#the hero is doomed to lose because it's not possible to reconcile one with the other.)

[astrarche-x]

obsessed with the fact that Ouyang's story is literally ancient greek level of tragedy

[hauntedfoxinternet]

This is Chapter 11 of my Trollhunters Tales of Arcadia The Arcane's sister

Chapter 11 Witch hunt

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

Later that same day

We had to go to the stables because of some reason but I had a feeling that this would end badly.

Claire then said "They're hunting Jim! If they catch him he'll be killed!"

"I know, and he's not the only one. Because of us, Arthur's now fated to eat the big one, too!" Douxie said.

I just stayed silent because I had nothing to say.

"Eat the what? Oh, no, was I supposed to bring food?" Steve says.

"He'll be eating a death sandwich, Steve." Douxie answers.

"Ugh, who would eat that? Gross." Steve reqouils a bit.

Douxie groans. "Look. If Arthur dies, we lose the Battle of Killahead and the war."

"Which will probably mess up time so much, you'll never be able to return home." Archie says from Douxie's shoulder.

"Oh, no! Toby! What's happening to him?"Claire asks Douxie a little painiced.

I look up from what I was doing and seen the time map had Toby on it and he was vanishing and It made my eyes go wide for a second before I calmed down.

"The future-- our future is vanishing!" Douxie answers Claire in the same time of painc as her.

"What's that?" Claire asks a little suprised.

"Well-- Well, that wasn't there before. It's a new timeline, one where Arthur and Jim live." Douxie says shocked.

"And Morgana's the hero? I thought she was destined to become Mistress Doom." Claire says.

"It looks like there's a possibility, if we get Arthur and Morgana to reconcile, then, somehow, nobody dies." Douxie says hopefull.

'It's not that simplie…..you can't meddle with time if you don't know the consequences of your actions.' I thought.

One of the knights says something to Steve as Claire then says.

"Me and Isabella will keep an eye on Morgana. Douxie, you work on Arthur. And Steve, make sure they don't kill my boyfriend." Claire says.

"Alright." I says as I hop onto the horse I'm riding.

I start to head to the bridge as I hear.

"Death to all trolls!"

I just had a calm expresion on my face but my eyes held a sneer.

A lot happened while we where in the woods Firstly Jim was spotted and we all went after him while more so the group I was just looking around the forest.

We soon came to a stop and Arthur says.

"They've entered the Wild Wood. Abandon the horses. We head on foot!"

I hear one of the horse's nickers as I get of my horse.

I then walk over to the others as a knight took my horse.

"Changing fate is never that simple. I'll deal with you later. What's most important is that I keep Arthur safe from harm." Merlin says.

"Okay, good chat, sir!" Archie says as Merlin walks away.

"Forget him. Stick to the plan. I'll take the king." Douxie says as me and Claire walk up to him.

"We'll cover Morgana." Claire says.

"And let's just focus on getting these royal siblings to hug and make up." Archie says.

"And not die." Claire states.

"Uh, yes, that, too." Archie says.

We then spilt up with me and Claire with Morgana and Douxie with Arthur.

"Keep an eye out." One knight says.

"Ugh, my brother has eyes everywhere." Morgana says.

"He's just looking out for you. Can you blame him?" Claire says.

"He's already accused me of betrayal." Morgana says back a little sterner.

"I lost my brother once. You don't appreciate them till they're gone. Maybe if you just talked?" Claire trys to reason.

I just held a small simpathetic look in my eyes.

"Pffft, look where that last talk got us. Please, of everyone here, you two are the only one's I can trust." Morgana says.

"Us? What made him stop trusting you?" Claire asks confused.

"It's a long story. Come on." Morgana says as she walks away we then follow after her with Claire looking down saddned.

Some time later I hear Douxie say. "Say, my liege, didn't you used to spend time in this wood?" He says as he shows a carveing on a tree.

"Yes. As a boy. Much time was lost in this accursed forest. I often fled to these woods to escape from my growing responsibilities. " Arthur says then gasps as some magic flys into his eyes.

I just sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose as I looked down in frustrasion.

"On your guard, men! We've been bewitched!" One knight said.

"What's happening? It's coming for me!" Another says painiced.

We all then heard Disembodied laughter echo's around us.

"It's dark magic!"

Merlin scoffs, "Stand down. We're not in danger. Uh, my lord…" Merlin asks consernd.

"Gwen," Arthur exhales a breath at a young girl from the illusion, "My betrothed."

Children laughter could be heard from all around us.

It warmed my heart to see children playing in the woods even tho it was one that I dislike but that didn't mean it didn't warm my heart in someway even tho I never show it I do enjoy seeing people happy and having fun.

"My beloved. She was the heart of me." Arthur contiued.

"Mm, we loved these woods. The freedom they offered. The wood showed us kindness for our courage," Morgana said as someone else came into view and my heart nearly came to a stop as a wave of emotion's came over me but I controled them as to not draw attention to myself.

"Gwen and I were never scared. Arthur, however…" Morgana says after.

"I knew what danger lurked in the darkness." Arthur says.

"Gwen! Away from her, demon!" A young Arthur says to the other creature in the illusion and scared her away.

I couldn't help but frown at that.

"As we grew older, and duty kept me inside, Morgana encouraged Gwen, brought her out when she should have stayed safe within Camelot." Arthur says as another scene came to us.

"Arthur always blamed me for our moonlight trips. But that night, it was Gwen pulling me out of the door. We'd stumbled into a Stalkling nest." Morgana says saddned.

I just looked down in some respect as it was something I seen to many times to count.

"That night, Gwen went into the woods and never returned." He sighs "You, sister, should have known better." Arthur says.

"You never forgave me. And when my own gifts blossomed, you saw yet another abomination. Ordered Merlin to teach me to control that part of me… though Gwen loved magic as I did." Morgana says.

"Yes. Yes, she did." Arthur gasps " I… I miss her terribly." Arthur says as the illusion vanish's.

"As do I… brother." Morgana says remorsfully.

I hear Douxie murmur something then everything went to hell as Lancelot yelled the the found a troll.

Arthur growls then says "I will lose no one else to those creatures. To arms!" Arthur says as he walks past Morgana.

Douxie started to painic as his plan didn't work.

I just followed everyone as it wasn't my place to speck.

I drounded out most of the stuff happening as I saw something move trought the trees.

It was sort but I cought a glimse of the thing's and realized it was the trolls.

I then heared "The spawn of Gunmar. I won't dull Excalibur's edge with you. Drag this monster back to Camelot!" It came from Arthur.

I then came over the way and saw that Bular was traped under a net.

"I have plans for him. The rest, with me! My blade hungers." Arthur contiued to walk into the wood so we followed after. I had to repress a annoyed groan as that would draw unwanted antaion.

"As you wish, milord. Onward!" Lancelot says to the rest of us.

"Who's the monster here?" Morgana questions softly but I could hear her.

[alovesongshewrote]

Almost A Thousand Years - Witch Hunt | Hisirdoux Casperan

Plot:  You’ve known Hisirdoux Casperan for almost a thousand years.  You’ve hated him for almost a thousand years.  And for almost a thousand years, you’ve been cursed to feel each others pain.  But somewhere in that time, things changed.  [Hisirdoux Casperan x Mostly Gender Neutral but Probably Female Presenting Based on How Historical Men Treat Them!Reader]

Word Count:  4,463

Warnings: i swear some more and uh... i can’t really give a warning, it’s spoilers.  you’ll probably like it tho, i promise

A/N:  today’s a/n shout out goes to @furblrwurblr​ for drawing femboy hooters douxie and fucking cursing me

Taglist:  @furblrwurblr​ @rainningdoom​ @fluffydmonkey @blondie0458​ @sitherin-mxschief​ @jinxedleo​ @lawlesshedgehog @einahpetsyarcip​ @dolphincommander​

Back | Next​

“I told you the boy was bad news Master,” past you said with way too much pride in their voice for your liking.

“Oh, would you shut up?”

“So you’re me from the future, then?  Tell me, how do you end up travelling time with the likes of that git?”

“Oi, shut your mouth you little-” Douxie put his hand over your mouth, effectively shutting you up for the time being.

“Calm down (Y/N), please,”

Both you and your past self said “No,” in unison.  It would have been funny in literally any other situation, but alas, this was what fate handed to you.

“All of you, silence!  Have you any idea what you’ve done?  I knew my apprentice was an ignoramus, but travelling through time?  Time!”

You felt a very strong urge to scream, but fortunately, Douxie was doing the talking.

“I think we handled ourselves just fine, all things considered.  And technically, it was your idea,”

“Damn right,”

“Well, then, you must have botched it up!  My planning is flawless!”

“For the record, Master, I had nothing to do with this.  He did, which is me, and… ugh!  Time travel, so confusing!”  past Douxie was awake, and you decided right then if anyone said anything else you were going to knock him, your past self, and Merlin unconscious just for some peace and quiet.

“Aah!  The timelines are in complete disarray!”

Oop, that counted as saying something, “They’re about to be in more disarray,” 

“Seriously, (Y/N), calm down,”

“Don’t you talk to me… us?  Like that!”  past you was a little confused, but they still had the spirit.  It was the wrong kind of spirit, but spirit nonetheless.  You sighed, knowing that Douxie was right.

“No, (Y/N)?  Me?  Whatever.  He’s right, I just need a second,”

Past you froze in absolute shock while Douxie's past self decided to relish in the fact that you were wrong.

Present Douxie didn’t have a lot of patience for this, “Look, both of you, quiet down for a second.  Master, I can fix this, I swear!”

“Ah-ah, your meddling has already wreaked enough havoc on history!”

“Then surely we can use the time map to change things back, and then it’ll all be as it was,”  Archie said as you, your Douxie and the familiar surrounded Merlin, your focus on the time map in your former master's hands.

“It doesn’t work that way.  The map only offers glimpses of possible futures!  There are no detailed instructions,”

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,”  Douxie said, reaching towards the device before Merlin slapped his apprentice’s hand away causing both of your hands to sting.

