#the acting direction pacing lighting... all of it was //great// and really compounded the emotions of that last bit

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

well, I am officially on to season 2 of "Miss Scarlet and the Duke", and based on the first episode at least, the writing does seem to have improved a bit?? this may be a case of First Episode of the Season Syndrome (added nuance and subtlety to kick the season off but immediately dropping back down to mediocre levels until the finale), but I'm hopeful that many of my complaints about the first season won't be as present going forwards!

but also, oww. the end... that was... yikes. my heart hurts now. 😧

[calliecat93]

One of the biggest criticisms of Volume 4, if not the biggest criticism, was it usage of multiple plotlines. While an ambitious idea, the balance was really off which really affected the pacing. It felt like everything was scattered around and like things were being dragged out, or not even given as much attention as needed. But it looks like with Volume 8, CRWBY is getting a chance to try it again. One advantage is having all the relevant characters in tow main groups so only two major plotlines to focus on. This chapter focuses on RWBNP as they break into the Atlas Military Facility. How will it go? Well... since this is late you already know, but I’m gonna blab anyhow. Enjoy~

Overview

Team RWBNPM have made it into the military compound and Penny has located where the terminal is. They’re able to wonder around the base undetected via May’s Invisibility Semblance and Penny is able to use Pietro’s credentials to access the doors. They eventually reach an area that even with May’s Semblance, will be too difficulty to get through without being spotted. Penny, however, has a solution. You remember how Harriet pointed out Ruby’s Semblance was more than she thought in V7? Well Penny actually breaks it down here. Ruby essentially breaks down her mass and is able to more or less teleport herself and others before reforming, so Ruby should be able to do this with all of them.

Meanwhile, remember when Watts got taken by security last chapter? Well it’s because Ironwood is now forcing him to work for him, having a whole squadron ready to shoot him to death if he doesn’t comply. What does he need Watts to do? We’ll go into that later. Until then, Watts points out that Pietro’s credentials have been used, causing Ironwood to raise the alarm. This means that the team has to hurry, so they trip a worker with coffee as a distraction. As the guy's co-workers yell at him, RWBNP move past via Ruby’s Semblance as May goes to commandeer a ship.

Eventually, RWBNP reach the terminal. It is a VERY highly secured area with the door being guarded by some powerful electricity. It’s so secure that no humans even work in there. Penny allows Pietro to take over manually to begin the process of green lighting Amity. During this, Blake expresses concern about ruby and Yang’s fight, though Weiss assures her that sometimes sisters just disagree. Nora also tries to help by pointing out that Jaune, Yang, and Oscar should be fine (haha...) but noticeably leaves out Ren. It’s here that Nora expresses how upset she was about their argument and how just when things look up for them, it goes right back to zero. Even worse, without Ren, Nora doesn’t feel like she even knows who she is aside form the strong girl who hits stuff. Blake and Weiss point out to her that Ren is only a part of her, the rest however also matters and that maybe she can use this chance to discover more about herself.

The process is completed and Penny can now launch Amity. But despite wanting to resume helping Mantle afterwards, both Pietro and the girls believe that it’s best for Penny to remain with Pietro and Maria in Amity once it launches. This disappoints her. As the group gets ready to leave, they are confronted byt he Ace-Ops. Vine tries to reason with the g4roup, but they continue to refuse. it doesn’t help when Harriet and Elm essentially blame Penny for Winter’s condition and accuse her of stealing the Maiden power, nor does Harriet threatening to lock up Ruby alongside her uncle. To no one’s surprise, the group refuses, so the Ace-Ops trap RWBN in the room, leaving Penny to fight on her own.

Penny is ale to hold her own, even managing to make good use of her Maiden powers. However, the Ace-Ops are able to match against her and eventually Marrow is able to use his Stay power on her. RWBN try to break through the door, bot nothing is working. Nora, staring at the electric door, decides to do what she dos best be strong and hit stuff. Using her hammer and Semblance, Nora absorbs the electricity until she’s powered enough to blow the door off it’s hinges. However, even for Nora, this was far too much as her body gets some ugly scarring. She collapses, her Aura breaking.

Seeing the fight, Watts suggests that the Ace-Ops get one of Penny’s swords. Ironwood orders this, and they bandage to rip one off of Penny before retreating, though Marow noticeably is hesitant. WBNP reach a hangar where May has gotten an airship. They escape, but Nora is still passed out and seriously injured. After this, Penny agrees that she needs to remain in Amity and it’s time for her to go. She and Ruby hug one more time, promising to see each other again before Penny flies off for Amity. Meanwhile, the Ace-Ops turn over the sword to Ironwood. Why did they need this? The same reason that Ironwood recruited Watts: to hack into Penny and turn her back onto their side.

Review

Ah, action, emotions, and spilt coffee. All the things I love in a RWBY episode~

Let’s talk about Ruby’s Semblance first since I’ve seen some debate about it. IDK how scientifically accurate Penny’s explanation is... but Ruby is a girl who can trail rose petals behind her, so I’m not all that concerned about accuracy here. But this just more or less confirmed what I’ve been thinking for a long time now. I, as well as others, have pointed out that her Semblance doesn’t really appear to act line a speed-based one. Heck as I said, Harriet pointed it out just last volume. Now we know that Ruby’s power is essentially a slow-formed teleportation. Considering I always assumed that Summer’s Semblance had a similar breaking her body down function, this makes a lot of sense to me.

I’ve seen some complain about how Ruby didn’t know this... but really? That’s perfectly in-character for her. She’s a clever girl, but she’s always been one to act more than give deep contemplation. She knows the basic function of her Semblance, to move fast compared to normal, and that works for her. Heck remember last volume when she used her split apart trick. Oscar asked how long she could do that, and she answered that she had never really thought of it. Sure Ruby HAS carried people with her Semblance before (Penny in V2, Nora in V4, Weiss in V6), but that was with a single person. She had never tried it with a group before. It fits into how Semblances evolve over time and I’m really happy to see Ruby grow more. I get the feeling that she needs all the happy development she can get before things really go off the deep end.

