#enough excuse to be a monster but also like… that parallel did not come in almost at all

[allegoryofthebeast]

I am obsessed that Jedi: Survivor explores Cal more or less slipping into the dark side/dark behaviors and patterns and how leaning into emotion as a Jedi can make you significantly more powerful though also extremely reckless and aggressive - however a balance could perhaps be reached by Jedi with the patience and support to understand their darker emotions and how it could be beneficial or harmful given the situation. But they fr don’t. Every time something within that vein happens to Cal everyone is like damn… crazy. Anyway

[flowerwiththemachinegun]

Very often I think about Sephiroth crawling in my bed and napping. Cause why not? Headcanons for Sephiroth Angeal Cloud Zack +Tseng and Rufus? if they have consistent access to your home. I doubt they’d do anything too invasive…that doesn’t go for Rufus and Tseng

————————————————————————

Zack

haven’t been paying enough attention to him he’s worried about you, you haven’t sent him your routine messages that let him know you made it to work or when you were heading home and that’s just weird. “What could be more important than thinking about me?”

Love him all you want, he’s eating your favorite snacks like a greedy little monster, it doesn’t matter if you buy enough to accommodate both of you. It takes a lot of food to fuel that man’s body, so that just means you started buying more for him to eat in addition to what he already steals right?

Doesn’t really snoop around while you’re gone but if something catches his attention he’s going to investigate. You’ll catch him with something in his hands that you haven’t seen in ages but still claims he doesn’t actually go through your things…sure buddy

Tries to straighten up messes, most of which he makes, but I dunno man. Something about Zack doesn’t scream world’s most tidy man and he doesn’t pay attention to fine detail. It’s the effort that counts right? He’ll at least take your trash out for you and clean up any obvious messes.

Will find him sprawled out on your couch waiting for you to get home, snoring and drooling all over the arm of your sofa…god he’s so fucking adorable and he’s just waiting for you to get home and cuddle him. After all you gave him a key for anything important.

Cloud

Yall know I’m making the “you like krabby patties don’t you squidward” face mhm..anyways are those most definitely your underwear in his hands that he’s so poorly trying to hide behind his back. Not to mention the underwear hanging out of his pocket. “You know Cloud,I heard you were a perv but fuck.”

After that day he didn’t use his key for a while. No, that’s not what he was there for originally. He was waiting for you to get to your home after an argument the two of you had on the phone to speak to you in person. Who knew that in his boredom his feet would led him to your drawers? There wasn’t too much to argue about anymore, not after asking if he wanted the ones on your ass too. He did and he got them off of you personally.

Will also straighten up things he sees in disarray, especially if he knows you like things a particular way. Will also feed and take care of any other needs your pet has if you have one. He gives your pet way more attention in private than he does around you.

The “Oh I fixed it” guy. If he isn’t there by the time you get back there might be a list of miscellaneous items he fixed. Eventually he stops making the lists considering you didn’t even realize what needed fixing and when, knowing that his actions are always appreciated.

Genesis

Because what more of an excuse does he need to freely enter your home than being Genesis? He’s coming to get your attention and recite Loveless to you while creating parallels between you and the words of his beloved epic.

Mad at him? Ignoring him? That’s not going to work, you better take that key back if you really don’t want him in your face. He’s not going to knock, sweet boy is coming straight in to fix whatever turmoil has risen between the two. Sometimes bearing gifts in these moments but he delivers you gifts when you’re not mad at him as well.

Noticed one thing isn’t very tidy, taken in account that perhaps you’ve been too tired or not in the best of moods lately. He’s going to end up cleaning your home just as he would keep his own. It’s the least he can do to help his darling.

Somehow makes your entire home smell like him, it’s like he has a Febreze can of himself that he sprays around the place. It’s just him spraying his cologne everywhere to mark his territory like a cat.

Sets up cute dates for when you arrive. This is especially convenient considering the two of you have such busy/conflicting schedules. Making sure to take care of anything around your home so you can solely focus on unwinding from the events of the day and on him.

Sometimes you’ll come home to fresh flowers sitting on your living room table. Along with a sickly sweet note, a quote from Loveless thrown in, and addressed to “his goddess”.

Angeal (ily break into my home pls I just wanna talk)

The master at taking care of his “beautiful liege”. Originally got a key to your home to pick up some things you needed for work but seeing the disarray of your apartment causes him to pause. It doesn’t bother him but if you needed help being taken care of you should have asked. Poor baby feels bad for not noticing that he needs to take care of you far more than he already does.

Yeah, you actually never got the things you needed for work that day. Only receiving a short text from Angeal claiming he would “be there soon”. Stepping into your home you can’t help but notice that it smells amazing. Beginning your trek to the couch toss your things down you go to step over some books that you swear were going to get picked up two weeks ago. Looking around you can’t help but notice the whole apartment is spotless. No longer able to hold the irritation you held with Angeal for bailing on you earlier, as you realize why he never showed up.

He refuses to give you back “his” your key after this. He won’t enter without your permission of course, even if you’re home, the man’s polite after all. Certainly wont go through your things unlike Cloud and Zack but can often be found curled up in your bed if it takes a while for you to get home.

You already know this man is cooking for you, normally timing when he’ll finish a meal with the time you get home so it’s fresh cause he “needs the best for his baby”. He’ll also do things like having a bath running for you, will join if you want him to, he’ll wash you up himself since you “shouldn’t have to lift another finger today”. Once again due to such a busy and conflicting schedule this is the easiest routine for you two.

Sometimes it seems like he lives there, seemingly spending more time at your place than at his own. Which is just fine with him, home is where his heart belongs, and his heart belongs with you.

Sephiroth (the cutest one idk i usually write my favorite one last but between Angeal, Seph and Rufus+Tseng idk) {After Genesis goes missing to highlight his emotional state}

To say the look on that man’s face was stressed was an understatement. As you walked into his office, immediately asking our dear Sephi what was wrong. Not one to go into too much detail Sephiroth explains he’d just like to be alone. That right now everything is a bit much for him to deal with and he doesn’t want to be found “unless it’s by you”. Prompting you to offer up your apartment, knowing nobody would look for him there.

Hesitant to accept your offer because he doesn’t want to intrude or make himself an inconvenience to you. A statement that makes you roll your eyes because Sephiroth could never be a bother. It doesn’t take much convincing for him take your keys and disappear from the Shinra building.

When you get home Sephiroth you can tell he’s made himself at home. His shirtless form opens the door for you, giving you a quick kiss and asking how your day has been. Noting that he looks a bit more well rested than he did earlier. As you walk around you can kind of tell what he’s been up to, a few of your books are sitting on the couch along with his laptop. Nothing out of the ordinary really, asking what he’s been up to and if he’s feeling better.

Scooping you up in his arms he carries you to the bedroom, stating that he’s just been “waiting for you”. Giggling at the sight of your bed you gawk at him asking “did you make a pillow fort?!” He actually looks a little prideful when he tells you he did and that “the structural integrity is absolutely astounding.” He’ll only let you leave the fort for good reasons, either food or the bathroom seems to be the only things he lets you get up for so far.

In the morning you give him a spare key, telling him to feel free to use it whenever. And that he does, the next day finding him cocooned in your blankets on the couch. The only thing you can see is his beautiful green eyes peeking at you from his nest of blankets. Hiding in your home definitely becomes a routine for him, only going to his own for clothes and whatever other items he may need. Spending a few nights at his own place every so often to give you space (that you never needed he just worries). Just a few nights every so often though cause why does he need to be there “when everything I want is here”

Rufus+Tseng (they’re definitely a package deal, can’t tell me otherwise) ffff-hi Reno you weren’t supposed to be here but my mind has now put you here

You certainly didn’t give these guys access to your home. Walking through your apartment after a long day, to what you thought was going to be a relaxing evening. Instead being greeted by a massive guard hound, well that wasn’t on your schedule but it seemed to get penciled in “what the fuck is that?” You can’t help but spit out, reaching for your pistol only to be interrupted by a foreign voice

“Now don’t be rude Y/N. The things you just got done doing are far more terrifying than my DarkStar.” Your eyes immediately darting around to find the owner of that voice- Who is this pretty blonde fuck sitting on your couch? Legs crossed, arm propped against the arm rest with his head held up by his hand. It’s almost like he’s trying to look as disinterested as possible in…whatever it was they were here for.

Not to mention the guy standing beside him, long black hair pulled back neatly…yeah, that’s just screaming to be pulled. Drawing his weapon the minute you reached for your own, telling you to drop it and to step towards them slowly. As you start taking steps towards the duo your arm is grabbed and being twisted behind your back. Their chest rumbling against your back as they chuckle.

“Oh, this one is so cute. How do we feel about ‘em bossman?” craning your neck to get a look at your assailant, being greeted by a red head with a goofy grin on his face. My god he was easy on the eyes as well. Sporting a suit similar to the raven haired man, his shirt unbuttoned, leaving his chest deliciously exposed. If it weren’t obvious you were in danger you might’ve thought you were in for a treat. Jumping a bit as his other hand starts roaming your body. Letting out a chuckle as Reno speaks stating that he’s “just checking for weapons, ya know how it goes. Unless..” his tone turning flirtatious to be cut off swiftly by Tseng, requesting you take a seat.

Reno, as the gentleman he is, assists you in your seat. All but shoving you down as he leaves his hands resting on your shoulders. You make it clear not to him “mishandle the merchandise” only for him to tell you he “can do better later.” Quickly shutting down the interaction between Reno and yourself finally asking who they were and why they were here. Rufus does a majority of the talking he is the center of attention of course, going into detail about how the Turks have been tracking you for the past year. Going through the list of atrocities you’ve committed along with some pretty damning evidence.

“Wow, you kill a few people and now the government is breaking into your home? I don’t know if this is really warranted.” At that comment you receive a rather pointed glance from Tseng and a raised eyebrow from Rufus. Finally getting to the point after Tseng lectures you on how this is a serious matter and there’s no time to play. They offer you a job with them, “redemption” as Rufus called it. While sure you’re a criminal, you indirectly solved a lot of their problems and you’re the final loose end they needed secured. “Or, you can go back to prison, but this time for the rest of your life.”

Though Tseng made it clear, if you can’t pass their training and be a successful member of the Turks you’ll be going prison anyway. Your smarts and ability to have snuck through the system this long is what got their attention drawn to you, well Rufus’ attention. Tseng thinks picking up “low-life criminals” to join their forces is far below them. Besides, they don’t really need you anyways, they just want you.

————————————————————————

Crying cause I hate I can tell when I first started writing this and when I finally found it and finished. Saving things to drafts seems like a dangerous game I won’t be playing again. I couldn’t think of anything to add to characters I already wrote for. Definitely making the last hc something bigger and is now main priority.

[monstersinthecosmos]

I use TVA/B&G to backwards engineer The Devil's Minion a lot, not only as a rare and detailed insight into how human/vampire relationships tend to go in this series, but also just how many things they had in common, all the parallels, all the ways you can ask if Armand was working through his Maker Issues, and of course the final excuse that their hand is forced because the human is dying. But I think often about how much Marius struggled with it, and although he caved in the end, he changed his mind sometimes, he knew he was a monster, and it's always going to be the struggle of whether you love someone enough to let them go or if you love them too much to let them go, do you curse them with darkness or do you keep them so that you aren't alone in your own darkness, etc.

But I've wondered a lot how that journey went for Armand, how often he maybe changed his mind, if he felt tempted but then reminded himself he's a monster and shouldn't, and I'm absolutely haunted by their final separation before the concert. Lestat's book comes out, Daniel is wandering, Armand can't find him (or is avoiding him?) and there's just so much here, and how much of their relationship was violated by reading Lestat's book independently before speaking to each other, how much Daniel would've learned without Armand's consent or before he was ready, and how much Armand's abandonment issues would've been ripped the fuck open by reading about Marius and what he had to say.

"Whatever will happen will happen, but choose your companions with care. Choose them because you like to look at them and you like the sound of their voices, and they have profound secrets in them that you wish to know. In other words, choose them because you love them. Otherwise you will not be able to bear their company for very long." "I understand, " I said. "Make them in love. " "Exactly, make them in love. And make certain they have had some lifetime before you make them; and never never make one as young as Armand. That is the worst crime I have ever committed against my own kind, the taking of the young boy child Armand. " "But you didn't know the Children of Darkness would come when they did, and separate him from you. " "No. But still, I should have waited. It was loneliness that drove me to it. And Armand's helplessness, that his mortal life was so completely in my hands. Remember, beware of that power, and the power you have over those who are dying. Loneliness in us, and that sense of power, can be as strong as the thirst for blood. If there were not an Enkil there might be no Akasha, and if there were not an Akasha, then there would be no Enkil. "

It's just wow like.

Sincere advice that he never got to receive? In the same sentence as hearing he's a mistake? Does he read this and think he should make Daniel out of love, and at the same time feel all the more monstrous, and want to resist?

The choice is taken from him anyway, and he's forced, just as his own turning was forced. And as @nightislandnoveltymug pointed out recently, he treats it like a funeral.

[javasquats]

Annabeth in PJO episode 3

Ok because a few people requested, here are the thoughts I had on Annabeth's characterization in episode three. I wrote it out and it's literally a whole essay so I'm putting it under a cut lolol also spoiler warning for discussion of themes in Mark of Athena, but I'll put another warning before that part.

I was watching and thinking about how in a way Annabeth is the main character of this episode. In the beginning when they stop to get snacks, we see her on her own in the gas station store (which I'd say is somewhat notable considering that Percy is the sole narrator of the books, meaning we only ever get to see what he sees). We hear Grover talk about monsters hunting demigods while we simultaneously see Annabeth pursued by the fury. This establishes an image of what her life was like before camp. We imagine the type of monsters that have sabotaged her attempts at normalcy. She's just a kid buying snacks!! And she is so like Percy in the way her normal life has been disrupted over and over.

