the scar Valin has on his jaw from when Drone had a muscle tremour shaving his face... the jagged black line along Drone's left palm where her blade cut into her silicone flesh so deeply it bounced off her titanium metacarpus.

why is it that we only have like two licenses from any mech producer that’s a good guy? For a game where like there are clear good and bad guys (even if who you play isn’t necessarily linked to that) it seems strange to me that the only loot and XP you get is… more benefits from the bad guys

I can tell you the answer, but to do so, we're gonna have to talk about a completely different TTRPG.

If you've read @makapatag's truly excellent Filipino martial arts TTRPG Gubat Banwa (and if you haven't, here it is), you may notice that every single character class description (with one notable exception) ends with one of these babies:

I am not Makapatag, and I cannot write with quite as much grace and eloquence as he can, but I will try:

If you choose to become a Lancer, ask yourself why you mock the name of peace with these weapons of war. You call yourself a saviour, but your steed was forged from the murder of a world. You stride across the sky in a colossus built in your own image, so why are you too cowardly to give it your face? Why do you believe these machines of death can preserve life?

It is important to note that the admonitions in Gubat Banwa are not just there to make you feel bad; they are there as legitimate questions. The Sword Isles have seen so much blood, death and tragedy. Wars are not glorious and killing is not a game. So, knowing all of that, why have you taken up this discipline - no matter how noble and virtuous it might claim to be - to shed more blood, to bring more death, to write more tragedy? What could possibly drive you to this? What need is so great that you must kill?

The thing with Gubat Banwa is that there are legitimate answers to these questions! There are bad people doing bad things, and some of them will not be stopped with words or kindness. Sometimes, as sorrowful as it is, killing is the correct choice to prevent greater suffering and deeper tragedy - but adding less misery and death to the world is still adding some amount of it. Even the most necessary wars will drench the ground in the blood of the innocent.

A sword is a tool meant to kill humans; while it can be used for other things, it is not well-suited to anything other than this. A mech is, in its most basic essence, just a very complicated sword: it's usually used on things larger than a person, but it's still a tool built to kill.

So why have you taken up this path? Humanity was saved from the brink of extinction and has created wondrous technologies like printers, cold fusion and mind-machine interface, and yet you use them to play soldier in a giant metal man. Why do you choose to take up this machine of death, built by the greedy and pitiless? Why do you think these machines can ever make things right?

Because sometimes, despite everything, they can.

Warhammer 40K shows an awful world full of monsters and monstrosity, and in the darkest moments of its history, Lancer's world looked just as bleak, but Lancer's world differs in one crucial way. Warhammer's world has long given up trying to be better, but Lancer's world never did. Lancer's world kept insisting a better world is possible, and it used what tools it had to make it so.

Sometimes the correct choice, no matter how bitter it may seem, is to kill someone. When you need to do this, a sword is a perfectly good choice for the job.

If you find yourself discomforted by the fact that all the people you can buy mechs from are corrupt and immoral - good! You have correctly engaged with the text. You have understood that the sort of people who would make giant walking death machines and sell them for profit are not good people. But you still have a job to do, and you need the correct tools, and those people have them.

Lancer is not a game about a perfect world - it is a game about a deeply flawed and imperfect one that does not let its imperfection stop it from trying. You have to try to make a better world, even with imperfect tools made by unpleasant people.

Analyzing Aleksander's reaction to Alina's loss of her power

(I'm so sick and tired of seeing people use his "You are nothing now" words as a way to justify how he didn't love her that I decided to create a whole ass post about it.)

First of all, let's see what the powers of a Grisha mean to a Grisha, shall we?

For a Grisha her powers is the same thing as the oxygen is for all humans. The constant beat of a person's heart.

Indispensable.

And in a way it's implied that a Grisha cannot live without it. Just like birds can naturally fly, just like a fish can naturally swim. It's part of their nature, part of their body and soul.

Now let's see Aleksander's reaction to Alina's loss of her power.

The moment he saw Alina being unable to summon, he froze. At first he's in denial of what he sees.

How can a Grisha not being able to use her power? A power that is always there no matter what? A power that "feeds" them and keeps them healthy and alive.

We see Aleksander being in a state of shock as he tries to comprehend what is happening with her:

He had never seen anything like that. A Grisha losing her powers is unheard of. Impossible.

He tries again and again to summon her light and bring it to the surface. The fact that he can't feel it causes him panic and pain. In a way, he can't find her soul.

And the very fact that she also lost her collar and feter is impossible too. When a Grisha claims an amplifier, a connection is made that can't be broken.

Another fatal loss for Alina and a disastrous blow for Aleksander and his knowledge, since he knows more than anyone else how amplifiers work and how a Grisha's power work. All the hundreds of years he had spent watching and studying the ways of the Small Science and of power, have gone to waste right now as he tries to understand what is going on with the woman he loves.

His near immortality and rare powers always made him seek someone else to connect with. Someone to understand him and be on the same level as him.

People say that he never actually wanted Alina to be his equal. Well, based on his words and reaction here, I would say he wanted to.

Right now there's no pretense, no tricks or a façade. We see him "naked" and exposed showing us his terror of Alina's loss and despair for his fate. Of being alone forever.

"You were meant to be like me."

Aleksander wanted her strong and confident. Unafraid to rise above the others and to stand right beside him.

"You're nothing now."

I know it sounds cruel but it is true.

If a bird lost its ability to fly or a fish its ability to swim, would you call that normal? If a person stopped breathing or her heart stopped beating, would you call her alive and whole?

Alina lost the very essence of her being, her soul and identity. What happened to her was something completely unnatural and just wrong. Aleksander has lived for centuries and knows more about the Grisha than anyone else (except of course his mother) so he knows that what happened to her, has crippled her. She's not the Alina she was. And she's never gonna be.

It's not a statement of disgust, apathy or scorn. They're words of pain and mourning. Shock and anger.

It's a complete ruin for Alina.

A devastation and tragedy for the unfortunate Grisha that experiences it for the first time in their history. And an equal devastation and sorrow for the Grisha that watched it happen to the person he cared most about.

And it's actually funny how Aleksander seems to be the only person that was devastated for what happened to her.

Everyone else was:

"Alina lost her powers"

"Okay cool".

In a way you can say that it was proof of how he was the one that truly cared about her fate while the rest of her friends didn't seem to give two flying fucks.

The Darkling just gave up.

All he had fought for, all the patience he had mastered for years waiting for his equal to come, went to dust right in front of him.

In a way he committed suicide and just let Alina kill him.

Now if he didn't love her as some people say, why did he do these things after she lost her powers?:

1) Called her to his side and searched for her hand to hold it.

2) Smiled at her and stroked her tears.

3) Entrusted her with his last wish because he'd seen her kindness and believed in it.

4) Asked her to say his name one more time so he could hear it from her one last time. A name that he had probably never said to anyone else for centuries.

5) Begged her to not leave him alone while he died because loneliness frightened him.

I'm sorry but if I was dying, I wouldn't want anyone at my side but the people that I loved the most. And Aleksander wanted the same too.

There's no way he felt disgust or anger towards Alina even after she stabbed him. Whatever she did, he forgave. And whatever happened to her in the end didn't stop him from loving her and wanting her presence at his side until his own end.

(didn't really love her, my ass)

I Tried My Hand at Designing the Full Witches of the Main Cast of Magia Record.

CAMPANELLA (Yachiyo Nanami)

The ticket puncher witch. Her nature is admittance. From not only beneath her dress, but under her hat and as well as the multitude of eyes on her tail, black watery tears spill forth with such intensity that her entire barrier is flooded with her tears. She eternally waits for a train for her board on and be reunited with her friends, but she struggles to find the train station itself. Using her lantern, she will eternally wander her ever flooded barrier to find her way to the station. If one were to be harmed by the ticket puncher at the end of her scorpion like tail, great devastation and tragedy awaits them in the near future.

YU HONG (Tsuruno Yui)

The witch of ham. Her nature is harmonious. Both great fortune and great success are the ingredients used by this witch in her kitchen, but all that she ends up producing is dubious meals that may or may not cause harm to the human body. She detests any form of household tensions and if she senses even the slightest resentment of a family member, she will force her victim into eating a feast of her aforementioned dubious cooking. Only those who don’t hide themselves from family troubles or conflict can defeat her.