“Ow.  Look, life doesn't come with instructions, and we live through it every day without causing too much damage.  We can manage this!  It’ll be fine,”

“Not that bad, eh?  It’ll be fine, eh!?”  Merlin said before revealing just what the time map had to show you.  

King Arthur was on the ground, dead.  Needless to say, that was not good.

“Oh, fuzzbuckets,”  Both Douxies and your past self said.

“Oopsie,” you grimaced at the consequences of your actions. 

“Your little dungeon break must have changed fate!  Now, unless I stop it, the king will die!”

Merlin stormed out of the room, off, probably, to fix your mistakes.  Beside you, your Douxie groaned, bracing himself against the table.  You put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

“Seriously, how can you stand to touch him?”

It was your turn to groan.  You didn’t even look at your past self as you responded, “Because he is my friend and I care about him,”

It may have been a risky statement, one that could doom both you and your wizard, but the smile on Douxie’s face was worth it.

“I don’t understand, how can you-”  

Douxie cut off his past self, “You’ll understand when you’re older.  Now, you two stay here, we have to go,”  he grabbed your hand, and you left to find Claire or anything else that would help save the future.  Whichever came first.

It was Claire.  Claire came first.  You could hear the knights cheering from your place in the shadows.  The noise was a decent cover-up for your conversation.

“They’re hunting Jim!  If they catch him, he’ll be killed!”

“I know, and he’s not the only one.  Because of us, Arthur’s now fated to eat the big one, too!”

“Eat the what?  Oh, no, was I supposed to bring food?”

“He’ll be eating a death sandwich, Steve,”

“Ugh, who would eat that?  Gross,”

Douxie groaned, but you couldn’t help but laugh a little.  Times were tough, but that didn’t stop you from admitting that Steve absolutely had a point.

“Look, if Arthur dies, we lose the Battle of Killahead and the war,”

“Which will probably mess up time so much, you’ll never be able to return home,”  Archie said, pawing his way around your hiding space.

“At least, not our home,”  you glared at the ground, as if the dirt was the reason the world was at stake.

“Oh no!  Toby!”

You looked up at the time map just in time to see the War Hammer disappear into a blue mist.  That could not be a good sign.

“What’s happening to him?”

“The future- our future, is vanishing!”

“There’s gotta be a way to fix this,” you said, using the time map, searching through time to find something that would save your home.  Among the red, there was a moment of blue.  You paused as an image of Arthur and Morgana getting along flashed into the sphere.

“What’s that?”  Claire asked before you had the chance to ask the same thing.

“Well, that wasn’t there before.  It’s a new timeline, one where Arthur and Jim live,”

“And Morgana’s the hero?  I thought she was destined to become Mistress Doom,”

“No, you’re thinking Mistress of all Dark Magic.  Mistress of Doom is… something else,”

“What?”  Douxie paused, looking at you with vast amounts of suspicion.  

“You’d be surprised by some of the house calls I’ve made.  Now, keep talking,”

Douxie shook his head, but he was smiling.  Good.  You loved that smile.

“It looks like there’s a possibility if we get Arthur and Morgana to reconcile, then somehow, nobody dies,”

“I don’t think I have to say that that’s the outcome we want!”

You took a moment just to look at Douxie’s face.  In this small moment of victory, which was over too soon, he looked happier than you’d seen him in a while.  Of course, you never saw his face when he looked at you.

“Squire Steve!  We are all thirsty!”  and bam, moment over.  Thanks, Gallahad.

“I’ll keep an eye on Morgana.  Douxie, you work on Arthur.  (Y/N), Steve, make sure they don’t kill my boyfriend,”

“We’re on it.  Don’t die out there, guys,”

“We won’t,” Douxie said, taking one last look at you before he ran off.  You and Steve did the same.

About a minute in, you could feel things going wrong.  Your chest hurt as if you’d crashed to the floor.  It wasn’t awful, so you ignored it and kept moving forward, following Steve and the knights and making a mental note to make sure Douxie was ok when you had time.  A smirk made its way onto your face when said wizard knocked his past self out.  You couldn’t imagine that it was good for him, but if he could still perform magic, he was ok.  

And after that, things were okay.

At least for you.

Douxie was having a difficult time getting Arthur to listen to him.  Magic, as always, turned out to be a useful tool.  The king and his sister began their reconciliation, but something was troubling him.  He saw the way they looked at the illusion of Gweneviere.  They had both loved her.  Arthur even called Gwen “the heart of him,” and they had lost her.  He could see the grief on their faces, how it killed the king and weighed down the sorceress was clear to anyone who looked at them the right way.

This was not the first time Douxie contemplated his fear of losing you.  He’d been afraid of that for a long time, and one could say that he was used to the familiar sense of anxiety that made itself at home within him whenever you were in danger.  But now?  Now he looked at the faces of the royal family and realized that losing you would completely destroy him.  

Douxie was already a selfless person, one who would sacrifice everything he was to save the world, but right then, he decided that he would sacrifice the world to save you.  You were the world to him.  

But he couldn’t focus on that right now.  He had a job to do.

So did you.  And Steve was not making it any easier.

“Kill the beast!”

“Wait, kill?  I thought this was catch and release!”

“Oh, my g- ok, come on, Steve,”

You grabbed the boy by his armour and dragged him along as you followed the group, stopping dead when you reached the troll that the guards spoke of.

Arthur’s men had slung chains around the creature, restricting its movement to next to nothing.  You were not okay with this.

“Squire Steve, will you do the honours?”  Lancelot asked, tossing his sword to the boy.  

The boy whimpered, very obviously uncomfortable with this.  He turned to you, eyes desperately searching for instructions on what to do in this situation.  You shook your head, trying to get across that needless murder should probably be avoided.

Whether or not Steve got the message, you would never know.  The troll jumped at the teen.  You jumped in front of him, creating a shield with your magic, and Arthur jumped in front of you, swinging a sword at the troll and putting himself in some pretty needless danger.  You couldn’t talk on that subject though.  When it came to needless danger, you were freaking royalty.

“Careful, young squire, witch,” he spat out your title like it was a curse, “Show these beasts no sympathy,”

He kicked the troll into the sunlight, turning it to stone instantly.  You looked on with disappointment as the guards cheered.

Behind you, Steve whimpered again.  You turned, hoping to provide some comfort, or calm the kid down at least, when you froze, your blood running cold.  Behind Steve stood Bular, aka the Troll who kept trying to kill you.

“Shit,”

The Gumm-Gumm prince knocked Steve aside, advancing and attacking the guards.  He hadn't noticed you yet, and you intended to keep it that way, staying out of the troll's field of view, and going after Steve instead.  You helped the boy up and off the ground.  He wasn't injured, but you realized that the king was about to be.  

Before you could do anything, Douxie and Merlin had things under control, saving Arthur and taking out the troll prince.  You breathed a sigh of relief.  If things went well, Bular wouldn’t see you.  Very few things ever went well, but you had your fingers crossed.

And it worked!  For once, things went your way.  Arthur knocked the Gumm-Gumm out with a kick to the face.  Sure, he said some very menacing and antagonistic things right after, but you had no thoughts in your head other than, “Well, that was convenient,”

You watched the guards take Bular away, taking note of Morgana questioning who the real monster was.  If Bular hadn’t tried to kill you and your friends and hadn’t successfully gotten you tortured a couple decades ago, you might have agreed with that.  Unfortunately, he had.

You hadn’t realized that you’d lost yourself in memories until Douxie said your name.

“-(Y/N), are you alright, love?”

“I-” you watched them take the troll out of sight, “I will be,”

Your wizard took one of your hands, squeezing it, “I’m right here if you need me,”

“I know,”

It was silent for a moment.  Then you heard the knights calling Steve.

“I should go,”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,”

“But I should.  Someone needs to make sure that kid doesn’t run into any more high ranking Gumm-Gumms,”

Douxie seemed hesitant, but he respected your choice, “Stay safe,”

“You too,”

From the corner of her eye, Morgana watched you and Douxie.  She wasn’t focused on it, per-say, but she did find it odd.  Were Merlin’s apprentices not constantly at each other’s throats?  She ignored it for now and moved on.

Things went decently for you after that.  The forest was peaceful, the knights were quiet.  Everything was chill until Steve decided to walk through a trap.  You weren’t sure why he didn’t just stop.  Kids these days, honestly.  

You winced as the arrows hit his armour and his skin.  Beside you, Gallahad and Lancelot were absolutely losing their shit.  You had to admit, it was kind of funny, but you were also concerned for your friend.  You put up a shield around him, sheltering the teen from any further arrow-related damage.  Needless to say, the knights were very disappointed.

“Oh, come on, now!  Don’t spoil all the fun,”

“It was fun for the first minute.  Now I’m concerned for his health,”

“Really?  Merlin’s witch apprentice showing concern?  Well then, we’ve found something rarer than the holy grail!”

You took a moment, keeping up your shields as the king and his guards moved through the trap, Lancelot and Gallahad now supporting Steve.

It was weird to see how much you’d changed.  Talking to your past self had been surreal, and a decent reminder of what a little shit you had been, but you hadn’t considered the specifics.  Past you was a scared kid doing what their king told them to.  Under Gunmar, you didn’t have any interests or hobbies outside of getting stronger and staying alive.  Even after you left, you really didn’t start to become who you were now for a few centuries.  You'd been scared that the Gumm-Gumms would come for you at any moment, and that fear wouldn't leave you until at least the fifteen hundreds.  You suddenly felt enormous amounts of guilt weighing on your shoulders.  Guilt about what you’d forced your past self to go through, that you never got a childhood worth having, that you hadn’t been a person for so long that it took centuries to take a real interest in something.  And you felt guilty about how you’d treated other living things.  You knew now that everyone who could be saved deserved saving, but the child you were in the twelfth century didn’t know that.  

But you couldn’t fix the past, even though you were now reliving it.  The only thing you could do was forgive yourself.

And so you did.

Then you ran after the knights to see if Steve was okay.

