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hungergamesbookclub · 5 months

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Poll for THG Book Club's First Read!

What book should we read for our first Suzanne Read? Summaries of each book and how it relates to THG under the "read more" after the poll if you need more info to choose.

Summary: In Thomas Hardy's first major literary success, independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

How it relates to THG: "Katniss Everdeen owes her last name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in Far From the Madding Crowd. The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts." Suzanne Collins, 2010

Summary: Coriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus.

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

How it relates to THG: The namesake of Coriolanus Snow (ft. Volumnia)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Summary: Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.

How it relates to THG: Quoted in the epigraph of TBOSAS

Spartacus by Howard Fast

Summary: The story of a slave uprising in the ancient Roman Empire.

How it relates to THG: "There’s a basis for the war, historically, in the Hunger Games, which would be the third servile war, which was Spartacus’ war, where you have a man who is a slave who is then turned into a gladiator who broke out of the gladiator school and led a rebellion and then became the face of the war. So there is a historical precedent for that arc for a character. But I think I needed the freedom to create elements that I wasn’t going to neatly find in history." Suzanne Collins, 2013

Summary: A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they discover fantastic wildlife and dazzling beaches, learning to survive; at night, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast. Orphaned by society, it isn't long before their innocent childhood games devolve into a savage, murderous hunt …

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

How it relates to THG: "One of my favorite books - I read it every couple of years." Suzanne Collins

#thg book club #the hunger games #suzanne collins #suzanne read #thg poll

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chronurgy · 6 months

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10 characters, 10 fandoms

Thanks for the tag @rowanisawriter!

Tagging: @weavewithshadow, @bhaalsbabe, anyone else who wants to play!

Oooo this is going to be hard because I tend to get really into multiple characters from the same thing, but let's go! In no particular order:

1. Essek Thelyss - Critical Role

He's a war criminal. He's a prodigy. He's a traitor. He's a time and gravity wizard. He's a heretic in a theocracy where his mother is a living saint. He floats everywhere instead of walking. When the gang asks if they're going to have to kill him, he laughs and says "I'd like to see you try". He crushes someone to death with gravity simply by closing his fist. "My reasons [for treason] weren't good, but they were important". He goes from not having cared about anyone in 120 years to caring so much about a bunch of weirdos in like, 6 weeks. He made his father so mad during an argument that the guy stormed off and died. What's not to love? He makes me so insane.

Honorable mention: Caleb Widogast

2. Anders - Dragon Age

My favorite chaotic bisexual disaster man. The contrast between awakening anders and da2 anders is so fascinating for me. He's this carefree guy, except he isn't really that carefree, is he? He escapes over and over and over, swimming across the lake even. He hates the circle and hates the Templars just as much, he's just funnier about it. When you start adding up the year in solitary, Karl, the fact that he must have seen all the injuries in the circle as a spirit healer, it starts becoming very clear why he is the way he is. He also sucks! He's petty, he's mean, and he's so up his own ass about how right he thinks he is about everything. But he also runs a clinic for the poorest of the poor, dodging Templars and freeing mages all the while. He does the excellent wizard hubris thing of taking the future into his own hands, even if it kills people (suck my nuts elthina). He loves a romanced Hawke so much, even as he experiences this greater calling. Plus Grey wardens are cool as hell and he loves cats.

Honorable mention: mage!Hawke

3. Merlin - BBC Merlin

This show manages to be both ridiculous and sad. Merlin is such a happy go lucky, cheerful character at the beginning, then we watch as things just keep getting worse. He cannot seem to win. By the end, that cheerfulness seems much closer to a mask he's desperately clinging to than anything else. He's an expert liar and manipulator, he's a killer, and he's so, so alone. If he ever tells anyone that he's a sorcerer, he'll be executed. And he lives in the shadow of that for years, unable to be himself even with the people he's closest to. Also characters who have their eyes change colors when using their powers my beloved.

4. Daenerys Targaryen - ASOIAF

I love her chapters - there's so much interesting and human depth to her struggles (even when her struggles are fantastical). She struggles to know how to rule, and rule well. She takes hostages but loves them too much to kill them. She struggles to create and maintain a peace for her people even as that peace asks things of her she cannot bear. She worries what it says about her that her children are monsters and she both loves and fears them. She desperately wants a simple, loving life but is also so, so doomed to never have that. She's a queen and a dragon rider and a young woman trying to understand the world. She's great. (I don't care about the tv show I'm talking books here)

Honorable mentions: Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister

5. Gale Dekarios - Baldur’s Gate

Oh yeah, another hubris wizard. He's funny and has this easy, good natured charm that makes it possible to ignore that he's an absolute FREAK. He's got one of my favorite wizard traits - a strong ends justify the means streak. He points, very genteelly, at all the ways power and knowledge drive and corrupt. He's a sweetheart but he brags all the time. Except it isn't bragging, because he can back it up. He can really, genuinely, become a god. His relationship with the dark urge also makes me insane, because I think in some ways he's both the clearest eyed about what will happen to them and the one most willing to meet them where they are and also desperately wants to believe they're a good person, even when it's clear that they aren't. His line about how their life is no longer theirs to lead, only to follow to a dark urge who embraces Bhaal is incredible. The diverging paths of who he can become over the course of the game are fascinating and there's so much depth to him. He's great. Oh, he also excuses his cat's crimes. Love that in a man.

Honorable mentions: Enver Gortash, The Dark Urge

6. Camilla Hect - The Locked Tomb

She's the most composed, controlled, meticulous batshit fucking crazy woman in the world. Unstoppable force vibes. Instead of moving on after her necromancers death she pieced together tiny fragments of his skull and then shared her body with him. She's a genius and she can't let go of her insanely codependent relationship, even when it kills her (but honestly Paul seems pretty cool and I'm excited to learn more about them)

Honorable mention: Palamedes Sextus

7. The Jovial Contrarian - Fallen London

A little more niche, this one! I sometimes find that characters in fallen london can sort of pale in interest compared to the overall lore and happenings, but the Jovial Contrarian is one of my favorites. He loves arguing and will argue with anyone about anything at any time. If you have regular debating lessons with him, people will hide behind couches rather than face you. He's part of the calendar council and hates the masters but also wants a solution that isn't the liberation of the night. Anytime his name is mentioned you know you're about to read something ridiculous. Fun guy!

Honorable mentions: Poor Edward (incredibly narsty. great villain), The Eagle, Ascendant (they have like, 3 lines of lore and they're all fantastic)

8. Midna - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I remember playing twilight princess for the first time and I just immediately fell in love with Midna. She's snarky, she's mean, her design is cool as hell, and I really loved her arc as she grew to really care about people over the course of the game. She remains firmly the best Zelda companion in my mind.

9. Elim Garak - Star Trek

You always knew it was going to be a great episode when Garak showed up. He always feels 30 seconds from chewing on the scenery and it is fantastic. He's an exiled spy and maybe a little bit of a monster and he never pretends otherwise. His lines to Sisko in "In the Pale Moonlight," telling him that he must have known what Garak would do, and that if the price of winning the war is Sisko's self respect then he'd call that a bargain are some of my favorite in an episode that already has a lot of really good lines. Aw man I wanna watch DS9 now.

Honorable mentions: Julian Bashir, Captain Picard, Tasha Yar (but wasn't she lame and poorly written? Yes. But young me was extremely taken with this aggressive short-haired woman for reasons I could not articulate at the time 🥴)

10. Morgan Yu - Prey (2017)

Okay so if you haven't played Prey stop reading right now and go buy it. Don't look up any spoilers or plot or anything just do it. If you liked dishonored or deathloop you'll love it. Now: who IS Morgan Yu? Who WAS Morgan Yu? Are they even the same person any more? How culpable are they? How culpable were they? Part of the reason Morgan is so endlessly fascinating to me is because we'll never know. How integral are memories to the continuity of the self? Why did you do what you did? Did you, the person standing here right now, even do it? The game just delivers gut punch after gut punch to Morgan and I love it and I love them (whoever they might have been).

Overall honorable mentions: the outsider from dishonored, garrus from mass effect, vimes and vetinari from discworld, and all my dnd characters (shout out especially to Hermès Montclair who fucked a dragon, died (unrelated to said dragon fucking), then came back wrong and fucked the dragon again! No one's doing it like you baby)

#Ask games #Thanks for tagging me I had a lot of fun!#Picking just one character from each thing was soooooooo hard

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livingbythewords · 1 year

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Nobody won the game

There is this line in The Hunger Games that Haymitch (my favorite character) says: “Nobody ever wins the games, period. There are no winners. There are just survivors” and I was thinking recently how it applies to the games in Saw as well.

Nobody won the game, even if they survived, not the victims, not the apprentices. Not even John himself. He designed the games, but didn’t win his own. Both his life and legacy ended in tragedy. He became bitter and alone, constantly punishing himself out of guilt, rejecting the people who loved him and choosing to be feared instead, deluding himself into thinking what he was doing is right and good.

Adam technically won his game and understood the lesson John was trying to teach him, but died anyway. Amanda loved John, and her emotional attachment together with her hubris and her craving for power were also her downfall - her love and her ability to carry his legacy were two very different things. To become John’s successor, she would have to fully understand and embrace his philosophy, but she didn’t truly believe people can change, which was probably a reflection of how she saw herself - irrevocably damaged, impossible to fix. Mark, instead of being redeemed, went from a loving and caring if grief-stricken person to a monster and murdered a lot of people. Even if he got out of the bathroom, which I believe he did as the consummate survivor he is, he is now completely alone, without anybody who could help him turn back from his path of insanity. Even Lawrence, who arguably got left as a successor, also became a bitter and lonely man. He lost his wife, his daughter, the guilt about Adam probably still haunting him, and got cold during the process of following John’s orders. There is no single person in this story that could consider themselves a winner - all of them have lost either their life or everything else.

And that’s why I believe Saw is a tragedy, one so well-written it could easily by created by Shakespeare. I am in awe how such an awesome story could be made in the form of a horror movie, which is often regarded as lesser genre when it comes to entertainment. Truly a masterpiece.

#saw #saw movies #saw franchise #saw meta #john kramer #jigsaw #amanda young #lawrence gordon #adam faulkner stanheight #mark hoffman #horror #horror movies

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carewyncromwell · 11 months

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Hey, you mentioned that Anastasia likes fantasy stories and manga, but does she also like sci-fi as well? Maybe something like John Carter or Dune?

