#ive already seen like 3 different versions i feel defeated

[zeeckz]

(x)

[stillness-in-green]

Changeling: The League (1/3)

Being some errant nerdery combining two things I love very much into one thing that is exponentially more nerdy than either thing on its own: My Hero Academia villains as Changeling: the Lost characters!

This will(/should) be a series of three posts containing some mid-length write-ups on the League of Villains, the Metahuman Liberation Army, and some odds-and-ends on other characters/alternate takes.  

Some prelude: The most prominent question that kept coming up as I was brainstorming the write-ups below was, “Is this retelling the story of My Hero Academia using Changeling: The Lost’s mechanics and world, or is this exploring Changeling: The Lost’s themes using the My Hero Academia cast?”  Would these versions of the characters be NPC villains in Izuku’s story, opponents (or possibly eventual allies) in some grand, epic clash between Heroes and Villains as begun with All Might and All for One?  Would it be the story of a corrupt system, pulled down by the PC group that was Shigaraki and his motley?  I had ideas for both, but in the end, I decided that, rather than oblige myself to the MHA canon, I was ultimately more interested in just letting the implied “story” focus on the League and their histories of loss, trauma and recovery, so that’s the spirit in which these are written.  (Though things do get a bit plottier when their story intersects with the MLA’s.)

Lastly, these are, of course, completely AU, but if you don’t know who the Liberation Army is, you’re probably still going to trip over manga spoilers, so be mindful.  

First, let me lay down some backstory!  Specifically, the story of All for One, One for All, and the lives they drew into their story...

THE PROLOGUE

There is a realm in Faerie inhabited by a pair of binary-matched Fae, All for One and One for All, styling themselves as warring brothers.  They’ve been fighting for many long generations, each in their own fashion.  All for One has tended to keep his power mostly within himself, employing many underlings, but sharing his power with very few of them.  One for All, conversely, has shared most of himself with a succession of users, and in each generation, the pair clashes, with OFA not very "present" for the battles (and thus at less risk), while AFO is able to bring more of himself to the fights.  Before each battle, each user of OFA would be "freed" for a period to find and designate a successor (who would inevitably go missing a few weeks later), before returning for the battle.  They often did this with deeply tormented feelings, but saw little escape from the pattern.  Each one hoped that they might be the one strong enough to break the cycle, as OFA told them each time was a possibility--patterns grow stronger for being repeated, after all--but none of them was able to do so until recently.  Toshinori Yagi refused to designate a successor, and finally, for his stubbornness, was recalled to do battle without one--without having passed even a fragment of OFA's power on, he was finally able to defeat AFO.              

In his defeat, AFO was cast out from Faerie.  He had little memory of who and what he was, but retained a sense for fae matters and a limited grasp on his powers.  He spent the next several years setting up shop in the local freehold, dabbling with Spring and Autumn Court matters as his fancy took him, and racking up a fair amount of renown with the latter in particular when the former found him too ruthless, and not only with humans.  One day, though, he stumbled across what would eventually become his way home--a little boy who felt startlingly familiar, black-haired with a mole on his chin.  AFO struck up a friendship, and when he eventually met the boy's father, things began to click into place--he knew this family because he once fought their matriarch, and that connection was the key to his return.  As he was once defeated by this bloodline bearing his brother's power, for his rise, he had to defeat someone of the bloodline--but he couldn’t just do it straight out.  With his brother, there were pacts in play, old bargains and arrangements.  He couldn’t just waltz in and kill Shimura Kotaro.              

One of them needed to ask. 

THE LEAGUE

Here are the League roughly as we might find them when they’ve been out long enough to build a motley, solidify their bonds somewhat, and start taking on bigger, toothier problems.  All have 7 dots of Contracts except Shigaraki, who has a modest leader bump.  Just assume he’s been out doing some level-grinding the others haven’t.

Shigaraki Tomura

Quote: “There’s always a win condition.”

Type: Gameplayer Wizened.  A trophy/souvenir of AFO’s time on Earth, Tomura survived a durance filled with little but tests in the guise of games.  Survival, combat, endurance, manual dexterity, reaction time, strategy, academics, even odd trivia--he learned them all under his Keeper’s tutelage, in preparation for the next battle with his brother's champion (AFO having seen that his brother's way of doing things has its merits).  Tomura grew up believing himself responsible for his family's deaths (though he's blocked most of the specifics, he knows in his gut that he's responsible somehow) and watching the realm celebrate the champion who'd defeated Tomura’s Keeper, but who hadn't done a thorough enough job to prevent the cycle from resetting after all.

Toshinori, for his part, initially had no idea that AFO had returned with a child, a new champion.  But he did know that AFO had returned (the realms are connected enough that you can't really miss it), and so waited for the next battle with some impatience.  He thought that he, perhaps, just hadn't done well enough, that he'd be more careful, more thorough next time.  After all, patterns become stronger when they repeat.  He doesn't truly understand that All for One can't be killed--not in Faerie, at least--and so there will be no end to the cycle as it stands.  Eventually, he got tired of waiting and sought out AFO on his own--and was shocked to find a kid, just a kid, where he expected to find AFO.  AFO did not think Shigaraki was ready for this yet, and was not prepared to watch several years' worth of effort and his cute keepsake get slaughtered (and he probably would have been; Shigaraki could have all the lives he wanted in training, but an official battle against the sanctioned bearer of OFA would have been different), so he ejected Shigaraki from Faerie and fought the battle himself.  As to what happened afterwards, Shigaraki has no way to know, but the gradual return of various other servants of AFO may eventually begin to shed some light on the subject…

Shigaraki is, when his story truly begins, still figuring out his current game--outside of Arcadia, second chances are harder to come by--but he’s a sore loser and a quick learner, so he never stays down for long, and he’s already made a friend in Toga, who he met in his escape from the Hedge.  He still has very ambivalent feelings about his Keeper, which makes him something of an outlier amongst changelings, who typically feel only terror and loathing for the Others that upended their lives and scarred them in ways that will never--can never--fully heal.  No one, including Shigaraki, has quite realized his connection to the Emperor of Darkness who caused so much havoc in the freehold when he escaped back to Faerie five years ago.  Likewise, Tomura’s fetch, only ten years old, is still in a mental care unit in juvie for the murders of the Shimura family, but dealing with that mess will have to wait until Shigaraki can stomach the idea of even looking at that version of himself.  

Tomura looks much as he does in canon, thin and covered with scratching and scarring.  Behind his tousled white hair, though, his red eyes gleam and flicker as if they’re forever reflecting the dancing lights of a screen.  His masked form has black hair rather than white, and eyes the color of dark, old rust.

Court/Mantle: Autumn, the season of fear.  Shigaraki’s entire durance threatened him always with the fear of failure (and the fear of the consequences of failure), and he himself would rather intimidate than charm, but he also shares the Leaden Mirror’s inquisitiveness and discerning eye.  As such, even when he first emerged from the Hedge, it was with a strong Autumn mantle, and it’s only grown stronger over time.  He’s often trailed by dead, desiccated brown leaves, and Hedge foliage that’s in his presence for any length of time visibly begins to wither--but his mantle flares up even more when he’s being actively combative.  Chilly, dry bursts of air can wring involuntary chills from those on the receiving end of his wide grins and dire promises. When he’s feeling more playful, one can sometimes see small flickers of light in the shape of unknown words or hear odd little strains of music from unrecognizable (albeit somewhat tinny) instruments.

