#AllHCAreValid

[sunderedandundone]

Possibly unpopular fan opinion, Dark Crystal (SkekSil and SkekTek edition)

I'm not gonna say SkekTek had it coming, because nobody has something like THAT coming, but SkekSil's reaction to SkekTek's tattling was not actually--that disproportionate. NOW HEAR ME OUT before you call me a supervillain apologist. ^^ Reason #1 is because NOBODY ACTUALLY NEEDED TO LOSE AN EYE, BECAUSE NOBODY HAD TO SNITCH ON ANYBODY THERE AT ALL.

It would, in fact, have been better for all concerned, except maybe SkekZok and SkekSo, if SkekTek had just kept their slightly-shimmery beak SHUT. They probably could both have gotten off scot-free, at least long enough for nobody to really care about it anymore -- especially after the war was already on (General -_- ) and even more especially after SkekSil and SkekTek were both witnessed as having provided the Skeksis with the Garthim. ...I mean, again, yes, 'better for all concerned' except SkekZok, but you can consider them the asterisk on pretty much all this. For one thing, is it EASY to transport and raise Peeper Beetles? Dear me, no!! You barely breathe on the larvae and they die! ;-)

And here's the nub of it. Nobody besides Tek and Sil knew they'd ever even had a chance to catch Rian. Noooooobody. (Well, except Gurjin, but I tackle him below. ^^ ) And none of the other Skeksis had succeeded in finding the little bugger, either. So they could have both 100% skated on that.

As for Mira's vial, it'd already been established--and grudgingly accepted by the Emperor--that it was 'a paltry amount' for the Scientist's study purposes. Nobody would have known that SkekTek hadn't just used it for exactly that! Because tragically, as much as the species' survival always depends on poor SkekTek, SkekSil sure seems to be the one and only Skeksis who ever bothers to help them or even check if things are going okay...and THEY sure as hell wouldn't have squealed. (Sorry So, but visiting to commit pet abuse and demand more production against scientific advice doesn't really count as responsible leaderly concern, much less benevolence. :-P ) So again--who'd have ever known? Why couldn't they both just skate and call it good?

Aha, you say: but Rian and Gurjin certainly knew the circumstances of the getaway, and what if it got told and dreamfasted it to Gelfling/Podlings/Arathim far and wide? Then, you further point out, Barbra Streisand effect might have kicked in, and things might have ended up even worse for both Skeksis in the final sum. That often happens with cover-ups.

***

[ETA: It did occur to me later that there is an in-between sequence to be managed (or not), which is what happened with Gurjin immediately after his capture. We know SkekSil had physical hands on the boy, so they had the most immediate control over that. Then the next time we see Gurjin is in the lab with SkekSil, the day after SkekTek's had their eye chewed out.

[So what most likely happened that Tek & Sil immediately locked Gurjin up, since that's the only alternative to letting him run too (which WOULD be one way to avoid having Gurjin there as living evidence of a cockup, but I don't think either birb would consider that a smart path to that goal ^^). Or I guess there's also murdering him right then and there, which TBH might have been the wise choice, but I can see reasons why they'd choose not to. In any case, they must have locked him up together, and then sometime very soon after that, Tek went totally off-message and ran blabbering to the throne.

[Now: it'd be really weird if Sil HADN'T at least sort-of brought up the subject of what the hell to say about Gurjin whilst they and Tek were locking him up. Or more likely, immediately after (you prooobably don't have this convo in front of the boy unless you're having it in Skeksis tongue)? If for no other reason, just for purposes of getting the two birbs' story to the other Skeksis straight and consistent.

[Not because Gurjin being manacled in a cell is a problem for anybody involved, mind you ::snerk!::...but because telling the truth about why Gurjin's in manacles, IF anyone bothers to ask, would mean revealing that Rian had gotten away. (Sadly, I PERSONALLY doubt anyone would ever have asked or even realized the boy was there, seeing how again, only SkekSil ever bothers to visit the lab. But this isn't something you leave to chance when you can easily work out an alibi in advance just in case, so SkekSil probably did.)

[And luckily, there are some damn easy alibis available. Chief of which is just shutting TF up and seeing if anyone even notices. If I were Sil, I'd also suggest that if by some wild hairy chance someone did notice and ask, Gurjin came to be in the lab the same way Mira did. I.e., 'sneaking somewhere he wasn't supposed to be' and thus volunteering as a lab subject. Should you want to hew a bit closer to truth for some dumbass reason, you could even claim you caught him looking for Rian. ...Though that might make someone else want to actually interrogate him, so best not. ^^

[Or hell, why don't we just say Tek decided he needed a subject for {insert technobabble here}, and snatched some random Gelfling to run tests on? Because seriously. Nobody cares if SkekTek gelfnaps someone as long as it was unobserved--any more than they cared about Tek snatching Mira in the first place! In fact, you can use the whole already-accepted Rian-as-killer narrative to cover Gurjin being dead, OR vanished OR in chains as a confessed accomplice--regardless of where Gurjin actually even is! How would the Gelfling find out different? In any case, that's the kind of story I'd cook up and TRY to sell to Tek, if I were Sil.

[Alas, however, it could well be that Tek was just too wary of using Sil's story or anything like it, because it probably mentioned only ONE birb name: their own. ^^ --And I mean sure, if you really sit down to work out all the eventualities, cooperating with Sil's plan does still sum out to being the rational best choice. Scientist. BUT even if Tek thought that through, which they probably didn't, all that logic would still be in conflict with another very rational principle (and Elemental Truth) of don't trust shit that Chamberlain proposes, especially if it gives them an obvious pass.

[So I think it's MOST likely that Sil suggested some alibi to Tek while they were locking Gurjin up--but either in such an indirect hinting way that Tek didn't catch it ::head shake::, or in a totally direct way that Tek just...understandably...didn't trust. So Tek nodded back something like 'yeah yeah, whatever birb,' aaaaand then ran straight to the throne to snitch. ::Hermione voice:: Like. An. Idiot. @_@]

***

So that's Gurjin sorted. But once again, there probably wouldn't even have been a need for that alibi, because once again, how would the Skeksis have ever found out? Because once again, again: the likelihood of anybody seeing Gurjin and realizing him to be anything more than a random lab subject is miniscule.

