#he thinks its part of the punishment and Zeus did it on purpose

[aj-artjunkyard]

ToA daemon AU where humans have daemons but gods dont. Gods aren’t people and don’t have souls. They still have animals which are associated with them, but they’re just symbols. 

Apollo, as Lester, gets a daemon for the first time. He didn’t have a daemon for his previous human punishments since he was a god in mortal form - now he is a full mortal. 

At first he thinks the unbearable pain in his chest is just the broken ribs from his free-fall from Olympus. After the fight with the muggers and his introduction to Meg, he finds he can’t walk ten steps from the dumpster he landed in without collapsing. 

Meg rolls her eyes at his utter bafflement as he squawks about being on the brink of death. She and her small hare daemon cast their gazes about the alley, then in the dumpster. She reaches in and pokes something, and Apollo gags in pain. Meg seems satisfied, and announces that he can’t leave because his daemon is stuck in the dumpster. Apollo snaps that he doesn’t have a daemon, he is a god! Gods are self-sustaining, they do not rely on puny- ack! Meg had poked the thing again.

Frustrated, Apollo pulls himself up to investigate and explain to this silly mortal why whatever-it-is in the dumpster cannot be his daemon. Then he sees it. 

It’s a tiny white mouse. Suddenly he notices the pain in his chest is not just broken bones, but a distinct emptiness. Something is missing. As soon as he locked eyes with the mouse, he knew that it was supposed to be filling that hole. 

Apollo had been associated with mice for some millennia. He had been called Apollo Sminthius since before the siege of Troy; Lord of Mice. They were useful for spreading plagues, and rather cute, but not something he’d ever thought of as similar to him. He was no mouse! He was a mighty lion, a sweeping falcon! He was a god, the very top of the food chain! He was no ones prey! 

But there it was. A tiny, insignificant creature that looked as if it belonged in the dumpster. Not unlike Lester Papadopoulos. Perhaps Apollo was a great dragon or a fearsome wolf, but he supposed, with crushing disappointment, that Lester was about as close to a mouse as any living being could get. 

[frosteee]

"Aetos came around eventually..."

This line from Prometheus intruigues me. How did this happen? For aeons, every single day, Aetos has been making a return trip to the Prometheus's mountain jail to tear out and eat his liver personally.

It wasn't personal, of course. Aetos was acting on Zeus's will, and as we know, "the will of Zeus is inescapable".

So what changed? Zeus's will certainly didn't. Old fuck was happy to let the torture continue till the end of time. He commanded Aetos, bent the animal to his will, and the animal obeyed because Zeus is the king of the gods.

Aetos is an animal, made immortal, it seems, for the sole purpose of being Prometheus' eternal tormentor. From Prometheus's comment, it would seem that Aetos was able to have a change of heart in regards to his part in the whole process - to question the morality of it - and turn its tail on Zeus.

Quite the extraordinary animal! But is it?

Animals are creations of Epimetheus, just as humans are the creations of Prometheus. Not only that, but Epimetheus bestowed traits upon the animals to help them survive. Epimetheus is their god, not Zeus.

Why, then, did Epimetheus not command Aetos to stop? Not to lay a claw on his brother?

As I've said before, when Prometheus was punished, Epimetheus was in the unenviable position of helping and protecting humanity in his brother's place, when the gods - Zeus in particular - were dead set on harming them. Epimetheus was the only thing standing between humanity and the gods who wanted to subjugate them. If he defied Zeus's will, he would incur his wrath, and humanity would suffer. Prometheus was suffering daily agony to ensure their safety. Epimetheus could do nothing but accept what he was given.

I think Aetos "came around" when Epimetheus - its creator - exercised his own will, breaking Zeus's dominion over the bird. And that would only happen after Pandora opened her box.

The drive and rage in Aetos's blue eyes make me think that this is Epimetheus's influence. Epimetheus, who may not be in a condition to fight himself, is fighting by his brother's side through Aetos.

GET HER AETOS.

[yamayuandadu]

Circe by Madeline Miller: a review

As you might have noticed, a few of my most recent posts were more or less a liveblog of Madeline Miller’s novel Circe. However, as they hardly exhausted the subject, a proper review is also in order. You can find it under the “read more” button. All sorts of content warnings apply because this book takes a number of turns one in theory can expect from Greek mythology but which I’d hardly expect to come up in relation to Circe. I should note that this is my first contact with this author’s work. I am not familiar with Miller’s more famous, earlier novel Song of Achilles - I am not much of an Iliad aficionado, truth to be told. I read the poem itself when my literature class required it, but it left no strong impact on me, unlike, say, the Epic of Gilgamesh or, to stay within the theme of Greek mythology, Homeric Hymn to Demeter, works which I read at a similar point in my life on my own accord.

