#shiv in her traumatized era

[nostalgic-shamefest]

It's starving season if you ship literally anything in succession these days

[artoni-arts]

sparks in the ashes; chapter 12

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what u should know;

@tiesthatbind-tf verse, quintesson-era [late 1920s]

cw; even moar stockholm syndrome, violence, torture, named character injury & death, furmanisms. Another harsh chapter; consider this the boss battle/climax. SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT

Remember that Friday will have TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS to wrap up this arc!

------------------------

Victor's personal experience in battles were limited to either the scuffles of youth or a handful of encounters during the Invasion. As Scarlett's family had done everything in their power to protect their new ‘son', he had managed to avoid the worst of the fighting. Instead, he had seen it from afar or the aftermaths thereof, which had been more than enough to convince him he didn't, in fact, want to get any closer.

But perhaps if he had, he would have been more used to this madness.

Inquirata screamed as Joel threw another burst of electricity, only for the boy to yelp and drop to the ground as a piece of machinery was thrown over his head. Dorothy was out of view, but Anna had taken charge of a half-protesting Simon, whose struggles seemed more token than any real urge to join in the fray. Hei had somehow gotten himself up on another piece of machinery, and was tearing at some of the cables as if he thought it would accomplish something. And Shane-

-Shane was by Victor's side, handing him a shiv. "You know what to do with one of these?" he grimly asked, a completely different man than the traumatized figure Victor had first met. Victor looked down at it, back up at Shane, and then towards Inquirata, who was now whipping its limbs at Hei in an attempt to grab the surprisingly nimble young man. Hei was using one of the torn cables as his own sort of tendril, whirling it about his head in defiance as it sparked angrily.

"I suppose it's better than nothing," Victor sighed, to which Shane barked out a harsh laugh. His side was still encased, Victor noticed, the wrappings visible through his flimsy clothing. And while Katherine was giving the ‘pet' a stern look, she said nothing, instead moving for some cover off to the side after taking a shiv of her own.

The others that Victor had met were nowhere to be seen, perhaps taking cover in their cubicles and hoping for all this to pass quickly. For everyone's sake, Victor hoped so, too; he took a breath and followed Katherine's lead, mind racing as he tried to think of a way to get Rhisling. Primus, following behind, was absolutely right in that they needed to get it away from Inquirata!

"I don't suppose you can do much?" he asked the creation as it reformed next to him. 

Primus grimaced and shook their head. "In all honesty, it would be best for me to shut down as quickly as possible. I am still...programmed to obey Inquirata," they explained, to which Victor shuddered. He absolutely did not want to fight against Primus, not after working with them for so long. "You'd better do it, then." "I don't want to leave you." Primus's upset was clear, even in their strange attempt at a human face, and Victor could only look helplessly at Katherine as if trying to find some answer there. She shrugged.

"May as well keep Inquirata's attention, if that's the case," she told him matter-of-factly. "I don't doubt they'll focus on you, once you poke your head up." 

...considering Victor was more or less the source of all this, he grimaced before nodding in agreement. But before he could do more than open his mouth to respond, there was another scream - human, this time - and it was painfully, painfully familiar. He looked about just in time to catch sight of Shane skewered through his midsection with a broken pipe, Inquirata pinning him to the wall like an insect on display. The Quintesson twisted their weapon, and the man coughed up blood, already growing weak - but his eyes met Victor's with a fierce determination.

If there was a message to be passed, Victor did not understand it. What he did know was that he would not, could not let Shane suffer once more because of him. Steeling himself, he gave Katherine a final look with a tilt of his head towards Primus - keep them safe, please - before throwing himself out and landing in a crouch, shiv at the ready.

"Inquirata!"

The Quintesson didn't need to turn to see him; the face on their 'back' (or was it their front?) sighted him the moment he'd entered its view, and their eyes lit up in rage as they pulled the pipe free of its victim. Shane twitched - the last vestiges of struggle - as he collapsed, but Victor could spare no more attention for him. Not with Inquirata raising its weapon, hissing in fury.

