#specifically. the season seven finale....near the end of the episode

[kukuu031]

I love the way you draw gumshoes body... he's so hot

funny thing you say that just now, i was about to post this study i finished a few minutes ago ! so you'll be part of the art post now. thank you anon^_^💜

[gaylos-lobos]

Witches before Wizards, what elements of it we see throughout the show and what it might tell us about its end.

Witches before Wizards is quite an interesting episode in retrospect, it set up several things like Luz having to earn her staff herself (and Eda helping her to gain one someday), pushing the fails idea of Luz being the only human on the isles and Eda spelling out a core aspect of several characters development journeys with telling Luz that one has to choose themselfe. 

There have however been other recurring aspects of the episode throughout the entire show, some plot points, some imagery, some aspects we see in other characters that play similar roles. And most importantly, there are several parts of the episode that haven’t yet happened which might give us an idea of what Watching and Dreaming might entail. 

So let me start with laying out the things we have already seen throughout the show. 

In Sense and Insensitivity (S1 Ep11) both Lilith and Eda get their hands on a map (one of many) from the same person (in Witches before Wizards Eda finds it in the collapsed castle of Adegast) which is supposed to lead the quest goer to a “treasure”, at the end of the quest it however turns out that this was a scam all along to kill whoever fell for it (while in WbW it was to kill Eda specifically). 

Seven episodes later in  Agony of a Witch (S1 Ep18) Luz gets captured so that Eda can get lured into a trap. Eda flies into what she  knows to be a trap and demands her students freedom.

The big similarities in season two start with us seeing Luz set out on a quest. In both Witches before Wizards as in Elsewhere and Elsewhen, the idea for it is set into her head by a bearded older man who uses compliments to lure Luz into a sense of safety as they journey together (in this case the puppeteer controls all of the people Luz travels with), it turns out at the end however that this was only a trap and that he had been manipulating her the entire time. 

Luz says at 5:35 in WbW that she might have a “predetermined path (of greatness)” and at 16:25 she says that she “came here for a reason”. At the end of Elsewhere and Elsewhen it turns out to the viewer and in Hollow Mind to Luz that there was indeed a predetermined path waiting for her on the Isles. As she teaches Philip the light glyph and helps him find the Collectors mirror in the titans skull, this helping Philip to build his empire and the near extinction of wild magic with the day of unit. 

It turns out in both WbW and E&E that the kind bearded man that set Luz onto her quest was an act all along to lure her to do his bidding, in both cases Luz is simply a puppet in someone else's game to get revenge on someone else (this is only revealed to Luz in Hollow Mind). 

While Luz has traveled more than once into a forest, in Thanks to Them she and Hunter travel into one to find the Titans blood they need to create a portal back to the isles, in both cases, the titans blood and celestial staff, are on a small island in the middle of a small lake a bridge appears in WbW and Luz creates on in TtT, this small island is also the place the final fight of the episode takes place. It turns out that the people/person Luz traveled there with have been puppeteered as to lure her into a trap, in both cases her friends come just in time to save her.    

In For the Future as in Witches before Wizards we see collapsed and ruined towns that had been beautiful illusions, throughout a  puppeteer uses a variety of  puppets to play out a fantasy, in both episodes King is held hostage by the puppeteer (while not for the same reason King is indeed still a hostage of the Collector even though his opinion of them seems to be somewhat positive).  

At the end of WbW Luz, Eda and King are looking over the Titan together and see a blue shooting star pass over its head, this blue star imagery comes up constantly again in For the Future. The big wave (alongside shooting stars) the Collector sends out directly over the Titans head in the beginning of the episode is in similar blue colors, the spies he sends out over the isles share a similar dark blue. He and King are shown to fly over the isles on top of a blue shooting star and Belso is shown in the trailer for Watching and Dreaming to hold a blue star (potentially representing how the Collector is once again a puppet in his game). While this alone is not enough I do think the fact that the Collector was entrapped inside the titans skull (well his mirror) and the first time we see a blue shooting star appear in the show is indeed of significance and might not just be coincidence. 

Both Adegast and the Collector are associated with imagery of the stars and moon (this is especially important considering before we even meet Adegast we see the moon and stars hanging from his castles ceiling (at 7:13)), while King only calls Adegast outfit jima jams (at 7:34) the Collector seems to actually be dressed in some type of pajamas. While Adegast is only a puppet the Collector as mentioned above is also a puppet in Beloses game, a game where both puppeteers' end goal is revenge.  

Let me now go over Watching and Dreaming, what is similar in the trailer and what could happen in the final.

While some of these mentioned examples might be more flimsy or even coincidental I do believe there to be deliberate connections especially the ones with Philip and E&E and also the ones with the Collector and the shooting star seem to fit way too well for them to just be coincidentes. So what does the rest of the episode have in it that might still appear in Watching and Dreaming? What might we see in the final and what of this is just connecting dots that really aren't there?      

We see in the trailer for Watching and Dreaming that Luz, Eda and King have been put into a dream-like world (illusion) by the Collector (which happens because the real puppeteer (Belos) is controlling him). This is similar to how Adegast is the one to set Luz into another illusion at the end of the episode but is actually just a puppet hanging off one of the  actual Puppeteers' many tentacles.

While we can only guess, through the way it is presented it seems that Luz wakes up in this dream like reflection of the isles, making it hard to tell if it might be reality or a dream, while mainly used as a way to recap in WbW Luz wakes up after a small montage of the first episode wondering if she is dreaming or if it’s real. Considering the places we see in the trailer the Collector seems to let them relieve some of their memories or at least similar memories. 

One of the first scenes of WbW is Eda not remembering Luz, of course here it is played as a gag but considering the shot of Eda and King in the trailer it might seem that Luz first has to remember her family who she is considering the Collector has dressed her up as Belos.  

Another thing we have seen already in the trailer is (presumably) the Collector using Eda and King to attack Luz and potential also Amity, Gus, Willow and Hunter to attack her, the way the Puppeteer uses the puppets Luz has been traveling and formed bonds with to attack her, Eda and King at the end of WbW. 

At WbWs end Luz was put into another illusion. We see her breaking out of it to save her friends, because even though she was offered to live out her fantasy she realized that reality is, while harder, more important than any ideal an illusion could offer. While Luz and King have already learned this lesson throughout their journeys in the show we see the Collector play out fantasies throughout FtF and are shown several times that he does not seem to really understand what kind of consequences their way of play would have on the inhabitants he plays with. While our main trio is the one that has to break out of an illusion, I think we might see the Collector learning the same lesson Luz and King had to already. That reality is more important and has more worth than any fales illusionary world could ever have. 

Early in WbW Adegast mentions that the chosen one will have to defeat an ancient evil and as we learned in FtF the Collectors (and with that our Collector) do fit that description quite well. They travel from planet to planet and archive who and what they want and if they do not get their way they scorch everything, they are even the reason why the Titans are near extinct. Defeating the Collector (note; this does not necessarily mean killing them) would indeed mean the defeat of an ancient evil, this especially after Luz has just gotten her staff the way the Celestial staff would have made her the chosen one to defeat the ancient evil in the fake prophecy. 

During WbWs final fight Luz first defeats Adegast before she is able to defeat the Puppeteer. This to me implies that Luz and Co. need to first defeat the Collector before she can finally defeat Belos, ending the real Puppeteers shared once and for all. 

An eager Luz says at (5:48) that she is going to earn the respect of everyone on the isles with her magic, considering that she, Eda and King are most likely going to be the ones to take care of both the Collector and Belos and considering that Luz has earned her staff and grown significantly as a witch over the show this comment of hers might actually come true by the end of her story. 

As mentioned earlier Luz, Eda and King are watching over the isles at the end of WbW (same in the season two ending credits) and I believe we are going to see a similar shot at the end of WaD, one where their little family is looking over the restored isles together, maybe even seeing the Collector off as he travels back into the sea of stars.  

[westeroswisdom]

Kit Harington b. 26 December 1986 Acton, London, United Kingdom

This doesn't specifically relate to Jon Snow or Kit Harington except that he appeared in at least one of the episodes where it was used.

It's the ending theme which was used in (I think) two GoT episodes in Season 1. It is nowhere near as famous as the main theme or "Light of the Seven" but it always struck me as powerful and having a great air of finality about it.

[thekaijudude]

Ultraman Anime Season 2 Review

Ye imagine only getting to watching Season 2 more than a year late lol

(Long post ahead cause do I have ALOT to say)

Was doing the review while binge-watching the whole season in one sitting

So Season 2 essentially cover Chapters 51-70 of the manga and overall? Its extremely compacted and specifically altered for it to be a mostly standalone series and boy do I have ALOT to talk about, especially with the amount of plotholes I found. Ill start with some general thoughts about the season first:

General Thoughts

It was evident that they wanted season 2 to be more of a standalone as the entire New York Arc in the manga was a leadup to the following arc which is why the Alien Pedan was planning more of an outright invasion instead of creating a public spectacle like in the manga (they only briefly hinted at their true intention literally near the end of the last ep). The alien pedan’s plan was more fleshed out in the manga than the anime, tho i imagine itll have to do with how they plan to build up to Season 3 and have Season 2 be essentially its own thing

And I especially found it really weird that they never even addressed the fact that Bemular used the Specium Ray at the end of Season 1 (tho iirc, i even pointed out that him basically exposing his true identity was way too early since it was a pivotal moment to lead into the next arc), again for Season 2, theres no link between him and Ultraman

Good Points (with caveats)

Next, things that I loved about the season:

One consistent plus for me is that I really like that the Ultras are interacting with each other more often rather than just focusing on Shinjiro (like Jack and Kotaro are always doing their own thing) with the manga

Especially the shared moments between Jack, Taro and Seven

But all at the expense of removing Shinjiro from literally more than half of the entire season (dude was captured since ep 1 and only came back into action near the end of ep 4 sheesh)

Next are the fight scenes and GOSH most of them are simply AMAZING. Specifically the 3v1 against Mochigon and every scene with the Alien Pedan leader (I totally forgot that AT's VA is voicing him so it took me by surprise LOL)

Tho they also changed the powers of some of the villians, making them underpowered such as the Alien Llubihc, which literally had an OP ability to control Gravity in the manga, which managed to easily disable Ace and Bemular and was only literally defeated by a plot device that is Adad which was randomly immune to extreme gravity. In the anime, it was basically reduced to throwing projectiles which faced off against a one-armed Hokuto wut

In addition, the Alien Bell was also nerfed from being a quad wielder to essentially a dual wielder. But i definitely preferred the anime’s fight over the anticlimatic one in the manga

Tho i definitely preferred the anime’s fight against King Joe, rather than Seven just soloing it in the manga, but then again we had to forgo that whole Rei subplot which had the buildup for the Leo Brothers. Tho then again, it seems that we won't have the Leo Brothers in Season 3 so it's understandable why they decided to remove and replace this entire subplot in its entirety

(Plus, the Emerium Ray was ridiculously overpowered for no reason in the manga, but essentially Seven’s solo performance against King Joe was meant to show his rage of losing his brother once again)

Bad points:

I felt that villians shouldve showed up to fight the ultras all at once in the final battle instead of putting Jack, Ace and Seven out of commission for the entire fight, seems kinda lazy

As well as many scenes that were obviously forcing development in one area for the sake of another (the above and Shiniiro literally being MIA for literally 4 out of 6 episodes tf)

Izumi's death felt really uncalled for as the transmission device was conveniently "not working properly". It just felt so superficial as a reason to force Kotaro to go berserk. Dave's death as a result of obstructing the plans of the Star of Darkness as well as the callback to what he told Kotaro that "There'll be a price to pay for making decisions" was a far better and meaningful plot progression as well as for Kotaro's character development

There's far more but it's more appropriate to lump them together with the next section

Plotholes (and there's ALOT of them):

I think with the team trying to compress and alter Season 2 so much that it was actually quite messy. For example, they sorta had a few plotholes such as:

1. Kotaro’s genes wasnt explained

2. Why did the Star of Darkness and/or Alien Wadoran needed Ultras? Isnt Shinjiro the only dude with the actual Ultraman Factor?

3. They also skipped the whole Adad breaking out the Star of Darkness in the first place, which in the manga, he did so in other to lure out Jack, which kidnapped Yapool. This would've served to explain where the hell did the entire Star of Darkness even come from in the first place

4. And they didn't show up what happened to Maya. In episode 5, they showed her smiling as Seiji placed her down so I thought she was gonna prank him or sth as seen here:

But later it turns out that she's actually dead here cause:

It makes me think that they planned to show Maya pranking Seiji but simply forgot and we are supposed to treat Maya as being actually dead now?

This is a very big L here cause I liked her character since she showed great conviction to believe in Ultraman after accepting that perhaps her previous worldview regarding their method of survival was wrong

5. They actually also forgot to account for the 2 Alien Wadorans that should be survived the explosion when Taro cancelled out the self-destruction device

6. They never showed what happened to Narse, dude just didn't show up after Maya for some reason, wasn't at meeting area of King Joe. (I presume Maya was with Seiji when he wanted to send Shinjiro back to earth even though we didn't saw her)

7. Ik Shinjiro has the Ultraman Factor, but bruh, it dosent mean he can survive the hear generated by re-entry. Suddenly Shinjiro was amped so ridiculously such that even without transforming, his human body can somehow withstand it? I think we're missing some MAJOR explanation here

8. Isnt the leader an alien Pedan tho? Dude suddenly pulled out a Zetton Shutter outta nowhere during the climax

9. If yall noticed, Maya actually grieved for 3 of the Alien Wadorans when the Alien Pedan set off the self-destruction (which is all of her bodyguards), even assuming that they all died even tho they shouldve survived. Wasn't there only 2 that were sent to lure the Ultras to the premise? Yeah, just like Narse, the third Alien Wadoran went completely missing wtf???

10. None of the characters even talked about the MAJOR revelations about Season 1, specifically about Bemular being able to use the Specium Beam and Shinjiro's limit breaking issue

11. And AGAIN, none of them pointed out the fact that Bemular can somehow use the Specium Beam again? I was literally waiting the whole time for someone to point out that Bemular was basically Ultraman and the heartfelt moment that should've taken place between Hayata and Bemular after this connection was made bruh

Personally the one that really irked me is how they seemingly mishandled the situation with the Alien Wadorans. Assuming all the obvious plotholes regarding them were appropriately followed up on (all the bodyguards survived and Maya as well), they should have a happy ending. And given how obvious they plotholes were, it was very evident that the production team totally forgot about them and just decided to kill all of them off, which is really off putting since this group were Anime-exclusive characters. Their deaths were very uncalled for, and especially since it was extremely obvious that all of them was supposed to survive.

(Especially Maya since she made that face, I was literally waiting for the prank to happen even after Seiji contacted Shinjiro and implied that she didn't make it, I was so confused that the reveal never even happened)

Conclusion:

Its evident that they were purposefully making Taro the highlight of this season by putting Shinjiro essentially out of commission for 2/3rds of the entire season

And while I understand that the production team decided to go with a different direction with the anime, it think that overall it was really sloppily handled due to the sheer number of inconsistencies and plotholes. Especially none of the major issues in Season 1 were explained either. This series skipped way too many things and I highly suspect its production was rushed which prevented the series to reach its full potential. Even just fixing the issues with the Alien Wadorans would've improved it massively. Cause tbh their bad ending really left a lingering bad taste in my mouth even though I was very awestruck by the quality of the action sequences. Especially hated what they did to Maya's character.

Overall, while the plot was more comprehensive in the manga, but in terms of pure action, the anime definitely did it waaaay better, but the sheer amount of plotholes really held the season back by ALOT.

Yeah suddenly I'm not really looking forward to Season 3 very much since Season 2 is arguably worse than Season 1

I'll leave the thoughts on this entire anime series for the review for Season 3 which I'll probably be watching the episodes as it releases each week this time rather than watching it in 2024 lmao

Guess in the meantime, I'm probably gonna go catch up with the manga and maybe finally start the Marvel comic series

[sokkas1mp]

I gonna break in this acocunt with me being angry about something that doesn't really matter (very fitting for tumblr if you ask me), this article.

First: "And I’m sorry to open with this, but part of that is due to the age difference between them. Two years is hardly worlds apart (I’m personally working with four), but a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl are. Especially the way these two are drawn. Not to be too voyeuristic about Y7 cartoons, but Katara has clearly gone through puberty, while Aang hasn’t. There is something just…off, about a sixth grade boy having a full on make-out sesh with a high school girl."

This argument is one of the most stupid ones if you ask me, because it blatantly ignores the culture we have been presented by the show. I can understand why people find this weird, but we have to try not to look at it as if its our society, because its not. In A:tla, specifically the water tribes, 16 is marrying age. Right there, our "age norms" (idk what else to call it) are very different. And there are no divisions between ages in their world like we have with middle and high school. To me, two people are fit to be together based on their maturity, not their age. That's why 45 & 40 is not the same as 15 & 10, or 20 & 15. This is the same for Kataang. They have very similar life experiences and matured together, literally side by side, so a two year ago gap is irrelevant.

Second: "...Katara took on a very maternal role with Aang. Sure, she’s a caretaker and sort of a “mom friend,” but it’s a bit more than that. She served as his literal guardian during the show’s run—there’s just no other way to look at it. By the third episode, she called herself his “family,” and later even went on to role play as his mother to get him out of trouble at school. Aang, meanwhile, was… Well, I wouldn’t say “immature” for his age, […] However, Katara is 14 going on 25, while Aang is just, Aang."

There's a compilation of Katara doing thing with Aang that if someone saw a mother doing with her son they would call it incest:

Katara definitely acts motherly towards Aang, but that is just her nature. She is more than just motherly with him. And some people like to call the check kisses familial (which is kinda weird imo), but we know Katara herself doesnt think that:

"Easy there, big brother" She pushes Sokka away. Not to mention, this was about a scene or two before she kisses Aang on the check.

Calling someone close to you your family does not mean you see them in the same way you see your parents/siblings. And Sokka played Aang's father in that scene, but we aren't sitting here using that as evidence to call him Aang's paternal figure.

Something Aang haters forget (or chose to ignore) is that being lighthearted and goofy does not equal immature. Yes, Aang does some juvenile things, but that shouldn't take away from his growth and maturity.

Third: "In fact, in the last season, Katara was shown to be uncomfortable each time Aang kisses her, and even went as far as to tell him to back off with the romantic stuff in the episode before the finale, because she was confused about how she felt. [*new paragraph*] Yet, in the end, she just trots up and blushes at Aang, than happily makes out with him when he goes for it,"

Katara initiated 2/4 of the kataang kisses (not including the check kisses). The kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers and the kiss in the finale. Yes, she's the one that "goes for it" in the finale (she also initiates the hug). She only pulls away once out of the 3 times we see a kiss end (this would be excluding the kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers). She wasn't confused about her feelings, she didn't want to have to worry about a relationship when they were nearing the end of the war.

Fourth: "The post-canon comics only furthered the lack of exploration of her feelings in this relationship"

Fifth: "[referencing a scene in The Promise in which Katara is jealous of a fanclub being around Aang] "I'm sorry, this amazing, adult communication is blowing me away"

The are both still teenagers, who have zero previous relationship experience. Also, Aang had no ill intentions and Katara recognized it.

Sixth: [refencing Katara's role in The Legend of Korra] "Did Katara want to do anything other than sit in a healing hut and be known for having Aang's kids?"

This is another argument that just pisses me off. You can not use Katara's lifestyle in her 80s (she is 85 in s1) as judgement for her adulthood. It's purely assumption based. Constantly this author assumes that because she is in a relationship with Aang, Katara would drop her whole personality. What? Katara would not and could not be forced to do something or conform to some label and Aang wouldn't let it get to that point either. He would squash any idea that she is just "The Avatar's wife" or "The mother of the Avatar's children" the minute he heard it.

Seven: [comparing Katara's reaction to Aang The Desert to Aang's reaction to Katara in The Southern Raiders] "You'll spend a long time looking for her condescending tones. "Anger won't help, Aang," Katara never said, because she got that he was processing something painful and needed to sort it out himself. This difference in behavior is something that would be really fitting for a twelve year old boy to learn and understand. There's just no indication that he ever did."

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't remember Aang being condescending towards Katara. He was offering his advice because he knew her and knew that she would regret doing what she thought was right when her judgement was clouded by anger. And guess what. He was right. He never forced anything on her, either. Sure, he was a bit more pushy than he could've been, but in the end he let her go on the trip with no complaints. He even agreed that this was something she had to do.

Eighth: [referencing The Ember Island Players] "When the actor says 'Wait! I thought you were the Avatar's girl', Aang agrees. Katara is his."

You know damn well Aang doesn't see Katara as just his. And she's give him PLENTY of reason to believe that his feelings are reciprocated (which they are).

Ninth: "It's the story of a woman who swallows everything lest the man she's interested in has to learn anything about his behavior that violates her boundaries."

Ha! You said she was interested in him.

But in all seriousness, you mentioned how Katara stood her ground and told Aang that she was confused, but apparently now she's swallowing her feeings.

Tenth: [talks about the cloud babies daddy issues]

I don't disagree with what is said here, for the most part, but I don't think it is a reflection on Aang and Katara's relationship.

Eleventh: "... given what what we got with Kataang, it's completely unsurprising that Aang and Katara's parenthood/adult life was defined by a lack of communication and availability, at least from what we can tell. This also puts Katara's choice to immediately moved to the South Pole once Aang died in perspective; perhaps the city he poured all his energy into, at the cost of his family, held some bitter memories."

Once again with the lack communication. We can't use the early years of their relationship to determine their whole relationship. Also, there wasn't consistently a lack of communication, you just pointed out one time and ran with it.

