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hawkland · 3 years

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(Mostly) Destiel Fic Recs #5

This is a LONG recs post because it’s been a while since I did an update and I fell hard into reading one author’s work (DeanRH). In fact I could easily do a rec post just of their fics alone, but for this round I’m just going to pick out a handful of my absolute favorites so far, the ones I’d recommend to start out with, along with more other authors’ works I’ve especially enjoyed lately.

Absolution at the Five-and-Dime by DeanRH (125k) - this is perhaps THEE DeanRH fic to start with if you want a good, long read with a little bit of everything (Roadtrips! Intriguing casefic! Americana! Tasty Dean/Cas pining! Wing!kink and unique angel lore! Kinky soul fisting and tentacles!) It’s kind of two of parallel stories in one: the first, a flashback to Dean and Sam's first year hunting on their own (as well as trying to avoid hunting, and John in general); the second on how Dean and Cas finally get together during an unusual case and when Dean is able to really let go of his past trauma and accept himself/accept love from Cas.

What I love about DeanRH’s work is that they write from the unique point of view of a drifter, so they understand living on the road, traveling place to place, and the highs and lows of that life like no others I’ve encountered in SPN before. (The author’s notes are often as much fun to read as the stories themselves). They also write a kickass angel!Cas and never lose sight of his non-human traits and background. Their writing style is unique - almost poetic in nature, and I know some readers have found it difficult to get into. But it works really well for me in their SPN fic...gives it the flavor of oral story telling as might actually happen at a drifter’s camp (with one story written exactly as such). Be warned this particular fic does play up the idea of John Winchester being mentally abusive and Dean having to turn tricks when he was younger in order to support him and Sam, so there is some dark stuff. But as someone who grew up with mentally abusive parent, reading this was extremely cathartic to me and believably written (unlike some stories that go too over the top with abusive John, or just don't understand how that kind of abuse leaves lifetime psychological scars.)

The rest of this round’s recs below the cut.

Carnevale by DeanRH (18k) - Actually the first fic by this author I read, because I just couldn’t resist a story set in my favorite place in the world, Venice, Italy. Castiel is the Angel of Venice, banished there for so long he does not even know or remember the reasons why. But Carnevale season is the one time a year he can let his wings out - figuratively and literally. And during this particular Carnevale season, he meets an intriguing masked young American tourist there with his brother and their one night stand turns into something far more powerful than either expected. This one’s hot, romantic, and achingly sad at the end as it all ties together unexpectedly with canon-verse...though with a hint for the future so it’s definitely not totally sad. I loved how DeanRH clearly understands Venice as a fellow lover of the city, the side of it most tourists never see unless they spend a long time there. This story made me cry just from wanting to be back in Venice again.

Ice cream was sweeter, food more satisfying, everything was an epicurean delight. There was just something magical about Venice, and he had lived here in the city for hundreds of years, so the shine should have worn off by now.

But it didn't, and there was always something more, something wonderful to discover around the next corner. The painted eaves of a church. The beauty of two women dancing with flowers in their teeth across the Piazza San Marco one day, overcome by the sheer joy of just being there. The way the university students still created Venetian masks, like Castiel's extravagant volto mask and Dean's humble servetta muta, with crafts that had been handed down across the generations. The morning silence that lay against the stones.

Hard Landing by DeanRH (26.9k) - A bit similar in theme to Carnevale. A pre-series Dean and Sam are sight-seeing in Spain when an angel, struck by a babel-spell, crash lands right in front of Dean. A strange yet seriously hot encounter with the angel turns into something much more complicated when the brothers return home and realize something more serious is afoot and they are both trapped in the middle of it. This is another story where things are very much not as they seem at first (as fun as that is!) It features master strategist Cas at his best, with a side helping of delightful trickery care of Gabriel and Balthazar as they deal with Lucifer, Michael...and a few others along the way.

The Sacred Band of Thebes by DeanRH (14.5k) - The last DeanRH fic I’m gonna allow myself to include in this round up, because it’s just very soft and sweet and beautiful - for a story about Dean & Cas being magically transported back in time to ancient Sparta! This is another story infused with a great knowledge of place and history, with some wonderfully delightful original characters added in that make it all the more enjoyable to read.

And now on to some other authors, I promise!

IPAMIS OL OLPRIT by emmbrancsxx0 (56k). A really wonderful fic that take a different look at what might have happened with a temporarily resurrected John Winchester during Season 14. Dean & Cas are in an established relationship here, and John here isn’t too happy about it — though mostly because he sees Cas (and Jack) as monsters, the kind of monsters he spent his lifetime hunting. This is a great fic for the emotional complexity of how John, Dean and Cas are all handled. John isn’t a cardboard evil dad, Dean is struggling between his loyalty to his father and to Cas, and Cas is increasingly bitchy/frustrated at Dean still being so desperate for his father’s approval (and all the more complex for not just being a quietly suffering perfect supporting boyfriend.) There’s some great action sequences in this too along with the emotional angst and a delicious dose of hurt!Cas if that’s your thing (as it is for me :D)

Abrenuntio by Neonbat (51k). A very dark but compelling AU take on the/a apocalypse universe. Dean, Sam and John are all alive in this post-angel war-apocalyptic world. They are part of a group of human survivors fighting against the angel army when they manage to capture “Blue” — a particularly feared angel of death. Dean is tasked with bringing Blue in for interrogation and he becomes a prisoner in their camp after John is killed. As mentioned, this is a pretty dark/sad fic (with some rather gruesome torture scenes) but I still found it quite compelling as a look at how things could have gone in some other parallel universe. And somehow the author manages to make the Dean/Cas relationship come together despite them starting out as complete enemies. This is one of those AUs that works for me because the core of the characters really shine through despite the differences in the setting.

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow by spocklee (37k) - a gorgeous post-Empty rescue fic that takes an approach I haven’t really seen explored in detail before (despite being something I’ve actually thought about as something that could’ve happened.) What if Cas has spent so long denying himself happiness, and then trapped in regrets and false-rescue scenarios created by the Empty, that he can’t trust that his rescue is real? And so he runs off to be on his own - literally stealing the Impala because he can’t handle being in Dean’s presence one moment longer - and only slowly comes to terms with the idea that it’s over now and he can be happy with/around his friends and family. This one’s both deliciously angsty and at times funny/sweet, looking at Cas’s relationships not just with Dean but with Sam, Jack, Claire, even Eileen. It does some fun stuff with other returned angels and demons who now find themselves back on Earth (and human), and...I just really enjoyed this one a lot.

Both Saved and Lost by angelfishofthelord (13.7k) Gen Cas character study, absolutely gorgeous and sad and one of those fic I couldn’t stop thinking about the day after reading it. AU where Apocaverse!Cas isn’t immediately killed by our Cas during 13x22 but instead hitches a ride back to the main ‘verse. Dean and Sam want to keep him alive for information on Michael; Cas is torn and trying to figure out just how similar—or different—they really are. Some great angel stuff here (I also highly recommend this author’s Jack & Cas “dadstiel” fics, they’re equally lovely and heartbreaking at the same time.)

flesh of the mighty by Mudprophet (2.7k) - THEE “What exactly did Dean eat in Purgatory, anyway?” fic you’ve probably already heard about. *cough* I’ve been trying to work up the courage to read this one for a while and finally gave in and OH MY CHUCK I’m so glad I did. It’s perversely disturbing and beautiful at the same time, Cas is wonderfully DERANGED and ALIEN in that way that I love it when fics managed to convey just how much angels are NOT human. Do heed the tags.

Full of Grace by ilovehowyouletmefall (11k) - Another one for the weird-as-fuck-angel!Cas lovers’ list. Heaven/canon-compliant fic where Dean knows he should feel happy and at peace but he just...isn’t, even with Cas and all of his friends and family there. He finally goes looking for Cas when he’s been absent for a time and, for the first time, gets to not just see but experience his true form. Another one that hits some kinks I knew I had and others I didn’t...until now. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

don't ask me where i've been by saltwound / @1x06 (8k) - I can never resist a good 09x06 fiction gap fic! What makes this one really stand out is how well it captures Cas’s internal voice - his struggles adapting to human senses, limitations and emotions versus what/how he experienced things as an angel. The longing and feelings between Dean & Cas here are so achingly beautiful and I just wanted to cry when Cas says he misses hearing Dean’s prayers, so Dean, he...oh, I’m not going to spoil it. *happy sigh* Just read it.

this room is wrong by DarkHeartInTheSky (12k) - Sometimes I like torturing myself with some good 15x03 divorce arc angst and this fic hit that button just so. It’s an alternative take on where Cas might have ended up after leaving the bunker and features some great Cas & Sam friendship feels, when Sam sets out to try to bring Cas home. It’s all the stuff you’d wish the writers would’ve let them talk out in canon.

Well that’s more than enough for this round! Go forth, read and give some great writers some kudos & comment love!

#fic recs #my fic recs #destiel recs #destiel #deancas recs #my destiel recs

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jq37 · 4 years

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The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 15 The Two Balls

A Hard Knock Life

Welcome back to A Crown of Candy as we march ever closer to the finale which is good because I can only take so much more chocolate coated drama. The party has just killed the SPF and, as Rina and her crew start to exit the temple, she enters a flashback that’s intense enough that they used a CW so, for that reason, I’m going to put it under the cut.

It’s the year 1196 and it’s almost High Frosting’s Eve (read: Bulb Christmas). A five-year-old Rina is being kept at the Abbey of the Shimmering Cream in the Dairy Seas but she’s not being kept well. As she looks out over the sea, waiting for the day her mom will sail back in and realize she made a mistake in abandoning her as she is wont to do, a nun shows up to bring her to the Mother Superior who’s sent for her.

On the way there, she catches a glimpse of Lazuli in a mirror who comforts her and says that she’s not bad or wrong for being able to do the things she can do and that, “The world is dark and dangerous but there are forces other than wickedness in this world.” Lazuli starts to say that she’s been trying to help but--and she’s cut off as Rina walks into the next room and loses sight of the mirror.

The Mother Superior is waiting for Rina, switch in hand, and says that she’s heard kids talking about some crazy magic stuff Rina can do. Rina lies and says the kids are making it up and the Mother Superior switches her across the face saying that lying is a sin. She straps Rina to a chair and asks if she sees eyes in the mirror. Rina (who is still being played by Emily even though she is five) says, “Doesn’t everyone?” The Mother Superior doesn’t appreciate the line as much as I do because she smacks her again. She says that all she wishes for Rina is obedience and silence and asks what the woman in the mirror says to her. Rina, knowing that whatever she says is gonna get her smacked, says that the woman says that there’s nothing wrong with her and she doesn’t have to hide the way she is. In response, the Mother Superior takes out a holy symbol of the Bulb and starts heating it up in the fire.

The box the symbol came out of has enough of a reflective surface inside that Lazuli is able to tell Rina that there are people in her corner and she’s suffering now but it won’t be forever but she’s again cut off by the Mother Superior who says that this self acceptance nonsense sounds like Hungry One talk. Rina says she’s not scared of anything physical the Mother Superior can do to her but, unfortunately, she’s not here to do anything to her body. She’s here for her soul. She presses the now heated holy symbol into Rina’s chest, causing her blinding pain and cutting her off from Lazuli who desperately tries to keep the connection open.

When she comes back to herself, devastated and tearful, the Mother Superior pledges to burn the Hungry One out of her as many times as it takes and send her to her room without sans morning breakfast privileges. Before she can go however, the Mother Superior stops her and asks why she’s always staring across the sea. Does she really think her dad is Prince Amethar? Not only is that obviously false but, even if it was true, he clearly doesn’t want her. Not even her mom wanted her. Rina (sounding like she’s trying to convince herself) says that her mom did want her. She was just scared and wanted to protect her. The Mother Superior says that her mom was trying to protect the world from her because she’s dangerous and her father isn’t Amether, he’s nothing. Rina shoots back that if her father is no one, then how come she can speak to the winds and command the waves? And why is she so scared of her? The Mother Superior doesn’t have an answer for that. She sends Rina to her room.

In the present day, Rina descends the mountain, dragon around her neck, followers by her side, and crown on her head. She will never be hurt like that again.

Ruby watches them go (Theo and Cumulus going with her and talking strategy) and then goes to find her dad who is still on the ledge. She asks Amethar how peace happens? How do you keep living once you’ve been through something like this? He answers that he’s the wrong person to ask. He’s just been going through the motions since the Ravening War ended. But they reaffirm that they love each other and hug before realizing they can’t see Liam anymore. And, speaking of Liam…

Gastronomy and Cosmology

Liam feels himself falling through endless fire and he can smell cinnamon and it hurts terribly but almost in a good way because, as we can recognize by the way Brennan describes it, he is essentially experiencing the sensation of being eaten and he knows that he tastes good.

As we heard last week, Liam felt a hand grab him but it’s actually less of a hand, more of a paw--a little chocolate rabbit’s paw. Lapin! He and Lapin are in this weird kinda semi disintegrated part of the Ice Cream Temple that’s continuing to break apart. Lapin is also disintegrating but not fully. It’s like the pieces that are coming off of him flaking off and cycling back continually, like Thanos is trying to snap him over and over. Additionally, the middle part of him is translucent and there are three foil-wrapped, chocolate egg-wishes in his chest.

Anyway, we learn that Lapin is essentially there to pack up because the party killing the SPF means he and all the other residents of Candy Heaven have been evicted (which, yeah, checks out--you destroy a load bearing boss, her heaven implodes) and have to go to the Hungry One. Liam asks if that’s a bad thing and Lapin says not necessarily but it does mean they won’t be able to communicate with them anymore. But, on a happier note, Preston is there! He’s apparently not stopped following around Lapin since he was told to.

Liam tells Lapin that they’re super screwed and asks what they should do. Lapin in response takes Liam up to a viewing balcony so he can better see the state of the weird extraplanar space they’re in. The illusion-castle is in the middle of the two titular balls--one red, swirling and consuming, the other bright and shining. The Hungry One and the Bulb. And Lapin gets to fully explain his pre-death realization. The Hungry One and the Bulb have no agency. They’re simple light and dark. Creation and destruction. Two sides of the same coin. Cosmic constants. They’re not really gods and neither are beings like the SPF--(spirits like her are more like living spells). Liam confirms that there’s no way to get back the people they’ve lost and asks if there’s any point in killing more people. Should he just be a seed guy again?

Lapin says there’s nothing wrong with being a seed guy and the three eggs in his chest meld with the three peppermint heart seeds Preston coughs up and float in front of him--one is glowing red, one is glowing gold, and the third is shimmering like Lapin’s robes. They represent the power to destroy, create, and change. Lapin offers him one and Liam--unsurprisingly to anyone who’s watched Ally play D&D for any length of time--picks the change one instantly. Lapin says it’s good to see Liam again and he wakes up in the dragon’s nest, Ruby and Amethar above him. He tells them everything he learned and shows them the egg/wish/seed. None of them can tell exactly how it works or what it does so Liam stashes it for safekeeping.

The gang checks out the section of the temple that had the illusion and conjuration magic. The illusion magic has faded and all that’s left is the conjuration so it seems like whatever they see will be true and what they see is scenes of the past in ice crystals on the walls (before they’re whisked away by Lapin from the other side). Everyone rolls to see what they see--and Ruby rolls a Nat 20. Liam sees memories of dragons past, huge and terrifying. He also sees Lapin in his youth as a street urchin, breaking into a druid monastery, stealing a spell meant to summon the SPF and force her to give you three wishes, and having it Fullmetal Alchemist backfire on him so that he instead had to serve her and give her three wishes. Ruby wants to see who’s loyal and who’s not. She sees that there are people in Rina’s camp, Jawbreaker’s crew, and back home who aren’t on the level but no named characters. Cara’s all good. Joren is and the four sisters were all good. Rina and her closest confidants are all sincere in what they’ve been saying. Amethar sees memories of him and his four sisters. Then (on Ruby’s passed on Nat 20) he sees a memory from when he was about 16 of his sisters having an argument with their mom who they did *not* get along with about the war which hasn’t fully broken out yet. King Jadain is in the middle trying to keep the peace but really trying to just escape the conflict. He says he has to use the bathroom and peaces out to sit on the steps where Amethar happens to be.

Amethar asks if he’s alright and Jadain tries to play it off like he wasn’t shaking and near tears. He says he wishes he was as strong willed and decisive as his wife/daughters. Amethar asks for assurance that he’s going to fight but Jadain says that their motto is In Sweetness There is Strength and fighting wouldn’t be very sweet. He asks Amethar if he’d ever want the crown because he could have it if he did. Amethar says he doesn’t. He’s a war guy like Joren. Jadain says that there may be a time for war guys soon. He then says that he never wanted to be king. It’s too much responsibility and it’s not fair. Young Amethar says that, regardless, he’s king. He has to be king. Words that echo in his head in the present.