He was.  Teenagers are surprisingly resilient, that’s how they can do dumb things and not die.  You counted Steve coming out of that trap mostly unscathed as a win.  What wasn’t a win was Lancelot spotting Jim and Callista, looking at what appeared to be Jim’s phone.

You had no idea if that would affect the space-time continuum, but what would affect you personally was your friends getting shot.  And Lancelot was aiming a crossbow at them.  Great.

Beside you, you could hear Steve’s internal panic.  This time he didn’t turn to you, instead, he chose to act, smacking the crossbow out of the knight’s hands.  The arrow still fired, but there was still time.  You put a spell on the arrow, knocking it off course a little more and lessening the impact.  However, there was still an impact.  You could hear as much from the trolls below you.

Lancelot lined up another shot, but Steve knocked the weapon aside again, and you used your magic to push the crossbow out of reach.  It didn’t do much, but it bought your friends some much needed time.  The knight thrust the crossbow at Steve, clearly frustrated.

“What if we just let this one go?”  Steve’s efforts were admirable, you’d give him that much

“You never let them go,”

Lancelot turned away from you to face the king, who was rallying his soldiers.

You put a hand on Steve’s shoulder, “Hey, you did a good thing, kid,”

“Thanks, (Y/N),” Steve’s voice shook slightly, and you felt awful.  If you had time, you probably would have hugged him, told him everything was going to be okay, and maybe adopted him, but right now, you had to find some way to protect Jim.

The knights ran off, leaving you and Steve watching them go.  

Douxie and Merlin came out of the bushes, clearly in pursuit of the king.  They called out to him before running off again.

“C’mon Steve, we have to follow them,”

The boy, who was still shaken, nodded, following behind you as you ran after everyone else.  

Things were not going well.  Morgana and Arthur were fighting, knights were surrounding the area, and Lancelot was firing arrows at children.

Claire was skilled enough to fend for herself, scaring Lancelot, but before the knight could say anything that everyone would regret, Steve knocked him out with a large rock.  You were a bit surprised, but also very pleased.

“Whoa, man, that troll- that came out of nowhere!  Right guys?”

Lancelot woke, only for Steve to hit him again.  You were very proud.

“Nice one, Steve!”

“Thanks!  Uh, can you do your doctor thing?  Make sure I didn’t kill him?”

You kind of doubted that Lancelot had been killed by the rock, but head trauma exists in every century, so you nodded and began your assessment.  You managed to focus up and do your work, ignoring the clanging metallic noise of the battle before you.  Then the pain hit you.  It was like you’d been thrown back into a tree, but that hadn’t happened, so what was- Douxie!

You rushed your assessment, focused on the ache in your spine, “He isn’t dead, Steve, you’re in the clear,”

The teenager punched the air, saying something that you weren’t paying attention to.

“Sorry, kid, I’ll be right back,”

That was kind of a lie.  You weren’t sure when you’d be back.

You made your way to Douxie’s side, helping him up as Morgana sent a beam of gold magic into the sky, before bringing it down on the earth like a whip.  Your wizard pulled you close to him, trying to shield you from the magic.  Had she been paying attention, Morgana would have declared this officially strange, but at the moment she was fighting her brother and former mentor.

You, Claire and Douxie thought it would be a good idea to try and reason with the angry sorceress.

“Stop!  We found another way!”

“It doesn’t have to be like this!”

“We can do this peacefully!”

“The time for peace ended long ago,”

“Morgana,” Claire called out, “He’s not the enemy,”

Morgana continued to rant, but you were a little distracted by the fact that she was now flying.  It wasn’t the best choice either of you had made, but you and Douxie got closer, just in time for the sorceress to cast a spell, creating shadow-like clones of herself.

“Oh, buckets,”  Douxie said as shadow-clones appeared before all of you.

“Yeah, that,”  you drew your sword.  There wasn’t much left to do but fight.

Unfortunately, you were in the minority when it came to having a weapon.  You watched as your friends struggled and dodged, eventually backing away, but wherever they went the shadows followed (as shadows are wont to do.)

Your small group found their way to a cliff, overlooking the ocean.  You recognized this place, but you weren’t sure how.

You could hear Merlin call for someone to protect the king, but you were a little busy fighting for your life at that moment.  

Somehow, you found an opening and sliced through the clone.  You only enjoyed your victory for a moment before Douxie was thrown to the ground, causing you both to wince from the pain.  You were about to make your way over to him when Arthur pointed his sword towards the sky, drawing a spell into the blade and releasing it into the ground, knocking everyone back and banishing the shadow-clones.

Douxie helped you up before you both ran to get the time map.  The sphere flickered from red to blue.  You looked out into the sunset and suddenly realized where you recognized this place from.

Morgana’s name left your lips and Douxie’s at the same time.  The time map’s sphere showed the sorceress’s body.

You and your wizard ran towards the duelling siblings in a last attempt to stop them, but you were once again blown back.  

You screamed as Morgana fell off the cliff for the second time in your life.

You couldn’t remember walking back to the castle. 

You knew you must’ve done it because you would remember being carried back, but you didn’t know how you got from the cliff to Camelot.

And now Claire was talking, “She’s gone.  We failed,”  as if you needed reminding.

“No,” Douxie’s voice came from beside you, “I failed.  Master, I-I’m so sorry,”

“This is why you don’t meddle with time,”

You didn’t even sass Merlin about how this was his idea.  You were out of sass at the moment.  Your head was full of static as you tried to process things.

“But I tried, I tried to fix it,” Douxie fell to his knees, his eyes on the still flickering time map.

Correction, your brain was full of static and heartbreak.  You knelt beside your wizard, putting your hands on his shoulders as he focused on the time map.

“Don’t you see, boy?  There is no ‘fixing’ anything,  Every change has consequence.  Knowing the future is a responsibility to bear with caution, lest you cause the worst things to happen,”

You couldn’t look Merlin in the eye.  Even as he walked away, you didn’t watch him go.

“Morgana’s dead, Excalibur's broken.  This never happened,”

“We are in uncharted territory,” Archie said, coming closer to you and Douxie, allowing the wizard to pat him.

The pain in your chest was his.  The utter anguish he felt over failing to fix things stabbed through you.  And it wasn’t just that.  He had failed Claire, and Steve, and Jim.  He had failed Merlin, and Toby and Camelot.  But the worst thing was he had failed you.  He had destroyed your future, and now you were stuck here.  The very thought of it ripped through him, and you felt all of it.

You bit your lip, just then realizing what that day was.

As if he realized what was to come, Archie took a few steps back, wandering away from the two of you.

“Hey, Doux,” he turned to look at you, the sorrow in his eyes eating you alive, “This was the night.  In our timeline, anyway,”

“What?”

“Where was that fight again?  Merlin’s study?  The staircase?  The throne room?”

“(Y/N)?”

“If we wait outside, do you think we’ll see it happen?”

The pieces fell into place for him, too.

“I don’t even know if it will,”

You waited a moment.

“Who knows.  We hated each other enough, we might still get cursed,”  The joking tone in your voice made you both smile, even though it didn’t reach your eyes.

“Seriously, though, Douxie.  I think whatever bond Merlin gave us, I-” you took a deep breath, knowing that what you said next would definitely damn you both.  But that didn’t matter.  He needed to hear this.

“I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me.  You are the best thing that ever happened to me,”

Douxie looked surprised, only for a second, before his eyes cast their gaze to the ground, to the time map that sat closed on the floor.  “Are you sure?”

His voice was so quiet you barely heard him, and it was so sad, so scared, that you could feel your heart shatter into a million pieces right then and there, “Yeah,” your voice felt like it would break at any minute, “Yeah, I’m sure,”

Your predictions were correct.  Your voice broke and tears came to your eyes, much to your embarrassment.

“(Y/N),” Douxie turned his body towards yours, taking your face in his hands, “You-” he took a second, also feeling that his voice would fail him at any minute, “You mean everything to me, and I-I ruined your future.  We don’t have a home to go back to, and it’s my fault, I-”

“Douxie,” you cut him off, “As long as I’m with you, I’m home.  If we have to, we’ll just build a new future, together,” you ran a hand through his hair.  This was it.  This is what was going to kill you, “I love you, Hisirdoux Casperan,”

There was silence.

And then his lips were on yours.

Do you remember the kiss in the 80s?  Yeah, that was child’s play compared to this.

Your lips fit together perfectly,  his hands glided over your back, pulling you closer to him.  Your hands held his face, swiping away at the tears that threatened to fall.  You found your bottom lip captured between his.  A gasp escaped you when he bit down.  It wasn’t enough to draw blood, but it was enough for your heart to race a little faster, if that was even possible, and tighten your grip just a little.  You could almost feel his pulse racing, and you were absolutely certain he could feel yours.  Your last kiss had been everything in your past, but this kiss was your future.  It was a promise that no matter what came next, you would face it together.

And then you remembered exactly what it was that your future held.

T'was a mood killer.

You broke the kiss, almost unwillingly and definitely wanting more, but Douxie had been right.  He should know what, “I don’t want to kill you anymore,” meant.

Also, there was a loud crash and bright lights from one of the towers, and that was pretty distracting.

“Those damn kids.  Did we really fight so much?”

That almost got a laugh from you, but you had something else to focus on right now.  You rested your forehead against his for a moment, just breathing for a second before your spoke, your voice low, “Douxie, I have to explain some stuff,”

“What is it, darling?”

“You were right, there’s some stuff you should know.  Doux, I think now is later,”

You bit your lip before standing and motioning for him to follow you into the castle, “Let’s go,”

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 4x11 The Other Side

Now that I’m finally on my vacation and have the time to write these posts, I need to catch up. I actually rewatched up to 5x04, so now I need to go over 7 episodes so I could continue my rewatch of season 5.

Season 4 is one of my favorite seasons of The 100 mostly because of its last 3 episodes, which are all among my all-time favorites episodes of the show. While I still think that 2x16 is the show’s strongest finale, season 4 has the strongest finish with 3 amazing episodes in a row. It helps that this is both the stage of the season when we’re past the plotlines about Grounder politics and religion – never my favorite part of the show, though it was better done in season 4 than in season 3 – and where the focus was on what made season 4 so good: human drama and conflict between people and within people’s minds and souls, in the face of the end of the world and an enemy that cannot be defeated: climate change in its most extreme version.

