#which i could never add into the stories (in order to give a specific depth to the story)
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I've been trying to write for some time. Usually I focus on one for the time being and gradually I lose interest and move on to another one until I lose interest again and and move back to the other, which is probably why I hadn't really noticed it until now.
The problem, that I have gradually started to notice, is that I plan and plan and plan but bearly ever get to the stage of writing and when I write there are suddenly small details that I need to research and those small details tend to blow-up into another day full of no writing. I want to write, but my brain just refuses to corporate with me. I can't just not research the things, because then I get hung up on that and don't get another word on the page until I do look it up, but I also can't look it up because then I get hung up on finding out more than I need on the topic and, again, don't find my way back to the draft.
So what I am asking is, how do you concentrate on writing? How do you stay focused on the task and not drift into needing to look something up? Even if you do need to look it up how do you get back to writing, so that your attention doesn't get eaten alive by the next Wikipedia article?
The three ways I go about this might or might not help you, so I hope other writers will add on in the notes with other options. Mine are:
don't write things that need me to do research
ask someone who already knows / is willing to do the research for me
accept the fact that I'm not going to be accurate
I don't prioritize world building, so I don't mind having a mistake here or there. The kinds of stories that I write don't rely on historical details or engineering know-how or a specific understanding of geopolitical intrigue. Any time I do need to write that stuff, I throw in some hand-wave-y phrases here or there and keep going. No one is reading my fics expecting an in-depth description of mating habits of swallows.
In cases where I'm trying to remain canon compliant, I'll ask friends of mine who are more familiar with canon or have better memories for those kinds of details. I could spend 2 hours rewatching a movie, or I could just ping my friend and ask for the detail or the order of events, and she'll tell me in 2 minutes.
I've never been a writer who feels the need to know the precise cost of carrots in 1930s Brooklyn or the name of a haberdashery popular in 1880s London. So let's see if those detail-oriented fact-finders can give you some guidance that you might find more helpful.
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I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH THE KUNG FU PANDA SERIES, I'M GRABBING IT BY THE THROAT AND DRAGGING IT TO THE DEPTHS
JUST COME'RE, COME'RE FOR A MINUTE AND EXPLAIN TO ME
WHAT. THE FUCK. IS THIS?
This has GOTTA be another Macaque disguise in order to mess with Wukong's image cause I refuse to believe that THIS is Wukong.
Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with adaptions made of our beloved monkey gremlin, a lot of them are super cool and well made! But there is a difference between an adaption and then just full on disgracing the source material BECAUSE HOW CAN ONE FUCK UP THIS BADLY ON SUCH A WELL KNOWN AND BELOVED CHARACTER? OKAY SIT DOWN FOR CLASS TIME AND LET ME STATE MY CASE.
First of all the looks, why is only one eye red and gold? I'm sorry but if I remember correctly Wukong wasn't half way in the furnace. My second gripe is with the monkey species they chose for him. Listen, Wukong is supposed to be the representation and embodiment of a monkey, he isn't supposed to be a specific species of monkey in the first place as he is not only his own species of monkey but he is supposed to represent all the monkey species. So making him into a specific species of monkey doesn't work all that well in the first place, but out of all the species they could've picked why the species that looks like a reverse oompa loompa?
AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HIS POWERS
Okay okay, get this, not only did they heavily nerf him, but they also made it so all his power comes from THE GOLDEN CIRCLET. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT THEY MADE THE TRAUMA RING AROUND HIS HEAD INTO A CROWN THAT GIVES HIM POWERS AND THAT HE WANTS TO GET THE CROWN BACK.
The crown is most known for being the equivalent of a shock collar for him, how do you mess that one up THAT BAD?
And we haven't even touched on his backstory yet oh no no no no. Sit down as you are gonna LOVE this one folks
Apparently Wukong was great friends with the gods in heaven until he was framed for something he didn't do and was imprisoned, not in the mountains by the Buddha, but was imprisoned in the red jade mines for it. Not only that but he basically poisoned Po and his trainees as he could only get out if he replaced himself in the mines with another and keep them there until like sunset. First of all Wukong would never do that in the first place sure he was impulsive and reckless but he wasn't bad for the sake of being bad, he was just a bit of a trouble maker that needed proper guidance. NOT ONLY THAT BUT PO'S TRAINEES WHO ARE LITERALLY KIDS BEAT HIM. LIKE- HELLO? LITERAL KIDS BEAT SUN WUKONG? THE MOST OP CHARACTER IN KNOWN HISTORY?
Apparently the ldb was the one behind things and Wukong needed to stop her which we saw that be done much better in Lego Monkie Kid (amazing show I HIGHLY recommend watching that instead of this). And Wukong redeemed himself and became besties with the gods again.
OH OH AND TO ADD MORE SALT TO THE WOUND? MONKEY'S BROTHER IN KFP IS NAMED "WU KONG", THE SAME BROTHER WHO CAUSED THEIR OWN MOM TO DIE DUE TO HIS OWN SELFISHNESS.
LIKE BRO WTF DO THEY HAVE AGAINST WUKONG? WHY ALL THE BEEF AGAINST SUCH A BELOVED AND AMAZING CHARACTER AND MAKING HIM OUT TO BE A HORRIBLE AND PATHETIC GUY WHEN HE ISN'T?
Kung Fu Panda is beloved by China for it's good representation and understanding of it's culture, so how the franchise could let one of the most well known characters in Chinese mythology and stories get slanderized THIS BADLY by one of their spin off series is beyond me.
I know this has just been me ranting about how a recurring character in a series was characterized in a spin off series kid show people hardly know about but like- for some reason I was just absolutely flabbergasted by this characterization of Wukong as a whole in a franchise that's known for doing plenty of good research on chinese culture, mythology, belief and stories. My only hope is that this was Macaque disguised as a fake Wukong the whole time just pulling a funny prank.
#come on people#we can do better than this#kfp#kung fu panda#kfp po#sun wukong#jttw wukong#jttw sun wukong#journey to the west#jttw#jttw monkey king#monkey king#lmk#lego monkie kid#lmk sun wukong#lmk wukong#lego monkie kid sun wukong#lmk monkey king#lego monkie kid monkey king#lego sun wukong#lego wukong#lego monkey king#lego#macaque#six eared macaque#lmk macaque#lego monkie kid macaque#jttw macaque#jttw six eared macaque#lmk six eared macaque
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Hey! I think youre an amazing writer and i really look up to you. Ive been reading your works since reylo, you inspired me to write my own reylo stuff. I think youre wonderful and could read your works over and over again. I was just wondering if I could ask you advice. I'm trying to get into writing second person pov fanfic, but I'm terrible at it. I can write it from third person or first person no problem. I was wondering if you had any tips.
oh thank you, i really appreciate that!!! and im so glad you're giving writing a shot!! honestly it's so tough to actually make the decision to sit down and write something and then show it to other people (and it's very scary and kind of humbling as you get better and better and look back at your old work haha) so that's so awesome!!
i actually wrote so much beneath this so i needed the "read more" lmaooo
actually, i'll tell you what, when you first transition from writing 1st or 3rd person to writing in 2nd person, it feels weird and abnormal, but i've actually grown to love 2nd pov. i just love the way it sounds in my head when i'm constructing a sentence. and tbh there's actually not a huge difference from writing 1st and 2nd pov in my opinion.
like my general thoughts around 2nd pov are:
obviously since it's an internal dialogue (like the perspective is rooted in the person you're writing from rather than some omniscient 3rd pov), while you can still describe what's happening on the main character's face ("you purse your lips" "you frown, annoyed" etc), it's still coming from their perspective, so there's a level of depth there that other characters around them don't have. like Price in my western fic is a bit more mysterious on account of him not being a narrator figure in the story.
if you're using 2nd pov because you're writing an x reader fic, and you want to keep your reader character quite neutral, ensure that you're avoiding big descriptors like skin colour, hair texture/length, body size (unless you're specifically writing a fat reader or a reader with a specific body type, in which case, go wild!), height, etc. your reader character is never going to be 100% neutral, but just pay attention to any descriptors you add and you can make sure they're as neutral as can be.
this is probably obvious, but you don't have to start every sentence with "you did x" or "you said y" or whatever. you can still be loose and flexible with your sentences like you might be in a 3rd person narration. like, i'll take apart a paragraph from my fic and highlight where i've added the "you/your" pov:
The worry making your body tense and stiff finally releases once you’re alone. You curl up on the bed without pulling down the sheets or taking your dress off. The journey's left you weak, sapped of energy. Worn down to your base elements. Hardly unexpected after what you’ve gone through, after leaving behind a cooling body two states away. The days since have left you sick with worry, nerves shot when you consider how the authorities will look to you first, the maid, and find in your absence all the answers they need.
notice that i only started one sentence with "you" here. i think some people mistake using 2nd pov for thinking that the entire story/fic has to be a direct narration of what the character is doing (i.e. "you walk to the end of the hall and then you sit down. you notice a silver bullet on the table near you. you pick it up.") but that's not the case.
the narration is coming from this character, yes, but it's also still a story. this is hard to describe, but there's almost a weird, unconscious 3rd pov in the story at the same time, like you're looking down at this narrator and you're speaking through them, but you still have some externality. in order to tell an evocative, interesting story, you HAVE to know and notice at least a bit more than your narrator consciously does.
this kind of mirrors real life in a way actually because your brain picks up a lot of information that you as a person don't consciously absorb. it's why humans are able to have quick reflexes and dodge/duck things or whatever without realizing what they're doing. (look up "unconscious perception"). you can do this with 1st pov as well, but 1st pov is very useful for stream of consciousness stories or really getting into a character's head. 2nd pov is still governed by that narrator character, but it's picking up on other details and information in the surrounding environment.
anyway i hope this is in any way helpful haha - it's how i like to think of writing in 2nd pov!
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Decoding Voltron’s Rosetta Stone
Paladins, I think it is time we had a discussion
For some time, I’ve had this theory about VLD floating in my mind (it has to do with Lotor’s story arc) and I’ve been itching to write it out. I noticed some recurring themes (I’ll refer to them as leitmotifs) that are sprinkled around strategically, both in the TV show and in the VLD comics, and they always made me think that they mean more than just entertaining, silly subjects for cute kids’ stories.
Disclaimer: this theory I am proposing does not claim to hold the absolute truth and I might be proven otherwise if some day we’ll get the #realVLDS8, but it’s nevertheless fun to explore. It comes out of a place of love for Voltron and its talented creators. It explores the complexity of the scripts, the amazing creativity that lies within them, and touches on what could have been, if these allegorical stories were allowed to fully manifest in S8.
Also, some parts of what I am about to present have been discussed either in the general fandom, or written as metas, and I will quote and attach links to each of the sources. If I might have missed any references, please let me know and I will add them.
Buckle up, as this is not short, but it is FULL of symbol reveals. If you’re not ready to read the full article, bookmark it for later, but don’t skip parts, as they are all related to each other.
—> In the TV series, we are blessed with a few of what you would consider… filler episodes. Think “Monsters and Mana”, “The Depths” (yes, that one with the mermaids), “The Voltron Show” (the one where Coran-the-showman gets a brain worm)”, “The Feud” (the Garfle-Warfle Snick show).
—> The VLD comics are basically fillers in their own right, in that they do not affect the main plot in any way. I’ll briefly go over the symbolism from the main show episodes and then dive into a deep analysis of the comics.
There are several types of leitmotifs floating around in these ‘filler’ parts and they are tied to specific (and symbolic) entities. In no particular order, here are a few that stood out to me:
- the show-runner
- the dragon / monster enemy
- the witch
- the food source for the monster
- the oppressed people of a certain planet / realm / village
- the brain-controlling beings (brain worms, mushrooms, mind-swishing aquatic plants)
- certain colors and color schemes.
(You might wonder by now why I don’t use the word “trope” instead of “leitmotif”, which seems a bit academic and antiquated. Trope also refers to a recurring theme, but, imo, it’s a more recognizable topic, it makes you quickly understand where it comes from and what it hints at, whereas these leitmotifs I’ll be discussing are embedded into the story in a very subtle way. Surely, you can say that the Dragon is a trope for the Big Bad Guys, but peel off that layer and you’re entering into a whole new level of meta. “It’s super meta, it’s like inverse meta” - is something that one of the Voltron Executive Producers mentioned in an interview, referring to certain episodes of S8. I’d say there are many other places where they apply the “super meta”, as I’ll further analyze. Layer upon layer of meta. Especially the dragons and monsters. Just like snakes shed their skin, these dragons will start shedding their scales meta-layers and… reveal to us something else.)
These mysterious repeating themes make me seriously think about the foreshadowing role they play. Because moving around the same idea, so many times, embedded in various story formulas, gives me the impression that someone is trying to say “shhh, watch out, there’s more than meets the eye.”
And to quote Pidge in one of the comics… “Stupid symbolism!!” (in the same scene, she also remarks: “The whole place is a map”). Hmmm… Are these ‘filler episodes’ some sort of actual clues, ‘stupid’ symbols for something that was to be revealed? (but we never fully got, and that’s another story). The irony of the word ‘stupid’ is not lost on me and I’ll circle back at some point to the subject of Socratic irony in VLD, because I think it’s also really important and intimately linked to these subtle leitmotifs.
Before I begin, one more thing I’d like to point out about comics illustration and animation, in general. Almost nothing that is used in the process of animation is random. It is calculated within the resources given: you have a certain amount of airtime and a certain budget, so you have to use them wisely. A full team of story writers, producers, concept artists won’t make a character say something that has little meaning, and pay a team of animators to work for an entire week, just for a useless piece of conversation. Sure, there are parts that are meant just with small roles, of tying together different scenes, for creating a comic moment, etc, but when a character says something that sounds out of the ordinary, do pay attention to that. With that in mind, let’s focus on the following adventures of our Paladins:
MONSTERS AND MANA
So I’ll start with the easiest and most obvious one, because this was discussed and analyzed already: S6E3 “Monsters and Mana”. This is a slam-dunk, as you can probably already imagine.
And since I’m lazy enough to not start talking again about something that has already been dissected in great detail, here’s the most relevant stuff from the Voltron wiki page:
“This entire episode uses the trope of having a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons-like game predict future events in the real world. Key elements include:
The Innkeeper (Dakin) to whom Pidge and Hunk bring their crystal represents Lotor and his use of the trans-reality comet.
The Innkeeper's betrayal foretells that of Lotor, as also his using of the heroes' energy represents his harvesting of Altean's quintessence.
Shiro's dying and being reborn as an identical Paladin foretells the revelation that he himself is one of many clones.
The Innkeeper's transformation from fast-moving sorcerer into Coranic Dragon foreshadows the forming of the Sincline Beast which has a similar appearance complete with tail.
Use of the Blazing Sword foreshadows the reappearance of Voltron's flaming sword, just as its destroying the Coranic Dragon by fire foreshadows Sincline’s being defeated by quintessence overload.”
Adding my own note to the above:
At the end of the episode, Coran tells Shiro: “The game isn’t over yet. Wait until you find out who Dakin was working for. Maybe you’ll finally be able to avenge your master.”
So the game is not over yet, after they destroyed the Coranic Dragon (the Sincline). Just like in the real story, where even after defeating Lotor, they still had one more enemy - Honerva. Wait until you find out who Dakin (Lotor) was working for (i.e. who had power over him/what he was really up to/what were his real intentions, etc).
Something that intrigued me is the fact that the Coranic Dragon monster has a sort of bathelm similar to Honerva’s (including the color scheme). We might not see only a battle with the Sincline, but this might suggest another layer of meta: the final battle with Honerva.
You might think I’m seeing too much in this, but another intriguing part is the flying unicorn that Shiro Gyro rides in the end, which, yeah, has the color scheme of Atlas, a purple horn (uh-oh!), purple hooves (oops) and an orange mustache on its chest. A Coranic unicorn?
THE DEPTHS
Another good example of foreshadowing is S2E2 “The Depths”, which was thoroughly analyzed by @leakinghate, in this article.
To summarize the episode: Lance and Hunk find themselves in the underwater world of a very friendly Queen Mermaid, called Luxia (symbolic for Lotor), who invites them to eat food from the Baku gardens.
After watching some mermaid dances, Hunk and Lance fall into some sort of hypnosis. Lance is later abducted by a secret group of mermaids who claim they have a theory about how Luxia is able to control people’s minds - they think it’s through her voice and eyes and by training her people to use hypnotic dances (which sounds quite credible, since Lance remembers a dancer that apparently caused him to fall under the spell). This secret mermaid group is symbolic of Romelle, Keith and Krolia and their conjectures about Lotor.
We (the watchers) find out that the queen indeed brainwashed mind-swished her people and she is secretly killing some of her subjects by sending them to “take a swim in the gardens.” (parallel to how we find out from Romelle that Lotor has been ‘harvesting innocent Alteans’). Florona is one of the victims, and, as explained in detail in the aforementioned meta, she bears resemblance to Bandor: red-haired and with a similar color scheme of her clothes. Another similarity is between Plaxum (the lead mermaid from the secret group) and Romelle (same color scheme of clothes and also wearing two ponytail-like projections similar to Romelle’s hairstyle).
Ultimately, we find out that the real enemy was not Luxia (Lotor), but a sort of sea dragon (note that it resembles a dragon) that lives in the Baku gardens, using the food as a mind-control weapon to lure people into its gardens to eat them. As Luxia explains in the end, “The Baku has been harvesting us all. We are its food source”. And according to Lance, “the queen was the first one to be mind-controlled.”
Which leads us to the conclusion: are we (the watchers) really seeing the truth through Romelle’s eyes, or are we being deceived? Because it turns out that Plaxum’s theory about Luxia using voice hypnosis was false, which Plaxum actually acknowledges: “Well, I did say they were theories. Mer-science isn’t always about getting the right answer.” So then, it stands to reason that Lotor was not the bad guy after all, as we were lead to think, but there’s something more dark and devious lurking out there - which there was, indeed, it was Honerva and the Dark Entity she was possessed by. Unfortunately, the part where Lotor (Luxia) gets redeemed was blatantly skipped in Lotor’s case. Also, to this day, the Altean Colony is still a mystery (“an empty facility”, according to Kolivan); but we could infer parts of the truth from all these foreshadowings).
—> The really interesting detail in Hate’s meta was the “red herring” theory - which was actually the spark that turned my attention back to the comics.
As quoted from Wikipedia, “A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion.” Florona is… a fish mermaid with red hair. Both Bandor and Florona have red hair… and we, the readers, are led to believe what Bandor has said: “Lotor… the other colony… It’s all a lie.” And, wait, I just remembered. Guess who brings Romelle to Allura’s castle: Keith… the Red Paladin. (OK, I’ll probably get side-eyed for this one, but I’m just saying: what if red herring Keith was wrong about Lotor, and through him, we were all deceived?).
And this is where I started to see more… red in a purple world.
Every time I got to see a red-colored character, I had to question it a little bit and dig deeper. (including Coran - well, his hair is not red-red, it’s more orangey, but you could traditionally call him a red-haired guy if you saw him on the street, right?). And guess what Coran said at the end of “Monsters and Mana”: “I also made it all up, Shiro. That’s the magic of Monsters and Mana.” Well, so Coran acknowledges (to us, the public?) that he’s a bit of a fabricator… “I’m Coran-Coran, the non-truth telling man”, says the little Coranic head popping out of the Whac-a-mole console, in the “Clear Day” episode. And now go back to the flying unicorn and see that it has a red mane.
“The Voltron Show” and “The Feud” don’t really pertain to the subject of this article, except there is a detail that falls into the category of the mind-controlling leitmotif: the brain worm that infects Coran, enslaving him to the will of that tiny creature. Which proves that the writers had a clear inclination towards this dear subject: something small that can take over your mind and incapacitate you, against your will (so far we’ve had the food in the Baku gardens and the brain worm. But there’s more to come.)
Let’s just have a little pause and look back at what I presented so far: the general conclusion I got from all these episodes is that not everything we see at a first glance turns out to be true.
THE COMICS
Alright, now that I discussed the subject of the VLD episodes, I’ll move on to the less evident pieces of the puzzle: the comics. Weeee!!!
Written by show head writers Tim Hedrick and Mitch Iverson, the comics are part of the canon (some bits and pieces from the comics are actually mentioned in certain episodes, like the Yalexian pearl and some other stuff I can’t remember now).
Although the comics seem to be created as entertaining adventure stories with lots of monsters, so that kids can get a little more action kick out of the show, I see more than that. I see leitmotif after leitmotif, singing a long song about foreshadowing.
There are going to be monsters and dragons, princesses, brain-infecting entities (again), witches, food sources, populations that are oppressed by certain monsters, and I think I pretty much enumerated the most important recurrent themes. And red. Lots of red. (I am adding orange to this category, because… you’ll see).
The story plots in the comics do not seem to parallel the main storyline as neatly as they metaphorically did in “Monsters and Mana” or “The Depths”. Nevertheless, the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order. And the big, final conclusions will be the same: nothing is what it seems, watch out for red herrings.
So let’s start with Volume One of the VLD comics.
Spoiler alert: I’ll loosely describe the plot at times, to better understand the succession of events.
The Paladins and Coran head off to some training grounds (I won’t enter into details with alien names and such, unless I’ll find it significant). Coran meets this guy who takes him hostage due to unpaid debt, and in order to free him, the Paladins must bring him the “Yalexian pearl”.
First adventure is on a planet where they find a bug-looking monster - which they assume is the Yalex - and by forming Voltron, they rush to kill it...
… only to find out that the monster was actually protecting the inhabitants of the planet from another monster, called Abomination…
How ironic - what kind of monsters are the Paladins?
This is where it becomes interesting. In order to get protected, the planet dwellers explained that they would feed the Guardian monster a giant bowl of their food and a few of their people. (“sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions” sounds familiar?). But now that the Guardian monster was gone, they were left without protection in the face of the Abomination.
Wait. Time out. So… who exactly did Lotor call an “abomination” in S6? Oh, that’s right, Honerva!
In the main story, Honerva simply walks into an Altean colony of peaceful, naive people, without any opposition, deceiving them into following her plans. So they were basically left unprotected, because their defender (*cough* Lotor-the-bug-monster) was gone. (Also, remember what Romelle said about him: “Lotor is a monster.” Um… a Guardian monster?)
