#i am so normal about hector | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dancing-with-the-madmen · 2 years

Text

The Massive Aggression of Calico Jack, redux

Several kind souls have complained brought it to my attention that my failure to use cut tags is, in fact, not optimal. I don't have any good reason that I don't use cuts - mostly I'm just throwing these thoughts out here so they don't endlessly rattle around my brain. Frankly, I'm endlessly astonished anyone but me can be arsed to bother wading through them at all. So, after a truly epic tantrum thoughtful consideration, I've decided to edit my longer posts to add cuts. If you've already read them, (may endless blessings rain down upon you) there's no new content (vile lies and calumny. I'm going to take this opportunity to fix errors and add a line here or there, but nothing major). Just making it more scroll-friendly. You'll know it when you see the word "redux" in the title. So without further ado...

I’ve been trying for a while to put my finger on exactly what it is about Our Flag Means Death's Calico Jack that makes me want to crawl out of my skin and smother him to death with my own abandoned ecdysis.

I mean, I normally love me a spurned admirer/cock-blocking ex. Romantic comedies have their beats, and there’s obviously no serious danger the love interest will end up with anyone other than their intended, so I may as well sit back and enjoy the machinations. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth, and these bitches are here to rough some shit up for sure. I also love Will Arnett. Hands down favorite recurring character on 30 Rock. The second best Batman after TAS (fight me). I can even cheerfully bear his Reese’s commercials if I must bear commercials at all.

Real-life Calico Jack? One of my v. favorite pirates. He wore floral-printed cotton from India as a fuck you to the British tax man. He had an affair with Anne Bonny and offered to purchase her divorce when her husband found out. The two ran away together into piracy when Bonny’s husband refused to quit her and had her whipped for her infidelity. Mary Read was part of Jack and Anne’s crew, and possibly their lover. We love a hopeless romantic, possibly polyamorous king.

So what is it about OFMD Calico Jack that makes him so acutely punchable?

I’ve rewatched the episode several times (oh my v. dears, I really hope this write-up is worth it. I am SO BRAVE to subject myself to this), and I think I’ve finally got it. It’s not just that he’s a loud, vulgar, hectoring, drunken jackass of a bird-murderer. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have as little patience for his brand of mindless destruction and violence-for-violence-sake as Stede does, but that’s not all. It’s that he’s also a master of passive aggression.

Jack does the little whisper-y “Sorry! Sorry!” when Stede wants to know what’s with all the cannon fire, but immediately starts grinning like an unrepentant varlet as soon as he drops his hands.

And then accepts Stede’s introductory handshake with clear derision.

When Stede says he wasn’t expecting guests and there’s only two settings at brekkie, Jack doesn’t wait for Stede to sort things out, and he’s already lowering himself into Stede’s chair by the time Stede invites him to take his spot. He then purposefully keeps steering the conversation to topics that exclude Stede from participating, and cuts Stede short when he tries to reign the conversation back.

He insinuates Stede is less of a pirate for being “store bought”

He refuses to get Stede’s name right, even when corrected. Twice.

And is just SO insincere when calling him back.

And, just, the whole pissing contest scene.

But so what? We’ve had other passive aggressive assholes on the show; Badminton with his cracks about Stede’s tiny dick ship, the French captain’s slurs, Gabriel simpering about Jeff the Accountant’s dining manners. I’m not shedding any tears for their respective fates, but none of them made me want to crawl through the screen and sew all their face holes shut. Because Jack isn’t just passive-aggressive (and aggressive-aggressive), he might just be the most savvy reader-of-rooms we see on the show, and purposefully and systematically leverages his passive aggression to manipulate the actions of those around him for the purpose of making Ed and Stede betray their better selves and make them do the work of driving a wedge between themselves. That was a lot in one sentence. Let me break it down.

Jack uses passive aggression to achieve one of four goals: to nettle, to undermine, (seemingly paradoxically) to reinforce connections, or to coerce. And, if he can manage to achieve different goals for more than one target with the same attack? So much the better. And he’s frankly just astonishingly good at doing so. Like, I’d admire him for it if it didn’t also make me want to make him swallow all of his own teeth.

The basic gameplan goes thusly (this is not a strictly chronological list, a lot of these tactics take place concurrently and recurrently): Stede is the primary target, so Jack nettles him with passive aggressive comments, which puts him on the back foot and undermines his self-confidence. He reinforces his relationship with Ed in ways that excludes Stede and undermines Stede’s relationship with Ed and Ed’s relationship with Stede. Jack uses coercive tactics with Ed and the crew, which undermines Stede’s relationships with them, isolating and othering Stede, which further tanks his mood, which leads him to self-isolate. When Stede eventually lashes out at Ed for falling for Jack’s bullshit, Ed has no idea what’s got Stede so out-of-sorts; Jack has so carefully lead Ed to making the choices that have alienated Stede that they seem like they were Ed’s ideas in the first place. And if Ed has made the choices to do these things, then they are clearly just a reflection of who he is, which, if Stede is lashing out against them, then Stede is rejecting him. Wedge set and match.

So let’s look at the specifics.

Jack’s interactions with Ed are like a masterclass in neurolinguistic programming for evil. First, he plys Ed with booze from the very start. Just look at the bottle in this shot from right after they blow up the dresser drawer.

That bottle or rum is over half gone, and the sky in the background is the peachy-pink of sunrise. This isn’t the bottle Jack had with him in his dinghy; that one he drained and then threw in the air and tried to shoot before coming aboard the Revenge. Which means that they’ve consumed over half the bottle between just the two of them in a very short amount of time. Alcohol, of course, is a social lubricant - the physical warmth it produces mimicking the “warm, fuzzy” feeling of true comradery, and, more importantly, decoupling the decision-making process from inhibition (that is to say, Ed isn’t necessarily doing anything he absolutely wouldn’t otherwise do, but he might otherwise think twice).

But it’s more insidious than just having a few drinks with an old friend. Jack specifically gamifies the consumption of alcohol to reinforce the coupling of the feeling of inebriation with the comradery engendered by teamwork and excitement of success in order to encourage Ed to drink more than he necessarily otherwise would. Ed confirms to Stede during his apology that the idea to use the drawers of the armoire for target practice came from Jack, and we saw that a bullseye meant that Jack had to take a drink, but Ed didn’t. Presumably, there would have been some consequence for a “miss”, and it seems likely that it would be Ed has to take a drink and not Jack. In this way, Jack is able to exert a measure of control over how much Ed is drinking (by missing on purpose) while making it look like the responsibility lies with Ed and his skill as a thrower. This pattern of sneakily controlling Ed’s actions while making it seem like Ed is the one who made or is responsible for the decision will pop up again and again during their interactions.

After the apologies for waking Stede, Jack steps into the space where Ed is gesticulating to make himself readily available to be touched, reenforcing the bond between them, but letting Ed be the one to instigate the touching.

At brekkie, he pours rum into Ed’s teacup without asking or being asked while Ed’s attention is diverted by getting food.

Jack’s collaring of the conversation does not just function as a means of making Stede feel excluded, he’s also refreshing and reinforcing the bonds he and Ed forged under adversity. Talking over Stede also demonstrates that what he has to say is more important than anything Stede might contribute.

Note that just before Jack cut him off, Stede had referred to Ed as Blackbeard (“Blackbeard and I met on a ship”). This may be innocently explained away; if you meet a person from a facet of a close friend’s life with which you do not intersect, you might refer to said friend by their given name instead of a nickname that the other person might not know, for the sake of common frame of reference. But this is the opposite of that - referring to a friend by a nickname instead of the given name that you both presumably know. That suggests to me that the seed of the Ed/Blackbeard dichotomy has already been planted in Stede’s mind by the morning’s shenanigans. And when Jack invites Stede back into participating in the conversation by talking about something he knows Stede would find upsetting (the wanton cruelty of Ed purposefully trapping people to be burned alive, couched in what sounds like sincere admiration for his friend’s piratical prowess), Jack has picked up on that distinction and is leaning into it HARD. He WANTS Stede to see Ed as a collection of behaviors he finds palatable, and Blackbeard as a collection of behaviors he finds repulsive, and then coerce Ed into performing those “Blackbeard behaviors” in order to coerce Stede to drive the wedge by rejecting him. Fucking diabolical.

When Jack is calling Stede a “big girl,” or “store-bought,” or purposefully getting his name wrong, he’s not just throwing barbs that play on Stede’s insecurities (and with such harrowing precision, too; calling on the effeminacy for which he was tormented as a child, his body image issues that we’ve also seen him struggle with under the tender mercies of Badminton - both brain-ghost and original flavor - and the authenticity of his claim to piracy, which we’ve seen him confess that he fears he’s ill-qualified to claim to Jim, Oluande, and Ed. I mean,triple bullseye for this fucking guy). He’s also using these public declarations to undermine Stede’s authority in front of his crew, and establish himself as the real authority on things like piracy and masculinity. He further reinforces this idea by withholding the story of how he saved Ed’s life under the guise of false modesty; people never want something more than when they’re told they can’t have it. And what they’re being told they can’t have is the story of how Jack was so amazing that he even managed to save the life of the coolest, most legendary pirate they know. This withholding primes the crew to think even more highly of Jack and hang on his every word.

This puts Jack into a position where he can pressure the crew into things that sound fun at first blush (like diving off the yardarm or having a snowball fight, but with coconuts), but end up hurting more than anything. Of course, within this dynamic, no one wants to admit they aren’t having a good time, or don’t want to do it; to do so would be tantamount to admitting you are less of a man or not a real pirate. So when Stede refuses to participate, or admits his discomfort or disgust with the proceedings, he’s doing Jack’s work for him, and further alienating himself, and solidifying the roles Jack had put into place where Jack is the fun, cool guy, and Stede is the killjoy that no one should listen to.

Stede unwittingly plays right into Jack’s design when he tries to stand up for himself and wrest back a modicum of respect before things get too far out of hand. He’s well-versed in the world of passive aggression, and sees what Jack is doing. He also knows that you can’t call it out because passive aggression comes with a built in cover of plausible deniability gaslighting. So instead, he tries to push back with a little passive aggression of his own, suggesting that a real pirate has a ship and a crew. Sadly, Stede is not nearly so adroit at wielding passive aggression as Jack is. Jack uses the story (and we know that Izzy sent him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole mutiny thing is just a story; I could even easily read that slight hesitation after Stede asks his question as Jack deciding on what would be the most effective cover story, instead of hesitancy to admit to something shameful) of his crew’s mutiny to casually re-sow the idea of mutiny on the Revenge. It’s played for comedy when the crew starts talking about how they almost mutinied on Stede and probably will again, but you can’t tell me this hasn’t been a major concern for Stede ever since the first episode. So Jack’s not only got the crew trying to buoy his spirits by assuring him that his crew mutinying on his doesn’t mean he’s a bad person; it’s just something that happens! He’s also got them low-key committing to a future mutiny WITHIN EARSHOT OF STEDE.