Now. There is a fair chance the Empire will eventually manage to seed some spies into the Resistance. And such spies could perhaps hear the tale of Rian's daring escape, and could maybe, conceivably report it back in. Sure, that could happen. Or it might not. Any canny imperial Gelfling/Podling spy might soon intuit that it's not exactly ideal for their own longevity to piss off any of the Lords against each other! (Seriously, if you're going to snitch on one Skeksis to another, dude, please make it to your closest Skeksis patron, who's not going to bring out that information to the rest of the court unless there's an actual need, because that's exactly the sort of stuff you quietly file away for blackmail contingencies. Besides...the odds of that patron not literally being the Chamberlain are kinda low?)

And even if the Emperor did eventually end up hearing about it all that way, it'd probably be so long after the fact that--despite how eagerly they admittedly jump on any chance to be sadistic--the rush of aggressive drive from the adrenaline, fear, etc over Rian's escape and that ONE vial is going to be much diluted. It'll be so extremely moot by that point. If anything disciplinary happens on account of this offense at all, the supposed 'cause' will really have become more of an excuse, somewhere more on the order of oh say, failing to talk with your mouth full at table. ^^

So yeah, there might still be torture, there might still be PTSD, but an actual maiming becomes way less likely as time goes on. So the longer it can be kept quiet, the better, Streisand effect in this case be damned.

(Really, that maiming was a boob-stupid call on So's part anyway...again, given how vital SkekTek's ability to churn always is to Skeksis...and is only explainable by the murderbirds' high-gear emotionality, poor impulse control, Darkness poisoning, and hair-trigger mob dynamics overwhelming their ever-more-senile intellects. Oh, also the fact that essence seems to be literally intoxicating, so they're going to be permanently pissed->hung over for like the next several trine.)

Now to be 'fair' to SkekTek, we have seen them make some strikingly bad social/survival decisions for a supergenius. Which is not out of line with their clearly being a social outcast, and thus probably rather rusty on any people skills they once had. And it sadly isn't remotely out of line with being a science genius either. :-/

Maybe most astonishingly, they are legit a terrible liar. By which I mean, not a liar at all. O_o Fact, they often get in trouble for speaking inconvenient truth, poor thing. But that's not a super good excuse for snitching from a logical standpoint, and definitely wouldn't be a good enough excuse from SkekSil's understandably invested POV.

Crystal's fire, even if one of those dead dodos suddenly remembered amid all the panic that they'd seen SkekTek put the vial in their cabinet without locking it up, and try to gin up some trouble over that, Tek could still quite truthfully protest that au contraire, they'd put a nice feisty locksnake right on it. But obviously, the filthy Gelfling got past it somehow. Or else...::gasp:: some other Skeksis snuck in and stole it!

Well, good heavens. Who could that have been? Well okay, some suspects ARE way more plausible than others [::koff::SkekSil::koff::]. But nobody can claim that any other Skeksis (except, of course, for Their Flawless Magnificence, the Emperor) wouldn't have just as good a motive or opportunity for the crime as SkekSil or SkekTek. The lab itself is clearly left unlocked all the time. Everyone potentially saw where the vial had been put. Everyone was hot for essence. At that point you're on a dice throw for who gets the blame.

SO.

Given alllllll of the above, why in everloving Thra did SkekTek rat on the Chamberlain, an unwise act in any weather? Reasoning shows it was most likely fully voluntary on their part. Most likely nobody would have ever asked them. So they actually ran and told the Emperor entirely on their own steam. O_O

Well, again in service of being 'fair' to Sciencebirb--it could possibly be that Tek wasn't really even thinking about punishment for anybody. Or okay, they must've realized there'd probably be punishment, or else they wouldn't have rushed to get to SkekSo first so they could blame SkekSil for all of it! But they might not have quite realized how severe the punishment could be, because they're (as already noted) weirdly on the naive side for a Skeksis. To them, the price [for Skeksil] to pay may not have seemed all that terrible compared to the need to report what the Scientist, in their distress, might sincerely have considered a high Emergency.

But...c'mon, SkekTek. You're supposed to be a genius here. You want that designation, you gotta live up to it. This is not that. And let's be real: you're definitely enough of a Skeksis that you sure as Grot weren't going to share the blame, were you? Chamberlain def wasn't in your good graces at that particular instant, were they? Nope. So the odds of there being NO personal vengefulness involved here--as with a lot of other odds around here--seem low. :-P And from most people's perspective, very much including SkekSil's, it's going to be kinda hard to buy that you had no idea how bad the penalty might get. Even if you weren't thinking about it, you SHOULD have been. The audience would certainly agree, having now observed the Emperor for more than 15 minutes.

So then, moving over to SkekSil's end of it now--in that moment when they were suddenly, no heads-up put on the spot, they really would have no rational choice but to conclude (very quickly indeed, but that's 100% in character and well within their own genius) that SkekTek just flat WANTED to see them suffer horribly. For no other reason but that they still had a mad on about that whole, now really rather meaningless kerfuffle!

I mean, what else would they realistically think??

The Chamberlain also wouldn't have been way out of line in seeing this as a singular betrayal, given how they'd freely and without even asking credit given Tek the idea for extracting essence in the first place and then advocated for people to give Tek's presentation a chance. Oh, and then there's the saving-the-Scientist's-very-life part of things too! Did we forget that? Where was the thank-you for that even? Honestly. THE INGRATITUDE.

...I mean yeah okay, granted, they also totally tried to steal the vial. But really? And besides, come on: Tek straight-up pulled a shiv on a fellow Lord (...okay, a scalpel) and threatened them with mutilation. And SkekSil hadn't snitched to anybody about that, had they?

