#queen deep dive

[bijouxcarys]

Queen's Hot Space Era: A Deep Dive

Masterlist

I’ve been thinking over this album and era more than usual lately, and decided that I’d write this up. Perhaps as a way to extricate all the Queen knowledge from my head, and the era in question takes up quite a lot of RAM.

The Hot Space album, and era, is very controversial and to this day garners a polarising set of opinions amongst fans and critics alike. So I just thought what the hell, let’s let everyone know what the hell was going on with Queen in the early 80s.

The Hot Space album was the 10th studio album by Queen and was released on the 21st May 1982. It had elements of disco, funk, R&B, dance, and pop, which was very different to what Queen had been doing throughout previous albums. The dance elements of this album was supposedly inspired by the success of Another One Bites The Dust, released in 1980.

Another One Bites The Dust was extremely successful in the US and the UK, the two largest marketing countries in the Western world, at least at the time—and Queen aimed to prolong that success.

The band started recording for Hot Space in June of 1981, and spent a gruelling 10 months on the project before wrapping up the production element in March of 1982. Upon its release, fans and critics found it disappointing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said “the band that once proudly proclaimed not to use synthesisers on their albums now dramatically reversed course, dedicating the entire first side of the album to robotic, new wave dance pop, all driven by drum machines and coloured by keyboards with Brian May’s guitar coming in as flavour only on occasion.”

The fourth track on Hot Space, Body Language, has been dubbed the worst song in Queen’s discography by fans, and the whole album received no more than a 3-star rating overall.

Rolling Stone gave them a 3-star, whilst the Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave a 1-star… Yikes.

Hot Space is one of the more obscure Queen albums to those who are not currently, or have ever been, active within the fandom. So we’re going to break it down a little bit, and let’s just talk about the background and context of what the hell was going on with them.

So in 1981, Queen recorded Under Pressure with David Bowie, and it’s still considered one of Queen’s staple and most popular songs. It was recorded in Montreux, and was a completely separate project to Hot Space. The band had met up with Bowie and jammed together for a while, just to see if they could come up with something to lay down and master. Of course, as most people know, bassist John Deacon came up with the iconic Under Pressure bass riff, just before they all went out to get some pizza. And by the time they’d returned to the studio, he’d forgotten it! But luckily drummer Roger Taylor remembered it.

Now, this was the first time Queen weren’t working alone; they were used to working only with their producers, never having had anyone else’s input. The two artists merged as one for the song and it pointed in the direction of a potential new road for Queen—it was looking like an exciting one.

But what went wrong during the recording of Hot Space?

Brian May recalls that there was a total change of life for all of them. They travelled to Munich and according to Brian, that’s when things started to go downhill.

Let’s talk a little bit about the studio in which they recorded the album in Munich. It was situated in the basement of a hotel, and it was called Musicland Studios. It closed in the 90s due to some road issues, so it’s no longer open. But Brian remembers this place being grim and depressing.

The band’s mental health started to deteriorate after learning some unsettling details about the place. In Brian’s words:

“A lot of people used to jump off the top of the building and kill themselves off that particular building. We didn’t know that until we got there.”

The urge to finish recording grew, and they spent months at the hotel.

The aim was to create an album that focused more on the dance elements of music due to the success of Another One Bites The Dust, as I mentioned before. They seemed to be in luck, as Freddie Mercury’s entourage at the time was concentrated with dance influences in the form of Paul Prenter.

Now, who was Paul Prenter, you ask? If you’ve seen the film, you’ll kind of already know, but here’s a bit more of an in-depth look at him.

Paul Prenter was Freddie Mercury’s personal manager from 1977 to 1986. Despite their professional relationship, the two also engaged in intimate relations, and Prenter had a huge influence over Freddie’s life during the time he worked for him. He held partial responsibility for Freddie’s excessive involvement in drugs, alcohol, and his growing promiscuity. 

Freddie was known to have fired Prenter in 1986, and shortly after it was plastered all over the news. It turns out Paul Prenter had sold personal stories to the press about Freddie… What a dick.

After receiving money from multiple press outlets, he moved back to his hometown of Belfast and spent it all—smart. He then asked Freddie for more money! After all that, he went back and asked him for money! But it’s okay, he did succumb to complications from AIDS a few months before Freddie. So… Freddie got the last laugh, it seemed.

