#uh anyways about grim during rots huh

[thechaoticfanartist]

Grim's character arc during Revenge Of The Sith is so compelling to me.

At first she's being strategic and she's calm and you can see how much she's matured since the beginning of the story. She has a plan and isn't going to allow her fear to hold her back any longer. Except she slips up with that plan, and that was the last time she would have that chance. She's now terrified of the ending that she knows will come. Except she refuses to let that fear show. Especially not when her enemy is so close. So she hides it behind jokes. She banters with Obi-Wan and Anakin as she always does. She isn't even afraid to sass Palpatine with a smile.

Grim and Obi-Wan reach the Jedi Temple to make their report to the Jedi Council. Grim has decided to tell them everything about the future. They need to know. They're the only ones who can help her and change the ending now. But when she begins to explain her fear catches her again. She wants to tell them her heart is screaming to tell them but her mind and its fear chokes her. She runs away, unable to say how the ending happens. Just that if things don't change then the Jedi Order and the Republic will fall.

This fear pulls her back from everything. And it's not unnoticed. Obi-Wan and Yoda can see it. They want to help her but she won't let them.

When she's around Anakin her fear becomes anger and she directs it at him for the man he will become in just a few days. She doesn't see Anakin at all. She is speaking to Darth Vader. He is already a Sith Lord to her.

Grim tries to train away this fear and this anger. Tries to ignore it. To escape it. But she can't. There's a voice that whispers to her that she's failed. She has no proof of this, but she believes it.

With that belief she begins to grieve all that will soon be lost. It isn't gone yet. But to her it is, for there is no changing the end. It's already over. And yet the light still reaches to her and a small part of her still has hope. Because Grim does not know who she is without it.

Grim spies on Anakin and Palpatine to know if she really has lost. To learn if the dark voice that whispers to her is right, and she has failed. She watches Anakin become entranced by Palpatine's story and it confirms it for her. She loses all her hope. The dark won. She has lost.

And Grim is so lost, so hurt, so betrayed, so terrified, and so broken by this revelation. She doesn't see the point in even being alive anymore. The story can't be changed. Living or dying it changes nothing. She changes nothing. So she runs to the roof of the Jedi Temple. She plans to jump, but the light holds her back. The fact that there are still Jedi right here and right now keep her there. Instead she watches the sky.

Anakin joins her and the two of them talk about the future to come. Anakin wants to believe things can change. Grim has lost hope and sees him as the man that will destroy them both. She says it's too late for them. And with those words spoken it is.

The next day is the day where she really will have lost everything. Grim has no hope. She can only find it in Obi-Wan. She is convinced she will die because her story is left unknown. She has nothing to prove that she'll live and she has everything to prove she'll die. And now faced with the real possibility of it, Grim realizes she doesn't actually want to die. She begs Obi-Wan to not let her die.

Grim sees Boga and suddenly she's back in the beginning in the war before all of her scars before everything was painful. She's 14 and starstruck by Star Wars again. And she is filled with such joy she forgets about Order 66. She forgets her worries. She forgets all of it.

While fighting Grievous at Obi-Wan's side she loses herself in the battle. Focusing only on it. Her worries and fears aside.

But it's not to last.

"You must realize, army or not, you are doomed," says Grievous.

And Grim knows he's right. Suddenly she's aware of all the clones. She's aware of how close Order 66 has become.

They defeat Grievous and Grim is afraid. She's never been so afraid. Obi-Wan tries to talk to her but she shuts him out. She refuses to let him in. To let him see how ruined she is.

Order 66 begins. Grim is terrified and forces herself to run. She has to survive. Except she gets surrounded and again she believes she'll die. This time she does not face death with fear. She welcomes it. She jumps off the cliff so it will not be her brothers and friends that kill her. And when she hits the water she is ready to accept she will die. She's lost. What does it matter?

Except the light reminds her there are more survivors and there are people who could use her and that there's still hope and a reason to fight and so she fights back and she survives.

Only to wish she didn't. She lost. She failed. Why does she get to live? The grief and the guilt of everything crashes down onto her all at once. Seeing the ruins of the Jedi Temple is too much. It becomes anger again because she knows exactly who is to blame. The man who had slayed them. So she leaves to kill him blinded by this twisting rage.

And again she fails. But she refuses to fail. She refuses to die. She is angry and she is determined. But as she's fighting by Obi-Wan's side again she becomes afraid. She can't win. She can only live. But, she realizes that's enough. So she focuses on surviving the battle, not on killing Anakin. There's nothing more than can be done.

