#SPOILERS she didn’t even hesitate to sell her soul to get her parents back but when raul raises from the dead and could have been killed..

[mcheang]

A miraculous bargain AU

This was inspired by Another Faust; a really good book by Daniel and Dina. The powers are copied from the book and it does not have a complete happily ever after. Spoilers for the book. It is a no-Miraculous AU where the question is what would cause the heroes to sell their souls for.

Past

No matter what Adrien does; his Father never notices him. He does his best to be the perfect Son, but maybe he isn’t perfect enough. He got defeated by the new fencing student today. What makes it worse is that with all his practises, Adrien never has time just for himself. Then his substitute piano teacher Mr Faust offers a suggestion.

At house parties, Chloe is ignored, forced to watch her glamorous Mother be the belle of the ball, while her Father impressed the influential. It makes her long to be like them, but how can she gather the attention? At least her tutor believes she has potential.

Nino is scared to takes risks. When he tried to throw his Best Friend a party, he instead got exiled from the house and transferred to a different class. When he sent his music to Bob Roth Records, XY stole his music and got away with it since he had the connections. When he tried to prove himself to his girlfriend’s Sister, he failed and humiliated himself. (Sorry Nino) the school guidance counselor advises Nino to travel a new road in life.

At a sleepover, Alya hides her jealousy of her BFF. Don’t get her wrong, she loves Marinette, but it’s kind of grating to see how many commissions she has received and the credit celebrities give her. Whenever Alya tries to get the scoop, those celebrities dismiss her and focus on greeting Marinette instead. Alya’s attempts to get school gossip failed when taking photos of someone’s locker got her suspended and kicked off the newspaper team. Alya vented her frustrations at the new babysitter she found.

Present

Dupont college is for the elite. Transfers were unheard of and yet there were five new students coming in this year. 5 children with the same foster father; the handsome and charismatic Mr Faust.

Adrien is a musical athlete and it is a good thing he loves to participate in so many clubs, because lately a disease has struck the school’s stars. It’s a shame, it would have been awesome to see their school talent against the new transfer student. Adrien could give them a run for their money.

Adrien’s power: steals the talents of anyone he touches. This way he finally gets free time for himself.

Chloe is the most beautiful girl ever seen. She has such charisma that she even has the girls worshipping her. If only she could keep her claws off the school’s most popular boy, who is already taken!

Chloe’s power: She takes a special bath that polishes her appearance and her aura enchants those around her. The more time you spend around her, the stronger her hold on you is. Her aura is a drug.

Nino seems to have everything going is way. He manages to charm a snooty cheerleader, come up with the most amazing songs, get away with awesome pranks. It’s like Lady Luck herself blessed him.

Nino’s power: he can rewind time for a short while (pretty much Viperion’s power) as such, he can do over mistakes, as well as claim credit for what others have come up with.

Alya is a fearsome presence. She seems to see right to your soul and can see through all your bullshit. She’s the school’s new gossip queen.

Alya’s power: mindreader

Marinette is the odd one out of the family. While her foster siblings thrive in the spotlight, she spends her time studying in the library. She is an amazing multitasker though. It’s a shame all of her time designing outfits is spent catering to Chloe’s demands.

Marinette’s power: She can freeze time. As such, she can finish her homework and commissions in a second. Feeling homesick for parents she can barely remember, Marinette has learnt Italian and Chinese before deciding to learn all the languages. It’s not a pleasant feeling though. Being the only animated thing in frozen time is very lonely. No wonder she resorted to drinking from Mr Faust’s wine cellar.

Here’s the deal, Mr Faust promised to grant the children’s wishes if they would come away with him. Marinette had no such wish but she was the real prize because she had no desire to bargain with Mr Faust. He didn’t have to kidnap her but Alya wanted her along like a teddy bear for a scared child.

Eventually things come to a head. Adrien doesn’t want to hurt people and wants to go back on the deal. Mr Faust locks him up in the basement instead. He doesn’t like letting his prey go.

Marinette notices Adrien’s absence and rescues him. Adrien finally tells her the truth. While Marinette is hurt by Alya’s deception and betrayal, she is wiser beyond her physical age now. Adrien suggests they run away but Marinette hesitates and claims they can’t leave the others behind.