And now it wasn't just a matter of paying Tek back for that betrayal. Or even for impressing on them the evidently needed wisdom of Don't narc on SkekSil, man--it ain't worth it! Because the dynamic duo were now in a position where either SkekSil or SkekTek was going to undergo something unspeakable. Period. There was no third option. There HAD been, Thradammit, but then the Scientist had to go and be a foot-shooting fool...AGAIN. And for what? Pure suns-cursed pettiness! Sheesh.

So from that standpoint, what could Sil really do anymore but lie like a cheap rug and turn it right around on SkekTek? They may even be correct that at that point, the Peeper Beetle was the least bad of all possible results for anyone--indeed, the Emperor explicitly declared that a more "permanent discipline" was required. So a maiming of some kind was obviously on the menu for somebody, no matter what.

And at that point, at least given my own HC opinions on Sil's character and motivation, they'd probably have been looking for the option that best preserved Tek's ability to work and work quickly. Not out of their great compassion ::pfft!:: but just out of the concern they alone seem to have had the common sense left to possess...that the Scientist's 'survival-level necessary' labor must succeed.

So like, very long story short, WTAF SkekTek? You could be plausibly be argued to have done that to your own self! Or rather, to have tried to do it to SkekSil only to have it boomerang, because SERIOUSLY WHAT ELSE DID YOU EXPECT.

I mean I DO still have to personally feel for birb, because I've certainly gotten my ass in trouble for failing to lie at a moment when it would have been smart ("Technically" IS SIMPLY NOT CLOSE ENOUGH TO A LIE, my studious friend). I think I'm probably more of a Tek than a Sil, alas. And it's certainly true that once Sil decides something cruel is their best play they won't hesitate for a microsecond to go balls-out for it, so I have like a microsecond of genuine sympathy for Sil on their end of things and then, nah.

But still, dude, WTF. ^^

#tdcaor #dark crystal #age of resistance #skeksis #murderbirds #dumb birbs #scientist #chamberlain #emperor #skeksil #skektek #skekso #skekzok #thinky thoughts #fan theory #HC #allHCarevalid #fridge moments

[sunderedandundone]

Possibly controversial [Dark Crystal SkekGra/UrGoh] HCs

Or I don't even know if it IS HC so much as kind of an inverse HC, in that it's a place where like 90% of the fandom seems to HC in stuff that I don't? Here we go. Please be gentle. As always, I pledge to the flag of #AllHCAreValid.

I think Gra and Goh are incredibly lonely out there in the desert, and aren't at all enjoying that aspect of their lives.

I mean, I would hope this WOULDN'T be that controversial? After all, these are characters whose very titles establish that they like to go around Thra and interact with all its lifeforms and stuff (the *form* the interaction took might've varied, but...)

And when the Gelfling show up on their doorstep, Gra is more hype than a golden retriever puppy. Mind you, we can and should attribute part of this to drugs, and part of this to the sheer pleasure of knowing one's many-trine-long shop projects were not wasted and the Hail Mary pass to save Thra and make themselves whole has finally connected.

But even given that, they just seem SO super hyped that I have to think that, y'know, birb who's had no or very little social stimulation in hundreds of trine miiiight feel a little relieved to be entertaining company. :-)

The only reason I even 'worry' this is controversial is because so many fanficcers -- and I mean from the really-great to the not-so-great -- seem to treat the half an Age the two spend at the Circle of the Suns like...almost a couples getaway? A blessed idyll? And they do this with such light, offhanded assurance, as though it's one of those things of which the Dothraki say, It Is Known.

Again, #ALLHCAREVALID, but I personally find this difficult to get...*as* someone who's been gifted with what I well know is the sheer dumb cosmic luck of living many many years with my True Love, or what's surely within a degree of the closest to true love as exists on mortal earth. Like, I am exceedingly, eternally grateful.

It's just that...and I hope I'm not bursting the bubble here...even the Truest love is still hard work, it won't last if you don't work it, and even if you really really do it can still end. And no matter how goopy goo-goo eyes y'all are in the relationship's first stages, eventually everybody but the most intro introverts is going to find that the company of one person is just not enough to make a livable life out of. It just isn't. I heartily wish each and every person who actually desires a True Love in this life to acquire one -- but just know that it's not like in the movies. It's not even going to be easier than your other less-epic relationships were. Maybe in some ways harder, in fact.

It'll just be more *worth* the agony.

Even that, you might sometimes doubt. But in the end there's something hard to describe that still makes it worth it. That's the main difference I've discerned. <--[[NB: *Does not* apply to abusive lovers]]

Being forever out in the neverwhere alone with your love for an indefinite period isn't a recipe for wedded bliss. It's a recipe for driving yourselves and each other to drink. Ask like 2/3rds of retired couples, especially the ones where one or both partners were working outside the house AND (points at this and points AT SKEKGRA) deriving their identity from their work -- and then suddenly......not.

Once more, #ALLHCAREVALID and I have seen this trope written beautifully and I have enjoyed reading those beautiful pieces, but strictly from a suspending-disbelief standpoint just...no. Also I have to admit, something in me rebels at the idea that NOTHING of what the Skeksis (AND Mystics, in my telling) go out of their way to make an *especially painful* punishment is really -- sticking around in any meaningful way. That they're just like "oh welp, like we care, what more to life is there than making puppets, smokin' that crack, and each other." To me, it kinda cheapens the sting of the whole banishment, and I feel like it should have ongoing sting. The nail is NOT self-installed, and the exile is NOT a blissful retirement to the Bahamas.

On that note:

2. I seem to be one of the very few people in the fandom who doesn't ship them in the *traditional* sense, either.

I mean, I know. It's fandom. Fandom seems, from this relative newb's perspective, to be ~70% about sex no matter what the IP. :-) So I shouldn't be surprised to find myself in a minority.

