memories prevalent through the game. And also it really fantastically writes itself into the other routes...the writer did put effort and thought into it to tell a lovely story and I for one really appreciate it.

Other than that, I really like all characters, Yuzuki and Sosuke taking the lead. But I believe all characters have a good reason to "fawn" over, love the Mc as their destinies were long intertwined and she is precious to them ....it's a really charmingly played out red string of fate kinda thing.  Side characters were likeable and all well-used, important in one way or another. 

OTHER

another plus;  bad ends and normal ends are actually bad and normal, not pretend to be bad. I like that, a lot of otomes forget about it. The result is bittersweet but thanks to that I treasure the happy ends and the meaning for them.

Each end has a distinct ending theme. The character artwork is absolutely lovely and one of my favourite styles. Voices are as always pretty much perfect fits. I also really like the overall app design and UI - the routes played are organised neatly and when you begin the new game you can pick a part to start playing from. There is also a gallery of cgs. The opening and ending themes are lovely. 

CONS

I do wish there were more details, sometimes things felt like the stories could be a little more descriptive with slightly more developments because some actually felt a little too flat and the mood/atmosphere, as well as the lore behind the story, could have been better elaborated as the story, while good, did not always resonate strongly enough and some developments felt abrupt. But that's my only complaint. 

OVERALL

I find it a very charming otome game, it has the sort of charming / nostalgic feel I definitely find missing from modern otomes. What an absolutely lovely find.

[acsversace-news]

For months during the filming of American Crime Story, Ricky Martin found himself back in the closet—this time playing Antonio D’Amico, the longtime lover of the late Gianni Versace. In the pilot episode of the FX series, a detective with the Miami Police Department interrogates D’Amico after the designer is murdered. Unsure what D’Amico means when he refers to Versace as his “partner,” he questions the nature of their relationship, invoking the young men D’Amico would procure for him, some of them duly compensated, and asking, “Did he pay you?”

“To love him?” responds D’Amico, still covered in the blood of his boyfriend of 15 years, though he seems more wounded by the detective’s callous assertion—the idea that two men could ever be in a committed relationship is completely foreign to him. Yet the moment illustrates one of the overarching themes of the second installment of American Crime Story, based on Maureen Orth’s 1999 book Vulgar Favors, and adapted by British author Tom Rob Smith. Just as The People v. OJ Simpson before it offered an all-too-timely commentary on racism, The Assassination of Gianni Versace promises to tackle issues like homophobia, gun violence, and the dark allure of fame.

“I believe that the story of injustice this series will bring to the table will spark a lot of conversations about things that we, as the LGBTQ community, were dealing with in the ’90s, and that we’re still dealing with,” says Martin, though he shies away from revealing too many details about The Assassination. “At this point in our lives, there shouldn’t be stigmas over the things that we are going to be talking about.”

The show, another jewel in showrunner and creator Ryan Murphy’s television crown, will examine the lives of two gay men and their radically different paths: Gianni Versace (played by Édgar Ramirez)—the Italian designer who injected the world of fashion with a wild dose of ostentation, sensuality, and celebrity glamour—and Andrew Cunanan (Glee's Darren Criss), the 27-year-old Versace fanboy who left a trail of death and devastation in his quest for fame, ultimately finding it, and landing on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, by murdering the man he so idolized.

Cunanan was born in National City, Calif., on August 31, 1969, to a mostly absent, class-conscious Filipino-American father and a deeply religious Italian-American mother. He was a brilliant child with a reported IQ of 147. Growing up in a strict Catholic household, he struggled with his sexuality from a young age, so that later in life he was open to some, but closeted to others. He also had a reputation for being a pathological liar. After dropping out of the University of California, San Diego, he tried his hand at hustling, drug dealing, and petty robbery—anything to avoid a traditional nine-to-five. He charmed his way into a meeting with Versace on the evening of October 21, 1990, in San Francisco. Versace had designed the costumes for Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio and was in town for the premiere. It was a brief encounter—Orth dedicates just three pages to it in Vulgar Favors—but for Cunanan, it was significant. Versace was the only celebrity he claimed to know with whom he had any ties, no matter how tenuous. According to Orth, when the FBI asked Philip Merrill, a friend of Cunanan’s, where the wanted murderer would go and whom he would try to contact, Merrill said: Florida and Versace.

By the time Cunanan gunned down the 50-year-old designer on the steps of his palatial estate, Casa Casuarina at 1116 Ocean Drive in South Beach, Miami, on the morning of July 15, 1997, he had already killed four men, including Jeff Trail, a 28-year-old Navy veteran, and David Madson, a 33-year-old architect, three months earlier in Minneapolis—both men were gay and at least one of them, Madson, was a former lover. But the nation didn’t take any real notice until Cunanan had traversed thousands of miles over several months. By then, Versace was dead.

“The whole city of Miami was in shock and never recovered,” says Martin, who was living in Miami but touring Europe at the time of Versace’s death. “Obviously what was happening in fashion was massive, but there was also what was happening in the film industry, with all these great actors moving to Miami because it was the Riviera of the United States. After Versace’s death, everything stuck because everybody was afraid. It has taken many, many, many years for Miami to return to where it was and maybe it will never be the same.”

On July 7, eight days before Versace’s murder, Cunanan visited the Cash on the Beach pawn shop to sell a gold coin he had stolen from his third victim, Lee Miglin, a 72-year-old married real estate developer he had killed and tortured on May 4 in Chicago, which eventually led to the FBI adding Cunanan to its infamous fugitives list. As required by the pawn shop, the serial killer had signed his name—his real name—and had even given the address where he was staying. Vivian Olivia, the owner of Cash on the Beach, turned over the identifying paperwork to the Miami Police the following day, yet no action was taken. Meanwhile, the red pickup truck of William Reese, the 45-year-old caretaker Cunanan had murdered in Pennsville, N.J., just days after Miglin, sat in a parking garage for weeks. The FBI, insistent that Cunanan’s sexual orientation was irrelevant to their investigation, refused to distribute Most Wanted posters of Cunanan or to work with local gay organizations and publications.

“For a number of reasons, the authorities at the time never considered Cunanan to be a public threat because he was only killing homosexuals,” says Ramirez, the Venezuelan actor whose startling resemblance to the late designer helped secure him the title role in ACS. “The word assassination has a political and a social overtone because Versace was targeted. In a way, this was a tragedy that could have been prevented. Basically, homophobia killed Gianni Versace.”

Giovanni Maria Versace was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on December 2, 1946. The region’s Hellenic heritage—it had been part of Magna Graecia (Latin for “Great Greece”), the coastal areas of Southern Italy populated by Greek settlers—had a lasting influence on Versace and his work, most notably in the Medusa head and Greek keys of the label’s logo. His mother ran a dressmaking business, so fashion was a part of young Gianni’s DNA. He briefly went to work for his mother after graduating high school but fled the nest for Milan in 1972, bringing his formidable talents to the Italian ateliers Genny, Complice, and Callaghan. With his older brother Santo and younger sister Donatella, he launched his own company, and in 1978 debuted his first collection.

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Versace elevated sexy to an art form. As the adage, at times attributed to Anna Wintour, goes: Armani dressed the wife and Versace dressed the mistress. His looks were brash, bold, and sometimes delightfully tacky, rendered in luminescent metallics, sadomasochistic rubbers, and industrialized plastics that pushed the boundaries of fashion and “good taste.”  More than any other designer, before him or since, Versace permeated then all but defined the zeitgeist: from Elizabeth Hurley’s iconic safety-pin black dress (recently reappropriated by Lady Gaga), to Elizabeth Berkley’s doe-eyed infatuation with “Versayce” in 1995’s Showgirls, to rap group Migos’s 2013 breakthrough hit “Versace.”

Versace’s South Beach mansion was a monument to his grandeur, outfitted in Grecian opulence. Built in 1930 by trust-fund playboy and retired architect Alden Freeman, Casa Casuarina is now a hotel and popular tourist destination. Versace was enamored by the house’s Kneeling Aphrodite statue and bought the property for $2.95 million and the old Art Deco Hotel Revere next door for $3.7 million, which he promptly demolished, angering the Miami Design Preservation League—the neighborhood had been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. Versace invested an additional $32 million in renovations to realize his palace, decorating every inch with his exacting eye. In the opening minutes of The Assassination, Ramirez, in a resplendent pink robe, greets his army of servants with a measure of benevolence and unquestioned authority. The effect is that of an emperor surveying his mighty kingdom. From there, the series plays up the Greek-like tragedy of Versace’s life and death.

“His life was fated in a way,” says Ramirez. “There is something very classic about this real-life story that was captured by Tom: the characters, the archetypes, their relationships. You have Gianni as an emperor, and then you have his prince, Antonio, and you have his sister, Donatella, who is the empress-to-be. Sometimes there were scenes that really felt like we were doing theater, like Macbeth or Madea.”

Versace used his majestic property to entertain, and occasionally shelter, his circle of VIPs. In awe of the power of celebrity, he cultivated a loyal, glitzy following that included Princess Diana, Elton John, Madonna, Cher, and the supermodels he regularly employed, and in whose rise he was instrumental: Naomi, Cindy, Linda, Claudia. These famous clients and friends populated his front rows, appeared in his ad campaigns, and frequented his homes around the world. And his ambition wasn’t limited to the runway—Versace expanded his empire, designing costumes for operas, films, ballets, and concert tours.

“We basically live in the world that he created,” Ramirez says. “Before Gianni, glamour and sensuality were on two separate planes. Somehow he glamorized sexuality. He had a rock ’n’ roll approach to couture, and he essentially laid the ground for celebrity culture. From then on, for better and for worse, we’ve had this obsession with it. The sociopath who killed him was seduced by fame and by luxury.”

Versace was also one of the few openly gay celebrities of his day, having been with D’Amico, a former model, since 1982. Though, according to Martin, there was a limit to their openness.

“For many months in this series, I kind of went back into the closet,” the 46-year-old says. “They were not completely out. The fear of being seen holding hands in the streets is not an issue for me anymore, but I relived all of that, and it kinda set me back and gave me a lot of discomfort. But I was playing a part, and I used it. I used that anger and I used that frustration.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the gayest thing FX or Ryan Murphy has ever done. And for anyone who’s seen Popular, or Glee, or the last few seasons of Nip/Tuck, or the musical number in American Horror Story: Asylum, that’s saying a lot. But it’s also a profound statement. Murphy, an openly gay showrunner and one of the most powerful and successful visionaries in Hollywood, has produced a series about an openly gay fashion designer (who was killed by a gay serial killer), featuring an openly gay pop star playing his boyfriend. Martin, who came out publicly in 2010, hadn’t even considered this level of out-and-proudness, but he’s acutely aware of how the show’s themes resonate in today’s terrifying political climate.

Ricky Martin has been in the public eye for the majority of his life—first in the popular boy band Menudo, which he parlayed into a successful music career in Latin America and a featured role on the long-running soap opera General Hospital. But it was a 1999 Grammy performance of “The Cup of Life,” the official song of the previous year’s World Cup, and the subsequent release of his U.S. breakthrough single, “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” that skyrocketed him to superstardom and ushered in the so-called “Latin explosion.”

With increased exposure, however, came increased scrutiny, and for years rumors regarding his sexual orientation persisted. Male pop stars have rarely been allowed to be openly gay, and those that were, like Elton John and George Michael, waited until relatively late in their careers to come out. For Martin, consequently, The Assassination of Gianni Versace offered a unique and personal challenge because, to paraphrase executive producer Brad Simpson, it’s about the politics of being out in the ’90s. Today, Martin is much more comfortable in his own skin. Not only is he in love (he’s been in a relationship with Syrian-Swedish painter Jwan Yosef since 2015), but he’s a father of two—and adamant that his family be an inspiration for other nontraditional families.

“A lot of people tell me, ‘Well, your kids are on the covers of magazines and blah, blah, blah,’ and I'm like, ‘Yes because I want to normalize this,’ ” he says. “I want people to look at me and see a family and say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with that.’ It's part of my mission. It’s part of my kids’ mission as well. My kids ask me about having two daddies and I tell them we are a part of a modern family. This is a beautiful sense of freedom.”

By taking on the role of Antonio D’Amico, the singer-actor had to conjure those years of hiding who he was, but in doing so he knew he was paying tribute to the love that Versace and D’Amico shared. Martin’s first day on set and his very first scene were also his most dramatic. “They didn't even let me warm up—I went straight into the murder,” he says. “I went straight into the moment where I find the body on the steps of the villa outside. It was a really long day. I was locked in this room for many hours just to be there in the moment when I looked out the window and saw Édgar’s feet. I went crazy and said, ‘Let’s shoot now! Please let’s shoot now!’ ”

After seeing production shots of Martin cradling a bloody Ramirez, D’Amico derided the tableau as “ridiculous” and a product of the “director’s poetic license.” In an interview with The Guardian last July, he also contradicted Martin’s assertion that he and Versace ever had to conceal their love. Martin then reached out to the 59-year-old D’Amico, whom he says was “incredibly generous” and “really honest.”

“The first thing I said to him was, ‘Antonio, I just want you to know that we all are working on this story with the utmost respect to what Gianni Versace represents to the world, and then we go to love,” says Martin. “ ‘My role here is for people to understand you, and see what the love you guys had was made of.’ They were together for 15 years. It’s a lifetime. And like Antonio says, there was no end to this love. There is no end to this love.”

“There are two love stories,” Ramirez adds. “One with Antonio, Ricky’s character, and the other with Penélope Cruz’s character, Donatella. Gianni was very devoted to both of them. Ricky and I wanted to be respectful of their relationship and open about how supportive they were of each other. According to everyone I talked to, Gianni was very protective of Antonio, and Antonio was very protective of Gianni.”

There is, however, no love lost between D’Amico and Donatella Versace. The two always had a contentious relationship. In his will, Versace provided D’Amico with a $30,000-a-month lifetime allowance and the right to live in any of the late designer’s homes, but because of a feud with the Versace family, D’Amico received a portion of what he was owed.

Family was of the utmost importance to Gianni Versace, but his own didn’t want to be involved in the show’s production. Ramirez, no stranger to playing biographical characters—he earned an Emmy nomination in 2011 for his portrayal of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in Carlos—approached the series with immense compassion, but out of respect (and for legal reasons) he chose not to approach the designer’s surviving family members.

“Whatever hesitations or reservations they have about the series, I understand,” Ramirez says of the Versace family. “This is a tragedy. It should have never happened. We want to enforce our own empathy. I hope that in the end they will be satisfied.”

What is a historical or cultural moment for the rest of the world is a story of intense personal tragedy for the family and former partner of Gianni Versace, so a production of this scale and caliber—this isn’t, after all, the Gina Gershon Lifetime movie House of Versace—is bound to reopen old wounds and draw renewed scrutiny. And yet: That’s fame. One’s life—and death—are no longer one’s own. But what made The People v. OJ Simpson so successful was how it took a tragedy and articulated its significance to the world we live in: a world with a 24/7 news cycle, a world of continued racial animus, a world of keeping up with the Kardashians.