She leaves Anakin to survive Mustafar because there is still that anger in her heart. But she's calming down now. She's accepting the support of the light and turns away from all the darkness that keeps threatening to consume her.

Grim becomes a Jedi Knight. She is filled with grief and feels so much guilt for surviving and getting this honor. But there's another thing too. Grim has hope.

And with that hope she knows she can heal again.

#grim kennet #uh anyways about grim during rots huh #tcwganv essays #<- this needs to be a tag with how many essays i write about this fic

[365days365movies]

March 11, 2021: The Seventh Seal (1957) (Part One)

Well, I did Cocteau this month already, so...time for another big boi director, I guess.

I’m sorry for me, too, because this one scares me a little more than Cocteau.

Ingmar Bergman. One of the greatest directors of all time, and the only prominent Swedish director that I’ve ever heard of. Also someone whom I’m DEFINITELY not qualified to judge, but here we are anyway.

Best known for Persona, Fanny and Alexander, and...one more movie, Bergman was an EXTREMELY prolific director, and far more influential on global film than you or I know. Seriously, dude influenced everyone from Martin Scorcese to Terry Jones to Peter Hewitt in one way or another. He’s passed away, as of 2007, at the age of 89. And speaking of Death...

There have been a LOT of incarnations of Death in media. Hell, we literally looked at one two movies ago, in Orpheus. You could argue that Ugetsu also revolved around death, but I’m talking about Death, the physical embodiment of the concept.

Now, the most common incarnation seen is the Grim Reaper (pictured above), but there are MANY other well-known versions. Here, have a few different versions, just for taste.

Yeah, that’s a lot. Kudos if you knew all of them! But that last one...I mentioned Peter Hewitt earlier. He directed Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and in it, the two meet that films version of Death, a Swedish-accented ghoul. And if you’ve ever wondered about that, or about this joke from the opening song of Muppets: Most Wanted:

...Well, keep reading. Like I said, Bergman was influential, and perhaps NONE of his films was quite as influential as The Seventh Seal or Det sjunde ingelet. Welcome to a show about Death.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

ONCE AGAIN, The Criterion Collection logo brings us in, followed by the opening credits and music from that should accompany a Dark Souls boss, followed by a quote from Revelation 8:1-6, about the opening of the Seventh Seal. Roll credits?

Well, no. Instead, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, we meet a knight, resting there and praying to God, as his horses drink from the salt water. This is Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), a knight who is resting here with his squire, Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand). As Block takes out his chess set, he is joined by...

ALREADY?

Holy shit, I didn’t expect this scene to happen FOUR MINUTES IN??? Dear Lord, if this is happening now, what the hell is the rest of this movie? I am afraid of that answer now.

Anyway, yes, this is Death (Bengt Ekerot). And yeah, dude is indeed a CREEPY motherfucker. He’s been at Block’s side for a long time, but has now finally come for him, at last.

However, Block, ever clever knight that he is, capitalizes on rumors that he’s heard about the character, and challenges him to a game of chess. They start, with Block playing white and Death playing black.

But as they’re about to begin, we cut to Block and Jöns leaving the beach. Huh. OK then, I guess we’ll get back to that, huh? Jöns speaks of ill omens, and they see a pair of corpses, rotted after a long time dead. As their journey continues, we shift focus from them to a small group of actors in a caravan.

One of these actors - Jof (Nils Poppe) - sees a vision of a woman walking with her infant child, as angelic music plays in the background. He runs back to the caravan, where he wakes the sleeping Mia (Bibi Andersson), his wife. He tells her that this was the Virgin Mary and her baby boy, Jesus. Um...wow. Holy shit, my man.

Mia takes her husband’s vision as his active imagination, while he takes it as pure fact. Apparently, he’s very prone to having these kinds of visions. Mia warns him to tamp those visions down, or people will think him a fool. All of this rouses both fellow actor Jonas Skat (Erik Strandmark), and Jöns and Mia’s infant son Mikael (a cute chubby baby).

The troupe is on their way to Einsmore, performing for a group of priests. They will perform in a play about Death, once again making me think about Beetlejuice the Musical, which is really need to watch.

Block and Jöns arrive at a church, where real-world painter Albertus Pictor (Gunnar Olsson) is painting a Danse Macabre. Jöns asks why paint something so...well, macabre, and Pictor notes that it’s not a bad thing to remind people that they will die. This is especially as the Black Plague sweeps across Europe. YUP. IT’S THAT TIME PERIOD.

