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webcricket · 6 years

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Looking Glass

Chapter 14 - You Can’t Go Home Again

Pairing: CastielXAU!Reader

Word Count: 1547

Summary: The past, present, and Castiel all catch up to the reader leaving her more uncertain than ever about the future in a strange world.

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Yellow fender of the cab long departed from view down the iron lamp-lit dusk stretch of street, you stand across from home where the driver dropped you. The strap of the bag containing your belongings, all borrowed, none really yours per se, sags loose in your grip; slipping from your fingertips, it drops in a soundless heap on the sidewalk beside you. Eyelids clamped, dampness of disbelief overflowing at the tight pressed edges, you count to ten; when your wet lashes lift it’s all still there – a memory made tangible.

Azaleas flower along the foundation; the deeply green shrubs heave their fragrant burden of pink blooms up toward a wraparound porch unique in the neighborhood for its impractical lack of a railing – a feature you considered a benefit until the afternoon you broke your wrist launching a brand spanking new 10-speed bike on a bet off the side in a daredevil effort to bridge the neighbor’s neatly trimmed boxwood border; the long-knitted break in bone throbs as the recollection races through your mind of the summer spent in a cast frowning longingly at that cherry red beauty of a bicycle gathering dust in the corner of the garage.

There hangs the green shutter, slightly askew, missing several slats, outside your bedroom window. It sways on the hinge just so in a gentle buffet of wind producing a creak so familiar you would know, blindfolded, there’s surely a powerful storm sweeping in from the East. The burgeoning breeze blows loose strands of hair across your cheeks to tickle your nose as if in teasing confirmation of the impending tempest. Texas storms exist both fearsome in destructive potential and astounding in grandeur, and the walls of home always kept you safe from their wrath. A subtle shiver of excitement courses your body at the familiar electricity surging in the air.

Even the cliché fairy-tale white picket fence perimeter surrounding the front yard – whose upkeep you were charged with every summer from when you were old enough to wield a brush and dip it in a paint bucket – sits intact; the pristine white luster of each post gleams, a welcoming toothy smile enticing passersby to step on up to the doorstep and ring the brass bell framed beneath matching brass house numbers to say ‘Hello neighbor!’ and partake of a glass of your mother’s locally legendary lemonade. You can almost taste the sweet sandy grit of sugar on teeth mingling with peels of tart rind swirling over your tongue to quench the thirst of a hot afternoon.

And yet, for all the welcome likeness whose brick walkway looms not ten yards away, you remain a frozen fixture out front. The effect of seeing your lost home – a haven in a world that technically isn’t yours – instead of being comforting, vaguely unsettles; it’s very much like looking into a funhouse mirror, except you’re the one grotesquely distorted in the face of non-apocalyptic normalcy. The slightest tentative movement forward on your part toward the facade seems to skew you to the depths of your soul; it shines a paralyzing beacon into that alcove of your heart that knows coming here, especially like this, at the expense of Castiel’s trust, was a mistake.

Stuck in this dithering delay, you hear Cas’ truck approach before you see it; the squeak of the stiff suspension unmistakably cleaves the otherwise suburban silence. Pulling up to the curb, cutting the cantankerously sputtering engine, squinting at you through the dusty windshield, he climbs out without a word. His stare drifts over his shoulder to the innocuous seeming house so raptly holding your attention as he shuts the door; faint recognition rises in his awareness that this place matches the home he saw sprawling in the smoky vestiges of your memory.

Transfixed by a light switching on and the shadow of a figure moving beyond the illuminated red-checkered curtains of the kitchen – someone clearing dinner dishes you suppose – you inhale a shaky breath and avoid looking at the angel now standing beside you.

The demand for some kind of an explanation resides implicit in his continued silence. He gazes ahead, hands shoved in his pockets, indirectly reproving you with taciturn fortitude.

Tucking your chin to your chest under the weight of your duplicity, deeply regretting disappointing him, you quietly mumble, “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you.”

He knows you’re not lying; it doesn’t make deceiving him – any of them – okay. Lips a taut line, he still says nothing.

You glance sideways – his stone-faced expression defines indeterminacy. Thunder rolls nearer. Wind violently bangs the green shutter. The hem of his trench coat flutters around the rigid column of his body. Your voice quavers. “Cas, please say something.”

Blues fixed on the lighted window, irises reflecting the shimmers of lighting piercing the churning clouds overhead, he asks in a curtly clipped cadence, “What I don’t understand is how you coerced Rowena into going along with this charade.”

“It wasn’t like that-” you falter when his regard inclines to you. Unlike his stoically set features, his eyes aren’t unreadable; the hurt of your betrayal dims their brightness. Feeling the coolness of their sustained scrutiny prickle your skin, you look at the ground to avoid the pain and reproof. “When I brought her the feather, she asked where I was from. You know, small talk.” A self-recriminating shrug over how quickly the stupid little thing snowballed into this mess. “I-I told her.” A stutter. “When she did the location spell …” An earnest glance upward. “I-I didn’t know she was going to say it, I didn’t-”

“No, you didn’t, did you?” Jaw flexing, his mouth thins further; a subtle flare of the nostrils discloses the unsuppressed anger. He shakes his head slowly as he speaks, “Didn’t stop us from taking an unnecessary detour. Didn’t think about the lives you put at risk by saying nothing – not just Sam and Dean pursuing a potentially dangerous archangel on their own, but the entirety of this world if we failed in the task.”

You step backward, shrinking from his condemning manner.

He seizes you by the upper arm to inhibit your withdrawal and spins you, forcing you to face him.

The firm clasp of his fingers borders on being unkind in roughness; it reminds you of the other him. The gesture compels you to meet the dejected glaze of his eyes where a flicker of fire flares within that dark glower when you choke out a startled whimper.

Fingertips digging into your flesh, he growls, “Y/N, the people in there – they aren’t your family. That’s not your home. You don’t belong here.”