What motivated me to pick up this novel was the slim possibility that for once I’ll see my two favorite Greek gods in fiction, these being Hecate and Helios (in case you’re curious: #3 is Cybele but I suspect that unless some brave soul will attempt to adapt Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, she’ll forever be stuck with no popcultural presence outside Shin Megami Tensei). After all, it seemed reasonable to expect that Circe’s father will be involved considering their relationship, while rarely discussed in classical sources, seems remarkably close. Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women and Apollonius’ Argonautica describe Circe arriving on her island in her father’s solar chariot, while Ptolemy Hephaestion (as quoted by Photius) notes that Helios protected her home during the Gigantomachy. Helios, for all intents and purposes, seems like a decent dad (and, in Medea’s case, grandpa) in the source material even though his most notable children (and granddaughter) are pretty much all cackling sorcerers, not celebrated heroes. How does Miller’s Helios fare, compared to his mythical self? Not great, to put it lightly, as you’ll see later. As for Hecate… she’s not even in the book. Let me preface the core of the review by saying I don’t think reinterpreting myths, changing relations between figures, etc. is necessarily bad - ancient authors did it all the time, and modern adaptations will inevitably do so too, both to maintain internal coherence and perhaps to adjust the stories to a modern audience, much like ancient authors already did. I simply don’t think this book is successful at that. The purpose of the novel is ostensibly to elevate Circe above the status of a one-dimensional minor antagonist - but to accomplish this, the author mostly demonizes her family and a variety of other figures, so the net result is that there are more one dimensional female villains, not less. I expected the opposite, frankly. The initial section of the novel focuses on Circe’s relationship with her family, chiefly with her father. That’s largely uncharted territory in the source material - to my knowledge no ancient author seemed particularly interested in covering this period in her life. Blank pages of this sort are definitely worth filling. To begin with, Helios is characterized as abusive, neglectful and power-hungry. And also, for some reason, as Zeus’ main titan ally in the Titanomachy - a role which Hesiod attributes to Hecate… To be fair I do not think it’s Hesiod who serves as the primary inspiration here, as it’s hard to see any traces of his account - in which Zeus wins in no small part because he promises the lesser titans higher positions that they had under Cronus - in Miller’s version of events. Only Helios and Oceanus keep their share, and are presented as Zeus’ only titan allies (there’s a small plot hole as Selene appears in the novel and evidently still is the moon…) - contrary to just about any portrayal of the conflict, in which many titans actually side with Zeus and his siblings. Also, worth noting that in Hesiod’s version it’s not Oceanus himself who cements the pact with Zeus, it’s his daughter Styx - yes, -that- Styx. Missed opportunity to put more focus on female mythical figures - first of many in this work, despite many reviews praising it as “feminist.” Of course, it’s not all about Helios. We are quickly introduced to a variety of female characters as well (though, as I noted above, none of these traditionally connected to the Titanomachy despite it being a prominent aspect of the book’s background). They are all somewhat repetitive - to the point of being basically interchangeable. Circe’s mother is vain and cruel; so is Scylla. And Pasiphae. There’s no real indication of any hostility between Circe and any of her siblings in classical sources, as far as I am aware, but here it’s a central theme. The subplots pertaining to it bear an uncanny resemblance to these young adult novels in which the heroine, who is Not Like Other Girls, confronts the Chads and Stacies of the world, and I can’t shake off the feelings that it’s exactly what it is, though with superficial mythical flourish on top. I should note that Pasiphae gets a focus arc of sorts - which to my surprise somehow manages to be more sexist than the primary sources. A pretty famous tidbit repeated by many ancient authors is that Pasiphae cursed her husband Minos, regarded as unfaithful, to kill anyone else he’d have sex with with his… well, bodily fluids. Here she does it entirely  because she’s a debased sadist and not because unfaithfulness is something one can be justifiably mad about. You’d think it would be easy to put a sympathetic spin on this. But the book manages to top that in the very same chapter - can’t have Pasiphae without the Minotaur (sadly - I think virtually everything else about Pasiphae and Minos is more fun than that myth but alas) so in a brand new twist on this myth we learn that actually the infamous affair wasn’t a curse placed on Pasiphae by Poseidon or Aphrodite because of some transgression committed by Minos. She’s just wretched like that by nature. I’m frankly speechless, especially taking into account the book often goes out of its way to present deities in the worst light possible otherwise, and which as I noted reviews praise for its feminist approach - I’m not exactly sure if treating Pasiphae worse than Greek and Roman authors did counts as that.  I should note this is not the only instance of… weirdly enthusiastic references to carnal relations between gods and cattle in this book, as there’s also a weird offhand mention of Helios being the father of his own cows. This, as far as I can tell, is not present in any classical sources and truth to be told I am not a huge fan of this invention. I won’t try to think about the reason behind this addition to maintain my sanity. Pasiphae aside - the author expands on the vague backstory Circe has in classical texts which I’ve mentioned earlier. You’d expect that her island would be a gift from her father - after all many ancient sources state that he provided his children and grandchildren with extravagant gifts. However, since Helios bears little resemblance to his mythical self, Aeaea is instead a place of exile here, since Helios hates Circe and Zeus is afraid of witchcraft and demands such a solution (the same Zeus who, according to Hesiod, holds Hecate in high esteem and who appeared with her on coins reasonably commonly… but hey, licentia poetica, this idea isn’t necessarily bad in itself). Witchcraft is presented as an art exclusive to Helios’ children here - Hecate is nowhere to be found, it’s basically as if her every role in Greek mythology was surgically removed. A bit of a downer, especially since at least one text - I think Ovid’s Metarphoses? - Circe directly invokes Hecate during her confrontation with king Picus (Surprisingly absent here despite being a much more fitting antagonist for Circe than many of the characters presented as her adversaries in this novel…) Of course, we also learn about the origin of Circe’s signature spell according to ancient sources, changing people into animals. It actually takes the novel a longer while to get there, and the invented backstory boils down to Circe getting raped. Despite ancient Greek authors being rather keen on rape as plot device, to my knowledge this was never a part of any myth about Circe. Rather odd decision to put it lightly but I suppose at least there was no cattle involved this time, perhaps two times was enough for the author. Still, I can’t help but feel like much like many other ideas present in this book it seems a bit like the author’s intent is less elevating the Circe above the role of a one note witch antagonist, but rather punishing her for being that. The fact she keeps self loathing about her origin and about not being human doesn’t exactly help to shake off this feeling. This impression that the author isn’t really fond of Circe being a wacky witch only grows stronger when Odysseus enters the scene. There was already a bit of a problem before with Circe’s life revolving around love interests before - somewhat random ones at that (Dedalus during the Pasiphae arc and Hermes on and off - not sure what the inspiration for either of these was) - but it was less noticeable since it was ultimately in the background and the focus was the conflict between Circe and Helios, Pasiphae, etc. In the case of Odysseus it’s much more notable because these subplots cease to appear for a while. As a result of meeting him, Circe decides she wants to experience the joys of motherhood, which long story short eventually leads to the birth of Telegonus, who does exactly what he was famous for. The final arcs have a variety of truly baffling plot twists which didn’t really appeal to me, but which I suppose at least show a degree of creativity - better than just turning Helios’ attitude towards his children upside down for sure. Circe ends up consulting an oc character who I can only describe as “stingray Cthulhu.” His presence doesn’t really add much, and frankly it feels like yet another wasted opportunity to use Hecate, but I digress. Oh, also in another twist Athena is recast as the villain of the Odyssey. Eventually Circe gets to meet Odysseus’ family, for once interacts with another female character on positive terms (with Penelope, to be specific) and… gets together with Telemachus, which to be fair is something present in many ancient works but which feels weird here since there was a pretty long passage about Odysseus describing him as a child to Circe. I think I could live without it. Honestly having her get together with Penelope would feel considerably less weird, but there are no lesbians in the world of this novel. It would appear that the praise for Song of Achilles is connected to the portrayal of gay relationships in it. Can’t say that this applies to Circe - on this front we have an offhand mention of Hyacinth's death. which seems to serve no real purpose other than establishing otherwise irrelevant wind god is evil, and what feels like an advert for Song of Achilles courtesy of Odysseus, which takes less than one page. Eventually Circe opts to become mortal to live with Telemachus and denounces her father and… that’s it. This concludes the story of Circe. I don’t exactly think the original is the deepest or greatest character in classical literature, but I must admit I’d rather read about her wacky witch adventures than about Miller’s Circe. A few small notes I couldn’t fit elsewhere: something very minor that bothered me a lot but that to be honest I don’t think most readers will notice is the extremely chaotic approach to occasional references to the world outside Greece - Sumer is randomly mentioned… chronologically after Babylon and Assyria, and in relation to Persians (or rather - to Perses living among them). At the time we can speak of “Persians” Sumerian was a dead language at best understood by a few literati in the former great cities of Mesopotamia so this is about the same as if a novel about Mesopotamia mentioned Macedonians and then completely randomly Minoans at a chronologically later point. Miller additionally either confused or conflated Perses, son of Perseus, who was viewed positively and associated with Persia (so positively that Xerxes purportedly tried to use it for propaganda purposes!) with Perses the obscure brother of Circe et. al, who is a villain in an equally obscure myth casting Medea as the heroine, in which he rules over “Tauric Chersonese,” the Greek name of a part of Crimea. I am honestly uncertain why was he even there as he amounts to nothing in the book, and there are more prominent minor children of Helios who get no mention (like Aix or Phaeton) so it’s hard to argue it was for the sake of completion. Medea evidently doesn’t triumph over him offscreen which is his sole mythical purpose. Is there something I liked? Well, I’m pretty happy Selene only spoke twice, considering it’s in all due likeness all that spared her from the fate of receiving similarly “amazing” new characterization as her brother. As is, she was… okay. Overall I am definitely not a fan of the book. As for its purported ideological value? It certainly has a female main character. Said character sure does have many experiences which are associated with women. However, I can’t help but think that the novel isn’t exactly feminist - it certainly focuses on Circe, but does it really try to “rehabilitate” her? And is it really “rehabilitation” and feminist reinterpretation when almost every single female character in the book is the same, and arguably depicted with even less compassion than in the source material?  It instead felt like the author’s goal is take away any joy and grandeur present in myths, and to deprive Circe of most of what actually makes her Circe. We don’t need to make myths joyless to make them fit for a new era. It’s okay for female characters to be wacky one off villains and there’s no need to punish them for it. A book which celebrates Circe for who she actually is in the Odyssey and in other Greek sources - an unapologetic and honestly pretty funny character -  would feel much more feminist to me that a book where she is a wacky witch not because she feels like it but because she got raped, if you ask me. 

Circe evidently having the time of her life, by Edmund Dulac (public domain)

[antiloreolympus]

8 Anti LO Asks

1. It doesn’t really make sense for a long term comic such as LO to have such a drastic change in the artstyle, and even more you can’t really call it an improvement when all the interesting parts of the art style are now gone and all that it is now it’s just some basic same-face and body art style with barely any backgrounds. RS is incredibly talented for illustrative artwork and it’s really a shame she’s not doing that anymore and instead has left it to her team, with leaving them very messy sketches. The artstyle in the beginning had life and glamour and now it’s just very dull and boring. That’s not an improvement

2. I genuinely can’t think of any man in LO that’s even half way decent. Poseidon maybe? Hephaestus? Those are the only two I can manage, meanwhile the rest are either Rachel purposely ruining them because of her own biases (Zeus, Apollo, Thanatos to an extent) or are “good” men who are just creeps who disrespect all the women around them and are super creepy and obsessed over a literal teenager who acts like a child (Hades, Ares, Hermee, Eros, etc). The women aren’t much better either. 

3. About Perse making Hades childish: (this is no way defending him, just some speculation, and tbh I doubt that RS has thought this through haha) I wonder if he becomes a horny teenager around her because she’s a goddess of fertility? Would that have any affect on him? Doesn’t excuse his creepy ass behavior, but could explain it a bit, I guess?

4. Okay so I'll be honest I dont really see any reason to 'simp' over Any of the LO characters?

Also, not to start sh*t, but - I think part of the reason why some of the LO fandom does not like Zeus (and perhaps gives Hera more leeway - at least in terms of cheating) is because:

Mythologically Zeus is a known cheater / rapist (Io for example, or Semele)

They see Hera cheating a Zeus as okay (its not) because he's been known to cheat on her in the past / fans see Hera cheating on Zeus with Hades as 'justified revenge' for what he's (Zeus) put her through

I'll be honest I dont really see Zeus (or Hades for that matter) as good rulers because

Despite other deities (like Eros) doing 'acts of wrath' - they get away with it because they often have someone to back them up (like Aphrodite offering to sleep with Zeus to get her son out of trouble) - but the one time Persephone does something wrong (an act of wrath) - Zeus wants to give her the Prometheus treatment - mainly so he can feel like an in control king whos subjects respect him

The reason this sound so odd is because of RS writing choices. Zeus is a grade A d*ck who is willing to destroy a 'young girls promising career' because she made 1 mistake that one time. But at the same time the act of wrath is framed oddly because Demeter doesn't want her daughter to get in trouble so she covers it up (its like the equivalent of hiding a murder from the cops).

Zeus wanting to Prometheus Kore seems overly harsh because she is a Child. (Well a teenager) - so it adds to the "Zeus is a d*ck" card, because she doesnt have the life experience to "get away with" stuff like the other deities because she is young AND sheltered.

Like again, the whole concept of Human Laws applying to Gods is so confusing:

Would Zeus have been this harsh if Demeter had simply come forward in the first place about Persephone's murder rampage? Why did she blackmail / get other deities involved to cover it up? Is Zeus THAT much of a d*ck in Demeters eyes that she knows he would harshly punish a child for something "she didnt mean to do" (killed mortals based on a feeling?)

Why is there a motherf*cking trial in the first place? Do All the other deities get the right to a fair trial or is this a special case? (Like can any deity just offer to sleep with Zeus and he'll let them off the hook?). If the other deities had commited the same crime would the trial / punishment be the same or does Zeus just have a rage boner because he was lied to? If thats the case then why are the other deities taking Persephones side during the trial? (Ares I can maybe understand cause hes the God of War and stuff but everyone else is taking Perse's side because their either her personal friend or family member (Hecate, Hermes, Demeter, Hades etc).

Why are there certain laws like "Zeus cant get to Persephone because she has clemency in the underworld" but other deities - including Leto, Demeter and others (like Perse's nymph family) can just stroll into Hades house? Why is Hermes still on house arrest? Why are Hades + Persephone throwing a house party when shes on trial for scythe crimes??!!!

Why are the gods bound by such petty squabbles?

The way RS set up the governing "laws" in universe just doesnt make a whole lotta sense. Also, sorry this got ramblely.  

