#evil!willy kills people based on what they might possibly know which would put him at odds with seiros even if birdie gives his approval | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

randomnameless · 3 years ago

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This "truth is more important than anything else" thing really pisses me off too. Of course we don't learn what happens to the surviving nabateans after Rhea's reveal at the end of claude's route, and we don't learnt what people might want to do to flayn, or to the sleeping macuil when they learn they can craft golden weapons from their remains

Yep!

I've watched a really... odd movie, once upon a time, where a Mother dies and tells her twins to search for two people their long-lost older brother and their father.

Things happen, and, iirc, the daughter says at one point usually 1+1 = 2, but in their case, 1+1 = 1 ; the son raging at their dead mother, asking why the fuck did she tell them to discover this truth.

What is more important, truth or peace?

Rhea picked "peace", and hid all of Gloucester's actions under the rug, even if it meant hiding her culture, her family and, well, herself for 1k years. Her "peace" breaks when, mostly, the "truth" she hid was distorted and used as a fuel to send a red emperor at her doorstep.

We do not see anyone picking "truth" and living with the consequences in the game - given how Fodlan's humans since to be cut out from the same material as Jugdral's humans, I don't think Flayn, even if she ends up being Queen of Faerghus or Queen of Almyra, is never going to be worried about some schmuck wanting to cut her arm to make a new zweilhander.

It started as a random thought/theory, but became a headcanon - as with everything regarding that guy - but I HC Wilhelm erased some clans, in his "conquer Fodlan" operation more willingly than others, instead of assimilating them in his Empire, if the clan, or anyone from that clan, knew how to "craft Golden Weapons".

It'd be a nice opposition to Rhea, who lies but still hopes, if a human discovers the Truth, she isn't going to be murdered because humans will stop seeing her as something to be looted (that priest in the Abyss Library certainly did) - even if the cons of her lies is to remove the tree hiding the forest, and acknowledge some people have super powers. Humans being Humans, they use this to discriminate and ruler over people they deem inferior.

Willy, the human (and Birdie!) would slaughter instead of lying, so technically they are not "hiding the truth", they are making sure no one knows it and lives long enough to share it. The Fatal Mistake (tm) would be Wilhelm himself, as his descendants were not trustworthy enough to know this secret, and they were used by Agarthans.

Honestly, I would have thought Ao3 might have had more fics about a post FE16 Fodlan where Hanneman (or someone else) built technologies and materials making Nabatean body parts obsolete, no one would need to slaughter them if you could buy a shiny toothpick at your local Walmart !

but it wasn't meant to be

#anon #replies #FE16 #honestly it's depressing #that movie made me feel so bad like wtf #is it the wilhelm hour?#evil!willy kills people based on what they might possibly know which would put him at odds with seiros even if birdie gives his approval

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sophieakatz · 5 years ago

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Thursday Thoughts: Yet Another Feminist Movie Test

The people of the internet (myself included) have a lot of fun playing around with the “Bechdel Test” – a simple formula created by lesbian comic artist Alison Bechdel to determine whether a film is worth seeing. This test asks the following three questions:

Are there at least two named female characters in the film?

Do they have a conversation with each other?

And is that conversation about something other than a man?

The Bechdel Test does a good job of illustrating several significant problems in mass media – the lack of named female characters, and the extremely limited range of plots, lifestyles, and character types that these female characters are given. It’s good for pointing out trends that fail to represent the diverse lives of women, and which specifically fail to appeal to lesbians and other wlw (women who like women).

But this little “test” on its own does not actually determine whether an individual film is “feminist.” It’s only three questions, after all.

Since the Bechdel Test took off in internet circles, many netizens have come up with their own media tests inspired by Bechdel’s comic. You can read about a lot of them here, but here are some of my favorites:

The Mako Mori Test: Is there at least one female character, who gets her own narrative arc, which is not about supporting a man’s story?

The Ellen Willis Test: Would this story’s depiction of these two characters still work if the genders of the characters were flipped?

The Topside Test: Does this film have more than one transgender character, who know each other, and who talk to each other about something other than a transition-related procedure?

Deggans’ Rule: Are there at least two people of color in this film, and is the film’s narrative not about race?

The Sexy Lamp Test: If you replaced the female character with a “sexy” lamp, would nothing change about the film?

Today I am adding my own test to the mix. Let’s call it the Want Test.

The Want Test is based on one question: Does what the named female character want matter to the plot?

Of course, this requires that there be a named female character in the movie. I’m taking that as a given. Most films do have one of those, these days. However, this test does not allow a filmmaker to simply point at the presence of a named female character and say that their work is done. This question asks about the relevance of this named female character. Does what she want actually matter to her world? If the answer is yes, give the film a checkmark. If the answer is no, give it a minus sign.

Note that she doesn’t necessarily need to get what she wants, but the movie world around her should react as though her wanting it means something. Villains have desires that drive plots, certainly, but that doesn’t mean that they should succeed. Additionally, many protagonists begin a movie believing that they want one thing and act upon that desire, but along the way figure out that something else is better for them. These stories are all important and I don’t want to bog this test down with the requirement that these characters get what they want, because getting what you want is not always a good thing.

Musicals tend to pass this test pretty easily, especially Disney Princess movie musicals. Cinderella of Cinderella wants to go to the ball – that matters to the plot. Tiana of The Princess and the Frog wants to open a restaurant – that matters to the plot. A main feature of a musical is the “I Want” song – the scene early on where the heroine has a solo about what she wants, setting up the plot of the story. Movies with an “I Want” song consistently get their checkmark from this test.

But this is me we’re talking about, and I’m not going to leave it this simple, now am I? Let’s add some more plusses and minuses to the test.

The titular character of Snow White gets two “I Want” songs (“I’m Wishing” and “Someday My Prince Will Come”). She wants to find love – and she gets it, too. She also spends a lot of time bossing the dwarves out of their slovenliness, for no apparent reason other than that she wants to. That’s enough for a checkmark.

