#Hero trying to recall her name is all time scenes in media that fall into the just Fuck me up catagory
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The hero, the forgotten. Look how they grow.
#HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERO HAVE ART SHOWING THE PAINFUL REALISATION OF YOUR UNWILLING CHANGESSS#the property of hate#tpoh#tpoh hero#my art#Hero trying to recall her name is all time scenes in media that fall into the just Fuck me up catagory
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S5 Ep6: Joey Wheeler is on Fire, Yet Again
Came down with a little sickness-not the biggie, just a little sly guy. But I took some meds, I’m a little floaty, I’ve only been listening to baroque music all morning for some reason? And I hate baroque music usually? But I’ll leave it to bro to tell me if this is fluid enough.
Just so you know, these caps were kind of a hot mess for a while and some of them read like that Garfield in of hot eat the food comic until...today. So pls don’t judge me, Judge my damn DMV where no one was following Covid regulations because I’m pretty sure that’s where I got this damn cold.
We start off with Roland getting more attention than he ever has in his entire life. Like honestly, I don’t know what Roland’s job really is...but he’s got a very diverse set of very useless skills. One of which, is knowing how to announce sports games that aren’t really a sport, while those games he’s announcing slowly fall into chaos.
Anyway, Roland’s taking so long cherishing his sweet time before everything goes to hell, that he’s boring Joey, who’s kinda turned into a ball of stress in the waiting room.
A lot of this episode is us watching them watching Joey having a break down moment by moment, TBH.
(read more under the cut)
Yugi telling Joey to study his cards and straight up--what?
Like at this point they know what’s on the cards, right? Like there comes a point where even Yugioh cards have a finite amount of words and I’m just going to assume that like...Joey probably knows them all in his own deck, right?
(bro note: they have no limit on what they will put on a card)
Then again, maybe Yugi doesn’t know what “study” means?
Also, appreciate how some artist crosshatched the hell on Joey’s nose there and I zoomed out and ruined it.
Now for some reason every duelist is hanging out in the duel lodge, including our current arch-villain guy who’s brought a book. I want to know what book this guy even reads so no one could suspect he’s actually a hacker who uses computers. He’s reading romance, right? And I don’t think he’d even be into Twilight, I think he’s straight up into hard core Mom romance like a lame ass Nicholas Sparks over there reading “Dear John” for the millionth time because he is completely un-phased by anything else happening in this room.
Joey, our hero, just out there being an asshole for no reason.
After Tea is pushed into a locker or something screaming about her need for female friends (which she screamed in earshot of Rebecca again, who I figured was on friends terms with her after last episode...but I guess not) Leon hops up to remind us that we should be caring about the fact that his character exists.
And like, I love Leon’s hair color--that’s a good choice, and legit that is the color I tried to dye my hair at the beginning of the epidemic (it didn’t work PS, my hair cannot take dye for the life of it) but also like...he just kinda feels like a weak Rebecca as far as characters go. He’s young, he’s good at cards...I think he goes to a private school? That’s all I can think of about Leon.
He mostly just reminds us that the big prize of this tourney is to duel Yugi, who anyone could have dueled at any point even without the tournament.
On the way out of the...duel room? lounge? Area? Joey decides to like...make peace with Zigfried, and I gotta tell you, I kinda have to side with Zigfried, because Joey spent the last ten minutes being a freak in the dressing room/lounge/bathroom and at one point looked like he was going to hold the entire locker room in a stranglehold.
I would also want some space from Joey Wheeler, is what I’m saying.
After insulting Joey’s style (which honestly, Joey...has a style? He pops his collar, that’s his entire style.) Zigfried assures us that Joey’s gonna lose and like...
...probably, right? Just looking at the plausible direction this season will go.
Anyway, Joey is such a mess (which is the theme of the episode, that Joey needs to learn to chill in order to win at card games) that Rebecca is like “I understand if all of you leave me to go help our poor baby Joey.” And no one felt bad for her.
Mokuba comes over to tell everyone all of the Kaiba family secrets because Mokuba has no filter.
Seto has devoted himself to staring at a computer screen for the rest of this episode. I guess he’ll put their names into Google, realize that social media hasn’t been invented yet, and then just lie his head down on the desk and take a power nap until the tournament is over. Much like I did after taking Dayquil this afternoon.
I like how Seto dressed for success and then locked himself in the server room for most of this arc so far. Maybe he’s just...really tired, I dunno. I don’t really blame the guy, he’s had a hard time.
And then Yugi was like “DAMN IT MOKUBA, JUST ONCE CAN YOU NOT INVITE THE ILLUMINATI???”
And we had a weird scene where Yugi just started talking to the ghost and it was while he was talking to everyone else, and the show didn’t treat it like that’s a weird thing to do...but it was a weird thing to do.
This show does that sometimes, where I guess they imply that Yugi’s Pharaoh conversations are split second conversations but...they’re not, right?
Also this chick ain’t gone yet, and Mokuba is just failing at his entire job for not zeroing in on vibes coming off this chick like stinky cheeseman.
So listen.
Did the Kaibas make like 3 types of Blue Eyes Caboose to one up Noah? Because Noah made one choo choo dragon, and then Mokuba and Seto were like “how dare” and then made sure that everyone ride every single version of the blue eyes caboose just to see how proud of them they were.
How many months of troubleshooting was the train? Like how long in development did Seto and Mokuba spend on these? A lot right? Like most of the time?
I did not check the subs to see if Roland said Jumping or Champion but I like to believe that Roland thought it was a cool new name he gave him.
Then these guys all showed up.
Hey so...can we talk seating arrangements?
Tea decided not to sit next to Yugi after complaining about not spending time with him for like how many episodes? Or was it too awkward to sit on top of what was probably Pharaoh?
Or did Mokuba go like “please, Tea, I cannot sit next to the others because I’m pretty sure one is a mole that is about to go cray” and was Tea like “Good, I need female friends, these ones are driving me crazy!” and then was Mokuba like peering desperately over the edge of his self made dragon train prison realizing he has to listen to Tea complain about boys for the rest of his ride across molten lava?
Headcanons abound about this weird seating arrangement that the animators drew for the reasons they did...but reasons I cannot fully understand. That and the Dayquil is making me overfixate on random stuff.
And also, Tea is kind of the Kaiba’s security’s understudy. Just there to always protect Mokuba with her ass because she’s the strongest woman alive.
PS I missed the tumblr wars because at the time I was trying to like...run a proper business on blogger. When Blogger died and I jumped over here it was like a weird ruin where everyone was like “tumblr is the most toxic place alive” and...I’ve had a really nice time here, actually. Completely missed that civil war period and I have no regrets.
Now I was there for the Petz wars (warz, I guess) where people were very militant about Petz abuse (abuze?) where apparently people were using the spray bottle on their catz too much and people were very, very upset about it to the point that they were like campaigning about it on their angelfire websites with the most bizarre grassroots campaigns that I still recall, to this day because they were like...well they looked like this:
PLAPA. Not only am I 100% positive that only this one guy ever called this movement PLAPA, but I’m 100% positive that not only are Catz not real people, but also this wasn’t actually happening and we never had any proof that it was. Either way, if people knew or suspected that you hadn’t deleted the spray bottle from your game (which at the time I had no idea how to do because I was a wee child) they would basically assume you were on a one way road to being a mass murderer in real life.
In real life we were 7 years old so like...thanks?
But that’s the closest I got to toxicity and at the time I was too young to make an email account and actually converse with these people. I was just there to download their Petz hexes, and I already made a post about how wonderful and incredible Petz Hexing was.
And y’all, I heard, just now after a little deep dive into the Petz Abuse debacle (which yes, is on the wiki), that apparently, like gardening, Petz Hexing came back in a big way during the epidemic--and I have found an active Petz forum in this the year 2021. The only problem is that I no longer remember how to use old timey forums...and I think I’m locked out of seeing most of these threads (and like this forum is so old I think I have to send them a letter in the physical mail to apply). But, I’m pretty sure they’re hosting a picture contest for who’s dogz poses the best. And I’m pretty sure someone created a hexxed Pickle Rick. Or it’s a photoshop that was made to look like a hexxed Pickle Rick.
Dammit why did it have to be Pickle Rick? That’s not worth re-installing Petz and getting it to run on Windows 10...
Guys is this the Dayquil? Is this really happening? I feel like I’m losing my mind for so many reasons...
Anyway, speaking about useless hexing it’s about time that our villain did something that was actually dangerous, so Zigfried decided to install a new virus that does more than turn off the lights. (it still turns off lights)
the Spreadsheet Virus!
Confounded by the spreadsheet software, it...um...it does this:
Straight up how does Excel make a volcano erupt? Is that why I have to pay for Microsoft office now?
All this because Joey made fun of Zigfried’s naturally pink hair? Which is the most normal hair on this series outside of like...Tristan?
Hey guys...Joey’s fine, right? Like how many times has Joey been on fire? And once in an iron cage next to like...a Fire Golem?
Joey’s fine.
MAN I miss Fire Golem. He had a good mug.
And then we just kinda watch chaos go across the park, chaos that includes: Too many ghosts in the haunted mansion (which honestly--you’ll get your money’s worth, sounds great!), the Ferris wheel goes kinda fast and thus might accidentally be fun, the lights turn off at some concert stage that only had 2 people on it (so it might just be motion detector lights and not even a virus), and um...literal fire and magma are going to set Joey Wheeler on fire.
Just...one of these events does not seem like the others. In fact most of these things sound like good improvements to the park and they should just hire Zigfried at this point.
Roland puts down his microphone and jogs across the stage, about a mile through the audience bleachers, and into the staff lounge, to go and bother Seto Kaiba, who is in a room that has a hi-def classical painting copy-pasted on the wall and I can’t look away from it.
I almost did a Google search on this painting but then thought better about it. There’s like...a billion classical paintings that look exactly like this, and they wouldn’t use like a Monet, they would have to do something that’s harder to catch to avoid copyright issues (because yes, even old ass paintings have copyright issues, but no one tell NFT’s which are going to be so freakin screwed and was such a bad idea, that I can’t even start).
Anyway, I have no idea who it is and it is legitimately driving me up a wall, but I’m on too much meds to do the effort of putting it in a reverse google image search.
Plus, a reverse google image search would only pull up Seto Kaiba.
So Kaiba takes us on a little flashback to his weird ass past, a weird ass past that just...doesn’t follow any of the established timelines, but I assume was shortly after adoption but before Seto got into a phase where he wore his school outfit everywhere and tried to shove his MMO off onto his Dad as a business model.
Seto is like 8 for some reason. I don’t know why, they kinda drew him younger this season anyway, like maybe they got a lot of fan mail and realized “Hey I think we made the 16 yo boy too sexy?” And they just toned Seto the hell down. That, and it’s a different animation team, and maybe they looked at Seto’s character design and were like “we don’t get paid enough to draw this well.” So...since Seto actually looks like a teen again, I guess his 12 year old self has to look like he’s in Elementary school.
Also, I only recognized this, because at some point in S3 as I was roasting Noah Kaiba’s weird fashion:
I remember distinctly roasting that little bow tie. I don’t remember when I wrote it, I think there was a version of this outfit that was in color...but I don’t remember where.
Anyway, it’s not the same jacket...but man that’s kind of awkward, ya? Like the maid who dressed Mokuba deffo got fired?
He um.
Turned the lights off a little bit.
Guys this villain is like...
...why does he think lights are scary? Like look at little Seto here. The boy is already bored. Seto duels on the edges of cliffs...he doesn’t care about the freakin dark.
We had a guy who killed everyone on the planet last season, and this season we have a little fashion gremlin standing in the corner and flicking the light switch going “wooooo you never catch me!” and it’s like...
...I’m starting to think this guy isn’t a witch.
Like we’re at Episode 6, there’s still time for this guy to be a witch...but I really am starting to think this guy is just...straight up not a witch. It’s everything Seto wanted, a rival who isn’t a freakin magic person...and sets Joey only fake on fire instead literally on fire like last time...
and Seto is just completely unhinged by it.
Anyway, I’m off to go drink a bowl of soup and pass out. If you’re new here, this is a link to read these in chrono order.
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
#yugioh#yu gi oh#ygo#S5#Ep6#Yugi Muto#Seto Kaiba#Joey Wheeler#Tea Gardner#Tristan Taylor#Mokuba Kaiba#zigfried von schroeder#rebecca hawkins#I talked about catz again#leon#but not the kings of leon guy#I mean he could be
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Do you mean the characterization where the character relived all of Peter Parker’s memories at the end of ASM #700 and was trying his best (from his point of view) to be a hero and NOT a villain? It’s almost like an important, life changing/character-changing moment like that happened in between those two scenes. But go figure. :-D
@danslott-blog
I’m writing this because I wouldn’t have space in the original post. This is to be considered a direct reply to the above poster.
You know, I can’t be 100% certain if you are the real Dan Slott or a sycophantic fan of his. Your blog page…
…leads me to believe you are in fact the real Dan Slott.
Thing is I saw this comment last night but I didn’t check out your blog until this morning. Nevertheless, last night my first instinct was to presume you to be the real Dan Slott.
The fact that my mind immediately jumped to that possibility, the fact that I can’t rule it out and the further supportive evidence of your blog, speaks volumes.
It speaks volumes about the person Dan Slott whether or not you are the genuine article or not. Because your actions so thoroughly fall in line with his behaviour.
And it is damning. As are your words. Let’s unpack them.*
So, did I mean Otto’s characterization? That’s what you were getting at. That my original post was in reference to Otto’s characterization between ASM #700 and Superior #2?
No.
I did not.
At all.
I was referring to Mary Jane’s characterization. I elaborate upon the topic in this post.
Tl:dr: MJ was eager to sleep with ‘Peter’ in the former issue but not in the latter.
That should have been utterly obvious to anyone observing the post because I was presenting events from 2 issues and saying they didn’t line up. Obviously the purpose was for the readers of my post to play spot the difference.
The similarities were Otto’s desire to have sex with Mary Jane. The difference was with MJ.
As of this writing, twelve other people grasped that obvious intent Dan.
Why on Earth do they have superior reading comprehension skills than a professional writer for the largest comic book company in America? Surely that should be a basic requirement of the job?
Not that I’m surprised. It is exemplary of the vast majority of your pathetic, reductive and damaging work on this franchise.
But let’s dive deeper.
You claim that Otto reliving Peter’s memories in ASM #700 (after the scene in the OP) changed him hence he was different in Superior #2.
But he’s not.
In ASM #700 he tried to exploit Mary Jane’s misconception that he was Peter Parker (and her pre-existing feelings for him) to have sex with her.
In Superior #2 he was still trying to exploit Mary Jane’s misconception that he was Peter Parker (and her pre-existing feelings for him) to have sex with her.
So he hasn’t changed. At all.
But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend you are right. In Superior #2 (because he relieved Peter’s memories) he was trying to be a better person from his point of view.
So you are saying from his point of view raping Mary Jane by deception constituted trying to be a hero and not a villain?**
If Otto experienced Peter’s memories then that would logically entail his upbringing and morality. Meaning Otto would in fact know that what he’s trying to do with MJ is unethical. Or he’d appreciate that he’s not the real Peter Parker and it’d be a disservice to the real man who’s legacy he’s trying to uphold to sleep with the woman he loves. Or he’d know who MJ was and appreciate she deserved better than to be deceived.
But no. He was horny and was going to satisfy himself no matter what. Hence later in the issue after he experiences Peter’s memories of ‘being’ with MJ he says he’s ready to move on and starts eyeing up other women, including Sajani.
Furthermore, even without Peter’s memories Otto would never have attempted to sleep with Mary Jane for two big reasons.
The first is that she is frankly not his type.
Prior to Superior, the women Otto held affections for (romantically or otherwise) were either scientifically gifted (Mary-Alice, Carolyn), admirers of his brilliance (Stunner, Carolyn, Mary-Alice) or unconditionally kind towards him (Aunt May).
You know…kind of like his own mother was!
MJ is not scientifically gifted. MJ did not admire Otto’s genius. As far as he knew she didn’t even admire Peter’s genius and even the times she has canonically it has been in a different way to the ladies in Otto’s life. MJ was never singing Peter’s praises for being so clever for inventing this or that, she was never borderline fangirling over his intellect. She also wasn’t unconditionally kind like Aunt May was, her kindness manifested in a starkly different way. She wasn’t taking Otto, Peter or a stranger home for a cup of tea or a nice meal.
Since Otto wanted to sleep with her before he was exposed to all of Peter’s memories, the only rationale reason for his interest was the superficial. She was an attractive young woman and Otto wanted her body.
Which would be weird right because I seem to recall you and your buddy Christos Gage saying Otto didn’t care about looks in his romantic partners?
This brings me to my second reason.
Otto is evil but he’s not Purple Man/Doctor Light levels of evil. He wouldn’t do something as debase as that, he’d view it as beneath him. In his own warped way he holds a certain respect for women. Hence he genuinely cared for Aunt May, Stunner, Carolyn Trainer, Mary-Alice and of course his mother.
But let’s say I’m wrong. Let’s say Superior #2 was covering totally virgin territory for the character that had never been touched upon before. As in there had never been a word written about Otto’s love life, attitudes to women, attitudes to sex, etc.
That being the case, you established as hard canon that Doctor Octopus, the villain of the pg-13 movie Spider-Man 2, antagonist in dozens of Spider-Man cartoons for children and video games for kids and teens, is an attempted rapist!
As in if MJ hadn’t turned him down all those times his attempts would’ve been successful and he’d just be an actual rapist.
You took a beloved, fun character (who was unique for having a somewhat humanitarian side to himself) and made him utterly irredeemable. You had him attempt an act of evil that the readers know (within the context of the genre conventions) is one of the, if not the actual, worst things a villain can do.
Good job buddy.
Oh, and needless to say, you totally and utterly failed to take Mary Jane’s point of view into account; as you did in response to my OP.
You never considered how you were using the main female character of the franchise who is beloved within the fandom and generating cheap, gratuitous tension by threatening to rape her.
In conclusion Dan Slott, you were never ever qualified for the job as Spider-Man’s lead writer. You never ever deserved the role because of how you lied and cheated your way into Marvel, disrespected the works of your predecessors and disrespected the characters you were in charge of.
You had good ideas half the time but your writing craftsmanship skills on the title were woefully lacking hence you could only competently execute them 1/8th of the time. When combined with the raw damage you wrought to the characters and narrative you are without question the single worst on-going writer of Spider-Man in history.
I’m sure you are pleased with that record considering it was blatantly obvious you were far more invested in cultivating an eventual legacy for your self on the character than you were actually serving the characters and organically developing them.
Author of ASM #600, 700 and 800
The only Spider-Man writer to have written 3 centennial issues in a row.
The guy who has written 1 in 5 issues of Amazing Spider-Man.
Oh, and also the worst on-going writer of Spider-Man in history.
Wow.
What an achievement.
Now, why don’t you stop searching for your own name or works online and do something more practical with your time.
Like learning how to write.
*Oh and btw, I’m writing this presuming you are the real Dan Slott.
Also I’m going to try my best not to swear but that is where my politeness ends. This isn’t CBR Dan, Mister Mets (nor any other moderator) is around to censor or ban anyone to protect you.
**And yes, having sex with MJ when she didn’t know he was really Doc Ock is objectively a form of rape. Here is literally the first sentence about rape on Wikipedia, with emphasis by me:
“Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person's consent.”
Contrary to what your buddies Fred van Lente or Stephen Wacker might have told you, force is not a requisite.
No consent = rape.
