#they’re the baseline but they barely ever exist | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

philosophicalparadox · 3 years

Text

Dark Headcannons for the Demon Bois, part 2.a : Physiological Adaptations and Defense Mechanisms (physical)

I continue this ideology with more horror HC's (kind of) detailing some of the physiology and physical defenses of our boys - HOWEVER there is quite a bit of science invested in this particular post, so there's a little explaining to do first.

Note: I have removed Iblis from the list for the next few rounds because we really dont know anything about her, and I've also removed Egyn because I have zero idea what kind of adaptations he has since no one's ever seen his body. Azazel is floating in kind of the same boat. We seen his clones, but not him, and we have only really seen two of his kin - from that alone its hard to tell. We haven't even seen Beelzebub except in Gehenna, and for all we know they are stuck there. Im basing all this off hypothetical and mythological sources as well as my knowledge of animal and human anatomy.

Onward!

But first! (Yep, scientific Exposition Time Baby! I promise it won't be long) Something that strikes me odd is that all demons seem to be stronger physically than their non possessed counterparts, and so for the sake of not repeating myself where unessessary, we will assume this is due to increased muscular density, as a default which is the same thing that allows much smaller primates to be much stronger than ourselves.

However, be aware that there are MANY factors that influence physical strength alone - efficiency of respiration, bodily waste management (aka, kidney and liver function) and efficiency of metabolic processes (digestive system, pancreas, and again liver). I'll touch on all these things in their own right, but just to let you know, everything is interconnected.

Onward!

Samael

Is, in everyday scenarios, about 7x stronger than the average human. In times of high adrenaline that can shoot up to 10, due to possessing a unique respiratory system, detailed below.

Samael has a physique designed to be an ambush predator, with a body that puts nothing to waste, but he is also built for bursts of speed and agility, both skills vital for his hunting strategy type, detailed in part one, to be effective. Standing out in a crowd may lull prey into a false sense of security, but it also draws a lot of attention from competitors, as well as parasitic predators like Chuchi and Coltars.

Samael is a demon often depicted with avian wings, and for his body to put out the strength it does and be able to at least glide requires an avian-modeled respiratory system. In other words he breathes with lungs, but has additional air sacs in his chest and abdomen to draw as much oxygen from the air as possible. For a demon optimized for bursts of speed and high agility, being able to metabolize large amounts of oxygen very quickly is vital.

More vital still though is having the kidneys and liver to be able to handle it. I suspect he would have a lobed liver akin to a rabbit, and kidneys much like a cat. Technically speaking, if he eats right, he never actually has to drink any water. His kidneys are that efficient.

Now onto the fun one: bones. High density muscles put out huge forces on the bones they are attached to. There are two ways to fix that: make the bone harder and denser, or make the bone softer and flexible with cartilage. Samael does the former. The most efficient way to have denser bones without adding weight is to make them hollow, at the sacrifice of not having much bone marrow. This works out perfectly though, since to metabolize high rates of oxygen you need specialized red blood cells with lots and lots of hemoglobin, and hollow bones allow for the production of just enough of these cells.

Now that the basics are out of the way, Samael has some other unique adaptations, including a ratcheted tendon system in his forearms, like those found in raptors. This gives him a virtually unbreakable, iron-strong grip from which escape is virtually impossible. Combine that with talon-like claws and long fingers that can really dig in, and you're screwed from the word "go".

Making that escape even more impossible is his highly flexible joints, which make twisting out of his grasp before he has a chance to bite damn near unheard of. Remember, it only takes one bite to kill. If he catches you, you're dead already.

As far as defensive abilities go, Samael hasn't got any besides evasion. So much of his body is devoted to being a specialist that there isnt any room for special physical defenses - in fact his hollow bones, while very good at handling internal stresses, are no less brittle than a birds when it comes to some external forces. A sledgehammer to the side of his thigh (impact) would absolutely shatter his femur bone, though he can land on his feet from a great height (compression) and barely bruise.

Lucifer

Is maybe 5x stronger than the average human, on a really good day. He has a bit of muscle, but he is a magic user, not a berserker. On his bad days he can dip below a 1.

Physically he isn't too different from a human mostly, other than having an ultra efficient heart and lungs that are 20% larger to compensate for his increased muscle density.

Except that he has very strange cells. To all appearance his body is mostly human, but one look under the microscope would tell you instantly that something is odd about this duck, because his cells have tiny crystals in them. These crystals are of unknown composition, but they are thought to assist with fluorescence, or the production of the stuff mentioned below.

Also odd about his cells is that they're filled with an almost cellulose like substance instead of normal cytoplasm. Its a bit denser and is THE most heat resistant organic substance on earth. It also makes his cells completely immune to all forms of radiation - this boy could literally survive a nuclear explosion as long as he was in a shelter where he couldn't be impacted by debris or the shockwave. Heat and radiation from it would be like a sunburn at worst.

However, he is not fireproof. While this substance is resistant to heat, it is not resistant to oxidation, so it WILL burn. Not well, and not fast, but it will burn.

Which leads me to the fact that he has some very unique organelles. Multiple types of mitochondria, Golgi bodies and ribosomes help manufacture the weirdness.

Part of that weirdness is of unknown deadliness though. When fully charged up, the light he emits contains dangerous wavelengths, and further study has yet to be done on whether and what types of radiation he may emit. It is known that his dense cytoplasmic substance can hold onto nuclear radiation, but does so very briefly.

As far as defenses go, he does actually have a pretty interesting, but accidental one, for the dense cytoplasmic substance of his cells naturally permeates into his blood plasma. This substance is extremely bitter and even potentially toxic at high enough doses. A mouthful of Lucifer's blood is enough to induce severe nausea, vomiting, cramping of the intestines (colic), and if swallowed, diarrhoea.

The strange substance of his cells also mediates the use of Elixir that is specific to himself. Elixir used for other purposes are rejects of the ones formulated just for him, and are effective at treating a wide variety of things.

On a related but unrelated note, though, the elixir has nasty side effects on humans and demons alike, often triggering the onset of various cancers and cysts, though it's not clear why this happens to some and not others. It is not known why Lucifer is seemingly immune to these side effects, but he could, potentially, be immune to cancer altogether.

Amaimon

Amaimon is a fucking draft horse, with a baseline strength of 9x that of a human. That's somewhere slightly above a pissed off gorilla and/or an attacking tiger, for reference. In high adrenalized mode, that number shoots up to a 12, which is about as high as biology will let anything go, courtesy square cube law.

His muscles are SO dense and heavy, in fact, that he is incapable of floating in water. He also isn't very fast for long distances. He has high stamina at low energy output, and low stamina at high energy output. He can walk for days on end, but in a dead sprint he can't go more than a kilometer at best before his muscles start to rip him apart.

Which leads to : bones. Amaimon takes a very reptilian approach to the issue of having super powerful muscles, and has fibrin and cartilage reinforced bones that bow rather than break. However, these bones have many sharp angles for muscular attachments, and as a result are very poor at resisting torsion (twisting) and high rates of compression. The last thing he wants to do is land on his feet from a great height, for he is likely to fracture his long bones.

But those are not the only bones he has - much like monitor lizards, including komodo dragons, he has ossicones embedded in his skin, forming a chain-mail mesh of steely bone just below the dermis that makes his skin very resistant to slashes and cuts, but very weak to stabbing and thrusting. Cleaving into him wont do much damage, but impaling him on a pike works great.

His organs are strange, made stranger by his blood, which has a pH value of 7.8, far more alkaline than most viruses or bacteria can survive, making him virtually immune to disease. Unfortunately that also impacts the bacteria in his gut, which as a consequence can exist nowhere else on earth.

On the flip side, his stomach secretes acid that is so caustic it dissolves bone in hours, and also destroys even the worst of pathogens. As touched upon before, he can regurgitate this acid onto attackers in self defense, even going so far as to spit it at them from a distance of two meters. It has a patently unpleasant odor too, adding to its defensive quality.

Amaimons claws are semi retractable and grizzly-like, making them excellent tools for digging and prying things apart. They're also really good at ripping people apart, and there is no armor that can really do effective justice except for one: spiky. His skin isn't super resistant to impalement, remember, so the pricklier the better. That is assuming he cant chip away at it. Good luck with that.

Another organ to mention is his tail. It's not exactly prehensile, but it is flexible and very, very powerful. One whack across the midsection could kill a man. In fact his tail is often his first line of defense against attackers; it's so robust and armored that it's almost impossible to injure, and it hits like a truck. Good for offense or defense, or even just lazing around.

Astaroth

Fungi boy has an average strength of just twice that of a human. But when pushed to his limits, he can use hydraulic musculature to increase his strength to 9x that of the average human.

Speaking of which, Astaroth has some weird musculature- or lack thereof. Rather than having ordinary, dense tissue, he instead has a hydraulic system of movement akin to that of a worm or slug. Not only that, but his muscles are not his own - rather they are controlled by slime molds, with which he has a symbiotic relationship. The muscles are very little muscle tissue and a whole lot of mycellial fibers. His body is literally made of fungus, controlled by fungi and microorganisms, and is fed and defended by these things.

He is, in light of this, able to turn his body temperature on or off in any area he needs to at-will, giving his slimy friends the home they need.

He has a perfect mastery over the simple organisms he controls, and can exchange them at will. This combined with the ability to live without body heat means he is completely immune to all but the most severe of environments. As long as he has access to moisture, he can survive and thrive at sub zero temperatures and well into the triple digits. However he can not live without his slimy friends, and so can not endure drought very well. Deserts are the bane of his existence.

When it comes to defenses, Astaroth is nothing but. Toxic spores, all colours of miasma, foul smells, and even sharp needles and thorns when necessary. Nothing with a lick of sense would dare try to eat him, with the exception of microorganisms and parasites thereof - but it's not him they consume, but his symbiotes, which again he can simply discard or exchange as need be.

He is however very slow moving, typically, and doesn't really have a 'flee' or 'fight' response. Instead he freezes, exuding and oozing his more unfriendly companions to deter attack. If this should fail though, however unlikely, he is remarkably fragile and slow to heal, though virtually impossible to kill.

His only real weakness is well established: fire. It is the great sterilizer, though light is also not something he can easily defend against either. Neither are vacuums and immense air pressure. Basically if it's not within the realms of ordinary natural phenomena he has no ability to escape or defend. This gives him an edge against the younger of the Kings, but makes him powerless against the older half.

Whew! That was a lot. This post took FOREVER to make!

Questions and comments are welcome, reading with a grain of salt in mind is recommended.

#ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #demon kings #headcannons #this is just the a.#theres a b. coming

38 notes · View notes

snkpolls · 3 years

Text

SnK Episode 64 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 227 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

---

RATE THE EPISODE 218 Responses

As has been the trend, the episode received mostly positive reviews, with over 90% of respondents giving the episode a score of 4 or 5. Not too shabby for one of the most anticipated episodes of the season!

Absolutely loved it!

MAPPA's winning streak continues with a near perfect adaptation.

Epic as hell wonderful adaptation.

I was on the edge of my Seat the whole time, even tho I read the Manga. It was amazing.

Best cliffhanger yet

PHENOMENAL!! THE TENSION DIDN'T LET UP FOR A SECOND

I really liked the episode. People can criticize, but Mappa couldn't have done the episode in another way. They're doing an amazing job, the animation is beautiful, the musics are amazing

Fairly good 8/10

It was ok, would've preferred a better climax.

Almost perfect episode

I thought this episode was adapted incredibly well; I enjoyed it more than I did previous episodes. The opening theme still isn't working entirely for me, though.

Best episode of season 4 so far. Also, Rage Mode is back…

Most anticipated episode and Mappa 100% delivered. MAPPA GOAT

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 220 Responses

As expected, the cliffhanger of the episode was the most favored moment (with 40.5% of the vote) with Eren transforming during the declaration of war was finally brought to life. The subsequent favored moments all contained various partts of Eren and Reiner’s basement reunion.

Reiner ready to protect Falco over himself made me love him even more, this moment needs more spotlight

Eren and Reiner's voice actors really went out of their way this episode. Their performance was ✨phenomenal✨

Reiner is really well-done in this episode. They were really able to capture his inner torment, not to mention the voice acting is amazing.

WHICH INTERPRETATION (BY RBA) OF THE OLD MAN’S STORY DO YOU THINK IS CLOSEST TO WHAT THE MAN ACTUALLY THOUGHT? 217 Responses

At 56.7%, the majority believe Bertolt was correct in that the old man RBA spoke with wanted to be judged before his death. 23.5% agree with Reiner that there’s no way they’ll ever know, and only 19.8% agreed with Annie in that he wanted to be forgiven.

IN THE SAME VEIN, WHICH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INTERPRETATION FITS REINER’S STATE OF MIND IN THE BASEMENT SCENE? 217 Responses

In that same vein, the majority (52.1%) also believes that Reiner wanted to receive judgement, perhaps from Eren. Just a little under 31% believe that in addition to receiving judgement, Reiner also wants to receive forgiveness. Few believe Reiner solely wants forgiveness. Finally, a little under 9% simply aren’t sure what Reiner wants.

He knows what he's done and he knows it's unforgivable so I think he just wants a release from it all

He is depressed, has PTSD, and feels tremendously guilty.

He wants to die for his sins, I don't think it's either for for forgiveness or judgement, but his own internal quilt..

He wants to be free (of this world) da guilt too much

He wants to be judged and killed

He wants to die

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET A HUG FROM PIECK? 219 Responses

An incredibly serious question with a lopsided result. Just under 84% would like to receive a hug from Pieck, in contrast to a miniscule percentage who’d rather not. 12.3% don’t really care about stuff like this.

DO YOU THINK HELOS ACTUALLY EXISTED? 217 Responses

The plurality (little under 42%) believe Helos was a complete fabrication, down to his very existence. Some others (26.7%) think he existed, but wasn’t anybody special or (17.5%) think he existed and was actually involved with ending the Great Titan War. A bit under 14% just don’t care.

“I’M THE SAME AS YOU.” EREN SAID THIS TO REINER A FEW TIMES IN THE EPISODE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? DO YOU THINK EITHER OF THEM HARBOR A GRUDGE AGAINST THE OTHER? 108 Responses

One of the episode’s (and the adapted chapters’) focuses is the meeting between Eren and Reiner, in addition to their general relationship. Many people seemed to give their thoughts on the central motif of the meeting, and whether either of them bear a grudge against the other:

yes and no- they’re both broken by what they’ve done (and will continue to do) to each other, and those feelings are as mixed as can be.

No, they understand each other, and the horrible acts they do is the result of seeking the best for the ones they love, in an unbearably cruel world they were born into

Probably not, from Reiner i think it's just a lot of remorse for what he did, as for Eren, he's probably beyond all of that.

They were forced to do what they had to do and both were ignorant as kids.

No grudges. And I think Eren believes he and Reiner are the same, and therefore that Reiner can understand what he is about to do and why. Eren didn't need to have this conversation with Reiner, and yet, he risked Reiner possibly interfering in his plan to talk to the one person he believes understands what he is about to do. Eren no longer believes his friends will understand his actions, which is why he did not confide in them, but he clings to the idea that Reiner will. However, I personally do not believe they are the same. Reiner's actions, while horrible, were those of a brainwashed child. Eren is an adult, about to set in motion genocide on a much larger scale. There is just no comparing it.