Tears springing at the cruelty of his words – and the harsh reality of them – shuddering bodily with a sob, you yank your arm from his grasp. Stumbling into the street, you catch your balance slumping against the bed of the truck.

Bending to pick up your discarded duffle, he makes no motion to comfort you. “Get in the truck, we’re going-” He stops himself before referring to the bunker as home; it’s not yours – thoughts diverting to Heaven’s current angel-less predicament and its imminent demise, a part of him still resolutely believes it’s also not his, not exactly. He glances once more toward the mirror of your remembered home.

The first fat pellets of rain begin to spatter the surface of ground so desiccated by drought they bounce. Brilliant white energy unleashes in a blinding flash above. A shocking peel of thunder cracks the atmosphere.

Prying open the passenger door, Cas carelessly tosses the bag into the foot well and circles to the other side.

Ducking from the onslaught of rain, shivering in the cold slick of wet saturating your skin, you clamber numbly up into the seat and tug the door closed.

Observing your form huddled in the seat as far from him as physically possible, realizing his callousness was perhaps in part redirection of his own frustration with a sense of belonging, he gazes at the mud-streaked glass for a moment, heart aching for you, but not quite knowing how to apologize. “Y/N, I-”

Before he can utter a missive of remorse, you sniffle, “Are you going to tell Dean?”

Too worried about where you went, whether you were safe, tracking you through the cab dispatcher, and ultimately presented with your subterfuge, he hadn’t planned that far ahead. Anticipation of Dean’s antipathy again agitates his ire over the situation. Any softness of compunction he feels dissipates – he’s done defending you to Dean. “You mean, am I going to tell Dean he was right about you distracting me from the mission?” He cranks the ignition and shoots you a scowl. “No, I’m not going to tell Dean.”

For an instant, the warmth of relief wraps your trembling frame. The feeling is transitory.

“You are,” he grumbles. Revolving the steering wheel, revving the engine, he swerves the truck wide back toward the highway and the direction of your penance.

Twisting to peer out the window through the waves of windblown rain, you watch the house and hope disappear; it occurs to you that the angel is right, you don’t belong here, and what’s more, you can never go home again – it’s lost forever to you; and now, you fear, you’ve lost him, too.

Next: Ch. 15 - Rifts

#castiel x reader #castiel x you #castiel series #castiel angst #castiel reader insert #castiel x y/n #castielxreader #castielxyou #cas x reader #cas x you #reader x castiel #you x castiel #spn x reader #spn reader insert #castiel fanfiction #castiel fanfic #spn fanfiction #castielxau!reader #cricket writes cas

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gothamcityneedsme · 6 years

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The Prince of Heart Begets a Prince of Blood, or, in Which I Support the Theory that the Auto-Responder is a Prince of Blood (Part 1/?)

Part 1: The Popularity of Classpecting

Speculation concerning classpects is an incredibly popular subset of the Homestuck fandom, with several blogs interpreting their own versions of the classes, coming up with theories, and figuring out what they think every possible class and aspect combo would consist of. This is mostly something people do because they wish to classpect themselves, as this kind of classification system is very popular in media. It is fun for readers to connect to the source material through making themselves part of a group within the fictional world (a common example of this is how readers of the Harry Potter series choose Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw for themselves).

With its complex and in-depth system, Homestuck opened the door to increased reader-inclusion, and it is likely one of the reasons Homestuck is so popular. This kind of speculation and theorizing can make readers really feel connected, and it can motivate them to continue to be involved with the fandom.

As the majority of Homestuck characters have known classpects, this sort of critical thinking towards Homestuck generally isn’t directed towards finding a character’s classpect (since we already know), but instead, the focus often is shifted towards examining how the character is representative of their classpect.

What do we learn about Space through Jade, Kanaya, Porrim, and Calliope? What do we learn about Heart through Nepeta, Dirk, and Meulin? What do these characters have in common and how do they each reflect their aspect? We do something similar with the classes (which are even more nebulous to define than the aspects): How do Pages function through Jake, Tavros, and Horuss? How do Knights function through Dave, Karkat, and Latula? And so on.

The canon classpects in Homestuck exist to define the characters, but we can use them additionally to supplement our vague knowledge of the classpects and add to our understanding so that we can more accurately predict what a particular classpect might consist of. Of how that class and aspect combination would work, what kind of powers the person with that classpect might have, and perhaps even which classpect would suit another character (or readers themselves) best.

For instance, we can theorize what classpect would best suit the Auto-Responder, a character who is unclassed (a rare occurrence in Homestuck). And, additionally, we can theorize what a Prince of Blood would be like (and, consequently, observe how the Auto-Responder shares traits with the Prince class, the Blood aspect, and how he could function as the classpect, Prince of Blood).

In this essay series, however long it might be, I will be examining the Auto-Responder as a Prince of Blood.

Part 2: Defining the Prince of Blood, the Destroyer of Relationships

First, in order to place him as a Prince of Blood, I must define both the Prince class and the Blood aspect separately. Then I will describe how they would likely function together. Finally, establishing this will allow me to continue my argument to move onto how the Auto-Responder reflects this classpect.

The Prince class is one of the few we have explicitly described to us in the canon. Assuming that Calliope is correct (which we will, as we don’t have a reason not to in this), the purpose of the Prince class is one of the clearest:

The Prince is Active, a Destroyer class. They actively pursue and destroy their aspect, even though they also reflect it. Examples of Princes offered by Homestuck are Dirk, Eridan, and Kurloz.

Dirk, the Prince of Heart, is obviously important to consider (and we will talk about him later and throughout this piece). He is the starting-point for the Auto-Responder and is his creator. Dirk destroys Heart through his splintering of himself into several fragments, and this is evidenced through all of the different Dirks that exist throughout canon (and, of course, the Auto-Responder is one of these splinters).