You’re probably wondering what Paul Prenter had to do with Hot Space. After all, he wasn’t part of the band, right?

Well, Freddie’s life was ruled by the New York-inspired gay lifestyle of the 80s, particularly engaging in extreme partying and extreme promiscuity. And at the time, Freddie had suggested to the band that the music on their new album should sound like that of which they’d play in a gay bar, but those words had initially come from Paul Prenter.

It’s said that Prenter despised guitars and relentlessly referred to Brian May as old-fashioned. Roger Taylor recalled that Prenter was a “very bad influence” on the band:

“He was a very, very bad influence upon Freddie, and hence on the band. He very much wanted our music to sound like you just walked in a gay club, and I didn’t.”

The strain and tension became inevitable with the four personalities—and we all know that John, Freddie, Brian, and Roger have massive personalities. Whilst they had always experienced bickering, as most bands do, they now with the added tension, the production of the album isn’t going to go as smoothly.

“Arguments would start off as creative, but slowly became personal.”

Brian recalls that less and less time was spent in the studio and more time was spent arguing.

To put it into perspective about what life was like for the 10 months they spent recording Hot Space in Munich…A regular day recording this album went a little bit like the following:

The entourage recall waking up at 3am, working for hours, having dinner, and then roadies would mix up cocktails and other things would pursue. The band got mixed up in cocaine and various other drugs. Random women, and relentless drinking, and as any sane person will tell you, that is not a good thing.

Roger described it as an exhausting cycle day after day. Imagine doing that for 9 whole months.

Brian remembers them getting into “deep trouble emotionally” in Munich, which possibly explains why their mental states deteriorated.

Now, the Hot Space era didn’t just end when the album came out. Obviously, when an album comes out, you have to do interviews to promote your album and after months and months of bad influences and arguments, the band’s relationship had kind of broken down. Things continued in quite a tense fashion. 

In fact, Freddie was left very unhappy and depressed after Hot Space wrapped up—it lasted a while, and he was completely immersed in places and habits that remained detrimental to his fate. Freddie became passive during interviews and defensive on certain questions concerning anything but current projects.

His attitude during the 1982 press conference in Europe was already standoffish and it was extremely obvious that he didn’t want to be there. The body language of the others, especially Brian, speaks volumes. The mood is low and they all seem exhausted.

Another nationwide interview the band gave in promotion for the album presented the group separated; Freddie was notably disinterested as the others spoke. There was even a moment where Freddie responds to the interviewer’s question with “let’s break up tomorrow” as a joke. But, watching it, you can’t help but feel there’s some truth to his words. Nobody laughed, even Roger looked uncomfortable by it!

One of the more well-known interviews from this era was with Brian and Roger, which displayed multiple moments of awkwardness with them both trying to make jokes and seem like they’re happy with what they’d produced, making up amateur excuses as to why they created something with a different sound. In my opinion, they just didn’t seem very happy. Do we even need to mention the “shut up” from Roger, and then the succeeding comment from Brian about Mack having the best drum sound?

Then, we have the iconic 1984 Freddie interview, where he left viewers stunned with his answers:

“I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you,” “I’m not an artist, I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”

The long-term effects of what happened behind the scenes of Hot Space were everlasting and turned the group into four completely different people than they were prior to 1982. 

As I’ve already mentioned, Hot Space wasn’t received well upon its release, and there are still very strong opinions about it today. Brian stated in 2014 that it isn’t the band’s worst album, but the timing of its release was just wrong. As time goes on, more people begin to accept the Hot Space album as just another reason why Queen is one of the most versatile groups of all time, with them branching out into very different styles to what they’d done earlier in their career, like Sheer Heart Attack, News Of The World, etc…

80s culture looked down upon disco and funk, so reception for Hot Space was bound to be less than amazing. However, today, all styles of music are simultaneously celebrated, and people enjoy the album more now than they did 40 years ago.

So in conclusion, recording Hot Space was a difficult period for Queen. It’s horrible to think about your idols going through the kind of thing they did in the early-mid 80s, influenced by not very nice people. But focusing on the album itself, it’s truly not a bad album at all. Granted, the timing of the release wasn’t the best for Queen, but it holds up as a fan favourite today.