Additionally, while Stede is well-steeped in the ways of passive aggression, his crew and Ed are not. They are not particularly sophisticated at identifying passive aggression on its own merits as opposed to the reaction it provokes, which can make it look like they don’t care when it’s being leveraged against Stede, undermining his ability to trust they will look out for him. Stede stoically putting up with Jack’s jibes makes them even more difficult to identify as hurtful. Jack’s (fake) emotional reaction to Stede’s sally might make him look momentarily weak, but allows Ed and the crew to unequivocally identify who is in the wrong and react accordingly. By positioning himself as a victim, he villainizes Stede, further undermining Stede’s authority, and placing him in a position where he owes Jack recompense. Thus, Jack is able to manipulate Stede into the trap of Dead Man’s Cove and make it look like it was Stede’s own idea. I mean, the Xanatos Speed Chess of it all.

What’s heartbreaking to me is how Jack’s wedge-driving and othering of Stede is working so well that at this point we start to hear it from other sources. As they approach the island and Stede suggests going for a swim or taking a nature walk, Ed is the one who tells him, “I think with this crowd, I think they want something a little more…” Not Jack would want something more exciting, this crowd. Jack’s exclusionary rhetoric out of Ed’s mouth.

Which is exactly the time Jack decides to up the ante.

I want to take a minute to look at the immediate lead up to yardies, because I think it’s an excellent illustration of how Jack looks like a lumbering boor, but his actions are actually so carefully considered and nuanced. He runs up from behind Stede and Ed and throws his arms around them shouting “Yardies!” literally insinuating himself between them, which interrupts anything that was going on between them, puts them off balance, and focuses the attention on him. Then, when he says “Who’s up for yardies?” he makes eye-contact with Ed - the implicit social expectation being “You, Ed, are up for yardies.” When he turns to Stede, it is to literally laugh in his face. I mean, the absolute cheek.

Until this point, the crew of the Revenge have been passive participants in Jack’s hooliganry. They watched him perform whippies, and got whipped at without encouraging him to do so. They listened to his and Ed’s stories. But now Jack is cashing in on his established expertise of what real pirates do to coerce the crew into taking part in a dangerous stunt. It’s more of the “Blackbeard behavior” dichotomy he started sowing in Stede’s mind at brekkie, but now he’s extending it beyond Ed to the whole crew. He wants Stede to feel like he’s all alone in a sea of idiocy, but he wants him to come to the conclusion on his own by making it seem like Ed and the crew are doing things of which he would disapprove of their own accord.

Once we get to the island, we see the activities take a turn from the careless Jackass-ery of whippies and yardies to the abject cruelty of turtle vs. crab. There’s no saying that Jack organized the fight, but we do see the crew handing him various trinkets to be used in gambling on a winner, which certainly suggests he was the central figure in how the game was established. We also see that, though he has been presenting himself as a drunkard, there’s no bottle in his hand or around him in the sand. There is, however, one in Ed’s hand, who is directly to his side. I can easily see him handing it off so he could handle the gambling stakes, the real intention being to keep Ed readily supplied with booze.

And then we have the pissing contest. Jack’s got Stede literally and metaphorically isolated, and now it’s time to really drive it all home. Every moment of their interaction is designed to drive Stede to distraction; the amount of derision he lays on the phrase “Your good, close buddy,” the insinuation that he and Ed are just alike, and then being as rude and crass as possible. And because he’s read the room - the intimate breakfast for two, Ed’s little touches and the way Stede smiles at them, the way they keep going off together for little chats - of course Jack’s just got to twist the knife and allude to his and Ed’s former sexual history. So now that he’s got Stede primed, it’s time to name the fear: “Maybe you don’t know him at all.”

At this point, Stede is left to wonder: does he? Blackbeard’s reputation preceded him, after all. And he’s been acting so differently since the appearance of one of his oldest friends. It’s not the violence qua violence, per se; Stede is by turns delighted and impressed by the violence he’s seen Ed and his crew employ in the heat of battle in the pursuit of piracy. It’s the cruel and senseless violence that Stede objects to, and that’s exactly the brand that Jack has been peddling, and which Ed has gone along with so enthusiastically. And it’s not JUST the violence; Ed apologizes for Jack when he recognizes Jack has crossed a line in a typically agro way (destroying Stede’s belongings, and insulting Stede to his face), but it never occurs to Stede that his insistence on persevering with quietly aggrieved dignity in the face of Jack’s slights would make it nigh impossible for Ed to identify that Jack has crossed all sorts of other lines, and Stede is hurting because of it. For Stede, it must be frustrating and mystifying why Ed keeps letting his friend get away with his passive aggressive bullshit. Doesn’t he care?

Is it any wonder that one more failure to notice how Jack has riled him, and one more act of coconut-flavored Jackass-ary is enough to break the dam, and for Stede to spill all that built-up hurt on Ed? Is it any wonder that Ed is bewildered at where all this is coming from? I’ve talked before about Ed’s tendency to fawn on people, and how, as an emotional chameleon, he would have difficulty identifying when the motivation for his actions is self-directed or externally dictated. Jack has further confounded this distinction by manipulating scenarios to make it seem like participation in all the Jackass-ary he has instigated was voluntary instead of coerced. When Stede says “I don’t like who you are around this guy” what he means is “I don’t like how this guy is able to manipulate you into acting on your very worst impulses”, but what Ed hears is “I don’t like you”. For who is he, if not the collection of behaviors he chooses to exhibit? And were those choices not entirely his to make? With the rift clearly established, if in its infancy, of course Jack is going to do everything he can to foster its growth. So again, he interrupts Stede, again implicitly signaling that Ed should pay attention to what he says and not Stede. By lobbing the coconut at Ed at that moment, he forestalls any possible clearing of the air between Ed and Stede, and causes Ed to literally turn his back on Stede, in the way Ed feels Stede has emotionally turned his back on him just moments earlier. Jack reinforces this idea of turning his back on Stede again moments later when he says “Don’t go!” and immediately turns Ed around by the shoulders.

I know that I’ve been laying it on a bit thick and prolly sound like the written embodiment of the red string conspiracy meme, but I’m about to get a whole lot worse, and I’m going to ask you to stick with me, oh my v. dears. I think Jack killed Karl on purpose.

I know, I know. It was an accident! He was flailing drunkenly! But was he?

Have we seen him take so much as a single drink since the cannon fire at the beginning of the episode? Even though he’d been drinking earlier, did he not have devastating precision and accuracy when he first demonstrated Whippies - shattering every glass, snapping the cards from the Swede’s fingers, and ball-tapping Ed without permanently maiming him or even splitting the leather of his pants? In fact, while nearly every other crew member on the deck has a bottle in hand, just like on the beach, Jack does not.

Jack knows he has to get Ed off the ship before the British show up, but he can’t just say “Let’s ditch these losers” and expect Ed to agree, especially since he’s spent most of the day roping the crew into his schemes. The most effective way to get Ed to follow is if Jack is rejected for just being himself and doing what he does, just like Ed feels he was earlier by Stede. I think the original plan was to goad Olu into seriously hurting the Swede, the fallout of which would be recriminations that Jack made them do it, and Jack getting aggrieved that he was just trying to show this ungrateful lot how to have a good time, skulking off and leading Ed to follow him and reassure him that he’s really a good guy - how could he have known it would turn out like that? But when Buttons calls a halt to the proceedings and it looks like everyone is going to pack it in, Jack has to think fast. If HE maims a crew mate, that would be a bridge too far, painting him as the bad guy. But Karl? He’s just a bird. And if Jack can get a little revenge on the weird bird guy who made him change his plan, so much the better. AND, as people with far fewer auditory processing issues than I have pointed out, Jack mutters that he expected there to be more feathers. Could the evidence be any more damning?

Of course the whole ship turns on him, and then here’s Stede to order him off, explicitly rejecting him the way he metaphorically rejected Ed. But when even that isn’t enough to get Ed to follow him, Jack pulls out one last, desperate manipulation - the debt of life.

Jack’s tragic flaw is that he can’t turn it off. Once he and Ed are alone, he turns his passive aggressive assault on Ed, pressuring him into drinking the morning away by sarcastically saying he didn’t know he had an audience with the pope when Ed expresses disinterest, and, ultimately, giving up the game when he mentions with casual derision how he’d heard of Ed shaking up with Stede, and then deriding Ed for his failure to spot Jack’s machinations.

Too bad Jack didn’t know that the punishment for passive-aggressive fuckery on this show is death…

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #calico jack

2K notes · View notes

olivsie · 6 months

Text

When does a man become a monster?

( Yes I know that it's supposed to be "whose") (the following is just a rant because I'm so normal about this)

Something i wanted to take into account with the second image is how Odysseus veiws Penelope and Telemachus ( Particularly him). At the time that the war ends Telemachus would be roughly 10 (i think Penelope would likely be in her 30's?) But he doesn't know that version of them. All he knows is what he left them as, ex. "I look into your eyes and I Think back to the son of mine, You're as old as he was When I left for war" I think this adds to his inner turmoil.

one last thing Is that this is not a finished design of odysseus, It's just simply him in armor. The reason he does not have a helmet is a nod to book 6 of the iliad in which astyanax cries when seeing his father hector with one on ( I like to think he would've Reacted the same to Odysseus, And he takes it off out of sympathy) ( I am referring to mainly the musical version of him there)

#odysseus #the oddyssey #penelope odyssey #telemachus #epic the musical #epic the troy saga #hector of troy #astyanax #that is Supposed to be the olive tree bed but I'm not great at backgrounds haha #i also dont teally know how to draw babies #this is a learning experience let us gooooooo #epic the musical fanart #the iliad #penelope

67 notes · View notes

veryextraincorrectfegbaquotes · 5 months

Text

And now, the special edition "Goop Lyn has horrible identity crisis nightmares" story

This one has got lots more dialogue, so if you like reading the Lyns talk to each other then boy is this the story for you!

To say ‘it was a memory, but not her own’ wasn’t exactly a unique thing for Goop Lyn. She has all of Lyn’s memories, underneath her own memories that only really started about a week ago. So for her to ‘remember’ something she wasn’t present for was if anything, painfully normal. But to have a memory that Lyn wasn’t present for either? That was, or at least should be, impossible. But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t recall any time Lyn had this conversation.

“Not in real life but I know what you’re talking about.”

She hadn’t said anything, but he was responding. As she stood there, frozen, trapped in this place and time she’d never been, she could only watch as he looked aside, smiling and bemused. As he looked back, visibly trying to not look condescending and failing, he said something that made her feel sick.