Adrien goes to persuade Nino, pleading that difficult choices and mistakes are a part of life. Is he truly happy living this artificial perfect life, stealing others’ ideas because he has no faith in his own talent?

Marinette confronts Alya, who reads her mind. Marinette doesn’t have to say anything. Alya can read it all. How could she? How dare she steal her from her family? Did Alya even have the right to call herself Marinette’s BFF? Alya sees what had happened to Adrien, and grows wary of Mr Faust. Marinette asks Alya if she wants to be somebody who invades others privacy, seeing and hearing things that are not meant for her to know, and to spread others’ secrets. What happened to the girl who wanted to uphold truth and justice?

The others now hesitate to recruit Chloe because she loves her new life. While they consider their plan of action, Marinette goes to get more wine. Seriously, is she going to be an alcoholic when they run off?

The gang sabotaged Chloe’s special bath formula, suspicious of the smelly chemicals. Their attempt to save Chloe backfires. It turns out without the special bath, Chloe’s polished exterior reveals a hideous girl underneath. All her original beauty had withered under the fake shell she hid behind.

As Chloe runs to complain to Mr Faust, the others rush to pack survival necessities.

Alya tried to convince Marinette to leave behind the bottles before Marinette reveals the truth. She wasn’t drinking wine, she was drinking youth potion.

All the times she was frozen in time, she was aging. She had learned all the languages of the world, and it had taken her more than half a millennium. If she stopped taking the youth potion, her true age would catch up to her and she would die.

The gang realizes that in asking Marinette to leave behind Faust and his wine cellar, they were asking her to die.

Nino discovers the youth potion recipe. It’s funny how her youth potion smells like Chloe’s bubble bath.

Recipe incantation: “In exchange for the youth given to the drinker, the beauty would be taken from the bather.”

Marinette realizes that in exchange for her youth, Chloe had unknowingly paid the price.

As the gang sneak out, they are confronted by Mr Faust and Chloe. Mr Faust reminds them that they made a deal with him. They belong to him now.

Marinette retorts she doesn’t because she never made a bargain with him.

Mr Faust reminds Marinette she accepted the youth potions. She shot back he tricked her into it. She didn’t realize that so-called power he GAVE her would make the youth potion a necessity.

As Mr Faust starts to chant in a demonic language to keep his children in the house, Marinette starts chanting in the original language (the one before the Tower of Babel). It is enough to attract divine attention and allow the children to escape, all except Chloe who chooses to stay behind with her benefactor.

#miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml fic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #ml au #miraculous ladybug au #ml alternate universe #miraculous ladybug alternate universe

[darthstitch]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Why It's Both a Great Star Wars Film and the Worst Star Wars Film A Blanket Fort Movie Review

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’m going to have to warn for spoilers first. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. If you haven’t seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I strongly suggest you run away now and come back later. This review isn’t going anywhere.

The second thing is that I am NOT and will never be a Kyle Wrong fan (Which is why I’m deliberately mangling his name, so maybe, just maybe, this won’t appear in his tags). Just to be clear, I don’t run around whinging about my hate to his fans and any flavor of ship that involves him and another person. Love who you love and ship who you want - this review is not an attack on you and/or your flavor of Kyle Wrong Shipping. If you happen to have stumbled on this review, you’re free to hop off at this point. We’re all good.

Seen it already? We’re good to go?

Let’s do this.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi should also be titled: “The One Where Everyone Except Leia Skywalker Organa Solo Makes Spectacularly Stupid-Ass Decisions and Where Luke Skywalker Goddamn Deserved Better Than This. Also, Porgs Will Take Over the GFFA, Just You Wait.”

This is this trilogy’s answer to Empire Strikes Back, to be honest. It’s darker. It’s bleaker. Everything’s going wrong for our heroes and there’s no shocking reveal, no “I am your father” moment to be had, plenty of angst, plenty of whinging “woe-is-me” bullshit from our Resident Supervillain and yes, I’ve mentioned some spectacularly stupid-ass decision-making by our Heroes.

