#during the rebirth death in the family arc when she thought he was going to carve off her face | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dreamsmp-au-ideas · 3 years

Text

Once again I am bored and putting off updating so I’m coming at y'all with a brand new au idea.

Blood God Deo.

The idea of Tommy accidentally befriending gods is hilarious to me for some reason, especially a Tommy who starts out as just some random kid. He has two reflexes whenever he meets a god, friend or fight. So far only Josh and Dream have both triggered the fight reflex.

Deo isn’t particularly open about being the Blood God. He doesn’t even particularly enjoy the job. Sure, he’s ferocious in a battle, but he holds back a lot and he’s no where near as blood thirsty as half of his Acolytes. The voices acting how they do wasn’t even his idea, it was actually a curse from another God placed onto all of his followers. The Original Chat was designed to essentially be a helper. They would help moderate the bloodlust of his followers (who were renown for loosing pieces of themselves to the slaughter) and in addition they’d know things that his followers wouldn’t like the position of enemies and special details about weapons and armor like durability or quality. Original Chat was able to see everything going on around the Acolyte and offer advice in case the Acolyte lost one of their senses or something else happened.

Deo stopped blessing people after Chat was corrupted (probably by Dream. I don’t think Dream should be a Chaos god like a lot of people decide he should be. He should rule over something like Control, Manipulation, or Betrayal, it makes more sense with his current character arc.) Deo starts only blessing people who have enough sense of strength, morality, and self to actually ignore Corrupted Chat, though sometimes if Deo interacts with someone they can become accidentally blessed without him even knowing (read as Techno). Deo kind of closes himself off at some point, hiding himself away on hypixel.

Then he meets Tommy. This little brat who manages to all but force his way into Deo’s good graces and eventually a role of friendship. The first friend Deo’s had in centuries if not longer. Gods have two marks they can give to people. Marks they actively or subconsciously give to their Acolytes and marks that they only subconsciously give to people they care about and want to protect. Their friends. Tommy gets the later and neither notice since the powers associated with the later don’t make themselves readily apparently unlike with a typical Acolyte. (Spoilers, Tommy gets a version of Original Chat that he doesn’t realize is there because Original Chat is way easier to block out and shut up than Corrupted Chat. Still annoying and playful while the marked actually pays attention to it but nowhere near as bad as Techno’s chat. I’m thinking that Tommy probably doesn’t even realize they’re there till exile when he’s so desperate for anything to speak with he’d even settle for talking to himself and accidentally opens the door for Chat.)

I’m thinking that maybe we can make the rest of Business Bay(Wisp Included) + Clara, Clementine, and maybe even Boffy into gods that Tommy accidentally befriended along the way. I don’t have any idea what kind of gods Bitzel or Luke should be but I like the idea of Wisp having something to do with death, rebirth, and second chances. Boffy has to have some kind of link with lightning and destruction because it’s Boffy and we all know what he’s done with that blaze rod. Clara is obviously the god of space and the void. Clementine I actually had a really cool idea for. She’s a flaming moth god and one of the two gods who holds the most control of the nether (Deo being the other.) Clara is the main god of the end and the overworld is in a constant state of fluxing control since there are significantly more gods who want to be associated with rulership of it. Very few gods want control over the void so few challenge Clara and the few who do leave terrified. There are a couple war gods who live in the nether but since Deo and Clementine work together nothing can really overthrow them. Dream is younger than the group of gods associated with Tommy but older than a lot of other gods. He’s working his way up to control of the overworld but that currently still belongs to an unknown gods simply named Prime who never shows itself.

And of course because it’s my brand, at one point all of the gods became so worried over the idea of Tommy dying they made him a phoenix. That way he wouldn’t die unless he chose to, decides he’s ready for his next life. They were still worried though. Sure they were Tommy’s friends, but he had other friends and family that he’d lose being immortal. They realized that one day he’d eventually chose to make his current life the last one. None of them could handle the thought though, they didn’t want to loose him. So then they went the extra mile to ensure that Tommy’s soul would always be semi bound to them and he’d be a phoenix in all of his reincarnations (with the ability to access the memories of his prior reincarnation if and only if he so chooses, which he usually does when he crosses paths with his god friends again). The important thing to remember is that they know Tommy doesn’t “belong” to them. He isn’t a pet, isn’t theirs, he belongs to himself alone. The bond isn’t an ownership thing. It’s more akin to a divine version of Tubbo and Tommy’s compasses. It’s just a way for him to always find his way back to them and vice versa.

Speaking of which, at one point the gods gave him the ability to do something similar. Marking the souls of people he became specifically fond of so he could find them in future lifetimes. So far Tommy has only done this to four people. Techno, Phil, Wilbur, and obviously Tubbo. Tubbo was the first, that was a bond that was made in Tommy’s very first lifetime and the reason the other gods gave him the power in the first place. Techno, Phil, and Wilbur were all done in one go during the Antarctic Empire era because he decided he just really liked this family and would love to be apart of it again some day. Tubbo is someone he always remembers in every lifetime without fail and seeks out regardless. The kids are platonic soulmates, fight me.

Okay. This is evolving way past Blood God Deo. But dang it, we’re rolling with it.

Maybe each SMP/server is a different reincarnation of Tommy. That’s also why the sbi family dynamic is murky. Phil and Techno are immortals, not gods or even phoenixes per se but they can’t died under normal circumstances. Wilbur and presumably Tommy in their eyes were not. During the Antarctic Empire era it was easy to tell that Wilbur hadn’t inherited the same immortality that his twin brother had from their father. They couldn’t tell when Tommy was born and it was a deeply ingrained part of his nature to hide his phoenix traits, so eventually they just assumed he wasn’t. Wilbur and Tommy eventually started their own countries (Tommy recruiting three other gods to help him kill god) and both eventually passed away while Techno and Phil continued on. Technically, the death of Wilbur and Tommy is what slowly started turning Techno from emperor to Anarchist. He blamed the countries his brothers ran both for killing them as well as shortening the amount of time he had with them.

Phil later adopted Tommy and Wilbur during the current Dream SMP because both were orphans and reminded Phil a startling degree of the first Tommy and Wilbur (hence why he even named them after the two.) Techno refused the dynamic because he was bitter over the fact that Phil was trying to “replace his brothers”.

Wilbur is a rare case where he reincarnated almost just the same and has some scant memories of his life as a prince of the Antarctic Empire. Tommy early on decided to recover all of his memories associated with his Antarctic family and treats Techno and Phil as such. Techno continued to reject “new” Tommy and “new” Wilbur as members of his family which caused a lot tension. Phil kept trying to repair his relationship with Techno while raising Wilbur and Tommy but Techno kept making him feel bad which led to the whole “Techno is the favorite situation”. Since Tommy decided to recover his memories he kind of gets why Techno feels the way he does but is also bitter since he is Techno’s Tommy, he just doesn’t know how to put that into words. It’s made worse by Corrupted Chat which being a creation of Dream that is actively trying to pin Tommy and Techno against one another. Lotta room in this AU for sbi hurt comfort. Don’t worry, eventually there’s a reveal. It just takes a while since Tommy has to be the one to do it or Dream has to out him as a phoenix first.

Maybe the whole Ghostbur situation is because as a phoenix Tommy has some control over the people around him who die. He can return lost lives using his feathers and considering the nature of the gods who adore him he can bring people back from the dead. Unfortunately Dream intercepted this and we got Ghostbur. Maybe later down the road as a plot point, Ghostbur existing somewhere between death and life could have access the memories locked in the deeper part of his soul that are associated with his past lives (as well as the Antarctic Empire) and he could be the one to do the reveal.

Then Dream goes overboard at some point (maybe he threatens to chop off Tommy’s wings or hurt one of his family members) and suddenly we end up with Protective God Deo kicking down Dream’s door.

#mcyt #dream smp #dream smp au #blood god deo #timedeo #dream #dreamwastaken #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #philza #ph1lza #technoblade #submission #snapdragon & firefly

116 notes · View notes

quakywakey · 3 years

Text

Fixing Gar’s Season 2 Arc

Gar’s whole Season 2 Arc was so mishandled.

They set up his trauma in season 1 and in episode 1 of season 2 but barely follow up. Gar, instead, gets shoved to the background and turned evil only to be brought back by Rachel.

His arc should be overcoming his fear of disappointing people and not hiding true feelings.

There is really good setup for this, him going with Jason and feeling responsible for his kidnapping, then his fight with Rachel that only cements this, reaching a fever pitch when Conner unknowingly attacks police under Gar’s supervision.

Instead of what we got, we could have this:

Episode 2: The team tries to train their powers but Gar is scared of his abilities. He has a capacity to do things he never thought he could and it terrifies him. He has been training more in hand to hand combat with Jason.

Episode 3: Gar is relagated to desk duty while the older titans chase Dr Light. Gar isn’t happy but he doesn’t want to push Dick so agrees hastle free. After Rachel nearly killed Jason and Dick humiliated him on top of that, Gar could see that Jason needed a win, Gar saw an opportunity and decided they should both go after Dr Light. Jason quickly thinks of a plan involving Robin distracting him while Gar gets ready to perform a sneak attack in tiger form. They manage to beat Dr Light, and for a moment Gar is more confident with his powers. This is cut short by Jason getting kidnapped by Deathstroke.

Episode 5: Gar, reaches the tower, feeling responsible for Jason’s kidnapping. He feels the toll from everyone, which kicks in his biggest worries. He pictures them all beating on him like in episode 1. This stress all comes out during Gar and Rachel’s argument where at the pivotal “screw you” He felt himself nearly transforming.

Episode 7: Gar patches up Jason, putting his training from Dr Caulder to good use. The boys both find an equal understanding with eachother, having a similar fear of being abandoned. Gar reveals that he has nightmares and he can’t sleep. (Now the “can’t a guy get some sleep?” Line isn’t just lazy writing)

Episode 9: He more or less goes through the same beats as he does in the actual episode. Though his nightmares of course garner more attention. And he feels more responsible for the team being divided.

Episode 10: Gar is stressing and can’t get in contact with Dick. Of course not knowing about Dick’s... trip he suspects the worst, that he is being ignored on purpose. Luckily Krypto finds him and leads him to Conner. Of course Conner is angry and Gar takes the “maybe we should both be locked up” line to heart, before they both flee. Gar decides that the right thing to do is to take Conner to Superman and for Gar to take a break from the Titans. He makes the call to Bruce asking if he can get in contact with Superman. Bruce comes to the tower to pick up conner and Gar says goodbye. Gar then makes a second call, to the doom patrol.

Episode 11: Gar arrives at the Mansion and tries to adjust back to his old life with the Doom Patrol (p.s if I get anything wrong about the Doom Patrol it’s because the show isn’t on netflix), looking at his “Nirvana now refirbished to an old fashioned wine cellar. He then meets the newest inclusions Jane and, of course, Vic Stone. Gar has dinner with the doom patrol and they all catch up on where eachother have been. Gar talks to Vic, who he feels inspired by as someone who has been able to turn their pain into something good. He has a heart to heart with Cliff, Rita and Larry and is finally able to release all his bottled up emotions. They tell him that he shouldn’t worry about the approval of other and that Gar is his best self when he is fully trusting in himself and his ability. He then decides to finish his mission, Operation: Save the Titans.

Episode 12/13: Rachel is regrouping the team, she manages to rally Kori, Dawn, Donna and Jason. The last person on her list is Gar who she’d purposely put to last. She finds him at the arcade where they first met. They both reconsile and apologise for all the things they said to eachother. With Gar’s help, they are able to get Conner to join then in the final fight. During the battle he discovers the key to his powers being his emotional attachments, and uses that to be able to turn into other animals. He is even able to safe some people in trouble, and finally feels like a full fledged hero.

By the finale, he can change into:

A Tiger - His life before the accident, a symbol of his parents and his youth.

A Snake - rebirth, the shedding of old skin.

A Bear - His family at the Doom Patrol, of Cliff, Rita, Larry and to a lesser extent Niles.

A Raven - His newest family with the titans. Dick, Kori and of course Rachel.

A Monkey - His outgoing nature and want to make people laugh.

By the end Gar is a much stronger person. Him and Dick had been able to form a stronger bond by working on putting the past behind them. He is of course stricken with grief over Donna’s death, but he allows himself to express it outwardly to others and he knows doesn’t hold guilt towards what happened. He chooses to celebrate life rather than mourn over death.

Going forward we’d see a more confident Gar, much closer to his comic counterpart. Of course he is still kind and compassionate, but he carries a new found willingness to speak his mind and be himself. When it comes to his powers, Gar would be learning to change into more animals or as he says “filling out his pokedex”, as well incorporating his powers into his hand to hand training (e.g: Claws, nightvision, etc.).

Thank you for coming to my ted talk. Let me know if you want me to do this for any other characters, I’ve been working on a rewrite for the whole season in the background on and off for like a year now. I really hope I can form a discussion out of this. Merry Christmas.

63 notes · View notes

forevercloudnine · 3 years

Text

new 52 riddlebat ship meme

(@heroes-etc picked me out a lot of questions and we’re still going. This set is from this ship meme.)

1. Who makes the first move and how?

Ostensibly it would be Edward, if putting together a subtext-laden citywide scavenger hunt that threatens the lives of hundreds counts as “making the first move.” But there’s a limit to how much deliberately obfuscating any expression of your feelings can be considered making any move at all. He also doesn’t seem to really know what he wants from Bruce — in “Alone,” he’s quick to say that he designed the puzzles to lead Batman to him on purpose, but doesn’t have an answer when questioned on what he wanted Batman to do other than catch him.

So even though Edward is technically the instigator here, he places the burden of actually doing something entirely on Batman. Which is difficult, because Riddler’s increased brutality in the New 52 makes him like the last possible version of the character Bruce would choose to pursue. BUT Scott Snyder made Batjokes practically text in this continuity, so obviously New 52 Bruce does not have a problem getting overly emotionally involved with supervillains who have unrealistically large body counts. In fact, the brutality may work to Edward’s advantage here; if he caused enough damage, maybe Bruce would kidnap him and keep him in the Batcave the way it was revealed he was keeping the Joker in Dark Days: The Casting #1.

What could be more romantic than being imprisoned in the batcave? Well, probably a lot of things, really. But in this case, having a lot of quality time together in which Riddler is not actively murdering anyone is probably the only way that these two could work out what they have going on between them.

Edward could also earn his way down there by figuring out Batman’s identity, which he’s clearly pretty close to in Batman Annual #4. There’s only so much mental distance between “Bruce Wayne is obsessed with the death of his parents and his drive for justice and revenge has led him to bring Batman into existence, making him responsible for everything Batman has ever done” and “Bruce Wayne IS Batman,” especially when Bruce Wayne does things like climb museum exhibits to leave through the skylight or pull off a trickshot that ruins Riddler’s whole evil plan directly in front of Edward’s face.

And if he DID figure it out, New 52 Riddler would probably be less courteous about its secrecy than Joker is. (Not that Joker is THAT polite about it, given that he keeps trying to use the information to either kill Bruce’s whole family, or... I don’t know... whatever he did with Wayne Enterprises in Joker War. Wait, is THAT why Bruce was keeping Joker in the Batcave in Rebirth?)

So just to review, I am *checks notes* arguing that Bruce would instigate a romantic relationship by kidnapping Edward and imprisoning him against his will. Yes, that sounds about right for DC’s current continuity.

6. Who would they ask if they ever had a threesome?

If Riddler DOESN’T know Batman’s secret identity, then he would want to have a threesome with Bruce Wayne. Batman Annual #4 suggests that he might have already been a bit obsessed with Bruce even before suspecting his involvement with Batman, given that he talks about how watching Bruce in the tabloids growing up was everyone’s “favorite tv show” and reminisces about learning a lot of information about Bruce’s life that way, including stuff that wouldn’t have made it to the news, like Bruce anonymously setting his teacher’s yard on fire as a teenager.

It’s actually almost a Batman Forever vibe, or it would be if New 52 Edward wasn’t so much less endearing. Is his childhood fascination with Bruce part of why he got a job working for Bruce’s uncle at Wayne Enterprises as an adult, or was that just a happy accident in his preparations for Zero Year? Either way, he’s clearly obsessed with Bruce now, and he’s definitely under the impression that Batman knows him well. So as long as he didn’t know they were the same person, he would probably try to arrange a ménage à trois (wouldn’t that be awkward).

If he DID know they were the same person, then unfortunately Edward would definitely try and instigate a threesome with Joker. I’m not saying it would work, I’m just saying that all of the War of Jokes and Riddles reads like Edward trying to insert himself in the middle of Batjokes and getting rejected by both of them repeatedly.

Joker wasn’t interested the first time Riddler came on to him (or the second time, literally in the same office, Edward please learn how to read a room), so he probably wouldn’t go for it if Edward tried again. But if The War and Jokes and Riddles demonstrated anything, it’s that Edward doesn’t know how to take a hint, so he’d probably try again regardless. And then blame Bruce when it doesn’t work, probably. I always thought it was dumb when Riddler hyped up the oh-so-horrible thing that Batman did to him in the War of Jokes and Riddles in Batman #19, only for it to turn out that Bruce just, like... almost stabbed him.... but didn’t. After Riddler had ALREADY betrayed him.

But it makes more sense that Edward is being such a dramatic bitch if you’re instead interpreting “I still remember what he did” as just a summary of the conga line of rejection that Riddler received over the course of that arc from both sides of Batjokes.

(TWOJAR as helpfully summarized by @heroes-etc)

11. What do they hide from one another?

I don’t think they can really hide anything from each other, actually. I mean there’s the obvious “Batman is hiding his secret identity” and “Riddler is hiding evil scheme of the week #39.” But Bruce is the “World’s Greatest Detective” as per usual, and Edward is actually not that far behind him in this continuity (even if his delusions can cause him to project and misinterpret his findings, i.e. assuming that Bruce purposefully went bankrupt so that Riddler and the other Arkhamites would have to live in Wayne Manor and be reminded of him every second of every day). Batman Annual #4 has a great example of this where Edward reveals that he knows about how Bruce tried to treat his paranoid vigilante compulsions with shock therapy when he was a teenager. No one but Alfred and the doctors know about that — and I’m just assuming that Alfred knew, it’s not something that was stated in Zero Year.