[We don't need you alive to template you,] they snarled, and if Victor had any last thoughts of possibly getting through this in one piece, they vanished into smoke as he took a few steps back. Just in time, for Inquirata lunged with blinding speed, and it was more luck than skill that had him stumble to avoid becoming skewered like poor Shane. Inquirata gave him no time to recover his balance, immediately lashing out again, and it was all Victor could do to keep away from polearm and tendril. His makeshift shiv swatted at the threats, only for a single tentacle to snap around his wrist and twist. He shouted in pain as the shiv was knocked out of his grasp, and grabbed at his captive arm as he was hauled up in the air.

[But perhaps keeping you alive and aware would be a fitting punishment,] Inquirata continued, and Victor's eyes shone bright with horror as he understood the implication. To know he was being used in such a way, to be helpless and unable to do anything to so much as protest - dread threatened to overwhelm him as more of Inquirata's tentacles wrapped about his form, holding him in place-

-and then, abruptly, there was a coil of cable about their eyes. The Quintesson outright squawked in indignant surprise, and another coil appeared just as quickly to further blind them. Chancing a look above, Victor's suspicions were confirmed; a pale-looking Hei had managed to get atop Inquirata, and was throwing the rest of the cabling off to the side.

"Oi, boyo!"

Joel caught it, and immediately started sparking. Any protest Victor might have had was immediately cut off by the surge of energy he felt. Even with his armor, his hair stood on end as he went rigid; however, Inquirata fared far worse, taking the brunt of the charge with a shriek. They spasmed, the grip on Victor loosening until he was dropped to the ground. He grunted at the landing, nevertheless counting his blessings as he scrambled to his feet.

"We need Rhisling!" he shouted at the pair- or, well, just Joel, for he couldn't see where Hei had gotten to. Whether Joel understood what, exactly, Rhisling was remained to be seen - the boy managed a nod nonetheless, dropping the cable-tether and moving to Victor's side.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked, anxious. Victor shook his head, despite feeling a residual tingling in his very bones. 

"I won't tell you to hide," because, if nothing else, Joel had already proved his worth despite his age, "but I will tell you to be careful-!" 

A tired grin was all Joel could give, because with a loud SNAP, Inquirata freed themselves of the cabling. They half-collapsed, supporting themselves with their tendrils as a set of eyes locked on Joel and Victor with utter hatred. Spitting a few vile curses, they drew themselves back up as Victor caught sight of Rhisling still within its grasp. 

And then, abruptly, there was Hei reaching for the precious device. But he had been holding on to Inquirata, too, to stabilize himself, and perhaps the overuse of his powers had either brought the Quintesson in to them or he'd slipped - either way, the Quintesson immediately reacted by throwing the man to the side. Both Victor and Joel cried out in dismay as Hei crashed into a large piece of machinery, which immediately began to spark in turn. But there was no time to see to him, for Inquirata was already reaching for their makeshift weapon of a pole, and Victor shoved at Joel to urge him into moving. 

"Go, go!"

Joel needed no further encouragement. But despite the fact that Victor clearly held the Quintesson's ire, they had identified the boy as the biggest threat. They lunged after him, Joel crying out as he ducked, weaved, and bobbed to try and avoid the swatting tentacles. He was sparking, but seemed unable to bring forth another full charge - it seemed that he, too, had met his limit. Victor chased them both, feeling entirely useless up until the point he caught sight of Dorothy reaching out from some machinery to grab at Joel's arm. Then he felt a panic, for now Inquirata was in position to grab the both of them at once-

-up until both Dorothy and Joel vanished with a pop! Victor was able to stumble to a stop, but Inquirata wasn't so lucky; they slammed into the machinery with another squawk. And while Victor wasn't going to worry about how exactly that had happened, he was realizing he had something else to worry about; Inquirata now had nothing to distract them from going after him.

