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iotaths-unrest · 5 years

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Session 15/16 Interlude: Benevolent Mutiny

((Hello there! I’m back at it again with the session interlude. I ask to remind everyone that these are non-canonical, but I do make sure that they could happen as best as I can. A major plot point had to be revised a few times after figuring out about certain spells and reminding myself about how warlock spells work. However, we finally have our interlude. I hope you all enjoy reading it~)) ((Also eheheheh I may have accidentally slipped in some Pathia shenanigans, whoops))

I underestimated the power of the unholy cult that resided in Ekrund. We can barely call the mission a success.

—

It had been a long night, and it was not even close to being safe for the crew of the Grey Rat. They found themselves running from a large eldritch beast and probably cultists as well. While they had been surprised by a demon, Paddy had ran to the ship with Vadithas, who was still unconscious. The first mate found his way back to the airship docks with ease, and he boarded the ship, hoping that the others would soon arrive.

He had expected others to approach him, but it was silent. Worried, Paddy moved below the decks and found more horrid circumstances. As he checked the rooms, he found Poth unconscious, and the other two crewmates were nowhere to be seen.

“I better make sure Poth is okay first.” Paddy thought out loud, and he went to check the ranger’s vitals. Although Paddy wasn’t as medically skilled as the captain, he could tell to his relief that Poth was still at least alive and stable. The culprit of Poth’s unconsciousness appeared to be a wound on the back of the half-elf’s head, which was relatively hidden by Poth’s coiled hair.

As to the disappearance of the other two, their items were even packed up and gone. However, that was all he could gather before he heard footsteps from above. He placed Vadithas in a safe area before rushing back up to the deck. Although it was most likely Cynthia and the rest, he knew well that it could be even more cultists.

—

Most of my crew is missing or seriously injured. Paddy and Wall are the only ones who may be able to protect us tonight. Krillis and Urker are assumed to be dead, although I cannot fully confirm that statement. Roth narrowly avoided death, Poth has a serious head injury, and I’m not doing too much better myself. The only silver lining is that Vadithas has been rescued. Wim was unfortunately killed.

—

“Oh, thank Sune.” Cynthia sighed with relief as she saw her ship. The captain let

everyone board the ship while she removed the anchors and chains keeping the ship docked. As captain, her first priority was always to have her be the last to escape, no matter how weak she was. She still felt bad about breaking the rule slightly during the fight with Scribe, but if she had stayed in that room any longer, she would have died.

After ensuring the anchors were lifted, she rejoined everyone back on the ship. Everyone seemed to be gathering close to the ship controller, and she was thankful. However, a brief moment of safety was quickly broken with Paddy explaining the situation to her.

“Cynthia, I don’t see Urker and Krillis anywhere, and Poth-”

Upon hearing the young ranger’s name, Roth and Cynthia both seemed to tense their shoulders.

“He’s unconscious.” Paddy quickly finished, and Cynthia immediately went into mom-mode, throwing a bunch of questions at him as she began the ship’s startup.

“Is he stable? Were you able to check his injuries?” Cynthia asked.

“He’s breathing, and he most likely went unconscious from being hit on the back of the head.”

“And Vadithas?”

“Still alive, but he’s also unconscious.”

“Well, darling, then there’s still some hope left.”

Cynthia smiled for a moment at Paddy, and then she began to give out her orders as the ship rose off of the ground:

“Just- get ready to fight if we need to do so, darlings. I know most of us aren’t able to handle another fight, but I have a bad feeling that we’re not in the clear. We’ll be heading east to Nurmwohr, and once I get this ship into the sky, Wall, I’ll need you to fly the ship there. Until then, Paddy, I need you to keep an eye on Poth and Vadithas.” She took a pause as she felt a wave of pain, and then continued, “Roth, you should rest, darling; you’re lucky to be alive right now.”

I can’t say I’m much better myself, but I’m tired of being so weak compared to them. Cynthia mentioned to herself, but judging by Roth and Paddy’s expressions, the captain understood that she wasn’t able to hide her injuries well underneath the armor. This stupid Plague won’t get the best of me.