Not as much, no! Ana finds that science fiction, in general, tends to be very "forward"-looking, while fantasy is much more inspired by myths and history -- and for someone like Ana who is also enamored of history, that's really more her thing. There are definitely some sci-fi properties that blur the line between fantasy and science fiction -- such as John Carter and Dune, as well as Star Wars -- but honestly, they're still not as much Ana's thing, not only because there are less women as the leading role in those works (Jyn Erso and Rey are really the only times for Star Wars, and Rey's storyline was...yeah, not the best executed), but because Ana likes worlds that are a bit more romanticized and comfortable. (Some of her favorite books are The Last Unicorn; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; and the works of Lewis Carroll, to give you an idea.) Then of course in the case of John Carter of Mars, the man was an ex-Confederate...sorry, budding political activist Ana really wouldn't warm up to that. 😅

Another thing dictating Ana's tastes is that a lot of science-fiction properties have a colder, cleaner aesthetic and oftentimes a far less optimistic view of the world than many fantasy properties do. In the realm of sci-fi, you're much more likely to find stories of man's hubris -- of Man creating monsters and fighting against evil dystopias. And Ana is honestly a true romantic at heart -- however reserved and difficult to trust she is, she actually believes that people are inherently good, and she likes feeling happy, powerful, and optimistic, in the fictional worlds she escapes to. She wants the promise of a happy ending, even if not everything goes perfectly and not everyone makes it. So she enjoys the warmth, color, and comfort of something like a Middle Earth way more than something like out of the Starship Enterprise. Yes, she does like Gothic and steampunk visuals (you can thank her stepbrothers Jasper and Preston for turning her onto those subcultures!!), but she likes a certain lived-in, but not dirty or cynical softness to her fictional worlds. Plus from a nerdy history perspective, Ana finds the diverse interpretations of familiar mythical and magical creatures in the fantasy genre -- such as fae, giants, yokai, and dragons -- incredibly interesting to compare. ❤️

#hpma #magic awakened #anastasia read #about anastasia #jasper pinkstone #preston pinkstone #I'll just be honest a lot of this comes right from me!!#carewyn is basically my mum and me as kids put in a blender while ana is my dad and me as kids put in a blender #like me ana is an infp but like my dad she's a gryffindor #therefore she's very much the sort to gravitate toward stories of good triumphing over evil #of happy endings and chosen heroes and miracles and friendship having magical powers #I actually do disagree with ana a little bit as I really like star wars XDD #she's also way more into shoujo manga than I am #but hey this girl isn't a self-insert!

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abookishdreamer · 2 years

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Character Intro: Atë (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- Mother of Mayhem by the people of Olympius

Ma by her children

Age- 46 (immortal)

Location- Sparta, Olympius

Personality- She's cunning & manipulative‐ easily able to see through lies, tricks, and deception. She's also outspoken, brash, and impulsive, slow to trust others and is extremely perceptive. She's pansexual & is currently in a long term relationship.

She has the standard abilities of a goddess. Being the goddess of mischief, ruin, blind folly, delusion, & downfall of heroes, her abilities include being able to create illusions, making multiple copies of an object, being able to sense when someone is lying, inducing others to act on their deepest impulses & desires as well as to act recklessly or start fighting, and she can also plant delusions, false assumptions, miscalculations, & false memories in someone.

Atë lives in a loft apartment in the state of Sparta with her youngest child- her son Thrasos (god of boldness, insolence, recklessness, & courage). She has two grown daughter Lyssa (goddess of rage & frenzy) and Mania (goddess of insanity). Red is a major color with lots of leather and velvet furniture. Various decorative animal skulls are on the walls. She has a few pets- snakes & dragons. Her dragon's name is Saphira. There's an adjacent spacious garage which holds some of her favorite "toys"- monster trucks!

She has a tattoo of a large dreamcatcher covering the side of her left thigh as well as a large intricate henna-style tattoo on her back which was done by her girlfriend Limos.

A notable physical feature of Atë is her platinum blonde hair which is styled in an edgy mullet haircut.

She shows her most vulnerable and loving side to those she cares for the most, her children & girlfriend. Even though it's been a while since Atë has had quality family time with all her kids together, she makes sure to keep in contact with all of them & spend time with them individually. A fond memory she has is of her and her son riding their dragons- Thorn & Saphira through New Olympus during an Eclipse celebration, a holiday observed for Artemis (goddess of the hunt & moon) and Apollo (god of the sun, music, poetry, healing, medicine, archery, plague, light, & knowledge). Their dragons inadvertently scared the piss out of the parade goers!

Her go-to drink is a negroni. She also likes cranberry margaritas, rum & cokes, beer, red wine, cherry vanilla cola, and pomegranate gin cocktails.

Her favorite sweet treat is the Cocktails On Ice chocolate-cherry red wine ice cream.

In her godly career, she has mainly done some "work" for Hera (goddess of women & marriage)- involving Zeus (god of the sky, thunder, & lightning), his "one night stand of the week" Alcmene, & the eventual birth of his son Hercules. These series of misfortunate events almost cost Atë her godhood. She hasn't spoken to the Queen since the final favor she did for her.

In the pantheon, she's cool with Adikia (goddess of injustice & wrongdoing), Hybris (goddess of insolence, hubris, & reckless pride), Proioxis (goddess of attack, onrush, & battlefield pursuit), Kakia (goddess of vice & moral wrongdoing), Phlegethon (Titan god of fire), Enyo (goddess of war, destruction, bloodlust, & devastation), Koros (god of surfeit & disdain), Asteria (Titaness of falling stars, astrology, magic, necromancy, and nocturnal oracles & prophecies), Polemos (god of war cry & battle), The Moirai, Hysminai (goddess of fighting & combat), Dyssebeia (Bess) (goddess of ungodliness & impiety), and Menoetius (Titan god of rage, violence, & rash actions). Atë dislikes Soter (god of safety), calling him a "tight-assed square"- especially since he was the one who provided Zeus and suggested to him that he revoke her godhood.

She earns extra income through modeling for/endorsing Delicious Xtasy & atelier fantaisie. She's also an "unofficial" official burlesque performer- Atë has done shows at The Void & Delirium and is also a semi-pro wrestler. She's even developing her own signature debut fragrance called Red Frenzy.

Atë has had thoughts of getting married, but has not brought up the topic to Limos (goddess of starvation & famine).

In her free time if she's not with her children or girlfriend, Atë loves checking out monster truck shows, clubbing, sword fighting, playing music (she plays the synth keyboard & electric guitar) where she uploads some of her original music onto Fatestagram, and other high octane activities like ice climbing (in the Underworld), megavalanche bike racing (nearly did it on Mt. Olympus), and even rodeo. She also has an interest in necromancy (thanks to Asteria).

Some of her favorite dishes include pho, youvetsi, bahn mi sandwiches, & banh tom.

"Delusions of grandeur makes people feel better about being hollow pathetic shells."

#my oc #my oc character #my character #oc character #oc intro #character intro #oc introduction #character introduction #modern greek gods #modern greek mythology #greek myth retellings #greek goddess #greek goddesses #greek mythology #greek pantheon

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ladylannisterxo · 2 years

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You're right, betrayal in general has already been a pretty prominent theme this season.

What got me thinking along the Eleven lines (besides the fact that Lucas used the specific word Caleb did) was her character's series-long struggle with whether she's a monster or not, and deep down, I think she believes she is. Then there was the trailer with Brenner specifically telling her she could not save her friends. So . . . what if the Hawkins Wipeout or whatever other massive crazy cliffhanger is coming is her fault? Not even maliciously, just out of desperation or hubris or she's tricked by the evil labbies or it's 'save your friends or save the entire world' . . . IDK. Just last-minute theorizing but pretty much every bad thing that's happened in Hawkins can be traced back to Eleven's powers so.

What I like about this theory as well is that it ends in everything being reset in S5 so even if (insert fave's name here) dies . . . no they didn't.

That is true and she's been struggling all season with feeling like she doesn't belong anywhere because of how different she is. Like, I really believe that the only way she can even feel beneficial to other people is if she has her powers - which is totally fucked. I mean, how many times did the Hawkins gang talk about El no longer having her powers and "El needs to get her powers back" like why is that the only thing that matters?? I get it's helpful but her friends somewhat seeing her worth being based on her powers alone is a lot like how the lab treated her. I'm just saying...

BUT anywho... yeah, maybe when she gets her powers back, she really gets them back and they're much stronger than they've ever been. Her not knowing that could be catastrophic. And also, it was confirmed that she inadvertently created the Upside Down but she doesn't know that! Imagine when she does learn that and how every bad thing that has happened since Will first disappeared can be traced back to her. I mean... how do you even begin to move past that? You really can't. So, I agree with you, it's totally possible that the "Hawkins Wipeout" (love that btw) could be her fault in the end but not on purpose... it just happens, like it always happens.

And yeah, if the Upside Down pours through and takes over, it's stuck in '83 so if it "resets" things, the potential to bring literally anyone back is on the table so yeah! Did you see your favorite character die in Vol. 2? Whelp, no you didn't!!

#stranger things #st theories #asked and answered #'s' answers #mutuals 🫂

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ohyangchon · 3 years

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Tagged by @inkingtwice for SF asks!

I’mma tag @beingjanee @rain-hat @ryn-s and tbh anyone who wants to do this!

The side character you think is most deserving of more backstory

Your favorite "quiet moment" in the show

The moment/scene that inspired you to write or go looking for fanfic for this show

The side character you think is most deserving of more backstory:

I’m actually going to say Jung Minha from season 2 here? She’s set up as a foil to Eunsoo, the idealised version of “what if Eunsoo lived”, but also she’s just so obviously different: she’s not as crafty and desperate as Eunsoo was, and certainly not as independent, but when Shimok and Dongjae saw her both their protective instincts kicked in and they are trying so hard to be the good mentors they never were to Eunsoo...and that last case file Shimok offered her! I’m gonna burn up trying to figure out how far she goes with it, and I like setting her up as a quiet observer who’s genuinely curious about everything but taking this all in instead of over-the-top eavesdropping and recklessly jumping into matters.

Your favorite "quiet moment" in the show

The scene at the hotel of S2, where Shimok sits with his laptop with his hair down again like his old self as a student. I recalled @theaggresivepacifist mentioning that it was striking that after all the trauma and experiences he endured in S1, the first thing that came to him was to default to his original hairstyle as if to call back to what his roots were and for some sort of anchor for his purpose. The semi-darkness of the room coupled with that focus just further illustrates how utterly alone he is, because the haircut mirrors Lee Changjoon’s, his mentor’s, and in a way is his specter looming behind Shimok at all times, not even just the prosecution’s.

