#peackeeper

[kirbyoctournament]

Poll Four, Round One

Peacekeeper

VS

Damian and Fela

[hakonpencari-cintasejati]

SJSHSHAKALAJAHSBBABA I CAN'T BELIEVE AITOR CAN BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE HEADQUARTER IN THE CENTRAL

I FUCKEN SCREAMED WHEN MATT AND OTHER SOLDIERS BROUGHT HIM BACK AT FIRST I LOST HOPE AITOR AND OTHERS WOULD BE ABANDONED THERE

[fatherforgivethem]

Ok but Coryo and Sejanus 🫢

So I trapped him under a cardboard box.

Stood on it to make him stop

I picked up the bird and above the din I said

"That's the last song you'll ever sing...”

.

.

.

.

Held him down broke his neck.

Taught him a lesson he wouldn't forget.

But in my dreams began to creep

That old familiar tweet, tweet, tweet...

[mollywog]

Career Training

So in the world of The Hunger Game books, Career training really isn’t explored in much detail. We know it happens and typically in Districts 1, 2, and 4 to some extent. So I was thinking of an alternate to the commonly held Fanon and would like to posit a new idea…

No Career Academies. Instead

Some wealthy families pay for personal trainers to work with their children individually or in a small group. Trainers may even be past Victors.

Capital sponsored scouts tour the districts or attend the annual Combine (see below) to select children to train at the sponsor’s expense in hopes of finding the next Victor.

Once a year, before the reaping, there’s a scouting combine type event. It’s open to anyone, but obviously those with trainers are at an advantage.

The ‘Potentials’ run a series of events that are timed and scored. A panel of judges makes the ultimate decision on who will be this year’s Volunteers.

Younger kids come in hopes of catching the eye of a Capital Sponsored recruiter to train them for future games.

If you are 18 and not the chosen Volunteer, there are also reps there scouting Peacekeeping recruits. Recruits from the Combine are put on a ‘management’ type track vs District citizens who voluntarily sign on to be Peacekeepers (because there is definitely a hierarchy within the system.)

The Capital wants a good show and this ensures they’ll at least have a handful of skilled fighters to keep the Games entertaining.

What we know from the books

How Volunteering works

There’s some confusion on the stage. District 12 hasn’t had a volunteer in decades and the protocol has become rusty. The rule is that once a tribute’s name has been pulled from the ball, another eligible boy, if a boy’s name has been read, or girl, if a girl’s name has been read, can step forward to take his or her place. In some districts, in which winning the reaping is such a great honor, people are eager to risk their lives, the volunteering is complicated. But in District 12, where the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse, volunteers are all but extinct.

Introduction to the idea of Careers

The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 traditionally have this look about them. It’s technically against the rules to train tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And like as not, the winner will be one of them.

District 12’s version of Training like Careers

Every morning we do exercises to strengthen our bodies. We run and lift things and stretch our muscles. Every afternoon we work on combat skills, throwing knives, fighting hand to hand; I even teach them to climb trees. Officially, tributes aren’t supposed to train, but no one tries to stop us. Even in regular years, the tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4 show up able to wield spears and swords. This is nothing by comparison.

Some Peacekeepers come from District 2

“You mean . . . some of the Peacekeepers are born in Two?” I ask. “I thought they all came from the Capitol.”

Plutarch nods. “That’s what you’re supposed to think. And some do come from the Capitol. But its population could never sustain a force that size. Then there’s the problem of recruiting Capitol-raised citizens for a dull life of deprivation in the districts. A twenty-year commitment to the Peacekeepers, no marriage, no children allowed. Some buy into it for the honor of the thing, others take it on as an alternative to punishment. For instance, join the Peacekeepers and your debts are forgiven. Many people are swamped in debt in the Capitol, but not all of them are fit for military duty. So District Two is where we turn for additional troops. It’s a way for their people to escape poverty and a life in the quarries. They’re raised with a warrior mind-set. You’ve seen how eager their children are to volunteer to be tributes.”

