#this specimen is glorious

[markscherz]

Me when I feel like shit but my partner pays me a compliment.

[a-room-of-my-own]

Why am I only finding out about the Jack Reacher show on Prime and his lead actor very worthy of my men tag ?

I mean…

[thespineoftherighteous]

more more more more aftg show bloopers (p 4?? I think?) whoop whoop de fuckin whoop

Neil's actor being a huge Duolingo dork and in the behind the scenes while the other actors are fooling around between takes you can often see him with his head bent and hear the little 'ping!'s coming from his phone

also during late night shoots, as it gets closer to midnight he always has a point where he's like SHIT my Duolingo streak. and then just blocks out everyone while his fingers fly over his screen

(fans make compilations of him proudly showing his Duolingo streak to the camera and the number grows as the seasons progress)

(he definitely is the kinda bitch who cares more about maintaining the streak than actually learning languages)

actually omg while we're on the topic of languages

Kevin's actor tenderly reciting his French lines to Matt's actor and Matt's actor is just smitten. and he goes "say something else, love" and Kevin's actor strokes his cheek while saying another one of his lines and Matt swoons

(then Kevin's actor turns to the camera and goes "I just told him that he's a disappointment and is going to get his ass handed to him by ravens if he doesn't do exactly as I say" and, from the ground, Matt's actor goes "hell yeah you did. talk dirty to me any day of the week you sexy, sexy man")

coach's actor is always swearing to the point where they implement a swear jar...really it's just something for the kids to jokingly rag on him about, but he goes with it, and every so often they'll empty the jar to buy the cast and crew pizza

they're filming outside at night and it's cold and in between takes Matt's Aaron's and Renee's actors are all huddled together for warmth and Matt's actor gets pulled aside to get his makeup touched up and the other two just shriek at the absence of his heat and catch up to him to tuck themselves against him again

Andrew needs to snap his fingers in one scene but everyone finds out that day that his actor doesn't know how to snap so he has a little impromptu snapping lesson and of course it turns into everyone else trying to one-up each other with their snapping abilities

Nicky's actor telling everyone what he's going to steal from set (will literally say"[about Allison's bathrobe] damn that shit soft as hell. Ive been needing a new bathrobe actually. I'm stealing this" or "I'm stealing this lighter/bandana/sunglasses/etc") but because his humor is so dry everyone thinks he's joking. until months later. when the prop department can't find shit

Renee's actress is doing something completely mundane but Neil's and Allison's actors start narrating what she's doing like they're in a nature documentary (always with Australian accents for some reason??)

"and our specimen now reclines herself vertically on a piece of furniture us humans know as 'a desk.' this clearly less-developed creature seems not to understand the purpose of such an object. but given that this is her first time outside her natural habitat (the jungle) her lack of familiarity with modern technology is to be expected"

Renee's actress: *flips them off*

"ah and here we witness one of the most common behaviors of this specimen. specialists have dubbed it 'flipping the bird,' and explain it as a nonverbal expression of affection" "oh fuck off"

photo from another cold night-shoot and it's of Matt's and Dan's actors, she's standing in front of him zipped up in his hoodie, just her head poking out and they're having a conversation with other castmates like it's the most normal thing in the world, looking the very image of the couple they play

so much glorious content from shooting the dorm sleepover scene. the most popular thing to come from it is a picture from after they wrapped where the cast and some members of the crew had moved even closer to each other amid all the blankets and are asleep on top of each other

Andrew's actor will sometimes actually eat the ice cream he's given instead of just pretending to eat it, and halfway through the scene he casually mentions that he's lactose intolerant and sends the crew into a worried frenzy

if you haven't clocked it yet, these bitches are competitive. and one day, one thing led to another, and soon a bunch of the actors are all being filmed having a plank-holding competition. Dan's actress is the first to drop and she gets booed at for it because "you're an ex-stripper where tf is that upper body strength?"

she flips them off and goes to sit on Kevin's actor, hoping to squash his plank, but instead he starts doing push ups with her on his back. she grins

(Rikos actor wins that competition btw. and Neil's actor goes on a rant about "we succumbed to the ENEMY? a RAVEN? your characters would be ashamed of you" (he also lost?))

