#The Nightmare Begins

[inbarfink]

No, you see, one of the funniest things about Zim is that he’s not, like, 100% fully incompetent. Throughout the entire IZ Canon, Zim has occasionally demonstrated some moments of surprising competency in combat - 

Infiltration -

Mechanical engineering and science -

Spaceship flying -

And Diabolical schemes -

Of course, all of these moments are contrasted with major scenes where he is very comically bad at all of those same things. But a lot of this can be attributed to his actual core flaws which are - his ego and his absolute inability to accurately assess threats.

(and obviously these two traits are extremely related. Zim falls into either underestimating genuine threats to his safety and goals due to his own overconfidence - or overestimating ‘threats’ and turning minor problems into anxiety spirals as a way to justify why he keeps failing). 

And you can see how all of Zim’s other screw-ups kinda all stern from that one core Flaw. Zim is probably decent enough at hand-to-hand combat for a tiny little alien, but he’s totally unable to assess whether or not he’s punching above his weight. And so he ends up losing in horrible and embarrassing ways to guys much bigger and tougher than he is.

He’s a pretty impressive scientist and inventor - but his inability to see his own limitations and flaws means he can’t notice when his project is too ambitious for his abilities or even just when he makes some error that he could’ve probably fixed before test-running but.. well… he doesn't and he didn’t, so…

And all of his plans overlook serious problems, while focusing far too much on minor threats. Even when his inventions work well and he comes up with something legitimately cunning, they are wasted on Literal Petty Schoolyard Drama. 

Threat assessment is the one thing Zim is Legitimately Bad at. Pretty much the only times he identifies danger correctly are explicitly a ‘even broken clock is right twice a day’ situations (see: ‘Plague of Babies’). 

And that is so funny.

Because while it seems like the Irken Empire sees an Invader actually conquering the plant on their own as, like, a Good Bonus Assignment to do on the side and Zim, ever the overachiever, has basically decided that it’s his duty.

The actual main role of an Invader - as stated in the first episode is - quite simply

The job of an Invader is to assess threats.

Zim is not quite as incompetent as people see him, but he is an utter failure at the one thing he’s supposed to be doing.

#invader zim #zim #iz #zim iz #iz zim #zim invader zim #irken zim #zim irken #the nightmare begins

[werewolfulrich]

The IZ animatics are funny as hell. Here are some "Pilot" Dib faces from The Nightmare Begins.

#Invader ZIM #Dib Membrane #Dib #The Nightmare Begins #Pilot Dib #funny #animatic

[green-elf-magicks]

“Lucy Sketches”

I've been catching up on reading the reworked version of "The Nightmare Begins" by @the—calamity on ao3 (linked below) and wouldn't you know it, I'm once again obsessed with drawing Lucrecia. She's a feminist icon and I won't be elaborating. The quotes in the piece are taken from chapters 10 and 12 of “The Nightmare Begins”.

"The Nightmare Begins" (which is part 1 of a 3 part series titled "The Monsters Within")

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38524594/chapters/96289426

"The Monsters Within"

https://archiveofourown.org/series/645422

#lucrecia crescent #lucrecia #ffvii #final fantasy vii #ffvii fanart #ffvii Lucrecia #the nightmare begins #the monsters within #vincent valentine #sephiroth #honor #shinra electric power company #Shinra manor #ffvii lucy #illustration #procreate #sketch #sketchbook

[mcmactictac]

Doing my rewatch of merlin and suffering so much getting to the nightmare begins. Holy shit. Almost unwatchable the amount of pain it causes me. The collection of war crimes. Knowing morgana’s inevitable fate and knowing that if merlin would have told her he had magic things might not have gone the way they did. Knowing her whole thing was feeling isolated and alone and that merlin could have solved that but at a huge personal risk to himself when everyone cautions against it and he’s doing his best but he’s still a kid he hasn’t thought things all the way through in most of his choices he acts spontaneously but with such a good heart. No one is wrong but everyone is suffering and stuck in inevitable patterns of their own making. Genuinley been putting watching it off for MONTHS because rewatching morgana’s downwards spiral is so incredibly hard to watch knowing how everything ends. She deserved so much better man

#bbc merlin #morgana pendragon #the nightmare begins

[the--calamity]

Illustrated one of my favorite scenes in The Nightmare Begins. 