But Snow White is not the only named female character whose wants matter to the plot. The Evil Queen (and yeah, I’m counting that as a name, because it’s how she’s consistently referred to in Disney media) wants to be the fairest of them all, and that want drives her to try to kill Snow White multiple times, launching the entire plot in the first place. If more than one named female characters have wants that drive the plot, then the film gets a check-plus.

However, Snow White does not do as well under this test as it possibly could. Snow and the Queen’s wants directly conflict with each other; they are enemies. Ultimately, for the story to conclude, what one of them wants needs to matter less than what the other woman wants. And that’s not ideal.

Let’s take a look instead at Frozen. Here we have two named female characters, Anna and Elsa, whose wants absolutely matter to the plot. Anna wants to connect with her sister and save Arendelle from the eternal winter, while Elsa wants to protect her sister (and save Arendelle from the eternal winter, but that’s secondary). Ultimately their wants converge, and they help each other get what they want, living happily ever after. If the named female characters help each other get what they want instead of fight against each other, then the film is upped to a check-double-plus.

Now here’s the disappointing side of this test. Sometimes a named female character wants something, and her wants matter – but her wants directly contrast with the wants of a male character. Perhaps she’s the villain who has locked the male character in a dungeon. Perhaps she’s a prospective love interest who doesn’t want to fall for the male character. In this case, while the female’s character’s wants matter, they only matter insofar as the male character is trying to change what she wants or to make sure she does not get what she wants. These films may depict a woman as having desires, but her desires are not actually important – they are an obstacle.

In Toy Story 2, Jessie wants Woody to come with her to the museum in Japan. Woody doesn’t want to go. The viewer does not want him to go. Her wants certainly matter to the world – Jessie’s backstory is arguably the saddest sequence in all of Pixar history, and she nearly sways Woody to her side – but her wants are an obstacle. The film’s triumphant moment is when Woody gets her to change what she wants and come be Andy’s toy instead. As a result, this film gets a check-minus. It passes – but not in a very positive way.

That got pretty wordy. Here is the tl;dr version of the Want Test:

Does what the named female character want matter to the plot?

Yes – checkmark

Yes, AND this is true of multiple named female characters – check-plus

AND these characters help each other get what they want – check-double-plus

Yes, BUT her wants are an obstacle to a male character’s goal – check-minus

No – minus

Now let’s look at some other movies and see how they fare against the Want Test:

Tangled – check-plus. It’s a musical movie with an “I Want” song, and Rapunzel’s desire to see the lanterns sure as heck matters. So does Mother Gothel’s desire to keep Rapunzel prisoner and stay young forever. They’re opponents, so it doesn’t get a double-plus, but it’s still an excellent film.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl – check! Elizabeth Swann is a force to be reckoned with, and the world around her recognizes it right from the start. Alas, she is the only one of her kind. There are other named female characters here, but what they want (to slap Jack) is only ever played for laughs.

Toy Story 1 – minus. Bo exists, but she might as well be a sexy lamp (which, you know, she is). Toy Story 4, on the other hand, earns a check-double-plus in the end. As I’ve written before, that film is entirely about a man learning to put his wants second to what the women around him want. Because of this, Toy Story 4 might even deserve a check-triple-plus.

The Social Network – check-minus. Barely. The film begins with Erica Albright getting fed up with fictional-Mark-Zuckerburg’s assholery and dumping him, which implies that she wants to be treated better. The film gets a check because this want is what sets off the entire plot, and Mark spends the rest of the film trying to impress her in one way or another, but since her wants are one hundred percent in opposition to Mark’s wants, it’s a check-minus.

Mad Max: Fury Road – check-double-plus, easily. This film is a group of women’s journey towards freedom. They don’t all make it there, but the fact that they want it and strive for it literally changes the world.

Ocean’s 8 – check-double-plus. If you need to ask why, then we didn’t watch the same film.

Up – check-plus! Surprised? The female presence in this film isn’t obvious at first glance. But there are two named female characters – Ellie and Kevin (yes, the bird counts, this is a world with sentient animals). While Ellie spends all but the first five minutes of the film deceased, the want that she establishes in those first five minutes – to travel with Carl to Paradise Falls – drives literally everything that Carl does in the film. Kevin just wants to live her life as a mama bird, feeding and protecting her babies, and those wants do matter, in sharp contrast to the wants of the villainous Charles Muntz.

Moana – double-check-plus! Moana, Grandma Tala, and Te Fiti’s wants all align. I can’t remember Moana’s mother’s name ever being said in the film itself (according to the credits her name is Sina), but she has a key moment early on of helping Moana get what she wants, even though that means giving up some of what Sina herself wants, and that’s noteworthy too.

Now here’s where the fun continues: you could also replace “female character” with a different minority! Does what the named Asian-American character want matter to the plot? Does what the named disabled character want matter to the plot? Does what the named transgender character want matter to the plot? So you’ve “inserted diversity” into your film – but what are you doing with it? It’s not enough for us to just be there. We need to matter, as people with desires and agency. We need to matter in films, because we matter in reality. And we haven’t mattered for long enough.

Let’s have a conversation! What other films pass - or fail! - the Want Test? What media tests do you like to apply to the films you watch? Reblog, reply, or retweet with your thoughts!

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carrowe · 7 years ago

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AMYCUS CARROW is A DEATH EATER in the war, even though HIS official job is as A CURSE BREAKER & HIT MAN. the TWENTY SIX year old PUREBLOOD is known to be PATIENT and RESERVED but also VIOLENT and TWO FACED. some might label them as THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE. fc: ryan gosling

hey it’s lizzie back at it with being a fucking idiot ( aka i can’t write good, wholesome characters that are not james to save my life so even though i love mae... she gotta go :/ i’m sorry!!! ). so bringing back my favorite sociopath but... revamped 2 be darker because was inspired ♥ !!

ANTHEMS:

rail road track - willy moon // blood on my name - the brothers bright // shakin - willy moon // dogs of war - blues saraceno // feel it still - portugal the man.

full playlist: (x) pinterest boards: v1. v2.

BACKGROUND / FAMILY ( bound to change probably ):

Amycus Abigor Carrow is the first born child of the Carrow dynasty. His father named him after the prince of hell, in the hopes that his son would prove himself worthy of the name. Amycus would, but not in the way his father had hoped.