—

I could feel Paddy and Roth look at me with concern as I gave them the first set of orders when we returned to the ship, but I think they knew that I couldn’t rest myself. We needed to escape, and I was the only one who can safely get the ship running. What happened tonight was something that we couldn’t solve. We were all too weak. I was too weak.

—

Paddy and Roth both went below the deck and into the Philious room as their captain, injured as she was, raised the ship from the ground. They both surrounded Poth’s unconscious body, but Roth lifted his younger brother into the ranger’s hammock.

“I can’t tell at all what happened on the ship while we were gone, but…” The first mate spoke, and he gestured to a letter on Roth’s desk before continuing, “It seems all of us have a letter to read.”

Roth turned his attention to the letter in question. Annoyed with the cult that dared to call him their leader, he made a spark with Prestidigitation, cuing to Paddy that he was tempted to burn the letter.

“No, we need to read them. They may have clues for who did this.”

“It was obviously the cultists. What else do we need?”

“Ideas on what they plan to do next.”

Roth glared intensely at the letter, and then reluctantly stowed the letter to somewhere he wouldn’t be looking at it. “Fiiiiine.” He spoke, and then made a mustache appear, putting it on his real mustache. “Speaking of plans, do you know what Cynthia’s planning next?”

“I’m unsure. She’s probably just making sure she gets us all out of here at this point.” The first mate responded with a shrug. It was hard to tell if Cynthia even had a plan, but it seemed she didn’t want to become a trail for the Plague to follow to Viandar. Maybe she was trying to buy Vadithas more time before she throws everyone into a U-turn and begins some sort of counter-offensive. Or maybe she was hoping to buy more time for herself, but Paddy knew that whatever the Plague was, it was slowly weakening Cynthia.

Actually, speaking of the captain, Paddy noted that Cynthia was acting strange when she returned to the ship. She seemed fine when they had split up after the first fight, so perhaps Cynthia had taken more damage during another fight… Everyone else seemed relatively okay. Roth and Wall did not have any more wounds, from what the Artificer noticed.

“So, what happened during the second fight?”

—

Cynthia and Wall had mostly kept in silence while the captain had been focused on getting the ship to a safer altitude. They were two armored creatures, watching the stars above and the city below them. A cool breeze brushed past them as their ascent continued, fueling the captain’s desperation to escape.

They were two creatures of vastly different origins, but they had both spent huge amounts of their lives following a strict moral code and following someone’s footsteps. Both believed in justice, but their exact methods of enforcing it was contrasting. Cynthia’s was more violent and kept in line by faith, while Wall had been mostly peaceful and set on words of a government that was now obviously corrupt.

Cynthia wanted to ask so much, and maybe it would finally be okay to tell to the truth about their status to Wall. However, now was not the time. She had more things to do that were more important to her, even more important than herself.

“We should be in the clear, unless the blockade that the bandits mentioned are on this side as well. I’ll leave Nur up here with you so you can summon me if anything happens. The command should be this phrase…” Cynthia spoke, and then spoke a phrase in Celestial that roughly translated to “go grab cynthia and bring her here”.

Wall repeated the phrase, and Nur responded in Celestial, “She’s alweady hwere?”

Cynthia chuckled a bit, and then spoke to Nur in her native language, “Yes, darling, but he’s just making sure he knows how to say that phrase. Stay here with Wall unless he tells you to get me.”

“Got it! I wuv you!” The celestial giant lizard nudged Cynthia to show his affection, but Cynthia winced when he had unknowingly pressed against a spot that was wounded. It almost made her go off balance, but she managed to stay standing. However, there was a long pause where Cynthia found herself holding back a lot of pain.

“Anyway-” Cynthia started, but her voice broke before she could quickly continue. “... I believe we are getting close to a safe altitude, so I’ll leave you with flying the ship to Nurmwohr.”

“Affirmative, captain.” He spoke, and Cynthia left him at the deck with Nur.

Cynthia slowly made her way below the deck, and habit tricked her for a moment to enter her room and start taking off her armor. However, as she took off her helmet, she reminded herself that she wasn’t safe to call it a night. She took deep breaths and brushed her hair away from fresh blood while her helmet was off, and she also took a moment to glance over her wounds, just to make sure she wasn’t at a threat of heavy blood loss. Thick, black thorns from Scribe had pierced through her armor and dug into Cynthia’s right arm, a fresh burn had boiled skin close to her neck, and claw marks had tore through her side.

