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willsimpforanyone · 4 years

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Don’t Go

Tony Stark x reader

angsty? i think? potential trigger warning- panic attack, ptsd flashback

let me know if you like it? <3

1492 words

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A scream woke me up from a deep sleep. Tony was bolt upright, eyes wide and panicky, chest heaving up and down. The covers were thrown from the bed into a dishevelled pile on the floor and I shivered from the breeze that the open window provided. Gently, I reached out to Tony, laying my hand on his arm. His head turned, still staring. He looked me dead in the eyes and uttered another guttural scream. He flung my hand from his arm and leapt away.

“Tony? Tony, baby, it’s me, just breathe, please...” I whispered, realising that he must have been having a nightmare, that he wasn’t seeing me right now, I was someone or something else. He stared at me in horror.

“Please! Leave me alone!” He fumbled to get away from me, back right up against the wall. I did my best not to take his words to heart but it was hard not to when it seemed like he was staring directly into my eyes.

His nightmares hadn’t been this bad in a while, I’d fallen out of habit with what I used to do when he became like this. The shock of such a visceral reaction from him stunned the memory from my head and I just sat on the bed, not daring to come closer for fear it would make him worse. “Tony, please listen to me,” I begged. “Can you hear me? I promise you’re okay, I swear Tony, I’ll never let anything happen to you...”

But my words fell on ears that weren’t listening to reality, ears that were hearing something I can’t even imagine. Tears began to slip down his face as he started to sob. “Go away! Please! You aren’t real! Just leave me alone!” His voice was starting to get angry, fists clenched and muscles taut with anxiety.

JARVIS’ voice hummed through the room. “I think it is best you leave the room. I have already prepared a second bedroom for you to sleep in.” Evidently, JARVIS had decided the best course of action was to remove you from Tony’s presence. “For your personal safety, I would advise you to sleep in the room I have prepared.”

“JARVIS? How are Tony’s vitals?” I asked, eyes locked on the man that I loved still backed against the wall consumed with fear. My vision was blurry and I realised that I’d started crying.

JARVIS lowered his voice. “His heart rate is at 160 beats per minute, and his pupils are abnormally dilated. It appears his dream has triggered his adrenal glands to produce excess adrenaline and he is experiencing ‘fight or flight’ response. My analysis of his body language suggests that he is currently responding to his dream with a ‘flight’ response, but if you take into account his fists and clenched muscles, this could change at any moment. I would not want you to be in the room if he does change.”

Slowly, I nodded my head, eyes still firmly locked on Tony. “I’m goi-going to go now Tony,” I whispered, hoping that some part of him heard me. “I’ll just b-be downstairs, okay?” I choked back a sob.

Leaving Tony like this felt wrong. “I’ll make sure he’s okay,” JARVIS’ voice comforted me- I felt guilty, a need to stay with him but from many times Tony has picked me up and pinned me down while play-fighting, I knew that there was nothing I could do if he started getting aggressive. JARVIS lit up panels in the floor for me to follow out the room, and I closed the door on Tony as silently as I could. I rested my forehead against the door for a second, eyes staring at it as if I could still see Tony through it. JARVIS continued lighting up panels on the floor to direct me where to go, sometimes gently pulsing the softly glowing light if I got distracted by my own thoughts.

I didn’t even notice I’d gotten to the room and fallen asleep, I just knew that the curtains must be open since the sunlight of the early morning woke me. I was curled up against the pillows, covers somehow on the floor the same way they were in the night when Tony-

Tony.

I had to go find him.

For the first time, I looked at my surroundings and noticed a tray on the bedside table. It had a small bunch of daisies and breakfast on it, with a note. The handwriting was cursive, and simply said;

‘I’m sorry - Tony’.

A smile played at my lips at the sweet gesture, but my heart ached slightly at the idea of Tony feeling guilty for something out of his control.

I had breakfast and, still in my pyjamas, went to find Tony. I knew exactly where he’d be- the only place where he could take his mind off everything. His workshop.

Sure enough, the sound of metal being tinkered with met my ears as I made my way down the staircase into his workshop to see his back to me, shoulders hunched and clearly fiddling with something. Not wanting to scare him, I knocked softly on the door.

He turned, and, seeing me, gave me a small smile and walked over to open the door. I was about to hug him when he stepped back a few paces, giving me space to walk into the room. Somewhat confused, I walked past him and settled on one of the stools set up at a work counter. Tony stayed awkwardly by the door, shifting from one foot to the other, chewing on his lip.

Eventually I couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “Thank you for breakfast, you didn’t have to.”

He shrugged, but still didn’t say anything, instead choosing to go back to where he was working at the counter opposite you. He picked up whatever he was fiddling with.

I picked at a loose thread on my top. “How are you after last night?”

Tony took a shuddering breath. “I’m okay.”

I was about to ask him to elaborate when he continued. “JARVIS told me he felt it best to get you away from me last night.”

I nodded uncertainly. “Yeah, JARVIS said your body language suggested you might have wanted to fight your dream.”

Tony flinched. “And... you? Did you want to... get away from me?” His hands were shaking visibly.

My eyes widened in shock. How could he ever think I would want to be away from him?

“No! Of course I didn’t. Tony, I love you, I would never want to be away from you, but JARVIS thought it best for both you and me. You weren’t seeing me, you were seeing... something else and my presence was only hurting you more!” I slipped off the stool and padded over to where he was leaning against the work surface. I gently placed my hands on top of his, and he looked up at me with slightly glassy eyes.

“Baby, I never would have left unless I genuinely thought that me being near you was making the situation worse.” The sincerity in my voice was enough for Tony to put down what was in his hands and pull me into a tight hug, arms wrapping around my waist and holding me close. He took a deep breath, calming himself.

He murmured into my shoulder, “I... I just thought...”

I pulled away slightly to look at him. “What?”

“I thought maybe because you left it meant you didn’t want to deal with me like that and then I thought you wouldn’t want to be with me at all because you’d left and I didn’t know where you were until JARVIS told me and-”

I placed a finger on his lips to cut his rambling short. “Baby, never ever think that I don’t want to be with you. I love you. And that means I love all your quirks and flaws and yes, mental illnesses included.” Tony laughed slightly at that, and I smiled.

He smiled back, and raised a hand to my cheek. “Can I kiss you?” he said, almost too softly to hear. I nodded and his lips met mine, soft and safe and so loving. I let out a contented sigh and melted into his arms.

I felt him smirk and before I knew it he’d picked me up and was whirling me around the workshop, skilfully dodging tables and unfinished projects. I threw my head back and laughed, and he let down my legs so he could spin me around in a haphazard dance that would have won no dancing competitions but was perfect to the two of you.

Finally pulling you in close, he placed a final kiss on your nose. “I gotta go get changed,” I smiled, going to pull away and go upstairs. Tony whined and pulled me back into his arms. He buried his face into my neck.

“Don’t go”

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note - please excuse my probably horribly inaccurate portrayal of night terrors/ptsd flashback

#tony stark #tony stark imagine #tony stark x reader #avengers #ironman #iron man #iron man imagine #avengers imagine #marvel #marvel imagine #one shot

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jeongahn · 4 years

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✨ HEHE HELLO MY SUN! 95hua is my gfx and 17joshua is my gif portfolio blogs - Bea 💓

(Don’t) Creator’s send me a ✨ + your creations tag and I’ll talk about some of your pieces I love! Bea’s creations (gfx) and her gifs and her blog @joshuahong (I still want to tag joshsua, it’s been literal YEARS)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How do I make this short. Bea. I truly love your work so much, that when I tried to go through your archive from 2015 and onward - all my brain did was “oh that’s a fave. no wait that’s a fave. that one too. OH but THIS ONE-”. I’m not exaggerating. Every single piece. So to keep this condensed, I’m only going to talk about the pieces that gave me the visceral “!!!” because I remember how floored I was at the piece. Just know that EVERY piece you’ve done gives me that reaction. So this ask? This ask is now my own personal hell because I don’t know how to choose 3-5 pieces that I love more than the other. But I will try. This is more of a “walk down memory lane,” - in which I recall how much the piece amazed me at the time it was posted. This might seem long but let me tell you - this is as condensed as I could possibly make it. Like I am pulling my own teeth trying to mention just a FEW of these pieces that I really love. I need a drink. GOD this is obnoxiously long I don’t know what to do.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2015

(1) (2) (3)These graphics are so heavily ingrained in my mind that I’m now realizing how much this inspired some of my graphics I did years later. Like??? It set the tone for what I value in a piece of work LOL. And when I look back at my own work now - I can see how much of these “lessons” I incorporated.

For (1) in particular, I adored the bleeding effect on the surrounding gifs! And how each panel bled into one another through those wisps.

In (2) the COLORS just had me squirming like a delighted little sausage. It fit Seventeen’s image at the time so well. It was youthful, colorful, fresh. Everything that Akkinda was at that time. I LOVED the sparkles and the fucking TREE. Ugh that was truly one of the best graphics I saw at the time.

In (3) - the way you oriented the text was amazing. It was a lot of text but the way you spaced it out and added these visual breaks made it so easy to digest. Like one panel is text heavy. Then another panel is image heavy with a bit of text.Then there’s a gif panel with more text but also spaced out with more image. The balance is fucking incredible Bea. And literally - that’s how my own mind is programmed to make gfx now so it’s nuts seeing that it might have been influenced by your own methods I viewed over the years. LORD, I should call you professor?

2016

Very few things I never heal from. This manipulation of Jeonghan and Joshua from the Chocolate MV? Is one of them. The Chocolate MV in general? Is another. But okay I recall how I gasped because of how GOOD this was. It’s still hitting me. Your brain is so sexy Bea. Also, I’m bummed we never got Mint Jeonghan. But like, who cares? Bea edited a mint Jeonghan and that’s all I’ll ever need. I would literally frame this LOL. Like I’m half considering slapping it onto my corkboard just so I can look at it often.

I would literally pick every single piece from 2016 but I think JiHan was my most favorite and I can’t tell if that’s the bias in me that’s making these decisions.

2017

This is the coolest shit I’ve ever seen lmfao. I wish I had something more flourished to say but I remember thinking how fucking genius you were for highlighting the teaser like this. Since it was so scenic. And rather than making a hardcore gfx out of it - you just enhanced the vibe with text, coloring, and a bit of texture. You also did this same concept with Jeonghan and it just...oof it was so perfect.

And then later on, when all the teasers were released - THIS stunning piece of work was done. I was SO impressed by the way you did the gifs with that cross effect. It’s not easy showing 13 pieces of anything. But you did THAT. And ALSO used the images of the teasers, you’re a MAD MAN BEA. A GENIUS. I’m still so shocked by how well done is this.

And you know what this talented fuck did WITH THE ACTUAL MV? You’re not going to fucking believe this. You’re really not. Why am I suddenly so angry. Just look at THIS and you’ll understand full well, why I am SCREAMING. I’ve NEVER seen anything done like this at the time it was posted. Like Bea REALLY set the fucking tone with this gfx. To this day I can’t think of a single gfx that captures an MV THIS WELL. UGH it’s BRILLIANT. If I HAD to pick a favorite - like you threatened to burn my pumpkin patch - I would choose this one. But because I’m not being threatened I’m now making this LONG ASS POST on WHY I LOVE BEA’S WORK SO MUCH-

I recently watched InuYasha in all of it’s entirity because I thought of this gfx a while back lmfao. Jeonghan as Sesshomaru and Joshua as a half demon? Satiates something inside of me. Anyways. The tones used here always get me. The soft beiges and purples at so NICE. I think I mentioned it reminded of buying lavenders out of burlap bags in romantic market places LOL. But the vibe still fits. The movie poster vibe is something you didn’t do often back then so it was cool seeing you try out a different style! The way top right and bottom left are correlated is something that flew right over my head back then. But now? I’m eating this shit up. It’s delicious.

Shout out to the “Story of the Moon” series Bea did with Meanie, in which she insp credited herself. Is that not, the biggest flex? I love all your star crossed lovers concepts. Bea loves to: yearn. OH btw, here’s the actual Story of the Moon. It’s so sweet. Probably not the original but SO pretty either way. I think this might be the original. Re: Bea loves to learn.

I swear I’m done with 2017 but I gotta mention part 2 of Demon!JiHan. I never realized how much I loved this series of gfx. Bea. This is GOOD shit.

2018

This is GREAT. One thing I loved about YMMD concept was how the gradient reflected on the concept of day to night. So I adored how Bea did this! It was a clever way to utilize 13 images since the aspect of day and night happen in 12hr cycles.

Just know anything Bea does of JiHan is most likely going to be some GREAT work because of the way a storyline is involved in it. I remember you talking to me about this concept so seeing it come into fruition was pretty fucking cool. Again. Bea loves to yearn. The colors reminded me of the 2015 piece I adored so much.

She did it again with the flawless approach on Demon!Jihan. It’s like year by year it becomes more and more sexy. I LOVE this. The editing on this is more “today Bea”. It’s got such a nice use of shadow and saturation. I remember those images were so hard for me to edit because of the shadow so I didn’t edit them LOL. But nothing stop’s Bea’s expertise. The red tones really get me. I love how this series went from soft burlap bag of lavender to reddish hues. It feels aggressive and I LOVE that.

This is probably the best birthday graphic that ever exists. Again Bea was so clever with how she displayed a lot of images from Joshua’s ENTIRE career. Along with text. Not just eras. Not just songs. But Joshua as a person as well. Whenever I see this I feel so fond. You can smell the love radiating off of this gfx. Joshua would be SO honored.

2019

This is so pretty. Like it reminds me of salwar kameez lmfao. I remember this fondly. It’s like they’re what is inside of a string light. Not light bulbs. It’s Seventeen’s Vocal Unit.

Shout out to this graphic that is reposted literally everywhere. Bea you unlocked every Carat’s deep want: Tatted!Seventeen. Your talent with manipulations is unreal. The tattoo series and Cyber/ Humanoid series really showcase that. Another shoutout to how Bea inspired that one set of teasers with the pressed flower freckles. I want this in a resin dish. Who on Etsy will do this for me-

(1) (2). The dichotomy of these 2 graphics still get me. In (1) there’s this warm and luxurious vibe. Then in (2) it’s the same luxurious vibe, but creepier than the previous because of the icy feel. It’s so neat. Both are SO beautifully done. I love the shimmer tears on Joshua in (1) and the icy sparkles on Vernon in (2).

2020

I REALLY love this set. The BUTTERFLIES are you KIDDING ME??? I love them. I’m so glad you incorporated them. I love how you subject edit. The way you create glow on the face is so nice. It literally reminds me of using “How Many Carats?!?!!” on the face. Which is SO fitting lmfao. On this work it’s a bit more... “soft glow” but I had to mention it. Joshua with the monarch butterflies makes my heart warm. I dunno if Monarchs are California’s butterflies. But so many places in my town are dedicated to Monarch butterflies so when I think of California, I think of Monarch butterlfies. Anyways I adore the FLUSH on these images. It’s so INNOCENT

I love the entire Cyber series but the way you did everyone’s bionic arm? INCREDIBLE. I can’t even begin to understand HOW you did this Bea. It almost makes me angry that you do this shit for FREE. I get to look at this for free? It feels illegal. I was so floored I missed several details. Like how you made the lighting work with this neon light vibe. That takes a GOOD artistic eye and you clearly have that. Jihoon’s current of energy on his face? U G H it’s so GO OD. I want to stare at it forever. WAIT the BACKGROUND as well. Listen the more I stare this. The more details I realize I miss because I’m so caught up in one detail. It’s just such an incredible series that you execute so flawlessly.

