#when the kids insane parents show up trying to steal the core and hurt the kid | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thermodynamiclawyer · 3 years

Text

yeah, this is gonna be a trainwreck. here’s @bandagegirl ‘s and my GHS headcanon masterpost. our goal was to have at least 3 per character, if not more. we kinda had to group the last few characters together in the end, though. it’ll be split up in categories between the characters in the Game, then Anime-Only, and then overall Worldbuilding at the end as for easier reading.

Game Characters

Gregory

the Lost World/Gregory House is Gregory’s own manifestation through loneliness and envy. (see Worldbuilding)

he’s WAY older than a grandfather of James. he’s more of a great-great-great-great grandfather, but it’s easier to just call him grandpa.

he’s been long dead in reality for years. always constantly dreaming and manifesting his Lost World and eventually never woke up.

there is almost 0 records of him from reality. because of this, there is no clear time period he originated in, unlike the guests.

he’s a collector. he loves historically significant antique items to put on a shelf and learn all about.

as taken from the manga, his favorite historical subject is War.

he suffered from frequent night terrors as a teenager, making it difficult to sleep before the manifestation of the Lost World.

while he usually tries to set up a weekly chore schedule for the residents in the hotel, he usually ends up doing everything himself (both because the guests throw in the towel very quickly and that Gregory wants to do everything right).

his magic abilities include teleportation and immortality, but he’s still very prone to injury.

Gregory Mama

she’s actually a manifestation within the Lost World that Gregory used to cope/punish himself with.

has the tendency to adopt new guests as family members only to eat them/their souls later. this also applies to Gregory attempting to manifest new family members in the past, to which he stopped after Gregory Mama has shown to steal their souls each time.

obviously, she’s not Gregory’s real mother, rather a personification of the abuse Gregory suffered in reality.

as young children usually don’t use their parents real name often, she doesn’t have a real name.

James

he’s a child who escaped reality after discovering a forgotten family member (Gregory) in very old family photos; having little to no relation to the rest of the family.

plus, hearing rumors of a hotel that only appeared during moonless nights only encourage him to take on a challenge.

since he’s related to Gregory (even if it’s very distant), his monster transformation was a lot faster, becoming a full rat in little under a month.

he LOVES horror movies, especially slasher films. he might be a little too influenced by them.

he owns a large range of weapons, from toy water guns to actual chainsaws. that doesn’t mean he’ll use them responsibly, though.

he’s a very smart kid, even to the point where he can be manipulative to both the kids and the adults. he’ll even convince other kids to take the blame for him whenever he starts problems.

his parents from reality miss him very much.

Catherine

in reality, Catherine was a German nurse in the 1940’s during WW2.

as a human, she was actually afraid of the sight of blood and would get lightheaded whenever she had to treat a soldier’s wounds. however, as a determined nurse, she tried her hardest to become tolerant of blood. tolerance became fondness and fondness became obsession to the point where she was hurting her patients just to see blood again.

she is attracted to both men and women, however she experiences internalized biphobia. due to this, she’s desperate to find true love with a man while specifically trying to avoid romantic relationships with women.

she knows how to take care of children.

she molts her skin during periods of time, you know, since she’s a lizard.

she didn’t gain magic powers along with her transformation, but instead gained physical strength.

Cactus Gunman and Cactus Girl

both originated in the Mexican revolution, especially around 1910.

Gunman had been shot in the chest a few times in his life and surprisingly survived each of them.

Gunman’s personality completely changed once he arrived in Gregory House with his sister, becoming a paranoid coward from the brave “hero” he made himself out to be.

they both grow seasonal flowers in the springtime. Gunman grows one large red flower on his head, which he hides with his hat in the spring time. he prefers to only show to his potential lover. Cactus Girl grows smaller white flowers in her hair.

Gunman is in dire need of glasses.

Gunman is quite fond of gardening, and loves to talk about flora. sometimes, Lost Doll will accompany him in the courtyard while he weeds.

they would die for each other, so don’t cross them.

Cactus Girl can shoot better than Gunman, but prefers her lasso and other melee weapons. she’s sworn off using guns after the revolution.

Cactus Girl has the ability to spawn in zones in smaller closed areas, such as turning her hotel room into Cactus Land; sort of like a pocket dimension. it’ll disappear as soon as she leaves the room.

sometimes, they both don’t need to eat due to the occasional Photosynthesis, and can go a long time without water.

Hell’s Chef

he worked as a highly regarded chef in Russia at a fancy restaurant, with mixed European family origins.

him and Mirror Man were coworkers of some sort.

he came from a long line of wrestlers, but broke family tradition to cook as a passion and career.

he died after the restaurant went up in flames.

his throat is still scratchy and rough from the incident, so he isn’t much of a talker. not to mention the language barrier and that he’s still attempting to learn the language everyone else speaks in Gregory House.

while the appearance of his meals look absolutely irredeemable, Chef’s cooking is actually very tasty; so much that you almost can’t taste the poison. he prefers making meals that are hearty and savory, rather than “looking good”.

he prefers to do all the food shopping and butchering. nobody knows the best ingredient selections like he does.

like Catherine, all of this “magic ability” went to his incredible strength.

most, if not all of his body is made out of wax, with vein like wick all throughout the body, giving him general bodily structure.