Speaking of though, the chibi art accompanying Penny’s explanation? Both cute and hilarious. It reminded me of Ruby’s imagine spots back in Volume One. This chapter had quite a few funny moments. Weiss pulling Nora’s ear for last episode, Nora pushing all the elevator buttons. Blake clearly hating all forms of unconventional transportation, and while I feel it clashed with the tone a bit the coffee guy tripping up was great. The crude poster of a Shark Grimm (when do we get that?) especially got a giggle out of me. Like I said last review, it’s nice to have these bits of levity. I love it when Ruby gets feelsy and serious, but I don’t want it to divert form fun and light-heartedness all the time. They’ve gotten a lot better at keeping a balance and transitioning us from one mood to the other. I feel last chapter did it a bit better, but this was still well done.

Now lets talk about Penny. It was nice to see her act like her usual perky self a bit with her Semblance explanation and the direction to the terminal. But still, it’s clear that things are still haunting her. She’s still reminded of her robot identity with May’s comment, which no IDT May was trying to be offensive or anything, after all Robyn uses nicknames like that all the time and she DID use Penny’s name after the correction. But even past that, we have Pietro manually taking control of Penny. Now it WAS done with permission and there’s a good reason why, but my reaction to it was the same as Ruby’s. You ca tell that Penny wasn’t looking forward to it since it one more emphasizes that she is a robot. We all know she’s more, but Penny is still trying to figure out her new place.

This is especially evident in her reaction to remaining on Amity. Of course she doesn’t want to do that. She still considers herself the Protector of Mantle. She is now the Winter Maiden. She wants to help people. She wants to be out there doing good alongside her friends. But unfortunately with the target on her back from both sides, it’ simply too dangerous. She not only puts herself at risk, but those around her. We already know that ironwood will now go to any extreme to get his way, including work with an evil scientist and have a firing squad ready to fire. Salem... do I need to explain any further? The safest thin is for Penny to remain in Amity, but it still clearly pains her even after accepting it as necessary. And with Watts now having a piece necessary to hack her AND the episode showing us how it can be done... yeah, pray for Penny folks.

She DID however get to kick ass with her Maiden powers. While we had some Grimm fights last chapter, this was the first major fight of the volume, and it was awesome. Penny, even after just getting her power, uses it to great effect. Not as much as Raven or even Cinder, but is clearly more than capable of controlling it. But the Ace-Ops do manage to match her. They aren’t holding back now, they are going in for the kill and all of them (save Marrow, I’ll talk about him in the CH4 review) seem to be on the same wavelength. I think this helped the complaints about the Ace-Ops losing to RWBY (ones I don’t agree with, but still) and shows how even with Clover dead, they are still a capable force. Harriet and Elm’s words were still overly cruel, but I can’t deny that they can fight. Oh and we also FINALLY got to see Vine’s weapon, so there’s that. It was a fun action sequence~

But now we get to the star of this episode for me: Nora. Now... I have made it no secret that Nora is my least favorite character of the main group. Why? There’s two main reasons: her lack of development compared to the others and her character largely revolving around Ren. I won’t lie, some of the over-exposure and her portrayal in Chibi also contributed, but those don’t really affect her character in-show. While I feel that she has slowly improved, last volume especially being a step up, I still felt like she was the least developed. So going into Volume 8, I was very curious about hat they would do with her now that she and Ren are divided and she is on her own.

I have to say... I am very happy with her in this episode. It addressed my complaint about her and Ren being co-dependent as far as their portrayals in-show went. They outright existed more or less to fill out Team JNPR, and they spent Volumes 1-3 as comic relief to focus on Jaune and Pyrrha. I miss Pyrrha to this day, but her death DID allow the two to finally grow as characters. I don’t like it when the focus of a character is mainly on their relationship with another, hence why shipping gets on my nerves a lot. It was a HUGE issue I had with Renora until they became fleshed out. Here we have Nora expressing how upset she is about Ren, how every time it looks like they’ve gotten closer something comes in to ruin it (Volume 4 for example), and now that she’s without him for the first time in who knows how long... she doesn’t really know who she is. This has been something that I’ve wanted the show to go into since at least Volume 4, and it is FINALLY happening.

I love how the ones who talk to her are Blake and Weiss. Blake struggled with separating herself from a previous attachment, and knows how hard it is to remember that that’s only one part of yourself. Weiss has struggled with carving her own identity which while not in the romantic context, is still relevant as her family name is only a part of her, not the whole thing. It’s a dynamic I never knew I needed, but I am SO glad we have it now! I think as hard as it is, Nora needed to part from Ren for now. She needs to remember to care about herself and know that she is more than just the girl who likes Ren and hits stuff with a hammer. She’s funny, she’s caring, she’s loyal, she’s fun to be around, she can get carried away with things yet it’s always entertaining when she does. She is Nora Valkyrie before everything else. And in the end, she more or less sacrificed herself to break the door and save Penny. IDK if she knew that the electricity would be too much, but she still made the choice by herself. Now we just need to hope that she recovers... and that when Ren finds out, he doesn’t snap...

In the intro, I talked about how V8 seems to be a second attempt at the split teams plot in Volume 4. While I find V4 underrated and a nice character development/world-building volume, the handling of the split plots... did certainly cause pacing issues. The biggest issue was cramming essentially six storylines into the volume, four of which were vital, and not being able to give them all proper attention. Essentially, it worked fine when binged, but going week by week it could get tiresome very quickly. This time, we have the entire team split into two groups with the side plots being the villains and Ironwood’s forces. This only leaves two major plotlines that need the main focus and allows for unique character dynamics, like Nora with Weiss and Blake. 