The two speak more on the absolute HORROR of the Bubonic Plague, a topic that clearly bothers Jöns. Meanwhile, Block goes to pray in a confessional, where he reveals that he doesn’t truly understand the point of prayer in this world. He’s clearly struggling with his faith, which must be HELL for a knight. And he delivers these confessions to his ever-present companion: Death.

Block wants God to speak to him directly, and questions whether or not God truly exists. He wants to do one last, meaningful thing before he meets his inevitable end. Block hasn’t yet realized that he’s speaking with Death, and openly talks about the chess game they began that morning. Death replies that they will continue their game in a nearby inn. This is how Block intends to prolong his own life.

He goes back out to meet Jöns, who’s still speaking with the painter, and the two leave the church. Directly outside, a woman is in the stocks, and is preparing to be burnt at the stake for learning carnal knowledge of Satan. She’s also being blamed for being the cause of the Black Plague itself. Just gotta say, big if true, goddamn. Black wants to know if she’s met the Devil himself, but she’s not quite all there.

Block and Jöns continue their journey, making their way from farmlands. Jöns goes into one of the barns in a village, where a dead body lies. He then hides as another man enters, and steals jewelry from the woman’s corpse. This is Raval (Bertil Anderberg), and he’s quickly caught in the act by a mute woman (Gunnel Lindblom).

However, before he can do anything to this poor girl, he’s stopped by Jöns, who recognizes him from the seminary, ten years prior. He tells him to shove off, and offers the mute woman a place as his housekeeper. And, uh...yeah, Jöns is kind of a dick, but more of a cad, y’know? He’s not likeable, but he also isn’t hateable.

In town, the actors’ troupe is performing, and the leader of the troupe - Skat - is seduced by a woman during the performance, and they have sex in the bushes behind the stage. As all of this is happening, the performance is interrupted by a group of flagellants, extremist priests that whip themselves and parade through the town, showing their extreme devotion to their faith. Fuckin’ yikes, this is a thing that ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

And as these people, devoted in their faith and pain, march through the town, the townspeople are moved to tears by this act. And this act has real blood, sweat, and tears poured into it. The head priest of the parade then gives a fatalist sermon to the townsfolk, noting that death will come for them all with the plague, and berating them for their seeming ignorance of their fate.

And dude is MEAN. He mocks people’s appearance, and screams to all of them that they’re doomed, and will die painful deaths. Watching on is not only the actors’ troupe, but also Block, Jöns, and the mute girl (yeah, she never gets a name, goddamn it). The pain parade moves on, singing their solemn hymns all the way. And I’m not gonna lie...it’s intense. Especially knowing that this shit actually HAPPENED? Damn.

Once they pass, Jöns notes his disbelief at this display, never believing how far people will go, or the stories that they’ll tell. He’s interrupted by blacksmith Plog (Åke Fridell), who’s looking for his wife. Meanwhile, inside, a group of townspeople talk about the spreading plague, and wonder if this is the end times indeed. Plog comes in and asks Jof where his wife is. He also doesn’t know, but it’s revealed that this is the woman that Skat ran off with in the bushes. The conversation is joined by thief Raval, who outs Jof as an actor, and a friend of Skat.

Raval and Plog both threaten him for information on Skat and Lisa’s whereabouts, and humiliate him in front of the entire tavern. It’s actually quite hard to watch as well. This poor, poor guy, who seems like a nice enough dude, is essentally tortured for the transgressions of his asshole friend. But it’s interrupted by Jöns, who stops Raval in his tracks, and slashes his face, which he said he’d do if he ever saw him again.

Excellent spot for Part 2, I think! See you there!

#the seventh seal #det sjunde inseglet #ingmar bergman #gunnar björnstrand #bengt ekerot #nils poppe #max von sydow #bibi andersson #fantasy march #welcome to a show about death #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #mygifs #my gifs #cinemaspam #userkd #filmstruck

[charoite-burrower]

Lore: Something a little different

It’s not an Interview with Outcasts, but it IS the story of two dragons I picked up during BotE to explain how my clan of recluses learned about Luminax. I’ve had their story in my head this whole time. Now it is out of my head. Enjoy!

-----

Verdance vaulted into the air to avoid being side-checked by a very wobbly young Guardian who stumbled into him in the street. His frills flattened against his neck with a crack as he gazed down at the hatchling. This is what he got for straying out of the city's Fae marketplace.

“Careful!” he told the boy, who was big enough that he could have done some damage.

The Guardian looked up at where he was hovering, eyes wide, and was silent for several seconds before replying, “You be careful!”

“BENEDICT.” The hatchling's distraught mother, who had been perusing a shop window, entered the conversation by lowering her head to their level. “You're being very rude.”

