#i guess that theory that the ever after was the brothers first attempt with creation is true

[blitzythefanvergentpitsterthings]

Sooooo.....this will be next episode right?

[eldritch-elrics]

i rewatched the entire ice age series and i have opinions

after rewatching some of the madagascar movies, me and @calocybe​ decided to embark on a quest to watch more animated series from our childhood. an obvious choice was ice age! so, i present to you: finn’s comprehensive ice age opinions masterpost.

read on for an in-depth review of each movie, my opinions on what the series does well (good animation, really fun chase scenes) and what it does not so well (manny is an awful protagonist), and some other things too (like my analysis of queerness in ice age)

first of all, a ranking of the five movies from best to worst:

ice age

dawn of the dinosaurs

collision course

the meltdown

continental drift

first movie

definitely the best

accidental baby acquisition…

it’s just a really good premise. three bros with completely different personalities are forced to work together towards a common goal that doesn’t even benefit any of them personally!

it’s silly and charming and well-written

diego’s arc is especially well-done and it’s easy to follow the way his personality and opinions change

my theory is that they made this movie because they wanted to show off how good they were at animating ice. most of the models and stuff are not very realistically rendered but the ice is honestly pretty impressive

honestly hilarious, has really good visual gags

one of my favorite parts is where they go into the ice cave and find like the ufo and stuff

also the baby does the vulcan hand sign at the ufo which was so subtle and REALLY funny

the ice slide scene. incredible

and then it transitions to the cave painting part with a fantastic depiction of manny’s backstory in a way that’s honestly heart-wrenching??

i wonder if the death of his own family is the cause of his annoying clinginess in later movies, especially with regards to peaches. unfortunately this never comes up again

there are some genuinely emotionally affecting moments in this movie, especially with the humans (when the human woman gives away her baby, when they return the baby to the group) - plus, kudos for conveying all that emotion with no dialogue

this is the only movie where manny’s emotional stuntedness is actually somewhat endearing rather than aggravating

this is also the movie with the most interesting villains - they feel like an especially relevant threat to the protags, and putting diego in with manny and sid creates both good tension and good humor

i wonder why the humans never came back. i think subsequent movies could have benefited from their presence, though i have no idea in what ways. not sure how they would’ve pulled it off but having the baby they rescued in the first movie appear as an adult in a later movie is a plot point that i think would have had the potential to be really powerful

second movie (the meltdown)

pretty underwhelming after the first movie

plot feels disjointed and the climax is weak

i feel like they were trying to go for this sort of found family vs nuclear family / reproductive futurism bent but didn’t entirely succeed and instead made the themes feel muddled. especially after the first movie which was all about rejecting heteronormative standards of family, having manny suddenly go “oop i’m the last mammoth better Reproduce” was a bit jarring

even if he isn’t actually the last mammoth, it feels like the wrong way to start a romance

in general the romance between ellie and manny isn’t very well-done in my opinion.

manny should’ve apologized for getting so offended when ellie freaked out about the pressure to save their species, but instead ellie apologized for “overreacting” for some reason???

number of biblical parallels: a surprising amount??

you’ve got. sid as a jesus figure to the sloth tribe, the ark saving them from the flood, scrat as moses??

the villains in this one were super boring they were just like… evil fish…

ok i’ve said too many mean things about this movie. to atone let me present this opinion: the scene where the vultures sing a parody of “food, glorious food” from oliver completely unprompted is one of the best moments in the series

also the possum brothers are wonderful

third movie (dawn of the dinosaurs)

this was my favorite as a kid!!

it’s still really good

it doesn’t take itself seriously and that’s wonderful. like… dinosaurs? in the ice age? objectively stupid plot. who cares

buck is the best character ever he’s so much fun

buck’s entire thing is also being a VERY cliche kooky adventurer but the way that they play with it and are self-aware about it makes it good

also i legitimately get chills at the scene where he explains his tragic backstory with rudy

god the romance with the female scrat is SO stupid but at least they’re clearly making fun of romantic tropes here

good team-building shenanigans, like the laughing gas sequence

there’s probably something to be said about the ways that family is portrayed in this movie but sorry i’m too busy looking at the scene where they get swallowed by a giant plant and buck has to like cut its veins like he’s diffusing a bomb

also i do need to mention that the scene where they find the carnage of sid’s attempt at feeding vegetables to the dino babies and buck goes off on his whole silly detective-shtick about what must’ve happened (“leaving broccoli… a vegetable!!!”) was my favorite scene in the series as a kid. it’s so wonderfully absurd!

there are a surprising amount of dick jokes in this movie? and by that i mean like 2 but. it’s really funny rewatching this and going “holy shit”

there’s also a joke about a butterfly dude that i’m pretty sure is a trans joke (“i knew that guy as a caterpillar! yknow, before he came out”) so that was also pretty funny

this movie parallels the first 2 by 1. having sid take care of kids and 2. having a group of creatures who copy all of sid’s wacky movements. i don’t have anything more to say i just think that’s funny

buck and rudy are kismeses send tweet

fourth movie (continental drift)

yeah okay this one’s the worst

it takes itself too seriously and that is its downfall

feels tonally off from the other ones

i saw this movie during the height of my hyperfixation on plate tectonics and i remember being very offended at the fact that they made such a mockery of the way it actually worked… :pensive:

(granted, poorly-done science is a cornerstone of ice age, so i can’t really say shit)

anyway this one really felt like a jumble of cliches. the enemies-to-lovers thing with diego! peaches’ teenager problems! manny’s troubles of raising a teenager! all the mean girls! evil pirates! sirens! woooo!

it just didn’t feel all that original and it didn’t play with the tropes like 3 did

what is it in this series with guys not apologizing for their sexism and then getting the girl anyway

also wow. damsels in distress much

sheera’s design is also such a generic “female animal” look

the ape dude was a boring villain and too much of the movie focused on the pirates

okay BUT the sea shanty scene slapped. had some good rhythm and clever lyrics

lewis was good and i’m glad he stayed friends with peaches

the water was well-animated! maybe they made this movie so they could show off how good they were at rendering water

the chipmunk creatures on the island are like knockoff minions/ewoks

in general this movie felt way less funny than the others. less punchy dialogue

fifth movie (collision course)

solidly in the middle of my movie ranking. not as good as 1 or 3, better than 2 and 4

this was my first time seeing this movie! which means that my view of it isn’t colored by nostalgia, and also that i have a lot more to say about it i guess

first of all it’s wild to see how much the animation has progressed… this one was so well-rendered wow

i liked this one a lot more than i expected to! it was a good time, and, like 3, didn’t take itself seriously, which is always great

the whole thing is built off a lot of bullshit science which offends my inner scifi nerd BUT i think they pulled it off quite well

the fact that they got neil degrasse tyson to do voiceovers is just so funny

they’ve firmly established by now that the ice age universe can fully ignore the laws of science when it wants to, especially with regards to scrat and his butterfly-effect influence on the world

okay buckle up because i have a lot to say about scrat actually.

scrat’s ability to influence the universe has been steadily increasing as the series goes on, so it made sense that he would be the catalyst for the apocalypse in this one

and also the catalyst for the creation of the solar system i guess?? which was very stupid. i say that in an endearing way. that beginning scene was super fun & wacky

absolutely brilliant way to bring the ufo from movie 1 back btw

ok so the prophecy tablet thing that buck brings back? he finds it by pressing a button with the outline of an acorn on it and that’s very interesting to me

at that point in the movie i was really invested because i thought that scrat and the protagonists were finally going to be forced to confront each other on the same level. the idea that ice age might finally break its unwritten rule of “the protags can never know scrat as the force of global change that he really is” was legitimately exciting to me, and it seemed appropriate for the last movie in the franchise

unfortunately this did not happen. scrat just keeps doing his silly scrat shenanigans

um anyway let’s talk about some of the other characters!

manny continues to suck. more on this in the “low points as a franchise” section

peaches was actually really good in this one! she’s grown out of her “teenage stereotype” phase and into a character with a believable narrative about growing up and moving out.

her boyfriend is adorable and i was surprised to discover i actually liked their relationship!

sid did not need to be paired off though. neither did diego. what is up with kids’ movies and their shallow heterosexual romances

buck is back and he is fruitier than ever

man i really like buck. he’s so silly and irreverent and flamboyant and it’s like kind of embarrassing to watch sometimes but it’s ok he’s just doing his own thing

the villains were pretty good in this one. i liked how the female dino didn’t have a stereotypically feminine design

on an entirely different topic: let’s talk about the aesthetic direction!

the scifi thing was super fun. like, absolutely wild for a series about the ice age, but whatever. i like scifi

like the whole superpower magnetism shit, especially the scene in the forest? great! especially reminiscent of the climax of the guardians of ga’hoole movie

however the whole dive into the crystal cave environment was a lil tonally dissonant and i think it should have been cut (introduced an entire new world/characters way too late in the plot and didn’t have time to develop them enough, went too far down the rabbit hole of magic healing crystals jokes and all that stuff which didn’t seem to relate to the rest of the story at all, introduced a fun but unnecessary girlfriend for sid, the time could have been better spent making fun of more scifi tropes and developing the villains)

brooke the sloth girl is just miranda from the tempest change my mind also that climax is on a similar level of stupid as that one episode from hoshi no kaabii where they deflect an an entire asteroid using uhhhh cannons i think

but it’s like. whatever. they’ve fucked around with science enough that they deserve this

also i just realized there were no chase scenes in this movie which is so sad??

so there are my thoughts on the individual movies. let’s talk about it as a whole!

high points as a franchise

this series consistently has VERY good chase scenes

just top-tier chase scenes with excellent comedic timing and general pacing

3 is so good because it has a chase as the climax, and that’s what ice age is good at

4 is bad because it doesn’t have a proper chase anywhere!

the animation is really good. by that i mean less like the models are realistic and more that they’re great at conveying emotion and body language through animation

like this is especially true in 1 if you look at the difference between the sort of smooth, not very realistic animation of the humans vs… scrat

like they’ve got the way scrat moves down so well it’s delightful

the movies are, generally, funny

there are good messages about found family, especially in the first couple

low points as a franchise

alright i had a bunch of these written out as universal truths about the series and then 5 actually improved on many of them! so here are some criticisms that apply to the first four movies only:

just… every single female character? they deserve better

too many damsels in distress

all the fat jokes about manny are so unnecessary

the romances are really boring and not very well-written or believable

okay with those out of the way here’s the real biggest issue with the series: manny is an awful protagonist

heterosexual “no fun allowed” man

they keep him sucky so he can have a fresh new character flaw to be worked on in the next movie but that seems like a bad formula for character development, especially how many of his character flaws seem to be related to mistreating the women in his life

the man’s got a major possessiveness issue

he is just the archetypical slightly shitty husband/dad who forgets the anniversary and doesn’t let his daughter see boys and calls women hysterical and yes he does get better at each of the individual problems and he does love his family but that development feels so shallow!

manny is absolutely making AITA posts and getting labeled the asshole

it also feels like he never truly learns from his mistakes. he needs to be learning to apologize properly and most importantly to communicate properly! there’s so little emotional reality to his development and the script always seems to give him the benefit of the doubt when he doesn’t deserve it.

plus, this series is meant for kids and i just don’t think manny is an appropriate or relatable protagonist for that audience?

on a mostly unrelated note, yes i do like the found family themes but when it starts pairing up every single character and implying that all of them are gonna be monogamous het couples and have kids and conform to the nuclear family model. that’s pretty sad

some more random thoughts

my dad once said that ice age fails as a franchise because the premise of the first movie was not strong enough to support sequels. i think i kind of agree - you can see in 2 they’re trying to worldbuild off what little they established in the first movie, and also set up a bigger cast of characters, while still keeping up the “man vs nature” theme that’s such a cornerstone of the series.

i’m not sure they completely succeed. the worldbuilding of ice age isn’t necessarily weak but i do think they could have done more to round out the world and make it feel less like just a prehistoric clone of ours

there’s something about the first movie that makes it feel like a moment suspended in time. we don’t learn very much about the pasts of the characters and they get enough development in one movie that we (or at least i) don’t feel any desperate need to know their futures. it feels complete!

so in all the other movies are working with a set of characters who have ostensibly completed their development. so in each new movie, they need to give the characters more problems. usually this comes from external factors, like new characters. a couple times they do a pretty good job introducing new internal problems for the characters - diego’s quest to get over his fear of water was a pretty good one i thought.

but after a while the main trio just stagnates. diego, once the most compelling character, becomes pretty boring. he doesn’t have anything to do anymore. i’ve already talked about manny - each movie he reverts back into an asshole and it gets old so fast. sid’s a little better; he’s got issues with his family and a desire for a family of his own and all that, but more often than not the conclusions to his arcs are unsatisfying

sid plays the role of the character who’s doomed to never get exactly what he wants, except, like, in a way that’s supposed to be funny. we pity him!

i think he has some archetype parallels with escargon from hoshi no kaabii (why do i keep mentioning hoshi no kaabii) but i am not going into that here oh boy

i feel like i’m juggling a lot in my head right now, but sid’s position as the comedic scapegoat is interesting. i’m sure there’s more to unpack here but i’ve already gone way too deep into this series

there’s also more to unpack when you consider his queercoding hmm

anyway, on that note…

additional thesis: sid the sloth is queer-coded

complicated relationship with family (they hate him and think he’s useless)

lispy voice

cares about “fem” things like children. takes care of kids in both movies 1 and 3. calls himself “mama”

gets pushed into the role of caring for the kid in 1

makes vaguely gay comments at his male friends, like “you have beautiful eyes” to manny

there are literally so many jokes in the first movie like. diego’s “you guys are an odd couple” to manny and sid

that whole part in 4 where he’s trying to kiss the sirens and kisses diego instead and is like “wow romantic”

not interested in the idea of a nuclear/traditional family. see his shenanigans with the dino babies

he is interested in women throughout the series though (bi rights)

5 especially tunes down the queercoding and tunes up the “awkward guy who can’t get girls” angle

so. ice age. is it fun? yes! i definitely enjoyed rewatching the series with my friend. and kids will probably get a kick out of the slapstick and silly dialogue. but if you’re not a kid and looking to (re)watch any of them, i’d probably just stick to the first one.

[lrgcarter]

Auteur Theory Case Study

Here’s a post about the idea of creation and credit for creation that opens with a bit of a ramble for context, then gets to the actual point, then wraps up without any real conclusions but maybe other people can take my thoughts and find some use for them? Enjoy!

Rambling Context Information

So, many years ago, my brother and I had returned to our parent’s house for Christmas. My brother is a big Doctor Who fan, so we were watching an episode of Never Mind The Buzcocks because David Tennant was the host.

For those unfamiliar with British Old Media, Never Mind The Buzcocks is one of our many ‘fake quiz show’ shows. You throw some comedians and celebrities at a game show set and hope they do something funny and generate some content. Never Mind The Buzcocks is ostensibly a music quiz. But we weren’t watching for the music jokes. We were watching for the Dr Who connection.

At one point, in a moment that I’m sure was definitely not scripted honest, David Tennant turns to a ‘contestant’  celebrity and says ‘I get the feeling you’re not that into music. I also hear from my producer that you are a Dr Who fan. Would you rather be answering questions about Dr Who?” and he throws away his music question cards and pulls out a set of Dr Who question cards. This obviously engages myself and my brother, who also don’t know music but are familiar with Dr Who.

And the first question is “Who invented the Daleks?”

Obviously, my brother and I both shout out “Terry Nation!”

And that brings me to the actual point of this post…

The Actual Point of This Post

Because even as I shouted this answer, I was kicking myself that I didn’t say Ray Cusick. I was on this whole ‘Ray Cusick Was Robbed’ trip at the time.  Like, Terry Nation had got all the credit for years, so all the credit should be taken from him and given to Ray for a bit. Justice spite.

Yep, I was young and foolish. Since then, I have often turned this question over in my mind. It is a question that encourages thought about the collaborative nature of art, and how we both assign and reward credit.

As we all know, Terry Nation wrote the initial Dalek story in 1963. Yes, I know its name[s], don’t test me jerks. Nation somehow managed to get the property rights split between the BBC and himself. Never been clear on how he managed that. This meant he got to write most Dalek stuff from that point onwards. Not just on Dr Who, but also on the Dalek Books and the abortive attempts to make a Dalek spin off series and so on. Even Nu-Who still has to get their Dalek stuff cleared by the Nation estate. So that’s why his name was the first to spring to mind.

But what is a Dalek without the icon design? That’s where Ray Cusick comes in. The design has remained essentially unchanged for over 50 years. It can be recognised in silhouette, which is a thing design folk say is good. The design can be easily extrapolated from to create variations that are still recognisably Daleks, good for world building and merchandising alike. The fact that Ray didn’t get a slice of that property right pie is a great injustice! Hence the immediate regrets!

But there’s still more!

What is a Dalek without its voice? If you’ve ever seen footage of Daleks without the voices processed you’ll know they just look sad. I’m not talking about cosplay Daleks, fans obviously go to great lengths to get good voices. I’m remembering times lackluster Daleks have shown up on Blue Peter and the like. In fairness, the Dalek actors weren’t being paid enough for that. Voice actors like Peter Hawkins and David Graham did their job with their mouths, Brian Hodgson did processing things, and they made a sound that has, again, remained pretty much unchanged to this day. Have you heard how the Cybermen have changed through the years? That Daleks haven’t been through the same mess is proof that the voice people deserve some creation credit.

And let’s circle back to the people in the Daleks not being paid enough! They worked in impossible props, and they made them work. If they hadn’t made them work the Daleks could easily have joined the vast ranks of laughable Dr Who joke villains like the Quarks and that dinosaur horse thing. God damn, that dinosaur horse sounds great until you see it. God damn. Anyway, the people in the props should get a portion of credit.

There’s loads of other people who aren’t even remembered because they weren’t high enough up the production hierarchy. Prop people and stage hands and people who would lay down the little paths that Daleks needed if they were to cross quarry pits etc. And it’s not just the initial creation, it’s also the maintenance of the brand. Long after the various creators have retired and died and shit, plenty of other people are contributing to ‘reinventing’ the Daleks by repeating and refining them. Nicholas Briggs has been voicing the Daleks since before the start of Nu Who, and when they started the BBC folk asked him to bring his own equipment because theirs sucked too hard or something.

And this collaborative work isn’t reflected in the normal attribution of who invented the Daleks. Maybe in fandom encyclopedia entries to a limited extent, but certainly not in terms of actual material recompense. That Terry Nation got half property rights was an injustice. However, I no longer resent him getting that portion of the rights. It is to this day surprising he got any rights! The injustice is not that he got the rights, it’s that none of the other people got their own fraction. I guess that’s the point I’m making? That property rights laws should allow for flatter structures, possibly by first crushing capitalism. I’ll leave the details to other people, but this is maybe a helpful case study that someone doing this sort of media thinking might be able to put into better words?

Lack of Any Real Conclusion

Back on Never Mind The Buzcocks, the celebrity answered ‘Davros’. They were rightly awarded the point.  

[tsarisfanfiction]

Tremor III

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen (may wibble upwards into AO3′s Mature later) Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Angst Characters: Scott Tracy, The Hood

Here we go again!  This week our sense is Hear from @gumnut-logic‘s SensorySunday challenge.  Part 1 | Part 2

I think it’s time to wake Scott up, although he might disagree with me on that one.  While there’s nothing overly graphic, there are depictions of torture in this part.

There was the hum of machinery all around him and passing through him.  Some sort of engine, a monster of a beast from the low rumble. It wasn’t the rumble of a Thunderbird; not even Thunderbird Two’s acoustics reached quite as low as this.  Certainly, it was nothing like the comforting cry of his own ‘bird.

