Been thinking about this scene a lot. How it echoes their conversation from before.

A response. A solution to what Beatrice told her. Ava, who was so against dying—because death is not a reward, just an empty chasm that renders everything meaningless—now prepared to lay down her life if it means Beatrice gets to rest, if it means that the war inside Beatrice’s head will stop.

Beatrice, who is bound by duty but finds her heart pulled in another direction. Who might want to run with Ava but can’t. She’s a Sister Warrior. Her duty is to the Halo and its Bearer. So she will tell Ava to run, because that is the best way to protect her. To protect the mission.  Because that is the only way both of her goals align. As long as the Halo remains safe, so does Ava.

But it also means that she can’t join Ava. Her Sisters are dying. She has a duty to the Order. To her mission (protect the Halo, protect Ava) and so she will watch over from afar. She may not be ready, but she is prepared.  

But Ava is not. Ava, who will not leave unless Beatrice is by her side. If she runs, Beatrice will run herself ragged, spending every waking minute to keep everyone safe. Beatrice, who will never get a chance to live her life because she spent that time making sure Ava could live. And Ava doesn’t want that. Not unless they do it together.

So Ava chooses. Chooses the mission for Beatrice. Breaks away first, obscures her true plan until the very last minute. (But Beatrice still finds her. Beatrice, who will always follow Ava. Always by her side until the very end.)

To be a Halo Bearer is to be a martyr. Ava rejected this fate until the very end. And even after that. Choosing to go into the portal, choosing to be separated from Beatrice so that they may both live.

Since the very beginning, Ava knows she has been living on borrowed time. But god damn it, she’s going to steal as much of it as she can.

Ava chooses to go through the Arc and Beatrice chooses to let her go. Both strengthened by their faith in the other, because they will always find their way back to each other.

Ava has never gone somewhere that’s kept Beatrice from following. Even now.

I love how Warrior Nun didn't portray Lilith as some shy, blushing virgin (even though, she had every excuse to be).

She utterly enjoys Adriel whispering into her ear. Basks in his attention. Loves his worship of her.

She moves away from him, beckoning him to follow. It's in the way she glances back at him, with a flirtatious smirk. She lets herself be coquettish. Lilith is no victim of manipulation. She dances with the Devil willingly - no, eagerly.

Yes, she looks around in wonder. A new world has been unveiled to her. Endless possibilities lay ahead, all she has to do is choose - finally, she's free. Free to do as she wishes. Free to feel attraction, to love. Knowing this, Adriel says exactly what she wants to hear. And, he's not wrong. Heaven's Champion be damned, she's power incarnate without such a chain around her neck. Fate has chosen her for greatness. Lilith knows he's tempting her. She lets him. She gives in because she can. She's as deliberate in her actions as he is.

She looks into his eyes. The forbidden fruit is right within her reach. She's free to take it, she no longer serves.

She strokes his face, and he melts into her touch. The Devil is as tender as a house cat for her. It makes her feel powerful.

And so, she transforms.

No, she did not tame the Beast. He awakened the Queen of Darkness within her, instead.

I don't like when fandom treats Lilith as though she was a victim of Adriel's manipulations. It takes away her agency. It takes away her power, when her whole story is about power, and her quest for it. Yes, Adriel told her what she wanted to hear. It doesn't mean she didn't genuinely identify with his actions or philosophies, in spite of changing her mind later. It doesn't mean she didn't sincerely bask in the might he helped her unleash within herself.

In the end, the power remained hers. She remained the same divine being she had morphed into. Only in the end, she left Adriel behind.

Another thing (among many) that Warrior Nun gets absolutely right is its cast full of women and how they're treated throughout.

By gifting us with a diverse selection of female characters, each with their own backgrounds, looks, desires, virtues, flaws, we are treated to a wonderful mosaic of what women can be and effectively are. Proud, scared, selfish, hurt, strong, vulnerable, cunning, selfless, determined, evil, good... Each one of them can be individually and duly explored without making it look like a comment on some ideal sort of "Woman", without slipping into stereotype and the usual dullness that many other narratives reserve for their female characters.