Bruce obviously solves pretty much every riddle that Edward puts in front of him, but he picks up on the stuff that Riddler is purposefully trying to obscure too. Whether he was researching Edward ahead of time (likely) or just so good at snap psychoanalysis he should have a job at Arkham (possible, Zero Year was written by Scott Snyder), his summary of Edward’s life during their first interaction as Batman and Riddler in Batman #31 is clearly too accurate for Edward’s comfort, as it ruins what had previously been excitement on Riddler’s part that Batman was still alive.

So good luck to both of them at hiding absolutely anything from each other. The best they can hope for is if WHEN the other person finds what they’ve been hiding, they misinterpret either the information or the reason why it was hidden from them in the first place. Both of them are always willing to jump to the worst case scenario (which, given who they’re dealing with, fair enough), so I’m sure the resulting miscommunication would be both extremely entertaining and highly likely to lead to city-wide destruction.

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

Does New 52 Riddler even have friends? He and Scarecrow claim to have respect for each other in Detective Comics ft. Scarecrow #23.3, but it’s in the context of Scarecrow lying and manipulating all the rogues in the lead up to Forever Evil, and it comes about three panels after Riddler passive aggressively mocks Jonathan’s childhood trauma at the hands of his “daddy.” (Rude, Edward. Rude and gross.)

If they are friends, then the reasons why Riddler dating Scarecrow’s arch nemesis would annoy Jonathan are pretty self-explanatory. Also Edward is clearly the kind of person who would taunt the rest of the Arkhamites with any privileges earned/information gleaned from getting closer to the Bat. When I was younger my mother would always warn me not to waste emotional energy on girls who ditch their friends to prioritize their relationship as soon as they get a new boyfriend. Well, Riddler is that girl.

Bruce’s friends and family obviously also have nearly infinite reasons to be annoyed with Bruce for dating a supervillain (shoutout to Duke Thomas, who was unfortunate enough to have Riddler’s Zero Year during the most formative time of his childhood), but Barbara Gordon would doubtlessly be more pissed than most. Riddler deciding that he’s in love with Batgirl out of the blue (despite them never having met before?) when he finds out that Batman’s marrying Catwoman was already irritating, but I can only imagine how much MORE annoying it would be in the context of Riddler later hooking up with Batman.

If Barbara ever found out about them hooking up, she would immediately have war flashbacks to Batman: Prelude to the Wedding pt. 3. She has a great memory so unfortunately she probably has perfect recall of having to spend an entire evening listening to a pre-recorded monologue of Riddler philosophizing about why he’s not bitter that Batman and Catwoman are getting married and how he’s still straight even though he’s never felt lasting attraction to a woman. And then she would rightfully go apeshit.

29. Why do they fall a little bit more in love?

Thinking of how this question could possibly be answered from Bruce’s perspective made me laugh out loud, which is probably not a good sign given that I’m 4/5 of the way through writing a ship meme for him and Edward. But Riddler is just. So much in the New 52. Okay, I’m taking it seriously now. WHY DOES HE FALL MORE IN LOVE. Well, the fastest way to Bruce’s heart (other than being an attractive woman with dark hair, green eyes, and ambiguous morals) is to assist him in his crusade against crime. While that doesn’t initially seem like something Edward would do (as we see in Batgirl vs. Riddler, he seems to think the key to romance is “mixtapes”), he does go out of his way to give Bruce information about a Gotham-wide criminal conspiracy in Batman Eternal #39. He doesn’t appreciate that Batman’s current opponent is actively trying to wear him down — he wants to fight the Bat at his best, when he can think clearly. So he gives Bruce information he needs to solve the mystery.

Edward seems to also be under the impression that this would endear him to Batman, because he gives Batman a series of riddles that lead Bruce right to him so that they can talk in person. And then gets very surprised when Bruce subsequently arrests him. You’re still a criminal, Edward. This is like the first favor you’ve ever done him. Do it a dozen more times and then MAYBE you’ll start getting the free passes he’s been handing out to Harley and Ivy. But Bruce DOES save him from an avalanche after this, even though in the past Bruce has left him to die out of apathy (The War of Jokes and Riddles) or actively tried to kill him (also The War of Jokes and Riddles). So Edward IS winning him over, just very, very slowly.

Riddler pretty obviously just enjoys having someone to talk to that he feels is “on his level.” Even though he’s already arranged for Bruce Wayne’s assassination by the first time they meet in Batman #39, he obviously enjoys conversing with someone who can and will unravel his riddles and double meanings, to the point that afterwards he musingly wishes that they’d have an opportunity to talk again. Obviously they do, but it’s no thanks to Riddler. You can just NOT assassinate someone if you think they’re hot, Edward.

It’s what seemingly endears him to Batman too (at least, until Bruce ruins the mood by calling him an attention whore in front of all of Gotham). Though it’s basically always bad news for him, Edward clearly enjoys any time that Bruce or Batman exhibits his intelligence.

#riddlebat #riddler #edward nygma #batman #zero year riddler #this was hilarious because this version of edward is. so awful #like entertainingly so #also i sent this to my partner to beta read and they argued that actually being imprisoned in the batcave is peak romance #so i rescind my implications to the contrary #ship meme

52 notes · View notes

moontheoretist · 3 years

Text

Notes from tie-in MCU comics:

Part 1:

[DISCLAIMER: I was making those notes without actually writing down from which comic they come from, so now I am... well... confused about the proper placement of them, but I tried to discern them anyway.]

CAPTAIN AMERICA THE FIRST AVENGER:

Lol, Zola was developing exo-skeleton looking like Iron Man suit and Vanko's suit in 1934. I kind of think part of Steve's dislike of Iron Man was because of that exo-suit. Also, Steve just saved the guy in a suit.

"The chain is only as strong as its weakest link" said twice to Steve, once by military doctor and second by Schmidt.

Poor Erskine, his family was taken as hostages.

Howards says "carefully open the casing". Steve does smash instead.

Oh no, Red Skull said that weapon can always be taken from you so you have to become the weapon. It echoes the sentiment behind the creation of Iron Man too closely.

Lol, Roosevelt ASKED for Howard PERSONALLY.

"Car is bulletproof!" "and a convertible!" is a funny joke xD

Lol he has bulletproof car because of cigarette's girls angry boyfriends.

Ok, so Howard joined SSR because he HAD BEST FUN IN MONTHS.

Howard has rockets in car and "leaves best toys for himself".

First Steve saves a Nazi from a tank, now he obliterates them with said tank. Pick a side, Steve. I know guy in the armor was helpless, but c'mon. You either don't kill or kill. You cannot just willy nilly choose. BTW does it echo saving Iron Man or smth?

Call back to floating car by a joke about floating tank.

Aw, no, Erskine's family died in concentration camp from typhus. (Those camps were awful, but are not shown in the comics. You better believe that they weren’t very nice places to live even without being overworked and killed by the Nazis).

Oh no, Bucky was nearly killed by SSman! But Howling Commandos stopped him.

Bucky doesn't like his name lol. Also no Jimmy nickname for this guy.

Ok so Howard Stark was based on Hughes and Tony was based on someone Howard hated - Oppenheimer.

Ok, now Phillips made a foreshadowing for Cradle in the AoU. It even looks similar to Project Rebirth.

Oho my theory that Erskine heard Bucky talk to Steve and that doctor knew Steve lied is proved in this comics. They knew, they had a file on him and Erskine just picked him, saving his stupid ass from consequences.

Cap just threw a knife.

IRON MAN 2:

In the comics it looks more as if Obadiah sold Vanko instead of Howard, because Howard looks so surprised at what Vanko did, that it is impossible to assume that he was the one who sent the agents after Vanko. He looks surprised at the whole incident, Vanko betraying him and agents being there to apprehend him. One agent acts as if it was Howard's idea all along, but that line could be also read as just informing a bystander that they will deal with the issue instead.

Tony projected a drone which could clean whole desert full of mines with 100% accuracy and 0% detonation.

Also comics confirm that Tony cannot even have 12h break without Howard coming at him and demanding him to work when he is just a goddamn teenager.

Tony was just fighting for 19h, got a shower and has to go out again.

"If I hear of another innocent being put in a harm's way just to advance some pointless military agenda... there will be consequences" sounds like call back to Hulk.

Hm, Tony made 12 people work on one job? Also Natasha hates being called Nat and she drugged Samantha (the actual PA which applied for Stark Industries) to take her place.

[As of now those comics confirmed to me that Captain America joined army out of selfish reasons and that Tony was overworking himself as Iron Man and when he wasn't he was either partying, probably to relax in that way, or making new tech which saves lives.]

Lol, Coulson was so excited to look for Captain. Nick even made a joke about finding his fav action figure.

Lol, World Security Council wanted to get Tony's weapons and nearly fired Fury for trying to make Avengers.

Fury is like Tony. He hates his superiors. He will do as they say but won't stop doing what he does.

Lol, Fury got a call Tony will be dead and he jumped out of his goddamn bed asap.

Fury was actively stopping Stern from getting Iron Man by scheduling his meeting with Department of Defense "when Stern is busy" xD

Lol Fury says no to Ross before he hears what he wants. This is so funny.

Ok, so Fury got Lithium Dioxide for Tony, asked if it could be made into permanent cure, how sweet of him, but also learned that it could INSTANTLY KILL HIM instead and still made Natasha basically inject Tony with it WITHOUT CONSENT! So I dunno if he really cared about him when he asked about permanent cure or it was just more optimal for his plans. Also he got the cure during Tony's and Rhodey's battle at the mansion, so we cannot say he had a cure and didn't give it right away when he could.

"Don't blow your cover unless Stark is going to kill himself". Hm. So he wants him alive.

And yeah, he ordered Natasha to stick him with lithium dioxide when he distracted him.

Lol, Fury yelled at Coulson for letting Tony leave the mansion xD

THOR??? (I got lost in my notes, I didn’t write which comic was which)

LOL CLINT CANNOT EVEN TAKE VACATION. Also the speed with which he responded to possible alien crashsite, epic. He jumped and went as if it was Christmas, aww Clint.

Why Clint is giving money back to some store which suffered due to their operation? I mean it was nice and all, but who will give the money back to Clint? Fury?

So it was Hawkeye's idea to let Thor loose.

In the meantime Loki was on scene and tried to get Mjolnir but it didn't respond.

AVENGERS PRELUDE:

Oho, poor Fury, didn't sleep in a few days.

Oho, Fury yelled at Natasha.

"Do not let Ross take Banner, dead or alive". How cute of you, Nick, to confirm that you do not care.

Blonsky is suicidal. Going at Hulk and kicking him in the face? That's a death wish.

Ah so Blonsky is enhanced.

Hahaha, joke about lifting a hammer but applied to the Asgardian sentinel, lol.

Ross literally accessed SHIELD databases.

Natasha was raised in Stalingrad lol.

After seeing Hulk, Abomination and The Leader Natasha finally says it is too much to handle for SHIELD.

Oho, so making Tony finish Howard's project was an objective, not saving his life. He wanted it for Tesseract.

I dunno if he is lying or really was doing this whole shit for the Tesseract. Also points for sticking in WSC's face that Ross nearly destroyed New York thanks to them.

Shield has whiplash suit and it's arc reactor!

THEY ACTIVATED THE SENTINEL AND THEN THEY WANT TO DISMANTLE IT AND MAKE DOZENS SMALL ONES!

Huh, implication that Natasha may beat the whole bunker of SHIELD agents up, because they're men, lol.

So Selvig used the element Stark invented to kick-start the Tesseract after all.

"Good for a laugh from time to time" lol. Clint the comedian.

Why that machine holding a Tesseract looks like Arc Reactor?

Huh so Selvig was Loki and he made a comment about Tony being strange for "badassium".

BLACK WIDOW BACKGROUND IN ONE OF THE COMICS, DUNNO WHICH:

Natasha talks about her cover personalities like vtubers about their avatars.

Fjodorov knows something about stolen bootleg technology of Tony Stark which he managed to acquire?

Natasha really likes narrating her story. Time slows when you have a training? Like roller coaster on first ridge?

"With some small regret, I bid farewell to Tatiana. She's outlived her usefulness" thinks Natasha after she took off her wig and no longer plays Tatiana. "If she were real. She'd be dead". "It's nice though, to pretend while it lasts... that I was ever as innocent as her".

Natasha really likes playing those roles.

Haha, Natasha holds one mission over Coulson's head forever even though he never failed as her control again.

"Part of the reason why I am so good at the undercover work is that I actually like being other people. There is a lot I've done that I regret. When I leave that other identity behind, whether I slip out from underneath it voluntarily or it's ripped away from my grasp, it always hits me like a shock. Like being awakened from a deep sleep, back to who I really am". "It's good to be home". Is she speaking about her slip into Black Widow again as home or is she referring to Russia?

Natasha left a guy dangling from a building and said it could be worse, he could be naked.

"Good man" says Natasha as if she was training guys to obey her will.

Oho, Natasha is interested in someone who wants to be her.

Also she is narrating that police in Russia would not suspect Tatiana to be so resourceful.

Natasha wants to save that girl from herself, because nobody did that for her when she was in the same position.

I mean, Natasha killed some people that day already so I don't get the point of her not killing those guys and saying that she changed, when in the club she killed a few of the goons already and later too. Where is the point of her change if she kills anyway? What is this change about Black Widow - Natasha Romanoff if she kills people but just not always? She cannot claim to change for the better just because she didn't kill two goons. And Sofia should see that not killing all of them doesn't mean she doesn't kill at all. But I guess leaving so many alive still counts for Sofia as Natasha going soft.

Coulson, you idiot, I am happy you came to save Natasha, but Sofia thought those guys were Natasha's back up. It all wouldn't happen if not for you making them appear there. You fucked up everything for Natasha, Coulson.

Uh, Natasha has the same weird shtick Tony does. She blames herself for the decision of her superior? Yeah, she enabled him to make that decision, but it was still his decision to send those men to find Natasha, so their death is on him, not on Natasha.

Huh, so Natasha's model persona Konn feels empty when nobody looks at her, because her whole life was being the centre of attention? It's kind of sexist cover.

She is a hand model and this guy is disgusting. Natasha I agree with those YUCK.

Natasha doing tehee is so weird.

Also playing a "he sent me here so hours would fly by" is so gross, but inner Natasha voice says nothing yet.

Lol the guy just assumed she is stupid, because she made tehee sounds. Like, goddammit, men are so easy to fool. Condescending little creep indeed.

Ok, so Natasha doesn't have any computer knowledge to say what those lines of code are, but she knows Stark can.

Ugh, Natasha, that line about telling his friends that they did something he imagines is so not feminist of you. It just enables creeps like that to objectify women more and treat them like idiots and fucktoys.

Sofia killed the agent even when Natasha gave her what she wanted.

Natasha wants to save lives and often fails at it too.

She jumped off the yacht to save the guy even though she knew he is dead? I mean shot in the head usually means instant death.

She doesn't get lines of code but can upload tracking device on it. Good. Also she wanna kill Sofia now.

"When I go in for the kill, there's no one I'd rather be than who I really am".

Ah so they had a targeting software for the copy of the Jericho missile manufactured by Hammer.

So they were moving Jericho in parts around the world. They should be happy Tony didn't notice. (Because then they would all just go boom and be dead lol).

"Berserk bots a girl's best friends!"

Frampton wants to have space tourism.

Ten Rings again.

Why Frampton wants to strike Korean DMZ?

Aha, global destabilisation for Ten Rings, gotcha.

Oho, so the info about Natasha busting the trafficking ring comes back. It turns out she accidentally trapped the girls inside when she busted the place. She basically says she didn't know they were there but even if she did she wasn't nice back then.

So Natasha says that Sofia was more her than she ever was, meaning the Black Widow, meaning that Natasha always had softness in her which Sofia didn't have and that Sofia got her just reward for wanting to be the perfect Black Widow.

Still sexist move to make a victim of sex trafficking ring become a morally corrupt murderer who would destabilise world for free if she could, but does that for money, because money is nice addition to her new hobby of fucking humanity up.

"Some people are not worth saving" Not so long ago plenty would say that about me".

AVENGERS:

Oho Stark Tower is the first fully clean-energy powered skyscraper.

Pepper thinks inside the box and Tony thinks outside the box.

Oh, so Tony still says that Rhodey had stolen the suit, but then he admits that it could give him heart attack, because it was not calibrated for him, so I wonder if he really wanted Rhodey to have it or never wanted Rhodey to have it at all.

"I got them to agree that all starktech remains proprietary to you as long as War Machine is on loan to the department of defense".

Lol wow, War Machine was an insult? Anyway he means that Rhodey won't be using Mark II because Tony has new suit for him.

"I am not Iron Man" people yell Iron Man at Rhodey "Ah, forget it" xD

How is Tony saying that he couldn't find anything to go after Gulmira when he was literally busting Ten Rings in Iron Man 2 tie-in comic?

Hahaha, Rhodey wanna get a publicist so people would recognise he is War Machine, not Iron Man.

Rhodey is so vicious. "I could have taken your hand with it but not doing it is more fun".

Oho so Tony THREE MONTHS after Tony was putting S on Stark Tower there is Battle of New York and Rhodey is in Hong Kong.

Incoming call: Martini, seriously? You call Tony MARTINI?

Also for some reason this Tony has blue eyes.

Rhodey is so cocky lol. "I haven't seen anything that can take me down".

"When am i gonna learn to keep my mouth shut?" xDDD Rhodey cursed himself.

So after Iron Man 2 Tony realised that he couldn't be iron solder alone anymore and made Rhodey an armor? Still, trust was a huge factor here.