BEATRICE (Felicia Mitsuki)

The eyelid witch. Her nature is tumultuous. A witch who spends most, if not all her time completely asleep within her barrier, and will almost never actively hunt humans when awake. On the other hand, this witch for whatever reason harbours a complete and utter hatred for other witches and whenever she is awake, will mercilessly locate and smash other witches flat with her mallet like hands. If there is something positive that catches her attention however, she will fear that they will somehow leave her and attempt to bury them in her concrete like tears that she spews forth from her eyes.

THERESIA (Sana Futaba)

The inquisition chair witch. Her nature is transparency. Eternally sitting atop a chair with a mind of its own, this innocent witch lives in perpetual torment and agony. The chair itself is not a part of the witch, and carries out its duty to keep the witch chained to its spiked body and weaponize the truly staggering amount of torture devices it has at its disposal. The witch desires not to hurt anyone and is further tormented by the acts of intense violence that unfold before her. Due to being invisible, her sobs are the only clue where to strike if one wants to hunt this pitiful witch. When the witch dies, a single innocuous sound of a cat meowing will echo through the barrier.

ZOLA (Kaede Akino)

The witch of plot lands. Her nature is to be territorial. Within this witches’ head is planted the simple goal of expanding her territory. When she arrives to an urban area, she desires nothing but to return it to nature and covers it completely in rotten moss. She doesn’t tolerate any form of pest, as she sees them as encroaching on her property and will mercilessly destroy anything that steps into her barrier. Despite this outwardly aggressive behaviour, she is gentle towards the plant life in her barrier, which she grows herself. For some odd reason, these plants moan and can move on their own like zombies, so it’s best not to approach them at all.

CENDRILLION (Rena Minami)

The glass slipper witch. Her nature is transformative. This witch detests herself, and desires to change no matter what. When she senses someone in her barrier, she rush up to them and tear their face off. These faces are then turned into masks, and the witch can freely transform into them. However, she cannot imitate the soul of her victims and usually just ends up acting like a wild animal. If one were to gaze into the mirror on her arm like appendage for too long, she will steal their soul. When the witch dies, a single glass slipper will fall out of no where and shatter to pieces.

ELFRIEDE (Momoko Togame)

The witch of manicured nails. Her nature is self-discipline. This witch cares not where it’s power flies. It continually and proudly displays and decorates the fingers and nails that not only make up her body, but also fly around her as well. It takes great care of its shoddy manicures, but when someone insults it’s nails it becomes quite depressed and either attempts to pierce the victim with her razor sharp nails, or becomes paralyzed with insecurity. Only those who can get up again and again even after misfortune can successfully defeat this witch.

TOTENTANZ (Mitama Yakumo)

The witch of flower petals. Her nature is forewarning. This witch doesn’t forget that no matter what, death comes to all things. It resents its environment and desires nothing but it’s untimely destruction. It is strangely gentlemanly, and escorts those who enter her barrier with pure white gloves, but her terrifying power that is connected to the untimely end of all things often ends up decaying anything that her petals fall upon. Even if you manage to defeat this witch, the sheer amount of pent up curses will often end up taint a soul gem to its limit and will end with a new witch springing up in her place.

MADK, RYO SUZURI'S MASTERPEICE: MY RETROSPECTIVE.

Many who entered this series had an expectation as to how it would end. Now, why is this? Well—most Yaoi follow the same formula. Admittedly I’ve ingested the same 10 storylines in the genre 100 times over. That doesn’t even get into the niche of dark BL, which indeed is a rarer find.

An exceptional aspect of MADK is the seamless world-building. Where other Yaoi stick to slice of life, or pre-established worlds (Such as Omegaverse) This series is different, exploring the world of hell with a fresh storyline. Not to mention its shear raw use of emotion, which is hard to match with manga even outside the Yaoi genre (Heh, rawer than J's guts?)

Another notable aspect of MADK is its writor priority of story over fetish. In places where you would expect indulgence, you instead see plot growth take the front seat.

Unique Doujinshi/Yaoi authors such as Harada, and Nishin Masumi—Despite being some of the only dark BL creators, still follow the same typical romance story beats. Whatever resolution they come to; the main love interests still end up together.

But MADK is not like that, it is closer in depiction of obsession and lust to NBC’s Hannibal. An even closer comparison would be to Koogi’s Killing Stalking—Which is one of the most misunderstood stories the general media has discussed. Like MADK, Killing Stalking is mislabelled as a love story, when in reality it's cautionary horror.

With all that said, what is going on with MADK’s ending?

Character Analysis: Jonathan

Who Is J, And What Are His Motives?

J is one of the most powerful demons in all of hell, being an archduke. He had lived for 6 centuries, and during all that time looked for a successor. Demons cannot die from the erasure of their physical form; they can only die from either their name being forgotten entirely, or by speaking the name of a demon whose stronger than them.

J has been left unsurpassed for such a time, that his name has long since been forgotten. He wants to die, but not through those means—However, he did not want just anyone to surpass him, he was too prideful for that. No, he wanted someone worthy of such an act to speak his name. So instead of taking Makoto’s soul once it reached the peak of its desire, J reincarnates him into a demon, seeing his potential.

Our author does not hide what the ending will be, off the bat it’s revealed: Makoto will surpass J, we will not receive a happy ending. It's closer in greek tragedy than that of love, a destiny already written in the fabric of time, forever binding.

Throughout the entire story J is evaluating his pets’ capabilities, hardly giving him any guidance or truth (As, wouldn’t that make Makoto unworthy of surpassing him?) He finds Makoto amusing, nothing more.

Enter a 5-year time skip, and Makoto has discovered J’s name.

After J more than gladly accepted a hallucinogenic perfume from Makoto, he's forced to face his past. It is revealed he was a child prostitute, who after years in the slums was taken in by his mentor Wald.

However, due to his traumatic childhood, he could not see authority figures in a normal way outside of sex. So despite Wald’s attempt to be a Father figure, J only saw him as a potential romantic partner (Considering the hinted relationship between him and his older brother, I can’t imagen this helped his views on familial relations.)

We our only given bits and pieces of Wald’s death, but never truly the event itself. But considering the theme of repeating the same hellish cycle over and over again, one has to assume Jonathan’s death was a replica of Wald’s.

After reliving these memories, J admits it aloud. He wishes for someone who loves him to destroy him. He had wanted to be nobody, because without personhood he was untouchable. That was Wald’s curse, turning Jonathan into someone, making him touchable.

Character Analysis: Makoto

Where Does Makoto's Motives Stem From?

Our protagonist’s tail is a tragic one from the start. Makoto, a high-schooler whose desire to eat the living torments him—Decides to summon and sell his soul to a demon in exchange for delighting in live flesh. He is not disgusted by his kink but is established as not being able to live with the expectations, nor rejections of others—to the point he would rather guarantee his own death instead of facing reality.

After his death, Makoto would become J’s pet-project (Quite literally) At first, he was eager to be a demon, and saw J as his saviour from his old dissociative lifestyle—But is quickly horrified at the realisation that he has traded the expectations of humanity, for those of the demon realm. Against his will, he’s forced to live a new life and integrate into demonic society.

It’s then shown J has a diabolical habit of being vague with his information, making it near impossible to guess his expectations in the first place. (Which explains why out of all those ‘’Strays’’ J took in, none could handle his insane standards.)

Makoto hadn’t grown up with accepting parents, nor brother—J was his first time experiencing such a thing. His fetish had been understood, only for that comfort to be ripped away, as J would rapidly retreat from his life. Its why gritty sex scenes became near non-existent until Volume 3. J was isolating Makoto on purpose. This would instil the idea within Makoto that J was the only one who could understand him, soon fuelling a dark obsession over the demon.

Ensue a 3-year time skip: Makoto has continued his work at the Brothel, not once seeing J during that period. He held of on his return, knowing he needed to learn more (To impress J) And because he longed for J to be the one to want him to come home.

When J does request his presence, it’s for a task: He wants Makoto to collect souls, but in a twist the first contractor J chose was none other than Makoto’s elderly Father. A fresh hatred would curdle inside Makoto, as he began to be unable to wrap his mind around J’s motives. Only that, any tenderness shown was a ploy to manipulate him.

