#terrible cruelty

[over-fen-and-field]

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[magikkittenz]

It had to be done

[thebubblesareevil]

A much better Snow White movie

I might actually write this out fully later but I work at a movie theater and I’ve walked in way too many times to not get ideas.

So just like maleficent this would follow the evil Queen, but to be clear, she is evil no redemption. For the sake of this I’m gonna refer to her as EQ

When the eq was young she was always surrounded by suitors but the one she loved never looked her way. He loved another, one the eq believed was beautiful and it filled her with jealousy.

One day, a traveling merchant comes by and sells his wares. Among them was a simple mirror and eq flirted with the merchant and he gave her the mirror to gain her favor.

She gladly took it, and later while she was in her room brushing her hair, she can’t help but comment that she would give anything to be as beautiful as her rival.

The mirror replies, saying there are many paths to success. While at first she’s frightened she’s also intrigued, so she asks it how. The mirror teaches her all about potions and poisons, and when the beautiful girl that stole her love away fell ill and died. No one suspected a thing.

Unfortunately, the boy she loved was never the same after that and eq quickly lost interest. With the help of the mirror and its potions, she more beautiful everyday. He was always happy to tell her what she could improve and what she needed to do to look more and more beautiful.

And the more beautiful she became, the stronger the mirror got, growing in size.

Soon, as she grew into herself, eq began to catch the attention of successful men, traveling lords and wealthy merchants began vying for her hand, inviting her to balls and showering her with gifts.

One day she goes to a ball and falls in love with the king, unfortunately he’s married and deeply in love.

But that never stopped her before.

It took some work, but soon enough the kings wife fell ill and died, leaving behind the grieving king and his daughter.

She was more than happy to attend the first ball after the queens death, where she immediately ditched the lord she arrived with and made her way towards the king. She played her part of a mournful guest perfectly and she even gained the favor of the princess.

Soon she was invited to visit once again.

The mirror was always happy to council her in ways she could get closer to the king, how she should apply her makeup or what dress would garner her attention best that day.

Soon enough, the kingdom celebrated their new Queen, surely she would bring them prosperity.

But much to eq’s disgust, the king, just like her first love, lost that spark that first drew her to him.

It was unfortunate, but she had ways to handle it. She waited about a year before the king was struck my the same illness as his beloved and fell.

The kingdom mourned, their only solace was that the princess wouldn’t be alone in her grief.

Unfortunately with the death of first the Queen and now the king, enemy nations decided that it was the perfect sign to strike.

No one expected the Queen to lead them, but to the shock of the masses she was brilliant, but also cruel.

There were rumors that eq herself participated in the torture of her prisoners.

No one mentioned the heartless corpses, no one dared to protest when the Queen struck back harder and razed her enemies to the ground.

No one wished to have her ire turned on them.

But that didn’t stop the rumors.

As for the princess?

Eq didn’t care much for the girl, but she was certain she would be of use some day. At the least, the girl would be worth something in a political marriage.

She was a strange girl for certain, while her looks were fair, you couldn’t tell through the dirt that marred her face most days. She was insistent that she help the staff.

Eq wasn’t stupid, she knew her reputation and knew that the girl was key to placating the masses. So while she was firm with the girl, she didn’t get rid of her.

When the king from the enemy nation finally kneeled before her, he pleaded for her mercy and she gave it.

At a price of course.

Happy with the promise of peace, he praised the Queen for her mind and beauty, announcing to all present about how she was truly the fairest in all the land

Eq happily accepted the title.

Not long after the king returned home, a plague befell his kingdom, wiping out their crops. Luckily they had such close and gracious neighbors that were willing to help.

Soon the young prince could be seen visiting the castle with gifts for eq, and she happily accepted, admiring the handsome prince.

All the while the young princess grew into a beautiful young woman.

Perhaps she would have married the princess off, perhaps she would have lived a long and happy life.

If only she hadn’t tried to take what eq wanted.

She happened upon them by chance, the were talking in the gardens with a familiarity that enraged the Queen.

Worse though, was when the prince dared to tell the girl that was more fair than even her step mother.

This enraged the Queen, so she consulted her mirror once more. Only for it to confirm her fears, for while the Queen was beautiful, time aged even her.

