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free-pool-trash · 5 years ago

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angel - warren worthington iii

My first Warren fic, woah okay. I remember seeing apocalypse in the cinema when I was 13 (I was almost 14 :')) and being so happy to see Warren because I was such a little nerd and I used to religiously read a book from the library about the x-men and it had a whole section about Warren and I was crazy about him. So I was so in love with him when I saw him on screen (I guess I've been in love with Ben Hardy since before I actually knew he was Ben Hardy 😳) and I was SO upset with how dirty they did him in Apocalypse. Also upon further inspection that entire movie was a hot mess and X-men peaked with days of future past.

Anyway Ben Hardy put me back on my X-Men bullshit so here we are.

Here is the idea that was sent in by the lovely Anon for this fic: Honey!! 'cause I can't have enough of your work and since you said it was okay to suggest any ideas for warren, I was thinking, what about him letting the reader pet his wings. Since he is emotionally distant and stuff? (idk if that could work to develop a whole fic) anyway, i'll love some angst and love. Just bless us bringing our bird boy back 🤭. keep doing amazing darling ♥️

Word count: 5k (shes a long one alright)

Warning (s): swearing, mentions of blood, plane crash, platonic!Peter :) (also i didn’t really proof read this and it’s 3:44am lmao)

comments and feedback are much appreciated! <333

masterlist

Your breath came out in labored heaves as Kurt bamfed the final one of your teammates into the plane, all of you were more or less safe from Apocalypse now that you had the professor back in your custody, that's what you'd thought anyway. You hadn't anticipated what was to come.

Once you caught your breath after being dropped into the plane by Kurt, you spoke up, "Anyone need a pick-me-up?"

As you looked around at the group, most of whom were all close friends of yours, you noticed the vast majority of them littered in only small cuts and bruises, all except Charles who was still unconscious from Apocalypse's assault on his mind, but there wasn't much you could do about him, for now at least.

Your mutation was, according to Hank, "essential for field work" and by field work he actually meant high intensity missions that made you feel like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders. You had the ability to heal both people and animals of any outward affliction, you could cure inward wounds too but taking on anything more than a headache was dangerous for you, so you mainly handled cuts, bruises, burns, stab wounds, bullet holes (provided the bullet was already removed) and the occasional broken bone, y'know, the small stuff.

It was a pretty incredible power to have, only it also came with a not so incredible bonus of amplified empathy which meant you could feel people's emotions, read people's energy and usually you could tell people's intentions too. It all got a little tiring sometimes.

"No save your energy, (Y/n), Peter or Raven might need you later." Jean responded just before pounding started coming from the roof of the jet as some sort of blade pierced through the metal.

Sparks flew and you shared a worried glance with the rest of your teammates as the roof of the jet was torn open and two of Apocalypse's minions appeared, only one of them entered the plane, however, the one with the wings- you didn't know his name. Being on the edge of the group, you took the defensive, the winged man was bigger than you but you could probably kick his ass if you needed to. You were so busy squaring up to the bird boy that you didn't notice the panic happening behind you.

"Just get us out of here." You heard Jean say, followed by the all too familiar sound of Kurt's teleportation.

They'd left you.

Your eyes widened when you felt the plane plummet, the pilot, along with everyone else gone, only yourself and your winged enemy were left on the aircraft, his partner in crime seemed to have lost her balance and got swept away by the wind.

Despite being together you were both alone. You wouldn't lie, you were scared, he was too. You could feel it.

"Fuck!" You shouted trying your best to reach the controls of the jet before it impacted the ground.

Unfortunately before you could reach the console, gravity did it's thing and you found yourself being hurled violently against the plane's windshield and the next thing you knew you were shielding your face, bracing for impact then everything was black.

-+-+-+-+-

"Ow, fuck." You groaned once you came to, laying on the hard concrete of the ground which, of course, was covered in glass shards from the window you'd been thrown through.

The glass dug into your back painfully, you'd have to figure out some way to pick the shards out before you could heal.

Blinking your bleary eyes until you could open them and actually see clearly, you stood up as gently as you could, trying to avoid getting cut by any more glass.

The air was smokey and thick, it filled your lungs and made your eyes water. Your head was spinning, the feeling of dried blood on your temple ever present as you struggled to keep your balance.

The plane was destroyed, completely wrecked to the point where it's insides were now it's outsides, the roof had been blown off and the seats were nearly disintegrated.

Swallowing thickly, you remembered that you hadn't been the only one on the plane when it crashed. Heaving a sigh, you closed your eyes tightly, please have gotten thrown out the windshield you prayed silently to yourself.

Sure you didn't know the boy or like him all that much from what you did know of him, but you didn't want him to have died alone in a fiery wreck.

When you worked up the courage to finally open your eyes you let out a gasp as you noticed the winged boy not burned to a crisp but laying face down in the shards of glass, unconscious, a few meters up from where you had woken up.

Please don't have a punctured lung. Please don't have a punctured lung.

Please don't have glass lodged in your neck.

Oh my God what if he already bled out?

Oh fuck what if he's already dead?

You panicked internally as you limped over to the boy, his face was covered in blood, but you imagine you didn't look much better.

Kneeling down as you reached his body, you brushed away whatever glass you could before you turned him over so he was laying on his back.

"Thank God." You muttered as you could see his chest rising and falling, the movement was slight but all that really mattered to you was that it was there.

Gently you picked out all of the glass that had gotten embedded in the boy's pale skin, you had to hand it to him, he sure was pretty when he wasn't trying to kill you. Not wanting to waste time staring, you placed both of your hands softly onto his chest, a golden light radiated out from under your palms onto the tattered material of his clothed chest, within a few seconds his gashes began to close up and his heartbeat became stronger against your palms, he definitely had more injuries than you could physically see as your energy had been all but gone once you finally removed your hands.

Another downside to your mutation- it requires a lot of energy.

A few minutes passed before you heard a soft gasp coming from beside you, the blonde boy's eyes opened and he glanced around frantically, green eyes shining in the light of the setting sun, he picked a good time to wake up as you didn't particularly want to be waiting out in the cold night time air. His metal wings meant he was too heavy for you to drag to any kind of shelter, especially now after using up all your energy to heal him, you wouldn't make it far on your own never mind with someone else.

"What happened?" He asked with a groan, this was actually the first time you'd heard him speak, he had an accent- he must've been from England.

"You and your little buddy busted our plane, my teammates ditched and you and I got left to die. You almost did." You explained in as few words as possible, you didn't paint your friends in a very good light but you needed the winged boy on your side, you couldn't have him leaving you in the middle of nowhere with open wounds and no energy.

"Why didn't I? Die I mean." He asked, eyeing the wreck with a grimace before meeting your eyes again.

"I healed you, that's my mutation." He raised an eyebrow at you suspiciously.

"Why did you save me? We're on opposite sides." The boy inquired further, you tried your best to entertain him but your energy was running extremely low.

"The fights over and judging by the fact that the world isn't burning I'm assuming that your side didn't win. Besides we both got left on that plane, I didn't want you to die alone." You explained, your voice becoming slurred as you ran out of steam, eyes struggling to stay open.

"You look awful." The boy stated to which you just nodded, drowsily.

"Mm, feel awful." You responded as he stood up, glass crunching under his heavy boots.

"Come on." He demanded and you felt him tugging you into standing position, you weren't really sure what was happening but you didn't fight against it, you were simply too drained.

"Jesus, why didn't you heal yourself?" He asked, staring at your tattered backside in a mixture of horror and disgust, you assumed it looked as bad as it felt.

"Couldn't get the glass out." At that your head lolled against the boy's neck as he wrapped your arm around his shoulder and hoisted you up with his arm around your waist.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Warren dragged you to a nearby house, the surrounding area had all been abandoned during the fight between Apocalypse and the X-Men which you were apparently a part of.

He couldn't quite figure out why you'd spared his life, he had been the reason your plane was abandoned in the first place. It annoyed him really, he was supposed to be your enemy but you'd shown him so much blind kindness despite the stress he'd caused you and your team in the past couple of days. His reasoning for joining Apocalypse in the first place was because he'd given up on being shown any form of kindness, by anyone, and in the space of ten minutes and less than ten sentences from you his head was spinning.

The regret was almost too much for him, you should've let him die.

Before he could spiral any further he decided he had to help you first, you'd saved him first after all.

Warren, as gently as he could, laid you down on a bed in one of the house's bedrooms, on your stomach. The boy, who didn't even know your name, began to pick the glass out of you as you'd done to him, he didn't have any healing powers but he was used to fixing himself up after fights back in the cages. He removed all the glass, cleaned the cuts and covered them as best as he could without having to undress you.

Warren noticed that your gashes began to close up by themselves, your back glowing golden. You kind of reminded him of an angel, the kind of glow he'd seen in a Renaissance painting back in Berlin, the kind of light that represented heaven.

You were still completely passed out, it was dark by then and Warren debated on just taking off into the night, but his gut forced him to stay with you, this girl who got forgotten by her own team then saved the guy she was supposed to be fighting against, it was kind of poetic to be honest. So he set up a makeshift bed on the floor of the same room you slept in, and laid down, staying vigilant in case anything or anyone were to attack while you slept.

-+-+-+-+-+-+

Light steamed through the window of wherever it was you were, you couldn't remember, wherever you were you were comfy.

Cracking your eyes open you looked around the room, noticing the winged boy laying on the floor beside the bed you slept in, awake and staring at the ceiling.

"Morning." You whispered to the boy, and he immediately turned his head towards you, "Good morning."

"Thanks for taking the glass out." You thanked him with a soft voice and a small smile as you looked at him.

"Just repaying a favour." He responded, a smile of his own playing on his face, you could tell he was trying to fight it, but it peaked through.

Reaching your arm out toward him, you laughed as he raised an eyebrow. "I'm (Y/n)."

Finally letting himself smile, the boy let out a chuckle as he took the hand you held out to him and shook it, "Warren."

"Thanks for not ditching me here." You spoke quietly as you withdrew your arm, picking up on his energy, he was unsure but decided to stay by your side anyway.

Warren's gaze returned to the ceiling, "We'd both been ditched enough for one day. Thanks for not letting me die, didn't get a chance to thank you yesterday before you passed out."

"Right. Sorry about that, healing people tends to take it out of me. I'm glad I healed you, though." You told him gently, as he scoffed.

"Not 24hours ago we would've killed each other on the spot, now we're having bloody pillow talk." He grumbled out, the accent you'd picked up earlier really coming through.

"Would you rather we tried to kill each other?" You inquired with an airy laugh, the contrast between today and yesterday didn't bother you, you'd felt him when you healed him, he was good, just has a lot of demons, like every other mutant you know.

"I'd rather I didn't try to kill you at all." He confessed, his lip trapped between his teeth, eyes never leaving the ceiling.

"It's not your fault. I felt it when I healed you, you're just like the rest of us, you needed something to believe in. I can't blame you for that." You tried your best to soothe him, you could feel the regret in his voice, you knew many of your friends at Xavier's school had been in similar situations before eventually joining the good fight.

"Doesn't change the fact I was ready to watch the world burn so I could feel some sense of purpose." His voice was filled with self loathing and you didn't know why exactly but you couldn't stand it, you didn't like that he hated himself so much.

"From your perspective the world deserved to burn. I've been there too, the world hurts us and we'd love nothing more than to hurt it right back. You wanted something better than what you had, you got brainwashed by someone who promised you everything you wanted, it's not your fault, if I wasn't with the X-Men I probably would've joined too- if he had asked." You admitted to Warren, it was strange, you trusted him with what you were saying and you could see that he was absorbing every word you said, he trusted what you were saying.

"Aren't you pissed? That you're stuck out here with me?" You knew what he meant, he wanted to know how you felt about all of your friends bamfing away and leaving you to crash and burn with Warren, the supposed enemy.

"It hurt a little yeah, but I understand, Kurt was scared, he'd never teleported so many people at once before, I was too far away from the rest of the group anyway," you shrugged before going on, "I'm not pissed that I'm stuck out here with you, you're pretty cool for a henchman." You teased, the way he shook his head at your statement caused you to giggle.

"There's a place for you at the school, if you want it." You floated the idea towards him breaking the silence that had filled the room, because to be honest you didn't want to part ways with the bird boy just yet, turns out almost dying together was quite the bonding experience.

"You sure? They'd forgive all this shit?" He asked you disbelievingly to which you nodded, "They'll understand. Charles forgives Erik and Raven every five minutes. Besides if they have a problem they'll have to deal with me."

"Thanks, (Y/n)."

-+-+-+-+-

It took you both a few days but you eventually managed to make your way back to the school for gifted youngsters.

You and Warren had bonded quite a bit during your trip and you'd developed an understanding of each other. Nights spent at sketchy motels and shared take out containers the symbols of your blooming friendship.

He told you about his original wings, he'd tiptoed around the fact that he wanted them back, he didn't give you a direct answer when you'd asked but it was clear to see that his metal wings didn't feel right to him anymore, they were a reminder of his lapse in judgement. And in return for his truth you'd shared some of your own, how you sometimes struggled with the aftermaths of healing someone more than you let on to your team, you told him that you had a hard time maintaining your energy when they sometimes asked too much of you on missions and even in the school's infirmary.

It had only been a few days spent together but you considered him a friend, you had a lot in common and you couldn't quite tell yet, but you felt as though Warren started warming up to you from the second he'd opened his eyes after the plane crashed, he was so quiet and reserved but he had a certain vibe about him, he had this sort of protective energy around you and you couldn't lie, that feeling of security grew on you very quickly.

You promised yourself as you both walked into the school that if anyone had anything negative to say about him joining the team, you'd kick up a storm.

The atmosphere in the school was somber when you walked in, Warren stayed close to your side as you walked towards the Professor's office, you needed to get Warren set up.

The pair of you didn't make it very far before you heard a gasp from in front of you, you didn't even see who it was before you were being crushed in a hug.

"You're alive... Oh my God you're alive!" You recognized the hugger and smiled, hugging him back tightly.

"Yeah, Hank. I'm all okay." You reassured the bigger man. Hank was like an older brother to you, ever since you joined the school you'd spent so much time in the infirmary and since you were so much younger then, Hank had taken on a brotherly role to you, he'd essentially become your mentor. He loved you like a sister and by the tears that were soaking into your shoulder that really showed.

"We thought you died, I'm so sorry (Y/n)." Hank sniffled into your shoulder, squeezing you tightly before pulling away, revealing his puffy eyes and red face, it looked like he'd been crying on and off for days.

"That why everyone's so gloomy?" You questioned, glancing around to see the majority of people that occupied the hallway staring at you in shock.

Hank swallowed thickly and nodded. You just smiled and nodded your head in Warren's direction, and Hank immediately stiffened.

"No worries, Warren took care of me." You assured him and he could tell by the look that you were giving him and the fact that aside from your over-sized clothing, that definitely didn't look to belong to either you or Warren, you were in good condition and the boy had in fact had a change of heart. If he truly was the reason you'd gotten home safely the older man was in no place to be skeptical, so instead he nodded gratefully to Warren who returned the gesture, not speaking.

After reuniting with Hank, he brought you and Warren to see Charles, who was like everyone else, in mourning.

You'd never seen him smile as bright as he did when you entered his office, the relief on his face made you laugh as he wheeled toward you.

"Thank goodness, darling girl." He exclaimed, grabbing your hand tightly in both of his own, without having to be told his eyes met Warren's, "Thank you, Warren. Come, sit." Charles invited him but the boy in question looked at you skeptically.

"Go on, he's okay." You assured him, smiling as he sat down in front of Charles' desk, fidgeting with his hands like a child who was about to get in trouble.

Charles turned to you again, a gentle smile on his face, "Peter is in the infirmary, his leg got injured during the fight. I don't need for you to heal him but I've never seen a boy cry so much in such a short amount of time. Go and say hello."

You smiled sadly and looked to Warren, "You okay if I go check on him?" Warren only nodded again, he'd become even more quiet than usual but you could feel his energy, he was nervous yet hopeful, optimistic even.

"Could you show Warren to the infirmary once you two are finished up?" You asked Charles who nodded, "Of course, go on now, we'll be ok."

Nodding again, you left the office and made your way to the infirmary, not meeting anybody along the way. Thankfully. At the moment you just wanted to see your friend and talk to him about everything that had happened within the last few days.

As you walked into the infirmary you saw Peter, a cast wrapped around his leg and a red and puffy face. Silently you leaned against the doorway and watched your closest friend in the school stare blankly at the ceiling.

You were so used to seeing him energetic and happy, you'd even told Warren about him, you wanted them to be friends, they were the exact opposite of each other but Warren liked to sound of Peter when you'd told him about him, you were all the same age- give or take, and you wanted Warren to be able to just act his age and let loose, Peter Maximoff, and yourself of course, were the perfect people to help him do that.

Shaking your head at his low mood, that was as a result of thinking you were dead, you pushed yourself off the doorway and made yourself known, "What's with the long face, speedy?"

You laughed at the look on his face when he heard your voice, and saw your face. The feeling of relief flooding over you as a result of his own.

"I knew you weren't dead!" Peter shouted, shooting up into sitting position and smiling brightly at you as you raised an eyebrow, pulling him into a hug.

"That why you been crying for two days straight?" You teased him, as you squeezed him tighter, Peter scoffed and gently pushed you away.

"Nah I was crying of happiness that I finally have some peace and quiet." He shot back matter of factly, his usual mood already returning as you joked around together.

"Don't get me wrong I'm glad you're alive and all but how'd you survive the crash?" Peter asked as you sat up on the edge of the bed he was on.

"I got thrown out the windshield, so did Warren. We were both pretty fucked up, I healed him up then he took care of me, made sure I didn't die in the desert after I passed out." You explained to Peter and rose an eyebrow at him as he smirked at you.

"Warren, huh?" He teased and you couldn't stop the laugh that left your mouth.

"What about him? We almost died together it was quite the bonding experience," you told him, still chuckling before calming down and going on, "You're gonna help me settle him in. I told him lots about you, we're gonna be one super weird little trio." You told him definitely and he chuckled at your optimism.

"Right, a kleptomaniac, an empath and a reformed henchman." Peter nodded approvingly at his own deduction and you laughed, "Exactly. Perfect."

Not long after Charles and Warren appeared in the doorway. Warren greeted you with a small smile, and nodded to Peter who waved at him, a friendly smile on his face.

"Warren has decided he'd like to stay with us." Charles spoke up proudly, happy to have a new mutant joining his side.

Smiling brightly you listened to Charles continue, "He'll be staying in the room across from Peter's for the time being but I'd be more than happy to make different arrangements should further developments take place." Charles' lips curved into a knowing smile, which Peter mimicked while yourself and Warren shared confused glances.

"I'll leave the three of you to get to know each other."

-+-+-+-+-+-

Weeks passed and Warren settled nicely into the school, he didn't talk to many people, mostly only you and Peter, sometimes Charles or Hank but he tended to only speak if spoken to first.

He'd been thinking a lot lately, looking hard at himself in the mirror and not really liking what he saw. His metal wings were starting to weigh him down and the tattoos that adorned his face were driving him crazy. He hated himself for buying into the notion that he needed his wings weaponized in order to fight when he knew that he could fight perfectly well without the blades.

You'd offered to try and restore his original wings and he knew you'd be able to, but he knew doing something that big could be potentially dangerous for you so he turned down your offer at the time but he wanted to change his mind now.

Still, the need to keep you safe far outweighed his want to get his wings restored. Being at Xavier's school saved him but that was all down to you, to him you were an angel and he'd both kill and die for you if it ever came down to that, he knew it was ridiculous though, you didn't need his protection but he still wanted you to have it.

He eventually decided to bring the topic up with you again one night when it was just you and him. You were in Warren's room, just chilling together as you did most nights, Peter usually joined too but he hadn't that night for whatever reason.

You sat on Warren's bed, cross-legged as a record spun on the record player, Warren's favourite band playing through the speakers as he sat beside you, his eyebrows furrowed while he worked up the nerve to ask you what he wanted to ask you.

"I want my old wings back." Warren spoke out suddenly, causing you to lift your head from the book you were reading.

Smiling, you closed the book and set it on his nightstand. Finally.

"You're sure?" You asked gently, although you were ecstatic that he was finally allowing himself to heal. To properly heal.

Warren nodded and swallowed thickly, looking at you pleadingly. He didn't realize how much he'd really wanted his wings back until he'd said it out loud and seen the smile on your face once he did.

"Well, I haven't healed anybody so far this week I've got enough energy… we could do it now?" You offered, smiling as he nodded rapidly.

You instructed him to get comfortable in the center on his double bed before you crawled over to him, "Do you mind if I sit here?" You asked, motioning towards his legs, as close as you'd grown over the past few weeks Warren was still on the fence about physical affections of any kind, he longed for it, especially with you but he just hasn't been ready.

Which sucked since yourself and Peter weren't shy about hugging each other, or kissing each other's cheeks, or throwing your arms around each other and it wasn't that Warren was feeling excluded or anything, no he knew that if you both thought he'd be okay with it you'd be showering him with hugs too, he trusted the both of you enough to know you'd never hurt him but being so vulnerable in front of anyone just hadn't been in the cards for him.

Deciding to let you help him get his wings back was the turning point for him, he was finally letting you all the way in. So he nodded and gave you a reassuring smile, the kind of smile he reserved only for you.

Returning the grin you straddled his legs and seated yourself comfortably on his thighs, his breath hitched as you placed a hand on each shoulder, you bit your lip as you looked into his eyes, "This might be a little uncomfortable, hold onto me if you need to."

As soon as your hands began to glow, Warren felt the sting of your powers against his back, it felt like he was burning and without thinking about it Warren's hands moved to grip your hips and his head buried itself in the crook of your neck and he bit his lip harshly.

"Sorry, War. Almost there." You whispered sympathetically in his ear, placing a gentle kiss on his temple, hoping it would make him feel better.

Watching the feathers replace the knives was incredible, his wings were beautiful, he was a literal angel and the way the glow of your powers illuminated his body almost made you cry. He looked like something straight out of heaven.

Soon, your palms stopped glowing and the fatigue hit you like a truck, every ounce of your energy had gone into Warren but it was worth it.

Slowly, Warren removed his head from your neck to stare at you, amazement painting his face. Your smile grew impossibly wide when you noticed his face was completely clear, the tattoos gone.

"Guess the wings and the tattoos were a package deal." You murmured happily before your eyes rolled back and you collapsed into Warren's chest.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-

After you passed out Warren carried you to the infirmary to rest, his wings twitched every now and again but they felt better, he himself felt lighter, physically and mentally.

Warren stayed by your bedside until you finally woke up, you'd slept for an entire day and your self proclaimed protector was becoming restless.

"Morning, angel." You whispered with a soft smile on your face, he looked different now with his wings back and his tattoos gone, he looked happier.

"Hey, sleeping beauty. I'd say good morning but it's nine o'clock at night." He greeted, returning your smile.

"How're your wings feeling?" You asked, you wanted to reach out and touch them but you decided against it, you didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

Noticing the twitch in your fingers Warren bit his lip and gently moved his hand to hold your wrist, "Why don't you see for yourself?" He prompted you, moving your wrist towards his feathers.

Moving your freehand, you grabbed his wrist which held your wrist, the two of you now in a strange wrist lock. Warren looked at you strangely as your eyes shone brighter than he'd seen them shine in the weeks he'd known you.

"You're sure?" You asked him, genuine happiness laced your voice and Warren couldn't help but laugh at you, "I'm sure. I want you to."

Warren could barely contain himself when your face broke into the most incredible grin, the kind of smile that felt like sunshine despite the fact that it was 9pm at night and the sun had long since set. Warren had thought he'd been doing an incredible job of hiding his feelings toward you, but he was sure that the way he was looking at you now gave everything away and the funny thing was, he didn't care, he wanted you to know.

Slowly you sat up in the bed and reached out to touch his feathered wing, fingers gliding gently over the arch of his wing. They were so soft and warm and felt so nice under your fingers, your eyes had been so transfixed on the angelic feathers that when you raised your eyes you didn't realize how close you'd come to Warren's face.

His eyes met yours and if you ever had a doubt that he was designed by God himself they melted away when his green eyes looked into yours before flicking down to your lips, then back.

You could feel his breath against your lips, he was intoxicating to you, like a drug, you didn't know how you were going to stop yourself from kissing him this time. You'd often found yourself wanting to kiss your winged friend but you always respected his boundaries enough not to, this time was different though, you could practically feel his lips on yours.

Warren, feeling the conflict but more importantly, the longing, radiated from you, decided to finally place his lips on yours.

His lips moved against yours softly at first but became more urgent when he felt your lips moving in sync with his, the way he kissed was possessive but soft and if he hadn't of pulled away when he did you're sure you would've moaned right into his mouth.

"I want you." Warren whispered, face still close to yours, his hand cupping your cheek, his smile was contagious as you found yourself copying his action.

"You can have me." You giggled out, chasing his lips, connecting them with yours once again.

#warren worthington iii #warren worthington x reader #x-men #x-men x reader #x-men apocalypse #peter maximoff #peter parker x reader #ben hardy

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mary-tudor · 4 years ago

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~HENRY TUDOR: A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION.~

Today, I'll be discussing a character who left his mark in History, fathering a dynasty whose most proeminent members were his (second) son Henry VIII and his granddaughter Elizabeth I. Often overshadowed by his descendants, Henry's own deeds as a king and as an individual of his own days have been neglected until recently, when efforts from British historians have been working hard to change that.

The reason why I decided to bring him here was not only due to personal affections, though they certainly helped it, but because there are aspects overlapped in social structures that shaped him. In other words: what's Henry Tudor as a sociological individual? Can we point him out as a constant foreigner or someone whose socialization process were strongly marked by the addition of two different societies?