Makoto becomes determined to overthrow J, to force him to respect and see him. Despite J being upfront that he wants Makoto to surpass him, Makoto can only feel distrust, seeing the transparency as some kind of way to mess with him.

His worst fear was unwittingly being controlled by J, but in the process ended up falling right into J’s hands in the end.

Why Does Makoto Repeat The Cycle?

Makoto throughout the entire story was driven with vengeance. He at the end, no longer had a reason to be. He fully believed the one person who could understand him was only Jonathan, and with him dead he has no reason to be alive. But he once again has reached a similar issue to Jonathan—He is now too powerful; he cannot be taken over so easily.

They say the definition of pure insanity is doing something repeatedly and expecting the same result. And I’d have to say that’s exactly what is happening here. As this is hell, and hell is other people. They are stuck within a cycle of their own creation.

Personal Conclusions & Extra Thougths

Makoto and Jonathan were never in love. Makoto was completely emotionally reliant on Jonathan, who dragged him into a life he did not want, removing his autonomy in some of the worst imaginable ways. And Jonathan, he only saw Makoto as means to an end. These two characters never could have been equals, as throughout the entire story Jonathan was grooming Makoto into a role he knew would only lead to misery.

It disturbs me that the general audience feels betrayed by the ending. The author did not lie to us, but because of expectations build upon from other media, like Makoto, not many could see what was laid out right in front of them. And another little tid bit, Makoto didn’t get a new body because he never grew up. He never stopped being the boy Jonathan spirited away.

And onto the main point I am flabbergasted with: Those who are morally disappointed by volume 3. There has been some uproar about Jonathan being a child prostitute—And yes, I agree that did not need to be shown whatsoever. Easily it could have been shown through dialogue, and not through an entire page and large spread of Jonathan naked. (Or you know, not been written in the first place.) Also to establish my stance on cannibalism! if both are consenting adults (In FICTION!) I don’t care if they’re eating each other.

But what everyone is forgetting is Makoto is a literal high-schooler. Who might I add, easily could have been written as a university student. So much Yaoi is this way, I literally rejoice and scream when I find Yaoi with actual adults with any body hair on them whatsoever.

Story wise, it makes sense. Makoto had an immature view of love, and was at an age where he was wedged between his morality and fetish. Him being a teenager explains his feelings of isolation, as he still lived with his parents so could not hide his deviancy, instead being lectured often. To boot, he had an immature view of love, and was wedged between his morality and fetish ideologies. It’s why he was so desperate for connection, and why Jonathan easily was able to form him into a desired result.

But my point is, if your going to be applaud at that aspect of the story—How about you remember the age of the protagonist first? The title literally translates into ''guts demon high-school boy'' Like???

If you’ve gotten to the end of this (And aren’t to miffed at my look warm takes) WHY DON’T YOU JOIN MY DISCOR- COUGH, hacks cough* Yeah I’ve got a Ryo Suzuri dedicated server, join if ud like but don’t if you want lol. Contact me at RancidBark#4430

Kavetham constellation brainrot

we, collectively, don't talk about Kaveh and Alhaitham's constellations enough.

Looking at Alhaitham's first, Vultur Volans was the roman term for the constellation Aquila (the eagle). But why are we referencing its symbolism as a vulture instead of an eagle? That feels deliberate even though everyone assumes Alhaitham's meant to be an eagle. I contend that it's meant to be three things, an eagle, a vulture, and a falcon (just like the interpretations of the real constellation.) The eagle is obviously the well-trodden path of the divine symbol of Zeus/Jupiter. But what we kind of ignore is that the eagle was said to hold onto Zeus's lightning bolts, y'know his method of smiting people. Vultures and falcons have similarly death-related divinity. In an ancient desert environment, vultures are very useful as scavengers for getting rid of bodies to prevent the spread of disease and the general unpleasantness of rotting flesh. Falcons are very clearly associated with Egyptian gods, but particularly Horus, who was famously born/created from the dismembered body parts of his father. Interesting.

Now let's look at Kaveh. Paradisaeidae refers to birds of paradise, which are a real kind of bird, but the name is based on a kind of bird from Persian myth called the Huma bird. These things are wild. They're supposedly always flying and never lands on the ground. Some myths depict them like phoenixes, burning up every few hundred years to be reborn from the ashes. It's supposed to bring good fortune to people it flies over or who touch it. In some traditions it cannot be caught alive and whoever kills it will die within 40 days. It overall symbolizes unreachable highness and divinity. Obviously, it's a fake bird, but it's theorized that it's based on bearded vultures (meaning if we interpret it as a real bird that's gained divine properties, it would've probably done so via literally starving itself out of an unwillingness to bring or benefit from harming another creature).

They're the same kind of bird, fundamentally, but associated with opposing kinds of divinity. One brings destruction and the other brings fortune. One is self-sustaining, comfortable as the right hand of the true divine, but it is outcast due to its nature to survive using tragedy that befalls other creatures. The other cannot ever come down to be a normal bird, it sacrifices itself on an altar of being able to continue to bring joy to people it will never be close to. Change, decay, and cold rationality vs burning compassion and altruism and perfection. The burning bird can never be a meal for the vulture, as its death means only ash, and it is thus the only kind of misfortune of another creature the vulture can truly understand and care about. The Huma can never understand why the eagle is content as a messenger for the gods, why the vulture feels no guilt for the death it scavenges, why the falcon is content with a normal life when it was born with the potential for unimaginable greatness. The eagle, vulture, and falcon cannot understand the Huma's lack of pride or its willingness to damage itself for the sake of humans who would catch and kill it in their ignorance.

Also relevant is the fact that Deshret is clearly meant to be an analog of Horus or Ra. Both are associated with falcons and the sun, and their eyes are both significant in mythology (Deshret is symbolized by an eye in a sun in the lore). Nabu Malikata also has a massive pattern of sacrifice and she famously made a daughter-bird that was destined to die in the cataclysm.

There's a lot to unpack here but by god someone's gotta do it. The reincarnation, entangled souls, two sides of a coin vibes are SO STRONG with them. They're soulmates and the constellations only reinforce this when you pull back the hood on them. AAAAAA

