#because he's pretty sure the revival book might be a key fragment of his OWN messed-up dark magic tome and He Wants It Back

[betweenlands]

in honor of the new kenadian video, have the best and most finished contiguous bits of a fic i was trying to write for the @mcyt-builds-contest prison edition and never completed. personally, i think giving ken access to modded materials could only lead to good things.

previous bracket fic here if you haven't read it! image transcript under the cut! (surprise! this was arcosc all along!)

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“Why’re you so worried about this, anyway?” he finally says, because he’s pretty sure worry is the expression he’s reading on Legundo’s face.

“I have…” the King in the North says, grimacing, “a bit of prior experience with prisons, you could say. Both illager and player-made.”

Viking gets the feeling he’s touched a nerve, and nearly slaps his hand over his forehead as he belatedly remembers the first time the King in the North had mentioned some sort of dungeon built by – something about iron crocodiles, he thinks. Come to think of it, that building had come up earlier in this tournament.

“Forge, right? The Prison of the Iron Crocodiles that lost to Pandora in the first rounds?”

“That’s one of them,” the King in the North confirms. “Speaking of which, do you have any idea where Forge went after his dungeons lost the contest to this prison?”

Viking shrugs. “Nada. Maybe he just slunk off?”

“It’s not like him to vanish without any sign of reemergence,” the King in the North mutters, tapping his fingers against the table. “My version of Shadow, maybe. Forge? He should’ve caused trouble somewhere by now. Made some sort of uneasy or paranoid alliance with another person that lost the first round.”

“Come to think of it,” Viking says, “I haven’t seen that Asgaard guy anywhere after we shook hands and called it a good match. I was hoping he’d stick around for color commentary on worldbuilding or something, but maybe he just had a project to do?”

The King in the North shakes his head. “I don’t think so. I think something’s going after other people on the bracket. This other finals entrant – I know you’ve been busy on your own front, but have you seen them yet?”

“Nope,” Viking says. “And I haven’t seen the guy who looks kind of like they’d be my cousin if I was a catboy, either. Which… wait. Wait, that’s really weird! His entire thing is prisons and escape rooms, they should be at this match, he would definitely have something snarky to say about it!”

“About that,” a slightly familiar voice says. “I kinda got put in a tube.”

The catperson crouched on a chair at the far end of the room raises their hand with a wave and a wry grin. “Sorry I’m late. Train ran slow. Also the whole getting put in a tube thing.”

“You got –” Viking gestures. “Wait. First question. How did you get down here?”

Kenadian examines his clawed fingernails with one raised eyebrow. “Hopped around waystones for a bit until your hat layers loaded in on the tab screen. Composter glitched so I could look around underground. Saw a stronghold. Dug straight down. Don’t worry, I covered it back up.”

Viking unconsciously reaches up to his very unhatted head, adjusting his goggles slightly. Next to him, the King in the North seems to be in a very similar state of confusion. 

“Tab… screen?” he finally manages.

“Composter glitch?” Viking adds.

“Oh, we’re from a world that doesn’t have diegetic game mechanics, that’s just great,” Kenadian huffs. “Anyway. Aren’t you a ghost? Can’t you just chug a fire resistance potion and walk through the walls?”

“I already explained that to him,” Viking says, recovering from the brief shock of some random guy he’s only met once breaking into his secret underground headquarters base. “Phantoms can’t pass through obsidian or crying obsidian.”

“God you guys are hopeless,” Kenadian says, slapping one hand over their face. “Just make them not obsidian, then! You can literally just do that!”

“I…” Viking says, “what?”

Kenadian stands up again and tosses something onto the table with a loud clatter, crossing their arms with a smug expression.

Viking blinks down at the diamond-tipped chisel on the table with a confused expression on his face. “Why are you giving me a chisel?”

“Oh my god do I have to spell everything out for you,” Kenadian groans. “Bit blocks only carry so much internal info and most of it’s either transparency or whether or not they give off light. Just take a single voxel – oh, sorry, bit – out of any walls in your way and they stop being obsidian and start being bit blocks. It’s literally just that simple.”