And a minority many of whose fellow occupants I find odious because a lot of them are in the "no homo" school, or else the school of "Henson was a nonsexual, anerotic, angelic being who would've been SCANDALIZED by people writing sex scenes with his characters, even though he gave the Jen puppet an entirely extraneous wang AND started *The Dark Crystal* with an Edenic scene of nude Jen saved from an R rating *only* by a literal strategically-placed leaf." Like, just in case any parents in the audience needed the warning that this was not a small-kids, fluffy movie. ^^ (Funny thing is, I took it totally in stride as a kid watching it in the theater run. It was only on rewatch as an adult that I was like "HOLY SHIT was Henson making a statement with this, and oh God no *wonder* this quasi-flopped, people surely must have thought this was weird and Inappropriate for Children -- even though I of course still think it isn't.")

Yeah, nah. Are you kidding me? This is a puppeteer who grew up in the *40's/50's in Mississippi* and then ran off to TVLand in the 60's to eventually make tons of money off his weirdness. OF COURSE HE WAS A FREAK, and you know what? I find that wonderful news. (Bro, have you even heard the Frank Oz funeral-eulogy story? *QE fucking D*.)

But then when I go to explain that I don't conceive of Gra/Goh as a conventional romance but as something that kinda transcends any experience us single beings can know, other fen think that I am dissing Mere Romance and Mere Sex as being beneath me, or beneath the characters. Again -- hell no. Good, believable, stirring romance and sex are hard as hell to write and my respect for those who can do it is very high. And romance and sex IRL? They are awesome. Five stars. <3

I'm just saying these are literally personality-instanced aliens, is all.

I am officially agnostic, though I have my private opinions subject to change without notice, about whether Skeksis/Mystics have any kind of reproductive equipment. Or anything like what modern humans consider 'erotic' feelings (physical or mental). There are valid cases for and against. And although I don't personally write such content, I don't object to the depiction of erotic or sexual activity between Gra/Goh either. Hell, IF they had the slightest capacity for it and they thought for one single instant it might help them rejoin into their UrSkek, I think it's safe to assume they 'd try it at least once for that reason alone.

I just want the dyad to be something beyond that. And again, I don't mean beyond as in superior. I mean beyond as in Other, as in alien, as in behind a paywall very few other beings can get through in their mortal lifetime. And yes, as in spiritual -- though for a third time, I'm not parsing 'spiritual' as 'better than affairs of the mere flesh.'

And I try very hard to make sure I write it *as* that -- to make sure that I'm not just doing a deep platonic friendship (as wonderful as those are) or a 'brotherly' relationship, but putting in material that sorta blurs the very boundary of the self, the definition of personality, the idea that a person can only be in one place at a time.

As I go, in fact, it's developed almost toward an idea of the Skeksis and Mystic personas being *masks* or *roles*, on some fundamental level -- a self-illusion that each half occasionally, disconcertingly, briefly becomes aware of here and there, but then almost always panics and buries. I'm talking about, you could have one of those Shakespearian SkekVar/SkekSo scenes going, and all of a sudden poor SkekVar realizes that NONE of this is actually the General talking to the Emperor at all -- it's *VarMa talking to SoSu*. Only for some bizarre dream-logicky reason, they're wearing these weird faces and playing these weird murderbird characters...almost like they're onstage in a play they somehow can't opt out of acting in. And when they want to relate to the others of their kith, somehow, it can only ever be through the filter of this mask. So they're never saying what they truly want to say to the other Twice-Nine, or even usually thinking what they want to think; instead, the *best* they can ever do is grope blindly toward each other's souls, trying to interpret the hazy signal of the other Ur/Skek through this noise of these adopted personae -- and why bother because it's all fake anyhow -- but then if it's fake, why is it all they know, and nothing they can seem to escape from?

And *that* would within about 3/4ths of a second be FAR too much for a simple birb like SkekVar to deal with. So the most signal you'd ever get from them that it'd even happened is merely ::snort:: :-D And pretty soon the episode of ego-vertigo would dissipate -- drowned in the bodily experience of the normal persona with extreme prejudice aaand probably a lot of food and booze. ^^ There'd still be mysterious moments in which, however many leagues apart, Var and Ma would briefly seem not like 'opposites' but like a resonant pair, almost as if they had some shared nature and path after all...this is something, though, that only the very few who get to see both sides (*such* as Gra and Goh --or perhaps on the longer scale, Aughra) might have any inkling of.

See what I mean though? It's hard to even articulate! Because it kinda should be, I guess. :-D I guess that's my point.

Again, #ALLHCAREVALID! This is simply what *I* *me* *personally* want to do with the opportunity that the divided-soul trope in DC represents. I enjoy giving Gra and Goh these experiences of disrupted self within my fiction. (Btw, apparently LSD &c primarily work THROUGH disrupting the part of the brain responsible for a sense of distinct self :-( #Imjustsayin #urdrupes)). And I enjoy looking through their eyes to see the selves of the other UrRu/Skeksis -- showing the personalities of the latter to be blurrier and more self-contradictory than one would have thought, as well.

And then, by contrast, the fleeting moments where Gra/Goh do experience something close to full unity -- be it achieved by a vision or a dream or let's be honest drugs -- would be way more intense to them than what you or I could possibly experience. Us being people who get to just blithely go about all day sure of our unified self, at least 99% sure of where the border between us and the rest of *idam*, this thing, All There Is, lies. (The other 1% is called either "satori" or "hallucinogenic therapy"/"ayahuasca experience"/etc. :-) )

We aren't without our times of not being sure who the hell we are or which of two completely incompatible things we want, of course. Which is why UrSkeks and the divided-soul trope writ large have relevance to human experience. We all have our times. But most of us don't have it often enough to even come close to fucking up our faaairly comfortable everyday sense of "I am this person and this is what I'm about." :-) These tree aliens are a different matter.

So it's not a problem with romance at all? ...It's more a devotion to the idea of the Otherness and alienness of the thing, because I personally feel like that's what Henson and definitely Froud were kinda trying to get at with the UrSkeks, and with what is eventually big-Revealed about the Skeksis and Mystics' true nature. (I remember that moment, too, in the theater. It was my first encounter with the trope and it was a bit mind-blowing. Like, that method of resolving protagonist/antagonist conflict in a story had honestly never occurred. ...I do have the excuse of being, what, nine or so? :-D But still. Striking. And I liked it.)