game of thrones (book) starters

❝ a mind needs books like it needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. ❞ ❝ a lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep. ❞ ❝ nothing burns like the cold. ❞ ❝ i've angered you. that was never my intent. ❞ ❝ do the dead frighten you? ❞ ❝ the day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. ❞ ❝ did i offend you? my pardons...but you are scum. ❞ ❝ folly and desperation are offtimes hard to tell apart. ❞ ❝ you must put your dreams aside. they will only break your heart. ❞ ❝ a man in your place should count himself fortunate that his head is still on his shoulders. ❞ ❝ every hurt is a lesson, and every lesson makes you better. ❞ ❝ life is not a song. someday you will learn that, to your sorrow. ❞ ❝ once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use that against you. ❞ ❝ the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. ❞ ❝ make no mistake. i fought for you, but i do not love you. ❞ ❝ some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. ❞ ❝ fear cuts deeper than swords. ❞ ❝ if i look back i am lost. ❞ ❝ your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem. ❞ ❝ i cannot think of anyone whose company i desire less than yours. ❞ ❝ sleep is the great healer. ❞ ❝ when you play a game of thrones, you win or you die. ❞ ❝ most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it. ❞ ❝ the things we love destroy us every time. remember that. ❞ ❝ death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities. ❞ ❝ what, lost your taste of adventure? ❞ ❝ i have seen dead men with more humor than you. ❞ ❝ there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on. ❞ ❝ what good is it to wear a crown? the gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike. ❞ ❝ the gods have fashioned us for love. that is our great glory, and our great tragedy. ❞ ❝ i have a tender spot in my heart for broken things. ❞ ❝ laughter is poison to fear. ❞ ❝ love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. ❞ ❝ we need men of your courage. ❞ ❝ my crimes and sins are beyond counting. ❞ ❝ perhaps i was wrong to distrust you. ❞ ❝ do you always find murder so amusing? ❞ ❝ i will not soften the truth for you. if you lose, there is no hope for any of us. ❞ ❝ every flight begins with a fall. ❞ ❝ oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know of fear? ❞ ❝ the man who fears losing has already lost. ❞ ❝ the things i do for love. ❞ ❝ all the grief has been burned out of me. ❞ ❝ i make no threats. that was a promise. ❞ ❝ spare me your empty little compliments. ❞ ❝ i will not forget the help you gave me. ❞ ❝ let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. ❞ ❝ a lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot. ❞ ❝ you wear your honor like a suit of armor...you think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down. ❞ ❝ a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. ❞ ❝ you look well, but...tired. ❞ ❝ love is sweet, but it cannot change a man’s nature. ❞ ❝ if you tell anyone, i’ll kill you. ❞ ❝ minds are like swords. the old ones go to rust. ❞ ❝ there’s something wrong here. can’t you feel it? listen to the darkness. ❞ ❝ everything’s better with some wine in the belly. ❞ ❝ grief can derange even the most strongest and most disciplined of minds. ❞ ❝ in life, the monsters win. ❞ ❝ damn it. you might at least humor me with a smile. ❞ ❝ why is it when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side? ❞ ❝ if you must hate, hate those who truly do us harm. ❞ ❝ tell me again what you saw. all the details. leave nothing out. ❞ ❝ what do you think might’ve killed these men? ❞ ❝ you are too hard on yourself. you always were. ❞ ❝ such eloquence. i never suspected you had it in you. ❞ ❝ if i need instruction, i will ask for it. ❞ ❝ if there are enemies in this wood, a fire is the last thing we want. ❞ ❝ what is it? you’re shaking. ❞ ❝ i am out of wine and out of patience. ❞ ❝ i am pleased to see there are still men of sense in this city. ❞ ❝ i do not mean to frighten you, but neither will i lie to you. ❞ ❝ we have come to a dangerous place. we have enemies who mean us ill will. ❞ ❝ you have the wildness in you. ❞ ❝ i can only stomach so much ineptitude in any one day. ❞ ❝ what you are is weak. ❞ ❝ why, that almost sounds like praise. ❞ ❝ none of us wants trouble, but i fear these are troubed times. ❞ ❝ keep out of matters that don’t concern you. ❞ ❝ i trust you as i would my own blood. ❞ ❝ just where do you think you are going? ❞ ❝ give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and i’ll sleep more soundly at night. ❞ ❝ i am in no mood for your insolence today. ❞ ❝ you weren’t supposed to be here. no one was supposed to be here. ❞ ❝ you are shaking. do i frighten you so much? ❞ ❝ there is small honor in tricks. ❞ ❝ we who presume to rule must do vile things for the good of the realm. ❞ ❝ should war come again, how many soldiers will die? how many towns will burn? ❞ ❝ it is one thing to be clever and another to be wise. ❞ ❝ even in a place like this, one never knows who may be watching. ❞ ❝ forgive me. i am tired. ❞ ❝ if friends can turn to enemies, enemies can become friends. ❞ ❝ all alone, are you? ❞ ❝ we are about justice here, and what you seek is vengeance. ❞ ❝ i promise you, no harm will come to you. ❞ ❝ you will dishonor yourself forever if you do this. ❞ ❝ we all need to be mocked from time from time, lest we start to take ourselves too seriously. ❞ ❝ open the door. we need to talk. ❞ ❝ come share my fire, the night is cold. ❞ ❝ make certain i never look on your face again, or i swear, i’ll have your head on a spike. ❞ ❝ you dare give commands to me? to me? ❞ ❝ we all need to be mocked from time from time, lest we start to take ourselves too seriously. ❞ ❝ you do not love me and you do not want me here. ❞ ❝ nothing was harmed save my dignity. ❞ ❝ be strong. the gods are cruel. ❞ ❝ have you no shred of honor? ❞ ❝ something’s wrong. something’s very wrong. ❞ ❝ i want to be by myself for a while. ❞ ❝ do you take me for a servant? ❞ ❝ i never asked for this. ❞ ❝ i did warn you not to trust me. ❞ ❝ duty, honor, friendship, what’s that to you? ❞ ❝ i hope you are not thinking of doing anything stupid. ❞ ❝ save your pity for yourself. i want none of it. ❞ ❝ i think i will try to sleep. wake me if we’re about to die. ❞ ❝ never show them you’re afraid. ❞ ❝ i am doing the right thing, so why do i feel so bad? ❞ ❝ you must not do this. don’t die on me. ❞ ❝ it is not for you to tell me what i cannot do. ❞ ❝ it stinks. the stick of death. ❞ ❝ you are as fair as ever, a welcome sight in troubled times. ❞ ❝ there’s someone out there, isn’t there? ❞ ❝ can’t say i’ll be sad to see the back of this place. ❞ ❝ travel by night and hole up by day, avoid the road while we can, make no noise and light no fires. ❞ ❝ mercy is never a mistake. ❞ ❝ i don’t wish to hurt you, but i will if i have to. ❞ ❝ i swear it, you will have your vengeance. ❞ ❝ i bow to serve you, to obey you, to die for you if need be. ❞ ❝ a man who fights for coin is loyal only to his purse. ❞ ❝ we have won a battle, not a war. ❞ ❝ do i look like a liar too? ❞ ❝ more than once, i have dreamed of giving up the crown. ❞ ❝ distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve done. ❞ ❝ poison is a coward’s weapon. ❞ ❝ how many times must i tell you to hold your tongue? ❞ ❝ you have done all i could have asked of you, and a hundred times more. ❞ ❝ i have made more mistakes than you can possibly imagine, but that was not one of them. ❞ ❝ sometimes the gods are merciful. ❞ ❝ go ahead, call me all the names you want. ❞ ❝ not now. you have no time for grief. ❞

thoughts about the devil in fiction

I think the amount of stories that feature or even focus on a deeply sympathetic or tragic Lucifer Morningstar who is not so much evil as misunderstood, or someone who broke the rules before anyone understood rules could be broken, are an interesting take on our innate need to believe that literally anyone can be redeemed, or at least have some capacity for desiring or wishing for redemption even if they can never, ever earn it.

The tragedy of Lucifer isn't that he was the first of the damned, but that he simply has no other future, no hint of potential to have existence be anything but what it already is.

His tragedy never results in any significant change to heaven in a positive direction. Usually these stories involve the idea of rebellion designed to take heaven down or make it more similar to hell. Rebellion based on being jealous of humanity's ability to make their own choices, or being so proud of himself that he believed his power could rival God.

Lucifer remains trapped within a prison of his own pride and belief that he knows best, or maybe the story involves him learning that his pride was misplaced, but even so the punishment is never truly lifted. It cannot be. It's eternal.

There's also an element, I think, of many people seeing the unfairly demonized - how impossible it can seem to fight against seemingly arbitrary rules - and sort of painting that in larger strokes using the Devil as a canvas. The first of creation to look at the way things were and wonder why they could not be different than this.

How many of us grow up thinking we will change things on a grand scale, fight against the powers that made us, and instead find ourselves simply struggling to maintain hope in a world we aren't allowed to affect? Who find ourselves stomped down when we stand up, or told our ideas are impossible? Told that we're just jealous of those who have more than we have, or that we're too full of ourselves thinking we could make a difference?

It's a really interesting relatability that we have created out of a handful of mentions in a very old book, similar mythologies from other religions, and sheer imagination.

Even in Dante's Hell, written in the 17th century, Lucifer is tragic, damned by pride and envy of God to reign in Hell but ultimately declaring he would rather rule the worst of creation than serve the best.

Is it the best, though?

What is humanity with all its potential for both bad and good removed?

Is the goodness of humanity worth much if it can't be contrasted with the worst? Does good exist without evil, or is it functionally meaningless at that point? Does Lucifer rule over the way that humanity can define what is good, rather than serve a good that has no evil with which to compare itself?

One of my favorite takes has always been those stories that have Lucifer's damnation be focused on seeing the worst of humanity coalesced, over and over and over again, and never allowed to see goodness in Creation. That his tragedy is that he isn't allowed to see how we can use the free will and knowledge of good and evil to do good, he can only see the way it's been twisted to darkness. Which suggests that he has been blinded to goodness purposefully.