District 12 at a disadvantage because of their

Despite her annoyance at Wiress, Johanna’s as happy as I’ve seen her in the arena. While I’m adding to my stock of arrows, she pokes around until she comes up with a pair of lethal-looking axes. It seems an odd choice until I see her throw one with such force it sticks in the sun-softened gold of the Cornucopia. Of course. Johanna Mason. District 7. Lumber. I bet she’s been tossing around axes since she could toddle. It’s like Finnick with his trident. Or Beetee with his wire. Rue with her knowledge of plants. I realize it’s just another disadvantage the District 12 tributes have faced over the years. We don’t go down in the mines until we’re eighteen. It looks like most of the other tributes learn something about their trades early on. There are things you do in a mine that could come in handy in the Games. Wielding a pick. Blowing things up. Give you an edge. The way my hunting did. But we learn them too late.

[fuzzhead-detective]

He might still be in hiding from the Peacekeepers, but it's been a good bit, so he can come out from hiding for now, right?

[ennalydonsbee]

Enna was doing a lot of standing, wide-eyed, when peacekeepers came up to her this evening. It was quickly becoming her MO. but usually, when peacekeepers spoke to her, it was in the courteous way they talked to all young capitol girls. She'd never encountered them as a rebel, except that one interrogation, and she'd kind of blacked out during that. She couldn't recall exactly what had kicked in to talk herself out.

This one was young. for a moment, his face looked just like the one from the stairwell, except he didn't grab her. didn't say rebel. instead, he promised to come back for them. Both of them. Because Denver had identified them as loyal. and he got close to her, grabbed her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, looking into her wide, scared eyes.

She'd killed a peacekeeper. He was a peacekeeper. He could die tonight. She was a rebel. He'd kill rebels tonight, if he hadn't already. She could die tonight. They should've fought each other. And yet, the only thing she could do was force out some words in her long-perfected capitolite accent. It wasn't her natural voice, but it sounded so authentic nobody could tell the difference. "Keep yourself safe. It's mad out there."

"Course I will." He said, tipping an imaginary hat and tossing her a wink. He was trying to calm her down. "Panem forever. Don't you worry. just get yourself to safety. I'll be back before the sun rises." She nodded, and he turned, nodding one more time to Denver before starting back off into the fray.

Denver wasn't sure what she thought in the moment about the Vox, about what they were doing, about what Enna was doing. But she was sure about one thing: she wouldn't let her friend be handed over to Peacekeepers.

"Loyal," Denver said, with confidence, before Enna had a chance to speak. "We're loyal. We were running, and this space looked open, and..." Denver took a breath and smiled a strained attempt at a smile. "My name's Denver. I'm actually a tour guide here. That's why this is where we came." She didn't know if it was truly why she had come here of all places, but it was, hopefully, what the Peacekeeper wanted to hear.

When Denver saw the swatch of paint peaking out from Enna's hip, she took a few steps toward Enna and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close so the sweatshirt squashed between them. "The space looked open," she continued, "and...and I know all the best places to hide, so we thought it would be safe."

The Peacekeeper tilted his head, sizing them up, gun still at the ready in his hands. But Denver and Enna were unarmed - at least, Denver thought Enna was unarmed. She didn't look to find out, but swallowed, waiting for his verdict.

"It's not safe anywhere," he said, finally, and it took everything Denver had not to breathe a sigh of relief that he'd believed her. "Get down to the basement. I'll come find you when this is over. I'll get you two out. I promise." She nodded, fighting back tears and forcing a look of gratitude, and then turned to look at Enna.

[kiame-sama]

Dragon headvanon guy here again because a few more dropped into my head (also sorry for the typos, I'm not used to my phones big keyboard yet xD also 100% relate to you on the plushies, I have a big collection on my.own and love them with all my heart)

1. Most if not all Creatures love to be pet, it's common to see children & sometimes young teens being pet by their parents, older siblings or close friends. The older they fet the less likely they get petted tho, older Fae's and long lived Creatures tho remember that Humans would pet anyone who allowed it with great joy.