Parties and Planning

Rina and crew gather enough weapons to outfit maybe 100 guys and then Rina blows up the entrance to the Temple so the Sanctus Putris (or whoever else) can’t get in but they can come back later to get the rest of the loot.

They go back to Manylicks which has been retaken and is now flying House Rocks and House Jawbreaker flags. One of Liam’s dick older brothers makes the mistake of trying to mess with the newly minted war guy and gets fully shot on sight.

There’s a lot of partying for them and, at the end of the week, it’s Liam’s 18th birthday. His dad gives him Chillguard--a breastplate that raises his AC to 16. Joren says that since they’re out of the Concord, he doesn’t have to be a ward anymore and he can come back home but Liam says he doesn’t really want to. He says that he’s asexual, he’s gonna find himself a romance partner someone to settle down with, go back to being a seed guy, and move out because Castle Manylicks kinda sucks for him. His dad says he’s super valid and they hug (and also talk about polyamory because when Brennan gets into it, he gets *into it*).

War updates! There are still crusaders in the South but they’ve been driven out of the Mountains. The Imperial force backed out--Ceresian forces along with them--because Primsy wrote a letter saying, “Uh, hey, remember that Concord thing we’re all a part of? That’s still on and you’re breaking it. There’s another heir.” The crusade is still on though and Cruller is still letting it happen.

Rina has her coronation which envoys from both the Dairy Islands and Meatlands attend. It’s a fully pagan ceremony but there’s just enough of a veneer or Bulbian propriety that they can stamp their approval on it and call it legit. Post ceremony there’s more partying which at a certain point devolves into a Bulb Bible Bonfire which Cara is super not about because she is an actual, practicing Bulbian.

Primsy, who arrived with the Dairy peeps, swears to Rina and then goes to see Liam who she has a little bit of a flirtatious conversation with. She’s already been married once so she’ll probably end up in a political marriage with a minor noble like a count (what a coincidence, Liam happens to be a count!) and she’s not interested in being slammed down big style. They go to hold hands and take a walk.

Ruby and Amethar get Jack to give them Jet tattoos over their hearts.

A lot of espionage happens. Rina uses two artifacts from the temple to help here--a crystal milkshake pool and flock of white chocolate ravens--while Liam (who got a Nat 20 +12) is leading a team of rangers to ambush messengers and intercept messages. Cumulus and his order are also getting a lot done now that their magic is coming back online.

In the Southern Great Stone Candy Mountains, the above group ends up in a burning town where everyone except Bulbians have been killed by crusaders. Jon Bon pulls a bleeding priest out of the church and demands that he produce a letter and he does--it’s from the Pontifex. As Rina is about to read it, Cinnamon clocks the Bulbian holy symbol he’s wearing and snarls. Rina grabs the symbol and Creates Bonfire on it. As she does that, the spot above his heart on his chest starts to glow just as Cinnamon’s eyes do. Rina takes a moment and then says, “Go for it baby.” Cinnamon leaps off of her neck and starts ripping into this guy and all of her men start killing the other priests. The villagers start to run and the marauders are about to chase them but Rina orders they spare them and her men obey. Cinnamon finishes up the priest by eating his heart and Rina swears, he looks just a little bigger. I hear Feed Me Seymour playing faintly in the distance and I don’t like it.

Rina casts Cone of Cold with Winterscoop to put out the fires and looks at the villagers--the villagers who must be having a roller coaster of a week because they are Bulbian but got conquered by Bulbians and then saw a bunch of other Bulbians get absolutely viciously slaughtered. She says that many of them probably went to the Bulb for salvation, but hopefully today, they’ll see who really saved them.

Cinnamon looks at all the dead priests and looks to Rina for permission. Emily, who also clearly hears the Little Shop of Horror music playing, takes a moment and then Rina allows him to feed and feed and feed.

Oh, and the letter! It’s from the Pontifex to Kerradin and it says that the meeting with all their enemies will be in about 2 weeks.

Gooey heard news that there are Bulbian crusaders hiding in Port Syrup waiting for the church to save them. Rina sends Gooey to go take care of it and, with some hesitation (and with the help of some dragon-puppy dog eyes), also sends Cinnamon who is now the size of a horse (mmm, don’t love that).

All this info gathered, there is a war council. The attitude seems to be that Primsy’s letter is helping for now but they really need an emperor/empress on the throne or else people will be coming for Candia again. The group talks about going to Castle Candy as a small assassination team (with a small contingent of soldiers) and sneaking in the way Theo snuck out with Cara. They can’t teleport there though because the crusaders destroyed all the standing stones close-by. But they can hitch a ride with Annabelle if it’s just a few people. Rina sends her ravens to look at Castle Candy and sees that there are lot of guys surrounding it but they’re un-unified crusaders so as long as they move really fast, retaking the castle is doable.

They also plan to send some troops to Castle Candy from the North so it seems like that’s the real invasion force while they sneak in from the Cola River (on Annabelle’s ships). Primsy says that she can write to Cruller to say that she’ll finally recognize him as legit so that when three Dairy Island ships arrive, it won’t be suspicious.

They go to Port Syrup to meet with Annabelle and see that the town has been wrecked. The Bulbian churches are totally destroyed. People are scared. Everything smells like ash and war. Cinnamon, now the size of a house (!!!), finds Rina to beg for pets like a dog.

Amethar, while wandering the city, finds the corpse of Sir Morris Brie who they left in charge of Port Syrup and, as a Bulbian, was caught up in the sacking of the city. Amethar sadly sits with his dead friend’s body, fused into his armor.

Rina goes to Theo and tells him that she loves Cinnamon so much because he’s the only one who’s ever loved her with the unconditional family kind of love but she knows that, for that reason, she can’t be trusted to be rational about him so he needs to tell her if she’s going to far. Theo says that if they’re going to use Cinnamon, they need to be careful and not just send him off. He also says she needs to discipline him which makes her remember all the ways she was disciplined as a child.

Ruby goes to find Annabelle to try and get some life advice because things are so crazy. Annabelle assures her that things are really bad--she’s not just overreacting--and tells her that when she was stripped of her titles and land, it was a choice she made for freedom over responsibility. She doesn’t know if it was the right choice but it’s what she had to do to be free. Even so, she recognizes that she did turn her back on responsibility. Then she says she has to talk to Amethar.

Annabelle finds Amethar and tells him they found Catherine Ghee’s gravestone. She died in 1196 on the 12th of Harvestdusk. She got really sick after she sent Rina to the Abbey and was really scared of the Rocks family coming after her (or maybe became really religious). Amethar thanks her and goes to tell Rina. Rina accepts the news and asks who sent all the people to threaten her. When Amethar reacts with confusion, Rina explains that when she was a kid, her mom was scared all the time because Candian messengers threatened her. Amethar says that he only sent people to find her which Rina confirms with a Detect Thoughts. He loved her and just wanted to see her again which is news to Rina. Amethar says he’s sorry about the life she’s had and he’s sorry he screwed this up too and Rina says that it means a lot to her that he even tried to find Ghee. Rina also asks if she detected any love for her in Amethar thoughts and is told that there’s a very small part of Amethar that wants to love her.

Amethar goes back to his quarters and tells Cara the news (and I have to imagine she’s like, join the club buddy). She asks when she died and he says twenty years. Her eyes go wild. When exactly. What’s the exact date? 12th of Harvestdusk, 1196. That’s five days BEFORE he married Cara. Which means he’s NOT an oathbreaker. Which means their wedding was LEGIT. Which means the Pontifex had NO GROUNDS to kick him out of the Concord. He is the RIGHTFUL KING OF CANDIA.

(”Bastard no more!” Siobhan crows.)

And that’s it for the week!

Things I’m Concerned About

Mmm, ok so Cinnamon. It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where this doesn’t end in disaster for someone. Like, as the eating and growing was starting, I felt this deep rooted sense of dread and I couldn’t remember exactly what was pinging until the next day and it was, as I’ve referenced twice previously in this recap, Little Shop of Horrors. This is clearly a full Audrey 2 situation except Cinnamon is a lot more ambulatory than a plant. He at least seems like he still recognizes Rina as his mother, which is good but I *really* don’t like where this seems to be going. And listen. If Cinnamon has to go down, you *know* who the person best positioned to do it is. Rina is the most major magic user, she has ice magic which he’s vulnerable to, and he trusts her enough to let his guard down around her. And, most importantly, it’s exactly the kind of mean choice Brennan, “All the Bad Guys” Lee Mulligan would love to foist upon a PC in a season like this. Bad!

And, connected to this, I don’t love how the marauders are handling the whole reverse crusade. Like, not that there’s a perfect way to do this--if someone were trying to genocide me and I had a dragon, I would for sure be deploying the dragon. And Rina did tell them to not kill the people who just happened to be Bulbian in the village but weren’t participating in the crusades so that’s at least some level of care. But what happens when she’s not there to rein them in? Well, we know what happens. Sir Morris Brie. Which is so messed up. You’re a good guy. You stay behind to help with the war effort and protect the town, and then a couple of weeks later you get torched alive by your own team in your armor because it has the wrong symbol on it. It’s messed up. Like, I don’t have the answers on how to wage an ethical war--which sounds like a full oxymoron. I just don’t love what’s happening.

Also, when Brennan said the guy’s chest was glowing before Rina had Cinnamon eat him, I thought it might be that he was unwillingly branded as a child like Rina, but lol guess we’ll never know.

And, addendum, Cara is a devout Bulbian--but obviously a relatively chill one because she’s down with Sweetening Path stuff too because of Lazuli. If she gets caught in the crossfire...like if you’re Ruby and your life just went to hell and your sister is dead and you have a new sister and you’re trying to accept her but you can’t and then her pet kills your mom who you never even really got to make up with? You’re not my queen *or* my sister at that point and it’s instant PvP. I killed a god, what makes you think I won’t fight you? So anyway, hope that doesn’t happen. lol.

So, we now know that the grounds under which Amethar was kicked from the Concord are false which means he is king still and the invasion is unlawful--even without Rina’s existence. But like, a lot of this season has been about political reality, right? So how much utility does this revelation serve? Everyone’s already rallied behind Rina and she has a contingent of very loyal and skilled soldiers who I don’t think would be happy to hear this news (and may think to try and make the problem go away in a stabby way). So if they go out with this info, it calls into question all the work they’ve already built up, forces them to get this new game plan to all their allies, potentially pisses off Rina’s people (and possibly Rina herself depending on how much she’s willing to go with them as allies and without being the lynchpin), and doesn’t give them much more than they’re already getting with Rina on the throne since their goals are mostly aligned as far as we know. And, anyway, Amethar was named emperor which will stand whether or not he’s king. They just need to get his hand on the Book of Leaves and that should be good to go. Rina gets the Candian throne, Amethar gets to be (or has to be depending on your view) emperor. Of course, clearing his name might be important to him and it probably bolsters his position in other ways but I’m just thinking about the big picture politics of the matter.

Does Ruby keep her Shadow Sorc levels now that Jet is gone? How does that work?

Five More Things

Lol, love how the big twist of CoC is that there are actually no bastards. Only legit children in the eyes of the Bulb.

Rina as a 5 year old was like that Matilda kind of 5. She was dropping some *intense* lines. Also, imagine having to have your scene right after that one. Yeesh. I recapped that flashback separately from the rest of the episode because it was so much and it was only 14 minutes. Everything else I did in basically one shot!

What did Jadain mean about Amethar getting the crown if he wanted it? What was that about? Brennan gave Lou the Jadain flashback on Siobhan’s Nat 20 so I wonder if that’s a relevant piece of info. Also, the voice for him caught me so off guard. I was like, huh. OK, yeah, checks out.

Zac, low key king of comedy, in response to Emily/Rina explaining the concept of movie popcorn salad: Are we joining the Ceresians?

Lapin! Oh man, I was so shocked and overjoyed for Lapin to get another scene. I missed that bunny. And to have him kinda allowed out and joking out with Liam (“Are you in pain?”/“All the time.”) was so good. His, “I’m not mad at you,” was so funny and also genuinely emotional? And also, I’m so happy Liam got some closure for Preston. What a banger of a scene. Big props to Ally and esp Zac who also had to give the once per season, “Here is how the universe works,” talk to Ally’s character.

One More Thing!

Oh man you gotta check out this AMAZING Crown of Candy animatic by @kindlespark. What a killer use of Glitter and Gold. And so comprehensive of the season so far, even recent stuff. So much obvious talent and hard work on display here!

#a crown of candy #a crown of candy spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #the royal report

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katzenkrieg · 4 years

Text

Headcanon: Cam’s Physical and Mental/Aetheric Changes from pre-ARR through post-5.3

“What should I do today?” I wonder to myself. “I think I’ll stay on task and be produc--no, wait, now I’m writing a six-page overview of all the changes Cam’s experienced over the entirety of his story so far. Hm.”

Spoilers for everything through 5.3; Cam’s full lore document is here. It is currently 103 pages long. No regerts.

Physical and Mental/Aetheric Changes (A Rough Timeline):

The Battle of Carteneau begins - has first Echo flash (doesn’t remember it later)

The Battle of Carteneau ends - while knocked unconscious, has his face permanently tattooed by an experimental Garlean prisoner-of-war-marking device. The device is faulty, and also inflicts electrical damage that leaves Cam permanently mute.

The Calamity takes place and resolves - along with everyone else on the Source, Cam is assumed to have Rejoined with the shard of his shared soul that lived in whichever world was destroyed during the Calamity. The Rejoining took place across the rift/Lifestream, so no memories accompany the Rejoining, though it does increase soul density.

Regularly following the Battle of Carteneau to the present day - has Echo flashes, painful pseudo-blackouts during which he experiences the memories of others. He can’t predict when these will happen or will them to happen; though they can be useful, they’re also a serious liability, since they can (and do) occur in the middle of battle. The Echo also allows him to understand all spoken languages and to be understood when speaking (or, in his case, signing).

5 years after Carteneau, when he arrives in Gridania - first hears Hydaelyn’s voice and sees her in visions. It’s possible he’s Tempered by Hydaelyn at this time, giving him resistance to Tempering by other primals. Sporadically hears and has visions of Hydaelyn from that time to the present day.

Before the final battle with Gaius and the Ultima Weapon - receives the full Blessing of Light. Provides him with some protection against Ascian influence and allows him to summon a weapon of Light at pivotal moments, particularly when necessary to destroy Ascians.

After fighting Midgardsormr - loses the Blessing of Light, apparently due to Midgardsormr’s interference or in response to a bargain struck between Midgardsormr and Hydaelyn. His ability to hear Hydaelyn and call on the Blessing weakens; in particular, he no longer has unique protection against and the ability to destroy Ascians. He’s still able to be understood and to understand others, though, and still has Echo flashes.

Over the course of his time in Ishgard - regains the Blessing of Light.

During his final confrontations with both Thordan VII and Nidhogg - channels the power of both an eye of Nidhogg and an eye of Hraesvelgr. Doesn’t seem to be permanently influenced by either of these experiences, but it’s always possible something will show up in the future.

During his time in the First, prior to the defeat of Emet-Selch/Hades - absorbs the Light of five Lightwardens. Each absorption further disrupts his aether; to people with the ability to see aether, his looks exactly like that of a Lightwarden, even prior to his absorbing the Light of all five. Begins to experience brief painful convulsions during which he emits Light aether and has his vision blurred by Light. Following the absorption of Innocence/Vauthry’s Light energy, he loses control over the Light energy within him and becomes, for all intents and purposes, a Lightwarden in everything but appearance.

He immediately begins to regain his voice, although it’s no longer one that’s recognizably human--it sounds almost metallic, extremely precise and clear, and seems to come from all directions at once.

Over the next few weeks, his new voice strengthens and sin eater growth forms around his throat; it replaces his damaged voice box.

Regularly coughs up white ichor.

His hair begins to bleach to white.

His facial tattoos also begin to bleach, turning a very light gold/yellow.

His eye color begins to deepen to a truer red.

White scar-like lines appear leading down from the sin eater growth at his throat straight down his sternum to the base of his ribcage, horizontally across the base of his ribcage, and across the top of his collarbones. These lines become more distinct over time and a recession starts to appear in the middle of each, as though the skin there is receding/pulling apart.

He begins to develop sharp downwards-pointing scale-like growth lining his throat, similar to pharyngeal teeth in some predators.

His vision is permanently washed-out by Light and increasingly colorless.

