#she would not support nor relate to any of these psychopaths

[ladygreene13]

I am yet again begging yall to keep Sansa's name out of hotd discourse 😭 please stop comparing my girl to alicent or any of these deranged mfs, they are NOT the same

[cienie-isengardu]

Erron Black. Arguably a character I don't know much about. Is Erron Black feminist, sexist, or just soft on girls? Now I know MK everyone can fight everyone, but in story mode...

In MK10 Milenna impale his hand with a knife, but he doesn't fight her. I'll except injury for that one.

But then with Cassie Cage later, he fights her, only after she engages him, but once he knocks her down he stops fighting her to fight Kung Jin in the market.

Later on the bridge fight, we do see him fighting Jacqui Briggs, in the background, but she charged him, so she initiated it, and when they focus in he is fighting Kung Jun again.

In MK11, when young Erron Black goes after Jade and Kotal, he let's Jade leave without so much as a glance.

In the Black Dragon fight pit, even though she is right next to him, he ignores Sonya Blade until she actually attacked him. He doesn't even point the other gun at her, he points it up and looks away, until she punches him.

The only time it looks like he initiated a attack on a woman was when Sheeva got shot in her shoulder armor (and shrugged it off), but we immediately see him chasing down Nightwolf, so that looks like a accident. And they only fight after she punches him across the room.

And in the comic's when he kidnapped Cassie and Jacqui he defended them against Kano, telling him not to hurt them, and when he realized they were in serious danger, tried to free them and help escape.

Unless I'm missing something, well he doesn't avoid it, he doesn't fight initiate fights with women.

Before I will talk at length about Erron Black and his attitude toward women I wish only to emphasize this is my subjective opinion and there is no need to agree with me on this. Because no matter how much source material will be brought into discussion, there are many ways to interpret his mindset, especially since A) what Erron says is not always compatible with what he is doing and B) the specific game mechanics that limit and/or adapt his “personality” to the needs of the storyline.

Long text ahead!

Mortal Kombat X’s stated Erron Black was hired by Shang Tsung 150 years ago. So he was born and raised at least the previous century and half, thus his approach to women may be old-fashioned but I wouldn’t say he was somehow deeply concerned per se about gender to begin with. Yes, the mentioned examples suggest otherwise but their context is as important as Erron’s action alone. Because the context of the game will not always work well with in-universe logic. I’m talking here stricte about game mechanics that are built around chapter’s main hero that must win against the opponents and in the mentioned examples Erron was sadly just an obstacle to beat down so it is not like he could headshot Mileena, Sonya or Sheeva or any woman and be done with the problem despite how marksmanship is his forte. Also, the game mechanic in MKX kinda made me joke that Erron shouldn’t be left on his own for too long because his competence in those chapters seemed that bad (from Outworld’s main cast only D’Vorah looked to me as a competent character and she was a traitor, that says a lot about Kotal’s team doesn it?). Anyway, on the basis of the specific nature of the game alone I wouldn’t go so far to judge Erron’s mindset, especially since he was a background/supportive character in MKX and MK11 story modes. So far, Black didn’t have his own chapter - thus the story isn’t told from his POV.

To be honest, games and comics present Erron in different lights, thus his approach to women may vary from one source to another. Because of that let’s firstly look at the sources separately.

In MKX, on Kotal’s voiceless order, Black was going to kill Rain. Mileena attacked Erron by surprise before he could shoot down the rebel but it was Kotal’s chapter so the emperor was the one that dealt with her. Erron was part of the background during chapter 2 without any impact on the story.

Then we have chapter 4 about Kung Jin.

When Cage Team met Erron Black for the first time, the man demanded to know what is Special Forces’ business here including “a reason why we shouldn’t kill you”. Despite the not so friendly welcome, Erron was willing to address Takeda’s remark (“I can read you… You’re not from Outworld.”) and did not resort to violence once Cassie’s explanation did not satisfy him. Looking at the uncertain situation of Outworld, Erron’s lack of trust is understable - Kotal was still at war with Mileena thus in constant danger. Of course, it is up to interpretation, did Erron listen to Jin solely because the prospect of money spoke to him so much or there is some bias (thus the cynical remark about Raiden’s seal and dismissive attitude) against Cassie, the woman in charge. I personally tend to think Erron was simply cautious because the last Earthrealm that got close to Kotal tried to kill the emperor. And yeah, Kano is nothing like Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda or Jin but there was no way for Black to know that for sure, especially since Outworld and Earthrealm weren’t really at the best terms at that time and Raiden’s name did not foreshadow anything good.

The next sequences may be interpreted as Erron being soft on women but I’m gonna present here different possibilities:

Once Jin went ahead to disrupt the execution, Erron’s first reaction was to shoot him yet Black took aim instead of shooting blindly without care for the crowd (or at least the slow down of his action is how it looked to me). Because he was focused on Jin - the main culprit whose action caused unwanted riot, Cassie easily stopped the attack. Should Erron be more focused on the female soldier at his side? Most likely, but all of this happened in mere seconds so I can understand why stopping Jin acting on his own accord was priority to the mercenary since it was related to his job and he was the one that agreed to take Earthrealmians to Kotal. Which may be the reason why Black just knocked down Cassie and immediately ran after Jin. And mind you, Erron knocked down Cassie by hitting her on the head with the butt of the pistol, which is not a gentle way by no means.

The chapter 6 is focused on Takeda and partially on Cage Team’s run from captivity. The Earthrealmians were important hostages, even if falsely accused of working with D’Vorah. So it makes sense that “Outworld Champions” weren’t trying to kill them. Otherwise Kung Jin would be shot down for good yet Erron kept him just at gunpoint. Once again, the game mechanics don’t make much sense considering how Jin stayed behind as air support but somehow ended up on the bridge while Jacqui disappeared somewhere in the background. Also, the same as with Cassie in Chapter 4, Erron did not kill defeated opponents nor tortured / injured for fun (Rain is a different matter because Erron went for killing only after Kotal’s voiceless order to finish the traitor).

In Chapter 11, Erron is even more degraded into a support role and he did not attack nor take part of the skirmish in the forest until Jacqui beat down Kotal. Personally I suspect he could be (in universe) too injured for hand to hand combat but once Team Cage was surrounded and Kotal gave the order for execution, Erron was aiming at Jacqui and if Sub-Zero did not show up, Black most likely would shoot to kill.

(Also, he did not shoot any enemy from a distance, so the women and men were treated the same although if this is a matter of game mechanics or Erron’s own moral code, hard to tell. Black recognized himself more as Outworlder than anything else so he may actually follow the common there idea of one on one fight.)

So, MKX story mode alone does not tell us much about Erron’s mindset about women because he has never been the one starting fights in the first place. This kinda makes sense since he is a mercenary and kills or injures only those who Kotal wishes to see dead or punished. Besides that he didn’t injure / kill Cassie when he had a chance but he didn't do so with Jin either. MKX!Erron gives the impression of a collected, detached type of person who is far from macho stereotypes or psychopath/sociopath like Kano.

Thankfully there is additional information like dialogue intros and Erron’s ending (from what we learned about Erron's approximate age) that aren’t canon per se but at least give some insight into his psyche.

The best counter argument for eventual Black’s habit of going easy on women is his own ending in which he ambushed and killed Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda and Jin (this situation was repeated in Briggs’ ending except this time Cage Team was saved by Jax). This is a rare moment in which Erron was the attacker and on his own initiated the violence toward others. In this case, he attacked women and men alike.

Then we have intro dialogues in which Erron usually deals with people in a professional manner, some even sometimes addressing in a polite way. Like “Mr. Kung” to Lao, “Mr. Hasashi” to Scorpion and “Mr. Takahashi” to Takeda. Surprisingly, he addresses Cassie and Sonya by their military rank (Sergeant Cage and General Blade respectively) which suggests that whatever Erron learned a century or two ago about gender-related social norms most likely evolved accordingly to his own life experiences, especially those gained in Outworld.

At the same time, it seems some of outfashioned - harmful - convictions are still enough deeply rooted in him to say stuff like that:

Kenshi: The friendless wanderer.

Erron Black: Least I don't take orders from a woman.

Kenshi: Which century are you from?

Which is kinda ironic since Kenshi takes orders from Sonya whom Erron addresses by high military rank without any snide comment about a woman in the army. But as far as I managed to check the intros, this is the only(?) one outright sexist thing Erron said to anyone and surprisingly, he didn’t say that to any woman, just to Kenshi. Frankly, if the idea of taking orders from women was so offensive, why would Erron bother to call Mileena the Crownless Queen or Kitana the Fallen Princess, if both titles by itself imply facing women that are used to give commands or even hire people like him? Once again, there is little to no sexist attitude toward women in context of their power over other men. Which suggests that whatever prejudices Black may have, he does not allow them to affect his interaction with other characters. Usually, at least.

Okay, the insult toward Kenshi could be some of Erron’s deep-seated sexist beliefs adding to the reason why he didn’t support Mileena in the fight for the throne. Yet, at the same time, if that was the case, he could outright say he doesn’t agree to be bossed by a woman to her (or he could be accused of that by her or any character really). Of course, it could be something similar to Black’s claim to care only about money with MK11 strongly hints he is saying one thing and doing differently but I will come back to this topic in a moment.

Another argument against this insult: Erron was one of the characters that did not mock Mileena’s look, origin or called her crazy. If he really thought listening to women's orders was so bad, then he didn’t show that when interacting with her or other female characters.

At the same time, like many other male characters, Black is not immune to the beauty of women around him and some of his comments sounds disrespectful and are unwelcome by the ladies:

Sonya: The gunslinger.

Erron Black: I could take you away from all this.

Sonya: I must be a jerk-magnet.

→ Sonya is not amused by Erron’s words at all.

Erron Black: Hello, beautiful.

Jacqui: Messin' with the wrong girl.

Erron Black: But it feels so right.

Jacqui is like the only one woman described by MKX!Erron as the beautiful one, the other he usually referred to along the lines of hot / sexy. Yet once Jacqui outright warned him to not mess with her, Erron deliberately ignored her because it amuse him. Whatever it is a sign of an old-fashioned mindset (a remnant of the times he grew up) or just simply (male’s) egoism on his part, Erron likes to flirt with women but he does not always respect their opinion or wish to be left alone.

At the same time, Erron rarely tried to change women’s minds about him or their eventual relationship. So far, only the intro dialogue with Kitana seems to be the exception:

Kitana: Stop!

Erron Black: We've barely begun, my lovely.

Kitana: It will end quickly.

Black may put his own amusement above other people's personal comfort, yes, but didn’t act creepy like Kano did, especially toward Blade-Briggs-Cage family as a whole.

So we have this

Jacqui: I really don't like you.

Erron Black: I really don't care.

Jacqui: As long as we're straight on that.

in which Erron doesn’t care for Jacqui’s dislike of his person but doesn’t impose himself on her. He does not resort to the common rapist “excuse” that woman says no but her body says otherwise, like Kano did (“Your mouth says Kano, but your eyes say Kan-yes.”) and this contrast puts Black in a more positive light. Similar thing happened in the intro dialogue toward Tanya.

Erron Black: My friend, Tanya.

Tanya: We are not friends, bounty hunter.

Erron Black: Have it your way...

Again, whether trying to be friendly or ironic, once Erron was “turned down”, he simply accepted the situation without any additional crude remarks.

Interestingly, interaction with Sonya showed that Black was capable of rethinking his statement about hot/sexy women:

Erron Black: Girls with guns? Always hot.

Sonya: I'll shove 'em up your ass and fire.

Erron Black: Almost always hot.

Those examples suggest Erron may treat women differently, depending on their “fighting experiences”, age and origin and maybe even how sexually / aesthetically appealing they are to him. For example, veteran Sonya’s threat was taken seriously while (novice / new generation) Jacqui’s warning was ignored. At the same time, the intro dialogues didn’t hint at any romantic or sexual interest in Ferra (a young female symbiote) nor D’Vorah (Kytinn) and relatively good looking Mileena who deserves a separate paragraph.

To be honest, Erron, Johnny and Kano are like the main three men openly showing their (sexual?) interest in women around them. Understable, Black’s flirting / comments rarely were appreciated yet he still was less creepy or aggressive towards others than Kano. Erron didn’t bother to hide his eventual (sexual) interest in beautiful women but it can’t be said A) he had no control over his sexual drive and B) has rapist / sexual predator tendencies.

Another interesting thing: with few exceptions like Kano or Quan Chi, Erron threatened people with violence usually after they offended him and most of the time maintained professional neutrality toward his rivals. In that regard, Erron treated other characters the same regardless of their gender.

This is something worth keeping in mind how Black, as mercenary, in general is not the initiator of violence. Unless someone will pay him. For money, Erron would attack (kill) anyone, including women (to Tanya, “The Kahn wants your head.” + Erron’s Epilogue).

The last detail to talk about: one of the intro dialogue with Cassie suggests Erron thought she was an easy opponent.

Cassie: Is something funny?

Erron Black: I'll win this easy.

Cassie: You're going down hard.

but to be fair, he thought the same about Sub-Zero

Erron Black: You're an easy target.

Sub-Zero: As are you.

Erron Black: Bullets beat snowballs any day.

so I wouldn’t say it was the bias toward Cassie because of her gender and just Erron’s own arrogance (and maybe lack of good judgement on his part).

In summary, MKX!Erron in game alone tends to act in a professional manner. He had an occasion to shoot defeated opponents but did not seize the opportunity against not only Cassie but Jin as well. During the storyline he was rather collected, emotionless. In intro dialogues he openly expresses his interest in tough, relatively attractive women yet the banter is far from the creeping tone of Kano’s interaction with female characters.

Then we have Mortal Kombat 11 in which past and future timelines are messed up. Sadly, Erron’s characterization departs from the neutral-polite one seen in the previous game. Of course, this could be blamed on the younger version of Erron, but frankly, twenty years for someone living at least for a century and half shouldn’t make that big difference in behaviour and well, MK11 outright claims Erron is prone to violence for violence’s sake instead of just money. Which is one of many plot-holes and divergences between both games I guess.

Anyway, Erron, again, was the background character to beat down, so it is worth remembering that he couldn’t permanently hurt or kill anyone from the main cast. In chapter 2 he let Jade get away when he was facing Kotal and frankly, there is little explanation for that in-universe wise. I personally suspect it may be related to Erron’s own sense of honor, as in respecting one on one fight without cheap moves like shooting someone’s beloved person. Not practical in the mercenary job but it is possible for someone born and raised around two centuries ago. Also, Shao Kahn’s anger was focused mainly on killing Kotal for taking the throne. Because of that Erron could be not interested in Jade who simply did not have any significant political matter at that time. Sadly, it is really hard to say for sure what was on his mind.

In chapter 6, past!Erron stormed the Special Forces Base alongside Black Dragon members. There were women in that group but sadly, Black did not interact with anyone beside Johnny Cage. We can at least assume, Black did not mind fighting side by side with women.

Similary, present!Erron in chapter 7 showed up in the background during the alliance attack on Coliseum. The attack was led by Kitana (albeit did Erron join her to save Kotal out of loyalty or for money, it was not explained) and there were female fighters in the group. It seems then Erron does not mind fighting side to side with women.

During the pit fight (chapter 8), past!Erron faced the past!Sonya and the past!Johnny. Frankly, the same as in the previous chapter, game mechanics make little sense because there was no real reason for Erron to open the ring and face the characters when he could simply shoot down both from a safe distance. This really undermines the whole point of Black being a gunslinger, isn’t it?

Anyway, Cage took the forward position (which I think is both because despite his injuries he tried to shield Sonya AND because he actually met Erron during an attack on a Special Forces’ base) and got shot in the arm. After a short skirmish, Erron knocked down Johnny and aimed to kill the injured man.

The most logical thing for Erron in this situation would be to shoot down Sonya first and then finish already beaten down and exhausted Johnny. In defense of the Black though it is worth emphasizing that he didn’t completely ignore Blade nor turned away from her.

Most likely the weird slow-down action of aiming at Johnny was a moment of distraction that Sonya simply used to attack. Similar to MKX, game mechanics do not allow Black to headshot the main heroes, even though, in-universe, he should do just that and be done with the job. There is also a possibility that past and present Kano still wanted to keep Sonya alive for their own amusment (torture and sadly most likely rape) what could explain why Erron didn’t shot her from safe distance. I mean, the game alone did not voice what Kanos really ordered Erron to do.

I know that MK games like to slow down action for dramatic effects, but I strongly believe it was actually a matter of a few seconds of distraction (Erron looking aside to shoot Johnny and aiming) that Sonya took advantage of rather Black ignoring her on purpose. Even more since Black did not hesitate to shoot at her and seemed to enjoy facing “the legendary” Sonya Blade.

The same as MKX, Mortal Kombat 11 does not explain Black’s mindset. He does not shoot Jade or Sonya when he has a chance but he does not make any rude remarks toward women in general. However the intro dialogues shed a light on the complicated relationship that Erron has with women.

From what we learn about Erron, his childhood was far from normal or safe. We don’t know details, but what he shared with Cetrion and Cassie strongly suggest that Erron’s both parents were abusive people:

Cetrion: You shot your own father, Erron Black.

Erron: Sonofabitch had it coming.

Cetrion: Honor thy parents, mortal!

or

Erron: My Ma would’ve loved you, Cassie Cage.

Cassie: Aw, sounds like you miss her bunches.

Erron: I hated Ma.

or

Erron: I grew up around tough women.

Cassie: Didn’t they teach you respect?

Erron: They taught me to hit back.

The last statement suggests young Erron was abused by women (most likely including his own mother) to the point he is now willing to hit back anyone regardless of their gender without remorse. Erron himself says “I ain't above shootin' a lady” (intro dialogue vs. Sonya).

Beside that, an abusive mother alone could influence Black’s approach to women - and most likely she did, since he admitted to hate her. Surprisingly, Erron uses the past tense (“I hated Ma”) so there is a chance he gained distance over time in that matter. It also seems like whatever he feels about mother usually doesn't affect his relationship with other female characters. For example, in the mentioned banter he did not insult Cassie for reminding him about the abusive parent. Despite the bad childhood intro dialogues hint Black actually likes dangerous women.

Erron Black: I stepped out with Nitara before you.

Skarlet: You clearly have a type, Erron.

Erron Black: Just like living dangerously.

Like in the previous game, Erron openly shows his (sexual) interest in various women. The interesting change however is how:

His interest extends now to more alien-looking female characters like Nitara or Sheeva. Surprisingly, Mileena’s advances are still rejected. Also, Erron has like zero respect for the goddess Cetrion but to be honest, he does not respect any god.

Erron is more disrespecting by using nicknames like Legs or Baby Doll for Sonya or Sugar for Cassie. Of course, it may be just the “charm” of younger Black - hard to tell in most cases which version is speaking - but it creates an overall feeling of ironic, at times irritating or insulting approach to female fighters. At the same time, there are women that Erron refers to in a rather consistently respectful manner - Jacqui (Miss Briggs, Little Lady), Jade (ma’am, missy), Kitana (Princess, Kahn).