We don't know at what point Katara moved back to the South Pole, but there are plenty of reasons for Katara to leave Air Temple Island:

a) Her son moving in/or planning to move in with his family.

b) She was no longer needed in the city and thus had no need to stay.

c) She wanted to go back to her native home for comfort after the love of her life died at a relatively early age.

d) The next Avatar was discovered and she came home to train them.

That's all. Thank you for reading my unnecessary rant if you made it this far, and I just want to close out with a few things:

- There were some things in the article that I did not include for the fear of this becoming a novel of me repeating myself.

- I agree with most thing said in the final segment of the the article. Most, not all.

- I appreciate the author for not trying to shove Zutara in just because Kataang wasn't there. That is becoming increasingly uncommon, so it was nice to see.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Eda's Requiem" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...

...

...HOW IS SEASON TWO SO GOOD?! WE'VE HAD SEVEN EPISODES SO FAR, AND EACH ONE OF THEM WAS A HIT!

Take "Eda's Requiem," for example. It's yet another episode where I have NOTHING bad to say about it! That's two weeks in a row where that happened! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!

HOW!

HOW!

...But anyways, "Eda's Requiem." It's another fantastic episode, and I'm about to dive into explaining how and why. Just keep in mind, it's gonna require spoilers to do so, so be wary of that as you keep reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Eda’s Checklist and Grom Photo: Within the first second, "Eda's Requiem" perfectly sets up Eda's central conflict in the episode. Despite spending years being on her own and looking after herself, she now has two kids that she's constantly caring over. Eda can try all she wants to say that she doesn't care, and I bet she has in the past. But given the hard work she's putting into getting King and Luz what they need and having a grom photo of the three of them together pinned in her mirror, it's pretty clear that those two knuckleheads wormed their way into her heart and are never getting out.

Eda’s Worried About King and Luz Leaving: And thus, that's precisely why something like this bothers her so much. Eda inadvertently adopted two rambunctious rapscallions (Yeah, I know. I'll get to it), so the idea of them not being around her anymore is going to be terrifying. That is a situation most parents, especially mothers, can identify with. It’s called empty nest syndrome and it proves just how much Eda loves Luz and King that she can't stand the thought of her babies leaving the nest. It's yet another well-made, wholesome, found-family moment that this series continues to excel at each week, making me extra excited for more like it to come...while also readying myself for heartbreak when one of them eventually does leave Eda.

Eda and Raine’s Music: Ok, I don't know the exact instruments that were played during this episode, but I also don't care because it was all (for lack of a better term) music to my ears. Every time Eda and Raine played resulted in melodies that are so beautiful and filled with so much emotion and feeling that I'm honestly tempted to listen to them again, multiple times, on repeat. Shows rarely do that for me, as background music doesn't always draw me in as much as lyrical songs do. Usually, it takes something so extraordinarily composed to give me the desire to listen again, and that's the case here. So huge congrats to Brad Breek for doing so. Seriously, the man's been killing it this season.

Eda’s Bard Magic Causing Things to Turn to Ash: This was assuredly a surprise side-effect of the curse. The fact that Eda can sort of do magic at all was its own shock. To then reveal that a specific type can do dangerous things to people and environments is...Well, it definitely brings up its own fair share of questions. Like, how can she do this? Will she do it again, one day? And are there other types of spells that can be negatively affected by Eda's curse? We don't get answers for any of these questions, and odds are, we never will. But that's alright with me. Because if a show makes me consider these many possibilities after a brief amount of time, it is a show that has to be doing something right. Even if I don't get the answers I want, the fact that it caused such a reaction makes me less willing to care.

Raine Whispers: Hey, would you look at that. Another fun, interesting, and compelling character added to the list of this shows' other fun, interesting, and compelling characters...how is this series so good at this!?

Joking aside, Raine's pretty good. I like Raine. They could have been this super serious leader who lost all their fun after years apart from Eda, but I'm glad that they're not. There are moments when Raine takes their job as leader of the BATs seriously, as one would, but I still prefer the fact that they kept a jovial nature despite how grim their situation is. It's an admirable trait to have, and it avoids the trope of making leader characters boring just because they're the ones who have to take things seriously.

Oh, and also, Raine's Disney's first non-binary character who has a stake in the plot. This is a tremendous deal, as you don't usually see that many non-binary characters in children's animation, let alone ones that hold importance to the story. So it's pretty cool for the writers to feature Raine, as it helps several kids feel as though they're finally seen and respected. And the fact that Disney of all companies gave the thumbs up is even more impressive. I hear people say that Dana Terrace should have pitched The Owl House to more progressive networks to avoid pushback, and while I absolutely see your point, I'll have to respectfully disagree. Disney is the largest entertainment industry of all time, so if you want to make LGBTQA+ representation normalized, you gotta stop making splashes and start making waves. Because if the same company that made three racist cats in the span of a few years manages to say that being gay is a-ok, then you know there's something wrong with you. Yes, Disney ended up screwing over the show anyway. But for that one moment, when kids felt pride after seeing a character like Raine, then, in the end, it's kind of worth it.

Also, if you're still having issues with more representation like this popping up in kids' shows, then allow me to redirect you to the complaint department.

...I made that post earlier today for this bit. YOU HAVE BETTER APPRECIATED IT!

Day of Unity is meant to be a Secret: At least, that's what I got when Raine stumbled over their own words. So if it's true, then I wonder why? Why does Belos want to keep the most critical change in the Boiling Isles a secret? Does he want to make it a surprise for his grateful subjects, or does he not want to spread worry and fear amongst the wild witches? It has to be something big if he doesn't want his followers to even say the words "Day of Unity." Whatever reason he has, we most likely won't know until the future. A future that I grow more and more afraid of each week.

Hooty Eating Echo Mouse: My heart sank in that brief moment when I thought that Hooty intensely screwed Luz over in getting back home. But looking back...it is pretty funny.

Just the suddenness of Hooty eating the poor creature that Luz desperately tried to earn its trust is priceless in how shocking it was. And also, Luz's expression.

That was the look of a young girl who immediately shoved her hand down an owl demon's throat the second the scene cut away. The Owl House may not always be a hit in the comedy department, but scenes like this prove that when it's funny, it is hilarious.

Luz and King Entering the Grand Prix: Not much to discuss here. It's just a cute subplot that adds frivolity to the intensity of what's going on through Eda and Raine's story. But I will say that I love how both stories occasionally interconnect with each other through the many moments of Eda being worried about King wanting to leave to find his father and avoiding any conversation about it. It helps both plotlines feel like they belong together, without being something like "Through the Looking Glass Ruins," whereas both stories could have been in their own episode. Which is neat.

How Bard Magic Works: I really love how this season is diving into how the other magic types work. More specifically, the ones that seem a little vague. I mean, stuff like healing, potions, and plants are easy to figure out, but what does it mean when a witch's talents are construction, beast keeping, and bard magic? We've been getting a lot of clearing up lately, with bard magic looking like a witch can control their environments and enemies through the power of music. Which is fair. Music is pretty powerful in the metaphorical sense, and I actually love that it's powerful in the literal sense when in the Boiling Isles.

The BATs: Not much to comment on these three either. The BATs have the potential to have an entertaining dynamic, but they do very little in this episode that I can't say much other than I hope they make a return in the future. But I will make this claim: Amber is my favorite. I'm sorry, but her screaming "You're not our mom!" to then go, "Bye, mommy Eda" is just too precious for me not to love.

I'm a simple man who falls for cute s**t. Leave me alone.

Raeda (RainexEda): Well, EdaxCamila, you were a fun crack ship while it lasted, but I'm afraid that this is now goodbye. The current canon has provided an incredibly adorable and believable relationship that I would be a monster not to support with my whole bi-heart. It's been real.

Ok, back in serious mode: I love these two together. Eda and Raine are grown-ups, and they still act all flustered near each other as if they were still Luz and Amity's age. It's definitive proof that you're never too old to get flustered near a crush, and seeing them interact adds a sense of wholesomeness when seeing them together as well as heartbreak when they're forced apart. Plus, we get confirmation that Eda's LGBTQA+! Whether she's bi, pan, or whatever, now that we know Eda can catch feelings for someone like Raine, it's yet another case that The Owl House is the most important series to the community. Because having the main character be queer is fantastic in its own right. But having the same apply to the motherly mentor figure? That's is an extra bit of normalization that anybody would be willing to appreciate.

Unique Guard Designs: Not many fans are going to appreciate this, primarily compared to everything else this episode does perfectly. For me, I actually like that you see a few Coven Guards looking differently from the others, as it helps make them less like clones and makes it seem like anybody of any body type could be a part of the coven.

Gus Looking Uninterested when Presenting Grand Prix with his Dad: I am positive that you didn't notice this (I didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out), but there's something to dissect here. It hints that perhaps Gus isn't as interested in his father's field of work as one might think. If he did, he would look a lot less bored and much more excited to be helping Perry Porter present the race. It could just be the race itself, but judging from Gus' expression, it really seems like the kid would prefer to be anywhere but there. And why would he have that reaction to a race that his best friend is competing in? To me, this seems like an inkling of what Gus' relationship with Perry could be, which may not actually get time to shine, what with how little wiggle room the series has now (Thanks Disney). Regardless, it is interesting to notice, and it will certainly have fans thinking for a while.

Bump Being Smug of Luz Being in the Lead: That's it. Principal Bump looking smug as his human student is beating the students of his rivals is yet another moment that proves why Bump is easily the best cartoon principal.

Darius: First of all, this guy is f**king fabulous, and I love him. *Snaps*

Second, he is definitive proof that you do NOT want to f**k around with Coven Leaders. Lilith may have had her intimidating moments, but none of them compare to the guy who can turn himself into an abomination monster where only magic that hasn't existed before can take him down. It's genuinely scary to see Darius lose control, and I fear for the day when Luz inevitably ends up in his crosshairs.

With that said, Darius' still a ton of fun! He may be threatening, but he's just a flamboyant guy that hates the idea of getting his outfit the tiniest bit dirty. And I love that. I love that these Coven Heads have actual personalities instead of being generically evil. I consider it preferable to make villains entertaining rather than blatantly scary as I'll remember the personalities first and the villainous acts last.

Eberwolf: But this one's my favorite. I told you: I'm a simple man who gets easily swayed by cute s**t. And Eber? I mean, just look at her:

She's just a cute widdle rascal! I just want to pinch her cheeks, give her a belly rub, and--

...Eberwolf is not a cute widdle rascal. She is a strong, independent woman, and I will respect her as such from this moment forward...lest I feel her wrath.

That is all. Let's move on.

Eda and Raine Attempting a Final Performance: This was the best scene of the episode. It looked gorgeous, it shows the dedication Eda and Raine have for stopping Belos, and it says so much through so little. Go back and look at how Eda and Raine regard one another when performing Eda's requiem. Through their expressions and a few short words, you know they understand that if they complete the song/spell, they probably won't make it in the end. And yet, they don't care. They both know bad stuff will happen if Belos wins, so Eda and Raine put everything to the side, both their feelings for one another and the people they leave behind if it means putting an end to a tyrant. That level of dedication...Words can't fully describe how powerful that is.

Raine Sacrificing Themselves Instead: But in the end, Raine can't do it. Not when they know the life that Eda has and the people she'll be leaving behind. It's an extra bit of nobleness to the character seeing that Raine refuses to take away a woman from two kids who need her the most. A tad bit selfish, sure, knowing what Belos has planned. But when it comes to love, the romantic, familial, or platonic, the best decisions aren't always the logical ones.

Eda Crying: Luz crying tears me up, but seeing Eda cry is a whole different level of heartbreak. Like Lilith, Eda has her emotions locked up tight, with the closest she came to weeping were those two tears in "Young Blood, Old Souls." In "Eda's Requiem," she cries but almost quickly stops herself. As if she knows that doing so isn't going to save Raine. That is...even worse than seeing Luz break down after losing Eda. The fact that Eda refuses to give herself time to mourn losing someone she loved is tragic because crying is the most natural way of showing grief. Turning that off isn't healthy, and seeing her do it with little resistance is sad to me. It's sad to see a character I love can easily shut off all emotions despite how badly she may want to embrace them. It's one of those moments that, again, by doing so little, it shows so much.

“No one watches Crystal Balls anymore. It’s all about streaming.”: Oof. Even I felt that burn towards cable.

King’s Message: King's message was the pick-me-up I needed after the heart-wrenching sadness this episode put me through a few minutes ago. Seeing King say who he is and listing all the things he loves is nothing short of adorable. On top of that, I adore that Eda willingly recorded the whole thing. She may not want King to leave, but that doesn't mean she'll sabotage the one thing he wants. Especially not after Raine gave up everything so Eda could be with her kids. The opening scene may prove how much Eda cares about a rascal like King, but this heartwarmingly sweet moment reveals just how far she'll go to make him happy.

King’s Dad Reveal: ...ok, I'll be honest, I did not think we'd get that reveal this soon. Dumb of me to say, considering the number of times I've said that these writers don't waste time getting to the s**t, I know. But still, it's pretty cool knowing that King's dad is alive and well, added with the fact that we've got a fair idea of what he looks like. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we see him figure out where the Clawthorne residence is and witness the tear-jerking moments that will follow.

King Changing his Name to King Clawthorne: Not the official adoption I was expecting Eda to make...but DANG IT, is it still diabetes-inducing levels of sweetness!

Personally, I feel like the main reason why Eda breaks down this time is not only because she shouldn't be worried about King leaving her life, but also because Raine's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her kids really do need Eda because no matter how far apart they'll be, she will always be a part of their life...dang it, I'm going to cry too!

What those Coven patches really do: Well...that was horrifying to see.

...Writers, if you kill off the best non-binary character in animation (it's a short list, I know), we are going to have PROBLEMS!

IN CONCLUSION

"Eda's Requiem" is--surprise surprise--another A+. The emotions hit hard, the representation hits harder, Raine is a fantastic addition to the cast, and it was all surprisingly cute at times. Season Two is currently on a hot streak, constantly winning with every episode that's come out so far. When a bad episode does eventually show up (IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!), I'll be sure to sing my requiem then. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride.

[georgerussellls]

WAIT IM A NEW MAX STAN WHAT DID HIS FATHER DO WHY DON'T WE LIKE HIM OMG

welcome to the max fan club, where we put super max on repeat to get pumped, hate jos, eat hot chip and lie

okay this is a long ass list that I SWEAR I had put together before and it's in this post but I decided to repost it all here just to have it all in one place ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

okay, let's begin: (gonna put this under a read more, it’s gotten rather long)

REASONS TO NOT LIKE JOS VERSTAPPEN

from essentially sports:

​Max ​Verstappen reminisced an interesting episode in his karting days. In 2012, when he was just 15 years old he was racing at an event in Sarno, near Naples, Italy.

“I should have won that race easily,”he told The Telegraph. “On the first lap, someone overtook me and I wanted to regain my position on the next lap. I tried to pass a very fast turn, he didn’t see me and we hit. ”

“My dad worked very hard that weekend and I threw it all away. He was very angry and didn’t talk to me. On the way home, about five miles away, he said something to me and we ended up arguing.”

Max Verstappen went on to say that Jos stopped at a gas station and kicked him out of the van. He said that he was supposed to go home alone, and left the 15-year old alone. Max then called his mother to pick him up and Jos and he were not on speaking terms for a week.

and this one from the telegraph:

At the karting world cup in Sarno, southern Italy, Verstappen Jnr, showed the lightning speed which has made him the youngest man ever to win a seat in Formula One, with Toro Rosso next season. He qualified fastest and comfortably won the pre-final by a few seconds. In the final itself, the red mist descended and Verstappen blew it. Having lost the lead from pole position, on lap two he attempted a kamikaze manoeuvre. The resulting collision broke his painstakingly assembled kart, sending Verstappen out of the race.

In such circumstances, most fathers might offer their teary son a consolatory hug, shoulder pat, or even a few words of encouragement. Not Jos. “I was so upset with him,” Verstappen says over coffee. “I walked away out of the park, and went to the van and started packing the tent down. He was crying like a baby. He was really disappointed. He said: ‘Daddy, we have to go and pick up the chassis because it’s the last race of the day.’ I replied: ‘No, I’m not going. If you want your chassis, you have to go and get it yourself.’

“He looked at me and knew I was angry. He got somebody else to help him put it in the van. Then we left the circuit, and he tried to start speaking to me. I didn’t say a word to him. I said: ‘Don’t speak to me. I’m really fed up with it and disappointed with the way you were racing. Please, don’t speak.’  ”

For most parents, a few hours of the silent treatment suffice to teach their child a lesson. Jos, furious after investing weeks preparing the kart only for Max to make what he regarded as a rookie’s error, took it to extremes. “I didn’t speak to him for seven days,” he says. “I ignored him. I was really p‑‑‑‑‑. I really wanted to teach him a point that it should hurt him. I wanted to show him that. He was also sick from what happened. And after a week, I started talking to him again.”

a concise timeline from this post by @formulatrash

1998 (Max is 1) : Jos and his father (Max’s grandfather) are convicted of assault by battery at a karting track, both given five-year suspended sentences after reaching a financial settlement with the victim. Jos specifically is detailed as having fractured the victim’s skull.

2008 (Max is 11) : Jos appears in court charged with assaulting his estranged wife (Max’s mother) - is cleared of physical assault but sentenced for verbal and written threats and breaking a restraining order against him

2011 (Max is 14 and competing in cars) : Jos faces allegations of assault against his then-girlfriend (not Max’s mother by this point)

2012 (Max is 15 and competing in cars) : Jos is arrested for attempted murder after he allegedly tried to use a car as a weapon to run over his ex-girlfriend, who subsequently became his wife. She dropped the charges.

2016 (Max is 19 and a Red Bull F1 driver) : Reports that Jos has been arrested for battering his own father, violating a restraining order that his father had had placed on him.

max said in this video that his father "tried to stab a mechanic with a fork"

he has also said that there's nothing in F1 that can put more pressure on him than his father already has. (I can't find the source on this one so please DM me if you know!)

update #1: Turkish GP 2020

Max said this when referring to turn 8 in Instabul Park:

hope this is enough to help you, anon!❤️

update #2: in an interview with David Coulthard, apparently Jos would hit Max on the helmet quite hard while he was in karts, with a lot of bystanders being concerned over what he described as "tough love".

yeah that's all the dirt I have on Jos Verstappen at the moment. will update if new stuff is made public.

[aion-rsa]

BTS TV and Web Series: Where to Begin Watching

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

If you’re anything like the rest of the planet, then you’ve fallen hard for BTS. And, like any ARMY who hasn’t been with the band since the early days, you have a lot of content to catch up on. It’s an awesome task—and a potentially overwhelming one. While much of BTS’ content is, of course, music videos and performances, the Korean band has also produced a plethora of additional content in the form of web series and TV shows.

While BTS has appeared on dozens if not hundreds of TV shows both in Korea and abroad since their debut eight years ago, we’re solely focusing on the BTS-centric series rather than the ongoing shows in which BTS has appeared as featured guests. Whether you’re a new ARMY looking to learn more about the K-pop band or simply can’t get “Butter” and/or “Permission to Dance” out of your head and are curious about the seven members behind the summer hits, check out one of the following series to learn more about Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook.

Rookie King (2013)

How many episodes: 8 Where to watch: Viki

BTS debuted in 2013, and Rookie King was their first proper series. The variety show format is super popular in Korea, and many of BTS’ series use it. Rookie King is a variety show that features the members attempting different Korean TV program formats. In the show, BTS takes on different roles, including news anchors, bowlers, and basketball players. Early variety show BTS is truly a place where anything can happen. Rookie King would also give us our first proper example of BTS taking on cooking challenges, which continues to be a running (and hilarious) theme in BTS’ variety show presence today.

American Hustle Life (2014)

How many episodes: 8

This BTS reality show that sees the members traveling to L.A. for two weeks to learn from hip-hop tutors like Coolio and Warren G, can be tough to watch, as the series is nowhere near prepared to engage with K-pop’s history and present of Black American cultural appropriation. But discomfort is not always a bad thing, and American Hustle Life can be a good jumping off point for non-Black BTS fans in particular to engage with the difficult topic of cultural appropriation in K-pop ourselves. I recommend watching this in conjunction with analysis from Black BTS/K-pop critics, such as Stitch of Stitch’s Media Mix, who has written extensively not only about BTS, but about cultural appropriation in the age of K-pop.

GO! BTS (2014)

How many episodes: 1

It’s a bit of a stretch to call this one a series, as there is only one episode, but if you’re looking for more content from BTS’ early years, then Go! BTS is a good option. The 45-minute episode follows BTS on their trip to L.A. for KCON 2014. In addition to including some performance footage, the special gives us some of that variety program energy by sending the members on three missions around Laguna Beach.

BTS Gayo (2015-2017)

How many episodes: 15 Where to watch: VLive

BTS Gayo is another BTS variety show, in which the members play games that are specifically related to K-pop. For example, in the first episode, they have to guess iconic K-pop girl group songs based solely on dance clues from other members. BTS hasn’t released an episode of Gayo in a while, probably because the wider umbrella of Run BTS (see the next entry on the list) covers the sorts of K-pop-centric challenges BTS Gayo centers. Basically, Run BTS swallowed BTS Gayo.

Run BTS! (2015-today)

How many episodes: 143 (and counting) Where to watch: VLive

The ultimate BTS variety show, Run BTS has been, um, running since 2015. The show features the members competing in a variety of games, from zombie escape the room challenges to foot volleyball to your classic game of mafia. If they win, they get a reward. If they lose, they get a punishment. Variety show games like this are only as effective as the degree to which the competitors take them seriously, and let me tell you: BTS is all in. These global pop stars may be millionaires, but they will throw down for a coupon like their lives depend on it. Early episodes of Run BTS include the members visiting many an amusement park, while later episodes have gotten both more contained and creative in the challenges. Rest assured, there is something here for everyone—just beware the spies and plot twists.