Allison's actress pretending to do a get-ready-with-me using all the stuff on Allison's vanity

Wymack's actor falling asleep in The Dad Pose™ when they're shooting a scene on the bus. and everybody gathers in to take pictures

when Kevin and Neil get all up in each other's faces their actors will pretend like they're going to kiss each other

not really a blooper but just all the actors for the foxes and the ravens mingling together in between takes and it looks so wrong

give me all the actors constantly taking the piss out of their characters

for ex during a scene where the monsters are in the car on the way to Edens, Nicky's actor looks towards the backseat where everyone is in character and goes wow what a fun crowd we are you'd never believe we're about to hit the club

night shoots are a. struggle. for Dan's actress. and the others love to take videos of her just standing on her mark with the most spaced out expression on her face

Andrew's and Neil's actors are shooting one of their typical intense, deep scenes and after one take, as soon as "cut" is called, Andrew's actor grabs Neil's face and starts serenading him with the song that's been stuck in his head all day

Renee's actress getting scolded for sneaking snacks into her costume

when Nicky's actor messes up a line (and he's the least likely of everyone to do it) he starts spewing Spanish

Andrew's actor constantly teasing his brother and Katelyn's actress whenever they have scenes together

like the two of them will just be talking together in between takes and Andrews actor will be behind the camera recording them and saying shit like "look at that MINYARD RIZZ" (or he'll use their actual last name) "hey btw [Katelyn's actor] I taught him everything he knows"

that scene where the foxes are rushing out of the dorm to check on their destroyed cars and Matt's actor just faceplants (Neil's actor: "wow. the dedication")

in one scene or other Allison's actress is drinking an iced drink and during one take she just keeps calmly shaking the ice around in her cup until one by one everyone cracks

in one scene Allison's actress is wearing sunglasses. and in between takes she lies down and on camera you can see Kevin and Matt's actors whispering trying to figure out whether or not she's sleeping because they can't see her eyes

Aaron's actor always using Neil's actor as a pillow during car scenes because they're always next to each other and they're actually hella tight irl

the kids love to steal any props that coach's actor needs to use (pens clipboards etc) before they start rolling just so they can watch him try to subtly fidget trying to find his prop before they get to the point in the scene where he actually needs it

all the actors just taking pictures together in the most brutal settings on set.

like Neil's makeup has his face all busted and everyone wants a selfie with him. they all have a photoshoot with the trashed cars. they have another one in front of the "happy 19th birthday junior" set. Neil is tied up at The Nest while they change his hair and Jean's and Riko's actors take selfies with him. another photoshoot with Neil handcuffed in the police car. all these settings in terrible scenes and the actors are in front of them with grins and peace signs

they're terrible.

[pissterdaniel]

painted over part of an E to create these glorious specimens

can't wait to trade phriendship bracelets at TIT

[altocat]

How do you think Angeal rationalizes war with Wutai his thing about honor? (Not trying to shit on him. I like your character analysis)

I think, at least for a while, Angeal bought into Shinra's propaganda. He's from a small town and was presumably groomed from an early age to accept Shinra as a benevolent force of power. Hollander might have even manipulated Angeal and Genesis into eventually joining SOLDIER in order to demonstrate the measure of their abilities as Project G specimens. So I think that Angeal really fooled himself believing that what he was doing was RIGHT. At least at the beginning.

I think the added responsibility of taking care of Genesis and Sephiroth probably diverted a lot his attention, too. It's easy when you're fighting alongside "war heroes". You're the good guys. You're the first thing on every screen, a figurehead in fan clubs, merchandise, and propaganda posters. Being a teenager, it was all so perfect, all so glorious and infectious, a kind of rapture. For the first time in his life, Angeal felt appreciated, SEEN.

But the brain grows wiser as you get older. And by the time Angeal starts to reach his 20's in earnest, his perception starts to shift. He starts to remember weird things that Sephiroth said or did, unnecessarily violent actions committed in the name of justice. Shady dealings between the higher ups. Secrets. The growing rift between Sephiroth and Genesis, the latter's lust for approval exploited by hungry executives stirring the pot. Families ruptured. The growing stink that radiates around the reactors. Haunted faces in your dreams, the eyes of every warrior on the battlefield you killed, the vague nightmares that chase you.

By the time Angeal deserts, he knows the whole score of what Shinra REALLY is. It isn't just that they MADE him, it's that they deceived him, painted a pretty lie whose oaths and revelries he clung to for meaning, identification. It's too much. Angeal has ever so slowly begun to loathe himself. Not just for being Shinra's monster, but for being Shinra's MURDERER as well.

[zaine-m]

Did anyone else not understand Viktor's conversation with Singed.

"Not fate, evolution. Natures greatest force, forever in flux"

"No. Evolution has a destination. Not to combat nature but to supersede it. The final, glorious evolution"

at first I kinda just saw this dialogue as a way to get Viktor to say glorious evolution but I think it's more to show how Viktor is already becoming the emotionless machine herald we see in the games.