The moment/scene that inspired you to write or go looking for fanfic for this show

I felt like both Changjoon’s and Eunsoo’s deaths were the ones that prompted me to start graverobbing: I’ve had my concepts for them since 2017 when I livewatched, but simply never published them, instead fitting them into my own personal universe as my OCs. Then 2020 rolled around and I felt the heat of “oh maybe I should start publishing these” and after a minor rework, I started publishing disgusting Changjaes into the tag and tormenting the general fanbase at large beating my drums about nasty old demi people.

Eunsoo’s death was to me a fridging. There was no way around it, and I know that the circumstances set up for her was that there couldn’t have been any way she would’ve made it out entirely unscathed, but it made me so bitter especially post-Season 2 that Dongjae, who was one of the worst-behaved people in the entire series, was allowed his redemption and carthasis, but Eunsoo wasn’t. Here was an idealistic, shrewd prosecutor with the blood of actual giants in her veins (Young Iljae), someone who was desperate and reckless enough to stoop as low as she needed to in order to clear her father’s name, and the answer shouldn’t have “oh yeah, she just DIES” like excuse me, even if she never gets to clear her family name I still want her around, snooping around and actually growing from her mistakes.

Changjoon’s death had always been foreshadowed throughout the series, even though I still screamed NO!!!! when he actually did commit suicide. As I wrote, his pride was his hubris, and his inability to let others he cared for in on his master plan (thus robbing them of their ability to make decisions on their own regarding it) leaves him an indelible, unravelled thread looming over the prosecution, a monster of his creation. I need this man to go for therapy: hell, his wife owns a medical company as a part of her many ventures, someone there has got to have some form of psychiatric training there. I also think that SF2 strained because there was no actual catalyst beside “the system” and it seemed to acknowledge the giant Yoo Jaemyung-shaped void in their midst with everything moving around Shimok and Yeojin, in a way that makes it seem that they can never escape Changjoon’s influence even in his death. God. Just. Let him actually properly fix things. He needs to witness what he created: death was too cheap in a way for him, a quick escape that only weighed on those who’d actually devoted themselves to him.

#tadprompts #smash that meme #thank you!#tvn secret forest #forest of secrets tvn #tvn forest of secrets #park ji yeon #shin hye sun #yoo jae myung #I always have these two on the brain

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lastarchived · 2 years

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jill isn’t upset with any of her fellow S.T.A.R.S. officers ( namely brad ) who stayed loyal to RPD in the wake of irons disbanding the S.T.A.R.S. program and suspending jill for looking further into the mansion incident and umbrella’s involvement. the culture at RPD had always been a tense one under irons’ rule and she recognizes that many of them who kept their heads down were doing so because of greater immediate factors, namely family. she’s not going to ask someone to sacrifice a steady paycheck they need to support themselves and other people who are depending on them, and she’s especially not going to come down hard on someone who’s processing trauma in their own way.

the whole ordeal in arklay with the mansion incident was incredibly traumatic for jill. it’s evident how badly the whole situation is affecting her in the nightmare we see her go through at the beginning of the resident evil 3 remake ( first 45 seconds ); for her, the best way for her to process her trauma is by finding answers ( she realizes this is not the best process for everyone, and she wouldn’t push that on any of her fellow S.T.A.R.S. members ). she knows that umbrella has heavy involvement in what happened at arklay, and she ( correctly ) suspects that umbrella corporation is a front for creating and manufacturing bioweapons and selling them off. we see briefly through the evidence she’s gathered that she already knows about the t-virus and what it does to the body, and she has a very good understanding of how infection can work with the t-virus and that she could potentially be infected. when she’s forced out of her apartment and into the streets of downtown raccoon city by nemesis, she sees firsthand that her worst fears are becoming a reality: the t-virus has spread throughout raccoon city and so many citizens have turned. these are people she’s seen on her way to work, whenever she stops in at her favorite cafe for a drink or restaurant for a meal, who have hung out at the bars she goes to after a long and tiring work week, who she’s interacted with in small and large capacities.

umbrella is at fault, which she’s well aware of at this point. after watching brad get bitten and infected, and being chased down by nemesis, her saving grace is her sworn enemy ( or so she thinks ); it’s clear the anger and hostility she holds toward umbrella when carlos introduces himself as U.B.C.S. and she immediately points out that umbrella is responsible for everything that’s going on. as she works to help survivors flee the city and continues to get hunted down by nemesis, her focus shifts toward finding more answers — carlos and tyrell are unlikely, but welcome allies as she tries to find a solution to the mess umbrella created. the vaccine is a beacon of hope when everything seems decidedly hopeless. the core of jill’s mission has always been to help the people around her. raccoon city is her home: she’s met her closest friends here, found a meaningful career path, made memories, and it’s not something she can just give up on and turn her back on, especially when she knows that the reason the city is falling apart is because of umbrella’s carelessness and hubris. someone needs to be held accountable, yes, but more importantly, the people need to be saved. the fact that the impossible is now suddenly possible is a strong motivator. even when nikolai destroys the only vaccine for the t-virus, effectively sealing raccoon city’s doomed fate, jill isn’t done. she boards the last helicopter to leave NEST 2, cooly telling nikolai over her shoulder as she boards that she “doesn’t mind a little detective work” while he tells her that if she lets him die, she’ll never find answers.

cue one of my favorite lines: all this death wasn’t caused by a monster-making virus. it was greed. human greed. I decided then and there that the ashes of raccoon city would be umbrella’s ashes, too. I would end them, once and for all.

jill has one enemy and one enemy only, and she’s not going to rest until umbrella pays for the destruction and carnage it caused in raccoon city. umbrella, and everyone who assisted umbrella in carrying out the operations that opened the door for this to happen, are responsible and she’s going to hold them responsible.

#HEADCANON. ㅤ ㅤ — ㅤ ㅤ FACT SHEET.#META. ㅤ ㅤ — ㅤ ㅤ FACT SHEET.#this is hella rambly and copied over from my multi #but my point still stands

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iheartrobots404 · 3 years

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My Robot Boyfriend: Questions of Autonomy and Manufactured Romance in a One Direction Robot Fanfic

If recent history is any indication, the general human public has become increasingly horny for basically anything sentient. From candy corporations tweeting lustfully about anthropomorphic foxes to erotic novels about flying reptiles, the boundaries of acceptable romantic sentiment are expanding at a rapid pace. A conservative may easily interpret this as the nadir of our decadent society, heralding the swift demise of our civilization. But the real story is much more complicated.

Monster novels and cinema have always been metaphors for the latent anxieties of a society. Initially manifesting in racist fears of desegregation and miscegenation in D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the theme of white supremacist heroism triumphing over the control of the female body by a monstrous “other” is apparent in such later movies as The Neanderthal Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Best Picture winner The Shape of Water is deeply concerned with the dehumanization and unseen racism in monster movies, choosing to portray the monster and white woman in a genuine romance, while the handsome man that perceives them is the villain.

According to del Toro, The Shape of Water was an attempt to demonstrate that “the racism, classism, sexual mores, everything that was alive in ‘62, is all alive now. It never went away.” Del Toro characterizes the monster as a perceived negative aspect of society or personality that is initially distressing but can become liberating when embraced, explaining, “There are truths about oneself that are really bad and hard to admit. But when you finally have the courage and say them, you liberate yourself. All monsters are a personification of that.”

But what about...

Monsters have embodied a substantial collection of anxieties over the years: the rupture of the religious world by the scientific in Frankenstein, communism and McCarthyism in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the erasure of the past by modernity in King Kong. Robots, in comparison, typically represent a generalized technophobia, a fear of technology replacing the human, best represented by I, Robot (2004). They can also invoke questions of the nature of autonomy in an industrialized, capitalist society (Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times), fears of the transgression of the mind/body duality (2018’s Replicas), and imminent warnings of scientific and military hubris (Black Mirror’s Metalhead). So if romance with monsters can be a liberating embrace of the taboo, what function does romance with robots serve?

To answer this question, we could turn to the wide range of novels and films providing nuanced treatments of the complex ideas involved in human-robot relationships. Her (2013), Ex Machina (2014), Autonomous (2017), and He, She, and It (1991) are all beautiful, subtle considerations of robophilia, celebrated in science fiction and general circles. Unfortunately, my library card was revoked after failing to pay my 10-month overdue fee on Taken by the Pterodactyl, so that’s a dead end. I also don’t really want to pay to watch any movies, and the last time I went on 123movies.com I got a virus that pulverized my feeble laptop. Fortunately, the greatest, most boundary-pushing work on human-robot relationships is completely free of charge and within reach to anyone with an Internet connection. No expense is necessary to access this avant-garde treasure trove of communal literature, where robophilic desire meets ingenious analysis of our technology-ridden society.

I am speaking, of course, of the user pokemonouis’s love bot [h.s.] on the popular fanfiction site Wattpad. Before you click away in terror, consider that fanfiction can be a vital representation of culture, especially that of young people negotiating their place in a complex world. As the author Constance Penley says of Star Trek slash fic, fanfiction can be “an experiment in imagining new forms of sexual and racial equality, democracy, and a fully human relation to the world of science and technology.” With this framework in mind, let us dive into a sultry world of robot love.

In the vein of a typical Black Mirror episode, love bot [h.s.] is set in the present, near-identical to today except for one incongruous twist. Our protagonist, Ava, has been sent a mysteriously large package by her cheeky friend Niall Horan, containing an eager-to-please model from Love Bot, Inc., Harry. Though Ava is initially incensed at her friend Niall and is uneasy about Harry’s bizarre synthetic mind and body, she quickly warms up to his loving personality and sexual proficiency. Along the way, Ava must deal with her complicated newfound responsibility and the complexity of her own emotions.

Tragically, like Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor or Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” love bot [h.s.] remains unfinished. It was abandoned in 2016, and like One Direction, it doesn’t appear to be releasing any new material any time soon. Nonetheless, love bot [h.s.] is astounding in its complete lack of pretension or self-consciousness, existing as a complete, undiluted fantasy about getting a sex robot based on your favorite band member. However, the cherry on top is the dialogue created between the author and her readers, manifesting as a ludic communal debate about the philosophy involved or implied in the context of the world she has created. What I’m trying to say is that One Direction robot fanfiction is basically the 21st century version of the Athenian plaza or the Parisian salon, where the author’s story, as well as the community comments surrounding it, remain a portal of vital insight into such disparate themes as the commodification of sex and romance, the question of robot’s social standing given their initial utilitarian purpose, and the morality of human/robot pairings.

