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sflow-er · 10 months

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After reading The Magic Trick You Didn't See, the essay by @ariaste, I've got some thoughts on Maggie and Nina (well, mostly Maggie) that I kind of want to write down to make sense of them. I'm putting them under the cut to spare anyone who isn't interested in GO2 or hasn't seen it yet and doesn't want to be spoiled.

[Before I start rambling, I want to stress that I haven't really been active enough in the GO tag to know if a similar theory has already been presented. Also, I realise I could be way off the mark here, this is pure speculation!]

So to recap the basic premise of the essay mentioned above, much of what we see in GO2 could have been altered by the Metatron using the Book of Life, aka. the Chekov's gun that never went off. I'm not sure if I subscribe to every aspect of that theory (for example, I do think that wee Morag really died, and that it's possible Aziraphale only started drinking alcohol in the 1900s, although I'll admit some of the bits where he turns it down are harder to explain than others).

What I do fully agree on is that Maggie often feels more like a character than a real person in this fictional world. Something about her just feels off. The essay cites many great examples, such as her abrupt mood swings and her uncanny valley reactions (especially her line at the ball, about how suddenly knowing the steps is "just what we do", and her zoning out right before the demons attack and then suddenly starting to antagonise them).

Anyway, this got me thinking. If Maggie was a character written by the Metatron, why and when would he have started writing her in the first place?

Well, what if there was cleanup to be done after Adam fixed things at the end of GO1? All the events of that week were altered, but what about everything that happened before? Because that's the thing that jumps out to me about his line to the Devil: "You're not my father, and you never were." Meaning he also altered the past.

Which begs the question, if Adam was never the Antichrist, what became of The Chattering Order of St Beryl? Did it ever exist at all? Did Hastur still destroy the convent and kill most of the nuns? After all, the book says their sole purpose in existing was to deliver the Antichrist - who never was, as of the end of GO1.

Keep in mind that the burning of the convent happened eleven years before the events of GO1. I assume there would be a lot more paperwork involved in bringing to life people who already moved on from the earthly plain over a decade ago. They wouldn't even have a life to come back to, which is where the Book of Life could come in.

Now, I know Neil has said that Maggie and Nina are not the same people as Sister Theresa and (Sister) Mary in GO1...but that would still hold true even if they were just altered versions of themselves.

I'm not sure about Mary/Nina. It's possible that Adam himself changed her, as she was still alive at the time of the shift. Maybe her parents didn't raise her as Satanist after all (as they did in the book), or they didn't give her a biblical name like Mary, or she changed it. Or perhaps Nina was always her real name, but she became Mary when she took her vows and kept it when she became Mary Hodges. Perhaps this is what her life would have looked like if she never joined the Order.

It's also just as possible that she really is a different person who simply looks the same, much like Beelzebub is the same person who simply looks different. Either way, she remains a real human person.

As for Theresa/Maggie... Well, we don't know how she was raised, or if Theresa was her real name, or anything else really. I don't think that matters as much either, because the main point is that she already died 11 years ago.

It's mentioned time and again that people can't just be resurrected willy-nilly, and it's left quite unclear how Adam's powers worked, exactly. Perhaps God told the Metatron to smooth over the ripples (after all, the whole thing was part of Her plan all along, and She usually leaves it to the angels to implement Her plans). The Metatron then decided it was easier to make up new characters based on the people who died years ago than to truly bring them back to life, much like the angels in the Job minisode figured that giving him seven new children was even better than resurrecting the old three.

And since the Metatron was creating Maggie anyway and had the power to write her a completely different life, why not take the chance to also place her close to Aziraphale? The Metatron plays a much more intricate game than most of the angels, and he's extremely committed to seeing the plans through. Surely it would occur to him to keep tabs on the dangerous rebel who consorted with a demon and played a big part in stopping the first part of Armageddon, in case the two of them tried to meddle in the second part as well.

So, by a few strokes of the Metatron's heavenly pen (or keyboard), Aziraphale is suddenly Maggie's landlord in GO2. Of course, it's normal for shows to introduce new characters by making existing ones act like they were there all along...but if we accept the premise that Maggie isn't actually real, Aziraphale never even mentioning his tenant when the bookshop burned down and the world was about to end in GO1 definitely works in our favour.

Anyway. I'm not sure how serious I even am about this theory - it only just came to me this morning, and I wanted to write it down to get it out of my head. So if you disagree or think it's too farfetched, that's totally fair!

#good omens #good omens theory #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #maggie good omens #metatron good omens #nina good omens #not yr

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bunkernine · 4 years

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CAITLYN that au where leo is adopted by percabeth is so good im screaming right no jhjdhj!! like the symbolism with valgrace/percabeth parallels and percabeth trying to escape...how would frank and hazel fit? would someone else from chb switch? this is very interesting hjsjhdj

[pal family au]

i didn't really think of much else changing. like, there's an obvious time skip and some of the ages would be changed. like I only really thought of it because of the original Percy/Leo and Annabeth/Leo comparisons when I did random vg pa parallels. so my focus was purely on those three and developing their relationship and such. I was in a previous convo about how Percy and Annabeth shouldn't be involved in hoo, and I believe that wholeheartedly!!!! this managed to keep them more involved then I probably would prefer, but in a more meaningful way where they don't impact the argo kids but still have some sort of impact. I dont think Percy and Annabeth would want to be involved with demigods once they leave chb, and I think that's a nice aspect to explore.

(🤔 the battle of Manhattan happens in 2008, so thats 12 years ago, making percabeth around 28 this year, if you want to consider boo being in 2020, and Leo being 15/16. or percabeth can be older too, I don't really care.)

but yeah, if we use that timeline, aunt estelle is 12, and reminds sally of Percy at that age, so she can only smile when hearing Leo is at chb, and look at her own child. nico is about 24 or 25, but i love him being an older counselor who jumps around chb and travels the world. Thalia is... forever 15. someone suggested Jason being in the casino to explain the age gap, but Im less inclined to give him the same story as Nico. so at the moment, I'd say there just a big gap between Thalia and Jason, and beryl went BATSHIT trying to hook up with Jupiter that second time.

I'm just under the assumption that all the people mentioned in the og series are older now I'm thinking about a VERY young drew feeling betrayed by her big sis silena and harboring that feeling of hate. Rachel is an older oracle, and has a much better handle over her powers. but yeah, there are some little changes but it's mostly the same. just. the prophecy of the Five. so frank and hazel are there as normal ig. idk about son of neptune, but just assume they got it done lol. the focus is really just on an older percabeth and trying to escape, but also some family vibes and Leo bonding

#vi 🌼#askingasks #pal family au #ugh to tag #to tag #soery im really upset rifht now i cant type well

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kariachi · 3 years

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Some Mari pokemon fic because I want to write damnit.

Finding the Arcanine when they landed was a good sign, mostly in that it didn’t seem distressed. There was no sign of injury, it wasn’t exhibiting any anxious behaviors. It noticed their approach quickly, taking a defensive stance and loosing a low growl, but not becoming actively aggressive. A well trained and, again, seemingly not distressed pokemon.

“Alright there, calm down,” Mari said as she slide down off her Salamence’s back a respectful distance away, “I just need to speak to your owner.” The fire-type was guarding what she assumed was the base camp of one Viola Douglas. She did have an Arcanine registered, alongside two Sableye and a Donphan. She wasn’t an expert in prospecting, but the set-up did seemed orderly, if not neat, another good sign. Salamence stayed calm and quiet by her side- well trained, thank you- as the Arcanine sized them up. It continued to growl, but eventually flicked it’s head briefly downriver. It would have to do. “Thank you.”

Leaving Salamence out for safety’s sake, she skirted a wide berth around the camp as she headed downstream. It was a lovely area, all dense forest, flowing water, the occasional pokemon scampering or flitting around, and that made the half hour before they found anything of interest pass faster. A cave, just off the river, sat out in the open with a small table and some supplies by the mouth. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where they were heading.

A plus side of being a dragon trainer- as a general rule people tried to investigate sudden loud roars, especially ones in the direction of one of their pokemon. The Donphan appeared first, cautiously leading the way for it’s trainer and the other, smaller pokemon. Viola froze when she saw Salamence, and only relaxed minutely when she noticed Mari.

“Gymleader,” she said, having been working in the area well long enough to recognize her, “is something wrong?”

“It’s been three weeks since you’ve last checked in,” Mari explained, with a bit of satisfaction when she cringed, “I’m here to confirm you’re alright.”

“We’re fine. Found a really choice seam of red beryl and have been mining it out.” Crossing her arms, Mari gave her a firm look.

“Beryl that would’ve still been here when you got back. You could’ve at least called out so somebody could bring you more supplies.” Looking properly chagrined, Viola nodded, one of her Sableye climbing up into her arms.

“Sorry, Gymleader. We were going to head back to town soon to make some sales, just lost track of time.” Mari heaved a sigh, shaking her head.

“I’m glad to see you alright,” she said, always happy when ‘missing’ trainers turned out to have been fine- she’d rather have her time wasted than somebody hurt or worse. “This does, technically, count as a check-in, so you have another three weeks before we’ll come looking again. If you’d like, I can send one of my trainers out with more supplies.”

“No, no that’s fine,” Viola said with a shake of her head, “it should take a few days to sort through what we’ve got, but there’s plenty of supplies to keep us for them. Should be back in town in four days, absolute max.”

“Alright then, I’m holding you to it. If you aren’t then we’re coming out looking for you again.” Viola smiled.

“Thank you, Gymleader. And for coming to check on us.” Mari nodded in return, flashing her a smile of her own as she moved to remount her pokemon.

“Any time.”

#fanfic

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obeyme-and-you · 4 years

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Lucifer Son of the Morning Star Part 2

Gabriel is italics

Kimimela is Bold

Verses are normal

Lucifer Son of the Morning Star

Who are ya?

PART 2 (Here we go again)

*Spoilers for chapters 16 and onwards, especially after chapter 20. Minor spoilers for the Lamp and Baddies events and the Search For Self Devilgram.*

Ezekiel 28 (King of Tyre)

“1) The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

2) “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God, Because your heart is lifted up And you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, In the heart of the seas’; Yet you are a man and not God, Although you make your heart like the heart of God-

3) Behold, you are wiser that Daniel; There is no secret that is a match for you.