So far, the pacing with these two groups has been done very well. While we don’t see JYRO in this episode, last chapter did enough that we already know what to expect when we get back to them. Nothing feels out of focus or like one plot is getting more attention than the other. It feels balanced. It feels like both plots matter and I want to see what happens. The writers have clearly learned and improved over the years, with this being a clear example. It’s been really fun (and scary) so far and I’m really excited to see more of these different group dynamics (and since I’ve already seen Chapter 4, they are delivering!), though hopefully we will get the team reformed before long. But for now, I’m loving this~

Chapter Stats

Favorite Character: Nora Valkyrie Favorite Scene: Nora, Weiss, and Blake talk Least Favorite Scene: Coffee Guy Favorite Voice Actor: Samantha Ireland (Nora) Favorite Animation: Penny going Winter Maiden against the Ace-Ops Rating: 9.9/10

Final Thoughts

Three chapters in, and already this volume is looking to be one of the best. Some nice humor, great character dynamics and focus, an epic action sequence, and a lot of heart and emotion put in especially with Penny and Nora. This was a fantastic episode that gave me everything that I was hoping for! If the quality stays at this pace, the this is absolutely going to become a great one! And considering what happens next chapter, we haven’t strayed from that yet. But that review is for another day, for now I’ll say that this chapter was great~

[glitterquadricorn]

Replaced - Tony Stark (1/4)

Summary: Ever since Peter Parker showed up, her father’s attention was directed to him, leaving her to feel replaced.  Pairing: Tony Stark x Stark!Daughter!Reader Word Count: 2,446... that’s officially the most words I've ever wrote ever. Warning(s): Favoritism, jealously, underage drinking, smoking, drug use(just weed), being drunk, cops and being arrested, emotional break down, death, major character death, etc. If I’m forgetting something, let me know.

A/N: HAVE YOUR TISSUES READY FOLKS!!!! TRUST ME.

When a baby mysteriously showed up on the front doorstep of Tony Stark, he was in shock. Everything in him wanted to deny this baby was his. But he had this feeling deep within his gut that this baby truly was his. She had the same dark hair as him, the same tanned skin, and although the baby didn’t have her eyes open, he knew she had the same dark eyes as him.

Carefully, he picked up the car seat and brought the baby inside. He paced back and forth, mind running because he knew next to nothing about being a dad. His own father, Howard, was never much of a father, and hardly ever said that he loved him when he was a kid. Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the one person he knew could help.

That one person was Peggy Carter.

Peggy didn’t believe him when he said he was a father. She had to see this baby in person; and when she did, she shared the same feeling as Tony. She then started to teach him everything she knew about being a parent, seeing that she had two kids of her own. Tony knew it was going to be difficult, but he vowed to be a better father than his dad ever was. 

Over the years, Tony watched his little girl grow into a beautiful woman. He could remember the times she’d stumbled into his lab when she was two or three. Or the time when she made her first circuit board when she was six. He was proud of her. And he could never forget the first time she had gotten hurt. She had broken her arm experimenting on something in the lab when she was twelve. He smirked, like father, like daughter. But don’t get me wrong, they have their arguments. He could specifically remember the time when she destroyed one of his suits. Although it was an accident, he still completely lost it. Not once in her life had she ever seen him get so mad. They didn’t talk for weeks! The only reason why they talked at all was because of Pepper. Y/n thanked god for Pepper. That woman is an absolute angel!

Several years went by, and everything was pretty great. Well, that was until Lagos and the Sokovia accords happened. To her, the Sokovia Accords weren’t fair, but since she was seventeen, she had no choice in signing the accords. After the accords were signed in Vienna, her father became interested in some kid in Queens, New York. At first, she didn’t think anything of it, but after the airport fight in Germany, he went over to check on him first. ‘Shouldn’t you check on your daughter first?’ She thought as she laid under some wooden pallets. Then Peter started hanging around the compound and the tower. She tried not to be so bitter towards Peter, but she couldn’t help it. Growing up, she never had to share her father with anybody. Was she jealous? You bet your ass she was.

With most of her father’s attention on Peter, she felt a bit rebellious. She began sneaking and going to clubs, often stumbling home drunk. Which, by the way, was quite difficult with F.R.I.D.A.Y. practically monitoring her ever move. Then she met and befriended a group of bad people. By hanging out with these people, she started smoking weed. She knew these people didn’t care about her or her feelings, but she didn’t care. She never felt more alive. 

That was until one night. 

She heard from Stephanie, a friend she met a while back, that there was a party going on across town. And not one to say no to a party, she made her way across town. Immediately walking into this party, someone thrust a red solo cup into her face. Whatever was in that cup was strong; strong enough to make her feel warm and fuzzy all over. From there, it was just drink after drink. She couldn’t stop; she wouldn’t stop. A couple hours ago by and it’s safe to say she was pretty drunk. But all that fun she was having would soon end cause someone ran into the room and screamed ‘COPS,’. This caused her to sober up enough to find Stephanie running out the back door.

“Steph!” she shouted, following Stephanie outside. Grabbing Stephanie’s wrist, she quickly turned around and shoved her off, causing her to hit the ground. Y/n knew Stephanie didn’t really care about her, but she couldn’t sit there and say she wasn't hurt.

“Every woman for herself, yeah?” 