She refused to accept it, and with the mirrors help she brewed potion after potion to restore her beauty. But after everything, the mirror solemnly told her that the princess was fairer still. Luckily they was a way to capture the girls youth for her own

Clearly she would have to go, but she needed to remain pure, so eq hired a huntsman to take the girl out into the woods, to kill her and to bring back her heart.

He returned to her soon enough with her prize, and she set to work. She followed the recipe to the letter, she mixed in the heart, turning the potion such a lovely shade of red.

She would need drink the potion every night for a week for the magic to take hold.

The mirror told her in that time that so long as she made it perfect, she would become more beautiful each day, but every day the mirror would show her only her flawed self. She raged, certain she was lied to.

So she asked the mirror once more, who the fairest in the land was.

Through eq, the mirror had grown far stronger than ever before, Gone was the small mirror she once held in her hand, in its place a magnificent mirror that held a place of pride upon the wall. It could now see far beyond her borders and so it told her the truth.

That Snow White still lived.

First she dealt with the traitor, then eq used her magic to disguise herself, taking with her a magic apple.

The girl was far too trusting.

Unfortunately those wretched dwarves arrived before she could take her prize from the girl, and eq returned to her castle.

She spoke with the mirror daily now, desperate for its help to fight back the toll of time, but no matter what she did, she always found another flaw.

Pressing a hand against the mirror, she despaired.

She begs the mirror, pleads with it, for something, anything that will save her from such a cruel fate.

She places a hand upon the mirror and eq is startled when a hand pushes out of the mirror. She quickly backed away as a figure emerged from the mirror.

She looked upon the woman before in shock and awe, before her stood none other than her own reflection but also so much more.

She was flawless, and she reached out for eq s hand. Gently it lead her in an elegant as it whispered promises of attaining this incredible beauty, how it could all be hers, if she only wished it.

Desperate, eq agreed. She wished it with her entire being. She put her entire soul into her wish.

And the mirror was more than happy to accept it.

——-

The disappearance of the queen did not go noticed for long. Soon enough the princess returned to her home with her beloved in tow.

But no matter how they searched, there was no sign of the Queen.

Soon enough Snow White and her price were married and they took their place on the throne.

Snow White decided that eq s rooms should be cleared out and the treasure be placed in a vault.

They were all diligent in their work.

One pretty young maid was cleaning out small desk when she opened a drawer to reveal a small mirror.

It was such a small and pretty little thing.

Surely no one would miss it?

[nicoleanell]

I love you, Louis. Tell him I love him, Armand. I love you, Louis.

[utilitycaster]

Related to the last post, I haven't said anything because I need to sit with it and see how Ashton responds in the long-term, but man, it's got to be absolutely earth-shattering (pun genuinely unintended, I can't come up with a better word for it) to be so angry at the concept of fate, or at how the gods never helped you, and then see a vision of the version of you where things went "well" and realize that in that version of the world, you fucking sucked.

[mariocki]

Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, 1971)

"You dream of having an affair with this woman who lives next door. To you, that woman represents sin, moral degradation. The house next door is a symbol of vice. From what you've told me, Mrs. Durer is not exactly respectable."

"No... she certainly is not."

[elia-nymmeros]

Everytime i think i've seen everything in this fandom... wdym the man who exterminated Houses Tarbeck and Reyne down to the last child, who ordered an innocent 14-year-old to be gang-raped by an entire garrison before ordering his own son to rape her last, who emotionally abused said son down to his last moment on Earth for the crime of being born disabled, who ordered the sacking of an entire city and commanded every atrocity in the Riverlands all for his own personal and politican gain, wasn't evil? Tywin Lannister ruined the life of hundreds, if not thousands of people, including his own children, and the narrative is quite explicit in portraying him as the source of his own destruction. Tywin Lannister is one of the most evil, cruel, petty and malicious man of ASOIAF, even if he didn't personally commit every act of violence himself; the fact that I see people still somehow making excuses for his behavior is ..????!?!?

[undertalethingems]

Wait is gaster going to refer about the player

er, no--i don't really like using player theory--as in, the player as a discreet, extradimensional entity--in my undertale stories. I prefer frisk being the one to have agency, for either good or bad, rather than try tackling undertale's meta-narrarive; I don't think I'm smart enough to pull it off =u=;;

The comic of frisk and chara arguing over who's in control isn't mine-- I reblogged it because it was funny :>

[randomrandy]

Been reading a bunch of humans are space orcs related things and it’s reminded me how much I love the concept.