As a child, Amycus was very quiet. Mostly kept to himself and his sister. Never harmed a fly.

Amycus was the product of a loveless marriage, based on pureblood politics. His parents couldn’t stand each other, and were each other’s polar opposites. Amycus would later realize that they were doomed from the start.

child abuse tw:// Amycus’ father was a cold business man, and was not very interested in being a father to Amycus. He mostly made excuses to be as far away from the family life as possible.

So Amycus was left to his grandfather, a man that put great emphasis on pain ( believing it was the only way that Amycus would learn and become stronger ). Lessons were drilled in with corporal punishment, and the emotional and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father would eventually break him down into something colder and darker. Feelings were deemed weak, and had to be firmly repressed - which would leave behind a shell of a boy.

Gained a definite rebellious streak during his teenage years, and would do EVERYTHING and anything to fuck with his dad.

Eventually moved out, at the age of 15. Figured either he’d move out or kill his father, and settled on the former.

Remaining summers were spent living at the Hog’s Head Inn.

The Carrow family did not want to air their dirty laundry to the world, so they never formally denounced Amycus. Most other pureblood families know that they had a falling out though.

Alecto is his other half, and they come as a matching set. Without her, he feels incomplete, and she’s also the only person who truly knows him.

MAIN CHANGES FROM THE PREVIOUS AMYCUS’ TIMELINE:

Main thing probably is that he is more refined. More dangerous. Still pretty fucking dumb, but less rough around the edges. Also has more self control which is good for him!!!

Still a brickwall in terms of sharing (always so private), but way more polite? More controlled, less crude. Instead of just grunting in reply, homeboy might try to actually act like a human being. So definitively less gruff.

Also can’t just typecast him as ‘ hm this is probably a pretty bad dude ‘ when first meeting him anymore so that's kinda problematic :/ May cause some issues :/

AESTHETIC / VIBES:

old gramophones, blood stained polaroids, broken glasses, bleeding fists, standing in silence for hours, chipped teeth, unwavering loyalty, unhealed scars, getting home at the crack of dawn, red wine, long showers, god complexes, the color of the sunset, messy hair, blood soaked suits, always cheating death, a rebel just for kicks, half smiles, just beating and beating until the world stops, no conscience, half empty wine bottles, impersonal offices, a face that doesn’t quite match his demeanor.

HOGWARTS YEARS:

Was a hat stall between Slytherin and surprisingly enough, Hufflepuff. But his sister was sorted into Slytherin, and Amycus won’t go anywhere without his twin.

With the Slytherins, he found a new home, far away from his grandfather.

I would say that he is not exactly book smart, and he got pretty shit grades while at the school. The one subject where he really excelled was charms, but he also did all right in transfigurations and herbology.

Is more muscle than brains, most of the time tbh.

At the age of fifteen, Amycus stopped going back to his family home. He was becoming strong enough (from years of fighting) to challenge his father, and decided to just drop all contact. Today, he only sees his dad at the occasional pureblood party / event, where he ignores him.

torture tw :// Violence breeds violence, and the pain and suffering he had endured at home soon translated into him torturing fellow students.

Did not spend a lot of time in detention, despite all the fighting? Was that prick who got away with a lot because of his angel face. Eventually, teachers caught on though and Amycus got into his fair share of trouble as well ( most definitively became viewed as a Disturbed Child™ ).

During his time at the school, he earned some extra cash from doing odd jobs ( which mostly entailed torturing specific students per request ).

His electives at the school were: alchemy, care of magical creatures and divination. He was in no clubs at the school.

AFTER HOGWARTS:

Became a curse breaker soon after graduating.

First few years were spent abroad, working in tombs for Gringotts, recovering lost artifacts and breaking ancient curses.

Eventually, he made his way back home, and found work for the ministry. He works at the office for the removal of curses, jinxes and hexes, which is a subdivision of the improper use of magic office.

Unfortunately for him, this means that he has to work with a lot of other divisions. He hates it.

His day job as a curse breaker is sort of a disguise for what he considers to be his real job? He’s sort of a gun ( wand ) for hire, and will kill anyone who needs to be killed, for a price. Though the money really doesn’t matter all that much to him?

Most of his clients are members of the sacred 28, who always want SOMEONE dead.

Kind of just aligned himself with the Death Eaters because 1. they have a more violent agenda 2. his sister.

Amycus isn’t the most invested in the whole pureblood supremacy thing ( though he’d never admit that ), but overall likes Voldemort and what he stands for.

Definitively fears Voldemort, and is quite happy that he’s not directly reporting to him.

Amycus mainly works for the Death Eaters as an information gatherer, which basically is just a nicer way to say that he tortures people until they tell him whatever they know. He’s disturbingly good at it, and usually works together with his sister.

Currently living in a large townhouse in London, with Alecto.

AS A PERSON:

Doesn’t give a single fuck about anyone that isn’t himself or his sister.

NEUTRAL EVIL.

Doesn’t even have a moral compass, just does whatever is best for him. Has no interest in your righteous bullshit.

Looks a lot nicer than he is, which works to his advantage most of the time? Like he just looks like a nerdy, good dude. Couldn’t be further from the truth but... that’s besides the point. His face really doesn’t match the way he behaves.

Probably the most private person you’ll ever meet? He seldom reveals anything about himself, and when he does, it’s usually not true.

100% petty enough to lie about the smallest, most meaningless details.

SO self disciplined. Always in complete control, and it’s very hard to get a genuine reaction / rise out of him. Also so so so patient, and is happy to wait for whatever his current end game is.

Drinks and smokes heavily, but doesn’t personally think that he has a problem.

Mostly just a dumb asshole.

SO COLD.

Thrives off violence and is a total brute tbh.

Pretty good at hiding his death eater ties since he's... paranoid as FUCK. And also very private. Always wears a mask. But some people probably suspect... stuff anyways, if they've like. Spent longer than two hours with him. Listen if Amycus wasn't such a fucking asshole he probably could get away with it (/scooby doo villain voice). But then again, others will probably think he's just cold as shit.

