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maulusque · 4 years ago

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Clone genetic enhancement ideas

So the clones were genetically enhanced, but i don’t really see any writers (in fanfic or in published stuff) really exploring what that MEANS beyond “clone very stronk”. Here are some ideas that would actually make clones significantly different from just a regular-ass human in peak condition.

-enhanced senses: eyesight, hearing, etc. I’m talking eyes like a HAWK

-better reflexes

-quicker information processing

-can hear sounds of higher and lower frequency than standard humans

-can see light of a broader spectrum than human standard

-learn quicker, retain information and skills better (potential problem: if you learn something the WRONG way, that way might stick really well)

-photographic memory (really useful for memorizing layouts and maps)

-immunity to various diseases

-can tolerate a wider range of temperatures and environments

-increased stamina and strength baseline. Clones can just run full-tilt for hours and hours and be like “ah a nice stroll”. Over long distances, they can out-pace jedi in the same way that humans can out-pace horses.

-higher tolerance of certain poisons/toxins (clones can straight-up drink ethanol, and get maybe a little tipsy)

-bodies respond quickly to physical stress, and slowly to the absence of it (basically, this means that physical conditioning results in stronger muscles and a stronger cardiovascular system really quickly, and it takes MUCH longer for a clone to lose strength and conditioning due to not exercising than standard humans. Think how much valuable training time is saved if they only have to go on a run like, once a month in order to stay in shape)

-increased ability to function through intense pain and acute injuries. Basically, semi-disabling the pain system so it’s less distracting. Probably not good for the survival of the individual in many situations, but an advantage on the battlefield.

-heal faster and better, with fewer long-term complications. Clones can dislocate their shoulders and NOT have the joint be permanently fucked up, because the Kaminoans re-designed the whole damn thing to suck WAY less.

-actually, unique internal anatomy. There’s probably a lot about the human body besides the shoulder joint that is actually just really stupid, and something no intelligent designer would actually build. So the Kaminoans can fix a lot of that stuff. Better knees, maybe. Stronger ribs. Maybe Cody punches droids not just because he’s a mad bastard, but also because his metatarsals are literally as strong as steel.

-Hearing loss/hearing damage? No problem, your ear can regrow those little hair-thingies that help you hear.

-Of course, it takes energy to maintain muscle mass, which is why human bodies lose it if we’re not using it. Clones need significantly more calories than standard humans. However, their digestive systems are enhanced to extract calories and nutrients from food much more efficiently, so food goes much farther. Potential weird side effect: maybe clones only have to poop like, once a week?

-You could probably extend that into increased ability to tolerate long periods without food/on low rations, despite the increased need for calories.

-wouldn’t it be NEAT if the kaminoans somehow designed self-repairing DNA. This would mean that others couldn’t take a DNA sample from a clone and modify it to create their own clones (basically, it protects their product. It’s like DRM for clones). This ALSO means that clones couldn’t get cancer, and that they’d be immune to radiation poisoning. So a clone could just walk up to a sphere of uranium at critical mass and pick it up. Maybe with oven mitts on if it’s hot. (this would also make it harder for a rapid-aging cure to be developed, but uhhhh fanfic writers find a way)

- “bred for obedience” I think most of this would have to be accomplished through tightly-controlled messaging and cultural norms as the clones grow up- basically, enshrining obedience as a desirable and almost sacred trait, to be prized higher than anything else, including the lives of your brothers. In the same way that we hear stories of people sacrificing their lives to protect their loved ones, the clones would grow up hearing stories of soldiers sacrificing their brothers’ lives to obey an order from a superior.

-SOME of the “obedience” thing could be engineered, though. Humans are already super social, but it would probably make sense for the clones to have an even greater need for social bonds. This would make for greater teamwork and coordination, and better unit cohesion, since the clones would be more inclined to prioritize friendship/agreeing with someone over winning an argument. It would also make it so they’d bond with their natural-born generals more easily, so they would obey them not just because they’re supposed to, but because they’d be much quicker to see them as a friend, and someone who’s trust they want to earn, someone they want to incorporate into their group and make happy.

-consequently, clones who find themselves alone do NOT do well. Isolation has a much more profoundly negative impact on clones than on regular humans.

-Originally, clones designed to operate alone or in small teams would not have the social enhancement- ARC troopers, spec-ops teams, etc. There wouldn’t be much of a noticeable difference in everyday interactions, but they’d also be vaguely weirded out by what they interpret as aggressive friendliness from their brothers, and their brothers would think they’re a bit shy and standoffish.

-actually this social modification would make it MUCH harder for clones to kill people. REGULAR HUMANS are already super bad at killing people- i remember reading this article about how as soon as soldiers have to point their weapons at actual people, their aim gets mysteriously much shittier. Even when compared to situations that are exactly the same, except they’re not shooting at other humans. So reconcile this how you will, idk.

-I imagine a lot of these enhancements would be accomplished not through DNA, but through microorganisms. Retroviruses could explain the DNA resistant to modification, and the increased healing speed, and possibly some disease resistance (do i know anything about retroviruses other than a vague concept of what they are? no i do not. will that stop me? also no.) Their metabolism can be partially explained through specially engineered gut microbes.

-not sure how they’d go about making clones “resistant to any stress”, because you can’t exactly turn off the trauma response in the brain without breaking a bunch of other things. They could probably do a bit of fiddling to make clones more resistant to chemical imbalances, and therefore more depression-resistant. I think most of the “stress-resistance” would have to come through training. Either they train the clones to basically suppress everything, which might work alright in the short term. OR they actually have systems in place that help prevent the development of things like PTSD and help treat trauma. Meaning the clones are literally trained in self-care, positive self-talk, talking about their pain with their brothers, and having community rituals around things like death and grief. I don’t think that’s super likely because one thing that’s integral to those concepts is the concept of “i am a person and i have worth, and if i feel angry about something bad happening, that is ok and valid” and considering that a whole lot of bad things happen to the clones all the time and their childhood is a whole boatload of bad all happening at once, i don’t think the kaminoans would want the clones realizing “hey wait a minute i’m a person and i don’t deserve to be treated this way and it’s ok for me to be mad at you”.

- the clones were supposedly engineered to be “less aggressive” but i think there was literally nothing more to that than a cover story for the control chip. The clones wouldn’t be raised with a lot of the aggressive western concept of masculinity, where anger is the default reaction to like, everything, and your personal pride is extremely important and also fragile (no offense lmao). So you wouldn’t have clones posturing and getting angry over perceived slights and fighting each other all the time, like everyone in-universe apparently expects to be the case. Anyway, why would you want your soldiers to be less aggressive? they’re literally supposed to fight and kill the enemy. You want them fully capable of getting angry, anger is the human response to fear and danger that lets us DO something about it.

-obviously the biggest component in how they behave would be how they are raised, but that’s an entirely different post

-Specializations! I imagine that initially, the Kaminoans had different clones with different traits engineered specifically to fill certain roles. However, as the war went on, they struggled to keep up with demand and had to start shoving clones into whatever roles were needed (hence Fives and Echo becoming ARCs, despite not being engineered as ARC troopers).

-Command clones would have better abilities in the executive function parts of the brain that deal with extrapolation, planning ahead, spatial reasoning, etc. They’d also have increased visual pattern recognition (like a pigeon)

-search-and-rescue troops would also have the pigeon pattern recognition abilities. The coast guard literally strapped pigeons to helicopters who would tap a button when they saw orange in the water, because they were better at spotting it than humans. Pigeons can detect cancer in microscope images of cells, because they’re that good at pattern recognition

-Pilots would have hella reflexes, excellent spatial awareness and spatial reasoning skills, much greater ability to process visual information, stronger hearts and blood vessels (to resist greater Gs of force), and they’d also be much shorter, to better fit into a cockpit. Which reminds me of Axe, that poor bastard from Ahsoka’s squadron over Ryloth who was almost eight feet tall. rip poor Axe, how did you even become a pilot, you long bastard.

-medics who can smell certain diseases. If you want to get a little bit out there, make the medics able to purr so they can sooth stressed-out patients.

-infantry would have even greater endurance than everyone else, as well as greater tolerance for, and ability to, remain constantly on alert.

-ability to fall asleep at will? that would be super dope.

-maybe more efficient sleep, so to an adult clone, 4 hours of sleep is genuinely sufficient.

-concept: clones can sort of turn down their bodily functions- slow their digestion, heart, lungs, the whole nine yards- to last longer in adverse conditions. Sort of a half-hibernation (or quarter hibernation- they’d still be able to talk and think, but they’d feel very lethargic). They wouldn’t be able to function very well, but it would be great for things like enduring intense cold, periods without food, low-oxygen environments, and it would be especially useful if you were wounded and waiting for help, since you could slow your circulation, meaning it would take you a lot longer to bleed out. This state could be triggered by a combination of physical actions such as sitting or lying still, breathing slowly and deeply, and focusing on slowing the heart down (humans can actually slow down their hearts consciously if you practice at it, this is basically that, but turned up to like 1100).

-one thing that never made sense to me was the whole “we’re running out of jango fett’s DNA, all the new clones won’t be as good, and we have to stop ventress from stealing the original DNA” because like, can’t they just, get the EXACT SAME DNA from the clones?? you know, the exact genetic copies? With all the enhancements already done? But now my idea is that the kaminoans have engineered the clones so their DNA straight up can’t be copied. The clone’s own body can obviously replicate it, but if you take a sample and try to extract the DNA, it just self-destructs or something. This is to protect their intellectual property, but also means that they literally have to use a couple of Jango Fett’s actual human cells for every single clone they make (and the fact that they then have to do all the above enhancements to every single embryo helps explain why there’s so many small mutations, such as hair color and height). So they kinda shot themselves in the foot with that one.

-of course since things like ADHD and autism have a strong genetic component, the kaminoans could theoretically engineer those out of the clones, but actually FUCK THAT so for whatever reason, that’s just not something they are able to do, and neurodivergent clones are absolutely a thing

#maulusque's stuff #meta #clones

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swaps55 · 2 years ago

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So I was reading through your biotics tag because I ran across one of your biotics headcanon posts and just went 'YES I need more!' And I saw you mention Reave not being canon in Opus, and apparently I completely forgot about the healing/damage protection effects because I was imagining it as just a weird more difficult but in some situations better variation of Warp this whole time?

What I was thinking was that Reave does basically what Warp does, but it's a) more targeted at specific weak points, which is why it causes more damage to armor and barriers than Warp, and b) it lasts over a period of time rather than being instant, giving the brief stunning effect it has when used on organics because pain, but that means it requires focus/effort for that time period. Both of which would make it more difficult than Warp to learn, and the precision part would require a biotic to either know or be able to correctly guess what to target, which would add additional difficulty to using it effectively.

I also discovered by reading your headcanons that apparently I have a surprising amount of thoughts on some of the topics in question that I've come up with at some point while thinking about some facet of biotics, and I might write some of those down and post later maybe.

I love hearing other biotic headcanons! I think reave being a variation of warp is great - it definitely lends itself to shearing fields, and definitely agreed that whatever reave is, it probably requires a great deal of skill to achieve. I did come up with a unique scenario in which reave could technically exist in Opus, but it's under very specific circumstances, and not really...repeatable. But it does function like a spinoff of warp.

Which also begs a question I ask myself a lot when it comes to biotics: if it's really difficult, why do it, if there's a simpler solution? In my world, biotics are taxing and resource intensive, so you want to make sure you're getting the right return on investment when using them. Though, sometimes the answer for why you do it even if its working harder not smarter is just, "because it's fucking cool." XD Either way, the thought exercise is always fun.

I try not to think about biotics in terms of "damage," because damage is a game mechanic. In reality, people don't have health bars or take damage the way they do in a game, and likewise, the way biotics interact with armor, kinetic shielding, and other biotic barriers is going to be more complex than doing damage to an armor bar. If you're writing it from a harder science perspective, anyway, which no one has to do. Asking "so what actually happens when a biotic uses a shearing mass effect field on a kinetically shielded target?" is, again, a neat thought exercise, and because the mass effect breaks the rules of physics to begin with, there isn't a Single Correct Answer.

The kaleidoscope of world building ideas people come up with when we're all ultimately playing in the same sandbox is one of my favorite things about fandom.

I hope you do write your ideas down!

#swaps replies #Anonymous #biotic meta #mass effect meta #sorry this took me a hot minute to answer!

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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 25 - Smash Kurata’s Ambitions! Fly, Yatagaramon!

In this episode, with Mercurimon grievously wounded, the DATS team furiously fights back against Kurata’s artificial Digimon weapon. Ikuto, now knowing who’s really behind all of his suffering, finally reaches a resolution in his feelings about humans.

Narrator: “However, what they learned from him was the shocking truth.”

Are you sure, anonymous recap narrator? Are you sure it was even remotely shocking that Kurata turned out to be super duper evil? I don’t think it was, somehow.

Maybe what they mean by “shocking” was the sheer cruelty of the Digimon massacre, which they just learned about in full. Yeah, let’s go with that.

As we finish the recap, Mercurimon collapses in agony, clutching the wound in his side where he was shot, which has turned into glowing yellow visual noise, some of which is slowly floating out of him. It’s a neat effect; Digimon don’t bleed, of course, but this sure looks like some kind of digital equivalent of him having been severely, horrifically wounded.

Ikuto and Falcomon rush to his side in a panic to try and do something to help, but Kurata tells them it’s pointless.

Kurata: “That wound makes him past the point of saving.”

It sure does. We saw what that same Gizmon: AT laser did to SaberLeomon – it suddenly made it not just possible but easy for him to be taken out by a less-evolved Digimon. And when he died, the egg disintegrated. All of Kurata’s weapons contain some kind of specific property he must’ve created that causes the eggs to disintegrate and the Digimon to die for real. Of course Kurata doesn’t want those “vicious monsters” ever coming back.

Masaru: “You bastard! How dare you attack from behind like a coward!”

Hah, I love that Masaru is furious at how underhanded and cowardly this move of Kurata’s was. There’ll be more on this from Masaru later in this episode.

Kurata spouts some more of his usual spiel about how Digimon are a danger to humans and must be eliminated, which, again, he has utterly convinced himself is the truth of the matter.

Kurata: “Let me put it very simply. My goal is… Digimon genocide!”

Turns out, this is a series about preventing attempted genocide. Now it’s starting to make sense why it’s called Digimon Savers.

…And, okay, Kurata probably shouldn’t actually be calling it genocide here. People who commit genocide do not admit that they’re committing genocide; that’d be like acknowledging that the people they’re mass-murdering are people. But that word was a subbers’ decision that maybe wasn’t the right one. The word he used in Japanese wasn’t specifically “genocide” and literally translates to something more like “complete erasure”. That’s not admitting that Digimon are people or that he’s committing a terrible atrocity at all.

Tohma: “You manipulated us for that purpose?”

Tohma isn’t surprised here at being manipulated, because he and Satsuma could very much tell that Kurata was Up To Something. He just had no idea that Kurata’s real purpose was something this deeply horrific.

Kurata: “From my experiences in the Digital World Exploration Squad ten years ago… I learned first-hand the true savage nature of Digimon. I realised that Digimon will only bring destruction to humanity and that they must be destroyed!”

Yes, Kurata, sure. “Realised”. “Learned”. Like these notions are totally just the objective truth about Digimon that nobody else is intelligent enough to see, and not the paranoid exaggerations of a selfish coward who’s incapable of seeing things from anyone’s perspective but his own.

Kurata is absolutely a thoroughly irredeemable piece of human trash (and, boy, he’s only going to get worse from here), but I really appreciate him as a villain, because you can actually understand what makes him that way. He’s realistically evil, because he’s human. I don’t mean that in the narrow-minded sense that Humans Are Inherently Bad and always being violent and destroying nature or whatever; I mean it in the sense (that could equally apply to a Digimon character) that humans are flawed and irrational and people. Kurata’s evil comes from him being a flawed irrational human person whose human psychology happened to cause him to deal with a traumatic experience in the absolute worst possible way, culminating in him trying to commit genocide.