Contracts: 

     Fleeting Autumn I.  He’s not so concerned with becoming some kind of symbol of fear that he’s pursued this Contract very much, but it never hurts to get an idea of what your opponent’s afraid of.

    Eternal Autumn I-III.  It takes time, glamour expenditure, and good dice rolls, but he can kill people this way, withering them down to nothing.  Conversely, he can also make plants bear fruit.  It’s occasionally useful.

    Hours I.  He’s figured out how to consciously botch the activation of this clause so as to decay the targeted object instead of restoring it.  It usually works, but sometimes randomly backlashes onto him instead, causing him injury--the bigger the object, the worse the damage.  The Wyrd doesn’t like being toyed with.

    Lucidity I-IV.  Clarity is a fluid, malleable thing for Shigaraki, which can make him extremely frightening--he can thank his Keeper’s lessons in control.  With this series of Contracts, Shigaraki can and does laugh off the kinds of deeds that would make other changelings quail back in fear of what their own minds would do to them in the aftermath.  He can also be shockingly perceptive for someone who by rights should have terrible trouble distinguishing the boundaries between Real and Unreal, Self and Other.  However, his use of these powers does make him somewhat mercurial and difficult to predict, even to his motley, as derangements come and go with the artificial inflation or drain of his Clarity.  It’s a downward slope, but one he’s taking more slowly than would otherwise be the case.

(Hypothetical Powered-Up Shigaraki: Adds two 5-dot Goblin Contracts, Blood-Binding and The Fatal Transformation.  Be it the power of glamour or the breath of life itself, if Shigaraki wants an enemy drained and is willing to pay his pound of flesh, Goblin magic will provide.  It’s a good thing he’s got friends to back him up, as both of these powers leave him in a pretty vulnerable state.) 

Toga Himiko

Quote: “I met someone cute today.  Don’t wait up!” 

Type: Mirrorskin/Leechfinger dual kith Darkling.  Toga served her durance in the chrome-tinted underbelly of a glass-and-brass dystopia full of mirrors, learning to steal life as easily as she stole food, and to slip from one form to another to keep ahead of everyone who’d chase her down for doing it.  More free than she’d been in her old life, to be sure, but still not free to truly do as she pleased, she dreamed of being able to hunt people down the way she’d been hunted down, with no one to answer to for it.  In time, she managed her escape and, on her path back through the Hedge, crossed paths with Tomura--distraught, lost, but still with plenty of fight left in him.  Each decided that the other was dangerous but sympathetic enough to be a better ally than an enemy, and they teamed up to find their way back to the real world.

Back in that real world, Toga is learning to put herself back together.  Getting back home only to find something waiting there wearing her face was a shock to her system, but after some agonizing (and a bloodbath in her parents’ kitchen), she’s decided it’s for the best.  If going back to being that girl means giving up the amazing psychic buffet the world now presents her, it’s not even a debate.  

Toga in her masked form is dark of hair and eye, a school girl with a wide smile and swift, excitable hands.  In her true form, everything bleeds paler--she’s china white, even her hair turning paler than flaxen fiber, most of her features seeming somehow insubstantial except for the long points of her teeth and the gas lamp yellow of her eyes.  

Court/Mantle: Spring, the season of desire.  Toga, more than anyone in the motley, has embraced the fact that she wants things now that she never would have before, that she has desires that no human would ever understand.  And why not?  She doesn’t kill people, after all; she just likes to taste.  The air around her is always infused with heady floral scents, and when she walks, phantom flowers trail up behind her.  Hemlock and cypress vine, spider lilies and nightshade--all lovely, to be sure, but the language of flowers does give her away.

Contracts: Everything about Toga’s Contracts heightens her skills as a predator, and she’s unquestionably the best in the group at it.

        Mirror I-II.  Allows her to shape her form with more specificity and finesse.

        Darkness I-II.  Makes her targets more suggestible.

        Fleeting Spring I-III.  Lets her pinpoint what her targets want so that she can shape those wants or her reflection of them as needed.

Bubaigawara Jin

Quote: “Nothing’s too much for my friends!”

Type: Truefriend Beast.  Jin’s human life didn’t differ much from his canonical backstory, minus the super power, but went drastically off course when he was hunted down--even on a motorcycle, hunted down!--by a monster on horseback and the various other monsters tumbling before it.  His changeling life consisted of one cage, one chase after another, and while most of the people around him were shaping themselves into being better vessels for coursing, baying, sharp-toothed menace, what Jin most wanted was the pack solidarity.  His Keeper thought this was funny but not a very useful trait in a hunting hound, so they started taking him to dog fights instead, hoping to scour the excess sweetness off of him.  Lacking a pack to stay for, he escaped, but the wanting for one never left him.  

Toga basically tripped over him his first night out, and her kindness then meant he was more than happy to follow her home.  He later made the acquaintance of Mr. Compress and Magne on a bar crawl and, wanting all of his friends to be friends together, introduced them to Shigaraki and Toga.  He’s also trying to make friends with his fetch, who is finding the whole experience of having a clone pop up at him at unexpected times to be unbelievably disorienting and nerve-wracking.  Which one of them is the real one, anyway…?

His mask looks much as Jin does in canon, though his scars are in different places.  In mien, he  always looks a bit rumpled, with short, sandy brown fur and bright, emotive eyes.  He’s dog-eared (literally), one alert, the other floppy, and his hands have stubby, darkened nails.  Unbelievably expressive and more overtly doggish body language--he didn’t keep a tail in his flight back through the Hedge, but people tend to remember him as having one anyway.

Court/Mantle: Courtless.  Jin’s too mixed up in his own emotions to pick just one to focus on.  He likes the idea of Spring, but he’s also skeptical that just wanting is enough to keep people safe, and that fear is rooted deep.  He’s also not without his old sorrows.  Of the High Court emotions, wrath is his rarest visitor.

Contracts:

        Fang & Talon (Dogs) I-III.  Jin’s got an undeniable rapport with dogs.  He loves them and they love him.  There’s practically no mutt he can’t get some words out of if he asks nice.  He’s also still got a hunting hound’s nose, when he needs it.  

        Hearth I-II.  Deeply dedicated to his friends, the Contracts of Hearth make advancing the goals of the motley (or hurting the chances of their enemies) even easier.

        Eternal Spring I.  Easier to be a people-pleaser when you know what pleases people!  Toga taught him this one.

        Moon I.  It’s good to know what people want, but it’s also good to know what kind of crazy people (fetches especially) might be sitting on.  This one also helps the group nail down where Shigaraki’s head is at on any given day.

Spinner

Quote: “What a mess.  Where are we even going with this?”

Type: Steepscrambler Beast.  Spinner spent, by his best reckoning, four years in a Faerie jungle.  It was always sweltering, sickbed heat with air so wet you could choke on it, and after a few close calls with the serpentine river dragons and over-large birds of prey that prowled the place, he’d all but given up trying to search for a way out--the sea of trees just went on forever anyway.  A long-tongued madman named Stain convinced him otherwise, with talk of hidden trods and clues found in the bellies of gutted fish.  When Stain went missing, Spinner resolved to try again, and though he can no longer remember the method of it, whatever he did seems to have worked.  He got back to his shitty hometown, but found it just as bad as ever, if not worse, with a fetch still cooped up in his old bedroom, spiralling ever further into depression.  And so, fed up with the state of his life and the apathy his fetch reflected back at him, he did something that very few changelings are capable of doing--he left home.  