She watched Stephanie climb over the fence and run as she was flipped onto her stomach. Handcuffs were slapped onto her wrists, and roughly being picked up, she was escorted to the back of a cop car. The whole ride to the police station she sat in the backseat with her head down. She could already see the headlines now. ‘Tony Stark’s teen daughter arrested,’ or ‘Y/n Stark arrested for underage drinking,’ 

Arriving at the station, there were already paparazzi outside. The lights from their cameras blinded her as she got out of the car. The police had a hard time pushing through, but eventually entered the building. They pushed her into the holding cell, taking the cuffs off. Rubbing her wrists, she took a seat on the bench. With her face in her hands, her mind began to wonder. She only got caught up in the wrong crowd in spite of her father. She thought maybe, just maybe, if she acted out she’d finally get attention from her dad.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her name being called. “Hey! Stark! You get one phone call... use it wisely,”

Walking over to the phone, she thought about who she could call. She wanted to call her father, but he probably wouldn’t pick up. If the Avengers weren’t split in half, she probably would’ve called Natasha. But she left the compound not long after arriving back in New York. So, that only left one person... Her Uncle Rhodey. 

Dialing the familiar number, she hoped he’d answer. “Tony, what did I tell you about calling me in the middle of the night?”

“Uh. It’s me, Y/n,”

“Y/n why are you calling me at,” she heard him pause, “One fifteen in the morning?”

“So, I kind of got myself into a bit of a pickle.” 

“What did you do? You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“God no! I need to be picked up,” 

“From?”

“The police station,”

“WHAT!” Out the corner of her eye, she saw the officer tap his watch, letting her know to wrap it up. 

“Please Rhodey,” she begged.

“Fine. I’ll be fifteen minutes,” Rhodey sighed. She hung up the phone and was escorted back to the holding cell. Instead of sitting back down on the bench, she paced back and forth, stopping every once in a while to look around the room. She noticed there was a woman twirling her hair tweaked out on something in the corner, a couple of guys playing with a deck of cards and a somewhat heavy set man staring at her. The looks he was giving her sent shivers down her spine. She just hoped her uncle Rhodey would hurry.

Fifteen minutes went by, and the same officer banged on the bars of the cell. “Stark! Someone is here to pick you up,”

Hurrying out the holding cell, she saw Rhodey standing there waiting for her.

“Let’s go,” Rhodey said sternly, pointing his head in the direction of the door. And not having to be told twice, she followed him. 

“Mind telling me why I had to pick you up from a police station?” Rhodey asked, starting the car and driving away. She looked down at her feet, ignoring his question. 

“I went to a party and got drunk,” she said, mumbling under her breath.

“If I heard correctly, and which I know I did, you said I went to a party and got drunk. Do you know underage drinking against the law? Did you even consider how dangerous that is? You could’ve gotten hurt, or worse, killed,”

“I know it’s against the law, but do you think some law is going to stop me? And I’m just fine Rhodey, not a single scratch on me,”

“I don’t think you fully understand y/n. If you got hurt, or even killed, your father would be devastated,”

She scoffed. “Would he though? Because as of late he seems to be spending all his time with Peter,”

Rhodey sighed. “He does love you, really.”

“If he did, then he had a funny way of showing it,” she said, adjusting herself in the seat to look at Rhodey. “I don’t ever recall a moment in my life where he ever told me he loved me. Pepper tells me at least once a day that she loves me, so why can’t my dad do the same?” y/n felt the emotions begin to be released after being built up for so long. As tears rolled down her face, she continued. “You know my life was just fine until Peter fucking showed up and all of a sudden it’s Peter this Peter that. Oh! Y/n did you know Peter made this all by himself. I’m starting to think Peter is his child and not me. I feel replaced and I hate it,”

Rhodey frowned, his heart breaking at the sight. “I can talk to him, y/n,”

“Don’t even bother, Rhodey. It’ll just go in one ear and out the other,”

They arrived at the tower in silence, neither of them speaking a word to each other. All she wanted was to get to her room and sleep off whatever hangover she was bound to have in the morning. So when the elevator doors opened to her floor, she quickly walked to her room. 

Slamming the door behind her, she paced back and forth, gripping and pulling at her hair. Since she was only seventeen and technically still a minor, she couldn’t leave. I mean, she could get emancipated, but she’s turning eighteen the following year so getting emancipated would be pointless. She groaned loudly, as she fell face first into the pillow.

-Two Years Later-

The day after turning eighteen, she left the tower. Since leaving, she felt more free, more relaxed. She didn’t have to constantly worry about someone snooping around in her business, or having to constantly look over her shoulder. It was a new feeling, but she welcomed it. In fact, she could get used to the quaint and quiet “normal” life. 

Though she did periodically check in with her father, so he totally didn’t lose his mind. 

Things with her father slowly got better. Pepper suggested they see a therapist. She was all for it, and Tony on the other hand wasn’t. He wasn’t the one to talk about his feelings. To Tony, talking about his feelings to a stranger made him feel vulnerable. But reluctantly, he agreed. 

Week after week, appointment after appointment, they got whatever they wanted to say off their chest. When she said, “You’re turning out to be your father Howard and don’t even realize it!” Tony was taken back. Had he been blind this whole time and neglected his own daughter? Realizing she was right, he burst into tears and began to apologize profusely. He promised to be a better father; he promised to always be there if she needed him. And she appreciated the effort he was willing to put into mending their relationship. 

But she still left the tower, and he understood. 

She ended up picking the log cabin they had up in the mountains of Minnesota. Does she miss New York? Yeah, of course, but she didn’t regret leaving. 

Stepping through the front door, she tossed the keys onto the table. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and walked over to the fridge for a bottle of water. Twisting the cap off, she took a big swing. Out the corner of her eye, she started seeing orange sparks. Alarmed, she quickly reached for the gun she kept on top of the fridge.

A mysterious man with a red cloak stepped through. “Who are you?” she asked, aiming the gun at him. 

The man raised his hands in surrender. “My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. The earth is under attack, and we need your help,”

“Who’s attacking? Who’s we?”

“Thanos,” Strange paused. “Thanos is powerful, but with all six infinity stones, he’ll be the strongest person in the universe.”

