#if he must be evil to live then evil he must be

[immymothersproblem]

Of course I’m going to oblige. The angel represents all things good and guides my blade towards what’s right.

And the devil should be afraid. The might of god strikes fear into the hearts of everyone at some point, it’s about time he grew accustomed to what we are capable of.

Of course the party is going to be afraid as well. They have yet to see this much human blood moved from the insides of living beings to the outsides of dead ones. They just need to stay out of my way. I can handle it.

They took my sword. It’s fine. I suppose I can wait. We’ll get a room at the tavern. The gold won’t matter, the keepers will be dead soon anyway.

The angel grows more insistent. It must be tonight. I sneak out into the dead of night and begin my slaughter, starting with the inn staff. They don’t put up much of a fight.

Neither does the rest of the town. The blacksmith tries, but he doesn’t stand much chance against any powerful spells.

Maybe fireball was a bad idea. A column of smoke fills the sky as buildings burn. I try to keep the flames off the inn where the rest of the party still sleeps. At least, I assume they’re still asleep.

The screams of women and children and the anguished cries of their mourning relatives seem to wash over me. The angel on my shoulder seems pleased, and that’s enough for me.

Some try to run. They don’t get far.

I can feel the blood drying over my skin and clothes. Odd, how the metaphor feels when turned literal. I don’t feel like a bad person. The angel wanted this, and the angel is good. That means this is good, and I am good for carrying it out.

I don’t remember when the devil stopped his protests. I didn’t even realize he had protested. He is quiet now, unable to speak, I think, or having given up on trying. It’s about time. I’ll be better off without his voice of evil.

My party stops me from finishing off the last of them. They’re crying. I try to reassure them that the end of this people was good. How? Because the angels demanded it, and angels are good. What do you mean, ‘what angels?’ I’m a cleric, the holy hand of god. I know an angel when I see it. No, the angels are good. I promise. Stop fighting this. They needed to die for a greater purpose. No, I can’t tell you what it is. I’m just following orders.

Fine then. Leave. Good luck healing without me.

The voice from my shoulder says I shouldn’t leave them alive. So I don’t. An eldrich blast is enough to end them.

The demon on my shoulder cackles with glee at the bloodshed, pleased that I had followed his orders, while the angel sat in horrified silence.

…When did they switch?

You have found a peaceful village. The angel on your shoulder is enraged, however, and is demanding you slaughter everyone there. The devil on your shoulder looks genuinely afraid of the angel but also has no clue why they're so mad.

[fatcatlittlebox]

Sometimes I wonder where Sauron’s mind dwell as he walked the earth alone until he met Diarmid. Was it revenge? His failure? Regret? Resentment over being abandoned by the Valar? Did he wait and for how long before concluding that either they sentenced him to exile so far fallen as he was or that he was now beneath their notice that they simply forgot about him? Is that why he went from an expression of joy and relief when he first emerged from the mountain to this? Dejected. Self-pitying. Did he give up then?

I wonder if at that point he had come to terms with some kind of death wish. His appearance is despairing. All the while the score in this scene is darkly ominous with the final notes a decaying mishmash of disordered sounds. It's noise. Not harmony. He is utterly lost.

Maybe his grand plan by that point was simply to find a way to meet his definitive end. As someone who is obsessed with perfection, was this his ultimate assessment, his final calculation that this would be the only way to purge himself of Morgoth’s stain. Diarmid had warned him of what lay ahead saying, "That way lies death." To which Sauron responds so matter-of-factly, "Then that is my path." And then he remarks to Diarmid that perhaps the lucky men were the first to die. Is that what he was inviting?…his doom and destruction? What if he was considering ending the world to hasten a reckoning that may free him from this endless cycle of darkness and chaos? Not out of hate for the world and the living, but because living with the noise, the shame and mark of evil was unbearable.

Until of course, he meets Galadriel. And that fatalistic spectre is slowly lifted and hope is coaxed forth from him in spite of this pessimism. And I truly think he knows he’s destined to fail. I think he must be in order to create this intricate design in his mind with such a simple and devastating kill switch built in. So decidedly inelaborate and final. It bears his trademark efficiency. He put forth all of himself in just one ring. All paths lead to one ring, one end but he pushes onward anyways. These are conscious, committed decisions on his part and I think it's an important distinction to make because if so, it tells us how much his bond with Galadriel was premeditated, a part of this deathwish, and how much of it was an indulgent vulnerability he could not deny himself.

First, let’s look again at their meeting. They do not like or trust each other. Look at how Galadriel weighs his offered hand. She is seriously considering refusing it. And she’s not wrong to because...can you actually see Halbrand’s extended hand? No. It’s hidden from view. This choice of angle is purposeful. It symbolic — that he is hiding something. He is not trustworthy. And throughout this whole exchange, the camera never once gives the audience a clear shot of their hands grasping. They’re telling us, the viewer, not to trust him either. Hands show intention. His hands here, thus his intentions, are concealed.

And it goes both ways. He knows, perceptive as he is, that she is not 100% truthful either. She hid her ears and her true identity as well. She tells him only bits and pieces she deems he is worthy of, saying: “That is all you need to know.” He knows she is hiding. So when he asks her, “What are you called?” the real question he’s asking is “What role will you be playing today?” He can play too. He’s perfected it, or so he believes at the time. Here he’s inviting her to partake in this mutual facade. And then he tells her what part he’s playing: “I’m Halbrand.”

And I don’t think he expects this encounter to go much further, hence the hidden hands. That truce was flimsy and disingenuous on his part and Galadriel knows it. It was meant to be temporary, to dissolve at first opportunity. But in short order something real clicks for both of them. The pretense and bravado unravel and what is left exposed weaves them back together and indelibly. The storm comes and then this happens.

NOW the director shows it to us. The shot enshrines this moment. This is when it becomes real. When fool’s gold becomes precious. And in many moments following this gesture, the significance is punctuated with repeated closeups of their hands, together, touching or almost touching. It ripples over and over again. I think it’s meant to signify that from that point forward, for better or worse, Sauron is always his true self with Galadriel in a way that he will never be, can never be with anyone else.

Often, when analyzing Sauron’s true motives, I go back and look at how he comports himself when he is around Galadriel and when she is not present to scrutinize his behavior. Certainly he appears recalcitrant and angst-ridden when she comes to his forge to plead with him to join her in Middle Earth. Some would say that was his manipulation. But then, I often look at this scene afterwards.

That ambivalence and trepidation are STILL clearly present, without Galadriel or really anyone of consequence around to perform for. There is no villain’s smirk or mustache-twirling. No visible signs of triumph over having ensnared Galadriel into his grand conspiracy. He looks conflicted and yet resigned. In retrospect he looks like a fallen demigod staring not at the centerpiece of his great manipulation. But a Maia, staring at another collar he will place upon himself in service to something or someone else. He doesn’t want to leave, but he has to. Imagine having the foresight of his divinity and being able to see the margins of this illusion they created in Numenor rapidly receding like an afternoon shadow. He’s losing precious ground while truth, reality and the outside world catch up. Knowing eventually they will have to grapple with who he is. That’s why he says to her “Not all of it.” Because he knows, and deep down, so does she, that they crafted this illusion together.

From the very beginning when they declared their parts in this grand play. But that performance was coming to end even as the thread that binds them stretches before him and onward, unwinding and unwieldy. So he follows Galadriel. Perhaps he must for the hope that there’s a chance, however slim, that he may keep her and find his balance in the universe. Or the greater possibility: she will usher him further closer into the maelstrom and towards a welcomed end. Either way, he cannot escape it.

