#instead the antagonists will kidnap them but they will be free to leave at any time

[illarian-rambling]

Antagonist and closest ally

Are there any secrets or conflicts between them?

This is a tough one because most of my antagonists work alone, unless you count Daedryn, which in good conscious, I just can't. In that case, I'll talk a little about Vermir and Twenty-five/Fana.

Fana was a teenage sorcerer from a very powerful sorcerous family, whose name I won't share, but you might be able to guess. She was, like many sorcerers, kidnapped by Vermir's agents and put into a metal form, her flesh and bone body murdered. However, instead of absorbing all of the girl's vast sorcery for herself, Vermir instead decided to leave her some. This created a perfectly loyal robotic soldier with the capacity for casting spells. Because of this, Vermir can rely on Fana - whose name was stripped away and replaced with the number Twenty-five - to complete tasks requiring magic in her absence. Vermir keeps no secrets from her lieutenant because she feels no need to. She has faith in her creations' unwavering loyalty.

Fana's secret is that maybe Vermir shouldn't have all that faith. Though it's difficult with runic protections in place that cut off any free thoughts after more than a few seconds, Fana rails against her fate. She seeks to warn the world of Vermir's true atrocities, as she's been hiding what she does to sorcerers, as well as hoping to contact her family so they can come rescue her. Her father is a sorcerer of no small power after all, and his younger cousin exponentially more so. So far, she's managed none of these things, but she'll take any opportunity she gets, as she'll only have a few seconds to act on it before she's no longer herself.

Wish her luck, I guess? Thanks for the ask!

[highladyluck]

“Magic Dagger Curse Is My Middle Name” & Human Evil in Wheel of Time

Part 2 of a series of essays on the theme “Tuon is Mat’s Replacement Shadar Logoth Dagger”. (Part 1 was “Stealing Is The Way to Mat Cauthon’s Heart”.)

This discusses the many parallels Tuon has to Mat’s dagger on a symbolic level, covering both her and her role as leader of Seanchan. But mostly, I talk an extraordinary amount about how the Shaido, Whitecloaks, and Seanchan reflect the archetypal in-universe human evil of Shadar Logoth.

Magic Dagger Curse Is My Middle Name

Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag (now Fortuona Athaem Devi Paendrag) has a lot of names, and I'd found puns or references in most of them. There's the "Lady Luck" pun of "Empress Fortuona". There's the very appropriate "Kore" (Persephone's and Tuon's pre-kidnapping moniker, meaning "Maiden") for a girl who gets kidnapped and dragged through both the human underworld (a circus, and a dive bar that's literally called a hell) and the death-related underworld (a literal ghost town full of ghosts, and the hell of guerilla warfare). There's "Devi", a reference to divinity, which replaces "Kore". Paendrag is of course an Arthurian legend reference.

But the one name I never quite understood was her only other permanent name- "Athaem". The 13th Depository Blog suggests it was meant to evoke both "athame" - a knife or dagger used in magic rituals - and "anathema" - a curse, especially one that exiles someone. Go on, let that sink in. Tuon's middle name is "Magic Dagger Curse". Tuon "Magic Dagger Curse" Paendrag. Fortuona "Magic Dagger Curse" Paendrag. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH THAT TUON'S ACTUAL MIDDLE NAME HAS ACTUALLY BEEN "MAGIC DAGGER CURSE" THIS ENTIRE TIME.

Basically that's all I actually need to say here to prove that Tuon is the symbolic return of Mat's sexy cursed magic dagger that isolates the bearer via paranoia and suspicion, but let's throw in some of the other parallels just for fun and so you have time to recover from the psychic damage I just dealt you. There's some fun ones just around rubies specifically and the color red.

The Shadar Logoth dagger has a large dark ruby on it, the size of Mat's thumbnail. Mat estimates it would buy a dozen farms back home, and when Mat first meets Tuon, he notices she's 'wearing a fortune in rubies'. Also, before she becomes Empress, Tuon's signature color is red; she's got red fingernails, red and a very dark green are the imperial colors as seen on the Deathwatch guards, she buys a lot of red silk in Jurador, and presumably the roses in the Raven and Roses imperial sign are red, as she treasures Mat's present of red silk rosebuds. (Interestingly, she starts going more blue once she becomes Empress- I'm thinking specifically of the blue nails and dress she has when she declares maritime Ebou Dar her capital.)

Tuon also has other physical similarities to edged weapons in general, and the dagger specifically. Like the dagger, she looks ornamental but could absolutely kill you. Mat describes her hands as "bladed like an ax" when she strikes a footpad in the throat to save him. She's also sharp, in the sense of being very intelligent and canny. Also, she could learn to channel, and in being a sul'dam is a conduit for magic, so she fits that aspect of the dagger as well. And, last but not least, like the dagger, Tuon is a fascinating and deadly artifact of a powerful civilization that embraces a uniquely human form of evil.

Shadar Logoth as Ultimate Human Evil

In the books, Shadar Logoth is our loadstone for what is described as a specifically human kind of evil, separate from the absolute, somewhat abstracted "evil for evil's sake" that is the province of the Dark One. The Dark One's ideology as practiced by humans ends up being nihilism, or rather, self-interested nihilism. (Ishamael isn't a pure nihilist, he's ok with getting worldly power while there's still a world.) In contrast, Shadar Logoth's downfall is a kind of corruption; evil things done in the name of, and for the sake of, good things. There are other cultures that do that, of course, but Shadar Logoth is the purest example of 'the ends justify the means', since their 'end' was fighting the Dark One.

"The victory of the Light is all. That was the battlecry Mordeth gave them, and the men of Aridhol shouted it while their deeds abandoned the Light. [...] No enemy had come to Aridhol but Aridhol. Suspicion and hate had given birth to something that fed on that which created it, something locked in the bedrock on which the city stood." -Moiraine, The Eye of the World

The goal of opposing the Dark One (an abstract idea of evil) at any cost led them to turn on and destroy not just their allies but ultimately each other.

Mat's Shadar Logoth dagger is a part of Shadar Logoth that has most of the powers of the whole. When carried by an individual, it can brainwash, induce (semi-justified) paranoia, kill via corruption, and infect others. These are all powers associated with Aridhol/Shadar Logoth. About the only thing the dagger can't do that we see other elements of Shadar Logoth do is shapechange or snatch bodies (#JustMordethThings) and move semi-instinctually on its own (like Mashadar). Shadar Logoth is established as Peak Human Evil, an evil so archetypal it has undergone a sort of dark apotheosis and become both a physical and metaphysical force.

Because it is so archetypal, we should expect to see aspects of it reflected in other Randland cultures that are antagonistic to our heroes, but which are not explicitly pledged to the Dark One.  We should also expect to see the same part to whole dynamic in those cultures' leaders. Rand is a great example of this part-to-whole dynamic; as the Dragon Reborn who is 'one with the land', he struggles against increasing paranoia and self-hatred, which leads him to act as his own antagonist for much of the series, even as he explicitly fights against the Dark One. It's the Shadar Logoth struggle writ large. Therefore, the leader of a corrupted, Shadar Logoth-esque culture will be a powerful and faithful representative of the traits of that culture; you could say they are the purest expression of that culture.

This is a tenet of Robert Jordan's worldbuilding and narrative, and applies to more than just the antagonist leaders; protagonist leaders also stand in practically and symbolically for their culture or group. Over the course of the series, nations and groups end up led by the 'best' people for the job, where 'best' is some combination of 'most representative', 'most competent', and/or 'best adhering to their culture's ethical tenets' (which often happen to be our protagonists). This has the possibly unintended/unconscious effect of justifying autocracy, monarchy, etc in-world because it's all adhering to aristocracy, 'rule by the best', where 'best' is rather culturally relative. It's also an artifact in-universe of the world moving to a wartime footing; anyone who isn't the best person for the job gets tossed out of the way in the name of prepping for Tarmon Gai'don, by some combination of The Will of The Pattern as well as actual effort on the part of our heroes.

On a more meta level, Robert Jordan's choice to use third person limited points of view means we get a lot of POV characters who are very embedded in their cultures and serve as an immersive cultural crash course for the reader. They tend to be either main or secondary characters who are movers and shakers in the plot (justifying the time we spend in their heads) or there to provide an outsider reaction to main or secondary characters (again, justifying the time we spend in their heads.) Robert Jordan's writing is concerned with the use, abuse, and fluctuations of power, but it's worth noting that he doesn't give us POVs of characters who are structurally and permanently without power.

POV characters often have moments of powerlessness, either in the beginning of their narratives or at the end, but if you happen to be a WoT character who never had power and never will, RJ isn't interested in showing us the inside of your head. For example, we don't ever get a POV from an ordinary da'covale who spends the entire series out of control of their own destiny, even though that could be a very powerful outsider perspective. Instead, we get POVs from sojhin, who are movers and shakers in their own right. (These are great POVs--Karede's POV in chapter 36 of KOD is maybe my favorite of the entire series, it's a work of art--but again, there's a bias here in who we observe observing.) In a series where people bemoan or celebrate being constrained by fate and consciously question if they have free will, we somehow don't hear from those who have never had worldly power; we only hear from those who do, or once did.

(I find this disappointing, and it's one of the reasons I find it difficult to recommend the Wheel of Time books- which are obviously deeply personally significant to me, and which I find fun, interesting, and more often than not, well-written- without caveats. The series is so obviously about power and choice and the ways they influence each other, and uses third person limited POV so skillfully, that it is surprising and disturbing to me that we are not exposed directly to the point of view of those who have been permanently and structurally deprived of power. We miss an opportunity to engage with the core themes on that level, and also uncover an authorial bias that hasn't aged very well and which makes me look at some of RJ's other choices with a more jaundiced eye. I believe WoT would have been stronger and richer thematically if it had grappled directly with the realities and perspectives of those who remained powerless throughout the events of the series. And whether it was an unconscious or deliberate choice to leave out those perspectives, not having them there lessens my trust and acceptance of Robert Jordan's takes on power and choice. But I digress!)

Heirs of Shadar Logoth: The Shaido

So, there are other antagonist cultures that we spend a lot of time with but which are not explicitly allied with the Dark One (though we are always shown their leaders being subject to the Dark One's influence, through their advisors and high-ranking coworkers, who are Darkfriend characters that have positions of structural power and influence.) Overall, the Shadar Logoth archetype means we are looking for structural corruption, fear, hatred, and the cultural belief that the ends justify the means. In-universe, that's what human evil looks like, and we expect to find it in our secondary antagonists.

So let's take a look at the Shaido, who are attempting to recapture a glorious (fictional) past by imposing a corrupted version of their original values on others; the Whitecloaks, who spread authoritative dehumanization and bigotry in the name of order and righteousness; and the Seanchan, who have the dubious distinction of doing *both*, which is why they win the door prize for Most Problematic Antagonist Who Isn't Literally Allied With The Dark One.

The Shaido are an example of a corrupted culture that imposes its corruption on others, especially others that do not meaningfully consent to be assimilated. Their corruption starts with suspicion and fear and leads to brainwashing; they choose to believe a lie because it is more palatable than the truth, and because they fear becoming powerless and losing their cultural identity. They and the Aiel that joined them cannot accept Rand's truth bomb about the origins of the Aiel as pacifists. It's an idea so counter to modern Aiel self-image and culture that the secret was carefully hidden and used as a test of character for Aiel leaders.

In the test, the knowledge that they had betrayed their original ideals to survive was presented in the original emotional and logistical contexts, which may have helped the Aiel who went through the test survive learning about it; it's easier to empathize and overcome fear and disgust if you know why people made the decisions they did. To survive, and to self-govern, the honor-bound Aiel leadership has learned to forgive themselves for their corruption, while not losing the lessons they learned from it, and empathize with people almost entirely unlike themselves. (How effective are they at that? Your mileage may vary.)

Normally, only those who could accept the information could reach the highest leadership roles. Sevanna, whom the Shaido exodus coalesces under after the death of Couladin, is the only Wise One who didn't go through that testing process (she got in on a technicality), which makes her uniquely qualified to lead the group that can't accept this information. Like that group, she lacks humility or the ability to accept unpleasant truths; however, she's self-confident, politically skilled, culturally competent, and has a clear vision for her people, which are the other qualities that the Aiel select for in their leaders. (I cannot believe that today I woke up and said nice things about Sevanna!)

She's presented as somewhat 'corrupted' by wetlander ways, greedy for wealth and power, but I think it's more that she's off the leash of strict Aiel morality; she goes on a reign of terror, taking more than she needs of any resource, and capturing non-Aiel and keeping them as permanent gai'shain. This is clearly slavery in a more modern sense. The Aiel proper have a sort of ancient-style slavery, based on taking prisoners of war, that is time-bound, highly regulated, and that everybody more or less consents to by living in that society. (I say more-or-less; not sure your average civilian Aiel precisely consents the way a warrior might consent, but then again, everyone in Aiel society is a little bit of a warrior.) Sevanna's unconsenting, permanent, non-Aiel gai'shain are a clear violation of all of these tenets, and resemble the bodysnatching and invasive nature of the Shadar Logoth evil. Fear turns into hatred of both kinds of uncorrupted Aiel (the originals, and the modern) and of those groups of people who are not like them. In the end, the Shaido dissolve, their corruption having weakened them so that they fall prey to outside forces.

Heirs of Shadar Logoth: The Children of the Light/Whitecloaks

The Whitecloaks are an obvious heir to Shadar Logoth, as they persecute channelers and anyone they consider a Darkfriend in the name of order, righteousness, and the Light. Whitecloaks represent the paranoia, assassination, and brainwashing powers of Shadar Logoth, and insofar as they have assimilated Amadicia and make forays across borders, they also cover invasion, though to perhaps a smaller degree than the Shaido (or the Seanchan). The Whitecloaks are also good intentions, corrupted; yes, Darkfriends are bad, yes, the Light is good, no, not everyone you don't like or who has power you want is a Darkfriend! They turn neighbor against neighbor, harrass, torture, and murder the innocent as well as the guilty, and generally do all the bad behavior you would expect of a military quasi-religious order that considers itself above the law. Also, Mordeth/Fain literally got his grubby hands all over the Whitecloaks early in the story and made them even worse.

Galad is a really good example of the 'best man for the job' ending up in it; Galad's extremely uncompromising morality is most likeable and practical when he's fulfilling a 'reformer' role in a group that really needs it, and when he's not in that role, his entire deal can feel excessive and alienating. (Although I will note that if you think about how his mom abandoned him to pursue what she was told was her duty, and his dad was a real asshole, you can kind of see why Galad has such a strict moral code and won't let something like family or feelings get in the way of carrying out his duty... anyway just having feelings about Galad, don't mind me.) When leading the Whitecloaks he recalls them to their original ideals and purpose, which is literally fighting the Shadow on an actual battlefield, and makes them hew to ethical standards from the original Lothair Mantelear text and his own personal extremely high standards.

He purifies the Children of the Light, insofar as they can be purified, purging the corrupt people and practices. This allows the Whitecloaks to ally with the Light, rather than sitting out the Last Battle or killing important Light-allied groups. But the Whitecloak channelerphobia is not going to be eradicated so easily, and that's mostly what Galad’s family was objecting to about him joining the Whitecloaks in the first place. And even Galad starts to succumb to it by the end of the series, although to be fair the White Tower had definitely done a number on his family by that point. Post-Last-Battle, Galad is really going to have to grapple with 'what is the practical purpose of a bunch of armed busybodies who think they're better than everyone else and who have a very deep-seated hatred and fear of channelers?' One hopes he'll convert them to a peaceable monastic order doing community service. If anyone can do it, it's probably Galad, but I think it's not going to be easy and it's also not clear to me if Galad is going to have the same opinion about the necessity that I do.

Heirs of Shadar Logoth: The Seanchan

So, now we come to the Seanchan, who are a rich, complex, fascinating culture that combines the best and worst thematic elements of both the Shaido and the Whitecloaks. Twice the fun, twice the flavor! Like the Shaido, they are the corruption of an honor-based culture that now assimilates other people and cultures without their consent. The Seanchan have a strongly-held honor system that uses public and private shame as a deterrent to unethical behavior, similar to ji'e'toh, but like the Shaido, they apply it to conquered peoples under duress; even if the Seanchan themselves are ok living this way, there's no real consent happening when they conquer.

Like the Shaido, the Seanchan claim to be the true heirs of an ancient legacy, the children of the child of Artur Hawkwing, but have spent enough time in Seanchan to absorb all sorts of concepts Artur Hawkwing never had (slavery, taming weird beasties, exploiting Aes Sedai rather than just avoiding or fighting them). Their culture is also built on convenient fictions; the knowledge that sul'dam can learn to channel, and that some can be held by the a'dam, is likely to produce a truth bomb down the line, one way or another. And the Seanchan are an imperial power, which means they automatically follow the natural growth and rules of empire; always be expanding, always be consuming, always be exploiting. They're Mashadar, baby!

Let's zoom in on the slavery, since that's one prong of what makes the Seanchan evil. It's a kind of bodysnatching and brainwashing, and there are some really interesting parallels here to the Shaido and Aiel. The Seanchan have three forms of institutional slavery; so'jhin, da'covale, and damane. So'jhin, hereditary upper servants of the upper class, have the most power and are analogous but not precisely equivalent to normal Aiel gai'shain. Like standard gai'shain, they are considered property that can be traded, have some level of autonomy and ability to direct their lives, certain rights and privileges, and in theory can be manumitted.