If you haven’t heard any of the songs from Hot Space, besides Under Pressure, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s very different to what Queen usually did and I think it’s worth a listen.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Let me know if you liked this little… post, whatever the hell it is, and if I should do more posts like this. I enjoy throwing all my useless knowledge onto a page lol.

[killertoons]

IM A FOOL HOARDING THE SCARLETT LETTER OFFICIAL FACE MAKEUP

which I even did in clowns style so I could see how it translates over, but I'll do different ones later one when I find more resources cause I want Scarlett letters to be more then just Eddie in a wig!

Scarlett letter is an EXPERIENCE! She's calligraphy written with red ink to make a statement! Signed sealed and delivered and all yours!

[raayllum]

Aaravos' Treachery: A Secret Third Thing

Because we still don't know what the Archdragons believed he betrayed them over, and I wanna talk about it. Let's go!

Aaravos' Crimes

So Aaravos has a lot of crimes in arc 2. In arc 1, he'd mostly been contained to felling Lux Aurea / corrupting the Sun Forge and helping to orchestrate a war, but arc 2 really rounds out his roster. We get canon confirmation he gave humans dark magic (4x07, 7x07), he burns Katolis to the ground, kills dozens of people either directly or indirectly, manipulates and lies to people, admits to cannibalism, aids in filicide, inverts the Moon Nexus and tries to permanently corrupt the Sun. Because it's all just another wipe out Wednesday to him, I guess.

However, we still don't arguably know what his most important crime is, which is what Zubeia calls his treachery. In fact, we know a lot more about what doesn't fall under that umbrella, so let's start first with what we know the Archdragons (minus Sol Regem) knew, and imprisoned him over.

4x04 Lore Dump

And yes, he was a Star. A startouch elf, one of the Great Ones, respected and loved by all until we uncovered long-hidden treachery. Hundreds of years ago, before Avizandum was King of the Dragons, the Dragon Queen Luna Tenebris mysteriously died. Luna lacked a suitable heir, and the Archdragons fought bitterly over who should ascend in her place. As the conflict swirled and escalated towards inevitable violence, the great leader of the Sunfire elves, Queen Aditi, stepped in to broker peace. The Archdragons trusted this wise and kind leader and agreed to abide by whatsoever she decided. But before she could bring peace to the world, Queen Aditi went missing. Chaos and confusion erupted, and war threatened to tear Xadia apart as now the elves suspect the dragons had killed their queen. But truth came from an unexpected source. A young human girl uncovered a great secret of history. A dangerous deceiver was revealed.

For a thousand years, Aaravos had been pulling invisible strings like a puppet master. Every great crisis the world faced seemed the work of some ingenious and powerful leader, but in each case it was secretly Aaravos, whispering in their ear.

The implicit messaging we also get is that Aaravos had primarily been manipulating humans, as we've only seen him directly whisper in the ears of humans and human leaders. That the Great Treachery cannot be that 1) Aaravos was likely involved in killing Luna Tenebris and 2) that he'd eaten/killed Aditi because as of the end of S7, the Archdragons still don't know these things. So if the Great Treachery had to do with humanity... why would the Archdragons care, especially when pre-Orphan Queen, humans had certainly never helped them before.

Well, 7x03 sheds some significant light on the topic.

The Mage Wars

A thousand years ago, humans were entirely expelled from the east and send on-masse to the west (1x01). The known treachery that the Archdragons discovered also spans a thousand years, aka everything post-exile. This matches up pretty perfectly timeline wise with what Aanya says in 7x03:

The West wasn't barren at all. Before the Mage Wars, the land was the same as all of Xadia, full of life, full of riches, full of magic. In the new lands, the humans who rose to power were those who knew how to its magic. The mages became warlords. The mage warlords waged bitter, bloody battles for control of the lands they claimed. Their armies scoured the land for magic and bled it dry, and they hunted the magical creatures to extinction. When one mage rose to power, another was quick to dethrone them.

The wars only stopped when there was nothing left to fight for. All the magical resources were consumed or destroyed, and magic all but disappeared from the West.