Neko Zombie

(see Worldbuilding)

Clock Master and My Son

My Son was a stillborn in reality; the death of him and his mother gave Clock Master an alcohol addiction and depression.

1960 is the year My Son and CM's wife died, making it when time stopped for CM. he’s sort of “stuck” in 1960 in a way, which is why the year is plastered on both of their foreheads.

My Son was technically "born" in Gregory House.

when Clock Master came to Gregory House, an infant My Son was already waiting in his room. Because the child died before getting a name, CM referred to him as My Son.

while CM's time abilities are getting worse with age, they never were great to begin with due to the Lost World's unusual flow of time.

My Son's time abilities on the other hand have the potential to be the most powerful ability out of everyone's when he gets older, being able to play multiple timelines at the same time and even rewriting reality. this is due to being born in the Lost World, so his ability has adapted to Gregory House’s “time” system.

Judgement Boy + Gold

instead of a singular character, Judgement Boys are classified as a “species” considering there are multiple of them, with more being produced in the Judgement Factory daily. there is not a singular JB.

the Judgement Factory in Gregory House is a sub-factory of a much bigger Core Factory, where it branches off into different zones and other manifestations. There are countless Judgement Factories in existence, all with numerous JBs being produced and trained.

Judgement Boy Gold is an individual one-of-a-kind model, however, there are more in the “Metal” series similar to him in different factories with a variety of training jobs.

JBs came into existence after a lawyer in the early 2000’s won a court case that suppressed the rights and safety of these assembly line workers in a Toy Factory, which caused hundreds of workers to be injured or even killed. realizing the consequences of his actions, he spiraled downwards into insanity and ended up in Gregory House, rarely leaving his hotel room and eventually manifesting the Factory.

most models or designs of a Judgement Boy are based off of toys; one of the very few things reflected from the lawyer’s fatal court case.

the standard JB’s appearance is a bastardized caricature of the original lawyer, only with added cages and robotic features. the lawyer began transforming into a red monster with sharp teeth and claws, but never saw the results as he disappeared into the Core Factory one day, never to be seen again.

see @ask-factory and the #extended factory tag for a more extensive story.

Mummy Family

Mummy Papa, Mummy Dog, and Mummy Mama originated somewhere in the 1980’s.

the reason they’re in Gregory House is an overlap of death and the fact that Mummy Papa was unintentionally poisoning the 3, leading to ending up in the hotel as a “punishment”.

they’re Bloodhounds.

Mummy Papa loves to collect weapons and owns a saber collection, especially older historically significant ones.

Mummy Dog enjoys morbid facts and likes to tell the other children about death.

Mummy Papa has Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is triggered when the sword shifts in his head. because of this, he keeps himself and the rest of his family sicker with unclear motives, perhaps to have the ability brag about their ailments. (more details here)

Mummy Mama suffers from more immune-system based illnesses and anemia while the other two deal with physical and phantom pain, which they all pass off as colds.

the plant in Mummy Mama’s head is a parasite, and needs to be fed directly to continue living if Mummy Mama gets too weak. (the plant prefers blood)

TV-Fish

one of the few characters classified as a species.

TV Fish have a wide variety of fish or other sea creatures they can be. the TV Fish in Gregory House are much smaller.

some TV Fish don’t even have to be TVs. some can be other electronic appliances just as long as they’re combined with a fish skeleton.

they can be found across other Zones and places besides the Lost World, some with localized and native species differing from what we already seen.

TV Fish are an invasive species in the Lost World.

they’re attracted to people with better memory. a person more intact and in touch with their memories could attract an entire school of TV Fish!

Roulette Boy

practically a God, Roulette Boy has reality bending powers.

however, since he follows his own rules strictly, he sets limits on himself as to only use them for his games, and won’t apply them to himself since he’s the Game Master.

nobody knows what the “rules” he follow are, but he restrains himself on what he can do while hosting a game. though, once you’re in his game, it’s almost a free-for-all and he can change you to be whatever pawn he sees fit until the game is over.

while RB prefers traditional board games, nothing’s stopping him from hosting RPGs or other turn-based video games (as seen in Lost Qualia.) he also loves gacha games and gambling.

when not hosting a game, he likes to roleplay.

Angel/Devil Dog

she is not a guest in Gregory House, neither a manifestation of the Lost World. she is a messenger from an entire separate outside world/reality, and she’s always been Angel Dog.

her, Death, and Gregory have been around equally the longest.

her and Gregory have a long history of rivalry. she’s always meddling in the Lost World and trying to let souls out a backdoor. whether she’s doing it to free them, or just to piss off Gregory, depends on her mood.

Angel Dog has a solid grasp on reality, however, her reality is different from the guests. it’s why her and Neko Zombie get along.

she doesn’t have a split personality disorder, as she chooses to become Devil Dog whenever she feels like it. her decision making is very emotion-based.

she’s a Dachshund!

Devil Dog likes soccer, and Angel Dog likes american football.