Unlike gai'shain, they actually can have more political power than free people. Also unlike gai'shain, they are not guaranteed manumission after a set time, and while I think the gai'shain consent issue is a little muddy (Aiel can't help being born Aiel and thus subject to Aiel raids) so'jhin are born into slavery and have therefore absolutely not consented to it. So'jhin appear to be based at least partially on Byzantine examples of high-ranking slaves, and slavery in other very complex and bureaucratic cultures where those in power needed highly competent administrators, but didn't want the administrators supplanting them.

Da'covale are equivalent to Shaido gai'shain; often (but not always) captured from other cultures, absent the rights and privileges of regular gai'shain or so'jihn, and bound to involuntary servitude for life, although they can in theory be manumitted. (Shaido gai'shain have the option of trying to escape, I guess.) They have very little autonomy and power to direct their lives. It may be possible for da'covale to become so'jihn, so again there is a kind of internal mobility/potential access to power that doesn't have an exact equivalent with the Aiel models, but that's offset by the lack of consent; da'covale can also be born into slavery. One can be made da'covale as punishment for defiance or anything else the Seanchan see as a crime, or born into it. It seems historically equivalent to ancient, prisoner-of-war-type slavery, mixed with the carcereal state; you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or you fucked up, and that's the justification for making you a slave.

Damane have some points in common with both regular Aiel and Shaido versions of dat'sang; they are all slavery in the form of the carcereal state/slavery as an outcome of the justice system. Dat'sang are 'despised ones', usually those accused of being Darkfriends or who have committed heinous crimes. It's a punishment that is apparently permanent and unrecallable, and they are sentenced to the most shaming labor in the worst conditions. They are cast-out from the community and forced to serve it in the most degrading way. Marath'damane, channelers with the spark who are not leashed, are treated like dat'sang are, in that they are cast out of their communities and shamed for their 'crimes'. Once they are leashed, though, they become integral parts of Seanchan society and are told to take pride in the service they can provide, which is very unlike the dat'sang cultural experience. Damane are enslaved and exploited for their talents, ostensibly to keep the general population safe from their magic powers and their potential political power, but also because they're an incredibly powerful military and infrastructure resource.

The first damane was created out of a combination of fear, greed, and hatred. One Seanchan-local Aes Sedai captured a rival and brought her to Luthair Paendrag, who she knew would be receptive to constraining the power of channelers. What she didn't count on was that solution being institutionalized, and that she'd eventually fall prey to it herself; a classic Shadar Logoth "do a shitty thing unto others and eventually you'll just be doing a shitty thing to yourself" move. Both the existing Seanchan population and Luthair's group had already othered, hated, and feared channelers, the Seanchan possibly for logical contextual reasons (seems like the Seanchan Aes Sedai were all independent Americans who didn't want to be governed by a universal code of ethics or subject to institutional oversight, which is not conducive to living in a society), and Luthair because of Ishamael’s original corruption of Artur Hawkwing.

In the end, the combined Luthair group/original Seanchan institutionalized their channeler bigotry, saying that the ends (preventing channelers from exploiting non-channelers) justified the means (exploiting channelers). Damane are never, ever freed and now the Seanchan think of channeling independently as inherently a corruption and a crime; something that makes the involuntary channeler evil and unhuman. They also break channelers, brainwashing them into thinking that this is for their own good (and not just for the good of the state).

(Another meta aside: Because involuntarily channeling is a genetic trait that the channeler has no control over, leashing damane feels to a modern reader, especially US ones, I think, very much like the race-based slavery of our recent past. Especially the idea that the enslaved person is enslaved as a punishment for a crime; this is something that would hit a US reader pretty hard, given that the US's booming prison population is the only legal slave labor force in the US and is also disproportionately made up of people of color. I am pretty sure that explicit parallels between racist slavery and the practice of leashing damane would be supported by Robert Jordan, especially since he literally put the Seanchan on post-apocalyptic North and South America. They have other influences, including Imperial Japan and Imperial China, and the Byzantine Empire, but in this way, and also because of the Texas accents, they are very, very American.)

The Seanchan are also similar to the Whitecloaks; they're both military groups who hate and fear channelers, and they are particularly susceptible to paranoia and assassination/extrajudicial murder. The Shadow didn't have any trouble infliltrating either the Whitecloak command structure (especially the Questioners) or the Seanchan Blood; there's a certain background level of 'the ends justify the means' going on in Seanchan and Whitecloak power centers that makes them fertile ground for recruitment. The Whitecloaks and the Seanchan both have a kind of secret police; Questioners and Seekers (they even have similar names!) who operate under certain strictures with respect to their upper management, but who can basically do whatever the hell they want to ordinary people. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you that secret police are PEAK Shadar Logoth; they were always judging everyone else, generating paranoia and mistrust.

The Blood and Imperial family are also a really great example of Shadar Logoth values creating a (somewhat) functioning society full of extremely fucked-up people; the more power you have, the more delicately you have to step and the harder you have to watch your own back. The higher up you go, the less trust you are able to have in others, until you reach the point where people are sending assassins after an imperial baby, and the imperial baby grows up thinking that's completely normal and fair and it's their fault if they are ever not good enough to dodge it. (Hi, sorry, please excuse me and my many, many feelings about Tuon.) That kind of thing makes you very, very sharp, assuming you survive; it also makes you very inured to violence and most comfortable when you've got a high baseline paranoia going at all times. It puts you in danger and it gives you the means to survive danger; it's very Shadar Logoth dagger, which attracts Darkfriends but also gives you the ability to sense the Darkfriends right back, and incidentally stab the hell out of them.

A Part With the Power of the Whole: Tuon and the Seanchan

So, we have all the sins of Shadar Logoth united in the Seanchan; they're invaders, they brainwash and bodysnatch, they're paranoid, they assassinate and murder, they've institutionalized hate and fear, they're structurally corrupt in that power in their society is based on lies and exploitation, and they think that when it comes to dealing with their mortal enemies (channelers), the ends justify the means. And their leader, Fortuona Athaem Devi Paendrag, Empress of Seanchan, is indeed many of these things wrapped up in one efficient and deadly package.

She's a sul'dam and she enjoys her work breaking and training damane; she's had siblings assassinated and we've seen her kill onscreen; she's deeply suspicious, always second-guessing and skeptical (except about received values and information from her culture); she embodies and enforces Seanchan culture and power. She is all Seanchan in one person, and she'd tell you that proudly. She tries to assimilate *herself* into the state, because she thinks that's what she's supposed to do, to best serve her people. She wants to be the part that is an exact mirror of the whole, and she wants the whole to be perfect, so she wants herself to be perfect, too.

Do you see the shades of Galad, here? Like Galad, she has a strict and impractically idealistic moral code that makes her somewhat unpopular wherever she goes; she's too unpredictable, merciful, and flexible for her counterparts in the Blood (she's always surprising them with her unconventional choices) and too perfectly Seanchan for her allies (who are all horrified by the damane thing, or the da'covale thing, or the assassination thing, etc etc.) The things people grudgingly praise her for are sincerity, competence, compassion within the bounds of her ethical structure, and (sometimes) a willingness to consider new information or accept oversight, the last of which is only impressive because of how enormous her ego is and how thoroughly she's been indoctrinated to believe she's inherently correct and all-powerful.

She is the best of Seanchan, within the context of Seanchan: she survived, took, and kept power, making her the most competent imperial daughter; she's very ethical within Seanchan strictures, not striking first unless threatened, working to acknowledge and correct personal faults, keeping her word, showing concern and mercy for those she believes are suffering, being thoughtful and careful of consequences when she exercises power; she is most representative of all of Seanchan's flaws and virtues, as a sul'dam, Empress, and Lightside ally. (That said: is Tuon the most ethical Seanchan within a broader cultural context? Hell no, that's Egeanin, who goes through a long and painful process of realizing and rejecting the corrupt and nasty parts of Seanchan culture, after it rejects her.)

To conclude: just like Mat's Shadar Logoth dagger, Tuon is a fascinating and dangerous tool of a powerful, antagonistic civilization that embraces a uniquely human form of evil. Her middle name is literally "Magic Knife Curse", Seanchan is the most Shadar Logoth-y of non-Shadow-aligned antagonist cultures, and she also follows the very Robert Jordan pattern of leaders fractally reflecting the culture or group they lead.

[plasticnightmaredoll]

This is an idea/scenario I’ve had for a good while now pertaining to Arkham Knight Riddler. I don’t know if it’s any good -- it may be too “fluffy” to be in character -- but I wanted to write it down and get it out there, see what people think. Ironically, the idea came from a similar one involving Telltale Riddler, and I may post that one someday, too, but this AK Riddler one is...very different. Different in regards to a lot of headcanons, imagines, drabbles, etc. about him.

So, the scenario is like this: Someone wants to fuck with this poor guy -- not Batman, not one of the Bat family, not even one of the Gotham Rogues. It could be some random new villain, someone who is maybe more sadistic than any of the Rogues (save for Joker). I thought about this antagonist kidnapping AK Eddie’s s/o and holding them hostage …

But with a twist.

Catwoman has nothing to do with this because she’s not evil, but I thought about the explosive collar Riddler put on her in Arkham Knight, and what if this antagonist -- to really mess with Eddie -- decides to put such a collar on his s/o? And Riddler has to show up and complete some tasks (dangerous puzzles and riddle-based traps most likely), or else, his s/o loses their head.

Of course, Eddie shows up because he’s panicking. This was never supposed to happen! Nothing was supposed to happen to his s/o. This is beyond anything Batman had ever done. This is so sinister, so vile, so abhorrent, Eddie can’t even begin to comprehend it. At first, he bargains, offering money, tech, robots, his hacking skills -- even offers himself up to wear the collar instead because he can’t take the sight of his beloved wearing something that could blow their head right off, right in front of him, and leave him emotionally and mentally broken for life.

But the antagonist doesn’t want to bargain, even when Eddie begs -- like, really begs to the point of tears, asking for mercy and pleading with the antagonist to let his s/o go free. They have nothing to do with any of Eddie’s work. They’re innocent, and they’re too important to him! He can’t let this happen!

The begging amuses the antagonist but once again, it’s not enough. Eddie has to do the challenges, and if he completes them all correctly, the collar comes off. If he messes up, then his s/o dies. Eddie reassures his s/o that everything will be just fine, he’s got this under control, they’ll be out of trouble in no time so don’t be afraid.

It’s difficult to not be afraid when you have a bomb around your neck and a sadistic psychopath with the trigger. As bad as Eddie can be, he’s not THIS malevolent. He has some humanity left in him. But this person, they’re just out there to make him suffer because it’s “entertaining” to watch him squirm. 

As you know, by this point in his life, Eddie is very mentally unstable and could have a mental breakdown if pushed even just a little too far. His s/o is the only thing keeping him grounded, the only reason he has to keep his sanity (or what’s left of it), and this is the only person who has ever cared for him despite the fact he knows he’s not worth it. If he loses his beloved, then what would he have left? There would be no recovery from such a thing.

So, Eddie completes the challenges, although he is internally freaking out the entire time, partly because he doubts himself and partly because he has no idea if the antagonist will just press the trigger and kill Eddie’s s/o without warning. By the time Eddie is done, he’s a nervous wreck and on the verge of a breakdown, but he hopes that, by enduring all this, by letting this person watch him squirm, sweat, beg, cry, and panic, that maybe it’s enough to end this madness without his s/o dying.

But the antagonist doesn’t care that Eddie completed all the tasks. In the end, it’s about making Eddie suffer horribly because watching a nearly broken man finally break -- shatter -- is the point of all this. So, the collar has a 30 second timer set, and as it counts down, Eddie obviously freaks out, hyperventilating as he tries to plead once again for his s/o’s life, offering himself up again in their place, and yet, it’s not enough (kind of reminding him how he was never enough for his father, even if he agonized over pleasing him). The antagonist just laughs at Eddie’s mental breakdown and tells him he better use the remaining time to say goodbye. And no funny business. If Eddie or his s/o attempt to remove or disarm the collar, then it will detonate. 

Eddie’s s/o, despite being terrified does their best to put on a brave face and they tell him it’s ok, it’s not his fault, just don’t look, look away, it will all be over soon, he has to keep going for them...Eddie doesn’t know what to do, and seeing as he now has 10 seconds left, he does the only thing he feels he can and should do, and he grabs his s/o despite their protests and holds them tight, crying and saying over and over how sorry he is, he’s so sorry. 

And the timer reaches zero on the collar.

There’s a soft click.

Then nothing.

No explosion. 

The antagonist bursts out laughing, confessing that the “bomb” is a dud, was never going to explode, and since both Eddie and his s/o were too distressed to think all this through, they never even considered this as a possibility. The collar has been unlocked and Eddie’s s/o just kind of sinks to their knees in complete shock, and he can’t believe what he’s seeing. At first, he’s confused, wondering if this is all some sort of twisted dream, then he’s relieved because his s/o is safe, then he’s angry because what the hell was this?! He vows to get revenge on the antagonist and throws the collar away as he all but screams in rage.

Now alone, Eddie remembers his s/o is still on the floor, pale as a sheet and unresponsive. Kneeling down, he asks if they’re ok, tells them they’re ok, that this was all some sort of sick joke. When his s/o snaps out of their daze, they get mad and push him away, yelling at him for being so foolish

“You were just going to let yourself die with me?!” they demand.

“Yes!” Eddie responds, too overwhelmed to even know how to respond to this. 

“Why? Why would you do that?”

“Because!”

“WHY?”

“Because I can’t go back to my old life! Not having known you! You think that I would just sink back into my old routine without a hitch? You think I would forget you? You think I’d just move on and live life normally? How could I do that? How? If I lost you, I’d have nothing, do you understand? Nothing. My life would be empty, more so than it’s ever been, and nothing could fill that void, not the way you do. No one has ever loved me, not even those who were supposed to! But you, you love me! I didn’t ask for it, and I don’t even deserve it, but you love me anyway. You make me feel valid, you make me feel like...like I exist, like I actually matter.”

His s/o is crying, and he’s crying, and they’re both going to be emotionally traumatized for a while. Sure, Eddie will get revenge but he’s also going to be having night terrors -- nightmares would be much better than what he experiences at night -- about his s/o dying in gruesome ways while is helpless to do anything. Sometimes, he won’t even be able to sleep because he doesn’t want those ghastly images in his head, and he’ll stay up holding his s/o as they (try) to sleep (they have nightmares of their own after this experience). 

He has to come to terms with his first real encounter with the threat of loss, a real loss. He never cared about anyone before because no one ever cared for him. He was used to being ignored, bullied and belittled, and he always had trouble trusting others because of how he was raised. He never had friends, never thought he would need friends because, well, he never had any. Forming emotional attachments was beyond him, as he never had such a relationship with his parents, and that is the first time children are supposed to experience attachment. If your parents don’t love you, you grow up feeling unloved, alone, and don’t understand what it’s like to be close to people, so you just push everyone away and look out for yourself. It makes you selfish just as much as it makes you feel lonely.

But now, Eddie has his s/o, someone who just kind of barged into his life and stole his heart despite his best efforts to not feel anything sentimental because being vulnerable meant he could get hurt, and he didn’t like the idea of forming an attachment only to have it ripped away from him due to the other person’s betrayal. In his eyes, love equals abuse, since that’s the only kind of “love” this Eddie seems to have ever experienced. 

It’s going to take a lot of time -- and patience -- for Eddie to deal with this, and he’s going to be watching his s/o like a hawk. They won’t be allowed to go anywhere alone, and definitely not at night. He’ll be very clingy, protective, maybe a little possessive but mostly protective. When he does eventually find a way to calm down, it will actually make him a stronger person emotionally, I think, because he will understand himself better, and he’ll understand the relationship he has with his s/o better. This experience has taught him -- in the most insane and unwelcomed way -- why his s/o is so vital to him, and while attachment like that is almost frightening because of the risk of loss, he doesn’t want to go back to his old life and be alone, being seen as some sort of joke by everyone in Gotham. He doesn’t want to go back to being isolated, left with only his thoughts to comfort him despite his dwindling sanity and self-esteem. He needs to have a reason to press on, and trying to be better than everyone just won’t do it anymore. He needs to be loved, loves to be loved, but is also thrilled to be able to give it in return, whatever the risks may be.

And you know the antagonist is going to be utterly destroyed by Riddlerbots. Or something. Something awful will happen to that person. We know that much.

-------------

Ugh, so let me know what you guys think! This is way out there in left field in terms of portrayal of Arkham Knight Eddie (or just Arkhamverse Eddie in general) but this idea has been stuck in my mind for so long now. Feedback is definitely encouraged and appreciated here because this is such an epic and crazy h/c. Constructive criticism is welcome. Just don’t be mean, please.

[khxpresh]

// This is an updated version of my old post, in regards to the main big differences between Yami Seto Au and the normal DM stuff. This is also a quick run down of the timeline.

The very first duel: Set wasn’t aware that the pharaoh had returned, he was blinded by a mix of his and Seto’s ego as well as pride. Because of this, he enabled and further fed into  Kaiba’s plans of kidnapping Yugi’s grandpa. Set “remembers” of his  original mission, when they are defeated and Yami Yugi “shatters their mind”. It’s important to highlight that Set has been sharing Seto’s body, years prior to the serie’s events.