Had MJ had sex with Otto she’d have been giving Peter her consent not Otto. Therefore Otto would have been raping her. This was acknowledged in fact in a Dead pool comic book from 1998!
Courtesy of one of your Brand New Day peers, Joe Kelly, Deadpool v1 #12 saw Wade have sex with Siryn, whom he had feelings for.
However, in the next issue ‘Siryn’ reveals she was actually Typhoid Mary in disguise, a woman who’d endeavored to bring out Wade’s darkside against his wishes.
Wade’s dialogue and body language clearly convey how he feels sickened and violated by the experience. When he asks Mary why she did this to him she replies it was simply because she could. Whilst Wade is on the ground feeling vulnerable she stands up, leans over and licks him!
The scene when taken in context is brutally unsubtle. Typhoid used trickery to exploit Wade. She put herself in a position of power and abused that power to dominate Wade, to remove his agency.
That is literally all rape boils down to. Not sex but power. The scene, especially the last panel hammers that point home.
But just in case you still didn’t get it the very next page depicts Wade vomiting and saying he needs a shower.
This is a common reaction from victims of sexual assault, at least in media. The ‘I need a shower’ moment is practically a trope.
Why did a 1998 Deadpool story have a clearer understanding of the topic being played with than a 2013 Spider-Man story…that was allegedly for children no less!
P.S. You know Tom DeFalco had Peter Parker wrestle with his emotions in the wake of the ‘Death of Jean DeWolff’ story arc way back in ASM #275.
You might say that witnessing such violence and examining his own actions with perspective was a life changing experience for him.
With that in mind, how about you explain to me why Peter experiencing death, deletion, abuse of his life and body, losing a whole year of his life and then returning to it totally changed doesn’t count as a life/character changing experience?
Because you sure as hell didn’t write him reacting with the pain, the sadness, the anguish that he (or any normal human being) would’ve had after he came back. Nope. Just back to cracking jokes I guess.
Do you like…not know how human beings work?
That’s a rhetorical question because I know the answer.
#Dan Slott#Spider-Man#Superior Spider-Man#otto octavius#Doc Ock#Doctor Octopus#The Superior Spider-Man#mjwatsonedit#Mary Jane Watson Parker#Mary Jane Watson#MJ Watson#Peter Parker#joe kelly#deadpool#Wade Wilson#Typhoid Mary#Siryn#theresa cassidy#X-Men
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Title: Eurydice
WC: 1500
“Did you not understand the conditions of the agreement?”
— Hal Lockwood, Knockout (3 x 24)
He thinks cinematically—or maybe theatrically is closer to the truth, given his pedigree. This was true before her. It seems true in the distant memories he has of Before Her. She crowds all else to the margins—to the wings, to follow his metaphor—but he dimly recalls thinking this way from early on, in stage directions and lighting cues, in bit players and main cast.
This peculiarity of mind is a mercy when the doorbell buzzes. It renders the moment legible to him—his daughter, exits downstage, a new character appears, and we see the man, older and careworn, will play a small but vital role. Kate’s father.
There’s the necessary comedic beat on two sides of a threshold. There is the long moment in which our hero stands there gawping, reviewing in his mind all possible exits, staring. There is the same long moment in which the dry-witted supporting player waits him out. This lasts for a count of twelve—not eleven, not thirteen—and the tension breaks. Sir. Yes. Jim, right? Sir. Come in. Please. If you would like. Twelve monosyllables, one for each comedic pulse.
There is the stage business of coffee. It follows hard on the silent agony the audience sees on our hero’s face as he comes within one breath—one sharply bitten tongue—of offering wine, beer, hard alcohol by names general and specific. But in the end, there is the salvation of stage business coffee.
The hero crosses upstage to join the supporting player—the father—near what seems to be the the sole point of light in this universe, a table top lamp, softly shaded and touching each man’s face with incongruous autumn gold. The dialogue that follows is banal on the surface—it is the small talk of strangers jostled unexpectedly together, party goers stranded without benefit of finger sandwiches. But the audience sees easily beneath the surface: In the caged bird flutter of the hero’s hands, they see he is eager to know more of her. He is eager to be known by this man—her father. He is eager for countless things, every one of which orbits around her.
The father, in turn, is dryly amused, He sips his coffee and doles out his answers in tantalizing increments. He understands this planetary arrangement, these gravitational forces, inevitable and eternal. He understands them far better than the hero does, not as well as the hero will.
The dialogue proceeds, a spiral-armed galaxy that speaks of her. It reminds the audience that everything here speaks of her, players and pauses, lights and curtain drops, the faces of two men, touched with incongruous autumn gold.
The scene is the hero’s call to action. It is the divine charge laid on him by the benevolent and broken. It is a solemn, unexpected, and daunting task. The hero’s head bends under the weight of it.
The sole point of light in this universe extinguishes. The scene ends. Fade to black.
***********************
He thinks cinematically—or maybe theatrically. Maybe epically. This is irrelevant, in context. It’s no blessing or anything else. Any fool with any kind of mind can see the cycle inscribed and where he falls: He is a hero, refusing he call.
His task is impossible. The audience knows this, though there is no antic soliloquy. His duty is clear, his flaws are countless and fatal, his failure is inevitable. But failure is still far off as of yet.
He refuses the call. He thumbs his nose at the prophecy. He draws a blanket around his shoulders and mingles with the men by their several campfires, hoping for deliverance—for someone to clap him on the shoulder and say he has done enough, that they will take up the burden from here, and they will succeed where he surely—surely—would have failed.
But there is silence, only. There is stage business and fists raised in the general direction of the gods. There is, eventually, and a tip of lamp light shining through paper, a false sun with its circumference described by condensation, sublimation, desperation.
There is a scene change, a chase from wing to wing with the blackness of the background all the same. The temporary light of a conjured sun that dims almost as soon as it appears. It is a call to stage business, nothing more. The men, all but he, exit, stage left. The hero lingers. He stands at right angles to the tableau already fixed in the mind of the audience with its upstage light, well shaded, seemingly the sole light in this universe.
This scene, in contrast, is all stochastic illumination. The overhead buzz of stark white pours in from nowhere, rendering his face gaunt with shadows, yet his hands, his body swim in and out of overlapping ovals of something kinder and not quite autumn gold from the several desk lamps.
The scene, well lit, nonetheless suggests a skeleton with its slatted ribs of vinyl blinds. It suggests a hero swallowed whole, and a long-term stay in the belly of the beast is tempting. Stark white slashes across the hero’s face and the audience understands that it is tempting. He is, after all, the hero, refusing the call.
He is the hero, trying and failing to jerry-rig his own god in the machine. He lingers, one-hundred and twenty degrees away from another character, well-known, a small, but vital role—her mentor. The dialogue here proceeds in shorthand born of long acquaintance, deep respect. The dialogue here is terse, intense, efficient. The mentor offers up ancient history, a blessing because he yearns to know her. A curse because it ushers in the second inevitable dictum.
The mentor, benevolent and broken, lays the charge again, like a ghost pointing soundlessly from the ramparts, a ghost taking his closing bows on the last of a three-night engagement.
The hero is the hero. The call has been refused—pointlessly refused. And scene.
*********************
He thinks cinematically—maybe theatrically. Operatically in this case. The scale of this, in every sense, demands nothing less.
There is a second call to action, literal this time. A one-sided phone call. Sir. Yes. Yes. There are monosyllables without benefit of the comedic beat. There are monosyllables, resigned and barely audible, though the audience surely knows their tenor. There is a journey accomplished off stage—a journey deep into this cavernous underworld, with its hulking metal beasts, blue–black lit and hair raising.
The hero arrives, unbeknownst to anyone, in medias res. The hero, having refused the first call, the hero having failed, arrives, unbeknownst to anyone, to fail again.
She is an upright column of black picked out of the blue. She is a sharp-featured face, an elegant pair of hands drawing the blue into her, gathering what light there is to wield as her weapon. She is, for a single instant, a head bowed, a spine bending under the weight of history revealed, disordered allusions to a terrible past by the man, the mentor, the villain, it seems, clothed entirely in shadow.
These sins weave through the heavy black air to wind around her, to transform her. She shakes the weight of devastating realization from her shoulders. She is an upright column of black, demanding and implacable, terrifying and beautiful in the hair-raising, blue–black light.
There should be chords striking for this, low brass, heavy and dissonant. There should be thundering, unrelenting percussion that slams into the metal bones of this place, that slams into every useless cell of his body. There should be urgent strings rising to a fevered pitch and melancholy winds crying out in between.
But there is no such thing. The dialogue here is pointed, traditional. It is a confession in recitative where there should be a villain’s aria, fiery and defiant. Instead, there is only this—a confession in recitative, painfully extracted, painfully made, painfully witnessed.
He thinks cinematically, theatrically, epically, operatically, but the five-act structure fails him here. This is neither complication nor climax, neither reversal or falling action. This is the hero, watching helplessly from the wings. This is the nightmare of lines unlearned, a role that is nothing but a blank, page after page.
This Is the fourth wall tumbling as the man, the mentor, the villain invokes him—the hero, now a miserable, ill-equipped god in the machine, stumbling from from the wings. He pleads with her. His vocal line is all but lost in the rising chaos, beneath the hiss of gravel under tires. His vocal line is all but drowned out by her absolution ringing out above all.
There is an urgent sweep of jaundiced light. There are his arms, banding around her, nothing like a spiral galaxy. There is a flight from the underworld. There is an arrival at the very threshold of life once again. An arrival, but no hero’s victory.
She looks back. She looks ever back.
A/N; This is late and hot garbage and certainly not a thing. I am so behind on everything and I will die behind on everything.
image via homeofthenutty
#Castle#Caskett#Castle: Season 3#Castle: Knockout#Kate Beckett#Richard Castle#Roy Montgomery#Jim Beckett#Javier Esposito#Kevin Ryan#Fic#Fanfic#Fanfiction#Fan Fic#Fan Fiction#Writing#interrogatives?
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Now that She Ra is over, what are your thoughts on it? What about that Catradora kiss?
Hi Anon! Thank you for the Ask!
ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ Where to start?
I have so many thoughts on the show, and I’ve had so many thoughts since season 1. I’ve not written much of anything about She-Ra because I keep coming back to this problem of ‘where to start,’ or how to structure my thoughts beyond a +1000 item list. I can’t even pick one or two thoughts to dive into, because they all end up connecting to everything else —> honestly, that’s the mark of a tight narrative, even the big pieces that can fully stand on their own are still leading through to another piece. I fail at every attempt to write something brief.
Section I: Short answer first.
I have a very short and subjective list of media where I not only love (for different reasons) nearly every character (main, secondary, background), but where I also feel that their individual places or moments or arcs concluded in a way that felt right from start to finish. It’s a short list of media where connections and conflict between characters never felt forced, out-of-place, out-of-context, or done for shock value. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power makes that very short and subjective list.
It’s not often that a story hits all the right notes with me, and it’s much more often that a story starts off strong like that, and then turns me off ½-⅔ of the way through. I’ve quit video games during the final boss fight because the story lost me in the lead-up and I wasn’t going to waste 10-20 minutes of my time for something that turned out to be ‘meh’. It ain’t got to be deep, or anything either.
I really loved the voice acting. Everyone is great. A post for another time.
I love the aesthetics, which I wasn’t sure of at first teasers, but won me over in less than 3 minutes of the first episode (season 1) because I love bright pastels, the character designs are fun (can I still gush over variety of body types? YES), so many opportunities to explore stylish takes on the characters, and those Moebius-inspired scenery/background designs are a special interest delight. Season 5 delivered a visual ‘end game’ for the aesthetics in many ways, Section III further down will get into that a bit.
Section II: “What about that Catradora kiss?”
I gotta preface this with, shipping is not my go-to for how I enjoy creative works. It’s not a hobby for me. Sure there’s a few I dig more than others, but I’m otherwise agnostic about ships, unless there is a really bad story-fit (and that’s usually a subjective thing), or involves tropes that are a deal-breaker for me (and those typically relate a lot to the story fit).
With that said, I’m really happy to see Catradora be pulled off so brilliantly, and I think the kiss is a bold and beautiful big deal in a way that might not be obvious when considered in a vacuum. I see it as passionate and heart-felt, but also, it’s achieving(?) a relatable outcome (for me at least) that’s hard to describe. It’s an outcome yielded by a story in which two women—a hero and a villain—are divided and fight bitterly and then reconcile through love, while fighting a purity cult whose founder-prophet-god-king forces subservience through a conversion designed to strip someone of their identity (e.g. names they’ve chosen for themselves), memories-and-motivations, and love for others.
Despite these conversions, love still remains, it can’t just be baptized or therapy-ed away. Controlling puritans and authoritarians wielding religion or peace-panaceas as a weapon have been the villains in the lives of countless women and LGBTQIA people for a very long time. So yeah, I’ve got some feels about that. The last time I felt anything similarly relatable, or as strongly, was the Utena and Anthy relationship in Revolutionary Girl Utena (and really, their kiss during the surreal sequence at the end of the film adaptation).
Section III: Thoughts on Cult Aesthetics and Clones (the rough cut)
(1) In the future scenes at the end, Adora’s white dress with gold tiara and accents have this kind of goddess-like or Pallas Athena feel to it, which is a great mirror of the design choices for the god-like Horde Prime, his Purity Space Cult, mechanics/ship, and flagship interior scenery. Not saying that was the intention, but that’s how it came across to me.
Of course, those colors would be used because She-Ra already wears white and gold with a bit of red accent, which complement how the princesses are bright and colorful (pastels and jewel tones). The bold and bright colors helps signify that Etheria is full of life. Etheria is verdant and magical, and that sets up a contrast to the Fright Zone and the darker colors found in Horde characters (Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Scorpia, Catra, Entrapta, etc).
So the first kind of contrast was with the Fright Zone standing out as a poisoned/toxic against the bright, lively colors of Etheria and the princesses. Season 5 introduces another take on that contrast as Horde Prime is the opposite, or antithesis of Etheria’s colorful life. He’s like anti-life with his shades of light-and-dark grays on white, and only glow-green as an accent. In some cultures and religious traditions, white is associated with purity, and in others it is associated with death.
When Horde Prime ‘purifies’ Hordak for the sins of individuality and emotion (emotion for others, for his own sake), Hordak is drained of the colors he chose for himself during exile. In addition to being a contrast to Horde Prime (and informed by the 80s cartoon design), Hordak’s dark blue (or blue-black) and red color palette reflects the traditional use of red as a color for evil (especially vampirism) from back when diabolism was a stand-in for ‘the Devil’ in many forms of visual media (comics, live-action, animation, etc). In place of diabolic red, Horde Prime has toxic glow-green.
I absolutely love the use of the glow-green accents. Color trends for villains and significations of evil come and go, and I’m glad to see the color green be used again, and used so well. The last time I saw that shade of glow-green used so well was in Sleeping Beauty (re: Maleficent’s magic and the orb on her staff) and as the Loc-Nar in Heavy Metal. In both films, there are connotations of evil as a poisonous and corrupting influence. Green, in the context of evil, almost always signifies poison (and sometimes envy). I also like that the glow-green color is used in ways that aren’t immediately saying ‘this is evil’, such as the green baptismal waters and flames from the purification scene, or the green amniotic protein fluid. The language of piety and trappings of the sacred can cloak a sinister purpose.
I don’t know if any of that was intentional, but Horde Prime feels like the perfect synergy of purity and death (which has additional connotations, but that’s a very personal interpretation).
(2) Horde Prime immediately gave me subtle cult vibes in his first cameo (Season 3), and the follow-through on that was perfect and exactly what I was hoping to see. The background music throughout the scenes aboard the flagship fits well (love the soundtrack), and has the quality of Ecstatic Experience without pulling directly from any specific religion. Horde Prime’s dialogue is a delightful bit of narcissism veiled with the language of piety.
A purity cult comprised of clone-brother-worshippers of the cult’s founder-prophet-god-king reinforces that narcissism and has all the fun-dark feels of shiny-techno-future-dystopias. It is also an interesting use of clones, especially in a story format that usually never has the time to really dive into the complexities of cloning. This is the sort of thing that you’d be more likely to see in a one-off episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, rather than the basis for a greater scope villain, or multi-season nemesis. (and yes, Star Trek: TNG had an interesting clone episode)
Clones in science-fiction tend to fall into just a few tropes, and I generally dislike seeing clones show up in a story because the execution nearly always feels sloppy (in small ways or big ways). I did not get that feeling from She-Ra, where, the clones occupy the “cog in the machine” trope, but it is not their existence as clones that make them that way, it is the Will of Horde Prime that does. They are simultaneously expendable and sacred in their unity. It’s a nice flip on “stronger by working together” that Adora and the others have to learn (and struggle) to do.
It seems like, despite their religious programming, the clones have a little bit of their own personalities until Horde Prime ‘inhabits’ them to exert his Will. I’m trying not to read too much into it, b/c what comes across as ‘inhabits’ to me (especially with the religious/cult context), was probably meant more literal like described in the dialogue as a hive-mind control kind of thing. The first time it happens—to post-wipe/death Hordak—felt to me like a possession scene from The Exorcist, but without the kind of horror visuals that would scare both adults and children. The quick-and-subtle amount of body contortion and sound is still gross and creepy (because it should be), but it also reminds me of Ecstatic Experience in the form of speaking in tongues, or snake handling, or being a medium for a spirit. Again, I’m not saying any of that is intentional, but that’s how I see it.
(3) Finally, there is Entrapta, Hordak, and Wrong Hordak. Clones rarely get to be ‘humanized’ through friendship or romance arcs. I can think of a dozen or more robots that get to be humanized in that way, but can’t recall any clones that have (excluding doomed clones whose friendship/romance only existed for the sake of selling the tragedy of their death). Hordak gets death, renewal, and romance in a way that worked really well, and the totality of it is unique. I was a bit surprised that they could work in another clone—and I love Wrong Hordak—who pulls triple-duty as (1) comedy; (2) relevant to moving various pieces of the story along; and (3) more humanizing of the clones, which, again rarely happens as most stories take the easy low road when it comes to clones.
For Entrapta’s part, she’s never put in the position of giving up who she is (‘weird’ by many standards) for a romance. Her passion for technology is both an amusing double entendre at times, and integral to who she is. A romance for Entrapta does not replace her passion for technology, she can have both. Dating myself but, I came up in a time where most media (for children or adults) would rob a woman of her agency or passions during the resolution of a romance arc. Maybe times have changed, but it’s still nice to see none of that nonsense happening here.
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I saw that requests are open here, I hope that they still are. Can I request Tony Stark x Villain reader (around endgame) when she is literally a glitch (teleporting, being unstable, and having the ability to "hack reality", ya know normal glitch stuff) and can change the timeline die to who she is but it will cause her to get deleted. I know it's confusing and I'm sorry if it's too much to understand.
Glitch
Pairing: Tony Stark / Iron Man x Villain!Reader
Summary: You join forces with the enemy to fix the mess Thanos created.
Warnings: Angst
Rating: All
Word Count: 1,797 words
Note: I hope you like it! Thanks for requesting!
Tag: @emilaa2001
You stood defiantly in front of the group. Maybe teleporting into the remaining Avengers’ new headquarters wasn’t the smartest idea but you doubted they’d open up willingly if you rang the doorbell.
“Just… hear me out.”
At Steve’s ‘look of disapproval’ you sighed.
“Look. We all know if I wanted to kill any of you, I could have done it already.” Eyebrows raised around the room.
“And without all this ruckus.” You added, waving your hand around at the armed heroes before you.
Nat spoke up next, “And why should we even give you the chance? Aren’t you one of the bad guys, Y/N?”