Any clothes he wears or objects he has on his person regularly also begin to bleach out to shades of white and gold.

About a week into being a Lightwarden- he collapses during the Scions’ undersea search for Emet-Selch and almost loses control to the point of transforming. Fortunately, he has enough time to call on Feo Ul out of desperation; they answer and inform the Scions that Cam’s starving--he now requires living aether to survive. If he goes without living aether too long, he’ll collapse and transform; with living aether, he may be able to hold out longer against transformation. Feo Ul channels enough aether to Cam that he’s able to recover.

Following his first collapse from aether starvation - at least one aether-rich being stays near Cam (preferably touching him) at all times. Feo Ul, Midgardsormr, Shanoa, and Mochi (his Fat/ter Cat) all help by playing this roll in turns--usually by riding on his shoulder or on top of his pack. Ardbert also offers aether. At night, all of them (including Ardbert) sleep either next to him or curled up on top of him, feeding him aether throughout the night.

By the time they reach Amaurot - even the combined efforts of the beings feeding him aether are becoming stretched, and Cam has begun to catch himself viewing living things (especially anything very small, like the tidepool invertebrates the Tempest is full of) as food/prey.

After entering Amaurot - the nature of Amaurot and Emet-Selch’s power there prevents any of the aether-rich beings who’ve been helping Cam from entering the city; only Ardbert is able to accompany Cam into Amaurot. His time in the city is marked by increasingly desperate hunger, to the point that he *does* eat some small creatures alive (but magically stunned) to see if that helps. It does, but only a tiny amount. He tries to conceal all of this from the other Scions. (Cam’s about as sneaky as a box of rocks falling on your head, so this doesn’t work very well.)

During the confrontation with Emet-Selch - loses control entirely and collapses, coughing up ichor, and beginning his final transformation into a sin eater. Ardbert offers to Rejoin with Cam, and Cam accepts, giving them both enough aether and a strong enough Rejoined soul to channel the Light aether within them into a weapon of Light and wipe out Hades.

Immediately following Hades’ defeat - having used the weapon of Light, he appears completely purged of excess Light energy and almost all of his Lightwarden transformations have disappeared, except the mutation around his throat and his sin eater voice. His hair color and tattoos remained bleached; his eyes have returned to their normal color.

After returning to the Source (but before the other Scions are able to return) -

His hair begins to grow back in darker, eventually darkening to his usual black with blue highlights.

His facial tattoos gradually return to black.

Over the course of several weeks, he weakens again, similarly to, though not as severely as, he weakened due to aether hunger in the First. He returns to the Source briefly to consult Y’shtola, the Exarch, and Urianger about this; they confirm that, contrary to their original impressions right after the fight with Hades, his aether is still over-aspected to Light and it seems as though he still retains some need for living aether. He’s no longer at risk of transforming into anything if he ‘goes hungry,’ but he will eventually weaken and possibly eventually fall into a coma.

Feo Ul, Midgardsormr, Shanoa, and Mochi all again take up the responsibility of making sure to feed him enough aether that the aether hunger doesn’t affect him; this is much, much easier than before, and he really only needs a small aether infusion each day. The cats, in particular, are around him enough anyway that he rarely notices any deprivation.

Krile also suggests he and Cid (or other researchers/scientists) find a way to cultivate an extremely aether-rich phytoplankton that’s native to oceans in the Source and make sure Cam keeps several vials of water infused with them on his person at all times, on the off-chance he’s isolated somewhere where Feo Ul, Midgardsormr, Shanao, and Mochi aren’t able to reach him. The idea is a successful one, and he carries this solution with him, in magical suspension so the phytoplankton stay alive, at all times.

His voice remains inhuman and disturbing, and the sin eater growth around his throat proves to be permanent.

Cid adapts an ancient Allagan caster’s torque so that it modifies Cam’s voice into something comfortably human. Cam starts wearing the torque at all times.

Cam has continuous (often several times a day) painful Echo-like flashes from Ardbert’s memories. He assumes (correctly) that this is a result of Rejoining with Ardbert, and just accepts that they’re a handicap he has to deal with and that they may never go away (though he’s concerned that they may mean Ardbert’s soul hasn’t completely Rejoined with his and is in pain).

He has night terrors and intense nightmares, most of them containing flashbacks of either Ardbert’s traumatic memories (particularly his own suicide and that of his friends’ and his time spent alone as a lost spirit) or the moments Cam came closest to transforming into a Lightwarden.

He discovers he can now fight using the great axe and a marauder/warrior style, despite never having trained with/in these.

He finds that he’s more apt to speak (though he still usually signs out of habit and preference, especially before Cid develops the torque that modifies his voice); Ardbert had no experience ever being unable to speak, and this affects Cam’s own tendencies.

He’s now amazingly good with animals. He was never bad with them before, but he’s incredibly good with riding animals and sometimes even wild animals now, and can calm them remarkably effectively and quickly. This is, again, based on Ardbert’s own talents and life experiences.

After defeating Elidibus and being exposed to Azem’s memory stone:

The painful Echo flashes of Ardbert’s memories disappear, and Cam and Ardbert finally integrate completely. Memories from part of his soul’s time as Ardbert are all there for Cam to access, but they’re comfortably distant and don’t conflict with or disrupt his memories of his life as just Cam or his life after Rejoining; they usually come up to the surface when he needs them or when he runs into something in particular that reminds him of something specific from that time (sense memories, in particular, will trigger for him now and then). He’s able to navigate the First as though he’s lived there for years, and knows a lot more than people who don’t know about his Rejoining think could be possible about the world before the flood of Light.

His night terrors and nightmares become less frequent and severe, though they don’t entirely go away.

He remembers anything that involved Cam and Ardbert being in the same place at the same time from both sides, which *can* be a bit disorienting. One reliable way to make Cam blush is to ask about what that’s like and how much he remembers in that way--since he and Ardbert had developed a sexual/romantic relationship as time went on in the First (which obviously required quite a bit of creativity), he has some two-perspective memories that he’s never going to describe to anyone, thanks.

People ask if it feels like he’s two people or if Ardbert’s still there within him as a separate entity. Cam has yet to successfully explain to anyone, but to him it feels like he’s just always been one person--just occasionally that one person was in two places at once. He also thinks this should feel weird, and like it somehow invalidates his being Cam or Ardbert’s being Ardbert, but it doesn’t. It just feels natural.

Cam’s aether’s settled even more into a proper stable integrated state, more so than it’s ever been post-Lightwarden and post-Rejoining. It’s also more intense and slightly denser, even considering his Rejoining. Y’shtola and Urianger have concluded this, and the complete integration of Ardbert’s soul and memories, must be a result of Cam’s experience with Azem’s memory stone.

He still retains some aether hunger, but it’s extremely slight and even the normal level of exposure to arcanic or aether-rich entities that comes from going about an average day means he rarely even notices it.

His voice, even without the torque, still sounds recognizably inhuman but also less alien. He’s comfortable using his voice unmodified now in certain situations (especially if he needs projection or needs to be heard through a lot of other noise/chaos). The sin eater growth hasn’t changed.

He’s grown several inches. Fortunately, this growth spurt stopped after a few months and doesn’t show any signs of returning. It does mean he went without any clothes or armor that fit properly for a while :| Again, everyone assumes this was a result of exposure to Azem’s memory stone. Cam’s just grateful he hasn’t ended up 15 feet tall…

His hair started to grow in a different color again--this time yellow and orange. At this point, Cam’s just like, “oh, fuck it, who cares anymore” about changing coloration occasionally. This is likely another result of exposure to Azem’s memory stone; Cam’s body seems to have shifted slightly to reflect some of what the Scions assume was Azem’s appearance.

His facial tattoos have also lightened back to light gold/yellow, though they’ll shift rather startlingly to an intense light blue from time to time--sometimes quickly and briefly and sometimes fading into the color and back over the course of days. Nero’s posited that it’s related to aether conditions, either externally or internally, or possibly due to the interplay of both external and internal conditions, but, as usual, no one’s letting him test this theory out by exposing Cam to aetherical extremes. No fun.

After having it pointed out to him that tattoos aren’t *actually* part of someone’s living body and they really shouldn’t be able to change with him like that, Cam’s grudgingly accepted that they’re probably part of him and not just ink scarring his skin any longer. Urianger has also untactfully pointed out that they look remarkably like Ascian projection markings or possibly Amaurotine mask markings, and Cam gave him enough of a look that Urianger shut up.

Cam can call up a glamour to make both his hair and facial tattoos appear their original colors if he wants to; he can’t do much about the height change, though.

Cam’s sure he’s not Azem, despite the physical changes; the memory stone gave him some general vague feelings about Azem’s existence and nature, but nothing specific. Overall, what he felt from it was rock-solid reassurance that no matter what changed in the future, his life was his own and not Azem’s and that he could be absolutely confident in that. It also seems to have, as mentioned above, strengthened his aetherical integration and smoothed over all of the cracks both becoming a Lightwarden and Rejoining left in his aether and identity.

Experientially, Cam is now the second oldest Scion, behind G’raha Tia. Ardbert was likely in his 20s and Cam is 35 at the end of Shadowbringers; Ardbert also spent a century as a wandering ghost. This brings Cam up to around 160 years old -- 60 if you don’t count Ardbert’s time after death. Thancred is very pleased not to have to deal with being the ‘old man’ of the Scions any longer, now that Cam and G’raha have taken that title and run off with it by centuries. Cid now occasionally emphasizes the ‘old’ when he calls Cam ‘old friend,’ if he really wants to give Cam shit.

#ffxiv headcanon #ffxiv lore #lore #headcanon #loredump #camille delane #wol #warrior of light #shadowbringers #5.3 #ffxiv #ff14 #lightwarden #lightwardens #azem #spoilers #shadowbringers spoilers

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johannstutt413 · 4 years

Text

(Anonymous request)

The Doctor had his back to the wall and was holding his forehead in his hands when Shining arrived, clutching her staff in her hands. “Doctor? Are you alright?”

“No,” he managed to choke out before coughing fiercely. “Some kind of explosion...head hit the wall hard...blood.”

“Understood. Move your hands, please...We’re fortunate it’s not worse; there’s some bleeding, yes, but it seems mostly abated. One moment.” Shining stood, brandishing her staff as a light grew out from it.

As she bathed the Doctor in a warm yellow glow, he found himself feeling more refreshed than when he’d begun the fight with his unit beside him. Standing moments after her illuminating Arts rejuvenated him, the Doctor checked the tactical feed via his holographic-map-emitting wristband and made a few quick calculations. “More wounded south-east of us less than a meter. I’ll take you to them-”

“No need, Doctor; I can feel their suffering.” She glided a hand across his shoulder as she passed him. “Be careful.”

“I should say the same to you, Shining. At least let me come along as protection-”

Shining began glowing again, but the light was...colder, almost sinister. “Don’t fret on my behalf, Doctor; as for the matter of my self-preservation, I am more than capable of protecting myself and others at once. Your unit has eliminated their target; they’re looking for you as we speak.”

“...Alright.” He glanced back at his feed. “I’ll regroup with them. Thank you.”

“May your path remain in the light.” As if a ghost, she drifted forward, her sharp brilliance cutting through alley shadows with the strength of sunlight. Watching her leave, the Doctor felt like he should be at ease, but...something was amiss.

The Doctor woke up in a cold sweat - that dream, so crisp and clear, had been plucked from his pre-amnesia memories and sent to him as he slept, but why? Shining had felt more familiar than some of the others, but to think she’d shown such a display confirmed what he’d always known: she was more than she let on. With his shift beginning in only a couple of hours, he had enough time to get ready for the day and arrange for a change in the assistant rotation. Today, he’d get an answer to a question he’d asked in another life.

When Shining came to his office for the day, the Doctor steeled himself for anything...but this was Shining at home, not in the field. She entered calmly, closed the door behind her, and used her staff to hang her coat and set them against the wall. “Good morning, Doctor. You asked for me to act as your assistant; is there any particular task for me to complete?”

“Less a task and more a line of inquiry. Here, take a seat.” He rolled his chair out from behind his desk. When she hesitated, the Doctor tapped the top several times. “I’ll be fine, and it will put me more at ease.”

“As you wish.” Shining acquiesced, her hands resting in her lap as she took her seat. Her eyes were trained on him, albeit not any particular spot - they shifted their focus throughout the conversation.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Last night, I had a flashback; it was coached in a dream, admittedly, but the reality of it was crystal clear to me. During a mission, an explosion blasted me into a wall, and you came to my aid. Once you finished bringing me back to a combat-capable state, I requested to escort you to a group of wounded personnel, but rather than agree, you pointedly refused; another request to accompany you was met with...not force, but a demonstration of a certain energy you have since kept in check. Do you recall an event like this yourself?”

“I do,” she nodded. “Our first encounter in the field, if I remember correctly.”

“I’ll trust your recollection. Now, I believe, as many others on this base do, that you and all other Operators are entitled to a certain level of anonymity and privacy, so if anything I ask you going forward is too revealing or uncomfortable for you to answer, simply say the word and I will adjust my line of questioning. Sounds fair?”

Shining shifted in her seat. “I agree to these terms.”

“Very well. Shining, what’s the difference between the two lights you shine?”

“Two lights?” She blinked. “Doctor, what do you mean?”

He crossed his arms, leaning against the bookcase behind his desk. “When you heal or ward others, you glow with a tender warmth - an almost maternal radiance, if you would. However, in the moment you insisted you could handle your own protection, you shone with a harsher light, closer to an overhead light than sunlight. What’s the distinction between the two?”

“They are one and the same, Doctor.”

“Fair enough.” He gestured towards her staff. “Is there a reason your staff is shaped like a sword in its scabbard?”

Shining shook her head. “A purely aesthetic decision by its creator.”

“Hmm...You were one of the Confessor’s acolytes for a time, if I remember correctly?”

“You know about him?” Her gaze centered on his eyes, following the slightest motion. “One could say it in that way, yes.”

The Doctor nodded. “You began honing your abilities as part of his retinue, yes?”

“I’m afraid this is an...uncomfortable subject for me, Doctor.”

“I understand.” He pushed off the bookcase. “Losing those we’ve put our faith in can be a destructive experience.”

Shining began to nod before catching herself. “Have you lost someone of such importance to you, Doctor?”

“I have, albeit before my amnesia; I’ve pieced together much about my past self in the past few months, however, so I can assure you that I understand.”

“...In that case, allow me to answer your question.” She took a deep, slow breath before continuing. “Along with my fellow Redeemers, I practiced Originum Arts in preparation for a coming event. The Confessor intended for us to act as a sort of aegis for the good of Sarkaz, but some of those in our company were more militant in disposition...They betrayed him, leaving the more peaceful members fleeing from potential retribution.”

The Doctor balked. “I see...that was what led to the war, then?”

“Yes. Some of my people would say I was on the wrong side of history; I prefer to let the results speak for themselves and maintain my silence.” Shining wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry to dredge up such painful memories, Shining.” He walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder, kneeling so they were roughly at eye-level. “Thank you for telling me this.”

She blinked in order to look at him through unclouded eyes. “I have a question as well, Doctor: have you had many other flashbacks like the one that led you to ask me to your office today?”

“Few and far between, and usually much less detailed.”

“I see.” Shining sighed. “I’m sorry, but I think I need a moment.”

The Doctor began rubbing her shoulder. “Alone, or can I offer a shoulder to cry on?”

“...The latter, please.” As she said that, she pulled him into an embrace, resting her head on his shoulder to avoid stabbing him with her horns. For his part, the Doctor was willing to hold her as long as she needed him there; he eased her descent when she slipped out of the chair, and when one arm reached for his hand, he shifted so she could hold it.

They sat like this for an incalculable amount of time, one openly grieving with the other holding their composure to the best of their ability, until Shining carefully unentangled herself. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“Of course.” He still was holding her hand, and his thumb began absentmindedly rubbing the back of it. “I admire your strength, bearing such a burden all this time.”

“Such weights are easier when borne in tandem...Doctor?”

He let go of her hand. “Sorry, I kind of got lost in the moment-”

“As am I,” she smiled. Shining rose on her knees just enough so she could kiss his forehead. “Perhaps this physician cannot take as perfect care of herself as she thought she could.”

“The heart certainly heals the slowest of any muscle,” the Doctor sighed. Still, he couldn’t help but blush - it had been a rather intimate moment-

-Which became more intimate as Shining kissed his left cheek, then his right. “I have another confession to make, Doctor. *kiss* For some time now, perhaps even since our first meeting, I’ve felt a light shine from you. Perhaps this is somewhat forward, but...*kiss* you are unattached at present, yes?”

