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rlaehrwks · 1 year

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ENGLISH DUB SCRIPT FOR: OMNISCIENT READER’S VIEWPOINT

Annotated Edition

FADE IN:

A subway with a nondescript man in a shabby suit reading on a cellphone. This man is DANIEL KIM.

[The screen opens with a view of a cell phone, a scrolling list of chapters. Each chapter has 1 view.]

DANIEL KIM (narrating): It was a novel that no one seemed to read.

[The view pans over the screen scrolling over all those numbers.]

DANIEL KIM: I wondered why no one read it. It was a masterpiece.

[The screen pans over a list of statistics, that shall be skipped over for convenience.]

[The screen then transitions to DANIEL KIM dejectedly looking down at his phone.]

DANIEL KIM: Then again, who would read a novel with over 3,000 chapters?

I’m the only reader and it took me ten years to make it to the last chapter.

[The screen transitions to black.]

DANIEL KIM: Back then, I had no idea.

[The screen flashes back to a scene of a horde of monsters pouncing on DANIEL KIM in a white coat.]

DANIEL KIM: On the day I finished the novel…

[A montage of scenes from later parts of the first Scenario can be seen.]

SCRIPTWRITER’S NOTES: They’re the same as in the Korean dub. Remember to censor the blood!

DANIEL KIM (in a different tone to indicate he’s in the scene): No way. I know… How this story goes.

DANIEL KIM (narrating, in a calm tone): …The story I alone had been reading for the past ten years turned into reality…

[JOHNATHAN YORK can be seen clashing against DANIEL KIM.]

JOHNATHAN YORK: Who the hell are you!?

DANIEL KIM (narrating): And I… became the only person to know the end of this world.

[Transition panel to a scene of DANIEL KIM’S COMPANY, looking up at the night sky. As the camera pans up, the following text appears.]

DUB 4 KIDS PRESENTS:

OMV

FADE IN.

DANIEL KIM is sitting on a different subway, staring at his phone. His fingers are shaking over his phone screen.

DANIEL KIM: Ah, I can’t believe it’s the Final Chapter…

I’m too nervous to even open it.

[The screen transitions to DANIEL KIM looking excitedly at his phone.]

DANIEL KIM: The ending…

[The phone text appears on his screen.]

PHONE TEXT DISPLAY:

There are three ways to survive in the apocalypse.

Everything is fading and becoming unclear now.

But one thing is certain.

If you’re reading this, you will survive.

[Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse - Final Episode]

tls123

DANIEL KIM: Huh…?

[DANIEL KIM begins frantically swiping on his phone, only for the screen to barely move.]

[DANIEL KIM looks up from his phone and at the camera.]

DANIEL KIM: I’m Daniel. Nine times out of ten, people make weird assumptions about my name.

RANDOM SALARYMAN: Oh, you’re Danny, huh? Are you an only child?

DANIEL KIM: The name’s Daniel.

RANDOM SALARYMAN: Uh…

DANIEL KIM: Though I am an only child.

RANDOM SALARYMAN: Whoops, sorry to make assumptions.

DANIEL KIM: However, their assumptions weren’t wrong. I’ve been lonely my entire life.

DANIEL KIM: This is who I am in a nutshell.

[A screen of informational text appears on screen.]

Scriptwriter’s Notes: It’s the same as in the Webtoon so there’s no need to rephrase it, just change some names.

DANIEL KIM: My hobby is reading novels on the subway on my way home from work.

But today’s subway ride was unlike any other.

[A young woman with light brown hair and a light brown suit appears. Her name is SARAH YOUNG.]

SARAH YOUNG" Oh, my. At this rate you might get sucked into your phone.

[The camera pans up at SARAH YOUNG’s beautiful expression. DANIEL KIM appears to be enamoured with her.]

DANIEL KIM: It was Sarah Young.

DANIEL KIM: W-What are you doing here!?

SARAH YOUNG: Are you heading home?

DANIEL KIM: Yes, you too?

SARAH YOUNG: Yes, I got lucky. My team manager is away on a business trip.

[SARAH YOUNG’s hair flies by DANIEL KIM’s face. He blushes madly.]

DANIEL KIM: Do you usually take the subway home?

DANIEL KIM (internal monologue): I bet there’s a line of men willing to take her own… Grubby jerks.

SARAH YOUNG: No, someone stole my bicycle.

DANIEL KIM: You bike to work?

SARAH YOUNG: Yes. I’ve been working a lot of overtime recently, so I thought I could use the exercise. And I have some personal reasons too…

[SARAH YOUNG smiles at DANIEL KIM, who blushes.]

DANIEL KIM (internal monologue): She’s really pretty up close…

DANIEL KIM (internal monologue): However, she’s out of my league. We live in two different worlds. And just so you know, Sarah wasn’t the reason why today’s subway ride was different.

SARAH YOUNG: ¿Puede Prestarme Dinero?

DANIEL KIM: Pardon?

SARAH YOUNG: It’s Spanish. It means, “Please lend me some money.”

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): Studying on the subway… She’s really extraordinary. Where would you even use that?

DANIEL KIM: You’re studying hard.

SARAH YOUNG: What about you, Daniel? What are you reading?

[DANIEL KIM holds his phone away from SARAH YOUNG, who is peering over his shoulder to look at it.]

SARAH YOUNG: Is it a novel?

DANIEL KIM: Yeah… I guess you could say I’m studying, haha…

SARAH YOUNG: Wow, I love novels! My favorites are Haruki Murakami, Raymond Carver, and…

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): Of course.

SARAH YOUNG

Who’s your favorite author, Daniel?

DANIEL KIM

You probably wouldn’t know, even if I told you…

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): Yes, my hobby is reading novels on the subway. The reason why today is unlike any other is because Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse, TWSA for short, which I’ve been reading for the past ten years…is ending today.

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): This novel is very special to me. I’ve been reading it since eighth grade.

I read it when I was bullied in school…

When I failed the entrance exams and ended up at a third-rate college…

And even now, as a contracted worker to a gaming company…

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue)" It’s bittersweet that the novel was coming to an end. Today is the day the epilogue of TWSA will be uploaded.

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue)

A serial of 3,149 chapters. A ten-year long epic journey that began in my teens and ended in my adulthood.

I can’t believe the series went on for so long with an average view count of just one.

Scriptwriter’s Notes: The rest of the subway dialogue is omitted because it’s the same as the Korean dub, aside from name changes.

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): If I were in a different genre…

[A brown grasshopper is onscreen.]

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): If the genre of my life wasn’t nonfiction…

[A brown-haired boy with a bug tank is centered on by the camera. He is EUGENE LYON.]

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): But fantasy… Could I have been the protagonist?

Scriptwriter’s Notes: The omitted section is essentially the same as the Korean dub, but with the names changed.

DANIEL KIM: I have to live my own life…

SARAH YOUNG: Your own life… You’re so inspiring, Daniel!

DANIEL KIM: Sorry?

SARAH YOUNG: I should also live my own life!

Scriptwriter’s Notes: The following portion has been omitted because it’s the same as in the Korean dub.

[The subway stops.]

PANICKED MAN: What’s going on!?

PANICKED WOMAN: Is it a terrorist attack!?

PANICKED CITIZENS: Ahhh!!!

[A creature with white fur smiles. This is BENJAMIN.]

DANIEL KIM: Sarah, are you okay?

SARAH YOUNG: Y-yes. What do you think’s happening?

DANIEL KIM: Don’t worry, it’s probably nothing.

SUBWAY ANNOUNCEMENT: Ladies and gentlemen, if you would. P-please evacuate—! (abruptly cut off)

[A small ball of red sparks manifests in the middle of the subway.]

SYSTEM DISPLAY MESSAGE: The free service of the 8612th planetary system has ended.

The main scenario will begin now.

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): That was the moment that the genre of my life changed.

RANDOM CIVLIAN: “I-it’s a goblin!”

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): No way, this is just like what happened in the novel… That can’t be. Subways stop all the time.

SARAH YOUNG: A goblin?

[DANIEL KIM turns to look at SARAH YOUNG.]

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): There’s no way that this can be happening in real life.

RANDOM CIVLIANS: What is that?

[BENJAMIN manifests in front of the subway car.]

BENJAMIN: *speaks in garbled nonsense*

TEENAGED GIRLS: What’s it saying?

SARAH YOUNG: I think it’s speaking in Spanish. I’ll try talking to it.

DANIEL KIM: You really want to ask it to lend you money!?