Henry Tudor was born in Pembroke, located in Wales, in January 28th 1457. His mother was Margaret Beaufort, a proeminent lady whose grandfather John Beaufort was the son of John of Gaunt, son in turn of King Edward III of England. The duke of Lancaster fathered four ilegitimated children (who were legitimated in posterity) by his (third marriage to his then) lover Katheryn Swynford, amongst whom John Beaufort was the oldest. Therefore, Henry was 3x grandson. to the duke and, despite what some might argue when Henry IV became king, in great deal to inherite the throne. Well, it's not my intention to deepen the discussion as to Henry's legitimacy or the Beauforts.

Though his father's ancestry, Henry's blood led him to the royal house of Valois. His paternal grandmother, Katherine de Valois, was the sister of Isabella, who had been the second wife of the ill-fated king Richard II. She was also descended of Louis IX and his spanish wife, Blanche de Castille. Henry was also a royal man from the Welsh lands, as Owain Tudor, his grandfather, was related to several princes of Wales. By all these I said, the first thing one might think (considering 15th century and it’s nobility) Henry would receive a proper education due to his status. However, this would not happen in the strict sense of the word. Let us not forget that England was collapsing by the time of Henry Tudor's birth and his childhood. Why am I using the word 'collapse' to qualify the civil war we know named as wars of the roses?

Émile Durkheim, a french sociologist, would write several centuries later, about how a society is formed: he compared it to the working of a human body. If the head, the brain of our body does not work well, what happens? The body will not work well, certainly. Neither would the head work well if other parts hurt somehow. Although if you did break a leg, you could still make use of your brain, but as a whole how limited wouldn't you be? He'd also say that when the human body, or as he called, the society was sick, it was because of the social structures which imposed the human being to the point where there would be no individuality, no matter of choice.

Such created social facts that were completely external (althoug well internalized through means of a process we call socialization) but coercitive. If they are not working, what does this mean? That soon another social facts will be replacing the former one. But between one and another, we have a "very sickly" society. Taking this understanding back to England's 15th century, it is not difficult to see what Durkheim was talking about.

The king was the head of the English body. If we have here two kings fighting over one crown, fighting over the rule of an entire body... Well, then? We have the collapse, a civil war that lasted for the next 30 years. Here, it's less about discussing who started what but why they did what they did, and the explanation for it. Power is power. It's crystal clear, and a statement that, however simple might it sound, points to the obvious. Factions that fought for power intended to dominate others, using the concept very well developed by sociologists as Pierre Bourdieu and Norbert Elias. This domination is a large field, a concept that embrace all sorts of it. Looking back to England's latter half of the century, domination was peril. The head was about to explode. The society was ill... and dominated by it.

What were the values? What was the racionalization proccess of social action led by individuals that were not only individuals but a group? How would all of this affect Henry Tudor? It was not about merely blaming the capitalism, because such coercitive system wasn't present yet. But Henry was, directly or not, linked to the royal house of Plantagenets, whose eagerness for dominating one another and by extension the rest of the country would include him in the game.

"Game." For Durkheim, this would imply an agitation, like a wave of sea, from which no one could escape from. Let's not forget that Institutions created ideas, renewed them, shaped them to the practice whether to dominate the weaker or to defeat the stronger. Whatever the purpose, we here have the Church, not the religiosity, but the precursor of ideas would subdue individuals to share (or manipulate to their own goals anyways) values in order to keep determined mentality to it. But also, monarchy was too an institution which held control over the lives and deaths of thousands of people. A monarch, as we know, is never alone regardless of how "absolut" they could be in different times and contexts. They were not above the law, either. At least where the socialization process is concerned. For the monarch embodied the content which was the law back then. He was literally the law.

Furthermore, Henry's education would foresee this fighting, which I'm not merely referring to custody going from his mother to another, before finally staying under his uncle's responsibilities, as well as the civil war itself. (Anyone remembers Warwick executing Herbert before the boy?)

See, we all know and comprehend today what trauma are capable of doing to someone. Such experience is the main responsible for shaping ideas, values and even costumes. Now, a society which is very much sick by it's own values and moral costumes (a point here must be made: the public consciousness always preached for a warrior, strong king, but has no one thought how this "common sense", validated by a general expectation towards the head of society, was what led it to... well, for the lack of better word, suicide itself?

For it's widely accepted that weak kings do not last long. But that is when we deal with a good deal of expectations that, when turned to frustrations, bring awful results. If England's society was ill in it's very extreme sense of the word, was because the values they created turned against themselves and that would leave it's mark in a boy as Henry. And until the age of 14, he was still absorbing these concepts, these morals, values, costumes from institutions (let's not forget that a monarch shares such with the nobility that surrounds him, as was the case of House Lancaster,f.e) before he was casted out to Bretagne and, in posteriority, to France. Now, I believe you all know what was done whether in England or with our king during these 14 years spent outside his own country before he became king upon the victory settled on the battle of Bosworth field.

I am not interested in discussing historical facts. At least not now, as we are finally dealing with Henry Tudor as a social actor

----/-HENRY TUDOR: A FOREIGNER? AN EXILED? OR AN OUTCAST?--

These questions mobilized me as I came to read a text written by 19th century sociologist named Georg Simmel. He wrote an essay (pardon by any mistakes in translations done from here on) entitled "The Foreigner", in which he brings a sociological question at why foreigners are seen as strangers who are never entirely immersed in the society they attempt to be part in.

Here's an excerpt translated by me in which he explains it:

"Fixed within a determined social space, where it's constancy cross-border could be considered similar to the space, their position [the foreigner's] in it is largely determined by the fact of not belonging entirely to it, and their qualities cannot originate from it or come from it, nor even going in it." (SIMMEL, 2005: 1.)

Furthermore, he adds:

“The foreigner, however, is also an element of the group, no more different than the others and, at the same time, distincted from what we consider as the 'internal enemy'. They are an element in whose position imanent and of member comprehend, at the same time, one outsider and the other insider." (SIMMEL, 2005: 1).

Here's why Henry, as Earl of Richmond, was not well seen by the Britons and the French, in spite of being "accepted" by them. Never forget that he would still be seen as an outsider by his own fellows. As Richard III would call Henry a bastard, one could understand this accusation with sociological implications. English back then detested these foreigners and by the concept brought here by me from Simmel we can understand why. But we could also see being called a bastard as a way to point out Henry's localization. Where can the Earl of Richmond & soon-to-be king be located?

I have pointed this far the structures which were raised and caused a collapsed society to live broken in many, many ways and how this affected Henry this far. Seeing how foreigner he was, nonetheless, he did not belong neither to England (at first) nor to the Continent.

On that sense of word, says Simmel (2005: 3):

"A foreigner is seen and felt, then, from one side, as someone absolutely mobiled, a wanderer. As a subject who comes up every now and then through specific contacts and yet, singularly, does not find vinculated organically to anything or anyone, nominally, in regards to the established family, locals and profissionals”

Even though we find a dominant group of foreigners in France, as we are talking about of nobles displeased with the Yorkist cause and supporters of the Lancastrian House, they were not majority. Where can we locate Henry, then? We don't, because he was not a French and however well he could speak the language, it was not his birth language. The French culture was not passed nor naturalized by him through the teachings of a family or the church by the institutions: monarchy, church, family, parliament, etc; he would have been defeated a long time. But that he did manage to, using this popular expression, put things together and become the first king to die peacefully since Henry V, it tells us a lot. Not rarely an immigrant is accepted by a society whose demands are forced upon him, most of the times in aggressive ways. But it's not often either that we see a king occupying such place in society.

Indeed, one might say that kings as Henry II and the conquerors before him were too foreigners, but not in the sociological way I'm explaining. Because the social structures were different. Henry's government were settled in a more centralized ruling, far more just and peaceful, more economic and less concerned with waging wars than his antecessors. The need to migrate was not 'forced', neither 'imposed' and even back to the 11th and 12th centuries were motivated by different reasons. That's to accentuate how English society evolved throughout the centuries. And I used again and again Georg Simmel to prove my point about casting a sociological light towards Henry VII not as a historical character so distant of us and who remains an object of controversial discussions, but a man of his times who was forced to deal with expectations that placed him in social positions nearly opposed to one another to fulfill each role whether as king or as a man. For some reason, the broken society shaped Henry as an immigrant, but as history shows us, it was this immigrant who helped shape medieval society, directing it towards the age of Renaissance and in posteriority to Modern Age.

Finally, to close this thread I leave here another quote (translated to English by me) found in the text written by Simmel:

"The foreigner, strange to the group [he is in], is considered and seen as a non-belonging being, even if this individual is an organic member of the group whose uniform life comprehends every particular conditioning of this social [mean]. (...) [the foreigner] earns in certain groups of masses a proximity and distance that distinguishes quantities in each relationship, even in smaller portions. Where each marked relationship nduced to a mutual tension in specific relationships, strenghtening more formal relations out of respect to what's considered 'foreigner' of which are resulted." (SIMMEL, p 7).

Bibliography:

AMIN, Nathen. https://henrytudorsociety.com/

DURKHEIM, Émile. "The Division of Labor in Society”.

KANTOROWICZ, Ernst H.”The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieavel Political Theology.”

PENN, Thomas. Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England.

SIMMEL, Georg. The Foreigner. In: Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Berlin. 1908.

#Henry VII #King Henry VII #Henry VII of England #sociology #socio-history #historical sociology #immigration #sociology of immigration #Henry Tudor #Tudor dynasty

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duhragonball · 4 years ago

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (131/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

ETA: Now with actual content behind the cut!

[14 October, 233 Before Age. Interstellar Space.]

The Saiyan Free Company was a loose alliance of Saiyans seeking an escape from the misrule of King Rehval III. For over a century, the Rehval Dynasty had sought to unify the Saiyan species into a proper nation state, but the Saiyans were unruly by nature, and many of them bristled at the heavy-handed policies of the monarchists. Tensions between the kingdom and the expatriates came to a head when Rehval III tried to destroy the Super Saiyan Luffa. His scheme backfired, forcing him to abandon not only his throneworld of Saiya, but his second home on Pflaume, an influential hub of commerce and diplomatic channels. With his disappearance, decades of careful statecraft were wiped out in a single stroke. The Planet Saiya was deserted, her allies bewildered, and her embassies on other worlds completely isolated.

In the midst of this political vacuum, the Princess Seltiss stepped forward to pick up the pieces her father had left behind. At only sixteen, she possessed a talent for leadership that was rare among politicians three times her age. Her secret was something her father, grandfather, and great grandfather lacked: flexibility. The Rehvals before her had relied on overwhelming displays of force to convince their subjects of their right to rule, and they reserved politics and gladhanding for the aliens they wanted to do business with. It made sense, but only if one had the power to pull it off. Seltiss was fairly weak by Saiyan standards, and in a galaxy dominated by the Legendary Super Saiyan, no one could claim to be the strongest anymore.

Instead, Seltiss listened. Her followers were disillusioned with the monarchy, or they outright despised government of any kind. So she played down her royal title whenever possible. They didn't trust her at first, because of her father, or her inexperience, or her multicultural education. So she didn't bother giving them orders directly. Instead, she used her more loyal followers to tend to their needs, and she found that they were usually more cooperative once their bellies were full and their ships were repaired. When she needed stricter military discipline, she got it by delegating command to her closest advisers: older Saiyans who respected her abilities, and were strong enough to command respect from those who wouldn't listen to her.

The end result was a strange admixture of political theory that would have probably made her great-grandfather furious. Some of the Free Companions with monarchist sentiments respected Seltiss as the rightful heir to her father. The antimonarchists saw her as the opposite: a leader who proved her worth instead of relying on a birthright. Others only followed her because she got results. Some saw her as nothing but a provider of food, supplies, and battle to fight. Many sided with her out of necessity, fearing the growing influence of the Jindan Cult and Luffa's Federation. Then there were some that saw her as a figurehead. These Saiyans only respected her advisors and generals, and viewed her as more of a symbol for keeping the whole group united. And the beauty of it was that it worked, because each of them were a little bit right about her.

It wouldn't last, of course. Eventually, Seltiss would need to transform her motley crew into something more unified, with a more obvious rule of law. Eventually she would be their Queen, or their Dear Leader, or their Chancellor, or whatever other title they could all agree upon, but for now she was satisfied that they all followed her. She would adjust as the situation called for it. There were simple relationships that governed everything in life. Cold equations that could be managed, but never ignored. Too many failed regimes in history had treated rebellions like foreign invaders. Protests, riots, revolts, these were all the result of societal pressures. The goal was to vent the pressure and find ways to redirect and release those energies before they upset the system. That usually meant changing the system itself, and those in power often loathed to do this. Change could be difficult, and some leaders took change personally, like an affront to their past authority. Those who wielded power had to be able to adapt to the times, or they would find their power taken away from them. Those who failed to vent the pressure would be destroyed in the explosion. It was inevitable.

At long last, it seemed like her father had finally failed to adapt. She knew the day would come, just as the day came when her father replaced Rehval II. The Saiyan Free Company was part of her plan to assure a smooth transition of power. She was proud to see it work so well, but it was all happening much sooner than she had expected.

It was a relief to retire to her quarters. Her command ship was one of the best in her fleet, but the accommodations were still very modest compared to the dorms at various private schools she had attended in her short life. She had decorated the cabin with a few posters and alien souvenirs she had picked up during the war. Her favorite was a lamp she found that contained a suspension of wax and some unknown liquid. The heat of the lamp would melt the wax and make it float up and down through the liquid, and the whole thing was dyed in her favorite shade of pink, which made it perfect. She shut off the other lights and sat on the couch to admire the rosy glow. It was something she had started doing lately to relax.

It wasn't working.

Just when she was about to shut off the light and try to sleep, the door chime sounded, and she answered it to find Xibuyas waiting to come inside.

"I... didn't mean to disturb you, my lady," he said, in that adorable way where he tried to make his voice sound a little more mature.

"It's fine, Xibuyas," she said. "What's on your mind?"

"Good news, I think," Xibuyas said.

"If it's about the fleet that's going to the Jindans' base, I've already heard about it," she said.

"No, better than that," Xibuyas said. He handed a computer pad to her. "I had the crew run a tactical simulation for me. There's a very good chance we can destroy Luffa's ship during the battle."

Seltiss looked down at the pad, then back at Xibuyas. "Um, what?" was all she could ask.

"It's safe to assume that when we reach the enemy stronghold, the allied fleet will begin a bombardment of the surface," he explained. "Once that's complete, we'll have a narrow opening to turn our weapons on Luffa's engines. The Federation ships may turn on us, but the projections on that pad show a casualty rate no higher than sixty percent. Acceptable losses, as far as I'm concerned."

Seltiss took a deep breath and looked at the pad to review his findings. She didn't go over it very closely, but seeing the word "Luffa" and the number "60" was enough to tell her this was not a joke. "Wow. Like, you really want her dead that badly, huh?"

"She's an abomination," Xibuyas growled.

"We're allies, Xibuyas," she said.

"That alliance will be over once the cult is destroyed," he countered. "Our best chance to destroy her is to strike while she's on a spacecraft, where her powers won't save her."

"What happened to all that bluster about getting stronger and defeating her in battle?" Seltiss asked. "Because this plan sounds like it was drafted by someone who's given up on that."

He looked her in the eye, then turned away from her. "I... was forced to re-evaluate my strategy," he said.

"You can't beat her," Seltiss said. "You think you'll never be able to beat her."

"It won't matter," Xibuyas insisted. "Either way, she dies, and this way it will be over that much sooner. Then the Saiyan race can move forward again."

"This isn't about the Saiyan race, Xibuyas," Seltiss said. "This is about your pride. You're still wound up over the idea that you might be Luffa's son--"

"I am not her son!" he seethed.

She no longer believed him. Her father had raised Xibuyas like one of the family, claiming that he had been an orphan. Xibuyas grew up with astonishing powers, which her father claimed to be the results of his own alchemical enhancements. It all made perfect sense at the time, but now that she had met Luffa in person, Seltiss could see the resemblance between them. Ironically, Xibuyas looked even more like Luffa when he angrily denied any relation to her. But there was no point in saying any of this out loud.

"Chill out, " she said. "We've been over this already. I need you, Xibuyas. I need you to help me make this Free Company work. Your bio-parents aren't important to me. But we do need Luffa, at least for a while longer."

"Why?" he demanded. This was the closest they had ever come to a genuine argument. Growing up, he had always revered her like a queen. He took the Saiyan royal family very seriously, even when she did not. It hadn't been easy to convince him to side with her against Rehval, but in the end his love for her won out. Now, she was beginning to worry that his hatred for Luffa might prevail against her.

"Look, we have to win this war, sure, but we've got to win the peace that follows," she explained. "Right now, Luffa makes things easier for me. She gives Saiyans everywhere something in common. They're all afraid of her. Even the ones that respect her know she could kill them whenever she wants."

"And this is helpful?" Xibuyas grumbled.

"Look in every generation, one of us is the strongest, but we don't always know who it is," Seltiss explained. "A lot of times, even the strongest Saiyan is outclassed by some monster or alien. My father claimed to be the strongest, but it wasn't exactly obvious, not like it is with Luffa. Or you."

He tensed up at this, so she reached out to put her arms on his shoulders. She'd learned a long time ago that affectionate gestures like these helped to calm his stormy moods, and it always reinforced his loyalty to her. Xibuyas had a glowing yellow aura when he used his full power, and while his hair didn't change color, it wasn't hard to notice the resemblance between his aura and Luffa's transformation. He had been self-conscious about it ever since their first encounter on Pflaume.

"Look, big guy," she said, "you've been stronger than my dad for a while now. Maybe you've always been stronger. And I need that, for sure, but if Luffa's out of the picture, that makes you the strongest Saiyan, no question. And you've seen how everyone feels about her. If something happens to her, they'll turn that resentment on you next."

"It would be different for me," Xibuyas insisted.

"Maybe, but they're still not ready," Seltiss said. "Not all of them, anyway. It helps that you're a man, but some of them would still resent you. For now, they see you as a counterbalance against Luffa, and we need to cement that idea for a while. And once they're used to you, then we can think about where to go in a world without Super Saiyans."

"But this may be the only chance we get!" Xibuyas said.

"Don't be so sure," Seltiss said. "You may not believe in your powers, but I do." She patted him on the cheek, then turned to approach a small refrigerator on the other side of her room. "You want a soda?"

The offer might have angered him a moment earlier, but her flattery had taken a lot of the fight out of him. Now, he seemed to remember where he was, and the awkward anticipation he felt from spending time in her quarters. The boy was madly in love with her, and sharing a snack in her room was like a sneak preview of being married to her someday. When he finally remembered to answer her question, she tossed him a bottle and directed him to sit down. Then she took a seat beside him, draping his right arm over her shoulder like a scarf.

"Look, if we have to kill Luffa, we'll figure something out," Seltiss said after they each took a few sips. "I'm not saying we rule it out completely. But maybe we can work out something that, um, won't kill two thirds of our forces? You want to be king some day, right? Well, a king needs subjects."

He tried to hold his right arm still, like he was afraid of accidentally groping her somehow. He kept his fingers in as natural a pose as he could, but she could feel the tension in his muscles. As for his left arm, he wiped his mouth and sighed.

"Then... you still plan to be my bride," he said, as though he were just making idle conversation.

"Well, duh, how else can you be king?" she teased. "I'm the one with the royal blood."

"I just... I thought..." he took another sip as he put the words together. "It was King Rehval's plan that we marry," he finally said. "And you told me that we had more leverage by sticking together, because he needs us. In case your schemes failed, we could always go back to him and he would have no choice but to let us return. But now, we're preparing to kill him, and when that happens..."

She giggled softly. "All bets are off, is that what you're worrying about?" she asked. "My father's made a lot of mistakes, Xibuyas. Big mistakes, if you ask me. But pairing us off wasn't one of them. Sure, he only saw us as good breeding stock for making more Saiyan elites, but besides that, we make a good team, don't we? I need something to keep you around, don't I?"

"I see," he said, doing his best to hide his relief. "I didn't want to presume--"

"Of course, if you've found someone else, I can't exactly stand in your way," Seltiss joked. "Maybe you met some Federation farmgirl in one of the border systems."

"Absolutely not!" Xibuyas said. "I'd be lost without you, my lady. The only place for me is by your side."

Which was exactly the sort of response she had come to expect from him. In whatever society Seltiss would eventually build, Xibuyas would be its first citizen. Her father had found him, or stolen him from Luffa, or he grew him in a test tube, or whatever. Xibuyas revered him as a father/creator, but Seltiss had become his friend, his true love, his princess. Winning his loyalty from her father had been the first proof that she was capable of surpassing King Rehval III and staking claim to her own place in history. It was comforting to know that she still had Xibuyas wrapped around her little finger.

But not comforting enough.

"It must be difficult for you," she said after a long silence. "We've been plotting against my dad all this time, but I didn't think we'd reach this point so soon."

Xibuyas shrugged. "I only followed him because of you," he said. "It's a pity that things had to turn out this way, but he brought this upon himself."

"Yeah," Seltiss said. "But even so, he was like a father to you. It must be tough going into battle against him like this."

"Not at all," he said. "The man I respected, the man who was your father, that man died some time ago. If he ever really existed at all. I didn't want to believe the reports, that this 'Trismegistus' was actually King Rehval, but the intelligence reports are clear. He's not even trying to hide his madness. Killing him will be an act of mercy. Better than letting him live out his days as some pathetic wizard."

"I just always imagined things going differently," Seltiss said. "I wanted to build the Free Company into something bigger, and then reveal it to him when the time was right. Maybe ten years from now, or even fifteen. Then he would see what I'd accomplished, and he'd have no choice but to turn over his kingdom to me. He'd have to admit that I was ready, that I was better at this than he ever was."

"You already are better than he is," Xibuyas said. "Much as it galls me to fight alongside Luffa, your alliances and planning have all paid off. We stand ready to crush your father with overwhelming force. What more could you ask for?"

"Yeah," Seltiss said. "I guess I just wanted something more personal. You know, Luffa told me that Rehval's not even his real name. She said the real Rehval III was my uncle, and dad killed him and stole his identity."

Xibuyas made a loud harrumph. "I wouldn't put too much stock in anything that woman says," he grumbled.

"Is it any harder to believe than this cult leader scene he's into now?" Seltiss asked. "The point is that we'll never know for sure, because we'll never see him again. And it's a good thing. The Saiyan race can't move forward until he's out of the picture, sure. But... it's still tragic, you know? Things could have turned out differently."

He looked at her and smiled triumphantly. "It is tragic, for him. But it's like you've always told me. One man's tragedy is another's gain. You should be thrilled, Princess Seltiss. Killing your own father is a dream come true for most Saiyans. And at your age! You'll go down in history, with all the other old heroes."

Xibuyas stood up, and for a moment she thought he was going to lift her up from the couch and hold her in his arms. Instead, he took a step away from her, and knelt before her in supplication.

"I did have some attachment to the old man. I admit it," he said. "But his time is over, and his usefulness to you is at an end! We'll throw him away and never look back, just like you've always promised. I... I've always been in awe of your brilliance, Seltiss. And you're right about Luffa. I shouldn't let her get in my head. We have our whole lives to rid ourselves of that wretched beast, and with your genius, I know we can do it."

She didn't know what to say. She wanted to tell him to get up, to hold her in his arms and tell her it would be all right. She wanted to tell him how conflicted she felt about killing her father. Necessary as it was, she still found it hard to face the reality of it. It had been easier before, when no one knew where King Rehval was, or that he had anything to do with Trismegistus' cult. But now there was no denying that Rehval was a menace to the Saiyan species, and it was her duty to destroy him. The cold equations demanded it. Her political career, the welfare of her people, the welfare of the entire galaxy, they all depended upon her father's death.

But she would still miss him when he was gone. Perhaps this was part of the equations that Seltiss hadn't considered until it was too late. It wasn't that Rehval had been a good father to her. He had probably lied to her more than she would ever know. It was likely that he saw her and her sisters as little more than breeding stock. But he still mattered. She kept thinking of one morning when she was a little girl. He cooked breakfast for her. There wasn't anything particularly important about that memory, but it was enough to make her regret what was going to happen to him.

She always thought Xibuyas felt something similar towards her father, but apparently not. Or perhaps he chose to hide it, the same way she was hiding her own feelings. She couldn't show weakness at this crucial moment. Everything she knew about leadership told her that she had to be steadfast and unwavering. She didn't love Xibuyas. "Love" was just a word she used to keep him on her side. She couldn't allow herself use him as a source of emotional support. It would only teach him that he had leverage with her. The boy was too powerful as it was.

"On your feet, kiddo," she said, forcing herself to smile. When he stood, she got up and gave him a playful kiss on the cheek. She hoped that the low light in the room would keep him from noticing the sadness in her eyes.

"I keep telling you," she said. "You don't have to bow to me, okay? You're going to rule by my side one of these days, remember? We'll be equals. So as far as I'm concerned, we already are, got it?"

"You're so much more than I could ever aspire to be," he said. "I... I should go. You need your rest for the battle to come."

He always excused himself this way whenever he began to get emotional. He thought he was being subtle, but she could tell from the change in his voice, and the way he suddenly wasn't sure what to do with his hands.

And she let him go, since she felt the same way. It would have been nice to have him stay, to hold her as she cried over her father's lamentable fate. But Xibuyas wouldn't understand, or worse, he might see her indecision as a vulnerability. She had to be strong, even in front of him. Especially in front of him.

So she waited for him to walk out the door, then sat alone in her room, watching the light from her pink oil lamp dance across the walls. Soon enough, the tears came, and she wondered if her father had ever felt so alone.

NEXT: The Homefront

#dragon ball #fanfiction #seltiss #xibuyas #lssjluffafic #huh i guess that's it for the tags #g'night folks!

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electronicdelusionstarlight · 5 years ago

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Ok, let's see how much I remember of the Dissidia Plot without looking anything up:

SPOILERS

1) So, some time in ancient times, there are two nations at war. I assume one of them is the Lufenians since Cid of the Lufenians is there, and the other had powerful weapons like Bahamut (or maybe summons, can't remember, anyway the other country is military stronger while thd Lufenians are more scientifically advanced).

