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guacam011y · 3 years

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***SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODE 6***

So I’m still processing everything but holy shite that ep was wild...

FIRST THINGS FIRST - WANDA, VISION, BILLY AND PIETRO ALL IN COMIC ACCURATE-ISH COSTUMES AND TOMMY IN A MINI QUICKSILVER COSTUME

PIETRO CALLING BILLY AND TOMMY DEMON SPAWN - GOD DAMMIT, IT’S MEPHISTO ISN’T IT? HOUSE OF M HERE WE COME

HERB ASKING WANDA IF SHE WANTED SOMETHING CHANGED

AGNES ASKING VISION ABOUT THE AVENGERS AND STUFF AND AT FIRST SHE SEEMED GENUINELY FREAKED OUT BUT THEN STARTED LAUGHING MANIACALLY AND I STILL DON’T TRUST HER AND AGNES BEING DRESSED AS A WITCH? AGATHA HARKNESS WAS A WITCH - COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

DARCY LOOKING OVER MONICA’S MED SCANS AND TELLING HER HOW THE HEX AFFECTS HER EACH TIME SHE GOES IN - IS SHE DEVELOPING HER POWERS?

PIETRO’S CORPSE - SCARED ME JUST AS MUCH AS VISION’S

MOVIES SHOWING IN THE THEATRE IN THE BACKGROUND - THE INCREDIBLES: A MOVIE BASED AROUND A SUPERHERO FAMILY AND THE PARENT TRAP: A MOVIE ABOUT TWINS WHO MEET AT CAMP AND TRY AND SET THEIR PARENTS UP

DON’T GO PAST ELLIS AVENUE - NOW I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A CONNECTION OR JUST A COINCIDENCE BUT ELLIS IS THE LAST NAME OF THE PRESIDENT DURING IRON MAN 3

TOMMY HAVING HIS SPEED POWERS AND BILLY HAVING HIS REALITY WARPING/TELEKINETIC POWERS - WELCOME SPEED AND WICCAN

A CALL BACK TO INFINITY WAR WHEN VISION EXITED THE HEX? SLIGHTLY DUSTING AND HE PROBABLY WON’T SURVIVE BEING OUTSIDE OF THE HEX - HE’LL JUST DIE AGAIN 🥲

I STILL DON’T TRUST HAYWARD - HE’S VERY SUS

DARCY BEING TAKEN INTO THE HEX WITH THE OTHER S.W.O.R.D AGENTS - HOPEFULLY WE CAN SEE THE OUTFITS THAT KAT DENNING’S WAS EXCITED ABOUT

I SWEAR THEY BETTER NOT STRAIGHTWASH BILLY AND TOMMY OR I WILL RIOT 😤

***FURTHER UPDATES***

So sit-com wise, it seems they were referencing Malcolm in the Middle as the twins broke the fourth wall and talked to the audience, like Malcolm did

However, the theme song has told the viewer to stop questioning the reality of Westview - which could be a little reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000? - When Pietro first shows up in the title sequence, along with his name title card, the lyrics say “Though there may be no way of knowing who’s come to play” - Istg, I do not trust Pietro

Vision says to Wanda that he had to wear his Halloween costume because there were no other clothes in his closet, Wanda is trying to move the plot along and forcing Vision to play along

Evan Peters’ ‘Mom’ tattoo is shown, which is a tattoo he actually has in real life ! But could this stand for ‘Multiverse of Madness’ or some other red herring?

Pietro mentions to Wanda that if he had found ‘Shangri-La’ he wouldn’t want to leave either - Shangri-La is a real place on Earth-616 that was founded by a version of Vision

Tommy refers to Pietro’s speed as ‘kickass’ and then Wanda repeats that, saying ‘kickass’ again - Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters (both versions of QuickSilver) were in Kick-Ass together

The ad for this episode was freaky af - the character on the beach who starved and decomposed could be a little nod to Indiana Jones, where a Nazi’s face melts in - and it could also be reference to Wanda being all alone and struggling to process her grief. The shark in the ad could also be Nightmare or Mephisto or just someone more powerful than Wanda offering her a new beginning with Vision or trapped her in some way - and is feeding off her magic? The flavour of the yoghurt is strawberry flavoured and strawberry’s are red on the outside and pink-ish on the inside - much like Wanda’s og costume and her magic being red 👀

Pietro and Wanda talk about their Sokovian accents at a point in the episode and how neither have them anymore. Wanda’s, as we know, has disappeared over the course of the MCU movies and Pietro’s just doesn’t exist - another nice little nod to Peter Maximoff from the fox X-Men films? Also, Pietro states that “I’m just trying to do my part, okay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the Rugrats (a 90’s cartoon 👀) and ultimately give you grief.” - in reference to the grief part, could Pietro be killed off again? Stir up trouble with the rugrats, being possible shards of the demon Mephisto’s soul, could this be Mephisto trying to influence them on a deeper level? It’s also many many common sitcom clichès

Pietro talks about how “I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all” - nice little nod to how Pietro was killed off unnecessarily and how we as a fandom still talk about how regular bullets shouldn’t have killed him

Herb is dressed as Frankenstein’s monster - Dr. Frankenstein created his monster and soon lost control over him, and he was created using electricity or lightning - much like Vision was created and brought to life by Thor using Mjolnïr to bring lightning down to his incubator thingy majig. Could this also be a reference to either Wanda slowly losing control over Westview or someone else controlling Wanda/controlling the citizens of Westview - we saw in episode 3 that Agnes told Herb to be quiet as it seemed he was about to spill the beans 👀

Vision goes towards Ellis avenue and is at a ‘crossroads’ of sorts - in folklore, crossroads are often used to speak to or summon the devil and are also used when an important character is making a decision that could change everything. He spots some citizens repeating certain actions and/or just standing completely still, could these be npc’s (non playable characters)? And now that the barrier of the Hex has spread, will those citizens now start to move? 👀 Also I know that all stop signs look like it, but the stop sign is also a red hexagon 🛑

Darcy scrolls through Hayward’s computer files and goes past a file called “Project C4-113” - it could reference Avengers Issue #113 in which Wanda and Vision both appear on the cover and she says she’s going to make the world pay for Vision’s death. There’s also another file called “Project M5-247” which could be a nod to Avengers Issue #247, which shows the origin of the Eternals and in the same vein, Scarlet Witch and Vision trying to help Captain Marvel. And when Darcy emails Hayward’s cataract plans, you can see the names of “James Alexander and James Gadd” - James Alexander is a visual effects producer on Wandavision and James Gadd works on post production at Marvel

Also: Agnes pulls as Mrs Hart and repeats the same phrase over and over again

After Wanda blasts Pietro, you can see on a fake grave stone the name of “Janell Sammelman”, Janell is a first assistant director on Wandavision

When Wanda moves Westview to save Vision, she turns S.W.O.R.D and it’s agents into clowns + a circus - I just love that the agents turned into clowns 😂 but there is a nice little plot line in the comics where Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye join the circus - and this COULD be stretch, but earlier in the episode there is the number #22 which could be Avengers Issue #22, which is the Issue that they join the circus

As soon as Vision was brought back into Westview, he was healed - which means if he was to exit again, he probably wouldn’t survive 😭

The episode title is ‘All-New Halloween Spooktackular!” - which “All-New” is a designation that is often used on covers for comic books. And the first issue of the second The Vision and the Scarlet Witch series takes place on Halloween night - but the events in this comics didn’t influence this episode’s plot

Pietro points out that he has the “XY chromosome” - X for X-Men? Plus there’s the X gene 😂

He mentions “Uncle Peter to the rescue” - Peter is the name of Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men Franchise

Pietro and Tommy quote the movie Top Gun (1986) by saying “I fell the need, the need for speed”

Wanda almost seems hesitant to trust this version of Pietro (rightfully so, in my opinion) and is wary of him being around Tommy and Billy

Pietro says some very Mephisto/Nightmare-like things this episode - “Unleash hell, demon spawn!”, “The kids need a father figure”, “Damnit, if Westview isn’t charming as Hell...” - And if Pietro isn’t Mephisto/Nightmare, it HAS to be Agnes or her other half Ralph and Pietro is probably Ralph tbh...or could Pietro just be a scapegoat and Hayward is Ralph? 👀

The theatre in town, which is playing the Incredibles and The Parent Trap, is called the Coronet. There’s a classic poem called “The Coronet” written by Andrew MARVELL (Marvell, is also the true name of the first incarnation of Captain Marvel in the comics) and is about a guy who knows that the sins of mankind led to the death of Christ. He attempts to create a new crown for Christ’s head in an attempt to atone, but finds that there is sin in the crown as well, as the devil is within the crown and therefore he may achieve glory and success with his new creation 👀

Hayward’s confidential project “Cataract” included experimenting on Vision’s body, as was revealed by Darcy (my wife 💙 and Monica is also my wife 💚 and so is Wanda 💛, I just love women, you know? 😂). A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision - is Hayward trying to weaponise Vision? Or maybe even trying to bring Ultron back? Or do what Tony wanted to do in the first place, and make a suit of armour that’s around the world? Either way, it’s for nefarious purposes

Who is Monica’s guy? Jimmy and Monica are off to meet him - could it be Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic)? Or could it be Victor Von Doom (Dr Doom)? Could it be Hank McCoy (Beast)? Or even Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel)? Or if it is a woman, could it be the Skrull daughter of Talos that Monica befriended at the end of Captain Marvel? Could it be Abigail Brand (A major character in recent S.W.O.R.D comics and an Alpha Flight Member)? Or even Toni Ho (Iron Patriot, and could she be introduced to help lay the ground work for my other queen, Riri Williams/Iron Heart?)? Or could it even be Sue Storm (Invisible Woman)?

In the background of the episode we see a number of children and adults dressed up as many different characters, which includes: Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, Jason Voorhees, with a sweater striped like Freddy Krueger’s and even a kid that looks dressed in an off-brand Charizard costume 😂 Pokèmon has always been popular, but saw an increase during the 90’s

Pietro and the kids are drinking “Kane Cola” which could be a reference to the 90’s drinks “Jolt Cola” or even “Surge” - it could also, with all the X-Men Easter eggs, be a reference to Garrison Kane, who was a member of Cable’s mercenary team “Six Pack” and is sometimes also known as ‘Weapon X’

The kid that Wanda mentions having a “skin thing” in the orphanage - could that be a reference to her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants co-worker Toad? Or maybe even Mystique? Maybe Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler)?

One of the houses has a sign up that says ‘Macabre Mansion’ - another possible reference to House of M?

During a flashback, it’s shown that the twins are playing Dance Dance Revolution, which came out in 1999. Also this might be a stretch, but the boys have a dog plushie in their room the right - which is coloured red and black - could this be a reference to Dogpool? 😂

I love this show 🤣💙

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aerltarg · 3 years

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Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

#thank you for the ask!!!#hope it didnt get too long and rambly afshsjsjs #once started talking its hard to shut up 😂#and im sorry for any possible mistakes #.txt #rhaegar targaryen #targnation #mypost #fandom wank #anti antis #majorton #*answered #asks

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handonhaven · 3 years

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Okay Lizzie and Josie really pissed me off in 3x16. Like Hope just ran off with someone who tried to kill her and someone who manipulated Josie. With no clue why or where they were going. And Lizzie first thought was to try to find Hope a rebound. Not to try to find out where she went or if she was in any danger. And Josie was no help either she didn't bother to do any of those things. She just asked Lizzie with who. I also didn't like Lizzie comment either. When she said "we can't afford to be picky. Anyone who doesn't melt after having sex with her will do." Maybe it's just me and I'm taking that comment the wrong way. But when she said that I got so mad. Because what I took from that was being able to have sex is only thing that matters. So let's just try to hook her up with anyone. Doesn't matter if they're a killer or a psychopath as long as they can have sex then it's fine. I don't know maybe I'm just over reacting to that(but I can't be the only one to feel something like that after hearing that comment, can I?).

So, so many Handon scenes just hits so differently now knowing that Landon was really malivore. I'm not gonna lie after I found that out I went back and watched those scenes over again trying to see if I can find any clues or hints at it. But when I did that I start it to think about the fact that we had a whole season without the real Landon. Then I start thinking about the fact that Landon has had a whole season of going through trauma one right after the other since 3x02(when Raph died) and it only got worse from there. Then I got mad at the writers for doing that to him. It was bad enough that his life before coming to the school was hell. So were they just like yeah lets put him through a whole season a trauma too. Now before anyone says well Hope went through hell this season too. I'm not saying she didn't. But I feel like Landons was on a whole different level than Hopes. Because Landon had to watch his brother die, then had to watch himself melt, then he was in malivore, then in the prison fighting off monsters, to then having malivore take over his body. And who knows what he's going through in this own mind right now. But I think my biggest fear is that when they do get Landon back the real Landon. That they play off his trauma to save time(like they often do now). Or someone will try to downplay it like it was nothing. Because if they do that imma be pissed.

So I start it thinking about that maliLandon scene with Cleo when we saw both malivore's and Landons memories. And all of Landons memories were big Handon moments for season 2(I think there might have been some for season 1 but I can't remember). And I know they did that for a reason. I think in that scene it inspired both malivore and Landon somehow to do something. I just can't figure out what and I know myself this will be stuck on my mind until we finally find out lol. I'm already thinking up theories and all both make sense but don't make sense all at the same time. And this is really going to bug me.

P.S 1: I have to say this season had one very consistent thing, the "Logical" answer is wrong.

- Logic telling Hope, Landon was dead ....wrong

- Logic telling Hope, Landon was back.....wrong (Hope felt something was off but chose to ignore it bc she missed him)

- Logic telling Hope, she and Landon are doomed.....wrong

- Logic telling Cleo, to trust Landon and he was only traumatized.....wrong

- Logic telling them Malivore wanted Cleo to escape the prison world....wrong

- Logic telling them, the monsters were coming from a actual pit....wrong

- Logic telling Hope the only way to kill Malivore is to become a Tribrid.....wrong

- Logic telling Hope she caused Landon to melt.....wrong(okay I know we don't know for sure about that one. But that feels way way to much like a red herring with how much it's been said). Also another consistent thing is everything they say things Multiple times over and over again espesally things that have no concrete proof turns out to be False. They keep repeating these things; Landon is Human, Landon is dead, Landon is not a Phoenix anymore, Hope needs to become a Tribrid, Hope is toxic to Landon(once again I know we don't know for sure yet, but there's no way that isn't a red herring), Hope and Landon are doomed. Watch all turn out to be wrong.