You couldn’t help but scoff at that knowing she was using your words against you. It felt especially ironic coming from her.
“If that’s the narrative they spin, then I’ll take it. At least they’re listening.”
Movement behind the group caught your eye. You watched as the others turned to Tony,
‘Stupid’, you thought. ‘They really need to learn to not turn their backs on their enemies.’
Satisfied to see Tony but admittedly distraught at his sullen appearance you stood firmly in your place. You didn’t want your body acting on its own.
His voice was as weak as his body,
“Why are you here, Y/N?”
You smiled at Tony, genuinely happy to see he was alive. Even in the state he was in.
“Would you believe me if I said I was here for you?”, you said, on the edge of flirting.
Thor looked at you with annoyance and Rhodey barked out a bitter laugh.
He spoke up before Tony could reply.
“No really. Why are you here?”
You held your hands up, conceding. It wasn’t a lie, per say. But it wasn’t exactly the truth either.
“I want to help fix this.”
At the stares of the group, you elaborated, waving your arms around as you spoke.
“This. This whole mess Thanos created.”
Now you were on a rant and couldn’t stop. Or rather, didn’t want to. Maybe they’d see your way.
“Destroying half of sentient beings? Okay. Makes sense. We’ve done a pretty shit job. But getting rid of half of all life? Plants and animals too? It’s ridiculous. If he was so hellbent on making a better balance why didn’t he increase the resources or hell, make them unlimited?”
Everyone exchanged looks. You were right and they knew it. They were ready to agree with you when you ruined that.
“Plus, worst takeover of the universe ever. He just snaps and bam disappears. I mean if I had the stones I would…”
At Tony’s pointed look, you cleared your throat.
“The point is,” you let out. “I want to make things right. Or at least to how they were.”
— — —
The team stayed in the living room to discuss after you agreed to leave. And not come back unless they asked you to.
No one spoke. They were all trying to decide if they wanted your help. And why you offered in the first place.
“So she’s like your Loki?” Nat asked dryly, breaking the silence.
Tony turned to look at her with a puzzled face,
“What?”
She leaned forward and uncrossed her arms. “I mean, she’s the person who always betrays you but you keeping giving her chances in the hope she’ll change.”
Thor looked down at that, he knew it was true. But he also knew Loki had proven himself in the end.
Tony looked offended at the notion but Rhodey nodded after thinking for a moment.
“You’re right”
Tony turned to his friend and gave him a look of disbelief.
“Ton, you keep hoping Y/N will be the person you knew. But she’s not going to be. Who knows if she’s even telling the truth now? Her speech wasn’t exactly reassuring.”
Tony couldn’t disagree with that. You were never great with words though. Even before…
— — —
You knew Tony from a long time ago. It felt like a different lifetime. You were a model Stark scientist. One of the best. But when Tony had his “epiphany” you couldn’t continue with the company. Or him.
It seemed so stupid to stop when you had been at the cusp of a breakthrough. You were leading a team designing the next generation of missile-loaded drones. It would change the way wars were fought, decrease causality loss, and allow your name to go down in history.
But Tony has other ideas. Said he didn’t want to continue making weapons of war. Yet he made his suits, countless bots, and Ultron.
— — —
During the five years after the failed attempt to get the stones back from Thanos, you and Tony had grown somewhat close. Not like before, but at least better than it had been. Plus, he had tried to help you with your… problem.
“I feel like it’s my fault”, he admitted one night you two had been staying late at the Thai restaurant you two frequented.
“What is?”, you asked, picking up a spring roll.
Tony looked at you pointedly. Seeing the twinge of sadness behind the annoyance, you put the roll down.
‘Ugh. Feelings’, you thought
You wiped your fingers on a napkin and leaned forward. You were only going to say this once and you didn’t want anyone else to hear. Even though there was no one else in the place except the older chef and his son working the tables.
“Look,” you started. “It wasn’t your fault. Sure you made the stupid decision to stop production. And research. But… it’s my fault I ended up like this.”
At Tony’s surprise that he was trying, but failing to hide, you grimaced but it ended more like a smile.
“I got sloppy. Procedures and precautions didn’t matter. All that mattered was success. So I could change your mind.”
He read between the lines. Knowing you meant more than just getting Stark Industries up and running like it had been.
He held your eyes for a moment before nodding and looking away.
“Sorry it didn’t.” He muttered.
— — —
The swarms of creatures surrounded you. You were teleporting more than you had ever done and suddenly — it hit you.
Killing Thanos had failed. Time travel had failed. And none of you had been able to get the gauntlet from the past Thanos.
Recalling what Tony told you Strange had said about the one outcome. You realized it was you. You were the one chance they had at it.
The stones wouldn’t work. Bruce trying proved that. Nat has already died. You were fighting a losing battle with less than half the team.
Having accepted your fate, you spoke into the coms.
“Tony?”, you croaked. Your tears were already bubbling up.
Tony immediately flew down to you and his helmet faded away.
“Y/N, what’s wrong?”
He looked down to see your glitching hands and grabbed them with his.
“Hey, what’s going on? Are you okay?”
You looked up at him, tears now falling. You nodded.
“Yeah. I know how to beat him. I know…”
“The stones? Yeah I know. We’re trying.”
You shook your head. Squeezing his hands.
“No, it’s me. I have to go deep. Erase him from this timeline. And all timelines.”
Still not understanding but guessing what you were doing, Tony met your eyes, and softly pleaded.
“No, Y/N. It’s too risky. You could be gone too. You can’t… I can’t.”
You took your hands from his and grasped his cheeks, pulling him towards you. Pressing your lips together with every ounce of emotion, you let yourself truly feel what you had always felt. Love.
As you pulled away, you looked into his eyes one last time. Happy you were able to see his love at least once.
You closed your eyes for a moment and pressed your forehead against his. Taking one last breath, you stepped back and smiled at him.
His tearful smile was the last thing you saw before you closed your eyes once more.
You teleported in front of Thanos and thrust your hand inside his chest. Grabbing his heart with your bare hand, you bared your teeth and smiled wickedly at him. All your hatred, all your anger, all the fear and loss and pain that you felt. You dug it all up and brought it forward as you twisted your wrist and enjoyed the suffering of the gasping man before you.
“You. Are. Nothing.”
His wide eyes met yours before you pulled him out of existence alongside you.
— — —
*Bonus mid credit scene*
Tony sat back in his chair and recounted the story once more to the man sitting across from him.
“She pulled him towards her and then they disappeared. Next thing we knew his minions were glitching left and right and then the portals were opening up behind us.”
“And she was gone?,” Ross confirmed.
Tony nodded, “Yeah.”
“And you can’t find her?”
Tony understood why Ross was pressing. You hadn’t been exactly best friends with the CIA. But now, having to confirm he couldn’t find you, it felt like a knife twisting his heart in two.
“No.” He muttered. “I couldn’t find her.”
Ross nodded, trying to be sympathetic.
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do.”
— — —
*Bonus end credit scene*
Tony smiled with mixed emotions as he read the morning paper.
Y/N recognized as hero for defeating Thanos
Although many knew Y/N as Glitch - a villain who famously teleported into the White House, Pentagon, and UK House of Parliament all in one day - the UN, alongside American government agencies recognized Y/N as a hero for her ultimate sacrifice to defeat the titan Thanos.
In a media conference led by Agent Everett Ross of the CIA, Wakandan King T’Challa, and Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), the trio unveiled a dedicated research building named after Y/N.
Everett Ross of the CIA spoke to Y/N’s during the Final Battle against Thanos and said her efforts saved the world and brought back the billions who had been taken during the Snap.
King T’Challa praised Y/N saying, “Without her, our world would have likely been destroyed again. I would not be standing here today if not for the sacrifice of Y/N.”
Stark spoke proudly of Y/N’s work with Stark Industries and showed remorse for her firing which many say led to her failed experiment that caused her to have the ability to teleport and hack reality and eventually become Glitch.
Stark detailed Y/N’s efforts alongside the Avengers, including the late Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) in undoing the snap Thanos caused in 2018. He revealed the two had a romantic relationship stating, “I will always love Y/N. She was the smartest woman I knew and I will never forget her sacrifice.”
#tony stark#tony stark x reader#tony stark fanfic#tony stark reader insert#iron man#iron man x reader#iron man fanfic#iron man reader insert#villain reader#hero x villain#mcu writing#Marvel MCU#mcu fanfic#MCU fanfiction#angst#marvel angst#marvel
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CARNIVAL DAY recaps [6/13]
Today’s recap: A memory of a great magician, the Sophists unmasked, and the apocalypse drawing near.
--
THIRTY-SIX
12 Apr 1997 — 18 Apr 1997
BLIZZARD QUEEN
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On April 5th, a Mossad spy is about to be publicly hanged in Baghdad, but just after the noose is tightened, all the other people gathered at the scene suddenly start suffocating and dying one after another. The bodies all have marks of something that had been wound around their necks. The spy is unaffected and survives. A skull of the Billion Killer is found between the bodies.
On the same day, the Billion Killer investigation makes a leap forward. The US government asks the world to organize an international search for someone who has been missing ever since the start of the Crime Olympics, and who might help uncover the Billion Killer’s secret—the famous magician David Copperfield.
Several of Copperfield’s illusions are interesting in the context of the Billion Killer cases. Making the Statue of Liberty disappear, floating over the Grand Canyon, walking through the Great Wall of China, the Bermuda Triangle special, the Niagara Falls stunt, the escape from an exploding building…
Copperfield never hesitated in performing spectacular challenges. It’s perfectly fine to do small magic just for the sake of brief entertainment and joy of others, but when one attempts to truly move people’s hearts, to give them an unforgettable emotional experience, it is necessary to focus on conveying a plot, a theme through the magic. Copperfield’s illusions were constructed for this purpose; for example, he made the Statue of Liberty disappear to convey how precious liberty is and how easily it might be lost.
Out of the thirty-four Billion Killer cases so far, five happened in places Copperfield used for illusions (Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, Great Wall of China, Bermuda Triangle, Niagara Falls), and four had to do with destroyed buildings (JDC, Empire State, Greenwich, St. Mark’s Clocktower). Copperfield also made an Orient Express car levitate and disappear—compare the Trans-Siberian Express briefly flying through the air once it derailed. Walking through walls could perhaps be how that mysterious man in the cartel shooting case managed to escape the locked room. Copperfield once had a show in the Osaka Castle, and surely would know how something like the New Berlin Wall could be made to appear and disappear. The magician’s ability to make big objects float could be how the stone spheres of Costa Rica were moved.
That seems like an awful lot of coincidences. Even if David Copperfield wasn’t the Billion Killer, he could have been kidnapped and forced to turn over his magical secrets that would be then used for evil.
--
As Nemu watches the news, she realizes just how powerful a rumor can be. In the eyes of the public, David Copperfield quickly changes from a kidnapped innocent, to a member of RISE, to its leader, to the Billion Killer himself. The media never actually accuse him outright, but street interviews show what people think: “I can’t believe he’s the killer”, “I feel betrayed”, “I hope he realizes the error of his ways”. Humans are so quick to judge without even having the information necessary to make the decision. Perhaps that’s what Black meant warning them against “skim-reading”.
Yesterday’s enemy is today’s foe and vice-versa; yesterday’s hero is today’s murderer. Like a ridiculous, mad carnival dance led by the media.
Nemu, Otohime and Hyouma talk about the news. Hyouma only now understands what Kakuusan Kanke told him when they were in New York together—that the Billion Killer was probably an American person with a name similar to hers. What she meant is that her nickname Kappa sounded like the beginning of the name Copperfield.
In the end, they can’t decide whether Copperfield could be the Billion Killer or not, but discussing magic makes Nemu and Otohime recall a certain magician they knew when they were young, and they talk about their memories—about Juku’s father Saimon Ryuusui. As those memories reach over fifteen years ago, they’re quite scarce and blurry.
Saimon Ryuusui lost his life in the Saimon Family Murder Case that lasted from 1979 to 1980. He was a man of a magnificent and dignified posture, with swept back hair and a thin kaiser moustache, wearing a tailcoat on a daily basis. His policy was that a magician didn’t need words, and so he never spoke; not even his wife or Juku have ever witnessed the magician utter a single word. Instead he would write or gesture when necessary, and his wife could apparently understand his thoughts pretty well. Perhaps this devotion to silence was in itself the magician’s greatest illusion. Though never too popular, Ryuusui was widely recognized for his flexible creativity and practiced skill.
Ryuusui had lost his left hand in the Pacific War and used a prosthesis. It was hard to notice at first sight, as he always wore white gloves, even when sleeping. Sometimes he’d take off the prosthetic hand and make it float or crawl on the ground, and the spectators could inspect it freely afterwards. While simple, the Left Hand Magic is apparently famous as one of the greatest illusions of the Showa period. The secret method behind it is still unknown.
Nemu and Otohime weren’t quite Saimon Ryuusui’s family and so didn’t really know him, having only met him a few times. The image of the man they held in their minds was mostly created based on tales they had heard from Juku.
Juku also told them about the Miraculous Illusions, a set of thirteen pieces of magic that still hadn’t been finished by the time Ryuusui died. Juku was the only one who was ever shown them, and only once. Even he couldn’t figure out the methods behind them at all, and stated that if these illusions were to be perfected, perhaps it would lead to an omnipotent, all-purpose magic of sorts.
This certainly seemed like something that could be abused to create the Billion Killer crimes. Ryuusui has been dead for almost two decades now, but he left several apprentices, so maybe one of them got their hands on the illusions, perfected them, and decided to use them for crime.
--
THIRTY-SEVEN
19 Apr 1997 — 25 Apr 1997
MOUNTAIN WALL NIGHTMARE
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Due to a sudden increase in yeti sightings in the Himalayas, a special investigation team is sent to the mountains, their movements recorded and watched by their companions back at camp. On April 12th, as the team is climbing K2 to get to the yeti standing above them, the creature removes its costume and reveals itself as a half-naked Asian woman in her mid-twenties, who’s somehow unfazed by the freezing cold. She’s saying something they can’t quite understand. At that moment a giant avalanche starts and sweeps the team away.
When their companions later search for the bodies, they find a skull of the Billion Killer. Footage analysis reveals the woman’s words were “the next case will happen in the highest place”, which must mean Mount Everest.
On April 19th, as another team is climbing Mount Everest, a mass of rocks shoots out of the wall and pushes them off so they fall to their deaths. Later, investigation finds a skull of the Billion Killer in the exact place where the rocks came from, as if the skull somehow appeared within the wall and pushed the rocks out.
--
...or at least that’s how the media portray it, but Nemu can’t help but feel this all seems fishy, like a carefully directed horror movie. Then again, it’s not like she has the information needed to make any judgment on whether it’s real or not. The Billion Killer’s greatest trick is showing people things that should be impossible.
Nemu thinks about the Miraculous Illusions a lot.
--
THIRTY-EIGHT
26 Apr 1997 — 02 May 1997
UNDERGROUND LOCKED ROOM
--
On the same day as the Everest case, Nemu, Otohime and Hyouma are told by Black that they themselves will take part in the next Billion Killer case. Nemu and Hyouma are going to serve as Dots, while Otohime will stay behind in the Sanctuary just in case the other two try to escape.
Black leads them to the “laundry room”, which turns out to be a small place with a water bed in the middle. A helmet connected with a strange machine is lying nearby. The room doesn’t look like a laundry, but Black explains that what they wash here is brains. All the Dots and Dogs undergo brain washing.
Black encourages them to lie down and put the helmet on to feel what it’s like, which Hyouma does against his better judgment. The result is a maddening moment of complete sensory deprivation that seems to last for ages (actually fifteen seconds) before Black helps him take the helmet off. Apparently half a day in that condition is enough to make a person forget who they are, and two weeks of it combined with a guiding voice from the speakers will create a loyal new minion.
Seeing their horror, Black assures them that RISE isn’t going to brainwash them (not now, at least). But if they were to undergo the procedure, they would hear instructions in the synthesized voice of someone especially close to them for the best results. Here’s who RISE determined to be “someone close” for each of them. For Hyouma: Yuu, Fuyuka Kasumi, and Ajiro. For Nemu: Souya, Juku, and Jounosuke. For Otohime: Hikimiya, Juku, and Jounosuke.
What this list implies is that RISE has been spying on them for a long, long time. And yes, Black knows that Hyouma and Ajiro are half-brothers (and now that he said it, Otohime and Nemu know it too).
Asked about Yuu, Black states the following: the Yuu who Hyouma met with during the Locked Room Lord case and who died was the real Yuu (who nevertheless was controlled by RISE), and the one who he drank with last year and who lives as a Dot is an imposter. That very convenient traffic accident that killed real Yuu was of course RISE’s doing.
While Hyouma is fuming with frustration, Nemu asks why on earth her “someone close” list started with Souya, considering they were simply coworkers. Black answers that the results were based on observation and analysis, and in Nemu’s case, the one to create the list for her was Yellow Bishop, Ajiro Souji. Nemu almost says something, but stops and gets lost in thought.
Asked about whether the Rainbow Sophists really are the S-detectives, Black says that the truth will be revealed after the next Billion Killer case. Right now he can only tell them that Dot-Nakamoto is the real Nakamoto, while Dot-Yuu and Dot-Unomaru are both imposters. RISE did get some use out of the real brainwashed Unomaru, but he’s already dead by this point.
--
Even more explanations follow. In order to spy on Dokuson and Hanto Maimu, RISE has planted several Spiders in JDC (Spiders are undercover spies, called that because “spy there” = spider). Unomaru looked like a great candidate for a Spider, so RISE snatched him from the sinking ship. However, Unomaru must have hit his head and sustained memory loss during the incident. He didn’t remember anything and was fully convinced his name was Marion. RISE tried to make him remember his real name with brainwashing, but no matter how many times he was told he was Suzukaze Unomaru, he stubbornly insisted his name was Marion. A full two weeks of the brainwashing procedure failed completely.
There had to be a reason for this unusual power of resistance. The Doctor believed Unomaru was subconsciously, instinctually sensing danger and protecting his hidden core memory as he could. RISE is able to manipulate everything in the “upper levels” of human memory, but anything that has been locked up behind the barrier of amnesia is hard to touch. Even if the brainwashing was successful, the locked memories would still remain and Unomaru could spontaneously revert to his real self one day.
In the end, they decided to perform this sort of temporary brainwashing, spending another full two weeks on the procedure, successfully convincing Unomaru that he had no name at all. He soon served as a Dot in the Loch Ness case. Then he and his two companions were told by RS to go to the Sanctuary’s dark room. While there, the other two had their heads blown off, which was enough shock for Unomaru to snap out of it to some degree.
Unomaru managed to flee the Sanctuary afterwards, and Black pursued him to make sure no troubles would follow.
By the way, Unomaru’s real name was a very plain Yamashita Saburou. His mother was Japanese, but his father Elfi Geppen came from Java, and half-Japanese Saburou faced a lot of bullying in his younger years. He quickly learned to hide his identity; in fact, his almost unnatural patriotism for Japan, speaking and acting like a samurai, taking on a more traditional sounding D-name, were all tragic efforts to make himself seem as Japanese as possible.
Black found Unomaru on Java, where he now worked as a rickshaw driver under the name of his father. After questioning him thoroughly, Black decided that Unomaru didn’t actually get his memory back, and his escape had been simply caused by fear after his fellow Dots died. However, Unomaru still could subconsciously recall information like his father’s name.
When the Borobudur case happened, Unomaru took the Billion Killer’s skull away from the scene, but before he could really hurt RISE’s case, he was killed in riots in Jakarta.