Later in the woods, when Percy suggests calling her mom, the way she says "excuse me?" isn't just annoyed at his stupidity. You can hear the actual emotional injury in her delivery. Like the equivalent of a typical kid with a typical absent parent receiving a jab about it. Percy assumes that they're close because Athena gifted Annabeth the Yankees cap. But the fact that they're not makes this look a lot more like a deadbeat parent throwing gifts at their child thinking that makes up for their absence. Just enough to maintain Annabeth's hope for her mother's love and approval.

"You're loyal to your mother?" "Yes!" "You love her?" "Yes! Of course I do!" She is still captivated by the idea of having that motherly love. That perfect family.

And then Medusa is telling her story, and the writers give us explicit permission to understand this as describing Annabeth's story. Annabeth, like Medusa, is trying so hard to receive love and to feel like she is enough, fighting for Athena's approval. And then the son of Poseidon, like Medusa describes Poseidon himself (purely going off of what medusa says in this story, rather than the myth itself, for narrative purposes), comes along and promises her that love, shows her that affection. And she starts to think maybe she is enough! She is lovable! Annabeth starts to heal from the wounds caused by her abandonment.

(Mark of Athena spoilers btw)

And then Athena, who she spent so long fighting for the approval of and who was the one who caused those wounds that Percy helped her recover from, comes back and says Annabeth is a disgrace and a failure, just like she did with Medusa.

Poseidon also abandons Medusa in her story. His promises of love her empty, and Medusa is left alone, with nothing. Double abandonment whammy. So like we can imagine if we apply this to Annabeth, the amount of apprehension and fear about letting Percy in and believing that she is lovable, because what if it's a lie?

Slight Medusa aside: she only begins to act "monstrously" when she tries to manipulate Percy in the kitchen, once again drawing a parallel between herself and another woman. But this time it's Sally Jackson who she doesn't even know. She tries to turn Percy against Annabeth because she thinks Annabeth will turn against her. She sees herself in Annabeth and at the same time is redirecting her own pain at her.

"We are not our parents until we choose to be, and you two have chosen." As if humans are static. As if we aren't a continual work in progress. Always growing and changing. As if we don't learn our lessons in our own time.

(Tagging the people who requested this! Hope you enjoyed my whole ass ted talk!!)

@irregular-child @perpetuallyexhaustedmess @mortalmab

[satansaidmyturnintheh3llscape]

Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Rise of the Serpentine” E8: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Imma be honest… there’s at least 1 very overly-analytical character analysis about Jay. There’s also quite a few critiques about jaya here (cuz I have lots of issues with their relationship the first few seasons of the show) so be warned. Disclaimers: Show owned by LEGO, this is not a professional review/critique - it’s just intended for comedy.

Comment/reblog and follow for more!

- Theme ✅

- ^ This is not what a Hypnobrai general looks like ❌

- “If one is able to wildly raise their heart rate, hypothetically it could reverse the venom’s effects.” Because turning into a snake doesn’t already raise one’s heart rate enough? ❌

- “I get them mixed up.” Kai attempts to m*rder his own sister ❌

- Within - what? A day? - Zane’s humor switch moves from his chest to his arm ❌

- “Impress me? But I look so-“ “Fantastic…” At this point in the series, we have no reason to believe Jay’s feelings toward Nya had anything to do with anything other than her looks, or even just the fact that she was a girl. We have yet to see these two bond with each other or even hang out. It’s cutesy pining without actual substance and Jaya as a ship would be 10x better if they had given us more of that substance prior to them becoming an official relationship. ❌

- Obligatory Nya appreciated cuz look at her✅

- “You mean… like a date?” “Um… yeah..?” “I’d love to!” I love scenes that portray BOTH sides of a romance as awkward and slightly inexperienced as opposed to the fairly one-sided approach many of them tend to take. It’s genuinely realistic and refreshing to see ✅

- “But I have to go now before the perfume toxins enter my bloodstream and I go into shock. See you tonight!” ✅

- That fly doesn’t look more like a snake, it just looks more green ❌

- Where did Garmadon get those weapons from?? They just flew into his arms - who threw them?? ❌

- Also, I know this is likely supposed to be a parallel to the actual golden weapons, but all I see is Garmadon using these as cosplay props ❌

- “Mud monsters converge!” Why do the mud monsters obey Garmadon? ❌

- “You don’t belong here old fool.” Garmadon you’re literally older than him ❌

- “Your son’s in danger!” “Lloyd?” Never forget that Garmadon literally went from about to murder his brother to “wait Lloyd’s in trouble? Why didn’t you say so! Get out of there stupid we’ve got a kid to save!” in a matter of seconds ✅

- “What has Lloyd gotten himself into?” I love that he just knows it was Lloyd getting himself wrapped into this sh*t ✅

- “But I used it all and now have no way back.” Well that was stupid of you ❌

- The poor lizard was just trying to sunbathe ☹️❌

- “Maybe it’s better to wait until dark so we don’t attract any unwanted attention from the ninja or samurai.” “Oh I have a feeling we’ll fit right in…” And then they immediately attracted unwanted attention from both the ninja and samurai. ❌

- “Did I ever tell you I was the first one to learn spinjitzu? Uh, I mean I invented spinjitzu…” I like the detail that Jay starts out by bragging about an actual accomplishment of his and THEN changes it to a lie. It’s fits the theme very well and gives good insight into Jay’s character. He starts out trying to be himself but is then overwhelmed with the idea that he and his accomplishments aren’t enough. ✅

- But also, Jay seems to think Nya is an idiot ❌

- “It’s just a rash!” Bluejay, it’s green ❌

- “Pythor would not be there for fun” Type-casting ❌

- “Get your priorities straight, man!” Kai doesn’t think Nya is a priority ❌

- Look, I kinda get why Jay keeps the bite-thing a secret (not really given the context but I’ll still let it slide) but neither of them have any reason to hide the fact that the Serpentine are around. I guess Jay might be doing it because he’s afraid that he’ll never get another chance with Nya or something, but that’s not an in-character concern for Nya to have ❌

- Doesn’t Nya changing behind a foldable wall kinda defeat the purpose of her earlier excuse of why Jay couldn’t come into her room? ❌

- “I was thinking we could take my storm glider” Actually, the set is called “Jay’s Storm Fighter” ❌

- “It was clear I was born and bred for adventure…” Jay is who I imagine is the worst type of person to be on a date with ❌

- “So the samurai, um… I hate him!.” I’d give him a shovel to get outta this hole but apparently my phone doesn’t have that emoji so how’s about we see what he can do with a wrench instead: 🔧

- “He’s just such a showboat, ya know?” “Oh.”The wrench did not work I repeat the wrench did not work-

- VA appreciation for Nya’s “oh” cuz it’s the same bitterness I hope to achieve in life ✅

- “Nothing can compare to two good old fashioned feet and fists.” You have nunchucks that shoot people with lightning. ❌

- “It’s okay! Just go out there and tell her the truth!” The method Jay calms/reassures himself with hits way too close to home✅

- So Pythor is wearing a costume but Jay they attack? ❌

- “Not so fast!” “Really? That’s the best you got?” ✅

- “How bout ‘time to burn’ or ‘jump on this fire rock’” Cole those are both just as bad.

- “If you can keep up!” “Oh come on you gotta follow my lead-“ Cole points out my sin for me ❌

- Win for that one snake somehow hanging from the ceiling. ✅

- But also sin because how is that one snake guy hanging from the ceiling? ❌

- Pure silver is (generally considered) to be NOT magnetic. I don’t know what all these artifacts are made of but they can ALL be stuck with false advertising at this point ❌

- “Do not go in there; he bites!” The people in this diner are all idiots ❌

- Why does Jay’s transformation happen so much faster than Ed and Edna’s did? It took them a night + before they started turning green but Jay is this far through in a few hours? ❌

- “I was meaning to tell you but I didn’t want it to ruin the date!” “Aww that’s so sweet!” No, it isn’t! Sh*t like this isn’t romantic - it’s annoying at best and dangerous at worst. Jay’s actions come from a place of personal insecurity, which should NOT be romanticized, and Nya should be angry that he’s been lying to her all day. Why would she think it’s cute? ❌

- “You were the first to earn your knot badge in little scouts, right?” Those are metal chains - I doubt a knots badge would be much help. ❌

- “Where is he when you actually need him?” Samurai X has shown up EVERY time you needed her, actually ❌

- WOAH! Can we have some consent, pls? ❌

- “You are the best you…” Seriously the true potential scenes are all sooooo good ✅

- “Wonder what sensei’s doing now…” Lloyd’s mom, most likely

Sentence: Generic kids show messages

[h3rmitsunited]

Ignore me just having Thoughts™ about Todd Brotzman again, but also don't because I'm on a freaking roll rn.

Okay, like God everyone loves the hospital reunion scene right, am I right? Yes I'm right. Look at these sweet hearts.

Theyre perfect and I love them so much.

Okay my rambling thoughts about Todd in this scene and shirt/jacket meaning and how it relates to Todds whole deal under the cut because I'm thinking so much...

Okay, so now that I've got your attention, walk with me for a minute back in Todd's history.

The big freaking elephant in the room. The pararibulitis lie that he has kept up for years. For years, which means thousands of little lies keeping up this big lie, constantly, to his parents, to Amanda, to his band, up until the moment he confesses to Amanda, his existence, his entire life purpose has been focused around the effects this lie has had on his life. Because what was he doing? He was working a minimum wage dead end job living in a shitty apartment to try to give as much money he could to support Amanda out of guilty obligation because he used up his parents savings. That's not just one thing it's thousands of little moments.

So because of this, Todd says he's an asshole. He isn't a friend, he isn't a good person, he's shitty and toxic and pathetic and a huge asshole. I mean he's got thousands of moments that he can point to and say, "see I'm an asshole for doing that and that." And like fair, like I'm not saying that what Todd did isn't shitty, like it's pretty shitty, but like just getting into his mindset here. When he tells all this to Dirk, he's still lying to Amanda. He's still keeping up this whole charade, and Dirk tells him, you're making excuses for your excuses. You're not an asshole forever because you've done bad things. It's not a permanent title, it's something that you can change by stopping doing bad things, and the way that you do this is by making things right and telling Amanda the truth.

Dirk makes him feel like he can be a better person and that's great.

Okay, right, don't worry I'm getting around to the hospital thing, it's a short detour.

So Amanda, right? The confession. Goes not so great... Okay, so Todd, thinking, yes okay, telling Amanda, this will make things right. He feels like this is a sign from the universe, Dirk said he should, and he's got it in his head that he's going to fix everything. He'll say he's sorry and fix things. But oh shit. Todd's magic superpower comes into play and that's called I am an unredeemable asshole liar and my words are worthless, so apologizing for what I did is going to fix absolutely nothing. But ta-da, he's got a lottery ticket. He stole money and lied, those are the major issues, so if he gives money and tells the truth, then that solves both problems, right?

Except the issue isn't that simple, obviously, and anyone that was not Todd could probably have been able to tell that this confession was never going to end with a happy hug and forgiveness. It was a major betrayal of trust, all those thousands of moments, years of their relationship tarnished by the rot of those lies that were just sewn into their past together. Todd becomes the monster to Amanda, taking the place of a loving brother that she thought that she had.

Now all of that leads into the argument on the pier, etc etc... but the parallel here and the takeaway I got from Todd's confession, his apology, his attempt to make things right, was the addition of the lottery ticket, a peace offering of sorts, not a bribe or a gift, but Todd trying to bridge the deficit he created with his lies. It doesn't fit the bill, it's not enough, it's not the right offering.

OKAY, now back to the hospital scene. Now I could write a whole hundred other essays on this scene, so I'm just going to focus on the bit that pertains to this meta and that's Todd and taking what we saw with his Amanda apology and finding the parallel and finding how he learned and what it means.

Let's set the scene. Todd comes to the hospital to find Dirk, he stops at Dirk's apartment and brings his yellow jacket and brings a Mexican funeral T-shirt. He's subdued here, asking Dirk how his injury is before responding to Dirk's confusion by presenting him with these peace offerings.

And oh boy, I am going to overanalyze the crap out of these, okay? So get ready.

First, yellow jacket. Why the yellow? It was the first jacket we see Dirk in. Todd fighting this wacky weirdo that came through his apartment window, escaping from a crazy guy with a gun, confronting said guy on a bridge, feeling that first burst of excited adrenaline after saving Farah. That first taste of what working a case with Dirk is like. I feel like him bringing the yellow jacket, is not only the show trying to be like okay this is the Dirk look so we bring it back around from the first episode, but also Todd saying like hey, let's kind of start over here, I said some things, you lied about some things, but I like you and I like detective cases and working with you and you're kind of a weirdo but that's what I like about you, so put your wacky detective jacket back on and let's go. It's kind of Todd saying I accept you and all the weird that goes with you.

And then the Mexican Funeral T-shirt. A shirt that symbolizes Todd's lies, his past, his mistakes, his asshole days, and he gives it to Dirk. Dirk, the man that told him that he didn't have to wear that label anymore, that he should be better, he should be honest, he should let himself move forward and break the pattern. Todd doesn't want to wear that shirt anymore, but its also something that he knows is a problem for him, a habit that he's had for years and giving the shirt to Dirk is him saying you made me better and I'm letting you wear this to make me want to hold myself accountable for you. Now, like this also kind of leads into season 2 Todd and his kind of elevated perception of Dirk and like the pressure he kind of adds on him with all this, so like there's some like unhealthy dynamics at play, but moving on.