[mysoftboybensolo]

Robert Eggers made Nosferatu for me. He has never met me, but he thought to himself, "there's this weird chick who really needs this movie" and he made it for me. I have made a post about what my feelings were about things audience members have said if you are interested, link here, but here are a few more thoughts that I didn't put into that post.

SPOILERS AHEAD! AND A LONGER POST THAN EXPECTED!

At this point, I have only seen two of Egger's films, this and "The Lighthouse" and I feel that Egger's is not for the faint of heart. I don't mean that in terms of blood and horror, but in the sense of complex themes and embracing the darkness within. I watched "The Lighthouse" with someone and they thought it was ok and felt that it didn't need so much weirdness, even though, that was kind of the point. And seeing how people have been reacting to Nosferatu, I think it's the same issue here.

The Gothic genre is not something that can be put into a neat little box and be only a box of aesthetics and watered-down tropes. Gothicism is all about embracing the darkness, the horror, and grotesques of our lives, which can be made manifest in nature or even in the supernatural. It also deals a lot with emotions, inner turmoil of characters, thoughts and feelings that perhaps in other genres, particularly during the Victorian era, would never dive into. Non-gothic books would have their characters be either good or bad, good always rewarded, evil always defeated, but the Gothic genre questions people's ideas of morality; is it evil of a woman to feel desire, should a deformed man be shunned by society, is it nature or nurture that guides us in who we will become? These are but a few questions this genre asks, and they are not always easy to ask, nor are they always easy to answer.

Nosferatu is a true Gothic movie; it hits all the basic elements expected to be found; horror, death, high emotions, and the questioning of morality. It also has a trope that, while not always in every Gothic story, is a popular one; Death and the Maiden. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the Beast and Beauty trope, Villain x Heroine, Death and the Maiden, tropes that sometimes overlap, and this hit the spot for me, and very true to the Gothic. In every version of Nosferatu, there is some kind of this trope played out, but this one is, I think, the most interesting one. 1922 has it played straight on and as simply as possible, the maiden is life which is the hero, death is evil and must be defeated; 1979 has death wishing for the maiden but refused, but here in the 2024 film, it makes the maiden truly consider death as her lover.

Let it be noted that the director/writer, as well as the cast, have described the relationship of Orlok and Ellen as this very trope, a twisted love story, which gives it much more nuance and something unique from what we have seen from prior versions. This "love triangle" as said by the creators of this movie, is what became its massive draw to me.

Let us talk about Ellen, our heroine, the true protagonist, and yet so many people completely misunderstand her, just as Thomas has. If Thomas lies at the end of the spectrum of goodness and Orlok the other of badness, Ellen stands right in the middle. She is a good woman, compassionate, and smart, but she is also passionate, frightful, capable of hurt. She is complex, she is human, and Eggers truly showed how complex women are not allowed, not in Victorian times, and it appears not in modern times. I’ve seen many people have so many takes about how Ellen is a powerless victim, a lily-white bride who is abused and tainted. She is far from being powerless, far from being pure as driven snow, and certainly in charge of her own narrative; her ability allows her to not only see her and others’ future, but also to call out to powerful supernatural beings, even if she didn’t mean to. She has desires that she wishes to be fulfilled, both in sex and in being understood, and when those wishes are not granted, it leads her into this emotional turmoil where she feels the end to call upon someone who can. There is a reason why so many people enjoy Beauty and the Beast type stories, it’s because at times it feels like only the monsters can truly understand and accept us, and isn’t that what everyone wants in a partner?

Throughout the film, so many men go from affectionately dismissing her feelings (Thomas), to polite distain (Friedrich), to embedded sexist practices (Sievers), or downright abuse (Ellen’s Father). The only men who don’t seem to dismiss her feelings is Von Franz, the closest thing to a father figure she would have in her life, who not only understands her powers, but also reminds her that it’s hers to command and no one else, and Orlok. But before I talk about Orlok, let’s talk a bit about Thomas.

If Thomas was in a Jane Austen novel, he would have been the brave and adoring hero, but sadly, he is in a Gothic novel, and his failings are more prominent than his virtues. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Thomas, he is a good man who can love deeply, but the issue is that he doesn't seem to be able to love Ellen the way she needs to be loved. It isn't just the sex Ellen is longing for, she needs someone who would understand and accept the darkness inside her, something Thomas so often had brushed aside or tried to deny exists. In order for any relationship, romantic, platonic, or familial to thrive, you have to be willing to stand by them through the bad times as well as the good, and even though Thomas is willing to fight an evil entity for Ellen, he isn't willing to accept darkness in his wife. Because Thomas cannot quite understand her on a deeper level, it's what leaves room for Ellen, and audience members, to see potential in Orlok.

Orlok is no angel; he isn't as pitiable as Erik the Phantom or the Creature, but he isn't wrong about what Ellen wants. She is clearly not meant for this world, a society who pushes aside her feelings and thoughts, blaming her for their misfortunes and calling her sinful for feeling. She deserves to be in a place where her gift can be appreciated, her passions reciprocated, her darkness understood. Orlok does all this; he answered her call, impressed by her, desires her (I'd even say love), and sees her darkness but never tries to deny it or turn away.

Victorian society really pushed the idea of suppressing any feelings that were not deemed "proper" or "natural", and both men represent two schools of thought. Thomas fits in with society, he suppresses any feeling that doesn't belong within the world he lives in, he won't go outside of what should be done (being a little late to work to show some love to his wife) and insists that everything will be better if certain things are not addressed or be removed from his life. Orlok acts within what his nature is, a vampire. Is it cruel? Yes, but he does not deny who or what he is, is not interested in belonging, and makes others (namely Ellen) face the truth and will not suppress any dark or weird feelings of himself or others. Both men represent something that Ellen could want; Thomas with stability and belonging, Orlok with freedom and acceptance, but she in the ends chooses Orlok. Their relationship isn’t pretty or even healthy, but there is truth to it, and there is equality to it that is just missing between Thomas and Ellen. If she remained with Thomas, she would always have to repress her powers, her deeper and darker feelings and thoughts just to please Thomas and society, making her fit in, but never truly be happy. With Orlok, in the path she did take, she found her true sense of belonging, her true self freed at last, and she died as her dream predicted, “never been so happy”.

This is not a film for everyone, which is completely fine, but for those who say Eggers is stupid or wrong with his version, then maybe you should just leave this film alone and leave it to those of us who love and understand this film.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Parallels in “Nosferatu” (2024)

Three nights. Three vampire hunters. Three of everything:

Three main themes (disease, death and sex) connected to trauma, pain and violence. In his own essay to “The Guardian” about his “Nosferatu”, Robert Eggers writes: “what are we to make of stories like this? What kind of trauma, pain and violence is so great that even death cannot stop it? It’s a heartbreaking notion. The folk vampire embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal and unforgiving way.”

Three nights. Three goals:

"You are not for the living. You are not for human kind": force Ellen to confront her own power (death);

"You deceive yourself": destroy Ellen's Victorian self-deception (her power won't ever be accepted by Victorian society)

"Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?": compell Ellen to remember their shared trauma by forcing other characters to relive it (reincarnation theme + "Wuthering Heights" inspiration)

Three main "blood plague" victims and deliriums: unbearable guilt (Thomas), burdens of reproduction (Anna Harding), maddening grief (Friedrich Harding).

"I’ll kill him! He shall never harm you again. Never! [...] Please, it is my fault! Forgive me my dear, sweet friend!" "Suffocating… I… feel so weak… I… I fear little Friedrich is so strong and hungry, he’s eating me weary." "Anna, my love. Our son … our little son… forgive me. I shall never sleep again. Never."

Three times is Ellen compared to a fairy-like being:

"She is truly a… nonpareil of beauty. Almost a sylph." "Father… he would find me in our fields… within the forest… as if – I was his little changeling girl." "You mustn’t be swept up in her fairy ways."