--
This was already a lot to digest, but Black then takes the detectives to another room to show them one other thing.
“Cold storage” turns out to host a bunch of pods with people in cold sleep. Black shows them a pod that he claims contains one of the Spiders, and the detectives are shocked to see it’s their good friend Christmas Mizuno.
--
A day before the next Billion Killer case, Hyouma, Nemu, and four Dots go through a security check to get to the heavily guarded Earth House, a fallout shelter in Idaho mountains.
The Earth House is a place popular with survivalists where anyone willing to pay can stay for two weeks, or even buy a right to evacuate there if a disaster strikes. The shelter is so big it’s basically an underground city. Soldiers are patrolling it at all times.
The group is split into two rooms. One party consists of an unknown male Dot, Hyouma, and fake Unomaru, all pretending to be ”the Yamashita brothers” (respectively Ichirou, Jirou and Saburou). The other group are “the Kawakami sisters”, Yuu (the fake Yuu), Nemu (Nemu) and Mii (an unknown female Dot).
The Dots are barely any company, considering they keep silent and still almost the entire time. Hyouma tries to question fake Unomaru about who he actually is, but the Dots say his questions make no sense (they are always who they need to be for the current mission), and they don’t recall having any real names before. Their utmost goal is to participate in Billion Killer cases, and they’re always observed by “R” or “Ra”, the Eye in the Triangle, which Hyouma as a not-Dot wouldn’t be able to understand. Hyouma asks a tricky question (“it’s only the Dots that are monitored? So you’re saying this whole almighty Ra somehow isn’t able to watch me at all?”). Nervous “Ichirou” starts stuttering in response, and all of a sudden his head explodes.
There’s a knock on the door, but thankfully it’s only the female Dots and Nemu. The Dots say that their unfortunate companion incurred the anger of Ra, but these things happen, there’s no need to mourn anyone stupid enough to go against Ra, and the mission will still go as planned.
Hyouma points out that the three got here with suspiciously perfect timing; even if they claim they didn’t know this would happen, it’s possible that the Dot’s death had been planned somehow. Nemu thinks that the Dots might have explosives implanted in their heads. Hyouma notices that fake Unomaru didn’t really seem surprised at the time of the explosion, like he’d seen that happen before. The Dots claim they’re safe as long as they don’t speak against Ra, but dead Dots were constantly found in Billion Killer cases, so is that really true?
Hyouma continues to jab the Dots with questions and make them uncomfortable, but stops once trembling “Mii” has her head blown up as well.
--
On April 26th, a colonel working in the Earth House apparently goes insane, kills many of his fellow soldiers, breaks the computer system so the entrance cannot be opened in any way, and sets the arsenal to explode. At exactly 1 PM, everything inside the shelter is destroyed in a ball of fire. Four hundred people die.
--
THIRTY-NINE
03 May 1997 — 09 May 1997
BLACK AND WHITE GROUND
--
[Let us backtrack a little to before the Earth House mission, and see what Hyouma and Nemu managed to learn from Black about what had happened with Yaiba Somahito.]
The boy that Yaiba kidnapped was found to have ties to the Locked Room Lord case. His name was Amano Jan [the first name coincidentally written 雀, so just like suzume]. After the train crashed and Yaiba and the boy were saved, an extensive investigation and questioning led by Dokuson himself revealed some surprising things.
Back when Yaiba was normally working at JDC, he got a mysterious call from someone who sounded exactly like his dead little brother Amato, and who told him he was going to die in the upcoming Crime Olympics. This was enough to upset Yaiba so much that soon he collapsed from stress. When he was hospitalized, a coworker brought him a nice set of blue polka-dot pajamas, and for some reason this was the point at which something inside Yaiba broke.
Not even Yaiba himself had been really aware of it, but Dokuson helped him realize an important fact: many years ago, Amato had been wearing similar blue polka-dot pajamas just before he committed suicide. When Yaiba saw a similar piece of clothing in the hospital, his traumatized mind was brought to a vulnerable state prone to manipulation and suggestions from Amano Jan. As the pajamas were brought with them on the train, Yaiba continued to stay under the spell. In a way, he wasn’t the kidnapper; he was the one kidnapped.
The boy later confessed to everything. However, it was obvious that a child couldn’t have come up with such a complicated plan. Yaiba’s coworker who brought the pajamas to the hospital went missing the day the train crashed, but all the investigative threads led from them to the JDC detective Yakuma Suzume.
--
Once Hyouma and Nemu get through the Earth House case unscathed, Black gives them some more explanations.
RISE plans on hosting seven “guests” in all:
Ryuuguu Otohime
Tsukumo Nemu
Amagi Hyouma
Christmas Mizuno
Diana Hosey
Hanto Maimu (and Kuraimu)
Yaiba Somahito
The detectives had already guessed there would be more guests, because their entire goal in the Earth House was finding Diana Hosey and bringing her to the Sanctuary. To their surprise, Diana had been investigating there along with Kakuusan Kanke, so they got Kanke to run away with them too. Mere minutes before the place would explode, fake Unomaru led them to a secret elevator that let them escape in the brink of time. Once outside, Hyouma and Nemu had to say goodbye to Kanke for now and take Diana to the Sanctuary, but at the very least they knew their fellow JDC detective was safe and sound.
--
Around the same time the Earth House is destroyed, a strange deja-vu incident takes place: Hanto Maimu and Kuraimu are kidnapped by Christmas Mizuno, who then escapes to China and boards the Silk Road Train.
Dokuson decides to entrust chasing them to Yaiba as a chance for him to clear his name and face the past. A week later Yaiba is successful in meeting Christmas and convinces him to go back to Japan with him, which should be the end of the story—but then both detectives, Maimu, and Kuraimu all disappear without a trace during the next Billion Killer case.
On May 3rd, the entire 600 km of train tracks from Samarkand to Ashgabat are suddenly replaced with checkered flooring made of black and white tiles, causing many trains to crash.
The Silk Road (shiruku-roodo) has turned into a black-and-white road (shiro-kuro-dou).
--
When Yaiba and the rest are on the Silk Road train, Christmas casually tells them he’s RISE’s Spider, and that they are going to be RISE’s guests. A few people in black suits show up to ensure they’ll follow.
Once they get to a giant underwater fortress known as the Sanctuary, they’re led to a meeting room where several other people are already waiting. There’s Hyouma, Nemu, Otohime, a girl who later introduces herself as Diana Hosey, and… another Christmas Mizuno? The moment Yaiba notices that something’s wrong here, the Christmas that just brought him there has his head blown off his shoulder. (The Dots clean up quickly, but still, Jesus Christ.)
Yaiba and Maimu (and little Kuraimu) join everyone at the table and get some very confusing explanations from their friends. Then a guy wearing all black and a mask shows up accompanied by a group of Dots and introduces himself as Black Rook or the Sanctuary’s Master (and from what Hyouma explains, the guy looks exactly like Jounosuke under the mask). One of the Dots resembles Suzukaze Unomaru. Yaiba honestly doesn’t understand what’s going on anymore.
Black Rook states that the seven guests will now have a chance to each talk with one of seven executives of RISE. The set order is as follows: Otohime will talk with Red Knight (Sullivan), Christmas with Orange Knight (Meiru?), Diana with Yellow Bishop (Ajiro?), Yaiba with Green Knight (Frau D?), Nemu with Blue King (Zerofini Roi?), Hyouma with Violet Queen (Ronely Queen?), and Hanto Maimu & Kuraimu with “Soft White”.
Everyone is escorted by Dots to the rooms where the executives of RISE are waiting for them. If the detectives are honest with themselves, they all quietly pray that the Sophists are the real S-detectives, because it would mean that Ajiro Souji is still alive.
--
Otohime already knows that Red Knight is Lemuria Sullivan, so she asks about his reverse reasoning. Sullivan says it’s not prophesying, but a logical process that lets him know the future; for example, he knows that Otohime is going to ask about Jounosuke, her family, and the other Rainbow Sophists. As for that last one, Sullivan can give her a straight answer: except for him, none of the others are S-detectives.
--
Hyouma immediately demands that Violet Queen tells him her real identity, so she removes her mask. It’s not Ronely Queen. Instead it’s a dark-skinned woman with beautiful eyes, and he has absolutely no idea who she is.
--
Nemu faces the Blue King. If it really is Zerofini Roi, then the nickname is quite fitting, as roi means a king in French. But why would Nemu be chosen to talk with the world’s greatest detective? So the first thing she says is, “You’re an imposter, aren’t you?”
“As expected from Juku’s sister,” the woman laughs. “Calling me an imposter before I can even open my mouth.”
“Well, are you?”
Blue King removes her mask. She really is a woman in her thirties, but not Zerofini Roi. It’s someone Nemu already met and who she would never expect to see here.
--
Yaiba has never met Frau D before. He only knows that Frau D was a master of data analysis and that he allegedly died during the Crystal Nightmare. But when he meets Green Bishop, he gets a feeling like he’s facing an old friend.
“Have we met before?” he asks.
“We know about each other, but this is our first proper meeting,” Green says and removes his mask to reveal a face very similar to someone Yaiba knows.
--
Christmas knows some things about Firannu Meirunesia from Amagoi, who told him stories about their investigations. He’s not sure why he’d be chosen to talk to Meiru, and why now, when he’s still weak and groggy from a period of cold sleep, and right after he witnessed a guy looking like himself explode.
Even in his confusion, he gets an impression that he knows Orange Knight. Forcing his mouth to work, he asks about her identity. She answers that they know about each other’s existence, but haven’t met until now. Under her mask is a face uncannily similar to someone Christmas knows.
--
Diana hopes that Yellow Bishop really is Ajiro Souji, because then there would be a chance that Ronely Queen didn’t actually die back then, when she protected Diana in the Statue of Liberty case. Unfortunately, Hyouma was the one sent to talk with Violet Queen, while Diana is to possibly meet Ajiro, despite being the only guest who doesn’t know him at all.
“It’s been a while, Diana,” Yellow Bishop says laughing in a very familiar way before taking off his mask.
--
When Hanto Maimu enters the room, Soft White seems to be paying more attention to little Kuraimu in her arms. He says that it’s a hard job to raise a child alone and that Maimu will need help and understanding. Oh, and that he’s not actually the real White Rook, just acting like him right now. He’s very good at mimicking others, see. He once called her in Ajiro Souji’s voice, pretended to be the Yellow Bishop a few times… and he had the role of little Kuraimu’s father too.
Maimu almost walks out in anger at what must be a horrible joke, but then the man’s voice suddenly changes to the one she knows so well and calls her back.
“It’s a long story,” Maimu’s husband Tanna Sazen says as he removes his mask.
--
And so, the executives of RISE have their identities revealed.
Red Knight is Lemuria Sullivan, as everyone already knows.
Orange Knight is Joyeeta. Christmas doesn’t know her, but she looks very similar to her sister Tierra, who he met on Easter Island and who later died in the Great Pyramid case.
Yellow Bishop is Theodore Hosey, Diana’s father and the serial killer known as Deep Cut, who disappeared from his jail cell a while ago.
Green Bishop is Aleksandr Uryakov. Yaiba met his brother Drexel Uryakov on the Trans-Siberian Express and was told that Aleksandr was dead, but that was apparently not the case.
Blue King is Pacha Palermo, the same woman who served as Nemu’s guide and translator during her trip to Peru, and who gave her a hint about investigating in Russia next.
Violent Queen is someone called Fabian. Hyouma has never met her, but apparently she was that witness who saw Yemon’s escape from the cartel shooting case.
The one impersonating White right now is Tanna Sazen, Hanto Maimu’s husband and Kuraimu’s father. Usually, he and Theodore Hosey both act in the same role of the Yellow Bishop, switching places depending on the circumstances.
--
Secret identities aside, Otohime asks Sullivan about what’s going to happen once the Crime Olympics reach their end on August 10th—on Carnival Day.
“The fate of humanity depends on the Cosmic Bomb,” Sullivan says. “If it falls on August 10th, everyone including RISE will be wiped off the face of the planet. If it doesn’t fall, the history of a new human race will begin. The deciding factor to our fate is Black Rook, who holds the key to the Cosmic Bomb.”
They have three months before the fate of humanity will be decided.
--
[>>>NEXT PART>>>]
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Twelve
There was a drawn-out silence as the mice and Chex sized each other up. After a moment, Throttle cleared his throat, stepping forward. "I'm sure you must be mistaken, Citizen," he began, attempting nonchalance. "We're just three normal bros, getting our bikes looked over by—"
"Oh, give it up," Chex snorted, crossing her arms. "I'm not an idiot. There's nothing wrong with my eyeballs. And those helmets don't render you invisible, so you might as well take 'em off. I don't know who you think you're fooling. If alien mice doesn't explain all the fur, then my next guess is the evolutionary Missing Link. Or very short Yeti."
Alley stifled a laugh, and Throttle shot her an annoyed glance as he slowly pulled his helmet off. Vinnie and Modo followed his lead.
"Well, damn," Chris said softly, eyes wide.
"Told you," Chex replied, looking smug. She practically vibrated where she stood, she was so excited. "Man, I can't believe they've been here all this time. The club's gonna flip when I tell 'em I got to see them face to face!"
"Club?" Throttle repeated, frowning.
"It's some little forum she joined," Chris explained. "For people who think they've been abducted by aliens or some weird shit like that."
"Shut it, butt-head." Chex delivered another punch to his arm. "That's not what the club's about." She turned back to the mice. "You've saved a lot of people in Chicago since you've been here, right? Well, some of those people started an online forum to socialize and share experiences. Hypothesize about why you're even here. Stuff like that."
"And … you're one of those people," Throttle guessed.
"Sure am." Chex nodded at Modo. "Big Gray there saved my life awhile back."
The mouse straightened, startled by the sudden attention. "The name's Modo," he corrected. "Modo Maverick."
"Maverick, huh?" Her smile widened. "I like that. Totally a hero's name."
Modo beamed as Vinnie whistled and nudged him in the side.
"So what happened to you?" Charley wanted to know.
"There was some big skirmish downtown about three years ago. Felt like an earthquake or something. Total chaos, people running around, screaming like a buncha lunatics… And I remember there was this really weird whining. Sounded kinda like a drill, but deeper and a lot louder."
"Hey, I remember that!" Vinnie cut in. "Wasn't that when Limburger decided he was gonna dig under the big shopping center?"
"Yeah, he was lookin' for something. Anybody ever figure out what that was?" Modo asked, scratching his head.
"Who cares? He goes out an' makes with the boom-boom, we go in an' stop 'im. That's all we need ta know." Vinnie punched his fist into his palm with a wicked grin.
Chex huffed. "Yeah, well, I happened to be in that shopping center when it was all goin' down. Everything was crumbling around me and all the exits were getting blocked off. Some guy bowled me over, and I got my leg pinned. I was trying to pull free, and then these loud cracks went off right over my head. Sounded like a buncha gunshots. I thought someone had opened fire on top of everything else. So I looked up, and the freakin' wall's about to topple over." She shuddered, rubbing her arms. "I won't ever forget what that felt like, watching that slab of concrete falling in slo-mo right on top of me."
"So what then?" Alley asked, wide-eyed.
"Well, I sure wasn't goin' anywhere. When that asshole shoved me, I fell into the rubble and knocked something loose. Big chunk fell right on top of me. My leg was good and pinned. Hurt like hell, too. I just sorta buried my head in my arms and prayed I'd die quick, and I wouldn't end up buried alive or be laying there in agony for days wondering if anyone'd find me. I might've screamed, I guess. I don't really remember." Chex shrugged. "Someone heard something, though, 'cause when I figured out I still wasn't dead, that's when I looked back up and saw this huge gray … person standing over me, hefting that slab of concrete like a piece of paper. Just tossed it aside with his bare hands! And then he grabbed the big chunks pinning me down and tossed them, too. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and there was all this fur and metal and big ears … and then he started talking to me, asking if I was okay. And all I remember thinking is he was the biggest damned hamster I'd ever seen."
"Aw, c'mon!" Vinnie protested, tossing his hands in the air. "They never get it right! Why don't they ever get it right?"
"We're mice, ma'am. Just for future reference," Modo rumbled, mouth quirking.
"Well, sure, I can see that now," Chex snorted. "Waddaya want? I'd just lived through my first near-death experience. Sorry if I was a little delirious."
"Least you didn't call him a rat," Alley teased. "They hate that."
Modo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Seems I recall findin' a little girl pinned down, 'bout to be squashed flat. Your leg was busted up pretty bad, wasn't it? I pulled ya loose an' dropped you off at the ambulance outside. You were bleedin' out pretty heavily."
"Yeah." Chex nodded. "The femur bone was snapped in two places. And my tibia was broken so badly the bone ripped clean through the skin. Scary shit. I ended up in surgery and the hospital for two months, a full-leg cast another two months after that. Took a lot of therapy just so I could walk again, too." She pulled up her ripped legging, showing off a long, jagged scar that started at the middle of her calf and ran up under the material covering her upper leg. "Ends at the thigh. Pretty cool, huh?" she said proudly.
Modo whistled. "Impressive battle scar. You doin' okay now?"
"Sure. Leg still aches when the weather changes, and I won't ever win any marathons or anything, but I can walk, and even more importantly, I'm not a greasy smear on the pavement." Chex approached him, gray eyes searching his face as she took his metal hand into both of hers. He blinked down at her, nonplussed; it wasn't often a human willingly touched him, after all. "Like I said, I was really out of it back then, and I don't even remember if I thanked you," she told him sincerely. "So I'm saying it now. Thank you, Modo Maverick. You're a really good person. And I'm glad I can tell you that face to face."
Modo squirmed, ignoring the catcalls and whistles from his comrades as he smiled awkwardly down at her, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, it wasn't anything, ma'am," he mumbled, flustered. "Just doin' my job and all that."
Chex seemed to recall their audience then, quickly dropping his hand and stepping back, hooking her thumbs through the belt loops of her checkered skirt with a self-conscious shrug. "Yeah, well, just sayin'. Thanks," she mumbled, ducking her head. Her face was nearly as red as her hair. After a moment, she straightened up, affecting her usual aloof attitude. "Anyway. That's how I found out about alien mice. I had to know who you were, so while I was recovering, I started searching around on the net, looking for … I dunno, info on mutant rodents in the subways or something." She smirked at Vinnie's snort of disgust. "That's when I found the forum, and figured out there were others who'd been saved by giant talking, bike-riding mice, and there it is."
"And there it is. Gotta love social media. So much for covert operations."
All eyes turned to the black-clad figure coasting into the garage on a sleek black racer, taking in the scene from behind the visor of a wing-eared helmet.
Chris straightened up, surprised. "Hey! You're—"
"Yep. I'm," Stoker grunted, pulling the helmet off to meet his gaze with shrewd eyes. "And you're the whelp who stuck with our Alley Cat the other night. Thanks for that, kid."
"The name is Chris. Christopher Archer. And my sister is Constance."
"Chex. Call me Constance and I'll be forced to cut your tongue out," the redhead mumbled. "Cool bike, by the way. That's like … super stealth bike or something. I didn't even hear the engine."
"That's 'cause I turned it off," Stoker said with a chuckle, dismounting and rolling the bike over to Charley. "She needs a checkup, if you get the chance. Maybe some oil. Had a bit of a bumpy ride gettin' back."
"Run into some problems?" Charley asked.
"Just a few random goons out lookin' for trouble. Nothin' I couldn't handle. But they did get in a few shots to my ride here. Think one of 'em might've taken out the suspension."
"Poor baby. I'll have you fixed right up," Charley crooned, petting the dusty crankshaft affectionately. And damned if the bike didn't rumble right back.