“In a manner of speaking,” he muttered, his face entirely flushed.

“And do you, perhaps, feel something between us?” She pulled back to look him in the eye. “The potential for a radiant romance?”

The Doctor smiled. “You’ve spent a lot of time with Nearl, haven’t you...Shining, there are stars in the night sky that shine more dimly than you, both in beauty and majesty. Seeing you in strength and in vulnerability only proved that to me in earnest.”

“Wonderful...this would be the moment, then-” In the middle of her sentence, he answered the unspoken question with action, taking hold of both her hands and interlacing their fingers with his as he pushed forward for a kiss of his own. His eyes closed just after their lips met, but not before seeing Shining’s first.

The light sparkling behind them was the most beautiful he’d ever seen.

#arknights #shining (arknights)#i may have taken some liberties here #because there's a lot going on behind the scenes with her #but i think it's a pretty reasonable series of connections #thanks for the ask and prompt anon #arknights fic

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buckybarnesbingo · 4 years

Photo

BBB Week 4 Roundup! Some good stuff lies ahead, so go find it!

Title: Just Before Dawn Collaborator: grimeysociety Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - Isolated or Trapped Ship: Bucky/Darcy Rating: Teen Major Tags: Brief mentions of animal cruelty, Fluff and Crack, Magical Realism Summary: One day, Darcy rescues a dog and then a gorgeous naked man appears in her living room that night. Word Count: 6148

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Title: The Stark Robo Sucker 5000 Collaborator: crazycatt71 Link: AO3 Square Filled: C1 - Sensation Play Ship: WinterHawk, Bucky/Clint/Steve/Tony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Fucking machines, exhibitionism, Dom/sub undertones, orgasm denial, wrist cuffs Summary: Clint & Bucky put on a show with the Stark Robo Sucker 5000 Word Count: 1174

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Title: Dummy’s faboulous ideas Collaborator: Menatiera Link: AO3 Square Filled: C5 - Sidekick Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Matchmaker bots, fluff Summary: Dummy is determined to help the people he cares for. Jarvis is concerned, Bucky is amused. Word Count: 744

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Title: Nutritional Value Collaborator: Judy_The_Dreamer Link: AO3 Square Filled: B5 - Bucky/Steve Ship: Stuckony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: a/b/o dynamics, PWP, power dynamics and kinks, past mpreg Summary: Sometimes the first taste is not enough and you find yourself hungering for more. Tony, Steve and Bucky come to terms with what transpired in Joystick. Word Count: 13,739

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Title: Let Someone See Right Through Collaborator: avintagekiss24 Link: AO3 Square Filled: B1 - Kink: One Night Stand Ship: Bucky/Reader Rating: Explicit Major Tags: drinking, implied mention of death, past infidelity, smut, sex, a little bit of angst, oral sex (female receiving) Summary: Two strangers meet at a bar on their birthday. Word Count: 4446

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Title: Darcy, Bucky and the Hundred Acre Wood Collaborator: grimeysociety Link: AO3 Square Filled: B5 - Sunshowers Ship: Bucky/Darcy Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Darcy and Bucky are transported into the world of the Hundred Acre Wood. Word Count: 2163

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Title: Into the unknown - Chapter 1 Collaborator: diner_drama Link: AO3 Square Filled: U3 - little sister Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Frozen AU Summary: Bucky has everything under control. He's the hereditary leader of a small and prosperous country. He lives with his beloved sister and her fiancé in a beautiful castle, and his people are safe and well. He also happens to be in control of the power of ice, but he's got that working for him now, so that's not an issue. But when he closes his eyes, he can hear a siren's song calling him from the far North. Word Count: 800

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Title: Taps Collaborator: Ribbonsflying Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Vulnerability Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: flashback to deaths of unnamed characters, some blood obviously because vampires, drinking blood Summary: Bucky nosed into Steve’s neck and rested his head on his shoulder. “Now I know why you refilled my juice without being asked.” “No, it’s because I’m a sweetheart," Bucky protested. Steve scoffed playfully. “Sweetheart, my ass. There’s nothing sweet about you.” Word Count: 2357

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Title: Petals - Chapter 1 Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - hanahaki disease Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Hanahaki Disease Summary: Steve Rogers knows what it's like to be sick. With actual illnesses that exist, like the asthma that always gets worse in the spring. But when he starts coughing up flower petals, rational explanations fly out the window. But is it really possible that he's contracted a fatal case of lovesickness? Word Count: 681

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Title: What About Us? Collaborator: pherryt Link: AO3 Square Filled: C1 - One Night Stand Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Canon Divergent, Tower Fic, A/B/O dynamics, explicit sexual content Summary: Bucky's come in from the cold, Steve is being Steve, Tony wants to throw a party and Bucky has no idea who the Alpha is who asked him to dance (or why, when Bucky's been hiding in the corner all night to avoid people), but it suddenly looks like more than dancing is on the menu. Word Count: 3091

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Title: The Road To You Has Been Fractured With Torment Collaborator: visionarygalaxy Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y4 - Bondage Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, PTSD, Dom/sub, Kink negotiation. fluff Summary: Bucky and Steve reconnect after everything they've been through, slowly and carefully. Word Count: 1284

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Title: and now, the end is near - Chapter 3: Three: Clint Collaborator: hawksonfire Link: AO3 Square Filled: C2 - Heat Ship: Bucky/Steve/Clint Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content Summary: A three-part tale in which our boys are content. Word Count: 4316

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Title: Petals - Chapter 2: Don't forget to tip your barista Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: K2 - pining Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: mild blood/gore sickfic ( hanahaki disease) Summary: Bucky wasn’t even supposed to be here this afternoon. He was supposed to be at the library working on his Urban Policy lab project. But that was neither here nor there; it’s not like Darcy had up and come down with the flu on purpose. Besides, he reminded himself, he could use the money. He could always use the money. -- War veteran turned grad student and barista Bucky Barnes has a thing for a certain Brooklyn twink. Word Count: 2791

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Title: And I Will Wend My Way With You Collaborator: mariana_oconnor Link: AO3 Squares Filled: Chapter 1 - B2: Bucky/Clint Chapter 2 - U5: Jealousy Chapter 3 - Y5: Hair Braiding Chapter 4 - K4: Sharing Clothes Chapter 5 - K2: Kink: Wall Pinning Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Fantasy AU, Mild Dub-con, Slavery, Violence, implied/referenced rape/non-con, explicit sexual content Summary: After four long years, Bucky's mission is finally complete. All he needs to do is leave the Hydra Empire and make his way back to the Kingdom of Brooklyn with the information he has obtained. He definitely doesn't need the added complication of a slave, especially not one as angry and handsome as Clint Barton. Word Count: 29,653

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Title: A Bad Day With Coffee Is Better Than A Good Day Without It - Chapter 1 Collaborator: Trashcanakin Link: AO3 Square Filled: B2 - Bucky/Clint Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Not Rated Major Tags: Pre-Slash, Mutual Pining, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Human Disaster Clint Barton, Deaf Clint Barton, Not Canon Compliant, Not Beta Read Summary: Clint has a terrible, no good, day... Bucky tries to make it better. Word Count: 2491

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Title: End Of All Days - Chapter 11: Part X Collaborator: Minka Link: AO3 Square Filled: U5 – AU: Adventurers/Explorers Ship: Stucky Rating: Mature Major Tags: violence Summary: Captain Steve Rogers had thought his military days were behind him, left in the bloody nightmare that was Saigon. Retired and working as a History Professor, the last thing he expected was to get caught up in a cataclysmic Slavic prophesy foreshadowing the end of the known world.With Cold War tensions running high, Steve finds himself in need of a guide and translator to get him behind the Iron Curtain and into the isolated snowdrifts of Siberia. It’s deep in the heart of Bucharest’s resistance fighters that Steve finds the ideal candidate, but swaying the enigmatic ex-operative known as The Winter Soldier proves to be complicated. Trust is hard-won, especially in the world of espionage, and with a KGB death squad nipping at his heels, the Soldier has countless reasons to stay presumably dead. As the lines between right, wrong and the supernatural begin to blur, Steve is forced to reconsider everything he’s ever believed, right from the sanctity of his own country to the very foundations of creation itself .--- Aka the Indiana Jones/Atomic Blonde lovechild of a fic that literally no one ever asked for but you’re bloody well going to get anyway. Word Count: 47,940

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Title: Siren - Chapter 1: Do you think I'm stuck up 'cause I'm always picking fights? Collaborator: Writing_mermaid Link: Tumblr Square Filled: C3 - Free square Ship: Bucky/Reader Rating: Mature Major Tags: siren AU Summary: Y/N is a mutant, a Siren, the last of her kind, with deadly dangerous powers and a hidden past. If most of the Avengers likes and get along with her, Steve doesn’t, and it’s getting worse when Y/N and Bucky become close. After all what can bring two broken souls together if it’s not a dark past. Word Count: 1479

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Title: What, Like It's Hard? Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - crack Ship: Stucky Rating: Gen Major Tags: Legally Blonde fusion Summary: “Hey Buck, w-what’re ya doing with that?” Steve’s looking at him like he’s just grown a third head or something. Shit. What the fuck did I do now? “Sorry, pal, I was just trying to help out a little around here.” Bucky lets go of the handle, letting the big, ugly hammer drop to the floor. “Just clearing things off the floor so I could do a little cleaning before we drown in cat fur.”Big old viking shouldn’t leave his shit all over if he don’t want people manhandling it outta their way. -- Or, Bucky moves Mjölnir while he's cleaning, and doesn't understand what the big deal is. Legally Blonde meets the Avengers. Word Count: 559

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Title: Don't Forget To Write Collaborator: The_Alias (Artemis_Day) Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y1 - Secret Admirer Ship: Bucky/Jane Foster Rating: Teen Major Tags: secret admirer Summary: 'The tenth time, there is no note. Just him.' Jane has a secret admirer, but who could it possibly be? Word Count: 6072

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Title: The reason Nick Fury doesn't do vacations. Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y5 - Rescue Mission Ship: WinterIronFury Rating: Teen Major Tags: Vacation gone wrong, Happy ending, crack(ish), Hydra, mention of animal experiments, Angst and Hurt/Comfort Summary: Tony and Bucky wanted to go on a trip with their third Nicholas Fury. However Nick refused, Bucky and Tony got abducted and… Tony never thought he would see tigers in that state. Word Count: 5473

#buckybarnesbingo2020 #bbb2020 #bbb weekly roundup #bbb week 4 roundup

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leilawhittaker · 4 years

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What’s Lei’s comic history? And how do the movie adaptations differ from her comic character?

Okay but I love this question this is like...one of my fave questions I’ve gotten about her thank u!!! Bear in mind my comics history knowledge is a little rusty but I think this tracks.

SILVER AGE

-X-MEN

Leila first appears in the early 60s as an early X-Men villain. The Trust operates sort of like it does in the movies, an organized crime syndicate run entirely by mutants. (I like to think that they took the fairy tale thing a little too far and like, every Trust member has a fairy tale name. This gets retconned later.) In the comics, Leila isn’t the leader of the Trust, just a member. This, too, gets retconned later.

Leila and the Trust appear sporadically before Leila redeems herself and leaves. She might’ve joined the X-Men for an issue or two, before deciding it wasn’t a good fit and dipping.

-CAP’S KOOKY QUARTET

Look, the name still fits if you consider Cap the leader and Leila/Clint/Wanda/Pietro his quartet. Leila joins the second ever roster of Avengers, and fits right in with the team made up largely of former villains.

This is where we get into Leila’s backstory for the first time. It’s very similar to her movie backstory, but toned down a bit because of the comics code authority. We maybe see like, one panel of her mom hitting her, but the extent of the abuse she suffered is largely told through implications, and she’s not confirmed as a sexual assault survivor until the 2000s when we get more flashbacks. Her backstory centers less on religious trauma and more on being surrounded by anti-mutant sentiment.

Because that’s the other big difference, is that Leila’s ability to alter her appearance isn’t a big secret like it is in the movies. In the movies, David forces her to repress them and she doesn’t realize she can do it until she’s an adult. In the comics, her main power is changing her appearance, not an extension of her power-copying ability, and she’s been aware of it since she was a child.

(I think the DNA mirroring and power copying concepts don’t get introduced until later, probably in the early Bronze age; in her first appearances Leila is just your garden variety shapeshifter.)

Anyways. The CKQ era is where snowcap starts, but it’s also where the animosity between Leila and Wanda starts. Wanda canonically had feelings for Steve at this point, and this being the sixties, of course they would be written as romantic rivals.

Eventually this tension is what makes Leila leave the team, possibly breaking up with Steve in the process, mostly because the writers didn’t want to write Cap as having a girlfriend that’s just never around.

INTERMISSION: MCU LEGAL ISSUES

I imagine that Leila, like Pietro and Wanda, is a character that Disney was hesitant to use because of her connection to the X-Men. Ultimately throughout her history she’s been more involved with the Avengers than X-Men, but still.

The first two chapters of Leila MM would be told through a comic series that takes place before the Avengers, but is released shortly afterwards as a sort of mini-prequel, since she was the only Avenger to not be introduced before the movie, because while they were making the pre-Avengers movies they hadn’t decided to bring her in yet.

Like Quicksilver, Leila likely has an XMCU counterpart. I’ll have to watch the movies and get back to you.

BRONZE AGE/EARLY MODERN AGE

Leila remained underutilized for a lot of the next few decades. She popped into different books, never really settling in one plotline for long. She and Steve were on-again off-again; their relationship was strained by Leila’s heel-turn revolving door. Comics, god bless them, are straight-up ass at lasting character development (*coughs* Quicksilver: No Surrender *coughs*) and you never quite knew when Leila would spontaneously decide to go be a villain again. Still, her villainous periods tended to be mild, focusing more on theft and minor crimes than huge murders, and she and Steve continued to have soft spots for each other even while on opposite sides.

TURN OF THE CENTURY

This is where things start to look up. Marvel has all but abandoned the CCA, and they’re now welcome to expand on Leila’s backstory.

Leila rejoins the X-Men briefly, and goes up against the Trust. Here we get more of her backstory with how she took control of the Trust, as well as more backstory on David. Prior to this David had been portrayed as a very minor player in her backstory, the leader of the cult who had no particular relationship to her. Here we learn the extent of the abuse he subjected her to. A lot of it is told through implications; Marvel might not have been following the CCA, but they weren’t about to get too dark, either. It’s a source of debate whether David is Leila’s biological father or not.

(Possibly in Ultimates it goes even further and gets into the nitty gritty, but Ultimates isn’t 616 canon, so there’s still debate about some details. It’s clear, though, that in both continuities, David was a major abusive figure in Leila’s life and their relationship was formative for her. Leila’s backstory is notoriously dark for a comics character.)

After her plotline with the Trust, Leila rejoins the Avengers, and is basically solidified as an anti-hero from that point on.

-M DAY

I haven’t read much about this plotline but Leila is one of the few remaining mutants after M Day.

-CIVIL WAR

Leila takes the anti-reg stance, and she and Steve get back together. However, they get into a fight, as Steve confronts her about her motives. He says that Leila is only anti-reg for her own purposes; she doesn’t want to be in any database because she wants to be able to run if she needs to. And he’s honestly like...50% right, but Leila doesn’t bother explaining the other side of the story. They break up, and she ditches the conflict before things get as ugly as they do.

-SOLO SERIES

Leila, like Hawkeye, becomes a popular household name after the Avengers, and finally gets a solo series, entitled Codename: Snow White. Inspired loosely by the movies, this is where we see Leila join SHIELD as an agent. There’s a plotline where she goes undercover and has to pretend to be evil, and runs into Steve, who sees right through it--proving that he does trust her integrity.

They share a kiss, but don’t get back together, just because they’re both busy with SHIELD/Avengers stuff. But it’s sort of a promise that they’ll try to work things out when they have time.

-ALL-NEW X-FACTOR

I just really like the idea of Leila on this team. Maybe she’s investigating Serval Industries for Fury? But like her vibing with Lorna, snarking back and forth with Pietro, flirting with Remy, complaining about how ugly the costumes are, we love to see it. It eventually leads to her joining the Uncanny Avengers when Pietro goes back.

-UNCANNY AVENGERS

I think? That by the time ANXF was done Steve had left the team but pretend he didn’t and pretend he’s still there. This is where he and Leila get back together finally, a writing choice that is informed by the popularity of the relationship in the movies. After the series ends, when their next appearance is, they show up still together.

DIFFERENCES

I think in the comics Leila is a slightly lighter character. A little less tortured. She hasn’t done as many bad things as she has in the movies, so she has less to feel guilty for, and her backstory is like, marginally less traumatic. She never burned down the compound, and Violet Elwood doesn’t exist. So she’s a little more well-adjusted.

