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nat-20s · 3 years

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Part 5 of Wonderful! Au. *boyband voice* banter’s back alright!

Also on AO3

~*~

Jon: Hello everyone, and welcome back to our regular format. If my husband being horribly soppy-

Martin:-hey!-

Jon: -turned you off the how, this should be a refreshing return to formula, though I can’t guarantee there won’t be further horrible soppiness-

Martin, performatively under his breath: -most people thought it was charming-

Jon: -as that tends to happen when one is recording with the love of their life. If last week’s episode is the only one that you like, too bad, I’m back in full form, and should be at least through the rest of the season.

Martin: This show doesn’t have seasons? Due to the whole lack of a narrative thing?

Jon: I was referring to spring.

Martin: Oh, right.

[A beat passes.]

Martin, flatly: Oh. Great goof hon.

Jon, smug: Thank you.

Jon, sincere: Also, before we get properly started, I did want to actually thank everyone who sent well wishes.

M artin: Yes! We got positively inundated with lovely messages, it definitely brightened both of our days. I would even say it was wonderful.

[Jon groans.]

Jon: I am..not proud of the energy we’ve created for this episode so far, and we haven’t even hit the small wonders. Speaking of, do you have a small wonder this week?

Martin: Mine’s bad action movies.

Jon: Really? I had no idea you even liked them, let alone consider them wonderful.

Martin: Okay, so, saying I like them is a bit of a misnomer? It’s more that I like what they can do more than the movies themselves?

Jon: Elaborate?

Martin: It probably comes as a surprise to no one that I’ve tried my hand at a fair amount of mindfulness and mediation techniques. I’ve found poetry and journaling have been helpful for actually processing life events and whatnot, but when it comes to giving your brain a hard wipe and reset, nothing is half as quick and effective as a shitty shoot-em-up. Somethings about 2 hours of cartoonish, pg-13 violence held together with the absolute loosest of plots brings me to a state of mental blankness that would make a monk jealous.

Jon: How have I never witnessed you doing this? When are you sneaking off to go see Micheal Tarantino or who ever films?

M artin: That’s definitely not the right name.

Jon: Martin, dear, I don’t care. And you’re dodging the question.

Martin, fond: I’m not dodging anything. Since apparently we’re getting into it, you haven’t caught me cavorting with a movie involving more explosions than character development lately because I haven’t been. Haven’t needed it, in recent years. Turns out when you’re not crushingly lonely and working a literal nightmare of job, there’s less of a drive to try and escape your own thoughts. Shocker, I know. Still, to anyone out there that feels like their brain is on fire, go try watching a fast and furious. Any of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Or even better, Chronicles of Riddick. I can’t remember a single goddamn detail of that movie, which makes it perfect for what I’m talking about.

Jon: I have the strong feeling that th is is a “mileage may vary” scenario.

Martin: Well, yeah, that’s this whole podcast. Plus, I imagine that movies like this would cause more stress to someone who cares about, say, world-building or rules consistency.

Jon: I wonder who you could possibly be referring to.

Martin: It’s a purely hypothetical person, love, don’t worry about it. Any small wonders?

Jon: Yes! Particularly relevant to the last week, my small wonder is stripping the sheets from your bed when it’s been too long between washes.

Martin: How very specific. M ost people would just say ‘clean sheets’.

Jon: Well, for one, I’m fairly certain that we’ve already covered clean sheets-

Martin: Shit, have we? Thank god other people keep track of this, otherwise this show would be unbearably repetitive.

Jon: Christ, yes. I typically check the website a good three times while prepping, and every about one out of those three times I find I’m trying to do an topic we did 30 episodes again. Anyway, um, it’s just nice, I think. When you’ve been too busy or sick or away for awhile, tossing the sheets in the wash makes a room instantly seem nicer. Of all the chores out there, this one, at least for me, has the highest reward to effort ratio.

Martin: Hard agree. Especially when the y have that slight funk of having been around to long, getting rid of that is such a relief. Speaking of, we need to change our sheets soon.

Jon: We can do it after the episode. Who goes first this week?

Martin: Considering last week was only me talking, I’m gonna say it’s you.

Jon: Alright, then. My first thing this week is Martin K. Blackwood.

Martin: Absolutely not!

Jon: Oh, you can do a whole episode on me, but I can’t do one little segment on my husband, whom I love very dearly?

Martin: Not while I’m sat here, no!

Jon: So you’re saying you don’t want me to tell the internet that your resolve to be kind even in the face of indescribable cruelty is one of the mot breathtaking things I’ve ever witnessed, or how I find it incredibly endearing when you get so emotional that your voice comes out as a squeak, or even that, on a more base level, you’re very physically attractive, and I could lose entire days thinking about your arms alone?

Martin, audibly blushing, voice the aforementioned squeak: Oh my god, Jon!

Jon, laughing: Then it’s probably for the best that my actual first thing is best friends.

Martin, peaking the audio levels: Oh you absolute bastard! Do you enjoy this? Do you get some sort of perverse sense of entertainment from riling me up?

Jon: Oh, don’t you start. As if you’re not as bad as I am. Maybe even worse.

Martin: That’s not…

Jon: Yes?

Martin: Okay. Maybe it’s slightly true. Really, what is romance for if not flustering your partner with compliments?

Jon, teasing: I certainly can’t think of anything.

Martin: Hush, you.

Jon: No, I don’t think I will.

Martin: Fine. I suppose you can tell our delightful audience about the power of friendship or whatever.

Jon: I would’ve assumed more enthusiasm, considering this segment is still, indirectly, about you.

Martin: In what way?

Jon: In the way that, to the shock of all, you’re my best friend.

Martin, pleased: Oh, is that what I am?

Jon, exasperated: Yes, dearest husband, I wouldn’t have married you otherwise. Though, upon reflection, I knew you were my best friend before I knew I held romantic feelings for you.

Martin: When was that?

Jon, letting out a breath that vibrates his lips: God it was...2016? I think it might’ve literally been the day after you told me about your CV.

Martin: That early? Huh. I wonder if that’s what people were picking up when they said they we were close.

Jon: What people?

Martin: I don’t know specifically, that’s just what Daisy told me.

Jon: Daisy? When the hell-?

Martin: It...was when she was interrogating me? And, because sometimes I have to be a parody of myself, pretty much my only take away from that interrogation was “people think me and Jon are close”.

Jon: Well then. It’s not like they were wrong.

Martin, smug: No, no they weren’t.

Martin, sincere: And you’re my best friend, too.

Jon: I was certainly hoping that you’re in this relationship for more than my good looks and incredible fortune, both in the monetary and luck sense.

Martin: You say that as if you aren’t good looking, which we all know is patently untrue.

Jon: You’re biased. You’d say I was good looking if I were nothing more than some primordial ooze with thoughts about its station.

Martin: I’m being completely objective. If you were primordial ooze with thoughts above its station, you’d be the cutest ooze of them all. That’s just scientific fact.

Jon: I’m starting to think we might be insufferable.

Martin: Starting to? Might be?

Jon:…

[Jon clears his throat]

Jon: What I find wonderful about the concept of best friends is, to me, they’re the closest thing real life has to soulmates. I don’t personally believe that there’s some..grand mystic force that drives people to be tied together in the manner that narrative typical soulmates are, and if there was I don’t think it would necessarily be the kind of emotional, heartfelt bond one would hope for, but I do believe that there’s individuals that get to know one another, and because of that knowledge, they chose to stick with one another. It doesn’t have to be a romantic, which is why I say best friend rather than specifically ‘spouse’, but I would argue that the basis of a strong romance like you and I have, is very much rooted in that connection. A true best friendship is an equal partnership, and there’s a sense of..matched sensibilities and understanding that can be utterly incandescent when it happens.

I also think that having one or more best friends makes living life on a day to day basis both better and just flat easier. The dark times aren’t as dark, and the bright times shine even more. I know from my own personal experience there are events that I..that I don’t know how I would’ve made it through without you. Hell, last week my..recovery period would’ve taken much longer if you hadn’t been there.

It’s an amazing thing to have someone to share things with, both triumphs and burdens. Um, also, according to Dictionary.com, the term best friends in English has been around since the 1200s. Something about that delights me, like, yes, we’ve had this casual way of referring to a Favorite Person for roughly 800 years. That makes it a hold-out from early Middle English. I dunno, it’s one of those things that make me feel overall very charmed by humanity.

Martin, audibly smiling: No, yeah, hard agree.

Jon: What’s that look for?

Martin: Nothing. Just. I love you a whole lot, you know that?

Jon, voice soft: I may have heard you say that once or twice. Per hour.

Martin: Only that often? I really need to be more diligent about that.

[There’s a bet of silence, presumably where they’re making doe eyes at each other.]

Jon: What’s your first thing?

Martin: Oh, um, right. Rats!

Jon: The expression or the animal?

Martin: Jon, have you ever once heard me say “rats” as an expression? Obviously I’m referring to the animal.

Jon: Ah. Should’ve known, considering that what, a third?, of all your segments have been on animals.

Martin: Yeah? And? You got a problem with critters? With creatures? With lil guys?

Jon, laughing: No, no, it’s very sweet. I’m just surprised you never became a vet.

Martin: Oh believe me, I wanted to. But then I learned that it was not, in fact, a job composed entirely of getting paid to play with other people’s pets.

Jon: You had that job, though, didn’t you? I thought I remembered you mentioning a month long stint at a doggie day care.

Martin, sighing dreamily: Best job I ever had. Too bad that place was shut down after it was revealed to be a money laundering front.

Jon: Good lord.

Jon: Martin did you...did you know it was a money laundering front at the time?

Martin:

Martin: Would it make you feel better if I said no?

Jon: Martin!

Martin: I figured it out like a week in, but, like, who cares? The pay was decent and the floor was super easy to clean, which is very much a plus for even a front of a doggie day care.

Jon: That’s...rather a lot. How about instead of getting into that any further, you tell me about rodents.

Martin: I would love to. But first, we have a shoutout!

Jon: Ooo, a shoutout. Does it specify who should read?

Martin: Let me check. It...does...not…..

...

Jon: Martin?

[A beat.]

Martin: Right! Sorry, um. This week’s shoutout is from Tim, to Danny. It says, “Danny! My favorite person who shares genetic material with me! I wanted to say thank you for your podcast obsession from 4 months ago, and specifically for telling me about these marrieds. They’ve gotten me through many a dull hour at the publishing house. Also, with this shoutout, I’ve officially gotten ahead on the Superior [Last Name Redacted] Brother scoreboard, so suck it. Love you lots, and looking forward to your visit next month, Tim.”

Jon: Oh.

Jon: Um. That’s very..sweet? I think? Mostly?

Martin: Yeah, I’d say so. Uh. We have to take a quick break because, uh, someone is..at our front door! Be back with you all in, from your side of things, just a moment.

#wonderful! au #jonmartin #jon sims #martin blackwood #>:3 #shoutouts are their versions of jumbotrons btw

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yesiamkai · 2 years

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So I’ve been thinking about Midori (shocker) and decided to dump my thoughts and a bit of an analysis.

Fair warning: I am expressing some criticism of the game in this post, and there is some discussion of the Shin + Hiyori dynamic, so please avoid if you don’t want to see that.

My train of thought started with me thinking that GOD, what I wouldn’t give to see Midori absolutely lose it! Like, aside from his weird “BEWITCHING AND SUPREME” speech, he maintains his cool so well throughout 3a, and only loses it a little at the end of 3b with the whole “fear of dying” thing. (I have my gripes with this plot point — it’s a very unsatisfying weakness for his character to have, but I digress). And yet, even at that critical moment where we’d have the opportunity to see something deeper from him, he’s trapped in a box and he doesn’t have time to do much more than sweat and beg for his life before he dies.

This led to me thinking that honestly, the way his arc plays out is disappointing for me. He’s an incredibly compelling villain, partially because of the fact that he’s absolutely irredeemable, but we don’t get to see much of that depth that would make him feel like a character rooted in reality, or the horribly messed up individual that the game reflects.

Gameplay Midori is a cheerfully irreverent man who treats killing people like casual fun. He’s entertaining, charismatic, and makes a great addition to our wacky cast of characters. But when compared to almost everyone else, he unfortunately ends up feeling one-dimensional and cartoonish in his presentation. The plot fails to humanize him in any meaningful way, and his character suffers. This isn’t because humanizing him would “justify” his actions or make them redeemable, but simply because he would be more believable as a villain.

(Btw, this isn’t a Midori hate post. I love love love Midori. He’s actually my favorite character in the game — that’s why I feel so passionately about this hehe.)

The game attempts to humanize almost all of the other Floor Masters. We are told outright that Rio is evil because he was made that way — he is a doll who was created to lack humanity. Safalin’s depth stems from her presentation as the antagonist with the most sympathy for the participants. We don’t know exactly what her backstory is, or why she is with Asunaro, but she displays a pretty consistent internal conflict between her role as a Floor Master and any desire she might have to help the participants. (It’s not entirely that straightforward with Safalin, but this is turning into a novel and this isn’t meant to be about her lol.)

Even Gashu is a very “human” antagonist. His obsession with his work has overwhelmed him to the point where he no longer sees right and wrong, or the value of the lives being lost. He has been so absorbed in the making of the Death Game and feels so justified in his actions that he is unable to feel guilt, even for the death of his own son. He sees people as nothing more than pawns. Weirdly, it’s the loss of his humanity that makes Gashu so uniquely human.

Aside from Meister, whose true role in the plot is pretty clearly just getting started as of 3b, I think Sue Miley is the only character who falls victim to the “cartoon villain” issue that Midori has. We do have a hint of a backstory for her that somewhat explains her behavior — her fiancé being driven to insanity by Asunaro — but as of this point in the game, her motives go mostly unexplored. However, Miley is still alive, her arc is incomplete, and I have no doubts that she will reappear in the final parts (and hopefully clear up some questions when she does).

Midori, though, is supposedly dead. The game sets up the possibility for him to return using the forgotten doll head, but the plot also seems to be eager to wash its hands of him. For a game that sets Midori up to be so threatening and traumatic that his mere photograph causes almost everyone to freak out (before they even remember him!), his actual role in the story ends up being very short-lived. He undergoes no character arc, we learn almost nothing about him, and then he gets killed off.

But all of this could have been avoided if the game a) introduced him earlier than the final chapter and b) took better advantage of the single meaningful link Midori has to humanity. This link?

Shin!

The game criminally underutilizes Midori’s connection to Shin. We do get some insight from Shin directly via his memory, and their limited in-game interactions are some of the most fascinating in the entire game.

It’s pretty obvious that Midori, back when he was Hiyori, was the most important person in Shin’s entire life. Shin admired him, leaned heavily on him, and considered him his best friend (at least). It’s also heavily implied that whatever feelings Shin had were reciprocated, although Hiyori took his side of the relationship way too far and ended up damaging Shin emotionally.

The Hiyori we see from Shin’s perspective is still disturbing, but startlingly more human. Instead of a one-dimensional villain, we see a version of Hiyori who complains when it’s hot, likes robot action figures, writes poetry, and takes countless pictures of his smiling friend to hang up in his room.

We see with the Shin AI that Midori is still quite possessive over his former friend, but the game gives us very few interactions between the two of them. In fact, Midori all but ignores Shin throughout many of his run-ins with the group.

Is this a fault of the way the branching paths of the game treat Shin/Kanna as merely a stand-in for the other in their respective routes? Probably. We don’t get a lot of insightful commentary from whichever one of them lives in Chapter 3, or Reko/Alice. It’s also rough because Chapter 3 introduces so many new characters, and it’s hard to develop them all in such a short time when none of them even make it past 3b. The Dummies deserved a lot more backstory and characterization, too.

I really just wish the game would have used Midori’s ties to Shin to develop him more. Even if he would have simply appealed to Shin directly to save him while he was in the coffin, that would have been really interesting to see.

The fandom does a really great job of bringing characterization to Midori that the game lacks, and despite all of my complaining, he’s still my favorite character, lol. I just know the game is capable of creating really complex characters (Keiji and Shin himself are great examples), so it’s saddening to see it fall so flat with Midori.

Anyway, sorry for my rambling! I just had a lot on my mind that I wanted to put down somewhere.

#first time fr writing something on here lmao #sorry y’all #your turn to die #yttd #yttd midori #midori yttd #sou hiyori #shin tsukimi #yttd rambles #kimi ga shine #yttd spoilers #yesiamkai’s dissertation smh

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)

I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.

Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest

The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.

Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.

And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.

In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.

Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.

Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.

Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.

If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...

I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste

We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.

There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.

And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.

Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too

That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?

It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.

But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?

As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best

I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.

There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.

In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?

Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?

And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.

In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?

NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.

This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.

Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest

After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?

Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.

The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.

But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.

youtube

But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #gabriel agreste #hawkmoth #hawk moth #shadowmoth #shadow moth #emilie agreste #adrien agreste #cat noir #chat noir #cat blanc #chat blanc #nathalie sancoeur #mayura #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug

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honeylikewords · 3 years

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uneasy lies the head (poe dameron)

In the wake of her passing, the official, if somewhat symbolic, royal title of Alderaan has passed to from Leia Organa to her chosen heir, Poe Dameron. Along with his elected position as the Galactic Senate Represenative for his home planet, Yavin V, Poe is now burdened with the responsibility of a political office he never imagined holding, and is called to attend a summit of the galaxy’s leaders that will be held aboard the Starcruiser Halcyon.

This piece is based on a few things: one, me liking the idea of Prince of Alderaan Poe, two, my interest in Begrudging Politician Poe, and three, the new details that have come out about the real-life Halcyon experience that will be opening up at Disney World in Florida, which you can read more about here! I’ve been really excited about it for a long time, and just thought it’d be fun to tie one of my favorite characters in to this amazing new experience that will be coming soon!

(Content Warnings: mentions of Leia’s de@th, some slightly risque flirting between Poe and his wife, and a little bit of making out, but that’s about it! Word count is 5k.)

Poe stands in front of the mirror, anxiously adjusting the epaulets of his tunic. They don’t seem to sit right on his shoulders, he thinks, passing a hand through their silvery fringe and watching them brush the snow-white fabric of his sleeves. This isn’t his kind of uniform, and when he looks at himself, he sees more a child wearing the spoils of a raid on their parent’s closet than the Senate representative he was meant to be. He tries tightening the high, pale collar of his tunic against his throat, swallowing thickly and watching his Adam’s apple bob beneath the colorless fabric. That didn’t help much dignify the image, he thinks, eyeing himself morosely.

He looks older. His beard is fuller, having let it grow out to appear more… wise, he supposes, and the grey streaks running through it match the ones appearing more and more every day at his temples. His tan fingers tease lightly at the end of his beard, trying to stroke it like he’d seen other, more senior politicians do when lost in thought (or at least trying to come across like they were). It makes him look pretentious.

Sighing loudly, he slumps his taut shoulders and rolls them a few times to loosen the aching muscles. He turns away from the mirror and steps out of the dressing room, entering the stateroom and collapsing onto the edge of the bed, his face in his hands. He hears a door hiss open and looks between his fingers at the emerging figure.