He shifted, his back resting on something solidly uncomfortable, and there was a heavy clink, like metal hitting metal.  Attempts to pull his arms to his sides – why were they above his head, he never slept like that – resulted in a louder clank and he was forced to stop moving by pressure on his wrists.  That didn’t bode well.

Where was he?  This could be one of Gordon’s pranks, but Gordon knew better than to mess around on a mission, and the last he could recall, he’d been on a rescue.  A collapsed mine, a distressed woman, and then- he’d been attacked?

He stilled, running through everything he knew again.  He was lying on something hard and unforgiving, with only a thin layer of what felt like rough cotton between his back and the surface.  His uniform was gone, as well as anything else he’d been wearing from what he could tell, and there were chains holding his wrists in place.  A heavy weight on his ankles suggested that his feet were similarly restrained, legs splayed just past the edge of what would be comfortable.  All in all, not a favourable position to be in.

There were other little noises, barely audible over the thrum of engines.  A shuffle, the almost silent passage of air in and out of someone’s mouth.  Wherever he was, he wasn’t alone.

“I trust your sleep was pleasant?”

Scott considered feigning further unconsciousness.  If he didn’t respond, they might just leave him alone and he could work out how best to get himself out of the predicament he’d ended up in.  Even if he was no longer wearing his uniform, it should be nearby, and if nothing else John would be tracking it.

“Come, now, Scott,” the voice continued.  It was male, silky, coaxing.  The sort of thing he heard from the businessmen he trusted the least.  It was also bordering on familiar.  “You and I both know you’re awake.”  He was sure he’d heard that voice before, somewhere.  If he could just remember where…  “If you wish,” the man continued, “I’ll let you know where you are.  You’re currently in one of the sections of my ship; I must apologise for the accommodation – I don’t often entertain guests.”

That told him nothing new, which he suspected was the purpose.  Offering useless information to bait him in was a common tactic, and one he’d pulled on younger brothers when required.

His companion sighed.

“A conversation ideally requires more than one participant,” he said neutrally.  “Of course, we could get down to business without preliminary small talk, but that would be so impolite.  What would your father think?”

A rush of rage flowed through Scott.  Who was this man to talk about Dad so casually, so familiarly?  How dare he-

All of a sudden, he realised where he knew the voice from, and something unpleasant coiled in his gut. Reluctantly, he pried his eyes open, squinting against the bright light directly above him, and looked over to his side.

The Hood was not someone he’d ever met in person, but he’d watched the Zero-X footage a thousand times, with the same, slimy bald head and drawn cheeks etching themselves into his mind over and over again until he invaded his dreams.  This was the man that killed Dad, and – Scott’s stomach lurched – now he was at his mercy.  He didn’t think the Hood had much of that.

��Ah, much better,” the Hood said lightly, a patronising smirk twisting his features.  There was nothing remotely pleasing to the eye about the entire visage.  “We have much to discuss, after all.”

“We have nothing to discuss,” Scott snapped back, his voice still laden with the rasp of groggy awakening.  Hazel eyes, a sickly green-yellow rather than Kayo’s much warmer, kinder, gaze, took on a glint of amusement.

“Oh, I assure you we do,” the Hood responded, inspecting his hands lightly.  “I think we should begin with the exact nature of your so-called ‘Eye in the Sky’.”

Thunderbird Five.  John.

“A space station of some sort?” the man continued, as though he was discussing the weather and not threatening his younger brother.  “Presumably one with a Thunderbird callsign, like the rest of your admittedly impressive fleet.  Let’s see… a Thunderbird Five?”

Scott glared at him, hoping he couldn’t hear his heart thumping.  It was all conjecture, understandable leaps of logic.  He didn’t actually know anything, he was just trying to get a reaction from him, to see how close his theories were to the truth.  Scott refused to let him know how accurate his guess was.

“You killed Dad,” he accused.  “Why would I tell you anything?”

The Hood gave a long, drawn-out sigh.

“Misunderstandings and defamation of character,” he said with an exaggerated patience.  “I did not kill Jeff.  He was not invited to join the show, nor did I force him to remain on the ship instead of bailing like a sensible individual.  Your father’s tragic demise was entirely of his own creation, I’m afraid.  Oh, don’t give me that look.  Glaring doesn’t change the truth.  He could have saved his own skin at any time, and you know it, Scott.”

His name falling as slick as oil from those thin, bloodless lips did nothing to improve Scott’s mood, and not for the first time, he wished glaring daggers was a more literal description. Anything to get this man away from him, saying half-truths as though they were gospel with a honeyed tongue.

“But we’re not here to discuss the tragedy that was the Zero-X,” the Hood continued, “although I would be willing to commiserate Jeff’s life with you after we get the business out of the way.  After all, he was my friend.”

“Liar!” Scott spat, without thinking.  “Dad would never be friends with, with-”

“With me?” the Hood finished, leaning forwards and delicately taking hold of his chin.  His fingers were spindly and just warm enough to be living, but slimy and raised goosebumps where they touched his skin.  “Oh, Scott, don’t you remember me?  Captain Taylor might have been awarded with the title of godfather, but I held you back when you were an infant before he ever met you. I dare say the man’s still never got his own godson’s name right.”

It was phrased as an observation, but there was a questioning tilt at the end of the sentence.  Scott set his jaw and didn’t answer.  That couldn’t be right.  He was lying – he was a crook, lying was what he did best.

“Oh, Lucille was never my biggest fan,” the Hood continued when it became apparent he had no intention of confirming or denying.  “But you adored me, always crawling to my feet whenever I walked in the house. Never in anything more than a nappy – oh, I’m speaking to an American, diaper.  You weren’t the biggest fan of clothing, as I recall.”

Scott felt sick, although he kept his glare up, jaw set against saying anything and waiting for the spidery fingers to release their feather-light touch on his face.  His parents and grandparents alike had commented more than once on infant-Scott’s protests against clothes, reminding him as a child whenever he despaired over Gordon’s similar dislike over wearing anything.  How the Hood knew that – if it wasn’t a lucky guess – he didn’t want to know.

Those weren’t the sort of details available to the public.

“But we can reminisce later,” the Hood said, finally taking his fingers away.  “Business before pleasure, of course.  So, International Rescue’s Eye in the Sky?”

“I’m not telling you anything,” he spat, and the Hood sighed.

“Such melodramatics.” He shook his head.  “I must say it gives me no pleasure to do this.”  There was a glint in his eye that told Scott he was lying, but before he could begin to determine what this was, his wrists burned like a wildfire, shocks streaking down his arms and contracting the muscles involuntarily.

It lasted no time at all, but to Scott’s dismay he was panting, forcing his muscles to relax again.

That gleam was still there when the Hood gripped hold of his chin again, fingers pressing in to the delicate flesh under his jaw, and forced him to face him again.  He didn’t remember looking away.

“I’m afraid I can’t accept no for an answer,” he said, voice still in the smooth businessman tones.  “If you won’t tell me willingly, I have no choice but to resort to somewhat harsher methods.  I will ask you again: tell me all about your Eye in the Sky.”

“Go to hell!” Scott spat, tensing up in anticipation of another shock.  None came, and the Hood gave a grin that would have looked more at home on a tiger as he retracted his hand again.

“Now why would I want to do that?”  He checked his watch, a flash of gold, and hummed.  “I’m afraid I will have to bring our conversation to an end for the moment. My attention is required elsewhere.” Scott watched him stand, brushing invisible lint from his suit.  “We shall resume later.”

The door was out of Scott’s line of sight, but he heard it lock and relaxed.  Time to find-

Pain lanced through him, electricity dancing through his muscles and once again forcibly contracting them.  He clenched his teeth through the pain, his back arching away from the table and his limbs coming up short against the clinking of chains.  Unlike the first dose, it didn’t cease after a split second, instead wracking his body into spasms.  He couldn’t breathe, it hurt, it burned, he couldn’t breathe.

Black spots danced in his vision and somewhere there was a keening sound, like a distant scream.  He couldn’t breathe, his nerves were on fire, his body wouldn’t listen to him-

As suddenly as it had started, it stopped again, leaving him heaving for breath and blinking away the black spots.  His back cautiously lowered to the probably-table he was chained to, and oh so slowly, he got his trembling limbs back under control.  He had to escape; while he had every faith that John and Kayo would find him, he couldn’t just lay back and wait.  Not with taser-infused chains that needed no clear provocation to activate.

Given their resistance to his pain-induced thrashing, it was unlikely that the chains would break easily, but with nothing else to go on, Scott forced his aching arm to extend until his hand to wrap around the chain linked to him and tugged.  There was a rattle, but no give.

Clenching his teeth, Scott tried again.  And again. And again.

There was the hiss of an opening door and he dropped the chain as though it burned.  Hurried footsteps, unlike the calm and measured ones of the Hood, approached him until a person with a ridiculous mask over their head was stood next to him.  He couldn’t see where they were looking exactly, but the helmet moved in a slow turn, giving off the appearance of taking in his entire restrained – and, oh, undressed – self, before settling on his face.

“Water,” a heavily disguised voice said, holding up a clear plastic bottle in front of his face. Scott opened his mouth to point out that he was hardly in a position to drink, but before he could say anything, the cap was popped off and the water upended over his mouth.

Unprepared, and in what was quite possibly the worst position, there was nothing Scott could do except splutter and choke as some of the miniature deluge found its way down his throat.  There was no way to breathe, no way to escape – attempts to turn his head sideways, out of the path of the water were thwarted by a large hand gripping his chin with none of the Hood’s faux finesse and forcing his mouth open.

Then the water was gone, and he was coughing and choking in an effort to keep it out from his lungs. Water erupted onto his face, running off his cheeks like tears, and he turned his head to the side, vomiting up what he could.  The masked person was gone by the time he got control of himself again, now uncomfortably aware of the rough cotton below him absorbing the moisture and turning damp.

The chains on his wrist flared up again, and he had a split second to panic about the water dripping off of him and into the material below him before his awareness sharply narrowed to agony, can’t breathe, muscles wound tighter than a spring and his vision alternating black and white as that background keening started again.

Him, he realised dimly when the pain came to an abrupt end, leaving him gasping and heaving.

“I trust you’ve had some time to reconsider.”  The Hood’s silky tones draped over him as the man himself stepped back into view.  How much time had passed?  Scott didn’t think it had been that long, but he had no way to tell the time.  Any attempts at keeping track mentally had been well and truly thrown off.  “I would rather dispense with this uncouth method and discuss this civilly.”

Scott spat some leftover water at him as he carefully persuaded his muscles to unclench, one group at a time, and took some glee in the fact it landed on his face.  Aside from the twitch of a brow, there was no response.

“We were discussing your Eye in the Sky?” the Hood prompted instead, just as he managed to release the tension from his left calf.  Scott turned his head away and a sharp burst of electricity shot up from his left ankle, jerking his leg taut again and travelling up to his hips before fading away. “It’s polite to look at someone when they’re talking to you, Scott.  I’m sure your father taught you that.  Your mother certainly would have.”

Scott reluctantly rolled his head over to glare at him, once again trying to unwind his leg muscles.

“You don’t get to talk about my parents,” he rasped, throat unpleasantly raw.  He tried not to think about that.

“I would prefer to address International Rescue,” the Hood reminded him.  Scott shut his mouth and glowered at him.  “Really, Scott?  I was hoping to have a mature conversation with an adult; who knew the commander of International Rescue was such a child?  I imagine you’ll be sticking your tongue out at me next?”

Scott refused to rise to the bait, and the Hood sighed.

“No matter,” he said. “We have time.”  Scott inwardly scoffed.  His family would arrive soon, even if he couldn’t get himself free any time soon.  He only had to hold out until then.

He had military training. He could do that.

The Hood headed for the door again, calm and measured footsteps that stopped just out of his sight.

“Oh, and Scott? Everything you had on you was left by the mine.”  Scott suddenly felt very cold.  His tech, his trackers…  “I do hope you weren’t expecting a rescue.”  Without those, they couldn’t track him.  The Hood’s ship had constantly evaded everything they had for eight years now – it had been a point of contention for John and Kayo alike.

The Hood made a noise that was clearly amused.

“You were?  Oh, dear, Scott.  It’s a good thing I told you – we wouldn’t want you clinging to some false hope, would we?”  Scott barely listened to him, dread pooling in his gut.

He had to get out of there.

The door hissed shut, locking with a thud, and for the first time, he felt truly trapped.

Part IV

[in-dire-need]

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge- My Chemical Romance

The only 2004 album that could even come close to giving American Idiot a run for its money is Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. My Chemical Romance’s second full-length album shot the band out of its familiar water. Its numerous hits continue to reach billboard charts, such as opening track “Helena” and world-renowned “I’m Not Okay.” According to frontman Gerard Way, Revenge stands as a “pseudo-conceptual horror story”. Every track on the album ties into this twisted and supernatural story of the two lovers featured on the cover, which was created by Gerard Way.

“Helena (So Long and Goodnight)” opens this story of Three Cheers with a heartfelt yet twisted dedication to the Way brothers’ grandmother, Elena Rush, had passed away under circumstanced unknown to the public during the band’s tour of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Elena had heavily influenced the brothers from a very young age and inspired them to pursue their dreams. When she passed, Gerard Way was sent into a spiral of anger and self-destructive behavior. He wrote the song to be somewhat of a letter to himself, expressing the hatred he felt for himself at the time. Despite the dark theme behind the lyrics, “Helena” continues to be a radio classic on rock stations everywhere. 

The story element behind the album begins during the second track, “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid”. A man has been divided from his lover after the devil resurrects him from the dead and, in order to resurrect his wife as well, he must kill one thousand evil souls and present them to the devil. While he ventures out to accomplish this, his wife wonders where he has gone and is clueless of his plans. She is livid at him for wrecking their marriage that began when they were young and dumb. In the next few tracks we listen as the protagonist crashes a wedding in order to kill the guests. He begins to question his sexuality and if his wife is worth one thousand souls. Continuing the double-meaning, the “To The End” is also based on the short story “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner. In this story, a rich wife begins suspecting that her husband may be a homosexual, so she poisons him before he cheats on her or leaves her. 

“You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us in Prison” features Bert McCracken, frontman of The Used, with whom all of My Chemical Romance was extremely close with at the time of Three Cheers’ release. Gerard was also featured on their 2004 album, In Love and Death, which toured with Three Cheers after its debut. Since then, the bands had a falling-out and didn’t speak for years before heavily hinting that The Used would be opening for My Chemical Romance’s reunion tour that was scheduled for 2020. This information was never officially announced, though, seeing as COVID-19 has ruined every hope and dream that it could lay its greasy paws on. Anger aside, “Prison” continues the protagonist’s journey to kill one thousand evil souls to resurrect his wife as he is arrested in a restaurant gunfight. Once in prison, he begins falling for an inmate of the same sex, which confuses and upsets the protagonist who had assumed he was heterosexual for his entire life. He still dreams of his deceased lover, whom his journey is all for. The other inmates begin to take advantage of him, forcing him to dress in drag and give blowjobs to accommodate to their sexual desires. He begins to lose his sanity and believes that he might as well be executed since he will not be able to fulfill his mission from prison. He decides that when he leaves, he will burn down an entire hotel to quickly raise his body count.

Another track that has gone down in history is number four, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise”. It follows a girl who struggles with dealing with the problems in her life. She vents and complains to her boyfriend, who is dealing with his own problems. He puts them aside to comfort his girlfriend time and time again. She does not take this into account and simply continues to wallow in her own pain, attempting and failing to relate to sad songs with deeper meanings. He has finally had it with her by the end of the song and explodes, telling her that he is not okay and he is done with her melodrama. “The Ghost of You” is another smash hit produced by this album, which continues the story already present. The protagonist expresses the grief he experienced after losing the lover he is trying so hard to save. Later tracks emphasize this as the protagonist begins to doubt his ability to bring his lover back.

Standing as a message of inspiration and a sign not to give up, “Thank You For The Venom” has become very popular within its target audience. Critics began to blame My Chemical Romance for making music purely to become famous, to which the band responded saying that the fans are a huge impact on their music. They never wanted to be on the front covers of magazines and at the head of the rock scene, but at a certain point they could no longer fight the inevitable. The song narrates what is possibly a nun attempting to convert a horrible sinner, then being murdered by the man. The sinner could be the protagonist continuing his killing spree, knowing that no amount of preaching could save him. In the following tracks, he questions again if his lover is really worth kill one thousand evil souls. After a woman representing his lost love holds him at gunpoint and tells him to stop his killing spree, he considers shooting himself and therefore dying for her instead of killing. He trudges on still and vows revenge on this woman as his story nears its end. After killing nine-hundred ninety-nine evil souls, he realizes that the last one he must take is his own. He begins hallucinating that his wife is there with him and even holds conversations with her before remembering that she is not there. It is heavily suggested that his lover committed suicide after getting drunk, though the means are unknown. The protagonist finally comes to terms with the fact that he is destined to die and that he would never have been able to resurrect his wife. 

In the final track, “I Never Told You What I Did For a Living”, the man completes his transaction with the devil. He accepts his fall from grace, but knows that once he is with his love again it will all have been worth it. Once he kills the last soul, himself, it is revealed that the devil tricked him. As a result of his astounding body count, he has been damned to hell instead of being reunited with his lover. His final realization is that it was all for nothing and that he has simply become a monster. 

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’s final lines are a callback to the group’s first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, or Bullets for short. Dozens of lines throughout the album reference Bullets, and the lovers featured are even referred to as two “Demolition Lovers”. Initially, fans and critics believed that the two albums were linked as one continuing story, but that theory has been denied. Past its horrific tale, many songs actually send a buried positive message- keep going. Specifically “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Thank You For The Venom” have worked to debunk the band’s stereotype of being a suicide cult. Ironically, these songs have also become symbols of this said suicide cult, given the references to death and self-destruction, which leads many younger listeners to fall prey to this cult mentality that the media has created. That very concept was something that My Chemical Romance vehemently spoke out against, seeing as the very reason they began making music was to help people. Even despite being twisted and forgotten by the media, that is still exactly what they did. Although fame wasn’t what they wanted, in the end they achieved exactly what they wanted: to help people. Their worldwide fame simply allowed them to reach farther and wider than ever imagined. 

As previously stated, all tracks on the album not only tie into the crazy narration of two dead lovers, but into the real lives of the bandmates, specifically Gerard and Mikey way. For example, “The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You” personifies Gerard’s struggle with alcoholism and cocaine addiction in the form of a woman. He says that he could stay with her for hours even though she will eventually kill him. He was able to sober up and toured for Three Cheers during his first full year sober, which he described as extremely difficult. “The Ghost Of You” helps paint the picture of how the brothers were grieving after the loss of their grandmother, Elena.

Elena was one of the most powerful influencers behind the creation of My Chemical Romance and continued to inspire them throughout their entire career. Thanks to her, the band went on to inspire millions of young adults worldwide. Had she not supported her grandchildren like she did, so many more influencers would have never developed the confidence to take their first steps into the sunlight. These influencers include Palaye Royale, Twenty One Pilots, Post Malone, and Yungblud. Who knows how many more celebrities truly are that wouldn’t be where they are without the influential messages of My Chemical Romance? Who knows who the next possible star will be? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. Go enjoy yourselves, internet.

“And we'll love again, we'll laugh again We'll cry again, and we'll dance again And it's better off this way, so much better off this way I can't clean the blood off the sheets in my bed!”