If you’ll permit me to criticise other Digimon seasons here just briefly, this is remarkably rare for Digimon. Most Digimon villains try to take over the world and kill or oppress Digimon or humans simply Because They’re Evil, and those are just the kinds of things evil people do, right? The evil comes first, out of nowhere, with no explanation; it Just Is, because Evil Just Exists.

But that’s not how real evil actually works. Rather than doing terrible things Because He’s Evil, Kurata is evil because he does terrible things, and he does these terrible things for realistic reasons tied to his experiences and psychology that we can actually understand, even as we’re horrified by it all.

Kurata: “Even my greatest obstacle, Mercurimon, is now knocking on death’s door.”

It’s interesting how Kurata sees Mercurimon as his single greatest obstacle to his goal. Does he think Mercurimon is the only Ultimate-level Digimon left out there since he killed SaberLeomon? I doubt it. This is probably more about how he’s still centring everything around himself – Mercurimon is the biggest threat because he once attacked Kurata personally while Kurata was busy attempting this genocide the first time. Kurata must have been terrified at just how close he came to dying to Mercurimon’s fists that time, though he’d never consciously admit it. Obviously that makes Mercurimon far more important than any other Ultimate-level Digimon out there who would also almost certainly object to the genocide and try to fight Kurata once they heard about it.

Masaru: “Just like me and Agumon… If we’d talked through fists, we could have come to an understanding with Mercurimon!”

Oh, Masaru – he’s still thinking about how his interrupted fight with Mercurimon would have been an attempt to communicate with him and reach an understanding! And he’s explicitly presenting it as the same thing that he did with Agumon when they first met! This talking-through-fists philosophy of his is really starting to come together.

Kurata: “Why are you so angry? I’m just getting rid of one Digimon!”

Look at this slimebag trying to present his actions as not even that bad by arguing that he’s only killing (not even killing, they’re not people, it’s not murder) one measly Digimon – while having literally just stated his intention to kill absolutely all of them. He’ll twist things however he can to present himself as being in the right, with no heed at all to basic logic.

Masaru: “You bastard! Looks like you won’t get it until I punch you out!”

Masaru has had enough of Kurata’s bullshit and runs in to punch him. I don’t blame him, Kurata is the most eminently punchable person we’ve ever met. Yet, I also like the way he presents this as trying to make Kurata get it. He’s still, in a sense, thinking of his punching as communicating, like he’s hoping on some level that beating the crap out of Kurata might snap some sense into him and force him to admit how obviously wrong he is.

Kurata orders his Gizmon: AT to get in the way and then retreats to a greater distance. He doesn’t outright show it here, but I think Kurata is scared of the thought of Masaru getting into a direct fight with him. His cowardice is mostly centred around Digimon, but it can extend to other humans, too – anyone who’s trying to hurt him, really.

Kurata: “This makes for good entertainment! Let me show you Gizmon’s strength!”

Yes, Gizmon versus a human teenager is totally a fair fight and definitely not Kurata letting himself feel powerful and in control by showing off his brilliant creation.

Masaru is initially frustrated that the Gizmon is in the way of his real target, but then he rolls with it, leaping into the air with the power of anime physics to punch it right in the robotic eye.

One evolution later, RiseGreymon’s attack doesn’t leave a scratch on the Gizmon, and it retaliates by morphing its wing/propeller-things into something like foldable polygonal tentacles that reach out and slam RiseGreymon into a wall. Gizmon: AT is an Adult-level, but like we saw before, Kurata’s creations do not care about evolution level power differences.

Tohma: “You should have tested how strong it was before you jumped in!”

Masaru: “Shut up!”

Come on, Tohma. How do you test how strong something is other than try to fight it? And even if he did know how strong it was, what was he gonna do? Not fight it because of that? Hell no, not Masaru.

MachGaogamon and Lilamon get in on the action too (sadly no offscreen evolutions for us today). MachGaogamon’s attempt is equally fruitless – and I note that Tohma also just rushed in without testing anything first. Then Lilamon attempts her Un Deux Pollen, which is apparently an attack that paralyses the foe on a mental level by captivating its “heart”, rather than a more physical effect. This fails, too.

Kurata: “Bewitching attacks won’t work! After all, Gizmon has no heart!”

This has kind of been apparent already from just looking at the Gizmon; though they’re technically Digimon, they’ve behaved every bit like soulless machines, mechanically following orders and showing no hint of initiative of personhood.

Kurata: “I created this new Digimon from the Digimon that I’d captured and modified.”

Masaru: “You *modified* Digimon?!”

Yoshino: “No way… How could you do that to them?”

Tohma: “He erased its emotions to turn it into a doll that’ll simply obey his orders.”

Everyone – especially the Digimon, though they don’t say anything here – stares in horror at learning even more of how despicable Kurata is. It might have seemed like the Gizmon were simply something like powerful robots he created, but I guess, in order for them to be Digimon and have the incredible power that Digimon have that far surpasses any human weapons, there needed to be some essence of actual existing Digimon in there too. So Kurata just captured a bunch of poor unsuspecting Digimon on one of his many secret trips to the Digital World, then blended them up and mashed their essences together until all of their soul and personality was completely gone. Eurgh. Those poor Digimon. That’s an even worse way to go than having your egg disintegrated.

Kurata: “What do you think? Such strength at only the Adult-level!”

Tohma: “Adult-level?!”

I like how Tohma knows his evolution levels enough to react to how unprecedented this is.

Kurata: “Gizmon will fight exactly how I tell it to. Digimon are only useful when you use them as tools.”

It may seem hypocritical that Kurata, who hates Digimon so fervently, is using Digimon himself to complete his goals. And while it’s not like Kurata isn’t a huge hypocrite in many ways, this bit actually does make consistent sense in his mind and is very telling of his approach to all this.

The physical body of a Digimon itself isn’t the problem for him; he hates and fears Digimon because they have free will and he can’t control them, and therefore at any point they could totally come and viciously murder him and all of humanity like the beasts they are. But a Digimon that has no soul, that’s engineered to only obey his orders and is completely under his control? That’s no problem. That’s just a useful weapon that shows how clever he is and gives him power over the rest of the Digimon who are such a threat to him.

Kurata: “Oh, yes. If you agree to co-operate with me in annihilating the Digimon, I’m willing to let your Digimon live.”

This also goes along with that same principle. If Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino’s Digimon partners are working for him and helping him with his genocide, then they’re under his control, and so he has no need to fear them. Thus, he can in theory leave them alive, if they agree to this. He’s willing to offer this as a potential bribe to get the DATS trio to help him instead of stand in his way.

It also goes to show how utterly short-circuited Kurata’s sense of empathy is that he has any conception that this offer might actually tempt them. Surely they also only see their Digimon as useful tools, not people, and would be quite happy to help him eliminate the rest of the totally-not-people Digimon so long as they get to keep their tools around?

Kurata: “Are you going to act against me? I’m part of the Ministry of Confidentiality. If you oppose, you’ll be convicted of treason.”

When that previous offer is clearly not about to sway them, Kurata tries a different tack to convince them not to fight him. He mentioned last episode that he was planning to have Mercurimon and DATS kill each other, and he seemed a little frustrated that that didn’t come to pass. Apparently he would really like these three to not be getting in his way one way or another, forcing him to expend the extra effort he’d need to get rid of them. Despite all his gloating about his Gizmon creation, he does not appear to be truly 100% confident that it’ll manage to kill them all without them escaping somehow.

This also says a lot about the influence Kurata knows he has over Governor Hashiba. He’s confident he can go back to Hashiba and spin a story about how he was the good guy heroically taking down that monstrous Mercurimon who refused to listen to his negotiations, and then DATS betrayed humanity and turned against him rather than help. That does just about track with how Hashiba appeared to be viewing this whole conflict.

Tohma: “I’ll *never* support you of my own free will!”

Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino are, of course, having absolutely none of it (I enjoy Tohma’s line here in particular, for Reasons), so they jump back into fighting. This shifts into the background as we move over to Ikuto and Mercurimon, the latter of whom is still slowly dying on the other side of the throne room.

Mercurimon: “Ikuto, listen to me. I’ve always been in doubt. The human world or the Digital World… I wondered which one would be most suitable for you to live in happiness. Since you didn’t know of anything beyond the Digital World, I wondered what you would think upon meeting humans. Will your human heart be reawakened? Or will you continue to hate them? I wanted to know the answer to that.”

I suppose this is what Mercurimon meant when he mumbled vaguely about wanting Ikuto to fight humans so he could “awaken as a true Digimon warrior” back in episode 18. But it seems like he was thinking of this in a very all-or-nothing way, much like Agumon’s question of “who will you side with?”. Like Ikuto’s “human heart being reawakened” means he’ll just become completely human in his mindset and stop caring about Digimon at all. Obviously he was never going to do that, Mercurimon!

Mercurimon: “But… now I realise that the doubt I felt… was wrong. What will bring you happiness isn’t choosing one from the other. It’s creating a world where both humans and Digimon can live together.”

Ikuto can choose to side with both! Ikuto figured that out all by himself in the end – Sayuri prodded him into realising that he had the right to choose, but the actual decision he made to try and stop the fighting was entirely his own. And now Ikuto’s helping Mercurimon see that, too! It really is like Suguru said: sometimes your kids are the ones who end up teaching you things.

Mercurimon: “That man… Daimon Suguru was aware of that.”

Though I suppose Mercurimon also partly picked up this mindset from Suguru in the first place. He’s reawakened to it lately after Masaru’s punch and all of his reminiscing last episode caused him to remember that Suguru really was a good man who meant everything he said and didn’t actually betray him.

We see a flashback of Suguru giving Mercurimon a Digivice, explaining what it’s for and telling him that Ikuto will need one someday. This is how Ikuto had a Digivice! Mercurimon must have passed it onto Ikuto at some point after Yukidarumon’s death, to help him with the whole “warrior” deal. That actually must have been a rather conflicted moment for Mercurimon, given that he was gifting Ikuto this device that had been given to him by the man he, at the time, felt utterly betrayed by.

This flashback then ends with the fist-bump and the “Let’s do it!” exchange between Suguru and Mercurimon, the one that I mentioned last episode actually happened a lot later than the rest of the stuff we saw Mercurimon flash back to then. This here is the reason I knew that bit came later: because it happened after Suguru had given Mercurimon a Digivice for Ikuto. It’d have taken Suguru a while to do enough experiments in the Digital World to be able to create Digivices (DATS was probably beginning to be formed around this time, too). And also, flashbacks in a later episode will imply that all of these Digivice experiments of Suguru’s must have happened while he was on his journey to find Yggdrasil, so he must have popped back into Infinity Ice Ridge to check in on Mercurimon now and again.

Hearing this, Falcomon realises and points out for Ikuto that Yukidarumon must also have known he was a human all along. He reminds Ikuto of her dying words, and Ikuto finally, finally realises what she really meant to say to him: “You must never hate the humans, because you are…”

This is something Ikuto and/or Falcomon could have figured out a while ago, from the moment they realised Ikuto was human. But, they’re just kids. And they’re kids who grew up with the general Digimon population harbouring a very fierce hatred for humans, so it’d make sense in their heads that, surely, for Ikuto’s parent figures to have ever loved him, that’d have to mean they didn’t know, right?

Mercurimon: “Forgive me, Ikuto! For my hesitation… and for being unable to keep my promises with Suguru and Yukidarumon!”

It’s sweet that he apologises for having the wrong idea about Ikuto needing to pick a side. And I assume what he’s getting at regarding Suguru and Yukidarumon is that he became convinced Suguru had betrayed him and was overcome with hatred towards humans for the past several years such that he wasn’t able to work towards harmony between the two species until just now, and it’s too late for him now.

(It also feels slightly like he’s apologising for dying. Are you apologising for dying, Mercurimon? Don’t apologise for dying, that part is not your fault.)

Ikuto: “Mercurimon! Don’t die! Don’t you leave me behind, too!”

At this anguished scream of a desperate kid not wanting to lose his second parent figure to the hands of the same murderer who took the first one from him… we cut to the inappropriately upbeat opening!!!

…Not exactly the best choice of where to put it, here, though to be fair I don’t think there are many points in this episode that would be much better. Things are getting dark enough that the upbeat-ness of the first opening song doesn’t always fit so well.

There is a second opening song that we’re going to shift to. However, though we’re now in the second half of the series numbers-wise, we won’t be seeing the new opening for a few more episodes’ time, for reasons I’ll talk about then.

I’ll open up tomorrow boundlessly

with these hands!

More opening chorus lyrics! This bit about “opening up tomorrow” makes me think of Suguru’s desire to create a future where humans and Digimon can live in harmony, even if he has to choose to stay behind in the Digital World and do it all himself. And now Masaru and co. are trying to do the same thing, too! Or, they would be, if they didn’t have to deal with Kurata first.

Back in the midst of the fighting, the DATS trio’s partners are continuing to have their asses handed to them by this single Adult-level Gizmon. (MachGaogamon’s Winning Knuckle attack continues its trend of not remotely winning anything.)

RiseGreymon manages to catch the Gizmon off-guard and slam it into the ground from behind. At this, Masaru rushes in to help with a punch – I love how he still sometimes directly takes part in fights even once Agumon’s evolved and he really ought to stay back – except the Gizmon spins its blades to become a huge propeller. The gust sends Masaru flying backwards before he can connect, and the blades slam into RiseGreymon moments later.

(They are trying to keep things somewhat reasonable with Masaru’s involvement in these fights, in that it was only the gust that blew him back. If he’d been hit by the actual blades, he’d be very much a goner.)

Kurata: “Isn’t it obvious by now? Our side is stronger and faster! Why don’t you just give up?”

Kurata is still having a good gloat about all this. I suspect that the reason he’s allowed the fight to drag on for this long without just finishing them off is that he’s enjoying playing with them and relishing in how much power and control his genius invention gives him. This is very Kurata of him.

Masaru: “Yeah, right! I won’t give up until I’ve kicked your ass!”

Kurata: “Really… I’m getting quite annoyed by that persistent obstinacy of yours. You’re just like your father, Daimon Suguru.”

Hee, of course Suguru was just as determinedly stubborn about things as Masaru is. And Kurata is very deeply irritated by Masaru’s behaviour reminding him of Suguru.

Masaru: “What?!”

Kurata: “Ten years ago, after learning of the potential menace the Digimon could bring, I advised Daimon Suguru, who was my superior back then, to eliminate them before things got worse. He wouldn’t listen.”

This is accompanied by a silent flashback to the expedition group at camp, Kurata and Suguru facing each other as Kurata talks and waves a gun around in agitation, obviously advocating for using it. Suguru calmly pushes the gun down and says a few words that we don’t hear just yet.

Kurata scowls in indignation upon hearing these words. Whatever Suguru said, it really, really got to him.

Kurata: “And now look at the results.”

Just as Kurata does with everything, he’s convinced himself that he was obviously in the right back then, that Digimon really were dangerous and needed to be destroyed, and Suguru was being stubborn and idiotic to ever suggest they should just treat them like people (gasp) and leave them in peace. Poor Kurata, so unfairly victimised by these vicious Digimon and now also these stupid, stubborn humans like Suguru and his son who won’t let him do the obviously right thing and murder them all.

Kurata: “Not only have they kept their vicious ways, but even ten years later, the atrocious rampage of Digimon in our world has increased!”

This is accompanied by some flashbacks to rampaging Digimon from earlier episodes – specifically Elecmon and Aquilamon, who I guess were picked because they happened to be some of the most destructive. Clearly nobody gave Kurata the memo about the emotions thing: that Digimon who rampage in the human world are not in their right minds and are actually being influenced by humans, albeit not deliberately. Though, even if Kurata did know about that, I’m sure he’d still find a way to twist it around in his head and blame the Digimon. That still just basically makes Digimon dangerous forces of nature and definitely not people who are actually victims in all this, right.

It's also some irony that he’s complaining about the way the Digimon rampages have increased in number over the years like that’s the Digimon’s fault. To be fair, I don’t think he’s aware of whose fault it really is, but.