The base concept, humans are actually really scary/unique to aliens, already has so much world-building built into it ‘cause now you have to figure out what kind of intergalactic society would find humans strange/dangerous. How you go about it all really depends on what aspects of humanity you want to explore, that’s really the heart of the concept. It’s a fun way to write an outsider pov on humanity and very explicitly explore some interesting themes while also getting to fuck around with space sci-fi stuff!

Idk, I’m having writing thoughts and may have binge read too much stuff. I just like aliens and contemplations on humanity okay?

[afieldinengland]

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[loveandthings11]

Jeremy Strong for Semana, 4/15/23

Jeremy seriously won't know what happens with Kendall until we do 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[ace-ogato]

If Silent Salt doesn't have a period in their life after turning evil where they get so close to redemption, only to slip back into being utterly terrible I will lose my mind. I don't care if it's apart of their backstory or happens during the actual plot of their episodes, I NEEEEEED it to happen to parallel White Lily's story DEVSISTERS PLEASE

[nejackdaw]

Okay I haven't talked about Judas OR the Judas album in a while so I'm going to share this analysis I finally placed and I'm losing my mind about

In the song Field of Blood (song 5,) the chorus ends with a line I've never quite been able to find a suitable conclusion about. Right. (Putting my rambling under a read more, the screenshots make this long)

Oh, okay, "what is my god," he's having a crisis of faith. Why is God so cruel as to order Jesus be killed (reminder that the album is a mix of biblical and Gnostic canon, where Jesus asked Judas to be the one to betray him.)

WRONG

If we move two tracks ahead in the album to Death is Just a Kiss Away, right before the last chorus we have these lines:

Which is insane! Because this part is actually saying "you have two gods, God and Jesus" (sun and moon, as I'll get to) "and no matter which you choose" (obeying the kill command or refusing to kill Jesus) "you're going to piss everyone off"! Okay now I know, "but where did you get sun and moon/God and Jesus" and HERE I TELL YOU:

Jesus is CONSTANTLY referred to with constellation imagery! (There's a whole song about it!) The Gospel of Judas includes the quotes (from Jesus) "Judas, your star has led you astray" and "the star that leads the way is your star." The album takes this and RUNS with it. Makes Jesus Judas's guiding star. There is SO MUCH night/star symbolism going on here, mostly in Constellation, but also from A World Where we Belong:

SO BASICALLY: considering that Jesus is heavily referred to with night sky imagery and they're literally both referred to as "two moons aligned," it isn't unreasonable to conclude that the line from Just a Kiss Away is in fact talking about God/Jesus. WHICH MEANS

When Judas is about to hang himself and he pleadingly asks "what is my god?"

HE DOESN'T KNOW IF IT'S GOD OR JESUS BECAUSE HE'S FUCKING IN LOVE WITH HIM APNDOANSOANS HE OBEYED GOD BECAUSE HE'S GOD BUT HE'S KILLING HIMSELF OVER JESUS. I HAVE MANY OTHER LINES ABOUT THIS (DEVOTION TO JESUS, NOT GOD) BUT THAT'S A DIFFERENT TOPIC

[callixton]

the mr beast stuff genuinely makes me sick to my stomach and if i were smart i would just block his name however i am instead. doomscrolling

[fellthemarvelous]

I want to talk about Obi-Wan and Maul

This might end up being kind of long so bear with me, and my thoughts are kind of all over the place and possibly slightly incoherent.

Maul and Obi-Wan had a rivalry that was insanely brutal. (More under the cut.)

Maul survived being cut in half by Obi-Wan and ended up going insane, no longer connected to reality and living in the sewers for many years. Once Savage took him back to Dathomir and the Nightsisters "fixed" him, he found clarity again and became wholly fixated on Obi-Wan, the only person he had any connection to from his past. He hated all Jedi, but there was no one he hated more than Kenobi.

Obi-Wan, for his part, was horrified to learn that Maul had survived considering Obi-Wan had cut him in half.

Their rivalry is probably one of my favorites in all of Star Wars.

Maul was bloodthirsty, vengeful, and full of rage.

Obi-Wan was the opposite. He was kind, compassionate, took no pleasure from killing others, and loved unconditionally.

And one thing Obi-Wan eventually came to understand about Maul was that Maul had not had a good life. He recognized that Maul was raised to be the person he was because of the cruelty of Darth Sidious.