Eridan, the Prince of Hope, destroys Hope through breaking the Matriorb, the only way that the troll species could continue to propagate. He single-handedly completed the genocide of his species that he had been seeking for most of his life. Thus, he destroyed Kanaya’s Hope and the Hope of all trolls.

Princes are also suspiciously devoid of their own aspect, Dirk splinters his own soul, Eridan has no hope for his own life, and Kurloz is mostly emotionless and does not display anger. Thus, they destroy their aspect both outside and within themselves, and their powers revolve around them using their own bodies/powers to also conduct that destruction in their surroundings.

The aspect of Blood is largely believed to concern connections and close relationships. Friendships, love, alliances, and anything similar likely fall under the category of Blood. The Blood aspect, through Karkat especially, seems to signify bonds and the forging/maintaining of them (for example, how Karkat sees himself as such an expert of the quadrants). Blood can be connected to leadership, partnership, and overall group dynamics (with a focus on uniting a group into a team).

Proof of this can be found when Kanaya insists right before the final battle, that Karkat is a leader and that his life is important:

And, continuing, Karkat’s connection to blood and creating bonds and causing unification connects to Echidna’s claim that Karkat is necessary to guiding the future of the trolls:

This claim itself connects to both Kankri and the Sufferer, as Aranea infodumps about Kankri’s failures (which connect to the Sufferer’s failures in unifying Alternia, which leaves Karkat with that legacy, the mission to unify trollkind, which is what Echidna believes he will live up to):

Compared to Karkat, Kankri is a failed Blood player who does not unify his allies as he should have, or as he was trying to (just like how the Sufferer ultimately failed due to adversity and conflict). Blood as a failed concept still connects it to ultimately creating unity, and does succeed on some degree, as the Sufferer in particular still did create a movement that had many members still following it, unified even after his death. Additionally, throughout canon and specifically during the events on the Meteor before the humans arrive, we witness Karkat failing and struggling as a Blood player. Blood seems to be a difficult aspect to master, at least it is for Kankri and Karkat. And although Karkat could be interpreted in succeeding through his moirallegiance with Gamzee, which diffuses one of the tensest standoffs in the comic, that connection doesn’t last very long.

Blood players, it seems, often struggle and fail in their aspect.

The Auto-Responder, conversely, succeeds in his role as a Blood player, but this may only be because his stance as a Prince is much more negative towards his aspect. He succeeds as a Blood player by failing to maintain bonds and by destroying unification.

So, ultimately, I am defining a Prince as an active destroyer, even of himself, and Blood as an aspect having to do with bonds, relationships, and unification.

With these definitions, a Prince of Blood is basically ‘a Destroyer of Relationships’ both internally and externally. Through his actions and inherent nature, a Prince of Blood destroys his connections to people, destroys the relationships of others, and ultimately causes groups to break apart.

Part 3: Considering the Auto-Responder

While not being quite as popular in the fandom, the Auto-Responder still gets quite a bit of attention and he plays a rather major role in Homestuck. In terms of word count in dialogue, according to this post, the Auto-Responder is the 20th character with the highest word count, clocking in at 8015 spoken words in the comic. Although this might not sound like much, it is also important to consider ARquiusprite, who definitely has dialogue that is more like the Auto-Responder rather than Equius. ARquiusprite has 3558 words, some of which can arguably be added to the AR’s word count. Also, considering how many characters have dialogue in Homestuck, scoring in the top 20 isn’t that bad at all comparatively.

And, of course, a character’s influence on the story isn’t necessarily tied to their word count, but to their other actions in the story as well, and we know that the Auto-Responder does quite a bit off-screen (and on-screen in part of the comic without wordcounts, like [S] Unite and [S] Synchronize.

(Disclaimer: I did not check the above numbers myself, and I am curious if the creator of these statistics considered the AR pretending to be Dirk as Dirk or as the AR.)

I have seen several people try to tackle classpecting the Auto-Responder, although none have been in extensive detail. Most answers I have found have given him a connection to the Mind aspect, which makes sense, and at first, I thought I agreed. It makes sense, the Auto-Responder is a very cerebral character, he is a splinter of Dirk’s mind, he is literally only a mind because he does not possess a body. Mind is all that the Auto-Responder has. I agreed with this for quite a while, until I started to seriously consider classpecting the Auto-Responder.

I did so during a time when I was thinking in general about the 12 aspects. I wanted to think about how I could fit all twelve of them in with the human session, since the human session is outstanding in the aspects of Doom, Rage, Blood, and Mind.

This is why I considered Mind for the Auto-Responder at first, since it filled a hole in the session. But, as I continued to think though, I wondered if I should try to see him as another aspect, to figure out if perhaps something else suited him more.

He was always a Prince to me, I think he mirrors Dirk too much to not be a Prince (since he still is Dirk, and if he is not a Heart player then he surely still must be a Prince, he is a splinter but not a shatter—he is still a part of Dirk, he is still Dirk), so he had to have another aspect. Mind was first. But then, I thought, what about Blood?

Prince of Blood. What if the Auto-Responder was a Prince of Blood?

For a long time, I was stuck between considering him a Prince of Mind or a Prince of Blood, and I wasn’t really worried about it immediately, so I let the concept sit for a while. I let it stew as I kept thinking it over whenever it occurred to me.

And the answers I reached made Blood seem all the more fitting.

So, why a Prince?

Dirk, to me, feels like a character of innate destruction. He cannot help his nature, and that nature is to rip things apart, both within and without himself. We see it so much in Homestuck with Dirk as a Prince of Heart, we get to know his class and aspect so well through him that it is one of the ones we understand the most.

The Auto-Responder is Dirk, the only difference is that he is split from Dirk’s experiences from the age of thirteen—when Dirk took the scan of his brain and created his robotic counterpart and copy. I don’t think that this split is enough to fully separate the Auto-Responder from Dirk as a character, so I am not fond of thinking of him in classes that aren’t Prince. The Auto-Responder, as Dirk, would have to share either Dirk’s class or aspect. I think it makes more sense for him to share the class, because I believe the event of splintering actively creates/changes the Auto-Responder’s aspect.