Three times is Ellen told she's not for the living:

"You, you... You are not for the living. You are not for human kind." "I told you, you are not of human kind." "In heathen times you might have been a great priestess of Isis."

Three times is Thomas warned about "Orlok's shadow":

"Beware his shadow. The shadow covers you in nightmare. Awake, but a dream. There is no escape. Pray. Pray." "You are lost in his shadow. Enchanters turn their spirit into shadow to infect your dreams. Remain here!" "Wait! You are not yet well!"

Three times Thomas is laughed at by characters affiliated with Orlok, or Orlok himself:

"He [Orlok] has one foot in the grave, as they say." "Yesternight was but the eve of their Szent András. Our common people say it is the darkest witching night when Devil’s magic bids the wolf to speak with tongues of men, and every nightmare freely treads upon this earth, ascendent from the torturous grave." [extended cut]

Three times Orlok was a shadow at Ellen's window:

"Soon I will be no more a shadow to you. Your spirit was never enough. Soon our flesh shall embrace and we shall be as one." (Because that's all he was to her in her teenage years)

Three times Ellen mentions dreams of Death/Orlok:

"I must tell you my dream. No… It was our wedding…. Yet not in chapel walls. Above was an impenetrable thundercloud outstretched beyond the hills. The scent of the lilacs was strong in the rain… and when I reached the altar, you weren’t there. Standing before me, all in black… was… Death. But I was so happy, so very happy. We exchanged vows, we embraced, and when we turned round, everyone was dead. Father… and… everyone. The stench of their bodies was horrible. And – But I had never been so happy as that moment… as I held hands with Death." "Professor… My dreams grow darker, they sicken me. Does evil come from within us or from beyond?" "He stalks me in my dreams, all my sleeping thoughts are of him, every night!"

Three times Orlok is shown to feed on souls (soul in the blood/ strigoi myth):

Thomas exorcisim "You will press thy lips to my cold mouth and I will drink upon thy soul." [extended cut] "I relinquished him my soul…"

Three times Clara and Louise Harding spoke (foreshadowing devices):

"No! We can’t! There is a monster in the room! Papa! Papa! Don’t let her feed me to the monster!! Stab him!" "Mama! Papa! Is that the monster?" "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep."

Three failed "spikes of cold iron":

Three times Orlok conjures pure horror before feeding:

Three times Orlok is identified as Solomonar:

"A black enchanter he was in life. Şolomonari. The Devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blaspheme." "Solomonari. And their codex of secrets." "Our Nosferatu is of an especial malignancy. He is an arch-enchanter, Şolomonari, Satan’s own learnèd disciple." [extended cut]

Three times Orlok is seen performing sorcery:

“Your husband is lost to you. Dream of me. Only me.” (Solomonari Sex Magick ritual) “Nature, increase thy thunders, and hasten me upon the wings of thy barbarous winds" (Solomonari weathermaker or Dacian cloud traveler) [Without subtitles]: Orlok influences Thomas' dreams for him to kick Ellen out of bed

Three Solomonari Sex Magick rituals:

"Your lordship. It is entirely as you have demanded of me. He shall presently be in thy rule, and I shall attend thee here, near the object of thy contract!" "Your husband is lost to you. Dream of me. Only me." "And so the maiden fair did offer up, her love unto the beast, and with him lay, in close embrace until the first cock crow. Her willing sacrifice thus broke the curse, and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu."

Three spiritual obsession scenes linking Herr Knock and Ellen (Orlok has to be summoned for these communications to happen):

"He is coming." [Who, who is?] ‘Twas He that invoked me! ’Twas I that was chosen to serve Him for I know what He covets. And He shall cast upon you curses, confusion, affliction and rebuke, for you have forsaken me! And He shall reign over all your empty corpses! Devourence!" "Enduring night… a spectre of death… He… he… spreads his shadow… and… and… he is coming– [Who, damn you!? Speak!!] I shall persist to join you every night, first in sleep, then in your arms. Everything will be mixed with abomination, and you'll be knee-deep in blood. Everyone will cry. There will be none to bury the dead. You are promised to me!" "Help me! Help me!" "His Lordship! He is come!" "He is here!"

Three kneeling scenes:

"Pray then, instruct me, my Lord. Charge me. Use me. Yet my Lord, I beg thee." [Silence, dog! Your entreaties grow insolent. You shall crave of me nothing.] "Please, have pity, Thomas is very poorly and… Friedrich, you must listen to me, we are all in the most grave danger – I throw myself at your feet! [Frau Hutter, please!] Listen to me, please! "No! Please. I’ll be good, I’ll be good..."

Three times Orlok placed intentions inside of Thomas' head:

"Get off me. Give me room. I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe… Get off!" “Another night has passed. More blood shall stain thy hands. Tomorrow shall be his last.” [extended cut] “I will drive a spike of cold iron through him. [...] No. I will not wait ‘til morning! We must stop him now. I feel his hold upon me this night."

Three times the "reincarnation theme" is introduced in the dialogue:

"Yet, I cannot be sated without you. Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?" "He took me as his lover then, and now he has come back. He has discovered our marriage and has come back!" [this "then" is 300 years ago] "You could never please me as he could."

Three times Friedrich-Anna Harding paralleled Ellen-Orlok (mirror pairs)

[In public.] "I cannot resist you, my love." Friedrich and Anna sex scene [extended cut] = Ellen and Orlok sex scene "Let this your tender embrace keep me now in bliss, away from everlasting sleep." "And so the maiden fair did offer up her love unto the beast, and with him lay, in close embrace until the first cock crow. Her willing sacrifice thus broke the curse, and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu."

The three main themes connect Anna-Friedrich and Ellen-Orlok final scenes:

Disease (Blood plague); Sex (Necrophilia) and Death (self-explanatory) Wedding dress - kiss - sex

Three times Ellen's destiny is mentioned, and in connection to Orlok:

"Look at the sea! Does it never call to you? Urge you? Something is close at hand- Destiny!" "Yet even now we are fated." "You run in vain! You cannot out-run her destiny!"

Three times is Ellen's faith seen (enchantress):

"Come to me. Come to me: A guardian angel, a spirit of comfort – spirit of any celestial sphere – anything – hear my call. Come to me." [Have you so little faith in me?] "I will send you my utmost faith and you will write to me every day." "He does not have power over you, Thomas. I place my utter faith in you." [...] "I bid you, come to me."

Three times the Dawn is connected to Orlok, Ellen, Thomas and Herr Knock:

Knock: "I shall then stifle out the bridegroom, your Lordship." Orlok: "I have use in him." Knock: "Pray then, instruct me, my Lord. Charge me. Use me. Shall I fetch unto thee thy pretty belonging?" Orlok: "The compact commands she must willingly re-pledge her vow. She cannot be stolen [...] Daybreak draws near. Anon the bells of dawn shall toll in despair of my coming. And I shall taste of you."

Three "possession" scenes:

Orlok takes control over Thomas' soul (Solomonari Sex Magick Divorce ritual) Orlok possesses Thomas to have sex with Ellen ("Possession scene") Orlok possesses Ellen's soul (Breaking of Nosferatu curse)

Three are the ways Ellen’s heart (soul) is connected to Orlok:

[Your words spring from your honest heart] “My heart [locket] is lost without my Thomas.”  "Kiss my heart! My heart!”  [the "possession scene" | "No! Orlok!"] Her giving Orlok her heart/soul to feed on (heart blood): her blood plague delirium is love

Three interrupted sex scenes (only Orlok carries on):

"The honeymoon was yet too short! Take off your shoes. One minute more." "Stop. Stop my love. Do you hear that?" [extended cut] "More... more..."