4) “By your wisdom and understanding You have acquired riches for yourself And have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries.

5) “By your great wisdom, by your trade You have increased your riches And your heart is lifted up because of your riches-”

Until we know all the events that caused the Celestial War in Obey Me, we cannot say with 100% certainty that Lucifer thought that highly of himself, but considering he is the avatar of pride and the Lamp event (he was also the Queen of Hearts in the Baddies event), it wouldn’t be reaching to assume he thought of himself as such. Lucifer is very wise and it’s hard to keep a secret from him. He knew MC went up into the attic without seeing them go up there or them saying they did. He also knows that Diavolo is hiding information from him in later chapters.

“6) Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have made your heart Like the heart of God,

7) Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you, The most ruthless of the nations. And they will draw their swords Against the beauty of your wisdom And defile your splendor.

8) “They will bring you down to the pit, And you will die the death of those who are slain to the heart of the seas.

9) ‘Will you still say, “I am a god” In the presence of your slayer, Though you are a man and not God, In the hands of those who wound you?

10) ‘You will die the death of the uncircumcised By the hands of strangers, For I have spoken!’ declares the Lord God!’”

The explanation of these verses will be explained in a different essay >;) (secret OwO)

“11) Again the word of the LORD came to me saying,

12) “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”

When Simeon meets Lucifer for the first time since the fall, he mentions how beautiful he was. (Luke mentions his Beauty as well)

“13) You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared.”

In Lucifer’s demon form he is seen to have a black diamond on his forehead, which could be a single stone left behind after the rest were stripped.

The demon brother’s eye colors are also similarly colored to the stones.

Lucifer- The Ruby and Onyx

Mammon- The Lapis lazuli and Topaz

Leviathan- The Jasper and Lapis lazuli

Satan- The Emerald

Asmodeus- The Beryl (beryl is usually clear but can be found red, some of which looking pink in color) and Topaz

Beelzebub and Belphegor- The Topaz (comes in purple, blue and pink)

(It could also be for nail colors which would be: Lucifer- ruby, Mammon- diamond, Leviathan- lapis lazuli, Satan- emerald, Asmodeus- the beryl, Beelzebub- jasper, Belphegor- turquoise)

“14) You were the anointed cherub who covers, And i placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.”

*Note: Cherubim are described as angels with 4 wings except in Revelation 4:8 which describes them having 6 wings like the Seraphim.

Before Lucifer was cast out of the Celestial Realm, he had 6 wings, which were all ripped out by himself. When he became a demon, he grew 4 back. (This is mentioned by Satan in the Search for self Devilgram)

“15) You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.

16) “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covered cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.”

Lucifer was full of anger and hate, and he allowed it to grow and fester to the point of sin, and when he sinned he created Satan. He was thrown out of the Celestial Realm, after ripping his wings off and destroying his angelic form.

“17) Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.”

Lucifer was cast down into the Devildom, and the first demon to find him was Diavolo, the future king of the Devildom.

“18) By the multitude of your inequities, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you.”

Lucifer was consumed by his pride and wrath and it destroyed him. His wings and possibly his hair have become black/dark gray when he fell, as if he was covered in ash. (The official opening of the game has Lucifer catching a black feather before it turns white and disintegrates in his hand)

“19) All who know you among peoples Are appalled at you; You have become terrified And you will cease to be forever.”’”

All the demon brothers are frightened of him (even though they do try to hide it) and fear his anger, so even though they do get in trouble with him frequently, they have been shown to hesitate when they know it will upset Lucifer. The MC has opportunities to act frightened or not by Lucifer, but whenever MC shows signs of not being afraid Lucifer is shocked or confused as to why MC isn’t scared.

Verses 20-24 talk about the judgement of Sidon, while verses 25-26 talk about Israel and will possibly be discussed in a future essay.

Summary: somethin about Lucifer being a beautiful baby boy but also deserves to be punched, jk that has nothing to do with this. Fuckin blah blah blah, lucifer this lucifer that, first half is mostly theories and this will have to be revisited at a later date once more info is unlocked. Second half is mostly just straight up info about Luci with a dash of bros and god have you ever thought about how fucking tragic this is??? Like, the fall was his own doing,,,,he was jealous and went “why do i gotta care about the humans huh? Why dont they worship us? I thought we were supposed to be your favorites! I thought I was your favorite!” and then he went and fought a war he never stood a chance against and like fuck man, idk if its cause im tired or emotional or both, and like ik you aint supposed to feel bad for him cause thats how he gets ya but damn. The one person who is most in need of a hug, or forgiveness, or whatever will never get it because he made a mistake. Can you imagine? Cause like, yeah sin and hell and blah blah blah, but he can never seek forgiveness, never get a second chance, hes doomed to his fate and thats just, so sad. Oh god dammit this is why i fucking picked Lucifer, its cause hes a damned tragedy, fml >:(.

Stupid game i swear (You good fam?)

Summary: Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about the fall and destruction of Lucifer and Jesus Christ did the creators of Obey Me go ham wild with the research for their game. There seems to be a lot of connections between these two stories and the information received in Obey Me thus far. There is plenty of information that will need to be revisited further down the line once more content is released (or if me or Kimimela find some in Devilgrams and side stories). But until further notice, this is Lucifer and he brings with him foreshadowing.

SEE PART 1 HERE: Lucifer Son of the Morning Star Part 1

#obey me #obey me!#obey me shall we date #obey me theory #obey me swd #obey me Lucifer #obey swd Lucifer #shall we date obey me #shall we date #shall we date?#obey me luci #obey me ideas #Christianity cw #Christianity tw #obey me fandom #obey me thoughts

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rutilation · 5 years

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Does mulching a prisoner of war into shiny little woodchips before burying them alive indefinitely count as a violation of the Geneva Conventions? Asking for a friend.

(Hi guys, I’m back, and I brought 4,400 words with me.)

First of all, my apologies for the nearly five month wait. Ever since last spring, I haven’t had much time at all to devote to writing and I’ve only been able to work on this essay in small increments. And yet, despite the fact that I don’t have the time to do so, this essay somehow turned into a bloated treatise on the failings of gem society. Truly, I am a slave to my obsessions.

I’ve refrained from reading chapter 80 because I just know that if I do, it will insinuate itself into my brain like a tumor and I won’t be able to concentrate on finishing this essay. (That said, I did happen to see someone on twitter make a joking reference to third impact in regards to said chapter, so I am certainly Afraid.) Though my takes may be ice cold by this point, I hope that there are some nuggets of insight to be found in this. With that said, here are my thoughts on chapters 78 and 79.

While the past two chapters have certainly been…hard to read, I think that their contents have been a long time coming, primarily regarding the parallels between Phos and Kongou, and the uglier undercurrents of gem society reaching their logical conclusion. (And I gotta say, this display of—for lack of a better term—inhumanity on the part of the gems jives quite well with all the Shirley Jackson I’ve been reading lately. When I get tired of one display of flagrant mob violence, I can quickly flip to another.)

And then there’s the matter of the gems on the moon… I remember that when I first got into hnk, which was right around the time when Phos and the others left for the moon, everyone was afraid that Phos would go off the deep end and the gems stuck on the moon would end up as collateral damage in Phos’s quest for vengeance. But since Ichikawa is too powerful us, she said “what if it was the other way around, and Phos is the one getting thrown under the bus while the moon gems start a death cult?”

So there’s a lot to talk about, but let’s address the earth gems first, because these characters sure do live in a society. (In order to make my prose more tolerable, I encourage my readership to take a shot every time I write the words “gem society.”)

First of all, I’ve seen a number of people interpret Kongou’s line about the gems forgetting Phos very literally, and assume that the earth gems all have Phos-specific amnesia. I highly doubt this is the case, and he probably just means that Phos is now out of sight and out of mind.

As bleak as the situation is, I think it’s been a long time coming. From the beginning, one of the major philosophical elements of the story has been how the gems’ desire to give meaning to their long lives has compelled them to create a society in which only those with a concrete purpose have value. The characters see themselves and each other as instrumentally but not inherently valuable. With so much of the story focused on how this ethos hurts those individuals who aren’t seen as useful, how much it fosters shame and self-hatred, and how much it makes the gems unable and unwilling to help each other through hardship and depression, it makes sense to me that this inhumane mindset would eventually boil over into something truly cruel, and thus the other shoe has finally dropped. In a strange way, I have more respect for Rutile’s attitude towards the situation than I do the rest of the earth gems (sans Euclase, who I’ll get to in a moment.) Rutile is treating Phos like an enemy that must be vanquished, whereas the others are treating Phos as a kid treats their dirty clothes when they don’t want to do laundry—by shoving it in the back of a closet and trying to forget about it. The former strikes me as less dishonest and dehumanizing than the latter.

Even before chapter 79 made it official, I had a gut feeling that the timetable for figuring out what to do with Phos was nonexistent. I’ll be generous and assume Cinnabar was being sincere in the moment when they implied that they’d put Phos back together eventually. But just like how everyone ignored Cinnabar’s suffering because there was no compelling incentive to do anything about it, or how they all turned a blind eye to the Kongou/Lunarian situation for millennia, I figured that Phos would end up as another problem they wouldn’t bother solving. (Regarding Cinnabar, while I hope they’re still on good terms with everyone after the time skip, I would not be the least bit surprised if the earth gems started ostracizing them again once it became apparent that there would be no new attacks from the moon and thus no further reason to tolerate their mercury.)

(Bort, please stick up for them.)

And to be clear, this is a problem that the earth gems are refusing to solve in exchange for a short-term sense of security. If Phos and Kongou had been allowed to hash things out, and this stalemate hadn’t festered for 220 years, then maybe the moon gems wouldn’t be entertaining the idea of starting that aforementioned death cult. (Tbh, this mostly applies to 84, Yellow, and Dia, since Cairn has been their own personal death cult since chapter 33.) Even leaving aside how bad things have gotten already, if this state of affairs had continued to drag on, I think the situation would have gotten very ugly the second Aechmea got tired of waiting. While playing fruit ninja or whatever with Cairngorm, he says something to the effect of losing a battle here or there isn’t important as long as you win the war in the end, which I’m pretty sure is meant to communicate to the audience that Aechmea is playing the long game. And since he hasn’t done anything in the interim other than reluctantly and incrementally humor Cairngorm’s pet project, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s biding his time specifically for Phos, and that he’s counting on them eventually being reawakened. In that case, what would have happened if Kongou had been too meek to interfere, and the gems succeeded in getting rid of Phos for good? If Aechmea eventually gave up on his current scheme, scrapped working with Phos, and came up with a new plan, I’m betting things would quickly devolve into heinous war crimes since he’s only played nice so far in order to keep Phos on his side.

