#and by that i mean like rick has a chance to rewrite her for the modern era and make her characterization cleaner and tighter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

significant-ace-nnoyance · 4 months

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How do you feel about Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, and why should we throw Leah a huge parte for being the annie we always deserve but never got much of

HELL YEAH ARE YOU KIDDING ME LEAHBETH IS THE BEST THING THATS EVER HAPPENED TO ME THIS ENTIRE YEAR OH MY GODS AND GODDESSES im fully self aware that "i look like i would have been an annabeth kid" and its because i FOR SURE WAS WHY WOULDNT ANYONE BE she is The Character the MOMENt the ICON of the AGES and leah is adapting her energy to screen so ???? perfectly ?????? like did rick just shake the book and she fell out ??????? what sorcery is this?? ??????

no but in all seriousness leah is killing it as annabeth and its super clear that she did her research and understands the character (in interviews she talks about how she read annabeth povs in later books and did research on greek mythology and athena so she could understand the lightning thief not just from percys pov but from annabeth 🥺🥺 she so annabeth coded irl i adore her) and it genuinely shows like ive microanalyzed all her expressions because her facial acting has so much DEPTH and LAYERS and OH MY GODS leah deserves all the parties and we are so privileged to have her as our annabeth chase <3 imagine being that talented at like 13

im super excited to see what additions she makes to the character in this adaptation!!! already i think she's really highlighting annabeth's battle strategy smarts over just booksmarts which EVERYONE ALWAYS FORGETS ABOUT SHES NOT JUST A BOOK NERD SHES A FUCKING GENERAL HEAD OF THE ATHENA CABIN MOST FORMIDABLE DEMIGOD AT CAMP AS A 12 YEAR OLD the duality is giving me LIFE and i love how she gets to boss around percy and grover (leah also talked about loving to get to be in charge and competitive as annabeth which shes SO REAL FOR THAT shes such an annabeth type) BUT ALSO YOU ALREADY GET TO SEE HER VULNERABILITIES AND INSECURITIES AND THE WAY SHE CARRIES HERSELF THAT MAKES HER SIMULTANEOUSLY COOL BUT ALSO IS A REFLECTION OF TRAUMA AND POOR EMOTIONAL COPING yeah basically shes not just giving us annabeth shes giving us annabeth but MORE and its making me understand her character BETTER and in a NEW way (and if you have anything to say about her portrayal in the show i will genuinely pull up with a full ass powerpoint slideshow because IF YOU MEDIA COMPREHEND FOR TWO SECONDS AND KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER CHARACTER IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE AND ITS SO JUICY AND JALKDJFKBL)

i think about that shot of her looking at percy using medusas head through the screen porch ALL THE TIME. and her delivery of "grover can you tell your friend to pull himself together" LIKE THATS WHEN SHE TURNS TO HER PROTECTOR FOR HELP AND IT HAS A LITTLE BIT OF A SASSY IM-BETTER-THAN-YOU-PERCY VIBE TO IT BECAUSE SHES HIDING THE FACT THAT SHES SCARED AND UNCOMFORTABLE TO TALK ABOUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER UNAVAILABLE MOM (and percy sees right through that just as she sees right through percy and oh my gods if i get started on percabeth ill never shut up)

anyways thanks for giving me an opportunity to go on a mini rant about leahbeth i could say so much more because when i say ive analyzed every frame my girl is in i am NOT joking

but ill just end by saying that anyone who is upset by show annabeth being black literally did not understand her as a character or the percy jackson books in general so they can stfu and get their little butthurt wrong opinions out the door bc they dont belong here anyway <3 rick and becky also talked about how they hired black sensitivity readers to help write annabeth's blackness more authentically into her character in the show so very much hoping that they do that well! and im overall just super excited to see what changes they make to adapt my favorite character to a new era, a new medium, and a new audience!

go treat yourself to some leah interviews because i actually adore her and will protect her and annabeth (though arguably theyre one and the same) with my life <3

#god i coudl talk for hours but ill stop #sorry for hte long ass post but honestly whats the point of tumblr if not for me to be autistic on main about annabeth chase #omg i still remember the moment they announced annabeth and grovers casting #i litearlly slapped and hand over my face and was like no way no way no way THEY FUCKIGN DID IT OH MY GODS #ltierally thank the gods every day that we got the perfect trio based on actual voice and personality <333333333 #anyways bestie i will talk leahbeth w you anytime we should throw her a party because she is actually eating up this role #the sass #the emotiosn #the Generaling #will never get over her in her armor THAT IS MY QUEEN RIGHT THERE THAT IS THE ICON I REMEMBER FROM MY CHILDHOOD #they ltierally just stole annabeth from the books but made her better #and by that i mean like rick has a chance to rewrite her for the modern era and make her characterization cleaner and tighter #esp becuase APPARENTLY people missed the point the first time #annabeth haters actually make me so fucking mad if think about it too long ill explode #BUT WE DONT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THEM BC WeRE GETTING A TRUTHFUL ADAPTATION OF ANNABETH AND THE TRIO AND THEY CAN CRY ABOUT IT #YIPPPEEEEEEE #time to rewatch episode three #im not going to survive the tunnel of love #or the discussion in the vegas truck if we get that #leah sava jeffries #SHES TRENDING!!!#leahbeth #annabeth chase #leah jeffries #annabeth #percabeth #percy jackon and the olympians #i love the mispelled tag #pjo <3

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herebutnothere · 11 days

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So... we're in agreement that Shane and Lori were having an emotional affair Before, right?

Because... um... yeah.

This is the segue of someone asking a question that they already know the answer to.

This is the prompting of someone who has additional information from a source close to the situation ("The least you can do is speak." "That's what she always says.").

Coming from a man who clearly has some views about women that are less than chivalrous as seen by both his "sermon" and by their walk down memory lane (TWD S2 E5), Shane's question about Rick expressing his thoughts, sharing his feelings, and "that kind of stuff" seems planted...

Almost as if he's been a shoulder to lean on and has heard these grievances before 👀

As an aside, I think it's interesting that they chose this exchange as one of the opening moments for a show that's essentially about a man trying to find his family as the world around him loses—and clings to—its humanity...

...

but, back to Shane and Lori—

Is it wrong to lean on friends for support? No, of course not. That's what friends are for.

However, it is wrong to covet thy neighbor's wife.

So why does this matter? Shane's gone. Lori's gone. The story has gone on.

It matters because it adds to the level of betrayal that Rick's experienced from the people closest to him and it adds to the role Michonne plays in his life.

Shane was his best friend and partner. Lori was his wife and the mother of his child. They all grew up together so there's no doubt that Rick's had to explain away certain looks, comments, and moments of silence when he entered rooms. He's likely spent years convincing himself that what he knew to be true wasn't. And given how Lori, by her own account, often tried to bait him into "blowing up" and being less "rational" during moments of disagreement (TWD S2 E2), I wouldn't be surprised if Shane's name or likeness was wielded as a weapon more than once in their home. And, of course, one of the most earned and valid critiques of Lori and Shane is how quickly they started rolling around those walker-filled woods.