I’ve survived worse. Cynthia thought. Just walk it off and take care of the others. If we get into more trouble, the others may get hurt more.

Taking another deep breath, she placed her helmet back on and walked to Poth’s room, where she found Roth and Paddy casually sitting on the floor and chatting. However, she ignored them for the most part, as she walked past them and looked at Poth. To her disappointment, the ranger was still unconscious, and she examined the small wound that Paddy had mentioned to her. Gently, she pushed his coiled hair away from the wound and grimaced. “I believe that you’re right, Paddy.” She spoke, but it didn’t sound like she was addressing Paddy but rather simply mentioning him as if he was somewhere else.

Poth, I’m sorry that I was harsh on you.

She found a stray blanket and threw it over the window, and the room grew darker in the absence of the moonlight. “I’ll make sure this stays on this window. He may not wake up for hours, but any light’s going to make the headache worse.” Cynthia spoke softly, and then she walked back to where Vadithas had been placed.

Since Cynthia considered Vadithas her most valuable asset, she kept him close in her own room. She felt uncomfortable about having him in her own hammock, so she laid out a bedroll and made sure he looked as comfortable as possible. “Another waiting game.” She spoke cryptically, and then noted, “I don’t know how he’ll take the news of Wim being dead, but at least Vadithas is not dead. He’s stable, but I’m still unsure of what they did to him.”

Paddy entered the room, and Cynthia turned around to address him. “Oh, good evening, Paddy. I should have been more direct when I came down here, but you are free to rest for the night.”

“What about yourself? I can keep an eye on them for you-”

“I have a lot to think about tonight. I appreciate the offer, but I have to make a lot of plans for when we arrive in Nurmwohr.” Cynthia responded. “Also, I personally want to be there when the two awake, darling, if they do.”

“You’re badly wounded, Cynthia. Please, get some rest. I can take care of whatever you need.”

“I’ve been through worse.” Cynthia responded without skipping a beat, “I can always heal myself if I need to do so, and it’s not like I will be stressing myself when I’m walking between these two rooms.” She paused for a moment, and then gently added, “I understand your concern for me, Paddy, but I can guarantee that it is unnecessary.”

Paddy realized that he wasn’t going to be able to convince her, but he wasn’t ready to give up on Cynthia. He left the room without another word, leaving Cynthia almost alone in her room. She glanced at her journal, and then she walked towards it and began to write.

—

It’s been a long few hours since I made sure Poth and Vadithas were okay. In the meantime, I read the letter that had been placed on my desk while checking in on the two seriously injured. It was all bogus, and it had assumed Roth had joined the cult. Did they really think killing someone would actually make Roth reconsider? I don’t know myself, but it just seems absolutely stupid. It was from a now-dead woman, too: Gwen. Perhaps her letter will have more reason in the morning, but it may also appear as more insane rambling.

—

Paddy walked into the room of the Philious family, feeling more frustrated than he did before he spoke to Cynthia.

What the hell is she talking about? If she doesn’t sleep, she won’t heal, and she’ll only be worse in the morning. He nearly wanted to say back to Cynthia, but he kept his mouth shut. While Cynthia was incredibly strong, Paddy knew that there had to be a way to outsmart her. He couldn’t do it alone, but his new plan was incredibly risky. One wrong move, and Cynthia will have him on the floor, barely alive.

“How’d it go?” Roth asked when Paddy entered the room.

“She won’t listen.” Paddy responded bitterly but softly. “I’m going up to the deck, and I want you to come with me.”

“I guess I don’t have any choice?”

“Yep.”

Paddy and Roth snuck past Cynthia’s door and headed up towards the deck of the ship. The night brought frigid air, and a strong wind blew from end to end of the ship. The two noticed Wall and Nur keeping a good lookout for a chance of running into trouble, but their main problems had been left behind at Ekrund.

“She’s just determined to make sure everyone will be okay, I’m sure.” Roth started.