One of the three storylines in 4x11 is the tense standoff about who will be in the bunker and survive, which turns the main characters against each other, including Clarke against Bellamy, but where none of the sides are villainous and everyone has good reasons for what they are doing. The show prides itself on grey morality, but it doesn’t always get it right – this is one of the times it does.

But while that storyline is the usual story of people fighting for survival (for themselves, their loved ones, whoever they consider “their people” – since the morally right goal of saving everyone is impossible), the other two plots are about people who have decided that they don’t want to survive, or who are struggling to decide whether they want to live or not.

It’s also the episode remembered for the first death of a main character who was a part of the original cast at the start of season 1 since episode 2x08. It’s one of the saddest deaths on The 100, but also one of those that felt most unavoidable.

“See you on the other side” is one of those repetitive catchphrases on The 100 that has changed its meaning so much over time Jasper said it several times – I remember that he said it in The Pilot, just about to cross the river (just before he got speared and nearly died), in 3x13 just before drinking the potion that Luna’s people gave him and others so they would lose consciousness before they take them to their oil rig – and he tells it to Monty as he is about to die.

This story of PTSD was done much better than whatever the show was doing with Finn. There is a parallel between Jasper and Octavia in how damaged they were after  to the deaths of their first real love, but while Octavia mostly directed her grief outward into violence and, for a while, murder (an with a dash of death wish), Jasper was only verbally aggressive to others – and more so in season 3 than in season 4 – but his psychological state mostly manifested in his loss of a will for survival.

This storyline is very controversial, from the fans who started hating Jasper and calling him annoying – because the show was honest about the fact that depressed people are not always pleasant to be around – to people who were upset that the story didn’t get an uplifting outcome with Jasper overcoming his problems. But it wouldn’t be realistic if everyone in the show overcome their traumas. In reality, some people just break and stay broken. And I think it’s important to show that, too. It doesn’t make the story hopeless and nihilistic, because, at the same time – and in this very episode – we also get stories of people – Harper, Raven - who do manage to overcome trauma and decide to live.

I’m still glad that the show didn’t go with their original idea – Jasper shooting himself in the season 3 finale, right after he wrote his suicide letter. Not just because his death would have been overshadowed by other deaths that season, and because it would’ve made season 3 way too dark, but also because, in a way, his season 4 arc and suicide was less bleak, odd as that may sound. Season 3 Jasper was focused on his pain, anger and despair, while season 4 Jasper was reconciled with the idea he would die, and focused on going out having some fun before his death.

I also think it would be very unrealistic if, in the face of such bleak future – probable death of radiation or years of possibly awful life stuck in a bunker – at least some people wouldn’t make the decision to live out the rest of the days with an end-of-the-world party and go out in their own time, at their own choice and in a more pleasant way, such as overdosing of drug-like tea. And knowing how things turn out in the rest of season 4 – and that most of them would probably be condemned to death of radiation, anyway – and how horrible the life in the bunker ended up being (and that it took the lives of almost 400 out of the 1200 people), I can’t really say that those who stayed behind in Arkadia and committed suicide made a wrong choice, even if it’s not a choice I would make.

Jasper’s death scene, his last moments with Monty, is beautiful and heartbreaking. But I still didn’t cry during that scene in this rewatch, which surprised me. Then I was even more surprised when the tears only came later when Monty found out that Harper was alive and she told him she loved him, which she had tried to deny before, because she wanted Monty to leave her and not risk his life for her. I think it’s because, for tears, you need some kind of catharsis, a relief, and there is nothing like that in Jasper’s death scene. It’s like watching the Buffy episode The Body – similar to dealing with deaths of people close to you in real life, where you’re just frozen and you’re not getting any kind of closure or seeing any kind of meaning. Monty keeps fighting and trying to stop Jasper from killing himself even after it is already too late, or getting angry that he can’t do anything about it anymore. because it’s not in Monty’s nature to give up hope. And that’s why he doesn’t even say “I love you” when Jasper asks him to, until it is too late and Jasper cannot hear it anymore, because to say it would mean to accept his death.

Monty has lost so much at this point – having to kill his mother twice, now losing his best friend who was like a brother to him, that the moment when he thinks that Harper is dead (seeing a dead body of a blonde woman, who turns out to be Bree), and then realizes that Harper is alive was such a big relief both because of Harper and because Monty has managed to save someone he loves, and his arc is not all grief and darkness.

Oh, the times when Raven used to be really a main character and had a great arc about struggling with her pain, disability, and (temporary) loss of mental functions! (I love season 6 and it may end up as my favorite season, but it pretty much made Raven a side character and didn’t do her too many favors.) Though the Raven episode most often compared to 6x07 Nevermind is 3x11 Nevermore (because of the similar title and same writer), Raven’s story in 4x11 actually is more similar to Clarke’s story in 6x07: it’s an internal struggle where she is deciding whether she wants to live, and where she talks to dead characters, who are actually embodiments of parts of her own mind, pulling her in different directions and fighting for her soul. Here they are “Becca”, tempting Raven to die, because a part of her doesn’t believe she can still be the brilliant mind who solves all the problems – and “Sinclair”, who helps Raven find hope and fight to live, and come up with a solution how to heal her brain. She does it by basically “rebooting” herself through temporary “death” – which is similar to how Gabriel brought back Clarke in 6x10. Considering the fact that Sinclair is just a product of Raven’s mind, it’s a bit funny when he tells Raven that she shouldn’t compare herself to Da Vinci and Mozart etc. because she’s better than all of them – but I guess Raven is imagining Sinclair as giving her huge amounts of praise in order to give her faith in herself. He was always the mentor/friend who gave her a chance to work as a mechanic on the Ark and believed in her even when she didn’t believe in herself.

The bunker drama

I wasn’t happy with the way 4x10 put Clarke is a pseudo-antagonist role, by focusing on the Conclave (an incredibly stupid way to resolve the question of survival of the human race) with Octavia as the hero, and making the viewers forget what the situation was when Clarke made her decision. Add to that that she is pitted against Bellamy, and that she is siding with Jaha, and you have all the ingredients for the fandom to see Clarke as a villain. But in fact, her decision made most sense in the circumstances – not only was Octavia realistically unlikely to win, but the most likely outcome was that Luna would win and doom the entire human race to die. But this episode corrects that and explains her reasons – and that they are different from Jaha’s. Once that the news comes that Octavia has won and decided to share the bunker – which was Clarke’s suggestion that all the Grounder leaders ignored in 4x09 – the situation changes completely, and it’s obvious that Clarke, who already didn’t feel good about what she was doing, started having doubts, while Jaha was very sure that what they were doing was right, and insisted that it’s all about saving their people.

Clarke, on the other hand, thinks that Skaikru need to be in the bunker because they are the only ones who can operate machines that ensure such things as air and water in the bunker, so they’re essential for the survival of the human race. Which is true. But sharing the bunker would also solve that. However, at that point, no one is sure if Grounders already know about them stealing the bunker and if they will start killing all of the Skaikru. Bellamy has faith that Octavia can stop it, but not everyone does.

Of course, even if Clarke had good reasons to steal the bunker, the whole thing with kidnapping Bellamy and keeping him there against his will, chained, while he was desperate to save his sister, was another messed up thing to do, and Clarke clearly didn’t feel good about that, either. It’s the understandable why she did it, to save his life, but I’ve never been OK with the “kidnapping/imprisoning you for your own good” thing, whether it was Lexa kidnapping Clarke and keeping her prisoner for a week in Polis, Bellamy handcuffing Clarke to make her prisoner in Arkadia, or Clarke keeping Bellamy chained up.

That said, I’m not sure how certain Clarke was sure that keeping the bunker closed was the right thing to do, either, because when she was explaining her reasons to Niylah, she seemed to really be talking to herself and trying to convince herself, and Niylah was just a sounding board. That relationship always consisted of Niylah being Clarke’s friend who was there to comfort her when she needed some human touch but wasn’t able to turn to anyone she had stronger emotions for – and while they had sex a couple of times in the past, this time Clarke just needed someone to lie beside her and put an arm around her, but when she talked about the reasons, she had her back to Niylah and not even looking at her, but looking somewhere into the distance.

The relationship between Clarke and Jaha is a pretty interesting one, and I wish it had been explored more, but they did do some of it here. He was a close family friend she grew up with, almost an uncle figure, then he became the symbol of everything she hated, the person who executed her father and imprisoned her for a year. Earlier on in season 4, she was still calling him out on what he did to Jake, but then, having to do things like make the list, she started thinking that she was turning into Jaha. In this episode, even though Clarke was the one who came up with the idea to steal the bunker, Jaha was the one who was confident about what they were doing and acted like he was in charge (prompting Bellamy to make the good observation “I don’t remember the election that made you the chancellor again”) convincing the uncertain Clarke that their path was right. It reminded me a bit of the dynamic between Pike and Bellamy in S3.

This whole situation was pretty complicated: on one hand, Clarke was telling herself that she was saving the human race by saving “her people”, but if everything was resolved without bloodshed, sharing the bunker would mean letting more people potentially survive, because the bunker had the capacity of holding 1200 people, while there were just a little over 400 Sky people. So, one could argue that the “big picture” favored opening the bunker ASAP. For Jaha, it was all about “saving our people”. But what does “my people/our people” mean? Everyone defines that according to how they feel. Jaha sees it as the collective of people from the Ark that he feels responsible for – but 1) it’s not like the lives of people from the Ark are inherently more important than the lives of people known as Grounders, and 2) some of those “our people” were not even in the bunker. Kane, Octavia, Raven, Monty would be left to die, among others. On the personal level, who is more “your person” than your lover or child or sibling, or close friend? But Jaha has always had a rather tribalistic vision and cared more as his people as a collective, than the individual people in that group. Kane was the closest thing to a friend Jaha had at this point, but he was OK with leaving him to die. But it was obvious that Bellamy would never agree to leaving Octavia to die, and Abby would never agree to leave Kane. And if Bellamy or Abby were outside the bunker, I’m 100% sure Clarke wouldn’t agree to leave them to die, either. However, after his wife’s and son’s death, Jaha didn’t have anyone he loved so much that he couldn’t sacrifice them. And since he kind of sacrificed his son to the “big picture” – by putting him at risk of death (which kept haunting him), I think that Jaha doubled down on his belief in his messianic role to save the Arker,s and that he had kind of convinced himself everyone else should be able to sacrifice their loved ones to that.