So the 1000 year timeline — the 'beginning' of Aaravos' treachery according to the Archdragons (even if we know it likely goes back even further) — lines up with the expulsion and the beginning of the Mage Wars in Xadia, which seemingly lasted centuries. If it lasted for 700 years, it'd us to the Orphan Queen, who would've grown up in the violence and possibly established Katolis having a hereditary monarchy (Harrow and Ezran's royal line) over the mage warlord system.

We also know thanks to 7x03 that the Staff of Ziard indicated power and passed from hand to hand in the violence. And we know thanks to 4x03 that Ibis and the Archdragons know something about the staff as well, as Ibis says things like, "I'm going to destroy it before it can do anymore harm," and "if you wish to return that staff to its true owner, you pose a greater danger to this world than I can allow."

I'm afraid this can only mean one thing.

I think most of us probably surmised that part of what was revealed to the Archdragons, though, was likely dark magic. It's something we know most Xadians to feel very negatively about, and had already wrecked havoc on Xadia historically pre-exile. We can also see that 4x04 and 3x01 ("It was a gift from one of the Great Ones") just with the Staff alone paints a pretty clear picture that this is what they learned. But I sat here like if this was all they learned, why not just say so? Feels like it'd be pretty easy to quickly communicate.

So there had to be something else, and I think that's

Aaravos was Encouraging Humanity to Attack Xadia

When we cut to the collection of human leaders, they've taken shape to resemble the Pentarchy formation. However, all their markers are entirely put on the Xadian side of the border, not the human side.

We also know that the Mage Warlords would have an incentive to go where there was magic. They'd consumed everything on their side of the continent, but the East still had plenty. Xadia was already weakened at this point too, thanks to infighting amongst the elves and Archdragons, and no clear appointed dragon monarch. It would've been ripe for the picking. Aaravos could've brought humanity together against their common enemy, stating that if they united their armies, they could take Xadia successfully (which would also make the archdragon killing spell make a lot more sense).

If not for Avizandum, maybe, which would also explain why he was chosen to be the new dragon monarch as opposed to any of the others.

That was always his favourite sport: stomping on ants and calling himself a conqueror. [...] Protect Xadia? Ha! Avizandum wants an endless war. He loves to provoke and destroy human armies, it makes him feel big and powerful.

defending the border alongside an army of elves in the 1x01 intro against an army of joint humans, in a place (the lava border) that looks exceedingly similar to the Mage Wars background. Hm.

As of S3, Xadia was likewise weakened: Avizandum was dead, Zubeia was sick and dying, Domina and Rex had retreated to their domains. Aaravos then found himself a human mage he could make a king and then turned Viren into a warlord, leading 4/5 human armies on war against their shared enemies.

And now, as of S7, Xadia finds itself in a similarly weakened state, with the Archdragons flat out gone, and little Zym set to inherit the monarchy. If Aanya's brother turns against her, wielding Project Sun Ruby rather than just dark magic to go to war against Xadia... History would be repeating itself. Again. (Cause the Cycle is going to cycle, am I right?)

Getting humanity into the place, mindset, and power in which to launch a full scale invasion would definitely count as betrayal to the Archdragons no matter which way it was sliced, after all. Depending on what the Orphan Queen discerned from the cube — its link to Elarion could've been it (+ the staff), even if she didn't find the book itself or hide it there — it might've been enough to worry her that the violence unfolding in the west would take the east, and she went to the warn them. Luckily they listened and managed to trap Aaravos, with the Orphan Queen stepping in to lead Katolis and dismantle the war effort from the other side of things, since Katolis is the largest kingdom and holds the border.

"Confusion and chaos erupted.... the first step in the long slow spiral to chaos."

None of this answers why, exactly, Aaravos wanted to conquer Xadia — or why he's wanted to at any real point, in terms of it tangibly helping him against the Cosmic Council — but I do think it's likely that this is why and what the Archdragons consider his hidden treachery to be, and why it concerned them so.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

[somewherefornow]

TULA & MERA in AQUAMAN: DEEP DIVES (2020)

[alicia55523]

Missing backstory

[allgirlsareprincesses]

[bowserbowser29]

Giving my two cents because yes:

I don't think it tells much about us, I think more it shows how different the characters' archetypes are, how fundamentally differently they work

Eggman is straight up a villain. Períod. That's the deal, we know he's there to be defeated and humiliated by the heroes, that's what we expect