“What will happen when he gets all six stones?”

“If he gets all six infinity stones with a snap of his fingers, half the universe will cease to exist.”

The threat against the world was massive, and she didn’t have to think twice about joining the fight. So that’s how she found herself on the destroyed planet of Titan, trying to pull the infinity gauntlet off Thanos. And they would’ve had it off if Star Lord hadn’t of gotten pissed when he found out Thanos killed Gamora for the soul stone.

Thanos came to and pushed people off one by one, saving her for last. He wrapped his hand around the throat of her suit and started to choke her. She tried to get him to release her, but he was far too strong and powerful. Grinning sinisterly, he threw her against a rock. She hit the rock with such velocity that it knocked her out cold.

What felt like hours later, she opened her eyes to see everyone scattered about. Thanos was nowhere in sight. Y/n placed her hands on the ground and forced herself to stand.

“Something’s happening,” Mantis said, before turning to ash. After her, Drax. Then Star-Lord and Dr. Strange.

“Dad- Daddy,” She said, stumbling over the rough terrain of Titan. It was barely above a whisper. Her body hurt, numb in some places. Pieces of her blue and silver suit have been ripped off during the fight with Thanos. Looking down at her hands, they started to turn to dust.  

She began to panic. She was dying. Her only mission was to get to her father to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ but her knees hit the dirt a short distance away from her father. So close, yet so far away. The last thing she saw before completely turning to ash was her father taking Peter into his arms.

For even in death, her father preferred Peter over her.

Ouch... My heart. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone to badly. 

I put in a lot of work and effort into this fic and I’m really happy with how this turned out. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Maybe when A4 comes out I’ll do a part two? Who knows. 

Can I have some feedback? Please?

Tagging(permanently):

@iamwarrenspeace @sergeantjbuckybarnes @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @samsplaything @prettyyoungtragedy @tinycyberhacker @hellkat2 @castellandiangelo @infinte-exist-ence @whatisanniedoing @fandomnerdxox @buckys-sweetheart @loveyourmockingbird @iwantthreedragons @sunsetspidey

[kcwcommentary]

VLD1x06 – “The Fall of the Castle of Lions”

1x06 – “The Fall of the Castle of Lions”

Party in the Castle of Lions for the Arusians. Allura proclaims that Arus is the first planet in the Voltron Alliance. I don’t know precisely what the Arusians are adding that’s useful to the Alliance, but since they’ve been the location of the Castle, and thus Allura and Coran, for 10,000 years they do deserve to be able to call upon the protection and help of the Alliance.

“Vol—tron?” I’m with Keith: I’m not much for cheering.

Shiro’s concern about people coming and going foreshadows that someone will indeed be infiltrating the Castle soon enough. Shiro’s concern here also makes me think of Keith’s concern in the previous episode when Allura first made direct contact with the Arusians. For me, there’s something reassuring about their respective modes of caution.

Sendak is plotting. Haxus moves to clone a signature code of Pidge’s Rover so that he can send another drone into the Castle to cause problems. I like that the episode takes its time to set up the explosion, the trick in the Arusian village, and the trouble that the characters will be dealing with. The pacing allows for tension to build, instead of just dumping trouble on us.

Allura’s conversation with the mice is a much-needed moment to show us that she’s not as confident as she usually seems. It helps counterbalance what we’ve seen of her to this point. She feels under great pressure due to the situation she’s in. The scene quickly moves to her discussing other things with the mice, but that little bit is enough to make her a much more complicated, and thus interesting, character. It shows some of her emotional vulnerability, and that’s the sort of thing that endears me to characters.

Lance being homesick here is something that I feel gets lost too easily in later seasons of the show. I’m a rather rooted, homebody myself, so I totally sympathize with Lance missing his family and home environment.

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about how Allura reacts to learning Pidge is a girl. It’s an aspect of Pidge that is significant enough that I feel like it’s invasive and rude for Allura to try to push Pidge to reveal it, but I also know what it’s like to have something like that about oneself that one is hiding and know how useful and needed it can be to have people try to let you know that they’re available for you to tell. I feel Allura is trying to let Pidge know that talking to her can be a safe space, but it still comes with some awkwardness on how Allura goes about trying to convey that in this scene. But then, that awkwardness could really just be an element that makes the conversation feel like such a realistic conversation two people in this situation would have.

Pidge announces that she’s leaving Voltron since she’s got some information about her brother and father. While I totally understand Pidge placing priority on her family, her leaving now does carry an aspect of betrayal with it. She was just going to steal a craft from the Castle and go off on her own. It’s also another demonstration that Pidge sometimes just does not think things through. What does she know about the galaxy? So far, she’s been to only two non-Earth planets, both of which are peaceful ones. What resources would she have to call upon going off on her own? These are major obstacles to her plan here. Her assumption that her working in isolation will yield results is so naïve. She doesn’t even try to ask the others for help, which suggests she doesn’t trust anyone. Pidge behaving in such short-sighted ways just makes me feel uncomfortable.

I like that we get a bit of a quiet scene between Lance and Coran, as Lance’s being homesick continues. When you have ensemble stories, pairing different characters together to play off of one another is a structural way to reveal some of their respective characterization. It’s still early in this show, this being only the sixth episode, and this pairing of Lance and Coran is one I would expect to come later, not now. Because of that, it feels fresh and interesting having it happen now.

“You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?” Lance asks. This is a reality of space that a lot of space shows/films ignore either purposefully or out of lack of education – even this show has times in later episode where the reality of how big space is seems to be ignored by the writers. I think people in general just do not realize how absolutely huge space is, including the amount of space within a single solar system, and thus how exponentially larger space between stars, and then space between galaxies is. It is a challenge in writing space-based fiction to balance the need to maintain tension with the reality of the immensity of space. “Like Earth, I can’t even see it,” Lance says. Uh, yeah, a bit past Saturn’s orbit and that happens – that’s why we can’t see Uranus nor Neptune with the naked eye from here on Earth. Lance’s comment here makes it sound like he would expect to have a chance to see Earth from another star system, but that’s something that becomes impossible even within our own system.