“No, mom, he's my Charge! He needs to be careful!”

His mother sighed hard enough that Verdance had to beat his wings harder to maintain his position. “I'm sorry,” she told him. “They do this a lot when they're young.”

“It's okay. I understand.” Verdance didn't, really; he had no children. He did understand that it was an annoying habit, though, and as a result could empathize with the mother.

“Ben. Come on.”

The hatchling stamped a paw on the cobblestones. “I'm not supposed to leave my Charge alone! You an' Dad said so!”

His mother responded by simply picking the young boy up in a paw and settling him in between her wings. With another apology, she set off down the street, grimly ignoring her now shrieking son.

Verdance watched them go, feeling more certain than ever that he was never having kids.

*****

“Verdance?” His landlady, who owned both the private garden and the tree within it that he'd built his nest in, called up to him from her back door. “There's someone here looking for you.”

He set aside his book with a sigh and flew down to her. “It's not another traveling salesman, is it?”

She nervously fidgeted with her pearl. “He's, um, a child.”

“Why would a child be looking for me?”

He heard a voice call from the other room. “Mr. Fae? Is that you?”

Verdance's fins drooped. He recognized that voice. With a sigh, he padded past his landlady and into the front hall. “Benedict? How did you get here?”

The hatchling smiled. “I waited until mom was asleep an’ sneaked out.”

“How did you know where to find me?”

“A Guardian always knows where to find his Charge,” Benedict said imperiously. “You live real far across the city, though.”

His stomach sank. “Did you sneak out last night?”

“Uh-huh!”

It was evening  His mother was going to be in hysterics by now.

His landlady peered around the corner. “We need to get you home. Your mother must be so worried.”

The hatchling scowled. “I'm not supposed to leave my Charge.”

“He did this in the marketplace last week,” Verdance explained to her. To Benedict, he asked, “Do you know your way home?”

“Yeah! Dad says I'm a natural av-nagator.”

“You can't send him back out in the city alone,” hissed his landlady.

Verdance made an effort to keep his frills still. “Of course not. I need to talk to his mother, anyway.”

“I'm hungry,” Benedict announced.

“Then you better get us there fast,” Verdance replied, and walked for the front door.

His mother looked relieved, and also like she wanted to strangle her son, when they showed up at their house on the big dragon side of town. While Benedict whined at her knees that he was hungry, she tried explaining her son's behavior to Verdance. Something something only child? Whatever.

“Is this going to happen again?”

“No. We'll keep an eye on him. Hopefully he picks something else as his “Charge” soon. I'm so sorry for the trouble.”

When Verdance began to fly away, Benedict started wailing. Thankfully, he couldn't fly after, so Verdance soon left the irritating little hatchling behind.

Guardians.

*****

The city was on fire. It had been burning for hours, starting when the Emperor attacked the large side of town, but despite the fighting Ridgebacks and Guardians (who, rumor had it, had ordered all the Imperials to get as far away as possible), the fight was making its way toward Verdance's home. His landlady had already fled, but Verdance had hoped the big dragons of the city would overwhelm the rotting monstrosity that had attacked them. Soon, however, the grim reality had come clear.

He'd just gotten done packing a satchel with clothes and food and the few mementos that would fit when he heard a breathless call from the courtyard below.

“Mr. Fae?”

Verdance looked down to see Benedict, and felt the panic he'd been trying to stifle since the attack spike in his chest. He zoomed down towards the hatchling, who looked tired and was covered in soot.

“What are you doing here?”

Benedict frowned. “Keeping you safe.”

“Kid, you can't-- where are your parents?”

“I dunno. They went to stop the bad dragon. They told me to hide in the house, but it got burned up, so I found you.”

Verdance looked out over the ruined city, what he could see of it in the smoke, anyway, and shuddered as he heard the Emperor's roar on the wind. It was getting louder, which meant the dragons who were fighting it weren't doing well.

He looked down at Benedict and made a decision. “Look, kid. I was just about to leave.”

“But it's not safe!”

“You're right. I… need someone to come with me and keep me safe.”

Benedict puffed his chest out. “I can do it!”

“Okay, but if you come with me, you have to listen to me.”

“Okay!”

Verdance got them walking, but quickly realized that wasn't going to get them moving fast enough. The little guy couldn't fly, but he could definitely outstep Verdance even at his size. He swallowed his pride for the sake of increasing their chance of survival.

“Benedict? Is it okay if I ride on your back? I'm, uh. Tired.”

“Sure! I'm strong. I can carry you real far.”

Verdance fluttered up and settled in between his shoulders. “Okay. Go where I tell you.”