I think also the fact that she keeps finding her way back to villainy is a big difference. In the movies, once Leila truly becomes a hero she never goes back. I think comics!Leila has a similar complex where she thinks she’ll never be a real hero, but copes with it by not trying, whereas mcu!Leila is willing to suffer through it.

I think another reason for that discrepancy is that comics!Leila’s villainy is, again, more mild than mcu!Leila. In the comics, all of her villainy after her original turning good is just like, stealing shit. Leila in the movies is literally a spree killer.

OTHER NOTES

Self indulgently, I think she probably had a brief thing with Pietro at some point. The relationship was widely regarded as a bad writing choice (because most of the time they hate each other) and is mostly ignored except for like ten people who ship it. I’m one of them.

#qna #ava #thank u!!! this was so fun to answer

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girlbossk · 5 years

Text

my star wars movie ideas

2 solo 2 heist: a star wars story

a sequel to solo but not really. could go into the qi’ra stuff maybe, like they’re heisting crimson dawn? but basically a heist team! doing heist stuff! bonus if they canonize people from the heist team in scoundrels like winter.

more ideas under the cut!

the lando calrissian adventures

a series of lando movies! set pre or post solo, but all focused on lando! possibly pertaining to the calrissian chronicles we saw him recording throughout the movies, with adventures in the ThonBoka Starcave and other various exotic locations. and then something post-solo with lobot!

pash out: a star wars story

tie fighter movie! a-wing movie! so many space battle! in wedge’s gamble they briefly mention pash literally stealing an entire goddamn wing of tie fighters (how??? they have no hyperdrives??? pash out: a star wars story would explain this, AND MORE!) and then he blows up a star destroyer or something? basically, so many space battle, plus all the convincing of the wing of tie pilots to defect, and also with appearances from The Elder Cracken. (i really want my boy to be canon)

ace in the hole: a cockpit’s eye view of turbulent times: a star wars story

in this star wars story, we follow a young wedge through his rebellion life, with the stories clearly embellished and exaggerated. at key moments, there is narration from old wedge. at the end, there’s a scene where old wedge is talking to poe and is like “and that’s my life’s story!” like in iron man 3.

many bothans died: a star wars story

a rogue one-esque infiltration story but with the SECOND DEATH STAR! many bothans died to bring them this information, we know this, and this is the story of these bothans dying incompetently. with appearances from mon mothma, borsk fey’lya, and admiral ackbar.

desert feels: a star wars story

two+ hours of obi-wan kenobi sobbing in the desert, briefly interrupted by young luke almost getting stampeded by a herd of banthas but obi-wan saves him.

it’s a trap: a star wars story

potentially concurrent (ha, current) with many bothans died, we follow various ackbar adventures where there are traps, and hear multiple ocean-themed ackbarisms. at the climactic scene, ackbar yells “IT’S A TRAP!”

slender: a star wars story

the mirax terrik story we deserve! featuring young wedge from ace in the hole: a cockpit’s eye view of turbulent times: a star wars story, but only in a minor or flashback role. this is a mirax smuggling story about her going on a smuggling adventure, sort of like solo but cooler, and featuring booster terrik and the pulsar skate!

emtrey and tycho’s excellent adventure: a star wars story

i don’t even know what this one would entail, but i’m listening to rogue podron right now and we obviously need a movie of this. plus, it would be bringing both emtrey and tycho into the canon star wars universe, which is obviously a good thing. they fly around in space and emtrey winks.

the imperial saga

a series of imperial movies starring vader, palpatine, and various moffs and admirals. (cough, cough, thrawn.) this series poses the empire as a vaguely good entity though it’s clear through the viewer’s eyes that the empire is bad, they aren’t doing good stuff, but it’s not going to have them blowing up planets or something. higher moff mantooine mantooine the third defeats some smugglers.

the god and the trash can: a star wars story

threepio and artoo get lost. it’s prequel-era so we get anakin and padme and obi-wan back in the star wars again, but the plot isn’t evil palpatine (i mean, it is, because he kidnapped the droids, but still) and artoo pretty much saves the day before the jedi even show up. threepio says “we’re doomed!” no less than thirty-seven times.

#star wars

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jeanjauthor · 5 years

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Origin Stories

I think one of my favorite things about the Captain Marvel movie, something that really has only been discussed by a handful of people so far, is that it’s a Dual Origin Story.

What’s that, you say? What is an Origin Story? Why, it’s the backstory told to explain How Or Why That Character Became This Way!

...Of course, it isn’t always a backstory when you’re starting a new version (a very common and popular thing to do with comic book protagonists, etc). And that’s okay; you can start at the beginnings. Or (if you’ve rebooted a character a gazillion frikkin *coughspidermancough* times) you can skip over an extremely well-known origin story. It’s just that, to be an Origin Story, the character almost always has to have been established as Badass or Awesome or Dangerous or whatever.

This is often told in flashbacks, or in the rarer (but still used) flash-forwards. In Deadpool, we get the Maverick (old television series) style “protagonist in the thick of a predicament” action scenes or peril scene, etc...and then they say something like, “I’ll bet you’re wondering how I end up in this mess!” Or, they can be self-aware of the Origin Story trope while narrating their own story, which, although it strains the Fourth Wall, doesn’t necessarily break it. (Self-narrated dawning awareness of an Origin Story setting doesn’t have to actually say “Origin Story” at any point, btw, but rather, it just has to be aware that Things Are Changing & Becoming Greater Than Before.)

In Captain Marvel, we don’t get the flash forward, or the flash back within the movie. Or even the self-narration. But we do get two Origin Stories.

We got the obvious character, Vers / Carol Danvers, who becomes Captain Marvel...but is it really a backstory, when we haven’t seen her before now in the MCU? Yes, it still is a backstory, because in the late 2010s, we see her being summoned at the end of Infinity War, and then her movie--her story--opens up back in the mid 1990s.

If you stick strictly to the MCU, it doesn’t seem to work as coming off of a pre-established character of Badassery, Dangerosity, and/or Awesomeitude. (Hush, those last two are words; I’m a writer, I get to make up shhh all the time! My job is awesome in that regard.) ...But since we don’t have to stick to the MCU to be familiar with this character and her many incarnations...it technically is still an Origin Story.

However...even if we do stick rigorously to the Marvel Cinematic Universe...it does technically work. Because the MCU establishes that calling upon Captain Marvel is Nick Fury’s Last, Best Hope. Which brings us to the second Origin Story: Nick Fury’s Origin Story.

The first time we see him, we see a battle scarred, hardened, calculating, clever, resourceful Nick Fury. (Played incredibly well by Samuel L. Jackson; I like his portrayal way better than the scarred, grizzled, gray-haired white dude (who frankly always looked more like a HYDRA agent to me than a SHIELD agent) we’ve always seen in the comic books & cartoon series.)

He’s so resourceful, he even keeps his scarred eye on retinal scan profile Just In Case. He admits he doesn’t trust anyone. He connives, he schemes, he’s dedicated to protecting and saving humanity, a complex, kickass character along the lines of Hawkeye and Black Widow, not a superhuman, not an extraplanetary god or the son of an Eternal, or an Infinity-Stone-empowered whatever. He. Is. Badass. Dangerous. And Awesome.

But he’s not that in this story. This is a full-blown Origin Story for Nick Fury, far more so than Captain Marvel, because we already know what he’s become.

Instead, we get to go back in time to see him when he’s a mere level 3 clearance middleman of SHIELD. (Plus we get to see seemingly-mild-mannered Agent Coulson’s earliest days, yay!) Fury is not calculating, is not heavily resourceful, is not scheming, is not prepared to do anything and everything. Willing, yes! Don’t ever mistake that. But...he is not yet the prepared & resource-rich Badass of the other movies.

And though we don’t get to see how he becomes that resourceful, dangerous Badass (we instead get to see how Carol Danvers becomes her own powerful Badass self), we get to see the origins of his badassery story, as in the impetus, the stuff that makes him very much want to step up his game in all the intervening unseen years between the mid 1990s and the end of the Iron Man movie in the late 2000s.

I know that a lot of guys online are trying to wreck Captain Marvel by trying to discourage viewers from seeing it...and that some of the methods they’re trying to use are slandering Nick Fury’s Origin Story...saying he’s been emasculated, that he’s shown as weak, etc...

Dudes. Stop. You’re just embarrassing yourselves.

Nobody is born super-fantastic at the very start. (Not even Clark Kent/Superman; he couldn’t change his own diapers, ya know, and he had to learn to control his super-strength growing up, and he had to learn how to fly, etc, etc.)

That’s why it’s an Origin Story. You’re never fantastic before you get the training you need to actually use whatever badassery or awesomeitude or dangerosity you end up possessing later on. There doesn’t have to be a training montage in an Origin Story. There just has to be the impetus, the change in circumstances, The Reason Why This Character Is The Way They Are When It’s Later On.

And for flerken’s sake, dudes! Washing the dishes is HELLA manly, NOT EMASCULATING!

If these guys truly think washing dishes is “unmanly” and “emasculating”...I feel sorry for anyone those dudes have to live with, and/or the frequency of cockroach infestations their landlords have to spray against. *shudders at the horror of how nasty & pathetic their home life must be, if they can’t even bring themselves to wash the flerken dishes...* (Seriously dudes, grow up, get your own Origin Story impetus going, and become someone tough enough, skillful enough, resourceful enough, and flat-out badass enough to do the dishes!)

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goddessvicky · 6 years

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In My Veins

In My Veins by Goddessvicky / QueenVee1 Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence Rating: Explicit - For all the swears and smut Relationships: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis, Steve Rogers/Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers Wordcount: Total is over 100K Tags: WinterShieldShock, Stucky, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Everyone is Poly because Avengers, Pining, Drama, Humor, Polyamory, Angst, Tony Stark has a Heart, Awesome Darcy Lewis, All The Swears, Smut, Slow Burn, Framily, Non Stop Pop Culture References, Darcy uses sarcasm as a weapon, PTSD, Choking, PTSD Flashbacks, OT3, Found Family, All The Avengers need therapy, character study, Post Civil War Fix It, Pre Infinity War, Non Infinity War compliant, Sex

For The Captain America Big Bang!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Crumble

The light above the sink in their tiny bathroom did nothing for Darcy's skin, highlighting the purple and green bruises that ringed her neck. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, stomach falling as she turned her head this way and that, getting a good look at everything. In addition to the bruises on her neck, the whites of her eyes had taken on a pink tint, blotches of red petechiae marks surrounding her irises. The breath in her lungs huffed outward as her eyes closed, and Darcy gripped the porcelain with both hands, head hanging as she breathed past the pain, her throat scratching, a coughing jag just seconds away.

Swallowing harshly, trying to coat her throat, Darcy’s eyes fluttered open, a determined expression on her face. She pulled open the medicine cabinet, grabbing the minimal makeup she'd brought with her to the cabin. The concealer wasn't meant to cover such a large swath of skin, but she tried it anyway, spreading the liquid in a futile attempt to cover the bruises. When it became clear that none of the makeup she owned would be able to hide the marks, she decided the best thing she could do was throw on a turtleneck and hope no one said anything.

Darcy grabbed the doorknob and turned, taking a step into the hallway before freezing, eyes widening slightly when they landed on Bucky, who was standing at the threshold of the kitchen. There was a second of time when their eyes met, a weighted silence falling over the hallway before Bucky turned on his heel and started toward the back door.

"Bucky, wait -" She sighed when the slam of the door was the only response, Darcy’s shoulders falling and rolling forward. She jumped, a shout breaking from her throat when a hand was placed on her shoulder from behind. She spun to find Steve looking at her with apology in the blue of his eyes. She brought a hand to her chest, ears filled with the sound of blood being pumped as it sped through her veins. "Fuck, Steve,” Darcy said, her voice still holding a rasp, but sounding closer to normal than it did the previous night, “I'm sorry."

"I didn't meant to scare you. I shouldn't have snuck up on you. I'm sorry," Steve said, his stomach in knots, the light of the morning making the marks on Darcy seem monstrous. None of them had gotten any sleep after what had happened, and Steve could see the exhaustion in Darcy’s face. The fact that she was still getting ready to go to work seemed impossible, unimaginable

"I'm not... I'm okay," Darcy sighed, reaching out to clutch his hand, threading their fingers together. "Did you stay with him last night?"

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wolfjsamuel · 6 years

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Life found a way, to make me cough out more cash for more JW movies I just saw "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" yesterday and decided to make a little review about it. This took me 5 hours on a rush this morning, so no Easter Eggs this time, and pardon the crudeness of the quality. [SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT] So I'm a big "Jurassic Park" fan, and I later came to appreciate "Jurassic World". So when I first heard about the sequel 2-3 years ago, I was super excited. But after finally seeing the film, I'm personally unsure of this sequel. For the most part, I felt a little let down, especially with the ending. Let's just say, this isn't the last time Chris Pratt will be dawning the Raptor-Handler persona. But mainly what struck me the most was the treatment of the dinosaurs themselves. This by far is the most emotional time you'll have with the creatures. And I felt it lost the beauty and purpose of "Jurassic Park" . You see, "Jurassic Park" was always about the wonder and glory of these creatures. In this sequel, it didn't seem to honor the creatures as much, in fact, its the opposite, it left them bruised and abused. Unlike previous films where the dinosaurs (in some way or another) take back control of their natural lives, this film hardened on the idea of "dinosaur vs. man" to a heart wrenching degree, which is what Spielberg tried to avoid in his original film. Another thing about JP was the idea of "control", the message being you can't control nature. In this movie, they force the idea that man CAN control nature in a violent way, and as a result, opens the door to the suffrage of these creatures. There was a scene that really broke my heart, which gave me the same sentiment about Han Solo dying. There is one creature who we've seen from the VERY beginning of Jurassic Park, one who has been featured in all (3) movies, which is considered an one of the iconic characters of the film, who perishes by the lava in this movie. If I were the director of this film I would have saved that creature. It is one that welcomed us to the park, and it should have been preserved. Although, sure, it was nature-killing-nature; you had the human element taking these creatures outta the island, they should saved this one as well. Any ways, If you've seen the trailer, and if you're a true fan, you'll obviously get the similarities with"Jurassic Park: The Lost World", and it pretty much is, but with a different ending (an ending that is "the beginning of the end" so to speak). From characters to dialogue, each scene had reference to "The Lost World", right down to the lack of use of the original "Welcome to Jurassic Park" theme song (which dishearten me a bit). Now despite my disappointment, there are some good traits to the film. What I enjoyed the most was spotting the many subtle and obvious references to the original Jurassic Park trilogy, as well as seeing the return of iconic characters from Jurassic World. Added to that, a new twist to InGen genetic-cloning research and backstory story (emphasis on cloning). The reference to John Hammond's back story and his previously unmentioned business partner was very interesting as well. However I wished they'd have done more, maybe add some flashbacks to to the original Jurassic Park itself. Something along the lines of West World, with Anthony Hopkins. Would have been great to see John Hammond in CGI with a younger James Cromwell (Lockworth). Another great thing aesthetically is the use of animatronics, prior to the premier, they had mention the use of returning practical effects, and what's cool is that now days you can't actually distinguish which is practical and which is CGI, and I found myself attempting to spot that for this movie. But I digress, as mentioned, there's obviously going to be more JW movies. Maybe then we'll we delve into the backstory of pre-Jurassic Park and even further since, as previously mention, there is a new installment to the Jurassic-Genetic story that hasn't been done in prior films (And no, it's not the hybrid...it's certainly not an animal for that matter). So, much like Star Wars, we will have to wait and see where the true story will go. Cause right now, "Fallen Kingdom" just opened the door to a new venture. Overall though, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" was still exciting to watch, despite the critics I made. I think there could have been more to this film; difference of execution. But at the same time, there was just enough to keep me intrigued, and enough to make me a critic - so a fair balance splitting me in the middle. Plus! Can't go wrong with Jeff Goldblum in it. And HEY! In the 20 years he has been detesting this dino park, they sorta listen to him this time. I wish there was more of him though, I had hoped he would have had some interaction with the main characters. Hopefully as JW continues, we may see more of Jeff and maybe more of the original JP characters and park. Either way, can’t say this is my favorite Jurassic movie. It has good moments, but I’d still stick to the first JP and JW. Blue (Velociaptor) and Rexy (T-Rex) (characters) © "2015-2018" (Jurassic World 1 & 2) J.A. Bayone, Colin Trevorrow, Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Steven Speilberg, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Derek Connolly (based on the novel by: Michael Crichton) (Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures & Universal Pictures ™ ) OTHER REFERENCES & LOGO'S ARE COPYRIGHTED © & TRADEMARKED ™ TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNER, PRODUCTION, COMPANY & STUDIO wolfjedisamuel © 18

#jurassic world #Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom #wolfjedisamuel #spoof #parody #t-rex #tyranosaurus rex #blue the raptor #velociraptor

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italicwatches · 5 years

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Megalobox - Episode 06

Alright, photos taken, now I just need to work on them. And then, I’ve got plans. So many plans. But first, it’s Megalobox, episode 06! Here we GO!