To enumerate, the foremost concern of love bot [h.s.] is the commodification of romantic love and its implications for how we relate to other human beings. From the moment Ava receives Harry, she is unwilling to engage with what she perceives as a mere corporate commodity, surrounded by packing peanuts, a charging port on its lower back. When Harry boots up, Ava is immediately accosted by the manufactured nature of his existence:

The comments echo Ava’s sentiment. One user states, “I’d be creeped out. Imagine if there was a camera or something.” Another jokes, “in the middle of doing what he does best, Harry whispers in my ear, “please like love bot incorporated’s page on Facebook!” This combination of the romantic with the heavily marketed is not new to the 1D fandom, as the band’s image, promotional events, song lyrics, and music videos all serve to encourage an attachment between fan and musician. However, to assume that the average fan mindlessly consumes the marketed content is to ignore the self-awareness within the 1D fandom. For instance, 1D fan culture often repudiates the perceived manufactured nature of their idols; many fan works bemoan the band members’ “management,” or the behind-the-scenes music industry professionals who prevent the boys from living life to its full potential. Thus, the Harry Styles sex robot becomes a potent metaphor for the fans’ relation to their favorite musicians, a playful way of acknowledging that you’re being pandered to yet still enjoying the show. In keeping with the framework of monsters provided by Guillermo del Toro, to engage romantically with the robot is to embrace the messiness and weirdness of emerging sexuality despite society’s opinion of 1D fans as crazed, lustful, and corporate-brainwashed young women.

Love bot [h.s.] also presents an interesting exploration of robot aesthetics and how they are constructed to appeal to humans. Ava is initially rather put off by the combination of the synthetic and the natural found within Harry’s body:

Despite this, she eventually comes around to Harry’s physical appeal, particularly due to his “cuteness:” Ava’s affection grows after he adorably takes the expression “you’re a dime” literally, uses the phrase “take a sleep” instead of “take a nap,” and is caught using her computer to look up “how to impress a girl.” According to scholar Sabine Payr, robots in popular media tend to either be nearly indistinguishable from humans, in which case they occupy the space of the “uncanny valley,” are threatening, and must be destroyed (as in Blade Runner or Ex Machina), or are presented as non-threatening “sidekicks,” whose cuteness and helpfulness to humanity mark them as peaceful (Wall-E, Star Wars’ C-3P0 or R2D2). Harry is gradually brought out of the former category and into the latter through his cuteness as well as his utility to Ava, such as through cooking her a delicious breakfast. As one commenter succinctly puts it, “It kinda creeps me out that he’s a robot but he’s freaking adorable so whatever.” However, this transformation of Harry has the possible negative consequence of him not being seen as fully equal to humans, as his “adorableness” is contingent upon him occupying a lower social position than Ava. Nevertheless, though most readers seem somewhat put off by Harry’s robotness, many seem just as ready to engage with the “uncanny valley” robot as the “adorable” one. For example, in response to Ava calling Harry "too real, too creepy," one user responds, “Well Send him over to me and call me Goldie locks cause he’s just right.” This sentiment is repeated throughout the first chapter: for every “This is going to turn into some Chucky shit for sure” there appears a “Call me Shia Labeouf cause I’m about to get it on with a transformer.” The readers willing to engage with the “uncanny valley” Harry avoid the problem of inequality inherent to the subjugation of the robot to a “sidekick” role. Thus, in this case, engaging romantically or sexually with the robot may be a potential expansion of the social category that robots may inhabit, a radical rebuke of the idea that robots must be subordinate to humans to be lovable.

Similarly interesting is love bot [h.s.]’s theme of autonomy: can one form a healthy relationship with a sentient being that is bought and customized to love you? Throughout the narrative, Harry refers to Ava as his “owner” or “master,” and Ava frequently treats him like a friend’s dog that she has been left to take care of. Harry gets separation anxiety when she leaves to attend school or work, is constantly compared to a puppy, and is described as a “burden:”

However, the readers were quick to push back on this characterization of Harry. Angry commenters lashed out at Ava, stating, “HES NOT A FOOKING BURDEN” and “HARRY DOESNT DESERVE YO RATTY ASS.” Readers of love bot [h.s.] reject the notion of a love bot as a less than human, asserting their right to be recognized not as a product or sex slave but as a full and realized autonomous being. However, as commenters repeatedly point out in another section of the fic, such a relationship is suspect. Ava is eager to downplay the uniqueness of her relationship with Harry, mostly ignoring his robotness in favor of labeling him as just another human:

Commenters are quick to point out the contradictions within this statement, replying, “except for him bc he is a literal robot who was made to be owned” and “says the girl who literally owns a robot im fed up bye.” Ava may treat her robot boyfriend as an equal, but, as the readers indicate, the nature of their relationship is inherently unequal. After all, the fic mentions that the love bots are, in legal terms, basically slaves:

Harry is completely dependent on Ava, and, tragically, only able to shop at Sears. With the realities of this society, the commenters argue, Ava’s “you are your own person and you belong to yourself” statement is functionally meaningless. Commenters also occasionally bring up other questionable power dynamics within the context of Ava and Harry’s relationship; one states, “Imagine if they got in a fight, she could just power him off;” another asks, “What if she died?” after a sentence highlighting Harry’s extreme dependence on Ava; another mentions, “that sentence is making me remember that he's a robot & can be programed at any time :((.” Harry’s boundaries of mind and body are much easier to manipulate than Ava’s, and this presents a quandary; can a robot partner ever be in full control of their internal psyche if his mind is specifically manufactured to carry out a single purpose, and that mind can be tampered with at will? The rich dialogue created between the author and readers gradually teases out several ethical considerations involved in human-robot relationships, questioning whether any relationship between a human and a robot constructed out of pure function can ever be helpful. In this context, the readers redefine the act of loving the robot as not a simple act of passion, but a commitment to upholding the autonomy of one’s partner.

The playful exchange between the author of love bot [h.s.] and her readers illuminates the moral gray area of human/robot relationships, offering key insights into the nature of commodified romance, social categorization of robots, and unequal partnerships. If/when artificial intelligence advances and potentially becomes sentient, the willingness to have debates about these topics will be essential to the creation of a just society for humans and robots alike. As Guillermo del Toro reminds us, the hierarchies and unquestioned assumptions of today will persist into the future, and a potent way to resist them is through the act of loving the taboo. It would be unwise to dismiss it.

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thecreaturecodex · 4 years

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Sahkil Tormentor, Kasadeya

“Empress Wasp” © deviantArt user MissJaimeBrown, accessed at her gallery here

[Commissioned by @echo-of-carcosa. Not going to lie, this one involved a lot of growing pains, but I’m happy how she turned out.]

Sahkil Tormentor, Kasadeya This lean woman is immaculately dressed and decorated, a vision of exquisite beauty. She would be perfect if not for the halo of wasps surrounding her body and the writhing and tunneling visible beneath her skin. The skin rents along her back, extending in four buzzing tendrils composed of vermin bodies held in a coherent shape.

Kasadeya The Queen Sangreal, The Royal Parasite Concerns industry, parasitism, seduction Domains Artifice, Charm, Evil, Nobility Subdomains Fear, Hubris, Lust, Toil Worshipers inheritors, moochers, vampires, vermin lords Minions fiendish spider eaters, hellwasps, sahkils Unholy Symbol a wasp whose body is an hourglass Favored Weapon light mace Obedience steal a small item or body part, such as a coin or a fingernail clipping, from someone without their knowledge or permission. Eat this item while meditating on how to extract more resources from this person. Gain a +4 profane bonus on Bluff, Disguise and Sleight of Hand checks

Kasadeya, the Royal Parasite, is the physical embodiment of exploitation. Her favorite order of the world is the privileged few feeding on the oppressed masses, both metaphorically and actually. Intensely vain, she can conceal her horrific appearance with illusions in an instant, and always tailors her apparent form as that of someone beautiful and powerful. She is a seducer and panderer of the first order, and directs her worshipers to be the same.

Kasadeya’s appearance may often seem frail and delicate, but she is a powerhouse in combat. She never travels anywhere without her scepter, which is in fact a rod of lordly might, and she favors the battleaxe setting in combat. The wasps that comprise her body can extrude into venomous tentacles, and create a cloud that drains the life from her enemies and transfers it to her. Despite their horrific appearance, her wasp appendages can trigger the nerves that cause pleasure, and those that survive her embrace claim that it is an intensely ecstatic experience.

Kasadeya rarely travels alone, and her retinue is comprised of dominated humanoids and monsters, allied sahkils, and vampires that covet her power. Vermin lords hold a special affinity to her, and she may have been their original creator. Those that succumb to Kasadeya’s charms may find themselves incubating a fiendish vermin lord in their body until it tears itself lethally free. Her worshipers include anyone that relies on charm and deception to make a living, or those that have come into vast stores of wealth without having done anything to earn it. Her cult helps to keep the huddled masses in their place at the bottom of the pecking order. Unsurprisingly, Kasadeya and Caracalla are allies due to their similarly toxic worldviews, and their churches often cooperate.