I just really love this. I can’t describe why. It’s just so nice to look at. That panel with Joshua’s glitter tears (p2)? I love it. All of it is so satisfying to look at and I got that entire vibe from the MV in general. So this was an appropriate way to display it!

I have yet to see all of your 2020 gfx so instead I’m gonna rb them and gush lol but really Bea. All your work is so good and if I could write a book on how much I appreciate them - (clearly) I would.

#*kajal gushes over bea's graphic for an actual 3 hours straight*#bea im sorry you had to read any aspect of this #but i really love your work lmfao #i slowly lose my fucking mind the longer i write #this took me around 2hrs lmfao #im sweating this actually stressed me out because i couldnt condense it taht well lmfao #*answ

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snkpolls · 5 years

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SnK Chapter 118 Poll Results

The chapter 118 poll closed with 1,311 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Rate the Chapter 1,217 responses

“Sneak Attack” is the second highest rated chapter this year with only 1.2% expressing extreme unhappiness with the chapter. The overwhelming majority (93.7%) rated it a 4 or 5 on our 1-5 scale.

A chapter I finally enjoyed with a lot of developments other than just Titan bashing. It would've been perfect if we also got some answers about Levi/Hange and Historia but well we can't have everything I suppose.

Finally got some great character development that is amazing payoff after all these years! The Shiganshina vets, Paradis Commanders, and Marley crew all had great moments!

Impressive how so many of the many many plotlines in the air were allowed some great development in just one, insane chapter.

I loved this chapter. I feel like shingeki is really at it's best when we have character moments and plenty of dialogue.

the chapter was too wholesome, I'm scared for next chapter

Which of the following was your favorite moment? 1,263 responses

“Mikasa leaving her scarf behind” has the slight majority, but only a few percentage points separate the top choices. “Falco’s confession” and “Armin rallying everyone to Eren’s side” follow in second and third.

Mikasa is best girl, she is no ones slave ! I just need ch 119 now!

Go Go Mikasa!!!

I'm so into Armin having some kind of game plan and Mikasa moving forward.

I love this chapter. It was an action chapter but damn there were so many touching, human moments it made me so emotional. Connie outburst about being constantly betrayed (pls give this boy a break, he lost so much), Mikasa leaving the scarf behind, Nile helping Falco and speaking about his daughters, Grice bros reunion hug, FALCO'S CONFESSION, Zeke and Pieck still caring about each other.....

I'm so glad to see I was right about Onyankopon lying to Yelena because he had no other choice and still be loyal to the 104th and Hanji!!!

Well, better late than never; I am truly happy to see Mikasa’s development, being more independent.

WOW JEAN MY SON YOU'RE DOING AMAZING SWEETIE

Who was this chapter’s MVP? 1,245 responses

Armin managed to claim the title of MVP this chapter, and it’s no wonder. Not only did he show some much-needed optimism regarding Eren’s current state, but he also chose to believe in Onyankopon’s sincerity regarding his lack of any awareness of the wine plot.

Honorable mention to Nile, who doesn’t show up in these polls often - but when he does he makes sure to give Armin a worthy adversary for the title of MVP. Best dad? Best dad.

A little insulted Yelena isn't an option for MVP, she is literally the ONLY interesting character this chapter

I believe in Armin. He is the understanding character who's really trying to understand things about Eren.

I believe in his statement that Eren's hatred towards Mikasa is a lie.

I love Jean. He is surely honest that he can't let Eren die and is willing to help.

Finally Armin puts it together for everyone

I'd say everybody was the MVP in this chapter: Onyan for being honest with AMJC Jean radiating bi energy towards Eren Mikasa for dropping her scarf Connie for being done with betrayal Nile for being a family man Pixis for admitting he drank too much Falco for confessing to Gabi Gabi for letting go of her prejudice AND OF FUCKING COURSE GENERAL MAGATH AND PIECK FOR MAKING THEIR MONKEY HUNT SUCCESSFUL HAHAHAHAHAHA

How dare you not have Yelena in the options for MVP! LOL but seriously woman is batshit crazy, u guys should have a "who did better" question comparing her psycho face with Armin's and Jean.

Nile deserves to live and see his family

Each of the commanding officers had a big moment. Whose did you enjoy the most? 1,252 responses

Nile may have only come in second place for MVP of the chapter, but most (64.5%) respondents thought that he had the best moment of any commander who made an appearance this time - taking care of Falco and helping to reunite him with his family. Pixis was a distant-runner up (17.3%), with Magath and Shadis nearly tied for third place with about 9% of the vote each.

Nile is best dad

Magath’s shot might have been my favorite moment if he hadn’t missed. >.<

I'd fight a bear just to save Shadis :((((

Seriously though, who is Shadis trying to impress?

This is gonna be long but OOF I cannot express enough how much I loved the little Shadis panel. Bless him.

Has Armin convinced Yelena of his loyalty to her cause? 1,264 responses

Armin seems to be acting like he’s on Yelena’s side once again, and her first reaction to his comments was visceral to say the least, but then she seemed to warm up. 57.9% of you think she’s rebutted acting with acting and is only pretending to give Armin her blessing, whereas only 15.4% think Armin’s Oscar worthy performance won her over. 26.7% don’t have a clue about what this crazy girl is thinking.

Yelena and Armin are both playing each other.

Yelena is CRACKERS and I love her.

Yelena isn't suspicious of Armin, just yandere levels of jealous that he will get to see the Jaeger on Jaeger action up close and personal

Yelena is so out of her mind it actually makes me think if there's something more to her?

Yelena gave me nightmares tho.

Yelena's crazy face scared the shit out of me.

yelena looks like she eats the gum underneath desks

Would knowing Falco drank spinal fluid deter Zeke from screaming? 1,263 responses

Well… 8% of the people who took this poll have a level of optimism that is truly admirable. The other 92% have far less trust in Zeke’s compassion and empathy, most leaning towards the “Hell no” category - that Falco’s wine ingestion wouldn’t even be a consideration if it came to it. Press F for Falco.

After he’s told Falco has ingested his spinal fluid. He’ll give a cold look and say “ah... I see. *inhale* YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

When he learns about Falco's confession and screams because he doesn't want any Grice-Braun baby on his watch

I scream, you scream, we all scream for- Oh shoot Falco's a titan

Zeke screams when Zeke wants to

Do you think Nile will live to see his family again? 1,262 responses

Commander Nile Dok is one of the many citizens to have ingested the spinal fluid wine. If they get transformed into titans, Nile would never get to see his wife Marie and their daughters again. 62.3% of you think he won’t reunite with them, while only 14.2% think he’ll see them again. 23.5% don’t know what they think his fate will be.

Nile deserves to live and see his family

Well, at least Nile and Pixis are goners for sure, but I still think that even if they are titanized, it isn't necessarily their end, because the power of the founder can be used to change the molecular structure of Titans, so if they don't die immediately Eren theoretically could turn them back into humans

please let nile see his family he's so underrated and he deserves it thank you mr. isayama

Which character’s feelings toward Eren best align with your own? 1,257 responses

Close to half the fandom agree with Armin that Eren is only doing this because he has no choice. In second place, almost a third agree with Jean’s “He’s a bastard but he’s cool.” The remaining ¼ of the fandom are divided between Mr. Braus (“Can we just head on home yet”) and Connie’s “I’m sick of being betrayed.”

Connie's anger is valid (fuck Eren)

Jean is out of character for part of it and I really hope that Armin has a secret plan to subdue Eren/at least get angry at Eren for all the shit he's put them through. Connie's right; Eren has been completely shitty and betrayed them even if he does it because he thinks he's saving them or something.

I'm glad Connie hasn't lost his ability to speak his mind, and is sick and tired of everyone's shit.

Armin wonders if Eren will use the rumbling to wipe out the world. What do you think? 1,249 responses

In this chapter, Armin thought back to Eren’s monologue at the ocean about killing everyone in the outside world. 56.2% of you don’t think that’s Eren’s goal at the moment, but that he would be willing to do it if push came to rumble. 20.1% think his end goal is in fact to flatten the earth, whereas 15.8% don’t believe Eren would ever do that in 2000 years.

ern got sneky plan up his slev

I think Eren intends to use the rumbling to destroy the world, but have confidence that Armin will be able to show him it's not the only way

Isayama has been making it so its not clear one way or the other. There are arguments for and against all of the options. I am waiting for a different plan altogether, but I would be fine with either way really.

Eren himself will never do that. But if he is influenced by the memories of so many Attack Titan holders and the will to always move forward and fight, he probably will.

Eren will use the rumbling to deter the world, not destroy it unless he has to.

He'll use it but for a purpose we don't know about yet. Possibly a way related to the S1 miner story and the walls going deeper underground.

I think that Eren's ideology of being born into this world as a free person is something that isn't just applied to Eldians. We know that Eren learned that those across the ocean are the same as those behind the walls. Despite the hatred that parts of the world may have, I don't think Eren wants to take away the freedom of those who never knew any better.

The slight pause in Armin's expression seems to tell me there's more to what he's thinking! Not just rumbling

I imagine we'll follow the time-loop theory and Eren will use the rumbling to rewrite (and rewind) the world to be one without any existence or recollection of titans. Or some weird shit like that.

Eren will turn all Eldian women into anime cat girls. That’s what I would do.

Do you think Armin is being genuine in his optimism about Eren? 1,248 responses

With all of the opinions on Eren floating around at the moment, Armin tries to convince the others that their friend isn’t on the side of evil. The majority, at about 60% believe that Armin’s not positive of what he’s saying, but is trying to be optimistic. 32.5% think Armin truly believes Eren’s had no choice in what side he’s on. Only 6.2% think Armin’s lying and tricking Yelena in that way.

He is being naive and basing his thoughts on his own perception of Eren. Or, he knows that Eren is up to something but needs to convince the others to work with Eren.

I think he’s pretending to support Eren to trick both the 104th and Yelena. The emotion he had after Eren hurt Mikasa was real, no way he’s just over that. But I think it stands true that without Eren, Pradise’s fight would be lost. After everything that happened, though, why would the 104th want to help Eren? Thus Armin knew he would have to manipulate them (and Yelena, for other reasons) for the greater good in the end.

I'm not sure. He wasn't against feeding Eren to someone else if he rejected the SC and now he seems to stand behind him? I think he wants to play along until he knows the truth for sure.

He's deluding himself. He knows Eren is going to destroy the world but doesn't want to believe it.

Yes I believe so. Armin felt like he did not understand Eren anymore because his actions didn’t make sense. That was until Yelena expelled their plan to him in prison. I think that was the missing piece that solved Armin’s puzzle. He may not be certain about the exact plan Eren has but he has enough to go on that Eren would never agree to euthanise people.

I don't think he fully trusts Eren, but he knows that right now, whatever plan Eren has, keeping him alive will be best for Paradise's side. I think he definitely wants to see the good in Eren, but he also realises there might be darker motives in him, though he won't tell the others that in order to rally them properly.

He’s half trying to convince others that Eren is a liar, and half trying to convince himself. Armin just wants to understand, and I relate him.

*clenches fist* A C T I N G

Mikasa is leaving her scarf behind as she heads out for battle. How do you feel about that? 1,251 responses

The scarf coming off is a big moment for Mikasa, and most of us (59.7%) are optimistic that this is the beginning of some great development for her. For others (17.5%) the heartache is just too real. There was quite a bit of hopefulness in the write ins though!

MIKASAAAAAA <3 ok but... she's asking all the right questions!! putting away the scarf!!! thats my baby!!!

I was really excited about the scarf choice! I am not so much a fan of people misinterpreting what the scarf means though... Take a shot everytime you see someone say 'finally some development for mikasa'."

It keeps pushing along the development she has been receiving since the Time Skip. After her conversation with Eren, she more than likely associates it with the Ackerman Bond. Her going out without is a statement that she's truly doing things by own will. Will it be the last time she wears it? I don't think so.

The scarf is her sanctuary and her cage. Leaving it behind is bittersweet and I think the next time she wears it (if she does so) it'll symbolize something totally new.

I want to see Eren's reaction to noticing Mikasa without her scarf

I'm glad that Mikasa decided to leave the scarf behind. She needs to live her life and become strong, independent, smart, mature woman. Being attached to Eren was only stopping her from her own growth. It doesn't matter if Eren was honest while saying about hating her. Mikasa is now opening her eyes and I hope that she will keep moving forward.

Mikasa removing her scarf leads into a perfect segway for Eren wrapping it around her again, as he promised in chapter 50. So I am actually quite excited for that as an Eremika fan, rather than worried.

Chekhov's scarf incoming.

I am more concerned about whatever the hell's going on inside Louise's head as she stares at that scarf.

Louise will take it for one reason or another.

The Marleyan's have new anti-titan rifles. Who will they be used on first? 1,239 responses

The anti-titan guns will no doubt be useful fighting the shifters but a slight majority of the fandom (36.7%) thinks the wine drinkers will be the first victims. 36.4% think they’ll be targeting one of the shifters first.

It’s taken 27 chapters, but Gabi has finally realized the people of Paradis are not devils. How do you feel about her character development? 1,257 responses

Gabi’s been in the story for quite a while now, and has finally come around to the idea that not all the walldians are evil devils. Despite criticism of Gabi being a common sight, the majority of fans, at 37.8%, loved her development and are excited to see what she does next. 27.1% weren’t fans at first but have enjoyed her development, and 23.2% still don’t love her but she’s grown on them. Only 11.9% haven’t enjoyed anything Gabi’s had to offer the narrative.

Feeling validated in my love for Gabi, I'm so glad she finally reached this realisation!!

Granted, Gabi isn't nearly as bad as she was when she started, but her realization came way too late for me to feel anything for her. The damage at this point is already done, so I can't feel anything but complete disdain for her and could care less whether she lives or dies (though it seems like even now a lot of people are still rooting for the latter)

Gabi is best girl.

As expected from Gabi, so obvious and predictible "development " she is the proof that isayama isnt god, becouse everyone do mistakes. Worst manga character

I loved Gabi’s character development. I hope that she’ll do something useful in the next chapters.

I couldn't possibly care less about Gabi's "development". My interest/investment in this series died when Gabi killed Sasha and Isayama started painting the SC as "the bad guys". I didn't sign on for this BS.

I'm glad that Gabi had her moment of realization. It's easy to forget that she's just a child, brought up to believe certain things, and it's coming to that realization that matters the most.

Loved gabi’s character development so so much which i was waiting for. I’d call this chap kind of a heartwarming one in many ways. can’t wait for ch119.

How cute was Falco’s confession? 1,251 responses

In the midst of battle, Falco confesses his feelings to the girl of his dreams, one Gabi Braun. Over half of you (52.1%) gave this confession a 5/5 on the cuteness scale. 25.6% rated 4 cute blushes out of 5, 14.1% were right in the middle at 3, and only 8.3% rated it negatively.

Falco is so pure.... WHAT A GOOD BOY.

Gabi and Falco's scene this chapter really hit me. So much beauty and heart. I feel like the story would miss something without them, aside from their relevance to the plot.

The Gabi-Falco moment wasn't that important to me since I literally just don't feel any particular attachment to the characters, but it WAS important to the story and it needed it happen.

Falco's confession was too cute and pure... oh my god I AM WEAK FOR YOUNG LOVE.