The Nightsisters handed baby Maul over to Darth Sidious to be trained in the ways of the Sith. Darth Sidious, who is famously cruel and diabolical. Darth Sidious, who raised Maul to be expendable because Maul was just a means to an end for Sidious.

Maul who never grew up experiencing love. He never experienced kindness or compassion. He was raised to be an assassin, a cold-blooded killer, doing anything and everything Sidious asked of him.

And he eventually understood that he had been nothing more than a tool for Sidious.

So he was angry. Alone. Full of hate. And wanted revenge.

And his anger at Obi-Wan was more than just him losing his legs. Obi-Wan caused him to lose the only life he knew. He had no guidance once Sidious was finished with him.

The only life he knew was one of cruelty. He'd never bonded with anyone until he met Savage.

And when Sidious killed Savage, Maul was alone again. (Ironically, Sidious killed Savage the same way Maul had killed Satine like five minutes prior.)

He had no one on his side again.

He tried to connect with Ahsoka, and then with Ezra years later.

But still, more than anything, he wanted to break Obi-Wan the same way that he himself was broken. He wanted to see Obi-Wan lose control and become like him. He was almost successful when he forced Obi-Wan to watch him kill Satine.

But Obi-Wan proved to be unbreakable even in that moment, and Maul's obsession only became stronger, along with his rage.

Maul was unable to comprehend love, and it drove him crazy that Obi-Wan had actually tried to connect with him in the moments leading up to Satine's death. Obi-Wan had tried to show Maul compassion and it infuriated Maul. He hated that Obi-Wan was trying to be kind to him.

Maul was a monster in every way, but he was also a victim raised under the cruelty of Darth Sidious and only knew how to be what Sidious had molded him into.

And on the other side we have Obi-Wan Kenobi. Despite his sass and sharp wit, he is kind and loving. He loved being a Jedi and devoted his life to living by the Jedi code. And he may not have always gotten it right, but he never strayed from the core principles.

(And always be as dramatic as possible.)

I've seen some bizarre criticisms of Obi-Wan that have me scratching my head. His attachment to Anakin, for one, like there isn't a rich and complicated history behind their relationship in the first place.

He's criticized for not killing Anakin so clearly Vader's reign of terror is somehow Obi-Wan's fault.

Let's examine all of this a bit closer.

We often joke about the fact that Obi-Wan has a vast collection of dismembered body parts, but Obi-Wan does not like killing others. He kills when he has no other option.

He prefers to disarm his opponents, quite literally. He cut off Zam Wessell's hand instead of killing her even though she was about to kill him. He just wanted answers. She had no real way of fighting back because he had injured her.

He disarmed the man who was threatening Luke in the cantina in A New Hope. He didn't kill him though. It's not like he was a major threat.

And on Mustafar, he couldn't bring himself to kill Anakin. He cut off one of Anakin's arms and both of his legs, an action that tore him apart because he loved Anakin so much. Anakin was defenseless at that point, and he was also completely on fire thanks to the lava. No part of him imagined that Anakin could have survived being burned alive, and he spent the next ten years hating himself for leaving Anakin to die until he learned that Anakin not only survived but was incredibly angry with him and wanted to kill him.

Just like Maul.

Obi-Wan did not like the idea of killing. At all.

And perhaps it was his attachment to Anakin Skywalker that brought the galaxy to its knees, but that attachment was because he and Anakin had always had a confusing relationship.

Let's take into consideration the fact that Obi-Wan, at the end of The Phantom Menace and only 25-years-old, had just watched his Master die at the hands of Darth Maul, subsequently killed Darth Maul (but not as much as he thought he had), been given the title of Jedi Knight, and taken on nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (almost immediately after being knighted), a boy who had just been freed from slavery and had to leave his mother behind to pursue a life as a Jedi because being a Jedi had always been his dream.

Then maybe take into account the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi was grieving the loss of Qui-Gon while Anakin struggled with being away from Shmi for the first time in his life. Obi-Wan didn't just train Anakin in the ways of the Jedi, he raised Anakin. He treated Anakin like a brother while Anakin said Obi-Wan was the closest thing he ever had to a father. Obi-Wan has always been good with children, and it's only natural that he would take on a parental type of role despite the fact he was only 16 years older than Anakin. He loved Anakin the way a brother would, and it did blind him to some of Anakin's more concerning habits, but Anakin also kept his biggest sins a secret because he was ashamed of himself, and he never wanted to know what it felt like to have Obi-Wan be disappointed in him.