[honeypiehotchner]

Trust -- part thirty-eight

It’s Best Man Speech time! Also, I’m a liar. This chapter is not the last. The next one is. Oopsies! ;)

“Pray silence for the best man.”

           You squeeze Sherlock’s hand as he stands to his feet, buttoning his jacket and smoothing it down. He really is nervous.

           But to be fair, you’re a little nervous, too. He wouldn’t let you hear the speech—He wouldn’t let anyone hear it, actually. This is brand new to everyone. And while that should be exciting, since it’s Sherlock, it’s a little nerve-wracking.

           John is beaming, though, grinning from ear to ear – possibly a little buzzed. But he does really love Sherlock, and you know that, even when he doesn’t want to admit it. You know those two have a bond like no other. The Baker Street boys, as Mary calls them.

           “Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends. And, um…others.”

           Sherlock’s stuttering continues, prompting you reach up and thread your fingers through his. He glances down, smiling a little.

           “Telegrams,” you hear your brother mutter, and then Sherlock is back.

           “Right, um…” Sherlock picks up the cards. “First things first, telegrams. Well, they’re not actually telegrams, we just call them telegrams, I don’t know why. Wedding tradition. Because we don’t have enough of that already, apparently.”

           “Sherlock,” you whisper warningly.

           He settles again, nodding. “To Mr. and Mrs. Watson. So sorry I’m unable to be with you on your special day. Good luck, and best wishes, Mike Stamford.”

           Ah, Mike. You chuckle.

           “To John and Mary. All good wishes for your special day. With love and many big…big squishy cuddles from Stella and Ted.” Sherlock sighs. “Mary, lots of love—Oh.”

           John looks up at him. “Yeah?”

           “…poppet.”

           Mary snickers, leaning forward to catch you stifling your own laughter.

           “Oodles of love and heaps of good wishes from Cam. Wish your family could’ve seen this.”

           You lean forward at that, giving Mary a look of sympathy as John takes her hand in his, comfortingly.

           Sherlock carries on, not missing a beat. “Special day…Very special day…Love…Love…Love…Love…Love. Bit of a theme, you get the general gist. People are basically fond.”

           Here we go, you think, wanting to smack Sherlock in the arm, but you decide against it.

           “John Watson. My friend, John Watson. John. When John first broached the subject of being best man, I was confused. I confess at first, I didn’t realize he was asking me. When finally, I understood, I expressed to him that I was both flattered and surprised. I explained to him that I had never expected this request, and that I was a little daunted in the face of it. I nonetheless promised that I would do my very best to accomplish a task which was, for me, as demanding and difficult as any I had ever contemplated. Additionally, I thanked him for the trust he placed in me and indicated that I was, in some ways, very closed to being moved by it. It later transpired that I had said none of this out loud.”

           The room erupts with laughter, especially coming from John. You laughed loudly, too, because that definitely wasn’t the story you remembered John telling you.

           Sherlock begins rummaging in his coat for some cards. “So…done that. Done that. Done that bit. Done that bit.”

           He takes a deep breath. And continues.

           “I’m afraid John that I can’t congratulate you.”

           Your eyebrows furrow. Odd start. Maybe you should’ve forced him to practice the speech in front of you.

           “All emotions, and in particular love, stand opposed to the pure cold reason I hold above all things. A wedding is, in my considered opinion, nothing short of a celebration of all that is false and specious and irrational and sentimental in this ailing and morally compromised world. Today we honor the deathwatch beetle that is the doom of our society and in time, one feels certain, our entire species.”

           The room stills. You stare down at your hands, a little bit worried for the rest of this, and still regretting the fact that you never took a peek at his speech before today.

           “But anyway, let’s talk about John.”

           “Please,” you hear John clear his throat, shifting around in his seat.

           “If I burden myself with a little helpmate during my adventures, it is not out of sentiment or caprice, it is that he has many fine qualities of his own that he has overlooked in his obsession with me. Indeed, any reputation I have for mental acuity and sharpness comes in truth from the extraordinary contrast John so selflessly provides.”

           You tilt your head. That was an insult, wasn’t it?

           “It is a fact, I believe, that brides tend to favor exceptionally plain bridesmaids for their big day. There is a certain analogy there, I feel.”

           Is he…serious? He absolutely has to be kidding.

           “And contrast is, after all, God’s own plan to enhance the beauty of his creation. Or it would be if God were not a ludicrous fantasy designed to provide a career opportunity to the family idiot.”

           The room rustles again, and you clasp your hands together, willing yourself to keep listening.

           “The point I’m trying to make it that I am the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant, and all-round obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet. I am dismissive of the virtuous,” Sherlock pauses to look down at you, nudging your arm so you’ll look at him. “I am unaware of the beautiful.” He smiles only softly, then turning to Mary and John. “And uncomprehending in the face of the happy.”

           You smile sadly.

           “So, if I didn’t understand that I was being asked to be best man, it is because I never expected to be anybody’s best friend. And certainly not the best friend of the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing.

           “John, I am a ridiculous man. Redeemed only by the warmth and constancy of your friendship and the love from the woman sat to my left.”

           Your breath hitches. You weren’t expecting him to mention you at all.

           “But as I am, apparently, your best friend, I cannot congratulate you on your choice of companion.” Sherlock pauses, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Actually, now I can. Mary, when I say you deserve this man, it is the highest compliment of which I am capable. John, you have endured war, and injury, and tragic loss. So sorry again about that last one.”

           You chuckle softly. He’ll forever be apologizing for the time he was ‘dead.’

           “So know this. Today, you sit between the woman you have made your wife and the man and woman you have no doubt saved. In short, the three people who love you move in all this world. And I know I speak for Mary and Y/N as well when I say we will never let you down and we have a lifetime ahead to prove that.”

           You reach up and wipe a stray tear away from your cheek, chuckling a little when Sherlock doesn’t seem to notice he’s gotten the rest of the reception hall crying as well.

           “Ah, yes. Now on to some funny stories about John…” Sherlock frowns. “What’s wrong? What happened? Why are you all doing that? John? Y/N?”

           “Love…” You shake your head, smiling despite your own watery eyes.

           “Did I do it wrong?”

           “No, you didn’t,” John mutters, pushing his chair back. “Come here.”

           The room applauds while the two of them hug, Sherlock still not understanding anything at all as he tries to continue over the noise. John pats his shoulder and says something to make him stop, but you don’t hear.

           After John is settled back in his chair, Sherlock continues.

           “So, onto some funny stories about John. If you could all just cheer up a bit, that would…be better.” Everyone laughs. “On we go. So, for funny stories, one has to look no further than John’s blog. The record of our time together. Of course, he does tend to romanticize things a big, but then, you know, he’s a romantic.

           “We’ve tackled some strange cases. The Hollow Client. The Poisoned Giant. We’ve had some frustrating cases. Touching cases,” Sherlock rolls his eyes. “And of course, I have to mention, The Elephant in the Room. But we want something very particular for this special day. The Bloody Guardsman.”

           Ah, you remember. The unsolved one. From wedding planning weeks ago.

           “Private Steven Bainbridge had written to us with a concern about someone possibly stalking him. A bloke, no less. Private Bainbridge had just come off guard duty. He’d stood there for hours, plenty of people watching, nothing apparently wrong. He came off duty and within minutes was nearly dead from a wound in his stomach but there was no weapon. Where did it go?

           “Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to consider this: A murderer who can walk through walls. A weapon that can vanish. But in all of this, there is only one element which can be said to be truly remarkable. Would anyone like to make a guess?”

           Good lord. You definitely should’ve looked at his speech.

           “Come on, come on. There is actually an element of Q&A to all of this.” Sherlock clears his throat. “Scotland Yard, have you got a theory?”

           “Don’t pick on Greg,” you mutter.

           “Yeah, you. You’re a detective, broadly speaking. Got a theory?”

           Lestrade crosses his arms over his chest, deciding to entertain Sherlock. “Er, um…If the uh, if the blade was propelled through the um…grating in the air vent… Maybe a ballista or a catapult, uh, somebody tiny could crawl in there. So yeah, we’re looking for a dwarf.”

           “Brilliant.”

           “Really?”

           “No.”

           You shake your head.

           “Hello, who was that? Tom.”

           Sure enough, Tom stands from his chair, Molly sending a frightened look your way. This is going to end badly, it always does when Sherlock gets in one of these moods.

           “Got a theory?”

           “He attempted suicide with a blade made of compacted blood and bone. Broke after piercing his abdomen, like a meat…dagger.”

           “A meat dagger?”

           “Yes.”

           “No.”

           Tom sits back down, and Sherlock continues, clearly annoyed. “There was one feature and only one feature of interest in the whole of this baffling case and quite frankly, it was the usual. John Watson. Who while I was trying to solve the murder, instead saved a life.

           “There are mysteries worth solving and stories worth telling. The best and bravest man I know and on top of that he actually knows how to do that. Except wedding planning and serviettes, he’s rubbish at that.”

           Everyone chuckles at the slight joke.

           “The case itself remains the most ingenious and brilliantly planned murder or attempted murder I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. The most perfect locked-room mystery of which I am aware.

           “However, I’m not just here to praise John, I’m also here to embarrass him so let’s move onto some—”

           “No, wait. So how was it done?” Greg interrupts.

           “How was what done?”

           “The stabbing.”

           “He never solved it,” you chime.

           “Yes,” Sherlock nods. “I never solved that one. It can happen sometimes. It’s very…very disappointing. Embarrassment leads me on to the stag night.”

           Oh, dear Lord.

           This night was the night you, Mary, and Molly got together and had dinner before having essentially a big sleepover at John and Mary’s. Because John was out with Sherlock all night, apparently doing something along the lines of having a beer at every place they’ve solved a murder.

           It’s okay, you found the idea weird, too. But Molly said she calculated everything correctly, so they should be fine. Even if it was odd that Sherlock asked her to calculate anything in the first place.

           But anyway, while the three of you were drinking wine and sharing idiot stories of your significant others, John and Sherlock were getting absolutely pissed.

           “‘Course, there’s hours of material here, but I’ve cut it down to the really good bits.”

           Apparently, they were only out for two hours before returning to Baker Street. Mrs. Hudson said she nearly had a heart attack when she walked out with her trash to find them snoozing on the stairs, drunkenly mumbling to each other.

           And then they had a client. Of all things, they had a client that night.

           “The Mayfly Man.”

           They also got arrested, which Lestrade wasted no time calling you about and starting off with saying, “You’re not gonna believe this shit.” You thought it was going to be much worse than what it was, but at least Lestrade was able to get them bailed out with no problem. And thankfully, it never turned up in the papers.

           You still remember after that when Sherlock continued investigating. You were sat in his chair when he had probably six or seven laptops open, talking to all of these women who had encountered the Mayfly Man. John was here as well, helping with the case on his day off.

           Apparently, Sherlock had asked a question to the women and immediately every single one of them signed off. You had warned him to let you help, but he didn’t want you to. He didn’t want to come off as too knowing.

           “Why? Why would he date all of those women and not return their calls?” Sherlock slams the laptop closed, straightening up and buttoning his blazer.

           John snorts. “You’re missing the obvious, mate.”

           “Am I?”

           “You are,” you nod. “He’s a man.”

           Sherlock still doesn’t get it. “So? I’m a man.”

           “You’re a different breed,” you chuckle.

           “But why would he change his identity?” Sherlock asks the rhetorical question to the wedding guests, not noticing their lack of interest. “He was married. Obvious, really. Our Mayfly Man was trying to escape the suffocating chains of domesticity and instead of endless nights in watching telly or going to barbeques with the awful, dreadful, boring people he couldn’t stand, he used his wits, cleverness and powers of disguise to play the field. He was—” Sherlock stops, suddenly surveying the room and seeing their tired faces. He turns to you and you shake your head, motioning for him to stop the story.

           He nods. “On second thoughts, maybe I probably should’ve told you about The Elephant in the Room.

           “However, it does help to further illustrate how invaluable John is to me. I can read a crime scene the way he can understand a human being. I used to think that’s what made me special. Quite frankly, I still do. But a word to the wise: Should any of you require the services of either of us, I will solve your murder, but it will take John Watson to save your life. Trust me on that, I should know. He’s saved mine so many times and in so many ways.

           “This blog,” Sherlock gestures with his phone, “is the story of two men and their frankly ridiculous adventures. Of murder, mystery, and mayhem. But from now on, there’s a new story. A bigger adventure.”

           You watch with a smile as Sherlock glances to the happy couple, and then you watch in surprise as he looks to you.

           “Ladies and gentlemen pray charge your glasses and be upstanding.” You stand with your glass in hand. “Today begin the adventures of Mary Elizabeth Watson and John Hamish Watson. The two reasons why every single one of us is—”

           Sherlock freezes.

           His glass falls from his hands, but no matter about that. You know that look in his eyes. He’s gone. Albeit for a split second, but he’s gone.

           It’s almost like he’s gone to his mind palace.

           The glass shatters as it hits the floor, the noise startling Sherlock back into the real world. He blinks, looking down at the mess he made and tries to brush past it.

           “Oh, sorry, I—” He shakes his head, clearing his throat.

           “Another glass, sir?”

           “Thank you, yes. Thank you. Now, where were we?”

           “Sherlock…” You whisper.

           He looks to you briefly before continuing on. “Ah, yes, raising glasses and standing up. Very good, thank you… And down again.”

           You sit down quickly, casting a worried glance in John and Mary’s direction. The rest of the guests follow, confusion coating their faces.

           “Ladies and gentlemen, people tell you not to milk a good speech. Get off early, leave them laughing. Wise advice I’ll certainly try to bear in mind, but for now…”

           “Sherlock!” You hiss as he jumps over the table.

           “Part two!” He walks down the middle. “Part two is more action based, I’m gonna walk around, shake things up a bit.

           “Who’d go to a wedding? That’s the question? Who would bother to go to any lengths to get themselves to a wedding…? Well, everyone!” Sherlock turns around, clapping his hands. “Weddings are great. Love a wedding.”

           Mary leans forward to look at you. “What’s he doing?”

           “Something’s wrong,” you whisper back. “I don’t know what.”

           “And John’s great, too,” Sherlock points back to the front. “I haven’t said that enough, barely scratched the surface. I could go on all night about the depth and complexity of his jumpers. And he can cook, does a thing – A thing with peas, once. Might not be peas, might not be him, but he’s got a great singing voice – Or somebody does…

           “Too many, too many, too many, too many!” Sherlock screams. He stops himself, turning back around. “Sorry, too many jokes about John. Now, uh… Where was I? Ah, yes. Speech! Speech. Let’s talk about…murder.”

           “Christ, Sherlock,” you smack your forehead.

           “Sorry, did I say murder? I meant to say marriage. But, you know, they’re…quite similar procedures when you think about it, the participants tend to know each other and it’s over when one of them’s dead. In fairness, murder is a lot quicker, though.”

           You watch as Sherlock pulls out his phone and begins texting behind his back – something you hate when he does, but now it’s only worrying you further.

           “Jeff, the gents.” Sherlock looks at Lestrade.

           “It’s Greg!”

           “The loos, please.”

           “Why?”

           “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s your turn?” Sherlock nods toward the door as Lestrade’s phone beeps. So, Sherlock was texting him. You wish he’d text you to let you know what the hell is going on right now.

           Lestrade looks at his phone and his eyes widen. “Yeah, actually, now that you mention it.” And he disappears through the doors.

           “Sherlock,” John calls out. “Any chance of an end date to this speech? We’ve gotta cut the cake.”

           “Oh! Ladies and gentlemen, can’t stand it when I finally get the chance to speak for once – Vatican Cameos.”

           Your eyes widen. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

           “What did he just say?”

           You scoot over to Sherlock’s seat next to John’ careful of the broken glass. “Vatican Cameos,” you murmur. “It means someone’s going to die.”

           “Not you, not you, you,” Sherlock points to John. “It’s always you. John Watson, you keep me right.”

           John stands to meet Sherlock. “What do I do?”

           “You’ve already done it,” Sherlock whispers, glancing to you. “Don’t solve the murder. Save the life.

           “Sorry,” Sherlock inhales sharply, turning back around. “Off-piste a bit, back now, phew! Let’s play a game. Let’s play murder. Imagine someone’s going to get murdered at a wedding. Who exactly would you pick?”

           “I think you’re a popular choice at the moment, dear,” you hear Mrs. Hudson say, bringing a small smile to your face.

           “If someone could move Mrs. Hudson’s glass just slightly out of reach, that would be lovely. More importantly, who could you only kill at a wedding?”

           Your eyes widen. They lock with Sherlock’s. There’s a brief moment where you wonder if it’s you. After all, this morning was the only time you traveled without Sherlock in a long time. But it doesn’t make sense, you don’t fit. He’s here with you now, and no one was close to you when he wasn’t.

           Sherlock shakes his head slightly. You’re safe.

           “Most people you can kill just any old place,” he continues. “As a mental exercise, I’ve often planned the murder of friends and colleagues. Now, John, I’d poison. Sloppy eater, dead easy. Y/N is a different story. To poison her would ultimately insure my own death sentence. Lestrade’s so easy to kill, it’s a miracle no one’s succumbed to the temptation. I’ve got a pair of keys to my brother’s house, I could easily break in there and asphyxiate him…if the whim arose.

           “So, once again, who could you only kill here?”

           Sherlock’s eyes lock with yours again and you mouth, “Isolated.”

           “Clearly, it’s a rare opportunity, so it’s someone who doesn’t get out much. Someone for whom a planned social encounter known about months in advance is an exception. Has to be a unique opportunity. And since killing someone in public difficult, killing them in private isn’t an option. Someone who lives in an inaccessible or unknown location, then. Someone private, perhaps, obsessed with personal security. Possibly someone under threat.”

           When Sherlock looks to Major James Sholto, you sigh, letting your eyes fall closed. You should’ve known from the minute your brain told you it had to be someone who is truly isolated. Major Sholto is the only one true fit to that statement.

           “Or, a recluse,” Sherlock speaks, now obviously filling the time as he writes something on a card. “Small, house hold staff. High turnover for additional security. Probably have all signed confidentiality agreements.

           “There is another question that remains, however, a rather big one. How would you do it? How do you kill someone in public? There has to be a way. This has been planned.”

           Your eyes widen. “The Bloody Guardsman,” you blurt. “The killer that can walk through walls. The weapon that vanishes.”

           Sherlock stares off when he hears you, Major Sholto standing and leaving in the meantime. Sherlock nods to you. “Not just planned, planned and rehearsed.”

           He slides back up to the front, grabbing a random glass. “Ladies and gentlemen, there will now be a short interlude. To the bride and groom!”

           Everyone stands for the toast, but Sherlock whirls around, leaning down to the table. “Major Sholto’s going to be murdered. I don’t know how or by whom but it’s going to happen.” Sherlock abruptly kisses you on the forehead before turning and moving his way through the crowd. “Excuse me, coming through, consulting.”

           John gives Mary a kiss before standing, looking to the both of you and saying, “Stay here.”

           As soon as he gets around the table, though, you and Mary look at each other and nod. You stand, linking arms and pushing your way through the crowd, careful not to trip on your dresses as you search for where Sherlock and John went.

           You round the corner just as your brother is laying into Sherlock for not remembering Major Sholto’s room number.

           You roll your eyes and say, “207,” as you and Mary push between them.

           The four of you bound up the stairs and to the left, Major Sholto’s door right at the end of the hall. Sherlock immediately begins banging on the door, trying the handle.

           “Major Sholto!” Sherlock yells, hitting the door with an open hand.

           The Major speaks from behind the door. “If someone’s about to make an attempt on my life, it won’t be the first time. I’m ready.”