2. The antis and H*sies are already coming out the wood works. And there this one line I see that they're really trying to hold onto like it's a win or something. How at the end of 3x16 when Hope said "we want our friends back" they're taking it like Hope sees Landon as a friend now(among other things but that would make this too long if I write it all out). Which is sad and means they're truly not paying attention to anything. And let me just point out that Hope was speaking for everyone not just herself. So it makes more sense for her to say "we want our friends back" then it would be for her to say "we want our friend and my boyfriend back". Since they're all friends with Landon and Cleo. Even though they're not very good friends to Landon(minus Hope because Hope is with Landon and treats him better than his "friends" does). But that's a whole other thing for another time. I do my best to say away from antis and H*sies but somehow one of them somehow always end up in my timeline. And it's gonna make these next three months so much longer than it needs to be tbh.

Same. Exactly! It was all so strange.

Lizzie was just upset over the fact that Hope ditched them, but Hope has always done stuff like that on her own to keep others out of danger. Yet Lizzie didn’t even seem to care, even though both her and Josie said they didn’t trust Clarke after all he had done. So they knew that Hope could’ve been in danger. But Lizzie’s highest concern in that moment was finding Hope a rebound as quickly as possible?? What on earth... And Josie acknowledged that Hope could be in danger, said she cared more about her actual life than her romantic one, but then proceeded to do nothing. And exactly! That comment really bothered me too! Yep, that’s also how it came across to me. Like Hope being able to have sex with someone was the priority, the rest wasn’t important. I don’t think you’re overreacting, I thought it sounded really bad. And the fact that Lizzie was focusing on that over Hope’s safety... I don’t even know what to say. Then Ethan shows up and they drag him into it, it was just a mess, and probably the weirdest way and time to bring in a love interest for Lizzie. Then they get to the school, are casually standing around chatting, then Lizzie wants to give Ethan a tour. All thoughts about Hope’s safety forgotten, besides Josie mentioning in passing that they needed to tell Alaric what happened. That was the full extent of their efforts to help Hope. Then she gets back and all they can talk about is how she ditched them? Not about what happened or if she’s okay? And they’re the ones who just promised Hope she wouldn’t be facing Malivore alone... not off to a good start.

And right? It’s crazy! Me too, watching the breakup scene is SO different now haha. But ugh, yes. We seriously had nearly an entire season without the real Landon... I can’t. And same. That’s one of the things I’ve been thinking about the most, and I’m honestly mad at the writers as well. Like, it’s actually shocking to think about just how much trauma he has gone through. And I don’t know what made them to decide to put him through that much because it’s unreal. Just... why?? So true, he had a lifetime of trauma before the show even started! Went through more trauma while at the school, going through death after death. And then went through the most horrible things this whole season. And yes, Hope did go through hell, but what she went through was very different. I agree, what Landon went through was on a whole other level. Exactly! He literally went through one trauma right after the other. And he went through them alone (apart from losing Raf). Without any help, and every single time he escaped one thing, he ended up in another and endured more trauma. He’s been through pure hell, nonstop, and I can’t imagine what state he’s in right now and how he’ll be when this is all over. Oh, and literally me. I’m honestly so worried they’re gonna do that too. That they’ll just ignore his trauma, that they won’t show how he’s been affected or have him talking about it. And it will just get cut off and forgotten and they’ll jump to the next thing and he may not get even a break. Because that really is what they do all the time. And right now is their chance to show what he’s been through. To go back and show what happened to him and show his side of things. We need to actually see what he’s been through and how he’s being affected right now. And once they get him back, they need to address it. They need to let him and Hope rest. I think season 4 needs to be about them healing together, though I’m sure they’ll be dealing with more crap. So I’m very worried about that, I will be pissed right along with you if they don’t go into that. That’s probably what I want to see the most at this point, and what I think is extremely important, not only for his character, but also because they shouldn’t ignore that kind of trauma.

And yes, they were! They had Landon remembering Hope telling him she loved him for the first time, and then those other huge moments for them, the 2x08 reunion, and the scenes in 2x11. I‘m wondering if those might be Landon’s most powerful memories. And I think you could be right, I’ve wondered the same thing, but I also can’t figure it out. Like they showed Handon memories with Malivore creating Clarke like... I’m so confused haha. They definitely left us with too many questions, and now we have to wait, it’s gonna suck.

Wow, you make very good points with that. That’s very interesting for sure. The writers really used “logic” as a way to mislead the characters in order to shape the plot for the season. And I think because of that, they also had to hold the characters back from investigating things further. When I feel like Hope, especially, would’ve looked into things more to figure out what was going on, but they couldn’t have them finding out yet so they just had everyone believing in the “logical” answer. Which does end up fitting with the idea that things are not what the seem, especially with all the things you listed that they keep repeating. Which does make it seem pretty obvious that they’re trying to convince us of these things that aren’t actually true. I think it’s gonna all turn out to be wrong as well. We already know it wouldn’t make sense for Landon to be fully human since he never was, and that he’ll surely get his Phoenix powers back. And I agree about Hope being toxic to Landon too, the more they’ve talked about it, the less I believe it’s true haha. And same now with them talking about Hope having to become a full tribrid, it seems like they might be doing the same thing. Or at least, if these things aren’t already wrong, Hope and Landon will find a way to prove them wrong by fighting their fate.

Yeah, those people clearly aren’t paying attention to the show and are grasping for anything at this point. Did they not watch Hope’s scenes with Clarke and how she responded to him talking about fighting fate? Did they not hear her literally tell Cleo that she still loves Landon? Obviously, Hope does not view Landon as just a friend. She was speaking for the group, just like you said. I don’t even think Hope sees Cleo as her friend right now. When Cleo told Hope that she hopes they can be friends again after all this, Hope said nothing and just walked away. So yeah, she was speaking for everyone else, although it’s weird that the rest of them would even view them as friends either. I’m pretty sure Kaleb is the only one who really sees Cleo as a friend. And true, they’re not even friends to Landon, none of them gave a crap when he died, so I’m not even sure why they were there. I guess since there’s a threat now? But anyway, yeah, I get that it’s hard to avoid those fans, the hate is everywhere. But knowing how ridiculous their reasoning is and how far they’re reaching helps me to just kind of laugh it off sometimes, although it is annoying. It gets so tiring to see, but I’m just gonna try to focus on enjoying Handon and ignoring the antis as best I can!

#answered #3x16 #legacies spoilers #spoilers

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go-ldy · 3 years

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I have zero self-control, so, if you're up to it: best and worst episode(s) of Riverdale?

I love this question! Sorry for the delay in answering, I have had to give this the deep thought and contemplation it deserves! Best episodes is easier for me tbh because there are only maybe one or two episodes of Riverdale that I did not like. I’ve decided to break it down into my best/worst for each season.

I’ve tried to approach this being as objective as possible but.... you know, I am only human, and I am easily swayed when Betty and Jughead make out a lot.

Season 1

Best

1x10 or 1x11 with 1x11 having a slight edge. Obviously, the bughead angst content in both is A++ and what I am here for, but I also think that 1x11 in particular does a good job of moving the plot along while developing the characters at the same time (Riverdale is not always good at this ok so it is important to remark on it when it meets this bar!). We have Homecoming, and the incredibly awkward Cooper-Jones pre-Homecoming dinner, and Varchie sneaking into FP’s trailer behind Betty and Jughead’s back, and Veronica desperately trying to determine if her father had a role to play in Jason’s murder, and FP’s arrest (!!!) and Jughead running off at the end in a funk. There is a lot that happens AND everyone goes to a dance! It is sadly rare to have a Riverdale episode where everyone feels intertwined to the main story and where the Core 4 get to interact and develop. Plus, Jughead is so adorably excited about his and Betty’s family meeting even though they are 16 and have been dating for like two months. MY HEART. He was already planning their wedding.

Worst

1x09. It is the only episode of season 1 that felt filler. And I would still rank it higher than the other “worst” episodes on this list. But the main plot of Archie being used by the Blossom family is ehhhhhh. And frankly uncomfortable given his all too real recent past of being used by Ms. Grundy with no acknowledgment from the show whatsoever that these gross adults keep using this 16 year-old kid to serve their own purposes. So yeah, probably the worst of season 1.

Season 2

Best

I have to go with 2x14. Okay, okay 2x05/2x06 are probably better written and better plotted and have less dialogue that makes me want to end myself, but hear me out. 2x14 is the absolute essence of Riverdale packed into 40 glorious minutes:

Each couple has a spat with each other and then against each other, we get Betty versus Jughead, Archie versus Veronica, Bughead versus Varchie, and it is great???? yeah, you all fight over Hiram’s nefarious plot to buy up all the newspapers in town.

Bughead listens to Varchie have sex and the vice-versa like an hour later as normal friends do.

Betty and Veronica talk about abuelita (I must know more about abuelita!).

An entire scene where Archie wakes up early to chop wood?? At someone else’s house? Even though he’s only there for a weekend?? Again, very normal, every day teenage behaviour. And Veronica pervs on him while sipping coffee. Get it, V.

Some of the worst, cringiest dialogue this show has ever had, and that is a HIGH BAR including: “A Vughead Kiss? Right now, in the present, might be precisely what it takes to save a future Bughead from imploding.” THIS IS THE WORST LINE OF DIALOGUE EVER WRITTEN, LIKE OF ALL TIME, I CAN BARELY WATCH. IT IS NAILS ON A CHALKBOARD, END ME.

Archie doing push ups in his bedroom, because OF COURSE ARCHIE RANDOMLY DOES PUSHUPS BEFORE BED AND ALSO WHEN UPSET HAVE YOU SEEN HIM. And then Veronica propositions him for sex and Archie, still mad about Vughead, turns her down. And this is an actual scene that takes up time in a 40 minutes episode??? I love it.

Lodge Lodge

They play monopoly

And then get attacked by home invaders!!!

Who Archie chases into the woods only for one of them to be killed by Andre so that Hiram can later frame Archie for a murder he didn’t commit.

anyway 2x14 is the best episode of Riverdale maybe ever, tell your friends.

Worst

2x11 for the reasons @arsenicpanda has articulated before - mostly involving the clumsy way that the writers tried to parallel the Serpents to the plight of Native Americans. And Jughead’s awkward white saviour plotline, eugh. Although bonus points for Archie trying to wrestle to impress Hiram for some reason?? I can’t hate it.

Season 3

Best

Season 3 has a lot of contenders. I’m torn between the parentale breakfast club episode (which also featured crazy-G&G-Jughead, a fave of mine) and the Prom episode, but I’m going to go with 3x20, Prom Night because this episode is a sheer delight from start to finish. Hal Cooper fakes his own death by cutting off his hand and then he replaces it with a hook - legends only. CHONI FOR PROM QUEENS until the dream is killed by Edgar. U KNOW that is when Cheryl started reconsidering the whole Farm business even with the whole being able to talk to Jason’s corpse thing.

Bughead investigate shit and make great faces. Varchie go to prom as the least platonic “friends” ever and it is adorable. Everybody somehow wears the best outfits even though Bughead changed the Prom theme the night before. Betty being chased through the school by the Black Hood/her dad is legitimately terrifying. 10/10.

Worst

3x09, hands down. I have a lot of beef with this episode. My main beef is that 3x08 ends on this great cliffhanger and there is zero payoff? Jughead and FP come home to find the town is under QUARANTINE, no one is allowed IN OR OUT, and then in 3x09, he is snuggling in bed with Betty and it was like????? but what about the quarantine?? how did you get back in?? honestly the first time I watched 3x09, I thought I must have skipped an episode, but NOPE, the quarantine cliffhanger was waved off and I will never forgive them for this.

Secondly, most of this episode is spent in Archie’s feverish dream/hallucination and I just find dream episodes real dull, sorry Archie. I love that Archie tried to box a bear, I mean good for him, but the the dream sequences are boring.

Season 4

Best

A tie between 4x14 and 4x15. I just love these two episodes. The Preppies are legit the best villains this show has ever had (especially Donna, my love <333). There were real stakes for the Core 4, and even though I was pretty sure Jughead was not dead, I was still insanely happy to see him again in 4x15. Betty threatening Donna in the woods while wearing Jughead’s sherpa is a total bamf move, MARRY ME, BETTY COOPER. Jughead’s faux funeral is a+. Even the BA fake dating scheme (before it went horribly awry in the following episodes) is hilarious to me. Like, what kind of horrible plan is this?? if Betty seriously dated Archie following Jughead’s death, she would need therapy STAT, but the town of Riverdale is just like “oh ok I guess Jughead is dead.” Okay, sure. Plus Donna taunting Betty over the fact that she apparently can’t go two hours without needing to bone Jughead and therefore Betty’s plan was doomed to failure. How was this a real scene that happened. Oh my god, these episodes are so great.

Worst.

4x17. I mean, obviously. Please don’t make me have to explain.

#arsenicpanda #riverdale #riverdale discourse #bughead

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belphegorbillickin · 3 years

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Tell me about it, Medi!!(Medi, was it?) I really like the thought of an antagonist, one that actually makes the storyline juicy by adding conflict. And can't we have a female character as a friend or something?.. Imagine mc having friends OTHER than the mains, I like that thought. Adds more detail and depth into the story.

But you're right about the personalities. It irritates me how they're literally just simping for mc now? Everyone has their own thoughts, but I'd prefer if they STILL had those demon instincts. They're WAY too soft for my liking. At least make them A BIT more demonic? Like Asmodeus. He doesn't only specialize in lust. The actual Asmodeus was responsible for breaking relationships, making people have selfish desires that led to their doom and those who succumbed to their lust became his prey. This actually happened with that one painting in obey me? The witch, Helene? And how asmo didn't even show A BIT of shame. But now he's back to "uwu I love myself and mc". Don't demons corrupt others though? My thoughts.

Maybe I'm thinking way too dark, but like, what if the demons actually kept a facade of loving you? Believe me I didn't trust Lucifer until lesson 18, or any of the brothers till 16, and I liked the feeling of dread when I used to be like, "Oh wait is he gonna do something to me now?" BECAUSE THEY ARE LITERAL DEMONS I DON'T TRUST DEMONS. It's disappointing. I guess now I gotta turn to fics that portray them as ACTUALLY being selfish like how a demon should be.

Yeah, don’t get me wrong I’d love to have a female character as a new datable option or friend, I just don’t have much faith in how they’ll write a female character into what’s pretty much an established romance. And yup, Medi is right.

Same, I loved the tension and hating Lucifer was so much fun. It's a shame I’m not really into Lucifer that way because he has the most character development out of all of them and stayed a bit more intact. Like even when he loves MC he’s still prideful.

Meanwhile Satan is just a crazy cat lady with an occasional love of books/pranks and a rare reference to being “tamed.” He could’ve been so much more interesting, I loved their take on wrath and wanted to see more about demons vs fallen angels. It doesn’t help that I hate when they make “I can change you with my love” a reality, like at least get him to a therapist or something.