Do I think they crossed the line before the ZA? No, I don't. I think that they both loved and respected Rick too much to do that (after all Shane did try to protect him). But I do think (in their mind) it was a natural progression for them to act on their feelings and attraction once they thought he was gone. It's this love and respect that makes the ease with which they moved on even more painful. It's what makes it such a betrayal.

It's this betrayal that's at the center of Rick struggling to make decisions in those early days, because how could he trust himself when he was so wrong about something so close and so personal for so long?

It's this betrayal that makes Lori's manipulation especially heinous because ma'am. MA'AM.

It's this betrayal that makes Shane's downward spiral so striking and consequential for how Rick (and the rest of the OG ATL group) approaches life and battles moving forward.

It's this betrayal that makes the whole Jessie storyline out of character for him because the woman was married and he of all people knows what that meant. (In other words, that pairing never had a snowball's chance in hell of being anything more than a reactionary pendulum swing towards the life he thought he was living Before, but one that was never truly there.)

And most importantly, it's this betrayal that makes Michonne searching for Rick for all those years mean so damn much. To have someone care that much... to have someone remember and honor him... to have someone consistently believe in him... no wonder he was shooketh when they were reunited in that field.

Since the glorious "You're the love of my life" declaration in TOWL S1 E4, I've seen some folks try to rewrite of the story of Lori and Rick, but even the characters acknowledged that their marriage was, for all intents and purposes, over.

Lori and Rick had history. The sunk cost fallacy was strong with them. But the level of Lori's betrayal made it impossible for any trust to be rebuilt and for any love beyond their historical and familial ties to remain.

But Rick and Michonne? There aren't enough words.

Because the moment she walked up to the prison gate, she provided what he so desperately needed—acceptance, partnership, and devotion without caveats and without strings attached, something neither his best friend nor his first wife could ever do.

#the walking dead #rick grimes #shane twd #lori grimes #twd richonne #twd: the ones who live #i mean the woman is the love of his life!!!!#michonne x rick #michonne grimes

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ultimatebethylficlist · 3 years

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New Author of The Month: May 2021

Our featured new artist of the month is another up-and-comer to keep an eye on, Persefata!

Persefata can be found on AO3.

When asked what got her into the Bethyl fandom and what it means to her, she said:

I watch The Walking Dead from pretty much the beginning of the show, and I fell in love with Beth's unique way of seeing things. She became quickly one of my favorite characters, and I got very upset when she died. The whole Bethyl thing only happened to me after the prison fall. Beth and Daryl were these two characters with this amazing chemistry. They were both grieving and pushing each other to their limits, which created some of the best scenes and development we saw on the entire show.

This ship is a giant font of inspiration to me, even with the sad end they got. Bethyl made me meet some great people and offered me the incentive I needed to improve my English while having fun. That really means a lot.

For her personal fic rec list, she recommends:

(I'm taking the liberty to include my favorite Bethyl fics in Brazillian Portuguese too. I know that a lot of Brazillian readers, like myself, keep up with this marvelous page.)

Take me back -- is a very good fix-it where Beth reappears, looking for Daryl years after the end of the whisperer's war. (Portuguese)

Hi dear diary -- is a touching fic about Beth's diary. (Portuguese)

Most Wanted by SquishyCool -- has to be my favorite Bethyl fic. I'm always recommending it to everyone, the plot has a runaway Beth, criminal Greene's, and Daryl being a father.

Linger by deerntheheadlights -- It's a beautiful work of art, with exceptional character development to Beth in an au where she and Maggie are with Rick's group from the beginning. Daryl is younger, and together they try to figure out things between them.

Magnolia by galadrieljones -- is pure poetry. I fall in love with this ship again every time I read it.

Persefata’s Works & Personal Thoughts:

New Blood Summary: Five years after a car took Beth in the middle of the night, Daryl finds her as unexpectedly as possible: on Negan's right side, in the execution circle where Glenn and Abraham have already lost their lives. It doesn't take long for Dixon to realize that, although she is wearing Beth Greene's face, the similarities between the innocent girl from the farm and this cold woman end there. Five years is a long time, and to survive, Elizabeth had to reinvent herself as someone unshakable, burying every little thing that could connect her to her old life. However, when she abruptly comes across Daryl Dixon again, the woman discovers that she is not as disengaged from the past as she assumed. The world is vaster than her feelings. The Saviors already have too many enemies, and Elizabeth fears the day she'll be forced to choose between redemption and revenge. Between Daryl and her people. Thoughts: I just really wanted a fic with an anti-heroin Beth where she's still very much in love with Daryl.

Sunlit Skies Summary: For Beth Greene, escaping Grady Memorial Hospital with Noah was just the beginning of a long journey. After months on the run, doing all the kinds of things to survive, they find themselves in Alexandria, a walled paradise where they are supposed to return to regular life. However, things are not that simple. Haunted by the memory of the man she loved and left behind, Beth feels like she has lost her only chance at happiness and resigns herself to a possible future marked by regret. A year later, when the old group she thought lost forever appears in the community's gates, Daryl Dixon safe and sound among them, Beth realizes that she has received a second chance of fate, and this time, she is determined to fight for a happy ending. Thoughts: I wrote this as a self-indulgent fix-it because this shipp deserved better, goddammit.

Beth Greene Lives Summary: What if, in the Grady Memorial hallway, Beth had walked to her family, instead of attacking Dawn? What if the girl had survived? Beth didn't cry when Rick said that Daryl wasn't coming back. She was past that point now, but the way her house no longer felt like home bothered the woman. There was no crossbow on the coffee table or mud stains on the floor. Noah was strangely quiet, taciturn. Greene took a deep breath and gathered her things in an old backpack. She said goodbye to each one of her family members, wrote a two-page letter to Maggie, and tried not to think about how good she was becoming at leaving without looking back. Thoughts: This is my first Bethyl fanfic and my first fanfic in general. It's a canon rewrite from Beth's perspective. I got it in my mind for months and had to write.

We are so lucky to have such diverse writers in our fandom, and Persefata is yet another wonderful addition! Start catching up on her work now because this writer is on fire!

#bethyl fanfiction #new author of the month

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ddixons-angel · 4 years

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Fated: Season 5

Summary: Gloria Rhee narrowly escapes Atlanta with her brother as the outbreak reaches the city. Luckily, they find a camp outside the city and together, they fend through encounters with the living and undead.

Starts a little before Season 1 and then follows the main storyline of the show.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Glenn Sister!OC

Warnings: major TWD spoilers, language, violence (the typical TWD stuff)

A/N: And we’re on to Season 5!!! Who’s excited??? 😁 I am more than halfway done with rewriting this season so I don’t think I’ll need to take any breaks to finish this one ^^ I know last week’s chapter ended with a cliffhanger (as it did in the show) so I won’t keep you guys from it any longer, off we go!