I loved Falco's confession and how him and Gabi were staring at each other at the end of the chapter. They were just so fucking cute.

Wow, for once I found myself having fun with this chapter instead of stressing out. Also, I DIED when Falco confessed to Gabi, that was the cutest scene I've witnessed since 108 and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday chapter. Thanks, Isayama!

Gabi and Falco are getting too much attention but their moments were cute nonetheless.

Falco is sooo cute! Loved that confession scene.

IM OFFICIALLY A GABI STAN, FALCO IS A CUTIE

Is there a chance Falco and Gabi will get married and live happily ever after? 1,260 responses

In a series as upbeat and cheerful as this, a happy ending for a young couple is certain! Right? RIGHT? 45.2% know the series they’re reading and are bracing for the worst form Isayama, and another 36.6% doubt it will end up all rainbows and smiles for this blossoming romance. 14.8% are holding out hope that it’s possible, and only 3.3% don’t think those little snots deserve a shot at happiness.

As cute as Falco's confession was, how is he going to marry Gabi and give her a happy life if he's going to inherit the Armored and then die in 13 years anyway?

Falco's confession was like a drop of purity and innocence in this cruel world. I wish they could live happily. That would be beginning of something new and hopeful.

Now when I say "they don't deserve a happy ending", I'm really just referring to Gabi. Falco deserves nothing but the best.

I'm also glad Gabi is finally awake, idk how I feel about Falco being some weird scapegoat shield foil for her (taking the hits every single time she gets herself into trouble), but I don't think her character development has peaked yet. She's too much of a parallel to Eren to be done already.

Bless Falco, he is just too pure for this cruel world... or maybe he is just what this cruel world needs.

Romances never end well in this series but somehow I hope that this one can come to fruition. I’ll be hurt if Falco actually dies. Maybe that’s what it means to suffer as a braun.

Can't wait for next chapter. PROTECT FALCO, COLT AND GABI AT ALL COST.

When will Zeke scream? 1,246 responses

A solid 35% of the fandom believe Zeke will only scream if he’s totally cornered by enemy troops. Following behind that at 26.4%, respondents feel that he will be doing it immediately in the next chapter. 20.5% think it will happen if and when he is torn out of his titan by an enemy soldier. A small sliver of respondents don’t think it will actually happen.

As soon as he steps on that Lego

Once he notices the people with balck arm bands who are gathered in the front line as pixis ordered, it will be his only salvation... again.

Depends on how bad the interference gets between him and Eren. He panics whenever things don’t go his way and that would be enough of a distraction to reach Eren. Although once they titanise they will also try to eat any surrounding shifters excluding Eren because of Zeke’s influence. It’s a reliable last resort for him.

If Eren gets to him and does his own plan. Once Zeke realizes Eren didn't uphold to the euthanasia plan, he'll scream

The only way he won’t scream is if Armin transforms and turns the tide of the battle. It seems that Zeke is only going to scream as a last resort, but if the battle doesn’t shift back in his favor soon, then he will for sure. I think it’s on Armin at this point.

Not if Eren has a say in it. For all he knows the 104th are still in the building, along with anyone infected that he cares about. If Zeke tries to scream, I feel that Eren will somehow stop him.

Will the Rumbling be activated in this battle? 1,244 responses

66.6% of respondents (is this an omen?) feel that we will at least see a partial rumbling during this battle. 23.4% feel solid about Eren not activated it at all, and the remaining 10% of respondents feel sure that Eren is going to unleash the big guns.

Destroying the world would be too simple. Eren might try to use the wake up call and make people to see that everyone is the same.

I'm still unsure whether this battle will lead to a full or partial rumbling. There are characters who are still missing the call: Kiyomi, Historia, Hitch, Annie…

I don't think Eren is going to activate the rumbling when he touches Zeke. I think he has something else up his sleeve.

Is it wrong that I WANT the Yeagerbros to use the Rumbling? It will basically wipe out the rest of the outside world that has done nothing but persecute Eldians and try to exterminate the protagonists. I see nothing wrong with this 'genocide' plan of theirs.

Eren using the rumbling to destroy the rest of the world makes no sense, especially after what he told Reiner and the fact that it’s what everyone assumes he wants to do.

Zeke is now close enough to titanize those infected by the wine. Do you think he'll do it? 1,251 responses

Reflective of the earlier question about when Zeke will scream (we may not have realized we got a little redundant, oops!), the majority of the fandom believe that Zeke will definitely titanize the wine infected Eldians in the area. A small 11% have faith that he won’t do it.

Zeke stop being such a retard already and let's get to the good stuff! The rumbling the scream! Come on dude!

I both want Zeke to scream for cool storytelling but I don’t because I love the people who would be affected

Zeke screaming is too predictable, same with falco becoming a titan shifter, I will be a little disappointed if isayama does that

Is this the final battle? 1,252 responses

While a third feel that this is climactic enough to constitute the finale, a clear majority (68.1%) feel certain that there is still more to come after this battle

This can’t be the final arc because it doesn’t really feel like the strongest arc. Isayama would make the final arc amazing

We're in the endgame now

If this is really the final battle I worry it'll be rushed. Mikasa only just started her development to "get free" from Eren and Armin still hasn't lived up to Erwin's legacy. Then there's Hange and Levi, who I still hope to see in action again. Same for Annie. If we don't get to see female titan in action one last time, I'll be disappointed. Not sure how can that happen, since she's still back in Wall Sheena (and I hoped Armin would see her wake up), but please...

Prediction time! Death flags are everywhere, who do you think will die in this battle?

Unlike the other groups in this section of the poll, a few hundred people chose not to make any selections for the Survey Corps, expressing confidence that they will all survive this battle.

When we look at combined results, the death flags are waving most prominently for Floch (741 votes), the senior military (650), Reiner (598), Connie (594), Porco (588), and Yelena (583).

Senior Military 1,196 responses

When Nile waved goodbye at Falco, it wasn't just meant for him. It was also meant for us. This chapter really felt like this is the last we will see of Nile as a human. The next time we see him, he will be a Titan for sure.

My heart breaks for Keith. He also drank from the wine, so he´s a goner? What do you guys think?

Survey Corps 916 responses

As much as I love Jean, it really hurts me that I chose him and Connie as the next characters in the Survey Corps that will die, because it feels like they will. I really hope I'm wrong.

Connie will die soon, mark my words.

I didn't really catch any death flags for the survey corps? Maybe hange or levi but that's it

Jaegerists/Volunteer 1,133 responses

if floch dies next chapter many extremely manly tears may be shed for that lovable nutter

Can Zeke just die? It's been 3 times he survived from death. It makes it predictable

I don't want Zeke to die, I don't want Zeke to be betrayed by Eren. Eren, please... My heart is breaking.

Marleyans 1,150 responses

I have huge soft spots for both Nile and Falco and am in denial about their eventual fate :(

pieck must never die

I hope Reiner doesn't join Berthold just yet

reiner must die

It’s really great seeing Pieck get more spotlight, now all I need is her last name, and I can accept her probable death

If my boi Reiner were to die I'd drop the manga

Which titan power do you think Falco will inherit? 1,204 responses

Will all of Falco’s warrior training pay off now that he’s in a situation where he might become a titan? The most popular option at 55.4% is that he’ll inherit Reiner’s armored titan. 26.7% don’t think he’ll end up becoming a shifter at all. The Jaw and Beast were the next most popular choices, at 7.9% and 6.9% respectively.

The stage is set for Falco to inherit Reiner's titan.

I know the prevailing theory is that Falco will eat Reiner and get his power (and it'll probably happen too) but something about letting a kid inherit Ymir's curse all over again doesn't quite sit right with me. Like what Eren said: Falcon deserves a long life too. But I guess it's better than being titanized by Zeke's scream and shot by one of those guns.

No Colossus option? C'mon.

What would you most like to see next chapter? 1,219 responses

Levi and Hange top the wish list with just over one fourth of the fandom (21.7%) hoping for an update on their condition. Eren and Zeke touching is second (17.6%) and Eren noticing his friends in the fray is third (16.2%).

Annie will reappear, DRINKS ON ME

I fucking hope Eren and Zeke touch bc damn this chapter seemed to be so short and we’ve been eating for so long.

Glad to see Jean mentioning Levi & Hange, makes me expect (and fear) that they will be included in the next chapter.

Hange and Levi plz

I hope we can get a glimpse of Eren's thought. I need his perspective more, more than anyone else's. And last but not least, Levi's condition.

I'm excited to see the gang join the battle

I'm genuinely at a point where this whole 'mystery MC motives' thing is making me want to drop the series for a while. Please just rip the bandaid off if Eren is going to be a legit ~villain~ or whatever, stop dragging this out for so long.

With this being the last chapter of the current volume now would be a perfect time to check in on levi and hange's conditions and perhaps could pace the way for some good angsty chapters that eventually lead to them two coming into this battle with a brilliant game changing fighting strategy (maybe some hange backstory too if we are lucky enough like cmon its the final arc and hanges the only main cast that hasnt had any hint of a background)

Eren and Zeke touching lol phrasing

At this point, around which chapter do expect the manga will conclude? 1,163 responses

Not a whole lot has changed here since last month, but we had a slight increase in the percentage of respondents that think 130 or 134 will be the final chapter of the manga. The percentage of people who believe the manga will continue to chapter 138 or beyond has stayed about the same. Similarly, the people who think the manga will end at chapter 122 or 126 are hanging in there - and it doesn’t seem like they have been convinced otherwise.

Where do you primarily discuss the series? 1,141 responses

While Reddit and Tumblr hold steady, Facebook has been making tiny gains in recent months. Thank you again to everyone who participated, regardless of what platform you are on! If you are on an underrepresented platform, please feel free to share the poll there.

Additional thoughts on the chapter?

Some of you have never been brainwashed by an evil regime and it shows.

I ache for Nile, we misjudged him, he is such a sweetheart with his three little girls! <3 I have a bad feeling he'll die, but I really, really hope he survives this, because from *his* original trio, he's the only one left. Mike and Erwin are gone. :(

A lot of people think Armin only function in this arc is just to blow up and follow Eren's game but I think he is going to become the third option in this conflict, as soon he confirms his fears about Eren true intentions with rumbling.

As for the titan serum wine victims, maybe they won't be affected if they don't hear Zeke's scream if they cover their ears hard enough

AVENGE YOUR SISTER, KAYA! DESTROY THE HATED ONE!

Eren is a shit. Who puts his friends and family of dead friend into a prison together with potential titans? If someone from Sasha's family dies because they were locked in Shingashina, Eren will be officially the worst person ever and I will root for his terrible and painful death.

Eren looked so pretty in that last panel

EREN PLEASE- DO SOMETHING. SAVE THE KIDDOS.

Finally the story is starting to progress again after months of nothing really happening that builds the story. Finally we are getting answers without getting anymore questions. This is a lot less infuriating than previous chapters have been.

i feel like there is going to be a lot of deaths tho since we are in for a large scale battle, mainly with all the people that consumed the wine. but i still think Hizuru will come into play here and in a dangerous way.

I just hope a happy ending for everyone (or most of them) but knowing isayama, I will read happy endings only in fanfiction

I like Gabi now

I hope Mikasa realizes she’s NOT a slave and Eren’s Ackerman talk was bullshit. Ackermans are the most free ppl in this series

I wish for Eren not to turn like a villain, I want him to keep his same goals from the very beginning and save his friends, the Eldians, and unite them with Marley all together. I hope he can team up with Reiner and defeat Zeke. Most of all, I would like Mikasa to break her bonds she has with Eren and live for herself. And for Armin, to free Annie with the help of the Survey Corps and Reiner with Porco together so that Annie could fight on the right side for once, then return home peacefully.

If Armin isn't lying I'll eat one (1) entire issue of Bessatsu Shounen Magazine.

It didn’t focus as much on the fights as last time, focusing more on how the characters are being affected by the fight

It was amazing and it felt a bit more hopeful than the other chapters. But since it is supposed to be the last arc, something big will happen for sure and i am not ready XD!

Mikasa does not wear the protective shields. Foreshadowing? My Eekstinct tells me she is going to be injured in this battle and then Kiyomi makes a move that shock everyone, drags Mikasa away and keeps her promise of protecting her. And then Hizuru arc begins EEEEEEEEK

Needs more Annie and Historia but still a 10/10. Should be 11/10 though.

One of the greatest cliffhangers ever. It created such a conflicting feeling in me. If Zeke doesn't die asap, he is going to scream. If he does, Eren won't be able to activate the rumbling to defeat Marley. It's two terrible results.

People could use some pointers from Yelena and stop looking at Eren as this messiah-like figure who is here to bring world peace or balance or any of that stuff. Eren doesn't fight for the world, he never did. He fights for the freedom of him and his people and if flattening the earth gets him that then so be it. After all, he will keep moving forward, until his enemies are destroyed.

Probably my favorite chapter out of the last year! I thought it was going to be more action heavy but there were so many touching character moments and I absolutely loved it for taking its time to touch on almost everyone

This is like the 4th time in 5 chapters that Zeke is on the brink of death and my poor heart can only take so much ;-;

Unpopular Opinion (don't kill me), I feel that Pieck is such a Mary Sue. I get that she is highly skilled among the Warriors, but she has seriously only had one "mistake" since her introduction (Panzer Unit explosion). Other Warriors such as Reiner, Bortolo Colon, even Zeke have suffered multiple beat downs throughout the story. I just want her to not feel as invincible at times, as it seems she's always one step ahead.

We’ve heard little to nothing about Eren’s philosophy and state of mind since after the time jump (and even after the RTS arc ended), I think we’re in for some info soon enough

Yelena is the representation of all the creepy fangirls who just wanna protecc their otp change my mind

Well, if I wasn't right about anything else, I was right in that shit has completely gone down. Probably one of my favorite chapters in the whole manga.

With so many airships this month cant we just rename Attack on Titan to Attack on Airships ? :D

#snk spoilers #snk poll #snk polls #poll results

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neverwatchedonepiece · 5 years

Text

650-651: "Luffy and the Gladiator of Fate - Rebecca!" and "Protect You to the End! Rebecca and the Toy Soldier!"

NARUTO-KUNNNNNN

So Bartolomeo is basically Hinata.

He collects Strawhat posters.

He is their biggest fan.

You guys were right.

This is hilarious.

I love him. xD

“I SENT YOU MY BLOOD, LUFFY!”

Once Luffy and Don Chinjao left the ring, the clean up and reconstruction team moved in. As of now, three contenders could potentially move forward to challenge Diamante: Jesus Burgess, Bartolomeo and the Not-So-Mysterious Lucy.

I say “not so mysterious” because everyone and their gran fighting in the next round knows who he is now.

And I have a theory: Bartolomeo, Rebecca and Luffy will team up against Burgess in the next round.

Why do I think this?

Well, once Luffy left the ring, pursued by Cavendish, two fodders happened to pass by Bartolomeo. He overheard them talking shit about Luffy.

“Why does Cavendish keep yelling Strawhat? As if he’d be here. That’s the guy who couldn’t even save his brother’s life. Anyone could do what he did if he doesn’t have to save anyone’s life!”

For some reason, Bartolomeo Did Not Like This. He pinned the fodder and almost crushed him with a barrier. At first I thought Bartolomeo’s reaction was something to do with Ace. Maybe they were friends once?

Nope.

The real reason was Even Better.