BENJAMIN: Testing, testing. Can anyone hear me? Gosh, the language pack was malfunctioning for a bit. Can everyone hear me now?

RUDE BOY: Hey, what do you think you’re doing?

BENJAMIN: Pardon?

RUDE BOY: I’ve got an audition to get to, so can you hurry up?

BENJAMIN: An audition, huh. That sucks. They said we’d get the most customers if we put the paywall up right now…

BENJAMIN: Okay, everyone, listen up! I’ve got something very important to tell you all!

AFFRONTED CITIZENS:

Hurry up and restart the train!

You can’t do this to us!

I’m gonna be late for my appointment!

DANIEL KIM (inner monologue): No way. I know how this story goes. I’ve gotta stop them.

BENJAMIN: I… Told you… To be QUIET!

[The body of the rude boy from earlier suddenly turns black, and it falls to the ground. The blood splatters are recolored to be dark purple. The civilians nearby look on, horrified. More of the same happens to everyone that spoke earlier.]

BENJAMIN: We are not filming a movie. This isn’t a dream, or a novel. And it certainly isn’t the reality you’re familiar with! Do you understand?

All of you had quite the cushy life until now, didn’t you?

You were able to live without paying the costs!

You’ve all been enjoying privileged lives!

[A man in a black-and-white striped suit appears in front of BENJAMIN. His name is MITCHELL HART.]

MITCHELL HART: Is it money that you want? I’ll give you as much money as you want if you let me leave.

BENJAMIN: Money is good. It can be used in exchange for goods and services.

[BENJAMIN turns the money to ash.]

BENJAMIN: Too bad it only works within the confines of your spacetime.

Try a stunt like that again, and you’ll end up in the Darkness Realm, got it?

MITCHELL HART: Ugh…

BENJAMIN: Ugh, at this rate, it’ll be faster to let you figure it out by yourselves.

SYSTEM DISPLAY MESSAGE:

Channel #BY-7623 has opened.

The Constellations are now entering the channel.

[A bright blue window pops up in front of everyone in the subway. Some notable people include a boy with white hair, NATHAN COOK, and a muscular man, HADRIAN LANG. Then, it pops up in front of DANIEL KIM.]

SYSTEM WINDOW:

THE MAIN SCENARIO HAS ARRIVED.

#orv #omv #:)#🐑

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cecilysass · 1 year

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Scully the ice queen?

I often see people talking about the “ice queen” trope in XF fanfic from the 90s as an example of fanon becoming ubiquitous in fanfic. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is it in a nutshell: basically, fanfic in the 1990s began to make reference to Scully as a perceived “ice queen,” both at work and in her personal life, meaning that she didn’t express her emotions, that she was repressed and cold. And then that became a thing, a standard trope that other fanfic writers drew on.

My theory is that the “ice queen” / Scully association didn’t actually come from specific works of fic or from specific individuals. I also don’t think it necessarily originated in fic and then crossed over into fan perceptions of Scully. I think it’s easy for 21st century fans to get the causal arrows mixed up on this because we're missing some historical context. I believe many viewers in the 1990s—not just fanfic writers—actually interpreted Scully differently than viewers now because they interpreted female characters differently. I think people in the 1990s were simply much more likely to interpret women serious about their professional lives as “ice queens.” Especially if their professional lives involved science.

Consider the below female scientist (P.K. Newby) writing about her graduate school experience in the 1990s.

Of course this still happens today, and of course it didn’t always happen in the 1990s. But I think it’s important that this impacted actual women living their lives in the same time period, because it’s reasonable that this also affected TV audiences’ perception of a character.

I give you this message from the Usenet discussion group alt.tv.x-files, the first season of the show, from before the fanfic Usenet group was even created. This user characterizes Scully as an “ice queen,” claiming to notice a change after Darkness Falls, and even associating it with her skepticism specifically.

(This is me showing you the whole message with the date, then showing you parts close up because it's so tiny. I'm very dedicated.)

So in this (very early online fandom) conversation, we have a fan who already read her as an “ice queen” on their own without the filter of fanfic to sway them.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Fanfic definitely took hold of the Scully / ice queen thing and ran with it. There are many examples in the Usenet group during the 1990s of people asking, “Hey, which episode was Scully called ‘ice queen’ again? and people saying, ‘Oh never, ha, that’s just a fanfic thing.’” It was a well-established trope by at least 1997. See below.

I just want people to consider that it didn’t have to be one writer, one fic, or one incident that led to the popularization of this piece of fanon. This would have been something people understood right away because it already was culturally out there in the interpretation of the character and in associations with professional women. And like the person asking the question in the above message infers, it probably did come organically from several people at once.

That said, some 1990s fans actively questioned it, observing it didn’t seem to fit with their interpretation of the show.

Notice that in the below conversation, Scully as ice queen is mixed up in perceptions of GA as ice queen, too.

(Side note: I mean, you can totally get where that person was coming from, right? Gillian Anderson was TOTALLY giving repressed, cold, virginal saint in 1997.)

As a prolific reader of fanfic, old and new, I think it’s also important to add this: it seems to me that fanfic writers more often made “Ice Queen” a hurtful nickname that Scully was called by other people (like Mulder being called “Spooky”), not an actual characterization of her personality. And actually, especially given her mostly-male workplace, this seems not unrealistic in the 1990s? Some fanfic writers may even have been writing from experience. (At least, I think I'm right in saying that tendency was true. I'd be curious to know if other readers of old fanfic think Scully herself is characterized as an "ice queen" more often than I'm saying.)

I’m an Old Person. I’m ashamed to admit that in the same time period, I had a high school friend who always studied really hard in school and prioritized grades over social life, and sometimes we jokingly called her an “ice queen.” There was no male equivalent term. So unfortunately, I know this was most definitely a thing outside of Scully and the XF fandom. Fortunately, it does seem to be something we see less of in the 2020s. (At least I think?) I just want to point it out because it’s one of those things you could think was just a little fanon quirk concerning this character or this show when really I do think it’s about gender perceptions overall.

Very interested to know, though, if others think I'm wrong.

(actual Ice queen)

#the x files #ice queen #dana scully #gillian anderson #90s culture #xfiles fanfic #tropes #x files meta #txf meta #fanon

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purplespacekitty · 3 months

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Three generations of Sisko men gathered close for a jambalaya dinner in Ben's ancient Bajoran lightship, as illustrated by celebrated science fiction writer, Benny Russell. Russell keeps a souvenir baseball on his desk, signed by the legendary Willie Hawkins. In the corner, Russell stashes the sketch that gave him the inspiration for this family's story: space station Deep Space Nine.

Deep Space Nine is my favorite Trek. It has nuanced, 3-dimensional characters who become part of the show's world over the course of 7 seasons. There are some off plot lines here and there but for the most part, the story seems to write itself. I've written at length on here about how much I love Captain Benjamin Sisko and I'd like to share a project of mine I did for a class (I have so far managed to fit Star Trek into three separate final projects for three separate classes, one of which I already posted about here).

Through the lens of Sisko's character, I wanted to examine Deep Space Nine's portrayal of Black masculinity, fatherhood and Afrofuturism with three episodes (although one's a two-parter): "Homefront" (Part I), "Paradise Lost" (Part II), "Explorers" (which I made a post about here) and "Far Beyond the Stars". Initially, the idea was to focus on Ben's fatherhood to Jake, how from the viewer's side of the screen, the two of them break down numerous racial stereotypes around Black men, an important thing to remember with DS9's debut not being far removed from the end of the Reagan Administration, from which sprung stereotypes of "absent Black fathers" and "welfare queens." As I continued with this project, I found I also wanted to analyze how Sisko's relationship with his own father informs his parenting of Jake and what it means to have three generations of Siskos in one room, on one planet. That was how I got "Explores" and "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" in there, as I wanted to showcase episodes that focus on these exact dynamics.