She’s still fidgeting with her hair, which is now lifted from its former looseness into a series of intricate looping braids. Letting out a huff, she takes her hands away, seemingly having resigned herself to leaving the hair as it was. Poe lifts his head a little, resting his chin on his palm as he watches her pat her dress and check the mirror in the dressing room, just as he’d been doing mere moments before.

She looks much, much better than he does. It’s an objective fact. Her air is stately and refined, with her gown framing her regally. The fabric is a delicate, pale blue, trimmed with fine threads of gold that interweave and flow, like braided ivies, trailing up her waist in a way that guides Poe’s wandering eyes to the loveliness of her figure. She seems to belong better to this world, with its mannerisms and socialites, its political politenesses. He never had the patience to be so diplomatic, even though that is his job, now.

He watches her pull a face at herself in the mirror, frowning at some flaw he’s oblivious to, and he stands up, coming to her side and placing his hands on the small of her waist, leaning his head on her shoulder and kissing her cheek amiably.

“You look like a princess,” he purrs, hoping his flattery will encourage her confidence. He hates seeing her unhappy with herself.

“I wish,” she responds, voice tinged with something wan and far away. “I… I really do wish.”

He knows what she’s thinking about: he’d been thinking about it, too. Dropping the air of adulation, Poe reaches for her hand and gently knits their fingers together, pressing their locked hands softly against her belly for reassurance. He meets her eyes in the mirror, and the two share expressions of loss.

“I miss her, too,” he murmurs. “I don’t feel like… like I can do what she did. What she left for me to do.”

He feels his wife squeeze his hand intently, causing him to lift his head up and meet her gaze as she turns to look at him, unfiltered by the mirror. Her eyes, clear and sharp, stare at him as she nods, then kisses his forehead warmly, taking her free hand and brushing it softly across his cheek.

“She chose you for a reason,” she whispers, soft and sincere, just like she always does. “Leia left you her seat and title because you’re the only person fit for the job. She trusted you.”

Her hand dips to his jaw and she lifts his head up from its morose slump. He cannot look away from her, even if he wanted to.

“I trust you, too.”

Poe takes in all the angles of his wife’s face, knowing that no single word of what she said was untrue, but searching for the possibility of a lie anyway in some small giveaway of her expression; after all, how could he be the one fit to carry on in the shadow of his predecessor? How could his shoulders carry the burden of her greatness, much less improve upon it? But there, in her eyes, Poe sees the truth, reflected over and over again: he was chosen for this job, chosen to carry on a legacy he had no option but to strengthen. He is the only one who could, whether he believes it or not.

He straightens his back a little, standing up taller, and squeezes his wife’s hand in silent thanks, taking a moment to press their foreheads together and breathe in the scent of her. She is wearing perfume-- something they’d never had access to during the scarcity of the war-- and he marvels at how something so small changes the entire atmosphere of her presence. She truly embodies the grace and elegance of the woman who came before both of them, looking every inch the part of an Alderaanian royal.

Glancing back at himself in the mirror, Poe huffs; while she may look, indeed, just the way Leia would want the nation to be represented, Poe does not. He looks stuffy in his garb, at times like an old man in the too-tight clothes of his youth, and, at others, like a scrawny teenager in the baggy trappings of someone he was only pretending to be. She seems to sense his dismay, as she takes the initiative to comfort him, this time.

“You look dashing,” she smiles, adjusting his lapels and the ribbons of decoration on his chest. “Prince Poe Dameron, Senate Representative of Alderaan and Yavin IV. You’ll knock ‘em dead.”

At that, Poe lets out a playful, exasperated huff, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll be great,” he grimaces, eyeing his form in the mirror. He raises his voice into a mocking lilt, swaying his head from side to side in an intentionally cartoonish parody of a stuffy bureaucrat. “Oh, Senator Y’Barra, your engagement commission is most dreadful! Shall we discuss its heinousness over tea and crescent crumpets? Garcon, we need more gold-dusted butter for our scones if we are ever to pass this bill!”

She covers her mouth to hide the beginnings of a smile and tries to reprimand Poe, affectionately slapping his chest.

“It’s nice that we’ve been asked to attend the summit, Poe. At least try to make some--”

“Don’t say friends,” he groans. “I don’t want to make friends with these people. They’re politicians; they don’t want to do anything other than profit, and post-war reconstruction is a hell of a time to make money for slime bags like these people.”

That seems to take her back for a moment, and Poe watches her expression shift as she sorts through her thoughts, her lips pursed, eyebrows arched. She then shrugs and nods, acquiescing.

“Probably. But there are probably also people like you: people whose service in the war and dedication to their people, all across this galaxy, led them to this job. People who just want to rebuild. Do better. You’ll find them, dear: you’re an excellent judge of character.”

She taps her fingers against his nose playfully.

“After all, you picked me, didn’t you?”

“If I remember correctly,” Poe teases, lowering his eyes to her lips and smirking, “You were the one to get a crush on me first. All butterflies and nerves anytime I so much as passed you in the halls. More like you picked me, huh?”

Poe catches her face take on the familiar cues of embarrassment and flustering; he can just tell he’s got her all a-twitter, and she pouts her lips, looking down at her shoes shyly as he starts to chuckle. It’s adorable to remember how flighty and skittish she was in those early days, and how enamored of her he himself was, and remains. Getting her all shy like this is a sweet harkening back to that early, giddy tension, and he dips his face down, hovering his lips just above hers, feeling her draw in a breath of neediness and--

“Senator Dameron,” a robotic voice announces through the commlink in the stateroom, freezing Poe in place. “The ferry is beginning docking procedures with the Halcyon. Please proceed to the boarding area. A droid will be sent to collect your luggage as you leave.”

“Ah, shit,” he growls. He’d completely lost track of time.

Dodging back out into the stateroom, Poe glances out the window and sees the looming mass of a gigantic starcruiser, a sharp body of glimmering steel and inky black portholes contrasted against the star field behind it. It is massive-- far larger than any ship Poe had personally piloted in the past-- and spans more than the distance his window could afford a view of. They are extremely close, and within minutes will be aboard the behemoth, where Poe will have to eat, sleep, and breathe senatorial and princely dignity.

He turns away from the window to see his wife making sure everything was packed and prepared for departure, checking the bathroom and dressing room before giving him a confirming nod: everything is where it needs to be. They are ready to go.

They walk towards each other and Poe places his hands on his wife’s arms, stroking up and down the bareness of her shoulders to steady himself. As he feels the warmth of her skin beneath his rough palms, Poe blinks with awareness and gives her a quick squeeze, darting off to the dressing room. He opens a trunk and lifts up the topmost layer of fabric, running back into the stateroom with it carefully laid across both his forearms, then turns his wife to face him and gently lays the upper corners of the fabric on each of her shoulders.

“The cloak,” he mumbles as he fastens the pale silver silk around her neck, “Don’t wanna forget that. A princess is set apart by garments like that.”

“Right,” she hums, admiring his hands as he fusses with her collar. “Sometimes it’s hard to remember that since you’re the prince, now, and I married you, I’m the--”

“Princess, yep,” grins Poe. “Princess Dameron.”

“By marriage only,” she teases.

“And I’m only the prince because she left an essentially honorary title to me,” Poe wits back. “But it suits you, at least.”

“You think?”

“Mm. Now, I think the prince owes his princess one of the tenets of royal responsibility: unadulterated affection towards one’s spouse.”

“Is that a tenet of your responsibilities?,” she smiles, brow cocked.

“I just made it up, but I like to think so.”

Once again, Poe presses his palms against the soft curves of her upper arms, squeezing in the grounding manner he knows she likes, tracing his thumbs along the creamily-smooth fabric now covering her, and he leans in close, admiring how the light shifts against her skin as his shadow draws nearer. He parts his lips, ready to feel the gentle swell of her soft ones against his, when, as if by divine interruption, the hydraulic hiss of the stateroom’s door fills the room and a silver-plated protocol droid peers at him through the now-open door. He grits his teeth to resist letting out a completely undignified expletive aimed at the droid and stares at it pointedly, trying to silently communicate that it had interrupted a private moment.

“It is time to board the Halcyon, Senator,” it chimes in the lilting manner all protocol droids seem to have, seemingly blissfully unaware of his frustration. “Please, come with me to the boarding area.”

Behind the protocol droid, a cargo lifter droid rolls by, seemingly waiting until Poe and his wife leave the cabin to enter. Poe sighs, but can’t resist letting a small chuckle out: both droids, despite their different purposes, both seem polite, in their own sorts of ways, and he always finds that endearing.

Looking to his wife, Poe gives a little bemused half-smile and shrugs his shoulders, as if apologetic but resigned. She takes his hand and turns, nodding to both droids with an impassive but gracious expression, one that Poe notes is more than befitting of an official such as herself. Distanced, but not dour, regal, but not recalcitrant. He loves it.

“Thank you,” she says, coolly polite. “Please, lead the way.”

The protocol droid begins its stiff-jointed hobble towards the boarding area and Poe and his wife trail behind, arms linked at the elbow as Poe fidgets with her fingers. He twiddles her marriage band as they walk, always comforted by the feel of it on her hand. He admires it as they silently proceed; it’s somewhat rough-hewn, made from hammered durasteel, a little uneven and dented in some places from the haste in which it was made, and Poe loves it.

He loves how it contrasts the delicate, fragile jewelry common amongst royals, how it’s not meant to glitter and shine and grab attention, how it ties her to him and he to her, with no regard for image or pomp. It is heavy and solid and made purely for the sake of love and belonging, and she wears it everywhere she goes with pride, as if it was the finest-cut Oshiran sapphire, or the most carefully sculpted gold. It is one of the crown jewels of Alderaan, now, and the thought of it-- of his parent’s simple, quickly-made wedding ring, forged in a time of war, without promise of any moment past the one they were in, now being a royal regalia-- makes his heart ache to bursting with unadulterated love.

Poe tugs her hand up and kisses her knuckles as they finally round the corner into the boarding area; somewhere in the back of his mind, he registers the droid saying something about how their luggage will be sent directly to their stateroom aboard the Halcyon, but he’s hardly listening. He’s looking at his wife, his rock, his tether, as they begin their socialite dance, seeking steadfast comfort in her as he prepares to have to play his part in a world he was never born to be in.

The droid gestures to a corridor formed between the two ships: passengers traipse from the shuttle onto the boarding area of the Halcyon, representatives from a myriad of species in a breadth of costumes and liveries. Poe and his wife exchange glances, knowing that these people will have some hand in forming what comes next in the political landscape of the galaxy, and that they, too, will be instrumental in forging the new governments of the rising Republic.

“Come on,” she smiles, trying to coax him along, tugging his hand and taking a step forward, “It’s gonna be fine. It’s not like my flyboy to get cold feet, hm?”

Poe chuckles and shakes his head, trying to dislodge his clouding worries, and walks in time with his wife, joining the throngs of senators and royals and presidents and diplomats making their way aboard the Halcyon. Some of them exchange pleasantries, others are locked in conversations: some even look at Poe and his wife and nod in acknowledgement, or turn to their compatriots and whisper.

Poe feels an embarrassed heat creep up the base of his neck; he knows rumors have circulated about his particularly unusual position as a representative for a dead planet and a living one, and about how he’d been named the next in line for a royal title he was not born into. He tries not to let it get to him-- let people think that they think, and do your job, Leia had always told him-- but the feeling of alienation and disbelonging hangs over him, shaming him into silence. He tenses, and keeps his eyes fixed forward, which grants him an ever-nearing view of the grand foyer of the massive starcruiser.

The Halcyon is unlike any other ship Poe has ever been on. He’d heard about starcruisers like this, meant to be enormous cruise ships travelling in luxury and style from one planet to another, filled with sprawling cabins and indulgent amenities, and had never even pictured himself aboard one. The thought hardly appealed to him: days, weeks, even, of doing nothing? Just wandering aimlessly around, decadent and opulent in one’s revelry? The mere idea disgusts him. Still, as he steps into the expansive entry for the Halcyon, he finds himself feeling something other than disgust: he feels strangely at home.

The area is bustling as ship workers and bellhops collect luggage and transfer it to droids, as greeters guide guests to check in areas and hand them keycards, as officers check passports and documentation against databases, all lit under the glow of thousands of lights, which reflect off polished durasteel and marble surfaces. Holo projections provide information about travel destinations and the cruise itself in hundreds of different tongues, while a massive projection of the captain glows a familiar blue and greets the boarding politicians.

Poe turns in awe, gazing at the dozens of porthole windows affording views of distant and nearby star clusters, at the navigational crew high above, checking maps and charting courses, and takes a deep, steadying breath in through his nose, squeezing his wife’s hand tight. The hum and thrall of the ship, with its thousands of moving parts and requisite workers, feels exactly like all the ships he’d served on during the Rebellion. He half-believes that if he closes his eyes and turns around, he’ll open them and see Leia there, giving orders and directing the workflow.

The memory sits on his heart, but instead of a heavy, lingering pain, it kindles a warm, growing fire: she lives on in him. She would be proud to see him carrying on the mantle, working to do what no one else has the skill, speech, or stones to do. She is never really gone. Never can be.

Instilled with strength and purpose, Poe looks to his wife, who is staring at the gargantuan hub of activity before her, almost taken aback by how bustling it is. He leans down and gently pecks her cheek, tugging her along and breaking her out of her trance. They’ve got places to be, things to do, royal engagements to avoid, after all. As they begin to move closer to what Poe believes is the reception desk, a Twi’lek in a sleek, almost military-looking white uniform steps in front of Poe and his wife, grinning from green ear to ear.

“Senator Dameron, Princess Dameron,” she greets, bowing at the waist respectfully, “I am Lyna’ame, and I’ll be directing you regarding your stay on the Halcyon. Thank you for honoring us with your patronage.”

“Uh, thank you for having us,” Poe stammers, unsure of how to conduct himself in such a position.

Lyna’ame looks up at him with a quizzical eye, but seems too well-trained to respond with anything more than a polite smile and a nod. She produces from the pocket of her grey-trimmed suit a pair of infochips, extending them towards Poe and his wife.

“You will be staying in the royal suite on Deck B, unit number eighteen,” Lyna’ame smiles. “These chips will act as your keys to the room and to any amenities you should wish to access, and will remind you of upcoming engagements or conferences you should be in attendance of.”

As if on cue, the small screens on the infochips light up and read “19:00: Senatorial Dinner In Ballroom One!” Poe blinks at it, then flashes Twi’lek a cordial but slightly cold smile, taking the chips from her hand and tucking them unceremoniously into his breast pocket.

“Alright, thanks. I think we can get it from here.”

She seems not to register his attempt to tie off the loop of the conversation, continuing anyway.

“You will also have access to all the facilities of the ship, including the swimming areas, dining areas, lounges, bars, activity centres, spas and--”

“I’ll check the brochure in the room,” Poe smiles, searching for an exit. “I appreciate it, but, uh, my wife is very tired--” --Poe nudges her with an elbow and she balks, then understands his intention and mimes a yawn, nodding sympathetically-- “--And I’d love to get her some rest before any hobnobbing, y’know?”

“Of course, your highness,” Lyna’ame says, again accompanied by a civil bow. “The elevators are to the left. Press your infochip to the pad and it will take you to your floor. Your luggage should already be in your room, and please,” she smiles. “Enjoy your cruise.”

Poe bows back, then leads his wife by the elbow to the elevators, where they tap their key card and the doors hiss open. As they board, just the two of them, Poe’s wife turns to face him and raises one eyebrow, haughty.

“Really threw me under the bus there, Poe,” she smirks. “‘Oh, my wife wants to leave this conversation because my wife is awkward and doesn’t know how to handle subordinate behavior from service workers’. Real nice.”

Rolling his eyes, Poe can’t help but smile, and instead of replying, drops his hand to the small of his wife’s back, grazing his fingers there for a moment before dipping slightly lower and--

She jumps, then giggles, hitting him with a shocked but not at all displeased expression.

“Did you just pinch my ass?”

“Maybe,” he smiles. “Why?”

“You just seemed so…” She touches his arm, searching for the right word, chewing her lip thoughtfully. “Severe, before. Lost.”

“Feeling better. Feeling… like I can do this, maybe. Or at least do what I need to do, even if it doesn’t look exactly like how everybody else might expect me to.”

At that she purses her lips and nods, and he can tell she’s happy for him: he’s not entirely out of the woods about this whole ‘galactic representative’ thing, and certainly not used to all the expectations that come with being the heavy head that wears the crown, but he’s going to be alright. At least, he feels like he is, at this moment, and that’s all that matters.

Poe finds himself allowing his smile to grow wider as he dips down and nuzzles her temple, teasing his lips over her ear, tempting and toying.

“I still hate the suit,” he whispers, sending her shivering, “And I don’t want to talk to these people like we’re all buddy-buddy--”

“--Acknowledged, Senator,” she teases, rubbing his arm in the way that lets him know she’s itching to get more handsy.

“But we’re gonna have a private room,” he continues, “And a lock on the door, and at least--” --He checks the infocard, which reads “17:05”-- “--About two hours before anybody’s gonna need us, so I say we shimmy out of these nice duds…”

Poe’s finger trails down the silky rivulets of her collarbones; he has to admit, he does find her massively attractive in this royal robing, but he figures it’ll be less hassle for both of them to assure he doesn’t get too rowdy while they’re wearing some of the best (and irreplaceably expensive) fineries in the galaxy, so he’ll have to bid her pretty little dress and luxurious cape adieu for their stateroom rendezvous. Not that he minds: the dress might be pretty, but the woman underneath is ten times more so. Besides, she can always put it back on again for the dinner, anyway.

“We go see what kind of minibar we’re looking at,” Poe teases, watching her roll her eyes, “Hop in the bath, and see where those two hours take us.”

“Mm, we’ll see,” she demures, patting his chest. He knows she likes to dance around it, never say anything too scandalous where someone else can hear, and he loves that; she extends the tension, making him wait for what he wants. He may not ever have been a patient man before, but she forces him to slow down, savor it, work for it. And that’s delicious.

The elevator doors slide open as Poe leads his wife out into the hall, kissing her jaw as he checks the suite numbers. They shuffle along, exchanging little pecks and touches in the graciously empty hallway (what would the other representatives think, she reminds him in a hushed tone as they pass rooms, if they saw the new prince of Alderaan and Senator for Yavin V hanging off his wife like a pubescent teen?) before arriving at suite eighteen. Poe fumbles in his breast pocket, keeping his lips planted on his wife’s neck, then slaps the infochip haphazardly against the door. It clicks open, and Poe doesn’t even bother to look inside: he just coaxes his wife in, and tumbles in after her.

The lights in the room slowly turn on automatically, rising from a low dim to a sunny brightness, illuminating white-panelled walls and a lush, wide bed, all the furniture sharply clean and sleekly modern, trimmed in shades of black and silver. A massive window shows the endless expanse of space beyond the double-layered transparisteel, and while Poe would normally be more inquisitive and peek around the room to admire it, he’s more than occupied as he pushes his face deeper in the warm, scented crook of his wife’s neck.