There's definitely animosity between them/they genuinely dislike each other from this point on. Last battle of Shiganshina Made it clear imo.

No, if circumstances were different, they would be best friends.

They share a lot of similarities, but it all comes down to the path they take by the end of the story. While Eren decided to commit mass genocide, Reiner is regreting his past actions and trying to save the world. I don't think they absolutely despise each other, they understand their struggles but both are ready to stop one another even if it means killing them in the process

Not sure. Reiner took Eren's family so not completely same-same trauma

Yes and no, feelings aren't particularly concrete between any two people ever. There are parts of Eren that still hate Reiner, and parts of Reiner that still hate Eren, but the same can be said of their comradery. Their relationship is pretty complex

No. Reiner doesn't hold a grudge for Eren because he is guilty. Eren doesn't hold a grudge towards Reiner because he also sees himself as a mass murderer.

Yes, Eren still wants to inflict pain on Reiner. He just claims that Reiner didn't care about his/his family's suffering either.

No, there are no hard feelings between them. Eren has forgiven Reiner since he has understood the current state of the Eldians and how Marleyans are ( they are humans just like him). But still, Eren will keep 'moving forward' and suffer from his actions like Reiner did (him talking Bertolt and Annie into breaking the outer wall and carrying the burden).

They both know it's inevitable. There is no other option.

Not consciously, at least: both of them came to understand the larger systems and powers at play, and both of them were manipulated as children by them

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN AND REINER ARE EFFECTIVE FOILS TO EACH OTHER? 215 Responses

The vast majority (88.4%) seem to agree with the notion of Reiner being a foil to Eren, be it a complete or partial foil. Some others dissent and argue that there’s no comparison.

They mirror each other, they have different reasons but they did the same things and had I believe very similar baseline motivations

I had learned that a foil is defined as a character who brings light to another character's traits or motivations through the contrast between the two. So if Eren and Reiner were foils to each other, then they would have had opposite personalities, as how foils are used. But Eren said 'I'm the same as you' and they do indeed share a lot of similarities. The only significant difference is that Reiner is at the point of giving up whereas Eren still keeps moving forward. So, no, they are not foils I believe.

I think they're more like tragic, star crossed lovers (minus any romance)

aren’t they parallels of each other? can they be foils and parallels of each other simultaneously? or i guess just don’t be know what either term means

SO, WAS THE DECLARATION OF WAR EVERYTHING YOU HOPED FOR? 219 Responses

Overall reception of the execution of the Declaration of War was positive, with 47% stating they were “quite pleased” with it, and another 33.8% barely being able to contain their hype at all. There are some who felt a little overwhelmed by it for one reason or another, stating it could have been better but also wasn’t bad. Others think MAPPA did the animation well but didn’t pair it with the right kind of music. A small percentage were just disappointed in it, period.

It was pretty much a 1:1 from the manga, so it was great.

Absolutely incredible, while the last music choice wasn't the best (it isn't a huge deal tho, it still fits), the rest of the episode was marvelous (direction, lighting, voice acting, music for most of it, animation) and managed to make justice to the manga chapters

i really don't care about the declaration so i wasn't hyped for it either way

It was great though music was a bit too triumphant for me (though ruined is way too strong)

I feel like such high expectations were held upon this chapter, so we're really critic about it. I would've liked a more intense music build up and manga-like animation of crushing the stage.

I loved the music choice throughout the episode, but for the declaration itself it could have been a bit more horrorish. Still loving it. No hate for the studio, they are doing great!

I wasn’t too happy about it at first but it’s grown on me so quickly that I think it’s well on its way to being my favorite episode out of the entire series.

The build up was amazing. Sure we hoped for more actions, but Mappa couldn't have organized the episode in another way. It was really well executed and the final scene simply left me breathless

It was perfect, but I'd have preferred having either the coordinate/attack on titan/S4 trailer theme playing but music choice didn't ruin at all the experience

BACK WHEN WILLY ACCUSED EREN OF WANTING TO INITIATE THE RUMBLING, DID YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT WAS EREN’S GOAL WHEN YOU READ THIS CHAPTER FOR THE FIRST TIME? 212 Responses

Are we still allowed to say “hindsight is 20/20?” The majority of the fandom had more faith in Eren back when these chapters were first published, with 25.5% saying they had a suspicion that he might, but didn’t want to accept that possibility and believed in the better of him. 19.3% felt that Willy was genuinely full of crap just for the sake of demonizing Paradis, and 14.6% felt that though the Rumbling would happen, Eren wouldn’t be the one at fault. On the flipside, a smaller amount of voters fully saw this coming, with 14.6% believing this to have been Eren’s goal, but with the hope that he wouldn’t make it a reality, and 11.8% now having the pleasure of saying, “I told you so.”

At the time i just thought it was willy's assumption he used to get the other nations to side with his agenda

I cannot even remember what I thought... too long ago

I didn’t think the rumbling was gonna happen at all, actually.

When I read the chapter the rumbling had happened

I already knew the Rumbling would happen before I read the chapter, so I don't have an opinion on this other than Willy ended up being right, even if it's only because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I sadly had that plot point spoiled :(

At this point, I genuinely did not think the Rumbling would happen at all.

I thought that Willy and Eren were playing along for the sake of "common enemy - unites the world". With sacrifice on both ends.

WE’VE GOTTEN A SNEAK PEAK OF YELENA IN THIS EPISODE. NOT SO MUCH THE DESIGN, BUT MORE SO THE VOICE. IT’S QUITE LOW. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? 217 Responses

When it comes to Yelena’a introduction, it’s about as mysterious as it was in the manga. The difference however is the inclusion of a voice. The reception came out to be overwhelmingly positive, with people deeming it fitting, sexy and cool (in that order). Some others (24%) thought that it was as low as it was now only because she was imitating a soldier. Just a little over 10% simply didn’t care.

I assume it's low right now because she knows Pieck will recognize her, but also Yelena could sound like a literal elephant and I'd still want her crazy beautiful ass to step on me

I didn't hear it well.

Reminds me of the voice actors in Claymore. It was perfect.

ANNIE STILL HASN’T REUNITED WITH HER FATHER, DO YOU THINK SHE EVER WILL? 217 Responses

In spite of both Annie and her father coming back to the forefront in recent manga chapters, they still haven’t been reunited. A plurality believes that they will. Just under a third thinks that it’s a possibility. Finally, a little over 20% don’t think that the meeting will happen.

THE NOTABLY IMPORTANT SCENE BETWEEN WILLY AND MAGATH RIDING IN THE CARRIAGE AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 100 IS MISSING IN THIS EPISODE. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO IT? 214 Responses

When it comes to the rather important scene between Willy and Magath and its lack of inclusion in this episode, most people (57.9%) came out thinking that the next episode will open up on that exact scene before transitioning into Willy’s death. Some others believe that it’ll instead be shown either sometime in the next episode or just before the arc ends. On the flip side, 20.6% believe that the scene was simply cut and that’s that.

Either it's completely cut or will appear in a flashback again

Has to be shown at the start of episode 6 otherwise that's a colossal fuck up on Mappa's part and will affect how I view this episode

Much of it was implied through the fear on Willy’s face the whole episode.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - THE MUSIC. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHOICE AT THE END OF THE EPISODE? 218 Responses

The music choice for the climax of the episode wound up being very controversial, as many had different expectations than what MAPPA’s final product delivered to us. Though, it seems that overall the majority weren’t bothered at all by the music direction. 28% felt that it worked well with the scene, 22.9% very much enjoyed the music direction. 17% didn’t even notice the music much, being more immersed in the animation and overall development. Some felt let down, but realized in hindsight that maybe they expected too much for certain tracks (new and old) to be utilized. The rest either don’t care about the music or were massively let down by the execution overall.

It felt like Tyburs orchestra was playing them throughout the episode. It felt immersive.

Dude it was bloody brilliant, what's everyone on about?

Not a let down, but I found it kinda funny that they chose that one. It seemed too... intense, upbeat, I'd say. Though if I was an anime-only I probably wouldn't care, because I wouldn't know what Eren was really gonna do.

I imagined *that track* behind this scene since reading ch 100 years ago so it was weird to hear different music, but as I rewatched the ep a couple of times I changed my opinion: the music they used fits just as well.

What I cared about most was proper execution of the scene, not the music. They could have used no music at all for all I care. I seriously can't believe some "fans" were so bitter about them not using YouSeeBigGirl for the declaration of war that they personally attacked the director and made him feel bad. Have we already forgotten that if it wasn't for MAPPA, we wouldn't be getting a season 4 at all?! The ungratefulness and toxic criticism is something else, man.

I was waiting for intense music, I didn't care which, but I was let down by the lack of intensivity build-up for me.

My month is ruined

It could've been better, but fuck the assholes who harassed the director over it.

During the whole speech it was just perfect, you can really feel that growing tension. End music could be better though

If they had just synced up 2volts explosive chorus right as Eren busts through the building in his titan form, then I think it would've worked out so much better. But yeah, I think I just over anticipated a different OST for the scene. Overall, it's okay.

It was ok, an 8/10 choice of music

While watching I was so focused on what was happening that I didn't even notice the music so when I saw the complaints I was shocked. Keeping that moment low key until the very end with no musical signals of what was to come was perfect! Anime audiences (you know, the people this is actually for) were completely caught off guard by Eren's transformation. They legit thought Eren was befriending Reiner in that moment by lending him a hand. Having musical cues would've ruined it.

WHEN WILLY TYBUR NOTED THAT HE WISHED FOR THE EXTINCTION OF ALL ELDIANS, THE MANGA SHOWCASED A PANEL OF ZEKE, FORESHADOWING HIS ULTIMATE PLAN FOR THE FUTURE. IN THE ANIME, THIS IS JUXTAPOSED WITH REINER’S SUICIDAL PLEAS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHANGE? 213 Responses

MAPPA seems to be keeping the audience even more in the dark about Zeke’s motivations than Isayama himself did in the manga… by excluding just about everything hinting at him having any motivations other than pure loyalty to Marley. In episode 64, the opted to juxtapose Willy’s speech with Reiner and Eren, leaving Zeke out of the equation. 43.2% overall were disappointed in this decision, with 24.9% feeling let down by the lack of foreshadowing of Zeke’s plan, and the other 18.3% feeling saddened by the lack of narrative contrast between the Yeager Brothers. 17.4% are hopeful for some anime-only foreshadowing.

i don’t really care about the juxtapositioning because i think the average anime only would not pick it up. but i am disappointed that the scenes that made zeke more enigmatic and suspicious were cut

Didn't even notice

I never noticed this detail in the manga, but i feel like it was better being left out to keep it as a secret.

I found it to be an effective way to make Zeke's motives even more mysterious. I also didn't mind the scene being juxtaposed with Reiner's scene because it serves as a reminder of Reiner's guilt and brainwashing from the past. Both of these things have torn him apart mentally.

It works either way for different reasons

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 218 Responses

The majority (52.3%) were most looking forward to Eren’s fight with the War Hammer Titan. 19.3% were hyped for Eren’s initial emergence from his titan form during the fight. 9.6% were looking forward to the Survey Corps throwing Pieck and Porco off guard, 8.3% were looking forward to Eren’s assault on the military and the remainder were looking forward to seeing Udo and Zofia die. Magath got a very tiny sliver of the pie.

Can't wait to watch Eren giving them the deaths they deserve again

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I felt tense most of the time, just like when I was watching most episodes of s3 pt. 2 :')

The suspense truly killed me!!! Even tho I knew what was to come!

....I just want to know if miss tybur gets a goddamn given name already... but considering how long it took for us to get “Pieck Finger”? Dx

I likes the addition of the marley soilders approaching where eren and reiner were talking, it gave it an extra bit of intensity.

Was on the edge of my seat for the entire episode despite knowing what would happen. The VA's also delivered some of the best performances of the entire series so far.

I absolutely loved the whole episode, the overall atmosphere, the tension building during the speech, and of course the soundtrack was excellent imo, I was not even expecting YSBG myself as I don't watch SoulMadness' videos, so in my mind that scene played out to some botched mental version of Counter Attack Mankind instead... :P

I may have known what was happening... But the music made it so much better and intense.

Also I wholeheartedly believe those professional and experienced directors know better than randoms on the internet who never directed anything. I never thought such a thing could be so controversial. :) - Ryuuhime (I lurk on reddit but almost never post)

Amazing aside from the ost at the end and the lack of direction for the transformation

We should thank Mappa for the amazing job thus far!

Intense. Somehow even more intense than the manga at times.

People really need to shut the fuck up and just be grateful that such an amazing studio is giving us what we never thought we’d see in a thousand years. Mappa has been going above and beyond to give us a great season and so far it’s taken the top spot of my favorite season, knocking Season 2 down to my second favorite. The voice acting, the added scenes, the directing, the animation, the character designs, I’m just grateful we’re finally seeing all of these things in the quality we haven’t gotten since Season 2. Bless Mappa 💖💖💖

Okay I'm kind of hoping we'll get the big panel of Eren emerging in the next episode cause that was pretty sick, but s4 is looking awesome so far and I think MAPPA is doing as well as they can- and exceeding expectations IMO considering WIT did so well and we all thought whoever took up SnK was gonna flop.

Fantastic adaptation. There was a lot to love. People need to calm down about the ost.

It was rushed and lost some of its impact from the manga, but it was an otherwise excellent piece of anime storytelling when detached from the manga experience.

Isayama probably got a say in the play's direction. It was amazing.

I genuinely enjoyed watching this episode! I don't really understand all the hate towards it.

Overall, phenomenal and everything I had wanted it to be.

AMAZING Episode. Wished for a better ost at the end but the current anime version is growing on me

Very well done, the next one's gonna be fire! 🔥😎

talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it.

Not as strong of an adaption as other episodes, but great because the source is great.

I was so hyped for the declaration of war that I forgot that most of the episode would be dialogue. A LOT of it. Uyy. Next episode will be better.

The songs are very important on a scene, but i don't think that justifies hating on the anime just for that, the episode was great, and Mappa is doing just fine.

It pisses me off how ungrateful this fandom can be. I'm not saying we cant criticise, because that's important and valid. But seeing a vocal minority, harass the director over a song choice (which had been well made, 2Volt was great for the moment as well as the OST throughout the episode) to the point where he locked his twitter account just takes it too far. People should remember that the Anime is made for anime onlies in the first place, and I have seen VERY few anime watchers complain about the episode, next to none, actually. It's always some of the Manga readers. We literally got a perfect episode, what else do you demand? Without Mappa we wouldn't have AOT. I'm just happy we finally get the story animated.

Pretty good overall. It felt really well paced compared to the previous episodes that seemed hella rushed to me. I understand the music complaints, but otherwise a good episode :)

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 199 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode!

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk spoilers #snk s4

18 notes · View notes

nicnacsnonsense · 4 years

Text

The full thoughts on the Good Omens Wicked AU are still (probably) forthcoming, but puzzling that out gave me a galaxy-sized brainwave and now I’ve got a new hot take/headcanon for canon!Aziraphale and Crowley.

The thing about the Wicked AU (Wicked the musical, not the book, just to be clear) is Act 2 is pretty easy. Crowley is Elphaba and Aziraphale is mostly Fiyero with a little bit of Glinda thrown in. But Act 1 is tricky. First of all you’re definitely going to want to use Glinda, not Fiyero, but that’s not too difficult a fix. You can pretty easily shift the Glinda character from Act 1 to the role of the Fiyero character in Act 2, especially if you move a few of Fiyero’s actions in Act 1 to Glinda as well, like helping to save the Lion Cub. Which makes it sound like it’s all sorted, Aziraphale is Glinda, Crowley is Elphaba, done. How are you gonna argue when those aesthetics are so on point?