2. We know that Humans are seen as Peackeepers (or Beast Tamers) but I like to headcanon that they are also a symbol of Loyalty in many Kingdoms. Some older Creatures, like Lilia even remember Humans going through great dangers or sacrificing themself for their Pack.

An old Rumor has it that one of the Great Seven was actually once pack bounded with a human who sacrificed themself for them. (It would be an intresting idea if it was Scar and after he died many mistook the Human Sacrificing themself for him as him killing them & eating them. But you guys can go wild with this one)

3. Angry humans were a raresight to see and most only learned how dangerous humans could be once a Creature attacked a child and had to be send to a hospital after the Parent of said child got their revenge. It's also at that point that many learned how dangerous a human bite can be thanks to the bacteria in their mouth (that information sadly got lost to time though)

4. This is the last one for now, promise xD A lot of Kingdoms who were safe for humans, would have human daycares where they would watch over the Creatures kids. It was something unheard of since a lot of Creatures dont trust their young and rather weak children around others they dont know (and sometimes even close friends & family couldn't get close to the child without nearly being mauled.)

But it was a bit sucess and since it was free, low income familys would adly send their kids there to get food and have a chance at making friends. Some daycares even allowed sleepovers for Creatures who worked during the night, kids who were night active or those who weren't picked up because their parents worked late.

Sadly after humans went extinct these establishments were shutdown.

Ok one last one, this one is for the Fleur City; It's belived that humans created the Bell as a gift to the Rightous Judge who them upon getting this gift enchanted the Bell to ring in a specific tune when a human entred Fleur City.

Legends say that once the last human in Fleur City died and they went extinct as last that the Bell rung in such a sorrowfull way with the Rightous Judges cries that the spirit of the last Human in Fleur Ciry granted him a last gift. The Firelotus, so that any Magical Creature who dares to harm an Innocent Creature will be punished by humanitys judgment.

(No worries about the typos, I'm pretty bad about it too)

I'm down for all of these actually. Absolutely love how some canon things can so easily fall into place with just a little adjustment and work so wonderfully in an AU all its own.

I can see almost all of them wanting to be pet and of course hoping the soft human will pet them. Rook's already been pet by those little Human hands and he is already hooked. I could absolutely see Jack and Ruggie going nuts for petting. Lilia's already made it clear that group grooming is common so petting would likely be too. Maybe that's the Human's way of returning the grooming behavior to make Lilia sleep? Lilia has already petted Grim.

The last Human Lilia met was the surrogate mother of a young fox fae child and he will be forever haunted by how injured she was and still standing, unsure how long she must have fought to keep her young safe. Lilia had arrived near the end of the poor Human's desperate battle, stepping in himself but it was quite too late for the Human mother. He took in the child and raised them himself in Briar Valley, Silver is not the only child the old fae has taken under his wing. Lilia knows the sheer drive humans have to protect those they truly love because he saw it firsthand and he knows better than to mess with little Grim regardless of how much fun it would be. No need to upset the Human.

Humans were quite good at taking care of others young and many had a natural proclivity to protect infants regardless of what species it was. Humans aren't really all too threatening, so many mothers of the more protective species didn't feel that threat to themselves or their young like they did with other species or even their own family. Many are quite manageable as children and almost harmless, meaning the soft Humans could take care of them with no problem.

To make a world of magical creatures tremble in fear is a mighty feat and one only the fire lotus could achieve. After all, so many looked down on humans for their lack of magic, why not suffer the same fate for those who brought Humanity to heel?

[ashezeyre32]

Saw this on reddit

And the first place my brain went was like

Yuma gets fucking arrested by the peackeepers, and let’s just say they don’t immediately execute him for some reason. Yakou goes to bail his ass out, but tries to pay with tacos. Because he’s drunk or something. Can someone edit this please. I might.