Lol did he just make a joke about being so beat up as after clubbing with Tony to a commanding officer? Rhodey, you vicious little shit lol xD

"Battle tank that's about to make me street pizza! But only if I stand and take it, which I have never done in my life". That's useful info. It gives me some insight into who was protecting who at MIT. Rhodey never was taking a crap of other people, so he probably was used to fighting bullies. And I can imagine him standing up to bullies who targeted a kid - Tony Stark.

Rhodey chooses to fight smarts with smarts.

DID HE JUST MAKE HIS WAY OF LANDING A FRIGGIN MISSILE STYLE? XD

His commander asks if he is crazy. He definitely friggin is lol.

Rhodey just gave his superior a scare when he let a tank run him over. They thought he died.

OMG Ten Rings assumed War Machine is easier target to get tech from and Rhodey feels offended, but happy they know who he is.

Rings had stark tech in that tank, oh no. Tony will be pissed even if those are old black market stuff.

AWWW RHODEY WAS WORRIED ABOUT TONY WHEN HE DIDN'T RESPOND!

"Don't do this to me, man". "Holy...! That was SOME situation" says Rhodey when he saw chitauri flying whale dead. Ok so Avengers met Rhodey in that shawarma place.

Pepper decorates according to feng shui?

So Ten Rings scanned Rhodey's armor with any scanner available and collected a lot of data on the armor anyway.

#mcu critical #mcu #steve rogers critical #mcu comics #tony stark #steve rogers #natasha romanoff #thor #rhodey #hawkeye #avengers

4 notes · View notes

arabian-bloodstream · 4 years

Text

Gendrya are married. Period.

*I decided to just post this here in its entirety.

I believe that Arya and Gendry are married. Period. And (almost) all of the clues were right there in front of us. Why was it sub-textual instead of clearly there in the text? I have three thoughts on that. One is that I think that D&D miscalculated in thinking that viewers and even die-hard fans would over-analyze the series like they had in the past looking for answers. That simply was just not going to happen since this was the final season and viewers expected definitive answers.

I did analyze (and over-analyze) everything having to do with Arya and Gendry’s arc and this is what I’ve come up with… you may or may not agree. I think it’s pretty clear, however, when taking in all of the following that Arya and Gendry were wed when Game of Thrones came to a close.

A Wedding Foreshadowed

The Fruitful Mother

Cloak of Protection

What Gendry Knows

That's Not Me

Life Versus Death

A Gift To No One

His Wife

Third Time's The Charm

She Begins Where He Ends

She Wore His Colors

The Ship That Was Promised

Circles and Secrets

To the End of the World

Happily Ever After

Below the cut (because this sucker is long) I break down all of the above.

A Wedding Foreshadowed

The night before what many thought was going to be their last day, Arya briefly joined the Hound on the parapets. This scene held significance or three reasons. Firstly, it set-up their conversation in the fifth episode, "The Bells," where the Hound once more fights for Arya. In that, his fight for her is his determination to turn her away from his path of dying for revenge and turn her towards living.

The second is one that had played throughout the season, how his story with Arya was connected to Gendry’s with Arya. When Arya first saw the Hound, Gendry came right behind him. When Arya first spoke to the Hound, it was in defense of Gendry, and Gendry was witness to their reunion. In the following episode, Gendry and the Hound discussed Arya, Gendry went to Arya, and her next scene was with the Hound, a thread of life and death, choosing life or death running through them.

Finally, Beric showed up and joined Arya and the Hound and spoke to Arya, in so many words, apologizing for how things ended with them. Viewers who remembered their history knew that his apology was for selling Gendry to Melisandre. The Hound’s question to Arya if Beric was another one on her list and her acknowledgement that he was for a short time was another nod to her history with Gendry.

And the nods to that history are important to note because of the Hound’s line when Beric first came upon them and the scene that played right after Arya left the “two miserable old shits.”

Oh, for fuck's sake, may as well be at a bloody wedding.

Three people in the cold, dark night in a castle of thousands and that is what he said… hmm. And right afterwards, Arya laid with Gendry for the first time.

The Fruitful Mother

Prior to the actual lovemaking—and yes, it was lovemaking. She had to have sent word to him where she was otherwise, he wouldn’t have known. It was Gendry that she wanted, period. Ahem… prior to the actual lovemaking, any type of sexual situation with Arya and Gendry happening was *obviously* going to happen in the forge. Because, you know, Gendry=the forge, thus the hashtag #forgesex was well associated with Arya and Gendry literally years before season 08.

In fact, even after Arya and Gendry actually had sex in some random storage room, their lovemaking is still referred to as forgesex. Here’s the thing, though, was it random? Where Arya and Gendry did the deed was on sacks of grain. Why not in the forge? Arya had already gone and sought her weapon once before. Wouldn’t it have made sense for her to go looking for that weapon yet again as an excuse {wink*wink} to see Gendry in the conveniently empty forge for… wait for it! …. Forgesex! Actual forgesex.

Nope, instead, they were in a storage room filled with sacks of grain. Yes, grain. Hmm. And what does grain make one think of? Harvesting, and digging deeper, we can look at mythology and my mind automatically went to the Greek goddess of harvest, Demeter. Although, she is often described simply as thus, she also presided over the cycle of life and death. (See that section below). Around 205 BC, the worship of Demeter was merged with that of the Roman agriculture goddess Ceres. In Roman culture, married women were taught to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful Mother. By following these rites, it was believed that would help ensure a good harvest and increase the fertility of those who partook in the tradition.

So, instead of forgesex, we got grainsex. Grain=harvest and harvest=fertility, life, renewal, rebirth, many things that Arya eventually chooses for herself in the end and when this reference comes into play Gendry is literally joined with her in this particular process.

A reach, perhaps, admittedly, but it’s yet another piece to add to the whole.

Cloak of Protection

Arya’s third and final scene in the second episode held yet another significant clue. Cloaks are a major symbol of marriage in Westeros. During weddings, a bride wears a cloak of her house (called “the maiden’s cloak”) and during the ceremony, the maiden’s cloak is removed and the groom places a cloak of his house and colors upon her shoulders. This signifies her moving from one house to another and that his bride is now under the protection of her husband and his house. (Recall the humiliating situation that Tyrion found himself in when he was unable to place his cloak on Sansa during their wedding due to Joffrey having the stool removed.)

When Gendry came to Arya in the storage room with her weapon he was dressed up as nicely as we’ve ever seen him. Including wearing a cloak that featured, oh so coincidentally, the House Baratheon colors. (Nice, Gendry.) The fur was a burnished beige-ish gold and the rest of the material was black. And in that final scene when the two lay atop those sacks of grain in the aftermath of their lovemaking—while Arya was dealing with all of the feels she’d unleashed, she was covered by Gendry’s cloak, kept safe and warm from the cold.

Yes, indeed. A small thing, but yet another one.

What Gendry Knows

One of the most important scenes in Arya and Gendry’s story was when he chose to stay with the Brotherhood without Banners. He did so because he’d never had a family and he chose them for that chance to have one. Arya told him then that he could be her family, and in doing so she was telling him that she loved him. We know because Maisie Williams told us that she was directed to say that line like “I love you,” and that was the take that was used. Gendry’s response was that she wouldn’t be his family, she would be “milady.” Bluntly put, Arya offered herself to Gendry and he turned her down.

When Gendry proposed to Arya, it was a reverse of *that* scene. In other words, it put them on equal standing in absolutely every way. They are not only now both technically a lord and a lady, but they had both offered themselves to the other and been rejected in turn. Instead of saying “I love you” in so many words with “I can be your family,” as Arya did to Gendry, Gendry actually said the words. He told her, “I love you.” He said: “Be my wife.” He offered himself to her, and she turned him down.

So how is this a good thing and part of the Gendrya Wedded Belief? Well, since we had Gendry rejecting Arya, and Arya rejecting Gendry how does the narrative go? Third times the charm. When they next meet, the offer to be with one another will come again and this time it should be accepted. How do we know this for sure? Again… it was all there on the screen, in what was said. Gendry made it perfectly clear where he stood. He knows exactly what he wants. He always has. That has been a consistent with this character. This is what he told Arya before he got ahead of himself and made his drunken, clumsy proposal:

All I know is you’re beautiful and I love you and none of it will be worth anything if you’re not with me.

There was a reason this line was included in their scene. Especially that last part. “None of it will be worth anything if you’re not with me.” What was the point of that if it didn't matter? Everything, because *it did* matter. For Gendry, none of it is worth anything without Arya, so... he is going to give it up. We just didn't see it. Because, again, as I stated atop, D&D perhaps thought that fans would over-analyze like they had in the past and figure it out themselves.

And so the pile keeps growing.

That’s Not Me

First off, let’s get the meaning of Arya’s infamous "That’s not me," out of the way. The full conversation was essentially about gender inequality.

Arya: [Bran] wants to be a knight of the Kingsguard. He can't be one now can he? Ned: No, but someday he could be lord of a holdfast or sit on the king's council or he could raise castles like Bran the Builder. Arya: Can I be lord of a holdfast? Ned: You will marry a high lord and rule his castle. And your sons shall be knights, and princes, and lords. Arya: No, that's not me.

So, yeah, Ned—as great a father as he was—essentially told Arya, yeah, you're just going to be some man's property and pop out his babies. THAT is why Arya said, "that's not me." So when Gendry (drunkenly and thus stupidly) phrased his proposal as he did, he put her right back in that position of just being a lord's wife who was expected to pop out his babies, and, no, that is not her.

However, that's not who he wants. He has zero interest in a lady like that because he's most definitely not a lord like that. However, he didn't say any of that, instead he just asked her to be his lady and so she kissed him sweetly and softly and she told him that he would be a wonderful lord and any lady would be lucky to have him. She did that because she wants him to be happy, and, yes, because she does love him. You could see that written all over her. She loves him so much, it was shining all over her face, radiating from her very being.

That's not the only reason she said no, though. Once she had made her decision to tell him no, it was only at that point that she allowed herself to show him her love—thus his confusion. Prior to that moment though, when Gendry told Arya that he loved her and proposed, she looked terrified. And that made perfect sense.

Think of how the episode began. She had lain fire down on a funeral pyre for a man who had sacrificed himself to save her life. She felt the pain of that after being numb for so long, Arya had only recently begun to allow herself to begin to feel again. Feelings that include pain. She's not ready for that. Compounded by that, she doesn't want Gendry getting hurt or dying. She never wants to feel that pain. So, she's going back to the numb persona from her years on her own, before she saw Gendry again.

Plus, she had made her decision to go to King's Landing and finish her list. Arya was going to kill Cersei Lannister and she didn't expect to survive. So how could she tell Gendry she would marry him if she was planning on dying? She couldn't. So she fell back on her old stand-by. She wasn't a lady, not in words, not in action. It just hadn't occurred to her that Gendry wasn't a lord in words or actions either.

But it will, because Gendry isn't going to remain drunk forever. He knows Arya, and he's going to figure out where he went wrong—especially because she pretty much spelled it out for him. He doesn't want a lady like she described. That's not him.

Life Versus Death

I mentioned in the first section about how the Hound’s story with Arya was connected to Gendry’s with Arya throughout all of season 08. It was because they represented opposite choices of her life going forth.

The Hound is death. Gendry is life.

It’s all tied up together. Gendry (life) chose to walk away from her all those years ago, and then Arya ran away and was captured by the Hound (death). In episode 04, Gendry (life) offered himself to her, but she chose to walk away and met up with the Hound (death).

This is the reason that Arya’s story was entangled with the Hound and Gendry all season long. And it absolutely was.

In her very first scene Arya saw the Hound and literally a few seconds later she saw Gendry. Of particular interest was that the Hound was on a BLACK horse and Gendry was on a WHITE horse. Throughout history, mythology and literature, black horses are often associated with death and darkness, while white horses are associated with peace, fertility and life.

When the Hound first saw Arya, Gendry was there, and of course, when Gendry first saw Arya, the Hound was present. This was in their reunion scenes with her that were literally combined. Gendry’s was just extended so that when the Hound was gone… Arya was still there with Gendry. Yes, again… when the Hound (who represented death) was gone, Gendry (who represented life) remained.

As mentioned in the first section, the night before the Battle of Winterfell, Arya left the Hound (and Beric who died during that battle to save Arya) to be with Gendry.

The Hound (of *all people*) told Gendry he should be celebrating life (with Arya)… not Davos, not Tormund, not Jon, but the Hound!

When Arya left Winterfell–and Gendry–she left on a BLACK horse and met up with the Hound. Remember when the Hound first arrived in Winterfell, he rode a black horse.

Arya left death and destruction behind her in King's Landing on a WHITE horse. Again, remember when Gendry first arrived in Winterfell, he rode a white horse.

Maisie Williams mentioned in her pre-season press tour that Arya would be torn and that is something that we hadn’t seen prior to episode 05. After episode 04, I had believed the struggle would be that Arya was torn between choosing death or life. And that is exactly what happened.

It eventually came down to Arya making the choice herself to walk away from death–which I believed that the Hound would push her to do–and choose life, and as I’ve pointed out, in many ways, Gendry equaled life just as the Hound equaled death. And that is what opened her eyes and did give that final push. As the Hound told her while the Red Keep was falling down around that them:

You think you’ve wanted revenge a long time? I’ve been after it all my life. It’s all I care about and look at me. LOOK AT ME! You want to be like me? You come with me, you die here.

This is what David Benioff said about the scene itself in “Inside the Episode” right after the show aired.

It’s a small scene, but it’s also, for us, one of the most important scenes in the whole episode because it’s the culmination of their story together. The road to vengeance always ends in one place. Which is what the Hound is saying to her here. "I’ve made my choice a long time ago, and this can only end in one possible way for me. But for you, you have so many other options.

The Hound has genuinely come to have affection for Arya. I think he loves her, as much as he’s capable of loving someone. And he knows that if she comes with him at this point, she’s not going to make it out of there.

And here’s where we go back to the section above. Arya knew that that she wouldn’t get out alive too. After she turned down Gendry’s proposal–in my analysis, rejecting life–and joined the Hound on the road to King’s Landing to kill Cersei, expecting to lose her life in the process, she rode a black horse.

After listening to Sandor’s words, after choosing to let Cersei die by a means other than her hand, running through the streets of death and chaos, she fought to live, fighting to try and help others live. She survived because the God of Death declared that no, my former pupil, death was not happening, not today, Arya Stark stood amidst all of that death and she stood in the light. The sun shone upon her and she saw a way out of that darkness, away from all of that death, back to life. She saw a white horse.

And she rode on that white horse away from death. To life? To Gendry? I think so. Why? Well, that brings me to another couple of key scenes that led me to my Gendrya Wedded Belief: the first and last scene with the Hound.

In the first scene, Gendry and the Hound were at the feast celebrating the North’s victory over the undead–Arya’s victory. And, of course, Arya was nowhere to be found.

Gendry: Have you seen Arya? The Hound: You can still smell the burning bodies and that's where your head is at? Gendry: I just want to thank her– The Hound: I'm sure you do. Gendry: Look, it’s not about that. The Hound: Of course, it's about that, you twat. Why shouldn't it be? The dead are dead. You're not.

The Hound made it pretty clear that he was well aware that Gendry wanted to *be* with Arya and when Gendry tried to deny it, the Hound called him on it and, surprisingly, pointed out that it was exactly what he should be doing. Now, let’s make this clear. Gendry wanted to celebrate LIFE with *Arya* and the Hound flat-out told him that such was exactly the thing he should be doing.

Contrast this with the final conversation the Hound had in the episode.

Arya: You're heading to King's Landing. The Hound: I have some unfinished business. Ayra: Me too. The Hound: I don't plan on coming back. Arya: Neither do I.

So, there we had the show using the Hound to illustrate that *Gendry* is life as Gendry wanted to celebrate life with Arya–who you remember was “celebrating” by shooting arrows at a target–and on the opposite spectrum, that Arya had indeed once more chosen to pursue death. Therefore, the conclusion to draw from those scenes that bookended one another so beautifully—when taking into account that Arya did choose life in the next episode—is that in choosing life, she will choose Gendry.

Gendry came riding into Winterfell on a white horse. The Hound rode a black horse. Arya left Winterfell and headed to King’s Landing on a black horse, expecting, intending to die. The Hound did die, Arya lived, and rode out of King’s Landing on a white horse.

The Hound is death. Gendry is life.

Arya chose Gendry. Just because we didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Everything added up to such is exactly what did indeed happen.

A Gift To No One

Now, taking all of the above into account, the Arya and the tangling of Gendry and the Hound–which just had to be deliberate because it was so meticulously crafted–this little bit of tidbit gave further credence to my Gendrya Wedded Belief. In early Spring of 2018, D&D helped create a new Spotify playlist: Game of Thrones: The End Is Coming. Upon doing so, they told For the Record in an email:

The answer to the ending is one hundred percent hidden in the playlist choices. No one will believe us, but it’s true.

One particular song caught my attention specifically because of a video on the official Game of Thrones YouTube channel. It’s title: Game of Thrones | Season 8 Episode 5 | The Hound’s Gift (HBO). The description of the video is: "Maisie Williams explains Arya’s choice."

Why *this* was interesting is because prior to that episode I had been going on quite a bit about Arya having to make a choice between life and death. I had even written a post before episode 04 titled “Arya’s choice.” That one essentially revolved around much of what the previous section here entailed. In the video Williams was talking about the "gift" that the Hound gives Arya.

This is a really important moment, the Hound realizing that “I don’t think this kid knows what she’s gonna get into.” And turning around and giving her this incredible gift, which is the second ticket to a new life.

He’s wanted revenge his entire life, and do you wanna be like him? “Is that what you want?” Just a moment in Arya where all those emotions that she’s been trying to suppress and trying to ignore and trying to focus on the task at hand all bubble up again, and this man who she cares so much about and has learned so much from and admires so much turned around and says ‘You don’t want this. You—you go.’ She realizes there is another way. There is another life that she could have.

Breaking down what she said, it obviously lined up completely with where I had seen her arc going. Arya stepped away from her whole list-friendly, emotionless persona and having Sandor basically tell her that she doesn't want to be a miserable old shit like him was a real wake-up call.