Singed refers to evolution as a force of nature but Viktor refers to it as a force against nature. This is because singed is referring to the evolution of species through natural means whereas Viktor is referring to the evolution of science and technology, he doesn't even consider his body and the commune as a part of nature anymore, it's superseding nature. It's not even a direct fight between his biological body and the arcane upgrades. The arcane is painting over where his flesh used to be.

"But he isn't a specimen, he's a man and he needs my help. I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause"

He still sees the importance in humanity but I think it's in a way that is deeply separated from himself. He has already lost his humanity, maybe in a way where he can't even bring himself to want it back but he can still admire other's humanity and see the value in it.

At the end of the episode where he states that the very nature of humanity, emotion is the reason the commune failed is where we see his total separation from humanity.

I do think it could be argues that in this episode he still has his humanity in his relationship with Sky or his conversation with Jayce but I think that's more of an aftertaste of his humanity, a longing for an idea of what used to be there. It's not clear if 'Sky' is the real Sky, a figment of his imagination, or an image used by the Arcane to manipulate him but his relationship with Sky is a what could have been had he not been so disconnected from his humanity before. He has this idea of a relationship that he holds in his head without physically having her there, when she holds him he doesn't hold her back. Him wanting Jayce to see his accomplishments is just another way he longs to get back the humanity he had when he was working with Jayce.

[oldwebmlp]

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20021027164017/http://www.angelfire.com/80s/babygoldenautumn/thelast.html

Text from page below the cut:

The Last

Somewhere, in the twilight corner of the saddest memory in my mind, there lives a unicorn. The earliest known legend of the Unicorn says that it is a creature so glorious, so virtuous, so beautiful, that Heaven vouchsafed the Earth only one specimen at a time. It is a matter of some consideration, then, that The Golden Autumn has become the home of so many Unicorns. Sadly, this new denizen who runs vagrant in our minds will indeed be the last to come to The Golden Autumn. The final season is upon us and the last autumn leaf has fallen. We have always known it was coming, but never had we expected it to be so soon. This last infant came to us not by way of the Lake of Origins as have the others, but in a mad and magical flurry of dreams and desires, taking the form of the unicorn you see below. When the flurry in which she arrived settled, she was revealed as unlike any other pony in The Golden Autumn: small, delicate features in deep earthy tones, altogether different from anything we had ever seen. Her name is Diaz, for though she does not speak, it is written as such in her eyes. To those of us who cherish this realm, she will always be known as "The Last".

[roguerambles]

Make Love, Not War

Record of Ragnarök - Leonidas x Reader x Apollo

Warnings - 18+ Only. Adult Situations.

This is just pure silliness based on an anon from @rukia-writes

(...but seriously, I'll be disappointed if we lose them both now--)

Enjoy the rambles!

-

"You invited him?!"

Leonidas was strong. Very strong. You very much liked how very strong he was, especially when he directed that strength into extremely pleasurable pursuits.

But right now you were throwing your entire body against his delightfully broad chest in a futile attempt to stop him from launching himself at Apollo.

Apollo sipped from his chalice, peering thoughtfully at you as Leonidas snarled wordless insults under his breath. "I wasn't aware you were inviting the brute, either."

"Will you both listen to me?" Your feet slipped against the floor as Leonidas pushed with the strength of a colossus, and you grasped at his shoulders in a bid to get his attention. "I want to--"

You were cut off by Leonidas's arm sweeping under you, yanking you roughly into the air. You yelped and grabbed at his shoulders as he practically tossed you onto the nearby bed, before continuing his warpath towards the Sun God. "You shouldn't have come here, Apollo."

The Spartan spat his name like a curse, and Apollo tossed his chalice aside carelessly, rising to his feet with a sharp sneer on his flawless face. "And why not? What will you do about--"

They were both angry and terrifying and hot and you were impatient. "By the Fates!" You yelled, pushing yourself onto your knees. "Will you both knock it off and fuck me already?!"

Both men's heads snapped in your direction simultaneously.

"What--?"

"Have you lost your damn mind--?"

You were determined, however. You stood up on the bed - the soft, wide, unjustifiably unused bed you intended to do many, many things on with the two glorious specimens of manhood in front of you - and grabbed at the helm of your tunic. "Take off your clothes." You ordered, yanking the fabric over your head.

Apollo and Leonidas stared at you, expressions blank. You wriggled out of your bottoms, smiling smugly to yourself as you caught their gazes wandering, a telling darkening in their eyes. You dropped down onto the bed, glaring up at them challengingly as quiet hung over the room.