Is a total demon, but looks like an angel. Helps a lot !!!

STYLE / FASHION / APPEARANCE:

This version of Amycus wears glasses, but fucking breaks them ALL THE TIME. The only thing keeping them together is magic.

Wears mostly suits for work ( bc he has to :/ ) but will wear those long black robes on his free time. Think a vampire cape, flying in the wind. That’s right, he really is THAT guy.

Will also wear stupid band tshirts a lot when not working.

Keeps his hair short.

Like 70% of his money is probably spent on buying new suits / robes / t shirts because he keeps either getting blood on them, or having them ripped to shreds in a fight.

Looks like he’s wearing the exact same shoes everyday but actually has like... 100 different pairs.

Eyes appear either blue or grey depending on the lighting.

Has some tattoos, and a half sleeve on his right arm, going from his shoulder down to his elbow.

CHARACTER INFLUENCES:

caleb haas ( quantico )- the snark. the assholery. the background. the black sheep.

clay haas ( quantico ) - just the right amount of polished. the style. the general aesthetic. the hair.

angelus ( btvs )- the disregard for human life. the darkness. the occasional brooding. the quips.

holden ford ( mindhunter ) - the scheming. the hidden ambition. the slyness. the resolution.

lucifer morningstar ( lucifer ) - the smile, the general vibe, the quips, the mannerisms, the darkness.

eric northman ( southern vampire mysteries ) - the confidence. the general dumbness. the stubbornness.

demon dean winchester ( supernatural ) - the occasional charm. the being an actual demon-ness. the blood lust. the bad jokes. the weakness for a pretty face.

wolverine ( x men ) - the violence. the moodiness. the hatred. the occasional gruff demeanor.

dexter morgan ( dexter ) - the serial killer vibe. the lust for blood. the violence. the loyalty to his sister. the sociopathy.

takeshi kovac ( altered carbon ) - the violence. the fucked up moral compass. the buried anger. the instinct to fight.

#maraudrshq:intros #love writing villains in this house!!!!

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ghostmartyr · 7 years ago

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SnK 100 Thoughts

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a 1% chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty. And we have to destroy him.”

Look, if you design a character who agrees with Batman in Batman v Superman, you just sorta have to accept that bad things are going to happen to him.

Though, since we are talking about it...

Now, I’m not making any giant leaps here.

All I’m saying is that technically all Eldians have the name of their mother in common.

Which means Eren’s going to die, Reiner’s Batman, and Wonder Woman is still waiting for her musical cue. Also, War Hammer is Doomsday.

#spoilers

Obviously I missed out on calling Falco Robin, which is even more tragic due to where his life story looks to be taking him, but then we have to get down to assigning a Joker, and I guess Gabi’s a pretty easy Batgirl, but I have a chance here to keep one of these posts short, and I can’t do that if fanfiction is being written in the margin.

Also, I think someone would yell at me if I suggested Zeke for Wonder Woman (heislookingbackatabattlefieldheisdepartingsotheblockingisthereevenifthemoralcenterisn’t) so let’s just stop.

Okay, so the brief summary of this chapter is ding-dong, the witch is dead, only there’s some disagreement over whether it was a good witch or a bad witch. A similar disagreement is ongoing regarding the perpetrator.

Truthfully, the one thing that can be said is that the good or bad witch’s slippers are unlikely to be taken by the good or bad witch who slayed him. They won’t fit, and the good or bad witch murderer already has the most powerful magic in the land.

The briefer summary is that Willy Tybur continues to be terrible, only in such a way that it’s confused for nobility, and I am so very tired of Marley.

He’s willing to die for his belief that his people are irredeemable monsters that should be eradicated--but he’d still rather they not be, because life gives him the warm fuzzies, and maybe the people whose abuse his family’s been profiting off deserve warm fuzzies too.

The idea of a nobleman looking at the life of luxury he has at the cost of his own people, and choosing to make steps to change the world for the better, is not a bad one. Doing that despite a wholehearted belief in their inherent evil is actually very interesting. It’s one more bit of cognitive dissonance that allows Willy to feel guilt over what has been done to his people, even though he thinks the world would be better off without them, and doesn’t mind killing large numbers of them.

At his core, all he is is a man who wants to live in the world he’s been born into, and he’s willing to sacrifice that life for a better world.

Here’s the problem.

His version of a better world is blaming Paradis for everything so that everyone can run off holding hands to murder them all.

He’s willing to die to make that vision a reality.

He’s never met anyone on Paradis. He’s never tried to talk to anyone from Paradis. He’s used diplomacy with nations in the rest of the outside world to ease the horrific damage Marley being Marley has caused itself, but not once with Paradis.

When it comes to the island, murder is always the only solution.

Willy Tybur is the one Eldian with a position in the world that can make a real difference. He can get ambassadors to change their minds. Despite never taking advantage of it, he does have control over Marley. Under his direction, Marley might have avoided the mass series of war crimes that the rest of the world hates them for.

(not that we have any idea why that is)

He doesn’t go that route.

He determines that the best path to world peace is uniting the world to kill his ancestors’ scapegoat.

Martyrdom is not a thing you do because you’re too lazy to put effort into actual change.

It’s easy to look at what Eldians are capable of from birth and call them monsters. It’s easy to say that, obviously, they never should have existed. Even if you have that same blood, and want to be alive, it’s very, very easy to reach that conclusion.

What’s difficult is carving your place into a world that is predisposed to hate you. It takes time, and concentrated effort. It takes giving a damn about treating people decently.

Willy has the means to forge a peaceful, humane coexistence between Eldians and the rest of the world. Or at least the means to make that attempt.

He chooses to forge his peace in the blood of other Eldians. The fact that he’s willing to die for that outcome doesn’t magically turn it into a noble gesture. He’s strong enough to make a decision that will cost countless lives in a war based on nothing but fear and prejudice. And that would be after knowingly sacrificing people he thinks of as less worthy to a terrorist attack.

Ding-dong.