Finding his way to the nearest big city with a proper freehold, Spinner gravitated to the Summer Court and got set up with an apartment in a small complex the freehold maintains for newbies to stay in while they get their feet under them.  Not too long after, Shigaraki and Toga wandered into a Summer recruitment drive, with Shigaraki immediately managing to get on Spinner’s nerves--which made it all the more exasperating when Spinner went home and found the both of them moving into the apartment next door to his!  Spinner’s still trying to figure out what he thinks of the mercurial and difficult Shigaraki, but they have been bonding over video games of late.

Spinner’s mask is a sun-darkened young man with a prominent nose and a thin, terse mouth.  He’s straight-backed but with a certain nerviness in his eyes, a stance that suggests he’s ready to throw the first punch.  He has a street punk look--pointy fingernails and pink hair--that people without the sight to know better assume is achieved with a nail file and hair dye.  His mask looks exactly like canon!Spinner with one exception--changeling!Spinner has ears.  They’re pointy, green and finely-scaled, but otherwise normal humanoid ears and they make his face look just a little wider and more humanoid than canon!Spinner’s lizard profile.  

Court/Mantle: Summer, the season of wrath.  Spinner’s angry about a lot of things--the state of the world, the injustices served to his motley and the wrongs of his life in particular--but he’s also wrestling with a lot of self-loathing.  It’s easy for him to slip into fatalistic thoughts and get mired down in apathy, and every time he thinks he’s gotten past it, someone or something comes along that throws him off, and then before he knows it he’s back on the ground wondering how he’s ever going to get past this.  Leaning into Summer’s hot anger helps keep him focused.  His mantle is relatively weak, tending to manifest as a warm, dry wind only when he’s particularly fired up or activating Court contracts.

Contracts: Spinner’s well-rounded, but that’s because he has a hard time settling on anything.  His ridiculous spread of Contracts illustrates this.

        Den I-II.  Not interested in leaning into his animal instincts and learning to talk to lizards, Spinner has instead leaned into possessive territorialism.  Unfortunately, he still feels like a small fish, so it’s hard to muster up the swagger that would allow him to progress this Contract further.  

        Fleeting Summer I.  Need to pick a fight and score some quick glamour?  This is the clause for you!  Just make sure Dabi’s not around; that guy’s angrier than the whole rest of the motley put together and it skews the readings.

        Eternal Summer I.  Makes Spinner a walking thermostat. Yes, sometimes Toga and Mr. Compress take advantage.

        Oath & Punishment I.  There’s a certain capital-R romance to this Contract that Spinner likes, but he’d need to find something (or someone) to whole-heartedly devote himself to first.  At least he can do sick parkour jumps in the meantime.  

        Artifice I.  Temporary repair magic.  Handy around the house and when you fight with cheap knives.  

        Dream I.  Useful facts about the local Hedge and he’s generally content to leave it at that--he doesn’t have a lot of use for dream-spinning, not when Magne’s so good at it.

Dabi

Quote: “You’re mad, huh?  So what are you gonna do about it?”

Type: Gravewight Darkling.  Once upon a time, there was a barren couple who wished desperately for children.  For many years, it was only a wish, until Todoroki Enji finally found someone who offered him a solution.  Nine months later, Todoroki Touya was born, to be followed by a string of children, each haler and heartier than the last.  Seven years later, the firstborn child was taken away in the night.  No fetch was left behind--after all, the Other was only claiming the price they’d been promised.  Fifteen years after that, a changeling calling himself Dabi dragged himself out of the Hedge, having spent most of his life lighting funeral pyres and digging graves in Faerie until he dug his way out.

Dabi fell in with the rest of the League motley after being found by Magne after a fight went sideways.  She patched him up and offered him a group to run around with for a while rather than doing the solo act.  He accepted, but his pledges with the rest of the group are a bit different--more paranoid, less supportive.  Dabi is distant from the motley, and only time will tell if he eventually lets them in or not.  

In mask, Dabi’s a beanpole, wild black hair and bright blue eyes with a caustic grin, skulking about in a succession of black coats and heavy, workmanlike boots.  In mien, he’s even taller, a too-thin gaunt with great swatches of skin burned away by restless soul-fires, which still cling and flicker blue around his hands.  His skin fits him a bit too loose, and he wears staples to keep it all in place.  

Court/Mantle: Summer, the season of wrath.  Could it ever be anything else?  Rather stronger than Spinner’s mantle, Dabi’s manifests as heat distortions in the air around him and, when he’s particularly riled up, blasts of hot air like you’d get opening up a hot oven.  He has some trouble advancing in the Court proper, though, as he prefers to only fight battles he knows he can win.  He feels, all the time, sick with rage, but until he proves willing to make stands even when the odds are against him, the Iron Spear’s time for him will be limited.  

Contracts: 

        Shade & Spirit I.  If he’s going to see ghosts around all the time anyway, he might as well be able to talk to them.  They’re only sporadically helpful, but as a skeleton in the closet himself, he has some fellow feeling for them.

        Elements (Fire) I-III.  He brought fire with him out of Faerie, but it’s a difficult thing for him to master, foreign to his seeming despite sometimes feeling as if it’s nestled in his very bones.  

        Fleeting Summer I-II.  Dabi’s much at home with wrath, and very willing to shape it to his own ends.  Whether or not he sticks around for them, he likes starting fights.  

        Punishing Summer I.  An odd branch of Summer magic, but one that he feels has some promise for him.  Compared to the more straightforwardly righteous Contract of Eternal Summer, this feels harsher, longer-burning, and that sings to him in ways he finds very appealing.

Mr. Compress

Quote: “If we’re going to break the law, why shouldn’t we do it in style?”

Type: Larcenist Fairest.  A simple stage magician of modest fame once upon a time, right up until he was offered a promising and lucrative gig by a stranger who thought he deserved a better stage for his talents.  The stage in this case turned out to be--well, you can guess.  His client (Keeper) wanted things stolen--they seemed to enjoy the taste of things ill-gotten--and there was always some new diamond or painting or antique.  Sako’s time in Faerie (which he came to share with Magne) was like a string of heist films: glamorous and bubbly and thrilling, but the underside was rife with lurid, impossible violence waiting on the slightest error, the stakes always seemed to be climbing, and of course you could never say no…  But one thing you can say for heist films is that they always allot a proper amount of time for planning, and so over time Sako and the others planned their last heist--the one to steal themselves into freedom.  If asked, Sako will tell a dozen different stories about how it went, but the truth is his memories are fuzzy, and the only thing he knows for sure is that he and Magne emerged from the Hedge alone.  

Sako’s a bit disjunctioned in time--many more years have passed in the real world than he spent in Faerie, and he spent a good many years in Faerie.  His fetch washed up in a nursing home in the meantime, riddled with palsy and Alzheimer’s, and though Sako is not by habit or preference a violent man, the sight of it filled him with a primal loathing.  And it’s so easy, in an overcrowded environment, to make a mistake with a dosage…  Sako still has a piece of the detritus left over, just to remind himself of how his story could have ended, and how determined he is to not let such a future come to pass.  