2) Anyway, Cid and his wife are, like, the head researchers for the Lufenian Government, and are tasked with building a "Weapon to surpass Metal Gear the Omega Weapon," the other country soon to be perfected doomsday weapon, and I don't remember if it's them creating him or if they, like, find a alien baby in the woods ala superman and shit (most likely the later given what happens next), but they find Chaos (FF I) as a small demon baby, and the Lufenian governmemt decides to train him and raise him as the new weapon, having Cid and his wife as heads of the project since Chaos has basically imprinted on the guy's wife as his mother.

3) Anyway, they try to prepare Chaos for war, but Cid's wife is opposed to this, and tries to, like, prevent her "baby" from getting abused and used, but then she dies during a accident/assassination attempt and Chaos goes berserk and uncontrollable, causing sone sort of disaster.

4) Meanwhile I don't remember which atmy is also undertaking a project invving creepy manequin soldiers that mimick other people weaponry and skills, that becomes important later.

5) At some point the Lufenian government starts a Cloning Project and clones Cid's wife to keep Chaos in check. She's called Project something or another, and then goes by the name of Cosmos. They also try to copy Chaos but end up with a mindless, feral beast without reason, sealing it somewhere to degenerate.

6) I think at some point Chaos and the Omega Weapon fight, and Shinryu (FF V), a big ass dragon god of rebirth and shit, is also there, can't remember fighting for whom, maybe as a neutral party. Anyway, the world (From now on, World A (In universe called as such)) dies, the only survivors being Cid, now turned in a Moogle, Chaos, if damaged and lacking most of his memories, some Manekins, Cosmos, with conflicting memories, the Chaos Clone, sealed in a rift, and a bunch of other moogles.

7) Shinryu, the dragon god from before, then appears to... someone, maybe cid, maybe other lufenians who somehow survived, never got that part, and offers to save the world or heal Chaos and bring him onto the state the Lufenians wanted him to become, might be both. Anyway, He creates World B, a perfect copy of World A, and places the survivors there. Cosmos is given half the world, Chaos the other half.

8) So, now, the deal with Shinryu is this: Chaos and Cosmos, now elevated as Gods, must fight each other in perpetual war. They summon pawns to fight in their stead and then, after either god "dies" in the war, Shinryu will show up, reset the world to a state before the start of the cycle, resurrect the fallen and absorb their memories and powers, while those who survived the cycle keep them for the next one. By doing so, Shinryu can now feed himself and Chaos, each new cycle, can train and gain some more power for himself since he technically wins every war, thus growing even if his memories are missing into the perfect super weapon for a empire that isn't even there anymore.

9) The first Cycles are on a Skeleton Crew, Chaos gets Gabranth (FF XII) and Garland (FF I, more on him later) while Cosmos gets Shantotto and Prishe (Both FF XI). The Manekins are still around, unbound, and are outside of Shinryu cycle, so if they manage to kill someone they can't get renewed by the dragon anymore and disapear from the cycle. They get later sealed on a dimensional rift somewhere, unknown to anyone.

10) Gabranth, Prishe and Shantotto get erased from the cycle at some point, we don't know how If I remember correctly, but first Prishe finds Warrior of Light (FF I), with no Helmet, somewhere in the world. Due to dimensional fuckery and Shinryu absorbing warriors' memories, shards of other worlds start mixing in with World B, so you can be on the surface of FF IV moon one day only to stumble in a hole and end up in Ultimecia's Tower, so he's, like, in FF I Chaos Shrine, with no memory of who he is. She gives him a name, they flirt a little, then he becomes a pawn of Cosmos despite never being called there by a god. Garland is the only one who recognizes him, but is not forthcoming with the answers.

11) Garland, literally the first boss of the first final fantasy game and a one note character till the final boss of FF 1, is the most important character in this story.

In the original game, he kidnaps the princess, gets defeated by the warriors of light, and then is sent back in time becoming Chaos, only to be defeated again by the Warriors of Light later.

According to Dissidia, FFI Chaos is AGAIN sent back in time after his final battle, damaged, regressed to infancy and with no memories, to a time before the FFI World existed, to World A, and becomes the Chaos raised by Cid and his wife, and later fights against the clone of his beloved mother for Shinryu. Then, after dying for a last time in the 13th cycle, he gets sent forward in time, and reincarnates into FF I Garland again, beginning the Cycle anew.

The Garland we see in Dissidia is the culmination of all those deaths and rebirth, the apotheosis of Chaos, who knows how things are going to go, and how things have gone. He looks like FFI Garland, but holds the same magical powers of FFI Chaos, that Garland lacks as a simple traitorous knight, and has the concentrated memories of all his lives, so he knows everything and everyone, and how things will go and have gone.

12) Anyway, after a couple Cycles things stabilize into two major sides, with minimal side switching between cycles:

12A) Chaos: Garland, the Emperor (FF II), Cloud of Darkness (FF III), Golbez (FF IV, switches sides some times), Exdeath (FF V, most memed character in the game), Kefka (FF VI), Sephiroth (FF VII), Ultimecia (FF VIII), Kuja (FF IX, switches sides some times), Jehct (FF X, switches sides some times).

12B) Cosmos, with Warrior of Light (FF I), Firion (FF II), Onion Knight (FF III and Dark Souls), Cecil (FF IV), Kain (FF IV, never switches sides but does some shady shit at times), Bartz (FF V), Terra (FF VI, gets brainwashed into fighting for Chaos at times), Cloud (FF VII, gets brainwashed into fighting for Chaos at times), Tifa (FF VII), Squall (FF VIII), Laguna Loire (FF VIII), Zidane (FF IX), Tidus (FF X, some times switches sides based on who his dad is fighting for (EX, Jecht is Cosmos, Tidus is Chaos)), Yuna (FF X), Vaan (FF XII), Lightning (FF XIII).

13) In the 12th Cycle, A inner faction within Chaos' forces (Kefka, The Emperor and Exdeath and other 3 I can't remembed (I think Cloud of Darkness, Sephiroth and Garland, don't quote me on this)), discovers the rift where the Manekins have been sealed, and free them hoping they'll erase not only the warriors of cosmos before the next cycle, but even Cosmos, winning them the war for good. A second faction, composed by Golbez and Kuja among them, try to prevent this from Happening for personal reasons, so Kuja kills half of Cosmos forces, and Golbez convinces Kain to kill off the other half, so they'll be able to be revived by Shinryu.

14) Warrior of Light is the only one who didn't perish in the Purge of the main 10, and stays at cosmos side trying to defend her from the Manekin hordes. She sacrifices herself to save him from being erased, and dies before she or warrior or light can get killed, starting the cye anew. Cosmos is however weakened in the next (and last) cycle.

15) Vaan, Yuna, Laguna, Kain, Tifa and Lightning all get erased from the cycle trying to stop the Manekin horde. They seal back the rift, but the World is still swarming with them, persisting into the next cycle, while the 6 of the 12th cycle die an heroic death.

16) Yuna and Jecht manage to bring back Tidus into Cosmos' folds when Jehct sacrifices himself for him as Tidus dies, and Yuna beats the shit out of the Emperor (more on him later). In order for Tidus to become good, however, his dad become evil since that's how their cristal is based (More on this later).

17) Cloud is being brainwashed into fighting for chaos. Tifa punches him (and probably also Sephiroth, who's there being creepy) right in the dick, he remembers who he is, and dies getting back onto Cosmos right as his memories of Tifa are erased alongside her.

18) Terra is getting enslaved by Kefka in a Joker - Harkey Quinn situation. Kefka then does a stand-up comedy battle with Vaan, who wins it by out stand-up comedy Kefka, and "kidnaps" Terra. They have some hot girl summer scenes together, before Vaan goes to die at the rift for her. She shakes of the mind control thanks to him, and becomes a warrior of Cosnos again. As a side note, Vaan has a weird relationship with Onion Knight since OK is, like, a 6 years old midget, and he treats him like a little kid and brother, while most other characters treat him as a holy knight, which will become important later since Onion Knight and Terra will be one of the 5 major parties in the 13th and last Cycle.

19) Kuja is discovered by the other faction in Chaos' army and is killed, his memories altered for the following cycle. Golbez manages to weasel his way out of all of this, the other members of the factions die and are resurrected by Shinryu.

20) In the 13th cycle, a now weakened Cosmos splinters her power in 10 cristals, and tasks her remaining wariors to find them. Once they'll get them all, Cosmos will die the final death, and the cycles will stop, granting her last 10 warriors one last resurection, and the power to end the cycles for good and return to the homes they've forgotten about. This creates 4 major parties in Cosmos' army questing for the Crystals.

20A) Biggest Party is Cecil, Cloud, Firion and Tidus. They start splitting up over time, mostly Cloud wanting to be a lone wolf, and are in a mostly ensemble cast situation.

20B) Zidane and Bartz are best friends. They try to rope Squall into their merry couple, but he's even more of a lone wolf than Cloud so he is all "I work alone, I shall help my friends by working alone from the shadows too!" As he, like, basically stalk them along the way, and Zidane roast him for being a edgelord. Zidane and Bartz are split up by (I think) Kefka's machinations at some point and spend the other half of their journey trying to get back together.

20C) Terra and Onion Knight form a "Arthurian Knight and his Lady" Party, neither remembering Vaan. They cuddle while sleeping, she gets kidnapped, he gets kidnapped, he manage to talk Exdeath out of a fight by being a silver tongued 6 years old midget, the usual things.

20D) Warrior of Light works alone, first time he's not protecting Cosmos in a cycle. Due to the cyclical nature of Garland, he's the only one who fights his signature enemy both as first and last boss in his story.

21) Once they find the Crystals by each defeating their Original Villains, the chaos forces are resurrected once again by Chaos, now in complete control of Shinryu's powers, who then kills Cosmos for good, and then murders the 10 heroes. They are resurrectex by the Crystals once again, and set off to end the final cycle and kill Chaos.

22) After reaching Chaos' seat of power, they find him, like, super depressed and he doesn't know why since he just won. He has one final conversation with Garland, who knows why he's depressed of course, since he just killed the clone of his mom and shit. You kill off the 10 villains along the way, sending them back to the original worlds, before defeating Chaos in a 10 on 1 battle, killing him, unthetering Shinryu, and freeing World B from its cycles.

23) World B is then revealed to be the World of Final Fantasy I, finally back to World A primordial state, now on a grassy hill near a forest, each hero from Tidus to Firion is sent back to their home world by their respective Crystal, in descending order, with Warrior of Light remaining with Cornelia standing in the background on a sunrise, starting the events of FF I as Chaos gets Isekaid into Garland again, starting his cycle anew. The ones erased in the 12th cycle are then released back into their original worlds and times.

24) Meanwhile a secondary Timeline splinters from world B where Cosmos couldn't sacrifice herself in the 13th cycle. Chaos, now bloated with Shinryu powers, becomes a corrupted shadow, a feral beast devouring the world and its inhabitants, and only 6 survivors of either army, either cycle, are tasked by Cyd, now a moogle, with putting a stop to this. In this timeline, Chaos, now Feral Chaos, Shinryu, now Shinryu Ex, and their Clone are finally stopped, leaving a empty world, inhabited by moogles, Cid, and Cosmos, ready to begin the Cycle anew.

25) As a side note, a big deal was made for Jecht and Tidus cristal, a sort of Yin Yang power born from their conflict and fight or some shit, that the emperor was trying to harvest for his own means since the 12th cycle, but was later stopped by Yuna and later Tidus agaib after he finally beat the shit out of his awful dad. Can't remembed much else but it was kinda important.

26) Don't remember much else plotwise aside from, like... minor shit like Ultimecia and Cloud of Darkness flirting by having a philosophical debate over the concept of death, rebirth, cycles and time loops, or Firion and Lightning bonding over a Rose.

EDIT: 27) Oh, yeah, Gilgamesh (FF V, recurring dimension hopping character in other game) is also there. He accidentally stumbles upon Workd B during, like, one of the early cycles, and tries to find and fight Bartz, but only manages to have zany highjinks and adventures before falling into another rift out of the world, into another FF Game. Irrelevant to the plot, but he's Gilgamesh, so he gets a special mention.

#final fantasy #dissidia #ff #eh

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strengthnerd · 4 years ago

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The World Strongest Man

“WORLD STRONGEST MAN 2020” 11th - 15th November in Bradenton Florida!!!!!

25 monters competitos

1: Ervin Toots @ervin.toots 2: Terry Hollands @terryhollandswsm 3: Eddie Williams @eddiejowilliams 4: Graham Hicks @grahamhicksuk 5: Luke Richardson @lukeerichardson 6: Maxime Boudreault @max.boudreault23 7: Tom Stoltman @tomstoltmanofficial 8: Robert Oberst @robertoberst 9: Evan Singleton @evan_trex_strongman 10: Brian Shaw @shawstrength 11: Rob Kearney @worlds_strongest_gay 12: Mateusz Kieliszkowski @kieliszkowskimateusz 13: Martin Forsmark @forzmark 14: Adam Bishop @adambishopstrongman 15: Oleksii Novikov @novikov_strong 16: Jerry Pritchett @jerrypritchettstrongman 17: Konstantine Janashia @konstantine_janashia 18: Kevin Faires @kf_strongman 19: Luke Stoltman @luke.stoltman 20: Mark Felix @markfelixwsm 21: Ari Gunnarsson @ari_gunnarsson 22: JF Caron @jfcaronstrongman 23: Mikhail Shivlyakov @mikhail_shivlyakov 24: Vytautas Lalas @vytautas.lalas 25: Iron Biby @ironbiby Alternate/Reserve: Trey Mitchell III @berserkerlifter Alternate/Reserve: Ole Martin Kristiansen @olemartinkri Alternate/Reserve: Eythor Ingolfsson @eythormelsted Eddie Hall Presenter Magnus Ver Magnusson @magnusvermag Head Referee Colin Bryce @colin.bryce Tournament Director Main Sponsor @sbdapparel

repost @https://www.instagram.com/worldsstrongestfan/

this is where the magic happen where monsters collide with each other batting the title WHO is the strongest man. The World’s Strongest Man competition is about more than just force: it is about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy. Every event below is designed to push the Strongmen to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too. there are variety of events that the test the competitors and they are :

1)OVER ARM PULL

Pulling a phenomenally heavy object along a course may not sound like ground-breaking event territory in the world of the Strongmen, but there’s a twist for the Arm Over Arm Pull: the athletes have to remain sitting, and stationary, with their feet resting against a solid base at all times.

Using a rope, the Strongman must then pull an object down a course in the fastest time possible. It appears that the Arm Over Arm pull is, at first, about upper body strength, but actually depends more strongly on leg strength and grip. Most athletes will bend their knees, pull the rope tautly, and almost complete a leg-press style movement to gain speed and traction during the pull. Legs are much stronger limbs than arms, and this technique gives the Strongmen more power and more force behind their pull. In fact, it’s their grip that often causes them to fail at this event, as the roughness of the rope means keeping a tight grip becomes virtually impossible. Especially, when the items they’re pulling range from planes, to boats, to giant tyres.

2)ATLAS STONE

The Atlas Stones are often regarded as the signature event in the WSM contest. As the final event of the whole competition, this event often determines the winner.

Introduced in 1986, the Atlas Stones are five heavy, spherical stones which increase in weight from 100 to 160 kg. They need to be placed on top of five high platforms that span a 16–33 ft. long course. In the early years of this event, it was extremely rare for competitors to be able to lift all five Stones, but now the expectation is that all will be lifted, and it’s the time it happens in that now determines a winner.

Originally, the Stones were lifted onto platforms at waist-height, but over the years the event has evolved and the Stones have increased in weight, and the platforms in height.

This iconic event is strongly associated with some of the biggest names in WSM history: Marius Pudzianowski, Magnus Samuelsson, Magnús ver Magnússon and Žydrūnas Savickas have all conquered the event, and emerged as WSM title holders.

3)BLOCK/ KEG TOSS

The Keg Toss is inspired by the long tradition of Highland Games. Based on the idea of a weight-for-height competition, the Keg Toss relies on pure power to succeed. Competing Strongmen have to throw kegs of increasing weight over a 4.42 metre wall, clearing it in one throw.

There have been several historical variations to this event too: back in 2003 and then again in 2006, concrete blocks – not kegs – were the objects that the athletes had to toss over the walls. During these years, the height of the wall, not the weight of the object, was what increased.

With the kegs – which are now used exclusively over blocks – ranging in weight from 15kg to 24kg, clearing the walls in one go is no mean feat.

4)CARRY AND DRAG

Anvils, anchors and chains are carried over a fixed distance. The Strongmen compete five at a time, and have to carry two anvils first, before dragging an anchor over the same distance, attaching a chain to it, and dragging it back to the starting point.

An anchor and a chain are carried to the end of a set distance, where they must be attached to each other and then dragged back the same distance.

Visually impressive and impossible to take your eyes off, the Carry and Drag event is gruelling for even the most accomplished Strongman.

Weights: Anvils 130kg each Anchors and Chain 300kg.

5)FAMERS WALK

First launched in 1983, the Farmer’s Walk is one of the most well-known and most iconic WSM events.

It originally made its debut in Christchurch, New Zealand, but back then was known as the Fergus Walk. Initially, wooden implements weighing 80kg were carried by the athletes and it was the thickness, rather than the weight, that caused competitors the most problems. When this event launched, the emphasis was on the distance the Strongmen could travel with their weights. Whoever made it furthest around the oval track was declared the winner.

Today, the re-named Farmer’s Walk focuses on covering a set distance within a certain time limit and the apparatus the athletes carry can be dropped and picked up without limit. As the objects become heavier and heavier over the years, the event has come to be known as the Giant Farmer’s Walk – with each item tipping the scales at 160kg each…

That means since the event’s creation in 1983, the weight of a single object is now the same as the old combined weight, showing that each year really does bring with it a new calibre of Strongmen!

6)FINGALS FINGERS

One of the newest events in the WSM competition, Fingal’s Fingers was first launched in 2000 and takes its name from Fingal, a mythological Gaelic hunter-warrior. The event revolves around a series of hinged poles – or fingers – being lifted, starting from a horizontal resting position and flipped over to the other side. The poles get progressively heavier and longer as the event progresses, making the challenge to flip the fingers tougher and tougher as the timer counts down. The event is scored by time and by how many of the poles a competitor was able to flip over.

It’s fast, tough and unforgiving and as a result is used frequently in WSM competitions, both in the Heats and in the Finals. With weights ranging from 200kg to over 300kg, athletes are pushed to flip all five fingers with the pressure of the clock ticking as they do so. Turning all five isn’t enough, it’s whoever can turn all five the fastest who will be victorious.

7)FRIDGE CARRY

No standing in front of an open fridge door, wondering whether to have seconds or not here as the Fridge Carry sees Strongmen compete to carry two fridges along a 30 metre course. A yoke and a crossbar are used to stabilise the fridges, weighing between 415kg / 904lbs.

The athletes then have 60 seconds to complete the course… a phenomenal test of strength which has grown to become one of the most-recognised, and iconic events in the world of the Strongmen.

8)GIANT DUMBELL PRESS

The Giant Dumbbell press seems like one of the more straightforward WSM events, but that doesn’t mean it is any less grueling to succeed in.

In order to compete, the athletes have to lift single-handed dumbbells from the ground and onto their shoulder which they then must raise vertically over their head whilst fully extending their arm upwards. With four dumbbells weighing between 100 and 115kgs this is no mean feat. Scoring – and winning – the competition is dependent on the time taken to successfully lift as many dumbbells as possible.

9)GIANT LOGG LIFT

Giant is definitely the right word to describe this event as it’s an entire tree trunk – not just a log – that the Strongmen have to lift to conquer this part of the competition. The tree trunk is erected horizontally onto a stand which has handles built-in at one end. The athletes have to grip the handles with their backs to the trunk and lift it over their head as many times as possible within a set time limit.

The challenge here is the number of repetitions that can be achieved before the timer runs out. With the average trunk weighing 380kgs (830lbs) the athletes need stamina and strength, as well as an iron-clad grip to smash this event.

10)HUSSAFEL STONE

This event was first introduced into the WSM events repertoire in 1992. Legend has it that the stone was originally crafted in Iceland over 200 years ago and used by an Icelandic pastor to help keep one of his stable doors open. The stone is still kept in Husafell, Iceland, at the site of Pastor Snorri Björnsson’s stables.

The stone itself is a flat, somewhat triangular rock weighing 182kgs. The challenge for this event is to carry the stone held high across the chest over a set distance whilst being timed. During the three years in which the WSM competition was held in Africa, a newly shaped stone was crafted in the shape of the African continent and the event was temporarily renamed as the Africa Stone.

11)LOADING RACE

Five objects, each weighing between 100–164kg, are loaded onto a truck bed or a similar platform over a course of about 50 ft.

Anchors and chains, sandbags, anvils, lobster pots, masts, blocks of ice, wine casks and beer kegs are some of the items that have to be lifted. The athlete who manages to load all of these objects onto the platform in the fastest time is declared the winner. The weight of the objects – surprisingly – isn’t the defining factor in this event: the overall shape of the objects, their dimensions, and the terrain (which can range from rubble to sand to snow) the athletes have to cross to get to the loading bay are all more significant than weight alone.

Twists to the event’s structure have been introduced up over the years, challenging the Strongmen in new and ever more inventive ways. The 1992 Loading Race had five 90kg barrels as the loading objects, which the Strongmen had to wade into a lagoon to retrieve before returning them to dry land. Other variations over the years have seen the Strongmen wade through Bahamian sand, to boats in the Ocean, and through Icelandic snow, to retrieve items to load onto the platforms.

12)OVERHEAD LOG LIFT

The Overhead Log Lift was introduced into the WSM event series in 1980. Originally, the Overhead Log Lift was about lifting the maximum weight possible, but today athletes compete by lifting a wooden log from the ground then raising it overhead as many times as possible within the time limit; returning the weight back to the floor in a controlled fashion each time before attempting to do the next lift.

The Overhead Log Lift began life as a beer barrel lifting contest before the logs were introduced. The first winner of the Log Lift in 1980 was legendary Strongman Bill Kazmaier who powered 157kgs from the floor over his head. He won the event over the next two years too, setting world records with each lift. The current world record holder is the incredible Žydrūnas Savickas with a lift of 212.5kgs.

13)PILLARS OF HERCULES

The mythological tale of the Pillars tells us that Hercules, having to cross a mountain on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, used his superhuman strength to smash it into two pieces rather than climb over it. When these two pieces of the mountain fell into the sea they formed what we now know today as Gibraltar and Monte Hacho. Ever since, these two halves of the mountain have been known as the Pillars of Hercules.

Our Strongmen may not be smashing mountains in two, but they are our modern day Hercules… and for this event they prove their strength by standing on a raised platform, in a fixed position, and using chains to keep two huge pillars either side of them upright. Each of the pillars weighs 160kgs, and there is no time limit, the event will be over when the Strongman is no longer able to support both pillars.

14)POWER STAIRS

Whilst a few flights of stairs leaves most of us huffing and puffing and longing for the lift, Strongmen are powering up stairs carrying a selection of three humongous items all the way to the top. Power and speed are necessary to conquer this event, as the items range in weight from 182–273kgs and are lifted all the way to the top.

Moving from step to step requires speed and strength, and it’s not necessarily the tallest athletes that have an advantage here. The Power Stairs are designed to test every element of the athletes’ ability, and require stamina and skill to conquer.

15)SQUAT LIFT

The Squat is one of the original events from the very first WSM contest. Still going strong (if you’ll pardon the pun) today, this event first began life with women suspended in giant metal birdcages being lifted up as the Strongmen squatted down to lift the bars that the cages were attached to.

Although the competition has evolved since 1977, it is still spectacular to watch and tough to complete as the Strongmen now lift items that weight up to 400kgs… including concrete blocks, tractor tyres, cars and even people.

The challenge is to lift the objects as many times as possible whilst remaining in a fixed position, with only the strength they can put into their squat to help them.

As the WSM contest has continued to grow and evolve, the keg and barrel squats have become more prominent, with Mariusz Pudzianowski and Laurence Shahlaei performing some incredible Squats. In fact, Shahlaei has built a reputation for being one of the most powerful Squat competitors in WSM history, often becoming the only competitor able to squat the heaviest weight. No mean feat, considering this event remains one of the oldest, and toughest, ones to compete in.

16)VEHICLE PULL

Few WSM events are more impressive than the vehicle pull. Introduced in 1977, it’s the jaw-dropping one-to-watch as vehicles such as trams, boxcars, buses and planes are pulled across a 100 ft course, by hand, in the quickest time possible. Originally, the Strongmen would wear a pulling harness, but today it is more common for them to have a harness and a pulling rope. The old harness-only system did see to give an advantage to the competitors with the strongest body weight.

The vehicle is often chosen to reference a previous winner or the current host city of the current competition. The 2007 competition featured a fire truck in a nod to 2006 champion Phil Pfister, a professional firefighter, and the 2008 qualifying rounds featured a coal truck, a reference to the coalmining industry in West Virginia where the competition was held that year. The terrains also change yearly too, with vehicles being pulled on snow, ice, sand and concrete. Other variations to the competition also include filling a tram with passengers for the Vehicle Pull in 1979, meaning the total vehicle weight actually topped 4535kgs.

It’s double WSM Title winner Bruce Wilhelm who holds the record for the first ever pull in the contest’s history, completing the 21 metre course in exactly 14 seconds and proving that this event is about more than just size and strength; that it’s about stamina, strength and skill.

#strongman strength strong fitfam strongmancompetition strongmancompetitor strongmantraining workout lifting gains beastmode fitness fitnessm

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way-down-meme-town · 5 years ago

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Hadestown Act II Sentence Meme

Under the cut you will find 179 lyrics from the musical Hadestown to use for your roleplaying purposes! Have fun!

Our Lady of the Underground 1. “I don’t know about you, boys, but if you’re like me then hanging around this manhole is bringing you down.”

2. “Cabin fever is a-settin’ in. You’re stir crazy.”

3. “I can give you what it is you crave, a little something from the good old days.”

4. “I got the wind right here in a jar.”

5. “I got the rain on tap at the bar.”

6. “I got sunshine up on the shelf.”