“Wendy buying 52 unique knives would be devastatingly expensive.”

That’s not me. I’m not her. Don’t call me that. I fought to be who I am. Look at me. I became this. I fought to be this. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge me. Look at me.

Every part of her was trying to scream out, demand he call her by her own damn name, but the sound wouldn’t come out. She felt like she was choking, then it got even worse as she felt her form giving out on her, melting away the person she was into the anonymous pile she refused to be ever again. She tried desperately to claw back herself but it just. Wouldn’t. Work. All because Hector had called her Wendy.

Then she woke up. Of course, phrasing it like that implies that ended the situation. She still felt awful, she woke up coughing and fell out of bed trying to get up. She was on her hands and knees, struggling to breathe, but at least she was in her room. Undeniably hers, specifically cleaned and prepared to be hers. It was proof that she was here and that she was herself. Because this was Her room. With her spit on the floor from struggling to breathe. Once she stabilized her breathing, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and calm down.

She walked out of her room, went down the hall and entered the bathroom. It was still late at night or early in the morning, so she had to turn on the light. She turned to the sink, looked in the mirror, and went to hell. It was wrong. It was lying, it had to be. She reached up and pulled at the lie, but it was still there, a bright pink stain on everything she was. She pulled harder, trying to yank it out, like pulling out the lying pink would show the green truth that had to be underneath. She was choking again, her throat not just feeling clogged but visibly in the mirror pulsing and changing.

Lyn’s hair was not pink. Goop Lyn’s hair is not pink. My hair isn’t this. Get rid of this fake hair. Why won’t it come out. Why is the mirror showing me Wendy’s hair. The mirror is wrong. I need to break it.

The next time Goop Lyn woke up, she was bleeding from the forehead and the mirror was broken. The streaks of red blood in her hair briefly made her feel like she was choking again, but they were just streaks against the green. Her green. Lyn was standing over her, looking in the part of the mirror that wasn’t broken while she brushed her teeth. She spat in the sink, briefly looked down at Goop Lyn, said “Hit your head like a dumbass, huh.” then left the room.

Goop Lyn jumped to her feet, rushed out and grabbed Lyn by the shoulder.

“No. We’re talking about this. Lyn meeting.”

“That Isn’t a thing.”

“Well as a 50% shareholder in Lyn inc, I’m making it a thing. And calling one. Bitch.”

“As the other 50% shareholder, I make a formal motion for you to blow yourself.”

“Motion denied, you freak.”

“You’re the bigger freak. Objectively.”

“Can you shut the fuck up so we can go start the Lyn meeting!?” “I thought this was it.”

“Sometimes I’m baffled by just how someone as great as me could have started out as a copy of you.”

“You’re really inspiring confidence in the company, miss 50% shareholder.”

“Shut up and go to the table!”

The Kitchen/Dining area, the most ‘open-plan’ area in Lyn’s (or as is more accurate Lyns) house was the standard place to discuss anything they didn’t want to end up resolving through fighting games or just regular fighting. Since Lyn was more argumentative than she let on and Goop Lyn was exactly as argumentative as she let on, it was a space they used a lot. Lyn slouched in her chair, one arm slung over the back to make it visually apparent she did not care and was not paying much attention. Goop Lyn sat with her elbows on the table, fingers steepled infront of her face.

“I hereby bring this Lyn Meeting to order. Pausing for applause.”

“Go fuck yourself. Meeting adjourned.”

“You should really make a better choice of words around your clone.”

“... Okay you got me.”

“Now then. First point of business. I… had a nightmare.”

“Damn, that sucks. Meeting adjourned.”

“Take this seriously you shitting piece of fuck!”

“Any more cusses you wanna string together or can I go.”

Goop Lyn slammed her fist on the table “It was a nightmare that was one of Wendy’s memories! I was her! Can you imagine why that would freak me out, Hm!?”

Lyn leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. “... I guess?”

“You fucking GUESS!? I woke up and I still had Wendy’s hair and you GUESS that’d bother me!?”

Lyn sighed, waved her hand to pre-emptively stop Goop Lyn from saying ‘don’t you fucking sigh at me’, then leaned forward and looked her alien clone in the eyes.

“Listen. I’m the foremost expert on whatever the fuck you are. That doesn’t mean I get it. You have my memories, so you know I don’t have any actual experience with your whole deal outside of this. So yeah, I guess dreaming you were someone else and then waking up with their hair would mess with you, I guess because I don’t fucking know. Don’t give me shit about it, alright?”

Goop Lyn paused then looked to the side.

“Maybe I was being unfair because I was stressed out of my fucking head. Maybe. It doesn’t sound like me to make a mistake, but there is a lot of you in here and you do make many, constant mistakes so…” she trailed off, then her eye widened. “There’s a lot of you, but plenty of other people. That’s how I got my strength back, by absorbing it from the mass produced clones. They must’ve put more in me than I thought.”

“Cool, we’ve cracked the code, good job team meeting adjourned.”

“Meeting not fucking adjourned, now we have a theory on why this happened, that doesn’t mean I’m over it.”

“Well get over it, there are other things I want to do today.”

Goop Lyn started moving to hold herself but stopped out of pride.

“You Listen to me this time. I don’t have a lot that’s ‘me’, okay? I’m still trying to figure out exactly where you end and I begin, but I know I like this form. It’s mine. It’s a lot like yours, because I am a kind of Lyn, my own kind. And that means a lot to me, it means pretty much everything. So can you understand why it not looking like it should, looking in a mirror and seeing someone else's hair when there’s already so little proving that I’m me would freak me out?”

Lyn paused for a moment to take it all in, this was a rare case where she couldn’t dismiss something.

“This is like, heavy shit for you huh?”

“The only thing heavier would be Lloyd coming back and yelling in my brain again.”

“Shit dude. I think this is something people would normally like, get therapy about.”

“But that’s not an option for an alien clone living in hiding.”

“And I don’t think they teach shit like that in psychology 101.”

“They’d have to reach at least 709 to start getting into my problems.”

“So what do we actually do about it?”

“... I don’t know if there is anything. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone like me, so there’s no info to go off of. For all I know this’ll never happen again, or maybe it’ll happen every night. I just don’t know.”

Lyn recognised the fear hidden in Goop Lyn’s voice. Only someone who knew her as thoroughly as Lyn did could. They were both intensely prideful and unwilling to show vulnerability, it was beneath them. Even to each other. So she knew that it was taking a lot for Goop Lyn to express this. And since they had no solutions to her problem, all Lyn could do is respond in kind. Even if she hated doing so and thought it sucked bad.

“Well if you figure out anything I should do about it, just tell me. Even if I have to sleep in your bed with you to hold you down if you wake up freaking out again. I’ll look out for ya. Not like anyone else does.”

“You better, I’m only alive and like this because of all your self confidence. You owe me.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ve got your back til death do us part.”

“Don’t fucking say it like that!”

#Lyn #Goop Lyn #Written stuff #I enjoyed writing dialogue that is specifically meant to read like set dialogue but without da pictures

33 notes · View notes

igotsnothing · 4 months

Text

Thank you for the tag @alinelie! This was fun and super cute!

Two OCs. Two bags. One bad attitude.

Let's go:

what's in my oc's bag? (picrew) vessel

Gideon and Sasha

Sasha: Why do people need to know? What's in YOUR bag, huh?

Gideon: Calm down. It's supposed to be for fun. Do you want to play or not?

Sasha: Fine. You first.

Gideon: I don't normally carry a bag. Pretty much everything I need to do can be done digitally. But sometimes, if I am going to be offsite or there's a conference, I have this:

A Tom Ford leather messenger bag, Prada black leather gloves, Loro Piana vicuña scarf, Mont Blanc pen, an Hermès handkerchief, some tissues, my phone, computer, earpods, some change for incidentals, mints, Augustinius Bader lipbalm, the keycards to my apartment and office, a pair of Cartier glasses-

Sasha: Vampires need glasses?

Gideon: -My eyes can get tired if I have been looking at a computer screen for too long- and some cold-pressed plasma fruit juice. Your turn, kitten.

Sasha: Don't call me that.

Gideon: My feisty kitten.

Sasha: F*ck you.

Gideon: See? So fierce!

Sasha: Ok. Welcome to MY bag:

A Super Sim Saver Shopper reusable bag that Big Oso, the homeless guy near my house, gifted me for giving him a cigarette. My phone. It's about four years old and works perfectly fine, except that sometimes the sound cuts out randomly when you are playing music or on a phone call and the bottom right of the screen- like, the pixels are kinda f*cked up? It's OK, though.

Gideon: ...Do you want me to get you a new phone?

Sasha: This works fine.

Gideon: *Eye roll*

Sasha: I have my cigarettes and my zippo lighter.

Gideon: I thought you were trying to quit.

Sasha: I am, but it's wasteful to just throw it out! Then I have some change that some VERY GENEROUS customers left as tips for me at the diner. Next time I see them, I'm gonna-

Gideon: Um...Moving right along.

Sasha: This is an empty RadBull can. I think someone left it at the diner and we were closing and Hector told me to bus the damn table just as we were locking up, so I just tossed it into my bag. I should chuck it. Sh*t! I think it leaked a little! Oh, and this is the keycard to Gideon's. I keep it safe in this little pocket here.

Gideon: *Can't help grinning, pleased.*

Sasha: And these are some pretty leaves I saw on the ground at the Square in the Spice Quarter.

Gideon: That's really sweet, Sasha.

Sasha: Shut up! Now I'm going to smoke them! Oh, and there is a mechanical pencil and an eraser. Those are Tito's. I really should return them.

Gideon: That was fun, no?

Sasha: Wanna switch bags?

Gideon: [Chuckling] Do I get to keep you if I get the bag?

Sasha: Yeah...Whatever...*Finally cracks a rare smile.*

#tag games #alinelie #what's in the bag?#sasha is pure chaos #sims 4 story #sims 4 vampires #DARKER #sasha #gideon #gideon the kitten tamer #sasha collecting pretty leaves kills me #he has a sweet and whimsical side

34 notes · View notes

poopyballz28 · 11 months

Text

Some Baki characters as middle school kids

wrote this a long while ago, but i tweaked it and now im ready to show it off

remember to like and subscribe

Kozue

• She's a pretty quiet and timid girl, she doesn't have many friends, and she's usually seen alone with her iPod and headphones in (listening to Vocaloid songs i just know i am the writer here i make the decisions)

• Some girls are definitely envious of her beauty, like she is PRETTY pretty. I wonder what hair products she uses...knowing her though, it'd be silly if she just had naturally flowy, beautiful hair.