Lost Doll

ever since coming to the Lost World, she has either stopped aging altogether or she ages very slowly, as most object-based guests do.

she’s a wooden marionette with the ability to change her size.

in reality, she belonged to a very poor family who could only afford a few outdated wooden toys, which is why Katie was so special to her.

she’s good friends with James, even if she’s usually the one falling victim to his pranks. sometimes, when Katie takes over, it can be the other way around.

she has poor volume control and tends to shout when she’s excited or provoked.

she’s the youngest guest.

Death

Death, like Gregory Mama, is a manifestation of a part of Gregory's life.

he was created from Gregory’s favorite comfort movie, The Seventh Seal.

Death used to work in Gregory House as a doorman, welcoming the guests and wishing them goodbye, but fleed when Gregory Mama appeared and got rid of all other "manifestations".

his goal is to free Gregory's soul and end the Lost World, which is only possible if Gregory is the only person left.

Anime Characters

Dr.Fritz

Dr.Fritz is also German like Catherine, but came a little later in time.

back in reality, his body slowly stop responding, so he illegally tried to build himself a new body. that new body wasn’t fully ready yet when he decided to transplant his own brain when he was wheelchair bound and starting to lose arm control, so it was a very long process.

because of his condition, doctors either didn’t treat him correctly or flat out ignored his problems, so he has a strong mistrust to other doctors, which is why he wanted to operate on himself. the other doctors said there was nothing they could do, but he had other plans in mind.

he was there for the Berlin wall falling, and still has a piece of it as a keepsake.

he falls apart easily and has to re-sew body parts or snap his neck back into place. Catherine helps put him back together (in return, Fritz helps her shed.)

Catherine calls him Fritzchen on occasion.

he documents the species of the patients he treats out of curiosity and hopes to help them better. his treatments may be considered “unethical” but he knows for certain that if it’s to cure or treat the patient, he’ll go great lengths to break any rule in the medical field.

Mono Eye Wizard + Frog Fortune Teller

both are canonically married to each other, i just wanted to make sure everyone knew :]

Mono Eye Wizard wears a helmet, and he’s also an amphibian with one eye underneath his robe.

both are very interested and knowledgeable in the Magical and Paranormal side of the Lost World.

both held onto their souls for longer than most people, but lost them in the end.

Wizard is normally very powerful, he just SUCKS at summonings. (plus, he’s a little bit of an idiot)

on the other hand, Frog Fortune Teller isn’t very powerful, but she is very smart (and stubborn). she’s almost always right, especially if it’s a bad thing she predicted.

Wizard, and other characters such as Musha Dokuro and Egypetit all worship the same Dark Lord.

the little horned skeletons in Wizard’s cult are also classified as a species. sometimes, he allows in other interested members.

Wizard is fluent in latin.

Second Guest

the Second Guest, as shown at the end of the season two, has the silhouette of a rat. that’s her actual form; a shadow.

her “job” is to eavesdrop on other guests to go and report to Gregory Mama.

she’s very fast, quiet, hard to catch, and a big snitch.

the others call her “Hello Sister” as a title, while Gregory Mama calls her “My Lovely Daughter.”

her cigarette embers still glow on the wall, which is one of the only signals she’s in the room, especially in a poorly lit one.

usually only Gregory, James, and Mama can “hear” what she’s saying.

Chef strongly dislikes her and Lost Doll avoids her like the plague.

Prompters

a pair of indistinguishable twins, escaping reality after being rejected of their dream to become famous theater actors. both young adults.

they work multiple part time jobs, including helping out in the Judgement Factory in the hotel and Kabuki's theater, along with Poor Conductor’s performances.

they share drinks at the bar. their favorite drink is a raspberry/strawberry milkshake with two cherries. don’t forget to give them two straws!

they’re both learning how to cook with Hell’s Chef. so far, they can dice onions very well. :]

Public Phone

he’s in the Lost World as a punishment for being a greedy thief in reality.

he can create fake alibis, passports, various cards in addition to faking voices.

he’s drinking pals with Clock Master.

he takes any currency, just nothing fake. only HE can be the swindle here.

he’s a perverted little bitch.

Various Species

Haniwa Salarymen are classified as species, created from overworked businessmen in reality. The occurrence of them are very common, and season 1 happens to focus on one of them.

Black Ducks are a species, specializing in working kiosks, amusement parks, and other booths. Speed Mouse is never seen without a team of Black Ducks. Street Vendors sometimes accompany them.

Musha Dokuro are an invasive species to the Lost World.

Trap Mice are a (rare) artificial species built in the Lost World.

Dead Bodies are also classified as a species. they are the result of Death freeing an individual’s soul, leaving a husk/empty body behind.

species like these show up in reality to those who are close to their visit in the Lost World, appearing in the background or the corner of their eye, replacing real people.

individuals in all of those species are not visible/noticable until you interact and get close with them. they’re like NPCs.

Others

Wooden Lizard was Captain Wood’s favorite keychain that came to life.

Fat Chicken is an omnivore. He can and will eat anything.

(see here for Pig Gentleman and Mirror Man.)

Mirror Man can summon his own pocket dimension.