In chapter 78, we get to see two instances of the most common nugget of gem wisdom: only act when you’re guaranteed to succeed, and never take risks. It been a common refrain, with Antarc, and more subtly, Dia being the only gems aside from Phos to push back against that sentiment. And to be clear, I’m not saying any one of these iterations necessarily are bad advice, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it’s the only acceptable mode of dealing with problems in gem society. More on that in a minute.

So, uh, regarding Euclase, here’s an exclusive picture of me, after I’d spent months writing: “Gee, this Euclase character seems pretty shady, but I have faith in Cinnabar, Bort, and Jade to act humanely!’

That said, I think I got at least one aspect of their characterization right in my Euclase-focused essay—that they have a greater comprehension of their mortality than most. Unlike the other gems, they’re not childishly naïve enough to believe that ignoring their problems will save them; they understand that death is always around the corner, and that the (mostly) tranquil life the gems lead requires constant maintenance. Simply sliding down the path of least resistance will come back to bite them all in the ass later down the line, and Euclase knows it. That’s probably why they at least went through the motions of asking Kongou to pray every day for two hundred twenty years.

This is a bit of a tangent, but regarding my earlier point about the gems not commiserating at all, Peridot and Sphene come across as anomalies in that they helped each other through their grief over their lost partners, but that doesn’t seem to happen all that often. As we see in the aftermath of the winter arc, it seemingly did not occur to any of the gems who had lost friends of their own to try and help Phos through their grief. And I think it’s likely that they weren’t given much comfort in their hours of need either. Yellow bottled up their grief, Alex and (presumably) Red Beryl threw themselves into their work to the point of obsession, and Ghost seemed to have largely withdrawn from everyone else. But none of them really healed or helped anyone else heal. Despite their society placing a high value on interdependence, the gems are truly alone when they have to reckon with complicated or inconvenient emotions.

It may be hard to remember, but Phos was once influenced by all these toxic mindsets as well. Recall Phos’s conversation with Benito in chapter two: it implies that Cinnabar did live with the other gems during Phos’s lifetime, recently enough that Phos expects to find them in their room. From this we can infer that our kindhearted Phos never reached out to the clearly lonely Cinnabar while they were actually around, and didn’t even notice when they left the school for good. They may have had the potential for kindness from a very young age, but it was only when they were hit with with the stark truth of Cinnabar’s suffering that they snapped out of the fog of apathy that seems to surround the gems.

In fact, it almost seems like the struggle to drag the gems kicking and screaming out of their comfort zone is a macrocosm for what Phos had to grow out of at the beginning of the series. You’ll recall that once upon a time they were lazy, wanted easy solutions to their problems, and had no faith in their ability to effect change. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that in the eyes of gem society, the problem wasn’t really that Phos was lazy, it’s that their laziness manifested in the wrong ways. They were supposed to be fastidious and reliable about things like crafting, or fighting, or writing reports, but apathetic towards anything that requires more nuance or imagination than that, kindness or cruelty be damned.

All this is cast into even sharper relief if you think back on the arc with Ventricosus. She was in far more dire straits than the earth gems are now, and had a compelling incentive to throw Phos under the bus. But in the end, that wasn’t a line she was willing to cross. Her final line: “If we’re not willing to change our ways, we’ll end up just like the Lunarians,” seems quite portentous in retrospect. I don’t think Ichikawa is positing that being immortal makes you a sociopath, otherwise characters like Kongou, Yellow, and Padpa wouldn’t be such cinnamon buns. But I think she is insinuating that someone who refuses to change is dooming themselves to a state of perpetual immaturity, and that being truly kind requires growing up a bit. It’s a harder for someone who knows they’ll die one day to remain in a state of arrested development than it is for someone who could indefinitely procrastinate on growing up, and just focus all their mental energy into making paper or whatever for all of eternity.

And this seems as good a point as any to stop harping on gem society and start talking about the gems on the moon, starting with my muse, my most problematic of faves.

I brought up in my chapter 77 essay that Aechmea may not be willing to divulge what he was about to tell Cairn, and that was exactly what happened. Since he’s only willing to share this mysterious information if he literally would not be around for the fall out, I’m guessing that whatever this secret is, it’s not benign. And while Cairn has probably put it out of their mind by chapter 79, it’s clear that it’s bugging them before the time skip. I smell a shocking revelation brewing and I dread to imagine what could possibly top mind-control eyeballs. Make no mistake, I’ve devoted an embarrassing amount of brainspace the past nine months or so to contemplating what it will look like when the other shoe finally drops for Cairn’s character arc. (Is there a German word for the ambivalence that arises from wanting to call future plot twists for bragging rights, but not wanting to look like a dipshit if your predictions are wrong?)

Their line from chapter 78 that I alluded to earlier in this essay is rather interesting to me, because although they’re referring to Phos, they might as well be talking about Aechmea. They exhausted themselves to their breaking point trying to look after someone who didn’t take care of themselves, but they’ve nonetheless latched onto someone who is also seeking self-destruction. And as I pointed out earlier in this essay, this line also serves as yet another iteration of the defeatist sentiment that the gems often espouse. But, for a while, it had seemed like Cairn was moving away from that. The decision Cairn made in chapter 67 was certainly…fraught. But, one can’t deny that it wasn’t a brave one on their part, to leave behind everything they knew and cared about for a shot at living authentically; the only problem was that they undercut that step forward by returning to their chronic doormat tendencies. And again in chapter 70, they took a risk by sneaking off to earth knowing that Aechmea would pitch a fit later. But ever since chapter 75, they’ve been backsliding. As said chapter pointed out, their wish has shifted from wanting freedom to wanting what amounts to eternal codependency. I also find it interesting that Cairngorm apparently hasn’t bothered with getting a new name, and is just copying Aechmea’s shtick of going by his title. They’ve gone from sharing a name with Ghost, to having their own name, to not having a name at all. In conclusion, my child is a god damned mess.

I know I said I was done talking about gem society, but I guess I’m not. Going back to what I said in the last paragraph, about Phos not taking care of themselves, that’s been a reoccurring element throughout the series, and in my opinion, it was a significant contributor to the breakdown of Phos’s relationships. The reason Phos never just tried to make friends with Cinnabar—which is what the latter really wanted, and only focused their efforts on following through on their promise, was because Phos’s self-loathing runs so deep that it doesn’t occur to them that anyone would actually want their company for its own sake. Chapter 14 is the most direct allusion to this in my mind. Phos clearly wants to talk to Cinnabar, but instead they hide away and mutter that they’d have nothing to say to them. And as I touched on a moment ago, Phos’s self-destructive tendencies wore down Cairngorm over the course of their partnership.

But, here’s the thing: Phos’s self-loathing isn’t some immutable part of their nature, it was instilled in them by their society from the moment it became apparent that Phos couldn’t slot neatly into a role. This is very apparent in the early chapters, in which no one ever misses an opportunity to remind Phos of their uselessness (except Dia, bless their heart.) Back then, they pretended to not care about it by way of snark and bravado, but in truth, I think it warped their self-perception in an incredibly negative way.

There’s also something that illustrates this which has been on my mind for a while, but I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it. When Phos was trapped by their arms during Antarc’s fateful capture, the insult they yelled at their arms to get them moving is the same one that Bort lobbed at them a few times in volume one. I usually see different translations of the word between the two scenes, but to my non-Japanese-fluent ears, it sounded like the same word to me when I watched the anime. It was a striking way of implying that this moment of personal growth had been seeded with something more insidious, that their self-loathing is a taint that has followed them across their many incarnations. I’m not the first one to point this out, but there’s always been a certain tension within the text regarding Phos’s changes. On one hand, their courage to change is framed as admirable and heroic, but on the other hand, they’re also hurting themselves because of social pressure to avoid being useless, which is kind of awful. I think the narrative resolves this tension by making Phos’s quest for validation something which would eventually lead them to try and tear down the status quo that they hurt themselves for in the first place.

Okay, back to the moon gems. I’ve reread the part of chapter 79 focused on the moon several times, and it just feels more ominous with each iteration. What exactly was their idea of administering therapy for Yellow? Why is Amethyst on board with Cairn’s death bullshit? Why is Dia okay with it? Why did they stop fixing the dusted gems? And most concerning, where are the other three gems—especially Alex who would probably be extremely opposed to halting the gem restoration? It feels as if there’s something terrible just out of our field of view and chapter 79 is dancing around it. (But hey, my intuition was wrong about Euclase so maybe when I read chapter 80 Ichikawa will tell me that Alex, Goshe, and Benito were at moon-disneyland the whole time, and that Aechmea is a real swell guy, actually.)

(No, I’m not bitter in the least.)

I also find it interesting that in chapter 79, Cairn is espousing a lot of the same sentiments as poor Yellow, but since they can mask the dysfunction better, they’re treated as an expert rather than a victim. In reality, both of them are in serious need of a therapist, which is apparently non-existent in the post-post-apocalypse.

And finally, Barbata continues to be the truest audience surrogate. I find it interesting that he clearly doesn’t approve of all the bullshit going on, while at the same time being too reticent to do anything about it, aside from some side-eyes and passive-aggressive comments. Perhaps there will be some payoff to this down the line?

At this point, let’s talk about Kongou, because both his actions and his role as a sort of parallel to Phos in the narrative are fascinating. I think this is the first time in the story that he’s really done something proactive. I touched on this in a cursory character analysis I did for him, but to reiterate, the impression I got from his at times obtuse and contradictory behavior was that he had completely given up on trying to solve the Lunarian problem long before the series had begun, and that the only thing cutting through his despair and compelling him to get up in the morning and not just “meditate” forever was the prospect of spending a little more time with the people he loves, even knowing that he couldn’t protect them in any way that mattered. But watching Phos’s struggle reignited a tiny bit of hope in him, enough that he wanted them to succeed in their efforts, but not enough for him to believe that he himself could make a difference. To me, that seems like the only explanation that accounts for both his obstinacy when Phos directly confronted him along with his casual acceptance of the path Phos has been walking.