Flare is not exactly a villain, she's an antagonistic figure sure, but she's not one the heroes can ditch, they have to deal with her, they have to keep her around despite their constant bickering and fights, we'll want her to be sent away but we CAN'T expect her to be sent away

On top of Eggman being a villain he's also a theatrical villain, so he's got tons of charisma on him, he's an exaggeration and even a satire of actual dictators, when will have comically cartoony evil deeds of him as well as sometimes we'll get spectacularly silly moments when, it's oftenly too much exaggerated and surreal with him that we oftenly need a deeper analysis to actually pay attention to how much he fucked things

Meanwhile, Flare is almost a very real figure, she could be that narcissist mother of a friend, that annoying aunt who's got the gifted kid of the family and will subtly jab you, that arrogant woman who made your work a hell for her few minutes being attended, that boss who is always throwing a tantrums and never admita their failure etc

And being a cherry for this cake

Eggman never gets away with his bullshit, his armies are obliterated, bases are destroyed, his ultimate robots are scrapped again and again and his attempts to mess with god-like creatures and powers oftenly backfire

We know Eggman is not getting away, we even work to ensure that when we play the games, we know fate is coming to bite him in someway no matter how lighthearted is the tone, sometimes he'll just be trapped on his own dream machine, sometimes he'll be left in an endless void out of the time stream itself and then he's got to restart from the low over and over, construct a new base from scratch at times

Meanwhile, Flare does get away with her bullshit (so far), she has made Blaze cry and offended Blaze's beloveds and Blaze was the one to feel the need to apologize, Trip proved her wrong and earned a couple statues, yet nobody demanded Flare to apologize to Trip so far, her methods raising Blaze are disapproved even by Coal, yet she applied them and still tries to and never ever receives some harsh talk from her husband, she disrespects even the Sol Emeralds, items with a handful of important prophecies surrounding them, for very petty reasons yet she's still the queen. The girls may snarl back, she may feel a little bad when truth is thrown on her face, but she will still have her authority and ststus.

Jeez dude, 's just a cat

[10underoot2]

Not sure how I feel about the Episode 9 epilogue but it's so comforting to know Hyunwoo choose to love and marry Hae In despite holding on to that memory of his ideal type.

I say this cause Hyunwoo doesn't know the girl he met in highschool - his ideal type- was his future wife. So he essentially met Hae in years later and said yea I wanna love her for the rest of my life. I'm also thinking of those lovely epsiode 1 Germany scenes when he has no idea she's his first love and ideal type. Like she's just the women he choose to love and marry. And he loves her so much, so deeply, so truly.

It's really hard to have someone hold a candle to what's an ideal to you. And Haein fit the bill for him. He really saw her and choose to love her fully - not really thinking too much about that one highschool interaction that marked his life deeply enough for him to remember it almost 10 years later.

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

No joke this tight feeling I get in my chest over seeing anything gay is very reminiscent of when my ptsd around homophobia was at its peak and I would have a breakdown over seeing gay book recs on instagram lol

[fr00tbats]

def not emotional abt this unplanned fraggle rock parallel

[raayllum]

He was betrayed by a trusted advisor and he began to doubt everyone around him. So he made them all spies, turning one against another. His seeds of doubt grew into tangled vines of paranoia that strangled his kingdom. His fear became a self-fulfilling prophecy. One by one, everyone abandoned him. The king died friendless, his kingdom consumed by chaos.

[somewherefornow]

ARTHUR CURRY/AQUAMAN & MERA in AQUAMAN: DEEP DIVES (2020)

[alicia55523]

Today I am

[jrueships]

Is there a reason why sauce refuses to follow more than 99 accounts on instagram ? He’s such a control freak lmfao

LOL yea ive always noticed that like wtf 😭 okay 😭

he only follows 99 people on Twitter too, and i think i remember seeing him post on his twit like during the beginning of his first season in the NFL abt who he should follow to reach 99 bcs I think he had 98 at that time? And he wanted 99?