"Far Beyond the Stars" offers a window into Earth's history as a commentary on racism within creative circles and the systemic racism that shapes the world we live in today and the world of Deep Space Nine. It not only invites viewers into the life of Benny Russell, a Black science fiction writer from the 1950s, but also invites us to consider the link between the future he envisioned of the life that Sisko leads in the 24th century as a Black spaceship/space station captain, father, son, husband and cook who carries the weight of his ancestors' legacy on his shoulders and the reality Russell himself lives in day by day. "You are the dreamer and the dream" has a whole lot more gravity to it when you recognize it as less of an obvious observation of what we've known and been shown throughout the episode (Avery Brooks plays both Sisko and Russell) and more of a nod to the Black future that Sisko inhabits and that Russell dreams of. As a creation of Benny Russell, Sisko and his family are Afrofuturism in a nutshell, carrying on the cultures, stories and knowledge of their ancestors as they live their lives in a future those ancestors imagined and built. Furthermore, Benny Russell's Deep Space Nine is not only important because it features a Black space station captain but also because it encapsulates a fragment of Russell's drive to write his own stories for himself and his Black readers, to breathe life into his creations, to share his art in the ways that he wants to. To cherish his experiences and ideas and imagination and reality through the creative process of putting pen to paper, stamping ink to page, painting scenes to canvas.

The DS9 finale was originally going to see Benny Russell wistfully wandering the promenade alone and implicate him as the creator of not just the story of Deep Space Nine, but of the Star Trek franchise as a whole. Obviously, this concept did not make the cut, but Strange New Worlds' "Elysium Kingdom" follows another story written by Russell, solidifying him as a real person who lived in the 20th century within the Star Trek universe and who presumably continued to write stories that got published after the events of "Shadows and Symbols".

Comprised of screenshots from "Explorers", "Homefront", "Paradise Lost", "Far Beyond the Stars", "Shadows and Symbols" and "Civil Defense" - in which Dukat flicks Sisko's baseball off his desk - (and also a picture of a random coffee table taken by me because we see surprisingly very little of Benny's desk), the collage above is my humble attempt to honor Benny Russell and his creative vision.

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in1-nutshell · 5 months

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How do you think Thunderstreaker would be like in the episode where Arcee tries to kill Starscream for killing cliffjumper?

I remember watching that episode and facepalming so hard at Starscream talking about Cliff.

Cliffjumper deserved better

In a nutshell...

In the scenario where Thunderstreaker isn't anywhere near the two and hears what happens, it causes a huge time of reflection.

Do they really want to look up to the same mech who offlined one of their trusted team members?

They are walking on egg shell around Arcee for a bit until she calms down.

In the scenario that Thunderstreaker is WITH Arcee when Starscream lets it loose, they feel their entire world stop for a minute not believing what they just heard.

They snap out of it when they see Arcee start to fight Starscream.

Thunders gets hurt trying to help Arcee out of Starscream's grip. There is no way they are going to loose someone else, not today.

They make sure to give a good kick in the wings to Starscream before he escapes.

#transformers x reader #bot buddy #tfp x platonic reader #tfp #tfp x reader #nutshell summary #thunderstreaker

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moiraineswife · 1 year

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Moiraine And Lan - The Inability To Communicate Trauma

Hello friends. It has been quite some time. Quite some time since I have: absolutely lost all my fucking shit over my blorbos at great length via a long and quotation filled tumblr meta. Fear not: the status quo of the universe returns, and I am once again: back on my bullshit (literally hours before the next episode airs and this gets drowned/replaced with New Content. Because I’m smart like that). ANYWAY.

Today we’re going to discuss: Mo and Lan and the singular moron-flavoured braincell they share, bond or no bond. More seriously, however: I’ve noticed a few bits of commentary/takes/analysis of the current state of their…well state, let’s be frank here, and realised that my contrary ass has: Different Opinions. So I figured I’d share them. Bc that’s what I do.

(Obligatory disclaimer that there is no right or wrong way to interpret something - that’s why it’s an interpretation, and this is not a call out or a “oh wow you’re wrong and here’s why!!!!” post directed at anyone or anything. Just my observation that I am going against the grain of what I’ve seen and thus throwing out: a new chew toy for us to gnaw on).

Also: please do note that this post will cover, rather extensively/in-depth, the trauma arc that Lan and Moiraine are going through at the moment and will contain trigger warnings for: depression, PTSD, trauma response, rape (in the context of the analogy that Verin presented), suicide, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempt (again: all in the context of the show/previous events), and everything related to the topics that have been raised in the first two episodes for these characters. Be safe and tap out if you need to!

So. Obligatory wiffle aside: what shall we discuss? In a nutshell (bc I’m real good at that) I’m covering how, as I see it/am fascinated by it: the responses that they’re having to each other at the moment are mirrors/insights into the responses that they’re each having to the recent traumas that they’ve both suffered. In more depth/the points where I think I differ from the norm we’re going to cover:

1)-why Lan is: not an idiot, actually. I see it as him being still perfectly capable of READING/understanding Moiraine without the bond; what he’s having difficulty with is COMMUNICATING with her without the bond

2)- that Moiraine is actually: ALSO failing dismally at communicating with Lan, and that she’s doing: a real fucking bad job of manipulating him. (is she HURTING him? Yes. 100%. Is she MANIPULATING him into doing what she wants? Given that she clearly wants nothing more than for him to: leave her, and that after 5 solid months he has: not left, I’m just going to put out the idea that maybe she’s not quite meeting her all of her targets in this area.

3)- wow they’re both doing incredibly stupid things, and they’re doing them for the same incredibly stupid reasons, and they are, in fact: INCREDIBLY THE SAME. See: singular moron-flavoured brain cell. This manifests slightly differently, due to their own individual traumas influencing the specifics of their actions/thought processes - but the general underlying thesis is the same for both.

The TL;DR here is that: these weirdos still know each other, and love each other, and understand each other without their bond. Can they communicate any of what they want to communicate in any kind of effective way? No. No they cannot. They BOTH suck. (I say that with legitimately all the love in the world).

So. Let’s start with Lan. Purely because I think my takes on him are the most Spicy/differ the most from everyone else’s and, let’s be honest, everything here feeds into everything else and this is going to get complicated where I start SO. Drama first. (I think it’s what they would want).

Okay so first and foremost I want to try and establish/explain what I mentioned at the outset of this thing which is: Lan is not blind, he’s not stupid, and he is not suddenly completely and utterly incapable of understanding a single feel that Moiraine feels if he can’t feel it with her via bond.

The largest and most obvious piece of evidence for this feels like the best one to start with and, for me, this is the fact that: HE DIRECTLY AND COMPLETELY CALLS HER OUT ON HER BULLSHIT, TO HER FACE, TWICE!!!

“Don’t smile at me. You can shut me out, try to drive me away, but don’t you dare smile at me. As though everything is fine. As though you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.”

This is from episode 1, where he finally snaps at her after she gives him that fake ass little smile and is like ‘is an aes sedai not allowed her secrets’ when he tries to talk to her/get her to explain: literally anything to him. And THAT is what pushes him over the edge.

She has been cold. She has been dismissive. She has flat out ignored him like he’s not even present. He has taken it all. Not happily, and with obvious frustration, but he hasn’t said a peep. Not when she gives him one brusque, dismissive one-word orders (“door”) like a dog. Or when she deliberately turns away from him and refuses to so much as look at them - he endures all of that and just takes it and let’s her do it. Because he understands that this is her current expression of: not being fine.

If she WAS fine, she would not be doing these things, and he knows that, and I think sees it as something like a storm to weather? It is something that will pass (he hopes) if he has the patience and the strength to wait it out. When she smiles at him? When she tries to make a JOKE out of what she’s doing? Out of the secrets that she’s been keeping from him - secrets like the fact that she was planning on going to the Eye of the World to die without him - THAT is not acceptable. She’s smiling at him and trying to joke with him as though they’re still capable of that - as though they can still tease each other the way they did, as though things are fine, both in herself, and between them, and they are NOT. When she’s treating him like a slave, or a stranger, or an annoyance - that is strangely better - because it’s this unspoken acknowledgement/agreement (the only one they’ve been able to achieve) that this is because things are not fine. She treats him badly because she’s not fine, he KNOWS she’s treating him badly because she’s not fine - is a strange kind of shared truth. Like sarcasm - something said/done where both parties know that the meaning/intent is completely different. Smiling, joking, pretending she’s fine? That is an insult, because he knows damn well she is NOT in that place.

Okay, so let’s look at the second instance of this, which occurs in episode 2 (oh how quaint) and is as follows:

L: “Then tell me! You and I have walked this path together. Every step, every choice, every sacrifice.”

M: “We have never walked this path together. You have never seen the forest for the trees because I have never shown it to you.”

L: “I know what you’re trying to do. You can’t push me away.”