In his mask, Mr. Compress (well, he needed a new stage name) is a handsome, auburn-haired man in his forties who gestures constantly, frequently toying with a short white cane, and speaks in refined if somewhat dated language in a rich, theatrical voice.  He always dresses a bit more nicely than he needs to, preferring clothes with hidden pockets and long sleeves, and is rarely without a hat to flourish.  His mien mostly serves to heighten all of that--he becomes impossibly graceful and compelling, his voice catching the ear like a song, and his clothes are revealed to be Hedgespun, the feather in his hat belonging to no bird an ornithologist could name, the buttons on his coat and the stone accentuating his bolo tie shifting slowly in pattern and shade the longer you watch, and the cane almost certainly a low-level token of some kind.  The most eye-catching thing, though, is the mask--he wears a white mask that always seems to have a different pattern on it, though it never moves while you’re looking directly at it.  He doesn’t seem able to actually remove it all the way, though he can slide it around enough to eat or theatrically squint or blink his eyes (dark and bewitchingly expressive).  If it’s forcefully pulled off, it’s only to reveal another one beneath it--though he’ll complain that it stings and ask you to refrain.  

Court/Mantle: Autumn, the season of fear magic!  Mr. Compress didn’t come out of the Hedge with a particular Court affinity, but he was drawn towards Autumn like a compass needle finding true north.  He’s only a limited interest in fear (though his response to his fetch shows that he has his share of it), but he’s endlessly fascinated by the ins-and-outs of faerie magic.  Trinkets, tokens, pledge-craft--if it’s a clever trick, he’s interested.  His mantle shows as pops and starbursts of light, and frequently as a cool, trailing mist about his feet.  

Contracts: The only person in the group more focused than Toga.

        Separation I-IV.  Escape magic fit for Houdini himself.  If it looks like Compress is locked up or restrained, it’s almost only certainly because he’s allowing himself to be.  

        Forge I-III.  Sleight of hand is even more impressive when you’re using magic!  Extremely convenient for those times when he needs a passable ID or a house key he does not in fact own.

Magne

Quote: “Take it easy, honey.  I’ll handle it.”

Type: Metalflesh Elemental.  Magne was a criminal before she was a changeling, and it was in that capacity that she--like Mr. Compress--fell prey to an offer that should have been too good to be true.  The heist team needed a bit more muscle, is the thing; they were getting caught too often without a good combatant.  And so came Magne, given a sturdier body (that could, incidentally, meld through safe walls when necessary) through processes she only remembers in her nightmares.  An odd thing happened with her, though--what Magne felt the pull of in Faerie was less the element she became and more the stuff of Arcadia itself.  Where her Keeper expected her to become hard as steel, instead she embraced dream conjury; where she was instructed to protect the rest of her band, that protection took the form of healing as often as it did squaring up for a fight.  It’s hard to argue with the results, though--Magne is a fierce and stubborn defender of any group that wins her loyalty.  

Currently in a live-and-let live relationship with her fetch--she feels a bit sorry for the poor creature, and would rather see her find a way to break free of the image she was forged in and make her own path than kill her.  It’s painful to be around her, though, so while Magne’s willing to extend some help from a distance, she would rather the fetch keep her distance.  Time will tell if her fetch--who has her own desires and very much shares Magne’s willingness to bust some heads over them--is prepared to abide by this.  

Magne in mask looks much as she does in canon, though she can afford nicer clothes.  Her preference for butch presentation is unchanged, but the jeans are designer and the shirts elaborate silk prints.  She has a collection of fetching sunglasses for any occasion.  Her mien is a gleaming ochre bronze, flesh hard and smooth, her hair (a bit darker in color than the rest of her) always a bit stiff but, on the other hand, difficult to muss.  Her body is in all ways a more chiselled, more perfected version of the body she went into Arcadia with, which Magne has mixed but overall relieved feelings about.  The flesh-to-metal transition her Keeper forced on her was bad enough; whyever would she trust the Others with gender affirmation?

Court/Mantle: Spring, season of desire growth. Magne’s desire is to never be held down by any sort of repression or expectation forced on her by others (the Others in particular), and this pride drew her strongly to the Antler Crown.  While she doesn’t exhibit the flowing, graceful beauty so prized in women of the Emerald Court, her passion for self-expression and her unstinting support of those fumbling their way towards the same has certainly won her her share of admirers.  Magne’s mantle takes the form of fresh-scented air and pleasant breezes.  She doesn’t leave flowers where she walks, but you can sometimes find ivy where her hands have been.  

        Contracts: 

        Dream I-III.  By leaps and bounds the most talented dream-weaver in the motley, Magne’s oneiromancy is light-hearted and nonjudgmental while her oneiromachy is formidable.  Everyone in the motley can soothe one another’s nightmares, but Magne is the best at it.  She usually has at least one or two dream-task pledges active with mortals, too, so she rarely struggles to keep her glamour reserves--or her wallet--full.  

        Elements (Metal) I.  Magne’s retained only the minimum level of connection with the metal she was forged from; in truth, her body is less important to her than what she does with it.

        Eternal Spring I-III.  Easing fatigue, curing wounds, and even bringing in         a gentle rain--Magne’s deeply in touch with the rejuvenative aspects of her Court.

BONUS TIDBITS:

Shigaraki experienced more deaths in Faerie than any other member of his motley.  After all, you might know the cheat code for unlimited lives, but that doesn’t mean you never die.  And it did feel like death, every time.  Of course, sometimes failure just meant Sensei shaking his head and Being Disappointed.  That still felt a bit like dying too, though.

Over the course of her durance, Toga had more than one knife fight with a cyber hero adventurer hunting through the city’s underbelly looking for a power core.  Also, changeling!Toga is much less murderous than canon!Toga because if she were as murderous as canon!Toga, Clarity loss would rapidly render her unplayable.  

Spinner was pulled into the motley over a planned playdate heist to see how well Shigaraki and Toga could work as a unit with Mr. Compress and Magne.  Being very familiar with heist stories by that time, Sako and Magne decided the group needed one more guy to provide muscle, and as it happened, Shigaraki and Toga lived next door to just such a one.

I have not decided on whether the Todoroki family are a mundane equivalent of the way we see them in canon, all deeply damaged by Endeavor’s ceaseless drive to fulfill his goals by way of his children, or whether they’re actually pretty normal and well-adjusted with the exception of Enji’s one dark secret.  Either way, Natsuo is the only one who has any inkling that there was anything “off” about Touya’s death/disappearance.    He has no inkling of the truth, obviously, but he always felt that Enji didn't react quite the right way to Touya's death, or thought Enji was behaving suspiciously on the night Touya vanished.  

The League’s basic motley pact includes the dreaming pledge, so they frequently take mental voyages into one another’s dreamscapes to clear out the nightmares and indulge in silly, impossible-in-reality lucid dreaming adventures.  The exception is Dabi, who would rather have nightmares than people in his head.  

Mr. Compress doesn’t jokingly call himself an old man anymore because he’s too traumatized by finding out what he’d actually be like in old age.  

Shigaraki, while beginning the story in a fairly ambivalent, uncertain place, eventually finds his way towards a goal of helping to free loyalists--from their hopeless circumstances, from their learned helplessness, from their starstruck adoration.  He finds this goal over the course of his late-game encounters with Kurogiri, Gigantomachia, and Re-Destro, and it is through helping them that he’s finally able to begin to process his own feelings of attachment and affection towards his Keeper.  It may well be that the fetch of Shimura Tenko is Shigaraki’s final boss.