Alley blinked. "Did … did that thing just purr at you?"
Charley laughed. "I did tell you Martian bikes are equipped with AI, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I seem to recall something about that. I just didn't—They actually respond to you? Like, they can understand what you say?" Alley looked the bike over with new appreciation.
"That is the general definition of artificial intelligence," Charley deadpanned.
"Wow. Real AI. How cool is that?" Chex crouched in front of Modo's bike. "Hey, if you can understand me, honk or something."
There was a moment of silence. Then a short, sharp beep sounded, startling Chex into falling back onto her rear. She gaped for a second, then laughed. "That is wicked! Where can I get one?"
"Forget it, Short Stack. Dad'll never let you get a motorcycle," Chris scoffed.
"I'm eighteen. He doesn't really have a say in the matter," she tossed back, hopping to her feet. "Hey, will you give me a ride?" She grinned up at Modo, who sputtered for a response.
"Chex, we're here to see Alley, remember?" Chris sighed.
"Oh, well, she could come along."
Alley's eyes widened. "Uhhh … no thanks. I've seen how these guys drive those things around. I'm rather attached to my life. I'd like to keep it, if it's all the same to you."
Chex laughed. "Wuss."
"If by 'wuss' you mean 'possessing a healthy dose of self-preservation', then yes. I am a huge wuss," she sniffed, smoothing down her skirt.
Beside her, Stoker chuckled low in his throat. "We'll have to work on that," he murmured, smirking down at her.
She pulled a face at him. "Where the hell have you been skulking around, anyway?"
"You miss me? I'm touched." He flashed a cheeky grin.
"Yeah, sure." She waved him off. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."
"Aw, honey, go easy on an old mouse's ego."
"Sir, your ego is indomitable. I'm sure nothing I say will make a dent," she huffed, a smile twitching around her lips despite her best efforts to remain stern.
He noticed, leaning in with a sly smile, eyes lidded as he prepared to turn up the charm.
Only Alley suddenly wasn't there anymore, having been pulled out from under his nose by Chris's grip on her arm. He straightened, glaring at the intruder. "You mind? We were having a private conversation."
Chris winced at the venom in his tone but, as before, refused to back down. He turned to Alley. "Listen, Chex and I have to be back at the dorms in a few hours. We promised our parents we'd have dinner with them tonight."
"You promised them," Chex corrected.
He ignored her. "Anyway, if you wanted to go shopping for a new phone, maybe have something to eat and do a little sightseeing downtown, we'd probably better leave soon."
"Oh. Sure, lemme go grab my purse. It's upstairs," Alley replied, shooting him a grateful smile as she turned to flee the garage.
"Cock-blocked!" Vinnie sang under his breath as soon as she left, earning himself a whack across the head by Stoker's palm and muffled sniggers from Modo and Throttle.
"And speaking of phones…" Stoker's tail whipped around and plucked the smartphone Chex had been using to covertly snap pictures neatly from her fingers. "Ah-ah. None of that now," he scolded, not unkindly, as he browsed the files.
"Hey!" she yelped. "Give that back! What're you doing?"
"Just a little damage control." He navigated the touch screen with ease before tossing the gadget back to her.
She hastily checked it over, jaw dropping. "You deleted them! You deleted everything! All of my info … my videos! Do you know how hard it was to get some of this stuff?" she lamented.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Stoker deadpanned, not looking sorry in the least. "No offense, Red, but I don't fancy having our ruggedly handsome mugs plastered all over the internet. Makes it real hard to work when you've got people out hunting you down for a celebrity snapshot. Kindly refrain from future endeavors."
Chex pouted. "What's wrong with wanting to show Chicago that we've got our very own superheroes protecting us from the mafia? The cops sure as hell don't do anything about it."
"Oh. Uh…" Alley offered a sheepish grin as she descended the stairs, having overheard the conversation. "Yeah, about that mafia story I fed you…"
Chex's eyes widened. "No way. Is Limburger an alien, too?"
"Something like that."
"Awesome!"
"Not really, no." Alley shot her a funny look. "He's trying to strip-mine the planet, starting with Chicago. There's nothing remotely awesome about it."
"Is that why he wants the school?" Chris asked. "He wants to rip it apart?"
"Likely. It's sitting on a choice piece of property," Stoker grunted. "Lots of resources to ship off to Plutark."
"Is that his planet? And that's why you guys are here. To stop him from doing it?"
"Yep."
"But why?" Chex asked. "I mean, this isn't your home. Why are you risking your necks for a world that doesn't even know you exist?"
"Because the Plutarkians are a disease that need to be wiped out," Modo growled, eye glowing. "They started with our planet Mars, and nearly demolished our entire race. Earth is next on the list, and unlike Mars, it doesn't have the kind of defenses needed to beat 'em off."
"And once they're through with this dirt ball, they'll move on to the next," Throttle added. "Just like a huge, smelly swarm of … waddaya call 'em? Locusts?"
"We do have nuclear weapons," Chris said doubtfully.
"Hah! The stinkfish live off that sorta thing!" Vinnie scoffed. "Toxic waste and radiation and destruction … they eat it for breakfast. A couple of nuclear bombs wouldn't even slow 'em down."
"Yeah, all you'd be doin' is helpin' em rip up the planet that much faster," Modo added, snapping his fingers for emphasis.
The twins exchanged glances. "The government—" Chris started.
"Is next to useless," Stoker cut him off with a snort. "They can't do anything we're not already doin'. Besides, it'll just come back to nuclear warfare and vaporizing their own planet in a useless attempt to get rid of the Plutarkians."
"Yeah, and then they'll probably turn around an' use the same methods on us," Vinnie grumbled.
"That's true," Charley agreed with a sigh. "I don't think Earth is ready for the knowledge that 'little green men' actually exist." She chuckled when Vinnie huffed, tweaking his ear. "Don't worry, you're all much cuter than E.T.," she teased.
"And about time you admitted it, Babe," he replied, crossing his arms smugly. But he was blushing under his fur.
"What I don't get," Alley cut in, "is how they don't already know. I mean, people are talking about you guys online, and Chex probably isn't the only one who's tried to take pictures and videos. Right?"
"Oh, sure." Chex shrugged. "Media gets posted on various sites all the time. The problem is, it never stays posted. It's like the moment new footage appears, the site goes poof for a few minutes. When it comes back online, all the footage is gone. Happens every time. The Mouseketeers think—"
"The Mouseketeers?"
Chex laughed at the disgust written across four furry faces. "It's what the forum folk call themselves. Don't look at me like that, I didn't come up with it!"
"Well, come up with somethin' else," Vinnie grumbled. "That name's just embarrassing!"
"Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that." Chex rolled her eyes. "Anyway, the general theory is the government is responsible for getting rid of the evidence. Keep the knowledge of alien warfare happening right under our noses from getting out to the general populace. Hold off the world-wide panic it'd cause. In the meantime, hope the two species end up wiping themselves out nice and neat, and save taxpayer dollars by not having to send in our own military to finish the job."
"And they're not at all worried that two alien species with superior technology battling over our planet might end up, I dunno, completely obliterating it instead?" Alley asked skeptically.
"Hey, I did say it was a theory."
"And that's all it is," Stoker put in, shaking his head with amusement. "Sorry to burst your conspiracy bubble, but none of Earth's governments are responsible for keepin' this invasion under wraps. Mars has been monitoring your satellites for decades. Any evidence of alien species that pops up is immediately eliminated, especially Martian and Plutarkian. Can't risk having our own civilization exposed trying to save yours, after all."
"You can't possibly silence everyone who finds out about you," Chris argued. "What about the probes we send up?"
"Bah. Inferior Earthen technology. Easily compromised," the mouse snorted. "As for the rest, well…" He tapped one of his antenna. "These ain't here just for show, ya know. We have ways."
"What do you mean?"
"Memory wipes," Throttle grunted, mouth twisting with distaste.
"You can do that?" Charley asked, startled. Clearly, this was news to her.
"Not all of us," Vinnie told her. "Only a few 'specially powerful empaths are trained for that sorta thing. Ain't easy, and fiddlin' around with another person's brain is pretty frowned upon. I mean, one wrong move an' you've got a drooling vegetable on your hands."
"Luckily we have little cause to employ such techniques," Stoker added, expression grim. "But there's been a time or two when the wrong person discovered us, and we've been forced to go in for a little … mental rewiring."
"And by 'we', do you actually mean you?" Alley asked. Stoker didn't answer. But his silence spoke volumes. She frowned. "Have you ever … made a wrong move?"
"No," he replied firmly. "But my predecessor did, with another empathic race from the Quantrum Sector."
"The what now?"
"Another galaxy. You wouldn't have heard of it. That was a bad job. Pretty much the guidelines of what not to do when attempting a mind-wipe. Not only scrambled the poor bastard on the receiving end, but his own brain, as well. That's when I was pulled in to take over his position by the army. This was back before the Freedom Fighters, of course. When I was just a young punk, barely older'n Rimfire." He nodded at Modo.
"You never told us this before, Stoke," Vinnie said, sounding awed.
"Ain't somethin' I like to talk about," he replied. "Not a part of my life I'm particularly proud of. For the greater good or not, there's no honor in wipin' another person's mind. Especially when you're never told why you're doin' it in the first place. Toward the end, before I defected, I had my suspicions that the government was gettin' a little corrupt. They were sendin' us in more 'n more often to 'take care of things'. I suspect it was to keep control over an increasingly disgruntled population, when Plutark stepped in an' started buyin' up Martian property."
"And that's why you formed the Freedom Fighters," Throttle finished.
"Yep. That about sums it up. Somebody had to protect what was left of our people. We're all they had left."
"Your own government sold you out?" Alley asked softly.
"Money is power, honey. Even on other planets. Corruption is a universal problem." Stoker glanced at Chex with a raised eyebrow. "And you might consider tellin' your online buddies to start bein' a little more careful what they slap up on their sites. I may not be one of the army's guard dogs anymore, but that don't mean I've forgotten what to do. And there're still more guard dogs who ain't as nice as me, either. You annoy the wrong people or become a big enough threat, you just might find yourselves on the wrong end of Martian antenna."
Chex gulped, face paling under her makeup. Even Chris looked a little green around the gills.
"Great. Well, now that you've finished terrifying my friends, I think it's time for us to go," Alley muttered, starting toward the Caprice.
"Hold up, there!" Charley snagged her by the back of the shirt as she passed, bringing her up short. "Just so you know, you 'n me are gonna have a talk when you get back."
"What'd I do?"
Charley shot her a look. "Guess."
Alley's brow furrowed. "Oh, what, you're pissed 'cause I was worried about you? That's gratitude."
"Do you honestly believe that's why I'm upset?"
The cousins stubbornly faced each other down, before Alley conceded defeat, shoulders slumping. "Okay, okay," she grumbled. "You can bust my chops when I get back. Just lemme get these two out of your hair first." She stomped to the twins, who were now waiting in the car.
"What was that all about?" Chris asked as she opened the passenger door and slid in.
"Somebody in trouble?" Chex teased from the back seat.
Alley waved off their questions. "Don't worry about it. Right before you arrived, we were having a … family discussion of sorts. I might've said a few things I shouldn't have in front of a few people I shouldn't have… She's a little steamed about it."
Chex hummed. "Wanna hide out in the dorms for awhile until the storm blows over?" she offered. "I could probably stuff you under the bed."
Alley laughed. "Thanks, but I'll take my licks like a good little soldier, and pray Charley doesn't decide to send me packing back to Florida."
They drove in silence for a few minutes, before Chex leaned forward, draping her gloved arms over the back of the bench seat. "Hey, you think that Stoker guy was serious about the whole, you know, mind-wipe thing?" she asked.
Alley shrugged, poking through the cassette tapes Chris had stashed in a worn shoebox on the seat between them. "Dunno why he'd lie about it. He's a trained soldier, and from what I've heard, he's got some mad skills on the battlefield. Like, a four-star general or something. The mice do have some sort of telepathic ability. I guess some could be strong enough to erase memories." She chose a cassette and shoved it into the player; Queen's These are the Days of Our Lives blasted over the speakers. "Oh, I love this song!" She began to sing along.
Chex shifted impatiently. "But, like, do you think he'd really do it?" she pressed.
"I dunno. Maybe. Why do you want to know?"
Chris snorted. "She probably wants to go tell all her little forum buddies where they can find them. She never could keep a secret."
"Shut up," Chex grumbled, slumping back in her seat.
Frowning, Alley turned around in her seat. "Look, I can't say what Stoker may or may not do, but I can tell you that all four of those guys are way protective of Charley. They consider her one of theirs, and they'll fight tooth and nail to defend their own. If you go blabbing their location around and end up putting her or her garage in danger, getting mind-wiped will be the least of your worries. You've already seen Modo in action. Do you really wanna risk pissing off a bunch of trained rebel soldiers who can heft concrete walls with their bare hands?"
Chex didn't have much to say on the matter after that.
Alley could only hope she wouldn't have much to say on the matter at any future time, either.
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Personal and Fic Updates
Hey everyone!
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these personal update messages. I’m trying to get my stuff in order but life continues to outpace me, it seems.
The quick and dirty:
Fic Stuff:
Moira has been integrated into the overarching plot of “And Overwatch For All”
Because of this, I am currently rewriting major portions of Old Habits. Yesterday, I finished a major rewrite of chapter 10 (the “evil council is introduce” chapter). I have the majority of chapter 11′s rewrite done and hope to finish that today as well. With luck, I will start working on a rewrite of Chapter 13.
Shockingly, I’m keeping a lot of the “present day” plot elements the same (aka, all the stuff leading up to Recall). But several major “past events” have changed, including Reaper/Gabriel’s backstory.
More on this later. I will also be writing a separate post JUST for fic stuff, if you prefer to read only that.
Personal Stuff:
Extra expenses have started showing up in my life. Details are under the cut.
My job has not yet promoted me and a coworker the way they said they would in the timeframe they gave us (1 year). Because of this, I am starting the job hunt again.
I have created a Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/U7U063ZJ)
More under the cut
Alright, so here’s the longer version of what my last like...three months have been like, with both personal/work stuff and fandom stuff.
Personal life/Work:
I have said this in a few places, but I currently work as an entry-level archaeologist for a state department in California. Full disclosure: I and my fellow coworker are underpaid for our work, which is as variable as conducting documentation research through databases and organizing research on behalf of our higher-level archaeologist and historian supervisors to performing surveys and actual fieldwork digs in every type of weathers in California. As an example, two weeks ago (the week of Thanksgiving here in the U.S.), myself and one of my supervisors did an 8 hour fieldwork day which consisted of 3-4 hours of surveying through waist-high grass in pouring rain at 55 degrees F/12 degrees C. This upcoming week, I and (other underpaid) coworker will be doing two 12-hour days of construction monitoring. Our work consists of traveling all over the state, with driving that can take a full day to get to a work destination (these are charged to work, don’t worry - I don’t have to pay for that, thank god).
The reason I’m explaining this is because this is a huge reason why some days (or even some weeks) my activity on tumblr, twitter, and AO3 will take a straight nosedive. On Thursday of this past week, I spent 8-10 hours without checking my phone and came home to 4 missed calls, 8 “active chats” on messenger, 600 messages on discord, and basically a whole day of “social media-ing” missed out.
If you’re rolling your eyes over this, I get it, I really do - it sounds like all the stuff that older people complain millennials “overvalue,” but (for example) one of those phone calls was from my dentist’s office saying that they will not serve me because (after three months of them NOT checking) they realized that I don’t have the right dental insurance for them.
Fun.
I don’t make enough money to switch to higher, “better services” health and dental insurance, but since I work a job that requires physical labor, I’m scared to cut them from my life. Said coworker twisted his ankle earlier this year, and work only compensated him for 1 week of “missed” work, when in reality he was walking with a slight limp for 2-3 weeks. Because of our low-level, we are not given access to benefits that many other state workers get.
Moreover, our sub-department has been promising that the two of us would get promoted “within the year.” We reached a year working with them in mid-November, and that promise still hasn’t been reached.
So in terms of my personal life, I’m at a cross-roads: I will tell them that they need to promote us, even to the next “low-level position” because that will give us just a few more $/hour which will help A LOT when accumulated, or I’m going to tell them that I’ll have to search for something else.
On top of this, my parents have decided it’s time for me to “pay rent” to live at home with them - a discussion we, frankly, haven’t had on a serious level yet and one which blindsided me this morning. I am looking into my options but without a better job, they’re not good.
This also doesn’t cover whatever it will take to help me start the legal and medical processes of transitioning, which are, frankly, the main things I’ve been saving money for.
What does this mean:
I’m looking for places to cut costs, but the combination of current expenses + what my parents want from me will take 1/3 to 1/2 of my current monthly paycheck. I already spend next to nothing on personal stuff, so all my current expenses are “necessities” such as food, gas, and insurance. I’m looking to cut down on gas costs but it may be awhile before my daily schedule gets adjusted.
The alternate is taking a second job that will permit me to only work my free three days a week.
Doing this means I will have zero time to write or produce content.
For now, I’m not jumping out to do that. I’ve made a Ko-Fi account (https://ko-fi.com/U7U063ZJ) that I would greatly appreciate any spare money you’re willing to contribute. Something as simple as a few dollars can go to me covering the cost of my health insurance per month, while I figure out the bigger problems of searching for a job.
The reason why I started with this is because:
Fic Stuff/Writing Stuff:
I do the equivalent of 3-4 full days of “writing” for fandom stuff per week: on my days off, I can write anywhere from 8 to 14 hours a day. Using just Friday and yesterday as an example, I wrote 9k words, and with whatever I do today, I will likely push that to about 11-12k.
Yes, it is all voluntary, and I do not have to write at the pace that I do, nor the amount that I do. I do it because I enjoy it, and because, honestly, writing for Overwatch has given me some of the biggest joys and happiness I have felt in like, a decade. And that includes writing the long essays. My last big R76 post (http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/167321630835/everything-you-want-to-know-about-reaper-and) spans a whopping 67 pages and 7.5k words in Google Docs (that includes pictures and sources/credits/links/references).
Again, this isn’t to brag, but just to put my writing into perspective, I guess. This is the equivalent of doing a second part-time job, which was something I attempted last year but was unable to balance my current archaeology job + a part-time retail job + writing. I dropped the second one because, at the time, I finally had the luxury to choose a job in my profession and writing on the side. This is a luxury I was fortunate to enjoy for the first half of 2017, but it is steadily becoming undoable as my work increases my responsibilities without increasing my pay.
Fic Updates:
For those of your who have been waiting patiently for information on “And Overwatch for All” I do have some good news that I’m finally ready to share:
Moira has been integrated into the plot.
I got a number of comments here and on twitter that were really supportive of my current version of “AOFA” and I just want to say, thank you all so much. It means a lot to me that you guys have liked the version of Overwatch I’ve built up and that you found all the characters, including my silly OCs, to be engaging and well-written. It was soul-crushing to think I would have to lose some of them, but after some time and doing more research on Moira, I feel ready to talk more about her and how she’s going to factor into the updated plot.
To start off with:
None of the OCs will be cut, but some of their roles will change.
Lmao, this surprised me as well, but I’ve figured out a few different ways to make all of the OCs, especially the very obviously contrived “Death Agents,” stick around in the updated plot.
Only one OC (and you can probably guess who, if you’ve started “New Wars”) will change names: the character called “Reaper” in “New Wars Chapter 1″ (the “young Hanzo chapter”) will be called “Reaver.” This is due to his updated role in the plot. His background has changed only slightly.