Again, as with the previous scene, he tries to get her to talk to him, to stop keeping secrets from him, to share this with her and let him help her carry her burdens the way they always have. She puts him walls, she, again, tries to force distance - she tells him that they have never been together as he says. And he calls her out. AGAIN. He knows what she’s trying to do. It hasn’t changed. She’s still just doing the same thing she’s been doing from the start of episode 1 - trying to force him away, because she’s desperate, and she’s suffering, and she doesn’t have anything else but this - even if he knows what she’s doing, even if it hasn’t worked so far.

Both of them are guilty of this - both of them get one idea stuck in their minds of how to handle this situation/how to fix everything, and they both refuse to change. They both dig their heels in, plant their stakes, pick their hills to die on, and are refuse to budge for love, money, or common sense. For Lan it’s in trying to get her to talk, to open up, to push back on the destructive coping mechanisms she’s got - trying to force her to include him, tying to force her to include herself and come to dinner with them etc. For Mo it’s this: it’s pushing him away, because she is no longer worthy of him (and believes she never was) and protecting him.

(to continue this: unhinged adventure, pls continue under the cut!)

So she commits to this, even if she honestly knows it probably won’t work now, either. (she empties her entire quiver on him in this scene, and the atomic bomb she had in her back pocket too for good measure. These things she’s been holding back in reserve, the last cards to play - that she misled him about Rand’s death, that she has discovered they (and notice that she still says “we” when she talks about this - even though she went to the Eye alone, even though she made that choice alone, even though she rejects the idea that they have been together on this quest, as he says - when she is not actively choosing every word to hurt him, she thinks of them and what they’ve done as an unconscious “we” and a unit) have freed Ishamael/possibly other Forsaken - one after the other, meant to just overwhelm him and be the final coup de grace. And it STILL doesn’t work. She unleashes everything she has on him and he STILL insists that he’s not leaving her. And it’s because he knows - as he just said - what she’s doing, and why. And he will not let her. And he says that to her “I’m not letting you walk away from me again” - because the last time he did: she went to the Eye to get herself killed. And it’s only by some miracle and twist of cruelty that she was left alive to suffer instead.

Also I’m going to take a brief sidebar here, before we move on to Further Evidence/thoughts on this. But I think that it’s really important to consider LAN’S trauma in what he’s doing and why? Like, I think people are doing this for Mo already? They recognise that she wouldn’t be behaving this way if she 1)- wasn’t trying to protect Lan (her intention) and 2)- wasn’t suffering the effects of her trauma/being cut off from the Power at the Eye. Lan is a little less obvious (both in that his trauma is not a single fixed point/event that’s very obvious and easy to refer back to; and that he’s a bit less blunt Lan Mo’s “brick to the face” techniques and motivations) but, as I said at the start: his reactions to Mo are a direct reflection/window into his own trauma responses.

So, as I just mentioned - Lan is SO adamant about not leaving Moiraine, not giving her the opportunity to distance them/push him away - because the last time she did that, in just nudging him, like, an inch to the left, she used that to mask their bond and skip off into the Blight to go get herself killed with Rand. And there is: no doubt, and no question, and no room for wiggling or negotiation on this. They BOTH were FULLY aware that that was a suicide mission. The first thing he says to her when he finds her is “you’re alive” - because he was sure that history was repeating on him.

Because I think that it’s very important to not just consider Mo’s actions here, I think it’s important to remember Lan’s experience with Stepin as well. The two played out very similarly for him/parallel each other almost exactly. They both talked to him about Nynaeve, encouraging him to seek a love and a life with her. They both manipulated him/the circumstances to make it impossible for him to try and protect them - Stepin by drugging him, and Moiraine by masking the bond so he was unable to sense her, so that they could leave him. They both had clear plans and intentions - and both of their ultimate goals was for it to end in their death (obviously the REASONS behind this are very different - Mo was trying to save the world; while Stepin’s had already ended). But in both cases, Lan wakes up alone, realising that they’ve left him, realising, instantly, what they intend to do and in both cases: he was too late and he feels that he failed. Stepin he finds dead - and the only reason that he DOESN’T find that has happened to Mo is not because of something he did, it’s not because he got to her in time, it’s not because he protected her, it’s not because HE did anything at all - it’s just because some whim of cruelty decided to spare her. And these two events happen within, like, a week of each other I want to say? Like that’s…That’s an incredibly damaging and traumatising thing to go through ONCE - but back to back? How guilty must he have felt? How ANGRY with himself? Because how could he not have learned? How could he have let this happen AGAIN?

Of course he’s terrified now. Of course he’s terrified that if he leaves she’s going to die. Of course he refuses - past the point of any sense or reason - to just back down and leave. He is certain that if he does it will mean the death of the person that he loves the most in this world. And it will be HIS fault. She’s being cruel to him, she’s pushing him away, she’s ignoring him, she’s ordering him around, she’s deliberately pushing every button he’s got, and stabbing her knife in every sensitive spot she’s discovered over the last twenty years. And what kind of weak, selfish, useless person would he be to let that be all it takes for him to just say ‘well fine, I’ll just abandon you and let you kill yourself without me’. He cannot fail again. He WILL NOT fail again. He has been here, history is repeating on him again and he will not let it. Whatever she says to him. However she hurts him. Whatever he has to endure to weather this storm with her he will. Because none of this pain even comes CLOSE to what it will be like if he leaves her and she hurts herself and that is entirely his fault.

(Note: I do not actually think that Moiraine is actively suicidal at this point. As Verin notes - she chooses to fight every day. She wakes up, she fills her buckets, she puts one foot in front of the other and she clearly keeps going. It’s wobbly, and it’s messy, and she’s clearly grieving and depressed and traumatised - but she is not suicidal. Does LAN know that? Can Lan, without the bond, and with Stepin, and the Eye, haunting him even begin to scrape together the required rationality to see that? No. Lan sees Moiraine as being in just as much danger as she sees him being in and all he can do, all he has left to do in this world is protect her. And so he will).

To conclude the wrap of: the most painful breakup scene in the history of the world (for me and my present blorbos at this present moment in time, anyway) I want to just talk about the infamous “we were never equals”. And a lot of it has been covered, and I agree with the takes that Moiraine does not believe herself equal to Lan (and never did (SELF ESTEEM ISSUES!? IN MY CODEPENDENT PLATONIC SOULMATE RELATIONSHIP!? NOOOOO!!!!!!! NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)) and that is how she’s able to say this oath wise. I just want to touch on the fact that some people seem to be like ‘bro how can u not see what she’s saying DIRECTLY TO UR FACE, BRO!? COME ON LAN. LISTEN!!!!’ and like. So, to bring up a controversial and possible shocking observation: Lan is, in fact: still a human being! Emotions are messy, and logic is a fine and wonderful thing from a couch, yelling at your tv screen, and with the delightful ability to rewind and replay conversations/moments in time to be able to link them together nicely.

But Moiraine has been cruel to him for months at this point in an effort to drive him away. And, as discussed - he knows what she’s doing. He knows WHY she’s doing it. He is enduring it and putting up with it and stomaching it without throwing things at her because he knows it’s an expression of pain and is a reaction to what she’s been through. But he’s also hurt by it. Not least because: even if she’s only SAYING these things to hurt him/drive him away - she still believes them enough that they’re true for her to be able to actually get them out of her mouth. That HURTS. That’s going to break you down, that’s going to GET to you, that’s going to be thing that keeps him up at night and just echoes in his head over and over again and like - my man’s self-esteem and self-worth wasn’t actually sitting up at the peak of Dragonmount BEFORE 5 months of this, like dear Light people.

To have the person you love the most in this world tell you that “I don’t want my saddle to slip” (I don’t trust you to do this for me), to have her admit that she deliberately misled him, that she has actively kept important, possibly world-changing events from you, that she says, to your face - the thing that you are MOST afraid of, the thing that tormented him via Machin Shin, the thing that torments him still about Stepin - that he FAILED her? For her to believe that so firmly that it’s truth to her? Of course he doesn’t think he’s worthy of her? Of course he’s willing to take what she says at face value. SHE CAN’T FUCKING LIE!!!! And the set-up to this is so important, because she goes right for the jugular in this scene, and she does so repeatedly, in quick succession.

So she hits him with: ‘actually I lied when I said before that WE were going to the Tower - I’m going on my own without you. We yote a forsaken out into the world OOPS. -I refuse to explain anything to you. -We have never been walking this path together. -I have never showed you everything, I have always hidden things from you. -OH also ur lil sheepherder dude is actually: not dead and never was, I #lied to ur face abt that. -I am loyal to the Dragon - and ONLY him. -You can’t protect me anymore without the bond. -No, you’re not my Warder, you failed me, and I would be dead in spite of you if not for the help of people more competent than you. -ALSO here’s our good buddy Alanna and I am going to THREATEN TO HAVE HER TAKE YOUR BOND BY FORCE IF YOU KEEP REFUSING ME and I arranged this ahead of time to make this right. ALL of this gets dumped on his head in the space of LITERALLY AROUND TWO MINUTES. Like damn Mo the bloody Fades were less efficient than that.