7. “Our lady of the underground!”

8. “Wanna know my name? I’ll tell you my name.”

9. “Let me guess, it’s the little things you miss.”

10. “Maybe you’re looking for some stronger stuff.”

11. “I got a sight for the sorest eye. When was the last time you saw the sky?”

12. “Wipe away your tears. I know how you feel. I can see you’re blinded by the sadness of it all.”

13. “Look a little closer and there’s a crack in the wall.”

14. “You want the moon? Yeah, I got her too.”

15. “A little moonshine ain’t no sin.”

16. “Tell my husband to take his time!”

17. “What the boss don’t know, the boss don’t mind.”

Way Down Hadestown (Reprise) 18. “The deal is signed?”

19. “I did what I had to do.”

20. “They cane hear, but they don’t care.”

21. “No one has a name down here.”

22. “They can look but they don’t see.”

23. “Your eyes will look that way someday.”

24. “You kissed your little life goodbye.”

25. “Hades laid his hands on you and gave you everlasting life.”

26. “Your place on the assembly line replaces all your memories.”

27. “What do you mean I’ll look like that?”

28. “That’s what it looks like to forget.”

29. “You see, it’s like I said before. A lot can happen behind closed doors.”

30. “A lot of souls have gotta die.”

31. “A lot of spirits gotta break, to make the underworld go round.”

Flowers 32. “What I wanted was to fall asleep, close my eyes, and disappear like a petal on a stream, a feather on the air.”

33. “I trembled when he laid me out. You won’t feel a thing he said, when you go down.”

34. “Nothing gonna wake you now.”

35. “Dreams are sweet, until they’re not.”

36. “Men are kind, until they aren’t.”

37. “Flowers bloom until they rot and fall apart.”

38. “Is anybody listening? I open my mouth and nothing comes out.”

39. “Flowers. I remember fields of flowers.”

40. “I remember someone by my side, turned his face to mine, and then I turned away into the shade.”

41. “You, the one I left behind, if you ever walk this way, come and find me lying in the bed I made.”

Come Home With Me (Reprise) 42. “I called your name before.”

43. “Whatever happened, I’m to blame.”

44. “How’d you get beyond the wall?”

45. “I sang a song so beautiful stones wept and they let me in. I can sing us home again.”

Papers (Intro) 46. “I don’t’ think we’ve met before. You’re not from around here, son.”

47. “Don’t know who the hell you are, but I can tell you don’t belong.”

48. “Go back to where you came from. You’re on the wrong side of the fence.”

49. “This poor boy raised up his voice with his heart out on his sleeve.”

50. “I’m not goin’ back alone. I came to take her home!”

51. “Who the hell do you think you are? Who the hell you think you’re talkin’ to?”

52. “She couldn’t go anywhere even if she wanted to.”

53. “You’re not from around here, son. If you were, then you would know that everything and everyone in Hadestown I own.”

54. “I only buy what others choose to sell.”

55. “You didn’t know? She signed the deal herself and now she belongs to me.”

56. “Everybody gather round! Everybody look and see what becomes of trespassers with no respect for property.”

Nothing Changes 57. “Why the struggle? Why the strain?”

58. “Why make trouble? Why make scenes?”

59. “Why go against the grain, why swim upstream?”

60. “It ain’t no use. You’re bound to lose.”

61. “What’s the purpose of a man? Just to turn his eyes away?”

62. “What’s the use of his backbone if he never stands upright?”

63. “Who are they to say what the truth is anyway?”

64. “The ones who tell the lies are the solemnest to swear.”

65. “The ones who load the dice always say the toss is fair.”

66. “The ones who deal the cards are the ones who take the tricks with their hands over their hearts while we play the game they fix.”

67. “The ones who speak the words always say it is the last.”

68. “No answer will be heard to the question no one asks.”

69. “I believe our answer matters more than anything they say.”

70. “I believe if there is still a will, then there is still a way.”

71. “I believe in us together more than anyone alone.”

72. “I believe that with each other, we are stronger than we know.”

73. “I believe that we are many. I believe that they are few, and it isn’t for the few to tell the many what is true.”

74. “Is it true? Is it true what they say?”

How Long 75. “What are you afraid of? He’s just a boy in love.”

76. “Have a drink, why don’t you?”

77. “I’ve had enough. He loves that girl!”

78. “He has the kind of love for her that you and I once had.”

79. “The girl means nothing ot me.”

80. “All of the sorrow won’t fit in his chest. It just burns like a fire in the pit of his chest.”

81. “Nothing comes of wishing on stars.”

82. “Nothing comes of the songs people sing, however sorry they are.”

83. “Give them a piece, they’ll take it all.”

84. “Show them a crack, they’ll tear down the wall.”

85. “Lend them an ear and the kingdom will fall.”

86. “The kingdom will fall for a song.”

87. “What does he care for the logic of kings? The laws of your underworld?”

88. “It is only for love that he sings.”

89. “He sings for the love of a girl.”

90. “You and your pity don’t fit in my bed.”

91. “How long? Just as long as I am your wife.”

92. “It’s true the earth must die, but then the earth comes back to life and the sun must go on rising.”

Chant (Reprise) 93. “Why do we turn away when our brother is bleeding?”

94. “Why do we build the wall and then call it freedom?”

95. “If we’re free, tell me why I can’t look in my brothers eye?”

96. “Young man, got to hand it to you. Guess you don’t scare easy, do ya?”

97. “It seems your song made quite a strong impression on my wife.”

98. “It takes more than singin’ songs to keep a woman in your arms.”

99. “Take it from a man no longer young if you want to hold a woman, hang a chain around her throat made of many carat gold.”

100. “If I raise my head, could I change my fate?”

101. “If I raise my voice, could I change the way it is?”

102. “Why do we turn away instead of standing with him?”

103. “Why are we digging our own graves for a living?”

104. “If we’re free, tell me why we can’t even stand upright?”

105. “If we’re free, tell me when we can stand with our fellow man?”

106. “Young man, I was young once too. Sang a song of love like you.”

107. “I too was left behind, turned on one too many times. Now I sing a different song.”

108. “You hear that heavy metal sound? The symphony of Hadestown.”

109. “Young man you can sing your ditty. I conduct the electric city.”

110. “Give me one more song before I send you to the great beyond where nobody can hear you singing.”

111. “Sing a song for me.”

112. “Make the king feel young again. Sing for an old man.”

Epic III 113. “I know how it was because he was like me, a man in love with a woman.”

114. “You didn’t know how and you didn’t know why, but you know what you wanted to take her home.”

115. “You saw her alone there, against the sky. It was like she was someone you’d always known.”

116. “It was like you were holding the world when you held her, like yours were the arms that the whole world was in.”

117. “There were no words for the way that you felt so you opened your mouth and you started to sing.”

118. “What has become of the heart of that man now that the man is king?”

119. “What has become of the heart of that man now that he has everything?”

120. “The more he has, the more he holds. The greater the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

121. “See how he labors beneath the load? Afraid to look up and afraid to let go.”

122. “He’s grown so afraid that he’ll lose what he owns, but what he doesn’t know is that what he’s defending is already gone.”

123. “Where is the treasure inside of your chest?”

124. “Where is the man with his arms outstretched to the woman he loves with nothing to lose?”

Epic III 125. “This poor boy brought the world back into tune is what he did.”

Promises 126. “You take me home with you! Let’s go! Let’s go right now!”

127. “It’s a long road. It’s a long walk back into the cold and dark. Are you sure you wanna go?”

128. “I have no ring for your finger.”

129. “I have no bouquet table to lay.”

130. “I have no bed of feathers.”

131. “I can’t promise you fair sky above, can’t promise you kind road below, but I’ll walk beside you, love.”

132. “Don’t need no ring for my finger, just need a steady hand to hold.”

133. “Don’t promise me fair sky above. Don’t promise me kind road below. Just walk beside me, love.”

134. “He’ll let us go. Look at him, he can’t say no.”

135. “I don’t know where this road will end, but I’ll walk it with you hand in hand.”

Word to the Wise 136. “Damned if you don’t, damned if you do. Whole damn nation’s watching you.”

137. “Men are fools, men are frail. Give them the rope and they’ll hang themselves.”

His Kiss, The Riot 138. “With his kiss, the riot starts.”

139. “All my children came here poor, clamoring for bed and board. Now what do they clamor for? Freedom.”

140. “Have I made myself their lord just to fall upon the sword of some paupers minor chord?”

141. “Who will lead them? Who lays all our best-laid plans?”

142. “Who makes work for idle hands?”

143. “Only one thing to be done, let them go but let there be some term to be agreed upon, some condition.”

144. “Every coward seems courageous in the safety of a crowd.”

145. “Bravery can be contagious when the band is playing loud.”

146. “Nothing makes a man so bold as a woman’s smile and a hand to hold.”

Wait For Me (Reprise, Intro) 147. “Well, the good news is he said that you can go.”

148. “You can walk, but it won’t be like you planned.”

149. “It’s a trial. Do you trust each other? Do you trust yourselves?”

150. “If you want to walk out of hell, you’re gonna have to prove it before gods and men.”

Wait For Me (Reprise) 151. “The dog you really got to dread is the one that howl inside your head. It’s him whose howling drives men mad and a mind to its undoing.”

152. “Show the way so we can see.”

153. “Show the way the world could be.”

154. “If you can do it, so can she. If she can do it, so can we.”

155. “How about you and I? Are we gonna try again?”

156. “Who are you to lead her? Who are you to lead them?”

157. “Who are you to think that you can hold your head up higher than your fellow man?”

158. “Between your ears, behind your eyes, that is the path to Paradise. Likewise, the road to ruin.”

Doubt Comes In 159. “Doubt comes in. The wind is changing.”

160. “Who am I? Where do I think I’m going?”

161. “Doubt comes in.”

162. “Who am I to think that she would follow me into the cold and dark again?”

163. “Are you listening? I am right here and I will be to the end.”

164. “The coldest night of the coldest year comes right before the spring.”

165. “Who am I against him?”

166. “Why would he let me win?”

167. “Who am I to think that he wouldn’t deceive me just to make me leave alone?”

168. “Is this a trap that’s being laid for me?”

169. “Is this a trick that’s being played on me?”

170. “I used to see the way the world could be, but now the way it is is all I see.”

171. “You are not alone. I am right behind you and I have been all along.”

Road to Hell (Reprise) 172. “It’s an old song and this is how it ends.”

173. “Here’s the thing. To know how it ends and still begin to sing it again, as if it might turn out this time, I learned that from a friend of mine.”

174. “It’s a sad song, but we keep singing even so.”

We Raise Our Cup 175. “Pour the wine and raise a cup.”

176. “Some birds sing when the sun shines bright, our praise is not for them, but the ones who sing in the dead of night. We raise our cups to them.”

177. “Wherever he is wandering alone upon the earth, let all our singing follow him and bring him comfort.”

178. “Some flowers bloom where the green grass grows, our praise is not for them, but the ones who bloom in the bitter snow.”

179. “We raise ‘em high and drink ‘em dry.”

#ask meme #rp meme #sentence meme #musical meme #hadestown #hadestown act ii

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 4 years ago

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3rd August >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 14:22-36 for Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time: ‘Courage! It is I!’.

Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Matthew 14:22-36

Jesus walks on the water

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, while the boat, by now far out on the lake, was battling with a heavy sea, for there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and cried out in fear. But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’

Having made the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the local people recognised him they spread the news through the whole neighbourhood and took all that were sick to him, begging him just to let them touch the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched it were completely cured.

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 14:22-36

Command me to come to you on the water.

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought to him all those who were sick and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed.

Reflections (5)

(i) Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, we find the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, battling with a heavy sea and a strong head-wind. We can all find ourselves in that situation from time to time. Perhaps, especially in recent months we may have experienced life as a struggle. We seem to be battling against all sorts of difficulties. Even what came easy and natural to us in the past, such as gathering to celebrate the Eucharist, has become more of a struggle as we try to follow various protocols that will keep us safe. In the gospel reading, the Lord who had been at prayer came to his disciples in their struggle. He may have been praying for his disciple and became aware of them struggling. The Lord is always praying for us. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Romans, he is at the right hand of God interceding for us. Out of his prayer for us, he comes to us in our struggles, as he came to his disciples, saying to us as he said to them, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid’. Peter showed more courage than the other disciples as he started walking towards Jesus across the water. However, he soon took fright and, feeling himself sinking, cried out, ‘Lord! Save me!’ Even when we respond to the Lord’s call and show some courage, like Peter, we can soon find ourselves losing our nerve and beginning to sink. We seem to be going forward and then find ourselves going backwards again. Perhaps that is how many of us feel at present in this pandemic. Yet, just as the Lord reassured his disciples calling on them to have courage, he reassured Peter, putting out his hand and holding him. The Lord is always there doing that for us too. He puts out his hand and waits for us to grasp it. When life feels fragile and we feel vulnerable, the Lord is always there to hold us, to keep us steady, and to give us the courage to keep going until we come to land in a firmer place. This is how the Lord is always working in our lives and in response to his working we can do no better than say with the disciples in the boat, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God’.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading, in response to Peter’s invitation, Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat and to come towards him across the water. Surely it would have been safer for Peter to stay in the boat, given that the sea was rough and the wind was strong. Why would Peter want to step out of the relative safety of his boat and to walk towards Jesus, and why would Jesus encourage him to do so, calling on him to ‘come’? Perhaps the evangelist is reminding us through this story that following Jesus will sometimes mean stepping out of our boat, the place where we feel relatively secure, and launching out into the deep. Today’s gospel reading invites us to reflect on the ways that the Lord may be calling us to take some new step in our relationship with him. The Lord is always calling us to ‘come’; he is constantly inviting us to grow in our lived witness to him. The Lord’s call to ‘come’ will take different forms for different people. Today’s gospel reading assures us that whenever we respond to the Lord’s invitation to ‘come’, he will be there to support us when the journey becomes difficult. He will reach out to us when, like Peter, we cry out to him, ‘Lord save me’. The Lord who calls us to journey towards him journeys with us as our strength in times of weakness.

And/Or

(iii) Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Different people react in different ways to the same situation. In the gospel reading this morning, there is quite a difference between the reaction of Jesus and the reaction of the disciples to the sight of a large hungry crowd in the wilderness. The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowd away. Jesus wanted his disciples to make some effort to feed the crowd. ‘Give them something to eat yourselves’, he said. Even though they protested that they would not be able to find enough food to feed the crowd, Jesus persisted, and got them to bring the little food they could find to him. Then with that little, with those few resources, the Lord fed the crowd with the help of his disciples. The gospel reading suggests that the Lord will always encourage us to take on some service of others, even when we may feel that our resources are inadequate. If we are generous with those few resources, the Lord will then work with them and through them in ways that will surprise us. The Lord can work wonders through the very ordinary and sometimes unpromising looking resources and gifts that we possess. We have to do our bit, like the disciples in the gospel reading, but the Lord always does much more. Yet, if we are not willing to do the little we can with what we have, the Lord’s own capacity for ministry to others is curtailed. The Lord needs our resources, small and inadequate at they may seem, to continue his good work among us and in the world.

And/Or

(iv) Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, Peter stands out from the other disciples in wanting to step out of the safety of the boat so as to journey towards the Lord who, himself, had journeyed towards the disciples in the boat. Peter’s precarious journey went well until he took his eyes off the Lord and began to notice the force of the wind instead; at that point he began to sink. Matthew the evangelist may be reminding the church of the importance of keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord especially when the elements are against us. There are times in our lives when the force of the wind threatens to overwhelm us and when our feet do not seek to stand on firm ground. It is above all in such moments that we need to keep our gaze fixed on the Lord who always stands before us saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid!’ Even if we do take our eyes off the Lord and find ourselves going under we have only to cry out to the Lord like Peter, ‘Lord! Save me’ and he will reach out to hold us and keep us from sinking. The Lord is Emmanuel, God-with-us, and he is always stronger than whatever threatens to overwhelm us.

And/Or

(v) Monday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Our plans do not always turn out as we would want them to. Our initial reaction to things not working out as we had planned is generally one of frustration and disappointment. Yet, it often happens that some unexpected good can come to pass as a result of our plans not working out. When that happens, it is a reminder to us that we need to hold our plans lightly. In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus planned to withdraw with his disciples to a lonely place, but his plans did not work out. The lonely place became a surprisingly crowded place. Yet, something wonderful resulted from Jesus’ plans failing to come to pass. The feeding of the multitude is one of the few gospel stories to be found in all four gospels. The reaction of the disciples to a hungry crowd in a lonely place is to call on Jesus to send them away so that they can buy food for themselves. However, Jesus wants to give them food freely, not have them go off and buy it. Making use of the small resources of food to be found among the crowd, Jesus somehow feeds everyone present so that they all get to eat as much as they wanted. The evangelist is giving us a image of Jesus as a generous host who freely gives to those in need. The same generous host graces us at every Eucharist. There, Jesus freely gives the gift of himself under the form of bread and wine to all who are hungry and thirsty, without distinction. Having received the gift of the Lord, we are then sent out from the Eucharist to give that gift of the Lord to each other by our way of life.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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bakudekuficlibrary · 6 years ago

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BakuDeku: Protective Katsuki Part I

Click here for Part II & Part III!

1 Series. 64 Works.

Before Midnight by DriftingGlass ( E | 211,528 | 28/28 )

Izuku Midoriya takes the same train to and from school Monday through Friday, morning and night. His only company during these lonesome hours comes in the form of another boy his age—a teen with scarred hands and blood gem eyes, a stranger with ash-blond hair who walks in a shroud of danger and mystery.

"Would you stop with that fucking muttering, idiot?"

And before Izuku can find his footing, his life becomes a full-blown collision course thanks to walking cannonball Katsuki Bakugou.

(And along the way he may have found the missing fuel to his fire).

[Graphic Depictions of Violence | Underage | Abuse]

Cinnamon Bun Bun by DarkMachi ( E | 108,071+ | 45/? )

In a world with humanoid creatures called "pets", Katsuki Bakugou finds himself suddenly the owner of a timid curly haired rabbit. How the fuck did that happen? Will the reluctant new owner and abandoned pet be the best thing for each other or will it end in disaster? Only the tags will ever know.

Warm and fuzzy fluff pet AU with hints of angst and humor!

*This story is mostly about fluff. Warning and "past" tags for a backstory chapter(s) almost exclusively. Will warn at the beginning of ANY chapter with ANY sensitive issues.*

[Rape/Non-con | Past Abuse | Panic Attacks]

Lost Omega by GreyDayMoon ( E | 45,574 | 15/15 )

Izuku was just trying to take care of himself and his mother but a single slip up sends him into unfamiliar territory where he encounters an aggressive alpha who drags him into tribe life.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Underage | Dubcon]

Dark Side of the Sun by Synnie ( T | 51,597 | 20/20 )

Staying up too late playing video games, Kirishima wasn't expecting to get an urgent call begging for help. Next thing he knew, he was letting his classmate Izuku Midoriya take refuge in his apartment - without consulting his always angry roommate.

Series Part 1 of Dark Side of Space

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Past Abuse | Stalking | Self Harm | Panic Attacks]

briar roses (and hundred years of sleep) by vannral ( E | 15,951 | 5/5 )

In complete honesty, no one who knows the Class 3-A should be surprised anymore. Izuku is asleep.

In which Izuku is hit by a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Quirk, Class 3-A tries to find his True Love and get them to kiss him, and Katsuki’s very angry about it all.

In A Sky Of A Million Stars (Who Cares If One More Light Goes Out?) by Stringlish ( M | 49,956+ | 15/? )

He could never forgive himself.

It was his fault.

He’d planted the idea like a seed he’d never known would grow.

(Or: What if Izuku jumped?) (OR: The one where Izuku jumps and lives and Katsuki visits him every day and Class 1-A not-so-secretly finds it adorable that their designated angry pomeranian brings flowers to his comatose childhood friend.)

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | PTSD | Suicide Attempt]

Hear Me by my_name_is_Levi ( G | 22,419 | 5/5 )

It wasn’t as if nightmares were uncommon for the freshman class of Yuuei. They’d seen plenty of things, heard and felt and witnessed enough travesty in their lives to last them a lifetime. But Midoriya Izuku was screaming, and no one, not even Bakugo Katsuki could ignore it.

On The Run by Justaperson1718 ( E | 159,534+ | 29/30 )

(Based in an AU where All Might loses to All For One)

Follow Izuku and Katsuki as they fight together for their very survival and mature through their experiences with each other, on the run together from the League of Villains with no one to depend on but each other. The two will have to work out their differences if they want to continue to live and escape the villains.

Izuku will have to become stronger to finish what All Might started, meanwhile Katsuki will figure out his feelings for his new companion while slowly overcoming some of his bad habits.

[Major Character Death | Underage]

{Note about completion status: The fic is essentially complete, as the author has stated the main story is complete and the epilogue is up. The final chapter that is yet to be posted will show a side-character’s side of the story.}

New To Both Of Us by GrumpyTanner, underoriginal ( E | 37,774+ | 16/? )

Bakugou hadn't expected this when he got his first (and only!) Pet on a whim. He hadn't expected the nibbling, the teasing, the fear...

And he definitely hadn't expected to find the love of his life. But here he is, with a rabbit and a hard-on. What's a hero to do?

[Past Abuse]

Quirks of the Soul by Rxel ( M | 52,047+ | 38/? )

Something in Izuku's mind snaps when Kacchan flings the words "Make a leap of faith from the roof and believe with all your might that you will have a ‘Quirk’ in the next life" at him after he exploded his Hero notebook.

It was the last push he needed to tip over the edge.

Quirk!Izuku

Series Part 1 of Katsuki and Izuku

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Suicide Attmpt | Self Harm]

[On Hiatus] Forget Me Not by datboii ( M | 52,542+ | 17/? )

Izuku was hit by a memory regression quirk. Katsuki was having none of that shit.

[On hiatus]

Hummingbird Heartbeat by Tokiji ( M | 76,731+ | 16/? )

“The knife went through his fucking chest, Kirishima.” Katsuki spat his name into his face, mouth twisting into a vicious snarl, teeth and all. “You know that's where his heart is, right? And his fucking lungs? All the vital shit?”

Kirishima blanched. “I-I know, I just meant—”

“What, you mean to tell me that your stupid fuckin’ ass is so ignorant to forget that he lost a shit ton of blood, hah?! Yeah, it was a flippin’ knife wound, oh hoo-ray, but look at the nerd now! He’s fucking dying because of it!”

The World Is Silent (we are loud) by RedHeadsRock1010 ( T | 62,233+ | 14/? )

There is only one Angel and one Demon at a time – born each generation after the previous one dies and destined to keep the balance of the world in a vicious battle of good verses evil until the end of existence.

The current Demon stared at the Angel humming and weaving pink flowers into his own bright green curls next to him. A crown of red roses already sat on the Demon's head.

Yeah, fuck that bullshit.

surveying, reconciliation (and other forms of not-matchmaking) by vannral ( E | 17,449 | 6/6 )

In all honesty, Izuku thinks he really shouldn’t be having this crisis.

In which Mina has fun trying to play matchmaker, Izuku has Realizations™ about his feelings for Katsuki, and the class 1-A will witness many weird things.

Second Chance by Saysi ( M | 84,140 | 42/42 )

"If you are still breathing, you have a second chance" - Oprah Winfrey

Izuku Midoriya's life has been plagued with mistakes. People have been hurt, friends have been lost, accidents have happened. When the country is nearing imminent destruction, he remembers every bad move, every wrong word, and wonders if he could have changed things.

Then time stops.

Izuku Midoriya grew up thinking he was Quirkless - turns out he just needed to face death to activate it.

PSA: People, please, do your homework before reading. The fic will still be here when you get back, I promise.

[Suicide Attempt]

Scream Like A Banshee, Make You Jump Out Of Your Skin. by LahraTeigh ( T | 2,235 | 2/2 )

Midoriya presents as an Omega in the middle of class, and unfortunately for everyone they witness the moment Bakugou finds out who his soulmate is.

It's Okay, Quirkless by VMarus ( M | 34,187+ | 15/? )

Izuku just wants to make his mother proud and to be happy with himself.

AU. Quirkless Vigilante Izuku!

Series Part 1 of Quirkless, Not Helpless.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Major Character Death

[Series] This is why I don't have kids by Saysi ( T | 15,132+ | 2 Works | WIP )

When Midoriya Izuku gets hit by an age-reversion Quirk, the last thing anyone expected to find out is that Toddler-Izuku is a little shit. Except for one Bakugou Katsuki, who has seen this phase one too many times already. And apparently his "Kacchan" is the only one who can deal with Izuku's screaming fits.

When Bakugou Katsuki gets hit by an age-reversion Quirk, no one is surprised to found out he's still an asshole. Unfortunately one Midoriya Izuku is stuck taking care of him to repay the favour. It's a good thing his "Deku" makes a good wife.

Remember Me by Blue_Writer ( M | 61,066+ | 23/? )

It had been years since Bakugou was exiled from his home and became the savage dragon king, but one good thing finally came to his life when he met Izuku again. The only issue, is that he doesn't remember him.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Racism]

Oubaitori by DriftingGlass ( M | 32,666+ | 4/16 )

From the moment he was born, Izuku understood that he was different. He was a rarity, an omega; not necessarily seen as useful or even desirable. It didn't take long, however, for his entire future to be placed in the hands of an alpha, one by the name of Katsuki Bakugo.

Through many pitfalls, confusion, and pains of growing up in a city where both are outcasts of their own kind, it takes more than just the threads of instinct and arranged contracts to bring two hearts together.

Love isn't fate. It's pure luck.

[Underage]

[On Hiatus] Lex Talionis by DriftingGlass ( M | 40,232+ | 6/35 )

“Are you sure you’re willing to do this?”

Aizawa barely recognized his own voice, ashen in the grasp of a stormy summer night.

Under the glare of his living room lights, Toshinori’s leathery face held a smile. A ghost from times long gone.

He stirred a cube of sugar into his coffee, fingers bony and shaking around his mug.