“Yes, but she’s putting herself at a greater risk than I think she can understand. So if words can’t change her, I have to try something else.” Paddy began, and then he looked to the moon.

Sune, I hope you won’t hate me for this. Paddy thought. He wasn’t too religious himself, but he knew that Cynthia was being watched by a goddess. Paddy carefully thought about his word choice, but he decided that no matter how he worded it, it would be just as bad.

“We have to knock Cynthia out before she knocks herself out.” The artificer explained.

“...Ah. So, you want mutiny for the sake of the captain’s health. After Ekrund, when, uh, this is what exactly happened to us.”

“It’s a benevolent mutiny. The captain’s weak; if we just knock her in the back of the back like they did to Poth, she’ll go unconscious.”

“And this is better than an all-nighter… How?”

“If she doesn’t sleep, her body can’t heal anything, and she’ll be more exhausted than she already constantly is. She may be able to recover while unconscious.”

Roth raised his hand like a kindergartner, and then asked, “Why can’t you heal her yourself?”

“Sure, I can and she’ll be recovered physically, but that doesn’t solve the exhaustion issue or being able to recover her magic. And she’s the main healer; we need her to be able to heal if something happens tomorrow.”

“If Cynthia manages to figure out what we’re doing before we knock her out, we could be in major trouble-” Roth started, but he noticed that Wall was intently listening.

“Have you all forgotten, soldiers?” Wall began, staring directly into their souls with his cold, crystal eyes.

Oh shit. Paddy began to think, and he could feel his gears inside his pocket begin to rattle. Was this what true fear felt like?

“I ask you to refer to Section 3, Order 66: If the commanding officer is not following proper directive, is endangering their personal health or the health of others in a way in which does not follow proper directive (see subsection 8A for examples), or is attempting to overthrow the military, soldiers are given permission, upon agreement of those following, to disable the leader until a proper trial is prepared.” Wall spoke.

Roth felt like he had escaped death again. Paddy nearly died on the inside, but it was a relief to hear that Wall wasn’t about to murder them with his cold, metal hands.

“Y-Yes, that’s exactly why we are trying to figure this out.” Paddy responded.

Wow, no wonder why Ekrund was corrupt if they had rules like that. Roth commented to himself.

“So, first mate Paddy, what is your plan?”

Paddy and Roth walked up to Wall, and then Paddy presented his plan that totally would not fail horribly:

“Well, we have to lower her guard just enough. Roth, you need to talk to her and have a heart-to-heart about something. Originally, I was going to just try to knock her out, but you are probably more able to do that. As for me, I suppose I should be there as backup. The ship is able to be left to itself for a bit before it will go off course, but we need something to hold it steady. I can make something that can do that, and Cynthia won’t expect you to be sneaking behind her.

She has been following a tight schedule for the past hour, so we just need to wait until she goes to check on Poth.”

“While this does sound solid as a plan, may I remind you that Cynthia wears plate armor. While my extensive training in disabling creatures will make it easier, plate armor is almost impossible to break through with a single punch.”

Paddy thought on it for a moment, and then he wondered how low he had to get for it to work.

“I have an idea that’ll convince her to at least remove her helmet.” Paddy spoke. “That should be enough, right?”

Roth felt the wording Paddy used was strange, but he realized what Paddy was thinking about.

“Wait, hold on-” Roth began, putting a hand to his face as if he was trying to make the “:3c” face. “You didn’t tell me? Ohhhh, so that’s why she promoted you~”

“We can talk about it later.” Paddy answered, his voice muffled by his own shirt. “Anyway, I suppose this is to be a unanimous decision by all of us, since we’ll all be in trouble if something goes south.”

“I see no objections. This is following protocol.” Wall answered.

“I mean, if this helps all of us, I suppose I might as well help.” Roth stated.

“Then it’s settled.”

—

When everyone felt ready, they silently cued to each other that the plan was about to begin. The humans were nervous, but they knew that this was for the better.