Leonidas broke the silence first. "I'm not sharing you with him--"

"Your clothes are still on." You interrupted. Leonidas scoffed, shaking his head, his eyes flickering towards Apollo. The Sun God looked between you and Leonidas, and you were pleased to notice the way his eyes trailed over your form, before running over Leonidas with an unmistakable spark of appreciation.

Leonidas clearly noticed too, and bristled somewhat. "You aren't serious--"

Apollo shrugged, then began to slip from his clothes. He had a more slender build than Leonidas, but his body was sculpted to perfection, like one of those ancient statues made flesh. "I know two gods at once might be...intimidating for a mortal..."

Leonidas growled, and for a moment you feared he would swing at his rival. Instead he grabbed the helm of his shirt and tugged it roughly over his head, tossing it aside. The exquisite musculature of his body on display as he tugged at his belt, the powerful muscle of his arms and abdomen flexing and contracting with every movement. Both you and Apollo were staring. "Just try to keep up."

Both men turned to you then, their expressions reminiscent of hungry lions eyeing a particularly delectable gazelle.

You were pleased with their progress.

-

"Apollo? Apollo, open up!"

Ares banged his large fist against the door, while Hermes watched from behind him, frowning thoughtfully.

"I cannot believe it!" Ares growled under his breath, pausing in his actions to turn to Hermes with an indignant look. "He's going to miss the fight!"

Apollo was always a bit...flighty, but Hermes highly doubted he would simply skip out on something to deeply important. The pride of the entire Greek Pantheon was on the line, after all. "Perhaps he--"

The door swung open, and a very grumpy, very naked King Leonidas of Sparta stood in the doorway, his expression thunderous. "What?" He demanded, as though he were not addressing two sons of Zeus himself.

...Hermes could not think of what to say, while Ares spluttered in shocked confusion. Clearing his throat, Hermes tried to regain his bearings. Had they somehow come to the wrong room? But why was Leonidas not ready either--?

A familiar pair of arms slid around Leonidas's waist, along with a familiar head of golden hair coming to rest on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" Apollo mumbled, leaning in to press his lips against Leonidas's neck. "Come back to bed...they're quite eager for more...oh, hello Hermes. Ares."

....whatever Hermes had been expecting, it wasn't this. "Apollo...?" He began slowly, watching Leonidas's frown deepen, but he made no attempt to move himself from Apollo's embrace. "We...the Round will begin soon--"

"Oh, that's off." Apollo said cheerfully, reaching around Leonidas to grasp the doorframe. "Find someone to take our places. The three of us would rather not be disturbed."

"Three of you--Apollo--!"

"Thank you!"

The door swung shut once more. Hermes stared at it blankly, while Ares appeared to have been genuinely struck dumb, gawking at the empty space in front of him.

Hermes had no idea how he was going to explain this to Zeus.

[e-vasong]

36 for the prompt?

SOME BORGWIN FOR YOU, NIC!!! May not make sense if you haven't read my Star Trek AU for DBDA.

TW: Attempted suicide

36 - Total Control

….

On the fourth day, Edwin tries to kill himself.

If he were more resilient, if he were stronger, his assimilation would be nearly done. But he isn’t. His body takes poorly to the implants, and at this rate, the process could take weeks.

Edwin is the sort of inferior specimen that the Borg would otherwise cull. He knows that. But he also knows the precise location and relative distance of almost every populated planet in this system and the next, including several who have only made First Contact in the past few years. He’s the one who mapped them after all, and that is the sort of knowledge that makes him worth assimilating.

He waits for an opportunity to escape, at first. Then when one does not present itself, and when his condition begins to deteriorate, he waits to die. Except he doesn’t. He begins, very slowly, to get better. To become only more conscious as his limbs and organs are taken one by one. Some are replaced immediately, others left as open and empty wounds for now. 

The Borg are with him always. They’re physically all around him, of course, some hanging limply from their wires like cadaverous marionettes and others jammed gracefully into the walls in perfectly compact tangles of limbs, dim-eyed and still in their stasis.

There is a terrible moment on the third day where they crack open his skull and reach inside. He feels nothing at first, then a strange, mushy sort of give and—

They’re inside him now. A colony of ants crawling through the folds of his brain, a second set of neurons that he can feel, marching in perfect lockstep to the beat of a silent drum. 

And Edwin knows that he’s a bit of a coward. His family had expressed that very clearly when he shied away from a more glorious role in command, then again when he declined riskier field science roles so he could make star maps instead.

But he is not quite such a coward that he would let the Borg kill millions with the knowledge he possesses.