-We begin in the past, with a younger Aragaki. Nanbu’s wisdom worked its way into his mind, into his body…

-And in the Now, all that wisdom has crashed across Joe’s fucking jaw…But on the nine count, he only use manages to rise, and put Aragaki’s attention back on him full out…! The old man isn’t your opponent, HE IS!

-Opening!

-The match is on proper once more, as both men keep exchanging blocked blows…And Nanbu is realizing just what kind of crazy tricks Aragaki’s worked into his boxing. His prosthetics have a spring to them, a bounce to make walking and running easier…And Aragaki uses that springiness to speed up his footwork, to be able to bob and weave out of the way without having to take his body out of prime punching position!

-Things go from punching into a grapple, as Joe tries to force Aragaki’s hand, but Aragaki manages to force him back into the ropes, and start the beatdown…Joe tries to respond, but he just gets countered…!

-And it’s only the ring of the bell that saves his life. Joe just about collapses into his corner chair, and Nanbu’s about ready to literally throw in the towel… They can get another match, a better match, Joe! They don’t need this…

-Yeah fuck that. They’re doing this. The next bell rings, and Joe’s back in the ring…But things have changed. He’s remembering Nanbu’s ring advice, splitting his weight more evenly…And he’s mumbling about it to himself. Just loud enough for Aragaki to hear.

-And enough to put Aragaki off-balance. He starts throwing too much into it, and manages to clip Joe’s chin and put him back on the mat…

-But the fight isn’t over, still. Even as it turns into a fucking slobberknocker, just fists flying on both sides, as both men try to wear each other down…Until the bell rings again. Second round, done.

-And back in his corner, Aragaki flashes back to Nanbu’s wisdom back in the day…And he’s scarcely even listening to his caretaker back in the Now.

-While in Joe’s corner, he’s thinking. Aragaki’s…Holding awful close to the rules, for a man full of hate. He’s not in this to torture you. He’s in this to win the fight. The third round begins, and Aragaki’s on Joe in a flash! But Joe can see he’s slowing down, getting sloppy…He’s an older boxer. They say you lose power last…But that means your speed and your stamina go first.

-Nanbu watches this all, and realizes what a fool he’s been…How much of this is his fault….As Joe’s luck starts to run out. He takes a hard body blow that has him coughing up blood and spitting out his mouthguard…

-And yet, one more time. One, more, time, Joe RISES. Because he’s not doing this for Nanbu. He’s not doing this for anyone’s past. He’s doing this because a man put up his fists in front of him, and the only thing Joe knows how to do is to wreck anyone who does that…

-Even as Aragaki delivers blow after blow, Joe manages to force himself to stay up through it all, to keep his weight balanced and keep himself on his feet, as Aragaki’s fury comes out…Way too hard…He remembers the day he shattered Nanbu’s old gym window and crawled in…And he leaves himself open to one quick, hard punch to the jaw. One that has so much of his own weight going into it, that he drops.

-And the count starts.

-Megalobox, Round 06: Until the Last Dog DIES

-He manages to rise on the eight count, shaking the cobwebs out of his head…But Joe’s on him immediately, pushing him back bit by bit, until the bell rings…

-Back in his corner, Joe gets patched up bit by bit, while Aragaki’s shaken by that one shot.

-It’s round four, and Joe’s moving like a completely different man, one with a stronger stance, a firmer will…Aragaki keeps coming at him, keeps trying, but Joe’s able to hold out against Aragaki’s speedy Gear with ease…And when Aragaki over-extends, Joe’s there in a flash, dropping punch after punch! The man’s getting desperate, he’s getting tired, and he’s getting sloppy. He’s on tilt, and Joe’s singular, most potent ability is that he does, not, tilt.

-Aragaki finds himself against the ropes, his war and post-war flashbacks haunting him as the match turns south for him…And to make it worse, his footwork isn’t going right. His leg isn’t locked in right. Something he took unseated his knee, and he’s forced to work against it, to just go in for raw power and blow after blow…But the more power he throws in, the slower he gets, and the more open he gets, as Joe just punishes everything…

-Blood from both men spills across the mat as they just try to beat each other into the ground…Until the fourth round bell rings, moments before they can cross-counter each other.

-Back to the chairs. Joe’s still got it in him. Aragaki doesn’t. And when the bell rings, Joe’s up…And Aragaki is still in his chair. He’s forfeited the match. The crowd erupts into cheers…And Joe collapses as soon as the adrenaline leaves him, while Aragaki’s got to be carried out of there.

-Aragaki tries to apologize for throwing the match…But the caretaker would’ve called it if you hadn’t. He saw what was going on with your leg. The last thing he needs is for you to be down for good.

-In the aftermath, Aragaki’s taking a long breather on a bench, as Nanbu comes in to talk…Aragaki’s prosthetic is bloodied and disconnected, and both men are just…Silent for a long time. Until Aragaki admits…This isn’t the first time. He’s been overworking these prosthetics. He was at risk of being outright bedridden, and the doctors were insisting he retire…

-And then he saw Nanbu. And his new boxer. And…He was so confused, Nanbu, so unsure what he wanted to do…But seeing Joe, fighting him, and doing that match…With tears in his eyes, Aragaki admits he’s finally ready to hang it up. To live a new life. All he’s done…It was enough, wasn’t it, coach?

-It was so much more than anyone could have asked. You did…You did amazingly, Aragaki. And Aragaki hands him a slip, something to give to Joe…

-…The old betting slip. The lost slip. Back on Aragaki’s last day, Nanbu bet all he had, trying to get enough to treat his boxer to a nice dinner. It of course failed, and he gave Aragaki the slip as a luck charm. A symbol that he was worth taking the risk on, and that Nanbu had his back out there. That he’d be waiting for Aragaki…

-Back in the Now. Aragaki admits, that ticket saved his life, Nanbu. He was…He was close to ending his own life, when it fell out of his old gloves. If it hadn’t…

-Nanbu starts to get misty-eyed himself…But listen, Nanbu. The goal is Megalonia, right? Be sure to tell Joe that he’s got people rooting for him…And Aragaki’s gonna be cheering the kid on, too.

-Far away, Yuri stands on a balcony, as the third competitor to enter the Megalonia tournament is announced…Glen Burroughs of the Killer Bomb Crew! Known as the “Bloody Lion”, a heavyweight who’s all ferocious and terrifying force, using his massive body to overcome the advantages of middleweight boxers…There’s less than a month to go at this point, and a fourth competitor will be announced soon…

-Of course, by this point, people want to know if Gearless Joe will be entering…And out on the balcony, a man by the name of Mikio comes to chat with Yuri. Tough luck for Glen back there. Everyone’s more interested in seeing if this gimmick fighter will be entering, than talking about Glen’s actual entry.

-Yuri, of course, recognizes Gearless Joe when he sees the highlights on a TV billboard…And both men wonder if this stray dog can get in…

-Credits.

God damn. That got so heavy…What the hell will Joe’s last pre-Megalonia match look like, let alone Megalonia itself? I guess the only way to find out is to push forward, and see what happens next time, in episode SEVEN of Megalobox! Wait for it!

#where I watch #recap #anime #boxing #megalobox

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daresplaining · 7 years

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So proud of Danny in the Defenders... He was my favorite. His fights were a huge improvement from his show, I loved them all! What do you think about Danny this season?

Danny was a rockstar in this show. As Daredevil bloggers, we’re contractually obligated to say that Matt was our favorite… but well… we loved every second of Danny’s journey, and the wait for Season 2 is going to be very long indeed. We really enjoyed the fights in Iron Fist, but we agree that they were awesome in The Defenders– particularly with the addition of those glorious Luke/Danny tag-teams! If you don’t mind, we’re going to take this as an excuse to do a deep dive into Danny’s Defenders arc.

(First: his haircut is excellent. We liked the longer hair too, but this would be much easier to uh… *cough* fit under a mask. Eh, Marvel?)

In some of the earliest pre-Defenders interviews, Finn mentioned that Danny would be the one member of the team who really knew what was going on, and would be a driving force behind the team-up– and this ended up being very much the case. Of all the protagonists, Danny comes into this fight with the most pain and the most context and the biggest personal investment in achieving victory. Matt lost someone he loved to the Hand, and we’re certainly not disregarding that grief, but Danny lost his entire home– or at least, he believes he did– and he blames himself.

The question of whether K’un-Lun has actually been destroyed is toyed with throughout The Defenders, and while we likely won’t find out the truth until Iron Fist Season 2, the important factor here is what Danny believes. His character arc in his solo show followed his desperate struggle to sort out his identity– as Danny Rand in the first five episodes, as Iron Fist in the next five, and as a balance of both in the final three– and now, he views this time spent in conflict as having cost him everything. We know, of course, that this was beyond his control, and so it’s upsetting to watch him get tortured anew by guilt. We can compare his nightmare about K’un-Lun in Defenders Episode 1 to his relentless PTSD-fueled flashbacks to the plane crash in Iron Fist. The trauma of watching his parents die, while obviously not gone, has been superseded by the trauma of losing his adopted family and home. And once again, just as he did as a ten-year-old, he is reacting to compensate for this loss. We see at the beginning of The Defenders that his life and purpose have become simplified and focused. He is no longer questioning. He is no longer conflicted. He no longer believes he can afford to be. He has one goal, to the exclusion of all else. He’s the Iron Fist, and he’s taking down the Hand no matter what.

(A whole separate post could be written on the contexts in which he introduces himself as Danny vs. as Iron Fist, but we’ll get back to that.)

Another side effect of this new sense of purpose is isolation. Danny needs to complete his mission himself, and doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. Colleen, as someone who has been on this journey with him for a long time at this point, and who has her own self-imposed mission to destroy the Hand, is the only ally he wants. As Colleen points out later in the show, Danny is on a subconscious search for a family. But having lost his last two, and having been betrayed by nearly everyone since first returning to New York, he starts the show hesitant about the idea of acquiring new allies. Colleen, in contrast, is eager for help and sees this isolation as a problem. With Danny cutting himself off from the rest of the world, he is becoming locked in a spiral of depression and putting himself in danger. It’s interesting to then watch them reverse positions on this topic as the show progresses.

This mission leads to Danny and Colleen’s discovery of the Chaste stronghold in NYC, a hint of their connection to K’un-Lun, and– most importantly– the fact that they too have been wiped out. Yet another failure, in what is now looking more and more to Danny like a battle he is destined to lose. This is the absolute worst possible moment Luke could have strolled into his life and started protecting someone working for the Hand.

Luke is defending a suffering kid from what looks like a random assault. Danny is fighting someone he assumes is a Hand warrior, possibly the very person who slaughtered the Chaste. He is out for blood– and Luke does nothing but unknowingly exacerbate the situation.

(Oh no.)

(OH NO!)

The sheer size of the misunderstandings in Luke and Danny’s early interactions makes them painful to watch, but also great character moments. This fight, for Danny, is an embodiment of his entire battle with the Hand so far: seemingly futile, and exposing just how weak and ineffective he is. Nothing he tries works, and the enemy just. Keeps. Coming. Not only that, but Luke is standing in the way of his one hope for finding answers: Cole. All things considered, it’s a testament to Danny’s self-control that it takes him as long as it does to wallop his future BFF with the Iron Fist.

While we’re on the subject of Danny in this fight, we wanted to take a second to highlight this badassery:

Danny’s agility and untouchability is a trademark of his fighting style in the comics, and it’s his usual strategy for fighting big bruisers like Luke, so we loved seeing it showcased here (and we wish he’d used it more)!

Luke: “Your playin’ jack-rabbit ain’t gonna save you forever, punk!”

Power Man #48 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Francoise Mouly

Once Claire vouches for Luke not being Hand, Danny agrees to meet with him– and while obviously wary at first (again: Danny has had a terrible history of trusting people he shouldn’t), he warms up to Luke amazingly quickly. He clearly respects and admires Luke for what he’s heard about him from Claire, and for his fighting ability– and yes, probably also because of True Love™ (platonic or otherwise, depending on how you personally read this relationship). The writers know what the fans want, after all.

(Ed Brisson, the writer for the current Iron Fist series, once referred to their dynamic as (to paraphrase) “the guy with the most powerful punch, and the guy who can take that punch”, so we appreciate this exchange. We’re gonna try really hard to not veer too far into Heroes for Hire Happy Land in this post, since we’re focusing specifically on Danny, but this seemed worth pointing out. There will be plenty of time for Heroes for Hire Happy Land later…)

This scene also introduces something we see several times in the show, usually with Luke– which is Danny’s eagerness to share the details of his origin story. He becomes noticeably happier when talking about K’un-Lun and acquiring his powers, and it’s really endearing.

(D’aw. That’s how we feel about Shou-Lao too, Danny.)

One of our favorite exchanges in the entire show, in fact, is in Episode 6: when Luke makes fun of Danny for this, then realizes he’s hurt him, feels bad, and offers to sincerely engage. Danny’s relief and gratitude is palpable and it’s a great moment in their budding friendship. In fact (and we’ll get back to this), it’s possibly the most important moment between them from Danny’s perspective– proof that, despite the betrayal of trying to keep him out of the war, Luke does actually care about him. It’s a small gesture, but a powerful one, since Danny doesn’t have many people like that in his life anymore.

Also, as far as we can remember, Danny never actually mentioned shoving his hands into Shou-Lao’s heart in Iron Fist, so we love that that detail was included here. It’s important! And yes… it hurt like heck.

Danny: “I plunged my hands into it, as hard as I could, again and again. You can’t imagine how that hurt… It was hotter than any furnace, but after ten years of preparation– after all the others who’d tried and failed– how could I stop?”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #75 by Mary Jo Duffy, Kerry Gammill, and Christie Scheele

Anyway, we read this urge several different ways. First, Danny is really proud of being the Iron Fist– and he should be. The guy singlehandedly killed a dragon, and being K’un-Lun’s Immortal Weapon is a huge honor. He talks again and again, in both Iron Fist and in The Defenders, about how this was something he earned through hard work and dedication. It’s his greatest accomplishment– something that has defined his life. This also means that it’s key to understanding who he is. Danny is finally able to fully embraced his identity and status as the Iron Fist, as we discussed earlier, meaning that he now sees this as the most important fact about him. He wants new people to understand him, and telling them his origin story is a quick and easy way to get at the core of who he sees himself to be at this point. It’s also proof of his credentials. He’s the Iron Fist– he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to this magic ninja stuff. It’s telling that during the team’s first conversation at the restaurant, Danny seems to expect Matt to know about the Iron Fist legacy as well, since he has prior knowledge of the Hand. (Joke’s on you, Danny– Matt failed his Chaste training.)

Most importantly: it’s something he just doesn’t get to talk about much, since he doesn’t have many friends (yet!) and most people don’t believe him. And it’s heartbreaking for his life and title and home to be continually scoffed at, but he keeps trying anyway. Now that he thinks he’ll never see K’un-Lun again, he is probably extra desperate to reflect on happy memories of his time there. Since he returned to New York, the only person who has sincerely been interested in connecting with him in this way is Colleen. He needs more friends he can chat with about kung fu and dragons! He needs more people in his life who actually care about him as a person!

And finally, of course, it’s for anyone who didn’t watch the previous Marvel Netflix shows– but that’s beside the point.

This scene also, of course, gives us Luke and Danny’s other fight– which is even more painful than the physical one. We could pick this apart line by line, since it is loaded with nuance, but it boils down to Luke fundamentally misunderstanding the situation. The points he makes to Danny make perfect sense based on his personal background and the extent of his knowledge. They’re excellent, socially relevant points. However, they betray a lack of awareness of what’s actually going on in the show, and the fact that Luke doesn’t know anything about Danny yet. And Danny is blindsided by his accusations, since they’re so far removed from the real situation.

Danny spent most of his life without money, then had a fortune he wasn’t interested in unceremoniously dumped on him, so this whole conversation is understandably surreal for him. He sees the Hand bearing down on New York and threatening the only other home he has, while Luke just sees a kid whose life is in danger and whose family is suffering, and these personal investments in the situation cloud their abilities to see each other’s perspectives. And boy, does that hurt to watch. This is also the introduction of Danny’s main role within the team-up: as someone who understands the Hand better than any of the others, and tries to keep all of their individual agendas from getting in the way of what really matters.

