#THE ENDING WAS SO UNCLEAR LIKE WHAT WAS THAT. i wouldnt have known what happened | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

alexanderlightweight · 1 year

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You didn't post about it so if you're not doing Wednesday prompts you can ignore this, but, just in case:

deruned

Yeah sorry about that! Any Wednesday is a good Wednesday to send a prompt because it will always get priority. And yours is def first!

Deruning torture & betrayal. My headcanon goes against canon because I don’t think Magnus would ever steal Alec’s stele, not just because It would betray Alec, but because it puts the High Warlock of Brooklyn in an awful place especially with how high tensions are Magnus wouldnt risk himself when half the reason Magnus is so helpful is because he’s interested in Alec. I always figured Jace and Izzy get Max to steal Alec’s stele; because Max would do it because he wouldn’t understand and be lured by the hope of Jace getting Max’s own stele back.

Alec doesn’t let a sound leave his lips even as his body screams in agony. In the silence his quiet pain is drenched and leeched into the very atmosphere, and the wards of Alicante’s banishment room greedily devour his suffering.

Alec finds that he hates everything. Even everything that he once held dear, in this moment of weakness he hates with a fury that is only matched by anguish he’s being tortured with. The Clave official is taking his time. Going as slow as he possible can, as if Alec’s torture delights him as much as it torments Alec.

And Alec hates everything. There are no emotions left that can survive the pain besides hate. Even if that hate stemmed first from love.

The worst part. The part the hurts the most, as he’s coughing up blood and bile and tempted to bite through his own tongue, to end this on his own terms, rather than the Clave prolonging his de-runing in an attempt to kill him.

The worst part is that Alec made a deal. The Penhallows will finish raising Max and someday, Max will be the HOTI in New York. Max was the only sibling left who Alec could try and protect and so he had. Max, the little brother, who had still betrayed him, but had been innocent of the depth of consequences.

Jace and Izzy would have known the true risk of their betrayal, but Max was too young, and so Alec protected him once more, for one last time.

And now, as the stele presses against his last rune, his parabatai rune, he loses the fight and he screams.

It’s agonizingly slow and for once it’s not the Clave officials fault. It’s the bond itself that fights, that struggled to stay tied to his soul and his body and just like every moment in this battle, Alec loses.

Jace is stripped away from him and as Alec feels a piece of his soul being torn from him, he wonders bitterly if Jace even notices the break.

Alec claws his way out of the Silent City, through the entrance to New York. His mind is so unclear he can’t think and so he lets his instincts take over.

It isn’t until he’s huddled agains the ward line of Pandemonium that he realizes his instincts told him to find Magnus, and to try and huddle in Magnus’ magic.

It’s embarrassing and doesn’t make sense. They didn’t end on good terms, no matter how Alec wishes differently, and it was Alec’s fault.

It isn’t until bronze tipped boots enter his line of sight that Alec realizes he’s not alone. He knows who it is instantly. Because his instincts, his live wire instincts that are the only thing keeping alec together and breathing, trust Magnus. Even when Alec can’t trust himself.

“Bane.” Alec says quietly, hoarsely, he hardly deserved to use Magnus name when the warlock was interested, he surely doesn’t now. “Sorry, didn’t know you’d be here.” His brow furrows, his pain dazed mind confused, “you shouldn’t be here. Isn’t safe.”

And above him, when Alec manages to tip his head against the brick wall holding him up, he finds Magnus staring at him in horror, every bit of it obvious on his gorgeous, immaculately tended face.

—

“Alexander, what happened?”

Magnus asks, his hand reaches out and stills when Alexander’s body tenses and his weary face realigns with the panic of a wounded predator, one that knows it can’t defend itself any longer.

Alexander laughs. It’s a brutal sound and it breaks a part of his heart. Even furious with himself and Alexander, he had never wished any kind of pain on his could have been love.

“Let me take you to my loft, please?” Magnus asks and he very slowly reaches out and gently grips Alexander’s chin, cupping his jaw. Alexander seems wounded by the tenderness of the gesture. As if he’s been so battered that even a touch he allows, he still expects it to hold pain.

In the darkness of the alley, Magnus’ fury grows.

He manages to secure some consent, Alexander nodding against him weakly and only making quiet noises of pain as Magnus picked him up.

Magnus portals him to the loft and onto a couch that he summons, long and sturdy enough to hold Alexander safely.

“What happened?” Magnus asks as he uses magic to undress Alexander; dissolving his shirt into oblivion, but he finds nothing but bruises and already healed scars.