5. Tbh i don’t think that Hades acting differently when he’s with Persephone is a bad thing, as a concept. But there are many issues with this such as the fact that Persephone is barely legal and Hades act like an actual child around her. Obviously when you’re with someone they are going to act different than they do when they are at work. The problem is that Hades essentially goes from the “cold-scary king” to a 17 year old hormonal boy when he’s with Persephone. And him making out with her in a middle of a store or them golfing with diamonds or him making out with Persephone again in front of his workplace is not exactly acceptable behaviour from a king. If Hades acts all lovey-dovey with Persephone when their at their home together it’s different, but when they’re at a public place they can’t really do that. I would say that he has to keep a status about him but from what we’ve seen all the citizens of the underworld hate him and don’t respect him at all, from yelling at him to actually fighting with him, so idk how much status there is actually attached to him 

6. I swear, the majority of the “cute” HxP moments in LO just seem like a single father dealing with his hyperactive 8 year old over the supposed future intimidating rulers who Rachel is obsessed about talking and drawing their sex life. Is it really that hard to depict Persephone even acting like a smart teenager at the very least, as opposed to an airhead grade schooler? It doesn’t scream cute to me, it seems more like a father/daughter relationship. It’s just weird. 

7. i mean, i have a LO oc who's persephone's brother (fertility god) between demeter and zeus. dude got thrown into tartyrus to cover up the affair and now serves cronus. he was the god of summer, and my reasoning was demeter's seasons/harvest + summer thunderstorms. wrote a whole minific i will never post about him and persephone realizing everyone around them are assholes and healing together. so the mistress-of-zeus oc isnt that weird.

8. I’m not a Zeus stan by any means, but I do find him one of the most interesting characters, and one that RS has, in her attempts to make him be the worst ever to make Hades look better, actually way more interesting and compelling than the majority of the cast. He doesn’t lie or whine to the audience he’s some good person like Hades when he’s not, he owns that he’s a dick and doesn’t bullshit the audience into thinking he’s someone he’s not. RS tries to show us he’s a “bad” king, yet we see no proof it beyond what, he wants to uphold the law P broke and doesnt kiss Hades’ butt? That’s not a bad king, it’s a good one that he doesn’t let family ties or lust cloud his judgement, unlike Hades or Hera, for example. I don’t condone his cheating either, but it’s not fair to hate him for it, but love it that Hades cheated on Minthe so he could get into a teenager’s skirt and praise Hera for sleeping with her brother in law while punishing Zeus’ mistresses because she’s being a fake “loyal” wife. Just because he’s a deeply flawed, even a bad person doesn’t make him a bad character. Hades and Hera and even Persephone are awful people who do worse than Zeus, yet they’re loved and praised for it, all while being written with the depth of a puddle. 

[nadziejastar]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the LeaIsa discourse, especially Isa possibly having been subject X in perhaps another canon. Isa's symbolism's also seem intentionally feminine in nature. I've head-cannoned that the current subject X in game could have somehow had her heart spirited away into Isa's (mirroring Sora and Kairi's situation, except the heart being far more buried in the depth's of Isa's). An unlikely scenario is that Isa was AFAB as a child and even Lea doesn't know about it or remember.

Lea: The Wounded Healer

Thank you! Yeah, everything about Isa’s symbolism is feminine in nature. And very intentionally so, LOL. He’s the Yin to Lea’s Yang; the Moon to his Sun. I love the whole concept, and I wish it wasn’t so taboo to step outside of gender boxes. The mythology is that Twin Flames separate and go through many lifetimes apart, never meeting in person. Over the reincarnation cycle, the two lovers balance their masculine and feminine sides so that they are both perfectly balanced. And I do think Lea is a very balanced character in that regard. I’m sure Isa was, too. During their final lifetime in the reincarnation cycle, Twin Flames finally reunite and change the world with their divine spiritual love. 

I cannot imagine there’s any other explanation than Isa originally being Subject X. It simply makes way too much sense, and all the pieces fit perfectly. Your head canon is interesting. I prefer that over canon where Isa and Lea are apprentices and had NO connection to the experiments on the darkness of the heart. That just makes no sense at all. They could have had another girl involved without taking away from Lea and Isa’s tragic backstory. Another reason I like Isa being Subject X is that he would need healing, and Lea would need to give him a “birth by sleep”. KH3 kinda forgot about that whole concept. But there’s a lot of evidence that it was supposed to be a HUGE aspect of Lea’s character arc. Would have been a lot more rewarding to see than what he did in canon.

Stuff like this is exactly why Lea and Isa are my favorite characters. I can tell the writers had a hard on for them, too. Nomura really loved Axel, after all. Axel has a weapon called Prometheus which incorporates the Sagittarius symbol, and so do the vast majority of Saïx’s weapons. Moreover, the arrow is mainly prominent in Saïx’s Berserk form, which is where I think his captured heart resides. Now, why is this symbol so important? Because Sagittarius is Chiron, the Wounded Healer! He gave up his immortality for Prometheus, and was rewarded with immortality in the stars!

More About Sagittarius

Yen Sid: “I must warn you again–the road will not be easy.”

Lea: “Fine. Let’s jump right in.”

Ruled by Jupiter, the planet of growth and opportunity, the sign of the Archer is an eternal student, looking for enlightenment through new ideas, people, and places. Sagittarius is on the hunt for the biggest, best experiences life has to offer. They have a positive and outgoing personality that makes them the life of any party. With a love of adventure and all things exotic, the worldly Archer just wants to soak it all in. Sagittarius is driven by a constant need to explore and expand its mind, heart, and awareness to the fullest extent. Fiery and free, Sagittarius knows that the only limits are the ones we create ourselves.

Chiron: The Wounded Healer

Naminé: “And if the hurt is too great for you to bear it alone–well, then you turn to a friend close to your heart.”

Wounded healer is a term created by psychologist Carl Jung. The idea states that an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is “wounded”. For Jung, “it is his own hurt that gives a measure of his power to heal. This, and nothing else, is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician.”

Chiron was in outstanding pain and anguish; there was no medication that would ease the infliction. The fact was, even the gifted physician Chiron couldn’t heal himself. The next problem was that Chiron was in torment but, immortal. Chiron was not able to obtain freedom from the pain with the onset of death. In such a scenario, Chiron volunteered himself as a replacement for Prometheus, who had been penalized by the gods for giving fire to humankind; His punishment was to be enchained to a giant stone. Day-after-day an aquila descended and polished off his liver, which grew once more as it got dark …only to be consumed by the eagle once again.

So in essence, Chiron forfeited his eternal life so man could have use of fire. Hercules had been appealing to Zeus (Jupiter) for help, and Hercules agreed to supply an appropriate replacement for Prometheus, thereby setting him free. Thus, Chiron replaced Prometheus, gave up eternity, and went to Tartarus (the Underworld) in Prometheus’ stead. Zeus witnessed everything that happened and he knew how deplorable his son Hercules felt. Zeus afforded the dear Centaur a resting place in the heavens, as the constellation Sagittarius the Archer, in recognition of his benevolence and perpetuity.

Chiron and Artemis

Axel: “Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?”

Saïx has a weapon called Artemis, after the moon goddess. Artemis has a relationship to Chiron. Centaurs were notorious for being wild, lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, violent when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents. Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind, because he was not related directly to the other centaurs due to his parentage. Soon after giving birth to Chiron, his mother abandoned him out of shame and disgust. Chiron, effectively orphaned, was later found by the god Apollo, who decided to take him in as his son.

Apollo taught to him the art of music, lyre, archery, medicine and prophecy. Apollo’s twin sister, Artemis taught him more about archery and hunting. Chiron’s uniquely peaceful character, kindness and intelligence is attributed to Apollo and Artemis. Artemis only loved one man, Orion. She killed him by accident after being tricked into thinking the he was a villain who had attacked one of her priestesses. Orion, whilst swimming to escape a giant scorpion, is killed by Artemis’ arrows after the goddess could only see his distant bobbing head and failed to recognize the hunter. Artemis tried to bring Orion back to life, but was unable. It was Artemis’ regret at the loss of her hunting companion which allowed him to become a constellation and gain immortality amongst the stars.

Sagittarius Mythology also figures in the tale of Orion. One Greek mythology tale tells of how Sagittarius the Archer was directed to shoot down Scorpio the Scorpion, which had been sent off to murder Orion. This story gives the reason why the Archer’s arrow is aimed toward the ‘heart of the scorpion’.

Friendship

Ven: “Already?”

Lea: “I’ll see ya when I see ya. After all, we’re friends now. Get it memorized.”

Ven: “Okay, Lea.”

Sagittarius make excellent friends because of their encouraging, positive nature and their kind heart that will do anything to make sure the friend is happy. They do not expect favors in return; their kindness is selfless. They do not interfere with other people’s plans and they are never possessive or jealous. They treat others the way they want to be treated and live life based on a ‘live and let live’ policy, making them very agreeable. They are excellent conversationalists with a good sense of humor. Sometimes their humor is the raw truth, but these people speak their mind and don’t hold anything back. What they say is what they mean. They do not like mind games; they like straightforwardness and expect it in return.

Axel: “C'mon, let’s get some ice cream.”

Roxas: “Why?”

Axel: “Whaddaya mean, why? Because we’re friends.”

Roxas: “So…friends are people who have ice cream together?”

Axel: “Sort of… That, or laugh at stupid stuff that doesn’t make any sense. Like those kids we just saw–they were friends. C'mon, I’ll show you how it works.”

Sagittarius are known for saying the ‘painful truth’. On the other hand, people know that they can trust what they say because they always say what is real. They never hide anything and are very likable people. The only people that might not get along with them are people that live by a daily agenda with a highly structured, organized life. They are likely to always be running late and miss a date, but this is only because they are so forward thinking that they forget about the present. Tolerance is required. They do not do these things on purpose; this is just who they are. If you understand this and accept this, having a Sagittarius in your life will make the sun shine a lot brighter.

Axel: “Best friends are willing to deal with complications.”

Wise and understanding Sagittarius is connected to the Temperance Tarot card. The gentle process of tempering is about finding a perfect middle state, and combining the best of all things to forge something that is stronger than the sum of its parts. By bringing the power of the philosophical world into their physical world, Sagittarius makes itself a source of ultimate truth and awareness.