Before I will focus on the complex situation with Mileena, I need to talk about Erron’s important trait: he often says one thing but does the opposite. This is especially noticeable in intro dialogues concerning money and loyalty. Both games agree the main motivation for Black is a good payment, albeit MK11 highline also the thrill of danger. Anyway, Erron admitted he is willing to betray Kotal, a current employer, if someone offered a better deal (“Until a better offer comes along.”, “There's always a better offer, Kotal”). This strengthens the impression Black cares only about himself yet he rejects all propositions coming from Kotal’s enemies such as Shao Kahn, Rain or Mileena, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Kano/Black Dragons. At the same, he is willing to work with/ for Kitana who happens to be the best friend of Jade, Kotal’s beloved. Which makes Erron still operate in a group wishing no harm to the ex-emperor.

I’m bringing this into discussion because there is strong possibility that under the tough guy act, Erron still follows some “old-fashioned” sense of morality and is decent enough to not attack or harm women (and in my opinion, people in general) unless A) it is part of the job or B) is self-defense. Which could explain why he let Jade walk away or why he didn’t shoot Sonya from a safe distance but faced her in hand to hand combat. Depending how long he lived in Outworld, he could simply adapt into local customs - the people of Outworld are a combat-focused society and because of that have a strong sense of honor code. Erron’s eventual softness toward female fighters would get him in serious problems and I doubt he could afford such weakness when serving Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn.

So, why did Erron not want to serve Mileena, the designated successor? As the Empress, she was in position to offer the best (materially wise at least) deal after all.

In MKX!banter Erron claims Kotal paid him better:

Mileena: You aided the usurper.

Erron Black: He offered more coins.

Mileena: ...and no protection.

Meanwhile, MK11!Black outright says it was not a matter of money but of Mileena’s behaviour. Considering how prone to violence she was, it is no wonder why Erron decided to work for someone else.

Erron Black: Now what's got you all rip-snorting mad?

Mileena: When I gained the throne, you abandoned it.

Erron Black: Wasn't no pay worth dealing with your crazy.

This brings me back to the MKX’s banter suggesting Erron may dislike being bossed by women. Considering the implication he is currently negotiating a proper deal with Kitana Kahn (“New Kahn, same deal?”), the problem is more complex than judging someone by gender alone. I mean, Erron worked for Shao Kahn who himself was a cruel tyrant so sadism shouldn't be anything new for Black, right? Except, he was hired by Shang Tsung and because of that I think it is highly possible Erron had just indirect contact with the Emperor. Thus Erron could be not ready for Mileena’s unstable nature(?) and cruelty.

I mean - Erron comes from a pathological family and grew up around tough women. In his opinion Cassie has some traits or behaves in a way for which his mother would’ve liked the girl. So there are certain things that Black connects to hated mother. Now, Cassie is more of an extrovert type of person, showy and with sharp ripostes but she is one of the good guys and cruelty for fun is not her thing. So, if someone like Cassie can somehow make him think of a hated parent (that most likely is dead for decades now), how much Mileena could trigger Erron in the wrong way? To the point he chooses his mental health over money and/or thrill of danger?

If this is true, we may further wonder if bad experiences with tough women in childhood are the reason why despite flirtatious nature, Erron’s interest in female fighters usually is strictly sexual attraction? Because it really looks like he does not try to emotionally connect with women. Even his “thing” with Skarlet seems to be more a matter of thrill than a serious relationship, considering how Erron was okay with her eventual death.

(The possibility of Erron being freaked out by Mileena also rises an interesting question about her mental state between MK9 and MKX)

This is why I think Erron did not have a problem with working for women as long as they did not remind him too much of past abuse. And this is pretty nice implication, considering how tough guy Erron is for most of the time.

Because of that, Kotal questioning if Erron is jealous of Jade could be read in different way too:

Erron Black: So, you and Jade, huh?

Kotal Kahn: Jealous, Erron Black?

Erron Black: She's quite the looker, Kotal.

And yeah, Erron brings this to the matter of appearance alone, but hopeful as I proved earlier, Erron sometimes says one thing but does (thinks) something totally different. Because of that I suspect he may not be really jealous of Kotal for having a sexy lady but actually of the relationship itself. You know, build on respect and love than just build on sexual drive.

Like I said before, the game cutscenes and character banters may be interpreted in many ways but for me MK11!Erron Black - at least the older version - seems to mask his trauma and/or complex nature of his relationship with women under the act of tough guys. At the same time, there is a high possibility he still follows an out-fashioned sense of honor and though he is not above shooting women, he does not attack them unless it is demanded. Though to be fair, in my opinion this is how he approaches everyone. A mercenary’s mindset that distinguishes him from the likes of Kano.

In Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermatch, Erron met Sheeva, when the Shokan Queen in the company of Fujin, Nightwolf and Shang Tsung carried a coffin to the Soul Chamber. Black and Baraka decided to confront the Shokan woman and it quickly turned into a fight (and the typical game mechanics).

There is a question though - did Erron really take Kitana's offer or did he stay with Kotal? Because it’s really suspicious that he happened in the place where defenless, injured Kotal was in the healing process. Anyway, whatever the case, Black directly or indirectly worked for the new Kahn so it is highly possible his actions were dictated by Kitana’s best interest rather than his liking or disliking anyone.

Let’s just look at the situation - Kitana is the empress but she promised to treat her allies as her equals. That means Sheeva, as well respected Shokan Queen, plays an important role in the new regime - killing her or permanently injuring was out question, otherwise Shokan people could rebel against Kitana and in result the freshly established peace would go straight to hell.

In my opinion, this is why Erron asked Sheeva’s group to go with them quietly so the situation could be explained to Kitana without unnecessary violence. Black actually was okay with Sheeva go to Soul Chamber as long as Shang Tsung (Shao Kahn’s sorcerer) and the suspicious coffin was returned to him. Thanks to Shang Tsung, one of Tarkatan warrior died and thus the situation got out of hand. It makes sense Erron was more focused on Shang Tsung (hated by Kitana), Nightwolf (whose current self is revenant) and Fujin than on Sheeva who, potentially, was protected by political immunity.

When the Shokan Queen beat down Baraka, Erron in my opinion did not try to hurt her, only fired a warning shot. Maybe to make sure Sheeva will not kill Baraka (another important leader whose support Kitana needed to uphold the peace in Outworld). The Earthrealmers on other hand were another matter. Maybe Erron was too trusting or too reckless to not pay more attention to Sheeva or simply didn’t really think she was the traitor. It was after learning she is trying to resurrect Kitana’s evil mom - a dangerous, not consulted with Empress decision - Erron faced Sheeva in hand to hand combat.

Not much to analyse here, especially not with limitations of game mechanics yet I strongly believe Erron’s course of action was dictated by political situation and Kitana Kahn’s best interest so killing or seriously injuring Sheeva could be out of question. Also, like I said previously, Black is rarely the aggressor, what I believe is related to his mercenary’s mindset.

The last source, Mortal Kombat X comics series, requires a little clarification: I treat it as a potentially additional insight into Erron’s psyche than any real canonical material. Partially due to many plot-holes but also because of overwhelming violence used for violence’s sake alone. That said, here what happens:

Earthrealm (Special Forces) and Outworld (Kotal Kahn) weren’t on the best terms. To help Kotal, Erron and Black Dragons kidnapped young (under 21 years old) Cassie and Jacqui and took them to Outworld. During the journey through the dangerous jungle, girls tried to run away but got hurt in the process by Kano. Erron openly talked against brutal treatment of prisoners.

Looking at the difficult situation of Kotal, it was in Erron’s best interest to keep Cassie and Jacqui in one piece. Otherwise the whole plan would fail and then Kotal would be forced to deal with really pissed off Sonya Blade. And that would take a bad turn for Black himself. But like I said earlier, the tough guy act could also cover Erron’s more empathic nature that in the mercenary world was seen as a weakness to exploit. I personally think he did not like torturing people if that was unnecessary but also that he would have spoken against it even if Cassie and Jaquie were boys.

Then the Red Dragons attacked to take over hostages.

(Once again, a tough guy act with the “girls are Kotal’s property” as in cover up his worries about the situation or his true mindset, or mix?)

When the fight started, Erron went to tied hostages:

One one hand, Erron needs the girl to stay alive and not be taken by the enemy. On the other hand, he does not promise them safety nor ask them to run away. He is freeing them so the two girl (both under 21 years old) will fight against experienced criminals armed with swords and other dangerous stuff. This is actually an interesting detail, because it suggests Erron thought Cassie and Jacqui had a chance against thugs or that at least that way they wouldn't be a burden to him.

Jacqui punched him and Erron, either was taken by surprise or did not want to hurt her, was “saved” by Kano. And then betrayed by the Black Dragon leader.

Kano’s worlds raise a question, how much Erron is driven by the money and how much he uses the tough guy act to actually hide his unwanted “vulnerability” (as in, having moral sense and not being the heartless psychopath like Kano).

My general conclusion about Erron is that, for a side character he has a really complex relationship with women around him. I strongly believe that Erron sticks to some old fashioned sense of honor that mixes well with a mercenary's mindset. Thus rarely he is the one attacking first. This most likely influences his interaction with female fighters but at the same time, Outworld is not a place where people are judged by gender but for their skills and powers. So, Erron living there for decades for sure got influenced by that mindset to some degree.

I would not call him a feminist - not because he couldn’t be one but for lack of proper material to analyse. Feminism has many shades but in the most general sense is about establishing the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Erron does not show much opinion on that matter and does not interact with “common” women; those truly weaker than him, disabled or anything else other than warriors, soldiers or queens. With lack of such interaction there is no chance to come to a proper conclusion.

Does Erron have a soft spot for women? It is possible but that would not stop him from hitting back or killing them if the situation called for such action. I think the safest option is just that Erron is in general a more emphatic and honorable human that he wants to admit, to not look weak or be exploited by others. In contrast to Kano, Black for sure has some moral code he follows no matter what. Even if this get him into trouble more often than not.

Hope it answers your question!

[linkspooky]

Ten Favorite Female Characters

I was tagged by @midnight-in-town​, so now I have to show them how much I love my favorite women. 

Name your favorite female characters from 10 different Fandoms and tag 10/or the amount you wish people

Tagging: @hamliet​ @amonmahboi​ @inumaqi​ @thyandrawrites​ @kaibutsushidousha​  @harostar​.. yeah, I don’t know ten people. 

Enoshima Junko 

“Hope is harmony. A just heart, moving toward the light. That is all. Despair is hope's polar opposite. It is messy and confusing. It swallows up love, hatred, and everything else.”

Junko wishes she was a psychopath. She’s spent her entire life pretending to be a crazy psychopath, because living that life is just so much more interesting than the one she’s stuck in. Enoshima Junko is just too smart for the world, and everything is too easy for her, and rather than try to dumb herself down a little bit she’s decided to knock everything else down. She’s a girl kicking down sandcastles because building them out of sand all alone is no longer doing it for her. 

Junko’s interesting because of the weird logic and loops she runs her brain into. There’s a complex character behind the whole “I exist only to spread despair” thing. She’s perfectly capable of forming emotional attachments to people, and genuinely caring. But the people she likes are generally far worse off than the ones she doesn’t care about. 

Junko wants so badly to, just not be human. She does the most inhuman things possible to prove that she’s not human. What really made me love her is the lengths she’s willing to go, to the point in Dangan Ronpa Zero where she basically took a screw to her own brain and started acting like a normal girl only when all of her memories were removed. 

Junkos relationship with Matsuda shows two conflicting sides of her character. How much she's humanized by her love of him,  and also how much she wants to completely destroy that part of herself. It's like she physically can't be a normal girl. Or rather she doesn’t want to be to such extremes she’ll break everything and then herself. 

And if she can’t be normal than Junko decided that self destruction is her next best bet. There’s just nothing that will satisfy Junko, and it’s interesting to watch someone that empty decide the world is going to end, or she’s going to end herself and she doesn’t really care which. 

Ajimu Najimi

“Call to me with affection, Anshin’in-san. Well, I don’t really care what manga characters call me.” 

Hey, I put Junko on this list twice. Both Ajimu and Junko live in a world that is too easy for them, and therefore they have no reason to get emotionally invested in others or try to attach themselves to anything. Which is why it’s fun to see Ajimu attempt the same thing as Junko to kill herself in style and eventually get saved from herself.

Medaka Box is such a meaningful manga to me because they take the weirdest characters and no matter how deranged they are they find the parts of them that are relatable and go, well guess what you’re human too. Ajimu literally calls herself a non-human and she’s just as human as all the rest in the end. 

The best part is it’s not her good points that make her human, it’s all her flaws. It’s easy to feel like the world isn’t real, that nothing in the world is worth living for, to feel no emotional attachment. Those are all human emotions. Not because they’re good and shining, but because they’re petty and terrible. Ajimu is this brilliant character, but she’s also kind of just a petty little girl using a ‘fiction is reality’ lens to cope. She’s not that special actually, she’s just suicidal, and kind of awful in general. It’s nice to see that human side behind the mastermind character. 

Azula

“My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right of course but it still hurts.” 

Azula is someone thoroughly dehumanized by everyone even the “good” members of her family (Uncle Iroh, Zuko, her Mother). I like how Azula in some part seems to be aware that both her brother, and mother seem to kind of consider her the “bad sibling” and she just decides to embrace it. Like it’s... not emotionally healthy in any way and it’s terribly tragic but there’s something about characters who actively make the decision to be a monster that gets me. 

There’s something about Azula’s writing that makes me uncomfortable, and it makes me sad that Zuko like... continually associates her with his father’s abuse, and demonizes her like she wasn’t also a kid going through the exact same situation, but Azula getting increasingly unstable is at least an appropriate response to that. 

Even if her brother, her mother, or her father won’t see her as her own person and they all see her as an extension of her father’s abuse on her, Azula is just so determined to be her own person even if it means burning the world, or herself A common theme I guess, but a lot of these characters have narratives about not being allowed to be their own person or shown any kind of humanity or normalcy. 

Morrigan

“Well, well, well what do we have here?”

Morrigan is mean, and nasty, and grumpy and bitchy and witchy. She’s allowed to be unlikable, because Morrigan never bends to anyone. Her survival, and freedom will become first before anything else. 

It feels like Morrigan is the main character in her own story, and you just happen to be a part of it for a short while. You may even be an important character to her, she may be attached, but ultimately you’ll never be more than support to her. 

Morrigan is such an ambitious an singular entity that her character development is letting you be a part of her life and not the other way around. She'll always survive on her own.  Morrigan is irrevocably shaped by her environemnt, and yet she craves freedom in that too because she doesn’t want to be bound by her past or shaped by her mother. So much of herself is dedicated to being better than the environment that she was raised in that she defeats her mother not by killing her, or freeing herself, but rather by being a better mother than her. 

Raven / Rachel Roth

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos...” 

Raven is fun, because a bunch of monks thought the best way to teach her to handle her emotions was to never allow her to feel any emotion ever. So, Raven is eternally running on a zero. She’s terrified even a small amount of happiness will end the world. She’s not allowed to be her own person, neither her bastard father, nor the monks treat her like one.

Raven is so gentle, and selfless, and emotionally perceptive and sensitive to others needs but she can’t ever display almost any of these good traits because she’s internalized the idea that she’s such a bad person. She always believes all the time that she exists to hurt others and that makes it so difficult for her to connect to others. 

Which is why her true friends bond with the Teen Titans is so meaningful, because Rachel found a family in spite of all of that. She has friends who think she’s a good person unconditionally despite the fact that Raven continually tells herself she isn’t. There are people in the world willing to navigate the maze of walls that Raven has built around herself, and that her environment forced her to build and closed up, and she’s so happy to have them. 

Midna

“Some call our realm a world of shadows, but that makes it sound so unpleasant... The twilight there holds a serene beauty... You have seen it yourself as the sun sets on this world. Bathed in that light, all the people were pure and gentle...” 

Midna just steals the show. Her story now. The game’s not called Legend of Zelda anymore now it’s Legend of Midna. Not only is she the most important character in the game she appears in, but she’s also in character someone so selfish she’ll always prioritize herself over everyone else. However, only because she feels that she can’t exist as anything other than the princess of the twilight and has to prioritize her survival for the sake of her people. Midna even says so at the start of the game, she can’t be kind because she wasn’t spoiled like princess Zelda in the bountiful kingdom of the light. 

Midna is so selfish and yet doesn’t really have her own wants and needs as a person outside of the role she has to play for her people, which is why she’s so terribly lost without it and just because this terrible selfish little gremlin. Link and Zelda affect Midna so much because they humanize her. They both sacrifice themselves to save Midna the person and she doesn’t get why. She doesn’t get why two people would help someone who has been so unkind to them and who has failed them this much so far. 

That act of selflessness moves her, and also freaks her out. She even says she didn’t want to be saved by either of them. Which is what makes her redemption in the second half of the game so interesting, because Midna really improves herself so she can become someone worth their kindness. She doesn’t want the selflessness of people like Zelda and Link to go to waste, and because of that begins to care about things outside of her kingdom and her role as princess 

Vriska Serket

“After all of this is over. Do you want to go on a d8?”

Unfortunately one of my top 3 favorite characters of all time comes from a really terrible source material. Vriska is everything I like in a character.  She's a mess. She's really hard to swallow. She's a character that's not meant to be liked.

Nobody really likes Vriska and it's all her fault for being such a horrible person, nobody wants her damage. Which is so interesting because usually main characters get forgiven over and over again. Everyone leaves and if they don't Vriska will burn those bridges herself. No character better embodies what it's like to be stuck in a self harming cycle

Authors are always so obsessed with making characters look good or showing what a good person they are few characters are allowed to be just plain unlikely in ugly ways. It’s what lets Vriskas genuine desire to be better actually seem like a struggle. 

Kocho Shinobu

“Are you angry? Yes, I’m angry Tanjiro. I’ve always been angry.” 

Shinobu is just all pleasantries on the surface, but so full of negative emotions in ways women aren't allowed to be. I love the medicine / poison dynamic to her character and how it rots her to the core. Too much medicine is a poison, while poison can be a medicine when applied to the right situation.

Shinobu is, two faced. She’s beautiful and kind, and full of ugly emotions and empty. She nurses people back from the dead, she sees no point in living herself and purposefully throws herself into a suicide in her plan against Doma. There’s just such a destructive dance between extremes for her because Shinobu is such a unique individual, trying to deal with all of these emotions she just can’t deal with. She can’t be noble, or better than her trauma, she just pretends to be a good person while she slowly rots away inside.  

Shinobu can put on smiles all day -

But she can't be like her sister.  She can't love people like her sister can. Maybe she could once but all that's left now is anger. Bitter, unpleasant, and completely in denial of it and still masquerading as a good person. The most beautiful kind of poison of all.

She’s not her sister, but she’s also not really her own person. She doesn’t know who Shinobu is, doesn’t know who Kocho Shinobu lives for. She just doesn’t imagine herself living past her revenge, and even though she’s surrounded by love she’s just so cracked it all pours out of her and absolutely nothing could be worth prolonging her life after everything she’s lost. 

Toga Himiko

“What exactly is a normal life? I also live a normal life, you know.” 