           “Major,” John steps forward. “Let us in. Or I’ll kick this bloody door down.”

           “I really wouldn’t,” he calls out. “I have a gun in my hand and a lifetime of unfortunate reflexes.”

           “You’re not safe in there. Whoever’s after you, we know that a locked room doesn’t stop him.”

           “Yes, I know. The invisible man with the invisible knife.”

           “I don’t know how he does it, so I can’t stop him and that means he’ll do it again.”

           “Solve it, then.”

           “I’m sorry?”

           “You’re the famous Mr. Holmes. Solve the case, on you go. Tell me how he did it, and I’ll open the door.”

           Sherlock shakes his head, stepping away.

           “Please, this is no time for games. Just let us in, you’re in danger!” John’s voice cracks on a matter of urgency, and the knot is your stomach is twisting dangerously tight.

           “So are you, so long as you’re here,” the Major counters. “Please, leave me. Despite my reputation, I really do not approve of collateral damage.”

           “Solve it,” Mary blurts.

           “Sorry?”

           “Solve it and he’ll open the door, like he said.”

           “I couldn’t solve it before, how can I solve it now?”

           “Because it matters now!” Mary cries.

           “What are you talking about? What’s she talking about? Get your wife under control.”

           “She’s right,” John replies, deadly serious.

           “Oh, you’ve changed!”

           You smack Sherlock’s arm harshly, finally succumbing to the urge you’ve had all evening. “Shut up!” Sherlock looks back at you, dejected and holding his shoulder where you hit it. “She’s right. You are not a puzzle solver, you idiot, you never were. You’re a goddamned drama queen. Now, there is a man in there about to die, the game is fucking on, solve it.”

           Sherlock’s eyes widen, though you can’t tell if it’s in shock or realization, but then he turns to the door, and you hear he’s solved it. “Major Sholto, no one’s coming to kill you. I’m afraid you’ve already been killed several hours ago.”

           “What did you say?”

           “Don’t take off your belt.”

           “The belt,” you mutter. “Of course.”

           “Bainbridge was stabbed hours before we even saw him. But it was through his belt – tight belt, worn high on the waist. Very easy to push a small blade through the fabric and you wouldn’t even feel it.”

           “The belt would bind the flesh together when it was tight. And when you took it off…” John trails away.

           “Exactly. Delayed action stabbing.”

           “Neat,” you mutter, then realizing what you’ve said, you grimace. “Sorry.”

           “You’re supposed to open the door, Major, he solved the case.”

           Silence.

           “Whatever you’re doing in there James, stop it, right now, I will kick this door down!” John yells.

           “You and I are very similar Mr. Holmes,” the Major continues. “There’s a proper time to die, isn’t there?”

           “There is.”

           “And one should embrace it when it comes. Like a soldier.”

           “Of course, but not at John’s wedding!” Sherlock screams. “We wouldn’t do that, would we, you and me? We would never do that to John Watson.”

           Sherlock steps away from the door, and right as John is getting ready to ram his foot through the door, it opens.

           John and Mary disappear into the room, leaving you and Sherlock in the hallway. He suddenly picks you up by your waist and spins you around, setting you down to press a firm kiss to your lips.

           “You’re a drama queen, too,” he pouts.

           “Shut up,” you shake your head, pulling him back into you for another kiss.

[silenthillmutual]

Danganronpa 1 & 2 characters as High School “recommended reading” books I actually read

Makoto Naegi

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when i read it: 5th grade for fun, 10th grade for English class did i like it? well enough yeah content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism, ableism, and sexism about: Recounts a summer in which Scout and her brother, Jem, watch their lawyer father defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in the south while balancing raising them alone. Other stuff happens, but that’s the most important plot thread.

Sayaka Maizono

Medea by Euripides when i read it: i don’t remember, maybe 9th for drama, 12th for English? did i like it? yep! content warnings: child murder, infidelity, some pretty brutal other character deaths, sexism about: Medea, who has sacrificed everything to be with her husband - even committed treason - has been left by the man so he can move on to woo and wed a princess. And she loses her shit.

Leon Kuwata

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn by Mark Twain when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism (use of the n-word), domestic abuse, classism iirc? about: After his abusive dad comes back and demands money under the threat of death, Huck Finn runs away with a fugitive slave down the Mississippi River. Being Mark Twain, it’s a comedy, although Huck’s father is genuinely kind of frightening and his friendship with Jim is kind of heartwarming.

Chihiro Fujisaki

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade & freshman year of college for class did i like it? I’ve got mixed feelings; i love the book, hate most peoples’ interpretations of it. content warnings: character death, incest (depending on the version of the novel you read), unethical doctors, neglectful parents about: Thinking he knows better than literally anyone else he’s ever met, Victor Frankenstein decides it’s his birthright to play god. He robs graves to build the perfect body, and then, once he’s successful, flips his shit and refuses to acknowledge any part he played in the creation, wrecking the lives of like everyone he knows.

Mondo Oowada

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when i read it: like 6th or 7th grade, for fun did i like it? i loved it! content warnings: abuse, thematic classism, character death about: Honestly the most obvious choice to make for Mondo. Ponyboy Curits, a greaser, recounts the last few months of his life in which, after being repeatedly harassed and then nearly killed by gang of rich kids, his friend Johnny stabs one to death. In order to keep Johnny out of prison and Ponyboy out of a boys’ home, the two run away. Considering Ponyboy is also being raised by an older brother, this totally fits Mondo.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

King Lear by William Shakespeare when i read it: twice in college (discliamer: as an english major i had to taken an entire course on shakespeare, so he shows up a lot here between that and having done theatre) did i like it? no content warnings: a surprising amount of gore for a stage play, including a guy getting his eyes gouged out and someone getting beheaded iirc about: The king’s getting up in years, so he’s hoping he can drop the workload off onto his three daughters while remaining the figurehead. His youngest, Cordelia, who he loves best, refuses to kiss his ass by saying that he’ll still have power over her once she’s married, and this pisses him off so he disinherits her. Then her sisters, annoyed with their father and his favoritism, decide that with Cordelia out of the way they can now do basically whatever they want and determine to make his life hell. Since he named them Goneril and Regan, I don’t blame them.

Hifumi Yamada

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer when i read it: college, but i wanna say i read some of the stories in it for English classes in high school? did i like it? some of the stories i did yeah content warnings: varies from story to story, but i remember unsanitary, drunkenness, and infidelity about: The overarching “plot” as such is that a group of people are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and decide that to pass the time they will tell two stories each. Each story is told in-character, and whoever tells the best story has to...buy everybody dinner, or something? I don’t really recall. It’s a comedy, but it’s also unfinished because Chaucer bit off way more than he could chew.

Celes Ludenberg

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? probably, i’m a fan of Poe content warnings: drunkenness, murder about: This one got memetic on tumblr for a while, but essentially this guy decides to get revenge on an old friend of his for some kind of sleight by getting him drunk during Carnival, leading him into the basement, and burying him alive. Poe isn’t one to go soft.

Sakura Oogami

“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? no content warnings: objectification, something akin to torture about: A family finds an old man with wings lying face-down on the ground and decide to keep him like a pet. People see him and assume he is an animal, and the family decides to start charging admission like their own private sideshow, while onlookers abuse him. One of those extra depressing stories that makes you wonder why the hell you had to read it for class.

Mukuro Ikusaba

The Crucible by Arthur Miller when i read it: the first time, probably in 6th or 7th grade, and then several more times after that for a variety of other classes. it’s a theatre and English class staple.  did i like it? when taken in context, yes. but i’m also fucking sick of reading it. content warnings: infidelity, paranoia bait, period-typical racism & sexism (takes place during the Salem Witch Trials) about: The plot is a witch hunt, in which a girl who had an affair with a married man claims to have been taken over by the spirit of the devil and that all her friends and a variety of other townsfolk have too. It follows the trials as they try to determine who is and is not guilty, who will repent for their sins, and thematically is about puritanical hysteria. It’s about the Red Scare of the 50s, surveillance, the Hollywood Blacklist, propaganda, and tyrannical government. Naturally, teachers fail to provide any context for the play that actually makes it relevant or interesting. Compare to modern day callout/cancel culture. 

Kyouko Kirigiri

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose when i read it: 10th grade (although i’d already seen the movie) did i like it? yes content warnings: thematic classism & xenophobia about: The jury of a case in which a teenager is accused of murder convene to determine their verdict. All but one man believe him to be guilty. The rest of the play covers his attempts to sway his other jurors into at least casting aside their prejudices to view the case impartially.

Byakuya Togami

The Federalist Papers when i read it: summer before 12th grade for AP Gov. yikes. did i like it? oh god no. i had to have my lawyer dad explain it to me. content warnings: legalese and it’s boring as fuck about: i mean it’s just a bunch of essays to promote ratifying the the constitution. I don’t even remember if we read all of them. that’s how bad my retention of the subject is.

Toko Fukawa

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? kind of? content warnings: bugs, emotional abuse, depression about: A man awakens one day to find he has transformed into a giant cockroach. It’s a metaphor for his depression and what a burden he feels like to his family. If you read anything about Kafka’s life, you’ll understand why he was depressed.

Aoi Asahina

Hamlet by William Shakespeare when i read it: i’ve forgotten when my first time was because i’ve had to read it so constantly. if i had to wager a guess, i’d say middle school, though i’ve read it for fun, for drama class, and for English class. did i like it? yes content warnings: character death, suicidal ideation, incest vibes (depending on your interpretation) about: Hamlet, not over the early death of his father, is enraged that his mother has married his uncle. He’s really bringing everyone else down about it, and then he starts to see his father’s ghost on top of it all. No one’s sure if he’s just mad with grief or if the ghost is for real, but he starts making life for everyone else difficult when he decides to try and expose his uncle as his father’s murderer.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller when i read it: 10th grade i think? did i like it? if i believed in book-burning, this would’ve been the first turned to ash in my trashcan content warnings: infidelity, mediocre white men with narcissism, suicide, not sure what else about: An aging father who thinks he was robbed of success by circumstances refuses to face facts that he is a loser by projecting his failures onto a son that now hates him and thinking real big of himself for a wash-out.

Junko Enoshima

Othello by William Shakespeare when i read it: college did i like it? it’s my favorite Shakepseare play, actually! content warnings: thematic racism/xenophobia/Islamophobia, domestic abuse, character death about: A tragedy centering around the planned downfall of Othello, Moor of Venice. He’s relatively well-respected for his heroics and generally being a pretty cool guy, but for whatever reason, Iago wants to see him suffer. And when I say “for whatever reason” - it’s because Iago never gives a consistent one, but at the end he admits the entire thing has been his orchestration and he’s had no issue exploiting peoples’ bigotry as a means to an end. One popular and pretty text-evident theory is that Iago is in love with Othello. But - causing a ruckus, bringing society to its knees, and torturing a man just for shits n giggles? Getting it all done by sheer power of charisma? That’s all Junko ever does.

Monokuma

1984 by George Orwell when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade for class did i like it? yes but i don’t recommend it. i like tedious shit. content warnings: paranoia bait, sexual themes, torture, probably other stuff i’m forgetting about: Classic dystopia lit in which the government controls the flow of information to the degree of creating its own language (”newspeak”) to explain the technology used to survey its citizens and distill history-changing propaganda. Especially relevant in an era of “fake news.” Where Big Brother Is Watching comes from. Extremely difficult to get into.

Hajime Hinata

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck  when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah content warnings: ableism, implied domestic abuse, character death, animal death, era-typical sexism (1930s) about: Very desolate and depressing novella about the futility of the American Dream to “make something of yourself”. Two farmhands, Lennie and George, arrive at a California farm seeking employment. They just want to earn enough money to open up a farm of their own - a rabbit farm - and things are all downhill from there. Well-written and one of Steinbeck’s shorter works.

Twogami

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yes! i loved it. but in the way that you love sleazy tabloid rag stories. content warnings: infidelity, car accidents, character death about: Stupidly rich people in New York in the 1920s being fake as hell. It’s about excess and decadence and the idea of having a rags-to-riches story, and it’s very homoerotic.

Teruteru Hanamura

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? one of my top faves tbh content warnings: alcoholism & drug usage, thematic classism & racism (ie that’s the point), sexual themes, violence, non-graphic suicide (like literally the last sentence), character deaths about: You know how 1984 is a very pessimistic dystopia about government surveillance? Brave New World is like “what if everything was a utopia because of government interference?” It’s easier to get into than 1984. It’s about a man from the upper echelon of society discovering the dirty secret of how society is able to able to function the way it does, an outsider into his world to shake things up.

Mahiru Koizumi

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen when i read it: i dunno, summer between 9th and 10th grade maybe? did i like it? yes! i loved it. content warnings: there are a couple of guys who are sort of gross but there’s nothing that bad in it about: An upper-middle class family - more the mother than the father - trying to marry off the eldest of their five daughters. It’s largely character-driven and most of the plot focuses on Jane’s relationship with Bingley, Elizabeth’s relationship with Darcy, and the problems witch judging people based on first impressions.

Peko Pekoyama

Call of the Wild by Jack London when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? fuck no content warnings: graphic animal violence. if there’s other stuff i forgot because i fucking hated this book. about: I think it’s something like a dog getting lost in Alaska and has to learn to be a wolf in order to survive? It’s incredibly brutal and is one of those media where just reading it makes you feel cold. 

Hiyoko Saionji

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not really content warnings: man i don’t know, but it’s by Tennessee Williams so there’s probably alcoholism, daddy issues, and homophobia about: An overbearing mother embarrasses her son and disabled daughter when an old school friend comes to visit...I’m not sure if there’s more of a plot to it than that. Like most Williams works, it’s largely character-driven.

Ibuki Mioda

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino when i read it: college did i like it? this is one of those rare exceptions in books where i read it, because i remember having a visceral reaction to it, but i can not for the life of me remember a single damn thing about it other than how stupidly difficult it was to read.  content warnings: it’s metaficiton. about: You are the protagonist. I genuinely can’t explain anymore than that.

Mikan Tsumiki

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? not really, but i’d be willing to reread it content warnings: domestic abuse, rape about: Unstable Blanche DuBois goes to visit her sister, Stella, and meets her appalling husband Stanley. All Tennessee Williams plays seem to have a theme of family tragedy in them, with this being probably the most bleak example. 

Nekomaru Nidai

The Odyssey by Homer when i read it: 9th grade, then again in college for a classics class did i like it? yeah content warnings: your usual classical Greek-variety nonsense, including character death, infidelity, and partying. about: Odysseus attempts to make his way back home after the Trojan War, and has a time of it. Having pissed off Poseidon he’s gotten off-course and gotten lost another ten years, and had a whole slew of other adventures trying to make it back home and save his wife from the harassment she’s been getting since his disappearance.

Gundham Tanaka

The Tempest by William Shakespeare when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not especially content warnings: thematic colonialism & racism...not sure what else but it’s hard as fuck to read. try reading it out loud & acting along to it. about: I didn’t totally get it but there’s something about a wizard having been banished and now people are coming back to find him for some reason? the people who exiled him & his brother & daughter have crash-landed on his island and now he might get his revenge. Thanks, TVTropes! All I remember is discussing in one class about how The Tempest managed to predict the “finding” of America and how the English would treat the native peoples. It’s a “romance”, which in that day and age meant it was about magic. Influenced some science fiction works like Brave New World (the title of which comes from a line spoken by Miranda). I should probably reread it.

Nagito Komaeda

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger when i read it: 8th grade for fun did i like it? yeah content warnings: implied pedophilia. i’m sure there’s other stuff but i don’t remember it well enough. about: Perennial troublemaker Holden Caulfield is kicked out of boarding school, and takes a hell of a long time getting home from the place as he complains about his declining mental state, hypocrisy, and loss of innocence. It’s one of those books you either really love or really hate, and has been repeatedly challenged because Holden swears too much and might be bisexual.

Chiaki Nanami

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw when i read it: 12th grade, i think did i like it? yes content warnings: classism about: A linguistics professor makes a bet with a friend that he can take any lower-class citizen and teach them to speak formal English, well enough to pass them off as aristocracy to other rich people. It’s the plot upon which the musical My Fair Lady is based, although it was intended as a deconstruction of the kind of plot whose trope it now codifies.

Sonia Nevermind

“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: infidelity, character death about: A guy comes home and tells his heavily pregnant wife that he’s been having an affair, and he’s leaving her. She doesn’t take it well. I won’t spoil the rest of it, as it’s a short story, but it’s fun to keep in mind that it’s be the same guy who wrote classics such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Kazuichi Souda

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare when i read it: 8th grade for a book report and then again in....i don’t know. i’ve had to read it a lot. did i like it? sure, it’s got some pretty great insults content warnings: men being douchebags including stalker-y behavior, and a woman falls in love with a man who has a donkey’s head (it doesn’t last) about: Hermia & Lysander are planning to run away to get married because Hermia’s father doesn’t approve of Lysander, and she’s trying to dodge the affections of Demetrius - the man to whom she has been betrothed, because he’s an ass who, among other things, slept with her friend Helena and then ditched her. Which Helena is still hung up on, even though he’s a gross creep. At the same time, a group of actors are trying to get together a play for an upcoming royal wedding, and the King of the Faeries is trying to win back his wife. This all connects because a faerie decides to fuck around.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier when i read it: college, for an independent study did i like it? yeah content warnings: graphic violence, i think some homophobia? about: Kids and staff at a private school take a candy sale way too damn seriously. There’s basically a mafia at the school and some sort of weird popularity contest and hazing going on. 

Akane Owari

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? i guess so content warnings: human hunting about: A man finds himself shipwrecked on an island, and is then hunted for sport. No, really.

Monomi

East of Eden by John Steinbeck when i read it: technically i’m in the middle of it right now, but that counts, right? did i like it? so far, i guess i do, but it’s mainly i care character who comes up later. couldn’t give less of a shit about adam trask, full offense content warnings: period-typical sexism & racism (set around the turn of the 20th century and published in 1952), implied pedophilia (that gets incredibly glossed over), ableism about: A combination of heavy-handed religious allegory (Steinbeck really just can’t cool it with the Cain and Abel theme naming) and family tree history. Follows the Trask family through Adam’s childhood, tumultuous relationship with his brother, even worse relationship with his wife, and horrible parenting of his children. The end (which is what the film adaptation covers) is more centered on his son Cal Trask grappling with the idea that he might be evil because of his genetics, or something. I think that’s an argument you could make of Monomi, being related to Monokuma (or at least, how i’m sure she’d feel).

[littlemisssquiggles]

In your Pinehead Headcanons #54, you mentioned that you think that Oscar will inherit Ozma's magic in time. But Ozpin stated in Volume 5 that his magic was fading, so we can assume that his magic reserves are limited. Do you think this will play a role once Oscar inherits Ozma's magic and if so, how?

Hiya Mizuike! Here’s the thing, it’s not so much just that Oscar will inheritOzma’s magic but pretty much become the very personification of it as someonewho is proven to be more powerful than Ozma or any of the past Wizards; if thatmakes any sense.

When I first shared the concept of Oscar inheriting Ozma’s magic and awakening his magical potential, I did it under the pretenceof another Pinehead headcanon of mine where Oscargains the ability to take back magic from the Maidens. The idea I had was that Cinder, upon learning that the Maidenmagic originated from Ozma, will target Oscar in an attempt to drain any bit ofpower that Ozpin claimed to be left dwindling inside him.