—

Cynthia had made multiple notes and doodles on a stray piece of parchment, but she grew uneasy with the parchment becoming too cluttered with various words and drawings. At times, she considered going to sleep, and she would lie her head on the desk and hope exhaustion made her sleep, but there were too many things keeping her awake that night. She thought that she would at least be able to recover slightly during the night, but her wounds only hurt worse. Moreover, whenever she would get lost in thought, she’d get lost in the recent memories of the night’s events. So many things could have gone worse. Roth nearly died, she nearly lost both of the alchemists, and that fucking bitch decided to show up to taunt me for it all.

Paddy was right, but she knew that even if she tried to sleep, she wouldn’t stay asleep for long. She had hoped that Paddy and Roth would get some rest, but they just wouldn’t rest. Were they trying to mock her?

She stepped into Poth and Roth’s room again to see if Poth had any sign of improvement. It was dark in the room, so she could not see anyone but Poth and Roth. The warlock seemed like he was finally trying to rest, so she made sure that she was quiet.

However, as she was about to leave the room, a voice spoke to her.

“Cynthia, wait.” Curiously, the aasimar turned around to face the voice. It was Roth, who slowly rose out of his hammock and descended to the floor. While robes covered his body, she could tell that unlike her, Roth had managed to recover a bit more. A scratch along his cheek seemed mostly healed, which was really her only indicator from a quick look. “Captain, about today… I’ve had a realization.” “Yes, darling?” “You’ve done so much for me and everyone. Fighting the Plague, keeping me and the others alive, and what-not.” Roth explained, and he chuckled a bit before continuing. “But, I’ve never seen such dedication, not even from myself. So, I guess I just wanted to let you know as long as you’re willing to fight, I’ll be right beside you.” Cynthia felt almost relieved by Roth’s comment, and it was all incredibly sweet for him to say that. She smiled warmly and then looked at the floor before giving Roth a gentle hug. Her hold would normally be stronger, but thanks to the exhaustion and weakness, Roth was not squished by the paladin’s embrace. “… Thank you, Roth.” She spoke before getting slightly embarrassed and freeing the warlock. “That really means a lot to me right now.”

And another voice spoke.

“Captain, I think there’s no reason to stay awake, assuming you have finished figuring out what to do tomorrow. You’ve done everything you can.”

Cynthia noticed the artificer come out of the darkness, his beautiful jade eyes glinting in the small amount of light left in the room.

“Oh, um, I still have one more thing to work out for when we land-” She started, but was immediately cut off by the first mate removing her helmet. She chuckled, and then quietly whispered, “Darling, Roth’s here. Does he even know-”

Paddy wouldn’t let the paladin get in another word, as he held Cynthia close and gave her a soft kiss. The artificer realized just what he had gotten himself into. He was dating a paladin of the goddess of love. Cynthia was just as much of a hopeless romantic as he was, and his plan nearly fell apart when Cynthia pulled him in closer.

Roth found himself to be an awkward third wheel for a moment while he watched his superiors and closest friends make out right in front of him. He may have also been only slightly worrying about the obvious age gap between the two.

Paddy, feeling a sickening feeling in his heart for what he knew was about to happen, he dragged himself out of the kiss and Cynthia’s grasp. He gave his secret cue to Wall, and then he spoke, “I love you, Cynthia.”

Paddy and Roth watched the rest with dread in their hearts. Like a monster of the night, Wall snuck behind her, and Cynthia was completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Red-violet crystal eyes rose above Cynthia, and within moments, Wall threw a hard punch at the back of Cynthia’s head. Cynthia’s eyes seemed to glow in some sort of shock, but they dimmed in an instant. Her eyes rolled up slightly, and it was bitterly clear that their plan had worked as Cynthia began to fall.

Paddy reached to catch her, and then confirmed that she was stable. Once he was absolutely sure of it, he looked up and glanced at Wall and Roth.

“Thank you.” Paddy spoke, but he was a little disheartened seeing Cynthia unconscious yet again. He picked up Cynthia carefully, and then he walked out of the room with the captain.

In Cynthia’s headquarters, Paddy felt an understandable sense of déjà vu as he placed Cynthia on her hammock. He felt sorry for his actions, but he walked out, knowing that it was for the best.