The one other thing with the Mexican Funeral T-shirt, is that like Dirk says, holding the shirt up in front of him, "Didn't you say this band hated you?" And Todd is like, well yeah, (so do a lot of people and I deserve it). But I think there's something to say about this man that has shown how much he cares about Todd after knowing him a week, that wants him to be a better person, wants his friendship, being given a shirt of people that hated him. I have said a lot of words here, so what it is to say, I don't know, but like... there's gotta be something right?

Okay... and then Todd ending his apology, not by saying I'm sorry, because words... right? Todd feels like a fuck up, he's just going to screw things up again. He acted like an asshole to Dirk, so what does he do? He tells Dirk, "I am your friend." A parallel, a reference, to that scene in 1x05, after Dirk had told him he doesn't have to be an asshole forver, just don't do shitty things, don't make excuses for your excuses. Todd wants to be better, he wants to put asshole Todd that lashes out when he's backed into a corner away, and he tells Dirk, I'm your friend, I remember what you said and I want to be better for you.

And I think that means more to Dirk than I'm sorry (even if I think he does deserve an I'm sorry. Like Todd you can't just tell someone they're a monster and deserve to be alone). Also like Dirk doesn't have a lot of experience in the field of apologies or like friends so like he's just like you're being nice to me, I love you and stay with me forever please.

I mean Todd does use his words to say I'm sorry in season 2, but also he acts like a more supportive friend to Dirk and tries to understand where he's coming from, up to a point where they butt heads against Dirk's own trauma, which like stressful situation and I'm not going to blame either of them for their behavior when they got into Wendimoor. His stuff with Amanda progresses and I think he gets his head more wrapped around her hurt from what he did after they talk, and understanding that their relationship isn't ever going back to how it was before.

So, yeah, okay. I guess the end then? This sort of turned into a super long essay... in conclusion, Todd sorry? 😬👍

[hamliet]

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls and It Dies...

Or, why I am pretty optimistic about the fates of Jean, Connie, Gabi, and all titanized people this chapter, which is also an excuse for me to talk about SnK’s allusions to Russian literature. 

There are strikingly parallel ideas The Brothers Karamazov and Attack on Titan, as well as parallel plot points and imagery to the point where if it isn’t deliberate, it’s uncanny. (NB: before people yell at me about comparing a Japanese and Russian work, Isayama has used Russian names since the start of SnK--Shiganshina is a Russian name.) In particular, there are narrative allusions to a portion of the novel known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” which is a short story within a novel. The central thesis of “The Grand Inquisitor” is as follows: 

nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 

This parable is told within the story by Ivan Karamazov, a character whose intellectuality is his gift and his curse. He tells his brother Alyosha that the motivation for creating this parable is precisely the evils done to children (oh look, a major SnK theme) and specifically cites an example which was unfortunately taken from real life in Russia and which Isayama has an uncanny parallel:

I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer... If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? ... if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old...

... How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? ... What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? ... I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. ... too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it... It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.”

The actual parable of “The Grand Inquisitor” is Ivan’s answer to Alyosha’s question about Ivan’s lines above. Ivan tells a story about how freedom is actually what dooms humanity: it is the curse. (Alyosha does not believe this.) Jesus comes back to earth and is promptly arrested, because his existence and return threaten the wellbeing of society. To be happy, one cannot be free, but one or two strong people in society should be free and bear the burden for everyone else (you can see the parallels to King Fritz/the Reisses). 

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering... all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom...

This is SnK’s thesis: to be free, there will be suffering. It is part of human nature, and yet to not have it is to be lost. But SnK, despite its explorations of human darkness and monstrosity, has a higher view of humanity than does Ivan. SnK’s view is more alongside Alyosha’s, who says what is honestly the truth about not just the Reisses, but Eren now:

"Who are these keepers of the mystery who have taken some curse upon themselves for the happiness of mankind? .... It's simple lust of power, of filthy earthly gain, of domination—something like a universal serfdom with them as masters—that's all they stand for.”

Mikasa is akin to the Christ figure in the story, akin to Alyosha: Christ is constantly asked to speak, asked to act, and he does not until the very last moment, when he kisses the Grand Inquisitor on the lips. After the story is over, Alyosha then does likewise to Ivan. 

Not to mention when Alyosha worries about Ivan’s mental state, he then answers with this:

“Listen, Alyosha,” Ivan began in a resolute voice, “if I am really able to care for the sticky little leaves I shall only love them, remembering you. It's enough for me that you are somewhere here, and I shan't lose my desire for life yet.”

A simple leaf can save a life. A leaf can save the world. A leaf, grown from a tree that started as a seed falling to the ground, dead, only to grow life from that death. Alyosha himself notes SnK’s central thesis of chapter 137 in the (very long) novel’s final pages:

...some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

There’s a lot more to this, but this is the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov, the central thesis of the entire novel:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." -John 12:24

Suffering can grow great fruit in an individual life, and by giving something up, by even death, something beautiful can come. Through cruelty, you can find life. 

This is not just a long-running theme in SnK, but a pattern in its plot. Often those who surrender then receive exactly what they had surrendered (but admittedly, not always, like Erwin). 

Mikasa accepted Eren’s loss, and got him back.

Mikasa let Armin go, and got him back.

Falco gave up hope of survival, and got another chance: 

Hange was going to die alone, feeling guilty for having failed her comrades, but saw everyone again, and they told her well done: 

Historia gave up being free, but now we know she will be.

Levi gave up on his revenge, and then got it. Annie thought she would never see her dad again, but she did. For Mikasa, accepting that she has to kill the boy she loves coincides not just with her acceptance of her love, but with the acceptance and knowledge that he loves her:

It always comes with sacrifice, increasingly hard sacrifice, but usually the seeds that are dropped grow and bloom. 

This chapter, everyone surrendered their hearts. They let their dreams fall to the ground, and I honestly think the story will allow it to plant life. Yes, the world as a whole is saved and that is enough to make thematic sense, but it works even better if the very people who were titanized this chapter also bloom again. They chose to trust Mikasa, Levi, Falco, and Pieck to finish the task.

The characters giving up their lives only to get them back make sense, and give Mikasa’s sacrifice of Eren. For Mikasa, Eren was her world, and she gave it up when she had lost everyone else. She had nothing left, and she still did it. I would hope she’d be narratively rewarded beyond just the world being saved, because Mikasa has always been motivated by her personal relationships.

Moving on from Mikasa: Connie’s mom has been kept alive and the concept of turning mindless titans back to humans was already brought up specifically in relation to her:

Connie giving up on his mother a dozenish chapters ago only to get her back now--not through sacrificing a child, but through saving the entire world--would fit the themes and patterns of SnK.

Thirdly, Gabi should not die. She’s Eren with positive development, and cannot meet the same end. Even people who are skeptical of every titan being saved seem to agree that she’ll be fine. It’s possible she’s the only one saved, but imo, not likely. 

See, the only shifter characters who are going to have the option of self-sacrifice are Falco and maaaaaybe Armin. The others look like they’re about to die right here and now, never mind choosing someone to save: the mindless titans are ripping at their napes. Armin also looks to be in bad shape. 

Yet Armin cannot narratively commit suicide; two chapters ago he was still screaming at himself for being useless and thinking he would be better off dead. He’s already tried the heroic sacrifice, too, so why would it work this time around? It does not work for his arc. Falco dying for Gabi was the plan without any freedom from the titan curse; it’s more powerful if ending the curse changes things, rather than forcing him to make the same choice that Reiner has always been trying to make: a heroic suicide. It could happen; it’s just not as narratively strong.

As for whether the worldbuilding rules, we know that mindless titans are not truly dead nor entirely mindless; they just don’t have freedom. Ymir’s case of getting herself back after decades shows that they aren’t quite dead or absorbed. They still have consciousness that can be awoken; Ymir described it as being in a long “nightmare.” Dina still went looking for Grisha. Connie’s mom remembered and recognized Connie, telling him “welcome home.” There is plenty of evidence that there are parts of these people that are still in there even if they are forced to become monsters (oh hey, it’s an Eren parallel; he was conscious of it and had choices while mindless titans do not, but the parallel remains).

[whump-town]

Was Hotch Abused?

I offer you my 2,300+ worded thoughts on the matter with episodes included. There's going to be lots and lots of talk about abuse so you're going to want to steer clear of that if that's something you're not cool with but for those of you interested... I give you all the proof I could think of:

Natural Born Killer.

In the eighth episode of the first season, “Natural Born Killer”, we meet Vincent Perrotta. His father was abusive but from the outside looking in, no one knew a thing. Perrotta started drinking at fourteen and committed petty crimes, as well as assault, for pleasure. Going as far as to kill his own father not too long after. But Perrotta is a monster and a psychopath so it’s clear we’re not supposed to sympathize which makes his interaction with Hotch so peculiar.

Hotch is our “Captain America”. A true neutral with an infinity for doing what’s right so it’s inconceivable to compare him to Perrotta and yet Hotch gives us some rather conflicting lines to dissect.

Before Gideon hands the interview over to Hotch, he spends a moment talking with the others out in the bullpen. The whole time he’s leaned back and he’s watching Morgan and Hotch. Now, at this point, we don’t know about the sexual abuse Derek Morgan faced at the hands of Carl Buford but there’s something about the way that Gideon spends the entirety of the conversation only looking at the two of them. Waiting for them to put together what he clearly already has and when Hotch does…

Hotch jumps straight into Perrotta’s profile, asking: “You grew up in a house that looked normal and happy, didn’t you Vincent?”, “But your father beat you every chance he got”

Perrotta excuses it with a shrug, “he smacked me around some, didn’t everybody’s old man?”

Abuse is a complicated thing and, often, abused children just don’t know what their parents are doing to them is abuse. It can be a subtle and outright thing but there’s an element of normalcy to it. The parent’s abuse is as habitual, as minimal as biting your nails to the child. Adults often can’t identify their parent’s past abuse.

With Hotch you learn that his lack of expression is often as telling as his expressions and as Hotch looks back at Perrotta, there’s something so sad about his eyes. His voice goes from loud, assertive to his whispered answer to Perrotta’s question. “No.” As if, well, maybe that’s a question he’d raised once too.

Perrotta doesn’t care about that though and he taunts “well, maybe if yours had you would have learned to fight”. But is it not more telling that Hotch didn’t make a sound? Perrotta got in several hits and the only sound Hotch made was when the wind was literally punched out of him. Not even when Gideon called to him and at that point, Perrotta did not the garrote around Hotch’s throat. That’s another thing mentioned before in the profile and something Hotch mentions to Perrotta directly. You learn to take the beatings, smile even. So, it’s just a little odd how little Hotch responded…

But that’s all nothing, you can take that how you want

Which leads us to the fateful, not everyone comment.

"You were just responding to what you learned, Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive and violent household... it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers"

That can’t mean NOTHING, there’s so much there but there’s something about Hotch’s subtle wording. The way he’s unconsciously slipped himself in there (a very real thing that people do) and he hasn’t even realized it. Doesn’t even know he’s done it until Perrotta pushes and he pauses, asks what Perrotta means. And the subtly of it, the way he doesn’t even mean to that says more than anything else.

“And some people grow up to catch them.”

It’s a super-specific comment to make. He can’t possibly be talking about Derek because he doesn’t even know about Carl Buford yet not to mention saying that about him would be incredibly rude if he were talking about Reid (and again, he doesn’t know about Reid’s childhood yet). So… that really only leaves him because JJ, Garcia, and Elle were not abused.

“P911”

In season two, episode two “P911” the team is hunting down a man trying to sell a young boy, Peter, on the black market. Kevin Rose is an underage boy “selling” himself on the internet while his abusive father has been in prison. I’ll let you just guess who it is that leads the team on finding out more about Kevin.

Your guess is more than likely right-- Morgan and Hotch. Now, we know about Morgan but come on. Nothing to say about it being Hotch who makes the emotional appeal?

The camera even follows his gaze, he’s crouched down (to appear non-threatening because he’s so close) and we watch his eyes take in the scars on Kevin’s chest. You can also note that while Gideon remarks that Kevin’s father was “always drunk, you never knew why he was hurting you, why he was so angry” both Kevin and Hotch look away from him.

AND FUCKING TRY AND TELL ME THE “some grow up to catch them” LINE WAS NOTHING TRY BECAUSE GUESS WHAT GIDEON SAYS? NO, NO GUESS--

Gideon: “At night you’d cry yourself to sleep hoping someone would come and save you”

And it’s HOTCH, HOTCH IS THE ONE TO SAY: “You have the chance to be the one who saves someone, Kevin. You can be the one who answers him, the one who stops his pain.”

PARALLELS PEOPLE THE PARALLELS

“Profiler, Profiled”

I bet you weren’t expecting this one, huh? But there’s something about people who faced trauma that makes it so perceptible to other traumatized people-- they sniff it out like coke to a drug hound. And, just guess, who it is that spends the majority of his time fighting with Morgan? Who knows (like I said about the bloodhound) immediately there is something Morgan’s hiding.

Hotch is angry, he’s upset that Morgan would hide anything. Mumbling about there being “larger implications” and how the team can’t have secrets. With the knowledge of exactly what that secret is it makes Gideon’s eye roll a little telling. Because it’s like they both know but neither will say. Driven home by Gideon turning the attention to Hotch, asking “would you want us profiling you?”