“If there is one good thing I can do for this child, as dangerous as he is… then it will be this.”

Aizawa knew, once the words fell from his comrade’s mouth—a more solid declaration than the deaths he’d witnessed—that there would be no changing his mind.

[ In which Toshinori Yagi, a shadow of his former self, raises an orphaned Izuku as his disciple... with a little bit of a twist. ]

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Abuse]

Law-Abiding Citizen by s_trychnine ( T | 2,131 | 1/1 )

Bakugou Katsuki has very little chill, this is a known fact. He does however, do his best not to get into legal trouble. Bakugou Katsuki couldn't get along with Midoriya Izuku if you put a gun to his head, this is an even more well known fact. Apparently someone decided to chew up those facts and spit them back out because that was definitely not the case in this very moment and christ almighty someone's going to have to pinch the entirety of Class 1-A, because this had to be a fever dream.

Or alternatively: Deku's dad is back in town and nobody is happy about, especially not Bakugou.

[Implied/Referenced Child Abuse (Past Abuse)]

2,645 Miles by mynameis152 ( E | 124,500+ | 36/? )

Izuku wants so badly to get to the other side of the country without his parents realizing he's missing. He just wants to find out who he is.

Katsuki is desperate to make it to Los Angeles without being caught by the police, desperate to fix his mistakes.

Neither know what to expect, but on a roadtrip across the U.S. involving four fugitives, two oblivious runaways, a high risk crime ring, and a police taskforce, the two will discover that there's more in store for them than what they originally thought.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Attempted Sexual Assault | Panic Attacks]

Marshmallow by choimarie ( Not Rated | 3,359 | 1/1 )

day 3: tears

“Yo! Look at what we have here!” A voice said loudly and Izuku's heart stopped.

He turned around, his eyes widening.

A group of six alphas was walking his way towards him.

Series Part 3 of Bakudeku week 2k18

Hero & Zero by GreyDayMoon ( Not Rated | 10,751+ | 5/? )

Bakugou was the number one hero, surrounded by fans, and loaded with fame and fortune. So why would he care if a boy from his childhood still watched him from the edge of crowds? He wouldn't give a shit about Deku who would? Who would even be looking for that stupid messy green hair?

Except maybe he would.

Instincts by HG_Wells ( E | 4,184 | 2/2 )

Izuku presents as a very special and VERY rare type of Omega and enters the worst heat imaginable, he needs to find an equally as rare Alpha to help him with this problem. Not so thankfully, he knows only one person that is able to help him with this situation. His very own personal bully.

Bakugou Katsuki.

[Underage]

Wild Child by SaltyTofu ( E | 10,309+ | 5/? )

Imagine Tarzan, but KatsuDeku,

with wolves instead of gorillas,

and with a lot more smut.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence]

Don't Look by GrimReader ( M | 56,089+ | 12/? )

No one spots the cracks. No one notices how carefully pieced together he is. Under his bright smile and determined gaze no one sees, no one hears, NO ONE feels how broken he is.

At least, that’s what he thought.

Izuku is not human. He is a fraud. Not deserving of any love. Nothing but a vile monster.

At least, that’s what he believed.

He’s made of scales not glass. He’s always in control. He is invincible.

That is, until he became Midoriya Izuku.

[Former title: H(iS)tory]

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Major Character Death | Self Harm | Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con]

Yūrei no Eiyū by FandomManiac22 ( T | 11,769+ | 5/? )

"If you wanna be a hero that badly, there’s a quick way to do it. Believe that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!”

When Katsuki’s comment comes at just the wrong time, Izuku takes his advice. But it is not the end.

Alternatively: In another world where Izuku is attacked by the sludge villain on the way to school instead of after it, his dreams get crushed too soon. With nothing to save him and Katsuki’s words ringing in his ears, Izuku decides to end it all by jumping off his school’s roof. As his body cracks on the ground, Izuku does not pass on to the next world. Instead, he is left as a ghost among many others. When the slime villain escapes from jail and attacks the person Izuku can’t help but care for, he learns that there may be more to his afterlife than he thought.

And maybe he can be a hero after all.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Major Character Death | Suicide]

The Offering by Bakuholic ( T | 7,032+ | 4/? )

Every year, an offering is given to the dragon race as a trade off for the dragons' protection. This year, Izuku Midoriya is the human offering.

He trembles at the very thought of his death being by the claws of a dragon. However, his expectations of his future seem to turn when an ash blonde alpha dragon begins to grow fond of him and adds him to his hoard of treasure.

(I"m not good at summaries it seems)

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence]

Not All Heroes Wear Capes by vulcanhighblood ( T | 11,002 | 3/3 )

When Kacchan offered to scare off pushy groupies and nosy reporters for Izuku, he hadn't realized that Kacchan was planning to lie about the two of them being in a relationship in order to do so.

Petals In Your Hair by Yuechum ( T | 16,121+ | 15/26 )

Katsuki sees him with sunlight in his hair, the lines of his face softer and more gentle in these brief moments. He looks breathtaking like this he'll think, watching all the while, wondering just when Izuku became someone to long for so deeply.

The slightest hint of a smile lingers on Izuku's face when he notices, and the urge to touch grows, grows, grows.

katsuki bakugou is incapable of love. or so they thought. by alpwaca ( T | 6,276 | 1/1 )

in which their class tries to figure out if Bakugou and Midoriya are dating.

Lights. Camera. Hero! by brichibi ( E | 23,248+ | 6/? )

If there’s one thing Izuku Midoriya’s good at, it’s dreaming big, and dreaming hard. That’s why he’s in Hollywood, of all places, his hometown an entire ocean away along with his graduating high school class and single mother. But he’s gonna be an actor, an international sensation, a superstar like no other.

He just.

Has to convince the rest of the world.

Which is, admittedly, a difficult task.

[AU where "My Hero Academia" is an upcoming television series, everyone's an actor/actress, and romance happens behind the scenes]

Day and Night by Soundsoftherain ( Not Rated | 18,527+ | 4/? )

Midoriya Izuku was born quirkless in a society where your quirk equates to your worth. What did this mean then, for the child whose smile was made of sunshine? The boy who had selfless dreams bursting from the seams?

His father knew, that’s why he’d left. And his mother?

Well…That’s where the story begins.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Abuse]

Lovebites by mynameis152 ( M | 58,375+ | 18/? )

Katsuki Bakugou was going to hate this summer.

He thought he'd hate it because he was being forced to leave home and work for his mother's friend in a small, seaside town. He thought he'd hate it cause he was being punished for burning his room to a crisp. He thought he'd hate it because he hated change.

But it turns out, he hated the Supernatural Turfwar between four species that shouldn't exist but do a whole lot more....

The one where Katsuki is forced to move in with Inko for the summer and finds himself falling for a particular bloodsucker....

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Abuse]

[On Hiatus] The Duo by furipuri ( M | 21,385+ | 8/? )

As children, Katsuki and Izuku make the promise to become a duo hero team. Things don't go quite as planned.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Attempted Rape/Non-Con]

I'll Be Your Hero by bakudeku ( T | 2,536+ | 4/? )

Katsuki wants to protect Izuku. He wants to make sure Izuku never has to cry again. Maybe this was his chance to fix everything, to make sure he didn't make the same mistakes as before. If this really isnt a dream, if Katsuki really is in the past, then he'd do anything his little body could to keep Izuku safe.

This time, he'll stay by Izuku's side.

[On Hiatus] synthesis by DriftingGlass ( M | 31,325+ | 6/? )

They didn’t know how it happened, or when a concept so fickle and ridiculous blossomed in the garden of doubts, anger, and pain in which they so frequently visited.

Between scarred hands and bloodied knuckles, unspoken thoughts stirred like petals in springtime rain.

Bakugo was not prepared for the undeniable change spurring between them.

Unfortunately, neither was Midoriya.

[Underage]

Baby Boom by Minglisabeth ( T | 20,546 | 10/10 )

Bakugou and Midoriya accidentally have a baby.

NOT MPREG, Baby comes from quirk shenanigans.

Series Part 1 of MHA Adventures in Parenthood

Back to Reality by menengaur ( M | 46,975+ | 10/? )

Katsuki's childhood friend disappeared when they were both seven. While everyone else gave hope, Katsuki made a promise to become the No.1 hero. If he couldn't find Izuku, then he would at least destroy those who took him.

How will he react when Izuku returns with powers beyond what should be possible.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence]

Room 207 by bakudeku ( Not Rated | 8,796+ | 4/? )

No one, not even Bakugou Katsuki, could deny that Izuku was adorable as fuck.

ᶜᵃⁿ ᶦ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵘʰʰʰʰʰʰ

ˢᵒᶠᵗ ᵏᵃᶜᶜʰᵃⁿ

[Suicide Attempt]

Late Bloomer by HG_Wells ( E | 4,752 | 1/1 )

It's the beginning of their last year of Junior High, Izuku Midoriya is a normal Beta. He isn't anything special, at least he doesn't think so. His first heat comes at school and in the end, he ends up at Bakugou Katsuki's house.

Alone with him.

What's the worst that could happen?

(It's better than it sounds I promise)

Bakudeku Week 2018

[Underage | Bullying | Attempted Rape/Non-Con]

[On Hiatus] The Mummy by Spectra ( E | 98,732+ | 17/? )

[TEMPORARY HIATUS]

Midoriya Izuku's adopted brother, Kirishima, brings him a strange puzzle box that contains the whereabouts to the famed Hamunaptra, otherwise known as the City of the Dead. The city, lost somehwere within the depths of Egypt, is said to have held great power during the golden All Might Era. It is also rumored to be the final resting place of the king's all powerful books; The Book of Life, and the Book of the Dead. Izuku doesn't believe in magic, he believes in history, and that's exactly what he expects to find in these books.

To actually get there, Izuku has no choice but to accept the help of the infuriating, and ridiculously short fused soldier, Bakugou, who claims to have been there before. The ensuing ride tests both Izuku's and Bakugou's patience, and the two form the most unlikely of alliances.

Little do they know, the power that they are messing with should have remained undisturbed, and there is something more lurking with the tombs of Hamunaptra than treasure...

All the Cracks They Left Behind by linkami1379 ( M | 11,175 | 1/1 )

Katsuki and Izuku become soul bound to each other when Katsuki is captured by the League of Villains.The shift in perception rocks them both to their cores and they seek to fill in the cracks life has carved into each other's hearts.

Series Part 1 of My One and Only

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Underage]

A Place Called Home ( E | 3,812 | 5/? )

"It's okay now, we're your new family. We won't ever hurt you."

[Past Rape/Non-Con | Past Abuse | Homophobia | Addiction]

and the rest is rust and stardust by youreanovelidea ( G | 8,587 | 1/1 )

Kirishima likes to think that he knows his classmates pretty well. But sometimes, he looks at Bakugou and Midoriya and wonders if he even knows them at all. He wonders if anyone does.

(or, Kirishima notices the moments hidden between childhood friends, offers encouraging words, and maybe kisses Kaminari in the process)

A Little Issue by arealhoe ( G | 6,985+ | 3/? )

Everyone awoke to an ear piercing screech.

“MAMA? WHERE ARE YOU? W-WHERE AM I?”

A child? What’s a kid doing in the dorms…? Aizawa thought, as he lugged his tired body through the hall, trying to find the source of the screams. One by one, students started bursting out of their rooms, “What’s that screaming? “Did a kid get in here?” everyone was panicking at the sudden chaos. “Calm down, everyone. Jirou, use your quirk to find where that shrieking is coming from, everyone else, quiet down!” Kyoka plugged her earphone into the wall, closing her eyes. “It’s coming from… Midoriya’s room?” Aizawa threw open Izuku’s room door, only to find a small Izuku, huddled in the corner, crying his heart out. Jesus fucking Christ… Aizawa whispered under his breath, walking towards the child. “W-who are you? W-where’s my mom? Did she send me away?” Little Izuku could barely get the words before everyone saw him, and the chaos started all over again.

Tinted Windows by sula (black_oak) ( E | 18,250+ | 8/? )

Bakugou and Deku have been rivals since the third grade. Now seniors in high school, Katsuki looks forward to destroying the nerd once and for all. But, on the first day of school, Deku arrives a mere shell of the boy he used to be…

Nothing will ever be the same.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Underage | Self Harm | Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-Con]

[On Hiatus] Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away by estupidaval ( T | 5,994+ | 4/? )

“Oh- oh my god.” He whimpered.

“What?!”

“I,” Izuku swallowed. “I think they heard the phone ring.”

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence]

20% by MayTentacleBeWithYee, MissEmotionallyMasochistic ( Not Rated | 1,386+ | 1/? )

Izuku should have been paying attention.

The man behind him looks hungry.

[Rape/Non-Con | PTSD]

and the screams all sound the same by youreanovelidea ( Not Rated | 1,265 | 1/1 )

"Quiet, Deku," a low voice says quietly. "I've got you." And an arm slips around his waist and there are fingers carding through his hair, gentle and soft, and he can feel the screams that he had shoved into his stomach threatening to escape.

(or, Izuku's nightmares are cold and Katsuki's hands are warm)

Reignite by MorningMoon ( G | 1,400 | 1/1 )

Their classmates knew there was something going on with Izuku and Katsuki, but they didn't know how much they had been missing out. Also, Kacchan saves the day and proves that he has redeemed himself.

[Panic Attacks]

Yell It From The Top Of Your Lungs by estupidaval ( T | 2,897 | 1/1 )

Being seen as weak by many is frustrating. Even so when it's almost everyone who looks at you.

At this, Izuku sheepishly lowered his gaze, and said “Strong people cry…”

At this, Aizawa smiled again, “And what are you doing right now, Izuku?”

“Crying,” He replied as he picked at his finger nails.

Aizawa decided to keep pushing, as Izuku knew what he was implying, but wouldn't budge.

He raised an eyebrow and spoke up once more, “So, you are…”

And ‘Ah, there it is.’ Aizawa thought to himself as a smile crept it's way onto the boy’s mouth. Izuku lifted his gaze once more and looked back into Aizawa's eyes,

“Strong.”

Entanglement by srysmnwrites ( T | 14,847+ | 7/? )

Izuku thought that returning home would be good for him.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Returned Favor by CrystalDragonette ( Not Rated | 1,332 | 2/2 )

Set when Bakugou was taken by the League of Villains, he finds out that Dabi has less than innocent intentions towards Deku.

Series Part 1 of Dekubowl

[On Hiatus] Daemon Sense by LostBear ( G | 14,266+ | 8/? )

Midoriya Izuku has the quirk daemon sense, to be able to see manifested souls in the form of animals. She is determined to be a hero, with her daemon Naoko by her side. Her best friend Kacchan is taken along -willingly- for the ride.

Watch Izuku nose her way into other -familiar- peoples lives without thinking of the consequences...

It All Started With Beer & Pizza by x_tincan_x ( E | 29,237+ | 11/? )

Half an hour after Kirishima had left, there was a knock on the door. Katsuki had a beer in his hand and walked over to the door. Mumbling under his breath, “fucking shitty hair forgot his fucking keys again..” to himself.