This might be controversial, but I think part of it is also due to Mammon’s success. From how things played out it seems like they expected Lucifer to be the most popular by far, but eventually they realized Mammon was pretty close and started focusing on him as well.

One thing that always bugged me about Mammon is that we never really face any consequences from it. Like Lucifer’s pride gets in the way or causes him to lash out, all of the brothers do, but Mammon’s sin never actually harms the player. I know half the people saying no one should ever be mad at him for stealing would be pissed if he regularly stole sentimental/rare/expensive belongings and never apologized or at gave them the money he made.

He never steals from them or screws them over, and even his early behavior gets ignored or brushed off as him being stupid. Because personally I have a hard time believing Mammon’s resentment from being forced into a pact and humiliated disappeared just like that. Sure occasionally MC gets punished, but the player doesn’t take any part of it and usually people that like Mammon want to do stuff like that anyway so it isn’t really his fault.

Anyway TLDR I think the fact that the softest and least dangerous demon with no real drawbacks or serious accidents being the most popular set the tone for the devs too. All of it started way before the attic arc too, he was a fan favorite from the beginning and I think he still would be even if he did attempt to get rid of MC tbh.

I could definitely see an argument for them pretending, especially since they fell “in love” so quickly and yet reacted to MC dying like they do to losing an object. I highly doubt they’d do that in a romance game though tbh, but tbh I always kinda pictured it as them being temporarily infatuated with MC instead of intending to be with them for the rest of MC’s life, at least until the whole attic arc and Lilith reveal.

I can see the appeal though, and imo Asmo already kind of does that. A lot of his “compliments” in the beginning have double meanings or hidden insults and his whole inspection thing after the labyrinth was looking for the source of power stronger than Solomon's in what’s supposed to be a pathetically weak mundane.

He also indirectly tries to get you killed because you’re annoying him and actively threatens you if you say you don’t like him at all. If it weren’t that late in the game or it had routes I’m sure he actually would’ve tried.

The game would’ve been a million times better if they were routes tbh, actual routes and not the moneygrubbing keys mechanic, even if it was a common route until after the attic arc. Dark characters really shine when you can actually mess up and see their nasty side or what they’re like when truly and completely rejected.

As it is now Mammon and Lucifer get all the attention even when you actively avoid them. Meanwhile Asmo stans get nothing even on his birthday. They could do a harem route too for all the people that want it, but it’s not like you can’t replay the game and go through all of them in a true otome. The wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle thing isn’t working out imo. As much as I love them the side characters becoming datable didn’t help either.

They could’ve done some really interesting things with Diavolo and Barbatos too, having them as sinister and untrustworthy like they were in the beginning if not more while still having them be romancable. I love the hints of cultural/moral differences they give us and the many hints that Diavolo isn’t quite as “wholesome” as he acts even in the more recent things, but I doubt we’ll ever see that because it’ll alienate everyone who hates darker things and people who like darker things but not Diavolo.

I think that’s a small part of why it’s harder for me to write as well, because they’re all so much different now it’s harder to imagine them like I did before. There’s only so many times you can go back and read the beginning, although it’s always a bit of a shock how different they are.

Even for fan content it’s hard to find the sweet spot between identical to the average sugary sweet human and super dark ooc t0rturep0rn imo. Like don’t get me wrong there’s still a lot of good stuff from way better authors than me, but there’s only so much and a lot them quit ages ago or are starting to now.

#asks

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nothing-ever-really-ends-does-it · 3 years

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So, after taking some time to process, I think I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s not the worst ending possible.

Is it perfect ? No

Is it the best they could have come up with ? No

Do I love it and will forever hold it dear to my heart? Absolutely no.

Do I think it was a great idea killing Dean with a rusty piece of metal ? NO

Did it ruin Supernatural forever for me ? NO

Were the main problems easily fixed with some creative decisions being different? Yes

BUT

Do I hate it ? No, I don’t think I hate it. I mean I don’t like it 100% , and I would change a million things if I had any power to do so. But I don’t hate it anymore and it won’t make me hate the entirety of the show obviously.

I’ve been here since season 1, 2005, when I was probably too young to be allowed to watch it. I do believe that Sam and Dean Winchester are THE fundamental pieces of the show. I understand that they tried to go back to the roots of the show. I understand that they tried to play with symmetry here and take us back to simpler times where it was Sam and Dean against the world hunting normal monsters and I don’t think that’s wrong. I mean at the end of the day everything that happened happened because of them, around them and for them. But they could have honored them and also everyone else in their lives.

I actually think the episode was good until Dean’s dead, even then I think I could have forgive the decision of killing him with something so mundane because it would have cemented the idea that their lives could have been normal but there was always someone pulling the strings (Chuck), I would have still HATED the decision to have Dean killed less than a few months after defeating GOD and by a piece of rust 🤡 when he deserved so much more of life but I could have accepted it, and move on if they had made some changes in the time and the how.

It does hurt to know Dean is dead, but then, dead has never been the same for them, every single time one of them has died, they come back, they have literally fought Death and Dean has killed it twice. So Dean dying now hurts but not as much as it hurt in season 3. Dead does not feel bigger than them anymore, it is no longer this doom hanging over their heads as a threat. Like It feels different, these guys are legends, they have gone to heaven, hell, purgatory, AUs, the past, the future, etc dead feels kind of beneath them (?) and tbh I did expect them both to die by the end of the series. To me that move was a given.

I guess what bothers me the most is that SPN has always been a show about family, found family and blood family. Sam and Dean made their own family welcoming people into their lives and caring for them. It’s one of my favorite things about the show. When John comes back and tells Dean he is sorry he never got to have a family and Dean says that he has one, omg, YES I loved that. Because it is truth. Dean always wanted family, it is revealed so early in the show, that the thing that moves him is love and his sense of family, love for his mom, for his dad, for Sam, and later on for everyone else he gets to call family. It’s what makes him do great things and stupid things.

There’s a point where it stops being only about Sam and Dean, I still think they are the core and the heart of the show, but it’s not just them anymore. They keep adding so many people to their circle, and it’s a joy to watch their interactions with everyone else, for them to have nice and normal moments with people they care about like visiting Jody, or spending time with Charlie.

I think that maybe the biggest flaw of the finale, is the lack of more, more of the people that became their family too, more time of them being happy on earth. Or maybe it’s just me not accepting it ended.

If I had been showed Dean getting to meet all the people he lost, and being welcomed there by the family he made, I would have been at peace with the end, because in a way Dean would have gotten to be, to live free of burdens and violence, with no fear of losing more people he loved and just enjoying simple things. it would have made the ending more sweet than bitter.

I’m not even a hardcore Destiel shipper,I mean I LOVE them but I love that relationship being it platonic or romantic, I think their story it’s great and I would’ve been ok with whatever decision they made about them post declaration 15x18. I wouldn’t have cared if they kept it platonic or if they dared to do more. I just love them interacting in any scenario.

But the fact that CAS did not appear in any capacity ?! WTF, shipper or not there’s no denying the importance of their relationship for their character development and for almost every major event of the show since season 4. Unrequited love or not, however they wanted to play it, they value each other, they enjoy each other’s company and they consider themselves FAMILY. Other than Sam, Cas has been the only constant in Dean’s life, I was absolutely sure he would make an appearance I WAS SURE, and I kept waiting and it all ended and he never arrived. That felt like a punch because I have loved Castiel since he first appeared in Lazarus Rising.

That does not mean that my ONLY problem with the finale was the absence of Cas (it’s probably the main one but not the only), or the absence of Eileen (💔) , it does not mean I do not value the other nice moments, or the beauty of how death was like a new life in heaven. Jensen and Jared put their heart in their performances. I cried when Dean died and gave his last speech to Sam, it was everything Sam needed to hear even If he knew. i liked the concept of time being different on heaven and earth. I love the idea that everyone gets to be together now. And that Jack is making everything better thanks to all he learned from them. It really had very nice elements. Just poor execution.

At first watch, all the bad made it imposible for me to concentrate on the good. I was caught between being sad, wanting to try and make sense of out the finale and also being kind of dissapointed. But I guess that my conclusion is that, at the end for me it changes nothing, I”ll still love this show with all it’s missed opportunities and mistakes.

I know some changes had to be made because of Covid, i know they had probably planned to bring back a lot of characters, and it’s unfair to be mad IF it was out of their control and IF that was the reason Cas and Eileen did not return. I know a lot of things were left implied and open for interpretation, I know the actors and crew put their love in filming every episode. I know that. I do believe some things changed last minute.

But the TV industry big bosses do not care for things like this, what matters is money and timelines and contracts and I can see some of it affecting the production of the last episode. It still sucks, I’m still salty about it but I guess this is me letting go and letting it be.

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atamascolily · 4 years

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Lily liveblogs: “The Rise of Skywalker,” part three

I end as I began: hopelessly confused about what the point of all this was. (Except for money. I got that part loud and clear.)

Rey just leaves Finn behind, because... friendship, right? Jannah does not have a good opinion of Rey right now, and tbh, I can't blame her. I realize Rey is under a lot of stress, but... her behavior since arriving on this "moon of Endor" has been wayyyy out of line.

Also, Poe pulls up with the Falcon right then, so I guess they got it repaired in record time, lol. Convenient.

Meanwhile, at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone is sad because Leia is dead. I wonder who's in charge now???

"Goodbye, dear princess." Oh, so she's a General right up until she dies, and then it's back to princess again? I wish the ST would make up its mind about her title.

Oh, I guess Poe is, since he showed up and actually has a rank??

Chewie LOSES IT at the news Leia is dead--I feel you, bud. I feel you so hard.

Kylo tries to look dignified as he broods on the wreckage, but he looks awful. Like a drowned rat, with a convenient lightsaber-shaped hole in his tunic where Rey stabbed him. (She didn't even take the saber with her or drop it into the sea or anything! WHHYYYYYYYYYYY - gimme a reason, any reason, even a stupid one.)

And then Han shows up. Is he a ghost? Is this a memory? Is Kylo hallucinating? WHAT WHAT WHAT IS HAPPENING??? (This would have so much more resonance if we had SEEN how Han's death impacted Kylo earlier on instead of that one confused flashback at the beginning of the film....)

grizzled Harrison Ford looks great, why the hell did they kill him off in the first movie whyyyyyy

Okay, so they answer the question and this is a memory, which is fine, I usually love this trope, BUT it would be hella more effective if we'd seen Kylo arguing/interacting with memories of Han earlier instead of this happening for the first time NOW...

"Come home." Uhhhhhh, I honestly don't know what exactly Leia did, but she certainly kinda abetted killing him. What home does Kylo have now, anyway??

So Han says that what Leia fought for is still around, which is true, but Kylo is ostensibly the supreme leader here, so he doesn't just have to go AWOL, he can drag the FO leadership with him, and what passes for their government, he could SURRENDER and end the war right now. Does he? Of course not. He fucks off all by his lonesome after Rey and Palpatine because... that's all he knows how to do, apparently.

There's a callback that is supposed to resonate but doesn't work for me, because I just can't make myself feel for Kylo at all. Yes, redemption is hard. Yes, you have to work for it. Stop whining and just do it!!

We're supposed to think that Kylo will stab Han again (I guess?) but he turns and throws his saber into the sea. So that's why Rey didn't take it - so he could make a dramatic fucking gesture with it.

Palps is upset that Leia messed up his plans, but whatever. He orders Pryde, who apparently is now in charge of the FO in Kylo's absence, to come to Exegol. Apparently Pryde is a diehard Imperial (and possibly Sith cultist/Palpatine's secret puppet/agent??) I guess. It's never explained, he's just bad. And his name isn't subtle, either.

Palps just wants to burn everything to the ground for... evulz, I guess? I got nothing.

Pryde's star destroyer pops out a giant gun and blows up a planet.... apparently, Kijimi. Why, I don't know. Because they were just there?? Anyway, BOOM. Kijimi literally explodes.

What the actual fuck. How is that EVEN POSSIBLE?? What was the point of building two Death Stars if a Star Destroyer can do that????

Oh, apparently, that was the new model from the "Sith fleet" with a better upgrade. sounds fake, but okay. Poe is not thrilled by this news. The same Resistance member brings him the bad news, so I guess that's her official job??

Poe is genre-savvy enough to know that every ship in the Sith fleet has planet destroying weapons and they're doomed unless they stop the Final Order... which isn't new? I thought there was a countdown to an attack in 16 hours or something. What did they think they were attacking with? I don't even know, this movie is that incoherent.

Rose pops in with a message broadcasting on every channel about the "Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die"... but given that it's in a language that isn't Basic, there's this one random dude with a beard who translates for the audience... and even though I assume it's meant to be some more commonly spoken language, given that the Sith have their own language in this movie, It makes it seem like this Random Resistance dude understands Sith and... I have questions.

Poe goes to sit by Leia's shrouded corpse because apparently they haven't buried her yet??? I wish Poe and Leia's relationship was more prominent in the movies, because I love the dynamic they're supposed to have, but never actually manifests in any of these movies.

Lando shows up to console him!

"How did you defeat an Empire with almost nothing?" "We had each other."

DAMN RIGHT YOU DID AND THE NEW GENERATION COULD TOO, IF THE WRITERS WEREN'T INTENT ON SEPARATING THEM CONSTANTLY AND MAKING EVERYBODY SUFFER....

Poe decides to make Finn his co-general. I have a lot of feels about this.

Turns out D-O knows all about Exegol because he used to belong to Ochi... that's actually earned, I'll allow it. Hilarious Rey never asked the droid about it (or any other details of his past, given that she was pretty sure Ochi killed her parents).

Ahch-To! Rey is wearing her hood and I don't know why. She's throwing driftwood into the flaming wreckage of Kylo's TIE and sobbing and... I don't know what's going on here. There are SO MANY REASONS she could be crying, I don't even know.

And she tosses her lightsaber into the sea... just like Kylo did. Parallels. I get it. And just like Luke did to her... She's giving it up because she doesn't feel worthy of being a Jedi because of her heritage, I guess?? (I'm guessing because this movie doesn't explain shit.)

Speaking of which, there's Luke's ghost, right on schedule! I love his snark but it's SO OUT OF LINE given his behavior in the last movie... and the fact that Yoda told him he had to let go of the past and let the books burn. I mean... the fuck???

Rey has this dark throne vision that's driving her, but ironically that's the one vision we don't see in this whole mess.. we have all these OTHER visions instead, I can' teven keep them all straight.

Oh, she's decided to model Luke and fuck off to Ahch-To forever because she feels she made a mistake. that's absolutely the WRONG LESSON from Luke's life, Rey!!

(also, what happened to saving the world? The sith wayfinder? She just conveniently forgot Palpatine was gonna slaughter everybody because she's having heritage angst?????)