He has just had all of that thrown in his face - the things she’s been holding back, keeping in case she needed them - her lying to him, her isolating him, her NEVER walking this path with him or ever showing him all that she saw, telling him that he is not her Warder anymore, that he has FAILED to protect her, that she will have him bonded against his will just to get rid of him. And he stands there on the ground, while she gazes down at him from on top of her horse (which she mounted - for the first time we’ve seen on screen - without his aid (which is a GUTTING little touch, because we see him smoothly and seamlessly help her mount a couple of times in season 1)) and she just says, to his face, the TRUTH, as he asked for: they were never equals.

And she can say that because she believes that he is better than her, and we know that, but can you blame him for not quite catching that in the moment????? She’s just told him that he’s a failure, that she’d be dead and he didn’t do a damn thing to protect her, that she will have someone bond him forcibly - and in this moment she just says what he’s been thinking for months, for YEARS honestly, given what machin shin torments him with “you can’t protect her. You’ll watch her die.” Of course he believes it. He is ALREADY taking an irrational level of responsibility over all of this, over what he perceives as his failures.

Adeleas calls him out for this and tells him he’s taking it too personally (and he IS) - he is assuming responsibility for not preventing something as though that means that he caused it. And again: this is a trauma response. This is an overreaction to a perceived series of circumstances that led to the death of a friend he’s had for possibly decades, to the one person he is supposed to protect, who he let go on a suicide mission alone so that he could get fucking laid, who he let slip away from him AGAIN to get attacked by Fades - where he failed her FOR A THIRD TIME. But like…He starts this little conversation off with her by apologising because he didn’t sense the Fades. He has: absolutely no way, reasonable or other ways, to sense INVISIBLE CREATURES THAT MOVE THROUGH SHADOW without the bond giving him the ability to do so. It’s a ridiculous thing to say. It has no logic to it at all and that’s the POINT. He is not capable of logic about this situation. He is blaming himself for everything - every single thing he can think of, whether it’s reasonable or not, is his fault, and his responsibility - he should have sensed the fades, he should have sensed her leaving, he should have stopped her going to the Eye, he should have stopped her from being cut off. He is trying to assert control, he is trying to assign blame and reason to the things that have happened to him - to the losses he has suffered - so that he can stop suffering them. And he can’t. He can’t. It happens over. And over. And over. AND OVER again. The trolloc blade that hit Moiraine in the Two Rivers and nearly killing her. Logain’s shield exploding and the axe handle piercing her side and nearly killing her. Being drugged by Stepin who killed himself while Lan was absent. Letting himself be distracted by Nynaeve while Mo went to the Eye. Missing Mo leaving AGAIN and her being attacked by the Fades. Actually getting there while the attack was in progress finally at LAST being able to DO something, to STOP something - and he can’t even fucking manage that. Over and over and over he fails people and he loses them and it’s his fault and he can’t stop it. He’s been retraumatised by circumstance, and is now retraumatising HIMSELF by adding even more perceived failings to the existing tally. Of course he believes her. He’s just been waiting for her to say that to him from the day they bonded. NO ONE IN THIS DYNAMIC HAS ANY SELF-ESTEEM. LIKE THEY STARTED WITH ZERO TOTAL AND SOMEHOW IT’S GOTTEN WORSE.

Okay so shifting focus slightly for the last thing I want to say about Lan, but still related, because: the problem (for me) is not that they cannot read/understand each other, it’s that they cannot COMMUNICATE with each other. And there is a distinction here. Lan’s issue is not lack of understanding where Mo is at - he sees her suffering, knows she’s not fine, understands she is reacting to the loss she endured at the Eye, he gets that. He’s known her for twenty years - bond or no bond - he knows what pain looks like when he sees it in her eyes. That’s not it. What he’s struggling with, and what he’s frustrated by is that they are not TALKING. He knows how she’s feeling - he doesn’t know what to do about that. He doesn’t know how to TALK about that with her. He doesn’t know how to fix it because she refuses to engage with it at all - and they’re SO bad at this that they don’t even get to the part where she can ignore him trying to talk abt the actual problem, bc she just nips it in the bud and ignores him/deflects him from the opening bland ‘small-talk’ set-up questions to start making forrays into that.

Because before all of that would have happened instinctively via the bond - she feels the bad feels, he knows why, he sends the required good feels back/makes her tea/gives her an extra blanket/just responds without having to think about and, and this is the key point: without having to talk. Because, let’s be real here: these idiots BOTH suck at talking about their emotions/needs. Genuinely think they would both just lie on the ground and fucking die rather than say ‘I need a bandage because I’m BLEEDING PROFUSELY FROM EVERY ORIFICE.’ Because they’re deeply repressed, traumatised people who were never given the tools/language/space they needed to be able to safely and healthily learn to express their feels (but that…is a different piece of meta for another day).

THE POINT IS: we’re now going to turn to my beloved, my man, my favourite, the myth, the legend, the ICON: Tomas and his tomatoes. And by this I do of course mean that we’re doing a deep dive of the scene where Tomas gives Lan some advice after they go out to the (absolutely THRIVING - good job my man) garden to pick some tomatoes for dinner (or at least….Tomas goes out to pick tomatoes for dinner; and Lan goes out to brood in his proximity while he does so. ) But eh. Tomayto, tomahto….) ANYWAY:

So this scene gives Lan a chance to talk about losing the bond - and I think that is important as well? Likely obviously Moiraine is Going Through It here, and Lan hasn’t been cut off from the Power/isn’t dealing with that experience but WE DON’T PLAY TRAUMA OLYMPICS IN THIS HOUSE!!! PAIN IS PAIN AND IT SHOULD ALL BE VALIDATED AND DEALT WITH IN A CONSTRUCTIVE AND POSITIVE WAY. Ahem. Anyway. It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: QUOTE TIME AGAIN;

“The bond made things easier. It was like a friend walking along with us chatting away so we never had to.”

I think this is a really interesting (and honestly fascinating) way to describe the bond - to personify it and see it as another individual existing between them and making things easier by doing the things that they both struggle to do - use their goddamn words.

“She’s tired, she’s hungry, she’s angry, she’s afraid. Now silence.”

This part, too, I think is really telling. Because if I had to put money on it and pick out the Top 4 Feelings Moiraine Is Having I think I could do a lot worse than ‘tired, hungry, angry, and afraid’. He KNOWS how she’s feeling. He can read that in her still. He doesn’t need the bond to tell him that. That’s not what he’s missing. He doesn’t need the bond to point out what she’s feeling to him, and he doesn’t miss that aspect, he misses the ‘chatting away’, he misses the noise, he misses the COMMUNICATION, and he is struggling with the silence.

THAT is what the bond used to do for them - it used to ‘chat away so they never had to’. A friend, a helper, who facilitated between them and allowed them to communicate when they couldn’t speak/didn’t have the words. We see this over and over and OVER again in season 1. They have whole ass conversations without making a single peep. Most notably in extremely tense or emotional moments - Kerene’s funeral and the look they share, Lan struggling with Stepin’s grief, coming to Moiraine, kneeling beside her, holding her hand - so much happens in that scene in particular. Without saying a word he communicates an exhaustion, a fatigue, a grief and a sorrow - a need for comfort and support - and she gives it. At Stepin’s funeral - the lookk that he gives her, the way he seeks her in the crowd, again needing her strength, which she gives to him through their bond and across a room. THAT’S what’s gone. That’s what he keeps trying to get back.

Because he gives her that same look - that same obvious cry for help and look of desperation at the end of ep 1 with the Fade battle. He is WRECKED he is DONE, he’s disarmed, he cannot stand, he can barely crawl - he NEEDS her, he needs her strength, he needs her help. She tries to channel - she reaches for the power, as she would once have reached for him through their bond - and it does not come. It is not there. It cannot help them. And the words that he speaks to her then echo a repeated sentiment he’s had for her throughout: “what aren’t you telling me?”