Chapter 1

Terminus was a complete bust. The place was a self proclaimed sanctuary but it was no sanctuary at all. It was hell for anyone who fell into their trap. The people there, no, the monsters there put on a facade to lure desperate people in only to capture them and eventually butcher them for food. Gloria and her family had to learn that the hard way as they waited for their chance to escape the dark train car they were all forced to stay in. The only thing good about the place was the fact that they all found each other there.

They’d been left in that train car for at least a day, but that was enough time to prepare for their attack. They’d practically taken apart the inside of the train car, taking any loose metal scraps and breaking off pieces of wood that they could sharpen into weapons. Sasha had even broken her belt buckle to create her own form of brass knuckles. Now, all they needed was to wait for their captors to come and open the door. Soon enough, they all heard men talking amongst themselves, their voices seemingly coming closer to the train car.

“A’right, got four of ‘em pricks comin’ our way.” Daryl says as he peeks through the crack of the door.

Everyone gets into position, preparing themselves for the attack as Rick makes his way towards the door, “you all know what to do. Go for their eyes first, then their throats.”

They all gather around the door, waiting for it to open. The men from the outside shout at them, ordering them to line up on either end of the train car; as if they thought they were stupid enough to listen to them. Unfortunately, their plan to ambush the Terminus men didn’t go as planned as a hatch from the top of the car opened instead of the door. They all look up as light pours inside then an object is thrown into the car; a smoke bomb.

“Move!” Abraham shouts as everyone takes cover.

The bomb explodes, filling the entire train car with smoke and the door to the car opens. Shit! That was their chance but they couldn’t see anything, at least not until the smoke cleared. By the time it did, the door had already slammed shut. Gloria waves her hand around to fan away the rest of the smoke from her face as she looks around.

“No...” she says, panic rising in her chest.

Daryl, Glenn, Rick, and Bob were gone. She looks over to Sasha and Maggie who both have the same expression of panic at the realization. Gloria lets out a breath and her expression softens when she sees Carl and Michonne looking at her. Rick is their leader, Daryl and Glenn are their best fighters, and if anything happened, Bob could help them with his medical knowledge. Gareth and his men took their strongest people, and that was a mistake on their part. Knowing their capabilities and how well they worked together, it was no doubt that they would get out of whatever situation they were put in and come back to get the rest of them out. All they needed to do now was wait for them.

After what seemed like an hour of waiting, their signal finally came. A sudden explosion from outside rumbles the train car.

“What was that?” Rosita asks.

“Our help,” Gloria says with a smile.

“What are you doing?” Michonne asks Eugene who was hunched by the door of the car.

“I might be able to use this shell to compromise the door.” he says, not looking up at her as he continues to try and break open the door with the smoke bomb that was thrown in, “from the sound of things, there may not be anybody left to open it.”

“Hey,” Carl says, walking towards him with Maggie behind him, “my dad’s gonna be back.”

“They all are,” Maggie says, “and we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do.”

Gloria nods at her with a tight smile, “it’s just a waiting game now.”

With that, the others continue sharpening their makeshift weapons. Gloria takes off Daryl’s shirt that she was wearing and proceeds to tear off the sleeves to wrap around her hands; she knew Daryl wouldn’t mind, plus she likes his shirts sleeveless. She puts it on again once her hands are covered then goes to pry off a sharp piece of wood from the inside of the train car. Not long after, they all hear footsteps approaching the car and soon the door opens. Carl is the first one who runs to the door as he has faith that it’s his father coming to save them.

“Come on! Fight to the fence!” Rick shouts at them before turning around to shoot at the walkers that had infiltrated Terminus.

Gloria ushers everyone outside and makes sure that no one is left behind before jumping out herself. She jabs at the walkers closest to her before she feels a warm hand grab her wrist to pull her away from the walkers. Gloria quickly turns and sees Daryl as he pulls her away, leading her towards the others.

“C’mon, let’s go!” he shouts above all the noise.

She nods at him then runs with him towards the fence, killing the walkers that got too close. Finally, they reach the fence and climb over to the other side, narrowly escaping the nightmare that was Terminus. Daryl and Rick lead the group around the perimeter of the place, apparently they had buried a bag of weapons so that whoever ran the place couldn’t take it from them. Smart. Rick wanted to use the guns to take down the rest of Terminus, however, the majority ruled as the others believed that Terminus and all of their people were as good as dead.

Gloria stands beside Daryl as she watches Rick retrieve the bag of weapons when she feels a tug at her arm and she turns to look at Daryl. It was only then when she saw the cuts and scrapes on his face, she couldn’t see much in the dark train car and they were in a hurry to get out that she didn’t have time to carefully inspect him.

Daryl seems to notice her change in expression as he is quick to reassure her, “‘M okay. Jus’ a few scratches.”

She furrows her brows and steps to him, carefully raising her hand to brush away his hair that was covering his eyes. Gloria gently trails the side of his face with her fingertips, making Daryl lean slightly into her touch. She moves her hand to brush her thumb on the cut on his lip, her skin just ghosting over his.

“Does it hurt?” she asks.

“Nah,” he says.

Gloria smiles softly at him and she’s about to lean into him when a figure behind Daryl catches her eyes. She looks at the figure and lets out a gasp as she recognizes Carol, there was dirt smeared on her face but she knew it was her. A tearful smile pulls at Gloria’s lips and Daryl sees the change in her expression, then he turns to follow her line of sight. He freezes for a split second when he sees Carol and in the next, he’s dashing over to her and enveloping her in a hug. Gloria lets out a light chuckle as she walks towards the pair of best friends, happy that they’re finally reunited.

“Carol...” Gloria whispers as the older woman pulls away from Daryl and looks in her direction, Gloria makes her way to her and hugs her tight, “I’m so glad you’re okay...’

She smiles tearfully and pulls away from the hug, caressing Gloria’s cheek with her hand, “me too... here, I believe these are yours.”

Carol lifts her hands to give Daryl back his crossbow and Gloria her daggers, “I found them in their storage room and thought they looked familiar.”

Daryl and Gloria look at her in awe and chuckle at her words. Apparently, Carol was the one who shot at Terminus, blowing up the place and giving them all a chance to escape. She brought the group to an old cabin where Rick and Carl were reunited with Judith, and Tyreese with Sasha. After a tearful but happy reunion, they all decided that it was best to get away from Terminus and so they all began their way into the woods. That night, they decided to camp out in the forest, setting up alerting traps so that they had a safe place to rest for the night.

“What are you doing?” Glenn asks Gloria who’s sat on the ground using one of her knives to dig out something.

“You remember that thing I had with squirrels?” Gloria asks back as she keeps digging.

“You mean that time you were obsessed with squirrels and watched them from the window every chance you got?” Glenn recalls with a chuckle.

“She did wha’?” Daryl asks as he comes back to their temporary camp with two jugs of water.

“Way to make it look like I was weird,” Gloria eyes Glenn as she continues to dig, “I was watching them at first because they were cute but then I saw how smart but dumb they are. 74% of squirrels forget where they bury their food.”