• Probably has been asked out by boys several times, she's really cute and has an adorable personality, it's pretty inevitable. She never understands why they like her so much though.

• Always randomly zoning off in the middle of class, looking out the window. Her few friends are a bit concerned but are aware of her lost in the clouds type attitude.

• Forgets to do her homework a lot. Her grades and performance are very good, and that's a definite, but she's just incredibly forgetful. She just gets home and doesn't remember if she has anything to do. She just immediately turns on some anime or pulls out some Shonen Jump when she gets home.

• These hc's are just...my normal hc's for her. Curses. Whatever, it still applies here, DO NOT DEFY ME

Jack

• Really reserved and quiet, most of the class is really intimidated by him. Just the way he talks and looks at you with a death glare. It freaks everyone out.

• He's kind of a target for bullying because of how to himself and a bit scary he is, but he doesn't care and doesn't plan to do anything about it. They're always too daunted to insult him to his face. Jack focuses his time on getting stronger, not some losers making fun of him.

• Often scolded for never doing or turning in his work. He just feels he has better things to do. When he does do his work though, he's not exactly the best. His worksheets are surprisingly (or perhaps, unsurprisingly) filled with scribbles and rough little doodles.

• He doesn't really have many "friends", but one immune to his flaws is Kureha. He acts as if Jack is a friend he's known for ages, despite them only meeting during the current school year. He tends to hang out with him and help him out with his homework as well, because lets be real, Jack's grades are not looking too hot.

• The whole class thinks it's strange how out of everyone in the class, those two are the ones who are closest.

• Kureha definitely insists he do some small science experiments on Jack, Jack only complying if it leads to the growth of him getting stronger. It's like a mad scientist and his test subject, except two 12 year olds.

Katsumi

• He's a really popular student. He's attractive (in middle school standards), strong, leader of his own karate club and his dad's the principal of the school. He's almost always surrounded by people wanting to talk or hang out with him.

• Many girls have huge crushes on him, he usually has to let them down though. He's really focused on his karate and fighting and just doesn't particularly want any kind of lover. He's much more interested in running his club than young love. He values friendship more than anything.

• Always urging strong kids to join the karate club. He wants to expand his club as far as possible and spar with anyone worthy. He focuses so much on his club and karate his grades unfortunately suffer. You can't blame him though, everyone in the karate club is really close with each other and it's really endearing how its almost like a big family of middle schoolers in there.

• He's a really smart kid, and is able to excel in a lot of subjects, but he gets the most significant grades in PE class specifically.

• Hangs out with Hector quite a bit, they are almost polar opposites of each other, but hang out anyway. They're always seen doing homework or eating lunch together. He's one of Hector's only friends.

• Also really looks up to Kiyosumi, he thinks his strength and confidence is super admirable. Currently in the middle of trying to get him to join the karate club. He's somewhat becoming more of a delinquent because of how much Kiyosumi is rubbing off on him.

Kiyosumi

• He's 100% a delinquent who chills at the back of the school and likes to skip his classes. He's well liked by his delinquent disciples who think his fighting is radical.

• He has been suspended multiple times for starting fights and beating up kids for looking at him wrong. He wants any excuse to hurt someone or show off his fighting.

• He's avoided by normal kids in the school but swarmed by other delinquents and juveniles. He's a super cool figure for them. He's just popular enough for Katsumi to take notice.

• Despite the fact there are always students who praise him, he's a very lonely kid. He acknowledges the fact that the people who swarm him don't care about him as a person at all, they just like the idea of a leader with cool fighting abilities. As much as they make his ego swell, they wont be able to purge his hatred for others or even aid his loneliness. No matter how much euphoria will course through his veins and throughout his mind after defeating somebody, that empty feeling will always come barreling back in the end. He would never let anyone know that though. Never.

• That got deep. Wait till you guys find out that was also just a general headcanon for him. Anyway, Kiyosumi fucking LOVES workshop class. He will not skip that shit. This kid has a passion for cars and motorcycles (go figure)

• Katsumi decided to duel with Kiyosumi behind the school, but ended up getting his shit rocked and went flying into some garbage cans. Kiyosumi, (trying to be cool) hits him with a "Beat it, kid." but Katsumi stood up and immediately ushered him to join the karate club after falling victim to his strength.

• Surprisingly, Kiyosumi's grades aren't all that bad. His downfall is just that he always skips or doesn't do his work at all even though he's strangely intelligent (to an extent, of course)

Retsu

• He's a really quiet kid who's undoubtedly diligent at his work. He doesn't know many people besides Katsumi and a few others.

• You can easily find him in the back of the class studying or reading a book. People look up to how smart he is, he's top of his class. Although he does tend to burn himself out a bit.

• Really passionate in cooking class, he loves making some Chinese dishes with the few ingredients he's provided. Tends to ignore teacher directions so he can make what he wants to.

• A member of the karate club (by Katsumi's request) even though he uses a whole different fighting style. After Katsumi sparred with Retsu and lost, they've been friends and have been training together ever since.

• It's quite shocking to other students how this quiet kid who is usually just reading in the back of the class is such a strong and confident fighter. I imagine many kids watched the fight between Katsumi and him, and he's gained unwanted notoriety for his win. He tried to keep his fighting life on the down low and focus on grades.

• He definitely gets rebellious and immature sometimes, don't get me wrong. Katsumi had him open up a little, and now he's more free with his fighting (even though real battles aren't allowed on school grounds) He isn't afraid to spar with someone if they initiate it, school grounds or not. This kid just really wants to kick some tail.

Hector

• Quite the mysterious kid, usually just sitting and watching the view from outside the classroom windows with a blank expression. He's not at all unfamiliar with others talking behind his back or bullying him.

• Stays quiet when he's bullied in somewhere public but if he's ever assaulted alone or off of school grounds, that bully will probably be found with some pretty gnarly knife wounds.

• He doesn't seem to be interested in many things, or even passionate in his grades at all. It's almost like he's there because he has to be.

• He's always showing up to school with nicks or bruises. It's not entirely clear how he gets them or why they appear so frequently, but they certainly don't go unnoticed by others. They don't seem to bother him very much though.

• What I can say for certain though is that this kid is pretty fucking disturbed. Brought a pocket knife to school and shanked someone pretty badly. He was suspended soon after and rumors started to multiply and spread across the playground.

• Tends to run into Retsu by accident and gets partner assignments with him by pure chance. It was extremely awkward the first few times but they both realized they probably need to get used to each others company. They've surprisingly gotten close, Retsu wanting to understand the mystery behind Hector and why he's alone all of the time. Although some of Retsu's prying or questions make Hector a bit nervous. (definitely some home issues going on)

• He also likes being around Katsumi as well. Though, "like" is a strong word, for him at least. Like Retsu, Katsumi also wants to understand Hector. He thinks he's just misunderstood and makes an effort to talk to him even if some of their views on things are vastly different.

Kosho

• Trademark emo/edgy nervous kid who keeps to himself. He's a little bit of a crybaby, frankly.

• He really likes to draw, you may be able to catch him doodling some cool vkei clothing designs in his notebook. He's pretty embarrassed about them though, he always covers the pages when he thinks someones looking.

• Throughout all of his seemingly timid nature, its clear that some deep issues and hate are slowly brewing inside of him. The overshadowing from his brother and the teasing over his interests are not helping him in that regard either.

• Sometimes gets into small altercations with kids who like to poke fun at him. Kosho really struggles to stand up for himself but whenever he happens to find the courage to, his brother is always a step ahead and ready to protect him. After he deals with that, he proceeds to lecture Kosho about getting into fights and how he should go study for his math quiz next week.

• As much as Kosho loves his brother he wishes he would just...leave him alone sometimes.

• Was able to make friends with Katsumi due to their liking of karate and Katsumi's overall kindness after seeing Kosho sitting alone all of the time. The two have gotten pretty close.

#baki the grappler #baki hanma #baki dou #baki son of ogre #baki headcanons #grappler baki #anime #manga #kiyosumi katou #katsumi orochi #kozue matsumoto #jack hanma #kosho shinogi #kureha shinogi #hector doyle #retsu kaioh

93 notes · View notes

alpaca-clouds · 5 months

Text

How Isaactor became my OTP

I am one fanfic away from having more stories on Isaactor than Trephacard. And I think that would be a good time to talk about how Hector and Isaac became one OTP over basically everyone else.

Okay, technically there are still a lot more Trephacard stories, because I have several stories with just two of the three characters in them.

Still, I by now do like Isaactor more by now. Which is kinda ironic, because while Trephacard was something I started shipping, as soon as I saw the show (it just is a very obvious ship), I was like: "Sure, I can see Isaactor, but I do not have strong feelings about it."

I knew though from the very beginning of writing The lesser Evil, that it would end up with Striga and Morana returning to Styria. And from that came the idea that Striga could try to get the two forgemasters to hook up. Which lead to Five Games of Chess.

But the more I was writing about them, the more interesting did the dynamic become.

What makes them so interesting to me is that they are morally complex. Like, sure, most of the cast in Castlevania has more than enough trauma (which makes for delicious hurt/comfort), but they are also morally somewhat simple.

But then we have those two, who participated in what was meant to be an absolute genocide. Kill all the humans, because for differing reasons the two of them have come to hate humanity. Something that in Isaac's case had like really good reasons. Like, duh, the man survived slavery. As a child non the less. Yes, he has all the reasons to be angry at the world.

Still, Hector was the character who I identified with most. Because he is autistic and a survivor of parental abuse. So, yes. I can very much identify with his anger at the world.

None of that however makes genocide in any way or form justified. (Duh.) And that is, what makes the two so interesting. Because this realization is something they are going to have to deal with sooner or later. That they did something unspeakably bad.

And among that realization there really is only one other person who can understand them: The respective other. Because they both were part of the genocide. They both served Dracula. In a way for different reasons - but still those reasons were somewhat similar. And only the other person really will ever understand.

And yes, of course it should be mentioned that everything else also makes them such interesting characters.

Isaac easily is the best written character in all of Castlevania, where the input by Adetokumboh M'Cormack (the voice actor) really, really shows. Especially as the way the show deals with Isaac's religious conflict is so well depicted. Something that a ton of shows just struggle with - or do not show at all. I mean, how many well written Muslim characters are there in western media? And I mean, let's face it. Most western media does not even know that Sufism is a faith that exists.

Meanwhile I find Hector interesting, because he very much gets pushed into a role that normally female characters will be shown in, given he literally gets sexually assaulted within the show. I mean, for most of seasons 3 and 4 he is very much a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued. Something we usually do not see with male characters.

I will also remain of the opinion: Was Isaac white, the two of them would be the most popular ship of the show. Because they just have this rivals to enemies to lovers dynamic that fandom normally goes of to salivate over.