#session 15 #session interlude #pathia iotath’s unrest #roth philious #wall iotath's unrest #poth philious #i hate myself for writing this #but it was worth it #also the pathia moments :3

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elektra121 · 7 years

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ARD Charité (2017): Episode 4 and 5

And here my belated answer to tuotilo:

“They couldn’t even have one character tell her that it wasn’t her fault and that she wasn’t being punished for her sinful~ thoughts~?”

Like I said, I think this is the crucial point.

“Obviously the fanatically religious head nurse wouldn’t have said such a thing”

I really do not think matron Martha should be read as fanatic, keeping in mind this was the late 19th century. Pietistic, pious, self-righteous, yes - but maybe not even that much spiritually religious. From what we hear from her own mouth, her greatest motivation for becoming a deaconess was what you could call a feministic one, nowadays: to be safe from the unpredictable tempers of a father and/or husband. There seemed to not have been much spirituality/religion to her choice of lifestyle. She seems to be all about the security the strict rules of being a deaconess offer. Being deaconess is her way to be relatively independent from men. We don’t know too much about her personal spirituality - she seems to believe (or, thinks she believes) in charity and that charitable people will be rewarded in heaven. And I very much got the vibe she cares a great deal about sister Therese - and sees her as the rightful heiress of herself as a matron. But then she is confronted with sister Therese not being the ideal deaconess she wants her to be, a problem sister Martha has no instruction how to handle. The logic answer for a religious deaconess (heck, for any christian soul that takes it seriously) should have been to comfort sister Therese. Especially since in a Protestant mindset, being a sinner (and matron Martha seems to be at the opinion that having an infatuation for another person, and moreover another woman, IS a sin) doesn’t exclude you from heaven. This is what Jesus died for - that even sinners can go to heaven. So, not only would it have been possible for matron Martha to comfort Therese, it would have been the logical thing to do - it would have been her obligation! It is very interesting they decided to not let her do it - not even after some time for consideration. For all we know, she remains damnably silent until the very end of sister Therese.

“but Ida could have said something to that extent.”

I’m relatively sure Ida doesn’t really understand what Therese is feeling for her. My guess would be that she sees it as a kind of very close friendship that is forbidden to a deaconess (Rule 9, you know). Of course, pious people are exaggerating all the time, so that kiss was some a-little-over-the-top expression of a very deep friendship and calling deep feelings for a friend “sin” and “uncouth” and “wrong” and being grieved by such natural things is just what too-pious deaconesses are supposed to do.

“Hell, even the socialist nurse could have said this in a conversation to someone else.”

As I said in my post before, nurse Edith does not know of Therese’s homosexuality. And if she knew, I’m pretty sure it would be another point on her list of why she does not like deaconesses. Because the Marxist view is that homosexuality is the some of the exact same bourgeois bullshit as religion.

“Or Dr. Behring. Or Virchow. Or whoever. ”

It would have been very interesting to hear the “medical” opinion of the 19th century, because, you know, Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia sexualis came out just 2 years before the events in “Charité” - and I’d bet most of the doctors (and not so few of the students) would have read it, since it was a bestseller. This book basically explains a lot of things that we today see as variants of sexual orientation, gender and some sexual fetishes as mental illnesses (psycho-pathia). And however much this sounds repulsing nowadays - it was a huge step forward from the view that homosexuality was a criminal act, which the book (or better its author) is very insistent in negating, even to the point of demanding better, nondiscriminatory laws. I think Sister Therese would have taken a great comfort to hear she was simply ill instead of being a guilty sinner. Ill people deserve compassion and respect, they deserve to be helped and cared for (and this is basically, her daily work).

(One could speculate that this is the real reason for sister Therese’s self harm: only if she sees herself injured, she can perceive herself as someone who deserves to be cared for and loved, who is allowed to feel pain and allowed to be helped - even if only for a moment, even if only by herself. In the scene right after the cutting we see her seemingly fully at peace with herself again, glowing with that inner light, comforting a family at a deathbed like an angel.)

“There are plenty non-religious / no-nonsense characters on the show who would have laughed at the suggestion and affirmed Therese that it was due to her poor working conditions.”