“Careful,” she warns as his hand starts to pet at the base of her head, eking dangerously close to the beginnings of her hair roots, “These braids took me hours. I don’t want to have to re-do them, Dameron”

“I get that,” he breathes heavily, “But you look really hot with messy hair and--”

“If we’re going to go to that dinner, I’m not going to go with my hair flying everywhere! I’ll look like a… well, you know!”

“Like a woman well-loved by her husband,” Poe teases, nipping at her jaw. “But, fine, we’ll skip the dinner, and I’ll just keep you all to myself. Nobody else has to see. In fact, I’d prefer they didn’t.”

His eyes glimmer with wolfish promise as he sets his wife down on the edge of the white-blanketed bed, staring at her as her skirts form pools of silver and blue. He’s serious: the summit dinner all but disappears from his mind as he looks at her; how beautiful she is. How elegant. So poised and pretty and his, all his, to love until all the suns swallow themselves and burn out. All these representatives won’t miss him at one measly, lousy dinner, right? Not when he has the love of his life to attend to, surely.

“What’s gotten into you?,” she giggles, kicking off one of her sophisticated shoes as she sits on the bed. “You’re acting like we’re on our honeymoon!”

Poe leans in and places his hands on either side of her hips, bumping his forehead to hers as he takes long, weighty breaths, feeling the heat radiate off of her.

“I just… This is a lot, right?”

“Mm,” she acquiesces.

“And you’re kind of… what I go back to when I’m in too deep. So, right now, all this summit stuff and the Senate and the council? I need that to take a backseat to me being with you. The person I love. And letting that be what guides me in what I need to do for… everybody else.”

She lets out a soft, appreciative “aw”, her eyes softening as she cups his cheek, and Poe leans into her hand, allowing a little lasciviousness to leak into his smile as he stares down at her.

“Plus, it’s kinda… you know, a little sexy, being somewhere so new and ritzy. I’m not used to this kind of stuff. That, and we barely got a honeymoon, if you remember--”

“Yeah,” she recalls, sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose, clearly vexed by the memory, “I remember. The day after we got married, that First Order outpost tried to open fire and you were up and out of bed and back in deployment after less than twenty four hours of being a married man.”

“Duty never sleeps,” he shrugs. “But… We can make up for lost time here, on this big, shiny, fancy-ass ship, huh?”

Poe wiggles his eyebrows with playfully rapacious intent, sending his wife into a fit of good-natured laughs. He adores when she laughs; it sends his heart racing, every inch of him alight with the joy of knowing that her smiles are because of him, the sound of her voice bouncing up and down with glee all caused by some silly little thing he’s said or done. Unable to contain himself, Poe leans down and kisses her, cutting off the sounds of her laughter, a deep, satisfied groan emanating from his chest.

“God,” he rumbles as they part for a quick breath, “I haven’t gotten to do that all damn day.”

“It did feel really good,” she sighs, clasping her arms around his neck. She seems to take pause, etching his face into her memory with her eyes, then comes to a decision: Poe would recognize that resolute gleam in her expression anywhere. “Alright, we’re staying.”

“...You mean it?,” he chirps.

“Yep. You tell them your poor, defenseless wife is laid up ill and needs your constant and most doting attention,” she smiles, kissing the tip of his nose. “Then when you’re done calling the front desk, you come over here and you help me get out of this dress and into that bath you promised.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckles, then catches himself. “I mean, yes, Princess.”

“Mm,” she beams, teasing him with a pinch on the thigh. “Much better.”

They share another deep, drawn-out kiss before Poe manages to wrest himself away from her and off to the side of the room with the comm built into the wall, but glances over at her as he taps at the screen to connect with the front desk. She grins coyly from the bed, kicking one leg out in a pseudo-sultry, semi-silly way from beneath her sumptuous gown. Poe can’t help but feel a swell of endearment.

As the call connects, Poe sighs dreamily to himself; if all else failed, at least he had her, and with her by his side, he was definitely going to enjoy a very, very pleasurable cruise.

#poe dameron #poe dameron x reader #long post #original #OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVEEEEE i actually sat down and wrote this? dkhfhdkf #im a little rusty but! felt good to finish a project! i hope you guys enjoy!!#star wars

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trainsinanime · 4 years

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I feel like when we’re talking about Lila Rossi in Miraculous Ladybug, too often people ignore what I think is the most interesting thing about her: She brings out the worst in Marinette. In fact, she seems like she’s specifically designed specifically to bring out the worst in Marinette.

Think about it. Marinette hates liars; Lila lies almost every time she opens up her mouth, and keeps mocking the very concept of honesty. That brings out Marinette’s righteous anger. Lila also goes after and lies to Adrien, which triggers both Marinette’s protector instinct and, let’s be real here, her jealousy. And all that together turns her into an unguided missile of rage.

None of these elements are new on their own. A consistent character trait of Marinette’s is that she has exactly zero chill when it comes to things being unfair or people being dishonest. This quality is a key reason of why she is a great Ladybug. This same quality has also caused her to antagonize many people, which eventually ended up with akumatisations. I want to make it clear that I only ever blame Hawkmoth for people being akumatized. But even without the butterfly, Marinette inadvertently hurt people without meaning to, e.g. in Reverser/Inverso or Bakerix.

Another consistent trait is that yes, Marinette is petty and spiteful and jealous when it comes to Adrien. I’ve seen fan fictions where Marinette tells Alya, “I am not jealous about Adrien, my friendship with Kagami proves it”, while ignoring that the entire point of Ikari Gozen was Marinette being petty, jealous and spiteful, until she finally got over it. I guess we’ll call those stories an AU.

(My guess is that the end of season 3 was pushing Adrigami in part so Marinette could learn to get over her jealousy. I wonder how, if at all, that’ll play out in season 4. RWBY taught me to never get my hopes up when it comes to the possibility of getting more depth in 3D animated shows with leading ladies dressed in black and red.)

Lila pushes all of Marinette’s buttons and gets her incredibly riled up, and causes Marinette to do actions that are actually objectively shitty. Yes, Lila is lying about a lot, but throwing napkins at people is still not nice. When Alya dismisses Marinette’s objections because she thinks Marinette is just angry and jealous, she’s actually not that wrong. Lila does actually lie, but Marinette is also angry and jealous and it is clouding her judgement.

Especially in Chameleon, it’s important to note that this is the primary challenge that Marinette is facing. So many people keep acting like exposing Lila is the big challenge, but it’s actually super-easy. Marinette did it within five screen minutes of first meeting her, back in Volpina. She even used the “the famous person you claim to know? That’s me and I never heard of you” trope that so many fanfics keep trying to reinvent. And the result of that was not Lila leaving forever (well, actually it kind of was for almost a full season, which was weird), but rather Marinette and Ladybug making an enemy for life. It completely backfired, because Marinette was focused on the wrong problem.

The solution presented in Chameleon is actually not as wrong as many people claim. Adrien recognizes that while Lila is the one who started things by lying, Marinette is actually the one who keeps turning it into a constant battle, and who crucially does almost all of Lila’s work of discrediting Marinette for her.

This is kind of easy to miss on an emotional level. The show will generally always make us empathize with Marinette, and Marinette absolutely does not see the damage she causes to others or to her own reputation when she thinks she’s on a righteous mission. But it is the core of the Lila conflict. Well, until Lila starts trying to actively sabotage Marinette, which obviously changes things. But we’ve only come to that point because Marinette has managed to learn, with Adrien’s help, to tune out Lila.

As an aside: The main difference between Chloé and Lila is the way Lila manages to get under Marinette’s skin. Chloé managed the same, at the start, but she’s too cartoonish and self-obsessed to be much of an actual threat for the high-school parts of the show. At some point early on Marinette learns that being the bigger person when it comes to Chloé is both easy and fun, and that’s essentially the end of that rivalry. Not that that’s a bad thing, they did find other interesting uses for Chloé, but she had left the Cordelia Chase spot open and it looks like Lila was specifically designed to fit right in there.

(I keep wondering whether I should do a post comparing Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Miraculous Ladybug. Both shows are incredibly similar in a lot of ways, and I do recommend both, but if you watch either expecting it to be like the other, you’ll probably end up being disappointed.)

If there’s one thing where they kind of dropped the ball with Marinette getting over her hatred of Lila, it’s the question of why Marinette never exposed Lila to Alya. As established in Lila’s first appearance, exposing Lila is really easy. Alya would immediately jump on the opportunity to help both Ladybug and Marinette, and be a welcome ally at that.

Okay, I can guess why they didn’t do that: It’s so that they could use dealing with the threat of Lila to further develop Marinette’s and Adrien’s relationship. But then they kind of didn’t, and only told us they had… and the biggest thing that happened in that regard, Adrien’s deal with the devil, is something that Marinette doesn’t know about… so yeah, I can see what they were aiming at, but then they didn’t really go for it, and it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. I want more platonic Adrinette scheming, guys. Instead we just get Lila fundamentally not existing, because she’s a one-trick pony as antagonists go. That could have been done better.

Sorry for rambling. In short: The most important thing about Lila is not that she threatens Marinette and is acting evil; it’s what she brings out in Marinette. Ignoring that and just thinking of new ways to expose Lila is missing what makes her relationship with Marinette actually interesting.

#miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #marinette dupain-cheng #mlb meta

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maddhatterreviews · 3 years

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Hope punk stories you should check out if you already haven’t

I think after everything 2020 threw at of as a people (And some of the bullshit we’re still dealing with now) we could all use something to lift our spirits a little. And what better that fiction to escape from the horrors of reality for a little bit?

Just to be clear about this list, this isn’t a top ten or anything. This isn’t me saying these are the best movies/tv shows/ games/ whatever that have that Hope punk feel to it, these are just things that I like and might help you get through shit.

Effectively the codifier for the term. (Or at least the first piece of fiction the term was applied to) I actually stopped watching She-Ra about halfway through the second season, but I’ve been meaning to get back into it for a while. Although I do know that the series ends with Adora and Catra kissing and that somehow fixes everything. And if saving the universe with the power of love isn’t Hope Punk, I don’t know what the fuck is.

If you follow me, you already know how much I love this show. But If I’m being honest, the Hope Punk feel doesn’t really start until the three season. Until then it a pretty generic action anime. Still good though. The show is in more of a darker, “Oh god, we’re all screwed” phase of the story (Not to mention a mid-season hiatus) but it wouldn’t be Hope Punk if there wasn’t some darkness to fight against, right?

Yea, I think this counts. Parks and Rec is all about a genuinely altruistic politician trying to make the city she loves better despite opposition from seemingly every direction, and backed up by a group of loyal friends. As weird as it might seem to call a government worker punk, that is what Hope Punk is all about. And for all the supernatural evils that appear in these other stories, none of them are as scary as an incompetently run branch of the US government.

The first Kingdom Hearts is my favorite game of all time. And as weird and convoluted as the story gets, I still love these games. Sora is the ultimate Hope Punk hero; an eternal optimist who stares down the most wretched darkness the Worlds have to throw at him with a smile. (And a magical sword shaped like a key) What makes Kingdom Hearts Hope Punk to me, is the fact that the thing that makes Sora so powerful isn’t necessarily the Keyblade, but all of the people he’s connected with over the course of the series. Sora himself says it best “My friends are my power!” Saving the Universe with the power of love and friendship.

Okay I sure this is another one that’s gonna throw some people off. But despite the Crow being a gothic revenge story, it’s also about hope and kindness. Or at least the movie is, I still haven’t read the comic. Sure, Eric Draven kills a bunch of cartoonish psychopaths in the most violent ways possible, but he only kills the people who murdered his girlfriend and himself, he protects a young girl he was friends with when he was alive, helps the girl’s mother get her life back together (by scaring the shit of her, but it worked) and only goes after the big bad to save someone that has nothing to do with his revenge mission. I don’t feel like I’m doing this movie the right justice. So if you’ve never seen the Crow, go check it out. I think it’s on Hulu and HBO max.

Sure this was written long before the concept of punk was even a thing, but it’s the story of quite literally the smallest, least powerful being in the world going up against an all-powerful, damn near godlike overlord to save the world. The extended cast doing what they can to push against an insurmountable force of evil, and everything coming down to two tiny hobbits. This shit is punk.

I’m not the biggest Doctor Who fan in the world. I’ve seen most of the new series, but nothing of the original. And I still haven’t watched anything of the 13th Doctor. But I think there is absolutely an argument that can be made that Doctor Who is Hope Punk.

No, Not you!

That’s Better.

I don’t know, this one might be a stretch, especially since Hellboy is another government agent. But he does quit eventually. So there’s that. And I think it says something that the thing Hellboy fights against is the concept of Destiny itself. Hellboy doesn’t care where he came from or what everyone whats him to do or be. He just wants to live his life the way he wants to. Even when Hellboy get sent to hell, he still just trying to chill and live...Uh, you know what I mean.

Spiderman feels like the physical embodiment of Hope Punk. Nothing in his life goes right. His friends and family are constantly either dying or turning into supervillains, half the time New York hates him despite how many times he’s saved, the guys spear heading the Spidy hate is his own boss (Who isn’t a big fan of Peter either) not to mention he’s just continually getting his ass kicked and is perpetually broke. But in the face of all his hardships and heart breaks, Spiderman keeps fighting the good fight. No many how hard he gets knocked down, he always gets back up. There’s a reason the “Shear Strength” shot (As I call it) is such an iconic panel from the Spiderman comics. I mean...just read this fucking panel. Sipderman IS Hope Punk. And there’re plenty of movies, cartoons, games, and of course the comics are always easy to find. The Dan Slott run is one of my personal favorites.

I’m sure among any one of these there’s something that will get you through these troubling times.

#Hopepunk #she-ra and the princesses of power #RWBY #Parks and Rec #Kingdom Hearts #The Crow #The Lord of the Rings #Doctor Who #Hellboy #spider-man

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goneseriesanalysis · 3 years

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Misogyny In Gone

Spoilers for the Gone series down below - please don’t read if you haven’t read all the books

Also minor spoilers for the monster trilogy

TW: Mention of non-consensual s*xual activity

In one of my first ever posts about Gone, I mentioned that when I first read the series I found myself strangely intrigued by characters such as Caine and Drake, whilst disliking or simply being disinterested in female characters, such as Astrid or Lana. Now, in that post I chalked that up to being a result f the internalised misogyny that a lot of girls experience through the teenage years, but looking back I really don’t think I was giving younger me enough credit. I was reading plenty of other books at the time where I had absolutely no problem relating to the female characters. So that got me thinking as to why my experience was so different with Gone. I asked a question the other day about why @gone-series-orchid thought so many younger fans fixate on Drake in particular. And when I was answering the question myself, I found myself realising that it wasn’t so much a connection with that character, but more a disconnect from any female characters - the characters who I would usually relate to.

It made me realise that the issue was not with younger me, but with the writing itself. I began thinking back to various plot points, and it made me realise that women are heavily villainised throughout the series, without them being actual villains. This creates a set-up where you have numerous female character who are subtextually punished in a way that is usually associated with wrongdoers, without actually giving them the autonomy to make the decision to be bad. And so of course 11-14 year old me didn’t like them. And I instead developed an obsession with a sociopathic misogynist, which is really harmful for obvious reasons. Now, I really don’t think mg did this on purpose, but it’s there all the same and so I’m gonna talk about a few things that are irking me as I’m looking back.

Quick disclaimer that I have only re-read Gone so far so I don’t have quotes for evidence as I usually do, and I may even be misremembering some plot points. But I wanted to get my thoughts down while they are still fresh so here goes.

My first thought is that a lot of the villains we see, even the smaller ones, are male. We have Orc for a short amount of time in the first book. We have Caine, Drake and Zil. And even most of the background antagonists are male (Howard, Panda, Mallet, Hank, Turk, Lance, Bug). While you can argue that a lot of these characters are rather one-dimensional and cartoonish, they all have two things in common. Agency and autonomy. They are all able to make their own decisions (with the possible exception of Caine in Hunger). They all have their own clear and distinctive reasons for doing the things that they do and they are all relatively sane - I suppose you could argue against Drake being sane but realistically he is fully capable of making rational decisions when he needs to which would indicate that he is to at least some extent.

And this is something that any female villains just...never have?? And I literally mean all of them. I’m going to go through them one by one.

(Reminder that I’m talking about these characters specifically in their role as an antagonist - some of them do possess agency and autonomy outside of these roles but that is another topic of discussion)

So first we have Diana. Not really a villain, but certainly an antagonist in the first book. So let’s look - Agency?? No. Her role as an antagonist is dependant solely on Caine’s actions, rather than any desires of her own - even the few scenes where she manipulates Jack. She’s doing it to protect herself from Drake...another male villain. Not because of any villainous intentions that she herself has. Autonomy?? No. She is thrown around (literally) by Caine and is forced to go along with HIS schemes, despite actively voicing her unwillingness. She is even forcefully kissed by him - she has no right to self-government and no moral independence for as long as she remains an antagonist.

Lisa - If I remember correctly, Lisa is the name of the sole (I believe) female member of the human crew. So let’s get straight into it because I barely remember her. Agency?? I don’t think so. Now, I could be wrong here but I’m pretty sure we don’t even get an explanation as to WHY she joined the human crew in the first place. If that is the case then that’s a big fat nope for agency. Autonomy?? Again, not that I can remember. I believe she is mainly treated as a romantic prospect for Zil (even though I’m pretty sure he calls her ugly at some point). I don’t think we are ever introduced to her morals and beliefs in any capacity that is separate from Zil. Sorry Lisa.

Brittany - This is quite possibly the WORST example. Brittany is the girl who was killed in Hunger and then brought back as the Jekyll to Drake’s Hyde. Agency?? No. Brittany’s role as an antagonist happens only after she has become insane. She is separated completely from her original characterisation and instead becomes a puppet for the gaiaphage’s desires. Autonomy?? NO. She is literally attached to Drake, and as the series continues she becomes less and less able to govern her own body until in the monster trilogy she is introduced to us as nothing more than a face in Drake’s chest. That he treats as a pet. I mean what the f*ck. She is also completely separated from her moral compass when she turns insane, even having that and the image of her dead brother used against her. I’m actually fuming just thinking about it. Like yeah, I wonder why little 11 year old me didn’t really like the women in this series.

Nerezza - As I remember Nerezza was some form that the gaiaphage took in Lies in order to manipulate Orsay. Agency?? Somewhat. She had a clear goal that she was working towards but points get taken away because she is not a real person. Interesting how the gaiaphage used a female body instead of a male one. However, if I have misremembered and the gaiaphage was possessing an actual kid then let me take that agency point right away. (I’m pretty sure she wasn’t a real person though). Autonomy?? No. Again, she isn’t actually real. ‘She’ is the temporary human form of a glowing pile of rocks. She does not have the ability to self-govern or have any moral independence. Also minus points for the fact that she was used to take away the agency and autonomy of two other female characters through manipulation. (Orsay directly and Mary indirectly).