If it wasn’t apparent, this “Reaper” was meant to act as a plot device to cause confusion over Gabriel/Reaper’s actions after the fall of Overwatch, but that has changed because:
I’m switching to Crisis-era and “undercover mercenary” Reaper.
If you’ve read some of my more recent posts on Moira, you’ll know that I’ve switched over to supporting the idea that “something went wrong with Gabriel Reyes during SEP/the Crisis.” This is due to the fact that you can find a folder labeled “Soldier ID: 24″ in Moira’s Oasis lab, that Michael Chu said that Reyes was interested in getting her help on “matters of genetics,” and that this appears to mesh the “Reaper has existed for decades” concept in Reaper’s hero profile.
Truth be told, I’ve actually been a supporter of this idea of “Gabriel has been Reaper behind the scenes for decades” plot point for a long, long time, almost as long as I’ve been posting Old Habits. “Reaper”/“Reaver” was semi-messy OC that attempted to bridge Reaper’s original hero profile with the “Old Soldiers” explanation that Gabriel/Reaper gave that “Jack and Overwatch ‘left [him] to suffer.’” However, I also knew when writing Old Habits that the “Mercy is evil” theory was ALSO not true, so I was kinda stuck:
“If Gabriel = Reaper for decades, why did he appear to blame Jack and Overwatch for his current condition?”
My original solution was to make “Reaper” a different character and have him operating the situation in the background (like a mystery story), but over time this solution got trickier and trickier to work with. With Moira, I have a chance to rework much of Old Habits/AOFA to better suit some of the details that have come out since drafting it.
This does mean, unfortunately, that all the “76+127″ content is going to become its own, standalone series.
To switch over to integrating “Soldier: 24,” the “76+127″ stories will have to become their own standalone series. Don’t worry - I’m not deleting anything. Old content from “Old Habits” will be moved to their own fics, so you can read the whole thing in chronological order.
A new version of my updated ideas on SEP has already started being drafted. Writing it out is just a matter of time at this point, haha.
The conspiracy/Talon council “mysteries” will become more transparent almost immediately.
With Moira, I finally get the chance to explore some of my ideas in “full format” instead of the kinda awkward “Sombra hacking a chat log” parts yall originally got. This DOES mean that written portions will suddenly be much, MUCH longer. For example:
Old Habits original chapter 10 (Sombra hacks an SSO chat log): 17 pages
Old Habits revised chapter 10 (Moira discusses the Route 66 battle with council members + Sombra hacks a chat log): closer to 34 pages
The explosion fight has been changed.
Because of the changes to Gabriel’s plot, the nature of the explosion fight between him and Jack has changed significantly. It does incorporate new information that Moira revealed.
If it wasn’t obvious, I’ve had a draft version of my ideas for the fight sitting in GDocs for about a year now, and I use that for all my flashback/memories, and also for when Reaper and Soldier: 76 are arguing in the present. There was a major plot point in the explosion fight that I was extremely uncomfortable with, but found it to be “solid angst material.” In retrospect, I dislike this plot point and have removed it for another plot point that sits better with me, and fits the overall story more comfortably (I think).
So yes, I DO have a new draft of the explosion fight - written completely from scratch, 100% different in tone and emotionality. Parts of this should begin to show in updates to Chapter 13, when Soldier: 76/Jack reflects on some of the fight.
The Goal:
The goal for AOFA right now is to update Old Habits in “two big batches” - update the first half (Chapters 1 - 15) within 1 - 2 weeks, and then update the second half (Chapters 16 - 31) shortly after. Optimistically, before January, but realistically, closer to late-January/early-February.
Thanks for sticking with me - both with this post, and with my life changes. Things are incredibly and often overwhelmingly busy for me, and I don’t really know where many of these things (both personal stuff and fic stuff) will end up. I really do appreciate any and all support, even if I’m not able to respond to comments. You guys make it worthwhile to keep writing, and I apologize for how distant I’ve been with this stuff.
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The Last Jedi (A Spoilertastic Review)
So I stayed off Twitter for almost ten straight days and I reduced my Facebook usage by about 80% in the last 48-hours in order to avoid spoilers for The Last Jedi, as I was spoiled for Han Solo's death in The Force Awakens literal days before attending its premiere years ago. Was it worth staying off social media to stay unspoiled and unbiased?
Eh. I dunno.
So I'm now hearing, as I return to social media, that some fans hate the movie. Color me shocked. (That's sarcasm, if you can't tell--we really do need a font for that.) There is a large chunk of the Star Wars fandom that contains some of the nastiest, pettiest, most immature hypocrites on the planet earth, and I can see those same fans hating this movie. Well, maybe I can help balance the scales.
To be frank, I'm not a Star Wars fan. I saw the originals as a kid and liked them okay, I hated the prequels and I still think they have zero justification and do not stand up to even the slightest film criticism or storytelling criticism at all, and I liked The Force Awakens quite a lot. For me, The Force Awakens finally gave me a reason to personally invest in the Star Wars franchise. Don't get me wrong--as a kid and a teen, I liked Han and Leia. I liked the setting of the original trilogy and the memorable stories and performances and dialogue. However, Luke was, well, this is an unavoidable pun, a lukewarm character for me. I didn't really care about him and I didn't understand him from a personal standpoint, so while I enjoyed the story, I just didn't take anything away from it. Force Awakens introduced me to an ostracized girl who had a miserable existence who always felt like she was waiting for something to happen to give her life meaning, and a terrified slave/survivor who defected in order to run away from something he feared but he instead found a reason to stay and fight. Plus, adding in the fact that Finn is awkward and likable and now I am emotionally invested in the new main leads of the franchise.
Sadly, though, The Last Jedi falls short in most of the aspects that made me like Force Awakens. Keep in mind, it's still an enjoyable film, but it most definitely suffers from Middle Movie Syndrome, where there's a lot of wheel-spinning because they need action set pieces, but in the end, what happens doesn't really change much about the characters or their motivations. Allow me to explain below. Naturally, spoiler alert.
Overall Grade: B-/C+
Pros:
-Creative scenarios. I like the film's creativity in terms of the scenery. The Force Awakens lived in the shadow of the original films. It was a very strict sort of format in order to make the older fans feel at home and to bring the new fans into the franchise at the same stepping off point. However, this film was able to stretch out a bit and not feel as bound by the same look and feel of the original trilogy. I know a lot of fans bitched about that with Force Awakens, and I think it was a semi-legit complaint, but I felt it was mostly the studio being cautious and trying not to piss off such a massive number of fans. Here, the scenery feels new and fresh, from the casino to the large part of the plot taking place on unfamiliar planets or with the rebels in space.
-I'm not going to sit here and lie--Oscar Isaac finally got to me a little bit in this one. Don't get me wrong, I liked Poe but I noticed Isaac amassing a legion of fangirls and was mystified as to why. Poe was a good character and Isaac's a good actor. Then when I saw Poe getting passionate about the rebellion, I admit I started to swoon a bit. There's just something about the way that he cares, how he makes the war feel that much more personal, and his relationship with Leia that floats my skirt up quite a bit. I like that he is hardheaded and impulsive, but he still feels like his own man. At first, I was worried he'd be our Han Solo replacement, but they drifted away from that idea. He's a very enjoyable character and I give a damn about him. I like that he grew this time, that he was able to recognize that he can't make every mission a suicide mission because the rebels have limited numbers and every man is precious. That's cool. I can dig it. Nice work, Mr. Isaac.
-I enjoyed seeing Finn take another step towards becoming a more stable rebel. He was still naive and brash, but he gave it his all and he was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to do what he felt was right. I appreciate the hell out of that and I'm glad they didn't kill him. I threw my hands up in the theater because I like him a lot and I thought they were going to do the dumb thing and waste him. Phew. Bullet dodged, for now at least.
-I enjoyed seeing Yoda pop back up. Granted, he took his sweet ass time, but that was a nice surprise for me. I thought it was very touching to see him again, and well timed since Frank Oz is on the older side and we don't know how much longer we'll get to enjoy him.
-The Luke and Leia forehead kiss almost made me cry. Fuck. God. It was eerily appropriate as our goodbye to the amazing Carrie Fisher. I miss her terribly and seeing them reunite for the last time genuinely tugged at my heart strings.
-I liked the idea of Luke wavering when he found out Darth Temper Tantrum--excuse me, Kylo Ren slash Ben Solo--and being faced with a terrible choice. I like that Kylo's interpretation of danger is what screwed everything up and made him run away. It's a simple misunderstanding on a grand scale that is important to both of them and it's about the only thing that I think works about Kylo Ren's character. We'll discuss more about him in the Cons section, though. I like it because it's reminiscent of something I love from The Dresden Files series, where Karrin Murphy and Harry Dresden are talking about the fact that some people become monsters because you treat them like monsters. The possibility that maybe he wouldn't have turned if Luke hadn't gone there to stop him is great motivation to cut yourself off forever and feel that you deserve to die alone with the last of the Jedi kind.
-Luke's projecting power at the end was a nice aversion to being slain by the whiny git Kylo Ren. I'm still angry he dies anyway, because what the fuck was the point if you still killed him off, but that was a cool power that I don't recall seeing before and it made Luke seem even more badass than I ever thought possible. Nice work, Luke.
-We'll discuss my problem with Ren's fake redemption arc momentarily, but I did like the scene where he kills Snoke. That was a nifty idea and I like that Snoke's smug ass didn't see it coming. He was so convinced he knew everything and that manipulating Ren and Rey would give him what he wanted, but it didn't and that's a satisfying story element in a movie that kind of botches most of its pay off.
-I liked the Purple Haired Lady (sorry, I didn't catch her name, I have a bad memory) light-speeding right through the fucking Empire ship. That was a badass way to go. Now, granted, I still think it's pretty ridiculous that all the main characters managed to survive a catastrophic event like that no problem, but it was still cool as hell.
-Rey's a nobody. Called it. I love that she didn't have super special plot relevant parents. They were just scumbag assholes, much like Yondu's parents in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Thanks for disproving all the nonsensical fan theories. I knew she wouldn't be Luke or Leia's bloodline, but I like it even better than her parents don't even get names or anything. That's baller storytelling.
-Leia surviving the cruiser explosion. What. A. Badass. Motherfucker.
Cons:
-The biggest problem I have with the Last Jedi is Kylo Ren's fake redemption arc. Look, I get what they were going for. It's reminiscent of what happened to Zuko in the amazing Avatar: The Last Airbender series, and that to date is still the best redemption arc I have ever seen with my own two eyes. That's possibly why this one fell so flat for me. The set up for Kylo Ren is relatively solid. He was raised by heroes of the rebellion and so it was expected of him to become something great, and Luke training him sounds like a great bit of backstory as well. However, by not showing us details, Ren's redemption arc rings hollow as hell. Let me explain. They never showed us the details of the darkness that was apparently building in Ren. What is it driven by? Is it just a feeling? Was he just dangerous and unwilling to listen to Luke while he was in training? You can't just give such a blanket statement without reasoning or showing the actual backstory itself where we see what made him someone Luke thought would kill or massacre the innocent. I think the movie should have had a flashback segment of Luke and Ren's training days where we see that, yes, the kid was powerful but he had no restraint and he was arrogant and cruel or at the very least, unfeeling. Most of the time when you have that type of character, it's one of those traits that leads to evil. He thinks he's above the law or above reproach because of his power, or in Ren's case, it could have been because of his parentage. That was a huge missed opportunity. Maybe he was just a spoiled brat from being the son of two war heroes and the nephew of one of the greatest Jedi of all time. But we get none of that. We just get that he was a bad apple and Luke panicked and his panic made Ren run away. But that brings me to the next part that doesn't work in this film. Okay, so you think your uncle tried to kill you. Why did you immediately decide to join up with the fucking Space Nazis? How does that work for your desires? We don't know why Ren joined up. It's one thing to abandon your family out of anger and shame, but the Empire literally slaughters billions of innocent lives on a daily basis. We don't know why Ren said yes to them because we haven't been told personal details about him. Why did he blame Han and Leia? It's totally backwards. He should have gone to them and told them what Luke did, and there should have been repercussions. Maybe they didn't believe him and that's why he ran off, but the film doesn't tell us any of these things that would help us understand him more. Then, the final nail is the idea that Kylo murdered the other young Jedi, murdered Han, tried to murder Leia, and has been in the company of genocidal maniacs for years, and yet the film wants me to believe he can be saved. Nah, bruh. You gone. You been gone. You're not gonna flash your puppy dog eyes at me and think I want you to come to the light side. You stood by and watched billions of people die and yet Rey's big blues make you change your mind, but only for your own ambition? Fuck off. That entire thing fell to shambles for me. I like the idea of Rey and Ren having a connection because they are both alone and unsure of themselves, but this was not the way to do it. Ren's actions are beyond irredeemable. They were irredeemable the second he killed Han. Han didn't do shit to that snot-nosed punk bitch. He was his father and he wasn't the one who turned on him, it was Luke, so frankly, Ren can fuck off the edge of my non-existent dick, and I don't like that the movie swept all his indiscretions under the table to say maybe there was still good in him. He's a selfish bastard and that's that.
-Implying that Rey would turn to the Dark side fell flat on its face as well. She had no reason to turn. The movie played with the fact that she was alone, but that still doesn't work. She's not alone. She has Finn and the rebels. Sure, none of them would be able to understand the Jedi aspect of her personality, but it's still stupid for them to act like she would just be magically okay with the genocidal maniacs who slaughtered everything in the galaxy. It was weird, too, because Ren says something to the effect of "I saw you turn" and that doesn't happen, so was he lying to manipulate her or did the movie drop the subplot altogether? There was never a moment that I doubted her. I knew she had a pure heart because of what we've seen from her before. All we knew is that she was simply scared and alone. None of that translated to her joining the fucking Space Nazis, so why did they even pursue it? I think this could have been done better if instead of Ren killing Han (but to be fair, it's all Harrison Ford's goddamn fault, if he didn't hate Han, then this idea could have worked) we saw Ren and Rey starting to understand each other BEFORE he killed Han. Love is a strong motivator for if you want to have this idea of Rey possibly wavering from the light. I sure as fuck don't ship Reylo and I think it's gross, but if you rewrote the movie so that she and Ren bonded in the first film rather than him simply terrorizing her, then sure, the second film where she feels a connection with him and wants to rule at his side because she loves him now makes sense. The idea is similar to something from my urban fantasy series that I wrote, where the villain has no plans of ever turning good, but he has a soft spot for the leading lady and he doesn't want so much to turn her as make her his so he can be with her, and she doesn't so much want to turn him good as she recognizes that there is something inside him that calls to her. This is one of the only cases where I think a canon romance would have made more sense than whatever we got in the film itself. I could see Rey doubting herself if she fell in love with Ren. The starcrossed lovers angle is much stronger and much more believable than just "Rey doesn't know who she is and she thinks maybe she can bring Ren back to the light."
-I didn't like Finn and Rey being apart for the entire film. I think their friendship was easily the best and strongest thing about the Force Awakens. Both of them had strong motivations to do what they did and it made sense for them to both care so deeply for each other because they crashed into each other's lives and saved each other. They work better side by side, not in separate storylines. Their friendship was charming and adorable and this film really should have used it.
-If you add everything up, Finn's entire mission was pointless. The stand-in commander already had a plan and so everything Poe, Rose, and Finn did was pointless in the end. That sucks. You wasted their time and the audience's time, and that's what I meant when I said this movie has Middle Movie Syndrome. It feels like they just needed to find something for Finn, Rose, and Poe to do and so they just threw them this B Plot that is entirely useless and that's a huge disservice to them as characters.
-Rose is pretty forgettable. That's not knocking the actress playing her. It's just she's sort of a tool to the story and they really should have given her a better role with better stakes. I also don't like the shoehorned "love" line. It was a good line for the rebellion, but not for those two characters. I don't buy Rose falling for Finn. Finn's awesome, but they didn't go through nearly enough and didn't bond at all during their journey, so that "love" line is awkward and unwanted to me.
-Luke's death. Look, the fucking movie is called The Last Jedi, but did you really have to fake us out only to kill him anyway? That was fucking lame. What would have made it go down easier is if Luke had known when we first see him again that he was on his last legs. Build up his final days. Have him be old and tired and coughing constantly or knowing by the Force that he's reached the last moments of his lifetime, and that's why finally spurs him on to help the rebels once again after he meets Rey. Don't spring it on us. It didn't have a good impact because it just felt obligatory because it's the future franchise and we have to have our original three protagonists all bow out for the new kids on the block. I wanted a more touching death scene for him, even though I liked Han and Leia more from the original films. It just felt like a waste of a great legend for him to die out of nowhere. I actually thought from that shot that he saw an Empire ship firing at the island to kill him and I sort of like that more, as it would have been a good sucker punch (and we did hear Snoke mention that before he died) so I think this was yet another missed opportunity.
-Though the entire movie focuses on Rey, I feel like it told me less about her than the first film did. I like that she's a nobody. That's good. That's strong. That's interesting. But I don't like that she didn't really bond with Luke and I don't feel as if she learned a single damn thing on that island aside from maybe Ren was starting to falter, but in the end all he did was kill Snoke and assume command. He didn't turn back to the light, so why was there all this focus on him that took away from her? I was excited for the film because I thought Luke would come around and train her the way Yoda trained him. That would reveal more of her abilities and her strengths and weaknesses, but we didn't get much of that at all and it's not fair to her. She has so much potential, but it felt squandered to me.
-The goddamn Porgs. Look, Disney, I know you gotta sell toys, but I haven't seen such a transparent fucking commercial for toys since Olaf from Frozen. Jesus H. Christ. They literally just keep popping up on screen like a goddamn commercial. It's so obnoxious. They are not that cute. They're just gerbils with duck feet. I think Star Wars fans overreacted about the Ewoks, but if they all hate the Porgs, sure, I'll light a torch to march in that parade. Stop that. I'm watching a movie, for God's sake, not a toy commercial.
-I'm not really sure where things are heading with where it ends here. It just seems sort of vague and undefined, and as if we didn't get much accomplished in the long run. Very wheelspin-y.
-There’s a million plotholes and plot contrivances. I can’t be bothered to count them all, so a year from now when CinemaSins does a video, then I’ll post a link, Just know there are a lot of plotholes this time around.
Bottom line: if the neckbeards are out here hating the movie, cry me a fucking river. It is in no way that bad. The prequels are still by far the worst movies in the franchise. I think The Last Jedi is simply misguided. It brings up great questions, but then doesn't answer or address most of them. It introduces too many ideas without flushing them out and making you connect on a personal level the way The Force Awakens did. It's mainly just that the goals are unclear and so are the characters. I think it's still possible to get the franchise back on track with the final film. I certainly don't think this movie is bad by any stretch. I just feel that it missed its target. Maybe they'll hit it next time.
#Star Wars#The Last Jedi#Star Wars The Last Jedi#movie review#film review#Luke Skywalker#Rey#Ben Solo#Leia Organa#Han Solo#spoiler alert#spoilers#finally#Poe Damaron
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A Random Roundup of Surprisingly Positive Trans Portrayals
Over the last half a year or so, I’ve run across a number of bits of media I’ve come across which blindsided me with trans characters that rang pretty true. Every time, I was tempted to sit down and write a proper review, but other things were going on, so I’m just going to sit down and bite the bullet with a collection of relatively quick takes.