So for him to go behind everyone’s back to fix Phos is quite the departure from his usual passivity, and it tells us that he’d rather subject himself and everyone else to Phos’s brand of chaos than endure stasis that comes with their absence. And it really does seem like the world enters a stasis along with Phos whenever they end up comatose. Nothing moves forward, and the only thing to mark the passage of time are small deteriorations: Morga and Goshe are captured, and Cairn quietly becomes suicidal, and this time around, Yellow gradually loses their mind, the Admirabilis that Phos tried to spare overcrowd the tiny waterways they were released into, and the gems on the moon stop caring about whether they live or die.

For a while now, various characters both gem and Lunarian have called Phos their hope, or their savior, or some variation thereupon, and with each new iteration, the sentiment feels more and more ironic. Time and time again, Phos rises to the occasion only to buckle under pressure, their noble intentions haven’t gotten them good results since, like, chapter 10, and everyone who at one point had faith in them is completely done with them. And at the end of it all, they don’t have it in them to ask Kongou to pray on anyone’s behalf but their own, as if they’ve become so exhausted that they don’t have the energy to be kind anymore. And just to rub salt in the wound, their ambiguous phrasing makes it unclear whether Phos is asking to Kongou get rid of the Lunarians or themselves.

All of this seems to mirror what Kongou is implied to have gone through. He was created to save the souls of humanity, but was ill-equipped for the task, and he’s spent god knows how many millennia dogged by his failure to deliver. Aechmea’s line in chapter 55 about how his human creators didn’t bother to think about what would happen to him after everyone was gone, in my mind, parallels how Phos has been abandoned by the people who once supported them once they became too much of an inconvenience.

So now that these two failed saviors are finally confronting each other with no lies to hide behind, and nothing to get between them, what’s going to happen? I get the feeling that chapter 80 is going to give us some long awaited catharsis, for better or worse. (Please Ichikawa, make things a little better for once.)

On a related note, I’m hoping this possible catharsis might clarify something else for me. For all that the series is steeped in Buddhist symbolism and philosophy, I’ve never been able to tell what Ichikawa actually thinks of Buddhism. On one hand, the assumptions that life boils down to suffering and that the self is ephemeral and illusory are certainly present, but on the other hand, the characters who lean most heavily on the Buddhist aesthetic are villains, the characters most invested in reaching nirvana are portrayed as…let’s say misguided at best, and as I’ve already noted above, our two would-be Buddhas are chronically ineffectual. If I had to take a stab at it, I’d guess that the aspect of the philosophy that she takes issue with is the idea of relying on a savior figure and the idea that there exists a nirvana that could save anyone from samsara. But if the Lunarians’ wish were a complete pipe dream, then Shiro et al wouldn’t have already disappeared? Unless that was a misdirection and their souls were actually reincarnated? Idk, I don’t have enough brain cells to parse The Most Viable Interpretation at this juncture in the story.

Lastly, assuming Phos doesn’t ascend to nirvana via pure rage next chapter, I think their next replacement is going to be imminent. All of Phos’s other changes have been accompanied by death and birth imagery: they lost their legs out at sea, which is where inclusions are said to emerge, they lost their arms and their head at the site of their birth, the time they spent comatose evoked the image of a shrouded corpse in a morgue, their first trip to the moon in which they got their new eye apparently lasted the length of a Buddhist funeral, and now, they’ve literally been buried. (On a side note, it’s interesting that there’s a lot more death imagery for their later transformations, while their earlier changes alluded to birth.) I’m not the first person to point this out, but it seems likely to me that Rutile made good on their threat to throw Phos into the ocean, and discarded whatever pieces they were assigned to bury. And indeed, there seems to be a gaping hole in Phos’s torso. I still think Padparadscha is the most likely candidate for a replacement—the red stone from the lotus sutra has been alternately described as ruby, carnelian, amber, or coral, and Padparadscha is the closest we have to any of those—but who knows. Ichikawa might even decide to stop short of all seven treasures in service of some greater thematic purpose.

And with that, this belated essay is finally done. Except it isn’t. This is a complete tangent, but I recently looked up the one and only region where gem-quality phosphophyllite was briefly mined, a mountain in the Bolivian Andes called Cerro Rico. Hundreds of thousands have died there since the 16th century while mining silver, and that figure may be lowballing it, as some scholars think the death toll is actually in the millions. It is colloquially known as “the Mountain that Eats Men,” and the miners pay tribute to this fellow in hopes of avoiding cave-ins and pockets of toxic gas, but are otherwise doomed to die young from silicosis. According to a forum post I found belonging to a mineral collector, the mineshaft where all the phosphophyllite came from had to be walled off with a concrete bulkhead because the poisonous gases that accumulated in the tunnel had killed a number of miners. The idea of gem mining already conjures up images of exploited workers in abject conditions, but I must say that Maneater Mountain exceeded my expectations.

Okay, now I’m actually done. I’m going to get some sleep on account of the fact that it’s 2 AM, but afterwards I shall read the new chapter and repeat this whole grueling cycle over again, but like, in a timely manner.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #I know I’ve spent the whole essay trashing ¾ of the cast but I really do hope they eventually get over themselves #i've spent hours rereading this but i just KNOW in my heart that there are a billion typos and those typos will haunt my soul #goodnight

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dailysailormoon · 5 years

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Can you by any chance tag flashing gifs?

We have previously avoided tagging any flashing gifs due to the fact that A LOT of the content seen in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal might be a struggle for some to watch, which is also why we assumed that anybody that follows this blog should already be aware of the flashing images presented in the show(s) and that it would lie in YOUR best interest to decide if you would want to follow this blog or not. A lot of gifsets are posted and reblogged to this blog every week and it would be a real struggle for us to sit down and decide on each and every gifset if it should be tagged or not, especially considering not all of the members are even online and awake at the same time to discuss these type of things.

HOWEVER… I’m looking at the latest gif that was posted from our queue, and I can see the issue with that one specifically not being tagged for people to blacklist. Or any gifs like that one for that matter.

The issue with tagging flashing gifs is that everybody that suffers from seeing too flashing images/gif is that it’s different for everybody; some would find the transformation sequences a struggle to look at, or any of the attack scenes. While others are more resistant to them and would more likely find it difficult to look at gifs such as the last one with Beryl and Serenity. We cannot tag every single gifset due to this, mostly because we ourselves don’t really know where to draw the line.

But, we also of course don’t want any of our followers to suffer from just simply looking at the content we post. So, we’re going to at least TRY and start to tag the more sensitive-to-the-eye gifs (such at the latest one on the blog), hoping that that will help. But let it be known that scenes such as transformations and attacks won’t be tagged since they are so incredibly frequent in the show and on this blog as is. But any larger gifs, or gifsets with many HEAVILY ‘flashing’ gifs will now be tagged. Remember that you made the decision to follow this blog; you (as a fellow Sailor Moon fan) should be aware of the images featured in the show so it’s in your own best interest to decide if you want to continue to follow us or not. I really hope that this will be enough however as we I tried to meet up half-way!

If you wish to blacklist any of the flashing gifs that we post, make sure to black list this:

“tw: flashing gif”

We cannot please everyone at the same time while also trying to decide what we as admins are able to provide. Feel free to send more feedback if you have any!~

-Admin Jenz

#answered

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morwenna-crows · 6 years

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Notes from Dun Laoghaire August 2014 - The Dying of the Light Event

This was the talk in Dublin on the 31st of August 2014, just after The Dying of the Light was released. Because the series was ending, Derek expanded on loads of things I`ve never seen mentioned here, and also read out four chapters from the Original Draft of the first book.

Some people I spoke to in Easons bookshop afterward had recorded bits and pieces on their phones, so if anyone else was there too, and wants to corroborate, correct, or elaborate on anything I jotted down at the time, please feel free!

We were asked beforehand not to spoil the last book (which had only been out a day) for those who hadn`t yet read it - hence, the things discussed were mostly what-might-have-been scenarios, pre-Canon stuff, and apparent confirmation that a written chapter depicting a certain previously unseen character does exist. I`ve put the boring bits first, the best bits last, under the cut, for length:

At the signing after the Q&A, in Easons, everyone was chatting with Derek and asking face-to-face questions. I asked him why they couldn`t just have used the Scepter to destroy the Accelerator, the way they did with the Book of Names. He said that whilst the Book was tangentially linked to the Source of Magic, the Accelerator was direct-lined. You could destroy extensions, but not something actively channeling the Source itself. It was a bit of a wishy-washy answer, to be honest. I should have asked something better.

From the talk itself:

Scapegrace was originally supposed to be Serpine`s inept, adoring lackey, named Scaramouche (that name was later used for another character.) He was supposed to be a zombie right from the start - Serpine`s failed attempt at necromancy, before the White Cleaver. Essentially, Scapegrace was to Serpine what Thrasher became to Scapegrace.

Billy-Ray Sanguine was originally named Cadaverous Drake, and he was more mercenary than Hitman Deluxe. This name was later used for Cadaverous Gant.

This is the infamous signing where Derek revealed that his self-insert character was Saracen Rue, and not, as some had assumed, Gordon. He also (apparently) confirmed, speaking to older fans later, that Dexter and Saracen had gotten it on at least once. I`m not sure if these two points are related.

We learned that, near the end of the War, Erskine secretly poisoned Saracen, hoping to get rid of him before Saracen could use his power to discover Erskine`s plots. When Saracen revealed his Discipline, and Ravel realized it wasn`t a threat, he relented and slipped him an antidote. This… does raise questions about what happened to Hopeless, given the level of prescience he showed in Across a Dark Plain.

The first book was originally twice it`s final length, and featured Serpine, Vengeous, and Vile.