It should be simple, really, to unplug himself—he hasn’t fully taken to his artificial lungs yet, so they have him on a ventilator. One simple tug, and that will be it. He’ll suffocate, and it will no doubt be terrible beyond description. 

A worthy trade, if it saves all those lives.

He has to stretch an arm across his body to reach the machine. The other has already been amputated — the port in place but the mechanical prosthetic not yet installed. It takes three halting tries for him to close his hand around the wire.

And then he goes no further. His fingers freeze, every muscle and nerve locked into place. Even his trembling stops. 

The Borg’s awakening to his plans is quiet, mildly confused. In this moment, Edwin feels less like he’s been caught and more like a flyaway hair, noticed by chance then tucked neatly back into place. 

THIS DOES NOT BENEFIT THE COLLECTIVE. 

His hand uncurls. 

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, say a hundred hundred thousand minds as they brush up against his own, but the words are softer than Edwin remembers. Kinder. Countless glowing eyes peer from the walls, from the ceiling, all unblinking in the dark. YOU WILL GIVE UP TOTAL CONTROL TO THE COLLECTIVE. WE WILL ADD YOUR DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN, AND YOU WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US.

And when his arm lays itself back down, he sees himself for the briefest moment as the Collective does. Prone. Disassembled. A mess of flesh and blood that may yet be salvaged. The watchers and the watched, reflected endlessly back upon each other.

The lights around him flicker out one by one. Stars and planets consumed, wiped off the map as the Borg turn their gaze once more outward, into endless darkness.

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Absolutely obsessed with Mytho’s duality as the Savior Prince and Corrupted Damsel

What a glorious specimen

[kittybroker]

My dearest Sam the onion man (he is onion shaped)

Glorious onion shaped kitty truly an outstanding specimen! Worth a crazy big $100000 worth of money!

[stebbinsgreyhoundfursuit]

⚠️‼️ARCANE ACT SPOILERS⚠️‼️

i just finished act 2 & while yes I'm sobbing I KNOW OUR FIRST REACTION WILL BE TO COME FOR JAYCE BUT LET'S PUT ON OUR THINKING CAPS THIS WAS ALL AN act OF PURE MERCY ,JAYCE IS COMPLETING VICTORS FINAL WISHES FROM SEASON 1, AND EMBRACING THE ONE THING THAT TIES ALL OF HUMANITY TOGETHER DEATH

BECAUSE FRIENDLY REMINDER THIS SEASON STARTS WITH JAYCE GOING AGAINST VICTORS WISHES & RESURRECTING HIM WITH THE HEXTEC HE PROMISED VICTOR HE WOULD DESTROY & CAIT GOING AGAINST HER MOTHERS WISHES & USING HER TECHNOLOGY TO TAKE AWAY THE AIR OF ZAUN AFTER HER DEATH .

HELL EVEN SEASON 1 WAS VICTOR & JAYCE GOING AGAINST NATURE TO DENY VICTOR'S DEATH REMEMBER HOW HORRIFIED HEMINDINGER WAS . IN THIS SEASON THE CHEMIST DUDES WHOLE THING IS TRYING TOO FIND GLORIOUS EVOLUTION SO THE GIRL DOESN'T DIE & the same thing as last season WITH THE CREATURE HIM & VICTOR WERE KEEPING ALIVE EVEN IF IT WAS SUFFERING BECAUSE “THE SPECIMEN MUST SURVIVE” DO YOU REMBER HOW HORRIFIED VICTOR WAS OF THAT SHELL OF CREATURE

THATS VICTOR & ALL OF HIS FOLLOWERS . HE IS THAT SPECIMEN !THAT SHELL THAT MUST SURVIVE FOR THE BETTER OF HUMANITY! DO YOU NOT SEE HOW TERRIBLE THAT IS(for victor) !

JUST LOOK AT ALL THE HARM NOT ACCEPTING DEATH THEREFORE NOT ACCEPTING OUR HUMANITY DOES ,BECAUSE THE CHEMIST WON'T LET THE GIRL DIE , VANDER IS NOT ALOUD TO DIE & MUST SUFFER IN THE SHELL OF A BEAST THAT IS NO LONGER HUMAN & THE GIRL IS VEGGITABLE , CAITS MOM DIES & SINCE SHE CANT LET GO OF AVENGING HER MOMS DEATH THE PEOPLE OF ZAUN SUFFER, AMBESSA & MELS CONSCIOUS WON'T LET HER BROTHER DIE