He turned and broke into a run once more, the Quintesson's angry warbling proving they were right on his heels. But he had seen how fast they were after Joel, and knew they'd catch up with him in a matter of moments. There was no chance of outrunning them, and so he ducked into some machinery, squeezing himself into what felt like the slightest of gaps as he felt something lash against his back like a whip.

[You rat-!] There was a tug at his neck, but it was nowhere near as strong as the Judge's had been, and as Victor managed to find a turn - it faded entirely. He breathed a sigh of relief, warily watching the tendrils stretch for him. [We will introduce you to a whole WORLD of pain! You will regret EVERYTHING you have done to us!]

"I'd rather not," Victor muttered, warily watching the tips flail mere centimeters away from his form. And there was nowhere else to run - he was well and truly trapped, unless one of the others caught Inquirata's attention, but even then - what could they do? He thought of Hei, of Shane, and knew in his heart he could take no more of such sacrifices. No, he had to think of something, but of what? There was no time to think, no space-!

-time. Space.

Rhisling made fools of them both. 

His eyes widened as a desperate thought occurred to him, and without much else of an option - he seized upon it. For didn't Rhisling care not for where it was positioned, except as an end to its dimensional pathway? Couldn't he open doors not facing him without even making physical contact with its frame? Could he, possibly, open the door from the other end - to Rhisling, so long as he knew where it was?

He tried the familiar gestures, but nothing happened. Victor was just about to write it off, halfheartedly trying one final time when his finger caught something - not unlike that sensation when he was being led to meet the Judge in the first place - and so he gripped it with all his might and pulled, praying he wasn't about to make a terrible mistake.

Perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, but four corners faded into view before him - along with a familiar golden portal that held a mass of writhing tentacles within. Victor cared not for those, instead taking a firmer grasp of Rhisling and pulling it through, and just like that - it was in his grip. He stared down at it, not believing his eyes, not believing it was so easy- could he have done this at the very beginning, and have avoided everything...? If Inquirata had noticed their prize had been stolen from their grasp, they showed no sign, instead continuing to hurl threats and promises as they began to tear at the machinery to get at their prey. Thankful that he'd at least moved into a position where the Quintesson couldn't see him, Victor took a breath and opened another spacebridge - this time, bringing him down into the common area.

It seemed he still had some measure of intuition, for he immediately spotted Joel and Simon - along with Anna and Dorothy, who had been fussing over the boys. "Victor!" Simon shouted in surprise, and Victor immediately raised a finger to his lips while glancing up over his shoulder, back towards Inquirata. 

"Quiet-!" But no, it was too late. There was a brief burst of silence, then an earpiercing screech from above - loud enough that all of the humans winced or reached for their ears. 

"Take the boys, we'll distract them!" Anna shouted at Victor, who opened his mouth to protest before the lads were abruptly shoved into his arms. He looked down at them, and then back up in time to see Anna climbing the stairs two at a time, Dorothy merely finding a place to duck down - but the sleepy woman winked at him, suggesting there was some sort of plan. Victor had to trust that they knew what they were doing, because exhaustion was creeping in once again. If he stopped moving, he feared he wouldn't be able to get started again.

"Stay close," he ordered his charges, trying to find another reservoir of strength. Somehow, there was enough to open Rhisling once more, and he told himself there'd only be a sparse few more of these before he could finally rest - for now, he was catching sight of Anna appearing by Dorothy with a pop!, hearing Inquirata snarl in frustration-

-and then moving through to where he had left Primus and Katherine. The two were still there, thankfully, Katherine immediately reaching to brace Victor as the world spun about him. "Fool," she scolded, nonetheless looking him over.

"Yes, a large one," he agreed, which earned looks from all four of the others. Desperate to finish this, he cleared his throat. "It's high time we weren't here- Katherine, will you join us?"