There are no injuries, and there are no runes.

Alexander looks naked without them and he turns, hiding his face from Magnus and only exposing his empty back and bare neck.

“I was deruned for treason. That I let my parabatai sister and the daughter of Valentine steal the cup from the Clave.”

When he had denied Jace, Izzy and Clary’s his help in stealing Alexander’s stele, he had thought that had been the end. He had protected both himself… and Alexander —the last time he would protect his could be shadowhunter.

“How?” Magnus asks, baffled as he uses magic to continue stripping Alexander. “I told them no.”

He doesn’t realize what he’s said until Alexander sobs underneathMagnus’ hands and magic.

There’s pain, fury and betrayal in Alexander’s gaze when he raises his head. And when Magnus looks at him, all he can think of is how devastated Alexander is. Like his entire world has imploded, and it has.

But there is a sudden flicker, a tiny flare of hope. “You, they asked you?” Alexander asks him.

“Yes.” Magnus let’s the answer lay between them and then kneels down, hand moving up Alexander’s spine, to his shoulder, and then to clasp the back of his shadowhunter’s neck in a firm grip.

“And I said no, Alexander. I told them no, and even when they told me of Lydia, I still said no.”

“You, they told you about Lydia?” Magnus sees a part of Alec break further — as if there was anything left to spare — but that the flicker grows stronger, latching onto Magnus. “They told you so you’d be mad and, you didn’t,” Alexander gasps put the words under his grip and Magnus digs his fingers deeper into Alexander’s nape. “They told you so you’d do it. And you didn’t?”

Alexander is crying, silent tears running down his bruised cheeks like diamonds sliding across a broken dream.

“Oh darling,” Magnus breathes out and he lets himself lean closer, let’s himself press his lips to Alexander’s clammy brow. “Sweetheart, you truly owed me nothing, despite how much I wanted you too. And even if you had, I would never have broken something as precious as your trust.”

Magnus feels as though he’s said something obvious, but Alexander breaks against him. Lunges forward, into the crevice of Magnus’ neck and shoulder; fits into it as if it was made for him and cries.

His pain is silent; as if he’s never been allowed to scream with the agony he’s felt — and Magnus knows that Alexander has felt agony.

Magnus shirt grows damp and strong muscles — the body of a protector — tremble under Magnus touch.

Alexander is no less strong that the nephilim Commander he was, but he will no longer have the protection of his runes, nor the boost they gave him.

He is vulnerable, in a way no nephilim is outside of boundaries of Idris.

Magnus soothes Alexander until he sleeps, and then picks him him not to the room he created for Luke to use, but to Magnus’ own room.

Magnus lays him in Magnus’ own bed, rubs Alexander’s bruised and raw skin with tinctures and oils and when Alexander is safely lathered in potions and magic, Magnus finally lets himself be angry.

Alexander is cocooned in soft blue magic and around him the room is torn apart by red.

Glass shatters and is remade and shattered again. Until magic can no longer repair what has been broken and Magnus tears it from existence.

When it was over. Only the bed and it’s pressure treasure was left untouched.

Magnus breathes out and settles himself, his magic restoring the room to the quality he requires.

The walls are repainted, the floors redone, the ceilings replaced with higher beams and more windows upon the walls.

Trinkets and furniture from the dimensional spaces he stores them in replace everything destroyed. The room is filled with less delicate furniture now. Things that are sturdy and can survive being knocked against… things that are meant for two, not one.

And then Magnus opens his eyes. His glamour has been gone since he found Alexander, leaning against the wards of Pandemonium like he was trying to find a glimpse of relief.

And Magnus found him. And Magnus gave him that relief, and gave him hope.

Magnus finds himself in a powerful position, but he won’t waste the gift given to him.

He will also not leave Alexander defenseless in a world about to turn to war. So he sends out four fire messages.

One to Catarina, to tell her to lay low and not offer services to shadowhunters.

One to Ragnor, to warn him to hide deeper and away from the trouble.

One to Tessa, that he needs the expertise only she can offer.

And one to a Silent Brother, one who has kept Magnus’ confidence for far longer than he’s held vows to Raziel.

Magnus will not let anything stop him. He will protect himself, his people and his Alexander. For by the very actions of his own family and people, Alexander has drifted so far as to lose himself, and only by anchoring his devotion to Magnus, has he saved himself.

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lunatic-fandom-space · 3 years

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Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

#rwde #rwby critism #anti mkek #yu gi oh #ygo duel monsters #yu gi oh analasis

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