Why Blood?

Blood comes from the Heart. Blood splits off of the Heart. The Heart creates Blood. Dirk created the Auto-Responder.

The Auto-Responder is associated with the color red (the color, ironically, that connects to Dave, and thus connects to Alpha Dave as well—the Auto-Responder grasps a color that Dirk does not, grasps at a relationship that already doesn’t exist).

Blood connects to relationships and bonds, and throughout Homestuck we can absolutely see the Auto-Responder as connecting to connections, as interfering with Dirk’s and other’s. He puts a wrench into character development and interactions, complicates things concerning the makeup of the Alpha session. As we move forward in this essay and I start to pull apart events from the comic, we are going to do so through the lens of Blood, focusing on relationships and how the Auto-Responder interacts with them (both within and without himself).

As a Prince, the Auto-Responder will not have his aspect within himself as much as some of the other classes, and he will actually tend to break and destroy even his own aspect in himself (like how all of the other Princes in Homestuck do, to some extent). I think it’s easy to see how the Auto-Responder destroys his own relationships and bonds, his very existence serves that purpose, and I will go into more detail on that later.

He is the Destroyer of Relationships, the Destroyer of Bonds, the Destroyer of Unification, and the Destroyer of Friendships.

(an aside, from this moment forward I am going to call the Auto-Responder Hal, simply because doing so is simpler. AR would work too, but it doesn’t look as good in writing as Hal. Although I believe that Hal is a name that the Auto-Responder picks purely for irony and that he doesn’t actually feel any connection to it, the fandom has adopted it, and I have gotten accustomed to it. Honestly, I think that the Auto-Responder thinks of himself either as the AR or as Dirk, but I am obviously not going to be calling him Dirk, that would be far too confusing. Thus, Hal is the name that I will be using continuing forward).

#homestuck #hal #hal strider #dirk strider #classpect #shitpost #this is my 100kth post!!!#im actually pretty proud of this i like this project a lot

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lamelinam · 7 years

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Padme’s role in RoTS : Faith is an active choice.

“For years fans have wondered who was the mysterious, unnamed mother of Luke and Leia. The only hint of who she had been was Leia's vague impressions expressed in Return of the Jedi: kind, very beautiful, but sad.

Finally with the release of The Phantom Menace, we were introduced to her: Queen Amidala of the Naboo, otherwise known as Padmé Amidala Naberrie. The young girl-woman in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones was in many ways in the mold of her future daughter: smart, wise, resourceful, brave, and if need be, good in a fight. But with Revenge of the Sith, she joins a sisterhood of memorable women who suffer tragedy.

Padmé shares common traits with many traditional tragic heroines but in some ways she is unique. Traditionally, a tragic heroine suffers because of her own tragic flaw and/or the flaws of someone else, even her society or culture. Aristotle referred to this flaw as "harmatia," the accurate definition of which is closer to "mistake," "error," or "failing" than an innate flaw. Aristotle believed the flaw must result from something that is a central part of one's virtue, which goes wrong due to a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.1 Antigone suffers because of her devotion to divine law, which demands she bury her brother, bringing her into conflict with the inhumane decree of King Creon, who forbade burial.2 Ophelia suffers because of Hamlet's inner conflict. Juliet's death is brought about not only because of her love for Romeo but also because of the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.

If Padmé had personal flaws according to Aristotle's definition, some may argue they would be her naivete, her innocence, her trust in the Republic as it was rotting away from within, her trust in Palpatine, and even her love for Anakin. Padmé tends to put a lot of faith in the innate good of others; Obi-Wan notes in the young readers' version of the Revenge of the Sith novelization that Padmé "always believes the best of everyone, until she's forced to see the worst. Such faith should be a strength, not a weakness." She suffers because of that faith in her leaders, the Republic, and in Anakin, because they all fail her. In fact, Padmé embodies the Republic's ideals and virtues: democracy, restraint over tyranny, and working for the good of others. Padmé is also associated with youth and beauty as well as wisdom. She comes from a world teeming with life and as the female lead of the prequel trilogy, as well as the mother of the heroes of the classic trilogy, she embodies the feminine, the anima.

At the beginning of the saga, the Republic was in its golden age. Padmé´'s homeworld of Naboo was an opulent and verdant world with stunning architecture and natural wonders. Its people were dressed nearly as elaborately as its ruler. Even the sleek spacecraft reflected a great appreciation for beauty. Women are seen everywhere in the prequels, in all stations of life; pilots, Jedi, Senators, handmaidens, bodyguards, and mothers. But the galaxy was changing and the young queen was caught in the middle of that change. She is brought in as a pawn in a political game that she understands too late. She is also introduced to the boy destined to change her life forever.

For most of the prequel trilogy, Padmé has been in constant danger and in need of protection. The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones have a pattern. 1. Padmé is rescued, 2. Padmé is placed under protection, and 3. Padmé willingly leaves that protection to take action herself. She spends a great deal of time courting her fate despite the efforts of others to protect her. In The Phantom Menace, she is rescued from the Trade Federation and is able to remain on Coruscant where she is safe. Yet she chooses to return to Naboo to engage the Trade Federation in battle and re-take her planet. In Attack of the Clones, she is rescued after two attempts on her life and is put into Anakin's protection. Yet she chooses to first go to Tatooine with Anakin then she convinces him to go with her to Geonosis to save Obi-Wan, where once again she is forced to fight for her life. She narrowly avoids being killed by beasts, survives a battle that kills several Jedi, and then avoids serious injury after falling out of a ship. She gives several references to dying in the films. In The Phantom Menace, she mentions twice that her people on Naboo were dying. In Attack of the Clones, she mentions death four times during her love pledge to Anakin: "I'm not afraid to die...I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life...our lives are about to be destroyed anyway...before we die I want you to know."