Both Sagittarius and the Temperance card are constantly striving for a more enlightened state of being. The angel in the Tarot card here demonstrates this by slowly pouring the liquid from one golden cup into another – a process called “tempering” (a slow process of integration that leads to the perfect middle state). Similarly, Sagittarius accomplishes this by exploring the far reaches of both the physical and philosophical world to expand on or “temper” what is already known. The symbols of Temperance mean the following:

Angel: Interacting with the material world while maintaining a sense of spirituality and higher purpose.

Triangle: Interplay of masculine and feminine or spirituality and materiality.

Cups: The fountain of energy between your opposite tendencies, which is flowing and spontaneous yet also balanced and coherent.

Path: Taking your time through life’s twists and turns; being content in the moment or throughout unexpected obstacles.

Water: Groundedness and refreshment through spiritual thinking.

Mountains: The distant journeys awaiting you that will bring you to spiritual fulfillment.

Sun: The sun, also appearing as the angel’s third eye, represents the merging of personal aims with the universe’s plans for you.

Fire Wings: Muscles and strength necessary to maintain composure and reach a higher being state.

The Angel

Axel: “As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?”

The Angel’s beautiful, red wings represent blood or life, while the triangle on her dress means spirit – also the elemental symbol for fire. And, similar to adventurous Sagittarius, the angel’s feet are also symbolic of the eternal pilgrimage or spiritual journey. By showing one foot in the water and the other on the shore we are reminded that our greatest wisdom lies in the art of balancing. And lastly, the iris flowers are indicative of the Goddess Iris who provides the link between God and humanity. Like Sagittarius, she travels from one end of the world to another – building upon something that is bigger and brighter than herself.

In a general context, the Temperance Tarot card represents coolness in the face of shifting emotional tides. Temperance is the ability to control one’s temper or temperament. In Thailand there is a concept called “cool heart.” In this phrase, cool does not mean cruel and unemotional. Rather, to act with a “cool heart” means that one is not easily stirred or provoked to go off the handle; one does not quickly come to a raging boil but maintains a steady temperature despite shifting external circumstances. Similarly, Temperance stands with one foot in a cool stream and pours water from one cup into another. Temperance knows how to direct the water in a way that maintains homeostasis.

The 7 of Swords

Lea: “And if the darkness gets ya, I promise I’ll bail you out. “Dark Rescue” is my middle name.”

Axel’s weapon “Prometheus” is Lift Gear. This is the same gear that the Temperance Arcana in Luxord’s deck is listed under. Coincidence? I think not. Luxord’s card has the shape of the Minor Arcana, The 7 of Swords. In general, this card is said to be about betrayal and deception. It is sometimes called the ‘Thief’ card. In a general context, it represents deception, lies, trickery, cheating and lack of conscience. This card also signifies mental manipulation, tactics, scheming, cunning, enemies who masquerade as friends and spies in your camp. It represents escaping detection and getting away with something.

On a more positive note, the 7 of Swords points out that you need to be strategic in what you do. It can also represent flexibility, adaptability, sharp wit, and resourcefulness. You know you cannot do everything at once – nor should you. Instead, you must prioritize what’s important to you and direct your focus and attention on the few tasks that will move you closer to your goals. When this card is seen in a reading, the deception is usually short lived. Nobody is able to carry away 7 swords and get away with it. So although the party may feel smug about it at the time, it’s about to blow up in their face.

Sagittarius’ Ruling Planet: Jupiter

Lea: “I want everybody I meet to remember me. Inside people’s memories, I can live forever.”

Isa: “I know I won’t forget you. Believe me, I try all the time.”

Lea: “See, I’m immortal!”

Larger-than-life Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of luck and expansion. In Roman mythology, Jupiter was the king of the gods, the biggest and the best. In Astrology Jupiter is known as the “benefic” planet, meaning it is the luckiest, most opportunistic planet of all. This positive energy influences Sagittarius’ optimistic, enlightening, and outgoing nature that shines and spreads through anyone they come into contact with. As the largest planet in our cosmos, Jupiter’s vastness encourages Sagittarius to stretch its mind and heart as far as it can.

Sagittarius’ Symbol: The Archer

Xigbar: “You’re not supposed to be here!”

Lea: “Promises to keep. I’ll always be there to get my friends back. What, bad timing? You had your perfect little script, but you kinda forgot to write the sequel. Now, let’s find out what happens!”

The zodiac sign Sagittarius is associated with the Archer, and its glyph represents an arrow. Always eager to explore new horizons, the Archer sets its sights on a faraway target, then shoots toward it with precision. This focus on learning more, doing more, and seeing more is what Sagittarius is all about.

Ruled by expansive Jupiter, Sagittarius is big-hearted, open, and always looking beyond a checklist. A Sagittarius rarely has a “type.” They are always intrigued by the individual, and don’t make any assumptions about people until they’ve truly met and spoken with them. Sagittarius loves witty back and forth banter. A Sagittarius in love is a sight to behold. Aggressively fun, this sign usually moves full speed ahead once they have their love target ‘locked’.

Selene

Ventus: “I remember dreaming a lot. Of you and Terra. Of Sora and his friends too, I think. And there were some more people I didn’t recognize. Oh, and I saw these weird animal creatures! It’s like…I’ve been part of some big adventure.”

Saïx has a weapon named Selene, after the chaste Greek Moon goddess. It’s shaped like a torch. Selene’s torch has an interesting role in art and history. Selene was taken with Endymion, a beautiful youth who tended his flocks on Mount Latmos. She accompanied Cupid and used the light of the torch to gaze upon the mortal she fell in love with while he slept.  

Girodet’s “The Sleep of Endymion” shows the moment that Cupid parts the trees so the Moon may shine her light down upon her sleeping lover’s face. Only at night when he is asleep does she quietly creep down to him, accompanied by Cupid, whose torch symbolizes burning love.

In a Roman floor mosaic from the third century CE, the scene focuses on the moment when Selene falls in love with the young mortal shepherd. Cupid, in the upper right corner, points down at Endymion as if guiding Selene’s gaze towards him. Selene steps out of her bull-drawn biga that she uses to pull the moon across the sky each night, and raises a lit torch that illuminates Endymion’s face in the darkness. She peers down at him longingly. Endymion is fast asleep and unaware of her presence. She was so in love that she asked Zeus to give Endymion immortal life.

Sagittarius’ Ruling House: 9th House of Expansion

Roxas: “I found out about love on today’s mission–that it’s something powerful.”

Axel: “That’s true. It is. But I’ll never get to experience it.”

As the 9th sign in the zodiac, Sagittarius rules over the 9th House of Expansion. This house reveals how open our minds are, and how much we expand ourselves through education, exploration, and life lessons. From philosophical conversations to book research to world travel, the 9th house encourages you to go further than you’ve ever gone before. Sagittarius’ drive for adventure, growth, and awareness is strongly represented here.

When Venus is in Sagittarius

Axel: “Love is what happens if there’s something really special between two people.”

Saïx’s weapon Horoscope incorporates the Venus and Sagittarius symbols while in its Berserk form. So, the astrological correspondence is Venus in Sagittarius. Venus is the planet of love, self-worth, and all things beautiful. Her style is sweet, cooperative, and peaceful. But when this graceful planet’s energy mixes with the free-spirited sign of Sagittarius, her joyful side comes out to play. Hearts come out of hiding while Venus moves through Sagittarius. The happy and free energy of Sagittarius turns Venus up a few notches, encouraging us to live life to the fullest. This is a time to socialize, to try new things, and to look for love in different places.

Sagittarius is the sign of the adventurer, so when Venus is traveling through this sign, we find ourselves drawn to exotic people, places, and experiences. Old routines and worn-out relationships are at risk of being traded in for something bigger, brighter, and better while Venus is in Sagittarius. We want to expand beyond our usual boundaries, and may give up some of our comfortable patterns of the past to try out new experiences. Love needs to grow during this transit – it will not stand still.

Sagittarius’ Element: Fire

No. VIII AXEL—An assassin who puts his own agenda first, and everything else on the back burner. Wields fire.

The zodiac sign Sagittarius is a Fire sign that lights up our lives with profound questions and exciting ideas. Just like an uncontrollable wildfire, this sign will happily go where the wind takes them to seek new experiences. Sagittarius uses its Fire energy on its lifelong journey of exploration, always ready to jump at the next adventure. The element of Fire continues to fuel Sagittarius’ never ending supply of optimism and inspiration.

The Goddess Hestia: The Keeper of the Flame

Axel: “Well, I think you can be inseparable, even if you’re apart. It’s like, if you feel really close to each other. Like best friends.”

Saïx’s weapons Moonrise and Moonset are shaped like ⚶ the astrological symbol for the asteroid Vesta, also known as Hestia in Greek mythology. Her name means “the essence”, the true nature of things. Hestia was the Greek Goddess of the sacred fire. She was the most influential and widely revered of the goddesses. She was was one of the three ‘virgin’ goddesses, next to Athena and Artemis. Hestia was depicted as a beautiful and bashful woman, usually seated. The living flame of Hestia was tended constantly and never allowed to die out, for it represented the energy of all life.

Hestia was a kind goddess and had a discrete character. She never left her residence, the sacred mountain of Olympus. She never involved herself in the fights and machinations of the other gods and goddesses, somehow managing to stay above the fray. Non-judgmental and forgiving, her unconditional love and calm acceptance inspired the love and trust of others in return. Dependable and caring, she was always there for them and helped them to manage their lives, which were certainly more exciting than her own. These virtues define the goddess Hestia: mild, gentle, forgiving, peaceful, serene, dignified, calm, secure, stable, welcoming, and, above all else, well-centered.

Sagittarius’ Color: Purple

Axel: “You know, I’ve been thinking about something Naminé said. Roxas…are you really sure that you don’t have a heart? Is it possible that we all have one? You, me, her… Or is that just wishful thinking?”