#Vincent Valentine #Lucrecia Crescent #Sephiroth #Gast #Veld #Scarlet #Heidegger #Rufus ShinRa #Hojo #My Art #The Nightmare Begins

[fury-brand]

the devil you know.

For @the--calamity

#vincent valentine #ffvii #stuff i made #the nightmare begins

[mobiusstripper]

Vincent Valentine for @the--calamity

A tribute to The Nightmare Begins

#vincent valentine #fanart #the nightmare begins #the monsters within #my art

[none-ofthisnonsense]

Merlin S2E3, “The Nightmare Begins”

Okay so Morgana’s eyes have some the magic glow. This has totally not been foreshadowed for a whole season previously.

(On another note, by far the biggest inconsistency is where Gwen lives.)

OH SHE MADE THAT CANDLE LIGHT UP

So Uther is right about the way it happened, but wrong about the person. This is just Morgana. But I do love to see this episode it’s definitely one of the better ones (and I’m only 3 minutes in!)

For once I would’ve liked to see Merlin figure things out for himself.

Merlin and Morgana are parallels in SO MANY WAYS I LOVE IT SO MUCH THEY’RE MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER FOILS

Ohohoho he’s bringing flowers I can see how this could be misconstrued

Gwen and Morgana ARE friends. Better ones than Arthur and Merlin. I want to read a modern, high school AU of these four.

Katie McGrath is GLORIOUS. And Morgana is by far the best-written character.

The music in this episode!!!

The CGI definitely improved between S1 and S2.

Merlin establishing that he’s not interested in Morgana and being completely misbelieved is a feeling I can very strongly relate to. I feel you, Merlin.

I don’t ship them but they would have potential as a romantic couple. (Or just let them develop as besties who would kill for each other, that’s fine too.)

I LIVE for Merlin and Morgana interactions.

“I’d be lost without you, Gaius.” IT’S MY FAVOURITE FATHER/SON DUO SAYING THEIR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER I LOVE THEM

The music in this episode is once again great.

This is the guy who played Doctor Moon in Doctor Who, isn’t he?

MORDRED!!!! MY LITTLE GUY!

Uther was a good king (ish) at the start of S1 but as time is going on he is growing increasingly unreasonable and isolationist.

Telepathy is a curse, isn’t it?

Oh fuck wait he’s leading the knights to the druids isn’t he

Uther does care for Morgana like his daughter! She and Arthur are spiritual siblings confirmed.

The druids seem calm. I’m sorry that they’re about to get decimated.

Of all people on Camelot Merlin is definitely the one who understands the most.

The sudden change when the fog appears is really well-done, and the whole fog music is great.

AGLAIN NO

Times like these I do believe Uther considers Morgana like his daughter. Even if most of the time he doesn’t act like it.

“Merlin.” “My lady.” is giving me Gaius-talking-to-Nimueh vibes. M&M (ha) are by far my favourite duo and I’m so happy we get so much of them!!

Merlin being so happy begetting to talk about magic :) and seeing someone else be as enthusiastic about it as he is!!

Okay it definitely looks like they’re fucking. From Arthur’s POV.

“You can’t hide anything from me, Merlin.” well-

A HUG!!!! WE’RE GETTING A GAIUS/MERLIN HUG!! I love them so much they’re the best family duo

LOVED this episode. 

#Merlin #bbc Merlin #Merlin s2 #Merlin s2e3 #the nightmare begins #merlin liveblog

[weakforarwen]

The Nightmare Begins 

Between Merlin, Gaius, and Kilgharra, I don’t know which of the three is the biggest fuck up in this episode. We’ll go one by one. 