Three representations of unbearable grief:

[lil-dragon-rawr]

TOH x DC: One-Sided Identity Shenanigans

Cause like...the Owl House gang didn't bother to make secret identities

Part One, Part Two

Masterlist

Jason, finally finding an opportunity to talk to Vee alone during their volunteer shift: hi.

Vee, thinking he's going to blackmail and/or permanently silence her for figuring out his secret identity: *about to have a panic attack*

Jason: so I heard about vigilante bingo

Vee, who was expecting him to say something WAY different: ...huh?

Jason, continuing: I have it on good authority that Spoiler made a deal with Eda to help her win

Vee: ??? (when did Eda have time to talk to Spoiler???)

Jason: but personally I'm rooting for Luz

Vee, still processing the fact that she and Eda are now officially cheating:

Jason: also, expect the other vigilantes to start throwing their hat in the ring soon. They can be really competitive

Jason, patting her on the shoulder as he leaves: okay good talk

(Amity and Luz arriving at Barbara's apartment for girls' night)

Steph, answering the door with an evil glint in her eyes: oh, you must be Babs' new friends! I've heard so much about you >:D

(eventually, the topic switches to vigilantes, thanks to one meddling Steph)

Steph, trying to feed Lumity false information to stop them from getting more points in bingo: you know, I hear the only vigilante who's ever given out autographs is Spoiler

Barbara, also invested in bingo and trying to help her new sister win: *narrowing her eyes* don't listen to Steph, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Spoiler's never given an autograph before. Ask Red Hood

Steph, who knows Jason will absolutely give an autograph to Luz: *glares at Babs*

Luz, who doesn't know they know about the bingo cards: haha why would we want an autograph??

(Batfamily meeting in the cave)

Steph: well we can't all speedrun bingo!

Jason: oh yeah? Who's gonna stop me?

Steph: it was my idea to meddle! I can easily do all the tasks before you can!

Babs, trying to defuse the situation before someone catches a Batarang in the knee: okay, okay. What if we made rules about how much we can interfere?

Steph, still glaring at Jason: ...I'm listening

[THE RULES:

1. The party you aid cannot be aware that you're aiding them - it must appear to be coincidence.

2. You cannot outright say things such as "Got any ice cream around here?" to prompt challenge completion - the subject of the challenge must be brought up by the party you aid.

3. Failure to comply with the above rules results in penalties including, but not limited to, extra patrols, public humiliation, and death by disappointing Alfred. Penalties are decided by Batwoman based on the severity of the rule infraction.]

Gus, on his first day as a news anchor: well folks it looks like we've got some quality rogues active in central Gotham today!

Camera crew, concerned about this kid's apparent apathy towards dangerous criminals:

Gus "I Was The MC For My Friends' Gladiator Match Against The Actual Embodiment Of Fear" Porter: Two-Face just made a move on Gotham National Bank - but oh? What's this? *listening to his earpiece* the temperature is dropping, grab your coats everyone because Mr. Freeze is here for six more weeks of winter!

Kevin the Cameraman, whispering to his coworker Beth: actually I think he's perfect for this

Signal, out alone and having to deal with both Two-Face and Freeze: I cannot live laugh love in these conditions

Gus, ten yards away in front of a camera, glancing back at Signal and winking: *mouthing* I gotchu fam

Real Gus, lying in wait behind a building while Illusion Gus MCs: *traps Mr. Freeze in a mental purgatory of his worst nightmares as soon as Freeze walks by*

Mr. Freeze, suddenly screaming and collapsing: Nora, don't leave me!

Real Gus: oops might have reawakened some trauma there

Signal, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth: *punches a distracted Two-Face and hauls both him and Freeze back to Arkham* don't know what that guy did to Freeze but whatever works ig

Hunter: *enjoying a peaceful night on the balcony with Willow*

Robin, manifesting: woodcarver.

Hunter: ??? Hello???

Robin: I would like to carve a palisman.

Hunter, confused: *looking to Willow for support with the stabby child*

Willow: *thumbs-up*

Hunter, finally getting Robin to talk about his emotions: what do you care about?

Robin, lore dropping like there's no tomorrow: I was genetically engineered to be the perfect combination of my mother and father. Growing up, I was expected to be the heir to both their legacies as the Demon's Head and the Bat. I always thought I wanted to take up the mantle, but it feels like a burden instead of some great destiny.

Hunter, making a few connections: ...you were supposed to fill the role of someone else?

Robin: yes, that's what I just said

Hunter, smiling: me too!

Hunter: though for me I was genetically engineered to be a copy of my former uncle's brother. And I was supposed to serve that uncle as the Golden Guard

Hunter, having a moment: ...and then I found out he was lying about our family and that he was trying to commit genocide

Hunter, spiraling: ...and then I found all the masks of the former Golden Guards...

Hunter: ...and realized he killed them all every time they - we - betrayed him...

Robin:

Hunter: ...and then he killed Flapjack...

Robin, prepared to go to war: let us kill that imbecile for his crimes.

Hunter, appreciating the support: thanks, but it's already taken care of :)

Batman, approaching the Clawthornes: Eda.

Eda: Batman.

Batman, actually kinda trying to help: King is fourteen, correct?

Eda: what's it to you?

Batman: that would place him at the start of high school. It might be good for him to interact with kids his own age.

Eda, squaring up: don't tell me how to parent my kid!

Eda, immediately turning to King: do you wanna go to school?

King: hmm maybe, I don't really know how human schools work and don't want to deal with what Luz went through...

Batman, who has a fourteen year old who also doesn't want to deal with school (but has to anyway to keep up appearances): we could get you a student liaison to shadow. If you want, they could be informed of your situation so you have someone to talk to

King: ...yeah sure sounds interesting

King, approaching The Bingo Council that night: is Batman getting me into school considered an almost-adoption? Cause I feel like if Eda wasn't there he would've adopted me

Eda, crossing her arms: I vote no. Adoption has to go through me and we have to fight for custody

Gus, who wants a point: I argue yes. We all know Batman has an adoption problem and Eda openly challenged his parenting attempts

Vee, off to the side, twiddling her thumbs and wondering if Batman is one of the vigilantes involved in Bingo Interference:

King, walking into class on his first day and seeing the glowering student liaison that everyone seems afraid of: *squints*

Damian: *narrows his eyes, waiting to see what King does*

King: *sips his Starbucks suspiciously*

Current Standings for Vigilante Bingo:

Lumity:

Huntlow:

An argument was made for "have a vigilante crash through your window", but since Robin never technically went inside the apartment, it was vetoed.

Gus and King:

Gus was awarded the "be a hero" square for taking out Mr. Freeze. The council agreed that more effort needs to be made on the "almost adopted by Batman" front. Should Batman try again, King will receive the point.

Eda and Vee:

Vee stewed in silence for the entire council meeting for unknown reasons.

[dragon-susceptible]

The parallel of Viren and Runaan both impressing the ideal of sacrifice on their daughters, doing whatever you must, however dangerous, however vile, to protect what you love, but Runaan teaches his daughter it is more valuable to sacrifice her own life to prevent greater evils and Viren teaches his that great evils inflicted upon others are better than being weak. "We take life, but we do not take it lightly." Contrasted with "We will only be safe when all of them are dead."

And Runaan's daughter says no, even his way is too much. Taking life is taking life and no cause is worthy of it.

And Viren's says yes, she will do anything to keep her family alive and kill everything that's ever offended her.