Rich and luscious purple is the color of Sagittarius. Purple is a color of abundance, which encourages Sagittarius’ natural luck and its drive to expand its mind and world. The color purple is also associated with spirituality and enlightenment, empowering Sagittarius’ philosophical explorations and lifelong quest for knowledge.

The Sun

Axel: “Hey, Roxas. Bet you don’t know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest.”

Roxas: “Like I asked! Know-it-all.”

Saïx’s weapons Orbit and Lunar Phase incorporate the Sagittarius symbol with the combined stars of Ishtar and Shamash. There’s also a Recusant’s sigil visible over the Sun symbol. The Sun, the giver of life, represents our conscious mind in astrology. It represents our will to live and our creative life force. Just as the planets revolve around the Sun in our solar system, we derive our life purpose from the Sun in our natal charts. The Sun is our ego. It is the part of us that reasons things out, and makes final decisions. The Sun is our basic identity, and represents self-realization. The Sun also represents our overall vitality. The happiest people on this earth are those who identify with the Sun’s expression.

Sagittarius’ Quality: Mutable

Axel: “Let’s meet again in the next life.”

Roxas: “Yeah. I’ll be waiting.”

As the last sign of autumn, Sagittarius helps us celebrate one last hoorah as fall comes to a close and the season of hibernation begins. Sagittarius, with a love for variety and change, uses its Mutable energy to shake the fiery radiance off the leaves and allow them to fall. As winter approaches, this Fire sign keeps us going by fueling our desire for adventure and fun, and helps us remain optimistic that light and warmth will return again.

[nomadicism]

The Blue & Orange Morality of the White Lion and the Life Givers of Oriande

Prompted by an Ask, this very long post examines the White Lion and its condition for obtaining the knowledge of Altean Alchemy.

“Hi! I can't stop thinking about White Lion. Why is the condition for obtaining the knowledge so stupid? Give up your life? If anything, Allura wanted that knowledge for personal reasons (being Altean, father's daughter etc.), while Lotor went there with a purpose—he needed that knowledge so his own “Voltrons” would work with Alteans from Colony. It seems natural to fight, when lives of people depend on your success. And how did Haggar get that knowledge?”

My answer as to these questions—especially the White Lion and its condition for obtaining knowledge—is to deep dive into some meta and analysis by:

Skimming some literary and mythological concepts that relate to the Life Givers of Oriande and the White Lion via the basics of the Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge

Comparing VLD and the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant films where this quest appears

Exploring the requirements for entry to Oriande and the price of obtaining Secret & Sacred Knowledge in VLD

And how that applies to Lotor, Allura, Haggar, and Alfor

First, some context: There is a Reason™ why certain tropes, and certain types of plot lines, and certain types of character arcs are bundled together and progress in certain ways. These combinations are Timeless. Generally speaking, they work well so long as one follows the unwritten rules that bind them together. Their predictability can be offset by a skilled and clever writer. These combinations are the building blocks of Ur Stories, and many Ur Stories (and their contemporaries) involve Quests for Secret & Sacred Knowledge.

The White Lion’s strange condition for obtaining knowledge is one found in many such stories, told in myriad ways, and is one of the oldest concepts in human story-telling, hence why it almost always appears bundled with certain tropes, plot lines, character arcs, etc.

From Odin’s unyielding quest for knowledge and willingness to pay any price for it, to Prometheus’ defiance of the Gods to give mortals the Gift of Fire, to Victor Frankenstein’s ‘dangerous pursuit of knowledge’ resulting in the tragic creation of a monster, to Enkidu’s tryst with Shamhat leaving his physical prowess diminished but his mind expanded, and throughout many more such stories; the following theme emerges: When knowledge is gained, something is lost. 

The loss can be intentional (e.g. sacrifice) or unintentional (e.g. consequences).

In many stories with a similar setup, the White Lion and the Life Givers of Oriande would be a case of Blue & Orange Morality (this is not the same as being “morally gray”). In these kinds of stories, the Keepers of Knowledge often judge worthiness in a completely different way from that of the Knowledge Seeker, and they may even be pulling the strings for their own purposes that are incomprehensible to those who seek their knowledge. Their requirements for the gift of knowledge fulfills their own morality, and one to which they adhere, but that morality has little resemblance to what a Seeker of Knowledge may believe in…unless that Seeker learned their ways and began to practice them.

The Secret & Sacred Knowledge is for the taking by whomever is willing to pay the price, meaning that even the most vile and evil being that ever lived could gain the Knowledge for their own use. Thus the Keepers of Knowledge are not bound by a morality that would require them to prevent access by the evil and wicked. The only time the Keepers will care (e.g. divine retribution of some kind) is when the rules for gaining or using that knowledge are broken or some line is crossed by a prideful mortal. While there are stories where the morality of Keepers of Knowledge align with a general black-and-white morality of good and evil, Oriande and associated Altean-related concepts (not to mention, the Voltron lions) do not consistently give off the usual and unambiguous signals of black-and-white (e.g. good vs evil) morality.

Part I: Breaking the Keeper's Rules (two examples).

The titan Prometheus’ punishment for defying the Keepers (e.g. Zeus and the gods) is to be bound to a rock for an eternity as an eagle eats his constantly regenerating liver each day; and 

Victor Frankenstein has no deity to punish him for his God-defying scientific experiments, but tragedy finds him anyway.

In both of these examples, the knowledge gained came with a heavy and tragic price.

In example of Prometheus, (there are several versions) he is moved by the plight of mortals, their hard lives could be made better with the Gift of Fire (e.g. Knowledge), a gift that is jealously guarded by Zeus and the gods on Mt. Olympus. In some versions, the mortals already had the Gift of Fire, but Zeus took it from them out of anger of a trick played by Prometheus which benefitted the mortals in the form of sacrificial offerings. Either way, Zeus and the gods have a Blue & Orange morality. Prometheus’ intentions were noble and good, but his means via trickery broke the arbitrary rules of the gods (e.g. the Keepers of Knowledge). Why would the gods withhold this gift if it could do good? Because in the wrong hands, Fire can be weaponized and used for destruction. Remember that because we’ll return to this as VLD gives us a subtle Promethean character arc.

In the example of Victor Frankenstein—from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus”—he takes his obsessive pursuit of knowledge, the secrets of life and death, too far in the name of science. He realizes too late the horror that he has created, and abandons his creation (the monster that is erroneously called Frankenstein outside of the story). Frankenstein's monster gradually destroys his life by murdering friends and family, even framing him for it. Shelley’s use of “The Modern Prometheus” as the subtitle of her novel intentionally invokes the myth of Prometheus and the divine retribution he suffered for his transgression against the Keepers of Knowledge. The punishment delivered to Frankenstein is a strange kind of black-and-white morality, as it is the price paid for transgressing Natural Law through science. One could call it “natural retribution” in absence of the divine. Here, the Keeper of Knowledge is simply Nature itself.

Above, Honvera rebukes Alfor’s caution: “The ancients thought that lightning was shot from the bows of the gods until science proved otherwise. We must always push into dangerous territory in pursuit of knowledge.”

In VLD, Honerva’s Frankenstein-like obsession with quintessence, and her willingness to push further—to break natural boundaries in pursuit of knowledge—is her undoing. Honerva’s tragedy does not stop with herself and her family, as the price of knowledge gained is paid for by the entire universe for 10,000 years.

Part II: The Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge In Space.

In Season 5 of VLD, the basic template of a Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge appears in the form of the journey to Oriande. The same basic quest template also appears in the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant films.

Above, a summary: A pretty, well-spoken, ageless, pale-haired man with a British accent is used-and-emotionally-neglected by his powerful father whom he grows to despise and is treated badly and distrusted by his father’s kind. The father is prideful and has a bit of god complex. After his father’s well-deserved death, the man embarks upon a Quest of Secret & Sacred Knowledge held in a far-off utopia guarded and/or inhabited by Ancient Keepers of Knowledge. His companion to this utopia is his love interest, a petite and well-spoken woman with a British accent who is stronger than she looks, and is instrumental to finding the star map that initiates the quest to begin with. The sought-after secret knowledge has themes of life and creation. These secrets are yielded through life sacrifice and prove to be dangerous in the wrong hands.

I’m not saying that VLD ripped off Prometheus and Alien: Covenant but here we are...

The starting premise of Prometheus is that an exploration mission to planet LV-223 is organized by Peter Weyland, an old and dying CEO who bankrupts his corporation to pay for this mission. He is desperate to find humanity’s creators—called “Engineers” by Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway—firm in the belief that they will grant him immortality. The location of LV-223 is revealed through the discoveries of star maps in the form of cave drawings by Shaw and Holloway. 

Above: Upon arrival to LV-223, the crew discovers a temple and within it are urns containing a mysterious black goo, as well as long dead remains of some Engineers. They quickly discover that this black goo has strange and unexpected properties. It doesn’t go well for them, after all, this is the prequel to the Alien franchise.

Above, content warning: None. The video clip above shows the discovery of the mysterious urns within the Engineer temple.

So we’ve got cave drawings that function as a star map, a temple constructed by ancient creators keeping the secrets of life, and a mysterious substance that can create powerful monsters via its transmutational properties.

Above: in addition to being an unobtanium power source, some forms of quintessence can have transmutational properties as with the black goo in Prometheus.

Below: a xenomorph derived from a chain of gradual evolutions that began with the black goo and an unlucky victim, and Ranveig’s super weapon, the horror- monster-esque result of experiments with the strange quintessence.

In both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, this black goo—called “Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15”—is a weaponized mutagenic pathogen that delivers a modern sci-fi twist on transmutational alchemy and transformation potions. Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 evolves non-botanical life, by first destroying it, and then creating something new out of that which it comes into contact.

Above: Krolia tells Keith about the quintessence that the BoM have been tracking (two separate scenes). “We’re going after the enriched quintessence that created Ranveig’s super weapon. [...] It was unlike any other quintessence we’d seen. [...] and it has some very unexpected effects.”

How strangely familiar all of this is! Let’s continue.