Anyway. Seemingly unusual, possibly controversial, hopefully not of such a nature though as to get anyone actually mad. ^^

#dark crystal theories #dark crystal #tdcaor #skesis #mystics #urru #skekgra #urgoh #fanfic #heretic #wanderer #HC #headcanon #writing #AllHCAreValid #seriously #I love reading y'all's stuff I promise #urskeks #gragoh

[sunderedandundone]

Dark Crystal fridge moments, Skeksis edition

So what DOES SkekGra mean by "cursed"? As in, "I lied, I cursed, I killed, I hurt, I maimed!"

Like yeah I guess they COULD mean they were a pottymouth, but that just seems kind of hard to buy? It doesn't really seem to be in the same league as even the lying -- to say nothing of the other stuff?

(I mean, one could make this case, though I think you'd have to work it. You'd have to posit that Thra societies actually did have some significant blasphemy taboos, like Christian societies pre-20c. Earlier generations of cussing were more likely to involve blasphemy than scatology or the f-word, because that was actually more scandalous; it wasn't till later that words like "Goddamn" etc came to be considered blonde brew in comparison to "MFer." Thus why we have so many minced oaths involving God, Jesus, etc that now sound so precious and prissy to modern ears. So like, if Gelfling of the Conqueror era really had a bug up it about people taking Thra's name in vain, for example, then I could see it. If you worked it, I could see it, BUT. ^^) Seems much more likely to me that they must have meant...like...CURSING, not cursing. O_o

So then the question becomes "Whoa. Skeksis can curse? That is, I always figured mystical assholes like SkekZok could probably curse somebody if they really wanted, but just your basic workaday military commander Skeksis can fling curses too??"

Exactly what kind of curses could they lay on people? Disease? Transformation? Really shitty luck? Riverwater turned into blood? Water and wine turned to vinegar? Ear mites? Only able to laugh like a Skeksis from now on?

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE LITERALLY ENDLESS

#dark crystal #tdcaor #age of resistance #headcanon #fridge moments #allHCarevalid #dark crystal theories #cussing #cursing #I mean we hear rumors that Aughra can do it so why not #skekgra #conqueror #heretic #skekgra the heretic

[sunderedandundone]

Probably-not-unpopular fan theory/HC, Dark Crystal (Podling/Deet edition)

You know what? I think the freaking Deterge started right in the middle of that Podling village's annual Mud Festival.

I think the Deterge is in fact deliberately TIMED to start in the middle of their annual Mud Festival.

And btw yes, I've decided there is such a thing as a Mud Festival. Why? Because as much of a little speech as the Order-master makes about Podlings being filthy, dirty beasts -_- , we don't actually see Podlings acting like this at any other time in movie, series, comic, or fiction that I know of. We certainly don't ever see Hup acting like that, and I know he's trying to get a coat-and-tie job ATM but come on.

So why would they be doing all that, flinging mud, wallowing in mud, eating mud, etc?

Well, BECAUSE IT'S MUD FESTIVAL, silly. Once a trine we give thanks for the bounty of the earth and the soil and reaffirm our intimate connection to it as Podling, mostly by drinking ourselves horizontal and getting magnificently dirty. I'm sayin' the mudball fights are SPIRITUAL, y'all.

THE GELFLINGS FUCKED UP A SACRED PODLING HOLIDAY.

And why during the holiday? Are Gelfling just that assholish?

Well yes, but also, optimal filthiness levels for our delinquents to have to clean and Learn Their Lesson! And an opportunity to remind them that Podlings are inferior creatures that need other species to even see to their basic hygiene, so however we treat them is OK.

I will also note that I've never been keen on the idea of Grottans not washing either. I mean here on one hand we have Deet and Hup getting understandably upset by comments about her being filthy or smelly, and as audience, we're meant to understand these are unfair charges. It's meant to be a racism Aesop, right? So why do we have Deet later saying to Seladon "why would I ever wash my hands?"

Seriously, girl? YOU WORK WITH LIVESTOCK FOR A LIVING. You're GOING to be cleansing your damn hands somehow. I'm sure Thra DOES have fecal-borne diseases even SANS the Darkening. -_-

Therefore, I would like to propose that Grottans do not usually technically wash--i.e., with water and soap or some other exfoliant--perhaps because there's only enough clean water for drinking, not for bathing?--but that there's some other thing they do.

I am open to suggestions. What do y'all think? Some kind of dust/grit bath? Smoke bath? Sauna and sweat-scraper? A special fungus? (It's Grot. There's got to be a special fungus for EVERYTHING.) I'm just saying we need to rectify this wrong against the Green Woobie, you guys. Help me out. :-D

#dark crystal theories #dark crystal #tdcaor #gelfling #podlings #Hup #Deet #fictional cultures #worldbuilding #HC #headcanon #allHCarevalid #MUD FESTIVAL #the music is churnin like butter yall #you should go #racism #racism in fantasy #fan theory

[sunderedandundone]

UrSkeks Do the Damnedest Things (worldbuilding/lore)

[More UrSkek/Homeworld setting writeup, filling in a lot of canon gaps in general but most especially the ones that explain how the Fallen UrSkek found themselves in such trouble as to get their effulgent asses transported/deported to Thra. IOW, #Paths to Heresy cont!]

Competition, Collectivism, Cussedness, and Games

...among the pineapple/tree aliens

UrSkeks — at least the UrSkeks of Homeworld — aren’t fond of competitions. (The usual caveat about how far-flung and isolated many UrSkek colony worlds now are applies here too; just going by the cultural variations already known to exist among colonies still in contact with the mother planet, one hardly dares speculate what might have sprung up in more unmonitored corners of the Uni-verse.)