And let’s take a closer look at the Abomination creature from the comic, then look at the rift monster, and Honerva’s mecha:
What did Lotor whisper in Allura’s ear, in her vision from “Clear Day”?… “If you can become one with the Entity…” So, yes, it’s canonically established that “becoming one” with that rift entity is a thing. Not only that, but they also show us that robots can fuse with each other: Honerva’s mech with the Sincline, Atlas with Votron. Honerva/Haggar and the Rift Monster (aka The Dark Entity) are melded into One entity, the Abomination.
The rift entity craves for more Quintessence. It is its food, its life source (it hails from the Quinessence field, right?). “Quintessence is life” whispers a very sick Honerva, before she became Haggar. Both Zarkon and Haggar become obsessed with obtaining more Quintessence, after they fall prey to (become one with) the rift creatures.
How did Voltron defeat the Abomination monster in the comics? By feeding it with some good food that Hunk prepared. It becomes docile if it���s being fed. Food//Quintessence is life. Little unsettling detail: they added the dead Guardian monster to the pot of food.
Wasn’t Honerva ‘eating away’ the life of other beings by dissolving them in her dark magic spells? Remember how she went to Kral Zera and killed all the Galra generals:
(My theory about why Kolivan didn’t find anything at the second Colony - yet with no hard evidence - is that Haggar melted everything and everyone in that purple magic mandala of spells, to gain their power and knowledge. We know from canon she did that also to the old paladins. She also did it to the Sages of Oriande! (she basically cheated her way through the lessons in Altean alchemy). If the Alteans on the second colony had some sort of knowledge or power, she would surely want to gain it. Plus, they're not NAIVE, like the main colony. They know who she is and what she's capable of, as I will later discuss, so they WOULDN'T HAVE FREELY GIVEN HER THEIR SECRETS. She FORCEFULLY took them. If Kolivan said he found an empty facility… that would make sense. She does not… leave traces.)
*********
Back to the comic book analysis: we’re on to a new adventure. They’re still after that Yalexian pearl, but now they have to ask princess Malocoti where they could find it. But the princess is held captive by a dragon… Here comes the dragon metaphor again, and it’s very very red, and orange.
And the princess appears to be trapped inside the castle:
But wait, what do you know? The Paladins figure out that the real princess is not the purple lady in the castle, because she’s actually a witch, casting spells and controlling the red herring dragon.
Look who also controls a certain prince trapped inside a "dragon":
Finally defeating the witch, the red dragon transforms into a beautiful princess Malocoti, who has the same red-orange (vermilion) hair color, with orange and yellow clothes. And she says this: "But somehow, even though I was just an enraged, screaming monster, you could see who I really was, deep down inside."
Mmmmkayyy… So princess Malocoti, while under the witch’s spell, was an “enraged, screaming monster.” Let’s see how the Sincline faired, while under Honerva’s spell... Talk about an enraged monster! (and… about the screaming part… go back to the rift battle from S6)
And Merla actually figured it out, too, because she realized Lotor’s extreme violence was very uncharacteristic to him. She yells at her fellow acolyte to “get out of there, now!” The real Lotor is there, inside that beastly dragon, underneath the layers of spells cast by the Entity/Honerva, and you can see the dark magic glowing in Sincline’s purple eyes.
But wait, you might say:
- That dragon is very vermilion. The Sincline is blue-violet. Colors that are at the opposite sides of the color wheel - the first one is on the hottest side of the spectrum, the other on the coolest (shh, complementary colors)!
- Also, the dragon turns into a lady. The Sincline hosts a guy. Opposites again.
- Well, look closer at the Sincline, around the neckline and elbow lines. And take any picture of Lotor, in his intricately designed suit. Look at the collar. And around his elbows, where the vambraces end. What color do you see? Orange. The kind of orange that sometimes turns vermilion, sometimes looks more yellow, depending on the scene, the lights… Anyway, it’s the color of Malocoti, isn’t it?…
I’m about to make an outrageous statement, haha, but I propose the theory (don’t hate me, I might be wrong) that Lotor’s body garment, underneath the main suit, is actually orange (or red-orange, vermilion, however you want to call it - the complementary color of his purple-and-blue suit). What if that collar is not decorative or some kind of detachable neck band, but it’s actually a hint at what he’s wearing underneath? I mean, the paladins’ suits feature dark gray turtlenecks, and guess what color their body garments are?
Wait, did I just say that Lotor is a vermilion herring? (Grape boi with orange peel omg what…) Haha, well, he did distract us from the ultimate enemy - Honerva. Add to that the fact that Dakin from “Monsters and Mana” is also red-haired. Oh. Boy.
- Also, because in the comic book, Lance couldn’t save a prince from a castle, they had to use the trope of saving the princess (moreover, it was all written with a lot of humor (and irony) at Lance’s pick-up artistry).
Plus, allegories are not supposed to be too evident. Being too literal would spoil it.
Another way you could look at this is that Malocoti’s vermilion is a complementary color to Lotor’s blue-violet color palette, just as Allura and Lotor complement each other. The colors have been flipped, just like the roles were supposed to be flipped in the VLD story: the princess was to save the prince; exactly the opposite of Lance’s dream of saving the princess - both in the comic story and in the TV show (which were treated, by the way, with quite a lot of irony). Again - flipping the story… Did I say that too many times? Here it is, one more time, from Hunk breaking the fourth wall at the audience (S3E3):
As a matter of fact, in the comic story, Pidge is the one who makes the final blow, defeating the witch, while Lance… is just screaming. (Although my suspicion is that (in the unaltered S8) Lance actually played a big role in helping Allura save Lotor - and I won’t go into details because I’d lose myself into a whole new meta.)
The bad news is… we never got to see Lotor’s ‘metamorphosis’ back into a good guy, as foretold in the comic, due to inter-dimensional meddling. At least I know now, from these precious foreshadowing parts, what we should have gotten:
A prince that wanted to save his dear people by dedicating his life to protect them from the Abomination. A prince that fell under the spell of an Entity, later controlled by a Witch. A prince that was (supposed to be) saved by a princess and her Voltron team, restored to his original physical state, and who ultimately helped the Paladins defeat the common enemy (foreshadowed by Malocoti helping Voltron in its next adventure). Also, let’s remember what he tells Allura in her vision: “You and I desire the same thing. We both seek to destroy Haggar.”
*****
The next adventure in this first comic book is an interesting mixture of leitmotifs: it brings us the story of a Sphinx that transforms out of a ziggurat pyramid, testing the Paladins through mind controlling mushroom spores (I told you there’s going to be more mind-swishing stuff), chess games and riddles. This part of the book is evocative of the Oriande pyramid and the trials of the White Lion (Coran calls the Sphinx a “a Lion thingy” - the Sphinx is part lion, according to mythology.)
Sphinxes are mythical creatures regarded as guardians; also, stemming from the Greek myth of Oedipus, we have the story of the Riddle of the Sphinx.
The Sphinx/Pyramid says: “I am a repository for great research.” That’s what Allura and Lotor did at Oriande - they researched ancient Altean alchemy. This time it’s Pidge who has to go through the trials.
Here are the brain-controlling mushrooms.
The resemblance with the Dark Entity is fascinating:
Other than this vague parallel with the Oriande trials, there isn’t much of a resemblance with anything I can think of, that we haven’t already seen in VLD. And that’s because, in my opinion, this part foreshadows something that was completely cut out.
I might be wrong, I’m entering into a speculative area, but I think this might be related to one of the most overlooked parts of the show’s finale, in S8E12, “The Zenith”: the one where the Voltron-Atlas mecha chases Honerva through collapsing realities, while Coran, Slav and Holt (the three scientists) pilot the Oriande pyramid left behind by Honerva, trying to maintain the rift stability. Both are accompanied by footages of Coran’s and Keith’s shocked expressions, as they realize they won’t make it.
From what we see, it’s clear as daylight that both parties find their tragic end, while Honerva continues her journey through realities. She finally finds her son, who rejects her (again). And then, behold, Voltron-Atlas reappears in the skies, coming from, um… out of nowhere. Where exactly did they come from? How did that happen? Why did they waste animation time to have Voltron-Atlas get annihilated, and then miraculously show up again?? They could have saved weeks of animation work by not creating that scene, because it makes zero sense in this context.
Well, it would have made sense if we’d seen what happened to them in the zone beyond realities. After all, there are three scientists piloting a pyramid that used to hold the ancient knowledge of Altea. And there used to be a White Lion, that looked like a Sphinx.
Pidge is the scientist of the Paladins, and the comics put her through three distinct trials:
First is to test her body fitness by fighting against mind-controlled Paladins.
Next is to test her intelligence against herself in a game of chess with her own mind.
Last test is about finding the answer to a riddle: “What can be totally broken apart and yet reform stronger than ever?” - and the answer is not Voltron, it is HOPE.
Perhaps the three scientists also go through some trials.
And looking at the tests, I believe each test is actually fit to hit exactly the Achilles’ heel of the three men:
Coran: never good at body combat. Actually, feeble would be an appropriate word for him.
Holt: smart, but how smart compared to his own offspring, Pidge?
Slav: obsessed with calculating probabilities, but HOPE beats ALL odds.
Well, hope, my friends, is what makes the team of Paladins get up and try to continue their fight. In the actual VLD episode, before they lose to the collapsing reality, Keith gives a moving speech … “we need to get up”… and the message he gives everyone is to keep trying, keep going. That implies they need to have hope.
In the end, the Sphinx is forced to admit that both answers are correct. Voltron was totally broken apart by falling into nothingness, yet the hope of the Paladins will resurrect it (and most likely some extra help from the three science men).
I believe the three men in the Pyramid play a really big role in helping the Paladins survive and continue their chase across realities. Besides, that would be the last time we see Coran and Allura in the same life dimension, before she dies/transcends. He never had a chance to say goodbye to her, like the Paladins did. And he is basically her adoptive father, her custodian. Why would he not deserve a proper goodbye?
And there is a symbolic meaning to it, as well: three scientists, number “three”, a powerful number, as we'll see towards the end of my meta.
Taking a little break from the foreshadowing analysis, I just want to emphasize how awesome this part is in describing the real Pidge, who: keeps a dossier on each of her friends; knows each of their strengths and weaknesses; figures out even how to defeat herself at a chess game. And she genuinely admits: “It’s my nature.” Through Pidge’s dossier, we also get a very nice insight into each Paladin’s character. In a way, this comic issue is the reader’s private research repository for the Voltron show, opening a window into their personalities.
While I don’t see a flow of events in the comics that would mirror the exact succession of episodes in the show, the pieces of repeating themes and stories are there, in a scrambled order. Some of them clearly foreshadow things to come, while others, in my opinion, foreshadow things that were supposed to come, but they were later deleted (remember, this comic book was released in 2016, while the last episode of VLD aired at the end of 2018).
********
The last issue of this book sends us to the most secret place of all, the final destination in their adventure, where they are to recover the Yalexian Pearl…
Grab yourself a drink; we’re about to get into some very, very interesting territories.
They land on a moon… (oh, a moon, how interesting!)
…and they meet a camel-like alien wearing steampunk Burning Man goggles, a gas mask (for harsh desert conditions on a moon with methane atmosphere) and a red skirt-cape; he speaks in pompous, cryptic phrases, which Lance dismisses as “looney-tooney”.
As a High Priest, he brings them to the “temple of the Yalex”, which is a sort of a grain processing facility, where other camel-looking creatures sit around the room, ruminating.
Since I think this contains too much symbolism, I’ll type out the most relevant portion of the dialogue, below. The bolded words are the ones I consider to bear most metaphorical weight:
Camel Priest: “This is the Temple of the Yalex.”
Shiro: “There don’t seem to be enough of you here to grow all this grain.”
Camel Priest: “Oh, we did not do it alone. The rest of our people left the moon and returned to Krell after the growing season [Krell is the main planet - where princess Malocoti and the Sphinx live]. Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.
Keith: “Why are they chewing up the grain and spitting it in those jars?”
Camel Priest: “Here we dry the grain, then masticate it and preserve it in the cuspidors[a cuspidor is a spittoon - a receptacle for spitting into] . When they are full, we carry them to the Eye of the Evershadow and pour them in.
Hunk: “Ewww. Why?”
Camel Priest: “To feed the Spirit of the Moon. To strengthen him.
Lance: “Okay, this guy is looney-tooney.”
Pidge: “Wait! Is that the Pearl?”
Camel Priest: “Yes…”
Pidge: “I knew it! The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”
Camel Priest: “…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”
Pidge: “Aw. Stupid symbolism.”
Lance: “OK, this guy is definitely looney-tooney. Let’s go look for the Yalex.”
Camel Priest: “You do not need to look for it. Can you not see the calendar? The Yalex comes soon.”
Shiro: “Who told you this?”
Keith: “How do you know when it’s coming?”
Camel Priest: “We follow the ways of the Haruspex” [a haruspex in ancient Rome was a person trained in reading the omens from the entrails of sacrificed animals - see more details here] “She tells us of the end times. Come, let us feed the Moon Spirit.”
Shiro: “So, this Yalex, what is it?”
Camel Priest: “None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”
Hunk: “That doesn’t sound good.”
Camel Priest: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”
Lance: “But what about the Pearl?”
Camel Priest: “The Yalex is the Pearl.”
Lance: “It is?”
Camel Priest: “The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time. The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”
Lance: “Looney. Tooney.”
Hunk: “Are you sure the Moon Spirit likes camel spit?”
Shiro: “Your Holiness, we mean no disrespect to your customs, but we have a friend who is going to die unless we can find a Yalexian Pearl, and…”
Rummmble…
Camel Priest: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”
[the Yalex beast hatches out of the shell of the moon, destroying it and blowing everyone into space, as confirmed by Hunk: “I’m alive, but “Okay” got blown up with that moon.”]
The following exposition will probably put me in the looney-tooney category as well, yet I insist on displaying my crazy crack theory to the world. So, here we go.
Some of you might have inferred already. It is indeed time we had a discussion about the second Altean colony.
My theory is that here lies the truth about what exactly the Alteans on the second colony (the moon colony) were doing, and with what purpose.
Overall, this story seems to revolve around the leitmotif of preparing food for the Spirit of the Moon. Food that is made of grains, chewed (ruminated) by camels and spat into collecting cuspidors.
—-> What are camels in our real world? They are special animals in the pseudo-ruminant category (cattle are ruminants - with four-chambered stomachs; camels are pseudo, because they have three-chambered stomachs). Without entering into a million anatomical details about camels (which you can find out quickly by doing a wiki search - it’s actually fascinating, truly!), I can say with much astonishment that camels are a wonder of nature, adapted to the very harsh conditions of the desert, travelers capable of resisting without water for a week; their bodies are designed to avoid overheating through some truly amazing (almost magical) internal adaptations.
Top that information with a bit of symbolism about camels, collected from various cultures. This animal is emblematic for endurance, sacrifice, forbearance, toughness. These resilient guys can tolerate a lot of crap and sacrifice themselves for their masters.
Now let’s go back to the book narrative and what the Camel Priest says about the other people in the Temple: “Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.” Only the High Priests… Devote…
—> Who exactly did Lotor allow to go to the second colony? According to Romelle, they were “viable candidates”, who were given a “series of tests”. “Those who were fit for the journey were loaded onto a cargo ship and taken to the second colony. It was considered the highest honor.” From what we infer from her story, the chosen ones were quite freely and happily choosing to go. Again, citing Romelle, they had an “unquestioning devotion”.
“…devote our remaining days” - here, I sense that it’s implied they’ll die after completing their task - correct me if I’m wrong. I initially thought it might also mean “our remaining days on this moon”, but I don’t think so.
“…to bring about the Yalex.” - to cause the Yalex happen, to create the Yalex - I’ll get back to this one in a bit.
In the comic, the story explains that “the rest of the people”, who are not high priests, returned to Krell.
—> In the Altean story, there were these sentries that Lotor used, mainly as support personnel, and who had access to both colonies. Lotor “travels there all the time”, Romelle tells us. Surely, he travels there with his sentries. Could these be the non-magical guys that return to the mother planet when not needed? They might even travel outside of the Quantum Abyss - most likely they are the ones transporting those mysterious cargoes with pure Quintessence. Across the show, they seem to appear to be some sort of scientists, or even medics, as they pop up in various episodes. @violethowler has a thought-provoking meta regarding the timing of events around the Altean Colony and neatly postulates the role of these medics/sentries:
Alright, moving on to the weird part where the Priest explains what they are doing there… They masticate the grains and mix them with their saliva (ewww), and then they collect the yucky product (some sort of cud) into these spittoons that look like camel humps, carrying them to the Eye of the Evershadow, to feed the Spirit of the Moon. Welcome to a very spitty description of what Altean alchemy looks like - metaphorically speaking, of course. The very product of their bodies (their saliva) is mixed in with the harvest of that season (the dried grains), collected in cuspidors, and then it is used as a food source for the Spirit of the Moon.
Where did we see something similar? In S1E10 (Collection and Extraction), where a Druid stands in front of a giant sphere. A coiled tube passes inside the sphere, and raw (yellow) Quintessence flows inside the tube. The Druid then spews out these flashing purple energies out of their body, mixing their energy with the yellow raw material. The result is collected into a small vat underneath, and it looks like bright purple Quintessence, which is the refined result from the raw material.
We also have a verbal explanation from a very nice robot sentry hacked by Pidge:
“The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe. […] Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements.”
So let’s demystify the puzzle. This is how I see it:
— The dried grains are the raw quintessence (accidentally or not, grains also have a yellow tint).
— The camel spit is the Altean energy - basically a product / a secretion of their body, right?
— The mix of the spit with the grains is the refined Quintessence (light purple glow in the case of the Druidic product, but on the Altean side it would have a light blue glow).
— The refined Quintessence is poured into those cuspidors and then all the vessels are poured into a larger container of some sort, to feed the ‘Spirit of the Moon’ -later hatching out of the moon as Yalex.
As far as I can tell, these High Priest Camels don’t seem to be incapacitated, or chained, or tied up and forced to work, or placed in energy-syphoning pods. It looks like a very liberal environment. Nobody watching them, no one pointing weapons at them.
—> Which brings up a statement that Hunk makes in “Monsters and Mana”: “maybe those villagers liked being turned into stone?“ - and again, remember, in animation they usually don’t waste airtime pointlessly.
Traditionally, the pearl is a symbol of wisdom, especially gained through experience. (A pearl is produced by adding layer upon layer of secretions produced by an oyster - umm… or camel spit, anyone?) And guess what the Priest says: “The Yalex is the Pearl. The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time.”
Ta-daa.
OK, still confused?
—> Let’s take a look at what Lotor tells Allura before their tragic battle in S6: “Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of Quintessence.” “Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande.” Umm… wisdom… knowledge… unlock mysteries… It pretty much looks to me like the Camel Temple is the equivalent of a Research Facility, a secret military operation, where Alteans were giving, willingly, freely, out of devotion to their master, everything they had, to unlock the mysteries of the… Pearl of Wisdom. Which resembles a vat of pure Quintessence, doesn’t it? Same milky opalescent white.
I know this would contradict a previous theory, that the Alteans were not producing pure Quintessence, and that the mysterious vats of pure Quintessence traveling through unmarked ships were actually coming from Voltron (from when the Komar weapon extracted it). I cannot deny or confirm either theory at this point, I’m simply following what I’m finding, as I try to be as unbiased as I can.
In any case, what I am seeing here is not comparable to what Keith, Krolia and Romelle saw. I don’t see Alteans suspended in pods, life being sucked out of them without consent, but I see active people freely giving their energy away. Like the Alteans on Atlas, gathered around the ship’s crystal, in S8E11, or the Alteans and Balmerans gathered on the Balmera asteroids.
And here comes Lance’s first teasing at the apparently incredible scene from inside the Temple: “Looney-tooney.”
In contrast to Lance’s ignorance (which is actually inserted not just to simply show off the comedic side of Lance, and I’ll circle back to that in a minute), Pidge figures out that the Pearl is hanging from the ceiling of the Temple and she also adds: “The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”
Whoops! A map is a guide. It plots, it outlines the directions to a place, a story… Is this little story THE MAP to Voltron’s secret treasures??
Wait, I’m not done.
There’s waaay more looney-tooney stuff to explore, and it will blow your mind. I went into this analysis with a general idea based on little clues I observed, but as I peeled off more and more layers, I discovered really unexpected things.
Notice again how even Pidge becomes disgruntled as she doesn’t understand all the cryptic language and she remarks: “Stupid symbolism!”, while Lance goes on and on about the Priest being batshit crazy.
Well, VLD is notorious for using this kind of technique that tricks the audience into taking the information with a pinch of humor or even dismissing it as unimportant. If we laugh at it, it must be of lesser value, right? Let’s take a look at an example from the TV series, and watch how Lotor’s words are met with derision by Lance and Hunk:
S5E6: Standing in front of the white hole at Oriande, Lotor recites a poem:
Lotor: “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.”
Lance: “Is that, like, a song you’re working on? ‘Cause it sucks.”
Lotor: “It’s a poem by an ancient Altean alchemist. I discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere. I never realized until now that it describes the route to Oriande. We must go into the white hole.”
Hunk [raising his hand, goofy soundtrack in the background]: “Are you guys serious? Are we navigating by cave poetry?”
We found out quite quickly that Lotor was right. And this is not the only place where he was right. Coran was sure Oriande was a fairy tale for kids; Lance agreed with Coran…
I could give countless other examples in the show where characters laugh at, or scorn others, only to be proven wrong later.
From a writers’ perspective, this is called Socratic irony. Quoting The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, a Socratic irony is "Socrates's irritating tendency to praise his hearers while undermining them, or to disparage his own superior abilities while manifesting them." In a very subtle, ironic way, the writers are addressing the audience’s intelligence. They’re using the characters to ridicule a scene, only to later prove otherwise. So… when Lance repeatedly says “looney-tooney” about someone, then rest assured… his intended target is quite the opposite, my friends. And if Pidge says… “stupid symbolism”, awww… how smart that stupid part must be! Not only that, but she actually hands out the word “symbolism” freely, as if to say: ‘Here, take it. This comic book is all symbols. Now get your lazy brain cells moving and decode it.’
Which brings me to the most weird parts of the conversation with the Camel Priest, that really, really sound incomprehensible, at a first glance.
Alright, here comes the heavy stuff. We’re about to get philosophical:
“…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”
“The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”
Gosh, I feel like decrypting a David Lynch movie. Have you guys watched the latest (2017) Twin Peaks? Omg, what a trip.
Let’s start with the easiest ones:
The circle - a simple geometric shape. A pearl, a moon, an eye, they all have circular (spherical) shapes. Duh.