And on his insta i think (less sure on this) he posted a story that said like 'ok... who to make my 100th following 😻' but i think he only wanted it to be a stupid idk a 'fellow famous internet influencer' like he is , so famous, so self-loving, so empath .

so like. he either didn't follow anyone or he quickly unfollowed to remain at 99

he is... so strange. Such an odd critter. but my guess is he's keeping 99 as his ideal number rn and will unfollow whatever normie/less famous person he needs to in order to keep his precious 99 when he has to follow a more famous person,

or he's just holding out for a special someone to make his 100th follower ( and then later unfollow someone else he doesn't care abt rn to keep his number 99) bcs he WANTS to make ppl feel special, but also. He is weird. And he likes the number 99. And he's weird. And im going to give him a wedgie

[talkingparrotkee]

How I wonder...

What did Riri feel and how was she treated after Ramonda's death? She is another tragedy barely spoken about, let alone explored by the Wakanda Forever fanbase or even narrative itself. In all honesty, it kind of bums me out. Riri often plays a second fiddle and isn't given her independent dues with her true character appreciated. Her along with many other character arcs and traumas aren't as independently delved into like Shuri or Namor's.

Don't get me wrong, I love the attention Shuri and Namor get as a fan of them and even the pair "nashuri" (it's full of entertaining complexities). However, I think there is plenty room for more of these characters to get magnifying spotlight. I strongly believe that some fans should certainly give them more grace too (rather than putting them at the expense of Shuri or Namor and using them as their props), but I digress.

I can imagine Riri Williams suffering from imposter syndrome and survivor's guilt. Mix this in with her overwhelming sense of homesickness and self-blame that probably just became amplified as the movie progressed.

I could see Riri collapsing again out of fatique before waking up sore in a medical bay. I can imagine her half-awake, seeing blurry yet familiar silhouettes off to her side. Her hearing muffled voices and ringing in her ears. I can see her being treated as a ghost for the most part after she fully awakes with her basic necessities met. After all, Wakanda had a lot more things to tend to. Broken infrastructure, search parties, citizen patients, a dead queen... Resources had to be channeled elsewhere.

Not that Riri minded, of course. On top of all that, I can envision her trying to shrink herself and stay out of the way, plagued with remorse, floating in a sea of confusion.

Riri is also not present at the funeral.

All in all, Riri reminds me of middle child syndrome, which especially stands out in a crowd of characters experiencing atleast elements of eldest child syndrome (Shuri, Okoye, Namor...).

Despite the fact that this all more or less regards Riri and seemingly orbited her, she was farthest from the center. How can it be that these things had something to do with her yet at the same time it was all besides her?

Yeah, she made the vibranium detector and didn't have foresight, but the idea was planted by her professor (an authority figure she is supposed to trust). The FBI stole her work and later wanted to hunt her down again because she was the only one they had capable of building that machine. The American government also wanted to use her as a guise for destabilizing Wakanda. Namor wanted to cut off every loose end to ensure Talokan's safety, which happened to include her. Halfway in, it was revealed that it really wasn't about Riri (by Namor's own words), but what she was unknowingly a catalyst key for. Riri was, in the words of Letitia Wright, alao the reflection of T'Challa's choice, hence why everyone fought so hard for her.

Even in the original script, we see Namor stating that he would kill a thousand scientists if it meant protecting his people. So what would be one girl? When facing off Shuri, Namor dismissively points out that her death was already set by the creation of her detector. This is an ominous, but true point: if not him, someone else would seek her head in due time, and for far less noble means.

Ultimately, Riri was at the wrong place at the wrong time unknowingly rubbing elbows with the wrong people. It was always beyond her yet still had her strung along. Her only crime was ambition and brilliance. How messed up is that?

To fully understand the gravity of Riri's circumstance, let's go to the very beginning...

92%: The first wave that crashed down onto Riri was when the Princess of Wakanda unexpectedly came to her dorm. She thought her extensive efforts to prove herself as a young black woman living in the United States of America finally paid off. Riri thought she was being recruited to the Wakandan outreach program. Every time her brilliance was recognized, she couldn't help but puff out her chest!

This almost naive excitement of hers went down the drain as what she thinks is a "recruitment" is a "search and rescue" (originally kidnap and ship off to Namor somewhere off the coast of Madagascar, probably ending in eventual death for her ����) mission. Shuri gives her a blunt, "no" with a face (ouch!) before telling her that she must evacuate and go with her (a stranger, at that point, Princess of Wakanda be damned) as she's in grave danger. Okoye didn't help matters at all, wielding a spear and threatening her cooperation.

