#this is my descent into mad scientist territory

[black-rose-writings]

I've had this idea about how the show would have been massively improved by making one little change.

The show, especially it's second season, feels boring, pointless. The only driving point of the whole season 2 is to yell "Darkling Bad". They obviously don't care about established characters, the worldbuilding or lore. Definitelly not about Grisha oppression.

So, what small change would give even the slightest hint of a point and theme to it all, a theme that transcends the creators' need to shit on their most popular character?

Make Alina Aleksander's daughter.

Narratives about cycles of abuse and generational trauma are really popular these days, so instead of making it a story about shitting on the Darkling, make it a story about how Ilya being a shitty father and a mad scientist literally fucked over the rest of the world. Instead of making the show a story about destruction of Morozova's legacy, make it a story about it's redemption.

(Again, my ideal version of the story would be one that works with the themes, characters and plots of the original books and expands on them in a way LB was too much of an american lib to do, but this is "how to make the show better with as few changes as possible")

First, some tweaks to Alina's backstory to account for this change (well, giving her a backstory pre-Keramzin):

There was a more open conflict with Shu Han like 25 years ago, that required Aleksander's presence. During his stay, he spent a few nights with a local woman (possibly anonymously initially, but she did end up finding out who he was, this is important) of Shu descent (though she considered herself Ravkan). The conflict ends and much of the Dva Stolba valley falls under Shu control, giving more explanation for the tension and racism Alina experiences later. Alina's mother stays in Ravkan territory, because, again, despite her ethnicity, she considers herself to be Ravkan, and a few months after the end of that conflict, she gives birth to Alina. She does attempt to contact Aleksander, wanting him to claim the child, but he initially doesn't, both because it's impractical and because he doesn't really believe he is her father, though he does arrange for her to recieve some money.

A few years pass and Alina starts showing signs of Grisha powers, and her mother attempts to contact Aleksander again, telling him of this. She is unable to explain Alina's powers, because she knows relatively little about Grisha and has no idea how Sun Summoning would present. Aleksander does respond this time and urges Alina's mother to take her to be tested and that it would be safest for Alina to keep her parentage a secret (he still doesn't fully believe Alina is his daughter). Before Alina can be tested, however, the family gets caught in the middle of a Shu raid and Alina's mother (and maybe stepfather) are killed, and she ends up in Keramzin, now having an extra trauma reason to hide her powers (taking some inspiration from Alina's cut pre-Keramzin backstory from season 1).

Now, for the changes in season 1, those would be largely in the form of Aleksander's flashbacks and slow realisation of who Alina is. You can still keep the make-out scene/"romance" bits if you really want, because GSI (genetic sexual attraction, a syndrome/phenomenon where closely related people who have been separated for the vast majority of their life, like through adoption, deadbeat/cheating parents etc. upon meeting as adults develop an attraction to each other) is a real thing, incest in media is also unfortunately popular, of course this fucking family would do it, and antis will enjoy getting even more reason to hate Aleksander.

If we go the non-ew route, there would be some changes to the tent scene (to account for Alina being a living amplifier) and perhaps expanding/adding scenes to the journey to Os Alta, giving room to vocalize some of these differences (like explaining the living amplifier thing earlier). Maybe having Alina saying something that prompts Aleksander to be reminded of her mother, and being confused as to why at first.

Their interractions in season 1 would need to be reframed through the father-daughter lens, but it wouldn't be all that dificult, because it already has mentor-mentee undertones. Ideally, there would be a point somewhere before the Winter Fete, possibly as a catalyst for Alina's breakthrough with her powers, when he tells her who she is. It would give Alina a personal stake in the story, because she clearly doesn't give a fuck about her duties/responsibilities as a Sun Summoner in either version. She doesn't have to destroy the Fold because she's a Sun Summoner, but because she's the descendant of the Black Heretic. She's not just the savior of a country she doesn't give two shits about, but the redemption of her family.

If we want to go the "shit on Aleksander" route, nothing about his interractions with Alina would change all that much and the reveal of her parentage, at least to Alina, would come through Baghra, giving Alina more obvious emotional reason to run away and feel betrayed (especially if the almost-sex-on-the-big-map still happens, because "ew, I almost fucked my dad, who know we're related" would be infinitely more understandable of a reason to run away than what Baghra actually tells her).

Either way, the information that she isn't just a distant descendant of the Black Heretic, but his actual child, that she has a grandmother he didn't bother telling her about, that he told her they were going to redeem their family, when he only planned on continuing his work and using her for it, hits Alina like a truck. Alina going though StuffTM emotionally makes her decision to run away make a lot more sense.