Katsuki opened the door, he looked from the dripping wet Kirishima to the equally soaked male he had gone to pick up. When he saw the familiar tangle of green hair and freckles, he choked on his drink. “The fuck…?” he half whispered.

~~~~

Or, the one where Izuku has a past that he finds hard to talk about. Can he build himself back up with the help of his new friends, and re-kindle a relationship with his childhood friend?

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | PSTD | Panic Attacks | Past Abuse | Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-Con]

A Reaper's Assistant by TatoBugTheDestroyer ( T | 23,121 | 14/14 )

What kind of fucktard is in charge here? What dumbass thought it was a good idea to pair Katsuki with an angel! Of all creatures to help him play the role of a reaper, they chose an angel! He didn’t even need any help, dammit! So, yeah, he missed a few deadlines, accidentally delivered a few people to the wrong place, so fucking what! He damn sure didn’t need help!

-Or- Reaper Katsuki fucks up and as a result, is paired up with Izuku, a High Councilman angel of Heaven to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Void of Pain by Running_wild829 ( T | 19,308+ 12/? )

Kidnapped by his own villainous father at the young age of six, raised by villains since then and sent on countless missions filled with murder, Midoriya Izuku is anything but normal. He may be fifteen years old, and have a quirk, but that doesn't make him normal. He's been careful on all his jobs, except this one. When Shigaraki turns him loose to kill the infamous Hero Killer Stain, he gets sloppy and goes down at the hands of a couple of Yuuei kids. Dragged into the police station and waking up to a detective giving him a second chance was the last thing he thought would ever happen in his fucked-up life...

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | PSTD]

[On Hiatus] Two Sides of the Same Coin by LocalTrashBin ( T | 82,009+ | 10/? )

Dangerous missions across the continent are one thing but dangerous missions across the continent with zero experience, a cursed bracelet and accompanied only by a difficult, hot-headed protector is a whole other story.

He's a Little Spoiled by DeathByShyKid ( T | 3,477 | 1/1 )

His class may have babied him while he was still recovering from an accidental femur break but one weekend with them out of the dorms and Katsuki is already there with open arms as well as some non-negotiable terms. Katsuki makes Izuku cuddle with him since he refuses to succumb to his pain medication. (bad summary)

Heroes in Underland by BebbekKuning, HG_Wells ( Not Rated | 45,950+ | 19/? )

Years suffering from wars, Monsters and Humans wars led to the point where the third side of the wars step in. The side of supposed to be neutral. The side that wants peace for both; Monsters and Humans sides, the ones who bear with half-blood. But it’s still not working.

That was until the fourth side of the wars waltzes their way in, they didn’t call themselves humans, nor Monsters or the half-blood. But they called themselves the Artificial. They not made by gods, so the gods can’t bound them to their rules or their dice of fate.

This makes the Artificial do what the three sides can't do; Bring peace.

They stay nameless, and still nameless. Their existence always vague in every history books, and always will be. But their tales always stay at every storybook for the young ones.

Now though, when Monsters, Half-blood, and Human reunited, thanks to Quirks existence, new differences poke their ugly heads yet again; Heroes, Vigilante, and Villain.

With that, the Gods roll their dices and play with their children, again.

That was before the forth side trashed the Gods playground, again.

425 notes · View notes

theliberaltony · 5 years ago

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Back in March, before the 2020 Democratic primary contest really ramped up, I wrote an article about the divides in the Democratic Party at the level of activists and elected officials. There are splits along several fronts, but the main fault line runs between two more liberal factions on the one side — I dubbed them the “Super Progressives” and the “Very Progressives” — and two more center-left ones — the “Progressive Old Guard” and the “Progressive New Guard.” (You can read that original article for fuller descriptions of those groups, but in short: Think Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for “Super Progressives,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren for “Very Progressives,” South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg for “Progressive New Guard” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “Progressive Old Guard.”)

In March, though, it wasn’t clear how these wings would interact in the Democratic primary, or more generally in the run-up to 2020. Which would voters rally behind? What would they argue about?

The 2020 primary process and what’s happened on Capitol Hill over the last few months has started to answer those questions, clarifying the deep divisions between the party’s left and its center-left. And, at least so far, those divisions have revolved around (i) health care, (ii) how much the party should take on corporations and the wealthy, and (iii) race.

Health care

Earlier this year, “Medicare for All” — the idea that a government-run health insurance plan along the lines of Medicare should replace private insurance — looked on its way to becoming the Democratic Party’s de facto approach on health care, with Democrats wary of the concept in the clear minority. A House bill introduced in February by Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, one of the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, got a majority of House Democrats behind it. Even 2020 candidates closer to the ideological center than Warren or Bernie Sanders, including Kamala Harris (Progressive New Guard) and Buttigieg, were leaning into the idea.

But former vice president Biden (“Progressive Old Guard”) entered the race at the top of the polls and has emphatically run against M4A. Pelosi and more moderate Democrats have echoed his wariness, arguing that M4A is both too complicated to implement and too electorally risky. With the politics of the issue changing, Harris came up with a more modest M4A plan than the one written by Jayapal, while Buttigieg started aping Biden’s stronger anti-M4A rhetoric.

Warren, Sanders and the party’s liberal wing remain deeply committed to the idea. They have strongly defended Medicare for All and cast its opponents as in the pockets of the health insurance industry.

So which side is winning? On M4A, I would argue that the more moderate wings have the upper hand for now. You can see that in the Buttigieg and Harris campaigns, in which both felt the need to shift their rhetoric away from M4A. Polling suggests Democratic voters have fairly positive views of M4A, but Democrats also really like more incremental approaches (like building on Obamacare or “Medicare for all who want it”). And full-fledged M4A is fairly controversial with the broader electorate. Here, for example, are the results from a Marist College survey conducted over the summer:

How much support do various Democratic policies get?

Percentage supporting each policy position

Policy position Democrats Republicans Adults Medicare for All who want it 90% 46% 70% Wealth tax 88 32 62 Green new deal 86 26 63 Assault weapons ban 83 29 57 Legalizing marijuana 74 41 63 Medicare for All 64 14 41 Abolishing death penalty 55 16 36 Reparations 46 3 27

Source: Marist poll

If Sanders or Warren makes it to the general election, he or she will face a lot of pressure from the broader Democratic Party to soften his or her health care stands. In fact, Warren is already doing so, putting out a plan last week that essentially would put off a full push to put all Americans under Medicare for All until her third year in office.

Confronting the wealthy

If the more progressive wings of the Democratic Party have lost ground on health care, I think they might be winning the intra-party debate over how Democrats should approach the wealthy and corporations.

Let me briefly explain the party fissure here. Both Sanders and Warren have embraced specific taxes on wealth, as opposed to more traditional Democratic proposals to increase income taxes on upper-income Americans and businesses. Both are refusing to attend fundraisers in which big donors could have special access to them. Warren, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and liberal activists are increasingly critical of billionaires, suggesting they are often barriers to political change and the fact that they have so much wealth in and of itself illustrates flaws with America’s economic system. Warren, in particular, has called for the breakup of big tech companies and much more aggressive oversight of Wall Street and Washington lobbying.

None of the other Democratic candidates in the 2020 race have embraced this highly confrontational approach with the wealthy and major corporations. But it’s not like the center-left in the Democratic Party is going around defending billionaires (that would be politically stupid), so this divide is a bit harder to see in the wild. My guess is that some of the center-left candidates think ideas like the wealth tax are not practical or realistic. The candidates who don’t have big small-donor bases like Sanders and Warren — so basically the rest of them — have some incentive not to bash the rich; those candidates need wealthy donors to help finance their campaigns. And the candidates who don’t win the presidency might want to get lucrative jobs on Wall Street or K Street or become paid speakers — career paths that are easier if wealthy Americans don’t hate you.

We don’t have a lot of polling on say, whether voters want their candidates to attend big-dollar fundraisers. But a number of polls, like the Marist one above, suggest the wealth tax is fairly popular. And the broader concept that the wealthy have too much power is even more popular — basically unifying Democrats and even getting some Republican support. And politically it’s hard to really defend the wealthy. No candidate wants to say, “If I am president, I guarantee my big donors will have special access to me.”

So in terms of taking on wealthy individuals and big companies, the center-left is generally moving toward the left’s positions (at least publicly). Center-left 2020 candidates, like Buttigieg and Harris, are suggesting that Facebook in particular has too much power and criticizing the tech companies more directly. Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly slamming Facebook, with some even praising Warren specifically for leading them toward this stance. Left-leaning billionaires themselves are suggesting the political system is too weighted toward giving them power.

Race

The racial debate is even less out in the open than the one about taking on the wealthy. But it’s there. Sanders and Warren favor a commission to study the idea of reparations for black Americans. Sanders and Warren want to change crossing the border illegally from a criminal to a civil offense. The Vermont senator wants to allow people currently incarcerated to vote and has suggested he would suspend U.S. foreign aid to Israel if it doesn’t improve how it treats the Palestinians. Biden and more centrist Democrats generally aren’t embracing these ideas.

I doubt Biden really is deeply opposed on principle to allowing people in jail to vote or some kind of effort to address the legacy of slavery and its effects on black Americans. But some of these ideas are fairly unpopular with the overall electorate, and he has likely decided they are not worth the cost of losing any voters, while Sanders and Warren haven’t made that same calculus. So on this bloc of issues, Biden is not really leaning into his opposition, nor are Warren and Sanders really leaning into their support.

So those are the huge divides. You’ll notice that many of these policies have little chance of becoming law, and I think everyone knows that. After all, Democrats are heavy underdogs to win a majority of seats in the U.S. Senate in 2020 and even if they do, that majority will include members such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin who aren’t likely to embrace transformational policies such as M4A.1

Instead, many of these fights are really a proxy for broader debates within the Democratic Party: Should Democrats set really big goals and push hard for them, like Medicare for All, as opposed to govern in a more incremental way? Should Democrats reject some of the centrism on economic issues and alliances with big business and Wall Street of the Clinton and Obama years for a more aggressive populism? How willing should Democrats be to push for policies, like allowing those currently incarcerated to vote, that might disproportionately benefit people of color but offend some white voters, who likely will be as much as two thirds of the electorate in 2020? Many liberals think President Barack Obama aimed too low during the Obamacare debates (and on other issues too) and ended up accomplishing less because he was focused on building consensus with both corporate interests and congressional Republicans. Democrats like Biden and Pelosi generally believe that more incremental change is all that is possible in a divided country — and that setting really big goals only makes it harder to win the election.

It’s worth noting what is not dividing the party. Biden and the party’s center-left have essentially conceded to the left in embracing Green New Deal style-climate change plans, aggressive efforts to reform the criminal justice system and the impeachment of President Donald Trump. But the left has basically lost to the left-center in the intraparty fights over abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (even Warren has not embraced that idea) and very aggressive gun control proposals like a mandatory buyback program.

I’m obviously not hitting every issue here. (Foreign policy is complicated, both in describing the exact fissures in the party and in terms of which side is winning. So is, say, education.) Also, I should emphasize, Democratic voters aren’t necessarily divided in this way. There is evidence that Warren’s support is more concentrated among the party’s most liberal voters, while Biden and Buttigieg are stronger with “somewhat liberal” and “moderate” voters. But there is also evidence that voters aren’t seeing the race largely on ideological terms. The second-choice candidate, for example, for some who back Buttigieg is Warren.

But broadly, Democratic voters over the next few months will be choosing between a wing of the party, represented now by Biden and Buttigieg, that is generally wary of racial policy ideas that might piss off lots of white people, M4A and really taking on the wealthy, versus Sanders and Warren, who view those approaches more favorably. Which wing wins the primary will have major implications for both the 2020 elections and what happens after (either Democrats win the election and govern in the style of the winner’s wing or lose and wonder if they should have pursued the other course). So this fight really matters.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr.

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writeallofthethings · 5 years ago

Video

15 Beat Plot Structure | Plotting Basics

ACT I - The beginning: ca. 1/4 of the plot. The audience is in it with their minds, not their hearts.

1. Opening Image (The first glimpse you give the reader into the story, makes them ask, what is going on?)

2. Theme Stated (Can shift, but is somewhere early in the story, often a side-character will outright state how the protagonist needs to grow)

3. Set-up (An extended beat, happening over a long time. We meet central characters, and become aware of how the protagonist needs to grow)

4. Catalyst (inciting incident/precipitating event, set-up beat ends with this, usually placed earlier in a novel than 1/4; status quo of the main character is broken, there’s a problem and the opportunity to address that problem, intense)

5. Debate (pace slows down a bit, protagonist needs a moment to react to the catalyst, to debate what to do with this opportunity, contemplating the call to action and whether or not they’re gonna answer it)

ACT II - The middle: ca. 1/2 of the plot. Escalation of stakes, escalation of risks taken.

6. Break Into Two (decisive action from the main character, period of reflection is over and the protagonist makes a choice, can’t be coincidence or someone else’s decision, often accompanied by a visual/tonal shift or entering a new world)

7. B Story (the second story, subplot in a movie; in a novel, main subplot, and often appears earlier than this; often the introduction of a new character, often there to push the protagonist to grow)

8. Fun and Games (extended beat; fulfilling the promise of the premise, protagonist actually doing stuff and grappling with the main conflict)

9. Midpoint (towards the end of the fun and games beat, a shift for the protagonist, often a sense of false defeat or false victory, resulting in an escalation of stakes either way)

10. Bad Guys Close In (stakes really start to rise, force of antagonism is getting stronger and clearer)

11. All Is Lost (the breaking point; it seems like there is nothing that can be done, no hope, why are we even trying, the lowest point for the protagonist)

12. Dark Night of the Soul (mirror of the debate; slowing down of the pace, all the characters sit in this awful state, recover, and make a new plan, protagonist might receive words of wisdom from the mentor character or the b story character, there’s a source of hope)

ACT III - The Ending: ca. 1/4 of the plot. working towards resolution, growth of the protagonist that often enables them to resolve the conflict

13. Break Into Three (decisive action from the protagonist, no coincidences, no deus ex machina, the new plan from dark night of the soul involves the protagonist doing something choice-oriented)

14. Finale (the climax; extended beat; the protagonist faces whatever they needed to face, becomes who they need to become, they’re not resisting the growth any longer, a critical choice is made that brings some sort of resolution)

15. Final Image (might mirror the opening image; the final feeling, how you’re going to leave the reader, can range from the last paragraph to an entire epilogue, a fall in action and a farewell)

#plot #outline

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mimiplaysgames · 7 years ago

Text

Strength to Protect the Things That Matter (Ch. 14)

Fanfiction: Kingdom Hearts III Rating: T Pairing: Terra/Aqua (eventually) Other characters: Sora, Riku, Lea, Eraqus, Xehanort, Yen Sid Word Count: 2,997 In-progress

Summary: Terra has prayed for years for relief from having no one to talk to in the dark, except with the monster of a man who stole his life. He gets his chance - less than a week - to set things right before he loses everything again.

AO3 FF.net

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I had to fly to my hometown to deal with family stuff, and this seriously delayed all of my writing plans. Thank you SO MUCH for your patience as I trudged through this chapter. I did design the flashback scene of this chapter on the flight back, so it wouldn’t have existed otherwise. A small silver lining, I guess? Thank you guys again for your patience!! I promise that the next chapter won’t take so long to come up. This one is quite angsty, but it’s necessary to move everything forward. It’s shorter than what I have been writing lately, but the next one is probably going to end up being gargantuan.

Lies

Riding the glider comes more naturally than Terra expected. Out in the lanes between, he directs the glider, with the gummi ship following close behind him. His armor fits the same as before, a reminder that time, for him, never really passed.

Unlike the gummi ship, which needs a directory and a highway to travel, the glider is guided by the heart. This is what the Master used to say, since it is formed by the Keyblade, a literal extension of the wielder’s deepest thoughts and spirit of character. All Terra needs to do is think about Yen Sid’s tower, focus on it, and eventually the glider will take him there. If he wants to wander around, he can choose to do so, and the heart will direct him to where he needs to go.

For now, Terra chooses to ride the glider on his own, needing some time and space to think to himself after what had happened.

Sora got back to his normal mood in no time, and Donald was already prepared with a long lecture. Goofy was as warm and comforting as ever. Riku had been a bit distant, lost in his own thoughts. Your armor said it recognized me, which really confused me at first, he said at the time. Anyway, I want a concrete plan of action to see what else we can do to find your friends. I’m sure with you here, we can finally get closer to them.

Terra jets through the open space around him, at war with conflicting feelings that are threatening to overwhelm him. On one hand, he wants to be close to Sora and Riku. Something about them makes him feel comforted and like he belongs. Which makes the guilt that he feels because of the fight with his armor all the harder to deal with. It’s been a long time since I have felt peace, but around them, it comes easier. I need to make it up to them.

On the other, he needs to run away. To just leave, because it seems safer for him that way, even though he doesn’t know where to. Something tells him that wherever he is aching to go to isn’t good for him; it would only good for Xehanort. Is he getting stronger? Does that mean I’m running out of time?

And then there are the random bursts of intense rage that make him want to destroy the handlebars of the glider he’s riding on - surely the emotions that he picked up when connecting with his armor again. It’s difficult to adjust to, and it’s a sore pain, but he’s at least grateful that he’s whole again.

Yen Sid’s tower slowly appears in the distance the closer he gets, a jutting tower cutting up against a sky half lit by a sunset – the rest a warp of night into outer space. Terra lands, and both the glider and the armor dissipate. Sora and the rest jog out of the gummi ship.

“We need to get Yen Sid to give us one of those,” Sora says, referring to the glider, and with that scheming smile he normally wears as usual.

“You ready?” Riku asks Terra. “We’ll show you to your room, and then we can meet with him later.”

The inside of the tower is the same as it used to be. A single spiral staircase at the entrance that leads above, as though the top of the tower is much larger than the bottom floor. The décor is quirky yet foreboding, as if he stepped into a space that is dedicated to those interested in the occult but has a history of funny magical mishaps.

“Well, you guys took your sweet time to get here.” The voice comes from above, slick and snake-like, with a genuine yet monitored sense of enthusiasm. It can only come from one person.

“I wondered if I would find you here,” Terra says as he looks up to see Lea and a girl with burgundy hair, who emitted a bright light - a tremendous one. It’s been a long time since Terra has felt something like this.

They stand at the top of the spiral staircase, looking down on them. Having yet another good friend around deepens the comfort that Terra needs to feel relaxed in this place.

Lea waves his arm around as if to showcase the grandeur of the castle. “Welcome to our humble abode.”

Riku leaves Terra to tend to himself in his room. Bigger than the bunker he slept in at Tifa’s, the room is lined with gray bricks. A very large mirror sits under the window on the opposite side, and a small bed with a nightstand lay in the middle. Terra can see that he looks like a complete mess, dirt covering his face and his hair disheveled. There is a door which leads to a small bathroom, and Terra prepares a hot shower for himself, needing the heat to soothe his sore muscles. However, Terra is not yet aware of all the nicks and scratches he collected during the fight, and the water stings immensely.

The heat of the shower leaves the room steamy and the small mirror above the sink foggy. Terra wraps a towel around himself, and notices the sound of dripping water. Hypnotic and completely annoying. He rushes back to the shower to tighten the knob as much as he can, unable to bear the sound. It’s a wonder why it bothers him, it never used to be a problem before.

He stands in front of the mirror above the sink, and wipes the fog away, to see his darkened face, white hair, and intensely yellow eyes.

He jumps back and yells, terrified of what he had witnessed. He gazes back to the mirror to see his own face, normal as it should be. A headache starts to beat a rhythm into his forehead.

Remember: I can’t allow myself to freak out. It’s going to ruin me and take away any chances I have at finding them. I need to give myself as much time as possible.

After getting dressed, he takes a small sip of Tifa’s potion, which he left on the bedside table, along with Aqua’s docile Keyblade. He then heads out to explore the tower.

He reaches a room with shelves of books, like a small library. There is a rather large desk that spans the entire room, and a piano in the corner. He approaches the piano, where a vague sense of familiarity washes over him. He hears faint footsteps behind him, as if they are lost in time. He turns to see a young man, his hair donned in a ponytail, wearing a white robe. This man is there, and yet not really there, and Terra’s heart sinks to depths of his stomach as he tries to stop himself from despairing. The sound of a piano playing starts to get loud in his mind.

Master?

He turned away from Eraqus and focused on the piano. Two hands, dark-skinned, stroked the keys. A focus on the deeper base notes as he played gentle chords. The mid-range notes served as flairs of a melody. The song was beautiful and reflective, as if the keys themselves imagined a solemn fantasy story of a legend that depicted the enchanted death of a genius after he achieved peace, sinking deep into a lake thickened with snow.

“Not a bad song, Xehanort.” He heard Eraqus sit on a chair close by, but he refused to distract himself from the keys until the melody was fully played once through.

Only when he was finished that Xehanort finally turned to face Eraqus, who had a large book open in front of him.

“How did you do?” Xehanort asked.

“I passed. Master Yen Sid is a bit cooky, but I find him a much more difficult grader than our Master.” Eraqus looked no older than seventeen.

“Surely, then, it’s a testament to your intellect if you passed.” Practice. It was practice that made this statement seep through his lips so easily, because there was no emotion aside from a lingering, genuine respect for his younger comrade there.

Eraqus snorted. “That must mean yours is superior above all else since you passed this exam apparently with a perfect score. Yen Sid was certain to remind me of that before I took it.”

No emotional response. It was as if Xehanort knew he was superior, and no amount of compliments would be sufficient enough to make him feel grateful for it. There was a calculated attempt to construct a reply, as if he was trying to think of the most acceptable thing to say.

Xehanort took a seat in front of Eraqus and said, “Where did you think you went wrong?” He sounded sweet and concerned in a way, but curiosity was the bigger motivator here.

“It seems Yen Sid and our Master are very much in agreement over the existence of darkness, but it’s difficult for me to grasp. I don’t comprehend how one can be a great Keyblade Master if he can’t control his own darkness. How is a peacekeeper supposed to keep balance if he follows all the fluctuating whims of his desires? The heart is our guide, but it can be fickle.”

“I couldn’t agree more over the fickleness.”

“It’s just hard to determine what our intuition is and what our desires are telling us. There is so much capability for light in our hearts, but they can lead us astray if we don’t recognize it. This is where I have to disagree with our Master.”

“May I contribute a different perspective?”

“Go ahead. I always enjoy them.” Eraqus had excitement in his eyes, eager to hear what his friend had to say.

“How do you expect to fully understand the difference between our intuition, or what our hearts truly want us aligned to be, and desire if you don’t take the time to understand our darkness?”

“What if you were led astray in the process?”

“If our hearts are made to guide us on our destined path, what’s the harm in understanding them? Surely, they can’t fail us.”

“Hm.” By this point, Eraqus had completely forgotten he had an open book. “I’ll have to think of a rebuttal for that one. I always appreciate your input. You keep me on my toes, Xehanort, that’s for certain.”

Xehanort looked down on his hands.

“These moments I share with you give me hope that I can one day be Master, just as I am sure you will be. I wouldn’t be where I am now without you, my friend,” Eraqus continued.

And here was yet another compliment, one that was truly genuine. What was the most sincere thing Xehanort could say in return?

“An achievement we both strive for, of which you are certainly capable of accomplishing. You never cease to amuse me, friend,” Xehanort said.

Terra is breathing heavily, a complete swath of rage threatening to overflow him. “Amusement? That’s all he was to you?” he asks out loud.

The headache gets worse. Rage is the last thing that Terra needs right now, but memories of his Master’s death at the hands of Xehanort hijack his mind. Damn you, Xehanort. Having a home, having a friend who loved you and looked up to you, meant nothing.

Terra attempts to breathe heavily to calm himself. I wonder if he’s doing this to me on purpose so I would lose control.

Just focus on the breath. It will go away.

When Terra finishes his breathing exercises, he feels slightly better. The headache, though, keeps pounding. He wipes the sweat from his face, now noticing the heat that spreads through his body.

Riku walks in, but Terra cannot tell if he notices his mental state. “This was where you were. C’mon. Yen Sid is ready.”

Terra stands in front of Yen Sid’s desk, the wizard giving off a severe, stern vibe. But Terra knows from before that Yen Sid is gentler than he looks. Sora and Riku casually stand beside him. Lea leans against the wall with his arms crossed, and the girl, Kairi, keeps herself off to the side. She is very inclusive and welcoming to Terra, and he has no doubt in his mind after having a small chat with her that she is a Princess of Heart - conscientious, curious, and kind, with a light strong enough that it pierces his heart, making him feel like he has done no wrong. All the wielders here, eager to get information with their new comrade.

Terra bends over in respect. “It’s an honor to see you again, sir.”

“That’s so formal,” Sora chuckles.

“Sora,” Riku whispers in an almost-scolding tone.

“And you are welcome here, my boy. I have to say, this meeting is like having an audience with a ghost. I’m sure you are fully aware of the predicament we are all in. How we are gathering Seven Guardians of Light against the oncoming offense that Master Xehanort has prepared.”

The headache pounds louder at the sound of his name. “Yes, sir. I was fully briefed.”

Yen Sid clasps his hands together and hums loudly, giving the impression that he is trying to determine how to best approach a sensitive subject to Terra.

“Tell me, Terra, what is it that you achieve to accomplish, now that you are back with us?”

Terra swallows the lump in his throat. What is the correct answer to this? That I should follow my duty as a Keyblade wielder and be a Guardian? That I should do whatever it takes to protect the light? What about my heart? Is what my heart wants the right answer?

“I want to find Aqua and Ven, sir.”

“I see.” Yen Sid takes a long pause, long enough to make Terra wonder what is going on.

“I need to ask everyone in this room. Who is it that you see standing before me right now?” Yen Sid finally asks.

The room is quiet, uncertain why such a question is even pondered.

“M-master? It’s Terra.” Riku is the first to speak.

“Yes. But that is not what I see,” Yen Sid replies with a slow shake to his head. “What I see standing before me is a ghost from long ago. A young former pupil of a friend, who had strong ambitions which inevitably led us to the catastrophe that we are facing right now. I see a young Xehanort standing before me.”

Terra takes every ounce of energy in order to stop himself from shaking, but the build up of bile in his throat is horrendously difficult to ignore.

Yen Sid continues, “I have always wondered what had happened to you, young Terra, but a part of me never expected this.”

Sora interjects. “That sounds crazy. I just see Terra. What are you trying to say?”

Yen Sid ignores what Sora has to say. “Tell me, my boy. The entire time Xehanort served as apprentice to Ansem the Wise, that was you, wasn’t it?”

Terra’s voice shakes incredibly, his efforts to even it failing. “M-my body, sir. I had no idea what was going on.”

Sora and Riku stare at Terra, their eyes a heavy burden. But Terra refuses to acknowledge them. He can’t.

“To think we have been fighting a part of you all this time. I’m so sorry I have not realized it before,” Yen Sid says, another slow shake to accompany his words.

Terra nods meekly.

“Tell me, Terra, about your Master, Eraqus.”

Terra grimaces, unable to control his composure anymore. The headache is getting to the point that it is becoming unbearable. “Sir, it was-”

“I do remember what the stars have told me all those years ago. Were you an accomplice to his murder?”

Terra can hear Lea groan in protest to the question.

Tears swell in his eyes. Weak. Traitor. “Sir, actually-”

Yen Sid brings his hand up to silence Terra. “Calm yourself, my boy. No matter your answer, which I can clearly see causes you severe grief, the only thing I have to say is that you cannot be a Guardian. Not in your condition. Not when you endanger us all here.”

The tears start to fall, and Terra bends over so that no one would see them.

“Thank you for your time, sir,” he forces himself to say. Then he turns quickly and storms from the room so that no one can see his face or stop him, rushing down the stairs.

“Terra!” he can hear Lea call out above him, but he ignores this.

He storms into his room and shuts the door. Failure. Traitor. Weak. Unworthy. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

He holds his head as he can barely manage the pain, and he yells out. It deteriorates into sobbing, heat spreading over his body.

He takes several short, but intense breaths, and gazes at his reflection on the large mirror. He sees himself, sweaty. And behind him, a figure forming. Xehanort as Terra.

Before he can scream, Xehanort grabs him from behind with such a blunt force that it almost takes his breath away. Covering Terra’s face and pulling at it. Oppressive heat surrounding him. They struggle, and when Terra pulls out of Xehanort’s grasp, he stumbles onto the floor, and scrambles to the bedside.

He opens the jar of Tifa’s potion, and swallows the largest gulp he can muster. Xehanort just stands there, looking at him.

“A simpleton at the whim of his emotions. Uncontrollable rage which makes you a governable puppet. A pathetic crush on a girl which makes you weak. This is why my mind will always be stronger than yours. Because you care to the point that it is of detriment to you,” Xehanort has a smirk on his face, his deep voice bouncing around within Terra’s mind. “I only have to wait until you finally break from it all.”

Terra feels dizzy, struggling to stand straight. A weakness in his knees bucks him, like he’s being drugged. Did I swallow too much of that potion?

Sleep. He tries to stay awake. Sleep.

He falls backwards onto the bed, the potion sending him off to slumber, a reprieve from the pain whirring in his head.

#terraqua #terra #kingdom hearts fanfiction #kh fanfic #terra fanfic #sora #riku #lea #yen sid #xehanort #eraqus #so angsty #but it's necessary angst #very necessary #it will be lighter next chapter i swear #my fic