Extract One:

The first short, deleted scene which Derek read out is included at the back of The End of the World. I`ve actually posted it in full on my blog before - it`s the original final chapter, where Eachan Meritorious abandons the Sanctuary and goes into hiding, letting Morwenna Crow die at the (literal!) hands of Serpine, but surviving himself. He then must hold together a magical community which sees him as a coward who left his fellow Elder to her fate. Val and Skulduggery discuss this, and then Val returns home to Haggard.

Extract Two:

The second deleted scene has Valkyrie seriously poisoned by the magic monsters underneath Gordon`s house, a lá Tanith`s later poisoning by the Grotesquery - on the brink of death. Skulduggery - accompanied by China, who shows up to rescue them in her car - cares for Val and brings her to Kenspeckle. Skulduggery stays by her side the whole time she`s recuperating, as she fades in and out of consciousness. She remains critically ill for quite a while; when she wakes up and calls her parents, they`re frantic and haven`t seen her in days. They have the police out looking for her - her mother, in particular, is furious.

Extract Three:

A War-era, flashback scene. Lord Vile and Serpine are in a dungeon, torturing prisoners. This time, their victim is a man named Arnel (Armnal?) St. John, the High Commander of the Cleavers. They want information on the Elders from him, in particular the location of the hidden Sanctuary, but they also seem certain that the Elders won`t risk the lives of others to rescue this man. Serpine argues that he`s no good as bait, and that they should just murder him. Vile agrees.

The most interesting thing about this is that Lord Vile appears to be having moments of recognition; he somehow knows a whole lot about Arnel (his full name, his job, facets of his personality, his sense of ethics) implying that this man (whom Serpine ultimately kills) could be Skulduggery`s unnamed older brother - hi-ho, reason for abandoning that family crest! Also, Vile can speak, haltingly - he just doesn`t bother most of the time.

Extract Four:

The last thing that Derek read out was an extension of the deleted scenes from The End of the World, where Valkyrie struggles to maintain her secret identity, clashes with her mother, and is suspended from school.

In this extract, the Reflection goes haywire way earlier; it ambushes Valkyrie at home, they scuffle, and the Reflection hurls Val into the liquid mirror, trapping her in the strange world behind the glass.

The Reflection, calling itself Stephanie, then takes Val`s place in Haggard. Beryl, Carol, and Crystal call over to the house whilst the fight is taking place, hoping to nose around and find some dirt on Valkyrie to get her into trouble. The Reflection goes to meet them with a knife behind her back, and some creepy dialogue ensues: Stephanie threatening her aunt less and less subtly, and Beryl becoming increasingly frightened of her niece. Eventually, Stephanie attacks them.

Meanwhile, a terrified 12-year-old Val is trapped in Mirror, which is Not A Very Nice Place At All. It`s a bleak world of perpetual darkness, blanketed by thick, billowing black smoke (from a pile of bodies being cremated?) Similar in tone to the Other Dimension in Kingdom of the Wicked, only much, much worse. All around her, she can hear sobbing, punctuated by someone pleading for their life. Through the fog, she sees a gallows, and realizes she`s about to witness a mass execution.

This is where Derek stopped reading. Possibly because it was coming across as sheer horror and getting very grim for some of the younger listeners, but more likely because the next thing he told us might have contradicted canon, somewhere.

All he would say was that the subsequent chapter involved, in no particular order, “decapitation,” “screaming,” and “poor, poor Larrikin. Yeah… he died. But you don`t want to hear about him.” Cue shrieking from basically the entire audience, who most certainly did want to hear about him.

That was it.

#skulduggery pleasant #meta #spoilers #you might think you have procrastination problems #but i've had this in my drafts for four years #so get on my level #reference #long post

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madegeeky · 7 years

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The Silver Millennium from Sailor Moon has always fascinated me in a way that Crystal Tokyo never did. When I was a teenager and had the first English edition of the manga (you know, the shitty one that had bad glue that would start falling apart after reading it only a few times), I went through and used those small post-it tabs to mark every single instance where the Silver Millennium was talked about or referenced because I wanted to know everything so I could piece it all together.

Before I get started I should state a couple things for the record. There is going to be very little about the Senshi here. It’s a weird thing to say considering most of the time I’m all about character stuff but I loved the world of the Silver Millennium and that’s largely what I was invested in. As such, I have very little in the way of thoughts on the Senshi. In fact, this is almost all worldbuilding with very little character stuff (and the large majority of that character stuff is for Beyrl of all people). Also, although I would set this in the anime, it does have some things from the manga in it, although I have no idea how true to the actual manga these ideas are. I’ve found, as I’ve been rereading the manga alongside @keyofjetwolf, there are several instances where my brain twisted what the manga did into something I liked better and I was actually remembering moments completely wrong. (For the record, not to be biased, but my version of stuff was better.) Finally, as with almost everything Silver Millennium, this is largely headcanon based on my personal interpretation of the manga and the anime.

The place that I started, the place that I still largely base my entire worldview of the Silver Millennium and the Earth, is that both places are inherently sexist but in opposite ways. On Earth, the only people we are shown are Endymion, the Shittennou, and Beryl. The men are seen in positions of authority (Prince and his Kings) but Beryl, in the one time we see her before she joins Metallia in the manga, is shown to be wearing clothes that are definitely not as elaborate as those Serenity, Endymion, or the Shittennou wear. I feel it’s safe to assume that, at least in the eyes of the manga, she was not royalty and I roll with that for my view of her as well. Men are the most powerful people on Earth and women are, in general, treated as lesser people.

Then we look at the Moon which is full of powerful women (who in turn protect more powerful women) and literally the only man in the whole equation is Artemis. We don’t hear even a hint or a peep about Serenity’s father because, as I see it, on the Moon men are basically a non-entity. They are of so little importance that even the father of the princess merits no recognition.

I adore this idea because it basically means that any attempts at reconciliation between the Moon and the Earth are doomed almost from the start. Because the Moon will, of course, send female ambassadors and the Earth will send male ambassadors and the talks have now failed before they even began because they’re unwilling to negotiate with someone they consider lesser. I mean, that’s not to say it would have succeeded even if Earth and broken down and sent female representation or vice versa because I also think that Serenity considered the people of the Earth far below herself and her people. But there’s an extra layer of irony to it that I find fascinating to think about.

I also really, really love how this, in turn, shapes Beryl. I personally think Beryl is a fascinating character and it drives me absolutely batty that so much of her motivation (especially in the manga) gets simplified down to “was in in love with Endymion”. So I use my own view of the Silver Millennium and the Earth to shape that. Beryl did love Endymion and that was part of the reason that she turned to Metallia. However, another (bigger) part was the fact that, as a woman on Earth, she was treated like nothing and she wanted so much more. I imagine she was a powerful sorceress in her own right and, had she been born a man or born on the Moon, she would have probably been heralded as a prodigy. However, she was born a woman on a planet that sees her as lesser, with the Moon constantly hanging over her head as a reminder of all that she didn’t have.

(If you want to be really cruel, or make it even more personal, imagine Beryl figuring out a way to get a message to the Silver Millennium so she can attempt to barter passage into a society that will see her for what she is. Only to be told in no uncertain terms that no Earthlings are allowed on the Moon because they are lesser beings and, besides which, she must be lying that she used her own abilities to contact them because not only are Earthlings weak magically, they’re also far too dumb to do so.)

I’m a big fan of the idea that Queen Serenity had a ton of chances to actually make sure the destruction of her kingdom didn’t happen and each time took the exact wrong action and/or ignored all the warning signs. And, honestly, I’m just also a huge fan of Beryl having motivations other than jealousy for doing what she did, especially if those motives are actually kind of sympathetic.

In my opinion as soon as she took out/over the Silver Millennium, assuming she hadn’t done it already, her next target would have been becoming the ruler over Earth. If a way to legitimize that involved forcing Endymion into a marriage he didn’t desire, well then she managed to hit three birds with one very large evil stone.

As to why the Shittenou would follow her if they were sexist, well, I’m sure she gave them a beautiful song and dance about how she was just doing this to get out of the corrupting influence of the Moon and to protect their Prince from that evil enchantress. They, having been raised to see women as lesser, would not doubt have never thought for even an instant that she was lying to them and fully prepared to lead a coup as soon as the deed on the Moon was done.

And, finally, before I end this there is, of course, the question of Artemis, the lone male on the Moon with any degree of power. And this is where I borrow most heavily from the manga because, in my worldview, Luna and Artemis are not originally from the Moon. Rather, they were people sent by another galaxy as an attempt to broker favor with Queen Serenity who, I think we can all agree, had way too much power for one person. I tend to think of Luna and Artemis as being trained as both diplomats and spies and while Luna mostly focused on her diplomatic skills, Artemis was largely in charge of keeping tabs on people within the castle by being not only small but also a male, and thus constantly ignored. The crescent moons are not a natural part of their biology but rather a side effect of the fealty oath they swore to Queen Serenity (which, of course, was not words but actual magic at work, so they literally can’t betray her).

Anyway, this is my long and rambling explanation as to how one of my first thoughts regarding the Silver Millennium was that, wow, both these societies are super imbalanced when it comes to gender equality and that was the starting point from which I built my entire view of the Silver Millennium.

#geeky talks #mari talks sailor moon #mari talks sm classic #mari talks sm manga #mari talks headcanons #mari writes daily (or tries to)

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magical-gull · 5 years

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What's a fake senshi betrayal you would like to see happen?

I’m biased liking the tail end of the Dream arc has a good place bury the hatchet for understated drama that’s nonetheless been sizzling for ages, and IMHO fake betrayals are easy to slot in things like that. Rather than just overpowering anyone in particular, the DMC is most interesting when it lays psychological traps, so Nehelenia would be running a few different schemes in tandem for her macguffin hunting. She’s snuck into the heads of the senshi a few times and is gonna lean hard on those weaknesses.

So let’s go one scenario, 3 victims.

Nehelenia vs Endymion

A no-brainer choice. Obvious as it sounds, why not simply convince the person who knows about the Golden Crystal to just give it to you? So Mamoru gets fed a dialogue about the actual power and nature of the crystal being restrained, how much bad history has befallen the Golden Kingdom or Elysian or whatever, and while she’s not saying its the fault of the Moon crew, have they ever really made an effort to fix or find out about that? Beryl’s crew was pretty much obliterated without their input and forgotten about.