Their relationship was messy because they were attached to each other, but Obi-Wan still did his best to teach Anakin. It had been Qui-Gon's final wish for him to train the boy, and Obi-Wan trusted his master.

So it was his attachment to Anakin that prevented him from killing Anakin aka Darth Vader, but it was very in character for him to choose not to do so. He always believed there were other ways to fight back.

And in the end, not killing Anakin had been the right choice. Anakin is the one who defeated Sidious (at the cost of his own life too) in an act of love for his son Luke and returned balance to the Force.

Obi-Wan didn't want to kill Maul either, but Maul gave him no choice. Maul was now a threat to Luke.

Maul lived a tormented, lonely life because he was never able to come to terms with the pain and anguish he'd experienced as a child that turned him into the monster he was throughout the rest of his life.

Obi-Wan (Ben) was able to rise above the suffering he'd endured and made peace with what had happened during and after the Clone Wars. He was so very much connected to the Force by this point because he had finally been able to let go of the tragedies of his past.

When he defeated Maul, he didn't treat it as a victory. He cradled Maul in his arms the same way he had held Qui-Gon and Satine when they died by Maul's hand.

He offered compassion to Maul despite Maul's atrocities, and in doing so, allowed Maul to experience peace for the first time in his long life.

In his final moments, he was treated with the dignity he had never given any of his victims.

And I think, in the end, Maul finally understood what he had been deprived of his entire life.

Obi-Wan was a true Jedi. He might have made a few errors along his journey, like everyone else does. He proved he was a master not by his skills with a lightsaber but by his ability to show compassion to those who don't necessarily deserve it because they are the ones who usually need it the most.

Star Wars Rebels gave us such beautiful closure to a rivalry that spanned decades.

[grimm-the-tiger]

My FL main went through some really weird, organic development over the...oh god, I think it's been five years since I started playing now.

So my main is named Skadi Larkin. They are a little bastard. They started out extremely 2D; I named them after my favorite Norse goddess and the protagonist of the book I was reading at the time. I originally wanted to make them female like both of their namesakes, but the second I saw the third-gender option, I thought it was too good to pass up. This is where they got their primary base characterization as a mad scientist who wanted to Cause Problems.

Then I started the Nemesis ambition and forgot which option I'd chosen for who I was trying to avenge, so they lost both their lover and their older brother under tragic circumstances (only the lover was killed by Nemesis's antagonist, though).

Then I got an Exceptional Friendship and had to give my tragic backstory in order to gain entry to the House of Chimes. Skadi pulled said tragic backstory (orphaned in a hansom accident) more or less out of their ass, but it did establish that their parents are dead.

Somewhere down the line, I realized that technically Skadi is a linguist, since the Correspondence is a language, and I made that their profession on the Surface as well.

Around this time, I started working on character designs for my fan comic. I got really into messing around with skin tone, and somewhere along the line thought it would be fun to draw Skadi (who was originally white) with darker skin, and it stuck.

Then I abruptly realized I was taking a lot of options that increased my Melancholy, and almost all of them were based on the Surface. So now Skadi has a longing for the Surface.

I left the game for a few years, but somewhere during this stretch of time, and I don't know how this happened, but I decided Skadi was now Native American; specifically, Metis. I changed their design to incorporate a sash woven in a style characteristic of the Metis, which also added a bit of color to their design (which was mostly black or grey at this point).

During this time, I started incorporating Skadi into my fan comic. This would eventually lead me to actually flesh out their backstory in greater detail. When I started playing the game again, I also created my first alt by total accident (long story), and I decided to weave her backstory with Skadi's.

So Skadi is in the interesting position of being an Indigenous person who is what we'd probably consider Two-Spirit today but they'd just call "Bollocks to that gender crap". They never belonged on the Surface, since the Metis are in a bit of a liminal space compared to other tribes due to their interesting background (the Metis are the descendants of French settlers and Indigenous inhabitants, mostly Cree), and Skadi exists in a liminal space within that liminal space due to only being half-Metis and raised primarily in white culture, although they still maintained a connection to it through their late mother. They also never belonged because no one else on the Surface outside of the communities they already felt isolated from would ever accept them for their gender. London gave them a chance to express one of those, but not both, and despite knowing that the Surface hates them just for existing, they still long to return.