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auburnfamilynews · 4 years ago

Link

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

To hell with Georgia.

While this is being written, the nation has been riddled bemused by the misfortune of our Chief Executive’s recent diagnosis, but that’s going to take a quick and staunch back page to what will transpire ‘tween the hedges once the sun sets this evening.

I’m not even old, and I remember a time wherein the Auburn-Georgia rivalry was... civil. Maybe it wasn’t completely healthy, or polite, but we didn’t seem to get into it the way that we do now. Amen Corner held importance, but we didn’t stir in the true hatred until Thanksgiving arrived. I even enjoyed listening to Larry Munson’s gravelly bourbon drawl.

I also didn’t grow up in Georgia.

Things were fine for most of my adolescence. Georgia was a competitive series, where neither team really threw together a serious winning streak. Georgia’s four-game streak from 2006-2009 was the longest streak by either team in the series since Auburn won six in a row in the mid-to-late 1950s. We had some absolute classics, especially throughout the 90s and 2000s — the First Overtime Game in the SEC, Ronney Daniels going wild, Cadillac’s coming out party, 4th and 15 in Auburn, 4th and 11 in Athens — but I never felt awful after losing to Georgia. It was like losing to a friend who just got the better of you that day and you knew that tomorrow you’d have your revenge.

Then, the strangest thing happened.

It was almost like spiking the ball at the Thanksgiving backyard football game and then pantsing your brother while taking the last slice of pumpkin pie and the best spot to watch Home Alone. I thought we were friends, and then you want to come and gloat like that? I never expected it.

Then again, I didn’t grow up in Georgia. Can’t say I even knew a Georgia fan for the majority of my life. Why all of the sudden rudeness? It was hard to feel bad about what happened three years after the dancing escapades.

In fact, it was nearly impossible. The schadenfreude was even sweeter three years after that when several Georgia coaches hit the deck when a miracle occurred, and even better when we turned their own native son against them in 2017.

Still, this has been Georgia’s rivalry as of late. While we treated Alabama like our Super Bowl, they realized that the Nerds in Atlanta weren’t any sort of real rival, and turned their true attention to us. Mark Richt made a living off of beating Auburn (and lost it in Jacksonville), and Kirby’s somehow managed to end up getting the benefit of some of the worst coaching in Auburn history (and major injuries) to help him beat the Tigers four out of his first five tries.

Today’s pandemic-dampened festivities lead into a blood match tonight. It’s turned petty. It’s turned nasty. It feels like we all grew up in Georgia as of late. We can at least hope that the masks will somewhat silence the effect of a grown man barking at you.

SERIES HISTORY: Georgia leads the series 60-56-8 and has won three straight games in the rivalry including the 2017 SEC Championsip.

LAST MEETING: Georgia beat Auburn 21-14 last season at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn nearly erased a 21-0 deficit, but a critical error on a pass from Bo Nix to Harold Joiner on a late fourth down killed Auburn’s hopes. The Tigers fell by a touchdown at home.

LAST WEEK: Auburn took down Kentucky 29-13, getting three touchdown passes from Bo Nix (both to Seth Williams) and three turnovers from the defense, while limiting Kentucky’s offense to nearly nothing in the second half.

Georgia struggled with Arkansas, trailing 7-5 at halftime before Stetson Bennett IV threw for two touchdowns on the way to a 37-10 victory. The Bulldogs ran for less than three yards per carry and had real trouble getting going overall.

KEY STARTERS:

Auburn

Bo Nix: 16-27, 233 yards, 3 TDs

Seth Williams: 6 catches, 112 yards, 2 TDs

Eli Stove: 4 catches, 55 yards, 1 TD

K.J. Britt: 11 tackles, 1 TFL

Owen Pappoe: 8 tackles, 1 sack

Roger McCreary: 4 tackles, 1 INT

Georgia

Stetson Bennett IV: 20-29, 211 yds, 2 TDs

Zamir White: 13 carries, 71 yds,1 TD

George Pickens: 4 catches, 47 yards, 1 TD

Nakobe Dean: 7 tackles

Richard Lecount III: 3 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 PD

Nolan Smith: 6 tackles, 1.5 sacks

KEYS FOR AUBURN:

Get over the Georgia headache. This team isn’t better than Auburn. They want to be Alabama, but they’re not, and will likely never beat Alabama while Kirby is leading the program. However, for whatever reason, Gus Malzahn has allowed Georgia to become his biggest bugaboo. Auburn had the better team in 2014, but the Texas A&M defeat the week before sent us into Athens on a down note. If Gus realizes that Sean White’s arm is broken in 2016, we just run the ball and win. The SEC Championship is a wash, since Kerryon Johnson’s injury was more than we could handle, but last year never should have seen us go scoreless for three quarters. Gus needs to prove he can go into a road rivalry atmosphere and win. He’s 0-fer in Athens, Tuscaloosa, and Baton Rouge. He gets two opportunities in those places this season. We may never have a better chance in Athens with what we saw from them last week and how little the crowd will be a factor. He absolutely has to win this game, and it could end up as a positive turning point in his career. How do you do that?

Keep Bo Nix upright. Nix wasn’t sacked once last week and only pressured twice. That was Kentucky, this is going to be the best defense we see all year. Bo took some good shots last week looking downfield, but I think we may see the full extent of the Chad Morris offense this week, with plenty of short and intermediate passes mixed in. Let Bo weave in the pocket, and work on settling his happy feet just a little bit so that he can make the necessary pass. He’s not going to leave Athens with a clean jersey, but taking a hit’s the price to pay in this rivalry.

Win the run game on both sides of the ball. Auburn must do a better job of running the ball, even if to give the defense a little bit of a rest. Kentucky sped the game up and reduced the number of possessions last week and Auburn looked like they got a little antsy as a result. If the Tigers can do the same thing, and run for over a hundred yards at a respectable clip (3.8+ ypc), then I think we’ll be in good shape. Defensively, you have to make Stetson Bennett, or J.T. Daniels, or D’Wan Mathis win this game. Rodney Garner’s going to rotate his guys up front, so hopefully we see them get stronger as the game moves along like last week.

Play necessarily rough. They deserve it. With a little bit of this, it may force Georgia into a repeat of the penalty-fest they put on last week.

STRESS-O-METER:

Let’s do this. Plenty of time for dark liquor and aggression before kickoff. War Damn Eagle.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/3/21499601/game-preview-and-open-thread-4-auburn-7-georgia

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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a-travels · 5 years ago

Photo

taken: 22 dec, 2019 AMC 34th Street 14, Manhattan, NY

this is where the fun begins

Yes, I’m going to do a review of the new Star Wars movie.

Personally, I hate reading a review and reading endless fluff to hear their thoughts on a movie. So upfront, I did not like this movie at all, perhaps not entirely evidenced by the jubilant nature of this picture, but my views, nonetheless. If you want to stop reading, then by all means please do. This is unsurprisingly my longest post to date, and probably will be for some time so I don’t blame you if you don’t want to read through the text equivalent of a grown man crying.

I don’t know if I represent the classic Star Wars fan or not, but I think it makes more sense to hear my review with some context of my relationship with this franchise.

Perhaps contrary to popular belief, I did not grow up a Star Wars kid. I was certainly aware of the franchise and knew the famous aspects of it. I knew about Darth Vader and lightsabers, I knew about the “I am your father” moment and the Force. I saw Episode III in theatres in 2005 and remember the Anakin and Obi-wan fight, but was asleep for most of the movie. Since then I had somehow seen all of the 6 movies and knew the basic story of the movies, but never had any deep interest in the lore like I do now. My story with Star Wars began in high school, watching the Clone Wars television show. I won’t bore you with how much I loved that show, but it really exposed me to the vastness of the galaxy, the deep emotional storytelling that Star Wars really built its core fanbase on. I found myself connecting to the characters and really encouraged the inner fanboy to latch on to every minuscule detail of the lore and finding the connections to the movies. Needless to say, it was what really awakened (no pun intended) my passion for this franchise and really recontextualized the prequels and original trilogy for me in a new and exciting way. I think it all culminated in this perfect storm before 2015 before The Force Awakens (TFA) came out in 2015 and with general fan fervor at an all-time high. It was a good time to be a Star Wars fan.

Episode VII hits and fans are generally happy. It wasn’t perfect mind you, it felt like a retread, some iffy story points, but overall very satisfying and for many a return to “feeling like Star Wars”, which for many was distinctly absent from the prequels because it was so different. Rogue One was also positively received as well in 2016. I happen to like both of these movies as well.

And then 2017 hits with Episode VIII, The Last Jedi.

I won’t ramble too much about this movie, because I know this is something that divides a lot of people. I think most people in my sphere did actually enjoy this movie. It’s not a perfect movie, and I think everyone (including supporters like myself) would admit that. But for me, this movie recaptured that spark of surprise and wonder that really made me fall in love with this franchise to begin with. By all means, this is an unconventional Star Wars movie: the original hero (Luke) is a jaded cynical man, the whole B-plot is the world's slowest chase sequence, and plot-wise, very little actually happens. I think where this movie really sings was in its attempt to really focus on character and bring something new to Star Wars. It asked questions about the power structure of Star Wars, namely the force, and had you question its workings, matching the cynicism of Luke, but in turn making your conviction in it that much stronger, just like what happened with Luke and when he comes back and has that incredible Kurosawa-esque fight with Kylo on Crait. I think a lot of people who think of this franchise, fans especially, have such a fixed idea of what this movie and franchise should be, that anything that seems to deviate or challenge that can seem honestly jarring in some ways. It’s why the Holiday Special is reviled because coming right off the original movie, people didn’t still have that sense of what made Star Wars, Star Wars; but when people saw it, they knew that wasn’t it. It’s why people hated the prequels (at first) because rather than seeing a hero’s journey, good versus evil and more, you got clunky dialogue, droll politics, seemingly-idiotic and childish characters, and wooden acting. For all the wrong the prequels did, and the criticism it (rightfully) deserved, the prequels had a story to tell and told us something new (albeit in a largely ham-fisted way). Keep the prequels in mind because I’ll be touching back on it.

I’m going to be upfront, I’m writing this bit now almost two months after I started this post and saw the movie. All the stuff above this was from then, but I’ve really just taken a break to just let my thoughts congeal more on this movie because I was just in a bit of shock coming out of it. To be honest, I still can’t tell you my thoughts on this movie are fully formed, but I do think I’m finally ready to express my thoughts on this movie in some sort of coherent manner.

If it isn’t obvious, my review is obviously going to be colored by my view of this franchise. You are entitled to your own view on this franchise and view on this movie. Also, I have tried to link the deeper lore information with articles in this review. The links are the underlined words so feel free to check them out. Anyways, here we go.

So, I didn’t like the movie then; but having thought about now for two months, this film just makes me angrier and sadder with every passing thought. For me, this movie is not only a betrayal of the past two movies which I enjoyed but honestly a betrayal of the whole franchise which I love so much. There was an excellent video I just watched and I think it accurately sums up my views on this movie quite well. But this movie for me can be summed up in four words: unearned, unsatisfying, wasted potential. I think it makes the most sense to unpack this movie with those four words because, to be honest, I could go on for hours on this movie, and I think any of you who know me, know I could, but still probably will.

Unearned.

This movie touts itself as an ending, holding all the answers to the questions we started off with from VII, and arguably, from I-VI. I was nervous when it was announced that the king of the mystery box, the notorious reviver and rebooter of franchises, J.J. Abrams, was tasked to not only write an ending but answer all these questions, many of which he set up. Seeing the ire he caused in the Star Trek community after Star Trek: Into Darkness, I can’t say I was all too shocked to see that these answers (among the few we actually got) unfolded in ways that made little to no sense with the story we were set up with.

Let’s start off with the big one, (oh yeah also this post is going to be spoilerific. I’d say don’t read if you haven’t seen it, but frankly I don’t care if you just read this, don’t see it and just save yourself the time) Rey Palpatine, or Rey Skywalker?? Yeah, I have problems with both in massive, massive ways. But let’s tackle these one by one. Rey is our hero of this trilogy, a character we are introduced to, who we are told and who herself thinks is nobody, is whisked away on this journey on a story much bigger than her. Nothing new here, this is just Luke as a girl so far. Episode VII goes out of its way to seed us with this one big question: who is Rey? Our extensive Wookiepedia-esque knowledge of Star Wars dictates to us that, based on precedent, if she is the main character, she has to be someone we know. Anakin was our prequel protagonist and was related to Luke, maybe she’s related to Luke? That was what we wanted to know going out of VII and into VIII. So what do we see in Episode VIII? Rey struggles with trying to figure out who she is, “trying to find her place” and even dabbles with the dark side of the force in her “limited” training to try to uncover who she is. And what was the answer: she’s no one. A shock to the system. Impossible! How can this be? A protagonist this powerful is a nobody? She’s too overpowered! No force user with that little training could be that strong. But is it really that shocking? The Skywalkers started off as a family of nobodies. Shmi was a slave. Anakin was a child without a father, albeit with some freaky immaculate conception circumstances, but in all other senses, unremarkable and inconspicuous. The same could be said about Rey. And honestly, was it really all that surprising? The trailer we saw at Star Wars Celebration 2015 literally starts off with Maz asking Rey “Who are you?” and her replying “I’m no one.” I know a bunch of people were not so happy with Rey already being so force-sensitive and powerful, essentially being a “Mary Sue” character despite having no important lineage or bloodline. But to me, the democratization of the force was something that really intrigued me and seemed to set the stage for a new era of Star Wars, maybe with a new set of movies based on Rey’s lineage, the Rey Saga or something. This was an idea we saw with broom boy at the end of VIII, which fits with what we already know about the galaxy, that everyone is born with the force but some kids are force-sensitive, and that he could be among the next generation of “Jedi” or force users. And then IX comes and tells us, nope it was just Palpatine’s granddaughter. Where was that evidence (and do not point me to that fan theory video where some guy on YouTube who says that)? Where in any of the prior movies did we get any remote inkling of Rey’s connection at all to Palpatine? Hell, where was the hint that Palpatine was remotely involved with any of the scheming going on in VII and VIII? Even in the prequels, we got hints that Anakin would turn to evil (fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering). Well I can tell you having scrutinized those prior two films myself, there was never any seeds of Palpatine’s presence. It was something just brought in because “OOO a name I recognize of a powerful force user.” How that happened, what that means for the story beats of her being no one in those other two movies, “Eh, just don’t worry about those, this is how it is”. Unearned. And oh boy, Rey Skywalker. Let’s talk about this in the context of Episode IX logic, apart from the logic I already presented, that the prior movies very clearly seem to imply Rey is a nobody. Episode IX is a movie about Rey ultimately discovering who she is, and how when she finds out her lineage, how she eschews her “nature” and stands for good and righteousness in the galaxy because she isn’t defined by a name or bloodline. Even beyond that, we’re told she’s nobody because her parents “chose to be nobodies” and didn’t want to be defined by the name of the reviled megalomaniac of the galaxy. Great! So, wouldn’t it be interesting to see our character find strength in herself and set aside the dumb importance of name and legacy (letting the past die 😉) and honor her parents by choosing to be nobody herself? She buries Luke’s and Leia’s lightsabers on Tatooine (a planet that Luke hated by the way and Leia was on for maybe a few hours or days as a slave to a fat, gross, giant slug in a metal bikini and has no attachment to, a planet with no significance to Rey either) and is somehow asked randomly by this traveler “who are you”, who isn’t satisfied when she gives her name as “Rey”. Forgive me for being nit-picky here, but how weird is it to force a conversation to ask someone their last name randomly, especially when there are TONS of creatures in the galaxy with one-name names. Somehow, a vision of Luke and Leia is enough to convince her she is now a Skywalker, because....force ghosts, Tatooine, Twin Suns, Binary Sunset music, nostalgia-porn. Where in the hell does it make any sense that she adopts the name of Skywalker? How? Because it doesn’t make sense, because it is unearned. Nothing about her “choosing” to be a Skywalker jives with the internal logic this movie sets out, much less the logical flow of the prior eight movies as a whole.

What about Reylo. Oh boy. This is something I know a select few of my friends actually liked. Yes, I concede there was some sexual tension between Rey and Kylo in Episode VIII, but I do not think they were setting them up to be a thing. Kylo is a character who murdered his own father in cold blood, and then murdered his own master (Snoke). This entire time, we are led to believe Snoke is manipulating Kylo and his conflict isn’t given room to settle because its forced one way over the other. Now, Snoke is dead and Kylo is relinquished of this external force telling him what to do, and he still chose to be evil and rule the galaxy, despite Rey’s pleas to join her on the light. Any and all hope to redeem him in my eyes, vanished in that moment. Yes, Anakin fell to the dark side and did some terrible things, but he never was irredeemable because there was someone above him pulling the strings and orchestrating it all. This is a key story structure that makes us as an audience believe that is because of how our villains were set up. In these movies, you have your big bad villain, and then your sub-villain. The sub-villain is usually redeemable but is often dispensable, while the big bad villain is simply the embodiment of evil and can only be destroyed, not redeemed. The sub-villain is sympathetic because you get the sense they are being manipulated or played like a puppet, always leaving room to be redeemed or free themselves, if they can be free of those shackles. That is the nature of the relationship between Palpatine and Darth Vader, and that was the nature of the relationship between Snoke and Kylo Ren. The difference now is Kylo kills Snoke in VIII instead of IX and has now an entire other movie to live with the consequences. He is free of those shackles, and yet he still chooses to be evil. Rey’s connection through “force-time” was her connection to Kylo and her attempt to turn him. She literally leaves her training with Luke because she believes that, only to find Kylo betray her faith in him. Rey acknowledges he cannot be saved, and literally closes the door on Kylo, accepting he is now fully gone. Tell me, how does closing the literal and metaphorical door on someone who has murdered his own father, killed hundreds of innocent people, was given the full free choice to be good and choose evil, lead to love? Because it’s unearned. And frankly, their interactions in Episode IX doesn’t really do much to change that either. Kylo Ren is still moody and literally acts as a constant source of opposition to Rey, with little to actually show their relationship is romantic in any way. Oh yeah, but somehow getting stabbed by a girl and getting healed from almost dying really is such a turn on. I’m sorry, but it’s just unearned. (Hello from even further in the future, I am now writing this in April with updates to this bit. The novelization of Episode IX revealed that their kiss wasn’t romantic, in fact. They gave us this: “His [Kylo’s] heart was full as Rey reached for his face, let her fingers linger against his cheek. And then, wonder of wonders, she leaned forward and kissed him. A kiss of gratitude, acknowledgement of their connection, celebration that they’d found each other at last.” I don’t know what the hell is going on in Lucasfilm, but this is much, MUCH worse. Just a few months back, J.J. said their relationship was a “brother-sister” thing in a romantic way but not really. Can we go back to a half-baked romance again, please? Also, they revealed that Rey’s dad is failed clone of Palpatine.).

Now, let’s talk about Palpatine himself. “The dead speak” “Somehow, Palpatine has returned.” Yeah so this is the big, big leap this movie asks you to take right from the get-go. I understood a lot of the trepidation around bringing back Palps back, mostly surrounding the fear that his return invalidates the sacrifice Anakin/Vader make at the end of Episode VI, bringing balance to the force, mortally electrocuting himself in the process saving his son out of love. I understood the concern, but I had enjoyed the first two films in the sequel and I’m always willing to give a movie a shot in the theater. As long as they explained his return in a satisfying manner, I’d be in. Once the lights dim, the Star Wars logo pops up and you hear John Williams triumphant score, regardless of the drama and bad press, everyone always starts with a clean slate. And then, of course, we get no explanation as to why he’s back beyond a cheeky quip from the prequels “The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” Har har, +100 nostalgia, much memes.

Yeah it just boggles my mind that the head villain, that for six movies our protagonists tried to defeat and who we thought was defeated (and who even the actor, Ian McDiarmid thought was dead), somehow came back to life. He was thrown down an energy shaft, and vaporized. Then the space station in which he was thrown down is subsequently destroyed and atomized, and somehow, we’re told he comes back to life. Perhaps the casual audience wouldn’t remember or notice or care, but beyond the fans, and anyone following a story deserves a little bit more than just a little tease with no actual explanation. For the record, yes, they did explain how Palpatine was saved, but in the visual dictionary, with his body retrieved by Sith Acolytes, brought to Exogol, and revived using “technology and the occult”. Say what you will, but that is not satisfying to me and still begs a better explanation for his return and undercut Kylo’s character progression, invalidating his choice to be bad without being beholden to anyone. Kylo was not going to be redeemed, and then Disney gave him a get-out-of-jail-free-card by putting him under the shadow of “the real villain” so that his redemption “made sense”. Except, it made no sense to randomly introduce a more powerful villain. It was narrative cheating and it was unearned to see Palpatine back, and eventually, Kylo/Ben redeemed because of it. It just is not good enough. I think more heinous for me, is that this move inarguably undoes the work of the past 6 movies. In the effort to create this breathing piece of nostalgia and love for George Lucas and the past 42 years of storytelling, it ends up betraying it in perhaps one of the most scathing ways imaginable, unintentional or not.

(Hi, another update from two-month-future me. The novelization for this movie now revealed that Palpatine’s “essence” is what is alive and is now being transferred into clone bodies, of sorts. Here is the quote: “So the falling, dying Emperor called on all the dark power of the Force to thrust his consciousness far, far away, to a secret place he had been preparing. His body was dead, an empty vessel, long before it hit the bottom of the shaft, and his mind jolted to new awareness in a new body—a painful one, a temporary one.” Yeah, this novelization really isn’t making things better.)

Unsatisfying.

Admittedly, this is a very subjective metric (though I guess so are the other two descriptors), but satisfaction is a unique experience for each person, more than the other two descriptors. I think one of the worst things a movie can do is be boring, where there is no excitement or energizing quality to a story that there it can’t illicit any emotion out of you. What I think is worse potentially, and what I think is the cardinal sin of this movie, isn’t just the fact this movie was bad, but how it is so far beyond a failure that it has retroactively affected how I view the prior movies now and has diminished their impact on me.

Let’s first talk about its failings as a movie itself. I think when discussing this movie, and this new era of Star Wars, it’s hard not to separate the shift in direction from its new relationship with its new owner, Disney. It’s actually shocking to see how Disney has overall mismanaged this franchise and created such a rift amongst the fandom from the five or so movies it has released over the past four years. This movie more than any other, even more than VII, feels uniquely like a product of corporate intervention and directing, rather than the voice and vision of an auteur. What is now known, is that Disney fired the original director of this movie and scrapped his plans for (in my mind) a far more interesting movie that took the characters and story in brand new directions, paying homage to the past without relying on it, but utilizing it in an effective manner to further the story and plot in a meaningful way. And yes, it importantly kept Rey a “nobody” and it kept Kylo Ren bad and unredeemed, and did not have them kiss. If you want to read more about this, I recommend searching for “Colin Trevorrow Dual of the Fates Script” and you’re bound to find it. I also have the full pdf script of it and would be happy to share it if you would like. I encourage you to read it if you’re interested and form your own opinions on it.

Speaking more to this movie, it objectively had three major goals: wrap up its own three-movie trilogy, wrap up the entire 42-year, nine-film saga, and of course function as its own movie. That is not an easy job by any stretch, and I think any filmmaker would have an incredibly challenging time accomplishing those three tasks, while under the scrutiny of a giant corporation and a rabid fanbase. Except, that is almost exactly the same position George Lucas was in when making his prequel films. Again, I’ll get back to that point in a little bit. I think there could be an argument of cutting this film some slack if it accomplished some of these goals. Maybe this movie didn’t end all nine movies nicely, but at least it worked in its own trilogy? Maybe this movie didn’t end either the trilogy or saga so well, but at least it was a fun movie itself? Somehow, J.J. Abrams and Disney succeeded in fulfilling none of these tasks in my mind.

Like I mentioned, the Force Awakens is far from a perfect movie, but it too came in with a very similar set of goals, especially being Disney’s first Star Wars movie, those being:

1. Establish a new story that connects with the prior six films 2. Set up the foundation for a new trilogy that will last the next 4-5 year 3. Reinvigorate the Star Wars fandom and get them excited about the new era of Star Wars entertainment on the way 4. Work as its own movie.

I think in some ways, these challenges were harder than what Episode IX faced and yet in a lot of ways, it still succeeded in many, if not all of these respects. I think the major failing of Episode VII is its reliance and, often, copying of past story points without much of the finesse in “making it rhyme like poetry” which George Lucas loved to do so much. Episode VII really did reinvigorate the franchise, did introduce us to great cast and characters that left us wanting more from a trilogy, did connect in some satisfying (though sometimes a bit on the nose) ways, and did leave us feeling excited, hopeful and energized with Star Wars. Episode VIII came in and was arguably a lot more disruptive, asking us to challenge what we knew and what we thought we wanted to know and instead posed more basic fundamental questions about the foundations of this story, which I think was an important introspective moment for the saga and this trilogy as the penultimate chapter of both. It had us question the nature of the force, the importance of this “Skywalker” lineage, and the nature of Jedi in this universe where Luke truly is the only one left. It had us question our own conceptions of Luke as a swashbuckling do-no-wrong hero and showed us a more cynical, perhaps jarring, but a realistic Luke that blames himself and his belief in this ancient religion for unleashing Kylo Ren and a new era of darkness upon the galaxy. We also saw how Luke was struggling with how he was roped into this way of life from this old hermit he met for a day or two and then left to navigate reviving the religion of the Jedi on his own. We were also asked to question the nature of the force and whether this sort of power was isolated to a few people and families, or is truly something anyone can have? Again, whether fans agree or not with these story choices or not, The Last Jedi still functions as its own story and does (in my opinion) meaningfully connect to the prior story. Whether fans believe that meaning was eschewing the fabric of Star Wars or whether they believe these challenges strengthened the mythology (like I do), it was still meaningful in that it does draw upon the story from the last movie directly and progress it in some manner (whether a positive manner or not, I’ll let you decide). And regardless of how you like VIII or not, the movie left the door wide open for any kind of story to be told. Our heroes are starting from zero, the villain is now trying to learn the ropes. There is no real cliffhanger of sorts but rather an invitation for total freedom to tell the next story and wrap up this trilogy and saga.

Episode IX unfortunately comes across as one of the laziest ways imaginable to end this nine-story arc. In serving as the final movie of the saga, this movie seemed obsessed with callbacks, and nostalgia plays to remind us of the world we’re in and the “story” we’re watching, rather than relying on the story, character and narrative. I think to a fault, it incorporated elements of past movies, just to say it had it, and in many ways cheapened the overall character or object or story point. I think the biggest example again, is bringing the emperor back, which makes such little sense in the context of what we were presented in the prior two films because it wasn’t ever hinted or ever part of the plan to include him in the first place. The emperor was simply added because of the “nostalgia”. Using the remains of the Death Star on Kef Bir was super cool imagery, but didn’t we already literally see the Death Star completely disintegrated? Na, it’s ok, a huge chunk of the important bit just happened to land here fully intact for our heroes to find. There are many more callbacks in this movie, but almost every one of them, I’m left asking myself: “Why?” “Why did this callback have to be here?” “Could something else achieve the same effect?” Why did Maz give Chewie a Battle of Yavin medal? Why did we go back to Tatooine at the end? More often than not, none of those callbacks had to be there other than to try and excite fans, except doing so in the laziest manner by ultimately pandering. Callbacks are not a bad thing, mind you. Star Wars has been secretly calling back and seeding things in the background for ages, hinting and suggesting to us the vastness of this galaxy in terms of creatures and places. A recent example that comes to mind is Avengers: Endgame, and how it uses callbacks masterfully, calling back not just items and places, but character and relationships. It all works there because everything serves its purpose to drive that story forward in a manner that doesn’t feel cheap but feels necessary and important and something that wouldn’t work otherwise. This movie tried to be like Endgame in that regard but just failed to capitalize effectively on nostalgia and characters in the same way in way to emotionally resonate, but rather elicit a cheap, ephemeral reaction. This was a movie that lived from moment to moment of attempting excitement, but ultimately never establishes a through line for me to care about it as a cohesive piece of a nine-chapter story.

(For the record, I am writing the rest of what is below in April, like those other parenthetical notes above.)

Beyond just my frustration with callbacks, I ultimately ask myself, “What is the drive of this trilogy? What was it trying to accomplish?” The whole premise of this movie is Palpatine is back and they need to stop him from taking over the galaxy. I’m definitely beating a dead horse, but how does that adequately connect to the goals of Snoke/Kylo from the last two movies? How do our character’s stories culminate and end in this movie, in the context of the prior two films? I’ve already talked a bit about Rey’s story making little sense, but my god did they squander Finn’s character. If you look at the “new” characters from this trilogy, Poe was our Han Solo-eque type, Rey obviously our Luke type, but Finn was someone totally new. The idea of a disillusioned Stormtrooper seemed inspired, a totally different perspective in these Star Wars, a regular grunt who didn’t like the side they were fighting on in this war. For all my love of Episode VIII, that movie did not do much for Finn’s story. In the three years since VIII released, I have increasingly appreciated Finn’s journey in VIII, starting as someone who only cared about himself and Rey, to caring about the overall cause of the resistance. It was intriguing, albeit not executed in the best manner. But I think back to IX and struggle to see what the whole point of his arc was. He was a key fighter, who becomes a leader, and finds a whole group of defected Stormtroopers, but we never explore it. And all the while, he has this “burning secret” he needs to tell Rey and never does, which we find out from press junkets is that he’s supposedly force sensitive. It’s just an absolute mess. Even Poe’s arc seems to revert this movie in some regards, where VIII was all about him learning to not be so trigger-happy and actually thinking through things like a leader, IX is the same story beat about him becoming a leader in the eventual shadow of Leia. The only character who’s arc makes some sense (apart from the nonsensical Reylo kiss), was Kylo Ren, because he seems like the only character JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson somewhat agreed on. It’s why undoubtedly the best scene in this movie was his vision of Han Solo, as a revisit of the original confrontation on Starkiller base where Han died. Even then though, look deeper and you realize Kylo’s arc is also filled with contradictions.