She gave him a long stare as Primus began to fold themselves down into a small cube...then, much to his dismay, shook her head. "I told myself this's where I'd meet my maker a long time ago," she explained, voice oddly soft. "Besides, the two girls'll need someone to patch them back together when all this is over."

"ANNA!"

The scream was so heartwrenching, so broken, so familiar to Victor's own ears - for a moment it was him in the pit, reaching for Scarlett. The blood drained from his face entirely as Katherine swore, then gave him a harsh slap across the cheek. "Don't," she warned him as he reached up to rub the skin with a blink. "There's nothing you can do, but I might be able to help - get going!"

"...right." He steeled himself once more, then looked from Simon to Joel as Katherine pushed past all of them to move into the open. He could hear her calling for Inquirata, but forced himself to reach for the shape that was Primus's form. It was surprisingly heavy, for such a small size, and it must have been apparent on his face for a moment later, both Simon and Joel reached to support it. He looked at them seriously. "We're going to the clocktower. I need the both of you to carry Primus through - I'll join you in a moment."

"You promise?" a suspicious Joel asked, nearly bringing forth a laugh from Victor as he helped them take Primus's form so that he could open Rhisling. 

"I'm in no state to fight," he assured the lad as its portal formed. Together, the boys picked up the heavy cube, sharing its weight as they began to step through the opening. "Frankly, all I'm in shape for is a tea and a nap, perhaps a-"

Another earpiercing shriek heralded a swipe of tentacles - Victor's concentration snapped shut with Rhisling's doorway as the limbs swatted him like a fly, knocking him off his feet in an instant. He slammed into the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him, and felt himself rebound on to the edge of the holding pit before falling into it. It was pure luck that had him land on a cot, and for the briefest of hysterical moments, Victor told himself this was not quite the time to nap!

And then Inquirata was there, and plucked him up once more.

[You will die screaming,] they promised, spreading his limbs apart and beginning to pull. Victor gasped from the pain, straining - quite literally - to keep himself together. But when every piece of him wanted to do nothing more than scream as he was brought up before the Quintesson's face...it was emotionless, only its rancor-filled eyes giving any sign to the fury within.

And past Inquirata's form, Victor could just catch sight of three others. One with its head twisted in a lethal angle - another, clutching that form and weeping. A third was motionless, its own head - no, Victor couldn't tell, he didn't want to be able to tell, he was screaming now, shutting his eyes in agony-

[And we will locate your ward,] Inquirata went on. [She cannot hide from us forever.]

The words pierced Victor's skull like a bullet. His eyes shot open, blazing red, as he instinctively pulled with a shout.

And Rhisling - Rhisling, which had fallen from his grasp, but to which timespace was a plaything, to which gestures and motion were far less important than the focusing of intent, a quantum-level reaction to an attuned observer impressing their consciousness - opened once more.

There was screaming. He was screaming, Inquirata was screaming. They were falling, and he could hear in the distance other people screaming, too. A chorus of fear and terror, a maelstrom of flying fabric and furniture. A black hole, Victor thought dazedly as he fell, fell, fell-!

Below him, above him, Inquirata reached for his form while shouting his name like a curse. But forces beyond ken had torn Victor out of their grasp, and were tearing them further apart. Victor himself was past reacting to their foul words, his eyes wide as he looked up at the portal of light falling away from them. No, he thought, and just like that - it closed. 

The screams went quiet. The only sound was Inquirata's final, fading howls of mania - and then he was left alone in silence.

Alone, and floating in a space that was both as light as day and dark as night and everything in between, all at once.

He closed his eyes in exhaustion as a torn partition brushed against his hand. At least - at least it was over. And that thought soothed him as he laid in this void, or stood, he had no idea what direction was up or down or even left or right. All he knew was that it was now quiet but for his weary breathing...and even that began to slow as his heartbeat returned to its normal pace, as adrenaline left weariness in its wake. As he thought that at least he could get that nap even if he couldn't get any tea...