For myself, of course, there is also just the aspect, that Hector does have quite a few canonical hints that he is still very much kinky. Which makes for fun kinky sex scenes. ;)

But in general I just think the two of them are the most interesting characters and the most interesting dynamic in the show. And I just wished more people would write and create art for them, :(

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #shipping #castlevania isaac #isaac laforeze #castlevania hector #isaactor #hector x isaac #forgehusbands #otp

28 notes · View notes

flowerandthesongstress · 6 months

Note

Requesting something heartwarming and sweet with Rafael!

awww come o-ooon be more specific 😅

G to T; 1300w, Warning for swearing, mild suggestive themes, implied self-esteem issues, and an out-of-character, hyperbolised-macho Pablo — for narrative and comedic purposes; nonetheless, if you feel like the latter notion might distress you, skip this one.

“Dearest Valentina, I am writing this letter to you because I want to ask you for a favor. News has reached me that you are scared of me and everyone who looks like me. I hope that, upon reading this letter, you will understand that I’m not scary at all and that I am worthy of your trust. But first things first. Please allow me to explain who I am and what it is that I do. Long ago, I was tasked with collecting baby teeth from children and turning these teeth into magic, the magic that makes teeth grow. Just like you, I live in a big house with my family who all help me with this task. Our house is made of cheese. It is a very tasty house, but we only eat small bites of it, because we are tiny and do not need a lot of food. My job is very important and cannot be disrupted, because if I don’t collect baby teeth, children will never grow new teeth. And if they don’t grow new teeth, they will never be able to eat delicious food. And if they cannot eat delicious food, they will never be able to enjoy the taste of the finest cheeses. When I learned that you lost your baby tooth, I was overjoyed! But when I heard that you were unwilling to give it away, because you think that I’m scary and will eat it or do something nasty to it, and how you told your mother that you’d rather throw it away than give it to someone as ugly as me, and how you couldn’t sleep because you thought I would steal your toys along with your tooth ... I grew sad. Your fear is normal and nothing to be ashamed of. I understand why you might be scared. Not all of my cousins are as well-behaved as me and my immediate family. You had a less-than-pleasant encounter with one of my cousins years ago, and I understand why you might be scared. I know that cousin, his name is Hector, and he’s the shame of our whole family! He loves to startle humans and then laugh about it! What a reckless bully. Bullying is never okay. I am disheartened about his bad behavior, and I do apologize for it. But I wanted to tell you that it’s not right to judge a whole group by the behavior of one of its members. You are a very smart girl, and I hope you give this idea some thought. I assure you that there is always enough cheese for us, and we would not bite you nor anyone in your family. Humans are not tasty. If you see any members of my family in the wild, please know that we are around not to bite, or to steal from you, or to cause any harm, but to help you. We are here to bring you joy. We might not look the prettiest, and our voices might be too high-pitched and not be the most melodic, but this is just the way we were created. We can’t speak the humans’ language, but at least we can write letters. It is a good idea to stay away from members of my family, because we’re tiny and humans are huge and can harm us. It is a good idea to not feed us, because we already have a house made of cheese. Please, dear Valentina, leave your baby tooth under your pillow, so that I can collect its magic and make it grow back. To show my good intentions, I have arranged for an exchange gift to be sent to you. The fire agate you are receiving along with this letter, is my way of saying how much your courage and trust would mean to me and my family.

With best wishes, including a wish for more baby teeth to fall out soon, so they might become magic teeth and help you grow a healthy smile,

—el Ratoncito Pérez, also known as the Tooth Mouse.”

~*~

“Dearest Valentina: We are writing you this letter to explain why your gifts arrived with a delay, and how it has nothing to do with your character. In fact, you have been very good this year, diligently cleaning your room, brushing your teeth, doing homework, and being nice to your friends. Your parents are proud of you, never doubt that! They informed us how good you were, and we felt proud on their behalf. We couldn’t wait to deliver the gifts to you and to reward you for making an effort. On our caravel meant for delivering gifts to children who live on islands, we set out early on. Yet then a treacherous storm unexpectedly caught up with us. Dark clouds surrounded us, blacking out the sun, wind rose and with it, the waves. Tall and roaring, they were threatening to break our ship into pieces. We had to tie ourselves to the main mast, and could only pray for the storm to pass. How stupid of us to store some of the gifts right on the deck of our ship! Some of them were grabbed by the waves and washed into the sea! Luckily, the tide brought them to the island before our arrival, and just in time, but, naturally, we could not have known that they would, and thought the gifts for your friends would be lost forever. By a strike of luck, they were not, and this is the only reason why your friends were fortunate enough to receive their gifts on time. In the end, we survived and mastered the treacherous storm which carried us so far from our destination, that it took us two days to map our way by the stars and find your island. Yet we only had time to pass the gifts over, before leaving in a haste. Such is our lot, but we never lament it, for we live to reward well-behaved children like you. We hope that you will show understanding in regards to our predicament, and we hope that the weather will be much better next year.

Con todo nuestro cariño,

—Los Tres Reyes Magos.”

~*~

Suki M. >Rafi I don’t know how to thank you >Again! >I owe you one 🙏

Rafael S. >no, you don’t >I’m always happy to help, Suki >Just please don’t tell her it was me >ever

Pablo S. >primo ¿what the fuc? >¿¿you srsly frgot youre own hijas bday??

Antonio M. >I was busy

Pablo S. >busy boning that puta turista >puto perdedor >I kick you ass >and then bone youre ex >twice

Antonio M. >I don't care > >you’re more than welcome to my leftovers, primo.

Pablo S >thats it your fucked

Pablo S. >kicking primos ass today >your coming with me >that pendejo forgot vals bday >she is sad

Rafael S. >No need. >It has been dealt with, Pablo.

Pablo S. >¿already you beat him up? >nice >then ill go drop by suki 😏 >hold the fort

Rafael S. >I’m sorry, I can’t.

Pablo S. >why

Rafael S. >I’ll be taking Valentina to see her friends.

Pablo S. >with any luck will be >boning her mama >today

Rafael S. >Yes, so I gathered.

Suki M. > >Rafi you'll make such a good husband and father one day

Rafael S. >That’s very kind of you to say. >But I doubt the day would ever come. >who would want me

#requests #my writing updates #Rafael Sanchez #coral island fanfic #coral island #coral island rafael

28 notes · View notes

beevean · 15 days

Note

Can you write a short about Hector beating the shit out of Isaac in their last battle? Like really kicking his ass and letting all the hate he has for him?

He was on the defensive. He dodged and spun every step of the way, less concerned about landing a hit and more about surviving. Having replaced his old spear for a light blade he was clearly unequipped to hold might be a factor in his sloppiness.

Isaac was slipping, and Hector couldn’t wait to take advantage of it. He was close, so close to finally get his revenge, and nothing would get in his way.

Every movement came as naturally as breathing, by now. He had to thank his old friend for that. Hector rolled to the side to avoid a blow, ordered his Corpsey to take care of the other Forgemaster’s Rasetz, and dashed forward swinging his sword; Isaac wasn’t hurt, but staggered backwards, visibly proven.

Isaac had always been the more agile of the two, but Hector had always been the strongest one. And it was about time Isaac was reminded of what used to tear him up from the inside.

So Hector decided to change his strategy, and summoned his sturdy force gloves.

Before Isaac could even raise his head, Hector slammed his entire fist on Isaac’s exposed abdomen; he felt his breath getting pushed out of him, and that gave him the strength for another punch, an uppercut to his chin, that knocked the man on the floor, like the weakling he had always been.

It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough to quell the rage rolling in his guts. Hector straddled Isaac, and didn’t let him cough up blood or look at him with fear: his fists moved before he could think, one, two, one, two, hitting blindly as long as he hit Isaac and as long as it hurt.

Slaps and punches were nothing new between them, but they were simple games, or normal altercations between friends - Hector didn’t know, at the time, that friends weren’t supposed to punish each other with hits. There was so much he didn’t know, and would have never learned without Rosaly’s kindness.

But this was no game, and Hector was long past trying to knock some sense into him. No pity, no mercy for the monster who took his Rosaly from him, his whole life, if Hector could kill Isaac a hundred times over he’d do that with glee and it wouldn’t make up for the crime he had done.

The crunch of broken teeth and bones under his knuckles filled him with immense satisfaction; and the more Isaac’s face swelled up and turned purple and stained his hands with his slimy blood, the harder Hector swung, grunting and shouting for the effort even as his arms grew heavy and sore.

It was worth it.

It was his righteous revenge, in the name of his Rosaly.

Rosaly would be horrified to see him like this.

Julia had asked him to save her brother from the Curse.

«What am I doing…?»

Hector stopped with his fist in mid-air, gasping the stale air of the room. Under him, Isaac had ceased to make any sound that wasn’t gurgling.

He would die choking on his own blood. It was what he deserved for all the pain he had caused him.

And Hector had gotten so close to beating his old friend to death like a rabid beast.

That wasn’t him! He’d never been… He’d never so eager to taste blood and suffering!

That was… what had made his old Lord descend into madness.

Hector stood up on wobbling legs, heaving, unable to look at the mess he had made.

«What am I doing?!»

#castlevania #akumajou dracula #beev's writing #curse of darkness #hector castlevania #isaac laforeze #hehe cursed unhinged hector my beloved 🥰#lmao this was fun thanks for the prompt!#and remember that nothing stops you from defeating isaac by punching him in the dick!#i'll probably fix it late for now i'm satisfied

12 notes · View notes

dr-dendritic-trees · 7 months

Text

Then from the polished wagon they brought the boundless ransom for the head of Hector. But they left a fine-spun tunic and two cloths, so Achilles could wrap up the corpse before he gave it to the Trojans to take back home

Today I have decided that this is the line from the Iliad that I'm going to be feral about.

Like, this its such a specific and minor little thing to do. Like, ensuring that Hector is correctly dressed for his funeral is part of this whole larger sequence of Achilles giving Hector back to his father and reassuming his role in the normal human social order before he dies.

But its just such a specific attentive thing to do. I'm sure Achilles has other tunics that are not specifically part of the ransom, because he has, its been previously established, a truly stupid amount of plunder stored in various boats that wouldn't have come from Priam specifically. And the fact this stuff came out of a store room they highlight the fineness of the spinning makes me think this is probably very high quality new cloth that Achilles is not substituting for something older or less well made. (Fine yarn takes longer to spin, longer to weave and more skill to use).

And there's a reasonable chance it was made by Hecuba or Andromache, or one of Hector's sisters.

It takes so long to hand weave cloth. There's a reason why Andromache is weaving when she hears about Hectors death and its because she would have been weaving or spinning nearly all of the time. Whoever made that tunic is going to recognize it! They spent days or weeks making it. They were definitely thinking about who might end up wearing it! They probably didn't plan on it being used for a funeral! But they'll know Hector came home in his own clothes.