The trouble is, as good as the aesthetics may be, the personalities don’t line up at all. Elphaba in Act 1 is bookish and obedient and while she has her own ideas of Right and Wrong that she will act on when the situation is put in front of her (like the Lion Cub), she ultimately has faith in the powers that be and thinks that if she can just make the problems known to the right people at the top, they’ll take care of it. That’s Aziraphale all the way.

Meanwhile Crowley is a closer match for Fiyero’s personality. He doesn’t believe in or wish to engage with the system, but isn’t up for trying to fight or fix it in any meaningful way. He does the bare minimum of what he has to get by, but beyond that he’s skating through just trying to enjoy himself as best he can. But despite his apathy, when something truly heinous happens in front of him, he can’t help but to react (like with the Lion-- look, it was an important moment, okay?)

So now even if you’re willing to abandon the Ineffable Wives Elphaba/Glinda angle -- which, I mean, no, I’m not willing to do that -- you still have a set up where between Act 1 and Act 2, Aziraphale and Crowley completely switch characters. How does that even happen? How do you get these character’s personalities changing so much? And that’s where the brainwave hit: Act 1 takes place before the Fall. Defying Gravity, in a turn that is as painful as it is appropriate, represents the Fall itself, and Act 2 is then after the Fall.

Which brings me to the headcanon about canon!Aziraphale and Crowley. The first time we meet them, the Fall has already happened, so we have no official canon as to what was going on before then. Pretty much every interpretation I’ve ever seen (and wrote) assumes that the both of them were mostly pretty similar to how they are as we see them in the show. But if you watch how Elphaba and Glinda’s personalities change between the two Acts suggests a different possibility. (Point of clarification: while Aziraphale mostly aligns with Fiyero in Act 2, that’s all relating to Aziraphale after his break with Heaven; Glinda in the opening number “Thank Goodness” is pretty peak Aziraphale for his 6000 years on Earth prior).

Before the Fall, gavotte!Aziraphale was now a moment of unusual joy, but his baseline level of happiness. I doubt he had Glinda’s mean/superiority streak, but like her he was confident and social and always in the know about the latest thing. And he was like that because he felt secure -- his faith was absolute and unquestioned because there was never anything that would give him cause to question it. And then the Fall happened and his entire foundation was ripped out from under him. He tried to hold onto that faith he felt beforehand, but the questions and doubts were there now, and he couldn’t get rid of them or reclaim his former happiness. He became resistant to change because he was scared to loose anything else. He drifted away from the other angels, because on a subconscious level he couldn’t trust them any longer. Anyone he made friends with might Fall and become his enemy. Or he might Fall and then all the other angels would turn their backs on him without a moment’s hesitation -- they did it to all the others, after all. That’s probably partially why he so much more comfortable with humans and Crowley. Humans exist completely outside the whole angel-demon thing, so they’re safe. And Crowley is already Fallen; he can’t Fall again and won’t spurn Aziraphale if he Falls.

Meanwhile Crowley before the Fall was a little bit odd maybe, but he didn’t really pay it any mind. He was mostly quiet and kept to himself and his work. He did notice a dew thing here and there that he maybe felt weren’t right, but he still had faith in Heaven and the Almighty that it would all work out like it should. Then there was the day when he happened upon “Lucifer and the guys”. He didn’t really know them -- he wasn’t really all that close to anyone -- but he recognized some of them and Lucifer was an Archangel, so he assumed it was all fine. And the questions they were asking were the things he’d been wondering about himself. He thought they they were just going to bring these matters to God’s attention. He didn’t really know anyone there. He didn’t really know what he was getting into. Then the Fall. After that he’d lost all faith in Heaven and what little trust he might have had for his compatriots from before the Fall completely evaporated once he realized what they’d gotten him into. And from that point forward, Crowley didn’t dare to keep to himself and his work anymore. He had to keep moving, changing, always making sure he was on top of what was going on, always knew who was who doing what. He refused to be caught off guard and unaware like that again. That’s probably why he slithered up to talk to Aziraphale in the garden even knowing it was probably a stupidly dangerous thing to do; he had to make sure he knew who this angel was and what he was up to and what his angle was.

Anyway, now I want a post-canon South Downs cottage fic where Crowley settles down at home, being an introvert. He enjoys going out with his husband occasionally of course, but prefers to spend most of his time at home making things, gardening and painting and carpentry and sewing, until the only things in their house he didn’t have a hand in are the old sentimental things they would never get rid of. Meanwhile Aziraphale throws himself into all sorts of different clubs and groups and social events. He quickly catches up to the current year in terms of technology and pop culture not intentionally, but just by sheer osmosis and no longer seeing any reason not to. The intervening 6000 years didn’t leave them completely unchanged -- the Aziraphale from before the Fall probably never could have found the joy in a quiet evening by the fire rereading a favorite book, and the old Crowley never would have dragged Aziraphale to dance lessons and made friends with everyone else there -- but they can finally let themselves relax back into themselves again. Because they finally feel safe and have learned how to trust again.

#good omens #good omens meta #crowley #aziraphale #azcrow #wicked #long post

25 notes · View notes

need-a-new-hobby · 4 years

Text

Lessons Learned

Aaron Hotchner was dreaming about his family; his beautiful wife, Haley, and their beautiful son Jack, on a picnic, little Jack kicking a ball around, Haley smiling at him. He reached out to hold her hand but a ringtone broke the fantasy. Sighing, he reached for his phone instead.

"Hotchner…When?…Did they raise the terror alert?…No, that's probably best…All right, get everybody in now. I'll be there in a minute." He hung up and Haley slowly got up next to him, combing her hair behind her face.

"What’s going on?" She yawned, folding her hands over her face and pulling her knees close to her body.

"Nothing, I just have to go to the office."

"It’s 6:15, and you're talking about a terror alert? It's bad, isn't it?" She rubbed her face and Aaron got dressed behind her.

"I don't know yet."

"Please don't lie to me." She knelt her chin on her shoulder.

"It might be. I may not be home tonight. I mean, I might be home late."

"I know."

"Shoot. I forgot. Tomorrow is the day we scheduled to take Jack to have his pictures taken."

"Don’t worry about it. I'll reschedule."

"No, no, no. Go ahead and take him, and I'll do my best to be there, okay?" He grabbed his belt, tie and jacket.

"Just come back safely," she pleaded.

"I will," he promised her, taking his wallet, gun and badge. "Bye," he whispered before kissing her softly. Her doe eyes followed him out the door.

^-^

The ladies of the BAU were already setting up in the conference room when the men walked in.

"Everybody meet Agent Prentiss?" Hotch asked his team.

"The other day," Garcia piped up.

"This morning getting coffee," Piper voiced.

"I’ve been filling her in on protocol." JJ distributed the case at hand. The woman with black hair and matching suit jacket rose to shake Morgan’s hand.

"We can make nice later," Hotch reminded them and turned to JJ. "What do we know?"

As Garcia grabbed her flamboyant yellow pen, JJ attended to the screen. "The DEA raided what they thought was a hardened meth lab right here, in Northern Virginia, but they found this instead."

Morgan and Gideon stared at the image on the screen. "That could be a dispersal device for a chemical weapon," Derek suggested. "Sophisticated."

"Homeland Security is thinking of Al Qaeda."

"They’ve developed devices that span the spectrum of sophistication," Reid explained, glancing at Prentiss. "Some as simple as soda bottles and paint cans."

"They’re called al ikhteraa, literally 'the invention,’" she said, pronouncing the word perfectly.

"They are," Spencer muttered softly to Derek while shrugging quickly. Piper grinned, despite herself. She’d met the agent this morning and was already impressed by her fluency in languages.

Hotch broke Piper’s thoughts asking,"Do we know what the biological or chemical agent is yet?"

"No, not yet," Morgan replied.

"The cell members bailed out through a tunnel," JJ said, glancing at her file. "The DEA recovered a Nextel 2-way and managed to intercept a message." She placed the message on the table between Reid and Prentiss. As the new agent picked the message up, JJ clarified, "No, that’s not the transcript, it’s in-"

"It’s in Arabic." She proceeded to translate the document ad-lib. "Our friends surprised us and eloped." Garcia looked up at her from the her laptop screen. "We can no longer wait for the wedding as planned." Piper was sure that Gideon couldn’t stop staring. "We can deliver our gift at the next crescent." Emily looked up from the paper at her new colleagues and heard a low whistle from Piper.

"You’ve been holding out on me," she snickered. Penelope just smiled at her. Derek’s forehead was about to stay wrinkled forever.

"I lived in several middle-eastern countries growing up," Emile explained.

"Next crescent?"

"Muslims sometimes use a lunar calendar," Bishop informed the group. "We’d have to look it up-"

"Next crescent moon is in two days," Garcia added.

"So whatever they're attacking, it's happening in less than 48 hours."

"Payment for the Nextel is linked to this man, Jind Allah."

"Literally 'soldier of God.’"

"I don’t like the sound of that," Bishop muttered.

"That’s pretty poor operational security for a sophisticated plot," Morgan remarked.

"Two months ago, Jind Allah was captured leaving the U. S. using a forged Pakistani passport via Richmond International Airport. He's been held as a ghost detainee in Guantanamo Bay ever since," JJ noted.

"So technically, he doesn't exist," said Garcia.

"Soldier of God isn't a name."

"No, it's most likely a name taken on for the Jihad. Extremists claim it's a holy war, yet the words "holy" and "war" never appear together in the Quran," Piper replied.

"Do we know his real name? CIA interrogators have gotten nothing out of the guy."

"They need us to break him."

"We do know from past intercepts that he's a recruiter. He came into this country to assemble the omega cell, a sleeper cell with an unknown mission," JJ sighed, shaking her head.

"We have 48 hours to do what the CIA hasn't been able to manage in two months?" Morgan looked at the team.

Piper flipped through the report and sighed. Under her breath, she murmured, "Easy, right?"

"We could be looking at the first attack on our soil since 9/11," Gideon thought aloud.

Yikes, that’s dramatic.

^-^

"Hey," Hotch greeted Gideon in his office. The profiler was packing his go-bag in a hurry.

"Car here? I told Reid and Bishop 5 minutes."

"I think you should take Prentiss with you to Guantanamo." Gideon looked at the unit chief.

"Excuse me?"

"She could be of help."

"I don't know enough about her abilities," he said raising his shoulders. "There’s plenty for her to do back here." He barely looked back at Hotchner.

"I don't know what she's capable of either, but we've got to find out sooner or later." Gideon walked past him, out the office.

"It’s an interrogation, not a training exercise," he said, looking back at Hotch.

"She’s the only member of the team fluent in Arabic."

"There are other translators."

"Yeah, but they haven't studied behaviour," Aaron persisted.

"She even have her ready bag yet?" Emily watched the two senior agents, slowly lifting her ready bag onto the desk.

"My guess is there isn't much this woman's unprepared for." They glanced at the younger agent. Sighing, Gideon rushed down the steps.

"Car leaves in 4 minutes," he said aside to her as he rushed past.

"Yes, sir," she said, smiling and looking back at Agent Hotchner. Piper glanced at the fellow agent excitedly. She was just glad to have another girl to talk to.

^-^

Dale Turner mused: "Some of the best lessons are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future."

^-^

Emily sat near Gideon and Reid on the sofa, watching them play chess. "Excuse me, sir. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate-"

"Do not thank me," he cut in.

"Sir?" Reid glanced between the two of them awkwardly.

"It’s not a favour."

"Of course. I know that."

"You’re coming to do a job."

Reid asked his mentor, "Do you think the interrogation of Jind Allah will work in time?"

"Interrogation is the most dynamic form of profiling."

"That’s not an answer," she scoffed. "Sir," Emily enunciated.

"He’s been locked away in Gitmo, he doesn't know we raided the cell's safe house, that’s an advantage for us. The main thing is to get him talking about anything, then his language and body movements will betray him." He focused back on the game at hand. As Reid picked up his pawn, Gideon continued. "It’s like this; you focus on the way your opponent holds his piece, how quickly and firmly he places it." Reid became flustered hearing his mentor and Piper giggle quietly behind him."Then you watch his face and body. It'll telegraph a player's strategy, his training, maybe his motivations."

"Is that what you need us to do?"

"No, I need you to listen." He glanced at Emily. "You’re fluent in Arabic. I won't know the nuances like you. Every word, every phrase. Be on the lookout for subtext, ulterior meanings." Emily subtly straightened. "Reid, I want you to watch for tells. Non-verbals, micro-expressions. Watch him when he's comfortable and relaxed, then note the behavioural changes when he's under stress."

"You got anything specific for me?" Gideon looked up at his appointed consultant as she handed him a cup of coffee. "Where’s mine?" Spencer mouthed at her. "You don’t get any, you’ve already had 5 cups in the past hour," she reprimanded him.

"Absorb the information we gain about him. I want you to understand who he is, his character, his background, those timelines you make. I need you to create a profile on the spot." Piper nodded thoughtfully. "If we can establish a baseline, we'll be able to read him once I challenge his belief systems. Before I can get him to give up where or how they'll attack, I'll first have to cause him to reveal something of himself."

Piper pulled Emily to the other side of the plane, "Did you see Morgan’s face when you translated the Arabic." She threw her head back as she laughed. "Priceless! You blew them away." She glanced back at the boys before motioning for Emily to take a seat. "Ugh, you have no idea how happy I am that you could come."

"Really?" Emily was confused at Piper’s excitement. "I thought you were close to them."

"Please, Gideon is the only reason I’m here, and this is like my second week."

"But you fit in so well." Emily leaned forward.

"Bah, Gideon will warm up to you." She raised an eyebrow and Piper. "Trust me, the only reason he’s a little icy is because he doesn’t know you yet. I guarantee, you do what you did this morning, you’ll be the most valuable member here."

"So tell me about the team." Piper glanced at her watch.

"Okay, Agent Hotchner, we all call him Hotch, may secretly be a robot. I don’t think I’ve seen him crack a smile or blink. Jason Gideon basically built the BAU. He’s like a genius at this behaviour stuff but he never lets on to what he really thinks. Personally, I think he uses it as a shield from the team but he pours his heart into every case we get, treats each victim like a personal wound. Spencer Reid," she said, glancing behind her discreetly before continuing. "He’s like a super genius, graduated high school at 12, 3 PhDs before he was of drinking age, 2 B.As in psychology and sociology. He has like an IQ of 187 and can read 20 000 words a minute. If that’s not enough for you," she said, pointing a finger up. "The guy has an eidetic memory." She laughed at Emily’s face. "Moving on to Penelope Garcia, the girl has the weirdest relationship with Derek I have ever seen. They have like this rule to never call each other by name. You’ll see. Anyway, she’s like a wizard with technology, it’s crazy. I heard she got the job by hacking into the FBI but I can’t name my sources, obvi."

^-^

"What do you think they’re talking about?" Spencer asked, tugging softly at his scarf.

"Probably about the team," Gideon said softly before glancing at his terrified expression. "Reid, I wouldn’t worry about it. That girl has nothing bad to say about you. Your turn."