And this is why, from a storytelling standpoint, I can tell you it’s a great Star Wars movie. While it’s clearly inspired by Empire Strikes Back, it’s not a loving point by point recreation of it. As Luke points out, “This will not go the way you think.”

The character arcs for our new Trio are pretty clear. Poe Dameron gets to learn that he can’t just hotshot everything and get away with it with a roguish wink and a grin. While he was able to take out a Dreadnought with his friends, he also ends up sacrificing a significant number of people in the Resistance. To paraphrase Leia, all you get are “dead heroes” and what else can be accomplished by that? Even in a fictional universe where Force Ghosts are a Thing, it’s not like Leia could do an Aragorn and summon the Spirits of the Dead to rally against the Evil Empire - uh, I mean - FIRST ORDER - for one last time.

(If that were possible, Darth Vader’s garbage can ass would have been Permanent Toast a long time ago.) Finn gets to learn that he can’t be selfish and single-minded when it comes to his friends. Let’s face it - he was, technically, going to desert, because he was really more interested in saving Rey and surviving. That, in itself, is understandable, if not commendable, so we have new adorable Cinnabon Roll Rose Tico, whose sister just got killed in Poe’s disastrous bombing raid, getting Finn to rethink that point of view.

Both of them also learn that not all desperate gambles will work for the best. Finn and Rose go on a secret mission and somehow end up in Space Monaco, looking for a shady codebreaker person who might just be able to help them save their Resistance friends. Benicio del Toro plays a character who just might be the new Lando Calrissian… except that he’s basically just a slimy lying liar who lies.

And Rey gets to learn she’s NOT an Orphan With A Grand Secret Bloodline. As much as I want Rey to be a secret Skywalker, I’m pretty cool with the idea that she isn’t. I like the fact that the movie reminds us, yet again, that you don’t have to be a Skywalker to have the Force. The Jedi and Sith Orders were composed of every possible species we’ve seen in the GFFA, not just humans and not just a bunch of incestous Skywalker cousins. People gifted with the ability can be anyone at all. And if Lucas tried to sell us the idea that Anakin Skywalker was somehow a virgin birth and end up this powerful Force user, I can totally deal that Rey had perfectly ordinary parents and just got lucky in the Force sweepstakes.

Rey also realizes several critical things in this movie. The Great Jedi Master she’s trying to find is not some saintly perfect soul just waiting to be called out for One Last Grand Adventure. She’s NOT going to be able to save the handsome, supposedly misunderstood, young, handsome Dark Lord with the Power of her True Love and Pure Convictions.

Yeah. I just went there.

There’s no salvation for Kyle Wrong. None at all. That’s pretty much the point.

Snoke pretty much savagely takes him down near the beginning of the film - calling out all of Kyle Wrong’s bullshit and essentially getting to the heart of the matter: He’s a pathetic Darth Vader fanboy manchild playing dress up. So Kyle Wrong’s character arc for this movie is pretty much spent cementing his Supervillain status. He’s firmly setting aside his humanity and all the possible ties of love, family and friendship he might have had from before. The first time, we see him hesitating at firing on his mother’s ship. Someone else takes that shot and basically blasts Leia and the remnants of the old Rebel Alliance into space, with only Leia surviving through sheer Force magic. In the final battle of the movie, he doesn’t hesitate anymore. Take no prisoners, he orders. Kill everyone.

For Kylo Ren to refute Snoke’s contemptuous words, to refute that TRUTH - he’s killing the past. Letting it die. Letting himself be reborn.

But wait - y'all are crying out to me - what about Rey? Can’t Rey save him with the power of her compassion and true love? I was already cringing in my seat because I could hear the squees of the shippers from outer space - so yes, guys, I saw all that.

(Yeah, I really hate a certain flavor of Kyle Wrong Shipping with the fire of ten thousand suns. But that’s my preference and that’s why I’m avoiding explicit mention of it because I don’t want this getting into their tags and spoiling their own fun. Ship in peace guys.)

Rey fights a dangerous attraction to Kyle Wrong and why not? He’s young, he’s handsome, he’s got this storied, legendary bloodline behind him. And she can see the frightened boy that he used to be and maybe Luke Skywalker is just another lying, “truth-from-a-certain-point-of-view” Ben Kenobi, not telling the whole story. She gets a clear Force vision of Kylo Ben defeating Snoke and fighting on the side of Good. Maybe she can bring him back, just like Luke did to his father.