“What was that joke you made so lightly?” Bartolomeo growled. “Listen, Luffy-senpai will become the standard bearer for this era. He will become the Pirate King!”

No, I thought. No way. Bartolomeo was a Luffy supporter? How? And why Luffy-senpai? Had Luffy unknowingly taught him along the way?

The answer? Sort of.

Bartolomeo was there at Loguetown.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Over two years ago. At Loguetown in East Blue. On the legendary scaffold where Roger died, Luffy-senpai shouted it out then. At that moment, straight from heaven, came a bolt of thunder which saved his life. What I saw was a miracle!”

And thus Luffy’s Biggest Fan was born.

Seriously, this guy used to be a gangland boss (had taken over about one-hundred and fifty towns). But he began to follow the news stories. Alabasta, Enies Lobby, Impel Down and Marineford. He made a fan shrine with his bounty poster collection! In the end, Bart’s hardcore fanboy status reached the lofty height of emulation. Inspired by Luffy, he sailed out to sea.

And it turns out Bart does not take kindly to anyone talking shit about his idol.

While Luffy dodged Cavendish, Bartolomeo peeked round the wall and watched. “I can’t approach him. When it comes to it, I can’t do it. I’m too nervous to go anywhere near him. The scar under his left eye. It’s real! He’s so cool! Oh... my eyes are suddenly blind with tears. That stupid Cabbage shit. I want to beat him to death and save Luffy!”

It’s nice to know Luffy has such a dedicated in-universe fanbase.

And Don Chinjao can be added to the club too. He joined Cavendish in thundering after Luffy because he wants to place his grandson’s Happo Navy under the command of Garp’s Illustrious Grandson. What a result, right?

Except Luffy was thoroughly weirded out, wondering why these three crazy guys were chasing him.

Luckily for him, Rebecca was around.

Teach Takes Another Level in Scumbag

She grabbed his arm and hauled him off. There was a more private place nearby where no one else went.

On the way, they passed Jesus Burgess. He was in the middle of a DDM call. A very familiar voice was on the line. So familiar, it caused a visceral reaction in Luffy. He screeched to a halt immediately.

It was Blackbeard. And they were having a weird conversation.

“By that logic, Shiryu is no different,” Teach said.

“But I can’t trust Aokiji!” Burgess complained. “Uh... Hold on a sec, Captain. Strawhat is here.”

This piqued Teach’s interest. “Eh? You there, Strawhat?”

“You’re Blackbeard, aren’t you?” (You know when Luffy remembers you straight away that you must either be A) Really Good, or B) A Real Asshole.

“Yeah, it’s been awhile. Heard you’re fighting in the competition, Lucy. But my man, Burgess, is gonna win the Mera-Mera Fruit. I can’t wait because it’ll be like having Ace in my crew. He turned me down in the past.”

OOOOFT.

Wow, that one was a low blow. To be honest, I really like how Oda employs Teach as a long-term adversary to Luffy. Teach’s panel/screen time is economical but every time he appears, Oda really ramps up the enmity between him and Luffy. No exchange is ever wasted.

I was pretty proud of Luffy for keeping his cool here. It shows how much he’s matured as a person and as a Captain.

I am also intrigued by why Burgess is worrying about Aokiji? That was pretty random. Is our favourite ex-Admiral really operating in the underworld now? Is he trying to wangle information from the Blackbeards? Hmm... Don’t think Smoker would like that. Then again, he has had a hard lesson on Punk Hazard. Maybe he will be a little more cynical in future and won’t dismiss intel from pirates out of hand.

Justice for Toys!

Post Blackbeard Encounter, Rebecca led Luffy further away from the chaos. On the way, Luffy was distracted by free food samples. Just before he cleaned out the stall, Rebecca offered to buy him lunch, even though she didn’t have much money.

What a nice gesture, right?

Rebecca found a deserted looking area and Luffy smashed into his bento like it was Blackbeard’s face. Through mouthfuls of food, Luffy asked where they were. Rebecca explained it was quarters for the gladiators. They called it “a prison” (which, we learned later, it literally was).

Since Luffy’s life revolves around piracy and food, he asked Rebecca if she was hungry and if she wanted some food.

This triggered an Obvious Trauma Flashback. Smol Rebecca and her mother beneath the tree in Flower Field. Smol Rebecca saying, “I’m hungry.” Her mother replying, “Okay, do you think you can stay here alone for a while?” Then suddenly... dead mother.

Rebecca said tightly, “I don’t get hungry.”

Although I figured there was guilt here, I didn’t link Smol Rebecca’s food request directly with her mother’s death. Not until the big reveal of Rebecca’s past.

That unwitting conversational misstep must have pushed Rebecca into enacting her plan. She had intended to lure Luffy into a quiet area and kill him. When she turned on him, to my surprise, some randoms in bandages piped up from behind bars. “YEAH, GIT HIM, REBECCA!”

But Rebecca had picked on the wrong competitor.

Or, when you look at it from another angle, exactly the right one.

Luffy was able to fend her off while still tucking into his delicious meal. It was an embarrassingly easy win. The gulf of ability between them was so wide, she was never on Luffy’s radar. Right now, beating Rebecca would be like swatting a fly. (Not disparaging her general fighting ability, but compared to Luffy, most people would come off worse.) She was no threat, therefore Luffy wasn’t angry about the assassination attempt.

Luckily, she bought Luffy lunch. Especially since she didn’t have much money. He loves food and would appreciate that. Any other offence would pale in comparison to that act of generosity.

“I’m not gonna do anything to someone who bought me food,” Luffy said when Rebecca insisted he just kill her and get it over with.

Then Luffy noticed the “mummies” - the prisoners in bandages in the background. Rebecca explained the situation. She and the other guys in the room are “convict gladiators”, pretty much like the system in ancient Rome where slaves and criminals could be slung into the arena and ordered to fight to the death.

To ramp up Doflamingo’s evilness, they also said, “The king says we can be released if we win a thousand times. Everyone who tried to escape got shot. There’s nowhere to run for us. Before Doflamingo became king, gladiatorial matches were not to the death. In this kingdom, there are very bright and very dark sides.”

So Doflamingo brought in the Delayed Death Penalty for criminals. I guess it’s a way of ushering capital punishment through the back door. Entertain the masses and get rid of undesirables in one go. Few will object because most love the Colosseum games. The ones who won’t fight, or the really dangerous ones likely to talk too much, are turned into toys. That’s iron control of Dressrosa right there.

And Rebecca is not a fan.

“Today an army led by Sol will come to let us out by provoking a battle against Doflamingo. He is willing to sacrifice his life to destroy the kingdom. But I’m gonna do it before he does. I don’t want to just be protected anymore. I want to protect Sol this time! I’ll win today’s competition no matter what and will kill Doflamingo with the Mera-Mera Fruit power.”

I thought I’d figured out Rebecca’s motive to fight. Poor kid with no food, no family, maybe resorted to petty criminal activity, was arrested and now she wants to escape. Amongst all the crap that happened to her, maybe Sol was her only friend.

Luffy was like, “Why are you worried a toy is gonna die?”

Rebecca just smiled and said, “You’re not from here, so it’ll be hard for you to understand. Toys are the same as humans (wait til she finds out they *are* humans. She’s gonna flip tables). They are friends to the friendless. Siblings for those who have none. Lovers for the loveless. I don’t understand why they’re not able to live with us. Since I lost my mother, Sol-san raised me. He’s like a father to me (I bet he is).”

Luffy actually listened to this (which is a huge accomplishment, Rebecca. You should be proud of that) and said, “You don’t look like a prisoner to me. Buy me lunch again sometime!”

Rebecca walked out to the ring and said, “See you at the finals.”

I like her confidence.

Then a flashback kicked in that showed me how wrong I was about Rebecca’s motivations.

Oda Really Likes Princesses, Doesn’t He?

The sad tale of how Sol came to raise Rebecca opened with a scene of Smol Rebecca and her mother living quietly on Flower Field, picking flowers to sell in town. They had a lovely house. An idyllic life. But don’t think I missed that one empty chair at the table. (Sol is totally her dad.)

Then there was fire. The King Riku army was setting town on fire. This really puzzled me. (I’m still not one-hundred percent on this. Are we talking the actual King Riku or the Resistance King Riku Army here?)

Soldiers chased Smol Rebecca and her mother, Lady Scarlet. Diamante headed the charge. Sol stepped in and defended them. After the battle, Smol Rebecca and Lady Scarlet hid out in Flower Field. Rebecca said she was hungry. Lady Scarlet knew it was a risk but she sneaked into town to buy food. She was shot and killed. Sol brought her body back, along with the food she’d died to buy Rebecca.

Smol Rebecca nudging her mother’s dead body and telling her to get up was like post-stampede Mufasa and Simba all over again. It was Very Sad. ;_;

She almost cried but Sol clamped his hand over her mouth. Enemies were still looking for her.

“Your mother was high-born. Do you know we have a new king now? The new king wants to capture all the former nobility. He even wants to capture you because your mother’s blood runs through your veins. I’m gonna protect you unti the end with my life. Until the day you are filled with happiness, I will always be by your side.”

Wait... I thought. Rebecca is a noble???

What the hell?

What was going on?

Was the battle the night before a civil war in Dressrosa? One that Doflamingo won against King Riku?

Who Says Politicians Never Keep Their Promises, Eh?

Because here he is. On a podium. A shiny new king wearing his all time fave feather jacket. The adoring crowd chanted his name. “Doflamingo! Doflamingo!”

He made a speech. Par for the course with new kings.

“The Riku Family has been running this poor country for centuries! In the end they became shameless and robbed money and goods from citizens for themselves. I’m gonna make this country wealthy, instead!”

This is where I lost track of the situation. From what has been revealed about people turning into Toys, I thought Doflamingo “brought someone in” to do that. I figured that would have been *after* he gained power. But Toys were around before that. Sol is proof.

What gives?

And the people of Dressrosa *really* hate King Riku and anyone associated with his bad, corrupt family. Unfortunately for Rebecca, not only is she a noble, she is also King Riku’s granddaughter. Her status is also well-known in the Colosseum. When she walked into the ring, the commentator introduced her as the Phantom Princess of King Riku’s line. She was booed and vilified by the audience. “BURN IN HELL! CORRUPT FAMILY!”

I get the feeling Doflamingo engineered this somehow. It’s all too perfect a narrative. Doflamingo, the saviour, sweeps in and saves Dressrosa from the evil, corrupt family, while he is as bad, if not worse. Or maybe Doflamingo did have good intentions, but, as always in life, matters snowballed and he became hella corrupt himself. Leaning more towards deliberate coup at the moment.

I am also highly suspicious of the gladiator Ricky. It’s very close to Riku and there was definitely an older gent under that mask...

“SELL THEM FOR STRAWHAT MERCHANDISE!”

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #donquixote doflamingo #bartolomeo #rebecca sugar #sol the toy #lady scarlet #king riku #diamante #cavendish #don chinjao #dressrosa

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Alien (1979) Review

By Billie Doux

"A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility." Alien is a terrifying work of art. There's something real and visceral about it. It scares you where you live.

In most horror movies, the monster is never as scary as the build-up. In Alien, it's scarier. It's wet, slimy and organic, and it invades their lives while they're at the dinner table. It evokes fears of diseases that cannot be contained, of biting and snapping insects and crustaceans, and the most primal fear of sharp teeth dripping with saliva. The facehugger gets you with the fear of smothering and choking. There's also the lovely super-acid, as well as getting trapped in an enclosed place with a monster.

Alien has often been described as "truckers in space." The Nostromo is cold, hard, shabby and realistic; the matter-of-factness of a bunch of grunts in a transport arguing about bonuses helps make the fantastic real. There isn't a lot of exposition. We don't know who these people are, where they came from, how they ended up in these jobs. We don't even know their first names. (Even the cat is referred to by a last name.) But the seven actors are so good that each of them is memorable.

It's easy to identify with Ripley early on when she tries and fails to enforce quarantine, because we all know she's right. She is so calm and professional through most of the movie that when she finally loses it, it counts. It's easy to root for her; she's tough and smart and refuses to give up. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley has become a female science fiction icon, although much like Sarah Connor (another icon), Ripley doesn't really come into her own until the second movie.

After Ripley, Dallas (Tom Skerritt) is probably the most sympathetic character. We never do find out how he died. (Except in the extended version of the movie.) Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are great as the resentful engineering staff. John Hurt's part as the curious Kane is smallest, but he's certainly memorable. Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) is the only one of the seven who shows panic and fear early on, but she does it beautifully without going over the top or becoming unsympathetic.

Ian Holm is the standout, though. Throughout most of the movie, Ash feels human but just... slightly... off. When we discover his true nature and he goes on the offense, he is absolutely frightening. Trying to kill Ripley with a rolled up magazine down her throat is particularly shuddery, as is his final speech in that disembodied head. Note how Ash, who is nearly as terrifying as the alien, is also gruesomely organic, with artificial slime and guts. And milky blood. Love the milky blood.

So much care and talent went into the making of this movie. The sequences on the planet with the wind, the mist, and the organic lines of the enormous alien ship seem like a fantastic nightmare come to life. Every space scene is beautifully composed. For that matter, every scene in the movie is beautifully composed. The famous chestburster sequence may be the most shocking movie scene ever filmed. I can still remember how shocked I was the first time I saw it. Veronica Cartwright's reaction was genuine, too. Most of the actors weren't clued in about exactly what was coming the first time so that Ridley Scott could record their actual reactions. (What a prick.)

Although the effects hold up for a movie over thirty years old, the computer sequences don't. "Mother" should probably have been more like HAL in 2001, although the lack of a human-like voice and the cold, disembodied fatalism of her messages work with the plot. Especially since "Mother" was the only representative of the Company (other than Ash), an organization that had no problem sacrificing the lives of the Nostromo's crew for an alien that could be used as a weapon.

Some have complained that it was unrealistic for Ripley to go back for the cat. I'm a cat person. I'd do it. I've also heard complaints about Ripley taking off her clothes in the last few minutes. I understand why it's referred to as unnecessary cheesecake, and maybe it is. But I think her near nudity was intended to make her appear even more vulnerable in that final cat and mouse sequence with the alien. Which was also very well done – her careful movements as she slides into the suit, her ragged breathing, the halting way she quietly sings, "You Are My Lucky Star." I always thought that was an acknowledgement that the alien was so powerful that only luck will help Ripley prevail.

Alien runs just under two hours. The entire first hour is set-up, and every moment of that set-up is paid off in the second hour. When things start going nuts, we know the characters, we know the situation, and we know that they're completely screwed. I've seen this movie five or six times (it's not a movie you watch over and over for pleasure) and I still feel dread; the scares are so well set up that they still make me jump, even though I know they're coming.

Bits and pieces:

— Alien had a killer ad campaign: "In space, no one can hear you scream." I saw a bumper sticker parody of it once: "In space, your cat can't hear the can opener."

— The alien ship and the alien itself were based on the disturbing art work of H.R. Giger. His contribution to this movie was huge. And I hope he got some serious therapy.

— The movie begins when the crew of seven wake up, and ends with Ripley and Jones going to sleep. Like I said, a waking nightmare.

— John Hurt's first line is, "I feel dead."

— It might not mean anything, but I always register the fact that all the white males die first. The last survivors are Parker, Lambert and Ripley. And the cat.

— We didn't see the cat when the crew woke up at the start of the movie. Was Jonesy running around while they were sleeping? If so, what did he eat? Jones the cat also managed to evade every member of the crew except Ripley. Smart cat; he refused to go with anyone but the star of the sequel.