Doesn’t Endymion wish they had more ability to help? To be as strong as everyone else (Don’t they notice how far they’ve fallen behind the others)? Maybe even saving the day so the others can be safe? They’ve done so much and it’d be a great way to thank them. Why, they could probably discover all kinds of secrets together.

The tone is casual and calm. Nehelenia is not actually afraid of Endymion.

As for who’s there with them, it’s gotta be Venus. I’m not sure how the exact dialogue would go between Mams and Q-N (there’s a certain memorable scene in Pratchett’s Maurice that comes to mind wrt not trusting the enticing whisper in your head), but I’d see it as a quiet, humble affair where Minako learns way too much about Mams than she was ever planning on (shades of that minor subplot Mamoru actually had in the manga wrt being too weak to help Usagi). Mams plays on their major strength, to keep talking and be an eloquent decoy distraction while Minako gets away. Minako insists she was never fooled, but she never said if she had a plan ready if something went wrong. But the Venus-Endymion feud is put to bed, more or less.

Major problem? I think even on her worst day Minako doesn’t actually think Mamoru would willingly betray the team. Stuff might go south if she assumed some amount of mental influence though, but I’d see Mams having to be pretty coherent thru this deceit for it to work.

Runner Up: Mamoru and Michiru in this scenario could be interesting. Michiru likely doesn’t know about the history of mental influence wrt Mams and lacks Minako’s experience (and general trust of people) to know Mamoru wouldn’t ever willingly betray the senshi. Or… perhaps not the *inner* senshi? She’s had a deep hidden suspicion Mamoru’s olive-branch of friendship was born out of convenience and compromise to inter-team peacekeeping. Would they sell out Michiru’s group? But this would be more of a demonstration to how much Mams actually cares or affirming how similar the two are, albeit having different approaches, so I’ll leave it out of a ‘real’ entry.

Nehelenia vs Hotaru

The only implausible part of this scenario is Nehelenia thinking Hotaru might have the crystal instead of Mamoru, but let’s say she isn’t sure and Saturn is an “earth”-aligned sign after all. Plus its a way to have a rep of both teams involved in the story. Cause, shit, what fears and worries couldn’t you milk outta Hotaru? Yeah, even past the troubles, does her own team trust her? How long till the entire senshi group doesn’t? They’re afraid of her power, QN insists. She’s amusing but the others are just keeping an eye on her in case something dangerous happens. Why do they hold her back when she wants to take charge about her Duty? When their powers fizzled out tmeporarily, did they only put up with Hotaru insistence on being Saturn to be their glorified back-up generator?

The tone is formal and polite. As per my AU revised history, mostly because Nehelenia is low-key terrified of Saturn.

Who’s there with Hotaru? Shit, pretty much anyone would work, but if this is about burying the hatchet, I’m gonna say one of the Outers hearing it is more narratively productive.

Nehelenia vs Mio

Since I give Mio guardian status, the nature of the talk isn’t much different than the first entry, but while QN would appeal to Endymion’s heart she’d probably appeal to Mio’s bruised ego instead: Frustrations of weakness, lack of trust from the other senshi despite a decent go at being a hero Moderate Net-Gain Heroism™, the secret resentment of grueling dedication just to barely keep up with everyone.

As per AU rules the tone is difficult to guess. Nehelenia knew Beryl personally in the past and suspects Mio is the Earth Guardian now, but may or may not know they are/were the “same” person. If she does, I can see her struggling to hold back her own anger in any kind of bargain, as she’d arguably be as mad at Beryl as Serenity, who tends to send her into a rage.

Mio’s psuedo-betrayal would pretty convincing to the point I think anyone could work as a bystander. But she might fear stringing it along more than needed… not out of real temptation, no no, Nehelenia is a desperate liar obviously… but perhaps reprisal from angry senshi? Or would that make the pantomime even more believable? She’d consider that option. At the very least, she could certainly put on airs of a no-hard-feelings, business-like discussion of compromise… before viciously shutting N completely down for trying to put her under a wannabe-queen’s treacherous thumb.

#ask #anon #ive discounted mina or mio fighting with the outers #as they dont actually fully know each other yet #Anonymous #i could go with a Stars betrayl option but i feel like thats overdone #unless sometimes wants to read that idk

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iapislazuli · 7 years

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how aquamarines and lapis lazulis might be related: a theory

so, if youve been following me for a while, you probably know that lapis lazuli is my favorite steven universe character (heck, considering my url, im guessing even people who DONT know me can figure that out)

being someone who cares WAY too much about lapis, i couldn’t help but notice that yeah, alright, there are a LOT of similarities between her and aquamarine. and these similarities seem to go deeper than appearance, too! so im thinking theres no way these two gem types ARENT related. since (as im writing this) its 5:30 AM and i have nothing better to do, lets talk about some THEORIES, under a cut of course.

at first, lapis lazulis similarities to aquamarine confused me. there is no reason for these two gems to be so similar. why? because in steven universe, they take their gem facts VERY seriously. gem characters who are this similar in appearance (I.E. jasper and amethyst), in addition to having some related in-universe role, usually also have some correlation in real-life, such as jaspers and amethysts both being quartzes IRL and both being super-soldiers in the show.

lapis lazuli is a semiprecious metamorphic rock, composed mostly of lazurite, lazulite, pyrite, and calcite. aquamarine is a blue variation of beryl, with a composition mostly of beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate. so in other words, not at ALL like lapis lazuli. so it makes no sense, right? aside from color, these two stones are nothing alike, so their counterpart gem characters shouldn’t be so similar.

BUT THEN, i realized something. and this is where we get into the theories.

PART 1: Aquamarine is an Era 2 Gem

you might remember in “Too Short To Ride”, we learned that peridot is an era 2 gem, meaning she is newer than the crystal gems. going off of what is stated in other episodes, its safe to assume that era 2 started sometime after the crystal gem rebellion.

pearl knows about topazes and aquamarines, which means they have been around since era 1, but i think the two we know (and love?) are era 2 variants of them.

era 2 gems don’t care about the rebellion, the crystal gems, or anything related to that. this is likely due to the fact that none of them were present for it, so it lacks personal value to them. you can tell this by comparing jasper’s reaction to seeing stevens shield (which very clearly has rose’s symbol on it) to aquamarine’s reaction:

jasper, a known era 1 gem and participant in the war, is shocked, immediately recognizing the symbol for whose it is and what it stands for. aquamarine doesn’t mention the shield at all, merely acting annoyed that steven is trying to interfere with her mission (*cough* a lot like some OTHER era 2 gem we know). lack of reaction from topaz (who for sure saw the shield multiple times) can lead us to assume she is era 2 as well.

seems to be that era 2 gems are small. okay, topaz is pretty big, but shes a fusion AND (probably) a soldier, so she gets exempt from this rule due to having probable cause for being big. there is a reason for this, leading to the next part.

PART 2: Homeworld is Running Out of Resources

this one is more (as peridot would say) objective fact than theory, since its outright stated, but bear with me here. homeworld is running out of resources to make gems. which means it makes sense that era 2 gems, on average, are smaller than era 1 gems. additionally, it also gives reasoning for any gem who doesn’t have reason to be big (such as soldiers or bodyguards, like topaz) to be made small, to save those precious resources.

peridot, who is an era 2 gem, is hilariously short (the same size as a “defective” era 1 gem, amethyst), but has technological enhancements to make her appear to be average gem height, as well as help her perform her role of technician. this furthers the idea that aquamarine is an era 2 gem: man she is absolutely TINY. and you wanna know what ELSE she has?

BOOM. tractor beam wand. tiny size and a technological enhancement to help her perform her role, she seems for sure to be a product of era 2′s lack of resources. speaking of which, what IS her role? we know she is a high-ranking gem (her attitude, outfit, and seemingly personal connection with the diamonds certainly gives her this impression), but what on earth is she meant to do? a look at lapis lazulis might help answer this question...

Part 3: Lapis Lazulis are Probably Really Wasteful to Resources

as mentioned before, the stone lapis lazuli itself has a hopelessly complex composition: it takes FOUR different minerals (each of which could probably be considered their own gem) just to make this dang thing.

Peridot’s monologue in “Too Short To Ride” implies that gems with powers are taxing on resources to make. this would explain why era 1 gems seem to have a whole pantheon of superpowers, while era 2 gems get just one or two if they’re lucky. so, what we’re getting from this is stronger / more powers = takes a lot of resources to make.

lapis lazulis, as stated in the diamonds’ song in “That Will Be All” are terraformers. this means, a single lapis lazuli has enough hydrokinetic power to reshape entire worlds, because that’s their role in gem society. lapis’ debut in mirror/ocean gem sure seems to support this, she forms the entire ocean into a space elevator, with a cracked gem. if we go based on the more powers = more expensive idea, then lapis lazulis would for sure cost more than a pretty penny’s worth of resources to make for this reason alone (not even factoring other lapis abilities, like the memories and the water wings).

judging that in “The Answer”, we see what appears to be our very own lapis in Blue Diamond’s court, possibly with other lapises, we can figure that lapis lazulis’ tremendous powers rank them pretty high in the homeworld hierarchy. maybe to keep them complacent, so they wont use their terraforming power against the diamonds? who knows....

Part 4: Okay, but what does all this mean?

so, to recap: we know that both aquamarine and lapis lazuli are high ranking blue gems with water wings, close connections to the diamonds, and a deceivingly innocent or dainty appearance. one gem type has only thus far shown era 1 variants, and is decidedly wasteful to resources that started to run out in era 2. the other gem type, or at least the era 2 variation of them we are familiar with, is more economic to produce, and has a technological enhancement that allows them to easily lift and move large objects.

lift and move extremely large objects, you say? like, objects up to the size of a five-gem fusion? you know, like, a task you would probably need to carry out while reshaping a planet to fit the will of the diamonds? but this power isnt built in to your being, so it could easily be revoked in the case of disobedience? all wrapped up in a tiny, resource-efficient package?

oh yeah, thats what i mean by all this: there are no era 2 lapis lazulis, they got axed from the kindergartens at the end of era 1 for being wasteful and their role is instead filled by the repurposed era 2 aquamarines.

there are still probably a good handful of lapises and era 1 aquamarines around, of course, and the similarities between these two, if any, are yet to be seen. i might be totally wrong about this since aquamarine is such a new character (and lapis is still pretty mysterious despite being one of the first introduced gems), but whatever the case may be, im excited to hopefully learn more about gems and homeworld in the upcoming Wanted event!