“You say that as if it’s not a weird thing to know,” Glenn chuckles.

“It’s a fun fact,” Gloria says with a cheeky grin.

Daryl sits beside Gloria after putting the water down near the campfire Abraham was building, “what ya doin’ ‘ere then?”

“Seeing if I can find any nuts or acorns,” Gloria answers, then stops digging to point at the patch of dirt, “if you see a random patch of dirt in the middle of a patch of grass, the chances are a squirrel buried something here.”

“Yeah, definitely not a weird thing to know,” Glenn teases as he walks towards the camp.

“Won’t see you laughing when you don’t have any acorns!” Gloria mutters as she digs.

Daryl chuckles at her as he shakes his head, “ya learned tha’ from jus’ watchin’ squirrels?”

“Yeah, I could only watch them from my window because my dad didn’t want me to get to close in case they decided to attack me,” she chuckles at the memory, “so when they left my yard I’d go out to see where they dug and I found a pattern each time.”

“Ya watch ‘em and take their food... but ya can’t hunt ‘em,” Daryl smirks as he leans back on his arms.

“I make do with my own resources, thank you Mr. Dixon,” she rolls her eyes playfully then finally pulls out the acorn from the dirt, “I got one!”

“Jus’ one?” he says, smiling lovingly as he watches her look into the small hole she dug.

“Yeah, just one... sometimes they bury two or three if you’re lucky,” Gloria says then turns to face him, “you want it?”

“Nah, ya can keep it,” he says as he tugs her arm gently so he can wrap his arms around her, “‘sides, ya only got one, don’ wanna just take yer hard find from ya.”

Gloria scoffs as she puts her finding in her pocket, then she snuggles into his side, her arm wrapped around his torso, “I’ll let you know, I dug up a hundred acorns in a day before.”

“A hundred squirrels didn’ eat that day ‘cause o’ ya,” Daryl snorts a laugh, his joke earning a defeated chuckle from Gloria.

“God, I missed you,” she sighs as she rests her head on his shoulder, smiling softly when he kisses the top of her head.

“I missed ya too... oh,” he says then gently pushes her off of him and reaches into his pocket, “a’most forgot, here.”

Gloria lets out a quiet gasp when she sees the necklace she lost dangling in Daryl’s hand, “I never thought I’d ever see this again.”

Daryl smiles and gestures for her to turn around so he can help her put it back on, “how’d ya lose it, anyway?”

“Got taken by a group of guys when I ran into Nina, they took our stuff,” she shrugs then looks back at Daryl when she feels him stiffen up at her words, “they didn’t do anything to me, I promise.”

He just nods, pursing his lips and Gloria sighs, knowing that he didn’t fully believe her, “Daryl, they didn’t touch me or anything. Nina... wasn’t very lucky in that sense... they took her first, gave me time to figure out how to get out of there... but I could hear her screaming... sometimes I can still hear her.”

“‘M sorry,” he says, caressing her cheek with his thumb.

“It’s fine,” she says then moves to put her head on his chest, as an automatic reaction, Daryl wraps his arms around her shoulder.

“They kill Nina?” he asks quietly.

“No, I did.” Gloria tells him, earning an acknowledging hum from him as if he expected it already, “how’d you get my necklace?”

“Got caught up wit’ a couple o’ pricks, Rick killed ‘em, foun’ this hangin’ out o’ one o’ their pockets an’ thought it looked like yers ‘r Glenn’s. Noticed ya didn’ have yers.” Daryl explains.

“What happened to you after the prison? Where’d you go?” she asks after a moment of silence.

“I ran with Beth, she told me ya were already on that bus an’ I wanted to chase after ya... but there were too many walkers on the road, couldn’ risk makin’ it to ya without gettin’ chewed up,” he tells her.

“You couldn’t risk Beth,” she says, reading his mind, “what happened to her?”

“She got taken by some assholes in a car... house we were stayin’ in got swarmed, told her to run... tha’s when they took her... tried to track it but they were too far gone...” he says, his voice trembling in guilt.

“It’s not your fault,” Gloria pushes herself up to look at him, knowing he wouldn’t listen to her, “we’ll find her, it’ll be okay.”

“‘M sorry,” he says as he looks her in the eyes.

She frowns at this, “for what? Daryl, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I almos’ gave up on tryin’ to find ya... when the prison went down, I didn’ know if I’d ever see ya again...” he admits, “Beth... she was the one who told me not to give up.”

The guilt in Daryl’s eyes told Gloria that he expected her to get mad at him for even having the thought of giving up on finding her. He expected her to get upset and leave him alone, deprive him of any affection no matter how much he craved.

“Then I’ll just have to thank her for snapping some sense into you when we find her,” Gloria says with a hint of a smile.

Her smile was enough to tell him that she wasn’t angry or upset, it was more than enough to chase away his inner demons and light up his heart. Daryl wasn’t able to stop himself from pressing his lips to hers in a deep, tender kiss. He caresses her face with his hand and she giggles softly when he gently pushes her to lie on her back.

Gloria pulls away from the kiss slightly, their lips barely a millimeter apart, “the others are around.”

“They ain’t watchin’ us,” he says, pecking her lips, “‘sides, camp’s far enough from us that they can’t see shit, ya jus’ gotta keep quiet.”

Before she can respond, Daryl captures her lips with his once again. Gloria lets out a soft breathy moan as his lips trail her jaw in light feathery kisses but just as soon as it started, Daryl quickly pulls away from her and looks behind him, seeming to be on high alert. Furrowing her brow in concern, she props herself up on her elbow and follows Daryl’s line of sight.

“Do you see something?” Gloria asks, trusting his hunter instincts.

“Nah,” he says, getting up to inspect the area, “more ‘bout what I felt.”

“Let’s just keep watch then,” she suggests.

Daryl sighs as he turns around, not finding anything, he makes his way back to her, “nah, ya should sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

“Fine, I’ll sleep,” she says and waits until he’s sitting back down beside her, “but only if you let me cuddle you.”

He chuckles at her words and pulls her into his embrace, holding her close as she lays on his chest. Soon enough, Gloria’s drifted off to sleep in the arms of the man she loves.

---

Next Chapter

And that was the first chapter of Season 5!!! How’d you all like it? They’re all back together, yay~~ I felt the need for some cute fluff here because of everything they went through, and there will be more fluff to come, I promise! and of course there’s gonna be a bunch of angst too hehehehe Please let me know what you thought of this~! It means a lot!

And as always, I would really appreciate any comments left for me! I’ll be replying to any comments in a new post because this is a sideblog!

Taglist (please let me know if you’d like to be added/removed!):

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sonofsallyjackson · 4 years

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Heroes of Olympus should have been in first-person.

@jo-march-is-a-lesbian wrote a really wonderful post about how “Percy Jackson and the Olympians is better than Heroes of Olympus…because it understood simplicity and character development.” It highlights some reasons I also found HoO less rewarding namely that it was an overcomplicated story with limited character growth, lacked a common thesis, and was super jarring when it switched perspectives.