[tomeandflickcorner]

OUAT Episode Analysis- The Black Fairy

*Sigh.* Characters of OUAT, I thought we discussed this.  Never EVER pay any mind to any dusty old prophecy you might hear.  Because they’re almost ALWAYS going to turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  No joke, when it comes to someone trying to stop a prophecy from coming true only to have the actions they took to prevent it being what ensures it will come to pass, how many times does this make?  I’m pretty sure this makes three.

Anyway, we start with Gold, Belle, Emma, Killian, Snow and Charming in the back of Gold’s shop, trying to revive Shady Blue from her magical coma.  In his latest attempt, Gold tries some sort of spell involving Oud D’Rotten Dragon Egg, and at first, it doesn’t seem to work, so Gold storms outside and has one of his trademark hissy fits, complete with destroying a nearby mailbox.  Belle comes out after him and they talk for a bit about the typical stuff, like how Belle believes he can save Gideon.

Their talk is interrupted when Emma informs them that the spell worked after all, and Shady Blue is awake. So they go back inside, and Killian, deciding that there’s no point in beating around the bush, immediately questions Blue as to where the rest of the wand fragment is hidden.  Snow is quick to reprimand him for not giving Blue a moment, but Blue seems to be on the same page as Killian, and starts to tell the Nevengers that the rest of wand is hidden in ‘The Center of Storybrooke.’  However, this is when ‘Snow’ starts to essentially tell Blue to shut up, threatening to choke her in the process.  Turns out, this wasn’t Snow and Charming after all, but Black Fairy and Gideon in disguise.  Before they can do anything to stop her, Black Fairy teleports off, taking Blue with her.  But Gold manages to stop Gideon from teleporting off as well.  Admittedly, I might have missed something, but it seemed a bit too easy for them to stop Gideon from taking off.  And, in the next scene, he’s tied up to a chair.  On the other hand, the fact that Gold is announcing his intention to get Gideon’s heart back in front of everyone does seem to indicate the Nevengers have been informed about how Gideon was being heart controlled.  If that’s the case, I’m admittedly impressed.

So, after Emma makes a phone call to make sure her real parents are okay, and tasks them and Killian with finding the missing half of the wand, she and Gold decide to team up and look for a way to get Gideon’s heart back.  Gold decides the best way to go about that is to use the Sands of Morpheus, which he apparently still has from the first episode of the seasons, and he sends himself and Emma into Gideon’s dream world.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, we get a subplot with the Mills Sisters.  Zelena is trying to adapt to life without magic, and Regina is actually being sympathetic, stating how it took her a while to get used to not using her magic when Storybrooke was first created.  Which, come to think of it, does seem kinda strange.  With Zelena, she was able to harness magic from the moment she was born, as indicated by the fact that she was able to deflect the tree branch before it fell on her adoptive parents.  And she was just a newborn baby at that point. As such, Zelena has never experienced a moment in her life when she wasn’t magical.  But Regina spent a good 20+ years as a non-magical person, and only began utilizing magic when she decided to train under DO Rumpelstiltskin. So, I would think it would have been much easier for Regina to get used to being non-magical again than it would for Zelena.  But perhaps I’m just being nitpicky.   Anyway, as part of her attempt to help Zelena acclimate herself to a life without magic, Regina decides to teach her half-sister how to drive.  In what is quite possibly the greenest car you have ever seen in your life. (Although, can anyone identify the car model? Because it almost looks like the Ecto-1 with a completely different paintjob)  As you might imagine, Zelena’s first driving lesson goes almost as well as Henry’s first lesson.  And I’m once again asking why they never think to start the driving lessons off in a vacant parking lot, where there’s a lot of space and very little chance of hitting something.

However, this is when Regina reveals her ulterior motive in teaching Zelena how to drive.  Basically, Regina is planning to send Henry out of Storybrooke in order to keep him safe during the final battle with the Black Fairy, and wants Zelena to be the one to escort him out of town.  Now, while I completely understand that Regina wants Henry to stay safe, I’m wondering if she actually discussed this with Emma and the Charmings before making her decision.  After all, as Henry’s birth mother and biological grandparents, they have a say in the matter, too.  So, was this a decision they all came up with together, or is Regina making decisions without consulting the others again?  And before anyone can accuse me of overreacting, let me remind you that it was only about two episodes ago that Regina decided to set Author Isaac free without discussing it with the rest of the Nevengers first.  Forgive me for wondering if she’s doing the same thing now with Henry.