Her first “ticket” to life was obviously the coin from Jaqen Hagar. This was her second, and getting that from the Hound who had seen and been through so much with Arya, as well as seeing the devastating horror of rampant death and destruction all around her brought that message home loud and clear. She doesn't want that life, his life. That life which is death. She is choosing now to take what she wants. And what does she want? Well, that brings me to that Game of Thrones Spotify list and those clues that D&D talked about.

While going through the songs, and having watched this particular video clip the day before, I was pretty damn shook when I got to the end of “No One Knows” By Queens of the Stone Age. Here are the complete lyrics. However, what I want to focus on is the chorus and the outro as we close out the song.

[Chorus]

And I realize you're mine Indeed a fool am I And I realize you're mine Indeed a fool am I

[Outro]

Heaven smiles above me What a gift here below But no one knows A gift that you give to me No one knows

That’s right.

What a gift here below / but no one knows / A gift that you give to me / No one knows

The Hound gave Arya a gift. Arya was No One.

No one knows a gift that you give to me. The Hound gave No One (Arya) a gift (life). And what had the show made clear—as I’ve already shown? Gendry represents life. What happened prior to Arya choosing life, she had rejected Gendry’s proposal because she was choosing death.

Now look at the chorus again.

And I realize you’re mine / Indeed a fool am I / And I realize you’re mine / Indeed a fool am I

Arya’s choice. As Maisie Williams said, Arya would be torn during the season. She was torn between choosing life and death. Arya made her choice. Life. Sure, life doesn’t necessarily mean Gendry… but so much points to that it does, doesn’t it? It’s just all adding up.

His Wife

Quite a few people noticed this one. While Arya was reeling through the destruction of King’s Landing, trying to get out of there alive, she ran into someone who looked vaguely familiar. He wasn’t a character we knew; he was just a random citizen of King’s Landing who was desperately trying to survive, and more importantly, he was desperately trying to find his wife.

Why he looked familiar to so many is because, quite frankly, he looked like Gendry from earlier seasons before he’d cut his hair from when he and Arya had traveled together in their youth. There were countless tweets and comments on Tumblr about how much this guy looked like him. That was interesting enough, I mean, of all actors to cast in this small role, they cast someone who has the same coloring and hairstyle as Gendry opposite Arya from when they were together before. (Although, really, the man didn’t look all that much like him. It was just that in the quick flash of time we saw him in the chaos, the similarity to Gendry is what was striking.)

However, we then get to the why of the scene at all? Why have a guy who looks so much like the Gendry of old—the Gendry that Arya first fell in love with (per Maisie Williams)—grab onto Arya in the midst of all this madness as if to momentarily ground her and ask for his wife? It’s almost like it’s a reminder that the last time Arya saw Gendry, it was that he asked her to marry him!

But, wait, there’s more! This Gendry-look-alike’s wife’s name is Alanna. OK… and? Well, you know, Alanna sounds quite similar to Lyanna. As in Lyanna Stark, Arya’s aunt, the one that Arya is compared to quite a bit in the books—if not in the series, but there are quite a bit crossover book readers/show watchers. Oh, and Lyanna also just happened to be the woman that Robert Baratheon—that would be Gendry’s father—was in love with.

Yeah. A reach, maybe. But it’s yet *another* reach and if you keep on reaching, eventually you’re going to get your target. We’ve been reaching quite a bit.

Third Time's The Charm

So, despite everything in the narrative pointing to Arya choosing Gendry, the offer presented and accepted this third time, it didn’t happen. In fact, there was just a blip of interaction between the two in their “scene” in the final episode. That scene was in the Dragonpit where they were surrounded by others and basically didn’t actually interact at all. All that happened is that after Arya threatened Yara, we got a clear focus on Gendry’s reaction which many a fan interpreted as ‘Yup, that’s my murder bae!'

OK, I’m half-joking here, however, they did make a point of including Gendry reacting differently to her threat than everyone else, and his look did rather read like, ‘she’s so cool.’ And Gendry was looking over at her, making sure that he got a good, nice view. So, what was the point of that? Really, what was it? I can’t think of any other than to remind viewers that, yes, Gendry still has the feelings for Arya.

Despite what she told him to do, he sure isn’t ready to just move on. Nope. Of course, that was made clear in another way, sartorially-speaking. Gendry is the fourth male (now) legitimate Baratheon we’ve seen, and thus attired in the official House Baratheon garb. His, however, is the first to have claw marks on the shoulders slashing into the leather. Perhaps (as in, absolutely!) letting the world (as in, Arya) know that he belongs to a certain wolf. Outfitted as such, is it that much of a stretch of imagination that once the votes were cast, Gendry had a word with the newly-appointed King about his lack of qualifications to be the lord of Storm's End?

After all, Storm’s End clearly has been running fine without a lord there since Gendry showed up all nicely garbed. That is something we actually can be pretty certain of. How? Well, no one was lord there for quite some time which means a steward was probably in charge and quite capably so, definitely better than Gendry would be–again, he has literally zero no-how in the lord-ing department. We know all this about Storm’s End because we were literally told that by Daenerys when she legitimized Gendry. She asked (in so many words):

Hey, who’s running Storm’s End? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? No one knows? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Here, you! Yeah, you, kid who has zero experience, no-how, nothing, you can have it since your daddy was a big ole whore. No big. It makes me look good.

Oh, and speaking of that, not only was Gendry a Fleabottom-bastard-recently-made-legitimized lord with no lordly training, he was legitimized by the Mad Dragon Queen. There’s not going to be too many people who are going to be all in for this guy as the Lord Paramount of one of the biggest regions of Westeros for those two reasons alone.

Finally, remember, as he told Arya when he saw her after he was given the title and the lands and all of it:

None of it will be worth anything if you’re not with me.

They both survived the Battle of Winterfell. She survived the Battle of King’s Landing. And here they are meeting once again. Third time’s the charm.

She Begins Where He Ends

This is a very small thing, and may likely not mean anything at all, but… in the first episode, Arya saw Gendry in her first scene. He wasn’t looking at her, so he didn’t see the way she was looking at him, but she definitely saw him and she liked what she saw.

In Gendry’s last scene, he was looking at Arya. She wasn’t looking at him, so, like him in her first scene, she didn’t see the way he was looking at her, but,he definitely saw her and he liked what he saw.

Again, a small thing, but that bookend of their scenes—Arya’s first was her looking at Gendry, admiring him, and his was looking at Arya, admiring her—had a lovely symmetry to it.

Another reach? Sure, but they add up.

She Wore His Colors

In the first and second episode of the final season, Arya is wearing a cute capelet (her version of a cloak) and the colors are those of House Stark: Grey with the fur, a mixed shade of grey and white. In the final episode, when she tells her family that she is going West of Westeros and when we see her on the bow of her ship, she is wearing a similar capelet. There is a very distinct difference, however.

The material of the capelet is now black, and the fur is a beige-ish gold color. You may recognize those colors as described above from the “Cloak of Protection” section. They are the colors of House Baratheon. Also from that section:

Cloaks are a major symbol of marriage in Westeros. During weddings, a bride wears a cloak of her house (called “the maiden’s cloak”) and during the ceremony, the maiden’s cloak is removed and the groom places a cloak of his house and colors upon her shoulders. This signifies her moving from one house to another and that his bride is now under the protection of her husband and his house.

In addition to the capelet now bearing House Baratheon colors, the prominence of her dagger and sheathe—both golden in color—highlight even more so the gold of House Baratheon next to the black of the capelet (cloak) that she is wearing. (Here’s a comparison of the colors.)

In other words, after seeing Gendry at the Dragonpit—after seeing Gendry upon deciding to choose life—the very next time we see Arya, she is wearing his House colors. Arya Stark is no longer wearing the colors of House Stark, instead she is wearing the colors of House Baratheon. The only time a maiden wears the cloak of a house other than their own is when they join that house which they do… by marrying into that house.

Arya doesn’t generally follow the rules, but, again… added to everything else, yeah.

The Ship That Was Promised

This is another reach admittedly, but I think it maybe, might (probably doesn’t) mean something. Arya and Gendry are two characters who were both connected with ships/boats coming and going by the end of the series. Yes, you had the Greyjoys, but they were about the sea, ships in general. And other related characters, who were seaworthy (Davos, for instance), but again, it was in generalities. But with Arya, the fourth season ended on her on the ship leaving Westeros and then arriving on that same ship in Braavos in season 05. It was an important part of her journey, partially, because when she left Westeros, she was essentially leaving Arya Stark behind her.

The same was the case for Gendry. When he left our screens for an extended absence of time, it was on a boat and normally such a thing wouldn’t be a big deal. However, Gendry on a boat became quite the meme; it even made it onto the show when he returned. ("Thought you might still be rowing.")

Now, Arya is embarking on an extended journey on a sea vessel, just like Gendry. Once again, the two are on similar paths. Yeah, it’s a small thing, and likely this one really doesn’t mean anything, but it caught my attention.

Circles and Secrets

This is for the book readers mostly and could honestly be one of the reasons why we didn’t get the definitive, ‘yes, Arya and Gendry are married.' Although, we did get the well-known quote from the first episode from Robert to Ned:

I have a son, you have a daughter. We'll join our houses.

Arya and Gendry being wed is definitely the payoff to that line. However, D&D simply did not seed the parallels between Arya/Gendry and Robert/Lyanna that are lain throughout the books into the television series, so that payoff that will almost definitely be there in ASOIAF just wouldn’t land in the show even with that line from the Pilot.

Here's the thing, Gendry and Arya are essentially the getting-it-right version of Robert Baratheon and Lyanna Stark. Gendry is strong, stubborn, handsome like his father, but he’s also good and loyal and knows to treat his Northern lady with respect and love for exactly who she is. Arya is strong, willful, beautiful like her aunt, but she’s also loyal and steady and would never betray her vows, her home and leave the rest of the world to destroy itself.

Robert and Lyanna began this story and it ended quite badly. I think that George R.R. Martin–with all of his foreshadowing and seed-dropping (I mean, he wrote a love song for Arya and Gendry) intends for them to *finish* this story happily. Arya and Gendry joining the Stark and Baratheon Houses brings the story full circle. They are the ship that is promised.

Now as for the couple that got it wrong, let's talk about Lyanna for a bit. As I mentioned above, it didn't happen much in the show, but in the books, there are quite a few comparisons between Arya and her Aunt Lyanna. And what did her Aunt Lyanna do? She defied convention and ran off with a married man, an enemy of her family, left her betrothed in the dust and secretly wed him. Now, obviously all of Westeros didn’t know this. They believed that she had been kidnapped, but Lyanna damn well knew what she had done. And a war—and so, so, so much more happened—because of her actions.

While the circumstances aren't the same, if Gendry did give up his wardenship and Storm’s End (I doubt he would have given up the legitimacy) to be with Arya, that would have caused quite a stir. Arya marrying him despite him doing so might cause an even bigger stir of its own. And, naturally, she wouldn’t want the fuss of all of that, so a secret wedding may have taken place… but again, it’s something that we didn’t see.

Because as I stated above, Arya doesn’t follow the rules. That’s not her. So, yes, I could absolutely see Arya deciding to follow in her aunt's footsteps and marrying Gendry, who like her, was officially a noble in name only and ready and happy to just live an unencumbered life without restrictions.

So we didn’t see it happen on the show, but all signs point to it happening in between the Dragonpit meeting and her telling her family that she was going West of Westeros. Again, a reach? I don’t think so. I just don’t.

To the End of the World

After Arya and Gendry re-connected in the first episode, Maisie Williams said something very interesting in one of the “Behind the Scenes” clips about Arya’s feelings for Gendry.

I think for Arya, it's remembering who she was before. Like, I used to be that girl and that's who I was in love with and thought I would follow to the end of the World.

As the series ends and when we last see Arya, where is she going? West of Westeros. Yes, West of Westeros, which as far as anyone knows, yup, that is the end of the World.

Interesting turn of phrase used in retrospect, isn’t it?

Happily Ever After

Yes, a bittersweet ending for a show like Game of Thrones was always in the cards. However, I find it hard to believe that not one Stark, hell, not one main character received a romantic endgame after eight seasons! Sam and Gilly did, but (a) Sam is a supporting character and (b) the resolution of their love story (i.e., the two coming together as a pair and staying as such) was back in season 05.

So, yes, not one of our main characters got a happy, romantic endgame... except for possibly Arya Stark. She is the only one who had a love story that developed during the season and with someone with which the foundation was there. The seeds of the endgame nature of her love story with Gendry was essentially planted in the Pilot with Robert's line to Ned about their children that never had pay-off in the series. (But definitely will in the books!)

With everything else that happened between the two, all of the subtext, the costume points of reference and the behind the scenes interviews and quotes, well, I think it does add up to Arya indeed being that one character who got her full-on happily ever after.

I mentioned the D&D GOT Spotify playlist above. There are a few other songs that clearly reference Arya and Gendry (”Howlin’ For You,” "No One Knows" (already referenced), "Killer Wolf," "The Time is Now," "Devil's Spoke" (possibly). Now, there is one more song that screams an Arya/Gendry endgame with references to wolves and packs and howling winds (a.k.a. the fury of a storm). It’s about a youth who’s lost to the wild, but brought back to humanity by love. A restlessness remains, but a wolf can never be tamed. Still....

Here are some key phrases (Here are the full lyrics) ...

I heard my mother shouting through the fog / It turned out to be the howling of a dog / Or a wolf to be exact / The sound sent shivers down my back / But I was drawn into the pack

When suddenly a girl wandered aimlessly /But she didn't seem to see / She was listenin’ for the angels just like me

So I took her by the arm / We settled down upon a farm / And raised our children up as gently as you pleased / And now my fur has turned to skin / And I've been quickly ushered in / To a world that I confess I do not know

But I still dream of running careless through the snow / An' through the howlin' winds that blow / Across the ancient distant flow / It fill our bodies up like water till we know

There’s another very key thing to bear in mind that I found quite, quite interesting. The song is called “Furr.” That title clearly references the narrator (a male, but still, clearly in this case would be Arya) being a wolf. The group name is Blitzen Trapper. Blitzen is, of course, famously known as one of the reindeer who pulled Santa’s sleigh. Yes, science has now proven that all of Santa’s reindeer were likely female as male reindeer shed their antlers in December, however, it is highly unlikely that when the tale was first told that such was known therefore we’re going with the original conception that Blitzen is indeed male. And since Blitzen is known as a male reindeer, well, another name for a male deer is a… stag.

So, not only does the song itself alone howl to the winds an Arya and Gendry endgame (it really, really, REALLY does) but the group name + the song title + the meaning of the song literally = The Stag caught the Wolf with his love.

Yeah. Arya and Gendry... Endgame.

In Conclusion…

Over and over I repeated that some of these were a reach, were small things, that they didn’t mean much and I don’t deny that, however… when you add them all up, put them all together, well, it makes quite a compelling argument, I do believe. All of these things are parallels and hints and bits and pieces that when woven together make a very clear picture, and I do think they prove that Arya and Gendry were wed by the time Arya’s ship set sail at series’ end. We just didn't see it happen.

But, but, but… why not make it clear that Arya and Gendry were together in the end? Give us something obviously concrete. The quick conversation between Gendry and Bran, that secret wedding (similar to the Lyanna/Rhaegar one) or… or… at least Gendry on her bed in the cabin as she was getting dressed in the final scenes. Something!

Well, I mentioned one theory at the top. Another is that because D&D saw it so clearly in their minds they didn’t feel there was a need to because all of the signposts were there that they felt the audience would know it was going to happen. We all know how D&D are... they figure the audience will fill in the obvious blanks. Such as how we didn't need to see Arya and Sansa's reaction to finding out who Jon really was. Or Jaime and Bran's initial meeting. Or... or... or... (You know, fill in your blanks...)

However, I don’t think that’s the case because if it were, D&D would have maybe confirmed the two were wed by now. Instead, honestly, I think that they didn’t want it to be concrete. Maybe they deliberately went with the leaving it open for analysis to have it both ways. A single Arya for those wanting her off sailing free and unencumbered by love because “that’s not her,” but also playing fair for those who want the love story to read the clues into the well-lain narrative of a happily-ever-after with Gendry.

Now, there is a third possibility, and this is actually the one that makes the most sense in light of the decisions made with wardrobe, with interviews, with the Spotify playlist, with the Hound=death/Gendry=life, etc. HBO didn’t want Arya to have a definitive romantic endgame in leave their options open for an Arya Stark spin-off. Honestly, that would explain a lot of the narrative decisions that all seemed to lead to a very clear Arya and Gendry happily-ever-after endgame.

And everything with Arya—with Gendry—pointed to that happening for her and for them. D&D would have written, planned everything out most likely before HBO might have put a little whisper in their ear. Since Arya is the only one that allows for a spin-off that would work without any other Game of Thrones actor (aside from Maisie Williams, of course) it makes sense that they would prefer that such a definitive endgame not happen for that specific character. Alas.

If that is what happened, it doesn’t change the fact that all of the other key points leading up to that definitive endgame *were* indeed in place. Furthermore, until such a spin-off potentially happens nothing says that Arya and Gendry didn't get married. So… Gendry Baratheon and Arya Stark Baratheon, lord and lady in name only, sailing the high seas, living their best lives.

It all adds up; nothing contradicts this theory. It works for me, how about you?

(This was originally posted at GOT_TheUnbroken.)

#arya x gendry #gendrya #arya stark #gendry baratheon #game of thrones #my babies are married

80 notes · View notes

angel-deux-writes · 4 years

Text

Now that Honor Compels Me is finally done, I wanted to do a round-up of all the things I remember that made me say “I feel like I need to tell someone what almost happened here” or “I should probably explain this later lol”, along with my reasons for cutting the last few chapters/what would have happened in them. It’s prob going to be very long, which I apologize for, but I’ll bold the headings so that you can skip to the parts you’re interested in!