First off, Gaius, who brilliantly thought hiding the truth from Morgana would help her. I understand his reasoning, to a certain point, but the moment she began lighting shit on fire - endangering herself and others - and suspecting she had magic, denying it stopped being a possibility. On the contrary, keeping her in the dark became dangerous. Morgana was scared of herself and that fear set off her magic. Her nightmares, which, by the looks of it, kept increasing in intensity and frequency despite Gaius’s potions, must’ve frightened her a lot; she knew they often came true, and that knowledge must’ve burdened her. She must’ve wanted to prevent her dreams from coming true and not being able to must’ve frustrated her. Plus, knowing she had visions of the future, and that they could only mean she had magic, would’ve been scary in itself. She knew Uther and Arthur would reject her, perhaps even Gwen. Furthermore, she knew Uther would likely kill her. So, all in all, Morgana felt alone and unable to be herself, and, on top of that, was being driven insane by a dangerous combination of nightmares and sleep deprivation. Morgana was slowly losing her mind, becoming more and more unstable and so was her magic. At this point, it made no sense to keep her in the dark. It wouldn’t make either her magic or her visions disappear. Did Gaius even have a long-term plan? Eventually, she would’ve exposed herself, perhaps in front of Uther. Besides, she already knew she had magic. She wasn’t sure, but she was pretty certain. The cat was already out of the bag, so to speak.

As for Kilgharrah, he told Merlin it was best if Morgana never knew the extent of her power - typical thing to say to a woman; he wanted her powerless and crazy. I can’t understand how someone who knew so much of the future couldn’t see the damage keeping Morgana in the dark would cause. One can only assume Kilgharrah’s true plan was to get Arthur killed, but not before Morgana grew in power. Didn’t he know that Morgause would tell Morgana of her powers? Didn’t he know that powerful magic couldn’t stay hidden for long? He knew it would be years before Morgana mastered her powers, but he still thought he could keep her in the dark? Didn’t it cross his mind that controlling Morgana would’ve been more helpful? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Assuming Kilgharrah truly wanted to stop Morgana, his problem was having tunnel vision. His solution to the danger posed by Morgana and Mordred was, in true Uther fashion, to simply cut it at the root. He never once considered the possibility that Morgana and Mordred weren’t inherently evil or beyond seeing reason (if seeing reason means not killing someone who killed their kind...)-

Although Merlin ignored Gaius and Kilgharrah to a certain extent, he still listened when they advised him to keep his magic from Morgana. Despite knowing she should know the truth about herself, he listened to Gaius when he said the king’s ward shouldn’t know his secret, and, despite his belief that Morgana wasn’t evil, he listened when the dragon told him Morgana couldn’t be trusted. That was Merlin’s fatal mistake, and all his other mistakes followed from that one.

I don’t understand why Merlin couldn’t share his secret with Morgana. Lancelot and Gaius knew and he’d never had any issues with them. Morgana had magic herself and had already openly opposed and defied Uther on many occasions. She was Merlin’s friend who once helped a druid boy escape Camelot and got thrown in the dungeons for calling Uther a tyrant. She trusted Merlin enough to confide in him. She trusted that Merlin wouldn’t fear her or disclose her secret to anyone. She was the King’s ward, and Merlin was Arthur’s servant, so she was possibly endangering herself by admitting her fears, yet she did it anyway. She was brave and desperate enough to, but, more importantly, she respected Merlin enough to share her deepest secret. All Merlin had to do was pay her back in kind. He could’ve trusted Morgana enough to share his secret, in the hopes that neither of them would be so alone anymore, and that Morgana wouldn’t feel so powerless and scared all the time. 

But, no, Merlin had to listen to Gaius and Kilgharrah on that bit of advice alone.

What was he thinking helping Morgana escape during the night so she could talk to the druids? Morgana had already been “attacked” by someone with magic, so Uther was already rounding up those with magic. Merlin just added fuel to the fire. Of course, Uther wouldn’t just accept Morgana’s disappearance. He’s not stupid either, he was able to find Morgana. She wasn’t exactly covering up her tracks. Merlin led Arthur and his knights straight to the druids. Their deaths, the loss of their possessions and home, is on Merlin’s hands.