Though competition in itself isn’t logically irreconcilable with Homeworld’s strict collectivism, in practical terms, it can be difficult to host such, ah, stimulating activities without accidentally encouraging — well. Nothing so alien and crude as selfishness per se, surely…but after all, even advanced beings can occasionally succumb to the lure of what Homeworld terms ‘overindividuation.’ Left to itself, that minor fault can eventually corrode into outright Deviancy; and then Crystal alone knows what might transpire — up to and including the nigh-unthinkable spectacle of an UrSkek briefly enjoying someone else’s misfortune.

Indeed, UrSkek “strict collectivism” is so strict that openly relishing one’s own victory in a contest or game is considered to be ipso facto taking a disgusting pleasure in others’ loss. Thus, the only morally acceptable winner of a competition is the one who doesn’t actually care all that much about winning…or who can at least put on a good show of modest detachment.

Which for most species — not to mention the very rare UrSkek who both enjoys winning and can admit that to themselves — does rather tend to take away the point of the thing. Thus: not many UrSkek competitions.

Said other species often point to this as yet another example of intolerable UrSkek priggishness. UrSkeks would reply, with some justice, that beings who possess power equal to many cultures’ angels and demigods must be correspondingly fastidious about their self-control, for everyone’s sake. Other species might then of course question what the point of ascending to such an advanced cyberbiological state is, if you end up so constrained that even relatively high-ranked individuals spend most of their lives acting as glorified functionaries for a famously static consensus. These conversations rarely end anywhere productive, so we’ll leave them aside for the moment and move on. (Noting, however, that this quirk of UrSkek culture proved an irresistible prompt to Deviancy for more than one of the Fallen Twice-Nine, including HakHom, YiYa, and SilSol. Watch this space. 😊 )

Games are far from unknown among UrSkeks, however — though they too must be indulged in only within the framework of proper ethics. There often comes a time in a newly-Awakened UrSkek’s early life when they and another innocent friend are discovered in the midst of some spontaneous game that treads just a bit too close to rivalry for their elders’ taste: an excited argument about which Itapi beetle will beat another across a doorway, for example, or seeing who can best imitate the song of a roosting paperwing and so persuade it to fly to their hand. This is so common, in fact, that it’s now regarded as an informal rite of passage; one that mentors of the young (such as SoSu once was) almost look forward to as a landmark ‘teachable moment,’ to be addressed with their most tradition-hallowed parables, Socratic dialogues, and koans about the dangers of cacophony.

To be fair, Homeworld’s outlook on games in general isn’t all that different from the Gelfling or human outlook on games that take place privately among friends — i.e., things are fine so long as everyone’s having fun and no one’s taking any of it personally. What UrSkek society could never accept is the kind of tribalism, gloating, and anguish that attends major-league games in human sports (or an exceptionally dramatic Podling shovelball match).

That spirit of “…until someone loses an eye” infuses every aspect of their game design. For instance, elements of obvious luck to balance out the odds and thus take the sting out of defeat are considered desirable, especially within the sort of small-group games that get trotted out at informal gatherings and especially certain holidays of ‘homecoming.’ So are cooperative games, in which a team of UrSkeks is ‘competing’ only against a non-sentient AI or a random event generator — since most UrSkeks have internalized their society’s consensus values to the point where they’d never even think to risk team coordination or the general good humor by openly disputing their teammates’ judgment calls.

In fact, most of the time UrSkek teams, whether for work or play, don’t even require a formal leader, much less a literal telepathic link. The ideal UrSkek approach to group action is much akin to playing in a jazz ensemble — a matter of constant, near-instinctive stretching and contracting, testing and improvisation, scrupulous turn-taking and strategic blurring of boundaries, all within a traditional and well-circumscribed format. These are the means by which each member seamlessly and often enough non-verbally gives and receives feedback on which of their teammates’ contributions are augmentative and should be pursued further, and which by consensus should...not.

While the lack of a clear authority to appeal to often initially troubles aliens who end up working with such a team, many find that once they get used to it, they find this particular bit of the UrSkek way well worth adopting on their home planets. It’s often far more stress-free and productive — inherently conducive to a Flow state, one might say — and doesn’t even impinge on members’ creativity when done right.

UrSkeks also usually take good care to ensure each teammate’s acknowledged individual specialty or strength receives honor of place somewhere in the project...again, much as happens within a skilled jazz ensemble. (Yes, they may outwardly act as though their species has never had any concept of ego, but their culture de facto realizes that leaving everyone a little space and a personal sunbeam or two to blossom in is immeasurably easier than having to constantly monitor social settings for the often near-invisible first stirrings of resentment. Though their collectivism is strict, it would never have held together this long without a subcutaneous network of unspoken customs nodding in reality’s direction.)

Of course, should an individual UrSkek ever find themselves neglected or given short shrift — and it certainly does happen, just ask the Twice-Nine — it’s considered extremely poor taste to raise the subject in any way. Such a situation is surely temporary, after all: an unfortunate but unintentional embarrassment that’ll naturally be resolved somewhere in the proper unfolding of the larger process. After all, UrSkeks never deliberately disrespect each other (even when they absolutely 100% do). That is strictly a dysfunction of primitive, barely-sentient, organic species.

Despite this deep, almost inborn Homeworld tradition of eschewing competition, however, there are a tiny handful of impossibly ancient games — such as WiiEP’huUOi-INtaintou (or ‘Intaito,’ for impatient offworlders) — which, in contrast to nearly all other UrSkek games, are incredibly complex, absurdly long-running, and most strikingly, entirely skills-based.

…In other words, just the sort of game it’s dangerously easy for any sentient, even an ‘enlightened’ one, to get too emotionally involved in.

Calmly and amiably having such a game in progress with a close friend or colleague is thus, paradoxically, regarded as a mark of singularly high prestige, especially if its existence is openly acknowledged. Most plebeians wisely leave these exalted realms to their very-much-elders, who have Ages of formal training in UrSkek philosophy and advanced meditation under their belts, not to mention countless trine of character-steadying experience. Indeed, even said elders will usually have practiced thousands of series with a specialized AI in order to hone their nonattachment disciplines before they even consider challenging another sentient. To be caught succumbing to a conspicuous loss of emotional control over a mere amusement!? — would be catastrophic to their hallowed reputations.