I’ll reblog it and add more as I think of them, but for now:

Dark Dany: VERY originally, like way back in the OG plotline from 2017, Dany was an antagonist, and Margaery Tyrell was Robb’s queen. Dany would have died fighting Cersei in Kings Landing, with the same result (Cersei was ALWAYS going to go out by wildfire lmao). I changed it both because a) it seemed like too many Conveniently Alive people for one story and b) after the shitty ending Dany got, I decided I would try my hand at writing a Dany I could actually root for! For years I’ve been a big proponent/fan of the idea that Dany is eventually going to be an antagonist in the books, but the way it was handled in the show was so irredeemably stupid (gassing her up and gaslighting/scolding her fans later who didn’t see it coming, making her switch at the drop of a hat for the majority of the general audience just for the sake of a twist, etc). I ended up really loving the version of Dany I created. I tried not to soften her TOO much, which is why I had her wrestle with herself even up to the very end (like thinking “I won” after the explosion in Kings Landing and hating herself for it). I didn’t want all the flaws that make me not support canon Dany to disappear just because I started to like her! I do think that writing this story made me like Dany more overall. I still don’t support her canon actions, and I also probably won’t in the books, but I came to find her more compelling as I wrote her. I’m a lot less afraid to write her now than I have been in the past, though I’ll continue to add warnings to all my stories that feature Dark Dany, bc yall Dany stans have been through enough.

More Death: At various points Dany, Theon, Bran, and Arya were going to die.

Dany was already pointed out.

I had Theon die in the Long Night in the plot outline just out of laziness/in keeping with canon, until I remembered that Redemption = Death is stupid and I wasn’t gonna do it.

Bran was going to die after warging into Drogon and being caught in the explosion of the Red Keep. That actually stayed in until a few weeks ago! I told a bunch of people that Bran was going to die! It was the plan all along! And then I realized that “somebody has to die” was a shitty way of looking at it, and I changed it. I think a lot of this process of changing things was me trying to write what I thought people wanted vs what story I actually wanted to tell. Sure it’s a little fairy tale ending this way, but it’s my story, and who cares? Happy endings are nice. Fuck off.

Arya...I probably wouldn’t have ever actually gone through with it, because I am a coward, but there was an idea of a VERY heavy-handed “revenge is bad” message with Arya where Arya was much more savage and instead of turning back into Arya, she was turning farther and farther away from her. She couldn’t reconcile with the Lannisters, she rejected her bonds with her family. In the end she would be unable to let go of her list, would refuse to grow and change and realize that she had other things to live for, and she would have set off one of Qyburn’s traps in the Red Keep, igniting the whole thing, killing Drogon and Rhaegal (and Bran) and leading to the deaths of thousands. AGAIN I was like “that’s too dark” and scrapped the idea, but it was definitely toyed with. I love Arya as a character, so this plotline for her would have definitely been more a reaction to fans of her who seem to want her to hold on to that vengeful seed inside of her.

Prophecies: Listen, I do not give a fuck about any prophecies. I really don’t. Every fantasy universe has some kind of involved backstory that some fans love to get mired in, but I am not one of those fans. Still, I tried to deliver on two of them lmao.

Azor Ahai ended up being Jaime, with Ice/Oathkeeper and Maiden’s Heart being Lightbringer. Originally, I had Brienne killing the Night King, without any thought to the prophecy at all, but that was another case of “people will like it if Brienne kills the Night King” and I realized that I would like it better if it was Jaime. I’m not sure how it checks out literally, but I figured it worked with a) tempering in water = splitting Ice. b) heart of a lion = Jaime’s change of heart after the Highgarden Battle. c) Nissa Nissa = Brienne’s “maiden’s heart” breaking during the Highgarden Battle. It was Brienne who did the stabbing, but it was Jaime who made it happen, so I figured that made sense. I made sure to mention Brienne’s tears and all the smoke when Jaime was wounded, so he could be “reborn amidst salt and smoke” or whatever, and I had Bran mention a rebirth for him in the next chapter. Which was maybe a little on the nose, but IDK GUYS I FEEL LIKE IT CHECKS OUT!

I know the show never dove into the Valonqar prophecy at all, and I think we all know that I absolutely HATE the idea of Jaime being the Valonqar, so I would rather not think about it AT ALL. But Bran AND Rhaegal were both kind of responsible for Cersei’s death in the end, so take your pick of which Little Brother actually did the deed!

Deleted Chapters: I promise you, you are not missing anything with these deleted chapters. They were always messy, and no matter how many times I edited them, they felt too forced and “now let me explain the ending”.

Sansa: Sansa’s chapter followed Jaime’s and was primarily about her going to Robb and Dany and the three of them talking about the future of Westeros. The Dany/Robb conversation about it was originally absent--the last Robb chapter was added to fill in the gaps when I deleted this and the other chapters--so this would have been the first time it was discussed. It then would have had a time jump and a wedding scene, which I could never make work! It was such a jarring time jump in the middle of a chapter, and I didn’t think the wedding was particularly exciting to write about lmao.

Tyrion: Tyrion’s chapter would have been Dany being crowned and announcing to everyone that she and her people are going to be dismantling the monarchy and setting up a new government. I think I had her give a period of a few years in which she and Robb would rule, but they were going to be transitioning governments in that time. Kind of the same idea as in What a King Should Look Like. Bronn also showed up, DID in fact get a minor holdfast, and was mocked by both Lannisters for bowing out before he could have earned himself a better one. Olenna found some bastard daughter to legitimize and continue her house.

Brienne: Brienne’s arc was a lot more drawn out in the original draft, and I ended up editing it a few times and making it shorter. VERY originally, this chapter would have been her wedding with Jaime, at which she has the “wow he actually loves me, huh?” realization. Which I thought was funny as I plotted it out, but in execution it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, so I moved the realization to an earlier chapter. The original was also going to be Jaime giving up his name entirely, and Brienne cloaking him, but as we have discussed before, I am in fact a coward, so I just deleted the whole chapter lmao. In all seriousness, at this point the endings just felt like Return of the King, and Into the West was actually the chosen song for this chapter, because I knew even as I was writing it that I was doing Too Much lmao.

Robb: Robb’s last chapter was essentially just a total wrap up chapter. Just Robb and Dany being sappy, Robb being happy he was still alive, and the two of them planning the future. They were at Riverrun for this part, i’m pretty sure, or it might have been Dragonstone? I had trouble even filling this chapter with enough words for it to be a full chapter, because it was basically just an epilogue. As the story progressed, this chapter felt more and more like I was just performing to the “Robb’s Alive” crowd, which I didn’t particularly want to do, because Robb being alive was always a feature, not the focus, of this story.

That’s all the stuff I can think of for now! If anyone has any particular questions you can message me or inbox me about them and I’d be happy to talk about it!

#angel does nanowrimo #honor compels me #this is maybe Too Much but idk here you go in case anyone wants it!!

48 notes · View notes

razberryyum · 5 years

Video

The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 2 (spoilers for everything)

(covers MDZS chaps 6 - 10 and a bit of 13)

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other)

I always tell people when I’m trying to get them to watch The Untamed that when they get to this particular scene in the second episode, they’ll know if they will be into the show. To me, this is the game-changer moment: you’re either in or out after this. If this scene doesn’t emotionally move you enough to at least continue on with the drama, nothing else will. It is seriously one of the most romantic scenes I have ever seen captured on screen. This was the moment that made me realize not only was I now fully committed to CQL, but that I had also found a new obsession and was ready to devote myself to Mo Dao Zu Shi. After all, something that can lead to the creation of such a beautiful scene MUST hold other invaluable treasures. So into the MDZS rabbit hole I went, happily diving head first.

Even now I’m still amazed that this scene exists in the intact form that it does. I started The Untamed with little to no expectations, especially knowing the restrictions it was under AND having just finished Guardian and experiencing how poor creative decisions can arise due to censorship (or at least, using that as an excuse for their dumb story choices). As I mentioned previously, the first episode was a hard sell since they definitely did not put their best foot forward first, but I liked Xiao Zhan immediately and Wei Wuxian as a character was interesting enough that I wanted to learn more about his past that led to his death and rebirth. The small glimpses we saw of his relationship with Lan Zhan also fascinated me, but then with this second episode, the weak points of the pilot still remained: there was still bad CGI (the statue) and very amateurish technical mistakes (in the recognition scene, at one point, in a close-up shot they’re holding onto each other, but in the next far away backside shot they’re clearly standing apart from each other, only to return to holding each other once again once the camera cuts back to a close-up...whoever the editor is on CQL probably should dunk their head in the toilet every time these editing errors pop up) that made my initial viewing of this episode a frustrating one for most of its runtime. I think I spent most of my initial viewing just distracted, playing on my phone or something, until the big WangXian moment happened and then I was shocked and awed. I know I wasn’t paying close attention that first time because when I rewatched the episode later on, I realized I missed a lot of dialogue and details. I have since revisited this second episode numerous times more, and I do feel bad about how dismissive I was initially. It’s a pretty loaded episode: it has funny, poignant, creepy, mysterious, and cool moments while still feeding us bits of the overarching plot. I definitely have developed an affection for it since my first viewing and it’s become one of my favorite episodes in the series.

Of Pining & other Heart-achy Things

This simple line from Jiang Cheng is enough to make my eyes well up with tears: I can’t help but imagine Lan Zhan traveling around the world for sixteen years, most likely all alone, stopping at different places to play Inquiry, fervently hoping that maybe one day he’ll finally receive an answering chord from Wei Ying, only to be confronted by a deafening silence again and again and again. How utterly sad and disappointed he must have been every time, and yet still, he never gave up and just went to the next location to do the same thing and experience the same heavy disappointment all over again. If that doesn’t make your heart ache, I’m sorry to tell you, your heart is no longer functional.

It’s a detail I don’t remember if the novel covered, but I’m assuming that Lan Zhan was the one to bring Wei Ying’s inventions like the spirit attraction flag and the compass back to Gusu and incorporate them for use in his sect’s normal cultivation practices. I know other people have use his tools as well since that nameless cultivator at the start of the episode was also using the spirit compass, but I feel that with Lan Wangji, he probably purposefully acquired and adapted WWX’s techniques so that every time they’re used, they can serve as a reminder of Wei Ying for him. Though it does make me wonder how Lan Zhan managed to get those approved by his uncle; I can’t imagine Lan Qiren being ok with using anything that was created by the man whom he blames for the corruption of his beloved nephew and model student. Did LWJ just pretend he created them instead? That doesn’t even sound right. Maybe Uncle Lan decided to be merciful and just let Lan Zhan win this one since he was probably obviously miserable after Wei Ying’s death. Yeah, I can buy that scenario, especially since the flag and compass are pretty useful tools.

I wondered did LWJ already suspect “Mo Xuanyu” was Wei Ying before he started playing Wuji on his flute. It’s curious that he happened to be in that part of the forest at that time. I’m guessing his Wei Ying senses were tingled when he heard about Mo Xuanyu’s skills from Sizhui and the boys so that’s why he was hanging around the vicinity just in case MXY reveals his true identity. After waiting 16 years for this reunion, it’s no wonder Lan Zhan had no qualms about holding onto WWX’s wrist in public for much longer than socially appropriate.

I actually get a little emotional every time I rewatch this episode and watch Jin Ling display his mad archery skills because I would always think of how much he takes after his dad. His parents would’ve been so proud to see him all grown up like this; Shijie would’ve been so happy she probably would get teary-eyed as well every time she saw her boy in action. Sure, he’s a spoiled little princess, but he is also a pretty skilled princess with a heart of gold and I just wish they had more time together as a family.

They looked so happy, look at all those smiles. It really makes me so sad that Wei Ying will probably never be able to hug JC like that again, and of course he’ll never be able to hug Shijie period. Great now I want to cry again.

Lan Jingyi Appreciation Section

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this precious boy by name so far, so I wanted to take this opportunity to show him some much deserved love. Lan Jingyi with his resting bitch face and steady stream of snark was really the MVP of this episode. He actually made me laugh out loud a few times...in fact, he almost always makes me laugh as soon as he scrunches up his face like he’s smelling something bad. I recently saw someone mention that he’s really the most un-Lan of the Lans (sorry, I forgot who posted that so I apologies for not giving proper credit) and that is really the perfect description of him. I love this kid as much as I love Sizhui and Jin Ling, and I am also sincerely fascinated by him. I mean, who raised him in the Gusu Lan sect? Cuz I cannot imagine Lan Qiren being the one since Jingyi undoubtedly would’ve had all his snark driven out of him at an early age. Hell, the amount of disciplinary action he probably had to have gone through would’ve probably killed him at a young age. Did he join the sect when he was already fully formed so that’s why he’s still breaking Lan sect rules right and left? He threatened an old man and is like rude to everyone. I don’t know all 3000 rules but I’m pretty sure being mean to the elderly and insulting to supposedly mentally unstable people are probably not allowed. If anything, his disposition would make him more suitable for the Lanling Jin sect and yet he’s with the stuffy Lans. WHY? I could watch a whole spin-off series with just him and the other juniors as long as we get to learn about how he came to be with the Gusu Lan sect. He’s hilarious and adorable, and among the many the reasons why I wish we had more episodes for the present-day arc, one of them is because I wanted to spend more time with the juniors, especially Lan Jingyi, even if it meant the screenwriters would’ve had to go off book and create new scenes for them. It would’ve been well worth it to hear LJY throw more shade at people.

Random Bits of Randomness

It’s kinda crazy how WWX just stood there with his back turned, oblivious to Jin Ling’s attack. If Lan Zhan’s blade hadn’t blocked JL’s sword, that would’ve been the end of our main protagonist. I just thought that was such an odd scene...I would’ve felt just a little better if Wei Ying had at least had a little more awareness that an attack was heading for him and made some attempt to get out of the way.

Ugh, that mask. First of all it’s ugly AF, and secondly it’s so freaking ill-fitting it was distracting. Would’ve been nice if the production team gave him a mask that actually fit his face. I mean, did it HAVE to be THAT damn big? I’m amazed they don’t have bts clips of Xiao Zhan tripping and hurting himself because the stupid mask blocked his vision.

Other than being a brilliant mastermind and Oscar-worthy actor, Nie Huaisang has got to be one of the greatest cultivators if not THE greatest cultivator of all time to be able to conjure up an illusion like that. That thing was doing real damage to people. If it was just a phantom, what the heck was holding up those two cultivators in midair like that? And what kicked Jin Ling around? I know Wei Ying was able to drive people crazy with his flute during his Yiling Patriarch phase, but his handiwork still felt more grounded and reasonable than this.

Questions I still have (please feel free to answer them):

- Who was that old man at the grave? Someone NHS paid to just hang around the graves until the juniors and WWX came by?

- So NHS basically fucked up Yan’s entire family and God knows how many other people just to get WWX to eventually play his flute to lure Wen Ning out from wherever he was hiding?

- How did JGY not know Wen Ning escaped? Or did he just leave those details to Xue Yang so he didn’t really care about what happened to Wen Ning? I’m trying if this was addressed in the book but my mind is coming up empty. I don’t think it was brought up in the show though, or I just completely missed it.

Overall Episode Rating: 9 Lil Apples out of 10

#The Untamed #陈情令 #spoilers #Untamed Rewatch #WangXian #Mo Dao Zu Shi #CQL #MDZS #魔道祖师 #Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Lan Zhan Lan Wangji #Wei Ying Wei Wuxian #Lan Jingyi #Jin Ling #Nie Huaisang #Jiang Yanli #Jin Zixuan #Jin Guangyao

111 notes · View notes

captainevans · 5 years

Note

Could you go into more detail re: your last post? I've been seeing so many reactions to what Steve did at the end of the movie and would love to hear your take on it because I'm desperate to hear from someone more level headed (and it seems like you definitely are). I've just seen a lot of people upset with/at Steve/Chris and need some reassurance lol. You can keep this private if you want or just make a separate post. Also hi, nice to meet you :)

I have been thinking about this all day, so I would be more than happy to elaborate for you! It’ll be under the cut.

It appears that the general arguments regarding Steve being out of character and not liking his ending is that he struggled for so long to put his past behind him, to find a place in the future with the family and friends he made, and by sending him back it compromised their future as well as Peggy’s and reduced her to simply a woman who stole Cap’s heart as opposed to this formidable force to be reckoned with and one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I don’t see it that way though. If anything, this is a Steve who failed and saw half of the universe snapped due to circumstances beyond his control and more importantly this is the first time we truly see Steve for the human he is, and not just the soldier out of time.

Two constant threads in Steve’s individual arc has been dealing with one never-ending battle after another and his struggle to acclimate to the times he’s in. I don’t mean in an ‘old man deals with newfangled technology’ sense, but Steve’s few years out of the ice pales in comparison to the seventy plus years it’s been for everyone else. Also keep in mind the era in which Steve comes from, because he deals with things internally or not at all (mostly not at all) and a therapy goer the man is not.

In TFA, pre-serum Steve has a myriad of health problems and is known to get into fights frequently. He’s tried several times to get enlisted; longing for that one chance to do something right, to do something good because he doesn’t like bullies and he doesn’t care where they come from. He meets Peggy and she sees the man he is way before he became Captain America. Keep in mind though that between post Project Rebirth and the crash, more time has passed than people tend to think about. Their feelings for one another have deepened, even if they’re not acted upon, which is why their final conversation over the comms is even more heartbreaking. They had something, they knew they had something, and now it was lost seemingly forever. Who could come back from that? Who honestly would want to?

The Avengers finds him a mere two weeks after the man was defrosted, in which he was learning that almost everyone he knew and loved was dead and that the Tesseract he crashed a plane to try and destroy was found and used by SHIELD to create weapons and had to push that into the back of his mind so he could fight aliens in the Battle of New York.