So let’s start off with Swiss Army Man. It’s an indie film, but it caught on a bit with wider audiences thanks to, well, the titular character being the magical farting corpse of Daniel Radcliffe. Odds are you’ve at least heard of it, but at least no one I’ve talked to about it had any idea there was anything trans-related in there, so you might be thinking I’m reading into it. Quite the opposite. The main character is, with absolutely no ambiguity about it, a closeted trans woman, and the entire plot of the movie is directly about her coming to terms with that, learning to accept herself, and stop worrying about everyone judging her so she can transition already (which she’s heavily implied to do just after the credits roll. A lot of this is subtext, but plenty of it is just plain text. I mean, halfway through the movie she starts dressing as a particular woman she sees as a rolemodel and getting lost in very girly fantasies, and these are specifically presented as her only really happy memories in a later life-flashing-before-her-eyes sort of scene. I’d really recommend watching the whole thing yourself, since hey, it’s a funny uplifting heartfelt movie (if requiring a trigger warning on suicidal imagery) but here’s someone else’s spoiler filled, inconsistently gendering explanation of a good chunk of the trans imagery.
Somehow though, all this gets lost on a huge chunk of the audience. Including most professional reviewers, even ones for LGBTQIA-focused media outlets. I read one shortly after watching it which stubbornly insisted it was trying to convey that the main character was a gay man through a bizarre metaphor that didn’t work. I’m tempted to call that one willful ignorance, but it IS to be fair one of those movies that plays around with an unreliable narrator and an odd mix of grounded reality, obvious fantasy, and supernatural elements that are hard to fit in either of those boxes. As someone who takes in a lot of that sort of thing, my personal takeaway is that while the main character is just imagining the corpse talking as an imaginary friend to cope with her suicidal loneliness, it does seem to be, within the observable reality of the movie, a legitimately magical corpse full of hyper-compressed Gyo gas. And a metaphor about shame. The main character being trans though is completely unambiguous and clear through every possible prism.
I do find it interesting though that on the commentary track, the pair of writer-directors responsible for it fail to directly refer to the main character’s womanhood, mostly just talking about her loneliness, and how relatable it is. So, blatant as the nature of the movie is, this may be a case of closeted trans women creating a story about a closeted trans woman without even realizing it.
Next we have a Korean film I stumbled across on Netflix with the unfortunate title of Man on High Heels, which I have to assume is trying to riff on Man on Fire or something similar. It’s about a tough martial arts action figure sort of cop who ignores procedure and beats confessions out of crime lords, who’s even more respected in the underworld for being such a stone cold badass than by the police force who has a pretty easy job accordingly. Who is, again, a closeted trans woman. This one I went into expecting to cringe a bit at a weird exploitation action comedy, but it plays the premise completely straight. When the movie starts, she’s been walking that knife edge for a while of starting HRT, buying a new wardrobe, and practicing with makeup, while still very much in the closet, and the main thrust of the drama is her trying to scrape up enough cash for The Surgery while trying to preserve her tough macho action legacy, and generally fumbling, with fellow cops thinking she has a drug problem and mobster fans thinking she’s gone crooked. Lot of emotional gut-punches too with flashbacks, falling out, and not exactly a happy ending. It doesn’t have the same inner monologue as Swiss Army Man, but it still feels fairly authentic in terms of the emotional turmoil she’s going through. And of course it gets some basic facts about medical transition wrong. Still, not what I expected.
Turning to TV, somehow I ended up marathoning through the entirety of Sons of Anarchy on a whim. Now, I cannot actually recommend that anyone ever watch Sons of Anarchy. Frankly it’s a poorly written show which spends more time than not completely rudderless, constantly forces people to act completely out of character to spur on new plot arcs, and stumbles hard every time it tries to say anything about women, race, politics, or morality.
Some time in the 5th season, a random filler episode has the core cast hiring a trans prostitute to stage explicit photos with someone they’ve knocked out in order to blackmail him, resulting in a very forced exploitative scene. It certainly doesn’t help that the trans woman in question is named Venus, and played by Walter Goggins (not that I approve of cis men playing any of the characters I’m listing here, but Goggins is the most overtly masculine actor in the mix, and playing the only character on this list who is out as trans and well past first transitioning). That episode left a particularly bad taste in my mouth, and I’m curious if there was some backlash to it at the time, because in the next season, Venus returns, as a minor recurring character who gets fleshed out and made significantly more sympathetic. She gets a tragic and cliched backstory full of sexual abuse of course, but she’s at least in the running for the single most morally centered character in the series, gets a lot of sympathetic dialog, and sticking up for her in various ways becomes a way to signify someone is, for the time being at least, on the path of righteousness.
What really amazes me though is the last season. The entire final season of Sons of Anarchy is frankly a train wreck. Season 6 ends with the incredibly pointless and poorly motivated murders of its most sympathetic major characters (including the main audience surrogate) to stir up conflict, and as a result season 7 is just a ridiculous exercise in body stacking. Almost every character ends up either dead or at a complete loss of what to do with themselves, and there are really only two characters who can be said to really get a happy ending. Tig, one of the more consistent characters, who can largely be described as the Designated Weirdo in the core cast, ends up spending the last season dating Venus, and their last scene implies that him falling in love with her breaks him of his weird self-destructive performative freakiness, and they get to live happily ever after. Everything else about the final season, and really the show at large, I rolled my eyes at, but hey, pleasant surprise there!
Meanwhile, turning to Japanese children’s television from a few years back, there’s Kamen Rider W. Like every Kamen Rider series, it’s a self-contained superhero show with lots of quirkiness and rubber-suit action sequences. The main gimmick the W alludes to is that the hero of this particular show is really two people. When it’s time to throw on the suit and jump into action, one of the two protagonists passes out, the other getting a split consciousness (and then of course late in the series when they get their ultimate powerup, they full on merge into a single body instead). One of these characters is Shotaro, a dorky wannabe hard boiled detective. The other is something of a mysterious MacGuffin character named Phillip, who has quite a lot going on, but most significantly for this article’s purposes, this is Phillip:
Broadcasting standards in Japan are a bit further behind the times than they are in America, so you can’t ever full on come out and state that a character is gay or trans. The best you can manage is to just barely provide plausible deniability while implying the ever loving hell out of it. And so we have Phillip, who is about as blatantly not-a-man as you can really get away with, visually. Whether the idea is to subtley portray a trans woman, or to portray the only non-binary human character I can recall ever seeing in anything is a tough call, but the hair clips and some variation on this non-quite-a-dress are present on Phillip in every single episode other than the one where a contrived sting has Phillip throwing on a dress and a wig to really pull of a Lovely Magician’s Assistant look... and trying to find a screenshot of that by searching for “Kamen Rider Phillip Dress” just gave me a variation on the standard Phillip Outfit on a female manikin at a cosplay shop.
Anyway, Phillip is great. Aside from being Very Clearly Trans, Phillip Very Clearly Has Autism (sensitively and realistically portrayed), but neither of these is ever commented on by anyone in the show. Instead, everyone is constantly talking about how Phillip is so unambiguously the more powerful, intelligent, and competent of the two, and constantly suggesting Shotaro is dead weight. It’s fantastic. Oh and the two are also as unambiguously in a romantic relationship with each other as broadcasting standards will allow. There is blatant queer-baiting between male leads in every Kamen Rider show, but I mean, they have a love theme, their ultimate weapon/armor is rainbow themed, and the lyrics to the show’s opening are all about the ultimate union of body and soul between two partners.
Incidentally, Kamen Rider Wizard from 2 years later does make a more overt effort of trans representation with a minor character, but fairs far worse with it, and the following year’s Kamen Rider Gaim has... this character, but I’m trying to focus on surprisingly good representation, and neither of them exactly qualify.
Finally, the tragically obscure 7th Dragon III Code VFD for the 3DS, along with making literally the entire cast of NPCs and PCs explicitly bisexual features as a prominent NPC a game designer/time machine designer who shortly before the game begins switched over to being called Julietta and dressing like this:
I haven’t found the time to finish it, but misgendering localization aside, yeah this is totally in keeping with my general composite image of my fellow trans game devs, and she’s great so far.
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Here’s a link to the article about Santi from the Saturday section of El Mercurio on 21 January 2017. Between Google Translate and my school girl Spanish, I’ve had a go at translating, but Chilean Spanish is full of slang, and I can’t translate some of the expressions! I’d ask a Chilean friend to help, but I don’t think she’s come round yet since I sent her the photos! 😉
It’s a beautiful interview, but I’m warning you, you may need some tissues. Particularly when you think back to that scene when Aramis talks about not having children… “in another life, perhaps”. I’m glad they had the miracle in this one.
Here’s the (edited, but still with a few strange expressions) translation:
The path of Santiago Cabrera
Scene 1: Los Angeles, early 2005. In an attempt to get better opportunities as an actor, Santiago Cabrera comes to live in California, United States. His agent had insisted that he should settle there. The first few months were miserable, he remembers today: after going to dozens of castings for movies and series, his phone did not ring. Without contact networks, his savings were gone.
“What am I doing here?” I asked myself. For a moment I faltered and said, “Maybe this is not for me.”
Scene 2: Los Angeles, February 2007. It’s Oscar night and Cabrera is in a limousine with his wife, the German theater director Anna Marcea, on the way to the traditional Vanity Fair party, which summons the biggest stars of the event. As one of the protagonists of the series of television Heroes, that swept in hearing, he lives a moment of greater success.
“I’m getting out of the car and Martin Scorsese is just in another limo. He had just won his first Oscar as director for The Departed. I stood looking at him and there were a lot of people standing behind a fence, waiting to see the arrival of the celebrities. Then I feel that they start to shout all: “Santiaaago!”. There I realized the power of the TV: I was in front of Scorsese, but the fans recognized me.”
Santiago Cabrera (38) never thought about being an actor. Affable, charismatic, and with a neutral accent but sprinkled with Chilean, he remembers that his dream was to be a footballer and get to play in Real Madrid or Barcelona. As a boy, living in Spain, he was offered to join Atletico Madrid cadets. But, as at other times, he had to leave behind the opportunity and follow the path of his father, Pedro Pablo Cabrera, who made a long diplomatic career - he was Chile’s ambassador to London, Moscow, Beijing and the Vatican. And to each of his destinations, he took his wife and three children. The actor was born in Caracas, and then lived in Toronto, Bucharest, London, and Madrid.
When he was 2 years old, in Canada, Cabrera says he spoke half English, half Spanish. He got used to leaving behind friends and schools, but they always told him that his home was in Chile. They returned a couple of times a year. In fact, he completed third and fourth basic, in addition to all his middle school, in the College of St. Benedict, which was near his home in Vitacura.
“I was always scared to arrive in a new country, a new school. I was shy, which meant being alert to how I was going to be received. I always thought about being here, but I came back for two years then I wanted to go. I caught the travel bug.”
When leaving the school he studied psychology at the University Diego Portales, thanks to a sports scholarship, while playing in cadets of Catholic University. Coach Óscar Meneses told him that he had conditions [possibilities?]. But, for him, it was too late for football.
“At semi-professional level I was a scorer, but when I played more professional football, I realized that there were always about 10 guys better than me and that frustrated me. I was always starting, but they did not put me on the front, so I realized I was not going to reach a high level.”
Have you ever regretted not finishing psychology?
“No, it was not my thing.” He was pure pichangueando and rolling [it was all fun and games?]. It was a good party, half a bottle of pisco, the whistle and remain as a shoe [getting drunk and having hangovers?]. But he had to stop. “I tried to be the rebel, the [busted? wild guy?], and over the years I realized that I am not like that, and I am content not to be like that.”
In his third year, Cabrera left his course and, at 20 years old, went to London to study acting. Two years earlier he had discovered that he liked it, he recalls, after doing a play about Mozart, so he followed that impulse. In England he got a job in a bar and entered the Drama Center, from which actors such as Michael Fassbender, Colin Firth or Tom Hardy, have graduated. After three years of study, he quickly got an agent.
“My first part was in a play by Shakespeare and I thought about the acting life. I was super innocent about the industry, but I did the audition, and got the part in Empire, which at the time was the biggest series, and then it was less so. But when they gave it to me, in Hollywood many were waiting to see who they were going to give the role to, so there was a lot of interest in representing me. I was an idealist, I wanted to do cinema, art and theater.” He regarded Hollywood suspiciously.
In Hollywood actors must endure many rejections, how do you deal with it?
“They hurt when you’re interested in the project, but now I reject it.”
What does he say no to?
"The bad guy, the Latin drug dealer and when it is for my looks. I try to break the Latin stereotype, I consider myself a character actor, and although there are always exceptions, I do not want to fall into that. Today, in the United States and England, they are trying to do more diverse projects, but I get the audition and in the description of the character it says: “We seek any ethnicity.” You go to a casting and everyone is black, Latino, Indian, and Asian. Then you ask: why am I in this category and not in a lead role? It’s super strong. They believe that Latin is a race and not a culture. There has to be a day when this changes, that inclusion is not just about meeting the quota.
Of the Chilean actors who live in the United States, Cabrera has been the most constant in the last 15 years. Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Narcos) and Cote de Pablo (NCIS) have achieved success with serial productions, but do have not had the CV that Santiago does: besides Heroes, he participated in the series Merlin; In Alcatraz by JJ Abrams; In Steven Soderbergh’s film about Che Guevara; In the HBO mini-series Hemingway & Gellhorn, alongside Nicole Kidman; In the miniseries Anna Karenina; And for three years he played Aramis in the series The Musketeers, which can be seen on Netflix.
Despite rubbing shoulders with high-profile projects, Cabrera has only relative fame in Chile, and he’s aware of that.
“Here I pass super piola (pass mainly unrecognised?), people only recognise me after looking at me for a while. One time a Chilean asked me what I was doing, I told him that The Musketeers had finished and he asked me what character I played. I answered him and he looked at me in surprise: "Ah, you are one of the Musketeers!” He recognized me but he thought I was extra, and that already seemed good to him. I think my fame could be double that of Bruce Willis and it would be the same in the media here. I think everything is measured by the same rod in Chile. But I understand, we are a smaller country, we are not accustomed to it.”
Do you care about recognition in Chile?
“I think if I cared that much, I would have made the effort to be more recognized. People tell me that I have to promote myself more, but I’m content, because the work dictates everything. Now I have a mini-series on HBO and Transformers, concrete things. I feel more relaxed talking about my work. US Weekly magazine has wanted to do a feature in my home and I have always said no. I do not feel comfortable, I do not sell my life, but the work I do.“ If he were on TV in Chile, he would probably be more recognised. "They offered me several years and I always said no, I think they got tired. But I’m not closing the door, only saying no for now.”
Don’t you care about fame?
“I don’t. I am more withdrawn and quiet, perhaps, but I am willing to be high profile if I am in a project that deserves it. I see people who are very famous and most are looking for it. There is a tremendous confusion with being popular today, they do not care what project you do, they respect how much you earn for the film. If people say, ”He was a good actor, but he could have been promoted more”, I could die content.
Cabrera goes to a casting for a movie that interests him. While reading the script, the casting director - who already knew him - puts on a strange face, which he translates as “this role is not for you, but I like what you’re doing.”
Then she says: “I’ll pass on another project that may interest you: Transformers 5.”
Did it interest you immediately? Didn’t you have reservations?
“I acknowledge that I had reservations. When she told me, and she is a casting director who does really good things, I thought: “Transformers number what?”. I hadn’t seen one.
Transformers 5: The Last Knight, which opens on June 23, is Cabrera’s first blockbuster. The film, he says, will be a huge showcase for him: movies 1-4 grossed over $1 billion worldwide and now similar figures are expected, with a cast featuring Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, and John Goodman.
“Transformers is an opportunity for an actor, because there is a possibility that your name is there and that will open other doors or fund projects. But I was also interested in the background of the character and the work we did with the American special forces to prepare me. It was a great experience and is the biggest I’ve done, because they have also put me in the group of protagonists. ” He says in the film he will play a retired military man who is now a mercenary and who leads a squadron called TRF that fights the Threat of the Transformers. If all goes well, he says, his character could be in the sixth part of the franchise.
In order to work on the film, which finished filming on December 10, the actor had to be interviewed by Michael Bay, director of the series and known for films such as Armageddon or Pearl Harbor. Initially, the meeting would be in his office, but at the last moment he decided to do it at home. There they talked for a while in the garden, until Bay said:
“Let’s do a couple of scenes, shall we read some?”
Cabrera was not expecting it.
“I stopped, read the texts, he told me a few things and then said, "Already, we are, now I have to go talk to Anthony Hopkins on Skype,” and he left. From his reaction, I thought he had not been much impressed, but the casting director looked at me and thumbs up.“
The other big project that he will be inthis year is Big Little Lies, an HBO miniseries premiering on February 19th. Based on the novel by the same name, by Liane Moriarty, and adapted by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal), it’s produced by and starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, and its cast is completed by Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas buyers club), tells the story of three mothers with children who are involved in a mysterious crime, while Cabrera plays the role of a theater teacher who is key in the plot. He can not tell much more about the role, he says, only that almost all his scenes are with Witherspoon.
"In almost every scene I was alone with Reese, and the atmosphere was very creative, because as she was producer, she offered space to play around and improvise. We talked a lot, she is a grounded and intelligent person, very prolific in projects. In fact, she told me that she would love to work with me again. And with Nicole Kidman we only had a couple of scenes, but as we had acted together before, there was a big hug; she is a very nice person.”
The first day of work in the miniseries, he remembers, in particular: he arrived at the set and sat at a desk to familiarize himself with the context of his character. As he read, the lights went down and a voice shouted, “Action!” “I saw the camera above and I froze. I feel a few tacos and it was Reese coming up to me to start the scene. Obviously, we shot it more times, but that adrenaline was incredible. That night I could not sleep, it’s one of the reasons I say: "That’s why I like my partner so much.”
For 15 years, Cabrera has been married to Anna Marcea (40). They met in London, when he studied acting, and at the time decided to have a civil wedding. It took two weeks to decide and do it.
“I phoned my mom, they were in Moscow, because my dad was an ambassador there, and I said, "Not this Wednesday, but the other one, I’m getting married.” There was a long silence. Then I learned that my dad said, “Let him write a letter, this can not be, things are not done that way.” Anna was known to her, but we were impulsive.
It took years for you to be parents, why?
“Since we were young, we did not have money at the beginning, so we did not want to. And when we decided to have a child, it did not come. First it was three years that we did not, then we started with the treatments, and we lost a pair, it was really hard.”
It must have been suffocating for you as a couple.
“A lot. So much so, that we talked one day and she said, "I can’t take more, I need to take control of my life.” Because physically they were affecting her, there were so many hormones that she had to take, and emotionally it was terrible that it did not work. She told me she could not do it any more. I was in Prague recording The Musketeers and it was a very hard week. We came to the conclusion that we were very fortunate to be together and that we would be a couple with no children. And accept it just.“
Among the treatments to get pregnant, did she postpone her career?
“Yes, but in addition to resuming her career, it was also to resume her life, because she had to take care of herself all the time to get pregnant. It was a project of life that took us years and didn’t work out, so there was a sadness in our home, a tremendous emptiness … And that same month we talked, she became pregnant. Imagine: to be eight years trying, with all the hours to achieve it, the in vitro treatment, and all that did not work, but then suddenly it happens in a natural way. It was a miracle. That’s why we called him Kilian, which means "warrior.” In addition, it was a 24-hour delivery, born with a tremendous knot that could have complicated things.“
Santiago, Anna, and Kilian - who was born last April - arrived on vacation in Chile a month ago. They were in the house of the actor’s parents in Cachagua and now they will go to the south.
"I want to settle here, I was seeing some places to buy something on the coast, I’ll see something in Pucón too. In Los Angeles I also want to buy (there he leases a duplex in West Hollywood), to be with one foot here and the other outside. I did not feel so Chilean until I lived here between the ages of 15 and 20, but I had a strong relationship since I was a boy, and I want to give my son that opportunity, so that he knows his country.”