Himiko Toga is a girl who lives entirely on her own terms. Which is just so rare for a female character, you know? It’s so genuinely subversive to know that Himiko was once a nice girl, who always smiled, always put other people’s feelings first, and that sort of ‘good girl’ behavior drove her completely insane.

Toga deciding to be true to herself is an act of rebellion against the world. 

For Himiko everything is flipped. What others regard as psycho behavior is her normal. She doesn’t let other people define her story as a tragedy, and even murders the one person who tries to control her story. In a story where female characters constantly downplay their own importance to support the male characters Himiko is the only character important enough to be the center of her own story. Himiko’s story is so subversive as well, both of how society treats her, and how the story treats characters like her. 

Himiko is such an excellent yandere, all yanderes wish they were himiko. She comes off as this batshit stabby girl,  but then you find out that shes actually emotionally perceptive. She first comes off selfish, bratty, and self-centered but she turns into one of the most sensitive characters in the manga. She eschews the ideals of being a good girl that was forced down her throat, but that doesn’t mean she’s not empathic, or that she’s not capable of goodness. She’s good to twice. She’s good to the people who accept her. 

Himiko no matter what will always be a deviant. Always be an outsider. Instead of trying to make room for her her parents forced her to lie and wear a mask until her identity became completely shattered. I like Toga because under the knife wielding psycho she's a normal girl. Then under that normal girl there’s also a knife wielding psycho ready to fight back, and both of them are the real her. 

Ihei Hairu

“I saw the reaper, he was very beautiful.” 

Every character from the garden is just fundamentally broken.  Hairu and Rize are interesting foils, because if you think of about it a loveless childhood turned them both into ruthless killers. It’s just they decided to live for different things, Rize lived rejecting love and Hairu lived chasing after love. However, fundamentally they are the same. They are children starved for any kind of love or nurturing.  Hairu is so desperate she devotes her entire life to the first person who acknowledged her. However, the same sort of desperation to live, that tragic need to make the most out of the few short years they have exists in all garden children.

Hairu wants so badly to be a person, but she’s not a person. She’s half ghoul. 

There's just something about a girl who was never meant to be born and never meant to live, still trying.  There's a dark side to her character, she's violent and inhuman exactly like the environment she was raised in but she was also still a child at heart seeking love.

Which is why though her narrative is a thoroughly unhappy one, it does make me happy that there was someone who loved her in the form of Koori Ui. There is someone who wanted her to live longer. Her life was short, but she did live, and it’s that struggle to connect to others that made her truly alive. 

[mcrmadness]

Madness draws: my dä fanart from when I had my (arts) comeback in 2018

For years I didn’t draw anything because of a personal (art crisis) and because I simply was studying and working so much I just had no energy left for arts.

In 2018 I was done with schools and studying and dropped out of the school I was in at that moment, and also the horse stable I was working at (school related stuff) was sold and closed its doors so also my work ended. For the first time in almost 5 years I was actually free. The longest holidays I had has was 3 weeks summer holiday in 2016, I think. I had another in 2017 but of that I actually was having health issues (nothing serious) for 2 weeks and then had to be in school for the 3rd one, after which I even got the flu.

So I was SO excited when I finally was free the first day of November in 2018. After I had got enough sleep and rest, I started to find my creativity again. And I started to “daydream” before falling asleep every night, I started to write fanfictions in my head and I started to draw, too. Partially it was also because for the first time in years I had an online friend I enjoyed talking with and we had similar interests, aka dä and Bela/Farin, and that inspired me a lot to draw even more - but unfortunately that friendship did not work out in the end and we’re no longer friends.

Anyway, most of these drawings are very much Bela/Farin related again because I talked about that a lot with this person and I often asked what they’d want to see and then drew it if the idea was something I could carry out.

This is not the first one I drew but maybe the 4th or so. I’m just putting this here first because it’s the most “innocent” aka not too much shippy stuff rubbed into the faces of my followers who don’t care about that. There’s 5 different drawings + 1 comic behind the read more link. All of these, apart from the comic, where drawn into my old sketchbook.

About the drawing above - I didn’t use pencil for these first ones at all yet, I just drew them with the fineliners as I was still a bit rusty as the last time I REALLY drew anything was in 2013 aka over 5 years ago from 2018, so I had to actually look at my old comics and drawings to even figure out how to draw these characters anymore. And I think the last actual time I drew in this style was in 2011 even. And that is very visible from the first 2018′s drawing I did! ↓↓↓

This is the one - and wait, I have an explanation!

So with this person I mentioned, we just constantly had this playful debate over whether Bela is “bottom” or not - and honestly I couldn’t care less about that because I no longer read any fanfics. I do write fanfics - or a fanfic - but only for myself and as an asexual I have never been interested in writing about certain themes so I never need to think about the whole top/bottom stuff anyway. I used to read smut before until I one day just realized it’s SO BORING and uninteresting to read, started skipping all smut scenes and wanted to read fluff but all the fluff was so quickly and badly written because everyone wanted to write smut only, that I was left with absolutely nothing to read. So it was the old story again: I started writing/drawing the stuff I wanted to read and see.

However, back to the top/bottom topic, I always base my opinions with everything over how things are in real life and with these guys, if you look at how they are in interviews and on stage, the dynamics are not just plain black&white. I’ve never seen there anything that would indicate that just one is “top” or “bottom” whatsoever which is why I kept saying imo they’re more like just switching if you listen to their jokes. Remember: I don’t read any fanfiction and don’t give a fuck about smut (lol at the pun) and honestly, even tho I understand those jokes they do and say on stage, I wish not to have any visuals about any of that “activity” in my head.

So, to support my “they switch!” opinion, I drew this, just for fun. And it is the official first drawing I did in 2018. I just needed to fire back bigger than I could do with simple text messages :D

***

Moving on. The person in question was very fascinated by the idea that Farin would be a vampire and not Bela (to support their top/bottom views...) which is why I drew this:

Also a very quick one, without sketching anything before drawing with fineliners. This and the first image of this post both are very small in real life actually, the signature is about the same size in every drawing so you can see from that that they are actually pretty small.

Talking of the signature: The funniest thing to me about this IS the signature. Because I was so rusty I didn’t even know how to write it anymore :DDD You can compare it to the signature in the other drawings because in them it’s better. Why it’s so funny to me is because it should say “Aada” but it looks more like “Hella” which means “stove” in Finnish.

***

Next one was something I saw in my head and wanted to draw - I think this one was also done without sketching it at first:

Kinda simple, right? :D I just wanted to draw something with heavy shadows and they’re meant to be watching TV at night. I guess it came out pretty okay.

***

The next two I drew based on one of my old fanfics I wrote years and years ago. I’m a bit annoyed that I decied to draw these into my SKETCHBOOK when I could have used just paper I use for drawing but I guess I didn’t know yet where I was going to end up with these and drew them into the sketchbook because of that. I thought I didn’t sketch these at first but I have found photos of these with sketched with pencil so that means I started sketching my drawings at this point.

So, back to the fanfic, it’s one of the longer ones I wrote (but still not that long even) and set to happen in the late 80s. There was some drama in the story because of Bela’s drug use and Farin was very harsh and Bela left altogether. For some time they had no idea where each of them were but then one very rainy night they both were on a walk at the same time and happened to stumble upon each other for the first time in weeks or so. I can still see those scenes so vividly in my head and here’s my artistic view over those scenes:

Yes. I love drawing stuff like BRICKS.

I have used my Promarkers with the second image, the paper was not the best for them which is why the black looks awful.

What comes to the image... it really annoys me to look at that because how the FUCK that is something I have drawn? And it’s legit based on something I have written. ME??? Like wtf. My aroace ass just can’t handle me writing/drawing fluff like this. I have days when I need to see fluff more than anything and then have to produce the content because can’t find it from anywhere else and my brain is simultaneously like “flufffff 8))))” and “boohoo whyyyyy how staaaaaph D:” because I am so afraid of being connected to what I draw. Like. If I draw or write fluff, it doesn’t mean I would be a romantic person nor allosexual nor alloromantic, right? Because I can also draw a comic or write a story about a murderer and it doesn’t make me a psychopath either. It’s the exact same thing.

And in fact: I had a comic book character who was called Micro the Insane Murderer because that’s what he was. Also I once wrote a story about a serial killer but she was also insane. But for whatever reason it’s much harder to show people fluff I have written or drawn than my fictional serial killer stuff... I guess people just easier assume that you’re an allo, thanks to anormativity, but usually don’t think you’re a psychopath just because your OC is :D

***

The last one is the comic that has a Halloween theme as it was around Halloween and the person I talked with still wanted to see/read something where Farin is the vampire instead. So here’s something that was my first B/F comic in 7 years. I didn’t remember how to do pretty much anything anymore and the coloring is a bit off, and I was really still just trying to figure out how to do all this again :D

At that point I think my head was still filled with fanfiction stuff so the comic also is full of (hurt/comfort) drama - and a long-ass “backstory”. You can see that from this on I have moved to more humorous stories. Sometimes I draw occassional fluffy comics when I’m really on that weird mood (usually 1-2 days/month thanks to the uterus and hormones), but my main focus is on the humour and I wish to make people laugh.

But that’s about it. I think I have now posted everything here, the newer ones I have posted here after drawing them since 2019 but this post is the “missing link” between those old old comics and the newer stuff :D Then I of course have all the other traditional art like potraits and such I did in 2009-2012 which I have never shown here. Maybe I should post those too?

[knarme-stray]

Researching Lucrecia’s character (bcs for real, it’s pretty interesting to take a close look at Seph’s real parents) and hmmm. I honestly feel so sad about how Sephiroth was torn away from her. :c

She does come off as the type of person who has a low self-esteem and gets pushed around and manipulated a lot. She’s also a Shinra scientist so I can assume she is very intelligent (just not emotionally/socially!). This makes me feel sympathetic of her because I think I can relate to such qualities to some extent, being knowledgeable and a huge problem-solver but being overtly naive / good-willed in social relations + having given in to bad influences and pressure out of insecurity. It doesn’t mean Lucrecia isn’t responsible though, - she is. But her character flaw is that she couldn’t put together the courage to listen to her own moral compass before it was too late to realize how Professor “We are scientists, we know what we’re doing” Hojo doesn’t give a shit about her or anyone else.

Vincent is super sweet in her story. Ya’ll would call him a simp (somewhat understandably), but I also see someone who sees the potential for good in another person and tries to encourage it. He questions Lucrecia about whether she REALLY wants to partake in Hojo’s experiments that create Sephiroth. He is not an idiot for loving someone and trying to talk sense to that someone when they’re on the wrong path.

I can’t help but feel like Lucrecia’s own story is left incomplete. Her struggle is that she lets others manipulate her into something that is against her own judgement, sacrifices his own son to science and then loses him entirely because they literally won’t even let her hold him once he’s born. I see a vulnerable person who got fucked-over by a ruthless psychopath/manipulator. One who could’ve perhaps made better choices if she had more courage and understanding.

I did come up with some HCs for her backstory based on her canon character. No, not calling it canon but IMO this is the vibe she gives! I think a lot of things about Lucrecia hint that she has never been allowed to make much choices for herself, - perhaps she was that really academically bright, but extremely sheltered child once whose family never gave her responsibility, nor expected her to be responsible for anything ever. Basically.. She had a very sexist upbringing that stripped her off her sense of personal responsibility, agency and freedom. She shows signs of learned helplessness and relying on others, even very terrible others, like Hojo, on big answers. It seems that her emotional growth is at a very stunted state; she is confused, angry and sad and then in regret, and the only way she can deal with it is by hiding herself away.

I also don’t think she had the power to do anything about Shinra taking her child away. I think Hojo talked her into thinking she’s helping bring back the “Cetra” and helping all of humanity, you know, the stuff that manipulative weirdo would say to a naive well-meaning person to make her think this experiment is a good idea. Shinra Science Department decides you can’t even hold your newborn child nor be involved in his life... What is there you can do about that? These people will actually kill you for holding any tea against them. Lucrecia must’ve been so alone, powerless, and traumatized even further in that situation.

So yeah. I can’t bring myself to hate her, nor call her a “terrible bitch who doesn’t care”. I think she is presented as an adult with a highly stunted emotional developement who got taken advantage of, and that is, if anything, painfully tragic and disgusting. I feel sorry for her. The level of sorry that I almost feel an itty bitty tear in the corner of my eye? If Lucrecia is ever brought back again, I would love to see her finding courage in herself and bonding with people who support her following her own judgement instead of manipulating her. I would love to see her story continue, because being locked inside a crystal just doesn’t come off as a satisfactory ending.

She didn’t do the right choices but I just don’t think she’s as terrible as a person as what a lot of people say she is. I actually think she came off as a well-meaning but painfully sheltered and naive individual who got ruthlessly manipulated by Hojo who’s known to give zero fucks about other people. Hojo was like, “Haha, you stupid, you do as I tell you”. I was like “no, this is sad and disgustinng, fuck you Hojo and Lucrecia pls run away when you ca--- ooh shit”.

[gra-sonas]

RosweII, New Mexico star LiIy CowIes on lsobeI's self-empowerment and fangirling over Jason Behr

The actress takes us inside her character's heartbreaking grief and trauma on the CW extraterrestrial drama.

For a town inhabited by aliens, a whole bunch of very human, very real — and heartbreaking! — drama sure does go down in Roswell, New Mexico.

On Monday's episode of the CW series, we journeyed back in time to the scene of the 1947 saucer crash that brought Max (Nathan Dean Parsons), Isobel (Lily Cowles), and Michael (Michael Vlamis) to the New Mexico small town, and we got our first glimpse of Jason Behr (who played Max on the original Roswell series) as a zealous army officer intent on capturing the recently landed extraterrestrials. While we learned more about Michael's mother's arrival on Earth and the turbulent hours that followed, back in the present Isobel was having a rough time of it herself, having chosen to attempt to end her pregnancy alone and confront her grief over the loss of her brother and basically the whole life she'd known with Noah for so many years.

We caught up with Cowles about the emotional scenes with Parsons, the bold decision to bring an abortion story line to the forefront of the episode, and bumping into her teenage crush at craft services.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Isobel is obviously carrying a lot of grief and pain this season from the loss and violations she suffered last season. How did you approach the character coming into this second season?

LILY COWLES: Halfway through the hiatus, Carina [Adly MacKenzie, series creator] and I started talking about what Isobel had been through, where she was coming from, and what we could expect to see moving forward. I was really hoping when it started, we'd be six months down the line, but no — of course that doesn't make for good television, nor does it do justice to character. So we very quickly realized we were going to be heading right back into the moment straight after. I was like, "Ooh, boy." I got a lot to take on: losing her brother, her other half, the twin that she'd had since birth, and of course having to digest the fact that her entire life had been a sham. Her marriage was a lie, to a man who had been physically and emotionally using and abusing her without her knowing about it. She'd been married to this sort of psychopath, serial killer who used her body to commit murders. How do you even begin to digest it? We talked about how Isobel was a character who had built a tremendous facade, and she was living this perfect life that looked really good on paper. It was a very carefully constructed house of cards, but it was a prison because it was all based in lies. Carina and I were looking at it and thought, "Well, the one thing that can be said is that that house of cards now has been destroyed. It's been razed to the ground." So she actually, strangely, has been given an opportunity to start again. In many ways, we were both excited to see: Who is Isobel outside of the confines of how she's defined herself? It's so painful and scary, and yet it gives her a fresh start to say, "Who am I, deep down inside?" I think that's something that everyone can relate to on some level, finding your authentic self.

It seem like a big part of Isobel's journey this season is going to be finding her own autonomy, making her own decisions, and not relying on anyone else to look after her. Can you talk about her decision to abort the baby in this episode and how that plays into her overall story arc?

Isobel is, of course, a special case because she's an alien. Her story line is largely metaphorical for a lot of people, but it's nonetheless a story that so many women can relate to: We have these bodies that other people want to control, and we have a lot of restrictions placed on our own reproductive health. It's crazy that it's still such a huge issue that women have to battle so much to be able to have autonomy over their own systems. Isobel finds herself in a position where she learns that she's pregnant and there are a lot of things at play here. One of the biggest ones is, of course, that the man who fathered this child was not who she thought he was. So there's a question of consent. It's tricky because all of these things are so shades of gray. She learns after the fact that this man had been lying about who he was. He had been manipulating her, using her body, and infiltrating her mind. It's hard to draw comparisons to a human on human, but she definitely suffered emotional, psychological, physical abuse and manipulation. Now she's dealing with a pregnancy that's come out of an abusive and traumatic relationship, and she's looking at this pregnancy as representing the legacy of that abuse and trauma. Isobel's looking at a woman's right to have it on her own terms, and these are not the terms that she agreed to, and she's very much alone.

That's a very relatable story line if you remove the alien element and just focus on how many women are alone and dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and don't have access to help.

Yes. That's a really terrifying thing. I think that's a place that many women find themselves. While Isobel's in extreme extenuating circumstances, I think this is something that many women face, and whether it's because they're under age and their families won't understand, or because they're illegal citizens and they feel that going to a hospital will compromise them and they'll be deported, or maybe they live in a state where medical assistance just isn't offered for that. This is something many women have had to really face. I think in that sense, Carina wanted to do justice to that story so women who have gone through it can see that they're not alone. Often on TV, you get to this moment and then it's like, "Oh, there was a miscarriage," or they find some way to do it without compromising the character's likability. It's so sad to me that the character's likability would be in question for having to make this kind of decision, but it's the reality that we live in. There's such a stigma. Carina wanted to say, "This character is alone, and she's making a choice to save herself." It was very bold, and I'm really honored to be a part of it.

It's an emotionally draining episode for Isobel, for sure. The scene with Max on the couch where she talks about how much she misses him but seems to come to the realization that she is the only person she can truly rely is pretty heartbreaking. How was that to shoot?

It was very challenging. Carina called me and we started talking about it and she said, "Okay, I have an idea, but I don't want you to freak out." She proposed this whole thing. My initial reaction was like, "Oh God, please don't make me," because you go through it as an actor. You put your human body through it, and you don't want to hold back. Especially with this, I felt an enormous responsibility to do justice to this story because I know it's so important to so many people. But it was rough. Every morning going to work was like walking into a war zone. You know what's coming and you're like, "Please don't make me go!" But it's such a beautiful monologue. It's heartbreaking. I lost a parent a few years ago and when I read that monologue I was just like, "Oh God." It just hits. It just rings so true. To be dealing with grief is its own miracle and monster, and that was something that was really important for me to show up for as an artist. I know that part of the human condition, that inability to move forward beyond the loss of someone.

Wow, yeah, pretty heavy stuff. I guess one bright spark in all of this was that Liz [Jeanine Mason] and Isobel are back on better terms. Will we see them team up going forward?

Yeah, something that's really beautiful about what happens to Isobel is that in the dearth of all other supportive relationships, she's going to have to learn how to be friends with the girls. Men, God bless them, can't relate as well to what she is going through as other women can. I think Maria sees it. She's got her psychic abilities and she's like, "What's going on with you?" Liz, of course, when she finds out, is like, "Why didn't you tell me?! I would have been there for you." I'm really excited that this season Isobel is going to learn how to play nice with the girls. Female relationships can be complicated, and they can be so powerful.