Expand that to the concept of Life and Time. When time goes in circles, well… it means it’s… cyclical. Does that make sense? Never ending, never broken. History repeats itself. Or… multiple realities, where history repeats within its own iteration. Oh man, heavy stuff. Was this show for 7-year old kids?
What else looks like a circle/rosetta and can pierce through time and realities? Is there an eye shape in the middle?
Does the Yalex ⬆️ have similar ‘rosetta wings’? Is there an ‘eye’ in the middle? - the most prized (confirmed by Shiro, in the comic, who figured out that specific part of the riddle). The Pearl of Wisdom? Btw, the eye is also a symbol of wisdom, in various religions.
This… this… is also round-shaped, and has… four spidery legs - and as you’ll see below, this is the key to understanding the whole VLD vocabulary:
“Creator and Destroyer” —> remember Allura’s words to Honerva at the end of the show? “I can change the Quintessence within your vessel. Your son helped me learn how to transform it from a destructive force to a life-giving force.”
“Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner” —> two sides of the same coin: quintessence can be used peacefully, as Alfor (and later Lotor) intended to, providing unlimited clean energy for the Universe; or it can be employed as a violent, horrid form of terror, as demonstrated by Zarkon and Honerva. They annihilated entire planets, executing innocent people. In contrast, Allura redeemed/saved Zarkon and Honerva, also through the power of the Quintessence.
It all depends on who uses it. Hard to believe? Listen carefully to some voices from the show, which send us direct, unfiltered messages:
S6E4:
Shiro: “Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts.The Quintessence field didn’t create them, it revealed them.”
[later on, after Allura and Lotor enter the rift] Allura: “In the hands of the wrong person, this power could easily corrupt.”
Lotor: “Together, we’ll see it never does.”
Aside from Shiro and Allura’s statements, notice that Lotor says “together” (and he says it again, some time later: “Allura, we were meant to be together.” Also, from a previous conversation: “I cannot do this without you.”) When they were apart, they both fell prey to their raging instincts, as demonstrated in the dramatic ending of S6. That is one big reason why I believe, in the end (in the #realS8), Allura and Lotor made the final cut of the show, together. As a standing proof that unity provides power against losing yourself to your worse side. They help and lift each other, rising above the flaws of their parents. It is the central moral of the story. Defeating the evil through unity. That’s the ultimate spirit of Voltron. Unity. Sure, it is about family, as Coran says in his final toast, but above that, it’s about Unity. And… “True unity can only be born of love,” says one of the old paladins to Hunk, while inside Honerva’s mind.
Moving on to more looney-tooneys:
“One is All” —> Again, here comes the idea of Unity. This one’s got a slightly different angle, and I’ve discussed it partially before (scroll up to where I talk about the “becoming one with the Entity.”) The way I see it, the rift monster is One, but it is also a sum of its parts, All the small Entities. I believe this whole string of descriptors (one is all, creator and destroyer, bla-bla) is pointing not only to the properties of Quintessence, but to the Entity as well.
Whew, this last one is a really philosophical concept, intersecting with theology, as well. Again, not for 7-year old boys and dads that want toys. Just for the fun of it, look up “unity” in your preferred search engine and dive into an extremely complex and abstract realm of Greek philosophy, leading up to the most modern interpretations.
How I like to think of it is that once the Entity enters one’s body, a symbiotic relationship is formed.
So then, the question rises: is the Yalex…
- the Quintessence energy
- the Rift Entity
- or a Mecha that can pierce through space and time?
I believe it can be all in the same time.
As confirmed by the Camel High Priest, the Yalex itself is the Pearl (Quintessence), but I propose it is actually more than that. It is the carrier of the Pearl - the Vessel, and together, they become One. You might think Allura said “vessel” just in reference to Honerva’s space-ship. That is one meaning, according to the Oxford Dictionary (“a ship or a large boat”). But vessel also means “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask.” In addition, in religious terms, a vessel is one’s own body.
Here’s a detail from one of the official VLD posters. Notice how Honerva’s acolytes carry… vessels with some sort of offerings, food of some sort. Um… Quintessence in a vessel?
For example, Honerva’s body is the Vessel, the receptacle for the Entity, along with the Quintessence she accumulated (she does accumulate a LOT of it, in the final season - from Oriande, the Alteans, the Balmerans, etc). Her own body then goes inside the mecha, and she almost becomes a robeast, One with the machine. The machine is then, the Vessel. And depending on how she decides to manipulate it, it can be destructive or life-giving. (Allura also let herself be possessed by the Entity, yet she did not turn evil. On the contrary, she became a vector of good.)
Want more proof of this concept? The Yalex itself is a receptacle for the Pearl - refer back to the image of the Yalex hatching out of the moon. The Pearl sits inside the Yalex, nested in the middle of that whole wing-eye contraption.
“Fire in the Dark” —> didn’t we just have Lotor give us a some cave poetry lessons earlier? “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.” I invite you to apply some of your school skills on literary analysis and scoop out some precious, meaningful embers from this one. Note again the repeating theme of “becoming one” with something. Also, the motif of the sphere: Lotor “discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere”. The fire can be both a destructive force and a useful, powerful tool, in the right hands.
King Alfor says, in S8E10: “Allura, please listen to me. Alteans are life-givers. The entity you possess is a dark, ancient evil. It’s not the key to winning this war.” Meeeeep - Wrong!! King Alfor was a great alchemist, but he got some stuff completely wrong, and it’s proven by Allura, in her reply to him:
“I understand your concern. But the entity granted us access to Honerva’s mind. Without it, your spirit would still be cursed.” Yeee, big applause, Allura, you’ve done it! The Entity, under Allura’s alchemic prowess, becomes a tool for good.
I could search for more proof that the Entity can also be good, for example in Allura’s hallucinations, when she hears Lance saying: “It won’t do you any harm. The entity will help you. It will save all of us.” And so on and so forth. It’s all sprinkled throughout the series, and we can scoop it all out, once we know what to look for. Once we learn the vocabulary.
Is this too much? It is a complex show, first of all. This is not the kind of 80’s show where, in each episode, they fight another robot/monster and save the day. The plot is sinuous and full of unexpected. Things mentioned in S3 resurface in S8 (like the Dark Entity), and so on and so forth. That is one reason why, in my view, this show was not for little kids.
I’m still not done with the analysis. Don’t fall under the game table, please, like when Shiro wanted to be a Paladin again!
Let’s talk about the Calendar and the Haruspex.
A calendar speaks of something that is cyclical… There are seasons that repeat, which means this process of producing Quintessence to feed the Yalex is a seasonal activity. The whole ceiling of the temple looks like an ancient celestial map (concentrical circles), or some sort of astrological chart, and the High Priest says: “Can you not see the calendar? […] We follow the ways of the Haruspex.” and then… this thing:
Initially, I didn’t notice it. But then… I saw the the Haruspex. And it looks exactly like… Haggar, holding the sphere of dark energy in her hands. In ancient Rome, the Haruspex was a diviner who interpreted the future based on the entrails of sacrificial animals. A sort of a magical person. Borderline witchcraft. Definitely capital punishment under medieval Inquisition.
If they had a Haruspex, that means they also had… sacrificial animals (camels/Alteans?). That would confirm that some Alteans indeed were martyred.
Maybe there were autopsies performed? By some sort of medics? I might be completely wrong. I’m entering some dark territories here.
Anyways, they definitely “follow the ways of the Haruspex”, which might mean that, in some way or another, whatever they are doing there is being dictated by some instructions from the Haggarspex. What are they doing? Refining Quintessence. Who else is doing that? The Druids in the Empire. And Haggar has… omg… Haggar has the specs!! Haggarspex! I kid you not, I just discovered this right now, as I am writing and playing with words. Talk about puns in Voltron!!
It would make total sense that they follow exactly the same technical principles that Haggar uses, because Lotor, even before becoming emperor, must have had access to some of her stuff (or stolen them - it’s not like he hadn’t stolen stuff from the empire before, see the teludav episode -S3E6). He’s using all the resources he has (and he’s got lots of Galra tech at his disposal), in search of the Pearl of Wisdom, aka the secrets of King Alfor. Alas, he’s going the wrong way about it, because he lacks the Oriande knowledge.
OK, maybe we’ll scratch the part about autopsies, but sacrifices were made. It is, after all, confirmed by Lotor…: “Were some lives lost in the process? Yes. But they were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions.”
Where exactly were the sacrifices made? I don’t know yet. I have some suspicions, but let’s keep going.
“She tells us of the end times. […] None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”
Wow, so once you see the Yalex, you’re out of the game. And because you’re toast, there’s no one left to tell how the Yalex looks like. It is the end of days for you.
That means the Yalex is a really dangerous and powerful being. Well, it’s represented as a sort of a giant spider that hatches out of the moon, fed and grown with pure Quintessence from the camels.
Then Hunk says: “That doesn’t sound good.”
And the Camel Priest replies: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”
What kind of nutty stuff is this?
First of all, let’s turn upside down what Hunk is saying, for the sake of the reversed irony: That sounds very good - exactly what the priest said. Why is it good? Because they believe that through death, they finally achieve the ultimate wisdom. They are so willing to learn the mysteries of Quintessence, that they consider death the ultimate honor. Isn’t that a martyr’s belief system? Self-sacrifice is the ultimate enlightenment, for the sake of a noble cause. And you can tell that the priest feels confident about his convictions, in the way he formulates it: “of course it is good.”
And then he says something that lit up a lot of light bulbs in my humble brain cells: “Our lives here are lived in ignorance.” Oh boy. Where should I start with this one? Firstly, isn’t this what scientists quietly profess? The more you learn, the less you feel like you know. We are all ignorants in the face of the vastness of the science. Then, what is ignorance if not the opposite of… enlightenment? Merriam-Webster says enlightened means: “freed from ignorance and misinformation”.
“That is the future enlightenment brings us.” - guess who said that - guess some more —> Lotor (when talking about his ultimate plans - to get into the rift and extract unlimited Quintessence for the empire).
There’s one more Easter egg in this paragraph. “the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”
Who is the Conqueror? You might think initially it is Zarkon or the Galra Empire. But this is about a so-called afterlife, another dimension, a higher plane. I theorize it is, again, about the Entity.
“This Entity holds the power you seek. It is an ancient form of energy that predates time itself. It hails from the Quintessence Field. Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer worlds and control the universe for then thousand years.”
This Entity is able to bypass time and space at its own will, and gives someone the ability to conquer worlds. In my opinion, this is the true, transcendental Conqueror and, probably, the Second Colony Alteans and Lotor believed they could reach the ultimate enlightenment by trying to manipulate it… just like Haggar did.
Sounds weird? Lotor himself had the entity - confirmed by the Galra doctors that detected the strange readings in him when newly born. Why wouldn’t he try to use its powers against Haggar? And I strongly believe that this is true, also supported by the EP’s statements about Lotor, in an AfterBuzz interview about S5:
Interviewer: “And then we have weird Quintessence necromancy happening. So how did that affect [baby] Lotor?”
JDS: It’s pretty safe to say that Lotor’s got that Daywalker kind of thing going on.
Interviewer: Little Vampire.
LM: Being in…in her womb, as [Honerva] was being exposed to all of this quintessence - it’s part of his DNA. It almost puts him on a level with Allura, pretty much how her quintessence is a part of her DNA. So it’s interesting to see.
[…]
LM: I think all Galra are kinda space vampires.
JDS: They’re kinda space vampires, yeah. Safe to say. You’re getting instead of blood, you’re getting like…planet juice."
Well, ain’t that something… Lotor is a Daywalker.
What is a Daywalker? It’s a vampire that can go out in the sunlight, part human - part vampire. I find the comparison with vampire Princess Miyu a little unsettling (quoted from Wikipedia):
“This is because she is technically a Daywalker, having one human parent and one vampire. She needs to drink blood to survive and she chooses her 'victims' carefully since she apparently cannot take blood from others unless they actually give it to her willingly. So, Miyu picks people whom she believes to be "lovely" (either in looks or personality) who have usually suffered a tragic loss, and offers them their greatest wish – to be with their lost loved ones, at least in their dreams – in exchange for their blood. These people live in an endless dream state.”
Lotor doesn’t lie about any of the things he tells Allura and the Paladins. So he does walk into the light of truth, indeed. LM and JDS confirm it, too, in the same aforementioned interview:
LM: I think… when we discussed Lotor, we wanted to make sure that everything he said had an element of like, genuine quality to it—”
JDS: “Like genuine nature to it, yeah. I mean, he hasn’t really done anything to make you believe he wanted to continue on the path of Zarkon. Even in the time before. He just has his own way about, you know, about these things. So yeah, I think the bigger sort of Lotor story point, or character point was that, you know - one - he means things genuinely, whether he’s playing somebody or not, he sort of follows up with everything that he does. So there’s no real… lie to it, I guess?
LM: I think when all is said and done we’ll be able to look back and realize that he’s been telling the truth this whole time. It’s just a matter of - where does it go from here?
JDS: Where does the truth go from here?
Well, all is said and done. The show has been over for so many years, and yet we’re still looking back and digging for the truth, because the truth about Lotor was, unfortunately, buried.
So let’s dig deeper, haha.
The Camel Priest ultimately says: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”
I think this ties pretty neatly with what happened to Zarkon and Honerva, who, under the influence of the Entity, transfigured into something else. And here’s another snippet from the interview, where LM points to that:
Interviewer: I was just wondering if maybe that’s why Zarkon was so intent on saving Honerva, not only because he loved her but because she was pregnant.”
LM: Yeah, I think…
JDS: Combination, maybe?
LM: Yeah, I think there’s also a little bit of him that’s… was maybe… had other motives as well. The dude’s kind of dead inside…”
We saw them resurrect after dying in the rift, didn’t we? With purple evil glowing eyes. Yet they were, apparently, dead inside.
So what that means is that when the Camel Priest announces that the birth-death thingy is going to happen, and the Yalex emerges from the moon, they are all going to be possessed by the Yalex, the All is One, Fire in the Dark, the Eye. They ‘die’ inside by letting the Entity take a part of their soul and instead give them the Enlightenment. They continue their journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror. Oh man…! Heavy stuff.
So the Alteans… willingly let themselves be possessed by the Entity, following Lotor’s demi-vampire plans to save the universe and defeat Haggar (or at least, DEFEND from Haggar - especially defend the Main Colony). You don’t think so?? We have a precedent! (Though I wouldn’t say it happened before, time-wise speaking. It actually happened after - when Honerva went to the Altean colony and created her mechs and her acolytes.) Were they not infected with the Entity?? Did Allura not scoop one out from Tavo?? Were their eyes not glowy-glowy? And they were all on board with Honerva’s plans from the get-go, so I would logically assume they also agreed with being infected with the Entity.
I’d say at this point Lotor is a good vampire, with good and transparently laid out intentions but still with vampire methods, because that’s the only way he knows how to operate - victory or death - although he is desperate to find out the true path, the Oriande path. He’s given all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge.
“Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life.” As much as I don’t like this sentence from Allura’s final speech to Honerva, I think it has heavy relevance to what I just unfolded here. I honestly was not expecting to reveal this. My initial impressions were going towards a slightly different direction. That’s why I never rely only on initial impressions.
The final image in this comic book is Voltron carrying the Yalexian pearl, through a solar system that looks very similar to the Quantum Abyss solar system. The top image is a screen-cap from the episode “Clear Day”, where Allura has a vision of the red planet from the Quantum Abyss, surrounded by the moons. The bottom image is from the comics, with the red planet being planet Krell.
And guess where Voltron is bringing the Pearl? To rescue Coran from a guy who keeps him hostage. But we soon find out that Coran was lying this whole time!! He was not really hostage, he was just friends with the big guy, and he made Voltron retrieve the Pearl just like Lotor had them retrieve the trans-reality comet. Well-well… Maybe Lotor 'retreived' some ‘Pearls’ (Quintessence) from Voltron as well? (maybe from the Komar weapon?)
And there’s still more to discuss.
**rolling up sleeves**
One specific property that the Entity possesses is the ability to make sudden jumps and appear/disappear.
Very… jittery. Remember how it bounces inside that tube?
Who else could appear and disappear at will? Haggar and the Druids. Also… Kosmo (that wolf is, btw, such a mystery. I posit that he’s a result of some colony experiments on animals, using the Entity.)
—-> But, more importantly, there’s a fairly obscure group of characters that only show up in one episode… and they can also teleport (it all happens so fast that it’s so easy to miss, but watch S6E2 “Razor’s Edge” when Keith and Krolia enter the Abyss and get attacked). They weren’t given any name, but they seem to be quite powerful and they are part of the big mystery of the Quantum Abyss.
I present you the four-legged white creatures that attack Keith and Krolia’s ship.
Does it not have a ‘pearl’ that looks just like an ‘eye’ in the middle? Also, look closely at the shape of the creature, and compare it with the Entity… Why do they look so similar? Those four legs… copy and paste, change color to white…
And go back and look again at the Yalex hatching out of the moon - four-legged, spider legs, as well.
Do they all have an Eye in the middle?
And, because I like to watch things in slow-motion sometimes, I just discovered an amazing detail about the white-legged creature: after it teleported inside the cockpit, there is a light blue glow coming out of it, turning into motes of light-blue energy. Altean Quintesseeence!!!
In the pictures above, the Yalex seems to have grown an additional two legs. Well, I’ll be damned if the Dark Entity doesn’t sometimes have six legs (see above). This seems to be the aggressive pose.
What if… the white-legged creatures in the Quantum Abyss are the Yalexes? They are the Pearls, the white Entities, the ‘positive’ side of the Entity (the saviors), fed by righteous Altean energy. They are the defenders of the Abyss. There are many of them, and the many create One. And they all protect the Quantum from Haggar or any other intruders, including Keith and Krolia, Ranveig, etc…
We are led to believe that these creatures are also responsible for tearing apart the unmarked ships transporting the pure quintessence through the Abyss, but if my predictions are correct, that would actually not be true, because it wouldn’t make sense narratively for Lotor’s own defenders to attack ships containing his own Quintessence transports. I believe the creature that attacked and ravaged those unmarked ships was Ranveig’s superweapon, which actually has a name we know, and I have multiple reasons to prove my theory. I will come back to this subject - keep a pin in it.
These Yalexes (I’ll start calling them Yalexes, alright?) protect Lotor’s research facility and the main Colony. He hopes to unlock the mysteries of the Entity and of the Quintessence. We know, canonically, that Haggar stalked Lotor around the universe and he was always cautious about getting rid of trackers and spies. It’s logical he would want to protect the Quantum Abyss, and we know for sure that there is a history of attempted intrusions - like Ranveig, who’s probes had been destroyed and never recovered, as recounted by Krolia. Maybe these white guys are Lotor’s own ‘druids’. They definitely showed up right at the beginning of Keith and Krolia’s journey in the Abyss, so they were standing at the gates, ready to filter out intruders.
And if we want to talk about defending, let’s go to Allura’s mystifying vision in S8E8 - “Clear Day”, where she sees her mother telling her she’s arrived just in time to save them (to save Altea, implied by the Altean castle in the background). She then goes on to say “Only you can protect us.”
“In time” - ah, maybe I’m interpreting too much - but time is a word that is used as a symbol in the Camel Priest’s dialogue. Also, Krolia tells Keith that the Quantum Abyss is a place where “unusual effects” happen to “space-time itself”. So maybe her mother is actually telling her “you’ve arrived just at the right place, in the Quantum Abyss.”
Also, in Allura’s dream, she is to save them, protect them… Only she can protect them, because of the powers she gained through the Entity = the Savior.
Allura then pilots a Komar mecha, extracting the Quintessence from Altean soil and channeling it towards Galra ships, destroying them. But, in the process, she also destroys the planet, leaving it barren, dry, lifeless, and her mother turns from a living being into a dissipating stone statue, who’s last words are: “I’m so proud of you”. As if she would say: I sacrifice myself, proudly, gladly, so that you can defend Altea.
Why a stone statue? Similar to the villagers that ‘liked’ being turned into stone, in Monsters and Mana?
The way I see this, it’s an insight into how the Quantum Abyss defense system worked. Everyone (represented in the dream by the Altean soil itself, the juniberries, the statue) put their energy together to feed these Yalexes, to defend themselves from intruders. In the end, they were all drained of their vitality, because they did not have the Oriande alchemy knowledge of how to properly infuse an ore (and the ore was not from a comet). So they would wither and die, or almost die…
Remember how exhausted the Alteans on Atlas were, after channeling their energy into the Atlas crystal? Honerva tells them to give her all their energy, because “their lives will be sacrificed for their savior.” Merla knows the consequences and interrupts the process, in order to rescue them.
And this ⬆️ is where I turn my eyes to the emaciated, scarred Alteans floating in the so-called Quintessence draining pods from the Second Colony, as described by Romelle and Keith in S6E4.
In my opinion, they were not being sucked of their energy in those pods. They were actually exhausted after working their butts off to feed Yalexes with refined Quintessence through a process learned from Haggar’s specs (the unrefined Q was, as described in the comic, a crop, a grain harvest, so raw energy either directly from them or extracted from another source, even from the native natural environment or maybe even brought from the empire. Allura sees juniberries and grass being pulverized in her vision, so it is possible that they used every energy source available - and that would explain also why there’s a wolf that has alchemic powers in the Abyss, just like I mentioned earlier - due to the experiments they applied on everything available in their environment).
And then, in the stasis chambers facility, they were actually being refueled with whatever they had available, and that was the inexpensive, easily available, purple Galra Quintessence. Here are the reasons why I believe that:
1) Because Altean energy is not purple, it is blue. Whatever would come out of their bodies would be blue. I know, I know, the Alteans in the Komar mechas exuded purple energy, but that’s because Haggar infused them with her evil magic and the corrupted Dark Entity, which she manipulated as she wished. I doubt Lotor’s Alteans were giving off purple energy.
2) As seen in S1E10 “Collection and Extraction”, the purple Quintessence is a refined form of fuel, obtained from yellow Quintessence. One would not directly extract purple quintessence from a living being.
3) We’ve been presented so many times with regeneration pods in the show… First Allura and Coran were in stasis pods, then Lance, Keith… It’s like a repeating song - regeneration pods, regeneration pods… Foreshadowing?
4) There are no tubes coming in and out of the pod itself, just a vat on top of the pod, filled with purple Quintessence, similar to how Zarkon wore his canisters on the back of his suit.
5) The foreshadowings from the comic do not speak about incapacitated donors, but about free-willing, dedicated, sentient beings.