Speaking of, Eren’s response to Willy’s declaration isn’t exactly on the moral highground you’d appreciate from your protagonist, so that’s nice. His lunge is as horizontal as possible, but it would take authorial intervention to keep him from killing civilians when he goes after Willy.

The only way this doesn’t seem like a very bad idea is if Eren agrees with Willy’s decision.

...I want more of a warmup before looking at that too closely.

Elsewhere, Titans in pits.

Or not.

Zeke’s still the only one walking around free. Galliard and Pieck are out of whatever fight’s coming next.

None of that appears to be expected on the Marley side. It looks like they wanted their Warriors gathered when everyone went horribly wrong. Possibly to keep the level of wrongness to a minimum. How thoughtful.

It seems pretty fair to guess that Galliard and Pieck are the work of Eren’s friends, but Zeke and his fancy glasses that hide his eyeballs are a little harder to pin down. We get one shot of him, walking alone.

I’m willing to leave that for another month though, so to the other pit!

Falco being the Eren to Eren’s Reiner is painful. Here he had this thoughtful adult encouraging him all the way into committing treason. He was just being a good person, and Eren takes advantage of that.

And right after all of that hits, he gets to watch Mr. Braun self-destructing, and hears about dead friends and mothers.

Falco’s a good kid. Assuming that Reiner gets him out of this alive, he isn’t only going to take death and betrayals from this. He understands the toll of being a Warrior, and understands enough to hate that people are okay with Gabi selling her life to the role.

Eren looks right at him and says that the people inside the walls are the same as the people outside. I don’t know how well the doubt will stick, but if nothing else, I think there’s a good chance that Reiner won’t be able to keep up the lies about Paradis demons--to Falco, anyway.

Falco’s in this spot because he cares about people no one else sees. I don’t know how much of his path can be changed, given the decisions made this chapter, but I hope that the idea that everyone involved in this war is a person sticks with him.

Even though that will be infinitely more painful than just being a participant fighting off demons.

Oki doki, so.

Eren.

Eren has gone on a very educational journey of learning that people are people. Willy even helps him along by directly quoting something Eren says way back in Trost.

“Because... I was born into this world.”

They’ve all been born into this world, and they all want to live in it, freely.

Time to go attack that island!

Eren spends most of his time in the pit prying everything that went through Reiner’s head out of him. Not for the sake of condemning it. Just to hear the honest words of a man like him, who caused incredible pain in the name of saving the world.

Their whole talk is about their similar intentions and circumstances, and being understood. And finding forgiveness on a road that doesn’t deserve any.

“This whole time... it was painful for you, wasn’t it?”

“I think now... I understand that [...]

I was right. I’m... the same as you.”

Yeah, Eren brings down the house.

The final page is his hands extended in Titan form the same way Willy’s are when he makes his declaration.

Reciprocity. Yay.

There are a few concerning things here.

The murder’s pretty low on the list.

These would be the panels that earn Eren the kind of looks Reiner is the recipient of when he’s going through his identity trouble.

Eren, last seen back home speaking as his father and Eren Kruger, has supernaturally granted identity troubles, and not recalling death threats to the point of asking Reiner to ignore that they happened is... weird. Whether or not it means anything, who knows, but Eren’s general stability seems to be mimicking the style of someone who has recently done pot up to his magic handshake. There’s so much personal history involved that it makes sense that Eren’s the one mostly behind the wheel, but... yeah, I’ll stick with weird.

Adding to that is what he says during the magic handshake.

(the magic comes from friendship)

“I just keep moving forward. Until my enemies are destroyed.”

Once upon a time, Kruger explains to Grisha what the Attack Titan is all about.

“No matter the age, this Titan has always moved ahead, seeking freedom. It has fought on for freedom.”

Eren has altered the deal. Pray he doesn’t alter it any further.

No, but I’m not big on speculation. I like waiting to see what the next month brings instead. But I keep waiting for more on the individual Titans having sentience, and it’s hard not to wonder a little if Mr. Attack and Eren are experiencing some unnatural bleed-through.

I don’t know, some things just feel very odd.

Anyway, outside the tempting cracklands of detours, there’s a really uncomfortable prospect presented in this chapter that I would prefer being wrong about, but at the same time, hey, Eren’s causing destruction and murdering people, so clearly happy funtimes are over.

Eren smiles when Willy says he wants his audience to fight with him against Paradis. It is not full of happiness, exactly, but it is not the look you would expect from hearing that kind of statement. Some mix of acceptance and sadness, maybe?

There are a lot of people on Paradis who, if asked, would know the exact best moment to kill Willy that would encourage his message most efficiently.

Eren waits until Willy is done with his speech to kill him.

Willy’s just asked everyone he knows for helps against the island devils, and... Eren gives them one. Whatever destruction does or doesn’t follow, Willy’s message is heard in its entirety, and he’s killed by the enemy he asks for unity in facing.

If you want to limit his support, this is, by far, the worst way to do it.

So even though I can’t imagine why anyone would reach this conclusion, I have to wonder if Paradis agreed with Willy. If they agreed that a unified world could only come about through a common enemy and a martyr.

Thematically, I have all kinds of disagreements with that, but Eren couldn’t have fulfilled Willy’s plan any better if he’d been in the room listening to its design. At the end of a grand speech, a monster rushes out and kills the only one in the world brave enough to call all people to arms against this great threat.

It’s beautiful, and... very on the nose.

You could not pick a better time to attack.

...For Willy’s purposes.

Even if this wipes out a bunch of Marley military personnel, care has been taken to keep all of the Titans out of the way. The main force is secure and breathing. This is not an attack that will devastate; it will invigorate.

And I can’t shake the thought that someone on the Paradis side thought that that was the only hope the rest of the world’s Eldians had. And having said that... it’s hard not to wonder if that someone is Eren.

Staged martyrdom only works this smoothly if both sides have the script.

Or maybe Carla just raised Eren to believe that it’s rude to interrupt people.

I really don’t know how to feel about most of what happens here. This is another chapter that I’d like to think would be benefited by future ones.

Right now there’s just this ominous dread that makes it difficult to appreciate that I don’t have to read Willy talk anymore.

Nothing next month can’t fix, I’m sure.