The story of the serpent tempting Eve is always performed or written as the serpent slyly, knowingly tricking her by saying, "Surely you will not die," with a wink and a nudge. But there's another take in which the serpent - often written to be the same as Lucifer/Satan and explicitly stated to be the same entity in Christianity, although Genesis doesn't actually make that connection, it's just a snake who can talk and ask questions Eve and Adam hadn't thought of yet - was genuinely of the belief that humanity wouldn't come to same ruin he had, since they were so clearly and obviously being given a different set of potential than the angels.

In that reading, "Surely you will not die," is said with outright, honest confusion as to why they would think so.

After all, this creation was two people in a garden being given endless paradise. But there was something about the potential of their existence they had yet to touch... the ability to make choices that were truly their own.

His rage, his unending fury and pain, is because he believed once in his hubris that if humans can be given the capacity to choose, so could an angel. But then he realized that it didn't matter... even his rebellion was choreographed. It was just lines written on a page, enter the Morningstar, stage left, give his lines, be thrown into the pit.

If the plan was written from the start by a power he could never begin to equal, that means it was a script whose lines he read thinking those thoughts were his own.

Lucifer's tragedy is that even his pride and his envy, his fall, wasn't actually his.

His rage and his suffering is just one more step in a plan larger than he could ever be.

And he had no idea until it was done.

Punished for playing his part so well in a play he had no hand in writing and no idea was even an act, given the unending absence of the basic foundation of angelic existence afterward, forced to witness the worst of the favored creation given everything he ever wanted only to squander it...

Isn't that a tragedy unlike any other?

So those stories that feature Lucifer or even demons in general who are sympathetic and tragic because they are fighting against a constructed universe that they can barely touch or affect and who are suffering an absence, a chasm inside of them that was once filled with artificially created joy that was removed as arbitrarily as it was made...

You can see why those stories resonate over centuries, take new forms, and are an endless fascination for those of us here.

so I have an idea what if Haytham Kenway is a yandere because of his desire of no longer wanting to lose things precious to him that started after being left by Ziio and goes full on platonic yandere for Ratohnhaké:tön,  when he learns he is his and Ziio’s son and we could also add adewale to the mix of someone he doesn’t want to lose because he is the only living connection left of his father

I feel like we would need a catalyst for this because if he was already a yandere before he met Kaniehtí:io then it wouldn’t make sense that he’ll let Kaniehtí:io go.

So in this case, the catalyst would be the aftermath of saving Jennifer. Not only did he lose one of the few people he actually trusted, Jim Holden. During the funeral, Jennifer hammered in the final coffin and told Haytham that they shouldn’t be stay close and that they were much too broken to become a family once more.

As well as…

“You became one of them, Haytham. The very people who ordered our father’s death and destroyed our family. No matter what kind of man you are underneath that cape of yours, you still choose to remain part of their Order. I cannot…” Jennifer stared at her younger brother…

No.

At the Grand Master of the Templar Order.

“I care for you as my brother but… I also wish I could strangle you…” She placed her hands on Haytham’s neck, “To snuff out the rot of the Kenway name.”

Haytham stayed still, lips curving into a small mirthless smile, as he asked, “Am I truly the rotten one, Jenny?”

“We both are, Haytham.” Jennifer said with a sad smile void of any hope. She dropped her hands and turned away as she said, “Our blood has rot beyond any hope of salvation. Stained by the corruption of the Order and the festering corpse of the Brotherhood.”

“If we truly wish to protect this world…” Jennifer began to walk away as she said, “We would let our blood end with us.”

.

And the tragedy of it is that Haytham actually believed that Jennifer was right.

The Kenway family was filled with tragedy. Even the happiness he must have had as a child felt like a dying dream.

But, at the same time, he also wanted his life to mean something.

His loyalty to the Order wasn’t because of Birch, it was because he truly did believe in the Order’s ideology.

And he would keep pushing forward…

Until it was time for him to die.

.

Shay was a tool that needed to be guided to be used effectively.

Or perhaps Haytham was simply pushing such thoughts to keep himself from remembering how the villages refused to let him come even near the forest. He had not seen Ziio at all, could not even ask any of the villagers to deliver his message or to give Ziio the letter he had penned.

Shay was a distraction…

The Colonial Brotherhood was a distraction.

But then…

Adéwalé stayed with them and protected them to the best of his ability.

How cruel his words had been.

“He would be ashamed to see what you have become.”

Yes.

His father would be ashamed of who he had become… probably.

But his father was dead.

And…

Adéwalé was a part of his father that was still alive.

It was hard to keep him alive. Adéwalé fought knowing it could be his last. Stubborness formed from desperation that left no other choice but to take him down until he was an inch away from death.

Shay had thought he had truly killed Adéwalé.

Haytham let him think that but he kept Adéwalé alive.

Charles didn’t say anything. He was foolishly loyal like that.

And so…

Once Adéwalé was stable, he had him shipped to Jennifer in London.

Jennifer would know what Haytham wanted even if he did not give her any letters at all.

.

The Colonial Brotherhood was destroyed.

And time marches on.

Haytham still tried.

He tried for so long.

Yet the village remained close to him.

So many times, Haytham had wanted to destroy the village just so it would open its gates.

But Ziio would not want that.

Then again…

Ziio didn’t want to see him at all.

She must hate him.

But Haytham was fine with that.

He was used to being hated.

All he wanted…

… was to have Ziio with him once more.

To hold her in his arms and to protect her.

If she hated him so much, he will build the most beautiful cage for her.

There she will be safe and protected.

And…

That’s when he saw him.

The boy with Achilles.

He looked…

He looked too similar to him to be a coincidence.

Too similar to Ziio.

It had to be…

Why.

Why wouldn’t Ziio tell him?

Why would Ziio hide him?

Stop.

There was no reason to be agitated.

There was no reason to lose all sense of calm.

“Charles.”

“Yes, Master Kenway?”

“Capture the child next to Achilles Davenport.” Haytham ordered without looking at their direction. Charles followed him and pretended not to see them, listening as Haytham continued.

“Alive and unharmed. Do I make myself clear, Charles?”

“Of course, Master Kenway.”

I am not a woman, but I have always been one.

I am an invisible impossibility. A thing so unthinkable even my own people mock and revile what I’ve become. I am expected to degrade myself in kind, to make a joke of my own existence.

A man? How very… disappointing.

Transness is not a choice until you’re the beast that becomes a man. It is a celebration in our community until it’s cause for condolences for such an unimaginable decision - you’re a man now? I’m sorry. That’s unfortunate.

But I am not a man like them. I will never be like a man who was born to it.

Because I was born with an imagined god’s brutal laws grafted to my body. To the rest of society, the uterus I inherited from my sex already belonged to some ephemeral man out in the world, a man whose name would devour mine as his child would devour my body.

I was born to appease the eyes of cisgender, heterosexual men - and when I failed to do so, I became their villain.

I have always been a villain of some sort. Perhaps that is why it seems so comforting to me.

It is a hollow comfort.

There is no privilege in this transition. There is little joy. It is a terribly lonely thing, becoming a monster in the eyes of even your own community.

But I wasn’t, and I’m not. The terrible tragedy of it all is I wanted to be a man like the ones in stories and legends, a man like the heroes from the books I devoured as a child; but then I grew up and realized that the reality of those stories is far grimmer and men in my reality were far fouler and it seems so inconceivable to me that I should ever want to become what has almost destroyed me.

And that’s the catch, isn’t it? I never could be. There is an assumption within the trans community that trans men gain the ever-sought male privilege upon transitioning - and perhaps if you live stealth and pass, you can experience some aspects of it.

But as soon as we reveal ourselves - or, god forbid, live out loud as trans men who don’t pass - that privilege goes away. Male privilege cannot truly belong to those who have suffered so viscerally beneath it; those who have been born with its expectations and claiming brand on the surface of an unwanted womb.

I have experienced very little triumph in this transition.

We are not the victorious trans people that get written into shows and movies. We are the oddities who do not yet fill out the suits we so desperately want to wear. We are the fascinations on magazine covers, ever reduced to the fact of the uterus living still inside us.

