#v3 a father dies for his children but a mother might even kill for one of them v Misaria

[lvgvs]

Rikar Brevil lounched himself onto a barrel at the edge of the training grounds, back against the wall, straw locked between his lips. Sky could feel the Khoisani's eyes upon them but he was not sure if the other followed the soldier's steps so carefully or those of the prince in front of him. 

Another sigh, another wrong move. If this had been a real fight he might have been able to disarm Lysander within minutes, but he was holding back, chosing each step carefully. He was here to protect the prince and not hurt him in a training session. This had been a terrible idea to begin with. Sky did not understand why Lysander had been so hellbend on sword-training. He was too new at court to pick up on the subtle changes in mood and direction the people here went through. He had not been here during the assassination attempt but if he was any good at judging characters he might grasp the meaning behind Lysander's anger to some small extent. Yet still, this place was different than Alfea, and when a new King ascended the throne rules were bound to shift.

By the gods, he missed home. 

It was only a split second, a memory that flashed before his eyes, but it was enough to give the man in front of him an opening and - to his surprise - Lysander used it, sword coming forward. Sky managed to block the other's move in the last moment and a grin appeared on his face. This was still far from training with Riven back at home, but it was getting closer to a real test of his skill. 

"He's holding back, Lys", Brevil shouted at them from afar, disdain clear upon his tongue. The prince stepped back, tip of his sword sliding through the dirt. He seemed disappointed. 

Sky felt an urge to vindicate himself, but here it was not his time to speak, here he was only a soldier. He had to wait until Lysander spoke first. After all the blonde in front of him would be king in a matter of days. 

"I need to train", Lysander finally said apparently now lost in his own memories, "I need to be better prepared..."

"Kervan would disagree with this as much as soldier-boy", Brevil was on his feet now, beside them in a few heartbeats. His eyes wandering from one to the other. Sky did not like these eyes, they knew too much, more than him. And he was a guardsman, he was supposed to know things, to understand them. 

Silva would be disappointed. 

This seemed to be his chance to change the subject, get out of this dreadful situation and so Sky chimmed in: "I am sure Sir Kervan would have been a way better sparing partner than me, my lord, I truly regret that I could never meet him. But even when I am sworn to follow your orders, I must hold back - here and now - so no harm can come to you"

"You think you can beat me so easily?", his tone was still hard but there seemed to be the shadow of a smile hiding in the corner's of his lips as Lysander spoke. 

Sky tilted his head, pondering on a reply, "I was trained to kill, my Lord, not to play pretend"

Beside him Brevil sucked in air and chuckled. He feared he had angered the prince but instead Lysander now smiled for sure. "And who has trained you, if I might ask?"

"I was trained at Alfea", the reply came quick and short, a question he was proud to answer. For only the best, the strongest, the bravest, went through Alfea's education. It was a badge of honor, the only thing he had to his name so far from home, yet still tainted by the shadow of the one that came before him. 

"We know that", Brevil scoffed, "But by whom?"

"Headmaster Saul Silva trained me", Sky did his best to keep gaze and attention on the prince, "He basically raised me after my father died"

There was a moment of silence and then Lysanders questioning voice again: "Your father passed away? How old were you?"

Sky swallowed the pain, it was dull and shallow, worn out after years of use, "I was a child, too small to remember him. He was a war hero, and I am proud to be his son" How many times has he parroted these words already? How many times has he told the stories, the pieces and bits they allowed him to know? My father is a shadow, more legend than human. But he never said those words, never spoke the truth. 

"I see", there was something in his eyes, Lysander turned away too fast for Sky to really see, but it seemed as if stormclouds were slowly creeping into the blue. Rikar saw it, too, for he gave their future king a mysterious glance. 

Sky did not understand, but he was not here to understand. Silva's voice, the voice of his father, echoed in his head, a soldier must follow his orders. Always. And so he rolled his shoulders back, hand on the pommel of his sword, and followed Lysander, no matter where they were going. 

[fyeahfantasticfour]

Do you have any favorite moments between Sue and her kids, especially her and Val? While I love the moments Reed shares with them I think that writers often overlook moments between the kids and Sue, usually giving her the usual things you see from Moms in media. I think they are usually not as good or focused on as Reed's are unfortunately. I would love to be proven wrong!