Back in V5, we saw Cinder take thismegalomaniac approach when she dared to steal the Spring Maiden powers. So itwouldn’t surprise me if she suddenly got the urge to pull the same stunt withOscar—pilfering the rest of Ozma’s power for herself. But in doing so, shewould simultaneously spark something in Oscar—an ability that could workeither as a semblance or just something unique to Oscar as he is an incarnate of Ozma.It is the ability to revoke magic from the Maidens and return it to itsoriginal source—Ozma’s soul.

If Ozma was able to gift his magic away during the creation of the First Maidens, then surely he (or any of his descendants) must possess the capability of taking said magic back should it fall into the wrong hands, right?

Basically, in a nutshell, what I’m hoping for is for Oscar to revoke the Fall Maiden magic from Cinder Fall, thus empowering him with her share of Ozma’s magic which in turn would make Oscar just as powerful as the Maidens. Maybe even a little stronger.

In a previous Pinehead headcanon on this subject, this is how I worked it out: When Ozma, as Isaac the Hermit, first created the Maidens, let’s say he sacrificed 90% of his magic to the girls while reserving 10% of it to use for himself.

That same 90% magical strength was then divided evenly amongst the four Maidens. Therefore, each Maiden is 22.5% magically powerful. I use this example because it would justify, in a sense, the battles between Cinder vs Raven and Ozpin respectively and why each fight concluded the way they did.

My hunch is that, despite being magically competent, Ozpin or any of the Wizards, for that matter, are only half as powerful as a Maiden. They’re practically immensely weaker now given how much magic the Wizardshave used since the Maidens’ birth.

Even with his experience and superior fighting skills, it is my belief that it was inevitable that Oz would’ve been defeated by Cinder since her magic was far superior than his. The last shot we had of their fight was Cinder unleashing her Fall Maiden magic on Ozpin at full blast while he himself used his to shield against hers. In the end, I think Cinder only won that fight because Ozpin was magically weaker than her. That’s my theory.

As for the Raven and Cinder battle—that dual was pretty much evenly matched since Cinder and Raven were of the same power level, magically. What made the difference was wit and a little outside help. In the end, it was Raven’s tactical prowess coupled together with outside assistance from Vernal that gave her an edge in finally downing Cinder in a battle that probably could have gone on forever since, like I said, both Maidens were evenly match.

No Maiden is more powerful than the other since they all share the same level of magic—hypothetically speaking, of course.

Returning to my point on Oscar—currently Oscar is only working with 10% orless of Ozma’s original magic; similar to what Ozpin has been using prior to him. And it would make sense that the magic is dwindling since, technically Ozma did used some of that magic again before Oscar’s time.

To be fair, who knows what else Ozpin or any of the past Wizards utilized Ozma’s magic to do in the centuries prior. One of my guesses is that Ozma, during his lifetime as the Phadrig—the Warrior King of Vale, must’ve used some of his magic to create the Vaults to hide the Relics. It would make sense if magic was involved in the construction of these mystical vaults since thus far, using theVault of the Spring Maiden as example, these Vaults have been very magical innature. Not to mention the room that was used to house the power of the Relic.

Ozpin—well Ozma’s magic is dwindling or currently weaker since a) he sacrificed the majority of it to create the First Maidens and b) later possibly utilized what little magic he left to forge the Vaults, tailoring them to suit each particular Maiden and Relic.

In addition to that, he also gifted animalistic shapeshifting abilities to the Branwen Twins. So let’s use math again for this. Okay, so after his life as the Hermit, Ozma had been working with only 10% of his magic, correct? (Iknow some RWBY theorists believe that the Hermit came after the King of Valebut this squiggle meister believes in the opposite hunch. My guess is that theHermit came before the King and that’s how I’m going to work it out).

Let’s say, as the King of Vale, from that 10% magical strength, Ozmaused 4% of said power in the construction of each Vault of the Maidens to housethe Relics. He may have even used differing amounts of magic for certain vaultsfor certain Relics since I’d imagine the creating a Vault to house the Relic ofDestruction, might not be so simple.

But for the sake of this example, let’s keep it even steven. So after creating the Vaults, Ozma was left with 6% magical strength.

So when Ozpin came into the picture, he was only working with 6% of the previous 10% he had since the King of Vale used some of it to create the Vaults, allegedly.So Ozpin was only 6% magically strong during his reign. However, eventually Ozpin gifted some of Ozma’s magic yet again to turn the Branwen Twins of Team STQR into his heralds—his travelling eyes in the sky.

And once again, for the sake of this example, let’s say Oz gave up 2% of his magic to turn both twins into birds. He did mention in V5 that turning the Branwens into birds only required a little bit of magic and it would make sense. I’d imagine turning two impressionable teenagers into shapeshifters was child’s play compared to what Ozma has done with his magic both in current Remnant and First Remnant.

But if Ozma, as Ozpin, yet again gave up some of his magic, what does that leave him with now? Only 4% magical strength.

At the start, Ozma was 100% as powerfulas any person from First Remnant. But after creating Maidens and vaults andshapeshifters, all that’s left of his original power is a measly 4% of howpowerful he originally was.

Let’s not forget that technically, Ozma was more powerful than Salem, mind you. Ozma defeated Salem during his second life as Diggs. He succeeded in killing her but if it weren’t for the Brother Gods’ dumbass idea of gifting immortality to the very being who double-crossed them and then dared to destroy them both—if it weren’t for that Salem would be a thing of the past.

So between our two titular remnants of First Remnant, Ozma was magically superior at full strength. This would additionally make sense from a fairy tale standpoint since in the Wizard of Oz, as the true ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma was the most powerful magi in Oz—more powerful than the Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch.

But ultimately, despite being sopowerful, Ozma gave away his magic and opted to work with only a small fractionof his power. A power that will soon be inherited by Oscar. But it’s such a small amount.

This is why I like the idea of Oscar taking back Ozma’s power from theMaidens; starting with Cinder.

My theory was that at some point, Oscarwill come to the realization that if he was to ever stand a fighting chance magicallyagainst Salem and her forces, he needed to be at fullpower. So after revoking the Fall Maiden magic,Oscar planned to take back the magic from the remaining Maidens so that bythen, he’ll be closer in power to how he used to be—at least how Ozma used tobe.

This then ties into my theory that Oscar is Ozma—his trueincarnation as the manifestation of Ozma’s originalbody (that he never got back) reborn in Modern Remnant. My idea is that theMerge isn’t meant to kill Oscar. It’s meant to make him whole againas he remembers who he truly is. If Ozpin is the current culmination of Ozma’ssoul plus all the past Wizards then, hypothetically, by my assumption, that would make Ozpinthe current version of Ozma’s soul.

And if Oscaris revealed to be Ozma’s original form reborn then both body andsoul will finally be reunited in the Merge.Thus making Oscar—well Ozma, whole again. Truly reviving him this time. I really love my ‘Oscar is Ozma’ theory since it makes the most sense to me out of all the Merge theoriesI’ve heard and shared. It’s also leagues better than him just being another oneof Ozma’s lives. Most fans tend to buy into this being Oscar’s ultimate fatebut this honestly can’t be true. Especially considering that series itselftries to tell you that this isn’t the case.

Oscar is meant to be special. Hisexperience as a current Wizard of Light is going to be different from his predecessors.He isn’t going to be another one of Ozma’s lives. He is the life.The last life, hopefully. I love this theory since, here we have Oscar beingconcerned about losing himself to the Merge when the reality is, it’s meant tochange him for the better.

Here we have Oscar worrying about hislife being taken over by another when the reality is, he’s going to be made complete.Oscar—Ozma will become the most complete he’s felt in centuries and fromthere, he can make the choice to live as whoever he wants. He could choose tobe called Ozma or continue living asOscar.

And I like the idea of Oscar choosingto live as Oscar. Ozma may be who he is but he was also his past. Whohe used to be. After living amongst the other Wizards, Ozma is no longerhimself. He’s been touched and inspired by so many people throughout his manylifetimes including the men who’s shared their lives with him.

It’s all part of a destiny that Oscarfigured he didn’t have a choice in avoiding at first. But now he does. And he chooses to be Oscar whilefighting to uphold the vow he made to the God of Light to save humanity and carryon the legacy of the valiant men who sacrificed their lives to uphold it. That’smy theory.

I want Oscarto be revealed as the fully revived version of Ozma so that from henceforth, he could live his life as himself, notworrying about taking another innocent soul ever again. I’m still waiting formy Lost Fable parallel where Oscarmeets with one of the Brother Gods in the Realm Between Realms like how Ozmadid.

I figured since Ozma met the God ofLight, it’d be interesting if, shouldOscar wind up in the Realm, he’d meet up with the God of Darkness instead.

I have this gut feeling that sinceLight was the one who gave Ozma his reincarnation powers, his brother Dark hadno idea of his brother’s actions or something to that liking. There’s also thatside of me that believes that even Ozma’s revival and reincarnation cycle wascreated as another experiment by the Brothers.

And just as how Ozma made a deal withthe God of Light to keep reincarnating to help humanity, imagine if…Oscar makes a deal with the God of Darkness to…I dunno…end thecycle in exchange that he will stop Salemonce and for all?

Do you know what would be interesting?If Oscar makes a deal with God of Darkness to turn him into basically a human martyr—likesince the God of Darkness’ power is destruction then it’d be interesting itOscar acts to be granted the power to kill Salem. Darkness tells Oscar that hecan grant him such a power but y’know—equivalent exchange and all that. To begiven the power to kill to take an immortal life, another immortal life must besacrificed.

So imagineif…Oscar gives up his immortal soul to be granted the power to stop Salem once and for all. Basicallyimagine if…Oscar turning himself into some kind of Failsafe. Like he becomes the key to stopping Salem for good but since it’s at the expense of taking his own life for humanity,his friends are vehemently against him doing that.

Can I see Oscar willingly turning himself into amartyr to save humanity? Yes. Can I see his friends—the people who careabout him strongly opposing this option and opting to only use this Failsafe as last resortshould they not find another alternative to stopping Salem again since they’re all hellbent on NOT losingOscar? Yes. Thus Oscar becomes the last Wizard—thelast life; taking on the burden of protecting humanity on himself andhimself alone so no other soul would be made to go through what he, Ozma andall the other Wizards went through. I know all of this sounds very stretchy and reach-y. Nevertheless, as always, these are only theories. 

And believe it or not, ALL of this tiesback into my Oscar and magic theory. At least the Ozma part. If Oscar learnsthat he is Ozma then he would probably wish to undo some of the actions he had madein his previous lives. Starting with the Maidens. Perhaps Oscar would come to think that creating the Maidens was a mistake?

One thing that disappointed me aboutthe Maidens is that, their only purpose in RWBY’s narrative thus far is servingto open the door to acquire the Relics. They’re not even needed to keep theVault open or something more important like…imagineif…eachRelic was magically bound to a Maiden andthus could only be handled by them or something like that.

It bums me out that the Maidens onlyserve to show up to open the Vaults and then be expendable—to be killed for their power mostly. It would’ve been nice tosee a story where our heroes had to gather the Four Maidens, not just for thesake of the Relics but in the fight against Salem overall. Perhaps the combinedpower could’ve been rumoured to have the potential to overpower Salem or go toeto toe with her or something like that.

It could’ve been cool to see our heroesbefriend the Maidens. Have them join theheroes and actually be characters worth gettingto know. But for now, it seems like a Maiden’s fate is to mostly open a doorand then die for the sake of her power being lost. This is why I’m liking theidea of one of two things:

One, like I said, Oscar takes the FallMaiden powers back from Cinder. He doesn’t kill her for it because, in keepingwith his Wizard of Oz counterpart—Princess Ozma was a pacifist who didn’t believein killing her foes. I can see a bit of that was rubbed off on Ozma since hechose to wield one of the least lethal weapons in the series. It’d beinteresting if Salem was technically the only person Ozma ever killed periodand following that, he vowed never to kill anyone again or something. Anyways, what if…Oscarmanages to take back the Fall Maiden magic sparing Cinder’s life (for theCinder fans who believe in her redemption or further story).

Now stronger than he was before with aquarter of his magical strength restored, Oscar decides that he needs to takethe Maiden magic back. Perhaps he feels responsible for the Maidens who have died since theMaiden magic was a power he had enforced onto the originals. He had meant it tobe something they can use for good but whatif…like his reincarnation curse, Oscarcomes to see that perhaps he has only burdened the Maiden candidates with his power and made them targets forSalem.

So because of this, Oscar vows to findthe remaining Maidens and take the power back. Without killing them, of course.By my headcanons, Oscar, asa Wizard and the original Ozma, is the only person capable of taking the Maidenmagic back without killing thecandidate.

The other idea I have is Oscar deciding to gather the Maidens, buildinga small team consisting of himself leading the remaining three living Maidens asRemnant’s first and only all magi team, technically.. Perhaps…Oscarwill seek to ask the Maidens to join him and the other heroes in the fight to stop Salem for theirmagic could provide everyone an advantage in the fight. After all, in the past,Ozma kept the identities and existence of the Maidens a secret from the world. What if…Oscarwould strive the change that. Perhaps, in his mind, he’d think it’d be better if the Maidens are seenfor what they are. Heroes who use the gifts he had blessed them with to help others simplybecause they’re able to.

So in the event of a Second Great War to come or Remnant is challenged by Salem and her foces, I thinkit’d be cool if Oscar were to seek out the Maidens to help him stop it and fendoff Salem. That could be another idea to play off of.

So…yeah…that’s my answer. This wassupposed to be a short answer but…oh well. Hope I actually managed to answeryou there Mizu.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[douxreviews]

Game of Thrones - ‘The Iron Throne’ Review

And now their watch has ended.

In what was supposed to be Supernatural's final episode – but turned out to be a full ten years too early – writer Chuck bemoaned the fact that 'endings are hard'. And they really, really are. I can think of so many finales that have disappointed me in various ways over the years. And just this week, I've watched two endings that have been a long time in the making (the other one was the end of twelve years of The Big Bang Theory, which I quite liked, for the record).

And in the end, I think I'd put this in a fairly favourable spot in my all time Worst - Greatest Finales ranking list. It wasn't perfect (only Sex and the City has managed to stick a perfect ending, and they wrecked that with the movies). But it was pretty good, generally speaking, and there were moments of true greatness.

Daenerys and Jon

So, I didn't hate last week's episode for its developments in Daenerys' storyline. I haven't exactly loved her descent into the Mad Queen, for all the same reasons as everyone else – the show is dangerously close to implying all female rulers are lunatics, Dany's descent into madness and tyranny has been rushed and doesn't quite feel earned, and it's a bit saddening to watch a character we've loved so much for so long become a villain instead of the powerful, wise ruler we all hoped she would be.

Having said that, I do think the seeds for this have been planted since the beginning – it may be rushed, but it hasn't come out of nowhere. Daenerys has been promising the Dothraki that they will pillage the Seven Kingdoms, raping, burning and killing (which we have been told numerous times is what they do) ever since Season One. We all loved Khal Drogo because he was cool, but he was not a fluffy bunny and nor is Dany. She crucified the Masters in Meereen, and while her execution of Sam's father and brother could be justified on the grounds that they refused to bend the knee, it wasn't her only option, nor did she have to do it immediately, on the battlefield, by dragon fire. So while it makes me a little sad – and makes my "I'm not a Princess, I'm a Khaleesi" shirt a bit dubious – I can see that this has been where Dany's story has been heading all along, and I can understand it, and I'm OK with it.

I was a bit disappointed that Jon ended up killing Daenerys though. I was sure Arya was going to do that – it almost feels like their big kills ended up the wrong way around, with Jon the soldier denied the chance to kill the Night King and Arya the ninja assassin denied the chance to kill the dangerous tyrant. But Jon is truly a son of Ned Stark (by adoption) and if he has decided someone has to die he will swing the sword himself – though perhaps it's the tricksy Targaryen side, or the trained undercover agent of the Night's Watch, who does it by taking advantage of her (and Drogon's) trust.

Drogon's reaction was interesting. It felt like perhaps even Drogon thought what he had done with Dany went too far, and that his mother had been corrupted by her desire for this hunk of metal. (When she touched it, I said out loud I thought she should sit in it quickly if she wanted to - we were denied a shot of her actually on the throne, after all that!). Presumably that's also why Drogon let Jon live. Of all the individual character endings we saw in this episode, I think Drogon and Grey Worm's were the saddest - they've both been through so much, and they're both totally alone.

Tyrion and King Bran

I don't like the 'Bran the Broken' title, as appropriate as it might be for a pseudo-medieval society, so I'm just gonna call him Bran.

I have to confess, I really didn't see this one coming. Since he became the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has been emotionless and rather difficult for either audience or in-universe characters to connect with. His warging ability hasn't really come into play since the death of Hodor, so the power he has doesn't seem to have played much of a role in the last stages of the wars, and the implication that he has some knowledge of the future makes him kind of a dick for letting the entire population of King's Landing get torched (was this a Dr Strange-style one chance in 14 million situation? If so, we haven't been told that).

From a books-reading point of view there's a certain sense to this. The first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, opens (as they all do) with a Prologue from the point of view of a character who immediately dies, then shifts to the first main character point of view chapter – Bran's. Bran, like Jon, is such a traditional fantasy character it almost hurts – a noble but disabled boy who suffers and undergoes lots of hardship, but discovers he has magical abilities which give him an advantage over his enemies and eventually allow him to triumph.

But the television show – oddly, considering Benioff and Weiss have known the ending all along - has never really focused on Bran's story in that way. He's an important character, sure, but not all that significant - he disappears for an entire season! And whatever happened to "I can never be Lord of anything, I'm the Three-Eyed Raven", Bran's statement to Sansa in Season Seven? Now he's King of all the remaining kingdoms? Really? I will defend their attempts to sow the seeds of Daenerys' madness throughout, however clumsily, but the television series really hasn't prepared us for this one, and it really doesn't feel earned.

The most satisfying aspect of the resolution to the leader of the Now-Six Kingdoms, though, is the new Small Council, which is a thing of beauty. The new political set-up – essentially an oligarchy with a lifelong selected leader – is Tyrion's creation, finally fulfilling the political and diplomatic promise he showed way back in Season Two. Tyrion is Hand of the King once again, but this time without dragons or his psychotic family around him, and that gives us hope that he will do a good job. Brienne as head of the Kingsguard makes me very, very happy, almost as much as Bronn, Lord of Highgarden and Master of Coin. Davos as Master of Ships makes perfect sense and it's great to see him survive too, while the only possible objection to Sam as new Archmaester is that Maesters are supposed to be celibate and Sam has a partner and nearly two children to support - but perhaps, as Archmaester, he can change that rule.

The only sad part about this scene is the huge space where Varys ought to be. There is no Master of Whispers for the moment, and his absence is really felt. Plus it would have been awesome to see Varys serving under yet another King as the eternal survivor. Of all the deaths this season, Varys is the one I would change if I had the power. He deserved better, Tyrion.

The Starks

The most satisfying moment of this episode by far for me was seeing Sansa, looking like Elizabeth I (long red hair, white dress), crowned Queen in the North. For one thing, this was absolutely essential to avoid the implication that women with power are all utter lunatics who need to be assassinated. But it was also a truly fitting and satisfying end to not just her character arc, but that of the Stark siblings in general. The Starks belong in the North and Robb's crowning as King in the North was one of the great punch-the-air moments of Season One. Jon kinda made a mess of the job, but to see Sansa take up the reigns was a great moment. And whereas a war with Daenerys would likely have ended in disaster, with her brother on the throne in the South, we can hope the two kingdoms will work closely together from now on.