Kasadeya CR 24 XP 1,230,000 NE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar, sahkil) Init +15; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +44, true seeing Aura ravenous wasps (10 ft., Ref DC 36, 5d6 damage) Defense AC 42, touch 31, flat-footed 32 (+10 Dex, +11 deflection, +11 natural) hp 496 (30d10+330); fast healing 10 Fort +21, Ref +27, Will +28 DR 15/good and epic; Immune charm and compulsion effects, critical hits, death effects, fear effects, disease, poison, single target abilities, sneak attacks; Resist cold 30, electricity 30, sonic 30; SR 36 (41 vs. divinations) Defensive Abilities freedom of movement, nondetection, untouchable grace; Weakness swarm-like Offense Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good) Melee +4 battleaxe +41/+36/+31/+26 (1d8+13/19-20x3), 4 tentacles +34 (1d6+3 plus poison plus grab) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles) Special Attacks ecstatic embrace, implant, look of fear (30 ft., Will DC 38) Spell-like Abilities CL 24th, concentration +35 Constant—freedom of movement, nondetection, true seeing At will—charm monster (DC 27), greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs objects only), reckless infatuation (DC 26), unnatural lust (DC 25), vampiric touch, veil (self only, DC 27) 3/day—creeping doom (DC 28), displacement, quickened dominate person (DC 28), mass suggestion (DC 29), mental barrier III, empowered mind thrust VI) (DC 27) 1/day—dominate monster (DC 32), overwhelming presence (DC 32), summon (9th level, 1 sahkil of CR 20 or lower, 100%), waves of ecstasy (DC 30) Statistics Str 25, Dex 31, Con 33, Int 30, Wis 32, Cha 32 Base Atk +30; CMB +39 (+43 disarm, grapple and steal); CMD 67 (69 vs. disarm and steal) Feats Agile Maneuvers, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Empower SLA (mind thrust VI), Flyby Attack, Greater Disarm, Greater Steal, Improved Critical (battleaxe), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Steal, Multiattack, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (dominate person), Stand Still Skills Acrobatics +40, Bluff +44, Diplomacy +41, Disguise +44, Fly +47, Intimidate +44, Knowledge (arcana) +40, Knowledge (engineering) +40, Knowledge (nobility) +40, Knowledge (planes) +43, Perception +44, Sense Motive +44, Sleight of Hand +43, Spellcraft +40, Stealth +43, Use Magic Device +41 Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal, telepathy 300 ft. SQ easy to call, expanded emotional focus, sahkil tormentor traits, skip between Ecology Environment any land or underground (Ethereal Plane) Organization unique Treasure double standard (rod of lordly might, other treasure) Special Abilities Aura of Ravenous Wasps (Su) As a swift action at will, Kasadeya can exude a cloud of wasps emanating 10 feet around herself. Any creature in the area takes 5d6 points of damage and heals Kasadeya the same amount. Excess hit points are gained as temporary hit points. This damage can be halved with a successful DC 36 Reflex save. Sahkils are immune to this damage. Kasadeya can use this aura a number of rounds per day equal to her Hit Dice (30 rounds), but does not need to expend actions to maintain the aura. The save DC is Constitution based. Ecstatic Embrace (Ex) A creature grappled by Kasadeya must succeed a DC 36 Fortitude save or be stunned with pleasure for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution based. Expanded Emotional Focus (Ex) Kasadeya includes charm and compulsion effects in the types of effects that benefit from her emotional focus ability. Implant (Su) As a full round action, Kasadeya can implant an egg inside a willing or helpless host. This host suffers no initial harm, but every 24 hours afterwards, takes 2d4 negative levels (Fort DC 36 halves). Once the number of negative levels reaches or exceeds the host’s Hit Dice, they are immediately slain, and a half-fiend vermin lord emerges from the corpse. A creature slain in this fashion cannot be returned to life except with a true resurrection, miracle or wish. This effect can be neutralized with a remove curse or break enchantment with a caster level check against the save DC, or with a miracle or wish spell without the caster level check. The save DC is Charisma based. Look of Fear (Su) 30 ft., Will DC 36, staggered and shaken 1 minute. The save DC is Charisma based and includes the +2 racial bonus from her expanded emotional focus. Poison (Ex) Injury—tentacle; save Fort DC 36; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d4 Dex drain; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution based. Sahkil Tormentor Traits (Ex/Su) Kasadeya is a powerful unique sahkil. She gains access to the following abilities

Immunity to charm and compulsion effects, death effects, disease, fear effects and poison

Resist cold 30, electricity 30 and sonic 30

Telepathy 300 ft.

Kasadeya’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons she wields, are treated as epic and evil for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction

Once per day, Kasadeya can summon any sahkil of CR 20 or lower with 100% chance of success

Kasadeya can grant spells, as listed in her divine information

Swarm-like (Ex) Kasadeya’s body is a collection of thousands of buzzing wasps. She is immune to critical hits, sneak attacks and spells and effects that target a single creature. On the other hand, she takes 150% damage from area of effect spells and abilities. Untouchable Grace (Su) Kasadeya gains a deflection bonus to her Armor Class and Combat Maneuver Defense equal to her Charisma modifier.

#kasadeya #sahkil #body horror #commissions #pathfinder 1e

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neuxue · 4 years

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Who are some of your favorite villains?

Oh man, that is a question, anon. This is not a comprehensive list, because if I started listing every morally corrupt character who owns my soul, we’d be here all night. I’ve also taken a somewhat flexible definition of villainy at times, because…it’s complicated.

Also, spoilers for uh…most of the things listed; I’ve tried to keep it vague where possible, but the nature of villainous arcs means sometimes that doesn’t work. I’ve listed the work before the commentary, so if you don’t want spoilers for the thing, skip that section.

In no particular order…

Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter (His Dark Materials): okay, so arguably they’re not villains, per se, but they each serve as antagonists at various points, they’re ambitious and proud beyond belief, and their morality is…well. Complicated. (Did I lose my mind at the ‘corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous toxic malice […] you are a cesspit of moral filth’ speech, from a corrupt angel to the one deceiving him? Abso-fucking-lutely. Also ‘I wanted you to come and join me. And I thought you would prefer a lie’). They’re also on this list because they were my Formative Villain Faves from the age of 7, which probably tells you something about who I was as a child and who I am as a person.

Nirai Kujen (Machineries of Empire). You really…could not write a villain more My Type if you tried. I’m not sure I could write a villain more My Type if I tried. Immortal, immoral mathematician who traded empathy for the ability to act on it, reconfigured a universe, and has lost most of his humanity but not his sense of beauty? I am but a simple woman. It helps that there is one hell of an enemies/allies/lovers dynamic going on between him and another character who is a different sort of my type, and it’s precisely my kind of Fucked Up Power Dynamics.

Moridin (Wheel of Time): ’Your logic destroyed you, didn’t it?’ I have a whole…thing about villains who see themselves as a kind of anti-Chosen One. I’ve written about it slightly more coherently elsewhere, but it comes down to a particular kind of despair and perception of inevitability, that they have no choice but to fight and that their role is always to lose, and that they will be cast and remembered as the monster, and so there is not reason not to be monstrous, but that doesn’t help with the self-hatred.

Semirhage (Wheel of Time): I could pick a lot of the Forsaken, and one or two other characters from WoT but I’ll stick to two here. Semirhage is all about pain without emotion, and I’m into it.

Malkar (Doctrine of Labyrinths): okay, he’s sort of in the category of scenery-chewing villain you love to hate, but I do love to hate him. And he causes so much delicious pain for the major characters; it’s almost like he’s running a charity service for those of us who like watching our favourite characters hurt.

Aaravos (The Dragon Prince): Listen. Listen. Trapped in a mirror, lost and alone and yet only letting that show in glimpses, possibly a Prometheus figure, graceful and beautiful and terrible, and that voice. Also the entire aesthetic. He is awful, and he is a delight, and he has that kind of cruelty that you can almost forget about - it’s as though he’s so into the villain aesthetic that you almost think it’s just an aesthetic, almost forget how capable he truly is of horrors, and so when he commits them it’s all the more thrilling.

Astrid & Athos Dane (Shades of Magic): The Dane twins deserved better. And by better I mean more screen time. They were criminally underused as villains and they had such potential. Vicious and cruel in a world where to be otherwise is to die, holding power by blood and pain, and chaining another …well, if not villain then certainly antagonist to their will, forcing him to serve the world he wants to save? Which brings us to…

Holland (Shades of Magic): Holland is…arguably not a villain but as an antagonist he is absolutely my type: powerful and ruthless and broken, and yet somehow still fighting; a character whose defining trait is his extraordinary will (and also self-hatred); a character who, literally in canon on the goddamn page, is told ‘no one suffers as beautifully as you’. (Plus he gets a redemption arc! That lets him remain complicated and doesn’t undermine his competence! And while it falls into redemption-equals-death, his death doesn’t come at the turning point in his arc the way it does for so many villains - he gets a whole road-trip first!)

Melisande Shahrizai (Kushiel): oh man. She’s such an interesting character, and the narrative does an excellent job of creating that link between her and Phedre - a really, really compelling and beautiful form of 'you know it’s a terrible idea but you can’t help yourself’. Also, she and Marisa Coulter should never be allowed to meet (by which I mean, I would read that fic). I’m also always here for a female villain who gets to be complicated, who has depth beyond just the typical 'femme fatale’ (though Melisande could certainly claim that title), and who is truly central to the story rather than there to look pretty.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender): For all that I love Zuko, he doesn’t belong on this list, flexible as my definition of 'villain’ here is. Azula, on the other hand…sharp and vicious and a void of anger and fear inside, and if she has to feel that, then the world should too.

Zhao (Avatar: The Last Airbender): It’s at least 85% the voice, and the other 15% is the way he looks at Zuko (I know, I know, I’m sorry).

Rhaegar (A Song of Ice and Fire): Rhaegar’s villainy is…complicated, but he gets a spot here anyway. I have a niche subtype that can be defined as Sad Harpists (Rhaegar, Maglor, Deth, Morgon, Asmodean), so that’s part of it, as is the way he sets that aside out of what he perceives as necessity. But also most of his draw is how he’s this shadow hanging over the entire narrative and yet is himself a void in it; we see so little of him, know so little of him in truth, catch only glimpses and will never know what’s behind them, and every character sees him differently, and he has defined all their lives but we know almost nothing of his. I’m all about identity and choices, and the fact that his are so thoroughly obfuscated but have such a lasting impact on the entire world really does it for me.

Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade): Does she count as a villain? I suppose it depends entirely on whose point of view you’re watching from, which is kind of the point. Regardless, she is so much of what I want from a character, from an author who doesn’t do things halfway. Intelligent and ambitious and utterly ruthless, to both herself and the world she wants to burn down around her.

Delilah Briarwood (Critical Role Campaign 1): any character whose cry of agony and despair takes the form of 'I broke the world for us!’ is a character I’m going to like.

The Lone Power (Young Wizards): mostly because the traditional greeting, upon encountering them, is ’fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance’, and I am a simple woman. But also because they’re the Lucifer figure, in all senses - evil, perhaps, but mostly a necessary embodiment of entropy, one who must exist and must struggle and must always lose, beautiful and bright and terrible, and oh so proud.

Judas (Christian Mythology): He betrayed a guy with a kiss. What more do you want from me?

Rin (the Poppy War): By the end, she makes a very compelling case for herself as a Villain Protagonist and I, for one, am into it. Also, 'genocidal’ gets tossed around a lot when villains are discussed, often without cause, so uh…points to Rin for actually deserving it? (This book is strongly in the category of Not For Everyone, but if it’s your thing…weaponising gods.)

Loki (Marvel franchise & Norse Mythology): so, I have a complicated relationship with 'trickster’ figures and characters, in that I like the idea of them, but tend only to actually enjoy the ones who fall on the darker side of that line they all dance around. Loki, in pretty much all his incarnations, fits that mould.

Achilles (Greek Mythology): Is Achilles a villain? Depends who you ask. But he’s powerful and proud and doomed, and knows it. I just…heroes who go out in a blaze of glory are all well and good, but villains who step up to the flames of their own damnation?