And again Hotch is the one to leap onto the abuse. The one to put the pieces together. Hotch’s anger makes no sense. He says he’s angry that Derek’s keeping a secret but the team has many, way too many. Over the years the team unwraps all kinds of secrets, he’s never angry then. So, it’s not about the implication of a secret at all. It’s what the secret is, like misplaced anger. Anger with himself may be leftover from his own abuse. But still…

Hotch lets Morgan escape. Knows exactly who and what Carl Buford is but all he tells the team is that “he won’t even speak about him”. He always knows how to find the abuse… like I said, a bloodhound.

George Foyet

I know you’re going to find this so fucking surprising but guess who also was abused? George Foyet was beaten by his biological father and his mother didn’t save him so he hates women (bleh, men are disgusting what’s knew).

Now, blah, blah, blah Hannah, I know you’re not about to say Foyet and Hotch are a lot alike-- no of course not. Don’t be silly. What I’m going to say is that they’re foil characters? They accent one another in an opposites sort of way. Foyet is a manipulative narcissist who doesn’t work well with others. Hotch is a guilt-ridden team leader who can’t let The Reaper’s case go. There are meant to be comparisons drawn between them. A good villain does that. George Foyet shows us that Hotch is not at all this removed, cool guy that we’ve previously assumed him to be. He cries in an alley because he blames himself when The Reaper kills a busload of people.

We see he has a rather compulsive nature. He never let The Reaper case go and has very personal ties in this case. Not even after Foyet attacks him, if anything it’s worse. He brings the case file home.

But it’s certainly interesting to see yet another “villain” with that same tragic abusive father and submissive mother come into play with Hotch. We’re nearing a point where it’s getting hard to call it coincidence (and according to David Rossi, there simply is not such thing).

Haunted.

In the second episode of the fifth season, “Haunted”, Hotch voice’s over a Dickinson quote: “One need not be a chamber to be haunted, One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing. Material place.” These quotes are often cheesy, if not a little cliché, but given the premise of this episode is in exploring the ways in which a man’s traumatic childhood has left him now grappling for a truth he can not define… well, maybe we can say the writers were onto something here.

Darrin Call, debatably the Unsub of “Haunted”, was abused by an alcoholic father. We see several signs of it throughout the episode-- Darrin’s delayed speech & severe neglect that leaves Darrin in dirty, hole-riddled clothing. If what we see is not enough, the reports that the team is given on Darrin explicitly state that he was extremely physically abused. It is this abuse that leads to the PTSD that he’s diagnosed with.

As sad and disheartening as Darrin Call’s life is, overall it’s the sort of episode that is forgotten over time. When it’s placed right after the episode that viewers have to watch Hotch say goodbye to Haley and Jack then, who is Darrin Call when compared to the agony of watching Hotch show genuine weakness? After watching Hotch lay in a hospital bed, tears in his eyes wondering if his son will remember him? His fears become our own and after watching George Foyet disarm and mutilate the one guy we’ve been led to believe for five seasons is infallibly, unflinchingly never going to break… well, Darrin Call has it bad but our focus is elsewhere.

It’s on Hotch, right?

The guy who is coming back to the job after only a month (and a day) off to recover. Who Morgan worries might have PTSD but he knows they can’t easily measure because Hotch wrote the questionnaire, he knows all the right answers. Who we see has had new locks installed since the attack and has Foyet’s file sitting open on a table for easy access. Who hears Darrin Call’s life (worked the same job without promotion for years before getting fired, no wife, no kids, a hermit) and bluntly asks why Darrin hasn’t just killed himself.

And let’s just take a moment to break down that comment. Hotch, who in the episode previously lost his wife and child, wants to know why a man who is steadily starting to sound a lot like him hasn’t just killed himself.

And I don’t say “sounds a lot like him” lightly.

Darrin Call has PTSD. Hotch, more than likely, has PTSD

Here are some signs just from that episode: hostility (he yelled at Garcia over something very small), self-destructive behavior (he ran into Darrin Call’s father’s house without a vest, back-up, or telling the other’s what he was doing), and guilt (blamed himself for missing the eye twitching Darrin exhibited because of his years of antipsychotic use)

Darrin Call was abused… this marks the second HEAVILY implied time that Hotch has been compared to another man abused by his father

Vincent Perrotta was the first with that hard to forget the exchange

George Foyet and his notably exactly the same past as Perrotta

“Haunted” feels like it’s supposed to prove to the audience that Hotch is losing it. He distances himself from Morgan, leaving every room that Morgan is in. He doesn’t pick up Garcia’s calls after Darrin Call attacks his therapist. The only glimpse we see of the old Hotch is with Emily, pulled to the side, but his guilt burns and he even brushes her off. Shaking his head and turning his back to her because somehow he should have seen something no one else did.

Throw in Reid’s comment about Call “victims are often drawn to the scene of their first trauma” and we’re painfully reminded of Hotch’s apartment. A place you’d think he’d want to escape but didn’t. The man was stabbed nine times in his own apartment and stayed in that same place. Almost sounds like that statement could be applied to Hotch too.

A dash of Hotch’s own comment about where Call would go to in his confusion and he says “to what he knows”, even the importance of how that orphanage is “where he became Darrin Call”. Where does Hotch go? What does Hotch know? The job.

So… we tally now three total Unsubs that Hotch has this direct relationship with. Three Unsubs with abusive fathers and mothers who couldn’t protect them. Hmm… coincidence?

Brothers Hotchner

Supervisor Special Agent Hotchner is a master of hiding, that is undeniable. It’s hard to see anything behind those furrowed brows and impersonal suits and that’s likely for a reason. However, anyone with a little sibling can tell you that no one on this Earth can and will annoy the ever-loving shit out of you like a sibling.

But that’s not really important. Sean and Hotch don’t talk about their parents. At all. Ever.

Hotch says that when Sean was in the first grade he got sent off to boarding school. “I was the screw-up making bad choices”. Interesting enough of a statement to make but you throw in the rough ages of Sean and Hotch at that time and it’s a little more than just “interesting”. You have Hotch at roughly 14-15 getting into trouble just like Morgan did at that same age (coincidence???).

(now you can certainly look at Hotch’s parentification vs. Sean’s immaturity doubled with substance abuse problems but we’d be stretching. “The Tribe” touches on the parentification but Sean just calls it “the big brother” thing and tells Hotch that he’s not Sean’s father and it’s fine it’s whatever. Hotch is a bit pushy. That’s not new. Substance abuse can just be a problem, it doesn’t have to be bc they were abused but again… a little coincidental)

So... was Aaron Hotchner abused as a child? I certainly think so

[solena2]

So.

Tommy isn’t Theseus. Every time I see Techno’s analogy about Tommy being Theseus brought up I’m filled with endless rage and I’ve DECIDED!

That it’s about time I explained just why it’s so objectively incorrect.

-

First: a bit of backstory on Theseus, because I doubt many of you actually know much about him beyond what Techno said in his “so you want to be a hero” speech, which left out a lot of relevant details.

Theseus was a demigod with two fathers and one mother. His fathers were king Aegeus of Athens and the sea god Poseidon, and his mother was Aethra, Aegeus’ wife. Aethra raised Theseus on her own, far from Athens to avoid him being assassinated.

Aegeus left him nothing but a sword with the Athenian crest and a pair of sandals, buried under a rock so no one else could get them.

When Theseus came of age, he took the sword and sandals and headed up to Athens, slaying various monsters along the way. (It pains me to abbreviate it that much, but Techno left out everything before the Minotaur so it won’t help me much in debunking his analogy.)

Once he got to Athens, he met up with his dad, chased out his stepmom Medea, (yes, that Medea) and killed some people. Then comes the relevant part.

Crete had won a war against Athens a while back, and because of this, every seven years Athens was forced to send 14 tributes to be killed by the Minotaur. (Yes, this inspired the Hunger Games)

Theseus decided he’d volunteer and kill the Minotaur, thus ending the tribute system for good and getting one over on Athens. He promised his dad that if he won, he’d come back in a ship with white sails, as opposed to the standard mourning black that signified the death of the tributes.

So he went to Crete, met king Minos and his daughters Ariadne and Phaedra, and got sent into the labyrinth. Ariadne gave him a magic ball of string that kept him from getting lost, allowing him to find the Minotaur and then safely get out afterwards, providing he could kill it.

He killed it, led his other 13 tributes out, and sailed back home. On the way, Athena told him to leave Ariadne stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, so he immediately did so, because Theseus was an asshole.

He got home, his dad committed suicide because Theseus forgot the white sails and his dad assumed he’d died, Theseus became king and married Phaedra, and then the fun began, because again, Theseus was an asshole.

First, he cheated on Phaedra with Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, so she left and took the kids. Next, he and his other asshole friend Pirithous decided to kidnap themselves some new wives. Theseus decided on Helen of Troy, who was a child at the time, and Pirithous decided on Persephone, which resulted in both him and Theseus getting stuck in the Underworld for a while due to pissing off Hades.

Once he got back up, he killed his son for fucking his wife, which is messed up on many levels, and then left Athens because his people were rightfully not super okay with that.

Then he goes and meets Lycomedes, who throws him off a cliff.

-

Next, let’s talk about Techno’s speech a bit.

He starts off by accusing Tommy of being a power hungry dictator (paraphrased), before asking him if he wants to be a hero.

Then, he provides what is apparently the archetypal example of heroism, something often associated with selflessness, kindness, and generally giving at least one singular solitary fuck about other people.

Theseus! Heroic hero who does heroic things, like, uhhh *checks notes* cheating on his wife, kidnapping children with plans to forcefully marry them, leaving people alone on tiny islands with no supplies, killing his kid, etc. etc...

So we’re off to a great start.

Then, he gives a short summary of Theseus’ life and times! He skips the first part of his life completely, which is hilarious to me because it’s the only time Theseus ever did anything actually heroic or selfless, and gets straight to the meat!

“Let me tell you a story, Tommy. A story of a man called Theseus. His country was in danger, he sent himself forward! Into enemy lines. He slayed the Minotaur! And saved his city. You know what they did to him, Tommy? They exiled him. He died in disgrace, despised by his people. That’s what happens to heroes, Tommy.”

-Technoblade

So first off, he doesn’t mention... really anything other than the Minotaur and the exile, which is leaving out a lot of relevant details, like why Theseus was exiled. (You know, killing his son in cold blood?)

Second, he doesn’t give details in general. Not that he should’ve given a full telling, or anything, but I’m always surprised by the shortness of this speech when I go back and listen to it. He pretty much just gives the barest bones of an argument and expects his audience to take it at face value. (Which they do, but it’s still bad practice)

From the more accurate (if still brief) summary if Theseus’ life I’ve just given, I’m sure you can see why this might be more than a bit dubious, as an analogy. Given cc!Technoblade is literally an English major, and doubtless knows significantly more about the myth than I do, I’d imagine this was never intended to be taken at face value.

Over and over again, c!Techno proves himself to be an unreliable narrator, and over and over again, the fandom at large takes his word as gospel.

-

Now, as far as a more in depth argument for Tommy as Theseus goes, I will attempt to debunk that as well, because there are some genuinely good points to be made.

First of all, most people make Dream out to be the Minotaur. Given the time this speech was made, I imagine Schlatt was the intended target of that, but with latter events in mind, Dream does make much more sense.

I’d say this is honestly pretty fair, but I don’t think Tommy takes the role of Theseus in that narrative. I’d argue he’s much more analogous to the role of Ariadne, giving the tools required to defeat Dream but ultimately not doing so through his own power, but because someone chose to take those tools and make use of them. This also provides the very interesting characterization of Punz as Theseus, which is an incredibly unique take that I hope some a Punz enthusiast does something with, because I don’t know enough about his lore to make a good analysis on that.

The idea of Schlatt as the Minotaur, as was probably intended by Techno at the time, makes much more sense, though I still think other characters fit the role better. Firstly, Schlatt wasn’t killed, he died of a heart attack, and if someone had killed him I think it’s more likely to have been Wilbur or Techno who did it than Tommy, as Tommy was still very hopeful and idealistic at the time, at least compared to his character now. You could posit Tommy as Ariadne again in this situation, given he was the one to mastermind the final charge, and though I think Tommy as Ariadne is an idea that’s worth further exploration, I’d say Fundy futs the Ariadne role here much better, with him giving the spy’s diary before being effectively shunned and left out in the cold by both Pogtopia and Manburg, much like Ariadne was abandoned in the original myth.

I’d posit the Theseus in this scenario as Techno, Wilbur, or possibly Philza, as they were the ones to actually kill things in the 16th, though Techno and Wilbur’s killings were more in the metaphorical sense, taking the second life of L’manburg.

As for the exile, Tommy exile was alike to that of Theseus only in concept. Both were sent from their kingdoms for a crime, resulting in a falling out with someone close to them, and had a precarious relationship with heights while they were gone, but that’s about where the similarities end and even then they’re superficial.

First of all, Tommy’s exile was far more because Dream was looking for an excuse to do it than because briefing actually means anything on the SMP, given how Dream had been griefing bases and blaming Tommy for it for a while before it went down. (Fun fact, Bad and Skeppy were going to burn one of his discs over this, but one of them got sick so they had to cancel the stream.)

Theseus’ exile, on the other hand, was entirely deserved, especially when you consider how serious a crime killing family was in Ancient Greek culture. It was pretty much the biggest no-no in existence, and I’m almost surprised he wasn’t just straight up executed for it.

Second, Tommy’s falling out with Tubbo was almost entirely due to outside forces, (Dream) rather than because anything Tommy had done. Though Tommy’s cavalierness towards the trial and attempts to threaten Dream with Spirit doubtless didn’t help things, Dream surrounding L’manburg in obsidian walls and threatening them to exile Tommy was entirely his own choice, and not something that can be pinned on Tommy, no matter what the apologists may say.

Meanwhile, Theseus’ falling out with Phaedra had begun long before his exile with him cheating on her. Him killing his son was merely the last in a long line of dominos to completely destroy their relationship.