The Engineers, creators of human life, and their morality:

Throughout Prometheus, the Engineers—the Ancient Keepers of Knowledge—are revealed to embody a Blue & Orange Morality and are the creators of human life (among others) and they sometimes return to judge their creations.

Above: An Engineer asks, “Why does he [Weyland] want more life? What makes this man so great as to ask such a thing?”

Above, content warning: Video clip of extended/deleted scene where David 8 speaks with an Engineer and Weyland asks for immortality. There is a quick decapitation (bloodless because David 8 is a Synthetic) and some quick impact deaths. No gore. Use the YouTube gear/settings icon to turn on subtitles to see what the Engineer is saying.

Addition/Edit: The video clip above doesn’t link anymore and Tumblr wont’ let me add another video, so here’s the URL until I can re-edit this properly to fix it.

Above: the Engineer directs his cold stare at Elizabeth Shaw who wants answers as to why they were lured to LV-223 to find the weaponized pathogen. She asks “Why do you hate us?”

The Engineers created humanity and have a detached will to wipe the slate clean and start all over again, sacrificing their own lives in the act of new creation. Within their their beliefs and morality, creation and destruction are intertwined. It is death that begets life. What Elizabeth Shaw sees as hate, is just the Engineers’ way of perfecting their own flawed creations. Nothing personal.

The morality of the Engineers later corrupts David 8 (who was already morally gray) during his years of studying them, as he learns their ways during The Crossing, which takes place between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Below: David 8 and Elizabeth Shaw operate the navigation system of the Engineer’s ship in The Crossing.

Above: after Shaw is put to sleep in a cryobed, David 8 is left alone to study the Engineers for the remainder of their journey. When they arrive, he has learned their ways and has come to a grim decision of what to do with their weaponized mutagenic pathogen.

Above content warning: None. This promo video ends just before David 8 unleashes the Engineers’ own weapon against them upon his arrival to their utopia.

Above: If y’all thought Lotor was dramatic... David 8 overlooks the destruction and cries while reciting a line from Ozymandias. “Look on my works ye mighty, and despair.”

Below, content warning: Video clip with body horror and abstract gore, slightly obscured by dim lighting and desaturated colors during David 8’s destruction of the Engineers.

As these video clips and images show, the ways of the Engineers—their philosophy and morality—lead David 8 into crossing the Moral Event Horizon. He becomes both a God-Slayer (destruction of the Engineers) and a Creator of Life (cultivation and creation of the Xenomorphs).

About mid-way through Alien: Covenant, David 8 is revealed to have betrayed the person he loved, Elizabeth Shaw, by using her for organ harvesting. The harvesting was necessary for the creation and cultivated evolution of the perfect life-form: the Xenomorph (I’ll spare y’all the images of that). 

Through his mastery of the Engineers' knowledge, David 8 becomes the Greater Scope Villain of the Alien franchise. His story is one of triumph. He wins against those who wronged him, against the father that used him and considered him soul-less (thus less than a human), against the humans that created him to be used, and against the Engineers that created a humanity that he sees as unworthy of the gift of creation in the first place. A gift denied to David 8 because he is a Synthetic. All it cost David 8 to gain this gift of knowledge was the sacrifice of the only person who was kind to him (and possibly loved him, that's unclear).

The loss-and-sacrifice of Shaw fulfills the Sacred Knowledge Quest rule that: when knowledge is gained, something is lost.

Above: an Engineer uses the black goo to transmute his own body in order to seed non-botanical life on Earth.

The off-screen sacrifice of Shaw’s life echoes the beginnings of human life shown in the opening of Prometheus where an Engineer seeds life on Earth by sacrificing himself via the pseudo-alchemical transmutation of his own body.

Above content warning:  Abstractly graphic. Not bloody, but the Engineer’s body is slowly disintegrated while being transmuted by the black goo. No gore.

An eerily similar Quest for Sacred & Secret Knowledge mixed with horror appears in VLD, spread out between Lotor’s actions prior to the start of the series, the journey to Oriande in Season 5, and the events in Season 6.

The Life Givers and Altean Alchemy:

In VLD, the Keepers of the Secret & Sacred Knowledge of Altean Alchemy are called the “Life Givers” by Lotor, and the “Sages” by Allura. As shown in the image above, they are described by Lotor as “the first Alteans to unlock the secrets of Oriande, the beginning of Altean Alchemy.”

One of them—presumably a Life Giver—is later shown without corporeal form when speaking with Allura after she passes the White Lion’s trial. Allura is told that she is in the realm of her ancestors—the Alteans and Life Givers—implying that she is one of them for she is “home”.

Above: the cosmic voice tells Allura “You have returned to the realm of your ancestors, the Alteans and the Life Givers who came before. [...] You are home, and the secret is already within you.”

For those keeping score: Life Givers = Engineers.

The morality of the Life Givers is unclear as story events—and the aforementioned bundle of Timeless tropes and concepts—suggest Blue & Orange morality, while the implied traits and other in-story associations thus far (ahead of S8) with the Alteans and Alfor suggest that the Life Givers of Oriande embody a morality of Perfectly Good Pureness in opposition to the Galra’s presumed Horribly Evil Darkness. It’s upon examining the actions and beliefs of the Alteans—and thus the Life Givers—that a superficial black-and-white morality starts to give way to a Blue & Orange morality that is incomprehensible in various ways (e.g. the White Lion’s strange condition for obtaining knowledge).

Like David 8, Lotor learns of the Life Givers’ ways prior to arrival at the utopia, only in his case, he does so without realizing it and his understanding is warped by being raised in the Galran belief system. Here, their ways—to give of one’s life, and/or that life must be sacrificed to obtain knowledge—are associated with the Alteans and Lotor's study of Alfor’s work, Altean culture, artifacts, and ancient drawings (until the story unambiguously shows otherwise). Unlike David 8, Lotor’s sacrifice and quintessence harvesting of those who loved-and-worshipped him occurs before entering the utopia (if the events described by Romelle are true). Also, unlike David 8, Lotor’s story is not one of triumph against those who wronged him and others, but like David 8, Lotor was on the path to attaining something greater than his nature would have otherwise allowed.

Above: David 8 delights in the unexpected unlocking of the Engineer’s star map, and both Lotor and Allura are shown the same way when Allura unlocks the star map to Oriande from the compass stone.

In both Prometheus and VLD, the clues to the location of the utopia comes from a combination of ancient cave drawings and navigation devices left behind. These clues form star maps and the like, but are mostly unusable until they are unlocked, by David 8 in Prometheus, and Allura in VLD. As shown above, their respective unlocking and reveals are very similar.

The big difference here is that in Prometheus, there are two star maps: (1) the initial star map—derived from cave drawing to reveal the location of planet LV-223—is discovered and deciphered by Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway; and (2) the star map in the navigation room that reveals the location of the Engineer’s home world (a utopia called ‘paradise’ in their language). Thus, in Prometheus, the Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge is divided into two parts, with the second part to be completed prior to Alien: Covenant in The Crossing.

Above: that’s one hell of a mouth on these monsters (Hammerpede and Deacon from Prometheus, and Ranveig’s super weapon from VLD).

Given how closely Oriande and Lotor’s role in that part of VLD’s story parallels David 8’s in Prometheus, I would not be surprised if Ranveig’s Super Weapon was informed by Xenomorphs, especially since the transmutational properties of the black goo would find a correlation in the strange effects of the quintessence found by Ranveig.

Above: Allura passes the White Lion’s trial by being non-violent and speaking to its philosopy. “I seek the secret of life. I give my own.”

For Allura’s part, unlike Shaw, she survives the Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge. Her willingness to self-sacrifice during the White Lion's trial, for the sake of knowledge, relates to Shaw’s unwilling sacrifice in Prometheus. Both sacrifices lead to knowledge. Allura for her own gain (in addition to Lotor’s), and Shaw for David’s gain.

The key here is that both stories demand a sacrifice of life for knowledge, and the knowledge obtained has to do with the power of creation and life with alchemical themes (transmutational).

That’s heavy stuff. It’s mythic level. These are themes found throughout humanity’s oldest stories, myths, and religions. It’s the stuff of Warring Gods, Capricious Fair Folk, Geas and Mystic Debts, and Divine Retribution, and Tragic Fates.

Which brings us back to Anon’s question about the White Lion:

“Why is the condition for obtaining the knowledge so stupid? Give up your life?”

Superficially, the White Lion is just another DotU reference. There’s nothing deep or meaningful about it on its own.

Thematically, the White Lion’s Trial is similar to the Blade of Marmora’s Trial. The BoM’s creed “Knowledge or Death” is informed by the Galra creed “Victory or Death”, both of which are contrasted by Allura’s words to the White Lion: “I give my own [life].”

It’s most likely that’s all there really is to the White Lion and Oriande, and thus there is nothing else here to dig at as far as the story is concerned. “Give up your life” for knowledge is merely a part of the aforementioned package of Timeless tropes and concepts that are frequently found in Quests for Secret & Sacred Knowledge and other Ur Stories.

But for the sake of meta, I’ll pretend that there is more to the White Lion and the Life Givers of Oriande.

To recap: within the context of Ur Stories, the White Lion and the Life Givers of Oriande are Keepers of Knowledge. The White Lion is the kind bound by some form of morality that dictates who gets access and how it tests those who seek it, while the Life Givers bestow it. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are a recent example of this kind of story, and a similar tale plays out in VLD.

Part III: The Case for Blue & Orange Morality.

From the start, the White Lion’s requirements have their bias in Altean-ness, but not just any Altean-ness. A “worthy” Altean. Given that Alfor, Lotor, Allura, and Haggar were all worthy to enter Oriande, their past actions or goals/desires were less important, or not even a consideration. Thus, worthy Altean-ness is arbitrary from the outside, but must suit the Blue & Orange morality of the White Lion in some way. Additionally, only the worthy can pilot the lions of Voltron (depending upon where we are in the series and when the requirement lore is discussed or retconned), and yet none of them could enter Oriande. Why is that? What made Lotor—a half-Altean who Did Bad Things™—more worthy than Lance who was chosen to be the paladin of two different Lions? This arbitrary worthiness contradicts the symbolism of the Guardian being a “White Lion” that ties it to Voltron (and possibly the Lion Goddess worship of the Arusians). Such contradictions are reasonable to expect out of Blue & Orange morality.