Kinko and Inko know more than they lead on, and Kinko is definitely much more powerful, but he can’t be bothered to do anything about it. he’s lazy.

Inko smokes cigars, but hates cigarettes.

Earth Man (from Lost Qualia) is non-verbal. he’s also very eco friendly!

Hell’s Taxi is a manifestation of a false sense of hope to escape the Lost World. it can also manifest in Reality to pick up new guests.

Egypetit’s head is made up of Gold, a strong conductor of magic in the Lost World.

Poor Conductor was powerful enough to manifest his own room into the Lost World, rather than checking into the Hotel himself.

Unbaba is semi non-verbal and cannot remove his mask. he’s definitely powerful enough to make guests lose their souls.

Bonsai Kabuki needs to water his head frequently or else he’ll be drained of energy, and be unable to open his third eye.

The Rainbow Dragon fossils, which Bonehead is after, are cursed, and uses his wife’s voice to compel him into seeking after them to claim yet another victim.

Toilet Baby may not be as powerful, but he can still summon dangerous attacks related to pocket dimensions.

Sleepy Sheep is used as a vessel in his sleep for those who are powerful enough to enter dreams.

Worldbuilding

Gregory House was a real place back in Reality, and it originally belonged to Neko Zombie and his loving family.

However, years and years of built up envy and hatred from Gregory, a person who didn’t receive the same love and luxuries as Neko Zombie, manifested the Lost World as a way for him to cope with the things he didn’t have in Reality, bringing the house down with him.

The remains of the house in Reality is now a mere rumor in the town, but its influence spreads across many zones to this day.

Neko Zombie is the final remaining member of the original owners of the house.

Him and Gregory are LONG forgotten for generations in Reality.

Zones are a loose term in the Lost World, which could mean alternate realities, different dimensions, etc. The Lost World is a zone with its own manifestations.

Another Zone could have its own origins and realities. Reality is not a zone, if that makes sense.

A Zone itself can manifest as a single individual or object being the Core that keeps the zone existing. (See The Core Judgement Factory that branches off Sub-Factories into different Zones.)

The Lost World is a very large Zone that reaches and branches off into other Zones, pulling in individuals.

Because of Zonal shenanigans, time moves a lot differently in the Lost World.

awful hospital does a better job handling zones better than this, actually. we took a little bit of inspiration from it. see here and here for a better grasp on what i’m trying to say.

#ghs #gregory horror show #ghs headcanon #I CANT TAG ALL THE CHARACTERS ILL ACTUALLY RUN OUT OF SPACE #i didn’t include firebird bloody wheel or bell seal only cuz we didn’t have shit for them n they weren’t related to other characters #anyways holy SHIT please enjoy i’m gonna fuckin shower or some shit #oh yeah That Guy isn’t included either cuz he hardly exists

69 notes · View notes

leroyaumedesmots · 5 years

Text

VK Day

After the "VK day" teaser, I got frustated and disappointed with the potential mess D3 will be, like everyone else I think xD So...I tried to write a little fic to fix it and try to envisage a perspective that make all this applications thing a little more acceptable (like, it's not Evie, core four or Ben's initiative, they just don't have a choice).

It's short and not too much developed but I hope you'll like it :)

(English is not my first language, sorry if there are mistakes).

Mal was busy drawing when the door slammed suddenly. She jumped and turned her head, startled.

“E?”

Evie just came back, and she seemed upset. She threw her bag in a corner of the room, then started to unlace her shoes, rapidly offering them the same fate.

“Are you okay?” Mal asked with a slight concerned frown.

Evie wasn’t usually this demonstrative with her bad emotions. She faced Mal, jaw tight of frustration and eyes filled with annoyance.

“Of course not!” she snapped. “How could I be okay when I’m in a stupid country full of insane laws established by elders so small-minded I couldn’t even put a pea in it!?”

Mal stood up, already knowing what this conversation was about.

“You met the council,” she guessed.

If Ben was King of Auradon, he was far from having an absolute power. He still needed the approval of the council for too many decisions. The problem was, like Evie just pointed out, the council was a bunch of old people, who had known the world when magic and villains were free and had participated in the creation of the isle. The ban of all the villains was their idea, and they weren’t exactly happy about the new decrees that Evie and Ben were trying to set up to free more children.

Evie let out a frustrated growl to confirm.

“What did they do this time?”

“They limited the decree to four children. Four! Do they realize how many kids are captives there? How many suffer from anger, cold and daily confrontation to violence? We have the capacity to welcome so many more! But no, four worked so well for us, so they want us to reiterate that. I hate them.”

Mal approached her and gently pressed her shoulder, her own lips closed tightly to contain her anger. Auradon’s rulers were assholes and will always be. None of them had the slightest idea of how the life could be on the isle and sometimes, she regretted she wasn’t allowed to show them. A little insight couldn’t hurt.

Sensing that Evie was starting to calm down, she led her to sit on the bed.

“Did you talk to them about your mentorship idea? It’s so great, maybe it will convince them to enlarge the number of kids?”

Evie winced, then hid her face in her hands. Her rage was practically all gone now, leaving more room for this feeling of helplessness that embraced her a little more each day.