I'm assuming you won't have any scenes with Jason Behr since he exists in flashbacks, but how was just having the O.G. Max on set?

Such a dream. First of all, I was a huge Roswell original fanatic. I was obsessed with it. The first time I saw him was at craft services. It was lunchtime and I'm like stuffing my pockets full of all my snacks and I like look up, and it was like an angel had fallen to the earth and there he was. I don't get star-struck, but I was so awkward. I was like, "It's you!" You could tell the poor man has had to deal with this like a lot. He's like, "Yes, it's me. I know that I'm the hero of your dreams." It was embarrassing, but having him around was amazing. He's been such a huge champion of the show. We have a tradition of going out for karaoke on Saturday nights, and he came out one time. I had just recently bought this totally absurd floor-length fur vest, and he put it on and looked like Jon Snow, but sleeker. I was just like, "Is this real life?" I just wanted to tell my 12-year-old self, "Girl, wait until I tell you what is going to happen!"

Amazing. I love that so much. We should talk about the ending too with Michael's mom and the other woman who may be Isobel and Max's mom. Can you tease anything to come there? Is Isobel going to throw herself into investigating her past?

Yeah, I think you can definitely get ready for some exciting investigation into the past. Isobel is trying to figure out who she is in a sense of where's she from too and what her roots are. That's definitely a question that she's got intensely on her mind. Part of the trajectory of the season is exploring the past and trying to get some information on what happened and what went down in 1947. So we'll definitely get to know some of those characters and get to fill in a little bit of the family gaps. It's beautifully written and beautifully acted, and I'm really excited for fans to see it. I think they're going to love it.

~ EW

[hadit93]

All lives matter. But white lives are not the ones in danger nor do they face discrimination in the West. White people do not need reminding their lives matter, they take it as a given fact. Furthermore, I think it may be beneficial for people to analyse why they get angry in response to the statement that black lives matter. If all lives matter, then surely black lives matter is in support of that statement. They are not saying white lives matter less, they are saying black lives matter as well? So how can people be angry about that? Perhaps it is that sneaky kind of racism which has been indoctrinated into you from a young age by the media, by education- all the things which subtly taught you white people were superior. I can affirm this was the case in my education in Britain during the early 2000s.

This current issue is not even just about black people, it is also about police brutality which is not an issue solely relating to the American police. I live in a bad area, I’ve seen a lot of arrests of both black and white people. Personally I don’t see any difference in how the police treated them based on race- perhaps because they both live in rough areas they are both treated as scum. What I have seen is police brutality. Sly elbowing in the ribs, arresting people for nothing more than questioning police, thirteen police officers surrounding one man, police hurting people who are complying. Some police are power-hungry psychopaths, not all, but more than a few.

Speaking to black people, I know they are discriminated against by the police. Particularly if black people even dare to make an appearance in middle class areas- they are stopped more, they are suspected more, they are watched more. What is more is that the media is also not on the side of black people- their deaths are not reported as much. Their missing children are not mainstream news, despite Madeline McCann still being in the news 13 years on because she was a little white girl.

Honestly, I am disgusted in the world we live in at the moment. I am disgusted in the leader of my country. I am disgusted by the blatant denial that there is no racism in the UK. It is just factually and morally wrong to say.

I’m a white man. I’m from a working class family, I have grown up in poorer areas. I have grown up with people from various cultures and I was around black people from a young age as my mother was friends with black people. I have never seen such racism in my area as a child because everyone there was on the same level- we were all poor and at the bottom- therefore there was no way in which we could be superior to black people- the black people were OUR people. They were and are a part of OUR community and it is OUR job as non-racist white people to support the Black Lives Matter movement. The police and racist people are not attacking ‘others’ they are attacking US- there is no US and THEM divide. These people are in trouble and if you have a heart and a willing ear you would stand up with them and fight for their right to exist without fear of persecution. We ALL deserve that right, but due to their genetics those rights are often not afforded to them.

If you are offended by the statement that Black Lives Matter please unfollow me. I want nothing to do with you. I cannot comprehend another human which would willingly drag down another human for something beyond that persons control.

I’ve seen prejudice, I’ve been a victim of prejudice. It’s damaging, and its not just damaging to an individual it is a widespread damage which effects multiple communities. You are strangling people, you are placing them in chains forged out of outdated beliefs and words. It is time it ended and it is time EVERYONE comes together to end bigotry of every kind.

[travllingbunny]

AoS rewatch:  1x06 FZZT

And with this, we start that season 1 thing with spelling words in titles as if they were acronyms, though this one is only typed in capital letters but without the periods, unlike T.R.A.C.K.S.

This is the best episode of the first part of season 1, in spite of being one of the few that have no elements of the overall storyline. If all the early season 1 episodes were like this, no one would be saying anything against pre-Winter Soldier season 1. The standalone story is a great one, and it is full of important character moments and character development, Especially for Simmons and Fitz, and their relationship. This is where they stop being just comic relief supporting characters and become fully fledged characters.

Simmons later had a lot of inconsistent writing, but her characterization in this episode is perfect. It’s certainly one of her best episodes ever. We see everything from her rationality and scientific curiosity which can sometimes sound a bit creepy (”So sad a man died this way…and yet, so amazing.“), her determination and her courage and willingness to spare the others the responsibility to sacrifice her, by sacrificing herself to save everyone.

And it’s the first great FitzSimmons episode – where their relationship is in the focus and the heart of the story. There’s a lot of fun bickering, as there always is, but then we also get to see how much they mean to each other, how much Fitz is willing to risk for Jemma, and  we get the first hints he may be feeling something romantic for her.

One of the differences between Fitz and Jemma is how much is Fitz is grossed out by things like dead bodies (or  needles stuck into eyes, as in 1x04) while Simmons is cool and unaffected by them (but if she weren’t, it would be hard for her to do her job). I relate to Fitz in this case.

Simmons taunts him that he’s „afraid“ of a dead body, which angers him and he protests that he’s not afraid, just disgusted. Later, she says he was too afraid to go into the field. But when it comes to saving Simmons, Fitz is later completely unafraid to get into the lab with her and risk getting infected himself, and later wanted to jump off a plane to save her.

But before that, at the beginning of the episode, Fitz’ little crush on Skye gets its swan song as he makes a terrible attempt at hitting at her, which she doesn’t even register. She’s too busy talking about her problems with Ward – who has been ignoring her - and comparing him to her ex-boyfriend Miles, and she also has noticed the FitzSimmons chemistry before either of them have, pointing out that they are „psychically linked“. She has always been the world’s biggest FitzSimmons shipper.

Speaking of which, the ship name itself is again spoken in canon: just like the doc in the Pilot, Coulson refers to them as a single unit, „FitzSimmons“.

Fitz and Simmons’ impersonations of Ward are both terrible. Why do they make him sound like Edward James Olmos?

The only thing that feels out of place in this episode is May’s interrogation of one of the witnesses, who’s a little boy. It’s a humorous scene where she offers him a cookie, but looks completely intimidating while doing it. This doesn’t really make sense, as we know that May can be softer, and we now know that she is usually very caring with children. And scaring an already traumatized child shouldn’t be funny.

Indeed, Skye, I’m also shocked that neither Coulson nor Ward are familiar with The Big Lebowski. Well, actually, I’m not at all shocked that Ward hasn’t.

Foreshadowing: Ward: „Everyone looks clean on the first go round. Dig deeper“

At this point, I’m not sure if Ward is really still angry at Skye (I did believe he really was in 1x05, but only because he was jealous of Miles), or if he thinks that he now needs to continue his performance of being a strict, loyal SHIELD agent angered by Skye’s Rising Tide allegiance.

It’s a testament to how good this episode is, that it succeeds in making you feel for  Diaz, the firefighter about to die, a minor character who’s only been on screen for a couple of minutes. The writing and the acting is really good. This episode’s plot is so sad, because the victims are people who were heroes helping and saving others, and they died as an indirect result of that. It’s also possibly the only episode where the team isn’t dealing with any villains who intentionally caused this, but a virus and an accidental infection.

This is also one of the best episodes for Coulson. The scene where he stays with the dying firefighter as long as he can, to make it easier for him, telling him about his own death experience, is really beautiful. (We never find out if what he told him was true, or just something he said to make him feel better.) He cut off the comm with May when she tried to warn him to leave. He does something similar later when he pretends that he lost communications with Blake, because he has no intention of following the order to dump Simmons into the ocean, instead of hoping and believing that she will find the antiserum. And he openly defies Blake and the superiors’ orders at the end of the episode, even replying „Let them try“ when he’s threatened with SHIELD taking the team away from him. (I don’t know how Fury felt about Coulson disobeying his orders – but maybe he liked it, because, after all, he also disobeyed orders that he deemed to be stupid ass orders, like being told to bomb New York.) In spite of the many ways in which the later seasons improved the show, one of the things I’m sad about is that this humane, always compassionate season 1 Coulson was kind of lost, as he became darker and angrier, prone to keeping secrets even from his team, and occasionally too obsessed with revenge.

When watching Ward in these early episodes, the question constantly arises, what is real and what is fake. The speech he gives to Skye, about feeling helpless that he cannot protect his team members from someone, a superpowered psychopath, it is a part of his performance, but is there maybe some grain of truth in it? The best lies are usually those that have a bit of truth in them – an actor needs to find something to relate to give a better performance. Ward was deceiving and manipulating everyone, but at the same time, we know he did develop some feelings for at least some of his teammates. Not just romantic feelings for Skye, but it’s also canon (at least since 3x09) that he projected his little brother into Fitz. The same episode hinted he may have seen Simmons as a sister figure. (I personally believe that he projected his family on the team, which also explains his later negative feelings for them.) And he definitely has a hero complex and wants people to see him as a protector (whether or not this fits with the reality), this is how he defines himself and his worth – it’s one of the constants of his characters throughout the show.

First mention and appearance of Titus Welliver as Agent Felix Blake

We find out that FitzSimmons have never even passed their field assessments.

So many defining FitzSimmons moments. FitzSimmons sitting on the different sides of the lab door, separated.

That moment. That moment when they are arguing and Fitz starts saying that she has been always by his side, that they’ve spent every moment together (“You’ve been beside me the whole damn time!”) – and his face changes. That’s when he realizes just how much Simmons means to him. And it’s the moment when so many fans started shipping FitzSimmons.

It’s right after that he went into the lab with her to do everything to help her find a way to save herself „We’re gonna fix this together“

Fitz desperately yelling: „JEMMA!“ - I’m pretty sure that’s the first time on the show he has called her by her first name.

Going by what we’ve seen so far – countries SHIELD has offices in include Morocco and China, but apparently not Peru or Belarus (and, going by 4x14, no office in Russia, either).

I love the way Simmons corrects Ward about his imitation of her bad imitation of him.

Aw, the Skye-Simmons hug was sweet. The Bus Kids friendship was one of the things that the show developed very convincingly from the start, in a relatively small number of episodes.

In the ongoing story of Coulson worrying about his earlier death and comeback, he has ordered his own physical exam. This is so far the most tender May/Coulson scene, and the tenderest May has been in the show. (And I bet the writers were being intentionally naughty and ship-teasing when they put the„Take off your shirt“ line in there.)

The last scene, where Fitz is unhappy and a bit jealous that he didn’t  get to save Simmons from jumping, but Ward did instead (don’t worry, Fitz, Ward had a much better chance of succeeding there, let everyone play to their strengths), and Simmons reassures him that he was the one who did most to help and save her, being there with her in the lab, and gives him a cheek kiss… if Fitz didn’t realize before that his feelings for Jemma may be romantic, he is definitely starting to understand it here, going by that last shot of him, deep in thoughts.

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Another array of my fave minor Marvel characters, mainly mutant/X-Men related! Info beneath the cut on each:

Lifeguard - Born in Australia, Heather Cameron and her brother Davis grew up with no idea that their biological father, whom they never knew, had been crime lord Miles Warbeck. Heather did, however, know she was a mutant with the ability to rapidly evolve whatever traits were needed (wings, gills, bulletproof skin, etc) to save herself or another person. She embraced these abilities, and used them in her job as a lifeguard. When her brother and her became targets in a gang war due to the power vacuum left after their bio-father’s death, they joined the X-Men for their own safety, and Heather’s old job became her new codename. The identity of her father, she could take in stride, but not so much the identity of her mother. On a mission in space, Heather began mutating further, showing the traits of an atavistic Shi’ar Royal, suggesting her mother was one (most likely the evil Deathbird). Her mindset changed as well, and she was horrified to find she viewed everyone around her as prey now. Her brother Davis, aka Slipstream, did not undergo such changes himself, and rejected Heather for hers, stating that “that THING is not my sister!” He has not been seen since, but Lifeguard has continued to work with the X-Men off-panel as a member of X-Corps. Monet St. Croix - Intelligent, beautiful, and rich, Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix has been described as “perfect” by many, a sentiment that she openly and wholeheartedly agrees with. The daughter of an ambassador from Monaco, this spoiled and haughty but still heroic mutant boasts an array of powers including flight, super-strength, and limited telepathy. Her siblings (a villainous vampire-like older brother named Marius and two younger twin sisters, Nicole and Claudette) are mutants as well, and all the siblings can merge with each other to form various combinations. Monet got her start as a teenager in Generation X, where she used the codename “M” but she went simply by her civilian name as an adult when she served in X-Corps, X-Factor, and the X-Men. Monsoon - Aloba Dastoor is a mutant from Mumbai who can control the weather like the much more well-known Storm. He was the younger brother of Radha “Haven” Dastoor, a saintly philanthropist who helped the poor and needy as well as being a supporter of mutant rights. When his beloved sister gained extraordinary superpowers of her own and began a crusade to destroy the world and bring the Mahapralaya (a sort of Hindu apocalypse), Monsoon at first followed her, blinded by his idolization. Unbeknownst to him, Haven had been possessed by a demon that had given her these powers and was making her act this way. Despite his love and reverence for her, Monsoon eventually had to accept she was doing evil, and, believing she had gone mad and must be stopped, betrayed her to X-Factor and the government. Haven disowned him as a result, and they do not seem to have gotten the chance to reconcile before her untimely demise by the demon that had warped her so. Monsoon’s whereabouts since are unknown, but he is listed as one of the mutants to have lost his powers on M-Day. Astarte - Astarte is one of the Eternals, immortal and extremely powerful beings that were engineered from early humans by the Celestials. Astarte boasted the immense and myriad powers common to all her species, as well as the individual ability to influence and control men. She was a member of  The Damocles Foundation, an organization of Eternals, Deviants, and humans who were tired of the constant battles between the various offshoots of Homo sapiens. They desired to work together for peace, and to this end attempted to create a race of super-beings which could control the Earth, and thus put an end to all warfare. These experiments caused the death of an entire town of children, and brought them into conflict with X-Force. Firewall - The child of a Cambodian woman and an American man of Vietnamese heritage, she has been called both Theary (a Cambodian name) and Min Li Ng (a Vietnamese name) as a civilian. Either way, she is an angry young woman whose temper matches her pyrokinetic powers. She originally believed that her abilities came from  accidental exposure to an experimental napalm during the Vietnam War, but she later learned that she was in fact the product of a Cambodian cult that had practiced thousands of years of selective breeding to produce super-powered children. She was originally a member of Force of Nature, a team of four supervillains, each with a power relating to one of the four classical elements, who worked for an eco-terrorist organization. After the truth of her origin was revealed to her, she joined the other children of the cult in The Folding Circle. As a member of Force of Nature, she went by Firewall as a codename, and her Cambodian name as a civilian. After she joined The Folding Circle, she began using the codename Silk Fever, and went by her Vietnamese name as a civilian. Kleinstock - There were originally three Kleinstock brothers, Eric and Harlan and Sven. They were identical triplets from Switzerland, and all of them were mutants, members of the Acolytes (successors to the Brotherhood, first led by Fabian Cortez then by Exodus and Magneto), and absolute assholes, bullies, and idiots. While some mutant supremacists have been noble or sympathetic, the Kleinstocks were simply aggressive, none-too-bright psychopaths who enjoyed killing anyone that was weaker than themselves, including human children and hospital patients. Eric was killed by a shotgun blast in their first mission, and ever since then, Harlan and Sven have merged their bodies together, so that one brother protrudes from the other’s back. Their powers include super-strength in their merged form and the ability to fire plasma blasts. Benazir Kaur - Benazir Kaur could induce or accelerate disease in others, such as making Gambit begin dying immediately of rapid-onset lung cancer the moment she touched him. However, the effects reversed when she was knocked unconscious. Benazir was the White Queen in Shinobi Shaw’s Inner Circle, and while no one can ever truly replace Emma Frost, Benazir sadly never even got much of a chance to try, as she only appeared in one issue, the 1994 X-Men Annual. It’s hard to glean much personality from this sole appearance, but she seems to have penchant for red dresses and playing chess. Red Lotus - Paul Hark is a Chinese Australian mutant with enhanced strength, speed, and agility. He is also the grandson of Father Gow, who ran the Chinese Triad in Sydney. When Gow was murdered, Red Lotus sought revenge against Gambit, who had been framed for the crime, but then allied with him and the X-Men when the real orchestrators were revealed to be a fellow member of the Triad as well as Sebastian Shaw. He attempted to attack (and presumably kill) Sebastian Shaw for this, but later worked with him to infiltrate and shut down a mutant slave ring. He seemed to have some romantic chemistry with Rachel Summers, who saved him from being nearly killed by Selene, but has not been seen since. Gaea - Gaea is an Elder God, one of the first deities to appear on Earth, and it is Earth itself that she represents and embodies. Every earth goddess in every pantheon of gods in the Marvel universe is actually Gaea in disguise, and she is the true biological mother of Thor, whom she conceived with Odin in her guise as Jord, the Norse earth goddess. It was Gaea who favored small mammals over dinosaurs, eventually leading them to evolve in her image as humans, and who allowed the Celestials to experiment on early humans to create the Eternals, the Deviants, and perhaps even plant the potential to become mutants thousands of years later. Though is an immensely powerful being, she rarely interferes directly with any mortal affairs, and in fact is more often in need of rescuing from even greater forces. Gaia - Not to be confused with Gaea, Gaia is a teenage girl from another dimension who is actually thousands of years old, most of which she spent chained to a machine called the Universal Amalgamator at the end of Time, a device that would be used to merge all sentient consciousnesses into one being. Gaia was apparently the safeguard that was supposed to prevent the Amalgamator from being activated by malicious people. When the villainous M-Plate (the fusion of Monet and her brother Marius) traveled to her dimension and attempted to use the Amalgamator, Generation X followed and destroyed the machine. This freed Gaia, who escaped with them back to Earth 616, and became one of their team. While her name would suggest earth-based powers, Gaia’s abilities are actually telepathy, empathy, telekinesis, and reality-warping that allows her to conjure objects from nothing, even making a house and car for herself. Since she had spent centuries chained to one duty, Gaia decided she didn’t want to spend her newfound freedom shackled to another, and left Generation X to live her own life on Earth as a normal person instead of a superhero. Chimera - Chimera is a pirate who comes from an unknown dimension. It is not known if she has any other name, nor exactly WHAT she is, besides that Wolverine says she doesn’t smell quite human. Whatever she is, she demonstrates an ability to generate ectoplasmic bursts that take the form of dragons, which attack foes both physically and psychically. Desiring to plunder the space-time continuum, Chimera came to Earth 616 when she was hired as a mercenary by a villain named Genesis, who wished for her to kill Wolverine. To this end, she worked with the Dark Riders, though of course they did not succeed. She later formed an alliance with Emplate (Monet’s brother again) when  when he accidentally opened a portal, summoning her. However she later tried to leave his side, and he incinerated her, seemingly killing her. However, she turned up again, working for Madelyne Pryor’s Sister of Mutants for unknown motives, then turned up as a member (seemingly against her will) of the Marauders. In her early appearances, Chimera has a strange habit of using her hand as a sort of sock puppet that she talks with, often pronouncing her “r” as a “w” in a cutesy way when she does so. This has led to speculation that she’s insane, but I think it’s just a quirk. Black Swan - Princess Yabbat Ummon Turu is from another dimension, and, as a character deeply tied to the Incursion event, is extremely difficult to explain. Long story short, her world and family were destroyed, and she was the only survivor as a child due to being rescued by the Black Swans, who raised her to be one of them and to serve Rabum Alal, the Great Destroyer, who is actually Dr. Doom. As an adult, Black Swan began searching for a refuge where she could regrow her loved ones, killing Earths along the way until she arrived at Earth 616, where she was captured by the Illuminati. She told them about the Incursions, and how the only way to save their own Earth was to destroy another, which she encouraged them to do. Black Swan possess telepathy, flight force fields, super-strength, optic blasts, and a liking for French fries. Lorelei - One of the lesser known members of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Lorelei possessed the ability to hypnotize men with her voice. Despite her alliance, Lorelei is not actually a mutant at all, but one of the Savage Land Mutates, native people of the Savage Land (a sort of “land that time forgot” in Marvel comics canon) whom Magneto artificially mutated using a machine. Lorelei was apparently his favorite of the bunch, as he brought her back with him from the Savage Land to serve in his Brotherhood, though she seems to have returned back to her homeland offscreen. This is good for her, since she seems to be quite innocent and simple-minded, and had little idea of what was going on, why she was fighting, and even what her powers were (”Can Lorelei stop making strange noise now?” she asked Magneto once) Zaladane - The sorceress Zaladane is a far less innocent resident of the Savage Land than Lorelei. And unlike Lorelei, she claims she is not a native at all, but the long-lost sister of Polaris! Zaladane kidnapped Polaris and used a machine to transfer her magnetic powers to herself. She used these abilities to conquer the Savage Land, then did the same to Magneto so that she could take over the world next. Of course, her plan was thwarted, and the magnetic powers returned to their rightful owners…and the first thing Magneto did with them was slaughter her. But what of her claims that her name wasn’t Zaladane, but Zala Dane? Could she really be the sister to Lorna Dane? Retcons made to Lorna’s backstory later would make this impossible, but at the time this story was written, Dr. Moira MacTaggert confirmed that the power transferral device that Zala used could only be used between genetic relatives, so who knows! Minxi - This Inhuman lass was the daughter of common criminals, but a good girl herself. Minxi was the handmaiden of Queen Medusa, and stuck by her side when she had to flee to Earth to have her son Ahura, whom the Genetic Council had wanted to terminate for fear of what powers (and what madness) he might have inherited from his father’s side. Minxi’s power to temporarily take on the physical traits of any animal she touched was useless in the Inhuman city of Attilan, where there were no animals, but it proved to be useful on Earth so that she could catch food for Medusa and the others who had come with her. However, Minxi also took on the mental traits of the animals as well, often leaving her horrified by her feral actions when she returned to her right mind. Minxi might seem a little vapid when it comes to Captain America (”The one with the hair…and the eyes…”) but she had the good sense to point out that pure intentions and a good heart don’t negate the consequences of unwise actions. Despite her low birth, Minxi was romantically pursued by two of the Inhuman Royal Family, Karnak and Gorgon, though it is unknown if anything came of either man’s interest in her. Auran - Auran was an Inhuman cop who gave her life in the line of duty to save her partner. She was also a single mother of twin girls, who sought to resurrect her with the powers of another Inhuman, Reader. They succeeded, but what came back wasn’t actually Auran—it was everyone’s memories of who Auran was. Some of these memories contradicted each other (some people liked her, some thought she was a jerk, some misunderstood how her powers worked, etc) and it thrust the new “Auran” into conflicted madness. After her mind was healed by a telepathic Inhuman, the new Auran set out on her own to come to terms with her new existence as a living memory. Her Inhuman abilities are a pair of large, rabbit-like ears that allow her to choose any word and hear it wherever it is spoken, no matter how far away.