...as something else brushed against his hand. This time, something about it had him slit open his eyes, and then his breathing stopped entirely as he recognized a familiar sight - his Guardsman's coat. Specifically, the sleeve Sadie had embroidered...it was brushing against his hand as if someone else's was reaching out for him. 

And just like that, her voice came to mind. "You better come back, or I'm- I'll never speak to you, ever again, you got it? Promise!"

That was right - he'd promised. Victor gathered the coat to his form and, with old habit, pulled it on one sleeve at a time. Then he gazed above, to where the portal had been, except-

Except 'up' was a fallacy, wasn't it? And he'd already discovered that to open Rhisling, all he needed was to have a place in mind - whether a start, or an end. It just so happened there was a place he knew so well, he didn't need to waste thought on judging distance or location or anything of the sort. A place where a young girl had entered his life and reminded him of what it was to care for another. Where two strange people had sought shelter and brought upon him a storm of change. Where he had once dreamed of flying, and he did so, now, propelling himself through this strange-yet-comforting space and into a shining portal of gold. 

And through it, Victor went home.

[wandaposting]

wandavision: the criticisms post

tl;dr: i liked the show, but there were aspects that were annoying and dumbfounding to me and here’s the post that covers That ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

this was gonna be my comprehensive wandavision review post that had both cons and pros, but the cons kind of ran away from me lsdfjs SO YOU’RE GETTING THIS FIRST. if you find my views diverging from yours in either direction, you’re valid, please don’t shiv me. this is just how i Feel in a somewhat shitposty (as per usual) format. 😔

the big con list:

the way wanda’s actual villainy gets brushed away by the narrative: or specifically the way wanda strolls past the people she mentally tortured and traumatized for a week to apologize to monica, who then goes “gg girl i would’ve done the same :)” and then wanda leaves that entire mess—that she caused—behind her and bails lol. that scene is a microcosm of my problems with this show’s attempt at portraying what the creators have described as her ““complexity””. they want us to feel sorry for her, but not in the way that we can sympathize with walter white while still acknowledging he’s broken bad. rather, this show seemed to want to paint her as more of a victim than the people she victimized. they still want her to come out looking heroic and triumphant and rewarded from her journey with new powers, a new superhero outfit, a new superhero moniker. and that falls flat when you realize she’s basically been a self-absorbed asshole throughout the course of this show. she was confronted no less than four times, and told point blank that a few thousand people were suffering under her control. that is not something we can excuse with depression and denial. that means that at multiple times she is making at least the subconscious choice that her happiness matters more than the wellbeing of her meat puppets, which includes children, across the span of a week. i don’t see monica rambeau “doing the same thing.” the fact that they made her say it while the townspeople glared on in miserable silence just rubbed me the wrong way. if they really wanted to make her responsible for westview, while also wanting her to come out looking remotely good, they needed to invest in a much more substantial redemption arc for her than “i didn’t mean to, gonna go self-exile now.” or even holding everything else constant, they could’ve delivered a more nuanced take where westview was in dire straits before her arrival. the westview she initially drove through already looked economically depressed, so i don’t know why they didn’t just follow through with this. but they could’ve made it so that by granting herself happiness and prosperity, she could’ve spread that genuinely throughout the citizens. instead of hex vision waking norm up in horror, you could’ve had him begging to be put back under. that way, her decision to accept and face reality head on could also be reflected by the people of westview. where everyone, perhaps aided through wanda’s mind link, decides they shouldn’t let fantasy consume themselves at the expense of improving their actual reality. there’s still moral ambiguity, there’s still mistakes being made, we can still side-eye wanda for doing the equivalent of drugging people, but at least these npc’s would've gained something from wanda blundering into their lives. but no she made 3 thousand people suffer through the literal plot of Get Out, giving them life-long ptsd and trauma with nothing good, and i think that’s bad. if she has more haters after this series, i can’t even blame them. but apparently she has a shit-ton more fans after this series, so... OH WELL, IT IS WHAT IT IS sdkfjkls