Bon Voyage (2016-today)

How many episodes: 32 episodes, across 4 seasons Where to watch: VLive (Seasons 1-3), Weverse* (Season 4)

Bon Voyage is a travel reality show that follows BTS on various trips around the world, including northern Europe in Season 1, Hawaii in Season 2, Malta in Season 3, and New Zealand in Season 4. It’s interesting to see the members out and about in the world, having fun together and on a relative break. (This is still work, but they are not actively promoting or touring.) Over the course of Bon Voyage‘s four seasons, you will see many a camper van adventure; many a games of rock, paper, scissors; and realize just how central Yoon-gi is to keeping these members fed when they are left on their own. Especially in a time when travel has been largely impossible, bopping around the world with BTS can be a nice escape.

*For Weverse content, purchase via the “media” section in the Weverse Shop app, then watch via Weverse via the app or online

Burn the Stage (2018)

How many episodes: 8 Where to watch: YouTube Premium

Burn the Stage is an eight-part series that tells the story of BTS’ massive 300-day The Wings Tour, which took up most of 2017 for the members. Including interviews and show footage, Burn the Stage follows a pretty standard concert film format, giving insight into BTS’ first major world tour. The series would later be turned into a movie, also called Burn the Stage, which was released later in 2018.

Bring the Soul (2019)

How many episodes: 6 Where to watch: Weverse

Similar to Burn the Stage, Bring the Soul is another glimpse into what BTS’ tour life is like. This six-part series follows the seven members of BTS during the Love Yourself World Tour, through the end of the tour’s third, European leg, which concluded in October 2019. It was also released in a more condensed movie format in Bring the Soul: The Movie.

BT21 (2019-today)

How many episodes: 17 main story shorts, plus additional mini-stories Where to watch: YouTube

If you’re looking for some animated BTS content, check out the universe of BT21, a collaboration between Line Friends and BTS that you can see chronicled here. The members helped create the concepts for the BT21 characters, who are all adorable. From there, the animators began telling the story of Prince Tata, who hails from Planet BT, as he dreams about spreading love across the galaxy. Tata and guardian robot Van travel to Earth to begin the mission, where they meet Koya, RJ, Shooky, Mang, Chimmy, and Cooky, who band together with the ambition to become the most influential pop culture sensation in the galaxy. You can check out the members’ reaction to the initial storyline of shorts here.

Break the Silence (2020)

How many episodes: 7 Where to watch: Weverse

You didn’t think BTS was going to leave you hanging on the final leg of their Love Yourself World Tour, did you? The Break the Silence docu-series picks up where Bring the Soul leaves off, bringing fans on the final, Asian leg of the Love Yourself World Tour and into the Love Yourself: Speak Yourself extension of the tour, which extended the tour through October 2019. As you may have guessed, there is also a movie format version of Break the Silence.

In the Soop (2020)

How many episodes: 8 Where to watch: Weverse

BTS has given us many gifts during the COVID-19 pandemic, but In the Soop may be the greatest. The series follows the seven members as they take a break from their work schedules to pursue hobbies, hang out, and watch Jin kill fish. Unlike BTS’ variety series, In the Soop has a much looser structure, allowing the members to relax a bit more. Each member made a list of activities they would like to try out while in the titular “soop” (“forest,” in Korean), but there is no reward or punishment for completing or not. Instead, the members can choose to spend their time as they wish, whether that be building Lego or racing remote control boats. In the Soop is honestly the gift that keeps on giving, and ARMY is crossing our fingers for a second season. (If you like In the Soop, don’t forget to check out the eight, shorter behind-the-scenes episodes, also available to watch via Weverse.)

What is your favorite BTS series? Let us know in the comments below.

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The post BTS TV and Web Series: Where to Begin Watching appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3C3a96i

[orhelponefaintingrobin]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Just finished the finale and thought I'd share my thoughts.

Overall, it's... I'd give it, like, 6.5/10? Maybe a push to a seven?

On the one hand, it was certainly entertaining most of the time. The first episode was a bit dull, and there was at least one other episode that was a bit boring, but generally, ignoring anything else, it was at least a fun watch.

On the negative side, I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel a little messy at times. There are rumours that they had to cut a big pandemic storyline from the show, and I can totally believe that, because there are just a few little plotlines that don't quite fit cleanly. For a lot of the show, I felt like the plotting and structure was just a little clunky. Not awful, just a little everywhere, and while you could still more or less work out what was going on, it made the whole thing feel a little directionless at first, especially near the start. And, past that, it made parts of the conclusions feel a little disjointed; a lot of the bits of setup for future stories felt like they maybe got in the way a tiny bit. Walker's conclusion could probably be done without, or at least pushed to a second end credits scene, and give that time back to the celebration at the end, spend some more time there with Sam. Zemo sort of vanishes for the episode so his little ending could similarly have been cut. It's just little nitpicks like that, really. Minor structure things I might have done differently.

But it feels mean to dwell on those, strangely, because, despite the superhero-y and thriller plot bits feeling a little clunky at times, the bits I went into it being excited to see were delivered, in my opinion, about as well as I could have expected.

I, like quite a few people I've seen, were a little cautious about the Flag Smashers, but, while I'm sure I could nitpick details of their storyline, I do really appreciate that they spent some time exploring the motivations, and that ultimately, the show does feel like it’s come down on the side of, while certainly condemning the killing people part of their plans, ultimately believing that what they were fighting for, at least in the broad strokes, was entirely justified. It was nicely done, turns Karli into a nicely tragic figure rather than an outright villain. I think the group, and Karli in specific, is probably the second most sympathetic villain I’ve seen in an MCU project, after Ghost from “Ant-Man and the Wasp”.

And then we come to Sam Wilson, and the show honestly delivered pretty much everything I wanted from it with Sam. An interesting exploration of what Sam taking on the Captain America mantle would mean for him, and the franchise’s society in general, as a black man taking on the name. It did it slowly, and gave him time to really reflect on what the role would mean to him, finishing with an assertion of a very new kind of Captain America, that I’m definitely hoping we see plenty more of. And that’s matched with all these smaller details of Sam’s story; his relationship with his sister, a storyline which I absolutely loved. And just, more generally, the compassion we see him show. Since they introduced him in CA:TWS, it doesn’t feel like they did much with his background in counselling, so seeing that take such a clear front-seat, especially in the latter half of the series, was really cool (especially as an aspiring counsellor myself). Honestly, I have basically no complaints about Sam in this series. They did exactly what I wanted, and Anthony Mackie put that across with a fantastic performance.

More generally, really, that’s where the show succeeded. Like I said, a lot of the superhero thriller aspects did feel a little clunky, and I 100% can buy that a significant storyline was just cut out. But I like character drama, and slow stories about conversations, and whether we’re talking about Sam and his sister, or Isiah Bradley, or Bucky’s struggle with his issues, those moments where the show slows down to explore there characters were everything I enjoy in film. Special notes here goes to episode 5’s second half, which is possibly my favourite chunk of the whole series. Really love all of that. (Side-note, though, while Bucky does get more to do here, and he at least has a personality now, I do still feel like they didn’t do a huge amount with him. Maybe season 2?)

Look, this show’s not WandaVision, which was something so new and fresh and interesting that I think it’ll be remembered as one of the most interesting things of this period of the MCU. But, while it’s definitely a messy piece of work, there’s a lot to like about it too, and, for me personally, the bits that worked definitely made up for the bits that didn’t.

[aboveallarescuer]

Dany's empathy, compassion, compromises and sacrifices for other people

As I was rereading ASOIAF, I made it my goal to compile ALL* the book passages showcasing either certain key attributes of Daenerys Targaryen (e.g. that she's compassionate and smart) or aspects of hers that are usually overstated (e.g. that she's ambitious and prophecy-driven).  Doing such a task may seem exaggerated, but I'd argue it's not, for many, many misconceptions about Dany have become widespread in light of the show's final season's events (and even before).

It must be acknowledged that it can be tricky to reference, say, ADWD passages to counter-argument how she was depicted in season eight (which allegedly follows ADOS events). Dany will have had plenty of character development in the span of two books. However, whatever happens to Dany in the next two books, I would argue that there is more than enough material to conclude that her show counterpart was made to fall for flaws that she (for the most part) never had and actions that she (for the most part) would never take. (and that's not even considering the double standards and the contradictions with what had been shown from show!Dany up until then, but that's obviously out of the scope of these lists)

Another objection to the purpose of these lists is that Game of Thrones is different from A Song of Ice and Fire and should be analyzed on its own, which is a fair point. However, the show is also an adaptation of these books, which begs the questions: why did they change Dany's character? Why did they overfocus on negative traits of hers or depicted them as negative when they weren't supposed to be or gave her negative traits that were never hers to begin with? Another fact that undermines the show=/=books argument is that most people think that the show's ending will be the books', albeit only in broad strokes and in different circumstances. As a result, people's perception of Dany is inevitably influenced by the show, which is a shame.

I hope these lists can be useful for whoever wants to find book passages to defend (or even simply explore different facets of) Dany's character in metas or conversations.

 *Well, at least all the passages that I could find in her chapters, which is of course no guarantee that it is perfect, but I did my best.

Also, people can interpret certain passages differently and then come up with a different collection of passages if they ever attempted to make one, so I'm not saying that this list is completely objective (nor that there could ever be one).

Also, some passages have been cut short according to whether they were, IMO, relevant to the specific topic of the list they're in, so the context surrounding them may not always be clear (always read the books and use asearchoficeandfire!). Many of them appear in different lists, sometimes fully referenced, sometimes not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To justify the existence of this list, let's see examples of widespread opinions that I feel misrepresent Daenerys Targaryen:

Along her way Daenerys has convinced herself that she wants to rule for the people and created a utopian ideology around herself as a benevolent freedom fighter -- while on a repressed, involuntary emotional level, the Iron Throne is actually a symbol to her of pain and trauma. So even though she doesn’t understand this herself, all this time her inner dragon wasn’t really driven by hope or the promise of change, but by rage and the will to avenge the abuse she endured at the hands of her enemies. (x)

~

Dany makes big, risky offensive plays, while Cersei -- surrounded by treacherous snakes and haunted by a prophecy that’s outlined how much she will lose - plays defensively. In light of all this, it makes sense why Dany views everything as positive opportunity and Cersei sees the negative angle. Daenerys wins hearts along her way not just because she’s a humanitarian, but also because she has to. (x)

~

[Dany] is a great and terrible leader who is spreading bloodshed and pain in their path. Entire civilizations have been burned at their whim. And her all-consuming desire to rule Westeros? She’s not particularly fussed about the rights of the smallfolk or worried about the impending frozen hell creeping its way from the North. She wants that Iron Throne because it’s her birthright. It’s hers, gosh darn it! Woe to the men and women who stand in her path. (x)

~

It’s likely the idea of Dany as queen would feel more applause-worthy if she stopped burning people alive and avoiding tough chats in favor of actually meeting the people of Westeros. Think about the end of season 3 finale “Mhysa,” when the dragon queen allowed herself to be enveloped by the freed slaves of Yunkai. Although the scene had a distinct and uncomfortable white savior feel, at least we saw Daenerys actually interact with the people she claims to care about so much. None of that behavior has been seen since Dany stepped foot on Westeros, only giving credence to some lords’ claim she is a “foreign” royal, despite her birth on Dragonstone. Instead of getting out and meeting her prospective subjects for a minute, Dany has spent season 7 either holed up in her castle with her advisors or riding her favorite dragon into battle. These are not the actions of someone determined to lift up the common folk. (x)

~

Daenerys isn't bothered by the idea of taking lives to achieve her goal[.] (x)

Dany isn't driven by hope or promise of change? Dany wins hearts because she "has to"? Dany isn't "fussed about the rights of the smallfolk"? Dany doesn't get out and meet her people? Dany isn't bothered by the idea of taking lives to achieve her goal?

I would argue these claims certainly cannot be made after reading the books (some can't even after watching the show's first 71 episodes, but it can be all over the place and .... I digress), so take a look at these passages.

A Dance with Dragons

ADWD Daenerys X

A girl might spend her life at play, but she was a woman grown, a queen, a wife, a mother to thousands. Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.

Hizdahr, of the tepid kisses.

~

No, Dany told herself. If I look back I am lost. She might live for years amongst the sunbaked rocks of Dragonstone, riding Drogon by day and gnawing at his leavings every evenfall as the great grass sea turned from gold to orange, but that was not the life she had been born to. So once again she turned her back upon the distant hill and closed her ears to the song of flight and freedom that the wind sang as it played amongst the hill’s stony ridges. The stream was trickling south by southeast, as near as she could tell. She followed it. Take me to the river, that is all I ask of you. Take me to the river, and I will do the rest.

The hours passed slowly. The stream bent this way and that, and Dany followed, beating time upon her leg with the whip, trying not to think about how far she had to go, or the pounding in her head, or her empty belly. Take one step. Take the next. Another step. Another. What else could she do?

~

Dragonstone was still visible above the grasslands. It looks so close. I must be leagues away by now, but it looks as if I could be back in an hour. She wanted to lie back down, close her eyes, and give herself up to sleep. No. I must keep going. The stream. Just follow the stream.

Dany took a moment to make certain of her directions. It would not do to walk the wrong way and lose her stream. “My friend,” she said aloud. “If I stay close to my friend I won’t get lost.” 

~

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was ... her name ...” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away. “I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.”

~

I gave you good counsel. Save your spears and swords for the Seven Kingdoms, I told you. Leave Meereen to the Meereenese and go west, I said. You would not listen.

“I had to take Meereen or see my children starve along the march.” Dany could still see the trail of corpses she had left behind her crossing the Red Waste. It was not a sight she wished to see again. “I had to take Meereen to feed my people.”

You took Meereen, he told her, yet still you lingered. 

“To be a queen.”

You are a queen, her bear said. In Westeros. 

“It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

ADWD Daenerys IX

She pushed herself to her feet, splashing softly. Water ran down her legs and beaded on her breasts. The sun was climbing up the sky, and her people would soon be gathering. She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself.

~

“How should Meereen ever come to trust the Brazen Beasts if I do not? There are good brave men beneath those masks. I put my life into their hands.” Dany smiled for him. “You fret too much, ser. I will have you beside me, what other protection do I need?”

~

“He would be willing to wait, the woman Meris suggested. Until we march for Westeros.”

And if I never march for Westeros?

~

“Have you ever seen such an auspicious day, my love?” Hizdahr zo Loraq commented when she rejoined him. [...]

“Auspicious for you, perhaps. Less so for those who must die before the sun goes down.”

~

A palanquin lay overturned athwart their way. One of its bearers had collapsed to the bricks, overcome by heat. “Help that man,” Dany commanded. “Get him off the street before he’s stepped on and give him food and water. He looks as though he has not eaten in a fortnight.”

~

“Those bearers were slaves before I came. I made them free. Yet that palanquin is no lighter.”

“True,” said Hizdahr, “but those men are paid to bear its weight now. Before you came, that man who fell would have an overseer standing over him, stripping the skin off his back with a whip. Instead he is being given aid.”

It was true. A Brazen Beast in a boar mask had offered the litter bearer a skin of water. “I suppose I must be thankful for small victories,” the queen said.

“One step, then the next, and soon we shall be running. Together we shall make a new Meereen.” The street ahead had finally cleared. “Shall we continue on?”

What could she do but nod? One step, then the next, but where is it I’m going?

~

Her lord husband stood and raised his hands. “Great Masters! My queen has come this day, to show her love for you, her people. By her grace and with her leave, I give you now your mortal art. Meereen! Let Queen Daenerys hear your love!”

Ten thousand throats roared out their thanks; then twenty thousand; then all. They did not call her name, which few of them could pronounce. “Mother!” they cried instead; in the old dead tongue of Ghis, the word was Mhysa! They stamped their feet and slapped their bellies and shouted, “Mhysa, Mhysa, Mhysa,” until the whole pit seemed to tremble. Dany let the sound wash over her. I am not your mother, she might have shouted, back, I am the mother of your slaves, of every boy who ever died upon these sands whilst you gorged on honeyed locusts.

~

“A boy,” said Dany. “He was only a boy.”

“Six-and-ten,” Hizdahr insisted. “A man grown, who freely chose to risk his life for gold and glory. No children die today in Daznak’s, as my gentle queen in her wisdom has decreed.”

Another small victory. Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad. Daenerys would have prohibited contests between women as well, but Barsena Blackhair protested that she had as much right to risk her life as any man. The queen had also wished to forbid the follies, comic combats where cripples, dwarfs, and crones had at one another with cleavers, torches, and hammers (the more inept the fighters, the funnier the folly, it was thought), but Hizdahr said his people would love her more if she laughed with them, and argued that without such frolics, the cripples, dwarfs, and crones would starve. So Dany had relented.

It had been the custom to sentence criminals to the pits; that practice she agreed might resume, but only for certain crimes. “Murderers and rapers may be forced to fight, and all those who persist in slaving, but not thieves or debtors.”

Beasts were still allowed, though. Dany watched an elephant make short work of a pack of six red wolves. Next a bull was set against a bear in a bloody battle that left both animals torn and dying. “The flesh is not wasted,” said Hizdahr. “The butchers use the carcasses to make a healthful stew for the hungry. Any man who presents himself at the Gates of Fate may have a bowl.”

“A good law,” Dany said. You have so few of them. “We must make certain that this tradition is continued.”

~

The battle was followed by the day’s first folly, a tilt between a pair of jousting dwarfs, presented by one of the Yunkish lords that Hizdahr had invited to the games. One rode a hound, the other a sow. Their wooden armor had been freshly painted, so one bore the stag of the usurper Robert Baratheon, the other the golden lion of House Lannister. That was for her sake, plainly. Their antics soon had Belwas snorting laughter, though Dany’s smile was faint and forced. When the dwarf in red tumbled from the saddle and began to chase his sow across the sands, whilst the dwarf on the dog galloped after him, whapping at his buttocks with a wooden sword, she said, “This is sweet and silly, but …”

“Be patient, my sweet,” said Hizdahr. “They are about to loose the lions.”

Daenerys gave him a quizzical look. “Lions?”

“Three of them. The dwarfs will not expect them.”

She frowned. “The dwarfs have wooden swords. Wooden armor. How do you expect them to fight lions?”

“Badly,” said Hizdahr, “though perhaps they will surprise us. More like they will shriek and run about and try to climb out of the pit. That is what makes this a folly.”

Dany was not pleased. “I forbid it.”

“Gentle queen. You do not want to disappoint your people.”

“You swore to me that the fighters would be grown men who had freely consented to risk their lives for gold and honor. These dwarfs did not consent to battle lions with wooden swords. You will stop it. Now.”

~

The boar buried his snout in Barsena’s belly and began rooting out her entrails. The smell was more than the queen could stand. The heat, the flies, the shouts from the crowd … I cannot breathe. She lifted her veil and let it flutter away. She took her tokar off as well. The pearls rattled softly against one another as she unwound the silk.

“Khaleesi?” Irri asked. “What are you doing?”

“Taking off my floppy ears.” A dozen men with boar spears came trotting out onto the sand to drive the boar away from the corpse and back to his pen. The pitmaster was with them, a long barbed whip in his hand. As he snapped it at the boar, the queen rose. “Ser Barristan, will you see me safely back to my garden?”

Hizdahr looked confused. “There is more to come. A folly, six old women, and three more matches. Belaquo and Goghor!”

“Belaquo will win,” Irri declared. “It is known.”

“It is not known,” Jhiqui said. “Belaquo will die.”

“One will die, or the other will,” said Dany. “And the one who lives will die some other day. This was a mistake.”

~

“Magnificence, the people of Meereen have come to celebrate our union. You heard them cheering you. Do not cast away their love.”

“It was my floppy ears they cheered, not me. Take me from this abbatoir, husband.” She could hear the boar snorting, the shouts of the spearmen, the crack of the pitmaster’s whip.

ADWD Daenerys VIII

“...They can close their fingers around our throat again whenever they wish. They have opened a slave market within sight of my walls!”

“Outside our walls, sweet queen. That was a condition of the peace, that Yunkai would be free to trade in slaves as before, unmolested.”

“In their own city. Not where I have to see it.”

~

So Daenerys sat silent through the meal, wrapped in a vermilion tokar and black thoughts, speaking only when spoken to, brooding on the men and women being bought and sold outside her walls, even as they feasted here within the city. Let her noble husband make the speeches and laugh at the feeble Yunkish japes. That was a king’s right and a king’s duty.

~

No queen has clean hands, Dany told herself. She thought of Doreah, of Quaro, of Eroeh … of a little girl she had never met, whose name had been Hazzea. Better a few should die in the pit than thousands at the gates. This is the price of peace, I pay it willingly. If I look back, I am lost.

~

When the gluttony was done and all the half-eaten food had been cleared away—to be given to the poor who gathered below, at the queen's insistence—tall glass flutes were filled with a spiced liqueur from Qarth as dark as amber.

~

“If it please you, Yurkhaz will be pleased to give us the singers, I do not doubt,” her noble husband said. “A gift to seal our peace, an ornament to our court.”

He will give us these castrati, Dany thought, and then he will march home and make some more. The world is full of boys.

~

Hard by the bay was the abomination, the slave market at her door. She could not see it now, with the sun set, but she knew that it was there. That just made her angrier.

~

“It would please me if he had turned up with these fifty thousand swords he speaks of. Instead he brings two knights and a parchment. Will a parchment shield my people from the Yunkai’i? If he had come with a fleet ...”

[...] “Dorne is too far away. To please this prince, I would need to abandon all my people. You should send him home.”

~

“Bring him to me. It is time he met my children.”