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, MANDY! You’ve been accepted for the role of GONERIL. Admin Rosey: How long have we been clamoring for our beloved Goneril? Far too long, I think. But the wait was worth it because Mandy, you delivered us to her with a little bloodied bow on top. You gave us a taste of Goneril, and here we are, begging for more. The plots you laid out for her future captured her well, and the para sample you provided gave an insight to the narration of her thought and I absolutely adored it. But, what really sold it to me, was the very end of the application: “... I don’t think Grace has ever stopped long enough to get bored. Maybe that’s for the best though; I’m not sure the world could withstand a bored Grace Daly.” And honestly, I’m not sure I can withstand the Grace Daly you will be bringing to our stage either. But I can’t wait to try! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | Mandy

Age | 18

Preferred Pronouns | She/Her

Activity Level | For the next 3 weeks or so, I can probably post about 3-4 times a week. After that I start university, so maybe 1-2 posts per week?  

Timezone | BST

How did you find the rp?  |  I came across it a while ago (9/10 months?) so I can’t remember exactly how, but I figure I must’ve been looking for mob-related roleplays on tumblr.

Current/Past RP Accounts | This is actually my first-time roleplaying on tumblr so I don’t have any past accounts to show. I have been roleplaying for around ¾ years though, just on different forums. I can provide some samples of my writing if you want to make sure I’d fit in here.

IN CHARACTER

Character | Goneril aka Grace Daly! And I like her current faceclaim (Úrsula Corberó).

What drew you to this character? | What initially attracted me to Grace Daly was, in fact, another character; Calina Sokolova. Whilst writing out my application for Cleopatra herself, I noticed that I had a lot to say about wanting to explore her relationship with a character so primal and brutal as Grace Daly. And the more I wrote, the more I felt I understood Grace. At the same time, my infatuation for Calina’s character diminished, and I think that was because I realised that I didn’t actually understand her all that much. Then I read the application of the last successful writer for Calina, and I know that people can have different interpretations which are equally good, but it just made me realise that I had only scratched her surface with my own. I couldn’t do a character like Calina justice; at least, not yet. Not that I consider Grace to be any easier a character to write, or inferior in terms of depth, not at all; I just understand her much better. Turns out, Calina simply wasn’t my mystery to unravel, and so here it is, my application for Grace “Goneril” Daly.

What I love most about Grace Daly is that she remains true to her nature. The violence, the brutality, the chaos—it is her and she owns it. She does not run away, or attempt to hide her darkness, she doesn’t entertain any notions of herself as a ‘good guy’, nor does she fear or try to fight the darkness within her. Right and wrong are seen as abstract concepts, and even when she knows things are ‘wrong’, it makes no difference because she does not care. She would much rather be remembered as ‘great’ than ‘good’, anyway. What Olivander said about Voldemort comes to mind; “After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.” Terrible but great, could there be a better analogy for Grace Daly? The rest of the world might see her as rotten, having lost her humanity, but one couldn’t be more primal or truer to their human nature than her. She takes what she wants, when she wants it, no matter the cost. She is a queen waiting to rule, a tragedy waiting to happen, a whirlwind to be respected, but most importantly, feared. She will carve herself a throne, whether that be from gold or your bones.

Despite being known as Goneril, she could actually be likened to Regan, in my opinion. It might seem like the sisters are an interchangeable evil duo in King Lear, but I actually think Regan is the more brutal of the two. After all, it is her who gouges out Gloucester’s eyes and thrusts him out to “smell his way to Dover”. Goneril is driven by ambition too, but I don’t see that love of violence in her characterisation. Catherine spills blood apathetically, whereas Grace thirsts for it, much like the Regan of King Lear.

Pride and the grandiose sense of self-worth, rather psychopathic traits, are also rather important cornerstones of her character. Because she has never been humiliated, never needed to ask for help, never been denied, she has this kind of smugness about her, an air of superiority. She wants to be remembered as such, a glorious vision of power, ambition, bloodlust and savagery—a legacy if there ever was one. Grace has always wanted more – more things, more money, more power, more blood – but perhaps what she craves most is recognition. Not the cheap recognition her parents gave her for simply being their daughter, no, she wants to be known as something great, something invincible, supreme, garnering as much recognition from the beggars and vagabonds lining the streets of Verona as the kings and queens in their palaces. She wants to be feared and worshipped like a God.

Along with the need to be known and remembered, comes the fear of being forgotten. People might sing Catherine praises for her angelic-ness, but they will not remember her name when she has passed like so many saints before her. At least, that’s what Grace thinks. The oldest Daly girl has long forgotten to fear death, but to become a ghost of bygone times like so many others have done in the past and most continue to do? That is literally a fate worse than death. She craves to be different, and to be revered for that difference. Death or glory—these are her options.

Whilst her impulsiveness might be seen as a weakness or a flaw, I think it makes her even more dangerous, because you can’t ever really know what she’ll do. She’s so unpredictable—one can never know whether they’ll get the cold, calculating Grace, or the wild, reckless Grace, who’s far more likely to give into her base instincts, until it’s too late. It’s unnerving how quickly she will switch between the two, but perhaps what is most alarming is when she is both at the same time. You ask how one can be cold and reckless, calculating and wild, at once? Oh, you should watch our raven-haired angel of death in action. She will beat you within an inch of your life and enjoy every second, but an inch she will leave, an inch to tell the world of your most foolish mistake: attempting to withstand the supernova that is Grace Daly.

I’ve never written such a raw, unremorseful character. In fact, I’ve never even come across such a female character in any sort of literature, let alone roleplaying. When other characters will tip-toe on the borders of insanity, Grace will crash in there with a battering ram without flinching. That is why it would be a delight and an honour to write Verona’s resident bloodthirsty empress, not that the world ever remembers one who wasn’t.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

1. Maybe some sort of face-off between the sisters? I don’t mean the three of them get into a ring and fight to the death, I just want a reunion of some sort, I suppose. I don’t imagine it will be at a café over brunch to discuss their childhoods, but perhaps they all need to meet up to discuss some mob business? In my mind, Grace joined the Montagues to give people a reason to remember her, not out of loyalty to anyone in the Montagues. So, if she sees an opportunity to rise the ranks, and she thinks that can be achieved by ‘offing’ one of their own captains to free up a space, I think she would definitely go to her sisters. They are Capulets, after all, and I doubt they would pass the opportunity to get rid of a high-ranking Montague. Regina, if not Catherine, anyway. At the same time, Grace doesn’t really consider her sisters to be her equals, so she might not care to do something mutually beneficial to all of them. Instead, I think she’s more likely to deceive both parties, because she’s arrogant and thinks her sisters are too naïve to understand her true intentions. Maybe that goes badly for Grace, because they really aren’t as clueless as she treats them? I don’t know, it obviously doesn’t have to pan out this way exactly, but I would really like to see the three of them having some sort of heated altercation, or just circumstance which invariably forces them to spend time together.

2. Calina vs Grace? Okay, so I know a lot of my plotting for Grace involves ‘facing off’ against other characters, but what can I say, Grace is a fighting sorta gal. In Calina’s bio, it says that “So long as [Grace’s] teeth are bared in another direction, she won’t have to make her shut her mouth,” aka Calina is happy to let sleeping demons lie, but what if they stopped lying? For whatever reason, they step in each other’s path and BAM! Chaos! Pandemonium!

As for how it happens, I was thinking something like this: Calina’s alias is Cleopatra, right, and, historically, Cleopatra was the first pharaoh to get the support of both the Greek and Egyptian subjects she ruled. In this case, the Greeks and the Egyptians are of course, the Capulets and the Montagues, respectively. Perhaps, at some later date, they are attempting to broker peace between the two mobs, and Calina, being Cleopatra, is at the forefront of this? Peace and harmony don’t work for Grace, of course, and so she tries to throw a wrench or two into their plans. Or maybe even a grenade.

3. I’d really like to explore some fiendish kind of plot that she and Ivan have. They are both quite chaotic and brutal characters, but I’d say Ivan does it for the love of chaos, whereas chaos is a side-benefit for Grace. Her true love is power; unlimited, absolute, power. So, say she hatches a plan to move up in the ranks, and figures that she might need some help from the Capulets for that. The help would be unintentional or accidental if her sisters were involved (see Plot 1), but I think she would be fairly upfront about it if she went to Ivan. Though Capulet by name, I’d say that he is first and foremost an anarchist, and Grace knows this. So, if she wants to stir the pot a bit, and wants to have some fun in the meantime, why ever not get in touch with the platonic Clyde to her platonic Bonnie? He’s never said no to a bit of mayhem. It could also be that they both plan on betraying each other, y’know, for a little more drama? Grace knows that his love of ruin and destruction is a little too dangerous to have around if her plans for dominion are ever to come to fruition, and Ivan knows that he cannot tear the world apart if there are people who wish to maintain the social order, so that one can actually hold dominion. In the end, no matter how similar their methods might be, their endgame couldn’t be more different.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes, but I would really like a fitting death for her; ‘’all or nothing”, essentially. Either she goes out in a blaze of glory, doing what she loves, or it somehow becomes that she loses everything, and is at the lowest of lows, and is then killed. I’d rather she didn’t die in some random mugging sort of thing, y’know? Also, pleeease, nothing like how Goneril and Regan go out in King Lear—sure poison can be involved, just not the whole other “jealous, superficial, evil sisters kill themselves over some man/throw themselves at his feet” trope. Grace thirsts for blood and power, not men.

IN DEPTH

I would genuinely do both, but I really want to send this in time for Sunday acceptances and I don’t have very long left. So, in-character para sample it is!!

***

Naivete? No, that couldn’t possibly be it. They had survived too long, accomplished too much, to be naïve. No, what truly plagued her family, whether that was their parents, or her sisters, it was blindness—or lack of vision, to be more precise. They had grown too accustomed to their life, too comfortable in the plush armchairs in front of their warm hearth, to envy the jewel-encrusted palaces that their kings and queens resided in. They were happy to settle for something mildly better than mediocrity, content to be second best, good but not that good. The Daly’s were well-off, there was no two ways about that, but they were hardly mice next to the mammoth that were the Capulets.

It was disgraceful to her. Shameless, even. How dare they be so complacent?

The babe turned girl turned woman, who had always wanted more and more and more, could not fathom the meaning of leading such an unremarkable existence. What could possibly be the meaning of life if you didn’t keep fighting for more, until there was no one left to fight, until you were the most powerful person in the room?

Throughout history and mythology, there were always trinities. Hydra, the three-headed serpent, Cerberus, the three-headed hound, and she had held out hope that herself, Regina, and Catherine, would themselves be a trinity to behold one day. Her mother and father had resigned themselves to ‘the simple life’, but children did not have to repeat their parents’ mistakes. They could be better, the Daly girls.

And yet, it wasn’t to be. Regina had come as uninspiring as they did, and Catherine, well, all saintly Catherine wanted to do was be nice. For a time, she tried convincing them, inspiring them as the eldest, but even back then Grace had had little patience for lost causes. And lost causes they were, the whole lot of them.

If she was to be anything more, it would be alone. Her family would not, could not, help her, and that meant looking for another family. Perhaps one with a little more backbone.

Extras:

I’d say that the Grace I’ve envisioned is quite similar to Villanelle from Killing Eve. However, whilst Villanelle kills because she is bored, I don’t think Grace has ever stopped long enough to get bored. Maybe that’s for the best though; I’m not sure the world could withstand a bored Grace Daly.

[thetldrplace]

White History

So I found out about this woman on twitter. I think twitter is generally dangerous as a platform specifically because it only supports ‘bites’ of the issue by limiting what you can say to a few sentences per tweet. When I say I think it’s dangerous, I should probably qualify that I think it’s dangerous to take what is said on twitter as a fair accounting of anything. Twitter is fine as a launch pad to look deeper into a subject, but if I read someone’s hot take and decide that’s enough information for me to make a sound judgment, I’m fooling myself. So I did what I usually try to do, and looked up the original interview and listened to what she had to say.

Something she said was a catalyst for me to sort through some thoughts on a ‘white-centric’ view of history.

 Dr Khilanani’s Interview The woman in question is Dr. Aruna Khilanani, a forensic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and she had made some very serious comments in a forum at Yale. There was a lot of blowback on her, and to try to get to the bottom of what she was trying to say, Marc Lamont Hill interviewed her.  

MLH: Are white people psychopathic?

DAK: I think so, yeah. The level of lying that has started since colonialism- we’re just used to it.

MLH: What kind of lies?

DAK: Every time you steal a country, you loot, you say you’ve discovered something; this level of lies is actually a part of history. We don’t say we killed all these people, we got rid of all the Native Americans. We say we discovered America. You don’t talk about the level of death, you don’t talk about the level of what actually occurred. You wipe the slate clean, you sanitize the violence.

This level of ‘discovery’ is everywhere; you’ve discovered vegetarianism, you’ve discovered yoga, yet it’s actually stolen. 

For full context, the entire interview is here, but I don’t believe this snippet misrepresents her at all.

[Note for myself: Psychopathy (says Wikipedia) is a personality disorder characterized by persistent anti-social behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.]

The Whitewashing of History My response would have to be: these facts are neither ‘wiped’ nor ‘sanitized’. They are well-known about our history. We are, in fact, taught about them in school from the time we’re small. Claiming that the “slate has been wiped clean and the violence sanitized” is false. One could of course make the claim that we don’t talk about them enough, but what constitutes “enough” is a subjective claim. Her claim of not talking, at all, about the negative of our history is demonstrably false.

Discovery instead of Robbery Then there is the fact that she ties our use of the word discovery to what she sees as pathological lies we tell ourselves about history.

I’m also mystified at her understanding of the word ‘discovery’. Discovery means to uncover something, whether physically or metaphorically. Saying Columbus discovered America is only saying it was uncovered …. to him, and by extension, to Europeans. People of the west aren’t saying they found an uninhabited land or created it. When they say Columbus discovered America, they are saying that at that point, the new world was uncovered to them.

 But to be fair, I think the main argument is that what Europeans called discovery, was really just robbery. Of course, we did push the tribes that inhabited the land to the side and took it by force. But again, that isn’t being disputed.

When it comes to someone saying they discovered yoga, or vegetarianism, that is only saying that they personally found out about this, not that they invented it. How this is conflated into the previous false statement about whitewashed history is, as I said, mystifying to me. It looks to me like a basic misunderstanding of the word ‘discover’ is at the heart of tying it to the pathological lies of white people.