“I tried, but they twisted it and made it so worse. It’s terrible Mal, now they want kids to complete applications with questions like why they want to leave the isle or who they prefer between all of us. And I’ll be the one who will have to read this and choose!”

“It’s bullshit!” Mal grumbled.

“The only good side of these applications is that it will at least allow us to make an estimation of how many kids are on the island, and maybe to make pressure against the council. But everything else Mal…sometimes I feel like it’s a lost cause, and we should come back to the initial plan. You know, steal the wand and destroy this fucking barrier.”

Mal let out a little joyless laugh.

“With the lack of news from Uma, you can bet she’ll take care of that.”

Evie sighed and leaned her head against her friend’s shoulder, her eyes closed of exhaustion. She was fed-up of all that.

“If she does, I won’t try to stop her," she murmured. “I don't care what could happen to Auradon, and I don’t care about our parents. I just want to help all these kids.”

“You are already helping them, E.”

“It’s not enough.”

“You are doing your best, and that’s a lot more than anyone else ever did for them."

#Descendants #Descendants 3 #Descendants spoilers #D3 spoilers #Descendants 3 spoilers #Fanfiction #Descendants Fanfic #Evie #Evie is the best #Drabble #English #Auradon sucks #VK day #Malvie #Mevie #Not really but it's Mal and Evie so...

27 notes · View notes

daresplaining · 7 years

Text

MCU Danny Rand Week: Day 5

A Favorite Episode

Iron Fist Season 1, Episode 10: “Black Tiger Steals Heart”

Another challenging category because we have so many favorites, but this is one of the most pivotal and powerfully-executed episodes of Iron Fist. It introduces some major characters, reinvents an antagonist that, up until this point, had not been handled all that well in this universe (”Handled”. Hah! Sorry...), and does a beautiful job of cranking up the pain of the show’s already brutal emotional rollercoaster. And as an added bonus... it contains not one, but two Iron Fists.

Danny is in a downward spiral moving into the end of Episode 9. His already chaotic life is shattering around him, he is getting closer and closer to the root of his repressed trauma, and Colleen has nearly been killed by the Hand. Thus, the beginning of Episode 10 comes as an emotional respite-- both for Danny and Colleen, and also for the viewer. The bright, gentle color palette of the first chunk of the episode reinforces the calm that comes with the idea that for the moment, our heroes are getting a well-earned break.

We are also given a little more of Colleen’s backstory, in that she is bringing Danny “home”. While her past remained largely undeveloped in this first season, we learn enough to know that she owes a lot to this safe haven, which both tells us about her and gives us an extra reason to trust in the safety of the place. The astute viewer might wonder about why everyone-- including Colleen-- is wearing various combinations of black and red (the same colors as the Hand ninjas’ uniforms in Daredevil!), but the overall good vibe of these early scenes serves to keep any suspicion in the background.

It’s a small detail, but Danny learning to recharge his chi is one of our favorite scenes in the whole show. It’s great to see him this content, and it’s a beautiful bit of acting and cinematography-- as well as a vital bonding moment between Danny and our new pal Bakuto.

Bakuto was one of the major triumphs of Iron Fist and The Defenders, and we will miss him. He existed briefly in the comics, as a young, volatile Hand leader who clashed with Matt in the Daredevil arc leading up to “Shadowland”. He was around for a few issues before being killed. The Bakuto developed in Iron Fist is a far more interesting (and, personality-wise, completely different) version of the character. His soft-spoken, friendly, insanely charismatic nature makes him instantly trustworthy. We are also compelled to take Colleen at her word. This is someone she loves-- clearly, he’s a good person. We also love the fact that Bakuto’s physical appearance, mannerisms, and even speech patterns are very similar to Danny’s-- another subconscious suggestion that we should trust this guy.

This comment stuck out to us as important the first time we watched the show, and now, with what we learned about Bakuto’s K’un-Lun connections in The Defenders, it makes perfect sense. It’s a great detail for Danny to pick up on... a little thread tying the Hand to K’un-Lun.

This also explains how Bakuto is able to offer Danny exactly what he longs for-- further Iron Fist training. Having left K’un-Lun prematurely (and been lied to a bit while he was there, as we learn in The Defenders) he is still a weak Iron Fist. Bakuto offers to fix this. He offers Danny information, and fulfillment, and purpose, and... this:

While his identity is left a mystery, and the Iron Fist legacy is not explored this season beyond being mentioned, the costume makes clear that this is the MCU version of Orson Randall, the Iron Fist who directly preceded Danny in the comics. How awesome is that? We don’t know if this Orson suffered/is suffering the same chaotic life as his comics counterpart, but we would kill to see more of him. As it stands, not only is this a glorious scene for all the comics fans in the audience, it’s also a powerful moment for Danny, who has never seen another Iron Fist before and is nearly brought to tears.

While Bakuto’s suspicious knowledge of Iron Fist techniques and general obsession with Immortal Weapons makes a bit more sense in light of what we learned in The Defenders, we still can’t resist speculating about the missing Book of the Iron Fist plot point from the comics, and the other stuff in Bakuto’s safe...

What are you hiding in there, buddy?