It’s also key to point out the difference between Colleen (who also worked for the Hand) and Cole. Danny now understands, via Colleen, how the Hand can sucker good people into joining them by not revealing their sinister deeds until ensuring loyalty. Colleen was with the Hand for years, yet had no idea her faction was involved in criminal activity. But Cole was right in there, disposing of dead bodies. Danny has every reason to assume he had at least some sense of how bad his bosses were.

…And this is the point where Danny finally snaps, which is no big surprise. It cuts right into his own feelings of guilt. But Luke would have no way of knowing how out of line this is.

This is an upsetting scene for H4H fans (one of us had to take a minute to calm down during our first watch-through), but it’s also a key turning point in Danny’s Defenders character arc. Having hit a wall in his battle with the Hand, Luke’s comments provide him with a fresh perspective on the situation– and a new idea about how to continue the fight. He realizes, in fact, that he needs to reach outside of his Iron Fist identity, to which he has so tightly clung since the beginning of the show, and make use of his Rand resources.

As Colleen rightly points out, and despite whatever “entitled rich kid” stereotype Luke might have imagined, this is not his world, and he is stepping way out of his comfort zone. But he goes for it anyway, his fighting spirit renewed. He even makes the ultimate sacrifice and puts on a suit and tie!

(Get ‘em, Danny!)

Having spent so long trying to reconcile his two identities, this is a hugely important moment– in which Danny uses his civilian identity as a weapon to further his mission as Iron Fist.

Danny: “I need to face this as Danny Rand. I’ll need every asset of my father’s most precious gift to me… this mighty, undying corporation… and every last dollar of its lifeblood… and all the power that buys. You want a war, Hydra? Fine. You’ve got it.”

Immortal Iron Fist #3 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, et al.

As we hope he learns in future seasons through his continued exploration of the Iron Fist legacy, all Iron Fists (at least, in the comics) are unique, and their lives, careers, and even power-sets are shaped by their individual differences. There isn’t a set template for being the Iron Fist, and it is possible– necessary, even– to be an Immortal Weapon without losing every other part of your identity. Danny has gone from negotiating the two sides of his life and being buffeted by the chaos this generates, to zeroing in on his fight with the Hand to the exclusion of everything else– and this moment is a great step in what will hopefully be a journey toward a comfortable middle ground. Yes, the writers needed to get him to Midland Circle so he could take part in the team-up, but it’s also a cool character moment. Also, look at that smirk. You go, Danny.

But all of this aside, Colleen is right, Danny is not a businessman. And he knows it. However, he also knows how to approach combat, and is very good at acting confident, as we saw in his fights in Iron Fist. It’s clear he’s faking his way through his business-y speech to the board at Midland Circle, but that’s not the point. This is his official declaration of war. He needs the Hand to know that the Iron Fist is coming after them, and he needs them to think he has the upper hand. By strolling right into the center of their operation, he is metaphorically giving them the finger and letting them think he doesn’t feel threatened by them.

At the same time, he is placing himself in a position of weakness. For the first time since the beginning of the show, he is completely isolated– and for the first time, he is confronted face-to-face with the reality of what, exactly, he’s up against.

Alexandra shows up to derail him, belittle him, and emotionally destabilize him. She goes in for some space invasion and forced physical contact to assert dominance (she does the same thing in the restaurant, and to Elektra). Heck, she even sits right up on the conference table to throw in a little additional disrespect. And she meets Danny’s declaration with one of her own: that the Hand doesn’t feel threatened by him either. Danny doesn’t back down, of course, but once again the Hand is presenting a serious challenge to him – and this time he’s facing them all by himself.

We are sadly no longer able to make GIFs from Netflix (and kudos to the GIF wizards who still manage it), but Danny is so angry here that he’s twitching. The core members of the Hand use the apparent destruction of K’un-Lun as a psychological weapon against him throughout the show, and each time it’s heartbreaking to watch him fight to keep his composure. It’s a testament to his self-control that he manages it here– though the emotional turmoil stemming from this, alongside everything else Alexandra throws at him in this scene (her blasé attitude, the fact that she doesn’t want to kill him yet, the fact that she’s killed previous Iron Fists…), may be why he experiences a chi malfunction right before Luke arrives.

Team-up stories are always going to undermine the power of individual characters’ narratives. Were this Danny’s solo show, he would likely have found a way out of this situation on his own, and it would have been awesome. But then we wouldn’t have gotten this:

(Chi blockage: cured!) …so we’re not complaining. As it stands, the effectiveness of this team-up convinces Danny that maybe acquiring more allies isn’t such a bad idea.

Tracking the Hand all over the world didn’t work, searching for the Chaste didn’t work, confronting their leaders and attacking their “legal” base of operations didn’t work… Now, Danny eagerly throws himself into a new strategy that seems like it might yield results. It’s heartening to see that in the midst of all of his pain and frustration, he still maintains that characteristic optimism. Just because all previous efforts have failed doesn’t mean this one will, and he is positively chipper throughout his early interactions with the other three. He believes that now, at last, he has found a way to beat the Hand, and thus his hope is restored. It’s a relief for him to have more allies to rely on, and he is fascinated to run into other superpowered warriors, awed by them, and eager to work alongside them.

(These are only a few examples, of course– Danny is perpetually geeking out over the other three throughout the show.) Despite his history of betrayal and his previous belief that he couldn’t get others involved, he sets his heart on this team-up and almost instantly attaches himself to Luke, Jessica, and Matt. He doesn’t even get involved in the argument about Matt hiding his face– he trusts him anyway (neat detail: he doesn’t even look at Matt’s face post-reveal until after Matt introduces himself). It’s enough for him, in this moment, that he’s found a group of friends who are able and willing to fight the Hand alongside him. He verbally defends their honor to Alexandra, and (big surprise) is smitten with Luke in particular.

Now that the situation has escalated and Luke sees what’s really going on, and after their effortlessly badass partnership at Midland Circle, the two of them have put aside their grievances. Now, Danny goes into the same hi-I’m-going-to-keep-talking-to-you-until-you-become-my-friend mode with Luke that he did with Colleen when he first met her.

Luke in turn provides Danny with protection and moral support later in this scene, when Alexandra starts getting aggressive. Danny is still subconsciously looking for a family, and in addition to their ability to kick serious ninja butt, these guys seem to him like prime candidates.

The restaurant scene is an emotional high point for Danny for another reason as well: Stick.

We had high hopes for Danny and Stick’s interactions, and all of them were met. Stick exhibits a respect for Danny’s rank (moreso than we were expecting, in fact, but not too much– he’s still Stick, after all) that is in neat contrast with his interactions with everyone else. Danny, in turn, is delighted to meet someone of Stick’s calibre who– most importantly– has information! Not only that, but Stick is connected to K’un-Lun in a positive way, which automatically puts him at the top of Danny’s list of people to hang out with.

This, however, is coupled with Danny’s renewed feelings of distress about how much information was withheld from him while he was in K’un-Lun (which is also true in the comics. This is mostly due to 616 K’un-Lun’s massive amount of political intrigue, which we’re dying for the show to cover). The fact that the Chaste existed to work alongside the Iron Fist, and Danny didn’t know about them, and now most of them are dead, is a killer bombshell for Stick to drop on him at this moment. Danny is therefore desperate to learn everything he possibly can to make up for this intel gap, and is eager to hear what Stick has to say.

We enjoy the contrast here with Matt– and the fact that Danny gets annoyed at Matt’s disrespect and dismissal of Stick’s intel. Danny has finally found someone who knows what’s going on and who is just as invested in this fight as he is, not to mention someone with a personal connection to his home, and dammit, he wants to listen!

Danny’s delight in his new allies does not last, of course, and it ends the minute he is transformed into the show’s MacGuffin (thing for the protagonists and antagonists to fight over). With the revelation that the Hand need the Iron Fist in their possession in order to achieve their aims, the team tries to do the absolute worst thing that could possibly be done to Danny in this context: prevent him from fighting.

(Exhibit A: A rare image of Luke Cage telling Danny Rand to calm down. Only a handful of these exist in the world, so take a good look. We’ve talked before about the temperament switch in this version of the dynamic duo, and this summarizes that change perfectly. It’s fascinating, and we can’t wait to see how it plays out as their friendship continues to develop. When they do Good Cop/Bad Cop… will Danny be the Bad Cop? How wild would that be?!)

This is a brilliant narrative wrench to throw into Danny’s story arc, since it’s pretty close to his worst nightmare. The only meaning he has in life right now, the only way he will ever be able to reconcile the pain Iron Fist Season 1 left him with, the only way he will be able to avenge K’un-Lun, is to take down the Hand. He is a warrior, this is his job, the enemy is winning, and his friends want to prevent him from fighting. He’d probably prefer it if Stick just tried to kill him, instead of being locked up and rendered helpless. The emotional horror of being blocked from fulfilling his mission is coupled with the frustration that comes with the fact that he is right and the audience knows it. The Hand want him on their side or out of the fight completely. Danny, more than anyone there other than Stick, knows how sneaky and deceptive and manipulative the Hand can be, and now he sees their influence tearing his dream team apart, and these people he thought were his allies are refusing to listen to him. He sees his hopes for victory unraveling in front of him, and nothing he says makes any difference! We’d start punching too! We’re getting stressed and frustrated just writing about it!

Plus, Danny is being betrayed by people he thought he could trust… AGAIN. Still reeling from the series of massive betrayals he suffered through in his solo show, his willingness to trust in the good intentions of the people around him is once more coming back to hit him in the face. A good chunk of the anger and frustration he experiences in this scene is likely aimed toward himself, for once again becoming emotionally attached to the wrong people. Of course, the others are acting in what they think are Danny’s best interests, but given all of these factors, there’s no way Danny doesn’t see this as yet another betrayal.

This is the face of a guy who has lost everything, has just been stabbed in the back for the hundredth time, has at maximum two people in his life he can trust… maybe two-and-a-half, and who just had to chi punch someone he cares about. A serious contender for most heartbreaking moment in the show.

And of course– big surprise– this ends up being a mistake. Tying him up and trying to hide him only makes it easier for the Hand to get their hands on him. To add injury to more injury, Stick is killed in the process (R.I.P. gone too soon), and Luke is poisoned– two things Danny was rendered powerless to prevent. This leads into his third, and possibly most interesting, confrontation with Alexandra.

After dangling the image of K’un-Lun’s ruins in front of Danny throughout the entire show, Alexandra now switches tactics and reveals her own emotional connections to his lost home. This comes alongside her cryptic assertion that Danny “saw what [he] wanted to see” when he returned to K’un-Lun. “Wanted” seems like a strange word to use in this situation (”expected” would make more sense), but once Danny discovered that the Hand was real during his solo show, and after all of Davos’s warnings, there was unquestionably a part of him that feared he’d return to find it gone. This, alongside the Hand leaders’ sincere desire to go back to the city themselves, makes a pretty strong case for it having not actually been destroyed. We likely won’t learn the truth until Season 2 of Iron Fist, but the hope is there. Danny, for his part, remains seemingly unaffected by this attempt at a personal connection. He doesn’t trust anything the Hand have to say, and probably assumes Alexandra is just messing with him. He has become too jaded to hope that he’s wrong about K’un-Lun, and too angry to care if the Hand share his love of the city. They’re evil jerks regardless, and now that he’s in their grasp, he can’t afford any moment of weakness or shred of doubt.

After Alexandra’s premature death (hopefully this means no one will call Matt “the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” ever again!), Danny falls into Elektra’s hands and the two weapons finally get their rematch. We wrote a post about the fact that Danny never lost any of his physical fights in Iron Fist, and so getting beaten by Elektra in the beginning of The Defenders likely left a big impression on him. We were hoping the Black Sky might end up being an Immortal Weapon, and while this was neither confirmed nor denied, she is still essentially treated like one by the Hand. This creates some fascinating parallels and contrasts between Elektra and Danny.

Danny, via his emotional connection to K’un-Lun and the strong sense of duty he finally has the capacity for since sorting out his identity tangle, is a willing weapon. He serves and honors his city because he loves it and knows how much he owes to it (stay tuned for the Matt parallel!). Elektra, via her history of negative experiences with servitude and her desire for control of her own destiny, is an unwilling weapon. Her status as a tool of the Hand is a prison she was forced into, and from which she has finally managed to escape. She sees Danny’s loyalty as weakness; he sees her rebellion as unfaithfulness. At the same time, Danny completely supports people betraying the Hand, so his comments about her lack of loyalty may just be attempts to get under her skin. Only having his experiences to go on, he doesn’t understand that this wouldn’t bother her– just as Elektra doesn’t understand that Danny has no desire to be “free” of his masters the way she does. In this moment, neck-deep in his mission and standing in the presence of something created by another Iron Fist, his loyalty and resolve are stronger than ever.

*Ahem*

(They made “Sweet Christmas” work. They could’ve let Danny keep his K’un-Lun expletives. Come on.)

A solid argument could be made that Danny actually could read the writing on the door, but just didn’t want to reveal that information to Elektra. The idea of an Iron Fist writing an important message in a K’un-Lun-specific dialect brings to mind Book of the Iron Fist from the comics, which is written in a language only Iron Fists can read. However, we also know that Gao was able to decipher the door, and Danny being unable to would tie into the continuing theme of his getting left in the dark by his masters in K’un-Lun.

(This is just a really nice shot.)

When her attempts to relate to Danny and win him to her side fail, Elektra falls back on the same old tactics everyone else has been using against him– his weak spot regarding K’un-Lun.

Having been taunted about this throughout the entire show, again and again fighting to keep his emotions in check, and feeling no closer to avenging the city… Danny finally snaps. At this point in his story arc, after everything he has been through, he is more emotionally raw than ever. The framing of this moment almost makes it seem as though he summons the Iron Fist without thinking about it– which indicates a dangerous loss of control, and is something that usually only happens in extreme situations.

Danny: “My hand–?! It’s glowing, the power of my chi surging thru my body… almost as if my instincts have realized what my mind has not–”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #11 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and D. Garfield

The final battle with the Hand is, for us, the weakest part of Danny’s Defenders arc, in which his story suffers for the sake of facilitating the team-up. After all of his defeats, face-to-face with the Hand, defending K’un-Lun’s legacy and standing in the skeleton of a freaking dragon, Danny should have been the one to finally triumph and take them down. Instead, he gets rescued, and isn’t even involved in blowing up Midland Circle. Danny has earned the right to spearhead this victory, and that right is taken away from him. As it stands, his mission to find closure and cement his status as the Iron Fist will have to wait until his solo show.

By the end of The Defenders, however, Danny has achieved one of his goals: he has started to build a new family for himself. His one-on-one bonding scene with Luke while tied up, and fighting side-by-side with all three of them, cleared up his residual anger about their getting him into this situation in the first place and proved that these are people he could actually have a future with. This bond is strengthened by the fact that Matt, in what Danny understands to be his dying moments, entrusts him with an important mission.

Of all of the protagonists, Danny is the least emotionally connected to New York City. Yes, he was born there, but it’s not his home. Believing K’un-Lun to be gone, he is now adrift. Like Colleen, he is looking for an anchor, and with the Hand threatening NYC, he was able to somewhat transfer his feelings of duty over to this new city now facing the same fate.

He sees Matt give his life to save his home– something he understands all too well– and through observing that love and spending the show fighting for New York himself, Danny starts to forge a connection to it. He respects Matt’s sacrifice, and in having Matt’s mission transferred to him, he is given something new he can devote himself to. His final shot, silhouetted on a rooftop and wearing an outfit reminiscent of his current costume in the comics, mirrors Matt’s standard hero pose. We’ve talked before about Iron Fist as a “professional” hero– someone whose job just happens to align with that lifestyle. The first time Danny is referred to as a superhero in the comics, he’s shocked, in fact, because this had never occurred to him. The same is true of MCU Danny, which makes it extra exciting that he has now– to a degree that we can only guess at the moment– taken over Matt’s role as a superhero.

This should not derail his continuing identity quest. Being the Iron Fist is at the core of who he is, and in many ways, his origin story is far from over. For this reason, we doubt that he will actually become Daredevil, as he did for a while in the comics. But with the Hand having been taken down, a new place to call home (at least until the K’un-Lun situation is sorted out), budding friendships (and possibly a future partnership with Luke?!), Danny’s life is looking, overall, much better than it was at the beginning of the show.