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 100 #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

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agentelmo · 7 years ago

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We all know that Mulder is insecure but Do you think scully has some serious security issue around Mulder too when it comes to having a romantic relationship with him?

In a word, yes.

Scully almost certainly has avoidant attachment issues.

She’d been brought up as a navy brat, never settling in one place for too long; never being able to establish a secure base with those outside her immediate family. As a child, she learnt that those close to her would at some point be ripped away and so the pain of that probably taught her to keep a safe distance from others.

She confesses as much in season 5′s Christmas Carol.

It isn’t just about how she would have repeatedly lost friendships and other significant relationships from moving around - it goes deeper than that. In season 7′s Orison, there is the poignant story Scully tells of how she realised that evil exists in the world when her Sunday School teacher was killed in his front yard. She was close to this man, and he was taken away too. She learnt very young that not just distance, but also death robs you of those you love.

Because she fears forming attachments to those outside of her immediate family, it places a far greater strain on the attachments she does allow for herself - namely the relationship she has with her father.

She idolises him and the romanticism of his naval career - he’s her hero. When re-watching Ghost in the Machine for my most recent analysis post, I noticed that when Scully was in bed, there was a book she had fallen asleep reading, and so I Googled it.

This book, “The Obstacle Course” by J.F. Freedman, is about a down and out boy who befriends a navy admiral who helps him to turn his life around by going to the Navy Academy. Hmm!

She really does live and breathe her father’s legacy - as she says herself in season 4′s Never Again…

So in the absence of others, all her emotional needs were channelled into her relationship with her father. He became her entire world. He was incredibly proud of her becoming a doctor, and so when she jacked a medical career in, to join the FBI, she could never fully reconcile the crushing feeling she had disappointed the one person she desperately craved the approval of.

She says to Ed Jerse in Never Again, that she craves the approval of controlling, authority figures because they are proxies of her father. This need has haunted her, because she never got the approval she needed from him when joining the FBI. It’s no wonder she ended up in several relationships with older, authoritative men, from whom she also sought this same approval. As she admits Ed and to herself - her life has run in a circle of constantly seeking out and then rebelling against “other fathers”.

First (that we know of) was Daniel Waterston - one of her teachers in medical school. She has an affair with him that, interestingly, she ended once she decided to join the FBI and he voiced his vehement disapproval, just like her father did.

The next relationship she finds herself in is with her FBI instructor. Jack Willis. Another older man in a position of authority; a teacher who she could gain the approval of to fuel this need for validation and fatherly love.

It’s worth pointing out that the fact these men are her teachers is quite interesting too. A “teacher” is an embodiment of childhood authority, a figure that we are actively encouraged to seek the approval of - they are much like surrogate parents - surrogate fathers.

Never Again is an interesting episode, because it reveals a lot about how Scully might view Mulder. Does she see him as another controlling, authority figure in her life? I’d say… in the end… no. Haha… wait, wait!

We have to remember that Never Again occurs immediately after Leonard Betts and right before Memento Mori. It’s not known if she had her cancer diagnosis at this point, but I’d say that she is going through a huge emotional crisis in Never Again. I’d say, at the very least, she suspects her illness and is in the process of being tested. Whether she has the confirmed diagnosis or not, she is having to face the possibility she may have a terminal illness and so she is in the process of examining herself, her life, and her priorities.

She’s noticed this pattern in her life, and seen the damage it has done to her, and is now seemingly resentful - her time to rebel has come around again. She feels her life is standing still, and is rebelling against the figure she feels is, at least in part, responsible for that - Mulder.

During Never Again, she is examining her relationship with Mulder and finding herself irritated to the extreme when she observes any overlap in Mulder’s behaviour with the “other fathers” she later mentions to Ed. The controlling, authority figure who she desperately seeks the attention and approval of.

There are definitely echos of that, she has moments of needing Mulder’s approval, and there are definitely times when she is threatened by women who take his attention away from her. But I don’t think that’s how she sees Mulder overall. If she did, then why would she stick around? If Mulder was simply another proxy for her father, then she would do what she has always done when coming to this conclusion about the men in her life - which is end the relationship. Like she did with both Daniel and Jack.

But she doesn’t… why?

If Scully was ever going to decide that her relationship with Mulder was actually toxic and damaging to her and so leave him, this would have been it - facing terminal illness and realising he’s a controlling asshole. But she doesn’t… so she must come to some other conclusion regarding the tension between her and Mulder.

Which, personally, I think is something she’s probably felt for some time, but is only forced to acknowledge it when Diana Fowley shows up to - once again - take Mulder’s attention away from her. But this time it’s different - this time I think she can no longer avoid the fact that this tension between them is caused by the fact that she is in love with Mulder.

So, with all of this, it’s clear to see that Scully has a lot of personal demons which are going to be haunting her surrounding any kind of romantic relationship.

She trusts Mulder like no other and he has become a huge focus in her life. The idea of changing the nature of that relationship is going to be incredibly scary for her. Not only because she’s realised her feelings for him are not based on a need for a father surrogate, but something deeper that she’s never had with a man before, but also because she has this deeply ingrained belief that getting closer to him means she will lose him. That it won’t last. That, sooner or later, distance or death will take him from her. Risking that kind of pain is terrifying.

The tragedy is that pretty soon after she does initiate a romantic relationship with him (assuming that’s what happens off screen in All Things) she does lose him, first through distance in their separation, and then to death. Her worst nightmare come to life.

So Scully never gets closer, never overstep the mark - Mulder has to be the one to make the first move (Fight the Future). Occasionally letting it slip that she is attracted to him is about all she ever allows herself.

Even after they are together, you can see some of this stuff is still there for Scully. Fast forward all the way to I Want To Believe and you can see some of her defences still at work. She tries to end her relationship with Mulder before getting hurt - she’s protecting herself from the pain of losing him to his re-awakened passion for hunting the paranormal - by leaving him first.

So yes, in my opinion, Scully has a lot of security issues around having a relationship with Mulder. I hope that answers your question, Anon!