SO LITERALLY EVREYONE SUFFERS & SKY DIES BECAUSE VICTOR WOULDN'T ACCEPT HIS OWN DEATH . VICTOR HAS BECOME A SHELL ! JUST A VESSEL FOR HEXTEC . HES " NOT COLD" HES LOST WHAT MAKES HIM HUMAN ! JAYCE ASKED SALO IF WAS IN THERE(ALSO ASKING IF VICTOR WAS IN THERE) THEN IMMEDIATELY OFFED HIM OUT OF MERCY CAUSE SALO WASN'T IN THERE

HE HAD LOST ALL HIS PERSONHOOD , A WHITE POLISHED SLATE OBVI THATS BAD ! ALL THAT MADE HIM !HIM! OF HIS PAST! OF HIS HUMANITY!JUST LIKE VICTOR AND EVERYONE IN THE CULT LIKE ITS FILM 1.0.1 THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PURELY GOOD SOCIETY ESPECIALLY IN ARCANE THAT TELLS US TO EMBRACE THE BEAUTIFUL CHAOS OF HUMANITY ! LIKE ZAUNS ,AND VICTORS DEATHS SPEECH WHOLE THING !

THERE IS NO GLORIOUS EVOLUTION ! VIKTOR ISN'T A GOD !VICTOR ISN'T JESUS !HE'S HUMAN ! AND HUMANS DIE! JAYCE WHO LOVED VICTOR AND WANTED NOTHING MORE THAN THAN TO SAVE HIM HAD TO LET GO OF HIS OWN DESIRES & LOVE HE HAD TO SET BOTH HIM & VICTOR FREE .TO TRULY SAVE VICTOR AND THE WORLD CAUSE LETS BE HONEST HEXTECH & HIS "UTOPIA" ARE SO SKETCHY . HE HAD TO EMBRACE THEIR HUMANITY THAT INCLUDES DEATH . AND OF COURSE HIS THICKHEAD WOULD FINALLY UNDERSTAND THAT AFTER BEING STUCK WITH HEMENDINGER WHO KNOWS THE PAIN OF NEVER DYING & EKKO THE TIME MANIPULATOR LIKE I GUARANTEE YOU ALL OF THEM WERE IN ON THIS PLAN THIS WAS A RANT BUT PLEEEEASE JUST WAIT TILL NEXT WEEK BEFORE YOU JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS

OK BYEEEEEEEE

[lipstickchainsaw]

And then there's the conversation Viktor has with Singed, where their two respective views of life and immortality butt heads. This seems vital to a lot of what's going on here, so I want to dig into it some more.

When we last talked about Singed, I mentioned how his driving motivation is to save his daughter from death, and just now I mentioned that Viktor is more motivated by spiritual enlightenment and healing than the more material and structural realities of life in Zaun. With Viktor being Singed's former pupil, especially in the matter of life extension, you'd expect there to be a lot of overlap here, and there is!

Both struggle against the limits nature has placed upon life, and seek to find ways to ascend beyond those limits, which is, of course, laudable. The things nature inflicts on people, especially in Zaun, fucking suck. Seeking a way to remedy this is perfectly understandable, and if you can slay death in that search, why not!

The problem lies in how you get there, naturally, and in this, we find that Singed isn't really in favour of surpassing death on an ideological basis. He's perfectly willing to wade through a river of corpses and leave a trail of ruined lives behind him to find this cure for death, which shows he doesn't really understand why immortality is a goal worth striving for; he just can't bear to see his daughter die.

Viktor, by contrast, considers immortality as the final step, a grand goal in improving people's quality of life. Ruining Vander just to get a step closer to curing death doesn't make sense in this view, because, like, what are you even doing this for if not to also raise up Vander? He's not a specimen, he is a person, included in the list of people to help and raise beyond death's grasp on that qualifier alone!

That is the glorious evolution of which Viktor dreams.

The problem, as Singed points out, is that he's casting this drive from immortality from his own life force, draining himself with every bit he gives up, and when his lights go out, so do those of everyone he's helped. Now, he might still consider this worth it, to have improved the lives of so many even temporarily is better than to have left them to suffer, but it is a reality he has to deal with.

After all, his special pocket world didn't come with a way to recharge his own battery.

(Unlike his fellow herald Jinx', but more on that when I bring that particular theme home after finishing this episode.)

[writeshite]

Thor's friend with benefits from the Greek Pantheon meets Hulk and the results are unexpected--

Thor: "I know he looks a little scary, but he's actually not that bad--"

Reader: "Thor, who is this glorious specimen of manhood and why have you been keeping him from me?"

Thor: "....I'm sorry what--"

Hulk: ".....?"