After offering Danny everything he has been searching for, the cracks at the edges of paradise begin to come through. Bakuto spies on Danny’s phone call with Harold, and is then confronted by Colleen. This interaction proves that Danny is being kept in the dark, and Colleen’s discomfort suggests that maybe, in fact, Bakuto doesn’t have Danny’s best interests at heart.

Danny, meanwhile, runs into Darryl in another of our favorite scenes in the show. Darryl (who was originally in Luke Cage, for anyone who missed that connection) is a great character-- similar to Hope Schlottman and Cole Miller in his status as an innocent kid dragged into a horrible situation. He is instantly sympathetic, and his little sparring match with Danny in this scene is delightful.

Danny gives him the benefit of the doubt, too, because he’s Danny. And he executes some perfect defensive fighting. It’s a really fun interaction, included to add maximum pain to their less-than-fun interaction at the end of the episode.

Danny sneaks into the containment building and spends a few significant seconds staring at a mystery person in a bed. Who is this? Is it Orson? This is one of the biggest mysteries of Season 1 for us and we hope to see it resolved in Season 2.

Danny and Gao have a fascinating relationship. While she is as irreverent as she come-- that’s part of her charm, in fact-- she exhibits a compelling degree of respect for Danny, and helps him on a number of occasions. But of course, she is also extremely manipulative and may be behaving in this way in order to serve her own needs. It is impossible to read Gao’s motivations, but in this episode, with the Bakuto situation becoming uncertain, she is particularly suspect-- and neither Danny nor the viewer can be sure what side she’s actually on. Bakuto insists she is lying, but we now have a reason to not trust what he has to say.

And most importantly, she is the one to reveal to Danny that the compound is Hand-run, a revelation which both saves Danny and screws with Bakuto’s plans. Until this point, we had very little sense of the Hand’s recruitment process. In Daredevil we saw them kidnapping children to harvest their blood, and were shown crowds of identity-less ninjas, but had no indication of what appeal the organization might have for its members. This is what makes this reveal so effective-- the fact that Bakuto’s faction is so different from anything we’ve seen before. For the first time, it becomes clear why people-- good people, even-- might be drawn into the Hand. This adds depth and realism to a group that previously in the Netflix-verse had been two-dimensional, and makes them extra sinister and creepy.

This is followed by Danny’s fight with Colleen, which confirms the worst. He’d thought he was safe. Now he is learning that the one person he really trusts isn’t even who she said she was. The pain of this fight is made extra powerful when placed alongside the perfect lightness and tranquility of their relationship early in the episode.

This fight does several things (in addition to hurting the viewer). First, it benefits from dramatic irony. To the viewer, Colleen seems to be the voice of reason because we have seen what Danny has not: that she felt bad about lying, wanted to tell him the truth, but was prevented from doing so. We have also just been shown how dangerous it is to believe appearances, and we trust Colleen’s testimony of her time with the Hand, and her long-held devotion to Bakuto’s faction, enough to assume that maybe she is right. But at the same time, we understand Danny’s horror on an emotional level. This is not the first time he has been stabbed in the back by someone he thought he could trust, and it is hitting at the core of his pain: his parents, who-- he believes at this point-- were murdered by the Hand. The worst kind of fight is the one where both sides have a point, and neither is able to budge.

It also explores a theme set up earlier in the episode, in which Danny tells Bakuto that most people are only interested in using him, as the Iron Fist, for their own purposes. As we later learn, one of those people is... Bakuto. During the fight, Colleen directly addresses this theme, solidifying the fact that she isn’t trying to manipulate him in this way and that she cares about him as a person. Danny is too upset to acknowledge the significance of this statement, but the viewer is informed enough to recognize its importance.

With this, night falls and the tone of the episode shifts. Instead of the bright, colorful, inviting color palette of the daytime scenes, we are plunged into sinister low lighting, mirroring the shattering of the Hand compound’s happy illusion and the bleakness of Danny’s situation.

He is isolated, unable to trust anyone around him, and his discovery of Bakuto’s surveillance room-- bringing with it a hint of just how much the Hand have been meddling in his life-- is just one more psychological punch in the face.

This is the point at which Davos shows up. We wrote a post about him the other day, but it’s always worth reiterating how great his introduction is in this episode. Danny has lost one friend and gained another, and their side-by-side tag-team is one of the greatest fights in a great fight-filled show.

But even this can’t save Danny from having a bit more of his world ripped away. The horror and confusion resulting from the emotional switch-backs inflicted upon him this episode disrupt his chi and prevent him from using the Iron Fist. He has now lost one of his closest friends and his future as the Iron Fist all in one go. Any hope he might have possessed when first arriving at the compound has been destroyed, and he is left with nothing.

To add even more pain, Colleen has not stopped trusting Danny, and is caught between two sides, both of whom she cares about. She risks her life to help Danny, turning on her family. The least she can do is help him and Davos escape to prevent both parties from killing each other, but this is a decision that impacts her arc for the rest of the show. At the very least, Danny sees that she has helped her before being dragged out the door.