Which is why he didn’t see it coming when Abby stuck a syringe in him and knock him out, to go and help Bellamy go and open the bunker door. I remember that I saw that coming the first time I watched it and even guessed Abby’s reply to Jaha saying that he’s sorry about Kane’s inevitable death: “He was a good man”. – “He still is”. Jaha was also wrong to bring up Jake, because I think that Abby’s guilt over betraying Jake (which led to Jaha executing him – which she did not anticipate) only made her more determined to do differently this time and save Kane and not betray him. Oh, the time when Abby doing things to save Kane was something you could root for and that didn’t cross the line into creepy, misguided and deeply morally wrong!

This is one of the very few times in the show where Abby and Bellamy had significant interactions – even working together. And they managed to fool Murphy.

I love the fact that Bellamy made himself look self-destructive, by injuring himself while chained, only because he had a plan how to get out and open the door.

This is one of the two or three times in seasons 3-4 when Bellamy tells Murphy that he has no idea what it’s like to love someone, and Murphy has to keep explaining that he’s wrong and referencing his love for Emori.

Being focused on the big picture and trying to save the human race, as Clarke was doing throughout season 4, made her have to repress her feelings and almost severed her human connections (e.g. leaving some of her best friends out of the list, stealing the bunker even though some of the were outside and she was leaving them to die). She’s never been more “Head” than in season 4, because she believed she really had to be. But Bellamy was always her one soft spot where her ability to repress emotions for the ‘greater good’ would hit a brick wall. Bellamy (and Octavia, probably because of him) had to be on the list, not because of any objective reasons (which doesn’t mean that Bellamy isn’t very valuable for his leadership qualities, but that wasn’t why she put him there), even when she was leaving out a genius like Monty. We’ll never know if she could have stayed strong if ALIE had tortured/threatened to kill Bellamy (because the show hinted he was her biggest ‘weakness’ but never allowed that to happen), but she did let hundreds of people die in bombing mostly to protect him, she gave up 50 spots for her people to survive, when Roan blackmailed her by threatening to kill Bellamy, which Roan knew would work because threatening to kill Bellamy got Clarke in season 3 to give up fighting and let him take her to what she thought would be her death at Nia’s hands, and now, she was convinced that she was ensuring the survival of human race by not opening the bunker, but she still couldn’t bring herself to shoot him. But even the fact she thought she could do it shows how out of touch with her emotions she was at that point: Girl, I could have told you there’s no way you would be able to.

I’ve always thought – after seeing how the next two episodes of season 4 went (and then the next two seasons confirmed that) – that the moment when Clarke couldn’t shoot Bellamy and ended up crying, was the moment when she finally faced up to how she feels about him, and that she’s been aware of her feelings ever since. (Even if you disagree on that, there is no way you could spend 6 years on her own, radioing him every day, without realizing exactly what you feel.)

In 4x10, Bellamy was worrying that he wasn’t able to tell his sister that he loves her. When Bellamy and Octavia reunite and hug, Bellamy tells her “I love you so much” – which is the first time we’ve ever seen him say “I love you” to someone. To date, Octavia is the only person he’s said it to on-screen.

Octavia exiles Echo – pulling the “I said your people will get to survive, not you” trick, and considering all her experiences with Echo up to that point. I don’t blame her at all. She correctly guesses that Echo won’t tell the other Grounders (other than Indra, who is playing along) that Skaikru stole the bunker, since she will still die anyway. Echo indeed turned out to be more concerned with survival than revenge. 

Timeline: The episode starts two days before Praimfaya, and ends exactly a day before Praimfaya

Body Count: 11 Arkers who killed themselves, including Jasper, Bree, another Delinquent, and Riley.

At least 60 Delinquents have died (4 in season 4), while 40 are still alive. But not for long.

Rating: 10/10

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of November 13th, 2019

Best of this Week: Captain Cold and the Rogues #82 (The Flash #82) - Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Arif Prianto and Steve Wands

We all thought the City of Bane was bad.

By all means it is, because Bane is a maniac, but at least Gotham’s infrastructure is still mostly intact. Central City, however, is a wasteland of snow, crime and Doom thanks to Captain Cold (now going by King Cold, totally not a Dragon Ball reference) and to a lesser extent “Apex” Lex Luthor. Captain Cold has taken over the city, divided it up amongst his fellow Rogues and they’ve finally won! So now the sole question is: What happened and where is The Flash?

The book begins with a gun fight between former Central City Police, now owned by King Cold, in a firefight with insurgents, seeming to consist of regular good people and other cops that Cold couldn’t buy. Rafa Sandoval does a good job in making Central City look absolutely wrecked. Cars and debris function as ramshackle barricades, fire and explosions ring all over the city as we see a wide shot of it from above and we even see Iron Heights Penitentiary, now renamed Ice Heights. It’s become a stronghold guarded by tanks with mortars, giant protruding ice spikes and Cold Soldiers with the Symbol of Doom overlooking it all. It’s a badass shot.

It’s a disturbing dystopia made even worse as the sky as been blackened, disrupting the weather which concerns Weather Wizard. He, Heatwave and Mirror Master sit in a meeting with King Cold to discuss a recent string of break ins in Central City that have been giving off strange power signatures. When one of his aides questions if it’s the work of the Flash, Cold answers that The Flash is “dead.” It seems that between the events of the last issue and this one, the relationship between the Rogues has gotten strained with all of them blowing Cold off, saying that this petty crime is a non-issue. 

It’s strange because the Rogues are supposed to be a family and Snart only took Luthor’s Offer if he could share the fruits of it with his buddies. Together they managed to take over Central City in The Flash’s absence and it’s alluded to that Snart’s sister, Golden Glider, has also gone missing. There’s a high chance that whatever happened to her might have contributed to the divide and combined with Snart’s more murderous tendencies coming out after his time with the Suicide Squad, it’s likely also hardened the hearts of the rest of the Rogues as well.

When another energy spike is detected, King Cold decides to go himself, saying that no one steals from him. He shows up to see citizens fighting, they seem to be some petty criminals claiming part of the city for themselves and get absolutely terrified when Cold shows up. Cold tells them how he used to live by a no killing code unless absolutely necessary, but things have changed, of course. As he goes to freeze them to death, he is stopped by Commander Cold, Flash’s partner from the far future. This is a conflict I’ve been absolutely waiting to see for a while! Much like Citizen Cold from the Flashpoint timeline, Commander Cold is a good, vigilant hero and is almost as capable and skilled as Leonard Snart in the use of Snart’s own Cold Tech. Key word: Almost.

Sandoval continues to amaze with an actual good fight between the two Ice-Men. As Commander Cold tells Kid Flash and Avery to escape, Snart creates giant, ice (hulk) fists and tries to pound all of them. Commander Cold repels him with his cold gun before it gets knocked away and then he creates a little bomb made from just a snowflake and it sends King Cold crashing into his tank. Snart, for the first time in a seemingly long time, smiles as the blood drips from his mouth. He laughs and says the fight is exactly what he needed!

Though, as Commander Cold recounts Snart’s own history to him, the former Captain reminds him that the tech he’s using is still his and that he’s the true master of it and freezes Commander Cold in a solid block of ice, winning the fight as Kid Flash and Avery get away with what might be one of Mirror Master’s mirror tech pieces. It’s actually really difficult to watch King Cold descend into what he’s become. I thought his time on the Suicice Squad would be similar to Harley’s or Deadshot’s, but every team he was saddled with left him as the only survivor and his heart became his name. This rings ever more true as we reach the absolutely horrific ending to this issue.

Snart remarks that people are trying to return the world back to the way that it was before the sky went black with Doom. He laments that his friends don’t see things the way that he does, especially after he bargained to give them their new gifts. He even asks himself if he should be out there trying to fix things, but then he’d lose Central City and be a loser again. It’s sad that The Rogues winning is ultimately what’s causing his melancholy. The only thing that’s been an upside was the fight with Commander Cold that he had earlier; it made him feel like himself again.

He chuckles and remarks to an unseen character that “he only kept him alive to show him that he won” and that if he tried what Commander Cold did, the same fate would befall him as he throws the decapitated and still frozen head of the hero into the cell to the shock and horror of the still living Flash. I used to think that Cold was redeemable, but after this, I don’t know if that’s at all possible anymore.

Joshua Williamson has seemingly been taking Leonard Snart on a roller coaster of a ride in his characterizations since he first appeared in DC Rebirth. He’s been almost an anti-hero, then a smart but bumbling villain, to a killer and finally just a man without remorse for his actions. He’s betrayed what the Rogues used to stand for and he’s dragged almost all of them down with him.

He’s truly become a monster and Williamson has done an excellent job in writing his descent into Doom and evil. He almost used to be admirable for having a code and just wanting to be better than the Flash, but he let his greed and hatred get the better of him like his father before him, becoming what he never wanted to be.

Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona and Arif Prianto never cease to be an amazing team. Sandoval’s style is arguably why he’s my favorite Flash artist right now because it all flows so smoothly. His lines are thick and distinct and he gives clothes so much sway and movement. Even rips and tears in costumes look amazing. Everything feels so high energy, epic and dynamic in his hands.

Of course, without Arif Prianto’s colors and Jordi Tarragona’s inks, it wouldn’t be quite as amazing. Prianto has a way of giving everything a smoothness and shine that feels appropriate for this story, especially given the nature of Flash’s stories. Though his work on the colors of backgrounds, especially the snow, is amazing to look at. Tarragona, as well, does excellently in appropriate shadows that cut right into the darkness of the situation.