[...] She smiled. “My prince. It is a long way down. Are you certain that you wish to do this?”

“If it would please Your Grace.”

“Then come.”

~

Broken chains clanked and clattered about his legs. Quentyn Martell jumped back a foot.

A crueler woman might have laughed at him, but Dany squeezed his hand and said, “They frighten me as well. There is no shame in that. My children have grown wild and angry in the dark.”

~

“They are ... they are fearsome creatures.”

“They are dragons, Quentyn.” Dany stood on her toes and kissed him lightly, once on each cheek. “And so am I.”

ADWD Daenerys VII

Her foes were all about her. [...] They would not try to take Meereen by storm. They would wait behind their siege lines, flinging stones at her until famine and disease had brought her people to their knees.

Hizdahr will bring me peace. He must.

~

“Dorne is fifty thousand spears and swords, pledged to our queen’s service.”

“Fifty thousand?” mocked Daario. “I count three.”

“Enough,” Daenerys said. “Prince Quentyn has crossed half the world to offer me his gift, I will not have him treated with discourtesy.”

~

“Your Grace does not love the noble Hizdahr. This one thinks you would sooner have another for your husband.”

I must not think of Daario today. “A queen loves where she must, not where she will.”

~

“The day is too hot to be shut up in a palanquin,” said Dany. “Have my silver saddled. I would not go to my lord husband upon the backs of bearers.”

“Your Grace,” said Missandei, “this one is so sorry, but you cannot ride in a tokar.”

The little scribe was right, as she so often was. The tokar was not a garment meant for horseback. Dany made a face. “As you say. Not the palanquin, though. I would suffocate behind those drapes. Have them ready a sedan chair.” If she must wear her floppy ears, let all the rabbits see her.

~

“...This match will save our city, you will see.”

“So we pray. I want to plant my olive trees and see them fruit.” Does it matter that Hizdahr’s kisses do not please me? Peace will please me. Am I a queen or just a woman?

~

Galazza Galare awaited them outside the temple doors, surrounded by her sisters in white and pink and red, blue and gold and purple. There are fewer than there were. Dany looked for Ezzara and did not see her. Has the bloody flux taken even her?

ADWD Daenerys VI

“...Let us distribute the food, Your Grace.”

“On the morrow. I am here now. I want to see.”

~

The Astapori stumbled after them in a ghastly procession that grew longer with every yard they crossed. Some spoke tongues she did not understand. Others were beyond speaking. Many lifted their hands to Dany, or knelt as her silver went by. “Mother,” they called to her, in the dialects of Astapor, Lys, and Old Volantis, in guttural Dothraki and the liquid syllables of Qarth, even in the Common Tongue of Westeros. “Mother, please … mother, help my sister, she is sick … give me food for my little ones … please, my old father … help him … help her … help me …”

I have no more help to give, Dany thought, despairing.

~

It was growing harder to find drivers willing to deliver the food as well. Too many of the men they had sent into the camp had been stricken by the flux themselves. Others had been attacked on the way back to the city. Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself. Every one of her advisors had argued fervently against it, from Reznak and the Shavepate to Ser Barristan, but Daenerys would not be moved. “I will not turn away from them,” she said stubbornly. “A queen must know the sufferings of her people.”

~

Their eyes followed her. Those who had the strength called out. “Mother … please, Mother … bless you, Mother …”

Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.

What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children?

~

“Food should not be wasted on the dying, Your Worship. We do not have enough to feed the living.”

He was not wrong, she knew, but that did not make the words any easier to hear.

~

The queen surveyed the scene around her. “If we were to share our food equally …”

“… the Astapori would eat through their portion in days, and we would have that much less for the siege.”

Dany gazed across the camp, to the many-colored brick walls of Meereen. The air was thick with flies and cries. “The gods have sent this pestilence to humble me. So many dead … I will not have them eating corpses.”

~

“I cannot heal them, but I can show them that their Mother cares.”

~

There was an old man on the ground a few feet away, moaning and staring up at the grey belly of the clouds. She knelt beside him, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and pushed back his dirty grey hair to feel his brow. “His flesh is on fire. I need water to bathe him. Seawater will serve. Marselen, will you fetch some for me? I need oil as well, for the pyre. Who will help me burn the dead?”

By the time Aggo returned with Grey Worm and fifty of the Unsullied loping behind his horse, Dany had shamed all of them into helping her. Symon Stripeback and his men were pulling the living from the dead and stacking up the corpses, while Jhogo and Rakharo and their Dothraki helped those who could still walk toward the shore to bathe and wash their clothes. Aggo stared at them as if they had all gone mad, but Grey Worm knelt beside the queen and said, “This one would be of help.”

Before midday a dozen fires were burning. Columns of greasy black smoke rose up to stain a merciless blue sky. Dany’s riding clothes were stained and sooty as she stepped back from the pyres. “Worship,” Grey Worm said, “this one and his brothers beg your leave to bathe in the salt sea when our work here is done, that we might be purified according to the laws of our great goddess.”

The queen had not known that the eunuchs had a goddess of their own. “Who is this goddess? One of the gods of Ghis?”

Grey Worm looked troubled. “The goddess is called by many names. She is the Lady of Spears, the Bride of Battle, the Mother of Hosts, but her true name belongs only to these poor ones who have burned their manhoods upon her altar. We may not speak of her to others. This one begs your forgiveness.”

“As you wish. Yes, you may bathe if that is your desire. Thank you for your help.”

“These ones live to serve you.”

~

“No ruler can make a people good,” Selmy had told her. “Baelor the Blessed prayed and fasted and built the Seven as splendid a temple as any gods could wish for, yet he could not put an end to war and want.” A queen must listen to her people, Dany reminded herself. “After the wedding Hizdahr will be king. Let him reopen the fighting pits if he wishes. I want no part of it.” Let the blood be on his hands, not mine.

~

“Daenerys, my queen, I will gladly wash you from head to heel if that is what I must do to be your king and consort.”

“To be my king and consort, you need only bring me peace.[”]

~

Would she never have a friend that she could trust? What good are prophecies if you cannot make sense of them? If I marry Hizdahr before the sun comes up, will all these armies melt away like morning dew and let me rule in peace?

~

“I thought you would be the one to betray me. Once for blood and once for gold and once for love, the warlocks said. I thought … I never thought Brown Ben. Even my dragons seemed to trust him.” She clutched her captain by the shoulders. “Promise me that you will never turn against me. I could not bear that. Promise me.”

ADWD Daenerys V

Daenerys received them in the grandeur of her hall as tall candles burned amongst the marble pillars. When she saw that the Astapori were half-starved, she sent for food at once.

~

“I’m no maester, mind you, but I know you got to keep the bad apples from the good.”

“These are not apples, Ben,” said Dany. “These are men and women, sick and hungry and afraid.” My children. “I should have gone to Astapor.”

~

“You want me to loot Meereen and flee? No, I will not do that.[”]

~

Daenerys looked at the faces of the men around her. The Shavepate, scowling. Ser Barristan, with his lined face and sad blue eyes. Reznak mo Reznak, pale, sweating. Brown Ben, white-haired, grizzled, tough as old leather. Grey Worm, smooth-cheeked, stolid, expressionless. Daario should be here, and my bloodriders, she thought. If there is to be a battle, the blood of my blood should be with me. She missed Ser Jorah Mormont too. He lied to me, informed on me, but he loved me too, and he always gave good counsel.

~

“I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one without. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me. The whole city. I need … I need …” She could not say it.

“Your Grace?” Ser Barristan prompted, gently.

A queen belongs not to herself but to her people.

“I need Hizdahr zo Loraq.”

ADWD Daenerys IV

Two of Dany’s favorite hostages served the food and kept the cups filled—a doe-eyed little girl called Qezza and a skinny boy named Grazhar. They were brother and sister, and cousins of the Green Grace, who greeted them with kisses when she swept in, and asked them if they had been good.

“They are very sweet, the both of them,” Dany assured her. “Qezza sings for me sometimes. She has a lovely voice. And Ser Barristan has been instructing Grazhar and the other boys in the ways of western chivalry.”

~

The cowards broke in on some weavers, freedwomen who had done no harm to anyone. All they did was make beautiful things. I have a tapestry they gave me hanging over my bed.[”]

~

“...You have not harmed any of the noble children you hold as hostage.”

“Not as yet, no.” Dany had grown fond of her young charges. Some were shy and some were bold, some sweet and some sullen, but all were innocent. [...]

Dany pushed her food about her plate. She dare not glance over to where Grazhar and Qezza stood, for fear that she might cry. [...] Hazzea was enough. What good is peace if it must be purchased with the blood of little children? “These murders are not their doing,” Dany told the Green Grace, feebly. “I am no butcher queen.”

~

Only then would her womb quicken once again …

… but Daenerys Targaryen had other children, tens of thousands who had hailed her as their mother when she broke their chains. She thought of Stalwart Shield, of Missandei’s brother, of the woman Rylona Rhee, who had played the harp so beautifully. No marriage would ever bring them back to life, but if a husband could help end the slaughter, then she owed it to her dead to marry.

~

“...Meereen cannot endure another war, Your Radiance.”

That was a good answer, and an honest one. “I have never wanted war. I defeated the Yunkai’i once and spared their city when I might have sacked it. I refused to join King Cleon when he marched against them. Even now, with Astapor besieged, I stay my hand. And Qarth … I have never done the Qartheen any harm …”

~

“...I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.”

“There may be another choice. The Yunkai’i can be persuaded to allow all your freedmen to remain free, I believe, if Your Worship will agree that the Yellow City may trade and train slaves unmolested from this day forth. No more blood need flow.”

“Save for the blood of those slaves that the Yunkai’i will trade and train,” Dany said, but she recognized the truth in his words even so. It may be that is the best end we can hope for.

~

“So,” she said to him, “it seems that I may wed again. Are you happy for me, ser?”

“If that is your command, Your Grace.”

“Hizdahr is not the husband you would have chosen for me.”

“It is not my place to choose your husband.”

“It is not,” she agreed, “but it is important to me that you should understand. My people are bleeding. Dying. A queen belongs not to herself, but to the realm. Marriage or carnage, those are my choices. A wedding or a war.”

~

“You are fighting shadows when you should be fighting the men who cast them,” Daario went on. “Kill them all and take their treasures, I say. Whisper the command, and your Daario will make you a pile of their heads taller than this pyramid.”

“If I knew who they were—”

“Zhak and Pahl and Merreq. Them, and all the rest. The Great Masters. Who else would it be?”

He is as bold as he is bloody. “We have no proof this is their work. Would you have me slaughter my own subjects?”

“Your own subjects would gladly slaughter you.”

He had been so long away, Dany had almost forgotten what he was. Sellswords were treacherous by nature, she reminded herself. Fickle, faithless, brutal. He will never be more than he is. He will never be the stuff of kings. “The pyramids are strong,” she explained to him. “We could take them only at great cost. The moment we attack one the others will rise against us.”

“Then winkle them out of their pyramids on some pretext. A wedding might serve. Why not? Promise your hand to Hizdahr and all the Great Masters will come to see you married. When they gather in the Temple of the Graces, turn us loose upon them.”

Dany was appalled. He is a monster. A gallant monster, but a monster still. “Do you take me for the Butcher King?”

ADWD Daenerys III

The cedars that had once grown tall along the coast grew no more, felled by the axes of the Old Empire or consumed by dragonfire when Ghis made war against Valyria. Once the trees had gone, the soil baked beneath the hot sun and blew away in thick red clouds. “It was these calamities that transformed my people into slavers,” Galazza Galare had told her, at the Temple of the Graces. And I am the calamity that will change these slavers back into people, Dany had sworn to herself.

~

“I want no slave. I free you.” His jeweled nose made a tempting target. This time Dany threw an apricot at him.

Xaro caught it in the air and took a bite. “Whence came this madness? Should I count myself fortunate that you did not free my own slaves when you were my guest in Qarth?”

I was a beggar queen and you were Xaro of the Thirteen, Dany thought, and all you wanted were my dragons. “Your slaves seemed well treated and content. It was not till Astapor that my eyes were opened. Do you know how Unsullied are made and trained?”

~

He was too eloquent for her. Dany had no answer for him, only the raw feeling in her belly. “Slavery is not the same as rain,” she insisted. “I have been rained on and I have been sold. It is not the same. No man wants to be owned.”

~

“My dragons have grown, my shoulders have not. They range far afield, hunting.” Hazzea, forgive me.

~

Dany wondered how many men thirteen galleys could hold. It had taken three to carry her and her khalasar from Qarth to Astapor, but that was before she had acquired eight thousand Unsullied, a thousand sellswords, and a vast horde of freedmen. And the dragons, what am I to do with them? “Drogon,” she whispered softly, “where are you?” For a moment she could almost see him sweeping across the sky, his black wings swallowing the stars.

~

"As you say, Your Grace. Still. I will be watchful."

She kissed [Barristan] on the cheek. "I know you will. Come, walk me back down to the feast."

~

One of her young hostages brought her morning meal, a plump shy girl named Mezzara, whose father ruled the pyramid of Merreq, and Dany gave her a happy hug and thanked her with a kiss.

~

“We are all dead, then. You gave us death, not freedom.” Ghael leapt to his feet and spat into her face.

Strong Belwas seized him by the shoulder and slammed him down onto the marble so hard that Dany heard Ghael’s teeth crack. The Shavepate would have done worse, but she stopped him.

“Enough,” she said, dabbing at her cheek with the end of her tokar. “No one has ever died from spittle. Take him away.”

~

Dany would gladly have sent the rest of the petitioners away … but she was still their queen, so she heard them out and did her best to give them justice.

~

Late that afternoon Admiral Groleo and Ser Barristan returned from their inspection of the galleys. Dany assembled her council to hear them. Grey Worm was there for the Unsullied, Skahaz mo Kandaq for the Brazen Beasts. In the absence of her bloodriders, a wizened jaqqa rhan called Rommo, squint-eyed and bowlegged, came to speak for her Dothraki. Her freedmen were represented by the captains of the three companies she had formed—Mollono Yos Dob of the Stalwart Shields, Symon Stripeback of the Free Brothers, Marselen of the Mother’s Men. Reznak mo Reznak hovered at the queen’s elbow, and Strong Belwas stood behind her with his huge arms crossed. Dany would not lack for counsel.

~

Reznak mo Reznak gave a piteous moan. “Then it is true. Your Worship means to abandon us.” He wrung his hands. “The Yunkai’i will restore the Great Masters the instant you are gone, and we who have so faithfully served your cause will be put to the sword, our sweet wives and maiden daughters raped and enslaved.”

“Not mine,” grumbled Skahaz Shavepate. “I will kill them first, with mine own hand.” He slapped his sword hilt.

Dany felt as if he had slapped her face instead. “If you fear what may follow when I leave, come with me to Westeros.”

~

“Those left behind in Meereen would envy them their easy deaths,” moaned Reznak. “They will make slaves of us, or throw us in the pits. All will be as it was, or worse.”

“Where is your courage?” Ser Barristan lashed out. “Her Grace freed you from your chains. It is for you to sharpen your swords and defend your own freedom when she leaves.”

“Brave words, from one who means to sail into the sunset,” Symon Stripeback snarled back. “Will you look back at our dying?”

“Your Grace—”

“Magnificence—”

“Your Worship—”

“Enough.” Dany slapped the table. “No one will be left to die. You are all my people.” Her dreams of home and love had blinded her. “I will not abandon Meereen to the fate of Astapor. It grieves me to say so, but Westeros must wait.”

~

“My lord, I will gladly have those ships, but I cannot give you the promise that you ask.” She took his hand. “Give me the galleys, and I swear that Qarth will have the friendship of Meereen until the stars go out. Let me trade with them, and you will have a good part of the profits.”

Xaro’s glad smile died upon his lips. “What are you saying? Are you telling me you will not go?”

“I cannot go.”

ADWD Daenerys II

“Who is that weeping?”

“Your slave Missandei.” Jhiqui had a taper in her hand.

“My servant. I have no slaves.”

~

“Magnificence,” murmured Reznak mo Reznak, “we cannot know that these great nobles mean to join your enemies. More like they are simply making for their estates in the hills.”

“They will not mind us keeping their gold safe, then. There is nothing to buy in the hills.”

“They are afraid for their children,” Reznak said.

Yes, Daenerys thought, and so am I. “We must keep them safe as well. I will have two children from each of them. From the other pyramids as well. A boy and a girl.”

“Hostages,” said Skahaz, happily.

“Pages and cupbearers. If the Great Masters make objection, explain to them that in Westeros it is a great honor for a child to be chosen to serve at court.”

~

“[...] Will you hear my friends? There are seven of them as well. [...] They have come to add their voices to mine own, and ask Your Grace to let our fighting pits reopen.”

[...] Dany had no answer for that. If this is truly what my people wish, do I have the right to deny it to them? It was their city before it was mine, and it is their own lives they wish to squander. “I will consider all you've said. Thank you for your counsel.” She rose. “We will resume on the morrow.”

~

Safe. The word made Dany’s eyes fill up with tears. “I want to keep you safe.” Missandei was only a child. With her, she felt as if she could be a child too. “No one ever kept me safe when I was little. Well, Ser Willem did, but then he died, and Viserys … I want to protect you but … it is so hard. To be strong. I don’t always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen … the … the …”

“… mother,” whispered Missandei.

“Mother to dragons.” Dany shivered.

“No. Mother to us all.” Missandei hugged her tighter. “Your Grace should sleep. Dawn will be here soon, and court.”

“We’ll both sleep, and dream of sweeter days. Close your eyes.” When she did, Dany kissed her eyelids and made her giggle.

~

Somewhere beneath those roofs, the Sons of the Harpy were gathered, plotting ways to kill her and all those who loved her and put her children back in chains. Somewhere down there a hungry child was crying for milk. Somewhere an old woman lay dying. Somewhere a man and a maid embraced, and fumbled at each other’s clothes with eager hands. But up here there was only the sheen of moonlight on pyramids and pits, with no hint what lay beneath. Up here there was only her, alone.

She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman’s pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon?

~

“The freedmen work too cheaply, Magnificence,” Reznak said. “Some call themselves journeymen, or even masters, titles that belong by rights only to the craftsmen of the guilds. The masons and the bricklayers do respectfully petition Your Worship to uphold their ancient rights and customs.”

“The freedmen work cheaply because they are hungry,” Dany pointed out. “If I forbid them to carve stone or lay bricks, the chandlers, the weavers, and the goldsmiths will soon be at my gates asking that they be excluded from those trades as well.”

~

“Hizdahr swears that the winners shall share half of all the coin collected at the gates,” said Khrazz. “Half, he swears it, and Hizdahr is an honorable man.”

No, a cunning man. Daenerys felt trapped. “And the losers? What shall they receive?”

~

The guilt …” The word caught in her throat. Hazzea, she thought, and suddenly she heard herself say, “I have to see the pit,” in a voice as small as a child’s whisper. “Take me down, ser, if you would.”

~

What sort of mother lets her children rot in darkness?

~

If I look back, I am doomed, Dany told herself … but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power?

[...] On the road to Yunkai, when Daario tossed the heads of Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn at her feet, her children made a feast of them. Dragons had no fear of men. And a dragon large enough to gorge on sheep could take a child just as easily.

Her name had been Hazzea. She was four years old. Unless her father lied. He might have lied. No one had seen the dragon but him. His proof was burned bones, but burned bones proved nothing. He might have killed the little girl himself, and burned her afterward. He would not have been the first father to dispose of an unwanted girl child, the Shavepate claimed. The Sons of the Harpy might have done it, and made it look like dragon’s work to make the city hate me. Dany wanted to believe that … but if that was so, why had Hazzea’s father waited until the audience hall was almost empty to come forward? If his purpose had been to inflame the Meereenese against her, he would have told his tale when the hall was full of ears to hear.

 [...] Dany chose to pay the blood price. No one could tell her the worth of a daughter, so she set it at one hundred times the worth of a lamb. “I would give Hazzea back to you if I could,” she told the father, “but some things are beyond the power of even a queen. Her bones shall be laid to rest in the Temple of the Graces, and a hundred candles shall burn day and night in her memory. Come back to me each year upon her nameday, and your other children shall not want … but this tale must never pass your lips again.”

~

Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.

ADWD Daenerys I

“Your Grace,” said Ser Barristan Selmy, the lord commander of her Queensguard, “there is no need for you to see this.”

“He died for me.”

~

“Grey Worm, why was this man alone? Had he no partner?” By her command, when the Unsullied walked the streets of Meereen by night they always walked in pairs.

“My queen,” replied the captain, “your servant Stalwart Shield had no duty last night. He had gone to a ... a certain place ... to drink, and have companionship.”

“A certain place? What do you mean?”

“A house of pleasure, Your Grace.”

[...] “What could a eunuch hope to find in a brothel?”

“Even those who lack a man’s parts may still have a man’s heart, Your Grace,” said Grey Worm. “This one has been told that your servant Stalwart Shield sometimes gave coin to the women of the brothels to lie with him and hold him.”

The blood of the dragon does not weep. “Stalwart Shield,” she said, dry-eyed. “That was his name?”

“If it please Your Grace.”

“It is a fine name.” The Good Masters of Astapor had not allowed their slave soldiers even names. Some of her Unsullied reclaimed their birth names after she had freed them; others chose new names for themselves. [...]

Dany said a silent prayer that somewhere one of the Harpy’s Sons was dying even now, clutching at his belly and writhing in pain. “Why did they cut open his cheeks like that?”

“Gracious queen,” said Grey Worm, “his killers had forced the genitals of a goat down the throat of your servant Stalwart Shield. This one removed them before bringing him here.”