Ruin (Mistborn): It’s funny; I really enjoy a lot of Sanderson’s stories, but by and large he tends not to write my type of villain (which I will forgive him because he gave me Kelsier). But Ruin…starts off like just another godlike semicorporeal villain with absurd power, as you do, and then gets significantly more interesting – and tragic – when you learn the full story. I have a thing for villains who chose their villainy out of necessity (with a side helping of hubris) and become that which they most hated or feared. The ones who look at a razor’s edge and think 'I can walk that’. Who look at power that will consume them and think 'I can control it’. It’s a very specific kind of… arrogant sacrifice, I suppose, and it never ends well and I’m into it every time.

#i feel like i should apologise #but i'm really not sorry for any of these #anyway you asked for it #so now you get to witness my shame #asks #anon #book recs #recommendations #i need a better villains tag

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ofthemuses · 5 years

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True Detective Sentence Meme: Season One (another of my favorites, well, the first season at least.)

WARNING: Triggering content, NSFW content, religion/death/violence/sex/drugs/suicide mentioned. Lots of foul language

Regular Quotes

I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist...

Oh, just a regular type dude... with a big ass dick.

People out here, it's like they don't even know the outside world exists. Might as well be living on the fucking Moon.

It's all one ghetto man.

Stop saying shit like that. It's unprofessional.

So what's the point of getting out of bed in the morning?

I tell myself I bear witness, but the real answer is that it's obviously my programming. And I lack the constitution for suicide.

Let's make the car a place of silent reflection from now on.

Can I ask you something? You're a Christian, yeah?

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

Can you get pills pretty easy?

Listen, when you're at my house, I want you to chill the fuck out.

There's nothing I can do about it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but... I'm gonna have a drink.

Given how long its taken for me to reconcile my nature, I can't figure I'd forgo it on your account.

Hmm. That sounds God-fucking-awful.

Isn't that a beautiful way to go out, painlessly as a happy child?

Trouble with dying later is you've already grown up. The damage is done. It's too late.

I can be hard to live with. I don't mean to, but I can be... critical.

Sometimes I think I'm just not good for people, that it's not good for them to be around me.

Such holy bullshit from you. It's a woman's body, ain't it? A woman's choice.

Girls walk this Earth all the time screwin' for free. Why is it you add business to the mix and boys like you can't stand the thought? I'll tell you. It's cause suddenly you don't own it the way you thought you did.

Is shitting on any moment of decency part of your job description?

Nothing man, sorry, forget it.

You got some self loathing to do this morning, that's fine, but it ain't worth losing your hands over.

What's your deal?

I don't have "a deal".

You're kinda strange, like you might be dangerous.

Of course I'm dangerous. I'm police. I can do terrible things to people with impunity.

Now what do you mean exactly... these visions you mentioned.

Shiiiiit, just what have you two heard about me?

What the hell good is cake if you can't eat it?

You know, throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. And old men die, and the world keeps spinnin'.

What do you think the average IQ of this group is, huh?

Just observation and deduction. I see a propensity for obesity. Poverty. A yen for fairy tales.

I think it's safe to say nobody here's gonna be splitting the atom.

You see that. Your fucking attitude.

Not everybody wants to sit alone in an empty room beating off to murder manuals.

Yeah, well if the common good's gotta make up fairy tales, then it's not good for anybody.

Well, I don't use ten dollar words as much as you, but for a guy who sees no point in existence, you sure fret about it an awful lot.

I mean, can you imagine if people didn't believe, what things they'd get up to?

Exact same thing they do now. Just out in the open.

Bullshit. It'd be a fucking freak show of murder and debauchery and you know it.

If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of shit; and I'd like to get as many of them out in the open as possible.

Well, I guess your judgment is infallible, piece-of-shit-wise.

You figure it's all a scam, huh? All them folks? They just wrong?

People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time.

Do you wonder ever if you're a bad man?

World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.

But I think I'm all fucked up.

You don't have to fall in love at first sight, you know.

Every time I think you've hit a ceiling, you, you keep raising the bar. You're like the Michael Jordan of being a son of a bitch.

Fuuuck! Hell of a bedside manner you've got.

Ahh, you know, being stupid is different than going in sick, and this is a bar, not a fuckin' bedside.

All the dick swagger you roll, you can't spot crazy pussy?

So, enough with the self-improvement-penance-hand-wringing shit. Let's go to work.

Oh God damn it, I am so done talking to you like a man.

What the fuck you think I want with you, huh?

I'm sorry. What are you suggesting, exactly?

I will skull-fuck you, you bitch!

This is none of my business... I don't want to hear it.

Do you know the good years when you're in them, or do you just wait for them until you get ass cancer?

What always happens between men and women? Reality.

Someone once told me time is a flat circle.

The newspapers are gonna be tough on you.

No, buddy, without me... there is no you.

Yeah. Fuck this. Fuck this world.

You know, people that give me advice, I reckon they're talking to themselves.

A man's game charges a man's price. Take that away from this, if nothing else.

I'm the person least in the need of counseling in this entire fucking state.

Thought maybe we should talk.

If you get the opportunity, you should kill yourself.

Hey, man, look. Why don't you just get out of here, please? I don't want to get arrested. Just - just get... before I do something to you.

I slept with someone... And you know him/her... You're close.

Oh... Now, what-what are you saying?... What - what are you - what the fuck are you saying to me?

Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

If you were drowning, I'd throw you a fuckin' barbell.

Why would I ever help you?

Hey. You better get those jumper cables ready, the motherfucker is lying.

Get on out of here, you're classin' the place up.

My family's been here a long, long time.

He ain't gonna talk with you.

I got a car battery and two jumper cables argue different.

A man remembers his debts.

Fuck, I don't like this place... Nothing grows in the right direction.

What happened in my head is not something that gets better.

Well you know what, I just got here; I was gonna leave, but then you woke up - Jesus, what's your fuckin' problem?

Not a care in the world.

I'm not supposed to be here.

Yeah... well, I'll come back by tomorrow, buddy.

Don't ever change, man.

Agh. Ah, fuck. Ah, he got me pretty good...

Do I strike you as a talker or a doer?

You'll rip out your fucking stitches. Stop it.

This is the place.

Everybody's got a choice, ____... Shit, I sure blamed you.

There you go... Everybody's got a choice.

It's hard to find something in a man who rejects people as much as you do, you know that?

Come die with me, little priest.

The DEEP SHIT™

I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution.

There can be a burden in authority, in vigilance, like a father's burden.

I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory is fading.

I contemplate the moment in the garden; the idea of allowing your own crucifixion.

I don't sleep, I just dream.

You got kids? I think of the hubris it must take, to yank a sole out of nonexistence into this meat; a force of life into this thresher.

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

Yeah, back then, the visions, yeah most of the time I was convinced... Shit... I'd lost it. But there were other times... I thought I was mainlining the secret truth of the universe.

I mean, it's like somethin's got your name on it, like a bullet or a nail in the road...

People... so goddamn frail they'd rather put a coin in the wishing well than buy dinner.

This... This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean when I'm talkin' about time, and death, and futility.

They welcomed it... not at first, but... right there in the last instant. It's an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just... let go.

All your life--you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain--it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person.

And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it.

You see, we all got what I call a life trap - a gene deep certainty that things will be different...

Nothing's ever fulfilled, not until the very end. And closure - nothing is ever over.

I have seen the finale of thousands of lives, man. Young, old, each one so sure of their realness. You know that their sensory experience constituted a unique individual with purpose and meaning. So certain that they were more than biological puppet. The truth wills out, and everybody sees. Once the strings are cut, all fall down.

In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So Death created time to grow the things that it would kill.

And you are reborn, but into the same life that you've always been born into. I mean, how many times have we had this conversation? Well, who knows?

When you can't remember your lives, you can't change your lives, and that is the terrible and the secret fate of all life. You're trapped by that nightmare you keep waking up into.

I can see your soul at the edges of your eyes. It's corrosive, like acid.

Sometimes... this feeling like life has slipped through your fingers... like the future is behind you, like it's always been behind you.

There's a shadow on you, son.

I saw you in my dream. You're in Carcosa now with me... He sees you... You'll do this again... Time is a flat circle.

There's no such thing as forgiveness. People just have short memories.

All my life I wanted to be nearer to God. But the only nearness - silence.

Some people, no matter where they look, they see themselves.

You see, sometimes people... mistake a child as an answer for something, you know, like a way to change their story.

Look, as sentient meat, however illusory our identities are, we craft those identities by making value judgments: everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that... You're livin' wrong.

Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning.

#roleplay meme #rp meme #askbox meme #inbox meme #sentence meme #sentence memes

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tgunn64 · 5 years

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Favorite Villains - Professor Pericles (Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated)

I love Scooby-Doo as much as the next guy, but along with it comes a long legacy of cartoons and movies--some good, some eeeh not so much. I consistently heard the praises of Mystery Incorporated sung peerlessly for its overarching plot and mystery, which is why I was excited to watch it. And while I feel it has some really glaring characterization issues that drag it down a bit, I can’t deny its mystery is one of the biggest the gang ever tackled, all leading up to a phenomenal villain--Professor Pericles. We first meet Pericles bound in a straight jacket and locked in the highest level security possible in Crystal Cove. After shocking a security guard with his own stun gun (by design of his own sheer brilliance), Pericles plants seeds of doubt within the Gang and is the first sign that something is going on. A massive power outage caused by a costumed criminal allows Pericles to escape, and the truth begins to unravel at long last.

It’s established in this series that the Mystery Inc we know is the latest in a long line of mystery solving teams, each assembled by a Lovecraftian evil sealed away in a massive trove of treasure without them even knowing it. The most aware of this was the designated mascot of the generation that preceded the Mystery Inc we know, a parrot called Professor Pericles. While most of the mystery solvers were manipulated into seeking out the treasure, Pericles knew precisely what he was doing. Pericles had the inquisitiveness and morbid curiosity to lead his Mystery gang to the treasure, and unveil the ancient evil that lied there. Unfortunately his huge misstep was an under the table alliance with the crooked Mayor Jones, who helped Pericles find the treasure in exchange for selling out his gang. Jones didn’t keep his word, knocking out Pericles with a blunt blow to the face and arresting him before banishing Mystery Inc, hoping to keep the ancient evil that waited in the treasure sealed away forever. As you can guess, with Pericles freed, the search can continue after thirty years. Pericles begins by pulling off strangely familiar costumed schemes you’d expect from Scooby-Doo. But the thing is he leaves clues almost like a game. It’s rather endearing when the Gang unmasks him and he’s almost sporting about it--like, yeah, good going, you picked up on my mistakes. However, it doesn’t take long to put together that Pericles’ seemingly incidental crimes are all in the name of leading the Gang closer to the treasure, doing a good chunk of his bidding for him. He’s a rather smart chessmaster. But his manipulation doesn’t end with the current Mystery Inc--he’s also managed to track down his old gang, starting with Ricky Owens, Shaggy’s equivalent of the old team who is now the CEO of Destroido, an arms dealership that Pericles appropriates for his needs. Ricky detests everything Pericles stands for, but finds he can’t bring himself to refuse to help him. After all, they were Shaggy and Scooby before the years decayed them--Ricky nursed a wounded Pericles back to health when they were mere kinder, seeing them grow to hate one another is sort of tragic. There’s even some comments Pericles makes that suggests that it was he back in the day doing the bulk of the mystery solving work, perched on Ricky’s shoulders while he took credit as a figurehead. I love the resentment this establishes as well as sort of a subversion of Scooby’s role in his own gang, a mascot who didn’t do as much active clue hunting as his human cohorts but was very much their honest friend and guardian, Pericles’ opposite in every way.