Kurata: “This is all because of Daimon Suguru’s thick-headed obstinacy!”

All of it? Sure, Kurata, all of it. You just go and blame literally everything on this guy that you hate for being more right and open-minded and understanding than you, forcing you to briefly confront the idea that maybe you’re actually in the wrong here.

(As Kurata says this, Masaru scowls at him having the gall to blame all of this on his dad for such a stupid reason.)

Kurata: “*I* was right! There’s no choice but to obliterate the Digimon threat!”

Yes, Kurata, you have definitely totally proven this with facts and logic and definitely aren’t just twisting the truth to avoid acknowledging that you ever made any kind of moral mistake about anything ever. It sure is convenient that Suguru isn’t around right now to continue explaining to you why you’re actually still extremely wrong, now vastly more so than you ever were to begin with.

This is all still very, very human of Kurata. It’s not easy to admit you’re in the wrong about something. Sometimes people deal with that by doubling down and insisting even more fervently that they’re definitely in the right, which can snowball and end up making them so much worse than they ever were in the first place.

Masaru: “Cut the crap! I’d rather have Dad be as stubborn as a mule than to be a coward like you!”

Kurata: [his eyes narrow] “What do you mean by that?”

Masaru: “Listen up! When you exchange fists with someone, you’re not just delivering pain! Your heart hurts much more than the pain they receive!”

Masaru’s fighting philosophy is so good! This is why I’ve sometimes stressed that Masaru would never beat up random bystanders just to feel strong and only ever fights people who want to fight him. He fully acknowledges that inflicting physical pain on another sapient being takes a psychological toll on you yourself, never mind the physical pain you’ll also be receiving if you’re fairly evenly matched. A true, honourable fight can only happen between people who are mutually accepting of this pain they’re in for and willing to go for it anyway for whatever reason that might be important to them, be it to defend something, to prove a point, or even just for sport.

Masaru: “The way you’re punching them one-sidedly just shows that you’re a coward who’s afraid of pain!”

And Kurata’s nothing like that. Not only is he constantly hiding behind more powerful subordinates of his to avoid putting himself at physical risk on the front line, he is also constantly running and hiding from any of the psychological pain that’d come from acknowledging that he’s hurting and killing sapient people and doing something bad. That’s why he’s twisted his mindset and worldview so fervently to insist to himself that Digimon are just vicious monsters and he’s in the right: because he’s a coward.

I highly doubt Masaru has been following every single nuance of Kurata’s psychology, but I love that he thoroughly gets this one core part of it, thanks to his own fighting principles and this being the exact opposite of them. Masaru is such a good and fascinating character.

Suguru: “You are a coward.”

These are the words that Suguru said to Kurata when he was pushing the gun down in that flashback we just saw. And now here’s his son telling Kurata the exact same thing, not even in a deliberate attempt to mimic his father (because he couldn’t have known), but just because he also feels it’s true.

Kurata’s scowl deepens.

Kurata: “You’re exactly like him. I wanted to play around with you a little more, but now I’ve changed my mind!”

Kurata doesn’t even try to deny or argue against the notion that he’s a coward. He can’t, because he must know deep down that it’s true. So instead, confronted with this core undeniable reason why he really is in the wrong about everything, he continues to utterly refuse to acknowledge it and basically throws a tantrum.

Kurata: “I’ll have you disappear along with the Digimon in a freak “accident” in this foreign world!”

Which is to say, he quits the gloaty showing-off he was doing with his Gizmon: AT and shifts to using every bit of the power he has to just try and shut Masaru up by killing him. He doesn’t have to think about whether Masaru (or his father) might have a point about him if they’re dead.

(This is also very likely why he was so eager to suggest that Suguru was probably lying dead somewhere in the Digital World last episode. He just wants the man who might actually be able to prove him to be in the wrong gone and out of his way.)

Kurata: “Gizmon: AT, evolve!”

Kurata pulls out a modified Digivice, the same kind as we saw in the flashbacks, to evolve his Gizmon. Note the utter lack of him doing any kind of Digisoul Charge. Digisoul spills out of the device itself at his command, but absolutely none of it came from Kurata.

There’s this neat trippy visual effect as the Gizmon smoothly morphs into its evolved form. This is such a departure from the usual fancy evolution animation or even the shorter versions we get for less important Digimon. It feels like the evolution we’re seeing here is deeply wrong and unnatural in some way.

Kurata: “What do you think? It used artificial Digisoul to undergo a pseudo-evolution!”

Kurata does not appear to have a Digisoul, and even if he did, there’s no way he has the emotional connection with his soulless Gizmon necessary to use it to evolve them. So, in lieu of that, he figured out a way to cheat the evolution process artificially, somehow. Even Kurata is admitting that this isn’t at all a proper evolution by usual Digimon standards, given how he calls it “pseudo-evolution”.

(Honestly, knowing what Digisoul is, it’s rather interesting that Kurata managed to create an artificial version of it. Kind of a shame that’s never expanded upon beyond this mention of it.)

This is Gizmon’s Perfect-level, Gizmon: XT. It advances on the group and shoots out a wide beam that leaves a huge curved gouge in the stone floor, while RiseGreymon only just manages to carry the humans out of the way in time. (Kurata was very much aiming for the humans there.)

Masaru refuses to be discouraged and calls for the all-three-attack-as-one thing again. I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t try this earlier while they were fighting the AT form, but hey, rules of shounen drama escalation mean we’re getting it now. The animators this time apparently didn’t bother to animate their attacks actually combining like they did last time they tried this – they all just kind of hit the Gizmon’s defensive barrier at separate points – but I suppose, narratively, we’re supposed to think that this really was the strongest thing they could have pulled off.

All this results in is yet another instance of that shounen trope: We got ‘im! – *smoke clears* – No, we really didn’t. I guess, in defence of the team’s efforts, the Gizmon looks a little bit scuffed now? Just a little.

As Masaru and the trio of Perfect-levels rush back into the fray, the focus moves back over to Mercurimon. Mercurimon recognises that Masaru and co. stand no hope of winning as things currently are, so he forces himself to his feet amidst groans of agony. He wishes Ikuto and Falcomon farewell, knowing that this is the last thing he’ll do.

Ikuto: “No! Mercurimon! The thing Yukidarumon told me, I… I finally understand! But I still don’t like this! I really do hate humans after all! They do something so horrible to you, Mercurimon… I’ll never forgive them for this!”

Oh, Ikuto. He’s so nearly there, but he’s still just a little stuck on conflating the actions of certain humans with all of humanity, just like he’s been doing his whole life. It’s hard to shake free of that, now of all times, as he’s watching his father figure die in horrible pain from a human’s actions.

Mercurimon: “Look upon him, Ikuto. He’s a simple-minded fellow who speaks crudely, and his actions are preposterous.”

Bahaha. Guess who he’s talking about. As he says this, we watch Masaru leap at the Gizmon: XT, get painfully smacked to the ground, and then stubbornly force himself back to his feet and stagger forwards again. He’s so determined, no matter the odds.

Mercurimon: “But is he a bad guy? Do you hate him so much that you wish he didn’t exist?”

At this, Ikuto remembers the conversation he and Masaru had back at Masaru’s place. “Is it really okay for me to… be here?” “Of course it is.” Of course Ikuto couldn’t hate someone who finally let him feel like he might belong somewhere.

Ikuto: “Masaru let me meet my real parents.”

Technically that wasn’t really about Masaru, because that was a DATS order and it’d have happened anyway even if Masaru hadn’t been there. But it seems like Ikuto picked up, despite how furiously he was dragging his heels about the whole human-parents thing at the time, that Masaru was the one who was the most personally invested in helping him meet them. It turns out he’s really touched by that! Aww.

Ikuto: “Not just him. Tohma, Yoshino, Chika, and Masaru’s mother… Everyone treated me nicely.”

Mercurimon: “Do you hate them?”

Ikuto winces and shakes his head fervently. He already knew this; Mercurimon’s just helping him realise it and put the pieces together.

An explosion from the battle catches his attention; he looks up in a panic to see all three humans and all three Digimon lying on the ground in pain and exhaustion as the Gizmon advances on them. Ikuto doesn’t want to see any of them getting hurt, let alone killed.

Through the smoke, Ikuto sees Kurata, the one responsible for his friends’ pain, still smirking cruelly about this whole thing.

Mercurimon: “By now, you should know who you are really supposed to hate.”

I like how Mercurimon still isn’t outright telling Ikuto the answer here. He’s just giving Ikuto the right prompting to let him figure it out for himself, because all the pieces are already there.

Mercurimon: “Ikuto… Live… as a human with a Digimon’s heart.”

With these words, Mercurimon musters the last of his strength and charges forwards to punch the Gizmon in its equivalent of a face. The Gizmon starts to fire another huge beam from its “eye”, but it barely begins the attack before Mercurimon’s fist barrels right through it, knocking the giant machine to the ground.

As Mercurimon stands over his foe, his entire right arm flares up with the same glowing yellow digital-wound effect as the one on his torso. Punching right into the attack the Gizmon fired is probably what did that. Not that Mercurimon cares; he’s dying anyway. It must be further agony on top of everything else, but he doesn’t even flinch.

Masaru: “Mercurimon! Why did you help us?!”

It seems Masaru hadn’t properly picked up on the fact that Mercurimon had re-warmed up to most (non-Kurata) humans by now? I guess any signs of Mercurimon having felt that way during all of the flashbacking in the previous episode probably got drowned out by his sheer hatred of Kurata in particular, such that especially someone like Masaru probably couldn’t be expected to have noticed. Masaru did lament at the beginning of this episode that he didn’t get the chance to come to an understanding (through fists) with Mercurimon. Perhaps, having not done that, he’s still assuming Mercurimon was basically on the warpath with all of humanity, like DATS has believed for many episodes now.

Mercurimon: “I wanted to try believing once more… in what your father, Daimon Suguru, said… That a time will come when Digimon and humans can live together in harmony.”

But at least Masaru can understand it now. Mercurimon’s going to die not as an erstwhile enemy who could have become an ally given more time, but as an actual genuine ally who wants the same thing that Masaru’s father did.

Kurata scowls upon hearing this notion, and as if in response, the Gizmon manages to stir enough to fire its striped laser right through Mercurimon’s body again.

Kurata: “Harmony between humans and Digimon? That day will never come!”

Kurata laughs uproariously as Mercurimon gasps in agony (what an absolute asshole), decrying the ridiculousness of the idea… which is kind of a contrast to his scowl about it just moments before. It’s like he has to show off his power and remind himself how good he is at murdering Digimon in order to be able to reassure himself that, yes, anyone who thinks harmony is a possibility is obviously just stupid and wrong and has no power to get their way anyway; he’s totally in the right, as always.

Mercurimon: “I-Ikuto…! Be strong…!”

These are the last words Mercurimon manages to gasp out to his surrogate son as his entire body fades into that glowing yellow noise. He knows this is going to be agony for Ikuto yet again, and that’s all he can think about as he feels himself about to die. What a good dad. He wasn’t always perfect at it, but he cares so much.

As Ikuto screams Mercurimon’s name and rushes forwards with tears in his eyes, Mercurimon’s form disintegrates into an egg, and the egg shatters. He’s gone. Ikuto’s run stumbles to a halt, and he falls to his knees in grief.

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Gizmon: XT is looking rather worse for wear, sparking and collapsing – not completely destroyed, but seriously damaged. Mercurimon didn’t die for nothing. He did everything he could with his last stand.

Kurata: “How dare he make a mess of my masterpiece! Really, he just refused to die, and he was a hindrance to me to the very end. Digimon like him are known as fools the second they even *think* about defying humans!”

Kurata is busy justifying and writing off Mercurimon’s heroic final effort to defend his species as some insignificant pest being annoying and foolish and getting ideas above its station. Yes, definitely not a respected ruler, and father, and living, thinking person that you just cruelly murdered or anything, Kurata. Not at all.

Kurata: “A time of co-existence between humans and Digimon? He threw away his life for an empty fantasy like that? I’m speechless by the sheer absurdity of it!”

It couldn’t possibly be that such a thing is actually quite reasonable and would be perfectly achievable if not for Kurata single-handedly getting in the way of it, no, it’s definitely an empty fantasy that’s completely absurd, has Kurata stressed enough yet that he is very definitely totally in the right here

Ikuto listens to the bullshit Kurata is spouting, his fists clenching in anger and hatred at this one specific human, his tears halting for now. He gets to his feet, as a familiar BGM intro we haven’t heard in quite a few episodes now begins to start up.

Ikuto: “Kurata! This is revenge for Mercurimon!”

As he and Falcomon rush forward, Ikuto pulls out his Digivice and does a Digisoul Full Charge for the first time. He’s finally figured everything out, and so he’s more than earned that next evolution.

(Note how he actually calls out “Digisoul Full Charge!” despite having never used any actual words for his regular Digisoul Charge. He’s spent enough time around his DATS friends by now that he knows what it’s called and what words to say.)

That BGM? Yeah, that’s Believer, again, for the first time in ages! The last time we heard it was literally when Yoshino got her Perfect-level back in episode 17. They like to save Believer for the triumphant moments where it’s really appropriate, and there haven’t really been any of those in a while until now, at least not during fights. Again, I really like that Savers does this with its evolution song. Instead of just “oh, here we go again” with the thing that happens literally every episode, it makes the times Believer is used really feel like they matter.

Yatagaramon is a huge crow who incidentally has three legs, because the mythological Yatagarasu he’s based on was a three-legged crow. It’s a neat little detail that I like.

Ikuto: “Mercurimon. I get it now! It’s not Masaru and the others I should hate! It’s humans with evil hearts!”

Ikuto says this as if he’s trying to reassure Mercurimon that he’s figured it all out now, even though Mercurimon’s gone. And though this conclusion seems obvious from our perspective, it’s really such a big deal that Ikuto’s managed to reach it, given how much of a prejudiced black-and-white worldview he was clinging to in the beginning that he’s slowly had to unlearn, piece by piece. I’m sure Mercurimon would be proud of him. And Yukidarumon, too.

Yatagaramon flies at the Gizmon and grabs its laser-eye with one of his feet just before the laser fires, causing it to explode from the recoil. He throws it into the wall, and with one big attack, it’s over. Rather quick considering that the other three Perfect-levels were going at it for the whole episode without getting anywhere, but we can thank Mercurimon for weakening it. …And maybe Yatagaramon’s also powered a bit by a New Evolution Buff, which is very much not an actual concrete concept but is my term for the way Digimon’s evolved forms tend to appear the most amazing and powerful in the first episode they show up in, for the sake of drama.

(Though, such a thing being an actual phenomenon in-universe wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, considering Yatagaramon’s being powered by the Digisoul of an Ikuto who’s riding the high of having just figured this out, and the grief of having just lost Mercurimon. That won’t be quite as powerful later on once he’s kinda got used to it all.)

It makes sense that things work this way, but it still feels really unfair that Kurata gets to keep his Gizmon’s egg.

Kurata doesn’t even comment on having lost this fight. He just tuts, has one of his men throw a space-time bomb to open up a Digital Gate, and leaves. It doesn’t seem like he brought any other Gizmon with him, and he probably doesn’t want to stick around to find out what Ikuto and the rest of them would do to him while he’s effectively defenceless. Definitely not him being a coward, or anything, right, just a, uh… tactical retreat.

Ikuto: “Mercurimon… I… will live as a human. A human with a Digimon’s heart.”

There’s only a very short little scene at the end here to fully underline Ikuto’s resolution to follow Mercurimon’s near-final words to him, which seems appropriate.

Masaru nods to Ikuto with an unspoken understanding that the kid is now 100% fully on their side. Their new goal, official DATS mission or not, is to stop Kurata however they can.

…Not entirely sure how they’re planning on achieving that right now, considering that Kurata just fled back to the human world while they’re currently stuck in the Digital World with no way back, but we’ll see how that goes next episode.

There’s a brief stinger with Kurata at the end, showing him in some kind of eerily-lit secret lab of his.