[...] Shrugging off the lion pelt, she knelt beside the corpse and closed the dead man’s eyes, ignoring Jhiqui’s gasp. “Stalwart Shield shall not be forgotten. Have him washed and dressed for battle and bury him with cap and shield and spears.”

~

To rule Meereen I must win the Meereenese, however much I may despise them.

~

The hall had filled. Unsullied stood with their backs to the pillars, holding shields and spears, the spikes on their caps jutting upward like a row of knives. The Meereenese had gathered beneath the eastern windows. Her freedmen stood well apart from their former masters. Until they stand together, Meereen will know no peace. “Arise.” Dany settled onto her bench. The hall rose. That at least they do as one.

~

“What was the name of the old weaver?”

“The slave?” Grazdan shifted his weight, frowning. “She was … Elza, it might have been. Or Ella. It was six years ago she died. I have owned so many slaves, Your Grace.”

“Let us say Elza. Here is our ruling. From the girls, you shall have nothing. It was Elza who taught them weaving, not you. From you, the girls shall have a new loom, the finest coin can buy. That is for forgetting the name of the old woman.”

~

Reznak would have summoned another tokar next, but Dany insisted that he call upon a freedman. Thereafter she alternated between the former masters and the former slaves.

~

“Some men have brought burnt bones.”

“Men make fires. Men cook mutton. Burnt bones prove nothing. Brown Ben says there are red wolves in the hills outside the city, and jackals and wild dogs. Must we pay good silver for every lamb that goes astray between Yunkai and the Skahazadhan?”

“No, Magnificence." Reznak bowed. "Shall I send these rascals away, or will you want them scourged?”

Daenerys shifted on the bench. “No man should ever fear to come to me.” Some claims were false, she did not doubt, but more were genuine. Her dragons had grown too large to be content with rats and cats and dogs. The more they eat, the larger they will grow, Ser Barristan had warned her, and the larger they grow, the more they'll eat. Drogon especially ranged far afield and could easily devour a sheep a day. “Pay them for the value of their animals,” she told Reznak, “but henceforth claimants must present themselves at the Temple of the Graces and swear a holy oath before the gods of Ghis.”

A Storm of Swords

ASOS Daenerys VI

“I am going to take you home one day, Missandei,” Dany promised. If I had made the same promise to Jorah, would he still have sold me? “I swear it.”

“This one is content to stay with you, Your Grace. Naath will be there, always. You are good to this—to me.”

“And you to me.”

~

“The city bleeds. Dead men rot unburied in the streets, each pyramid is an armed camp, and the markets have neither food nor slaves for sale. And the poor children! King Cleaver’s thugs have seized every highborn boy in Astapor to make new Unsullied for the trade, though it will be years before they are trained.”

The thing that surprised Dany most was how unsurprised she was. She found herself remembering Eroeh, the Lhazarene girl she had once tried to protect, and what had happened to her. It will be the same in Meereen once I march, she thought.

~

“Any man who wishes to sell himself into slavery may do so. Or woman.” She raised a hand. “But they may not sell their children, nor a man his wife.”

~

“Aegon the Conqueror brought fire and blood to Westeros, but afterward he gave them peace, prosperity, and justice. But all I have brought to Slaver’s Bay is death and ruin. I have been more khal than queen, smashing and plundering, then moving on.”

“There is nothing to stay for,” said Brown Ben Plumm.

“Your Grace, the slavers brought their doom on themselves,” said Daario Naharis.

“You have brought freedom as well,” Missandei pointed out.

“Freedom to starve?” asked Dany sharply. “Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?” Am I mad? Do I have the taint?

“A dragon,” Ser Barristan said with certainty. “Meereen is not Westeros, Your Grace.”

“But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?” He had no answer to that. Dany turned away from them, to gaze out over the city once again. “My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.”

“What will you do then, Khaleesi?” asked Rakharo.

“Stay,” she said. “Rule. And be a queen.”

ASOS Daenerys V

Her host numbered more than eighty thousand after Yunkai, but fewer than a quarter of them were soldiers. The rest ... well, Ser Jorah called them mouths with feet, and soon they would be starving.

The Great Masters of Meereen had withdrawn before Dany’s advance, harvesting all they could and burning what they could not harvest. Scorched fields and poisoned wells had greeted her at every hand. Worst of all, they had nailed a slave child up on every milepost along the coast road from Yunkai, nailed them up still living with their entrails hanging out and one arm always outstretched to point the way to Meereen. Leading her van, Daario had given orders for the children to be taken down before Dany had to see them, but she had countermanded him as soon as she was told. “I will see them,” she said. “I will see every one, and count them, and look upon their faces. And I will remember.”

By the time they came to Meereen sitting on the salt coast beside her river, the count stood at one hundred and sixty-three. I will have this city, Dany pledged to herself once more.

~

“Strong Belwas needs liver and onions.”

“You shall have it,” said Dany. “Strong Belwas is hurt.” His stomach was red with the blood sheeting down from the meaty gash beneath his breasts.

“It is nothing. I let each man cut me once, before I kill him.” He slapped his bloody belly. “Count the cuts and you will know how many Strong Belwas has slain.”

But Dany had lost Khal Drogo to a similar wound, and she was not willing to let it go untreated. She sent Missandei to find a certain Yunkish freedman renowned for his skill in the healing arts. Belwas howled and complained, but Dany scolded him and called him a big bald baby until he let the healer stanch the wound with vinegar, sew it shut, and bind his chest with strips of linen soaked in fire wine. Only then did she lead her captains and commanders inside her pavilion for their council.

~

Daario Naharis gave Grey Worm a smile. “Perhaps the Unsullied should wield the axes. Boiling oil feels like no more than a warm bath to you, I have heard.”

“This is false.” Grey Worm did not return the smile. “These ones do not feel burns as men do, yet such oil blinds and kills. The Unsullied do not fear to die, though. Give these ones rams, and we will batter down these gates or die in the attempt.”

“You would die,” said Brown Ben. At Yunkai, when he took command of the Second Sons, he claimed to be the veteran of a hundred battles. “Though I will not say I fought bravely in all of them. There are old sellswords and bold sellswords, but no old bold sellswords.” She saw that it was true.

Dany sighed. “I will not throw away Unsullied lives, Grey Worm.”

~

“...You stopped at Astapor to buy an army, not to start a war. Save your spears and swords for the Seven Kingdoms, my queen. Leave Meereen to the Meereenese and march west for Pentos.”

“Defeated?” said Dany, bristling.

[...] Dany set great store by Ser Jorah’s counsel, but to leave Meereen untouched was more than she could stomach. She could not forget the children on their posts, the birds tearing at their entrails, their skinny arms pointing up the coast road. “Ser Jorah, you say we have no food left. If I march west, how can I feed my freedmen?”

“You can’t. I am sorry, Khaleesi. They must feed themselves or starve. Many and more will die along the march, yes. That will be hard, but there is no way to save them. We need to put this scorched earth well behind us.”

Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. “There must be some way into this city.”

~

The grove of burnt olive trees in which she’d raised her pavilion stood beside the sea, between the Dothraki camp and that of the Unsullied. When the horses had been saddled, Dany and her companions set out along the shoreline, away from the city. Even so, she could feel Meereen at her back, mocking her. When she looked over one shoulder, there it stood, the afternoon sun blazing off the bronze harpy atop the Great Pyramid. Inside Meereen the slavers would soon be reclining in their fringed tokars to feast on lamb and olives, unborn puppies, honeyed dormice and other such delicacies, whilst outside her children went hungry. A sudden wild anger filled her. I will bring you down, she swore.

ASOS Daenerys IV

Dany considered. The slaver host seemed small compared to her own numbers, but the sellswords were ahorse. She’d ridden too long with Dothraki not to have a healthy respect for what mounted warriors could do to foot. The Unsullied could withstand their charge, but my freedmen will be slaughtered. 

~

One of the first things Dany had done after the fall of Astapor was abolish the custom of giving the Unsullied new slave names every day. Most of those born free had returned to their birth names; those who still remembered them, at least. Others had called themselves after heroes or gods, and sometimes weapons, gems, and even flowers, which resulted in soldiers with some very peculiar names, to Dany’s ears. Grey Worm had remained Grey Worm. When she asked him why, he said, “It is a lucky name. The name this one was born to was accursed. That was the name he had when he was taken for a slave. But Grey Worm is the name this one drew the day Daenerys Stormborn set him free.”

“If battle is joined, let Grey Worm show wisdom as well as valor,” Dany told him. “Spare any slave who runs or throws down his weapon. The fewer slain, the more remain to join us after.”

“This one will remember.”

“I know he will. Be at my tent by midday. I want you there with my other officers when I treat with the sellsword captains.” Dany spurred her silver on to camp.

~

Within the perimeter the Unsullied had established, the tents were going up in orderly rows, with her own tall golden pavilion at the center. A second encampment lay close beyond her own; five times the size, sprawling and chaotic, this second camp had no ditches, no tents, no sentries, no horselines. Those who had horses or mules slept beside them, for fear they might be stolen. Goats, sheep, and half-starved dogs wandered freely amongst hordes of women, children, and old men. Dany had left Astapor in the hands of a council of former slaves led by a healer, a scholar, and a priest. Wise men all, she thought, and just. Yet even so, tens of thousands preferred to follow her to Yunkai, rather than remain behind in Astapor. I gave them the city, and most of them were too frightened to take it.

The raggle-taggle host of freedmen dwarfed her own, but they were more burden than benefit. Perhaps one in a hundred had a donkey, a camel, or an ox; most carried weapons looted from some slaver’s armory, but only one in ten was strong enough to fight, and none was trained. They ate the land bare as they passed, like locusts in sandals. Yet Dany could not bring herself to abandon them as Ser Jorah and her bloodriders urged. I told them they were free. I cannot tell them now they are not free to join me. She gazed at the smoke rising from their cookfires and swallowed a sigh. She might have the best footsoldiers in the world, but she also had the worst.

~

“I cannot sleep when men are dying for me, Whitebeard,” she said.

~

“Our own losses?”

“A dozen. If that many.”

Only then did she allow herself to smile.

~

“Sellsword or slave, spare all those who will pledge me their faith. If enough of the Second Sons will join us, keep the company intact.”

~

“Mhysa! Mhysa!”

Dany looked at Missandei. “What are they shouting?” “It is Ghiscari, the old pure tongue. It means ‘Mother.’”

Dany felt a lightness in her chest. I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again, and others took up the cry. “Mhysa!” they called. “Mhysa! MHYSA!” They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. “Maela,” some called her while others cried “Aelalla” or “Qathei” or “Tato,” but whatever the tongue it all meant the same thing. Mother. They are calling me Mother.

The chant grew, spread, swelled. It swelled so loud that it frightened her horse, and the mare backed and shook her head and lashed her silver-grey tail. It swelled until it seemed to shake the yellow walls of Yunkai. More slaves were streaming from the gates every moment, and as they came they took up the call. They were running toward her now, pushing, stumbling, wanting to touch her hand, to stroke her horse’s mane, to kiss her feet. Her poor bloodriders could not keep them all away, and even Strong Belwas grunted and growled in dismay.

Ser Jorah urged her to go, but Dany remembered a dream she had dreamed in the House of the Undying. “They will not hurt me,” she told him. “They are my children, Jorah.” She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. “Mother,” they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. “Mother,” they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. “Mother, Mother, Mother!”

ASOS Daenerys III

“All,” growled Kraznys mo Nakloz, who smelled of peaches today. The slave girl repeated the word in the Common Tongue of Westeros. “Of thousands, there are eight. Is this what she means by all? There are also six centuries, who shall be part of a ninth thousand when complete. Would she have them too?”

“I would,” said Dany when the question was put to her. “The eight thousands, the six centuries ... and the ones still in training as well. The ones who have not earned the spikes.”

~

Dany let them argue, sipping the tart persimmon wine and trying to keep her face blank and ignorant. I will have them all, no matter the price, she told herself. The city had a hundred slave traders, but the eight before her were the greatest. When selling bed slaves, fieldhands, scribes, craftsmen, and tutors, these men were rivals, but their ancestors had allied one with the other for the purpose of making and selling the Unsullied. Brick and blood built Astapor, and brick and blood her people.

~

“My need is now. The Unsullied are well trained, but even so, many will fall in battle. I shall need the boys as replacements to take up the swords they drop.” She put her wine aside and leaned toward the slave girl. “Tell the Good Masters that I will want even the little ones who still have their puppies. Tell them that I will pay as much for the boy they cut yesterday as for an Unsullied in a spiked helm.”

The girl told them. The answer was still no.


Dany frowned in annoyance. “Very well. Tell them I will pay double, so long as I get them all.”


~

Two thousand would never serve for what she meant to do. I must have them all. Dany knew what she must do now, though the taste of it was so bitter that even the persimmon wine could not cleanse it from her month. She had considered long and hard and found no other way. It is my only choice. “Give me all,” she said, “and you may have a dragon.”

~

“When you are ... when you are done with them ... your Grace might command them to fall upon their swords.”

“And even that, they would do?”


“Yes.” Missandei’s voice had grown soft. “Your Grace.”

Dany squeezed her hand. “You would sooner I did not ask it of them, though. Why is that? Why do you care?”

“This one does not ... I ... Your Grace ... ”


“Tell me.”


The girl lowered her eyes. “Three of them were my brothers once, Your Grace.”

Then I hope your brothers are as brave and clever as you.

~

“Magister Illyrio is not here,” she finally had to tell him, “and if he was, he could not sway me either. I need the Unsullied more than I need these ships, and I will hear no more about it.”

The anger burned the grief and fear from her, for a few hours at the least.

~

“Do you remember Eroeh?” she asked him. “The Lhazareen girl?”

“They were raping her, but I stopped them and took her under my protection. Only when my sun-and-stars was dead Mago took her back, used her again, and killed her. Aggo said it was her fate.”

“I remember,” Ser Jorah said.

“I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn’t have done that. He wasn’t just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”

“Some kings make themselves. Robert did.”
“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no justice. Justice ... that’s what kings are for.”

~

“Unsullied! Defend us, stop them, defend your masters! Spears! Swords!”

[...] The Unsullied did not so much as look down to watch him die. Rank on rank on rank, they stood.

And did not move. The gods have heard my prayer.

“Unsullied!” Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. “Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see.” She raised the harpy’s fingers in the air ... and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys!”

“Dracarys!” they shouted back, the sweetest word she’d ever heard. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire.

ASOS Daenerys II

“Tell her that these have been standing here for a day and a night, with no food nor water. [...] Such is their courage. Tell her that.”

“I call that madness, not courage,” said Arstan Whitebeard, when the solemn little scribe was done. He tapped the end of his hardwood staff against the bricks, tap tap, as if to tell his displeasure. The old man had not wanted to sail to Astapor; nor did he favor buying this slave army. A queen should hear all sides before reaching a decision. That was why Dany had brought him with her to the Plaza of Pride, not to keep her safe.

~

He stopped before a thickset man who had the look of Lhazar about him and brought his whip up sharply, laying a line of blood across one copper cheek. The eunuch blinked, and stood there, bleeding. “Would you like another?” asked Kraznys.

“If it please your worship.”

It was hard to pretend not to understand. Dany laid a hand on Kraznys’s arm before he could raise the whip again. “Tell the Good Master that I see how strong his Unsullied are, and how bravely they suffer pain.”

~

“There are other ways to tempt men, besides the flesh,” Arstan Whitebeard objected, when she was done.

“Men, yes, but not Unsullied. Plunder interests them no more than rape. They own nothing but their weapons. We do not even permit them names.”

“No names?” Dany frowned at the little scribe. “Can that be what the Good Master said? They have no names?”

~

“More madness,” said Arstan, when he heard. “How can any man possibly remember a new name every day?”

“Those who cannot are culled in training, along with those who cannot run all day in full pack, scale a mountain in the black of night, walk across a bed of coals, or slay an infant.”

Dany’s mouth surely twisted at that. Did he see, or is he blind as well as cruel? She turned away quickly, trying to keep her face a mask until she heard the translation. Only then did she allow herself to say, “Whose infants do they slay?”

“To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied must go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find some wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother’s eyes. In this way, we make certain that there is no weakness left in them.”

She was feeling faint. The heat, she tried to tell herself. “You take a babe from its mother’s arms, kill it as she watches, and pay for her pain with a silver coin?”

~

Dany climbed into her litter frowning, and beckoned Arstan to climb in beside her. A man as old as him should not be walking in such heat.

~

“Make way!” Jhogo shouted as he rode before her litter. “Make way for the Mother of Dragons!” But when he uncoiled the great silver-handled whip that Dany had given him, and made to crack it in the air, she leaned out and told him nay. “Not in this place, blood of my blood,” she said, in his own tongue. “These bricks have heard too much of the sound of whips.”

~

“Dog,” he said happily when he saw Dany. “Good dog in Astapor, little queen. Eat?” He offered it with a greasy grin.

“That is kind of you, Belwas, but no.” Dany had eaten dog in other places, at other times, but just now all she could think of was the Unsullied and their stupid puppies.

~

“How many men do they have for sale?”

“None.” Was it Mormont she was angry with, or this city with its sullen heat, its stinks and sweats and crumbling bricks? “They sell eunuchs, not men. Eunuchs made of brick, like the rest of Astapor. Shall I buy eight thousand brick eunuchs with dead eyes that never move, who kill suckling babes for the sake of a spiked hat and strangle their own dogs? They don’t even have names. So don’t call them men, ser.”

“Khaleesi,” he said, taken aback by her fury, “the Unsullied are chosen as boys, and trained—”

“I have heard all I care to of their training.” Dany could feel tears welling in her eyes, sudden and unwanted. Her hand flashed up and cracked Ser Jorah hard across the face. It was either that, or cry.

Mormont touched the cheek she’d slapped. “If I have displeased my queen—”

“You have. You’ve displeased me greatly, ser. If you were my true knight, you would never have brought me to this vile sty.”

~

“They have been wild while you were gone, Khaleesi,” Irri told her. “Viserion clawed splinters from the door, do you see? And Drogon made to escape when the slaver men came to see them. When I grabbed his tail to hold him back, he turned and bit me.” She showed Dany the marks of his teeth on her hand.

“Did any of them try to burn their way free?” That was the thing that frightened Dany the most.

“No, Khaleesi. Drogon breathed his fire, but in the empty air. The slaver men feared to come near him.”

She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.”

~

Dusk had begun to settle over the waters of Slaver’s Bay before Dany returned to the deck. She stood by the rail and looked out over Astapor. From here it looks almost beautiful, she thought. The stars were coming out above, and the silk lanterns below, just as Kraznys’s translator had promised. The brick pyramids were all glimmery with light. But it is dark below, in the streets and plazas and fighting pits. And it is darkest of all in the barracks, where some little boy is feeding scraps to the puppy they gave him when they took away his manhood.

~

Cheaper than fighting, Dany thought. Yes, it might be. If only it could be that easy for her. How pleasant it would be to sail to King’s Landing with her dragons, and pay the boy Joffrey a chest of gold to make him go away.

~

“Viserys would have bought as many Unsullied as he had the coin for. But you once said I was like Rhaegar ...”

“I remember, Daenerys.”

“Your Grace,” she corrected. “Prince Rhaegar led free men into battle, not slaves. Whitebeard said he dubbed his squires himself, and made many other knights as well.”

“There was no higher honor than to receive your knighthood from the Prince of Dragonstone.”

“Tell me, then—when he touched a man on the shoulder with his sword, what did he say? ‘Go forth and kill the weak’? Or ‘Go forth and defend them’? At the Trident, those brave men Viserys spoke of who died beneath our dragon banners—did they give their lives because they believed in Rhaegar’s cause, or because they had been bought and paid for?” Dany turned to Mormont, crossed her arms, and waited for an answer.

ASOS Daenerys I

The captain appeared at her elbow. “Would that this Balerion could soar as her namesake did, Your Grace,” he said in bastard Valyrian heavily flavored with accents of Pentos. “Then we should not need to row, nor tow, nor pray for wind.”

“Just so, Captain,” she answered with a smile, pleased to have won the man over. Captain Groleo was an old Pentoshi like his master, Illyrio Mopatis, and he had been nervous as a maiden about carrying three dragons on his ship. Half a hundred buckets of seawater still hung from the gunwales, in case of fires. At first Groleo had wanted the dragons caged and Dany had consented to put his fears at ease, but their misery was so palpable that she soon changed her mind and insisted they be freed.


Even Captain Groleo was glad of that, now. There had been one small fire, easily extinguished; against that, Balerion suddenly seemed to have far fewer rats than she’d had before, when she sailed under the name Saduleon. And her crew, once as fearful as they were curious, had begun to take a queer fierce pride in “their” dragons. Every man of them, from captain to cook’s boy, loved to watch the three fly ... though none so much as Dany.

~

“Ser Jorah named Rhaegar the last dragon once. He had to have been a peerless warrior to be called that, surely?”

“Your Grace,” said Whitebeard, “the Prince of Dragonstone was a most puissant warrior, but ...”

“Go on,” she urged. “You may speak freely to me.”

~

“...A change in the wind may bring the gift of victory.” He glanced at Ser Jorah. “Or a lady’s favor knotted round an arm.”

Mormont’s face darkened. “Be careful what you say, old man.”

Arstan had seen Ser Jorah fight at Lannisport, Dany knew, in the tourney Mormont had won with a lady’s favor knotted round his arm. He had won the lady too; Lynesse of House Hightower, his second wife, highborn and beautiful ... but she had ruined him, and abandoned him, and the memory of her was bitter to him now. “Be gentle, my knight.” She put a hand on Jorah’s arm. “Arstan had no wish to give offense, I’m certain.”

~

“A queen must listen to all,” she reminded him. “The highborn and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.” She had read that in a book.