Last, Tommy nearly killing himself is very different from Theseus being pushed off a cliff. Tommy’s near suicide was the direct result of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of c!Dream for what was canonically, I believe, several months? (Correct me if I’m wrong on that one.) Tommy almost jumping off a pillar because he was deliberately isolated from his support systems is nothing like Theseus being killed because he was a cocky asshole who thought he was god.

-

So that’s why I don’t think Tommy is anything like Theseus, and why I’m filled with endless rage by the completely uncritical acceptance of this parallel, but it’s not the whole reason it pisses me off.

It also pisses me off because, as stated earlier, cc!Techno is an English major. He knew what he was doing with this. The fandom’s insistence on refusing to acknowledge his character as an unreliable narrator is, in my opinion, acting as a massive kneecap to what could be a great analysis of how he thinks.

Specifically: why does c!Technoblade think Tommy is like Theseus?

Of all the Greek heroes to pick, why that one? Was it just the tantalizing opportunity to parallel Schlatt with a horned monster, or was it because c!Techno has some genuine in-character reason to think this myth specifically applies to Tommy.

Now, we all know people in the SMP have a habit of analogizing Wilbur and Tommy. The assumption Tommy wanted to be president, the belief that Tommy nominated Tubbo directly, the belief that he was intentionally deceiving Techno about Pogtopia’s intentions regarding Manburg... all of these stem from Wilbur. There are more cases of this, of course, but several analyses have been done in the subject already, and this is long enough without more padding.

So why does Techno think Tommy is Theseus? Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?

Wilbur is Theseus.

To be continued, because this is already too long and my brain hurts.

[quilloftheclouds]

Inspired by @pens-swords-stuff​​‘s recent writeblr intro, I realized my last one was posted over a year ago so TIME FOR A NEW ONE YAY!

(Aka Quill just wanted an excuse to make another graphic...)

So without further ado: HI HELLO MY NAME IS QUILL, I’m a they/them non-binary nerd, welcome to the utter madness that is my writing blog~

I post the occasional advice or ask game, some wip things, and a lot of reblogs of writeblr content (often with some enthusiastic comments attached)! If you like fantasy/sci-fi and especially pirates, sirens, weird magic, and/or aliens, stick around for some neat wip blurbs~

(Click the titles for the WIP intros!)

Series Title: Anchored Souls (Main WIP)

Book Titles: One Siren’s Soul, Two Witch’s Woven, & Three Star’s Stolen

Four misfits of the Golden Age of Piracy have to settle their differences long enough to get back a stolen magical artifact—not so easy when His Majesty’s Royal Navy wants you dead, and when the shadows swimming under your ship want just the same… And that’s not all that hinders them: war rides on the tides, and it’s quickly coming in.

Book Title: CIRCUIT (Novella - Secondary WIP)

A U.F.O. crashes into a hill. The next day, the entirety of the electrical grid surrounding it, the lifeblood of nearby Kellowaut City, goes dark. But it’s not just a normal power outage... not even batteries work. G.R.I.D., a government formed group aiming to investigate and solve the power problem, forms from the wreckage. But what they find leads to no easy solution.

The one responsible might be alien, but she’s also an innocent child, and the blame goes sideways when she reveals it was all an accident.

Book Title: The Mirror’s Rifts (Novella - Kinda on the back burner)

The new kid in the neighbourhood, Maxine didn’t expect to make friends so quickly–nor did she expect to get caught up in a world-endangering puzzle of parallel dimensions and time-defying monsters.

And feel free to check out these links for more~ Projects Page || Navigation Page

[amaryllisblackthorn]

a lot of people have this idea that Annabeth's been like, a Luke apologist and in denial since the very beginning but it's not really true?. Annabeth was angry at Luke for his betrayal in the end of Lightning Thief and during Sea of Monsters. It's only until the end of The Titan's Curse that she starts the 'Luke really isn't that bad' kind of thing.

the end of Lightning Thief:

"I can't believe that Luke..." Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned  angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him...He was never the same after his quest."

"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"

 She was really angry at him during Sea of Monsters. Her vision from the Sirens does indicate that deep down she may believe she's able to save him, or at least wants to, but it doesn't diminish the hurt and anger she does feel.

"How could you?" Annabeth sounded so angry I thought she'd explode. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her--"

"Liar!"

"I understand you want to destroy the camp!" she yelled. "You're a monster!"

"Because you have none of your own [intelligence]!"

"That's disgusting!" Annabeth said.

"You're insane," Annabeth said.

"Go to Tartarus," she said.

All those above are on the Princess Andromeda with Luke. Then later, to Percy:

She shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares."

Even in the beginning-ish of Titan's Curse, she doesn't trust him. When he's struggling under the sky and asking for her help, she's hesitant. It's only when the sky begins to fall  that she goes to help hold it.

Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She reached down like she wanted to touch Luke's face, but at the last second she hesitated. "What happened?" she asked.

"Why should I trust you?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was filled with hurt.

Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow--tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke with her own strength.

However!! There's a shift in her feelings by the time Percy and Thalia rescue her and I personally think it's because she's aware that Luke 'saved' her life for the time being after Atlas ordered him to kill her after Artemis took the sky -- even though he was super complicit in her being in that situation in the first place. Compare:

Luke hesitated. "She--she may yet be useful, sir. Further bait."

and

"We'll bring Luke back," Annabeth pleaded. "To Olympus. He...he'll be useful."

I don't think it's a conscious parallel on Annabeth's part per se, but Rick Riordan using the parallel to indicate the connection. I think that's when Annabeth discovers that Luke does still care deep down, and that deep down the person that she knows is there. which is fair, because before this point he hadn’t given her any indication seeing as he literally directed  Oreius to eat her. that’s a whole ‘nother write-up, though, i think. i digress.

Once she knows this, she starts to view him as someone being manipulated and taken advantage of by Kronos, someone who was able to manipulate Ares, a god, in the first book, -- she's not wrong! He is being manipulated. That doesn't absolve him from his horrible behavior especially towards her, but she understands that Luke is a troubled, traumatized young man being taken advantage of by the evil King Titan, and she's also aware that literally no one else cares enough to try to save him.

like, the language Annabeth uses to describe Luke in the end of Titan’s Curse is the same that Percy uses to describe the demigods on the  Titans’ side in Last Olympian. 

"You don't believe me about Luke," Annabeth said, "but we'll see him again. He's in trouble, Percy. He's under Kronos's spell."

vs

I tried to wound his men, not kill. That slowed me down, but these weren’t monsters. They were demigods who’d fallen under Kronos’s spell. I couldn’t see faces under their battle helmets, but some of them had probably been my friends.

there’s another callback with the language Percy uses to describe the opposing demigods in Last Olympian. this time, to what Percy says to Luke at the end of Lightning Thief.

“He’s brainwashing you, Luke.”

“You’re being used, Luke. You and Ares both. Don’t listen to Kronos.”

vs

This kid was getting brainwashed—trained to hate the gods and lash out because he’d been born half Olympian. Kronos was using him, and yet the kid thought I was his enemy.

Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder. “Percy, there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship, and they all chose to battle for Kronos. Perhaps some heeded your warning and escaped. If they did not . . . they chose their path.”

“They were brainwashed!” I said. “Now they’re dead and Kronos is still alive. That’s supposed to make me feel better?

Percy has sympathy for the demigods manipulated by Kronos to be on the Titan’s sides; he sees them as victims. the reason he doesn’t for Luke, I feel, is because Luke’s betrayal made it personal. I think this is where Percy’s fatal flaw comes into play, honestly, with the personal loyalty. both in regards to the personal betrayal to Percy, as well as Percy’s loyalty to Annabeth (and thus Luke’s betrayal of Annabeth, too). and i feel this also applies, to a lesser extent, to Ethan. but that’s a whole ‘nother write-up, too (one day!)

there is, admittedly, the factor of Luke’s age in comparison to Percy, Annabeth, and most of the other campers. there’s definitely a power imbalance -- especially with Annabeth, which isn’t okay, obviously.  so even though he’s a victim and young himself, that power imbalance in regards to his actions, manipulations, etc is messed up and not okay. 

even so, Luke is still pretty young himself -- not as young as the others, but still young. like, i got into this series when i was younger than Percy and Annabeth were, so Luke, like most early 20 year olds, seemed very old to me in that regard; it’s only as i got older and closer to his are that i started to really realize that heck he was really young. so while Luke is definitely an adult in regards to the relationship he has with Percy, Annabeth, and other younger demigods -- which he should have been mindful of and makes his manipulation etc very messed up and not okay -- he’s also young himself which is something to keep in mind. like, Luke is only around 19-22? in the series. That puts him at a power imbalance in regards to Annabeth and Percy, in which he's very much an adult in the relationship, but outside of that he's still pretty young! he’s a college kid, which when you’re younger seems pretty old but then you are one and realize differently -- his brain hasn't even fully developed yet. but i’m like, seriously digressing. 

my intended point was that i disagree with the interpretation that Annabeth was blinded by emotions and a toxic relationship which led her to make excuses for Luke and unable to see him for what he really was etc,--  because Annabeth was angry at him after his betrayal and had even thought he was different, that he didn’t care anymore. The ‘Luke apologist’ behavior only starts at the end of Titan’s Curse, the third book in the five book series. I just feel like her ... feelings? perspective? position? idk the right word.... is often misrepresented? 

she becomes very defensive over Luke’s ‘inner goodness’ and stuff because she’s literally the only one who wants to save him and knows it. she knows what he’s done isn’t okay, but she keeps driving it home that he’s being manipulated because he is! it doesn’t excuse his actions but it doesn’t have to. by the end of titan’s curse, annabeth sees luke as someone terribly lost and no one trying, willing, or caring enough to save him. and like, she’s right when she sees luke as someone who isn’t beyond saving, who’s extremely lost and being manipulated through his trauma and anger -- it doesn’t excuse what he’s doing but that doesn’t make him someone not worthy of saving. despite what he’s done, luke is still her family and she will fight for him. she sees luke the same way percy sees the other opposing demigods in the last olympian and she’s right. she’s not making excuses for him, she doesn’t think he’s done nothing wrong, she’s just not willing to give up on him and she was right. as the child in the relationship/dynamic, it wasn’t her responsibility to be the one to save him and shouldn’t have been, but she wasn’t wrong in how she saw Luke.

 like, their was definitely a power imbalance in their relationship and it’s definitely important to acknowledge that, but i feel like people tend to like, erase annabeth’s agency, for lack of a better word, and attribute her desire to save Luke as being tragically misplaced? like, Luke has totally wronged Annabeth and mistreated her terribly, but like...I find her not giving up on him mostly admirable and not pitiable, though like I said as the child in their dynamic it wasn’t her responsibility.  i’m rambling though.

mostly this post was made to remind people that Annabeth was angry towards Luke, and rightfully so, until near the end of Titan’s Curse, which is where her defending Luke and insisting he could be saved really started, likely with Luke indicating he actually still cared deep down for the first time being the catalyst.  especially since it seems a lot of people give like the impression they think she’s done it from the very beginning? idk ive definitely rambled a lot and lost my main point sometime ago or something. enjoy this anyway.

[une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir]

WHERE IS THE REST?

After “Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon” came out, it has come to our knowledge that Stannis will be burning Shireen in the books as well. It was revealed somewhere last summer that Jorah and Grey Worm were supposed to betray Danerys, but then they changed their mind about it.

This isn’t special on its own, but it is once you notice that all of this was hard-coded into the GoT’s foreshadowing a long time ago, for example through transition scenes... yet they dropped plots and cherry picked fanservice what they wanted for the final season.

it’s angering “fun” to see what they foreshadowed through those transition scenes, what made it and what didn’t made it. In specific, D&D have said transition scenes were important, because they say something about them. I cannot find the proper citation for this, but it’s common knowledge.

What I’ll write next is only for ONE episode, but this exercise can be made in SEVERAL episodes, this isn’t an isolated case by any means. (the following is a repurpose of an earlier post I made for this matter and i only have paint ATM, which is why the graphics are so shitty).

S03E01: Valar Dohaeris

Danerys is sailing through the Summer Sea while she watches the dragons fishing. While she’s fond of them, she doesn’t think they’re enough to conquer the Iron Throne so she wants an army. Jorah suggests she buys Unsullied and while she doesn’t like the idea at first because they’re slaves, she eventually relents as she believes it’s mecessary. Later, she arrives in Astapor and tours the Unsullied barracks.

There are two Danerys’ scenes in Valar Dohaeris, which are preceeded and followed by other adjacent scenes which characterise Danerys’ motivations during her stay at Astapor by contrast and parallels. Below, I enclose the scene transtion schematics.

[3] Sansa with Shae in King’s Landing port watching the ships.

[*] Danerys sailing the seas and beng suggested the Unsullied.

[4] Davos confronts Stannis about Melisandre burning people..

[5] The Tyrell siblings and Cersei / Joffrey having dinner where they discuss Margaery’s charity.

[*] Danerys arrives at Astapor and tours the Unsullied barracks.

[3] Sansa is powerlessly watching ships at the port, wishing one of them would take her away from captivity. This is followed by a contrast, Danerys is on a ship doing whatever she wants and going wherever she wants. Danerys and Sansa are foils.

Shae and Sansa play a game about where the ships come from and where they go. At some point, Littlefinger comes to talk to Sansa, promising to take her away

Remember this one for later.

In the show, Ros tells Shae that Sansa’s birth was a joyous day, where the bells were rung from sunrise to sunset. In the books (the equivalent chapter where Danerys sails the seas), Danerys recalls her own birth was during a storm which destroyed her father’s ships. Much later in the show (season 7), Danerys’ birth is brought up again, it’s mentioned that she was born during a storm and the dogs barked the entire night.