^-^

"Derek is like the biggest softie I’ve ever met but never give him any ammunition against you. He is relentless."

"What do you mean?"

"For my housewarming party, Reid got me a potted hyacinth which happens to be my favourite and he wouldn’t stop teasing him until Spence stabbed him with metal tongs." Emily laughed at the mental image.

"So you’re like a family?"

"In every way fathomable," Piper said, sipping on her coffee. They got up to join the boys, partly because they’d run out of things to talk about, partly because Emily was curious to see which genius was going to win.

Emily glanced at her watch. "You should put a lid on your coffee by the way," she said to her new friend.

"Hmm?"

"We’re almost there. Hold on." Gideon fell onto the seat next to him, as did Reid. Bishop and Prentiss were unlucky as they had nowhere to fall. They clung onto their seat and Piper prayed her coffee wouldn’t spill. Unfortunately for the boys, the twist of the plane meant their chess game fell to the floor.

"Gitmo’s runway is perpendicular to cuban airspace, so approaching aircraft have to negotiate a last minute 90 degree right turn in order to land. They call it the Gitmo twist."

"That twist almost cost me my coffee," Piper grumbled. "Hotch wouldn’t have talked to me for a week if he found a stain." Spencer gazed forlornly at the tumbled black and white pieces.

"I was winning," he said wistfully.

"Actually, he would’ve had you in 3," said Emily, casually flicking the hair off of her face. Reid and Bishop both looked at the new agent and then at Gideon, who looked completely neutral.

^-^

As soon as they landed in the detainment centre, Derek had called Piper. She’d let the others go in first while she took the call. "You better not be the harbinger of doom."

"You tell me, sweet cheeks, we have a preliminary profile for you."

"Talk to me."

"The tubes surrounding the device could be the explosive charge and the cylinder's gotta be where they put whatever bio or chem agent they plan on dispersing."

"Bio meaning some kind of disease?"

"Dunno yet, we’re still working on that. It looks like a 4 sleeper cell, they’ve assimilated into the community. Hotch says we’re looking at middle-eastern males in their early twenties."

"Anything else for me?"

"You know it. The size of the device suggests they're looking at significant targets; military installations, government buildings."

"Could be some kind of symbolism. Alright, thanks Morgan, I’ll let the guys know."

"Hey, Pipes. How’s the new girl doing?"

"She’s brilliant and that is all I’m telling you."

"Rude. See you when you get back." She put her phone away and motioned the guard to go first.

^-^

"You must be the BAU boys," boomed the slightly balding man before noticing Bishop and Prentiss. "And gals, pardon me."

"I’m Jason Gideon."

"Andy Bingaman, FBI."

"Agent Prentiss, Dr. Bishop, Dr. Reid," introduced Gideon.

"I'm the intelligence supervisor here at Gitmo."

"You guys having a hard time getting Jind Allah to talk?"

"Not only can't they get him to budge," he started, leading them to the workspace, "but 2 weeks ago, word got out that one of the other detainees was spilling secrets. Jind Allah managed to have a 3 minute conversation with him in the shower line. That night, the other detainee committed suicide."

"Charming," Piper murmured. The agents looked at the multiple TV sets. "Hell of an interrogation strategy," Piper said. "How long has he been kept like this?" The man had chains on his arms and feet and was nude except for a pair of white briefs with dark purple bruises.

"2 months."

"He's reciting the Qu'ran from memory,” Reid noticed. “He's most likely a hafez."

"He must have done it a dozen times since he's come to this facility."

"Some Muslim children are able to do it since age 12," Piper voiced.

"Two months of interrogation, that's all the CIA's been able to get out of him."

"There are cuts and bruises under his right eye socket," Reid noted before Piper asked.

"I have to ask, Agent, what kind of tactics are they using?"

"I control the actions to the detainees, but I can assure you, my protest about their methods has been ignored."

"Let the interrogation proceed normally," Gideon demanded. "I’m gonna interrupt and demand they stop harassing. There a bathroom here?" Bingaman motioned for a security guard to take the agent.

"It’d be easier if I just tell them to stop now."

"I wouldn’t," Piper warned the FBI agent. "That man has been in severe conditions for the past 2 months. He’s more likely to trust Gideon if the reaction is more…" she paused, searching for the right word, "visceral, more believable," she finished.

Go ahead with phase 2 as planned.

Copy that.

They watched the CIA interrogators circle around the detainee, like a falcon does his prey. Bingaman was confused."You really gonna put a show on for these guys?"

"No, not for them, for Jind Allah, he needs to see me as a complete contrast to what he's come to expect from his captors."

"It’s the best way to jump start him into talking," Reid added. "Do you have a glass board by any chance?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, right here, have at it agents."

Gideon left to make his dramatic entrance while Piper shifted the board into position, grabbing markers and cleaning fluid from her bag, and Spencer started setting up. Emily noticed Piper smiling while setting up. "What’s up?"

"Hmm?"

"You’re smiling."

"No, I’m not. We have a terrorist in a cell, why would I be smiling?"

"She’s answering a question with a question, Emily, she’s lying," Reid tattled.

Huffing, Piper leaned in and whispered quietly. "He thought I was an agent." She grinned and turned back to her board. Emily rolled her eyes as she focused on the detainee on the screens.

^-^

Agent Gideon shuffled into the interrogation room, glancing at both CIA agents, holding an orange jumpsuit. The interrogator that was leaning into Jind Allah’s face straightened. "Who the hell are you?"

"Supervisory special agent Jason Gideon, I’m an FBI behavioural analyst. It's time to show this man some respect."

"You gotta be kidding me."

"You have orders from Agent Bingaman to leave so I can speak with this detainee alone." The two men, having sighted Bingaman, edged out of the room. Gideon slowly placed the jumpsuit on the chained man’s lap.

"I’m sorry for the treatment you've suffered," Gideon apologised before the man reciting in front of him. "If you don't mind, I'd like to spend some time with you."

The man bowed his head to his hands.

"He’s stopped reciting," Emily remarked. Piper turned from her board and leaned in to see the screen. "He’s sizing Gideon up."

"The man hasn’t been treated with civility in months. The reaction was predicted." They looked back at the consultant. "He’s wondering if there’s some ulterior motive, which is understandable."

^-^

"If I don't mind?"

"I’d like to get to know you as a person, your faith, your ideology."

"To what end?"

"Studying human behaviour is what I do."

^-^

Piper split the board in half and started scribbling Morgan’s information on the cell in one column, started examining the prisoner’s personality in the other, while Spencer scrawled in his notebook.

^-^

"I'd like to believe, with greater understanding one day, we can come to a peaceful resolution of our differences."

"Is that so?" The man smiled.

"Look, I don't know what you've done or what you may have planned to do." Gideon walked over and pulled up a chair. "But unlike the other detainees here, you have the education, intelligence to convey the nuances of your culture. That's what interests me."

"Until, I don't give you what you want. Then you will resort to other tactics."

"I swore an oath to uphold the United States constitution, no matter where I am, no matter who I deal with."

^-^

Piper’s phone rang again. "Sorry, guys. It’s Morgan." She raised the phone to her ear. "What do you have?"

"We found a list of chemicals. Garcia said it’s a list of additives that could weaponize Anthrax."

"Jesus, just when you think the worst is behind you. Thanks, Morgan." She relayed the news to the others.

"Could they get enough anthrax?" Emily turned to Spencer.

"The letter sent to senator Tom Daschle's office in 2002 only contained two grams of purified spores."

"That doesn’t sound that bad."

"Two grams is enough to kill 25 million people if effectively distributed."

"Dear God," Piper said, running a hand through her short hair. They turned back to the video stream.

"Are you willing to have a chat with me?"

"Go ahead. Gideon, let’s chat." Emily leaned forward, resting a hand on a chair.

"What is it Em?"

"He’s from Egypt, Cairo."

"You sure?"

"No, he could be Yemeni, but odds are he's Egyptian."

"What type of name is Gideon?"

"American."

"I often forget that in your culture, you put your country first and your god last."

Emily picked up the radio. "Sir, he was born and raised in Egypt. They pronounce 'J' sounds as a 'G.’"

"You don't consider yourself Egyptian as well as Muslim?"

"Egyptian. In two minutes, you know more about me than those thugs found out in two months."

Reid smiled at Prentiss.

^-^

"They and I have very, very different motives and methodologies."

"And yet your country relies on them to protect you from us."

"Sometimes they're their own worst enemy."

"Who is your worst enemy, agent Gideon?"

"It’s not a who. It's a what; ignorance."

"You’re a very honest man. And you? Must have become a hafez by what, age 10?"

"9."

"You must have had tremendous discipline and dedication to memorise the entire Qu'ran by age 9."

"Perhaps," he said, as Gideon rose from his seat. "We are through already?"

"No, not at all, the sun is about to set. Mecca is in that direction. I'll have a prayer rug and water bowl sent in."

^-^

"What do we have?"

"Hotch and Morgan found the back up location, they’re planning the raid as we speak," Emily started. "For now, all we know for certain is he was born and raised in Egypt, likely in Cairo, memorised the Quran by the age of nine."

"Why?"

"I have a few theories. The more probable one is a life of discipline passed down from his parents to him since generational tradition is a staple of Islamic culture. It could be all he’s ever known. The other is that he was inducted at a young age into a strict Islamist society. But his anti-American sentiment is definitely rooted in loss. That kind of quiet hatred suggests the violent death of someone he cares about."

^-^

"Can I offer you some water?"

"I offer you some first." Gideon drank, then passed the bottle to the man in front of him, just before taking one himself. "They only kept it there to show me what I could not have."

"I’d like you to explain something to me. How can you ignore the fact that Muhammad preached passivity while he was in Mecca? 'Do no violence.'"

"His later message from Medina was perfectly clear. 'When violence come upon you, you must fight back with violence.’"

"He's quoting from the Hadith, not from the Qu'ran. It's called the verse of the sword. They argue that it cancels out earlier teachings," Reid spoke from the radio.

"Verse of the sword. Just someone's spin on the words of the prophet. It's not even part of the Qu’ran."

"But it does say in the Qu’ran, fight and slay the infidels wherever you find them and seize them in every stratagem of war."

"Unless they repent. Establish regular prayers and practice regular charity."

"Is it your intention, Mr. Gideon, to become a man of faith and revert to Islam?"

"I am a man of faith. I have repented, I pray regularly, and I practice charity. I have never committed violence against you, so how is it that my faith would allow you to live and worship as you please, and yours would take my life and snuff it out?"

"You are simply misguided people of the book. But if you revert to Islam…"

"He’s cocky, Gideon,"Piper spoke into the radio. "He keeps repeating the word revert, as though everyone has inherently converted from Islam."

"A billion muslims, one billion muslims manage to practice their faith in peace. For Allah is surely merciful."

"You…inquired about my childhood earlier. I will tell you...that it was a happy one until... one day... A bomb fell out of the sky and levelled the bazaar that I was in with my family. I was only 8."

^-^

"He’s opening up about himself."

"Maybe," Reid said. "We need to verify what he's saying, though."

Piper leaned in over Spencer’s shoulder. "Can you rewind it just a tiny bit?"

She watched it closely this time. "What are you thinking Pipes?" She grabbed her marker.

"Something not fully formed yet. Get Garcia to verify, I’ll get back to you."

"Speak."

"Garcia, I need you to check something for me. I'm looking for a stray bombing in a bazaar somewhere in Egypt approximately 30 years ago."

"Okay, great. That's not too obscure."

"I don't need you to get any details. We're just trying to set a baseline for Jind Allah's truthfulness. I need to know if it happened at all."

"When I know, you'll know."

"Thank you."

^-^

"When the rubble was cleared...half...of my family was dead. It was on that day that I swore my life to vengeance for Allah."

"And for that very reason, those holding you here can never let you leave. Your only hope is to tell me so I can hopefully one day share your struggle with the world."

"Your government won't even admit that I exist. How possibly can you tell my side of the story?"

^-^

"Okay, hear me out." The agents swivelled around to face her, just as Gideon walked in. "There was something bugging me about that story of his childhood. It’s his hesitation." She pointed towards the board. "That’s his story, right. He’s 8, in the bazaar with his family. All of a sudden, bomb falls from the sky and half his family is dead. Right?"

"Yeah," Gideon agreed. "What’s your point?"

"He keeps hesitating in bits he shouldn’t be. The only aspect he doesn’t hesitate about is the bomb. He enunciates," Piper circled some of the words, "with his family. Probably true. But I don’t think he was 8. I think he lost someone in his adulthood, someone he was responsible for." Piper walks over the screen and rewinds the tape. Once its cued, she pauses it. "See that pain. Watch his forehead wrinkle when he talks about the bomb. An 8 year old who loses his parents, that has serious self-esteem issues, but this guy is a leader, he’s arrogant. He says half of his family is dead which would mean he could have siblings except he’s independent, no personal attachments. This man may have memorised the Quran at 9, but his behaviour completely changed when he was talking about his childhood. He was calmer, more rational than he should be."

"Tell Garcia to look for more recent bombings." Reid’s phone rang.

"Hey Hotch, you got Bishop, Gideon, Prentiss, and me."

"We're at cell location number 2. No cell members, no lab, no dispersal devices and we’re still looking for escape tunnels."

"Got it," Reid replied, turning his phone of and turning to the others. "We’re running out of time. The attack's supposed to take place in less than 24 hours."

"So getting Jind Allah to talk is our only chance of finding them," Emily sighed.

"Time I confronted him with the truth. Show him my hand."

^-^

"I'm going to give you the respect of telling you what just happened. A team of agents raided an omega cell location, both of them. Our men are in place in Annandale as we speak. You gain nothing by remaining silent," Gideon informed him as he entered the room. As he spoke, the prisoner’s fists turned to open palms, rubbing slowly against his leg.

"Gideon, something's wrong. This guy seemed relieved by what you just told him." At that statement, Gideon excused himself politely. He walked calmly out the room, then told Reid to call Hotch.

"What’s the problem?" Aaron’s voice was calm and even. Piper felt her heart about to burst.

"It’s a trap. Get everybody out of there. Now! Now! Now!" he yelled into the phone.

^-^

Emily was pacing. Reid was staring at his phone. Piper blinked at the board trying not to imagine the worst, trying not to break down in front of anyone. Gideon kept wringing his hands. Piper’s ringtone jolted her. "It’s Bishop." She closed her eyes. "Thanks Pen." Taking a deep breath, she turned around. "They’re okay. But…" She exhaled shakily. "But they lost a S.W.A.T agent. Kenny. He was a friend of Morgan’s."

"Was anthrax involved?" Emily asked

"No."

"That wasn’t the final target then," Reid exhaled.

^-^

"You look troubled, my friend."

"You killed one of my men."

"I was here with you."

"The second location was a trap. One of my agents was killed in the explosion."

"This is war. We expect casualties. Shouldn't you?"

"He was a good man."

"If he would convert, there would be no reason for him to fear death."

"What do you say to his family?"

"Is he crying, Gideon?" Piper spoke softly. "Look at his hands."

"I say: Where were you to mourn when my son was murdered?"

^-^

"He was lying about the first story. He didn’t hesitate at all here," Piper gently spoke.

"And this time when he mentioned his son," Reid continued, "he looked at his hands, like he had to concentrate to control his anger."

"Which means it must have been more recent." Emily added. Spencer reached for the phone.

"Garcia. What do you have on that bombing.”