Kurata: “One of my masterpieces was defeated, but I still have much more in store. Much, much more.”

He’s not referring to the fact that he has plenty more Gizmon where that one came from (although he really does; we’ll be seeing a lot more Gizmon in episodes to come). Rather, he’s looking at something else entirely floating in a huge tank of green liquid.

And while this line of his is of course for the sake of stinger-exposition for the audience, it does make some kind of in-character sense for Kurata to gloat to himself about this. He needs to reassure himself that, so what if DATS and their buddies exceeded his expectations and defeated his one Gizmon: XT, he definitely still has all the power and is completely in control here.

Huh, I never actually talked about the first ending song, did I? Well, you didn’t miss much; all it has is literally just Masaru and Agumon running across a beach, and the song’s lyrics aren’t particularly interesting. Anyway, this episode debuts the second ending song for the series, now that we’re in the second half.

It’s almost as uninteresting as the first one, but we do see all three of the DATS trio with their partners (featuring their new outfits that we’ll be seeing them in for the rest of the series starting next episode), running across a field to meet Ikuto and Falcomon. It’ll become routine soon, but seeing it here for the first time does help solidify that, yep, Ikuto and Falcomon are very much part of the main group now.

Overall thoughts

This one’s also a pretty big episode, in terms of its impact on the plot and direction of the story going forward. It feels fitting how this big momentous 24-25 “two-parter”, so to speak, comes right slap bang in the exact middle of the series, numbers-wise. Functionally the episode itself is mostly a big fight scene, admittedly, but there’s still lots of fun character stuff going on in it too.

I still really enjoy Kurata as an interesting realistic villain, with all his ridiculous layers of justifications to shield himself from any notion that he’s in the wrong. All the gloating and showing off he does a lot in this episode will be very relevant in future. That line about Digimon only being useful as tools is very telling: he hates Digimon because he can’t control them.

Masaru continues to be good; I love his philosophy about how real fights involve you acknowledging the risk of physical and emotional pain for yourself. And it’s delightful how that happens to put him in the perfect position to call out Kurata’s cowardice, which really is the core of why he’s doing all this.

The fight itself is nothing too special, but it’s got a fair bit of fun Masaru determination and tenacity, and things do feel like DATS is pretty screwed and outmatched until Mercurimon steps in.

Ikuto’s finally figured out who he really needs to hate! Look at how far he’s come through his arc. Very deserving time for a new evolution for him. I really enjoy how Mercurimon guides him towards the answer but doesn’t ever tell him outright, leaving Ikuto to piece it all together on his own. What a good teacher.

For that matter, I enjoy Mercurimon also finally figuring stuff out, realising he was wrong to feel betrayed by Suguru and hate all of humanity after the massacre. It’s a nice ending to his arc, too. He was introduced to us as a “villain” and was conflicted and antagonistic for a lot of the time we knew him, but he dies as the hero he always really was, and I like that. Mercurimon was Good.

---

[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #ikuto noguchi #mercurimon #akihiro kurata #suguru daimon #masaru daimon

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prof-peach · 4 years ago

Note

Has any wild pokemon came to your place to seek help, and if so what was it like?

Well yes actually, because of our location and the distance between us and johto, we get a lot of Pokemon who stop for a rest between land masses at our lab. If they come in injured from battle, or sick from bad weather on their travels, the other Pokemon that hang around the island will pick up on it, and direct them to one of the professors, usually whoever’s closest at the time.

We get an awful lot of water types as you’d expect but I don’t really deal with them, that’s Professor Grey’s area, he’s not nervous in water like I am so he’s able to give more accurate and effective care. I will help from time to time but only really on the little land dwelling ones. The oddest water type we had turn up was a lotad. Hear me out, we’re no where near Hoenn, like at all, we don’t get them in johto, at least not wild, and the ones we get given are Pokemon we know and have helped, so we knew it wasn’t one of those. This little thing washes up on the beach along the north side, and if you’ve read anything about the island before you’ll know the North is fenced off, a zone for Pokemon to go to get away from the public, and is generally quite hostile, and off limits to guests without explicit permission and a guide. So this Lotad is found, luckily by a reasonable middle aged Ursaring, and suddenly we get a knock on the door in the middle of the night, this big mountain of a bear Pokemon holding the smallest little lotad, the thing was full of seawater and had burns form the salt and mould forming. He spent a week and a half in the ICU with strict climate control and a course of medication tailored to his species, all the while we’re all scratching our heads about how he got to us. We’d had no visitors so he couldn’t be a stray or released Pokemon, the weather was good so no storm could have carried him to us, he was alone, no trainer, no friends, no family. Ships pass through but could he have jumped off and ended up with us? We all have our theories, I personally think he got carried a fair way from home by a flying Pokemon, and dropped by accident. Either way he’s since become the little champion of our care program, he’s recovered in leaps and bounds and lives a very comfortable life in th entropic house, in the indoor pools with some Relicanth and the other little lotads, a few surskit. Happy Pokemon for sure now, we’ve had a porygon translate what he has to say but he doesn’t remember anything before waking up in the labs care unit. We just count him as the luckiest Pokemon we know, considering the terrible shape he came to us in. Must have been floating around the ocean for days.

We also get a heap load of flying types that rest between locations during migration, some of those do seem to have the odd issue which we tend to, our favourites are the migrating Fletchling that fly on through for the winter, they give a fiery display, filling the sky with little embers. Sure, fire risk, but also consider this, beautiful? We have water Pokemon on standby during this time, and usually anything that catches is caught pretty quickly. I do find the flying types will return. When some come through, and we notice them and help where we can, they’ll eventually leave to continue their journey, and then a year later they come back again, this time with families, friends, some even bring their whole flock, just because we built some trust with them that one time. We have pidgeot that repeatedly return to the island, all because we’ve patched up like several members of their family, they’re regulars to us now, and even between seasons of migration, they’ll return to see if we can help, or offer information should they encounter issues. I must say once one knows about you, the rest do pretty fast. I will forever remember fondly, gardening in peace, not a single problem to be dealt with, and then the sky went black and I couldn’t see the ground anymore, because SO MANY murkrow had landed all at once, they blocked out the light, they covered every post, every piece of dirt, all by demolished the berries I’d been growing all season. Why you may ask? Because I had hatched one random egg I found on my travels, had no idea at the time what it was, and I carried this thing around with me everywhere. When it hatched it was a little Murkrow, a little different in appearance, with a striking flash of blue under his little wings. I gave the thing a good start and sent it on it’s way. No big deal.

Wrong.

This little one was a lost egg from a boss Honchkrow’s clutch, how did that big boss bird know it was his child? He was the start of the variation, the bright blue under his wings. So yeah, he told them all about us, and how to get to the island, and we ended up with a HUGE amount of them, trying to bring things to repay the debt. Some found shiny items, others berries, unusual mushrooms, neat looking twigs, bottle caps, pins, buttons. To this day some of those Pokemon still hang out here, kind of dug it enough to want to stick around I guess. We don’t mind, they’re actually really good natured, and helpful too!

We get the odd dragon fly by, alwasy alerts the island’s heavy hitters when one touches down. Recently we’ve had Garchomp breeding here, they seem to like the mountains, and our resident female was putting out her siren song for a mate all spring. Summer they paired up, laid eggs, now we have little Gibble running around somewhere safe. Last actual dragon type to stop in for some help was a rather thin and dull coloured looking Charizard, had flown too far, exerted itself too much, came crashing into the labs big front doors, nearly took a patient clean out, definetly needed to replace some tables after that. With some good dinners and a bit of TLC they got fat and strong again, and went on their way.

I think once you help out a few Pokemon, word spreads, we get a lot of unusual clients, most of which have stowed away on passing ships, coming to us for information, support, and care. For instance last week we had a Krabby who came in off a cargo ship, swam to the island, made its way to the lab, SAT IN THE WAITING ROOM, legit was happy to wait, all because he had a broken claw and couldn’t get it off to make way for a new one to regrow. We helped him out and he went on home, we got a ship to pull in to return him home luckily.

This week there’s been a Magnezone and a Jolteon magnetised together, they asked for a lift from a visiting trainer who obliged, they’ve since been seperated and sent on their way, back home safe to the wild. Happens from time to time. Who knows what next week will bring haha. Every days interesting here I must say that much.

#pokemon #prof.peach #peach talks

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felassan · 3 years ago

Link

Article: ‘Mass Effect & Dragon Age’s cast members on how BioWare builds dynamics’

I spoke to several figures from BioWare juggernauts Dragon Age and Mass Effect, to get a clearer idea of how those iconic team dynamics we associate with the two titles were created. [interviews]

This article is a really neat read. :) Contains character insights, behind-the-scenes info and some reflections on representation.

Some excerpts under the cut due to length:

A huge theme of these interviews, naturally, was BioWare themselves. As well as general praise for the support, the working environment, and the success of the finished product, many singled out individual directors by name, and credited BioWare’s focused approach with getting the best out of them. Hale even claimed they were “the unsung heroes,” that underpinned the whole Mass Effect trilogy. [...]

“Usually there’s almost always a BioWare writer on the line with us, usually up in Canada, when we’re recording. So you’ll have the director, me and one or two BioWare head honchos up there supervising. That’s the way that’s the way it worked on Inquisition too. There’s a really collaborative vibe.” [...]

This consistency across the recording process is likely why the calibre of performance is so high across both trilogies. “The team of writers of BioWare are extraordinary,” Nick Boulton [Male Hawke] says. “So they keep you on track pretty well. The key was having Caroline Livingston, who was directing most of it – all of it, in fact. She would be there to give context notes, and also keep me on the straight and narrow, as far as characterization went. So we were led through very well by the BioWare team.” [...]

Insight on Jack:

Courtenay Taylor describes Jack as being “a very comfortable pair of old stinky sneakers to step into,” and explains that her connection to Jack’s story was a core way she was able to bring it to life. “[Jack has] a pretty familiar psychology that I had. She was very reminiscent of how I was, to some degree, in high school. She’s putting up a barrier to get people to prove themselves, so you have to run the gauntlet in order to get the good stuff. When you’ve been abused as badly as she has, then psychologically one of the tracks you can take is ‘I will not allow myself to be vulnerable’. And that really resonated with me.”

Taylor also says that this guard Jack puts up meant that, ironically, many of the players found it easier to connect with her. “I got really great feedback from a lot of people about struggles that they had had in their personal lives,” she says.

“I think [Jack’s change between Mass Effect 2 & 3] is a smaller story, but it’s a big story for a lot of people. I have a lot of friends who had addiction problems. And quite a few of my friends give back by going back to the community that they’ve come out of, and finding people that need help. At its core, that’s a big, important through line for Jack – every one of us is worthy of love. And it doesn’t matter how difficult you are or how troubled you are or what has happened to you or what someone has done to you. You are worthy of loving and being loved.” [...]

Taylor also saw something personal in her own performance, especially since there weren’t a lot of women like Jack in popular media when Mass Effect 2 launched. “There was a huge amount of love for her because gender/appearance wise, she is something that I felt at that time had not been explored. And I know that some of the things were cut, but in what we originally recorded [Jack was pansexual], and in 2008 or 2009, there weren’t a tonne of conversations about being pansexual,” she says.

“She was a counterpoint to a lot of the other female characters. She was sort of the far end of the spectrum. You’ve got Miranda who’s beautiful and pulled together, but that only serves a certain population. And there are a lot of people that identify as women who could relate to having these feelings and these emotions – she’s not gender specific. To me, she’s angry. And I don’t know that there had been, at that time, a female character who was so not typically female, who was capable of such a range of emotions. She ended up being the permission to a whole group of people who don’t identify with that kind of woman. Because in entertainment, where did that bald girl with a flat chest who was pansexual go? Where do you fit in? And that really resonated with me. If you don’t relate to Miranda, Jack can be a really nice option.”

Insight on Josie:

It’s a sentiment echoed by Allegra Clark, who used a major tragedy in her own life as motivation for the siege of Haven in Dragon Age: Inquisition. “I think the first time you really start to get to know [Josephine] as a person is when she talks about Haven after the attack. That conversation she has about the first people to jump in and protect people being the workers, and how she’s just watching everything be destroyed. I was actually thinking about 9/11, as a New Yorker. So that was a very personal moment for me. But it was those little moments where she starts to open up and blossom that you get to see her as a person.” [...]

For Clark though, those boundaries were much more personal. “When I was told I had booked Josephine, I was just like, ‘I’m a companion in a BioWare game, and a romanceable companion at that’,” Clark says. “I recognised going in that people were going to connect really hard to this character. People are going to have entire playthroughs that are based around romancing Josephine. She helped me explore my own bisexuality, and that is always the thing that that warms my heart the most when people come to me about my LGBTQ+ characters, and say ‘they helped me understand parts of my own identity’. I actually wasn’t out of the closet publicly, or even to parts of my family when I started recording Inquisition. So it was interesting, getting to tell essentially part of my story as well. Before even being able to say to the world ‘hi, I’m bi’ – though all the signs were there. I was in a relationship with another woman at the time. It’s like ‘oh my God, they were roommates!”

Zevran:

While all were full of praise for BioWare’s writing and working environment, the love of actually playing the game was exclusive to Clark. Most others admitted they had never played at all; Curry confessed he had no idea if Zevran was even alive [as he hasn’t played]

Sam Traynor:

“I think Traynor was revolutionary in what she was doing at the time,” Wilton Regan says. “What was so different about Traynor was she wasn’t romanceable for either gender, you had to be playing as FemShep to choose a lesbian love option . And that was so brave of them to do at the time. But it brought us leaps and bounds forwards, because having that inclusivity then makes it just easier for the next game, and for the game today. And now it’s a standard – you should be representative of all sexualities if there are romance options in your games, and increasingly major games pretty much always have some sort of gay, bisexual, lesbian or heterosexual choice. It might not be as fluid as all of the spectrum of sexual choices, but you’ve got a strong variety in comparison to where it was 20 years ago, for example.”

Sam Traynor and Josie:

Part of representing groups that don’t often get representation in video games is that your character gets to become a role model, and that’s something Wilton Regan and Taylor have particularly fond experiences of. “It’s quite flattering and quite lovely to think about,” Wilton Regan says. “I’ve had a lot of lesbians who are coming out of the closet or coming to terms with their sexuality, who’ve come up to me and said that playing FemShep and romancing Traynor was a really big part of that. And lots of bisexual women as well. There’s something just very beautiful about the idea that BioWare has put so much faith and trust in me over the years with these really pivotal roles, and these big, beautiful characters. I feel very humbled by that. Very, very humbled.”

Meanwhile, Taylor wasn’t even sure people would like Jack, so finding out how deeply people related to her was a huge surprise, and she suspects that’s because Mass Effect allows her to be angry without being written off as a stereotypical, hysterical woman. “People didn’t like her when the trailer came out, and I was like, ‘Oh God, everyone’s gonna hate her!” Taylor laughs. “I was really surprised to be at a convention and have someone come up and say, ‘Can I introduce you to my nieces? They’re six and eight, and they love you’. I’m glad they have a good female role model in Jack.”

#dragon age #bioware #mass effect #video games #mass effect: andromeda #lgbtq #long post #longpost #feels

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thelordofdarkreunion · 3 years ago

Text

Agents of the Golden Throne

It took me longer than I wanted to write this, but here’s the follow up to the current story thread. We see more of the Inquisition and their methods, we have what I sincerely hope to be a heartwarming moment, we touch on the subject of xenophilia, and, of course, we get to see the Grey Knights bust heads. I hope you enjoy the story, and, as always, no one except Drake and his crew belong to me.