Benedict nodded, and they turned toward the trickle of refugees visible on the horizon, moving through the smoke.

*****

The first few days out of the city were tough. Benedict had no food of his own, and though he walked faster than Verdance, he got tired quickly. The insects that Verdance had packed for himself, he passed off to the hatchling. Their store dwindled quickly. They weren't able to keep up with the rest of the fleeing dragons. Benedict couldn't hunt, and Verdance didn't know which plants were edible. By the time they got to the next town, Benedict was tired and hungry, but Verdance was hungrier.

The town had been wiped nearly clean of supplies, but as soon as the dragons living there saw Benedict, they broke into their personal supplies to help them in their journey.

“Where are you going?” One of them asked.

Verdance was about to tell them he had no idea, when the hatchling piped up. “The Clan of the, uh… the Outcast! Mom said if we got separated, we'd meet up there.”

“Never heard of it,” their helper said.

“It's real far away in Nature.”

It was as good a plan as any. Verdance had wanted to get far away from the Emperor, and Nature qualified. They'd just have to go by boat, since Benedict didn't fly. With a rough plan now in mind, the two of them thanked the villagers and got back in the road.

*****

They weren't the only refugees trying to get out by water, but thankfully the worst if the crowds had come through ahead of them. So many of the dragons could just fly where they needed to go, after all. Again, Benedict's youth helped them, and soon they had passage on a small ship. They were sleeping on the deck with a displaced Snapper family, but they were moving.

Benedict had nearly doubled in size on the road, but he was thin from not having enough to eat. He took his first experimental flight off the front of the boat their third day on the water. Verdance kept an eye on him, periodically calling out tips, while one of the Snappers walked him through identifying edible plants that would be growing in Nature.

Benedict curled up next to him protectively after his flight nearly ended in a crash and napped. Verdance transcribed notes about plants into the margins of his only book so he wouldn't forget. Benedict's first flight should have been longer. The boy needed more muscle, and energy.

He was nearly done with his notes when a blue Snapper heavily laden with bags of herbs walked over and introduced herself as Enid.

“The others told me you're headed into Nature. Have you ever been there?”

Verdance shook his head. “I've never so much as been camping.”

“Lucky I'm here, then. I do a lot of trade with Nature clans.”

“We're looking for one called Clan of the Outcast.”

“Even luckier than I thought. I can take you there. It's where my wife lives.”

Verdance felt a surge of relief so strong that it left him exhausted. He thanked Enid profusely, then excused himself to rest. He leaned back against Benedict's ever-growing side and allowed himself to hope for the first time that everything was going to be okay.

*****

Benedict's parents weren't there when they arrived, but it was another few months before he was old enough to realize why. The clan took them both in and listened to their story with horror. They were isolated, and received news only when the Snappers came through to trade.

It was hard adjusting to life in a hole in the ground after living in such a large city. Verdance eventually built a new nest in the branches of the massive tree above the hill that housed the clan. This caused Benedict to sleep outside.

“They can give you a room, you know,” Verdance told him one day.

Benedict's voice had grown deeper recently. He was now two-thirds his full size, having filled out rapidly on the plentiful food in the jungle. “I need to keep you safe.”

Verdance began to wonder if he'd been wrong this whole time. When Benedict was full-sized and still insisting on sleeping under Verdance's nest, Verdance quietly went to the Matriarch and asked if they could build a room for Benedict. When it was done, Verdance spun a new nest on the ceiling inside it. Once that was done, Benedict gladly moved in out of the elements.

*****

A year passed. His parents never did arrive. Benedict never mentioned it, and Verdance was too afraid to bring it up himself. But one day, the Guardian surprised him.

“I never thanked you for keeping me safe during our trip here.” The words drifted up from the floor of the room. They'd put out the lamps to go to sleep, so Verdance couldn't see his roommate.

He decided to try deflecting with humor. “Hey, you kept me safe, remember?”

“I'm being serious. I’d be dead if it weren't for you. Crushed, or starved, or worse.”

Verdance felt his frills droop. “I wasn't just going to leave you there, Ben.”

“I'll make it up to you.” He said it with the same determination of every declaration he'd given Verdance since that day they met in the market.

“I hope you know where I'm coming from when I say I hope you never get the chance.”

Benedict laughed at that, a low rumbling which Verdance felt in his chest and stomach. “Good night, Verdance.”

Verdance lay awake, deep in thought. Benedict had turned out well, despite everything.

Maybe… maybe he did want hatchlings someday. It would be nice to see them get the chance to be kids for as long as they deserved.

#fr lore #clan of the outcast #long post