There is a clear contrast between these two characters births according to the show canon. Sansa was born and there was joyful bell ringing during the entire day, while Danerys was born and there was ominous barking dogs during the entire night. Take note that the foreboding for Danerys is in the books’ canon as well, as the storm raged all night and destroyed the Targaryen ships.

Sansa cannot go home because she’s a prisoner with no power (no movement), while Danerys is sailing free and returning home because she’s free with power via the dragons (movement).

There is a clear contrast between these two character in agency and power as well, which also translates into how they rule. Sansa is a prisoner that had to learn politics and how to play the game of thrones because she had no dragons to rise to power, while Danerys is free after she births the dragons so she never learnt either because the dragons gave her power.

Danerys doesn’t think the dragons enough to get the Iron Throne and wants an army. Jorah suggests to buy Unsullied and Danerys decides that she will get them. This is followed by [4] Davos confronting Stannis for allowing Melisandre to sentence those that oppose them to burning alive, but Stannis justifies this as necessary for the war he’s fighting. Stannis (through Melisandre) and Danerys as parallels, basically Stannis (through Melisandre) is Danerys on dragon steroids LITE. Stannis and Danerys have many adjacent scenes for this reason (for example, walking into the fire, threatening to burn people, activelly burning people, and so forth...)

Stannis confronts Stannis after he’s informed by Salladhor Saan (earlier in the episode) that Stannis follows what Melisandre tells him to do due to the prophecies she sees in the fire. In parallel, (in the books) Danerys follows what she sees in dragon (fire) dreams and other prophecies as well.

Stannis (through Melisandre) and Danerys both follow prophecies that are associated with fire, which are interpretated to suit their narcissistic delusions of grandeur. The magic is real, the meaning they gave them is not.

Melisandre is said to sing to her enemies as they burned, while (in the books) Danerys is said to “sing” while she commmands the dragons to burn the Unsullied masters (yes, this very story segment we’re on!).

Melisandre asks if Davos remembers all those men burning and yelling for their mothers, while Danerys burns every master in Astapor (including what’s basically children, as she says anyone over the age of 14)

Melisandre is called the “mother of monsters” for creating the shadow assassin through blood magic, while Danerys is called the “mother of dragons” for creating the dragons through blood magic, both using these fire magic instruments against their enemies.

Melisandre and Danerys blood magics are both characterised negatively. As a sidenote, Melisandre’s blood magic is sex and burning blood, while Danerys’ blood magic is burning others. In reality, it’s all the same shit, Melisandre’s sex “equals” to life (conception) and she made the shadow baby (subtle) and Danerys killed three lives for the dragons. Only death can pay for life.

Stannis isn’t so keen on burning prisoners and enemies, but does because he believes it to be justice against the infidels and what’s necessary to win the Iron Throne. In parallel, Danerys isn’t so keen on buying the Unsullied, but she burns the masters because she believes it’s justice and believes them necessary to win the Iron Throne.

Stannis and Danerys may both dislike abhorrent behaviour, but they engage in it regardless because they believe it necessary to achieve their objectes. Theis trend escalates from acceptable targets (the Faith of the Seven statues or Viserys) to uncceptable targets (prisoners of war that oppose them), until it’s unsustainable (Shireen or the citizens of King’s Landing) and then someone kills them. It’s worth noting that in the books, Jorah suggests the Unsullied and Danerys doesn’t even give a shit that they are slaves, getting excited with the idea instead.

[5] Margaery gives food to the poor. After, the Tyrell siblings have dinner with Joffrey and Cersei where they discuss Margaery’s charity, with Cersei implying it’s not genuine. This is followed by Danerys touring the Unsullied barracks, where she notes Kraznys being a dick to the Unsullied, which she later uses an excuse as to why she freed them, bt this isn’t genuine. Danerys and Margaery are (in hindsight) parallels.

Margaery does charity not for altruistic reasons, but because she wants to gain power by currying favour through the people’s support. Likewise, Danerys frees the Unsullied not because she cares about freedom (remember, she wanted to buy them regardless), but because she has no money to buy them and wants good publicity.

Margaery and Danerys are both dishonest about their real motivations for doing good deeds, because they’re basically just publicity stunts to harnass support and power. On one hand, when Margaery is taken by the Faith of the Seven, she eventually admits that she never cared about the poor and in fact hated them, but did what she did for power. On the other hand, when Danerys negotiates with Kraznys, she realises she has no money to buy them and makes sure they’ll follow for sure before dropping the dragon, only after she’s convinced by the dispute between Barristan advocating Rhaegar was loved and that’s why others followed him versus Jorah advocating that Rhaegar was honest and that’s why he died.

Margaery is dressed through these scenes in a similar way as Danerys when she’s pandering to the same “soft-power” tactics.

Good so far? Let’s rewind.

Danerys and Sansa are foils.

Sansa cannot go home because she’s a prisoner with no power (no movement), while Danerys is sailing free and returning home because she’s free with power via the dragons (movement).

Sansa adquires a “dragon” in season 6. He’s not the mythological beast proper, but her cousin Jon Snow, who’s secretely a Targaryen and therefore the “blood of the dragon”. Such, one of Jon’s narrative purposes for Sansa is the same as the dragons for Danerys, Jon’s there to protect and power Sansa, to take her home when others couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Jon protecting Sansa happens from the moment they reunite, as he vows to look after her and not leave her from that point forward (Ned haunting him is just a joke, as in show canon Jon doesn’t believe there’s anything beyond death, as he saw nothing when he did). So Jon protects Sansa from Ramsay and Littlefinger, gets angry on her behalf against Tyrion and Theon, there’s an unexplicable hiatus where he's a different character (what happened?), but at the end Jon returns to character and kills Danerys to protect Sansa.

Jon empowering Sansa, not so much. Jon accepts being King in the North instead of making Sansa the Queen in the North... until the very end and in this King’s Landing port (what were D&D indireectly saying that they wouldn’t say directly?)... where Jon forsakes being King in the North (even though that’s dumb, since he’s in jail now) and names Sansa the Queen in the North instead. It was done late and contrived (Jon has been convicted to “jail”, he could never be king again), but the correct foreshadowing was played straight neverhteless.

Sansa asks Littlefinger to take her home and he says that it’ll be treason since she’s property of the crown, but then promises he’ll try to smuggle her on a ship but she needs to be ready to flee.

Littlefinger doesn’t take Sansa home, he takes her to the Eyrie instead. In the books, Sansa accuses Littlefinger of lying about his promise and he admits it, while telling her to forget Winterfell and make the Eyrie home instead. Some time ater, Littlefinger promises to take Sansa to Winterfell after all if she marries Harry Hardying. A likely story... not. Littlefinger already had promised and lied about it.

In the show, Littlefinger does sell Sansa to the Boltons, so she technically returns home but since she runs away shortly after, there’s that feeling it didn’t count. It’s Jon that truly takes Sansa home, by defeating the Boltons and retaking Winterfell at her behalf because if he decided, he’d rather defect south. So, once again th foreshadowing was played straight.

It has been confirmed that in the books, Littlefinger won’t be selling Sansa to the Boltons, so she cannot return to Winterfell that way, not even technically...  So Sansa will realise Littlefinger will never take her home even if she marries Harry, so she’ll flee the Vale to the Wall, then Jon takes her home.

Sansa plays a game about the ships she’s watching, where they’re headed to and why. The captain is disillusioned with undeserving people and wants to go wait out winter in Dorne where it’s warm.

Sansa is playing a game of pretend, because she has a penchant to sugarcoat than face the reality of things. When Shae asks her why she’s doing it, Sansa says she does it because “the truth is either boring or terrible”. For once, a good original scene. Still, Sansa’s fantasy is quite specific, this captain must represent someone else.

Knowing D&D, thisis to be delivered later like something out of a shopping list later on. So... someone is going to want to escape winter to someplace warm, because they're disillusioned with undeserving people. As a matter of fact, the scene before Sansa crashes the no!funeral at Castle Black, Jon (born in Dorne) embodies it...

Jon Snow. Three out of three.

To summarise, these transition scenes predict Danerys storyline regarding some issues by paralleling Stannis and Margaery scenes, as well as by contrasting Sansa’s scene. This is reciprocal as Danerys’ scenes also predict Stannis and Margaery as well as Sansa’s by paralleling and contrasting with their scenes.

As for Sansa proper, to recap and in broad strokes, Sansa is watching the ships and wishes to go home on one but can't because she is a prisoner with no power, which is contrasted with Danerys sailing on a ship and going home because she's free due to her dragons. In addition, this also foreshadows that Sansa gains a “dragon” later on, who provides freedom and protection as well as takes her home and gives her power, the person being revealed in Sansa’s scene details.

It was all there.

Well not all... I got to say that Littlefinger selling Sansa to the Boltons wasn't the only bulshit D&D pulled on the northern campaign. This is because according to this reading that Jon is Sansa’s dragon, he is supposed to empower Sansa yet he accepts being King in the North instead of her. That's not empowering!

It can work though, for example Jon wanting to crown Sansa as Queen in the North, but then having to backtrack because Tyrion presses his marriage to still be valid, so accepts to be King in the North to protect her. Well, this is the realm of speculation, not the point of this post, which was “where’s the rest”...

WHERE’S THE REST?

Let's backpedal a little. Amongst the things Littlefinger says...

Littlefinger: You are the property of the crown. Stealing you would be treason.

In ASOIAF / GoT, a man stealing a woman is wildling code for marriage. This is bad, I don’t like this... because Petyr Baelish stealing Sansa Stark from the Lannister crown is not cool.... but no, as seen from the previous points the metaphor here is meant to be Jon Snow so...

Jonathan Snowflake, who is accused of stealing a redhead around this time in the narrative, later thinks about stealing a woman when confronted with the opportunity to take Winterfell from Lady Lannister, is accused of being half-wilding and having a bizarre endgame where he's suggested to be a wildling but not really since they mention he’s still in the Watch (what was that)...

Jon Snow stealing Sansa Stark.

Knowingly. Willingly.

Jon Snow stealing Sansa Stark from the crown..., which incidently is the Lannister crown, when Sansa is married to Tyrion Lannister. ... Uhm... Tyrion Lannister, who incidently features in the scene preceding this exact one, where Tywin Lannister denies him Casterly Rock and promises him a bride... which is Sansa. Lawl at foreshadowing choochoo train being all matchy matchy with each other.

Jon Snow stealing Sansa Stark from Tyrion Lannister.

I’d like to see it. Where is it?

As a side-note, Sansa's scene details of the ship captain and Littlefinger’s speech is interesting because they might hint at a scrapped storyline for how this entire would have developed, a storyline closer to the books.

Sansa: It's carrying silk and it's supposed to bring back wine in exchange, but it's not coming back.

Sansa imagines the captain leaves with the excuse he's going for a trade deal to exchange silk for wine (food) and in the books, food is actually a big deal with Jon being concerned about food often, at some point saying their best hope to get some arse is the Eyrie. For example, Jon pretending he's going to the Vale with Sansa to get food but then defecting for her sake fits.

Littlefinger: I saw your mother not long ago. She's very eager to see you. And your sister. Sansa: Arya's alive?

Littlefinger mentions Cat and Arya, which is interesting because in the books, Cat prowls as the undead Lady Stoneheart, having taken Brienne who’s looking for Sansa, and Jeyne Poole is impersonating as Arya Stark (she’s the one that marries Ramsay). So these threads may be more connected to Sansa fleeing the Vale than previously thought. Perhaps Stoneheart told Brienne where Sansa is, perhaps Sansa finds out about fake!Arya and that’s why she decides to flee.

Well.. that’s also the realm of speculation...

By the way... armed with this post, answer the following GoT’s endgame questions:

Danerys burning King’s Landing because she believes it’s justice against her enemies and necessary to win the iron chair was out of character?

Jon didn’t notice that Danerys was an arsonist lizard even worse than Stannis and Melisandre?

[INSERT JON BANNING MELISANDRE FROM THE NORTH HERE]

Jon didn’t notice that Danerys was a fake altruist bitch like Margaery?

I’d like to see it. Where is it?

WHAT HAPPENED?

[rainbuckets8]

Why you should watch RWBY

TL;DR:

Summary: RWBY is an epic fantasy with themes like found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.

Strengths: RWBY has unique and memorable characters. The show is smart. It has excellent cinematography and animation. It has representation. It tackles hard topics. It’s got incredible music and it’s free on RT’s website.

Weaknesses: RWBY has some early growing pains, specifically volume 2’s finale, as well as budget and polish. Later on, volume 4 is weaker than the rest. Volume 8's finale is extremely distressing for a lot of viewers (and we haven't seen the follow up to those events yet). The fandom can be bad at times.

Misinformation: The early volumes being bad, the racism plot line, and the animation (not the same as “budget and polish”) are not as bad as you may have heard from YouTube.

Suggested viewing order

Red Trailer, White Trailer, Black Trailer, Yellow Trailer

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4 Character Short

Volume 4

Volume 5 Weiss Character Short, Volume 5 Blake Character Short, Volume 5 Yang Character Short

Volume 5

Volume 6 Adam Character Short

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

(I did my best to make this spoiler-free. When there are spoilers, they’re worded ambiguously enough that someone new to the show would never guess what’s going to happen just by reading this.)