The problem in this is that sister Therese herself certainly would not have accepted the judgement of a non-religious person on a question she herself perceives as a spiritual one. Not every nurse who works hard and under poor conditions (and they all do!) catches tuberculosis. There must be a cause I of all people contracted it!

“Also, they could have shown her poor working conditions directly, let us witness her having to get up early, work until fatigued, handling the infected patients etc.”

But they did! Nurse Edith warns Ida from the very beginning that statistically, every year one of the nurses or deaconesses dies from all the hard work or because she has catched a disease from one of the patients. We hear the working time is from 4:30 in the morning to 10:00 in the evening with two obligatory nightwatches a week, and only 3 hours of free time on Sunday, if you are lucky. We listen to sister Therese being scolded for fainting out of exhaustion - with the sole advice to drink more coffee! We see her wiping the sweat from her brow while being reprimanded for working too slowly. We are watching her executing all the most unattractive and/or demanding services in the profession of a nurse: changing bedpans, working nightshifts, washing sick people, comforting dying people and their families. And then, we see her taking short breaks at open windows, gasping for air. And we witness her secret little ritual that helps her toughing it all out. How could you make it any clearer?

“It would have further revealed the ridiculousness of the situation.”

The thing is, it is absolutely not ridiculous to sister Therese, and maybe it is not to most people who suffer from serious diseases. It’s the “why me”? (All of the other nurses and deaconesses did the same and didn’t get ill - there must be a cause it’s me!)

“But really, they shouldn’t have used her for this storyline at all. She already had her “cross to bear”, it’s ridiculous how they kept piling on the suffering just to give a viewer a faint feeling of “oh, how sad, what a pity”.

I’m absolutely with you here! You just don’t let sooo much bad things happen to a character who has not done anything wrong at all and without the faintest hint of redeeming. And if you choose to do nonetheless, you should justify it really really well - make up a “just like Jesus himself” comparison or “to good for this sinful earth” arc. But to simply drop the whole character, more or less, without being more to her in the end than being a ploy to show Tuberkulin doesn’t work - and of course, a queerbait kiss for the trailer - that is not okay! (A pity, since she was such an interesting, complex and very original character… I’d have watched a whole series with her as the leading part!)

But so the whole storyline was horrendously over-dramatized. It would have worked out absolutely fine to just let her be an over-worked deaconess that pays for her charity with death at a young age - and all modern medicine (at this time) couldn’t save her. “She saved others, herself she could not save!” It is a tale that has been all too true. And it is absolutely worth telling and bringing back to people’s minds: modern medicine and hospitals owe so much to people who worked (and work today, still) out of a spiritual drive, out of simple charity who never got any thanks nor fame.

“Making one of the other nurses the patient zero for Koch’s treatment would have worked just as well for that particular point. Using Therese was a cheap ploy to garner a little more sympathy/investment which is downright cruel considering that they had no intention of steering off the predictable “solution”.”

I don’t think one of the other nurses as patient zero would have worked “just as well”. We as the audience are more invested in Sister Therese because we know too little (mostly, not even the names) of the other nurses/deaconesses. Yet, I too, am not happy at all it’s the one queer character in the series who catches the deadly disease. Sigh. This is not what you call representation.

“They didn’t even give Therese a few last words or meaningful conversation or… anything, really. She was a mere prop to deliver Ida some money and a slight change of heart to the head nurse. Eh, no thanks.”

That was so cruel! It would have costed them a minute or so of air time to just let her have some conciliatory last conversation and a nice funeral eulogy. And she isn’t even very useful for Ida in terms of financial help: we see the very small, very light bag with the savings of her life time that will Ida only buy the ticket to Switzerland and nothing more. And the exact cause/point of the “change of heart” of matron Martha isn’t shown to us, we can only speculate about it.

“I’m sure they didn’t mean to portray homosexuality as an actual sin but they also did nothing to show that they cared much either way.”

Exactly. I think they could have done a lot here with relatively little effort - the character is a good one, believable, complex, original, representative (and the actress delivers a wonderful job!) - yet the writers simply did not care enough.

#ard charité #charité #german tv #tw self harm #sister Therese #Schwester Therese

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