#booker the old guard

[krimsnkramsart]

Booker & Nile ☕ to go with my drawing on Andy & Quynh ☕

[kermit-coded]

the thing about booker that drives me crazy is that he's suicidal and yet he's unable to die. he wants nothing more than to stop living, because he can't handle it anymore. the scene in copley's office where andy asks him why he betrayed them and he says he hopes the scientists will find a way to end it. the love was there and it wasn't enough to stop the grief. insane character motivation.

[materassassino]

I think my silliest Mildly Autistic Nicky headcanon is that yes, he adores spices and seasonings and authentic flavours, but very occasionally (like once every six months) he will want a Plain Food day where he eats nothing but pastina in brodo and bread and butter and other boring things and everyone goes along with it. Joe is happy because Nicky is happy, Andy and Booker will eat anything if it sits still long enough. Nile was surprised but anything Nicky cooks is nourishing even if it's not mind-blowing.

The menu resumes as normal the next day.

(Actually I don't know if this is silly or not. I just like the idea. I would also imagine that they've eaten their fair share of fucking atrocious meals over the centuries, stuff that not even Nicky's skill could save, so anything is better than ship's hard tack, tripe or rotten rice.)

[theoldgvard]

if every single immortal’s reaction to quynh in the sequel is not dripping with emotion im calling bullshit okay

that’s joe’s big sister! nicky’s partner in crime! the woman whose screams plagued book’s dreams for two centuries! andy’s wife! every single one of them has such a deep connection with her whether that be good or bad, if anyone acts like she’s some typical bad guy and not something way more complex for even a second i’m gonna go ballistic

[druckkugelschreiber]

There‘s something about Andy‘s first death being betrayed by her mother on the battlefield and then getting betrayed by someone she loves again millennia later

Arguably if we go movie route betrayal once more being almost her last death. Delicious

[killersandqueens]

Rewatching Old Guard and realizing how much Andy tries to impress Niles

Like an estranged aunt trying to show off to her niece

“See small child? Look at how cool I am. So badass! I was worshipped as a god once!”

And Booker is just the depressed uncle that hangs around

[yuliares]

For Dawn, who had the absolutely brilliant idea of mashing together The Old Guard and Castle in the Sky!

I did screenshot traces to get things going, and then modified from there! Andy would make a truly excellent sky pirate, I think.

[toxotesj]

“Not everything is about love,” Booker said.

“Isn’t it?” asked Nicky.

Page 1

Transcription of first panel under cut (the text just didn't look right in the font I picked for the comic)

For those who cannot read my handwriting:

Left of Booker as he sits on the towel, on the hand caressing Jean-Pierre's face: was there love here?

Across Jean-Pierre's shoulders: Jean-Pierre! Je t'en supplie, mon fils! Pardonne-moi! If I could, I would, I swear!

Below him, in the shadows of four rocks that look like gravestones: I HATE YOU

As if I would not have given my life! I loved him. It didn't matter. I had believed until then in a great purpose. Jean-Pierre made me realize I had fooled myself. I loved him, but what did it change?

Below the crow, on the right:

What I did in Russia-- was it really to get me home to my family? Was it only fear? I caught the bird. Tore its throat out with my teeth. Man's gotta eat, right? Maybe most men....

In the shadow of the umbrella: And the thing is, it didn't matter. I didn't live long enough to eat the damn thing. I knew I'd hang again first. The futility makes me feel more an animal than having eaten the live crow.

In the center, over the towel, next to Booker's open book:

Love, humanity-- both seemed only veneers over the AWFUL ENTROPY of the UNIVERSE.

[sunsetcurveauto]

What is a ghost? Something dead that seems to be / alive. Something dead that doesn't know it's dead. — Richard Siken

TOG x Halloween - The Guard as Ghosts

[dormiveglia-dreamer]

the team standing in front of a broken coffee pot

Andy: So, who broke it? I’m not mad, I just want to know.