Read more due to the length

Duelists kingdom arc

Because Seto is the wielder of the millennium rod, there is an even bigger motivation for Pegasus to try take over KC. The stakes are even higher here, than compared to DM;

They still go through with all the pre-DM stuff that ties them to Pegasus, however Set always remains well hidden within the back of Kaiba’s mind whenever they are in his presence. He always feels an odd sensation, while in the presence of illusion industrial president. The spirit isn’t aware that the man is in possession of the millennium eye.

The next big change happens in the duel against Pegasus. At some point during it, Set realises that their opponent has Aknadin’s item and tries to banter with Seto for them to swap places. After all he knows how the eye works, but due to their current situation, everything they had previously gone through against Yugi not too long ago and Seto’s insistence that he will save Mokuba by himself prevents Set from even attempting the minds swapping strategy. The duel’s outcome is the same, Kaiba is defeated and his soul is stolen. Leaving Set behind all by himself, in his body. This is the first time, his existence is revealed to everyone;

Both Yugi and Yami Yugi, have only had the slightest bit of clue from the existence of the other face (Set). Until this point.

Set is taken hostage, and can’t do anything but wait within his jail cell. By the end of it, he is reunited with both Seto and Mokuba;

Before they find Mokuba however, they have a brief encounter with Shadi. Who investigates their soul rooms, in search of the eye’s thief. It’s here that Set learns about Pegasus’ fate (he is quick to assume that Bakura must have had something to do with it), as well as how it has become impossible to traverse/get inside of Kaiba’s soul room.

Prior to the start of DM’s events, Kaiba and Set have a run in with Y!Bakura who comes close to stealing the rod. (Post going into more details about this event, will come soon).

The dark RPG arc

The game is still something Seto has been working on for a long time. Set has been a helping hand, in testing the VR technology. Thanks to the programming, he and Seto can co-exist with separate bodies;

Seto is kidnapped leaving Set try to get to him, all by himself. However, as imagined he can’t get to him due to lacking a party to take on the game’s late quests;

When Yugi’s party catches up to Set, he and Mokuba try to pass him off as some sort of NPC;

Mokuba still is the one who frees Seto, Set is working alongside Yugi’s party and following their pace.

Battle city:

Malik still is the main antagonist of this arc, however he doesn’t wield the rod. Likely has another millennium item, in his possession;

Set also maintains his presence/existence a secret from the Ishtars. He, alongside with Ishizu, convince Kaiba to start the tournament;

While he may have contributed to the start of BC, there is a huge debacle between him and Seto in regards to the use of the Obelisk in duels. Set refuses to use the God card, out of fear of angering the deities (this is in reference to when he was a pharaoh. He never used the God Kas, during his reign). Whereas Seto, obviously couldn’t care anyway less about the spirit’s concerns in regards to it, and clearly takes immense pelasure out of using its power;

Set participates in the following duels:

The double duel agains the rare hunters, in Atem’s side. vs. Ishizu, that is when he reveals himself to the Ishtars.

Up until Ishizu’s duel, Malik’s primary target was Atem. However, it changes to Set when he reveals himself to be the pharaoh responsible for the creation of the tombkeepers;

Set reveals himself to be someone with far greater knowledge, and control over shadow games than both y!Malik and Bakura. AT some point, they try taking on him, but their attempts prove themselves to be in vain. He is keeping Kaiba and Mokuba safe, from them;

They have another brief run in with Shadi. Seto doesn’t learn how to read hieroglyphs, since Set is there to do that for him. Set also feels y!Bakura being erradicated by y!Malik;

Virtual world:

Set has heard of Seto and Mokuba’s story a dozen of times, but not the thing in its entirety. Not only that, Seto has never learned what happened in his early memory loss episodes when Set woke up. It is here, that the truth is brought to light.

At the start, Set only saw Seto, as nothing more than a vessel for him to fulfill his duty of serving/helping Atem in the present time. And he would speak of him in such manner, with Gozaburo. Needless to say, but learning such things is bound to put a damper in the brothers’ trust on Set.

Unlike in the Dark RPG arc, Set is bound to Kaiba’s body. It appears that no one outside of Gozaburo, are aware of his existence in the first place. Which catches Noah by surprise, when they finally come face to face;

Set is the one who initiates the duel against Noah, under the justification that he was the one responsible for Gozaburo’s death and not Seto. However, he has to swap places with Seto once Noah starts using Mokuba as a meat shield. They are unable to continue, and are turned into stone as a result;

From the duel against Gozaburo, all the way to their escape Set and Seto are in complete sync with one another, in the same way that Yugi and Atem are always seen.

By the end of the duel with Gozaburo, Set finishes what he began all those years ago, the ritual to feed the man’s soul to his BEWD ka. His punishment for all the crimes, against him.

BC’s finals

There aren’t any major differences between them. Set and Y!Malik exchange a few words, mostly just so he can both taunt him and send him after Atem. By the end of the tournament, Set finally gets the confirmation that his pharaoh is indeed back.

Pyramid of Light

Again, there aren’t any major differences between them. Set picks up on the sudden shift in Kaiba’s behavior, he is mostly there as an observer. He gets sucked into the millennium puzzle, when the pyramid of light is played, that is where he stays for remainder of duel/story. He returns to Kaiba as soon as he is fred from the puzzle, and takes over the body while the other is recovering.

In relation to Anubis and the fake relic: Set had yet to be promoted into his high priest position, however he was around to witness Aknadin punish him. He wasn’t aware of the fake relic’s existence, and simply saw the sentence as just another of his mentor’s lessons. But, he recognizes Anubis.

Waking the dragons

The first duel against Amelda: Kaiba still is the one dueling, however Critias is unable to interfere in the duel. Leading to him being defeated, but Set manages to take over the body in time so his soul is the one taken by the orichalcos seal instead. He doesn’t return until the Leviathan is defeated, by the end of this arc;

Seto is trying to recover Set, while attempting to salvage what is left of his company. He doesn’t relate at all to Atem’s situation, even though at first glance they seem to be on similar grounds.

KC Grand prix

Once more, there aren’t any major differences between them. Set is aware of Ziegfried’s existence, but he really doesn’t get to do anything or much of relevance throughout this arc’s events.

He also mocks Ziegfried’s hair & mannerisms, in a similar way that Kaiba does. The other is unable to tell both apart.

Memory world

They travel to Egypt in order to join Yugi and his crew, this means that Kaiba participates in the MW’s events a lot sooner. At first, he is tasked by Set to look for any clues to Atem’s name. There is a fallout between them, when Seto becomes aware that Set isn’t trying to change the course of events, even though he knows what is coming/about to happen;

It should be worth reminding that: Set remembers most things about his life, with the exception of most memories assosciated to Atem’s existence, he doesn’t remember his name neither why he erased it from existence or anything that could possibly lead/hint to learning the name prematurely.

Set is saved from Aknadin’s control with the help of Kisara, Seto and Atem;

Seto and Set are the last ones to leave the MW, because there is one more portion of this story that is exclusively meant for Kaiba to see. Which is the aftermath, of Zorc’s battle. When Set regained consciousness and found himself all alone with the puzzle.

Ceremonial duel

They split up during the ceremonial duel, just like Yugi and Atem and watch over it like that.

DSoD

Taking place about 1 year after the end of DM. Kaiba’s goal is to meet with Set, one more time. Even though, everyone around him seems to just assume, he is after Atem.

At some point, he recovers the millennium rod and keeps it to himself, even though it has no power. What Yugi says about the spirits being gone, is true. He also can’t feel Set’s presence in his relic. The rod vanishes when Atem returns to his realm.

Kaiba and Set duel each other, Kaiba is the winner and safely returns to his realm.

[invisiburu]

In defense of Mia Winters

She lied

Yes, she does lie to Ethan about her job. To keep both Ethan and herself safe from The Connection itself and its rivals as well as not involving Ethan in her line of work. Lying is terrible to any relationship but it seems her lie was only about her job for their sake of their safety. You may hate her here.

Facts: Mia’s lies was only before the game started. She did not spout a single lie at any point in time during the event of RE7.

Proof? She really does not remember anything except a little tid bit here and there due to Eveline messing with her mind. That is one of the big plot of Mia section on the boat. Even Eveline’s line explicitly says “You need to remember”

So if you keep saying she’s annoying and always lying and hiding throughout the game, well F**k You!

She was bio-terrorist

That is correct. She does worked for The Connection, a crime syndicate involving creation and trade for bio-weapon. However, her motives and reason she was working there remains unknown. Hopefully will be explained later in Village. Until then i’m giving her the benefit of a doubt and allow you to hate here

Responsible

1. Unlike any other RE antagonist, Mia actually tried her best to deal with problem at hand. After Eveline gotten loose, she immediately spring into action to find and stop Eveline on the ship.

2. The moment she was rescued by the Bakers, she wrote them a letter to warn them with what strength she had left.

https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Mia%27s_Letter_to_the_Bakers

3. Both she and Zoe worked together to help those who were kidnap by the Bakers in order for them to escape.

4. After she cuts off Ethan’s arm under Eveline’s control with the chainsaw, most people seems to not notice or pay attention to her line saying “ It's my job... must... contain... outbreak! I promise... must burn it all down!” and during the attic fight, “They’re relying on me. Everyone is relying on me. Everyone.”

She continued trying her best to fight off Eveline’s influence and saved the Bakers as well the other victims even this whole time despite not remembering who or what Eveline even was. She really just fight her way to save these innocent people without knowing why

Fact: Yes, I repeat, she don’t even remember who or what Eveline was.

Proof? The boat ship section again. She literally asked Eveline “what are you?”

Kindness

Mia is actually genuinely a kind person and very humane.

1. Even after her fellow colleague, Alan Droney who was the one who actually at fault for letting Eveline out in the first place. She still wanted to try to save him.

Actually, scratch that, its not exactly Alan fault but rather it was Eveline’s own plan to escape all along.

This twitter post has translated some Resident Evil 7 Kaitai Shinsho or the official book for Resident Evil 7

https://twitter.com/project_umb/status/1269136222363975682

and here is the link for the translation: http://projectumbrella.net/articles/BIOHAZARD-7-resident-evil-Kaitai-Shinsho

2. Also another point for Mia’s kindness as she seems to actually care about Eveline’s loneliness and not just outright called her a demon like everyone else pointed her out to be.

3. Despite Ethan gave serum to Mia, she still cares about Zoe and asked her to come along with them

Love and Devotion

She actually really does love Ethan and especially wants him to be safe and live a good life even without her.

1. Knowing her demise, she immediately send Ethan a stay away message as she knew he will come looking for her. In fact, she goes even further to say forget about her and moved on.

Just in case, you all forgot about the Baker scene in the hive mind thing? It was Eveline who’s the one controlling Mia to send out email message to Ethan to come get her.

2. Instead of finishing Ethan off after his hand was stabbed with the knife. she manage to gain control of herself and smack her head on the wall till it knocks her out to allow Ethan to escape. Ethan’s would be death count + 1

3. First fight: She tried her hardest on fighting off Eveline’s influence when she was forced to attack Ethan. Else Ethan would have died immediately after she attack him at the guest house. Her lines includes, “Leave me!” “Go home” “Leave” “I don’t want to hurt you!”

At the end of the fight, after being struck down by the axe, she returned to normal state and tried to reach out to him as she fall.

4. After she cuts off Ethan’s arm with the chainsaw, rather than just kill him off immediately, she throw him and walk away trying to regain control of herself and cue the “It's my job... must... contain... outbreak! I promise... must burn it all down!” line. Ethan’s would be death count + 2

5. Second fight: Again, she tried her hardest on fighting off Eveline’s influence when she was forced to attack Ethan once more in the attic. Again her lines includes the previous lines from the first fight with addition of “Forget about me!” “I can never leave!” “I don’t want your pity!” to encourage Ethan to leave her there. At the end of the fight, as she dropped she said “I love you”

Now here’s a part where everyone and i mean EVERYONE missed out on.

READ HERE FIRST! This part is a GOD DAMN FLASHBACK! Ethan is not getting any damage whatsoever by these flashback and it fleshes out Mia’s devotion even more

Please do yourself a favour and watch this video or replay this section again.

This video itself missing one more Mia flashback. However to see all the flashback you have to follow these steps

 go to attic -> trigger eveline scene downstairs -> fuse room -> back to attic.

6. The whole ship section. Mia’s ultimate goal here is to find Ethan and set him free. However, since the serum is of D-series is not exactly meant for the E-series. She only manage to hold off Eveline’s control a bit longer. So what she did? Immediately after freeing Ethan from the mold she gave him the E-series sample tissue and pushed him out of the door and locked herself in sacrificing herself to save her husband’s life.

If you keep saying you hate her because she cut off Ethan’s arm ON PURPOSE, well F**k You!

Regret and Starting Over

1. Most from what I see in internet is that everyone wants her to go to jail. Normally, I would agree but consider this. She was already punished hard as she was being trapped in hell of the Baker’s estate. If you have to choose between life time of prison or 3 years of hell, I bet your damn ass you would choose life time of prison. Besides, what is the purpose of prison in the first place.

The 4 reason for prison are:

Deter crime - so that one may not likely to do it again after release

Issuing punishment - to someone who commit serious crime

Personal reform - Change the person from bad to good

Protect the public

For someone like Mia, I’m very sure she learned her lesson the hardest way possible. If I were her, or anyone else in her shoes, I would damn well be a good citizen and start over, turning over a new leaf. And guess what she does?

2. She is one(perhaps the only one) of the key person to take down the The Connection. Chris, BSAA and Blue Umbrella Corp aren’t stupid and their clean up crew would look to all the nooks and cranny of the whole Baker estate, Mine field and the ship. Mia’s order from The Connection was left intact in the safe room inside the ship. So Mia cannot lie or pretend to not know. I’m positively sure that Mia would let Chris knows all of intel she know of The Connection she had in return for her freedom and witness protection. and that’s how and why they live peacefully in Romania in the first place.

CONCLUSION

Now I know, I can’t change your mind if you really just not fond of her. But what I’m trying to say here, if you want to hate or dislike her at least hate/dislike her properly and not just blind hate for the sake of hating. They just hate because they want to hate and it just pisses me off.

[inkweaver22-blr]

HEY REDWALL FANDOM

It’s 4AM and I can’t sleep so I’m going to rant for a little bit about something my brain won’t shut up about.

There’s this fic I read some years ago that aggravates me to no end. Not because it wasn’t well written, oh no. Quite the opposite in fact. It was a more mature story than the books with the main themes being that what creature you are born as doesn’t affect your “goodness” or “evilness” and that everyone has the rights and freedoms to make choices for themselves.

The main player in this story was a badger lord seer (whom we will refer to Seer from here on) who had seen a prophecy of a great evil/era of upheaval and uncertainty (which he implies will be caused by the corsair sea-rats) and set about gathering a force to combat it. He however didn’t really care what species you were and accepted even groups of vermin bandits into his army so long as they vowed to adhere to his code of conduct. Which was really simple in “do no harm and let no harm come to the innocent” type of stuff.

So while Seer himself seemed grim and unapproachable, his army revered him for he had given them a sense of purpose, brotherhood, and honor. He united many races that were once enemies and trained them all into fierce yet honorable warriors. So while we as an audience may find him unnerving, he’s set up as the protagonist whom we are meant to support.

Now is where things start to go off the rails a bit.

His younger brother, whom we’ll call Rage, apparently doesn’t like the fact that Seer is allowing “vermin” into his army. Specifically because Rage hates rats because of the corsair. Rage, unfortunately was cursed with an extra hard dose of the typical badger lord berserk rage and isn’t as good with tactics as Seer is. But because Seer needs Salamandastron for some reason, he tricks Rage and the Long Patrol out of the mountain and takes it for himself.

Okay so it’s just a spat between two brothers, one of which is obviously a bigot so we root for Seer here right?

Well when Rage returns he notices that Seer has given sacred armor crafted by previous badger lords to his troops of rats who also happen to be right at the front of the army. Not his squirrels, not his foxes, only the rats. Rage, obviously, goes into a rage and decimates the rat soldiers and is eventually killed due to his blindness. The Long Patrol is permanently ousted and retreat to Redwall. When questioned by the Abbot later, Seer absolutely avoids the question of “did you intentionally bait your brother instead of trying to talk to him”.

Here’s where my suspension of disbelief starts to fail.

Earlier in the story it’s made clear that any creature in Seer’s army may leave at any point due to the fact that every beast is free and can exercise that freedom (so long as they don’t harm others). We actually see this happen when his force of otters and shrews leave after he uses MUSTARD GAS on a fort of villains, brutally killing them in what the otters believed was an dishonorable way. (Oh did I mention Seer is super intelligent and understands science and math that allows him to create amazing things like submarines and a tower near Redwall with a giant mirror that lets them get messages to Salamandastron quickly?) Anyway, Seer tries to refuse their resignation which the otters throw back in his face due to the aforementioned policy of freedom of choice.

This is where I get angry.

After winning the mountain, Seer parlays with the corsair king. You know, the leader of the slaver pirates that Seer hinted might be the cause of the great approaching upheaval? So what does Seer offer him? If Corsair will give up all the woodland slaves (mice, otters, shrews, squirrels, moles, ect.) Seer will replace them with all of the rats of Mossflower and beyond. All of his rat troops who served him loyally as well as any free rats in the country, evil or not, were just sold into slavery without their say in the matter. Because it is very much known by everyone that the rats replacing the slaves will not be treated like new crew members but as slaves themselves.

