Tampa Brick Pavers Patio With a roof extension, a medium-sized transitional backyard brick patio photo

Blog Post #4 : Review of David Fincher's "Se7en"

Upon watching the film “Se7en” directed by David Fincher, my initial reaction was that it was for sure one of the more memorable movies I have watched in my lifetime. I have come to find out that I am not the only one who feels that way as well. I have talked to friends and a few family members that have seen the film as well about it, and they all seemed to have also enjoyed their experience with David Fincher's “Se7en”. From what I remember, all claimed to have loved the suspenseful moments that kept them on their toes throughout the movie as events unfolded. I've noticed movies that always leave an impact are movies that are shocking, unpredictable, and the ones that offer plenty of suspense. The film Se7en meets all those standards. It was definitely my favorite out of the ones provided and allowed for this assignment. Hence why I chose to write about this one.

The film is about a serial killer who is going on a pattern that follows the seven deadly sins. The killer is going from seven different people, killing them in ways that reflect on those sins. Actors Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, in the film known as Detective Summserset and Detective David Mills, act as the detectives that are after him. At first sight, I would understand if a viewer felt that the film was overly violent, or relied on gore to provide that shock factor. But the truth is, in my opinion, it is one of those movies that offers such a suspenseful story that you forget a filmmaker had to set it all up and create it, and that people were working on lighting, and that were really just watching actors give performances. That is what anyone would want out of a film if you're going to invest hours of time into viewing it. The feeling of realism, like your present in the moments unfolding. The film just has this dark, frightening, evil vibe to it. I don’t remember there ever being a setting revealed for the movie, even after research I wasn't able to come to a conclusion, which to me adds more of a mystique as well. Its just this place that is riddled with crime and murder. It seems like no resident of this place likes where they are. There's even an opening scene where Detective Summerset, or Morgan Freeman, is asking Detective David Mills, Brad Pitt, why he wanted to be assigned there. (2:10 - 3:25). Throughout most of the film, Morgan Freeman's character Detective Summerset is looking forward to his retirement because he just can’t seem to wait to get out of this said area. This area represents to me depression and hell on Earth. (24:40 - 25:10) is a good scene that helps put this eerie vibe on display. It just shows the depression that this city feels, as it is dark and rainy during this scene.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “WHAT THREAT” I JUST FINISHED CWC WHY CANT I SAY “YES I KNOW ALL ABOUT IT I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE DAEDRIC THREAT IS, AND WHO IT IS”

i should probably play the daggerfall covenant questline so i can find out what exactly made darien special 

My Dragonborn, Tenara Aedaire, A former Thalmor who is now known for her pretty fucking ruthless rebellion against them

Class: Spellsword of a sort, only uses magic and summons swords. Beyond that, uses Mainly destruction and Alteration with restoration as as distant 3rd.

Age: 207 

Race: Altmer. There were rumors that she had human blood in her because of her Black hair but she’s 100% altmer

Personality: She was once upon a time a complete straight edge with only a little bit of a strange and buried sense of humor. That was at least 50 years ago now. 

Nowadays she’s far more outwardly goofy and cares little for others opinions about her (though to be fair It was never that much of a concern for her).

Though outwardly extremely friendly,outgoing and helpful she allows very few people to be truly close to her. She will usually push any who try to get close to her away and it takes a very certain kind of person to break through (i.e stubbornly kind). 

She is always happy to learn experience new things and will go out of her way to see the sights wherever she is. Tenara is creative and constantly keeps a sketch journal of sorts, keeping notes on everywhere she’s been and everything she’s seen.

She is rather debaucherous as well, those new experiences aren’t always just new food or to see the sights, She will happily try out any drug or alcohol. She is also very flirtatious and will happily have one night stands or short flings with just about anyone anywhere she goes. She tends to leave a string of broken hearts, albeit unintentionally.

Even she can get annoyed by how over the top heroic she can be. She’s someone getting robbed and she goes “Oh shit” gets off her horse and trudges over to help them. 

 Backstory:She grew up in the Summserset isles and was only about 5 years old during the oblivion crisis. It was of course a scarring time for her as the part of the isles she lived in was hit harder then the rest. She watched her father get burned alive by a flame atronach and was almost burned herself only escaping because her mother was able to save her just in time. She has ever since had a fairly reasonable phobia of both Daedra and Fire. 

She was never close to her mother before the crisis and any chance they had of a normal relationship was dashed when her father died. Tenara would spend most of her Childhood and adolescence trying to impress her mother. (spoiler: didn’t work)

Not long after she discovered her own talent for magic, though she absolutely refused to touch any conjuration magic, she had quite a talent for destruction (specifically shock spells) and Alteration. Eventually when she was older she started to reluctantly use summoned weapons. 