And with that my little brain went: I can fix this. Which frankly is ridiculous. I can’t come up with a compelling thesis like “The idea that we should place our hope in our loved ones, our friends and our family, and if we do that, we won’t be tempted to give up hope again.” But I can imagine a simple change that would have solved some of the issues and also played to Rick’s strengths as a writer: Each book should have been written in first person and narrated by a different character.

With so many people on the quest, I often felt like I was watching a bunch of one-dimensional characters fight for their right to be the main character. I didn’t know who to focus on but I was also dissatisfied. There were all these new wonderful characters in front of me who I wanted to love, but I didn’t feel like I actually knew them. I mean I don’t feel like I know the Stoll Brothers either, but I’m not concerned about that fact because they are side characters. When everyone is painted as the main character, I have certain expectations for growth, personality, and voice. The story would have been better served if the characters took turns narrating the action, allowing us to settle into their perspective, see their growth, and better understand their personality.

Plus Rick kills first-person. While I’m not particularly a fan of Trials of Apollo, it’s not because I don’t know the characters. Apollo is so very different than Percy. Their voices, even though they can both be jokesters at times, reflect their different life-experiences, thought processes and provide massive insight into their characters. If the Seven (and Nico and Reyna) got the same treatment, I would be absolutely giddy.

I recognize that rewriting the HoO series in first-person is something a talented fanfiction writer with a lot of time on their hands could actually do. But I am not talented like that and I certainly don’t have the discipline to actually write that much fic, especially if I was trying to keep the events vaguely the same just with different narration and pacing. So instead I’ve included who I think should have narrated each book below the cut. I’d love to hear any opinions people have regarding this idea, especially who they would have wanted to see to narrate each book.

In addition to picking the narrator, I’ve highlighted what should be the “quest” so to speak of each story. Personally, MoA, HoH and BoO are kind of a blur to me despite reading them all recently. It’s hard to distinguish what happens in each book because it’s all one massive quest with a whole bunch of mini-quests. While the different narrators would obviously make the books more distinctive, splitting the series into seven books would also help simplify each book’s individual goal. Eight books would have allowed for better integration of the plot to find the physician’s cure, but with the prophecy of seven, it seemed like seven books was the best option, if I was going to be doing something as blasphemous as splitting books.

As a note, I ran out of steam as I went so not all opinions are fully fleshed out.

Book 1: The Lost Hero The Quest: Rescue Hera/Juno Narrator: Jason

Why this would be cool:

He is literally Juno’s chosen sent on a quest to rescue her. It’s poetic enough to give him the book.

Jason’s journey is just as much about rediscovering himself as it is about saving Juno. Of the new characters, I feel like I understand Jason the least. Mainly because I felt like I was missing the entire first half of his story. Jason, like Percy and Annabeth, is a hero of the Titan War. I know some of his accomplishments, but I don’t have any bearing on what his life was like or how he felt about it. He doesn’t seem like the type to relish Praetor-ship since he doesn’t have the same intense need to get back to his camp as Percy. Was he just hoisted on his comrades’ shields after killing the Titan without any real choice in the matter? Give me Jason’s memories coming back slowly over the course of the quest (with potentially a fractured memory of a mistake he made in the Roman’s final Titan battle that makes him doubt their ability to both rescue Piper’s dad and save Hero but he makes the decision to anyway because he can’t just hurt his friend like that. Let me understand how Jason is the person he is today. Give me glances of the Roman Camp with emphasis on the heavy expectations that have always followed him as the son of Jupiter and foreshadow why he eventually chooses to design all the shrines for the minor gods so he can have his own place in the world as a figure between the two camps.

Let’s dive into those feelings of anger/guilt/resentment when people at camp are disappointed with him for not being Percy or in Chiron’s case are nervous about what his presence means.

I want to dig deeper regarding Jason’s feelings about reconnecting with Thalia. He knows that if the gods hadn’t been determined to keep the two camps completely separate, he could have grown up with his sister.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

We miss some of the internal turmoil regarding the fact that Piper’s Dad has been captured and she must betray her friends.

We also don’t feel the tensions of Piper’s relationship with Aphrodite. I don’t see Piper bringing up the conversation with her mom saying that her mist memories were so strong because she automatically sensed the potential of a romantic relationship with Jason.

We don’t have any of Leo’s conflicted feelings regarding rescuing Hera or his fear of being made an outcast for his fire abilities. Jason has to go with Leo to discover Bunker 9 and Festus.

Leo doesn’t actively save the day with the Cyclops.

We don’t know how Piper feels about her charm-speak or see her defeat Madea (as the boys are in their weird trance thing).

Knowledge about Gaea’s involvement in wrecking Leo’s life will come later.

Book 2: The Son of Neptune The Quest: Free Thantos Narrator: Hazel

Why this would be cool:

The stakes are so incredibly high. Hazel is literally risking her second chance at life by agreeing to go on this chance. She’s going to the place she died to fight the monster she created. She also has to deal with the trauma of knowing she may have bought the world time with her first sacrifice but it now means nothing if she can’t succeed again.

We get to see Camp Jupiter from the view of someone who loves it but doesn’t really fit in. Hazel joined Camp Jupiter just after the final battle. She enters a community that has learned to fight as a well-oiled machine but that has lost people. Dakota or the others may remark to her about how things were before or the people who are missing. Hazel sees a community that she’s not quite a part of both because she didn’t fight in the war and because she’s in the fifth cohort with a feared godly parent.

It would explore her relationship with Nico more (because I love their dynamic and I want more). She knows she can’t replace his real sister, but she feels comfortable and happy at the opportunity to have a brother, especially one who is out of time like she is.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

Frankly, the largest pushback would be from the fans who expected this to be Percy’s book since we just watched Jason rediscover who he is.

Percy’s phone call to his mom doesn’t have the same intensity.

Frank’s relationship with Mars and how desperate he was to be claimed but now he doesn’t think he can live up to his father’s expectations.

Frank and his grandmother. We aren’t in Frank’s head as he changes shape till later.

Book 3: Mark of Athena The Quest: Close the Divide Between The Two Camps by finding Athena’s statue and Rescue Nico Narrator(s): Annabeth and Leo

Why Annabeth:

So I can have all the emotions at the reunion with Percy.

Annabeth’s relationship with her Mom has never been great, but imagine beginning the book with Annabeth being given the Mark of Athena. They haven’t left for New Rome yet and her nerves are already all over the place. Then Athena/Minerva comes, gives her an impossible quest, and breaks her hat. Annabeth wants to prove to her mother that she’s worthy because despite everything she still values her mother’s opinions. Also her fatal flaw of hubris makes her believe she will succeed where everyone else failed.

Much of the book already follows her in third person limited so we just get things with a little extra emotion.