Arya's ending was probably the least satisfying of the three (Bran is barely human any more, never mind a Stark). There was nothing wrong with it, exactly - she's gone off to discover America, we guess. (Let's hope this universe *has* an America and she's not just going to keep sailing until she starves to death!). It just came a bit out of nowhere, and seemed rather a shame after she went to so much trouble to recover her identity as Arya Stark. Jon's was the most predictable, but no less satisfying for that. He belongs in the true North, with Tormund. I think it's safe to say, from the look on his face as they rode away, that Jon won't be returning to Castle Black (and I don't think he ever intended to stay there – that's why he told Tyrion he would never see him again). He and Ghost will run wild in a land without kings or titles and be much happier for it.

And so there we have it – it's been a wild ride, but now it's all over. Some endings were great (Sansa, the Small Council), some were fine (Jon, Arya) some were baffling (Bran) and some frustrating (Drogon, Grey Worm) but while the series may not have entirely stuck the landing, for me, it hasn't crashed and burned either.

Coming up with an ending everyone was going to be happy with was always going to be completely impossible, so while I may not agree with all their decisions, I want to give a shout out and all our thanks to Benioff and Weiss. They've created a phenomenal series with a great cast, fantastic production values and absolutely amazing music. (Seriously, go back and listen to both the musical score and the sound design on this season. It is phenomenal. Ramin Djiwadi's music is as beautiful and astonishing as ever and the eerie, disconcerting sounds that play as Daenerys attacks King's Landing are incredible. The use of the series' themes has been great too, from playing out Cersei's downfall with 'The Rains of Castamere', to the theme tune playing as Daenerys approaches the Iron Throne in this episode).

Bringing these sprawling books to the screen has been a huge achievement, and carrying on when the books ran out to give us a conclusion to this story is no less an achievement for the fact that it hasn't entirely satisfied everybody. Perhaps it's unfortunate that this aired within a month of Avengers: Endgame, which managed the end of a saga a little better - but Endgame has its detractors too. I'm not sure any of us will really know how we feel about this ending until we've had time to let it sink in, but for now, I say thank you Benioff, Weiss and Martin - thank you for the ride, and thank you for all the gory, sexy fun we've had along the way. More than anything, thank you for making an epic fantasy show one of the biggest on television! For someone who still remembers when reading The Lord of the Rings in school made you a social outcast, that means a lot.

Grumpkins and Snarks:

- RIP: Daenerys Targaryen, Stormborn, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Protector of the Realm, Lady of Dragonstone, Mother of Dragons. Sniff.

- I didn't expect the scene where Tyrion finds Jaime and Cersei's bodies – that was truly heart-breaking (and kudos to Peter Dinklage, as ever). Oh Jaime, my love, I so wanted you to die a hero. At least you didn't die a villain, which is something.

- Grey Worm was really under-served by this finale, and this whole season. At least he lived, I guess?

- The final straw that really drove Jon to kill Dany was his desire to protect his sisters, both of whom would have been dragon meat in the long run because he had told them about his parentage. Just how much of what happens on this show has been caused by attempts to protect Arya and/or Sansa? And sometimes Bran. Which worked out, I guess?

- The two noblest, most honour-obsessed characters (Jon and Brienne) both became Kingslayers (Daenerys and Stannis). Which, unlike rain on your wedding day, is truly ironic.

- I'm so happy that Brienne didn't turn out to be pregnant. If the most awesome female character on the show ended up reduced to Lannister baby mama in the finale, I'd have been really pissed off.

- Look how much Robyn Arryn has grown up! I'm absolutley amazed his character made it to the finale, and seeing the kid who first appeared on screen being breastfed as an adult is definitely disconcerting!

- I was disappointed by the lack of Hot Pie, but choose to assume that means he's still alive and happily cooking pies in the busiest inn in Westeros.

Final analysis: Hey, it's still less divisive than How I Met Your Mother's ending! Three out of four dragons.

Thanks to all who've read our Game of Thrones reviews and articles and joined in the endless conversation and speculation over the years. It's been epic!

Juliette Harrisson is a freelance writer, classicist and ancient historian

[salmonsnakerune]

some thoughts i’ve had while replaying deltarune when i should’ve been sleeping : a post

read under the cut for me probably being very very wrong

i’ve seen people theorise that the red soul is the player, and going through the whole intro again, i think they might be right. showing up in the survey screen after confirming to the void speaker that ‘we’ are there associates it strongly with ‘us’ - it is also used again as our cursor during the vessel creation sequence. at this point it does not have the characteristic white ‘ring’ we see during battles - which may also imply that, in the delarune universe, either soul colors do not exist, and all souls are white, with the one controlling kris having white ‘rings’ due to kris’ soul ringing out under the clasp of ‘our’ control - or that souls do not exist at all, as the only soul we ever see is manifested in the dark world. later chapters would probably address this.

kris bows their head slightly more when toriel leads them in by the hand, the shadow over their face becoming longer. combined with susie's dialog that kris is "not used to walking around without [their] hand being held", this may be due to a sense of embarrassment, shame, or humiliation at toriel over-mothering them. in any case, it would probably be fairly accurate to say that even without the player taking them over, between the over-protective mothering and being overshadowed by their older brother, kris may feel fairly stifled - and stifled children often act out, which could be an explanation for their pranks when not controlled. of course, they may also simply be a natural troublemaker.

the timeframe for deltarune is slightly different than in undertale, and not only because the characters are older - in undertale snowy is described as a teen comedian, while monster kid is, well, a child. in deltarune, though snowy is the same age, monster kid is now aged up to a teen. this really bears no direct relevance onto anything, but it's a fun little fact.

from the fact that noelle goes quiet and begins to stutter and mumble when challenged, she may have an issue at home with her mother not listening to her or not prioritising her. she may have grown up believing that she was less important than whatever the people around her were doing, causing her to start second-guessing herself, and becoming less firm once challenged by peers and adults alike. regardless, it seems like she has issues in attempting to assert herself, despite being quite empathetic and concerned for others.

regarding the above point, it also seems that noelle is spoken over by alphys. however, whether this is due to alphys' desperation to remove susie from the classroom, or whether it happens commonly at other points in other classes, is unknown. 

susie becoming more aggressive (”piss [her] off”) when not spoken to may stem from a history of being ignored when spoken, especially if the people ignoring her were family, people she considered friends, or people she looked up to.

people have already covered her dialog about what she believes people think about her and how their views of her may have become a self fulfilling prophecy - i won't cover it for the millionth time, but it does ring true.

people have also already covered the fact that she is likely nalnutritioned from the fact she is eating chalk and goes so overboard on edible food that she has actually been banned from free food events. i won’t cover this one any more than it already has been either.

if, before discovering the dark world, you make kris attempt to leave school, susie seems to express surprise that kris would skip class. this may imply that either kris has not missed a school day before, or that kris has simply been present on the days that susie had been in school instead of skipping.

the few self-guided actions kris have seem to be mainly fear responses - recoiling from the closet with susie before backing away further, showing startle responses when surrounded outside of card castle, and kneeling in an attempt to save lancer from his father. the last point also fits into the next point;

the other self-guided actions kris takes show concern for others, the first example being listed above, but also including autonomously shielding susie, choosing on their own to tell toriel that they had been spending time with a friend, and becoming progressively more irritated as their classmates insult susie. we can then think that kris retains their self-preservation instincts, and that they are strong enough to break through the player's control (implying that, pre-adoption, their birth family may have abused them), and that they have concern for their friends' physical wellbeing. however, it seems like they have no friends outside of susie post-dark world.

tying into the previous two points, and one much further up, kris may have relentlessly pranked noelle when they were younger in an attempt to get her to be friends with them, having not really known how to go about it.

not really a plot point at all but i just realised that the sound byte that plays in the closet as the floor falls out from under them is susie gasping/grunting in shock.

there is no real reason for ralsei to know kris and susie's names at the beginning. due to the implications at the end that the dark world is simply the old class playroom given life, this may be because kris and susie, when younger, were part of the class that played in that room. considering the amount of trouble the two of them get into, it wouldn't be too odd for at least one dark world inhabitant to know them and their names. of course, it could also be due to the theory that the dark world was simply a shared dream between kris and susie.

i've covered "hm why doesn't ralsei have anyone living in his kingdom" and "how can he be a prince if he isn't related to the card kings" in a previous post, no point reiterating 

[mittensmorgul]

I love your meta so much. Especially right now. I've been seeing so much negativity on my dash recently complaining about Gabriel, the AU, Charlie, Buckleming, Cas' absence, etc, etc. Idk why, but it seems like every spn blog I follow rn is simultaneously freaking out about something, and it's really putting a damper on my enjoyment in the fandom. So just thanks for your meta, and so clearly explaining why everything makes sense. I wish all these ppl I follow would just come read your stuff 😟

Aww, I’m glad you’re enjoying my lil oasis of relative chill, and yeah I’ve been saddened and frustrated by some of the negativity too, but I’ll tell you what...

I do 100% understand where folks’ negative feelings are coming from, and I don’t expect everyone to watch the show the way I do. Everyone’s got stuff that bugs them, everyone’s got their own personal headcanons that they have accepted and held on to-- sometimes for years as regards characters that have been absent from the narrative as long as Gabriel has, for example-- and any suggestion that those headcanons and personally accepted theories can feel like a direct challenge.

A lot of what we do in fandom is purely emotional, you know? We love the characters, we see parts of ourselves in them, and when the show challenges our understanding of them, it can feel like a personal attack. I completely get why people might be upset about Gabriel returning.

Aside from his appearance in 9.18, where he wasn’t even real but Metatron’s literal narrative device inside the false reality experience he put Castiel through, we haven’t been given any reason to believe that Gabriel’s apparent sacrifice in 5.19 wasn’t exactly what it seemed.

The thing is, Fanon Gabriel has evolved into something very different from what Canon Gabriel ever was. He’s one of those characters where a LOT of people doubted his death had been real back in s5 just because his standard operating procedure had been deception and evasion.

There’s a post that I saw years ago regarding angel deaths that said, “Wings or it didn’t happen.” Because we know that when angels die, we see their wing prints burned into the ground/wall/whatever. But then Gabriel’s “death” scene was added with some commentary along the lines of, “Oops.” Because we saw his wing prints, and people STILL refused to believe they were real, and that it wasn’t just another trick of the trickster, and that he’d be back to fight another day.

Thing is, over the years that Gabriel DIDN’T return, people began to assume it was because he really was dead, because why WOULDN’T he have come back to deal with any of the other nonsense-- beginning with Raphael’s attempt to restart the apocalypse even after Gabriel’s presumed self-sacrifice in an attempt to stop it? People accepted that Gabriel had been convinced to nobly sacrifice himself trying to stop Lucifer, and that he’d truly “redeemed” himself in doing so. That his supposedly selfless act had tied up his character arc with a tidy bow.

But... that’s not what happened, and at first I was ???? about why they would want to open this long-closed set of wounds, but then I actually used my brain to contemplate WHY they would choose to bring him back now, and WHY they would supposedly “retcon” what on the surface had appeared to be a “good death” for Gabriel.

And I realized they haven’t retconned anything, and those old wounds had been festering for the last eight years, because nothing about Gabriel even remotely suggested he’d redeemed himself. And not just for Gabriel’s own personal redemption arc, but because how UGLY the fact that Gabriel having been allowed a “noble death” somehow excused all the bullshit he’d lumped on Sam since 3.11. Mr. “Shut Up And Play Your Roles” was only playing his own role all along... he was the messenger, he delivered the message, and then got the heck outta Dodge. I mean... this is the most in-character thing Gabriel said:

SAM: No, Gabriel, don't -- you -- you can't just walk away. If Michael comes here, he will end this world.GABRIEL: And the last time the world was ending, I put my money on you. I think you can pull it off again.

He’s still delivering messages and flapping off again. Like he said way back in 5.08, he doesn’t care who wins or loses, he just wants all the fighting to be over. He doesn’t care how it happens or even if it takes all of creation with it.

So what’s the one thing he’s said that contradicts this read of Gabriel? What he said to Lucifer in 5.19 about humanity:

LUCIFER: So you're willing to die, for a pile of cockroaches. Why?GABRIEL: Because Dad was right. They are better than us.LUCIFER: They are broken. Flawed! Abortions.GABRIEL: Damn right they're flawed. But a lot of them try. To do better, to forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino! I've been riding the pine a long time. But I'm in the game now, and I'm not on your side, or Michael's. I'm on theirs. 

But then we learn what actually happened... because why would Gabriel suddenly have gone from teaching lessons to humans who didn’t live up to his personal code to willingly DYING, and dying POINTLESSLY on their behalf?

CASTIEL [reading the Enochian]: “Per usual, my brother had double my brawn and half my brains. He assumed the counterfeit me was what vanished that night, and he thought that he'd stabbed the real thing. The truth is, the thing Luci skewered was a fake. [flashback showing the real Gabriel watching Lucifer kill an illusion.] There are plenty of fakes to go around. Everyone believed Gabriel was gone. And suddenly, I was free. No obligation to God or Heaven, or mankind. And so, I did what anyone would do -- I moved to Monte Carlo and shacked up with porn stars.”

THAT is actually in line with everything we’d learned about Gabriel up to that point. If, you know, you don’t apply any of the fanon!Gabriel stuff that’s been draped around the actual canon!Gabriel’s character.

For one, I am THRILLED that he’s back, because if ANYONE deserves to give Gabriel a piece of his mind, it’s Sam Fucking Winchester. 

And I’m willing to wait for Gabriel’s return in 13.20 to get the full story, because I’ve NEVER actually been satisfied that Gabriel’s redemption-by-death in 5.19 wasn’t just the final cruel trick he played on Sam. And his parting words to Sam in 13.18 kinda proved that point to me.

Now as to the AU, I have no idea how AN ALTERNATE, ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE is supposed to be anything other than a point/counterpoint comparative tool to the original narrative. I have no idea how it’s even possible for A DIFFERENT WHOLE UNIVERSE is supposed to change any of the facts we know about the regular SPN universe, so people getting pissy about “retcons” in the AU are just spinning their emotional wheels in the mud here. If it makes them happy to be mad about stuff, I guess go off or whatever, but it’s like comparing Portland Maine to Portland Oregon and being mad they’re not the same place.

Now as to AU Charlie, I wrote a post the other day that pretty much covers my feelings on the fandom reaction to her:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/172915586795/how-do-you-feel-about-the-au-characters-that-are

But Gabriel? Yeah, I’d been meaning to post something about why I felt like it was the perfect time for him to return to the narrative, because he never really did earn any sort of a REAL redemption, and I love the fact that the show is truly acknowledging that.

He was the original “Play The Roles Destiny Has Written For You” character that TFW (and ESPECIALLY SAM) has desperately needed some resolution with for YEARS. He’s absolutely central to the “As Above, So Below” apocalypse era stuff that was only even remotely resolved by 11.23. And since he’s part of the unresolved threads that spun out of the post 5.22 fallout when the original ending was torn up, and Sam didn’t end up spending the rest of eternity in the cage with Michael and Lucifer, because locking up problems to make them go away isn’t actually a real solution to the problem here, and we’ve been going back and looking for the roots of all the actual problems and digging them out and actually dealing with them properly... well, if you like Sam at all, and hate the idea that he’d ever have to sacrifice himself and his autonomy and his own humanity in order to save a world that he wasn’t responsible for breaking... I mean, Gabriel didn’t break it either, but Chuck’s already dealt with his “original sin” of locking up Amara. Now it’s the archangels’ turn to deal with the problems of their own making...

And even if he was only ever a side player in that original apocalypse nonsense, Gabriel still played his own role, delivering the message. Now he gets to write his own script. Let’s see if his message is different this time around. If he’s got some better words.

[aion-rsa]

How Old is Mario? The Many Mysteries and Myths of the Character’s Age

https://ift.tt/2N503x3

As the years go on, one of the few consistents in gaming remains Mario and the quality of most of the major Super Mario Bros. games. While it sometimes feels like Mario has always been with us and will remain a video game mainstay for years to come, the character’s remarkable longevity does nothing to answer that question that has plagued us for over 35 years: “How old is Mario?”

It’s easy to answer that question if you’re talking about the Super Mario franchise or even the birth of the character from a creation standpoint, but when you’re trying to figure out how old Mario is in the Super Mario universe and the grand Nintendo chronology…well, that’s where things get tricky.

I can’t guarantee that looking into this subject will offer an answer that you’ll be satisfied with, but if you’re just interested in diving deeper into this particular rabbit hole, here’s a slightly more exhaustive attempt to answer a question that has proven to be much more complicated than you’d ever guess it would be.

Shigeru Miyamoto Says Mario Is 24-25 Years Old…Wait, What?

Let’s start with what is one of the only “direct” pieces of information we have on the subject of Mario’s age.

In a 2005 interview first published on Nintendo Japan’s website, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Nintendo didn’t really “put any restrictions on Mario as a character” aside from the fact that “he’s about 24-25 years old.”

Like the rest of the world, you’re probably raising an eyebrow at that suggestion. We’ll dive into the various reasons your doubt is justified here in a bit, but let’s start with the fact that Mario certainly doesn’t look like he’s 24-25.

So far as that goes, there are a few possible explanations. The first, and most likely, is that this is honestly one of those things that Nintendo doesn’t really care about and hasn’t put too much thought into. As such, the consistent design of the character is probably more important to them than this quote Miyamoto gave years ago. Much like the popularity of the character, they probably see Mario as something close to immortal.

If you’d like to go a little deeper than that, you could argue that Mario has aged since Miyamoto made that statement. After all, Miyamoto would have made that statement around the time of Super Mario‘s 20th anniversary, so that number would have made a little more sense when viewed strictly from that perspective.

As others have pointed out, this could also be a matter of Miyamoto suggesting that Mario has the physical capabilities of a person that age (no doubt due to his consistent jumping exercise routines). While I’d lean more towards the “Mario is immortal” argument, there’s something to be said for the idea that Miyamoto was measuring Mario’s age via his physical abilities.

Shigeru Miyamoto Has Called Mario a “Weird Old Dude”

While Miyamoto has only offered the 24-25 age range as a direct response to questions about Mario’s age, he has previously made statements that somewhat contradict that information.

For instance, in a 1996 interview for a Japanese strategy guide, Miyamoto was asked about Mario’s “unrealistic” movements. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:

“With 3D, little ‘lies’ like that can go unnoticed. So we lied a lot! I mean, Mario is this weird old dude who can jump 3 times his height… so who’s counting? (laughs)”

Ok, “old” can be a subjective term, but it’s certainly a strange word to use to describe someone who is in their mid-twenties. If pressed to guess, I’d say that Miyamoto had it in his head that Mario was older at one point but later decided to keep the character in his physical prime. That or he was, you know, joking.

Read more

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Super Mario 3D World Never Promised a Revolution, But Still Stands Apart 8 Years Later

By Aaron Potter

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15 Super Mario Games That Never Happened

By Matthew Byrd

When is Mario’s Birthday?

Ah, here’s another great question about Mario’s age that’s genuinely quite confusing. Actually, most people point to three possibilities in regards to Mario’s birthday.

The first popular theory is that Mario’s birthday is on March 10, aka “Mar10 Day.” However, the concept of Mario Day appears to have been created by fans who wanted to celebrate Mario and couldn’t pass up the chance to use such a clever date to do so. Nintendo acknowledges the day, but it doesn’t seem to be “canon.”

Some fans also suggest that Mario’s birthday could be September 13: the day that Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan. However, Nintendo typically just treats that day as the anniversary of that game and the Super Mario franchise. Besides, Mario previously appeared in both Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. Actually, if you want to use those releases as a metric, you could say that Mario was “born” in 1981 when Donkey Kong was developed and released (even if the character in that game wasn’t originally named Mario). Again, though, That’s really just a matter of Mario “the creation’s” birth date vs. the character’s birth date.