While LGBTQ people have more rights and freedoms than in any other time in U.S. history, the rapid progress of marginalized communities over the previous years has revealed the cracks in this country—ugly truths barely hidden just below the surface have been exposed. This America abets white supremacists, bolsters an accused pedophile who believes homosexuality should be illegal, and neglects the victims of a mishandled natural disaster because they’re not quite “American” enough.

“We've been taking four airplanes with 150,000 pounds’ worth of basic necessities,” Martin says of the relief effort in Puerto Rico, of which he’s been a part. “It’s been very difficult because four million US citizens are still without power or clean drinking water. My family is there and luckily, I can bring them out to take a break, but there's a very intense passion about where we come from, and they don't want to leave.”

And, of course, it’s impossible to deny that if homophobia killed Gianni Versace, so did a gun. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fl., killing 49 people and wounding 58 others. The overwhelming majority of his victims were queer people of color in what was, until 15 months later, the deadliest mass shooting on American soil. “I want to be very respectful about this because I am not American,” Ramirez begins, cautiously. “But I have a very hard time reconciling how easy it is to gain access to guns here. And I come from one of the most violent countries in the world.”

Though mass shootings remain a uniquely American phenomenon, the conversations around gun control and mental illness have ultimately gone nowhere. For 35 years, the United States has rarely gone a year without a mass shooting. In 1997, the year of Andrew Cunanan’s murderous spree, more than 32,000 people were killed by guns. That number has remained stable, so that on any given day, 93 people are shot to death.

After Versace was killed, speculation ran wild regarding Cunanan’s motive. Some claimed an HIV-positive diagnosis triggered his murderous streak, but an autopsy debunked that theory, itself a form of homophobia. In 1997, homosexuality and AIDS were still inextricably bound so that a gay serial killer was automatically linked to the disease—as if Gregg Araki’s The Living End had come to life. But whereas that 1992 film glamorized its killers, the Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a pitiable figure—a lost soul grasping at a fantasy embodied by his final and most famous victim. Cunanan, too, was a victim—of homophobia, both internalized and externalized; of his own desires; of his upbringing; of the world in which he lived. Through his detestable actions, he finally got what he wanted: It’s now impossible to discuss the legacy of fashion’s one-time emperor without also remembering the man who cut his life short that July morning.

[aion-rsa]

The Best Books of 2020

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In 2020, we needed good stories more than ever: To escape, even for a little while. To subvert and question the status quo. And to remind us of the joys of being human. The books listed below fall into one, some, or all of the above categories. We had our contributors select the stories that meant the most to them this year and polled you the reader to compile a subjective yet comprehensive list of some of the year’s best. Here are the books, organized by genre, that broke through the cacophony to mean something to our Den of Geek contributors—and to you—this year…

Quick note before we begin: Like many other areas of the media industry and economy, the independent bookstore industry was hit hard by the lockdown caused by the pandemic, as more people than ever flocked to Amazon to get their reading fix. If you are inspired to purchase any of the titles we gush about below, consider using Bookshop.org or other sites that support independent bookstores (especially Black-owned ones) to do so. They need your help more than ever!

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Best Horror Books of 2020

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic was the buzziest release of the summer – and with good reason. Her lush prose, descriptive settings and disturbing plot combine for one of the most compelling – and likely uncomfortable – reads you’ll experience this year. (If you love mushrooms, I’m really sorry in advance.)  

Set in 1950s Mexico, the novel follows the story of the vibrant debutante Noemi, who must journey to a remote mountain village to check up on an ailing cousin, whose mysterious husband keeps insisting she’s mad. If you’ve ever read any Gothic literature before, you know many of the beats that come next: The isolated manor, the creepy servants, the dark dreams, the gaslighting, and the constant sense of rising dread. There’s even a cruel housekeeper that could give Mrs. Danvers more than a run for her money. 

Moreno-Garcia uses nearly every conceivable Gothic trope to her advantage, telling a familiar tale whose often predictable elements still somehow manage to feel fresh and new. This is largely due to the deft way that the author weaves the political and the fantastical together, reckoning with larger issues such as racism, British colonization and Mexico’s fraught history with eugenics. A good story, well told, with more going on beneath the surface than one might expect.

– Lacy Baugher

Devolution by Max Brooks

World War Z author Max Brooks takes on Bigfoot in this excellent eco horror which comes with added resonance during a pandemic. Like in his zombie bestseller, Brooks approaches the story as if it were real—it’s the novel equivalent of a found footage tale with the events that befall the residents of isolated eco community Greenloop documented in the diary of our protagonist Kate. Greenloop is a remote idyll of smart homes powered by sunlight and waste and controlled by phones and tablets where deliveries arrive via drone, but when the eruption of active volcano Mt Rainier cuts them off from the rest of the country the groups survival skills are tested. The trouble is, most members of this wealthy community don’t have any. And that’s before the family of sasquatches turn up…

This is a violent, vibrant horror with carefully drawn characters and an escalating sense of dread. Though there is humour here Brooks manages to make the Bigfoot group scary rather than faintly ridiculous, while the mirroring of the devolving eco society and the rise in power and confidence of their feral counterparts is handled skillfully. Intercut with interviews and real life stories of broken boundaries between man and wildlife it’s a cautionary tale that tells us never to underestimate nature, be wary of an over reliance on technology and that humans have animal instincts too.

– Rosie Fletcher

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

Tremblay completed his infection horror Survivor Song long before the pandemic hit but the novel is unsettlingly prescient. An outbreak of a deadly and fast acting strain of rabies has swept the country. Citizens are told to isolate at home while hospital staff are vastly overstretched and are put at risk due to a shortage of proper PPE. But when Doctor Ramola hears that her very pregnant best friend Natalie has been bitten by an infected human she’ll do anything in her power to help deliver the baby safely.

This is an incredibly poignant road trip novel, of sorts, which takes place over just a few hours. It’s a love letter to friendship, an anti-fairytale and a careful character study drenched in Tremblay’s characteristic ‘sad horror’. One ‘interlude’ section, which features characters from Tremblay’s earlier work A Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, is so utterly devastating you’ll want a biscuit and an episode of Schitt’s Creek just to get over it. If Tremblay’s A Headful of Ghosts was his take on the possession subgenre, Survivor Song would fall loosely into the zombie category, though it’s likely to be the most gorgeous and literary zombie novel you’ll read all year.

– Rosie Fletcher

Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Despite the slightly twee title, Hendrix’ latest is an evocative and often very frightening tale of a small town terrorized by a violent outsider. Based in the same world as his coming of age masterpiece My Best Friends’ Exorcism this tale is set in the 90s and focuses on the mothers of the small Southern town of Charlston: bored housewives whose work is often denigrated and overlooked.

At the centre is Patricia, who spends her time looking after a senile mother-in-law, almost grown kids and an ungrateful husband. She, along with neighbourhood friends, forms a book group who discuss true crime stories which provide handy knowledge and insight when Patricia begins to suspect handsome stranger James Harris is up to no good. Charleston is where Hendrix grew up so he paints the town vividly and with affection while acknowledging the oppressiveness felt by the women there, and the systematic racism experienced by the black community, whose children are disappearing and who are not being taken seriously.

Across his work from Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism to We Sold Our Souls, Hendrix has proven excellent at writing women and girls. It’s no different here, where the Southern mums of Charleston are heroic and fearsome and their friendship is all powerful – if anyone can take on a vampire it’s them.

– Rosie Fletcher

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

This extraordinary debut by Sims is a both a multi-genre anthology and an overarching haunted house story. Centred around the mysterious Banyan Court, a housing complex consisting of a thirteen storey luxury high rise and the poorly built and utterly decrepit affordable housing unit hidden behind it, the book introduces us to various residents or people connected to Banyan Court, each of whom receives a mysterious invite to a dinner party on the top floor hosted by the strange and reclusive billionaire who owns the complex. At the end of this party, we are told, the billionaire will plummet 13 storeys to his death, and none of the guests will have any recollection of what happened.

This is a very smart first book, showcasing Sims’ talent in a range of different horror styles and bringing multiple voices without ever feeling overcrowded. There’s the eerie tale of a little girl and her imaginary friend, who might not be as imaginary as you think, the loyal  door man and his violent alter ego competing for supremacy and the art dealer who becomes obsessed with a strange painting. Characters interweave in pleasing ways building to a grotesque but satisfying denouement which ties all the stories together. Sims is an exciting new voice in horror who is definitely one to watch.

– Rosie Fletcher

If It Bleeds by Stephen King – READERS’ CHOICE

The people have spoken!

Stephen King is not only one of the greatest writers of his generation but also one of the most prolific, and nigh a year goes by in which at least one of his stories—either new or adapted—isn’t in the cultural conversation. This year, it was If It Bleeds, a well-rounded horror collection of four previously unpublished stories, including one that features King universe character The Outsider‘s Holly Gibney (in the story that gives the book its name). The novellas revisit many of King’s most popular themes, from supernatural cell phones to the cost of creativity, and manage to feel both modern and nostalgic at the same time. If It Bleeds hit bookshelves in April and, in the midst of the real-life horror that was the pandemic, the continued killings of Black Americans by police officers, and the American presidential election cycle, King gave us something gloriously fictional to be afraid of. Whether you’re a longtime King fan or have never read anything by the horror master, If It Bleeds is well worth your time.

– Kayti Burt

Best Science Fiction Books of 2020

Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi

One of 2020’s most incisive works packed more power into a novella than a book thrice its size; and while its particular story has a dystopian feel, it is actually keenly of the moment: not just the current protests against incarceration and police brutality, but the vicious and violent cycles that imprison, murder, or otherwise cut short Black lives. In an NPR interview at the start of the year when Riot Baby was published, Onyebuchi discussed how well-meaning white people talk about broken systems, when instead Riot Baby concerns “a system working just as designed.” That is, a system that cannot be overturned except possibly by superpowered means—and even then, not always easily.

Ella has a Thing, an otherworldliness to her that allows her to glimpse the fates, positive and negative, of those around her; to astrally project across the country and into others’ minds; to control unimaginable forces. But she can’t break her brother Kev (the “riot baby” of the title, born during the 1992 Los Angeles riots) out of Rikers Island. She can’t stop him from getting arrested in the first place, struggling as an adolescent not to transmute her rage into her powers and hurt those she loves, even as her baby brother is targeted for the color of his skin.

That tension and futility drive this slim account of not just their lives, but of the Black experience, projecting back to the roots of their family tree and forward to the authoritarian near-future in which Kev struggles to build the foundation of the rest of his life. Riot Baby is brutal, but it still nurtures hope—and it’s a necessary read for well-meaning white people like me.

– Natalie Zutter

Star Wars: Shadow Fall – Alexander Freed

This might seem like an odd pick, as it’s the second in a tie-in trilogy, and not particularly accessible if you haven’t read the previous book. But I’m true to myself. This was certainly one of my favorite books of 2020, with the caveat that sometimes favorite means “heavy enough that it, artfully, made me extremely miserable.”

It’s not what you might expect from the generic title. I’m often fascinated by genre writers who try to tackle writing about aimlessness in genre, whether that be slacker heroes or the existential ennui faced by Alphabet Squadron between spaceship gun fights. It’s such a plot-heavy genre that writing about questlessness sounds very hard. And Shadow Fall has done that magic trick. To quote my own tweet, this book is about people who act on mistaken assumptions and concoct entire non-existent relationships in their heads and hurt themselves in fugue states. All of the relationships are intense, but splintered and sideways all the time. Each character is their own carefully defined brand of amoral and brittle. I’ve rarely seen awkwardness portrayed so well in a book without the story itself coming off as edgy and misanthropic.

It’s also a good adventure story, with set-piece battles, a mysterious cult, and a genuinely surprising take on how the Force works from a series that isn’t at all about Jedi. Start with the first book, Alphabet Squadron, don’t mind that title either, and make sure you have some calming tea ready. 

– Megan Crouse

Sex Criminals Vol. 6: Six Criminals by Matt Fraction + Chip Zdarsky

Really, this is celebrating the end of Image Comics’ raunchy-yet-surprisingly-heartfelt series about Suze and Jon, who find out they share the same gift: Their orgasms stop time. So, of course, they start robbing banks—only to discover that it’s not just them with this gift, winding up on the lam from the Sex Police. But rather than treat this audacious premise like a fleeting dirty joke, Fraction and Zdarsky built out a deceptively simple metaphor into a thought-provoking exploration of lust-versus-love, money and class, the chasm between finding someone who “gets” you in the bedroom but not outside of it. With cheek and heart, they boiled all this down to Suze’s refrain of “This fucking guy” that makes me tear up every time I read it.

And it wasn’t all just bodily fluids and dangly bits—Sex Criminals also consistently delighted in pushing its own envelope in all things meta. Drawing in post-it notes to obscure the Queen lyrics they couldn’t get the rights to for a scene they’d already drawn; a sequence in which huge dialogue bubbles physically knock extras out of the way; even turning Fraction’s anxiety attack about writing a key scene between two female characters into its own mini-comic—this team often turned their probing gaze on themselves.

In the Sex Criminals universe, robbing banks was small potatoes, foreplay even—the final volume ascends beyond the initial crime, transforming into a treatise on grief and time and retreating into memory. As the final issue posits, take any significant moment between two people and you have to expand the frame, to look at every single other person who brought these two together, whether for a one-night stand or “to have and to hold.”

In fittingly 2020 fashion, the series concludes bittersweetly, but the final moments come back full circle to where the series started: wanting to prolong that particular pocket of time and space in which it’s just you and your person, the rest of the world be damned.

Yet Sex Criminals’ greatest legacy is that it’s not the last comic to delve into the intersections of sexuality and science fiction. Vault Comics’ Money Shot, from Sarah Beattie and Tim Seeley, is a clear successor with its story of underfunded scientists having sex with alien species in order to subsidize their interstellar teleportation research. As another series about copulating to undermine capitalism, Money Shot carries on the horny torch that Fraction and Zdarsky lit way back in 2013.

– Natalie Zutter

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Queer western speculative fiction. Need we say more? Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars, is back with an all-too-brief tale of Librarians, the only truly free women in this version of the American west, and Esther, a stowaway escaping her small town and plenty of secrets. Nothing is as it seems, including those running the book wagon – one’s a trans guy with they/them pronouns who must masquerade as a woman for his own safety whenever authorities or other prying eyes are near.

While the noir of Magic for Liars made that world feel inevitably dark, Upright has a more hopeful outlook and a wide-open setting that feels full of possibilities, even as the Librarians make their way delivering books in the kind of dystopian setting you might find in The Handmaid’s Tale or The Grace Year. In a year so full of doom, the Librarians are capable and even swashbuckling in their adventures, teaching our newcomer narrator and maybe even making her swoon with their swagger. 