And Runaan reexamines his own worldview and changes for her, stands with her in the new world she's built, and lives despite sacrificing his life in the beginning

And Viren abandons her screaming and crying on a beach to go make a last hail Mary pass at gaining the forgiveness of the son he's dismissed and abused, and dies despite defying mortality from the beginning

[satureja13]

Lenny is taking a break while the others are still over in Jonathan's quarters. They can't wrap their brains around that Sai has a fiancé... He'd have a lot to explain once he wakes up again. But the show must go on. They finally found Tiny Can! After all these months! But how did he end up with Jonathan? The last time they saw him, he was broken. His circuits blew after he'd rescued them out of the Therapy Game, from Ji Ho's evil Grandfather... Kiyoshi: "So how did you find Tiny Can? He got destroyed. And how did you manage to enter the Otherworld and get past the protection - eh... plant-swamp-thing to get to him?"

Jonathan: "I don't know about any of this. Actually, Tiny Can found me. He was utterly broken though. Took me months to repair him. I think I will have built him and therefore he came back to me when he needed help. It carries my signature coding." Jack was wondering how one could not know if he'd built Tiny Can? And what's with that weird time term 'will have built him'? Maybe Jonathan's brain is just as busy and stuffed as his and he forgets things? Then Vlad asked away and Jack forgot about it... This is all so confusing - and exciting! Vlad: "Months? This is so weird. How was he able to host the Therapy Game during this time? There are no issues known. Or any downtimes." Jonathan: "Well, I'm utterly sure that Tiny Can here is not the host of the Therapy Game. There is a save game left on his hard disk though. And from time to time he plays me a message, from you two. Jack and Jeb." Jack: "Oh, that's an old one. Where a future Jeb tells the others they should stay together and how to activate the ship?" Jonathan: "No, it's another one. Maybe I can make him play it again tomorrow. He's still not fully fixed, I fear. Oh my, only Sai could turn an invaluable artefact into a gaming server ^^' "

Jonathan: "Sai was clever to hide his signature so no one could trace the Therapy Game back to him. The Council is eager to get a grip on the developer and stop this game. It made their live so much harder since so many creatures have a community now. And get help. But even though Sai's signature and mine are quite equal, since I'd tought him everything about programming, there are still parts that I only developed after we got separated... And he came back to me, so I could help him..." They fell silent for a while, trying to put it all together... To compute... But they are tired and it's all too much.

Jack: "Well, I guess these are problems for later. The other question is: Who is hosting the Therapy Game now?" Jonathan: "I tried to find out from which Game that one save file is he still kept. It is from the Therapy Game - and it's hosted from everyhere. Literally. It's a giant network that uses 'volunteer computing'. Users from all over the galaxy 'donate' processing space. Maybe you've heard of it. It's often used in science." Jack: "Oh! I installed it too! To find the origins of pizza. Hey, what's that look? We're quite a few. Pizza is too amazing to originate from our little world! There is something bigger behind it!" (Where he's right, he's right ;)

Kiyoshi: "But this means - it's impossible turn off the Therapy Game." Jonathan: "Why would one want to turn it off? It's amazing and has extremely good reviews in the 90's?" Kiyoshi sighed: "Sai is convinced it's a threat. Ji Ho almost died. And even though we know Tiny Can only tried to save him from his grandfather, Sai still thinks it could mess with the players' brains." Jonathan: "It really doesn't. Tiny Can has no evil or corrupted circuit in him. He made very sure everyone is safe and no one can meddle with the code again. There are also disclaimers and the game even checks back if the players are ok all the time and takes measures if it gets uncomfortable for them. The game wraps around the players needs and it adjusts itself. Even though Tiny Can did the majority of the work, Sai - and all of you too - can be so proud of yourself for starting this."

Jonathan looked over to Sai: "I still can't believe I found him. How long has it been since I last saw him? Five years? Six? I thought they'd killed him. Thank you for taking care of him." Jeb cleared his throat: "We are all exhausted. Let's continue tomorrow. Sai should hear about all this too." Jack, towards Jonathan: "You must know Jeb is Sai's..." Vlad interrupted him and hissed: "Jack!" Jonathan: "There is another quarter right across the corridor. I asked the maintenace droids to get it ready for you." Kiyoshi: "Thank you. See you later then."

They left Sai in Jonathan's bed to recover. And when they entered their quarter, there were only five beds. So Jonathan seems confident that Sai will stay with him? Jack's brain thought it's best for him to clear everything off of it and deal with all these crazy news tomorrow. Or later, since they don't know which time it is here on this mining colony in the hazy middle of nowhere. And he's excited and enthusiastic as always. Plus - Jeb should be distracted.

Jack: "Look! The view! And there's Skully! Hey Skully, who's looking after the ship?" Skully: "Malfoy and Axl. Thought you might need me. How's the captain doing?" Jeb said nothing and just went over to his bed.

He sighed: "We should spare Sai from all this. Insisting to keep him as a leader broke him. We even betrayed him for trying to leave without him - to save tiny Can. And he betrayed us for leaving without us - to kill Tiny Can. This is all to much for him. And we can't go on like this. Jonathan will be able to take better care of him than we are. Sai left everything behind for Jonathan. Left his his realm and sold everything he had - to be with him." Vlad: "Maybe you are right. We did what we could to carry the burden with him but it wasn't enough. And he did what he could to be there for us and it broke him. He surely wasn't made for all this madness that comes with us."

Kiyoshi: "And without the meteorites, we can't go back home to the otherworld anymore. It would be safer to split up anyway, so the Council won't see us as a threat anymore. And each couple had their own place to live." Jack went silent. He just knew it. The evening before they'd left home. He'd had this odd feeling and he knew it would be for the last time they'd see their home in Otherworld's Tomarang... Ji Ho: "But what about the message from Future Jeb? He urged us to stay together!" Jack: "Jonathan said there is another message from them. Maybe he tells us that everything is fine now that we've fulfilled our mission to find Tiny Can? Or whatever it was he wanted us to stay together for?" Vlad: "It's useless to wreck our exhausted brains over this now. Let's sleep - and see what tomorrow brings." Ji Ho: "Maybe our mission was to bring Jonathan and Sai back together? It all started after we found Tiny Can in that temple. And he went back to Jonathan when he needed help. And he knew we would try to find him..." Poor Jeb... And Future Jeb even wanted to make it happen. Why? Because he knew they wouldn't last? After all of their break-ups and quarrels?

Skully brought a matching song for them. It goes like this:

'I go dancing on the ceiling sometimes It's always fun but I get scared of the climb Will you catch my fall? Catch my fall?

The notes I play put a stain on my heart Some songs I hate, some I hate even more I act a fool Am I the fool?

So tell me, Eric, does it hurt, hurt? (Uh-huh) So tell me, Eric, does it hurt? (Not at all)

I'm killin' life like a one way ticket to hell I'm on a high goin' down, down, down I wanna wipe that sad, sad feelin' away Down, down, down

I'm killin' life like a one way ticket to hell I'm on a high goin' down, down, down I wanna wipe that sad, sad feelin' away Down, down, down (Oh, oh, oh, oh) (Oh, oh, oh, oh)

The words I sing burn my throat as they leave Desperate measures for these times are in need Do you feel the same? (Feel the same) It's such a shame'

Killin' it - Foxy Shazam (Live version, more bass than in the official one, I love it!)

imo this is one of the most unterrated songs I know. It's only availavle on compilations on spotify o.o So if you liked the kind of songs Skully, the Boys and I played so far, you should give it a try.

Outtakes

The counter scene from the first pic. Behind the window, you can spot Lenny :3

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter 'Goats in Space': starts ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Piglets in Space' from the beginning ▶️ here

📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 23-29

[haggishlyhagging]

[Long quote but informative. Discusses how the witch hunts broke women psychologically, the effects of which we can observe in modern women.]