Interestingly, strong evidence suggests the “official” answer to this question (or at least the month and day) may be October 11. At least that’s the day that Nintendo listed Mario’s birthday as in an old issue of Nintendo Power:

Happy birthday Mario! A calendar included with the second issue of Nintendo Power states that Mario’s birthday is October 11 (and reaffirmed in the following issue). Image 1 Via: https://t.co/dqXMvrGLrd Image 2 Via: https://t.co/rxBgXjZz7g pic.twitter.com/fWnUNPLyis

— Fantasy World 9 (@World9Fantasy) October 11, 2018

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Nintendo Games Are Inconsistent About Mario’s Age

Anyone who has tried to keep up with The Legend of Zelda‘s timeline probably won’t be too surprised to learn that Nintendo has been somewhat…inconsistent with Mario’s age over the years.

For instance, in Super Smash Bros. Melee, it’s suggested that Mario is actually 26. It’s not that big of an age difference from the 24-25 range Miyamoto suggested, but given that it’s apparently one of the few things about Mario the company has defined, it’s certainly interesting that there would be any variation in his age.

Other games make passing references to Mario’s possible age that absolutely contradict that 24-25 estimate. For instance, Paper Mario: Color Splash makes an off-hand reference to a 30 year battle between Mario and Bowser. Again, that number makes sense if the game’s developers are just commenting on the anniversary of the franchise, but that idea doesn’t really gel with Mario’s suggested age.

Don’t even get us started on Baby Mario. While that character’s first appearance in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island suggests that Baby Mario was, in fact, Mario as a baby, we’ve seen numerous games since then that show Baby Mario and Mario working side by side. There’s a loose explanation for this in some games, but this is really just one of those things that Nintendo has thrown their hands up at over the years.

Mario’s Actors Are Typically Between 40-60

If you were hoping that the age of some of the people who have played/voiced Mario over the years might shine a little light on this subject, I’ve got some bad news for you. Here’s a look at a few of the notable actors that have portrayed Mario over the years and their rough age at the time they took on the role.

“Capt.” Lou Albano (The Super Mario Bros. Show) – 56

Bob Hoskins (Super Mario Bros. Movie) – 51

Peter Cullen (Saturday Supercade) – 42

Charles Martinet (at the time of Super Mario 64‘s release) – 41

There have been a few other Mario voice actors over the years that usually fall into that rough 40-60 age range, but the point is that Nintendo typically casts older people to portray the character. We’ll see if that streak changes in the Super Mario Bros. animated movie that is currently scheduled to be released in 2022.

Is Mario Older Than Luigi?

The good news is that Lugi has fairly consistently been described as Mario’s younger brother over the years. However, Nintendo has been inconsistent (try to be surprised) in regards to exactly how much older Mario is.

In a 1990 comic called Family Album ‘The Early Years,” we see baby Mario as an only child for quite some time before Luigi is mentioned. This implies that Mario is several years older.

However, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island suggests that the two are actually twins who are roughly the same age. Again, that game raises a lot of questions about Mario’s age, but Nintendo has seemingly stuck with the “twins” explanation since then. Luigi has referred to Mario as an older brother in several games, and titles like Super Paper Mario use the “twins” description when referencing the siblings.

As best as anyone can guess based on the available information, Luigi is likely just minutes (or hours) younger than Mario rather than years. That would mean that Luigi is also in his mid-twenties but still younger than Mario.

How Old Was Mario Segale (The Man Who Inspired Mario’s Name)?

In case you didn’t know, the name “Mario” was inspired by a man named Mario Segale who owned a warehouse that Nintendo rented in the ’80s. The story goes that Nintendo decided to rename “Jumpman” in Donkey Kong to “Mario” in the American version of the game following an incident in which Segale yelled at former Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa over overdue rent.

In case you’re wondering, Segale would have been about 49 at the time of Super Mario Bros.‘ release in Japan. While that age range is pretty consistent with the actors that Nintendo cast for early portrayals of Mario, this could actually be a dead end as there is no official indication that Mario’s physical attributes were strictly based on Segale.

So How Old is Mario, Really?

Well, we’re not going to argue with Miyamoto’s age range suggestion, but if we’re trying to make sense of that age based on everything that we do know, I’d conclude that Mario is as physically healthy as a 24-25-year-old, is minutes to hours older than Luigi, was born in October, and not only doesn’t seem to age but actually may have gotten younger over time in the minds of Nintendo’s artists and designers.

The post How Old is Mario? The Many Mysteries and Myths of the Character’s Age appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mardigrasqueen-blog]

One Thousand Love Letters Meditation: Love and Other Contracts

Love is completely selfish. I pondered on this notion as I walked around Peter Bruun’s One Thousand Love Letters exhibit in the Maryland Art Place. It may sound contradictory as Bruun’s exhibit is something so touching and romantic, but past the obvious emotional impact, there is something inherently greedy in the expression of love. The exhibit is broken into 4 of 8 themes: “Forever Family,” “Cupid’s Arrow,” “Wild Horses,” and “Love Thyself.” Each depicting love in different forms and contexts. When asked whether or not one type of love can be possibly stronger than the other, Bruun claims “There is no hierarchy in love.” So then as I walked around, why was I immediately drawn to each section in my own specific order? With all due respect to Peter Bruun, the answer is because there is indeed a hierarchy in love. There is a path of least resistance in our hearts, that I recognised in reflecting over the experience. In my theory, the hierarchy goes respectively: the love we desire, the love we are most familiar with, the love we don’t understand, and the love we take for granted. How we decide upon these categories are the values and conditionals we place on our relationships.

I was first drawn to Cupid’s Arrow because this is the type of love I’m pathetically desperate for. In Fredrich Nietzche’s The Gay Science, Aphorism’s #14 poses the idea that romantic love “betrays itself most plainly as the striving after possession: the lover wants the unconditioned, sole possession of the person longed for by him; he wants just as absolute power over her soul as over her body; he wants to be loved solely, and to dwell and rule in the other soul as what is highest and most to be desired.” We seek romance because we want to be someone’s everything. It may sound egotistical and asking for too much, but isn’t love a transaction of sorts? If my lover fails to show me intimacy, passion, and friendship, what use is he to me? Alternatively, what use am I to my lover if I fail to give him the same? The love letters Peter Bruun hangs in this section hold the same virtue. Many, if not most, claim how their lover makes them feel sexually, spiritually, and emotionally. Romantic love is also the most conditional of all. The bittersweet reality of modern romance is that love comes and goes. Yet we continue to risk the pain of losing someone who we give ourselves to because the cost of love is insignificant to the benefit of it. Not anyone can be my everything. For me, that someone should preferably be tall, pretty faced, and a man. He has to be intelligent, amusing, honest, and able to keep up with me. Why do I have these conditions? Because it’s not a matter of what someone else wants, it’s what I specifically value in myself and others. I refuse to settle for less because if I do, I’m not being true to myself. So I’ll suffer the boredom and loneliness of being single because I know it is in my self-interest to fulfil my conditionals. What’s more special than a stranger finding everything they could possibly want in someone as different and flawed as I am? Romeo and Juliet betrayed their families and died in the name of love because they gave each other seemingly what no one else could ever. Rose found in Jack freedom from her oppressive upper-class expectations. Shah Jahan did not commission the Taj Mahal for his dead wife Mumtaz’s use, but for his own sake. Music, film, literature, and visual art express the pain and joy we feel when we find someone to share our lives with. No one is inherently entitled to this love, but it is the love we actively work the most towards making it more valuable. In the same way I watch romantic films and listen to romantic music, I dwelled in Bruun’s letters. In the same way I tell myself when I feel alone that I won’t always feel this way, they comforted me. They assured me that being a hopeless romantic isn’t a waste of time, but rather a calculated emotional investment.

I then moved along to Forever Family as it’s the most familiar type of love to me. My mother has been there my entire life. Growing up I never questioned why she loved me because I believed it was her job to love me. And now from an analytical point, I understand that concept. It’s simple biology to explain the love of a mother. A child gives a mother purpose, and a mother gives a child the best possible circumstances to survive. It’s true today as well. If there’s one type of person I can be vulnerable around it’s my family. They protect me in times of distress, uncertainty, and fear. My mother grew up in a broken family, forced to grow up before her time. I can see how she heals from that pain by doing absolutely anything for my siblings and me. She pushes us to work hard, to be independent, and do what we can to keep our minds and bodies healthy. And in times I feel worthless, like a failure and ugly, she is there to tell me I am wrong. She tells me I am beautiful and fearless, and I deserve every happiness. I love my mother because I trust her to give me stability and hope, as it’s her job too. My father’s love follows this same principle though his love comes in the form of practicality. My father can’t bear to see me or my siblings suffering. He works incessantly to make sure we have a home, food, and the best possible education. He teaches us the virtue of responsibility and honesty. I take that for granted sometimes. And regrettably, I don’t tell him I love him often enough. Forever Family captures the essence of family. Letters to siblings, parents, and friends all speak of the necessity of seemingly unconditional support. Love Letter #52 from Megan to her mother expresses what we value the most from our parents, “Thanks for raising me right, showing me how to live a whole life, and loving me even when I’m really hard to love.” What makes a family, is the ability to forgive and understand. My sister, brother and I are so different yet so similar. We are stubborn and ambitious. We compete and play rough. Yet when we feel defeated by the unforgiving world, we support each other as teammates. The difference between family and friends is that one feels effortless. Like minds attract each other. My best friend Katie is hundreds of miles away, yet I don’t miss her because I feel her presence with me. We give each other laughter and support. Though she may not realise it, she reminds me that I don’t always have to pretend to be an adult, holding the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am with my family for the same reason lions stay in a pride: to survive in the unpredictable and perilous wild.

It was my curiosity that pulled me towards Wild Horses. Addiction is foreign to me. It’s a tragedy that occurs elsewhere. And as I observed the different messages, I felt truly selfish. I could not relate my own benefit to this love, but in further inspection found that perhaps what exists is just hope. Peter Bruun understands this love. It is what triggered his creation. Beyond the pain, suffering, confusion and resistance, there is hope that perhaps there is more than addiction to live for. Bruun could give only this to his daughter before she passed away. I felt selfish gazing upon the pain. Expressions of love resonate with us because it is integral to who we are. As I sought to understand this love I could only muster a guess as to what it might feel like to love someone who is being controlled by a substance, or alternatively be someone struggling to find in love what they attempt to in substance. And so I move forward, accepting what I hopefully cannot ever understand.

Finally, I came to Love Thyself. I do love myself. I am incredibly resilient and ambitious. I am intelligent, understanding, bold, and impulsive. I am stubborn and think too much. I’d like to believe I have a good sense of humour, great taste in everything, and that I am incredibly sexy (like really sexy). I believe in truth and integrity. I feel too much too often. I am confident in myself because I am incessantly striving to change and be better. And with love and lust for life, I find that there is nothing above myself. Not fear or complacency. There is one person you should ultimately be loyal to and that is yourself. You exist, and that is enough reason to fight for yourself.

Peter Bruun’s One Thousand Love Letters has allowed me to understand how integral love is to who we are. Survival is the strongest drive of humanity. And to survive we love as conditionally and complexly. Without love, we are nothing but skin and bone, stumbling through existence aimlessly. We love for our own sake; to feel comfort, passion, and lively. It is our salvation and the reason to push forward against suffering.  It is completely egotistical. Yet, essential for our humanity.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #48: The possible mystical connection between the Faunus and the existence of magic in Remnant. Were the Faunus formerly animals that were made human by magic?

@bloomfireprincess asked “I love your musings! Especially the possible origins of the silver eyed warriors! But how do you think the Faunus fit into it? 

Maybe they were the first beings created by the elder brother, and he created the silver eyed after to protect his creation and the world? What if that's the deep seeded resentment, that they were first but pushed to the background by the humans?” 

Squiggles Answers:

@bloomfireprincess Hey Bloom. Though my original intent was to wait until my original files were salvaged, as of this week, I’m still awaiting a positive update on the state of my old system. So given my recent streak of RWBY Remarks, I figured it’d be more favourable to just resume working on my musing posts even if it meant starting from scratch.

 I know I said I had started your answers before in a previous file but I think the theories I shared in this new post exceeded my previous points. So I think you might like them.So here I am, at long last with my response to your questions. So without keeping you waiting any longer, let’s dive right into it:

Silver Lining

“How do I think the Faunus fit into the origins of the Silver Eyed Warriors? Were the Faunus the first beings created by the Elder Brother? Were Silver Eyes created to protect the Faunus as the first creations of the God of Light?”

These are some great questions Bloom. While I do like your idea about the Faunus possibly being one of the first forms of life created by the God of Light, however I personally don’t think this is the case. Not to discourage you or debunk your theory by the way.

As I said, it’s a great hunch. I just have my own idea of how the Faunus fit into the history of Remnant and sadly, my concept involves the Faunus’ origin coming a little later into the world.

Similar to the First People of Remnant, I also don’t believe that the Silver Eyed Warriors shared any ties to the Faunus either. Just as I described in my original post on the Silver Eyes, my main guess is still that they were an ancient race of beings that existed in a time before the current Remnant, in a previous world that was the God of Light’s first attempt at a planet filled with life that was soon thwarted by the God of Darkness and his monstrous Grimm. 

I still think the Moon of Remnant is a relic of that original world that was partially destroyed after the Brother Gods first opposed one another and pitted their strongest creations: the Creatures of Grimm and the Silver Eyed Warriors against each other in a War that hurt the planet.

Or…perhaps the Moon was formerly the home world to the original Silver Eyed Warriors that the God of Light had intended to make into Remnant or another New World with the Silver Eyes as its first people. However all of that amounted to nothing because the God of Darkness sent forth his monsters to destroy everything. Either way I strongly believe there is a deeper connection between the Moon of Remnant and the Silver Eyed Warriors.

This makes me wonder something now. I wonder if the Creatures of Grimm weren’t the God of Darkness’ most dangerous creations but his second. When I think of the character of Salem and consider the uniqueness of the type of creature she is, it makes me wonder if Salem might’ve been part of another ancient race from the same era as the Silver Eyes.

In RWBY Musing #39, I shared a theory about Salem previously being a human woman who was part of the First People of Remnant. I theorized that in her past life, Salem was Ales (or Elsa as some of you preferred) and she was the partner and lover of Ozpin. 

The Eve to his Adam as I speculated that in his very first lifetime, Oz was the First Man of Remnant under an original name of his own that I dubbed Emmanuel. In a similar fashion to Eve in the Bible, Salem was manipulated by a Grimm that resulted in her being banished by the Gods after trying to steal the Relics. Later on, Salem becomes fully possessed by said Grimm, turning her into the Wicked Witch and proclaimed Mother of the Grimm that we know her to be. That was one theory I shared for Salem’s beginning. Now I have another assumption.

I’ve brought up Grimm-like human hybrids before, correct? What if…before Remnant, before even the Creatures of Grimm, there were others like Salem. For lack of a better term, I’m going to refer to these beings as the Grimmoire (cause why not).

What if…in the forgotten past that Salem once quoted back in V1, in the first incarnation of the World that became the Moon, the Brother Gods feuded over the fate of this old world and sent their strongest creations to war: The Silver Eyed Warriors and the Grimmoire.

It could help justify how Salem is able to communicate and control the Grimm. Her being part of an original race born from the same dark powers as the Grimm---the very first one of their kind---then it would make as much sense for her to lead them as it would if Salem was just a superior type of Grimm possessing a human body. It could also explain how Salem can ‘create’ the Grimm.

What if…Salem was even the Queen of the Grimmoire---the First and only surviving member of her race with powers beyond that of any of her kind. Powers that made her just as great as a god. A goddess as Tyrian once put it.

It could also explain Salem’s interest in Ruby. Ruby is a Silver Eyed Warrior and as far as I know, the only one in existence in Remnant. If Salem is a Grimmoire (granted that my theory is canon) and the Grimmoire are like the Grimm then the Silver Eyes are their main weakness. Salem’s weakness. It��d make sense for Salem to want to see how her ‘old nemesis’ held up in the current Remnant especially if she’s following up from the previous one she encountered, referring to Summer Rose.

Pulling from RWBY Musing #46, I believe Ozpin sent Summer Rose on her last mission which got her killed. That mission was to defeat Salem once and for all. But Summer failed and died because she wasn’t strong enough as a Silver Eyed Warrior. Now that burden and responsibility has fallen to Ruby who has the chance to become a fully-realized Silver Eyes with the power to put an end to Salem. 

Buuuuut…I’m getting off track here.

Returning to the Faunus---it’s as I said, I don’t see a connection between the Silver Eyes and the Faunus. If it were anyone else, like the Brother Gods or Ozpin or even Salem, then yes, most definitely. But not the Faunus. I believe the Faunus have their own origin that is completely separate from the Silver Eyes.

That being said I do like your idea of other Silver Eyes being reborn into the current Remnant to be the protectors of mankind. It ties in with a little follow-up hunch I have about the God of Light creating a couple of Silver Eyes to defend the First People of Remnant and their first kingdom. Perhaps it were even the Silver Eyes who inspired and helped shape Remnant’s first legion of huntsmen.

However I’m not sure how that will fit since in the main series, apart from Ozpin, no one else seems to know about the Silver Eyes. As for the Faunus, I’m starting to think they might’ve come later in Remnant’s history. At least a little ways after Mankind had already started colonizing Remnant.

Man and Faunus

A lot of the history surrounding the Faunus and their resentment towards man was actually already explained in World of Remnant. The Faunus are basically indigenous people of Remnant. According to the episode on the Faunus; they were first discovered by early man at some point in Remnant’s history. 

But because of Man misinterpreting them as a threat due to their animalistic traits, the Faunus; who were once a free race left to roam Remnant as their home, they were instead driven into a life of danger and ridicule at the hands of the very man who mistook their kind for monsters.

These are some quotes on the History and Biology of the Faunus and their connexion to Mankind taken from RWBY V5 C4.5 (World of Remnant: Faunus):

“…As far as everyone’s aware, Faunus have been around as long as mankind; if not a little longer. History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point. But we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible from a biological standpoint…”

“…Scientists are still scratching their heads when it comes to a lot about the Faunus. But science isn’t the problem; it’s how we all get along, or in this case, how we don’t…”

“…Early man was scared to death of the Faunus and honestly, it’s not too hard to sympathize with that. Seeing something that looks like you and acts like you walk out of the forest and reveal a pair of fangs can be a…little upsetting…

Like most things Man doesn’t understand, all sorts of rumors and stories surround the Faunus. People avoided them like the plague, pushing them out of settlements and sometimes even hunting them down.

Man began to outnumber the Faunus and the Faunus began to consider Man as nothing more than a hostile species.

These clashes between species were unavoidable as land that was safe from the Grimm was in constant short supply. But it was the Grimm that finally brought Humans and Faunus together for the first time. A village in Sanus fell under attack and the reason anyone survived was because the Humans and Faunus united against their common enemy. It was a step in the right direction but it didn’t fix everything.

Once humanity learnt that they weren’t so different from the Faunus, they still used those differences as an excuse to exploit and alienate them. The trade men of the Faunus differed around the world and things wouldn’t improve much for them until the Great War.

Vale and Vacuo against Mantle and Mistral. A war unlike anything anyone had ever seen. And when it was over, the world was desperate to find compromises to ensure they never see the likes of it again.