— There are several shots of empty helmets just sitting on panels and counters. Eerie. And a top candidate for Most Obvious Symbolism.

— There's an extended version of the movie, and the additional footage was interesting. But in my opinion, the theatrical version is better.

Alien is a brilliant, memorable movie. It's the perfect mix of science fiction and horror. Four out of four empty helmets.

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

#Alien #Ellen Ripley #Ridley Scott #Doux Reviews #Movie Reviews #something from the archive

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canaryatlaw · 5 years

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Alright, so we’re pretty much back in Chicago at this point, the skyline is in front of me and we’re about to get on lake shore so I figured I’d start writing on my phone so I don’t have to start it all when I get home, to be fair it’s only 10:30 but I woke up in a different time zone and I’m currently very tired so this is valid. But yeah today was super cool. We had set the alarm for 10 because we were really tired so that’s when I got up, Jess had been up somewhat earlier I’m not sure how much but I don’t think very long. So I got the cosplay on, we were doing camp Constantine and Ray from last weekend since we were seeing Matt Ryan and we wanted to show him the mask 😂 so everyone gets to see it in person. So we got ready and headed out shortly after 10:30 which was the goal, stopped at a Starbucks to grab breakfast and drinks, then sat for a bit to eat because Jess doesn’t want any eating in her new car yet. So we ate and got back on our way. We’d been to this con last year so we had an idea of the venue and parking situation, we parked in the garage across the street and walked over. We were in shorts and it was very windy and cold so this wasn’t very pleasant! I was happy when we reached the doors. Got inside and through their security set up to the show floor. We checked Matt’s table first thing but he wasn’t there, he was supposed to be doing autographs since 10:15 but the crowd had probably died down and there was nobody left so he left (they do that sometimes). So we had some time to kill until his panel at one, so we walked around the show floor and checked things out until it was like 12:30 at which point we went to wait outside the panel room.

There was a panel in there before us, some podcast with geek guys, but they stayed and kinda talked to the audience while we were all getting in and waiting for Matt so that was kind of funny. The host showed up and said Matt was watching a soccer game in the green room 😂 but he came out shortly afterwards. The panel was pretty good, you know people generally ask the same fairly basic questions at this kind of thing but I livetweeted it if anyone wants to check that out (same @). Right after his panel were his photo ops, so we rushed over there and ended up being first in line for the people with normal tickets (since they let VIPs go in first). So we got in pretty quickly, there was a group of women directly in front of us that had Matt do some pose with a cup that had a little brown liquid in it that was supposed to be alcohol I think and after they took the picture he just downed it 😂 judging by the look on his face I think it probably was actual alcohol. Matt remembered us immediately and was like “oh you guys! I haven’t seen you in so long!” since the last time we saw him was HVFF NJ in September so it’s been a while. But we decided our pose would be like pretending to be a boy band basically, it was really funny and came out really well. So once we got that printed out we bounced over to his table to get it signed, and he popped up shortly afterwards.

Waited a bit behind some people to get to the table and chat with him. I’m not really supposed to repeat what he said because he definitely gave us some fairly large spoilers 😂 but overall it was an encouraging conversation so I was happy with that. He signed my op and we took some selfies with him. After we had finished that and said goodbye to Matt Jess went to buy an avocado sticker we saw earlier to give to Brandon 😂 and I headed over to John Glover’s table. Okay I’m home in my apartment now and typing in a tumblr text post (so no more paragraphs for annoying tumble mobile lol). John Glover played Lionel Luthor on Smallville and just recently started attending cons so of course I had to meet him and get some selfies with him. He was really cool, I told him the first episode of Smallville that I can recall watching was the one where Lex pushed him out of a window 😂 and he thought that was pretty funny. We got some smiley selfies and then some really funny ones that are really just the best pictures to ever be taken (I’ll post some of them after this). So that was an all around hilarious and fun interaction. I met back up with Jess at that point, we went to the bathroom and then headed out. We were heading to a local mall to meet up with one of Jess’ internet friends who is like 20 and her parents don’t know she has internet friends so we had to meet at the mall 😂 which was fine lol. They’re both into Kpop now so we got bubble tea from their mall stand which was pretty good and then got chinese food from the food court for lunch and sat and talked for a while which was very fun. We drove her home afterwards since she only lived around the corner and then started our journey home. Jess had been feeling pretty sick all day so we ended up stopping a few times to get a “medicine ball” tea from Starbucks which is apparently a thing and then for more caffeine and such. We listened to the whole Hamilton OBCR to make time pass quicker lol which it did and of course I sang and rapped along to the whole thing because that’s what I do lol. We were gonna get dinner from a rest stop when we had just gotten into Indiana but their Popeye’s didn’t have tenders at the moment (because it was a Sunday night I guess?) and Jess can’t have chicken on the bone (I don’t remember why) and there was no other open food places in that rest stop (and the like gas station hot sandwiches all had bacon in them) so we ended up just getting a red bull and getting back on the road. A little further down there ended up being a billboard for a cracker barrel at which point we were like 👀👀👀 so I looked up how late they were open to, they were open till 10 and it was like 8:45 at this point (this is all before we crossed into the central time zone) so we decided to make the stop because we really love cracker barrel lol. so we got pretty much the same thing as last night, just with some different sides, Jess subbed one of hers for soup since she was feeling sick, I was gonna go with mashed potatoes but they were apparently out so I ended up back with hashbrown casserole and corn, and there was a green bean hidden in my corn and when I saw it I swear I had like a visceral reaction after last night’s green bean incident 😂 it was amusing. We finished up there and paid (and left a nice tip because it was almost closing time when we came in). We got back on the road and headed through the rest of Indiana mostly listening to Kpop, various tolls getting on and off freeways, thankfully they all took credit because I only had $3 in cash on me at that point and we don’t have EZ-Pass or any midwestern equivalent (there’s like I-Pass and a few others apparently). We ended up on the toll road into Chicago which Jess was pissed about because we were trying to avoid it but oh well, shortly after we paid that I started writing this, and during that time we drove up lake shore drive and Jess dropped me off at my apartment, I came in and dropped my stuff, went through my mail, and took my pills before opening my laptop and continuing to type this post, and now I am here. It’s now 11:30 and hopefully the meds are kicking in relatively soon because I am very tired and would like to be asleep soon, so that’s what I'm going to focus on now. Goodnight friends. Hope your weekend was the bomb.

#daily journal #March 2019 #Jess tag #Rachel's cosplay adventures

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bookoftheironfist · 6 years

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Am I the only one, that isn't happy with Danny's comic stories latley? I mean PM&IF, and Brissons run were great storywise but what bums me, is that Danny seems a little lost currently. He still isn't over Misty, while she moved on, his best friend is married with a kid and their reunion was (sadly) pretty short. Plus I feel like he is hinted to be depressed in some runs. Just let my son be happy again, Marvel.

I completely agree with this; a lot of Danny’s recent stories have been heartbreaking (and yes– really good comics, for sure– but sad). Danny’s life has tended to be marked by periods of unfocus and loss. We saw this back in the 90s too, after he escaped the H’ylthri. There was a fairly significant chunk of time in which he didn’t know what to do with himself (and, it seems, the writers didn’t know what to do with him). He had lost his connection to K’un-Lun, most of his personal ties had been shattered by his “death” and prolonged captivity, and he felt even more alienated than usual. Part of this is in the nature of his character. He’s an Iron Fist who spends long periods of time away from K’un-Lun. He’s a Hero for Hire, but only when H4H is actually operating (and even then, he hasn’t been on every iteration of the team). He doesn’t really have a civilian identity, and his life is in constant flux. He is a man of two worlds, eternally displaced, and after forty years, this fact is still at the core of his stories. This means that it’s very easy– both for him as a person, and for creative teams– to lose sight of a clear purpose for him, which can result in stagnation.

Danny’s current situation is clearly more intentional than that, and less a factor of the writers not knowing what to do with him, but while it’s made for very powerful character moments, it is also really sad. I’m still upset about the way things ended with Misty (the dragon-chi-false-pregnancy stuff was really hand-wavy and forced), and I’m even more upset that the two of them have barely shared a panel since. As traumatic as the experience was, they ended the relationship on good terms with each other, and it seems like something they should at least talk about. Superhero comics aren’t great about providing this type of closure, but they were together for so long that just leaving things hanging the way they are feels wrong. They’re still friends. They still care for each other, whether it be platonically or romantically. They should still interact! And it is extra heartbreaking when paired with Luke’s situation, which just emphasizes to Danny how much he lost and how far, life-experience-wise, he’s fallen behind his best friend. I love his fear of losing Luke because of this. I love his conversation about it with Stephen Strange in New Avengers, and I was blown away by that scene in PMIF vol. 3 #13. You know the one…

Danny: “Luke… I’m sorry, man. […] This is all my fault. And not just this– I’m talking everything that’s happened since we got back together. I wanted to make things the way they were before. You’ve got your own family. Misty and I are over, I know that, but it still stings. I was… I don’t know how to say it… scared of being alone. I didn’t want to go back to being that alienated kid in K’un Lun with no real friends or family. So what did I do? I dragged you into my loneliness. I used you to try and make myself feel complete. Look at where my fear and weakness has led us…”

I cried the first time I read this scene, because it placed the run back into the context of Danny’s recent darkness– extending back to the false pregnancy, but also encompassing all of the horror and loss he went through in Living Weapon. It turned the entire run on its head, explaining Danny’s initial comic-relief-y enthusiasm about restarting H4H and turning it into desperation, reminiscent of “Happy Matt” in Mark Waid’s Daredevil run. And the fact that Danny sees this fear of loss as weakness is just so Danny, and so painful. I love the power of this scene, and Luke’s reaction, and I am fascinated by this new element of their dynamic because it feels real. Who hasn’t experienced something like this? Who hasn’t been frightened by the thought of their friends outgrowing them? I like it because it’s so visceral and heart-wrenching and powerfully done. That’s what I want to emphasize here– I do like this writing. I’m a Daredevil fan; I enjoy a certain amount of pain. But yes, it also kills me to see Danny suffer.

Fortunately, the way things have been set up, I think (and hope) that Danny is moving into a new, more positive stage of his life. The Iron Fist run that just ended did a lot of work to reinvigorate his sense of purpose. Besting the real Shu-Hu and saving K’un-Lun from Choshin cemented his self-confidence as the Iron Fist, which had been shaken by the events of Living Weapon. And he has formed major new personal connections. He is back on close terms with his childhood friend Sparrow. He now has Pei, who– despite her absence from Iron Fist vol. 5– needs to stick around. Danny loves teaching, he enjoys spending time with Pei, and training her provides him with both companionship and a further sense of purpose. She’s also like a daughter to him, and as such she may also help him heal from “losing” his and Misty’s child. And he finally has his sister back, hopefully for good this time! Also, as of the last issue of Bendis’s Defenders run, Heroes for Hire is back up and running. Danny has a lot of what he was missing before, which bodes well for his future.

If it were up to me, the next Iron Fist arc would be K’un-Lun focused, with Danny, Pei, and Miranda going home and helping Sparrow rebuild. The city is in a period of transformation, following the revolution in Immortal Iron Fist, Davos sacking the place in Living Weapon, and Choshin’s failed invasion in vol. 5, and we haven’t had a long-term K’un-Lun-focused story in a while. There’s a lot of really interesting worldbuilding that could be done at this point, and placing Danny back in the city for an extended period of time would be a great next step following the events of the latest run. K’un-Lun is likely going to be restructured from the ground up under Sparrow’s influence, and that is really exciting. Danny needs to be there for it, and I– as a big fan of the setting– want to see that process close-up. I also really enjoy Sparrow, am interested in her and Danny’s new Yu-Ti/Iron Fist dynamic, and think they need more time to catch up. From there, my dream is that we might finally get an Immortal Weapons ongoing series, with Danny, Pei, Miranda, and the other Weapons (heck, Fat Cobra’s mom can come too!) engaging in pan-dimensional kung fu shenanigans. Pleeeaase, Marvel.

But in any case, I do think all of Danny’s recent comics (Iron Fist vol. 5, PMIF vol. 3, Defenders…) have set up a positive, hopeful future for him, and I’m just waiting for them to announce a new series.

#ironwingedhawk #Iron Fist #Danny Rand #Commentary #Messages

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miyamellyn · 6 years

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Webcomic recommendation - Heartstopper

Heartstopper, by YA author Alice Oseman, is very well written and also made me have a lot of feelings :’) Some analysis and emotions under the cut

Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper evokes strong emotions, making use of instantly understandable visual language that feels viscerally real. Reading Heartstopper made me squeal, pound my table in delight, and cackle loudly. These aren’t uncommon reactions for me to have while reading, especially YA novels and fanfiction, and the bare bones of the story are familiar: boy meets boy, boy has sexuality crisis, boys get together. Yet Nick and Charlie feel particularly good – sweet and realistic and honest – and I spent days trying to figure out exactly what made them this way. Especially when they were getting together, I couldn’t shake the breathless, fluttery feeling I associate with my first kiss and my high school sweetheart, a sensation of almost being afraid to breathe for fear of disturbing a moment. I love Heartstopper, and I believe that the strength of my emotional response is due to the way speech and touch are rendered.

Dialogue and thoughts are handwritten, not typeset, and while I often prefer a cleaner, typeset look, the handwritten speech of Heartstopper is essential. Oseman’s lettering is considered at every step, where I would expect handwritten letterforms to either be too plain or too messy. Large speech bubbles cramped with text are used when a character is babbling uncontrollably, and vertical speech bubbles with one word per line give each word its own moment. The angles, sizes, and capitalization choices of each word and phrase further serve to convey meaning. For example, in chapter 1-4, Charlie’s “laugh” after saying that Nick is “probably straight anyway” is punctuated not as “haha” or even “haha…”, but “. . h a h a . .”, creating an intense sensation of hesitation. Even the speech bubbles themselves are considered – more white space is given around phrases with more impact, and jagged speech bubbles suggest distress. Speech bubbles also often contain other content, such as exclamation points, hearts, small drawings of faces, or even nothing. As the English language grows and expands due to the internet, it’s very cool to see new forms of language to overcome some of the difficulties inherent to comics, such as tone of voice. A <3 in a speech bubble speaks to the warmth in someone’s voice, and an empty speech bubble suggests noise or irrelevance to the characters’ POV. Oseman’s use of these communication strategies has the effect of summoning specific emotions more strongly than words alone.

Touch is also rendered particularly well because Oseman pays close attention to the small details and the pacing. Noses make indents in cheeks, hands intertwine tentatively over several panels. The way her panels cascade across the page make it seem like everything is happening at once, just as it would in real life. And each and every detail that matters – feet connecting, arms wrapping around torsos, hands clinging together – are shown. The scattering of small panels physically feels like the onslaught of sensations, each competing for attention, that comes with kissing someone, especially for the first time.

Heartstopper is an interesting story, drawn thoughtfully with lovable characters, but to explain why it means so much to me personally, I need to talk about my high school boyfriend. He wasn’t a terrible person, but he wasn’t a good boyfriend. While I did not communicate my own feelings and wants well, he consistently failed to fulfill my emotional needs, or to even make an effort to understand my feelings. But I was in love with the idea of love, particularly the idea of high school sweethearts, and I persisted in the relationship into college, even though he would have weeks or even months where he claimed to barely have enough time to text me. I lied to myself for months that the relationship was working, and when we did break up, I was heartbroken. Then I got angry. Had he cared for me at all? Even more so, how could I have let myself be treated so poorly? I had been so afraid of confrontation that I let myself be walked on, accepting his lack of effort and telling myself to be less needy. I’ve dated one boy since then, and that was short-lived and eventually left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve been mostly sad and regretful and angry with myself over my taste in boys since then.