Hand weaving things for people is not the same for me as it would be for them, because for me its optional, but like... I am lying on the floor by my loom guys.

#the iliad #handweaving

25 notes · View notes

burner-of-ships · 1 year

Text

i went round the Manchester art gallery today and i am never going to be normal about this painting of Andromache. never.

her husband and baby son were murdered, she was taken as a slave to a foreign land exactly as her husband said was his greatest fear, ignoring the stares and activity around her to just silently watch this oblivious, happy young family.

it's the family she tried for ten years to have, that she finally got but was so afraid she would lose. but despite her anxiety, they got to be happy, for a little while. and then her and Hector's worst fears came true. she's surrounded by bustle but she's utterly alone.

#the iliad #trojan war #andromache #hector #astyanax

59 notes · View notes

mozzaremi · 1 year

Note

Hey! I’m new to the party! Love your art style and color palette, and specially the cinnamon eldritch horror roll ☺️🐟🌿

Honestly, horror and cuteness could have never been perfectly matched with Basil and I’m absolutely exited to see this au expanded! Which… Brings out the question. Unlike humans who see Basil as a normal teen, would animals like dogs, cats or other animals sense Basil’s eldritch presence? How would they react if they do? Or how would Basil react to their reactions?

Would it be kind of similar to the dogs with Wilbur Whateley in the H.P. Lovecraft mythos?

Welcome welcome! I'm so happy you like our little eldritch boy!

While I never intended for this au to be very expansive, mainly just a goofy side project to doodle for fun, I am having a blast with exploring this idea further with you guys!

For sure I can imagine basil having some tough luck with animals. While he hasn't yet been attacked by a dog like in Lovecraft's mytho, he definitely had many occurrences of animals either cowering away from him or biting/scratching him. None of them go into full aggression, but his presence does make the animals feel very on guard.

At the start of the friend group's friendship, most of the time kel and sunny would need to shoo away hector and mewo, just so no altercations happen when basil is around. Later on, since basil has been around for a long time, hector and mewo slightly warm up to him, but not enough to let him pet them </3

The gang has come around to the mutual agreement that animals just don't like him and that there's nothing suspicious about that. In their eyes basil's just a very unlucky fella.

The eldritch boy's honest feelings regarding this matters is that of despondency, since he has a soft spot for every living being on earth, including animals and plants!

#eldritch horror basil au #ask

157 notes · View notes

my-jokes-are-my-armour · 10 months

Text

The witcher review - part 2

So here we are… this is the hardest post for me to write. Because I have to fight my inner rage to think straight and keep as much of cool as I can while I write. This is rare.

As always since the announcement, the general consensus is to hate no matter what, and I won't lie, it's driving me crazy. I had even a breaking point not long ago, stumbling on an "article" mourning Hector the horse that won't come back for S4, and turning a not returning actress as she left the boat for implicite bad scripts whereas her character is simply not returning story wise (in the books also).

Do I have to mention the constant rain of bad comments on every video or official posts ? Or the vast majority of the articles and reviews are over focused on one thing only, erasing from the existence of every other good work done ?

Because yes ! Curiously there is good work in there too. Sheer stupefaction ! The series is not that bad. And do you believe it ? Quite book accurate in the global storyline also !

Am I a tad sarcastic there ? Yes. Not in my points though. But I am really REALLY pissed off. And this is my last stand. I understand that I am a drop in the ocean. A little shit screaming into the void. A stupid arse loving the series for the stories it offers.

So… if you are still here, that's because you surely are in the same state of mental exhaustion than I am. Maybe angry too, or sad. Maybe you liked the series also and want something else to read other than "burn it down !".

[Pretty accurate representation of myself]

So... Here is the short version for those who don't care about the development of my review :

I loved it. Yes !

A lot of emotions.

Geraskier. I rolled down the hill again so hard and so fast that you can see burning traces on the grass on my path lol.

Buckled some storylines from the first season for the main characters and secondary characters too.

Perfect ? Certainly not. There are problems and I will address them.

Book accurate ? Mostly yes but no at the same time. The story is there, not told the same way. There are twists and changes but the checkpoints are validated and cohesive (believe it or not), catching up books threads and the divergent series' too. Some almost straight out of the pages in this second part too.

Proper send off to Henry ? If you aim for fulfillment, then no. But his ending matches with the beginning of the Hansa, so I am personally happy with it. Also it had more depth than what it seems.

So now behind this break, I will spoil the series in great lengths, as much as the books. I will probably go further than Time of Contempt because they included pieces from Baptism of Fire. Again I will say what works and what doesn't in my opinion. I am not on a solo thread of thinking.

But you know I guess even some gray is giving light in this infamous soup darkness. So let's go !

Warning : it contains mature subjects.

[Important note : I have read the RI article about Tomek giving explanations about plot simplification. I will address this in the flow in my review. Well kinda].

My detailed general point of view :

Even with a lot of twists and turns, I did like the series part 2 (and the series overall !). The second volume had me having emotional roller-coasters. If you care for any characters, they have their moments of raw emotions. Secondary characters included. That moment between Fringilla and Francesca for example or Tissaia's farewell… 😢.

Everything emotional with Jaskier had just me on my knees… 😭

It goes pretty much by the books in terms of events and uses pieces of them as framing devices. For the twists. Some are good, some less. What we have the most is one character doing something another would normally do. But most of the time this is fluid and it doesn't bother me much. Mostly I liked, loved even, the stories that were told behind.

In the middle ground. I don't see it as bad but more as an irritating thing.

There is a big change of plot with Yennefer (again) but this is more a problem of how to tell the story afterwards more than a big wrong like in S2, and I am just curious how they will handle some storylines from there. The irritating part though is that they have a tendency to use her too much for everything, so she runs everywhere. This is quite frantic in episode 6 but then it slows down fortunately.

Also the series doesn't fully go on the darkest side of the books. The rating 16+ is a bit overlooked in my opinion. There is blood and some monsters but this is a soft 16+. There is real gore in the books and the subjects are far more disturbing. The flesh monster tries to compensate for what is not told about Vilgefortz's experiments for example. But the mage is a f.cking lunatic. And if you felt bad for Geralt after his fight with him, go get some brutal internal pov of Geralt while he is literally destroyed. Also a part of Geralt's arc with the parallel with Ciri is more disturbing in its core. But they didn't go as far as with the Rats (yet ?) so they crafted another motivation, which is not a bad one, by the way.

This is middle ground to me because, for sure it would have challenged the viewer more, but some subjects may not be easily validated to show on screen to fill the rating.

On the wrong side (yes because I am not in a tunnel - I see goods and bads), for me there are some strong editing problems that put an uneven rhythm that can bore or frustrate, depending on the part. I was not bored but a bit frustrated sometimes so I can understand why some were annoyed, let's put it that way.

They seem to rush for the plot, cutting some breathing moments or dragging on some other parts. With a recurrent issue to make us feel the passage of time

For me this is what severes the series the most, especially in the second volume.

Also, on the visual effects, there are some issues too. Something is sadly unfinished there. It feels like the deadline was an immovable obstacle and they tried to rush everything they could in it.

So, here we are. Now I will detail everything ! Compare with the books when I can etc. Because I can't bear anymore reading all this dry "they did not respect the source material" thing, to say it politely. Maybe I will be annoying as hell. But this is how I work. I have feelings, I have opinions, like everyone else I can be passionate, but I can justify my position and I will do it.

SO !

Book accuracy ?

First, because I have to play dumb, these are the large blocks of the Time of Contempt only, just to have a visual idea of the proportions of the stories.

So now please tell me there is too much of Ciri, too much mages, too much politics… ** cough cough **

OK let's go. As I said in the short version, accuracy is a yes and a no for me. Let's begin with the no.

Things happen pretty much in the same chronological order but like in an alternate version of the books. In some events, this is not always with the good character carrying the moment. But this is the case from the beginning of the show. And although I found this strange sometimes I never felt confused by it. Some of them are necessary compression of narratives, some are holding arcs to fulfill and become relevant at the end. And the arcs, the stories told, are what appealed to me the most.

A large part of those switches comes from the invented parts for secondary characters. Because they had written things in advance. Why did they choose to set up a lot of them from S1, you say ? Because otherwise we would have to deal with a massive drop names with everyone having their agenda, popping out of nowhere, and trying to have the big part of the cake this season (2 to 4 in my picture). What would happen then ? Confused audience for those who haven't read the books or play the games. And if you tell me, but we are the audience ! Then why I read so many : "Why the politics ? Why Ciri desert thing ? Why the sorceresses ? This is boring and long, why no monster hunts ?" Well… 👆.

At least, I can understand the last statement from the gamers because the story is rhythmed by the hunts, but for the rest, lads, this is the book for Time of Contempt and a part of Baptism of Fire.

And this where my "yes this is accurate" lands.

Time of Contempt particularly contains a f.cking loads of politics, of mages and a lot of Ciri. Sure Geralt is the main POV in a good amount but in the politics part for the most of it. This is basically him in rooms with people, discussing. He doesn't do much other than that. To be fair, there are always good fights, he has always good fights, and this books provides, but the monster fights are not that over present and overall, Geralt is reluctant to kill in general except when he has to protect. He fights people… The real monsters of the stories.

What did I find book accurate in this second volume ? The Thanedd coup setup (the battle is almost pure entertainment). Ciri in the desert, definitely. Some parts of Brokilon. Tissaia's death is delayed in time but accurate. Dijkstra and Philippa general plot in Redania even if simplified. The false Ciri at Nilfgaard. Geralt on the road with Jaskier and Milva at the end.

The issues

As I said, for me the problem is really the choice of pacing that makes some parts feeling dragged and others rushed. Particularly in episode 7. This is the most book accurate part with Ciri, but the pacing of what is before and after makes it odd. She is the only one we feel the passing of time for. The Brokilon part almost not. But technically days had passed too.

I understand what they did there, trying to make us feel her isolation, but putting two parts with different rhythms together that way was what makes it crumble. Making a parallel between Ciri's struggle and Geralt's would have maybe corrected the pacing, and just having scenes with places, travel from afar, something that links the time and space with the characters (they did that a bit with the first episode and that was great !). But distance and time is an ongoing problem on this show.

Speaking of time, note that in the books Geralt stays a long time in Brokilon healing. A month like. And he was in a very bad shape for a long time during this period. This is for those who are unhappy to have him stuck in a bed moaning for too long.