PS: if anyone can help improve this translation, by all means send me a message!
Here you go - I think this might be a better translation! http://santiagocabrera.net/2017/01/santiago-cabrera-sabado-interview-el-mercurio/
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Daily Reviews - Thor: Ragnarok
I finally mustered up the courage and saw “Thor: Ragnarok”, with my parents, aunt, and uncle.
I don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight.
The movie was just so intense. So many questions answered, so many questions raised, so much death, so much special effects, so much: “How do they say that with a straight face?!”, so much irreverent humor, so many times the movie turned to the fandom’s expectations and said, “Nope! This is how it happens!” The general tone is a bit lighter than the other Thor movies, more like “Guardians of the Galaxy”. (I wonder who directed it?)
It’s a very fun movie, and it will be seared on my brain forever, for good or ill. Sorry, but I’m spoiler-tagging the rest. 😉
(all stuff below is based on memory after one viewing, including quotes. So don’t expect 100% accuracy!)
Based on the previews and stuff, I’d been having a hard time figuring out the role of various characters like Hela, the Grandmaster, etc. and how they all tied in, and what order all the events happened in. But now I can provide a basic synopsis:
(First, you know how theatres play those little videos about ‘please turn off your phone before the movie’? They did one of those, but it was written so that Loki is watching Thor’s gladiatorial match, and Loki’s cell goes off, and Thor yells at him for ruining the moment. Why Loki would even have a cell phone, who knows... >.>)
The movie proper starts in media res, with Thor fighting Surtur (I thought that’s who that fiery demon guy in the promos was). Thor defeats him pretty easily and brings back the prize, Surtur’s helmet, to Asgard. It’s revealed that ever since his “vision” in “Age of Ultron” when Thor saw Asgard being destroyed, he’s been cruising the Nine Realms looking to vanquish any possible threats.
Anyway, Thor goes back to Asgard. Heimdall has been replaced as Gatekeeper by Skurge from the comics. I couldn’t recall what had happened to Heimdall at the end of “The Dark World”, but I guess he was banished or something. Thor’s friends seem to be free and well in “Ragnarok” though.
We get to finally see what Loki had been up to during his four years ruling Asgard as “Odin”. And apparently, he didn’t do a horrible job. The damage from the dark elves’ attack is cleaned up, everything is running smoothly. The craziest thing he’s done as Odin is have a giant statue of his ‘son’, Loki, commissioned. In fact, Odin goes so far as to deliver a sort of eulogy regarding Loki’s ‘sacrifice’ in “The Dark World”. And the eulogy is, it’s...I don’t even...
You know that scene in “The Dark World”, where Loki is seemingly dying on the sands of Svartalfheim, with Thor cradling him and murmuring: “It’s okay, it’s okay”?
That scene that showed that Loki was capable of doing something good at the last, a final moment of vulnerability in him, a moment of raw honesty between the brothers?
Of course, even “The Dark World” showed that Loki hadn’t really died, but the fans still debated whether the whole death was a ruse, or whether he simply survived when it wasn’t expected. Whether his ‘last words’ to Thor had been his true feelings.
Well, in Odin’s eulogy/memorial in “Ragnarok”, that ‘death scene’ is played on a big screen, in front of a huge crowd, with every moment exaggerated to comedic levels. Loki-on-the-screen easily confesses to everything he’s ever done (”Sorry for that thing with the Tesseract, and for trying to kill you, and being an incorrigible traitor.”), while Thor-on-the-screen easily forgives him (”Don’t worry about it! I know you didn’t mean any harm.”). When Loki-on-the-screen finally ‘dies’, Thor lets out a truly over-the-top, wailing, “Noooo!”.
Part of me wonders whether the scene was meant as a subtle “Take that” toward the fans that thought there might have been anything genuine in that ‘death scene’ (or about Loki in general).
Anyway, after the ‘video’, Loki-as-Odin gives a little speech that makes it sound as though Loki was a hero who conquered the dark elf menace single-handedly, all for the greater good. One line of “Odin’s” struck me, something like: “I never imagined when I took in that little blue icicle that he’d be the one to melt my heart.” Obviously it’s horribly cheesy and not something Odin would actually say, but it did hit me - that Loki here is casually admitting to where he had come from. Is that something that the Asgardians had even known about before? They don’t seem shocked by the line, so maybe word of Loki’s origins had gotten around after his initial “death” off the Bifrost, or after Loki had been brought back to Asgard as a prisoner.
Anyway, Thor arrives just in time to witness the ‘memorial service’. Loki doesn’t notice him at first, but when he does, he’s less than thrilled at Thor’s presence. I don’t know if it’s because he just doesn’t like Thor being around, or because the eulogy was not something Thor was meant to hear. Even if Odin could have had a way of knowing what had happened between Thor and Loki during the ‘death scene’, the fact is that Loki mis-represents that scene to make himself look better, something Odin would have had no reason to do.
So Thor gets suspicious, and he starts threatening “Odin” until Loki is forced to reveal himself, to the shock and horror of the Asgardians standing around. Thor forces Loki to come with him to Earth so they can find the real Odin and bring him back to Asgard. Now, I remember around the time of “The Dark World”, some interview had stated that Loki hadn’t actually killed Odin (though who knows why not, when it would have been simpler). Apparently, Loki stuck him in some retirement home on Earth, while also either putting him in a coma or removing his memories, I don’t remember which. Which is pretty horrible when you think of it, but Loki’s hatred of Odin shouldn’t really be a surprise at this point. (Why didn’t he just kill him, though?)
Well, Odin’s not at “Shady Acres” or wherever anymore, so the two go to Doctor Strange for help in finding him. And this is where that stinger from the “Doctor Strange” movie comes in, with Strange reluctantly agreeing to help if it gets Thor off the planet faster. We also get to see what Loki was up to while Thor and Strange had their conversation. I’d thought he was maybe waiting outside, or looking for Odin elsewhere, but instead: “I’ve been falling for thirty minutes.” Loki and Strange don’t get along at all in their brief interaction - Loki is indignant that a mere mortal dares call himself a sorcerer, while Strange treats Loki like a buffoon.
They find Odin in Norway or somewhere like that, but he’s not doing too well. Partly from age, partly from the still-raw pain of losing Frigga a few years earlier, partly from whatever spell Loki had used on him (about which Thor derisively commented, “Mother would be so proud”. Did Frigga actually teach Loki spells to manipulate thought/memory, or did he find that in a book somewhere?)
Odin is accepting toward his own pending death, but he’s worried about a forthcoming danger to the realms. As his last wish, he bids, “My sons, you must protect Asgard.” He says “My sons,” plural. As though he can’t even muster the energy to be angry at Loki’s treatment of him. Then he dies, and it’s a solemn moment, for a few seconds. Until Thor turns to Loki, enraged at his causing Odin’s death. Before a fight can break out, however, Hela appears.
[I’m really pleased that Odin got a proper send-off in this movie, when I wasn’t sure if he’d appear at all. You can tell he has a lasting legacy that affects the plot and the fates of the other characters.]
I’d known Hela was in this movie, and I wasn’t sure what kind of role it would be for her. I was happy to see that, despite her being shown as attractive and dangerous, she wasn’t dressed skimpily nor portrayed as a femme fatale who used her “womanly wiles” to get her way. She’s more just violent and power-hungry, and could kill everyone herself if it pleased her. She’s probably the only character in the movie (excepting maybe Odin), who’s portrayed completely dark and seriously.
Her backstory has been changed quite a bit from the myths and Marvel comics. In “Ragnarok” she is not related to Thanos in any way and is not his “mistress of death”. Nor is she shown to be Loki’s daughter or any other relation to him - she’s actually older than him. Rather, she is the sister of Thor and Odin’s firstborn child.
Apparently, back before Odin was the wise, peace-loving ruler Thor knew, Odin led many bloody wars against the other realms to place them under Asgard’s rule. Hela was his powerful heir, his sword arm against their opponents. But then Odin developed a change of heart, and decided to seek more peaceable relationships with the other realms. Hela didn’t want to give up the fight, so Odin eventually imprisoned her to keep the realms safe.
But now that Odin’s dead, the seal on Hela’s prison is broken, and she heads back to Asgard to claim her right of rulership there. Thor and Loki try to go after her, but due to some kind of wormhole/portal craziness, end up on the far end of the universe on the planet of Sakaar.
Thor wakes to find himself alone on a trash heap, and before he can fully orient himself, he is taken prisoner by a woman named...uh, what was her name? I think it’s Brunhilde, though I don’t know if they actually say it in the movie. Anyway, she’s basically like a slave trader, selling the ones she captures to the Grandmaster, who forces them to compete in his deadly games for fun and profit.
Thor is desperate to escape imprisonment and go back to Asgard at once to stop Hela’s reign. You see, she’s not the nicest ruler, and when the Asgardians refuse to accept her - apparently because she’s unstable and violent, and wants to lead them on a new bloody conquest of the universe - she starts killing people without discretion. That’s including the Warriors Three, which makes me sad :( . She even revives a bunch of people to be zombie warriors for her. That Skurge guy decides to ally with her, making her sort of fill the role of the Enchantress.
Hela takes a moment to explain to Skurge and the audience how she used to be esteemed by Odin until he became “soft”. This discussion takes place next to an interesting mural that depicts Odin’s interactions with the other realms. As an example of Odin’s “going soft”, Hela points at an illustration of Odin and Laufey making a treaty to end the Asgard-Jotunheim war. Hela acts as though she is familiar with this war and treaty, which means that Thor and Loki would have been young children when she was sealed away.
[Having Hela be related to Thor, having her be a relic of Odin’s dark past, really adds a lot to complicate Thor’s view of Asgard and his father. He never knew he had a sister, and now he has to kill her, poor guy. I wonder if Hela’s mother is meant to be Frigga? I don’t think the movie said.]
In order for Thor to get out of Sakaar, though, and get back to Asgard to stop Hela, he must survive his match against the Grandmaster’s reigning champion.
Meanwhile, Loki has also ended up on Sakaar, a few weeks before Thor somehow? He’s used that time to try to ingratiate himself to the Grandmaster, hoping it’ll help him make his way in this weird new world. He has a conversation with Thor via astral projection, reminding me of the convo between Loki and Frigga in “The Dark World”. It’s a good thing Loki isn’t physically present, because Thor might have punched him otherwise. He blames Loki for Odin’s death and the freeing of Hela. Regarding Thor being displaced as Odin’s true heir: “It hurts, doesn’t it?” Loki says. “Thinking you’re one thing and then finding out you’re not?” More tense words are exchanged, but then it’s time for Thor’s match in the arena. [sorry if I’m getting any events out of order!]
It turns out that Thor’s opponent is the Hulk. [Loki is watching the match from the balcony, and his reaction when the Hulk appears is, “I need to get off this planet. o.0″] At first Thor is happy to see his old buddy from the Avengers, his bash brother. But Hulk isn’t as receptive toward Thor. Turns out that Bruce was kidnapped along with the Quinjet right at the end of “Age of Ultron”, so he’s been stuck in Hulk form in the arena for the past two years, and doesn’t remember much from before that. So Thor is forced to fight him for real. He’s hampered a bit by his lack of Mjolnir, just using two short swords instead. Thor does show a brief display of being able to use electricity without Mjolnir, which confounds him. [spirit!Odin eventually explains that Thor had the power all along, and that Mjolnir was just a focus for that power.]
The match ends with both of them still alive, and they spend time afterward healing up, with Thor trying to get through to Banner. Eventually the two of them escape the arena complex together, and begin planning a way to get off the planet.
The Grandmaster isn’t happy about losing two of his strongest fighters, so he asks Loki (his newest ‘employee’) and Brunhilde to go retrieve them - for a hefty prize, of course. Brunhilde finds Thor first. She reveals that she’s had a change of heart and she wants to help him escape. You see, she used to be a Valkyrie - an elite female warrior of Asgard - but when all the rest of the Valkyrie were slaughtered by Hela, she fled, eventually ending up on Sakaar. She says she wants to regain some honor, and get revenge on Hela.
Thor, Hulk, and Brunhilde go and pick up Loki - whom Brunhilde had basically tied up in a closet - and then go to steal the Grandmaster’s spaceship and escape. But just as Thor is about to board, he stops, and suggests that Loki should stay on Sakaar. “We’re different people, and our paths diverged long ago. This world is lawless, chaotic - you’d fit in just fine here.” Plus there’s the fact that, now that Loki’s masquerading as Odin was revealed, the Asgardians might not be keen to welcome him back. Plus plus, going to Asgard means facing Hela, who will quite likely kill any who challenge her.
So it looks like Loki is going to stay on Sakaar, with Thor’s blessing - but then Loki reveals that he never actually gave up on capturing Thor. The prize money from that would set him up quite comfortably, he explains. I don’t know why this betrayal surprised me. It shouldn’t, it shouldn’t. But that’s the kind of duality Loki presents - you know you can’t trust him, he exudes an aura of suspiciousness; yet, like Thor in “The Dark World”, you wish you could trust him, to believe that you can make an ally of him, and benefit from his humor, and knowledge, and connections.
I’d claim that Loki’s constant betrayals show that he holds no loyalty to any other person and is acting out of simple self-interest, but many times his betrayals end up hurting himself in rather predictable ways. The way Thor treats it, it’s like Loki has a compulsion for betrayals, one which Loki and Thor are both aware of. Thor basically predicted that Loki would betray him in “Ragnarok”, and reacts with more disappointment than anger.
Even as he subdues Loki, Thor makes a simple but memorable observation: “Isn’t this all getting a little same-y? We team up, you betray me, I retaliate. Don’t you think there’s some room for change, for growth? I know you’ll always be the “God of Mischief” - but you could be something more.” Thor boards the ship and leaves Loki behind, and Thor and his two allies speed along toward Asgard.
Speaking of Asgard, Heimdall has come back from exile to try to help the Asgardians escape to another world via Bifrost. Hela isn’t too keen on that, though, and sends her zombie army to stop them. But then Thor arrives! He fights Hela’s army of undead, but Hela herself is too much for him. She even blinds one of his eyes!
Just then, however, Loki also arrives in another ship with some other escapees. I don’t remember the reasoning Loki gave for why he bothered to come back. Maybe he took to heart Thor’s challenge to do something brave, or at least unpredictable. While Heimdall hurries all the Asgardians onto the spaceship, Thor and the others try to figure out how to destroy Hela, who is clearly more powerful than any of them.
Eventually, Thor realizes that they will have to destroy Asgard with Hela on it, so she doesn’t escape to any of the other realms. The best way to do that is to summon Surtur - that demon Thor fought at the beginning of the movie - and doing that requires combining Surtur’s crown with the Eternal Flame that’s in the Vault.
Loki gets drafted to go activate this “Self-destruct” mechanism in the Vault (because they think he’s the fastest, or the best one at remaining unseen, who knows), while Thor and the others distract Hela. There’s a part where Loki runs right past the Tesseract in the Vault, before stopping to give it a long look. The scene cuts away then, but you just know he took it and put it in his dimensional pocket. After all, the Tesseract is one of the Infinity Gems, so it has to appear in the “Infinity War” movie. ;) (I wonder if he snagged any other relics while he was there, like the Casket of Ancient Winters, which I thought had fallen into the abyss when the Bifrost was destroyed?)
Anyway, Loki summons Surtur, who makes short work of Hela, before destroying the rest of Asgard. So in essence, Thor and Loki cause Ragnarok in order to defeat Hela.
The group of Asgardians that survived huddle together on the spaceship, their new home. Thor is now king of a new “Asgard”, one that is not a fixed world, but a migrant group of people. Loki, despite being at ground zero when Surtur was summoned, manages to escape onto the spaceship as well (maybe he used the Tesseract to make a quick getaway?).
In the stinger, Thor and Loki discuss where the ship should travel to next. Thor wants to visit Earth (maybe to set up a colony there?). But then some sort of other, gigantic spaceship appears right in front of them, looming menacingly… [Does Thanos have a spaceship?]
Sorry for the longest summary ever. Here’s a few more general thoughts that didn’t go anywhere else:
Loki is like the butt-monkey of “Ragnarok”. Other characters share this role sometime, and Loki certainly provided comedic value in other movies, but in something like “The Dark World”, there was also a dangerous, angry aspect to him, and a thirst for revenge. In “Ragnarok”, he’s at the end of many jokes, loses most of his battles, and isn’t treated as a threat by anyone. Maybe spending four years as “Odin” without any battle practice made him get sloppy?
In “The Dark World”, Thor and Loki try for a bit to maintain a cool professional relationship (”We’re pursuing the same enemy, that’s all.”), before that attitude tumbles down. In “Ragnarok” they don’t even try to pretend at distance. They were brothers for a thousand years, and stored in their shared memory is every fight, every insult, every silly moment, every childhood fear, every catchphrase, every quirk and whim. The question in “Ragnarok” is whether they have any future together, or whether they’ve grown too far apart and should stay apart.
A couple of offhand comments mentioned that Loki once turned Thor into a frog, and himself into a snake (not at the same time, thankfully). In the first Thor movie, the most he seemed able to do was make duplicates. In “The Dark World” he can change his and Thor’s appearance using illusion magic, but that’s all it seemed to be – illusion with no substance. While saying he’s able to actually turn people into animals isn’t contradictory with past movies, it does make you wonder why this ability hasn’t shown up before. For instance, when he was fighting Kurse, why didn’t Loki just zap him and turn him into a mouse? Fanon can probably assist here. Maybe that sort of full transformation takes a lot of setup and isn’t suited for the battlefield. It might require the target to stand motionless for some time, or to be fed a special potion.
This movie seems to uphold the stance that “Loki doesn’t have children”. They made Hela be Odin’s child rather than his, the wolf Fenrir/Fenris was Hela’s familiar from before Loki was born. And I think Sleipnir has shown up during Odin’s battle against Jotunheim, so Loki couldn’t be his parent either. (Wonder what happened to Sleipnir – did he die when Asgard got destroyed?)
I don’t think Sif was in “Ragnarok” at all. Jane was mentioned briefly, with the comment that she had broken up with Thor. Maybe to make Thor available to pursue Brunhilde? I’m not so surprised Jane and Thor might not work out – they’re very different people, Thor has a much longer lifespan, he was always busy travelling the realms and couldn’t see her much. Too bad though, when much of “The Dark World” focused on keeping Jane safe, plus Thor gave up the throne then partly so he could be with Jane. Oh well, we’ll see what happens in the future.
I like that Bruce/the Hulk had a pretty big role in this movie, not just a cameo. There were loads of other callbacks to previous movies, quotes, music, etc., such that you’d need to see both other Thor movies and Avengers movies to get them all. Things like “A wise king must always be ready for war”, a song from the Thor I soundtrack, Odin’s Weapons Vault, Stan Lee making an appearance, Thor getting an eyepatch like Odin’s, Tony calling Thor “Pointbreak”, and so on.
One thing that struck me was how much fun Thor and Loki’s actors seemed to have in reprising their roles. I wonder what it was like for them filming together again after several years?
Now that I’ve finally seen Ragnarok, I can go back and start catching up on fanfic for it. I like fanfic. It fills in the gaps, provides explanation for confusing things, records your favorite quotes, and helps you make connections between movies.
Oh, and I should also check out that “Infinity War” trailer. Has the identity/location of the Soul Stone ever been revealed in the MCU? That’s the only Infinity Stone I can’t account for. >.>
I should also get a hold of the “Ragnarok: Prelude” book, to see if it helps explain anything further…
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