I absolutely loved this issue of The Flash, mostly because the TV show really got me into the Captain Cold character. His criminal motivations have been interesting and I’m even tempted to read more of the New 52 stuff as The Rogues were very prominent during that run. I’d always put him off as being a lame Mr. Freeze because of Super Friends, but recent years have been extremely kind to Captain Cold.

I love this dark path that he’s going down and I can’t wait to see how the Flash will reconcile with this and how he’ll finally take Leonard Snart down. High recommend!

[him-e]

"#i will never recover from dany's arc #it killed and buried me" why such strong feelings? is it because you enjoyed it from beginning to end? or is it because of how they concluded it and how things seem now in retrospect? maybe both? and she wasn't/isn't even a fave of yours, was she?

Both, but mostly the second, and I just can’t reconcile the fact that I DID enjoy it, even the end, in a weird way (because I’m a sucker for tragic antiheroes + existential tragedies and because Emilia’s performance gave show!Dany a depth that I didn’t believe was possible) with the fact that I wanted something completely different from her arc, and the story in general, and I just have no idea what to do with this finale or how I’m supposed to feel about the series now. I find it hard to look back at season 1 knowing this is her endgame, and the story’s endgame by extension (because yes, the two go hand in hand, more on that later). 

I can’t even shrug it off as bad writing like I have done in the past with True Blood, for example—while the writing was questionable, I’m pretty sure the main beats of the story remained faithful to George’s outline (and it’s not like this is a character twist that doesn’t have roots in what Dany is, in what her struggle and her main character conflict has always been: to be a good queen—but also, to take what is hers. To fulfill her destiny. To live up to the enormous responsibility of being the last drop of the blood of old Valyria with three dragons under her command. Of all the main characters in asoiaf Dany is the most aware of her chosen one role, and the one who clings the most to the idea of being born for greatness, of having a bigger purpose. Like, her entire identity is built around that. It’s both her fuel and her coping mechanism and if THAT falls apart, she will too. She has foils in Stannis and in book!Aegon, and everyone in the asoiaf fandom seems to agree that their stories are going to end horribly, but is their chosen one hubris wrong and doomed to a tragic fall only because they’re not the real deal? I mean, is this a narrative that would satisfy George RR Martin?)

anyway yes I have strong feelings because Dany’s arc is inextricably tied to the overall story. She isn’t just a main character; she’s quintessential. And not just because she’s the titular “Fire”---she’s absolutely iconic and representative of this series in a way that not even the individual Starklings are, imho. And okay maybe she’s never been one of my “faves”, in the sense that maybe there are characters whose internal conflict I find more relatable on a personal level, or pov chapters I enjoy reading more (and I blame this on the fact that Dany’s chapters lack interaction with other main characters, or connections with the main action in Westeros, which makes them less engaging compared to others), but I literally cannot imagine asoiaf without the thrill and the anticipation that her storyline provided. Her progressive rise in Essos was, book after book, season after season, the measure of where the story was going—the sign that it was going somewhere at all. Because why else would Martin waste entire chapters detailing the evolution of a character with seemingly no connection to the main plot? The more powerful she got, the closer she was to Westeros, to the moment her story would intertwine with the rest of the cast. Her dragons were getting bigger, eating people, becoming unruly? Good, because they’d need to be huge to defeat the Others. etc.

and it’s really hard to look back at those expectations now, at that whole build up. Because what season 8 really did was dismantling the chosen one myth—her chosen one myth—piece after piece and leaving her with nothing but rage and bitterness. Combined with Jon’s arc, it was a complete negation of the chosen one narrative, actually. And this—this, my friends, I believe is absolutely in line with what GRRM would do, even if the execution and the details will probably differ a lot. But I’ll eat my hat if George misses the opportunity to explore the psychology of a prophesied hero who suddenly and rather unceremoniously loses his purpose (worse: didn’t live up to the role he imagined for himself) and is left directionless, his or her identity deflating like a balloon. Now, if there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain the show botched and the books will do better is keeping Dany’s pov front and center (rather than having her retreat into essentially an object, no longer able to critically examine her own action, suddenly immune to feelings of guilt and conflict so that she can be summarily judged mad and executed by the pov male heroes), and have her existential tragedy be mirrored by Jon’s more poignantly. (I’m also fairly certain that Martin will be able to have an entire coda dedicated to the final deconstruction of the chosen hero narrative without making the War for the Dawn look like a mild inconvenience, but that’s another topic)

but I also completely understand and feel for those who would absolutely HATE this character twist in the books anyway, even if done 1000x better. Dany’s story being a tragedy makes the whole story a tragedy, and has a serious impact on the rewatchability/rereadability of the series. Not that we were expecting a full blown happy ending, but there’s bittersweet and there’s… making a character arc collapse on itself after destroying every meaningful relationship she’s ever had, without even letting her have some final words or acknowledge her mistakes or have any sort of agency in her death—when her entire arc has been finding her own agency, her own voice. agh. :// it just keeps hurting.

[jonsafan-blog]

The Survivors of Past Wars: Part 1

I decided to explore the different stories of all the major characters that have made it to the end of the second episode of the last season. That way, we can better understand and appreciate the narrative and consider what their futures might be.

Beric Dondarrion

The Lord of Blackhaven, a vassal to the Baratheons of Storm’s End. Also a knight, he joined numerous military campaigns before the show and participated in tourneys. He was eager to enact justice against the Mountain for his crimes when asked to be Ned in Season 1, but he ultimately lost his life in the process.

Thoros of Myr revived him through the Lord of Light, but this ritual was not one which had ever been successful before. He converted to this new religion because of his experience and then led the Brotherhood of Banners to deal guerilla justice against those who pillaged the Riverlands, but died many times. He loses a bit of himself each time, and the brutality and loose morality of the group did not go unnoted by those who encountered them.

Beric is an honorable man who has been broken by resurrection. As Thoros of Myr can no longer revive him, his next death is to be his final one. In all likelihood, he was revived by the Lord of Light because of his Ned-like background and bravery. His loss of self allows him to act in ways no normal human being could.

It’s difficult to say what the extent of his purpose is in the war, though it does not appear incidental that he joined the cause to fight the undead. Perhaps since he had already died himself he cannot turn into a wight, giving him an unexpected advantage against the Night King.

This advantage is shared only by Jon Snow, who is foreshadowed as a possible slayer of the Night King. Beric may have served to promote the cause of the war and recruit, providing a vision of what the Lord of Light can do against the Great Other.

Part of that vision is helping the true hero of the story, Jon Snow, defeat the greatest evil of them all.

Unfortunately, this may require Beric to die so that Jon will understand the Night King cannot bring him back from the dead, giving him an advantage in a battle. Beric’s death is likely in the next episode in the Battle of Winterfell. His death may be the reason the allies are able to gain an advantage against the Night King because of Beric’s condition, forcing the Night King to retreat.

Beric is the light in the darkness. The hope for the end of the war.

Yara Greyjoy

The only daughter of Balon Greyjoy, Yara was the presumed heir following the defeat of her people in a doomed rebellion. Her childhood was an unhappy one because of her hard father, but hard times make strong men - and in this case, a strong woman.

Despite Balon’s failings, he raised perhaps the best Ironborn in a generation, and the only Ironborn leader capable of bridging the divide between her culture and the rest of Westeros. Yet she hopes to do this not at the expense of her own people’s heritage, or in despite it, but because of it.

That’s a tall order because of the reaving nature of her people, and it will be a difficult trait to reconcile with her hope for a brighter future when it is clear this may be what is holding the Ironborn back.

That’s not to say she is an entirely moral individual in the eyes of the audiences, but she has shown a lot of pragmatism and love which seems bereft in her difficult culture. She risked her own future to save her brother, and while she ultimately failed, this may have helped Theon later on to rescue himself and Sansa Stark.

Although her uncle Euron would later steal the Iron Islands from her, she was able to take the best ships and secure an ally in Daenerys Targaryen. Because of this bold move, she was able to secure the nominal sovereignty of the Ironborn even without a marriage alliance or the promise of one through her heirs.

This will likely have an influence on the Iron Throne in the future: The Seven Kingdoms is an Empire of many nation-states, but that is forgotten under the guise of a single King or Queen historically.

But it’s not just Yara’s actions alone which signal a possible change in Westerosi government: the Ironborn, as hated as they are, have a system of government which Tyrion Lannister noted as being admirable. Any captain can put his (or her) name forward to be elected a lifetime appointment as the King of their people.

Yara lost her chance at the crown at the Kingsmoot, but her loss was what caused her to journey east and may have proven an inspiration as an answer to Daenerys’s heir problem.

Though beloved by many Ironborn because of her initially bright future and good decisions, Yara’s story is one primarily marked by failure. Her father’s inability to think pragmatically caused the Ironborn to lose two wars and any advantage they would have had at this point in the story. She willingly went along with his poor decision making out of loyalty and perhaps even love for the man who raised her.

Balon Greyjoy’s lack of strategy and callous nature led to the loss of Theon Greyjoy to Ramsay Bolton. Yara tried to save Ramsay, but was not effectively supported by her father and did not have the men to adequately attack the Dreadfort due to their losses in war.

Her loss at the Kingsmoot is likely due to her father as well, because Euron used the discord her father had caused from his failures to take the crown.

Euron had similar ideals as Yara in bringing the Ironborn to glory, so it is easy to imagine the same actions he took to attack her fleet is likely what she herself would have done, giving her an advantage in the war. She was taken hostage by Euron.

However, Yara’s brother Theon did save Yara from their uncle, proving that Yara’s good decisions in the past, and her love for her brother, might result in her survival in the long-term.

As she heads to the Iron Islands to take them back in Daenerys’s name, it’s easy to see that most of Yara’s decisions were good ones, but she was cursed by the poor leadership of her father. Whether or not Balon’s legacy haunts her rule is still a concern, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that Yara will survive until the end of the series.

She represents a positive future for her people, and her role in the wars of Westeros may prove to inspire the Iron Throne in a way never before considered. Her loyalty and love, both for her people and her allies, can only be described as heroic.