What absolutely infuriates me is that Seer’s army just goes with it. They don’t put up a fight, even if the rats are confused and a little hurt by this choice, they go along with it because Seer hasn’t steered them wrong yet. Which makes absolutely no sense when you think about how Seer has been preaching freedom up to this point. Heck, when Redwall begins offering sanctuary to any rat that can make it into their walls, (because absolutely screw any and all forms of slavery), Seer sends his squirrels to patrol the woods and capture any that try to make it to the Abbey.

Why would Seer’s army, who have been proven to be smart, kind, and honorable by this point, ever agree to this? Many of them most likely have at least one friend in the rats. Even if they accepted their comrades willingly chaining themselves to the oar benches, they would most certainly not agree to kidnapping free beasts who never joined Seer’s army. I just does not make any sense and is literally the only problem I had with this story.

Finally we get to the twist that shakes everything and cements this fic as one of the best pieces of Redwall fiction I’ve read.

We have a scene towards the end with Seer in the Prophecy Room of Salamandastron. He gazes upon the original prophecy of evil and upheaval, and then moves on to the next one which he never mentioned. One that states that the badger lord seer could only be defeated by another seer. A rat seer.

Everything he’s done; creating an army of mixed races, building a huge tower in the fields near Redwall, killing his brother to take the mountain; ALL OF IT, was for the single purpose of eliminating rats from the land. Seer was the antagonist all along.

It almost worked too.

In the Redwall world, it’s well established seers can have visions of almost everything, except other seers.

The rat seer, we learn, foresaw that she would need to go to Redwall to retain her freedom, but not why. So she and her family got to Redwall before Seer sent his squirrels to patrol the woods and he can’t do anything because if he attacked the Abbey he would lose any remaining support he had.

So all of this change he made, this era upheaval and uncertainty he caused, was for nothing.

I can’t remember if the story continued on after this point and had the rest of his men realize they’re following a mad prophet but I was tossing and turning all night at their blind faith in following him into becoming genocidal slavers.

So anyway if anyone can find this story I HIGHLY recommend it but be prepared to get irritated towards the end.

UPDATE!!!

The fic in question is The Crimson Badger by Highwing and the more I remember about it the less appealing it is. Lots of grimdark deaths, out of place sexism, and strange prudishness concerning premarital sex abound in this so I change my stance from “highly recommend” to “read at your own risk”.

[theredhairedmonkey]

Claudia—Just what’s so bad about Dark Magic anyway?

Ah, Claudia. Everyone’s favorite dorky Dark Mage. Even as she continues her journey to villainy, we can’t help but find her at least a little adorable.

She’s undoubtedly likable, which makes a lot of what she does even more unsettling. We’re used to villains like Viren, who are so obviously villains even if they have somewhat good intentions.

But Claudia? She seems to have a good heart and cares about people outside of simply what they can do for her. Even if she may not reciprocate Callum’s feelings, she’s still clearly fond of him.

In S2, she’s genuinely supportive of her brother, telling him that them being alive matters more than succeeding in their missions. She also comforts Ezran and even helps mend his relationship with Callum, reminding him just how lucky they are to have each other.

As I lay out here, Claudia very much resembles Callum in the earlier chapters; both are bookish nerds, adorably awkward, and with an affinity towards magic. And while Callum starts to move away from this resemblance, we can see why Claudia is so likable.

Claudia can be caring and sweet. That’s why it’s so tragic and painful to watch her continue to cross moral lines, to the point that she is now thoroughly antagonistic to Team Zym, with any hope of total redemption being slim at best.

Now, I can’t talk about Claudia without first talking about Dark Magic. You see, while Dark Magic is terrible, the show doesn’t explicitly lay out exactly why it’s terrible. It merely illustrates how it works, portrays people using it for a variety of reasons, and then lets the audience decide how it feels about it. This is all intentional—Aaron and Justin have expressly stated they didn’t want to push too hard on the point that Dark Magic is wrong, instead leaving it for fans to make up their own minds. As a result, some fans sincerely believe there’s nothing wrong with it.

And that’s why we have Claudia. Someone who is sweet and sincere, relatable enough that you picture being friends with.

Someone who also sees nothing wrong with Dark Magic, defends using it, and even tries to use it for supposedly good reasons.

Because there’s no explicit reason given for why Dark Magic is so uniquely evil, the onus is on us, the viewers, to figure this out on our own.

There have been several fan attempts at explaining why Dark Magic is so bad, but for me, at least, I always felt we were missing something.

It might be wrong because it requires Dark Mages to sacrifice innocent creatures. But then again, humans in the real world consume animals all the time.

The logical response to this is that unlike, for instance, eating, Dark Magic is not natural nor necessary. However, we do all sorts of unnatural things with animals as well. For instance, we’ve created animal glue, whale oil for lamps, and leather from cattle. We’ve used creatures as working animals as well as for their cells to develop cures and vaccines. Without arguing that Dark Magic is defensible, this just helps illustrate the larger point that there must be something else that makes Dark Magic worse than any of this.

Another argument I’ve heard is that it permanently destroys magical habitats. The reason why the Human Kingdoms are much less magical than Xadia is that Dark Mages have poached and pillaged all the creatures they could. This could all very well be true, but it’s also what human beings do on the regular in the real world; as a rule, wherever industrial civilization lays down its roots, animal extinctions follow, intentionally or not. If Dark Magic is supposed to be an indictment of the way our society works today and the ecological problems we’ve caused, then we deserve it.

But many of us (hopefully) are working to change that, even if it means making life harder for us. The solution to climate change ultimately comes in the form of learning to live sustainably and in harmony with the world around us. One day, we’ll find a balance to our way of life, but if we can, why can’t Dark Mages? Why can’t Dark Magic users learn to moderate and regulate their behavior the way we could, and sustainably find ways to use the same magic that elves and dragons take for granted?

It also doesn’t help that characters who hate Dark Magic the most are also hypocritical about it. Sol Regem argues that Dark Magic causes the death of innocent creatures…while threatening to burn down a city filled with innocent people. Perhaps he opposes Dark Magic, not for ethical or benevolent reasons, but because it shifts the balance of power too much in favor of these so-called “lesser beings.” So, we can’t take his assessment of Dark Magic with anything more than a grain of salt.

But, at the end of the day, Dark Magic is a bad thing. Even if we can’t place our finger on exactly why, we know there’s just something wrong with it.

And that’s where Claudia comes in.

She too doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with Dark Magic— Why should she? It’s no different than anything else humans do, it helps keep people alive, and keeps us from starving and being helpless. Whether you eat them or take their magic, they’re just a resource.

But over time, as she relies more on Dark Magic as her universal problem-solver, we see her cross more and more ethical boundaries.

In most of the first two seasons, Claudia’s uses of Dark Magic come entirely from whatever she happens to carry in her bag or little critters she finds here or there.

And, for the most part, she tries to do the right thing. Claudia understands how powerful Zym could one day become, and from her perspective, there is a risk that he could, in her words, reign “death and destruction down on all of us.”

Claudia honestly believes that finding the Dragon Prince and bringing the princes home is what’s best for Katolis. Initially, she believes that Rayla had kidnapped the boys, and later she still insists her actions are for the greater good.

She’s willing to cross certain lines, such as manipulating and betraying Callum and Ezran, but shows signs that she regrets doing so.

But she starts off at crossing these relatively smaller moral lines, before working her way to more reprehensible behaviors. By the end of S2, she crosses a line when she uses a living creature to cure Soren’s paralysis.

After this moment, we see that she’s willing to justify an ever-growing list of horrible actions without any regrets. Whether it’s overthrowing and imprisoning Ezran, wiping out Lux Aurea, or turning the entire army into mindless rage-fueled minions, and even possibly letting Viren’s illusion strike down Ezran.

By the time she resurrects Viren, most likely by using a poor unfortunate elf who stumbled upon her, she’s past the point of feeling remorse for what she feels she has to do.

And why?

She places all of her faith in Viren because he’s family. She values her family above all else, and finds that Dark Magic is an easy, reliable way to keep it all together.

As a result, her character’s arc helps show what’s fundamentally wrong with Dark Magic—because it’s such an easy fix to all her problems, Claudia is tempted to lean on Dark Magic in more unethical ways.

In Lord Acton’s famous maxim, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And Dark Magic is power incarnate.

Dark Magic is far more versatile than Primal Magic. Whereas Primal Magic lets a mage use spells by harmonizing with nature, Dark Magic is simply about harnessing power in its raw form.

It’s not merely a shortcut that lets you bypass having an Arcanum or a Primal Stone. Certain practices within Dark Magic are not possible elsewhere.

If Callum had mastered Sky Magic by the time Rayla goes to save Pyrrah, he could have made short work of Soren and his forces with his winged form, but actually freeing the dragon from its chains would have still been no easy task.

But with Dark Magic, all Callum needed was a spell. A single spell and the chains are turned into snakes. The soldiers are driven away, and the dragon is free.

You can’t do that with Primal Magic.

We haven’t seen a limit to what Dark Magic can do for you, provided you have the materials. It can swap souls.

Or take them.

It can provide safe passage across the Breach.

It could taint or even destroy sources of Primal Magic.

Dark Magic isn’t bad just because it relies on sacrificing creatures. It’s bad because it tempts users with the power to redesign and reorganize the fabric of the world around them, potentially at the expense of Primal Sources themselves.

Dark!Callum sums up this temptation perfectly:

“You can have unlimited power. And you can choose what to do with that power. You can make a real difference in the world!”

And sadly, it’s a temptation that Claudia falls for time and time again. Once Claudia wields this power, she’s tempted to abuse it, even if it just begins as an attempt to protect her loved ones. And the more she abuses it, the harder it is to stop.

She shows that the temptation to use Dark Magic and how it distorts the world is what makes the practice so terrible and so terrifying that it shouldn’t be used in any circumstance.

@batfamfan1(who gave me permission to bring up our conversation here) had argued that Claudia’s use of Dark Magic was different from Viren and Aaravos, because she at least uses Dark Magic for good (or what she sees as good). That is, she cures or protects her family.

However, I’d argue that it’s not as simple as that. Claudia indeed sacrifices a deer because she wanted to cure Soren, but had she ever considered what Soren wanted? There’s a reason why, for instance, doctors disclose all relevant facts and treatments to a patient and let them make an informed decision, even if the doctor believes only one of those treatments is the best option. It’s not just about a cure, it’s about the agency of the patient. This becomes even more important when it’s not a professional responsibility to a patient, but a duty to respect the free will of someone you love.

Claudia never respects Soren’s agency. Even when he’s come to terms with his condition, she has not. She wants to keep trying to find a cure even while he’s beginning to move on. And, when she does find a cure, she never tells him about it beforehand, never tells him what it would cost, and never tries to get his approval.

This is different from Rayla in 2x08 who, in spite of knowing it’s a bad idea to let Ezran leave on his own, lets him go. Or Callum, who, in spite of thinking that Rayla staying on the Spire is a bad idea, simply lays out all the relevant information to Rayla and lets her make the decision for herself.

This is because, when you love or care about someone, that has to include letting them make their own choices, even if you don’t agree.

Claudia never does this with Soren because, again, it’s not about him, but about her. She has a personal need, however tragic, to keep her family together and healthy.

She’ll do what she can to fill that need, even if she has to play goddess to do so.

For that reason, she isn’t using Dark Magic for someone else’s benefit but her own. Much like Viren, whose stated goal to defend humanity was really just a cover for his desire to be powerful, Claudia’s goal to protect her family is really about protecting her state of mind. To do that, she needs to become powerful as well.

Her inability to see just what’s wrong with Dark Magic, combined with her need to maintain this portrait of a healthy family alive, means she will always be tempted to try another Dark Magic spell that will simply cure everything and will never look back once she tries it.

This is different than, for instance, Callum. As I describe here, he’s seen the world that Rayla shows him and begins to see magic the way she does. It’s not a tool; it’s a phenomenon, a vibrance or a spirit to things.

He understands, at least in an unstated way, that there’s something fundamentally wrong about Dark Magic, because it threatens that vibrancy.

Interestingly, unlike Claudia, who sees it as an easy solution to everything, Callum is suspicious because it’s too easy:

“But that’s just it! Too easy! Even though I know it’s wrong.”

Because of this, Claudia’s character arc helps illuminate what’s wrong with Dark Magic, even if the show doesn’t go out of its way to tell us. It’s a temptation for people who want to be powerful, and it makes them just powerful enough to abuse it.

And before you know it, you’ve lost your way.

[aion-rsa]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: What the Post Credits Scenes Mean for the MCU’s Future

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The following article contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

With Black Widow set largely in the past, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is technically the feature film kickoff to Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the exception of the end credits scenes, it’s the first Phase 4 feature set in the aftermath of the Thanos Snap or Blip, and it introduces a set of characters and a region of the MCU that we have not yet explored.

But like every Marvel movie, Shang-Chi also includes two scenes at the end — one in the middle of the credits, and one at the tail — and unusually, both offer important and possibly critical information for the future of the MCU. Often the very last scene tends to be a joke or a sight gag of some kind; that’s not the case this time.

While the last scene at the very end of the movie does hold some interesting implications of its own, it frankly doesn’t loom as large as the mid-credits sequence. We’ll get to that second one a little later. Right now, let’s examine the mid-credits sequence and what it could mean. And remember, we’re in spoiler territory from here on out!

Marvel Studios

The Mid-Credits Sequence

Halfway through the end credits of Shang-Chi, we fade into a room in what could be Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Present in person are Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), his friend Katy (Awkwafina), and Wong (Benedict Wong). Present via holographic image are Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) — although notably, Banner appears in his original form and not as the Smart Hulk hybrid he became prior to Avengers: Endgame, although his arm is still in a sling after it was fried pretty much to a crisp when he activated the Infinity Gauntlet. What happened to Smart Hulk? Can Banner change back at will or did something happen?

In any case, all five are in a circle studying the Ten Rings, which are floating in the air between them. Although Shang-Chi remarks that his father has been using them for a thousand years, Bruce says that their power signature indicates that they could be much, much older. What’s even more interesting is that the same power signature generated by the Rings looks a lot like the multiverse — the same jagged, interweaving, branching labyrinth of ever-expanding and twisting lines that we last saw at the end of the Disney+ series Loki — as explained to Loki and Sylvie by He Who Remains in that show’s season finale.

But wait, there’s one final revelation: there’s a signal or beacon of some kind coming from within the Ten Rings themselves — a signal of unknown origin.

Captain Marvel has to excuse herself and leaves, saying that Bruce has her number if she’s needed (he doesn’t). The other four are about to leave as well — but then in what does amount to a classic MCU end credits joke, Shang-Chi and Katy manage to lure Wong out for a night of karaoke instead of standing around wondering what all this means.

They’ll leave that to us.

Marvel Studios

Who or what is sending that signal?

If the Ten Rings is connected to the multiverse, then the signal could be coming from any one of the many different universes we saw forming at the end of Loki. It could also be coming from the Quantum Realm, which is clearly part of our universe.

How the Quantum Realm connects to the rest of the multiverse is a question that’s yet to be answered. But since we also know that some variant of He Who Remains, possibly the version known as Kang the Conqueror, is slated to show up in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, there’s almost no doubt that the multiverse and the Quantum Realm are intertwined — does the Quantum Realm act almost as a secret subway between universes?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Is the beacon a greeting? A warning? A distress signal? Unknown. But there are possibilities of who or what could be sending it:

Kang/He Who Remains

While the version we met in Loki (played by Jonathan Majors) was a somewhat benign madman/dictator, intent on controlling the flow of events in our universe to prevent it from splintering into the multiverse, we know that there are other, more hostile variants out there, most notably Kang the Conqueror. 

And based on the ending of Loki, we know that there’s at least one universe in which Kang reigns supreme. Could Kang be sending out the signal as a way to lure others to his universe and entrap them? Or is a variant trying to warn others away from Kang’s dominion?

Read more

Movies

Who is Kang the Conqueror? Powers and Marvel Comics History Explained

By Jim Dandeneau

Movies

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Review

By Bernard Boo

The Beyonder

Many casual MCU fans may react to this with “Who?” But hear us out. The Beyonder was the antagonist behind the classic 1984 Marvel Comics arc known as Secret Wars, in which the character — an omnipotent entity that is actually the sentient remnants of an alternate dimension itself — creates a planet called Battleworld out of pieces of other worlds, kidnaps the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe and sets them on Battleworld to fight, so it can observe and learn about the ongoing conflict between good and evil (think the old Star Trek episode, “The Savage Curtain”).

The Beyonder’s creator and Secret Wars writer Jim Shooter recently hinted that he had been approached by a legal eagle from Disney to discuss the use of certain characters, leading Shooter to believe that a Secret Wars movie in the MCU was almost inevitable. And let’s face it, it’s too good a concept not to use — especially if you can cross over villains and heroes from different universes.

So the Beyonder may be sending out that signal as a lure or trap. But here’s another theory: Marvel Studios often takes liberties with characters from the comics, sometimes combining aspects of two or more into a version expressly designed for the big screen. If Kang is supposed to be the Big Bad of Phase 4 (and perhaps even some of Phase 5), it’s not unreasonable that Marvel might graft some of the Beyonder’s powers and motivations onto him.

The Fantastic Four

We know that a new movie starring Marvel’s First Family is finally coming, this time from Marvel Studios itself. And we know that Reed Richards can find a way to travel between universes as well as through time. Plus in the comics at least, Kang is possibly a distant descendant of Richards. Since the MCU until now has given no indication that the Fantastic Four exists, could that signal be coming from a version of the Four that does exist in a different universe?