6) Lotor says he doesn’t want to resort to the barbarism of the Komar, which was basically extracting Quintessence out of every living being without their accord. Well, if those people were indeed forcefully drained of energy in those pods, it would have been barbaric.
7) And in the spirit of what the Executive Producers said about Lotor, that he actually tells THE TRUTH every damn time, let’s revisit what he replies to Pidge, in S6E4, when she accuses him of being a murderer: “You know nothing about what you speak!” Sorry, I had to highlight this one. It is the ultimate truth, because he Does. Not. Lie. And to tell Pidge something like this… Pidge, who is THE SMARTEST, the most rational, the most inquisitive, the one who solves all the puzzles and mysteries, defeats her own self at chess, hacks into any Galra tech… Wow, that is the ultimate insult. Do not think for a minute that they chose Pidge randomly for this one. They could have picked Keith, Shiro, Lance, anyone else. No, the writers chose HER. Pidge, you’re an ignorant (sorry, Pidge stans), and with her, we ALL are, because she ultimately is the voice of all of us who might have believed what the story appeared to tell us. We RUSHED to conclusions. And Allura rushed to yeet him, believing Romelle. Keith jumped the gun on making judgements right away, although Shiro had taught him better, to never rush, because patience yields focus. That quote, my friends, has a very clear role in this show.
Look again at the Alteans in the pods. Look at their bodies, their faces. Those wider lines on the skin might actually be battle scars. Because Keith and Krolia, after working with the Blades, and fighting in many battles, seem to have similar markings on their faces.
Another possibility is that those are burn scars, similar to when an electrical discharge burns through an object, because from that we have seen, the Druid and the Altean energies look like an electric arc. One thing that makes me think so is the fact that the scars are symmetrical.
Some of them might have been energy donors for feeding the Yalexes, others - pilots.
Pilots of what? - you might ask.
Of Yalexes.
But you might say… those white-legged creatures are too small to accommodate an Altean inside. At least from how they look in the show, they’re pretty small. Maybe, but remember the Alteans are chameleonic people that can change size and color. If Allura was able to grow in size, why not shrink as well?
The reason why I think those Yalexes were piloted, is because the working principle for all these mechas (including Voltron, Sincline, the Komar mechas, the robeasts) is to have a pilot inside. You can’t have the Entity simply inhabit a machine - it needs a living being to operate. (That’s one good reason to believe that Lotor was not completely dead inside Sincline in S8, because that robot was moving, damn it! He was the Malocoti dragon, under the spell of the evil witch, but he was moving. Through what turn of events did he end up dead - like afterlife-dead - at the end of the show? Can someone explain it to me?).
These Yalexes look like machines to me, honestly. Not some sort of organic or energy-based creature. Infused with Altean energy. And I bet they suck out a crap-ton of Altean energy in order to efficiently defend the Quantum Abyss. I don’t think they are unmanned. Because, again, the Camel Priest also says that they ‘die’ / ‘are being reborn’ through the Yalex, so there must be some sort of symbiosis going on there.
Being a Quantum Abyss defender is no easy task, in a place where all the shearing forces are tearing apart the fabric of space-time. Some of them fall into the neutron star gravity, like the ones Keith and Krolia shook off. How many of them must have been lost in the fights with the Galra?
Returning to the pin about Ranveig’s super-weapon. Remember that creature? Oh, it’s a good-looking beast, one that Keith and Krolia were after (that’s how Keith met his mom, while on a mission to destroy the super-weapon). Here are some quotes from the show, to refresh your memory:
S5E5: “Warlord Ranveig intercepted an undocumented shipment of quintessence traveling through his territory. He took it for his own and began experimenting with it. It’s more powerful than any quintessence we’ve received from the empire, and it has some very unexpected effects.”
S6E2: Krolia: “I was with Ranveig when an unmarked cargo ship passed into his region. When we checked it out, there was no crew aboard. The ship had been nearly torn to pieces, but inside, a single vat of quintessence remained. It was unlike any other quintessence we’d seen.”
Keith: “Were there navigation records aboard?”
Krolia: “No, but I analyzed the ship personally. The radiation signature indicated it had passed through the quantum abyss.”
S8E3: Keith: “Ranveig found the creature in the Quantum Abyss and experimented on it with Lotor’s quintessence. He trained it to take out his Galra enemies, but he couldn’t control it. The beast couldn’t differentiate between adversaries and allies.”
And this is the lovely beast:
They never gave a name to that super-weapon creature (I wonder why), but I’m gonna call it… Narti. The reason why I call it Narti can be found here.
I have some reasons, as well, to believe that:
- Narti uses mind-control by touching someone’s back of their head with her palm. The creature speaks to Keith by holding the head of a robot sentry in its hand.
- body similarities (as described in the linked article as well)
- The creature is highly intelligent, understands language, is capable of operating computers and… and… wait for it… capable of ERASING MEMORIES.
And here lies my biggest proof, and it’s connected to the entire story about the clandestine vats of Quintessence, as I will expand below:
My theory is that the injured Narti ended up somewhere just beyond the entrance of the Quantum Abyss (where Ranveig later found her), because Lotor most likely ordered his trusted Galra sentries to rescue her and take her to a “black site” (to mirror the title of the episode, because I believe it wasn’t only about the interrogation of Throk).
Think of it: they were all hunted down by Zarkon. Lotor was the main target, but the other sentries were not spared of animosity. Where would be the best place to run and hide, that they knew well? Hm? Wasn’t the Quantum Abyss part of their routine routes, as they worked under Lotor? And they would be protected by the all-powerful Yalexes and by the intrinsically dangerous environment of the place. Who knew well the paths that were relatively unaffected by the space-time distortions? Yes, that’s right, Lotor’s dear Galra fellows, secret workers, the ones that show up everywhere around him when he’s at the colonies. The guys that operate the moon facilities, the unmarked cargo ships, the cruisers, the ones that also built his Sincline ships!
The way Haggar operated on Narti and spied on Lotor was through the dark entity inside Kova (that cat, in my opinion, definitely had the entity inside; it’s been implied since when Alfor asked Honerva how old the cat was).
You don’t believe Kova was the actual tracker? Here’s what Acxa told the Atlas crew, in S8E5 “The Grudge”:
“I never had a creature companion, but one of my partners, Narti, was bonded to an immortal cat named Kova. That cat gave her the ability to experience the world. […] Until Lotor killed Narti and we had to abandon the animal on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.” (You think that whole discussion about pets, among Atlas crew members, was a useless scene? I honestly completely forgot about that part, it was complete fluff. )
But Lotor, instead of slaying Kova, went for Narti. There are several possible reasons why. Maybe because he would have released the dark entity from the cat and possibly risked infecting someone else? Or maybe he would have released a ginormous amount of energy and it would have ended up being a suicide move? Or maybe sentimental attachment to the cat? Or maybe the cat was too fast/ too small? Anyway, he got Narti. I’m sure it was a very hard decision to make, but he had to save everyone else. It was either that or continue to be tracked by Haggar. But I believe he didn’t want to let her die.
So, while Lotor was on the run along with his remaining, frightened generals, he secretly ordered his scuttling Galra squadrons to take Narti to a “black site”, to somehow try to heal her and, maybe, interrogate her to find out how this could have happened. Maybe the wound was bad enough that it needed a desperate measure, and they resorted to the pure Quintessence they had at hand. Maybe Narti was already dead and the Entity resurrected her, just like it did with Zarkon and Honerva. We don’t know all the details, but the canon definitely tells us that the beast got indiscriminately violent after exposure to pure quintessence.
As we know, pure quintessence causes all sorts of terrible problems, it’s basically like an overdose of meds, and, as Krolia stated, it had some unexpected results. Narti’s deepest resentment against the Galra became her ultimate obsession of killing Galra-only. We don’t know her backstory, but from what Acxa told Veronica in S8, they were all treated as pariah in the empire: “I was an outcast, born and bred in war. The only way I survived was to become worse than my enemies.” I’m sure Narti had a lot of vexation against the Galra, since she was a ‘half-breed’ as well, so turning into a beast that wanted to kill Galra-only makes total sense. It also explains why the beast totally ignored Lance and Hunk and went after Keith and Lahn.
The one thing that solidified my belief that Narti was the one who ravaged the unmarked cargo ship (the one that had passed through the Quantum Abyss, where Krolia said she found that single vat of quintessence, and there was no crew aboard) was the fact that there were no navigation records left on it. And, again, I’m reminding everyone that in animation they don’t waste airtime. Why would they make Keith ask Krolia if there were any navigation records left? Just to waste some airtime budget?
What is one of Narti’s famous talents? Erasing memories!! Manipulating minds. Isn’t that why Haggar was frustrated about being incapable of probing Throk’s mind? Oh, how satisfied Lotor was! Remember his smirk? Again, that was not a pointless scene. They even made Haggar say “no one can completely wipe a memory away” while they torture Throk, just to prove that she was baffled by the situation. Yup, someone CAN, actually, wipe a memory away. And that is Narti.
Here’s Lotor enjoying himself while Haggar tortures Throk. Narti also mind-controls the king of planet Puig, remember that?
To put a bigger stamp on my proof, here’s Pidge, in S8E3, “The Prisonner’s Dilemma”, when trying to access the ship’s file directory, while the creature was roaming freely through the corridors. Pidge says, regarding the file: “It appears to be corrupted.” Minutes later, we see the creature operating the computer terminal with her palm fully touching the panel, (see one of previous screen-caps) interrupting Pidge’s transmission to Keith, in which she tries to warn him that there is something out there. During the fight with the creature, Pidge attempts to open some doors, only to scream seconds later: “That thing overrode my protocol!”
The creature also had a plan of how to attract more Galra into her trap: she set up a distress beacon (yordam bering exus). She’s not dumb at all!!
That is Narti, my friends.
She is basically the living PROOF of what pure Quintessence can do to someone. It literally turns you into a monster. And that was supposed to be a LEARNING POINT for the teens watching the show, that TOO MUCH of anything can make you lose your mind, your soul, your body. Parallel that to how BOTH Allura and Lotor lost their minds fighting each other, after accessing the rift, and now you get the bigger picture. There is also a bigger role that she carries in closing the arcs of Lotor’s generals, discussed in the TPL article that I linked.
An interesting feature this creature has is the ability to move extremely fast, almost close to teleportation skills (you can still see a trail of its movement, and that is exactly what Pidge tried to figure out, when she decrypted the video footage of the monster in the aforementioned episode). And… we’re back to the Entity and its marvelous property of being extremely fast, jittery, teleportation-capable. Which convinces me now (I wasn’t sure before) that Narti actually not only got an overdose of pure Quintessence, but also a gulp of Entity.
Which would make sense, because the Entity is capable of resurrecting people (see Zarkon and Honerva), and if she were dead or close to death, the medics must have employed some last resort methods. It also explains why the resulting beast is so enraged.
I believe Narti is the one who accidentally interrupted some important transports that were going into/out of the Quantum Abyss. When Keith, Romelle and Krolia arrived at the moon facility, it looked abandoned and full of dust. Which means those Galra sentries/scientists/medics that were supposed to get there, taking care of the operations, they did not make it. Those ravaged ships that Krolia found, with nobody on board… those were Narti’s doing.
Who was hunting Galra and only Galra? Narti, the enraged girl!
So Lotor, under the pressure of being spied by Haggar and hunted down by Zarkon, shot himself in the foot, big time. By injuring Narti, he set in motion a chain of events that cascaded down to the biggest misunderstanding of his 10k years of life.
IF there had been sentries at the moon colony, to properly operate the facility, Keith, Krolia and Romelle would have found out the truth directly from them. Not by forming an impression based on their biases.
And I just can’t hold it back, now that I have an idea about Kosmo as well. What if he was supposed to be used as a story moral that the Entity can be a tool for good, under the right handler? Kosmo can teleport, thus he must possess the Entity. Remember, he was a puppy when he fell out of the sky and became Keith’s pet. So Keith raised him, into a GOOD boy.
There are some plot holes that I’d like to discuss at this point.
1 - Bandor saying “Lotor… The other colony… It’s all a lie.”
A lie in reference to what?
What we are tempted immediately to gather from Bandor’s discombobulated phrases is that Lotor lied about the other colony. Yet he does not say exactly that. He utters the beginning of three unfinished sentences. Pay attention to the punctuation. I copied it exactly as displayed in the subtitles. Near their death, people usually are incoherent and cannot finish their words.
Let me give you an example of how I could finish these sentences and get a completely different meaning:
- Lotor never told us, but…
- The other colony holds the truth.
- It’s all a lie (here).
[and then Bandor gives his last breath]
Hm? Would this be so far away from the truth? After all, the main colony did look like a big, fake Paradise, blatantly resembling the Hobbits’ Shire on Middle-earth. Even the serene soundtrack that goes with it in every episode (S6E2, S6E2, S8E2) is meant to suggest an ethereal environment. Look at the pastel color palette of the landscapes. A cloudy frame envelops the pictures. And we know from canon it was actually a simulation inside a spaceship. A simulation is, according to the dictionary, a deception.
And we know Lotor wanted to keep them inside this big deception, because as soon as he discovers Bandor’s crashed shuttle, he tells his men: “Clean up the wreckage. Leave no evidence this ever happened.” The reason why he keeps them in a bubble is absolutely in good will, and out of compassion for them, because the’ve been hunted by the Galra for so long. He doesn’t want them to experience the horrors and terror of their ancestors. They are too precious to him to be exposed to that again. They are his pearls, carefully hidden inside the Abyss.
Notwithstanding, everything there was a big lie, because they were kept away from the scary world outside, and Bandor, who was born in that climate of eternal harmony, bucolic hills and never-ending joy, was shocked to learn that the world outside was cruel and extremely dangerous. And because he was too immature to understand Lotor’s profound reasons for doing this, he decided, with his last strands of energy, to fly back and warn the others, potentially spreading panic and destabilizing the community. To tell everyone that their world is in danger, that dark forces are lurking out there while they sit and do nothing. That some day, an evil witch might come and take their souls away.
And I invite the DotU experts here to see any similarities with the original character, for which I cannot comment since I’m not proficient in DotU.
I’m circling back to what the EP’s have said about Lotor, that he doesn’t lie. Sure, he omits to say certain things, purposefully (Lie by omission. But is it an evil lie or out of pure intentions?). Whatever he does say is true. If I were to compare who knew more about the truth - the main colony or the second colony - I’d be more confident to say that the second colony knew much more about the truth.
So… it’s all a lie, huh?
2 - Where were the unmarked shipments of pure Quintessence headed? Into the Quantum Abyss or out of it?
There are two schools of thought regarding this one.
- the pure Quintessence was coming out of the Abyss, from the second Altean colony, after being extracted from the Alteans in those purple pods. This is basically what the official canon lets us believe.That Lotor harnessed their life source for his own personal gain. And this theory was left, quietly, as the official stance, dubiously at odds with the rushed, one-phrase redemption Allura gives him at the end.
- the other theory (sorry I can’t find the reference link!) is that the pure Quintessence was actually headed towards the second colony, coming from the empire, more specifically from what was collected after Haggar used the Komar weapon on Voltron, in S1E13. Haggar even exclaims “It’s pure quintessence!”
If all these looney-tooney symbols I decoded are actually a thing, with the Yalex and Haruspex and all that batshit-crazy camel spit allegory, then I’d say neither of the above two theories is completely true. If the Alteans are actually capable of purifying Quintessence, following the specs from the Druid refinery, and obtaining close to 100% purity (gosh, let’s talk Breaking Bad), then they wouldn’t need any external shipments from the empire and Lotor could easily fuel his comet ore ships with Q coming from the Abyss. Albeit, not from Alteans in stasis pods, but from a refinery. (I feel the sudden urge to give Q an atomic number and find its spot in the periodic table).
On the other hand, it made sense narratively to have Q coming from the Komar weapon, since Lotor is a master at stealing stuff from under his parents’ nose; otherwise, what was the point of that entire story? Just to prove how badass Haggar was? One speculative solution would be to have both sources: one in the Abyss to fuel the Yalexes and one source in the empire to fuel the comet ships, although this theory is a bit too stretched.
—->>> Another option, more in line with a Breaking Bad scenario, would be that Lotor got his hands on some pure Q from the Komar - and - he stole the specs from Haggar’s refinery. Brought them to the scientists alchemists at the colony and said: “make me this pure Q, following these instructions”.
And that would explain why, in the comic, there’s already a Yalex pearl in the ceiling, because it’s the manufacturer’s ISO Quality Standard.
It would also justify having to use the word Haruspex - not just for the pun - but because Haruspex basically means someone who inspects something and analyzes it. You could say that the pure Q of Komar is an extract from Voltron, ‘the entrails’ of Voltron.
So, listen: they got the pure Q from the Komar, analyzed it, took the specs from Haggar’s refinery, followed the guidelines, and produced their own refined Q. For feeding Yalexes, for fueling Lotor’s comet ships, for medical purposes gone wild - like turning Narti into a monster… Eh? How does this sound? More like it? Did I write good fiction?
At this point, the Altean alchemists can be safely called the little Walter Whites of the show, while Lotor is both Heisenberg - the mastermind and Jesse Pinkman - the smuggler. Oh, boy, what mess did I get into?
Quintessence can be easily compared with meth. It does make someone go crazy, doesn’t it? And it gives them sooo much energy… Just google its side effects (if you don’t already know them). Ahem… first one is - a higher libido (for further enrichment about this particular Q aspect, refer to a certain rift tag in ao3); - intense feelings of pleasure; - excessive talking; - rapid heart rate; - confusion, paranoia, agitation; - aggressive behavior / sexually aggressive behavior (I wonder how Zarkon & Haggar spent their private time); - long term depression, anxiety, paranoia; - long term difficulty of feeling any pleasure. I skipped some of them here, but you get the picture.
Does any of this make any sense, Jesse??…
~~I dunno, b!tch, I’m just here for the Q~~
On a serious note though - wasn’t I talking earlier about one of the morals of the story - how too much of something can be bad for you? Addiction, anyone? And it’s already been discussed in the fandom, it’s not like I’m the first one to open this subject. Honerva and Zarkon basically fell prey to substance abuse and it’s not really hard to spot the signs from their backstories. And Lotor told Allura straight to her face: “The Galra Empire is completely reliant on quintessence.”
(I’m still thinking about making Q an element in the periodic table. Place it somewhere after the last element, so it’d have to have an atomic number above 118. Radioactive, most likely. And, unfortunately, highly unstable. Lol. Btw, there’s no known element name that starts with Q, so there you go, we’re creating it now.)
One more look back at the Camel Priest: it wears a red cape-skirt. Red, again. Red herring. And it talks in poetic, cryptic, elaborate figures of speech. And has a sort of an unconventional, victorian-punk outfit. Lance and Hunk poke fun at him.
Well who’s our closest character that sums up all of these ‘qualities’?
L.O.T.O.R.
******
The next two comic books, in my opinion, are not so heavily loaded with symbolism, with a few exceptions, which I’ll briefly discuss.
There are some really fun moments, like Lance’s guide to romance + his best pick-up lines and Hunk’s fear of getting married.
Hunk’s sensitivity and nurturing nature is being emphasized in a story about a monster that - we eventually learn - is very angry because she is missing her baby - hints at Honerva’s desperate attempts to find her son in a perfect reality.
Another parallel worthy to mention comes in the form of a “wolfie” that, honestly, looks just like the White Lion (which, imo, also looks like a wolf, but that’s another story, haha). Except this guy is blue, but he does talk about being a warden of some sacred grounds, and he fights with the only paladin that is a half-galra, Keith. According to this creature, “only the chosen may enter the sacred hunting grounds.” This foreshadows Lotor’s battle with the White Lion at Oriande, and his struggle to become “chosen”, according to Altean standards.
Eventually, the wolfie is defeated by Coran, who is sick with the Nomo virus (parallel with the Entity). By coughing into the beast’s mouth, he releases “millions, billions, trillions” of “aggressive little creatures”. Coran flying a kotka dragon is just so in character, by the way.
The third and last comics volume brings some interesting references to the leitmotif of the showman, and the idea that TV can manipulate people’s minds, clearly stated by Coran and Allura, after being guests in a green alien’s TV show:
Yup, these are from the official VLD comic, I kid you not. Recognize the leitmotif of the green guy - the showman? Look for him in S7E4 “The Feud” as well. Why green, you’d say? It’s the unofficial color of money, at least this ~$$$~ kind of currency )
Lotor also states the same thing, first episode we meet him on screen, in S3E1: “The masses are easily manipulated.”
After pulling so much meta out of these innocent, lovable comics, I believe this was meant intentionally, as a direct message to us, to not trust everything that we’ll see. Example: If Bandor says “Lotor… It’s all a lie”, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Lotor lies. "That guy with the stupid show? He doesn't speak for everyone." The green guy (symbol of the TV and media deceivers) doesn’t speak for everyone. Which means there are people who will get the real message of the show, despite all the censorship.
So here’s a quick recap of the most important symbols. These were all deduced after noticing various leitmotifs spread throughout the series.
Lotor is:
-Dakin; the Coranic dragon.
-Queen Luxia.
-The green Guardian monster.
-The red dragon; Princess Malocoti.
-The red-caped Camel Priest.
The Alteans with alchemic powers (the martyrs) are:
-The villagers turned into stone.
-Florona and other sacrificial mermaids.
-A select number of ant-looking aliens who were offered as sacrifice to the green monster
-The camels who willingly give themselves to the rebirth through the Yalex
The Entity is:
-(skipped in Monsters and Mana, only mentioned by Coran as “wait to see who Dakin was working for)
-The underwater dragon / the mind-swishing aquatic food
-The brain-worm
-The Abomination
-The mushrooms
-The Yalex monster
Anyone who becomes One with the entity: Honerva, Lotor, Zarkon, the possessed Alteans, even Allura. Remember, the Entity can be good, or bad, depending on who uses it.
As you noticed, everything I’ve analyzed has been collected and put together from all throughout VLD, including the comics. I actually stated this in the beginning, too: “the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order.” And look at what the EP’s have said in a Syfy interview:
LM: We’ve chosen to kind of selectively release little bits about our villains, like - along the way. We didn’t really have one episode where you expose everything there is to know. A lot of it is kind of underlying, for people to kind of - if they’re willing to look for it - they’ll find it. […]
JDS: I think that - in our minds, and in the writers’ room - you know, there’s a full, fleshed-out backstory that goes back to… who-knows-when. Um, yeah, it’s all there, it’s all a matter of…, the viewers are gonna, like, find it, and… [motioning his fingers to suggest keyboard typing]
Interviewer: …sift through it.