Penny - Penny is the moof who has the ability to make people see monsters. Agency?? Somewhat. Penny acts purely for herself when she cements Caine, an act of revenge at that. Her goals are clear and she is established as a villain in a way that is separate from the male villains (we learn that she puts bleach in her sisters cereal). However, it is stated that the reason she does not desert to Perdido Beach in Hunger and Lies is because of her crush on Caine. Ew. It is also never really addressed that she does have a reason for attacking Caine in Fear. It’s played down to her just being crazy. (Notice how Drake and Penny are very similar, but he is sadistic and she is crazy- even though she has more justification for attacking Caine than he does for attacking Diana and Astrid). Have another ew, as a treat. Autonomy?? No. I mean, she literally gets her legs broken by Caine in Lies when he drops her off of a cliff. She is unable to move and has to be bathed by Diana and Caine. I mean why did he need to be there mg. Have another ew, that’s a Hat Trick. She cannot self-govern and her moral independence is undermined by her insanity.

Gaia - Gaia is the child of Caine and Diana, who is possessed by the gaiaphage. Do I really need to continue?? Let’s do it anyway. For fun. Agency?? No. She is possessed. By a glowing pile of alien rocks. Completely wiping away any personality or beliefs she may have grown to have. Autonomy?? No. She is possessed. By a glowing pile of alien rocks. She is also killed because of this. She has no ability to self-govern and no moral independence.

Bonus round - Lana temporarily becomes an antagonist in Hunger while under the control of the gaiaphage. Agency?? No. Autonomy?? You guessed it, no. Because she is being controlled. By a glowing pile of alien rocks.

My second point is that the two main female characters experience their character growth at the hands of men. This is not unusual in media. But it’s annoying as hell. Let’s review:

Astrid – Her main role throughout the series is to be Sam’s love interest, despite her being a much more interesting and developed character. She also changes a large part of herself in order for their relationship to continue (I know that’s not why she undergoes the change, but from a storytelling perspective it needed to happen for them to remain together because of how mg wrote them) and Sam is just fine as he is, for some reason. The character development that she goes through in between Plague and Fear is not only directly linked with LP but is also, for some reason, a secret. We, as a reader, are not allowed to see it. She also experiences a lot of character growth due to her fear of Drake and what it takes for her to overcome that. Another man. Yay. I know there is a lot more nuance to it than this but you get my point.

Diana – Again, her main purpose is to be Caine’s love interest. And she is yet another victim of Drake’s sick obsession. I’m not really going to go into detail with this one because Diana’s whole character is a result of the attraction men have to her and the way that they treat her because of this. I talk more on this is my analysis of Diana is you are interested but if I go into it here then I’ll probably cry.

Some bonus characters in this category include:

Lana – Big fat glowing pile of rocks (it’s genderless, I know, but I’m counting it), Quinn, Sanjit

Penny – Caine

Taylor – Her character doesn’t really rely on a man but it does rely on other characters (and mg) treating her like a sl*t for daring to have an attraction to one

And point number three: Women having sex = bad??

Again, not uncommon in media. But boy does it get on my nerves. For some reason women having sex or exploring their sexuality in the gone series seems to immediately have negative connotations. Now, I’m not sure whether this was intentional or not, but I do know that the same subtext is not there for the male characters. I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not overly fond of any of the kids having sex. Because, you know, they’re kids, and as an 18yr old re-reading the series, it makes me pretty uncomfy. But for any 14 year old girls reading this series, the take-away is immediately that girls exploring their sexuality is bad and wrong and punishable and I hate that. Because it’s just not true. So let’s begin.

I’m going to start by talking about Taylor. Taylor doesn’t actually canonically have sex as far as I can remember, but as I mentioned before, she is treated as a sl*t pretty much from the get go. And why?? Because she is open about the fact that she finds Sam attractive. Which is NOT a bad thing. It’s good to be open about these things, as long as you aren’t making a move on anyone who is already in a relationship then there is nothing wrong with voicing an attraction. And she doesn’t make a move. He does. And when he pulls away?? She accepts it. She doesn’t shout or get upset. She accepts that he is drunk and that he didn’t mean it and she moves on, with the exception of a few jokes. And that is a good reaction to that situation. Yet she is constantly villainised both by characters in the text and subtextually and I hate it.

Penny – Again, Penny doesn’t actually have sex within the story, and I’m not going to talk about her crush on Caine because I already discussed my issue with that. But there is one bit that makes me go absolutely feral. We learn in Fear that she uses her powers to kiss Turk whilst making herself look like Diana (she also does this with Howards although it is never stated who she turns into with him), and this is not presented as an immoral thing to do?? Which it very much is. She is literally commodifying Diana’s body – without Diana’s consent, and mg didn’t think to mention that that is not an ok thing to do?? Like she is SELLING Diana’s body for I can’t even remember what. And this infuriates me so much more because of how Diana is treated for consensually having sex within the series. She can’t even escape from being sexualised when she isn’t around I just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I’m crying now over the horrific way in which Diana is treated ugh.

Brianna – Ok so Brianna is the final one on this list who doesn’t actually have sex within the series. My issue here is how Brianna is treated for her reaction to Dekka’s confession of love. Now, as I have said I haven’t re-read Plague or Fear yet so I’m not sure if Brianna is villainised for this within the text, or if I’ve just seen some fans do it. But. She is a CHILD. She is 12. And someone she looked up to as a sister just told her that she is in love with her. Of course she is going to be confused. She isn’t homophobic – she is a literal child who probably has no real notion yet of her own sexuality. Also, she is allowed to not be attracted to someone. And she is allowed to set boundaries – that is a very healthy things to do. Most women have been in a situation where a man we have considered to be a friend has told us that he has romantic feelings towards us. We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling. This is the exact same situation. And I hate the idea of anyone reading this series to think that they have to reciprocate feelings just because someone is nice to them. Also just to be clear, this is not a criticism of Dekka. Dekka was also a child, who was dying – and she had every right to tell the person that she loved just that. My issue is with the way that I’ve seen Brianna be villainised for her reaction. I love them both and they both deserve the world.

Astrid – Ok so Astrid is the first character on this list who has sex within the series. And I really wished she hadn’t. Or rather, if it had to happen, I wish it had happened under different circumstances. Again. My ideal situation when reading a book about fifteen year olds is that none of them have sex, but that doesn’t happen with Gone so I’m going to work with what I have. A lot of tension in Sam and Astrid’s relationship comes from the fact that Astrid refuses to have sex with Sam, which is a perfectly normal and healthy boundary for a 15 year old to set. But Sam, because he is a whiny little boy with the emotional capacity of a crusty tissue is not ok with this as so seems to develop a victim complex. Now this in itself is not outside the realms of possibility, and it could have even been a good way to add some intrigue to Sam’s character – if mg had explicitly stated that Sam’s reaction was not ok. But he doesn’t. And so Astrid suddenly becomes a prude. The Ice Queen. Now Astrid’s reasoning for not wanting to have sex is because (if I remember correctly) it doesn’t tie in with her faith. She seems to associate her morality with her ‘purity’. This, again, is flawed thinking. Having sex doesn’t make you a bad person just as abstaining from sex doesn’t make you a good person. But mg doesn’t mention that this thinking is flawed, just that her not having sex with Sam is. Which only reinforces the idea that women having sex = bad, unless it is for the benefit of a man. Again, I’m not sure if this was intentional or not but it’s sooo harmful. And to make matters worse, it is only when Astrid becomes an Atheist that she finally decides to have sex. And that just makes me want to scream. Do you know what would have been a good character arc?? Astrid retaining her faith but deciding that she wants to have sex with Sam because she wants to and because she realises that having sex does not make her any less ‘pure’ – or good if you will. Do you know what also would have been a good character arc?? Astrid becoming an Atheist for reasons but still deciding to not have sex with Sam because she isn’t ready yet and having sex is not indicative of moral or religious beliefs. But it just feels like Astrid having sex was more for Sam’s benefit than hers instead.

Diana – Ok so Diana is a big one. Of course she has consensual sex on the island with Caine (even though he does threaten to have it be non-consensual which I just hate so much) and then immediately afterwards becomes pregnant with the Gone series version of the anti-Christ. So Penny literally selling Diana’s body?? Yep that’s fine. Diana choosing to have sex with a boy she ‘loves’ because she wants to?? Bad. Wrong. You must be punished. It just reinforces the narrative that women having sex is bad. Especially when there are little to no consequences for the boys involved. Again, Diana’s characterisation is reliant upon her sexualisation from male characters so it’s hard to separate her from that, but if you want a more in-depth explanation I talk about it in my Diana post.

Connie – And finally we have Connie. The mother of Sam and Caine. Now Connie isn’t exactly shown as bad for having sex – but she is the only grown woman whose sexual past is talked about within the series and she also happens to be an adulterer. Which isn’t amazing. I don’t have too much to say about Connie other than she is presented in an overtly negative light, mostly from Sam, for a situation that happened over 15 years ago. She tried her best. I don’t remember her much but I wanted to mention her because she deserves some justice. Please feel free anyone if you have more to add.

Well that concludes my thoughts on misogyny in the Gone series. I feel like I got slowly more aggressive as this went on so I apologise for that but I had a sudden epiphany and had to write all my thoughts down immediately. I still love the Gone series so much but I had honestly never thought about these things before and it’s now quarter to 5 in the am. I just want to add a quick note that this is a Gone blog but it is also a safe space for women. I love you all and please feel free to critique anything I have said or to add onto it, I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts on this. – And that goes for anyone. Thank you so much for reading :)

#the gone series

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rosecorcoranwrites · 3 years

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Klaus, El Dorado, and The Liar Revealed

Mediocrity vs. Cliches

Around this time last year, when we were young, innocent, and oblivious of the horrors of 2020, people in internet circles were loosing their minds over a movie called Klaus. You have probably never heard of it, but if you had, it would have been by stumbling across it on Netflix or from hearing a YouTube reviewer singing it's praises.

The main reason people loved it was that it was traditionally animated. In fact, it's director, Sergio Pablos, worked on several Disney Renaissance films, and it shows. The animation is gorgeous. The character designs are stylized and unique. What I found the most pleasing was the color palette, which I would describe as pastel watercolor. The film is set in the Far North, and the dour scenes feel cold and depressing while the heartfelt scenes look warm and cozy. The film was a visual delight.

The story? Eh, it was ok.

The reviewers I watched tended to focus on the beautiful return-to-form animation that we rarely see in the days of 3-D animated films while not noticing, or ignoring, that the story was kind of blah. It was a typical "rich-kid-layabout will get cutoff if he doesn't prove himself", with a heaping helping of "The Liar Revealed", which is one of the most annoying tropes in the history of narrative, but we'll get to that later. There's also a subplot that's basically the Hatfields and McCoys, and a randomly villainous matriarch who decides to keep being the villain because... conflict, I guess? Sure, there were a few original ideas—mostly involving Klaus's wife and the couple's struggle with having children—but overall nothing to write home about. The "feelsy" moments were unearned; I felt nothing.

Now, you'll notice that in the previous paragraph, I described many cliches, but I would not describe Klaus as cliche. I would describe it as mediocre. As I said, it was an ok story, but only ok. The problem was that it took its cliches and painted by numbers, which is why it could never rise above mediocrity. A film that knows how to play with cliches—not even necessarily subverting them, but just getting creative with them—can rise to greater heights.

Cliches as Genre: Road to El Dorado

Let's look at another gorgeously 2-D animated film: The Road to El Dorado. This film, too, is rife with cliches: Europeans being mistaken for gods by a non-western civilization, a witch doctor (basically), going native, the Leyenda Negra, and so on. It also features the cliche of two scoundrels going on what is basically a buddy-comedy adventure. The thing about many of these cliches is that they are part of the genre. That genre is as general as "Adventure fiction", where it's not unusual to encounter witch doctors and native tribes and such, and as precise as "Road to" comedies of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, which El Dorado is unarguably a pastiche of. Simply read the "running gags" section about these films on Wikipedia and you have a blueprint for El Dorado.

And that's the point. El Dorado follows a number of cliches because those are staples of its genre. Cliches, contrary to popular opinion, are not only not an automatic flaw in, but are often essential to, a work, especially when those cliches are what make a story a recognizable example of the genre in question.

El Dorado, however, plays with it's cliches. Most notably, it portrays the natives as normal human beings, which, lets be honest, a lot of old-timey adventure fiction didn't do. Miguel, one of the two main characters, sees the beauty of the culture he and Tulio, the other lead, find themselves in. The "white men mistaken for gods" trope is also played with in that the chief of the tribe figures out rather quickly (or possibly always knew) that Miguel and Tulio are just normal men like himself.

Thankfully, the film never strays into noble-savage territory, which lesser stories stumble into in their attempt to make up for the racism of the past. The natives have personalities, flaws, and vices. Chel, the female lead, is a floozy and a thief who happily joins the con that Miguel and Tulio are pulling, which she sees through immediately. Tzekel-Kan, a priest of a human-sacrifice-loving religion, is not only a zealot, but also a murderer, in that he sacrifices his own assistant to summon up a Jaguar spirit to hunt down the two false gods (yeah, that happens. Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, you're missing out!). The characters, both white and POC, are fleshed out and three dimensional.

Finally, there is the story itself, and it's conclusion. Let's compare it to Klaus.

Conclusions

For those who never saw it, Klaus ends with a Liar Revealed scene where the scheme of the main character, Jesper, is revealed, and all his friends frown at him despite him obviously having changed by that point. Then a chase scene happens so Jesper can prove he's really changed, then a reveal that there was no good reason for the chase scene to have happened, then the main character is forgiven for his honestly-not-that-bad previous lies.

The whole story boils down to rich-kid learns a lesson and opens his heart, giving up his richness for the true treasure of generosity. Unfortunately, a lot of that was derailed by the weird Hatfields-McCoys subplot, which felt cartoonish next to the heartfelt-ness the rest of the film was trying (and maybe failing...) to achieve. It felt forced, in that the film needed that subplot so the chase could happen, and they only needed that so the Liar Revealed could make up for his Revealed Lies. Bleh.

El Dorado was more organic. Miguel and Tulio, by the last third of the film, have grudgingly decided to go their separate ways, with Miguel deciding to stay in El Dorado (the city), which he has fallen in love with, and Tulio and Chel going off with a shipful of gold that they presumably sail back to Spain ("And buy Spain!"). These are not happy conclusions, as it means a break in their inseparable friendship.

But then, Cortez, the Big Bad, shows up! Note, unlike the Hatfield-McCoys in Klaus, he is introduced in the beginning of the film as an actual threat, and has an understandable goal: conquest and gold. Miguel and Tulio, knowing this, decide he has to be stopped. That's when Tulio—the objectively more greedy, in-it-for-himself, not-gone-native of the pair—realizes that the only way to save the city is to crash his boat into the columns at the city entrance. It's a good plan, but will mean that he has to sacrifice what he wants: gold. But he makes the sacrifice, because he has become more that just a guy lying about being a god for money.

But then the boat isn't going to make it fast enough because the sail is stuck! It's gonna crash, and not in the way they wanted! Miguel, who had fallen in love with El Dorado and was willing to part ways with his friend and treasure to stay there, as to ride out on his horse and jump onto the mast to unfurl the sail. He knows the ship will then whoosh towards the columns and the only entrance to his beloved city with be destroyed, stopping Cortez, but also blocking him from the city forever. But he makes the sacrifice, because he cares enough about the people in El Dorado to let them go, and enough about his friend to not let him smack into the columns and die.

The Liar Revealed: Why It's Bad

Those were the conclusions to each movie, but not the conclusion to this blog. We still haven't discussed why the liar revealed is so lame, and how to fix it.

First, what is it? Basically, Main Character lies about something—his motives, his identity, etc.—for a large chunk of the story, then somewhere around the third act, his lie is revealed! Usually, this means that all the other characters turn their back on him, literally and figuratively, because they can't imagine how he could do something so terrible. Then, he does something to prove his mettle and his heart, and then everyone forgives him.

And I hate it. I hate it for three particular reasons.

First, it is just a different version of the thing that happens in romcoms where the main couple should declare their love for each other, but because the writer wouldn't know what to do at that point, they introduce a stupid misunderstanding that could be cleared up in two seconds if the leads talked like grown-ups. The Liar Revealed is that stupid, tired trope, but for kids.

Second, the lie is sometimes understandable, or not even that bad. In Klaus, Jesper claimed to be trying to spread hope and good cheer by sending kids presents, but in reality, he was trying to rack up the number of packages/letters he sent to prove to his dad he wasn't a useless layabout. How... despicable? Is it though? And can't he do both? He literally did, and he could have said so, except that the movie pulled a romcom and he got seperated from his friends before being able to explain that it started out mercenary and then quickly grew into the real deal. Even if it hadn't, though, like... is wanting to prove that your not a gutless layabout a bad thing? I don't get it.

Third is when the lie might be bad, but it's too late to care. In A Bug's Life, the colony learns that the so called warriors that Flik brought them are actually circus performers, so they have a reason to be miffed. Then again, they learn this on the eave of the day the grasshoppers will come to murder them all, and as Flik says, his bird doohickey will work. Not only does the colony have no reason to doubt this, they have no better options. Get all frowny and turn your backs on him after you lose the battle tomorrow, cause you have no time for such romcom drama tonight.

The Liar Revealed: When It's Good

Now, just because the Liar Revealed is awful doesn't mean that we can't keep having liars who eventually prove that they've changed in our fiction. But we don't have to follow the same tired trope.

For example, Over the Hedge has the Liar of RJ the Raccoon be Revealed, but saves the fallout between him and the other animals for a later action sequence, with hilarious results. Watch Schaffrillas Productions's video “Why Over the Hedge is Surprisingly Good” for a more detailed explanation of how this trope is dealt with in this film.

Or we have Tangled, where Eugene, by rights, should follow the Liar Revealed trajectory. He starts off scruffy and selfish, then slowly falls for Rapunzel and her good and pure outlook on life. He goes to give the Stabbington brothers the swiped crown that he no longer desires, but gets conked on the head by Gothel, who tells Rapunzel that he left with it cause he was just using her. We have a misunderstanding; we have a Rapunzel sadly walking away from the "liar"; we have the trappings of the last act of a romcom. But then, the real liar is revealed: Mother Gothel! And as soon as Rapunzel knows this, she never doubts Eugene, because that would be boring and nonsensical.

Finally, we have Road to El Dorado, with two liars, Miguel and Tulio, who are pretending to be gods to get wealth and adventure. They change over the course of the film to care about something more. They prove this change in a climactic scene We have all of the Liar Revealed, except for the reveal. There is no scene where everyone in the city frown and turns their backs, because that's not needed. The story isn't about the characters earning the forgiveness of the community like in Klaus, or proving themselves like in A Bug's Life. It's about two dudes who are scoundrelly friends going on an adventure, becoming a little less scoundrelly, and remaining friends. In the end, they both gave up what they wanted, but that's ok, because they have each other. Is it cliche? You bet! But that's way better than being mediocre.