It’s long been suspected among fans that the Quantum Realm (in which signs of civilization have been glimpsed) could play an important role in the introduction of the Fantastic Four into the MCU. But that signal, generated either by the Ten Rings or from somewhere in the multiverse, could also be coming from them.

The Celestials (from Eternals)

With the mid-credits sequence indicating that the Ten Rings are much older than first thought, is it possible that they are actually technology created by the Celestials?

The Celestials, of course, have been around almost as long as the universe/multiverse itself, and have seeded countless worlds in the cosmos with life. On Earth, they created “normal” humans, as well as the Eternals and the Deviants, and return periodically — we’re talking time on a cosmic scale here — to see how their experiments are going.

What if the use of the Ten Rings activates the beacon and sends a signal to the Celestials that it’s time to come look in on their little planet-sized lab? The Celestials operate on such a vast span of time that even Wenwu using the Rings for a millennium would seem like minutes to them. With the ongoing conflict between the Eternals and the Deviants seemingly coming to the fore in this November’s Eternals movie, it seems likely that a Celestial will show up to sort things out. That Celestial might also be very interested in finding out why the Ten Rings have been activated.

Marvel Studios

The Post-Credits Sequence

This one is a lot simpler to explain. Although Wenwu is dead by the end of Shang-Chi, and Shang-Chi himself is off hobnobbing with some of the Avengers, Wenwu’s daughter and Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) is seen taking full control of the Ten Rings and planning to keep the organization running — although whether she plans to use it for good or perhaps some more nefarious purposes remains to be seen (she is, after all, still her father’s daughter).

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With a large number of now free agent Black Widows running around, and Sharon Carter/the Power Broker now operating her own agenda and unknown connections from within the CIA itself (at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), there is plenty of geopolitical action for the Ten Rings organization to get involved with. Perhaps we’ll see more of their exploits in an upcoming TV series or Captain America 4 — or maybe Shang-Chi 2. But they aren’t going anywhere.

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

The post Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: What the Post Credits Scenes Mean for the MCU’s Future appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[theepsizet]

Me ranting about Chris Chibnall part 1: Historical Stories

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be ranting about the Chibnall era and how frustrated I am over the quality of it. Today we’ll be looking into historical stories and why they don’t work in Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner compared to his predecessors.

Watch for the tag “Chibnall rants” if you want to view more. With that out of the way, let’s get started.

While I could technically be making a YouTube video about this, plenty of others have already done so.

The thing is about the writing quality of the show is that it dropped. Dramatically. Chris Chibnall has a knack for writing crime dramas — anyone who has seen his work on Broadchurch and Life on Mars can agree with that — but so far he’s shown to be pretty bad with science-fiction such as Doctor Who. (This is evident in his episodes in the RTD and Moffat era, but that’s another entry for another time.)

One of the things that he often gets criticized for is the fact that he has this habit of putting “politics first, story next”. And yeah, he does. We’re about 24 episodes in, and it’s pretty obvious he’s only making firm political statements about humanity and society are the main focus rather than the plot & characters of a story.

The historical stories in his era of a blatant example of this. Since Doctor Who is a show about having adventures throughout time and space, it wouldn’t

Well... uh... yeah in this case it is.

Most of the historical stories in the Chibnall era — except for Demons of the Punjab but we’ll get to that — tend to have their main focus on real-world historical figures rather than the plot. Historical stories in Doctor Who tend to find the Doctor and their companions landing in a historical setting and, coincidentally, battling aliens alongside those historical figures. Usually the story will focus on what made the figure well-known and inquorate. And while it comes across as formulaic, it’s not a bad formula:

The Doctor and Rose battle ghosts with Charles Dickens.

The Doctor and Martha battle alien witches who share Shakespeare's genius for language.

The Doctor and Donna solve a murder mystery with Agatha Christie.

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory attempt to discover why a siren is plaguing Henry Avery’s crew.

And so on and so forth.

Except with the 13th Doctor... the stories focus on the historical figures, not the story. The best example is perhaps the weakest of these historical stories, Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror, where the Doctor and her companions spend 80% of the story learning about Tesla’s life (even going as far as to include Thomas Edison, who doesn’t do anything other than being an egocentric nuisance) and not bothering to deal with the fact that piratical alien scorpions are trying to kidnap him and take over the world. The Doctor solves the problem by simply pointing her sonic screwdriver pointing at the queen’s device and sending her back to her ship. She then tells Tesla to activate the tower and the Skithra leave Earth. The story then ends with the Doctor telling Yasmin about the future once they leave.

That’s it. That’s exactly what happens, and it’s jarring to think this is what Chibnall presents a historical story as. Pointless runaround and educating the audience about a historical figure, not caring about the conflict at all. It’s bland, pointless, and feels like a waste of time once you move on.

Before Chibnall became showrunner, Moffat presented a historical story called Let’s Kill Hitler, in which the Doctor, Amy, and Rory take their best friend Mels. At some point — for spoiler reasons I’m not saying — River appears and steals the show, allowing the audience to get invested in a River who just became herself.

The thing is, Hitler is simply locked up in a closet after 10 minutes of screentime. And while Let’s Kill Hitler is one of Moffat’s weaker scripts, the episodes mocks the idea of focusing only on a historical figure. Even the Teselecta is just a cheap time machine that represents the classic “touring through time” trope that is quite childish compared to what Doctor Who presents it it’s audience.

This is a complete opposite to something like Vincent and the Doctor, which is the complete reverse of the formulaic historical Doctor Who story. Instead it focuses on Vincent Van Gough and the only real reason it isn’t educational is because it focuses not on Van Gough’s life, but on his friendship with the Doctor and Amy, something that the recent historical tries to avoid; the Doctor instead visits them as a total stranger, rather than try and get along with them to not the situation too awkward (a great example is how the Doctor is going as far as to avoid interacting with Rosa in Rosa, which though might also be due to the racism at the time) .

Then there is the case of using historical figures for fan service. Both Spyfall: Part 2 and Rosa feature historical characters that barley impact the plot but just seem to be there just because the writers thought it would be a good idea. In Spyfall: Part 2, the Doctor just happens to meet Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan out of the blue and just because the writer [Chibnall] wanted her so. They’re only impact in the plot is, in Ada’s case, the Doctor finding a McGuffin from the previous story and landing in a different time period, and seeking shelter (both Ada and Noor’s case). In Rosa, while the episode tries and focuses on her, the weak antagonist and how easy the situation gets resolved leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth. Rosa Parks is characterized well, good even, but the conflict doesn’t seem to serious. Technically speaking, Rosa Parks could have still gotten on the bus and still went to jail; the only difference is the bus-driver. The other problems include the fact that situation is resolved so easily, and well, again the inclusion of historical figures. Martin Luther King Jr. pops up, but he’s immediately sidelined, and seems to really only be there because the writers gave a shout-out along the lines of “hey this guy changed racism in America, he’s important and you should pay attention” rather than focus a story on him.

This feels like something the classic series would do. Speaking of which...

Classic Doctor Who started off as an educational show, and the earliest historical episodes did either focus on a time period or a person — i.e. the first Doctor’s tenure had an episode where the Doctor and his companions join Marco Polo and interact with King Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades — but historical stories pretty much mellowed out in favor of more science fiction approaches. When a historical story did show up, it was more focused on the science-fiction aspect of it, rather than the historical part.

There’s a self-aware joke of doing a historical Doctor Who story by —sorry everybody, but he’s clever — Douglas Adams, in the episode City of Death.

For those of you who don’t know, City of Death follows the 4th Doctor and Romana trying to stop an alien from travelling back in time and causing a paradox that will prevent his species from extinction. Indeed, he has to fund his time machine using six copies of the Mona Lisa, which the Doctor later has to go back and time and drop off the blank canvases so they can be painted for this future adventure.

...this feels like something Steven Moffat would write.

Anyways, during the first part the Doctor and Romana visit the Louvre and visit the Mona Lisa. While the 13th Doctor would be characterized at showing how amazing Leonardo Da Vinci was and how his work will impact humanity forever (similar to what she did in Rosa), this exchange occurs:

Romana: Why hasn’t she [the painting] gotten any eyebrows?

The Doctor: What? Is that all you can say? No eyebrows? We're talking about the Mona Lisa! It's the Mona—

(The Doctor inspects the painting more closely)

The Doctor: Good heavens, you're right. She hasn't got any eyebrows. Do you know, I never noticed that before.

Get it, it’s funny because it works? Ah, I guess I’ll see myself out.

So... yeah. That’s it for now. This is part 1 of me ranting about Chibnall’s poor Doctor Who writing.

Side-note: The reasons I didn’t talk about stories such as The Wtichfinders and The Haunting of Villa Diodati is because — at least in my opinion, feel free to complain in an ask — they worked as episodes, even if it dragged at times. The Witchfinders did a pretty good job at demonstrating the sexism and paranoia over something logical at the time and The Haunting of villa Diodati did a fantastic ghost story by following the formula of the new series. Mary Shelley and Frankenstein was the main focus, and the Doctor and her companions had an adventure inspired by, well, Frankenstein.

Also I don’t count Can You Hear Me? because the historical setting wasn’t very important; it wasn’t really a historical episode.

(Screenshots © copyrighted by the BBC; do NOT give me credit for the pictures)

[bestworstcase]

in the wake of once a handmaiden i’ve seen a few posts drawing comparisons between the final shot of cass in the ruined throne room and either (1) varian at the end of queen for a day or (2) varian and the saporians in the throne room mid-rapunzel’s return. which... sure, i guess, but to me both of those feel a bit superficial, as parallels go. they’re like the “hu hu hu gothel said ‘now i’m the bad guy’ and so did cass (but the context and meaning is completely different)!” of comparing varian’s villain arc to cassandra’s SO INSTEAD!—

the plot of handmaiden is best understood, imo, as kind of moral argument between cassandra and zhan tiri. cassandra’s side of the argument is “i am not a bad person; i did bad things, but i can fix it.” zhan tiri’s side of the argument is “you can try to fix it, but you will fail, because just like me, you are a bad person.” cass pursues a convoluted plan to “fix” things that involves very low risk to her (and also in no way addresses the bad things she has actually done) because she is, deep down, afraid that zhan tiri is right. all zhan tiri has to do is coax that fear to the surface, then gently place her thumb on the scale to ensure that the fear becomes reality, to make cassandra snap, thus “winning” the argument. 

when cassandra exclaims “zhan tiri was right!” after breaking free from the amber, she’s talking about the existence of project obsidian, but subtextually, she’s also talking about this argument. that’s is why the next thing out of cassandra’s mouth is “you want me to be the bad guy? fine. i’m the bad guy.” using zhan tiri’s potion against rapunzel and taking over corona is cass lashing out in rage, yes, but it also has an edge of defeat: zhan tiri is right, cass is a bad person.

thus, this final shot with her in the destroyed throne room of corona is not a triumphant moment; it’s grim, and dark, and she sits heavily and hunched over in her stolen throne. this is cass at what i would argue is her lowest, most miserable moment thus far. here, cassandra has achieved everything she’s worked for this entire season: she has total control over the moonstone’s power, she has usurped rapunzel’s destiny, brought corona to its knees, and claimed her throne. she has her power. she’s won—but she’s still angry, still hurting, still lost, and now that she knows who her “friend” is, she’s beginning to understand the ways she’s been (figuratively) imprisoned and (literally) manipulated and thus controlled, and the worst part? she has wholly accepted that she is a bad person, that she can’t escape from being a bad person, and the only thing left for her to do is embrace it no matter how awful it makes her feel.

she has never been more powerful, or more trapped.

NOW LET’S TALK PARALLELS!

in this scene at the end of tangled: before ever after, rapunzel faces her father’s wrath and disappointment. her coronation was crashed by a group of criminals who wanted to kidnap everyone in attendance, including her father, and rapunzel beat them soundly and saved everybody. instead of celebrating her accomplishments, however, all frederic can see is the danger she is in: because her famous magical hair is returned, and because she threw herself into a high-stakes battle against his express commands. he demands an explanation that she can’t offer fully (because she has to lie about cassandra’s involvement in the black rock adventure, in order to protect her friend from being forcibly sent to a convent), then doubles down on “protecting” her by controlling where she goes and what she does, literally imprisoning her in her own home.

like cass at the end of handmaiden, rapunzel’s victory earlier in the day should have been a moment of triumph, as a culmination of everything she longed for at the beginning of BEA: freedom, excitement, the ability to live according to her personal values and truths. instead, it’s soured and becomes a source of misery.

and, just as cass’s hollow victory at the end of handmaiden is visually represented by the framing, so too is rapunzel’s. in both shots, the throne room is in ruins and looks dark, cold, and unwelcoming, and cass and rapunzel are both dwarfed by the enormity of the room. but there are also a few key differences:

in the handmaiden shot, the camera looks straight into the throne room, making the set symmetrical save for where the black rocks and rubble have disrupted the order of the room, and cassandra is positioned in the exact center. this emphasizes the power cassandra has over this situation. fundamentally, this misery is something she did to herself. zhan tiri has never forced her to do anything; manipulated situations, twisted facts, and blatantly lied to persuade her, yes, but even so, every step cassandra has taken along the road to razing corona is one she took of her own volition. she isn’t intrinsically bad; she does have a choice.

whereas in the BEA shot, the camera is set at a slight angle and places the tiara in the center of the shot such that it separates rapunzel from frederic. rapunzel isn’t trapped by her own hopelessness, as cassandra is; frederic’s authority is real, and the conflict between them hinges on his overprotectiveness and the expectations and responsibilities of rule, both represented by the tiara (this symbolism continues through the rest of the scene; when fred confines rapunzel to corona and orders her not to speak to the black rocks to anyone, he hands her the tiara. it’s a physical symbol of the weight of his authority). while the handmaiden shot establishes that cass is sitting in a deep, dark pit of her own making, the BEA shot shows the precarious balance of rapunzel’s relationship with her father, the authority he has over her, and foreshadows his role as the major antagonist of the season.*

(*varian is the villain of season one, but fred is the antagonist in the sense that he is the primary obstacle preventing rapunzel, the protagonist, from achieving her goals.)

further, the BEA shot is much brighter than the handmaiden shot, with lots of moonlight pouring in through the windows and the side door and the polished floor reflecting it back while in the handmaiden shot, the entire room is in shadow save for a tiny beam of moonlight filtering through a broken window pane. the comparative brightness of the BEA shot reflects the comparatively lower stakes (rapunzel is being confined against her will, but the kingdom is not in immediate danger, and rapunzel has friends/allies whom she can rely on for emotional comfort, whereas in handmaiden the kingdom is literally in ruins and cassandra has driven away everybody but her emotional support demon). at the same time, the handmaiden shot is not entirely without hope: that last, lonely beam of light falls through the window and lands directly on cass, symbolizing that she is not past the point of no return. 

lastly, comparing these two shots side by side is interesting because they can represent the broader conflict between rapunzel and cassandra. rapunzel struggles against external forces that seek to confine her or steer her in directions she doesn’t want to go, and most of the time she comes out victorious (by the end of s1, the clash with her father set up in the BEA shot is resolved with him encouraging her to leave corona and find her destiny). in contrast, cassandra’s struggle has always been internal: she is fighting her self-doubt, her fear of abandonment, her inability to believe that she is loved, her discontent with her station, and her tragedy is that she keeps trying to fix this internal problem with external solutions, and failing because she is applying a bandaid to a hemorrhage. and the end result is that she is left like this: sitting on a broken throne, in the ruins of a palace, in the dark, completely alone, with nothing.

BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET!

let’s talk about varian. 

varian’s villain arc and eventual redemption gets compared to cassandra’s a lot, and that makes sense because there are some obvious similarities. they’re both friends of rapunzel who eventually become frustrated with her, blame her for their problems, and lash out violently out of anger. however, i would argue that in spite of this, they are much more different than they are similar, and to talk about why we’re going to talk about the real parallel between varian and the handmaiden shot. and that’s this:

this shot, when varian is being dragged away by the guards in the middle of queen for a day, does not take place in corona’s throne room, but it has the exact same visual symbolism as both the handmaiden and BEA shots. varian is made insignificantly small in the enormous but somehow still claustrophobic halls of the palace, and the lighting is dark and cold to reflect the emotional mood of the scene. he is rendered powerless visually (he’s minuscule compared to rapunzel, who occupies fully a third of the shot and is the character with all the power in this scene) as well as literally (because he is being dragged away by two guards who are twice his size). 

and, like both cass and rapunzel in the handmaiden and BEA shots, a moment that should have been triumphant for varian—he finally made it to the palace after a grueling journey through a deadly snowstorm, and he found the one person who might be able to save his father!—goes horribly wrong, and he’s reduced to begging frantically for rapunzel’s help while the guards drag him away from her and, back home, his father dies.*

(*of course, quirin does not actually die, but varian has no way of knowing that a year and a half from now, rapunzel will be able to safely release his father from the amber. for purposes of this analysis, quirin is effectively dead.)