“I carry with me an Inquisitorial Seal. It is a small, unassuming object contained in a neat box of Pluvian obsidian. It is a modest thing. Relatively plain, adorned with a single motif and a simple motto. Yet with this little object I can sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a billion souls to oblivion.” -Inquisitor Flast of the Ordo Malleus

“It is Mankind’s holy destiny to rule the stars, and rule them alone.” -Lord Inquisitor Knael of the Ordo Xenos

“Do not worry: your memories will return with time.” The deep bass voice of Lord Hector Rex cut through Vir’s headache. He was aboard the Fury of Deimos, the heavy starship that served as the headquarters of Rex and the Grey Knights. He looked around him, taking note of the gloomy gothic architecture and the massive cathedral windows of the hangar bay. A cadre of humans stood around him; individuals that he was sure he knew but couldn’t really remember. His memories were in the back of his mind, flitting things that he tried in vain to claw back to the forefront of his brain. He remembered being on some strange planet… something that had to do with the color red. There was some sort of white orb, too. Nothing else besides that. He couldn’t recall the interior of the Fury of Deimos, something Rex unabashedly told him they permanently deleted. No one save the most powerful and dedicated servants of the Ordo Malleus could come aboard a starship of the Grey Knights and still leave with their memories. It was explained to him as a simple security measure, but it still irked him. He could, though, remember the probing, the strange devices… the pain. It was the singular most painful experience he had ever gone through, and that was saying a lot. Ripping through someone’s mind to make sure their soul was untainted did a number on the pain receptors of nerves, not to mention the utter wrongness of such an act.

But, apart from the pain and the memories of the elderly Inquisitor guiding him through his recovery, he could remember nothing except brief hints; shadows of what he once was. Then there were his companions, people who he was certain he should know but didn’t. There was a brown haired, easy-going man dressed in a black and yellow jumpsuit. It was something he would have found ridiculous except for the sense of respect he felt for the individual; that particular memory ran deep.

Looking rather confused was a man with close cut hair, wearing what Vir vaguely remembered as a combat armor bodysuit. Faint memories of competence, fighting side by side, something in common… This man was some sort of friend. Trustworthy.

The third perplexed individual was wearing high boots and a leather jacket vest, similar to his own. This one Vir held slightly in awe, somewhat like the first man. He remembered hearing stories about this one, but, frustratingly, couldn’t remember.

The last had a black coat and boots matching his equally black hair. Blue eyes roved suspiciously around the hangar, looking with untrust at the Inquisitor and the other Imperials. A series of conflicting feelings rose from the sight of this man: good advice, utter hilarity, slight insanity, and a disturbing amount of large explosions. What the hell…?

“How soon will our memories recover?” asked the black coated man. Rex scratched his head. Vir could tell he was frowning behind his mask.

“This is not an exact science. I would estimate a day, perhaps two, for all of your memories to fully come back to you. It could be as little as an hour, or, in the most extreme, as much as a week.” Rex noticed the alarmed looks being cast his way. “Though that is unlikely. I can give you my utmost assurance that all of your memories, except for the ones of the halls of this ship, will return.” Another man entered the room, this one dressed in a distinctly Imperial style, with an elaborate, overly-embroidered greatcoat and cap. Vir remembered him… from somewhere. He thought this man had been on his ship before. His ship… what was his ship called? Something fierce, he hoped. The man bowed to Rex and spoke in a worried, but polite tone.

“Greetings, Lord Inquisitor.”

“Greetings, Commissar Cain.” All four of the non-Imperials in the hangar looked up sharply. Cain. They remembered him better with a name to go with a face. “I trust your stay in the hangar has been satisfactory?” inquired Rex.

“It has.” Ah, yes. Cain stayed here because he didn’t want to get mind wiped. And he didn’t touch the orb, like we did. That’s why we’re here! The orb! Cain cleared his throat. “With all due respect, Lord Inquisitor, and I do recognize that this is your area of expertise, but was it necessary to completely mind-wipe them?” Rex cocked his head curiously.

“We did not mind-wipe them. Unfortunately, it is a side effect of the process that makes sure they are untainted. If we could avoid it, we would, but there is simply no other way.” Cain nodded.

“Very well. I thank you for your explanation, Lord Inquisitor.” He glanced at the still confused four mind-wipe victims. “May I take them back to their ships?”

“You may,” replied Rex with a nodd. He made a curious symbol on his breast, folding his thumbs together and outstretching his palms. “May the Emperor guide you, Commissar Cain.” Cain returned the gesture and bowed.

“And you as well, Lord Inquisitor Rex.” He gently guided the four to a shuttle. “Come now. We need to get you back where you belong.”

Rex watched them board the shuttle and take off. They were strong of mind and soul, those ones. That must have been why the Prognosticators of the Grey Knights had told him not to interfere with their business. He had been annoyed that xenos had seen the Knights, but it was inevitable, he supposed. After all, the Sons of Titan had teamed up with the enigmatic Aeldari to fight the daemons of Chaos when necessary. More xenos, especially ones deemed necessary to the future by the seers of the Grey Knights, couldn’t hurt too badly, he supposed. There were worse enemies out there. He did, however, chafe that those pesky GA delegates were still around. He had pulled rank and ordered the Knights not to destroy them. That would cause too much of a political headache. Though, he did discreetly mind-wipe them with his powers, and pull the orbital defenses of the Rundi homeworld from the chairwoman’s mind; information he had subsequently turned over to Inquisitor Vail. They wouldn’t ever remember meeting him. A good thing, all things considered. They had neither the training nor stomach for fighting demons. He spun on his heel and strode into the hall of the Deimos. There was work to be done.

Aboard the shuttle

The shuttle had roved from ship to ship, dropping off passengers that barely remembered where they were going. The yellow-shirted man, who had introduced himself as Kirk (some more slight memories came from that realization… something about a TV show?) was left on a ship called the Enterprise (a good name. Adam hoped his ship was named something just as good.) The First Mate, a tall thin man with strange pointed ears, had sighed as if this were a regular occurrence and led Kirk deeper into the ship.

The short haired man was left aboard the Normandy (memories of beaches, and machine guns, and mass death in a war a long time ago.) A raven haired woman wearing a bodysuit that left little to the imagination greeted them.

“Ah, Commander. Welcome back. I trust everything went satisfactory?” she asked. The other man stared at her.

“You have a strange accent,” he said at last. “Where are you from?” The woman, who Vir presumed to be the First Officer of this ship, merely cocked an eyebrow. Cain rolled his eyes and stepped in.

“Ms. Lawson, the Inquisition performed an intensive interrogation on Commander Shepard, the side effects of which include the temporary, and I stress temporary, loss of memory.”

“He has no idea who I am. Or anyone else,” stated Lawson bluntly. Cain nodded and pushed Shepard from the shuttle.

“Off you go Commander. Hope the doctors don’t take you apart.” The shuttle ramp closed, veiling the sight of a very confused Shepard and very exasperated Lawson. It took off, slipping through the void. The silver shape of a large, rectangular ship flitted through the viewport. Vir looked out in wonder. This ship… this one’s mine. What is it called…? Harbinger? Harbinger sounds right… but… no…

The shuttle touched down in a large, open hangar. A shorter, brown haired woman stood at attention there, waiting. The ramp came down with a heavy thunk, and Vir and Cain exited.

“This is our stop,” said Cain. “Will you two be alright?” he asked the shuttle’s other two occupants. The black coated man nodded jerkily, still staring into space.

“What? Oh. Yes. Don’t worry about us. Commissar Cain. Admiral Vir.” He rattled off their unfamiliar names, the taste of the words strange on his tongue. As the shuttle took off once more, the woman approached Vir and Cain.

“Admiral,” she said with a crisp salute. Vir looked her over, trying desperately to remember who she was. Obviously some sort of ship’s officer.

“Ah… yes,” he stalled, trying to buy time for his memories to return. “Uh…” The woman stared at him.

“Are you… alright, Admiral?” she asked, perplexed. Before he could do anything to embarrass himself, Cain stepped in.

“Ah, Simone.” Simone! Yes! Now he had a name to go with a face. Simone was his… assistant? Maybe? “As you know,” continued Cain, “Admiral Vir was interrogated by the Inquisition. The side effects of which include temporary memory loss.” Simone’s mouth set in a hard line.

“Those utter-” she stopped herself, realizing who she was talking to. “Ah. Yes. Commissar.” She turned to Vir, clearly trying to ignore that she almost criticized the most deadly and powerful organization of Cain’s home government. “Admiral… you really don’t remember me?” Vir shook his head a miserable ‘no’.

“No. I don’t. There are bits, and pieces… but not much.”

“Well, you should probably get settled. Go to your cabin; someplace familiar. I’ll make sure Kril doesn’t kill you,” said Cain with a wink. He strode off, Commissar’s greatcoat swirling. Simone watched him leave.

“What did they do to you…?” muttered Simone. “I’m your First Lieutenant, Admiral.”

“Ah hah!” came Vir’s triumphant shout. “Yes. Simone. I remember you are my first lieutenant. It’s coming back. A bit.”

“Alright, then. I’ll take my leave, Admiral,” she said. Vir shook his head, still confused. He wandered through the hangar, somehow knowing where the exits were and where they led. He knew his cabin was somewhere towards the front area of the ship, near the bridge, but found his feet taking him a different way. He walked through the bowels of the ship, saluting the crew he passed with automa-like precision. It was mechanical. He remembered none of them, but for an unknown reason kept walking until he reached a door near the engineering area. He instinctively stepped inside, though he did not know where it led or why he did so.

The room was bare, with empty metal walls and a corrugated steel floor. The walls were covered with elaborate weapons blueprints and armor designs. In the corner, huddled over a workbench, a large figure welded something. Flying sparks illuminated a sleek blue carapace and four arms. Vir had no idea who this was or what sort of creature it was… but he knew it. He trusted it. He felt safe here. Hearing his footsteps, the figure turned around and lifted its welding mask.

“Adam? You got back already?” He felt something stir inside him at her (he knew it was a her) voice.

“I… I can’t remember anything,” he confessed. “The Imperials interrogated me… one of the side effects was temporary memory loss.” The blue alien stood to its full height.

“Those bastards… You don’t remember me?” she asked. Vir shrugged.

“Tell me your name. It helps with remembering,” he replied. She stepped forward and took his arms.

“Sunny,” she said. Suddenly, everything clicked.

“Sunny,” he replied. It was a statement. A sentence spoken by a weary man who has finally come home.

“You… you do remember me?” asked Sunny with concern.

“I remember your name,” said Vir with a smile. “Clearness. Blue skies. Light. Warmth. Happiness. Sunny.”

“Is… is that it? You don’t remember anything else?” Vir stepped forward and threw his arms around her. He felt tears go down his face as he buried it into her chest. She drew him close, her four arms wrapped around him.

“Yes. I remember that I love you.”

Aboard the Millennium Falcon

The Falcon was full to capacity. Nearly fifty individuals were crammed inside. Han Solo and Chewbacca were quietly flying in the cockpit. Not a single word passed between them, for the First Mate realized his Captain wished to be alone with his thoughts. In the small recreational spaces of the ship, sitting morosely in the chairs that controlled the dorsal and ventral guns, slouching in the hallways and resting in the cargo holds were dozens of the Apocalypse’s armsmen.

After Thomas Drake had returned from the Fury of Deimos, he had instinctively gravitated towards Richter and Ordelphine, whom he had told his predicament. The two had immediately and bluntly set him straight, giving him the beginnings of his memories back. He had been lucky; most of who he had been and what he was doing returned within the span of hours, no little thanks due to his First Lieutenant. He had been scrolling through his computer files when a note to himself had popped up… and he had a sudden epiphany. Which was why the Falcon was currently headed to a small but busy moon in the far reaches of this galaxy known as Noctopolis.

The note, and the realization it brought, was simple. The Holy Ordos of His Divine Majesty’s Inquisition and the laws of the Imperium of Man were harsh. They were known to declare all those who dealt in alien technology Excommunicate Traitoris. This meant that the individual in question was expelled from the Church and light of the God-Emperor and cast out of the human race to be hunted down and executed. If such a punishment was fit for those who merely traded technology crafted by aliens, then what of those who romanced, or even copulated with aliens? The punishment for such an act would be… unbelievable. Unfortunately, xenophilia was an accepted act in five of the nine galaxies that now made up reality. Should His Majesty’s Inquisition find out that such people were accepted, it would mean instant and eternal war.

Drake realized the Inquisition could deal with aliens by themselves, for if the aliens fought alongside humanity against larger threats, then they were an asset. However, if Holy Humanity debased itself with aliens, and to the Inquisition, if aliens were treacherous and convinced humans to perfore perverse acts with them, then the Inquisition would have no other choice but to step in. This would result in any alien race that had any sort of xenophiliac history with humanity to be exterminated, and human civilizations that thought xenophilia was acceptable to be brought under Imperial compliance.

The civilizations and the xenophiles themselves had no idea of the storm that was about to bear down on them. With Inquisitor Amberly Vail of the Ordo Xenos now in this galaxy and presumably finding out whatever she could about it, Drake had what he believed to be four options.

One, he could do nothing. The simplest option. If he stood by, Vail would find or overhear that Admiral Adam Vir had convinced the Galactic Assembly that xenophilia should be legal. In that case, Drake could claim plausible deniability and the Inquisition might believe him. Regardless, the xenophiles would be rounded up, the GA destroyed, and this galaxy would become part of the Imperium of Man.

Two, he could turn the xenophiles over to the Inquisition. For eradicating such a large heresy, the Inquisition would probably give him whatever he wanted: advanced weapons technology, one of those delightful gothic starships, perhaps his own private moon. However, innocents would die, the Scoundrels would be broken up, and Vir, Quill, Kirk, and Shepard would despise him before being forever silenced.

Three, he could tell his compatriots or wait for them to do something. However, Thomas Drake had succeeded and survived in life through one maxim: if you wanted something done right, then you did it yourself.

Four, he could side with the xenophiles. He would have to do this carefully, as, otherwise, the full wrath of the Inquisition would come down on his head. He would have to get them underground, undercover, completely invisible from any prying eyes. Already, he had sent warning messages to the Milano, Normandy, Omen, and Enterprise. All were hand written and hand delivered, all written in Drake’s camera-less cabin. No one could hack into handwriting.

The question was hard. The answer was simple. He was siding with the xenophiles. Why? At the moment, the xenophiles were sitting there, doing nothing. The Inquisition, on the other hand, had gone and messed with his brain. All moral concerns aside, he was siding against the Inquisition ‘cause fuck ‘em, that’s why. Ah, spite. That most excellent of motivators.

The Falcon touched down on the putrid streets of Noctopolis, the polluted air swirling around the landing gear. Drake and the armsmen disembarked, leaving Solo with Chewbacca to reclaim the last vestiges of his shredded memory. The armsmen wore garb similar to Drake, all in heavy boots and trench coats.

Good: the trench coats were not armor or uniforms, and thus they would not be easily recognized.

Bad: a group of people wearing black coats and strutting about an overcrowded criminal-ruled moon would be seen and possibly remembered.

Best: trench coats could conceal weapons. A lot of weapons. Each of Drake’s armsmen wore clothing that was reinforced to stop bullets, and had enough guns on them to fuel an army. No one would be messing with them today.

They walked through the streets, their massive numbers and intimidating bearing making sure no one got in their way. Making their way down fetid alleys and downwards, ever downwards, they reached a gorge with red smoke, pollution from some nearby factory, billowed. They made their way through a deserted alley and reached a door. Drake knew it hid a deceptively large building.

“Fan out,” he ordered the armsmen. “Surround the building. No one in or out without my permission.” The armsmen nodded. Weapons were pulled from concealment, the larger ones assembled quickly by their wielders. First Squad had drawn duty today, and Saul stood by Drake’s side. Two black coated women stood next to the door, shotguns at the ready. He wasn’t expecting it, but there could be hostiles inside. You never knew when you might need a hot breach. Drake rapped on the door. There was a long pause. Drake and Saul stood unmoving. The armsmen were ready with their weapons, turning the door and the alley into a kill zone. Eventually, a slit opened and a pair of human eyes peered out.

“What do you want?” asked a somewhat surprised voice.