Leia not telling Rey about Rey's heritage makes perfect sense when you realize just how much Leia's life was fucked over by the knowledge that Darth Vader was her father--once in ROTJ and again when she got kicked out of the Senate and ostracized in Bloodline.

Luke has Leia's lightsaber conveniently hidden in his hut... so now Kylo/Ben can have a weapon of his own in the upcoming fight, gag. (Really, Rey should use it to make a double-bladed saber, but she won't, sigh.)

The flashback looks like a video game to me. The CGI is not terrible, but doesn't look nearly as real as the rest of the film to me.

Also, I'm forever mad that Leia gave up her saber thinking it would save her son, that is SO AWFUL, especially since IT DIDN'T WORK, HE STILL TURNED OUT EVIL ANYWAY AND RUINED YOUR LIFE.

"A thousand generations live in you now" would have so much more resonance if Rey was an avatar of the Force or a reincarnation of Anakin instead of the metaphorical. (Yes, I know it will be realized literally later on.)

[Just realized that Kylo's obsession with Rey would make TOTAL SENSE if she were an reincarnation of Anakin given how much he idolizes his grandfather!!!]

Whyyyyy doesn't Luke talk here about the revelation that Palpatine is alive? That he and his father failed to kill the Emperor? That Rey has to finish LUKE'S journey, too??? But no, it's all about Leia here.

Rey somehow didn't notice the wayfinder in Kylo's TIE until Luke says "you have everything you need"... I guess? I don't know how she missed it before!!!

And the X-wing rises out of the water like the deus ex machina that it is... somehow still spaceworthy after six years in the ocean. Okay, then.

Apparently, Force ghost Luke can still manipulate physical objects through the Force??? Okay, I can kinda buy that, but... still....

I love how Artoo doesn't even wait for Threepio to get started with the bullshit, he just imports the uploaded memories right away without asking. Normally, I'd be mad about consent, but a) they're married, and b) he's restoring Threepio's personality, so I'm okay with it.

I love how warped and creepy the space is around Exegol.

Also, D-O looks just like a desk lamp.

Oh, so the Resistance follows Rey through Luke's X-wing computer via Artoo. Convoluted, but it works, I guess.

Okay, so time for some technobabble, but there's a navigation tower (the new shield generator) they have to hit for REASONS with a "ground team" (aka strike team). Sigh.

Love the dismissal of the "Holdo maneuver"--which is essentially kamikaze-style suicide. Not a great battle strategy if you want to survive the fight.

Wait, wasn't Poe angsting earlier about how nobody answered their call from Crait back in the last movie? What makes him think this is going to be any different?????

Okay, so all the FO folks on are on Exegol now?? Who is piloting and crewing those Star Destroyers?? Are they First Order or Final Order people? What happened to the First Order? What is the relationship between the First Order and the Final Order? Are they the same thing with two different names?? (But no, there are two fleets, the Sith destroyers are different.) What happened to the First Order then? Does anyone notice and/or care the alleged "Supreme Leader" of the First Order is missing in action??? I'M SO CONFUSED.

Okay, it makes sense that Poe is in an X-wing given he's a hotshot pilot, but he's also a general, and... I'm so confused about the tactical aspect of that, but fine, whatever. Also, Artoo is in the X-wing with him instead of BB-8, who I thought was Poe's droid (to the point of reaming Rey over injuring him earlier in the film!!!) WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE???

we're baaaaacck in the creepy sith ruins just like the beginning of the film, but so much has happened that my brain has fried and so the parallels are not as compelling as they could be.

WHEN DID THEY PICK UP JANNAH?? Has she been there the entire time and we just didn't see her until now, or did they stop back at Endor's moon along the way??? I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Finn has " a feeling" where the ship is... it's the Force, why are you teasing us like that. LET HIM BE A JEDI.

Okay, I actually really like the fact that all the FO deserter stormtroopers from Endor are using their mounts so their enemies can use the tech against them. That's poetic justice right there. And also, epic cool. Good thing all the ships are still in the atmosphere... (nobody's wearing masks like Finn did for the Kijimi pickup)

I don't know how there is lightning in a fucking underground pyramid, but 10/10 for aesthetic, I love it.

"Grandma, it's me, Anastasia"--oh, wait, never mind.

The reveal that Rey is in a giant arena is hella creepy, even though it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Where do all these people come from? What do they do? Where do they live? What do they EAT?? Are they born Sith? Brainwashed Sith?? Cultists? Clones??? I NEED ANSWERS HERE.

Palpatine dangling in his creepy metal arm-thing is a lot like GLADoS from Portal.

So... Palpatine can possess the person who kills him in anger??? Explains a LOT about how he treated Luke, actually. And why it was so important that Anakin finish him - one, because Anakin's body was failing, and two, because he did it for love.

Love the aesthetic of the flickering lights for added creepiness and nothing is quite real. Even if it makes no sense. My id knows what it wants, okay??

Jannah and Finn teaming up for the battle is great, BB-8 actually gets to do something for once, and I love Jannah's crossbow.

Oh, now Palps is going to monologue about Rey's parents, while telling us no interesting details whatsoever. Sigh.

HOW THE FUCK DID KYLO GET TO EXEGOL AGAIN????????????????? she left him stranded in the middle of a frikkin' OCEAN... and he just knows how to get back to Exegol without the macguffin,.... how....?

(yes, I know he's supposed to be "Ben Solo" again, but so far there has been zero explanation in the film itself, so I'm just gonna keep calling him Kylo.)

Okay, there's a TIE fighter next to the X-wing, but... where did he GET IT?????????

That "ow" is priceless. I watched that sequence twice.

(clearly Kylo has not been exploring ruins much recently.)

Finn explaining to Rose that he's going to sacrifice himself for the cause, exactly like she wouldn't let him do in the last film... and Rose goes with it. Okay, then.

Now Kylo has to fight his own boy band... who were secretly following the Emperor's orders the entire time (?) THE ENTIRE FIRST ORDER WAS LITERALLY A FRONT TO KEEP KYLO REN DISTRACTED AND KYLO TOTALLY BOUGHT IT. I... have questions, but I actually admire the sheer audacity of this.

Kylo fighting said knights would be way more emotionally engaging if we a) knew anything about them, b) had seen any interactions between Kylo and the knights earlier, and c) gave a shit, but none of those happened, so we don't.

Kylo and Rey have some sort of Force bond communication thing that is super vaguely filmed so it's hard to understand wtf is actually happening. Rey tosss her saber back and... Ben pulls it out behind his back.

what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

I won't say that wasn't forshadowed, because it kinda-sorta was. I will just say that this movie has NEVER EXPLAINED HOW THEY CAN DO THAT or talked about it at ALL, just treats it like a fact, and I... have questions about how reality can be bent that way even if you are a Force dyad or whatnot.

So Kylo's fight with the knights parallels Rey's fight with a bunch of Imperial guards and it's so hard to care. Th timer says there's still a half an hour left, how is that possible???

So... it's okay to stab people as long as you do it with the properly colored lightsaber, I guess???

Kylo shows up, he and Rey exchange Meangingful Looks, they raise their sabers, Palps zaps them and slurps up "the lifeforce of your bond" and uses it to grow younger, whatever the hell that means ughhhhhhhh please let this be over soon.

Did he know they were a dyad before? Is THIS his real plan? I'm so confused and I have no idea wtf is going on.

RIP Snap. I guess I should care more about you, but I don't think you're mentioned in any of the other movies, so... *shrugs*

Poe has a meltdown but.... Lando shows up AGAIN to give him a pep talk, and also a fleet. Like seriously, Lando gets results, if he'd been running the Resistance, the war would be OVER by now.

Is the "Nice flying, Lando!" Older!Wedge?? I think so. I hope so, anyway.

Zorii shows up too, to fight and also insult Poe over the comm... I guess she's upset about Kijimi being destroyed? (Or maybe not given how she was so eager to get off it???)

Palps tosses Kylo into a pit, which... given that Palps survived, maybe not the best plan if you wanted to actually kill him.

Then he shoots force lightning through the hole in the arena into the sky and... zaps all the new fighters.

Well.

Okay then.

Rey wakes up and... reaches out to the spirits of past Jedi for help. (Apparently, Palpatine doesn't care about her killing him now, because he's young and healthy again, so it's okay to kill her? I guess he can always try again with another grandkid, lol.)

Also, it's funny how Rey is a Palpatine and blood is sooooo important and scary and destiny until someone's trying to diss her and then she's just "a scavenger girl". And by funny, I mean terrible. Sigh.

"I am all the Sith." I don't think the Sith, by the nature of their existence, can embody their predecessors the way that the Jedi can. I mean, to be a Sith is to be alone, and there is that whole Rule of Two business if that's still canon now. I mean, unless the Sith literally eat their masters and thus become them? But it seems a little late for THAT detail.

But it's okay because Rey's embodying all the Jedi this time (and has TWO sabers, lol) and she turns Palpatine's Force lightning back on himself and he turns into a crisp. You'd think the Sith Lords would have worked out a defense against that, since that's how Mace Windu scarred him in the first place, but okay then.

The entire arena crumbles. All the faceless cultists are crushed by falling rock. Pryde goeth before the fall. Lando rescues Finn and Jannah before Poe can. All the star destroyers are stranded because the command ship is gone and start blowing up.

Anyway, Rey collapses in the ruins. Finn senses her fall. but Kylo climbs out of the pit and cradles her in his arms. (ewww ewww ewwwwwww NOOOOOOO) and cradles her to his chest [gross gross grossssssss she's dead and can't consent and I can't decide if that makes it grosser or not, she's never let him do this while she was ALIVE fuckkkkkk]. He finally lets go and then places his hand on her stomach, and ughhhhhh I have so many issues with this I don't care if he's reformed, he's been stalking for three films, this is NOT OKAY and does the Force healing trick, and...

literally he could have just put a hand on her forehead or shoulder, which I would still hate, but would be less creepy than this.

Rey wakes up, puts her hands on his, sits up, startled and... doesn't say anything, doesn't even flinch, and smiles. "Ben."

and she kisses him. I knew this was coming. I still hate it.

he smiles, falls over, and dies. Like, literally, it's like Rey's kiss murdered him. I'm a terrible person, I know, but I really can't mourn him.

Kylo's body vanishes (Leia's stayed intact, damn it!) proving I guess that he was good after all?? I thought only special people learned the vanishing trick??? Leia's body vanishes right at the same time, and... I don't get it, I really don't.

Maz apparently skipped the final battle to watch over Leia's corpse and I.... definitely don't get it.

was Leia possessing her son this whole time? What. Just. Happened??????

Rey flies away in Luke's X-wing under her own power, and... "Red Five is in the air again," says Finn. People are rising up all over the galaxy, though against what, I'm not clear, and the skies are suddenly clear, implying that the Emperor was warping the weather with his darkness.

We see Star Destroyers blowing up behind Cloud City and on the FOREST moon of Endor with the Ewoks and I just... never knew they were there??? Were they connected to the rest of the Fleet somehow (like the Katana fleet in Legends??) Where did this come from?? Wicket and his son are clearly satisfied, though why they think anything's going to change is beyond me. And was the First Order oppressing them? Why didn't we see any of their fleet when our protagonists were IN THAT SYSTEM AND SO WAS THE OSTENSIBLE SUPREME LEADER???

Another Star Destroyer crashes on Jakku, so literally NOTHING HAS CHANGED THERE, LOL.

Back at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone cries and hugs, Poe and Zorii have a moment that goes nowhere, Poe's arm is somehow in a sling (???) There's a very brief lesbian kiss, but it gets even less screen time than Rose Tico, so again, don't think that counts as representation, but nice try.

Maz gives Chewie Han's medal from Yavin and... where the hell did she get it??? Leia's corpse??? Creepy!!

Jannah comes up to Lando and asks him where he's from, and when Lando asks the same question, she say she doesn't know. "Let's find out." Wow, that's way more interesting than most of this movie!

Rey hugs Finn and Poe and I... just... it's the tearful hug of "wow, we've all been through a lot of trauma since we last saw each other and also I was a jerk and threw you across the sea with the Force to get you out of my way and I abandoned you without saying goodbye to isolate myself on an island in the middle of nowhere until my ghost mentor reminded me I could save the day".

ButWeDon'tHavetimetounpackThatNow.jpg

Rey takes the Falcon to the Lars' moisture farm on Tatooine with BB-8. No one is in sight. This is an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, not a shrine to the Legend of Luke Skywalker. Rey slides down the sides on a piece of metal and into the courtyard. She wraps up Luke and Leia's sabers and... we cut to her back up on the ridge near the droid garage, using the Force to bury them in the sand.

Then she pulls out her own saber and it's yellow-bladed and looks like a double quarterstaff (although I only saw the top blade ignite). What she should have had this entire movie.

There's a random woman with an eopie there, who... came over to investigate? there is literally NO ONE ELSE FOR MILES. HOW????

The woman asks who she is, and we have callbacks to that earlier conversation on Pasaana. Rey hesitates, sees Luke and Leia's ghost on the horizon, smiling their approval and says "Rey Skywalker". The movie ends with her standing watching the double sunset... alone except for BB-8.

Wow, she's literally come full circle from being alone in the desert with a droid to being alone in a different desert with the same droid. What the fuck.

Cue triumphant music and credits.

Oh, and I just realized we never found out what was so important for Finn to tell Rey about... so that went nowhere. I assume it's "he can use the Force" but apparently that wasn't important enough to ACTUALLY INCLUDE, sigh.

Did Rey fuck off to Tatooine to be a hermit? Is she going back to her friends? Is she going to train the next generation of Jedi? How will she keep the cycle from repeating? Is it broken? Is Palpatine really dead this time??? How does she feel about Kylo/Ben?? Is HIS ghost still around stalking her, too? Why did she take the Falcon? Doesn't it belong to Chewie now? Why didn't the rest of the gang come with her???? I'm so confused.

This was even worse than I had anticipated, and I came into this with super-low expectations. This wasn’t bad in a “bad B-movie kind of way,” this was bad in the “nothing makes sense, it’s all jumbled blur, I am numb and cannot begin to care” kind of spectacle. I cannot imagine watching this in a theater. No wonder the critics savaged this.

#star wars #lily liveblogs #WHY DISNEY WHY

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coeurvrai · 5 years

Text

Serefin, the idiot, panics that he’s lost his eyesight until he realises it’s night time, so of course he can’t see jack shit.

Apparently we have gone from the royal gardens to his BEDROOM, somehow! Talk about a hard fucking cut, like jfc

“This is scandalous, Żaneta,” he mumbled, resting his head back against the pillows.

“Definitely more scandalous than the prince being attacked in his own palace gardens,” she agreed.

Żaneta has her head screwed on, which is more than I can say about Serefin for the entirety of this book so far.