In TWS, he’s still struggling to find his footing between his past and and present. He visits Peggy and is happy that at least she was able to move on and have a life for herself, but every visit is melancholy and ends the same way - she slips out because of her dementia and he has to relive her finding out that he’s real and in front of her every time. I wouldn’t want to wish that experience on anyone, but do you know what that’s like to deal with a person who has that? To think you’re finally getting somewhere with someone for a moment and then the lucidness wears off and suddenly your heart is ripped out of your chest because you’re back at square one? To do that every single time you see them? Sam asking him what makes him happy breaks my heart every single time because he’s never been given the opportunity to figure that out, and once he learns that Hydra, again going with the whole “I crashed my fucking plane into the ocean and this shit is STILL happening” arc, has been entangled with SHIELD from its infancy, he knows the mission to take it down takes precedence over trying to take the time and figure that out for himself. Now, this movie is the Winter Soldier, and there’s Bucky to cover. At this point, Steve knows he doesn’t have much time with Peggy left when he uncovers the identity of The Winter Soldier. These two pillars are the last remaining ties to his past, which is why he tries so hard to try to joggle Bucky’s programming with not fighting back and the “I’m with you til the end of the line”. Steve knows he’s in there, he just had to get him out. He’s successful, and then that jump-starts the search post TWS leading into Age of Ultron and ending in Civil War.

Age of Ultron..is…well, okay it has more problems than anything else however, at this point it’s been three years since he’s been living in the future, and it would make sense that Peggy is still on his mind in Wanda’s dream sequence for him. He confirms it in Endgame for the first time by saying it aloud, but Peggy was the love of his life. It’s normal to dream about lost loves. He’s a man from that older era though, which is why we only have a stolen moment of him trying to remain stoic because he has to be a leader and appear unaffected for the sake of his team and the mission. I really wish the deleted scene where he comes out of the quintet with his coal to see the image of Captain America with the words “Fascist” above spray-painted on a building wall before he throws the helmet back inside was kept in because it shows SO MUCH without saying anything at all. This is where we see that break between who is he and what his superhero persona is supposed to represent. It’s not Captain America who makes Steve Rogers Steve Rogers, it is Steve Rogers who makes Captain America Captain America. And once again, we find him trying to make the sacrifice play if they aren’t successful and can’t get all Sokovian citizens as well as themselves out in time. Now all while this is happening, Sam is still trying to look for Bucky for Steve.

Which brings us to Civil War. Never has that line between his past and present been more apparent because it’s literally the plot to this movie. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Bucky is deprogrammed but broken and more importantly to Steve - alive- and he knows that Bucky has that blood on his hands that Hydra used and abused him into spilling and that’s why if he could just get Tony to see that with these accords the powers at be, along with every country who signs, can dangle their help for political gain like they’re puppets on strings just like he was. Do they need to be put in check? Perhaps, but not by people with an agenda. It’s a dangerous game they’d be playing with no winners which is why Steve doesn’t sign them. And during that meeting with all of them discussing this, Steve learns that Peggy dies so his stake in this fight to preserve the last tether to his past increases tenfold. He’s not just fighting for Bucky, Steve is fighting for himself. By the time he’s dropped that shield, we’re shown that Steve has lost faith in his government, he’s lost faith in his friends, and he’s lost faith in himself.

He’s in Infinity War for six minutes and forty five seconds is screen time so there’s not much content wise to go on, but when we see Steve he is clearly not the man he was and you can tell something is broken inside him, but it’s not explored until Endgame.

I’m just going to focus on Steve’s arc in Endgame because while I really liked most of it, Thor and Natasha deserved better than that so here we go. If you have not watched Endgame, don’t go any further.

Between waking up and immediately having to fight post defrosting and uncovering the truth about SHIELD using the Tesseract to make weapons, Hydra being an entangled part of shield, the events of Civil War, and by the time we see him in Infinity War he’s a shell of whatever former self he was trying to grasp at straws with, and it wasn’t until we had this film that we actually see to what extent that was.

Endgame opens three weeks after the snap, in a time where they’re still desperately clinging to hope with trying to find a way to reverse things. Carol saves Tony and Nebula while he’s on the very brink of death in the Benatar, and tensions between the Steve and Tony are at an all time high. They lost. Everyone. They’re the Avengers, how could they lose?

Time jumps five years. Tony is living on a lake and has a young daughter with Pepper, and Steve has now taken over for Sam in leading group therapy meetings. Joe Russo’s character says he went on a date the night before and that his date cried before the salad and he cried after the dessert and there was nothing they could truly talk about because what could you talk about if half of the universe, including people you knew and loved, vanished in an instant and where you’re borderline living in some version of Lord of the Flies? He offers words of comfort, but he and half the people in that session don’t fully believe them. He lost the love of his life in ‘45 and woke up seventy years later and he hasn’t had a single moment of rest to do so. It weighs on him, on all of them. Natasha is at Avengers HQ still trying to find ways to help, and because of the nature of their work and who they are as individuals they can’t truly move on, him especially. But seeing Tony with his daughter I think was a catalyst of sorts for Steve, even if it didn’t fully register for him at first. One of the themes through Age of Ultron was this notion of “home”, and being an Avenger was something they all pretty much had to put first. Tony got his family, he got his home, and for someone who thought that the man who went into the ice seventy years couldn’t have that himself, there came a small burst of a what if. What if he could have that as well? If it happened for Tony…

Seeing Peggy in 1970, seeing his photo on her desk…that did something to him as well. After all those years, he’s still on her mind just seemingly as much as she’s on his. He gets that moment of seeing her again, and that longing was heartbreaking. Just one more look before he had to go back - something just for him because the mission came first, it always comes first, and he didn’t want to screw anything up so he buries it like he does everything else. Steve’s an intelligent little shit though and we’ll come back to that later.

Now here’s where I also need for you to keep in mind the conversation Banner had with the Ancient One in 2012. The Ancient One is hesitant on giving him the Infinity Stone because it will disrupt the pre-determined timeline, but Banner explains that the past is cemented in time and forever exists to allow for a subject to jump through time. Reality is experiential for individuals, meaning a person’s perception of time is linear, regardless of how they jump around the timeline. In layman’s terms, you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past which then cant be changed by the new future.

We’ve always known Steve is worthy of wielding Mjolnir so let’s just skip to the ending now shall we?

At the end, Steve goes alone to return the stones to their proper place in time, but also has become well versed in time travel for someone who’s not Banner or Tony. He sees this as a chance to have something that’s been unattainable to him for so long - to live the life Tony wanted for him. To be happy. To not have to fight for once in his life. So he goes to the right place in while in the quantum realm as to not disrupt the main timeline, and that’s when he doesn’t return we see that he’s become an old man finally at peace, handing Captain America’s shield over to Sam, who more than deserves the mantle, not exactly telling him that he got his happy ending with Peggy, choosing to keep it to himself and yet smiling wistfully all the same.

He never changed anything about Peggy’s future either. SHIELD clearly still exists, and do some people honestly think he wouldn’t give her the choice? If he didn’t think there was a strong enough of a chance or had she turned him down someway he would have respected her and returned to the main present timeline. Nothing changed about that, it was just an alternative path. By going back, Peggy’s life without Steve still exists and that Peggy who gets her reunion with Steve now represents a branch timeline.

I get not everyone liked the ending, I do, but to be fair, just because they didn’t like Steve’s ending because it doesn’t fit what they wanted doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fitting end for Steve. He can rest now. Finally.

#i have a lot of feelings about steve rogers okay #jensenwuvzhugz #becka answers things #a4 spoilers #long post for ts

402 notes · View notes

verumking · 4 years

Text

⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆HEADCANON : RE/MIND TRAILER ANALYSIS

I’ve been working on this since the final Re/Mind trailer was LEAKED, but now that it has been officially released I can finally POST IT! This headcanon post encompasses all three Re/Mind teaser trailers and some of the events of KH3. I know this is structured like a THEORY POST, but take it all with a pinch of salt: this is just a LORE DUMP for how I’ll be roleplaying Yozora until the DLC actually comes out. I’m not aiming to be ‘accurate’ or right, just stringing bits of CANON to line up with my portrayal ;v; So, without further ado, let’s jump right in...

( Warning, this is a stupidly long post ! )

ONE. ┆ THE TWO HALVES OF THE SKY - YOZORA VS SORA

Without a doubt, Nomura has been planning this ARC for years. It is my firm belief that he was planning SORA and NOCTIS to eventually meet, the latter being axed from the joining the KH PLOT after Nomura was removed from XV’s development. Here is what Nomura ORIGINALLY SAID in 2013 about Sora and Noctis’s dynamic:

Do you know the name Sora mean the “sky”, in Japanese and Noctis, his family name is Caelum which mean sky as well so basically, Noctis means “night sky”, so they are kind of complete opposites to each other. There is a reason why I named these characters as opposites.

I don’t believe that Sora and Yozora are the SAME PERSON, nor is Yozora a FUSION of Riku and Sora, but rather, they PARALLEL each other narratively, like what Nomura originally INTENDED for Noctis and Sora. Yozora and Sora are simply OPPOSITES of each other.

I believe as much as SORA embodies light and hope, YOZORA embodies darkness and despair. SORA, not being TECH SAVVY ( see any interaction he has with a COMPUTER, or the first time he uses a GUMMIPHONE ), and YOZORA, who uses hyper-futuristic weaponry with EASE, and comes from a world where ROBOTICS is commonplace.

Aside from the obvious VISUAL JUXTAPOSITION between the optimistic keyblade wielder and the austere newcomer, I also believe that they are going to OPPOSE each other in abilities and goals. Much as Sora used the power of waking to BRING BACK LIVES, Yozora has just as much power to TAKE THEM: see the characteristic skull motif upon Yozora’s sleeves, as well as the prominent THEME OF DEATH within Versus XIII lore.

Which ties in perfectly to my headcanon about the role of REINCARNATION within the KH and Verum Rex worlds respectively. YOZORA is a harbinger of DEATH, and SORA is the harbinger of REBIRTH. Rebirth, of course, being the meaning behind the TITLE of the DLC, as mentioned by Nomura himself:

“ ... The meaning of what I just mentioned and the double-meaning are the same. It means “remind”, “reconfirmation”, “ reclaim the heart* ”, and so forth. ”

(*Note: 心 means “heart” and also “mind”, and 再生 can mean “regeneration”, so 心の再生 can also mean “regeneration” or “rebirth” of the “mind”. Also, “Reclaim Your Heart” is a phrase used on the back of the box for Verum Rex in Toy Box)

The TWO SKIES, like day and night, perpetually maintain this SAMSARA of death and rebirth. Both UNAWARE of each other’s existence, and IMPACT upon the wider universe.

UNTIL NOW. Given the description of the DLC mentioning ‘a secret episode and boss battle’ in a separate line, this is most likely alluding to YOZORA. As such, Yozora will play an antagonistic role towards SORA, at least for the events of Re//Mind. Yozora confronts Sora, after he ABUSES the power of waking to bring back all of his FRIENDS from death. The friends YOZORA was intending to REAP. And thus, the boss battle begins.

Whether Yozora CONTINUES to antagonise Sora even after Re//Mind, it can’t be ascertained at this point. But Sora had been REPEATEDLY WARNED that he will have a price to pay for abusing the POWER OF WAKING ( see the section on YMX below for more detail ). I believe YOZORA has come to deliver this retribution.

TWO. ┆ A SEA OF STARS - THE FINAL WORLD

There has been a lot of speculation about the ‘FINAL WORLD’ we see at the end of the Re//Mind trailer, and whether it IS EVEN the Final World, or the SAME 'Final World’ we have been visiting thus far with SORA.

So far, YOZORA’S WORLD has only been depicted at night. This, PAIRED with Yozora’s name meaning ‘night sky’, could imply that YOZORA HIMSELF caused the Final World to shift from DAY to NIGHT. The two ‘Final Worlds’ are one and the same.

But WHAT IS the Final World exactly? Chirithy describes the FINAL WORLD as a place where “the edges of sleep and death touch”, and that Sora had VISITED the Final World “more than once before on his visits to the Station of Awakening”. Chirithy also mentions that SORA previously came to the Final World “out of his own choice” and can’t just “wander out like his other visits”, when he came to the Final World after PERISHING at the Keyblade Graveyard. The fact that Sora QUESTIONED “What is the Final World?”, despite visiting NUMEROUS TIMES before, implies only one thing: Sora visits the Final World in his DREAMS. And, like most humans upon awakening, he fails to REMEMBER what he dreamt.

The fact that YOZORA is also present in the Final World, in a fully CORPOREAL FORM, implies that he also visits the Final World in his DREAMS, rather than simply arriving there after PERISHING. Their SHARED LINE from the KH1 opening says it all:

“I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like... is any of this for real? Or not?”

The Final World is a realm one visits on the BRINK OF DEATH, and with Yozora and Sora being agents of DEATH and REBIRTH, they visit this realm even in their SLEEP. Yozora’s visits during his sleep are a PREMONITION orchestrated by the Watchmen of Fate, alluding to his destiny to ascend as the VERUM REX: aka the god of death.

THREE. ┆ A STRONG SENSE OF PURPOSE - THE NAMELESS STAR

I joked a lot about the NAMELESS STAR being Yozora’s love interest, but it may be CLOSER TO CANON than I originally thought: especially given Yozora’s appearance in the FINAL WORLD, and how accurate her DIALOGUE is to Stella Nox Fleuret: the infamous LOVE INTEREST from Nomura’s cancelled project, Versus XIII.

Aside from the obvious indicators ( “They took away my name, everything about me” ), the male she “PINES” for also fits perfectly with MY DEPICTION of Yozora. She mentions that he has been “changed beyond recognition, his heart replaced with another’s”. Aside from the developmental parallels of NOCTIS becoming YOZORA, it’s also accurate to my Yozora’s HEART being replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the Gigas experimentation CHANGING HIM beyond recognition ( his hair and eye colour ).

The NAMELESS STAR also mentioned that “were he to regain his old self again, he would be distressed by my absence”. Whatever HAPPENED to Yozora that made him forget about his LOVE INTEREST, his presence in the Final World alongside SORA gives the impression that he has REMEMBERED his love interest, and has come to rescue her-- much has SORA had returned to the Final World to rescue KAIRI.

Delving a teeny bit more into my OWN META here. I find it interesting that the NAMELESS STAR gave Sora advice about how to OVERCOME the TASKS before him. What intrigued me the MOST, is how she mentions his ability to RETAIN his PHYSICAL FORM in the Final World, due to his “strong sense of purpose”. The word ‘PURPOSE’ is distinctly emphasised by her voice actress, so I want to BELIEVE that there is importance to it.

MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world encircles the concept of the ‘KARMA’ that lies inside all humans, as per the back of the VERUM REX BOX COVER in Toy Box. To summarise that post, this KARMA is the sum of a person’s grasp of FATE + CONSEQUENCE, and their connection to the SPIRITUAL REALM. The stronger your hold on your DESTINY, aka your karma, the stronger your CONNECTION to the cosmos. It is Sora’s POWERFUL HOLD ON FATE that gave him his corporeal form in the Final World-- much like YOZORA at the end of the Re//Mind trailer.

It thus becomes obvious that the NAME the Nameless Star whispers to Sora is YOZORA. Which not only explains why he looked so SHOCKED after hearing it, but also why Sora RETURNS to the Final World alone in the Re//Mind trailer. He was explicitly LOOKING FOR YOZORA, and was calling out his name-- and expressed the same level of SHOCK upon discovering that Yozora is MORE THAN just a video game character.

FOUR. ┆ AN AGENT IN THE SHADOWS - YOUNG MASTER XEHANORT

Puzzling enough, the Re//Mind trailers also REVEAL that Young Master Xehanort has been WORKING ALONGSIDE the Master of Masters. How is this relevant to Yozora, you ask? Consider the following:

1. YMX was the MAIN VILLAIN in the Toy Box world. He was responsible for introducing SORA to Verum Rex, quite literally, by THROWING HIM into the Verum Rex video game ( which I canon to be the ‘data’ version of YOZORA’S WORLD... but that’s for another post lol ). 2. YMX is WORKING with MoM, who appears along with Yozora in the SECRET ENDING, in the Shibuya district of Yozora’s world. 3. In Dream Drop Distance, YMX made a PROMISE with two characters from The World Ends with You, a game directed by NOMURA encircling the concept of reapers, also based in SHIBUYA. The promise being to bring them back to their world, if they brought Sora and Riku to him. Perhaps YMX did FULFIL that promise, and RETURNED the TWEWY characters to Shibuya. Which implies that HE KNOWS how to reach Shibuya: where MoM was present.

Nomura mentioned in the KH3 ULTIMANIA, that the Shibuya featured in the SECRET ENDING is in a “different reality” compared to the TWEWY Shibuya. What if the SHIBUYA of Yozora’s world, coexisted with the Shibuya of TWEWY? Much like how the worlds were SPLIT IN TWO, not only in Dream Drop Distance, but in Toy Box as well?

4. More specific to my META for Yozora, YMX finds it INTRIGUING that “even empty puppets can be given strong hearts”, and that “a heart can be placed in a vessel of our choosing”. My Yozora was essentially moulded into a PUPPET of Gigas Corporation after having his heart replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the intention of making him rise as a ‘HIGHER BEING’: an elevated version of humanity. Also note how YMX says ‘OUR’... what if he was not alluding to True Organisation XIII... but HIMSELF AND MoM?

5. YMX also plays a ROLE in Sora abusing the power of waking. Before unleashing the FINAL BOSS of Toy Box on Sora, he whispers “Find the hearts joined to yours”. In the Re//Mind trailer, SORA re-emphasises this: “But, follow my heart? Hearts are all connected. Trace the connection!”. YMX also APPEARS again, after Sora dove into all of the Sleeping Worlds, claiming that he nearly “buried himself in the dark of sleep”, TWICE OVER: once in DDD, and once again in KH3-- instances where YMX was both present.

Note how also, Nomura chose SAN FRANSOKYO as the final Sleeping World that Sora reaches, before YMX appears. San Fransokyo being very AESTHETICALLY SIMILAR to Yozora’s world ( Both being TOKYO CODED CITIES, with a night time setting ).