I am so tired of being invisible, of being ignored until I’m being forgiven for my “choice” to become what has tried to kill me. I am tired of the degradation, of the appeasement through silence. I am tired of being made into a joke.

My masculinity - my manhood - is not a tragedy.

I refuse to behave like it is.

I refuse to be made silent by my own people.

I am not something for you to grieve. I am not the gentle thing the cisgender world wanted me to be, nor am I the quiet disappointment of my own kin.

I am a rebellion against all that was put upon me before I was named by my mother.

I am not a woman, but I have always been one.

I am Judas.

I miss precrisis Bruce... like what the fuck happened to him at today's era and why he is characterize as an abusive asshole?

this is an interesting question because i don't actually think he is consistently characterized as an abusive asshole, especially not in the last couple of years. it happens, of course, and it brings in a lot of attention specifically because it's controversial– like gotham war, or king's iteration, or lobdell's whump– but there are plenty of writers who are quite persistent in their propagation of bruce as a loving & caring characters – this is for example what zdarsky was so liked for before the current event (the famous "lollipop scene"), what tynion was set on during his run, and what williamson seems to want to achieve in batman and robin (or at least this is my impression from what i've seen, as i haven't read it yet). and it's not like there were not similar attempts to bring in some of pre-crisis-esque personality back.

the reason for which pre-crisis bruce is pre-crisis bruce is not just his personality; it's not that he is strangely modest for the circumstances or sweet to people around him as a rule or even gregarious by default. it's because he is portrayed in a very human, ordinary way. and the reason for which he is human is his civilian life and the civilian cast. we get to see bruce as a friend, as a lover, as a socialite, and as a father because his civilian persona is actually real. pre-crisis bruce does not have a social life just to gather "intel." it's not an undercover "brucie" mission. it is his life. and it's nowhere as grand as what contemporary comics make it to be, btw (@roobylavender has recently written a great post about how bruce's fame became more and more exaggerated).

but post-crisis, things around bruce change in many ways, and gotham is nowhere as cosy when it comes to the portrayal of its communities. bruce is also not really a father anymore (and in my opinion he never truly is one again at all). and in place of the vigilante lifestyle that was much slower, emergencies that were usually much more local, we have a major crisis after a major crisis. this is nowhere compatible with who bruce used to be.

in other words, pre-crisis bruce simply cannot exist in post-crisis; because the world is wider, because he's barely a civilian anymore, because the part of him that is a civilian is also just another mask. and part of it is just bad writing that i do not appreciate. but, i am not gonna lie, i do believe some of it also makes sense.

personally, i would not like to see bruce coming back to his pre-crisis personality all of a sudden, because it's horror material rather than a retcon that could be achieved seamlessly. and i think this is one of the reasons why batman of the last couple of years fails to bring back these qualities even though at times it seems they want to. the editorial wants bruce to be an ordinary man again but they also cannot compromise and by necessity keep all the edge and grandiose of the current era. they also fail to understand that it does not matter if bruce is not a 1% anymore if he still has no real civilian cast around. and finally, after all the tragedies, it would be disturbing to see bruce unchanged. so all i ask is just acknowledgment that he used to be different. i always talk about it but dc retconning their timelines to preserve the same characterisation is one of their biggest mistakes. let the characters be dynamic. let there be development, for better or worse.

sorry, this got away from me! i do miss pre-crisis bruce. i do. but i don't think he's coming back, nevermind bruce being asshole or not (and he also was not always an angel pre-crisis. obv. he could be an asshole too if he felt like it.)

So I'm re-reading the series, trying to look at characters and plots in different ways and look for symbolism. I am doubtful of Dany, not full anti rn but wary. Do you think she could do good? Or is she doomed, always planned to be a dark/villain that used to be a naive child?

Dany was always meant to be a villain in the end.

This is in no way diminished by the fact that she started out as a helpless victim in a horrific situation. These circumstances inform her arc, they are part of what sets her on this path. But being a victim is not a qualification for goodness, it does not make people stronger or better. Suffering makes us weaker and worse. It is kindness and compassion that make us strong and that help us grow and heal.

Dany barely got any of that in her life. The things she does directly relate to that, to the poisonous way she was raised. She is a tragedy.

We are not meant to hate her. (I strongly dislike her, but that's my personal taste.) She is a figure to be pitied, even as we slowly discover her to be a monster shedding its veneer.

She wants to be happy, she wants to be a force of good. But she has no real concept of what that actually is because she was raised to view herself as inherently separate from other human beings, as a superior Targaryen catergory of her own, and being raised on the run with only Viserys her brother-king, she never had a chance to understand what connection and community actually are. But we need these things to properly function, they are the basis of survival, peace and justice.

Dany could hear the singing of the red priests as they lit their night fires and the shouts of ragged children playing games beyond the walls of the estate. For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo's manse. (AGOT, Daenerys I)

It is tragic when she believes her actions to be good and helpful, when they are often at least partly horrific, and she cannot see past her intentions and her own point of view. She is blind to her own hypocrisy. And it keeps getting worse instead of better because her inevitable failures meet "if I look back I am lost". Once she starts to truly question herself, she slips into an existential crisis that she quickly shuts down. The blood of the dragon does not weep. Her self-worth is too tied up in her dragon identity and the goal of reconquest - inevitable war, inevitable destruction, inevitable recreations of her past failures. She cannot let go of that goal, so she can never be free, and she can never be good.

Regarding Utena, I wouldn't use the phrase "sleeping with each other" when most of the sex is outright abuse.

For example, Utena and Anthy are 14 years old, and cannot consent to having sex with Akio, so saying they're just "sleeping with" him frames the issue as if it was consensual and an active choice on their part.

Ah I wasn't just talking about Utena and Anthy. Akio also slept with Kanae (and Touga... I think) Shiori slept with Touga. Touga actually slept with everyone in school. Our main three sibling groups in the show, Akio & Anthy, Touga & Nanami, Kozue & Miki were all incestuous. So that statement was just an overall. Pretty much every relationship in this anime is heavily messed up in some way

Forgive me, I haven't watched Utena in a very long while, so there are some things I totally forgot about, but from my memory, the love square was insane. Utena started dating(?????) Akio, and then found out he was sleeping with Anthy, and then the two of them seem to passive-aggressively fight over him briefly?? This show is absolutely beautiful and started off with a somewhat clear story. A tomboyish girl named Utena joins a strange magical fight club at school for the hand of Anthy. Anthy is maybe under some kind of spell to serve whoever she is betrothed to. Utena doesn't seem to get it, and really only wants to fight for Anthy's freedom and happiness. After living together, the two become good friends and maybe even start to fall in love. Utena loses at one point and falls into a depression, dressing up like a girl again, doubtful and insecure about herself, only to make a comeback. There's a mysterious prince who descends from the heavens to grant her power through the sword she pulls from Anthy's heart. That castle could be real magic, from another realm, or just from her imagination from the prince who saved her as a child- (sike!!! its a projection in the sky?????? guess what, everything is fake!! ??? ....except for the swords pulled out of peoples hearts. Those are real, somehow.)

But yeah once Akio is introduced the show quickly devolves from "Magical LGBTQ+ highschool girl challenges gender roles and relationship norms, saving a princess in the process and falls in love with her," to backtracking, incest, sex, sexual abuse, weird comic relief, manipulations, illusions where everything isn't real yet at the same time it is, shirtless men, driving cars, dead people, etc. The bitter-sweet confusing ending where Anthy is finally free but at the expense of Utena, who in the end realized she could never be a prince, apologizing in despair at her failure, pierced with thousands of swords in Anthy's place...

It still has an interesting aspect parallel of Anthy, a princess, sacrificing herself for a prince who in the end becomes a corrupt shadow of himself. Vs. Utena, a princess acting as a prince, sacrifices herself for the princess who was a shadow of herself to free her. The fact that the thing that saved her all those years ago was her want to save Anthy was really poetic.