“Oh, we had that on Altea, only it wasn’t water, more like rocks. Razor sharp and boiling hot. They could knock a hole right in your head,” Coran says. This makes such little sense. I get that the episode is trying to be all, other planets can be so different than Earth, but this just doesn’t work. Life as we know it needs a liquid compound to serve as a universal solvent. This doesn’t mean that it absolutely has to be water, but the way we know the biology of life to function, water is the most likely candidate for such a substance across the whole universe. So, Altean life would most likely need significant amounts of water, which would result in a water cycle, which would mean they should have actual rain. Also, rock can be either razor sharp or boiling hot, not both. Rock that is hot enough that it could boil, in other words, be liquid, is magma/lava. If Altea is such that its environment allows for the evaporation and condensation of rock, then Altea is a hellish planet. So yeah, this line of Coran’s just does not work.

“You can’t leave,” Keith says. “You can’t tell me what to do!” Pidge retorts. Allura could though. The pod that Pidge wants to take does not belong to Pidge, nor did she ask to use/have it. “I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens,” Hunk says. Maybe not a lifetime, but the idea that they were working as a group to be able to fight against he Galra isn’t a new, sudden development. For anyone, Hunk included, to act like they didn’t know what the group’s broad goals were is dissonant. Shiro is willing to let Pidge go. He is right that it’s not right to try to force someone to be there, to be part of Voltron if they don’t want to. Shiro tells Pidge to “think about what [she’s] doing,” and that’s so much of my problem with her behavior here: She’s not thinking this through in the slightest. And again, she has no right to take the pod from the team if she’s not going to be part of the team.

When the explosion happens, Lance tries to shield Coran. It’s a nice, heroic moment for his character. The lights shutting down, especially in the external shot of the Castle, feels visceral. The Castle is without power, which they need to launch the Lions and to get the medical facilities working to help Lance. As much as Pidge’s plan to steal a pod bothers me, I do really like the narrative resonance it has in making it available to use here in this emergency. Pidge installed a cloaking device on the pod, and she puts in a similar system on the Green Lion, but I still come back to every Lion could have used having a cloaking system.

Lance was hurt bad by the explosion. Moving him, especially by just slinging his body over one’s shoulder and carrying him, is not medically wise. But that’s what Shiro does.

Shiro and Sendak fight. I still think Sendak’s arm is ridiculous, but Shiro’s is much cooler. The animation of the fight is beautiful. The shot of the collision between their fists in silhouette with a full moon behind them is one of the best shots the show has produced so far. With Lance and now Shiro taken out, Pidge is the only Paladin left in the Castle. That the episode had established Pidge’s adamant desire to leave, putting her in the place of being the only one really able to act within the Castle is narratively fitting. Keith and Allura find out that the attack on the Arusian village was staged specifically to get them out of the Castle.

The Galra have their own crystal, assumedly salvaged from their crashed ship, and they hook it up to the Castle. The fact that their crystal makes the Castle’s big external lights and shielding glow purple – aside from being the show’s use of purple to mono-color evil – suggests their crystal is physically and functionally different than the ones the Castle normally uses. I don’t remember this ever being something that’s examined though.

Coran and Hunk arrive at the Balmera, where Coran explains that though looking like a planet, Balmera are actually animals. It’s kind of funny to me now knowing how much this show violates the basic visual definition of a planet – that reaching a certain size results in a protoplanet forming into a roughly spheroid shape because of its gravity – to see the not-a-planet Balmera here looking more like a planet than a lot of the so-called planets in this show. Unfortunately, the Galra have control of this Balmera. I love Coran’s attempt to verbally evade the Galra ship ordering him to surrender. Coran crashes the pod at the bottom of a mine, with the first shadowy glimpse of the Balmeran people.

Pidge’s efforts inside the Castle demonstrates her Green Paladin quality of being daring. I do like that as much as Pidge frustrates me earlier in the episode, it feels totally believable to me that she can do everything she’s doing here. Her bravery is inspiring. But it also reinforces how the idea of her going off by herself now was not a path to success for her. Though she has to directly act alone, she’s in contact with Allura. There is still an element of teamwork. The situation grows close to being out of their influence, so Pidge opts for something that could realistically kill her: stab the energy system with her bayard to shut it down. It works, but the Galra learn she’s in the Castle.

The episode ends unresolved, and I like that the show is giving this plotline time to breathe. Giving it time emphasizes the tension and magnitude of the situation the characters are dealing with.

[lyricscoldcornerofhell]

MEMORIES FORGOTTEN, RESURFACING w/@Mary_M_Luce

Lyric: In the past few days, I had been poked, prodded, and had enough wires attached to me to light up a nuclear power plant. These people kept telling me I was not their prisoner, that I was their long lost family member, however I wasn’t allowed free reign anywhere in the facility. They tried to tell me it was for my own good, they needed me to stay in this “hospital room” so they could observe me until they were sure I was okay. Okay? What the hell were they talking about? They were the ones that abducted me from my home! They were the ones that manhandled me and knocked me out! These people were not my family. I had never seen any one of them before in my life. These people were strangers to me. And why the hell did they keep calling me Lyric?!

This evening was apparently different. After I was finished with my meal one of the larger males had come down and was talking about getting me out of my room for a bit. With serious trepidation, I agreed, if for nothing else, to get another look at some of the building they were keeping me. The one time I had escaped, I only got a look at a very long hallway, and giant weight room. I wanted to scope out a little bit more of the place.