As for Snow, Charming and Killian, because Baby Neal is still in the realm of nonexistence, their search for the wand leads them to the Clock Tower, as it’s the geographic center of town. But they can’t find the wand there. After a call to Regina, however, they realize that Shady Blue actually meant the ‘Heart of Storybrooke.’  Which is apparently Granny’s Diner.  Sure, why not?  So off they go to Granny’s.  And the old woman is clearly not happy that they’re practically tearing the place apart to find the wand.  It made me wonder if she was seriously considering issuing out a few lifelong bans.  In the end, Charming and Killian locate the wand under a loose floor tile beneath the diner’s jukebox.

Just as they find the wand, The Black Fairy pops up again to try and stop them.  Regina, who seems to have forgotten that she practically got the snot beaten out of her last time, challenges Black Fairy to a fight, with them teleporting outside.  But, when the two women are beginning the showdown to determine who gets the wand……

BLAMMO!  Out of nowhere, Zelena zooms in, driving her new green car, slamming right into Black Fairy and sending her flying!  I’m not gonna lie to you- that was undeniably AWESOME!!!!  I even think that moment made it into my Top 10 Best OUAT Moments. And it is also nice to see Regina and Zelena actually working together for once.  The Black Fairy, apparently nursing a bruised ego, decides to retreat for now, thereby leaving the Nevengers in position of both halves of the wand, which they later fuse back together so they can use it on the Black Fairy in order to banish her again.

Now, getting back to Emma and Gold in Dream World, they’re searching around for Gideon’s Dream Form.  Because doing so will somehow help them find out where his heart is being kept.  Turns out Gold dragged Emma along because he wants to make sure she won’t do anything to the Black Fairy before he finds out where Gideon’s heart is being kept. Which seems to be a bit dumb. Even Emma points out that he could have just asked her to hold off a bit until Gideon’s heart was safe.  But Gold just spouts off some nonsense about how Saviors can afford to do the right thing, but he doesn’t have that luxury. I’m sorry, that just seems like a lazy excuse.  Storybrooke is filled with people who don’t carry around the mantle of Savior and still manage to do the right thing.  Doing the right thing is not exclusive to the Savior.  Apart from that, how does that answer Emma’s question of why he couldn’t have just asked her not to go after the Black Fairy for a while longer? By his own logic, Emma would, as the Savior, do the right thing and wait until she had confirmation Gideon was safe. So what exactly is Gold talking about here?  Regardless, their search leads them to some old hut in the woods.  When they enter the hut, they come to the conclusion that this isn’t Gideon’s dream after all- it’s Gold’s.  Because this hut was the one where he was born, and most likely lived up until Malcolm decided to de-age himself and become Pan.

Gold, voicing his refusal to stick around and reminisce, decides to continue looking for Gideon, as he’s sure he’s somewhere in the Dream World, even if it is Gold’s dream.  As they continue looking around, Emma tries to have a heart-to-heart with Gold, saying she knows how scary it might be to think about how you were abandoned by your parents, pointing out she can relate to what he feels.  (Even though Emma’s childhood was considerably worse than Gold’s.  Emma wasn’t the one who was raised by two loving adoptive mommies.  All things considered, Rumple’s childhood was virtually ideal in comparison to Emma’s.)  But Gold isn’t interested in Emma’s sympathy, stating he has no feeling at all for Mama Black Fairy.

Out of nowhere, Gideon pops up, saying he’s grateful that Gold is trying to find his heart, but it doesn’t look as if they’ll find it in the Dream World.  Instead, Gideon suggests Gold take this chance to learn Black Fairy’s darkest secret, as it could be the key to defeating her.  Which leads us to the flashback portion of the episode.

Here, we learn Black Fairy’s real name is Fiona.  We end up witnessing the night she gave birth to Baby Rumple, with Malcolm at her side. Right after the baby’s birth, Shady Blue and Tiger Lily appear before them.  It turns out Tiger Lily has been appointed as Baby Rumple’s fairy godmother. Because some prophecy states that the baby is destined to be the Savior.