[justafterjericho]

PEACKEEPING OCCUPATION?!!!ZAUN'S PERVERSE ABOMINATIONS???!!!! FUCK YOU CAITLYN!!!!!!! (I'm at the start of the 5th episode and had to take a pause and write this rant to calm myself xD)

But also on serious note I really like how they've been writting Caitlyn this seasons. I've been kinda annoyed at the forth episode and Caitlyn being all peaceful on Ambessa (while we see what's actually happening in Zaun), but in retrospect I really like it. Because it really shows that Catelyn is still Caitlyn.

I've seen posts here about how the Caitlyn we know is still in there and it kinda felt like what Vi did with Jinx the whole time in the 1st season - the "She's till there, I can reach her". Like 10 years old Powder (or however old was she in s1a1) was somewhere hidden (inprisoned) inside the whole nightmare that is Jinx (from Vi perspective) and the moment Vi reached her sister and "free her" Jinx would become the (idealised version of) little Powder. It was the kind of cliché that you can see in lots of media, but I'm pretty sure people actually don't work like that. Jinx is different from Powder because of shit ton of trauma but also because she's quite older. Her exsperiences shaped her and because they were so extreme, they shaped her extremely, but Jinx and Powder are the same person just at the different point of time. Jinx herself my visualise the change as POwder being death but that doesn't make it actually true. Vi, after her own trauma from the end of s1e3 and the years in prison views change as something inherently scary and when she realised both that her sister won't turn back to little Powder and that her sister is pretty unstable and quite terrible person who did terrible things, decided to continue her divorcing od Powder and Jinx but instead of trying to save Powder decided that Powder (her sister) is death and was killed by Jinx (not her sister) who's pretending to be Powder and thus defyling her memory. Which is quite interesting from the perspective of what it shows us about Vi and her phsyche but doesn't change that it isn't true. Vi my disown Jinx as her sister, that's her right and I wouldn't even really blame her (even though I symphatised with Jinx a lot in the first season and I actually really like her thgis one), but that doesn't change the fact that Powder survived and changed and became Jinx, Powder didn't die, she changed but she's still alive only now she's using a name Jinx.

Unlike Jinx, Caitlyn didn't actually changed during years of growing up from child to adult (or almost adult) after big traumatic event, for her there wasn't really that big of a time between the traumatic event and present time in act 2. I still kinda thought that she would like became this merciless dictator doing war crimes unrecognizable from Caityn in season one, but she didn't, not really. Well she's dictator doing and allowing terrible things to happen (including war crimes) but at the same time she's still quite recognizable as Caitlyn in what she's saying, in how she's thinking. She's not some nightmerish version of Caitlyn under which the "real Caitlyn" from season 1 can be found. She's Caitlyn who was traumatised and before that spent her whole life in very privileged positions raised with lots of biases, that now reared their ugly heads when they become justified to her. But she's not a wholy different person. And she doesn't see herself as a bad person - so she's justifiyng all her actions while being quite self-righteous (her conversation with Ambessa - it's easy to see the "Old Cait" here with the whole peaceful speaking, but you have to ignore the fact that she's actually in charge, Ambessa is manipulating her, yes, but Caitlyn is the one making decisions, Caitlyn is the one who made the decisions to "peacefully occupy" Zaun, who's letting all the police brutaloity happen and at the same time she's moralizing to Ambessa and I don't think she's seeing the irony).

[hyenasrcute]

The Wildflower

Summary: A special pollen gives our two favorite peackeepers a bit of an awakening.

I can't believe I've been reduced to this. Me: a Snow, reduced to wallowing in the forest with a district boy, looking for a flower. Meanwhile of course Sejanus is practically skipping with joy at my side. He wraps an arm around my shoulders in what I can only assume he thinks is comradery. It takes everything in me not to toss it off. "A whole Saturday to ourselves Coryo!" He cheers, grinning ear to ear. I can't help but roll my eyes at his enthusiasm.