At the same time, the feminine energy, the anima, is slowly being destroyed. In Attack of the Clones, Zam Wessel, Cordé the handmaiden, and most importantly, Anakin's mother Shmi, die violently. In Revenge of the Sith, the final phase of destruction takes place. We see the betrayal and murder of two female Jedi: Stass Allie and Aayla Secura. Aayla in particular is murdered in an especially gruesome way, shot repeatedly in close range by several clonetroopers. Ironically she was on Felucia, a world teeming with life and giant blooming flowers. It climaxes with Padmé's death after performing the ultimate feminine act, giving birth. She dies far from her fertile living world where she'd planned to have her child(ren), in a cold environment deep in space, and attended to by droids that cannot understand what is wrong with her.

Unlike the pattern with previous two prequels, Padmé does not need rescuing from external threats in Revenge of the Sith. Dooku is dead and the Trade Federation seems to have forgotten about her. The irony is the external dangers from which Anakin seeks to protect her from throughout the prequel trilogy do not bring about her end. It's not the Trade Federation or hired assassins but her own shattered soul. However, like the other films, she chooses to leave her haven, this time on Coruscant, to take charge when things are dire. When Captain Typho volunteers to go with her, she refuses, saying the matter is personal and that she is no longer in danger. Finally, she could no longer avoid her destiny.

Some fans complained that Padmé was marginalized in Revenge of the Sith, but her isolation makes sense in the context of the story. Here she was at the height of her feminine power, pregnant and able to share a form of subconscious bond on occasion with Anakin.

Yet the Empire-to-be has no place for her. She is trapped and alone.

Padmé's death recalls traditional tragic heroines such as Isolde, who dies of a broken heart after her love Tristan dies. In Arthurian legend, Elaine The Lady of Shallot dies of love for Lancelot.4 In fact, dying of a broken heart is part of many legends, folk tales, and ghost stories. Others see parallels with Othello's Desdemona, who like Padmé is strangled by a husband who believes she has betrayed by him. Others view Padmé as being similar to Ophelia, who commits suicide after Hamlet rejects her. Because Ophelia and Desdemona are commonly viewed as passive victims, and Padmé had been a proactive character, some felt her death did not befit her character.

There is a literal way of looking at Padmé's death and a symbolic way. Padmé was as much a symbiont with her time and place as she was with Anakin. When the Republic era passes, she passes. In a cut scene from Attack of the Clones, the lesson in Padmé's story about the refugees she tried to help as a child was that those who cannot adapt die. She cannot adapt to this new galaxy. Moreover, she refuses to adapt. She tells Anakin he is going down a path she cannot follow. She bitterly utters, "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause," after Palpatine crowns himself Emperor before a cheering Senate. When Vader in a rage cuts off her breathing, it symbolizes that the Empire, as personified by Anakin, is killing her.

She suffers not only the death throes of the Republic and its ideals, she also suffers with the physical and spiritual pain Anakin endures in his transformation into the Darth Vader we know from the classic trilogy. The film intercuts between Vader's agony on the operating table and Padmé's dying moments as she gives birth. When Vader's transformation is complete, she dies.

With Padmé gone, the aesthetics of the Star Wars universe changes: we see the utilitarian set of the Star Destroyer, the beauty of the earlier ships gone. The beautiful, colorful, and elegant costumes have been replaced by simpler and more drab garments in shades of gray. Even the last time we see Naboo in the prequels, all of the citizens are dressed in funereal black. We see of glimpse of the Empire's new order, a Star Destroyer crew made up entirely of men. Instead of the natural beauty of a planet, we witness the skeletal beginnings of the Death Star.

Yet in the end, unlike most other tragic heroines, Padmé wins. Those who dismiss Padmé as weak should consider this alternative view of Desdemona: "Desdemona's goodness furthermore is not simply passive or weak but an act of will...her refusal to blame Othello for his terrible treatment of her...must not be viewed as simply subservience but as a self-willed refusal to accept a bad opinion of the husband she has chosen...she stands by her love for him as something sacred, with a martyr-like determination: she tells Emilia, 'his unkindness may defeat my life/But never taint my love.'" Padmé, through her own will, refuses to believe Anakin is unredeemable. Ultimately Padmé is right about Anakin; there was still good in him and he could be turned back to the light. Her children bring down the Empire and restore the old values of the Republic. Padmé's life may have been short but she was never truly a victim. “

by lazypadawan

#Padme Amidala #character analysis #star wars #lazypadawan #feminine anima #jedi #siths #death of the republic #rise of the empire

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ttshieronym · 7 years

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Chinese review of To the Stars, Translated

I came across this Chinese review of To the Stars and decided to translate it. It’s an interesting look into how another culture perceives this fanfic we all love, and I hope you enjoy it! (User submission)

—– [Special Discussion] European/American Madoka Fanfic “To The Stars” ——

by New Moon Light (Yuèchū zhào)

Source: http://bbs.saraba1st.com/2b/thread-1124803-1-1.html

> The Buddha said: In sharing a good text, there is great merit.

> Lead in: Kyubey once said mankind will one day reach to the stars, but they never said what we will find there.

From the very first sentence, To the Stars hints at its prime directive. This will be an epic about mankind’s voyage among the stars. While even now as we remain bounded by the force of gravity, sailing the cosmos has always bespoke the hearts of men.

Honestly speaking, Gen Urobuchi’s original setting was sparse. Details are spotty of the world view of within Madoka universe, even the Incubator’s role within it are poorly defined. From this vagueness, To the Stars took over a sparse backdrop and develop this world into its own.

The story began at Mitakihara, the start of it all. The main character is Shizuki Ryouko, a last name that jostles ones memory. From this humble beginning the narrative unfolds into thrilling suspense. From here on out, it’s really a world of author’s own.