Heartstopper is important to me because it reminds me of all the good things from my high school boyfriend. The beautifully rendered speech and touch pushed me back in time for just a little while, letting me look back on my romantic history with a smile instead of regret and disgust. Watching the boys dance around each other, kiss for the first time, and have awkward conversations about their relationship makes me catch my breath a little, lets me be sixteen again and on my first date hiking to see a sunrise. Heartstopper is incredibly evocative and beautiful, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

#heartstopper #re webcomics #webcomic #lyn writes #alice oseman #osemanverse

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allintheheads · 6 years

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An Analysis of Officer SeungBae's ‘Insanity’ and whether or not there is any Healing

So this is gonna be long because of all the panels I cram into the post, but read at your discretion-----v

One thing I found odd about ch 48- is that during the first few pages of ‘interviewing’, is that these flowers show up:

After some googling, I found out that they’re Crocus Pickwick flowers-relative to Safron flowers. While looking up their meaning (or rather the meaning of Crocus flowers in general), I kept on feeling it discordant to the actual contents of the chapter. As they generally have happier meanings then what constitutes the usual KS fair: Cheerfulness, Gladness, Youthfulness, Mirthfulness, Glee. As well as an emphasis on its symbolic connection to Valentine’s Day and love. None of which had much actual connection to the chapter. But there was something one website said that caught my interest

This turns out to be not true- or rather not entirely. Quick Wikipedia showed that while most Crocus (including the one drawn above) are harmless- a similar looking flower- named “autumn crocus” or “meadow Crocus” is toxic- it’s leaves, corm, and seeds are all near lethal.

yeah, don’t let your dogs touch this in the woods. Don’t touch this little fucker in general Burn it. But I digress. While the two flowers are definitely not the same I could see why one might be confused. Especially if you only heard of the toxicity of Corcus flowers, without visuals of the difffering types.

It certainly made me question what it meant that SeungBae dreamed of it, especially when we find out the person interviewing him is Sangwoo when he himself had no idea about it.

In fact, he spends the earlier parts of the ‘interview’ acting like the person he’s talking to is someone who’d keep his ‘Police officer’ identity in confidence to a degree. Asking for certain parts of his answer’s to be cut- and being embarrassed to answer others when he knew they’d look bad on him as an officer (’Chief Kwak isn’t chief anymore is he?’). And while I didn't think much of it on the first read- on reread of the two chapters I realized his behavior in his dreams did mean something. His dreams were places where he was being honest and real to himself.

Because those things he said to officer Lee about Chief Kwak?

Lee was right in that Seungbae wasn’t being up front. I’m sure there is actual truth to Bae’s nasty words and attitude in 47, but Bae’s initial reaction to the hug was this face.

and his answer in the interview was this.

He could have been lying in the dream, but there isn’t much reason to- especially if he thought he was talking to a neutral party. His body language and later answers in the dream also speaks of his shame in the trouble he’s caused Kwak, which is a lot more consistent to Lee’s protests and assessments in 47 v.s. Bae’s rage. What this also meant to me was that his nasty exit with Lee wasn’t just him being a cruel asshole.

47 + 48 is about Bae deliberately pushing away people that might care about him, because he doesn’t trust himself anymore. He doesn’t trust himself not to hurt people. That dream he had about his dad’s murderer? That was real.

The details of almost getting caught, the anticipation at cornering the guy, the begging, that all happened when he got him in IRL, the beginning of 47 reads like a memory because it was one (just compare it to Bum’s hallucination in ch 4 and you get the difference). The only addition is in the dream he had a knife instead of a golf club and in the dream, he had the visceral satisfaction of personally bleeding the guy dry. The worst part is, it wasn’t the first time he dreamt it, he dreamt about it so many times that it didn’t even register as something worth being upset about in 48.

and it’s why he was so laizefair about comparing himself to Sangwoo in 47.

It’s not a very surprising or even disturbing thought to him anymore, dangerous thought my ass, if it was scary you wouldn’t voice it. The puking I had originally thought due to dream murdering his dad’s murderer again, or his admission to being similar to SW, had nothing to do with it- he is literally just too dehydrated and drunk to give a shit anymore. He also threatens the same thing to the daughter of his father’s murderer-

All without even knowing that she is. When Lee asked him if she was her ex in 47 this was his answer.

He threatened to hurt an unarmed civilian, who just trying to help him, because of her ding dong’s were too annoying. He didn’t learn who she was until she jammed her hand into his door slam.

But given even all this- his murder dreaming, general asshole behavior, and the hallucinatory Sangwoo who he’s playing bawk bawk chicken with. I don’t actually think Seungbae is as insane as he thinks is. Because of his initial, instinctual, reaction to this

was to tell the girl she didn’t need to get hurt because of him.

He wasn’t crowing over the father’s death, he wasn’t saying this to save his own face, he was saying this because he felt guilty for actually hurting her, he was also saying this as a reasonable reason for her leave him the fuck alone. But when that didn't’ work, he chose the next logical/illogical step.

Which was to try to hurt her again, like he tried to with Officer Lee, enough that she’d leave. We know from her answer that it both didn’t and did work.

But bringing this all around- what does it all really mean?

Were the Crocus flowers at the beginning meant to be like Saffron, a spice that’s known to have anti-carcinogenic properties? Is SeungBae finally on the road to healing, from this obsessive fiasco with Sangwoo? From his own father’s death with the death of his murderer?

Or does it mean Seugbae simply is like Corcus of the Greek legend? A man so distraught by loss of love that he killed himself. One thing I know for sure is I don’t want the Girl or Officer Lee to be his eventual Smilax or Hermes, or vice versa.

And I know for a fact I don’t want Seungbae to be dreaming this in context of a flower that couldn’t actually mean good things for a webtoon like Killing Stalking.

Seungbae doesn’t even want to be dreaming about it.

But we know for fact how he feels about people who’ve killed (or he thinks has killed) a loved one of his.

And while he is neither as insane or as rational as he thinks he is, I don’t think he’ll be able to stop if things get any more personal with Sangwoo or Bum. Hatred, Anger, Grief, and overbearing self-righteousness are his trigger points, that’s the dilemma he has to overcome or succumb to.

#killing stalking #yang seungbae #KS 47 #KS 48 #oh sangwoo #tbh I may be reading too much into the Girl's future in story #it bothers me however like other's have mentioned that she looks similar to the girl Bum had such an awful fallout with in HS #And yeah maybe the flowers don't mean this much schlock #but dangnamit that panel stood out like a sore fucking thumb so of course i was gonna over think it #Also I just realized SB has a green thumb he might know all this shit i'm postulating and that's why he dreamt it #I mean even the happy interpretation for the flowers feels wrong cause it'd be like SB thinking chasing after SW would fix his mess #how could continuing to obssess over SW be a cheerfull gleeful thing even SB doesn't act like it is #Most of this I guess is obvious if you paid attention in the first read #But I needed as second read for all of it to sink in #I actually love officer Yang Seungbae #I just don't think he is the hope for KS #It feels more likely that he'd die trying than to live with his huntches vindicated #He's also not gonna heal if he won't let others in to help him and it's too early to tell if he'd let anyone in #let alone the right person #HINT HINT PICK OFFICER LEE

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Text

After the Fall

In Oliver Stone’s new film, World Trade Center, a rescue worker stands atop a pile of steaming rubble, planning his descent into the inferno below. “I need a medic up here,” he yells. “Anybody a medic?”

“I used to be a medic,” comes a voice from the darkness.

A tiny figure scrambles up the base of the hill like a large bug. As he passes into the light, we see that it’s Frank Whaley, an actor who got his start with appearances in Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors and JFK.

“My license lapsed,” the figure says. “I had a few bad years. But I’m good.”

Such is the legacy of Stone — a towering figure in modern film who always seems to be wrangling his own personal demons — that it is almost impossible not to read a scene like that autobiographically. A three-time Oscar winner as both writer (Midnight Express) and director (Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July), Stone has spent much of the past dozen years surrounded by controversy or chaos: His satirical tabloid blitzkrieg Natural Born Killers caused novelist John Grisham to accuse him of engendering real-life murders. Nixon, his oddly sympathetic portrait of the ex-president, eluded liberals and conservatives alike. The jumpy, kinetic editing style he employed in the day-for-noir U Turn and the pro-football pageant Any Given Sunday inspired longtime Stone critic Elvis Mitchell to label the latter “the world’s first ADD epic.”

Then the first of two HBO documentaries (Comandante) on Fidel Castro was shelved for being too sympathetic, while a subsequent portrait of Yasser Arafat (Persona Non Grata) saw Stone’s crew fleeing Ramallah four hours before the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian leader’s compound. (A third film, expected to profile either Kim Jong-Il or Saddam Hussein, was canceled.) He has been arrested twice — in 1999 and 2005 — for DUI and possession of marijuana, respectively. During an appearance at HBO’s “Making Movies That Matter” panel at Lincoln Center in October 2001, he allegedly made inflammatory remarks regarding the September 11 attacks, earning him scorn and ridicule in The New Yorker and elsewhere. Most painfully, when Stone, in 2004, finally realized his 20-year obsession to make Alexander, a sweeping history of Alexander the Great filmed on three continents, the film failed to find a domestic audience.

Now comes World Trade Center, a delicate, contained and extremely powerful evocation of our 2001 national trauma, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña as John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, New York City Port Authority cops who were miraculously excavated from beneath the glowing rubble of Building No. 7. In an odd way, it brings Stone’s career full circle: His first student film, Last Year in Viet Nam, made at NYU in 1970 (for film professor Martin Scorsese), opens with a panorama of southern Manhattan and what would have been the Twin Towers, except that they weren’t completed until January 1972. But in another respect, World Trade Center may be Stone’s most subversive film yet — a rousing, populist, patriotic adventure story that kicks the legs out from under the right-wing criticism marshaled against him. It could prove the ultimate irony that the bête noire of American conservatives — the man who profiled right-wing death squads in Salvador, My Lai–like atrocities in Platoon, hostile takeovers in Wall Street, the anti-war movement in Born on the Fourth of July and, most notably, the fecund proliferation of Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theories in JFK — may find his most enthusiastic audience among the very partisans who have heretofore decried his lifetime of work. As no less a cultural observer than Mel Gibson said of Stone in the 1997 thriller Conspiracy Theory, “He’s a disinformation junkie for them. The fact that he’s still alive says it all. He probably should be dead, but he’s not.”

In person, Stone has an infectious laugh, seems genuinely engaged and takes the full measure of my questions before answering, at which point his ideas often come so fast they seem to be skipping across the surface of the conversation. He’s also the most fun kind of intellectual, in that he perpetually appears to be trying to figure himself out. Briefly a classmate of George W. Bush’s at Yale, he seems — at least on the evidence of our wide-ranging, three-hour discussion — to have absorbed a good deal more of its freshman syllabus. We spoke at his West L.A. editing suite, where he is currently preparing a three-hour, 45-minute DVD-only “road show” version of Alexander, complete with intermission.

L.A. WEEKLY: Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001?

OLIVER STONE: L.A. Asleep. My wife put the TV on.

And what did you think was happening?

It was sensational. It was exciting. It was horrifying. It reminded me in its barbarity and ferocity of the French Revolution — the tumbrels, heads falling. And I had feelings of anger in me, and vengeance. I had a fight with my son, actually, because he was much more objective about it: “How do you know? Don’t assume anything. You’re acting like the mob.” But there were other feelings as well. You know, I realize I’m an older person; I’ve seen Vietnam and a lot of death and shit. Oklahoma City was horrible. JFK’s assassination. Watergate. The 2000 election. We’ve been through our times of shit in this country, so this was another version.

World Trade Centeris very powerful — emotionally powerful. I had a very visceral reaction to it.I think it’s obviously the film, but it’s also more than the film — it’s the fact that the subject matter is so loaded. If you make a film about fire jumpers, and a fire jumper comes to see it, he’ll say, “Well, you got this part right, you got this part wrong.’?” With this film, we’re all fire jumpers. It’s also very different from a lot of your other films — it’s gentle and contained and quiet. I’m wondering if you had to devise a different approach because the subject matter was so delicate.

I just want to say first that the way I look at myself — it’s not necessarily in the result — but with every film, I really have made an effort to make each one an island unto itself in this little sea that we go around in our ships. And every island has been a destination, a stop for a period of time. I’ve tried to take a different style for every film, because it’s the story that comes first, and the subject dictates the style. Even with something like Natural Born Killers, which seems very stylistic and eccentric, it’s still the content that I think is valid and important. With this film, certain things presented themselves: Obviously, the sensitivities of everyone involved, but ultimately that’s the sky around the project. With JFK, for instance, there were his children to think of, Jackie was still alive, Teddy Kennedy. Blowing his head off in Dealey Plaza didn’t go down well with them either. But there was a bigger story to tell.

Here we were limited by movement, so we worked out a style by which, methodically, the film would go in and out of light: Light would fight with the dark, or rather, light would try to make it up to the dark. Claustrophobia is an issue with a film like this. I did Talk Radio, so I know that feeling of being on one set the whole time. Also, Born on the Fourth of July: That was a very contained movie, in a way, because we had a young man in a wheelchair in the second half, where there’s very little movement. When I read this script, I said, “How do we make this movie watchable? How do we make the tension manageable for a mainstream audience?”

It may surprise a lot of people that you’re not using a lot of shock cuts, moving around inside the frame — what you’ve termed your “cubist” style.

Well, where can you move in a hole? A hole is limited. Finding the right point of view in the hole is crucial.

You once said about Platoon?, “I felt like if I didn’t do it now, I’m going to forget.” We’re five years out from 9/11 now, and there is much public hand-wringing about whether it’s too soon yet to deal with this subject matter.

I think it’s a bogus question. The consequences of that day are far worse today. More people have died since then because of the war on terror. There’s more war, there’s more fear, and there is constitutional breakdown left and right. Have the good sense to go to the psychiatrist quickly. If you’ve been raped, talk to somebody about what that day itself was like before you build up all this armor.

You pursued this film, correct?

Yes. Petitioned. My agent, Bryan Lourd, a man of taste, said to me, “Look, I read this script two weeks ago — it stays with me, it’s emotional. I don’t know if it will make a dime, I don’t know if I can get it financed, but just read it.” So I read it, and I said, “My God, I never thought of this — to do 2001 this way.” I knew [World Trade Center producers] Michael Shamberg and Stacy Sher. But no one would make it; Universal dropped it at the [proposed] budget. I was doing other things, I wasn’t stopping my life. But then it came back around. Paramount was just coming into being [under new management]. We were very lucky, because that new studio energy was coming in, and they wanted to make it so badly that it happened right away.

And did you talk with the producers about politics — if there would be a political viewpoint that informed the story?

There was no room for it, because John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno were not interested in politics, per se. They don’t talk about politics like you and I do. Their lives are not determined by it; they live according to what is given them. So it never entered into the equation. I loved the script [by Andrea Berloff] as it was. I loved the inspiration of the story. So I vowed to stay inside those parameters.