"Yes, a whole Saturday to waste away in the woods to look for- what was it again?" Sejanus pauses for a moment, dragging me to a halt with him before giving a dopey smile in remembrance. "Aphroho-homo-" Sejanus stutters. Something he's never done before.

"Aphrohomosia." I finish for him. I look at Sejanus and he flashes me another dopey smile. "Yeah! Thanks Coryo!" He shouts tone-deafly before restarting his search for the flower, turning his head to-and-fro.

I sigh before doing the same (though in a much more civilized manner) the sooner we find the floor the soon we can leave this awful forest.

I don't leave Sejanus' side as I scan my eyes across the forest floor. Something just felt wrong about leaving his side. Just the thought leaves me feeling uncomfortable. When have I ever been this attached to anybody? Nonetheless Sejanus?

I shake myself out of this rev-rev daze- and focus on the task at hand. Several minutes go by and I find myself feeling lightheaded, like I can't even piece a thought together. "Sejanus do you feel lightheaded right now?" No response.

"Sejanus?" After he doesn't respond again I sluggishly elbow him. The first thing I notice when he turns around isn't the idiotic grin that he's grown to wear, but the enormous, throbbing erection in his trousers. My head feels worse than before, instead of not being able to piece them together it's like they're slipping out of my- my uhmm- what was the pink thing called again?

Suddenly I notice Sejanus tugging off the stuff covering that juicy, lengthy cock. "What doing?" I ask him. Although I can't say I'm complaining if the size of my boner is anything to go by. Sejanus is now in nothing but his undershorts,, his massive bulging member poking through the slit and exposed for the whole world to see. Sejanus giggles childishly. "Clothes is tight. I likes the wind on my cock!"

Now I'm giggling back and tugging at my belt and shirt. Suddenly we're both in our underwear, giggling together in the woods. I look at Sejanus, his sculpted abs, his strong girthy arms. He really was the perfect man.

I bend down and kiss hus length, savoring the taste of the pre-cum that drools out like syrup. I briefly think about a flower with a long name that we were supposed to find but like all the other ones this thought slowly peels and falls away like petals. As I take my boyfriends entire cock into my mouth I find myself cumming onto the forest floor. I giggle at the feeling of how empty my head is. Isn't it great that we were sent here?

The End!

[evangelistofmurder]

Chapter 4 Musing + Bonus thoughts in tags

I've been thinking about this recently and realized: Yakou did have a chance of surviving the gas but made the deliberate choice not to:

[Solution Key - Toxic Gas Properties]

Yakou could have asked Desuhiko for a space suit; I don't even think the latter would question it either, this hammers more of the fact that the plan was a murder-suicide from the start. Though, this is the same man who takes dying over and over again in considering and still went through with it.

He really only needed Desuhiko's and Fubuki's fortes to enact the murder, but he brings Halara and Vivia to the lab as well. Yakou knows damn well the peacekeepers, especially Yomi will look for any excuse to arrest/execute the NDA. He brings Halara and Vivia to protect Fubuki, Desuhiko and Yuma; Yomi accuses the remaining NDA detectives for Yakou's 'murder' anyways. It was somewhat fruitless but the fact of the matter is to say even when lying to the others he did still care about them. Just as much as Yakou cared about the NDA the latter cared about Yakou just as much too. Yakou was really the heart of the NDA; Yakou just never took into account that everyone else would try desperately to save his life instead of just leaving him. (Going on a whim, to say he probably thought they'd just leave like how his former detectives left to join the peackeepers).

Yuma trying to beg Yomi to get Yakou medical attention, Fubuki using all her energy to rewind time in order save him, Halara administrating first aid after fighting the peackeepers, Desuhiko having to tell Fubuki to not to turn back time any further so the Chief can rest because it is too late and Vivia just standing there walking away since he doesn't know how to deal with it and express it directly. Hell, Halara was potentially giving CPR to his corpse in hopes that he'd stay alive after Yuma and Vivia checked Huesca's logs.