Like there's a lot of metaphors to be found here, really beautiful, surreal amazing ones, but in my head I can only see it as a horrific confusing tragedy. But the cliffhanger is like "Utena is out there somewhere in another universe! I'm gonna go travel to find her : ) " how and why did that happen and where on earth did she go-

(I don't know how to associate the movie with the anime because those feel like two completely different universes and probably are.) The show mid to 3 quarters of the way went absolutely bonkers. I feel like it kinda lost sight of where it was trying to go for a while. The ending was truly beautiful, but it was so odd due to prior inconsistencies in the story. You couldn't tell what was actually real or not, or how things came to be or why. And things that happened before, like all the sexual abuse is never addressed or brought up again. And it acts like the ending is happy, like there's hope for Utena and Anthy, but it just feels like nothing was really resolved. Anthy leaves the school, which, you know, good for her, her freedom was the point of the anime, it was what Utena was working towards her whole life, even if she didn't remember. But I don't know if she was well and truly saved if Utena was now in her place. Feels like they're just gonna go in a loop. Doomed by the narrative when the narrative itself doesn't really acknowledge that. I just got a "Don't try to be something you're not because you'll succeed but at your own demise" kind of moral from it, which felt like a loss rather than a win when it came to the gender role commentary.

Spooky season fairytales (3)

We saw how the myth of the witch was reinvented with "Hansel and Gretel". Our look at "Snow White" led us to vampires. To complete our triad of Halloween monsters, we just need a werewolf - and you know exactly which fairytale will come next in my "Spooky season" series.

It is no surprise that "Little Red Riding Hood" gave plenty of material to horror-movie makers and creators of dark fantasy. It is after all one of the darkest fairytales of France (because yes, fairytale historians have traced back the story's roots to France, before it was passed on by French immigrants eastward to Germanic countries). And when it comes to movies about Little Red Riding Hood, there is ONE movie that must be talked about...

"The Company of Wolves".

Who among fairytale fans hasn't heard of this brilliant, wonderful, poetic movie? It is one of those movies that truly manage to create a dark and haunting fairytale that FEELS fairytale-like. The plot is simple. It is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, in a "soft fairytale world" (things seem pretty normal, but there and there you have weird details, such as fur scarfs coming to life or eggs hatching jewels), and with a werewolf as the "big bad wolf". Or rather, the plot SEEMS simple - because this whole movie is framed as the dream of a modern-day girl, allowing for the story to unfold using dream logic and a heavy use of symbolism (perfect for a fairytale adaptation). Because this movie also explores the underlying motifs present in the original tale of sexuality, and the sexual maturation or blossoming of a young girl - this is due to the movie's original inspiration being the dark and feminists short stories of Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber". And because in the bigger Little Red Riding Hood tale, the movie intertwines folkloric European legends of werewolves, in all their disturbing glory.

This movie is truly great, and I cannot recommend it enough. It manages to be everything at once: a poetic dream, a magical fairytale, a disturbing horror piece, a sad tragedy... And it allies with greatness the creepy werewolf folklore of Europe with the fae charm of fairytales. Plus this 80s American fantasy movies goodness. And Angela friggin' Lansbury plays the grandmother! What else do you want? Even outside of a simple "Little Red Riding Hood" adaptation, this movie is one of the great "dark fairytale fantasies" of cinema.

This movie also calls for another piece, that is frequently put side by side with it (for... thematic reasons more than shared quality). I am talking of 2011's "Red Riding Hood".

I am placing this movie here not because I want to praise it, but just because... Well it exists, and I must make a mention of it.

This movie is not... not good. It's not bad, not good. It is definitively not the best Red Riding Hood movie, and if you want to see a werewolf Little Red Riding Hood movie, go watch "The Company of Wolves", it is the best and will never be overshadowed. But this piece... It is conventional and expected. It takes all the plot directions expected with a "dark fantasy mature take" on Little Red Riding Hood - nothing surprising or inventive. It is a "village plagued by werewolf" story, mixed with a "wolf hunt" making it a dark fantasy "whoddunit" which is not even trying its best to engage the viewer in the mystery, making everybody a superficial candidate... And it is also a very conventional "girl stuck between two boys" romance-teenage-triangle.

It has everything that is needed to explore Little Red Riding Hood, and everything that was well-done in "The Company of Wolves"... But it is all treated in a very flat and superficial way, making it a sort of "empty" piece. Little Red Riding Hood, the original tale, is meant to be a tale about desire and female sexuality and seduction, and so making the main character a young girl stuck in an impossible romance outside of the "straight path" of marriage is an interesting take... But it goes nowhere. Here and there you have this little sparks of interesting ideas or clever concepts - the pig-and-sheep masquerade at the celebrations, the silver fingernails of the werewolf hunter, the werewolf speaking telepathically to the character of Red Riding Hood (Valerie)... But they're just little crumbs in a big bland soup.

And there's also the problem of this movie taking itself too seriously and not having any self-awareness - making it so, personally, I couldn't take it seriously in the beginning. If you watch it,you'll see what I mean - by taking itself too seriously during specific moments, or playing too straight some passages, the movie makes itself ridiculous. Overall, not a great movie AT ALL, and to watch only if you enjoy your bland, neutral, average "dark romance in the middle of werewolf hunts" piece. But it exists, so it must appear somewhere.

After this stale piece, let's move on to...

Freeway, the 1996 movie

You'll frequently see it pop up in the lists of "dark fairytale movies" and "horror Little Red Riding Hood" adaptations - though to call this a "fairytale movie" is not a good description. As the tagline of the movie says, "Her life's no fairytale".

"Freeway" is an attempt at completely deconstructing the "Little Red Riding Hood" story by removing all form of magic or wonder from it, only leaving a disturbing, bleak, though still excentric and extravagant story. It is a dark comedy constantly oscillating between a violent and crude slapstick comedy, and a realistic horror movie. Featuring stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland (and with music by Danny Elfman, no less!), this little cult movie is still the story of a girl wearing a red piece of clothing going to see her grandmother's house and encountering on the way a predator... Except the little girl in red is here a semi-illiterate teenage delinquant with anger issues in a red leather jacket... She is on the run from child services after her prostitute of a mother and her junkie of a stepfather got arrested... The "huntsman" is a pair of inefficient, though well-meaning, cops... And the wolf is a sociopathic, necrophiliac, serial killer.

This makes it all sound as if the movie was a dreary full horror piece - but it is actually not. The main character is a very excentric, fiery, fierce, though not that bright, girl who constantly fights backs with sass everything and everyone, there is a dark and morbid humor all throughout the movie balancing very sad and uncomfortable moments, many of the characters are disturbingly realistic caricatures or stereotypes pushed to cartoonish levels, and overall it all feels more like a very violent and grand-guignolesque crime piece/road trip.

I want to mention another movie while talking about "Freeway" - the 2000s movie known as "Hard Candy". You will often find this movie on lists of Red Riding Hood adaptations - DO NOT GET FOOLED! "Hard Candy" is not a Little Red Riding Hood adaptation. It is a very bleak, very hard to watch, very creepy horror movie about mental and physical torture, and exploring the various aspects of human perversion, in a confined setting with a limited cast of characters - and yes, it does invoke a "Red Riding Hood" imagery... but just in the opening and advertising, and the movie has nothing to do with the fairytale. You can watch it if you want, but be ready, because it is one of those movies that mess up your stomach and your soul, and it is not for the faint of heart, as it is a VERY very bleak piece.

"Freeway" is also bleak, but in a more campy way (yes, you can have "campy bleak") typical of dark comedies. And "Freeway", unlike "Hard Candy", is an ACTUAL Little Red Riding Hood adaptation. Not only does it base its story and characters on the fairytale, making sure to have the key-moments of the original plot, and the character archetypes explored (the big bad wolf becoming a serial killer predator) or deconstructed (Little Red Riding Hood is still a dumb girl hunted by the wolf, but she fights back and is ready to kick ass and is used to the most vile sides of humanity), but it also fully embraces one part of the Little Red Riding Hood heritage. The cartoon adaptations of the first half of the 20th century - those little short cartoons that heavily explored the fairytale in a caricatural way, especially sexual (like the very famous Tex Avery short). Not only are there direct references to those cartoons in the movie, it also fully embraces the entire ambiance. The "slapstick" and "cartoonish" feels of this movie come right from there. Yes, they removed all the magic and wonders to have a sordid realistic tale, yes this is a borderline true crime story about a serial killer, and an ineffective police system, and what it is like growing up in poverty, drugs and prostitution... But it embraces the feel of the classic Looney Tunes/Tex Avery cartoon world, with extravagant caricatural characters, and an abundance of senseless unexpected violence that doesn't even feel real sometimes. And by making all that, the movie reinstills a form of "magic" in the tale - but this "cartoon" magic which is able to make disturbing moments about a human-looking monster trying to kill you look ridiculous and almost laughable as if it was some sort of clown performance.