Anyway, there would be very little change plotwise, just some dialogue adjustments, maybe mentioning how the Stag is her legacy, her heritage.

It would reframe Alina's fear of becoming like Aleksander, that permeates the second season, have some basis. It would give a reason for the "fuck Ilya and everything he touched and made" narrative Baghra is spinning. Baghra telling both Mal and Alina the story of her family, of why she believes now that it all much be destroyed, how her father's greed drove him to create abominations, to twist the world in unnatural ways, and she looks pointedly at the two as she says it.

Make Alina's stand against Aleksander her way of saying "the cycle of abuse in this family ends with me. I will make our family better.". Make her and Nikolai's political marriage a symbol of a new begining for Ravka in more ways than one - redemption of the Morozov(a) and Lantsov families. And bonding over "I can't tell anyone who my real dad is because it would cause trouble."

But of course, at the end, it fails, because both of them misunderstood the fundamental reason why things became as bad as they did.

IDK, I just think that changing Alina to Aleksander's daughter would improve their dynamic and a lot of the surrounding narratives massively. Even in variations other than the show.

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #shadow and bone au

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Rules of war vary between species

Shortly after humanity obtaining faster than light travel technology the species began a massive colonization drive to the far reaches of the universe.  Their own system was quickly filled to the brim as every habitable planet was settled with dozens of new outposts, cities, and ever growing metropolises; but this was not enough to quench the ever present drive for more within each human.  Once jump points had been established on the outer edges of the Sol system, numerous colonization ships funded by the various nations of the human home world began setting out in every direction in search of new planets to claim.  Lacking more technologically advanced terraforming machines did not inhibit the colonization effort as much as the rest of the wider species had first assumed as the average humans level of endurance was staggeringly high to the point that they could carve out a living on nearly any planet. Planets strewn with volcanoes and rivers of lava were converted into metal refineries, ocean worlds with no landmass saw floating cities coasting the waves and bio-domes nestled deep beneath the waves, even on worlds were the temperature was dangerously low humans established colonies and would often go outside for recreational activities.  Within five years what had once been a backwards species had turned into a intergalactic spanning network of established colonies bringing a new age of prosperity. But this age of exploration did not last long as humanities sudden outburst onto the galactic stage had upset several species who had already obtained galactic power. One of which, was the Havara.  The Havara were a caste based species resembling humans with body type with a few exceptions. Havara head appeared as a large fin turned upwards and arching backwards which had but a single eye placed right where the bridge of a human nose meets between the eyes. Their mouth was another oddity as instead of being on the front of the face it was situated on the neck that connected the head to the body.  The caste system had divided the Havara into soldiers, workers, scientists, leaders, and into another of other classifications that from an outside perspective see little to no difference at all. This system was strictly enforced and ran smoothly enough to the point the Havara had grown a substantial ego that their way of life was how all life should be ordered.  The appearance of humanity, with all its chaotic nature and tendencies came as an unintentional insult to the Havara. Human’s able to choose their own path at will was caused such outrage that upon the first human colony reaching Havara territory they declared war right there and then with the intention to drive back the madness that was humanity. Much like Havara’s culture, the Havara military fought under equally restricted and regulated rules of war. Such rules included fighting only during daylight hours, fighting face to face with the enemy in regimental formations that resembled ranked formations fought between humans with early age firearms,  and announcing intentions for war some thirty bogals before actually attacking. (Bogals the Havara measurement of time that translates roughly to 1 bogal = 1 human day.) The announcement was proclaimed and the Havaran military gathered for a full assault on the closest human colony. While they despised human customs they had no desire for genocide and hoped that by taking this colony it would scare away future human attempts to settle near Havara territory.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (30 Days later) The Havaran fleet took orbit above the human colony world New Horizon. They had experienced little to no resistance upon entering the system and the planet itself lacked any orbital defenses or space docks, a side effect of being the farthest human colony, they lack the resources to build let alone maintain such installations. The colony itself was perched on top a mountain range overlooking several grass plains, city streets and blocks already taking shape with more buildings under construction with a total population of roughly 1,000 humans now looking skyward at a fleet of 270,000 Havarans.   From the flagship the Havaran military  leaders opened a communication to the colony below.  “Humans of New Horizon, your thirty bogal has come to an end. Surrender now, or witness as we descend upon you and wipe the stain of your chaotic culture from the face of this world.”  No response came back. An deafening silence filled the war room as the leaders patiently waited when the communications system detected a signal. The translators began working feverishly to decipher if and quickly played it for the commanders to hear.  “Come and get us. We’re not going anywhere.”  With that a thousand drop ships launched and began burning their descent to the lush world below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I don’t think they liked that sir.” Hogan shrugged. “You know diplomacy has never been my strong suit.”  Lucas looked at his radar display. “We’ve got inbound contacts, hundreds of them all making a b-line straight for us sir.” “I can see that with my own eyes son, I don’t need any radar to tell me that.” Hogan was looking out the command centers window. The bright sunny day would have been perfect were it not for the burning streaks of fire from the Havaran ships descending through atmo. The spectical was something to behold that would have made any man’s blood run cold; but Hogan was a seasoned commander and were others saw doom all he saw were visible targets.  