 Okay.  I have things to say about this, but…. I’m going to reign it in for a bit.  Trust me, I’ll discuss my thoughts on that, but I’m not up to that part yet.

Anyway, a couple of days pass, and Tiger Lily pays a visit to Fiona and the baby.  But Fiona is not happy, because she has somehow gotten her hands on the Book of Prophecy (because that’s not just something exclusive to Oz), which contains the one about her son.  Turns out the prophecy also states that the Savior will have a Final Battle with an enemy that will be born that winter.  And that the Savior will ultimately die while fighting that battle. Fiona, understandably, doesn’t want to see her son die, so she manages to turn herself into a fairy, much to Tiger Lily’s surprise.  Nevertheless, Tiger still accompanies Fiona on her search for the great enemy her son is supposed to die fighting.  This prophecy also states the enemy will bear a crescent moon-shaped scar on her wrist. The pair check the wrist of every baby born that winter, but they don’t find the one they’re looking for. Eventually, the designated time of the great evil one’s birth starts to come to an end, and it looks like there won’t be any danger after all.  However, Fiona isn’t satisfied, and she decides to just get rid of all the babies.  By creating a powerful spell that will send all the other babies away to a world without magic.  Fiona’s reasoning is that doing so will keep her baby safe.  However, Tiger Lily knows this is a really bad idea.  Not only is the spell Fiona is creating more of a dark curse (get it?), it would be a bad thing to keep Baby Rumple from his destined path.  His death is supposed to be a good thing, as it will vanquish the great evil and therefore keep everyone else safe.

Unfortunately, Fiona takes up a whole ‘if you’re not with me, you’re against me’ stance.  To punish Tiger Lily for refusing to help her, she yanks out Tiger Lily’s heart.  The moment she does this, Fiona transforms into the Black Fairy, and a crescent moon-shaped scar appears on her wrist.  Thus, it is revealed that Fiona was the prophesied great evil her son was supposed to die fighting.

And that is what Emma, Gold and Gideon learn within the Dream World.  So when they return to the Awake World, they tell the others what they’ve learned. Which, of course, leads to Belle grinning like a loon, feeling that this is the proof that Gold was always meant to be good all along.

Okay. Now if you’re someone who loves Gold/Rumpelstiltskin, and actually liked the direction this episode was taking?  You might wanna back out now.

So, on to my reaction to this revelation:

This is stupid.  They’re trying to tell us that, all this time, Rumpelstiltskin was a Savior, too? Well, pardon my French, but if that’s the case, he’s done a piss-poor job of it.  Just think about how many people he’s killed.  Like that guy he turned into a snail.  And the Mute Maid.  Look what he did to Geppetto’s parents.  And Milah.  And Gaston. And how many times he tried to kill Emma and the people she loved.  Not to mention how many times he chose to hold onto/reclaim the power of the Dark One instead of giving it up to be the man Belle has always wanted him to be.  Some Savior he turned out to be.

Also, it is despicable they have the audacity to slap the label of Savior onto Rumpelstiltskin like this, as if giving him a fancy title cancels out all the deceitful, cruel things he’s done throughout his life.  Not only that, it really cheapens Emma’s role as the Savior.  Doing this is like they’re saying having the title of Savior automatically makes you a hero.  No. No, it doesn’t.  Emma isn’t a hero because she was the Savior.  Being the Savior isn’t what makes her brave, strong, and kind.  That was all her.  She was all those things even before she became the Savior.  Same is true with Aladdin.  And in the end. he proved he didn’t need to be the Savior to be a hero.  So the fact that they’re now treating Gold like a hero just because they were told he was supposed to have the mantle of Savior once is just so head scratching.  Not to mention being straight-up insulting to Emma and how hard she’s had to work up until now.

I also feel the need to remind everyone about what happened during the Dark Swan arc.  This is pretty much the same thing as when Gold pulled out Excalibur.  Everyone was instantly acting like he was a big hero then, too.  But he very quickly proved he was no hero at all, as he conspired to take back the power of the Dark One again, and even planned to trick Emma into suicide to achieve his goal.  