The bond isn’t there to talk for her anymore. And she refuses. Consistently. Verin and Adeleas comment on Bayle visiting - and Lan notes that she doesn’t tell him any more than she tells them. After Bayle is gone, Lan tries to small talk, he slaps on a casual little smile and he asks a mundane ‘let’s start the ball rolling on that conversation thing’ question, easy to answer, nothing tense, nothing painful, a very common “how did it go?” she ignores him. He presses further - asks who that person was? She gives him the bare minimum (and doesn’t answer the question he’s ACTUALLY asking) and then he tries to push again - what did she want. At which point she hits him with that fake smile and the ‘can an aes sedai not have her secrets?’ - and he’s not even really asking for much. He’s not asking what he actually wants to ask which is: how are you? Are you okay? What can I do? What do you need? What are you thinking? And this idea repeats - in ep 2, when he tries to point out it takes 8 aes sedai to cut someone off, she snaps that he has no conception of the power the forsaken have - so he snaps at her to tell him then. And she refuses.

They are both FEELING - and their feelings are seen. Lan sees how Mo struggles he sees how she shuts herself away, he sees that she’s not eating, and not sleeping, that she’s frustrated, and she’s frightened. Mo sees that she’s hurting him, she sees that he’s frustrated as well. They know this. But they’re not TALKING. They’re not COMMUNICATING. And at the dinner sequence - this is what Verin, Adeleas and Tomas try to give them advice about - their history is the “common language” that they are; maybe he needs to listen to what she IS saying and not try and demand her to say other things. They don’t know how to talk about things like this - they’re not good at that ANYWAY - but with each other? When they’ve never had to before? When for once, for the first time for both of them, it was effortless to share these things and communicate these deep insecurities and emotions that they struggle to give to others? THAT’S what they’re lacking and that’s what the biggest problem is.

Alright let’s leave poor Lan be for now, I have tormented him enough. On to Momo. This will (hopefully, dear god) be shorter, because people have covered Mo before. We know that she’s traumatised, we know she’s trying to push Lan away to protect him, we know she’s trying to regain control, she feels powerless, she feels helpless, she is trying to deal with something life-altering, something that made her vulnerable and helpless, she’s being reckless with her safety, she’s taking foolish risks etc etc.

The point I want to touch on here is the idea around her ‘manipulating’ Lan, because I usually see this go hand-in-hand with the Lan stuff I talked about already. Largely: how ironic that without the bond Lan doesn’t understand her/cannot read her, but Moiraine is doing it so well with him and i must: respectfully decline to go along with that perspective. And this is (I imagine u know what im going to say now) *inhales deeply* because they SUCK AT COMMUNICATING!!!!

It doesn’t really MATTER that he is trying to open her up/communicate that he loves her, and he’s there for her, and he wants to support her; while she is trying to communicate the same - she loves him, she cares about him, she wants to protect him. They are both: failing dismally. Lan’s incessant pestering of Mo to talk to him is just making her clam up more and more because she can’t and what’s more: she doesn’t bloody want to. She wants to shove her trauma under a rug in the corner of Verin’s study, and then she wants to drag a bookshelf over the top of it, and then she wants to fill the bookcase with books, and then she wants to put a whole bunch of extra things on top of the bookcase, and then she wants to flee the country and forget that any of that ever exists because she does not want to deal with it. And Lan keeps pushing. He keeps trying to make her talk, because he’s desperate, and he misses the chattering of their friend the bond, and he wants to help, her wants her to let him back in, and it’s just pissing her off. Which is what the cottage squad calls him out for (when will Mo get her ‘come to jesus’ talk?? For Fairness? Like i need this too).

So Lan is coming at this: far too softly, and far too indirectly in a lot of ways. He never asks about what he actually wants to ask about. He talks about the weather, or how shiny Aldieb’s coat is this morning, or how nice and red and juicy Tomas’s tomatoes are. He never actually just says what he wants to say which is: “I love you, and I’m worried about you, and I’m failing you more and more every day and I’m sorry and I need you” he pussyfoots around it and avoids it and lets her shut him down because that hurts and, well, he deserves that hurt so alright then.

And then there’s Mo. Who has managed to somehow twist the logic of the universe so that she can say “I love you” by, uh *checks notes*: Not saying anything at all/ignoring him. Or by saying things like “you failed me” instead. Because she is just THAT powerful. Okay I’m being a bit sarcastic here, clearly, but she has convinced herself (based on how her trauma is affecting her) that she: 1)- does not deserve Lan/is not worthy of him and so he should leave her so he can be happy and 2)- she needs to protect him and so he should leave her and go and be safe.

Maybe she tried to articulate this at some point? Sit him and down and be like ‘okay Allan so I know u have a lot of trauma abt, like, being abandoned/being left behind so ppl u love can go do themselves great harm but…it would REALLY be just swell for me if u left me all by myself while i go through possibly the worst things that’s ever happened to me: alone. Okay? Okay.” However I doubt this. Bc, as previously and repeatedly discussed: these two can’t communicate for SHIT right now.

I think she probably made some sort of roundabout suggestion? Like she didn’t directly say ‘you need to leave me because reasons’ but she probably…asked him to go the White Tower and watch over Nyn and Eggy, or maybe go with Perrin and the Shienarans to help, or even ‘hey remember Mat? The little scrungly one?? I wonder where he is’ and he just told her ‘absolutely fucking not’ (or words to that effect) so she had to try something else instead. Which is: being mean af.

So far so good and I think we’re all (relatively) in agreement to this point. But then people think…She’s being successful here? And she’s reading him well - largely because she knows EXACTLY what to say to hurt him? And yes, she absolutely does, I will 100% give you that. Blade directly to the heart each and every time, she never misses. HOWEVER. This is not the actual point. Causing Lan pain is not her endgame - it’s actually just the painful middle step that’s hurting her too to try and get her to her endgame.

Manipulation essentially involves doing ‘y’ (in this case being deliberately cruel/causing Lan pain) to make the person do ‘x’ (in this case: push Lan away and make him leave her), in theory/if it’s super successful: without the person realising that you’ve orchestrated this/making it seem like it was all their idea/decision. This is, uh, not working too great. It’s been 5 months and Lan is probably less likely to leave her now than he was when she started (because he now has 5 months worth of knowing that she is actively trying to get him to leave so she can do the Light only knows what and if that’s what she wants him to do while she’s in this state then it’s absolutely the last thing that he feels he should do - so in that sense this has actually backfired kinda spectacularly on Mo. Because: SHE’S COMMUNICATING JUST AS BADLY AS HE IS!!!!!!!!!! Just. On the COMPLETE opposite end of the spectrum to him. Because they’re drama and aesthetic that way.

And the added bonus content of this is: she CAN do this. She can (and does) manipulate people spectacularly well. Take Bayle for example (god she needed that little win SO badly, bless her and her buckets). She wanted: to see/examine the broken heartstone - but what is she actually going to DO with it? She doesn’t want to put it in a fancy display case or collect it, she wants to know WHY it broke. So what she ACTUALLY wants from him is information. Information such as: the poem. So she haggles with him on the thing she actually wants - makes him feel like he’s getting a win when he agrees to budge on that, far cheaper, item - but then he counters and says that he won’t move on the heartstone chunk itself - which she has no interest in. So she gets her essential infodump poem for a bargain price, and takes Bayle down like six pegs in the process. 10/10, excellently managed misdirection, making him do all the work and lowering the price of the poem so she didn’t even have to ask for it, and making himself look like a plonker into the bargain. Delicious. She CAN manipulate people - she just cannot manipulate Lan (not in this instance/about this anyway) because she’s as wrongfooted as he is, and is scrambling as much as he is without the bond, to try and find a language she never thought she’d need to try and speak with him.

And so if we now consider BOTH of them: they’re in this very weird space here, where the traumas that they have suffered, and the reactions they’re having are placing them in this fundamental position of opposition. Because their needs/the things they believe/have convinced themselves they have to do put them in direct conflict with one another. They’re like an immovable object meets an unstoppable force, right? And this idea reveals itself in several smaller ways - eg: Lan thinking that Mo needs company and to not isolate herself to get better; while for Mo that just feels completely intolerable and she wants to be alone and in Her Space, her study, where she is in control and can pretend to her visitors/informants that all is well and nothing has changed. But I think the biggest point it revolves around/where it’s most obvious is that, ultimately, their absolute overall goal is to protect the other person?