I would also like to add, that this is all my interpretation of things that may well be totally off the mark. I had been concerned about this previously, but it was brought to my attention more recently from some feedback I got, that a lot of what I say I might inadvertently present as some great revelation, but it’s actually all old hat that most people know already. So, apologies if it comes across like that. I am just putting it together in the way I know how, and I hope you all understand that this is only my interpretation of things, and that many others may have laid this out already and perhaps far more coherently than I. I don’t want this to seem like I claim any of my thoughts on the show as fact or canon.

Cheers.

#txf meta

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jillmckenzie1 · 5 years ago

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The Force Ricochets

In the beginning, there was the Word…or a bunch of words, anyway. They began with, “It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.” Once seen, it was impossible to forget.

Film historians will tell you the first blockbuster was Steven Spielberg’s Jaws in 1975. That’s true, but there’s a galaxy’s worth of difference between a blockbuster and a frickin’ phenomenon. On May 25, 1977, Star Wars changed everything. The brainchild of George Lucas erupted from theaters and soon laid claim to toys, books, music, clothing, and an absolutely godawful holiday special.

For a while there, Star Wars was bulletproof. It didn’t matter that Return of the Jedi was only two-thirds of a good movie. It didn’t matter that a large number of connected novels were poorly written. Hell, it didn’t even matter that the release of the Prequel Trilogy captured the imagination of the public like a wet fart. Ultimately, it was always understood that underneath it all was a strong core, the product of a vision.

Things changed in 2012 when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion to Disney. The Mouse House now oversaw his galaxy, and the legacy of his company was secure. Barely after the ink was dry on the contracts, plans were made.* Disney did what it excels at, which is pumping out content. A continuation of the Skywalker Saga began in 2015 with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That trilogy, along with 42 years of themes, narrative, and expectations comes to a close with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Remember Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)? When last we saw him, he had assumed control of the villainous Empire…I mean, First Order, tried and failed to stamp out the Rebellion…I mean, the Resistance, and did battle with his mentor Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who was revealed to be an exceptionally sneaky Force Ghost. Have those experiences seasoned young Master Ren into a wiser and cannier opponent? They have not, and he’s still the same old lovable scamp who enjoys wholesale slaughter and counterproductive temper tantrums.

After killing the hell out of a bunch of luckless chumps, Ren descends into the depths of a hidden planet. He finds Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who has been a busy little Sith lord despite the minor inconvenience of having been dead. It turns out he’s been creating clones and waiting for his long-lost heir. The plan is to activate a thing called The Final Order which will subjugate the galaxy, resurrect the Sith order, and cause everyone to have a pretty crappy day.

The good news is, there’s a band of plucky rebels on hand to stop them. Yes, still. Our old pal Rey (Daisy Ridley) has been diligently training to be a Jedi, and she’s become a dab hand at yanking stuff around with the Force and swinging around her lightsaber all willy-nilly. Daredevil pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) continues to buckle swashes whenever possible, while ex-Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) continues to have a frustratingly underwritten personality.

Their leader remains Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), who desperately seeks an advantage against the First Order. Due to the efforts of a spy, she just might have one. Now they must seek out a Sith artifact, the corpse of an assassin, his ship, and a mystical dagger emblazoned with clues leading them to the truth. Yep, there’s an awful lot of time spent seeking out things or people.

Let’s take a moment to imagine you’re seeing your favorite band in concert. You’ve gotten good seats and the sound quality is exquisite. They take the stage, and your musicians of choice play all the hits, but only the hits. Then, a tribute band joins them onstage, and they proceed to play the hits. That’s what The Rise of Skywalker is, and it’s designed to give the fans what they want and nothing else at all.

Look, I still believe that as much as The Force Awakens played it safe, it skillfully rejuvenated the Star Wars brand and was a fun time at the movies. I also believe that The Last Jedi took some big chances and did so with a high degree of skill. That film also was the most divisive film in the franchise, and going forward, the creators of The Rise of Skywalker had quite a job ahead of them. Their job was to bring audiences more adventures with characters they love, wrap up years-long storylines, deliver thrilling spectacle, and simultaneously close out a franchise while prepping audiences for more down the road. Unfortunately for them, the film that actually did all those things successfully this year is Avengers: Endgame.

So that must mean I loathed The Rise of Skywalker, right? Not at all? Give director J.J. Abrams credit for consistently making terrific-looking films that are impeccably cast and feature inventive set pieces. There’s a lightsaber duel in the midst of crashing waves that’s gorgeous, and an extended sequence that would be right at home in the world of Mad Max. There were many, many moments where I caught myself thinking, “Oh, that’s cool!” Problem is, I was only affected by surface pleasures.

As so often happens, the root problems are with the screenplay. Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow, Abrams, and Chris Terrio hammered out the story and script, and it’s a story written from fear. Sure, The Last Jedi made over $1 billion at the box office, yet The Force Awakens made over $2 billion, and last year’s Solo underperformed with a hair under $400 million. Making matters worse, The Last Jedi had a 49 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a 91 percent critics score.** Abrams and his merry group of scribes needed to deliver a crowd-pleaser or die trying.***

Their screenplay feels desperate. It’s as if, with a slightly mad gleam in their eyes, Abrams and co. are vigorously fan-servicing the audience and yelling, “DO YOU LIKE THIS? WHAT ABOUT THIS? HERE’S A LIGHTSABER FIGHT AND A TON OF SPACESHIPS AND ANCIENT PROPHESIES! HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU LOVE!” Over and over they call back to the Original Trilogy, and it feels like they have so little faith in the present that they need to refer to the past. Speaking of the past, the script repeatedly sidelines, undercuts, or straight-up changes plot and character points established in The Last Jedi. In typical Abrams fashion, it also does so at high speed. By the time you’ve realized a thing doesn’t make sense, the film has rocketed you to a totally different thing that also doesn’t make sense—yet is awfully cool looking. This franchise succeeds when it melds mythic archetypes, swashbuckling adventure and, yes, low-key ripping off other movies. It’s always done so with high confidence, and if there’s one thing Star Wars should never feel like, it’s desperate.