The woman in the crowd [at a witch killing] would vow never to go near a magic-worker again, no matter how badly she needed her advice; she would never again trust a midwife, would neither tell nor ask her anything, no matter how urgently she needed her help. Come to think of it, she would guard her lips with her neighbors—because any woman could be a witch, she must not be associated with any of them. The women's subculture of the Middle Ages, which has been much studied, began to dissolve under the terror of witch hunting. The new cult of individualism that cultural historians write about in connection with the sixteenth century was based not only on capitalistic competition or Renaissance idealism; it was, in the case of women, based on fear. In the lands of the witch hunts, women came to fear one another, for their lives.

Another transformation effected by the witch hunts altered community life. Alan Macfarlane and Robert Muchembled have argued that witch accusations developed in order to resolve village tensions. Looked at from the other end of the story, not that of accusation but of public execution, one must question their conclusion. As Erik Midelfort wrote, "If this was social catharsis, it nearly killed the patient." To do Macfarlane justice, he acknowledges that English village life was undergoing change and that the relief that witch accusations brought merely masked those deeper tensions. But surely the reign of terror that was unleashed by the witch hunt added to the level of violence in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Just as we know that we are brutalized by the violence on television, in the same way that earlier society's tolerance for violence was raised by the public nature of witch executions, and specifically their violence against women. These rituals taught people that "the woman's crime" deserved the most severe punishment possible, that women, who up to that time had seldom been marked publicly as criminals, were capable of doing the ultimate evil.

Finally, ritual seeks conversion. The obvious conversion here was demanded of the victim—that she confess, and thus save her soul while losing her life. But a more far-reaching conversion was being preached: as the woman in the crowd watched Anna's ashes being scattered, she knew that she too was evil. The saying went that "there is something of the witch in every woman." In the moment that Anna stepped up into the cart, she became The Witch, and thereby she became every woman. For the woman watching her, what was changed and transformed by the ritual was her belief about herself. In this highly instructive rite, anyone might learn to fear and obey the rulers of Bavaria; what a woman might additionally learn was that her very nature was demonic. And if someday the authorities came for her, she would at first protest her innocence, but finally she would admit what she had learned to be the truth at Anna's burning: that she too belonged to the devil. She had internalized the message.

We are beginning to trace the dehumanizing effects of this campaign on women. For one matter, women began to fear to speak up for themselves. In England, for example, the seventeenth century saw a decrease in the number of rape accusations brought to court (not necessarily in the number of rapes committed), and most of the few men brought to court on the charge were acquitted; rape, then as now, was difficult to prove. The lower accusation and conviction rates began to appear between 1558 and 1599, just after the major witch hunts got under way. The compiler of these statistics, Nazife Bashar, concludes, "Male judges and juries were loath to punish in any way other males for any sexual offense against females . . . [although they] were quite prepared to send to their deaths members of their own sex for crimes other than rape." No doubt the low conviction rate discouraged women from turning to the courts, because evidence about rape is painful to give even when the court is sympathetic. But we must emphasize the fact (as Bashar does not) that this trend occurred just as women themselves were being indicted for witchcraft. It was no time for women to stir the waters.

Women began to protest less in general. From having, at the end of the Middle Ages, a reputation for being scolds and shrews, bawdy and aggressive, women began to change into the passive, submissive type that symbolized them by the mid-nineteenth century. True, some women still dared to act up. Some rioted for bread and took matters into their own hands in the markets. In 1766 at Ashby-de-la-zouch, for example, an old Englishwoman, enraged that a farmer asked two pence too much for his butter, clapped "one hand in the nape of his neck, [and] with the other rubbed a pound of butter all over his face"—an act worthy of any spirited medieval market woman. At Hereford market in 1757 "a female mob," incensed that a badger (a buyer) had tried to buy grain above market price, seized him, "and beating him in a very severe manner, they broke all the windows in his house." But food for their families was not the only need that drove eighteenth-century Englishwomen to riot. On the crucial question of the enclosure of land (farmland being taken over by entrepreneurs for more profitable sheep grazing), women in Stafford-shire in 1771 destroyed the fences that enclosed the common near their homes.

Arrested and jailed, they were rescued by local citizenry who attacked the jail with stones. Frenchwomen were active in their Revolution, and in both countries a handful of women saw that they must demand their rights. But the times were against them. Throughout the nineteenth century middle- and upper-class women were increasingly forced to be ladies, and female sexuality was perceived as passive. As Judith Walkowitz commented of this period, "There seemed to be no social space or social narrative for independent female desire." Even as the first women's movement was being organized in England and the United States, women elsewhere in Europe were still seen as the potentially dangerous sex that must be controlled—and "control" was what European men had gained a lot of experience at doing.

-Anne Llewelyn Barstow, Witchcraze

[hheartsdramas]

i am so obnoxiously close to finishing. love of the divine tree episodes 34/35/36

he's still holding onto the flowers

don't tell me they are trying to make us sympathize with su yu and redeem him. idgaf, he's awful.

i've been wondering what happened to that sister, but my poor baby boy why are you indulging this monster? thank god you remain petty and contrary

i would probably go crazy and moderately evil if my husband chose his own damn immortality over me and our fucking children so...go off queen

oh she got her memories back yay!

this poor man, his heart is trying to love so hard but all he knows right now is abuse and betrayal and his brain doesn't want to believe it

once again...evil aesthetics. forget kittens, this is how you kidnap me. hot damn.

oh nooooooooooo xiao shui! you must still be in there somewhere but i'm worried

wei jiu is the desperate soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend who's panicking about his girlfriend moving out because he doesn't know how to do laundry by himself. tu jiuyuan, i'm proud of you!

i'll seize that body

oh yeahhhh the little soft domme is back!!

i am SO PLEASED to hear that tu jiuyuan is living her best life with her house and her garden and her neighbors. she deserves it.

honestly i am so jealous of evil sys's curls. my curls do not look like that.

i feel bad for su yu about negative one thousand percent

i am SO SAD to hear that tu jiuyuan got sucked back into things. she doesn't deserve that

girl nooooo i thought you were better than giving in just because this loser tells you he likes you! and a fake loser at that!

su yu you deserve everything that's coming to you

also the romantic in me believes that across 3000 worlds she would choose su yishui every time

[raincitygirl76]

You mentioned this:

I just wanted to suggest that the scene in question actually shows some pretty questionable parenting actions from Linda. Yes, Sara is being rude and disrespectful in this scene. Linda has 3 pretty valid choices she could make in response, and she doesn’t choose any of them.

After Sara has her outburst and slams out of the living room, Linda could:

1. Follow Sara into the kitchen and discipline her.

2. Let it go for now but raise it tomorrow when both their tempers have cooled.

3. Let it go altogether.

Instead, Linda goes for a fourth option, letting her younger child co-parent her older child, and tell Sara off on Linda’s behalf. Which damages Sara and Simon’s relationship (because her little brother is being put in a position of authority over her). And it also damages Simon, because it parentifies him and gives him far too much responsibility at too young an age.

Now, I don’t think Linda is evil for falling into this trap. She probably had a long day at work, then had to come home and make dinner, then her daughter is mouthing off. And she lets Simon tell Sara off because he offers to and it gives her some respite. Simon’s standing up for her when Sara criticizes her remorselessly, and that must feel nice.

It’s certainly not unforgivable. But it seems to fall into a pattern where Linda is unusually passive in her parenting role when under stress. Like letting Simon handle payment of the tutoring bill on his own (which led to him dealing drugs, not an ideal outcome). And like letting Simon be the one to make Micke leave at Lucia.