Stolen Granting the equivocation on the word discovery when robbery was really meant, to say that something like yoga has been ‘stolen’ is nearly incomprehensible. Yoga isn’t a ‘thing’, such that if X has it, Y can’t. White people engaging in yoga makes no difference whatsoever to Indian practitioners.

So are these things “actually stolen”? No, not actually.

While cultural appropriation was not mentioned per se, I would imagine that’s the justification for stating that something like yoga has been stolen. I don’t have much respect for the usual whining about cultural appropriation. On one hand, I grant that it can be a cheapening of culture. But even granting that, it just looks like whiny brats saying ‘That’s mine, and you can’t play with it!’.

I’m of Italian heritage, and I can complain all I want about deep-dish pizza not really being ‘pizza’, but ultimately, no one cares, and you just have to get on with your life. Rather than whining on about how Italian culture is being cheapened by deep-dish pizza, I take my friends to a real Neapolitan pizza place when I can, so they can experience the real thing. But if they prefer deep-dish “pizza”, that’s up to them. I know it’s not really pizza, and it’s not really Italian, but it’s also not really important. Italian culture isn’t harmed because some yahoos in Chicago made something vaguely related to pizza and called it the same thing.

 Euro-centric History The charge of history being ‘euro-centric’ is of course true…. But I grew up in the west. I expect each culture will focus on important elements of their own cultures and histories, just as we learn important elements of ours. It would be strange if we didn’t concentrate on our own history. A Californian who knew nothing about the history of California would be considered an ignoramus. So yes, we here in the west tend to spend most of our time on western history.

Reading Dead White Guys I read a lot of classic literature by, well, I guess…. white guys. I don’t think of what they have to say as being ‘by white guys’, I think of it as wisdom written by men. Undoubtedly this color-blindness would itself be labeled as white-privilege, but I don’t see any wisdom in that label. I read to gain insight and knowledge about the way humanity works in this world.

I expect true wisdom to be applicable to life, regardless of the author’s, or my, race. Perhaps people of color think in terms of what race the author of a work is in order to gauge the fitness or applicability of its wisdom to their life. I can only imagine that must be severely limiting. There may be times when voices of color would be necessary, but in general, I’m not reading anything with a racial lens.

[oceanwitch]

you said that the dark zodiac is based off of real people you know and characters. is it okay for me to ask the story behind them?

Aries is based on the deviant trope. An uncontrollable individual who lives a hedonistic lifestyle. They indulge themselves on toxic things, such as drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. They are manipulative, and don’t care about other people’s feelings, especially if it gets in the way of things they desire. So Aries After Dark, I pictured as like that guy or girl at an edgy night club, who is dtf. Down to fuck and/or fight. This is based off of the negative traits of an Aries; dominate, stubborn, short tempered, unpredictable, selfish. I don’t know many aries in person, so it was hard to find inspiration for this based on real people, so I went with character tropes.

Taurus was a little more difficult, so it is loosely based off someone I know who is a Taurus that I don’t like. They’re lazy, and materialistic, and blame other people for their own faults and bad luck. So I combined that person with my character I made in Zodiac as Antagonists series, as a rich, self indulgent, greedy business man trope. I ended up with a character that has a princess/prince complex, that doesn’t really like to do anything, takes what they have for granted, and values materialistic and shallow things in life. Such as jewellery, expensive alcohol, money, etc. Taurus after dark is passive aggressive, sarcastic, and unambitious, and is too stubborn to change who they are, which is the crowning fault of this person I based this on.

Gemini is a complex one. Every bad ex I’ve dated has been a gemini. So in this I rolled them all in one. These people were two-faced, untrustworthy, inconsistent, high strung, fickle minded. As a lot of Gemini’s would testify, they do not like the stereotype that Gemini’s are crazy, or psycho/sociopaths, because their dual personalities and high anxious behavioural issues makes them hard to understand. Which is why I chose that quote “You’re a Psychopath” “I prefer creative”. It just illustrates the opinion of how others see Gemini, vs how they view themselves. So Gemini after dark as a character is a person who is indecisive, and fickle minded. They’re liars and backstabbers because they are incapable of keeping promises, and they know this, so they keep that part of themselves hidden upon first introductions. But they’re also confused by their own self. They don’t know what they want, they dont understand their own emotions. They’re not good with them.

Cancer, as I’ve mentioned, is heavily based off of who I was when I was a teenager and an early adult. So I’ll break down the imagery I’ve used to illustrate this. One thing that cancers are known for is sentimentality. They grow too attached to things. I’ve linked sentimentality with christian imagery, which also symbolizes my struggle with finding myself spiritually through religion. The crown of thorns and the crying Madonna symbolized martyrdom; I kept on sacrificing my own happiness, or rather giving it up. I consensually put myself in pain on purpose. I was drowning in my own pain and emotions, and to deal with that I over indulged myself in unhealthy habits. In the graphic I used smoking as an example, but for me it wasn’t smoking, it was food and drugs and sex. In terms of relationships, I fell in love too fast and too easily, and I would do anything for these people that I fell in love with, even if it meant carving my heart out for them. But as I grew up, and had to live through my share of Gemini’s (read above), I became more and more aromantic. Hence the Love is a lie image.

Leo is another personal one, because this one is talking about a very specific person in my life, who I won’t name, nor share my relation to them. Now I usually get along with leos; the people closest to me are leos. But this particular leo embodies all the negative traits of one. This person believes they are the protagonist of everyone’s story, and everyone else is an antagonist, or a supporting character. They surround themselves with “yes” people, to fuel the illusion that they’re always right and everyone else is wrong. This person does not swallow their pride, and has no intention to. Their pride is the most valuable thing they have, and the only thing that’s important to them. They’re vain, and materialistic. And their claws come out when someone threatens to take away their crown or bruises their pride, or takes something away from them. This person has no problem retaliating and ruining people’s lives. They would set the world on fire if they could. In short, this person is the real life Cersei Lannister.

Virgo I had a little fun with. I had this character idea of a conservative woman that people over look, but is actually a very dangerous person. So I played with the name Virgo, and used Christian symbolism, but I also balanced it with gothic, and witchy aesthetics, and created a story. Virgo’s appearance is very conservative. She’s very critical, and is never in a good mood. But she’s a mason jar that’s been over stuffed with evil that’s about to explode. She’s trying to control these ghosts that stir in her, but every once in a while, when something tries her patience, she acts out. She does not like to be messy, though, so she berates herself afterwards. Virgo after dark is probably one of the very few in this series that has a story behind it. I just visualized a woman in Salem, trying to hide her craft, and being the perfect image of christian puritan woman, but everyone knows there is something dark behind that white lace.

Libra is the reason why I started this series. The most common complaint I’ve seen is that people were growing tired of libra being depicted as light-hearted and soft. So, because of this, I focused on the traits superficial, self-indulgent, and manipulative. Libra’s were also said to be introverts, so I came with the idea of a lone-wolf type. So this aesthetic is inspired by my interpretation of Druella Rosier, Bellatrix Lestrange’s mother. I’ve role played her before, so I was able to draw imagery into this that would relate to her. So Druella, or rather Libra, is a born-rich woman, who is smarter, wiser, and more cunning than people take her for. She doesnt want to live on the name of her father, but make her own name for herself. All her successes are her own. She’s a boss bitch. She gets shit things done alone, and doesn’t need help from others. Libra would destroy your life from the inside out, and it would be right under your nose.

Scorpio’s are my baes. I’ve never met a scorpio that I didn’t like. With that being said, Scorpio’s in a negative light are frightening. They’re very passionate, but because of that they can get obsessive, possessive, jealous, controlling, resentful, suspicious, and dominating. Other people cannot touch what is theirs. What’s worst, is that Scorpio’s are exceptionally mysterious when it comes to emotions and what they’re feeling, so you never really know what they’re thinking or feeling. Scorpio is really based off of every character I’ve ever fallen in love with but would be extremely bad for me. Scorpio after dark is the bad boy that isn’t good for you, and you should not want to be with, and will never change no matter how hard you try. They’ve really sexual, as well, which keys in with the possessive and dominant traits. We’re talking about a Christian Grey type character. But a well written version. Just to make an emphasis of how dangerous this type of person is; most serial killers are born in November, including Charles Manson.

Sagittarius was a bit hard, because the only one that I knew in my life that I didn’t like, did not embody any of the traits of a sagittarius at all, not even the good ones. They were just one blah of a person. But the other ones that I knew, I knew as very adventurous people. They weren’t in the same place for long. So I started to think of any negative traits they had, and that was carelessness and tactlessness. So I constructed a criminal, “dare devil”, type of character that lives outside the law and does what they please. They don’t care about getting hurt, and if something bad happens they just call it part of the journey. The carelessness comes with them not thinking things through, how that this person doesn’t consider how their actions and words could harm other people. They’re knowingly breaking laws and rules, but with their overconfidence, they believe they wont get caught.

Capricorns I’ve always seen as the masculine version of virgo, which already comes with implications. So I based Capricorn after a character who is a capricorn, and that’s Tom Riddle/Voldemort. Capricorn after dark is a malicious figure of power that resides behind the curtains. He is Oz, if Oz was a fascist or the leader of the illuminati. We’re talking about an individual that is dangerous on a global scale. He is both death and the devil, but sees himself as a god. Every chaotic event that’s ever took place in history has been carefully planned and executed by this person, and you have no idea. He is not sentimental, he is not empathetic, he gives zero fucks about anyone. His scale of morality doesn’t exist, he just wants control and power to the highest degree. The kick of it, he doesn’t have to be one person.

Aquarius is the most unique Zodiac. It’s an air sign that’s symbolized by water, for some reason. They’re the dreamers, but I call them airheads. Not because they’re stupid, but because they have thoughts of grander. So for my Aquarius, I brought back from my old series, Zodiac Signs as Protagonists, and put it in the negative. If there was any generation to relate Aquarius to, it would be millennials, because we were born and raised during the rise of the age of Aquarius. So really, this is based off of the negative aspects of my generation. Delusions of grander. Regretting nothing. Unwillingness to conform. Shooting for the stars, and landing in the sun. Aquarius after dark is a person that is a pariah of progressiveness, but they wear that with pride. They believe their views are the correct ones, their way of life is the best way, that everyone else are the insane ones, but at the same time question the vitality of those that begin to sway to their way of thinking. They do not conform, they do not want normalcy of a modern society. Often times they don’t have a job because they don’t want to contribute to capitalism (or rather that’s their excuse), and they are more likely to participate in riots and protests. They believe they are changing the world for the better, one brick at a cop car at a time, but they end up hurting the cause they’re trying to support.

Pisces was pretty simple. This is also another one based off of me. My moon is pisces, so I found this one easy to portray. Pisces and Aquarius are very different. While Aquarius is “woke”, Pisces is living in a willful delusion. They float through life with their eyes closed and disassociate from reality, and make no move to change, even if they live in a constant state of misery. I used drug imagery, because psychological drugs, or downers, allow you to escape from reality and your problems, and bring you into a surrealistic world where real world issues don’t exist. That’s why it’s so easy for someone to become addicted to drugs, because it’s a temporary solution to escape reality, rather than the permanent solution which would be death. Religion has also been used to ignore facts and things you do not want to accept. For example, the idea of heaven was created because people did not want to cope with the fact that one day they will be dead and none of it would have mattered.

[jodiwalker]

The Best Things Happening on Game of Thrones Right Now

If the current season of Game of Thrones is fan service, then consider me — a fan — serviced, and sign me up, baby. We've been through the hard stuff, we deserve this. This series has finally broken through the stratosphere of TV criticism and into the land of pure joy where Arya can be both a raging lil' sociopath and a beloved protagonist.

So this is neither a review nor a recap, a critique nor a thoughtful analysis influenced by my superior status as a "book-reader." Instead, it is the most advanced of all literary art forms: a list of I've been tickled by in the first two episodes of season 7. The best things happening on Game of Thrones right now definitively are:

Very Silly Reveals That Are Supposed to Change the Game (of Thrones) But Are Kind of Just Really Obvious Solutions

1. There's a Shit Ton of Dragon Glass at…Dragonstone

Of all the things I expected out of this season—reunions, rifts, Cersei dramatically guzzling wine, Arya masked-murderin', Dany sittin' on thrones, hopefully the glorious return of Gendry's biceps—I never anticipated quite this much focus on igneous rocks. Jon Stark's laser focus on digging up dragon glass is starting to sound like a Goop newsletter, and it's not that I wouldn't subscribe (imagine: the fur recs! the tips for sultry lashes! the straightforward syntax without any annoying exclamation points!), it's just all a little more plainly sated than I expected. Jon calls, like, eight Big Chamber Meetings to tell all the Northern elders, plus Lil' Lyanna Mormont that their number one priority is to find dragon glass because it's the only thing they can create weapons out of in mass to kill white walkers. Those meetings go a little something like this:

Jon: How are we gonna kill white walkers?!

Northerners: DRAGONGLASS!

Jon: And where are we gonna find it?!

Sam, from Oldtown: AT—AND YOU'RE REALLY NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS—DRAGONSTONE!

[Ed. note: I've edited out the regular interruptions from Sansa that give me extreme conflicting emotional anxiety, but we'll get to those later in the "So You're Co-Ruling with Your Half-Sister Who's Actually Your Cousin and She's Recently Developed a Mind of Her Own After Surviving Extreme Trauma" section.]

Sending Sam to Oldtown to train as a maester is like the coconut oil/Franks RedHot of Westeros: that shit works on everything. At the Citadel, Sam begins scooping soup, souping poop (in a scene I would have exchanged for an hour-long loop of gruesome murders), and most importantly, sneaking into the restricted section of the library like some sort of chubby lovechild between Voldemort and Harry Potter. He even gets shut down by Jim Broadbent (aka Archmaester Marwyn, absolutely killing the wise, gives-no-shits maester game) and sneaks in anyway. And what did Samwell find in the restricted section?

Well, Sam steals maybe five books and finds the exact answer he needs, plus one he didn't even know he should be looking for—more on that in a minute.

And you know what? That's kind of dumb and unrealistic, but Sam deserves this. He's had a tough life and his dad is a jerk that wanted to kill him and his brother is (well, used to be) the hot guy from Unreal, and everyone shits on him all the time even though he is legitimately the nicest person alive in their godforsaken, feces infested world — dude has earned finding the solution to saving mankind after exactly 10 minutes of cozy reading with his cute wildling life partner and their ageless baby.

So, Sam finds out (via a super lame picture that Jaime could have drawn with his strong hand) that there's a big ol' dragon glass mine at—you're not going to believe this—Dragonstone. All they've gotta do is dig it up. Well, and, y'know, get past Daenerys Targaryen, heir of Dragonstone who recently arrived on its sandy, glass-filled shores. And that other thing that Sam found?

2. The Cure for Greyscale is Just…Peeling Off the Greyscale

Well, no fucking shit, Sam.  I mean, listen, I know I was just singing the kid's praises, but it's pretty crazy to act like you just found the magical cure for Greyscale in your magical secret books when that cure is…peeling off the Greyscaled skin and then putting a bunch of medieval Neosporin on it. But whatever, it's really sweet that Sam wants to help Jorah Mormont so badly because of his affection for Lord Commander Mormont and is willing to flay him to save his life (and definitely give himself Greyscale with the way he's using those gloves). So go ahead, Sam, peel off that Greyscale in your secret Dr. Pimple sessions—your solution might be obvious, but at least it's not dumb, dumb, dumb…

3. The Dragon Feller That's Just…a Crossbow

So, John is concerned with defeating the white walkers because, y'know, strong moral fiber and a her survivor's guilt complex and all that. But Cersei is mainly concerned with defeating anyone who would try to take the Iron Throne from her that she didn't already blow up with magic fire. And that means she's got to look alive about the tiny blonde Targaryen heading her way who's bringing, along with her legitimate claim to the throne, her three big ass dragons that were, coincidentally, born from a magic fire.

It's going to take something big to defeat those dragons. Something magical. Something much more powerful than even wildfire. Something like…

A BIG ASS CROSSBOW, BABY! Yeah, that will be great for killing dragons — if the dragons are sitting still, 1,000 years old, and already dying peacefully of natural causes. It's okay, Qyburn. They can't all be skull-crushing Frankenzombies held together by Husky R' Us armor level ideas, buddy.

Arya and Her Whole Thing

I remember when How to Get Away With Murder premiered there were a bunch of think pieces that were all, Finally! A Female Anti-Hero for Us to Love Just Like All Those Dude Anti-Heroes We Loved on A&E and HBO! Of course, no one loved Viola Davis' anti-hero like they loved Walter White because people don’t like to love flawed women like they like to love flawed men (and the show's not as good, but Viola is). And so, when Arya gave the best revenge performance of all time at the top of the season 7 premiere, there were a bunch of (to be fair, legitimate) articles that were all Should We Really Be Rooting for Arya? Is Arya a Sociopath Now? Arya Sure Looked like She Wanted to Kill Ed Sheeran, an Innocent Soldier, Who We Will Tell You Later How WE'D Like to Kill, But for Different Totally Valid Reasons.

So let me just say, yes! Arya is a probably a semi-psychopathic now, and yes! We should be rooting for her. She is but a simple mercenary setting out to avenge the death of her loved ones using humble blood magic. Yes, she killed Walder Frey, and yes, she fed him to his sons, and yes she then skinned him and wore his face in order to poison all those sons who she had just fed a pie made out of their dad, but you know what she also did…spared the women who hadn’t done anything wrong except be born into that nasty family. And yes she maybe only spared them to have this bad ass parting line, delivered with just perfect level-headed menace by Maisy Williams: "When people ask you what happened here — tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey."

But she is Arya and I love her, and I support her in anything she does…unless she kills any of the characters I like, in which case I will have to write some think pieces.

Sibling Dramzzz: Stark Edition

And speaking of Starks you have to keep your eye on, Sansa and Jon are having kind of a hard time co-parenting the North, and that's probably because people just loooove putting Jon in charge, even though Sansa should kind of technically be in charge, the only problem is, that Sansa's so annoying. Now, Sansa has made large strides toward being less annoying. But for every two steps forward (occasionally telling Lord Baelish to go fuck himself, knowing about war, not being a moralizing idealist), she interrupts Jon six times in their council meetings and tells him how stupid he is.

And listen, I get it — I have siblings. No one knows you better, and no one knows they know you better. When someone acts like they understand you better than you understand yourself, and worse, they're probably right, it can be trying. When Sansa tells Jon that he's going to get his head chopped off like his virtuous father and brother before him, she's not necessarily, but she is annoying. In a made-up world with dragons and child-sacrifice and, like, constant incest that's often not very relatable, I find this Jon and Sansa stuff frustratingly relevant.

The complexity of familial bonds is a language that spans universes (I mean, I guess that's ignoring the thing I just said about near-constant incest), so when Sansa says just the right bratty thing — "Joffrey never let anyone question his decisions, do you think he was a good king?" — to set Jon off, or when Jon and Sansa get on the same page about something, then he immediately changes his mind and announces it at the dinner table, so she questions his decision in front of all their gossipy cousins…it's normal family stuff, just at much higher, head-chopping stakes.