Nile: I did, I broke it-

Andy: No, no you didn’t. Joe?

Joe: Don’t look at me, look at Booker.

Booker: What? I didn’t break it!

Joe: Huh, that’s weird. How’d you even know it was broken?

Booker: Because it’s sitting right in front of us, and it’s broken.

Joe: Suspicious!

Booker: No, it’s not!

Copley: Look, if it matters, Nicky was the last one to use it.

Nicky: Liar! I don’t even drink that crap!

Copley: Oh really? Then what were you doing by the coffee cart earlier?

Nicky: I use the wooden stirrers to push back my cuticles, everyone knows that, Copley!

Nile: Alright, let’s not fight, I broke it, let me pay for it Andy.

Andy: No! Who broke it?!

Booker [whispering]: Andy, Quynh’s been awfully quiet-

Quynh: Really?!

Booker: Yeah, really!

——————————————————————————————————

Andy: I broke it. It burned my hand so I punched it. I predict ten minutes from now they’ll be at each other’s throats with warpaint on their faces, and a pig head on a stick. Good. It was getting a little too chummy around here.

[drinkingteainthedark]

[ID: A picture of Booker from The Old Guard, wearing sunglasses and sitting on a motorcycle, edited so he has breasts. End ID] Boob-ker

[kermit-coded]

booker's punishment at the end of the old guard is incredibly tragic from a characterization standpoint, especially considering andy is no longer immortal. however it's also so fucking funny because they can't kill him so they basically just put him in time out.

[materassassino]

Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Characters: Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre's Wife, Various Daemons Additional Tags: dæmon AU, Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Misunderstandings, Team as Family, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, taboos and social mores and how to break them Summary:

Sébastien Le Livre has died and come back to life, and been saved by three mysterious and completely incomprehensible people. He doesn't understand them, or their dæmons, or the nature of the bonds between them.

Or how they might change him.

Preview:

Sébastien Le Livre was a married man. He knew how being lovers worked, had known since his wedding night, when Adèle had cradled Amandine in her cupped hands and kissed her tiny head, and Sébastien had let his fingers run across the smooth, soft expanse of Clarambaut’s colourful feathers. It had been more intimate than anything he’d ever felt before, a caress to his very soul. The pinnacle of it all. They’d made love before – and that was blatantly obvious despite attempting to hide it that they’d been… hasty – but that shared touch had been something altogether different. He’d felt it inside him, as if Adèle had reached inside and held his beating heart in her hand.

To touch another’s dæmon was the deepest of taboos. It was trust that ran deeper than any other trust ever could.

[theoldgvard]

the placement of the characters did so well to heighten booker’s betrayal

the fact that nicky and joe were removed from the situation left nile relying on booker as her info, leaning on him as the one who could guide her because the only other person was andy, who had made it clear she wasn’t going to give nile straight up answers. in the middle of everything booker lets her in on not just their immortality but his own personal pain in a highly intimate and vulnerable moment. he is the one closest to nile, our pov character, and as a result the we learn too to rely on him for information, or at least to be the least enigmatic of the bunch as far as nile is concerned. and he’s also the only one who isn’t ancient, who knows most recently what it is to be the new kid. and it’s him. he’s the traitor. the one other character nile felt like she knew, having got only a night with joe and nicky and andy not being very open with her initially.

and then you watch the film again and it’s all there. the way he is always in control of the mission, the way he tries to persuade them to go find nile after finding copley, the guilt that is apparent in his features all the damn time. it’s like watching a different character. he was the least enigmatic, because it’s all right there if you know what you’re looking for. yet we, like nile, missed it, because we didn’t know enough and so we trusted the character who was in the position to guide her through it all. and ironically, the others missed it too, though for them it was putting too much trust in their brother.

[druckkugelschreiber]

*Andy and Noriko bickering *

Nile: I can’t tell if they want to kill or fuck each other

Booker: usually it‘s both