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ericsonclan · 3 years

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The Freedom of Freckles

Summary: Clementine feels her anxiety building as more and more issues for the near future arise.

Word Count: 3153

Read on AO3:

Clementine could feel her anxiety rising slowly but surely. Her eyes stared out towards the balcony, noticing the little details on the doors that lead out to it. Most of the glass was shattered on all the small square panels within them and it made her wonder if there was a story behind it. Or maybe she was wrong and they had just shattered due to weather or something else uninteresting. Then again with all the tales she had heard from the residents of Ericson she highly doubted that there wasn’t a story behind it.

“Clem?” James’ soft, whisper-like voice snapped Clementine out of her train of thought and she glanced over at the ex-Whisperer who was sitting on a chair by the desk. On top of the desk was the map of Ericson and a few pebbles that represented walkers. Clementine’s mind turned back towards the conversation at hand. James was here to discuss how best to guide walkers away from the school.

It wasn’t something unusual; it had become a fairly regular routine ever since Clementine had offered James a place at Ericson. He had accepted but not in the way that Clementine had anticipated. James stayed every so often behind the walls of Ericson and in more recent times his boyfriend Jesse had stayed as well. But it was never for long and soon enough the pair would travel outside Ericson to herd walkers away or to gather intel on nearby communities that may be forming. Clementine was extremely grateful that the two of them had been willing to do this for them and continued to do so. But occasionally James didn’t simply drop by to let Clementine know that things were running smoothly. Instead he would bring more troublesome news. Today was one of those days.

“Sorry,” Clementine leaned back in the headmaster’s chair. “I guess I got lost in thought.”

“That's okay, it's never easy to hear that a herd is coming towards Ericson. Especially since winter is fast approaching,” James fidgeted with his walker skin gloves and took a deep breath. “Jesse and I will do our best to make sure they don’t get nearby. If any of them reached you and the others...” James paused for a moment, his eyes sad for a multitude of reasons. “I’d rather save as many lives as possible.”

“I understand,” Clementine looked at her friend’s eyes then down to the map where the pebbles representing the walkers stood on the westernmost edge. The sight made her gut twist with anxiety. This hadn't been the first time that a herd threatened to reach the walls but still, bad memories were attached to herds. Memories that Clementine didn’t want to add to. She’d make sure that every single person at Ericson was unharmed to the best of her ability. “When would you and Jesse leave?”

“As soon as possible. We have to go by foot to reach this point,” James’ finger rested on the spot by the pebbles on the map. “Then we’d have to redirect them as far north as possible. All of this takes time and I’d rather have more time than less.”

“Right,” Clementine took a shaky breath as she rose from her seat. “Ruby will be sad that Jesse will be gone. Those two could talk about horses all day long.”

James softly chuckled. The ex-Whisperer rose from his spot and double checked to make sure his walker mask was still in his back pocket. “True, but we’ll be back sooner this time.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Clementine smiled and walked forward, giving James a hug. James was surprised by the friendly gesture for a moment but soon returned it.

“Okay,” James pulled back and gave a shy smile. He wanted to say more but was forced to put that to the side when the door to the headmaster’s office opened. Aasim walked in, his expression too worrisome for Clementine’s liking.

“Aasim, what's wrong?” Clementine walked forward and placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. Aasim took a deep breath before responding. “Milky Way is sick and Comet is restless. I normally wouldn’t be too worried about this but-”

“But with winter coming it makes this worse,” Clementine finished Aasim’s statement. Normally a cold would easily be dealt with thanks to Ruby’s natural remedies she had concocted with the help of Omar and Aasim but the chill of the winter made even the heartiest animals at risk if they were already sick. Clementine turned back to her visitor. “James, was there anything else you needed to tell me?”

James shook his head. “No, that's all. If you want, Jesse and I can head out right now.”

“You should at least stay for dinner. I’m sure food while traveling isn’t that nutritional.” Aasim offered.

James’ eyes enlarged slightly. It was clear he wasn’t expecting that. Even though his friends at Ericson had always offered him kindness, James supposed still wasn’t used to it at times. “Okay. Thank you.” He gave a soft smile towards Aasim who returned it.

“Think nothing of it. Clem,” Aasim looked over at the leader of Ericson.

“Right, can you show me Milky Way? If I can see how bad she’s doing, I’ll have a better understanding of the situation.” Clementine walked forward towards the door and Aasim quickly opened it.

“Of course,” Aasim soon took the lead and the three of them walked out of the headmaster’s office and down the stairs towards the entrance of the admin building.

With each step Clementine could feel her anxiety rising. Not only was a herd heading this way but Milky Way was now sick and to add to the stress of the situation winter was nearly upon them. All of it was overwhelming Clementine and no matter what she did to try to recenter herself and steady her heart she couldn’t get rid of her fear. In fact all of her thinking only made her anxiety grow worse by the second.

Soon Clementine was outside in the courtyard and noticed that Ruby was standing beside Jesse who was absolutely in awe of Molly. It didn’t matter how many times he saw that horse, his love never wavered and the wonder in his eyes never left when he was around her. He turned to Ruby and began to gush once more about how amazing horses were while gently brushing Molly’s mane.

Ruby seemed just as invested in the conversation as she fed Jesse’s horse Adsila a carrot. The appaloosa snorted happily as he munched on the treat. How those two could talk about horses constantly and for such long periods of time Clementine had no idea but she was glad that they were friends. Jesse seemed to be a fairly closed off type but with a few residents of Ericson he got out of his shell and showed that he had a softer side to him.

Jesse continued to talk with Ruby, a kind smile on his lips before he noticed James out of the corner of his eye. Looking over at his boyfriend, he gave a loving smile and wave which James instantly returned.

“I’ll see you later,” James gave a quick wave towards Aasim and Clementine then ran off towards Jesse. After a moment he had reached his boyfriend and gave him a soft kiss then wrapped his arms around him for a moment. James soon let go of the hug although it seemed that neither of them had wanted that and began to explain the plan to Jesse.

Jesse nodded along as he reached out for James’ hand. A small smile appeared on his lips as James told him that they’d be staying for dinner. It was obvious that Jesse had wanted to spend a bit more time here so he’d gladly take any time he could get.

Clementine watched them for a moment longer then followed Aasim who walked off towards the pen where Milky Way and Comet were.

As they walked they soon passed by the picnic tables where Prisha was jotting down some adjustments to her latest projects to better this school. Violet sat beside her and enjoyed the simplicity of the moment with Prisha. After a moment Prisha paused in her task and reached for Violet’s hand, giving it a tender kiss before returning to her work. She would’ve loved to continue to give Violet little moments of affection but with the limitations of only having one working hand and with winter fast approaching Prisha had to prioritize work. Violet didn’t seem to mind though as her head tilted over and rested on Prisha’s shoulder for a moment. Prisha gave Violet’s forehead a small kiss then another and was about to resume her task when a voice appeared to her left.

“Are those doodles?” Allison asked as she reached out for the notebook on the table.

“That's irrelevant,” Prisha tried to get to the notebook before Allison but failed.

Allison studied the contents for a moment then gave a faint laugh. “Is this the three of us?” She held up the notebook and revealed the small doodle beside the copious amounts of notes and blueprint sketches. It was drawn in a somewhat cartoonish style, nothing special but which had a sort of charm to it. The doodle consisted of Prisha, Violet and Allison all standing side by side with fishing spears.

“Yes. It is.” Prisha snatched back the notebook. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, I think it's nice,” Allison sat down beside Prisha and reached in her pocket for her knife. Slowly she began to move the knife from finger to finger. “So, are there more?”

“I don’t remember,” Prisha returned to jotting notes down in her notebook. Even though she was happy to hear that Allison thought her doodles were nice it was still embarrassing to go around showing her doodles that were amuetur at best.

“She has a ton of them,” Violet had a small, playful smile on her lips.

“Violet!” Prisha was shocked by her betrayal.

“What? Allison wants to see them so what's wrong with that?” Violet asked.

Prisha thought about it for a moment then handed back over her notebook. “Fine, you can look for five minutes but then I have to get back to work,”

That made a small smile appear on Allison’s lips and she began to flip through the notebook. Clementine watched the small family for a few more seconds.

“Here we are,” Aasim’s voice made Clementine snap her focus back onto him. Her eyes immediately spotted Milky Way who was laying on the ground in somewhat of a daze. Comet frantically bleated and was clearly concerned for his mother. The older mountain goat looked up at her child then rested her head on the ground once more. “Ruby said that she would do all she can but isn't sure how long it will take Milky Way to get better.”

Clementine knelt down and examined the mountain goat as Aasim continued to go on about what they figured it was and the natural remedies Ruby and he would try on the mountain goat. She listened silently for a few moments, feeling the steady sensation of anxiety start to rise further and overwhelm her body.

It felt like it was reaching Clementine’s lungs, making her breathing feel more forced. Wintertime was always scary but why had all these issues arisen just before this upcoming winter? Clementine took a few deep breaths and listened on but Aasim seemed to pick up on the tense aura.

“Clem, if you need a minute I can wait. I-”

“Clem!” AJ’s happy voice cut off Aasim as the youngest of the Ericson residents barrelled forward with Willy in tow. Both of them had huge, excited smiles on their faces.

“What's up, kiddo?” Clementine noticed the little frown that appeared on AJ’s lips for a moment. She knew that he was outgrowing that nickname but it was tough to let it go.

“We want you to help us with something!” Willy hopped into the conversation; his tall, lanky body towered over Clementine. “AJ and I are gonna do a tree climbing contest and we want you to be the judge. We’re gonna climb that sucker!” Willy pointed to a tree outside the walls of Ericson.

That fact made Clementine’s anxiety boil over. There was too much on her plate to worry about to have the dangers of some silly competition be added on.

“It’s super close to the watch tower and with you-”

“No!” Clementine snapped, causing AJ and Willy to grow quiet. Aasim seemed just as shocked by the force with which Clementine had shut down this idea. Clementine wasn’t finished though. “You want to go outside these walls for some stupid competetion where walkers could reach you? Your safety isn’t something you can just throw around so easily. People have died because of dumb decisions like that!” Clementine’s words made Willy and AJ turn their eyes away from her and Clementine instantly regretted the harshness of her words. She had lost her cool with some of the youngest among them yet her anxiety remained the same .

“Hey there, dudes,” Louis placed a hand on both Willy and AJ’s shoulders. “How about we talk about a tree climbing contest later?” He gave a warm smile to the two of them and they nodded before walking off. “Aasim, mind if I steal Clem for a little bit?”

“Not at all. I need to talk to Ruby anyway,” Aasim quickly walked off to find his wife, leaving Louis alone with Clementine.

Slowly Louis moved forward and took Clementine’s hand. “Follow me,” He began to gently guide his wife who still seemed lost in her own thoughts.

“Where are we going?” Clementine looked at her husband who was making his way towards the dorms.

“We’re going somewhere where we can take a break from work,” Louis’ statement made Clementine stop right before they turned to walk down the hallway towards their room.

“Louis, I can’t take a break right now! There’s a lot to do around here and I need to check in on like fifty different things and-” Clementine paused when she felt Louis squeeze her hand.

“Just a small break, okay? We can give ourselves that and then we’ll be back fighting the good fight to make Ericson the best home ever. It won’t all fall apart if you step away for five minutes. Everyone is working on different things and Omar is keeping an eye on Maisy and Lee Kenny and all the other kids.”

Louis’ words seemed to calm down Clementine’s overwhelming emotions for a moment and she gave a short nod. A bright smile quickly returned to Louis’ lips and he continued to guide them towards the room.

Once the door was shut and both of them were sitting on the bed, Louis decided to go for his idea. He could see how antsy and nervous Clementine was. So he gently cupped her face and looked directly into her eyes.

“We’re going to start with a few deep breaths,” Louis instructed and Clementine listened, following her husband’s slow inhales and exhales. After a few of those she felt some of anxiety slip away but not enough. It was still clawing at the inside of her body. “Y’know, my darling, you still have never been able to guess the true number of my freckles.” Louis gave a playful smile. “How about we play a game during this break? I bet you can’t count every single one of them.” Louis grinned as he saw the playfulness in his wife’s eyes return for a moment.

Clementine mirrored his smile. “If I do, what do I win?”

Louis’ eyes grew large for a moment. He wasn’t expecting that question. “Ummm, uhhh...” Louis fidgeted with one of his dreadlocks as he tried to think.

“How about this: if I get the correct number of your freckles, then you owe me a date,” Clementine’s statement made Louis smile once more and he leaned forward, kissing her lips for a second.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, m’lady,” Louis reached down and took his wife’s hand, his thumb gently rubbing circles along the top of it.

Clementine gave a small smile then lifted up one of her hands and started to count, her finger lightly tracing along Louis’ skin. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,” Clementine whispered as she carefully counted her husband’s freckles.

As time continued on Clementine found herself becoming lost in the game, her competitive side taking over as she meticulously counted Louis’ freckles. Her anxieties and worries slowly began to melt away and slip to the back of her mind as she continued to record each and every one of those freckles she adored so much.

Suddenly Louis scrunched his nose in amusement and joy from seeing his wife’s concentration face; he always found it adorable.

“Hey, no nose scrunching. That’s gonna hide some freckles,” Clementine gave a frown but soon a playful smile reappeared on her lips.

“Oops, sorry, my darling,” Louis leaned forward and kissed her lips.

Clementine immediately became distracted by the kiss and deepened it. Her mind was completely on the kiss as she cupped Louis’ face and melted into the warmth of his lips until she remembered she was in the middle of a competition. Pulling back, Clementine glared at her husband.“That was all a trick to make me lose count, wasn’t it?”

Louis chuckled at his wife’s accusation before he placed a hand over his heart in mock shock.

“Me? Using kissing as a means to win a game? I would never!”

“Uh huh,” Clementine crossed her arms. “Because that's outside the realm of possibility?”

“Okay, so it's not outside the realm of possibility, but! This time it really just was because I wanted to kiss you.” Louis’ confession made him grow flustered and Clementine could feel a soft warmth appear in her heart.

“Well, I’ve lost count now,” She scooted further onto the bed and leaned her back against the wall. Louis soon followed suit and sat beside her, his fingers intertwining with hers like it was second nature.

“How terrible,” he teased and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Clementine shook her head before she shifted closer and leaned her head onto Louis’ shoulder. Being with Louis always brought her comfort and because of his idea to take a break her worry and fears had settled down. At least in this moment she was at peace, free from mulling over all the concerns that came with being a leader. Louis tilted his head over and rested it against hers. The two of them took a deep, cleansing breath and let the world outside of just the two of them disappear for a little bit, escaping from the worries of life even if only for a moment.

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nellied-reviews · 4 years

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Cigarette Candy Re-listen

Okay, it’s episode 5 of my epic Wolf 359 re-listen, and that can only mean one thing:

Cigarette Candy

In which Eiffel is ill, Minkowski and Hera are out of the picture and I have way too many thoughts about how Hilbert is totally not making Eiffel sick. Nuh-uh.

Where do I even begin with this episode?

Maybe I'll start with the obvious: Cigarette Candy is a very different episode on a re-listen. It was a sinister, tense episode to begin with, sure. But knowing that Hilbert really has been making Eiffel sick adds a whole layer of uncertainty, for me at least.

Because what is the point? Largely, I think it's an episode about whether or not Hilbert can be trusted. We heard last episode, after all, that the good doctor was willing to leave Eiffel to die in space. It's natural that we might now wonder where his loyalties lie. And so we get this, an episode that teases us with the idea that Hilbert might, in fact, be a bad guy. And of course, the answer we are left with, at the end of the episode, is that no, Hilbert’s creepy and weird and a million kinds of unethical, but ultimately he is one of the good guys.

It's a brilliant misdirect, and it relies entirely on us misunderstanding what an evil Hilbert would look like. We, like Eiffel, assume that Hilbert, if he were actually evil, would be the archetypical mad scientist. And mad scientists aren't generally subtle. They certainly don't do regular things like help Communications Officers overcome the flu. And so we assume, since Hilbert isn't cartoonish in his villainy, and does, ultimately, help Eiffel, that he mustn't be a villain at all. We're wrong, of course. The episode doesn't give that away, though.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because as Cigarette Candy starts, it's not immediately clear that that's where this is all going. Instead, we tune in to a weirdly happy Eiffel, who claims he's trying a new, more optimistic approach to life. It's odd, and doesn't exactly bode well, especially with the occasional, gross coughing that Eiffel insists is no big deal. But it still feels like a light-hearted, comedy set-up. And hey, at least Hilbert seems to be doing something helpful, this time, right?

Of course, it's worth mentioning that Hilbert's "help" involves the titular cigarette candy, which are what Eiffel calls his nicotine lozenges. These, we quickly learn, are the reason for Eiffel's new, sunny outlook on life. They're sugary, they're soothing and - oh, yeah - they taste like "day-old ashtray". Which... eww! But apparently Eiffel prefers that to the default cinnamon? Enough that he's consuming them in unwise quantities? I don't know, it certainly wouldn't be my choice. But you do you, Eiffel.

In any case, it leaves us in this weird situation where Hilbert is actually in Eiffel's good books, which is fun to listen to, until the doctor suddenly lets slip that hey, Eiffel, it's strange how you aren't experiencing any myalgia... yet.

It's super unsubtle, and part of me really wants to believe that Hilbert did it on purpose, just to troll Eiffel. "English such inelegant cudgel of a language", my ass. I see you there, Doc.

Funny as it is, though, it also marks the point at which the episode takes a sharp U-turn into psychological and medical horror, as Eiffel slowly begins to suspect that Hilbert has been poisoning him. Things only get worse when Eiffel faints and is taken to sickbay, and when Hilbert admits that he's not really a proper doctor, bound by all of those pesky ethics, it's downright chilling.

One phrase in particular, I think, tells us everything we need to know about Alexander Hilbert's motivations: "Always saw Hippocratic Oath as leaving one with a very limited scope. True science mustn't be so severely hindered." Hilbert, in the end, is all about the science, and he'll break the rules to get results, if needs be. It's a single-minded, pragmatic focus that we’ll see from the doctor over and over again as the show wears on. Here, then, although we don't know it yet, we're actually getting our first proper insight into what makes Dr. Hilbert tick. Pretty neat.

That said, on a first listen-through, before we learn about Decima, it just sounds like your standard mad scientist rant. It's followed up by some more mad scientist antics too, as Hilbert confines Eiffel to sickbay, ties him up and claims total authority over Eiffel's schedule, cutting him off completely from Hera and Minkowski. It's textbook nefarious, and so it sets Hilbert up perfectly as a properly sinister, if slightly cliché villain.

Of course, it's also just about plausible. We can just about see how confining Eiffel might help him get better soon, and we can just about see that he's not fit to be working, and we can just about see how a lack of distractions might be helpful. Add Eiffel's potential delusions into the mix, and we can see how the whole business could just be a misunderstanding, a product of Eiffel's fever and Hilbert’s lack of people skills. We can't 100% write the doctor off as a villain - and so the episode manages to maintain the tension, all the way through the back end of the episode. Is Hilbert really as evil as he seems? Or is Eiffel imagining it all?