That’s a powerful legacy for a ship captain in a feudal society.

Podrick Payne

A distant cousin to the Payne family of the Westerlands, Podrick is learning to be a squire under the honorable Brienne of Tarth. He is a good lad despite his questionable connections and has been fortunate to serve and study with characters while they were at their best, such as Tyrion and Brienne.

Though initially bumbling and at times a little too eager, his earnest nature endeared him to those who were close and allowed him to grow under their tutelage.

He has a bright future and a lot to learn, though there is something almost doomed about his path which suggests he won’t survive the war even though he may not deserve death.

Perhaps that is the tragedy of the war - good people die, and Podrick is likely to be one of him.

Despite his desire to grow strong and do good, his bravery does not always match his skill. This means he may go headlong into a dangerous situation and sacrifice himself for the sake of another person - perhaps someone dear to him.

Going into the Battle of Winterfell, it is easy to believe that he may sacrifice himself for Brienne or one of their allies. He would do this without hesitation, but I don’t think his death would just be a mark of heroism, but also a gift to the allies in helping make the future possible.

He is just a minor lad from a minor noble family. He may think his future is to be a knight, though Podrick may have nothing else to learn or live for in the narrative, because Podrick is a person who makes life worth living, and that means the best thing he can do is die so someone else may live.

That’s why it seems fitting for him to die for Brienne. Though his mentor is strong, she desires nothing more to serve, even though she has a father waiting for her return and an entire island who will one day need her leadership.

Podrick’s sacrifice may inspire Brienne to return to her family and continue the Tarth line. His legacy is the loyalty and love of life he inspires in others.

[drjohndisco]

Witch Hunt - The Anchor (3)

Warnings: amputation of a hand, death.

Word Count: 1797

Summary: Alice meets a new friend and Douxie watches things pan out as they should not do.

Notes: Happy one year to this 'fic!!! I am so sorry that this took me literal months to update [redacted] threw me into a literal 3 day slump, and then for 2 months after that made me not be able to think about this franchise without wanting to cry. Hope you had better experiences with this franchise/fandom than I have had these past few months. 

‘They're hunting Jim! If they catch him he’ll be killed!’ Claire cried.

‘I know, and he’s not the only one.’ Douxie said, his glance flitting to Alice and then back to Claire. ‘Because of us, Arthur’s now fated to eat the big one too!’

‘Eat what? Oh, no, was I supposed to bring food?’ Steve asked, the gate clicking shut behind him.

‘He’ll be eating a death sandwich Steve.’ Douxie replied.

‘Ugh, gross. Who’d want to eat that.’

Douxie groaned, and Alice rolled their eyes. ‘Uh, look. If Arthur dies we lose the battle of Killahead, and the war.’

‘Which will probably mess up time so much you won’t ever be able to return home.’ Alice stated. Then suddenly the time map changed, and the image of Toby in his armour triumphantly holding his hammer aloft faded and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

‘What’s happening to him?’ Claire asked.

‘The future--our future--is vanishing.’ Douxie replied. Then, as he watched it, the time map switched to a timeline where Arthur and Morgana were united.

‘What’s that?’

‘W-well that wasn’t there before. It’s a new timeline. One where Arthur and Jim live.’ Douxie said, a surprised tone in his voice.

‘And Morgana’s the hero? I thought she was destined to become Mistress Doom?’

‘It looks like there is a possibility, if we get Arthur and Morgana to reconcile, then somehow nobody dies.’ Alice replied.

‘I’ll keep an eye on Morgana. Douxie, you work with Arthur and Steve, make sure the knights don’t kill my boyfriend or Douxie’s partner.’

++

The Woods

Alice almost fell off the branch they were perched on when they noticed the person in the midst of the rest of the trolls. They were wearing a dark blue hood, under which appeared to be a head of dark brown hair. Somehow none of Alice’s travelling companions had noticed them; so that meant they had to be using magic. So, Alice summoned their feathers and jumped off their perch, heading into the woods after the figure in the hood.

Behind them, unbeknownst to Alice, was the procession of Arthur’s men; headed by the king himself. The Future Alice, Archie and Douxie were riding at the back of the group alongside Merlin.

Alice was very glad that Douxie hadn’t made them transform into a horse, but they weren’t sure that their current situation was any better.

‘Merlin! You have to look at the Time Map!’ Douxie yelled. ‘We found-’

‘You! You defy my command when the king’s life is in danger! Need I remind you that we trespass on Gunmar’s territory?’ Merlin said angrily, speeding past the small trio. Douxie groaned and sped his horse up as well; causing Alice to tighten their grip on his belt.

‘But Master, I found a new line of fate! We can save everyone, if Arthur and Morgana-’ Douxie said. But suddenly he was cut off as his horse stopped unexpectedly. He gripped the reins tighter, so as to not fall off.

‘They’ve entered The Wild Wood. Abandon the horses. We head in on foot.’ Arthur said, stepping off his horse.

So, Alice unhooked their arms from around Douxie and stepped off the horse. They could feel the call of the woods, pulling them in (which was usual for them, but today something felt off. What was going to go wrong?)

++

Elsewhere Alice was not having much luck and they’d run out of options. So they lifted their arms up and summoned a golden bubble; trapping the figure inside it. This was a spell normally used when hunting, so Alice was very thankful it had worked on a human. Hopefully it wouldn’t take much energy for them to keep using.

Inside the bubble the figure screamed in annoyance and slumped against the side of it, removing the hood from their face. Shocked, Alice realised they weren't that much older than them. They were a girl with long dark brown hair and blue eyes. Over her shoulder was strung a bag, and Alice could see some plants poking out of the top. She must be one of Camelot’s physicians, but if she was, why was she using an invisibility spell?

‘Why were you following us?’ Alice asked.

‘I wasn’t following you, or your group. You just happened to be on my route for when I go and collect herbs. I use the spell, so I don’t get disturbed. I’m assuming you noticed me due to being a magical being.’ She said, twisting the strap on her bag. ‘I would also like to apologise for screaming at you yesterday, I just hadn’t seen a troll before.’

‘No, no, you’re all right. I did turn my head an abnormal amount of degrees towards you. If you hadn’t reacted I would have been surprised.’ Alice replied, laughing quietly.

All of a sudden there was a flash of light in the distance, at which they both turned to look. Then Alice uncrossed their arms from where they had placed them against their chest and with a click of their fingers the girl ended up on the grass. Alice could sense that she wanted to leave, but had one question to ask her.

‘Wait, please! Do you happen to remember the spell name?’

‘It’s invisibilis. The more magic you put into the pronunciation the more it’ll work. I’m Zoe, by the way. Thank you for not leaving me here.’ She spoke.

Then she picked the herbs from the ground and placed them back into her bag, standing up slowly.

‘I’m Alice.’ Alice replied, smiling.

‘Nice to meet you.’ Zoe said, nodding at them. Then Alice blinked and she was gone, leaving them standing alone in a strange clearing. So, Alice summoned their feathers once more and flew into the sky looking for the source of the light. After all, where there was trouble Douxie was sure to not be far behind (and they’d hate it if anything bad were to happen to him. Time and Space be damned.)

++

Future Alice rushed to a halt behind Claire and Morgana, who were staring at Jim being pinned to the ground by Arthur’s sword.

‘So, sister. Your true loyalties stand revealed at last. I warned you not to return with a clean sword.’ Arthur said, raising the sword above his head as if to strike down Jim.

‘No!’ Morgana cried out, protecting Jim with her staff.

‘What? What are you doing?’

‘What I should have done years ago.’

‘You dare raise arms against your king?’ Arthur yelled, starting a battle. Alice could only watch on in horror. This was not how things were supposed to go. Behind them Claire picked Jim up and pushed him away from the fight, deflecting an arrow that had been fired from Lancelot (causing him to gasp in surprise.) Merlin arrived a few seconds later, watching the battle in shock.

‘Morgana?’ Merlin asked, finally arriving on the scene. ‘She takes Arthur’s life.’ Then, he swished his staff to the side and made Douxie and Archie (who had been attempting to stop him) fly backwards into a tree. Alice cried out and sped through

‘Defend the king at all costs!’ Merlin ordered, firing a green blast at Morgana.

‘You too, old man?’ Morgana said, enraged.

‘I do what I must for the greater good.’ Merlin replied.

‘Traitors! You throw us in chains, fearing what you cannot control. But we of magic are not lesser creatures, we are more!’ Morgana said, creating a golden whip and bringing it down to the ground with a large flash of light (this was what Alice from the past had seen earlier.)

‘Stop! We found another way!’ Claire cried out, reaching for Morgana. Steve was with her now, and (somehow) the version of Alice from the past was next to Douxie.

‘We can do this peacefully!’ Douxie said.

‘The time for peace ended ages ago.’ Morgana said, staring directly into Douxie’s soul.

‘Morgana, he’s not the enemy.’

‘I trusted you!’ Morgana yelled, lifting herself into the air. ‘Now you side with my brother over your own kind? You’re just one of them. But I am more powerful than you can ever know.’ Morgana then made her shadow staff grow darker and floated higher.

‘Ortum Ombratio!’ she chanted. Light burst from her staff and everyone below her covered their eyes. When the light dissipated, shadow versions of Morgana surrounded the small group. Morgana cackled and the fight began.

++

The shadows chased them to almost the edge of a cliff. By now Douxie and Alice (the one from the future) were reunited, but Alice’s past self was nowhere to be seen. Claire and Steve were closer to Arthur and Merlin had been almost backed to the cliff’s edge. The rest of the knights had been felled long ago.

‘Your cruelty towards magic-kind knows no bounds. You have taken and taken and now we take back!’ Morgana yelled.

‘Protect the king!’ Merlin cried out once again, before falling to the ground. Alice, Douxie and Claire fell to the ground. Morgana laughed gleefully, watching the chaos.

Enraged Arthur picked Excalibur up and fired a bolt of gold light into the air. It pierced the clouds and then fell back to earth, igniting the sword in Arthur’s hand.