A parentified child is usually a response to extreme stress in the family (like divorcing an addict, for example). But by leaning on Simon to be her enforcer long after Micke is gone, Linda isn’t doing anybody any favours. Not Sara, not herself, and not Simon, who is only 16 and desperately trying to be the Man of the House. When in fact he’s the youngest person in this family.

Again, I don’t think Linda is a terrible person. But while she is a loving and affectionate mom, she’s far from perfect. And that scene in 1.06 is a great example of how she’s inadvertently contributing to an unhealthy family dynamic.

And I just realized this could be a Linda post for Minor Characters Week, hosted by @youngroyals-events

ep 6.

aaaaAAAAAAHHHH

✨hope you have a good christmas✨

AAAAh

although tbf what was the poor guy meant to say

sara has disappointed me ngl but then also fun to see her not be such an obvious character, it’s actually v interesting to watch someone you originally really liked make Terrible Choices. interesting and painful.

felice on the other hand hasn’t had a redemption arc so much as a straight line shooting directly for the sky, and i’m pleased to announce i have officially entered the I Love Felice club and i am obsessed with her actually.

i am not obsessed however, with the way that sara has completely and thoroughly Fucked It. felice is the person accepting her and letting her into the life she clearly desperately wants, and instead of being grateful she goes behind her back and gets it from the guy she literally just figured out uploaded child porn of her brother. can’t wait to see her get what she wants and have it ripped away the minute she looses her only friend. 🙃🙃 (reading that back sounds mean- i’m being sarcastic and frustrated, i Actually hope she sorts it out but unfortunately i have seen gifs that do not fill me with much confidence)

anyway, it really reflects in the conversation she had with simon just before too, how she’s ungrateful for everything their mother has done for them. it’s really frustrating watching someone who’s clearly so smart come to such questionable conclusions.

edvin and omar gave a goddamn masterclass in acting this episode - their thoughts are so clearly written all over their faces, they portray such nuanced emotion i was screaming basically the whole time. it’s also i think really apparent that so many women were involved in the production of this; i feel like the focus is so much more on the depth and complexity of the characters and what they’re going through instead of the fast-paced plot-driven type of productions that have dominated pop tv in the past decade at least. is it generalising too much to say that this feels like a “woman’s touch”…likely. perhaps that’s a wider conversation to be had?

anyway. beautiful. painful. wilmon are So Cute I Could Die and i honestly don’t think there’s anything else i can say. the scene where they talk in the locker room? with the leg hug? 😭😭😭😭 them both flopping their heads on each others shoulders in that same scene???

every intimate scene or even just hug being So Charged with meaning and intention i just 🤩

and willes look at the camera at the end? 💀

-

i have really quite a lot of thoughts about the season as a whole, i can so see why there’s so much fandom discourse about it cause there are just so many layers to this show and all the characters. i desperately wish i’d watched this as it came out so i could take part in it though because as it stands im scared to interact too much in case i spoil anything for myself 🥲

i’m so excited to start s2 though soon, im completely in love, i love them all more and more with every ep and i hope you all continue to indulge me in what are apparently becoming longer and longer reviews (in my defense though, it’s not my fault that the show is so good it makes me have So Many Thoughts 🤷‍♀️)

see you in s2 xx

[seattlesea]

From Chapter 11: Family Dinner.

As of now, since 'A Final Gig Named Death' where Copia became Papa Emeritus IV, besides the Pre-Imperatour show at the Target Center, Ghost has done 140 concerts. Counting tonight's ritual in Tennessee, the first Kia Forum show on September 11th will be the 10th show from today. Or the 150th concert, in which no recording is allowed. Have fun with this information :')

[bet-on-me-13]

Lex is Vlad reincarnated

So! Lex Luther, the greatest person to ever exist, had recently made a discovery.

A few weeks ago, a Cult of moronic simpletons had managed to kidnap him. Him! All for some stupid Demonic ritual where they sacrifice the wealthiest man they could find in return for something meaningless like "No More Poverty" or "No More Starvation".

He had survived, of course, and was unfortunately save by Supermoron.

But before the Man of Steel had busted in, he overheard something from the Cultists. Apparently they had chosen him for more than just his wealth, there was something more about his Soul that they were after. It felt "Divine", as if he had the soul of a God stuffed in a Mortal's body.

And obviously it must be correct. He was already the most intelligent man in the world, One of the wealthiest, and held more political power than any single man on the planet, so of course "God in disguise" was the next logical addition to that List.

Over the next few weeks he studied and prepared.

He needed to make sure that his efforts would be rewarded, that those Cultists had been correct about him despite their idiocy.

After buying up as many Magical Artifacts as he could related to Identity and Soul, he tested himself on Each and Every One. And Lo and Behold, he is truly a God.

Well, the Reincarnation of One. Apparently this was common in immortal beings such as himself, reincarnating themselves into mortal bodies as a sort of Vacation from their Duties. All he needed to do now was find a way to regain his Memories and Power without dying, and he would truly become a God On Earth.

A few more weeks of Preparation, and he was ready.

Apparently the Manchild of Steel had caught onto his plan in that time. His Ego probably couldn't bear another God living in the same City as himself, so he tried to stop Lex's plans of Ascension. Thankfully, in his research he had discovered his Rival's vulnerability to Magical Attacks, and set up countermeasures for him and his Breakfast Club should they attempt to interfere.

He stepped into the Ritual Circle, and began his Ascension to Godhood.

Try as they might, the League could not foil his plans this time. The Ritual Circle lit up with a sickly green light, and expanded to cover his entire body. The Ritual began to finally complete itself.

He had Won.

...

Oh.

...

Vlad stood at the center of the circle for a few moments. He took in all his Memories of his most recent Life, and Facepalmed so hard he was sure The Badger heard it back in the Realms.

Ten Tousand Years of Therapy specifically to curb his egotistical tendencies, and That is how he decides to spend his most recent Life? Acting as a Billionare Supervillain attacking a well meaning Hero for nothing less than Ego?! He even Cloned them!? Had he learned NOTHING!?!?

"Careful Team, we don't know how powerful he is now." He heard his current Nemesis say.

Oh right...they were still there.

He didn't really feel like explaining everything to them, and he technically still had about 40 years left on his Vacation...

He simply turned his back to them, flew back to his Mansion, turned back into his Human Form, and set about his Day. Maybe he could right a few of the wrongs he had done on this life?

It would certainly throw his current Nemesis for a loop. And while he may not Hate him anymore, he definitely still liked to Mess with him.

Maybe this would be more entertaining than he thought?

[warrioreowynofrohan]

One of the oddest Silmarillion takes that I’ve seen recently is the idea that Beren and Lúthien had it easy.

I mean, let’s take a look at Beren’s life. The Battle of Sudden Flame hits when he’s in his early twenties. He spends five years carrying on a guerilla war against the invasion of his homeland by orcs and other evil creatures; his mother and all his female relatives have to flee, and he has no knowledge of whether they are desd or alive, or captured. There’s a strange darkness speading over the forest and turning it into something out of a horror movie, a place most people won’t even dare to go into. The band of guerillas is slowly whittled down to about a dozen people, who are hunted constantly by Sauron and his wolves. Then, while he is away, his father, his uncles, and everyone else remaining are brutally killed, and he returns to find crows eating their corpses and orcs joking about looting the dead.

He carries on an guerilla alone, against Sauron, for another several years, in the haunted woods od Taur-nu-Fuin. When he absolutely can’t last any longer, he crosses the most horrifying wasteland in all of Beleriand, where the only water present is poisoned and turns you mad, filled with evil spiders and who knows what other creatures. He’s in his early thirties but he’s been through so mich that he looks like an old man. He has lost literally everyone he has ever known; he does not know if any friend or relative of his, anywhere, is still free or living.

Then he meets Lúthien.