The difference/tragedy of this is that: Moiraine believes fundamentally that Lan is in danger WITH her, and that she has to make him leave in order to protect him. Lan believes fundamentally that Moiraine will be in danger WITHOUT him and that he has to stay in order to protect her. And this is the hill they’ve both chosen as their last stand/thing to die for. So she is going to push him and push him and push him, and she is going to hurt HERSELF by being crueller and crueller and crueller to him to protect him. And all the while he is going to endure and endure and endure and let himself be hurt to protect her.

AND THEN IT GETS WORSE (or better if ur twisted and u enjoy these kinds of parallels the way i do) because: they are both stubbornly trying to protect the other; but they’re also both feeling like they’re martyring themselves/are hurting themselves more and more to do so. She feels like he is being stubborn and forcing her to hurt him more and more every day - which she does not want to do - when he could just go, just let this end, just leave her the way she clearly wants him to! But this will make her stronger. She will be stronger for this, for having let him go, and for knowing that at least she managed to protect him. So she will just keep going - tomorrow, that will do it, he has to break tomorrow, he has to finally break tomorrow. And this goes on. The next day. Maybe the next day. The next–

And then HE feels like he is enduring, and that the pain she is inflicting on him is his cross to bear, and he has to endure it because he will NOT leave her, no matter what she throws at him. And it’s almost a test of his will and his love and his devotion (even though I think he knows it’s not: but it’s kind of become his own little personal quest. Because yes. Yes he SHOULD suffer this way. She SHOULD hurt him like this. He deserves it after how he failed her. He has to take this pain. He has to prove what he’s willing to go through for her, prove how dedicated he is, how much he will suffer for her, how even she cannot break him). And he too is thinking that next day it will get better. If he can just endure, just survive this onslaught, it will end. It will get better. She will get better. This will pass. He just has to prove his strength and last as long as he needs to in order to see that through.

And, to bring us back to the start of this extremely long and rambling essay I present you my final, deeply insightful, deeply professional, deeply ~meta~ thought which is that: they are BOTH. SO. FUCKING. S T U P I D!!!! (in a genuinely really interesting and complex and fascinating way, as i have hopefully discussed/explained - the idea that their lost bond/connection makes them mirror/echo each other but now in a destructive way? That instead of seamlessly and instinctively meeting each others’ needs they are both unconsciously and unintentionally triggering the other person’s trauma and making things WORSE? What an absolutely fascinating take/an incredibly subtle but profound way to show the depth of exactly what they’ve lost/how much it has affected them while ALSO rooting the entire thing in their individual traumas, experiences, and characters - like who ever wrote/conceived of this NEEDS A GODDAMN RAISE I SWEAR) But also yes they are: morons. Absolutely. Without a doubt. One singular moron brain cell that ping pongs between the two of them but is, fundamentally: the same. Absolutely fucking delighted. Can’t wait to see where this goes from here. Join me again in the future for me: ‘wow Rowyn that’s a whole lotta thoughts u got there buddy’.

Also I swear I’m friendly and I like engaging/talking with ppl! Pls feel free to comment/reblog/message!!! And do note that if u reblog i WILL read and appreciate ur tags bc im: one of those Old People.

OKAY BYEEEEEE!!!

#moiraine damodred #moiraine sedai #lan mandragoran #molan #wheel of time #wheel of time prime #wot #wotprime #wotspoilers #wotshowspoilers #rosamund pike #daniel henney #wheel of time season 2 #wot s2 #wot meta #molan meta #my meta #look at all dat trauma #once again pls remember this was: stream of consciousness written with no forethought or afterthought #so no planning no editing no HINGES #yes i AM aware that this is about to get DEVOURED by content/posts abt the new ep but u know what?#i didnt claim to be smart #i just claimed to be unhinged #anyway i had a gr8 time with this im sure you'll all deeply appreciate my angsty insights making this all: Worse #pls enjoy #also pray for the readmore cut #i know this is long as shit #i TRIED #i TRIED REAL HARD TO PROTECT Y'ALL FROM THE ENDLESS SCROLL #but tumblr is: not a functional website

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tobiasdrake · 3 months

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Of the Danganronpa casts, which 8 characters do you think would best fit the Adventure Crests?

Ooh, that is a fascinating question to think about. I can't do an episode of Digimon today because I'm back at work after two days off so I not only have a lot of backlog to attend to but also end-of-week reporting to shoot out.

But this is a fun idea for an exercise to keep my brain moving through the day.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Courage: Mondo Owada. Mondo's issues with masculinity map well onto the Courage template. He's brave and impulsive to a reckless degree, driven by a desire to prove himself. His life has been defined by the virtues embodied in the Crest of Courage, both for better and for worse as his reckless bravery ultimately got his brother killed.

Mondo's story ends in a betrayal of his virtue. In the equivalent of Dark Evolution consuming his Digimon and driving it to kill him. But even this supreme act of cowardice occurs because he is shamed by the courage that Chihiro demonstrates. The virtue that Mondo has strived to uphold.

Friendship: Junko Enoshima. That one's going to take some explaining, but weird as it is to think, Junko's entire gambit as the Mastermind is a dark inversion of the virtue of Friendship. She knows each and every one of these people intimately, and she cares. She has to care for their deaths to bring her the despair she seeks.

The entire Killing Game is a form of self-harm, as despair-obsessed Junko inflicts emotional scars on both her friends and peers, and on herself. It's just like when she stabbed Yasuke; It only works, it only gives her the emotional response she desires, because she cares so much and knows so much about each and every one of these people.

Junko herself has the Crest of Friendship. Which she has corrupted in pursuit of despair.

Love: Sakura Ogami. Sakura is driven by love. Though seen only as a powerful and dangerous ogre by others, it's love that motivates her every action. It's love for Kenshiro that leads her to work for Junko. It's love for the rest of her peers that leads her to betray Junko.

Even her death, her final act in this world, was done out of love. Her final moments spent with a candy in her mouth; A present from a beloved friend. Sakura has a bottomless capacity for love.

Purity/Sincerity: Hifumi Yamada. A Purity-bearer is someone who is emotionally honest and sincere in their presentation. They wear their heart on their sleeve; What you see is what you get. They are, in every moment and every interaction, their truest unfiltered self. For better or worse, they shower everyone they meet in unrelenting emotional honesty.

Hifumi is often difficult to be around. His obsession with his favorite magical girl gets uncomfortable at times. But it cannot be said that he has any sort of filter or that he's concealing any part of himself. Hifumi puts his true self out there in every waking moment, even when you kinda don't want him to. He's not ashamed of himself and he's not going to pretend to be anything he's not. As such, Hifumi embodies the Crest of Purity more than anyone.

Knowledge: Kyoko Kirigiri. I mean. Obviously. Obviously the Ultimate Detective has the Crest of Knowledge. Kyoko is driven to find answers. So much so that she let Makoto die (or almost die until Alter Ego saved him) so that her investigation could continue. There is nothing that motivates Kyoko more than her own curiosity and need to find the answer.

Sincerity/Reliability: Kiyotaka Ishimaru. It can be confusing that there's two Crests named Sincerity in different versions. But they refer to different kinds of Sincerity. The Reliability Crest is exactly what it sounds like. It's the team mom. The most trustworthy person among us. Someone who is dependable and responsible for everyone's wellbeing, who steps up to make sure we're all cleaning our rooms and eating right and making good choices. Or at least tries to.

Up until trauma cracks him in half, that's Taka in a nutshell. A hard-working and diligent believer in effort over talent, Taka futilely tries to be the glue holding this group together and create a sustainable community within Junko's wicked game. He fails miserably, but it's still an effort worthy of the Crest of Reliability.

Hope: Makoto Naegi. He's literally the Ultimate Hope; Who else would this be?

Light: Sayaka Maizono. The Crest of Light is always a hard one because it's more of a spiritual thing than physical. The Light-bearer experiences reality in a unique way. They represent the force of life itself and are attuned to spiritual affairs beyond the mortal realm.

For me, that could only fit superstar pop idol and inexplicable mind-reader Sayaka Maizono.

Kindness: Chihiro Fujisaki. While not appearing in 01, the Crest of Kindness was added in 02 so I think it counts. Obviously there is no one more suited to Kindness than Chihiro, who would sooner give blood to a mosquito than smash it.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Courage: Akane Owari. Akane is Courage incarnate. Every bit as heroic, impulsive, and reckless as any Goggles Boy. Ready to fight at a moment's notice but disinterested in putting real effort into personal growth. She once threw hands with Monokuma hard enough to get one of her teammates killed; If that's not Crest of Courage material then I don't know what is!