‘Enough!’ Arthur screamed, swingin Excalibur to the ground. Another explosion occurred and Morgana’s shadows disappeared. Only now did Past Alice show themselves, they’d been hovering in the air just behind Morgana -- using Zoe’s invisibility spell. Alice crashed to the ground near the edge of the cliff, invisible and unconscious, while Morgana threw herself at Arthur, yelling in rage.

‘You outlaw magic, but fight with an enchanted sword! You snuff out any power that isn’t you own!’ Morgana said, pushing Arthur towards the edge with her staff.

‘I have denied your true nature for too long because you are my sister! But when I see you now, all I see is a demon! A witch!’ Arthur cried.

Douxie ran towards the time map, picking it up from where it had fallen. It flicked from red to blue and then back again. Not good.

Morgana threw Arthur back towards the rest of the group, powering up her hand.

‘Goodbye, Brother.’ She stated. Arthur raised his sword and Douxie cried out in horror, running towards the pair of them. Only then did Past Alice awake; throwing themselves in front of him out of instinct within the blink of an eye. So, as Arthur’s sword cut off Morgana’s hand and it fell from her body, they were thrown off the cliff with her into the water below.

Future Alice, Douxie and Arthur were the first to cry out, but nothing could be done. Past Alice and Morgana were both gone, and if they were to come back they wouldn’t be the same.

[robedepourpre]

Black Sails is a tragedy. Literally.

So, my friend and I finished Black Sails this week-end, and boy was it a wild ride. We cried (a lot) and laughed (a bit), and talked far too much about it. She also came up with this idea about Black Sails having some similarities with a tragedy, and since she doesn’t have a tumblr (too time-consuming, she says. Psht), I’m the one sharing her views with you.

If there are comments or questions about it (and about the references she uses), I’ll answer the best I can, and relay them to her. Hey, if there are enough, she might be swayed enough to get her own blog !

*****

One thing I love about Black Sails is how conscious the whole show is of its own links with stories. For an ex-litterary student like me, it’s a delight to puzzle about it.

One interesting way of interpreting the whole story that occurred for me at the last episode is: the whole show is a tragedy about anger.

My argument is linked with my own culture: I know a lot about Greek tragedies and French ones, and not that much about the rest of them. Yet what I know about it makes quite a compelling, if incomplete, point.

 So, I’ll try to make it, with spoilers up to the end of S4 (and therefore, after the cut).

First thing about a tragedy is the weight of destiny. That one is quite obvious: we know that the Pirate Republic, Nassau, won’t stay that way for long. We know that the British will win, because both History and Treasure Island tell us they do. The same can be told for the Maroon insurrection wanted by Madi…

What’s interesting is that the link between BS and History is basically the same that we see in tragedy (and in romantic drama, and in a lot of historical shows): what matters is not the truth, but the myth of it and the way it can be bended to reinvent another story (yup, that’s basically what Rackham says to Mary at the end).

 Then, there’s the notion of hubris, which is quite present in the show. Hubris is an excessive pride that allows the heroes to try and defy the norms of the world (and with it, the gods). That can summarize the hope that Nassau remains free of English rules for Flint and Vane and Eleanor, but also Rodgers’s actions in S4, since he ignores what England wants in order to stay in control of Nassau (most obviously when he goes to Spain-controled Cuba in the middle of the war). Interestingly, hubris has a very similar treatment in BS and in some Greek tragedies (Antigone from Sophocle comes to mind): in both case, their hubris is justified and is based on an earnest desire for justice. But at the same time, that desire is scary and drives them to extremes. We see exactly the same thing with Flint and Rodgers.

In all those situations in BS, what fuels their hubris’s is anger (hence my “tragedy about anger”). Flint’s anger is born in the death of Thomas and Miranda. Rodgers’s anger at seeing the Island resisting him and civilization. Eleanor’s anger at needing a man to succeed. Vane’s anger is more discreet,because that’s not the main point of his story arc and is more said by his wish to stay free of any chains, but he still dies to make others angry and to make Flint’s plan come true, so I tend to count him in.

 Another thing that made me think of tragedies is the way Nassau, and then the maroons, are used. The structure of it is very similar to the Chorus/Coryphaeus relation in greek tragedies. Basically: the chorus and their spokeperson (the Coryphaeus) comment on the actions, and judge them. It’s very very close to Max saying “the streets are afraid/angry”, or to Madi and her mother then Julius telling Flint what the maroons want, and how the revolt he proposes suits, or not, their purpose.

That’s a very interesting fact, because all the moments that I alluded to? They are also the moment when BS hints that it’s a show about politics, or rather: how someone with a vision for Nassau tries to seize power and how their political agenda is received. It’s not the center of the show, but it’s quite crucial in the main events. For example: the reason Eleanor failed is deeply linked with the way she was unable to be seen as something different from a tyrant – same with Rodgers. The same could be said of the maroons: the way Flint aligns or not with what they want (be it hidden in peace or in open revolt with England) is crucial for him, and in some ways, overtakes his own plans: Madi’s resolve for a revolution lasts longer than Flint needs for it.

 My last (and longest) point is about passions.

So tragedies are more about facing your passions than about every characters dying or even a bad end (we have Corneille’s Cinna, a tragedy with a good end, and Racine’s Berenice, a tragedy without death).

Passions are emotions and states of being that, if growing unchecked, will eventually lead the character to their doom. If you prefer: the problem of passions is not their existence, but the moment when they are too much. The whole problem of a play is generally: a passion is born or exists and lead the main characters into making one or several harmful choices. They then face the consequences of that, and in doing so are either consumed by their passion (and are more likely to end up dead) or learn to harness it (and are more likely to end up alive, if someone else’s passion don’t kill them).

The most common passion throughout the show is anger.

For some, anger shapes their arcs:

·    Flint is born out of his anger at Thomas’s death (and becomes James again when Thomas is found alive). His whole arc is about him being finally able to let it go.

·    Miranda has two important moments that link her with anger. The major one, of course, is the manner of her death, when she expresses her anger for the very first time. She is consumed by her anger in this moment, and dies frome it. The second undermines Flint, since it’s the choice of pursuing the Maria Aleyne to kill Alfred Hamilton, which fuels the distrust that leads to the mutiny of Dufresne and the others.

·    Eleanor Guthrie’s main mistakes are all marked with her anger at seeing men trying to controls her life. It’s usually with Vane (unmaking him captain starts the moment she is called a tyrant, and well, I think their last meeting is quite telling in itself), though it also includes her father, Scott, Flint or Max. When her anger and her pride disappear, her storyline is ending – and she’s killed by her husband’s anger.

·    Billy looses slowly his power as a representative of the crew while he is consumed by his anger at Flint, thus becoming Billy Bones

·    Rodgers is to me a possible mirror of Flint in the way anger fuels them: they are the two character that can go from English gentleman to angry brute in a breath, and become even more angry and self-destructive when their lovers die.

·    Madi is also an exemple of a character that is more and more moved by her anger, though hers is directed towards slavery. That’s when she begins to align herself quite clearly with Flint. It’s very visible in her splendid answer to Rodgers when he tries to blackmail her with Silver’s lifein the last couple episodes. Actually, Madi’s anger is never resolved (and that may be my own regret with the end of S4).

·    Teach is a character that only appears in the plot when he is angry. He arrives to gloat over Eleanor’s death (enabling him to reconcile with Vane), goes when his anger is insufficient to make him defend Nassau, returns when Vane’s death angers him… and dies when Rackham persuades him to let go of avenging Vane.

 For others, anger is less important. There are two configurations:

·    Anne and Vane face another problematic passion, which is a love so great they lose their sense of self. However, we know that their anger exists, and that it clouds their judgement (Anne’s in S1, which leads to her and Rackham being excluded from Vane’s crew. As for Vane, Teach’s “that’s the first time Charles Vane stays cool instead of being angry” when Eleanor returns in S3 is a pretty good indication). But, beyond that, as I said, the passion that rules them is more about love to my mind (and the way it gives them a sense of self). Both struggle with their own sense of self, both chose to leave Nassau to find who they are (or, in Vane’s case, revert to a previous state of being by going with Teach) after a betrayal (Ashe’s daughter and Rackham leaving Anne on the shore). I could add that, when they return, their fate is decided by the ones they chose to love (and specifically, by their lucidity, for Max and Rackham - or lack thereof, in Eleanor’s case).

·    Max, Rackham and Silver are able to control that passion. Interestingly they are in some ways the winners of the show, Silver by disbanding Flint’s army, Max and Rackham by convincing Marion Guthrie to back them. Max and Rackham are very good at controlling their anger and making the right choices in spite of it. Max refuses to kill Silver in S4. Rackham, for all that he hates Rodgers, chooses to avenge himself with helping a legal process which is wonderfully vicious and subtle and is not a new action, but accompanying one that is already here.

 I was tempted to say that each season has an arc about a different passion, anger being the fourth (and so, the most important since it ends the story). S1 would be about desire, symbolized by the Urca gold. S2 about individuality (in French tragedies and in the Greek ones I studied, the fact that someone stands against the community is seen as a risk: that’s the problem raised by Antigone), since the key point is about enacting Thomas’s plan and growing closer to England (civilisation). S3 would then be about power with the question of who will rule Nassau.

 And lastly, linked with passion is the question of catharsis. It’s a notion defined by Aristotle and it’s basically the idea that tragedy frees us from our own passions by representing them in a way that’s relatable until it’s scary. Hence, heroes should be charismatic and humane, but also monstrous. And that’s the point of Vane and Flint at the end of S2 (”let’s remind them that the pirates should be scared”), the point of the creation of Long John Silver…That part is most wonderfully used buy the show runners. On the one hand, these decisions are always made under a cynical light. There is always the question of whether or not England is civilized (with Thomas’s fall, with Teach’s death…) compared to the so-called monsters. And on the other hand, Flint, Vane, Teach, Anne or Silver are sometimes monstrous, sometimes overcome by anger or able to reach a lack of empathy that is never depicted in a sympathetic light.