ANYHOW. the key difference between this shot and the handmaiden shot is that for varian, this moment of powerlessness is a) not in any way his fault and b) happening at the very beginning of varian’s descent into villainy, rather than at the end or very close to the end.

this scene sets the rest of varian’s villain arc in motion. his agency is taken from him at a critical moment, preventing him from fixing a horrible mistake that cost his father’s life. instead of collapsing and being eaten alive by his own guilt, varian funnels his anguish into rage directed at rapunzel, who is easier to blame than himself (especially because he is fourteen and doesn’t grasp that rapunzel did make the correct choice when she refused to leave corona). this blame and anger is exacerbated by rapunzel’s inaction after the storm; in failing to check up on him, she leaves varian to fester in resentment until he finally just snaps. 

like rapunzel in the BEA shot, varian is up against an external force (rapunzel) preventing him from achieving his goal of saving his father, and his villain arc is a kind of counterpoint to rapunzel’s s1 struggle against her father; they both fight back against their antagonists, she against fred and he against her, but varian does so in a violent, destructive way and thus ultimately fails to achieve his goal; rapunzel by comparison fights back by asserting her independence and relying on her friends/allies to help her, and ultimately achieves her goal by persuading fred to see her as a capable individual rather than an object to be guarded. 

like cass, varian lacks rapunzel’s extensive support network; he spends his villain arc alone, stewing in his resentment and guilt, spiraling deeper and deeper until he is unrecognizable as the innocent boy he used to be.

unlike cass, however, varian has a clearly-defined, straightforward external goal: he wants to free his father and punish rapunzel for her inaction. as i discussed earlier, cassandra by contrast is trying to fix an internal problem with external measures, which is why her villain arc is so much messier and more complicated than varian’s, and why it has been driven partly by cassandra falling victim to the manipulations of a demon who keeps passing her concrete goals to pursue with the promise that achieving them will fix her problem.

and this is why varian’s handmaiden parallel happens at the beginning of his villain arc while the handmaiden shot occurs at the end or very close to the end of cassandra’s: the QfaD shot is varian’s inciting incident, but the handmaiden shot is cassandra’s end result. 

in the QfaD and BEA shots, varian and rapunzel both have choices taken from them, and everything they do from this point onwards is driven by their drive to fix that injustice. but in the handmaiden shot, cassandra has given up on her ability to choose, and this comes at the end of a long, self-destructive road. unlike varian, whose villain arc hinges on an external problem with an obvious, clear-cut solution (save his father), cassandra’s villain arc hinges on an internal problem (she is unhappy, anxious, and hurting) with no real answer, and because she is unable to seek comfort from her friends (who have spent a year not treating her well in general) and rapunzel specifically (because rapunzel doesn’t hear her when she voices her pain, and because a lot of her pain is connected to or outright caused* by rapunzel), she clings to the first source of emotional validation and comfort she encounters—which happens to be an ancient, evil being who’s really just using cass as a means to an end, and who keeps telling cass, “if you do this bad thing, you will fulfill your destiny (and your pain will stop).” and cass, because she doesn’t know how to fix her problem, and because zhan tiri starts with small, palatable ideas like stealing the moonstone, swallows this hook, line, and sinker.

 (*to be completely clear, the pain rapunzel caused stems from their argument in the great tree, cassandra’s subsequent horrific injury, and the way rapunzel blamed cass for everything that went wrong in the tree. i am not talking about gothel’s abandonment.)

all of which is a somewhat long-winded way of saying varian’s villain arc and cassandra’s villain arc are not really comparable, because varian’s involves him turning to extreme, violent, desperate measures to save his father, while cassandra’s involves a self-destructive downward spiral exacerbated by the machinations of a demon, and the timing of when these parallel shots in QfaD and handmaiden occur in their respective villain arcs perfectly encapsulates that difference.

[sketchyships]

You remind me of the babe (chapter 1/?)

I can explain.

....No I can’t.

Listen, just read this and pretend that you didn’t see it.

TW: Verbal parental abuse

/./././././././././././././././././././././

My hands shook as I locked my bedroom door behind me, my mother’s still screaming voice echoing across the house. She had been doing this for two hours now; two hours of endless berating, and insults. I couldn’t handle anymore of it. 

“LET ME IN!” I winced as she screeched through the thin wood of my door. 

My cries caught in my throat, causing me to hiccup and sob. “N-n-no. I-I need a m-minute.”

“You don’t get to walk away from me! I’m not finished! You’re acting like a spoiled child-” Her tone grated against my skin, making me want to scratch, to pull my hair and scream back. Before I could think about what I was doing, I stumbled away from the door and into my closet, slamming it shut behind me. Within moments I was on the floor, clutching my chest and sobbing. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t stand to live like this.

“You’re such a fucking child! Twenty years old and you can’t even take care of yourself! Do you even think?!” 

Her earlier words echo in my mind, still ripping into me. My own mother didn’t think I was capable.

“Some of us have to go to work and pay the bills! The least you could do is try and help out, but no, you don’t care to do anything unless it’s fun for you!” All of this just because I had forgotten to take out the trash. Was I really so selfish for forgetting something so small?

“You were supposed to be in college by now, and instead you’re wasting your life! You want to be a child?! Fine! I’ll take everything away from you, and you won’t be able to leave! I’ll treat you like one!” She thought I was a failure, and to be fair, I probably was one.

My chest ached as I struggled for breath, the memories of everything she had said overwhelming me. I cried out without thinking, my voice hitching as I rocked back and forth. “I-I wish I c-could just disappear! Just get me out of here! Anyone, please!”

My voice faded, and I was left in silence. There was no one to hear my cries, no one to comfort me. I was totally, and dreadfully alone. It was stupid of me to give in and let myself break like this-

I froze in place as I heard a tiny, high pitched giggle above me. I blinked and looked up, squinting in the darkness. “H-hello?”

Another giggle, this one in front of me. My breath froze in my lungs as I reached up and tried to shakily turn on the light. No matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t seem to find it.

The giggling grew louder as I stood, forcing open the closet door before stumbling toward the light switch. The light flickered on for a moment before the light bulb sputtered out with a loud POP! 

I screamed and ducked my head to avoid any falling glass shards. Ok, fuck this. The stress was finally making me crack. I shook myself and tried to open the door. “Mom? Mom, I’m sorry, but I-I need help-”

The door knob didn’t move as I yanked it side to side. The giggling was growling steadily louder around me as I struggled to keep my breathing steady. “M-mom-”

I screeched as I felt something latch onto my leg in the darkness. The laughter exploded into cackles as I felt what seemed like claws dig into my legs and start to drag me down.

“STOP IT! STOP! HELP!” I had lost it. Was this some kind of nightmare?!

“What do you think we’re doing?” A voice like broken crystal crooned in my ear as more tiny claws dug into my shoulders and sides, lifting me off the ground.

I strained to get out of their grasps, covering my face as I began to hyperventilate. This was a nightmare, it was all just a nightmare. I had fallen asleep inside the closet, I was going to wake up. I needed to wake up, RIGHT NOW!

“That’s quite enough. You can let her go now.” I gasped as all of the hands dropped me, and I smacked into the ground with a harsh thud. I jolted up, kicking at the tiny creatures that were scurrying away from me.

“That’s the last time I send them to retrieve something so important.” I froze as  a shadow fell over me. “Are you quite alright? They didn’t smack your pretty little head off anything, did they?”

I blinked and slowly forced my eyes upward. The man standing over me was… I couldn’t decide if he was enchanting, or insane. The first thing I saw were his riding boots, shined so perfectly I could see my own terrified expression in them. Then a pair of light gray dress pants, and a black corset vest over what looked like a Victorian dress shirt. The entire outfit seemed to glimmer slightly, as if the wearer had been dipped in a mix of shellac and glitter. All of that paled in comparison to his actual face. His eyes practically glowed, one a radiant emerald green, the other a honeyed earthen brown. His skin was pale, and his face was chiseled like a marble statue. When he spoke, his mouth was overfilled with fangs that grew in every direction, and long, warped ears stuck out from his golden hair, which emulated both a spider plant and a cartoon cigar that had exploded. My heart sputtered for a beat, but it wasn’t out of fear.

My mouth opened before I could think about what I was about to say. “If I’m dreaming, I’ve got some issues to work out with my subconscious.”

He snorted before offering me a hand. I flinched back on instinct, lowering my head.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He raised an eyebrow and looked back at his hand expectantly. 

I paused before slowly taking it and standing, glancing around. I was in what looked like a stone throne room. The walls were crafted with what looked like giant, uneven bricks. We stood on uneven, cracked tiles, and a deep fire pit was set in the floor about a dozen feet away.. The walls were covered in uneven shelves, and large, colorful banners. For a throne room, it was rather… unfinished. 

“What do you think, Emily?” I froze as he spoke just behind my ear.

I turned, nearly tripping on an uneven tile as I felt my eyes widen. “How do you know my name-no, stupid question. It’s- it’s fine.” I took another step back, trying to get space between us. “It’s lovely, really. Now, I… I hate to be rude, but I really must leave. Which exit do I take to wake up?”

My stomach dropped as he smirked down at me. “Leave? Wake up? Dear girl, you aren’t making any sense. You did ask to be taken away, didn’t you?”

My desperate words from before echoed in my mind. “I- well, yes, but I- this is just a dream, this isn’t real-”

“Is that so?” I took another step back as he walked closer to me, flinching yet again as he grabbed my arm. He lifted his free hand to reveal a crystal ball. He pressed it into my hand, and I winced as it warped against my skin. When I looked down, I was holding a white rose, it’s thorns digging into my palm. It’s perfume was overwhelming, and I grimaced as he guided my hand closer to my face. “Tell me, does this seem like something you would dream of? Something so vivid, so life like?”

I dropped it, shaking my head and raking my hands through my hair. “I- That’s not- I don’t- stop!” I couldn’t handle this. This couldn’t be real, but he was right. Everything around me was so unwillingly real.

“No. You asked to be taken, so I took you. It will be easier for you to calm down if you accept that.”

“Who are you?!” My panic began to sour in my stomach as I stared at him. “What kind of sick joke is this?” 

He smiled again. “You don’t know? Has it been so long since you thought of me last?” He bowed at the waist. “The dreadful goblin king, Jareth, at your service.”

I felt like I had been shot point blank. So many childhood fairytales, so many daydreams, so many days out in the woods with imaginary friends came rushing back all at once. This couldn’t be real. The goblin king was the antagonist of so many stories I had made up when I was younger. He was an evil, possessive, manipulative bastard that was obsessed with control.

And, now apparently, he had kidnapped me, and taken me hostage. 

He stood straight and stepped closer to me. “Why so shocked? Do you not recall the many times I offered to help you? To take you away? All I asked was that you gave up your old life and became mine. Now, you have finally seen reason-”

My shock faded as I stared at him. With every word, I felt something molten hot begin to grow inside me. It didn’t matter if this was a dream; the audacity of any character, any creature to think that they had any right to steal me, was disgusting. I decided to do the only thing that seemed logical in the moment.

I reeled back, and sank my fist into his smug, glittering face.

[romancemedia]

NCIS LA S11 Romances

It’s been two months since the conclusion of NCIS: Los Angeles 11th season, but recently after rewatching some of the season and other classic episodes, I wanted to take the time to discuss all the romantic relationships and what their futures will be like in season 12.

Densi

It’s no surprise the first couple up for discussion is everyone’s beloved Densi. Kensi and Deeks have officially been married for an entire year and I congratulate my favourite NCIS romance for their major milestone. It seems at first glance not much has really changed for Densi this season since they got only a handful of scenes and episodes together, but really their relationship is facing a long awaited and major change. Finally after so many years of discussing the sensitive subject, Deeks and Kensi are Finally Ready. They Are FINALLY Trying to Get Pregnant. They Are Ready to Become Parents. I still can’t believe it’s finally happening. It’s been so long since Deeks and Kensi first had their discussion about kids and it’s been quite the journey for them to finally get to where they are now. In the beginning, it was obvious that Deeks loves and is fantastic with kids, showing he would make a great father. Kensi on the other hand, wasn’t so sure about the idea and didn’t really like them.

Kids was always a sensitive subject for the couple as though Kensi was beginning to soften her attitude and showed a more motherly side, she was still unsure and reluctant about the idea. It hasn’t been an easy road for the couple which at one point, the idea of a family and children almost caused them to break up as we all recall from the events of the season 9 finale two years ago. Over the years however, as Deeks and Kensi’s love and relationship grew stronger, proving they can overcome any adversity it finally lead to the proper talk of the subject. Season 11 featured episodes of the couple finally ready to face the subject head on, first beginning when Kensi experienced a pregnancy scare and finally experienced first hand the emotions of the possibility of being pregnant and actually having a baby. When the false alarm was confirmed, Deeks was willing to drop the subject until Kensi finally decided she was ready to properly have this long overdue discussion.

Since then though it seemed they again dropped the subject until the events of the special 250th episode where Kensi almost lost Deeks when he was trapped inside a room with a bomb. During this super emotional hour for the couple, it finally caused Kensi to realize and declare that she really and truly wants to have children with Deeks and following his survival, Deeks and Kensi at last began the journey of building a family and finally started trying to get pregnant. Unfortunately, months pass and Deeks and Kensi still have yet to conceive and begun to experience some emotional turmoil as well as worries of the future. Despite their worries and doubts, they remain determined to start a family, knowing they are finally ready for this next chapter of their lives. 

I’m looking forward to seeing what season 12 has in store for the couple as it was previously stated that Deeks and Kensi will continue their efforts of getting pregnant, but will continue to face a few emotional turmoils along the way. Most of the time, getting pregnant is rather easy for a majority of couples, but others unfortunately aren’t so lucky. The emotional turmoil of their attempts to get pregnant will continue and may even begin to affect their work in the field, causing some potential team issues. Hopefully, Deeks and Kensi seek help and may even begin to seek fertility treatment if necessary. Overall, no matter how or when it happens I look forward to the day Kensi declares she is pregnant and we can finally begin to look forward to when the Densi Baby at last arrives.

Neric

The second couple is everyone’s two favourite Meerkats, Neric. Since the end of season 9, Eric and Nell finally and officially became a couple, but their honeymoon phase has long since come to an end and now they are beginning to reevaluate their relationship. Things haven’t been easy for Eric and Nell for quite a long time since the end of season 10 when Nell discovered her mother was sick and from there onward, their relationship has begun to face several challenges. In season 11, Eric had taken time off from NCIS after accepting a job offer and was living in San Fransisco for a time. The long distance hadn’t been easy on the couple and that caused to Nell begin questioning their relationship, especially after learning Eric was actually on a secret undercover assignment for Hetty. Nell was extremely worried about Eric throughout the ordeal and was relieved when he was returned safe and sound, unfortunately Nell’s worries, concerns and other issues hadn’t gone away so easily. 

Eric and Nell eventually began to really confront the true nature of their relationship when Nell realized they had moved too quickly. They simply jumped from being best friends into a serious relationship without ever actually dating. In the end, they decided to hit the reset button on their relationship and simply have fun when they do get to spend time together. However, the couple found themselves once again separated by the end of the season when all of Nell’s issues, from her mother’s illness to stress of the job finally came to a head and she began strongly considering leaving NCIS for good. Thankfully, Hetty encouraged Nell to take some much needed time off to figure out what she wanted for herself and Eric hasn’t seen or spoken to Nell since. In her absence, Eric seems to be handling her being done quite well, but instead he is simply trying to hide how he feels.

I’m looking forward to Nell’s return in season 12 and I’m curious how Eric will feel when she does come back. I’m hoping this experience has helped him realize how Nell felt when he was gone earlier in season 11. I have no doubt we’ll see Nell back in action soon alongside Hetty, but I still think Eric and Nell have a few more relationship issues to deal with when the show returns. However, no doubt they can weather the storm and work out their problems and will grow stronger, thus overcoming their first serious issues as a couple. Overall, I’m looking forward to Neric dealing with their problems and their relationship growing stronger during the 12th season.

Callanna

Next up is my second favourite couple of NCIS LA, Callanna. In recent years, Callen and Anna have been through the ringer ever since Anna killed Abram Sokolov in season 9, causing their relationship to become strain. Despite their problems, they both still loved each other even when Anna was sent to prison in season 10. Anna later escaped jail alongside her cell mate, a new antagonist named Kayta when it was later revealed she was working with Joelle and the CIA to use her to find Callen’s father. The mission was a success as the team managed to rescue his dad in Cuba, but unfortunately due to her fugitive status in the US and recent injury, Anna had to stay behind. Since then, Callen hadn’t seen or heard from Anna, therefore it looked like their relationship was over... or so it seemed. During the events of a very special Christmas episode, Callen and Sam shared a very powerful talk about certain subjects, including his relationship with Anna. 

Callen’s talk with Sam was enlightening as it caused him to realize he pushed Anna away, realising she was actually the real deal, a woman he could actually share and spend his life with, something he has never truly had before. All his life, Callen was trying to learn the truth about his past and who he was and now he needed to figure out what he wanted for his future and that future is with Anna. Callen ultimately realizes he truly loves Anna and vows to find her and make things right. Since then, Callen began his quest to find her and eventually Anna presented herself to Callen in need of his help with a case. Although things were a little strained between them due to their long separation, they ultimately managed to reconcile and secretly got back together. Eventually, after hiding out for several weeks with Callen, the CIA managed to scrub away her entire criminal record, making Anna a free woman once more. Although Callen expresses some worry, it does not matter as he and Anna are truly in love and happy together. 