It's at this point that the first season's log format works in our favour, because if we're only hearing the personal logs of Douglas Eiffel, we're only getting the story from one very limited, potentially delusional point of view. We aren't getting Minkowski or Hera's more balanced perspectives, and so the suspense is preserved - is Hilbert trustworthy? We can't know. It's the sort of thing the show won't be able to do as easily in later seasons, at least not without finding a plot-related reason to side-line the other, more objective characters. Here, though, the nature of Eiffel's logs creates a more claustrophobic, tense bottle episode, where we can never quite be sure what's going on.

The absence of Hera and Minkowski is also ominous in and of itself. The pause after Eiffel calls out to Hera and she doesn't answer, in particular, is really eerie, at least for me. I don't know, I guess I'm just used to Hera being there? It certainly cranks up the tension, especially when Hilbert foils Eiffel's attempt to contact Minkowski, and even more so when he reveals that he also knows that Eiffel hasn't been taking his drugs - that's why he's been giving him them intravenously.

And look, I know we've said that Hilbert isn't bound by the Hippocratic Oath. Being shady and unethical's kind of his thing. But can we just stop and appreciate just how messed up it is to drug Eiffel like this? It's not even like it's the first time this has happened, either. Remember the halothane gas? What we're seeing, in that light, looks more like an emerging pattern - a pattern of incidents where people are messed with, physically or psychologically, without their consent.

It's something we'll see again and again, throughout Wolf 359, and more often that not, it's linked less to individuals like Hilbert, and more to Goddard Futuristics, and their general ethos of dehumanising callousness. Hilbert is possibly evil, sure. But he's backed up by a whole, sucky-ass corporation, who have created an environment where consent - and all of the respect for human dignity and life that that implies - is not encouraged or valued. It's a gross, corporate attitude that is linked directly to moments like this, where Eiffel can be drugged and held captive against his will precisely because Hilbert knows there will be no official consequences for it. Goddard Futuristics do not care about human minds or bodies. They just care about the profits. It's not the same thing that drives Hilbert, as a character. But it aligns with his goals. Hilbert wants answers. Goddard wants money. Neither care much for actual humans.

That's actually one of the most frightening things about this episode - that, and the recording that Eiffel makes for Minkowski, urging her not to trust Hilbert once he's dead, which is funny, in a dark sort of way, until you think about Lovelace's old crew, and how Dr. Hilbert - sorry, Dr. Selberg - picked them off, one by one. That's essentially the exact same scenario that Eiffel's imagining here, when he worries about Hilbert going after Minkowski next, so perhaps he's not too far off the mark. Yikes.

Still, all is well in the end, as Hilbert reveals that Eiffel is cured! The knife was only for cutting Eiffel's restraints - way to not terrify your patient, doc! - and now Eiffel is cleared for duty, effective immediately. Phew!

It's a relief, for Eiffel and for us, and it's very easy to just see it as a heart-warming ending. The mad scientist turns out to be a good guy after all, Eiffel learns a lesson about judging people, and everyone goes back to their routine. Crisis averted. The episode asks, "Can Hilbert be trusted?" The ending tells us that he can. Case closed.

Only it's not that simple, is it? For one, Hilbert admits that Eiffel was infected with a tropical flu from his lab; knowing how much we now know, how likely is it that that "tropical flu" was actually Decima, or somehow Decima-related? In this respect, Hilbert's trustworthiness is actually far from established.

Secondly, though, and perhaps more interestingly, there's also the idea that Hilbert might have genuinely cured Eiffel, but might still be up to no good. A dead Eiffel, after all, means no more Decima research, and that would be a disaster for Hilbert. Keeping the crew alive and healthy is in Hilbert's best interests, and so, to a degree, he is actually trustworthy, or at least reliable. In fact, Hilbert is probably one of the most reliable characters in the series, if only because he can always be trusted to protect his own interests. Unlike the others, whose goals sometimes shift, and whose actions are often determined by their emotions or their underlying characters, Hilbert almost never acts in such a way as to compromise his goals and his work. His focus is single-minded, and it makes him very, very reliable - trustworthy, almost. But good? Ethical? Not so much. It's at best a parody of integrity, a twisted, brutal code that doesn’t care much for other people.

The story, I think, is more interesting for it. Instead of a story about how Hilbert secretly has a heart of gold, we get a more unsettling story about how Hilbert can be relied on, but only to a certain extent. Instead of a story about a good person being good, it's the story of a bad person doing good - and that is infinitely more compelling.

And of course, all this is only really obvious in hindsight. Listening to it blind, we get an episode that is funny, tense and just about the right kind of creepy. It's simultaneously the darkest thing the show has done so far, an excellent black-humour-filled bottle episode and (almost) a heart-warming tale. To have that and all the bonus, retrospective Hilbert characterisation?

*shakes my head*

This episode, man.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

I said already but cigarette candy sounds so gross!

Zach Valenti does such a good job of sounding properly, horribly ill throughout this whole episode

"Officer Eiffel, you look terrible." Aww, no need to sugar-coat it, doc!

"You're not making me sick, are you?" "What possible reason could there be for doing that?" *whistles innocently*

Ugh when Hilbert says "Good night!" like that :O

Heh, the ticking clock in the background when Hilbert gets the kife out is a nice little touch

"Bedside manner is like anaesthetic. It just gets in way of what needs to be done."

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #cigarette candy #nellied reviews #so many thoughts about Alexander Hilbert #too many thoughts about Alexander Hilbert #but at least I posted them on the right blog this time

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

Text

Is It Really THAT Bad?

I’m going to warn you all now. This one is going to get a bit angry at the end. Normally I would try and remain as professional as possible, but in this case, I don’t feel like I would be able to.

Batman & Robin is a film that has lived in infamy since its release in 1997. Upon release, it was critically reviled, and this hatred of the film continued long into the modern day, where it frequently tops “worst films of all time lists” to the point where it actually is listed on the Wikipedia page for “List of films considered the worst.” It was nominated for at least 11 Razzies but only won a single one, and it went on to be a frequent punching bag on the {REDACTED] Critic’s web show, where he would get irrationally angry at the mere mention of the Bat Credit Card. In contemporary reviews, Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle stated “"George Clooney is the big zero of the film, and should go down in history as the George Lazenby of the series,” which is less of a criticism and more of a compliment, if I’m being totally honest.

Most of the stars would take a negative stance towards it as well, with legend stating that if you tell George Clooney that you saw the film in theaters, he will refund you for your ticket out of his own pocket. Chris O’Donnell likewise is not particularly fond of the film, stating "It just felt like everything got a little soft the second time. On Batman Forever, I felt like I was making a movie. The second time, I felt like I was making a kid's toy commercial." And, perhaps most depressingly, Joel Schumacher himself was apparently very apologetic for the film, though this may or may not have come about because of years and years of vitriol being directed at him for making this film.

In the wake of Mr. Schumacher’s passing, I decided to re-watch the film, as I am famously rather fond of it, and I am going to tell you all why the answer to the question “Is it really THAT bad?” is a loud, resounding, NO.

THE GOOD

There’s honestly quite a lot to like here, more than you might think. I think first and foremost what you need to understand going in is that this is a silly, cartoonish take on the Burton style, blending the silliness and camp of the West series with the drama and aesthetics of the Burton films, all while adding some over-the-top, colorful flair. John Glover, who appears in the film as a cartoonish mad scientist, even has gone on record as saying "Joel would sit on a crane with a megaphone and yell before each take, 'Remember, everyone, this is a cartoon'. It was hard to act because that kind of set the tone for the film”… the last sentence makes the statement very baffling, but at least even the actors were aware of what they were doing. If this doesn’t sound appealing, well, the opening is sure to warn you off, as it is a suiting up montage with various shots of the firm butts, large codpieces, and stiff batnipples of the Dynamic Duo. The movie is very upfront about what you’re in for.

On the subject of the infamous batnipples, Schumacher stated "I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from Ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically correct." It seems a very odd choice, but it’s pretty clear that he meant it as an amusing little design choice and nothing more. Of course, this hasn’t stopped everyone and their mother from spewing homophobic comments about how he was purposefully making the film gayer, even from star George Clooney, who has said that he played Batman as a gay man and was told by Schumacher Batman is gay. It’s so disgusting that people did and continue to do this, because honestly, the costumes are fine, and even if they are meant to be fanservice… so what? O’Donell and Clooney’s asses look nice, as does Alicia Silverstone’s when she dons a suit. The fact hers is just as form-fitting as the other two really shows that the whole idea Schumacher did it because he was gay is ridiculous; the man was very egalitarian about the fanservice in the movie.

Whatever else Clooney says, he does a pretty great job as Batman and Bruce Wayne. His speech at the end of the film where he talks to Mr. Freeze and reminds him that he is a good man and offers to help him is honestly one of the few moments in any Batman film where Batman actually feels like the one from the animated series, a man who fights crime but also wants to help the people he’s trying to stop. Clooney just has a very natural charisma that lends himself to playing a hero, and while there are a few awkward moments in the performance, he captures the fun and charm a more lighthearted Batman should. Michael Gough’s last turn as Alfred is also surprisingly poignant, and a lot of mileage is gotten out of his genuinely tearjerking subplot.

Of course, the very best part of the film is the villains. Uma Thurman is clearly having a ball as Poison Ivy, and she gets to have a ludicrous amount of costumes as well as numerous moments of fanservice. She also has the power to turn every man around her into a simp, which is absolutely amazing and leads to quite a few scenes of Batman and Robin slapping each other over her. But f course, there’s really no doubt that the best part of the film is Mr. Freeze. He’s a combination of the sillier Mr. Freeze from the West days and the more modern take of the character most are familiar with, the tragic anti-villain who wants to save his wife; such a character would take a talented man capable of comedy and drama in equal measure. And who better than Arnold Schwarzenegger? Joel Schumacher wanted a man who looked like he was chiseled from a glacier, and Arnold certainly fits that description. He spends the movie juggling some of the most corny puns you can imagine and a lot of truly powerful, understated drama, and it really does work. You honestly get the sense that Arnold really gets Mr. Freeze and what makes him a great character. Also, that suit he has is amazing.

As a final note: the Bat Credit Card is absolutely not stupid. Linkara has defended it in the past, giving reasons why and how it could actually work, but really, all that needs to be said is… is this any more ridiculous than Shark Repellent Bat Spray?

THE BAD

So don’t get the wrong idea here; this film is far from perfect. As is the case with any comedy, the humor can be hit or miss; not all of the puns land, not all of the jokes are great. You’re never going to get a perfect comedy no matter how hard you try, and this is no exception.

As for performances, I think O’Donnell’s Robin and Silverstone’s Batgirl are a bit wonky. O'Donnell has long been a source of derision for his whining, and while I think the hate is a bit overblown, he does spend a ludicrous amount of time in this film being snippy, miserable, and arrogant. I think he actually fights with Batman more than any of the villains! Still, his performance isn’t horrible, he just gets a bit too whiny at a few points.

Silverstone is a bit of a bigger problem, but she’s not quite as bad as even I remembered. She’s pretty much Batgirl in name only, since she’s related to Alfred in this, but she’s mostly okay. The issue really is that her arc in the film is relatively bland and feels a bit shoehorned, which comes to a head where she fights Poison Ivy in a designated catfight, obviously because they didn’t want Batman to punch a woman in the face I guess. There’s just one issue with that:

On the subject of Ivy, while she definitely does have plant powers here, they’re strangely underplayed. She rarely uses them even when it would probably be beneficial, instead relying on Bane to do most of the fighting for her. Ah, Bane… Bane is one of the few things about this film I can’t really muster up any sort of defense for. While his creation scene is rather cool, it doesn’t lead to much of interest, as this version of Bane is pretty much a mindless supersoldier lackey who serves Poison Ivy. Now, this was still relatively early in Bane’s existence, as he had only debuted in 1993 and was really most famous for his signature “breaking the Bat” move, but it still is baffling why, with that famous thing fresh in everyone’s minds, that they would just choose to go and basically make Bane into Evil Diet Captain America. Surely they could have either saved him for a sequel or utilized him in a way more befitting of the character? I think this Bane is kind of responsible for the negative perception of Bane as this big, dumb bruiser, something that works like The Dark Knight Rises and Arkham Origins have thankfully gone a long way to rectifying. Bane is at his best when he’s a cunning genius bruiser; here, he’s nothing but a glorified prop.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

The answer is no. No it isn’t. AT ALL.

I’ve always felt this film came out at the wrong time. It was towards the end of the 90s, during the Dark Age of Comics when everything was dark, gritty, and edgy. The world didn’t want a movie like this back then; they wanted stuff like Blade, who would come in shortly after this film and show us how to make that aesthetic work. I guess in terms of Batman they wanted something more like Dawn of Justice, which really speaks volumes to how awful the 90s were for superheroes.

Look, I’m not trying to convince anyone this is the greatest Batman film ever. Even I don’t think that; Batman Returns, The Dark Knight, and Under the Red Hood are all much better films. But is this really the worst Batman film now that we have the deeply misogynistic and disgusting The Killing Joke and the relentlessly bleak and unpleasant Batman v Superman? Hell, it’s not even worse than Batman Forever! At least the Batman in this film has some kind of emotional range beyond “plank of wood!” And even calling it the worst sequel ever is just… so baffling. Again, this is definitely better than Batman Forever, lack of Jim Carrey notwithstanding. And can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that this is worse than any of the Terminator sequels after the second film? Worse than Iron Man 2 or Thor: The Dark World? The almost half dozen Alvin and the Chipmunk sequels? This is only the worst sequel or even a bad sequel if it is the only sequel you’ve ever seen in your life.

A lot of the hate for it from back in the day carries a strong undercurrent of homophobia. Much like the infamous backlash against disco, it’s seriously uncomfortable, and it definitely is cruel how accusatory people were towards Schumacher’s intentions for the suits of the heroes in the film. The fact that even the two main stars have gotten in on it is a bit disgusting, though O’Donnell questioning why there needed to be a codpiece is certainly less offensive than George Clooney saying he played Batman as a gay man for… whatever reason. Was he implying that Batman being gay made the movie worse? I’m not sure what he’s on about there. Even The New Batman Adventures made a cruel dig at the film; notice the sign and the effeminate-looking boy. You could only get homophobia this good in the 90s!

The hatred of this film is absolutely overblown. It’s so ridiculous. #70 on the bottom rated movies of IMDB? #1 on the 50 worst films of all time list from Empire? Doug Walker’s personal punching bag whenever he needs to talk about a bad sequel, to the point where he literally said no one wanted a comedic take on Batman in his worst sequels video? Come the fuck on.

Joel Schumacher may or may not have ended up hating this film, but he certainly was made to feel like shit for making it… and it is honest to god not that bad! But he was just absolutely eviscerated, to the point where this was a fucking headline when he died:

Literally fuck all of these people. Fuck io9 for their insensitive headline. Fuck Empire for rating this as the worst film ever. Fuck Doug Walker for his constant bashing and his shitty old “chimp out over the Bat Credit Card” gag. Double fuck Mick LaSalle for shitting on George Clooney’s performance while also trying to say George Lazenby’s Bond was bad. In fact, fuck George Clooney for his weird idea that playing Batman as gay is a bad thing (sorry George, but I can’t defend this). Fuck the Razzies. Yes, it was nominated, but I just feel it’s always a good time to say “Fuck the Razzies.”

I will never say you have to love or even like this film, but the sheer amount of vitriol and hatred for it is absolutely beyond me. At worst, this film is just a bit too goofy, and at best, it is a fun tribute to the campy days when Batman just couldn’t get rid of a bomb. I didn’t take off my score this time. I’m proud to say I gave this an 8/10, personally. If I’m being honest, a 6.6 – 6.9 is more appropriate, because it does have quite a few issues, but god, this film is not bad at all. It’s silly, goofy, campy, and fun… but bad? Not by any stretch of my imagination. And fuck the critics for convincing an entire generation that this is Batman at his worst, when we have Batman fucking slaughtering his ways through criminals and fucking Barbara Gordon on rooftops these days. I will always take stupid ice puns over misery, murder and creepy intergenerational sex, thank you very much.

youtube

I hope you can rest easy, Mr. Schumacher. Maybe you didn’t love your film in the end but, wherever you are, I hope you know I loved it.

#Is it really that bad?#IIRTB #Review #movie review #batman & robin #joel schumacher #George Clooney #Batman #Uma Thurman #arnold schwarzenegger #Poison Ivy #Mr. Freeze #superhero movie

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eastertag · 4 years

Text

@fallenfurther gift for @willow-salix

Komorebi Forest

Prompts:

The boys organise an Easter Egg hunt for the Children’s Hospital

Anything John is ALWAYS welcome (but not Ridley)

******

John looked up from the code projected before him and stretched his neck. He was floating in Five and somehow, he still managed to get cramp. While turning his head this way and that, John stretched out his weary fingers. He hadn’t spent hours on end coding in months, and although he used his hands while coordinating rescues and maintenance duties, those activities were never quite as intense as a coding session. John let his gaze fall on the holographic globe before him. It reminded him why he was doing this.

“You are due a lunch break in 30 minutes, John. Might I suggest you take it now?”

EOS, his loyal companion, was forever watching over him. John sighed. He knew he’d asked EOS to help him keep track of the necessities, but there were times he could swear she’d spoke with Scott. The fact that the two were amenable at the best of times made him think otherwise, but maybe EOS had been watching the eldest and adopting some of his traits.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer. A break might refresh my brain. I’m struggling with the rendering code.”

John saved the file and minimised it before pushing himself out the observation room towards the station’s kitchen area, EOS following on her rail.

“What would you like in your bagel today, John? Cream cheese and chive, cream cheese and smoked salmon or peanut butter and jelly?”

“I’ll have the salmon one, EOS. Though be gentler with the toasting this time.”

“Do not worry, John, I have adjusted the settings after performing thorough recalculations. The bread should be toasted to your preferred level. I have saved the previous settings for the next time Gordon visits.”

John smiled at the memory. Gordon needed a Zero-G refresher, so had been sent up for a week. A tsunami had, thankfully, shortened his stay, as he was needed Earthside. John enjoyed Gordon best in small doses, especially when he considered fiddling with the bagel settings funny. The charcoaled bagel that had been presented for breakfast had almost been as unpleasant as the squirty cheese Gordon had been spraying everywhere. Some had made it onto his brother’s own bagel, while the rest had floated about sticking to almost every surface. John had not been impressed and Gordon ignored both John’s glare and the mess. Though there had been good moments. Gordon listened in space, giving John the same respect that John had given Gordon when it was time for John’s diving refresher. His younger brother swam through Five and there was a comfort in hearing Gordon’s laugh echo through the ring.

John took a bite of the bagel that EOS presented to him and brought up Gordon’s position with his free hand. The aquanaut was making the most of the compulsory downtime that came after any big rescue to do what he loved most. John watched the little submarine’s grid reference as the numbers fell, indicating it was diving. Thunderbird Four was a few islands away from base. John tapped the little yellow triangle, opening the comm.