Despite LEADING Sora down this doomed path, YMX WARNS him that there is a “high price to pay” for wielding such power FOOLISHLY, and that he had now “paid (this) price”. The price? HIS OWN LIFE. This is reiterated several times in the GAME and PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL:

a. On the BACK of the Verum Rex box cover in Toy Box, it mentions ‘A JOURNEY WITHOUT A PLACE TO RETURN’. b. In the Re//Mind trailer: once by XEHANORT himself: “Seeing that you have also taken the FORBIDDEN PATH, you too must be ready to make the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE”. c. And once again by CHIRITHY, claiming that Sora will “vanish from this world”, and that “without ( his ) powers, ( he ) can’t return to the world ( he ) came from”. Sora has not only LOST the power of waking, but had also SACRIFICED HIS LIFE.

Stranded in the FINAL WORLD, with no one left to turn to, Sora calls out a NAME. The name of a person he knows is COMING to the Final World... to save his lost star.

SHOUTOUT to Steph ( @kyecupio ) for fuelling the big galaxy brain with XEHANORT and YOZORA’S connection fgjhfg.

FIVE. ┆ THE WATCHMAN OF FATE - MASTER OF MASTERS

We’ve gotten an INSIGHT into YMX’s intentions, but what has the MoM got to do with all of this? Why does he APPEAR in the secret ending?

We already know that MoM is working alongside YMX from the brief Re//Mind trailer, where it is disclosed that the MoM GIFTED YMX the characteristic black coat that wards off darkness. YMX is also seemingly REPORTING to MoM about a ‘world tour’, which I assume MoM advised him to go on. What is this ‘world tour’? Difficult to tell at this point.

But what I do know is that MoM is OBSESSED on keeping universal order. He created the GAZING EYE to allow himself to see into the future and write the BOOK OF PROPHECIES, and refuses to give LUXU a copy of the book to ‘avoid temporal paradoxes’. Nomura has definitely created an ANTAGONISM between Luxu/Xigbar and Xehanort, especially NOW with it being revealed that YMX is working with MoM.

WHATEVER Nomura is planning with LUXU vs MoM/YMX, I can’t be certain. But what I do know, is MoM’s MOTIVES are extremely similar to MY META for the Watchmen of Fate, something I have come up with exclusively for MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world.

The WATCHMEN OF FATE are responsible for maintaining the BALANCE AND ORDER of the universe, and are CHARACTERISED by their dark reaper’s hoods. Note how the MoM never takes his hood off, and this HOOD is strikingly uncanny to a GRIM REAPER. Furthermore, the Watchmen of Fate in my canon are not only NOTED for keeping the order of the universe, but some are also ‘TRICKSTERS’ by nature and occasionally like to manipulate fate. Note how MoM also has a PLAYFUL PERSONALITY despite his wider goal.

I believe the MoM has a greater power in the UNIVERSE, and has advised YMX to lead SORA to the Realm of the Dead where YOZORA resides. For what purpose? To UNITE the agents of DEATH and REBIRTH under the same sky. To fulfil the cycle of KARMA. To achieve the REINCARNATION of all worlds.

To reincarnate Kingdom Hearts.

TO CONCLUDE:

1. MoM and YMX are rogue Watchmen of Fate, trying to REBIRTH the universe together via KINGDOM HEARTS. 2. They want to UNITE SORA ( who embodies rebirth ), and YOZORA ( who embodies death ), to achieve the REINCARNATION of the universe ( death + rebirth ) 3. SORA is seeking Yozora because he TALKED to the Nameless Star, YOZORA is seeking Sora because he USED the power of waking to REVERSE DEATH, they both meet at the FINAL WORLD. Yozora initiates the BOSS BATTLE because “ you broke the rules, perish ” 4. YMX ( + MoM? ) possibly SPLIT SHIBUYA into two: one comprising of YOZORA’S REALITY, and one comprising of TWEWY’S REALITY ( not sure of the reasons yet but it’s suss ) 5. ( Specific to my VERUM REX META ) YMX and MoM are potentially connected to GIGAS CORP, given YMX’s intrigue about placing STRONG HEARTS in EMPTY VESSELS, much like Gigas Corp are, thus already serving as ANTAGONISTS to both Yozora and Sora.

#⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆a synthetic heart bled dry by the hands of fate. ❪ headcanons ❫#( this is a mess but i just want to post it jfhjfhg )#( i'll tidy it up later if this makes any sense-- )

17 notes · View notes

dccomicsnews · 4 years

Text

Review: THE FLASH #750

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers: Joshua Williamson, Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Marv Wolfman, Scott Lobdell

Artists: Rafa Sandoval, Stephen Segovia, Scott Kolins, Francis Manapul, Riley Rossmo, David Marquez, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund

Colours: Arif Prianto, Michael Atiyeh, Ivan Plascencia, Alejandro Sanchez, Luis Guerrero

Letters: Steve Wands, Rob Leigh, Joshua Reed, Deron Bennett, ALW’s Troy Peteri

Reviewed By: Derek McNeil

Summary

The Flash #750: Beginning: “The Flash Age”! The story we’ve been building toward since issue #50 comes to a head! While a supercharged Speed Force wreaks havoc on Barry Allen’s life, a new threat appears on the horizon in the form of the deadly Paradox. Destined to destroy the Flash’s legacy, Paradox sends his herald, Godspeed, to trap the Flash family! Plus, in this special anniversary issue: tales from across the generations of super-speedsters by an all-star lineup of writers and artists!

Positives

In honour of the 80th Anniversary of the title, DC has reverted back to legacy numbering. Thus, The Flash #750 hits the stands this week instead of the expected 89th issue of the series. “Legacy numbering” means that if the title kept the same incremental numbering through every relaunch of the title, then the number would have naturally progressed to issue #750 with this very issue.

This covers the tenures of DC’s primary three Flashes, Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West, and appropriately, all three are well represented in the six stories included. As the current star of the title, Barry merits three stories, while Jay and Wally each get a single, yet important story each.

This first, and main, story is the first chapter of regular series writer Josh Williamson’s “The Flash Age”. I really liked this story, as it mostly gives a break and allows us to catch up with the current status of Barry’s world and the people in it, before pushing into the next big conflict. This makes the story a nice jumping-on point for new readers as well as providing a neat wrap up of the previous story arc.

Most importantly, it shows that Barry and Iris are back together and that their relationship is as strong as ever. In fact, things seemed to be going so well, that when Iris said, “I have something to talk to you about. A surprise”, I was expecting that she might propose to Barry.

Positives Cont.

Unfortunately, this is where the impending conflict cut into the story. Godspeed interrupts this moment, taking Barry to face Paradox. Paradox then gives Barry a choice between giving up being the Flash or fighting for his life against Godspeed. This is where the story leaves off, giving us a rather effective cliffhanger to bring readers back for the rest of “The Flash Age”.

I also love that this story includes several instances of Central City’s citizens showing their gratitude to the Flash for saving their lives or helping them in other ways. It’s a nice touch for an anniversary story. Plus, it provides a nice counterpoint to Paradox’s claims that Barry has been endangering everybody by the effect his powers have had on reality itself. Hopefully, this will help Barry realize that the good he has done outweighs any damage he has caused.

In the second story, Geoff Johns bring us an interesting little tale featuring Captain Cold, set during Wally’s tenure as the DCU’s primary Flash. In this story, we see that what Wally assumes that Cold goes on a rampage for the sole purpose of infuriating Wally.

However, the story shows us that the “rampage” came about unintentionally. Cold merely stumbled into the midst of an armed robbery when shopping at his local corner store. Through a series of misunderstandings, he finds himself in the middle of a confrontation with the Keystone City Police. While this doesn’t excuse Cold for his crimes, this does show how easy it is for events to quickly get out of control for a villain in the DCU.

Positives Cont.

The next story, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato features Barry examining the question of whether the Flash has to be Barry Allen. He does this by using a previously unseen power to send his consciousness through other timelines where somebody else became the Flash instead of him. In each timeline, he finds that someone admirably fills the role of the Flash. He arrives at the moral of the “Even if it doesn’t have to be me… I”m glad that it is”

However, I have to wonder why the examples of Wally and Jay aren’t enough evidence that that someone else could serve as the Flash other than Barry. I would have thought either would be proof enough to settle the question.

Marv Wolfman, the man wrote the story of Barry’s death in Crisis On Infinite Earths, returns to the character to tell of an interesting encounter between Barry and the Mirror Master. The interesting conceit of this story is that the Mirror Master’s mirrors in the story enact various transformations upon the Flash’s body. These transformations allow artist Riley Rossmo to revisit some of the bizarre transformations over the years, such as the time Abra-Kadabra turned Barry into a walking wooden puppet.

Next, regular writer Joshua Williamson gives us a story of Jay Garrick, set in the title’s inaugural year, 1940. The story centres around an encounter between Jay and the Thinker. However, the most intriguing bit of the story is when a mysterious figure, presumably the Reverse Flash, whispers in Jay’s ear, “They’ll forget you Jay Garrick. I’ve seen your future…”.

Positives Cont.

This seems to be setting up a future storyline involving Jay and the Reverse Flash, which is further borne out by the blurb at the story’s end. This blurb promises, “To be continued in The Flash in 2020″. Unfortunately, this seems to imply that we won’t see the followup immediately, but it is coming relatively shortly.

Also, I noticed that the image on that page also shows Wally and Bart. I hope this means that we will be seeing a full reunion of the Flash Family when this story continues.

Finally, the entire creative team for the Flash Forward miniseries returns to provide an epilogue to that miniseries. Writer Scott Lobdell continues where that story left off, creating a bridge between it and the upcoming Generation Zero: Gods Among Us and subsequent Generation One to Five specials.

While little is known about this upcoming event, it has been speculated that it will involve a major shift in DCU continuity. That speculation seems to be borne out in this story, where Wally, now wielding the power and knowledge of the Mobius Chair, exams the current state of the DC Universe’s continuity.

It has been my theory for a while now that the time itself is unravelling in the DC Universe, and this story confirms that. Wally looks through his own personal timeline and sees that multiple contradictory events seem to concurrently exist in the current continuity. The original Silver Age origin of the Teen Titans happened as Wally remembers it, but the New 52 Teen Titans also exist as the first group to call themselves by that name.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The Flash #750 1940s Cover

The Flash #750 1950s Cover

The Flash #750 1960s Cover

The Flash #750 1970s Cover

The Flash #750 1980s Cover

The Flash #750 1990s Cover

The Flash #750 2000s Cover

The Flash #750 2010s Cover

Positives Cont.

I must also interject that it’s great to see that Wally remembers the original Teen Titans costumes, and not the New 52/Rebirth re-imagined versions of the original outfit – even down to Robin’s short pants.

Wally confronts Tempus Fuginaut about the state of the DCU, stating, “Everything. Time. Space. Reality. It’s all broken. It all risks collapse”. And if there is any doubt about the severity of the situation in the reader’s mind, the story itself drop many significant keywords that indicate big reality-changing events in DC history: “Crisis”, “Flashpoint”, “Doomsday”, “Rebirth”, and others.

Truly, the DCU is reaching an important turning point. But there we are given ample reason not to dread this. When Fuginaut asks if Wally is up to the task of repairing this damage, Wally West, the DCU’s symbol of hope and rebirth replies, “My name is Wally West. I’m the Fastest Man Alive. I sit on the Mobius Chair. The power of a God races through me. So yeah. I got this”.

This speech gave me chills and reassures me that whatever the Generation special lead to, it bodes well for the future of the DCU.

Besides the amazing lineup of artists in each of the stories, there are also fine selection of pinups, as well as the multitude of gorgeous variant covers. I love the look of the decade covers. Especially, with the care taken to match the title logo and DC symbol for each time period. DC does pull out the stops to make sure these anniversary events look truly amazing.

Negatives

However, there is a nasty side to all these variant covers. This is a book with a $7.99 cover price. But with ten different covers (including the blank cover), that’s almost 80 bucks. Now I didn’t mind this when Action Comics and Detective Comics reached issue #1000. That’s a once in a lifetime milestone. Now DC is doing the same for Wonder Woman and The Flash reaching #750, which is a bit much, but okay. But DC has announced similar 80th Anniversary events for Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, and Green Lantern. That’s one or two of these expensive specials a month. Such a cash grab is excusable when it is once in a blue moon, but DC is venturing into the realm of highway robbery. Please, DC! Have mercy on my bank account!

Verdict

Review: The Flash #750 Review: THE FLASH #750 Writers: Joshua Williamson, Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato…

5 notes · View notes

naruhearts · 5 years

Text

TFW, Jack Winchester & Peace of Mind...

[Dean, ext. in the Impala]

TAPE DECK: The key to quieting your mind, is minding your quiet. [Dean pulls the tape out, throws it on the seat] —10x11 There’s No Place Like Home transcript ***

Seems like 14x15 Peace of Mind and its premise (the title, guys!) could link back to 14x09 (with all this narrative talk of quietness, tape decks, and using your words)—

—and 10x11 besides carrying over 14x14′s key themes of Life and Death, Family, Love and...Love, and Subtext in Storytelling.

In 10x11, Good Charlie faced Evil Charlie — the cunning and conniving (and Charlie herself was a mirror to MoC!Dean), yet she was so preoccupied with shame and guilt over her Dark mirror self that she overlooked something fundamental: the intrinsic dualism of the human condition. Say, being conniving as a hunter helps her save people. Yin and Yang. You cannot be good without evil, and you cannot be evil without good. Agency and free will matter, in that you choose which side to act on, and all the complex nuances in-between — doing something stupid (bad) for the right reasons — are the judges of your moral character.

In Season Who Am I/Season Mirrors 14, Dean and Cas’ narrative arcs — both mirroring each other (since S12) — cycle back to this internal battle, where Dean saying Yes to Michael was a bad decision, yet it was a decision steeped in the good: his boundless love for his family and the larger safety of the world. Although he stated in 14x13 that he’s ‘good with who he is’ (and I don’t doubt the validity of it at all, because oh man it SHOWS, in almost every facet of his emotional states e.g. transparency with Cas re: his Michael-induced trauma and letting Sam separate himself from his shadow), Dean’s still experiencing a gradual uphill trek to achieving complete self-actualization after decades of John-bred negative self-process, low self-worth, and depression; it’s definitely logical to assume that Dean, at his core, will somehow blame himself for the slaughter of the AU Hunters by Michael!Rowena.

But don’t worry — Dean’s character progression towards self-love is PALPABLY closer than it’s ever been in S14!! And we all know that, beyond his brother Sam, the key significant motivator for this is Cas: Dean’s subtextual spouse. The one he trusts wholeheartedly. The one who brought him back from the brink, many times. The one who fell for his humanity. The one who did it - all of it - for him. The one who believes Dean is ‘more than strong’/believes Sam and Dean (subtextually: DEAN) are extraordinary, brave, special, burn bright. The one who helps weed out the creeping vines of low self-worth, reminding Dean Humanity Winchester of his valuable lessons: that there is always a way, a better way, a hopeful way.

If death - if evil - still surfaces regardless of one’s perseverance and good intentions, “sometimes things just are; you have to live with that.” Most importantly--

Listen to your own advice, Dean.

Cas, on the other hand, struck up a deal with the Empty to protect Jack the TFW mirror. Shifting away from his sense of expendability and self-sacrifice (as the worthless means to a self-destructive end e.g. saying Yes to Lucifer, mirrored by Dean) in past seasons, Cas’ current choices (his choice to sacrifice himself for Jack) are, like Dean, steeped in Love and...Love — and Cas is very humanized this season, with an incredible scale of expressive emotions for an angel and vast internalization of overall human values and human morality — but his angelic self-awareness manifested in 14x14. This pivotal scene between Cas and his character exposition Jack showed audiences that Cas still perceives himself as a “thing” and, like Dean, Cas continues to feel the deep residue of expendability and duty as an ex-Angel of the Lord despite making recent positive characteristic leaps and bounds (his accrued trauma re: Naomi, for example, lurks in the back of Cas’ mind, reminding him of his sole purpose as Heaven’s blunt tool).

14x14’s narrative insight into Cas’ self-awareness of his position in the Winchester family as a supernatural entity (he’s put a lot of thought into knowing what may be in his future — losing Sam and Dean) hinders him from fully acknowledging and accepting the fact that he IS family. Not quite there, my friends, but he almost is.

Jack, yearning to be useful for his family, proclaimed himself a Winchester last episode in the manner most reflective and evocative of Cas, Dean and Sam’s own past choices (Michael, Lucifer, the Mark of Cain, Godstiel — you name it) (Jack’s helplessness was also visually symbolized when he turned into a “sick” dog, additionally closely mirroring Cas and particularly Dean’s duty-bound inclinations, then keeping in mind the connotations attached to Dog in the SPN narrative: expendability.)

Now it’s Jack’s turn to further find himself, sift through the respective TFW influences of faith, hope, and love (the three theological virtues represented by TFW) bestowed upon him, and “die” in order to live. Ouroboros. What path will Jack Winchester choose? What decision will he make? Is he the snake or the chicken? *Mind you, meta writers shivered in our boots once 14x14 aired*

In keeping Gorgon Noah’s snake, seemingly ‘killing’ Michael, and absorbing his grace to become a textually benevolent but subtextually ominous iteration of Godstiel while simultaneously saving his family, we can say Jack is both the chicken and the snake. Thus, in classic Winchester fashion, the effects — the benefits and consequences — of his actions shall reap important self-introspective lessons that Jack will eventually experience.

You can’t save everybody, but you can try to make choices that provide even the slightest chance of winning. If the last few key thematic episodes were any indication: faith, hope, love, and open honest communication (the latter exercised by Jack pretty liberally until Meta Extravaganza 14x14, when he dodged - again in classic Winchester fashion - his own family’s concerns via I’m FineTM) build up your resistance in a turbulent, uncertain world.

As TPTB has thematically reinforced through narrative cyclism and mirrored pathways over and over again during the past few seasons:

Self-love/positive self-process breeds life and rebirth. Self-hate/maladaptively negative self-process breeds death and destruction. To truly be human, we must live with both personal internal forces -- they are naturally interdependent. Self-hate pushes us to seek self-love. Personal imprisonment and control pushes us to break free and release ourselves from control in order to allow growth. Ultimately, life fluctuates and never stays static.