We are then left with another little plot thread that we’d hoped would return in The Defenders, but didn’t. Having been forced to fight Danny for real, and getting seriously injured by Davos in the process, Darryl is now perfectly set up to enter a new stage of his own story. While it has not yet been carried out on-screen, the idea of Darryl further devoting himself to the Hand and becoming an enemy to Colleen and Danny is painful enough for the moment.

Having started the episode on an emotional high, Danny ends it at his lowest possible point. He has lost everything he had on Earth, and is faced with the shame of returning to K’un-Lun as a failed Iron Fist. Everything he’d hoped to achieve has been destroyed.

And on top of that, just to make everything that much worse, he’s bleeding out.

A great end to a great episode. We didn’t even touch on the excellent Meachum plot-points explored in “Black Tiger Steals Heart”, but Danny’s trauma is compelling enough on its own.

#dannyweek #Netflix Iron Fist #Iron Fist #Danny Rand #Colleen Wing #Bakuto #The Hand #Orson Randall #Commentary

40 notes · View notes

mementosrp-blog · 7 years

Photo

( KIM YUHWA )

ALIAS › lily

FACTION › ada

( PERSONA )

BACKGROUND : delicate beauty. gentle grace. endless power. the proud queen possessed it all. her pride was her downfall, her power useless when faced with humiliation, with the foolishness that love brought — love also almost came to cost yuhwa’s life; the pretty little girl in her pretty little dress with her pretty long hair and chin high up, elated with pride and power brought by influence and wealth. love and trust was her downfall and had it not been for the fair queen’s sedulous and protective core aligning with her own stubborn wish to keep fighting they would have never came to form a bond. titania; she carried the delicate beauty of a frail flower and the powers of a restless warrior.

ABILITY/ABILITIES :

– flower manipulation: titania has the ability to control, shape and manipulate all blooming plants; turning, for instance, vines into vicious grips and thorns into weapons as sharp and lethal as daggers.

– sleep manipulation: she can induce and manipulate aspects of sleep in others. it’s possible for her to induce instantaneous sleep or tire someone out to have them fall asleep a more natural way. it’s also possible to force anyone sleeping to wake up regardless of the circumstances, which can come in handy should they put themselves into a dream like state for health recovery.

WEAKNESSES :

– the flowers are still fragile and delicate and therefore not especially durable, as well as incredibly susceptible to fire and ice attacks

– personas with strong mental abilities can’t be kept asleep for as long as she wishes and are sometimes able to control for how long they sleep or even, in some cases, if they’re affected at all

( STATS )

Knowledge : [ 6 / 25 ] Guts : [ 10 / 25 ] Proficiency : [ 14 / 25 ] Kindness : [ 3 / 25 ] Charm : [ 17 / 25 ]

— BACKGROUND

the white water lily « floating along restless waters ｡｡｡ »

⁕⁕⁕

｡the root ⁕

the flower seed was sown on soiled ground, poisoned and soaked with blood. there’s many secrets her family hides, many nooks and dark corners in the vast house she grew up in that hid grotesque memories of unresolved and restless lives.

yuhwa is the youngest child, the only daughter.

she’s wild, not passive; loud, not meek.

disapproving glances follow her wherever she goes. there’s loud voices and and harsh slaps and cruel punishments and as much as they try to get yuhwa to bend, she doesn’t break. there’s stubbornness in her, a fighting spirit that wants to grow and spread and entangle her roots deep within the earth.

⁕⁕⁕

｡the stem ⁕

yuhwa grows tall, like the stem of a lily. her shoulders are squared, her eyes are focused and she learnt to bend with the strong wind but not let it break her.

her family’s wealth and importance grew with her oldest brother’s marriage and while her parents and siblings all dinned at the table with laughter and music, she still had her place on the floor. it still hurt, deep in her chest, it still felt tight and uncomfortable to watch them, still stung bitterly in the corner’s of her eyes with each and every unshed tear. she’s still young and her voice only grows louder as she grips at her mother’s sleeves and desperately wails ’why’.

the answer never comes.

her hands are slapped away.

the girl locked into her room and sedated with pills as colourful as candy.

⁕⁕⁕

｡the leaves ⁕

she’s wild, they say. too savaged, like a beast. unrefined. a flower that bears thorns, too thick leaves with prickly ends wrapped around a delicate flower that had yet to show herself, had yet to bloom. yuhwa searches for love and encounters nothing, but rejection. she has three older brothers and three monsters living underneath the same roof as her. they push her down a staircase, try to burn her hair, try to look her into closets and crush her arms and legs between doors.

yuhwa learns to live with disgust cast her way, like she was marred and disfigured to a point of no return. she wasn’t even sure when it started, but remembered feeling tender touches and small affections as a young child. memories turned to dreams and yuhwa doubts her own mind, at times, thinks she must be going insane.

she’s only fourteen but lays awake late at night, gnawing her fingers bloody, her whole body restless and jittery as she stares straight at the ceiling of the cellar and tries to distinguish what was real and what was imagination.

why was she different?

she looked like them, she moved like them - didn’t she?