How foolish she was, Riri would go to think later.

78%: We arrive at her garage. We see that Riri is cautious to have strangers in her personal space, with all her inventions, life work, and sentimental belongings such as her father's car vulnerably on full display. Then Shuri starts touching things. Riri, who already is on edge, snaps a bit. Shortly after, the police and FBI are brought at her door, danger she knows all too well...

64%: One moment Riri is flying through the air thinking they're safe, the next everything hurys then goes black. Then she wakes up underneath the ocean in a dimly lit cenote, flanked by spear-wielding aquatic smurfs. Riri suffers a panic attack.

The only "familiar" face and person she knows who probably doesn't want her dead is Princess Shuri (who is as lost as Riri is). After she narrowly pulls herself together, they are separated (there is no strength in the little numbers they had now).

53%: How did Shuri's "underwater date" go? Did they do whatever royals do and make up? Drink some fancy smancy tea and let bygones be bygones? Is this another Beauty and the Beast, best case scenario?

Hell no. 🫤

Now Namor is talking about war with the surface world (including the United States, which is her home nation. Oopsie). Shuri ceremoniously kept the tidbit of Riri dying from her. How nice.

42%: They take a breather getting served food. Their nerves are frazzled with Shuri racking her brain for their next move, but what alerts Riri next are shouts and shots. A dead guard lays on her right. Shuri is being held by the formerly nice, now scared handmaiden about her age (confirmed in the script) with a knife held threateningly to Shuri's body. Riri barely understands the tense situation, words are exchanged in foreign languages she doesn't know, and shortly afterwards, the maiden is fatally shot, helplessly clutching her wound in pure terror after crashing into one of their beds.

"You don't understand!" Shuri shouts, voice thick with panic. "This means war!"

All she knows is that Nakia, who she also doesn't know, is right and they should go. Now.

Riri and Shuri are clutching to Nakia for dear life, swimming through dark waters, leaving death in their wake.

32%: All of this chaos is a whirlwind in the 19-year-old's mind. She is caught between political unrest and war between two of the world's most powerful nations. Riri had her share of adventure. Not even the grandeur of Wakanda she once could only dream of can enchant her to stay. All the wants to do is go home. All she wants to do is see her mother she was forced to leave behind. She is a fish out of water being thrown in an environment she knows jack about.

Afrer the responses the Queen gives her, she knows she cannot go home.

Then suddenly, an attack rings out. Riri is terrified. Riri doesn't know what to do, but she does what she can. And that isn't enough.

21%:

Riri sees Namor angrily glaring at her. He's probably replaying the dying handmaiden in his mind. He already was after her before, so there is definitely no words to save her now.

Before he can get too close, Ramonda intervenes, blocking her view as if she was her own child.

"Go, child!"

The last thing Riri saw was the warm queen's hand outstretched to hand, the waterbomb, glimpses of an enraged Namor, and destruction. Everything went dark, her body heavy. when she was pulled to the light, she's coughing up water. She sees the cold queen beside her, still as a rock, and a Shuri's excruciating cries.

The queen was dead because she protected her. Shuri, kind Shuri, strong Shuri, was left broken and orphaned.

11%: I am sure Shuri was holed up in her lab the majority of the time. It must have taken Riri all that she could to put her immobilizing fear aside to join Shuri-Wakanda in a battle they may not come back out of alive.

2%: Riri sees Shuri and Nakia talk about cardiac arrest drinking some odd purple herbal substance. She sees Shuri steeling herself, and mirrors Nakia in providing any comfort she can aa she sees her friend struggle against the Heartshaped-herb's side effects. In the midst of battle, she faced Namor (the person she was running and being sheltered from) head on, powerfully murmuring, "for the queen."

Even at the end, Riri remarks that she was helping Wakanda clean up her mess. So yes, she did place a fair amount of blame on herself.

I loved to think and touch on Riri's psyche. It helped me garner more appreciation for her character. The way that she still stepped up to the plate and strived to make herself useful was admirable. The way she didn't cave and still retained with a degree of warmth-lightheartedness after the hell she went through is astonishing.

I can't wait to see her spread her wings and gain her name in Ironheart.