JDS: Yeah.
Are you still there? Just a little bit left. One more sip of coffee.
At this final point, I’d like to recap Lotor’s arc, from his inception to what was supposed to be his redemption.
So he’s born from two parents who were ‘dead inside’, high on Quintessence and infected with the Entity. He himself has the Entity and (most likely) learns how to deal with it from a young age, or his body naturally creates a symbiotic relationship with it (as opposed to the parasitic relation it has with Honerva and Zarkon’s bodies).
He grows up basically raised by another mother, Dayak. He tries to get close to his father, but he constantly gets pushed away, marginalized, because he has “impurities”.
His inquisitive spirit starts digging up the truth about Altea. He starts to track down the survivors and establishes a secret colony for them in the Quantum Abyss.
After Zarkon destroys the planet where he worked along the denizens, he finds refuge in researching his Altean heritage, its ancient history and traditions.The colony he’d secretly established in the Quantum Abyss is thriving.
Somewhere along the many millennia of his life, due to constant harassment from Haggar, who lurks around him at every corner, he decides to step up the Colony protection. He realizes that nothing can keep the witch at bay, except something equally powerful: the Entity itself. Haggar has been, for millennia, quite frustrated that she couldn’t control his mind the same way she influenced Zarkon, through the Entity. (Remember, Lotor tells Zarkon this “You’ve become nothing more than one of the witch’s monsters. Does she control you as well?”)
It never worked with Lotor - as we find out, when she remembers Lotor is her son, in S5E2. In her vision, she sees him first as a child, then adolescent, then adult, with glowing eyes, just like her. The adolescent Lotor turns and runs away from her, and she can’t keep up with him - a clear hint at the fact that he managed to escape her spells.
The second colony is established. He tells them the truth about the dangers they face, how Haggar and Zarkon conquer world after world using the Entity, and if they don’t do something, their society would also be on the line. The Alteans are fully on board with his plans, they establish a military base and a research facility to study the Entity and the Quintessence. They most likely run into numerous failed attempts to figure out how to create a defense system against Haggar. Probably many Alteans perish during experiments. Martyrs. Quite a different word than “killed”, as stated by Romelle, or “murdered”, as in Pidge.
Lotor continues his archeology research around the Universe, discovering scattered information about Voltron, King Alfor, alchemy, Oriande. He tries to put it all together, to figure out the secrets of Voltron. That’s why he says he gave all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge. He most likely needs that, desperately, to defend the Colony.
Knowing historical facts about the existence of a rift, he develops his own political convictions and agenda, about bringing unlimited Quintessence to the Universe, in order to stop the Galra madness. He believes that by feeding that monster that is lurking in the dark corners of the Universe, and by making Q a cheap fuel for the Empire, the greed for it will vanish and peace will be restored again - “a complete paradigm shift, a new dawn for the old empire.” Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, he is rooting for an Altean ruling, somewhere in the future, through the power of rift Quintessence fueling his unbeatable weapons (The blown out of proportions version of this dream is seen when he loses his mind at the rift battle: “Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor.”)
When Voltron gets drained of energy from the Komar, Lotor makes his first contact with the real deal: pure Quintessence. He’d never seen anything like that before. Only Haggar and Zarkon knew about it, because they’d been in the rift.
He manages to get his hands on some pure Quintessence and steals (or he’d already stolen) Haggar’s specs for Quintessence purification, and begins creating his own pure Q in the second colony. It is used to feed Entity-possessed Alteans piloting Yalexes. The white mechs are not made out of a comet ore, so they suck a lot of energy from the alchemists. It is also, possibly, used to carry out his experiments at the Rift, as discussed below.
Though not established well in time, somewhere recently probably, he also starts the construction of the Rift Gate (most likely with undercover Altean workforce, due to its blue glow and juniberry-shaped entrance). He might need a lot of pure Quintessence for the construction. He hides it in that underwater, very old Galra station, where Kolivan and Keith first discover its existence. Lotor wants to go into the rift to get pure Quintessence. Much easier than having to exhaust Altean alchemists to purify it from raw materials.
Haggar continues to harass him and stalk him. Galra generals that rule over the territories surrounding the Quantum Abyss try sending probes in there. The Yalexes effectively defend against intruders.
And then he figures out that Voltron was made out of a comet ore. He discovers one comet stuck between realities, he attempts to retrieve it, but fails miserably (as stated by Ezor, who recalls how unhappy his pilots were). Eventually, he uses Voltron to get it, which adds up to the already established mistrust.
He’s now almost 100% positive that by infusing his comet ships with pure Quintessence, he’ll be able to pierce the reality barrier. “According to his calculations”, they should be successful.
Zarkon and Honerva figure out he’s got his hands on a trans-reality comet and start hunting him. Left without his main cruiser, having to kill one of his generals, he attempts his masterful plan, of entering the rift. He fails lamentably, realizing he’s missing a piece of information.
The generals betray him, but he escapes; he gets chased by Zarkon through solar flares, he escapes him too; then jumps right in the middle of the action to save the Paladins and the Coalition at Naxzela.
After being a prisoner for a while in Allura’s castle, feeding them intel to gain their trust, he finally makes a breakthrough, by killing Zarkon and lighting the flame at Kral Zera. He becomes the Emperor and things are good for him for a while.
Together with Allura, he makes revolutionary discoveries; they visit Oriande and Allura helps him by infusing his ships with Quintessence, the right way, as she learned from Oriande. During this time spent together with her, something unexpected happens to him. He falls in love.
And then the painful part of the Voltron story unfolds. Romelle shows up and things go sideways completely.
Even though the mind-controlled Shiro clone delivers him to Haggar, she still has no power over him. While she basically tries to excuse herself for not being a good mother, he completely rejects her - a big blow in her newly-awakened motherly instincts.
Returning to the rift to try to talk to Allura, he finds her in a deep state of rage against him (most likely fueled by the big dose of Q received in the rift). There is basically no way to reason with her, although he tries. He really does. He even orders his generals to hold their fire. Acxa is worried about him. Most likely because she figured out that he’s in love with her, and she sees that as his weak spot.
The spark that lights up the evil flame of the Entity inside him is Allura’s spiteful, unreasoned comparison with Zarkon. The one thing he hated most, his weakest spot - being compared to his father - coming from the lips of the woman he loves. That completely ruins him inside. He ends up exactly as the Malocoti dragon. He loses his reason as well, uttering threats about a new Altea that will never know about Princess Allura and King Alfor.
And then he loses the battle in the rift, and remains trapped there until Honerva pulls him out.
And this is where S8 left us with lots of question marks. What we got is basically nothing. We only see a suggestion of a melted corpse (but with motes of Quintessence coming out of his body). And then, a quick redemption sentence from Allura and a bitter “he deserved better” from his mother.
But the comics tell us something else. The first comic book was released in 2016, just at the beginning of the show. And that was the map, the Rosetta Stone of Voltron.
The comics tell us that Lotor was saved from the spell of the witch.
This is what I think really happened:
Honerva pulls him from the rift. At this point, his body is pretty much done for, but I assume his consciousness is trapped inside the Sincline (in a similar fashion to how Shiro’s mind was trapped inside the Black Lion). Honerva knows a trick or two of how to ‘resurrect' people, and she infuses him with high doses of her evil Entity powers and with Quintessence (that’s why we see motes of purple Quintessence coming out of his body). He’s become a full vampire robeast.
Being basically “dead inside”, the high-on-Q, full-vampire Lotor behaves extremely violent, killing indiscriminately everyone around him (foreshadowed by the Narti monster, who cannot distinguish enemies from allies). The only thing that seemed to make the Sincline pause and not shoot was… Allura -oops. Otherwise, he is Honerva’s puppet, just like the Malocoti dragon.
Allura has a vision where she sees Lotor explaining what the Entity is, and that she should become One with it in order to defeat Honerva. We don’t know exactly who encouraged that Entity to come visit her. It might be the Entity itself, or it might be Lotor’s own telepathic work, channeled through the mycelial network of Entities - the final station being the Entity trapped inside that vacuum tube. We don’t know for sure. All we know is that it seems to be a force for good.
Eventually giving in and taking the Entity inside herself, Allura travels through Honerva’s mind along with her friends and they free the Old Paladins. After exiting Honerva’s mind, the Paladins wake up, except Allura, who is fallen into some sort of deep sleep or coma. This trip is something she needs to see through on her own.
There are missing parts here, as I analyzed in this meta. I believe one full episode just for this adventure.
Allura travels out of Honerva’s mind, guided by the Entity, and she arrives inside the Sincline’s memory space, where she meets Lotor’s consciousness. The Old Paladins might be with her as well (because Lotor needs to reconcile with his father, too). There are two possibilities here: either Lotor is already a peaceful ghost (like Shiro), who will reveal to her, in a nice conversation, the whole truth about the Alteans, Honerva, bla-bla. Or… Lotor’s ghost is as dark and violent as the Old Paladins were, because Honerva’s spell reaches even inside Sincline’s memory space. This would make the encounter more dramatic, probably a fight with him ensues, the Old Paladins help Allura restrain him, and eventually she releases him from the spell. The whole nine yards. And then he tells his side of the story, makes peace with his father, the Old Paladins say their farewell, and Allura is left to decide with him the next steps.
After waking up, she has a discussion with Lance, who finally understands Allura’s heart belongs somewhere else. A mature Lance vows to help her retrieve Lotor from Honerva.
There are some episodes that are completely missing, but I believe they would mirror the story of Princess Malocoti being freed from the ‘dragon’ (Sincline). Allura would retrieve his soul from the mecha and put it back inside his body, just like she did with Shiro. She would resurrect his body the Altean way, not Honerva’s pitiful way. Like the old oak tree that blooms again, bursting with Quintessence under Lance’s eyes, we would see Lotor’s shriveled body regain its beauty and vitality. And Lance might be there to witness it.
Following the leads from the now famous article Seek Truth in Darkness by @leakinghate, it’s clear that the last few episodes edited Lotor out. He is there, helping the Paladins defeat Honerva. There are now seven Paladins, just as Kolivan predicted in his weird ‘interview’ in S8E7 (which totally looks like wasted airtime if you don’t understand the symbolism).
The bringing back to life of all realities comes in the form of a juniberry flower - three petals - three almighty powers: Honerva, Allura and Lotor. He did say that “all life began with a single juniberry flower”, in case anyone wondered why he spoke again in looney-tooney ‘cave poetry’.
It wasn’t just Allura and Honerva.
Lotor was there as well, because, as Leakinghate mentioned, this is his path to understanding his Altean side, which is Sacrifice (martyrdom, if we want to be more specific), the path to passing the Oriande trials.
If the martyred villagers were turned into stone, the saviors that sacrificed themselves also get their own stone statues. We get to see Allura’s, but Lotor had a statue as well, in the colony, and it might find its final spot either on Altea, or on Daibazaal, we don’t know. We might see one for Honerva, as well.
The Great Restoration of all realities is accomplished by a flipped-gender Trinity, challenging stereotypes: The Mother, The Daughter and The Son (just like the princess saving the prince is a flipped script). They most likely become higher beings in an upper plane, guiding, watching over, and probably, also making contact with the mortals, from time to time. This kind of story with the ascension of the main character into the skies, into a higher dimension is not uncommon, actually, in the classic Japanese animated series from the 80’s, and it would be the Grande Finale’s nod to that tradition.
You see, my friends, there are so many threads that were left loose in this show. They were meant to close into beautiful arcs, monumental teaching points for children, teens and adults as well. The writers and EP’s intended to finish these arcs. But… “this is show business”, no matter what the “right thing to do” is.
This analysis is based on comparisons, symbolic interpretation, semantics and speculations. As I stated in the beginning, I might have gotten some things wrong, but overall, I believe this is what we should have seen.
If some of these might prove incorrect at a later date, I always welcome improvements.
Thank you to all the good people of the Lotura Discord, who constantly inspire me through thought-provoking discussions and awesome sources of knowledge!
To conclude my very, very long peroration, I believe Lotor is the type of character that stands right on the edge of black and white, good and evil. He lives on the Razor’s Edge, just like the episode title suggests (a Sanskrit concept that passing over a sharp edge is difficult, thus the path to salvation is hard). He wants nothing but to be the good leader his parents never were, yet his environment and upbringing constantly try to push him off the edge. Like an acrobat that walks on a tightrope, he needs to make it to the other side.
Did he ever make it?
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Pandora Thoughts
So I finally read Pandora for the first time (first new to me book in the series since I started re-reading). I'm just gonna ignore that whole "New Tales of the Vampires" thing as it fully just seems like one of the Vampire Chronicles.
Thoughts below the cut!
From the off I liked Pandora's voice, she's sardonic and playful as well as having a commanding and in control presence. She's a good character to spend some time with and I was veeery interested to get her perspective on things. She's quite romantic and poetic like Armand but she doesn't take herself quite so seriously and there's some humor and light moments to enjoy as well, which was kind of a surprise, with her only previous POV chapter being her searching for Marius in QOTD at Azim's temple and fairly serious and angsty, given the circumstances.
One thing I noticed is that she seems a lot less vain that a lot of Anne Rice's other POV vampires, she seems to be quite happy to give us unflattering details, like when she has to dress herself without any help as a Roman upper-class woman for the first time in Antioch and she picks clothes that are awkward and unintentionally revealing and makes a total mess of her hair and makeup. She could have just as easily left that out but she'd rather poke fun at herself. You get the feeling that she'd be fun to hang out with (when she's not catatonic)!
Her early life is interesting and entertainingly told. We zoom through her account of her childhood through two divorces (she has nothing to say about her mortal husbands lol), by her 30s she's living as kind of a weird spinster with her beloved old dad. In the early sections there's few little moments of Marius here and there (and they're great, pretending to be bear like a total dork etc.) but nothing substantial until we get to the real action in the second half of the book, after her father's death and her fleeing Rome for Antioch where she finds Marius again. Even though I'm always dying to get-to-the-vampires-already in these life-story style chronicles the details of her early life do add a lot to her characterization. You get the impression of a sharp and passionate young woman who chafes under the patriarchal Roman social strictures but who tries her best to live up to cultural expectations for her dad's sake. After her dad dies, despite her considerable grief, she knows freedom for the first time in her life and she's just coming to fully embrace that when vampires happen.
When we do get into the proper plot of the book (her being lured by Akasha into a perilous situation that will culminate in Marius turning her to prevent her death) it does feel a little rushed. When we finally get to the bit we're interested in (her life as a vampire with Marius for 200 years and what she did after he left) there's only 3 chapters left, and it's a short book, so these are short chapters! I did absolutely love getting more details on her life with Marius, chapter 10 in particular gets into the nitty-gritty of how they both came to terms with and understood her turning and as well as being juicy in those terms it's also quite a love letter to Marius at times. It's good to get the details that Marius will never tell you and to get her perspective on what went wrong in their relationship, which is a bit more in depth and revealing than the version we get in Blood and Gold (well I did read them out of order so I suppose you're meant to have those details already). We get a bit more specific on things that Marius only hints at in his account (how extreme Marius' fear of emotion was, how overbearing and insulting he was to Pandora and the role that fundamentally different perspectives on religion played in their disagreements) and things that he omits entirely (like Flavius' existence and turning).
There are things I had hoped would be covered but that we get little to no new details on, I'm realizing that expecting something in particular when you start an Anne Rice novel is a fools game. In this case I was really curious to learn more about her relationship with Arjun, it seems to be very complicated in Blood and Gold, and well… OK, so in one of the last chapters (I think the last one) Pandora does briefly address their relationship. She doesn't refer to him by name (only as 'the Asian' =/, yeah, it's gross) and simply says she never cared about him. A bit disappointing, I suppose Anne likely had character-based reasons for this (maybe they had a nasty break up) but I would have liked to have known more about how they met and that period they spent traveling around Europe in a Disney villain ostentatious black carriage that carried their sleeping forms by day. I'm kinda curious! I'm also suspicious of her account of their relationship, that he almost held her captive, because she's an extremely strong and (as we come to know in her account) willful vampire and I wonder if she's giving the version of their relationship that she's knows Marius would prefer, with her as a damsel in distress. On the other hand I also wonder if being abandoned by Marius all those years ago had a lasting effect of making her less willing to assert herself in romantic relationships, feeling that her assertiveness was the quality she was abandoned for… I want answers damnit!
Anyway, getting back to the point, the ending did feel a little rushed for me, and guys, I can't help but roll my eyes when we get "I must go to Lestat" - practically mandatory for a non-Lestat POV character to end their narrative with something like that, right? 😅 I like Lestat but not half as much as Anne Rice or her vampires. I'd like to see them ignore what he's up to and just get on with their own lives sometimes. Behind her plan to go to Lestat though is her desire to reunite with Marius, evidently in recalling past events she's become nostalgic for what they had and wants to give it another go maybe! I guess they have a lot of arguing to do about the nature of Lestat's religious experiences! So it does tie in with her narrative but I can't help but have that "give me a break" reaction when she says that. Overall it's a great, zippy little read (could be longer!) that fleshes out Pandora's character and gives some great insight on Marius and their relationship.
I've got Tale of the Body Thief next (because I will insist in reading these books in a stupid order) which is also new for me! Exciting!
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2/4/2024-2/18/2024 Progress Update
I just wanted to go ahead and get a head start on the next progress update. These past few weeks had a lot of interesting things. Firstly I started and finished most of my script for the project. I have the beginning and ending fully fleshed out, at least how I want it. My hurdle is in the middle, how I’m going to connect the two parts together. This is where I will be using ChatGPT as a virtual assistant. I will explain to it what I have already, and ask for ideas on where I can take the story from there. My goal is to not have it write specific scenes, but to at least give me scenarios in which I can apply to the script myself.
For context, my short film will be styled in an old Japanese samurai film, but with futuristic elements to it.
I already used ChatGPT to come up with names for my characters by describing their personalities and the nature of my script. The responses it gave me, and the reasoning behind the names turned out really great.
Alongside starting the script, I have also been practicing more with the AI tools. This time, instead of doing something unrelated to the project I built out a scene from my script, which I’ll link below.
I filmed the ship practically, once again using a model that I found on Amazon. I combined it with the use of 4 AI tools; Midjourney, Pixverse, Color Match.Ai, and Suno.ai.
I created the background using Midjourney, something I went over in my previous progress update. The shot I came up with is a top-down shot of a forest. From there I threw it into Pixverse, a free AI website that adds movement to photos using depth mapping (something I also went over in my previous update). The result was great but the final result was only 8 seconds long, so I slowed it down in premiere. It’s longer, but the movement in the image is now less noticeable.
Shooting the model practically ended up being a bit rough. Firstly, propping the camera to be above the model (whether actually placed above the model, or turning the model on its side) proved to be a hassle. C-stands would have fixed this issue, but the ones I ordered prior to the new year still never to shipped.
I used to own a slider but the person I lent it to has not returned it. A lesson for the future about loaning out equipment. To work around this, I Jerry-rigged a dolly to a tray so I can pull the model and the green screen.
The results came out clunky and rotoscoping in After Effects started to get rough with the finer details, so I ended up freeze framing it in premiere, and adding the motion manually through key frames.
Colormatch.ai is a software I invested in a few years back, it works by importing a still image of something with color grading you’d like to try out, and it exports a similar result for use in your own projects. Since one of the inspirations to my project is Akira Kurosawa, I wanted to replicate the black and white methods used.
But why use this instead of just pulling the saturation down? One thing about Kurosawa’s stuff I’ve noticed is the halation and sharp contrast that his films have. I wanted to try and replicate that as best as I could. The end results weren’t perfect but it’s a good starting point.
Suno.ai is similar to Midjourney, but for generating non-copyrighted music. The results aren’t perfect and there’s a lot of artifacting in the songs, but for something that matches my theme I think it turned out quite alright for now.
To solidify the scene, I added some fog effects and speed-ramped it as the ship flies by.
In the end, I came up with this result after about 2-3 hours of messing around to see what works, and about an hour and a half of execution on a “final”product. As I near further into my production I hope to flesh it out even more.
I hope by the end of the next update, I will have finished the script, storyboard, and shot list.
After that, I will be looking to translate my script into Japanese for authenticity. Then I’ll be onto looking for talent and possibly crew to help me out.
I know I promised a breakdown on EBSynth, and I promise I’ll get that out soon!
Until then, here is the scene that I have created while testing everything out. It’s short but hopefully by the end of it all will be a part of a greater scene.
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books and my thoughts on them - January
finished this month
How to Love your Daughter by Hila Blum
My weakness for stories about a complicated mother daughter relationship made me have such high hopes for this book, but then I ended up sitting there like “ok, that’s it?”. We follow it from the mother’s perspective through the whole time. In this time we learn why she has never met her grandchildren and why she also hasn’t any contact with her daughter in the first place. And this sounds promising, especially since she is at a point that she decides to stalk her daughter, finding out where she now lives, does etc, but never decides to talk to her. But we also get this anachronistic order of events and that was so confusing to me way too often. First of all I have listened to it as an audiobook, but the writing just stayed the same in whatever timeline we were. Maybe the physical book did a better job on showing the anachronistic order, but while listening to it I only realised that we are in a certain timeline at the point where for example the mother says something related to her daughters age like school(-work). This realisation came often mid chapter. A thing that I liked tho was how the mother reads some existing books and reflects on them. At the end of the book there was a little list with the mentioned books, and idk I haven’t read something like that before. I mean yes, authors obviously naming books like Romeo and Juliet in their work, but this book hasn’t said either another author or their works name. Just a “I read this one book about a girl, that ….” and this gave me a bigger authenticity and depth of the character to me. In general I think the writer does a great job on describing motherhood (ig, I’m no mother), but at one point it also got so ducking weird. Which I have no clue on if those are normal mother thoughts or just in fact insane. There was this scene where the daughter was an infant and the mother pretended to eat her because she is so cute, but the mother’s thought process escalated low key and I was seriously thinking that she will eat her ducking child. In all it wasn’t really giving what I had expected of the book.
Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton
Another audiobook I have listened to. It was a little hard to get into it, because I have seen unclarley’s video about it, where she basically said everything that one needs to know. So it was a lot of repetition for me, but you know, I still wanted to have my own experience with it. As someone growing up and living in Germany I have known the name Paris Hilton as well as the Hilton Hotels, but I never knew what made her famous in the first place. I knew her as the blondie who has nothing in her brain, only partying. And I think that she does a great job reflecting on her party life, her relationships, media and mostly herself. Hilton links most of her behaviour to her back then undiagnosed ADHD, while also mentioning that everything she has done isn’t an excuse for anything, but that these things made her the person she is today. Yet it is “just” Hilton’s perspective on things with a great self awareness and the ability to reflect, while also being true to herself.