⁕⁕⁕

｡the flower ⁕

the flower blooms a year later and yuhwa doesn’t realise what the consequences until she’s shoved along dark corridors and into a metal ring. there’s an audience, loud cheers, a blinding light and an opponent. she didn’t know how to fight, but she was quick and small and pain was her teacher. bruises bloomed along her skin; sweat slicked, cut and dirty.

from the corner of her eye she always sees her family cheering and sneering at her pain and suffering - she’s nothing but an animal to them; a mean of entertainment.

it breaks her heart and it breaks her trust and it takes her a year to find titania and finally break free.

⁕⁕⁕

｡blooming ⁕

with sixteen years of age she’s living on the street, scamming and stealing, just to get along. she lives from one day to the other, spends nights falling asleep with a rumbling stomach and tears dried on her cheeks. her heart hurts, her chest is heavy - yuhwa knows how to bend, but not break. survival was what she was trained for, fighting for her life was what she became used to.

it happened purely by chance that a man she attempted to scam invited her to his agency. it’s a job he plans to offer her, but it’s advice and help she gets after he finds her age and living circumstances. yuhwa learns about support from the government, about how minors had to be taken care of and family.

she’s placed within a patchwork family with two other children and smiling adults.

two years pass in the blink of an eye and yuhwa enjoys a warm environment with people who care for her growth and education. the agent who had helped get her off the streets had ended up offering her a job again as soon as she turned eighteen and yuhwa accepted it without hesitance.

she cut her hair, moved out, keen to support herself instead of mooching off her adoptive parent’s.

modelling earns her just enough to get by, but it’s when the government finds her and the ADA is formed with her that things really start to look up.

yuhwa is twenty-one and the flower is finally blooming.

⁕⁕⁕

{ diary of a beast -

17.1.2011

it hurts. my fingers are all bloody and my nose and cheek and shoulder are throbbing and i can still hear them cheer on and on and on and ON

i didn’t stop when the girl beneath me started screaming, i couldn’t, i was too scared. i’m sorry. i didn’t want to hurt her but i had to, i had to. i’m scared and i just want it to stop but begging and crying was useless. what did i do that they hate me so much? i tried to be good but being good didn’t make them love me. they always look at me like i’m a nuisance, like they don’t want me here. why not?

mother used to tell me i’m too feisty and too aggressive. i threw too many tantrums. i fought with my brothers too much. a girl doesn’t kick and throw punches she used to say but today they forced me to do just that.

gladiator brawls. there were so many people and so many kids. younger than me. older than me. they’re saying it’s either them or me. i don’t want it to be me, it hurts too much. i keep screaming and crying but nothing happens. i’m scared they’ll lead me there again.

⁕⁕⁕

3.4.2011

i hate them so much. i hate each and every one of them.

fighting has become easier by now. girls are weaker but they last longer, they can take more. the boys’ punches hurt more but they’re easier to hurt too.

i avoid looking at mirrors. i don’t think i’ll like what i see a lot.

the bruises are all fading but i feel like a monster. i’m being treated like one.

⁕⁕⁕

19.6.2011

i want them to hurt too.

i feel like i’ve been fighting my whole life. it’s always been a fight with my brothers, against them, for my parents’ love. it all got me nowhere, right? so why am i still fighting?

because i want to survive.

⁕⁕⁕

27.9.2011

something…. weird happened today.

i felt lightheaded and weak and i was losing. there was no energy in me. i just felt cold and my arms and legs felt so heavy. it was scary but in a way it was also relaxing. for a moment i thought it was nice to not have to fight. i wanted to give up.

and that’s when it happened…. like vines there was something wrapping around my limbs. it was weird. i couldn’t see anything but it was like there was a really soft touch, almost warm, and a really really faint voice but just for a moment.

i probably just imagined it but it was a good enough wake up call, it made me feel like i had some energy still left in me.

i’m taking that as a sign to continue fighting no matter how tiring it is.

⁕⁕⁕

2.12.2011

i don’t feel so lonely anymore. it’s like whenever i have a moment of weakness that warm touch comes back and that faint voice tries to talk to me. i can’t understand it properly and i can’t really hear what it’s saying but i think it’s the voice of a woman. when i’m back in my room i try to think who it could belong to but nothing comes to mind. sometimes it remind me a bit of how mother used to be when i was really really young but that is such a far away memory that i’m not even sure how much of it is actually real.

i don’t know if the voice and the touch is real either, but i like to think so. it’s like my very own angel that’s here to protect me.

i’ll show her, i’ll show them all that nothing will ever destroy me.

⁕⁕⁕

8.1.2012

titania. that’s her name.

it almost feels like a dream.

i had no chance today, i should have lost. i had used up all my adrenaline, i had used up all of my energy, i couldn’t move and everything was blurry and getting darker. i thought i had fainted but…

when i opened my eyes i wasn’t in the metal ring anymore instead there were dark walls and giant flowers and weird monsters. i heard her call out to me and i rant to her, i found her and i immediately knew that there was no time to be weak. giving up wasn’t an option. failing isn’t an option.

i refuse to be treated like a monster. i refuse to be kicked around for entertainment like a mutt.

i’ll take my life into my own hands again and now that i have titania by my side too nothing can stop me. i’ll grow up to become a queen. }

#MT!RP: accepted #MT!RP: follow

0 notes