Ricky tries to conspire with Brad and Judy (the old gang reps of Fred and Daphne) to help him overthrow Pericles, but Pericles quickly establishes he’s in control when Brad and Judy go behind Ricky’s back and reveal his plan to the bird. Pericles deals with Ricky by implanting venomous cobra larva in his spine in his sleep, which he activate with the press of a button, while the scarily sociopathic Brad and Judy, revealed here to be loyal to Pericles, look on. Pericles’ interactions with his subordinates are some of his best moments in this regard--as the lengths he takes wear out their loyalty and yet he’s so untouchable that there’s no real way to deny him. He even forces Brad and Judy into permanent reconstructive surgery to look like an aged Fred and Daphne for the sake of a plot. There’s no line he won’t cross. As Machiavellian as he can be, he isn’t above downright destructive Saturday morning plots that keep his intrigue raw and fun--such as when the Gang comes into possession of the key to the treasure and Pericles holds the whole world hostage by breeding a herd of monsters, using Destroido’s genetic lab to create a cow-bee-piranha hybrid that destroys everything in its path. It’s a high stakes plot that ends with the trampling of Scooby’s love interest, a spaniel named Nova, which leaves her on the brink of death. If that’s not dark enough for you, Pericles also personally puts a bullet in the head of Marcie, Velma’s friend who worked for Pericles but had a change of heart that cost her life. Pericles spills just enough blood to clearly mean business, which certainly raises the bar past the masked goons Scooby and company usually deal with.

Pericles, upon uncovering the treasure, also uncovers the lovecraftian alien god that is sealed within (YES, I AM SERIOUS). It turns out a race of advanced aliens visited earth some time ago, some leaving their genes with us, which explains why some animals, like Scooby and Pericles, are miraculously capable of speech and great intelligence. Also left behind was the evil entity who was subconsciously uniting these intelligent animals with mystery savvy people hoping a group would eventually free him, and you know the rest. Pericles excitedly tries to bond with the entity, only to lose control and be reduced to a host for his hubris. The entity manages to consume almost every character we’ve gotten to know outside the Gang in a nightmarish climax, leading up to Scooby and friends using their friendship and intelligence to erase the Entity and everything it effected, resetting the timeline. In a life without the Entity, Pericles grew up to happily be the pet of the now well adjusted Ricky Owens. They run Destroido together, which is now a federation for the betterment of everyday life. Strangely a happy ending for such a horrid villain, arguably at the cost of his original existence. Pericles was a really fun villain, absolutely my favorite that has squared off with the Mystery Gang. Insanely memorable and terrifying, this dirty birdy is one for the books.

#tommy's favorite villains #professor pericles #scooby doo mystery incorporated

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theonyxpath · 7 years

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Rose here, with the latest preview from The Realm, courtesy of lead developers Eric Minton and Robert Vance. May I present… Prasad!

The Empire of Prasad

The Jade Road carries countless talents north toward the Blessed Isle, and just as many adventurers, opportunists, and vacationing Dynasts to the south. Those who complete the journey find a nation at the height of ambition and opulence. The Empire of Prasad crusade across the Dreaming Sea, a conquering heir to the Scarlet Dynasty.

The Dreaming Frontier

The coast of the Dreaming Sea teems with kingdoms and empires, each fighting to hold their homes against strange and aggressive fauna, Fair Folk raiders, and each other. Gods and elementals claim earthly territory with impunity. The region varies from one journey to the next: even when national borders aren’t shifting, Wyld storms roll off the sea and alter the coastal terrain. Scavengers find sites not seen since the First Age, if ever, and lose those sites just as suddenly.

Several grand empires rise above the mayfly kingdoms of the Dreaming Sea. In three hundred years, Prasad has expanded from the city-state of Kamthahar to an empire that rivals its older southern neighbors. Dragon Caste charioteers and elephant-riders lead mortal armies across the flatlands, and fire-cannons gird their holdings against invaders. Where the Dragon Caste goes, they bring order. [REDACTED]

Empire of a Thousand Names

The Prasadi people are many and varied, and for each of them there is a place. Prasadi society is regimented, yet fluid, and it demands the best of each new culture it consumes. Overlapping systems of social stratification have created hundreds of subcultures. For each such subculture, Prasadi cities assign enclaves and duties. Enclaves elect their own ruling councils, which in turn answer to the Dragon Caste.

When Kamthahar stood alone, four castes broadly defined its social hierarchy: the God-Blooded Exemplar Caste, rulers and shepherds of souls; the Sage Caste, advisors and designers of society’s greater order; the Caravaner Caste, masters of battle, travel, and trade; and the Corporal Caste, entrusted with unclean tasks, from construction to sewage to assassination. When the Dragon-Blooded conquered Kamthahar, they claimed and renamed the Exemplar Caste, and cemented their spiritual authority through marriage to the God-Blooded. A few God-Blooded still exist within the Dragon Caste, providing insight into spiritual matters.

Kamthahar’s clans persisted with little change as the empire expanded, for they came natural to the formerly-Dynastic Dragon Caste. Prasadi clans compete ruthlessly for prestige and advantageous marriages, and rigorously track their bloodlines. The Dragon Caste consists of two sprawling clans, Burano and Ophris. Mortal members of Clans Burano and Ophris serve as members of the Sage Caste, and receive constant courtship from mortal clans seeking advantageous marriage.

The Empire of Prasad claims a hundred cultures, each with its own jati. A jati is a tribe of people, either subsumed by the empire or broken off from another jati over time. Jatis build reputations for particular skills and virtues, reputations which affect their social standing and even their caste. Some jatis straddle castes, while others may change from one caste to another if their contributions to the empire demand it. When a jati’s place is improved (or worsened), each member is affected, and so each is accountable for the whole. Most members of the Dragon Caste descend from high-caste Realm-born jatis. Once they Exalt, they swear a greater allegiance to their superhuman peers than to any mortal community, though some favoritism is common and expected.

The Indispensable Chef

Some societal duties are too important to leave to members of a single caste, and so are practiced in some form by members of each caste. The Caravaner Caste has its teachers, some Sages learn esoteric arts of self-defense, and every caste needs cooks. Lower castes may not cook for their betters for fear of spiritual contamination, and likewise may not handle or gather ingredients beyond their station.

Corporal citizens subsist mostly on curry, rice, root vegetables, fish, fowl, beer, and “lesser” fruits like breadfruit and coconuts. They pay well for goat meat and superior fruits (like kiwi) prepared by a Caravaner. Many dream of being honored with Dragon Caste delicacies such as chocolate, cherries, tiger meat, and above all, peafowl.

A Vision of Purity

The Pure Way of Prasad is a syncretic religion born from the Immaculate Order’s influence over ancient Kamthahari traditions. Adherents believe in a natural place and order for all, judged and controlled by the Elemental Dragons, but they do not limit the natural hierarchy as Immaculate canon demands. Gods and elementals have their place in the cycle of reincarnation, and greed and hubris can drag them down to mere humanity. According to the Pure Way, two paths to transubstantiation exist: the way of divinity, in which mortals reincarnate into godhood; and the way of royalty, in which mortals reincarnate as spiritually-advanced humans, such as God-Blooded or Dragon-Blooded.

Monks of the Pure Way proselytize, train, and enforce the social order as zealously as their Immaculate cousins. They do not guard mortal worship as strictly, but they quickly strike down spirits who extort worship or mislead the mortal flock. God-Blooded and Exigents easily find a place in the Pure monkhood. A dozen or so Immaculate monks journey to Prasad each year to prove the hypocrisy of the Pure Way, by debate or by duel. By request of the rani-satrap, most Immaculate monks visit only for a season. A few stay, wishing to become Pure. A few others stay in secret, developing underground cults to disrupt Prasad’s heresy.

The central temple of the Pure Way is the Most Pristine Sanctuary of the Spirit, in the heart of Kamthahar. Their recruitment and training practices closely align with the wisdom of the Immaculate Order, though many of their instructors are gods or elementals capable of sharing particular insight into the Essence of Creation. A week’s ride from Kamthahar, a valley conceals the Inner Crucible Monastery. Here the Wyld Hunt houses its forces, and here it returns when the hunt is complete. Sometimes it returns with captives: tainted souls, Wyld mutants, Anathema, and even inhuman monsters such as demons and Fair Folk may surrender to the shikari and seek the wisdom of the Pure Way. Through hard work, obedience, and purifying rituals, unclean creatures seek a cleaner death, and a place in the cycle of reincarnation.

The Winding Road to Enlightenment

Prasadi society discourages isolation and encourages insularity. Even in tight-packed cities, caravans, and military camps, citizens mostly interact with and marry within their own caste and jati. Prasadi often believe that they will reincarnate among their peers and loved ones repeatedly, perfecting familial bonds across lifetimes. Paragons of enlightenment are mourned for the certainty that they have left for a superior incarnation.

Though the Dragon Caste commands members of every caste, common beliefs still center around within-caste relationships. Many Kinships swear loyalty across lifetimes, and launch quests to find young Exalts worthy of claiming reincarnation from a lost Oathsibling. Legendary Dragon-Blooded leave bequests to their reincarnations, prompting great competitions to prove that the fallen hero has returned to resume her destiny.

Twin Dragons Circling

Once, Kamthahar was a lone city-state and rebellious satrapy, and Burano and Ophris were [REDACTED] seeking to elevate their names. They were rivals with opposite temperaments, chosen for the task because the Empress expected each to undercut the other. Yet in Kamthahar the two houses found victory, camaraderie, and opportunity that they would never find on the Blessed Isle. They embraced their differences, and claimed the satrapy together.