By having (many) more than only a single interesting, well-rounded woman, by allowing each of them to be complex and human rather than just a prop for some man or eye candy for a male audience, the world of WN seems to us a lot more like something we can recognise, something truthful, unlike many other stories we've seen before — and that is one hell of a breath of fresh air.

Reposting cuz i want more ppl to apprechiate this scene.

The scenes in the finale were just so beautifully crafted, like take this one-

When i first saw it i just couldnt stop thinking how small they look in the moment. How avas small sacrifice of her life was for the bigger picture. One death for many many other lives, that is the warrior nuns job right?

Its also sorta lonely, wouldn't you say? The same way shannon kinda died, yes there were others around when she passed but the one closest was mary. The same way beatrice is there for ava. But warrior nuns die for the cause. And they're lonely in that burden of sacrificing themselfs for everyone else.

Cant deny that its also lonely for beatrice. They just had their pivotal moment, the kiss, and now shes alone in the pain of losing her love. Alone in doing the thing she always does, trying to save ava.

And then the cross in the wall. For me symbolising how their love is caught between holy wars and battles. How both of them have sacrificed a lot for, direcly or indireclty, religion. How their missions werent only for the better of the world but also religion. Could be also how god (Reya?) is looking over them right now, because why else would the portal be still open and close exactly when ava passes trough it. Im guessing reya is looking over them and is going to heal ava so she could go back. Whatever her reasons (secret shipper? lmao) be it to fight her wars, but she is looking over them.

emotional damage wn text below read if u hate yourself!

avas development this season was so good but also sooo fucking depressing. bc ever since she got the halo everyone and i mean everyone was telling her how selfish she was that she wasnt fitting into the wn obligation. all odds against her she tried to live her life. truly live it to her own terms but thats not how it works out ofc not. she was given a second chance at life. but not her life. the warrior nuns life. and that will inevitably lead to death and she knows this progressing into s2 later episodes. she tried so hard to live her own life and her desires to be alive and to be joyful was so loud. she wanted it so bad. but her having the biggest fucking heart to ever came to terms with how it is for her. how it was always gonna be despite her efforts to stay alive bc she knows what she has to do now. she knows what she has to become. she knows she has to give herself up to become the warrior nun and save the people she loves. bc thats just who she is. she was never selfish. she just craved for the life she never got to live. she was just being human. but now all she needed to be was a halo bearer destined for another tragedy. what makes her character dev so depressing is that she sacrificed her will to live. her desire to find the person she could be in this world to ultimately become what everyone has been training her for. what everyone expected her to become at some point. so yeah she did succeed as a protagonist with so much growth. but at the cost of herself.

orignal post with tags

Warrior Nun and the cross symbol

It is very interesting to see the symbolism of crosses in Warrior Nun, and how that intersect with circles. Simple shapes, but they hold so much meaning in this show.

We are first presented by the Halo, of course a circle, and a symbol of divinity. The OCS, logically, use the intersection of a cross and a circle as their symbol. Halo and Christianity, united. For all of season 1, Ava wears the Halo on her back, and barely uses the Cruciform Sword. In season 2, her outfit put a cross on her back, superposed with the light of the Halo, and she only fight with her sword. Could that represent her integration into the OCS? Certainly not within Christianity as a whole, because as seen in season 2, she seems uncomfortable with even just the idea of a prayer for her fallen sisters.

So. Circles. The Halo is a perfect circle, same with the Crown of Thorns. So is Jillian’s Ark, and so is Adriel’s new church. A circle, but all the windows in the shape of a cross, which is an interesting design choice.

According to Jillian, Adriel’s power comes from crosses. People pray with them, and he can use that to power the Ark. He put a cross in Camila’s neck so that he could control her. His followers are using his new cross design to pray to him, and he controls them through that. 