Soon after the declaration of war the government of New Horizon sent communications back to the homeworlds asking for assistance. The governments of humanity accepted that war with the Havara was unavoidable now, some even smiling as they had long desired it, and began mobilizing forces. They would not be able to reach the planet in time before the thirty day limit expired but a small detachment was sent ahead to secure the planet and hold it until reinforcements arrived. This detachment, lead by the nearly retired commander Hogan, made all haste to New Horizon scavenging any military hardware they could from planets they passed. He scratched his chin before turning back to Lucas. “Rather bold move to send in their bombers un-escorted like that.” Lucas shook his head. “From the information we received those do not appear to be bombers sir.” “Large fighters then?” No sir, not fighters either. They are listed as troop transports.”  Hogan just looked at Lucas dumbfounded. “They sent troop transports in the first wave without even softening us up or even basic air protection?” Lucas checked the radar again to confirm. “It appears that way sir. We’re not reading any smaller craft escorting the troop transports and the larger ships do not appear to have weapons that can effectively perform orbital bombardments.”  Hogan shook his head in disbelief and pulled out a cigar, lighting it with a snap of his prosthetic fingers. “They pulled me out of retirement to this backwater world saying it was to be the fight of our life, and now that I get here I find out I could’ve gone to a turkey shoot back in Texas and had the same experience.” He dabbed the cigar into a nearby tray before returning it to his mouth before slouching into a chair. “I feel rightly jipped son. I came out here for a heroic death, like you see in the movies. Now what the hell am I going to do?” Lucas shrugged. “I’m told the local planet life can be brewed into the strongest alcohol known to man.” Hogan perked up at that. “Really now?” His positive demeanor returning. “Well let’s rap this up then and go get a drink.”  Hogan flicked open a com to his forces. “All units deploy, repeat, all units deploy. Enemy is attempting a landing with no fighter screen or protection. Concentrate fire around the ones nearest to the colony and then begin working on any that are close to landing.”  “Roger.” A chorus of acknowledgements came back as the anti aircraft brigades that had been laying in wait in hidden dugouts slowly rolled out, their tracks churning up the streets and grass plains as they deployed. Crews hurried to attach cooling tubes and double check the ammunition feeds to the gatling guns as their turrets already started tracking targets.  “Happy hunting kids.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first signs that the Havarn pilots had that something was wrong was the sudden explosion of one of the leading dropships. At first they assumed that it must have been a technical malfunction until the second leading drop ship exploded, then the third, then the fourth, then the fifth.  Soon there were dropships exploding left and right across the sky sending thousands of Havarn soldiers waiting in the bays falling to their demise.  A wall of anti aircraft fire rose up from the surface to meet the Havarn who had yet to finish passing through the atmosphere. The descent was carefully laid out so the ships would not burn up on reentry but that meant that they could not out maneuver the incoming fire. A few of the pilots panicked and attempted to only for their heat shields to fail and instantly flash burn the ships and all those on board while others lost control and span directly into other dropships setting off a chain explosion.  Watching from their flagship, the Havaran leaders looked on with surprise an anger at the human actions. Attacking their warriors when they couldn’t even fight back was most disgraceful!  Within minutes 3/4 of the landing force had been decimated midair and those that had landed on the surface were quickly surrounded by human forces.      The Havaran demanded a communication link be established with the human commander.  “You humans shame yourselves!” They spat into their communicator. “How dare you attack our soldiers when they are defenseless!”  A long pause came before the reply followed by another pause for translation.  “Your soldiers were defenseless because you left them that way. Do not blame us for exploiting your own incompetence.”  One of the Havaran commanders threw a chair into the wall of the war room at the translation being read aloud.  “You have broken the rules of war! All combatants must touch the surface before the fighting can commence!”  This time the response came sooner as the translators were adapting.  “No such rule exists for our rules of war. Our rules protect individual soldiers from being attacked should they perform an airdrop with a parachute or jetpack, but they do not protect aircraft that are carrying them which are fair game.” “We are not using your rules human! We are using ours!” The translator retreated at the outburst from the Havaran commanders. “Our culture is the pinnacle of existence! Why would you not use our rules!?” “Pinnacle? Now that’s a laugh.”  “You declared war on us for no other reason besides our way of life and then act surprised that when we didn’t lay down and die for you. So listen here you little shit bags. Come at us all you want, you’ll either end up dead or captured like your friends here; doesn’t matter either way to me.” The Havaran commanders stopped their outrage at the last sentence. They had assumed that their soldiers that had landed had all been killed, but if they had been taken alive they could be used again.  “You captured our soldiers?”  “The ones that were still breathing at least.” “We demand that they be returned to us.” “In exchange for what?”  The Havaran paused, they did not understand what the human was saying.  “In exchange for nothing, you must return them to us.” “To be used against us again? How stupid do you think we are? If you’re not giving us anything then these fine strapping doom looking fuckers are going to be kept as our prisoners until this war ends.”  “Have you no honor!?!?”  The link went quiet for a moment before the human continued.  “You attacked a colony of what you expected to be defenseless civilians. Do not speak to me of honor. This discussion is over.” Before the Havaran could reply the link went dead. The battle of New Horizon had just begun, but the war machine of humanity was now turning to full motion and their retribution was forth coming.  

#HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #scifi #story

[petty-crush]

“The Black Hole”

-a strangely enticing science fiction film that is clearly modeled after “Star Wars” but veers into gothic horror territory. Also made by Disney. Delightful

-John Barry’s score is fucking incredible. This sounds like a overture for a descent into madness

-every got-damn thing in this film looks like s toy come to life. Even the big name cast straight out of a 70’s disaster ensemble

-check out this crew: Anthony Perkins, Robert Forester, Ernest Borgnine, Maximilian Schell, and the voices of Slim Pickens and Roddy McDowall +with all due respect; what the fuck?

-yes, a robot in the future sounds like a slow cowboy from the past. I’m rolling with it

-the vertex graphics in the front of the film are pure early tech bliss

-this film has a bizarre dirge like quality, like a whirl into darkness; but then you got robots who look like they have googly eyes glued on

-am I unhip or are these colloquialisms spurted out by Roddy McDowall as Vincent just complete non sequiturs?

-the design of the Cyngus (the ship of the creepy villain) is magnificent; it literally looks like a haunted mansion in ship form

-this whole film has incredible matte paintings; this part of it being a Disney in house production (all the work done in house) really pays off in terms of tone

-highly amusing to think that the same director was doing the original “Freaky Friday” just a few years later +directors are wild

-I love the evil robots design. +Maximilian (the head robot) is of course great, but the weird cyborgs/augmented humans are genuinely unnerving

-scientists talking science and breaking rules; always a plus

-why does a human have ESP with robots? Maybe it was explained in a aside, but damn is that strange

-Ernest Borgnine’s character is so slimy

-there are so many scenes that look like they belong to another film, the vibe keeps snapping like a rubber-band

-I wonder if the word “black hole” or “event horizon” is said more. You decide(the math)!

-the scene with the robot funeral is forever put into my memory banks

-I said it before and I say it again; damn, is this score something else

-the slow burn mystery of the film is wonderfully played

-a cute aside of Vincent playing laser blast with the evil droids

-I find it so endearing that each time a evil droid is killed, it’s just a statue/model falling over and shattering +it’s so cheap looking and stiff but effective

-an interesting aside about two models of same design (one older, one newer; both “perfect” according to them) can be draw of Bob & Vincent here and David & Walter in “Alien Covenant”

-nice bit with the evil scientist scared of his own creation (here a robot) in this film +his hissing of “Protect me” is drolly understated

-the space battles in this film look exactly like how you imagine a child would have his toys fight

-seriously, this is one of the best designed sci fi films in history

-am I really tearing up at this robot with real life anime eyes dying? What in the hell +you got me, film

-Ernest Borgnine’s character is upgraded to sleazeball

-in a moment wholly baffling, we go into the black hole, and the bad guys go into a version of hell straight out of Bosch’s painting, and the evil scientist and robot meld into one; while the good guys going into a bright light that seams like heaven +why is this perplexing scene in a Mickey Mouse pastiche of “Star Wars”? Only the Watcher knows

-this film grew on me; the scope and production design, combined with a unnerving score and gothic tone, really sucked me in. I can’t say that the human element was exceptional(although the cast played it well), but when the sleek, throbbing presentation is this good, I’m delighted to take the trip

#the black hole #anthony perkins #ernest borgnine #maximilian schell #slim pickens #roddy mcdowall #new beverly cinema #gary nelson #john barry #new bev #film #art