"Okay. I'm cross referencing bombings and child victims. Seven years ago, in the heart of Cairo, Egyptian government blamed Hezbollah, but conspiracy theories on the street claimed it was a joint US - Israeli strike that went astray. Your ghost detainee's name is Jamal Abaza."

"How about his son's name? Do you have that?"

"Amir Abaza. 8. Killed in the blast."

"All right. Find out everything you can on that. I'll get back to you soon."

Emily grabbed the radio. "Sir, we know his real identity."

^-^

Garcia spun in her chair, JJ looking on. "Reid, I got something for you."

"You’re on speaker."

"Jamal Abaza's been in the U. S. for a while. He volunteered as the prison imam at the Dearfield correctional center three years ago."

"How could the CIA not know that?" Piper asked.

"They’re focused overseas," Emily replied. "We’re domestic."

"Yeah, they probably sent a request for a domestic information search, and it's somewhere making its way through channels."

"Thanks, Pen, you’re a legend,"Piper praised her.

^-^

"If he was a prison imam," Spencer got up and started pacing, "he must have recruited militant islamic society members. M.I.S is an atypical prison organisation. They pick up an amalgam of ethnicities, those that slip through the cracks, the ones that traditional groups won't accept. It's made up largely of American citizens, citizens with a reason for hating the government," Reid finished

"We’re looking at homegrown terrorists," Gideon noted grimly.

^-^

The four profilers found the two CIA agents sitting with empty coffee cups. "What the hell do you want?"

"The name Jamal Abaza mean anything to you?"

"Abaza was an imam in Cairo. He preached Jihad to his followers, but he fell off the grid seven years ago."

"That’s because when his son died, he took the Jihad name: Jind Allah. He came to America to recruit sleeper cells." At Gideon’s words, the agents stood up.

"You’re telling us that that detainee in there is Jamal Abaza?"

"He was also a prison imam in Virginia three years ago," Reid interrupted. "Are you familiar with the Militant Islamic Society?"

"They’re homegrown?"

"We know the cell that Abaza put together has access to anthrax," Emily added, "but we can't find any reports of any going missing in the States."

"We have protocols that we have to follow."

"You really going to allow a terrorist attack on U. S. soil because of protocols? I told you what I learned in there because you and I, FBI, CIA, right now we have the ability to break through all the protocol and share information."

"Let me see what we have."

"Coordinate with Agent Jareau and Penelope Garcia at Quantico," Gideon said irritably, marching back into the office.

"You think it’ll work?" Reid asked.

"I don’t know."

"CIA’s tough, They play it pretty close to the vest."

"Well, if we don't all work together, more people are gonna die."

15 minutes later, Piper walked back into the office.

"I just got a call from Garcia. Whatever you said must have worked, Gideon, because Penelope found a Dutch firm called Genimmune reported that they may have had a security breach involving anthrax last week."

"May have?" Emily asked.

"Apparently, they’re still doing a security and inventory sweep, but the real kicker is that they may be missing up to 20 grams of lab grade anthrax."

"That could potentially kill a quarter billion people."

^-^

"We have less than ten hours before the new crescent moon rises," Emily worried.

"Nine," he corrected.

"Aren’t you worried?"

"I’ve been with him long enough to trust him." He smiled at Emily.

"Well, you can worry slightly less. Hotch just texted me that they have a lead. Someone called Tariq Muhammed. Dutch citizen, Islamic convert. Traveled here 4 days ago under his original name, Andre Janssen. Perfect for a sleeper agent.”

^-^

Hotch and Morgan stepped out of their vehicle in front of Janssen’s house and walked over to the agents in blue.

"Infrared scanning still shows no one inside. We're doing a soft entry in case it's booby trapped." The agents in biohazard suits barged through the door, separating, many clearing the house quickly, except for one.

"Sir, get in here!"

Half an hour later, their chief walked out to the two BAU agents. "We have 5 deceased males and what looks to be a crude lab, all shot in the head execution style."

"Any anthrax on the scene?"

"Only residue. There's also packing and tags from 4 new backpacks."

"Backpacks?" Morgan looked to his boss.

"They’re already on the move. We're too late."

^-^

"Okay, thanks, Morgan." Spencer looked at his team. Piper was on the verge of breaking. His mentor was staring intently at Abaza. Emily was pacing. "The lead went cold. They were too late."

He saw them all break a little more. Gideon slammed his fist on the table and walked out. Emily said she needed a coffee. Spencer watched as Piper reached her breaking point. She looked at the blue marker in her hand, and flung it across the room. He didn’t even see it bounce off the window and barely heard it clatter to the floor. Before he knew it, the consultant was crying into his shoulder. Spencer didn’t say a word. There was no need. She just needed to be held. He felt her calm down, felt her squeeze for a heartbeat and then felt her step away. "Sorry," she spoke softly, like a mouse. She sniffled and he saw her push the pain away. This was what he hated about his job. The tension hanging in the air, the tantalising steps before a break in the case and seeing the tangible traces of a hard case linger in someone’s soul. "Tell me Gideon has a plan. That we’re not just waiting for a magical sign."

"I think he has a plan."

"5 people are dead, Spence. Because I can’t figure that psychopath out."

"This isn’t on you."

"Isn’t it, though? He said it, very clearly on the plane. Emily was meant to figure out the nuances, you were meant to see the behavioural tics. I was meant to predict it, but he’s just sitting there. Calm and iridescent. As though he doesn’t know that 5 people are dead." She closed her eyes.

"We have time, Piper, just stick it out." She still didn’t open them.

"Calm." She opened her eyes. "He’s so calm, why? He created the sleeper cell, which means he planned it didn’t he?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So we only have 8 hours left until sunset, why isn’t he more worried?"

"Overconfidence, arrogance? You profiled that. Where are you going with this?" He saw your eyes widen.

"We need to overload him. Let’s see what happens if we give him a power trip."

^-^

When Reid and Gideon walked back in the interrogation room, he was still praying. "Have you finished?" Gideon asked.

"As you said, the sun is set."

"Yes. I'd like you to meet a colleague of mine. Dr. Reid." He gave an awkward wave.

"May we speak?"

"Of course. I have a little time." When the agents stared at him blankly, he clarified, "That was a joke. I have all the time. Please."

"A joke, well, we're making progress. Is there no way for this thing to end? This Jihad?"

"The Jihad will end when Allah wills its end."

"Then how will you know that it is Allah's will?"

"When the Jihad ends."

"Right. I have been lying to you. My colleague has been outside watching us as we talked on monitors. Watching your body language, trying to figure you out."

"Were you successful?"

"Somewhat," Reid stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Your name is Jamal Abaza. Your son Amir was killed in 2003 in the bombing at the Mahfouz bazaar in Cairo. Since then, you've been recruiting M. I. S. members in prison by convincing them that U. S. economic policies are exploiting third world nations and turned them into extreme fundamentalists by promising a better existence with Allah."

"I would say that you were more than somewhat successful."

"But I did not learn where your M. I. S. cell was going to make an anthrax attack in the U.S. at the new crescent tonight. I have no knowledge of such a thing. "

"Yes, you do, Mr. Abaza. And there is still time." Gideon’s face went slack. He raised a hand to his earpiece. "What?…Are you sure?" Slowly, the profiler lowered his hang, his throat dry. As he slumped away, Reid followed him into the other room. Abaza started praying again, reciting the Qu’ran, only for Gideon to come back in, the news playing in the background

"Something has happened?"

"How could you? You choose to contort Islam into an excuse for a life of violence. You have perverted your faith to justify murder."

"Now we are finally chatting, Gideon," said Abaza, ignoring the three young profilers behind Gideon.

"You accuse Americans of being puppeteers of the third world, yet you used your own people's faith tonight to make them dance for you. Why? Why is it always those who profess to be the most fervent believers in this war? They always manipulate other people to die for them." Abaza stood up, eye blazing.

"Does your president go into battle? Or does he send your children?"

"Tonight… All those innocent people."

"There is no such thing, Gideon. They were infidels. And they were engaged in activities that spread American policies over the entire world. Your incessant need to own things, material things. Your capitalism rests on the back of third world countries. No one's hands are clean. No one is innocent. "

"Those people tonight, they were innocent. They never hurt you," Gideon emphasised.

"They hurt me by existing. Yes, the infidels shall fall at the hands of the righteous. And that is when the Jihad will end."

"So you are ready to murder 4 billion people."

"America has learned nothing from the past. You harden targets like your power plants, but you leave the soft root for our taking. What has happened tonight will affect your economy for years, the way September 11 affected air travel. And maybe the next time a giant shopping centre opens," he said as Emily walked back inside,"people will think twice before going. And maybe next it will be a school. Hey!" he called to the retreating agents.

"You can shut the video feed down now, Garcia, thanks."

"Has the sun not set yet?"

"No," Reid said, closing the door behind him.

"A shopping centre, a mall," Emily spoke into her phone. "It’s a grand opening tonight not long after sunset. That gives you about an hour."

^-^

Back at Quantico, Morgan and Hotch rushed to the elevators right when JJ caught them.

"Grand opening of the USA mall today,"JJ informed them. "It’s the third largest in the country, and it's right smack in the middle of McLean, Virginia."

"Let’s move."

^-^

As Hotch ran into the mall, he yelled back, "Morgan, I'm going to find the security office." In that moment, the profiler was called by another agent, motioning towards a van. The doors opened to the sight of young man in uniform, shot, execution style.

"Looks like loading dock security."

"Should we evacuate?" the agent asked.

"No, no. We'd have mass panic. Let's go."

"Morgan, I've got 4 guys on the east end of the roof. Morgan, it’s the air vents"

Derek put his mask on as he relayed the message to his team. "Move!"

The team moved upwards to the roof, scanning for activity. After a few minutes of walking, Morgan spotted 4 individuals near the air vents. Gaining sufficiently close, he yelled out, "Don’t move! Put the devices down and put your hands where I can see them!"

The member closest to the far end pulled out a machine gun. "Gun!"All he saw was the spray of bullets, three down, and one fleeing the scene. As Derek gave chase, the man turned to face the agent with a gun. Two shots rang out and the man fell through the glass, into the mall below.

^-^

Aaron came home to a seemingly empty house, save for the faint sound of a broadcast. "Haley?" He called out.

"Hey, in here," she replied. "You’re home. Did you see that there was an attempted robbery at the new mall? I'm glad I cancelled Jack's photos. I just decided I wanted you to be there. It's better if we do it as a family. Is everything ok?"

He looked at his baby boy and his wonderful wife. "Yeah, everything's perfect."

^-^

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said in order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear.

^-^

On the jet, Emily decided to ask the question that was bugging her."When did you know you were gonna have to trick him?"

"The first time I talked to him." Piper looked up from her Bertram Stoker novel.

"You realised you couldn't break him?"

"Well, I realised he was too smart to have had that nextel phone registered to him accidentally. He drew us there. He wanted our presence at Gitmo to confirm that he was successful.

"And that's when you started moving up the time of his prayers."

"If I'd used an actual clock, he might have caught on."

"So when did you figure it out?" Emily turned to Piper.

"I knew Gideon had a strategy and it was bothering me how relaxed Abaza was. That’s when it clicked for me."

"So it was all a chess game," Reid chuckled.

"We won this round, but you heard him. Jihad never ends."

Reid moved his queen to the corner. Gideon moved his rook into position.

"Mate."

"I quit," Spencer smiled. "Yield. Surrender. Capitulate. I'm gonna take a nap." Piper turned the page of her book.

"Prentiss."

"Sir?"

"You play?"

"Yes, sir, I play." Emily smiled as she moved into Reid’s seat.

#spencer reid #jason gideon #emily prentiss #criminal minds #spencer reid x oc #gideon #bau #hotch #aaron hotch hotchner #jj #jennifer jareau #penelope garcia #derek morgan #baby girl #chocolate thunder #bau x oc

18 notes · View notes

breakingbadfics · 3 years

Text

An abandoned toybox and an unused Sandbox

Or...Weird Quircks

So in TSR’s essay I had a section of weird quircks weird narrative decisions that were ultimately pointless but still odd when presented against the whole of the story. Unfrotunately the weird narrative decisions made in Madhouse actually have a weirdly huge impact on the story.

There are (last I checked) 920 pokemon

Comic!Lily has about 10 pokemon, but the story never really leaves her house so we never truly get to see what the rest of the world looks like. This creates a sort of “lamp character” effect where any and all of the pokemon that do show up in the comic can be replaced with an equivalent real world animal and change very little about the story, and further the few rare instances of pokemon that you can’t sub out for animals can be swapped for humans or an alien and ultimately nothing changes. In fact there’s huge swathes of narrative where you never see a pokemon that isn’t Gardevoir.

and that’s just the beginning

The Pokemon League has a law enforcement branch that has an inordinant amount of reach, and C!Lily used to be a member up until an accident resulted in her being forced into resigning after Gardevoir committed an act of violence.

The Gardevoir breed itself is on the verge of going extinct

Despite having a “subject 0″ they use for scientific research the phenomenon known as a “psychic mating bond” is still mostly not understood primarily because the humans who have them will be put in jail for confessing to being in one.

C!Lily’s girlfriend C!Ginger is a pokemon gym leader.

The story establishes the existence of a multiverse of alternate timelines that diverge off various points in C!Lily’s life.

This story is filled to the brim with all sorts of things that would make for the base of a very interesting webcomic. Especially one as broad and open as a Slice Of Life comic.

which is of course why almost all of the things I’ve talked about just now exists exclusively as trivia facts in a wiki that Lily Orchard keeps that anyone can look through on the blog page for the webcomic.

Further there’s moments of foreshadowing that feel like they’re meant to forewarn us of things to come in later story arcs, that have not paid off at all.

Silph Co found out entirely on accident that they’re cloning tech can brute force create human/pokemon hybrids. a scientist from said facility has an angry grudge against the cast. The fact that pokemon hybrids can exist at all in any capacity was not only not explored, but directly refused any discourse from the writer herself, as has the presence of a scientist with an axe to grind really had any real impact on the story.

Even moments in the story feel disjointed and disconnected and seem to be written with a detachment that implies the writer can’t really be interested in them new characters show up and immediately blend away into the background.

There’s an elephant in the room that may get it’s own section of essay in it’s own right.

There are two Shiny Gardevoir featured in the story, one of which the wiki entry for reads like the kind of thing someone who has never been able to get a shiny pokemon would write in order to convince themself it’s not worth it.

Further still, C!Lily is stated to have been investigated multiple times by pokemon leage officers, the fact that the big source of conflict in the story is only ever just barely kept secret there is basically no real consequences to just sucking at hiding the secret.

Lily Orchard seems almost dedicated to the idea of making sure the story never deviates from the very specific niche that shewants it to occupy. and while “knowing what your story is about” is not a bad thing and being able to keep the story grounded in the baseline plot is a good thing to be able to do....it kind of falls apart when the story is at it’s core, Misery Porn.

6 notes · View notes

marisandini-chu-blog · 3 years

Text

Disaster Review: Fate the Winx Saga

This is my review on Fate: the winx saga and tell you what a dumpster truck that show is.

I would like to first disclaim that my view on this show was based on the first episode that I watched blindly going in and immediately decided it deserved to be dropped.

Because by God, it was bad.

Not the worst thing that ever graced the netflix platform but rebooting the childhood show I loved into a Riverdale-esque teenage fantasy drama show was enough to make me gacked.