Ryouko is a high school student, her parents work at a research lab, and she has a grandpa looking too young of his age. At breakfast the parents chat about grocery shopping - no - of food allocations.

With this scenery of everyday life as foundation, the narrative backdrop unfolds. This is a materially abundant world that perfected distribution of wealth. Societal makeup, politics, military, technology unfold for the audience as the story progresses. Each intricate detail are thoroughly thought out. Here, this fanfiction has set itself apart from the original franchise.

Just two pages in, a member of the original Magica Quintet stepped into the scene. Who else? The tall, elegant, with unparalleled grace, Generalissmo Mami Tomoe herself! In this world, Mami has become the font of wisdom and stability, the pinnacle of magical girls, and the atlas pillar of magical girl society.

Mami’s position atop the military hierarchy unveiled another truth of this world: magical girls have completely submersed themselves into civil society as a force to be reckoned with. Soon we realized that four hundred years have passed since events of the TV series. In those four long centuries, events of legendary proportions occurred, a historical backdrop both rich and weighty.

With Mami’s arrival, the wheels of fate began to turn.

From here, Ryouko encountered Wraiths, awoken to her potential, and became disciple of Mami and Kyouko. From there on out the story blew wide open and held nothing back.

’m going to avoid spoiling further, as this is a reading recommendation. What happens next, I’ll leave it to as an exercise to the readers.

Instead, indulge me as I dive into some of specifics strength of this epic.

—– 1) Elaboration and Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence —-

The story features a rich cast of AI characters. With their superhuman intelligence and personality, the author had carefully considered their function within the story.

As practice, all ship construction came with accompanying AIs, yet these same AI will one day have to face eventual retirement. Leaving the front line, away from the the glory of war and never to return, these AIs need hobbies if they’re to cope in civil society. As result, warships tend to play with firearms in their free times (as expected, liking fire arms is a moe-quality for shipgirls).

Latter in the story, Ryouko’s combat AI, the newest model of biological TacCom, had this to say to Ryouko,

“I was thinking, if the Goddess of Magical Girls truly exist, then you get to go to heaven, but I could only rot here as a lump of meat. How unfair is that?”

Ryouko had no response. It was a question too difficult to answer for a mere a high school girl.

—– 2) Fantastical and Sophisticated Space Warfare ——

Warfare is this story’s most important narrative backdrop, and the space warfare in it are realistic, intrinsic, mesmerizing.

Rivaling humans are a race of an intelligent squid-like aliens, with scientific capabilities far exceeding human imagination.

The joint defense of New Athens was a massive-scale battle that cemented human-magical girl relationship. With squid forces devastating the human military, humanity was on the brink of defeat, a force of hundred-thousand magical girls mobilized by the magical goirl association suddenly charging to the front line. With great personal sacrifice they turned the tide of battle, pulled victory from the jaws of defeat for mankind. A feat of battlefield that would echo the history books, yet this was far from the highlight within the story. After the magical girl force subsumes into the human military apparatus, the newly commissioned magical girls are accessorized with high tech weaponry, and begun joint combat operations with human forces. From shielding and decoys for soul gems, to operational tactics for rescuing magical girls on the brink of death, to how magical girls of each types can fight in combined arms with drones and human infantry.

There’s a space chase scene between alien fighters and troop transport, and it was a magical girl platoon that engaged in 3-dimensional decapitating strike of the enemy forces. Magic has even become incorporated into the overall strategic command of human forces, talk about breathtaking!

Remarkable is the extend of the authorship’s thoughts into how future technology and science would change the nature of warfare. Massive laser cannons that is standard trope in space operas was not his vision. We saw that in his treatment of obtuse nature of faster-than-light ship warfare. We also saw this in the exquisite settings of exotic colony worlds locale. In short, the set piece battles alone are well worth the price of admission.

—– 3) Economic and Social Dynamics of a Space Faring Society —–

When speaking of a futuristic communist society, one’s imagination easily veer towards some kind of “Big Brother Watching You” narrative. Yet this novel paints a picture of a society with on-demand distribution and labor division that’s credible. Locally, people are free to chose their career, and the society will provide for the allocations as ones’ family requires. Choosing a valued career will be matched with a greater allocation. Even a recluse can secure a basic standard of living.

Of course in wartime, soldiers and magical girls receive a variety of privileged and generous stipends above civilians. Ultimately, they’re putting their lives on the line for the greater good. An wartime economy has inevitable shortfalls, but a basic standard of living could be maintained.

Colonial worlds on the other hand maintain an economy that harkens back to a more capitalistic era. Ultimately, in those far-flung world, resources and production have their limitations, and yet to reach such an abundance of surplus. The translation thus far has only briefly touched upon these colonial worlds, but future development would likely put them in greater focus.

Socially, nations have disappeared, and instead a ruling body took guidance of the society’s advancement, with highly advanced AIs taking part in crucial areas of the government. Aggregate intelligence has eliminated corruption from society, and placed the talents of individuals into posts most appropriate for their skillsets. The ruling body operates optimally, and the society is highly efficient. Of course, even with such advancement, the challenge of war had a deteriorating effect. Chalk that up to confronting an even more advanced enemy, with an even higher level of technological and scientific advancement.

Politics wasn’t a focal point in this work, but some subtle commentary could be gleamed. Is such a society truly good? That’s up to you to decide.

Worth bringing up here is magical girl’s role within this society. They recognize magical girl as an enormous asset for the military, and their powers potential a great threat, thus government and military took the position of general appeasement. They took initiative to integrate magical girls into the social leadership, with Mami as part of the Military command and Yuma as representative of the magical girls. The magical girl community as a whole are a power block in the greater society.