Sucker Punch by Roy Williams
My first uni read of 2024. I had to read it for a presentation for my afropessimism class and so I wasn’t surprised by its potential. (do not want to add any more thoughts, because I have my semester break and I don't want to think to hard about uni)
Be not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection by Mimi Zhu
The youtuber withcindy told in a review that people who are into crystals could enjoy this book. So this and the title were an obvious sign that I should get a copy. I’m always down to grow as a person, but this book wasn’t really giving me any tools on how to do so. The chapters are about a specific feeling on which the author reflected on by mostly linking it to their abusive relationship with X. This makes one clear where the problem with for example shame is and how this also can affect people around us. But besides some rhetorical questions, which may or may not be useful, there weren't really examples on how to leave this shame behind. Maybe it’s my fault for seeing it as a self help book rather than a memoir/autobiography. In all, I think that for me I could take mostly out of the last chapters that were about community, miracles and love, because in them I got some sort of an idea on how to change my views and behaviour to get that feeling of (self-) love.
Currently reading
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
This book was so long on my tbr and I have finally decided to buy it by gifting it to myself for Christmas. I sometimes forget how personal and private it actually is what I am reading. Plath’s writing style in her journals and her letters sound so thought through, every word seems so well chosen that I forget that this is a journal and not a fiction story of a girl growing into a woman. There is a kind of comfort in reading Plath thinking and reflecting about herself, boys and men, the meaning of life and also her wish for a writing career. Even this well known person was still a woman who wrote her thoughts and worries down (but in A WAY). I am just 30% in and I take my time reading and processing it.
#bookblr#books#book review#book thoughts#Paris Hilton#memoir#sylvia plath#play#sucker punch#be not afraid of love#how to love your daughter
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1106 11Mar23: suppose these next few days could pave the path of how my last few months in the Navy are going to go. I can either end it nice a quietly or it will be a struggle.
But I am not trying to dwell on those things. The stress levels get all stirred up and I really don't need the stress.
As I was reading random things this morning a "Dark Theme" came across.
Christine Chubbuck.... you may or may not have heard this name before. She is said to be the first person to ever commit suicide on live TV.
As a news anchor she reported the news and then there was a glitch in the feed and she "improved" saying something around the lines of "and keeping with such and such channel news of bringing you the most up to date gruesome and horric stories", she pulled out a revolver and shot herself in the head behind her right ear. She died like 14 or 17 hours later at the medical center...
So I got to thinking. This film has never been released and has been locked up with orders to never release it to the public. This happened in the 1970's so yes it was on film and as far as we know there has never been a digital version made.
But this got me thinking that, without purposely glorifying the act, would it be worth doing a short story take on this event with different names, of course.
Settings wise, you would need basically three sets. A newsroom, a news scene, and a hospital setting.
So a basic setting would give a basic story... but if we could make some prop news cameras, it could build some depth to be able to build the story as far as showing how horric the scene was to those in the studio when it happened.
So I would like to, if you can't tell from how I'm breaking this down, give a more in-depth story to not really give any one side of the suicide glory. In the end, someone loses their life, and those who witnessed can never unsee the image of a lady they worked with, maybe even had a personal attachment to take her own life.
So there is another short story to add to my list of films to be worked. It's also a period piece as it's dated in the 1970s, which gives me the opportunity to work with specifics and color science to build a fairly accurate story.
How does my mind do this?!?!?!
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penny for your thoughts on salmondean codependency ?
Sure. Fair warning it’s long (was longer but I stopped myself.)
I think it’s complicated in a show that’s had so many different showrunners because they’ve all handled Sam and Dean’s relationship very differently. In Kripke’s era (s1-5) there was a romanticization of the bond. Sure there was a lot of in-depth exploration of how they wound up at the place they were at, spoiler alert: it was all because of John and his obsessive crusade to find the demon that killed his wife. That’s all he cared about and as a result, Sam and Dean had to be everything to each other. But Kripke had no intention of dismantling that at any point because he was (and always had been) writing a tragedy. Gamble continued that too. There was no room for anyone else in their lives and it would always just be the two of them against the world. So Cas had to go. Bobby had to go.
(Actually, it's funny because Gamble didn't intend this at the time, her plan was to kill Cas off, but by Edlund creating the masterpiece that is The Man Who Would Be King, he not only saved Cas from being seen as a villain, but he also deepened Dean and Cas' relationship in such a profound way and inextricably linked the two of them emotionally. And since Cas was eventually brought back, that laid the foundation for a lot of what their relationship would become.)
Up until this point, there hadn’t really been any significant dismantling of perhaps the more unhealthy parts of Sam and Dean’s relationship. Enter Carver. He stripped things down and started to explore what drove these characters. What they wanted and why they couldn’t have it. It starts with Dean being mad at Sam for not looking for him in purgatory, which sets up the whole speech in the s8 finale of Sam’s guilt about letting Dean down, but the thing is, Dean was never honest with Sam about his year away either. He never told Sam he could have gotten out much sooner if he hadn’t stayed to find Cas. I mean Dean had assumed Sam was up there alone doing God knows what to try to bring him back, and yet still he stayed in Purgatory because things were clear there. He needed Cas. Anyway, I just find that interesting, but Cas isn’t a victim of Sam and Dean’s relationship in s8.
Who gets the honour of being cast aside? That would be Benny and Amelia, two characters they introduced in s8 specifically to highlight that Sam and Dean’s relationship doesn’t allow for anyone else to be a significant part of their life. I mean that’s nothing new, we’ve watched that happen many times before. Lisa even said as much to Dean. The thing is this time? It’s framed as a truly sad thing. That moment at the end of 8x10 when Dean has just ended things with Benny and Sam leaves Amelia, and they’re sitting alone drinking beer and watching tv is such a hollow empty moment. This is not what they want. But it’s the way things have to be.
I’m actually fascinated by Sam and Dean’s conversation in the church in the s8 finale. Not so much Dean’s assertion that there is no one else he would put before Sam, but more so what provokes it, which is Sam saying “who are you going to turn to instead of me. Another angel? Another vampire?” See the thing is Dean saying he would always put Sam first is not news. We know this and it’s not really an unhealthy statement in itself either. A lot of people would put their sibling above anything else, not less a sibling who you raised and is the most important person to you. But in this context? After what Sam said? It just highlights how unhealthy they are if Sam believes that Dean having other people in his life means he doesn’t love him enough. That he’s a disappointment to him. That’s so profoundly fucked up.
(Note, Dean tells Sam that he killed Benny for him but he doesn’t say anything about Cas. I think like I said before, this is because Cas and Dean’s relationship has largely existed out of the Sam and Dean stuff up to this point - Sam and Cas don’t even really have much of a relationship yet besides both of their connections to Dean.)
And then from here, things start getting steadily worse. But we also keep being shown how bad they are. Dean lying to Sam, taking away his free will by letting Gadreel possess him. Dean sending Cas away, Kevin dying. It’s all awful. The whole “there ain’t no me if there ain’t no you line” from 9x01 isn’t really said by Dean, it’s Gadreel, but that is how Dean feels. He does think that’s all he’s good for. And over the season we’re shown how much of himself and what he truly wants he’s had to give up because of his ingrained “Save Sammy” and “Sammy comes first” mentality. It’s always been this way for him. In 9x07 we see that he had found a happy home, a good father figure, and his first love, a first love might I add that he had to leave behind with no real explanation because Sam needed him, and Sam comes first.
I mean just one episode earlier we had him rushing out the door elated about seeing Cas and spending time with him, only for their time together to come to sad and melancholic end when Dean once again leaves Cas behind without any real explanation, because despite what he wants Sammy comes first. What he wants doesn’t matter.
See I think after the Gadreel stuff comes out is where the narrative starts to get a little wonky for me. You can clearly see that this was intended to be a shorter story that they ended up stretching out to a much longer one because of renewals. There’s also the fact that this is a formula show so they can’t necessarily be separated for longer than an episode or two. S10 is a rough one to get through at times, I think the themes still mostly hold up but it’s a rough one to get through.
S10 highlights all the connections that Dean has, Cas, Charlie, Crowley even, but Sam doesn’t really have those bonds in the same way. For Sam it’s just Dean, so he goes down a reckless destructive “do anything to save Dean!” path and so many innocents pay the price, and ultimately with the release of The Darkness, the whole world.
They skirted right up to the edge of exploring just how toxic and dangerous their relationship had become in the season 10 finale.
DEAN: I let Rudy die. How was that not evil? I know what I am, Sam. But who were you when you drove that man to sell his soul... Or when you bullied Charlie into getting herself killed? And to what end? A..a good end? A just end? To remove the Mark no matter what the consequences? Sam, how is that not evil? I have this thing on my arm, and you're willing to let the Darkness into the world.
I can’t say evil is the right word, they were never evil, but they were wilfully blind to everything and everyone else when it came to saving each other. S10 tested my love for the show because after watching it, because there was certainly a feeling that the two of them had become the villains of this story. And don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a problem with that, it’s just after 2 seasons of this I can’t say I had a lot of faith that this was going to be properly addressed or if we were going to keep going in circles around it. Keep being shown, it’s bad and then nothing much being done to fix it. Your mileage may vary on how it was handled, but I think s11 did a relatively ok job considering it wasn’t the end of the story, and the show needed to keep going.
See from Dean’s side a lot of the codependency rests on
1. His father’s orders to always save Sammy
2. His low self-esteem where he sees himself as nothing but a blunt instrument.
3. His guilt at not being able to perfectly fulfil every familial role in Sam’s life
4. His belief that no one could choose to love him but family has to love you.
5. The unhealthy example of what it should look like to love someone that he got from John. You give up everything but them.
For Sam (and honestly it’s not as clear for me as Dean’s side is so feel free to correct me/disagree on this)
1. Everytime he’s tried to leave and create his own life it’s never ended well.
2. His guilt over wanting freedom and a normal life when he was younger (I’m referring specifically to Stanford era here)
3. His guilt over everything Dean has given up for him.
4. John.
5. Jess.
Ultimately it all comes down to isolation. They both had to be everything to each other, and the deeper they got into this fight, the more people that they lost, the tighter they clung to this notion of family and brothers. I think s11 (and 11x23 in particular) was an important turning point, both for Sam and Dean’s relationship, as well as for them as individuals. Because they weren’t alone there anymore. Cas was there. Sam let Dean walk to his death. Of course, it would devastate him, but he knew it was what had to be done. And he didn’t walk out of that bar and go back to the bunker alone. He had Cas, he had someone who cared about him and wanted to help him and talk to him. Sure Dean asked Cas to take care of Sam for him (you know after Cas offered to walk to his death with him) but Sam let him. He let him be there for him. We didn’t get to see much before the BMOL showed up and blasted Cas away, but still, we saw enough.
I think that’s a significant difference to note why their relationship was different in the Dabb era. It wasn’t just them anymore. Cas was an important member of their family and given a level of importance he’d never been given before and couldn’t have been when the story they were telling was of the dangers of their codependency. Mary was back. Eventually, Jack would become a part of their unit too. Just the two of them wasn’t enough for them anymore. This is made abundantly clear with all of Dean’s desperate attempts to get Cas to stay in s12, followed by his inability to keep going when they lose Cas and Mary in s13. Similarly, Sam really struggles when they lose Jack and fail to get Mary back later in the season.
Another big moment is Dean letting Sam go alone to lead the hunters against the BMOL in 12x22 while he stays back to try and reach Mary. Like he tells Mary, he’s had to be a brother, a father and a mother to Sam and he never stopped seeing him as his kid, but in that moment he makes a choice. He lets Sam take charge and he shows that he trusts him and believes in him. He knows he can handle it.
Sometimes it’s not even a character growth thing. Sometimes having other people there stops you from making destructive choices even though that’s still your first instinct. I’m thinking specifically of 13x21 after Sam was killed. Dean would have run headlong into that nest of vampires and got himself torn apart, but Cas was there to stop him. He was able to make him see reason.
Basically, I think that for a long time, they thought the only relationship they could have was each other, which then became a self-fulfilling prophecy because their desperate attempts to keep each other around led to them losing the people around them. They eventually started to learn that that wasn’t true, they could have more, they were allowed to want more, and that it wasn’t an either-or situation. Dean didn’t have to choose between Sam and Cas. They didn’t have to choose between each other or Jack. The same goes for Mary. Different relationships can coexist without threatening each other, and not say that their relationship in s12-15 was all smooth sailing, but it was certainly so very different from everything that came before.
(There’s maybe a point to be made about how they didn’t have anyone or anything in the finale and how that relates to the story we got, but honestly I have no idea what the intention was with any of the choices made in that episode so I’ll leave it at that for now.)
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Artstyle-As-Arc Starring FLCL’s Mamimi
You know those anime where characters just, ya know, *talk* at each other about their internal feelings, in static shot/reverse shot? They just spell out their ~arc~ for like twelve episodes right to the audience, as if character development is defined by words per minute? It's a hallmark of lazy & cheap shows (either on money or effort), where the ideas could be communicated visually - its animation after all - but that takes work so eh, two talking heads is pretty much the same thing right? Pro tip: it's not.
Every time this storytelling approach comes up in animation I think back to FLCL as the ur-example of visuals-first character development, and specifically to Mamimi, the show’s orphaned third wheel. I wasn’t sure how solid this point was going to be before I rewatched it recently with this in mind, but sure enough this is 98% true: Mamimi has a full arc and never says a single word of dialogue directly about her own internal struggles. Every up and down (let's be honest, mainly downs) is communicated visually or through the inference from organic conversations with others, and this tertiary protagonist in 6 episodes gets a far richer story than most for the trouble.
What makes FLCL so good at this? There is a lot to it, such as the use of symbols and tone shifts, but one of the FLCL standout traits is how it changes its art style all over the place even in the middle of episodes as part of its free-wheeling directorial approach. I have definitely heard these shifts described as random, but it doesn’t take much to realize that isn’t the case. How the art style is used to communicate emotion is sometimes extremely blatant, like when government agent Amarao goes from Officer in Charge barking orders:
To a vain approval-mongering simp desperate to look hot for his ex in the space of a single smash cut:
How going from Shonen to South Park captures those two moods, once you know the point of the scene character-wise, really doesn’t need elucidation - though maybe it did if you were a Japanese audience member in the year 2000, who almost certainly had no damn clue what South Park was...but that is its own tangent.
Those kinds of style transitions, however, are the low-hanging fruit of the show - Mamimi does not get almost any such scenes. In fact that is the point of her character, being buffeted around by the zany insanity of FLCL’s world, but never quite being a part of it. For her, the shifts are much more subtle, occurring in how she is drawn and lit. Meet “base” Mamimi:
A (very well drawn) anime girl, note the general lack of nose, large-but-not-too-large eyes, and linework in the hair to indicate depth. This shot is how you first meet Mamimi, and it's of course neutral in tone - it's how the main character Naota sees her.
Here is another base Mamimi, angry this time, ‘cause she is adorable:
But Mamimi doesn’t stay neutral for long - she is a bit of a trainwreck, a 17 year old girl unloved and abandoned by everyone, except perhaps our 12 year old Naota who she unconsciously manipulates out of desperation. Unable to save herself she places her hope in other people/robots/occasionally pyromania to do it for her, and as the show progresses her arc is to lose all those false hopes and have nothing left. In *those* moments of realization, Mamimi looks like this:
Of course her mood is different, full thousand-yard-stare, but they hit that mood by expanding her eye size horizontally, so you instinctively notice the expansion and focus in on their lifelessness that now dominates her face. Her hair is also stringier, giving the scene more realism but also her hair less life (it is wet in this scene, but ‘base’ Mamimi with wet hair doesn’t have the same style at all). The biggest shift is of course in the lighting - going from “solid tone” shading to more gradients on the background and on the cigarette light. These elements add to the realism of the tone, without making Mamimi’s face any more realistic or less blank - which is intentional, as ‘blank’ is a pretty good descriptor of her current state of mind. She is barely a person at this point. Of course a stringy-haired girl smoking a cigarette off-center-frame (depressed!Mamimi is very often off-center-frame) is *also* telling us she is dead inside, but it isn’t just that - it is that in partnership with the way she is drawn. Throwing a cigarette on base Mamimi doesn’t hit the same way.
So that is Mamimi at her mid-point, and things get worse for her before they get better. She isn’t the main character, however, so her own resolution happens on the sidelines of Naota’s - and she only gets one quick scene to do it. Naota is someone Mamimi liked but never respected, for many reasons but relevant here is that Naota, like Mamimi, could never be honest about who he really was and what he really wanted and instead put on false airs. As Naota finally is honest about his own feelings, and accepts the often-negative consequences of that honesty as a price worth paying, Mamimi - rejected by or disappointed in every outside force she put her trust into to hide from her own feelings - sees his internal courage and realizes that she has that too. And that is communicated the audience entirely via this scene:
Part of how it is communicated is her action, as she is taking a photo of Naota at his own moment of self-actualization as part of a motif where Mamimi would photograph objects and others as a way of creating distance from them to reinforce her outsider-looking-in status and how she could never really *see* Naota as an independent person due to how she manipulated him and also ~reasons but now she *does* see him as a person and through that sees her own weaknesses and strengths that their arcs mutually reflected and so is essentially photographing her aspirational self and...whew, okay, deep breaths. If you've seen FLCL you know all that of course, but how that motif is made to hit emotionally is again achieved through character design shifts that don’t require such context.
Mamimi has a nose! Look at that thing, anime characters don’t get noses, what is this? Also note the eyes - even in the second expression, when she relaxes her face, her irises take up way less of the total eye frame, and the eyes have more roundness overall. Her hair on the other hand has a good deal less detail, no full strands but instead just suggestive lines that hint at volume, and a general reduction in the boldness of the outlines. (And of course she is center-frame, for a directorial touch). All this adds together to dramatically enhance the realism of the point-of-focus, the face, while pulling details away from other areas to guide the eye. That realism makes Mamimi way more human; it strips away that anime-esque “distance” one can have from characters that lets you more easily accept slapstick hijinks or awesome-but-anatomically-questionable movement. This is now a person, because Mamimi is now a person. She realizes she does have inside her what it takes to be better, that she isn’t broken. She has a nose god dammit, she can do anything!
That scene is the last time she appears in the show - we learn from Naota over narration that she left town to be a photographer, so you get some concrete detail around the arc resolution, but all the emotion is contained in the frames. For me it's special when shows communicate emotion on every level available to them simultaneously; multi-medium messaging is what makes animation (and film writ-large) unique.
And there are a lot of shows out there that in my opinion could maybe rewatch media like FLCL and take some damn notes before they start storyboarding...
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Witch-Related Books to Grab off Amazon: Masterpost Part 1
First off, I'll be sectioning this into different parts based off of what type of witch you are/want to be/want more info on, or what practices you wanna add to your craft :)
Green Witch/Magick Herbalism (a classic):
The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock - $9.69 (Hardcover): This book had incredible reviews on amazon, and a lot of the written reviews said that the book wasn't specific to a religion and didn't try to push a religion on you, which is so wonderful because not everyone wants to be religious with their craft.
Plant Witchery by Juliet Diaz - $25.19 (Hardcover) $18.99 (Paperback): Again, stunning reviews, just a less popular book. This book isn't about general stuff, but instead it's more focused on mother nature and the useage of plants (non-herbal as well, so your houseplants might be mentioned too), which is great if you wanna center your practice around Gaia and the healing energies of the earth.
Herb Magick: An Introduction to Magickal Herbalism and Spells by Patti Wigington - $14.99 (Paperback): here's a review from a verified person- it explained this book WAY better than I ever could:
The focus of this book is on the folkloric and magical uses of herbs, rather than medicinal applications. It provides a few traditional uses of herbs, but the overall theme is knowledge of the plants and their associations, and incorporating them in your spiritual workings. This is an Introductory to Magical Herbalism.
The author's spiritual practice is rooted in traditional American and European Folk Magic. She is a licensed Pagan Clergy and is the founder of Clan Of The Stone Circle, a Celtic Pagan Tradition. (Funny, anything Celtic has been pulling my attention feelers lately, no wonder why I loved this book.) Her spells are derived/based upon the traditional folk magic practices of Western Europe and the British Isles, and the author's own experiences. They are positive spells for magical intentions of healing, love, prosperity, and protection. Baneful or negative workings with herbs are NOT used in this book.
The aesthetic of this book has my little, beginner herbalist heart gushing! The blue, green, and yellow earthy tones and hues used were perfect for the topic of herbs! The cover is GORGEOUS! It's so pretty and flowery, the illustrated pictures of the herbs were extremely helpful because I had never seen some of the plants before. This will make future identification much easier for me!
Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham - $16.43 (Paperback): A couple reviews describe it as being in a cookbook format, and overall an amazing book, like most of Scott Cunningham's other works. Apparently the Amazon shipping was literal trash for a bunch of people and they essentially left the book loose inside the box to bang around and get all sorts of messed up :((
The Witch's Herbal Apothecary by Marysia Miernowska - $18.69 (Paperback): Described by reviewers as the PERFECT book for recipes and rituals, even one of Marysia's personal students spoke very highly of her, saying that she's the real deal. Other reviews state the book as being very beginner friendly, and beautifully written and illustrated :))
Blackthorn's Botanical Magic: The Green Witch's Guide to Essential Oils for Spellcraft, Ritual, and Healing by Amy Blackthorn - $15.79 (Paperback): again, phenomenal reviews, just a lesser-known book. Again, here's a review from someone who explained the book a bit better than I could:
This book is way more than I thought it would be. I thought it would be like a dictionary - you look up the essential oil and get the definition. It is that but it's also got a few introductory chapters about oils and products and rituals to give you a nice and concise overview of a lot of things you might need to know as a novice. I also like the way you can reference different oils in alpha order but also look up your purpose and find the oil you need.
From the looks of it, this book is specifically about Essential Oils. Is that still Green Witchery?? Lol I'm not sure, but i felt like it should go in this category.