TYLER: which brings me to the thought that, if this show had hayward acting like a three dimensional human person with the bare minimum intellect required to run SWORD ... instead of an incompetent jackass scooby doo villain ... a lot of us would be spamming #HaywardWasRight. tyler hayward might legitimately be the worst villain mcu has ever produced, like edging past malekith. is he supposed to be an analogue to real world tr*mp appointed deputies? unlike agatha, he’s not even entertaining to watch. he’s the ted cruz of the mcu, which is bizarre when he was introduced as the strict but not particularly vexing or unreasonable successor to maria rambeau in episode 4. it ended up feeling extremely contrived how the show attempted to aggressively signal us with “hayward bad” and “wanda good, actually” through the lens of monica, darcy, and jimmy. it’s like they had to make hayward come across as Extremely Dumb in order to make wanda come across as the more sympathetic party, when she was the one doing [gestures vaguely at wall of text above].

and SPEAKING of agatha: she also ended up being the exact kind of simplified reductive cackling “gimme ur powers wanda” evil super witch that i didn’t want her to be. that’s all.

the theorybaiting: i didn’t care about the lack of mutants/doctor strange cameo (lol what happened, charles murphy)/multiverse/blue marvel/reed richards/mephisto/nightmare/chthon (altho we did get the darkhold wink wonk) so much that it ruined my experience. ralph bohner was disappointing, but i got over it. my issue here is more that they deliberately baited a more interesting story than they delivered, and i think they shot themselves in the foot with that. the first 7, even 8 episodes had set up this atmosphere of mystery and intrigue, only for them to wrap up all these questions with the most boring, uninspired answers possible. question: what does hayward want and what is he up to? answer: hayward is simply a stupid dingus. question: who is agatha harkness and what is she up to? answer: an evil witch who just wants to steal yo powers. question: who is fietro? answer: lol boner. question: was it wanda all along? answer: yes, but no it was actually agatha, but actually yes, but she didn’t mean to and is kind of sorry and now she’s gonna fly away so have fun with your ptsd, westview. ????????? yeah they could have ... done some of that better.

the pacing in the end: i remember when they said it was gonna be “around 6 hours,” and we got 4 and a half hours of actual content instead... they should have given us that extra 1 and a half hour to flesh out the finale. the sitcom portion was fun, it feels like the sitcom portion was prioritized in the writing room, and that the overarching narrative beyond the sitcom suffered to accommodate it. when it came time to break away from the format, they stumbled. so in the beginning, there were segments that felt authentic to the era but were fairly critiqued as “dragging on” ... and in the final episode, we had... the final episode. monica and wanda’s ending conversation felt unsatisfying, both wanda’s apology and monica’s acceptance of it rang particularly hollow [also gestures vaguely to wall of text above]. the appearance of white vision should have had much more of an impact on ... everyone, especially wanda. except the dude just dips and no one mentions him ever again. i feel like hex vision being revealed as the the vision that had always been ~part of her should have also had more ... fleshing out. darcy and jimmy basically ended up having no arcs in this show. they served as stand-ins for the audience, and because they were written to feel sorry for wanda (in a situation where she was absolutely deserving of more scrutiny), the audience too gets manipulated toward doing so.

there’s probably more to add but i’m running out of brain juice BUT THOSE WERE THE BIG ONES STORY-WISE

[newstfionline]

In Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, a Vast Generational Divide

By Patrick Kingsley, NY Times, Aug. 29, 2017

LONDON--Eating strawberries beside a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, two teenagers debated when it was that the princess had died. Was it in 2000? Or more recently?

The revelation that Diana died in 1997--20 years ago this week--took them by surprise. “That was before we were born!” said Floss Willcocks, 18, who is to start college this fall.

People in their late teens “don’t really know much about her,” added Ms. Willcocks’s companion, Caleb Barron, also 18. “She’s not really an icon for people our age.”