Finally, there's everyone's collective survivors guilt. It's safe to assume everyone knew what happened before Number One called in whether Yuma or Vivia said something; There's also Kurumi who wasn't even at the lab asking if they made a mistake by going.

In closing, it's a tragedy in every single way and I don't even think I hit everything in this musing; To me this is more focused on the NDA's perception of events

[I'd appreciate if people made responses to this by the way!!]

[markrosewater]

Each time land destruction becomes the topic, you put this playstyle away as unfun because people don't get to play the game. Yet we get powerful counterspells and powerful tax effects (including ward). In standard, I've had games on the draw where I did nothing because of Thalia followed by Anointed Peackeeper or Elite Spellbinder. Thalia is basically like -1 land if you wanted to play one noncreature, worse if you wanted to play more. It gets even worse: Thalia or the other creatures mentioned do win games, unlike a Stone Rain or similar. Now, I do share the belief we don't need more stone rains, it's too much all eggs in one basket, but cards like Waking the Trolls did a step in the good direction of being interesting and disruptive without being oppressive. So my take is: people overestimate land destruction, don't let that stop you, as there is a lot of design space here.

We are very careful with counterspells, discard, and taxing for the very reasons you state. Long ago there existed a “permissions deck” which was basically nothing but counterspells and countered almost every spell. We don’t allow that (or a discard deck that makes you discard every spell) anymore.

[dangermousie]

Farscape rewatch - A Clockwork Nebari, 2x18

This is an ep I love a for a variety of reasons, but one of them is that it focuses a lot on the relationship between Crichton and Chiana, and it’s one of my favorite relationships in the show.

(How can a scene be both heartbreaking and hilarious - but oh, Chiana’s relief. She got used to being part of a group; you really see how much it messed her up having to be utterly on her own before and slowly after joining Moya, she shed enough of her emotional protective layer to not want to be like this again.)

It’s made clear once again that for Chiana, John has in some ways replaced Nerri - her beloved older brother (the two men definitely share the desire and ability to fight the establishment and to lead.) But the thing is, a replacement is a replacement but it’s made so clear in this episode how much Chiana loves and misses her brother - her face as she realizes he’s alive or when she listens to his message has such a wealth of emotion.

Nebari are horrifying and creepy any time they show up and this is no exception - the conformity combined with their horrific contagion plan? Yikes. Farscape is very consistent in every powerful civilization we come across being evil, isn’t it? 

I can’t remember btw if I am hallucinating it, but I think I remember the makers saying that if they got that fifth season they were promised, they’d have made Nebari the villains. Not sure if I am misremembering but I think that would have been a fascinating story.

But yes, I love watching Chiana and John, a quasi-sibling relationship with an edge. 

The scene out of all the scenes in this ep that stays with me is the final scene:

What sticks with me in this scene is that John has both the hard-edged outlook acceptance of the unjust world where you should be happy with at least something, you never get what you want as well as the compassion to comfort the grief this bleak world causes. Crichton can say this because like Chiana, he understands loss. Everyone on Moya does - they have all lost their places, their belonging, their worlds (Zhaan is wanted by her regime, Rygel has been overthrown by his, D’Argo has violated all sorts of taboos by his past match, Aeryn is in shoot on sight by peackeepers territory etc) but none of the rest of them except for John and Chiana have families they love and miss - it is clear that John loves his dad (and sisters) and would love so much to see them again. And Chiana loves and longs for Nerri. They are unique in that as the rest of the Moyans do not have any remaining family or have family they’d rather gut. (D’Argo does have his son but he hasn’t seen him since babyhood so he loves him but he does not know him, unlike Chiana and John who know exactly what and who they miss, what they had and do not have any more, if this makes sense.)

The other thing that strikes me is that this episode echoes the themes of both the season and the show in general - I don’t just mean in the rest of the crew getting a small, unknowing preview of what it’s like to be Crichton (the only way he is not cleansed is for the same reason he survives in Won’t Get Fooled Again - his mind is already claimed) - a passenger in your own body, doing things you yourself would never do (though they do not appear to be conscious of what is happening at least), losing both your mind and volition. 