If you like the show, good for you. But don’t expect to change my mind by asking me to give it a second look. Because there are, oh, so many problems just from the first episode that I cannot look past it for another episode.

Putting aside the middle-aged fashion they used on supposed teenage girls. The dim lighting from start to finish makes you think the place was ever foggy and drab. The boring-ass setting like a Harry Potter rip-off. The explicit and implicit drug using and sex scenes of supposed minors on screen. The WHITEWASHING!!!

I can get past most of that (except the last part but that's a social/casting issue rather than writing.) I'm a simple gal, as long as the show hit two points; characters and plot, then I'm happy.

But they can't even do that.

Because I'm nice and this is only the first episode, I'll only point out three things that miffed me. Oh, and spoiler alert.

So ONE.

THEY DID STELLA DIRTY!!!!

Honestly this one reason is enough to drop the show altogether because they made fashionista, compassionate, talented Stella into a stereotypical RICH BLONDE BITCH!!

There's no problem in reimagining a character, but the least they can do is be creative about it and not be disgustingly out of character.

It took one scene during the time Stella side-eyed the new girl, Bloom while conversing with Sky. Barely five minutes into the show. I knew from that one scene she was going to be the stuck-up bitch with a secretly heart of gold, who has a tragic background and will spend at least half the season going through redemption and becoming one of Bloom's best friends.

IT TOOK ONE SCENE FOR ME TO PIN HER! ONE!!!

Do you know how boring of an introduction it has to be when you can spot on guess a character troupe in a glance?

And God, I hope that I was proven wrong. And I check other reviews to make sure of it. But apparently having a character arc of a decently beautiful, talented blonde girl as a baseline is too much to ask from a cis white male.

Because what drama can you get if you don't have that one redemption blonde bitch in a group? It's like he doesn't know what teenage girls in a clique are like. Shocker!

It’s like they’re trying to recreate a RWBY dynamic only Rooster Teeth actually did their job better.

To make matters worse, they had to throw in a freaking love triangle. As if you can't make anything dark, dramatic, and gritty, than a freaking love triangle in the very first episode. PLUS, they had to use the guy, ex-boyfriend, Sky, to prove Stella wasn't the bitch like the whole episode had portrayed her to be. As if you don't need to put cliche on top of cliche, they just had to do that.

Then one to number TWO, Bloom's relationship with her parents.

As background goes with Bloom being a Changeling and her parents not realizing they're not related, I have no problem.

I do have a problem with the portrayal of their relationship.

See, at the start they just have a casual video call with them. At a glance there's no problem other than the secret keeping.

Then later on, Bloom tells Aisha she doesn't get along well with her mother. Okay, no big deal.

Then there's a flashback of a 'teenager' moment of the mother calling her daughter a "weirdo" since she has no friends which sets Bloom off, Bloom slamming the door on her mother, the door gets confiscated, then Bloom sets her parents room on fire by accident with her power.

Err, okay. So typical communication issues between parent and child. I don't see how the scene can consider them "not get along" because apparently 16 years living with your mother and that one scene was enough to consider them to be in a bad relationship.

Basically, there's almost no emotional impact in her backstory and generally, I think it's a stupid reason to get so mad that you accidentally burn your mom. Maybe because I'm Asian, but when you slam the door to your mother's face then you don't deserve that door. That's like a slap on the face to your elder and that's a major no-no.

Whatever, back to the story.

Later, Bloom went back to Earth from the Otherworld and called them while sneaking around their house. Having doubts in learning to be a fairy until she saw her mother's burn on her arm and solidify her resolve to learn to be a fairy.

I watched that scene and felt… nothing.

The heartfelt scene was directed and written decently enough but still the scene felt hollow to me. Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, I know. Maybe because around 15 minutes ago, Bloom freaking said WE DON'T GET ALONG!!!

This might be a minor thing but it matters to me because I watched the resolution of the minor conflict of that first episode and the message the dialogues and scene implied is that Bloom feels too guilty to stay.

I freaking know the scene implied that Bloom loves her parents. I'm freaking saying it wasn't shown that way. Like… how am I supposed to be sympathetic to the main character when her main motivation is guilt instead of love. It would certainly help if during the most honest moment of Bloom; she would say something about loving her mom or her parents, about wanting to protect them from herself, heck or CRY EVEN!

Instead we have Bloom practicing her fire magic through emotionally fueling herself with the memory of her almost burning her mom.

Exactly what part of that scene showed she felt remorse or love if she's willing to use the supposed traumatic-memory on the first day of school?!?!

I'm just… urgh.

Then there's the THIRD problem, it's the most insignificant problem and not about writing but I want to talk about it anyway. The magic.

Specifically, the absentee of magic.

So Bloom goes to school in the Otherworld called Alfea. So implying it's a magical place for fairies, right? So you imagine lots of fantastical setting and magic right?

Yeah, decent amount on the latter but almost non-existent on the former.

So the characters do magic, that's plainly shown enough through the fairies and the Burn One, which is the big bad monster of the show. But it's a large peeve of mine that Netflix has enough budget to CGI the girls but not the setting.

Because you know the moment Bloom became the second student sneaking out of the barrier that, you know, must be there for a reason (the security is hopeless there). She looked around the plain forest, looked up and saw a glittering silhouette of a bird or some kind. Smiled as if she's just seen the most amazing thing. Then… nothing. That's it. You get glitter shadow as proof she's in a magical forest and the producer thought they should call it a day. Exactly what's so magical about that?

Even if there's a more magical aspect in the setting of future episodes. It doesn't make what they did forgivable. First episode is supposed to be a moment where you hook the audience through the characters and setting.

If you want a great example of a fantastical school setting, look no further; Sky High and Harry Potter did an awesome job!

Harry Potter can make things magical without much CGI, shown with the disappearing glass, overwhelming letters, pig tails, and Platform nine three-quarters. Most of them mainly used props or just video editing and they look fantastical!

The introduction of the school, Sky High showed what teenagers with superpowers would do. Teasing, wrecking havoc, and generally have fun with their powers like any teenagers would do. In Winx Saga, the magic was introduced through lighting a room, almost choking a guy to death, squashing a forest fire, burning your mom's hand when you get teenage angst.

The teenagers instead look like having fun when taking selfies or during a party. With almost no magic presence.

Are you even trying to even make a magic school? This is the freaking first episode, its job is to establish a solid setting and background and it did the job poorly.

Yeah, that's my take on the horrible, horrible decision that is Netflix to use their budget.

#review #disaster review #fate #fate: the winx saga #the winx saga #the winx club #netflix #why netflix why???#marisandini #rant

3 notes · View notes

animatedminds · 4 years

Text

Scoob! Review

Apologies: I watched the movie two weeks ago, but forgot to write this because I was so busy doing the Dragonball FighterZ thing. But, with that out of the way...

An interesting ride. As a longtime Scooby Doo fan, it was pretty much a given that I would watch this installment by the Warner Animation Group as soon as possible, and I had a pretty good time - albeit with some issue. It’s a fun Scooby adventure, mostly focusing on Scooby and Shaggy, as they go on a new kind of adventure. It’s full of fun references, super charmingly animated action scenes, and lots of humor that actually nails the characters’ goofball antics without diminishing them as the butt of the joke - which is something the previous theatrical series was hit or miss about - which which is also hampered by the fact that it doesn’t really give itself enough time or space to really make any of those things shine.

Spoilers, but only a couple.

The first thing we ever heard about this movie years ago was that it was conceived as a dramatic retool of Scooby Doo into a out-and-out spy series, in order to set up a Hanna Barbera cinematic universe a la the MCU (which, given that they already had a shared universe they could adapt in Future Quest, hit a little hard), giving the impression that Scooby was going to be a pastiche of James Bond. It’s very obvious from the finished product that this concept was since heavily changed, but you still see it in the film. The gang is still the same-old gang - a bunch of kooky teen mystery solvers - but plotwise it’s very much “what if instead of solving a mystery, the gang just fought a supervillain?” Which, let’s be clear, is not unheard of for the franchise: see Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for another story that’s mostly just “fight a cool bad guy, with a tacked on mystery,” or the other Shaggy and Scooby-centric stuff like Ghoul School or Reluctant Werewolf for other movies that just plain eschew their usual setting entirely - this is a lot like those. It’s centered around the two characters’ relationship, like pretty much every theatrical Scooby release it seems, as this new challenge almost breaks their union, and the group as usual does very well in that kind of action. Faced with an army of dimwitted robots that can go from silly to terrifying multiple times in the same scene, Scoob and Shag’s typical mix of silly bumbling with surprisingly - and destructively - clever antics make for some great scenes, my favorite being a madcap chase through an amusement park that ends with them getting away on a ferris wheel that’s been knocked of its hinges.

This is very much a movie that wants to be a Hanna Barbera crossover, but is trying hard to restrain itself. As a kid Shaggy was a fan of the Impossibles (who, iirc, were once intended to get a movie as part of this universe) with models and posters that the camera never completely focuses on, you see Laff-a-Lympics on an arcade machine, references to classic Scooby writers and actors as location names (I laughed at Messick Mountain, and the Takamoto Bowl outright went over my head at first), even little things like Scooby bowling like Fred Flintstone or the blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Yankee Doodle Pigeon - and yes, Captain Caveman shows up, fully voiced by Tracy Morgan and kicking butt for a very short scene, with one of his show’s supporting characters (Dee Dee Skyes) as a prominent in this movie’s plot. There’s even musical references in addition to visible ones: at one point, the movie even orchestrates one of the classic bits of Scooby Doo background music. I was hoping for a reference to the classic Scooby Doo / Blue Falcon theme, but alas that was one nod we didn’t get.

However, this approach does work especially well with Blue Falcon - who was originally built up through Scooby Doo, sharing a timeslot, advertisement and technically a theme song, and in time has more or less become to Scooby Doo what Donkey Kong is to Mario: technically a supporting character, but able to do his own stuff every once in a while. There have been several Blue Falcon Scooby Doo crossovers in the last few years (though in terms of sheer number of references this movie’s got nothing on Mask of the Blue Falcon), and they’ve all been very fun as each show, movie or comic reinterpreted the character to fit their specific world - and this movie’s novice Blue Falcon who is kind of an egoistical loser, but turns out to have a lot to learn even from Scooby and Shaggy’s brand of cowardly bravery, grows on you even if he has kind of a rough initial landing.

Unfortunately, this is also a movie that very much wants that rigid hour and a half timeslot, and has absolutely no interest in a going a second longer - and that’s where it’s problems come in. I’ve said before that animated films have become more and more written with expediency in mind: plot points are rushed, denouements are minimized, side or even main characters might not get much utilization, and sometimes things come of as just kind of happening to the protagonists without much set-up. Even the best or the best animation companies fall into these traps at times, and this movie is a good example of what it looks like if you fall into that too much. Take the Scooby gang - Velma, Daphne, and Fred. They’re not really fleshed out that much in this movie, even if they were tweaked a bit with their new VAs - but that’s not necessarily a problem in itself, given the heavy focus on Scooby and Shaggy. What’s more noticeable is where this intersects the plot: for example - one of the better examples of what I’m talking about - the scene that kicks off the whole story. Fred, Velma and Daphne want to expand Mystery Inc, and call Simon Cowell to invest in them. Cowell decides Scooby and Shaggy are incompetent because reasons, and the two storm off. This is later framed as the gang abandoning the duo, that’s not really what happens. Once Cowell hits the scene, beyond one or two lines the rest of the gang essentially ceases to exist, and barely reacts to anything: there’s no moments with them where they seem to buy into what Cowell is saying, there’s nothing beforehand that implies that they’re dissatisfied with Scooby and Shaggy, there’s isn’t even really a status quo for what their dynamic is like. We cut straight from them meeting as kids to them having a supposed fight as adults - this is something that wouldn’t have taken a lot of time, but would have strengthened pretty much everything, from Scooby and Shaggy’s reaction to the trio’s guilt later, but is skipped over entirely. The others get very little beyond being summed up as “the muscle” (Fred), “the face” (Daphne) and “the brains” (Velma), and it feels less like expediency and more like we missed a scene somewhere.

Granted, this particular thing also runs a unique problem that the Scooby gang face. As characters who just turned fifty and who are well entrenched in pop culture, adaptations often assume you know who they already - and this movie definitely assumes you can do its work for it and establish a baseline for the Scooby gang on your own... and on that front, I suppose it does better than the previous film series, which based a lot of its humor on fandom in-jokes they poorly assumed everyone agreed with. But... there’s a degree to which every film needs to establish a baseline for that it itself to trying to do, and I think skipping this hurt the film more than it should have. And it’s hardly the only point where the need for speed cuts out the flow of the film. Scooby and Shaggy get abducted by Blue Falcon, whose assistant then promptly exposits on everything the audience doesn’t know yet about the plot so that they can just skip straight to more action - basically setting up a question and then answering it immediately without set-up. This essentially robs Dick Dastardy - definitely the best thing about the movie - of a strong introduction, in favor of, again, expediency, and it’s kind of baffling given that there’s later scenes where the rest follows the mystery and so repeats that exposition anyway. I mentioned that Blue Falcon himself got a rough initial landing, and that’s because his intro scene is just a lot of new element popping in with exposition, interspersed with pop culture references - and that exposition just stops the whole thing cold for a while. We hit again the “expects you to know” angle with Falcon himself, who is a legacy character of the original Falcon - who we never see, which raises the question of why they bothered to make him a legacy and not just a novice hero in the first place. I’ve always been a strong believer that you can introduce elements without needless explanation unless who introduce concepts that suggest explanation: Scoob and Shag being a fan of the original Blue Falcon, Dynomutt constantly reminiscing about him, and there being a full Falcon organization around which the movie pivots, along with lots of reference, suggest the need for at least a little more than we got - even if it’s just a thirty clip of the way Blue Falcon worked before Brian (the new Falcon) came along - but the movie just wants to rush past it. The entire quest on which the plot is centered it halfway through when we first encounter it, and doesn’t get any explanation at all until halfway through the movie. And then there’s little things like Captain Caveman cameo, which just leave you wanting more.

This happens again and again, with plot points, characters, all sorts - things introduced halfway and then brushed past as though they’re not. People don’t expect much from animated movies, and stuff like this is one of the reasons why - this movie feels sometimes like it was written for tv, which is ironic given how it ended up being released. But the movies that were themselves DTV or released to TV, like Shaggy’s Showdown or Legend of the Phantasaur, the aforementioned Mask of the Blue Falcon or - my perosnal favorite - Moon Monster Madness, even tend to not have these problems themselves, because they’re more measured and precise about what they want to introduce and why. It’s great to be childish, as long you do childish well.

But now that the criticism portion of the review is done, I will say that this doesn’t hamper the movie’s desire to be fun and easy to follow, it just makes it not as much so as it clearly could have been. If you wanted more Falcon, or more Scooby and Shaggy, more Mystery Inc shenangians, more Dastardly, more adventure, more of a certain gag or humor, more of really any of the movie’s best points, you weren’t getting them that much because the movie was trying to do all of them all at once. But one the movie starts getting traction, about halfway through, that starts to fade as everything coalesces. All the characters meet, we finally know what the heck is going on, and it’s just a straight shot to the end with lots of what this movie does best: cool visuals, silly characters doing silly things, and brave characters doing brave things. Much as I wish there was more to the Captain Caveman segment, it’s one of the most visually hilarious parts of the movie, with the stark contrast of these hi-tech, modern character colliding with these explicitly more cartoony prehistoric designs and antics, and its just wonderful. Everything about Dick Dastardly’s story is great - though I was wishing for a Penelope Pitstop reference - and he even gets a heartwarming conclusion to the whole thing.