Except that Luke didn’t really lie to her. He DID confront his nephew, having sensed the Darkness in his heart. The only thing he didn’t specify - because of his own shame - was that moment of weakness, where he could clearly see the monster his beloved nephew would become, where he had the chance to strike him down…and Luke knew he just couldn’t do it. Not his sister’s boy. Not the child of his best friend, the nearest thing he had to a brother.

And Kyle Wrong plays up this pathos with everything’s he’s got. “It’s not my fault!” - he pretty much whinges to her. “Uncle Luke MADE me this way.” Conveniently setting aside the fact, of course, that he already SUBVERTED a bunch of Luke’s own students. That after he’d logically fought Luke in what we could argue as self-defense, he and “the Knights of Ren” took out the rest of Luke’s students who WOULDN’T JOIN HIM AND HIS DARK MASTER. He wasn’t some scared little kid who didn’t know better - that’s NOT a young boy that we see in the flashback - that’s a YOUNG MAN. Yes he was scared. Scared that Luke was finally seeing through his bullshit. Scared that Luke had figured him and his friends out!

Ultimately, this is the truth of Kyle Wrong. He was the beloved child of incredibly busy, heroic, overachieving parents who were trying to rebuild a galaxy and maybe, just maybe, couldn’t give him all the undivided attention that he needed. He listened to the whisperings of “Palpatine v. 2.0” because Snoke pretty much fed into his ego and his feelings of entitlement. After savaging him in the first scene, Snoke pretty much outlines how he GOT Kyle Wrong into his clutches. Kyle Wrong is the grandson of Darth Vader, legendary Dark Lord, heir to his power, heir to “his” Empire, who shouldn’t be “serving” this ungrateful chaotic galaxy. He should be RULING it. There’s no tragic backstory here to render Kyle Wrong more sympathetic. He wasn’t an abused slave. He wasn’t desperately trying to save the woman he loved from death. He grew up beloved and cherished, with all the privileges. He was basically this spoilt, rebellious teenager who was so obviously headed down the wrong direction that his worried, loving parents sent him to the most logical person in the galaxy to get the help and guidance he needed. And Luke so obviously TRIED and it didn’t take and it broke Luke’s goddamn heart that he couldn’t.

(FFS, REY HAD MORE REASON TO TURN DARK SIDE THAN HE DID AND SHE’S NOT. FINN HAD ALL THE REASON IN THE GODDAMN GALAXY TO TURN EVIL AND HE’S STILL. FIGHTING. THE. GOOD. FIGHT.)

So Rey learns, bitterly, that there’s no saving somebody like that. You can’t save someone who clearly does not want to be saved, who clearly doesn’t think he’s in the wrong, who’s willing to destroy the people who love him because he thinks “love and attachment” are weaknesses. Rey’s vision is true, from a certain point of view: she does see Kyle Wrong strike down Snoke and she does see him fight on the side of Good. But it’s only because Kyle Wrong finally decides to take power for himself. And he’s not really fighting on the side of Good - he’s fighting by her side because he wants to lure her to Darkness, to make him like himself.

The reason why Luke succeeds with Darth Vader is because Vader never turned to the dark side just for power’s sake. He did it because he wanted to save Padme. He wanted to save his beloved wife and his precious unborn baby. There’s a bunch of other reasons why he had harbored resentment towards the Jedi - we have the prequels and the Clone Wars cartoons for that. But that was the final straw. Darth Vader turned to the Dark Side for the sake of love. Darth Vader still had the capability to choose love. When it came down to his Master and his beloved son, VADER CHOSE LUKE. That’s why Vader could find redemption in the end.

I’m not saying that Darth Vader was right to be an evil, fascist, mass-murdering, child-killing supervillain. Obviously, that one moment where he turns against Palpatine doesn’t magically negate decades of evildoing. Even then, there’s a logic and reason to Vader’s evil. He’s spent his entire lifetime trying to bring peace and order back to the galaxy. He’s got a twisted notion of HOW to get to it, which is why he’s basically LAWFUL EVIL, but you can’t deny the horrible logic of it. You can’t deny that’s WHY Vader gets people to follow him, why he’s so powerfully charismatic and frightening and fascinating all at the same time.