I mean more in keeping with the theme of the show that staying true to yourself is worth any sacrifice, that it is worth fighting any law, any empire, your own mind, anything - to stay what you think you should be. The happiness induced by Nebari is false peace, not any better than John under Harvey’s control. All the mains fight expectations of their societies - be they peacekeeper, luxan, delvian, nebari etc - whether refusing the basic tenets (like Chiana and Aeryn), fighting the power structure (Zhaan), defying elders’ judgment about piloting readiness (Pilot), or even falling in love with someone you’d normally not supposed to be with (D’Argo.) Even Rygel is very undominar-like. Even Moya gives birth to a warship. And we are not going to get into John. None of them fit, none of them conform. And they fight tooth and nail to stay themselves and they all pay various prices, some of them insupportable, but the alternative is unthinkable. 

Crichton is put through a grinder in this ep and is about to be put through a worse grinder in the last four eps of the season and I want to say how much I appreciate that Farscape, which gives its protagonist so much suffering never ever fetishizes it, aesthetically or emotionally (it does not fetishize it for anyone, actually. Chiana looks horrible tortured here; even someone like Scorpius evokes nothing but pity when he’s tortured later in the show.)

By that I mean when Crichton suffers, he does not do so prettily - he looks like hell because he’s being put through hell and there is nothing desirable about it (it’s not elegant aesthetics of suffering like in a Cheng Yi or a Luo Yunxi drama - which I enjoy quite a lot but is a very specific niche that knows exactly what it’s catering to.) Nor is there anything morally superior it; Farscape rejects the Puritan ethos of perfection through pain.

Suffering does not ennoble Crichton, it does not polish him or make him more worthy. All it does is cause pain. He does not need to suffer to be good, he was already good. All this adds to his character is trauma. There is no glory in it, just endurance. I was mentioning to @andoqin that I find it so interesting how Crichton’s biggest superpowers are actually goodness and ability to endure - the former is the reason he gets the wormhole knowledge and the latter is how he can persevere through all the hells thrown at him - and both goodness and endurance are traditionally female coded virtues. (Side note - how very on brand that the narrative is so much of “road to hell is paved with good intentions” one - ancients were nice to give him a way to go home and he was nice to try to rescue Aeryn, and look what happened - hell happened. If it wasn’t for his knowledge of wormholes, once he escaped from the base, Scorpius would have never paid much attention to him but as is. And of course the final bitter twist ends up being that when he does go home he finds out he does not fit and leaves. Ultimately, since he ended up not wanting to go home, he did not actually need the wormholes; all that knowledge brought him is not fulfillment of his desires but pain.)

But yes, it’s pretty clear that if he stayed on earth and never went through the wormhole he might have been better off - he may have never found out how smart he can be or how strong his will is or how much he can love but he’d have also kept his sanity and his soul uncracked. In any other story, a man who started as an idealistic pacifist would have converted the rest of the Universe to that point of view but not here, here he gets it tortured out of him. (Side note - I love that damage sticks in Farscape. The narrative makes no bones about him being permanently changed and no magic undo button exists for his damage. But it’s a very Meatbun take - where being damaged and changed does not mean you cannot be happy; it’s just that happiness will coexist with scars.)

Oh and also, I do like that Crichton does not look fragile - he looks like an all American guy, built like a football player. And guess what? This does not protect him from being taken apart in every way possible because there is no magic cheat code to avoiding suffering, there is no “type” that is more prone to cruel things happening. His looks or his brains or his goodness can’t protect him. Stuff just happens because it’s outside his control and he can only control how he reacts. I love that Farscape makes no bones he’s permanently damaged - once again very Meatbun (am I the sole person on tumblr who both watches Farscape and reads Meatbun? Hmmm) in that it doesn’t mean he still can’t be happy but the damage doesn’t go away.