“I’m a friend of Adam,” replied Drake, the grin on his face unable to hide itself. There was a snapping and rattling of chains and locks being undone, and the door opened. Drake and Saul stepped through, two other armsmen who had been ready to provide support with compact submachine guns hot on their heels. A man with electric blue hair stared, frightened, at the quite obviously mercenary soldiers that had just walked through his door. Before he could say or do anything rash, Drake held out a calming hand.

“Relax. In this case, I really am who I say I am.” He held out a paper, which the man took and carefully scanned.

I, Admiral Adam Vir, hereby state that Thomas Drake is a close confidant and can be completely trusted.

Drake had papers with similar messages from all the Scoundrels. He had forged their signatures and had their fingerprints on file. It was, perhaps, a breach of trust, but he would not be offended if they did the same to him. It was just good business. Plus, such documents were very useful. Very useful indeed. As the man puzzled over what was happening, Drake held up a finger to his comms device.

“You know, you really should change your passwords. And your back door code is 0-0-0-0. Sloppy,” sighed Drake. “Very sloppy indeed.” The blue harried man gapped up at him. Drake sighed again. “Can we, perhaps, go somewhere to talk business? That is, of course, why I came.” The man nodded, still slack jawed, and led the mercenaries through what seemed to be some sort of club and into the back rooms. A group of strangely dressed humans and aliens stood there, apparently summoned by the blue haired man. Drake sat in a vacant seat, the cheap leather scratching through his coat. Saul and the two other armsmen stood beside him, their coats open, ready to grab hidden guns at a moment’s notice.

“Are you here to kill us?” opened one of the humans abruptly. The other faces at the table were silent, but held the same worry. Drake sighed for a third time.

“I only kill those whose deaths are necessary or deserved. You are neither, so you have nothing to fear from me.” There were a few audible sighs of relief.

“Then why are you here?” asked a small, furry alien.

“I come with warnings. There are those who would kill you, and I wish to prevent that,” replied Drake calmly. There was a splatter of derisive laughter before another human held up a hand.

“Are you… one of us? Why would you want to warn us?” Drake gave a rictus grin. Some of his table-mates visibly shrunk back.

“No I am not. Frankly, I don’t care about you or your opponents here. Let us just say that it’s better off you weren’t mass murdered by zealots.” That brought a series of murmerings.

“What?” asked a Drev. “I think you’d better start from the beginning.”

“Indeed,” replied Drake. “It is always wise to start at the beginning.” He settled into his chair. “I’m sure many of you are familiar with the fact that there are now nine galaxies in this universe, not just one.” A chorus of yeses greeted this fact. “You may also be familiar that in one of these galaxies resides a government known as ‘The Imperium of Man.’” A chorus of hissed curses greeted that name.

“Xenophobic scum,” muttered someone.

“Hmm. Yes,” replied Drake neutrally. He leaned back even further and crossed his legs. “At the present moment,” he continued, “The Imperium’s secret police, known as the Inquisition, is here, in this galaxy, investigating a completely unrelated matter.” More mutterings. “They are bound to investigate everything they can about this galaxy, and when they do, they will find out about your existence. If this happens, you will all be tortured to death, and the GA, with most likely every alien race here, will be exterminated, with the galaxy coming under Imperial rule.” Drake smiled over their horrified faces. “I do not wish to see that happen. Which is why you must do as I say.” They all leaned in, desperate to hear if he could save them. “One, you must disperse. Groups attract attention. I found this place easily, because I knew what to look for. The Inquisition is even more adept than me. Two, you must leave this place. If a trail can be found, something I am trying to erase, believe me, but, if a trail can be found, it will lead to this moon. Three, you must never, ever practice any sort of xenophilia, or have anyone suspect what you are. Four, if you do as I say, and are still captured by the Inquisition, you must tell them that you are alone; a singular degenerate alone and unloved in this universe. They will ask you to betray your comrades; don’t. They will kill you either way.” There was a stunned silence, before the room went up in shouts.

“No!”

“Absolutely not!”

“You ask us to give up everything! Everything we’ve worked so hard for! To no longer be ourselves! Adam Vir would never do this!”

“Adam Vir is not here!” thundered Drake. “You are dealing with me now.” He stood and rubbed his forehead as he paced. “Nothing I have told you, or will tell you, is a lie. My colleagues are, to a man, all better people than I. However, they are, at times, unbearably naïve.” He spun around and fixed them with his most intimidating glare, the one that made corporate oligarchs, high generals and planetary governors quake in their boots. “Be grateful that you are dealing with someone who knows precisely what they are talking about.” The table sat back down and watched Drake. He frowned. “Now, I can get you off this moon; get you to wherever you want to go. I can give you new identities, multiple identities, just in case, food, tickets, papers: whatever you need to start a new life.” He paused. “However, all things come at a price.”

“I knew it!” hissed one of the humans. A tesraki held up a hand, silencing the other members around the table.

“What do you want?”

“I want information. And you are going to give it to me.”

“What do you want to know?” The voice was resigned to its owner’s fate. Drake leaned forward.

“Everything about the LFIL, everything about Admiral Vir, and everything about this galaxy that I don’t already know. Give it to me and follow my directions, and I can ensure you will survive.”

Aboard the Fury of Deimos

Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex stood on the command bridge of the Grey Knight’s ancient ship, surrounded by the mindless servitors that crewed it. In front of him were winking holograms of Admiral Vir, Captain Kirk, and Commander Shepard. Deep into the blackness of space, a space station, so sleek and unlike anything Imperial, orbited an empty planet. A camera feed from inside the research station flickered through the terminal in front of him. What it displayed was clear signs of daemonic presence.

“We got word just recently that this research station went dead,” said Vir. “They apparently had some sort of artifact they were studying here. It only came alive in the past few days.” The cameras showed an infestation. The artifact had spread throughout the station. Twisted masses of white bone, flickering with red energy and black ooze, clung to the floors and walls. Dark energy, lit with crackles of red, pulsed through the ceilings as if the station were some living thing. As if the red crackling were arteries, filled with blood, flowing to the artifact, the beating heart of corruption. The station’s crew were all dead. Their bodies were held up by tendrils of bone, some twitching slightly as the horrible mass grew inside them. Bone spread through every empty space in their bodies, growing through their eyes and mouths, infesting their noses, even going through their very veins. To the watching Scoundrels, it was horrifying. To Lord Hector, it was just a regular day.

“It was good of you to inform me,” he replied. “Stay aboard your ships. We shall take care of this.” The Scoundrels nodded. If there were people who knew precisely how to combat this sort of thing, then they would differ to their expertise. Rex deactivated the holograms and turned, walking off the bridge. As he strode through the ship, he sent a mental message to Doctor Strange. Strange was aboard, just in case the Knights or Inquisition needed his help. He was staying in the hangar bay, though, for he just didn’t want to take the chance of being mind wiped.

Strange. We are cleansing the research station here. Stay aboard. If you receive word of any other artifacts being activated, you are free to intervene as you see fit.

Understood, Lord Inquisitor. I’ll be keeping my eyes open on the areas that celestially connect to Polaris.

The Scoundrels awoke from their induced slumber with a warning: there were corrupting artifacts, hidden in the locations that Polaris was connected to. These artifacts needed to be destroyed. Rex couldn’t agree more.

Through the halls bearing the symbols of the Grey Knights he walked, until he reached the teleportarium. The five Knights who had accompanied him on this mission stood there, silently waiting, weapons in hand. Rex simply nodded at them. No words were needed. His sword was always at his side, his armor always on him; no need to go get them.

The silent party of Ordo Malleus operatives stepped into a large circular chamber, mysterious machinery clanking along the walls. A servitor trundled forward, and flipped a lever.

With an almighty crack of displaced air, Lord Hector Rex and the Grey Knights teleported aboard the now derelict research station. The pulsating mass of bone and energy crackled ominously around them. They marched inexorably forward, untouched by the corruption.

“They are coming,” spoke the rumbling baritone of one of the Knights. “This thing defends itself.” Without warning, a fallen scientist leapt at them. It’s eyes were dead and gone, replaced by inky black spots of primordial darkness. It’s mouth stretched impossibly wide, bone spurs ready to shred flesh.

It was unnaturally, unimaginably fast.

The Grey Knights were faster.

Nemesis force halberds crackled to life with but a thought, pure blue-white energy flowing across their blades. The Knight nearest to the lifeless abomination spun at speeds the mortal eye could not follow, his psychic powers enhancing his already enhanced body. The blade of his halberd connected with the thing’s neck, cleaving through bone and thin, lifeless skin like a knife through tissue paper. The once-human fell, the unnatural life in its eyes gone. With its death, the station exploded.

Tentacles of bone whipped forward, seeking to impale the intruders. More infected bodies darted forth, running at the Knights with speeds that would have astounded a normal human. The darkness seemed to grow deeper, an unnatural deficit of light swimming forward to fill the halls.

Lord Hector unsheathed his blade. The sword was called Arias, an ancient weapon carried by the Ordo Malleus’s greatest heroes, reportedly blessed by the Emperor Himself during the Great Crusade. It glowed with faint golden light, repelling the darkness around them. He now brought it forward onto a corrupted scientist; a quick slice, almost as if he were swatting a fly. The infected form fell, cleaved in two by Hector’s power.

The Grey Knights spun and swirled through the station as if they were smoke. Untouchable. Untaintable. Their psychic powers churned through the air, leaving blessed purity where there had been corruption a moment before. They moved in tandem, augmenting each other with their power, exactly in tune with their brothers’ minds. They were a brotherhood of demigods, slayers of the demonic, a group that brought only death to the damned.

Lord Rex spun Arias in a defensive pattern, the consecrated blade shredding every attacker that reached him. He held out a hand, and a dead Vrul scientist that had leapt at him, bone-fangs ready to tear his throat, stopped in mid-air, suspended with his mind. His fist closed. The Vrul exploded into bone shards.

A wall of force, crackling with golden energy, swept away the encroaching darkness, fueled by the combined might of the Knights. The scientists were all dead now, shredded by the psychic ammunition of the Grey Knights wrist-mounted bolters or cut down by their crackling blades. The tentacles and walls redoubled their efforts, desperate to make sure the Inquisition didn’t reach the artifact at the center of the station’s corruption.

With a swipe of his hand, the Grey Knight’s sergeant flicked open the heavy doors that led to the artifact’s chamber. They saw it, a small mass of bone, swelling with unnatural power. With a flick of his sword, Rex cut the tendrils that suspended it. The very station seemed to shriek underneath them, the bone tendrils spasming. Rex held the thing in mid-air, unwilling to touch it.

“What shall we do with it?” he asked the sergeant.

“Put it in a box. Take it back to Titan. We must study this,” replied the deep voice. Another Knight came forward with a purified small metal container, and Rex telepathically lowered the artifact inside and sealed the lid. With a mental command to the servitor, the Knights and Lord Inquisitor disappeared, teleported back to the Fury of Deimos. The starships of the Scoundrels and Inquisition erased any trace of the station, its memory gone forever. In its box, the cursed artifact pulsed, another relic to be taken back to the headquarters of the Grey Knights to be studied.

I hope you liked it. If you have any requests or want me to write about a specific group or person, please tell me! Wherever you are, have a great day.

#magnificent scoundrels #story #writing #my writing #crossover #empyrean iris #warhammer 40k #star wars #crossover story #humans are space orcs #humans are weird #sci-fi

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isitgintimeyet · 4 years ago

Text

Just a Friend

So I finally started to write another story...

I will try and post weekly, but can’t promise on account of real life and my inability to actually focus on translating what’s in my head onto paper (or screen!)

Getting the courage to post never gets any easier, but here goes. I hope you enjoy this frothy bit of fun. I will also post on AO3.

Thanks to @wickedgoodbooks for being an excellent beta.

Chapter 1: From Airport to Aggravation

Bank holiday crowds, on the whole, are hell.

And this one is rapidly turning into an even deeper level of purgatory. The hottest May for years in Scotland and I’m stuck at Glasgow airport with a dozen women, collectively known as ‘Geillis’s Hen Party Posse’, each displaying varying degrees of inebriation, hangover or general sleep deprivation, and all aiming for the luggage carousel showing the flight from Barcelona. Which apparently is where several hundred other disembarked passengers are also heading.

Eventually, I manage to get a view of the bags and cases slowly making their way around the belt. They’re pretty picked over by this time, apart from the couple of boxes covered in gaffer tape that always seem to be first off a plane—any plane—and last to be collected. They’re always there, on every flight. Why is that?

I pause from my musings to wave frantically at Geillis, who now has a trolley and is clearing a path straight towards me.

“I got us a trolley.” she informs me, stating the obvious. “I thought it’d be easier. Have ye seen ours yet, Claire? I canna see the others. They must have already gone through.”

“No,” I answer, keeping my eyes firmly on the little hatch, willing our bags to appear. All I want is to go home, put my sleep mask on and try and get some sleep. Three days in Barcelona celebrating Geillis’s forthcoming nuptials have worn me out, and, I glance at my watch, I am due in theatre in approximately seventeen hours time.

"It's there, it's there," Geillis points excitedly at the neon pink and green leopard print bag making its way towards us.

She makes a grab for it as I continue to look for my bag. Predictably, it’s one of the last ones on the carousel. I recognise it immediately from the piece of red gift ribbon tied to the handle of the plain black Samsonite. I load it onto the trolley and Geillis and I head through customs to join the rest of the posse.

We say our goodbyes loudly, with much hugging and kisses. A stranger viewing this scene might imagine we won’t be seeing each other again for weeks or even months. In truth, I’ll be seeing most of them in the next week or so at the hospital as our schedules coincide.

“Shall we two get a taxi, then?” Geillis asks me.

I start to answer as my mobile pings — a text from Frank...very nice, very caring, very predictable.

Darling, it’s been a long three days without you. I am ready to collect you from the airport if you would like. If not, might I see you later this evening? xxx

And that is very clearly Frank. Correct grammar and punctuation, even on his texts. I shake my head as if to drive away my inner bitch and pretend I haven’t read it. I will respond, of course, just later when I’m back at home.

So, I smile at Geillis and agree. “Of course, we can go halves.”

***********

As I walk into my flat, the peace and quiet and sheer bloody calm wraps itself around me like a swaddling cloth. It’s blissfully cool too, with all the shutters closed.

It’s not that I didn’t have a good time in Barcelona. It was actually great. But being in the company of others twenty four hours a day is wearing, much as I love them. And we all had to do everything together. No sneaking off for a solitary walk, or escaping to bed for a little siesta.

I deposit my suitcase by the bedroom door, slip off my converse, pour myself a glass of orange juice, settle down on the sofa and figure out how best to tell Frank not tonight without offending him.

Frank, Sorry but tonight isn’t —

I delete and try again.

Thanks for the offer to pick me up. I was already in the taxi when I got it. Can we give tonight a miss? Theatre in the morning and I’m knackered totally exhausted. You know what Geillis is like. Speak tomorrow, I promise. C

Frank knows what Geillis is like. Frank thinks Geillis is a bad influence on me, with her larger than life personality and wild ideas. I think Frank doesn’t really know me at all if he believes I can be influenced like that. I hang out with Geillis and my friends because they’re fun and we laugh… a lot.

Without realising, I feel my shoulder muscles relax as soon as I’ve sent the message. These are not good signs for my relationship with Frank. He’s investing far more into ‘us’ than I am willing to do. But as long as I’m honest with him…

There are advantages to being with Frank, of course. He’s punctual, very organised and a proficient and considerate lover. He always makes sure I come, even if I sometimes...er… exaggerate my reactions to hurry things along. So much for honesty, then.

I finish my orange juice and plan my evening. Four things to do - unpack, grab some food, shower and sleep. Not even going to wash my hair. That would really be too much effort, struggling with my untameable mane, and it’s going to be stuck under a surgical cap for most of tomorrow anyway.

It takes a bit of effort to actually move from the sofa. I could quite happily fall asleep there. But then I’d wake up in the middle of the night—starving hungry and still smelling of sweaty airports. Reluctantly, I haul myself into a vertical position and head for my bedroom picking up my suitcase en route.