– Delia Harrington

The Resisters by Gish Jen

In AutoAmerica, a not-so-distant future where everything is connected to artificial intelligence and the have-nots are meant to be good consumers and nothing more, a young Black-Asian woman with a gift for pitching baseball becomes the eye of the storm when her country decides to bring back the national pastime and compete in the Olympics.

Come for the underground baseball league, stay for the sly pop culture references. The world is built out so fully that the inevitable movie or limited series version of The Resisters might even be better than the book – blasphemy, I know, but so many concepts and kinds of tech are dropped in that a showrunner and crew would have a field day bringing to life.

It’s rare these days for a man to narrate spec fiction, and he certainly has the least interesting story here, but perhaps he has the best vantage point to admire his talented wife and daughter, the former a lawyer who repeatedly takes on Aunt Nettie, a defiant nickname for the government-backed AI who runs their lives, and the latter, a young woman who was raised in a defiant household, whom he hopes won’t fall for the allure of Aunt Nettie’s promises.

– Delia Harrington

Best Fantasy Books of 2020

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

In a year where we are all struggling with how we feel about Harry Potter and its complicated legacy, Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education has arrived to offer us an entirely different and thoroughly exciting magical boarding school tale. The first in a trilogy dubbed “The Scholomance” after the magical school at which it takes place, the story is sort of like Harry Potter’s dark twin, featuring a difficult female heroine, a unique magical system, and a very dark take on the world of teen magicians. (Plus, it features the sort of effortless, matter-of-fact diversity that more authors – both YA and adult – should emulate.)

Galadriel “El” Higgins is a powerful, potential dark sorceress in her junior year at the Scholomance. Here, students must fight for their lives from the moment of their admission against the horrifying monsters known as malificaria that roam the school halls trying to eat them on their way to class and graduation is simply a test of who can escape a roomful of the largest and deadly creatures in the school. El is powerful enough that she could probably wipe out all of them on her own, but she refuses to embrace her natural affinity for dark, potentially world-destroying spells – no matter how many of her fellow students think she already has. Novik��s prose is as propulsive and fun to read as ever (consider this an additional, belated plug for her icy fantasy Spinning Silver) and A Deadly Education manages to put a fresh spin on what otherwise might feel like a staid, overdone setting. From its prickly heroine to the very real stakes that surround her classmates – most literally won’t live through final exercises – there’s so much here that feels unexpected and new. The sequel cannot come fast enough.

– Lacy Baugher

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

It’s rare that a story truly feels like magic, but such is the case with Alix E. Harrow’s lush and enchanting The Once and Future Witches. Part period piece, part celebration of sisterhood, and part feminist manifesto, the story is a love letter to women of all kinds, everywhere. 

Set in an alternate version of America in the late nineteenth century when witching of all kinds is banned, this is a story about three sisters finding their voices and staking a claim to their own futures. It is also about accidentally summoning a magical tower and returning witchcraft to the world, healing the rifts between sisters and exposing the cracks between people who claim to want justice, but who actively work to oppress others. And it is about the power of community – the great things that can happen when women honestly see one another, support one another, acknowledge the challenges inherent in saying yes to help, and work together to make the world a better place. Isolation is dangerous, both for ourselves and the world we inhabit, and this is a novel that will make you want to call your personal coven and thank them for being there when you needed them. 

Once upon a time, there were three sisters and they starred in a remarkable book, full of fairytales and folklore and old stories made new. In 2020, perhaps more so than ever, the idea of once and future resonates more strongly than it ever has before, the people we were and are, and what we might become – but only if we hold on to each other along the way.

– Lacy Baugher

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Multi-perspective fantasy novels are all the rage right now, but Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter is truly something special. Not only does it deftly weave what initially seems like five separate stories together into something powerful and thrilling, the novel contains precisely the sort of compelling characters and rich worldbuilding that make this genre so much fun to read in the first place. 

The first installment in the “Drowning Empire” trilogy, The Bone Shard Daughter is set in a sixteenth-century kingdom comprised of migrating islands that float through something called the Endless Sea. A story of empire and identity as much as it is a story of magic, the book at first follows Lin, the heir to the throne of Phoenix Empire, or, she will be as soon as she has proven she can properly use bone shard magic. 

It’s this central magical system that makes this book so compelling – it involves commands being etched on pieces of human bones harvested from the general public in annual trepanning ceremonies, which are then used to power “constructs,” chimaera-like beings cobbled together out of various animal parts. If that wasn’t creepy enough, these shards literally drain the life energy from their doners to keep the constructs alive, a sort of human battery system that is horrifying to witness. (Especially when it appears that many of the more complex constructs have something like sentience of their own.)

Creepy and thoughtful, The Bone Shard Daughter grabs your attention from its opening lines, dumping you in a complex tale with lots of moving pieces that only gets messier as it goes on, and expects readers to keep up. For those who can manage it, it’s more than worth the journey. (And did I mention there’s a magical aquatic cat?) 

– Lacy Baugher

The City We Became – N.K. Jemisin

Jemisin is a master of fantasy world-building, and she turns that eye to the real world in an unsubtle, masterful New York City under attack by lovecraftian horrors. Funny, weird plot twists abound. This book starts with someone screaming on top of a roof, beautiful mystical singing from his point of view, and a neighbor yelling at him to shut up. There’s a musical beat through the whole thing, and all the ways that music can be added to or enhanced by the city noises all around it. 

Along with living in the city herself, Jemisin meticulously researched its history and quirks. She’s great at digging into detail, but also knows when to go broad, adding pop culture and references that seem obvious in hindsight but not too goofy to maintain the tone of the story. It’s fast-paced, especially toward the end. 

This is distinctly a novel for today, talking about racial tension from a variety of perspectives, and addressing the kind of harassment that comes with those conversations. It’s a snapshot for what’s been talked about on Twitter, what’s being talked about in art galleries and publishing houses. And it’s a snapshot of the city — kind and cruel, raucous and serene. It probably helps that part of this book made me feel some rare home state pride. 

– Megan Crouse

The Unspoken Name by  A.K. Larkwood

The Unspoken Name by K.A. Larkwood sets itself apart in two major ways: its setting and its characters. Priestess Csorwe is fated to be sacrificed to the eldritch god her people worship. But when she’s rescued from that fate with a wizard with ambitions of taking over a kingdom, she becomes a servant to a different master entirely — and has the chance to become far more than a sword-wielding minion. (There’s some cool sword-wielding too.) 

Surrounding her are people motivated by power, ambition, the unknown, the experience of living always in the shadow of the unknown and their sense of what is known becoming askew because of it. It’s about emotional abuse and people who want things and people they shouldn’t and can’t have. At the core is Csorwe, refreshingly straightforward but wonderfully complex in her own way. 

This story plays out in a world the author describes as an “eerie hyperspace labyrinth” that also does great things with some more familiar, but under-explored fantasy elements like flying ships and orcs. Full of strange magic and fascinating creatures, it’s truly inventive. The world may have orcs and elves, but it never feels derivative of the fantasy greats. In more ways than one, this is a book that exemplifies what secondary-world fantasy can be in 2020. 

– Megan Crouse

Wicked as You Wish by Rin Chupeco

It’s a rare thing when I encounter a novel that feels as though it’s written exactly for me. The first time this happened to me was when I (belatedly) read American Gods. Wicked as You Wish is the second book I’ve ever picked up where I immediately felt as though I were the target audience, and the story was just for me.

The story opens with the budding friendship between Tala Makiling Warnock, a girl who can nullify magic, and Alexei Tsarevich, heir to the throne of Avalon, in hiding after a terrible spell froze his kingdom. The Makilings are allies and protectors of the throne of Avalon, and Tala’s family is dedicated to keeping Alex safe—at least until his sixteenth birthday, when the Firebird will arrive and help him come into his powers. But the Snow Queen of Beira, Avalon’s enemy, is eager to finish the war she started, and Alex is keeping secrets of his own.

Rin Chupeco’s world draws on mythological and literary traditions including Wonderland, Oz, and Tala’s Filipino magical heritage, blending them into world building that’s contemporary and relevant (there’s a scene with ICE—at the behest of the Snow Queen facing off against Tala’s immigrant family). And while the book is marketed as YA and would certainly appeal to that audience with it’s predominantly teenaged cast, Chupeco’s sophisticated third-person omniscient narration gives readers insight into the motivations of the adults, who come through as strong leading characters as well. It’s an incredibly smart fantasy novel, and if it requires a little work to keep up with the worldbuilding and twists the story takes, it is absolutely worth the effort. The next book in the series cannot come out soon enough.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Yoon Ha Lee is better known for writing stories in space than fantasy, but based on his blending of space and mythology in his middle grade novel, The Dragon Pearl, I’d been looking to his first fantasy novel. I was not disappointed. Phoenix Extravagant follows Jebi, a non-binary painter trying to succeed in an occupied nation; when trying to assimilate gets them thrown out of their house by their sister, and fails to get them a well-paying job they’d applied for, Jebi’s at a loss. Jebi has no desire to work at the Ministry of Armor, aiding the war effort that continues to oppress their people by painting the magical commands for automata. But the Minister leaves Jebi no choice: join, or their sister—who, unknown to Jebi, is a revolutionary—will pay the price.

Jebi’s gift for painting allows them to communicate with a dragon automata, who was painted with pacifist instructions, and the two make plans to escape the conflict all together. Lee’s story tackles themes comparable to Peter Tieryas’s “United States of Japan” trilogy and Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire, especially in the way both of those series look at ideas of assimilation and the justice—or injustice—of dues one pays to their government. Lee gives no clear moral answers in the tale—Jebi’s sister seems to prioritize revolution over family, Jebi’s lover has killed people Jebi cares about, and the antagonist may have valid reasons for his evil plots—and that’s part of what makes the story so compelling to navigate. The novel is planned as a standalone, but I’d love to read more set in this world.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Reading Black Sun was like opening a new door in my mind. This is an epic fantasy series opener, and a lot of the tropes are familiar, but they’re all presented with different structure and framework–enough so that the novel feels like something entirely new. The story centers on Serapio’s journey to the homeland of his mother, where a bloody destiny awaits him; the efforts of Sun Priestess Naranpa to revolutionize her priesthood and make them more relevant as true servants uplifting the people of her city; and Xiala a ship captain whose supernatural origins make her both feared and targeted, but whose earthy attitude grounds the story. While Naranpa and Serapio are set up by the cosmology to be enemies, Roanhorse depicts them both so sympathetically that readers will hope for both of them to survive–and thrive–despite whatever fate has in store for them.

Roanhorse draws on indigenous American and Polynesian cultural and physical geography, which makes the world feel rich and new in a genre that has traditionally drawn on classical or feudal Europe for its influences. Using language that tends toward poetic, she plays with time, so that the narrative moves backward and forward around the events rather than in a linear fashion, which means the reveals of the narrative come not as the story progresses, but as readers progress through the story. Don’t be surprised to see this one on all the award lists in 2021.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

A girl makes a deal with the devil to live forever, and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. It’s the kind of premise a book could coast on, but V.E. Schwab has never been a coaster. From the very beginning of her career, the 33-year-old fantasy author has elevated engaging plot with unforgettable prose, resulting in stories that stick with their readers long after the book has been closed.

With The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the story is a particularly ambitious one: spanning 300 years, from 18th century France to modern New York City, we follow Addie as she learns how to live an existence in which she cannot hold a job, cannot rent an apartment, cannot have relationships. “We tell these immortality tales of men where all of a sudden they’re immortal and it’s just like, go get rich, go have fun, go have 100 mistresses and just sleep your way through eternity,” Schwab told Den of Geek earlier this year. “But women would never have that option.”

But this is not just Addie’s story. It also belongs to Henry, the only person Addie meets in three centuries who can remember her. Henry is a millennial living in New York, living with mental illness. In a story whose only other two main characters are an immortal woman and a devil, Henry is our human.

Ultimately, like so many of Schwab’s books, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is not quite what you expected: romantic and Romantic, modern yet classic, Addie was one of the unforgettable books of 2020.

Best Young Adult Books of 2020

Ruthless Gods by Emily Duncan

Emily Duncan’s “Something Dark and Holy” trilogy is everything YA fiction is not supposed to be: Dark, frightening, unsettling, and very, very bloody. Its second installment, Ruthless Gods, is a complex tale of war, betrayal, and heartbreak – a story that is not particularly hopeful, gory in a way this genre is rarely allowed to be, and populated by heroes who are often anything but. 

The novel follows three lead characters: Nadya, a young mystic who talks to gods but can no longer hear them; Serefin, a king whose country has long been at war with Nadya’s and whose life and consciousness are no longer entirely his own; and Malachiasz, a deeply disturbed boy who either wants to destroy the gods, become one himself, or something in between. Over the course of the story, their lives become intertwined on what feels like a cosmic level, as politics, religion and the very survival of humanity collide. 

Duncan’s prose is rich and lush, full of gorgeous descriptions of eldritch nightmares and frightening visions, with a fair amount of body horror thrown on top. For YA fans, this is a series that is unlike most anything else you’ve encountered this year.

– Lacy Baugher

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

There aren’t a lot of books I read this year that captured the feel of 2020 as well as The Sound of Stars. There’s no pandemic in this book, but the alien invasion that results in humans being locked inside their apartment buildings, unable to socialize, their normal lives taken from them because the world outside just isn’t the same? I’m sure Dow never intended that to be a metaphor, but it worked for me!

The title takes its name from a fictional album performed by fictional band The Starry Eyed, whose media presence before the alien invasion provides a framework for the book. The story centers on Ellie, a black girl determined to help her human community escape through the illegal borrowing of books, and M0Rr1S (Morris), an Ilori labmade, responsible for vaccinating humanity to prepare Earth for Ilora habitation. Morris, unlike other Ilori, is emotional, and loves music; immediately Ellie intrigues him with her bravery and willingness to risk everything for the sake of stories. When he enlists her to steal hidden music for him, their uneasy friendship begins, and as the stakes get higher, Ellie and Morris travel across the country on a mission to save humanity.

The story is fantastical and earnest and hopeful, and it was especially wonderful to experience in the audio production, which featured two excellent voice actors telling the story of stories and music and love.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

“I know the exact moment of inspiration for [Cemtery Boys],” Aiden Thomas told Den of Geek about his YA debut. “[A Tumblr writing prompt asked], ‘What would you do if you summoned a ghost and you couldn’t get rid of it?’ And you see people commenting and stuff and they’re like, ‘Oh, this super spooky, scary thing.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, but what if he was cute?'”

Cemetery Boys is not only breaking new ground when it comes to explorations of trans identity and Latinx culture, it’s also a delightful read. The story of Yadriel, a trans teen boy determined to prove himself a brujo to his traditional Latinx family, Cemetery Boys has the best inciting incident: Trying to get answers about his cousin’s mysterious death, Yadriel attempts to summon the ghost of his cousin. Instead, he summons the (cute) ghost of school “bad boy” Julian. Julian has some questions of his own he’s looking to answer and, when he refuses to leave, Yadriel’s mission gets a little more complicated… especially once Yadriel realizes he might not want Julian to go.