What to expect

The world of Remnant is filled with monsters called the creatures of Grimm. Warriors called Huntsmen and Huntresses defend humanity. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang go to school to become the next generation of heroes. Together they make Team RWBY (pronounced, “Ruby”)! Joining them is team JNPR (“Juniper”), made up of Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. But evils even more dangerous than the Grimm are ready to make their move, and school quickly becomes an afterthought…

(I mention these next two topics specifically bc they can immediately turn someone away based on bad expectations.) There is a fantasy school setting, but RWBY is not a show about school. School topics are not a dominant idea: it seems to resemble a setting like Harry Potter, but the actual focus of the show rarely touches on things like classes or homework or tests, and we quickly move on. There is romance and it has a role in the plot, but RWBY is not a romance show. On the scale of romance in FMAB to She-Ra, RWBY falls somewhere in the middle.

What is RWBY about, then? RWBY is like an epic fantasy or high fantasy, despite first appearances. Perhaps not every genre convention is followed, but at its core, RWBY is about an epic struggle of good and evil.

RWBY contains themes such as found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.

Strengths of the show

The characters are unique and memorable. One of the cool things is that they all draw inspiration from a real life fairy tale, myth, or something else. They designs are all top notch. One character who died with extremely little screen time even got so much fandom love, they included the character in a mid-hiatus short later. The characters have unique weapons, too; in the world of Remnant, a weapon is an extension of ones’ soul, and they reflect the variety of their owners. They’re also just plain cool; Monty was famous for following the “Rule of Cool.” And their individual stories are all compelling and interesting.

The show is smart. As a fandom, we generally pick up on the narrative hints the creators are dropping. And our predictions usually come true, but not in a way that makes the show predictable and boring. We very rarely guess exactly what will happen, but we have some similar idea of it. It’s just excellent foreshadowing.

RWBY also likes to play with tropes, as an extension of this. Often it will challenge them, or subvert expectations. In other cases, RWBY uses tropes to avoid showing us what we already know will happen. This occurs in both characters and plot. For example…

SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH: Jaune’s entire character arc is about trying to be the anime protagonist, and learning that he doesn’t have to do things alone, and it’s ok to be a support main. The show sets up the narrative in a way that looks like, oh of course the direction it will go is him becoming the main character, but then it destroys toxic masculinity instead.

Our characters are smart, too. Plot-induced stupidity generally doesn’t happen. (A few big mistakes or errors in this regard aren’t actually the fault of the narrative, either, but animation and miscommunication and failure to execute. And those aren’t common.) It goes beyond just “not being dumb,” however. The villains’ plans are incredibly clever, and our heroes sometimes even guess at the usual “plot twists.”

The cinematography is just incredible. There are numerous freeze frames with extreme attention to detail that reveal character motivations or arcs or foreshadowing, there are many effective cuts and moving parts, there are soooo many parallels and callbacks, and visual cues such as lighting and color all are used appropriately to convey emotion and assist the narrative. It is one of the biggest overlooked strengths of the show, imo, simply because a lot of people in the fandom don’t notice these things as much for whatever reason, or else don’t give as much praise about them.

The animation is extremely good as well. Budget issues and technology issues aside (which means a lack of polish), the actual animation? The fight choreography, and all the other parts of animation that aren’t just “expensive CGI” are all wonderful. You can have very shiny, polished turds after all, and RWBY is like the opposite: not very polished, especially early on, but very well animated. All the trailers, volume 1 episode 8, the volume 1 finale, the volume 2 penultimate episode, and basically everything else hold up extremely well even today. If anything, the worst fight animation was in volumes 4 and 5 because of Maya growing pains, and those are an example of being more polished, but not necessarily better animated. Animation of faces has always been good, animation of characters has always felt lively. Aside from a few small actual hiccups (that one person running across rooftops for instance), it’s well done.

There are LGBTQ+ characters. The treatment of one of the recent trans characters, in volume 8, was nothing short of amazing. They worked with a VA who was trans. The moment of canon confirmation was important to the character for backstory, because of course that affects the character’s life, but not the only important thing about the character. The representation is not in-your-face or pandering. And there is a split of representation among the main cast and the minor characters, with promises of more to come (notably they’ve said they’re working on more mlm for future volumes, too).

RWBY is not afraid to tackle hard topics. It deals with things like mental illness, systematic racism, and cycles of abuse. It’s not because the show is trying to earn “gritty and dark” points, it’s because those are some of the topics that real people have to struggle with as well. And the show handles most or all of them very well, in a way that shows respect and an honest attempt to depict these things as best they can. (NOTE ABOUT VOLUME 8: THERE IS A VERY DIFFUCLT CONVERSATION CURRENTLY HAPPENING. I am on the side of, let’s wait and see what happens next because the story isn’t over, so we haven’t really seen the fall out. But I understand why this paragraph feels really difficult to agree with if you've seen the volume 8 finale. I trust the track record of the rest of the show, personally.)

As an example, the show has a theme that villains are rarely evil just because. A lot of villains choose to do bad things because they were hurt in some way. Some lived in poverty; some were hurt by racism; many of them are victims of abuse. But the show doesn’t make excuses for them. It’s possible to be both sympathetic and still choose evil over and over again (that’s called tragic). The ones who eventually do try to do good again are not always forgiven, either.

The music is amazing. I can probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve heard someone say otherwise, which is astonishing when you consider this fandom.

It’s also free on RT’s website. (A paid, “FIRST” subscription removes ads and lets you see new episodes one week early, but they all eventually release for free.)

Weaknesses of the show

Early volumes’ growing pains exist, much like most or all other shows. (Even some of the greatest were not immune to this, like ATLA.) In this case, however, it’s a little bit rougher. A large reason why is that this was kind of the first big thing from RT to ever come out. If you remember back almost a decade ago, their only other big thing at the time was RvB, which was machinima. They pretty much started from scratch with everything, from assets to VAs to animation to writing. Imagine if a random twitch streamer, like Ninja (idk who’s popular these days) said one day, “OK let me just direct something that’s intended to be the next great movie series of all time, like Star Wars, with a $4 bill and an iPhone camera.” Then went out and actually made something. Of course it would be rough…but then it turns out the movie is actually really good. And then you get to watch over the next several years as everything gets better and better until it’s honest-to-god comparable to the MCU. That’s kind of what happened with RWBY.

One specific growing pain was the volume 2 finale. Pretty much everything else up until that point, I love about the show. But the finale just fails to deliver on the build up of tension from other episodes. Some of it is because of later plot developments that we didn’t know at the time; some of it is because of just not great writing; some of it is because of just not great animation; and yes, some of it is budget. Regardless, it’s a low point for the show.

Speaking of, the budget for the early volumes is super small. The infamous volume one shadow people, the infamous person jumping across the rooftops in volume two, and just production quality isn’t high compared to a major release from some established studio. These are real weaknesses of the show that for some people, make it unwatchable, and if that’s you, that’s ok.

One last weakness of the show, the screen time per episode, especially early on, is NOT a full 20 minutes like you may expect of an anime (or anime-inspired-western-media, for those of you who will die on the “RWBY is not an anime” hill). This is a trend that has stuck with the show, a shorter run time per episode, for generally the entire lifetime. On one hand, it means it’s a little less daunting to catch up or rewatch than the number of episodes might imply. On the other, early on, some episodes have a little weird pacing. It also means the writing had to adjust for this, so while RWBY got really good at telling a story within a shorter amount of time, there’s also challenges with that too. Perhaps one of the notable ones is the pacing, with slower moments sometimes feeling like it takes up too much screen time, or not enough. Volume 4 was a particular struggle for the crew, both because they switched animation engines and also for the story.

Common complaints that I don’t agree with

I don’t agree that the early volumes were actually bad overall. Growing pains, yes, but not bad. I attribute that complaint to overly focusing on one character’s storyline, back when it wasn’t clear there was so much more to come and before people realized the show would challenge the tropes instead of falling into them. It’s pretty much just volume 1 when people say this anyway, most of them I’ve heard admit that volume 2 was a lot better (except the finale) and almost everyone loves volume 3. And looking back on it, I do think volume 1 holds up.

Tying into this, the racism plot line is another common complaint. I don’t think it’s actually executed quite that badly. I think it makes sense for there to be regional differences in the amount of racism we see, it just so happened that we only saw a very small and isolated environment, Beacon, for much of the early volumes. (Incidentally, that’s actually similar the environment I myself grew up in.) It’s not perfect, though. But there’s no doubt that the later volumes do a better job portraying this. Again, I attribute it mostly to people not knowing how long the show would run for at the time, so of course if that’s all we saw, it would’ve been bad. But it’s not. I have a lot of respect for Miles and Kerry for even attempting to handle the racism topic in the first place. And for the faults that DO exist in this plot line, I credit them for learning and growing past that too, and doing better in later volumes.

The animation is not bad. I’ve already touched on that earlier, but people confuse “budget and polish” with “animation.” Give me RWBY any day over Michael Bay’s Transformers: no matter how much polish those robots have, they’re still a confusing mess to try and follow. And the polish isn’t even an issue once we get past the growing pains of Maya and get a bigger budget, because wow does this show look good now.

Between these three complaints I hear about often, I think those are the biggest ones. And they’re all generally done in bad faith, based not on just those but on other more provocative statements people also make with them. That’s part of my issue with the fandom, specifically the vocal but small parts of the fandom, because they’re just repeating these things from early days that aren’t true. But YouTubers gotta get those rage and hate clicks somehow, right? Unfortunately it discredits the show a lot and influences other people’s opinions into not giving it a fair chance, because it’s become a narrative of “RWBY IS BAD” when they all won’t shut up about it. So yeah, fandom can be bad, join at your own discretion. (Of course, all fandoms have annoying parts, and my interactions with the fandom have been good overall, otherwise.)

Onto other complaints, some say the cast is bloated. I don’t agree, but I don’t think this one is in bad faith. I think we get the important characters as much screen time as we can, and the minor characters don’t actually detract from that; one of the differences between good minor characters and bad ones, is that bad ones take up too much time. RWBY has a ton of characters but many of the minor ones don’t actually take up too much time. So it appears bloated, but actually I don’t think it is.

Finally, a small word on the no-no topics. Adam, and Monty. Adam is like the champion of the Monty topic. Which essentially boils down to “Miles and Kerry are ruining Monty’s vision for the show.” Toxic fandom is truly awful and I have no respect for anyone who says anything like that. Shame on all of you. This isn’t really anything negative about the show, but the fandom, and tbf all fandoms have toxic parts. But toxic fandom can be a real and valid reason to not watch a show. Thankfully they seem fewer in number these days, but I think they’ve evolved into hiding behind other characters or topics, so you know. Beware. Again, it's not too hard to avoid them or block them, and my interactions otherwise with most fans have been good.

[keyofjetwolf]

“Gabrielle, who did this?”

“I did.”

This is it, this is everything this episode has been building to. Not Caesar, not Xena’s checkered past, not her efforts to make amends and rebuild trust, not the plight of the Britons nor the heroism of Boudicea, not religious zealotry and persecution. It’s just Gabrielle, and this choice she made, and the unimaginable repercussions.

Not that it would, because it’s the entire point of the thing, but I can’t say enough about how absolutely unshakable the show is in this having been Gabrielle’s CHOICE. No one can steer this otherwise, they can’t make it pretty and excusable. Not the audience, and not Xena herself. AND OH SHE TRIES. Immediately, Xena seizes a narrative that makes this not Gabrielle’s fault.

The things to love in this are nearly endless, from the simplicity of the exchange to the way it’s performed (SUPERBLY) and shot. There’s something BROKEN in Gabrielle, something Xena keeps willing to still be there, but it’s gone, and as that becomes too true to dismiss, all Xena can do is hug Gabrielle close. Until Krakoa appears and puts a punchable face on the whole thing, but that’s barely relevant.

Like I said, there’s a lot here to love, but let’s start with the smaller, almost incidental thing: how Xena can’t live in the lie. I’ve brought this up a bunch of times, apologies for the repetition, how Gabrielle has such a firm narrative surrounding Xena that she’s built in her head, and it takes years of life together, day in and day out, for the monolith to erode and for Gabrielle to finally see Xena as XENA, warts and all.

Xena has her own version of Gabrielle too, this isn’t just a problem for Gabby to deal with, but as we see here, that problem has nothing to do with refusal to see what’s directly in her face. Twice, Xena tries to deny that Gabrielle has just done the unthinkable. Twice, that’s it, then she accepts what all evidence is screaming at her and ... well, “moves forward” is what I want to say, but as we know, it’s not that simple. She doesn’t keep denying it, though, that’s where I’m going with this, and I love it as a counterpart to the countless times we see Gabrielle given direct hard proof of Xena’s worst impulses, and still she remains absolutely devoted to the parts she wants to believe, because she wants to believe them.

This is going to keep biting Gabby in the ass, and this episode is where the show begins to double down on it. The framework through which is makes those moves is subtle, and brilliant for that subtlety. I mentioned a few times how Caesar in this episode is a red herring, making us think we’re about to watch Xena once again lose all perspective and reason when it comes to fucking up his day. That’s not why we’re here, sad to say for everyone involved (except, I suppose, Caesar), but including him threads the overall ideas a bit deeper in fascinating ways.

When it comes to Xena and Caesar, destruction is the only way things can ever go. Of troops, of strategies, of land, of their friends, of each other. When Caesar betrayed Xena, the only answer she could ever bring was fire and ashes. Dahak and his followers are Gabrielle’s Caesar. She, like Xena, believed the world they spun for her and trusted the place she would have in that world. Also like Xena, when betrayal came, she was left hurt, broken, and forever changed. But while Xena took all that had been done to her and vowed destruction, Gabrielle embraces creation. She NEEDS this to have been something good, needs it to have meant something. She insists that Hope is her child more than Dahak’s and refuses to accept even the possibility that things could go any other way. It comes in a nicer wrapper, certainly, but Gabrielle throws herself into her *ahem* HOPE just as blindly and every bit as reckless as Xena embraces her darkness.