Then the last episode has the major shift from the book with Yennefer. The birth of the Lodge of the sorceresses has one of the best ending arcs and the most twisted storyline with dragged moments. I am not against Yennefer being in the heart of the Lodge with Philippa doing her things on the side, because I understand that having that part told without main character to connect with would be hard for a lot of people but the fact that Yennefer is used has a plot insert too many times irritates me.

The scene where she heals Geralt for example is one that I don't like. In terms of emotions, this is great. But for Geralt this is wrong. I hope the healing is not complete, for S4, like in the books. Because the fact that he is experiencing phantom pain is a part that makes his journey psychologically interesting.

Now, that said !

And this is where I'll develop the good parts for me. And I am sorry if I become (even) more sarcastic but you know… I do what I can with my bleeding heart in front of so much hatred.

The arcs

This is where a lot of people sadly give reason to Tomek about the need for simplification, in my opinion.

They did simplify the plots, true that, but as soon as there are some under layers to dig, this is the big farewell of the crowd. Because I read things like : volume 2 is empty. Geralt is barely in it or without depth. They did wrong to him.

Know that if they really had stopped where Time of Contempt ends, then you would have just Ciri in the desert and the Rats. Final dot (cf my picture).

And if this is empty to you, maybe this is because you've erased the plotlines from your memory, or defining a character the way it is done in the book is not for you.

The series plays with circular references and mirroring characterisation but I guess this is unimportant. Lazy. Irrespectful. Uncaring. Or whatever. Because this is not forefront.

Maybe you wanted more than a rampage at a post frontier and the walk into the mist. I can understand that this is not satisfying in terms of fulfillment for his presence, I really can, but there is closure for his arc too in there.

But maybe you missed the full circle in this part of the journey for him too. And if you didn't. Maybe you don't care. I don't know...

I am not above anybody else. I watch things with my own perspective. Maybe you think I am stupid or currently arrogant or overlooking things. So be it. I am the stupid one then. I don't mind. But I'll do it anyway. I'll do my shitty analysis. So many scream. I have the right to stand my ground for what I appreciate. Who would read this anyway…

So let's get into the thematics and dig everyone's plotlines, shall we. I will divide this into parts and develop many characters through those aspects.

Blood family vs found family

Vulnerabilities

Loyalty and betrayal

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

Blood family vs found family

In the last part of S3, several characters have a defining moment about family. And they are mirroring each other within their relationships. They have been setup early in the previous seasons.

The accent is put on the found families and how strong their links are. For some more than blood. And then how sometimes, blood heritage goes against that.

We have obviously THE found family. Ciri, Yennefer and Geralt, extended to Jaskier (thank god!). They have all left their blood family behind. Book Jaskier not totally but the series one seems to.

The trio of Destiny as I like to call them, are three orphans linked by destiny but fighting it in the first place. This is only when they accept it that the family emerges. And this is a strong one. Their issues with their blood family define a part of their actions and how they grow.

Geralt was abandoned. In response to that trauma he printed in himself the will of never to do that to Ciri ever ! (vol 1). Even in the letter he wrote to Yennefer, he tells her that this is the first time he experiences real fear. And this fear is to lose Ciri and her… Losing against Vilgefortz made this fear a reality. So now in Brokilon when he is trying to walk back to Ciri even when he can't is the display of his desperation. He has to accept that despair first so he can heal enough to actually have a chance to succeed. This desperation transforms into rage that can burst at any time. He is calm on the surface, but a boiling volcano inside.

White Knight complex and neutrality (side note). In S1, in Blaviken we established that Geralt has a white knight complex and he tells the story to Renfri of how he chose neutrality, telling her a story that illustrates that. He saved a young girl from a rapist. And while he thought he did the right thing he ended up being the one treated like a monster. That is why he chooses not to get involved again. Renfri's story showed him that not taking a side was impossible but he sticked with it anyway. Neutrality became his mojo and tried to live with that, even teaching it to Ciri. Renfri's broach was a reminder of that silent promise he made to himself. And the Thanedd coup is the pinnacle of that resolution and desire to protect. Till the end he won't pick a side. But when he failed against Vilgefortz everything crumbled.

The last scene we have with him, that rampage doesn't come from nowhere as a lot likes to think. The soldier suggests he would rape the girl. And that's what triggered his rage. Yeah the same story that made him who he was… I guess this stupid and empty…

The broach he leaves behind is the symbol of the neutrality he abandons. He is a man with a huge scar inside and the only thing that can soothe him is finding his daughter.

Jaskier says it out loud beforehand in case you would miss what to come : the war outside is nothing in front of what Geralt would unleash on this Continent to find his daughter.

The arc of neutrality is closed. Time for a new one. A hurt dad, a warrior, roaming the Continent to find the child he promised never to abandon. No depth at all in the writing of this arc… yep yep.

But this is not the only layer of Geralt. We will see that in another point.

Now Yennefer. She has the easiest arc to get. Her blood family sold her and in her struggle to get control over her own life she hurt the two found families she had. First Tissaia whose mother side became apparent when she had to take the same responsibilities with Ciri. Then Geralt and Ciri when she succumbs to Voleith Meir. But her redemption arc fulfills her need to be a mother. Even if she fails finding Ciri and leaves that task to Geralt (which is a plot hole in a way*), she comes full closure with her motherhood duties.

And she has a beautiful and powerful new goal and it is turned toward the found family. She will make sure to make the world a better place for her to return to. Isn't that some of the strongest push parents can experience ? The need to make the world better for their children ?

(*) In the books, Yennefer is incapacitated so it is logical that she is unable to find her. Here they will need to find a good explanation.

The arc of Yennefer circles and mirrors the one with Tissaia in a very emotional way. For a part, this is one the lesson she gave to Ciri and the one she took so long to understand. Without control, power is nothing. When you have control you can move mountains.

The first day in Aretusa, Yennefer tries to commit suicide because she feels that taking her own life is the only thing she can control. Tissaia tells her that doing so, she didn't have control, she was losing it. And the rectoress did the exact same thing at the end… (she lets go for other reasons though)

Ciri is at the core of the found family and she lost every one of her blood family. Emhyr is the last one and you can't say this is a nice perspective. Yet she doesn't know. Then she grew being afraid of her own heritage. Her bloodline is terrifying to her and makes her feel like a monster. And she is trying to make the best of it, expressing idealistic thoughts and wishes.

The found family is her last grip on feeling safe and having a life. She clings onto them with everything she has. She is so afraid to lose them too. And… it happens. Her mojo is to find them.

Hallucinating, in the desert she confronts her blood ancestors who push every button of her insecurities. When she relinquishes her powers, this is her last stand to protect her found family from herself. She doesn't want to be Falka and burn the world down and them with it.

But then when she kills for the first time, she loses herself. The importance of a life was one of the last of Geralt's lessons, but she succumbs to a penchant to like killing (see her face when she killed the echnea) buried deep inside, exactly like Falka. That's why she chooses to call herself after her.

For those who find this too easy, that she should be used to visions and not break. OK then, get in the same state of desperation, get lost in a desert for days, hallucinate and try to stay strong. Too long ? I thought she broke easily…

One of the things that was so touching, on the first part of that desert wandering, was how much she tapped into her found family teachings. Geralt and her witcher brothers for survival skills. Yennefer for magic. And Jaskier… for comfort.

So now Jaskier. He is a different kind of protector. We don't know much of his past in the series to know about his siblings and past traumas but the found family is everything to him. This season proves it even more blatantly. He chose Geralt as his family very early on but the real turn into a proper family member dynamic appears with Ciri. The fun uncle or even big brother.

From S2, we saw him develop a strong protector side to his personality. He is willing to help those in need. The elves. Yennefer… Also he kind of protects Geralt, even under torture. S3, within the found family he isn't the strongest member. The weakest we could say. But we see that protector side to him, in the fights for example. Helping the wounded to get to safety. Or pushing people out of the way (Valdo or the last fight with Geralt). Or even helping Radovid returning home after a heartbreak...

Ciri has the strongest protectors possible. Geralt and Yennefer. And they are teaching her their skills. She has enormous latent power. What can a simple bard do ?

Answer : he protects the last drop of childhood she has. He is the one she can be a normal child with. Playing games, even having fun of the parents (lessons of smiling, imitating them in the wood,...). He is a confort person that grounds her in her normality.

Being a comfort. This is what he does in the found family. For each member. But this is particularly moving to witness for that lost child. And hearing her sing the song he sings to her to help her sleep, trying to stay strong in the desert, tells how much he was important to her too.

The trio of Destiny isn't the only one that struggles between blood family and found family. We have other characters that are much defined by this dichotomy. Like Milva, Dara, Fringilla and Francesca.

For Milva, we just understand that her found family is the dryads, whatever happened to her and wants to forget. Dara has lost all his blood family because of one of Calanthe's army's raids. His found family is the elves led by Francesca, with whom he has a feeling of being with his kind again, until he understands the path she is taking will just send him in a very bad place. He is tired and tries to rebuild himself with the dryades.

Both of them highlight what is nursing inside of Geralt, for us to understand his last fight. Dara speaks about the hatred he carries and is going to destroy him if he doesn't stop. Milva makes him speak about Renfri and his neutrality paradox.

This is not a sign of erasing a character to make others speak in his presence and having some kind of defining moment. That character then reflects on the other, defining him by a mirroring effect. Sometimes in the same way, sometimes in the opposite direction. Heroes don't have to always say things out loud for that to exist in them. Maybe some thought that Dara and Milva were taking the spot. I did not.

Now for Fringilla and Francesca this is a bit more complex. And for them, they go down the other way around for a long time. Blood family first.

It begins with Fringilla whose uncle is a member of the Brotherhood. The magic school isn't much of a found family to her as she has an anchor there. After Yennefer switches kings with her, she ends up in Nilfgaard having a totally different life. She built strong links there and in a way she found guidance and purpose. While she tries to serve her emperor she meets the elves and makes a very strong friendship with Francesca. She begins to move forward and that alliance blossoms into something inspiring. Especially when she saves the elven bady.

But as soon as this baby is born, the loyalty of the elves shakes and what I believe was her kind of found family begins to drift away. Francesca says to her that she values their friendship but blood is more important. Fringilla will try to find the support of her uncle at some point but he refuses to help her.

This is when Fringilla becomes independent.

The rupture is particularly strongly displayed in S3 when she watches her uncle die without any feeling for him.

On the contrary, Francesca sticks by blood first at all coast, and she loses everyone brutally. Not that she is wrong or anything else to be that attached to her kind. This is just the way it turns out for her. And by the end of it, learning that Fringilla hid the real murderer of her baby, she ends up pushing her from her life, severing the last link of possible family outside her kind. She is alone with her vengeance burning inside of her. Pretty much like Dara described it. Pretty much like an old part elf woman who let the rage consume her… Mirrors again.