Romantic and hilarious, sweet and suspenseful, Cemetery Boys has so much to fall in love with: from its diverse cast of characters to its vibrant and complex world. Thomas wrote the novel, in part, so that young, marginalized readers would have a story not only to escape into but also “where they see themselves as being incredibly powerful, supported, but very importantly, being loved.” Cemetery Boys is a gift to us all, and a reminder of what is possible when the still far-too-inaccessible publishing industry lets more people in.

“No, it wasn’t the end. It was a better beginning.”

Best Non-Genre Books of 2020

The Darling Killers by Sarah McCarry

Over the summer, mere weeks into lockdown and in the phase of the pandemic where it felt like you couldn’t trust anyone or anything outside of your precarious bubble, author Sarah McCarry began serializing her latest novel The Darling Killers via a weekly Substack newsletter. The sparklingly clever title tells you plenty, but in short, it’s a female-perspective Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Los Angeles’ glittery world of young adult authors whose mastery over words has earned them obsessive fandoms and access to the endless party life.

In the style of the best thrillers, this lush novel provided the perfect escapism as antiheroine Sofia Bencivenga arrives in LA and immediately falls in with a trio of talented, haunted writers: ethereal Alison, bitchy Judith, and charismatic Jaxson. Sofia goes from shadowing their weekly writing dates to conning her way into emerging-writer status, but when Alison dies under suspicious circumstances at one of Jaxson’s fabulous parties, Sofia has to pause in her pursuit of vicariously living through Alison’s life to consider its dangerous flipside.

It would have been enough for the book to skewer the particular cult of YA author celebrity, to mock how every supporting character nurses their own dreams of writing—or at least acting out—The Great American Novel. But McCarry also gets to the heart of yearning to create worlds and characters, the ache of writing-as-processing, the thrill of trying on other stories and lives—she grabs that heart out of your chest and shows it back to you, thumping obscenely but recognizably. Back when the rest of 2020 stretched out ahead of us, especially uncertain, waking up to each installment every Tuesday morning was one of the few things keeping me looking forward to the next week.

– Natalie Zutter

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read is perhaps the worst misnomer of any book title on this list, and the cover doesn’t help. The lead characters only go to the beach near their adjoining properties once, maybe twice! Emily Henry’s gem lies somewhere between romance and literary fiction, mirroring her characters’ work. In Beach Read, next door neighbors find themselves uncomfortably close – they can see in one another’s windows, when they’re both on the deck they can easily chat at normal volume – and of course their first interaction is fraught.

It doesn’t take long to find out they’re both writers – she, romance; he, literary fiction – and amid an argument about whose work is easier, a challenge to swap genres unfolds. Throughout the heat of the summer they teach one another about their respective genres and open up about their lives. It’s darker than the average romance – he’s writing about a cult where pretty much everyone died; she’s cleaning out her dead father’s home – but if you’re looking for something with adult sex/romance and adult relationships and emotional pitfalls in equal measure, Beach Read has you covered.

– Delia Harrington

Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed 

In a year when politics was inescapable and inescapably miserable, Yes, No, Maybe So provided political escapism that soothed my soul in the form of a romcom about a state senate race. While the setup might sound contrived – two teens, a Jewish boy and a Muslim girl volunteer to knock on doors together and fall in love – the book itself featured well-drawn characters. Trading off narration by character and corresponding author, we learn about their home lives, friends, hopes and fears, why they’re invested in this race, and how they really feel about one another.

Taking place mostly during Ramadan, the book has some fun easter eggs for veteran canvassers and field staff while doing a decent job explaining some of the inner workings of a state-level campaign for newcomers. Anyone interested in getting more politically active will find numerous examples in the book of how to do so, and it certainly helps that as Jamie and Maya face their respective fears, they make getting involved seem easier to the reader, too. The book is incredibly earnest, tender and sweet, both about politics and their romance, especially under Jamie’s narration, but Maya and their circumstances bring in a dose of realism to help balance things out so it’s not too saccharine. 

– Delia Harrington

What were your favorite books of the year? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Best Books of 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[0ceanrose-blog]

“We Make Our Own Fate” - A Swendgame Meta

Ok y’all, I’m really excited about this revelation because I think it could be the key to understanding and predicting the plot for what could potentially be the final season of OUAT. I was thinking about the episode title “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and it sort of punched me in the face:

Emma’s story is mirroring Regina’s, and vice versa.

And it’s occurring in three very obvious ways this season: their identities, their search for true loves, and their pursuit of happy endings.

1. Their identities

Though it may not seem like it at times, OUAT is a character-driven show. Character growth is really what the story revolves around. We have watched these 2 women fight loneliness, fear, self-deprivation, and their own evil impulses. We watched them grow into strong and loving heroes. But we have yet to witness the true culmination of each character’s story: self-actualization. For Emma and Regina, this means their quest of “beating fate”--conquering the identities that fate has thrust upon them. For Regina, it’s the Evil Queen. For Emma, it’s the Savior. So let’s talk a bit about season 6 and compare them.

Regina is currently learning about who she is without her Evil Queen identity. 

When those mysterious “shears of destiny” or whatever come back into play (forget about those? yeah, me too), Emma may very well be forced to come to terms with who she is without her Savior identity. This is what the whole season has been setting up--her suppressing the temptation to use the shears, and now the threat that they’re going to be used on her anyway. 

I see only two ways that this can play out in the finale (and it really depends on what kind of story the writers are planning. Try as I may, I can’t pin it down since this show is so allegorical).

Either 1) both Regina and Emma will finally be able to accept and mentally conquer these parts of themselves, or 2) having experienced life apart from these identities, both women will choose to move on in life without them. 

The former would be a beautiful display of how they represent yin and yang. Regina finally accepting and forgiving herself for her past. Emma realizing that it’s not magic that makes her a savior--it’s her own will power and her love for her family. In this way, both women would be “beating fate” by accepting it... the fate of being the Evil Queen, and the fate of being the Savior. 

The latter would still be a representation of them beating fate, just in a more concrete way. It goes along with the theme of this Dark Swan quote: “There are no good or bad versions of ourselves. It is just me.”

Essentially, Emma was saying that they are not and never have been “the Evil Queen and the Savior”... they’re just Regina and Emma. Two people trying to navigate a morally-gray world, who had these unwelcome fates and identities thrust upon them. This is a theme that has really been pushed on this show, and perhaps beating fate simply means reclaiming their true identities. Interestingly, I feel that this idea aligns with Swen’s theories about separating the “real” from the “fairytale.” Additionally, it would leave enough drama for a reset of the show, whereas the first idea is more of a full-circle ending.

Whatever happens, I’m excited to see how these arcs are wrapped up :)

2. Their True Loves

Emma loved a man that fate kept telling her to let go of (re: the Dark H00k and Underworld arcs). Emma’s love died, and then he was resurrected.

Regina loved a man that fate kept telling her to let go of (re: the whole Marian thing, and the Zelena thing). Regina’s love also died, and (a version of him) was resurrected.

It is clear that not only do Emma and Regina mirror each other, but so do their respective romantic relationships. And if we assume this trend will continue (which it already appears to be doing), we can begin to draw some conclusions....

Regina thought she could see a future with her resurrected love. In the last episode, however, we saw that R0bin manipulated her, and she realized the hard way that he was not the man she wishes he was. By now it’s obvious that the whole purpose of this Wish!Robin arc is to allow Regina to heal and move on from that relationship. 

Like Regina, Emma thinks she also sees a future with her resurrected love. This season, we’ve been shown how H00k manipulates her... first by lying about the shears, now by proposing to her before being honest about his past. Will she come to the realization that he is not the man she wishes he was? Was the whole purpose of H00k’s resurrection to help Emma truly and honestly move on from their relationship? 

This is the only way H00k’s resurrection makes sense to me: that both men were simply catalysts for the character growth of our heroines. R0bin helped Regina “open her heart to love” (S5 Only You), and H00k helped Emma “take off her armor” (S5 Firebird). It’s no coincidence that, once again, these developments mirror each other. The main purpose for both of these relationships were fulfilled last season.

3. Their Happy Endings

We’ve been told this season that the fate of all saviors is that they never live to see their happy endings.

GET THIS: how many times has it been brought up that villains also don’t get happy endings?

Twice now, Emma and Regina have had a conversation about “beating fate” together. When I think about it like this, it’s so obvious! “The Final Battle” is really just about them fighting for a chance at their happy endings... and the truth is, it’s always been with each other. 

-----------------------

Conclusion

 The biggest overarching theme of this show is about Emma and Regina becoming part of a family; a second theme is about both of them finding true love; and now another theme appears to be about them conquering their identities.... 

And the concept of beating fate, which is specifically associated with Emma and Regina’s relationship, is tied into all of these themes!

............I never completely believed this before, but I do now: this show is really fucking gay lol

[jinjojess]

Jess's Suggestions on DR3

I got a bunch of asks throughout the run of DR3 asking me what I’d change if I were writing it, and I wanted to wait and see how it ended before I said anything.

Now that it’s over, here’s what I would have done with the anime. These are just suggestions, aimed at having the story stay more cohesive. Going to try and keep the constraints in mind, and I'll be limiting myself to only 24 episodes. I’ll admit that it was pretty damn tough, and there’s still issues with my version, but I did my best to offer a more coherent, thematically solid story.

Ideally, I’d have a lot more room to include way more things, and if this were entirely my story I’d probably start from scratch and shift the focus entirely, but in the interest of trying to mend rather than completely rewrite, I did my best. I know some people are going to complain that the things they want aren’t included, but despite that I really want to, there isn’t enough time to make everybody happy.

CAUTION: THIS POST IS EPICALLY LONG!

First, I’m going to assume that we’re keeping both Mirai-hen and Zetsubou-hen. I think that just doing Mirai-hen would have been the safest bet, but that seems like it was one of the few things that Kodaka actually seemed to care about preserving, so I’m going to try and stay loyal to that.

So how do we do that? Simple: we pick a theme and stick with it. Our theme for all of DR3 is going to hit at the heart of what Dangan Ronpa has been pushing since the very beginning: there is always more to people and situations than meets the eye, so a black-and-white worldview is a bad idea. So in DR3, the overarching theme is going to be that extremes in either direction are bad, and balance and cooperation is what wins the day.

So now that we have our themes in place, we know what will inform everything else about the series. For clarity’s sake and so we can see how the arcs are going to work together, I’m going to start with Zetsubou-hen and work forward chronologically.

I think Zetsubou-hen actually starts off fine so I’d keep the first couple episodes pretty much the way they are. I’m not going to list EVERYTHING that would be in the episodes, so certain things, like Yukizome on the phone with Munakata, her having meetings with Sakakura, Jin and Kizakura chatting, Afterlife Theater, etc. just fit in wherever is appropriate. Also of note: after episode 6, the 78th Class kids show up in the background of other scenes. The Zero characters are in the background from the start.

The changes start in the third episode, which is dedicated to the Twilight Syndrome Murder. First of all, we’re not going to center it on Hinata and his feelings about it. There can be a scene or two that contributes to his ultimate decision to become Kamukura, but for the most part it’s about Satou, Natsumi, and the three 77th Class members they’re involved with. I would add a scene where the three of them are wary of each other and it’s ruining the class harmony.

This is the first whiff we get that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. In episode 4 we see some of the classmates (let's say...Sonia, Gundam, and Souda) go to Nanami and Yukizome, saying that they’re concerned about the animosity between Koizumi and Kuzuryuu/Pekoyama. Yukizome then convinces a somewhat unsure Nanami that they have to repair the relationship between the classmates and there’s a goofy sequence centered around getting them to make up. Yukizome is happy with this outcome, and convinces Nanami that this is what the class rep needs to do. They can’t let anyone in the class be sad or upset, and they all have to get along. The B-side of this episode is Hinata coming to the decision to become Kamukura.

My episode 5 is now set a few months later, where it shows that not everything is all feel-good and rainbows, and nothing has really been resolved, the kids are just repressing their negative feelings. For the most part Episode 5 follows a similar vein as the actual Episode 4, where Komaeda is trying to cheer his classmates up and get the practical exams canceled so they can work out their issues stress free. It ties in the backstory of the 76th Class still, and touches ever so slightly on the Hope Drug idea by showing Kimura working on something Yukizome has requested of her.

Episode 6 follows the Despair Sisters’ introduction (mostly unchanged from what we got since that was wonderful) and shows that Hinata’s long transformation into Kamukura has been completed. We get our first glimpse of real Mitarai. The other focus of this episode is on some of the characters who get less attention: Mioda, Owari, and Nidai. The three of them are struggling to keep up with Yukziome’s relentless cheer-mongering, especially Mioda. She tries to organize a rebellion but it ends up being quashed by Nanami.

Episode 7 opens with Yukizome and Sakakura having a discussion, Sakakura accusing her of losing sight of why they’re at the school. Yukizome doesn’t appreciate this insinuation, and she tells Sakakura that she’ll take on the snooping duty to find out more about the Kamukura Project. Sakakura tries to dissuade her, and like the scene after the altercation with Hinata, there’s a nice moment where you see that they two of them are very close friends even if they’re rivals for Munakata’s affections.

The rest of the episode plays out similarly to actual Episode 6, with Junko and Mukuro sneaking in to see Kamukura and sway him to their side, eyeball takoyaki, etc. However, one major change is that there’s yet another fateful meeting in this episode–while fleeing the scene, Junko and Yukizome cross paths. There’s a moment where there’s a spark of antagonism between them, but it’s too dark to really make each other out, and then they both go their separate ways. At the very end of the episode, Junko runs into Mitarai for the first time and realizes that he isn’t the upperclassman she knows going by that name.

Episode 8 starts with Junko learning about Mitarai’s brainwashing capacity. Meanwhile, the 77th Class is trying their best to keep up their happy facade. Sagishi is at the most risk, since he’s worried about Mitarai’s disappearance, and he and Tsumiki try to plan a way to go look for him without raising suspicion. Tsumiki ends up going alone because Nanami catches Sagishi and drags him back to Happy Smile Fun Town. Tsumiki searches for Mitarai, getting picked up by Mukuro and brought to Junko, who lays on the charm. From Tsumiki, Junko learns about Yukizome, who was that teacher she ran into the night she first met Kamukura, and upon hearing about the oppressive regime of compulsory happiness she’s set up, takes an interest in the class. Simultaneously, Yukizome and Sakakura are having a meeting via phone with Munakata, and Yukizome mentions the student she saw the night she was gathering info on Kamukura. Munakata tells the two of them to look into it further and let him know as soon as they identify the student.