[sly2o]

Season 6 Plot Big Giant Spec Post

A - Major pieces I’m spec’ing for next season when I am feeling semi-confident on spec:

Nightblood is only needed for when BOTH suns are up. 

Clarke will come to view the leader of the peaceful group they meet as a father figure.

“Our People” (Eligius, Delinquents, etc) will be sent on a mission to go mine hytholodium from a nearby asteroid. That hytholodium will be brought back and will power up something important for the finale.

Colonization of the new planet was originally modeled after how England initially settled the New World.

That plan went up in smoke when it was revealed the Earth had gone up in smoke and no subsequent waves of colonizers arrived.

B - Major pieces I am spec’ing that I am low-confident about:

Over the ~200 years that passed since those initial events, the planet split into two major factions: those with nightblood, and those without. 

Nightbloods may be the subjugated class on this new planet. 

 The arrival of our people (Grounders, Eligius, Skykru, etc) will throw the current nightblood v. non-nightblood power balance into flux when it is revealed that the religion that evolved on Earth is one where nightbloods are revered. 

It will become important for the oppressing class to figure out how to control The Flame. 

C - Wilder pieces I am spec’ing:

If the non-nightbloods are the oppressing class, they will power up their version of ALIE in the finale.

OR, if the non-nightbloods are the oppressing class, we will get the AU where the “Mountain Men” got to return to Earth in the finale. 

D - I am personally motivated to spec this, but also I got real reasons

“Unintended Consequences” (or something similar in Trig) will be the name of the Finale

Explanations for why I am spec’ing these things are under the cut, but can majorly be summarized as 1) I read The Sparrow, and 2) assumption that the EligiusIV twitter account is a valid source. 

Warning: contains major spoilers for “The Sparrow” 

A1 - This is implied through the BTS pictures we have of Clarke and Echo on the ground, the fact that “two suns, no sunscreen” was uttered by Shaw, and that in “The Sparrow” there is a species that sleeps through the time of day where only one sun is up. 

A2 -  “Clarke is in a really bad place right now” that Eliza has been saying in interviews, I strongly suspect she is having a similar story to the main character of The Sparrow. In the Sparrow the main character comes to view one of the aliens they meet as a daughter-figure. Clarke already has a daughter-figure (Madi), but Clarke has been missing a father figure for a while now. Plus Jake Griffin was back on set which supports this theory.

A3 - The BTS pictures that came out recently showed our cast on an Eligius vessel which describes a asteroid in the background that had a high amount of hytholodium. A while back there was a summary chart of the fake titles the writers had given to next season’s episodes - including two called “7 days part 1″ and “7 days part 2″ - with a gap in the middle. I strongly believe at minimum a subsection of our known characters will get sent on a mining mission.

A4 and A5 - I’m spec’ing this primarily on how “space colonization” has been stressed in the Eligius IV promo materials. 

To clarify what I am talking about when I say “how England settled the New World” - I specifically am speaking to very early days colonialism (before the American Revolution) when lands were initially being taken away from the First Nations who lived there as England expanded. This is where England would have a white colonizer over there with a plot of land they were setting up for their way of life, and contracts would be made where other white colonizers would become “indentured servants” where they would have a contract drawn up where they got X amount of clothes per year, meals, a place to live, and at the end of 10 years or so of work would be given their own piece of property. Then they would become the lead of their own piece of property - and could coordinate a contract where they get their own indentured servants, and so the cycle repeats. 

The destruction of Earth would have resulted in - to put it mildly - some contract disputes for those who were expecting subsequent waves of people to come to help them set up their own properties. This would set off major conflict among those who settled the new planet.

Particularly a new tweet from EligiusIV specifically mentions “there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves”.

B1-4 - I put these all in a “low-confidence” category because I am uncertain what this “alien” life is and how important it is. My spec is based on a premise that the Alien life is either 1) not really important, or 2) a cute way to say that “we’ve evolved so separately it’s like they are alien to us”. If alien life is a real thing, then a lot of my spec will likely be hogwash. 

B1 - I am spec’ing this because it’s a redux of the Mountain Men vs Grounders, and also because a similar divide is found in The Sparrow. I am also spec’ing this because we know that redblooded people can give birth to people with nightblood. I have assumed that people with nightblood can give birth to people with redblood because otherwise the 100 year evolution that allowed people to reclaim the ground makes no sense. However we don’t really have proof of this thanks to the conclave, and the science/math on this show can be dubious anyways. It’s also another way to divide Clarke from her people which Jason loves to do.

B2 and B3 - This would be a reverse of how the religion on Earth evolved, which would naturally cause conflict, which is part of why I am spec’ing this. 

I am also spec’ing this because 

only the nightbloods would be able to be outside during the day - raising cause for why they are obligated to be the workers

it puts Clarke in the worker class (”let the privileged do the work for a change”)

it implies that that once the redblooded people started to be born that instead of casting them out for being genetically inferior, that work was done initially to protect them. We know Murphy and Clarke are going to be at odds this season, and that them being at odds could in some ways present a different look at “protecting the weak” vs. “taking advantage of the strong” because of how Murphy is tied to Emori who got cast out for being different, and Clarke being tied to this subjugated class. (I hope I explained this properly, since this is a very messy and complicated idea).

The fact that people with redblood worship someone with nightblood would be seen as radical and cause major issue on the new planet. 

An easy way to temporarily placate the masses would be to say that Madi is only raised up as a nightblood because she has The Flame. 

B4 - Irrespective of who the subjugated class is, the fact of the matter remains that a group of people led by a child soldier have landed on this planet and the reason she is raised above others is because she has a chip in her neck. The BTS pictures on the Eligius ship seemed to me to include an electronic schematic of The Flame - which to me begs the question of if they will try to reverse program The Flame this season (or something similar).

I am also low confidence on this one because another thing that could be happening here is that this chip wasn’t meant to last 200 years - and that it is starting to decay in Madi’s head after 125 in cryo, and needs to be repaired. 

Or maybe it’s both things!

C1 - Putting this in the “wild” category for a few reasons. However I will say my primary reason for spec’ing this is because ALIE can relieve pain - and I have to wonder whether she can relieve the pain caused by solar radiation. To me the cascading events here are 1- redblood people can’t access their own mining ship or simply don’t have mining ship, 2- they get Our People to go mine the asteroid, and 3 - they turn on their version of the ALIE1.0 machine in the finale. This presumes the ALIE code was ever sent to these people in the first place. However it is possible it could be retconned that ALIE1.0 was developed as a permanent solution to the “nightbloods don’t always give birth to redbloods” problem - if that indeed was a problem. Also - with the trauma that was caused in the 6 year stay in the bunker, Abby’s addiction being stressed as a longing for the City of Light, and the fact that our main characters are almost evenly divided between those who did and didn’t go to the City of Light - I think the return of ALIE1.0 wouldn’t be so easily defeated. 

C2 - Alternatively, it may be that Abby and Jackson are leveraged because they know (although may be a bit rusty about) the recipe for creating nightblood. They may spend the season recreating that recipe with the scientists on the ground. We did see a BTS picture (that got deleted) where the guy who played Robin Hood on OUAT was in a medical smock and had bits of black on that smock - which may be nightblood. 