#dia noises #steven universe #aquamarine #lapis lazuli #su theory #long post #really hoping that cut works on mobile #if not i am so sorry LOL #kidna funny i got the idea for this theory from the 'x died and was replaced by a lookalike' meme on twitter

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id-omega-blog · 7 years

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My first jrpg: Phantasy Star IV

This is the amazingly spectacular cover the amazing megadrive/genesis rpg, Phantasy Star IV. I believe it retailed new in the neighborhood of 100$, maybe a bit less. I think Chrono Trigger was 70$, maybe more. I never got to buy Phantasy Star IV so it had to be rented from our old Blockbuster. Of course if I hadn’t seen the sprawing, multi-page long review/mini walkthrough of the first part of the game in an issue of Gamefan that I got for Christmas I never would have bothered with this game. I was young, obviously, and mostly played stuff like Sonic, Ristar, Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter Super/Turbo..whatever. I really digged the genesis Aladdin game too and actually owned it. I was starting to get into anime because Sailormoon would air at 2:30 EST on Fox Kids so i would get to sneak a watch if I was sick from school, it was a holiday or we’d gotten out early. I LOVED the show even though I had no idea what was going on. I wanted more things that looked like that. So, I see PS4 in Gamefan along with all the screenshots and ingame cutscenes of characters like Zio, who reminded me of one of Queen Beryl’s lackies but also was super evil and scary looking to me. The monsters looked awesome and way more detailed than the typical badnik mooks I spent my weekends bopping to release cute little flickies. So, its friday during June, I think I’d just gotten out of school and mom took me to Blockbuster. I searched the shelves for Phantasy Star IV and couldn’t find it so I asked mom for help. When I was really little and wanted to find a game I would sometimes get her to help me search the massive shelves. Mom quickly found it and asked “Is this the game?

Yeah...I believe the Shining Force games got a similar treatment at least on the sega genesis. For the record I don’t hate western style fantasy art and love collecting musty old AD&D books for the art and like Warhammer but yea..as a kid that cover art made nauseous. Its not quite Megaman 2 nes bad but its just so....WRONG. At least they still kept Chaz’s original color scheme and design I guess..but what they did to Rune was unforgivable. I won’t comment on Rika. My biggest problem with this style of art is that it makes you think Phantasy Star IV is some kind of medieval D&D inspired game. The core Phantasy Star games are best described as fantasy sci-fi, sort of like Star Wars. You have interplanetary travel, cyborgs,ecosystems controlled by AI sometimes prone to turning evil but but people fight with swords,axes and use magic. It really is a lot like Star Wars setting wise since the first planet you start on, Motavia, looks and feels a whole like Tatooine. It was a very fun but confusing game to me. I loved the music and anime stills used for cutscenes but I would explore certain locations and BOOM the music abruptly switches to fast paced battle music and I’m now on a different screen with more detailed versions of my party facing detailed sprites of bad guys. I eventually figured out what I was suppose to do by selecting attack with everybody, but I’d see certain people would do a lot more damage when I did this. After several more battles I discovered techs/magic but the only ones I understood were those that did direct damage and made cool explosions. If I selected a spell that did something besides direct damage I just assumed it was completely worthless. Its been so long but I think the farthest I got was to Zio’s castle but I never got past the first boss and had to return the game. I rented it again a few weeks to discover my file had been written over(I think) or there was someone else’s file. I clicked that one and was confused even more because I was on this snowy planet with melancholy music and my party had different members and some were missing. I left the town and saw I had a swanky spaceship so I went back to Motavia, the first planet. I wandered around and for the life of me I could not figure out where Alys was. What happened to Zio? I played a bit more and some snooping around one town made me realize what had happened to Alys and then I just got into more random battles for fun because I had Wren the cyborg now and I thought all his moves were badass. I played a bit more but then got tired of all the aimless wandering and went outside to play. Really dating myself there... So that’s the story of my first rpg. I never did buy the game but i later discovered the wonderful world of emulation in the 7th grade and was finally able to play stuff like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 4,5,6. Yes, I am one of those many Final Fantasy posers who’s first game was 7. I could exaggerate and say it was FF1 because my sister had an nes and played it but she rarely let me touch her console ever. I just knew her frustration about where to go after she got some flute. But back to the topic, I also downloaded Gens (obviously a genesis/megadrive emulator) and the first game I downloaded was....Sonic 3! THEN I downloaded Phantasy Star IV, got super far and was able to truly appreciate this wonderful and mostly forgotten jrpg. But..I didn't beat it. I got to sky castle, to the ::SPOILERS:: fight against a certain someone from PS1 and my game would always freeze when I was about to defeat him. I fruitlessly searched for a solution to my problem but alas I could never find a method to bypass the bug. We have way better emulators now and PS4 has been ported to steam and other consoles, always bundled together with other classic genesis games such as Shining Force 1 and 2, Landstalker, Streets of Rage etc. I’m going to beat PS4 one day, probably very soon. I have played and beaten so many rpgs, both western and Japanese(mostly Japanese) and they are my favorite genre of video game by far. So, thanks Phantasy Star IV, for introducing me to rpgs and making me into the lifelong weeb scum I am today.

#phantasy star #phantasy star 4 #retrogaming #gaming stories #sega genesis #jrpgs #rpgs #video games

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

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fellowship of the bloggening, part 5

“I think Frodo is going to get stabbed”

A KNIFE IN THE DARK

ooohohoo I wrote that blurb before I even looked to remember what the chapter title was. Fate. So we rejoin Freder... Frickerick... Fredericton... Fredegar! Mr Fredegar Bolger, who wakes and finds a thin, menacing voice at his door telling him to “Open up, in the name of Mordor!” Sorry that’s really dorky. Anyway Fredegar books it like a mile to the nearest house and lies on the floor wheezing “I don’t have it!” until people figure out someone’s after him and sound the alarm. The Nazgul leave Buckland; “Sauron will sort out the little folk later.” Holy shit.

That same night, Frodo wakes and finds Strider looking curiously alert in the corner of the room. Does he... sleep? Do Dunedain not have to sleep? Or has he trained himself to not sleep because The Enemy is constantly setting traps for him? Anyway they all get up and go check on their room (I guess they are sleeping in Strider’s room) and yep, someone has definitely been there trying to murder them. Also, their ponies are gone, and since as Strider says they can’t count on getting anything to eat between here and Rivendell (??? you’re a ranger dude, can’t you HUNT?) they need to find a horse SOMEWHERE to help them carry. I’m hoping Tom Bombadil’s fairy pony is still lurking somewhere. Waiting. just so you all know I picture it as this awful thing.

‘How much are you prepared to carry on your backs?' [asks Strider]

'As much as we must,' said Pippin with a sinking heart, but trying to show that he was tougher than he looked (or felt).

Aw Pippin. Oh, great, the ponies actually did end up following Fatty Lumpkin home, and Tom Bombadil eventually brought them back to the innkeeper, so all’s well that ends well. Meantime our heroes have to make to with a very expensive and unhappy pony sold to them by Bill Ferny, aka that guy who’s probably a spy of The Enemy. And they set off under the eyes of the entire village, since they’ve made such a spectacle of themselves what with Frodo’s vanishing act, everyone’s horses getting stolen, and the mysterious Strider joining their party. Even Bill Ferny comes to sneer at them; Sam hits him in the face with an apple. That’s our Sam!! He’s so petty, I love him. It’s a waste of a good apple, though, he says.

We veer off the road and take a shortcut through a marsh to throw off pursuers. Strider is very good at knowing where to go! He says some paranoid stuff that makes Sam anxious, blah blah, small chance of ever meeting Gandalf on Weathertop Hill, more sheltered approach, blah blah bird spies.

Pippin declared that Frodo was looking twice the hobbit that he had been.

'Very odd,' said Frodo, tightening his belt, 'considering that there is actually a good deal less of me. I hope the thinning process will not go on indefinitely, or I shall become a wraith.'

'Do not speak of such things!' said Strider quickly, and with surprising earnestness.

He is afraid Frodo will Succumb to the Ring and become a Nazgul... He mentions the history of the old fort on Weathertop (Amon Sul) and Sam recites a fragment of a poem about Gil-galad, translated by Bilbo. Apparently in poems whenever you say ‘Mordor’ you have to then remind everyone that it is ‘where the shadows are.’ When you’re not reciting a poem, though, don’t say Mordor! (Strider urges). I don’t know what he thinks is going to happen. The bird spies weren’t paying attention until they heard the name of Mordor but now, oh boy!

An aside, with all this talk of ancient history. I’m wondering why Tolkien decided that all the ancient ancient history should have happened on another part of the world entirely, now sunk under the sea. I think it would be really neat to have, like, 6000 year old ruins/settlements. That sort of Rome feel where you’re going about your business in the city, or taking a train through the countryside, and you pass something so old it would take an archaeologist to guess what it was. And then you pop into the CVS next door or whatever for a pack of gum. Pipeweed. Whatever.

On top of the hill they find evidence of an enormous fire, and a stone that probably has G3 scratched on it in runes, indicating that Gandalf was here on October third. It kind of ruins my immersion that they have October on Middle Earth... Strider comes to the conclusion that Gandalf was attacked here and left in a great hurry. One assumes that he retaliated with fire, since it’s kind of his thing. We spot some Nazgul on the road and decide to hunker down in a cave on the hillside, since moving would only make us more vulnerable and visible. Sam tries to tell more of the lay of Gil-galad, but Strider tells him it’s not the place or time for it (???) and he should wait til they get to Rivendell (???). And so he tells a bit of the Lay of Leithian instead. Interestingly, he doesn’t sing the Lay, but chants it. I’m not sure if lays are supposed to be sung normally and he just doesn’t think much of his voice. That would be cute characterization. He’s kind of shy.

He talks a little about how Luthien was Elrond’s uhh great great grandmother (or whatever, I didn’t count) and absolutely does not mention that he is also descended from her. Frodo thinks his voice sounds rich and deep and I am inferring he also thinks Strider looks very beautiful is he is telling ancient lore that no-one else knows.