I genuinely don’t think that giving too little attention to Sue as a mom is a problem in canon at all. The exact opposite, really. Until very recently, most if not all of her solo storylines revolved either around her relationship with Reed or with Franklin – i.e., her roles as wife and mother. In the 1960s, there were far too many moments where Reed, Ben, and Johnny would ride off into danger and get to be heroes while Sue was left home minding the baby. That definitely started shifting in the 1970s, but I’d say that even in more recent runs there tends to be more of a focus on Sue as a wife and mom and less on her as explorer, adventurer, and CEO. There needs to be a balance between the two, and not many writers have managed to strike it. Reed receives the opposite treatment – there’s more of a focus on-panel on him as a scientist and less on him interacting with his kids, even though we know he regularly puts them to bed, reads them bedtime stories, goes to all of Franklin’s Little League games, homeschools his kids, takes them on fun family trips, took turns feeding Val when she was a baby, etc. Personally, I would like it if they switched that around in future FF books and Sue’s life outside her family got more focus — she runs Fantastic Four, Inc, and numerous charities and is the Queen of Old Atlantis, after all — and Reed as family man got more focus. He homeschools all of his kids — he spends A LOT of time with them. Arguably more than Sue does, since she’s busy running a company and financially supporting everyone. 

But there really are so many storylines, going all the way back to the 1960s, that focus on Sue as a mom.

Fantastic Four v1 #94, where Reed and Sue name Franklin after Sue’s recently deceased father:

This is really just here because I think it’s hilarious that it took Reed and Sue maybe like ten issues to come up with a name for Franklin…AFTER he was born. I mean. Guys. You had nine months to come up with a name. You couldn’t have done it BEFORE he was born? It’s not like he popped out of Sue with no warning.

And then there are forty issues or so featuring a lot of cute moments between Sue and Franklin when he was an infant and also Sue’s growing suspicion that he was not exactly unsuperpowered. 

Sue notices that Franklin might have powers before anyone else does – although Agatha repeatedly tries to throw her off the scent. Why Agatha did that, I could not tell you. Sue and Reed deserved to know the truth about their own baby, Agatha. Definitely they deserved better than finding out from Annihilus when he trigged Franklin’s powers prematurely and turned him into a living battery/solar-system-destroying bomb. Those were not fun times.

Cut for length.

Fantastic Four v1 #107, where Sue walks up to baby Franklin while invisible, planning on surprising him, and he somehow knows she’s there:

Fantastic Four v1 #111, where Franklin mysteriously knows his dad’s in trouble:

Fantastic Four v1 #134, where Sue and Franklin are abducted by Dragon Man and she gets very overprotective – this is the first time, I think, that we see Mama Bear Sue make an appearance, although later on Sue as fiercely overprotective of her kids becomes a thing:

Then there’s Fantastic Four v1 #181-187, where Franklin is kidnapped by Agatha and later Agatha’s son, Nicholas Scratch, and Sue is the one who moves heaven and earth to get him back.

It starts in Fantastic Four v1 #181 when Agatha kidnaps Franklin, and Sue unsuccessfully tries to stop her:

In Fantastic Four v1 #186, Reed and Sue track down Franklin, but Scratch takes him again, and Sue goes berserk:

Then there’s a sweet moment in Fantastic Four v1 #203, where Sue makes Franklin chocolate chip cookies, and Johnny complains that Franklin will never find a woman to equal her:

Marvel Team-Up v1 #88, where Franklin is kidnapped and Sue teams up with Spider-Man to get him back, and let’s just say she isn’t particularly happy with the kidnappers when she finds them:

Fantastic Four Annual v1 #14, where Franklin helps Agatha save his parents and uncles from Scratch and the Salem Seven:

Fantastic Four v1 #222 has some very adorable moments between Franklin and Sue where they’re playing horsey and hide-and-seek, although it all goes wrong when Franklin is possessed by Nicholas Scratch:

I’m not the only one who thinks Franklin is WAY too enthusiastic about watching his parents kiss, am I?

And Sue goes berserk when Scratch possesses Franklin, and she even threatens to kill him if he doesn’t give her baby back:

Fantastic Four v1 #245, where Franklin’s powers go haywire and he turns himself into an adult – with no memory of who he is – and Sue is the only one who recognizes him:

In Fantastic Four v1 #268, Sue miscarries Valeria, and she’s devastated – there’s actually quite a lot of focus given to Sue’s grief over the loss of her child:

Again in Fantastic Four v1 #269, working through her grief and the devastating news that she can never have another child:

Fantastic Four v1 #270, where Franklin comforts her after she destroys Reed’s lab in a burst of anger and frustration:

Again in Fantastic Four v1 #274, where she walks into the nursery that was meant for baby Valeria and collapses in grief:

Mephisto Vs… #1, where Sue takes on Mephisto after he abducts Franklin and leaves Reed a mindless vegetable:

Fantastic Four v3 #22 revolves around Sue’s relationship with a teen version of Valeria who mysteriously appeared out of the blue and is seemingly the child of Sue and Doom (she’s actually Reed’s – it’s complicated). Sue doesn’t want to accept that Valeria is her daughter, and Valeria is hurt at the rejection:

Until Val is attacked by Crusher Creel, Titania, and a mind-controlled Ben and Jen, and Sue rushes to rescue her daughter:

And then Sue finally accepts Val as her daughter:

There’s a cute moment between Sue and Val in Fantastic Four v3 #24 where they talk about Aunt Marygay, which is maybe the only time anyone has ever talked about her:

Fantastic Four v3 #54, where Sue finally successfully gives birth to Valeria, which is very difficult and extremely painful for Sue. I mean, she almost dies and Doom delivers Val…and Sue does not like Doom very much. And after reading Secret Wars I, can I just say that I’m very sad that Reed missed Val’s birth, because he wanted very desperately to be there for it (he was abducted by rogue Inhumans and JUST missed it):

Fantastic Four v1 #501-502 is GREAT – Sue tries to help Franklin work through his trauma after being thrown into Hell by Doom and tortured by demons. He refuses to talk and keeps drawing the horrible things he saw while he was in Hell, over and over:

On my list of truly awful, unforgivable things Doom has done, tossing an innocent, 6yo boy into Hell just to hurt his parents is definitely pretty far up there…although it isn’t like this is the first time he tried that. 

Fantastic Four v1 #527-532 focuses on Sue trying desperately to keep Child Protective Services from taking her kids away:

The Pulse #11, where Carol arranges a lunch between Sue and Jessica Jones, who’s about to give birth to her own superpowered child, so that Sue can give her advice and talk about what being a superhero mom is like:

In Fantastic Four v1 #558-562, we see an elderly Sue from hundreds of years in the future interacting with Val, who is the only one who realizes who she is. This is also the moment when we discover that Val inherited her father’s genius:

In Fantastic Four v1 #565, where Sue’s just the tiniest bit upset with a tentacle monster who tried to eat Val:

Dark Reign #4, Sue defending Franklin and Val from Norman Osborn:

Fantastic Four v1 #581-582, where an adult, future version of Val visits her mother to warn her and give her advice about the dark days that are fast approaching – this is right before Johnny’s death:

Fantastic Four v4 #1 – this is a cute moment, where Sue checks in on all of her sleeping kids and comforts Franklin, who’s been having prophetic nightmares:

Fantastic Four v4 #4, where Franklin has another nightmare, and Sue ends up comforting both her kids:

Fantastic Four v5 #1, where Val’s in Latveria because she’s angry at her parents, and Sue misses her:

And then she has to deal with her supergenius kids who have made a ray that turns things into chocolate:

Fantastic Four v5 #5, where all of her children are taken away by court order, which she doesn’t handle well:

Fantastic Four v5 #6 and #8, where she takes out her anger over the loss of her kids on the Avengers:

Then there’s Fantastic Four Annual v5 #1, where Sue travels to Latveria to get her little girl back and ends up fighting Doom and all of his armies for her:

But Val refuses in the end:

Until she decides to go back home in Fantastic Four v1 #642:

And there’s a very sweet story at the end of Fantastic Four v1 #645 that shows Sue comforting Franklin:

As you can see, I was not exaggerating. There are A LOT of stories about Sue being a mom. 

[animorphs-liveblog]

this one goes out to the cool dude who requested i review book 2 as a whole *finger guns*

it was fucking phenomenal.

like. ok. you probs want more detail than that, but,

ok. jesus. where to even start. so, admittedly, it lost me a lil in the beginning. i mean, i understand!! it’s for children, and it’s written with the assumption that maybe you dont have access to the first book(which is great!! because children often DONT have control over which books they can access, so allowing them to benefit from your series with some VERY brief and honestly decently-crafted exposition is awesome, and framing it as each character telling their version and understanding of events is BRILLIANT to working towards characterizing everyone, and also making the same information palatable to repeat-audience, and also informing you of who knows what! so if they keep this format, as things go on and secrets are inevitably kept, it’ll become VERY interesting seeing the same situations from different perspectives, from people who hold entirely different puzzle pieces! so it’s all good!!!) but holy jesus mother of CHRIST ALMIGHTY does the recap fucking MURDER me each and every time!!! my adhd ass cannot Handle it and i start to skim because im a big weenie baby