~

“It seems to me that a queen who trusts no one is as foolish as a queen who trusts everyone. Every man I take into my service is a risk, I understand that, but how am I to win the Seven Kingdoms without such risks? Am I to conquer Westeros with one exile knight and three Dothraki bloodriders?”

A Clash of Kings

ACOK Daenerys V

“Make way,” Aggo shouted, while Jhogo sniffed at the air suspiciously. “I smell it, Khaleesi,” he called. “The poison water.” The Dothraki distrusted the sea and all that moved upon it. Water that a horse could not drink was water they wanted no part of. They will learn, Dany resolved. I braved their sea with Khal Drogo. Now they can brave mine.

~

The brass merchant was still rolling on the ground. She went to him and helped him to his feet. “Were you stung?”

“No, good lady,” he said, shaking, “or else I would be dead. But it touched me, aieeee, when it fell from the box it landed on my arm.” He had soiled himself, she saw, and no wonder.

She gave him a silver for his trouble and sent him on his way before she turned back to the old man with the white beard.

ACOK Daenerys III

They must weigh twice what they had in Vaes Tolorro. Even so, it would be years before they were large enough to take to war. And they must be trained as well, or they will lay my kingdom waste. For all her Targaryen blood, Dany had not the least idea of how to train a dragon.

~

“The Pureborn refused you?”

“As you said they would. Come, sit, give me your counsel.”

ACOK Daenerys II

The Dothraki sacked cities and plundered kingdoms, they did not rule them. Dany had no wish to reduce King’s Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father.

But before she could do that she must conquer.

~

Beneath Dany's gentle fingers, green Rhaegal stared at the stranger with eyes of molten gold. When his mouth opened, his teeth gleamed like black needles. "When does your ship return to Westeros, Captain?" 

"Not for a year or more, I fear. From here the Cinnamon Wind sails east, to make the trader's circle round the Jade Sea." 

"I see," said Dany, disappointed. "I wish you fair winds and good trading, then. You have brought me a precious gift."

~

Dany laughed. "And will see more of them one day, I hope. Come to me in King's Landing when I am on my father's throne, and you shall have a great reward."

ACOK Daenerys I

They are not strong, she told herself, so I must be their strength. I must show no fear, no weakness, no doubt. However frightened my heart, when they look upon my face they must see only Drogo’s queen. She felt older than her fourteen years. If ever she had truly been a girl, that time was done.

~

Dany hungered and thirsted with the rest of them. The milk in her breasts dried up, her nipples cracked and bled, and the flesh fell away from her day by day until she was lean and hard as a stick, yet it was her dragons she feared for.

~

Jhogo said they must leave her or bind her to her saddle, but Dany remembered a night on the Dothraki sea, when the Lysene girl had taught her secrets so that Drogo might love her more. She gave Doreah water from her own skin, cooled her brow with a damp cloth, and held her hand until she died, shivering. Only then would she permit the khalasar to press on.

A Game of Thrones

AGOT Daenerys X

“You will be my khalasar,” she told them. “I see the faces of slaves. I free you. Take off your collars. Go if you wish, no one shall harm you. If you stay, it will be as brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.” The black eyes watched her, wary, expressionless. “I see the children, women, the wrinkled faces of the aged. I was a child yesterday. Today I am a woman. Tomorrow I will be old. To each of you I say, give me your hands and your hearts, and there will always be a place for you.”

AGOT Daenerys IX

“Eroeh?” asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men.

“Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,” said Jhogo. “He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.”

“It was her fate, Khaleesi,” said Aggo.


If I look back I am lost. “It was a cruel fate,” Dany said, “yet not so cruel as Mago’s will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.”

The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances. “Khaleesi,” the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, “Jhaqo is a khal now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.”

She lifted her head. “And I am Daenerys Stormhorn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.”

AGOT Daenerys VIII

“He fell from his horse,” Haggo said, staring down. His broad face was impassive, but his voice was leaden.

“You must not say that,” Dany told him. “We have ridden far enough today. We will camp here.”

~

“We must bathe him,” she said stubbornly. She must not allow herself to despair. “Irri, have the tub brought at once. Doreah, Eroeh, find water, cool water, he’s so hot.” He was a fire in human skin.

[...] While the bath was being prepared, Dany knelt awkwardly beside her lord husband, her belly great with their child within. She undid his braid with anxious fingers, as she had on the night he’d taken her for the first time, beneath the stars. His bells she laid aside carefully, one by one. He would want them again when he was well, she told herself.

~

“Help him,” Dany pleaded. “For the love you say you bear me, help him now.”

[...] “Your khal is good as dead, Princess.”

“No, he can’t die, he mustn’t, it was only a cut.” Dany took his large callused hand in her own small ones, and held it tight between them. “I will not let him die ...”

~

Dany hugged herself. “But why?” she cried plaintively. “Why should they kill a little baby?”

“He is Drogo’s son, and the crones say he will be the stallion who mounts the world. It was prophesied. Better to kill the child than to risk his fury when he grows to manhood.”

The child kicked inside her, as if he had heard. Dany remembered the story Viserys had told her, of what the Usurper’s dogs had done to Rhaegar’s children. His son had been a babe as well, yet they had ripped him from his mother’s breast and dashed his head against a wall. That was the way of men. “They must not hurt my son!” she cried. “I will order my khas to keep him safe, and Drogo’s bloodriders will—”

~

Dany did not want to go back to Vaes Dothrak and live the rest of her life among those terrible old women, yet she knew that the knight spoke the truth. Drogo had been more than her sun-and-stars; he had been the shield that kept her safe. “I will not leave him,” she said stubbornly, miserably. She took his hand again. “I will not.”

~

“This is your work, maegi,” Qotho said. Haggo laid his fist across Mirri’s cheek with a meaty smack that drove her to the ground. Then he kicked her where she lay.

“Stop it!” Dany screamed.

~

“So you have saved me once more.”

“And now you must save him,” Dany said. “Please ...”

[...] “All I can do now is ease the dark road before him, so he might ride painless to the night lands. He will be gone by morning.”

Her words were a knife through Dany’s breast. What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel? She had finally found a safe place, had finally tasted love and hope. She was finally going home. And now to lose it all ... “No,” she pleaded. “Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way ... some magic, some ...”

~

She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.

~

She caught him by the shoulder, but Qotho shoved her aside. Dany fell to her knees, crossing her arms over her belly to protect the child within.

~

Someone threw a stone, and when Dany looked, her shoulder was torn and bloody. “No,” she wept, “no, please, stop it, it’s too high, the price is too high.” More stones came flying. She tried to crawl toward the tent, but Cohollo caught her. Fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back and she felt the cold touch of his knife at her throat. “My baby,” she screamed, and perhaps the gods heard, for as quick as that, Cohollo was dead. Aggo’s arrow took him under the arm, to pierce his lungs and heart.

AGOT Daenerys VII

The town was afire, black plumes of smoke roiling and tumbling as they rose into a hard blue sky. Beneath broken walls of dried mud, riders galloped back and forth, swinging their long whips as they herded the survivors from the smoking rubble. The women and children of Ogo’s khalasar walked with a sullen pride, even in defeat and bondage; they were slaves now, but they seemed not to fear it. It was different with the townsfolk. Dany pitied them; she remembered what terror felt like. Mothers stumbled along with blank, dead faces, pulling sobbing children by the hand. There were only a few men among them, cripples and cowards and grandfathers.

~

Ogo and his son had shared the high bench with her lord husband at the naming feast where Viserys had been crowned, but that was in Vaes Dothrak, beneath the Mother of Mountains, where every rider was a brother and all quarrels were put aside. It was different out in the grass. Ogo’s khalasar had been attacking the town when Khal Drogo caught him. She wondered what the Lamb Men had thought, when they first saw the dust of their horses from atop those cracked-mud walls. Perhaps a few, the younger and more foolish who still believed that the gods heard the prayers of desperate men, took it for deliverance.

Across the road, a girl no older than Dany was sobbing in a high thin voice as a rider shoved her over a pile of corpses, facedown, and thrust himself inside her. Other riders dismounted to take their turns. That was the sort of deliverance the Dothraki brought the Lamb Men.

I am the blood of the dragon, Daenerys Targaryen reminded herself as she turned her face away. She pressed her lips together and hardened her heart and rode on toward the gate.

“Most of Ogo’s riders fled,” Ser Jorah was saying. “Still, there may be as many as ten thousand captives.”

Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver’s Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.

“I’ve told the khal he ought to make for Meereen,” Ser Jorah said. “They’ll pay a better price than he’d get from a slaving caravan. Illyrio writes that they had a plague last year, so the brothels are paying double for healthy young girls, and triple for boys under ten. If enough children survive the journey, the gold will buy us all the ships we need, and hire men to sail them.”

Behind them, the girl being raped made a heartrending sound, a long sobbing wail that went on and on and on. Dany’s hand clenched hard around the reins, and she turned the silver’s head. “Make them stop,” she commanded Ser Jorah.

“Khaleesi?” The knight sounded perplexed.


“You heard my words,” she said. “Stop them.” She spoke to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. “Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape.”

The warriors exchanged a baffled look.

Jorah Mormont spurred his horse closer. “Princess,” he said, “you have a gentle heart, but you do not understand. This is how it has always been. Those men have shed blood for the khal. Now they claim their reward.”

Across the road, the girl was still crying, her high singsong tongue strange to Dany’s ears. The first man was done with her now, and a second had taken his place.

“She is a lamb girl,” Quaro said in Dothraki. “She is nothing, Khaleesi. The riders do her honor. The Lamb Men lay with sheep, it is known.”

“It is known,” her handmaid Irri echoed.

“It is known,” agreed Jhogo, astride the tall grey stallion that Drogo had given him. “If her wailing offends your ears, Khaleesi, Jhogo will bring you her tongue.” He drew his arakh.

“I will not have her harmed,” Dany said. “I claim her. Do as I command you, or Khal Drogo will know the reason why.”

“Ai, Khaleesi,” Jhogo replied, kicking his horse. Quaro and the others followed his lead, the bells in their hair chiming.

“Go with them,” she commanded Ser Jorah.

“As you command.” The knight gave her a curious look. “You are your brother’s sister, in truth.”

“Viserys?” She did not understand.

“No,” he answered. “Rhaegar.” He galloped off.

~

Mormont pulled the girl off the pile of corpses and wrapped her in his blood-spattered cloak. He led her across the road to Dany. “What do you want done with her?”

The girl was trembling, her eyes wide and vague. Her hair was matted with blood. “Doreah, see to her hurts. You do not have a rider’s look, perhaps she will not fear you. The rest, with me.” She urged the silver through the broken wooden gate.

It was worse inside the town. Many of the houses were afire, and the jaqqa rhan had been about their grisly work. Headless corpses filled the narrow, twisty lanes. They passed other women being raped. Each time Dany reined up, sent her khas to make an end to it, and claimed the victim as slave. One of them, a thick-bodied, flat-nosed woman of forty years, blessed Dany haltingly in the Common Tongue, but from the others she got only flat black stares. They were suspicious of her, she realized with sadness; afraid that she had saved them for some worse fate.

“You cannot claim them all, child,” Ser Jorah said, the fourth time they stopped, while the warriors of her khas herded her new slaves behind her.

“I am khaleesi, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the blood of the dragon,” Dany reminded him. “It is not for you to tell me what I cannot do.” Across the city, a building collapsed in a great gout of fire and smoke, and she heard distant screams and the wailing of frightened children.

~

He started to reach out a hand to Daenerys, but as he lifted his arm Drogo grimaced in sudden pain and turned his head.

Dany could almost feel his agony. The wounds were worse than Ser Jorah had led her to believe. “Where are the healers?” she demanded. [...] “Why do they not attend the khal?”

“The khal sent the hairless men away, Khaleesi,” old Cohollo assured her.

[...] “It is not for Khal Drogo to wait,” she proclaimed. “Jhogo, seek out these eunuchs and bring them here at once.”

~

“The khal needs no help from women who lie with sheep,” barked Qotho. “Aggo, cut out her tongue.”

Aggo grabbed her hair and pressed a knife to her throat. Dany lifted a hand. “No. She is mine. Let her speak.”

~

“The Great Shepherd sent me to earth to heal his lambs, wherever I might find them.”

Qotho gave her a stinging slap. “We are no sheep, maegi.”


“Stop it,” Dany said angrily. “She is mine. I will not have her harmed.”

~

“Know this, wife of the Lamb God. Harm the khal and you suffer the same.” He drew his skinning knife and showed her the blade.

“She will do no harm.�� Dany felt she could trust this old, plainfaced woman with her flat nose; she had saved her from the hard hands of her rapers, after all.

 AGOT Daenerys VI

She saw a beautiful feathered cloak from the Summer Isles, and took it for a gift. [...] When Doreah looked longingly at a fertility charm at a magician’s booth, Dany took that too and gave it to the handmaid, thinking that now she should find something for Irri and Jhiqui as well.

AGOT Daenerys V

Dany had not known, had not even suspected. “Then ... he should have them. He does not need to steal them. He had only to ask. He is my brother ... and my true king.”

“He is your brother,” Ser Jorah acknowledged.

“You do not understand, ser,” she said. “My mother died giving me birth, and my father and my brother Rhaegar even before that. I would never have known so much as their names if Viserys had not been there to tell me. He was the only one left. The only one. He is all I have.” ~

A sense of dread closed around her heart. “Go to him,” she commanded Ser Jorah. “Stop him. Bring him here. Tell him he can have the dragon’s eggs if that is what he wants.” The knight rose swiftly to his feet.

“Where is my sister?” Viserys shouted, his voice thick with wine. “I’ve come for her feast. How dare you presume to eat without me? No one eats before the king. Where is she? The whore can’t hide from the dragon.”

~

Her voice made Viserys turn his head, and he saw her for the first time. “There she is,” he said, smiling. He stalked toward her, slashing at the air as if to cut a path through a wall of enemies, though no one tried to bar his way.

“The blade ... you must not,” she begged him. “Please, Viserys. It is forbidden. Put down the sword and come share my cushions. There’s drink, food ... is it the dragon’s eggs you want? You can have them, only throw away the sword.”

~

Distantly, as from far away, Dany heard her handmaid Jhiqui sobbing in fear, pleading that she dared not translate, that the khal would bind her and drag her behind his horse all the way up the Mother of Mountains. She put her arm around the girl. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I shall tell him.”

AGOT Daenerys IV

Dany followed on her silver, escorted by Ser Jorah Mormont and her brother Viserys, mounted once more. After the day in the grass when she had left him to walk back to the khalasar, the Dothraki had laughingly called him Khal Rhae Mhar, the Sorefoot King. Khal Drogo had offered him a place in a cart the next day, and Viserys had accepted. In his stubborn ignorance, he had not even known he was being mocked; the carts were for eunuchs, cripples, women giving birth, the very young and the very old. That won him yet another name: Khal Rhaggat, the Cart King. Her brother had thought it was the khal’s way of apologizing for the wrong Dany had done him. She had begged Ser Jorah not to tell him the truth, lest he be shamed. The knight had replied that the king could well do with a bit of shame ... yet he had done as she bid. It had taken much pleading, and all the pillow tricks Doreah had taught her, before Dany had been able to make Drogo relent and allow Viserys to rejoin them at the head of the column.

~

“So many,” she said as her silver stepped slowly onward, “and from so many lands.”

Viserys was less impressed. “The trash of dead cities,” he sneered. [...] “All these savages know how to do is steal the things better men have built ... and kill.” He laughed. “They do know how to kill. Otherwise I’d have no use for them at all.”

“They are my people now,” Dany said. “You should not call them savages, brother.”

“The dragon speaks as he likes,” Viserys said ... in the Common Tongue.

~

“I will give my brother his gifts tonight,” she decided as Jhiqui was washing her hair. “He should look a king in the sacred city. Doreah, run and find him and invite him to sup with me.” Viserys was nicer to the Lysene girl than to her Dothraki handmaids, perhaps because Magister Illyrio had let him bed her back in Pentos. “Irri, go to the bazaar and buy fruit and meat. Anything but horseflesh.”

“Horse is best,” Irri said. “Horse makes a man strong.”

“Viserys hates horsemeat.”

[...] While her handmaids prepared the meal, Dany laid out the clothing she’d had made to her brother’s measure: a tunic and leggings of crisp white linen, leather sandals that laced up to the knee, a bronze medallion belt, a leather vest painted with fire-breathing dragons. The Dothraki would respect him more if he looked less a beggar, she hoped, and perhaps he would forgive her for shaming him that day in the grass. He was still her king, after all, and her brother. They were both blood of the dragon.

She was arranging the last of his gifts—a sandsilk cloak, green as grass, with a pale grey border that would bring out the silver in his hair—when Viserys arrived, dragging Doreah by the arm. Her eye was red where he’d hit her. “How dare you send this whore to give me commands,” he said. He shoved the handmaid roughly to the carpet.

The anger took Dany utterly by surprise. “I only wanted ... Doreah, what did you say?”

“Khaleesi, pardons, forgive me. I went to him, as you bid, and told him you commanded him to join you for supper.”

“No one commands the dragon,” Viserys snarled. “I am your king! I should have sent you back her head!”

The Lysene girl quailed, but Dany calmed her with a touch. “Don’t be afraid, he won’t hurt you. Sweet brother, please, forgive her, the girl misspoke herself, I told her to ask you to sup with me, if it pleases Your Grace.” She took him by the hand and drew him across the room. “Look. These are for you.”

Viserys frowned suspiciously. “What is all this?”

“New raiment. I had it made for you.” Dany smiled shyly.

He looked at her and sneered. “Dothraki rags. Do you presume to dress me now?”

“Please ... you’ll be cooler and more comfortable, and I thought ... maybe if you dressed like them, the Dothraki ... ” Dany did not know how to say it without waking his dragon.

“Next you’ll want to braid my hair.”

“I’d never ... ” Why was he always so cruel? She had only wanted to help. “You have no right to a braid, you have won no victories yet.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Fury shone from his lilac eyes, yet he dared not strike her, not with her handmaids watching and the warriors of her khas outside. Viserys picked up the cloak and sniffed at it. “This stinks of manure. Perhaps I shall use it as a horse blanket.”

“I had Doreah sew it specially for you,” she told him, wounded. “These are garments fit for a khal.” “I am the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, not some grass-stained savage with bells in his hair,” Viserys spat back at her. He grabbed her arm. “You forget yourself, slut. Do you think that big belly will protect you if you wake the dragon?”

His fingers dug into her arm painfully and for an instant Dany felt like a child again, quailing in the face of his rage. She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she’d hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength.

It caught him full in the face. Viserys let go of her. Blood ran down his cheek where the edge of one of the medallions had sliced it open. “You are the one who forgets himself,” Dany said to him. “Didn’t you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.”

Viserys scrambled back to his feet. “When I come into my kingdom, you will rue this day, slut.” He walked off, holding his torn face, leaving her gifts behind him.

Drops of his blood had spattered the beautiful sandsilk cloak. Dany clutched the soft cloth to her cheek and sat cross-legged on her sleeping mats.

“Your supper is ready, Khaleesi,” Jhiqui announced.

“I’m not hungry,” Dany said sadly. She was suddenly very tired.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 (6 of 6)

To round of my look into season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, here are my reviews of that season’s last two episodes.

Episode 25: In Theory

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Jenna D'Sora are in the torpedo room configuring several probes with which the Enterprise will explore a nearby nebula. D'Sora explains that her ex who she just split up with has asked her to dinner, prompting Data to remind her why they broke up as part of a standing agreement between the pair of them. Later they play together in a chamber concert along with Keiko O'Brien. D'Sora complains of her abilities as a musician, but Data insists that he could not hear anything wrong.

 Later, on the bridge, Data is reviewing the information from the probes sent into the nebula. He theorises that life might have evolved differently in the nebula because of the volume of dark matter detected. Captain Picard orders the ship to the nearest planet within the nebula. Data and Jenna configure further probes, when she kisses him on the cheek and then on the lips, before leaving the room. Data seeks the opinion of his friends, specifically Picard, Guinan, Geordi La Forge, Commander Riker, Counsellor Troi and Lt. Worf. Data decides to pursue the relationship and goes to Jenna's cabin with a bunch of flowers, where he informs her that he created a romantic subroutine for the relationship.

 Meanwhile, the Enterprise is approaching an M-class planet within the nebula. Picard enters his ready room and finds his belongings scattered on the floor. He calls in Worf, who cannot explain their displacement. Jenna arrives at Data's cabin where he is painting. She tells him to continue, but is then annoyed when he does so, causing him some confusion. The ship arrives at the coordinates for the planet but finds nothing there. Then it suddenly appears as the ship's computer warns of a depressurization in the observation lounge. The crew investigate and find all the furniture piled in one corner of the room.

 Data visits Jenna, but she seems unhappy and he is acting erratically in order to find an appropriate response to make her happy. It becomes evident to the crew that the nebula is causing distortions in space; Picard orders the ship into warp to leave the nebula as quickly as possible but this speeds up the distortions. Whilst investigating them, Lieutenant Van Mayter is killed when a distortion embeds her into the deck. Data discovers that dark matter is causing the distortions. The ship can detect the pockets at short range, but not in enough time to move out of the way. Worf proposes using a shuttle to lead the Enterprise out, and Picard insists on piloting it alone.

 Picard pilots the shuttle through the field of distortion pockets; he is initially successful, but the shuttle is damaged near the perimeter of the nebula. Chief Miles O'Brien transports the Captain back to the ship before the shuttle is destroyed. However, the Enterprise is now near enough to the edge of the nebula to no longer need the shuttle to scout ahead, and they quickly depart. Afterwards, Jenna reveals to Data in his quarters that she broke up with her boyfriend because he was emotionally unavailable and then pursued Date because he was the same. Data realises that she is breaking up with him and explains that he will delete the subroutine. Jenna departs and Data is seemingly unperturbed, although his cat, Spot, jumps into his lap as if to comfort him.