But black riders show up, and though Frodo resists he is Compelled to put on the Ring. He sees the Nazgul in great detail, and manages to take the Ring off, get out his sword, and mumble Varda’s Sindarin name as they lunge, before he faints. Good multitasking, Frodo!

FLIGHT TO THE FORD

We learn that the Nazgul have been somewhat driven off NOT by Frodo attempting to stab the Witch King but by him muttering the name of the light Vala. Now they’re lurking. Oh Frodo has a cursed wound now though; the Nazgul are expecting it to incapacitate him completely soon. BUT Strider knows some medicine, slightly magic medicine, which he explains in endearingly complete detail.

Anyway they put Frodo on the pony (who has recovered from Ferny’s ill treatment somewhat!) and run for it. Frodo is stoic in his pain; everyone else is edgy, tired, and miserable. They make it to the bridge over the Hoarwell River, where Strider was expecting to encounter Nazgul. He finds a beryl (also known as an elf-stone, puzzlingly), and takes it as a sign that it’s safe to cross. Maybe some elves are looking out for them? Frodo asks about the ruins they are riding through (destroyed by Angmarians) and Strider tells that he learned a lot of his lore at Rivendell: “I dwelt there once, and still I return when I may.There my heart is; but it is not my fate to sit in peace, even in the fair house of Elrond.” Aw. You got some kind of a prophecy complex there, Strider? Also, even Strider gets lost sometimes, when taking extra sneaky paths to throw off pursuit. Frodo can hardly move but has to walk anyway; our heroes are off-course and nearly out of food. They’re so off-course that they come upon the trolls Bilbo fought during his adventure--I don’t think this will be very important, but it gives a nice sense of continuity, and a reminder that hobbits can go on adventures and come out all right.

Later that day they meet Glorfindel, lately of Rivendell, on the road; turns out he was the one who chased the Nazgul away from the Hoarwell bridge. Elrond has been sending out riders to look for our party. He gives Frodo his horse, for speedy getaways. Frodo, the darling, tries to say he doesn’t want to get away and leave his friends behind, but Glorfindel points out that he’s the only reason they’re in danger, and if he gets away they’ll be safer. Frodo shuts up. They almost manage to reach the ford at Bruinen before the Nazgul come upon them; Frodo rides hell for leather but some of them are lying in wait!

'The Ring! The Ring!' they cried with deadly voices; and immediately their leader urged his horse forward into the water, followed closely by two others.

'By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair,' said Frodo with a last effort, lifting up his sword, 'you shall have neither the Ring nor me!'

My boy! So the river surges up and carries off the Nazgul (all nine!) while they’re trying to cross (later we learn Elrond has total command over the river; sick). And I realize Arwen isn’t going to be in this at all. It’s weird that they turned Glorfindel into her for the movies.

HEY NOW IT’S TIME FOR BOOK 2! And the first chapter:

MANY MEETINGS

Frodo wakes in a warm comfy bed, and Gandalf is there to tell him what’s going on. Since we already know, I’m omitting most of that, except this part:

'I am glad,' said Frodo. 'For I have become very fond of Strider. Well, fond is not the right word. I mean he is dear to me; though he is strange, and grim at times. In fact, he reminds me often of you. I didn't know that any of the Big People were like that.’

HAH. He is dear to Frodo. They will learn to understand each other. And then they will tenderly hold hands. Anyway Gandalf gives some more exposition, ho hum. Frodo wakes later SO READY for feasting and stories; Sam comes in.

He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and turned hastily away.

`Hullo, Sam!' said Frodo.

`It's warm!' said Sam. `Meaning your hand, Mr. Frodo. It has felt so cold through the long nights. But glory and trumpets!'

Oh noooo that’s super gay. Sam is such a sweetheart, MOSTLY with Frodo. I get the impression he has had a crush for a very long time. Frodo and Sam find their other hobbit pals; Pippin is filled with sass and sarcasm, as usual, and they are both very glad to see Frodo alive and well. And just in time for the feast, too! We go to the feast, and hear a bunch of physical descriptions of the people sitting at the high table with Frodo (Elrond, Glorfindel, Gandalf, and Arwen). We learn, in a kind of ambient information way, that “Elladan and Elrohir were out upon errantry: for they rode often far afield with the Rangers of the North, forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the orcs.” Holy shit what? I don’t remember anything about Celebrian getting, uh, kidnapped and tortured?

Frodo is actually sitting next to Gloin, which is cool! He is described as a dwarf of great importance, princely, with white hair. Frodo is very curious to hear any news he can give, and Gloin is happy to get the chance to infodump to such a polite listener! What brings him here is rather grim, though--three of his friends are missing. He declines to say more; I expect we’ll learn of it during the council. After eating everyone goes to the fire/storytelling hall, where Bilbo is huddled up real small composing a song (apparently Aragorn sometimes helps him compose songs, very cute). After a while Bilbo sings the song they were coming up with (it’s about Earendil) and then gets indignant when the elves can’t tell whose parts are whose. “Sheep look different to other sheep!” they say. Rather insulting, although I’m sure elves never mean to be especially condescending.

And now, because I am very curious and haven’t totally worn myself out for the day, let’s read

THE COUNCIL OF ELROND

There are lots of weird people at the council! Representatives from several elf settlements as well as Gloin and his son Gimli, and Boromir who is simply from “the South.” The first news we hear is of what happened to Balin, Ori, and Oin--they took a party of dwarves and went to try to reclaim Moria, feeling that they were very prosperous where they were in Erebor. AND that messengers from Sauron came, asking for the friendship of the dwarves (offering rings of power), and their help catching a certain thief. They fear war on their eastern border, and that the human king nearby might yield to Sauron’s wishes; so they have come to seek advice, and to warn Bilbo.

Next Elrond tells the history of the Ring... “but since that history is elsewhere recounted, even as Elrond himself set it down in his books of lore, it is not here recalled.” A few things of interest: we used to have Minas Ithil and Minas Anor, yes--Minas Ithil was taken and became Minas Morgul, the tower of sorcery. Minas Anor became Minas Tirith (II), the tower of guard. I don’t think they mentioned that in any of the third-age supplementals. Boromir is sort of indignant at the implication that Gondor’s strength and splendor are waning; he would like everyone to know that Gondor is the chiefest bulwark against Sauron in the south, thank you very much! Also he says that his brother had a prophetic poem dream that said to go find Elrond at Imladris and seek advice. Because it was too dangerous for his brother and he wanted to protect him, Boromir came on his own, a journey of almost four months! Brother mentions in his speech: 3. Bilbo gets defensive on Aragorn’s behalf and recites his own poem (“all that is gold does not glitter...”). It’s like a really low-key rap battle. Aw and Aragorn is down on his appearance again, he says he doesn’t look much like the beautiful statues of Isildur and Elendil. Darling we’ve got to do something about that low self-esteem.

Gandalf then tells of his quest to figure out what ring Bilbo truly had. Secret library science! The most thrilling kind of quest! Aragorn puts in a bit about how he found Gollum and brought him to Mirkwood so Gandalf could question him, and the Mirkwood elves hold him... which leads us to Legolas’ reason for being here--Gollum has escaped!

‘We had not the heart to keep him ever in dungeons under the earth, where he would fall back into his old black thoughts.'

'You were less tender to me,' said Glóin with a flash of his eyes.

They kept bringing him outside to climb trees, so he could get a little exercise, that’s so good of them. BUT he was better at climbing than elves, oops. So while they were waiting for him to come down his guards were attacked by orcs, and when the battle was over he was gone! Meanwhile, Gandalf was sent for by Saruman, via their fellow wizard Radagast the Brown. He goes to Orthanc and is immediately greeted with great rudeness and contempt by Saruman.

'I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours. and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

' "I liked white better," I said.

Lmao nice Gandalf. Anyway they stick him on top of the tower, and he realizes only now that Isengard is full of wolves and orcs and nasty smoke. Really, dude? Thankfully Radagast is still sending messengers to Orthanc with news; one of them is Gwaihir the current king of eagles, who is able to bear Gandalf away. I love how extra that is, sending the king of eagles as a courier to tell someone the Nine are riding around the Shire. Gwaihir takes Gandalf to Rohan (which apparently pays a yearly tribute of horses to Mordor!), where he finds that “the lies of Saruman are already at work.” The king still tells him to take a horse, though he wants nothing to do with Gandalf; this is how Gandalf gets Shadowfax, a horse with chameleon abilities who is also very fast. Boromir very much doubts that the Rohirrim would buy their lives with horses, but Gandalf and Aragorn sort of condescendingly tell him not to be so sure. It’s interesting how Tolkien is setting up Boromir as this naive guy who thinks his kingdom is the only one helping people and that things are still going well. This in contrast to Gandalf and Aragorn, who find the current situation extremely dire.

I also want to talk about Elrond’s editorial comment on Saruman: “It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.” Once again, even having knowledge of how Sauron works is corrupting. I’m not sure if this is a thing Sauron does by magic, or if Tolkien is suggesting that knowledge and study are inherently a corrupting force! We can see it parallels the way Sauron traditionally swayed people to his side--through crafting knowledge. But in this case he wasn’t even there to earn Saruman’s trust. Saruman was Too Wise (or really, Too Clever and Not Wise Enough). Tolkien’s bias seems to be toward those who don’t seek knowledge, and rather take action. That’s a little simplified but it’s the best I can do right now, since I’m a little fatigued from spending like 3 hours on this liveblog. We’ll be done soon.

Now we are discussing what is to be done with the Ring; Glorfindel briefly suggests giving it to Tom Bombadil, since his domain is impenetrable and the Ring has no effect on him. But he doesn’t care about it, and he’d just lose it. I love that this is a solution they considered. Elrond eventually decides that they have to either destroy it or send it to Aman--and Valinor will not have a piece of evil that belongs to Middle Earth. Boromir, naturally, wants to use it, but in the end they decide they’ll have to cast it into Mount Doom. Bilbo volunteers (we all know why) and is shot down. Frodo volunteers, and Elrond says to him,

'I think that this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will. This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great.’

I like this image a lot.

#blog of the rings #heads up this is a long one

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