She was in her early 20’s when the Thalmor we know today, the Xenophobic ones that dispise all the “lesser” races of Nirn and would destroy Mundus as we know it if given the chance, started taking Summerset by storm. Her mother encouraged her to join and unfortunately Tenara listened. She didn’t really want to, if she had her own say she’d have run off and joined the house of reveries. But her mother was Insistent and she was young. 

 She rose quickly through the ranks and ended up never doing much field work and rarely leaving the isles, taking a more behind the scenes position there. (To this day she refuses to say how important she was but more than a few of the really important members do seem to recognize her)

Everything was for a long while perfect. Her mother respected her, though if she was honest with herself She knew it was mostly that she liked having a child at such a high rank in society rather than any kind of maternal affection. She ended up falling in love, with scandalously enough a member of the lower class and they had a little girl of their own. It all fell into place rather nicely for her. 

Things of course went wrong rather stupendously, as just because she was able to push her empathy down and ignore it doesn’t mean her husband was able to. He spoke out against the Thalmor’s awful treatment of….anyone that wasn’t an altmer really and it was tolerated thanks to his wife’s status. And when Tenara agreed and started to advocate for more fair treatment of the other races. That was when it became an issue. Tenara was competent, well liked, and pretty well respected. They didn’t want to lose her, but they didn’t want her to change anything. 

So when her husband disappeared the message given to her was clear. She was to follow their rules. Not to try and change them,or else her daughter would end up alone. Her daughter was only 10 at the time.

So years go by. Her daughter,Ciriwen, grew distant but at least it wasn’t out of spite (yet) just the result of the usual teenage angst, a dose of trauma from her father apparently abandoning them, and her mother working so much and simply not being around. Ciriwen turned to her books and was very interested in history, with the 2nd era being her favorite and on the occasions she was left unsupervised (or snuck away) she would sneak off to explore the nearby ruins. (Tenara knew she was running off, but she was certain no one else did and Ciriwen never went anywhere to dangerous so she let her have the small rebellions). She was also was frequently allowed a look at far rarer history books and first hand accounts thanks to her mother’s high position. 

As Ciriwen dived deeper into the ruins and into ancient history she was…distrubed. The history in the more modern books was wildly different than the first hand accounts and older history books she found. The story of Queen Ayrenn and the first dominion in the 2nd era had been twisted in horrible way. The more she dug the worst it got and the clearer it was that the Thalmor had been trying to rewrite the past.

She went even deeper and started to sneak into her mother’s records (as well as other Thalmor’s records whenever she got the chance) and found out even more. Of the goals of the Thalmor, of what they’d been doing. And she was horrified. The discoveries went on for years. It accumulated when she found out the truth of what happened to her father, that he had been killed for only slightly speaking out against them. 

She was 20 she just couldn’t take it anymore. She left. Leaving a hastily scrawled note explaining at least some of why she left. She went to travel Tamriel and to stop these people wherever she could. 

Tenara went into a panic and for weeks tore apart every file she could find to make sure that her daughter hasn’t disappeared in the same way her husband did. Eventually she came to the hard truth that her daughter had just left. Still preferable to being dead however.

She started going through her daughters notes and books and ended up on a similar journey with similar realizations. Even Tenara hadn’t known how much history had been changed. She thought it had just been a few simple smaller things that put current politician in a better light and the past would probably come forward again after they passed but what she found was a total rewrite. Completely rewritten speeches and manifestos and histories all the way back to.

When Tenara finally read through the end of the extensive note it was months later, and it had finally hit her how irredeemably evil the organization she had been working for for almost 100 years was. She knew it was bad but not like this. Not to mention how evil the things she was doing for them was. And reading through her daughters notes she also read her journal entires. Her shock and horror at discovering it all, including the truth behind her fathers death. It finally put Tenara into action.

A week later she took off after her daughter. At 130 years old she had finally left the Summerset Isles for good.  She would spend the Next 75 years or so wandering Tamriel looking for Ciriwen, always either just missing her or hearing a rumor that she was halfway across the continent. Tenara also did her part in fighting against her former comrades. And her eyes opened more and more to the atrocities the Thalmor had committed, some of which she had ordered or suggested and what it truly meant and was leading to. 

She never forgave herself, and very likely never will. She will and will continue to do everything in her power to fix what she’s done and what she can’t fix, she will stop from happening again. 

Eventually she figures that at this point, her daughter MUST know Tenara is looking for her, and at this point must be avoiding her. To a point Tenara accepts this and truthfully she never expected her daughter to forgive her, at least not fully she just wanted the chance to apologize. To maybe work together to fix what shes done. But she also realizes at this point, It’s not likely to happen.

She hears a rumor that Ciriwen is up in skyrim, she doesn’t really question it. With the Civil war the Thalmor had increased their numbers there that sounds exactly like the kind of place Ciriwen would be.

Tenara tries to follow but gets caught up at the border and ends up tied up on a cart ride to Helgan. 

PLEASE BE VALENWOOD OR SUMMSERSET ISLES