How thick do you think the Hulk is? For research purposes :)

[loveandlegacy]

evolution's destination

so i have seen a few posts about how viktor's "evolution has a destination" line either doesn't make sense or is just a throwaway setup for him to say the fanbaity line of "the final, glorious evolution" – but i wanted to try to give viktor and by extension the writers some credit (however mad some of their choices made me) that that line isnt just incoherent nonsense.

part of my motivation for this is that i think the reading that all of viktor's actions in s2 are the result of him being a quasi-lobotomized shell for the hexcore's "will" is among the least interesting ways to interpret what was going on with his arc and probably does the greatest disservice to viktor as a character. i think we are supposed to understand him saying this as an important part of the broader context of his life and that he believes it for truly horrifying reasons.

so anyway. getting into this comes with the warning that the forthcoming reception requires me to take the overarching ableism of the metatext (not viktor's internalized ableism but the attitudes of the show itself) for what it is. i don't especially like it, but it is what it is and there's not much to say about it.

given that, i think it's better to receive the "evolution" scene as part of that deliberate choice to enable the narrative to lead up to and make possible viktor and jayce's love confession at the end.

so here we go.

viktor asserts that evolution has a destination in a philosophical debate with singed, and i would argue this is intended to make viktor's actual worldview as clear as possible to the audience before he decides to pop off and fembotify the world at large.

taking the argument with singed at face value: viktor opens the debate by asking if singed believes in fate and in their lives being guided by an invisible hand. it seems like a kind of weird question to ask considering they were at no point talking about destiny prior in the conversation – but i think on examination it makes sense.

viktor's encounter with singed begins with singed immediately violating viktor's personal space, which reveals to viktor the existence (or non-existence) of orianna.

entombed as she is in a glass sarcophagus, this dead little girl's stasis state recalls viktor's much beloved rio in her chemical tank. the blocking is interesting here – viktor and singed are on the same side of orianna's sarcophagus. for a moment, he and singed occupy a similar place in the universe: men of science. but in the present world, he and singed stand opposite each other.

they may both be men of science but they disagree about what ends science should be used towards and how it even works. viktor makes this clear when he tells singed "knowledge is a paradox. the more one understands, the more one realizes the vastness of his ignorance" as a rebuttal to singed saying he wishes he could know the world through viktor's eyes.

they then go on to disagree about even more. singed calls warwick a specimen, viktor says he's a man. singed wants to use warwick to save viktor from the deleterious effects of being connected to the arcane and viktor refuses, saying that it would be a pointless waste of warwick's life in service of ambessa's warmongering. singed refutes this and argues that the point of this blood sacrifice is to enable viktor to continue his work – "to save us from ourselves."

we are invited to doubt this motivation, viktor's visions showing us singed caressing not warwick but orianna's sarcophagus. there is no 'us' in this situation, there is only one particular person singed is interested in saving and it's orianna.

immediately following this vision, and immediately before viktor asks if singed believes in fate, singed says "you must survive, viktor". as many people before me have pointed out, this is a callback to his s1 statement that "the mutation must survive". this doesn't only tie viktor to rio, it also connects his story to orianna. singed does not want viktor to survive for his own good or for his work any more than he wanted rio to survive for her own good. viktor is another subject in question – another specimen in the long line of singed's various biomedical crimes, the same as rio.

genetic experimentation and selective breeding (and necromancy lol) aren't the same things as fate, but humans forcing a particular evolutionary direction onto other creatures can be read as a kind of 'invisible hand' if you think about it from the perspective of the test subjects in question.

given that viktor is the presumed 'mutation' in this conversation, we can understand him to also be the subject whose fate is guided or reoriented by this invisible hand via piltover's pollution of zaun, his own attempts at capturing magic through science being thwarted by powers greater than him, and eventually the hexcore yanking him back from death at the beginning of the season.

he even asks his question about fate while staring at the fractal patterns of the greenhouse glass! presenting us with ever-repeating patterns and cycles with no end.

in this light, viktor is asking singed if humans are in fact fated by forces outside of their control or if at least some humans can overcome those forces to reorient the total forward trajectory of the species.

singed says no and asserts that the only ruling force in nature is evolution, which is always in flux. this reveals something kind of interesting about singed imo and his relationship to death and his thoughts about orianna but that's a different post. for the purposes of this analysis he's saying what is true, which is that even genetic modification/manipulation and scientific interrogation – both things he has mastered in his own way – are still subject to engine of evolution well beyond whatever interventions humans are capable of.

this is the moment when viktor comes back with, "no, evolution has a destination – not to combat nature, but to supersede it. the final, glorious evolution".