Apparently the assassin that Serefin “acrid sprayed” in the face survived and is in the palace’s dungeons, so that’s something; though bad news for Serefin, his father has heard about the whole thing. If the assassins aren’t ones sent by the king, you’d think he’d get better security by now.

Serefin muses that it’s probably not his father’s because they wouldn’t have failed to kill him if it was. I mean... probably not? Considering this whole thing has been that his dad has plans for his heir and those plans are murder plans. Also what’s happening with the Rawalyk? Also how much time is passing in between these chapters? How long has Serefin been back in the palace? Does time pass at the same rate in both POVs?

“My father is going to blame the Kalyazi,” he mused.

“Was it not them?” Żaneta asked, standing up.

“I . . . don’t know.” The Kalyazi did not train incompetent assassins; his eye was a tribute to that. This could have been the work of the Crimson Vulture. Perhaps his father was behind the attack and she had shifted the pieces so incompetent assassins were sent instead to give him a better chance. He hated living with a black cloud of doom hovering over his steps, certain that his future was bleak but not having any clear answers.

I mean, how do we know that? Lmao Those could’ve just been very competent assassins and these could’ve been very bad assassins, if they are Kalyazi.

Serefin makes Żaneta leave the room and Kacper comes in instead, and Kacper comments that Żaneta didn’t look too happy leaving. Kacper mentions that a Vulture is interrogating the remaining assassin.

What information did he have? An attack on his life, a plan to find a queen for Tranavia, and questions with no answers. Why was his father sending thousands upon thousands of prisoners to the Salt Mines? Why was his father working so closely with the Vultures? To what end? Why now?

What was happening?

Well apparently your dad wants you fucking dead and he’s trying to achieved godhood through blood magic and dead people, apparently, so y’know. Why the Vultures are going along with this when it’s been made explicitly clear that they only answer to the Black Vulture, their king, who knows? Maybe this is a play by the Vultures themselves to manipulate and control the king, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“Have you seen the current list of families participating in the Rawalyk?” Kacper asked.

“No, why?”

“It seems to be fluctuating,” he said. “Names of girls keep appearing then disappearing suddenly.”

“What do you mean?”

Kacper shook his head. “I’m not sure. I want to look into it, see if the girls are just getting nervous or if it’s something else.”

Serefin let out a breathless laugh. “We are so paranoid.”

I do hope that this fucking means something and isn’t a plot thread that’s going to be dropped later on in the book. I mean, that’s a futile hope considering @jefflion told me that the Rawalyk is pretty worthless. But oh boy, Serefin hasn’t looked at who he could hypothetically marry? Dude, why wouldn’t you?

Serefin decides that after nearly getting assassinated, it’s time to see his mum cause oh well, not the time to procrastinate.

He wasn’t sure she could help him, not with anything. But it was all he could do at this point. He was trapped in a cage of gold and iron with no door to escape from and had been given a dagger when he needed a saw to cut a hole in his prison.

Okay then, Serefin lmao Look, I’m all for that “a golden cage is still a cage” imagery, but like, chill. Being more edgy with it does not, in fact, make that allegory any more impactful.

Serefin nodded absently, before frowning and squinting up at Kacper. “Are you all right?”

Kacper blinked in surprise. “Me? Of course, why? They weren’t trying to kill me.”

Serefin eyed the other boy, taking in his dark hair and skin, the scar that cut across one of his eyebrows, and his sharp, brown eyes. He hadn’t grown up fighting off assassination attempts like Serefin and Ostyia. By all rights, Kacper should have been just another soldier in the king’s army; he was of low birth. His exceptional talent with blood magic and his sharp skills for espionage meant he had been shuffled around in the army until he was assigned to Serefin’s company. Their friendship had been struck a month into Serefin’s first tour of the front when he was sixteen. Kacper had gotten into a spitting fight with Ostyia. She broke his arm, he fractured three of her ribs, and it had taken Serefin knocking them both unconscious to get them apart.

Serefin still didn’t know what the fight was about. Neither would tell him. It had taken another week for Serefin to promote Kacper to his personal service after Kacper had nearly lost his other arm on Serefin’s behalf.

I get it, Kacper is brown, Kacper has dark skin, you don’t need to be Like That about it lmao Also that’s such a heavy-handed way to exposition your way through how the three of them met and became friends. Also Kacper is good at espionage and I’m trying to figure out whether he’s a more functional version of Azriel from ACOTAR or not...

But I mean, Azriel is a lowwwww fucking bar to clear, so I mean even if he is better than him, that doesn’t mean much tbh lol

But a “spitting fight”, fucking what? lmao Also if he’s so good at espionage, what is he doing as a common soldier in the army in the first place? Also I might just be being petty, but I still feel like rewarding a person for personal heroism and saving your life by assigning them as one of your personal bodyguards after your apparent childhood best friend got into an intense fight with them a week before is a bit of an overreaction but that might just be me.

Also, would like to know the circumstances of how and what Kacper saved Serefin’s life from but alas, we don’t get that important detail. A shame.

Anyways, Serefin and Kacper talk a bit more before Serefin leaves with Ostyia to see his mother. She seems like an utter delight.

“I have been in this blasted city for weeks now and my only son has just finally deigned to grace me with his presence.” The graceful lilt of his mother’s voice came floating down the hall. Lena shot Serefin a sympathetic look. Serefin had always found his mother to be a bit baffling. Both of his parents were larger than life, greater than reality. He had seen so little of them growing up.

His childhood had been spent with tutors and servants. His parents were figureheads who would move in and out of his life with little permanence. They sometimes appeared in the evening at mealtimes only to disappear once again at the start of a new day. Serefin had Ostyia—whose family had always lived in the palace—as well as a cousin on his mother’s side, but that was all. The cousin had left when they were still very young, off to the country for his health. His aunt and uncle were still seen around the palace, Serefin knew that much, but he had never seen his cousin again, and had eventually stopped inquiring.

Isn’t he your only child period? lol Also I’m sure this cousin was so important, as ED doesn’t bother to even give him a name. It’s also apparently the next fucking day, which is just a common theme in this book where we just jump from location to location or day to day, and expected to just follow along. I still don’t know how long he’s been at this palace, and how time passing in one POV relates to time passing in the other POV.

Serefin and Klarysa talk a little bit about the assassination attempt while Klarysa reinforces her apparent contempt for the city of Grazyk, and she’s not happy that he visited Pelageya before he visited her. I don’t know how egregious that is considering we don’t know how long it’s been since he visited her on his first day back in the palace.

Oh and Serefin describes the room as lavish, befitting of the Queen of Tranavia but we don’t get any description of its lavishness.

“Do you think I can turn the court to my side?” he asked.

She blinked, straightening in her chair. “Serefin?”

“Oh, I’m sure he knows anyway,” Serefin said, waving a hand. “I just need to know how many steps ahead of me he is.”

“Your father—” she put emphasis on the word ‘father’ as if it meant something to Serefin. Maybe once it had. Years ago when he thought he might win his father’s love. Not anymore.

“I found a cleric in Kalyazin. No one else seems to find that important. Doesn’t it strike you as a bit strange? They sent the Vultures after her, but she escaped.”

Serefin, our incompetent alcoholic prince, we’ve been over this a million times already; let’s not get into your blatant hypocrisy again. Also it’s kind of funny how this chapter just isn’t up to snuff compared to like, the last Serefin chapter. Like of course it’s better than any and all Nadya’s chapters so far, but like, oh boy.

His mum tells him that he should listen to Pelageya and her prophecies. I don’t get why, if his mum cares so much, that she isn’t doing that much to protect her only son. Like if his mum doesn’t really care about him, that’d be another thing, but we have no real reason to believe that she doesn’t so far.

“Listen to her, Serefin. I know you don’t want to. I know you think her mad. But listen to her. She could be the only thing that saves you.”

“Saves me? Yes, I’m clearly trying not to die here, but I don’t think the witch is going to help.”

“Not from your father, from the Vultures. From the gods. From everything.”

“Mother?”

“Pelageya knows what she speaks of.” His mother was speaking quickly, her voice low. She knew whatever they said would return to the king. She cast a suspicious glance toward where the wall met the ceiling, the likeliest of locations for eavesdropping spells. “I can’t help you, Serefin, you know that.”

Firstly, eavesdropping spells?! Can’t Serefin cast a spell to detect other spells or charms??? Also you’re telling me that Serefin, ultra talented general blood mage prodigy that he is, can’t cancel out any potential eavesdropping spells so he can have this conversation in peace??? WHY DON’T THEY JUST HAVE THIS CONVERSATION IN PELAGEYA’S TOWER SINCE NOBODY HAS FUCKED WITH THAT PLACE APPARENTLY.

It’s not like Pelageya cares! Pelageya apparently likes the Queen and the Queen likes Pelageya! She’s a companion of the queen!

Serefin felt cold. “What has he done?”

Klarysa shook her head. There was fear in her eyes.

She can’t tell me, he realized. If she tells me, he’ll kill her, too. What did she know that he had yet to figure out?

“Give me something,” he pleaded.

“Your father has always been a monster,” she said. “But at least he had his own mind, his decisions were his own.” She shook her head. “I fear he too has been taken by the Vultures.”

I swear to fucking god, if his dad is a fucking Valg, I will scream. I am not going through that shit again. FE: Fates already did it too and I am just, leave it be.

It was altogether likely there was discord amongst the Vultures as well. That the Crimson Vulture was working apart from her own king, the Black Vulture. But who was holding the strings?

Serefin still had no answers.

And so don’t we, about a lot of things. But that is the end of that chapter! We learn really nothing new on the whole “king is evil and corrupt” front, that he’s being manipulated and controlled by the Vultures is kind of a given. Not as interesting as this plot initially was. But still, I will take mediocrity over whatever the fuck is going on in Nadya’s chapter.

Which is up next!

#sarah reads ws

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beforedawnmuses · 5 years

Note

We NEED to see some Garcy Titanic moments tbh

I’m not entirely happy with this, but wanted to get it posted. It’s also a little longer than I expected, but hope you enjoy!

It was a trap.

Looking back, Lucy thinks that it was so glaringly obviously a trap, because what could they really change about the Titanic. The boat sinks, some people escape, and some don’t - as much as she would like to change the outcome, it just didn’t seem possible.

Yet Rittenhouse had gone to Southampton, 10th April 1912 and even Wyatt had known it would be to do with the Titanic, the ship of dreams that turned out to be anything but.

They had split up, her with Flynn and Wyatt with Rufus, in an attempt to find Emma and find out what the hell was going on here. Herself and Flynn had found Emma, but Lucy can’t say she remembers much of the encounter, only a crunch as the pipe had hit the back of her head and everything had faded to black.

She wakes sometime later and tries to sit up, but her head feels like someone’s running around like a jackhammer when she attempts the slightest bit of movement and she slumps herself back down on the pillows. Something warm rests heavily across her stomach, a quick glance to her side reveals Flynn sleeping next to her, arm curled around her waist as he sleeps on his stomach. She almost gets distracted as she studies his sleeping face, though she had now slept in his room a handful of times she had yet to see him sleep because he was always last to fall sleep and first up. She now takes a small opportunity to look at him, his face was softer, the lines less harsh as his burdens fall away. She notes that when he sleeps his mouth is ever so slightly upturned at the corners, almost as if he’s smiling.

Lucy shakes herself from her musings, knowing that working out where the hell she is should really be the most important thing right now. It's a large room, well decorated with the crystal lights and the expensive bedsheets – yet this still did not give away her location and she didn’t want to move quite yet with a splitting headache. She glances around the room once more, desperate to find some sort of clue and she sees it, so obvious that she wonders how she missed it the first time.

There, on one of the beautifully decorated walls, sat a porthole and its suddenly oh so clear where they are that Lucy wonders how it did not occur to her before.

They were aboard the Titanic.

Panic surges through her and brings her to life, headache quickly ignored as she sits up and begins to shake Flynn to life. He stirs with a groan and the arm around her waist tightens, any other time she would have took comfort, pleasure maybe, at his touch, but not now. Not when there’s a million things running through her head at once.

“Lucy,” his voice is hoarse and she doesn’t miss the way his brows crease in a frown when he blinks himself awake. Like she had done moments before, he goes to push himself upright before grimacing at the pain in his head, “where are we?”

She has to swallow before she can answer, panic curling around her throat like a noose because she had no idea how they’re going to get out of this one alive. “The Titanic,” she tries to keep her voice as even as possible as she says it, but it breaks anyways, and she feels herself quiver at the thought of it.

His only answer is silence, flipping himself over and staring at the celling. She wonders if they were thinking the same thing, that they had been in some binds before, but they really hadn’t been in anything this scale on something that there was no way to stop.

“I bet Rufus and Wyatt aren’t here,” he said evenly, eyes still fixated on the celling. “Emma has probably left 1912 by now, probably didn’t even have any business here. It’s rather genius, put us on the boat that’s doomed and have the other two chase their tails trying to find us while she probably goes somewhere else while we can’t chase her. And if it takes two players out the game, all the more benefit to her.”

Lucy blinks as he so easily unfolds Emma’s plan and she briefly wonders if something similar ever crossed his mind when they were on opposite sides of the war. Yet she quickly shuts down that train of thought, Flynn’s goal had never been to kill them, only to get them out of his way and well, he wasn’t entirely wrong in doing so.

“Even if we did get them to change their course and get them away from the iceberg, there’s still other problems with the ship. It’s structure isn’t sound, any stormy seas could take the ship apart –“

“So, you’re saying that we might be doomed anyways.”

“Yes.” A sigh leaves his lips at her response and he swings himself out of the bed, striding over to the whiskey decanter and pouring two glasses. He hands her one, perching himself on her side of the bed, one hand coming to rest at the other side of her legs, “at least the room is nice.”

They try to change course anyway, but their efforts make no difference. They are outright laughed at by the Captain and crew and are brushed off by passengers. She can see Flynn’s frustration as the day wared on, his jaw is clenched, and his face has taken on a hard, unreadable expression. Once it would have scared her, not being able to know what he is thinking, but now she knows that he is the calm in the storm, a rock she can cling to as they face the current.

The whole day is spent trying and failing to convince people of the ship’s doomed fate and they eventually find themselves in one of the ballrooms, their third glass of whiskey in hand. Lucy wouldn’t normally allow her guard down so much on a mission, but they were yet to find a solution to their problem and she highly doubted there was a way they could stop this. With a pang, she wishes Rufus were with them because he would be able to explain the problems with the ship better than she could and they’d maybe stand a chance, but instead she was confusing the crew more than helping them understand the problem.

She glances up to find Flynn staring at her, an intense look in his eyes as she wonders if he has perhaps snuck more drinks throughout the day – not that she could blame him for that – but its just so unlike him to be so unguarded. Ballroom music swells through the room in an almost melancholy tune and he stands up so suddenly that he jostles the table when he does so.