But nothing in the world of Xena is ever that black and white, and Gabrielle’s refusal to deal with the trauma of what’s happened to her and what she’s done sends her into a different but parallel spiral to Xena. Gabrielle’s judgment in the wake of all this becomes massively and completely fucked, as we’ll see all too plainly with The Debt in a hot second. Gabby is now primed and ready to step off a cliff she’s carved for herself, the repercussions for which will continue to haunt her through Season 4.

All this is even more incredible when you realize this moment in The Deliverer is one the show has been carefully, intentionally building toward, reaching all the way back to a little tiny thing from two years and nearly fifty episodes previous. Hello to Season 1 Episode 3′s “Dreamworker”.

This whole exchange carries incredible weight just on its own, particularly given that it’s so early in the series. We know Xena’s speaking from experience, that when she killed for the first time, when she realized she could (and maybe even liked it?), she stopped being the person she was and took her first step toward the monster she would become.

What we of course don’t know then, couldn’t possibly, is that this isn’t just Xena talking to Gabrielle, but Gabrielle talking to herself. She echoes back these exact words to Xena (who knows, she already knows, how she must hate hearing the certainty of it from Gabrielle).

SO GOOD SO SO SO GOOD. What a kick in face, too, to go back and rewatch the scene in Dreamworker on the heels of this, to see Gabrielle so young and fresh-faced and naive to this broken woman who’s seen and done too much.

But the Dreamworker moments don’t stop! Gabrielle’s “blood innocence” is a central idea in that episode, too, with the first act showcasing how she pretty much isn’t listening to a single goddamn thing Xena is trying to teach her. Denied a sword, Gabby goes behind Xena’s back and buys a weapon of her very own.

Which Xena of course immediately discovers and confiscates. We see the boob dagger come back at random times throughout the series, usually as a little nudge-nudge continuity callback, which I genuinely appreciate. That’s all it ever is, up until it isn’t.

It’s not exaggeration to say the boob dagger changes the momentum of this fight. Xena’s losing, and losing pretty badly, but the surprise weapon and the proof of Krakow’s own mortality throws him off, and gives Xena just enough of an edge to win. Could she have pulled it off without the dagger? She’s Xena, so probably, but looking at the fight as it happened, the dagger was crucial.

SO HERE’S WHAT I FUCKING LOVE ABOUT THAT. Is Xena specifically using the boob dagger to win a statement on how all of this was inevitable? If Gabrielle hadn’t bought the dagger, Xena wouldn’t have taken it, and she wouldn’t have had it on-hand to beat Kravenedge. Gabrielle was the vehicle for this violence, in the distant and recent past both.

But she’s just as much the vehicle for putting a stop to it. Had Gabrielle not bought that dagger, Xena may well have lost this fight, and setting aside this specific conflict, a world without Xena is a darker, bloodier place. Had Gabrielle not stopped the cultists, even as she played directly into their hands, someone else would have been their sacrifice, another would have been chosen to bring Dahak’s child into the world. Odds are high that person wouldn’t have a Warrior Princess at their side. Odds are high that person wouldn’t have the heart and love and willingness to sacrifice as Gabrielle. Dahak’s time is now, and he is coming. He uses Gabrielle to make it happen, but by her actions, it’s Gabrielle herself who stops those plans and saves the world.

When the dust settles and we have the full picture, it becomes clear that all along, It’s Gabrielle who is The Deliverer.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 9 of 26

Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019) 

Author: Samantha Shannon

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Third-Person, Female Protagonists, LGBT Protagonists

Rating: 10/10

Date Began: 3/12/2021

Date Finished: 4/12/2021

1000 years ago, the world burned. Draconic creatures terrorized the land, led by a horrific evil known as the Nameless One. But then something happened that sent the monsters into a seemingly endless sleep, and the world has rebuilt in the centuries since.

But the Draconic evil begins to stir in its slumber, and the divided nations of the world have little chance to stop it. Eadaz is a mage from the Priory of the Orange Tree, sent to spy on the northern queendom of Inys. Legend has it that as long as the royal line continues, the world will be free from the Nameless One. While it's a long shot, Ead guards the young Queen Sabran closely to preserve the peace. However, as she and the queen grow closer to each other, Ead has to decide where her loyalties lie. Meanwhile, her close friend Loth is secretly sent into exile by the royal spymaster due to his controversial friendship with the queen. Supposedly sent as an ambassador to the newly Draconic kingdom of Yscalin, he soon finds himself out of his depth, entrusted with a deadly secret.

In the isolationist Eastern country of Seiiki, Tané wants nothing more than to become a dragon rider. The dragons of the East are old, wise, and revered as gods-- eternally opposed to the Draconic legions of the West. However, the night before the choosing ceremony that will decide her fate, she breaks isolation and discovers a young man from the West on the shore. Rather than report him to the authorities, she and her friend smuggle him to the island of Orisima, the only place Westerners are permitted. Niclays Roos, an old man exiled to Orisima by Queen Sabran, soon finds himself caught in the conflict. He believes if he finds an elixir for eternal life, he will finally be able to return home. When he's forced to shelter the forbidden Westerner, Niclays' entire way of life is upended-- but he is soon granted the opportunity to escape his exile.  

'My grandmother once said that when a wolf comes to the village, a shepherd looks first to her own flock. The wolf bloods his teeth on other sheep, and the shepherd knows it will one day come for hers, but she clings to the hope that she might be able to keep him out. Until the wolf is at her door.’

Full review, minor spoilers, and content warnings under the cut.

Content warnings for the book:  Some sexual content. Blood, gore, violence, traumatic injury, suicide, and death. Torture and execution. Miscarriage. Body horror (kinda). Drug use.

Clocking in at just over 800 pages, The Priory of the Orange Tree is a long, detailed story. I tend to label things Epic Fantasy when they have world-changing stakes. While Priory certainly fits that criteria, it's the first fantasy book I've read in a while that really does feel like an epic. It stars a huge cast of interesting characters from many walks of life, all of whom find themselves caught up in a world-spanning conflict. It captures the sense of a standalone, grand adventure that shorter fantasy novels of today don't typically reach.

With a book this long, it would be easy to ramble on forever about everything I liked. However, I'm going to try to keep it short and simple.

One of my favorite things about this story was the sheer depth of the world. Lots of people compare this to The Lord of the Rings not for its tropes, but the attention to detail regarding the countries, politics, history, religion, and so on. I'm inclined to agree with this assessment. The world felt alive and multi-dimensional. I could pinpoint many parallels to our own mythologies and histories-- particularly drawn from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. There's also a clear love of language in the story via its beautiful prose. I like to think I know English pretty well, but this book taught me quite a few new words! Might fuck around and call sunsets "rutilant" from now on.

I thought all four leads were interesting. Ead is kinda the "main" lead of the novel, although Tané overtakes her in the latter half. Everyone had different personalities and backstories, and I genuinely enjoyed all of their arcs. Niclays in particular would be an easy character to hate; of the four, he's the most selfish and does some real questionable shit. At the same time, it's hard not to sympathize with him. He's a sad, unjustly exiled elder who's lost the one man he cared about, and finds himself in a desperate situation. These types of characters are interesting to me; a glimpse of what anyone can become given the wrong circumstances and cruel treatment.

With stories like this, one of the most satisfying payoffs is how the different characters and stories come together. It was interesting to see how their paths converged and diverged over time, and ultimately how everything tied together in the end. I also appreciated the character relationships. I liked that Loth's close friendships with both Sabran and Ead were intimate yet platonic without some awkward love triangle.

From some story specifics... I'm a sucker for the bodyguard romance trope, and seeing it done with women in a mainstream novel gave me life. I thought the romance between Ead and Sabran was really sweet; I didn't see how it would work early on since Sabran was a little insufferable, but she had hidden depths (oh god, another weakness of mine). I also really liked the idea of traditional European and Asian dragons being diametrically opposed, and that being a core theme of the story. Intelligent and/or talking animals are another thing I adore in spec fic, so I dug characters like Aralaq. Kalyba's ongoing relevance and gradual exposition was also neat; I love minor world details that turn out super relevant later.

Also, the entire final battle/ending sequence was SO good. Really creative and action packed. Action scenes often blend together for me (and can be logistical nightmares) but Priory's climactic ending was just awesome. I don't want to spoil specifics, but it reminded me of many beloved epic battles in modern fantasy. Avatar the Last Airbender, How To Train Your Dragon, and Pirates of the Caribbean all came to mind. 

My main criticism with Priory is that often, the plot relied on convenient coincidence to get the characters out of a jam or otherwise advance the story. I can excuse a minor contrivance or two for the sake of a smooth story, and the scope of this book is big enough that it'd be hard to avoid. But some are nuts. For example, Loth gets rescued from certain death by a giant ichneumon while traveling through the mountains. We later learn the ichneumon is Aralaq, a friend of Ead's, and he just happened to be in the middle of nowhere, far from his home, and stumbled upon Loth. Loth, who ALSO happens to be Ead's best friend... which Aralaq presumably doesn't know?

Another is the MAJOR SPOILER regarding the rising jewel's location. I didn't hate the twist itself, but there was so little build up to it. I wish there were more early hints to justify it, because with setup it would be a pretty cool development. These things didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story, but the borderline deus ex machina (machinae? machinas?) did take me out of it a bit. It’s possible I missed stuff so I’ll give some benefit of the doubt. 

Overall, though, The Priory of the Orange Tree is a fun, world-spanning adventure. Like any long book, it's an investment to get into. However, if you're looking for a standalone, feminist fantasy epic, this is certainly a good place to start.  

[panharmonium]

gaius?

First Impression:

Thinking back on when I first met Gaius is weird, because in the first couple eps the writers hadn’t settled on who he was yet.  Like, originally they were leaning on the “absent-minded, scatter-brained scholar” thing, with him forgetting what day Merlin was supposed to be coming and falling off the balcony and setting his own work on fire.  And then they left that aspect of him behind, which I think was a smarter move - they turned him into a much more complex character.

Impression Now:

I love Gaius.  I love the way he and Uther are set up as a cautionary foil for Merlin and Arthur, as a preview of what Merlin and Arthur’s relationship could become, if nothing changes.  I love how Gaius feels that “there has been very little purpose” to his life, until Merlin walked in, and I love how Merlin’s arrival changes that.  I love how much he cares for Merlin.  Merlin would never have survived in Camelot without Gaius to come home to.  NEVER.

Favorite moment:

Oh my god, that scene at the end of The Witchfinder when Uther comes to “apologize”...INCREDIBLE.  The history there...and the fact that later, in The Secret Sharer, the show uses the exact same music when Arthur comes to apologize for not believing that Gaius had been kidnapped - THE GRIM PARALLEL.  Just amazing.

Idea for a story:

I don’t have any Gaius-centric story ideas right now, but I make an effort to include him in some way in most of the Camelot stuff I write, because I don’t think his importance to Merlin gets enough attention.

Unpopular opinion:

Just in general...I don’t think people think deeply enough about Gaius (for my tastes, anyway).  I think people are too quick to write him off, and I just don’t feel that rejecting characters like that is compatible with the spirit of the story, personally.  YMMV, but it’s not a fulfilling or satisfying method of engagement for me.

Favorite relationship:

Gaius and Merlin. <3333  

I also LOVE the dynamic between Gaius and Uther.  That is FASCINATING.  Tragic.  Like.  I know some segments of this fandom think the fact that Uther is monstrous means that he has never had any other qualities and shouldn’t even be discussed as if he were ever anything other than evil incarnate, but that’s just unrealistic.  I’m not interested in that kind of non-nuanced take.  Uther is monstrous when we meet him.  His reign needs to end.  There is no appropriate scenario where the show “excuses” him for the things he’s done (and I strongly disagree with people who think the show ever tries to do this).  But just because Uther continually chooses to perpetuate evil works during the time where we know him doesn’t mean he always did.  The show sets Uther and Gaius up as a parallel to Arthur and Merlin, and the tragedy of that parallel is that you can imagine a time where Uther and Gaius were the way Arthur and Merlin are at their best moments.  We know Nimueh was welcomed in Uther’s court at one time; she herself says that she was Uther’s friend.  It’s implied that Uther had some kind of relationship with Balinor, too, strong enough that Balinor actually believed him when Uther promised to make peace with the dragons.  Things were different once.  Uther was not always the man he is now.  For us to imagine that he has always been inhumanly evil isn’t consistent with what the show actually tells us - and it diminishes the true horror of what he’s become.  Uther is an eminently human monster, and the tragedy is that he didn’t have to be.  He chose that for himself.

So yeah.  Uther and Gaius are fascinating to me.  So much of their background goes unspoken, but you can feel the weight of all that history when they interact.

Favorite headcanon:

I am so bad at this question; I keep struggling with it...I don’t usually think up headcanons; I’m not creative enough; I just sit around and analyze what’s on the screen and then write fic that seems to agree with what I see. XD  

I guess what I would say is this - it’s not a headcanon, exactly, just an assumption I’ve always made, but - I think Gaius is the one who ends up addressing the end of Season 2 with Hunith.  Somebody must, obviously, offscreen, and I have very strong feelings about Merlin never setting foot in Ealdor again until he ends up there accidentally in Season 4 (“I am so sorry it’s been so long”).  I also don’t think Gaius would make Merlin deliver news like that, especially when Hunith doesn’t even know that Merlin knows who Balinor was.  And I’m not sure Merlin even knows if/how he wants to address it with his mother at all, just now.  He’s barely even processed it himself yet.  

So I think Gaius is the one who deals with it, at that time.