“Hey John!” The cheery voice matched the grin that was on his brother’s face, “You miss me already?”

John smiled as Gordon effortlessly controlled the submarine, the hologram’s arms moving outside the frame.

“Of course. How is the local wildlife? Have you found that shoal of fish that’s been spotted in the area?”

Gordon grinned at him, his eyes sparking.

“Following them as we speak, John. Man, they are beauties! There are thousands of them John, all swimming in a chaotic swarm over the reef. It’s phenomenal. You’re missing out, John. Your stars have nothing on these fish.”

John chuckled.

“I’m happy with my stars. You enjoy your fish.”

“Sure. Catch you later!”

Gordon blinked away and John looked past the Earth to the stars beyond. Gordon never understood John’s fascination with the night sky, preferring to look down into the Earth’s depths, while John looked beyond it. Finishing off the bagel, John grabbed a space thermos of tea and headed back to the observation room. He pulled up the code and dived back in. He knew time was precious and he could be required at a second’s notice. He had a deadline too. His mind slipped easily back into motion, delving deep into the code again. The break has worked wonders on his brain and he quickly overcame the problem and started on the finer adjustments while he waited for EOS to finish her part. They could then do the first test. John jumped slightly when EOS finally spoke.

“I have completed my task, John. Shall I prepare the programme for launch?”

“Yes please, EOS.”

John grabbed the virtual reality headset and slipped it over his eyes, plunging himself into darkness. He slipped the controller out of where he had stored it in his baldric. A loading screen came up and he was presented with a start screen.

“Let the hunt begin” was written across a blurred image of a forest. Below it was a button that said “Enter Komorebi Forest”. John selected it. A loading screen appeared for a short time before a framework structure of a forest appeared around him. Using the controller, he looked around the grey maze, looking out for the small egg shapes that were scattered amongst the half-complete world. It was a surreal place right now, but he planned to make it magical. A forest that would set the children’s imagination wild and help them to forget the hospital beds they were confined to.

“Is the programme functioning as expected, John?” EOS chimed in his ear.

“It’s working as planned. There’s still the texturing and images that need to be added but that’ll be the easy part for you. If our servers can handle the extra load this programme will put on them, I think it’ll perform well.”

John continued to explore the landscape; its bare graphical bones exposed for his scrutiny. His eyes scouted around for any weak points or glitches in the matrix. All the framework was here. Branches with greyscale leaves that he had to duck under, bushes with tunnels inside and even a few huts and chalets to explore. It was all there, ready to be coloured in and finally explored.

“I’ve put a few possible plans together which you can choose from. All of them require borrowing some of the Tracy Industries servers to ensure that the programme does not interfere with the running of International Rescue.”

“Thank you, EOS. I’ll check through those later and run the best one by Scott. I’m sure he can pull the right strings.” John closed the programme and slipped the headset off. “Have you seen the file full of images which I have collated to help with the texturing of the environment?”

“I have. Would you like me to start work on that next?”

“Yes please, EOS.”

At that moment a red triangle appeared on the hologlobe that filled the centre of the room. John floated over and answered the call.

“International Rescue, what’s your situation?”

***

Alan was bored. None of his friends were online. He flicked his controller, only to remember he was meant to be beta testing John’s programme. Alan slipped on the headset. Sure, it was just an Easter Egg Hunt for the sick kids, but this was his brother John. John was meticulous with his coding and Alan was looking forward to seeing what John could do with a game design. Alan had seen some of his brother’s old coursework submissions and they had been some fantastic pieces of work. The start screen popped up and Alan entered Komorebi Forest.

He found himself in a clearing; swaying trees of beech and common lime circled him with fantastic realism. A pair of birds, possibly sparrows, flew across the clearing, their chirps filling the air. The sun was out, and the smattering of wispy clouds floated through the stunningly blue sky. In the corner the instruction ‘A to interact’ appeared. Alan moved forward. John had already shown him the character design program, and Alan had created his own slightly cartoonish version of himself. He had made the character taller than he was, because he could. Alan started to explore, heading down one of the trails. There were small bushes and ferns everywhere. Obvious places for him to look to find eggs! He went up to one and pushed 'A’. Hands appeared and moved the leaves. A rabbit bounced out the hole and between his character’s legs. Alan smiled. The kids would love that! He continued, looking both up and down. He came to an oak tree and looking into its tall branches, Alan spotted a red and gold egg. He ran up to the tree and interacted with it. The joystick then became the controller for his character’s arm. Switching between arms he made the character climb up the tree and grab the egg. As he clung to the tree, his eye on the egg count in the right-hand corner, a squirrel came down from above and studied him. It paused upside down, twisted its head side to side, before scampering along a branch and jumping into another tree. Alan failed at climbing down and ended up falling. He landed on his bottom with a jerk.

“Well done, you found one!”

The familiar voice made Alan jump. He turned and saw a small ginger haired girl standing before him. She had a realistic design, with fine detailing in her plaits. She was wearing a simple navy dress with a white star on it and blue pumps. Her green eyes looked up at him and her smile was pleasant.

“EOS?” Alan questioned.

“Yes Alan.”

“Did John make you an avatar?”

“No. I did this. What do you think? I tried to make it look more realistic. I made John one too.”

John was suddenly standing next to EOS, though the avatar didn’t move. Unlike EOS it didn’t blink. It looked so much like John but it’s blank stare sent shivers down Alan’s spine.

“Wow, EOS. That’s a really good likeness.”

“Thank you. I worked hard on it. I thought it would be appropriate for the children to see him as he is, considering the other children will see you as you are.”

Alan was relieved when the John avatar disappeared, though there was still something in the way EOS spoke that was creepy. She still had a little way to go before she would stop sounding robotic.

“And you also made yourself?”

“Yes. I thought the children would appreciate this kind of avatar over an image of my matrix or a version of my camera module.”

The idea of a floating camera in such a serene place would definitely be unnerving.

“I agree with that EOS. But why did you choose this design?”

The little girl looked quizzically at Alan and he could see the circuits calculating in the avatar’s expression. Alan wondered if this was a form of mimicry. Was EOS copying expressions they, his family, had made? He knew EOS watched the world, and probably them, learning what it means to be human and how she could be of more use to John. But how much had she picked up?

“This is the design that my processors felt would be least threatening to the children.”

Alan had to agree there. He could see the similarities in the avatar to John. Had EOS given her avatar some Tracy traits? Though standing a random girl next to an International Rescue operative and having them look like family would make EOS less threatening. Still, it felt a little odd being able to put a face to EOS. Alan would always see this avatar from now on when he thought or spoke to the AI.

“What do you think of the programme? Is it functioning well?”

“I need a little more time to explore but what I’ve seen so far is incredible.”

Alan and EOS strolled further along the trail. EOS became Alan’s guide, pointing out the bluebells and foxglove she had rendered and even the occasional insect, like the red-legged shieldbug, she’d added on one common lime. Alan was in awe of the detail. He was aware that they were using a mix of International Rescue and Tracey Industries servers to run the programme. Alan couldn’t fault his brother’s design. EOS led Alan off the track and deeper into the forest until they came to a stream with small rocky waterfalls at various points.

“This is the end of the simulation. The tree line on the other side has a barrier to stop anyone going further. Alan placed his foot in the stream. The water rushed around it with the expected fluid mechanics though with none of the cold wetness that normally accompanied a sodden shoe. The soft sounds of the water were soothing. He continued to the weeping willow trees which EOS had pointed too and tested the barrier. There was nothing to indicate it was there, but he couldn’t pass through.

“Maybe you should put something there. Something to indicate that you can’t go any further. The kids might run into it and it would be a shock when they do.”

“I see your point.”

Alan watched the young girl as she closed her eyes in thought. When she opened them again, her emerald eyes fixed on his.

“How about something like this?”

Alan turned around. String now looped between the trees; small bells attached at places which softly chimed when the breeze shook them. The barrier had moved slightly, but when Alan reached out his hand it still worked.

“That’s better.”

“I’ll complete the adjustments after you’ve finished testing.”

Alan continued down the border, testing it as he went. The stream soon disappeared behind a rocky cliff and its rockface became the barrier. Continuing along, with EOS following behind, Alan came across caves and ledges, all with Easter eggs hidden in them. The detail and thought that had gone into this place was beyond what Alan had expected when John had first suggested the idea. How John has found the time to design and code all this was not worth thinking about.

Scott had been sceptical about the idea, preferring to drag John down from Five and have him present for once. But the idea that some children would have to miss out on the International Rescue Easter Egg Hunt through no fault on their own made Scott considered the idea. Scott couldn’t say no after seeing this place. Especially if John used the avatar EOS had made. John was still going to have to come along but at least he would feel a little more comfortable interacting through the programme. They had circled back to the clearing and Alan was sold.

"I have to show this to Scott, EOS. He has to see this place!”

“There are still some final tasks to do before it is finished.”

“That’s doesn’t matter, he still has to see it.”

Alan exited the forest and pulled the headset from his head. Equipment still in hand he raced from his room towards the office where he suspected Scott to be.

***

John stood in the clearing of his forest, listening to the sounds of laughter and screeches of 'I got one!’ Right now, the entire children’s intensive care unit was hunting Easter eggs and it was John’s, with a little help from EOS and some nurses, job to make sure all went smoothly. This was the fourth batch of children to enter and he was starting to get the hang of it.

The last batch had been the cancer patients, some of which had been in isolation. John had waved from the other side of the glass, and one young lad, Bryan, had been super excited. He had never met most of the other kids on the ward, and then to see someone from International Rescue made the boy bounce around his room. Bryan had come straight up to John in the forest and chatted away. Thankfully, one of the other kids he had met dragged him away to hunt Easter eggs. John had watched as Bryan was introduced to the others. John was planning to talk to Scott about handing the programme over to the hospital so kids in isolation could meet each other regularly. There would have to be supervision and other safety measures put in place, but it could really improve the lives of these children. John could think of multiple new environments that could be rendered to keep things fresh, though they might have to outsource the design of them.

John headed down one of the paths, following the sound of laughter. One of the laughs was familiar and John paused in the shadow of a Tilia tree and watched. EOS and three other children were running around a smaller clearing. It appeared they had taught the AI how to play ‘Stuck in the mud’. A check of the time showed there was ten minutes left of the forty-minute hunt session, though after fifteen minutes most the eggs had been found and the children resorted to exploring and having fun. There were a few nurses scattered about, keeping an eye on their charges, and handling any virtual fights that broke out. EOS seemed to be enjoying herself, though John was finding it hard to tell in her new form. She was extremely proud of her craftsmanship and John had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the last time he saw her using this avatar. EOS laughed again as she narrowly missed being tagged. He watched as another child was tagged leaving EOS the only one standing and cornered. The boy dashed to one side only to quickly switch direction and place his hand on her arm.

“I win!” He yelled, throwing his fist in the air.

The others came 'unstuck’ and ran to join him.

“We only have ten minutes left. Let’s go explore some more.” A girl said.

“Okay!” The other two children sang while EOS stayed quiet. The children turned to her.

“Don’t you want to explore?” The girl asked.

“I explored earlier. I’m going to go join John now. Thank you for teaching me the game.”

“Okay. Bye then.”

“Bye EOS.”

The other children disappeared into the trees and John stepped out of the shadows. He smiled at his AI. Who’d have thought she could pass as a child?

“That was an interesting interaction. I don’t get many opportunities to interact with people like this.”

“No, you don’t. It is part of keeping you safe, but we could let you explore more virtual spaces if you want.”

“I will consider it.”

They stood in companionable silence. A red admiral butterfly fluttered by, and a bird sang in a tree to their right. It was peaceful. As he stood John spotted movement around his feet. A ginger and white cat was rubbing itself against his legs. Puzzled, he knelt and stroked the digital feline. It purred and nuzzled its head into his hand. The cat continued to rub itself against his hand, the movement so natural. Its programming was superb. It would take complicated code to produce such realistic and interactive behaviour.

“EOS, you didn’t tell me you put a cat in the forest.”

John sat down and let the cat climb on his lap. Its body rubbed against his and its tail brushing against his face. It was a shame John couldn’t feel its touch. He could imagine how soft its fur was. Though he wasn’t the biggest animal lover, like Gordon, he did appreciate the need for nonhuman companionship.

“I didn’t design the cat, John. I assumed you programmed it.”

John gave EOS a quizzical look. If she didn’t, and he didn’t, where did the cat come from? He turned back to the digital feline.

“Maybe Alan did it?” There was uncertainty in John’s voice, it wasn’t an Alan thing to do.

“Alan only ran the programme, he never edited or added code.”

Worry filled John. Where had this cat come from? Was it a symptom of something more sinister? Was the programme safe? John noticed EOS stand rigid out the corner of his eye. He waited, knowing she was checking the code. Her eyes flickered open.

“I have located the code. It’s not a threat. No viruses detected. Its code came into the programme with one of the children from the last session. It came with his avatar, however the code was added into the programme and stayed active after the host avatar left. Do you want me to delete it?”

John looked at the cat in his lap. The ginger and white pattern was unique and the coding for its fur texture, behaviour and personality would have taken time. He wondered if it was based off someone’s pet. He suspected one of the patients in isolation created it when they were given access the avatar programme yesterday. It was impressive.

“It definitely contains no malicious code?”

“No, it does not.”

“Then add it to the files with the other creatures. They left it here so others could enjoy it, and anything that will improve the time these children have here is welcome. Can you tell me which child made it? I might go give them a visit later.”

“I’ll send the information to your comm.”

“Thank you, EOS.”

The cat stood up, looked at John and meowed. Its eyes shone as if it was thanking him. EOS bent down and stroked the feline, bring a smile to John’s face. He wondered how his brothers were getting on in the real world, setting up and helping the children who were able to leave their beds. They were only using the hospital roof garden, and the hunts were shorter due to the garden not being large. They were all going to be tired tonight, but it would be a welcome tiredness. John knew Scott had hired a house for them nearby and had gotten John to scout out the local takeout joints. Takeout, popcorn, crisps, fizzy drinks, beer (for those old enough) were all prepared with a good film selection. It was going to be a good way to end the day.

The cat hopped off his lap and sauntered away. The session end screen popped up in front of John, and he disconnected. He was sitting at the nurses’ station on the ward and to his left two nurses also removed their headsets.

“Now that was quite the experience!” One said to the other. “No wonder I struggle to get my son to remove this thing.”

“I don’t think the games he is playing are all quite like that. The hack-and-slash my daughter plays looks very different.”

“Well the kids enjoyed it.”

They disinfected their headsets and placed them in the box at John’s feet. John now had to collect up any borrowed headsets and decontaminate them before moving on to the next set of wards. The nurses had already handed out the chocolate Easter Eggs while the children were in the forest, so they would find them when they removed their headsets. The smiles on their faces warmed John. He’d had received many excited thank yous as he collected headsets and even the odd enthusiastic hug. John stood, put on some disposal gloves and grabbed the box. He headed towards the beds, the chatter of young voices already filling the air.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds 2004 #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds tos #John Tracy #alan tracy #Gordon Tracy #EOS #EasterTAG #submission

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pigeoncentric · 4 years

Text

i did an A:TLA rewatch and took notes because that’s just what i do, and here’s the notes if anyone wants to see my thoughts

i haven't watched atla since about a year before korra started airing, so like, around 2011. i should also mention that i never watched korra through to the end, but i guess i'll do that after this. if i feel like it. i do know that the biggest bottles were never popped

i have such a clear memory of the first episode. it must've been on nickelodeon pretty often, even though when it was airing, i only watched it occasionally. i remember they also aired the library episode super often.

aang's voice is so tiny and sweet

i gotta turn off my dumb adult brain and put my dumb kid brain back on so i can better appreciate the nickelodeonness of it all

sokka and zuko's first interaction.......

zuko's intimidating approach and then his tiny teen voice

SOKKA AND ZUKO'S SECOND INTERACTION............

zuko's like "i'm going home." with aang. he must be feeling an incredible mixture of feelings, thinking he has the avatar and can reclaim his Honor. but he also must be terrified to go back, and in disbelief... fortunately he's not going home like he said and there are even more confused feelings in between

i just remembered that iroh's voice actor dies between seasons :(

thinking a lot about dante basco... no thoughts in particular, just a lot of them... and how he shipped zutara lmao

"my troubles cannot be soaked away!"

hei bai looks like a ben 10

mounts list (added to as i progressed through the series): zuko's rhinos. earth armored ostriches. metal noshing mole. north pole goatyak. azula and friends' fur geckos. sabertooth moose lion if you're not a wimp. appa-sized beetle. moose with aquatic features. Eel Hound.

you can't out-mom-friend katara. even when she's yelling and being reckless

it's true... airbenders are weak to nets.

the n*tfli* captions are making several mistakes. eat my ass ne*f*ix and hire me to do flawless captioning instead you dumb fucks

YEAH! even by episode 13 in season 1 we already know zuko is a good boy! well also by episode 12. and earlier. well i've seen the series before.

i've just learned that zach tyler eisen is the voice of aang and i have to give him huge props for having the perfect voice. i pay a lot of attention to voice acting, usually in a nitpicky way, and i've never heard an english voice actor whose voice is perfect on the level of ikue ohtani... and when he was like 12 years old. incredible. i'm not being remotely sarcastic

i gotta be 100% honest. i had completely forgotten the existence of zhao and that he's actually a pretty important character, at least in season 1. also his voice actor is pretty good. generally the voice acting is good in this show, and i'm picky.

god the animation where aang makes one catapult catapult the other is so good. also appa just picked up and grabbed a guy. with his fist. wait how many toes does appa have? is that 18 in total? also appa has scutes on his ventrum. anyway i love that appa can pick up and grab a guy but generally chooses not to. gives it more weight when he does choose to

zuko tells turtle seals to be quiet and then touches them unkindly :(

zuko busted out of katara's ice orb instead of melting it :\

zuko put his hood up like iroh told him to but aang just has his naked bald head in the snowy cold :(

seeing zhao grab and bag the moon spirit fish made me feel sick. such a foul act

god. the quality rope. i noticed sokka mention it and was like, "was this a chekhov's gun or a red herring" and then a few minutes later there was a pointed pan over to the quality rope.

anyway examining the quality of the voice acting here leads me to a thesis i might gather evidence to prove: american english voice acting for cartoons is far higher quality than american english voice acting for anime dubs. or is that just something obvious that everyone already agrees on

anyway anyway, the episode ended without the quality rope being put to use. unless i missed it, which is entirely possible.

jesus i heard azula's first lines and got an instant flashback to all the tumblr drama about grey delisle and her tumblr account and how she pretended it wasn't hers or something let's just erase all of this from my brain right now

this is kind of out of nowhere and borderline inappropriate but i'm glad characters in avatar are illustrated with nipples when they're shirtless... it always disturbs me a tiny bit when shirtless characters are depicted with zero nipple, not even a hint of nipple. (Aladdin.) not just because it implicitly stigmatizes something everyone has, but also because this scenario always plays in my head where it's like, a little kid sees a cartoon character without nipples and they think, "so i'm not supposed to have these..." and they start feeling weird and bad about themself... all you need to depict a nipple is a single unobtrusive dot. nothing visually offensive or explicit about it.