“Dance with me,” she blinks for a moment at his words, so surprised that they have left his lips at all. She doesn’t know if it’s the whiskey or the way he’s looking at her like she’s the most beautiful piece of art he’s ever seen, but Lucy nods her head yes and before she knows it she’s being hauled to her feet and dragged across the room to the dance floor.

The fact that he’s a good dancer shouldn’t surprise her, but it does. There’s a grace to him as he sweeps her up in his arms and twirls them around in time to the music. She had never been much of a dancer herself, but the ease in which Flynn leads her around the dancefloor makes it easy for her steps to fall in time with his.

“So,” he begins, leaning down so that his breath tickles her ear as he speaks. All of a sudden, she’s aware of his hand on her back, burning a hole through her skin and she wishes she were bolder, to close the gap that’s been between them for so long and make good use of that room given to them by Rittenhouse until the demise of the ship. At least she’d go out with a bang. “You want to go to the deck and have our own rendition of My Heart Will Go on.”

The laugh she gives is perhaps louder than the joke merits, but this could very well be their last days alive and so if Garcia Flynn wants to think he is funny, she’ll let him. “Only if in this scenario I’m Jack and you are Rose, I think I’d like to do a bit of saving for once.”

He lets out his own soft chuckle in response and his grip on her waist momentarily tightens. “Lucy,” he says her name in that hoarse way that he does, as if he’s not sure if it’s a curse or a prayer he’s releasing from his lips. “They’ll take the woman and children first, I want you to go with them. Find Rufus and Wyatt and take back the lifeboat.”

It’s now Lucy’s turn for her grip to tighten, she couldn’t believe he would even suggest such a thing. To leave him here, to drown and she was to simply just return and act as if this was a perfectly fine answer to their problem.

“No,” she croaks, her hand curling into the lapel of his suit.

“Lucy I –“

“No.” She repeats, voice resolute as she takes a step to close the gap between them. “The team needs you – I need you. The only way I’m getting off this ship is if we go together. I don’t want to hear any more ideas until you have one that gets us both off. Okay?”

He nods mutely in response and she lets out a breath of relief – at least he wasn’t going to try any heroics and leave her to return on her own. She wouldn’t allow it. She leans her head on his chest and she feels him rest his chin on her head, for now, it would have to be enough.

They pass their days in much of the same way, each days effort to change the fate of the ship as futile as the last. It had been three days already, meaning that they only had one left before they hit an iceberg, it was safe to say that things did not look promising.

At night, they cling to each other despite the large expanse of the bed. Lucy traces patterns of his chest as she wills herself to sleep, fear gripping her like a second skin making it impossible to find some peace to rest. Yet rest she does, with his strong hands stroking her back and murmured Croatian words in her ear and for a moment she forgets, and its enough for sleep to take her over.

When they hit the iceberg, Lucy is holding Flynn’s hand. She had expected it, had been waiting its impending doom for days, but she’s still shocked when the boat rocks with its impact, when the small shudders of it travel up her legs. Through it all, Flynn never lets go of her hand, fingers interlocking with hers as he drags her through the madness, through the hordes of panicking people and the crew who are trying to do something to solve this situation. His hand is her anchor, her safety in the chaos, her calm in the storm.

When she sees it, she curses her stupidity and wonders how details of it slipped her mind. She had been so focused on the impending doom of her ship Lucy had totally forgotten about the things that they can do to lessen the damage. It hits her as she sees the lifeboats neatly lined up and her heart races as she realises that she can do something, she can change the fate of these people.

“Flynn,” she has to shout over the chaos, even though he can’t be more than a foot in front of her. “The first lifeboat, it’ll only take 28 people, but it can fit more – 64, I think. And there’s enough life jackets to go around, I don’t know how much good lifejackets will do for them, but at least they’ll have more of a chance. They won’t just drown.”

The information sparks something in his eyes, an ember that was not there before and Lucy’s sure that he would find the same thing reflect in hers.

Hope.

He springs into action the same way that a fire roars to life, slowly, and then all at once. They were smart enough to come up to the deck as quickly as they could, but there’s still a small crowd between them and the crew members trying to control the situation. Flynn makes it look easy as he uses his large frame to barge through the crowd, her following hot on his heels until they reach the crew at the front.

She has no idea what Flynn says to the crew members, too focused on the mothers holding their children and pleading for help, focused on the fear in these people’s faces and the way the lower classes linger helplessly at the back while the people how had money shamelessly banter for safe passage off the ship at the expense of others. She does however catch his death stare and the young crew members nervous nod and lets out a breath of relief.

Flynn helps load the lifeboats, making sure that each one holds as many as it can before setting off, while Lucy hands out lifejackets. She starts with the lower classes, knowing that these people had the least chance of getting into a lifeboat, but at least she was offering them a chance.

She’s tightening a woman’s lifejacket when she feels his warm hand on her shoulder, she glances up to meet his face, serious and grim. “It’s the last one.”

Guilt rushes through Lucy as she looks back to all the people who’d be left, who’d be left in the freezing water, waiting for help. Sure, they all had life jackets now – but that didn’t ensure their survival. The crushing guilt is enough to make her want to stay, to allow one of them to go in her place, but Flynn’s hand is sure and steady as he takes her own and he drags her away with determination in his step.

He wasn’t letting her die tonight.

She is loaded onto the lifeboat by the same sure hands that brought her to it, but a moment passes as she catches his eye and she sees it, the thing she was sure she would find – he didn’t plan to get on it with her. Panic surges in her chest, she couldn’t lose him, without knowing it, Flynn had become everything that was safe and warm, and she needed him the same way her lungs needed oxygen.

Her hands are fast, gripping his hand once more as soon as he lets her go. He had already turned away, his intense gaze turning around to meet hers with only a hint of shock and he opens his mouth, to protest perhaps, but her grip is steel and her eyes are hard – there is no room for argument here. “You’re coming with me.”

Flynn still looks like he wants to argue, but he sighs and climbs into the boat beside her, their hands still intertwined as he curls up his legs beside hers.

The ocean is cold, but Flynn wraps himself around her as much as he can and her cold fingers bury into his shirt as he presses kisses to her hair and promises her that everything will be alright. They were safe now.

The hotel they find is dingy, but it’ll do for the night. The boat had reached the shore, crowds of people waiting with questions, waiting for the survivors of the ship that was supposed to be indestructible, waiting for people that may never come home.

They had easily been able to lose themselves in the chaos, to slip away from the crowds and into a hotel before they got too crowded. Neither had even thought of getting separate rooms, just wanting to be alone without the heavy burden of knowledge for once, to not feel the weight of everything resting on their shoulders. They still had to find Wyatt and Rufus, but that could wait until the morning because they needed a minute to breathe, for the weight to lift from their chests.

She sits on the end of the bed, wrapping a blanket around herself as she feels the phantom chill of the ocean lingering on her skin. Her thoughts swim with the faces of those left behind, of the people who only had a slight better chance because they had lifejackets – but that might not change fate for some of them and while they had gotten more people onto the lifeboats, it still didn’t feel like enough.

“We did all that we could,” his voice startles her, she did not feel him sit down next to her, didn’t feel the mattress sink with his weight or the brushing of his thigh against her own.

Lucy glances at him from the side of her eye, anger swelling in her chest as she studies his profile, his strong set jaw, his eyes that seemed to change colour in different lights, ranging from green to grey, of his broad shoulders and hands that held her so safely.

“You were going to leave me,” and she can feel the tears burning behind her eyes as she says it because the thought of not having him next to her right now physically aches and she’s so angry that he would even consider staying behind, leaving her to go on without him. “Why?”

What Garcia Flynn lacks in words, he makes up for with actions. His mouth opens and closes a few times, trying to find an adequate answer, before letting out a strangled noise when words fail him. Instead, he presses his lips to hers, his warm hands cradling her face and bringing it towards his so that they meet in the middle.

Its soft and gentle, exactly what she needs from him right now, because she feels like she’s so close to breaking that the slightest thing could make her shatter to pieces. But his kiss it is healing, as if his touch is smoothing over the cracks in her soul, making her whole once more.

His answer is received, known to her as his mouth meets hers, he loves her.

He looks shocked as he pulls back from the kiss, frozen in place as his hands rest limply on her shoulders. She feels the warmth escape her as his hands slowly slide from her body and realises that he fears that he has done something wrong. Before he can leave her entirely, she leans forward and captures his face, her hands finding their way into the silky strands of his hair. It’s her response, her way of telling him what she’s too afraid to leave her lips.

She loves him back.

This kiss is different from the last, it’s open mouthed and raw; a reminder that they are here, and they are alive. His hands reach for her waist tugging her over until she’s straddling his waist and she’s not entirely sure where she ends and where he begins.

The blanket falls from her shoulders, and so does her pain.

#Anonymous #garcy #timeless #my fic

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iawv · 5 years

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She Called Him Fen’Harel - Chapter 9

This chapter was resting in my documents folder for last two years. The creation of it was long, hard, even painfull. After a long struggle and block I decided it is impossible for me to change it again. I am not able to write it differently. I don't want to tbh.

Maybe it is stupid of me to post it after two years break. Possibly it is but I will do it. I am doing it. I like this story. It sits in my head. I want to finish it. I just don't know how long will it take.

So, guys, I hope you will read it and I really hope you will give me some feedback. My block is not gone but today I wrote the end to this chapter so maybe there is still hope for me. Sorry for my english - I am still learning. Enjoy this short chapter and pls let me know if u want more.

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On wolves and demons

The wolf snapped. He fought the manacles of a leghold trap. The metal bit into him but the animal seemed not to care. He would rip the flesh from his bones to reclaim what had gone beyond his reach. “Mana, mana!” her father's hands were in seconds on animal's head, his neck, holding him, soothing him. “Atisha. Listen to me. Calm down.” There was a command in her father's voice, which caught a wolf's attention, but it was the fear that brought the animal back to himself. Concern for his own life. Blood was running down his leg. The arrow stuck deep between his ribs. The creature made himself stop, baring his teeth but he kept his eyes on the elder elf.

"He will not survive this, my daughter" her father stated quietly. She came closer, her eyes widened, breathing heavy as she leaned next to them both. "He will not. Can we help him, papae?" she asked kneeling next to the tall blond-haired elf. His gaze met hers, and he raised his hand to brush her red hair from her forehead "We can, da'len." He handed her the knife then and nodded "You have just reached a thirteen year of your life, Celia. I believe you can take another step into your maturity." he spoke to her gently and calmly stroking wolf's head at the same time. "Lenalin?" young Celia's eyes filled with tears and her gaze drifted from her father's face to big, grey wolf. She saw it coming. She experienced it many times before. Shems killing wolves for their furs and claws, selling them later as souvenirs. Cheap toys to gain dirty money. She sobbed and took a deep breath deciding to trust father's decision - if he was certain of her capability, she should be too. She wiped away her tears with her wrist while her hand tightened on the blade. "You know what to do, Celia" her father sent her one of his most firm looks and squeezed her arm, "Remember, ashalan, every being deserves comfort and gentle death. Do what you must." She nodded, closed her eyes and started to pray softly. "Fen'Harel, grant that my blade does not wobble. Give me strength and confidence because here I am to release one of your kinsmen." A small hand on neck stroked the warm, thick fur with sympathy and compassion. The quick blade cut the artery in strong, firm move. The wolf's last heartbeat under her small fingers, all that was him was gone. His last breath on her cheek as she hugged him ignoring the blood soaking into her hair. "I am proud of you, Celia." * * * * In the quiet darkness of moonless night, Falherna shook her head from memory. She stood by the lake next to their camp. It was her shift. The stars glittered overhead in a splash. The wind pulsed around her steadily. Carefully, her fingertips traced the scar at the center of her forearm, a token given to her by Fen few weeks before the Conclave. The sight of it made her throat tighter. She sighed quietly at the reminder of what she had, what she could lose in a few hours if Fen would happen to be among the wolves they intended to find. Dire thoughts fell heavy on her heart. Another tough decision. Another wolf in her life that she could lose. Another crack in her soul. She ran the hand across her face as if she was trying to wipe something away; sorrow, perhaps, or exhaustion. She inhaled deeply and went back to the fire. She sat down on the bedroll next to the flames, pulling her knees up under her chin. The situation required the strength of will, and she was a woman who did not lack it, neither did she lack logic. A simple syllogism guided her that she had the power over the thoughts that she admitted into her mind and that emotions were a derivative of the thoughts, that she could feel nothing that she did not previously think about. Feelings were a physical reaction to the thought which led her to the conclusion that by controlling her own thoughts, she was able to exercise power over her feelings. She was able to manipulate her emotions, to change them, by working on the thoughts that preceded them. She believed that only the those who alone could control their feelings were truly free. "You can only control what you are aware of; what you are unaware of controls you." her father's words spoke in her mind. Falherna gasped and closed her eyes as she started to open her mind to all the thoughts and emotions which accompanied them. She felt fear about her wolf - alone, corrupted; anger at herself and Fen because they did not found each other yet; furious because of the Breach and the mysterious person who doomed this world; sorrow because of the possibility she would not be able to save her wolf. Hands wrapped around her legs clenched into fists as she slowly acknowledged of what waited ahead. Seconds changed into minutes, minutes into hours as Falherna processed all scenarios. Without any other solution at hand, I will kill you ma Fen, she thought finally clearing her mind, accepting the situation and its consequences. A sense of dreaminess overcame her, her muscles relaxed, and she was on the point of giving way to a desire to sleep when the quiet sound reached her ears. A sound behind her as of somebody moving cautiously. Falherna cocked her head, tracing the line of trees and rocks. The silence that fell was disturbed only by the small hum of water. It came again. The sound of broken branches. The hair on the back of her neck prickled when the similar sound came from the other side of the lake. After the first growl, she rose slowly locking her gaze on the last source of the sound. "Wake up!" she raised her voice slightly withdrawing to the fire, bending carefully; one move after another. "Seeker! Varric!" she called when three pairs of green eyes glimmered in the dark. Her fingers squeezed the arm of Solas who was sleeping nearby. She shook him "Get up!". "What's wrong with you, Brighteyes?!" Varric mumbled leaving his tent and rubbing his eyes. "Varric, grab Bianca. Slowly. We are surrounded!" Falherna hissed in response. Another two pairs of eyes appeared, a deep growl cut the dark night. Adrenaline rushed through her blood. Without second thoughts she reached for a log setting it on fire, creating a torch and brandishing it to lightened up the small space in front of her. Falherna allowed herself for one brief look under her shoulders noticing Varric with Bianca in his grip and Seeker peering from her tent, with a sword in her hands, always ready to fight. "Five wolves around us," she informed them calmly, "We need to wake up Solas" her eyes focused on the animal few steps ahead as she poked Solas' arm with her barefoot. "Chuckles!" Varric roared under his breath at the apostate. Letting out a quiet groan Solas sat up on an elbow and rubbed his eyes, blinking away sleep and squinting against the dim firelight. "Solas, get up. Slowly." Falherna asked him quickly remembering to keep her voice low and firm. He looked around still slightly confused, but it took him only a few seconds to recognize the situation and the danger. In the dead of night, many shining eyes were seen peering on them. "Wolves" he murmured bringing himself to his feet. A dark wolf could be seen halted, gazing at them. A shuddering howl broke from him as if he were a captain summoning his pack to the assault. The wolf snarled and sprang towards them with a great leap. At that moment there was a sharp twang. Varric had loosed Bianca. There was a hideous yell, and the leaping shape thudded to the ground; the arrow had pierced its throat. The green watching eyes were suddenly extinguished. Their enemies were routed and did not return. * * * * "It was Alpha," Falherna stated as indifferently as if she was stating that the Breach's color was green. "No normal wolf would fight with such determination," Cassandra noticed cleaning her sword. They slowly came back to the fire camp. "The Breach may have driven them mad... or perhaps a demon took command of the pack," Solas suggested looking at Falherna who still stand at the wolf's corpses. "A demon?" Fal crouched to take a closer look at wolf's eyes. A green light was gone as was this poor animal. "Or a Breach drove..." he repeated understanding he made another mistake and said too much. She interrupted him "I understand your assumption about the Breach. I want to understand better what brought the idea about a demon" she sounded harsh while they hand was gently stroking the fur of the dead wolf. "Well, demons pouring from the Breach have the ability to poses different creatures such as..." he started to explain with academic tone. She interrupted him once again "Wolves... yes..." "You did not hear it?" she stood up slowly and brushed off the dirt from her cloak. Then she looked at him and even in the dimmed light, he noticed she is irritated. Cassandra and Varric raised their gaze at her. "When we killed it" her voice was now calm and quiet "I heard a scream, not only howls of the pack." "I admit, I heard it too" Solas answered. There was no point to lie. "So why not say it?" she asked. Irritation appeared in her voice again. Solas looked at her searching for proper words. The question was simple but the answer was not. "Alright, so you are sure the pack is controlled by a demon?" Varric stretched his legs and crossed his arms behind his head looking at her with concern. "Crazy as it seems I think so, yes" she smiled at him but her gaze stayed sad and absent. "Crazy? For me, it is completely normal considering what we have seen so far" a deep laugh escaped his throat. "Inquisitor?" Falherna looked at Solas. He cleared his throat "We need to confront them," "That was my thought exactly." she murmured looking at the log Cassandra throw into the fire. They stayed silent for a while. Each caught in their own thoughts. A distant howl accompanied them through the rest of the sleepless night.