However, if the White Lion and Oriande were meant to embody the Perfectly Good Pureness of the Alteans, then that raises a lot of questions about why Lotor and Haggar were able to enter while the paladins were not. While Haggar is shown to be using her magic, and possibly over-powering the White Lion and the Life Givers, I’ll explain why that might not be the case. Alternatively, this contradiction reveals a huge plot hole.

In the case of Blue & Orange morality, anyone being allowed to enter is questionable, as typically, Powerful Eternal Entities Protecting Sacred Knowledge who adhere to Blue & Orange morality often have their own motivations, plans, goals, etc that involve the use of the Knowledge Seeker in some way. In other words, the White Lion and the Life Givers may have their own agenda, and any who enter Oriande are at risk of being used to further it (either knowingly, unknowingly, cooperatively, or uncooperatively).

Oriande calls back to those Ur Stories, because one doesn't set up Blue & Orange morality behind a Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge in a setting like VLD without a plot twist revealing Something to embody that morality as an obstacle to the protagonists at the 11th Hour (if consistency in world-building and adherence to genre conventions were to apply). Thus, we are looking at Playthings of the Gods, or a Greater Scope Villain scenario that has something to do with Oriande. This also means that at least one of these four: Alfor, Lotor, Allura, and Haggar, were lured to Oriande for the purpose of Something Else.

Above: Haggar emerges from the temple, sparkling with divine purpose, and is restored as Honerva.

Haggar’s restoration into Honerva all but seals Blue & Orange morality for me. She got a huge pay-off from Oriande, and from the protagonist-centered morality PoV, she was the least worthy to enter, and so far appears to have paid no price. Additionally, in some stories with Blue & Orange morality, Haggar’s 10k years of reaping quintessence from the destruction of planets (and every living thing) would be seen as a necessary process to maintain the balance of creation. As in Prometheus, Death begets Life.

Above: Honerva equates quintessence with life twice in The Legend Begins. The Komar is used to reap quintessence from a planet in Taking Flight. And when Zarkon powers himself up during his fight with Lotor in Blood Duel, he does so with the quintessence that has been collected for the use of the Empire.

Thus, when Zarkon says “the strength of the Empire flows through my veins” he means that literally and symbolically. He is made stronger through all of the life energy reaped within his empire, every living thing which has died is within him. Through Honerva’s work, Death begets Life (a cursed life perhaps, but life all the same).

Why Perfectly Good Pureness doesn’t work:

If the White Lion and Oriande were meant to embody Perfectly Good Pureness, then that makes the entrance of Haggar and Lotor highly questionable.

Either that’s flawed writing, or there is something else is going on that’s not adding up:

Lotor is revealed to have harvested quintessence from Alteans (which may not be the full story), and Altean-ness is a pre-requisite to enter Oriande, and Allura is Altean while Lotor is half-Altean. But Allura is also implied to be a Life Giver and that Oriande is her home, meaning that the Life Givers and Altean-ness are closely-related. If what Romelle said about Lotor was true, by any stretch of Perfectly Good Pureness morality, the White Lion should not have given Lotor the all-clear signal in the form of Marks of the Chosen due to Lotor's past sin of evil acts against Alteans. So either his past with the Alteans at the Colony do not qualify as evil (which contradicts Perfectly Good Pureness), or those actions didn’t happen in the way that Romelle described them.

If Lotor wouldn’t have been worthy to enter Oriande due to his past actions, then that could mean that he was allowed to enter for the sake of having brought Allura there, his failure of the White Lion’s Trial foreseen and thus no risk of him gaining the sacred knowledge. This means that he was used by the Life Givers to serve their purpose.

Further, being half-Altean wasn’t a barrier to Lotor, which means that he must have something else in common with Allura to qualify in this scenario which brings us to...

If Life Givers and Altean-ness are closely related, and if Allura is both a Life Giver and an Altean, then either all Alteans are Life Givers, or only some are, as implied by Lotor in the temple. That it was those first Altean alchemists who to came to Oriande and they are the Life Givers. But the Life Giver that Allura speaks to says that the secret is already inside of her. Why would she even need to go there? Was that true of the first Altean alchemists as well? This smells a lot like Allura is host to a cosmic entity and those stories don’t usually end well for the host (e.g. Dark Phoenix from the X-Men). In which case, the Perfectly Good Pureness morality doesn’t work, as why are the Life Givers using Alteans as hosts? And if they use Alteans as hosts…do they discriminate against half-Alteans? And why do they hide their knowledge behind an arbitrary test?

Haggar should not have been able to get anywhere near Oriande for obvious reasons.

Above: Allura embodies the Life Givers’ philosophy when she risks herself to heal the dying Balmera in Rebirth. Coran says “To heal an entire planet, it could take more energy than you possess. You may not live through it.”

Even before entering Oriande, Allura had enough quintessence—life energy—to heal a dying Balmera. Do all Life Givers have that much quintessence within them? Does this mean that the Life Givers were on par with Allura prior to her entry to Oriande? If so, what power is Oriande giving them that they didn’t already possess? Within the context of Quests for Secret & Sacred Knowledge, it appears that the secret knowledge is about how to use that power to its fullest extent. Surely that comes with a price?

Anon also asks: “How did Haggar get that knowledge?”

Haggar gets the knowledge in the same way that Allura did, by being worthy to enter, and, either by knowing the philosophy behind the White Lion’s trial or by over-powering the White Lion and the Life Givers. The former can appear to be a stretch, but the latter doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Above: Haggar at Oriande, her own Marks of the Chosen, and the difference between her encounter with the Sage Statues and Allura and Lotor’s encounter.

In Season 6, Haggar arrives at Oriande’s location, her Marks of the Chosen appear, thus she gets the ‘all clear’ signal from the White Lion. Haggar is worthy of Oriande. She then enters the temple where we see her doing one of her casting circles as the Sage Statues (e.g. the Life Givers in statue form) are poised to attack.

In the case where the White Lion and Oriande embody Perfectly Good Pureness, it would be necessary for Haggar to over-power them in order to enter as she could not be considered worthy unless Blue & Orange morality applied. At the very least, Haggar was deemed worthy by the White Lion’s arbitrary requirements. So did Haggar over-power the Sage Statues, or did she offer them a gift as Allura did?

Above: Haggar and her druids transferring quintessence to Zarkon, and Allura and the Balmerans transfer quintessence to heal the Balmera.

We’ve seen Haggar and her druids use similar orientations and positions as Allura and the Balmerans do when channeling their quintessence into another being such as Zarkon, or in the case of Naxella, a planet. When they attack with quintessence, and when they reap quintessence via the Komar, their positions are different. This channeling position is used by Haggar in Oriande when she meets the Sage Statues (again, the Life Givers in statue form).

So either Haggar gave them a gift, or she over-powered them. But if Haggar can overpower the Life Givers…then why does she need the secrets of Oriande?

To put it another way, if Haggar can over-power beings capable of (at a bare minimum) restoring a Balmera as Allura did, but after they have ascended to be part of Oriande (so even more powerful right?) then what Secret & Sacred Knowledge could the Life Givers of Oriande possibly bestow upon her that would make any of that effort and risk worth it? Is there something else in Oriande that she may have been after instead?

What secrets are so powerful, that Haggar—who by this line of logic may as well be all-powerful herself—needs them to fulfill her goals?

These same secrets are also now known to Allura, though the argument can be made that Haggar-now-Honerva had much more time to study them properly. These secrets have unlocked Allura’s potential, giving her—as Lotor says during their battle in S6—“all the power in the universe”. Hypothetically, Honerva has unlocked this power within herself as well.

And this is why we've got a case of Blue and Orange morality. For so long as one fulfills some arbitrary requirements, then one is allowed in. The next parts, getting past the Life Givers in the form of the Sage Statues, and passing the White Lion’s Trial relate back to the Blade of Marmora. For the BoM, one has to be thinking like them to pass (Knowledge or Death). For the White Lion and the Life Givers, one has to understand the philosophy underlying their Blue & Orange morality, which in this case, is giving up life for knowledge. Piece of cake for Allura, quite likely easy for Haggar too, not so for Lotor. Understanding their philosophy is alignment agnostic, both the good and the evil can know it and put it to use.

In Lotor’s case, he failed the White Lion’s alignment-agnostic philosophy exam. Even though he learned their ways enough to replicate some of Alfor and Honerva's accomplishments, and got as far as he did, (and I’d argue to understand the bigger picture of what is necessary to bring peace to the universe). He failed because the Galra philosophy of “Victory or Death” came out in him as the White Lion’s threat triggered that philosophy in addition to his desperation to achieve his goal (which in S6E1 we see hints of his anxiousness towards not being delayed further from). He did not fail due to moral alignment.

From Lotor's PoV—as stated by Anon—“It seems natural to fight, when lives of people depend on your success.” This natural way can easily fall under the Galra’s “Victory or Death”, and leads Lotor to fail, therefore it must be at odds with the morality and/or philosophy of the White Lion and the Life Givers. If not, then it at the very least, it must be at odds with how the Life Givers intend for Altean Alchemy to be used, just as Prometheus’ use of the Gift of Fire went against how Zeus and the gods intended for it to be used.

Thus, Lotor is a Promethean character, setting him against Life Givers' and the White Lion’s morality as he wants to take their Gift (e.g. Altean Alchemy via Allura) for another use, as Anon said: “He needed that knowledge so his own “Voltrons" would work with Alteans from Colony.”

Above: Lotor lights the flame at Kral Zera and double-dipping into flame symbolism.