Episode 9 is entirely about the student council killing game. If it absolutely had to be, it could be put in as the first half of the episode, but I’d prefer if it had a bit more room to breathe. The pace of the game is a little slower, with a bit more time spent showing the various members before Karen inevitably breaks. Also the motives are clearer and not just a single line and image. Kamukura fills roughly the same role, though in this version he actually tries killing a student to see what it’s like, only to conclude that it’s still boring. Junko watches on from the control room with Protokuma and Mukuro soundtracking the whole thing (this is my pipe dream so in it Toyoguchi sings a bunch of songs from Eva). There are cuts occasionally to the 77th Class trying to hide their concern from Yukizome and Nanami, and to Mitarai hard at work. Tsumiki is also in the control room, and it shows Junko treating her in a sinister, but kind way. The episode ends with Junko taking the video of the killing and telling Matsuda about her plan to send it to the prep school to incite the Parade. We see Matsuda comment it seems that Junko's therapy isn't helping, and his expression shifts to pained, which suggests that the events of Zero are going to take place shortly thereafter.

Episode 10 is set a few weeks later, after the events of Zero (there's a short scene in the beginning of Junko handing off her Ryouko apparel to Mukuro to dispose of). This episode is a parallel of Episode 1, only instead of Yukizome gathering up the class, it’s an episode-long montage of Junko approaching all the remaining non-Nanami 77th Class members and telling them she’s got what they’re aching for. They’re all so beaten down from Nanami and Yukizome’s overbearing control that they readily go along with Junko and watch the video. We see that the video stimulates their negative emotions and basically transmits despair directly into them, which is such a relief from their repression that they eat it up and quickly become addicts. When they return to the class, they play along, knowing that Junko will give them their fix if they need it, and starting to assert themselves more. It’s worth noting that Komaeda is trying to convince himself that he’s only going so that he can investigate and figure out how to topple Junko in the name of hope.

The Parade is shown to have evolved from a demonstration to a full-on riot.

Episode 11 covers how Yukizome and Nanami are trying to get control over the class again in the midst of the Parade-induced chaos and failing. The entire 77th Class doesn’t show up one day, prompting Yukizome and Nanami to go looking for them. While searching, Nanami ends up stumbling into a trap and wakes up in the death maze, which the 77th Class has been building for Junko over the last several days. A recording of Junko taunts Nanami, saying that she was played for a fool by Yukizome, but if she makes it all the way to the end, she can help her precious friends. Nanami makes it all the way to the end after being beaten mercilessly, only to discover that the ones torturing her in the maze were her own classmates, feeding their rage from being under her thumb into physically hurting her. She drops Yukizome’s happy-at-all-costs ideaology and begs for her life, but the class is already too far gone and they execute her instead.

Meanwhile, Junko herself locates Yukizome, and begins taunting her, saying that she was a horrible teacher who let her students fall into despair. Yukizome tries to blame Junko instead, but Junko shows her the video footage of the rest of the class executing Nanami out of revenge and it’s enough to break Yukizome’s spirit. At this moment Junko tells her that this is how you truly show your love, isn’t it? Doesn’t Yukizome have people she loves in her life? Doesn’t she want to share this exquisite pain with them and grow closer? Her therapist once told her that it's important to show that you care for people, or else they won't know.

A short time later, Sakakura finds Yukizome on campus and worriedly asks what happened. Yukizome says that it’s all her fault, and now because of Enoshima, Munakata will be next. This infuriates Sakakura, who tracks Junko down and announces that he’ll expose what she’s doing to Munakata and then the world. Before he can attack her though, Mukuro shoots him with a paralyzing agent and we get essentially the same outing that we got in the anime, minus the huge conspicuous group of prep school retainers. Mitarai also finally realizes the weight of what he’s been accessory to as the result of his own selfishness, and Junko taunts him as he runs off.

There’s a short after-credits scene of Fujisaki and Gekkougahara working at the behest of the headmaster on what was originally their joint practical exam project. Fujisaki tries to keep the mood light, asking if his AI version of Nanami is enough like the real thing. Gekkougahara distractedly nods, then comments after a pause that this would be much easier if Matsuda were there, leading into an awkward silence. Then Fujisaki remarks that if this doesn't work, the only plan left is to shut themselves up inside the school. Gekkougahara looks upset, muttering that she refuses to fail again.

Now onto Mirai-hen. Again, I think the first episode was perfectly fine for setting up the conflict and setting the stage for the coming killing game, so we’ll leave that alone. One thing I want to get across is that Sakakura and Yukizome seem to be not on the best terms. The audience is supposed to notice this and throughout the series wonder why–they seem so close in Zetsubou-hen, why not here? Is it Munakata? And then you later realize it’s the Junko thing. Also there’s a scene of Yukizome and Munakata together talking about the future, and Yukizome remarks that it's important to show you care for people, or else they won't know.

Anyway, throughout this imagine there’s various short Hagakure-on-the-outside shots spliced in through these episodes.

Episode 2 is mostly the same except for a few major changes. First, there’s a rule in place that you CANNOT share your NG Code or else your bracelet will inject you with poison as if you’d broken it. This solves the issue of “why the fuck didn’t anyone just tell people their damn NG Code and avoid accidental triggers?”

Second, Naegi tries to take charge of the situation, citing that he, Kirigiri, and Asahina are all experienced with games like this. Munakata asks him what he intends to do, but Naegi doesn’t have a concrete answer; he just says that they’ll “find a way.” This isn’t enough for Munakata, who says that they need to have a realistic plan if they’re going to get out alive. He gives the speech about how if Naegi loves hope, he’ll kill himself right now to end the game, since Monokuma mentioned that this was supposed to be a showdown between Naegi and him.

Naegi argues back that there’s no need for anyone to die and Munakata asks how exactly he can guarantee that. Things are getting heated, and Sakakura is about to get involved, but Bandai calls out asking him to stop. When Sakakura asks why, he says that he can’t witness vio–and then he dies of poison. That sends a shockwave through everyone, and in the ensuing confusion, Asahina drags Naegi out of the room to flee. Then the rest of the episode pretty much goes how it went in canon. Asahina manages to figure out Naegi’s NG Code on her own given by how determined he is not to run while they’re in the hallway. They figure out that you can say someone else’s forbidden action aloud and wordlessly confirm or deny it without penalty. Then they hook up with Gekkougahara and continue on as the episode went pretty much.

We’ll throw Kodaka a bone and keep the tomato sauce fake out death for now.

Episode 3 starts off checking in with Naegi’s party and showing that Asahina is still alive. Gozu is also alive for the time being, though he seems agitated and anxious to find out who the victim of the time limit was. He briefly leaves the party and promises to find them later.

Meanwhile, Kirigiri wakes up and finds that Tengan has fallen victim to the attacker. Mitarai is shocked and horrified, and we get some backstory from him about his relationship with Tengan, and how the old man rescued him from a group of adult thugs who had cornered him in an alley (Grandpa Danger can get his fight on in flashbacks) and offered him a spot at Kibougamine. He mentions that Tengan ALSO scouted him for the Future Foundation, rescuing him in a similar way from Remnants of Despair. Kirigiri observes that Tengan was like a father figure to Mitarai, and he says yeah, he kind of was. She then begins investigating.

In this episode, we learn Kirigiri’s NG Code, which in my version is letting all of the original six survivors of Junko’s game live past the fourth time limit. She checks her own bracelet to read it, then continues with her investigation, noting aloud that this is the second official time limit of the game.

We also get a chance to check in with the 76th Class, where Andou is trying to convince Kimura to join the organization she’s trying to form. Kimura is hesitant, citing that she’s surprised to hear that Andou wants to work with her given their past, but Andou insists that it’s all water under the bridge now.

This episode ends with Naegi going to the broadcasting room to contact everyone over the PA and tell them to all gather in the main hall to decide what to do. Munakata has the exchange with Sakakura and then catches Naegi alone. They have the same conversation they have in the actual anime, where Munakata calls him out on not really understanding suffering.

Episode 4 has Gozu join back up with Asahina and Gekkougahara, shaken but seeming better than before he left. Before Asahina can ask what’s wrong, Munakata announces that he’s going to execute Naegi in the main lobby, so they go to rescue him. Meanwhile, Kirigiri looks at her bracelet again, looks conflicted, but then sees Asahina and the others rushing by down the hall toward the main lobby. She takes a deep breath, mutters a good luck to them, and continues on toward the room with Yukizome’s body in it. There, they find Kizakura hanging around, just like in the actual anime, and he unofficially joins their group.

In this version, Gozu is the one who physically stands in the way of Munakata. He allows Asahina, Naegi, and Gekkougahara a chance to escape, and once they’re gone, he accuses Munakata of killing Tengan. Munakata seems surprised that Tengan was the victim, given his fighting ability, and suggests that Gozu perhaps was the one who killed him. This pushes Gozu over the edge and they start to fight to the death.

Episode 5 is mostly the fight between Munakata and Gozu, with them arguing about how the Future Foundation was being run. Munakata says that Tengan was going soft in his old age, considering letting Naegi slide on harboring the 77th Class grads, while Gozu insists that Tengan always did the right thing. At one point Sakakura shows up and tries to join in the fight but Munakata refuses to let him help, so he instead goes after Naegi’s group. Eventually the floor gives way under the two of them.

Mirroring this, we have the 76th Class starting to get more heated with each other. Andou reveals that she knows full well that old man Tengan had Kimura make a Hope Drug that would erase all negative feelings a human might have, and that the only reason they didn’t use it was because he and Munakata decided they wanted a clearer idea of how it worked. She needles Kimura, saying she wants to use it, right? She wants to be useful, right? Well, Andou won’t let Kimura’s talents atrophy like Tengan or Munakata would. Kimura gets defensive, saying that Munakata did so much for her after getting kicked out of Kibougamine. Andou asks why she trusts Munakata over someone she’s known her entire life, and their argument escalates to a full-on fight.

There’s a scene where Sakakura chases down Naegi’s group and Asahina fights him off, with help from Gekkougahara. She sends Naegi and Asahina off to give them a head start and slow Sakakura down. He manages to kick in Gekkougahara’s screen though, badly damaging Monomi. The episode closes on Monomi cutting to and from static, her voice changing to Monoka’s. The final scene is of Monaka muttering to herself about how she’s going to need a few minutes to fix this up.

Episode 6 opens on Kirigiri’s group investigating Yukizome’s body. We get a few shots of Kirigiri looking irritated at Kizakura’s small talk, and she seems ready to snap at him when he mentions that he values friendship above all else, but he guesses Kirigiri must be different. Meaningful close-up of both her bracelet and her glove.

Next it cuts to Munakata and Gozu, who are lying broken and exhausted in the rubble a floor down. Gozu is impaled as Tengan was. Munakata insists through panting that he will stop this game as soon as possible and eradicate all despair, no matter the stakes. Gozu asks him if he really means that. Munakata asks what he means, and Gozu replies that he has followed Tengan faithfully since the Future Foundation was formed, because he truly believed that it was doing the right thing. But lately…he’s not so sure anymore. He asks Munakata what he’d do if his back was against the wall and he had to make a really difficult choice. Munakata says he’d do what was best for the greater good and Gozu chuckles, asking what about scenarios where the greater good is questionable?

He asks Munakata to come closer and take off his mask. With great pain, Munakata does so, and the now bare-faced Gozu looks at him and tells him that Tengan made a deal with Despair, giving them free reign in certain areas in order to ensure certain other ones remained safe. Munakata is horrified by this; Tengan was cooperating with Despair? Gozu says that at first it’s hard to understand but it makes sense–their organization is strong, but Despair is all-encompassing. Compromise was necessary. How did Munakata think the Future Foundation was able to develop certain areas so quickly and return them to some semblance of normalcy? Everything they manage to do is the result of this tenuous truce between Future and Despair.

Munakata is clearly at the point where he’s having a crisis over this information. But, don’t they retake new areas? No, Gozu says, they don’t. They just develop the areas that they are assigned by the agreement between Tengan and Despair. But what about the 13th Branch, doesn’t it do relief work in still-despairified areas? Then Gozu laughs and coughs up blood–does Munakata know what the 13th Branch Head really does? It’s not relief efforts…it’s negotiating with Remnants of Despair and doing upkeep of the agreement. Sometimes they manage to expand their borders of their control a bit, but in general if they do that, there’s a price to pay in another area they control. Sometimes the 13th Branch Head will negotiate a shift in borders, to make the general populace think that new places are being rescued, but in reality the balance is rarely disturbed. Most of her branch has no idea, simply providing aid to border areas.

Munakata stumbles backward, tripping in the rubble and falling down. Gozu apologizes, saying that he knows it seems pretty awful, but at least this way some people are saved. An all out war doesn’t always do anything more than cause more casualties. Munakata crawls away, leaving Gozu to bleed out, and goes to shut himself up somewhere to process this information.

There’s a short scene where Gekkougahara, her Monomi program now repaired, joins Asahina and Naegi again. They greet her happily, though Gekkougahara doesn’t let Asahina pat her head. The next time limit is about to be up, so they need to hole up somewhere–they can’t wait for Gozu anymore.

The last part of the episode follows Class 76. Izayoi and Kimura are fighting, while Andou insists that her organization will be better. Though she slips in a few passive aggressive remarks about what a favor she’s doing Kimura by asking for her help, Kimura senses a hint of sincerity in her words and stops fighting for a moment. She tells Andou that she’ll consider helping, but she wants to consult Munakata first. At that, Andou panics, saying that he can’t know about her plans to make her own organization, and calls Kimura a traitor again, but Kimura promises that she won’t say anything about Andou’s plans–she just wants his opinion on the Hope Drug once and for all. Andou agrees to let her go so long as she promises to come right back.

Kimura manages to find Munakata in the closed room where he’s having his breakdown, though before she can ask him about anything, the time limit is up and they all fall asleep. The final shot of the episode is Kimura’s dead body across the threshold, the Hope Drug no longer in her hand.

Episode 7 can still be set in Touwa City, but it isn’t about Komaru and Fukawa hunting down Monaka, it’s about Fukawa and Komaru growing concerned about the lack of communication from the others. Fukawa tries to contact Kirigiri but gets no response, and then she happily contacts Togami instead. He’s grumpy about it but she insists she tried Kirigiri first. Togami then tries to contact the rest of the Future Foundation, but finds he can’t get through either.

Togami announces that he’s going to head directly to the site of the hearing to investigate, and tells Fukawa and Komaru to do recon within the city. The two of them join up with the remaining Warriors of Hope (who report that Monaka is nowhere to be found in the city) to fight off various monokuma/adults/Monokuma Kids, before hijacking various signals the FF uses looking for information. They stumble onto an unlisted channel where they overhear that Munakata ordered troops to head to Jabberwock Island and firebomb it.

Alarmed, Komaru tells Fukawa that they have to do something. Fukawa tries to brush it off, saying that they don’t owe the 77th Class anything, but Komaru shows her true Naegi side and insists. Fukawa relents because she knows Komaru can’t make the journey alone, and they leave the fate of Touwa City in the hands of the former Warriors of Hope. There’s even a scene where they hand the controller over to Kotoko to show that they trust her, as a callback to the end of DR:AE.