In the end, Morgana didn’t even want to leave the druids because she’d found a place where she belonged. Merlin tried to force her to return to a man who’d kill her if he knew her secret. What kind of friend does that? Morgana would’ve been better off in the hands of the druids than in Uther’s or, worse, Morgause’s. Merlin may’ve only been trying to protect the druids, but it wasn’t right to force someone with magic to return to Camelot to live in secrecy and fear. Morgana didn’t want to be alone. Merlin had another chance at the druid camp to tell Morgana he had magic too, so she wouldn’t feel alone if she returned to Camelot. She might’ve gone willingly had she known Merlin could help her. Instead, Morgana watched Uther kill her kind and destroy her sanctuary, and embrace her like he wasn’t her jailer. How could Morgana not despise both Uther and Merlin after that? It’s clear she no longer had any love for Merlin by the end of the episode. She didn’t have any love for anyone, really. Her and Gwen were barely friends at that point. 

Merlin fucked up bad. In each episode where Merlin is tested and has the power to change Arthur’s destiny, he fails. Each time, he condemns Arthur to die. In this episode, he loses Morgana’s friendship and makes her hatred and resentment towards Uther and Camelot grow; in The Fires of Irdisholas, he nearly kills her and makes her his enemy for life; in The Crystal Cave, he saves Morgana but she learns the truth of her parentage and begins to loathe Uther even more and to covet his throne; in The Disir, he tries to kill Mordred by turning Arthur against magic, ensuring Mordred lives to kill Arthur. Really, Merlin might as well have killed Arthur himself. Episodes like these are always so frustrating. 

Some final observations, Uther’s love for Morgana is so inconsistent. When it’s convenient, he can’t live without her; otherwise, she’s only his ward. So, in this episode, in The Crystal Cave, and in The Tears of Uther Pendragon, Uther just had to get Morgana back before he lost his mind, and, because of Morgana, people died. In these episodes, Uther’s apparent love for Morgana is matched in intensity only by her hatred of him. Before season 3, however, Uther often didn’t seem to care much for Morgana. It really feels like the more she hated him, the more he loved her... Same for Arthur, really. It’s all very convenient.

I want to mention Arwen too. This was the episode after The Once and Future Queen and before Lancelot and Guinevere. There is only one Arwen scene, and it’s very small, but I think it gets the point across. Gwen was telling Uther she was certain she’d put out the candle in Morgana’s room. Arthur vouched for her, because Gwen had been a loyal servant to Morgana for many years. He said he trusted her completely and looked at her as he said it; Gwen smiled at him shyly in appreciation. The scene showed that Gwen and Arthur’s dynamic had very much changed. Arthur noticed and protected Gwen more now, and she him. 

Another scene I believe is related to Arwen is the one where Arthur tells Merlin he can’t like Morgana. Arthur saw Merlin take flowers up to Morgana’s room and also leave Morgana’s room in the middle of the night. He assumed Merlin liked Morgana romantically, so he, very helpfully, warned Merlin that Morgana was out of his league, that he was a servant so they could never be equals, that the King would kill him if he found out. I could be reading too much into it, but Arthur even said something along the lines of “Trust me, I would know”. It seemed as if he was talking about his own situation with Gwen. 

#bbc merlin #bbc arwen #morgana #merlin #arthur pendragon #arwen #gaius #gwen pendragon #uther #the nightmare begins commentary #the nightmare begins

[boredintjqueen]

Happy existential-crisis-Sunday everyone!

#sunday #the nightmare begins #monday #monday mood #funny relatable #relatable memes #relatable #meme #this is fine #sundays suck #anxiety #mental health #existential crisis #existential dread #mentally drained

[inbarfink]

A fun little question for the IZ Fandom!

So if Dib was listening in on the Great Assigning transmission back in ‘the Nightmare Begins’

How comes he doesn’t seem to retain any of the information he might’ve learned from it?

Such as the existence of the Height-Based Caste System, which surprised him in ‘Tak: the Hideous New Girl’

The name of the Irken Empire itself, which he explicitly didn’t know in ‘The Wettening’

And one of the recordings shown in ‘A Room With a Moose’

(We never explicitly see him learn about Irk but he does mention it by name later on. I assume he learned the name from ‘Bloaty’s Pizza Hog’.