*Hyperventilates*

Okay.  Ranting aside, Gold later approaches Black Fairy by the Storybrooke Lake to tell her he found out why she abandoned him- because she knew he was destined to kill her.  But Black Fairy tells him that there’s one more missing puzzle piece.  Which she reveals to him via Vulcan Mind Meld.  We once again flashback to the point when Fiona first became the Black Fairy.  Before Black Fairy could harm Tiger Lily, Blue suddenly arrived on the scene, managing to get Tiger Lily’s heart back.  Blue then produces the Sheers of Fate and gives Black Fairy the option of using them on herself.  Doing so will turn her back into a human, and therefore make it so she won’t be the great evil her son is destined to die fighting.  But Black Fairy ends up being unwilling to give up her fairy powers. Instead, she uses the Sheers on Baby Rumple, thereby keeping her power and taking the mantle of Savior away from Baby Rumple.  As punishment for her decision, Blue banishes Black Fairy into the Dark Realm. Once she completes the story, Black Fairy asks Gold if he forgives her.  While we don’t hear his answer, the show jumps ahead to Gold meeting with the Nevengers, announcing the Black Fairy is gone, showing them a blackened heart as proof.  He also is able to restore Gideon’s heart, much to Belle’s delight.

On a side note, it was interesting to see the reason why Malcolm resented his son so much.  It turns out he really did love his wife, Fiona.  And, when she was banished, Malcolm ended up placing blame on their son, feeling that if it wasn’t for their baby, Fiona would never have gone down the path she did, and she and Malcolm would have still been together.  As such, Malcolm saddles the baby with the name ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’ which I guess is a name that means something repulsive, because Malcolm clearly meant the name as something to express his disgust with the baby.  (However, I am surprised Fiona didn’t come up with a name beforehand.  Granted she was probably too focused on trying to locate the evil that was supposedly destined to kill her son, but I got the impression she didn’t immediately learn about that prophecy after her son’s birth.  So there was probably a few days between Rumple’s birth and Fiona learning the Savior was fated to die.)

In the final moments of the episode, it’s decided that, since the Black Fairy is no longer a threat, it’s safe to proceed with Emma and Killian’s wedding, with Snow announcing it can take place the following morning.  Now, I’m not a wedding expert, but I find it a bit far-fetched to believe you can actually throw together an entire wedding in less than 24 hours.  You got the caterers, the seating charts, reserving the wedding venue, getting the marriage license, dress fittings, invitations to mail out, with the guests probably wanting some time to buy a wedding present for the newlyweds.  Not to mention the fact they usually need to have a rehearsal so everyone in the wedding party knows where they’re meant to stand and whatnot.  That’s a lot of stuff to cram in if you’re going to hold the wedding the following day. I suppose it’s hard to judge how much time has passed in the show, but they’ve only been engaged for a couple days at best.  I’m just saying, I’m fairly certain A&E are both married.  So they clearly know how much work typically goes into wedding planning.  But I guess I’m just rambling again.

Back at the Swan Jones house, we get a really lovely Captain Cobra moment, with Killian giving Henry the role of his Best Man.  It’s just really wonderful seeing how much Killian genuinely loves his soon-to-be stepson. And it also shows how Killian knows full well that Emma and Henry are a package deal.  And he respects and appreciates that.  After giving Henry the task of holding onto the wedding rings, Killian bids Emma goodnight.  Because he’s still a seafaring man at heart, and therefore is not about to ignore the superstition about not seeing the bride before the wedding.  As such, they share one last kiss before Killian heads off, probably to spend his final night as a bachelor aboard the Jolly Roger.

Unfortunately, the episode doesn’t end on this sweet note.  Because we then see Gold secretly meeting up with the Black Fairy once again.  Turns out, Gold was lying through his teeth and the Black Fairy is still roaming free.  The two actually made a deal, and are now working together, with Black Fairy announcing that Emma is still the Savior, and as such, she will die on her wedding day.

Okay, was anyone really surprised by the fact that Gold is betraying the heroes once again?  Especially since we know Mama Black Fairy stripped him of the Savior mantle when he was still a baby and is therefore unable to claim that title after all.  Because the only thing that surprised me was how Emma’s superpower wasn’t tipping her off to Gold’s deception.  Then again, the writers have a bad habit of forgetting about her internal lie-detector when the plot calls for it.  But hey, next week is the big musical episode.  So there’s something to look forward to, right?

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