but i can acknowledge that it is completely functionally sound, is solidly crafted, and lends itself well to a unique and interesting writing style. it isn’t badly made or poorly constructed in any sense, it’s just a Thing that happens not to click exceedingly well with my personal reading style

i really, really loved how much the book expanded on like… like what its like to be morphed. as in, mentally, that you have multiple consciousnesses(theres a fuckin scrabble word for ya lmao) that are not only vying for dominance, but also have murky boundaries. the cat and rachel are distinct, but when she morphs she becomes the cat AND rachel. almost like two bodies of water sitting next to each other have suddenly been merged, and the water can flow back and forth seemlessly, and it’s very hard to tell sometimes where one begins and the other ends, but they are inherently distinct(in a way)

or maybe even- like two ponds next to each other, and theres a small hole in the wall separating them. but the longer you stay like that, the more you force water through the crack in an effort to get control, the more you WIDEN THE HOLE, which eventually results in a melding that can’t be undone; i.e. tobias. his “pond” and the bird’s “pond” have mixed so thoroughly you could never hope to separate their consciousness. you can put droplets of blue and yellow food coloring in a glass, and MAYBE you could very carefully scoop them back out, but if you slowly stir it, the water will turn green and there’s no turning back

i also like the way animals and their emotions are represented… sort of. this happens more in book three, but like, occasionally there’ll be some statement about how animals just “dont have those feelings[mourning, grief, missing someone, intense sadness]” and i… ok, these books were written a while ago, and these are CHILDREN who might not have a strong enough grasp on their own feelings to entirely understand the animal’s feelings and how they’re different!! but we KNOW animals mourn. many species bury their dead. koko the gorilla spiraled into a depression when her baby died, and got better once she was told she was getting another baby… but then what she got WASNT HER ORIGINAL BABY, and she got angry, she wouldnt accept it, BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT THAT SOMEHOW WE HAD BROUGHT HER BABY BACK AND FIXED IT, AND SHE WOULD GET /HER/ BABY BACK(im going to cry btw?? im Big Baby and im going to cry?????) and i just… i know thats a fairly obvious case of a Smart Animal but i just refuse to believe that animals cant mourn. maybe they mourn differently, maybe it would feel different, i’ll accept that, and i’ll even accept “this specific species cannot feel xyz”, but i just refuse to accept “animals dont mourn” because you are telling me a Lie right to my Face

OK WELL IVE DONE ENOUGH TALKING AROUND THE ISSUE. TIME TO GET INTO THE ACTUAL MEAT OF THE STORY

SO. IT WAS INCREDIBLY FUCKING POWERFUL. like, it did everything it needed to and more to win my heart and convince me of just how high a caliber applegate was/is writing at. i mean, just… the nuance of the morality of the yeerks, the incredible lengths the chapmans go to to protect their daughter, how deeply melissa’s pain was and how brilliantly it was portrayed, the way rachel deftly comforted her friend in the only way that could truly keep her safe AND save her from her suffering even if only in the smallest of ways, the deeply scared and flawed and NOBEL rachel who knows what she must do and doesnt care how scared it makes her because she can do this. it isnt much but she can die silently, this is something she can do, she can die with the biggest FUCK YOU burning in her heart as she forces her mouth and her brain into complete silence, she is ready, good lord she will go down fighting even if it looks like silence because her defeat is the possibility of victory, because she knows this, because of melissa and her parents and rachel’s parents and because of tobias and jake’s brother and every single person who had to suffer through the feeling of their llved one slipping away and they dont know why this is happening, and because FUCK. VISSER. THREE.

the only POSSIBLE complaint i can truly lobby against the book is that i believe in rachel’s note to melissa, she says “your FATHER loves you”, which is true!! and it makes sense to highlight just how incredible it was that he was able to stand up to v3 just because of how much he loved her… but the mother fought back as well. she was weaker, but that doesnt make her fighting any less impressive because SHE TRIED TO CHOKE HERSELF TO DEATH

MELISSA’S MOTHER TRIED TO KILL HERSELF BEFORE SHE ALLOWED THE MONSTER CONTROLLING HER BODY EVEN A CHANCE TO HURT HER DAUGHTER

melissa’s mother fought against the yeerk in her brain and wrapped her own fingers around her own goddamn neck and squeezed with the intention of DYING. she loves her daughter so much she was ready to die, and he loves his daughter so much he’s prepared to LIVE- live through hell, live through being a traitor to humanity, ready to live in a box in the back of his own mind. they both love her more than words could ever even hope to express

ok well i’m done for now because i made myself cry and now my nose is all runny and gross??? so. yeah. i’ll add more thoughts if/when they come to me