even to an audience who doesn't understand any cultural context, you can't not see the significance of zuko and iroh cutting off their topknots...

fandom seems to see sokka as the silliest one when in fact at least 40% of his entire role as a character is to be the tsukkomi

underrated moment: "you've got an elbow leech." "WHERE?! WHERE?!"

zuko should be a good boy and only steal if it's from pirates

stealy zuko stealing money and buying iroh a teapot !

god i forgot what a tiny baby voice toph has... so tiny

zuko trying really really hard but doing a bad job hammering (tears)

azula set up zuko and mai for a lucky sukebe...

when zuko's mom told him not to forget who he is, she didn't mean to remember that he's a prince and an heir as he revealed to the unsuspecting earth kingdom village. she meant to remember that he's someone with at least the base level of empathy and compassion, unlike most of his immediate family...

i still think aang's voice actor did a great job but i bet it sucks to be a young boy doing an excellent young boy voice and then when you grow up a little and presumably experience some puberty you just Cannot do the young boy voice anymore. hopefully in most cases where that happens, it's at least not abrupt

placing a bet that the writer for episode s2:e10 (the library) is different than most of the other episodes. i don't like it very much, at least in the first several minutes. if it's a name i recognize from the credits of several other episodes, i might be a bit disappointed in them. seriously, there's one stinker after another. and with such a great concept of an episode...

i didn't recognize the name of the guy who wrote this episode so i thought i was right but no, he wrote a bunch of episodes. must have been off his game for this one... either that or i'm in a very unforgiving mood and don't realize it... also when i went on wikipedia to look at who wrote which atla episodes, i learned that the animation for the show was split between two animation studios, and they're both korean. ah, i guess that doesn't mean all the animation took place overseas, as DM movie has a headquarters in the US. according to wikipedia.

oh, they're BUZZards... i get it... i gotcha.

aang with a vengeance is both scary and sad to see. but he does understand that property damage is nothing compared to a life

people who love azula are the exact same as people who love vriska: [comment redacted]

they have american birds in the avatar world. i keep hearing an eastern wood-peewee going "pee-pee-uwee" in the background :3

the serpent's pass seems geologically implausible.

sokka should really get face paint all over his face when he kisses suki. or like, the cartoonish image of when someone is covered in lipstick lip smacks, but it should be suki's makeup color

appa's been through so much and now he has to meet a boarcupine?!?! fortunately he still knows how to pick up and grab... but still :(

he touched appa's scutes and read them like a palm...

longshot translated his meaningful stares into out-loud words for katara and friends

zuko forgot that azula always lies :(

zuko should know that being redeemed in his father's eyes is the opposite of what he wants...

i LOVE aang's passionate tsungi horn dance

there are spring peepers in the fire nation

god the dripping of the rotten clams is so excessive

you know how ultrasonic humidifiers can create water vapor without heating it into steam, by vibrating it super fast? let's try that with waterbending, it'll be cool

two different bad guys have been skipped across the water like a rock

i love the fake time lapse of cleaning the river... and it showed how with pollution in real life, stopping the source of the pollution is not enough. it needs to be removed as well

sokka deserves LOTS of credit just for being able to handle a boomerang.

GOD THE SLOW PAN OVER THE BEAUTIFUL SWORD (in 3:4)

sokka also deserves LOTS of credit for being able to admit he doesn't know everything.

i managed to forget that zuko turns his back on iroh, while remembering that at some point, iroh gets buff

the voice of sokka's master is the voice of the boulder. right? right? no? are you kidding me? i suck at this

seems like kissing azula would have immediate consequences, like something melting

zuko is poorly socialized

zuko still forgot that azula always lies. even when she's being somewhat humanized in an episode like this.

so avatar roku had earthly attachments he did not let go of, presumably. such as his wife. did he have unfettered access to the avatar state? that's what i would ask him during this expositionfest if i was aang.

so sozin could do heatbending... that's amazing. i think i missed that the first time around.

that's right, zuko came back and his hair is long enough, but he hasn't recreated his topknot.

hawky is the only atla animal that poops on camera.

if you're gonna bend sweat, you might as well bend spit, and it's a little easier to obtain

wait so... is combustion man also a heatbender? i'll have to look into it later. [looked into it later: the avatar wiki has termed it "combustionbending?" are you shitting me?]

ooh it's the bloodbending episode! i'm pumped.

someone made a post about how when they watched this show and they were a kid they were thinking about how the characters are hot, and now they're watching as an adult and the characters are all tiny children... that's how i've been feeling. also season 3 episode 8 aang's voice sounds a little bit pubertous.

anyway damn this bloodbending episode is outright traumatic. good shit

oh, now zuko's topknot is back.

appa's armor covers each individual toe <:3c

i seriously misremembered the course of zuko's character development. and the timeline of the invasion in general. but now i understand that zuko has to tell his dad to eat shit face to face.

watching zuko's "zuko here" practice speech hurts 100% as much as it did the first time i saw it. and when he's delivering it to the gaang it's impossible to watch. i didn't put my hands on my head-- they just went there unbidden.

i kinda can't help picturing dante basco's face every time i hear zuko talk. the whole time. it's sometimes not optimal to know the faces of voice actors. especially when you're like me and you're not good at pushing out unwanted mental images.

what the fuck, combustion man? he just loves assassination so much you can't take back any orders. also i can't help but imagine that if you put a slice across his third eye his combustion would be fully inhibited. well i guess that's not a problem anymore.

i like that the gaang are a variety of heights, and that they're all noticeably shorter than most of the adults they meet. it just makes it feel realistic

if it was a US max security prison and prisoners were escaping they'd probably just fucking murder them

i love how when mai starts up the gondola again and azula is like "what is she DOING!" and ty lee just makes an "iunno" noise

tfw your best friend abandons you because you wouldn't let her murder her own brother

chit seng didn't get to free his girlfriend and best buddy :(

funny how azula seems almost docile when she's getting everything she wants. typical narcissist. well ok not the least bit typical.

sokka ate the rose. i remembered this scene Too clearly. but i didn't remember that.

um... was that the full moon? when katara bloodbent that guy? i should've looked at the sky... i went back and looked and still didn't see if it was the full moon. maybe the wiki knows. i don't care enough to look it up properly.

i was wondering when the melon lord would show up

none of the teens understand the obvious solution of defeating the fire lord by beating him INTO SUBMISSION (or oblivion) instead of killing him. just like in every anime fight ever. it's over when you acknowledge you've lost or you can't fight anymore, not when you die. (for the #1 best example of ending a fight the right way, see the way luffy defeats crocodile.)

so i know aang's gonna defeat the fire lord by essentially hitting him with a forced purification beam to the face and make him realize the errors of his ways or something. the fun part is how we get there

bumi bending entire houses through the air

aw i forgot the turtle island didn't have a cute face.

jyong jyong firebent a jet platform to fly around on?!

i guess the firelord can fly around like bakugou katsuki

i forgot that aang took away his firebending... and sokka hops up to him like "well, look at you, buster"

i'm glad i decided to watch this again. even if i didn't do a great job paying attention tbh. well i did spend a bit of time carving a little wooden spoon while i was watching. anyway i was thinking i wouldn't move right on to korra but rather read some of the atla comics that i know exist but have never read whatsoever. i wonder if i can find them in some kind of library...

i found the comics illegally on the internet and read a whole bunch (up until the end of the "zuko finds his mom" arc). i didn't write my thoughts down as i was reading, so i don't remember them. that's how my worthless brain works. i do remember that i found the comics satisfactory as an accurate extension of the show, and that i feel ambivalent about how azula is written/treated in the comics.

i don’t know if i feel like rewatching korra yet.

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aeon-borealis · 5 years

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Give us fanfic withsome aleheather viewing themselves separately in the future. In Area 51 the pair fight over an object that sucks them in.. heather and Alejandro see two different points of their future life together. Alejandro sees their honeymoon and heather sees Alejandro with their child.

Note:

This doesn’t exactly fit the prompt. I wanted to try writing a one-off from just Heather’s perspective. I might take a crack at another one-off from Alejandro’s perspective in another day or so.

Every time Chris announced the next challenge, soaking in howspectacularly stupid or dangerous it was made Heather question herlife choices for at least a nanosecond. Again, why did she sign up for thisdamn show?

Butthen she thought of her list of motivators. Honestly, pure raw greedwasn’t quite enough for how insane Chris could get. So these othermotivators were what fueled Heather’s iron-clad determination andpersistence. These thoughts helped her overcome and push through thepangs of guilt, chipping her nails,losing her hair, and getting embarrassed on national TV. Everythingshe’d endured on this stupid show was bearable compared to what shecould potentially gain with that massive pile of Scrooge McDuck fuck-off money.

Thistime she thought about her boisterous younger siblings. Theyterrorized her room with reckless abandon, ripping her designerclothes, knocking over her glitter pen collection and losing rarelimited-edition pens, destroying her make-up, etc. The list went onand on. Heather had to hide every precious thing she owned behind thehighest security locks she could find in order to keep her valuablesout of her siblings’ grubby little hands.

Thelittle gremlins came to mind as she watched her competitors andteammates scatter across the warehouse. After the minefield and theelectric fence, everyone was on high alert and feverishly searchingfor alien artifacts like ants desperately chasing down that elusivepiece of candy little Timmy just dropped behind the stove. Heathertried to resist the urge to chase after and claw everyone else out ofher way. That would be the worst possible thing to do right now,especially considering she finally had a hot minute of not being thesource of everyone’s ire.

No.She was going to approach this with the same calm and measuredmindset that bastard Alejandro would. Maybe she could keep tabs onone of the savvier scavengers…Duncan, maybe? He was probably busymaking goo-goo eyes at Gwen and avoiding Courtney like the plague.The fact that he was sandwiched between those two was exactly why itwas better to observe him from the sidelines. He was very aware thathe was a prime candidate for someone looking to leverage his dramafor an alliance. There had to be someone she could twist and kneadlike putty in her hands. There had to be something unconventional shecould try. Admittedly, she had to get pretty underhanded and creativethis time if she wanted to stoop to la cucaracha’s level.

Justas the thought crossed her mind, she noticed Alejandro idly diggingthrough a pile of junk nearby. He was bent over in such a way that his tight,finely sculpted-

Heatherblushed furiously and looked away, clearing her throat to redirecther focus. To her chagrin, this caught Alejandro’s attention. Heturned and smirked up at her with so much smugness and smarm shewanted to punch his face in so far it’d leave an unsightly,cartoonish dent.

“Enjoyingthe view?” He stood up and chuckled softly.

“No.You’re in my way.”

“Goon.” He stepped aside and made an exaggerated gesture. “I’mcertainly going to enjoy the view.”

“UGHH!”She stomped towards the same pile he’d been digging through earlierand roughly shoved Alejandro along the way. He chuckled again as helightly bumped into a tower of cardboard boxes.

AsHeather knelt down to take a closer look at the junk, she feltextremely self-conscious. Alejandro’s scrutinizing gaze was like aheavy weight on her back. Sweat beaded at the base of her neck.Seconds dragged on like agonizing years. Of course, Alejandro madethings worse by humming the classic Jeopardy theme. She quicklyrifled through the pile of crap, yanked out a random nondescriptthing, then zipped back up faster than a successful apple-bobber at afrat party.

Thething she’d just snatched up glinted in the low light and Heatherforgot about Ale-jerkface for a hot minute. It was roughly the sizeand shape of a gold pocket watch, but it didn’t have a clasp on theside. Maybe it was a piece of jewelry? There was a circular redgemstone in the center surrounded by two concentric rings of whatappeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Heatherremembered overhearing a random conversation Harold had with Codywhen he was still in the game. Somehow, they’d stumbled onto thetopic of conspiracy theories and Harold was raving about somearchaeologist’s crackpot thesis about the Egyptian pyramids beinglanding pads for alien spacecraft. According to Harold, the mostominous part was that said archaeologist had disappeared off of theface of the Earth shortly after putting this theory out there. Ofcourse he did. He’d committed career suicide by officiallypublishing something that should have stayed in the niche corners ofthe internet on obscure forums with other incredible claims fromother like-minded whack-jobs…

Heatherrolled her eyes. This was just some useless trinket a member ofmilitary personnel dropped. And it was an incredibly tacky one atthat.

Justas she was about to throw the weird necklace back, she noticedAlejandro’s piqued interest. His pupils were as wide as dinnerplates and his expression was a mix between utterly baffled andmystified. Heather had this weird feeling that he knew exactly whatthis thing was but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her.

“Letme see that…”

Hewas reaching for it now. Heather quickly closed her fingers aroundthe weird trinket and shifted her arm far from Alejandro’s grasp.“What’s it to you?”

“It’smine. A gift from my mother.” His words were buttery and smooth.Heather’s grip loosened for a moment. He’d turned the full forceof those beautiful green eyes on her and she could feel her heartmelting a little.

“Please…”Alejandro smiled sweetly, slowly extending a cupped hand towards her.For a moment, Heather looked down at his hand, then back at his face.Damn was that gaze hypnotic. Heather wouldn’t be surprised ifAlejandro had sold part of his soul to the Devil for some of theuncanny abilities and talents he possessed.

Shetook a step back from him, blew a raspberry, and smiled fiendishly asshe crammed the weird trinket in her shorts pocket. Then she took offat a quick sprint. She was mildly surprised when Alejandro starteddoggedly chasing after her, a weird determination set on his face.

“Heather!”

Upcomingrows of cardboard boxes were starting to narrow. Grinning, Heathertook advantage of her more slender frame and slipped into a narrowspace between two towers of boxes. She crawled along the space untilshe was so far in Alejandro could only peer in. For a moment, hefrowned and she shot a victorious smirk at him. Then he sighed andwandered off.

Alejandro’sbizarre reaction had only sparked Heather’s curiosity. Chris couldwait a minute for her to turn in the artifact. She pulled the trinketback out of her pocket to take a closer look. The red gemstone glowedin an especially eerie way under the dimmer lighting back here.Gingerly, she touched the smooth gemstone and then slid her fingeronto the closest ring. Her eyes widened when she realized that therings were movable.

Sheadjusted the ring slightly counter-clockwise and…

….Heatherwas temporarily blinded by bright white light.

Thelight started to fade into a spatter of bright green and yellowbokeh. A couple of blurred figures stood in front of Heather. One ofthe figures was small and crazily darting around.

It was like she waslooking into the view screen of a high-end camera as the cameramanprepared for the next shot in the hypothetical movie. Finally, themysterious figures slowly became more crisp, clear, and defined. Thetaller one was a lithe, fairly muscular, and handsome young man. Hehad tanned skin, shoulder length brown hair tied back into a rattail,light stubble, and striking goose egg green eyes. He wore Coke bottlelens glasses, a button-up red shirt with the sleeves rolled up to hiselbows, a black vest, washed out blue jeans, and black boots.Recognition swelled through Heather and her heart took off like afanatical rocket.

Thiswas a slightly older, more matured Alejandro. He was a dreamboat now,but oh God, Heather never thought he get this much hotter. WhenHeather was able to collect herself enough to stop drooling buckets,she turned her attention towards the smaller and more energeticfigure.

Itwas a little girl with light tanned skin, big and shining dark eyes,and long black hair. Those were the same eyes and hair Heather sawevery morning in the mirror. But, that slightly hooked nose andthicker eyebrows were….Alejandro’s. This little girl had the twomost distinctive features on Alejandro’s face aside from hismesmerizing eyes.

Asif Heather didn’t feel like she’d been hit over the head with asledgehammer already, her older counterpart walked into the scene.She was graceful. She wore a long white sundress and matching sunhat,strappy sandals, and had her hair tied up and casually tossed overone shoulder. It was a look Heather couldn’t ever imagine she’dwear in a million years, but Mom Heather was definitely rockingit.

MomHeather scooped up her adorable little brat, laughing and smiling insuch a sweet, saccharine way it made young Heather want to throw upand horribly envious all at once. When older Alejandro walked overand slung an arm around Mom Heather’s shoulders the scene becamesomething out of the filler page in a garden magazine or the mostgeneric stock photo ever. Of course these two were gorgeous modelswith the most photogenic family on the face of the planet. Or maybeHeather was just horribly biased.

Thescene dissipated as quickly as it’d appeared. Heather blinkedseveral times, snapping back to reality with a weird pit in herstomach. Part of her felt incredibly warm and buzzing with happinesswhile another part of her felt confused and slightly horrified. Itwas weird to think of Alejandro that way, let alone imagine what it’dbe like to have a kid and a life together. Admittedly, yes, theirchild would be the hottest person on in the known universe. But still.

Heatherhated her younger siblings and Alejandro with an equal white-hotfiery intensity. So that weird snapshot of the future was utternonsense. She sure as hell didn’t want Alejandro. She was sure she didn’t want to havekids. Both factors would seriously get in the way of the active, glamorous lifestyle she imagined having by her mid-twenties.

Yet the image stayed in her mind, drifting between otherthoughts and musings. Some small scrap of her wanted to cling to thispicture, have it professionally framed in a glitter-glue covered woodframe, and proudly displayed on her living room wall.

Shewas regaining her bearings now. She was still crammed into this smallspace. But her hand was empty. The weird trinket was just gone.Vanished. Almost as if it’d never existed in the first place. Thiswas too weird for Heather. A hard lump settled in the pit of herstomach and she felt like some eerie, unseen force was watching her.

Swallowinghard, she scrambled out of that narrow cardboard box alley and tookoff running like a bat out of hell. Everything was a blur as sherushed for the nearest exit. Instead, she ran right into Alejandroand they tumbled into each other, rolling right into a nearby towerof cardboard boxes. The boxes fell and a few hit Heather as she triedto push herself back up.

Thenshe was looking into Alejandro’s face, her gaze locked with his.She was drowning in those dazzling eyes. Her insides were twistedtogether in a crazy knot. The image of an older Alejandro and theirfuture daughter flashed in her mind’s eye a few times as shebreathed heavily and her heartbeat roared in her ears like crashingocean waves.

Aneternity later, Heather felt like she was actually just looking atAlejandro. He looked as startled and unsettled as she did. A lightblush spread across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. There wasan unspoken realization between the two of them.

Thatweird trinket had shown him some kind of weird crystal-ball futuresnapshot, too.

Thetwo of them awkwardly pulled away from each other, stood back up, andparted ways without another word. Heather took a few seconds tocollect herself, taking a few deep breaths and waiting for her bodytemperature to lower a few degrees.

Thiswas, by far, the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her on thisshow and it’d be a secret she’d take to the grave. She was definitely going to be lurking on some of those obscure conspiracy theorist forums for awhile, though…

#aleheather #total drama alejandro #total drama heather #total drama alejandro x heather #alejandro x heather #tdwt alejandro #tdwt heather #tdwt alejandro and heather #total drama fan fic

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