We cannot wait to see where he goes from here.

#Defenders spoilers #radical-bears #Netflix Defenders #Iron Fist #Danny Rand #Asks #Commentary

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torosiken · 7 years

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Question do you like WCI arc? What are your thoughts on it? What do you like or do you not like about it?

hi anon thanks for asking me this question XD *cracks fingers* hoo man this is gonna be long. To anyone, please don’t get offended on what I am going to write- just in case you get the wrong idea.

well, before I start I have to admit that I am a BIG *COUGH* Sanji *COUGH COUGH HACK* fan. And the idea of Sanji Year excited me nonetheless when it first came out, along with the Vinsmokes and marriage theme. I expected a lot of things happening during this arc. And in one side, I do am pleased with the revelation of Vinsmokes and all the new characters. I liked them, however I have to really say I am really displeased with Oda’s writing during this entire arc.

The entire arc was a disaster for me. Not because I expected big things or so. Ever since Sanji’s second backstory was mentioned briefly by the wedding invitation, I already expected this arc will full of cliches and oh-my-god I hate cliches so much. Yet I put my faith in Oda- because maybe he will pull shit out nicely like he always did. But no, we got a horrible rushed-off writing instead.

My guess it’s because Oda announced Year of Sanji back in 2016, and in result, he was rushing himself to write this arc and it ended up having a horrible writing. The idea of this arc was nice- but it was lacking execution. If you have been reading what my friend Malky wrote @sleepdepravity about this arc, I agree most of it with her- this arc has no point of character development. Sanji is kind, but the flaunting of that fact in this arc is only shoving that idea in the reader’s face- to make people go “Ooooh Sanji is so kind he is a salvation angel” instead of actually making this a redemption or some short.

The Straw Hats are adults, at this point- character development might not really presented and it was obvious especially ever since the timeskip. They are solid and are collected. And then suddenly this arc happens. If this arc is only going to show how harsh the New World is, it’s not. Because during the entire arc I don’t even get scared at all that Sanji or anyone is going to be killed for that matter. We had that heart attack that Law might get killed back in Dressrosa, but no. Also, apparently Law’s hand can be sewn back just nicely in the end of the arc. It makes me losing the feel that Sanji might actually lose his hands in this arc. Because, for hell if I knew- they could be sewn back just like ho Law’s hands were.

Most of people are disappointed that the SH are separating again, but for me- it’s to be expected. Especially that back in Dressrosa we got mossywara as a group with Luffy. So it’s to be expected that guruwara will be the only team presented in this arc. With addition of Pedro and Carrot in the gang, that was acceptable. I liked the minks when they were first introduced. But then, Pedro and Carrot joining SH on their trip out of nowhere is way too random. Kinemon, Bartolomeo, and Cavendish joining the war as a gang is actually more established than Pedro simply joining by -assigned-. Carrot joining the gang was written out nicely, however I am displeased on how she is portrayed after that.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked Carrot as a character. But don’t you think she is too overpowered? Hey, it’s great to get a strong, badass female character. And she is cute too. HOWEVER- CONTEXT IS she is YOUNG, and she was joining the trip RANDOMLY. She never been outside before. Yet she could stand up against BM’s troops? Dude. Remember the SH back in the early days? Remember how crazy strong Zoro depicted as? He was still struggling and BADLY too at some of low-rank enemies. This is Carrot’s first adventure out of Zou. And she could handle things NICELY without getting much injuries. Even if she is depicted as a strong character, this kind of writing is just too rushed for her character.

Next is Pudding. Oh God. PUDDING. I LOVE LOVE LOVE PUDDING SO MUCH. When she was first appeared, I already liked her cute attitude- and hell, I wouldn’t mind IF she stayed cute like that at all. And then there was EVIL PUDDING revealed with the memory powers. Dude, that really makes me into her. HOWEVER then Oda decided to fuck things up. Because one second, she was shown with a flashback with Lola and then the next second, she was evil. And then, suddenly she was crying just because a MAN calling her THIRD EYE BEAUTIFUL. The backstory was cool. But… are you SERIOUS??? Then she decided to fall in love with SANJI JUST BECAUSE THAT ONE LINE??? I wouldn’t mind if there was MORE BUILD UP between the two. Maybe like— make their exchanges longer during the pre-wedding scenes??? So Pudding can be more touched by Sanji’s gentleman-y and kindness aftermath??? But come on… the build up was so lacking it makes Pudding like an inconsistent little kid. Come on. Also, give us more screentime of that memory power won’t you Oda? What’s the use of mentioning it if you aren’t going to make Pudding USE IT???

And then there’s Big Mom herself. As many have pointed out about Big Mom, it makes ZERO SENSE that she wanted everything to live in peace BUT THEN SHE CLAIMED PUDDING’S THIRD EYE AS UGLY… WHAT??? It bugs me out especially that she is a Yonko. Strong and powerful. One second she agreed to marry her child with Capone for power, but next second she tried to murder the Vinsmokes to gain their power- I mean- dude??? that was so random????? She could’ve go along with the marriage like all the other times but she decided to go against a fucking nationality filled with assassins out of all deals??? What makes her to think of that??? Why didn’t she murder the other marriage dealers instead??? Didn’t she knew the Vinsmokes were rumored to be so strong even if they actually was clueless in this fucking arc? There was no caution to the Vinsmokes at all?????

And now here comes the Vinsmokes. BRO. You were rumored to be a strong ass kingdom and then they are… this STUPID??? I love the power rangers-esque outta them. But like… dude. You are a fucking nation with science basis. And they are apparently so stupid. Falling on BM’s trap just LIKE THAT? You are trying to make a deal with a PIRATE. Are you expecting things to go simply as that? You have troops. What kind of royalties are you? There wasn’t any soldiers at the wedding party. COME ON. YOU ARE TOO DUMB. Also if I were Judge I might as well kept Sanji for his brain and use him as the tactical commander. Or maybe at least KEEP HIM FOR A FUCKING BLOOD AND ORGAN SUPPLY IN CASE ANY OF THE FRONT ROW TRIPLETS ARE INJURED IN A FIGHT. ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO BE AN EVIL GROUP OF PEOPLE? THEN YOU FAILED WAYS TO BE EVIL GENIUSES. YOU ARE TOO DUMB TO BE EVIL GENIUSES.

And now I am talking about the Straw Hats. Jinbei joining the SH statement was EPIC but like… then I felt nothing. There was no impact to that or whatever. The only MVP in this whole arc is Brook. And I love Luffy. At least bless the Gods that he never changed. Nami in this arc was… horrible. She is suddenly just being a whiny moody kid. She kicked ass nicely in the last chapter action but like- during the entire thing she was just…. there. We are not seeing much action from her NEW WEAPON that was actually there to be a new fighting spotlight. I mean… come on???

And now we got Sanji. Oh god oh god oh god. Why.

I am not going to comment on how he is crying and shit or beating up Luffy. I actually understand why he does all of that. My only concern here is in the WRITING ON ALL OF THOSE SCENES AND NOT HOW SANJI iS ACTING DURING THE WHOLE THING. Sanji is still Sanji, and how he acts is actually still very in-character and it was nice. Including how stupid he is to think to leave the SH. And then we suddenly got Sanji saving the Vinsmokes on the fucking table scene- like a salvation angel coming from the depths of hell. I knew it was supposed to be symbolic, but it was FAR TOO CLICHE and this fucking arc is shoving down “LOOK AT HOW KIND SANJI IIIISSSSS” in reader’s face too much and I’m hella sick of it. You could’ve done that WITHOUT THAT. YEAH SURE. EVERY OP FANS WHO FOLLOW THE ENTIRE OP SHOULD’VE KNOWN THAT SANJI IS NICE ALREADY TBH YOU DOn’T NEED TO FLAUNT IT OVER AND OVER TOO MUCH SLKGSJKGjsKGS

Also Sanji’s second backstory is suddenly changing EVERYTHING about him. It makes as if the first backstory about starvation never happened. No, of course the readers know it’s still there. But suddenly in this one arc it’s treating like it was all that was about- making him sounded like an entire new and different character instead of the Sanji we are all know all these whole time. Character revealations are good, guys. But last time it happened- it was Luffy with his second backstory(ASL). It didn’t change our view on Luffy at all. However, on Sanji- everything did change. All of sudden people are talking about “look at how weak he was! He is not weak anymore! Look at how he never had a proper family and now he does!” when in fact that past was already long gone and Vinsmoke Sanji was dead- he was already reborn as simply Sanji and he was not weak or not having a family. This arc is talking as if he was never having anyone when he actually does.

There’s also Reiju- talking that she couldn’t disobey her father. Yet she occasionally does. This mechanism was confusing in any matter. Also there was the Vinsmoke brothers showing emotions at each other… everything is too inconsistant. Sanji’s resolve to be a chef is not even as strong as I thought it would be. and especially for fucks sake he is a prince, and he is aware that he is one. The fucking kingdom’s system is too fucked up even though I have to admit I liked the kingdom’s concept…

And suddenly I fogotten what else I wanted to write and everything ended up going into a loop without clear points of what I wanted to actually point out /shot

WCI has too many characters to introduce and to be offered. The thing with BM’s head chef is also written as too sudden. I have no surprises if Sanji and that cook is going to have a battle in the future chapters. The classic countdown thing is a thing in OP battles, like in Dressrosa- the time limit existed before the birdcage closes. During this arc, there was the one day to marriage- and the runaway- and to calm down BM’s rage. Time limit wise, it was great to portray all of the characters hurrying and all however- WRITING wise, it was not good to rush things just to make everything fits in into the deadline.

Events in CP9, Marineford, Dressrosa and many many others were having time limits on them, however they were not as rushed as how WCI’s writing was. Oda could’ve managed to sort out more build ups to make this arc flows better thus fitting all of the characters backstories without making things too cliche or rushed.

New World is a harsh place. And I have to admit- I would’ve prefered Sanji to lose his hands or at least a leg. Or maybe even die to make the whole thing flow better. If Oda is trying to portray New World’s harshness with WCI war- the least he could make is to make the characters severely injured- or at least leave some mark off permanently to show how harsh this adventure is.

I am too tired with this arc’s horrible writing that my mind focuses on things to enjoy like “oh look at how uke sanji is in this arc” /shot

Thanks for reading my stupid rant and I hope none of you gets this to the wrong side… hopefully X”D

I am pretty sure i wanted to rant more about this arc but I forgotten what I am displeased with halfway to this answer wwww :”D

#anonymous #ttt #wci arc #sanji

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aion-rsa · 6 years

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How Sci-fi, Edward Albee, and Eugene O’Neill Led Me to the Big Things Behind the Furnace

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Prentis Rollins leads us through the inspirations behind his literary science fiction graphic novel debut The Furnace.

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Feature Prentis Rollins

Prentis Rollins

Jun 28, 2018

TOR

This is a guest post by Marvel and DC Comics artist Prentis Rollins, author of graphic novel The Furnace.

Profiting off human suffering is The American Way.

So it seemed to me in 1998, when I first wrote The Furnace as a short prose story for a writers’ workshop in New York City. Twenty years later, it seems more the case than ever, for too many reasons and on too many fronts; now, my graphic novel of The Furnace (out July 2018 from Tor Books) may prove sadly relevant.

The prose story started as just an exercise. I had recently read two short stories that shaped my aesthetic, and continue to do so to this day. One was Bob Shaw’s Light of Other Days. The sci-fi premise of that story is slow glass—a material that looks and feels like ordinary glass, but which is several light years thick (meaning it takes light several years to pass through a pane of it). The slow glass conceit is fascinating enough, and convincingly described—but the story turns out to be about loss, regret, memory, and love—the Big Things.

The other story was James Blish’s short masterpiece, Common Time, which is about an astronaut’s lone voyage to Alpha Centauri, and his beautiful, hazily-remembered encounter with the loving alien who helps to repair his disabled starship. Again, the science part was Gibraltar-solid: thought-out, authentic, more than convincing. But the fiction part—the beating heart of the story, which was again about love, memory, and the yawning gulf between our moments of transcendence and the gray common time of daily existence—stuck in my craw, and is still there.

All of my favorite sci-fi stories have that much in common: an intriguing speculative springboard, and ultimately a big, human point that matters right now. I wanted to write a story like that. That’s all I’ll ever care to write. The way I see it, sci-fi premises are well and good—but at the end of the day, no one gives a hoot about slow glass. They care about the Big Things.

My topic with The Furnace short story was prisons and prisoners. Sometime around 2040 an aging physicist tells his young daughter about his youthful involvement in the development of the GARD program—a scheme for replacing traditional prisons with personal robots that follow "free" prisoners around and render them invisible and inaudible, and restrict their movements. Through a series of flashbacks, the reader saw the physicist as a young grad student involved in developing the program, and the devastating consequences—the wholesale die-off of the prisoners subjected to this untested new form of psychological isolation. And that was pretty much it.

The story was well-received by the workshop. Or at least it was… well, received. I mainly recall that group members seemed put off by having to read 40 or so whole pages—which, yeah, was a bit much for a bunch of accountant-types dreaming of a townhouse at the corner of Novelist and Easy Street. They suffered, I profited. Carole Bugge, the workshop leader and a terrific writer, was very encouraging.

So. No one’s world was exactly rocked by the story, but it continued to haunt/exercise me—and at a certain point it occurred to me that it might have more impact if it were visual. I’d been drawing comics since I was a kid, and was in the thick of my career as an inker for DC Comics—I decided to transform The Furnace into a graphic novel. This was in 2007. Nine years later, I finished it.

Funnily enough, I didn’t have a single surviving copy of the prose story; every printed copy was long gone, and I had neglected to save it digitally. So when I set about writing a graphic novel script of the story, I had to reconstruct it entirely from memory. This was probably actually a good thing—not being shackled to a pre-existing vision of the story, I was free to morph it in accordance with how I’d changed in the intervening years.

And I had. I’d actually become a father myself, and in 2007 my daughter was six—the age of the protagonist’s daughter in the graphic novel. My career at DC had flourished, but: a) I felt, well, uneasy continuously pinning my aspirations on an industry for which being on its death bed, wracked with fever and a rib-breaking cough, is the norm, and b) entering my forties, I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my career inking other people’s work. No matter how fun it is. And it is. Working at home, getting paid (!) to draw people in tights beating the crap out of—Jesus, don’t get me started. It is fun, let’s leave it at that—but I was beginning to feel that maybe I had better fish to fry.

I’d also done a not insignificant amount of reading in the early 2000’s. Not comic books, I hasten to add—funnily enough, I generally find superhero comics a crashing bore to read (I like to tell people that, when it comes to superhero mags, I deal but rarely use). It was two American plays that determined the narrative and thematic trajectories that the graphic novel would finally follow: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, by Edward Albee, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill.

These two plays, which are Orion and Taurus in the firmament of American theater, have several things in common. Each has exactly four (main) characters, at least two of which are flaming alcoholics. Each deals with the plutonium-hot emotional dynamic between these characters. Each swirls cat-4 storm-like around the safety/fate of a favored child. And each, in its own way, is about something awful that happened a long time ago, but which continues to distort the present (a lot of American classics are about time—in particular, about the past and how it lingers into and shapes the present. The Sound and The Fury. The Great Gatsby—which is referenced several times in The Furnace).

That was the tradition I wanted to put The Furnace in, and the level of emotional impact I at least wanted to aim for. When I wrote the script, I retained the sci-fi premise—traditional prisons being phased out in favor of ‘free’ prisoners rendered invisible/untouchable by restriction drones that follow them, and the human catastrophe which ensues—but I did my best to remake the story into something an adult who’s lived a day of life could relate to and feel for.

As I see it, the graphic novel is about a man who views himself as a war criminal: he is directly implicated in the development of the GARD program; he sees himself as a failure on every conceivable level—as a scientist, as a husband, as a father, as a human being. At the eleventh hour it’s his six year-old daughter who shows him that the greatness he thinks has eluded him might, just might, barely remain within reach. Like the plays that informed its final form, The Furnace has four main characters (two of which are in a losing battle with alcohol), a child’s welfare hangs in the balance, and the real story happened a long time ago.

The Furnace will be released on July 10th. It is now available for pre-order!

PRENTIS ROLLINS has over 20 years of experience working as a writer and artist in the comics industry. His previous titles include How to Draw Sci-fi Utopias and Dystopias, The Making of a Graphic Novel, and Survival Machine (Stories). He has also worked for DC Comics between 1993-2013 for titles such as Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, JLA, and dozens more. The Furnace is his debut full-length graphic novel. He lives in London with his wife and three children. You can check out more of his work at: www.prentisrollinsart.com.

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