I don’t know if I had ever seen a larger ego in a person before. The male that escorted me around was so full of himself, I was sure he believed with all his heart that his shit never stank a day in his life. Idiot! Cracking jokes the whole way. I was only half paying attention. I was more interested in where we had been, where we were going, and how we were getting there. I was trying to map this whole place out in my mind. Unfortunately, we didn’t go all that far. He opened up a door off the main hallway and waved me in. It seemed to be an office of sorts. A couch, a couple of chairs, and a desk occupied by a fairly young female. Interesting … how many human pets did these people have?

The male walked in and gave the female a kiss. “I’ll be outside if you need me.” Then I watched as he took his leave and shut me in with her. Moving my gaze back to her, I lifted my chin, unsure of exactly what was coming next.

Mary: [Rhage was nervous leaving me with Lyric, not knowing exactly what she would do. She had no recollection of any of us so it’s not like she remembered that I was her aunt. I very slowly  came around the desk and sat in the chair next to her so that we were on the same level. It seemed appropriate since I am human, for all extensive purposes, and being seated at the desk would give a false dynamic.]

I know this is all very strange. I can’t even imagin what you are feeling right now. So I suppose I should start from the beginning and tell you what we know and try to fill in some of the blanks.

As you may or may not know, by leave of 'The Creator', has two children. The Scribe Virgin was granted the ability to perform a single act of creation (birthing life from cosmic spiritual energy), which she expended to bring the Vampires into existence. But there is a yin to her yang. A malevolent, mystical figure who has targeted the Vampires for extinction out of resentment directed toward The Scribe Virgin. The Omega, he exists in a non-temporal realm and has extensive powers, though not the power of creation (he can do so with flesh, but not with spiritual energy). He created the lessers and kidnapped you and has kept you prisoner all these years.

You are at the Brotherhood compound. You were born here at the Manse, to the Chosen Layla and the Brother Qhuinn of Lohstrong, over 94 years ago. One night, your parents along with another Brother Phury were transporting you and were ambushed by lessers and you were taken from us and they were all killed.

[I watched as curiosity, morphed into surprise and a flicker of anger. I doubt she would believe me. She didn’t /just/ have a case for Stockholm syndrome. This was completely different. Because she was kidnapped as a toddler she would have have absolutely no memories … at least I don’t think. I probably should have asked Rhage and Wrath about that.]

There’s more … [I waited as you digested the first set of information.] You have a twin brother.

Lyric: Pacing across the room, I abruptly accused this female, “Lies! All lies!” She was trying to fill my head with the foulest of lies. The Omega has fought tooth and nail for everything he’s ever had. It was not his fault that “The Creator” favored his sister. He had been treated like the shit scraped off the bottom of a shoe all his existence. He has only ever tried to earn his due. Not to mention this whole suggestion of me being the offspring of a lesser race! How could she insinuate that I was one of them?! One of The Scribe Virgin’s creations? I was so much more than that. I was The Omega’s only living heir. There had only been one before me. But, I was the mother of The Omega’s young, the queen of his race. There was no way I would believe one word coming out of this human’s mouth.

Taking a seat in front of the female, I leaned back with my arms crossed, and went on, “If this is your way of trying to get me to turn on my maker, you’ve got the wrong person. I know exactly who I am, who I am not, and where I belong… and that is not here.” A twin brother! Pfft! Nice try. The only brother I had was The Omega’s other heir, and he was long since dead. From what I had been told, he had been ignorant and greedy. I wasn’t a sucker. My creator had many flaws, one of them being his capricious behavior with all other people. Somehow, I had managed to outlive everyone else, so I knew I was special. Trying to make me think otherwise was a fool’s errand.

Mary: [I knew she suffered from an acute case of Stockholm syndrome, a version of it so I came prepared.]

You remember what you looked like when you were little yes? [I signed in relief as she nodded as it would solidify the next part of my plan. I went to the box and got out Layla’s meticulous timelined photo album and handed it to her.] Here.

[I watched as doubted whatever I gave her and the preceded to open up the cover and viewed its contents. I knew each page by heart. All the shellans did, when we got together we would sit with Rhampage and view all the pages of the album to make sure he would always remember his twin sister and his parents. Blay always made sure to go through it at least once a week. I kept the sob that was threatening to release at the his recent death and tried to focus at the task at hand.

I knew it wasn’t enough, she would accuse us of doctoring the photos so … I took out my cell phone and showed her a few videos knowing that there was no way for us to doctor those through growth unless we really had video footage. Apparently, she never seen herself in video form. Guess the Omega wasn’t keen on much technology.]

Lyric: As she pushed the tome across the table, I tried hard to hide the trepidation in my soul. What trick did this human think she was going to pull? There was nothing this female could show me that would change what I knew in my gut. Yet, curiosity tugged at my conscious and I reached out to pull it in front of me, anyway. As I ran my hands gently over the cover, a sense of unease tingled up my spine and I almost didn’t open it. Then I remembered, there was nothing this female could say, do, or show me that could weaken my resolve in who I was, and I threw open the lid of the codex.

I was not prepared for what I saw, nor the emotions it unearthed. There were what appeared to be pictures of myself, with numerous people, one of which was the female sitting across from me. But the one that captured my interest was one where I was seated on the lap of the most beautiful female. She had mine own lips. With her was a male, whose eye, I swore were like looking in a mirror. I reached forward with one finger to caress the photo, before slamming the cover back onto it. “Lies! More Lies! I don’t know how you did it, but these are not real.” They couldn’t be. It couldn’t be me. I was His. I belonged to Him.

Then she pushed something else across the table at me. I had never seen anything like it. It had moving images on it… only on one side, though. The other side was plain. Flipping it back over I watched in horror as this little being, that looked just like me, danced and played and hugged and ran … with all the people in the pictures. I could feel agitation bubbling up inside me. Confusion, dismay, ire … all at once it slammed into me. This was all so wrong! I flung the thing across the room and into the wall, shattering its face, but it still taunted me with those visions.