My great fear is that the tentative but often sweet partnership these two eldest "children" of Ned Stark have formed will somehow be ruined by Littlefinger. So boyyyyyy was it gratifying when Jon choked his old ass out when he was all I wanted to fuck your step-mom and now I want to fuck your half-sister, just thought I'd tell you that right here in front of your dead dad's crypt. And mannnnn was it concerning when Sansa backed down from publicly challenging Jon about his decision to leave the North and sale to Dragonstone the moment she learned he was leaving her in charge of the North in his absence, then immediately looked to Littlefinger for…what? Approval? Guidance? Shared joy? None are great options.

Just get though this Jon and Sansa  — I promise you’ll be best friends when you’re adults!

Sibling Dramzzz: Greyjoy Edition

Yo, this family is Messed! Up! Theon jumped off a ship rather than risk saving his sister Yara from their super-pirate uncle who's now taking Yara, Ellaria, and the last remaining Sand Snake, Tyene as his gift to Cersei which will totally make her want to marry him so he can be king, I guess, and not just of his raggedy salt islands.

It will never not be distracting how much Euron looks like Pacey though. If Pacey had a run-in with an H&M clearance rack and the entire smoky eye section of Sephora.

Sibling Dramzzz: Lannister Edition

And speaking of Cersei's current romantic status: Jaime is giving her a looooot of side-eye because she's, y'know, terrible. But she is doing a really fun thing this season where she's constantly recapping how much she hates everyone while subconsciously remaining us how much everyone hates her in return. While roaming around her Etsy map of Westeros, Cersei tells Jaime: "Enemies to the east. Enemies to the south: Ellaria Sand and her brood of bitches. Enemies to the west: Olenna, the old cunt, another traitor. Enemies to the North: Ned Stark's bastard has been named King of the North, and that murdering whore Sansa stands beside him. Enemies everywhere, we're surrounded by traitors!"

Girl, anymore zingers and maybe a concluding paragraph, and they'll give you a byline at Vulture. It is my one true hope that Jaime will realize his sister is insane and kill her before she kills him or Tyrion.

Everything Lil' Lyanna Mormont Does

I don't care if it's Disney-Channel-level precocious, I don't care if they're just giving us more of what we want…actually, I do care. Give me more of what I want! And what I want is the Lil'est Lady of Bear Island repeatedly telling a bunch of giant grizzled dudes to STFU. "I don't plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me," she says when it's proposed that girls should be trained to fight in the war to come. "I might be small and I might be a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as you. And I don't need your permission to defend the North." Yes, my tiny queen! I don't know if they heard you in the back, but at this point in time, just about every major house in the realm is run by a woman And speaking of…

Jon and Dany Said Each Other's Names and Hopefully That Will All Be Fine

That's it, that's all I needed. Now they can either become best friends or fall in incestuous Targaryen love, there is no other option.

Images: HBO; BlondieTVJunkie/tumblr

[thecupcakeconsumer]

Seeing Red pt. 5 - Infection

A/N: Okay! This isn't exactly a full chapter with a discernable plot so much as it is a series of scenes, but I really liked the quite welcome change. Drabbles, I'd call it, but they're all about 500-750 words, so it's more like short shorts. All filled exactly one letter-size page in 12 pt. font, that's the only deciding factor, and they do go in order of appearance! 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 (You are here!)

Request: Technically this wasn't asked for. But it contains some thoughts that I discussed with @writers-block0o0​. I'm sad to see this end, but, of course, I've got tons more ideas to pursue with this reader! Anyone can request them, or anything Virals-related, in my message box, asks, comments, I really don't care how you reach me!

Navigation: Masterlist is here.

Taglist: @writers-block0o0​, @imaginesbyemma​, I tag by request for pairings/series/fandoms.

Summary: You may have lost what made you different, but it's resurfaced, and the impacts haven't been buried. In interacting with others in your life, you find relationships redefined, as you share those close to you a part of yourself.

Warnings: Puns, feels, and fluff. All of the segments are puntitled, and we also have (entirely safe) underage driving. I may have, for once in my life, managed to have this entirely clean!

Word Count: 3,131

Other Notes: Female reader. Post-Terminal, pre-Spike. (It goes Shock, Swipe, Spike, Shift, right? It's Shock, Shift, Swipe, Spike. I'll never get that order right).

Furtively Different

“So, that's... that's how it is?”

Shelton narrowed his eyes at you.

The last one of your closest friends you had told, and the look he was giving you was making you start to regret – if only in the slightest – not choosing to keep Tory or Ben or Hi with you for support.

Instead, you had loaded it onto him at lunch, and only now, standing in the hallway outside of your tech classroom, could he react.

You had waited until everything resolved itself to choose to potentially widen the gap between you and the pack – because you weren't sure that you could have faced this divided.

Not that it had made much of a difference. Your flaring abilities had been stripped, experiments conducted, and none of you were near the same... though your infection had started to resurface in the strangest of ways.

Your flare color and abilities hadn't gone away, they had simply... changed. And by that, you meant that the red you had once had danced around the color wheel to a dark blue while Tory and her boys' flaring took the form of light blue eyes and communication almost without borders.

Though you wouldn't really know much about the telepathy. Just as your eyes were darker than the pack's now, the same abilities had been used for a darker purpose, taking advantage of the strength and the individuals but never with any of the same links that seemed to bring together your best friends.

“Yeah, that's how it is now,” you finally answered, bringing yourself back to the moment.

He let out a low whistle. “Tell me, does your Trinity know how to count?”

That was what he was commenting on?

“Ella, Will and Cole were the voluntary members,” you explained. “Chance was the unofficial orchestrator that Will didn't really like to acknowledge, and then I was pretty much the bargaining chip between the two. He got control over them, they got control over me.”

“I know where he lives.”

“So do I,” you added apprehensively. “Wait, what are you saying?”

“Nothing,” responded Shelton a little too quickly. “Nothing, Y/N. I just can't believe I wasn't invited to your girls' night with your boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Awww, Shelousy, I'll sit through all your One Direction albums with you to make it up to you.”

“Do that and I might just forget that you called me Shelousy.”

“Deal!”

Unable to resist the urge, you threw your arms around his neck in a hug.

“This is new. Do we usually hug?”

Despite his words, Shelton's arms tightened around your waist, returning the sentiment.

“We do now. Suck it up.”

He laughed. “Or what? You'll sink your canines into me?”

“Are you really pulling a Hi?” you asked, pulling back to stare fixedly at him. “I would say you're doggone mad.”

The hallway's artificial light glinting off his glasses, Shelton shook his head. “You're barking up the wrong tree.”

“Damn. This is really ruff.”

“Not feeling it here? I can take you to LIRI. You'd fit right in with the labs.”

“Oh, please, I'll have you eating your words so fast you'll be wolfing them down.”

“Just stop,” bemoaned Jason, causing you to startle as you remembered that you weren't the only people in the hallway. “Please. For the good of everyone.”

In perfect unison, you and Shelton retorted, “Don't hound us about it,” before high-fiving.

“But, come to think of it, we really should stop.”

“Agreed.”

“Oh, thank God.”

Driving Me Crazy

Tap, tap, tap.

Dark eyes, the cobalt blue of a deep ocean, regarded idly the repeated motion against the desk.

Heightened hearing could not only hear the tapping, but its resonance through the dark wood.

Your new control over your flaring had taken some getting used to, but you had gradually become more accepting of it.

Curious, how though accepting its effects and giving into the flare, you had never quite consciously come to terms with the fact that you would be forever biologically changed by it.

You couldn't just go to the doctor and have bloodwork done, nor could you ever consider yourself entirely human.

Human, there's a thought. “What's the difference between human and humane?”

“Deep.”

The voice, recognizable immediately, was easy for you to place in the room, and you threw the pencil at Chance without even having to look back from your comfortable seat in the office chair.

He moved out of the way. Damn.

“Can we talk?”

SNUP

Grateful for being able to quell your flare instantly now, you spun around. “About what?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?” you repeated. “Grab the keys.”

Chance, confused, nonetheless walked forward as you herded him out of your room and down the stairs, obliging your request as you pulled on your shoes.

“Where do you want to-?” “Pass the keys.”

“You can't drive. It's not even legal, you don't have a permit.”

When you didn't respond, he crossed his arms over his chest, affixing you with a stern look, in as close to a show of responsibility over you as he had ever gotten.

“Are you asking me to teach you to drive?”

“No. I'm telling you that if you want to talk it'll be about the gear shift.”

Chance continued his staring for just a moment longer before nodding. “Let's go, then.”

For as long as you had known him, you had never seen Chance in the passenger seat of his own car – which served to you as a sign that he

“What's brought this on?” you asked with a side glance, accidentally putting on the wrong turn signal and quickly correcting the mistake. “You're breaking the law to hang out with me.”

“Not my first time breaking the law,” he commented under his breath. “You're my sister.”

You raised your eyebrows at the stop sign ahead of you. “Did you do a genetics test, or...?”

“If I'm responsible for a human life, it's useful for that human to actually communicate. I've made mistakes. Huge mistakes. You were kidnapped. Once by a psychopath, once by the government.”

“And…?”

“And that wouldn't have happened if I had listened to you for once. So I'm here. And I'm ready to talk to you about anything.”

“Anything?” The word was dangerous. It should have been outlawed years ago.

“Anything.”

“Have you ever had gay thoughts for Jason Taylor?”

The glimpse you managed of his expression was priceless. “The hell kind of question is that?”

“Unless,” you added with a wide grin, “you'd like to start this new relationship by lying to me-”

“I haven't had gay thoughts for Jason Taylor!” he sputtered, then paused. “More than once.”

“So you have had them!” Lifting your foot off the gas at a stoplight, you raised the roof triumphantly. “Called it.”

Frying My Nerves

“Eyes on the road, Y/N,” muttered Chance, but the corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.

“Y/N! Over here!” You looked up curiously, seeing Tory stand and wave at your lunch table.

Approaching, you realized she was the only one there. “Where are-?”

“Oh, they're around. Somewhere. I just wanted to make sure you saw me.” She smiled.

“Tory. We always sit here, and in case you hadn't noticed, there's not that many redheads in this school,” you teased, but nonetheless sat down. “How's it going with you and Ben?”

Sighing, Tory asked, “Since when are you into girl talk?”

“No, we're talking about your boy, silly. Duh.” Leaning forward on your hands, you gave her your attention. “Tell me, does that darkness and mystery about him lend passion to your relationship?”

Her smile twisted downward into an oh, really? look. “Yeah, you're insufferable.”

“You didn't answer the question, unless – wait, you said yeah, was that my answer?”

The other girl didn't answer, only waggled her eyebrows. “It's… a little tense, but also intense.”

“Tense as in…?” you prompted.

“As in I literally made out with your-”

You covered your ears. “Ew, ew, ew! Disgusting! No more boy talk. Ever again. You ruined it.”

“No, we can still do boy talk. With the alarmingly small number of tolerable girls in this school,  I need to keep my options open.” Tory grinned nonetheless at your reaction. “He's not bad.”

“Who's not bad? And at what?” you asked, tilting your head to the side.

“They're both not bad at kissing.”

Groaning, you grit out, “Stop, stop, those are my brothers.”

“Brothers?” she repeated, copying your motion of tilting her head.

“Brothers. Friends. Same difference,” you scoffed, but you wouldn't take it back any time soon.

“It's just… weird.” Tory stole a fry off of your tray, waving it in the air as she spoke. “Ben and I. Normal boyfriends, you'd introduce them to your parents and then your dad would give them the whole what-are-your-intentions-with-my-daughter speech and you'd be super embarrassed. But he and Kit already know each other.” She put the fry in her mouth, brow furrowing. “We haven't really gone on any real dates, either. What did you and Hi do?”

“Well, Hi's never met my parents, if that's what you're asking,” you started, “and Chance doesn't really count, now, does he? They'd hate each other regardless of whether I was involved.”

“That's not what I meant. I meant, what did the two of you do for your first date?”

“I don't remember when it stopped being considered the two of us hanging out and started being dating,” you replied with a shrug. “He asked me to be his girlfriend in front of the Pineapple Fountain, I remember, and I almost shoved him in I was so surprised. I guess that would've been our first date.”

“Wait, he asked you to be his girlfriend there?” Tory snickered.

“What, you never knew? After that he started singing, 'Who's in front of a pineapple beside the sea? Hi's new girl-friend' and I broke up with him for all of five minutes.”

She stole another fry from the tray you hadn't touched. “So when Hi says he's been in more than one relationship with a beautiful girl more than once he's not lying?”

“I don't know. He might just be talking about his mother,” you mused in response with a laugh.

Tory's expression shifted. “You know, I think you're really strong and resilient and loyal.”

“What do you want?” you asked suspiciously.

“It just came to mind, with all that happened. And I'm glad you're willing to talk about it.”

Even so, you knew that part of the reason she forgave you so readily is because after what Ben had done to earn her affection, the grudge that Tory had held impacted her pack and her relationship.

She wouldn't let misunderstanding stand between her and the ones she loved again.

“Sure, sure, just make sure you call my cell and not the house phone next time you need me.”

“That was one time!” Her freckles were obscured by her furious blush.

“Yes, but the fact that you knew I was home and didn't consider Chance and started gushing about how I think I might have a problem, it's heavier than usual, it's painful and-”

“Shut up, shut up!”

Assailance at Sea

“Are you sure?”

Ben crossed his arms over his chest, raising both eyebrows. “Are you saying that I should leave you here on this beach alone, to whatever elements of nature, and your likely death?”

“Yes.” You laid in the sand, sprawling dramatically. “Leave me here. Let me die alone.”

“Get up, Y/N.” Stoic expression still in place, his voice betrayed his amusement.

“I won't burden you. I will become one with the sand. When you come back there will be naught to suggest my existence. You will walk on this beach and think of me, and wonder why.”

“I see why Hi and you mesh well together,” he commented, forcibly yanking you to your feet and onto Sewee. “I also see why he'll kill me if I let you die on this beach.”

“Awww, good to know, you're doing this for your own life and not mine.”

Ben's lips thinned. “That, and the fact that I want to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Your eyebrows arched, intrigued. “Recently everyone does. I should start charging.”

“Listen, I… you know Tory pretty well, right?”

“You want to talk about Tory? Really? First time alone with you in ages and you want to talk about your girlfriend? Honestly, you two are boring. Were Hi and I really this bad? Is this karma?”

“Yes,” he responded immediately, then adding, “Us two?”

“I will betray nothing of our private correspondences.”

“What if I offer you dirt on Hi?”

You didn't stop to contemplate for long. “She totally wants you to take her on a date.”

“He's thinking of asking you and Chance to dinner at his place with his parents.”

“No,” you breathed, eyes widening. “How do I know you're not lying?”

He shot you a blank stare. “Do you want to see the messages? “

“Wait, you have messages?” Lighting up, you proposed, “If you show me the messages I'll help you plan a date for Tory tonight on IM. Deal?”

“I'm betraying the integrity of the group chat in doing this,” he droned.

“Please. Like you care about the integrity of the group chat.”

“You know me so well.”

Ben passed his phone to you, and you lit up. “Wow. This is intense. So many messages.”

You frowned. “He really freaked out about this and proposed a role play while no one was on and then started acting as me, Chance, Linus and Ruth all by himself?”

“You know your drama queen.” He glanced over. “Wait, stop scrolling up!”

“You enabled me. You did this. This is international waters. I am bound by no law.”

“It's my boat. You're bound by the law of my fist.”

“Oh, Ben, you know exactly what to say to please a woman.”

Pretending to continue to scroll through the messages even as you had turned off the screen, you smiled to yourself, glad that the two of you were back to the way you always were.

You weren't sharing that much – Ben never had.

He was the closer-to-your-age and less frigid brother Chance wasn't, even if the story would probably be far different if the two of you lived in the same house and he had to drive you everywhere.

Still, he was like family.

“He's got characterization on point. Y/N: Wow, Mrs Stolowitski, these muffins are delicious. Hi: That's not the only delicious thing she's made. Chance: There's only so many things on this table.”

“None of us could read that. It was too painful.”

“It's like fanfiction. Can you imagine people making fanfiction about you?”

“You know Tumblr. It's a cesspool.”

“Morris Island is a cesspool. You're all criminals. Every one of you has committed a felony.”

“I guess we are.” Thinking you weren't looking, Ben broke out a grin. “Some of us steal hearts.”

“Benjamin Blue! You've been spending far too much time with Hi.”

“Any time is far too much time with that clown.”

Walking It Out

“Hey, sexy!”

You froze, hand at your side curling into a fist at the words, a voice you couldn't quite place.

“My beautiful babushka!”

Oh. It was only Hi. “You know that means grandma, don't you?”

Falling into step beside you, your boyfriend shrugged. “Doesn't matter. You'd make a beautiful grandma just like you make a beautiful girlfriend.”

“Oh, stop it.”

“You're blushing. I win!”

“I'm not blushing.” You rolled your eyes. “What's up? Did you just miss your ride home?”

“Worth it for you, but for the record, yes. Yes, I did. However, I have an excuse, and you're going to need to keep going straight here.”

“My house is to the right, though.” Tilting your head to the side, you chanced, “Are you high?”

“Yes, I am Hi, as a matter of fact. And you? Divine.” He grinned, a spring to his step as he half-tugged, half-dragged you in the wrong direction.

“I have a bag. I hope you aren't planning on taking me somewhere where they'll think I'm shoplifting. Or particularly far.”

Hi grabbed the bag off your shoulder. “Solved. Now I have you for as long as I want, right?”

“I finally convinced Chance to cook dinner, so you until my likely death by food poisoning.”

“When's he home?”

“Eight o'clock.”

“Plenty of time, plenty of time!” Your boyfriend smiled wider, if possible. “And I have your bag so you can't run away if you want to get your homework done.”

“Blackmail. Such lowliness you stoop to to get my attention.”

“Your attention is a sweet bliss as I do not deserve.” He grinned. “Guess where we're going?”

“There are so many places in downtown Charleston, I at least need a hint.”

“We've been there before.”

“Yeah, because that narrows down the options,” you drawled sarcastically, but soon processed your destination when one of two distinct fountains came into focus. “We're going to Waterfront Park?”

Hi applauded with a laugh. “You are indeed the genius that I gladly asked to be my girlfriend here. Yeah, we're going to Waterfront Park. You've been...” he drum-rolled on his thighs, “dated!”

“Tell me something I don't know.”

“You don't know that you're the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on,” he replied.

Hi. Ever the charmer.

“Nor do you know that here – in the same park as the Pineapple Fountain, the Charleston symbol for hospitality and the accommodation of our small corner of the country, that which is south of the icy north's frigid and unwelcoming igloos and-”

“You're gushing because you're nervous about what you want to ask me, and you want specifically to ask me if I'll bring Chance – or, rather, he'll bring me – to your house to have dinner with your family because you feel our relationship has progressed enough that you would like me to meet your family, formally, as your long-term girlfriend and love.”