Either way for part C - I am anticipating these new “Mountain Men” to find a way to the ground in the finale.

D1 -  Jason has spoken about how Clarke really takes to heart Monty’s message of “be the good guys”. It would follow the plot of The Sparrow, as well as simply fit into the type of show this is, to have Clarke try her hardest to “be the good guy” and then end up “being the bad guy” due to unintended consequences. 

[pokemonpundit]

Let’s Take a look at Pokemon Let’s Go

Pokemon Let’s Go is releasing this week so let’s take a look at some of the features we know about. 

Catching

This is the feature that had most players losing their shit about, but it’s really not that big a deal. Sure you can’t battle wild pokemon, but who was bothering to do that anyway, beyond hurting them a bit to catch them. For the most part, there isn’t really a difference. This way might even end up being more convenient, because you don’t have to worry about accidentally fainting them.

Legendary battles

While Let’s Go does take away wild pokemon battles, you still battle all the legendary pokemon, and you must defeat them before given the chance to capture. 

I like this, because legendary battles should be epic and awesome, but since you can often catch them right away, they are also very anticlimactic, especially for whatever chump you throw the master ball at. This way forces the battle against the legend to actually be somewhat interesting.

Ding Dong the HMs are dead

I wrote a whole other post about just this, but the partner pokemon gains special techniques to perform the function HM moves used to, which means you can make your team out of whatever pokemon you want to, and with whatever moves you want to, rather than having to have your team know all the HMs. 

Pokemon

Arguably the most important part of a pokemon game is the pokemon available. Let’s Go will apparently contain just the original Kanto pokemon. This makes sense as the games are set in Kanto. They did choose to additionally allow Alolan forms and mega evolutions. If they didn’t, there would only be one line each of Ghost, Dragon, and Steel pokemon, and literally no Dark pokemon. Probably a good idea to include them. 

A notable absence from the games are all the evolutions that were introduced in later generations. In Let’s Go, you will not be able to evolve your pokemon into Crobat, Bellossom, Politoed, Slowking, Magnezone, Steelix, Hitmontop, Lickilicky, Rhyperior, Blissey, Tangrowth, Kingdra, Scizor, Electivire, Magmortar, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Sylveon, Porygon2, or Porygon-Z. 

Gamefreak did the same thing back in FireRed and LeafGreen, and everyone thought is was stupid that they couldn’t evolve their Golbats until they got the national pokedex. 

We thought they learned their lesson from this, because in ORAS, they actually changed the numbering of pokemon so as to include the evolutions that were introduced in gen IV like Gallade, Probopass, Roserade, Dusknoir, and Froslass. It turns out that lesson was only temporary. This time Gamefreak has decided to pretend those pokemon don’t exist.

They’re following me...

A returning feature from yellow version that hasn’t been seen since HeartGold and SoulSilver. I don’t actually like this feature. It just adds more distracting stuff to the screen. It’s feels like the George Lucas special edition of a pokemon game. However, I’m definitely in the minority here; Most people seem to love this feature, so it makes sense to include it, I guess.

We have internet now? 

Normally you could only visit the PC box at a pokemon centre, but you can do it from wherever. I’m not really sure how useful that is, but it’s convenient. It does allow you to heal your pokemon on long routes by dropping them in the PC, closing it, reopening it, and taking them back out again, so you don’t have to keep running back to the pokemon centre on long routes. 

A little help here? 

You can now grab a second controller and get a friend to join you. I wouldn’t recommend most people use this, as it makes the game incredibly easy. While both you and your partner will send out a pokemon, the opposing trainers only send out 1, so they’re trivial to defeat.  This isn’t exactly a bad feature, because you can always just ignore it. It’s just a feature that most people probably shouldn’t use.

What they probably should have done here is just have the opposing trainers also send out another pokemon. If they did, and you felt like playing though the whole game this way, you could optimize your team for double battles, and actually use moves like Helping Hand, Follow Me, and Wide Guard. In the normal games it’s not worth doing because double battles are so rare, but in that case you could make every battle a double battle if you wanted to. 

Why u no evolve? 

So the starters are a bit different than usual. That’s fine; Eevee and Pikachu are alight pokemon anyway, but they’ve forgotten how to evolve. This is for a historical reasons and not because it’s actually a good idea. 

One of the main elements of pokemon is that they evolve, that you get to watch the little pals you shared the journey with grow along side you, but not for your partner pokemon this time around. At the very least they had the good thinking to buff their stats a little and give them new moves. It’s just a little ironic that Eevee, the evolution pokemon, forgot how to evolve. 

On a side note, since the partner has to be with always to use the HM move substitute, does that mean we always have to use our starter. I’m not sure, but I really hope that’s not the case. In previous games, you’ve had the option to not use your starter and instead grab a Ratata, or a Nidoran, or whatever’s nearby, but I’m worried Let’s Go is taking away more options. Not 100% on that one though. 

The pokemon summary screen just got a bit simpler

Let’s Go will not have any abilities or items. This is a bit sad, we’re losing even more variety in our team choices. This is another thing that’s mostly true for historical reasons. Back in the original Kanto games, abilities didn’t exist yet. 

Abilities were added in gen 3, because it was another way to make each pokemon feel unique. In time, they could even do crazy stuff like Slaking, Archeops,  Aegislash, or Komala’s unique abilities, and they really feel different.

They might be able to mostly get away with not having abilities this time. The Kanto pokemon were originally designed without abilities, so you wouldn’t have to change them too much when removing the ability. If they ever made a Let’s Go game in Hoenn or beyond, they would definitely have to put them back. 

Even with just the Kanto pokemon, there is the problem of Mega Pinsir. It gained the flying type and used it’s aerilate to turn it’s normal moves into powerful flying moves and that’s how it works. Without the ability, it doesn’t actually have any flying moves, so they will have to muck around with Pinsir’s moveset. 

The removal of items are less important, but there are certain builds of pokemon that are no longer viable without them. Abilities are definitely the bigger loss. 

So that’s everything I can think of right now. There are a couple clever innovations, but these games have also managed to unlearn a bunch of lesson the pokemon series has taught itself about what works. Overall, this game will be slightly worse, but not by much.

Either way come Friday, I’m getting my copy. I’ve already reopened my old pokemon go save and caught the version exclusives from the other game, so I’m pretty much ready to go.

6 more days...

[scarlette-joel-writing]

Erased Pt. 6

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Requested by: Me

Warnings: Langu- you already know.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7  Part 8  Part 9 Part 10  Part 11  Part 12 Part 13

~

“Are you sure that this is really a good idea?” Wanda asks as she sticks the needle into my arm. The pain of the needle going in doesn’t cause me any pain but the cooling serum that begins to flow through my veins causes me to let out a string of curses as long as War & Peace.

“I don’t think it really matters if it is a good idea, so long as the idea works,” It is dawn. The whole meeting with Steve and everyone happened yesterday and now it is time for us to put the plan into effect. It is time to try and make everything as normal as It can be.

“If it is a good idea then it should work. Hence it should be important if the idea is good or not,” Wanda goes over to my other arm and sticks another needle in and then more serum is being pumped through me.

“FUCK!”

“What the hell is this stuff and why am I injecting it into you?” she asks as she works on injecting a needle full of serum into each of my legs as well.