In the last analysis i did of this shot, i talked about the cross being used as a sword of Damocles, but i think i missed a very important part. Religion is used as a sword of Damocles. Faith, as a whole, could fail them at any moment. We have seen, with Adriel’s followers, as soon as they stopped believing in him, they suffered consequences. Faith, thereby religion, is used against people, to control them. We all know how much religion was used against Beatrice to control her. Thus, the cross becomes a symbol of control.

If we see the cross as a symbol of control, thats where the meaning of the circle becomes interesting. Circles are usually associated with eternity and life. The Halo is without limit, able to do incredible things, including healing and bringing people back to life. Jilian’s ark is a gateway to eternity, a way to heal her son by saving him from death. Adriel’s church was his way to bring his eternity to Earth. The OCS, charged with killing demons, uses the combination of a cross and a circle as their symbol. They are Humanity’s protector (position of control) against wraiths and other demons (eternal beings).

Now. Arq Tech’s symbol is a the greek letter known as psi, which has an associated meaning of life, soul and mind. Make sense, considering what Jillian was trying to do with her company. What is very interesting is that Adriel’s cross very much look like a cross but with a psi symbol at each end.

I could be wrong about this, but its the most plausible option i could think of. Surely this isnt only a design choice, we know this show (and the creator has said as much with the retweet of the analysis someone posted on Twitter), everything has a meaning. So what could this mean? Was he harnessing people’s soul through his cross? Was it posession, or mind control? Is there a difference, really? 

One of the last shot of the show present us with Adriel’s cross (the mind cross?) on top of the ark. Mind over matter? The power of thoughts and soul over what is material? 

Or, if we go with that control/eternity theory, well that is the best representation of control over eternity you could get. 

One thing about me is that I do not tolerate Wen Ning erasure in the slightest. Like I would throw hands for him (and have).

Hi there friends on the internet, I'm not dead!

unfortunately

To sum up why I've disappeared for like 4 months,

Well, school is a thing

and I suck at it.

but now that the semester is over, I can go back to overanalyzing our favourtive little gay nun show aka Warrior Nun

daily(?) avatrice analysis s2 will be returning soon.

We're not done writing about Warrior Nun yet! This time, Bo takes a look at the supremely amazing Mother Superion! 👑

i always though of jiang cheng diskhorse as a kinda distant thing that you can only find if you lurk in the mdzs fandom deep enough. i didn't expect to see it with my very own eyes today though

Warning: mentions of sexual violence.

Why do certain episodes of violence in Warrior Nun seem oddly sexual?

When Adriel tries to take the Halo, for example.

The way he shoves his hand into Ava. The way he smiles cruelly, and mocks her when she tries to resist him. He looks awfully satisfied with the situation.

Then, in season 2, there's a reverse situation. Ava forcibly penetrates Adriel's mind, and looks as if she's having an orgasm while he screams in pain.

And, there are others.

Adriel giving Areala the Halo. Ava's comment about something being shoved into her body against her will proved eerily on point. Look at how Adriel roughly grabs Areala, and thows her on her front like a ragdoll. Then, he rips the back of her armor open, and shoves the Halo into her, kneeling behind her while she's on all fours. He ignores her cry of agony completely.

The scene in S2E8 is probably the most obvious.

It looks as though a scene from someone's rather disgusting non-con smut fanfiction is about to take place.

Lastly, I'll mention this.

There's nothing overtly sexual about this scene, but still, there's something I and others see.

I see how most of these have Adriel. I'll choose to believe it's to illustrate his cruelty, and the way people around him are nothing but means to an end for him. As, I'm a huge fan of his, I'd rather not have it sullied.

By the way, yes, I understand why the creators probably chose this vibe - it's a wonderful, visceral way to portray how brutally invasive certain situations are (the Halo, or Ava looking into Adriel's mind). Not sexually, just invasive. Brilliant visuals, and a brilliant job by the actors.

I noticed another detail in S2E3 - Lilith is thrown out of "Heaven" (the Other Side) for disobeying "God" (Reya). Then, she goes on to find "Satan" (Adriel).

Of course, Lilith had no idea what in the fuck did "God" want from her, but, knowing enough Biblical lore, her reaction is in character.