Vulnerabilities

Maybe the biggest character who shows vulnerabilities and is able to demonstrate love is Jaskier. This is the obvious one. And I will probably make a separate post analyzing him and Radovid this season, because the games of masks plays a big role in Jaskier defense mechanism. Let's just say for the sake of this f.cking review that this so empty relationship for the majority is there to help us understand how and when he hides his feelings, how he speaks of real love…

He is probably the most open character to emotions and shows us a lot, but, even he, tries to hide his wounds to the others. For others.

So emotional shock after another, we can assess the damages and how strong he is for those he loves.

His main weakness, if I can call it that way, is his biggest strength too. Empathy. Makes him feel too much. And his love for others (especially Geralt) plunges him in deep vulnerable emotional states. This season, this is still the case, and to a great extent too. Don't get fooled by his levity, jokes and smiles.

But let's take a look at our trio of Destiny.

Ciri is vulnerable and afraid at first but she learns to hide it more and more, until everything is unveiled during Thanedd and the desert. She is so damaged by her abandon issues and she is living her worst nightmare. When she hallucinates, all of her ancestors push her buttons, poking at this particular pain she holds.

Yennefer has many issues and she is a insecure person empowered with strong chaos. We saw her struggle to free herself from everyone wanting to control her in S1, and on top of that to have her powers back in S2. That internal urge to be the one deciding about her own destiny, to be able to have a choice.

She goes to great lengths for that. Too far. Yennefer gives Ciri two valuable lessons based on her experiences. One about control and power. The other about making choices and their consequences.

And one thing I appreciate and shows growth in her character is that she lets the one she loves see when she is vulnerable and talk about it. Ciri, Geralt, Tissaia. Even Jaskier in her own ways, since S2.

But one of the biggest growth in that field is Geralt. If I wished they included more of the book's vulnerabilities early on for him (about the fact that he believes that his mutant condition excludes him to be worth his own emotions), they didn't cut it all and he had other vulnerabilities and insecurities worth the growth.

He is emotionally constipated and has problems expressing his feelings. Not the hiding part, when he is like, I am a rock, I don't feel, but more when he has to communicate his feelings.

In S1, he tries and fails with Yennefer at the mountain. But he shows a great deal of emotions, at the expense of Jaskier though. In S2, to help Ciri he has to open up. And we find him having deep introspective moments with Vesemir. Likewise, he is a bit more open to Jaskier with whom he shares his fears.

But in S3, for the first time, he expresses his feelings and exposes his vulnerabilities to Yennefer and they connect deeply then. Also when he is wounded and healing, he is open raw for a moment.

After that he brings back his kind of neutral face, but the last fight is one of the moments he bleeds what's inside.

Also like in the books, they show that even a character that strong can be broken.

This failure brings a lot out of Geralt for the future. He wants to die because of it ! He refuses healing because he wanted to die ! The only thing that kept him alive was to have news of Ciri and Yennefer. When Jaskier finally arrives (days after) this is what he asks only. He just wants to go knowing that they are well. He clutches Jaskier's wrist because he is his last hope to have this news. He empathises with him as he struggles to deliver the informations (that subtle stroke) but he needs to know. This is a silent "please tell me Jaskier".

Then he chooses to accept the healing when he knows Ciri is still in danger. He won't rest until she is safe.

But I get that the consensus is right. Moaning in a bed. Boring as fuck. No depth in it either.

Loyalty and betrayal

Here again I could speak for days about Jaskier. His portrait should be in the dictionary next to the definition of loyalty. Even in his faux pas, he doesn't betray because his heart is in the right place. When Geralt confronts him trying to push him to Redania, they simply have an honest discussion about it.

I could speak about Yennefer's betrayal also, trying to sacrifice Ciri in S2. But I wanna highlight some secondary characters that have arcs around this.

The first one is Cahir. At the beginning of the series, he is the definition of loyalty to his leader. He has almost a religious faith (S2). But the mission given to him leads him on a path to lose that faith. In S3, he is trying to get back to a position where Emhyr valued him, and he goes to the point of killing a friend to get there. The broken mirror symbolizes that moment of shift.

(This part I could have put in vulnerabilities but I won't come back on the character sonI put it all there)

He is mirroring Ciri in his fears. She had nightmares about him. He has nightmares about her. When they face, they face their own fears. When Ciri cannot kill him he kind of pledged her allegiance, setting up his obsession to join de Hansa to save her (they may drop the weird attraction thankfully).

For him to work fully, we needed maybe one more scene between the Thanedd coup and fighting with Ciri. This is Emhyr's lie about Fringilla's death and her last little push, telling him to think by himself, that cut the last string attaching him to his emperor. But Cahir cannot live that way. What he has done is too much, he needs to be free from his guilt. Hence he asks Ciri to take his life as a price to pay for the sufferings he caused her.

But this is not how she thinks (yet) and vengeance is not her solution. Winning the fight was enough for her to overcome her fear about him. She won a silent battle.

Cahir needs redemption so he goes by the only way he knows. He devotes himself to her. This can seem blurry because he has very little screen time this season. But here we are.

Francesca is loyal to her blood kind, but trying to find a way for her species to survive she betrays some of them, losing progressively the faith people have in her. The last one to have an undefective trust in her is Filavendrel because they share the same pain, I guess.

The dramatic turn for her is that she has to sacrifice the squirrels in order to save the others. So she kind of betrays them all at that point.

Though one of her last biggest sad moments is when Fringilla tells her the truth about Emhyr. The last scene they have together is hard. All is not black and white though we can understand Francesca's deep emotion and feeling of betrayal. This is not fair for Fringilla and this settles the down path for the queen of elves.

In the secondary characters we could play all day with Dijkstra and Philippa in terms of loyalty and betrayal. The frontiers are so blurred between them two. Dijkstra is loyal to Redania to a sick extent. Philippa plays by her own rules to the point that it is unclear who she is loyal to.

But the last but not least big loyalty betrayal moment goes to Vilgefortz and Tissaia.

Technically Vilgefortz is loyal to no-one. But he played for so long with Tissaia… Their story is the evil side of what could have been Geralt and Yennefer's if Yennefer had been truly malevolent. Tissaia is echoing the deepest hurt in Geralt's heart and rewinding everything why Geralt took so long to forgive Yennefer.

(Tissaia was way more developed in the series than in the books to help building the emotions for what is lost and internal struggles for other characters)

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

That you liked it or not, despite being not lore accurate, BO has a lot of circleling and mirroring meta. Elves being the oppressors of dwarves, and humain becoming the oppressor of everyone less. Or the funny parallels between the couple Eile/Fall and Jaskier/Geralt.

The simple story of Merwyn is an example that repeats itself in history. Francesca being her mirror through the length of another elven legend.

The elven queen is one character that is very changed from the books and has a strange setup for later parts with the lodge. But she echoes some other characters, and stories. There was a symbol in S2 with the white rose that was a foreshadowing of what would happen to her as it echoed Sherraewedd of whom we learn the legend of in S3. The same way that elven warrior did, she is the one that may lead her kind of a new path of extinction, sacrificing the squirrels to Emhyr for a land for the rest of them… Cintra in place of Dol Blathanna.

And in the same way if Merwyn who had the well being of her people in mind she clings too long onto legends of the past. Willing to find a new home for them.

Btw, she is set up as a vengeresse willing to burn the world down as everything she loved was taken from her. Does she not remind you of someone who could now do the same for his found family ?

She is the circling history for a part of elven history.

For the human part, still connected to the elves though we have Falka whose story is set up in S2 and nourishes Stregobor hatred. That burning hatred is seen in many characters with the effect it has on them. Ciri relinquishing her powers in order to prevent falling in that pit too is a first step to break the cycle but what is waiting for her is a pit of darkness.

Also we have Istredd the historian that digs to unveil the mystery around the monolithes. Very quickly said in S3 but he knows about the book of Monoliths. Vilgefortz knows already about it and he is yet to unlock their power. That's why he made Istredd prisoner during the coup. That mystery is one of the key component to BO story and the Wild Hunt that is now leaking in our dimension.

And those monoliths were there before the elves came. Dwarves and gnomes venerated them.

I know people are mad about this but I think this is an easy visual anchor for the gates between realities. And if you read the books you know who can travel through dimensions… So yeah. We are circling again there with this.

And now the Thanedd coup is the shock that finally destroys the old system but nothing emerges except chaos and favors Emhyr's. The wipe of the Brotherhood is also a not too subtle nudge to women getting free from patriarchy. In this battle we see the oldest and the male fall one after another. And in this mayhem I have to admit I loved Stregobor last stand. Delightfully twisted and satisfying.

Now there is one final point because one member of the old system has survived a little bit longer…

Tissaia has a bunch of lost children under her care. Every one of them rejects the model she is trying to preserve. She believes in the fragile peace they have created and maintained with the Brotherhood.

Fringilla sees another way with Emhyr and believes in his goal for quite some time, until she has the chance to evolve by herself and she discovers the true face of the emperor.

Working with Dijkstra, Philippa sees the crack in the old system. And she sees the opportunity to take a new turn as it crumbles.

Yennefer doesn't care about the system. She wants to regain control over her life. And she opposes Tissaia on a personal level. But doing so she adds cracks into the walls. She reconnects with her mentor when she becomes a mother to Ciri, seeing finally the mother in her she always has been. Yennefer doesn't protect the old system, fighting by Tissaia's side, she is fighting for her.

The final push that lead Tissaia to commit suicide is Yennefer saying that she is their mother and that they need her. Her children don't need her anymore. She is just a relic of the past. Because they love her, they cling onto her. But they have to fly. We see her abandoning her severe mask and going soft, accepting to lose control. She cuts herself the last string that holds them to the old system. And the Lodge of the Sorceresses is that : a new power emerging from the ashes of the old one.

And there so many other little parallels that I wish I would speak about. Little pieces for us to dig and get the layers under those characters. I didn't even get into the political part. But I have to stop somewhere because I am too long...

OK but why pointing out that repeating history, the past parasitizing the present, all the time. We are going nowhere. Do you think ?

Nenneke said to Ciri that she could be the key to ending the circle of hatred and the young woman idealized it. She doesn't know how. But she wants to put an end to all this. Does she succeed ?

Well I guess that no-one cares now.

The circle of hatred had won on this side of the spheres so...

Empty, without soul, unnecessary, diversity garbage, unfaithful, no actor good enough except one… you are so many so it means you must be right. But still I love this show. I can't help it.

I hope someone would appreciate the effort of the underlying structure of my garbage. Circle and parallels...

#tws3 #i am sometimes passive agressive in there so be warn #critical #both good and bad #spoiler i love the show #if someone has the courage to read all this....#(i wish it was not limited to 10 pictures)#my potato gifs #long post #review

33 notes · View notes