We are sitting in the middle of my living room on the couch. I had requested to be here instead of in Med Bay considering the fact that I have been down there way too many times since moving here. If I am going to possibly die and make my head explode to save Bucky’s life, I might as well do it in the comfort of my own home.

“What you are injecting into her,” comes a voice from behind Wanda and she turns around to come face to face with Stephen Strange, dressed way down in nothing but some nice slacks and a button up. He comes up behind her to check the vitals in the machine before looking back at Wanda, “is a serum that will allow Y/N to stay cool while she is doing her job. Y/N’s power causes her to use a lot of energy and therefore she creates a lot of heat. If her blood or her body temp becomes too high she could go into cardiac arrest and die. And none of us need that,” Dr. Strange gives me a small smile and a wink and I laugh even though the pain of the serum flowing through my body feels like it is setting it on fire, not cooling it down.

Another thing that I had requested was Dr. Strange. I knew him back before he had all of this great power and before he defeated that one guy with the weird eyes. I knew him when he was the great surgeon. I had been a patient of extreme value to him. He had been fascinated with the way that my brain worked, and he had even opened up my skull a couple of times to take a look at it. Back then my parents believed that I was sick and that I needed to be fixed. Dr. Strange had been the one to tell me that my mind was a miracle. Not a curse. He made me proud to be whom and what I was.

“We are going to need more room than this,” Strange says as he looks around at the couch that I am on. “It is long enough but it isn’t wide enough. We are going to have to move you in and onto the bed. It will give me enough space to be able to lay all of the machines and tubes out,” I am about to protest. To tell him that no one is allowed in my room. But what can I tell a man who has opened up my skull and played with my brain about privacy? There is no privacy.

He motions Wanda to come with him, and one by one he begins to move everything into my room. Into my sanctuary. Machines that will regulate my breathing and my heart beat. Machines that will dull all of my senses so that I can focus. Machines that will give me constant nourishment to keep my strength up and to keep me hydrated. So many things that are going to keep me alive. And so many things that could kill me if anything goes wrong.

“Hey doll,” I hear to my left and I look over to see Bucky stepping off of the elevator. He is alone but I can imagine that the rest of the group will find their way up here eventually. They will find a way to make a spectacle of all of this. “You look like hell,”

“I feel like hell,” I try to laugh through the pain of the truth but he doesn’t seem to be laughing at all. I can feel the temp in the room begin to slowly drop and I can tell that the serum is kicking in. It is almost time.

“You are gonna do great. You are gonna kick some memory ass in there and then when you come out, everything is going to be right with the world. Then we can start training. I will even wake up at 4:30 in the morning for you and we can do it then,” he puts a hand to my cheek, the flesh one, and then frowns. “You are ice cold,”

“It is all part of the plan, Barnes. All part of the plan,” I can hear Strange come out once all of the machines have been moved and hooked up, and motion towards Bucky and me.

“Bring her in. It is ready, and if we don’t start soon she might freeze to death,” Is all that Strange says as he disappears back into my room. There is more noise and more rustling and then Bucky is looking at me.

“You cant walk? You might freeze to death? What the hell are you doing to yourself?’ He asks, but I don’t think that he is really expecting a response. He just leans down and puts one hand under my neck and the other one under my knees as he lifts me off the couch like I am a pillow. I am not a big big person but I am not small either. And I am also pretty much dead weight in his hands. I have to marvel at the strength of the man as he walks me towards my bedroom.

“Put her on the bed. Right there in the middle,” I let the familiar colors of my room surround me as Bucky places me in the middle of my King size bed. Strange continues to bark orders at Bucky, telling him where to stick in needles and plug in electrodes as Strange himself puts the tubes over my ears and in front of my nose. The oxygen machine. Just to make sure. Once I am covered in 26 different electrodes with 7 different IV’s stuck in me, and a tube inserted into my stomach to keep me nourished, I lean back and let my eyes close.

I feel the bed beside me dip and I shoot my hand out to find the hand of Bucky. His hand is warm in mine and it is only after a second that I realize that it is his metal hand. I lace my fingers through his and he does the same, giving me a gentle squeeze that calms me down.

“Don’t leave,” I whisper as I let myself begin to get lost in the minds of 7 billion people. 7 billion people all talking and thinking at once. It is enough to drive any normal person insane. It might work in making me insane.

“I wouldn’t dream of it doll. I will be right here until you come back to me,” I hear him whisper. Good. I am not alone. I am not alone. I can do this. I am not alone. “You aren’t alone,” I hear him repeat back to me.

And then everything I know of the physical world is gone.

It is like nothing that I have ever seen before. It isn’t just a warehouse full of filing cabinets. It isn’t even a world full of filing cabinets. It is so much bigger than that.

It is a web of interlocking segments that bring everything to the center. It is trillions and trillions of wires all connecting with one another. One memory connected to another that is connected to another. Everything is strung together. And it all leads back to the core. To the beginning of consciousness itself. It is the root of all thinking and it Is the root of all thought and it is the center of over 7 billion peoples thoughts and memories and inner most secrets.

I have only ever allowed myself to work on one person at a time. Maybe two or three depending on the situation. But to stand in the middle of an entire worlds thoughts is something that I never dreamed possible.  It is the definition of unorganized and also completely logical. It is everything and nothing all at once. It is so many different versions of the same exact memort all playing at once. It is every single memory in existence playing at once.

It is noise and it is chaos. But there is also a numbing silence to it as well.

The power that I have here. The power that I possess in this moment is more than anything that anyone could ever think of.

To be able to control anyone. Everyone. To influence the most powerful minds in the world. To cause war or create peace. Bring an end to famine with a simple trick of the mind. To have a whole country, whole continent, whole world bow down at the feet of one person. To influence an entire race or religion. To have the type of control that I have in this moment.

It is terrifying to think what would happen with this type of power if it were to get into the wrong hands. If it were to be used for evil instead of good. The thought makes me want to puke.

But that is not why I am here. I am not here to reflect on the power that I hold and the magnitude of responsibility that I carry to keep an entire world safe. I am here for Bucky. I have to find very specific memories and I don’t have a lot of time to do it.

I need to search for people who have any memory of the winter soldier and I need to erase it. Not just hydra. Anyone. They cant know him. If they know him, Hydra knows him. And then we need to find people who have that specific code memorized and we have to erase that as well.

Our winter soldier will become a ghost once more. But for a completely different reason this time.

Taglist: 

@jacks-on-krack @tbetz0341 @haleypearce @buckybarnesappreciationsociety @zestygingergirl @geeksareunique @jemjem-chan @zohoffman  

[thornsickle]

Let’s talk about the word ‘destroy’ in the Star Wars. I was jumping in my seat with joy when Kylo uttered: “I’ll destroy her. And you. And all of it.” Here’s why (hint, it’s never literal).

First, here are three coupled examples, so far, of this word being used in a non-literal manner (”DESTROY THAT BOMBER!!!!” ahem, does not count).

A New Hope (Episode IV)

Luke: How did my father die?

Obi-Wan: A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force.

Return of the Jedi (Episode VI)

Luke: Ben! Why didn’t you tell me? You told me that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered my father.

Obi-Wan: Your father… was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and ‘became’ Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So, what I told you was true… from a certain point of view.

……………………….