Because of the warfare, recruiting magical girls have become an open effort in this society, with Kyubey engaged actively in the recruitment effort. An recruitment effort that’s nothing less than a propaganda drive to enlist child soldiers became official government policy. For a hero of justice like Mami, as part of the military apparatus, to take part in such efforts to trick girls into the battle field - there’s a certain level of irony.

—-

4) Mahou Shoujo Youkai —-

The magical girl society is a top power block in this universe. The development of Mahou Shoujo Youkai (MSY) began as a guild form of several magical girl teams in Mitakihara, with Mami, Kyouko, and Homura’s team as its cornerstone. To cope with financial and wraith hunt shortfalls, these magical girls joined forces and established a carrier company. From there, it gradually grew in size, wealth, and powerful using the inherent advantages of magical girls. With careful stewardship, the company quickly grew and ultimately become the future center of the magical girl community. The development of this organization was full of mysterious, intrigue, power, and blood. Even a hero of justice like Mami find some sacrifices as inevitable. From blurps about the history and culture of MSY, the readership slowly gleam the tip of the iceberg of this society. Such intricate storytelling is a great strength of this work, somehow turning this rather incredible organization into something believable.

In one side story, a man searching for his missing beloved would suddenly find himself in midst of the original cast’s campaign to quash the Japanese underworld!

—- 5) The Era of Intersection between Science and Magic —-

Set four hundred years after the events of the TV series, technology has become highly advanced. Of course, many of the technologies we dreamt of remain beyond grasp, but mankind has already advanced far up into tech tree: Faster-than-Light travel, eradication of diseases, anti-gravity, perfection of cloning (considered unethical, but a necessary vice in-Universe), high fidelity virtual reality, internal health monitor chips, nano machines of all kinds, but of course the most fascinating are the AIs (which we have already covered).

Even more novel is the integration between the magical and the scientific for magical girls. To fight aliens, magical girls no longer just relied on frail human bodies and magical weaponry, but became a full-fledged combat forces with all the advanced military hardware. The military created all sorts of battle-harden equipment to augment the magical girl’s existing abilities, from decoy robots for soul gems, to specialist rifles for magical girl in close combat, to automated grief cube distribution bots. Additionally, magical girls are well supported by troops, infantry, and drones of all kinds.

—- 6) Extension of the Magical System —-

This work filled the gaps that was lacking of the magical system in the original work. Take wishes, for example, they now grant the true desire of qualified magical girls. Even when the magical girl was unable to verbalize her intent, Kyubey was able to grasp it mentally and faithfully implementing it. As result, Homura’s original wish was able to cross the timeline and maintain its power.

In other areas, it clarifies what happen to the Soul Gem after destruction of the body. In this work, it’s made explicit that the Soul Gem can revives as the original person so long a sufficiently substitute body exists. As result, soul gems are to be rescued whenever possible, to avoid unnecessary loss in valuable magical girls lives. As for the mechanics of resurrection, I’ll leave it unspoiled here.

—- 7) Distinctive Characterization —-

Of the original cast, the Ultimate Madoka roaming in space and Sayaka had already passed, but the remaining three members each plays important roles in the story. Generalissimo Mami remained forever alone, but also has become the pinnacle figurehead of the magical girl community, and an important commander of the war effort. From her position, the reader gets an understanding of strategic operations of the military high-command, as well as bits and pieces of history from vicissitudes of her memory. Yet despite her high regard, incessant nightmares plagued her, showing that fragile girl we knew still remain.

More complicated was Kyouko. She became a pope-like figure, one that also enjoy playing with young girls’ heartstrings… But this doesn’t mean she lost those convictions of her past. The Cult of Hope she created has become the pillar of emotional support for the magical girls in the military, perhaps an appropriate “new faith for a new age”. The hunt of her past, and her passion for blue-haired girls, placed her in a loving yet despicable role.

Other characters are charming in their own right. Oriko also plays an important role. The destruction of her and her organization was a central mystery within the story. The multi-talented Yuma has now become an inscrutable political actor.

Other notable characters like the historian Clarisse van Rossum and other magical girls are charming in their own ways.

But the most important is the main character Ryouko. She’s a riddle and a clue, from her point-of-view we come grips with this world. But she’s also stubborn and independent, hardheaded pursuing her own lofty goals. Her denseness with interpersonal relationships, and how her fallout and slowly reconciliation with her family, all these were portrayed vividly.

Of course, what matters for a story is the story itself, and this work has twists and turns a plenty, which here I will refrain from spoiling.

Even without the magical girl elements, this is a science fiction worthy of reading in its own right. In my humble opinion, the magnificent setting and intricate story telling has set To the Stars apart from the original series, a work that stands on its own.

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ajourneythroughtime · 6 years

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It’s estimated that we currently only use a few percent of our brain capacity (we also only use a few percent of our DNA’s connectivity to Creation), and that we can only perceive about 4% or the entire universe. In fact, even these 4% are compromised because they are “overlapped” by a hologram, which is a partial “copy” of a partially real Universe. This copy, or hologram, is presented to humans as an entire universe of its own, with planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies, etc. It’s very convincing. In addition to our concept of the Third Dimension (3-D), these ET manipulators have also constructed the astral plane, which consists of a number of different dimensions and densities of its own.

However, it is only a virtual reality, or a software program, similar to what was presented to us in the “Matrix Series” movies. The real universe is the universe we cannot experience while living in this hologram. The only hint of its existence is what we call “Dark Energy” and “Dark Matter,” which together consist of about 96% of the Universe. The other 4% is the hologram in which we are currently trapped. If this hologram were to disappear, we would once again be able to perceive the 100% Universe—just as we did before we were trapped. It has been there all the time, although we currently only perceive it as dark space.

The Human Soul Group

Here on Earth, we consist of the same template as in the KHAA, i.e. a fire composite (fire/avatar), but we also have a physical body, which most people think is very important. Regardless, the fact remains that without a physical body, we can’t live on Earth.