We are absolutely capable of choosing the good and acting on the good.

TFW, once they forgive ALL their faults and transform them into present/future strengths, will finally mind their quiet and have peace of mind. They’re going to realize that living a meaningful life involves the good and the bad. A dual balance of both is tantamount. Jack is the catalyst.

Everything means something.

108 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Evil Season 2 Episode 2 Review: A Is for Angel

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Evil review contains spoilers.

Evil Season 2 Episode 2

Evil season 2, episode 2, “A Is for Angel,” finds a new twist in the series’ main thrust. It is a monster-of-the-week installment which may result in an exorcism, but this time the intruding influence is not demonic. Raymond (Brandon J. Dirden), a parishioner at St. Johns, is possessed by an angel, or so he claims. On the surface, it may appear the presence may not be as malignant as a servant of Satan, but it is equally diabolical.

The designation of angels and demons, black and white magic, is a form of spiritual racism. During the course of the episode, Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) brings up the evils angels have done, according to the Bible, at the behest of God. She even cites Saint Augustine. Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), of course, just gives her a quizzical look. While the show only cites a few examples, the most prevalent being Sodom and Gomora, it becomes apparent collateral damage has been evenly distributed. Raymond begins his ascent into angelic possession with a similar idea, he is giving away all his earthly possessions to help less fortunate souls. Bishop Thomas Marx (Peter Scolari) assigns David Acosta (Mike Colter) the task of deciphering deviltry.

“Are you the angel that wrestled with Jacob,” David asks the intrusive force inside the all-too faithful follower. Brandon J. Dirden is incredibly effective as Raymond. He is there and he isn’t there, and plays his part in a nether region. We can’t see what he sees, but we believe in the conviction of his sight. The sad arc of the archangel’s intrusion on the marriage plays out in the eyes of his wife, played by Joniece Abbott-Pratt. They are cinemascopes into the family drama. Two months from giving birth, she dims the lights of hope incrementally until there is nothing bright showing in her future.

Her arc is disproportionally sad, but also prophetically reflective on the persistent sins of the present. Raymond’s idea of living biblically only sets restrictions on her. Her ultimate fate also suffers from a vastly mis-measured distribution. That’s a lot of salt for a little lady, even if she is with child. “Who are you to question God,” the archangel asks when David ponders the innocent victims of almighty wrath. “God is the measure of just.”

The justice portrayed is fierce, and it shows the evil of a jealous god. When it’s pointed out that Sodom would have been spared if there were ten righteous people there, Raymond, as the archangel Michael, says “But there were not.” Kristen is right when she says this man poses a danger to the community. The angel of death makes V-Ger from the original Star Trek look tolerant. There’s no appeasing some creatures, especially when they enforce the belief that rebirth can only come after devastation.

The post-apocalyptic city which appears in the visions of the second bowl is very well rendered, and benefit from its sparse presentation. David’s visit from the archangel is effective because of the naturalness of Acosta’s reaction. The special effects-rendered figure is impressive, evoking the more Biblically accurate representations of other angels. But it is the reverence and fear in David’s body which sells it. When he drops to his knees, it is chilling, but only as an afterthought. He doesn’t fall into terror. He kneels in respect. It is an interesting juxtaposition in a horror series.

Much of why Evil works to scare an audience is because all of the suspense is as tilted as the camera angles. A passing train is very creepy during Kristen’s talk with a homicide cop, but David can reasonably ask a towering Lovecraftian-looking-creature, “are you the archangel?” The juxtaposition of suspense is crucial to the overall effect, brightening the darker places illuminates the shadows and throws shade on everything.

As frightening as any of the conceptual possibilities are, the humor wins out. “A Is for Angel” features top comedic talent, Andrea Martin and Aasif Mandvi. Their most dramatic moments are made more real by the comedy which infuses it. It is everyday humor, commonplace in any workplace, family or subway car. It informs the performances, grounding them without ever becoming comic relief. For that, Leland Townshend (Michael Emerson) steals the episode, as he sinks deeper into divine comedy. It really all builds up to his confession, and he’s hardly sorry for his offenses.

“Take your dried-up ovaries and crawl back under the rock that you came from,” Leland tells Kristen’s mother Sheryl (Christine Lahti) as he breaks their engagement in a wedding planner’s office. He says he only dated her to hurt Kristen, and now that she’s feeling the pain, he wants to pay it forward. Leland’s fall from disgrace is even more comedic, as he finds Sheryl may not be quite as injured as he thought. He also starts to miss the promised marital bliss when he notices the more adorable aspects of his former fiancée which he overlooked. “Die you stupid pig fuck,” she writes in blood on the wall of his office, and he is so smitten he wants to rush to confession.

Of course, before Leland gets to circle jerk around his appointed priest, he has to face down Sister Andrea, who is offended by his hygiene. “Nuns are irrelevant,” he tells her. “Go off and pray.” By the time he is sitting back-to-back with David riffing on old sins, Leland is fully on. He closes his schtick with the gag about the woman of the “Black persuasion,” named Julia. He convinced her she was a burden on her family and friends after becoming terminally ill. We wonder how David can keep himself from landing the punch line.

All the characters get comedy bits. David has to sit through the retelling of the plot of Scarface during practice confessions. “My middle name is trouble,” Kristen gets to say with an almost straight face. Who does she think she is, Elvis? We can nearly discern a curl in her upper lip. The death of Orson LeReaux, a major sub-arc in the proceedings, continues to unravel in unexpected ways. One of the interesting things about Evil is how a main character is a killer. Regardless of how justified it may have been, it’s very rare that a hero in a show, who is playing a former district attorney expert no less, is actually concealing a capital crime. But it is also a mortal sin, and Kristen asks David about the killing in a roundabout way while Ben adds the suspense from the sidelines.

“Pain is for tourists,” Sister Andrea says, and gives David harsh advice with her tough love. She points out how millions of people talk with God every day through prayer, but the impatient soon-to-be priest is trying to “force God to talk to you.” Her first suggestion is to allow the most lucid of dreams to dance to the beat of a metronome. This allows David to astrally travel through the sandy desert of time in a subtly theosophical sequence bridging faiths. We see figures of an ornate lamp and a locust, which foreshadows things to come.

The scopolamine patch overdose diagnosis is perfectly valid, but it doesn’t explain the connections David makes with the archangel. It also doesn’t explain why Raymond was able to save a family of strangers from a car wreck, or how he knew to burn a probable pedophile. “A Is for Angel” confirms the commitment Evil has to ambiguous explanations. As long as there are more questions than answers, balance remains uneasily stable, and emotionally satisfying.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Evil airs Sundays on Paramount+.

The post Evil Season 2 Episode 2 Review: A Is for Angel appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3djpBQU

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

secretlystephaniebrown · 7 years

Text

Why Rebirth’s Stephanie Brown isn’t the Same as Preboot Stephanie Brown

Hi I’ve got opinions about how the reboot has been handling my girl.

I’ve been enjoying Detective Comics for the most part, but I’ve been frustrated with Stephanie Brown’s role in them for a while. And I think I’ve finally put my finger on it.

Special thanks to @renaroo for all her help finding panels and issue numbers!

Below the cut is 2k of screaming and panels.

Stephanie Brown in the preboot era was a kid with a bad past. Her mom was a drug addict, her dad was abusive and a villain. She lived in poverty for at least chunks of her original run as Spoiler. She dated older guys, one of whom got her pregnant and ran away, and has been implied to be a sexual abuse survivor.

And as Spoiler, her life wasn’t necessarily better. She dated Tim, and they had a pretty decent relationship, but Tim didn’t tell her his secret identity, on orders from Batman. For reasons. (Bruce later told her his identity without Tim’s permission, which… doesn’t really make things better.) From day one, she was an outcast from the family; she regularly got locked out of the Batcave, wasn’t informed about major developments in the family, and Bruce denies her training and resources. She even suspects that this is because of her family life.

(Robin (1993-2009) #100.)

@renaroo and I have talked about this, and a part of Bruce’s reaction to Steph during this time period was clearly based off Bruce’s recent trauma because of Jason’s death. Steph, Cass, and Tim’s relationships with Bruce in the preboot were all tied to that event. Tim stepped up as Robin, providing Bruce with the balance and support that he knew he needed, so Bruce couldn’t really send Tim away. Cass had no secret identity, no life to return to. Bruce looked at her and saw his own morals concentrated, a dedication to the cause that he thought makes Cass an ideal protégé and possible successor down the line. (Not that it ever happened of course because of course it didn’t.) Besides that, Cass was a better fighter than he was, and had been looking after herself for years. Firing her wasn’t very effective, although he certainly tried in the later parts of Cass’s initial Batgirl run.

But Steph?

Steph was none of those things. Bruce didn’t need her, she wasn’t trained and capable like Cass. Instead, everything that Bruce saw when he looked at her probably remindd him of Jason. A mother lost to drug abuse, a father entrenched in crime and violence, a kid from the less great parts of the city. The parallels were right there to Bruce. But Bruce was too late to save Steph from this life, unlike Jason. Instead, Steph had decided to save herself. But he looked at her, and he saw a kid with no training and no experience. And he’d just lost a partner from a background very similar to hers.

He told her to go home. He never really stopped, not until she became Batgirl. (Although they had some amazing bonding moments as well, which I’ll probably make another post about later)

As a result Steph was an outcast for the majority of her run as Spoiler. She got brief flashes of integration and family; she teams up with Cass, works with other heroes like Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle. She worked with Tim and Bruce as well. But just as often, Bruce did things like forbid Cass to patrol with Steph and the aforementioned locking her out of the Batcave and not telling her that the family was undergoing a MAJOR crisis at the time.)

(Batman: Bruce Wayne: Murderer? Robin (1993-2009) #98 - Yes Bruce was in prison at the time, but you’d have thought that SOMEONE would have thought to tell her he was unavailable.)

The end result of this should happen when she becomes Robin. Steph becoming Robin should have been cathartic; a culmination of Steph’s hard work paying off and Bruce recognizing her place in the family. And it was for a while!!

(Detective Comics (1937-2011) #796. Making me nostalgic for what could have been. Steph with anger issues and a complicated but growing relationship with Bruce? Amazing.)

Instead, it was a cheap stunt by DC. Steph got fired, Steph screwed up by starting a gang war, Steph died. (And then came back in an outrageously OOC manner, but that’s another story.)

We got some of the catharsis of her becoming part of the family in Steph’s run as Batgirl, but it was undermined by a lot of things. To make her Batgirl, Miller began what Tynion and the Nu52 (and later Rebirth) continues to do.

They take away what makes Steph interesting.

Steph’s anger issues were integral to her early character. She canonically went to visit her father in prison to fight him. Her anger was not once touched upon in Miller’s Batgirl. Her status as a teenage mom was similarly erased. Her trauma at the hands of Black Mask was only hinted at once, after Steph was shot in the head, when she saw him in a flashback.

(Batgirl (2009-2011) #6. Don’t worry, this will never come up again.)

And her friendship with Cass, a relationship I would say was defining and important to Steph, was washed away, with Cass not even appearing in Steph’s history of the Bat Family. Steph still had to fight for her acceptance in the family; Babs didn’t want her to be Batgirl, her first ever meeting with Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne was a disaster, and she struggled to find her place. There was still catharsis there; she built a team and support network for herself, and it was wonderful, despite my issues with that run.

Miller also started moving Steph away from her roots with her mom; Crystal in Miller’s run was clean and she and Steph seem to have achieved financial stability. But in the preboot, both of those worked, since we’d seen how far they’ve come. Arthur’s abuse wasn’t directly stated, but his attack on her specifically through Black Mercy mad it pretty clear that there were still elements of abuse present, even if the events Steph had referred to in previous stories weren’t shown.

But Tynion doesn’t have that history to build off, because the Nu52 annihilated Steph’s entire history.

Steph in Batman Eternal is from a perfectly happy middle class background, with her parents already split up and with joint custody. Her dad isn’t abusive (in fact, him being a supervillain appears to be a complete surprise to her), her mom isn’t an addict. She’s never been a teenage mom, and although she starts a relationship with Tim off page, she knows his secret identity from the beginning.

(Batman Eternal #3)

And Bruce accepts her into the fold right away in Detective Comics. As a fan of Steph, the catharsis is there on a meta level; Stephanie Brown is accepted enough by the company to allow her to be in the comic which they named themselves after! What a change from the days when Steph was brutally killed off and then banned from appearing in any medium! But in universe? That catharsis doesn’t exist.

So suddenly, Tynion is faced with a character with many of Steph’s traits; the name, the upbeat attitude, the costume, with none of her history or markings.

(Sidenote: Steph’s anger isn’t completely non-existant in the Nu52/Rebirth era: Selina notes that Steph is angry during Steph’s appearance in Catwoman #42.)

(Catwoman (2011-2016) #42. Thank you for this moment, it’s a balm to my soul.)

Steph’s inclusion by Bruce in this initial team he sets up is a fascinating choice. He’s integrating her into the family from the very beginning of her character arc. This could have been a chance to let Steph grow in new directions; she could have grown closer to Cass and Harper, have Bruce and Kate as mentor figures, and explored her relationship with Tim in new and exciting ways. She could have met Duke and Jason and bonded with them over their similarities.

But instead, Steph and Cass barely interact, Harper’s relegated to cameos and sage advice, and Steph’s character is instead defined solely by her relationship with Tim. She has a few nice moments with Bruce, like the hug I’ve been waiting for ever since I got into comics.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #940. THAT HUG)

But overwhelmingly I’ve been left wanting more, and not in the good way. It’s not satisfying. Steph has some great moments in ‘Tec and even some great lines, just like during her run as Batgirl. But there’s a kind of hollowness there for me, lacking the heart and soul of Stephanie Brown.

Tynion also makes some strange changes with Steph; she loses her snark and attitude that even Miller managed to maintain.

(Robin (1993-2009) #56. Just hanging around, you know.)

(Detective Comics (1937-2011) #796. Poor Bruce has to hang around with snarky teens.)

She’s lacking her relationship with gravity.

(Batgirl (2000-2006) #20.)

She also no longer loves being a hero and doing good, instead having her arc being dedicated to… saying that superheroes shouldn’t exist… while still functioning as a vigilante… (I really don’t like this kind of arc in comics, not going to lie, so I’m predisposed to not be happy here. But I still think this is a RADICAL departure from Steph’s prior characterization.)

(Robin (1993-2009) #100. Here we see Tim planning on retiring, and knowing that Steph is hardly about to stop being a hero.)

It all culminates, of course, in Steph’s departure from the team after Tim’s death. She calls out Batman for his actions, raises some valid points about how he’s not really parenting Cass (which… Tynion continues to ignore, because what, letting Bruce adopt Cass and teaching her to read? Nah, she’s too busy learning Shakespeare and hanging out with Clayface.) And after that moment of awesome she… leaves.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #947)

She becomes the outcast again. But this time it’s her fault.

And it’s so frustrating to me, this idea that Steph’s isolation is her own fault in Rebirth. That Bruce offered Steph a place and a team, but that she rejected it, is so aggravating. Steph’s isolation is supposed to be Bruce Wayne’s mistake which she pays for throughout her superhero career. Steph wants this place with the family, fights for it tooth and nail in the preboot. Now, if Steph had gone through the preboot arc, fighting for this, trying to earn it, and then turning away from it out of frustration with Bruce? I’d have been willing to listen, and might have even been excited for it.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #957. This is just such a departure from preboot Steph that it boggles my mind.)

But this is a Stephanie Brown who has not been a hero for long. This is Stephanie Brown, who is about the age preboot Steph was when she became Robin, new and inexperienced (meanwhile Tim is exactly where he was in his own timeline when Steph was Batgirl, a frustrating process that’s also familiar.) Steph is younger than she was in preboot and less competent. So are Barbara Gordon and Cass. The Batboys have gotten to grow up and improve. The Batgirls were forced backwards in both age and ability, and yet were older when they started their superhero careers, making them inherently less experienced then their male counterparts.

Part of it is, of course, DC’s refusal to let the Batgirls move forward in the status quo. Babs can’t become Oracle again, Cass can’t become Batgirl, and Steph can’t be Robin or Batgirl. The Batgirls (and Harper) are all now around the same age, and their relationships have been completely and utterly decimated by the retcons and reboots. Steph and Cass aren’t best friends, Babs isn’t a mentor to either Steph or Cass. Steph’s relationship with Bruce is no longer the complicated beast that it was pre-Flashpoint, she still hasn’t met Damian and established their bond, and her first interaction with Dick was an aggravatingly airheaded “kiss me sexy Batman”.

(Batman and Robin Eternal #2. Just. Why.)

And her relationship with Tim is lacking some of the most interesting elements; the drama of Steph’s history and Bruce’s disapproval. But despite its blandness, it continues to be the front and center of Steph’s arc. It’s what drives her away from the others and causes her to isolate herself. Steph functions as a manic-pixie figure to Tim, encouraging him to live his dream, while still being the goofy and funny partner he needs, with her primary motivation being his death.

Her goofiness and mourning are both clearly about to pay off in a manner which I am terrified about. In Detective Comics, Anarchy clones Steph’s phone. A phone which, it was shown in the previous issue, to contain information which could compromise Tim (and by extension everyone’s secret identities).

(Detective Comics (2016-) #963. Oh look and Tim even told her it would be a bad idea! Haha, how funny!)

(Detective Comics (2016-) #964)

We could be about to witness War Games, reboot version.

But this time, there will be no one to blame but Stephanie Brown. She chose to isolate herself, she was sloppy with her phone’s security, and she was fooled by Anarchy.

If Tynion does what I’m scared he’s going to do, we’re looking at some next level bullshit.

I live in fear.

#Stephanie Brown #DC #Detective Comics #Steph Reads Comics #DC Rebirth #Steph vs The Bat Fam #Steph Writes Steph (Brown) Meta

985 notes · View notes