It was an exchange that highlighted a generational shift, a yawning gap in cultural assumptions and political aspirations between older and younger Britons that also showed itself in the vote on whether to leave the European Union.

After Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris two decades ago, she was mourned as a national hero. More than a million people lined the streets of London to watch her funeral cortege, while more than half of Britons watched it on television.

Lauded for her philanthropy, warmth and glamour throughout the 1990s--as well as for her traumatic divorce from Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne--Diana is still considered a symbol of her era for those old enough to remember her.

By giving frank interviews about her personal life, or by appearing alongside AIDS victims at a time when they were stigmatized, Diana modernized the stuffy image of the British monarchy. Her death, which prompted an unusually wide outpouring of affection and sorrow, also challenged the idea that Britons lacked the capacity to emote.

But for many young adults, this week’s anniversary carries less resonance.

“There’s a funny divide, basically,” said Richard Power Sayeed, the author of “1997,” a coming book about the events in Britain during that year.

For Britons too young to remember Diana’s death, “she’s basically like Grace of Monaco, but more recent,” said Mr. Power Sayeed, who has spoken to more than 50 people about their memories. “They don’t register just how much it matters, or how much she mattered.”

For those at least 30, however, Diana’s death remains a cultural touchstone. “Apart from people in their 20s or younger, it’s something that we all share,” Mr. Power Sayeed said. “Everyone wants to tell me about the moment they heard she died.”

Recent research by YouGov, one of Britain’s leading pollsters, appears to support part of Mr. Power Sayeed’s thesis. YouGov found that Britons over 50 were most likely to remember Diana for her reputation--as “the People’s Princess,” as she was branded by Tony Blair, Britain’s prime minister at the time, in the days following her death.

By contrast, those 18 to 24 were most likely to know her simply as someone who had died in a car crash.

The same generational disconnect was visible in last year’s referendum to leave the European Union, when exit polls suggested that 75 percent of voters 18 to 24 had cast ballots to remain in the union--against 39 percent of people over 65. In Britain’s general election in June, over 60 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds were estimated to have voted for the Labour Party, the left-wing opposition, compared to less than 30 percent of the older group.

This generational gap is also defined by a difference in economic opportunity. Younger Britons, for example, find it far harder to buy property than their parents did at their age. The average cost of a home in Britain is now 7.6 times the average annual salary--a ratio that has more than doubled in the past two decades.

Diana’s death occurred just as many of these economic tensions began to emerge, said Shiv Malik, the co-author of “Jilted Generation,” a book documenting the challenges faced by British millennials. British house prices began to balloon in 1996, while free university education ended in 1998.

“It was almost at that moment,” said Mr. Malik, in a reference to Diana’s death, “that life chances started to diverge.”

Beside the Diana memorial in Hyde Park in London, however, the memory of Diana herself was the most obvious example of generational differences.

The two 18-year-olds said it was not until Diana’s elder son, Prince William, married Kate Middleton a few years ago, that they began to grasp who Diana was, and even then, her status as a symbol of style was lost on them.

“I look at her and I think: ‘God, I’d never get that haircut,’” Ms. Willcocks said, laughing. “Now it’s all about Kate. She’s an icon for our age. She’s the Diana of our age.”

And some younger interviewees said they still had a clear picture of Diana’s principles, despite their not having been born before she died. Diana was “a phenomenally amazing woman,” said Connor Tomlinson, a 17-year-old member of Britain’s Youth Parliament. “For me the main thing she stands for is her voluntary service and the charity service she did abroad.”

Victoria Azubuike, 20, a trustee at London Youth, an organization that helps young people, agreed. “There’s still so much power in that name,” she said, adding that most young people “see her as someone who gives to the less fortunate.”

Recent media appearances by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, are also likely to have raised Diana’s profile among younger Britons, said Richard Palmer, royal correspondent for The Daily Express. Harry and William recently spoke publicly about mental health, and described their difficulties in dealing with the aftermath of their mother’s death.