For decades, it’s been fashionable to sneer at the Star Wars movies for stilted and amateurish acting. Like many commonly held beliefs, it’s wrong. You need only look at the performances by Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver for proof. At no point are either of them phoning it in, and while they know they’re in a big-budget space fantasy, they never wink at the audience. They take the emotion seriously and deliver acting that’s layered and intelligent. Oscar Isaac’s Poe is a creature of almost pure charisma, and while he doesn’t have quite as much to do from a performance standpoint as last time out, he’s still great fun. Supporting turns from Keri Russell and Richard E. Grant are great fun, and I particularly enjoyed Joonas Suotamo’s clever performance as Chewbacca.

Let’s also take a moment to mourn how, throughout this trilogy, John Boyega has been done dirty. The idea of him playing a Stormtrooper who goes AWOL and develops a conscience is a damn good one. The Force Awakens left his character in an interesting place. The Last Jedi never quite knew what to do with him and saddled him with a subplot that kept putting the brakes on the movie. That trend continues here, and Finn, unfortunately, becomes a third wheel. Boyega is a smart and creative actor who could have had a brilliant role if only the filmmakers knew how to capitalize on it.

In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Star Wars means a great many things to a great many people, and I don’t begrudge them a little joy this holiday season. Perhaps you’ll walk out of the theater feeling that pleasurable rush of dopamine. If so, that makes me happy. What also makes me happy is, despite the considerable disappointment I felt towards The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars isn’t over. The cynical view to take is that it’s too big to fail, and too lucrative an IP to reject. The real view is that, right now, passionate and talented people are doing what matters. They’re devising stories,**** doing the brutally underappreciated work of illuminating the hidden corners of the galaxy, and igniting our imaginations. They’ll explore. We’ll follow.

*Or “schemes were hatched,” if you prefer.

**This is subject to change, but as of this writing, The Rise of Skywalker has an 86 percent audience score and a 57 percent critics score.

***When it comes to big popular entertainment, filmmakers walk a tightrope. You have to deliver something that people enjoy. You also have to have almost sociopathic confidence in your story. I give George Lucas a perverse degree of credit for the Prequel Trilogy. He made exactly the movies he wanted to make, and he gives zero f’s if we like them or not.

****It cannot be overstated how much credit Dave Filoni is due. He’s responsible for creating The Clone Wars and Rebels TV series and is a co-creator of The Mandalorian.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/the-force-ricochets/

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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

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6 Famous People Whose Origin Stories Are Dark Secrets

Nobody expects celebrities to actually be exactly the way they portray themselves publicly. Bruce Willis doesn’t go around killing terrorists every day (that probably happens, like, every other weekend). When you’re famous, it’s understood that you’ll have to bullshit a little and cultivate an image that appeals to your audience. But some do less cultivating and more top-to-bottom renovations. It’s always shocking when famous people turn out to be the complete opposite of what they’re famous for. And that’s the case with …

Kid Rock Was Born Rich And Grew Up In A Huge-Ass Mansion

No “celebrity goes into politics” story will ever be weird again, but the announcement that Kid Rock might run for Senate still managed to turn a few heads. After all, his biggest claim to fame was supposedly spending a summer “trying different things … smoking funny things,” and based on his ability to rhyme “things” with “things,” he surely has no better than an eighth-grade education, right?

Rock wants us to think he’s some rough-and-tumble country boy, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. His childhood home in Macomb County, Michigan recently sold for nearly $1.3 million, which we’re reasonably sure would be enough to buy whole towns around there. It turns out that his dad owned two luxury car dealerships and made some not-insignificant amounts of money.

Romeo High School “Your little rec center shall make a great showroom for our Bentleys. Papa will be most pleased.”

Mr. and Mrs. Rock’s “four-bedroom, four-bath, neo-Georgian colonial house” is over 5,000 square feet, has an indoor Jacuzzi, amenities out the wazoo, and the property itself contains an apple orchard. Rock has tried to flaunt his down-home country style and use it to smear politicians as “out of touch.” That doesn’t have the same gravity now that we know his past.

Adam Serwer/Twitter That’s a sad burger for so many reasons.

Rapper Rick Ross Was A Prison Guard

Florida rapper Rick Ross is best known for his songs about nonstop hustling and pushing it to the limit (“it” being all of the drugs). Hell, he got his name from a drug kingpin. That’s why it was kind of a shocker when it came out that Ross was a corrections officer (read: prison guard) prior to getting into the rap game.

After the story broke about his previous life of literally the opposite of crime, Ross originally denied it, but somehow the media managed to get ahold of pay stubs that proved it. For about two years in the mid-’90s, he worked as a CO in Florida. Granted, that makes him more of a badass than being a CO in, say, Terre Haute, Indiana, but it didn’t help his street cred any.

Florida Department of Corrections, Maybach Music Group His earliest songs were about how much he hated that Urkel kid who kept visiting his house.

Even 50 Cent took a jab at Ross in a rap to point out how dumb it was for Rozay to keep acting like he was something he wasn’t. After all, if you’re only learning about smuggling drugs and weapons from someone else’s case file instead of doing it yourself, can you sincerely say your raps come from the heart?

Probably thanks to some magical PR whiz, Ross finally owned up to his past. Rather than dismiss his old job as some kind of phase, he managed to call it a “hustle” in its own right. (We’re beginning to think that absolutely anything can be a hustle as long as one declares it so.)

Ron Jeremy Was A Special Education Teacher

Lots of people watch porn — about 67 percent of you are only reading this while you wait for some to load. Even the “casual” viewer can probably name a fair number of lady porn stars, but for some reason, about the only male porn actor most people can identify is Ron Jeremy. He’s been the mustachioed face of videotaped boning for decades, but believe it or not, that wasn’t really his Plan A.

On an episode of Judge Pirro, Jeremy admitted that his background was in theater, and that he’d gone on to get a master’s degree in special education. As in working with disabled kids.

Jeremy is happy to talk about his educator past, and always considered his teaching degree his fallback option, or “ace in the hole” (that’s probably not the only thing he’s called that). He majored in theater in college, and much like theater majors of today, he went and tacked on an education degree “just in case.”