Notes:

Mana: an imperative verb, like "Stop" or "Wait". Atisha: peace, peaceful. Da'len: "a little child," or "little one." Lenalin: father Ashalan: daughter

#she called him Fen'harel #fanfic #dragon age inquisition #iawv's writes

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s-cornelius · 6 years

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Everything that I loved about The Last Jedi

Y’all. Y’all. Star Wars was good. I spent most of the movie alternately cheering and crying and yelling (on the inside as to not disturb the other moviegoers), because holy shit.

As soon as I saw it, I wanted to see it again. There’s a lot going on in this movie, and I love (with few exceptions) all of it.

Everything that I loved (and all the spoilers) below!

Rey having to face the darkness on the island and (therefore metaphorically) face the darkness within herself.

Rey and Kylo’s force talks, which were beautifully shot/scored/sound designed to give you such a feeling of connection, and they only showed them physically together on screen once. The final time they talk and she closes the door on him, thus cutting off their connection and signifying that he’s too far gone, was perfect.

Kylo’s arc and the way that Kylo lets his pain and insecurities rule him. Rey faces the darkness in herself and looks for answers, but the darkness doesn’t overtake her, despite her lingering anger, resentment and need for vengeance. Kylo’s abandoment issues lead him to want to be appreciated and accepted and he feels like he gets that from no one. So he has to prove his worth constantly: prove it to Rey (killing Snoke--which is a bonus for him because he also gets out from under the thumb of a man who belittles him), prove it to the First Order (grappling for control with Hux), prove it to Luke (killing/defeating his former master). But he fails every time because his motivations come from hatred and resentment, etc. and there is no balance in him. Rey hasn’t completely dealt with her own abandonment issues, but she is looking at them (metaphorically in that weird mirror thing), and that’s a start.

Also, re: balance, notice how Luke wears white (for most of the movie), Kylo wears black and Rey wears grey. That’s not an accident.

Yoda’s Rafiki speech to Luke and Luke coming to grips with his own shortcomings/failures, which tie into the whole Skywalker legend story. Legends can’t have failures, but men can. Balance means successes and failures, and acceptance of both. (Also: Puppet Yoda! Frank Oz! I cried so hard during this scene)

The parallel between Luke’s desire to burn the Jedi books/tree and Kylo’s desire to burn down the First Order and Resistance. I wonder if by the end of this trilogy we’re not going to see a New New Republic but something completely different from before.

Poe’s arc was gr9, and I will hear no arguments. Poe, for all his coolness in TFA, doesn’t have much of his character sketched out. We know he’s “one hell of a pilot!” and he’s generally a pretty affable guy, but beyond that he’s sort of a blank slate. But TLJ picks up on the hints that he’s a little reckless and foolhardy (which are there in TFA) and builds a clear, well-defined arc for him, while also fleshing out his relationships with other rebels, but especially Finn and Leia. He wants to lead, a desire we get to see with only a well-timed shot to Poe’s face when they’re naming Leia’s temporary successor, but it’s clear that he’s a much better pilot than he is a leader. He gets three chances to make leader-type decisions, and in grand storytelling fashion, he doesn’t get it right until the third try. Also, arguably, his second bad decision, his mutiny, is way worse for the Resistance because it (indirectly) puts Benicio Del Toro’s DJ in place to betray the escape plan, which causes the destruction of those last transport ships. I wonder if Poe is going to think about this again in the next movie (tho it’s clear it was on his mind when he made the decision about the cannon).

But Leia, and Holdo too as she’s saying goodbye, never stop believing in Poe’s heart or Poe’s potential. Poe’s commitment to the Resistance is unwavering, and with his final decision to have the skimmers pull away from the cannon, he’s stepping up to be a leader in whatever comes next. It was beautiful and I loved every moment of it.

(Poe being a shit on the comms with Hux)

And Finn, whose first instinct is always to run, has to learn to fight for the right reasons. I love Finn and Rose Tico so much in this movie. Finn has been alone his whole life, and every connection that he makes makes him a better person. There’s still so much about the galaxy he doesn’t understand, and I love that he is shown the world through other characters’ experiences. It makes him very grounded, while still letting him marvel in the cool stuff in the movie.

I don’t know if a force sensitive Finn arc was dropped, or if they’re going to come back to it, or if it was never intended in the first place. But Finn is struggling with finding balance just like Rey is. Finn (like Rey, like Kylo Ren) has some abandonment(ish) issues, and he is angry, he wants revenge, and he doesn’t really know what to do with those emotions. If this movie allowed Rey to face her deepest fears, it showed us that Finn is still running from his. He still has to learn that action and motivation are important, something that Rey and Kylo Ren are also struggling with in their part of the movie.

And Canto Bight is a great visual metaphor for this--it’s a beautiful city built on a foundation of slavery, war profiteering, animal abuse, and I’m sure other crimes. Finn thinks it’s beautiful because he’s never seen anything like it before (action), but Rose hates it because she knows how it got built (motivation).

Speaking of Canto Bight, having the force sensitive kid in the last scene was awesome.

I also think it’s easy to point to Canto Bight and say “this is flab and should have been cut, and also Finn and Rose’s mission fails so what was the point?” But I think if you take out Canto Bight, you take out a big chunk of Finn’s arc, all of the character information about Rose (other than she had a sister and she’s a mechanic), and all of that good stuff about Canto Bight’s place in the galaxy (and how it’s a metaphor). And the kids, but I’ll come back to them. Canto Bight, even if the mission is doomed, is a crucial moment in the story, and it ends up doing a lot on what superficially looks like a simple heist (adjacent) plot.

Luke’s “you may strike me down” callback gave me chills even though I saw it coming.

Leia being a BOSS in the force was unexpected in some respects (we’ve never seen her actively use the force so much) and totally expected because Leia is hella strong in the force.

Speaking of Leia, when R2-D2 played the “you’re my only hope” clip, that was another time that I wept.

The story wasn’t about Luke or Leia--it was firmly, decidedly about the new generation (Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren)--but Luke and Leia got a lot more screen time than I was anticipating going in. Most of the choices Luke and Leia made that really affected the plot are in the past (and tied up in Kylo’s/Ben’s story), but their relationships with the new-to-this-trilogy characters are so rich. Poe and Leia have a history, and you don’t have to read the comics to know it. It’s in the way he touches her hand when she’s in the med(?)-bay(??), the way she slaps him, the way she’s the only one who can stop his mutiny, the way she finally tells him to lead the way at the end.

And Luke and Rey are both a Yoda-Luke redux (with Luke now as the hermit master), and not. Luke’s history, both the history that we the audience are intimately familiar with and the history that we learn slowly over the course of the film, make Luke less of a goofy, inscrutable mad teacher than Yoda. This makes it all the more appropriate that we see Yoda again, I think, there to impart one more lesson to Luke. Luke is not the wise old mad man in the swamp; he’s full of conflict and messy contradictions and doubt about his choices and guilt. Basically, he’s the farthest from any Jedi master we’ve ever seen before. But he still has things to learn, both from his old master, and from his student Rey, who makes the same choice he made in Return of the Jedi.

And Luke and Leia’s reunion scene was perfect. Everything about it was perfect. They played the love theme when he gave her the trinket from the Millenium Falcon and I cried.

Also, I do hope the Rey’s parentage mystery is really put to bed and this isn’t a red herring because this is sooooooo good. Great power and great destiny doesn’t have to concentrated in one or two families--it’s everywhere in everyone, and Rey’s proof of that. TBH I came out of TFA thinking that Rey was a secret Skywalker, but this is so much better.

Rey is a nobody, and that’s not a bad thing. Finn and Rose and Poe are all nobodies too, and so is that kid in Canto Bight. But they still have potential to do big, galaxy changing things.

And also showing us the kids telling the story of Luke standing up to Kylo Ren is so important. Luke, the legend, lives on to inspire another generation of nobodies exploited and oppressed by the powerful. This moment of kids sharing a stories tells us if those nobodies (Luke, Rey, Finn, Rose, etc.) could get out from under the thumb of the Empire and the First Order, why can’t these kids, and maybe they will. Because the power to affect change isn’t concentrated in the hands of just a few powerful families or of the senate or of the next fascist regime--the power to affect change is in all of us, if we only make the choice to do so.

These kids are the hope of the galaxy, the spark of the revolution, and just like Rey, they come from nothing. Great power and great hope can come from anywhere and it is in all of us. It’s a fantastic way to end the film.

If you want to read more about the ways this movie rules, I recommend the following two pieces:

The Force Belongs To Us: THE LAST JEDI’s Beautiful Refocusing of Star Wars by Film Hulk

THE LAST JEDI: A MIRROR, SLOWLY CRACKING by Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig lays out some complaints/criticisms in his article in the comments, and those are probably my four criticisms as well. But they are relatively minor imo, and the very very good definitely outweighed the minorly bad.

#star wars #tlj #tlj spoilers #all my thoughts #for now #i keep thinking about this movie #i think there is still a lot to unpack #i need to see it again :)

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thecrookedgavel · 4 years

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The Black Box Readings - Ep 2 Transcript

Here’s the transcript for episode 2 of The Black Box Readings, the podcast where I read to you the backup of queer blogs that have gone down.

See Other Episodes

An: Hey, all! And welcome back to The Black Box Readings, the podcast where I read to you the backup of queer blogs that have gone down! I’m your host, An Capuano. I want to start off by thanking you for coming back for episode 2. It means a great deal to me. Last time we were introduced to Emmy and started getting into her story. But also, we got into some personal anecdotes from me… Some very personal anecdotes, actually. So a little peek behind the curtain, I’m recording this before the release of episode 1, but I showed an unmastered version to some of my friends and they all thought my little stories really added something to the episode. Which is good, because I felt really empowered by it, even if I didn’t really plan on sharing so much about me.

If you haven’t heard episode 1 yet, I would really recommend taking the time to do so before continuing, but here’s a brief summary of what was covered:

Let’s see, we met our hero Emmy, and we learned that she’s a visual artist, and learned a bit about her being bi-polar and deaf. We also saw some hints of her being a trans lesbian. We come back into the swing of things with a frequently asked questions post as a response to the messages she received after her last post, titled:

“(Unfortunately) FAQ

Thank you for your attempts at cheering me up. I appreciate it, even though some things that were said were not helpful at all. Rather than replying to each of you individually, I decided to make a FAQ. Let’s get into them, shall we?

-You’re deaf? Why don’t you wear hearing aids?

Sorry, it’s not that simple. With the amount of deaf I am, I still can’t understand speech, even with hearing aids. So they’re basically pointless.

-Why don’t you get cochlear implants? Isn’t that the cure for being deaf?

There’s no easy fix for being deaf. Even with cochlear implants, you “hear” in a totally different way, and it’s taxing and torture from what I hear. Plus, my dad says we can’t afford them. I don’t know if I would want to have them if we could tbh. It all seems pretty scary if you ask me.

-Do you have a deaf accent when you talk? I know what you mean, but please don’t call it that. I’m not from the country of “Deaf”, so I wouldn’t call it an accent. But yeah, I talk funny, if that’s what you’re asking

-Are you able to lip read?

Yeah, I can. I’m ok at it, but I can really only follow one on one conversations. Any more than that, and I get lost easily. I understand the most when someone articulates and talks slowly for me.

-Wow, you’re really brave! I would kill myself if I couldn’t listen to music.

Gee, thanks. I’m glad you think my life isn’t worth living. There’s nothing brave about it, I just do what I can, and try not to beat myself up too badly.

-Why not take medication for being bi-polar?

Honestly, it’s complicated. Being on tumblr is what made me realize that I’m bi-polar, not a doctor or anything. So there’s no one I can get meds from. Legally, at least, lol. My dad refuses to accept what I’m going through is a mental illness, he just thinks that I have behavioral problems. That I’m just doing all this to spite him or something. So I’m sort of stuck without meds for the time being. “

She can be very sassy, can’t she? There’s a bit of cleverness to her responses. No swearing or name calling, those things are just implied. It’s nice that she calls out the ableist rhetoric that disabled people are better off dead. It was heartwarming to see, when I originally read this post, that she does believe she has value as a person, even if it is sort of buried at the moment under the doom and gloom of her previous post.