Next we get a scene of Naegi, Gekkougahara, and Asahina waking up to see they’re all fine. Naegi has just had a nightmare about facing Junko again. They worry a bit about Kirigiri and Gozu, and Asahina gets a whole scene to show her grief over her brother’s death. Naegi tries to help her, saying that it’s okay, but Asahina has a moment where she loses her temper with him and says that it’s easy for him to say that–his sister is still alive and well. This is the first instance of Naegi starting to realize that he doesn’t have the answer to everyone’s problems, and that maybe Munakata was right and he doesn’t understand what everyone is going through.

Because I don’t feel any responsibility to mimic the first game’s murders for the millionth time, we’re then going to cut to Andou and Izayoi in the library. Andou is distraught because Kimura hasn’t returned yet, and she’s convinced that she’s been betrayed again. She asks Izayoi what they’re going to do, and he tries to comfort her. He gets up and starts to move a bookcase to make a blockade and discovers the “secret exit”. Excited, he shows Andou, who for a moment looks shocked, but then seems happy. She congratulates Izayoi and tells him to come celebrate with some candy. He declines awkwardly and Andou’s smile stretches just a bit too far to be natural.

The final scene cuts to Kirigiri, waking up and staring at her own bracelet. Kizakura walks over to her and tries to talk to her, mentioning that he’s no detective, but he used to know a guy who knew a detective, so he can figure out a thing or two; he can tell she’s upset. Kirigiri is chilly to him, but they manage to have a conversation about how important it is to protect people you love.

There’s an after-credits scene of the boats pulling up to Jabberwock Island, with five blurred figures watching in the foreground from a cliff.

Episode 8 opens with a scene set on Jabberwock again, showing initial volleys of artillery being shot into various locales you’d recognize from the game (though dilapidated, since this is the real world vs. the Shinsekai Program). The final location is the only up-to-date facility in the islands–on the center one where the Future Foundation building has been built. There’s a quick, dialogue-less scene of the SDR2 survivors frantically trying to attach mobile life support systems to the pods while the building is shaking and crumbling around them.

This segues into a flashback about Kizakura trying to get into Kibougamine to rescue the DR1 cast, creating a parallel of rescue attempts. It goes the same as it does in the actual anime.

Team Kirigiri investigates Kimura’s body and while they do so, Kirigiri notes that it looks like something was taken from her hand. She also assesses the bloodstains in the room. Mitarai asks if the bloodstains will lead them to who took whatever Kimura had been holding, and Kirigiri simply says that it will lead them to something, all right. Kizakura appears none too pleased to follow the blood trail, noting that it’s very likely that it’s a trap, but Kirigiri repeats the line from DR1 and DRK about how you have to face danger if you’re going to find the truth.

Besides, she adds as the camera focuses on her jacket cuff, there isn’t much time left. Kizakura looks distrubed by that comment but says nothing as they start to follow the trail.

Meanwhile, Asahina has regained her composure, and says that she’s not going to die here–Sakura-chan and Yuuta would never let her hear the end of it if that happened. She’s the one to get Naegi to chin up, and tells him that maybe they should try to find Kirigiri to get an idea of what to do. Naegi and Monomi agree that this seems like a good idea.

Cue Sakakura. He bursts in through the door, bellowing bloody murder and wielding some kind of hilarious improvised weapon. Naegi’s group realize that they’re trapped, and Gekkougahara’s chair doesn’t seem to be responding no matter what she types. Monomi starts wailing about how it’s all over. Asahina steps up to fight Sakakura off again, but he is furious right now so he ends up disarming Asahina and smashing her elbow with whatever weapon he’s using, winding up to kick her. Asahina closes her eyes and grits her teeth, a few flashes of Sakura and Yuuta going through her mind…

But the blow doesn’t come. There’s a shot from Asahina’s POV and she opens her eyes to see Kizakura crouched on the ground, coughing. He makes some kind of glib comment about how Sakakura probably could make a living as a kick-boxer if he really wanted to, and he shakily gets to his feet, taking a swig from his flask.

The others are shocked to see him, and even more shocked when Mitarai runs in a second later. Mitarai sees Asahina and Naegi, and turns to yell for Kirigiri to come see, but she isn’t there. He’s confused–he thought she was right behind them. Sakakura shakes off his shock at being foiled, realizes that Kirigiri is alone, and decides to go after her. Kizakura obviously follows.

The others want to follow too but Asahina cries out at how badly her arm hurts. Naegi gingerly touches it and says that he can’t believe she defended him like that. Asahina says of course she did, they’re friends. Naegi frowns, saying that Sakakura was really there to hurt him, and Asahina got hurt instead. It seems like that happens a lot–someone else has to take the brunt of pain for his sake. Look at what Komaru had to go through, even. Is he even really helping anyone? Maybe Munakata was right–he can only help people if things are set up in a way to allow for it. The way things are going now, he’s not going to be able to do anything and people are going to die.

Asahina reassures him that he can still help people, he maybe just needs to be a little more hands on. He mentioned that Yukizome told him before to try to understand Munakata’s point of view, right? Naegi dejectedly says yeah, sure. He and Mitarai decide to stay in the room with Asahina while Gekkougahara goes to look for medical supplies.

The next scene cuts to Kirigiri desperately trying to calm her breathing and stumbling onto Andou seemingly sobbing over Izayoi’s body in the library. Andou suddenly grabs the knife sticking out of Izayoi’s heart and attacks Kirigiri with a wide, Junko-esque grin on her face. Kirigiri parries her clumsy blows easily, using her self-defense knowledge to throw her onto the sofa in the room. Andou laughs uncontrollably when Kirigiri asks her what that was about, saying “Isn’t it great? He didn’t care! He didn’t even care!” before going off into another peel of giggles.

Kirigiri quickly ascertains what happened and asks Andou what was in the container Kimura had been holding. Andou declares happily that it was the Hope Drug old man Tengan commissioned. Kirigiri’s eyes widen for a moment, but then she goes back into reasoning mode and begins putting the pieces together.

Kizakura jogs into the room at that point, takes one look at Izayoi’s body and Andou, and asks Kirigiri what the hell is going on. She begins to explain and it segues into a flashback, where Andou is in a rough spot because Izayoi has found an exit but her NG Code forbids anyone from leaving the game arena, but she can’t tell him that. So instead, to buy time, she says she’s going to go look for Kimura, because they can’t leave without her. While wandering around the building trying to come up with a solution to this problem, Andou finds Kimura’s body and the mysterious drug. She knows it’s the Hope Drug and knows that if she gets Izayoi to drink it, he won’t mind being murdered, so she gets it, comes back, and kisses Izayoi to get him to drink it. This triggers Izayoi’s NG Code (she points out the purplish tinge to Izayoi’s wrist and the fact that his face is covered). This would give away Andou immediately, so she stabbed him with the knife from Kimura’s body to make it look like he had been killed by the Attacker.

Out of the flashback, Andou is still heaving with laughter, saying that Munakata didn’t even stop for the Hope Drug, he just left it there. Kizakura looks disturbed by all of this, but still doesn’t say anything.

Elsewhere, Sakakura is desperately running through the halls, growing increasingly frustrated. He catches a glimpse of Munakata shuffling down a long hallway, and he brightens up, taking off after him, calling for him to wait up.

There’s a few extremely quick scenes of what’s going on on the outside to close out the episode–Hagakure being clueless, Togami organizing troops--including the living Touwa captives--to go on the rescue mission, Fukawa and Komaru on their dinky boat headed toward Jabberwock, Munakata’s troops invading the island by foot and tromping through the areas we saw in the opening, before surrounding the FF building on the central island.

Episode 9 begins with a flashback to Sakakura’s and Munakata’s first meeting. Yukizome, who has already decided to be Sakakura’s friend without his input, introduces them. Munakata seems perfectly nice and friendly to Sakakura, who is being the biggest emo tsun ever, muttering that he’ll scare Munakata off like all the other people who try to be his friend. Yukizome cheerfully reminds him that she hasn’t gone anywhere yet, and tells him that Kyousuke is special–he appreciates people for who they are and what they do rather than their reputation--he'll try to become friends with just about anyone (this is a parallel with Naegi). Sakakura huffs at this, but Munakata tells him with a smile that Yukizome doesn't normally recommend people to him so highly, so he hopes they can be good friends.

Cut to present day Sakakura, scrambling after Munakata down the hallway. He finally catches up, finding Munakata facing away from him, sword limply in hand. “We failed, Sakakura,” he says, “all of us.” Sakakura argues that it isn’t true, and if anyone can turn this situation around, it’s Munakata. He’s Sakakura’s hope and he always has been. Munakata smiles ruefully and tells him that he should hitch his wagon to someone else before he ends up like Yukizome.

Sakakura takes a deep breath, deciding that this is The Moment, but stops himself before he can get the words out. There’s a split second flashback to Sakakura lying on the ground with Junko taunting him, and he just freezes. “It’s fine, Sakakura,” Munakata says in a tired monotone. “You’ve done enough.” Sakakura interprets this as a chance for him to do something right and prove that Munakata really does know best. Maybe if he can demonstrate that he’s useful…

He tells Munakata to leave it to him and he dashes off down the hallway with renewed purpose. If he can just take out Naegi and his friends, then Munakata will be okay.

Back in the library, Kirigiri dramatically de-hoods Izayoi–and finds that his face is completely unaffected by poison. Startled, she takes a step or two back. Andou’s laughter has segued into sobs now, though she’s still repeating “He didn’t care! He didn’t even care!”

Kizakura goes to open his mouth but Sakakura once again bursts through the door. He begins to fight Kirigiri and Kizakura, though Sakakura’s raw determination starts to wear them both down. Things escalate to the point where Kizakura is lying on the floor with the wind knocked out of him and Kirigiri is crouching, pinned against the brick wall behind the "secret exit" door she just pried open. So wild with the thought of being victorious and doing good by Munakata, Sakakura winds up to punch Kirigiri in the back of the head (which would for sure kill her in addition to triggering his NG code), but Kizakura reaches out with his left hand and picks up the knife Andou dropped, stabbing it into Sakakura’s ankle. This throws Sakakura off balance and sends him to the floor.

“You don’t understand!” Sakakura roars, “I have to make this right!” Kizakura offers a sad grin and answers “Me too.” Sakakura is left groaning on the ground, defeated once again. Kizakura convulses a few times as the poison courses through him, and then lies still. Kirigiri stares at the scene, breathing hard.

“You were wrong,” Andou croaks from the sofa. “You got it wrong.” She begins her account of what happened between her and Izayoi, which once again segues into a flashback. Apparently it was Izayoi who wanted to find Kimura before they left–he had always felt badly about the falling out and wanted to see Andou and her best friend make up so she would be happy again. He talks it over with Andou and he urges that she should be the one to go look for Kimura. While searching, Andou is having all kinds of paranoid thoughts–she knows she has to stop Izayoi from leaving somehow without sharing her NG Code, but how? Maybe Kimura has some kind of antidote she can take beforehand to counteract the poison? She could probably find a way to ask about that without violating the Codes.

Then she finds Kimura’s dead body. Presented with this, Andou has more of a mental breakdown. It’s really over now. She and Kimura will really never make up and repair their friendship. And what is she going to tell Izayoi? How is she going to get him to stop trying to get her out once he finds out that Kimura has been killed? He’d stop at nothing to keep her safe but his attempts will set off her NG Code. She might…have to kill him… Andou tears up at the idea of it, and says no, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to do that. Unless…she notices that the Hope Drug is still in Kimura’s hand.

Back in the library, she tearfully tells Izayoi the news and he is also upset. He starts to pry the doors to the exit open, and Andou downs the Hope Drug. Because it isn’t completely refined, the effects are a bit wonky, and she immediately feels lightheaded and strange. Izayoi notices and comes over to steady her, and she leans up to kiss him, following the plan to have him take it too. Izayoi only swallows a drop or two but his NG Code begins to activate. This brings Andou back to herself for a moment and she realizes the weight of what she’s done, but Izayoi reassures her that it’s okay and he understands. However, Andou doesn’t want to see him suffer through the poison, and she grabs the knife she took from Kimura’s body and drives it into his heart to mercy kill him.

“Do you even know what it’s like? Intentionally sacrificing someone you love to save yourself?” Andou asks through her sobbing. Kirigiri has a PTSD flashback to a raging fire and a shadowy silohuette of, naturally, Samidare. She inhales sharply and powerwalks out of the library, intent on finding Naegi and Asahina.

Episode 10 starts off with Fukawa and Komaru arriving at Jabberwock and seeing the warships moored at the dock. Fukawa begins to get nervous, suggesting that they wait for backup, but Komaru insists that there’s no time and convinces her to help.

Komaru and Fukawa sneak onto the island and skulk around without trying to alert the Future Foundation soldiers, using the skills they honed avoiding monokuma in Touwa City. They make it to the building that houses the Shinsekai Program.

Then the scene cuts to Munakata, who is standing over Yukizome’s body, looking upset. He stabs his sword into her and adjusts his pocket, then stands up to see Sakakura limp into the room. Sakakura apologizes for not taking out Naegi or any of his cohorts, but Munakata doesn’t seem to be listening. He brusquely tells Sakakura that they have to get going, retrieves his sword, and they leave the room.

Next is a scene of Togami and the Touwa City captives rendezvousing with Hagakure. Hiroko has a joyful, humorous reunion with her son. They begin to inspect the building.

Kirigiri reunites with her friends and Mitarai. Naegi and Asahina are overjoyed to see her, but Kirigiri can tell that Naegi is looking down. She tries to cheer him up by saying that she’s onto something, holding up her notebook, and says that he and Asahina should take a look later. Naegi senses that something’s off about her, but Kirigiri insists that she’s fine. At one point she holds both his and Asahina’s hands without her gloves and tells that that despite everything, she’s glad to know them. This sets off all kinds of red flags for Naegi, who is about to ask her what that’s about when she says that it’s almost the time limit and they all have to take their places. They all find spots to lie down and the gas starts to go off. Kirigiri closes her eyes, smiles, and says she’ll always be with them. As she dozes off, Samidare’s face comes into full view and she thinks “Yui…oneesama…” before it cuts to black.

While this is going on, Sakakura is walking ahead of Munakata in the hallway, talking more about how sorry he is. Munakata stops, pulls something out of his pocket, looks at it, and then looks at Sakakura. “Did you know?” he asks. Sakakura hesitates, thinking he means did he know that Junko was behind it all, and freezes. Then he releases a slow breath and says, Yeah, he did. Munakata delivers a somewhat wavering “I see.” Sakakura pauses again, as if to turn around but doesn’t, and says that he has something else to confess. He should have said something sooner, and he’ll understand if Munakata doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore after–

Munakata’s sword goes right through his chest. In too much pain to speak, Sakakura chokes and falls to his knees, then the floor. Munakata is visibly upset, but trying very hard to keep it together as he stiffly walks away to find a place to spend the time limit.

Meanwhile, Togami’s rescue team sets off a bomb that makes the building collapse, pretty much the same as how it went down in the actual anime.