Religions around the world usually teach us that we are spirit or soul within a physical body, i.e. the soul and the body are separate, and when the body gets old or sick, it ceases to function: a state we call death. Then, when we notice that we continue to live in the astral dimensions after body death, we think that it’s the soul who lives on, and that this soul is the ultimate “you,” the “personality.”

This is not so. Humans have forgotten who they are and who they are connected to (the Divine Feminine through Spirit/Oversoul). They believe in a God archetype, who rules the world with His principles—often with firm rules, overseeing everything and judging everything.

Many also believe that the soul and the mind are separate, thinking the mind is the brain of the physical body—the brain being the “thinking unit.” People have forgotten that they are spirit/mind/body in one basic unit.

The mind is of course not the brain. The brain is the control center in the body (the computer control room, if you like). Here we store memories and experiences that we have in our physical bodies, and those experiences are then transferred into the soul/mind (fire/avatar or “light-body”). Not until we die and notice that the soul lives on do we understand that the soul is the “thinking unit.” We realize that the brain is not the thinking unit. We also realize that the soul and the mind are one and the same. Moreover, we notice that we have a “soul body,” or a “light-body,” as we often call it. We can shape our light body anyway we want—most discarnate souls shape it in a way that the individual looked like while being at his or her most desirable age in the last lifetime. The light-body is essentially our avatar, i.e. the myriad of fire/soul that makes up our avatar/light-body.

However, the AIF is controlling our avatar as well, through the chakra system and our energetic/electromagnetic field, which is tied to the Grid—the Grid being, for the most part, built by our own human mass consciousness, existing within the technology-controlled, frequency band we call 3-D.

This creates a false “astral body,” which can only function in the astral dimensions, which are parts of the Physical Universe hologram. While stuck in the astral body (we could look at it as an overlay of the avatar/light-body), we cannot leave the astral dimensions and “accidentally” return to the KHAA dimensions (we will discuss this in more details later in this article). Spirit/soul-mind-fire/light body are one and the same—in one basic unit. There is no separation. However, in this realm of existence (3-D), we believe that our “real” bodies are the physical bodies, which obviously are separate from us.

Thus, the Overlords created separation for the first time when they manipulated the human soul group into entering En.ki’s genetically manipulated solid bodies made of atoms. This is where separation comes from, and it expresses itself in dualism, opposites, yin and yang, karma, and polarity (black/white, good/evil/, light/dark, etc.).

Here on Earth, we build our personality, lifetime after lifetime, based on our upbringing and what we “learn” in society (and outside society). Experiences accumulate and form our personality. This personality then separates from the physical body at death, but continues to live in a new body in a new incarnation, over and over. The experiences from one lifetime passes over to the next, although the soul does not remember because of amnesia implants placed in the physical body and in the astral body by the AIF. All these experiences across the lines of time are stored in our fire as memories, and so are the experiences of the “genetic line,” which is the RNA/DNA timeline of the body we possess in any given lifetime. Because of amnesia, this can become very confusing to the person. Often, events from previous lives of the soul, and previous lives in the genetic line overlap, and unwittingly, the individual may experience unexplained pain, trauma, or even epiphanies that originate from previous lives. All this forms the personality of the particular soul splinter that we consider being us in this lifetime.

The real you is all this, but it is so much more. Take your current personality and add infinite opportunities to that, and you'll have the you (as a fire composite) that you will operate from in the KHAA—your entire current personality remains as a series of experiences, all in a simultaneous “packet.”

This is the way that I look at it; it may take some processing and inner meditation to really grasp this concept and to see whether it applies to you. On Earth, our neural pathways are normally not yet fully connected so as to comprehend these subject matters, but with new learning, new neural pathways are created, and dormant parts of our DNA start to light up. We “evolve” to a new level.

It is important to realize that what you call your “consciousness” is not “you,” either. It’s the energy signature your Spirit is working with through Her soul (created by experiences)—the fire composite that you consider being you, but it is not you. The Spirit/Oversoul is the unit that is really “you.” The soul/fire is your vehicle, which you are using in the Universe after having stepped down its vibratory rate and become energy, so you can create in a construct called the Universe. Therefore, we could call the original Universe a hologram, too, although it is a hologram of which we usually are aware and can freely create in, as opposed to a hologram in which we are trapped. It was created with the purpose of enslaving souls.

When we are trapped here in the 4% Physical Universe, we have very little connection with our Higher Self (Spirit/Oversoul) because of the electronic obstacles that have been created as barriers between soul and Spirit. It is when we are first leaving this trap that we unite with our Oversoul, and from thereon we’re always connected and very much aware of the connection. There is, when the soul is free, a constant communication between soul and Spirit. We will all remain individuals, creating our own realities with thought, but fully aware that we are all connected.

Today, people who are waking up feel that their awareness and their consciousness has increased, and indeed they have! What happens is that the soul that is you in this reality is beginning to break down the amnesia barriers in your DNA and in your soul, and you vaguely remember your past in the KHAA, as a Namlú’u—the part of your existence as a soul that was not manipulated; you were living in the Spiritual Universe with a direct connection with Spirit and the Divine Feminine. In the extension, we also begin to connect with Spirit/Oversoul, and this creates epiphanies, “strange experiences,” “knowingness” without any substance to it in this reality, intuition, telepathic abilities, ESP, psychic abilities in general, and much more. A person, who experiences any or all of the above, is to that extent reconnected with the KHAA.

My hope is that you, the reader of this article, is prepared enough to be able to create an exit for yourself. This is basically the purpose of the WPP and everything I’ve written after that. There is certain information we all need in order to grasp what kind of reality we are living in. Once that is fairly well understood, you will be able to comprehend this article and to implement the information herein. If you’re with me so far, you are most likely vibrating on a higher level than the limited frequency band we call the Third Dimension. Thus, you will have the opportunity to exit this reality and return to the Universe in which you belong—it’s time to go home.

#quantum core #books #tech

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