Which of the Fallen UrSkek may have been totally engrossed in such a game with someone at the time of their exile is an exercise left (for now) to the reader. 😉

#The Dark Crystal #The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance #tdcaor #UrSkeks #all the urskeks #Paths to Heresy #all the heresy #UrRu #Skeksis #Thra #Podlings #fanfic #worldbuilding #setting #Headcanon #HC #AllHCAreValid #filling in the canon gaps like a boss #I got scifi in my fantasy #two great tastes #look they're former organics who Ascended to freefloating AIs okay #also known as tree-aliens #and their upfuckedness pretty much explains the Dark Crystal plot #the Twice-Nine #Fallen UrSkek #colonialism #is not better in fantasy/scifi settings than in RL

[sunderedandundone]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41593185/chapters/104942391 Competition, Collectivism, Cussedness, and Games

"Most plebeians wisely leave these exalted realms to their very-much-elders, those who have Ages of formal training in UrSkek philosophy and advanced meditation under their belts, not to mention countless trine of character-steadying experience. Indeed, even said elders will usually have practiced thousands of series with a purpose-built AI in order to hone their nonattachment disciplines before they even consider challenging another sentient. After all, to be caught succumbing to a visible loss of temper—and over a game?—would be catastrophic to their hallowed reputations, and bring the very dignity of the UrSkek people itself into question.

Which of the Twice-Nine may have been totally engrossed in such a game with such a colleague at the time of their exile is an exercise left, for now, to the reader.

(Just kidding. It’s SoSu.)"

Further UrSkekery, y'all. ^^ BTW, the heavy footnoting in a couple of the chapters (not this one, but a couple of the others) is going to get fixed. There's just some stuff I shoved into side notes for now because the chapter it'll eventually live in along with the needed cross-references isn't finished yet.

#tdcaor #dark crystal #fanfic #ao3 link #headcanon #allHCarevalid #worldbuilding #urskeks #all the urskeks #WTAF is up with the urskeks #Twice-Nine #fallen urskek #heresy #deviancy #utopia #dystopia #crossing the genre streams #warning - unofficial RPG supplement begging to be written #SilSol #SoSu #HakHom #YiYa #EktUtt #AyukAmaj #SkekEkt/SkekAyuk #gourmand #ornamentalist #alien cultures #AIs

[sunderedandundone]

Possibly unpopular HC (Dark Crystal, Chamberlain)

SkekSil actually *does*...*mostly* want what's best for Skeksis.

[Because it apparently can never be posted enough: #allHCsarevalid. I don't invest any but the most minimal ego in my HCs and even your strong disagreement with them does not hurt me. Long as you're not an asshole about it and can distinguish reality from fiction. ^^]

[And because it tends to come up in discussions of antagonists: mentally walking in a character's POV shoes is not endorsement of that character's actions. It is in fact...writing. Convincing characterization of villains/terrible peoples absolutely requires the ability to reframe the story from their perspective, regardless of whether you ever actually write in their narrative voice or show a visible authorial attitude toward them, or not.]

[spoilers; CW for canon-depicted violence and general awfulness, etc]

Okay, so hear me out. Obviously Chamberlain's also an arrogant little shit who was driven to murderous rage when another Skeksis claimed their official spot at court as royal vizier, so I'm certainly not saying there's no individual ambition there.

But a Skeksis who *only* cared about *personal* glory would've taken credit for coming up with the essence-draining idea. (Chamberlain IS smart like Scientist!) Whereas SkekSil let not only SkekSo but Beloved Scientist think that Beloved Scientist had come up with it. The only selfish motive I can think of is if they were seriously worried the experiment would fail? But that seems unlikely. Seems much more probable that the C. wanted SkekTek to get credit, so that the Scientist never got SO high on the Emperor's shitlist as to end up actually incapacitated -- imprisoned, replaced with some numbskull, extreme maiming, exile, who TF knows. Which IS a valid worry, given that as calm and confident as 'So pretended to be at the Ceremony, SkekSil witnessed the Emperor completely and violently freaking out all over SkekTek about it just a few moments later (when they thought they were unobserved).

I mean, if SkekSil had told *SkekSo* their idea instead, so that it then had to be given to SkekTek as an imperial order, that'd be some shine on the Chamberlain's escutcheon sure -- but it would've made the Scientist look pretty darn bad at Sciencing, wouldn't it? ("The freaking court toady came up with our species-saving idea instead of you, Tek? Really?")

SkekSil's the only court Skeksis who ever acts in the whole group's interests (even counting the Emperor, who you could argue makes attempts to do so, but also completely, repeatedly sabotages their own agenda). Whereas all the others either just loaf about the Castle being deadweight, or wander into a situation specifically to make it worse (...*General* -_- ).

SkekSil spins on a freaking dime to come up with the whole anti-Rian propaganda campaign, thus saving SkekVar and possibly SkekSo from almost destroying the Lords' good-guy image right there in front of Ordon. -_-

And instead of letting SkekTek suffer whatever someone else might come up with to inflict on them after the vial incident, the C. suggests a punishment that...while it's sadistic and violent and absolutely sends the message of "*Don't narc* on SkekSil, man. It ain't worth it!"...once again preserves the Scientist's ability to work. And again, I consider this a legit worry, because again, all the other Skeksis including SkekSo have more than demonstrated that Schadenfreude UTTERLY trumps common sense anytime they're in the mood for bloodsport. In the heat of that frenzy, it honestly might NOT occur to anybody else that "hey, if we take off a major limb or put SkekTek in a coma, that miiiiight cause a problem with our lifesaving essence supply lines!"