She also talks about how her Dad can’t pay, or maybe even won’t pay for cochlear implants, and refuses to get her psychiatric medication. I’m not the biggest fan of her Dad, to be honest, and why will become clearer as we progress through Emmy’s blog. In fact, our next post is about an interaction between the two of them.

“Got mad at my Dad today

God, I’m so PISSED OFF, you don’t even know. My Dad is being his usual tyrannical self again. He never lets me do anything! Ok, so I just wanted to go to the corner store and pick up a few things we were missing around the house, nothing major, right? I wanted to be helpful, you know? But as I walk out the door, he grabs my shoulder and pulls me back into the house. He YELLS at me, even though he KNOWS I can’t understand him when he does that. After a while of telling him to stop yelling, he finally starts talking slowly for me. He told me that it’s not safe for me to leave the house on my own. That I might get hurt, kidnapped, or worse. I told him that I’d be fine, and that he needs to stop being so controlling all the time. Then he started quoting the Bible at me, I hate it when he does that. Something about the 10 commandments and how I’m supposed to honor him, idk. I know I’m supposed to believe it all, being I’m the son of a pastor, and all that. But I’m seriously an atheist, ok? I just don’t believe in God, fate, or any of it. Anyway, I hate to admit it, but he’s probably right. Not being able to hear a car coming does scare me a lot. Thanks for reading, rant over. “

This is one of many rants that made their way onto Emmy’s blog. I think she was able to use it to feel better about the negative things in her life. You can see at the end that she’s much calmer than she was at the beginning of the post, even going so far as to actually agree with her Dad. Though I get not wanting your child to get hurt, I don’t think he should have pulled her back into the house physically like that. And yelling on top of that? It all rubs me the wrong way. Though they’re not the reasons I truly dislike him. Unfortunately, those will come by in full force later on.

Oh, I realize I haven’t given an anecdote yet, sorry about that. Let’s see… umm… I guess I can really relate with the struggle of wanting to be independent. I’ve been really sick for more than 10 years now, and we had a lot of trouble getting a diagnosis. It’s looking like it’s all due to a concussion I had in my teens. I’m getting treated now, and things are looking up, actually! There’s a lot of hope with me.

But before that, I actually had the opposite dynamic as Emmy. My parents would really push me to be independent, but I had sort of accepted where I was with my level of dependency. I couldn’t do things like exercise, laundry, or even make my own food, even on my best days, without feeling absolutely terrible afterwards. Certain movements would basically knock me out for the rest of the day. This lead to terrible sleep cycles, and my parents would get really upset with me for not appearing “normal.” I think it looked to them like I wasn’t making an effort, when in truth, I wasn’t normal and I was doing exactly what I could every day. It sort of came to a boiling point with them not understanding, and I sort of had to move out and get my own place to stop it from getting truly awful, honestly. It was hard, for a lot of reasons, including money reasons, but that’s a story for another time, I think.

But back to Emmy herself, I guess we really haven’t talked about her religious views yet. She went into a bit of detail in an earlier post, but in the end, I decided to omit it from the podcast. Mostly because the core of it is present here. She doesn’t believe in God or predeterminism, and she has a real disdain for The Bible. It’s probably from oversaturation, to be honest? Like, grow up with a super religious parent, and you’re bound to want to rebel as a teen. Though I find it kind of funny that she says she doesn’t believe in fate, it’s not strictly a religious concept, and bit of a spoiler, but she ends up changing her mind on that front later on.

Next up is a post where Emmy talks about her aspirations and future goals. She wants to be a full time artist, and take the steps necessary to get there. She wants something more out of life, which is pretty natural for a teen. It’s why the “princess wanting more” story is told time and time again. Anyways, the post is titled:

“I Want To Do Art

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future recently, and I’ve been feeling pretty bored just sitting around doing whatever lately. I want to work for a living, but I know I can’t really do that without leaving the house. I want to be an artist. Like an animator or an illustrator. Something like that. It’s something I’m perfectly capable of doing, even if I can’t hear. I know my art needs work before I can make a job out of it, but I think that’s what I want out of life.

I passed high school last year, even if I was homeschooled, it still counts! I don’t know what kind of art school would take me, and I understand that I’m disabled, but my Dad won’t even let me look for an art school. He just won’t fucking listen to me! He thinks I’m just going to sit at home and do nothing for the rest of my life, like some sort of fucking pet! I’m so sick of him! He’s so goddamn controlling and I fucking hate him for it! I don’t know what to live for if I can’t be an artist, tbh…”

Honestly, this is an upsetting post to me, for a number of reasons. It sort of gives me a flashback to high school, which never sounds good, but bear with me. I was told by someone I really looked up to, my acting teacher, that I’d never make it as an actor because of my hearing loss. He encouraged me that I could still work in theater, like being a stage manager, but the damage was kind of done. I always thought that he believed in me, he would give me opportunities like assistant director on several projects. I got a good amount of experience working with him. Maybe he believed I was better suited to being a director, which is something I have been doing, directing my own projects, like The Crooked Gavel. But I also have been voice acting, which is acting, right? Actually, talking through this has made me realize that he would be proud of me. I think he would be happy to have been proven wrong. I actually feel a lot better now. Interesting.

Anyways, where were we? *light chuckle* Right, so I think Emmy has the right to resent her Dad in this case. It sounds like he’s not trying to meet her halfway, not even trying to look into an art school for the disabled. To me, it seems like he just doesn’t want to let go of the idea of Emmy as his child. She’s growing up, and he’s kind of refusing to see it. There’s also the aspect that he might be embarrassed of her, which… *sigh* more on that later.

---

Moving on, here’s another post accompanied by a piece of art. It’s… well it’s part of the reason why her previous post upsets me. Because I remember this post along side of it. If I had a copy of the picture, I’d probably have to warn you first. It was really dark. So, onto the post, titled:

“Here’s how I feel

I feel so trapped and small”

*Sigh* And I’ll try my best to give you a description from memory. I stared at it for a long time, I recall. I remember a figure wrapped in chains. The art style had a very dream-like quality to it, the colours all dark and texture sort of… messy? *Sigh* Anyway, the person in chains had tears streaming from her eyes, and no mouth. The chains lead upwards into puppet strings to those marionette-style crosses. It was good art, but knowing who was behind it, it really scared me. Especially since she hinted in her previous post that she might not see anything to live for. She felt so trapped and like she didn’t have a voice. So I thought it over, and I decided to message her words of encouragement. This was our first interaction.

I told her that I loved looking at her art, and that it brought me a lot of joy when she came up on my dashboard. That I was half deaf, and although I couldn’t get the full picture, I got some of her struggle. I encouraged her that her art was already good enough for commissions without art school.

I’m sure she got a lot of messages like mine, because she never responded directly. Instead, she posted this message on her blog the next day.

“Got a lot of messages

A ton of people messaged me to give me words of encouragement after my post yesterday. I’m sorry I worried everyone, I just needed an outlet to express myself, you know? But people also messaged me to tell me that I’m good enough already to do commissions without art school. I don’t think you’re right, but I’ll think about setting something up. My Dad probably won’t let me make a paypal, but maybe you can pay me in Steam games or something, idk?”

A little later, she reblogged the post and said: “Everyone sending me messages and words of encouragement, thank you! It really means a lot”

I was really happy that I reached out to her, and due to what she posted, It felt more or less like she was thanking me directly. By this point, I was invested in her struggle, and I made sure I’d always message her again if she needed me to.

Alright, we’ve made it to the last post of the episode. It’s kind of exciting, because it’s the mark of a really good thing happening in Emmy’s life. It’s well deserved, and I remember being very happy for her whenever a post of this type came up. I don’t want to spoil it, but I guess the title kind of does that for me, *chuckle* It’s titled:

“I Think I Met Someone

I was playing a lot of Overwatch today, what else is new? LOL. It was the first comp game of the day, and we got Anubis. So I instalocked Mercy like I always do. Anyway, me and the Dva player, her name was EmeraldSkies, were wrecking face together. It was pretty great, actually! Obviously I wasn’t in voice chat, as that would be a whole lot of useless. People usually get mad at me for it, and try and force me to join, but she was chill about it. After the game ended (in a win for us, of course) I got a friend request from her, so I accepted. We ended up chatting for a bit, and then we ended up duoing for a while. I really liked playing with her, and she didn’t pressure me at all to join chat, even if my excuse for why I couldn’t was half assed.

I had to go eat lunch after a while, I gave her my discord and she actually accepted! After I got back online, we talked for a bit, and it was really fun! Idk, she’s just so upbeat and seems so deep. Plus she’s totally not at all judgemental. I really really like her already, is that weird?”

See, I told you it would be exciting! I’m personally a big fan of instant connections. *Sigh* I’ve had a few really intense ones in my life, and they’re always something else. I choose to think of this interaction between her and EmeraldSkies as one of those instant connections, rather than Emmy jumping the gun about developing feelings. There’s just so many people in Overwatch at any given time that running into any given person is pretty rare. She doesn’t talk about it yet, but this may be the point where she starts to question whether or not she believes in fate. Though, I’m sure that’ll be something we talk about later on.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Black Box Readings! Again, I have no idea what sort of reception the first episode received, since I’m recording this before it releases. I tried to match the energy of the first episode today, and I hope my personal rants mix well with the readings. Follow me on Twitter at TheCrookedGavel to stay up to date on this and other queer podcasts. Feel free to contact me there as well. This is An Capuano, signing off!

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quranreadalong · 5 years

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THE BAD QURAN, PT 36: SURAH 37

17.5% (32/182) of surah 37 was bad, which is a perfectly respectable number. Not the Quran’s worst surah, but it’s up there, and it was certainly among the most tedious. But it took us less than a week to get through, and we even learned some spicy Arab history. More importantly, this was the last triple-digit-ayat-long surah in the entire Quran. That’s a huge mental burden lifted, tbh. We also got a lot of fantastic kuffar hell counter content this time.

Like many suwar, this one revolved around the theme of disbelievers being punished both in the world and in the afterlife. Mohammed fantasizes about the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement in 37:20. They denied that it would really happen, he reminds us in 37:21, which makes them wrongdoers. And so they and their wives or companions (37:22) will be tossed into the “pits of hell” (37:23). I guess Muslim women should be thankful that Allah doesn’t allow them to marry non-Muslim men, or else they’d be fucked right along with their husbands!

While on the way to hell, the poor disbelievers will be interrogated, fully aware that they are about to taste The Doom (37:31). They will confess to having gone astray, according to 37:32, and 37:33 tells us that both the lowly and the leaders of the disbelieving civilizations will share the same doom because both are guilty (37:34) of disbelieving in Islam (37:35). They refused to leave their own religion to follow Mohammed, who they call a “mad poet” in 37:36--yet he was telling The Truth (37:37) and so his doubters must now be punished (37:38).

There’s a brief little story in 37:55 in which a Muslim in heaven wonders what happened to his old disbelieving acquaintance. He looks in hell and sees him there. The Muslim man says he was almost led into the same fate (disbelief/hell) in 37:56, but Allah chose to keep him Muslim and therefore save him. A happy tale!

Speaking of jahannam, we’ve got some worldbuilding going on starting in 37:62. We are introduced to the Zaqqum tree, which 37:63 states is a “torment for wrongdoers” and is located in hell (37:64). Its fruits are like the “heads of devils”, according to 37:65, and the denizens of hell will be forced to eat them (37:66), followed by a drink of boiling water (37:67). Then they’ll go get burned in the fire some more, says 37:68. Those are the consequences for those who were “warned” to follow Islam, but refused (37:73).

A large portion of the surah recaps the stories of past prophets. 37:82 reminds us of when Allah drowned disbelieving people in Noah’s time; 37:127 brings up Elijah and informs us that those who denied him were doomed. In Sodom, Allah killed everyone in the city (37:136) outside of Lot’s household, minus his wife, who was also killed (37:135).

The story of Abraham contains a couple of highly questionable incidents. The first and more minor one is the one where Abraham straight-up destroys sacred polytheistic property then acts like a martyr about it in 37:93. Tolerance for me, not for thee, version 2638358. The worse incident is the sacrifice of Son Who Shall Not Be Named. In 37:102, Abraham tells his kid that he’s gotta die (the kid agrees). Allah calls off the whole thing at the last second, and declares that this traumatizing incident of near-child sacrifice was just “a test” in 37:106. Sigh.

Mohammed brings it back to the people of Mecca at the end. The only people who refuse to worship Allah alone, we are told, are those meant for hell in the first place (37:163). Those who disbelieve will “come to know” of what awaits them, 37:170 says--a “hapless morn” (37:177).

Well then.

SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: HALL OF SHAME!

The following ayat condemn disbelievers to hell and pinged our kuffar hell counter. They will be copied and pasted word-for-word. Enjoy… the doom!

And say: Ah, woe for us! This is the Day of Judgment. This is the Day of Separation, which ye used to deny. (And it is said unto the angels): Assemble those who did wrong, together with their wives and what they used to worship Instead of Allah, and lead them to the path to hell

Lo! thus deal We with the guilty. For when it was said unto them, There is no God save Allah, they were scornful And said: Shall we forsake our gods for a mad poet? Nay, but he brought the Truth, and he confirmed those sent (before him). Lo! (now) verily ye taste the painful doom

A speaker of them saith: Lo! I had a comrade Who used to say: Art thou in truth of those who put faith (in his words)? Can we, when we are dead and have become mere dust and bones - can we (then) verily be brought to book? He saith: Will ye look? Then looketh he and seeth him in the depth of hell.

Is this better as a welcome, or the tree of Zaqqum? Lo! We have appointed it a torment for wrong-doers. Lo! it is a tree that springeth in the heart of hell. Its crop is as it were the heads of devils And lo! they verily must eat thereof, and fill (their) bellies therewith. And afterward, lo! thereupon they have a drink of boiling water And afterward, lo! their return is surely unto hell. They indeed found their fathers astray, But they make haste (to follow) in their footsteps.

Will ye cry unto Baal and forsake the Best of creators, Allah, your Lord and Lord of your forefathers? But they denied him, so they surely will be haled forth (to the doom) Save single-minded slaves of Allah.

Lo! verily, ye and that which ye worship, Ye cannot excite (anyone) against Him. Save him who is to burn in hell.

Frothy.

The next surah is your standard mid-Meccan bullshit filled with whining, Doom Unto Disbelievers, and stories of prophets. Thankfully it is under 90 ayat long. We’ve got, idk, maybe three new things to talk about there. David! Solomon! Job! I know y’all are excited!!!

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#quranreadalong #as saffat #surah 37 #badquran

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