Kitchen Witch (another classic):
Blackthorn's Botanical Brews by Amy Blackthorn - $14.49 (Hardcover): this is mainly a book of recipes for drinks and cocktails and stuff. There was one review complaining about how it didn't have correspondences, meanwhile the book is literally described as being a recipe book? It's an AMAZING book if you enjoy/want to start making homemade elixirs and cocktails :))
The Natural Witch's Cookbook: 100 Magickal, Healing Recipes, and Herbal Remedies to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit by Lisanna Wallace - $20.69 (hardcover): This is again just a book of recipes, and the reviews are really good. Here's one of them:
I wanted to write the review as soon as I got the book. I was not expecting this book to be so fantastic. The recipes are very nutritious and the names are very inventive, but I could see that before I tried the recipes. I held off on writing the review until I tasted a few of the recipes. Even my kids were very happy with the flavors of these recipes. They are mostly easy to make and they are very delicious. Be aware though that the food can only be as great as the quality of the ingredients that you get. These are not recipes that call for complicated or fancy ingredients, or even a lot of ingredients. As a result, you have to use the best that you can find/afford to get the best results you can. I did not use expensive ingredients, but everything I used was very fresh and it does make a difference on the outcome. Overall, the book have some great recipes, easy to follow and the end result does look like the ones on the picture.
The Book of Kitchen Witchery by Cerridwen Greenleaf - $12.89 (Paperback):
I am so pleased with this book. It’s so magical and warm. Sometimes the new age genre can be a little too technical or focus too much on religion or putting down particular religions... this was not like that. There are so many lovely tips and easy spells and recipes that are kept fairly light so you can make them your own. The book just makes me happy, it has an energy to it that goes right along with it’s artsy illustrations and at-a-glance format. This will be a great reference. Very grateful to everyone who made this book possible.
A former editor said that there were a few editing mistakes, but nothing too crazy. If that's one of your pet peeves, just beware when buying this book lol (btw the editor still have a 4 star review because they said the book is still very good)
Potions, Elixirs & Brews by Anaïs Alexandre - $12.79 (Hardcover): I just had to include both of these amazing reviews, since both said what the other review did not.
This book is so gorgeous and everything I have been looking for in regards to potions. I love her writing style and the way the book looks. Highly informative and I can feel her good intentions behind the book. She is very intelligent. I respect her and I am inspired by her! I found her by chance looking up books for potions, she also has Instagram! Very grateful, amazing book thank you:-) so happy to be the first comment:p excited to see what else amazing things come from Anais!
And
I adore this book. The art and setup is simplistic and beautiful. There is a system that tells you exactly how difficult each potion will be to make, whether or not it’s alcoholic, and what is the ideal season to make it in. The instructions are clear, the preliminary information is well done, and there’s even a section for brewing large batches which I LOVE. The weight of the book is nice and it feels of good quality. The papers are glossy and, I haven’t yet, but I feel like it won’t be a disaster If you get some of your creation on it. The book is separated into types of potions depending on your intent. This is a perfect book for anyone new to making potions or is interested in a magickal recipe book!
The Witches Feast: A Kitchen Grimoire by Melissa Madara - $35 (Hardcover): This book actually isn't out yet, but it'll be released on October 26th of this year (2021). It looks promising, which is why I put it on the list, and for that much money, it better be good lol
Lunar/Moon/Astrology Witch:
The Complete Guide to Astrology by Louise Edington - $9.49 (Paperback) $22.99 (Hardcover): There's amazing reviews on this book, and one of them said that she's been researching astrology for 23 years!! Here's the review in it's entirety:
I've been a student of Astrology for the past 23 years now, and have read most of the books on this subject that are considered foundational. Many guides to astrology that I page through in a bookstore are fine, but covering information I already know. What I so appreciated about Edington's new book is that she brings a new angle to even the basics of Astrology. Her book feels like a fresh update, more appropriate to our current time in terms of language and sensibility. There are no "evil" aspects or transits in Edington's view, no dark warnings of disaster; her evolutionary perspective encourages us to see the opportunity in even the most challenging times, what can be learned, what can be accomplished. As she says in her book, she doesn't look at the natal chart as something fixed, unchanging, rather a "blueprint rich in meaning and possibility."
I also admired Edington's extensive knowledge of the stories behind the names and symbology used in Astrology: sharing her interpretations of them, how they are useful, how they can be limiting. Concepts I thought I already understood have been unpacked in greater depth by the author, so that I see deeper layers.
This text is beautifully written, well-organized, offering a fresh update, as well as a deeper dive than many astrology texts. This book is an invaluable resource I'll be returning to, and consulting, with appreciation.
Moon Spells: How to Use the Phases of the Moon to Get What You Want by Diane Ahlquist - $11.35 (Paperback): This book is a bit older fashioned in the sense that it's VERY heteronormative, we're talking about love magick SPECIFICALLY for men and all about being a father, and a section of love magick SPECIFICALLY for women and being a mother. So if this gets on your nerves, then i wouldn't recommend this book. Other than that, the reviews are very good and they describe the book as being a must-have for lunar witches.
The Complete Book of Moon Spells by Michael Herkes - $13.49 (Paperback): Yes, this book was written by a man. If that's something that might make you not want to purchase, please look at this and also keep in mind that SO MANY of the most highly esteemed witches of the world ARE MEN. So if you wanna be closed off and refuse their help and their knowledge, go ahead sis, I'm not stopping you.
He's most definitely not just "some guy". Aside from that, this book has very good reviews. Some people called it "fluffy" and a bit less serious then they anticipated, but it's very good for beginner witches who are finally wanting to start doing spells. Here's a review.
In this book you explore ways to conjure the mysterious power of the moon to manifest your intentions to achieve abundance and balance in your life! Each chapter is devoted to one of the eight phases of the moon and includes various spells, tarot spreads, crystal grids and potions that reflect that phase of the moon!
This is an overall amazing book if you want to build a foundation of learning about the history of the moon, astrology, cycles & phases, ritual tools, crystals, herbs, and essential oils- as well as the moon spells and rituals.
This is one of my new favorite books! I feel so connected to the moon and this book is a great reference for learning the best rituals and spells to use for the different moon phases and energies surrounding them! It’s easy to follow and the lunar rituals, mystical spells and magical drinks are so vibrant, creative and helpful in my spiritual journey. I’d recommend this book to anyone that loves the moon like I do.
Moon Magic: A Handbooks of Lunar Cycles, Lore, and Mystical Energies by Aurora Kane - $19.99 (Hardcover, although there's only three left when I'm looking at it) $9.99 (Kindle):
One review said that the book much surpassed their expectations, and another review said this:
I absolutely adore this book.
If you're just a beginner and want to understand the different moon phases, this is the book to get.
The information inside was extremely helpful without being overly complicated.
Well worth the money spent.
Astrology: Using the Wisdom of the Stars in Your Everyday Life by DK - $14.59 (Hardcover):
I saw this in store and was immediately drawn to it's beautiful and shiny cover! But when I open it, the inside is just as beautiful! I love looking through the pages. I would say it is a very good basic astrology book, but I have another one that gives much more detail. I like this one for more of a quick reference kind of book. It's more of a bullet point style book, where it gives little tidbits instead of paragraphs going in depth. (Though some pages do have paragraphs) BUT, it covers just about everything including all the houses, moon signs, and ascending signs. It covers everything, but it just covers he tip of the iceberg. (In my opinion) I still absolutely recommend it!
Apparently this book is also available in Barnes and Noble, so if you have access to one, you might wanna look there for the book before purchasing off of Amazon :)
Misc Books (General):
The Spell Book for New Witches: Essential Spells to Change Your Life by Ambrosia Hawthorn - $10.19 (Paperback) $20.69 (Hardcover):
This book... It's a very good spell book, and is true in the spells it contains, but MY biggest problem with it is that it's V E R Y Wiccan, and seems almost preachy about the "Threefold Law" and what they like to call "karma". Choosing not to do dark magick is PERFECTLY FINE and being Wiccan is totally okay! But don't be like Christianity and rub it in people's faces, dude. The book talks about how you can ONLY practice "love and light". Other than that, this book is AMAZING and rated literally 5 stars with over 11K reviews. If you lean more Wiccan, by ALL means, buy this spellbook. It's the one for you.
Practical Magic for Beginners by Maggie Haseman - $13.49 (Paperback)
This book is fantastic for the witch who wants to learn more about her craft but doesn't know where to start. Each subject is broken down into easy to absorb bits of wisdom without being overwhelming. A great jumping off place to decide where to dive in deep next.
This book is very comprehensive, and is a great reference guide for beginner witches, or witches looking to add another book to their collection.
Candle Magic For Beginners by Mystic Dylan - $10.86 (Paperback) $21.99 (Spiral bound)
This book is a must have for anyone looking to deepen their connection with the magical element of fire, ritual, and spell work through candle magic! Dylan not only teaches you how to use candle magic for things such as protection, abundance, love, healing, and more, but takes you through the fascinating history of the power of fire & how to properly charge, cleanse, and consecrate your candles to begin manifesting your deepest desires!!! Overall, the book is beautifully written with gorgeous illustration and will hook you from the start!!!!!!!
This book is perfect for beginners to candle magick, or beginners to the craft in general. I personally LOVE candle magic because I've always been attracted to fire. I could void out and just stare at a flame for hours on end lol
Crystals for Beginners by Karen Frazier - $8.99 (Paperback) $20.95 (Spiral bound)
Absolutely love this book!! It’s so informative! I am a beginner and this book explains a lot. Everything a beginner would need to know about crystals is in this book. I am so pleased with it. Best purchase of the week! Definitely worth it. The author explains crystals, chakras and energy so enthusiastically and in a way that is easy to understand. At the end of the book, is a “resources” page with all the websites, books and apps that the Author recommends.
Again, very beginner friendly, but this time it's not spells, it's crystals and such. I've personally been wanting this book for AGES
The Crystal Bible Series by Judy Hall - $38.99 (Volume 1-3 shrink-wrapped set, paperback):
This is my first purchase of the three-part series by Judy Hall. Volume 1 covers over 200 crystals! I can already tell you I'll be purchasing volumes 2 and 3 (each of which cover 200+ MORE crystals/stones, not included in volume 1) I love how each crystal description includes photos to further help in identification. I also appreciate that rarity and sources were included. Information about the spiritual and physical impacts of crystals on the body is in there as well! This book is loaded with a lot of great information and is the perfect quick reference. It's also small and fits easily in my hand. I highly recommend it for beginners.
This is a review from just the first book, and it's from a verified hauler/buyer :)) these aren't exactly newbie friendly, and some people say they're a bit harder to understand.
#witch books#witch books masterpost#witch masterpost#witchy things#witch things#witchy books#witchcraft#chaoswitch#eclectic witch#witch#witchy#witchy stuff#magick#green witch#herbalist witch#magical herbs#magical herbalism#green witch books#astrology#astrology books#kitchen witch#kitchen witch books#spellbooks#spellbook#spell books#spell book#super long post#long witch post
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Do you know how a basic story structure is designed? No?
Well, you need at least two very simple parts:
A main conflict or problem.
A way to solve the problem or conflict.
If you can to add another part, it can be:
The consequences of that problem solving.
It baffles me that people doesn't know yet that they can't possibly understand the theme or major point of MHA / BNHA without studying Shigaraki Tomura along with Midoriya Izuku.
Why? Because from those two characters the plot and the theme of the story are built. Shigaraki is the personification of the problem, while Deku is the personification of the will to solve the problem.
But first, what do I believe is MHA / BNHA theme anyway? That answer is easy: violence.
Think about one of the first interactions in the whole manga, the panel where Bakugo bullies Deku and throws his notebook out of the window. That scene is really really important because it contains the basis of the whole manga, it sets in your brain how the story will follow:
A kid fails to understand and see another kid because he's filled with violence, to the point he doesn't care what type of damage he's causing. The other kid wants to react violently, but fails to do it. He doesn't know how to explain himself or make the other see him from his own point of view, so he goes home, not giving up on his dream.
MHA / BNHA is the story of how people can learn to break the chain of violence that drives a society in order to stop generation more violence. Ah, do you recognize which speech I'm referring too? Hold on for a little longer, we're getting there.
Now, after being told he couldn't be a hero by All Might because he didn't have a quirk, Deku saved Bakugo anyway, proving that the concept of hero in that society was not the best. A hero doesn't need to have quirks (related to violence) to save someone. It's not only about the fights, but about saving the heart of the other people, inspiring them to do better.
Of course we see Deku adopted the violent ways of the heroes once he starts attending UA. By inserting himself in that society, Deku needs go to its very core to understand the problem. That's why the Bakugo vs Deku battles are so important, or why the plot furthers through fights and violent confrontations instead of simple talks.
Do you know who's the one who actually breaks the society view and shows Deku that violence can't be fought with violence? Take a guess.
Shigaraki Tomura.
Yeah, like I say, if you want to know what this manga is about, don't get distracted with the story or the setting, you need to pay attention to the characters who are explain almost to the reader what is going on in their world.
Tomura's first speech is the very foundation of this story. He says that they, in the mha /bnha universe, live in a society ruled by violence that has fallen into a never-ending cycle. Violence generates violence that generates violence.
He proves his point with his mere existence.
But there's a sub-point, a thing that allows violence to exist in that universe : lack of communication or poor quality communication.
Or, how I like to call it, the inability to see the world through the other's eyes.
This inability is what makes of Endeavor an abuser, for example. He failed to see the world from other perspectives and drowning on his own beliefs, he refuses to accept a version of the world that's not what he thinks.
When All Might and Deku first met, All Might failed to see Deku through his own eyes and for that he didn't understood the kid had a hero heart at first.
Or in the case of the League of Villains, the heroes keep failing to at least consider their perspectives of the society they live in, and that's why they'd rather see the members of the League as monsters and villains than humans hurting and victims seeking validation.
You can see how in the course of the manga, the UA kids and Deku learn how to see the world from new perspective, specially from little kids' points of view, because they are not used yet to the way society works. Again and again, Deku has the opportunity to peak through the villains and victims eyes. Horikoshi builds a whole path Deku has to walk before reaching the final battle, when he's gonna need every bit of experience he got.
Now, the breaking point from Deku, the moment he had enough experience to finally understand what was happening or at least begin to do so, what's his battle with Shigaraki Tomura on the War arc.
Please note how a conversation with Izuku was what gave Shigaraki a clear goal of a thing to focus on, and note that Tomura does the same for Izuku, because then again, the are the two more important characters in the whole narrative. Every other character is a version of the conflict and the solution or they are the consequences, where we get to see what a violent society generates.
It's because Izuku had had so many battles that he could stare into Tomura's, pass the society prejudices (the villain), and find what used to be Shimura Tenko (the victim). In that moment, like he did many times before in minor cases, he broke the violence against violence ritual the hero system normally uses. It didn't last, but that's not important. Deku looked back at the way he'd been through and found that never once he tried to stop the villains by trying to see from their point of view. Instead, he followed the pro-heroes behaviors and stayed happy with just putting them on jail.
He was failing as a hero, because they were also people who needed help.
Turns out the answer was not in the heroes all along, but in the villains, specifically with the League. They were very loud about what they wanted and what they thought was wrong, but heroes refused to listen and instead discarded their opinions as stupid beliefs. Now, please note how people like Stain didn't have the same treatment, because they were obeying the rules of their society at a certain level.
You may not like Shigaraki Tomura, you may not like the League of Villains, but when it comes to breaking down Horikoshi's writing and story, you need to admit their importance and the depths of these characters. And even more, you can pretend to guess what will happen in the manga by blindly ignoring the main villains. You're just doing exactly what Horikoshi criticizes on his writing.
In the end, bnha / mha is about how we as a society need to learn how to properly communicate to stop generating conflicts that could be avoided, and it's also about how violence is never a satisfying answer because it is not a complete answer at all, it's only a prolongation of the problem.
#Long post#The king of my meta posts#Shan's mha meta#Mha meta#mha#my hero academia#Shan's bnha meta#Bnha meta#bnha#boku no hero academia#League of villains#LoV#Shan's lov meta#LoV meta#League of villains meta#Midoriya Izuku#Midoriya meta#Izuku meta#Deku#Deku meta#Shigaraki Tomura meta#Shigaraki meta#Tomura meta#Mha spoilers#Bnha spoilers#Horikoshi#Shimura tenko#War arc#AFO#All Might
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Moriarty the Patriot + The Final Problem
aka another unecessary essay from ya boy on how yuumori, instead of taking away from the original text, adds meaning and depth to it
So I finally got around to reading the final problem after wading through all the memoirs of sherlock holmes and yes, I am in fact reading these because of yuumori. I wanted to see how it was portrayed, what the differences and influences from the original source were. I did end up getting incredibly attached to the original series too, so yeah... I'm glad to report that the original and adaption get along well.
And yeah, I have a lot of thoughts, most of them being just me generally praising yuumori. I think it was straight up genius how they pulled so much content from... well, frankly. The Final Problem was a 15 page short story tossed off by Doyle in order to have an excuse to be done with sherlock holmes, told from the perspective of someone who wasn't even there. And yuumori still managed to make it generally very accurate and complementary to the original, while still being, uhhhhh really fucking different, let's say that.
Read more because again, long essay
Just my observations on the final problem itself is that it is so underdeveloped and told from an outsider perspective. Because of that, so many questions go unanswered, and the reader gets a sense that they are only witnessing a very small part of what actually happened. Sherlock can't afford to go into detail on what Moriarty was even involved in, Watson isn't privy to what's honestly even happening most of the time, and Moriarty just... has this extensive network of organized crime that just isn't even talked about other than Trust Me It's Bad Bro. We don't know Moriarty's intentions, most of who he is, and more questions are honestly brought up than answered within the story. Sherlock knows, oh that's for sure, Sherlock knows what's going on and he has no fucking time to tell Watson. You get a sense that Watson himself isn't even telling all that went down.
So yeah, I can see where there's so much room to expand upon here, not even to change things or make it different because it would be cool, but there's so much that could be happening just within the realm of plausible deniability in the canon.
And I think that it's amazing how Yuumori chose to market itself that way- not as an adaption or reimagining- but that this was in fact the Real story, with Doyle's final problem being... honestly a bit of a cover up, a purposeful misrepresentation of a small slice of the full story. It lends itself completely to that, and I think that's amazing.
(One thing I do find funny is that in Yuumori the story "the final problem" is depicted as a full novella that could be published on its own... man it's not nearly long enough for that but I find it funny in any way)
Of course, there are elements of yuumori that are yknow, simply not realistically something that could have happened, but most of the story is actually within that range of plausible deniability since the canon is so vague and sparse. And since they state that things were changed on purpose to protect people and the moriarty plan, it basically covers that all as simply The Truth. It's well done, and very interesting, especially with the new anime ending taking them to Reichenbach itself.
Like, yuumori didn't even truly change the appearances of the characters, from the descriptions. (we're not counting the illustrations lol) like, Sherlock was never stated (as far as I can tell) to have a specific hair or eye color, hairstyle or such.... he was described as tall, thin, eccentric, messy, with like... long fingers and stuff. Man, yuumori did not go against that. With Moriarty it's different, though he was also reportedly Tall and Thin and Built Like A Yaoi Protag for some goddamn reason, he... you know, has these weird and unattractive features as well, which... in the context of Watson trying to portray Moriarty as unmitigated evil in order to protect the plan, were in this situation made up specifically to further the idea that he was just that.
Because of this situation, the Moriarty that is portrayed as yeah, a smart guy and a threat but seriously just A Bad Dude who seems to have no particular reason behind his actions save being A Bad Dude actually make more sense as a cover up behind a more dangerous secret of him having Real Feelings than the only stated reason being "he inherited being evil from his family". (like... watson, really?)
It explains the vagueness and the events and the weird connection between those two better than the original does, and that's really cool to me.
On their own, without yuumori to back me up on these things, reading this would have left me confused and depressed. But as a half truth immortalized as the real story, you get so much more out of it.
Especially these certain scenes:
When Moriarty just pops into Sherlock's house and they proceed to have a basically wordless conversation amounting to
"you know why I'm here"
"you know how I'm going to respond"
"well then"
"here's date and time of our mutual destruction"
"thanks I'll be there"
"well I'll be off nice knowing you"
"wow it sucks that we're enemies he's such a civil guy"
It just really adds something to that, don't you think?
And the subject of their fall itself, simply the fact that Watson wasn't even there. No one witnessed it. No one found even Moriarty's body. No one found evidence of anything at all.
All Watson could say was that Sherlock and Moriarty had gone up to the mountain together, Moriarty told Sherlock of his plans, let Sherlock write and leave a letter to Watson, and that they never came back down. So he came to the conclusion that they must have fought and both fallen off.... like, holding each other. Not really sure how they reached that conclusion, to be honest.
It doesn't even make sense, exactly told how it is. If Moriarty wanted to kill sherlock and survive, he would have just... brought a fucking gun. Or just pushed him off on the way up. As soon as he got him alone just fucking stab the man. It would have been that easy, but no, he had a whole ass convo with the man, they went up civilly side by side, and they stayed on the cliff a long time while Sherlock wrote that letter. Even then, Sherlock could have just waited to catch Moriarty off guard and pushed him off. But he didn't.
Why would they even have fought, if it was so scheduled? You telling me to believe that after this letter was written and moriarty stood there watching him sipping tea or whatever he was suddenly like "ok im ready to fight now", knowing they would both probably die, and if they were genuinely trying to kill each other and survive, that would even make sense?
Of course, these problems in the original stem just from Doyle no longer giving a shit and slapping this together after losing motivation for sherlock, he was obviously, not hinting at some great conspiracy in the slightest.
But damn, Yuumori really does change that all for you, huh. It adds a whole new layer of context to it. And I like it a lot, I like what they've done on their own, I like what they've done for the original stories, and I especially like what they've done telling the "real story" of this short, vague, mystery that otherwise leaves you feeling unsatisfied and confused.
#rowan's hyperfixation essays#moriarty the patriot#yuukoku no moriarty#sherliam#sherlock holmes#rowan views moriarty
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Sunday 25/9/21 - Media Recommendations #19
Contents:
Twilight Princess (Manga)
Dr Stone (manga/anime)
Lately, I have had a lot I want to write about on this blog, but lack that activation energy to actually start writing an article. Ideally I will at least word vomit more onto the blog in the coming week or so, because I have the topics in mind, just unsure how to start any of it.
Media Consumption has also slowed to a crawl, but I'm getting back into it. This week I wanna discuss a manga series I've been reading slowly as it has released, and an anime I have long been reading the manga for.