Review:

This episode was Patrick Stewart’s directorial debut on the show, following on the heels of fellow cast member Jonathan Frakes taking a shot at directing during the previous season.  Like Frakes, Stewart was handed a Data episode to do, and in some respects it’s a good episode.  In others, it’s less brilliant, specifically having a techno-babble B-plot thrown in because TNG was very much enslaved to the idea that the character always had to have an enemy or an anomaly putting them at risk, regardless of whatever else might be going on.  This plot doesn’t inter-connect with the A-plot except for both things happening in the same episode, and it includes Picard playing shuttle pilot when he’s not really the TNG character of note by way of piloting skills.  In fact, TNG and DS9 never really had a definitive helm officer in the way that the original series had Sulu and Voyager had Tom Paris, which when you have to do an episode with this kind of B-plot is a bit of a must.

 However, the meat of the episode is Data making forays into the world of romantic relationships, and to some degree I appreciate how some of his behaviours in this area are quite autistic.  His asking around the majority of the main cast and Guinan for advice, his inability to pick up relationship skills ‘on the fly’, and his emulation of stereotypical romantic interactions rather than just being himself are all things I can see someone on the spectrum doing.  Hell, I’ve done them all in my own unique way, and I can’t help but cringe a little reflecting on that.

 However, Data is only able to go so far both with his relationship and with his representation of the autistic mindset in this scenario because he lacks emotion.  I understand that this was meant to be the point; according to Memory Alpha, a lot of original series fan mail for Spock was from women who felt they could reach the character’s suppressed emotional core.  This episode was born of a fascination with this aspect of fandom, only it was written to see if a romantic relationship could work with a being who was hard-wired not to feel any emotion, to really explore the ‘ghost in the machine’ concept through Data.

 This, for me, is where the episode’s main plot really loses efficacy, because by definition a romantic relationship requires emotion, and as such Data was never going to succeed.  Frankly, I’d rather have seen them hold this plot off until the films when Data is finally given license to have emotions.  It would have been great to see Data have a romantic relationship then, because it would have been a more complete, well-rounded exploration of his status as an autism metaphor within the world of Trek.  As it is, characters like Voyager’s Doctor and Seven of Nine end up serving better in this capacity.

 It’s also disappointing to see that, not unlike some of my own early experiences in romance, Data isn’t being approached out of a genuine romantic interest on the part of Jenna.  To her, he’s basically a re-bound fling; she’s struggling with being single again, keeps having to be reminded why this is so, and tries to make something happen with Data to ‘fill the void’.  It’s not unlike how some girls used to pretend to go out with me to test, and mock, my gullibility, and for me it’s right up there with people who go out with someone just to avoid being single (done that), or to get something else like a roof over their head or cash.  To my mind, no one should ever do anything like this; if you want a romantic relationship with someone, it should be real romance or nothing.

 If you want a fling, a rebound or anything similar, then you seek out something more casual like friends-with-benefits, and you say that’s what you want up-front.  Leading people on is never ok, and it seems to me it only happens because of neurotypical selfishness and unwillingness to talk about you want before anything happens. The model of discussion-first-action-second is something that already exists within certain forms of sex play, and it’s probably going to gain wider and wider use over time for consent in general, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that would not only make all relationships more autism-friendly, but it would also vastly reduce the potential for being misled.

 What would have improved this episode, aside from Data actually having emotions, would have been to see the female guest character seek him out just from general attraction with no recent ex being mentioned, and perhaps having the B-Plot put the A-Plot characters in danger more directly.  That would have helped the B-Plot gain some additional worth and would have created a dramatic scene that would have more conclusively answered the ‘ghost in the machine’ question around Data.  As it is, it’s a middling episode and a poor showing for something Data-centric; I give it 5 out of 10.

Episode 26: Redemption (Part 1)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Captain Picard and the Enterprise are asked to attend the installation of Gowron as the Leader of the Klingon High Council, as it is Picard’s final duty as the Arbiter of Succession. Gowron intercepts the Enterprise en route and informs Picard that the House of Duras will challenge Gowron's position, which may lead to a Klingon civil war. Picard states he cannot intervene beyond his role as arbiter, and asks Worf to escort Gowron to the transporter room. There, Worf informs Gowron of the truth about his discommendation; Gowron thanks Worf for killing Duras, but explains that he cannot clear Worf’s name because he needs the support of the council, many of whom are loyal to Duras. Worf then requests a leave of absence from Picard to visit his brother, Kurn, who controls a small fleet of Birds of Prey, and to urges him to back Gowron. Worf plans to use this support as leverage so that once installed as the Leader, Gowron can reinstate their family name.

 Interrupting the ceremony, the Duras sisters present their deceased brother's illegitimate son, Toral, who has the lineage to challenge Gowron. Picard is called on to determine Toral's candidacy. Relying on Klingon law, Picard comes to the conclusion that Toral is too inexperienced to be Leader, and secures Gowron's candidacy. This, however, prompts a majority of the council members to abandon Gowron. Gowron returns to his ship to meet with Worf, who offers his brother's fleet's support in exchange for the return of his family name to honor. Gowron initially refuses, but they are attacked by two ships loyal to the House of Duras. Worf and the arrival of Kurn's fleet dispatch the attackers. Picard completes the rite and installs Gowron as Leader; Gowron restores Worf's family honor.

Gowron and the Enterprise crew learn that the Duras sisters are assembling a fleet to incite a civil war. As the Federation cannot get involved in internal affairs of the Klingon Empire, Worf resigns his commission from Starfleet to assist Gowron and Kurn. As the Enterprise evacuates the area before fighting begins, Toral and the Duras sisters consider Picard a coward, but their Romulan ally, a woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to the late Tasha Yar, emerges from the shadows and warns them that Picard may return.

Review:

Apparently, this episode was originally planned as the season 3 cliff-hanger finale, but had to be delayed because those working on the show who wanted this episode really had to fight for it.  Apparently, Gene Roddenberry didn’t want to do any kind of war stories, even if that war was internal to the Klingons and not something the Federation got involved in.  Granted, I don’t think this episode could be as good as it is without everything leading up to it, and part of that groundwork lays here in the fourth season as well as the third and second.  Nevertheless, it seems that once again Roddenberry was taking his idealism one step too far, and I’m guessing him having to step back from production of the show due to increasingly ill health around this time was the only reason we got this episode.

 Being only one part of a larger story, of course, the episode loses out a little for not being quite as self-contained as it otherwise would be as a one-part episode.  However, it delivers a lot for part 1 of a two-part narrative; we finally see Worf get his discommendation lifted and Gowron take command of the Klingon Empire, only to then see Worf resign his commission when Picard won’t wade into the civil war, even though we all know by now Picard should realise it’s not even remotely an all-Klingon affair.  Picard and Worf are well aware that the Duras family are thick as thieves with the Romulans, and they’ve had the recent events of ‘The Mind’s Eye’ to illustrate to them that dividing the Federation and Klingon Empire is high on their agenda.  Surely Picard should have been able to put 2 and 2 together in this part and sided with Gowron outright, rather than appearing to cling to the Prime Directive.

 This is where TNG, and Trek as a whole, falls down a little; it can’t seem to come up with a consistent approach to the Prime Directive.  Some episodes it gets broken, others it gets adhered to, and at times you’ll get a non-adherence for a situation that in a later or earlier episode saw the rule being upheld. Back in season 1, Picard was willing to dare the wrath of the Edo’s ‘god’ to save Wesley Crusher from execution, but in this episode, Picard won’t act to save Worf when Gowron’s ship gets fired upon. Both times someone from the Enterprise was in danger, so surely Picard should take the same actions, but he doesn’t. I can’t tell if this meant to be a follow-on from ‘The Drumhead’ and they stupidly cut out some exposition where Picard says ‘we have to be extra careful now to avoid another Satie-style witch-hunt’, or if it’s just a lack of attention to continuity.

 For me, this episode really relies on Worf and Gowron to carry it, as Picard’s so-called ‘tightrope walking’ just makes him look decidedly unheroic and not a little ruthless.  Honestly, this episode would have benefited from a more Kirk-ian/Sisko-esque style of captain.  Overall, I give it 7 out of 10.

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: “ The Bad Batch”-Review

Seven years since its cancellation and six since the final episodes aired, Star Wars: The Clone Wars makes its final triumphant return on Disney+. Beginning this twelve episode conclusion is a familiar story to fans of the series that has been brought to thrilling new life. It may not be a series best, but The Clone Wars fans will be more than pleased with “The Bad Batch.”

(Review Contains Episode Spoilers)

The Republic defense of the shipyards of Anaxes have taken a turn for the worse. Separatist forces led by Admiral Trench have updated their tactics and are outpacing clone forces before they can react. Captain Rex has a theory, that Trench’s forces have somehow gotten hold of his battle playbook developed alongside deceased ARC trooper Echo. In the hopes of proving this theory and potentially changing the tide of the campaign, Commander Cody and Rex propose a behind enemy lines stealth mission, which will be assisted by experimental clone force 99, aka “The Bad Batch.”

Wow. On just a purely personal level, watching and reviewing a new episode of The Clone Wars is a surreal experience. Reviewing episodes of the series is how I became a Star Wars blogger and even when we first heard the series was returning in 2018, I still didn’t fully believe that we would be getting new episodes. Yet here I am, in 2020, watching a brand new (sort of) episode of The Clone Wars and the show doesn’t even seem to acknowledge that it’s been gone for over half a decade. Tom Kane voice over, fortune cookie, triumphant ending credits fanfare, it’s all there. In all its goofy, beautiful, and wonderfully strange glory. The Clone Wars is back for one last time. Just wow.

I’ll admit I was initially a little disappointed that one of the three arcs we would be receiving in the final Clone Wars season would be “The Bad Batch.” The unfinished story reels were a fun experience, but as a whole, even with some of the plot twists that will come in later episodes, this arc was never really a favorite of mine. Yes, I love clones and getting to see more clone episodes is always a joy, but I was hungry for new stories and it was hard not to see a redeveloped “Bad Batch” as taking away from any number of other Clone Wars plots that never saw the light of day such as the ever elusive Cad Bane/Boba Fett arc.  

Boy was I underestimating just how much this animated glow up would add to this story though. In its final seasons, The Clone Wars was undeniably some of the best looking television on the airwaves and now with production assets that are helped by a robust and experienced studio and seven years of technological advancement, the result is truly stunning. However, it’s not just that the show looks prettier, The Clone Wars is now a more confident and stylistically directed show then it’s ever been.

“The Bad Batch” ends up having two real stars. The obvious one is Dee Bradley Baker who once again gets to flex his voice acting muscles. Baker proved early on into the series’ run that he was more than able to carry entire episodes on his own by voicing ensemble casts of almost a dozen near vocally identical characters and giving them unique personalities and traits. Baker does more heavy lifting here since season four’s classic Umbara story arc and the results are no less impressive.

The second star is director Kyle Dunlevy. Dunlevy worked on many classic episodes of The Clone Wars and “The Bad Batch” may be his most assured stylistically. In addition to the improvement in animation quality, The Clone Wars in its final seasons was really beginning to experiment with creative shot composition and cinematography. I think most often of the stellar sequence in “The Unknown” which follows a single clone officer cowering from a droid invasion. Dunlevy takes this and ups it, delivering outstandingly shot action sequences and even some outstanding tracking sequences that feel more intimate and cinematic than almost anything the series has ever pulled off, or any Star Wars animated show for that matter.

I may be talking a lot about the technical aspects of “The Bad Batch” and that may be that at the end of the day, they prove to be the most impressive parts. As a narrative, “The Bad Batch” is pretty standard Clone Wars fare. Undeniably fun and explosive at times, but there isn’t quite anything here that massively strays outside some of the shows traditional formula.

In a way, it’s interesting to see that many of The Clone Wars’ old storytelling shortcomings are very much on display. The anthologized seasonal structure allowed for many things in the series’ original run such as a sprawling cast and freedom to tell stories of widely different tones and genres. However, The Clone Wars always struggled as a result in being a serialized story. Sure, events from some arcs would undoubtedly influence others, but the sort of stop and start nature of the show lead to many moments where character and story arcs disappear or burst into existence with surprising frequency.

This is very much the case with “The Bad Batch.” At its heart, “The Bad Batch” is two clone related stories. One, a narrative of clones coming to accept diversity within their own community and another in Rex having to grapple with the loss of so many brothers over the war. The second is the most emotionally interesting and engaging as Rex is easily the most war weary character the show has at this point and in a way has always functioned as something of a mouthpiece for the clones as a whole. However, Brent Friedman and Matt Michnnovetz’s script makes some logical swerves here that end up feeling surprisingly hollow. Having Rex mourn his clone brothers makes sense and its direction at some specific clones such as Fives, whom he worked closely with in multiple episodes, feels emotionally appropriate. It’s the focus on Echo and even more oddly, Hevy, that feels odd. Echo and Rex certainly appeared in tandem in multiple episodes but the only time the two really appeared as equals was in the Citadel arc where the character perished. We don’t understand Rex’s emotional connection to Echo because it was never really established in past episodes and we have no cues to fall back upon. The work done here to build context for their relationship, both professionally and emotionally, can’t help but feel a little stilted. Regardless, Baker is still able to sell Rex’s hurt and longing for hope with the right resonance and it helps carry us through these rough patches.

Also, on a very basic level, The Bad Batch are just a really fun bunch of characters. At the moment they fit a little too cleanly into various archetypes: the brutish dumb clone, the cool and badass tracker, the silent sniper, the nerdy tech, but they are fun archetypes. Their designs are creative and vivid. Baker has a hell of a time voicing them. The action with these characters is, as mentioned before, enjoyably creative and visceral. Having classic clones like Jesse and Kix get to butt heads and also grow to appreciate these new clones is a fun and upbeat little story beat for a story that’s otherwise about the lingering trauma of war. Also, Jesse got a promotion and Kix let his hair grow out! Good for them. I hope nothing bad happens to them and their futures remain Sith free.

It’s overall just a joy to have The Clone Wars back, hiccups and all. It’s a special piece of the Star Wars franchise and it’s going to be great to have it in our lives again for a few months. I can’t wait to blast more clankers alongside you all.

Score: B+

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x13: What We Become - First Thoughts

Holy symbolism and a half! This episode was amazing! Kind of freaking out over here. Okay, where to start?

This was such a beautiful episode. Especially in a Richonne sort of way. I really loved it. It was a crazy psychological episode for sure, but I thought it was gorgeous! The way they tied things together and did flashbacks to the very early episodes with Michonne. It was just utterly moving and compelling.

***As always, spoilers abound below. Don’t read until you’ve watched! ***

So, Virgil was a researcher in a medical lab on the island. There’s a lot of virus and Cure and medical stuff. In fact, the place Michonne goes into with him at the beginning to kill his family (who are walkers) was pretty much a replay of the golf club. It had the Grady lighting and it looked like a medical place. Not so much like a hospital as like the retirement that the Governor went into in 4×06. But it was still medical and then they went into a room and they were people hanging from the ceiling, just like at the golf club.

And that’s probably where we got the most fascinating symbol—to me anyway—of the entire episode. We saw a shoe on the floor. So, my first thought of course was lost shoe symbolism. 

And the people hanging were obviously Virgil’s family, so he fell to his knees and was crying. It was very difficult scene. But then he did something really interesting.

He picked up the shoe and put it back on the walker.

In all the seasons that we’ve had lost shoe symbolism, we’ve never seen someone pick the shoe up and put it back on its original owner. And that made me rethink the symbolism just a little bit. I still think it points to the death fake out. But I think it’s specifically represents the separation of the people involved. Putting the shoe back on probably represents the reunion. So, Virgil was reunited with his family, even if they were dead. And Michonne finds Rick’s shoes, which means she’s about to be reunited with him.

You could even think about it from a Disney standpoint. I’m thinking about the end of Cinderella when the prince puts her lost shoe back on her foot. Could this Lost shoe symbolism have been a Cinderella template all along? Crazy.

Oh, by the way, Virgil picks white flowers to give his dead wife. I am 99% sure they aren’t Cherokee roses. They almost look more like lilies. But when he picks them, he’s still telling Michelle that his wife is alive, and it turns out, much like Sophia, that his wife is a walker. So even if they aren’t actually Cherokee roses, I think the symbolism is the same.

The Apple Symbol – this episode made me totally rethink it.

Michonne eats an apple and then finds out that Virgil has poisoned her. What he gave her, Jimmyweed, apparently, gives her the trippy hallucinations where she didn’t save Andrea and becomes one of Negan’s minions. So, we literally have an example of a poisoned apple. Since we’ve compared the Snow White template to Beth, maybe that’s not very shocking, but I can’t help but think that every single apple has represented a poison apple in some way. 

And I think maybe the poison apple just represents losing one’s family. I was thinking that I didn’t understand why we saw so many apples around Maggie in season seven, since she obviously didn’t die or anything. But she just lost Glenn. So maybe just as the poison apple divided Snow White from her prince and her friends, the dwarves, the apples that we see in TWD are always about being separated from the ones you love. And that’s why they’re “poisoned” apples. (I went back and watched 7x08 finally, and it confirmed this. I’ll talk about it in more detail later in the week.)

The Michonne stuff, while not particularly TD, was totally crazy. Did everyone notice that, in her hallucination, it was here that killed Glenn, at the Savior compound? And I loved that she and Rick came face to face. And Daryl killed her. After all the history between the characters in this show, it just strikes a major chord.

Also, in the hallucination, after Daryl shoots her, the camera focuses on Rick’s boot as he steps on her. A direct foreshadow of her finding his boots. I also had the thought that this is why we saw so much closeness and banter between her and Daryl in ep 1. Of course we already know they’re close, but they were also setting up this hallucination in a big way.

But the biggest take away here is that Michonne’s decision to help Andrea is what set her life on a positive path. I’ve talked about this before, but they like to say, especially on TTD, that if Negan had been the hero of the show, rather than Rick, to begin with, he’d be the good guy. And you all know I don’t buy into that. No one has been 100% behind Rick when he makes morally questionable decisions. We still love him, but don’t condone his occasional brutality, per se. And he’s certainly never beat someone’s head in with a bat in order to enslave people. It’s all about the choices they make.

By making the chose to show Andrea mercy (we definitely had the mercy theme in this episode) it led Michonne to where she met Rick and Carl, who became her family. She met her soulmate, adopted Carl and Judith as children, and eventually had another baby with Rick. But that all stemmed for that one choice to help and show mercy. I love themes like this!

One of the most powerful moments of this episode was near the end, when it flashes back to Rick staring at her through the prison fence in episode 3×02 and you hear Carl saying, “dad, should we help her?“ So powerful!

Oh, by the way, in hallucination when Daryl shot her,  he had both wings on his vest. I about screamed. But it actually makes sense because that would have been back during All Out War, before he lost one of his wings. 

But it also shows that the loss of the wing was very intentional and they took the time to put it back on his vest for this hallucination.

They talked a lot about heaven and hell and staring up at the stars. This was Michonne’s hell, being evil and not having ever acquired her family (Rick, Carl, Judith, RJ).

When encouraging Michonne to go find Rick, Judith said, “what if he’s trying to come home to, but no one will help him?” (Emphasis mine.) Talk about a home reference. And Michonne heads north to look for Rick. So we have a home and north star symbolism.

Michonne also says that she will try the walkie every morning for as long as she can. Just like Rick and Morgan’s arrangement in S1. Obviously, just like with Morgan, at some point Michonne will move out of radio distance, and she’ll be gone for a while. But I maintain that Rick and Michonne will have a reunion with their kids, just as Rick and Morgan did.

At the very end, she sees a huge group moving north with horses. I couldn’t help but wonder if that will end up tying into Fear the Walking Dead somehow. Or possibly the Highwaymen, who also rode horses.

I have a ton more to say about this. SO many great details and symbols, but I’ll go into them more tomorrow. How did everyone else like the episode?

[technoturian]

I finally finished Picard. I enjoyed about 80% of it but felt like it stumbled at the final hurdle, tbh. My main issues below...

- For a show that started with Picard and Data, it felt like the show’s main emotional line was Data/Picard and Soji/Data and that it would connect Data and Soji as strongly as it started to do with Dahj before she died. But then after they left the Troi-Rikers it felt like Data was completely absent from the story and it became not about who Soji is as a person but who Soji is as a synthetic, a basic “synthetics vs. organics” argument rather than about what makes a person alive and an individual and what made Soji in particular so special. Soji became less about being Data’s daughter and more about being part of Soong’s collective of synthetics.

It was so muddled what the message even was beyond that very surface level debate, to the point where Soong found out his daughter killed one of her own he goes, “they’re just as bad as us” -- once again lumping them all together -- and chooses to “switch sides” and stop them by force. Instead of, y’know, *talking* to the rest of his children after the one individual that was clearly evil and influencing them was out of the way.

If anyone had told Soji that Narek hadn’t been the one to kill Saga, wouldn’t it have been much easier to convince her? But that would’ve undercut the big fight and their big message that.. to be honest just didn’t make sense to me at all. Soji felt completely lost as a character the second the homeworld entered the picture. Suddenly she knew things and felt things because the story needed her to.

- And let’s talk about this clearly evil android sister of hers. Why does she look just like Soji except because of all the heavy handed twin metaphors? I thought that face was like... specifically designed by Data in his painting? I’m so confused. I’m incredibly confused about the timeline of events at this point. And I’m confused as to why the Data-like androids are so capable of emotion and obviously far superior to Data, but Data could not be rebuilt. I’m confused as to why Soji and Dahj were made, superior even to these new androids, and then mindwiped and shoved off to chase shadows rather than just getting some actual humans to do that spying and protecting these incredibly precious creations. I’m confused as to why no others like Soji and Dahj were made afterwards. I’m confused as to how Narek and the others even heard about Soji or Dahj without knowing where they came from, yet they were certain there were more like them (spoiler, there weren’t even more like them, so why did Narek’s group have that impression?).