Opening the suitcase, I am not greeted with the expected haphazard mass of sun dresses, t shirts and shorts—all with the evocative aroma of Hawaiian Tropic—but a layer of white dress shirts, immaculately folded and the faint scent of a musky cologne.

Shit, shit, shit!! Some else has walked off with my black samsonite with the red ribbon on the handle. My evening plans are rapidly going awry. I delve into my handbag praying that I kept my boarding pass with the sticky bar code luggage receipt. The relief when I find it lurking in the bottom of my bag is immense. Quickly I google the airline lost baggage number and dial.

After a few bars of some god awful plinky plinky hold music, I hear a recorded message. “Your call is important to us, please hold. Your call is important to us, please hold.”

Good to know, then back to the plinky plinky before another message. “The office you are trying to reach is now closed. Please try again during office hours nine am to five thirty. Thank you.”

“If my call is so important to you, why is no one there at six o’clock?” I yell down the phone, but the plinky plinky ignores me and continues its irritating melody.

I sigh. I don’t want to have to wait until tomorrow morning to sort this out. Besides, by nine am tomorrow morning, I will be somewhat unavailable - reshaping the hip bone of a seven year old boy. So, I have no alternative. I will have to have a bit of a dig around this stranger’s suitcase, looking for any clue or contact details.

As I start to have a feel around, it occurs to me that some stranger might, at this very moment, be doing exactly the same thing — having a poke around my suitcase in the hope of finding my details. No doubt judging me based on my choice of holiday attire. And, I suddenly realise, his judgement may well be coloured by the discovery of some items of a more adult nature.

I say ‘he’, based on the XL white shirts, the pair of battered jeans and faded Scotland rugby shirt, but I could be wrong. I don’t have to dig any further into the case as I spy, in a mesh pocket, a neat rectangle of card with a name — James Fraser — a mobile number and an email address.

Relief sweeps over me. Perhaps we can get this all sorted tonight. Unless this James Fraser lives miles away and was just passing through Glasgow on his way to, say, the Outer Hebrides. That could be a whole other level of problem.

I quickly reach for my phone. Another message from Frank awaits.

Are you sure, darling? I’m looking forward to seeing you. Would tomorrow evening work for you?

I ignore it for the moment. Let me sort my luggage issue out first.

I dial the number on the card and begin to pace around my bedroom as it rings and rings. I am just about to give up when, thankfully, it’s answered.

“Hello?” A female voice asks warily.

I clear my throat and put on my most pleasant phone voice. “Is there a James Fraser there please?”

“Ye’ve the wrong number.”

“Oh, sorry, I must have mis—“ I begin, but find myself apologising to dead air.

I try again, carefully comparing each digit to those written, very neatly, on the card.

“Hello?” The same female voice answers, more than a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“I’m sorry, but this is the number I have for James Fra—“

“And I already told ye, ye’ve the wrong number. Dinna bother again.”

In the days before mobiles, I’m sure this would have been accompanied by a deafening crash as the receiver hit the cradle. Pressing a soft key doesn’t have the same dramatic effect. But I get the message anyway.

So, new plan needed. All I can do is email this James Fraser and hope he actually has written down the correct email address. If not, I’ll have to sort it out with the airline tomorrow afternoon.

My stomach rumbles and I suddenly realise that I’ve not eaten since breakfast, unless you count the slices of fruit in my jug of sangria. I wander into the kitchen and peruse the contents of my cupboards and fridge. I’m not the most gifted cook, but I’m not too bad and can usually rustle up something edible and fairly tasty. The bread feels a bit on the dry side but will be fine toasted, and I know I have eggs.

I put a knob of butter in a pan and text Frank while I’m waiting for it to sizzle.

Think tomoz will be ok. Talk 2morrow. C

I don’t normally use text speak at all, but something about Frank’s perfectly formed text messages always makes me want to rebel. I can imagine him wincing right now. He’s a professor at the university and is forever complaining about the standard of literacy amongst his undergraduates. If he thinks he has problems, he should try dealing with junior doctors.

With my scrambled egg on toast all eaten, I focus my attention on the email to James Fraser. I write it quickly, brief and to the point: I have your suitcase and therefore presume you have mine, can we meet to swap them over and here’s my phone number.

The longing for a shower and then bed is now overwhelming. I strip off and bundle all my clothes into the laundry basket, tie my hair up with a scrunchie and step into my shower. This is undoubtedly one of my favourite places on earth and possibly the reason that I bought this flat. Large enough for two, I suppose. Although none have yet been invited to partake in this heavenly experience. Maybe I’m saving that for someone extra special. It has a huge overhead rainfall shower head and a handheld shower head too.

My indulgences are all in here — a selection of expensive shower gels, scrubs and lotions and an assortment of huge fluffy bath towels. I choose a lavender scented gel and scrub all traces of the day from my skin.

Wrapping myself in one of my pristine white towels, I slather shea butter lotion on my slightly sun-burnt skin, noticing the uneven red patches where the sun cream hadn’t quite reached but at least it’s not sore.

A quick check of my emails shows there’s no word from James Fraser as yet, so I decide to just settle down to sleep and leave luggage worries until the morning. Fortunately, I had changed the sheets before my weekend away, so I simply unwrap my towel, leaving it in a heap on the floor and slide into bed. The feeling of the cool, crisp bedding against my skin is wonderful. I assume a sort of diagonal starfish position, not having to worry about any other occupants. It crosses my mind whether to reach for the tiny vibrator in my bedside drawer, but I’m too comfortable and drowsy for that, so instead I check my alarm and settle down for sleep.

#outlander fanfic #outlander fanfiction #Jamie Fraser #Claire Beauchamp #Just a Friend #chapter 1 #Here goes

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senadimell · 4 years ago

Note

If you've got time to share, I'd love to hear more about your thoughts around Snape and Lupin.

@deathdaydungeon, here you are!

After a conversation with @frederick-the-great, I’ve been thinking about Lupin, Snape, and what they say about morality in HP. I’m not talking about the troublesome white hats, black hats morality, but am instead looking at from this angle: Lupin is nice and well-liked, but often lacks a backbone, whereas Snape is mean and disliked, but incredibly brave. Which is more important? I find Harry’s last sacrifice to be a useful point by which we measure their impact.

Lupin and Snape useful to compare on several important fronts.

As foils for each others’ teaching methods

The way they deal with social disadvantage

Their connections to Harry’s father and how they pass on James’ legacy

1) They both teach at Hogwarts, and are foils for each other in many ways. Snape is mean and takes away points. He’s seen as selfish. His classes are hard and unpleasant for Harry. He’s mean to Neville, and rather than encouraging him, mocks him and belittles him, which just adds to the overall disaster of Neville’s poor self-esteem mixing badly with potions class.

However, even Umbridge admits that Snape’s teaching methods work, and she’s working for Fudge who doesn’t like Death Eaters and has been defied by Snape in GoF, so we know he’s effective for a lot of people, if not Neville.

Yet, for all that, Snape saves Harry’s life multiple times. On top of that, Snape wants to keep the fact that he saved Harry’s life a secret.

“Very well. Very Well. But never--Never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it, I cannot bear...especially Potter’s son...I want your word!

My word, Severus, that I will never reveal the best of you? Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape’s ferocious, anguished face. “If you insist...”

DH 679, The Prince’s Tale

Conversely, Lupin is nice and rewards points. He’s seen as generous. His classes are fun and interesting for Harry. He’s kind to Neville, and expresses confidence in him that leads him to succeed and do well. That confidence is a huge part of Neville’s character development. I doubt he’d grow into the resistance leader in DH if not for the many times teachers expressed confidence in him, like Dumbledore in PS, Lupin in PoA, Fake!Moody in GoF, and Harry in OotP. Harry certainly approves of his methods:

“You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” said Harry. “Don’t go!”

PoA 424, Owl Post Again

However, it’s worth noticing that Hermione does worse on his exam than we ever see. She fails the Boggart test, and she and Harry were the only two people not permitted to experience the Boggart in class. Lupin’s teaching methods aren’t foolproof. Despite that, he’s overall seen as a nice guy and good teacher.

Yet Lupin endangers Harry’s life. The secrets he keeps are dangerous: his secret to keep is that he’s a werewolf and actively endangered three students lives with his negligence, as well as the fact that he hid a secret about a believed and convicted mass murderer to save face with Dumbledore.

“That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you’d given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?”

“A thought that still haunts me,” Lupin said heavily. “And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless--carried away with out own cleverness.

“I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore’s trust, of course....he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmasters would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others’ safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month’s adventure. And I haven’t changed...

Lupin’s face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. “All this year I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I’d betrayed his tryst while I was at school, admitting that I’d led others along with me...and Dumbledore’s trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using Dark Arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it...so in a way, Snape’s been right about me all along.”

PoA 355, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Plan is emphasized because those trips that ended in “near misses” weren’t some impulsive romp. They were planned and coordinated in advance.

“I just saw Hagrid,” said Harry. “And he said you’d resigned. It’s not true, is it?”

“I’m afraid it is, said Lupin. He stared opening his desk drawers and taking out the contents.

“Why?” said Harry. The Ministry of Magic don’t think you were helping Sirius, do they?”

Lupin crossed to the door and closed it behind Harry.

“No. Professor Dumbledore managed to convince Fudge that I was trying to save your lives.” He sighed. “That was the final straw for Severus. I think* the loss of the Order of Merlin hit him hard. So he--er--accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast.”

“You’re not leaving because of that!” said Harry.

Lupin smiled wryly.

“This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents ....They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could have bitten any of you...That must never happen again.

“You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” said Harry. “Don’t go!”

PoA 424, Owl Post Again

What strikes me about this conversation is how Lupin shifts the blame around. This doesn’t start with an admission of guilt. He’s not leaving because the parents are right. He’s not leaving because he’s seen how dangerous he can be, or because he owns up to making an incredibly dangerous decision. He’s leaving because Snape forced his hand. If Snape didn’t do that, he would do the same thing he’s always been doing: sweeping his misdoing under the rug and promising himself privately that he’s going to change, but never doing it.

It’s always someone else’s fault for Lupin. That’s a neat tie in to the next point of comparison:

2. Lupin and Snape both experience marginalization in wizarding society, but in very different ways. Lupin faces socio-legal** marginalization and Snape faces socio-economic marginalization.

Lupin’s a werewolf. We see how prejudice affects his life, from his inability to find a job and his worn out clothes to his people-pleasing nature. He’s always acting nice and harmless. He does nothing to play into the condemning stereotypes he’s faced since childhood. Despite that, he still can’t find a job. Nobody will hire him, and people are scared to interact with him. From the way he talks about werewolves, it’s implied that this prejudice is held blindly across Wizarding society. Both Ron and Hermione are horrified to learn Lupin’s a werewolf. *** Later on, he’s legally limited in the kinds of jobs he holds and the kind of magic he’s allowed to perform. Lupin has no control over his transformations, and did not choose his condition.

Lupin’s not really wrong when pities himself. The odds really are stacked against him when he’s treated as if he’s a wolf 24/7, not just a few predictable times a month. His prospects are honestly awful.

The problem is, his condition is dangerous. Thus, the issue of victim blaming is particularly thorny for Lupin. He can’t just accept that he’s a monster for something he has no say over, and yet he can’t escape the fact that sometimes he is monstrous for reasons out of his control. He feels guilty for the people he could have hurt, but also seems to resent that people blame him for something that’s not his fault. The problem is that he carries that lack of accountability into spheres where he should be accountable, like not taking his medication and endangering children because of it.

Snape’s story is very different. He is poor in both the wizard and muggle worlds, and half-blooded, and was sorted into Slytherin as a child. He doesn’t have one condition against him, but checks boxes that make it hard for any one side to accept him. He’s too impure and poor to survive on his own for the Slytherin, but is a Slytherin with Death Eater friends and housemates interested in dark magic, which means he’s never going to fit in with the Order of the Phoenix crowd, especially when some of its members torment him at school. ****4

This essay makes a convincing point that the wizarding world is not a meritocracy, and that people like Snape need powerful patronage to advance if they don’t have the money to support themselves.

I don’t consider the sorting a proper choice. I know Harry does, but I’m of the opinion that at age 11, very few people have been taught how to analyze different perspectives and make an informed decision. Most 11-year-olds are trained to obey their parents and accept their family’s ideology. Harry’s choice rests on very little evidence--most of what he knows is what Hagrid told him, and that he doesn’t want to be sorted into Voldemort’s house along with Draco Malfoy, someone who reminds him of Dudley. I don’t think Snape was very informed either (I’d love to know why), because he doesn’t realize why it Lily wouldn’t be sorted into Slytherin.

“You’d better be in Slytherin,” said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little. DH 671, The Prince’s Tale

Either the pureblood rhetoric just wasn’t strong in those days, or his mother didn’t tell him about that.

...“Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?”

James lifted an invisible sword.

“’Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!’ Like my dad.”

Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him.

“Got a problem with that?”

“No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy--”

DH 671-2, The Prince’s Tale

It seems that most people just follow familial preferences. As to why Snape wants to be in Ravenclaw over Slytherin, my preferred interpretation is that he had a family legacy, knew that Slytherin rewarded the ambitious and clever, and that Slughorn, the head of Slytherin house, had a knack for making the kind of connections that a poor, clever boy would need to succeed.

Nevertheless, once Snape was in Slytherin, the odds were stacked against him. The house in that era was full of people who would later be Death Eaters. “Dark Magic” wasn’t frowned upon among his housemates, and siding with Voldemort wasn’t yet widely acknowledged as a transgression by wider society.

“No, no, but believe me, [Sirius’ parents] thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren’t alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things.…” OotP 112

Additionally, people like Bellatrix were in the years above him, and given how Fred and George acted with younger students, I think it’s highly likely younger students had to find a place in the hierarchy or be the target of ‘pranks.’ He was a halfblood, after all, and dirt poor.

Snape knew these people. He ate with them, slept with them, and went to class with them. It is so much easier to understand and befriend someone you spend time with. I’d say that most people who subscribe to problematic ideologies aren’t just awful to be around all the time, or else these movements wouldn’t gain any traction. They’re likely funny and nice to be around if you’re not on their bad side.

In addition to strong peer pressure to befriend the people who would be death eaters, he was also bullied four to one. His bullies received protection from the headmaster when he was nearly killed or permanently maimed. They were popular and well liked.

The best analogy I’ve heard to describe Snape's Hogwarts situation is that he’s a kid in a rough neighborhood who joins the local gang. It provides protection and the hope of social mobility, and from his perspective, the other gang fights just as dirty (his treatment by the marauders). He doesn’t stop to think that the system is flawed, or that the gang’s very existence indicates the failure of authority and threatens its members. He just sees himself as a kid with nothing who needs help with protection and advancement. We know that Voldemort hasn’t shown his true colors, and it’s possible he showed different faces to different people.

‘Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good a witch an’ wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an’ Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst’ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get ’em on his side before ... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin’ ter do with the Dark Side.

‘Maybe he thought he could persuade ’em ... maybe he just wanted ’em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe’en ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an’ – an’ –’ (“The Keeper of the Keys”)

Dumbledore’s cited as the reason they turned him down, not their blood status. I think there’s evidence that the wholesale anti-muggleborn campaign wasn’t a huge part of the first wizarding war, and wasn’t implemented until the second, even if there was anti-muggle propaganda. (Muggle=/=muggleborn). It’s implied that Tobias is abusive and that Snape hates him for what he did to him and his mother; it’s implied that faced class prejudice by the muggles around him as well:

“I know who you are. You’re that Snape boy! They live down Spinner’s End by the river,” she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation.

DH 665, The Prince’s Tale

When you read stories about people who are able to escape cycles of gang violence and poverty, there’s almost always someone who lifts them out. There’s someone who pushes them, or extends a hand, or believes in them. There are community outreach programs, or churches, or an English teacher that pushed them to do better and try out for a scholarship. That person is usually someone who knows what it’s like and knows how hard it is to get out.