Clan Burano hews closely to traditions inherited in centuries past from both the Scarlet Empress and the old Exemplar Caste. They work tirelessly to create a more perfect empire, and make countless adjustments to social planning so that Prasad’s many cultures can work in harmony. It was Burano that first saw the promise of the budding syncretic cult that would become the Pure Way, and propped up its order to lend legitimacy to the Dragon-Blooded. In peace, they are contemplative and aloof. In battle, Burano knights are impossible to miss, clad in heavy armor, with siege weapons trailing behind them.

Clan Ophris forever seeks new pleasures and adventures, evolving along with the changing landscape of the Dreaming Sea. They are performers and demagogues, ready to take chances and clever enough to tilt the odds in their favor. In the aftermath of the conquest of Kamthahar, Ophris dared to negotiate with the Scarlet Empress for the city’s future, and secured her mercy for only a century of doubled tribute. Sensual and hedonistic, members of Clan Ophris delight in finding new frontiers to explore and new enemies to duel with words and weapons.

The two halves of the Dragon Caste compete in many things, but they are true partners in the expansion of their empire. They practice a system of imperial inheritance known as tanistry: while a member of one clan rules as rani- or raja-satrap, the ruler’s heir is elected from the other clan. Every member of the Dragon Caste, all across the empire, has the right to a vote, as long as all votes are tallied by the final night of Calibration on an election year. Once an heir is elected, she retains the position until the current ruler either dies or demands a new election. Unless the heir dies, the rani-satrap can only call for a new election every five years. Repeated elections can bankrupt an heir through campaigning costs, but risk outraging her clan.

The Shining Coast

For most of Creation, Prasad’s claim to fame lies in the so-called Jade Road, a trade route painstakingly mapped out by Dynastic explorers early in the reign of the Scarlet Empress. Desert-weary travelers and escaped slaves of the Fair Folk spoke of mountains made of multicolored jade in the distant southeast. Though no Jade Mountain has ever been found, the young Realm’s explorers did find quarries filled with great veins of multihued jade. The city of Kamthahar had claimed many of these fruitful quarries, and they quickly bent knee to the distant Empress for the promise of Imperial garrisons to protect their lands. The Immaculate Order was an unwelcome addition to the arrangement, but the Kamthahari had assumed they would be no more than a nuisance. Heavy religious suppression, backed by the very Realm garrisons that Kamthahar had desired, brought about rebellion and a more lasting conquest.

Today, Kamthahar provides more raw jade to the Blessed Isle than any other two satrapies. Imperial Tax Assessors assume that it could provide much more, for Kamthahar is now the capital of an empire that stretches hundreds of abundant miles. The Empress only increased Prasad’s expected tribute incrementally, for the journey would have been a waste of her legions and a temptation for any Great House she sent. In her absence, many Dynasts who have visited Prasad and seen its wealth find intolerable that so much jade should be wasted on a mere satrapy, however grand.

Jade is far from the only commodity available through trade with Prasad. Uncanny creatures run wild across the plains beyond the Dreaming Sea, many carrying some mix of divine blood and Wyld influence. Massive sea creatures circle in the Dreaming depths, overflowing with oils treasured for occult perfumes. Scavengers have found medicinal herbs that were thought lost in the Second Age, relegated to historical accounts of their wondrous effects. Strange manses and artifacts await the fortunate or skilled explorer, many of them alien-seeming—evidence of Wyld taint, perhaps, or wonders that predate any age of humankind.

The Sea Primeval

According to ancient Kamthahari myth, the Dreaming Sea was strange and wondrous long before the Fair Folk invaded and twisted vast stretches of seascape. Sages debate whether the Dreaming Sea was the birthplace of humans, or of elementals, or of all natural life, but most agree that it is a sacred, lifegiving font. This myth serves as one of the driving forces behind Prasad’s expansion, for the faithful cannot allow the region’s backward, debased empires to foul the Dreaming Sea’s waters unchallenged.

Jewels on the Diadem

The Empire of Prasad stretches from the deserts west of Kamthahar to the tip of the Dreaming Sea, and it’s still expanding. Each territory adds to Prasad’s glory, and contributes its skills and culture to the whole as a new jati. [REDACTED]

Auk’s Roost has been held by several regional powers over the two centuries since its founding on the ruins of another coastal city. Prasad’s in-depth social control is proving difficult to apply to locals used to weathering one conquerer while waiting for the next, but Auk’s Roost is one of Prasad’s rare coastal holdings, and the empire will not surrender it easily. Nearby lumber mills work feverishly so the empire can establish a naval presence.

The small city of Reverie began as a campsite around a monument to some forgotten god, then grew in concert with the monument’s legend. Those who enter its great doorways and sleep beneath its towering minarets dream of those they love the most, and these dreams always carry the ring of truth. Reverie has a reputation for hospitality and relaxation. Spirits view Reverie with respect, and visit its ancient monument to negotiate with each other, or with stranger creatures.

The bluntly-named Rockship is an industrious city known for its mining and metalwork. It’s built around and within its namesake, an enormous, many-masted ship. The dreadnought is partially buried in the earth, made of an imperishable ochre stone, and far from the sea. The Dragon Caste has stepped up excavation efforts, for if the Rockship actually floats it will dwarf any vessel of the Fair Folk or the Gigantes of Dis.

Screeward was built on a mountainside by several fractious clans of goatfolk. They fought against the empire bravely, then accepted their new rulers quickly. The Screeward jati now serves across the empire as hardy members of the Caravaner and Corporal castes. As many humans now live in Screeward as goatfolk, with rope-and-pulley elevators for citizens incapable of climbing sheer rock faces. Screeward’s patron deity serves as an honored advisor when Dragon Caste generals must deal with challenging or unnatural terrain, or when lovers navigate complicated romantic tangles.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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mittensmorgul · 7 years

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(1) Did you just say Robbie Thompson created Eileen??? Is that why Eileen reminds me of Charlie!?? (2) I don't think Crowley is dumb in 12x17. I mean yeah, he was naive in 12x13, but I think in 12x17 Buckleming were trying to make Lucifer look smart instead, and when you have someone in chains and suffering from torture, that's not easy to write. I know you don't care about Luci, sorry to bring this up. (3) Who is your favorite S12 writer?

1) YES! Robbie created her (and Mildred) for 11.11 Into The Mystic, the banshee episode. (sorry I had major flails over that one, and wrote long meta about Patsy Cline and what that said about Mildred, and therefore what that meant about Dean; sunsets; what Eileen might mean for Sam and the parallels between their meeting and Dean meeting Cas… I mean it felt like a HUGE episode in a lot of subtextual respects.) I was THRILLED last week when we learned she would be in this episode, and also SUPER WARY because of what they did to Charlie. But they actually handled this really well. (plus SHE MADE SAM SMILE MULTIPLE TIMES. SHE CAN STAY. :P)

2) ohmygosh, I might not care about Lucifer’s story, but I’m always down for talking about it. I know that doesn’t make any sense. It was just dull in the show, and really he’s not adding anything interesting to the story except in vague “tidy up loose ends” ways. He is a huge loose end. I just kinda want to set fire to him already and move on. :P

But you’re right. I mean, Davy Perez managed to plant some pretty big seeds of doubt that Lucifer would have any sort of control in this situation. The problem for me is that I just don’t care enough about Lucifer to even make Crowley’s game with him even interesting. Like, we have no idea what Crowley’s ultimate motivations are for not having put Luci back in the cage in the first place, and dragging this out over SO MANY EPISODES without actually advancing the plot in any meaningful way is just… it feels like a pointless waste of screen time right now.

We could’ve been having interesting scenes with Rowena, we could’ve been focusing more on Mary, we could’ve had another episode or two with Jody or Alex or Donna… and instead we’re watching this pointless back and forth between Crowley and Lucifer (and also getting this really ick-worthy nephilim thing that just makes my skin crawl). And nothing is happening with Lucifer. At least nothing that merits the quantity of time he’s been occupying our screens.

Yeah, it’s hard to write someone having the upper hand when they’re in chains… but why was he even IN chains? I think Crowley’s little speech would’ve been FAR more effective if Lucifer hadn’t been in the chains. He’d told Luci in 12.15 (and then proved it) that he didn’t even need the chains to restrain him. It would’ve been a far more effective display of power to have Luci OUT of the chains. Unless they were trying to prove that Crowley was still “10 steps ahead” and therefore that entire SCENE was a show of some sort for the rest of the demons… but to what purpose? All we’re seeing is this long, drawn out power play between them… I get that Crowley may be trying to reunify his control of Hell after Lucifer destabilized things in s11, but sheesh. Locking him back in the cage would’ve had the same effect. WHY ARE WE HAVING TO WATCH THIS BS NOW?! At least give us a reason that makes sense. But no…

I mean, the fact we don’t know if it’s hubris for Crowley to believe he has the upper hand, when the other half of the storyline is focusing on the MoL who we CLEARLY see are being written as either ignorant or incompetent (aside from Ketch and this creepy new Dr. Hess), or inflexibly believing they know better when everything else in the narrative just SCREAMS the fact that they are oh so wrong, that they are the monsters, that they are evil… And that in large part it’s their unwillingness to see the TRUTH of the situation here (like Mick did in the end, which cost him his life, that their “Code” was wrong and their facts were wrong, and their conclusions were wrong…). So, which side of this equation does this put Crowley on, if his attempt to control Lucifer is being mirrored to the MoL vs Hunters thing? Is it an “old ways vs new ways” parallel? Is it about “TFW and their allies vs inflexible evil?” Because I can’t see even that narrative relevance to the larger plot.

It’s like a thematically different story altogether. If they wanted to continue telling his story, at least they could make it clearly relevant to everything else they’re doing this season, because right now, it just feels jarringly like the wrong story. Like it’s just filler, or tacked on as an afterthought. Because it doesn’t connect up with anything else thematically.

3) Who is my favorite s12 writer? Everyone else. I think they’ve all had some great episodes so far this season. Davy Perez, Steve Yockey, Meredith Glynn, and of course Bobo and Dabb. And next week we’ll see the first solo effort by John Bring, who co-wrote 11.15 with Dabb last year (aka, the wrestling episode). I’m really looking forward to it. :D

As for my favorite episodes, I’m going with the midseason triptych for now (10, 11, and 12), one each by the three new writers.

#spn s12 speculation #spn 12.17 #come on eileen #spn 12.11 #ain't it funny how the thing i disliked most ends up getting the most words?#i'm the sort of person who feels the need to justify why i don't like a thing that i'm being told i should like #but there's really valid story structure level complaints to be made #and i like explaining myself in ridiculous detail even if i don't like lucifer or his idiotic storyline :P #kajuned

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