New York is probably the most liberal city in America, and yet the 9/11 attack has been so politicized, its imagery considered so proprietary, that right-wing skepticism has been mounting steadily against you since this project was announced. A story in The New York Times said the film is being strategically marketed to right-wing opinion leaders using the PR firm that advised the Swift Boat Veterans group. It even quoted the conservative National Review Web site as saying, “God Bless Oliver Stone.”

I knew [the studio] was doing grassroots marketing to everybody — Hispanics, cops, firemen, teachers, church groups. I didn’t know that they had hired a specific firm; I found out that day. I’m pleased they like it, because it goes beyond politics.

Could you foresee a left-wing backlash against the film?

If people on the right are responding with their hearts, I’m all for it. But if they’re making it into a political statement, it’s wrong. Those on the left might say, “Oh, this is a simplified context, and these are simplistic working-class values. You’re not showing a wider political context.” Or secondly, that we’re sentimentalizing the event — which would be unfair, because I think there’s a lot of grit there. But this is a populist film. We’ve said that from the beginning. In our hearts, it was a Frank Capra type of movie. And he didn’t necessarily get great notices.

In an odd way, I was reminded of Preston Sturges Hail the Conquering Hero — a wartime comedy that pokes fun at the notion of patriotism and, by extension, patriotic movies but which, by the end, almost subversively, fills you with this patriotic fervor. I’m wondering if you see this as your “Nixon in China” moment: Only the director of Nixon and JFK could get away with a film where the most heroic character is an ex-Marine who consults with his pastor before putting himself in harm’s way.

That character, Dave Karnes, is an unlikely hero. He goes to church — that’s a documented thing; he checks with his pastor in a born-again church before he goes down to Manhattan. He evaded the authorities. Get it done; that’s a Marine thing. I think you can argue that the Marine is an ambivalent character, because at the end of the movie, this sense of vengeance is what fuels the wrong war in Iraq.

But for him it’s the right war.

For him it’s the right war. That’s correct. I think if you really look at JFK or at Nixon, which are the two political films I did uncensored in my career — which is amazing unto itself — JFK is neither right nor left, and was attacked equally by the left, who did not like the Kennedy figure of 1963. It was done in the centrist tradition of American dissent: It questioned government and the authority of government. So I was taken aback that the right made such a big issue out of it. I suppose, because they were in office [when the film came out]. But they had never done that historically. They would have been on the side of the investigation; [Barry] Goldwater may well have been. JFK was not a bunch of fantasies strung together. It involved an enormous amount of research — as much as World Trade Center, if not more.

You could make the same argument about Nixon. You took the dominant political figure in our lifetime and gave him the Shakespearean treatment his life cried out for.

It was a psychological point of view. The right wing thought it was going to be a hatchet job; instead, it made him a human being. Unfortunately, in my career, I have spoken out between films, and that’s what’s gotten confused with the films themselves. I think the focus has been lost. Somewhere along the line, I guess, I said, “Look: I’m a filmmaker, but I’m also John Q. Citizen, and things piss me off. I have a right to say, if people ask me and they’re interested, what I fucking think.” And that’s the line I’ve always gotten in trouble with. It’s always between the films, if you look at the statements I’ve made. There’s nothing in the films themselves, as far as I know, that’s really offensive politically.

How much of the criticism against you do you think is organized for partisan political gain?

I’ve always wondered that — especially in the ’90s, after the JFK situation. You have to wonder: Will it come out one day in a government file? You hear about those programs from the ’50s and the ’60s. I was so grateful that Michael Moore came along. He helped me.

He seems to enjoy it. Maybe it’s the counterpart to how the left treats Charlton Heston.

Charlton Heston once said in an interview, “People like Oliver Stone would never hire me in the new Hollywood.” And I went out of my way on Any Given Sunday to hire him. I loved him. I said, “Forget politics, I love your character.” Political reputation pigeonholes you, and in a society that’s very busy, it’s an easy way to get rid of having to think too much about people and what they’re saying. I’m a dramatist; I’m a humanist. I protest.

There’s one line in World Trade Center — I think we hear it on a TV monitor in an office at the Port Authority — where the announcer says, “. . . the shock of the explosion that was coincidental with the two towers coming down,” and then you move on to something else. Was the suggestion that an unexplained explosion might have accompanied the towers’ demise the one seed of doubt you intentionally planted in an otherwise apolitical movie?

Well, I think that all reality is questionable, as you know. Frankly, I’m not an expert on that at all. And I haven’t pursued it, because I think the consequences of where we are now are far worse. But even if there was a conspiracy, it wouldn’t change where we are now. We’re into another place, where there’s more war, more terror, more bankruptcy, more debt, above all more constitutional breakdown and more fear than ever before. That’s very serious. And we’re on the edge of possibly something bigger and very dangerous. Richard Clarke’s book [Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror], at least, is about a true conspiracy that we know existed, of a small group who took over the government and did it their way — manipulated, created the war. It’s 30 or 40 people, right?

Sy Hersh says it’s 11 guys.

It was a conspiracy, and it was basically at the top. It’s Cheney and Rumsfeld influencing Bush. Cheney and Rumsfeld go back to the Ford administration, and when they got their way, they kicked butt. That’s a great story. But that’s not even all of it. When you’ve got a guy like Representative Pete Hoekstra from Michigan, who was a friend of the Bush administration — who had approved of the Patriot Act, the eavesdropping, the taxes, the bank records, all of it — saying in the press that there’s something worse that he’s pissed off about, because they hadn’t consulted him. Something worse? I mean, all the cards are not on the table, right? This is a big story. And we’re living it. How can you write about it? We’re fucking rocking in the boat. It’s like trying to write a great war novel when you might be going into World War II.

Were you at Yale the same time Bush was?

I was in the same class, yeah. I don’t remember him. I was never in a fraternity. I went twice — I dropped out one year and then went back for half of a second year and dropped out.

But at one point Bush requested to meet you, didn’t he?

Yeah, I met him. It was a political breakfast speech here in California at a club, the Republican right wing. They invited me — they’ve always had fun with me, I don’t know why — and it was a big hotel room and a speech about tough love and justice in Texas. He was governor then, around ’98 or so. I swear, I knew in that room on that day that he was going to be president. There was just no question. He had that confidence, and they adored him. There was an organized love for him. He asked for me to come up to the podium and we had a one-on-one. I was in the Bush spotlight — that thing where he stares at you and he gets to know you a little bit.

Assigns you a nickname.

There was one funny line. He knew I’d been in Vietnam. Actually, I didn’t know he’d been at Yale. He told me he’d been in my class; it was a surprise to me. But then he said he’d had a buddy who had been to Vietnam who’d been killed. “Buddy,” he said. It was funny — it was on his mind, he raised it. And it was the way he looked at me: I just felt like, boy, I bet you he’d rather his buddy had come home than me. But he was very friendly, very charming — a very sociable man.

Have you ever thought about going into politics — running for office? Would you consider doing that in a later part of your life?

Not seriously, no.

Orson Welles wrote a weekly political newspaper column during WWII — he was friends with FDR through Sumner Welles, a distant relative of his and a presidential adviser, and at one point he considered running for the Senate from California or his native Wisconsin.

Politics is about raising money and being popular and shaking a lot of hands and spending a lot of time with people. Those are not my strengths. It would be exhausting and would completely destroy my ability to do what I do.

You were pro-Vietnam before you enlisted in the infantry, right? You were fairly conservative?

Yes.

So we could say that you spent the entire 1960s across the political divide from most of what you’ve now come to stand for?

My story is complicated. I did write a novel about being 19 called A Child’s Night Dream. My parents divorced when I was 14, and being the only child, there was no family to go back to. Basically, going to Vietnam was really throwing myself to the wolves. It was a form of rebellion and suicide.

I’ve read a quote to the effect of “I felt like I had to atone for the act of imagination.” Was it actually the failure of the novel that sent you over the edge?

After I left Yale the second time and finished the novel — I was writing the novel instead of going to class, and that’s why I flunked out — my father was supporting me, and that’s an impossible situation: 19 years old, your father is furious at you for the tuition that he’s lost, and you’re living in his apartment trying to finish a novel. It’s like Jack Kerouac moving back home with his mother. But I really believed in it: I was insane with passion. It was the only thing I had. I had no woman friends in my life. I had nothing to support me beyond that. And when that failed, I went into the Army with the idea of “Let God sort it out, whoever I am.” It’s egregious to think that you can be on the level of Mailer or any of your heroes — Hemingway, or Joyce; I was into Joyce heavily at the time.

Part of the fun of watching someone like you working without a net, from a distance, is charting the rises and falls of your career. And sometimes there are films that don’t hit right, that suffer because of the moment or the context — the sky around it, as you put it. I’m thinking specifically of Nixon, which was a commercial failure, but seems to get more sophisticated every time I see it. Or, more recently, Alexander.

I’ve had three big setbacks, in terms of being completely dismissed: Heaven and Earth, Nixon — by many people, at least — and Alexander. On Alexander, it was just devastating, because in America and England, the numbers were so tough. It wasn’t just that people didn’t like it. It was ridiculed. It was destructive criticism. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world we were connecting, we were among the top 20 films of that year in the foreign market. We did better than four of the five Oscar nominees abroad. It was well respected.

Why didn’t Alexander connect? Do we agree that it didn’t connect with English-speaking audiences?

I like the director’s cut better than the first version, because I had more time to prepare it. And the structure is different. It wasn’t because of the homosexuality — that’s a red herring. The mother’s back story and father’s back story, which are really essential, don’t come in until later. We’re doing a third, expanded version now — we’re going all out. This is not for theatrical; it’s for the people who love the film who want to see more of it. It’s the Cecil B. De Mille treatment — three hours and 45 minutes. What I’m doing is going back and showing the whole thing in its sumptuousness, really going with the concept that it had to be an old-fashioned movie, with an intermission, like a road show. Be a showman, instead of trying to be a responsible filmmaker. Go all out on this one. This is my Apocalypse Now, my De Mille epic. [The first time] I was trying to step up to the plate, so to speak. I should have pulled it back, taken an extra year like Marty did with Gangs of New York. But it would have cost a lot of money.

In Oliver Stone’s America, the documentary included with the DVD box set of your films, you say, “I’ve always admired Alexander because of the momentum and the speed with which he traveled and conquered. In my small metaphoric way, I would say the countries were films, and I moved through them like him . . . he’s striking everywhere. I think it was great. We had a great run. But it’s definitely a new phase.” Is Alexander the figure you most closely identify with?

I am a Method director to a certain degree. I do become part of what I shoot. And I think with Alexander, the perception is of hubris, certainly — “Alexander the Great? Who the fuck is he? He thinks he’s Alexander.” I could see that coming. But I always knew who Oliver Stone was. I never lost track of that. And I made the film humbly, in 94 fucking days on three continents. I ran the crew like I always run the crew. Nothing changed in my habits. I walked in the deserts, we shot in a sandstorm once, and it was the same old Oliver who did Salvador. Hubris is taking 110 days on some stupid comedy. That’s an insult to filmmaking the way I was raised. I’m sticking to NYU principles, and I still do to this day. Movies are a tradition; we didn’t invent it — we take it from somebody else and pass it on.

But with Alexander, you faced a challenge like you’ve never faced before, because no matter how bruising the attacks on JFK and Nixon, your core audience was always still with you. For whatever reason, Alexander failed to connect with an audience.

Yeah. In America.

In America. I don't wish to judge it; this is an empirical observation.

No, it didn't connect. Alexander is the high point of my life, and it always will be. I’m not asking for universal love on that; it’s just impossible. It’s not paced to the American style, nor is he a conventional hero. He’s filled with doubts. But Alexander is a beautiful story, and I think I did him well. I mean, I wouldn’t have released it [otherwise]. But I can’t give up; I would never give up. I would be all wrong in my assessments of myself as I work. You have to hear your own self, follow your own drama, or whatever Thoreau said long ago at Walden Pond. [“Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”] Alexander was a huge setback for me, and it certainly hurt me in this business. But you have to understand that people have been saying bad things about me for years. I don’t listen; I have to try to keep going.

I don’t want to make specious connections, but you’ve had several high-profile drug arrests in the last few years. Before that, you were making supernihilist films in an edgy, frenetic style. I'm wondering if these are all moving parts of the same phenomenon.

I’ve smoked dope and drunk alcohol most of my life, okay? Getting pulled over and arrested is a fault, it’s a mistake — a wake-up call. I did get busted a couple of times. One was at a roadblock, so it’s not like I was endangering anybody’s life. The other time, I got pulled over by a civilian cop; I was actually busted for driving too slow. And when the tests came back, I was below the intoxication level. Nobody knows that, because it never got published that way. I should get a chauffeur is what I fucking should do. [Laughs.]

But nobody cares if you smoke pot. They care if it affects the work, if it’s part of a larger problem.

Okay, but I don’t feel bad. I got heavier, physically, at certain points, and I think that gives the appearance of degradation, like Jim Morrison. But I did have a pre-diabetic condition through my mother, and I was on too much sugar. Any Given Sunday, I love that movie, but it was more effort than you think — it was like a three-ring circus, to make five football games in five stadiums work. It took so much energy. There were some problems with the crew on that film. So by the end of that movie, my doctor said I was too stressed, and at my age it was dangerous. There were some issues of medications and stuff, no question about it. But sports people love that movie. With Alexander, there’s a fan site where there are people who have seen it 50 times. They go to the sites in Macedon. They love the romanticism of it. So it’s confusing to me. I’ve tried every fucking time to get it right, even if I haven’t been in my best physical shape. I will get it right. Not everyone is going to agree with me, but I’m going to get it right.

With World Trade Center, it's your first time to deal with studio financing in a decade; you look better, healthier. Has your life changed? Is this a new start?

Your story is a journalistic narrative, and it’s a good one, about Oliver coming back after Alexander, and how there’s a change in his life. And I’ve somewhat agreed with it, but I’ve also pointed out that my methods have stayed the same. But it is about your storyline, in a way — about life. If you go to film school, and you think about your career traditionally, you arc up, in the sense that your budgets get bigger, the stars, whatever. There’s a nice arc to a man’s life. You make your better films later — it’s horrible if you’re Orson Welles, if you make your best film first. And Alexander was a chance to do something on another level entirely. So I reached a peak of ambition. And the ambition was perhaps not matched by my execution, although there are points in the execution that do match the ambition, I think. So then it died a metaphoric death. Point of view died with it, as it died when Heaven and Earth came out. That [movie] was a very sensitive side of myself that I loved — it was tender, and the woman was tender. And it was ridiculed and killed, and part of me, you know . . . those feelings were hurt and eradicated for a while. Same thing with Nixon. You want to get rid of the person after you finish. You want to go back to being who you are, but you’re no longer the same person, because your journey has changed.

And part of me did die [with Alexander] — that part that was enamored of “my very important storyline,” end of quote. Me being the storyline. I played it out. I did all my biographical figures. I have no need to be John or Will. I had a need to be Ron Kovic. I had a need to be Alexander. I had a need to be Nixon and Morrison and Garrison. That’s the change. So now I can be myself, maybe. I can be more authentic to myself. I think there was an attraction to go from the past into the contemporary world in its most hellish moment. It’s like I dropped out and I couldn’t get back in, until by going back to 2001, I could come back into this era. I feel liberated, in the sense that, not that it would be next, but I feel I could do a movie about those next five years. Not that I think it’s complete yet — I think there’s a lot going on that we don’t know about in the government. But I think there’s something in the air. I smell it, and I feel fresh again, having done something — my new, 24-hour, humble microcosm of that day. Wherever I go with World Trade Center, it’s going to spin off to wherever I go next.