Mean-meanwhile, the Jabberwock survivors are trying to sneak their comatose friends out of the building. They have lots of near misses, but it seems to be going well, until Hinata drops to his knees and hisses in pain, holding his head. The other survivors look sympathetic but panicked, trying to reassure him while also not calling attention to the guards. Someone observes that if they can just get to the dock, they can take a boat and escape. You see that they pep tlak each other but try to be cautious of not being too overly positive. They try to keep their comments realistic.

After taking a rest so Hinata can collect himself, they get to the main entrance hall and it seems like they’re home free. However, soliders appear and surround them. Owari wants to fight, but her body is too weak from starving herself. Kuzuryuu’s depth perception is messed up from his missing eye. Souda isn’t a fighter. Sonia hoists a gun, but she can’t take on all of these soldiers alone. Hinata says he’ll help, and he stands up, trying to concentrate, but the others tell him no. They’ll die together if that’s what it takes, but they won’t let Hinata let go of himself. Hinata looks back at them with a smile and ends up having another migrane that forces him to his knees.

Cue Sho laughter. Scissors fly out and knock weapons out of the soldeirs’ hands as they stand there, stunned. The survivors don’t know what’s going on, until Sho appears and stands before them. Whispers ripple through the soldiers about “Isn’t that Genocider Sho? She’s with Despair? I never trusted her” and so on. Sho laughs and tells them to get moving, and the confused survivors see Komaru waving them over to an unguarded hallway. Someone asks Sho if she can take all of these guards on her own and she shrugs, saying “Guess we’ll find out!” before leaping back into the fray.

Komaru gets the survivors and the comatose kids outside. There’s heavy fire and sounds of a heated battle coming from inside. Komaru pauses for a moment to look in that direction, concerned, saying “Touko-chan…” Then she runs off with the others.

Back at the killing game, Kirigiri suddenly wakes up. She sits up, seeing everyone else in her party still asleep. Checking her wrist, she sees that her bracelet no longer displays her NG Code. After checking to make sure that Naegi and Asahina are safe, she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment. She knows what this means. There’s a hint of resignation on her face, because she’s getting awfully tired of other people dying for her.

However, this is an unexpected boon. She's just confirmed that the mastermind must be alive and in contact with the outside world--if both Naegi and Asahina are safe, the mastermind must have shut off her bracelet manually after hearing that one of the other three survivors on the outside has died. Kirigiri realizes that without the bracelet she can't be put to sleep or tracked, so she can now investigate without restraint. She leaves a note for her friends, but can’t make it too obvious what she's up to. The one behind it all surely knows she's alive, but not what she's doing or where she is. If Naegi and Asahina know Kirigiri's investigating, they'll not stop until they find her so they can help, and she needs to stay under the mastermind's radar. Instead, she leaves a message saying “Don't look for me." After another glance at her sleeping friends, she adds "I’ll always be with you” before heading off to further look into a hunch.

After she leaves, the others wake up to find her gone and her cryptic note. Naegi, who was feeling uneasy about this prior to the time limit, is even more alarmed. He's had another vivid dream about their last stand against Junko, her wild laugh following him even back into the waking world. He and Asahina decide to go look for Kirigiri in spite of the message, but Gekkougahara returns at this point and Monomi mentions that she’s so sorry about their friend. The others are unsure what that means, and Monomi says that she just got done hacking into the system to find out what everyone’s NG Codes were–Mitarai is obviously nervous at hearing this, but no one notices because Monomi goes on to say that Kirigiri’s was letting the other survivors live past the fourth time limit.

Cut to Monaka eating a sundae, remarking to herself that duh, Kirigiri is still alive, but these schmoes don't need to know that. 'Sides, she isn't lying; one of their friends really did just die.

This news crushes both Naegi and Asahina (Monaka enjoying their grief), and they look at the note Kirigiri left for them. Naegi wonders aloud why Kirigiri wouldn’t stay and Monomi muses that she probably didn’t want them to find her scarred, poisoned body. Asahina bursts into tears at this point, and Naegi leaves the room, citing that he’s going to look for Kirigiri’s body. He won’t let someone important to him be alone like that. The others try to stop him, but he marches off anyway.

As he walks he grows increasingly upset, tears starting to fall as he continues down the hallways. The episode ends with him crossing paths with Munakata.

Episode 11 begins with Munakata and Naegi meeting in the hallway. Naegi flashes back to earlier in the series, when Munakata told him it would be best if he killed himself, realizing that if he had, Kirigiri would still be alive right now. Letting out a yell, Naegi walks up to Munakata and begins slamming his fists into his chest, yelling about how Munakata was right this whole time, and he shouldn’t be alive when so many other people are dead. Munakata stands there and takes this wordlessly, and when Naegi finally pauses to gasp for breath, he gently lowers Naegi’s fists and says “Let’s talk.”

I haven’t been pointing out the themes very much during this but here I think it’s important–it’s supposed to show that Naegi is being decisively active like Munakata normally is, while Munakata is being passive like Naegi normally is.

Back in the other group, Mitarai shakily asks Monomi if she really has ALL the NG Codes. Monomi cheerfully replies that yup, she sure does! E-Even his? Of course! Asahina is distraught, but she notices how suspicious Mitarai is acting, and decides to keep an eye on him.

Back with Munakata and Naegi, Munakata throws some photos on the table, and explains that Yukizome had been with despair this entire time, and the preschool incident from the actual anime gets a short flashback. He tells Naegi that he gets it now–this entire game was all Yukizome’s doing to get him to despair. He flashes back to episode one, with Yukizome saying that it's important to show someone that you love them. This is how she was showing her love. Sakakura knew Yukizome was in despair and yet didn't say anything, because he too was in on it.

Naegi is about to say he understands, when he remembers the conversation he had with Asahina earlier about their siblings. He realizes that the pressure of symbolizing everyone’s hope has been affecting him, and because he’s been so focused on living up to the title, he’s forgotten how to really connect with people. Instead of trying to give advice or say he knows what Munakata is going through, Naegi just goes and sits by him, offering to listen. This seems to help somewhat, as it lets Munakata get out his frustration over Yukizome’s (and in his mind, Sakakura’s) betrayal. Naegi says that it seems like they both loved Munakata very much.

This not only makes Munakata feel better, but Naegi too. Kirigiri cared for him and Asahina enough to give up her life for them–he should be grateful for having known someone that selfless.

He tells Munakata that he thinks that Yukizome wasn’t in despair all the time–after all she gave him a very good piece of advice once about how they should cooperate and synchronize their hopes. Munakata starts to be self-depricating about being too controlling with his own version of hope, and Naegi admits that he’s been guilty of that as well. That’s why they need to work together, and keep each other in check.

They go back to rejoin the others, and Asahina reports that she found another note on the back of Kirigiri’s original one, saying that the secret probably lies in the monitors.

The first part of Episode 12 is set some time later, near the next time limit. They agree to have Naegi test out the monitor, and it goes down almost the same as in the anime, except that after Naegi sees his dead classmates, he stumbles backwards and trips over Mukuro’s body, falling into a deep hole ala the trash chute. When he hits the bottom, he hears Junko’s voice, distorted and terrifying around him, saying he’s such a good little hope boy, saving her minions. A huge, twisted version of Junko appears before Naegi, asking “So why didn’t you bother to try and save me?”

Naegi screams, suddenly surrounded by his classmates again, begging him to join them. It’s what he deserves, after all. Then Naegi goes to stab himself with the knife like in the anime, but he gets jolted out of his trance by Kirigiri.

For a moment he thinks he’s dead and begins to cry and beg for forgiveness, but Kirigiri tells him there’s no time. This has just confirmed her guess about the monitors and they need to smash all of them before it’s too late.

They both reconnect with the others, Asahina catching Kirigiri in a huge, bone-crushing hug. Kirigiri quickly explains how the monitors work, and they go around smashing them.

While this is happening, Mitarai slinks off, clutching his phone in his hands. He mutters to himself that he’ll die doing it, but it needs to be done. This madness has to stop. Asahina has followed him, and asks what he’s up to. Mitarai responds that he’s saving everyone and making up for his past mistakes. Asahina’s about to ask what the hell he means by that when Andou walks up behind her and answers: it’s a Hope Video, made by request of Tengan. Mitarai looks shocked, but Andou explains that since she knew about the Hope Drug Kimura was commissioned to make, she figured there were probably other people whose talents Tengan was looking to use as well.

She has a moment where she gets upset over the fact that he didn’t approach her, but she manages to calm herself down and instead she turns to Mitarai, telling him that this isn’t the answer. She tried this route by taking the Hope Drug and all it did was make her kill someone she loved. No negative emotions means no grief, no hesitation, no worry or concern. Even if it hurts, she wants to remember Izayoi, even Kimura, as long as she lives. There is a purpose in the pain.

This seems to get through to Mitarai and he agrees to hold off on the Hope Video, quietly apologizing to Tengan.

The survivors meet up in the main lobby, and Kirigiri begins her “this is whodunnit” thing, saying that she knows who the mastermind is. Munakata says that he figured it out too–it was Yukizome. No, Kirigiri says, Yukizome was only an accomplice. An important one, certainly, but not the one pulling the strings. The one who did that, was…

Kirigiri points to Gekkougahara, who doesn’t react. Monomi begins to panic, but Kirigiri tells her to knock it off, Touwa Monaka, and then Monaka cuts the crap and turns on a video feed of herself.

Everyone is shocked to see her–Monaka is the mastermind?

“No way,” says Monoka. “I’m not cut out for that. I couldn’t even beat Naegi’s dumb little sister.”

“Then…who is it?” someone asks, and Kirigiri, still pointing, says, “Her.”

Gekkoughara sighs, pulling down her scarf to grin and say out loud “I suppose now’s as good as time as any.”

End of epsiode.

Post credits scene of Togami’s rescue party emerging from the rubble, and Hagakure finding Togami’s body.

So. We are now at the finale. Now I anticipate some complaints regarding this but try to stay with me here. I’m doing this stuff for a reason.

So my version of Kibou-hen starts off by checking in with the Jabberwock crew, which is right now the five survivors, Komaru, and a bunch of comatose bodies.

They've gotten the comatose kids to a safe place--the hospital on the third island--and set them up to the life support systems there. Komaru says that she needs to go back for Fukawa, and the survivors pledge to go with her. Komaru tries to argue, but they won't have any of it, and they head off together back to the Future Foundation building on the central island.

They arrive and find that the FF soldiers have fought Sho to a stalemate. They run forward to join the exhausted Sho, when they start to feel a rumbling.

Cut to everyone back in the killing game. Gekkougahara lets out another sigh and says again that now's as good a time as any. At this point in the killing game there's probably been enough despair to get her plan to work.

Someone asks what her plan is and she puts her fingers to her lips and types something into the keyboard. The entire lobby begins to shake, and then the Future Foundation forces, the SDR2 survivors, Komaru, and Sho fall through the floor into the lobby.

Needless to say, everyone is surprised. Naegi runs to his sister and sees that thankfully she isn't seriously hurt.

"Ah, that was lucky," Gekkougahara says, leaning on the keyboard and irritating Monaka, "I took a pretty big gamble there."

Someone asks what she means, and she shrugs. She mentions that one more little bit of despair should do it, and turns to Munakata. She tells him that Sakakura was never part of Despair, and in fact, he was in love with Munakata and would have done anything for him. She then plays some video evidence of this that we saw before in Zetsubou-hen.

Munakata falls to his knees, realizing that he killed his best friend, and lets out a loud bellow from his gut.

Gekkougahara next asks Monka to report in from the Future Foundation building where Naegi's hearing was supposed to be held (this is where Monaka is located). She brings up a video feed from outside, showing that Togami has been killed in a collapse. Asahina screams and Sho lets loose a howl.

Komaru flinches at the sound, hunching over, and Naegi puts a hand on her shoulder, asking if she's okay.

Komaru's hand clamps down over her brother's...and then digs her nails in. Naegi yells and stumbles backward, seeing that his sister is leaning forward, her hair in her face. Her lips then part in a Cheshire smile and she starts to chuckle in an unhinged manner.

"K-Komaru...what's wrong?" Naegi asks, but Komaru ignores him, still laughing.

It trails into "Upupupu..." and then Komaru looks up, her eyes now bright blue and wild.

"I hate to resort to tactics like this," Gekkougahara says, "but unfortunately all my preferred scientific methods failed."

Someone asks what she did, and Gekkougahara explains that she summoned Junko's soul back to the mortal realm. (Fucking DR:AE claims ghosts are real, so why the hell not? Allow me a crazy twist or two here.) That's why she set up the killing game--Junko required some pretty significant despair as bait. It was a huge pain, moving everyone over to Jabberwock, luring Komaru there, etc., but luckily it all came together. After all this time, it seems like Gekkougahara is finally really getting into Enoshima's head. Here she laughs bitterly.

Naegi asks if she's been with Despair this whole time and Gekkougahara looks offended. No, of course not. She's on the side of hope. Then why the hell did she do all of this and summon the avatar of despair back?! Because, Gekkougahara says, she wants to prove that she can do the impossible.

When asked for further clarification, she says that the one patient she was never able to help in her entire career was Ensohima Junko. Everyone else, even Enoshima's sister, showed some progress when she met with them, but Enoshima never got any better. She failed when Enoshima was alive, and then she failed again when her AI was uploaded to the program she helped design.

Turns out Gekkougahara feels guilty about not fixing Junko before the apocalypse and will only consider her own guilt to be absolved if she can successfully treat her. Mitarai and Andou try to argue, but Gekkougahara cuts them down, saying that they tried the exact same methods and they don't have any room to judge her.

Naegi at this point is having a crisis. He realizes that the nightmares this whole time have represented his guilt over not being able to save his one classmate, and now he's seeing how that exact same feeling is manifesting in someone else.

Hinata is suffering from a migrane, trying to hang onto himself and not get swept away into Kamukura, since there's no coming back if he gives in again, but his friends are furious. They attack Junkomaru, but she easily dodges their attacks and Sho keeps interfering, not wanting Komaru to get hurt. Junkomaru hops onto the back of Gekkougahara's chair and they lift off with a rocket in the bottom and go back to the surface.

Everyone else is kind of left behind, stunned for a moment.

They all turn to Naegi, asking what they should do. Naegi is dumbfounded, but he quickly shakes his head to clear it. Komaru's life is on the line. Taking a deep breath, Naegi turns to Munakata and tells him they'll do it his way.

Munakata nods and says that they'll do their best to get his sister back safely. The surviving characters then begin climbing out of the rubble and back to the surface of Jabberwock.

Gekkougahara and Junkomaru are at the top of the building for dramatic effect, and Gekkougahara is trying futily to get Junko to listen to her. There's an intense scene of everyone climbing the building and dodging all of the hazards that Gekkougahara is sending their way.