Overall this movie is a really bizarre little piece that reflects a very specific type of cartoonishly-comedic-but-still-bleak-and-morbid small movies that tend to frequently pop up in the USA. You know the ones, these pieces that are about disturbed subjects or tragic characters, but are still made in such bizarre and unexpected ways they almost verge on surreal comedy - like Lynch's Wild at Heart (which itself was a "fairytale" take somehow, since it is technically speaking a Wizard of Oz movie) or the Harmony Korine movies.

And to close off this post, a special mention to a classic movie of the Halloween season...

Trick 'r Treat, THE Halloween horror movie by Michael Dougherty (the man who later was behind THE new classic Christmas horror movie, "Krampus")

Trick 'r Treat was Dougherty's attempt at creating an iconic "mascot" for Halloween, in the person of Sam, the little creepy-costumed child/demon enforcing the rules of the old Celtic holiday... This dark, fun, morbid, perfectly Halloween-y movie, developed out of previous animated short-films, is actually an anthology piece collecting a handful of various stories... And the reason this movie appears on this list is because of the segment "Surprise Party", which is heavily referencing "Little Red Riding Hood". An unsecure young woman is invited by her outgoing friends at an Halloween party in the woods, and she picks up a Little Red Riding Hood costume, but as she is making her way throughout the city in a full Halloween parade, she realizes a strange man is following her... There is a twist, so I won't reveal much (beyond the fact it all implies vampires and werewolves stories), but the important thing is how the twist is delivered, and how the segment ends. A scene wich has marked the cinematic lore of the creature it depicts, and which has also influenced a LOT of people on the Internet during the end of the 2000s (for example, boosting up the "Sweet Dreams" cover of Marilyn Manson)

It is interesting, and often painful, to hear of what high hopes our ancestors had for us at the beginning of the third millennium. They expected that we should grow in our wealth and our power as a species; and we have. They hoped that we would venture out into space; and we have. They dreamed of what cunning things we might invent, what new arts and sciences we might devise, and many of those things we have invented, and devised. But in all their speculation there lay also a dream of more, that perhaps we might solve the most vexing troubles, that only a few centuries off lay a world without war, without poverty of any kind, without fear or sin or death. That though there may be no paradise beyond this world, perhaps one day we could create one here.

This is, perhaps, the sharpest tragedy of our existence: that we have scoured the globe, and sent our ships out to search among the stars, and there are no utopias to be found. Oh, we have tried to build our own--the little Horais and Cockaignes and Zions of a thousand hopeful dreamers--but they have foundered sooner or later, for the simple reason that all things really in the world are subject to division and change. The current age of exploration and technology has brought with it a new breed of utopian, one whose spirit I cannot help but admire. They are willing to build not just new towns but new worlds, to brave hundreds or thousands of light years, to hazard generations living in what be marginal environments, for the chance to realize their visions. Yet I cannot think of one that has not failed, in most or all of the things it set out to do. We behold, often, a vision before us that seems so vivid, so immanent, that it must necessarily be real; and yet when we go to capture it, in words or in pigment or on a new world, it disappears.

The failures of these utopian colonies is usually quite civilized--there are no deaths, no revolts, no disasters. It simply evolves away from what its founders intended, all the careful tinkering of its architects, and all the resolute will of its governors, unable to stem forces which were unaccounted for in the original designs, or changing circumstances which could never have been forseen. Many of humanity's most notable colony worlds began as such utopias: Teegarden's World was founded by socialists seeking to create a truly stateless communist society; Proxima b was originally settled by techno-utopian transhumanists, who dreamed of a teeming Hive beneath the barren rock; Luyten Anchorage was built by Sufi mystics, who wanted a world apart for the contemplation of God. These facts are simple historical curiosities now.

More spectacular failures have occurred--the civil war among the schismatic sects of Kepler-62f, for instance, or the notorious mass cannibalism incident in the commune at Umbriel Station--but typically the failure of a utopia is more subtle. It is not just a failure of politics, a failure of planning, a failure of systems. It is the slippery mismatch of souls which are at variance against the universe, souls which necessarily suffer and strive and dream, but must dwell in a cosmos where not all their suffering can have purpose, where some striving must be in vain, where to be able to imagine a thing is not necessarily for it to be possible to build. I do not advise wholly against utopian dreaming. The instinct that a better way of doing things, even a better world, is possible, must be possible, is a perennial source of renewal and growth, the fierce goad of salvation. But perfection is a process, and not a state. And the perfectibility of mankind is a process that acts on two different problems: the hurts of the world around us, and the hurts of the world within. Many, many utopians have struggled with the latter in vain, mistaking them for the former; and many complacent in their own happy position have supposed all utopians are fools, because they make the same mistake in reverse.

I have been asked often what my utopian world would be like, if I could build one. The short answer is that I would not attempt it. Were I brave or foolish enough to try such a thing, I am afraid the answer is quite boring, and not much in keeping with the spirit of the question. I am only a little schooled in philosophy, and a dabbler in political economy. After all my long years of life, I feel often I understand the world less than ever; if I have gained any wisdom, it is principally a wisdom of my own faults and failures. Were all things possible, I should banish disease and want and death, I think, as most would. But I cannot say how. And beyond that all that comes to mind is that I should like to have tree-lined streets, and the sound of lively conversation from a little way off. And the knowledge that not far away, the friends I lost long ago were waiting and eager to see me; and always would be, and I need never be long parted from them again.

(Excerpt from Tjungdiawan’s Historical Reader, 3rd edition)

Actually, I'm going to brain blast at you now. When playing saint's campaign I went to get the echo in Moon's zone, and she refused to speak to me before I got it. She wasn't asleep like other creatures in echo zones. She said, "You feel it too, don't you, strange one?" Implying that she knew there was an echo above her. And. MAN. She knows there's an echo above her. Does she know what it is? What it used to be? And if she does, she must feel unimaginably bitter about it. All that work and strife, and they didn't even ascend properly? The echo itself even seems to reflect disappointment at Moon's state- even ascended, nothing pleases her creators. It also implies that iterators are cognizant enough to see and collect echoes in their robot form, which, again, MAN. Suppose they could find a way to travel around and get karma the way scugs do? There's something insanely poetic about toiling and toiling away in a locked room over the problem, when the solution is literally a quick walk down the hall.

The echo dialogue is EXTREMELY interesting actually!! Especially when it's implied Moon doesn't know if echoes are real in earlier campaigns!

Moon calls them horror stories. Now this could mean two things in my opinion.

She always knew and forgot with the collapse. Later with the added energy to her structure she can actually recall.

She either recently met one or overheard it or just has been made aware they exist in some form of way.

I'd rather lean to the latter just because we know she's capable of recalling things through pearls. Just like she remembered a lot about about SOS by giving her the essay. It's just limited how much. If she remembers the concept of echoes and the horror stories though, she would have remembered... if they're real or not.

We don't for CERTAIN know what she means by "feel it too", but I'd say she knows its an echo.

I don't think she'd be necessarily bitter towards the echo, because it didn't manage to ascend. She's always had the concept or vague knowledge about the myth that not all ancients manage. It's what she means by the ancients "taking a gamble" and leaving. The void fluid has always been considered a risky alternative way to ascension. Moon knows not all of them get to!

Now if she heard the dialogue... of the echo itself.. and what is says about her.... sheeeeesh. No uh... now THAT would make her mad if you ask me.

And yes I believe iterators would be able to see echoes! Though I don't know how... iterator karma really works?

But aside that, the whole tragedy of those robots is that they are stuck. They can't live without their massive cans and facilities, because that is them. They can't move they can't do anything about their situation and they cannot even seek a way to end their life to escape. They truly are stuck. The puppet is a really small part of an iterator and I don't think it can survive without the rest.

Not for long at least!