- Speaking of Narek, what even happened to him at the end? Did I just miss it? I’ve been waiting this whole show for his boring manipulative ass to die, please don’t tell me they’re going to try to bring him back. I don’t need a discount CW Romulan “I did murders but I also cried so I’m sympathetic” Kylo Ren who thinks having a British accent and a leather jacket is the same as having a personality showing up AGAIN and sucking the air out of MORE scenes.

- There were a lot of things that felt unearned in the last episode, but Picard’s “death” is a big one. Riker just goes “Okay bye!” and then Picard dies and they’re playing it off like this old man dying surrounded by his loved ones but as much as they tried to build it up with all of those goodbyes, he met half of them like a week ago. His second in command for years just nopes out of the scene so some kid he read Dumas to once over a decade ago can be the family in this situation? This is supposed to feel meaningful and earned? It wasn’t. It would have been better earned if it had been solely between Soji and Picard, as they had invested most in this relationship, and them ‘having each other’, and yet the idea of Soji finding belonging with Picard was practically thrown by the wayside in those last two episodes to ask “bigger” but less emotionally satisfying questions about her status as a synthetic. So in what should be the most emotional scene in the entire season, he just dies with a half-hearted “aww, you guys” to the new team and I felt... not much. And then it doesn’t even count! And then we’re having a funeral, but now it’s for Data? The same Data who y’all forgot to even talk about during most of that synthetics vs. organics dialogue??? It was nice to see Data again, but completely unearned by the events of the episode.

- Speaking of unearned... This show’s handling of its ‘romances’ is abysmal. It’s kind of sad that Agnes and Rios are the romance with the most buildup simply by virtue of the two of them actually having a FULL conversation with one another before making out. I really disliked Agnes and Rios in the end, partially because I don’t think they adequately built it up (even though like I said, it’s sadly the relationship they put the most effort into building), but also partially because I selfishly want Rios to die so Picard can captain and we can just have more of the great hologram Rioses because they’re way more fun. And also I love holograms more than people. Blame the Holodoc.

Soji/Narek was cringe-inducing garbage, an absolutely artless manipulation from a guy with zero charisma whose entire existence depends on him seducing a girl and him doing so by being evasive, distant and moody. Just the worst. And somehow that makes her like him instead of running for the hills, because he throws in the odd non-sequitur love confession two days into their relationship.

I thought Maddox was Agnes’ father in that old vid until she kissed him and that was. Woof. That was a real gross brain switch. In any case, not a fan, but I will say MAYBE this relationship should really earn the ‘most developed’ title because they were actually in a relationship. And she literally murdered him.

And don’t get me started on Seven and Raffi coyly threading fingers together in the final scene after, to my recollection, not even having a single conversation together??? Why do this? Why? *Why* do this. If you wanted to get them together but you know you’ve done no work on it, save it for a possible second season or *don’t do it at all*. Seven and Raffi being randomly paired off at the end made me wonder why they didn’t just throw in Soji/Elnor too for the whole set. Raffi/Agnes is more believable than Seven/Raffi because at least she gave her cake. Seven/Rios is more believable because they had that one shoe-horned heart-to-heart.

While we’re talking about alternate pairings, I personally think they all should be paired off with a member of Rios’ holosuite. Including Picard. INCLUDING RIOS. Because Santiago Cabrera is too hot for words and there are SIX of him on that ship.

- Another reason Seven/Raffi being thrown together was kind of infuriating to me is it felt the same as the scene where she said she had no one, and basically any scene that was like “Seven is completely alone and adrift and THIS is her new family! Just forget that she’s only had one random heart-to-heart with Rios and a few cute dialogues with Elnor and other than that absolutely no contact with any of these people.”

Where the heck are the rest of the Voyager crew? Okay, so nobody liked Chakotay with Seven. Okay, so Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan didn’t get along so it would be unlikely to ever see them together on-screen. But Janeway literally loved Seven so much she rewrote time just to save her life or whatever that series finale was about. The Doctor, who knows *exactly* how it feels to be disenfranchised and dehumanized, is her best friend. Naomi Freakin’ Wildman who Seven called family who would absolutely have been there for her if she needed her. Why did they make her so sad and throw away all the rest of Voyager’s crew to do it?

I loved a lot of the stuff with Seven more than I thought I would after some of the things I’ve heard. But when I read someone say how “sad” they’d made her life, I have to agree. And mashing her into this crew at the end without putting in the time to show how she can fit aside from a few scenes with Elnor feels wrong and sloppy. If anything I would’ve liked her to leave with the borg at the end and then she could make another amazing grand entrance near the beginning of season two. Because basically the best things about Seven in this show were her kicking in the door scenes.

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Oct 26)

Recently Completed!

Tokyo Godfathers

Score: 10/10

There’s a reason why I gave this such a rare high rating. When I was watching it, I was internally like, “*excitement noises* I have not been this excited over an anime in such a long time, let alone for an anime movie. EVERYONE SHUT UP SO I CAN WATCH THIS EVEN IF I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE SAYING.”

It’s not often that you come across really good movies, let alone masterpieces like this movie. The art is so good, the story made me feel like it was Christmas in October, and the characters really made me connect. 

I know the subtitles used a whole lot of gay slurs and things like that, but Hana (the trans character in this tale) is treated well if we get past that huge hurdle. She truly owns up to herself. She doesn’t care what she’s called. She gets mad at people who misgender her. She gets mad if she’s forced to go to a men’s facility. She wants people to call her “an old hag” rather than “an old coot”. She just wants to be a mother even if she isn’t “biologically a woman” who can bear children. So when she comes across this kid, she thinks, “I will finally be a mother!” These are issues that real people face. These are issues that cisgendered people take for granted.

Madhouse really knocked it out of the park. Satoshi Kon is one of the biggest creators and directors in anime history. He’s known for horror and psychological works like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Millennium Actress. I never expected him to be this good at making a movie that could move my soul like this. The characters were so far from perfect, yet I wanted the best for each of them. The way it handled everything was masterful. The dialogue worked so well and was witty, the voice actors (despite the main three not being in anything else for the most part) were so good at giving life to their characters, and the art blew me away in 2019 even though this was released in 2003. The only thing I didn’t quite like as much was the score during some parts of the movie, but it was subjectively good and just wasn’t to my taste (the Noragami soundtrack wasn’t a fav of mine either). 

Just... watch the movie. If you can watch it around Christmas. It’s good for you.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Score: 7.4/10 

Yes, I binge-watched all 39 episodes in two days, what’s it to ya?! In reality, I just boosted the speed of the video.

Me throughout this show: Why do you all have triangle heads? What’s with that?

Okay, it’s the art style, and a lot of shoujo anime go with the concept that it looks good. Once you get over the art hurdle making me believe this was created in the early 2000s despite it being 3 years younger than Tokyo Godfathers, this turns out to be a really nice show. I just can’t believe they’re BOTH from Madhouse. 

Remember Snow White with the Red Hair? Remember Akatsuki no Yona? If you liked those shows, you’re going to like this one... except it relies more on the political plot. It’s mostly about a woman wanting to pursue her dreams of being a politician in a male-dominated world. She’s entasked with helping this mess of a king to get his act together, and as much as I can try to prove that it’s surprisingly progressive (given the art and genre), I think that’d be spoiling it a little. The only character that actually bothered me was the prince who was voiced by Tomokazu Seki who honestly was a bit annoying and sounded so fake for me. However, this anime made me appreciate Hikaru Midorikawa’s voice as well as Houko Kuwashima who I’ve only heard voicing dead moms and only a few good characters here and there. Seriously, both of their voices are great. Toshiyuki Morikawa sounds good too, but we already knew that. I don’t like the OP or ED (or a whole lot of the music), but that’s the case for a lot of these 2005-era anime. Just like a lot of the anime on MAL, I do think this is an underrated show, but it does have its pitfalls if you’re just craving for a quick shoujo without any politics.

Full Metal Panic: Second Raid

Score: 7/10

I binge-watched this entire season while my parents were out for dinner and something else. It only took me a couple of hours because I boosted the speed.

I wanted to get a gif specifically from this season, so this one will have to do. So much wasted potential will this character (who’s one of two twins). I know they were trying to play the whole “twincest” thing, but I’m personally not a fan. They provided some cool fight scenes even at a certain cringe cost. The fact that Kyoto Animation animated this bumped the art from a 3 to an 8. It’s crazy how much the quality jumped after a new studio took over. Unfortunately, they didn’t take care of the next season. I know the main ship in the series is pretty clear, but this season made it closer to canon (too bad it took around 13 years to make the next season).

Kara no Kyoukai (movies: 5, 6, 7)

Score:  Part Five: 7.5/10 Part Six: 5.8/10 Part Seven: 8.2/10

Not gonna lie, I watched the first four movies over a year ago and retained nothing. I had to read the Wikia to assist me and to begin with, I watched this to get into the “Type-Moon” universe (which consists of this and the Fate nonsense stuff), Yuki Kajiura’s score, and Maaya Sakamoto and Kenichi Suzumura voicing a couple. The score would probably change if I’d watched them regularly, but I digress because I watched movies 5-7 in one afternoon. Ufotable was pretty good at animating this and the voice acting worked really well. Yuki Kajiura’s music didn’t hit well at first when I was first watching the first few movies over a year ago because it wasn’t what I envisioned the score being, but once you get into the mood and mindset, it adds so much to the story. Although, I still really didn’t like part six. I thought it was a complete flop because I just want to get rid of anyone who believes i*cest is an okay thing. This isn’t Alabama. Go home. Not else to say here because this took so much commitment that I doubt anyone would watch it.

Paranoia Agent

Score: 8.6/10

With spoopy month coming to a close (already?!) I watched this anime earlier this month, but I forgot to write about it. That’s partly because there’s so much to unpack here. This was a thriller, psychological, horror anime by Satoshi Kon. That’s right, the first anime above was also done with him in the director’s seat. This anime was smart. There’s a reason why Robin Williams likes it! It was scary in the best of ways. It revealed a part of society that we see all the time but don’t talk about (especially in Japanese society where emotions are better kept concealed). Just the opening alone made me feel uneasy. The OP and ED were simplistic yet worked. I binge-watched the whole series because it was that gripping. 

It was a little confusing at times, but that’s also because that’s just a common thing with horror anime. That suspense keeps us going. It keeps us on the edge of our seats. Who’s going to be the next victim of Shounen Bat? Episode 8 came out of nowhere for me, and I liked it. There were several scenes that sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible. It isn’t always “scary”, but it gives suspense.

Aoi Bungaku

This one is going to be reviewed a little differently. Since it has specific arcs, I’m going to review them as such!

Ningen Shikkaku: 8.2/10

We start off with a bang. Osamu Dazai was a man of suffering. This story really shows that. In this story, we see a man who’s desperate to know what makes him human. We see this through the eyes of a fictional character, but I personally view this as a semi-autobiography.

The art was chilling. The voice acting from Masato Sakai was surprisingly good. A lot of the time, voice acting from live-action actors just aren’t that great. Every time you think this character will get back on his feet, he falls deeper and deeper. It truly did make me wonder what made me human.

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita: 3.9/10

That moment when the only thing that saves this arc is Nana Mizuki’s singing. Seriously, her jazz songs were awesome. Can’t say that about the rest. I mean, the art is good, but it’s Madhouse so most of their stuff is already good. The story wasn’t that original. Mind you, this was probably during a period where foreign influence was strong, and I haven’t read the original story, but... this is basically Salome (the opera) with some differences. Both have a crazy woman with a fixation over lifeless decapitated heads. Both have men that are captivated with her beauty so they give her what she wants because of that reason alone, they both murder religious people (monk/shrine maiden and a prophet), and both eventually realize that women can be crazy when they demand a lifeless head because you know, that’s just a red flag. Above all, it suffers from tonal shifts. You can’t have a woman turning moe then demand you bring her another head to play with. You can’t have Masato Sakai playing another main character that doesn’t fit him! Seriously, he doesn’t have the voice of a brute and just couldn’t do it. Overall, this arc was a mess, and I’m glad it was one of the shorter ones.

Kokoro: 7.6/10

This looked like a masterpiece compared to the last arc. I haven’t read Kokoro, but this made me go, “Huh, I don’t remember this happening.” That’s because they chose a certain part of the book (near the end apparently) and just went off that and created its own anime-original episode. Despite that, it was pretty good! There were some screaming discrepancies which did hurt its impression (because it made it feel out of place to the point where even I, as an uneducated anime viewer, could clearly see).

(I think this is from Kokoro but I might be wrong)

Hashire, Melos!: 8.9/10

Would you look at that? It’s the best arc of the series. Hashire, Melos was great. It had me going from beginning to end, and it’s the only arc that doesn’t have Masato Sakai playing the lead character. The art, the pacing, the storytelling, the story, the sound, the voice acting, and the art direction complemented each other so well. It made me far more interested in the original. 

The Spider’s Thread: 6.6/10

If you look really close, you’ll notice that the creator of Bleach took over character design for this! It was okay. I found that it was a little cliche and lacklustre. Mamo is around so much that you probably have to do more than that to keep my attention, and this had the art going for it too. It just wasn’t that interesting. A heartless murderer is sent to hell after being executed. Moral of the story: Don’t be an asshole. Alright. Nice. I do understand that Ryuunosuke Akutagawa was one of the main establishers of the whole “Japanese Short Story” thing, but after seeing it so many times, I just didn’t get that same chill.

Hell Screen: 6.9/10 

Another Akutagawa short story! This one had far more of an impact because this one hit closer to Akutagawa’s heart. Knowing the history of this piece of writing, you can see his desperation to stay relevant and true to his craft. It’s about a painter who wants to paint the town but finds out the city isn’t the bright light he sees in his mind. Everything goes ablaze. The art for this is stunning. I probably would’ve enjoyed this story more if it was placed in the middle of the series run rather than being the last story. 

Recently Started

Africa no Salaryman

The animation for this is terrible. There is no way around it. However, at least it’s funny. Still, close to being on the chopping block. It has the papa lion who’s played by Akio Ohtsuka, the straight-man middle lizard played by Kenjirou Tsuda, and the scumbag toucan played by Hiro Shimono. Yes, they all play Hero Academia villains. The jokes are pretty good for me.

Given

Oh, would you look at that? It’s a music anime. *inhales* Music anime is a double-edged sword for me. I like having music interpreted and portrayed through one of my favourite mediums, but I don’t like them playing off music as some sort of easy gimmick and a joke. It’s like a shonen montage. “Let’s just have this guy train for two minutes and become a demigod”. But when you put an instrument into someone’s hand and demand the same, it sends me to another plane of angriness.  So far, the romance is kind of cute... but Mafuyu kind of annoys me since his role in the BL dynamic is so clear just by his voice. Same with Uchida. You can only play so many thugs a season. Kyou? Good. Chika? Good. This guy? Good, but don’t do them all back-to-back! I don’t like the BL dynamic being so basic. However, my mind can be changed if done right.

Shinsekai Yori

Very interesting premise, their eyes are cute, and I’m a sucker for these so I’m gonna stick with it.

[yandere-wishes]

Twisted Wonderland //Theories//

I know this is a yandere blog, but these theories will most likely tie into the characters when I do write about them.  

Jack Howl

We've already preestablished - due to very obvious clues- that Jack is a member of the Canidae family, this is nothing new. But we've yet to discover what specific canid he is. I figure most people write this off as "he's a wolf" due to the last name Howl. Yet in truth, all members of this family make howling noises. Thus not permitting us to say with an efficiency that he is simply a wolf. I think he's a wild dog/ cape dog. My reasoning for this comes from an old 1990's Disney tv show called Timon and Pumbaa. In season one episode twenty-two segment two, Timon and Pumbaa are approached by a paranoid tarsier claiming that there is a wild and dangerous predator on the loss. The tarsier goes so far as to accuse Simba (a fully grown lion at this point) of being said carnivorous beast. Throughout the course of the episode, Timon and Pumbaa try to find truth in what he's saying. Finally, near the end of the episode, Timon agrees to go into hiding in a cave with the tarsier, dragging Pumbaa along despite his disbelief in Simba's guilt. When the trio approaches the cave, their "new companion" takes off their disguise (this is a Disney show, such folie is expected) to revile that he has been the predator all along. And what spices is this predator you may be asking? Well, a greyish-white wild dog with yellow eyes! And who do we know that shares these characteristics? Jack Howl that's who! Spoiler for the end; Simba rushes in and saves his two pals, scaring off the double-crosser at the end. In conclusion, Jack may be based on this overlooked yet fascinating antagonist, due to shared family characteristics and appearances.

Ruggie Bucchi

Despite my dismay that there was only one Hyena counterpart (that seems to be a place holder for all three) I was exceedingly fascinated with Ruggie's design. In the lion king franchise, the hyenas are viewed as lawless anarchists with caliginous personalities. However, Ruggie is drawn as a pure ray of sunshine with unhealthy eating habits.  I have absolutely no idea why this is, and in all honesty, I'm not here to discuss Ruggie's features but rather where his name comes from...or so I think. Looking up the name "Ruggie" the only unmissable accounts I could find where from urban dictionary. The sources stated that "Ruggie" was derived from the word rugrat, It fits. But there was one more rationalization I discovered that seemed more just for this character. In the original drafts of the lion king, Scar (along with Zazu and the hyenas) was meant to sing a song concerning his mania towards his newly acquired position as king of the pride lands. This number was to further familiarize the audience with the antagonist. Alas, it never made it into the movie due to certain questionable thoughts flickering inside of Scar's head. The song was however sung in the broadway musical of the lion king. To cut to the chase there was an interesting part sung here.

Scar: "When my name is whispered through the pride this talk of love or regicide?" Shenzi: "Reggie who?"

Note how the spelling of Shenzi's misinterpretation of the word looks an awful lot like how Ruggie's name is written. I feel like Yana Toboso may have used many undisclosed Disney villain facts (songs, books, Easter eggs, etc) as inspiration with her reconstruction of their twisted counterparts. It could make a lot of sense if Ruggie's name came as a wordplay of regicide (the act of killing a king) and could be a reference to the hyena's role in Mufasa's death.

Sliver

With the introduction of the "Great Seven" I came up with a weird though. What if the spinning wheel form sleeping beauty somehow survived the event in the tale. Sometime later Director Crowly could have found it and used some magic to turn it into a boy. Yet Malificant’s sleeping curse still affected the spinning wheel even in human form, concluding as to why Sliver has abnormal sleeping patterns. This is more of a headcanon really but it's all I got for now.

Ortho

This theory is heavily based on canon greek mythology. I'm certain many of you are familiar with the tale of Hades and Persephone. For those of you who aren't, I won't be discussing the tale here since it has may iterations and I'm only interested in a small portion of the end. So feel free to look it up on google. The first spring that Hades had to endure after the departure of his belove Persephone was an intolerable agony for him. To cope with his trouble, the god of the underworld took to daydreaming. His favorite and most vivid thoughts were those of a daughter he wished to have with his wife. He imagined her in such detail that she sort of became a real person (goddess). Her name was Mesperyian, and she was described as being the most astonishing goddess to ever grace the earth. When word of her beauty reached mount Olympus, Aphrodite the actual goddess of love and beauty became enraged -as she does so often-. Aphrodite set to reclaim her title from Hades's daughter. Hearing of Aphrodite's scheme, he prohibited Mesperyian from leaving the underworld kingdom. Yet what Hades neglected to consider was that Mesperyian was half Persephone and thus retained a frenzied need to venture onto the surface world and experience the lavishness of planets, flowers, and overall nature. A considerable amount of time later the young goddess does just that. Once she arrives in a stunning meadow, she notices a gleaming mirror. Picking it she examines herself, Aphrodite having been watching her this whole time quickly sets fire to the mirror. Now understand that Mesperyian may be a goddess in title and does have a power set parallel to her goddess parents, but she was born from a dream thus rendering her physically not an actual goddess. This causes her to lack immunity to things all gods and goddess should naturally be immune to, such as a fire. When the mirror does catch on fire so does Mesperyian scarring her face severely and permanently. Now, this is a greek myth so when someone ends up....unpleasant they seem to quickly develop an "evil" persona. When Mesperyian takes note of how ugly she has become, she opts to become the goddess of punishment and torture, returning to her father's domain and continuously tormenting the souls of Tartarus. So let's tie this to Ortho, shall we? Ortho (in my opinion) is not precisely based off Hades. Despite appearances, there is nothing else tying Ortho to Hades. Yet he does share characteristics with Mesperyian. #1) Both Ortho and Mesperyian were created by some iteration of a lonely individual caught up in their agony and self-pity. For Mesperyian it was Hades and for Ortho it was Idia. #2) Both of them are not exactly what they were thought to be. Mesperyian was thought up to be a goddess, but in truth was not directly divinity. Despite having powers she lacked many key components of being a "real" goddess. Ortho was thought up to be a little brother for Idia, he may have been created to be an enhanced god or human, that however doesn't alter the fact that he is a sentimental robot and neither a "real" boy or god. #3) Mesperyian was based off Persephone (and slightly Hades). There is no direct evidence the Ortho was based on Idia's real brother or just another person in his life. But it is very likely that all the other theories out there might hold some truth. That could explain why Ortho does bear resemblance to Idia since at one point the "real" Ortho was Idia's flesh and blood (or whatever Idia's made of) so they would have shared genetics. This would tie up this theory.

If you guys have any theories I would love to hear them in the comments!