Why Leo:

Leo has to grapple with the fact he started this war by being the one to fire the cannon even if he didn’t have any control. He is motivated to fix it

If we’re going to include the Sammy plot, we need to do it now. Leo doesn’t like being the odd one out on the ship but he certainly doesn’t like the feeling of being notable because of his grandfather.

We still need to get into those feelings of abandonment and anger at Gaea for killing his mom.

Nemesis

Leo comes into his own with the discovery of the Archimedes sphere and the decision to value people over objects.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

The aquarium shenanigans

The fight between Jason and Percy in Kansas needs to happen differently so that the others are present and try to stop it.

Neither of them went ashore to meet Hercules.

I think we might need to move up the Calypso meeting to this book, but that also kills some of the suspense since Frank will have the fireproof coating prior to his adventures in Venice when he gains faith in his abilities. It also might mean Leo opens the fortune cookie from Nemesis unless for some odd reason he doesn’t have it. There’s a lot more narrative weight for it coming later, but in order to get in as many book events as we can in, it might need to come earlier.

Book 4: House of Hades Pt. 1

The Quest: Survive Tartarus Narrator(s): Annabeth and Percy

The first time I read House of Hades, I read it out of order (reading all the Percy and Annabeth chapters until they were on the elevator out of Tartarus before going back and reading the others), because I couldn’t handle the back and forth. I felt like the tension would build, I’d be invested in this plot and then we’d switch to the other plot. Plus I was very concerned for my children. So I feel fully justified in saying that there is more than enough material to give the two of them their own book.

I just feel like all the feelings would be magnified.

Percy’s commentary slowly losing its humor because he can’t anymore.

Annabeth’s guilt at having pulled him in being extra loud.

Downsides beyond adding an entire book: Just imagine all the outrage at two cliffhangers in a row, because you know the book would end with them in the elevator remembering Bob’s words about the stars.

Book 5: House of Hades Pt. 2

The Quest: Close the Doors of Death Narrator(s): Frank and Hazel

Frank and Hazel experience the most growth on the quest to close the doors so this book is all theirs. Hazel learns to control the mist. Frank experiments with his transformations. I want nothing but them growing into themselves and their abilities.

The good thing about turning the two warring storylines from House of Hades into separate books is that we lose very little plot.

Book 6: House of Hades Pt. 3/Blood of Olympus Pt 1 (Personally I would call this one Ambassador of Pluto)

The Quest: Unite the Gods’ Personalities. Narrator: Nico

To clarify what I mean by HoH 3, I just mean anything done with the intention of trying to cross paths with Reyna, including the adventure with Cupid, in addition to the existing Nico&Reyna plotline in BoO.

Nico dealing with all the emotions and his most recent near-death experience.

He kept the secret of the camps so the world wouldn’t end in chaos, but now that the world is in chaos he will be the one to fix it.

In the short time he’s on the Argo 2, Nico realizes that even though this wasn’t his quest; this is his family and he needs to protect them.

The reader has a pretty good idea Nico is gay, even if the word isn’t explicitly said from the descriptions (his guilty Percy thoughts - he let down the man he loves even if he won’t admit it.) This means that Cupid’s forceful outing is potentially less surprising so the reader can be properly outraged at Cupid.

Downside: Reyna definitely has adventures when Nico is passed out, especially the whole waking up with the Hunters, but I think it’s excusable for a whole book from Nico’s perspective.

Also, the battle between the camps and gifting of the statue needs to happen in this book, but we shouldn’t find out if the gods have regained control of their forms yet. We alleviate some tensions because Camp Half-blood is likely to be overrun with Octavian’s monsters instead of the Roman armies and Gaea could awaken any second, but there’s an odd moment of calm and an uneasy truce. (Octavian is potentially taken under custody to be held for trial only to escape in the next book.)

Book 7: Blood of Olympus Pt 2 (and the aftermath)

The Quest: Like The Last Olympian, the final book’s focus is entirely on defeating the series’ big bad, in this case, Gaea. Leo’s quest for the Physician’s cure parallels Percy’s River Styx visit.

Narrator(s): Leo and Piper

Leo has his death hanging over his head. He has decided that he will be the one to die not any of his friends. He got the cloth from Calypso so the “fire” portion of the prophecy applies to him and not Frank. (Yes I know you can’t control prophecies, but do you think that’s going to stop Leo.)

It’s the ultimate revenge for killing his mom. We can have memories of both the happy times with Esperanza and the fear he felt for thinking he caused the fire.

Piper’s perspective is necessary as we need to be with her during the fight with the giants.

This series began with Piper, Leo, and Jason. It ends that way too with the three of them killing Gaea and the two of them narrating.

Downsides:

The Percabeth I love you-the feud is over scene remains in Piper’s perspective.

Since we’re not following Reyna’s delivery of the statue concurrently we don’t know when to anticipate the healed gods appearing in the battle with the giants.

The book can still get away with not showing us Percy’s reunion with Sally or forcing Leo to tell the others he’s alive so they’re all grieving.

#pjo meta #pjo fandom #pjo/hoo #hoo #riordanverse #heroes of olympus #my meta #percy jackon and the olympians #the seven #jason grace #hazel levesque #leo valdez #piper mclean #percy jackson #annabeth chase #frank zhang #the fandom once again improving hoo

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yosb · 7 years

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Do u ship usuk romantically?

Ohhh, thanks for asking… I have opinions, and I am happy to share those opinions!

To preface, my mode of shipping when it comes to Hetalia fixates on characters as national examples of identification texts. Certainly to me, I read the anthropomorphisms as cultural imaginings (admittedly framed as a site between history and cultural citizenship). As someone with a film history/theory background, I’m interested in the iconography, narrative, and consumption of images re: the active production, circulation, and reception of identity texts.

While acknowledging the complex conversation of social, economic, and political capital, I definitely privilege the active production of national imaginaries and dual investigation of historiography.

Anyways, enough of this transnationalism discourse. This leads me to the admission that the relationships that fascinate me most are those that hinge on the affective narrative itself. Those identities that inform and form the other’s mythology.

For that reason, I could take it or leave it with US/UK and FR/UK. I can get myself going on both, but as a baseline, my energies get distracted. For full disclosure, I’m actually quite into the FR/UK/US because of its discursive elements: the fine red line hoisted between revolution and reform (what is at stake between demagoguery and democracy), the ascendancy of cults of personality, imperial majesty, colonialism… I only really like them as this trinity; this blood, love, and rhetoric school.