)

And, you know, the fact that Zim’s ‘Mission’ is bogus, which he never actually learns about. (Unless he was paying very close attention to the Implications in ‘Enter the Florpus’ - and honestly, he kinda had a Lot on his mind so I won’t be surprised if he missed that)

So, pick your favorite answer!

Aliens in the IZ Universe don’t actually speak English. Dib picked up a transmission of incomprehensible alien chatter and only assumed it means ‘they’re coming!’

Dib only picked up the last few lines of the transmission (“the universe will be ours for the taking!” and onwards) so while he might’ve been aware of the Irken Empire as a force with aspirations of conquest (“It’s only a matter of time until all the races in the universe serve the Irken Empire!”) he didn’t know for sure at first if he can link it to the alien who came to earth six months later.

Dib only picked up the very last line of the Great Assinging Transmission (“I’ll have them serve me curly fries”) and drew a lot of Accidentally Correct Conclusions from it.

Dib didn’t hear anything. The transition between the Great Assigning and Dib’s introduction doesn’t necessarily mean he was listening in on that. He was probably just listening to random Space Noises and assumed it is a broadcast from some conquest-hungry alien. This probably a regular occurrence for him and it’s just that today it was happening coincidently around the time an actual boardcast from conquest-hungry aliens was happening somewhere too far away for his equipment to reach.

The transmission was not perfect and Dib ended up missing a few key words like ‘Irken’ and ‘Tallest’ and then also he just happened to take a very long bathroom break just as Zim showed up.

Dib just… forgot some of the details of the broadcast. There’s like a six-months-gap between him hearing it and Zim actually arriving on Earth and he just forgot some of the broadcast. Six months is a long time, cut him some slack okay????

#invader zim #the nightmare begins #iz #dib #iz dib #dib membrane #iz dib membrane #invader zim dib #dib iz #dib invader zim #invader zim headcanon

[i-love-pomegranates]

The Nightmare Before Every Day

#me #mine #personal #jack o lantern #jackolantern #pumpkin #halloween #the nightmare on elm street #the nightmare begins #the nightmare before christmas #tim burton

[green-elf-magicks]

A sleepless Lucrecia, wandering the stifling, oppressive halls of Shinra Manor circa Chapter 9 of "The Nightmare Begins" by @the--calamity on AO3.

#there are so many moments in this story i want to illustrate but naturally i had to draw Lucy firsts #she's my heart #lucrecia crescent #the nightmare begins #ffvii #ffvii fanart #ffvii fanfiction #ao3 #vincent valentine #hojo #nibelheim #Shinra #haunted #illustration #ink #traditional art #pen #fanart #gothic

[ricky-mortis]

What an absolute banger

Version without text beneath the cut vv

#I love this song so much #plus it’s the first instance of the nightmare time motif which is awesome #anyways yeah it was my birthday today #yippee #also the beginning of tech week #and I’m already spent #hatchetfield #the guy who didn't like musicals #tgwdlm #alice woodward #not your seed #that lighting gave me agony #Starkid #starkid tgwdlm

[kmesons]

it's fun to think that when ziggs says, "well I certainly don't love killing," during hatchet town in the npmd proshot, they're talking about the nighthawks. not because perky's buds exists in this timeline, but because for some reason unbeknownst to them, in every timeline, they are mysteriously tormented by nighthawks.

#they don't love killing but sometimes they need to draw a line when birds begin staring at them from inside their closet at all times #adding to this fandom's growing collection of headcanons #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #ziggs hatchetfield #ziggs #perky's buds #nightmare time 2 #nerdy prudes must die

[ithinkdogshouldvote]

Jay nightmare arc WHEN!?!?

#ITS A NEED #they ALLLL need the scar. it came free with their fucking Xbox #ik she had nightmares in the beginning of the campaign BUT ITS NOT ENOUGH THEY HAVE TO THE CURSE ONES #kuba kenta better come back for five minutes JUST to slash jay then immediately DIE #just roll with it #jrwi riptide #jrwi #jrwi jay #jay ferin #jrwi chip #jrwi gillion #gillion tidestrider #albatrio #riptide pirates #digital art #digital drawing #my artwork #fanart #jrwi fanart #shitpost #fan art