I don’t know where the series is going after this - whether they do indeed intend to make more Hanna Barbera movies in this vein. The credits teased Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr, Grape Ape (who according to concept art was supposed to be in this one), Atom Ant, and even a bit of Wacky Races, and it’s clear they have the love for classic Hanna Barbera to make it happen. I just hope that if they do, they go with a series who can expand this in a more concise way, with a little better character introduction. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Future Quest.

The film is still very recommended by me. I loved it, I watched it twice, and it a heck of a lot of fun even with its hang-ups. If you haven’t seen it, there are worse ways for a parent, a kid, or just a big ol’ child at heart to spend an afternoon.

#scooby doo #scoob #movie review #animation review #shaggy #daphne blake #velma dinkley #fred jones #hanna barbera #warner animation group #blue falcon #dynomutt #dick dastardly #animated film #review #animated minds

15 notes · View notes

empressxmachina · 4 years

Link

“Take Cover” by me

A Pre-Shoot Conversation: "Hold the damn phone. Where did you get that cap? V has merch!?" "Uh, yeah? You didn't know that? Heiress, you're on the fucking board. How did you not know that?" "No, I meant, 'It's for public distribution now?' Don't get me wrong; I want some. But you're kind of lowering the exclusivity of the club with it, aren't you?" "By wearing stuff that only staff and patrons can get? On a magazine that only my people and a literal handful of otherworldly patrons will see? Heh, I'm gonna go with 'Nah.'

(commentary and references under the fold)

I like this piece more than I probably should. I almost put on a filter because the side-/underboobs and a deep-V bikini bottom can be a lot - plus, the filter hides the pun of it all - but nah. Let their eyes enchant you from the get-go, but I'm sure DA will say if it's too much for whatever reason. Why did it take me nine months after this piece being finished to give Jasper a shirt? Themes, of course! But this one was saucier - hotter? - so bare skin is fine. I'd usually put no shirt over a shirt, to be honest. Then again, suits exist. Anyway, I had found the base pic with the big guy, and the idea to make it a mag cover came immediately. Making its model look more like my/a vision of Jasper's face (except the stylistic lack of solely-for-fashion glasses) wasn't too hard; the same goes for Erin's. But, wow, blending sucks. At least him being a literal, shapeshifting, alien escort (one of many parts of the 'actual' science his title implies) is a buffer for any visual flaws. On the bright side, I found a free equivalent to the Viridian logo's font I had 'found' and finessed to make it before, so now ads can look even more official! I probably should've added some drop shadows to the text, but the matte look is nice, too. I'm proud of myself, especially many of Erin's shadows. Tasteful and Suit(e). Click to read/view more of the namesake story universe if you dare. TFW You'd Let Both of the OCs Ravage You Consensually ~Autodesk Sketchbook ~Viridian logo by me ~big boy ~beard ~bitty body ~bitch face circa January 2020. ~Yes, I settled on his Earth surname being part-Dutch. (I think it's Dutch?) If I ever get to it, you'll read the convoluted reason why in writing. ~Yes, this Erin's face is the same as the first model for Erin. (Halloween Erin was made up and beat like crazy, canonically, to explain the difference.) On the other hand, this model's face is the same as Halloween Jasper but a different pose and different facial hair. Consistency can be good. ~As the mag captions caption, this is not their usual scale difference. When they're not 1:1 on Earthly terms or some ungodly ratio on others, the magicless baseline between their species would be 1:14.4, averaged between the Gulliver's Travels ratio (1:12) and Borrowers (1:18). They look like they're at a 1:5-ish scale, here: somewhat uncommon in this niche but still liked by me.

#g/t #my art #take cover #sw #giant male #male giant #magazine cover #look at these hot whores

2 notes · View notes

storyunrelated · 3 years

Text

Ice cream and robots

A while ago I put on here a thing that no-one cared about. Surprise!

Basically, it’s first person fluff about a guy who is friends with living-machines who are...things...that I came up with some time. Whatever. Human and non-humans again, from me, what a shock.

And this is much more of the same - first person fluff about ice cream and watching robots fight and a semi-awkward conversation.

Which I’m putting here out of SHEER, SCREAMING BOREDOM.

Ice cream and robots

“Here you go.”

I heard this, but it went in and out because I was distracted. It wasn’t until I got my elbow nudged that I finally noticed and my brain caught up and processed what I’d heard. I jumped, and looked round.

I was being offered ice cream.

“Ah, thank you. Sorry, miles away,” I said, taking the ice cream. It was one of those little pots with a plastic spoon, rather than a cone. Ideally a cone was preferred but, really, ice cream was lovely whatever way you happened to receive it.

“That’s cool,” said Jenny, flapping by my elbow. “Can I sit down?” She asked.

“By all means,” I said and she flapped a little more before swooping up and settling down on my shoulder. There was a quiet clinking sound as her wings folded up and her legs took a firmer grip, but that was about all. She weighed so little I barely even noticed her being there.

“Thanks. I was starting to get tired,” she said. I licked my plastic spoon clean before replying. Jenny had got me chocolate with sauce and everything. This was another one of the reasons why Jenny was a great friend to have, on top of the fact she could fly ice cream to you wherever you were, too.

“Think nothing of it. I think you got back in time. Think they’re about to start,” I said.

The festival had a lot of stuff going on, but one of the things I’d been a little keen on seeing was a robot fight. I’d heard about them before, seen one or two online, but seeing one actually happen in front of me was a tantalising prospect. I imagined the experience to be loud. One of those things as much felt as seen and heard.

“Ooh yeah, I see them,” Jenny said, leaning forward, another claw reaching out to steady herself as she did so, tugging on my t-shirt. The shoulders of all of them I’d had to repair so many times at this point. Jenny had quite pointy little legs. It was fine though. Worse things had happened.

“They big?” I asked. Her eyes were better than mine. More numerous, too.

“They big,” she said, leaning back again.

I took another tiny mouthful of delicious ice cream and thought for a moment.

It was the development of a thought that had been swishing around my head since I decided to come and see the robot fight and since Jenny had semi-invited herself along. The thought had been bubbling away on the back-burner, unsettling me without really telling me why, until now, when it started gaining form.

“I hope this doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” I said.

That threw her. She thought for a moment too and then I saw her turn to me out the corner of my eye.

“What?” She asked,

I gestured to the pit in front of us. A serious pit. Had spikes around the outside and everything.

“This. The fight.”

“Why would it?”

I felt we were perhaps approaching this from different angles.

“Well I know they’re not exactly the same as you, but-” I started, but Jenny beat me to the conclusion and decided she didn’t want me finishing.

“They’re not the same at all. They’re robots. Dumb things built to do this. I’m a living-machine. You do remember, right?”

How could I forget?

I persevered. I didn’t want to abandon my point. If I did, all of my thinking would have been for nothing and I would have been a fool! Or so ran my defensive logic at anyrate. Nothing as painful as wasted effort.

“Yes but a lot of what goes into you has been put into them, right?” I asked.

She grumbled. Technically speaking this was true. Technically speaking. Living-machines had been generous with some of their more mysterious mechanisms and this had done much to bolster the field of robotics. Unsurprising, really.

“Would you be uncomfortable watching monkeys fight?” She asked.

“Honestly? Yes. That would make me uncomfortable.”

I mean, it would. Wouldn’t it for everyone? Excepting the type of people who’d push their own mother down the stairs just to hear what noises she made, of course. Such people existed. They were out there. But they were hardly a reliable baseline for moral behaviour.

Jenny seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me. She did this a lot. Or did I think along the same lines as her a lot? Sometimes it was hard to tell.

“Okay, bad example. Would you feel uncomfortable watching two sides of meat with knives strapped to them being slammed into each other?” She asked.

This image was unexpected, to say the least.

“...no”, I said, eventually. “Confused, yeah, but not really uncomfortable as such.”

“There you go. It’s about the same level as that.”

She went quiet following this, and I got the sneaking suspicion I had upset her.

That didn’t make me feel so great.

For some reason, upsetting someone by doing something motivated specifically by your desire to not upset them was much, much worse than just being a dick and getting a response.

Or maybe that was just me.

I had worried about me being there to watch this as coming across to her as insensitive, and in expressing and attempting to contain this worry I had managed to be insensitive. The irony! Or hubris? Or both?

“Sorry if I upset you,” I said, making to keep eating my ice cream but stopping myself before the spoon reached its destination - a swine such as me didn’t deserve ice cream!

Jenny then poked me in the side of the head.

“Ow,” I said.

“You didn’t upset me. And sorry for poking you, didn’t mean to do it that hard. It’s just - ugh - I don’t like that whole conversation. It’s just so obvious to me but everyone else is always wringing their hands about it.”

“Wanted to avoid putting my foot in it and managed to do so anyway. That’s me all over,” I said.

“Oh shush, you,” Jenny said, clambering up the side of my head and settling herself on top. This she did typically to make a point, though in this instance I think it might have been to get a better view. You ever say anything dumb I’ll tell you. Until then stop worrying. Now just enjoy the fight.”

“Zug zug, boss.”

“That’s better.”

Later, I got brained by the head of one of the robots after it got punched off its neck and flew up out of the pit to hit me in the face. I came to on the floor surrounded by concerned looking people and one nigh-distraught Jenny, who did her best to hug me when she saw I wasn’t actually hurt beyond what turned out to be a broken nose.

Was pretty sick, actually.

If painful.

#What #Amwriting #Writblr #Writeblr #Writing

6 notes · View notes

shemakesmusic-uk · 4 years

Photo

Getting to Know...

Ruby Ryan.

You Could Move In, the debut EP from New Brunswick, NJ singer-songwriter Ruby Ryan, opens with a big beat. Before long, the rhythm track is joined by a melancholy – but gritty – electric guitar riff. In a few quick strokes, a mood is established: longing, urgent, expectant, a little lovelorn, more than a little pugnacious, forward-looking. It's stark, and unadorned, and emotionally bare; once you start listening, it's hard to stop. A full half-minute elapses before Ryan starts singing, but she makes an indelible impression when she does. Ryan has a voice with enough tensile strength to carry sadness and determination simultaneously. She doesn't have to try to be powerful; she just is.

The best place to start with Ruby Ryan might be 'Phosphenes,' an exercise in straight-ahead, doomed romantic storytelling. Everything about the track feels absolutely real: the plaintive lyrics, the missed connections with the object of the narrator's desire, the stinging six-string, and the catch in the singer's voice as she expresses her hope and her frustration. Anybody who has ever harbored unrequited affection – or who has just found themselves caught in a difficult and ambiguous relationship – will surely relate.

Ruby Ryan also understands the beauty and desolation of the suburbs. Her clip for 'Phosphenes' is suffused with the distinctive feeling of suburbia in the autumn: leaves are falling, flowers are withering on their stems, a crisp breeze is blowing, and the sands are running out. Ryan and her directorial partner Alex Tichy follow the romantic drama of a young couple whose emotions are impossible to disguise – and that's because they're both wearing enormous heads made of plaster and paint. The contrast between the quotidian suburban surroundings and the fantastic characters who inhabit these streets creates much of the clip's tension, and it's also a sly commentary. When you're young and in love, you really do feel larger than life – and utterly exposed, too.

Watch the video for 'Phosphenes' below and also read our Q&A with Ruby all about You Could Move In, her influences, creative process and more.

Hi Ruby! How have you been? What are you doing to stay sane during this pandemic?

"I am okay. I work at a grocery store full time, so I’m not even sane, I’m just getting through the pandemic. I spend time hanging out with and missing the people I love. I look at and water my plants, and listen to records, and do a lot of cooking and eating. But mostly I’m working, or sending an email."

How did you get into music? Who did you grow up being influenced by?

"My mom will tell you I’ve been making up songs and singing to myself since I was such a small child. I don’t know how she was never driven cray by me, I was always singing just making stuff up, singing my thoughts basically. She’s very musical and she and my grandmother have surrounded me with music my whole life. Whether it was putting me in piano lessons, or seeing my grandmother sing, I was always in a position to feel inspired musically, by them.

"I played in band through all of school, 5th grade through senior year. I played the bassoon, which looking back, was the best thing ever. I loved it. But I didn’t keep it up in college because I was scared of going to school to perform music with an ensemble. I thought the expectations would be really high, and feared I couldn’t learn quickly enough or be good enough to keep up. Or that I might let people down.

"Right after my freshman year of college is when I decided to try writing and playing songs with a guitar. I’d had one for a few years but then (even now, honestly) didn’t know much besides open chords and how to play some Jeff Buckley songs I learned on Youtube. That first year of college though it felt like I was shriveling up, I had no outlet for this musical creativity and it was really getting to me. I had met this friend Phil, and he and I decided to start writing music and later form a band (Old Joy) together. We continued on with that for a couple years, and I left that project last fall.

"I think my mom played only good music when I was growing up. We listened to the radio and CD’s in the car, and I can’t remember specifically which artists but I’m sure she could. I consider the influences I grew up listening to to be the people I listened to and felt really intensely when I was discovering that I wanted to write music.

"It’s a lot of stuff I latch onto lyrically, and sonically. I’m like “how’d they make me feel like that using just a little tap? or strum? or word?” and then I want to learn more or crack open how to make people feel intensely like I do. People like the Carpenters, Bon Iver, The Japanese House, Phoebe Bridgers and Jeff Buckley. Pretty much if an artist could make me wonder “how did they find words for a feeling, so specifically, and do it so elegantly before I knew what to call it?” they’re an influence of mine. I’ve cried and learned how to come home to myself while listening to each of those artists."

You've just released your debut EP You Could Move In. What's the record about and what does it mean to you?

"The record is about dealing with losing people and trying to figure out where I belong. My life feels like a revolving door of people who mean the world to me, just entering and exiting, entering and exiting. This record is written from a place in me that uses my time spent in constant motion as time to process or unravel my feelings. I kind of use driving as a coping mechanism. I’ve written most of these songs while in a car. I’ll either be writing a lyric on the back of a receipt at a stop light or making an audio recording of a blip of sound or a word I don’t want to forget, but they’re almost always while I’m driving. I’m just thinking a lot when I’m driving, trying to put words to what the heck is going on.

"This thing means everything to me, somehow. It feels so vulnerable for it to be out. It’s my first solo release, too. So I can’t hide, there’s no way these words are someone else’s. Everyone knows it’s me, and this is what I’m feeling or going through or went through. It’s a lot. I wrote these songs as a way to process and get through some really tricky stuff. Having these songs out feels like I’m willingly showing everyone home videotapes of my processing my own pain and my own struggles."

Take us through your songwriting/creative process.

"Playing with an instrument in an ensemble, a piece that’s been written and should be played with so much respect for the music and the composer, is a lot of pressure. I would get so anxious. It always meant a lot to me, like it was a high honor to know how to play it, and have the opportunity to be a part of giving life to someone else music. But it was a lot of anxiety, trying to make sure it was right all the time. And it never was, like I’d mess up and be down on myself, which I think is normal. Deciding to write music and play it by/for myself was a life changing decision. I didn’t even know it was possible to feel good like this. I can make something up, (which usually I have to because I don’t know how to play the guitar) and it can sound good. I can remember it and be good at playing it because I made it up, and I don’t have to follow anyone else standards or rules, or impress anyone, it’s just me. Of course I want to do it well and hold myself to a certain standard when I’m playing. I’m really hard on myself. But I don’t have to cry if I mess up a note or sing a wrong word, it can just be funny because it’s only me.