But, I digress. While I have fun exploring these dimensions, those relationships, in my personal opinion, discount the full expression of their identities. I’ve always been more interested in Franco-German relations (our dear friend Charlemagne, the ramifications of revolution and military prestige, etc). On the other hand, the appropriately British reaction to the conservative American Revolution and the subsequent American project as William Pitt the Elder’s, “We will win America on the plains of Germany.“

So, to me, England has never been about America (England’s about colonialism). Thus, it’s hard for me to ardently ship something that isn’t embedded in their national character. I’m going to borrow some words from Atwood’s novel, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, to get to the core of how dis-unifying US/UK is for me:

Possibly the symbol for America is The Frontier, a flexible idea that contains many elements dear to the American heart: it suggests a place that is new, where the old order can be discarded (as it was when America was instituted by a crop of disaffected Protestants. and later at the time of the Revolution); a line that is always expanding. taking in or “conquering” ever-fresh virgin territory (be it The West, the rest of the world, outer space, Poverty or The Regions of the Mind); it holds out a hope, never fulfilled but always promised, of Utopia, the perfect human society. Most twentieth century American literature is about the gap between the promise and the actuality, between the imagined ideal (Golden West or City Upon a Hill, the model for all the world postulated by the Puritans. and the actual squalid materialism, dotty small town, nasty city, or redneck-filled outback. Some Americans have even confused the actuality with the promise: in that case Heaven is a Hilton hotel with a coke machine in it.

The corresponding symbol for England is perhaps The Island, convenient for obvious reasons. In the seventeenth century a poet called Phineas Fletcher wrote a long poem called The Purple Island, which is based on an extended body-as-island metaphor, and, dreadful though the poem is, that’s the kind of island I mean: island-as-body, self contained, a Body Politic. evolving organically. with a hierarchical structure in which the King is the Head, the statesmen the hands, the peasants or farmers or workers the feet, and so on. The Englishman’s home as his castle is the popular form of this symbol, the feudal castle being not only an insular structure but a self-contained microcosm of the entire Body Politic.

Perhaps suggesting I don’t ship US/UK is inadequate. Moreover, I don’t really ship America with anyone. The quintessential American Identity is the American Dream, a dream that has morphed in its expression of “upward mobility” (this is easy, you know the words, we have repeated them, ingested them; they have formed us: Manifest Destiny, Civil Rights, Home Ownership).

To fully understand what I’m proposing, where I’m going with this, how cultural productions of images obtain a mythic status of our narrative, we’ll let the far superior Jim Cullens in The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation lead us there –

Yet to focus too rigidly on accumulating wealth finally misses the point of [the Dream of the Good Life]. It’s less about accumulating riches than about living off their fruits, and its symbolic location is not the bank but the beach.

The American Dream is very much a national, even global phenomenon, but some dreams have strong geographic orientation. The Puritan dream, of course, was grounded in New England, though Puritan values ultimately stretched across the continent. Similarly, the Dream of Equality appeals broadly but owes its deepest resonances to the South, where inequality was most obvious and resistance to its most heroic. The Dream of Upward Mobility has a strong midwestern accent, as suggested, for example, by the strength of the region’s state university systems, which have served as vessels of the American Dream. Abraham Lincoln may have been a national figure, but the Land of Lincoln, as the license plats remind us, is Illinois. And like the Dream of Home Ownership, the dream I’m talking about here has a strong western orientation. It is a dream with roots in the South (specifically colonial Virginia) and one that traverses the mines, wheatfields, and deserts of the West. But its apotheosis is California. This American Dream is finally the dream of the Coast.

As Walt Whitman in “A Promise to California” wrote, “… these states tend inland and towards the Western sea, and I will also.” Cullen goes on to account for gambling, the Gold Rush, and the cosmopolitan haven of immigrants as part of the Dream of the Coast. His final conclusion, though, arrives at America’s most lucrative, most dazzling, most mythic projection of itself – a space as real, as imagined as the Dream itself – Hollywood.

“At its most compelling, California could be a moral premise, a prescription of what America could and should be. At its most trivial, it was a cluster of shallow dreams, venial hankerings which mistook laziness for leisure, selfishness for individualism, laxity for liberalism, evasion and cheap escape for redemption and a solid second chance.”

— Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream

“And what of cinema’s own mythologies? Film is more than a medium; it is a system that is inseparable from the myths that drive it and which the cinema forms in turn. There are the myths that surround the industry – the myths of stardom, the gilded dreams and wretched excess of wealth, and the lottery of luck.”

— Peter Lunenfield, “Narrative across Media: the Languages of Storytelling”

“The notion of the second chance, the fresh start, looms large in the American imagination, as does the quest for the perfect replica, realer than the real thing, a compulsion that Umberto Eco, in his 1986 essay “Travels in Hyperreality,” dubbed “reconstructive neurosis.” Mulholland Drive, reconstituted from the ruins of an abandoned project, represents a triumphant second chance, but the story it tells is of a botched reenactment, rooted in a doomed yet irresistible urge to rewrite the past.”

— David Lim, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”

“Once upon a time an impressionable literary-minded observer noted that Mulholland Drive might be the body of Marilyn Monroe stretched out on the mountain ridge. Whatever next! He saw her platinum hair as the surf at the Leo Carrillo Park Beach beyond Malibu. And Marilyn is the ultimate Hollywood blonde; she was born and died there; she found her glory and her disappointments there.”

— David Thomson

In my mind, any figure who encompasses America cannot be anything but the mimetic reworking, rebuilding, recontextualizing, and rebranding of this imagined American identity. As Eco observed, this reconstructive neurosis is most symptomatically expressed through film.

America is Gary Cooper in Zinneman’s High Noon – it’s a history that hurts. He’s Viggo Mortensen in Cronenberg’s A History of Violence – a regeneration through violence. And most importantly, America has always been Humphrey Bogart in Curtiz’s Casablanca.

In Casablanca, Rick is an American Dreamer. His selfishness, individualism, and isolationism of untrammeled autonomy (a male fantasy) is transformed from vice to virtue. Rick is a hero precisely because of his performative reserve. But of course he is celebrated for this. American isolationism (or if you want to be slick, American freedom) has never been about concern for one’s enemies. It has always been about about hesitance toward’s one’s allies.

We are currently speaking of the fantasy consolation in Hollywood to those in the audience with strings attached, on how the charms of isolation outlive the vagaries and even the death of isolationism.

But we are also speaking of the Founding Fathers to their entanglements and commitments. It was George Washington who said, “‘Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances.” And it was Thomas Jefferson who said, “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”

TL;DR Can’t ship US/UK, cause I can’t ship America with anyone. Also if one paid attention to the cultural script of American myth-making, Trump came as no surprise.

#ask #hetalia #meta #personal #aph america #i need a hobby #I WOULD LIKE TO PERSONALLY APOLOGIZE to EVERYONE who didnt know this was a hetalia blog when u followed me... fml

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god-hunter · 7 years

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Secret Empire #2

This was a loaded one. And the ending confused me...

But for an event, I do like the fact that so many things are packed in. It does make it hard for a comprehensive review, but like last time, I’ll try to do so as best I can.

There are so many directions occurring in this dense issue, that I couldn’t just outright say whether it’s good or bad, but basically this whole thing is an aftermath of the ending of Issue 1. That is to say, if bombs were to be dropped from the last issue, this one takes us to after the smoke clears. ...if that helps...

Also, there wasn’t nearly enough Defenders in this issue. Still though, I’m happy they’re included at all.