Turning back to the female sitting across from me, I hissed out. “I don’t know what you are trying to do, but it’s not going to work.” Then it hit me. They think if they can make me believe I belong with them, that it will make me turn on my true sire. Interesting tactics in torture. They somehow think I know something that will help them in their quest to stop him. Well, the laugh’s on them. My master is smarter than that. He doesn’t give away those secrets to anyone. “I will never turn on Him. You will have to try much harder than that,” I nodded to the collection of pictures in front of me and pushed it across the table at the female, “to get me to talk.”

Mary: [Great, now Rhage will need to buy me a new iPhone but I inwardly grinned knowing he’d be happy to knowing he could throw Apple into #Vishous’s face although Blackberry has been obsolete for a few years now.

I remained seated and did not react to her temper tantrum as she spewed her hate. I knew this wouldn’t be easy. It's been decades since she was stolen from us when we thought she was dead.]

Lyric, we are not asking you to do anything. Especially right now. We are just trying to explain our side of this story and why you are here now. To show you how much we care and love you. We don’t want you to have to turn on anyone. [I was interrupted when I heard a knock at the door. Getting up and opening it, I see @BellaAhgony in the hall with the few things I texted her to bring to me. #Rhage still at the ready standing next to her. Gathering the things, I thanked her and smiled at #Rhage and closed the door again.

I sat back down and picked up Lyric’s old baby blanket, two stuffed dragons, one with a missing eye and one with some patches and some well loved books from the basket and placed them on the table. She eyed them warily and slowly reached for the stuffed dragon. I hoped it will help trigger any memories of her twin brother #Rhampage and how they use to each have the same set.]

Lyric: How could this human think I would believe anything she said to me? I had been accosted and ripped from my home by /her/ people! Now, they were trying to make me believe I belonged to them? I belonged to the Omega, not these vampires and their human pets! There was nothing they could say or do to change my mind. I was the Omega’s chosen one. That was what I was called as a young, “The Chosen.” When I was finally given a name, it was Leda, meaning mother. His followers always told me, I was born to be their mother. I was chosen to be their mother. I was His, and only His. Everything I knew about myself was connected to Him.

Then there was that name again. “Lyric.” That name meant nothing to me. But, I let them continue to use it. I would not give them my real name. They didn’t deserve to know it.

Suddenly, there was a rap on the door and I whipped my head around, waiting for some kind of attack. But, it was only another female, with an armful of items I was sure were supposed to bring back old, buried feelings of some sort, or at least I’m sure that was what the human was expecting.

I watched as the human laid out the items in front of me, some sort of rag, more tomes… that couldn’t have anything in them, as they had but only a few pages, and a couple of ... strange, fake ... dragons? Is that what those are supposed to be? I picked one up, because I wasn’t sure. It was so tattered and beat up, I had to look close. I twisted it around in my hands as the scent of it wafted into my nose. Another barrage of emotions washed over me. Feelings I didn’t understand, that I didn’t remember ever feeling before, ones that brought a tear to my eye, and not because I was hurt so badly that they wouldn’t stop flowing, but for some other, strange reason. Looking down, I caught the symbol of an “R” on the tag of the little fake dragon and promptly tore it’s head off.

Raising my ferocious gaze to meet the human’s, I held back my rage, and firmly responded, “I. Am. Done. Here.” each word dripping with the disdain for this whole conversation. “Bring me back to my room. Now!”

Mary: [Good Lord, she was stubborn which only made me smile. She was this way when she was a toddler as well … takes after Qhuinn, bless his soul. I wish he and Layla were here with us. And now Blay. I felt a pang in my heart knowing the we lost him rescuing her. We couldn’t stop him knowing he would be her only parent left. He refused to be on the sidelines. He help hope for so many years that Lyric was still alive and well … along with #Qhuinn. He had been a shell of a male when they went missing.

I gathered up the albums, and toys knowing #Fred could fix up the dragon stuffed toy for her and placed them back in the basket. I would have the doggen out them in her room to allow her to reacquaint herself with her past. This was going to take some time I knew that … but it still felt great to have her home again even if she hated all of us.

I went back to the door and saw my hellren standing there. He knew what had been going on, vampire hearing and all, so he gave me a great big hug and kissed me on the lips and then on the sides of my neck. Though he could not feed from me to survive, he still showed the very romantic vampiric gesture.]

She wants to go back to her room. [I told him and he nodded, ushered me through the door and closed it behind me.]

“Don’t feel bad … we all knew that this would be another battle for us to overcome. You’re doing great Mary.” [He picked up the stuffed dragon he had given the twins when they were just a few months old, now missing his head and I could feel him hurting inside. Placing my hand over his heart I hugged him tight against me. Hoping everything would be ok.]

Lyric: The female left the room and took all her little tools of mental destruction with her … finally. Did they really think a few pictures and some kind of mini fake dragon would be my undoing? Not likely! I was not this Lyric person they kept telling me I was. I was Leda, mother and queen of my race, heir to the Omega. I was not one of them. I did not belong to the enemy. These vampires slaughtered my young! I was at war with these monsters, and now they have kidnapped me from my home. Thank the Omega, they had no idea who I really was. I would probably be tortured and killed. Then again, I’m sure once they realize this nice guy routine isn’t going to work, they will probably result to torture. But, that’s okay. My master has made sure I was able to deal with that. It was in my upbringing. Every time I did something wrong, I was punished severely for it. It strengthened me, gave me power, power to live through anything. This would be just one more thing to live through. He would come for me soon. I just had to hold out. #MemoriesForgottenResurfacing #ISBDBRP