When he leaves Doriath on the quest of the Silmaril, which every sane person in Beleriand knows is laughably impossible, he goes to Finrod, the one person he can hope for any assustance from. Finrod has an entire realm; I don’t think Beren is any expectation that Finrod will go with him personally. And what happens? The king of the largest remaining kingdom in Beleriand besides Doriath is overthrown by his own people at the instigation of Celegorm and Curufin and left with only a few loyal people around him. All of whom then die torturously in the dungeons of Sauron, followed by Finrod’s own death saving Beren.

On top of everything else he’s been through, on top of spending several months in despair being tortured in Sauron’s dungeons, the survivor’s guilt that Beren must be feeling is extreme. Even after Lúthien rescues him, it takes him a while to recover. And he still hasn’t made any progress on the quest itself!

Then they’re attacked by Celegorm and Curufin – the people who bear a substantial amount of respinsibility for the death of Finrod and the Ten, the people who very deliberately abandoned them all to due and coerced all Nargothrond to do the same, and the people who kidnapped Lúthien and attempted to force her into marriage – and they try to kidnap Lúthien again, and to murder Beren.

The fact that Beren does not kill Curufin in that moment is a deed of extreme moral fortitude. The difference between Beren and Lúthien compared with many of the Finwëans isn’t that they don’t face temptations, or that their choices are easy, it’s that they overcome those temptations.

So. Beren spares Curufin’s life at Lúthien’s urging and Curufin immediately tries to murder Lúthien; Beren jumps in front of the arrow, is severely wounded again, and for the third time since they met Lúthien gets to work healing him. Virtually all of their time together has been spent with Beren recuperating from physical injury, psychological injury, or both.

And as soon as Beren recovers, he walks away from the one person who loves him who’s still alive, and prepares to rob the gates of Hell, alone. Because Beleriand is dangerous, and as long as Lúthien is with him and therefore unable to go anywhere safe, she will be in danger from both the servants of Morgoth and the sons of Fëanor. And even if there’s a virtual 100% chance that him walking into Angband will lead to him being slowly tortured to death, that’s a better option than the one person he has left getting killed or, worse, captured, because of him.

And then she goes with him anyway. And beyond all hope they actually succeed in getting a Silmaril - and then he immediately loses it, and his hand, to Carcharoth, and it was all for nothing.

And for the fourth time since Lúthien met him, he’s near death and she’s desperately fighting to heal him and kerp him alive, while she’s exhausted to the point of collapse. And this is the moment when she gives up and goes back to Doriath, because that is what has the best chance of keeping Beren alive.

And then, at last, a ray of hope – Thingol looks at all they’ve been through and says, fine, you crazy kids can get married. And they’ve scarcely been married yet when they learn that oh, it’s not over, Carcharoth is rampaging through the land killing people and this needs to be dealt with. And Beren, even after everything, insists on going. (Because, hello, survivor’s guilt! he probably feels that this is his fault for, uh, getting his hand bitten off.)

(The fact that the Silmaril was, for a time, inside a wolf and outside Doriath, and Celegorm, noted hunter, never got near it, is, okay, rather amusing to me.)

And then Beren dies, saving Thingol, because he knows deeply what it feels like to lose his family and he’s not going to let that happen to Lúthien. And she loses him instead.

Now let’s shift to Lúthien’s point of view. Since her first meeting with Beren she has been betrayed by literally everyone she knows and everyone she meets except for Beren and Huan. She has been treated like a child, and a madwoman, and a trophy, and a pawn, and a sex object, and literally everything except an adult person whose choices have worth and meaning. She is not a superhero; she does not know what she is doing; she is terrified for practically every moment of it, for Beren’s sake even more than for her own, and for much of it she is hopeless. She does not know how or if she can achieve anything; she only knows that she has to try, because it is better than sitting in Doriath waiting to find out if Beren is dead. She puts substantial work and thought and effort into figuring out how to get out of Doriath (given in more detail in the poetic version) – and then, just when she thinks she’s found help (note: Celegorm and Curufin do not give her their names when they first meet her; she doesn’t know they’re the sons of Fëanor), she is again taken captive, this time with the goal of forced marriage and the threat of rape hanging over her. And she still knows Beren is in desperate danger, and she still can do nothing about it.

When Huan aids her and she goes to Tol-in-Gaurhoth, it isn’t because she feels she has the power to fight Sauron one-on-one! It’s because she’s desperate and can’t think of any other options. And in fact, it is not she who defeats Sauron, it is Huan; once he is defeated by Huan, she has the intelligence and strength of will to force his surrender by threatening him with something he fears more than defeat, and to demand – not the freeing of Beren alone – but the destruction of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, freeing all its prisoners. The reason she defeats Sauron is not that she’s a half-Maia badass who can wave her hands and do everything easily! The reason she defeats him is that she shows up there completely vulnerable and in effect uses herself as bait. That is an extraordinary degree of courage, not some kind of deus ex machina. And she’s putting all the strength that she has on the line – she’s pretty much passing out by the time she finds Beren. Similarly, all her healing of him is hard, exhausting work that she’s doing despite being, the whole time, terrified that he’s about to die. None of this is easy.

Likewise in Angband – Huan’s advice and Lúthien’s magic of disguise and sleep is invaluble in getting them through the door and past Carcharoth, but the reason she is able to enchant Morgoth and cast all Angband into sleep is not primarily because of extreme power, but because, like every other non-Beren person she meets, he doesn’t take her seriously. Morgoth finds the idea of using Melian’s daughter as a brief entertainment amusing (and, if you read the poetic version, makes some truly creepy sexual threats against her), and that’s how she is able to get him unguarded enough that she’s well into her song and he’s already getting sleepy before it starts to occur to him that maybe this isn’t going quite as he planned. Lúthien’s victories are not because she’s just on a different power level from the rest of Beleriand, they’re because she’s amazingly brave and willing to walk into the most dangerous places virtually defenceless. And she and Beren rely on each other utterly – after her sleep song she’s practically passing out and can only get out of Angband because Beren is holding her up.

So this is who they are, at Beren’s death. A man who has lost everyone he loves and everyone who loves him, every friend or family, often helplessly witnessing their gruesome death – everyone except for Lúthien. And an elf-woman who has been betrayed by everyone she loved or trusted, except for Beren.

When Beren dies, I wonder if he’s even relieved that it’s finally him dying instead of everyone around him. When he sees Lúthien in the Halls of Mandos, I believe his first feeling would be not joy or love, but horror. That the last living person he loved, and the one he wanted above all to save, had now died because of him.

But Lúthien isn’t done. She goes to Mandos, and she sings, and her song says: look at what we have been through, look at what all Beleriand has been through, Eldar and Edain. We don’t want realms or glory or power; we only want a few moments of peace with each other, and we fought so hard for it, and we didn’t even get that. And when she’s offered bliss and immortality for herself, she says No, I don’t want it, not without Beren. She isn’t promised happiness or long life – she only know that for the short time she will get, she will have the chance to be with Beren. And that is enough for her; for that, she gives up everything else.

This is a faerie-story; but it does not sound to me like a trite tale of easy victories handed to the heroes by Fate or by the author! They fought and struggled and sacrificed for those victories, amd they did it without ever letting go of courage, and mercy, and humility. There is a reason why this is the story that Frodo and Sam hearken back to for inspiration.

[demigods-posts]

i just thinks it's neat that luke's whole shtick is targeting demigods whose faith in the gods and their environment are weakening. and one of the last people he visits before he turns is annabeth.

[citrinekay]

Episode 5 -> Episode 12

The Worst of Evil (최악의 악) 2023, dir. Han Dong Wook

[stiffyck]

people hating a character because they very clearly misunderstand them is forever going to make me so mad