Friendship: Gundham Tanaka. For all his bluster, Gundham cares a great deal for other people. Though he's uncomfortable with human contact, he's devoted his life to building relationships with others, even if they are primarily animal in nature.

Indeed, Gundham himself is no island, no single man standing alone, at any given time. He is accompanied always by his Four Dark Devas of Destruction, working together as a team of five to accomplish any goal. Gundham understands the value of teamwork and companionship like no one else alive.

Love: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu. Though he tries to be the big bad gangster tough guy, the force driving Fuyuhiko has always been love. Love for his Ultimate Little Sister Natsumi and love for his dearest friend Peko, who he all but begged to deprogram from his family's conditioning.

Even before the Tragedy, Fuyuhiko had killed for love. In the Killing Game, he very nearly died for love.

Purity/Sincerity: Hiyoko Saionji. Again, she can be absolutely unbearable but for better or worse, she always puts forward her truest self. What you see is what you get with this foul-mouthed little bully who hurts animals and people for fun.

Knowledge: Sonia Nevermind. As the Ultimate Princess, Sonia is driven to learn much so that she can become a fair and just sovereign. The only reason she's even here is because she came to Japan to learn about the culture, and she also demonstrates a ravenous if amoral curiosity about macabre topics such as serial murderers.

Sincerity/Reliability: Nekomaru Nidai. As a coach, Nekomaru's dedicated to spending the very last years of his life to building people up. What time he has left in this world is his gift to the athletes training under him, and he will take a bullet for them in an instant. He is a responsible authority figure who selflessly and tirelessly works to build up everyone else, and for that reason he deserves the Crest of Reliability.

Hope: Nagito Komaeda. Again, this one's fairly obvious. He's a dark reflection of Makoto and Junko who embodies hope but in a twisted sort of way. Technically Izuru Kamukura gets called Ultimate Hope but that's just, like, the school administration's opinion, man. It's Nagito who has a complex relationship with the very concept of hope and so, I think, the Crest of Hope would go to him. Please use it wisely. (He won't.)

Light: Chiaki Nanami, of course. The digital human who serves in secret as one of the admins running the program, directly connected to the Neo World equivalent of Homeostasis.

Kindness: Mikan Tsumiki. This is another obvious one, I think. Of course the Ultimate Nurse gets the Crest of Kindness. Mikan struggles with her assigned virtue; she has some resentment in her, she's been abused so much she can't recognize positive reinforcement, and she enjoys the power trip of being in charge of others.

There is certainly a risk of a Darkness Evolution from Mikan. But I think those struggles only reinforce that importance and centrality of Kindness to her existence.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Courage: Tenko Chabashira. Tenko's a full-blown magical girl superhero. She's the Champion of Women, trawling city streets looking for rapists and abusers she can throw hands with.

In the Killing Game, she ticks all the boxes. Impulsive? Check. Reckless? Check. Heroic? Check. Does things without thinking to both the benefit and detriment of those around her? Check check check!

Friendship: Kaito Momota. Kaito well and truly believes that friendship and bonds of togetherness are how we're going to get through this alive. He's a serial adopter of isolated people, dragging anyone who doesn't have a friend into his own social group where he pushes them to become the best version of themselves.

In fact, his greatest flaw is having too much faith in people, blinding him to the darkness inside of them.

Love: Maki Harukawa. Furious though she would be to receive this Crest, Maki's capacity for love influences much of her story. Child caregiver for her orphanage, she became an assassin so that someone she loved wouldn't have to.

As the Killing Game progresses, Maki's capacity for love finds her again. Love is what drives some of her biggest and most influential actions.

Purity/Sincerity: Miu Motherfuckin' Iruma, shit-for-tits! If this were the Crest of Innocence, it'd be Gonta for sure. But this is about unfettered self-expression, and Gonta has to remind himself to conduct himself gentlemanly. He has fetters.

Miu, however, does not. Every last stray impulse or thought that hits her brain comes straight out of her mouth, even when it definitely shouldn't. She is honest and sincere self-expression incarnate, like no other.

Knowledge: Shuichi Saihara. Like Kyoko, this one's a no-brainer. Though he's reluctant to commit to the role, the Ultimate Detective is here to uncover the truth. His relationship with curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge defines his story throughout V3.

Sincerity/Reliability: Kirumi Tojo. Do I even need to explain why? The Ultimate Maid is the ultimate caregiver for all of these children. She is the pillar that makes living here sustainable, even comfortable. And she does it all without a single complaint. Caring for others is what she lives for.

Hope: Kaede Akamatsu. Though she isn't with us long, Kaede carries hope in her heart so strongly that it ultimately kills her. There is no greater gesture of hope in the entirety of V3 than Kaede's desperate gamble to try and corner the Mastermind. She risked it all on the belief that she could end everything right then and there.

She was wrong. But her effort earns her the Crest of Hope.

Light: Angie Yonaga. Cult leader and possibly oracle, Angie's life is downright haunted by her spirituality. She is already (allegedly) the vessel of Atua; She's the perfect choice for the vessel of Homeostasis.

Kindness: Gonta Gokuhara. This is the Crest that belongs to Gonta. Gonta is a gentle giant who loves all things big and small, but especially small. Though he can be scary at times, he means you no harm. He just wants you to meet his bugs. He loves bugs and he wants you to love bugs too.

Ultimate Team

So, of the three sets, who best embodies the virtue of their Crest? Let's assemble the team.

Courage: Akane Owari. Mondo ultimately falls short of his values. Tenko does a better job of it, but she's also terrified of pain and cracks easily under pushback, which holds her back from being a true icon of Courage.

But Akane gives zero fucks. She is, in every moment, the person that Mondo and Tenko aspire to be. Bold and headstrong to a fault, Akane Owari is officially the Goggles Boy of this team.

Friendship: Kaito Momota. Junko is hahaha no. Her subversion of the Crest's values pretty much disqualify her. Gundham and Kaito are close. However, while Gundham has a wealth of animal friends, he struggles with direct human-to-human interpersonal contact which costs him.

Kaito, meanwhile, is able to embrace the values of Friendship with open arms. An incorrigible friend-maker and support system for every introvert he kidnapped into his orbit, Kaito is a friend to all and a pillar that can always be leaned on for support, through thick and thin.

Love: This was a close one. Sakura, Fuyuhiko, and Maki all have their strengths, and they all perform incredible feats of love. Honestly, they all deserve the Crest equally. I agonized over this choice. But if I have to have to pick one, then I'm going to go with Maki. Because it's funnier that way.

Purity/Sincerity: Miu Iruma, queen of the overshare. Hifumi and Hiyoko are in-your-face with their personalities and proclivities too, but I feel like Miu goes above and beyond in the field of shameless, unapologetic self-expression.

Knowledge: Kyoko Kirigiri. Though Shuichi's story revolves heavily around deconstructing the pursuit of knowledge, he is by design a pale and unwilling imitation of Kyoko. Sonia's boundless curiosity puts her closer to Kyoko, but there's simply no competing with the Ultimate Detective in the field of pursuing knowledge.

Sincerity/Reliability: Nekomaru Nidai. Ultimately, Taka and Kirumi both crack under pressure, but Nekomaru holds true to his values to the bitter end. This is a man who would give everything for his athletes, and he puts his money where his mouth is twice over.

Hope: Makoto Naegi. Ultimate Hope. Contrary to the way later entries treat him, Makoto did not singlehandedly defeat Junko by shooting lightning from his eyes and disintegrating her. But he was the inspiration at the eleventh hour that burned away despair and made her defeat possible.

A triumph the series has never managed to truly recapture, despite two separate attempts.

Light: Chiaki Nanami. As the conduit to a digital god, it's hard to find someone more appropriate than a humanoid AI. You might think that should disqualify her from being a Chosen Child but I support AI personhood and also something something DR3 retcon says there technically was a real Chiaki so AI Chiaki can just use her Partner and Digivice. Nyeh!

Kindness: Oh fuck me, this one's pretty evenly split too. Chihiro, Mikan, and Gonta all deserve this slot on the team. I can't decide between them. So... I'm going to choose....

Hm, we have three DR2 and three DRV3 to two DR1 in this group. Alright, I'll give this to Chihiro so the numbers can be even. I didn't plan on it being even. But this would make them even and that's pretty neat.

Alright, there we have it. Three teams of Chosen Children and one Avengers-style Ultimate Chosen Children team. Holy shit, that was a hell of a thing. ^_^

#digimon #digimon adventure #danganronpa #danganronpa 1 #danganronpa 2 #danganronpa v3

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