On the roof they have the final confrontation. Alter Ego takes over Monaka’s transmission, telling the Warriors of Hope her location. Meanwhile, Hinata is tempted to give in to Kamukura so he can use his talents, but in the end he has a powerful moment where he remembers what Nanami first told him about choosing his destiny. Kamukura did nothing to save Nanami, but he, Hinata, could have. He could have told Nanami that Yukizome was pushing too far and she didn't have to listen. Hinata rejects Kamukura completely and instead goes to tackle Gekkougahara as nothing but an ordinary boy. He manages to restrain her while Naegi and Munakata approach Junko. Munakata backs down and tells Naegi that he'll be on stand by, and hands Naegi his sword.

Naegi tells Junko that he's sorry he couldn't help her, but now they have a second chance. This time he won't let her down.

Junko has a good laugh at this, telling Naegi that he really doesn't get it, does he? He can never understand her or her point of view. He has no idea what kind of person she is and can't see the world from her perspective. Why does he keep trying to force his worldview on everyone else?

Naegi is getting upset. He thought Junko was angry with him for not saving her?

"Ha, what a laugh," Junko tells him. "Things went exactly the way I wanted them to."

"What? You mean you wanted to die?"

"Pin Pon! We have a winner!"

"But...but... I could have helped you."

"Lemme tell you something, Naegi. No one can help me. No one. Not the world's best therapist. Not the world's best brain surgeon and childhood friend. Not even my twin sister. What makes you think you stand any better chance than them?"

"I believe that anyone can be saved!"

"Sure." Junkomaru shrugs. "If they wanna be."

Suddenly, a realization hits Naegi like a ton of bricks: Junko can't be helped or saved, because she doesn't want to be. She's made her decisions and this is the result of her own choices. Naegi can't choose for her any more than Munakata could choose for him. If he tries, he's no better than Gekkougahara.

"You're right, Enoshima-san."

"Of course I am!"

"I didn't understand you at all. I still don't."

"You can say that again."

"I'm so angry with you. For what you've done, but also because you resisted when I offered to help you. Because you didn't react in a way I liked. Because the way things went made me feel guilty." Naegi begins to tear up. "I think I get some of it now. I don't agree and I never will, but I respect your choice for yourself. I think...I think I'm ready to let it all go."

"And what exactly do you plan to do, Naegi?"

Naegi wipes his tears on his sleeve and looks up. He smiles sadly. "I'm going to kill you once and for all."

Junkomaru grins. "It's about time! It's getting pretty lame staying shackled to this worn-out reality."

Naegi considers the sword for a moment before throwing it aside. He winds up and delivers a hard slap to Komaru's cheek. For a moment, the scene shifts to Naegi and Junko herself in the afterlife theater, and then the latter disappears, offering Naegi a peace sign and a wide grin.

Komaru collapses, and Fukawa rushes to her side. Naegi drops his arm and begins to cry openly, Asahina and Kirigiri coming to put comforting hands on his shoulder.

There's a zoomed out shot of everyone on the roof and then it fades to black.

Kirigiri begins to narrate like she did in the beginning, explaining that after that incident it seemed like there was a shift. People weren't deifying Hope or Despair anymore. There are various scenes shown, like how despair is starting to be beaten back, Gekkougahara's imprisonment, Togami's funeral, memorials for all those who were lost, Munakata and Andou starting a new joint organization, the Warriors of Hope bringing Monaka back in and keeping a eye on her while starting a children’s safe haven, Haiji being put to work fixing Touwa City as punishment, the captives reuniting with survivors, etc. Kirigiri says that now, people accept that hope and despair are both necessary parts of life, and it's their choices that make a difference. Balance is easier to keep because of it.

In the final scene, which has no music, Naegi and Fukawa are watching the comatose Komaru sleep in her bed when Kuzuryuu rushes in. He calls them over to another ward, where Kirigiri, Hagakure, Munakata, Andou, Asahina, and Mitarai are all waiting outside. A haggard-looking Hinata steps out of the room with his three other friends, and smiles at everyone.

"One of them moved their fingers," he says.

(The Japanese would be gender neutral, hence the somewhat bizarre phrasing here.)

Afterward, Munakata pulls Naegi aside and says that there’s talk of opening the school again--would he like to be headmaster?

Naegi considers this, but turns it down.

“I don’t want to be in charge,” he says. “I just want to be me.”

Cue "Ever Free" playing over the credits.

So you might notice that a lot of the other suggestions I've made in the past aren't represented here--that's the result of me thinking about and refining what I felt would work better as a whole. I tried to be fair and include as many characters and make them as important as I could manage.

Some things I wanted to have but lacked the space for included: interactions between the 78th and 77th Classes; Kirigiri befriending and starting to open up to another member of the FF outside of her existing friends; more Warriors of Hope; Junko seducing Yukizome to the dark side by taking advantage of her desire to help every student; Sakakura being more of his big gay failure of a self; Tengan wrestling with his decisions; the Killer Killer cast; further exploring Hinata trying to resist the siren song of talents at the expense of his identity for good; more for Monaka to do; more of the Touwa captives; hard resolution to the adult/child conflict from DR:AE; etc.

Alternate Idea: Munakata is the first victim of the killing game and ensuing conflicts arise from Sakakura and Yukizome's reactions.

So there you have it. I know you guys have been waiting months for this post (why, I cannot imagine) and I apologize for taking so long. As you can see, it started out a reasonable length and then kinda...ballooned. Believe me when I say that I thought long and hard about the choices I made, going so far as to show the drafts to people and ask for opinions. Thanks to them, I feel like I was able to account for most of the things I wanted to convey.

Feel free to hit me up with questions if you have any about why I made a particular decision, and as always if you spot a typo or something please let me know!

Hope you guys enjoyed and it lived up to your expectations!

[shepgeek]

The Problems with Prequels

Minor spoilers for Star Wars Saga and the MCU

The business of modern cinema rests on cracked foundations.

All studios scour the horizon for their next franchise, a golden ticket to bring audiences back over years, even decades to come, but how can they find a new saga without creating something original first? Current trends imply that only mega budgeted blockbusters can make it to the one-billion-dollar threshold, and since no studio is keen to take a huge risk on an unproven story, remakes are the current default.  That well, however, is already starting to run dry and, even when a new story catches on, another paradox soon follows: in any sequel, how can the second most interesting day for these characters be as compelling? Change the DNA of your property too much and you risk losing what made it special to everyone, but keep too closely to the progenitor and the repetition diminishes the original and erodes the sequels until you are left with a stale caricature and an exhausted resource. In recent years the MCU has changed this picture by never telling any particular overarching story, but instead creating vivid characters with verisimilitude to build momentum towards the moment when they can all parade across the screen together. Hollywood has tried to ape this model but the circumstances of the MCU’s birth have proven to be singular and, as Marvel starts to reach towards television, there is a sense that change is needed there too over the coming years. There is one option which many studios and artists therefore become drawn to and it is interesting that the MCU is exploring this in its next film, Black Widow. Prequels are neither a new idea nor are they unique to this format: C.S Lewis built his saga of Narnia books around The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, retroactively tying decisions and characters into the continuity he had already established: a process now known as “retconning”.  For modern auteurs, this urge to extend the universes which they have already built complements a studio’s yearning for more and has led to many recent film series, of which one left an enormous legacy.

George Lucas had made one prequel in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, although little was made to distinguish Indy as an earlier version of what audiences had already loved in Raiders of the Lost Ark and, indeed, one key joke depended on events which were yet to transpire for him. Given that Indiana Jones had been Lucas & Spielberg’s American answer to James Bond, a franchise blithely indifferent to continuity, this was a prequel in name only and, when Lucas felt that the tech could deliver his vision of the Old Galactic Republic, his Star Wars prequel trilogy was conceived. The Phantom Menace casts a long shadow for many reasons, not least because it was and will surely remain the single most anticipated film in history. Given the internet’s infancy, global audiences were sparingly teased and, when combined with a 15-year gap since new Star Wars had been in the cinema, it led to a campaign that no film can hope to match. This was an audience who had been accustomed to showing patience for their stories, when it would be almost a year from when any film moved between cinema and home video and more years before television premieres- the idea of the emergence of a complete saga was sensationally exciting. That The Phantom Menace proved to be such a disappointment to many may well explain why the word prequel tends still to evoke negative impressions, but the reasons for this disappointment are interesting, complex and resonant 20 years later.

Where it was character (and Joseph Campbell’s storytelling archetypes) that drove Lucas’ original trilogy, the prequel trilogy finds its author in love with his universe, where the detail is almost overwhelming. Without the strength of those narrative pillars, however, but with the need to sow the seeds of Anakin’s ultimate downfall, Lucas is left playing with thinner characters. As before he cast well, with Liam Neeson’s unflappable maverick building a twinkling chemistry with Jake Lloyd. Ewan MacGregor is hugely charismatic, although his Obi-Wan Kenobi is very different across the saga, shifting from loyal student to frazzled parent to avuncular mentor. Padme begins as an ethereal child queen and only later evolves to become a glassy logician, flummoxed by having fallen deeply in love. Padme is honest to a fault, never reconciling her meticulous nature and passion for diplomacy with her doomed romance, making a pointed comparison with the sassy dynamo her daughter will become. Her blind belief in the Republic mirrors her faith in her husband and as both are steadily stripped away she is always interesting but rarely compelling: a feature common to all three films. The characters are who Lucas needs them to be, not who we want them to be, not least because he is perhaps loath to mirror and diminish what worked so well in the original trilogy.

After two decades The Phantom Menace remains visually stunning and shows off Lucas’ storytelling flair, with Ian Macdiarmid’s Palpatine steadily building into one of cinema’s great villains: look for the scenes on Coruscant for how he minutely licks his lips or how he is positioned to block the Queen from the camera. There is also the most thrilling and visceral lightsaber fight in the entire saga, the triumphant pod race and John Williams at his peak, complementing the astonishing Duel of the Fates with casual moments of genius such as his major inversion of Palpatine’s Theme at the final celebration. None of this, however, can detract from the storytelling decisions which run counter to the original trilogy to provoke the ire of purists, setting a pattern that would be abundant across the industry in the following years. The focus on politics remains stodgy but the choice to lean into the comedy is the most divisive element. JarJar Binks remains a character who is enjoyed by those who began their journey here but often despised by those who felt that their most precious story was being infantilised. This was compounded by the prominent role that Lucas gives to chance in Episode I, especially in the final act, whilst Anakin’s bristling petulance builds a wall between him and the audience in all three films. This is a trilogy where the villains always win and features possibly the single oddest romantic interlude in cinema: Anakin speaks of agony and torment when addressing Padme and he is permanently emotionally tortured to some degree. The films are deeply interesting and made with arguably greater storytelling flair, but, in seeking to avoid repetition with the original trilogy, they are not stories that compel us to care as deeply for those upon whom they centre.

The second problem faced by any prequel is in the retconning stemming from the knowledge that everyone knows where the film must finish, and so excitement is fundamentally reduced. Knowing the destination robs a story of its potency and, in prequels, this is a requirement. Ridley Scott’s recent Prometheus films illustrate this as well as the studio pressures placed on major releases. Throughout interviews, it became increasingly clear that Scott was deeply invested in returning to the universe which he had helped to create and was artistically motivated to tell more stories centred both in theme and content around the nature of creation, but his Fox bosses were simply after some films containing the Alien. In Alien: Covenant the xenomorph itself felt almost superfluous whilst both that film and Prometheus tied themselves in knots to hint towards the established Alien films without explaining very much of anything. The effect for some was a new disappointment: the feeling that something had been promised but not delivered. Taken alone, Covenant is a thrillingly nasty sci-fi take on The Island of Dr Moreau, but few were expecting this when they paid for a ticket. When the storytelling cranks into gear to get the plot mechanism to begin to align with that of Alien, the dramatic effect is perplexing.

The final problem prequels now face, however, furthers this issue into the very nature of authorship. Back when Scott and Lucas began, the process by which a storyteller settled on their final draft was private, and they had wiggle room for later should they need it. Looking back at Episode IV there is a clear sense that Lucas had decided that Darth Vader was Luke’s father but the rest feels like it was up for grabs: Luke and Leia’s kiss in The Empire Strikes Back is the clearest example that he had not fully decided to have them as siblings, but when later films came out any concerns over discrepancies would vanish into corners of 80s fandom. In the modern era, however, everything needs its own website, and everything must immediately make sense. In The Phantom Menace Qui-Gon’s early line about “the living force” has since been assigned colossal significance and the extended Star Wars universe spills over with such speculation, much of it considered canon. In “A Certain Point of View”, a recent anthology of short stories built around background characters, there are many wonderful illustrations of this, including Yoda’s incredulous reaction to Obi-Wan choosing to bring him the dreamy and unfocused Luke to train instead of his super confident badass sister. This is to say nothing of the role that fan fiction takes in any of the world’s great franchises and it brings into focus any prequel’s final curse: anyone who loves these worlds, when presented with a definitive ending point that the story must land upon, will have either thought up many routes there themselves or read about possible versions of that story and so whatever the storyteller picks will be tinged with disappointment.

In consuming more of our favourite stories, we unravel the mystique of the storyteller, reacting with fury if ever it appears that they are just making this up, which, of course, is exactly what they always are doing and always were. Most in the audience do not want to see what is behind the curtain and, for those that do, they demand a surprise be waiting. Filmmakers, however, think of an idea first and then spiral outwards from it, inventing details to fit the direction in which they wish to head. That is not, however, how they ultimately will tell the story, but this process is dangerous once the universe is already grounded and inevitable in a prequel. The freedom they once had is greatly diminished even though, from their perspective, this is always how they have worked. J.K. Rowling ‘s “Magical Universe” (a clunky title for an author so gifted in nomenclature) is the one remaining major cinematic prequel franchise still in play and it is currently struggling with many of these issues. Where the first Potter book is exemplary in setting up almost implausible levels of detail for the six that followed, the Newt Scamander films have a more meandering tone which has been accused by some of the familiar flaw of being more interested in the world than the people. From this criticism and reduction of our storytellers, further problems emerge: Rian Johnson’s superb The Last Jedi had the courage to make bold new choices but was targeted by trolling campaigns, whilst the final season of Game of Thrones (a show based years of expert teasing and the joy of speculation) was inevitably cast as a failure when the infinity of possible directions it could take was finally reduced to one. Modern audiences demand that details are foreshadowed but grumpy if specific payoffs are not met. We seem increasingly desperate for more of our stories but are yet increasingly less satisfied with what we receive, and one wonders where the next turn in our storytelling will take us. Our narrators have seen their power reduced in this medium and are exploring new ways of keeping us sat in the dark, waiting to be told a good tale.

The Star Wars prequels have defined how we consume modern blockbusters and, for any franchise that follows, these three problems of repetition, retconning and the abundance of scrutiny have left franchise entertainment facing an uncertain future. Black Widow, then, becomes hugely interesting as it faces these problems, not least because, as with Solo, we have just seen and made our peace with the title character’s final destination. Given that emotional resonance, does anyone care what happened in Budapest?