The Faunus were awarded equal rights as citizens of Remnant. And as an apology, they were given an entire continent of their own to do with as they pleased. There were some who saw this as fair and just. But many saw it for what it really was---a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers. And so Menagerie was born.

There’s still Faunus all over the world. Though the fair equality they were promised varies from place to place, but Menagerie will always be their safe haven. Here’s the thing though, you can only push and prod people so much before they reach a tipping point. And when you pack those people together, it just makes it all the easier for them to get organized and get even…”

 This info actually ties into what Blake explained to Sun when they first arrived in Menagerie back in V4.

“…We asked to be equal, to be treated just like everyone else. Instead we were given an island and told to make do. So we did the best we could. We came together and we made a home where any Faunus could feel welcome. But this island, this town, will always be a reminder that we're still not equal. That we're still second class citizens…"

To once live in an free open world only to have mankind basically just give you one patch of land when the entire world used to be fair game to be shared by both man and Faunus---when you look at it from that standpoint, as a viewer I don’t blame the Faunus for being displeased.

I mean, speaking as someone of African descent from a nation that was once colonialized under the British before we gained our own independence, I could imagine being very displeased if suddenly all the black people or perhaps all the people of colour in the world were forced into one single area on the map and told to make do with the landscape. All the while still being treated as outcasts by the population if they dared tried to make a life in another area. That sort of life wouldn’t be the most ideal.

But that’s only one aspect of the Faunus’s history. The only thing that wasn’t answered about the Faunus was where they came from. You would think that the easy answer would be that Man and Faunus were cut from the same cloth as both creations of the Brother Gods, right? But what’s odd to me is that there was no clarification of that during Qrow’s rendition of the Tale of the Brother Gods story.

The Tale of the Brother Gods, as told by Qrow Branwen in V4, C8:

"…Not many people are super religious these days. This world's been around for a long time, long enough that people have created dozens of gods. But if you believe Ozpin, two of them are actually real. They were brothers. 

The older sibling, the God of Light, found joy in creating forces of life. Meanwhile, the younger brother, the God of Darkness, spent his time creating forces of destruction.

As you can imagine, they both had pretty different ideas about how things should go. The older one would spend his days creating water, plants, wildlife. And at night, his brother would wake to see all the things that the elder had made and become disgusted. To counteract his brother's creations, the God of Darkness brought drought, fire, famine, all that he could do to rid Remnant of life. But life always returned.

So one night, the younger brother went and made something. Something that share his innate desire to destroy anything and everything.

The Creatures of Grimm. You guessed it.

The older brother had finally had enough. Knowing that their feud couldn't last like this forever, he proposed that they make one final creation. Together. Something that they could both be proud of. Their masterpiece. Younger brother agreed. This last great creation would be given the power to both create and destroy. It would be given the gift of knowledge, so that it could learn about itself and the world around it. And most importantly, it would be given the power to choose, to have free will to take everything it had learned and decide which path to follow: The Path of Light or the Path of Darkness. And that is how humanity came to be…"

At the end of the Brother Gods story, Qrow mentions that they made ‘humanity’ together. Sure you could make the argument that when Qrow said ‘humanity’ he was referring to both Man and the Faunus, right?

However to make sure, I checked back V4 C8 at the exact point when Qrow brought up the Brother Gods creating Humanity. In the final shot when he was describing the Brother’s collaborated creation, we get one image with a group of silhouettes to represent humanity being born in Remnant.

However…I don’t recognize any Faunus in this shot. How strange that all of these shapes appear human and not one of them represents the Faunus species. Either the Faunus were omitted from this depiction because a CRWBY production artist forget to add some Faunus to the shot and no one noticed till after the episode was made (which I doubt) or…it was done intentionally to show that when the Brothers made humanity, they only made Mankind. Not the Faunus.

This is, however, slightly contradicted a bit by what Qrow said on the Faunus in World of Remnant: Faunus.

“…As far as everyone’s aware, Faunus have been around as long as mankind; if not a little longer. History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point. But we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible from a biological standpoint…”

Then again…the wording ‘as far as everyone’s aware’ gives me the impression that this is more a common assumption in Remnant as opposed to an actual fact. As far as any Remnant historian is concerned, the Faunus were around for as long as man. Simple deduction but there aren’t any further provided evidence to support this. As a matter of fact, the show even goes out of its way to explain it that way--- as if no one is truly clear on the exact origins of the Faunus either. That’s a cool touch.

Additionally, the Faunus being around as long as mankind; if not a little longer doesn’t necessarily mean that the Faunus came before or even around the same time Mankind was born. If anything, I think it more hints that the Faunus might have longer lifespans that allow them to outlive the average human.

Who knows? Perhaps there are ancient Faunus in the modern Remnant who have lived for decades and can probably shed light on history surrounding their own kind not known to others and the audience. While there isn’t much more canonical evidence from the series to support this assumption, there isn’t anything to denounce it either. So for now, it remains a possibility.

The impression I get here is that there is no clear origin of where exactly the Faunus came from. As I said, the practical conclusion would’ve been to assume that all Faunus were a created by the Brother Gods.

However, the weird part is that each time RWBY delves into the Faunus; it’s presented in a manner that makes me assume otherwise. Heck, the very first line that Qrow says in World of Remnant Faunus is:

“…Y’know most of us spend a lot of time talking about Mankind versus Grimm, but technically, there is a third party in the mix. The Faunus…”

My point is that there’s some other underlining mystery surrounding where the Faunus came from. A little extra thing we have yet to learn about them. I mean I guess it could be a ruse set up by the CRWBY Writers to subvert the audience from the actual clear truth that the Faunus are being treated as inferior to Man despite sharing the same origins. When you look at it that way, it makes sense especially in the context of the narrative the series has already created for the Faunus.

Still… I wish to divert from that and toss in another potential consideration that could also be an outcome.

What if…the Brother Gods only created mankind and it was another entity that made the Faunus and brought them into Remnant?

An interesting ideology, yes? I’m probably reading too much into this but it’s just a feeling I have based on all the info I’ve gathered on the Faunus so far from the canon series.

But now pegs the question: If the Brother Gods didn’t create the Faunus then who did and with what?

Here's what I think.

 Where Have All the Animals Gone?

I’m not saying that animals don’t exist in Remnant. However what I do find a little peculiar is that we haven’t seen much animals in RWBY.

I mean we’ve seen one or two animals establishing that they do exist in the World of Remnant. It’s just that…I find it weird, not to mention ironic, that we see more of the Faunus and the Creatures of Grimm than actual legit real animals. I find this funny since both species have been called out for their animalistic similarities.

“…Each Faunus has a single animalistic trait; some more apparent than others…” ---World of Remnant: Faunus

“… Many ancient cultures believed the Creatures of Grimm to be animals possessed by evil spirits or perhaps the spirits of tortured animals themselves. However, further study---as well as the discovery of newer, more horrific forms of Grimm---does not support this hypothesis. With new creatures discovered every day, scientists perpetually find themselves with more questions than answers…”---World of Remnant: Grimm

I can actually count the real animals I’ve spotted in RWBY thus far on my fingers alone. There is RWBY’s number one indestructible Grimm-bashing power Corgi, Zwei, who everyone knows. There was that one bird (I think it was a crow) that Ruby accidentally knocked down back in V1 after Ozpin launched all the students off the cliff into the Emerald Forest. There was the horse that Fall Maiden Amber was seen riding in V3.

And lastly, there were the numerous flocks of birds that we’ve spotted throughout volumes and character shorts between the first trilogy and the Mistral Arc. I mean at least there are birds, right?

After that…that’s it. I can’t recall seeing anymore. Correct me if I’m wrong if you’ve spotted others. Like I said, we know animals do exist in Remnant since the characters have food and products that come from animals like milk and meat. So at least we know there are animals raised as livestock for food. But why haven’t we seen more? You get what I’m saying, right?

For the love of Oum, Oscar Pine is a character who literally grew up on a farm and still we don’t so much as see a single cow or chicken or sheep roaming said farm. Seriously, where are all the animals?

Either the budget required for the CRWBY to model, rig and animate animals into RWBY is so high that it’s cumbersome to dare try or…there is an actual narrative world-building reason why we don’t see a lot more real animals roaming Remnant.

The smart alec answer might be ‘Squiggles, we don’t see any real animals in RWBY because real animals aren’t important to the story of RWBY. Doi!’ to which, I say, you’re probably 100% right in that regards and I’m most likely just overthinking things as usual.

However…this squiggle meister is curious about something. Let’s say… there is a connection between the Faunus and the animals of Remnant.

What if…and this is a big if…the Faunus---the First Faunus originated from animals given human likeness by someone who possessed the power to do so. What I’m trying to say is that I think the Faunus were created using magic.

Think about it. What’s the closest thing in the universe of RWBY to the power of the Brother Gods? The answer is magic.

As demonstrated by Professor Ozpin, if magic has the potential to grant humans the ability to turn into animals like in the case of the Branwen Twins. Then who’s to say the reverse isn’t possible where magic can turn animals into what we know as the Faunus?

This is why I don’t think there’s a connection between the Silver Eyed Warriors and the Faunus. I think the Silver Eyes predate even the Faunus. If I had to make a list of beings in Remnant based on who I believe were created first, it would go:

The Creatures of Grimm (by the God of Darkness), the Silver Eyed Warriors (by the God of Light again to firstly combat the Grimm in the God’s Feud), Mankind (by both Brother Gods working together) and then the Faunus.

This is only my assumption but I think the Faunus came into the picture after Mankind had already started populating the world. My only thing is that I’m not sure what Remnant was like in the ancient days after the world was made and the First People of Remnant walked the earth starting to create civilization.

If magic does exist in the RWBY-verse then, just like the Silver Eyed Warriors, was magic or the use of the mystical arts another thing that was been lost and forgotten to time?

I mean Qrow did imply once that Remnant had been around for a very long time. So who knows what kind of eras existed in the world before arriving at the modern time that we recognize.

Perhaps there was a period in Remnant’s history where magic was a prominent thing so it was more recognized by the general public as opposed to the current story where the very prospect of magic sounds so farfetched, even the main characters are in disbelief of its existence.

“ ...Legends; stories scattered through time, mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains; forgetting so easily that we are remnants, by products of a forgotten past...” --- RWBY VI CI

Perhaps magic was more known during the time of the First People of Remnant, a time when the Brother Gods made their presence more known to the world as I described in RWBY Musing #39.

Or…perhaps magic was just something that only a handful of people knew existed and could only vouch for it after encountering the one being in the Remnant we know possesses magic.

Or…perhaps the skill for one to use magic derives from years of training one’s Aura to the point that they become more than just a mere mortal and awaken newer kinds of powers.

“…Unlocking your Semblance isn’t the end. It can still grow and evolve. Providing you’re willing to put in the work, who knows what could happen…” --- Ozpin (RWBY V5: C4)  

“…With enough training and focus, a user's Aura can turn them into something much more than just a man...”---World of Remnant: Aura 

I’m not quite sure what the case with that will be. All I’m here to state is that maybe there is indeed a magical connection to the Faunus.

What does Remnant, the Grimm and Mankind all have in common? They were all created by powerful supernatural beings who possessed magic or the power of a god or however you chose to refer it. The same could be said for the Faunus. 

I just don’t think it was the magic of the gods that spawned the Faunus but more so another character known for possessing the closest equivalent to such a ‘god-like’ power.

God of the Faunus

Now for the real meat of this post. Once upon a time, I read a RWBY Theory from back in the early days of V1 and V3 where a fan theorized that Ozpin created the Faunus. Though interesting, at the time I didn’t know what to make of that theory because I guess there wasn’t much canonical evidence to support it. Now seasons later, I’m beginning to wonder if that original theorist might’ve been on to something.

It’s not to say that the Faunus, the First Faunus, were originally lab experiments that escaped into the wilds of Remnant. That wouldn’t really make sense since according to the World of Remnant episode on the Faunus; they existed long before the current Remnant where technology is booming.

So the theory that makes sense, at least for now, is the one about Faunus being animals transformed into the Faunus via magic.

 And who do we know in the RWBY series has the power to turn animals into humans? Ozpin. Here me out with this one. As I said, it was already established in the series canon that Ozpin has dabbled in using his power to ‘create special beings’ in his past lives.

 I wouldn’t exactly call the Maidens a race of powerful beings but they are close enough. The Maidens were technically normal women who were granted immense power beyond anything norm in Remnant and they were created singlehandedly by Ozpin.

And let’s not forget, that Ozpin also granted the Branwen Twins the ability to shapeshift into birds. And he made that possible for the Branwens with just a sliver of his magic all in his past life.

So…if Oz’s magic can turn humans into animals, what’s to say his magic can’t do the opposite? I’m starting to slowly believe that Oz might’ve unintentionally created the Faunus using his magic. I don’t have much more evidence from the canon series to support this but, it’s starting to make sense given what we know of Ozpin, his abilities and the unknown origins of the Faunus provided by the series.

When I say Oz unintentionally made the Faunus, I mean it could have been a scenario that occurred after he was reincarnated for the first time and realized he had powers. Now I’d imagine that in his second or third lifetimes, Ozpin originally did not have as much grasp on his magical skill so he probably had moments where he suffered a couple ‘boo-boos’ with using magic or legit moments where his magic did things that he never anticipated would happen.

I mean, I’m sure when Ozpin first created the Maidens he didn’t anticipate that the power would ‘evolve’ the way it did so that the original Four Maidens could each have successors that would carry on their legacy of power and continue to aid Oz in the protection of the Relics. After all, I’m sure it must’ve surprised Oz the first time he learnt that the Maiden Magic could be passed onto another.

For my fellow FNDM fam who watch Nomad of Nowhere. Spoilers for the first season but remember how the Papa magician that created the Nomad didn’t expect it to possess magic of its own.

Imagine if… there was a similar scenario with Ozpin where, in his past life, he probably encountered some poor animals that had been preyed upon and injured by the Grimm.

In his attempt to help those animals, Ozpin used his magic in hopes that his power might heal the creatures. However what he did not anticipate was for his power to turn the animals into human-like beings still retaining their animalistic features. And that’s how the First Faunus were born.

It’s be interesting, not to mention kinda funny if, Ozpin used his magic on some animals and didn’t realize that he had made the Faunus until a few lifetimes later when word of the existence of the Faunus became rampant throughout Remnant.

You think that a person like Ozpin who’s lived many lifetimes would have also played some part in shaping Remnant’s history, especially for the Faunus, right?

Imagine if…Remember that memorable point in Remnant history when Mankind and Faunus came together for the first time to fight the Grimm in that village in Sanus? Perhaps in one of his previous lives, Ozpin was somehow responsible for instigating that?

What if…Ozpin was somehow responsible for planting the seeds that also lead to the Faunus receiving equal rights following the first Great War too?

I mean a common theory among RWBY theorists is the belief that Oz was formerly the King of Vale who helped end the Great War. So who knows how much Oz has played a part in shaping Remnant’s history for both mankind and the Faunus.

You never know. I wouldn’t put it past him if he did since he is the only known human in Remnant who has that kind of power and influence.

If Ozpin’s predecessors were responsible for creating the Maidens and essentially founding the Four Huntsmen Academies that house the Relics while also appointing his most trusted to be the Headmasters. For real, what else has Ozpin done to shape the world? But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Back on the Faunus, I honestly would not be surprised if later we learnt that not only was Ozpin formerly responsible for creating the Faunus but also shaping every event that led to ‘his creations’ finding their place in the world. That sounds like something Oz would do, right?

With this in mind, this brings up a curious question I have about the Faunus. Religion isn’t something that’s normally discussed or depicted in RWBY. I mean, Qrow just mentions the possibility of it in V4 like an afterthought.

"…Not many people are super religious these days. This world's been around for a long time, long enough that people have created dozens of gods. But if you believe Ozpin, two of them are actually real…”

That being said, I wonder if there are indeed those ‘super religious’ cultures in Remnant comprised of people who spend their days praying to said ‘created gods’. If some of them are the Faunus then who do the Faunus view as their god?

I ask this question because I have this concept where somewhere in Faunus culture; there is an interpretation of who the Faunus believe as their god--- the mystical entity they believed created their species. This depiction is one that Ozpin recognizes as one of his past lives. Meaning that the Faunus believed him to be their God; only reimagined as a Faunus. It’d be an interesting twist if the more religious Faunus believed that there God was probably a Faunus like them---A Faunus God of some sort; but in actuality they were made by an immortal wizard who is closer to human than Faunus.

I like this idea because it would tie into my hunch about Ozpin unknowingly creating the Faunus in one of his past lives with his magic. Not to mention that I also quite like the satire of the Faunus viewing Ozpin as a god when in actuality, the old wizard is nothing more than just an angel that fell from grace when he was cursed by the true Gods of Remnant for failing to stop the personification of the devil and their demons in the RWBY-verse.

‘…Born an angel, heaven-sent. Falls from grace are never elegant…’

 When you put it like that, it sounds quite compelling. But for now, it’s only another hunch in a pool of hunches.

So in conclusion…

I am sooo sorry that it took me this me to answer you, Bloom. I know you told me that you don’t mind waiting but still, mucho apologies fam. Nonetheless, I hope this answered your question. Thanks for sending them to me by the way. I always appreciate hearing feedback from fellow RWBY fam regarding my posts so it was awesome to receive yours. It definitely helped me to concoct theories surrounding the Faunus that I never considered.

Honestly, it’d be really interesting if there was a side to Ozpin that harbours some inkling of a, not so much a grudge, but more so a feeling of longing to return to his former glory where he was someone in tune with the Gods. Or at least die and actually get to rest in peace this time instead of returning to complicate another successor’s livelihood. You don’t get a line like ‘born an angel, heaven sent’ for a character if it didn’t garner some symbolism for something important involving said character that involved real gods, y’know what I’m saying.

I truly like the thought of Ozpin, in a subconscious attempt to feel worthy or like the former angel he once was, using his magical powers to perform miracles he believed would aid mankind. Y’know…give his own gifts to mankind like the Brother Gods did before him.

I mean, he did create the Maidens and the Branwen Twins; in spite of fact that the Maidens became targets for the forces of evil to prey upon their magic including one of the Branwens who additionally became someone who is against him.

At least there’s the Faunus. Ozpin could’ve potentially given the people of Remnant the gift of the Faunus and look what good they did for man---y’know what, never mind.  

I’d even go so far as to bring up the idea of Oz potentially creating the Silver Eyed Warriors too. I mean that’s another theory I’ve observed circulating the fandom. However as you know, I’m more in favour of my earlier hunch about  the Silver Eyes being an early creation of the God of Light to combat the first onset of Grimm set by the God of Darkness or…perhaps another ancient race that resembles Salem. That’s my view on it.

I know they’re all just theories but I really like those ideas above anything else. Definitely more so than Ozpin creating the Silver Eyed Warriors. I mean it’s a terrific theory especially if anyone can sell the idea really well. But to me, not every magical concoction that suddenly appears in Remnant has to connect back to Ozpin.

I am inclined, however, to the belief of Ozpin sharing a close special bond to a former Silver Eyed Warrior in his first life.

I’m not talking about Oz being a Silver Eyed Warrior himself. But more like, perhaps one of the first people Ozpin ever truly loved or cared deeply for was in fact a Silver Eyed Warrior and his past with them is what also sparked his whole endless debacle with Salem. I really, really like this idea. Might talk about this some more in a future musing or remark or something. But for now, these are just my views.

Anyways, I hope you liked this musing. Let me know what you think Bloom and to all my other readers, I hope this musing was enjoyable and gave you something to muse about with RWBY.

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~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)