Again, someone only concerned about their personal prestige would've either kept silent and not risked speaking up in the scapegoat-of-the-moment's defense, OR spoken up to propose something *extra* diabolical -- just to teach foolish Scientist a real lesson. As opposed to reminding everyone that while suitable chastisement is needed, oh yes, Scientist is still Lord of Crystal, hmmm? So we arrive at balanced solution for all. ;-P [ETA as a side note: seriously, Tek, what *were* you thinking with that narc? You're supposed to be smart FFS! You could've kept your beak shut and *none of the others would ever have known* how Rian got out, or even that you lost your small experimental vial! So when you run straight to the Emp to report it, what the hell is SkekSil supposed to think but that you *actively* *wanted* to get *them* in the headcage with a Peeper beetle, or whatever? So of course they flip the script on you. I mean -- DUH. Any Skeksis with the brains to do so would've! You would've! -- Well, except that you legit seem to be the one Skeksis to whom it seemingly never occurs to just...LIE. Which IS remarkable.]

SkekSil *also* brings SkekTek the Gruenak. A crucial part of their own cunning plot to get their seat back? Why yes. But why Gruenak? It must have been a fair bit of trouble, getting down to whichever port it was to trade with the Sifa to buy an *extremely* rare type of slave. If all 'Sil had needed was spies in the lab disguised as 'help,' Podlings or Gelflings would've been MUCH easier. But no, they wanted these slaves to have technical ability. Which means they actually wanted the repair to go as well and swiftly as possible, and no hard feelings for friend Scientist. Who says you can't serve the Empire while also serving yourself (and by golly, you'll have earned it won't you, you debonair bell-voiced murderbird ;-) )...?

SkekSil is the one who Dares Summon the Hunter. Another part of the cunning personal plan, yes? -- well. Sort of. It's more like the backup plan. But SkekMal *is* by far the likeliest option for retrieving Rian IF you can't get any deluded Gelfling to turn him in first. And everybody else at the Castle did literally fuckall about that whole situation, btw. (Hell, SkekVar never offered any actual *plans* as SkekSo's new 'adviser.' SkekSo themselves had the one good strategy idea of raising the Arathim as mercenary troops.)

On that note: SkekSil was the only one still seeking an (::ahem:: ::scare quotes::) 'nonviolent' solution to things at that relatively late point in the story. Which, leaving all moral issues aside, 100% *would* have been the objectively safest, most comfortable and least self-sabotaging course for the Skeksis. (...Short of, you know, not doing the evil essence thing at all and seeking some other path, but.)

The C. saw that a hot war between the two species had genocidal potential, not just for Gelfling, but for Skeksis as well. ("War is END." They're.....not wrong.) At minimum, it'd certainly put paid to the Skeksis' longstanding, luxurious lifstyle!

That's why I've little doubt that if 'Sil had been Emperor, they'd have been more than happy to work out some kind of 'Faerie's yearly tithe to Hell' arrangement with Seladon. Which would still have been a parade of horrors, of course -- but wouldn't have, like, wiped out an entire species...who also happened to be the Skeksis' only real allies...and massively accelerated the Darkening and thus destroying the planet everybody had to live on, *including* the Skeksis.

Chamberlain is also the only one who tries to point out the existence of, y'know, *mathematics* to Skeksis. I.e. "Hey guys, if we eat ALL the Gelfling at max speed...then there...won't be any more Gelfling? To...make more Gelfling...? And then we're kinda...up shit creek on this whole 'Gelfling essence as our main survival plan' thing?"

In fact, SkekSil is pretty much the only one who dares even try to restrain SkekSo. ...Until it becomes obvious that that's getting exponentially less possible by the second, because SkekSo's truly off the chain now and not entertaining any more non-genocide options.

At which point, having now done the 180 because it's their only option for staying in a position of power -- and they are after all the *only* Skeksis with half a BRAIN left, so they *need* to be in a power position! -- SkekSil goes balls-out for it and comes up with the inordinately evil Garthim idea.

BUT which I will once more note, *is* the best survival strategy for Skeksis *AFTER* everyone else has gone and fucked up the situation to the point where war is unavoidable. Again, Chamberlain IS smart like Scientist; indeed, while I'm sure SkekTek's better with the mechanical ins and outs, SkekSil is arguably a better scientist on the innovation/creativity front. O_o Really, 'Sil's a creative little fucker for all the things they set their mind to, too bad those things are just so often terrible. (At least in this era.)

Long story short -- IMHO, SkekSil just doesn't act like someone only interested in themselves and their slice of office politics. They always have their eye to species survival, and also the question of "um but really no joke, what do we want the future to look like?" And they're willing to take an unusual (for Skeksis) amount of time/risk/labor to personally see to it, even as others sit inert. They even pass up visible opportunities to one-up when something more important to preserving Skeksis and their rule is happening. (Though of course, when it IS possible to help both Skeksis and Chamberlain, as it so often is, Chamberlain *will* devise the way!)

That's why my personal thesis of the character is a little bit off-gauge from the usual take: my take is that their ego/ambition shows up *not* just in their zillionty court intrigues, but in an actual vision (however fucked up I'm sure it is X_X ) of a Glorious Civilization and Eternal Empire they see themselves as building. This is the project that takes up what's left of their once-astounding creative powers: a Civilization to outshine all others *evar* -- which Chamberlain will have the personal satisfaction of knowing could never have happened without aaaallllllllll Chamberlain's trine of quiet THANKLESS work behind the scenes. :-)

And what's left of the *performer* in SkekSil even after the music is totally gone rests in this idea as well, that once they get all the cats herded and every last bit of furniture in place just so, all Thra will stand and cheer in primeval awe of what the Skeksis have achieved (that is, what *SkekSil* has achieved) on this miserable dirtball. While some direct personal credit will of course be sought...and while if the Imperial throne ever WERE somehow to end up empty O:-) , well obviously Chamberlain is the only non-idiot Skeksis to occupy it...what's most important to them is that what they've created, what they see as their very own Magnum Opus, be hailed with universal ecstasies. Heck, it might even become one of the most revered regimes in the realms of the Crystal! That'd be a nice tack-on for sure, hmmmm? (Hahahaha suck it, Homeworld.) :-)

#dark crystal #tdcaor #writing #worldbuilding #characterization #skeksil #chamberlain #skeksis #HC #allHCarevalid #villainry #intrigue #motivation #gelfling #podlings #gruenak #thra