Darth Vader is still a horrifying evil mass-murdering nightmare. We just have more reason to understand and give him some measure of sympathy, even while we rightfully condemn what he’s done.

Consider this - Darth Vader actually told Luke, in Return of the Jedi, that “It’s too late for me, my son.” That’s the words of someone who clearly realizes that he NEEDS saving and that he CAN’T be saved. Kylo Wrong? He tells Rey that she’s “nobody” but that he can give her all the answers that she needs. He clearly demonstrates he doesn’t NEED or WANT to be saved. He is exactly where he WANTS to be.

Finally, here’s the biggest hint that we have that this new trilogy is NOT going to be Kyle Wrong’s arduous Journey Back to the Light.

In the last Force-assisted conversation between him and Rey, she finally closes the door of the Falcon. That’s a clear metaphor for her finally learning her lesson. She’s closing the door on Kylo Wrong and realizes that while compassion can be a powerful thing, it’s completely wasted on him. There’s no hope for him anymore and it’s no longer her job to save his soul or some other bullshit like that. Her path is clear - she has to take him down. For Han’s sake. For Luke’s sake. For the sake of everyone in the galaxy who’s going to suffer under the rule of the brand new Supreme Leader Darth Edgelord.

Consider, also, that the very next scene shows her finally and properly making the acquaintance of one Poe Dameron. It is the most perfect goddamn meet cute that I have ever seen. I’m gonna call it right now - this looks like the beginning of a beautiful, badass relationship and REY, GIRL, YOU GO GET YOURSELF SOME OF THAT.

And of course, she gets to hug Finn too. Reconnect. The first real friend she’s made and they survived and they’re together again. LOOK, I AM ALL FOR REY GETTING SOME OF THAT TOO.

Seriously, guys, if there was ever an excuse for an OT4 with Rey/Rose/Finn/Poe, this is it. Gift-wrapped like manna from heaven. Don’t let me down, fandom.

So as far as the storytelling for the next generation of heroes is concerned, The Last Jedi does good. I approve the storytelling choices.

Also, the Porgs are so fucking cute, Imma die.

And here’s why I also think The Last Jedi is also the worst Star Wars movie.

We waited. For. Forty. Fucking. Years.

We put up with the shitfest that was the Prequels. We made do with fan fiction. There’s the Clone Wars cartoons which are basically WHY DIDN’T YOU DO ALL THIS SHIT IN THE FREAKIN’ PREQUEL MOVIES THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF GIVING US SCENES IN WHICH ANAKIN SKYWALKER WHINGES ABOUT SAND IN HIS SHORTS. There’s the better-written books and comics.

But we waited and we waited patiently for the Skywalker saga to continue on the big screen. I wanted to see Luke Skywalker rise past his Heroid BSOD and kick ass once again. I wanted more than just that achingly sad goodbye that he had with his sister. I wanted to see Luke raise his X-wing from the depths of sea to fly among the stars again.

If he couldn’t take center stage anymore, I was fucking FINE with him being the BADASS CRANKY GRANDPA Deus Ex Machina who can bring down a fucking Star Destroyer with the Force alone. Because goddamn it, Luke Skywalker deserved better than this.

And I completely understand the growing fan backlash against this movie. This isn’t because we didn’t get to see Super Perfect!Luke on the big screen. Hell, Luke isn’t perfect. But you’re asking me to believe that Luke Skywalker has this “moment of weakness” where he seriously considered, if only for a second, killing his sleeping, vulnerable, unarmed nephew.

Yeah.

This is the same Luke Skywalker who believed with all of his heart that he could still reach the good in his garbage can mass-murdering Sithlord father, right? You’re telling me that HIS FIRST INSTINCT IS TO MURDER HIS DARKNESS-BOUND NEPHEW IN COLD BLOOD? I get that it was only a second’s weakness and that it passed, and that we can say that Luke overcame this BUT HELL THE FUCK NO, I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THAT THIS IS IN LINE WITH LUKE’S CHARACTER.