The Force Awakens (Episode VII)

Han: He was training a new generation of Jedi. One boy, an apprentice, turned against him and destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible. He just walked away from everything.

The Last Jedi (Episode VIII)

Luke: I saw darkness. I’d sensed it building in him. I’d seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction, and pain, and death, and the end of everything I love because of what he will become. And for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame, and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him.

…………………………………..

Attack of the Clones (Episode II)

Anakin: It doesn’t have to be that way. We could keep it a secret.

Padme: We’d be living a lie. One we couldn’t keep, even if we wanted to. I couldn’t do that. Could you, Anakin? Could you live like that?

Anakin: No, you’re right, it would destroy us.

Attack of the Clones (Episode II)

Anakin: Don’t be afraid.

Padme: I’m not afraid to die. I’ve been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.

Anakin: What are you talking about?

Padme: I love you.

Anakin: You love me? I thought we had decided not to fall in love. That we’d be forced to live a lie and that it would destroy our lives.

Padme: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly… deeply… love you and before we die I want you to know.

……………………………….

The Last Jedi (Episode VIII)

Kylo Ren: I’ll destroy her. And you. And all of it.

Luke: No. Strike me down in anger and I’ll always be with you. Just like your father.

The dialogue, I think, speaks for itself. This specific word NEVER means what it first appears to mean in Star Wars and it has been purposefully used throughout the saga to demonstrate when a character is either an unreliable narrator, unconvinced in what they are saying or outright lying. It is actually a pretty nebulous word since it suggests one thing but could very well mean something else. The crux of the matter is, Rian Johnson chose to use this word DELIBERATELY.

Why would he decide to use this specific word, other than to imply that Kylo’s statement would come back to mean something different other than the obvious, either subverted, misunderstood or revealed to be a lie.

Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

In ‘The Last Jedi’, Luke finally comes to understand what Obi Wan meant, which is why we are given different versions of what happened between the Jedi Master and his nephew. It is to prove both Obi Wan’s point and also how Luke has evolved as a person and become a wiser man than before. He understands Kylo’s pain, understands that, for him, the truth will always be that Luke betrayed him and left him no choice. Luke acknowledges this truth, which is why he is finally able to accept his failures and also Kylo’s choice to be on the dark side. However, having understood Obi Wan’s words, he also knows that Kylo’s words will not ring entirely true when he states he will destroy Rey.

Let’s look at what ‘destroy’ actually means, within the context of Star Wars.

The instance (release date-wise) where we see the first use of this nebulous word is in RotJ, with Obi-Wan’s famous words revealing his misdirection. In this instance, the word ‘destroy’ is revealed to not directly mean ‘betrayal’ and ‘murder’. It DOES mean these words, but not literally, more figuratively. This understandably frustrates Luke, but it shows how Obi Wan was not lying. The point of this example is to show ‘self-destruction’ and how destroy does not directly mean murder.

So if we compare that to Kylo’s line, it becomes clear, especially to Luke, that though Kylo believes this to mean murder, it will likely result in something quite different, even if Kylo succeeds (which he won’t because Rey is our heroine haha, but he might come close, more on that later).

The example in The Force Awakens always felt fishy to me. Han’s use of that cursed word ‘destroy’ sent alarm bells through my mind. Check out this short post about my thoughts then.

http://sakurau121.tumblr.com/post/153877814060/one-apprentice-a-boy-turned-against-him

As we saw in TLJ, my doubts were well founded for. Kylo literally destroyed Luke’s academy, but Luke was the reason it finally happened. Luke played a part in that destruction and while Han does not lie, his words are now viewed in a very different light. His words suggest Kylo decided to turn against Luke when in reality he was given no choice but to turn against his master. Even as Luke describes how Kylo Ren would bring ‘destruction’ to the galaxy, it is not clear what ‘type’ of destruction that is and later in the film when Kylo kills Snoke, we realize the true scope of what Luke foresaw, which again subverts our expectations. I have a feeling Episode IX will continue to do this. It should be noted as well that Kylo does not ‘destroy it all’ as he took some of Luke’s students with him (we have still to find out why, whether this will be developed in Episode IX or not, I’m not sure).

In Episode II, Anakin’s words are ominous. When he states that their love for each other would ‘destroy’ them, he is right. In this instance, George Lucas uses this word because it ties into Obi Wan’s description of what happened to Anakin (this is the wonderful thing that happens when you have one dude writing the whole thing but whatever, I digress). In both cases, we know Anakin won’t ‘die’ but he will self-destruct. For Padme, the word ‘destroy’ does literally mean she will die.

Which makes it all the more tragic, because it shows that they were aware their love would bring about destruction but they decided love was more important than death. Yes, their own death.

So now we return to Kylo Ren and his final statement. I will lay out all the possibilities, based on what has come before. I don’t believe all of them, but I’m just putting them out there for the purposes of this post. ‘I will kill her and you and all of it’ is the literal translation, but I am 100% sure this is not what is foreshadowed.

1. Kylo’s words will show how he does not end up killing Rey, but rather destroying her light, turning her to the dark side, like what happened with Vader. He will merge the Resistance with the First Order once they are defeated. 

This won’t happen, at least not permanently, but I still think she could dally in it. Luke does during his final battle with Vader, so to keep up the tension, I think this is a possibility. But Rey won’t turn into Darth Vader 2.0 obviously. The grey still has to be analyzed but I’ll do a separate post on that.

2. Kylo’s words reveal he will destroy ‘all of it’. As in, he will end the First Order and the Resistance. This is hinted at because it is clear he has no real affinity with any group (revealed during his final speech to Rey), strangely rather like his father. He is in fact a rogue at heart, so it’s possible he will bring about the First Order’s destruction. Either by causing it to fall, abandoning it, purposefully betraying it or causing it to surrender. This ties back with the ‘destruction’ Luke foresaw when Ben was his student. It won’t mean what Luke thought it meant. This is why he says ‘no’ in response because he realizes the possibilities are endless. Perhaps he only foresaw Ben’s future in one way but in fact did not see the other side to what his fate could be.

3. The third one is a bit tragic and for me, sad but here it is. Anakin and Padme’s love for each other ‘destroyed’ them. George Lucas tied these two words together ‘destruction’ and ‘love’, so it is possible to see the link here too. Kylo reveals through his words that he loves Rey because it will bring about her destruction, as it was with Anakin and Padme. But note again, that Luke replies with ‘no’. So perhaps this is foreshadowing that Kylo’s love for Rey will not bring about her destruction at all.

‘I thought we had decided that love would destroy our lives.’

‘I will destroy her.’

In this context, Kylo’s words take on a very different meaning. At the end of their confrontation, Rey rejects Kylo’s hands because she knows he does not see her side. Rey is crying because she sees she cannot accept Kylo’s promise of unity because it would mean the end of who she is. The ‘self-destruction’ which Obi Wan talks about when speaking of Vader. The love which resulted in Padme’s death.

What is beautiful is that Luke knows Rey will not be destroyed. That Kylo won’t destroy her. Unlike every other exchange I have mentioned in this post, the one between Kylo and Luke is actually foreshadowing something positive that is to come in Episode IX. It means the fate of Kylo and Rey’s connection is not that of ‘destruction’.

If you need anymore confirmation, just think. Kylo has already been proven wrong. He didn’t destroy Luke at all, in fact he helped Luke become one with the Force.