Finally with the woman he loves and knows he can have a real life with, Callen has at last begun to plant real roots for himself and is building a future with Anna from going on a staycation to looking for a potential new home together. In season 12, I’m looking forward to seeing Callen and Anna making their relationship more serious and who knows, maybe they could be the next couple to get engaged. However, their troubles are far from over as the CIA plans to use Anna to lure out Kayta. Before the conclusion of season 11, I remembered reading the original ending was going to focus on Kayta’s return and Callen’s friendship with Sam and the team will become strained. Overall, I have no doubt this storyline will resume in season 12, but I remain worried. I want Callen and Anna to be happy and together and what I don’t want is to see Callen forced to choose between his team and the woman he loves.

SamKat

Finally last but certainly not least are the newest NCIS: Los Angeles couple... Sam and Katherine. In recent years it hasn’t been easy for Sam Hanna since he tragically lost his beloved wife, Michelle Hanna after she was kidnapped and killed by his arch-nemesis, Tahir Khalad. Since losing Michelle, Sam has been taking the time to mourn his loss and grieve her death, but finally after 3 years, Sam has at last managed to make peace from her passing and is ready to move on, knowing Michelle would want him to be happy and he has found a new happiness in our dear, Katherine Casillas, one of the show’s newest recurring characters. Katherine first appeared when she encountered the tam and helped them in recovering a valuable stolen painting and ever since she made her debut, there has been some undeniable chemistry building between her and Sam.

Katherine brings out a new side to Sam as she challenges him and makes him see the world in a new different way. Sam finds himself intrigued by Katherine and not only that, but they even have a few things in common, including their shared love of cars. Katherine is even one of the very lucky few to ever drive Sam’s car, the Hellcat. Eventually the more time Katherine made her appearances, the closer she and Sam got as well as their feelings growing stronger. Although they faced a slight bump in another investigation when Katherine was a potential suspect, Sam and Katherine managed to overcome that obstacle and afterwards, they admitted to their feelings and have began a new romantic relationship. I’m really happy for Sam and I already love him and Katherine together. I’m looking forward to seeing them in season 12. I want to see Katherine helping out in more investigations and more of the great chemistry between them. It’s always exciting to watch a new romantic relationship blossom and I’m excited to see what season 12 has in store for Sam and Katnerine’s new romance.

Overall, I’m looking forward to season 12 of NCIS: Los Angeles as a lot of our couples have some big changes and happy futures to look forward to. I can’t wait to see their next chapters unfold this fall.

[rockboywonder]

dabi is todoroki touya: the proof

This is gonna be a long one.

Ever since Dabi showed off his Quirk in the Training Camp Arc, a particular theory began cropping up. It’s arguably the largest fan theory in the entire BNHA fandom, and with good reason. At the point we’re at now in the story, it’s almost like it’s not even a theory anymore-- it’s just something we’re waiting for Horikoshi to make canon with one panel. The theory of the day is: Is Dabi a Todoroki?

Today, we’re going to lay out everything that points to Dabi being the estranged brother of one Todoroki Shouto, and if you didn’t believe it before, hopefully you will now.

Let’s take it back to the beginning-- if Dabi is a Todoroki, who the Hell is he? After the Calvary Battle in Season Two, Todoroki reveals the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father to Midoriya and introduces the idea of “Quirk marriages;” Todoroki was the perfect blend of Endeavor and Rei’s Quirks. And in a flashback during Todoroki and Midoriya’s battle, there’s a shot of Todoroki’s other siblings, or Endeavor’s failures, playing in the background as Todoroki is dragged away. Soon, we’d come to know the names of the children-- Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Touya. 

What we knew about Touya at that point in time was that he was small and presumably physically weak, due to how easily he falls while playing as Natsuo laughs at him instead of helping him out. And from the way that Todoroki family genetics work, it can be assumed that he has fire power, due to his red hair. He’s also the oldest of the four, despite being very short.

Touya is the only named Todoroki sibling not to appear and interact with his family. Fuyumi talks to Todoroki in season two, and although Natsuo has not made his proper anime debut, he eats with his family in later chapters. That’s kind of weird, right? I mean… Unless Touya has been interacting with the main cast the entire time, and none of them have realized it.

Enter Dabi, a villain who desires to change the integrity of the hero world. Dabi has interacted with both Todoroki and Endeavor-- the two members of his potential family the least likely to recognize him. Todoroki because he was kept away from his siblings and forced through individual training (abuse), and Endeavor because he was neglectful of his failures. But we’ll get into that later.

The first time Dabi speaks is when he’s brought before Shigaraki under the pretense of joining the league. When Dabi insults Shigaraki’s judgement if he plans on letting Toga in, he retorts that at least she told him her full name, and that Dabi only gave him a moniker. Dabi says that he will tell them his name when the time comes. Even now, Dabi’s real name has not come from his own mouth.

The next time he takes centre-stage is as one of the antagonists of the Training Camp Arc and the leader of the Vanguard Action Squad. Then we get a glimpse of his Quirk-- blue flames. Other than Midoriya’s father, the only characters with fire Quirks up until this point were members of the Todoroki family. Dabi’s is different in the way that it’s bright blue-- the same colour as his eyes, which are given a close-up as he uses his fire. Which are, coincidentally, the same colour as Endeavor’s, and one of Todoroki’s. Is there any significance in the flame colour, other than aesthetic? Yes, actually. Scientifically speaking, blue flame is much hotter than orange flame, which seem to be what Todoroki and Endeavor primarily use. But it’s not the first time we’ve seen this colour-- Endeavor himself uses blue fire to fend off a Noumu during the Hero Killer Arc. Even then, he comments that it raises his body temperature to a dangerous level. Dabi seems to be, under the assumption that the colour is more than just aesthetic, operating with flames hot enough to damage him. And would you look at that, he’s covered in scar tissue, all over his face, eyes, neck, appendages, and back. These scars will be important later.

After Compress has secured Bakugou and the villains make a plan to rendez-vous and abscond, Midoriya, Todoroki, Shouji, Uraraka, and Asui attempt to jump into the fray to rescue both him and Tokoyami. When Aoyama, bless his heart, catches Compress off guard with his Naval Laser, both Todoroki and Shouji jump to retrieve their kidnapped compatriots. Shouji nabs Tokoyami, but just as Todoroki is about to grab Bakugou, a patched hand snatches him away. “That’s sad, Todoroki Shouto,” is what Dabi says as he lifts the compressed Bakugou out of reach. While it’s not strange that Dabi knows the name of the runner-up in the highly publicized U.A Sports Festival, it is a little odd that he would refer to him by full name, in such a mocking tone, in the middle of this tense situation. The dramatic lighting as the two move in different directions almost screams “this is a scene you need to pay attention to.”

As mentioned before, Todoroki has no reason to recognize Dabi, or Touya. But Dabi certainly knows Todoroki.

Later, when the Pros break into the bar to rescue Bakugou, the police read off the real names of the villains-- but Dabi’s is never mentioned, almost like they couldn’t find out what it was. 

Here ends Dabi’s adventure through questionable heritage-- at least, for what’s in the anime. Luckily for us, there’s over one hundred chapters that have yet to be animated, and it’s within these pages that Dabi being a Todoroki becomes less of a theory, and more of a given. So if you’d like to keep as spoiler free as possible, I recommend you opt out now.

During the Overhaul arc, Toga and Twice are the only members of the League directly involved with the raid. Dabi accompanies Shigaraki on his mission to confront Chisaki, and during the course of this, he catches the attention of the Pro Hero, Snatch. During their battle, Snatch asks Dabi if he thinks about the families of those he kills, and how they feel. Soon after, Compress traps Snatch inside one of his marbles with Dabi’s fire, which kills Snatch.

The next arc Dabi shows up in is when the Todoroki connection stops being subtext and just becomes, well, text.

Dabi shows up in front of Hawks and Endeavor with the intention of getting into a fight. He only greets Endeavor, and hesitantly at that, saying “nice to meet you, Endeavor, I guess,” or something along those same lines. It should be mentioned that all of 1-A is watching this fight transpire via the TV, and at this point, it focuses in on Todoroki’s face, who recalls the name “Dabi” and we’re treated to a flashback panel of the “How sad, Todoroki Shouto” bit from the Training Camp Arc. Endeavor recognizes Dabi as the one who killed Snatch, nothing more, and Dabi doesn’t even seem to remember the life he has taken. Before leaving, Dabi refers to Endeavor as “Todoroki Enji--” his full name. This occurrence is a little stranger than Dabi knowing Todoroki’s name. Pro Hero names aren’t typically publicized in the same way U.A students’ are. It’s weird for Dabi to know and/or use the name Enji unless he has a personal relationship with him. Such as… If they were family.

After his meeting with Hawks, Dabi leaves on his own. He then remembers Snatch, and recalls how he asked if Dabi cared about the families of his victims. Dabi laughs, and then the patch of burned skin below his eye starts to leak blood, which drips down to his chin, implying he’s started to cry. He wipes away the blood tears and mumbles to himself; “I thought so hard about it I went crazy.” Dabi has put a lot of thought into families, it seems, and thinking about it drove him mad.

The next few pieces of evidence relate to Touya, not to Dabi, and the things that happened to him. After his battle with the Noumu and Dabi, Endeavor returns to his home, only to be roasted by Todoroki and snubbed by Natsuo, which is perfectly understandable. Natsuo gets up to leave, not being able to stand his father’s presence. He yells at Endeavor, not being able to forgive him in the same way Rei and Fuyumi can, and not ready to make nice with him just because he defeated one villain. He says: “You completely neglected us, and left us to listen to Mom screaming and Shouto crying. Not to mention what happened with Big Bro Touya [...]”

Well, Touya is finally mentioned by one of his siblings. And it seems like whatever happened to him, it wasn’t good. The way it’s framed makes it seem like Endeavor was responsible for what befell Touya, such as pushing him too far in training. The reader is left to wonder: maybe Todoroki wasn’t the first trainee under Endeavor’s wing. Maybe something went wrong with one of the other children.

But all we have to go on is Natsuo’s cryptic words, after which Todoroki claims: “I’ve never seen Natsu get that emotional.”

Until, we get more insight into Todoroki’s abuse during the Joint Training Arc. In a flashback, we see Endeavor yelling at a young, vomiting Todoroki, saying: “Quit pretending to be so frail! Touya’s case was regrettable. He possesses even greater firepower than mine, and yet… He inherited Rei’s weak constitution. He… was almost perfect. Almost.”

So, now the idea of Touya that we have is that he had very strong flames, but his body wasn’t able to handle it. He was almost perfect, but this fatal flaw made it so that he could not succeed Endeavor. Alright.

During Todoroki’s fight against Tetsutetsu, Tetsutetsu claims that the other’s flames won’t work, because Tetsutetsu’s strength was obtained by overcoming his limits. These words trigger a traumatic flashback for Todoroki, where he remembers Endeavor shouting at him to surpass his limits-- there’s no way he can’t do it, he’s just not trying hard enough. Trying to pull himself out of the flashback, Todoroki repeats Midoriya’s inspirational words to himself, and then cranks his flames up to eleven, so hot that they begin to melt the cameras. Because of the black and white nature of the manga, we can’t tell if the flames are meant to be blue or white, but one can assume they’re no longer orange. Todoroki notes that the heat is causing him to become dizzy and sluggish, and that he needs to stop or he’ll burn himself. Burn himself, huh? The heat, in combination with the debris, causes Todoroki to pass out before doing any permanent damage to himself.

So, we have Todoroki, who has acknowledged that his fire can hurt him if he overdoes it. Then, we have his brother Touya, who has more powerful fire than Endeavor, and presumably Todoroki, who is pretty weak to fire. Don’t you think that combination would lead to, I don’t know, burn scars all over one’s body?

Let me paint you a story. Granted, it’s not based on much, and if you have more theories, let me hear em!

Rei and Endeavor have had their first child. At age 4, he manifests his Quirk-- a fire Quirk. Endeavor immediately starts training him to surpass All Might, but Touya’s hesitant with his Quirk, because he’s sensitive to it. After Todoroki is burned by his mother, in the lull where he’s not at his greatest, Endeavor returns to training Touya. Just like what he did with Todoroki, Endeavor screams at Touya to surpass his limits. The stress causes Touya to unleash his full potential-- blue hot flames, which has severe physical repercussions, burning his entire body. Endeavor freaks out and tries to speed along the recovery as fast as possible, because Touya was almost perfect. Going by hair colours, neither Fuyumi or Natsuo have the firepower, or strength of firepower, that Endeavor wanted. Returning to Todoroki, Endeavor casts Touya aside. The experience completely traumatizes Rei, who breaks down. Bitter, Touya runs away, buys some hair dye, and begins to hate everything hero society stands for. He was violently abused by the Number 2 Hero, who is revered by the public. And so, he begins to go by the name Dabi-- Cremation. He does not create fire. With it, he wants to destroy the way things are.

In Todoroki Shouto: Origin, as Todoroki is being pulled away from looking at his siblings, where Touya appears to be alive and well, he has no burn on his eye. When Endeavor is telling Todoroki about how Touya’s case was regrettable, the burn mark is there. Meaning, something happened to Touya in between those two scenes.

I initially wrote this during the Meta Liberation Army Arc-- when the villains were getting more depth, but each time it got to Dabi, the narration pulled away. I thought maybe we’d get an answer at the end. But now, as we’ve entered a new arc that seems to have Hawks and Dabi as main players, perhaps we’ll finally get the info we’ve been craving.

[tomeandflickcorner]

Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: You Can’t Take it With You

Hmm.  Well, points for attempting to deliver a decent message, but I kept getting distracted by the fact that the main antagonist inexplicitly had access to technology that seemed more advanced than what existed in the 80s.

The story begins late at night.  The Ghostbusters are sound asleep, except for Egon who is doing some late night reading.  (I knew I liked Egon!)  Suddenly, alarms start going off, and Ray, Winston and Peter are woken up. The alarm apparently was meant to go off if a non-corporal rupture was detected, so they hurry down to the basement to check on the Containment Unit.  However, when they inspect the Containment Unit, they find it’s in perfect working order.  So Peter is completely ready to dismiss it as a false alarm and go back to bed. But Egon disagrees, stating that a huge ecto surge must have just occurred, as even alarms they’d previously shut off had activated.  Something must have caused it, so they need to determine what it was.

As the episode progresses, it’s revealed that the ecto surge came from a high rise that’s owned by a billionaire named Mr. Tummel. Basically, Mr. Tummel is aware that he’s getting on in years and knows he will probably die before much longer. So, instead of leaving his fortune behind to be collected by various charities and the like after he croaks (guessing he has no heir), he hired this unnamed scientist to construct a machine that would transport his money and gold bars into the Ghost World.  That way, Mr. Tummel could have it with him on the other side.  Yeah, Mr. Tummel is clearly not a chartable sort, but then again, what billionaire is?  In any event, this machine is what was causing the ecto surge the Ghostbusters detected.

Of course, this is the part when I started scratching my head. Particularly since this random scientist seemed to know enough about the Ghost World and its properties to construct a machine that could transport physical matter across the dimensional barrier. Who is this guy?!  How did he learn so much about ghosts and the dimension they live in?  I bought the fact that the Ghostbusters managed to create equipment that could catch and hold ghosts because Egon and Ray are both highly intelligent people and inventors. And they clearly studied the paranormal alongside Peter prior to forming the Ghostbusters.  But I always got the impression that they were the exception to the rule, as most scientists would disregard anything to do with the realm of the supernatural.  Case in point Egon’s Uncle Cyrus from the episode Cry Uncle.  But here’s this guy who not only has proven the Ghost World exists but can actually breech the barrier between the Ghost World and the Mortal World.  Why isn’t this guy collaborating with the Ghostbusters?! Can you imagine what they could accomplish if he combined forces with Ray and Egon?  Come on, show!  This guy deserves more than to be treated as just a nameless scientist!  He doesn’t even have a page on the Ghostbusters wiki!

Nerdy ranting aside, after the scientist’s machine manages to successfully transport a pile of gold bars into the Ghost World, Mr. Tummel orders him to do the same with a pile of money stacks.  The scientist, however, insisted that they had to wait until he ran some tests in order to make sure the machine wasn’t causing any adverse effects on the environment. (He even mentions the ozone layer.)  Which only increases my respect for this guy, as it indicates he’s a responsible scientist. But Mr. Tummel refuses to bother with such precautions.  What does he care for things like the environment and respecting rules and regulations?  All that matters is the wealth he’s obtained.  (Yep, he’s definitely a billionaire.)  So Mr. Tummel summons two goons to throw the scientist out and takes over the machine himself.  Somehow, Mr. Tummel had specifically programed his wheelchair to contain a control panel to the machine, which would allow it to become fully automated. Thus, Mr. Tummel continues to send his extensive wealth over to the Ghost World indiscriminately.

Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters managed to track down the source of the ecto surges to Mr. Tummel’s high rise.  As they look up at the high rise, they witness ghosts emerging from the gateway in the sky, which the machine had opened up.  Egon realizes that someone managed to create a portal into the Ghost World, but because the door swings both ways, ghosts were starting to emerge from the other side.  Some of these ghosts managed to make their way into the room where Mr. Tummel was, but he announces he anticipated this and therefore embedded a few precautionary measures into his wheelchair. Specifically an Ecto Shield and a pair of Particle Throwers to drive the ghosts away.  (Did Mr. Tummel steal the blueprints for the Particle Throwers from the Ghostbusters somehow?)  The ghosts are driven away from Mr. Tummel and they make their way through the high rise, eventually crossing paths with the Ghostbusters.  When the Ghostbusters fire their Proton Packs, some stringy fragments fall off the ghosts, which Winston compared to cobwebs. At this point, Peter, ever the mercenary, questions why they’re bothering with this in the first place. After all, nobody is paying them for this.  So what does it matter if ghosts are escaping?  It just means they’ll eventually get more calls from paying customers.  However, Egon announces that these ghosts were brought into the Mortal World through artificial means.  Because of this, their molecular structure was unstable.  (Which explains what those cobweb-like fibers were.)  If they didn’t do something about this immediately, the escaped ghosts would continue to break down, with each fragment becoming a new ghost. And in approximately 15 hours, the entire world would be completely overrun with ghosts.  This explanation is enough to convince Peter to continue on with the pro bono job, probably because he was remembering the events of the earlier episode, Adventures in Slime and Space. Peter moves toward the elevators in order to take them to the top floor, but that option is quickly crossed off when it’s revealed the elevators have become possessed and are therefore inaccessible.  So it looks like the Ghostbusters might have no other option other than take the stairs. Which is something they’re not looking forward to as the high rise has 150 floors.  Fortunately, Ray has a better idea.  This idea involved obtaining a helicopter (somehow) and flying it up to the roof.  (Side note- Ray announces he won a free helicopter lesson in 1976.  Which, according to my math, means he was about 17 at the time of this lesson.)

Of course, nothing is ever easy.  As the helicopter nears the roof of the high rise, the magnetic field surrounding the dimensional gateway and the resulting electrical storm cause the helicopter’s mechanisms to fail.  Fortunately, right before they could crash land, Egon manages to hook up the helicopter’s ignition to his Proton Pack, which got the helicopter working again.  When they finally do make it up to the roof, they find the door leading inside is locked. And because the door is made of solid steel, they can’t simply blast their way though.  Deciding to improvise, Ray once again makes a suggestion and he, Winston and Egon abseil down the side of the building and crash through a window. Of course, to add some humor to the situation, once they’re inside, they see Peter casually entering the room through the door.  When they ask how he managed to get inside, he announces he simply picked the lock with a nail file.  (Why am I not surprised that Peter knows how to pick locks?)

As they start to look around the high rise’s interior, they hear sounds coming from behind a locked door.  Upon opening it, they find three of Mr. Tummel’s servants.  Namely, his butler, personal chief and…. I’m guessing the janitor?  Upon being freed, they explain to the Ghostbusters what Mr. Tummel was doing. And state that Mr. Tummel was also planning to transport them over to the Ghost World against their will.  It seems simply sending over his fortune wasn’t enough.  Mr. Tummel also planned on forcing his servants to continue serving him on the other side as well.  Because clearly, not even kidnapping and possible murder was too far for him.  (Would sending living people over to the Ghost World count as murder?)  Armed with the knowledge of who they’re dealing with now, the Ghostbusters make their way to the lab where the machine is located in order to confront Mr. Tummel directly.  (Of course, Egon takes a moment to voice his envy over the advanced equipment in this lab, announcing he plans to have a serious discussion with Peter later about their research budget.)

When the Ghostbusters come face to face with Mr. Tummel, they attempt to talk him into stopping what he’s doing, but to no avail. Instead, Mr. Tummel activates his laser security system, which forces the Ghostbusters to dive for cover while Mr. Tummel continues to transport his money into the Ghost World.  As they’re crouched down seeking refuge from the laser fire, Egon theorizes that the gateway would close automatically if they overloaded the machine.  Peter personally volunteers for this task and, after waving an improvised white flag so Mr. Tummel would turn off the lasers, he tricks the billionaire into attempting to transport the entire building over to the Ghost World.  He does this by pointing out that Mr. Tummel might not have a place to live on the other side.  Not only that, but when he dies, the building he lives in will be lying empty. Peter drives the nail home by offering to donate the building to the United Way after Mr. Tummel dies. This enrages the old man, as he utterly loathes all charities.  So he begins to try and send the entire high rise though the portal as well.  Of course, this sets off a chain reaction with multiple explosions going off. Amidst the chaos, Mr. Tummel’s wheelchair is hit, sending him rolling into the transporting area and getting himself transported away.

Even with Mr. Tummel gone though, the machine is still going haywire.  Peter, attempting to stop it, fires at the control panel, but this doesn’t do anything as the machine is on automatic at this point.  In the hopes of setting off a feedback loop that would jam the transmission, send the escaped ghost back and close the dimensional portal, Egon tosses an open Ghost Trap into the machine’s transporting area.  The Ghostbusters and the three servants then escape the building in the helicopter that’s waiting for them on the roof.  But even when they’re airborne, it doesn’t look as if the portal will close.  Until Winston throws his own Proton Pack at the building. This apparently provides enough energy for the feedback loop to be complete, and the portal closes, pulling all the escaped ghosts back inside in the process.  Of course, Mr. Tummel and the high rise were still transported though the portal alongside the ghosts.  And as a result, there’s now a large hole where the high rise used to be.  

Upon roughly landing the helicopter onto the street below, the Ghostbusters look out at the spot where the high rise was.  But as they’re standing there, the gold bars and money stacks that had previously been sent through the portal begin falling from the sky. Peter turns to Egon for an explanation, and Egon surmises that it had something to do with molecular instability. I guess it means that, when Mr. Tummel sent over his high rise, it displaced all the loot he’d sent over earlier. (So we’re talking about dynamic equilibrium here?)  Winston concludes that this means Mr. Tummel is now stuck in the Ghost World with nothing but a completely empty building and not a cent of his horded wealth.  But he’s got a lot of ghosts to keep him company.  Ray announces that this proves the old saying of ‘you can’t take it with you.’  But then…. the Ghostbusters decide to just leave the money and gold bars lying there in the street.  Which seems a bit odd.  Yeah, I kind of get it because it’s technically not their money and it would probably be considered theft if they just pocketed some of it.  But Egon was just voicing his dissatisfaction over how more advanced the equipment in Mr. Tummel’s lab was in comparison to theirs. That money would probably have more than covered the cost of better lab equipment at the Firehouse.  And now he’s just deciding to walk away from it?

And to further add to the confusion, a group of police cars pull up moments later.  What exactly are they going to do?  Of course, I’m sure a report is probably going to have to be filed since Mr. Tummel and his high rise have essentially vanished into thin air.  And they probably have to participate somewhat in decisions of what to do with Mr. Tummel’s recovered fortune.  But it still struck me as weird that they show up right when the episode is fading to black.

That’s pretty much all I can really say about this episode. Though I suppose it was pretty cool how this episode didn’t have a ghost as the main antagonist.  It was just a greedy old man who refused to let anyone else have his horded wealth after he died.  Which is an extremely believable concept.  Particularly since we’ve just gotten the world’s first trillionaire. Still, this was one of the episodes that left me wanting to know more of what happened after the end credits start to roll.  Like what happened to that random scientist guy?  What became of those servants who are now out of a job?  Who got all that discarded money?  Plus, there was this one weird moment toward the end.  When Egon throws his open Ghost Trap at the machine in an attempt to overload the system, he starts saying something. Except I had no idea what he was saying there, as the audio sounded really distorted at that part.  If someone could tell me what exactly he was saying, I would appreciate it.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

[shlabam]

ALL OF CYCLOPS’ CHILDREN, RANKED

Despite being fairly young and a very active planet-saving adventurer/ crusader for mutant rights, Cyclops has managed to father a significant number of children. Sure, all of them hail from alternate futures, many of which have been erased due to the actions of Scott Summers himself, but his DNA has traveled through space and time to create, in one way or another, ten different humans throughout the Marvel Multiverse. And now, because it’s the internet, they will be ranked by coolness. Feel free to become furious in the comments. [Note: this article only discusses characters who were directly descended from Cyclops’ DNA. No adoptees, grandchildren, or in-laws, just his direct kids.]

9-10 (tie): Charles and Jeanette Summers (Millennial Visions)

Somebody’s gotta be at the bottom. These tykes only exist on one page of X-Men: Millennial Visions, a one-shot where various artists showed their ideas for what the X-Men would look like in the new millennium. One artist apparently thoughts the coolest possible idea would be for a lull in villain activity, allowing Scott and Jean to settle down and have a couple kids. Charles and Jeanette rank at the bottom of this list for having no discernible powers, as well as very lazy names. (Really? You’re gonna name them after your most important mentor, and yourself, but with an -ette on the end? Think outside the box, Red.)

6-8 (tie): Alex and the Twins (X-Men: The End)

In the alternate world of X-Men: The End, Scott and Emma Frost have four children. The oldest is later on this list, but these three duds gotta come up first, seeing as they have no traits, and two of them don’t even have names. It’s implied that they have powers and have been trained in unarmed combat, but with all their appearances being in the background and no lines of dialogue, they can’t hold a candle to the children of Cyclops who affect the worlds around them. Plus, you can’t fool me: those twins are just two spare Stepford Cuckoos with drawn-on freckles. Come on!

5: Megan Summers (X-Men: The End/ GeNext)

Megan Summers, the oldest of Scott and Emma’s children from X-Men: The End, suffers from underexposure. She mostly exists as a prop for Scott and Emma to agonize over, such as when she is kidnapped by Mister Sinister. However, as she grows into her powers (fairly potent telepathy), she enters a relationship with Oliver Raven (son of Rogue and Gambit) and joins his team GeNext, the next generation of X-Men. In another universe, she could have had her own title and adventures, but the short run of GeNext leaves most of her stories untold.

4: X-Man

Nate Grey, created by Mister Sinister using Cyclops and Jean Grey’s DNA in the alternate timeline Age of Apocalypse, could have ranked higher on this list if it was still the 90s. However, as we move further and further from his relevance, we are forced to examine his contributions to the Marvel Universe after his arrival in the main timeline: had the ego to call himself X-Man (yikes), had the ego to call himself the Shaman of the Mutant Tribe (double yikes), lost a lot of his powers in combat with the Sugar Man (what a loser), and lately has function as more of an antagonist to the team from which he took his name. Sure, he has his fans, but it’s hard to relate to a character this powerful. Bonus points for his initial escape from the Age of Apocalypse: stabbing Apocalypse’s son with a chunk of the M’Kraan Crystal. That’s some Final Fantasy ish.

3: Ruby Summers

Hailing from the same future as Bishop, Ruby acts as one of the figureheads for the Summers Rebellion, a mutant uprising to campaign for mutant rights in a world where they’re frequently held in internment camps. Another potential offspring of Scott and Emma Frost, Ruby is also the only one of Scott’s children to not exhibit telepathic powers, instead inheriting her father’s optic blasts and her mother’s invulnerable gemstone form. Additionally, she can retain her ruby form for any amount of time, granting her immortality (she looks to be in her 20s but is actually over 80 years old). Despite being interesting enough for her own series (or at least membership in a team book), Ruby only appears in a single arc in Peter David’s X-Factor, leaving much of her story untold. However, she gets points docked by being romantically linked with time-traveling serial killer and all-around grease-stain Trevor Fitzroy. Ew.

2. Cable

The most successful of Cyclops’ children, and also the only one he had intentionally. Born of Scott and his first wife Madelyne Pryor (who was a clone of Jean, so he’s kinda Jean’s kid, too), little Nathanial Summers was born with incredible mutant potential, but an infection with a techno-organic virus caused him to be pulled 2,000 years into the future where his condition could be treated. Since then, he’s traveled back and forth to the future, led scores of teams, fought Apocalypse, fought Mister Sinister, fought his own clone Stryfe, raised the first mutant born after M-Day, got fused with Deadpool, was portrayed in film by Josh Brolin, and currently exists in a younger form alongside the X-Men on the mutant utopia Krakoa. And despite all these incredible accomplishments and iconic character design, Cable just couldn’t plug in to the number one spot on this list.

1. Rachel Grey

The original, still the best. Rachel Summers has everything you want in a Cyclops offspring. Telepathic and telekinetic powers? Check. Hails from a post-apocalyptic future? Check, the world of Days of Future Past. Traumatic backstory? She was a literal slave trained to track down and kill other mutants as one of Ahab’s Hounds. Member of many teams? X-Men, Excalibur, Starjammers, and the current X-Factor, just to name a few. However, what sets her apart is her intentional iconoclastic views with her father. She adopts her dead mother’s alias, changes her last name to be closer to her, and, despite potentially having the same earth-shattering powers as her “siblings” Cable and X-Man, manages to keep it all under control, as well as occasional flirtations with the Phoenix Force. A genuine boss, a class above the rest. However, there’s another Summers son that can’t be discounted.

0. unnamed baby of Scott and Jean (X-Men: Millennial Visions)

Despite only appearing on one page of the same one-shot referenced at the beginning of this list, the sheer number of questions generated by this single illustration are innumerable. Why is this the only Cyclops kid to get both Scott and Jean’s powers? How is it possible for a baby to tap into their X-Gene at such a young age? Did Xavier design that X-Diaper, knowing the child would be the youngest member of his paramilitary force? (Eat that, 13-year-old Kitty Pryde!) This baby is everything Charles and Jeanette aren’t: potent, captivating, adorable, and lacking a first name. Give him a cinematic universe before he stops being cute.

[in-dire-need]

The Hazards of Love- The Decemberists

In 2009, The Decemberists continued their streak of story-driven albums with their hit album The Hazards of Love. The band’s reputation of being a theatrical folk pop/indie rock hybrid was further solidified through the agonizing and tragic tale of William and Margaret, two lovers kept apart by evil and manipulative forces of nature.

It all started one day when Margaret was taking a walk through the woods. There, she stumbled upon a fawn whose hind legs were twisted. The fawn began to change into a fully-grown man, who becomes the story’s second protagonist. Margaret and William are quickly enraptured by each other and one thing leads to another. Margaret’s sister begins to notice that she has been gaining weight and has not recently menstruated, which can only mean one thing. Now heavily pregnant, Margaret goes back into the woods in search for William. She calls out to the forest and pleads that the forces of nature make her journey the slightest bit less troublesome. Eventually, she reunites with William and they spend another night together. He admits that he is falling in love with her and they agree that they should spend the rest of their lives together as a family. Unfortunately, William’s mother, Queen of the forest, felt very differently. He begs her to give him one last night to spend with Margaret before she changes him back to a fawn. Outraged, she reminds William of how she saved him from the evils of Margaret’s world and that he should be thanking her, not begging to give him back. Eventually, she gave in and granted him one night to live his life. Little did he know that she had other big plans ahead.

It is here that we meet our story’s main antagonist, The Rake. No, not the feral dog monster who stalks and kills its prey. A rakehell, or rake for short, is described as an immoral and vile man who lives a promiscuous lifestyle. Frontman Colin Meloy described “The Rake’s Song” as a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe, which I believe to be very accurate. The Rake narrates his backstory to the Queen, who has hired him to kidnap Margaret. He was married at the young age of twenty-one and happily reaped the benefits of the life he was living. Once his wife began to bear children he realized just how awful his predicament actually was. She gave birth to three children, Isaiah, Charlotte, and Dawn, before dying in childbirth with her fourth child, Myfanwy. Now The Rake was no longer living the life of his dreams and instead was a widower with three little pests. He decides to do what any totally rational man in his situation would do- murder his three children. First he poisons Charlotte by feeding her foxglove, a lethal plant that attacks the heart. He then proceeds to drown Dawn in the bath and burn Isaiah alive. Now he lives easy and free without a shadow of guilt.

The Rake does what the Queen has hired him to do and abducts Margaret. The Queen then attempts to justify her actions to Margaret, saying that she raised William from a baby and protected him from the evils of the human world just for her to come along and wreck everything. She tells Margaret that The Rake has plans to sexually assault her and that no one will save her. The Rake reiterates this, telling Margaret that no matter how much she calls out for William, he will not come to her rescue. Despite his attempts at destroying her hope, she continues to call out to her true love. Meanwhile, William is pleading with the River Annan’s wild and unceasing waters. He promises that if he is permitted passage to save Margaret’s life, he will come back and allow the river to consume him. His offer is accepted and he pushes on as time runs down. As The Rake is preparing to impose his will onto Margaret, his three deceased children come back to haunt him. They each assure him that they all are there to give him revenge for what he did to them. William saves Margaret with the help of the spirits’ distractions and they escape together.

As they reach the River Annan, Margaret agrees to drown with William so that they can be together at last in death. They sit in a small boat and fill it with rocks and holes in order to sink quickly. They perform a tear-filled marriage with only the waters as their witness before they whisper their final I love you’s. Looking back, William blames himself for Margaret’s untimely death beside him. They kiss one last time and allow the freezing tide to take them, as promised. 

The Hazards of Love tells a story very similar to that of Romeo and Juliet, except much, much better. Two lovers, torn apart by the queen of the forest, die together in one last moment of love and passion. Although some of the more logical aspects of the story do not quite add up, that still does not take away from the breathtaking experience as a whole. The Decemberists’ expertly crafted sound allow for the perfect atmosphere to tell this fantastical tale. The album is a continuation of tracks on The Decemberists’ previous albums, such as “The Mother’ Malison” and “Clyde’s Water”. 

The Decemberists continue to be somewhat of an underground band and albums such as this one are never fully discovered. Hopefully as more listeners dig to find stranger and more unique music, their goldmine will begin to be discovered by a larger audience. Then again, maybe it is a good thing that this little corner of the world remains untapped. It leaves a little something to be cherished by those who truly care about the music itself. So if you’re reading this, go cherish this album and the story it tells. Go enjoy yourself, internet.

“But if you calm and let me pass You may render me a wreck when I come back So calm your waves and slow the churn And you may have my precious bones on my, on my return”