PS As dark as this show gets, and it gets very dark, it is also utterly hilarious. This one has many funny moments but this one literally made me choke. 

There are plenty of shows that are very dark and plenty of shows that are very funny. Farscape is close to unique in consistently being both.

[doublel27]

Wait! I did not realize you are also a Farscape person!

Sliding this in as a nice ask week ask - tell me more about your love of Farscape - did you watch it when it aired, or later on DVD? If they ever did reboot it, would you want that?

I am a huge Farscape person.

I watched for the first time in college! I started in 2004 when my roommate insisted I get caught up before the Peackeeper Wars came out that October. I can’t remember if she had it on DVD or if we were 🏴‍☠️but I fell in love with the series.

We were big nerds, watching Deep Space Nine and Voyager and the like.

Farscape 100% still holds up.

As for a reboot? I don’t know. I’m not sure they could capture that particular magic in a bottle again.

[heavensbeehall]

"Catching Fire", Chapter 7

Part 1: The Spark

Chapter 7: Katniss leaves clues for Gale to meet her at the Lake. She has never taken Gale to the Lake before, it was just for her and her Father. She tells Gale her tale of woe, and that she wants to run away. He says he loves her and she is caught off-guard. He turns angry when she mentions wanting Peeta and Haymitch to come. Then is excited by the prospect of an uprising. After that failed attempt, Katniss then talks to Peeta who is more open-minded but he wants to talk it over with Haymitch first... then they arrive at the main square to find a new Head Peackeeper has arrived.

Thoughts:

-- What is Mayor Undersee's job exactly? It seems he reports to the Capitol, right? And the Mayor also seems in charge of executions and public punishment? But is Mayor Undersee from the Capitol? His wife isn't. For some reason I think not. Possibly because the Peacekeepers are evacuated from 12 before the bombing but he is not. Anyway, I was just thinking about it because the Mayor in Songbirds and Snakes does feel like a small-town politician who is satisfied with the ability to push everyone else around in exchange for being a Capitol stooge. But I don't get the same vibe from Mayor Undersee. (It also annoys me that his name has conflicting meanings.)

-- Gale. IDK, guys. I try to cut him some slack because he's a teenage boy and all. Plus it's not like he doesn't suffer in this chapter. But him saying Peeta's family would probably inform on them reminds me of him being rude to Madge in book one and how he knows the Capitol tries to divide them along class lines but still can't get past it. I appreciate when he says he wants to stay and fight. He's brave. But honestly I think he could use a bit more Haymitch and Peeta, people who are more cautious and thoughtful. But those are the people he scorns most. And I can see why he would be resentful of Peeta but why Haymitch? Shouldn't he bet at least a little bit grateful that Haymitch recently helped save Katniss's life?

Quotes:

"It was my aunt's," she said. "But I think it's been in my family for a long time."

I feel like there is a story here. Whatever it is, I don't think Madge knows it fully herself.

"Gale, I can't think of anyone like that now. All I can think about, every day, every waking minute since they drew Prim's name at the reaping, is how afraid I am. And there doesn't seem to be room for anything else. If we maybe I could be different. I don't know."

I always think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how Katniss is very focused on survival and safety, can't move up to love before those needs are met.

You haven't hurt people--you've given them an opportunity. They just have tobe brave enough to take it. There's already been talk in the mines. People who want to fight. Don't you see? It's happening! It's finally happening! If there's an uprising in District Eight, why not here? Why not everywhere?

Gale it's wrong here. And he's not wrong to want to overthrow the Capitol...

He throws Cinna's gloves at my feet. "I changed my mind. I don't want anything they made in the Capitol."

... and then he loses me because I love Cinna and I know what is going to happen to him. Cinna sacrifices more for the Rebellion than Gale. Simply being from the Capitol doesn't make him evil.

[amaibambina]

yakou, you bitch ass liar, we all know you go on early morning dates with some peackeeper named seth AND was interested.