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Manga)
Akira Himekawa
Zelda fans have a unique schism between their fans that many other longer running series may not experience. Because most games star a relatively unique cast of characters, a unique spin on the world, gameplay, and even artistic style, what your favourite in the series is will throw you into a hard debate against fans of other games. There's this post i saw somewhere(?) once where it was said your favourite Zelda game is the one that came out when you were 12, presumably because this is the one you experience first, or at least earlier in your Zelda journey, and I can completely relate to that.
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game I played, and it has been my number 1 or 2 in the series consistently. Compared to the games that came before it, it was darker, had a richer world, and just a grander scope. But today I'm not here to explain the game, I'm here to talk about the manga.
Akira Himekawa is a pseudonym for a pair of female manga artists that have been writing manga together since the early 90s, and I know them well for their Legend of Zelda adaptations. They have covered most of the main games everyone knows, Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask, A Link to the Past, and even a couple volumes of Four Swords Adventures. Their most recent work has also been the most long and in depth adaptation, my first Zelda game, Twilight Princess.
Like all of their Zelda adaptations, Akira Himekawa's Twilight Princess follows all the same plot beats as the main games. The order places are visited, the main characters Link encounters, the dungeons and their bosses, but the mangaka add... more to the world. Link has a deeper back story explaining what led to the start of the adventure. What in the games are essentially blank slate NPCs become characters in their own rights with personalities and arcs and motivations. The Twilight Realm, which is essentially just a dungeon in the game, is fleshed out as its entire world, with society, and lore.
In the game, Link is cool, and a bit of a himbo, but the manga's take on him is so much more interesting. He's a brooding edge lord, with a damaged past. He's a do-gooder, but he's also flawed and suffers from caring too much. Link is a character full of regrets who constantly bounces between "become a hero to prevent the atrocities of the past coming back" and "give up so that you don't make things worse". I understand that the games leave Link as a blank slate so that players can fill in their own ideals, but seeing Link as a fully fleshed character with his own motivations is cool as hell.
The supporting cast is similarly fleshed out compared to the game's take. Zelda, Illia, and Midna have complex motivations and evolving personalities. Midna was already a great character, but the manga truly does not skip out on making her deep and interesting. The "Resistance", for those who've played the game, are all multilayered characters now, all with arcs that are actively explored as they actually go help Link on his adventures, instead of just telling him info and leaving him to it. The dungeons do not take nearly as much plot time as they do in the games, essentially minimal theme building and then boss, but this works better for the format in my opinion.
If you like high fantasy manga, or are just a Zelda fan, I highly recommend this series. I haven't finished reading it, but Book 9, which I think is the final in the series, has recently been released in English. Obviously playing the game first is a good background, but I think you could 100% enjoy the series without it.
Edit: Finished book 9 and there's definitely at least one more book to go.
Dr Stone (anime/manga)
Inagaki, Boichi; TMS Entertainment
Ok so must I remember wrong because I thought I recommended this one, but apparently I never talked about Dr Stone before, which is a complete travesty. But now I am both up to date with the manga and most of a season deep into the anime, and I have A LOT to talk about.
As those who have also read my dinosaur blogposts will understand, I am a big science nerd. Biology, palaeontology, space, chemistry, it's all so interesting, and sometimes I struggle to understand how a passion for science is not a universal human experience. I share that in common with the main character of a manga I've been reading for maybe a year now, Dr Stone.
In Dr Stone, the world of 21st Century humanity is brought crashing to a halt when a bright wave of mysterious light blankets the entire planet, and everywhere on the entire globe, humans have been turned to stone. 3700 years later, a young man who has kept his mind active within the stone forces himself awake and breaks out. Around him, nature has reclaimed the Earth and millennia of human progress has been all but buried.
Senku is a young man of science, and spent years obsessing over every scientific domain he could comprehend in order to one day travel to space. In this stone world, armed with this wealth of science progress in his mind, Senku begins efforts to restart the scientific age, and free every single person frozen in stone. He starts with a mysterious acid that breaks down the stone. Then he develops tools, machinery, electricity, and eventually, he wants to push humanity back to the space age within his lifetime. Senku may be a know it all, but knowledge only gets you so far. Thanks to the allies he makes, a wealth of expertise will be harnessed to bring his dream to fruition.
Dr Stone is a must read for anyone who enjoys Scifi. Although the rate at which progress is made seems absurd, every single scientific process the kingdom of science works on is real science. Although post apocalyptic themes establish the base for the story and the supernatural force that turned humanity to stone is the main adversary, Dr Stone is a very scientific story based on real Earth and its just... exhilarating!
The scope of the story begins on the small scale in primitive villages, but the story eventually reaches a global scale. There are adversaries at each step, those who wish to rule the Stone World with might, free of the tyranny science had in our age, and there are also those who wish to use science as its own form of might, but Senku and his allies want to use science for the benefit of everyone. So that one day, all of humanity will be restored, and that eventually, he will get to moon.
I will refrain from speaking any further on story specifics because you really should experience the plot for yourself. So I will end with the presentation itself. The art and format of the manga are beautiful. Character designs are rugged, stylised, and exciting, it's very easy to determine what a character is all about just by their unique appearance.
In the last week, I have begun watching the anime, as it has been long enough since I started reading that I can experience parts of the plot anew. The anime is very beautifully made, the world is lush and beautiful, and characters move in such a fun and interesting way. I'm watching the English dub, and characters sound exactly like the voices I had for them in my head.
If you have even an inkling of interest in Dr Stone after reading what I've said today, you should definitely experience the story for yourself, 1 billion percent.
#blog#blogpost#media recommendations#anime recommendations#manga recommendation#the legend of zelda twilight princess#the legend of zelda#twilight princess#twilight princess manga#akira himekawa#dr stone#dr stone manga#dr stone anime#boichi#inagaki
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How do you see The Captain's coming out, and growth in confidence and self acceptance thereafter taking place?
I like this question! …and I’m probably going to elaborate on it a bit more than many people will want to read (I noticed back when I was regularly writing essay length posts that they did not get a lot of love) and it’s probably going to get even more ramble-y than usual (brain has not been braining as cooperatively as it should recently and the decision to drink half a bottle of wine right before answering this- sorry- probably does not help), but here we are.
About coming out scenarios, none of mine are particularly elaborate. While I do think he needs to come out for his story line to progress, I can’t imagine him making a big thing out of it (long or elaborate announcements, heart-to-hearts, emotional displays of bearing his authentic self or any of the like), either with the group, or person-by-person, for several reasons:
First off, that sort of a coming-out to-do is a more modern notion, and I doubt he was a particularly modern person even when he was alive, seventy-five years ago. His notions of privacy and propriety are probably much more conservative than ours, and I feel like that makes it unlikely that he’d go into any sort of detail, at least at early in this process, about his feelings/emotions or the specificities of his attractions. We’re talking about a man who doesn’t even use his own name. It’s difficult to picture him going into depth about his desires and love life.
Secondly, he’s a bit of a social coward. (He’s not a physical coward, of course, he jumped on that bomb in the garden without hesitation, and acknowledged after the fact that he gotten caught up in the moment, and therefore hadn’t really thought about how a bomb couldn’t hurt him.) And I get it, I’m a bit of a social coward, too, so no judgement. He probably faced a lot of ridicule in his life. Being a social coward is totally fair. But he doesn’t put himself into situations that might involve awkward interpersonal interactions if he can help it, and legs it whenever interactions he’s already in become to awkward for him. I feel like he’s probably quite desperate (although he’d never admit to it) to save face and protect what bits of his ego remain unscathed.
Think about it: he could have spoken to Fanny on his own about her nightly screaming disturbing him in s1e1, they have a clear association established at the outset of the show, they leave Heather’s room together at the end of the very first scene, but he doesn’t do so until he has the weight of the whole group to back him up about the screaming at their meeting. He had to buck up his courage and give himself his little ‘over the top we go’ pep talk before going to speak to Alison in Gorilla War. Also, if there was actually something wrong with his soldiers’ horseplay after hours in Reddy Weddy- if it was breaking regulations or even his own orders for quiet hours- and he heard it, he could have gone down directly when he heard it, confronted whoever was involved and order them to stop or put them on report. But no, instead he addressed the entire group of soldiers in a sixteen point morning brief. He even dispatched Pat to confront Alison about the party in s2e2, instead doing it himself… and spit out his apology/reconciliation with Pat at the end as fast as possible. And as for legging it when things get awkward, see his retreats following the group confronting him in Getting Out and after Alison telling him he wasn’t needed in the Grey Lady- and on a more figurative than literal level, but most relevantly, his quick turn from ‘I’ll miss you’ to ‘we’ll miss you’ with Havers in Reddy Weddy.
This is not a man who wants to be in awkward or embarrassing situations. And I think that coming out, at least at first, will probably be a bit embarrassing for him- it was scandalous in his time, and I think it will take him longer to get over that feeling and come to terms with himself than it will to finally acknowledge that he’s gay. So I doubt he’d make more of it than he utterly feels he has to, at least at first. And of course, he’d have to be a bit afraid that people would judge him or stop associating with him over it, as sadly, in his own time many people would have done, and most of the ghosts are from even earlier times than he was. So that might add more hesitation…
And thirdly, he doesn’t like and/or respect many of his house mates. The other twentieth century ghosts are the only ones he spends much time with. I doubt he’d go out of his way to communicate much of anything to the rest if it wasn’t “mission related” much less discuss his sexuality with them. He mostly disregards Humphrey. See his, “Oh, it’s you.” Mary obviously doesn’t like him and he only associates with her when it might be useful for his ‘missions.’ He clearly doesn’t think much of Thomas and doesn’t really even bother including him in his plans. These aren’t people he’s going to have heart-to-hearts with.
With those constraints in place, here’s a non-exhaustive list of possibilities by which I might see his coming out finally happening. They’re really just scenarios I made for myself on how I might see him coming out and I like to keep my options open (the first three are strategies he might go for, the last is an alternate scenario, presented in decreasing levels of directness on his part):
1) The ‘pull the bandage off quickly and hope it doesn’t sting too much’ strategy.
The Captain waits for the end of one of their various group activities or meetings, where all announcements seem to be made, gets up, clears his throat, stammers a bit, announces it tersely, using the most proper popular word for homosexuality that existed in his time (think: “Heh-hem. Er. Um. Well. It has recently come to my attention that I am- er- well- as it happens- gay. I, uh, thought it should be noted. That is all.”), and then beats a hasty retreat, so he doesn’t have to try to cope with the potentially negative aftermath. Of course, there isn’t a negative aftermath, because many of the ghosts already have guessed and the rest don’t really care. Someone, probably Pat, because he does the bulk of the emotional labor in the group, and more importantly, he’s Cap’s closest friend, would have to go after him. He would of course be initially defensive, and Pat would have to sooth his feathers a bit- or maybe just spit it out over his defensiveness- that he guessed a long time ago and so had plenty of other people, and they were just waiting for him to be ready, and really, it’s fine, and no one’s going to disown him for it.
2) The ‘well maybe I should tell my friends with the hope they support me’ strategy.
He gets together with a small group, the people whose company he actually values, definitely Fanny and Pat, maybe Julian, probably Alison either at the same time or after he finishes with his ghosts pals, and says it in much the same way as the previous scenario, but waiting for their reactions rather than retreating straight away. Pat and Alison, I expect, would answer with something like ‘yeah, we figured that one out a long time ago, actually, and it’s completely fine’ and Julian’s reaction would probably be something like, ‘well, obviously.’ Fanny’s had a lot of character growth since season one, when I expect her reaction would have been very shrill and judgmental, probably still would be a touch less warm and/or nonchalant, but I picture it as something like a sigh, followed by a pat on the arm and something like, ‘well, I still like you better than everyone else here, anyway.’ Word would eventually trickle to everyone else by way of social osmosis. Or not. No one seems to care if Humphrey or the plague ghosts are well informed.
3) The ‘I’m not brave enough to actually go through the process of actually telling anyone anything about me so let’s just drop hints and hope everyone figures it out without making a big deal about it’ strategy.
The indirect approach (I’m rather fond of this one, but mostly because it was my own primary coming out approach)… he first sends out feelers to certain people on the topic of homosexuality, probably Alison, since she’s modern, hosted a lesbian wedding, and very much implied that she’d be ready to keep scandalous secrets for him in Reddy Weddy, and possibly maybe also Julian, as he’s the most sexually experienced/knowledgeable, and after Alison spent a while inundating him with ‘it’s okay to be gay’ messages (along with a sudden and entirely unexplained influx of LGBT media) as she’s socially clever enough to see that’s what he’s looking for and after Julian spent a while telling him probably far more than he ever actually wanted to know about the potentialities of gay sex, that might boost the Captain’s confidence enough to let him start dropping hints to people, instead of telling them outright (consciously commenting on the attractiveness of men they see rather than occasionally accidentally blurting it out- see ‘the handsome one’- occasionally putting forth an opinion or stance on the LGBT world ‘it would have been nice if gay marriage was acceptable when I was alive,’ maybe occasionally mentioning how certain men would make cute couple), expecting them to meet him in the middle and figure out the point on their own… of course, many of them have already realized, so this isn’t a problem. It’s entirely possible, though, that Mary (world view not terribly grounded in reality) and Kitty (lack of life experience and/or instruction about life, see the how are babies made subplot) never pick up the hints on their own and someone else eventually has to tell them.
4) The ‘someone puts him out of his misery’ scenario.
Cap acknowledges to himself that he’s gay first and then, wishing to avoid embarrassment or lack of acceptance, obviously, awkwardly, painfully tries to disguise it and in doing so draws attention to it, until a third party decides to put him out of his misery and tell him that many of them figured it out ages ago and that everyone is fine with it. Maybe Pat. Maybe Alison. I kind of like the idea of it being Fanny (with her lovely character growth and her couple of suspicious glances his way in the Perfect Day), actually, by way of something like ‘You know, I was entirely prepared to continue on living with my husband, George, keeping his secrets, about the, uh, sort of person he was, and you’re at least one better than him, given that you at least never murdered me- or, for that matter, never married some poor woman you had no interest in to shield yourself from scrutiny… and so, what I’m saying is, I wouldn’t turn my back on you for being the, uh, sort of person you are, either, and maybe things have progressed enough that you don’t actually have to keep secrets at all.’ Cap would take all of this in with a mixture of mortification and relief. I’m rather fond of this scenario, too.
As for the second bit of the question, once his sexuality is out there, though, and no one judges him or hates him for it- and some are quite supportive- I do see him becoming more self-accepting. If no one’s judging him, does he need to judge himself so harshly? And also more confident. Because some of those things that he’s always felt different about and in the past has probably been ridiculed about in the past (even if he’s in denial about being gay, he and quite a few other people had to at the very least note that he’s not particularly interested in women), are, apparently just fine now. So he’s a bit more just fine now himself. And that weight of always trying to be someone else, someone who’s just right, can lift and he can relax a bit more. And that would probably help him a lot, too. I see it as a slow sort of thawing process. No matter what way he comes out, I still see Alison as very helpfully providing a variety of LGBT media to help this process along. And maybe he’d eventually get to the point where he processed enough and warmed up enough to be able to talk more in depth, at least with his friends, about what it was like being him in repressed pre-war Britain, and what sort of men he’s attracted to (I enjoy the idea of him and Fanny- gradually overcoming her own repression- scoping out hot men together). Maybe he’ll even luck out one of his male housemates will decide (or has already decided) that bisexuality is a valid option and he’ll get a date (insert whichever ghost y’all ship him with here). I bet Alison would totally help him set up a nice date, too, with her convenient still-functional-in-the-mortal-realm hands. And it would be nice to maybe see him get a taste of actual happiness.
#bbc ghosts#the captain#coming out#sorry for the giant block of text friends#i find it difficult to help myself
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I’ma be completely honest right now and say that I don’t think anyone (who follows you and knows/shares your feelings on the specials at least) would mind if you were straight up like “yeah sorry guys the New York and Shanghai specials are non-canon for Off to Italy because I really don’t like the way they handled diversity, worldbuilding, or relationships, and the future Rio and Africa ones are non-canon as well for the same reasons” from the get-go. Like those are such valid reasons to cut something out of a story, and it doesn’t seem too different from cutting out certain episodes or starting from a specific season like a lot of ML fanfics do, especially since the specials feel even more removed from the main canon to begin with because of how the writers decided to handle the ML continuity, AND this frees up a bunch of the kwami animal choices used, which would make things exponentially easier for you like you said in both animal choice and character design by having a visual base to already work off of for the ones you pick.
I also don’t think a majority would take issue with me cutting those out either. Because the things they bring in, lore wise, I don’t see anyone talking about.
No one is talking about the NA Order, and its existence brings in so many questions.
So I’m going to put this under cut cause I want to go off. I technically don’t have a right to as I didn’t watch either, but I listened to those who did to get an idea and somethings bother me.
But first, I think the only thing I saw being talked about was LS stuff in the NY special and HM getting pink Thanosed in Shanghai and that’s it. That’s the only stuff I’ve seen between the two specials. And that’s not good if those are the most iconic things to be brought up.
Anyway, onto my salt.
Was the NA Order around when Fu made Feast? Why didn’t he work his way to them to pass the Miracle Box to them? Or did he know they exist? Is the NA Order aware that something happened to the Chinese Order? Presuming that they communicate, did they not reach out with how quiet the Chinese Order was and look into it or try to gather lost miraculouses if they did?
And then there’s the wonder of the historical context. You can’t just casually reveal there’s an NA Order and Native American miraculouses that brings up a lot of questions as the Native people have experienced a lot of wrongs and sufferings in our history and still are facing issues. What does having confirmed Native miraculous mean for America’s bloody history with Native people?
And then there’s the Shanghai special, bringing in the Renlings and that’s another can of worms.
Not only are they another magical set from China, cause you know how magical China exclusively is since all magical stuff comes from them, but these are established coming in before miraculouses and were put away because they were “dangerous”. So, what are kwami views on the renlings and vice versa? And from what I’ve seen and heard, I don’t get how they’re dangerous? And then there’s the issue of their power set up, turning the user into an animal, and you got Fei, a Chinese girl, using it. This adds onto character of color being/becoming inhuman, and this is the 2nd special to do so (with Aeon, our official 2nd black girl to appear, being a robot). And this adds onto poc becoming an animal.
And there’s Mei Shi, who design wise, as a “kwami” I really I like, but, what is Mei Shi? Is Mei Shi a unique kwami? A renling? Or is Mei Shi a 2nd sort of cousin to kwamis to reveal later? I also hear Mei Shi is a guardian but didn’t really do anything as a guardian. I will say, I wish now there was an in between the kwami and renling designs, for sometimes the kwamis are weird and some of the renlings look off or are creepy, and so far, Mei Shi is like the best take for that ideal mixture of both.
While this is not lore wise related and more nitpicky, I am also bothered with Fei, not really the character herself but more the choices the creators made with her set up. Between her design and her backstory, she is essentially the older concept of Marinette that we didn’t get.
Visually she’s had tweaks, but you can see that they took big inspirations from Marinette’s old look. How Marinette was going to originally look before they decided to make her more white.
And then there’s Fei’s backstory: her father being mysteriously murdered. That was Marinette’s first backstory, back in the day of Mini Menace Ladybug, coming home to find her dad mysteriously murdered.
And adding to this, there are implications that Gabriel might’ve played a role in the murder of Fei’s father, and I’m incredibly salty about that. Fei has more tie in and connection to ML’s plot than Marinette.
And what frustrates me is that, by set up, they actually could’ve still given this to Marinette. You can cut out Tom and Sabine and very little changes in ML, and you can add more depth to Marinette, who is a bubbly and nice girl who wears her heart on her sleeve and will go over the moon for you if you need her to, but she has a dark thorn in her heart as her parents were mysteriously murdered and she doesn’t know why.
Keeping in that Gabriel (and potentially Emily) played a role in their death and took something from her parents that they had, this would give Marinette that emotional stake in the plot and direct tie in to Gabriel. You could even set up that her parents had the Butterfly, Peafowl, and/or the book, and at least one or two of those items technically belong to Marinette as they belonged to one of her parents. Peafowl would probably make the most sense as we don’t when they got it or how it even got broken. All we have is that Butterfly and book were found together a year prior to the events of ML. But that comes down to how long ago the murders should be.
And narratively, this set up would work.
Marinette’s parents are incredibly removed from her life and are hardly ever seen; it’s also to a point she doesn’t even go to them for advise or help for anything, only Tikki. And they themselves are hardly characters of their own. At the start of the show, which we know know has her being 13 yo, she’s incredibly independent which can back the impression of absent parents. This also really backs her knowing next to nothing about Sabine or the Cheng side of her family, not even knowing the name Sabine used to go by.
This set up also could’ve set Fu up as a closer mentor and really add to the grandfather-granddaughter theme they were going for, especially if he steps up to act as a guardian for her and secretly trained her to be ready for a miraculous, adding to how he has such faith and trust in this 13 yo to save the city.
So that is my biggest gripe with Fei, not so much her herself, but the factor that the creators took Marinette’s most interesting and original set up (and design) and gave it to a random character who we are probably never going to see again or even get mentioned again, and is largely here for diversity brownie points and give us half hearted lore that won’t be elaborated on; and Marinette could’ve had this back story and set up instead and actually have a tie in and stake to the plot.
it was very frustrating to hear.
So yeah, I am more inclined to cut out the NY and Shanghai special and not count any other specials that come as lore wise, they don’t do anything or what they add is just too much and doesn’t answer much. I think the biggest shame is that there were some big appeals to them. NY and Shanghai actually should’ve been more Adrien and Marinette having their own exclusive adventures, or at least just have them be Marinett’s own adventures.
I would’ve loved it if the NY Special was instead Marinette having her own adventure with Sparrow and Aeon and have her face a different villain who is not HM.
And that the Shanghai special was instead giving us a look at Marinette’s Cheng side of the family, and her going to see the ruins of the Chinese Order, facing something supernatural, and potentially this is where she finds the Chinese Zodiac miraculous and brings them back to Fu. If you want to work off the canon Shanghai a bit, perhaps instead of introducing “kwami cousins”, Mei Shi/Meeshi/idk is a lion kwami who distanced himself from his miraculous, went to the ruins, and made himself a Guardian Lion to watch over what remains. They work together and he approves of Marientte taking the Zodiac, and he travels back to somewhere in Africa hinting at the special that will have Lady Lion.
This also nicely sets up why Fu didn’t release any of the Zodiac to help LB, as what he had of the 5, Cat would’ve been the best partner to work with LB and it was worth risking the very two HM is after. Revealing that he has the Zodiac from the start didn’t work in their favor.
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