-Paul Cullum, “After the Fall,” LA Weekly, Aug 9 2006 [x]

#oliver stone #la weekly #World Trade Center #alexander #arrests #dui #drugs #September 11 #politics

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whatsyourcolor · 6 years

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Dragnet - Ch2- The Detective

Hello. Here’s the second chapter of Dragnet. A million flowers and thanks to @lucidink for helping me edit.

Chapter 2 – The Detective

An open book rested on his chest as the first rays of dawn filtered through the blinds, stealing him from the elusive and vacillating hours of sleep. He laid in absolute stillness—the hand over the book—dressed in tailored pants, a white shirt and a slightly loosened tie; a posture that to any outsider would resemble that of a dead man in his funerary and elegant tranquility.

But he did open his eyes, and dreams about cases, numbers and suspicions dissipated from his view and memory. Just as he had conquered (through relentless forbiddance against what he perceived to be his faults) the crags of rigorous discipline—that is, through a carefully designed routine that allotted brains and muscle the time and energy demanded, needed—the trivial merited the same type of sharpness and obsessive precision. Setting the book aside, he stood and fixed the wrinkles on the covers of his bed. The bedroom’s décor was minimalistic: a bed, bare walls, an old sofa and a nightstand to hold books and cigarettes.

Like most mornings, he went to the kitchen to prepare himself a modest breakfast and ate while watching the MWPSB sanctioned news on a holographic screen.

So, they decided to keep the media in the dark about the case, he thought, when a commercial for hue-clearing vitamins interrupted his train of thought.

After putting the kitchen back to its tidy state, he headed for the other room in his apartment. As a detective, he had become aware early on of the paradoxical nature of his job; at once rigid and fluid; requiring a sharp memory and an ability to forget. He had wondered back then—when he was younger—if he’d ever be able to develop what Masaoka called a “detective’s intuition.” Not the habit to predict that hindered so many inspectors, but the ability to smell and to follow that smell.

The door opened to a smaller room with a desk and three tall bookcases replete with paper books. On the wall hung a large board with notes and drawings—spirals, waves, lines—over pictures, names, numbers, coordinates and maps. He sat at the desk where stacks of files stood in irregular towers. Other documents were placed carefully on the floor in a calculated arrangement, discernible only to him. When he managed to find free time or in his off days, he’d sit to read on a cushioned green seat nestled between the shelves: it was his favorite place in the apartment.

It was as though this room held what he rarely allowed himself out of it: the pangs and sparks of random inspiration, the license to be more visceral than rational for a while and, even at times, the short flashes of madness that came with lucidity. Doubtless, it was his discipline that kept that chimera controlled and his Psycho-Pass clean: he could dwell without letting his thoughts seize him and drag him down.

Many of the paper books he owned—most well-thumbed; the oldest failing to hold together—had come from his father and grandparents’ library. Even though he never met his father, he could piece the man together, the ghost of him, by sorting through his literary collection, the only legacy left of him. But most of his collection had come through Sasayama and his connections (to whom or what, he didn’t care to know): random titles—both local and translated to Japanese—that told stories in more ways than words. There was the big fat dictionary with different dates scribbled on its end papers (the oldest one dating to 2015); the mystery novel that had pages chewed off by some animal and the love dedications written on poetry books with aging pages. What surprised him the most was the notion that there was still a market for such rarities, not only virtually obsolete, but the type that could cloud your hue.

Patiently, he began to study the files; his personal observations for the cases of the MWPSB. Soon after, it was time to shower and head to work.

“We’re back where we started. The suspect says she was given hue-clearing drugs and sent to work at a factory for a measly salary. She’s an unregistered and latent criminal. There’s no lead as to who the seller is and there’s no match for the name she gave us.” Ginoza summarized in a humdrum tone, impatient with the delay of the closing in this case.

“Five days after she was taken into custody, the body of an unregistered man was found in a small textile factory in a different part of the city. The cause of death is still to be determined, but—” Kogami clicked a button and a picture of the holo projection of the body appeared on the screen, “the open sores found around his neck and his bloated extremities point to a reaction to a certain type of chemical ingested. We still haven’t determined if it’s an adverse reaction to the drug. As for the woman, it doesn’t make sense that if she was up to her ears in illegal hue-clearing drugs, her Psycho-Pass would suddenly cloud. There must be something we’re overlooking.”

“What you’re overlooking here is that the drugs she was given may have been counterfeit,” Sasayama muttered through his teeth, trying to lit up his cigarette.

“Sasayama! Didn’t I tell you not to smoke here?”

“Okay, okay, Gino-san! Calm down, will ya? Don’t want to kill your little cactus with those pitch-dark vibes of yours,” Sasayama replied, a little startled by the loud reprimand, putting out the cigarette.

“If the drugs are counterfeit, then how do you explain the fact that she worked undetected for a whole month? As soon as she’d come out of the abolition block the cymatic scanners would’ve detected her,” Kogami countered.

“There’s two possibilities: the sellers use a hook dose that’s effective temporarily, then replace the dose with a counterfeit. Or, second, the drugs have some sort of expiration date that renders them useless after a while.” Sasayama replied, with his usual overconfident satisfaction, smirking.

“But what’s the point of selling drugs that don’t work?” Kogami asked.

“That’s the question, Ko.” Sasayama said, smile wide now. “I’m sure from the business point of view there must be something to be gained.”

Kogami held his chin in his hand, deep in thought. But it doesn’t make sense, even from the business point of view.

“Don’t think so hard, Inspector. Your Psycho-Pass may cloud,” Yayoi softly told Kogami. “Also, there’s still the matter of how these drugs are being transported undetected to different places in the city and if there are additional unauthorized people working elsewhere. And we don’t even have a sample of the drug to have Shion analyze it.”

“If people realize that unregistered or illegal aliens are working alongside them, it could cause a Psycho-hazard. Not to mention the fact that most of them may be latent criminals. Hordes of criminals could be walking the streets amongst healthy citizens.” Ginoza turned to look at the screen behind him. On it, there was the image of a woman in her forties, sitting in an interrogation room, still dressed in the factory uniform. Her hands were wringing her shirt nervously and she appeared distressed. “Still, let’s not rule out that the defect in the drug could be a mistake on the part of the manufacturers.”

“Could be. But even if that’s true, there’s still an organization that’s in the business of drugging unregistered people and putting them to work or even killing them,” Masaoka said, receiving in reply a glacial stare from his son.

“We checked the logs of the factory and they followed the hiring protocol. Since her Psycho-Pass was clear, they didn’t pay attention to some irregularities, like her birth date. I don’t think we’ll get much more than that since the Ministry of Economy isn’t willing to cooperate,” Ginoza said.

Let’s focus then on the possible routes they’re using to transport the drugs between abolition blocks. Look for reports of hues suddenly clouding and transpose them onto the city map for now,” Kogami ordered.

By force of habit, in stressful days like this one—days in which they could not even say they were stalemate, since no opponent or game had been identified—Kogami and Sasayama ended up having a smoke in the balcony of their floor. The golden city around them shone as the sunset mirrored on the buildings circumambient. It almost seemed like this city could never be dark.

“So, what’s new with you, Ko?” Sasayama asked casually, attempting to have a talk that carried some semblance of levity, after a whole afternoon of grim faces.

“I was just thinking…” Kogami said, taking a drag while hunching over the glass panel of the balustrade, “it’s evident that they wouldn’t risk moving the drugs on the streets of the city, even if they were using the drug themselves. It’s too unstable and their hues could suddenly cloud. If they know about the side effects, that’s even a bigger reason not to use them.” Sasayama rolled his eyes hearing him speak. “You know, on the night I lost my dominator I met—”

“Oh, you’re still on that? All we’ve achieved so far with these underground crackdowns is stir up the pot for a bunch of maladjusted teenagers and crash their little parties. But we may have found new rave enforcer material, for sure!” He grinned mischievously. “Don’t tell Kunizuka that I said that. She already wants to murder me.”

“And we didn’t find any trace of the drug,” Kogami continued, still engrossed in his thoughts.

“True, but we found lots of alcohol that got confiscated and are probably being consumed by old man Masaoka as we speak, the undefeated champion of the ancient game of ‘elbow-raising,’ if you know what I mean,” he said, half-laughing.

Kogami was finally dragged out of his thoughts.

“Don’t worry, he’ll call when he’s ready to share his loot. He always does anyway.” He snickered, amused.

“Yeah, but you stopped joining us after that night.” He looked at him from the corner of his eye, his wide grin biting the cigarette in his mouth. “The fateful night in the enforcers’ lounge when you got so drunk you were slurring your words and tried to wrestle me because I beat you at Mahjong.”

“Because you cheated,” Kogami replied in a serious tone, exhaling smoke.

“And the arguing with old Masaoka about women, and beauty and death and all that nonsense? You two wouldn’t shut up!” he laughed. “I’d never peg you for the philosophical yet violent type of drunk.”

“You won’t ever let me forget it,” he muttered in a low complain, averting his eyes.

“Don’t worry, you are a karaoke legend now in the enforcers’ lounge. After all, it did take three men to rip the microphone off your paws and even after that, they were terrified that you might bite them!” Sasayama was now bending over the balustrade, laughing shamelessly.

“And you still expect me to come back?” Kogami said, red in the face but it was unclear if from embarrassment or irritation. “Forget it. I’m never drinking again.”

“Don’t blame the alcohol, Ko. Sake is one of those poisons that makes you dance on the line between lucidity and foolishness. It’s your own fault you went down the path of foolishness.”

“Says the person who ended up throwing up in the bathroom,” Kogami sneered.

“Well, when it comes to my vices, I can’t help but be foolish. I’m… what do you call it? A hedonist. I live for sake and—“

“Women. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before a thousand times. Half the time getting shitfaced and the other half getting slapped by the women you supposedly revere,” Kogami said, trying to bite back.

“Supposedly? Okay, now this is personal. One day, Kogami Shinya, you will understand! All your drunk talk about beauty and women is nothing but abstract cynicism that you use to keep people at bay; crap you’ve read in your books,” Sasayama said, and even though both knew he was teasing, there was an unmistakable sting in his words.

“You’re crossing the line, Enforcer.” Now Kogami was pissed off. He put out his cigarette and threw it in the garbage can, walking away.

“Hey! You’re still the most liked Inspector of Division 1!” Sasayama shouted to him as the glass doors closed. Kogami gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up gesture without looking back.

“Shit. I always hit his sore spots without meaning to,” Sasayama mused with a shrug, unconcerned.

Leaning back on the chair of his station, arms on the back of his head and a cigarette in his mouth, Kogami Shinya was absorbedly staring at his computer screen. Everyone had already left and, though he was tired, he knew that if he went home he wouldn’t catch any sleep. A map of the city of Tokyo flashed back at him from the screen.

Illegal hue-clearing drugs sold to unregistered latent criminals wanting to work. Two cases in different parts of the city seemingly related to the drug. Worked for months… but then their Psycho-Pass clouded. The drugs stopped working. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have loyal consumers than kill them with the product? That sure throws whatever prospects of new customers out of the window. This doesn’t appear to be the classical drug crime confined to the abolition blocks either.

The face of a young woman talking about tunnels appeared in his mind.

“This is a tunnel that hasn’t been mapped yet.”

He sat up on his chair.

It would make sense for the sellers to use the old tunnels to transport the drugs. That woman was familiar with the tunnels and understood the marks on the floor; maybe even made them herself.

He typed some words into his computer and the website for the MLIT blinked in front of him.

Those old structures stopped being used more than 25 years ago as the city went an infrastructural remodeling under the Toyohisa construction company per commission of the MLIT. According to the company, those tunnels have been perpetually closed or destroyed. No common citizen, even less someone in an abolition block would have access to that information. Unless the old tunnels weren’t destroyed and someone was…mapping them out for criminal use.

The face of the girl was becoming more and more vivid in his mind.

What was her name? Could she be involved with…?

He brought his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes to recall what he saw before she kicked his dominator.

Tsu…Tsugawa… no. Tsubaki? Tsumita? Tsu… Tsu…

He remembered those incandescent golden-brown eyes, staring at him with anger.

“Tsunemori!” He spat out loud, typing away in his computer.

“Tsunemori. Age 20 to 24. Female. Short. Dark hair.”

He skimmed through various pictures in the citizen database of Sibyl. Quickly scrolling through blonde, brunette, long haired, freckled women until, finally, there was her.

Or at least, someone that looked like her.

No, it was her. As he remembered: short brown hair and two locks falling along her cheeks framing a pale face. But her countenance was decidedly different; softer, even innocent. The faint trace of a smile still rested on her lips, as if someone had said something amusing seconds before snapping the picture. The sparkle in her brown eyes held something delightful, hopeful.

Her doe-eyed look would certainly fool him on a different day, had he not been on the receiving end of her fierceness. Her profile read:

Tsunemori, Akane. Age 22 Graduated from Hongou Higher Education. 2112. Currently employed at Fioira Restaurant. Roppongi.

Wait, this punk works at a restaurant in broad daylight?

Her boot brushed the dusty wooden floor while her body laid suspended in a hammock in a dim shop. A small monkey eating a piece of fruit sat on her stomach as she played with its hair, captivated by the animal—a real one, not a drone pet. In the corners of the room, old artifacts in disuse laid accumulated in random piles that could fall at the slam of a door. The only thing suggesting that this was something akin to a shop, were the two run-down barber chairs with peeling leather cushions and the old mirrors facing them, so old, that you’d think you were looking at yourself as through a thin fog.

“Well, you look much better than the last time I saw you,” Tanaka-san said as he entered his shop, sending a serious glance at the intruder romancing his monkey.

He was a bald old man with a few unruly wisps of white hair hanging from behind his ears; he had the habit of licking his fingers and stroking them to set them down. Dressed in an odd attire—something not uncommon to those living in abolition blocks—he wore sweatpants and sneakers under a dilapidated kimono that had been feasted on by hungry moths.

He unrolled a piece of cloth over a small table and began to organize his tools: the straight razor, the comb, the shave brush, the scissors. He cleaned the relics in the same ceremonial fashion that Akane had seen in those who, anachronistic and useless in Sibyl’s world, strived to preserve a sort of pride in their bygone knowledge.

“Well, I can’t be sad forever, right? Also, Salsa makes me happy,” she answered to his concern, her finger caressing behind the ear of the little monkey who hooted agreeably.

“You should know, that monkey eats better than me nowadays,” the old man said, glaring at the hairy face that stared at him, chewing open-mouthed.

“No worries, Tanaka-San. I also brought something for you.”

She moved her hip to grab the container on her side and the monkey quickly gobbled up what was left of his fruit, hoping to be treated to this banquet too, raising his arms to make a reservation.

“No, Salsa! This is for me!” the old man quickly snatched the container, hiding it from the monkey.

“The best ramen in all of Tokyo!” Akane said eagerly, hoping to reanimate the spirits of the grim old man. She stretched her arm to retrieve the fruit container from a chair and gave another piece to Salsa.

“So, is Ryota coming or what?” the old man said, taking out his metal chopsticks from a drawer and sitting down to eat.

“Yeah, he should be here soon.”

“Good. There’s a group of unregistered that needs to be moved.”

#psycho-pass #fanfiction #dragnet

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