Now at a halt, it took several moments for Hi to regain control of his jaw to close his mouth.

When he finally managed to do so, his first words were, “What. The. Hell.”

Well, sorry, Ben, though it didn't seem that his first instinct was to blame one of the other boys.

“You're smarter than I thought. I mean, not that I didn't think you were smart. I thought you were smart – not smarter than Tory, I mean, I did but don't tell her that, and I guess you two are smart in different ways and-” He stopped, reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his neck. “So, yes?”

“Yes, I'll have dinner with your family.” Smiling demurely, you added, “If Chance agrees.”

“I'll take my chances.”

He scrambled to find his footing as you attempted to push him into the fountain. “Assault!”

A/N: That’s done! I’m glad and sad at the same time. I’m working on something else for this world, and damn, I’ll get to work on a masterlist soon because this is most definitely getting intense. Thanks for reading!

[96thdayofrage]

How dumb do Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, Al Franken, D-MI, and Elizabeth Warren, D-OK, think we are? All three Democratic presidential hopefuls are “initial co-sponsors” of an Orwellian bill to “enhance” our government’s ability to “prevent genocide and mass atrocities” with military force: S enate Bill 1158, the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2017 .

Remember the US war to prevent genocide and mass atrocities in Libya? Where the Obama Administration toppled the secular Libyan state, and destroyed its national oil company to make way for US oil corporations? Where Hillary Clinton ordered the assassination of an African president, and left a failed state of warring militias, including ISIS, plus a modern-day slave trade and streams of desperate refugees risking their lives to get to Europe from Libyan shores.

The US war to “prevent genocide and mass atrocities” in Syria is of course ongoing, even though President Trump shut down Obama’s billion-dollar operation to train Islamist militias who were fighting each other when they weren’t fighting President Bashar al-Assad. The casualties in Syria are well into the hundreds of thousands, the refugees and internally displaced persons equal to half the pre-war population of 22 million. Nevertheless, Syria’s secular state, its national oil company, and its national bank still stand, thanks to Russia’s decision to draw the line and lend military support.

Let’s not forget Bush’s preemptive war. He gave us an absolutely ridiculous excuse: that he had to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking the US with “weapons of mass destruction.” So the US invaded Iraq, destroying much of its infrastructure and archaeological heritage, killing a million or more Iraqis, and discharging so much toxic ordnance that the people of Basra and Fallujah now suffer high rates of cancer and unprecedented rates of birth defects. The US destroyed Iraq’s national oil company, opened its oil fields to Bush’s oil tycoon cronies, toppled a secular government, let a Shia minority seize power, and made way for the current battles raging between Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish militias. Most recently, the US destroyed the City of Mosul to save it from ISIL.

Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy, but if anyone—including Cory Booker, Al Franken, and Elizabeth Warren—believes that’s why the US did all that to Iraq, I’d like to sell them 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger, along with the Washington Post and the New York Times—all at a one-time bargain basement price.

But they don’t believe that, and they don’t believe any outlandish claims that the US prevents genocide and mass atrocities or wants to. They don’t believe that WAR IS PEACE and FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, because whatever else we may think about Senators Booker, Franken, and Warren, they’re not that stupid. They’re just hoping that we are, or that we’re so mortified by Donald Trump that we’ll line up behind one of them or another militarist Democrat in 2020. Or they’re hoping that most of us are too damaged, distracted, disaffected, or disengaged to care.

Origins of S.1158 – the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2017

Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, the Democrats’ top dog on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. He is an avowed Zionist, frequently lauded by AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America , and the Zionist press. He has supported US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, opposed the Iran nuclear deal, called for the removal of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and said that the US cannot accept North Korea’s status as a minor nuclear power.

Cardin also joined Ohio Republican Ron Portman to introduce Senate Bill 7.20 – the Israel Anti-Boycott Act , which would make it a felony for Americans to support the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement that was created to protest Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine. If S.720 becomes law, avoiding the purchase of Israeli goods for political reasons will become a federal crime punishable by a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.

Neither Cory Booker, nor Al Franken, nor Elizabeth Warren have joined the 43 Senators, mostly Republicans, co-sponsoring S.720. Such an outright assault on our civil rights might go down less well with their liberal base than preventing genocide and mass atrocities. Doesn’t every liberal Democrat, and indeed every American of good will, want to prevent genocide and mass atrocities? Only a psychopath wouldn’t.

As the US and NATO’s war on Libya began, Pakistani scholar Tariq Ali wrote in the Monthly Review, “The sheer cynicism is breathtaking. We're expected to believe that the leaders with bloody hands in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are defending the people in Libya. The fact that decent liberals still fall for this rubbish is depressing.”

On the fifth anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Ali wrote that, “The human cost of this war would, if some other country were doing it, be labeled genocide.”

Democrats for Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Twenty Democrats, including Booker, Franken, and Warren, but only five Republicans, have signed on as co-sponsors of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Mass Atrocities Prevention Act. Indeed, much of this Orwellian movement is coordinated within the elite, richly resourced, corporate funded, ideological bastions of the Democratic Party. One of these is the “ENOUGH Project to counter genocide and crimes against humanity ,” founded by career militarists John Prendergast and Gayle Smith. Enough is an NGO subsidiary of a larger NGO, the Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP is a think tank, aka propaganda vehicle, founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta. Podesta played key roles in both the Clinton and Obama Administrations prior to his Wikileaks notoriety.

Another key pillar of genocide prevention propaganda is Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy , founded by Samantha Power. After Power became its first Executive Director. she worked with “the US Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute” to produce Mass Atrocity Response Operations , a Military Planning Handbook . As President Obama’s Ambassador, she went on to crusade for US/NATO wars in Libya and Syria, then to rant, rave, and fulminate about Russia.

One of ENOUGH’s greatest propagandistic achievements is STAND , “the student-led movement to end mass atrocities,” which declares that it’s on a mission “to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and end genocide.” STAND has chapters on high school, college ,and university campuses all over the US with regional coordinators in the West, Midwest, Southeast, Eastern, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast. John Kerry, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, and John Prendergast have all appeared to speak at its campus events.

STAND shows a list of films and promotes a list of books about Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, the Holocaust, and Rwanda, all of which support the justifying narratives that prevail in the US foreign policy establishment. STAND’s R2P— [ Responsibility to Protect ] — Student Journal is now accepting submissions from both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

I’m sure that a few veterans of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , and the movement to end the Vietnam War are reading this and shaking their heads, as are a few of the millions who surged into streets all over the world desperate to stop the Iraq War in 2003. Who imagined that one year later, a national, networked student lobby for war would be growing out of the Save Darfur movement with so much institutional support in Washington D.C.?

STAND, the Aegis Trust, and their matching concerns

In 2015, STAND became the official youth chapter of the Aegis Trust , an offshoot of the UK National Holocaust Center. Aegis claims responsibility for the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, which exists to enshrine the official lies equating the Holocaust and the Rwandan massacres of 1994. These lies are at the heart of the Western interventionist canon and the Rwanda/Israel Pact . A page of the Aegis website reads:

“We failed in Rwanda. We failed in Srebrenica. But you are writing a different future. Today I am moved, and I am inspired.” - UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

That reminded me of Norman Finkelstein calling Ban Ki-moon “a comatose puppet of the United States.”

STAND’s “conflict areas” of concern match those of the Aegis Trust: Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Burma, and Syria. Palestine has never been on their lists. STAND’s “policy statements” read like those of the Aegis Trust, the Enough Project, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and STAND chapters lobby their House Reps and Senators accordingly. How deep into the deep state is that?

Whatever the answer, passage of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act is now among STAND’s top priorities, so they’re no doubt on the phone requesting meetings and urging Senators Booker, Franken, Warren and others to move their bill out of committee to the Senate Floor.

Will anyone call to tell these Senators that WAR IS NOT PEACE, THE US DOES NOT PREVENT GENOCIDE, and there’s no way they could honestly believe the bs in this bill?

[essenceoffilm]

Primal Binary Battles

One does not regularly remember the name of J. Lee Thompson nor should one, really. Sometimes good films appear in unusual places, in the hands of understandably overlooked directors. For Thompson’s thriller classic Cape Fear (1962) might just be the only decent film in an otherwise sub-par oeuvre. When Brian De Palma remade Howard Hawks’ classic tale of fascist megalomania in Scarface (1983), he felt it necessary to dedicate his re-imagination to both Hawks and scriptwriter Ben Hecht. Such sense of responsibility did not occur in the mind of Martin Scorsese when he remade Cape Fear (1991). Kudos to the performers and the music of the original version, Scorsese cast the original actors Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, and Robert Mitchum in supporting roles, used Bernard Herrmann’s original score, but essentially changed the film’s visual aesthetics. The reason might be that the 1962 version of Cape Fear is not representative of Thompson’s mediocre cinema -- one can recall the catastrophe of Mackenna’s Gold (1969), Death Wish 4 (1987), or two terrible Planet of the Apes sequels -- but is actually quite a solid film, most likely due to a multitude of reasons: from Thompson’s strokes of luck with John D. MacDonald’s tight pulp novel and Herrmann’s Hitchcockian music to Mitchum’s bestial performance as the psychopathic criminal Max Cady, Cape Fear remains a genre classic and a gem to visit whenever one feels that one has memorized the Hitchcock canon through and through again. Its story is such a frightening reminder of the fragility of our legal system that Michael Haneke might be inspired, but its plot also seems to capture a deeper, primordial myth of conflicts within humanity. 

The story encapsulates this myth into a dramatic conflict between two characters, or two sides of the same coin. Sam Bowden, a lawyer, a husband, and a father, played by Gregory Peck, has created himself a sustainable career and a reputation as a successful model citizen of the American idyll. One day a creature from the past emerges when an ex-con by the name of Max Cady approaches Bowden, reminding him of an old case where Bowden performed as a witness to Cady’s crime which sent Cady to prison for eight years. Soon Cady starts making a mockery of everything Bowden has believed in and built his whole life on. Cady’s very presence in Bowden’s vicinity seems to mock the American legal system whose loopholes Cady exploits in order to drive Bowden crazy and have his vengeance. Where Cady uses legalities to get to Bowden, Bowden, conversely, must resort to crime, the external world to his secular god of law, to get to Cady. Their conflict culminates in a thrilling sequence where Bowden tricks Cady into attacking his family in their houseboat on the Cape Fear River. Even though things take a surprising twist, Bowden is able to find justice, keep his family relatively intact, and capture Cady for the police.

As mentioned, Cape Fear is based on a pulp novel, The Executioners (1957) by John D. MacDonald. The film adaptation was allegedly supposed to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but unclear disputes led to an (we may assume) unfortunate directorial change from the master of suspense to Thompson. Hitchcock’s presence (whether as a possible storyboard artist during pre-production or just as someone who saw cinematic potential in MacDonald’s story) illuminates the film from Herrmann’s score, which sounds very similar to his score in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), to Thompson’s use of stylized lighting with heavy contrasts, striking choices of camera angles, and a narrative relying more on subtle innuendo than graphic depiction (which is completely altered in Scorsese’s remake). A further, though minor, connection to Psycho is that Martin Balsam plays the hero’s assistant in both films. Both films also discuss split personality: Psycho does it more directly in the schizophrenic character of Norman Bates, while Cape Fear does it more indirectly in the dualism of Bowden and Cady. These make Cape Fear a contender for “the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made” against Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) and Donen’s Charade (1963). 

Unlike Cukor’s traditional Victorian period picture and Donen’s lighthearted romantic adventure, Thompson’s Cape Fear was quite a bold film for its time. Sharing another similarity with Psycho, Cape Fear most likely succeeded in shocking its contemporary audience. Although the film was toned down from the MacDonald novel to the extent that the word “rape” was not allowed to be mentioned, the threat Mitchum’s character embodies feels very real and urgent. His nihilistic disregard for his own life and his greater maliciousness toward Bowden and the bourgeois society he represents are further accompanied by the innuendo regarding Cady’s sexual interest not only in Bowden’s wife but also in Bowden’s pre-teen daughter played by Lori Martin. While failing to attain the level of Psycho, Cape Fear still remains shocking and not only for the sake of being shocking; its atmosphere of threat and danger reflects deeper, mythic themes studied beneath the surface level.

It is sometimes preferable to leave things undisclosed and avoid a conventional exposition in the beginning of a film, but the introduction of Mitchum’s character in Cape Fear succeeds in simplicity and represents pure visual art of exposition. The film begins with a man in white clothing walking to a courthouse. Walking the outdoor stairs, the first thing he does is taking a look at a woman’s bottom. When inside, walking the indoor staircase, he nonchalantly passes by a woman who drops a book without the slightest consideration of giving a helping hand. As the man finally reaches the door of a courtroom, where Sam Bowden is currently at work, another lawyer takes a long look at him. The man is an outsider. The man is Max Cady. This succinct and concise wordless exposition establishes the character’s disposition: his carnal licentiousness, his promiscuous relation to women, his selfishness, and his unsuitability to the surrounding environment. 

These features come to determine Max Cady, the devil in white clothing. The solid exposition associates sexual virility with impoliteness and licentiousness, but it also importantly emphasizes the disproportion between the character and the environment. Max Cady does not belong to the courthouse, to this town, to the United States, to this human world -- or so people like Sam Bowden, those who built that world, would like to think. The reason for this disproportion between Cady and the world, both moral and ontological by nature, is the fact that Cady represents anarchistic fascism. He is the Hobbesian man in the state of nature where man is a wolf to his fellow man. He embodies the primal forces which threaten western democracy, the natural forces which ought to be repressed by a social contract. He is the evil which lurks in darkness to attack the good residing in broad daylight.

In other words, there is a battle between nature and civilization, a battle which normally remains hidden in the hearts of men, but which now emerges on the surface of the society. The conflict between Cady and Bowden constantly drives the latter on the brink of abandoning civilization and its pillars of law as the barbaric impulses of nature allure him. “Cady is an animal, so you have to treat him like an animal,” affirms a private detective who suggests Bowden to hire a couple of thugs to beat up Cady. The forces of nature embodied by Cady tempt Bowden who is about to deceive Cady, to abandon the rules of civilization, to play by the rules of nature, but, in the end, or at the eleventh hour, Bowden finds strength to rely on civilization and gives Cady to the police. He cannot murder Cady. At the last moment, he realizes that he cannot abandon everything he has believed in and built his whole bourgeois life on. Despite the seeming return to the tranquility and peace of the civilization in the end, primal hatred and lust for blood gleam in Bowden’s furious eyes as Bowden denies Cady of his last wish to die (”I just don’t give a damn’”), finding pleasure in describing the torturous length of Cady’s prison sentence to come. Thus the primal forces of nature find their vague embodiment in the world of law, too; they manifest in the justice of punishment under the accepted guise of the social contract. 

Given the social nature of the themes treated in Cape Fear, there is an undeniable presence of class conflict in the dramatic battle between Bowden and Cady. Although the spectator probably identifies with Bowden’s anguish, they must also notice Bowden’s higher social status to Cady’s blue-collar being. Bowden has good relations with the police, whereas the police take a doubtful attitude toward Cady. Bowden can afford a private eye and a couple of thugs, whereas Cady must rely on his own physical force. Bowden has had not only the time but also the social opportunities to build a family and a career, whereas Cady has lost both. Cady’s lower social position is highlighted not only by his relaxed clothing and the doubt he evokes in those around him but also by the relations between him and the other characters. A woman, who Cady picks up at a bar and later rapes, tells Cady how good it feels to know that one “cannot sink any lower.” To her, Cady is the “rock bottom” she is now hitting. Cady’s unsuitability to the social environment surrounding him only emphasizes his determination: what does Cady have to lose? 

In one sense, Cape Fear traces the sources of the vigilante ideology to these feelings of disappointment. Cady takes not law but moral justice to his own hands when he feels (erroneously or not) that the former has not been in service of the latter. Bowden does the same when he feels that the law is incapable of protecting him. The vigilante heroes of the American society are disappointed individuals who seek justice beyond civilization. The suggested path, of course, is not that of the vigilantist but of Bowden who, in the end at last, is able to find solace in the realm of law. The irony is that the solace remains just as sadistic. It is still dominated by fear and hate. 

Cape Fear is really a treatise on these primal emotions or their myth. The film concerns fear and hate that are both rational and irrational. It is fear that guides Bowden to act against Cady’s hate, but fear and hate are close companions -- just like Bowden and Cady in their battle. If Bowden’s fear slowly turns into hate, it takes a little longer for Cady’s hate to turn into fear, but eventually fear begins to gleam in Cady’s frightened eyes as well when Bowden corners him in the woods of the Cape Fear River and denies Cady the possibility of death his suicidal behavior was aiming at; when Cady loses the reality of violence, the only reality he knows well enough to call home, and receives an anticipation of his sentence to come. Cady becomes a scared animal in the darkness of nature. Fear might turn wolves into rabbits, but hate also makes villains out of heroes. As the camera slowly tracks backward from the narrow clearing in the woods where Bowden has Cady at gunpoint, what else but a mixture of fear and hate gleam in the eyes of Bowden and his family as they quietly sit on the boat in the middle of wilderness. The film brilliantly ends with a picturesque shot of the boat sailing across the Cape Fear River surrounded by the woods whose trees frame the shot into an ominous image of contrasts. These trees are by symbolic nature the same trees that grow in the backyard of the Bowden residence; they are the trees which remind of the triumph over nature but also inevitably of the fragility of civilization. The trees frame the boat’s journey on the foreground but also on the background as the dense forest looks like an impenetrable wall of darkness. The Bowdens have survived, but the battle has not been resolved. It continues in the infinite circle embodied by the dark, unpredictable world of the trees. 

This ending is telling of the cinematic potential in Cape Fear. While far from being a masterpiece, the film is still thrilling and atmospheric precisely because the appropriate cinematic execution has been discovered for the articulation of the primal battles constituting the drama. Fitting to Cady’s estranged disposition, Mitchum plays the role like a beast among men. His expressionistic acting of exaggerated gestures, cocky poise, and dry malicious remarks has been subdued from his lunatic embodiment of the big bad wolf in Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (1955), but the power of his presence still manages to electrify the natural forces his character of Max Cady represents. Enticed by these forces, Bowden is conversely played by the restraint and cool, yet constantly on the verge of exploding Gregory Peck whose solid face contains these characteristics effortlessly. Herrmann’s string-based score discovers a parallel dimension in music where low sounds are juxtaposed with sounds of a higher pitch. The calm editing rhythm is likewise associated with a deliberately surprising cinematography which, at times, switches from the fluency of slow movement to rapid tracking shots following the tightening of the characters’ nerves in action. The same goes for the film-noir-esque use of light and shadow in the film’s stark mise-en-scène of contrasts, playing with the aesthetic conflicts of day and night, narrowness and width, distance and closeness. The spaces have been carefully chosen and constructed to aid in the elaboration of mood for the entire film. The finale marks the shift to the titular milieu of Cape Fear in North Carolina where the counterpoints collide in physical battle. It leaves a lasting impression of vulnerability and threat due to a new found awareness of the presence of fear and hate. Cape Fear is definitely worth remembering.