Mark Hamill’s performance carries all of this but I am royally pissed the fuck off at this storytelling choice. THIS is poor writing. THIS is bullshit.

You know what would have made sense? If Luke had LITERALLY confronted his nephew about it. Because he had ALL THE REASON IN THE WORLD to do it. We KNOW that Kyle Wrong didn’t destroy Luke’s Jedi Temple single-handedly. We KNOW that Kyle Wrong was already subverting Luke’s students because hey, Knights of Ren, remember? We KNOW that he was already turning evil, going to the Darkness because Han himself tells us that he and Leia sent their son to Luke for HELP. If Luke and Kyle Wrong had an actual conversation that devolved into an argument and a battle where Luke failed to convince his nephew because Captain Edgelord here preferred being on the Asshole Side of the Force - THAT WOULD HAVE WORKED. Luke could still be our bitter, heartbroken old hermit guy. Kyle Wrong could still get to play up his so-called “woobie woe is me” status because “UNCA LUKE DIDN’T TRUST ME, FEARED MY POWER, HELD ME BACK.”

That dialogue sound familiar now, guys?

LUKE SKYWALKER GODDAMN DESERVES BETTER.

Leia got to fight with her Resistance and be the badass General that she is and if Fate and God had been kinder, we would have had Carrie Fisher to continue to bring her to life in the next Star Wars episode. But Luke. Luke didn’t deserve to go out like that. Luke and Leia deserved to have a quiet, happy retirement on Naboo at the very least, letting the young ones do the legwork while they played the roles of Wise Mentors.

Let’s face it - Kylo Wrong is NOT the next generation of Skywalker to carry on the proud tradition of heroism. He’s chosen to be this generation’s piece of shit. He’s not even gonna get to go out in blaze of Tragic Redemption Glory. I’m betting anything that Kylo Wrong’s fate at the end of this new saga is an ignominous end, just the quiet realization that he fucked up and fucked up but good and he won’t even get ONE GOOD DEED to justify an asspull redemption. And that’s what he deserves, quite frankly.

The ones who are going to carry on for the Skywalkers are going to be Rey, Poe, Finn and Rose. Maybe that little boy back in Space Monaco who’s discovering now that he too has the Force. They’re not related to the Skywalkers by blood, but by God, you can’t argue with me that Rey, Poe, Finn and Rose don’t have the spirit, courage, compassion and sheer badassery that we’ve seen from Padme. From Luke and Leia. From Han Solo. From Ben Kenobi. Even from my garbage can son ANAKIN SKYWALKER. They’re not Skywalkers by blood. Their destiny isn’t written in their bloodlines. But they’re heroes all the same.

That comforts me somehow.

So - Luke and Leia are going to be it. The last living remnants of Anakin and Padme. Kylo Wrong tells us to “let the past die” but GOD DAMN IT, I CAN’T FUCKING DO IT. I can’t just say goodbye to my favorite whingy farmboy. I can’t just say goodbye to my Princess. It was bad enough when we all said goodbye to our favorite roguish nerf-herding smuggler.

I can’t just let go.

I can’t say goodbye.

So I won’t.

So somewhere in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Luke Skywalker draws back from the Force, from that icy planet where he’d just confronted the man who was once his nephew. He knows his sister is safe for the moment and he can hear her voice in his head, as clear as it had been when she’d said, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

This time, it’s different. “Help me, Luke. They - these children - they’re our hope now.”

Yoda cackles at him but his approval is a warm, living thing. Luke can sense his father as well - pride and encouragement - wrapping around him like his dark Jedi cloak. He can even sense old Ben and it’s just as easy as taking a deep breath, to bring his X-wing starfighter up from the depths of the sea, to know that it can still be repaired, that it will still fly.

Artoo bumps against his leg, clearly beeping in excitement. Luke smiles and gently pats the dome of his old friend. A porg decides to perch Artoo’s dome, its trills matching the droid’s own happy noises.

He sends out wordless love to his sister and his answer.

I’ll be there soon, Leia. Wait for me.

- end -

#star wars #star wars the last jedi #spoilers #star wars spoilers #star wars the last jedi spoilers #luke skywalker #luke deserved better gdi #not a kyle wrong fan