Perhaps my view is a bit too colored by my view of Episode VIII, but in terms of following the narrative, Kylo was someone who was tired of being beholden to the past and killed Snoke in part as a refutation of the traditional power structure that had held the galaxy. At the end of VIII, he literally tells Luke “I’ll destroy her, and you, and all of it”, being Rey, Luke and all the remnants of this old way of life. Again, whether or not you like that story in VIII, as a storyteller, J.J.’s and Chris Terrio’s jobs were to continue the story in a manner such that there was consistency to the through lines. On the face of it, Kylo’s actions make some sense, again because I think there was some general agreement on him. Think deeper and you realize this is someone who refuted his past, his “destiny” and decided to choose his own path, only to inexplicably come back to his past again. If he wanted to come back to his past, that should have been seeded in VIII, where the conflict still existed. Rey felt this conflict and that’s why she went to try and redeem Kylo. But, once she is with him in the throne room, Snoke articulates how he now senses Kylo’s resolve where there was once conflict. Kylo made his choice, and we bring back up again the idea that he’s conflicted simply because Disney wanted Kylo to be redeemed. It’s lazy and its narrative cheating.

I will say, I know some Episode VIII supporters were unhappy with Luke’s portrayal in this movie and were quick to jump and say how J.J. “undid” Rian’s take on Luke. Luke is actually someone else who’s character stays consistent with his arc from VIII to IX, where he learns to believe in the Force and the light side again and learns to accept his role as a Jedi. Looking beyond characters though, the trilogy set up various story points which we were hoping to get some kind of payoff for. Much like the movie, I’m not really going to delve into them too much other than just list them. Who are the Knights of Ren (idk, but they all died at the hand of their supposed leader)? Who was Snoke (just a test tube deformed clone I guess)? How did Maz get Luke’s lightsaber (“a good story for another time” 😒)? How did Snoke seduce Kylo and undo the work of the prequels and original trilogy (eh, look for it in a comic I guess)? How did the First Order come about and rise to power (¯\_(ツ)_/¯)? What did the galaxy look like once the rebels won and could bring democracy back to the galaxy (watch The Mandalorian, only on Disney+)? The only real question this movie was interested in answering for the trilogy was Rey’s identity, and really that’s it. And even then, we kind of already got an answer about that from the past two movies: Rey was “nobody”.

Listen, a movie can suck in terms of connecting to prior movies, connecting to a full nine movie story, but hey if it’s a good adventure of its own then maybe there’s something redeemable about it. Unfortunately, this movie fundamentally fails to even service its own story properly. Any movie, no matter how good, needs to be self-contained and its own story in order to be effective. A storyteller cannot rely on a moviegoer to have seen eight other movies, read comics, books, etc. to know what’s going on. For all the praise I’ll give Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, my one strike against them is that the emotional resonance and impact of these movies only hits fully when you’ve followed all prior 21-22 movies, like me. It relies heavily on intertextuality of prior movies, though not like Episode IX as a cheat to explain things. And even if you haven’t watched every movie, you can make some sense of what’s going on and get some of the impact, it just won’t hit the same way. It’s near impossible to balance that inclusivity with referential storytelling, but Avengers just about gets away with it because each story still does work on its own. While the Avengers movies are enhanced with more background knowledge, they did still give you every relevant piece of information you needed to follow the story. Episode IX on the other hand, uses narrative cheats to hope you’ll buy into their story and go with it. Obviously, the big one cheat here is not explaining Palpatine’s return. Again, a villain who was thought to be dead and is crucial to the overall story should have his return be properly explained. They did it in Kingsman with Harry’s character, they did it in Avengers: Endgame with Gamora and Thanos, they even do it with Superman in the dumpster fire that is Justice League. When you leave something like that unresolved, it just leaves a giant asterisk above the whole movie, leaving you questioning the nature of it all, asking why it’s even happening, rather than being able to go on the ride. You know, even if the movie told us that “technology and the occult” story beat, or even showed it to us as a prologue to the movie, I would have been able to buy into this premise of this movie more and not just be left asking why or how the whole time. Again, I recognize that those questions may be more personal and not apply to everyone, but I think the criticism of a movie being its own story and explaining itself still holds. Beyond that, the movie just never has any time to breathe and appreciate its own emotions. With a majority of a movie seeming like a video game fetch-quest (that is just getting one item to get another item, repeatedly), the characters aren’t given the room to grow and are simply at the mercy of the next macguffin to find.

One of the fundamental ideas of storytelling is the idea of a passive protagonist versus an active protagonist. The latter is a character that drives the nature of the story through their actions, whereas the former is driven by the flow of the story. Neither is necessarily better than the other and can be employed to excellent effect in both regards. Perhaps one of the best examples of passive protagonist is Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski in The Big Lebowski, a guy who just has consistently poor luck surrounded by moronic friends and people trying to take advantage of him, and really speaks to the kind of character The Dude really is. In an action or drama movie or a movie with a strong lead character, you generally want a balance of plot happening with the lead character forced to make consequential choices that add tension and weight to the story. Star Wars is a franchise driven by strong characters with their backs consistently against the wall and forced to make tough choices. It’s what drives the tension as Han Solo tries to escape Vader’s Star Destroyer by going through the asteroid field in Episode V, or compels Luke to leave with Ben Kenobi to go to Alderaan in Episode IV, or how makes Rey decide to leave her training with Luke to try and save Kylo in Episode VIII. This element of choice in a movie also works crucially to tell us about a character and their motivations. Han chooses to go through the asteroid field, an almost suicidal endeavor (the odds being 3,720 to 1), telling us how this is a man acting with a mix of desperation and bravado, perhaps overconfident in his abilities while also secretly trying to impress Princess Leia who he clearly likes. Rey goes back to Kylo out of a naïve sense of optimism and hope in other people and hasn’t had the experience Luke has, chiding his cynicism. This movie doesn’t give room for a character to decide much of anything. Rather there is a problem and somehow only one solution to the story. The whole goal of the characters this movie is seemingly to find this Sith wayfinder, to reach the Emperor and destroy his Final Order fleet. Conveniently, there happens to be one last clue of where to look, that leads to one thing, that takes them to a place, that leads to another place, where something just happens to work out and then the final battle takes place. If you’ve seen this movie, then you know I’ve just pretty much exactly described the order of events in this movie. There is no room for a character’s choice to dictate the flow of events here, there is no crossroads of destiny for someone to face. Ultimately, there is no tension and no stakes, because you’re left feeling like the heroes will just find the next clue to the next place or someone will tell them. It’s happened X number of times before, so why not have it happen again. It not only comes across as lazy but ends up hurting our characters’ progressions in the process.

I’ve also already talked about how the within-movie logic just seems to crumble on itself. This movie only seemed to be headed towards tackling the renunciation of bloodlines and the internal conflict between inherent nature and free will. Instead of seeing those story beats through, the story decides to instead shift away from that flow and gives us something we don’t expect but dripping with nostalgia. Obviously, the Rey story spring directly to mind, but even Kylo’s story does the same thing, like we talked about. So, I won’t go much further into all that again, but yeah. It’s pretty baffling how for me this movie just systematically failed on every level.

Wasted Potential

When I drafted out this review, I had put my main points for each of these three descriptors for this movie. I guess in the course of my weak-sauce furor and passion, I inadvertently covered most of my points on this part in prior parts. I was going to talk here about Finn’s story arc being totally wasted and also the whole idea of Rey being nobody, wasted. The former I think I spoke to a sufficient amount and the latter I’ve practically beaten to death by this point in this seemingly never-ending review. All I’ll say on these two matters is that there was the potential to tell a very unique story about finding your identity alone from two unique perspectives. For Finn, it was someone who thought he was alone, but finding that he was one of many and found validation and strength in others, where he initially was fearful of others except for Rey. And on the flip side, Rey’s story could have presented the idea of accepting who you are, even if you are a “nobody”, anyone can become someone. In this case, Rey could have become her own person, a new hero to which the galaxy looked up to or someone totally different.

Yeah, it’s really no wonder this is my longest post to date, but frankly I don’t imagine any of the five of you reading this are all too surprised. So, I’ll just touch a bit on the last point I wanted to talk about which had a lot of potential.

When George Lucas started this crazy Star Wars project back in the 70’s, he was a scrappy, young filmmaker really trying to push the boundaries and do something new with film on a shoestring budget. Doing something new was always at the forefront of George Lucas’s goal with every Star Wars film, through the prequels. I had mentioned back in the beginning of this mess how the prequels, for all the bold steps it tried to take, ended up making a lot of missteps as well. In a way, Lucas is in a similar position as Disney right now, begged by fans to make something new, and immediately angering fans with what they tried to do. Where I think Disney’s vision and Lucas’s vision differ is that one, Lucas had a clear vision and plan for his movies while Disney did not, but two, I think history will and already is looking back at Lucas’s films more favorably than we will on Disney’s trilogy. I think for all the missteps that the prequels made, a lot of the kids that grew up with those movies now champion it in the way Lucas intended them to. He was unapologetic in his approach to Star Wars being a space soap opera for children, teaching them good from evil through a basic hero’s journey. Disney for all its guts with the Marvel movies, trying new genres and championing new stories and heroes was playing it ridiculously safe with Star Wars. Very clearly, Disney’s goal was to make movies for fans and not necessarily children like Lucas did. So their primary focus to please fans was making movies that skewed perhaps a bit more mature, but “felt like Star Wars”. Once they re-established that “feel” with The Force Awakens and re-energized the fan base, they inarguably ended up losing a lot of that goodwill taking creative chances with Episode VIII. So rather than hold true to their Marvel formula of trusting the filmmaker and story, it seems that Disney caved and wanted to keep “pleasing fans” instead. A choice like that isn’t necessarily a wrong one, ultimately these movies are costly projects and they need to be made in a way that can generate the money back and actually make money. Where I think Disney was artistically and creatively bankrupt was relying on and weaponizing fan service and nostalgia to try and win back good will. And for what it’s worth, a lot of people did like Episode IX, because a lot of them said it “felt like Star Wars again.”

I mentioned that idea also in the beginning, “feeling like Star Wars”. To be honest, I thought I knew that feeling, but I honestly don’t know if I do anymore. In the past five years of Disney’s reign over this franchise, it seems to have evolved into something else entirely, something designed simply to please fans and focus on its past more than explore a lot of new ideas and themes. Arguably, Star Wars television has taken the biggest steps in that direction and that’s where my interest also seems to have shifted as well. And even then, our “new shows” are just fresh coats of paint on old ideas and concepts. The Mandalorian, for how much I loved the first season, is comprised of proxies of characters we as fans knew and associated with. Mando is the same as Boba Fett, IG-88 is the same as IG-11, we have the Empire (Werner Herzog and Giancarlo Esposito’s characters), and we have a force user in Baby Yoda. Even the return of Clone Wars these past weeks (which I am not complaining about), seems more of a reaction to give fans what they want rather than an idea borne out of creative inspiration or guts. And for however happy I am to see Clone Wars back and see its actual finale, I think a lot of fans and I had made peace with the way it ended with season 6, unresolved though it may have been. It’s not necessarily something new but revisiting something we know. The sequels were just a roundabout way to revisit the characters we knew and loved, just older. Rogue One was arguably a new angle on a story we already knew from the opening crawl of Episode IV. Solo was a backstory really no one wanted on a character we already understood fairly well. Maybe that’s what Star Wars has just become now. That “feeling” may now just be that simply be the sense Disney tries to evoke by drawing on nostalgia and old themes and ideas and characters and bits and bobs, and that’s really saddening to me.

Lucas’s idea was always to tell a new story, something different and unexplored. He follows the philosophy that Nintendo does when making a new game in a series like Mario or Zelda, or Pixar when making a new film: if there isn’t something new (a game mechanic, a story idea, a new film-making technique), then what’s the point in making it. George was obviously interested in telling his story, but in a way that pushed the limit of what was possible and sparking a sense of amusement and awe in what we watch. By this point, audiences have become accustomed to the level of photorealistic computer graphics employed in major blockbuster movies. It’s not hard to imagine anymore and is generally easy to discern. Lucas was interested in doing something no one else could do or conceive of, and in turn audiences wouldn’t be able to believe was possible. It’s why he founded Industrial Light and Magic, the premiere VFX company in the world today, to realize his lofty goals of space wizards and impossible spaceships and laser swords. It’s why he made Skywalker Sound, the masters of sound mixing and editing, to construct this sonic tapestry to define this universe. It’s why he helped spin-off Pixar in the 90’s with Steve Jobs, albeit not related to Star Wars but still exemplifying Lucas’s ultimate drive for doing new things. That Star Wars feeling isn’t just sense of excitement from the clashing of a lightsaber or the recurrence of a familiar face, but the investment in a character’s backstory, the sense of wonderment of seeing something pure and unadulterated from someone’s wildest imagination. It’s the music, it’s the atmosphere and background characters. It’s why a lot of fans were averse to some of the choices Lucas made in the prequels, doing away with a lot of the practical sets that were common in the original trilogy. In Lucas trying to realize his vision for this bustling galaxy and universe with increasingly complex elements and ideas, it ultimately became easier to just add it in post than build it, but in turn sacrificed the grittiness and rough-worn down of the galaxy we were exploring.

Before I’m accused of being a prequel shill, I will simply say that I don’t love all the prequels. I think Episode I is charming, II and III are messes for sure. But I think in all of the failures of execution, Lucas really did try to do something original and new with this story. You can fault a story for maybe not resonating or working, yes, but for trying, no. These were movies that were not trying to be “Star Wars”, but something new that was in that same universe, and I think fans rebelled because of that. It was something new that challenged us to look at this galaxy differently at a different time and didn’t match that same mold we were accustomed to from 1983 to 1999. I think A lot can be forgiven for Episode VII especially in how it was trying to get us back to that feeling that a lot of fans were missing. Also, it’s a very unique position it was in, as the characters in that story were a lot like us, subject to the tale and legend of the “Star Wars”, with the hero Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion and whatnot. They were reverential to the past, because it was a movie that drawing in it to set up the future. Episode VIII took that and tried to set the stage for something totally new, and question what actually was and wasn’t important in this myth we thought we know. Episode IX instead then decides to revoke the thrust towards the future and decides to focus on the past to a far greater degree. But rather than show it the reverence it received from Episode VII, its ultimately stuck pandering to it, rather than adding to the conversation. It was a move very clearly to recapture the enjoyment the audiences found in VII, by trying to appease angry fans clinging to the past. Ultimately, this movie ends up appeasing so few because it is more focused on trying to win back the goodwill it lost from Episode VIII than focusing on its own story, and just ends up as a mess as a result.

It hurts to feel this way about Star Wars. This is the first mainline Star Wars movie I haven’t wanted to rewatch. It makes me feel upset and even angry at times. It took me so long to write this because I’d just get so bummed every time I’d start writing and thinking about this movie and just lose all energy to keep going till some time later. It’s a movie that has made me re-evaluate my relationship with this franchise and question whether I was even right to enjoy the last two movies, VII and VIII, since they’re all meant to be the same story. I think I just have to accept that this new Star Wars is not all made for people like me anymore. I think like a trip to the restaurant or a buffet, I’ll just pick and choose the bits I engage with now. I am quite happy with Star Wars on television right now, but I just hope at some point, somehow, the movies will connect with me again. I just hope the movies can connect with all the fans again eventually, remind us of that magic that defined each generation while not being beholden to the past. I hope it continues to fascinate and indulge our sense of childlike wonderment, building lightsabers, theorizing the physics of star ships, acting like we’re force choking our friends or able to grab the remote with the force across the living room. The Star Wars experience isn’t a solitary one, but rather one best shared with friends and loved ones. It has the power to bring together a disparate group of friends from across the country to one theater for two+ hours to eventually praise and/or criticize it. I just hope Star Wars can warrant such a jubilant reunion again, not relegating such occurrences to a long time ago, or far, far apart.

Also, Ben Shapiro liked this movie so I think that just validates why this movie is total garbage. Maybe that could have been my whole argument. Eh, four months too late I guess…

tl;dr – If into the recordings you go, only pain you will find.

P.S. If you made it to the end of this review, congrats. Perhaps you are nearly as crazy as I am, though honestly probably not. Nevertheless, I appreciate you sticking around to read through this all.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Here’s our latest NFL mock draft, right after the combine

Where Tua Tagovailoa will end up is one of the biggest question marks of the 2020 NFL Draft.

A potential bombshell was dropped at the NFL Scouting Combine. What happens if Washington doesn’t draft Chase Young?

The NFL Scouting Combine is a wrap, and it’s leading to some serious speculation about the second overall pick.

We all know that the Cincinnati Bengals are poised to take LSU quarterback Joe Burrow first overall. But headlines were made when new Washington head coach Ron Rivera spoke to the media about his intentions with the second pick in the draft.

“Everything is an option,” Rivera said when asked about Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. “We’re not closing the door on anything.”

For now, that opens things up to discussion about Washington not taking Ohio State’s Chase Young. Here’s a look at how that could alter the first round, as well as some players who helped their stock at the combine.

1. Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Burrow, QB, LSU

Offseason needs: Quarterback, wide receiver, offensive tackle, linebacker

Forget that silly false narrative — Burrow has no problem playing for the Bengals. Adding to that, Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin all but shot down the notion of trading the first pick in the draft. Put that together and the case is even stronger that Burrow is the No. 1 pick.

2. Washington: Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Alabama

Offseason needs: Offensive tackle, pass rusher, wide receiver, cornerback

You can’t dismiss the fact that Rivera was not part of the organization when it drafted Dwayne Haskins last year. And while Rivera said a team can win with Haskins, this seemed like much more of a damning quote.

“He’s not anointed, that’s for sure,” Rivera said during his media session. “I expect him to come in and compete and work, and we’ll see what happens.”

3. Detroit Lions: Chase Young, DE, Ohio State

Offseason needs: Cornerback, defensive tackle, pass rusher, wide receiver

No one will be happier if Tagovailoa goes second than the Lions. That leaves Young, the best player in the draft, for them. After giving Trey Flowers a five-year, $90 million contract last offseason, the Lions would have a lot of money tied up in their pass rush. But defensive ends of Young’s caliber make it worth it.

4. New York Giants: Isaiah Simmons, LB, Clemson

Offseason needs: Offensive tackle, pass rusher, linebacker, cornerback

Simmons, somehow, exceeded expectations at the combine with his insane workout. Call him a Derwin James clone. Or a taller Thomas Davis. No matter the comparison you prefer, Simmons is going to be a star in the NFL.

5. Miami Dolphins: Justin Herbert, QB, Oregon

Offseason needs: Quarterback, pass rusher, offensive tackle, running back, cornerback

Herbert stole the show during the quarterback portion of combine workouts, but not so much that he becomes one of the first two quarterbacks off the board. But if Tagovailoa is the No. 2 pick, the Dolphins could sit back at No. 5 and take Herbert.

6. Los Angeles Chargers: Jedrick Wills, OT, Alabama

Offseason needs: Quarterback, offensive tackle, cornerback, guard

Arguably no team will be hit harder by Tagovailoa going second than the Chargers. It would mean there’s a strong possibility on missing out on Herbert and going into next season either starting Tyrod Taylor or a free agent signing. Whomever is the quarterback in Los Angeles needs an improved line. If the Chargers can fix their line and add a couple of pieces here and there, they could be one of the surprise teams in the NFL next season.

7. Carolina Panthers: Derrick Brown, DT, Auburn

Offseason needs: Linebacker, defensive tackle, cornerback, quarterback

If three quarterbacks go in the first five picks, the Panthers can find themselves in position to get one of the draft’s elite players. Brown, at 325 pounds, is a powerhouse defensive tackle who can stuff the run and get after the quarterback. As new head coach Matt Rhule reshapes Carolina’s roster, Brown could be the centerpiece on defense.

8. Arizona Cardinals: Tristan Wirfs, OT, Iowa

Offseason needs: Offensive tackle, defensive tackle, wide receiver, pass rusher

It’s hard to decide who had the single most impressive combine, but you can’t go wrong saying it was Wirfs. He set a record for offensive linemen in the broad and vertical jumps, and he had the fast 40-yard dash time of all blockers in Indy this year. That was all at 320 pounds, too. Wirfs’ athleticism is legendary. The craziest thing? It’s all evident when you watch him play.

9. Jacksonville Jaguars: Jeff Okudah, CB, Ohio State

Offseason needs: Cornerback, wide receiver, linebacker, safety

Okudah had a brief injury scare at the combine, but it in no way should impact his draft stock. If the Jaguars target a defensive player and Simmons is gone, Okudah should get the nod over anyone else. He can lock down lead receivers for Jacksonville, and take a lot of the pressure off veteran A.J. Bouye.

10. Cleveland Browns: Mekhi Becton, OT, Louisville

Offseason needs: Offensive tackle (both sides), safety, linebacker, slot cornerback

Becton tipped the scales at the combine at 364 pounds and still managed to run the 40-yard dash in 5.1 seconds. That’s a lot of force at play. More importantly, Becton has shown he uses his size against defenders, both at the edge and in space.

11. New York Jets: Andrew Thomas, OT, Georgia

Offseason needs: Pass rusher, offensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback

Leading up to the start of free agency, there are rumors of the Jets being the landing spot for Titans right tackle Jack Conklin — unless they are not. What happens with Conklin will determine what the Jets do with the 11th pick. If Conklin signs elsewhere, the Jets could take the fifth offensive tackle in first 11 picks. In most drafts that would be ridiculous. But in any other year, a player like Thomas would be in contention for the first five picks.

12. Las Vegas Raiders: CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma

Offseason needs: Wide receiver, cornerback, linebacker, quarterback

The Raiders could have their pick of wide receivers if we do see a big run on offensive tackles. Raiders general manager Mike Mayock explained what he’s looking for in a wide receiver, and Lamb fits the bill nicely.

13. Indianapolis Colts: Jerry Jeudy, WR, Alabama

Offseason needs: Quarterback, wide receiver, offensive tackle, defensive lineman

The Colts seem poised to sign a veteran quarterback this offseason, with Philip Rivers the likeliest possibility. If that happens, the Colts will be in win-now mode. With a good offensive line and solid running game, Indianapolis’ offense could be rounded out with a sure thing of a wide receiver like Jeudy.

14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Javon Kinlaw, DT, South Carolina

Offseason needs: Quarterback, pass rushing defensive tackle, pass rusher, offensive tackle

Kinlaw sat out the combine because of tendinitis, but it shouldn’t ding his draft prospects. For the Buccaneers, Kinlaw would give them the type of pass-rushing interior defensive lineman that they need next to Vita Vea.

15. Denver Broncos: Henry Ruggs III, WR, Alabama

Offseason needs: Wide receiver, offensive tackle, cornerback, linebacker

Although Ruggs didn’t break John Ross’ 40-yard dash record, he still had an excellent combine. That means the discussion point will be about whether or not he’s jumped over Jeudy or Lamb. The Broncos should hope not. Ruggs is a perfect complement to Courtland Sutton and would give Denver a strong wide receiver duo.

16. Atlanta Falcons: K’Lavon Chaisson, Edge, LSU

Offseason needs: Edge rusher, interior pass rusher, cornerback, offensive tackle

Whether it’s Takkarist McKinley or Vic Beasley, Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff has shown he has a preferred type of pass rusher. This draft’s version is Chaisson, a speedy standup rusher with good athleticism.

17. Dallas Cowboys: Xavier McKinney, S, Alabama

Offseason needs: Safety, cornerback, defensive tackle, pass rusher

With the fate of Amari Cooper, Byron Jones, and Dak Prescott up in the air, the Cowboys are the most intriguing team going into free agency. What happens with that trio will determine the direction Dallas takes in the first round. Jones is the most likely to leave, putting defensive back squarely at the top of the team’s needs. McKinney bowed out of the combine with cramps, but he’s considered by many as the top safety this year.

18. Miami Dolphins (via Pittsburgh Steelers): A.J. Epenesa, DE, Iowa

Offseason needs: Quarterback, pass rusher, offensive tackle, running back, cornerback

If Epenesa slips past Atlanta and Dallas, the Dolphins should pounce. While they do need offensive line help, good pass rushers are hard to come by. Epenesa can play inside or outside for the Dolphins.

19. Las Vegas Raiders (via Chicago Bears): Kenneth Murray, LB, Oklahoma

Offseason needs: Wide receiver, cornerback, linebacker, quarterback

While everyone is rightfully excited about what the offensive linemen and wide receivers did at the combine, it’s easy to overlook Murray’s performance. He ran a 4.52-second 40 and had good vertical, bench press, and broad jump numbers. There’s some ambiguity to his exact position as a linebacker, but the Raiders need a talent like him on their defense.

20. Jacksonville Jaguars: (via Los Angeles Rams): Justin Jefferson, WR, LSU

Offseason needs: Cornerback, wide receiver, linebacker, safety

Jefferson was a first-round player before the combine and did well to bolster his draft status. Jefferson is a stellar slot receiver with speed and sure hands.

21. Philadelphia Eagles: CJ Henderson, CB, Florida

Offseason needs: Wide receiver, cornerback, linebacker, safety

There was plenty of speculation from NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah during the combine broadcast that Henderson is a top-15 pick. If he happens to drop to this range, the Eagles should snag him. Philadelphia has multiple free agent cornerbacks, and Rasul Douglas and Sidney Jones just haven’t developed as expected.

22. Buffalo Bills: Jalen Reagor, WR, TCU

Offseason needs: Pass rusher, big wide receiver, interior defensive lineman, cornerback

With Tee Higgins sitting out the combine and Laviska Shenault limited by injury, Reagor could rise ahead of them in April. Reagor may not be the 6’2 or 6’3-type of receiver the Bills need, but he plays bigger than his 5’11 size, and he showed it with a 42-inch vertical leap.

23. New England Patriots: Jordan Love, QB, Utah State

Offseason needs: Pass rusher, tight end, offensive tackle, quarterback

Even if the Patriots get Tom Brady back, or acquire a veteran quarterback, they should strongly consider Love if he’s available. Love is a project, but the Patriots could refresh their franchise if he’s coached up correctly.

24. New Orleans Saints: Laviska Shenault Jr., WR, Colorado

Offseason needs: Cornerback, interior offensive lineman, wide receiver, quarterback

A cornerback will be intriguing here, but in Drew Brees’ final years, the Saints could stack their offense for a Super Bowl push. Shenault didn’t do much in Indianapolis and has to undergo surgery. In other words, you have to trust what Shenault did at Colorado to justify a first-round pick.

25. Minnesota Vikings: Austin Jackson, OT, USC

Offseason needs: Cornerback, offensive line, defensive tackle, wide receiver

If Jackson and Houston’s Josh Jones are both available, the Vikings should flip a coin and choose whichever one it lands on. Both are a step below the top four offensive tackles, but have starting ability as rookies. Jackson is a quick blocker and handles speed rushers nicely. In a division with Khalil Mack, Za’Darius Smith, and potentially Young, the Vikings will need that type of blocker.

26. Miami Dolphins (via Houston Texans): Josh Jones, OT, Houston

Offseason needs: Quarterback, pass rusher, offensive tackle, running back, cornerback

If the Dolphins come out of the first round with a new starting quarterback, pass rusher, and offensive tackle, that’s an A+ draft. That’s right, we’re already talking about draft grades.

27. Seattle Seahawks: Isaiah Wilson, OT, Georgia

Offseason needs: Pass rusher, wide receiver, interior offensive lineman, offensive tackle

Going into the combine, people were sleeping on the massive Wilson. Maybe it’s because he was only a redshirt sophomore and sat out Georgia’s bowl game. But the long-limbed, 350-pound right tackle looked good at the combine and may have pushed his way into the first round.

28. Baltimore Ravens: Patrick Queen, LB, LSU

Offseason needs: Linebacker, wide receiver, pass rusher, cornerback

I’m sticking with this pick from last week. Queen suffered a hamstring injury at the combine, yet still put up a 4.5 in the 40. That shows his athleticism to a degree. It’s the type of athleticism Baltimore needs on defense.

29. Tennessee Titans: Julian Okwara, Edge, Notre Dame

Offseason needs: Pass rusher, offensive tackle, quarterback, tight end

A leg injury limited Okwara to only doing the bench press at the combine, which is unfortunate. Several teams in this range are after a pass rusher, but Okwara might slide over concerns about his health. If he does, Tennessee could take a chance in the back for the first round and find a partner for Harold Landry.

30. Green Bay Packers: Brandon Aiyuk, WR, Arizona State

Offseason needs: Wide receiver, linebacker, offensive lineman, tight end

This would be a great spot for either Jefferson or Reagor, but both were gone in this scenario. This is actually a tough draw all around for the Packers. The best offensive linemen and linebackers are all gone, and there isn’t a tight end worth a first-round pick this year. Aiyuk is a fringe first-round player with his ability to get deep and make a play after the catch.

31. San Francisco 49ers: Grant Delpit, S, LSU

Offseason needs: Safety, cornerback, offensive lineman, linebacker

Despite an impressive showing by Lenoir-Rhyne’s Kyle Dugger at the combine, I’m still sticking with Delpit to the 49ers. With Jimmie Ward potentially gone in free agency, the 49ers can find his replacement near the end of the first round.

32. Kansas City Chiefs: Kristian Fulton, CB, LSU

Offseason needs: Linebacker, cornerback, running back, offensive lineman

Between Fulton, Clemson’s A.J. Terrell, or Mississippi State’s Cameron Dantzler, the Chiefs should have some solid cornerback options with the 32nd pick. Fulton had 25 passes defensed the last two seasons and comes out of an LSU program that knows how to develop secondary players.

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