Lilith might just have made the worst choice she could in going to Jillian, no? Not just because of basically becoming her lab rat and throwing herself into the unknown by walking into the ark, but because of the sharp, undeniable contrast that is painfully drawn between Jillian's love for Michael, which sees her stop at nothing to retrieve him, and Lilith's mother's indifference towards her own daughter.

Of course she had met Jillian before, but season one had another context to it. Now, however...

Here's a woman who will set the whole world on fire in order to help her son if she must; meanwhile, Lilith's mother could care less if she knew about her daughter's little season frolicking in the flame pits of hell after being dragged there by a tarask.

Lilith goes to Jillian expecting the brilliant scientist -- she finds her, but perhaps more than that she finds the devoted mother she does not have. There's a cruelty to Jillian's treatment of her, of course, but in this moment of recognition she realises that a) not only is her worth still seen as tied to her "usefulness" to others, but b) that nobody will do for her what Jillian is doing for her son... And that might just be the deepest wound.

Oh you know that scene where ava falls and practically dies in front of bea in 5th ep? Did you notice that the song playing in the backround while beatrice holds ava is literally called:

and oh boy do i have a theory to why its their theme, so pull up spotify, youtube, apple music, your local singing bird choir, whatever and listen to this song on loop if you wanna know what im babbling about.

So why is it their theme?

The song starts off sounding so unsure, like its so new to both of them, its carefull, slow and so soft as if something would break if it was too loud or fast and in a way thats perfect for them. Their start was slow and their love was something new to both of them. Theres even these small notes mixed in the start which could symbolise the small moments those sparks that started it all.

If their relationship would have happened any faster i dont think it would have been the same, because yes, they're made for each other, but it just woudnt have worked out. The slow burn was what was needed for both of their character developments. Without that pining, without that jelousy or those moments and looks i dont think bea would have ever left the ocs later, because it could have easialy be swept under the rug as "just a fling, small temptation, nothing else". But with the slow burn its more like... she feels the love and she feels happy and it dosent bring her any pain untill she lost ava.

And for ava it was another new thing. So far ava has rushed trough new things, new experiences, enjoyed the moments and moved on. Like take JC, she rushed in and trough that relationship so fast, but ultimately we dont ever hear her mention him much after. It was just another new shiny thing she hadnt gotten to experience before. But now, with this build up, her slowing down, she starts to apprechiate the small things she now has, the small important moments with beatrice. Like when they danced in the club and the moment where she just looked at bea, really looked and i bet nothing else mattered for her in that moment.

In the second half of the song theres this build up which is like how their love was so slowly and delicately built moment upon moment and emotions upon emotions and ultimately at the end of the build up with the last high notes its their high point, every small building block being down, all those months of experiences just everything coming togheter and then one of the most purest forms of affection. A simple, beautiful kiss.

And the way the song fades out in the end... Their time being cut short. Their love tossed in the air, left to the wind because ava is gone(for now) and bea is left behind. But the sound lingers for so long that i cant help but believe theres still hope for both of them, and i think they believe the same.

Extra thoughts

Honestly i cant decide which came first in this case, was the piece written for that scene and later made the theme song or was it first their theme song...

See this song fits so well in that scene. Which makes me believe that it was first written for it. Like the fear at start and then bea feeling the pulse and thinking ava is dead, and comforting and asking her not to be dead, and then her being okay and alright and ending on the high point of "they cant beat us bea, not togheter." Which is such an important line!

Maybe they wrote it for that scene and realized how well it symbolised their relationship too.

Cant lie about the fact how sad sounding it is either. Which makes sense for the scene but also maybe a tiny bit for their relationship.

Its always been known how warrior nuns dont live long, the line where camila says "theyre never yours, they never last" perfectly shows the looming saddness and eventual ending to their arc in this season. How their love was, is and will be under the threat because any moment any one of them could die and the other would be left alone.

Of course these are all just my thoughts, and if you have different ones i happily welcome them in the comments, dms or even asks. <3