Snape doesn’t seem to get that support anywhere. Slughorn doesn’t seem to notice him, for whatever reason. Lily doesn’t approve of his friends, but also doesn’t understand at all what the pull is--that it’s hard to swim against the current of what everyone else is saying, despite the fact that she feels the same pressure to end her friendship with Snape.

“… thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying. “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Every and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Marry Macdonald the other day?”

DH 673, The Prince’s Tale

In the very same conversation, the fact that Snape is not allowed to share what happened to him with Lupin and the werewolf incident means that Lily will never be able to understand what Snape is facing: That the leader of the good guys makes excuses for and protects people who recklessly endanger the lives of others.

“And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Wollow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there--”

Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too!...”

DH 674, The Prince’s Tale

Later in the year after SWM, she tells Snape this:

“None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you.”

DH 675 The Prince’s Tale

She expects him to reject all of his classmates and stand against the tide, despite the fact that she knows how hard it is to do that and can’t comprehend why he sticks with his classmates. She expects him to be grateful to James Potter as if what he did was altruistic, because the Headmaster swore Snape to secrecy and he keeps his promises, despite the fact that someone else was spreading the story. (The fact that she says she heard it instead of talking about it like its common knowledge implies that she heard it from a friend, so our friends the Marauders likely weren’t keeping their lips zipped even if Snape was.)

I don’t say this to shift the blame away from Snape to Lily in regards to Snape joining the Death Eaters. I just want to point out that Lily wasn't someone who could help him break the cycle. He didn’t squander some chance she offered him. She just wasn’t enough to break him out--not empathetic, motivated, or well-informed enough. (I think the fact that they were peers plays a big role in that).

Ultimately, Snape did choose to join the Death Eaters. He did yield to peer pressure. He did obey his assignment and report the prophecy to Voldemort. He spent his youth yielding, following the path in front of him, and choosing what was probably the easier choice: stick with your group, find powerful friends, do what they want, and don’t ask too many questions about their methods. That’s what makes his decision to betray Voldemort so powerful to me.

Here’s part of the passage when Snape betrays Voldemort:

...The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone...His fear infected Harry too, even though he knew that he could not be harmed, and he looked over his shoulder wondering what it was that Snape was waiting for--

Then a sliding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air. Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand.

“Don’t kill me!”

DH 676, The Prince’s Tale

He was terrified. He knew he was caught between the world’s two most powerful wizards, but it was worth it if he could save his childhood friend.

Then when Lily dies:

“Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the share and color of Lily Evans’s eyes, I am sure?”

“DON’T!” bellowed Snape. “Gone...dead...”

“Is this remorse, Severus?”

“I wish..I wish I were dead....”

“And what use would that be to anyone?” said Dumbledore coldly.

DH 678, The Prince’s Tale

Whatever motivation Snape had before is gone. A person’s life who is not his own is worth more than his own, and he’s drowning in guilt. From now on, Snape works to be useful in saving Harry’s life, and later many lives, at risk of death. His choices are a black mark on his record, likely making it difficult for him to get a job when he’s been tried as a Death Eater, and all of his wizarding connections are Death Eaters or their associates. He has no money or influence. Dumbledore hires him.

So Lupin has a single ailment and faces constant social and legal discrimination. He constantly tries to undermine people’s expectations about werewolves by being mild, but unfortunately is too afraid of rejection and its consequences to stand up against bad behavior or take full responsibility for his failings. He has friends who support him, but do it by engaging in risky behavior. He does not stop them. Perhaps he fears exposure and expulsion. Perhaps he just likes belonging for once. Either way, he does not come clean until forced to.

Snape is different; instead of facing outright rejection, he’s from a poor background and grows up surrounded by peers who join something somewhere between a gang and a cult while being bullied by people groomed by a rival organization. The headmaster of his school supports the rival organization and swears him to secrecy about an incident when they endangered his life, sending the message that his life is worthless. That same group continues to publicly bully him. He continues down this path until he realizes that it endangers something he cares about, and makes a decision that puts him at risk of being killed by the two most powerful wizards alive. He changes course.

Snape seems to view his problems as challenges facing him, whereas Lupin sees his problems as part of who he is, and not something he can change. Lupin seems to accept what happens to him in a fatalist kind of way. He sees what happens as inevitable and somewhat out of his control, whereas Snape never seems to blame his circumstances for him becoming a death eater, even though they clearly limited his options. I think that attitude matters. However, because Lupin’s facing a fictional magical malady, it’s difficult to fully blame him for that attitude.

Both Lupin and Snape have to react to powerful societal pressure that makes it difficult for them to succeed. Comparing them is apples and oranges at best, because their circumstances were so different. I don’t think you can judge either’s morality based on group identity, though.

3. Finally, they both act as a window on James: who he was, and what he means to Harry, who never knew him. That means in some way, they help pass on his parental legacy to orphaned Harry.

Hogwarts is Harry’s home, which means that the teachers are more than just teachers, but play a symbolic parental role in his life.

Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here.

DH 697, The Forest Again

You can’t understand Harry without realizing what he lacks: a loving home and living parents. He’s always looking into the past to find his parents, and is saddled with a legacy he struggles to understand--why did he live, who were his parents, and what does he need to do now?

Lupin and Snape also share a connection with Harry that goes beyond a normal teacher-student relationship, unlike McGonagall or Flitwick. Snape and Lupin are more personally connected to Harry than the other professors because they know Harry’s parents and went to school with them. I will mostly focus on James from here on out since we know so little about Lily personally and Harry mostly tries to emulate or avoid his father’s behavior and legacy.

They’re also the last people who knew James to survive, and they die almost at the same time. They’re the only teachers apart from Dumbledore who give Harry private lessons. More importantly, these lessons are all tied thematically to Harry’s past. Harry’s experience with dementors and the patronus charm are his first re-encounter with his parents and his past.

Terrible though it was to hear his parents’ last moments replayed inside his head, these are the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he’d never be able to produce a proper patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again.

PoA 243, The Patronus

In the end of PoA, Harry sees himself and mistakenly thinks it’s his father.

“Come on!” he muttered, staring about. “Where are you? Dad, come on--”

But no one came. Harry raised his head to look atet he circle of dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. It was time for the rescuer to appear--but no one was coming to help this time--

And then it hit him--he understood. He hadn’t seen his father--he had seen himself--

Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his want.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” he yelled.

PoA 411, Hermione’s Secret

So the patronus itself is linked up with Harry’s past, and his coming-of-age. He doesn’t rely on others to save him, but must do it himself. (Though Harry’s never really trusted the adults to save him.) It’s interesting to note that Harry actually learns the Patronus charm under Lupin’s tutelage.

On the other hand, Snape introduces Harry to the unpleasant side of his father’s legacy. Through Snape, we see that James wasn’t just a little cocky, but a bully.

“Apologize to Evans!” James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him. “I don't want you to make him apologize,” Lily shouted, rounding on James. “You're as bad as he is.” “What?” yelped James. “I'd NEVER call you a--you-know-what!” “Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can--I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.” She turned on her heel and hurried away.

....

He had no desire at all to return to Gryffindor Tower so early, nor to tell Ron and Hermione what he had just seen. What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him; it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him. OotP, Snape’s Worst Memory, emphasis added

It’s interesting note that Harry fails to learn Occlumency from Snape. (In fact, we never see Harry use magical skills he learned from Snape apart from Expelliarmus, which is...important). At the same time, he gains an important perspective.

You can’t have James without this part of him. However kind James was to Lupin, however brave James was when he saved his wife, he was neither kind nor brave when he bullied Snape. It’s uncomfortable and awkward, but it’s important.

When he had finished, neither Sirius nor Lupin spoke for a moment. Then Lupin said quietly, “I wouldn’t like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen —”

“I’m fifteen!” said Harry heatedly.

OotP

Harry rejects the idea that actively bullying someone is just folly of youth. He knows what it’s like to be disenfranchised. Regardless of what Snape and James’ relationship was, he didn’t deserve that kind of humiliation. And Lupin watched, and defends him. Harry has to grapple with that.

Ultimately, Snape and Lupin do more than just connect him to his past. They also teach him his two signature spells, Expelliarmus and Expecto Patronum. One saves his soul, and one saves his life and frees the wizarding world from Voldemort because of Voldemort’s fractured soul.

Snape and Lupin as moral counterpoints

How do we evaluate this:

“I’d never have believed this,” Harry said. “The man who taught me to fight dementors--a coward.”*****5

DH 213, The Bribe

and this?

“Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.

DH 758, Seventeen years later

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s really that useful to pit two people with different backgrounds against each other. At the same time, they represent two different halves of a question: when it comes down to it, should we try to be kind or brave? I don’t think you have to pick one, but when pursuing the two, there are bound to be moments of conflict.

I always come back to the lyrics to Last Midnight from Sondheim’s Into the Woods.******6

You're so nice You're not good You're not bad You're just nice I'm not good I'm not nice I'm just right I'm the witch You're the world

Snape doesn’t care about being nice. I think this is where most non-Snape fans start pulling out the pitchforks and torches. Snape isn’t nice, and he’s not nice to kids. He’s not nurturing.*******7 He’s abrasive, allergic to coddling, and petty when he can get away with it. In fact, most of the people he’s ‘nice’ to are significantly more powerful than him, or someone he needs to be on good terms with.

Lupin is nice. He’s mild. He’s often kind. However, he often picks being liked over standing up for something.

What does that result in? He doesn’t stand up for Snape. The bullying continues and keeps Snape firmly on his path. He wins the respect of the Gryffindors with the Snape Boggart incident but loses whatever credibility he had to tell Snape to ‘put their past behind him.’

On the other hand, Neville’s bravery in DH was nurtured by Lupin’s confidence. Neville kept hope alive and led a rebellion. Lupin is one of the few adults that Harry fully respects and trusts up until the Grimmauld place confrontation. (He likes Hagrid and Molly, but doesn’t necessarily trust them to make decisions in their best interest, while he usually respects Lupin’s judgement). Harry loves him, and it’s because he loved him and watched him die that he needs to act and fight back against Voldemort.

Ultimately, Harry’s relationship with James and the adults who pass on his legacy is one of the most important symbolic relationships in the book. The thematic resolution of the series is Harry’s act of sacrificial love.

He did not know what to feel, except shock at the way Snape had been killed, and the reason for which it had been done....

...He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for him. He could not bear to join the Weasleys, could not look into their eyes, when if he had given himself up in the first place, Fred might never had died...

He turned away and ran up the marble staircase. Lupin, Tongs...He yearned not to feel....He wished he could rip out his heart, his innards, everything that was screaming inside of him.

To escape into someone else’s head would be a blessed relief....Nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts.

DH 660-662, The Prince’s Tale

He rushes to the headmaster’s office to escape into Snape's memories. His memories convince Harry that sacrificing himself is the expedient thing to do, and he heads to the Forbidden Forest. To enable is last sacrifice, he uses the Resurrection stone to witness his parents and his father’s friends. Their combined testimony is enough to ameliorate his personal fears about following through with this final act.

Lupin and Snape leave entirely different legacies behind. Lupin encourages and inspires. As an authority figure, he gives people like Neville space to grow and his compassion towards Harry gives him the strength to face his demons. Harry’s decision in DH to die must have something to do with the kindness he was shown, and the sacrifices people who loved him made for him, of which Lupin is a part. Despite what he saw in Princes’ Tale, Snape wasn’t one of the people who’d make an appearance with the Resurrection stone.

Yet Snape sacrificed his life for Harry and the wizarding world, entities that Snape didn’t seem to like and that certainly weren’t kind to him. His form of bravery is about endurance, tenacity, and willingness to do what is right even when you hate your allies and no one else is going to credit you for what you do. And that’s very Harry. Even if he hates Draco, he’s not about to let him die if he can help it. Harry has much more in common with Snape than Lupin, I think.

Since this is about souls, let’s return to the Patronus charm. Snape’s not the kind of person who typically inspires that kind of emotion required to cast a Patronus in others, at least from what we see in Harry’s perspective. Yet because he has experienced that love, he can cast it and shows Harry what needs to be done. Snape enables Harry to dive under the ice. Lupin’s the kind of person who can inspire a patronus, but isn’t the one to make the sacrifice play until after Harry confronts him about his duty to his family. Ultimately, though, they both sacrifice themselves in the Battle of Hogwarts.

* Ever since I realized how blatantly tangential Order of Merlin must be to Snape’s character motivation, that line has frustrated me to no end. There’s no way frothing-at-the-mouth PoA Snape just really coveted that Order of Merlin. He’s often petty, yeah, but if Lupin believes it’s just about that and has nothing to do with Snape’s real conviction about how dangerous Lupin’s actions were, he’s deluding himself. I hate that he passes it on to his students.

**Yes, I am making up words today. Lupin’s faces prejudice and discrimination on a social level enforced by increasingly powerful discriminatory laws.

*** It’s worth noting that if we take every book as equally valid canon, then there’s either widespread ignorance towards lycanthropy, as Lockhart convinces everyone he was able to “cure” the Wagga-Wagga werewolf, and as teenage Horcrux!Riddle said Hagrid raised werewolf cubs under his bed, or else lycanthropy is actually a wide range of conditions under a wolfy umbrella ranging from treatable to incurable. Lupin is our primary source for lycanthropy: he’s the one who tells us about Greyback, for example. If we hold the first two books as equally valid, then perhaps we only know about Lupin’s particular type of condition. That’s the Watsonian analysis, anyways.

****4 These footnotes are getting ridiculous. Basically, there’s no consensus on what Dark Magic is, and on what basis it’s Evil. This essay goes into things that are labelled as curses. I’m inclined to believe that the vast majority of Dark Magic is just Magic We Don’t Like for Reasons.

The definition of what is and isn't considered Dark Magic is never explained: often it just seems to mean "a curse I don't approve of". Even "curse" has never been satisfactorily defined, but we can certainly say that not all curses are regarded as evil, since some appear to be on the Hogwarts curriculum, and are certainly performed without censure.

*****5 While I paired the quotes at the top of this section together for dramatic effect, it’d be a shame not to look at the context of the Lupin fight.

“I thought you’d say [that your mission was top secret],” said Lupin, looking disappointed. But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to. Harry hesitated. It was a very tempting offer.

Hermione then asks about Tonks.

“I’m pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren’t sticking with your own kid, actually”... ...“I’d never have believed this,” Harry said. “The man who taught me to fight dementors--a coward.”

...“Parents shouldn’t leave their kids unless--unless they’ve got to.”

...“I know I shouldn’t have called him a coward.”“No, you shouldn’t,” said Ron at once. “But he’s acting like one. “ “All the same...” said Hermione.

“I know,” said Harry. “But if it makes him go back to Tonks, it’ll be worth it, won’t it?”

He could not keep the plea out of his voice. Hermione looked sympathetic, Ron uncertain. Harry looked down at his feet, thinking of his father. Would James have backed Harry in what he had said to Lupin, or would he have bene angry at how his son had treated his old friend?

DH 213, The Bribe

Harry feels personally betrayed that someone who has a family and child would abandon them. Here he is unyielding and accusing to someone he cares about in the hopes that they re-evaluate what matters. It’s a rather Snape-like tactic, actually. Or else a Dumbledore one.

I love the dialogue in this scene, but have some major issues with how Harry’s internalization drops out the window for shock value. JKR does the same thing when has Harry pull the Veritaserum trick in HBP. I don’t like it.

******6 The witch and Snape aren’t perfect analogues, since she’s decidedly more amoral in my opinion, but they’re both contractually-motivated characters whose humanity is shown by their (platonic/familial) love for a more “innocent” character and the guilt at the innocent character’s sacrificial death. Guilt doesn’t lead the witch to do anything productive, and for Snape it does, which is where they diverge on the character path.

*******7 Draco may be an exception to this. However, watching Snape struggle to build rapport with Draco in HBP leads me to think that while Snape’s been on Draco’s side, he’s still not “nurturing,” or in other words, good at cultivating trust and encouraging the strong and wholesome parts of someone’s personality to grow.

#hp meta #snape #pro snape #severus snape #remus lupin #i haven't figured out how to make this appear above the cut...

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