much as i enjoy the funny dunks on this statement for its scientific incorrectness, i think there is something to the fact that viktor basically rejects singed's description of evolution and then turns around and treats evolution as the same thing as fate. he makes the 'evolution has a destination' statement while studying his hexcore-transformed hand.

i am struggling to remember the post that initially made this point click for me (i think it might have been this gifset but i will edit if i find something that made the argument more explicitly), but by studying his hand in this way, the visual language of the moment is telling us that viktor has come to see his own body as the evolutionary destination in question and the thing that supersedes nature/its unpredictable flux.

now comes the part where we dive into the idea that all of viktor's choices from the very beginning were shaped by having always been ashamed of his disability and that this shame is what guided him to his beautifying* eugenics project specifically. binomech has a thorough post explaining this reading of the text in depth and i recommend reading it through because it provides the foundation for what i'm about to say.

in the context of studying his own, violently transformed body – a process that required a traumatic death (or near-death, depending) and then the one man he loved and trusted most in all of piltover using the technology they created together to save his life despite viktor asking him to destroy the hexcore with the full knowledge that he was going to die anyway, even without the bombing – we can understand that the hexcore has granted viktor a kind of supremacy over his own former-fate. something horrible happened to him, but because of that horror, he was reborn not only free of the damage from the bombing, but also free of the things that fated him to an early death from birth.

exposure to toxic waste, piltover's ethnic discrimination against and industrial exploitation of zaun, the terminal illness for which he is repeatedly punished in season 1 for wanting to escape, his lifelong disability that marks him as even more of an outsider in piltover – these are all things completely outside of his control, all factors that determined how his life would be before he was even born. these things are the 'invisible hand' guiding the trajectory his life would follow, up to and including being in the council room when jinx's bomb hit. even jayce using the hexcore to save him could arguably be seen as part of this fate in which he had no say.

but the hexcore also "liberates" him.

it gives him a body he didn't ask for but it extends his life. it dissolves his disability and it gives him literal supernatural powers in its place. it allows him to build a commune verdant and overflowing with life in the basin of his home where people were thrown away like human trash. he was fated, but his fate also gave him a destination.

if we understand that viktor has, from his childhood, developed a particular sense of internalized ableism and come to see his body as a weakness that he needs to overcome or reject, that he agrees with piltover's view of him, then it makes sense why he talks about 'superseding' nature. it's not a scientific concept or even a fact of nature that he's after now that he's been forcibly transformed.

he's talking specifically about the supernatural, about what the arcane has offered him as a way out of his circumstances. he not only gets the able body that presumably the whole world reminded him at every turn was the better body to the point that he'd be ashamed of his own, he gets to go beyond this assimilationist idea of becoming what piltover wanted. he forces a fullblown eugenics project on the world at large in which no one is ever disabled or sick or capable of exploitation because they just they are hollowed out expressions of his vision of perfection, made of porcelain and gold, the dazzling colors of piltover's wealth and prosperity otherwise known as the colors of progress. this vision he has of painlessness and perfection has been shaped in part by a lifetime of punishment for having the "wrong" kind of body and for experiencing any amount of grief or rage over having been treated unfairly by piltover's hegemonic culture.

he was remade by magic and magic in turn enables him to guide evolution beyond what nature would allow. a world remade as he was into something unbreakable because it's perfect and empty.

as binomech says, i don't especially like the metatextual politics of this storyline, but it's the story they chose to tell. it follows through on its thematic promises for viktor, who spends the whole season on a runway up to what singed told him in s1. love and legacy are worth sacrificing for progress. his evolution has its destination. because of his many violent collisions with death, he was, however briefly and grotesquely, the mutation that survived.

*i say 'beautifying' because there are other kinds of eugenics projects that one could undertake since 'eugenics' itself is a movable target/fallible concept that hinges entirely on what one person or one culture thinks counts as 'desirable' traits. viktor's eugenics project is very particular to him, where his cultists-and-eventual-pretty-borgbots are all flawless, elegant, and eventually completely featureless, non-reproductive, entities

[nausicaaandhermouth]

"You must survive, Viktor," "Do you believe in fate, Doctor? Our paths carved before us - guided by... an invisible hand," "Not fate. Evolution. Nature's greatest force forever in flux," "No. Evolution has a destination. Not to combat nature, but to supercede it. The final, glorious evolution. But he isn't a specimen. He's a man. And he needs my help. I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause. You may leave," Singed and Viktor, Ep6 S2

absolutely loved this conversation of them, so i'm putting this here cuz i keep wanting to hear it and just in case anyone else wanna the 'gloryus evolyushon' line.

best heard with head/ear phones. the bolded text is the modified vocals, viktor's voice with a strange effect.