[Spoilers below. The only way to understand what happened, really]

Like I briefly said, this issue begins ‘after the bombs dropped’ from the end of issue 1. You may recall Helicarriers hovering over cities after the death of a certain, Rick Jones.

Well this one insinuates that bombs dropped and people died. It starts in Las Vegas with Wonder Man, Hawkeye, Hulk and Nadia Pym digging for survivors through wreckage, etc. etc. Black Widow is there too, brooding about how Steve Rogers needs to die.

Then we get a glimpse of what’s going on in New York. It’s no good. There are aliens everywhere in the darkness, who do a bit of a number on Luke Cage and Danny Rand. The only way we see what’s happening in the darkness was through the clever use of a night vision cam, or what-have-you.

Jessica Jones ended up coming to their rescue, and we find that Dagger has been basically, using ALL her power in order to light the city for hours and hours at a time. It’s gotten to the point where she can only keep the light going for 4 hours a day. Then for the remainder of the time, the city is in darkness, and I guess these aliens have their free reign, without many heroes left to stop them.

Let’s not forget normal every-day looters, who are just trying to survive. I can’t blame ‘em. King Pin of all people says that he’ll save them. And when he does, he wants the whole World to remember that he was the one who made things right. “...On the day when we see the sun again, you remember-- It was Wilson Fisk who kept you safe.” [Ooh. Pretty interesting thread for the Defenders to go on.]

Meanwhile at ‘The Mount’, which is I guess what they’re calling the Underground HQ, Spencer made an interesting choice in copying or rather, nodding to Hickman’s style of narration.

“It was the day two of us stood, and two paths were laid out. A familiar story, but somehow different this time. One was Light. And the other was Darkness.”

[This was a strange, slightly forced nod to Hickman’s Avengers, back when they symbolized Captain America to ‘Life’ and Iron Man to ‘Death’. This time the comparison was set that Tony A.I was ‘Light’ and Black Widow is ‘Darkness’ now. Choosing A.I Tony for Light is a very interesting choice for a lot of reasons. But the main one I want to go with for now is that he literally is made of light. The idea that an A.I representation of Tony is the ‘Hope’ of the group, however... implies that he only has pure motivations. Which, I’m sorry, but even the biggest Stark apologists know he’s got his hang ups. Particularly that thing about how this A.I feels that Humans are obsolete. But I’m pretty sure Spencer is ignoring that one completely.]

Um. Without diverting any further, basically a line is drawn in the sand about the direction which the Underground should take. Black Widow wants to kill him, and Tony wants... volunteers for a different sort of mission. Not killing though.

He puts on a video of Rick Jones speaking to the group, and it’s nice to see him again. We get the whole “If you’re getting this message, let’s be honest--there’s a good chance I’ve been made dead,” trope. But then he tells them exactly what happened to Captain America.

We get some decent insight from everything that went down since Pleasant Hill - [what I know] and Spencer’s run of Captain America: Steve Rogers - [stuff I don’t know.]

He informs the gang via dead video message that Kobik was manipulated by Red Skull while in Pleasant Hill. That she truly thought Hydra was a good thing, and so she was the one who changed Steve’s entire disposition, memories/history, etc. when granting him Youth again.

“She completely rewrote reality--his life experiences, his beliefs--Everything right down to the DNA. She made him their perfect soldier.”

From there he laid out his own plan. “A plan that included capturing Kobik--and killing his best friend, Bucky...” [Damn, he’s dead again? Fuck.]

He apparently destroyed Kobik too. She’s been shattered into a million little fragments. And the basic idea now is that if they find the fragments to put the cube back together [not her, but the cube..] then maybe they can all salvage this and write the whole thing off as a horrible nightmare.

“...They’re out there somewhere. I’ve attached everything I’ve got--all the Hydra files on the Cosmic Cube... all their intel.”

So, now it’s down to a hunt for the fragments and A.I Tony is all in. But Black Widow doesn’t buy it at all. For her, This is Reality. There is no rewriting it. And they need to kill Steve for his Treason.

She believes this to such a degree that she slugs Clint in their downtime, in only the most Romanov way. She shares a sweet kiss with him and agrees to do things his way, only to turn on him and punch him while his guard is down.

[This punch didn’t mean Civil War III or anything. It was just a way for her to get out of there and do what she needed to do. But it’s still fucked up.]

Clint comes to pretty soon and informs Tony A.I about this, who seems to already have a plan. Hercules, Quicksilver, Ant-Man and Mockingbird are all going to help him look for the fragments.

“Good team, right?” Tony asks. “It’s a start.” Clint says.

In Black Widow’s corner, Spider-man somehow tracks her down in Colorado a day later. And he tells her that he wants to help her kill Cap.

We get an awesome reference to Civil War II. Now suddenly that Future Vision makes perfect sense to Miles. And he actually wants to do this.

[And suddenly there entirety of Civil War II is all the better for me. I only liked half of that event, before it became so Miles v Cap focussed. But NOW.. hoohoo. Damn. That’s good planning Marvel.]

Miles didn’t come alone. Hulk, Nadia, Riri, Viv and whoever is manning the Falcon suit came too.

Despite saying ‘no killing though’, Black Widow is happy to train these children in her ‘Red Room’.

Nearly at the end of the issue, in Montana, Clint, Tony’s A.I (who can apparently wear clothes, like a Red Hoodie now... - [Come on Man!] They end up finding Sam Wilson, who seemed to have hung up the Cap Costume since all of this until now.

Then the very end of this issue confused me.

We see a bloke girl in a white dress running away from Hydra people. Particularly a dude in a snake costume. And she gets beat down on until a random Old guy gives the snake leader a big boot to the head. He knocks out the other guys with ease too.

Narrations insinuated throughout this entire issue that there was no hope to be found. Until this one moment, right when things seemed at their worst.

“W-who are you?! What do you want?!” she asks, frightened.

An older, white-haired bearded dude in Army fatigues tells her, “My name is Steve Rogers. I’m just trying to get home.”

-To Be Continued!-

...I give up. Not on the event, but on trying to understand it.

I don’t know what is going on here, and I’m not going to conjure up any theories. The reveal might be stupid, or it might be genius. But I’m just gonna wait and reserve judgement until then.

Ugh!!

This event is half entertaining, and part frustrating! I’m not sure what else.

...by the looks of it, Secret Empire #3 will focus on our teams in Space, which I’m actually interested in following up on for once.

We’re also at the point where allll the tie-ins are going to splinter out from this Event, causing this thing to go on foooreeever long this Summer.

I am not interested in Secret Empire: Uprising, which involves Black Widow training the Champions to do her bidding...

In fact, the only tie-in I am interested in is the Doctor Strange one. [Which is a funny story for it’s own reason. I’ll get into it when I actually review the issue.]

Anyway, I feel like it’ll be a moment before we get to Secret Empire #3.

So until then. I guess we’ll just have to sit on this.

For now though, it’s still more entertaining than frustrating for me, I think.

#Secret Empire #Issue 2 #Marvel Event #Summer 2017

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