"My process is, I’ll be driving or falling asleep at night and come up with a line or lyric, and keep a running note or journal of them all. Literally I have to inspire myself to life my head up off the pillow and pick up the phone and write it down. I can’t tell you how many lyrics I’ve had ideas for and thought to myself “oh that’s so good, oh thats so catchy, you’ll never forget it” and then I don’t write it down, and now I’ve completely forgotten them. But I keep a running note until it’s massive. Like as long as a jump rope, and then i’ll shuffle them around and make poems, or find ways they connect and then glue them together.

"Sometimes when a melody comes to me (rare) I play the kazoo into a voice recording to remember how it goes. That can become a baseline, a guitar riff or a vocal melody, but thats the only way i can figure out instrumental’s for songs. Then I pick up a guitar or most likely go to a piano, and have to figure out what the notes are by ear, then the key and the chord progression. I don’t know chords or what notes are what on the guitar, so usually it’s just trial and error until I find on the strings or keys what I hear. I have to work backwards and learn how to play what I hear in my brain. It’s a very long and difficult process, and often discouraging. It feels so good though then its complete and written, like this big confused thing I can’t put words to, is finally allowed to exist outside my head and have its own space."

Finally, what's next for you?

"I have no idea. I work at a grocery store, I graduated undergrad straight into a global pandemic, there is no map in my hand, there’s not even a direction I’m walking in. I just hope people like my music. I’m going to keep doing this. It feels really good to make music and share it, I’d follow this feeling anywhere. Especially since I’m not on my way anywhere specific at the moment."

youtube

You Could Move In is out now.

#getting to know #ruby ryan #phosphenes

1 note · View note

hardlyfatal · 5 years

Text

gary’s writing workshop: lesson 4: showing vs. telling

The main way a writer tells, rather than shows, is when they inform the reader that the narrator is experiencing an emotion or sensing something instead of describing it; or they describe it, but with mundane and bland words that communicate how the character feels without without any effective emotional impact.

Everything we perceive is sensed somehow; that’s how organisms acquire information. Our primary sense is vision, then hearing, then touch. Smell and taste are not so often the bearers of important information, but but when they are, they can have an enormous impact.

And most of the things we perceive spark an emotion of some sort. Humans are very binary creatures; we tend to define things as present vs. absent. If we like something, we want it all the time, and its presence feels good and its absence feels bad. If we dislike something, we don’t want it, ever, and its presence makes us feel bad, and its absence good.

I know this seems elementary, but stick with me.

Within the umbrella terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are myriad terms you can use to elaborate. The awesomest thing about the English language that, since it’s basically half-a-dozen other languages stacked under a raincoat trying to pass themselves off as a single cohesive tongue, we have multiple vocabularies from which to pick an incredibly precise word or phrase in describing what we mean. Germanic, Latinate, Greek, even Norse-- all have contributed a fantastic array of adjectives and adjectival phrases so if exactly what we mean cannot be found in one, there’s a good chance we can find it in one of the others.

With this at our fingertips, why are people not punching up their narrative and bringing their stories to life, to make their prose spring into our mind’s eye? Why are so many stories delivered with so little hint to how things feel to the characters? Because writers simply haven’t been taught how.

The way to make an impact, to bring the reader along with the character, is to describe how the sense, and the emotion attached to it, manifests in the character.

This issue is another Battle of the Balance, because if you show every emotion instead of telling them, you’ll have an endless mess of a story describing people with each nerve ending a-quiver the entire time. That’s exhausting, and will drive away readers. Heck, you’ll drive yourself away – it’s just too laborious.

But by the same token, you need to bring the reader along with the characters as they bumble their way through life, seething with all the messy emotions and feelings inherent in simply existing. If you skimp on this, you will miss opportunities to connect the reader to the characters, to make the reader care about what happens. If you don’t use words that emotionally affect the reader, they’re left feeling like they’re reading a police report instead of a fictional narrative. We don’t want just the facts, ma’am. We want to experience it along with the characters.

So how do you achieve this balance? It’s very situation-dependent.

When to do it:

You have to train yourself to understand and see when a moment – not necessarily an entire scene – will be an emotional one. Just walking into a room isn’t emotional… unless the room is particularly shabby or grand in a way that evokes emotion in the character, or perhaps someone inside the room is a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise to them. Discoveries, which are often plot points and thus important, are moments that might elicit emotion in the narrative character, and thus could benefit from some showing.

I’m sure you know this already, and take care to include descriptions where pertinent and needed. But are you showing these moments, or are you telling them?

When you describe how something looks, don’t just say it’s lovely; how is it lovely?

From Desperado, the moment Brienne sees Jaime through the jailhouse window:

Then a face appeared on the other side of the glass, and Brienne reeled back with a little scream before she recognized it: those piercing green eyes, that granite-hewn jaw, those sculpted lips, the busted nose that kept him handsome instead of edging into prettiness…

And when Brienne looks at him, does she just flatly recognize he’s handsome, or does his handsomeness elicit some emotional or physical reaction in her?

Brienne took another step back; it was unsafe to be too close to him, for reasons of propriety and sanity and possibly a few other things she hadn’t words for.

“Don’t go,” he said, barely audible through the glass. “Stay and talk to me. It’s so dull in here.”

And then he smiled at her, and Brienne’s heart seized in her chest.

What is shown by the second snippet’s content is particularly important to the purpose of our discussion today. When people are emotional, whether in a positive or negative way, they experience physiological changes. Angry people often narrow their eyes and clench their fists; nervous people might have restless energy or dry mouths and throats.

When an emotionally-fraught moment comes up in your story – indeed, every time a character feels an emotion – go through the five senses. What physical sensation does the emotion cause in their body? What does it look like outwardly? How does it sound and feel? Sometimes even taste and smell can come into it, depending on the emotion.

Here’s the main thing to remember: to show instead of tell, you need to keep a baseline awareness of senses and sensory input going at all times. Whenever a character feels something, think about the situation. Will showing bring a visceral understanding of the moment to the reader? Or will it bog down the narrative because it’s just not that important?

How to do it:

1. Word choice. Have your thesaurus (or thesaurus.com) handy at all times, and instead of the mundane word or phrase you might have chosen, pick a synonym that means basically the same thing, but evokes more of a sensory experience or gives more of a hint of what the person is thinking. In the passage below, where I’ve punched up basically the same thing with more evocative language, I’ve indented instances.

Note: sometimes this means replacing a single word with a phrase, instead. But this not only results in a higher word count – usually a good thing – but often in more elaborate syntax and punctuation, so make sure your line editing/betaing is on point when you do it, to avoid errors. If you have an uncertain grasp of grammar and punctuation, and you don’t have access to a good editor, maybe just stick to straight substitution, word-for-word, instead of expanding from the single adjective to an adjectival phrase, etc.

2. Formatting. With punctuation, emphasis (italics, etc.), paragraph breaks, and pauses, the way you present the words can punch up the emotion and show what’s happening, rather than merely telling. This can be especially effective in dialogue, to indicate pauses as the speaker gathers their thoughts, or stumbles over their words, stammers with nervousness, pauses for impact.

3. Elaboration. Don’t be so concise all the time! Expand on concepts, pinpoint what it is about a situation that’s making the character feel as they do. Give us motivation, contemplation, snippets of history that lead the person to choices and actions and things they say.

Example

Below are two versions of the scene from Desperado where Brienne saves Jaime from hanging by marrying him. It’s not the entire scene, just the pivotal moment where she announces her intention to marry one of the men. The first version is what I published, a version that ‘shows’ what’s happening for peak effectiveness. In the second version, I revised it to ‘tell’ instead.

Note how, in the ‘showing’ version, the word choices make it more visceral, the elaboration spends more time on the emotions Brienne is feeling as well as providing insight to her personality and values and even providing a bit of her history, and the formatting enhances the knowledge that she’s agitated and nervous and struggling.

Original ‘Showing’ Version (word count: 860)

It was time. She had to speak.

It was time.

Now, Brienne.

Now. Now!

“N-no!” she made herself shout. “I invoke the rule of court that commutes a man’s sentence if a woman marries him.”

Judge Baelish’s face contorted in frustration. “What rule of court is this?” he demanded.

Sickeningly aware that the eye of every person in the room was on her, easily hearing the excited whispers coming from all around, Brienne strode forward. She shouldered aside the crowd and thrust the paper in the judge’s face. Baelish snatched it from her hand, his pale eyes darting over it, and a slow flush started at his collar, spreading upward until his entire face was an angry red.

“If you want to see the law book, I’m sure we can… find it and bring it to you,” Brienne told him.

She looked back over the crowd for Sam Tarly. He was there, halfway to the back, bouncing on tiptoes to see over taller persons in front of him, and when he heard her, he waved his arms and shouted, “Yes! I’ve got it!”

“Bring it,” Judge Baelish commanded.

Sam bustled forward and held it out; Sheriff Clegane took it and slapped it onto the judge’s outstretched palm. Baelish opened it to where a slip of paper marked the page, and ran a fingertip down the page until he found the pertinent section. His eyes narrowed as he read, more and more until they were hardly open at all.

Then he lifted his head and shut the book in quick, jerky movements before handing it back to Clegane. Sam took the book back and receded into the crowd.

“Very well. Miss—” he began, his voice glacial.

“Tarth. Brienne Tarth.”

“—Miss Tarth, which of these gentlemen will be your new husband?”

Brienne’s breath sawed in and out of her chest, her lungs heaving so hard they ached. How could she do this?

She thought of who would be left behind, devastated, vulnerable, if he died. Their suffering would be on her conscience for the rest of her life.

How could she not?

She croaked a name, but it was incomprehensible. She licked her lips, swallowed. It didn’t help. She sucked in more air and tried again, louder.

“Jaime Lannister.”

The man in question had hung his head when convicted, not expecting anything but a march to the noose, the very image of dejection. His head snapped up, now, and the dead expression faded from his eyes, replaced by a wild hope. Brienne could only meet his gaze for a second before she flinched away from the force of it.

Behind her, the ballroom had gone absolutely silent for a few seconds that felt like hours. Then, in a rush, everyone started speaking at once. Brienne was sure she could hear Sansa’s voice exclaiming her name.

“I’m sorry,” she said to Jon, her eyes filling with tears. She was the worst friend in the world, the worst person, a liar and a schemer. She didn’t deserve his comprehension, or his forgiveness, but she couldn’t keep from speaking, from trying, anyway. “I’m so sorry, Jon. But his children… they don’t have anyone else. They don’t have anyone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

His eyes were wide, shocked. There had been confusion on his face at first, but it settled into resignation and a sort of exhausted acceptance.

“I understand,” he said wearily. “I don’t blame you.”

Sheriff Clegane unlocked Jaime’s handcuffs. Jaime rubbed his wrists almost absently; his focus was on Brienne, his sharp green eyes not moving from her for a second. She felt profoundly uncomfortable to be the recipient of such attention, but she couldn’t look away, and she couldn’t stop crying.

“Dry your tears, Miss Tarth,” said the judge in his oily tone. “It’s your wedding day.”

Brienne clamped her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, reaching inward for the fortitude which had gotten her through losing her mother and Galladon, which had kept her going when they’d had that bad year a while back and thought they’d have to sell the ranch. She had lived through all of that. She’d live through this, too.

When she opened her eyes, they were dry. Her face was hot, and she knew she was still flushed from crying and likely uglier than she’d ever been in her life. It felt like she should be even more ugly, now, her act of treachery in choosing Jaime instead of Jon showing as a physical mark, a scarlet letter like in that book she’d once read, branded on her cheek to warn others away from her perfidy.

“I’m ready,” she said, her voice flat. An unnatural calm had fallen over her. She’d made her choice; now she had to live with it. A brush against her sleeve alerted her that her betrothed had stepped up beside her. She glanced at him, noting that he was very nearly her match in height. That was something, she supposed.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“Later,” she said. “Let’s… just get this over with.”

He blinked, then nodded. Brienne turned to face forward.

And married him.

Revised ‘Telling’ Version (word count: 550)

Brienne was scared and hesitant to speak, but she made herself do it.

“No!” she shouted. “I invoke the rule of court that commutes a man’s sentence if a woman marries him.”

Judge Baelish looked angry. “What rule of court is this?” he demanded.

Knowing that the eye of every person in the room was on her, hearing the whispers coming from all around, Brienne pushed through the crowd and handed the paper to the judge. Baelish looked it over and turned red in fury.

“If you want to see the law book, I’m sure we can find it and bring it to you,” Brienne told him.

She looked back over the crowd for Sam Tarly. When he heard her, he waved his arms and shouted, “Yes! I’ve got it!”

“Bring it,” Judge Baelish commanded.

Sam came forward and held it out; Sheriff Clegane took it and gave it to the judge. Baelish opened it to where a slip of paper marked the page, reading the pertinent section with narrowed eyes.

Then he slammed the book shut and handed it back to Clegane. Sam took the book and stepped back.

“Very well. Miss—” he began in a cold tone.

“Tarth. Brienne Tarth.”

“—Miss Tarth, which of these gentlemen will be your new husband?”

Brienne felt like she couldn’t breathe. How could she do this?

She thought of who would be left behind if he died. Their suffering would be on her conscience for the rest of her life.

How could she not?

She said a name, but it was incomprehensible. She took a deep breath and tried again.

“Jaime Lannister.”

The man in question had hung his head when convicted, not expecting anything but execution. His head came up, now, and he looked very hopeful. Brienne could only manage to look at him for a moment.

Behind her, the ballroom had gone quiet. Then everyone started speaking at once. Brienne was sure she could hear Sansa’s voice calling her name.

“I’m sorry,” she said to Jon, starting to cry. She felt like a terrible person. She didn’t deserve anything from him but she tried anyway. “I’m so sorry, Jon. But his children don’t have anyone else. I’m sorry.”

He looked shocked. There had been confusion on his face at first, but then it turned to tired acceptance.

“I understand,” he said, seeming tired. “I don’t blame you.”

Sheriff Clegane unlocked Jaime’s handcuffs. Jaime rubbed his wrists while staring at Brienne. She felt strange to have him watch her like that, but she couldn’t look away, and she couldn’t stop crying.

“Dry your tears, Miss Tarth,” said the judge. “It’s your wedding day.”

Brienne closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She’d been through a lot in the past few years. She’d live through this, too.

She soon opened her eyes again.

“I’m ready,” she said calmly. She’d made her choice; now she had to live with it. Jaime came to stand at her side and she noticed they were almost the same height. At least they had that in common.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“Later,” she said. “Let’s just get this over with.”

He nodded, and Brienne turned to face forward.

And married him.

Homework

Take the most emotional moment you’ve ever written and evaluate it for showing vs. telling. Do a side-by-side revision of it, as I did above, marking either where you’ve done well in showing or where you’ve done poorly by telling. Where you’ve done poorly by telling, revise what you have to improve it according to the three methods: better word choice, formatting, and elaboration.

#gary's writing workshop #writing #writing tips #writing resources #writing references

99 notes · View notes