That other use, what amounts to Altean Alchemy For All, is one that the White Lion’s trial exists to prevent by way of only allowing worthy Alteans to enter. Those worthy Alteans are ‘sacred’, and it is not much of a stretch to assume that they may have once derived their social status from being the only Alteans who can wield this secret power.

While I’m not completely sold on “Voltrons with Alteans” being Lotor's reasoning (definitely for Honerva though), that still aligns with his Dark Savior obsession underlying his desire for power to defend the Alteans himself, or, to enable the Alteans to defend themselves (remember his words to the Puigian leader about how Voltron left the Puigians defenseless). However, Lotor's stated goal—giving unlimited quintessence to the universe for the sake of peace—is analogous to Prometheus taking Fire from Olympus so that the mortals could use its heat and improve their lot. Further, like Prometheus, Lotor is divinely punished for his actions, for via Allura, Lotor stole the means to unlimited quintessence for all (e.g. the Fire) from Oriande and the Life Givers (e.g. Olympus and the Gods).

Divine Punishment:

Above: Allura attacks first while Lotor pleads with her. Lotor responds by ordering his generals to hold their fire.

Lotor's divine punishment comes from Allura. Allura takes up a “fight first” instinct multiple times throughout the story, the same instinct that caused Lotor to fail the White Lion’s trial. Allura fights first even though she is from a race that we’re told are excellent diplomats, whose culture and mythological beings (e.g. White Lion and the Life Givers) appear to embody a “giving one’s life rather than fighting” philosophy. This philosophy is what motivated Allura to restore the Balmera at risk of her own life, but her fight first moments throughout the story contradict that philosophy, as well as her readiness to fight rather than embrace a diplomacy-first approach in the case of Ulaz and Kolivan. Allura embraces diplomacy-first when it is easy and convenient.

Two of these fight first times—yeeting Lotor when he was no threat, and attacking Lotor when he was pleading with her—occur after she gained the knowledge of Altean Alchemy from Oriande. I’m not saying that Allura was’t emotionally justified, but part of being the Special Sacred One, is that one is usually required to control those impulses in exchange for the sacred power and knowledge.

In stories where there is a “Here’s this Mythic Sacred Thing you got because of a Quest to a Special Place” event, there are usually conditions upon the continued use of the Thing. Acting against the precepts or philosophy or morality embodied by the Bestowers of the Thing is a Big Deal. It is such a Big Deal, that this conflict appears in stories from nearly every mythology or religion, even if only in the form of the smallest side-story of a minor hero or prophet (e.g. Enkidu from Gilgamesh, or “Don’t look back” for Orpheus and Eurydice).

Above: Allura’s power over life on display.

Allura’s got this awesome power now, and it didn’t cost her anything.

That breaks the Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge story code (risking her life to not defend against the White Lion barely counts). Allura can bring Lance back to life, shift Shiro’s soul into the body of another person a clone, and myriad other all-powerful plot-friendly things. Yet there is no geas placed upon her? No requirement that she continue to embody the philosophy that allowed her to pass the White Lion’s trial in the first place?

It appears as though Allura's awesome power is inconsistent for when it’s available (cough Plot cough), as in Season 7, she’s a quintessence power house during the fight with Macidus, but she couldn’t save Sanda as she did with Lance?

In the context of Ur Stories, when a Seeker of Knowledge has gained a gift of knowledge and not immediately paid a price—such as when Odin gives an eye for a drink from Urd’s Well of Knowledge—then that Seeker usually has to continue to embody what made them worthy to get the gift in the first place. Or, they must complete some kind of Task or observe a taboo, otherwise they risk the wrath of those who bestowed the gift or lose access to the gift. As Allura does not yet appear to have lost her power, then she may have a Task to complete instead. Violating the seemingly pacifist philosophy of the Life Givers to deliver divine punishment to Lotor may have been permissible given the circumstances.

Finally—Part IV: Payment is Coming Due

While I still doubt that there is anything more to the White Lion than a nod to DotU combined with a basic Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge (thus explaining the White Lion’s strange condition for such knowledge), it’s still possible that this is leading to something mythic inline with Ur Stories, especially given VLD’s hellscape setting, dark tone, and love of tragedy. Season 8 could bring us a Playthings of the Gods scenario pitting Allura versus Honerva for reasons beyond the obvious (e.g. a plot twist), or, a tragic fate awaits Allura due to something as classic as Alfor flaking on a Task or Debt asked of him for the knowledge he gained at Oriande (another plot twist).

In many stories where a similar arc or backstory occurred, Alfor should have come back with a Task or a Debt to be called upon at some later date (often tragic and inconvenient). That Task could have been the creation of Voltron, that Debt could have been Allura’s life.

Remember the “I give my life” philosophy?

Time to pay up.

Alfor may have hidden Voltron and Allura from Zarkon, if doing so meant that they would avoid a Tragic Fate for which they were intended by the Life Givers, in exchange for bestowing the secrets of Altean Alchemy upon him. His actions then—in classic Greek tragedy fashion—made the situation immeasurably worse, and the universe paid the price.

Tragic endings are what happens when you back out on a Mystic Deal, or when you try to avoid Fate.

[lilacmoon83]

Dreaming Out Loud

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 107: Click Your Heels Together Three Times

Frollo seethed angrily, as he watched Snow White and her army overthrow his King and imprison him again. It had been a few months now since everything had occurred. Naturally, he had been ready to interfere and make sure this was one battle that she lost, but the battle between the Gods had rattled the heavens in a violent way and to his horror, Zeus had been dethroned by Persephone and she now ruled in his place. And he wasn't sure that he, even with all his new powers, could challenge her. Yet. He paced the expanse of his new laboratory, inside Bald Mountain, anxiously. He was infuriated by this turn of events. For all intents and purposes, Snow White and her mother had ended the war and now each sat on their respective Thrones.

"There must be a way to turn things back in my favor," he brooded, as he looked through his books and finally chose the one labeled, "The Black Cauldron."

It was the book he had obtained with the Cauldron he used in his work with alchemy and scientific experiments. It now aided him in melding magical spells with science and had been used to create the magic suppressing cuffs and the gauntlets he had encased Midas' hands with to prevent him from utilizing his touch. It was powerful and he had acquired it from three witches and stole it from them. He still remembered one of the witches warning him about the power of the Cauldron and how it could doom the world if its power didn't remain under control. But Frollo paid her no mind and he had the witches taken back to his home country where they were executed for being exactly what they were.

He leafed through the ancient spell book and took note of the many powerful spells. There was one where the Cauldron could create an undead army and though he knew such could give Persephone and the Gods quite the challenge, it wasn't enough. He needed to take their magic completely and that would require more than just magic suppressing cuffs.

"What you need...is a curse," a voice interjected and Frollo turned to find the disgraced and now very mortals forms of Zeus and Deimos.

"And how could you possibly help me in anyway now?" Frollo questioned.

"With knowledge, of course. I still have all my knowledge," Zeus countered.

"And what do you mean by curse?" Frollo asked.

"I know for a fact that Queen Regina seeks to cast a dark curse that will take us all to a Land Without Magic. She wishes to punish those that have wronged her and sending them to Wonderland and Oz won't suffice her for long. She'll seek to take her enemies with her," Zeus responded.

"And why would I care about this curse or want to go to a place without magic?" Frollo questioned.

"Yes, I suppose that is offensive to your monster-half, but to your human side, this land would be very appealing. It may not have magic, but it is a land where science dominates," Zeus continued.

"Interesting...but what do I gain with a curse?" he questioned.

"Because the curse is whatever who casts it wants it to be. You could control the lives of everyone, in a land where they would have no memories. You could make your enemies miserable, reward your allies...and have whomever you want in your bed," Deimos tempted.

"Yes...no Bishop or church to scold you for wanting the pleasures of the flesh; something any man wants," Zeus purported.

"You would rule...with our assistance, of course. You could be a Judge again and punish your enemies. Your enemies in chains...and your allies in power," Deimos added.

"And how do I get this curse from Queen Regina?" Frollo questioned.

"You let her cast it and then you crash in and take it over at the last minute," Zeus said. Frollo paced in the chamber and looked into the Cauldron, as it became his viewing pool. He observed a grand celebration at Midas' Palace, with Snow White on the arm of her shepherd husband, celebrating their victory. Hades and Persephone were there too, drinking to their victory and doting on their precious, golden little family. He seethed at that. It was preposterous that that demon family was now in power when it should be him and King Arawn.

"Or better yet...you make a deal with Queen Regina. She doesn't look entirely happy about all this happiness and bliss," Deimos observed.

"Hmm...an alliance with Regina could be beneficial, especially with the kind of misery I could promise everyone," Frollo stated, as he watched her converse with the Dark One.

"Rumpelstiltskin is a problem though. As long as he is pulling her strings, the curse will eventually be broken," Zeus advised.

"The Dark One wants it cast, but also wants it broken?" Frollo inquired.

"Yes...he has built in a fail safe to the curse. Snow White and Prince Charming's true love. They will birth the Savior that will break the curse and right now, that Savior is already in the womb of Snow White," Zeus confirmed, as they watched Prince David put his hand on his wife's abdomen, his face lit with a beaming smile.

"The child will have magic?" Frollo asked.

"Yes...she will be born with an abundance of light magic and save her parents, as well as their people. Athena has foretold it," Zeus responded.

"But Athena did not count on me or my interference," Frollo countered.

"Tell me everything about this curse" he requested.

~*~

The ball at Midas' castle was perhaps the grandest that any of them had seen in many years. In her childhood, Snow didn't care for them as her father's court was always very unkind to her. But to attend one with the man she loved was an exciting event. She wore a beautiful sleeveless orchid gown and David was dressed in a grayish/silver ensemble with a white sash. Snow gazed at him dreamily, as they danced closely. Probably too closely than was proper at a formal ball, even for a married couple, but neither of them cared, nor was anyone going to tell the daughter and son-in-law of Persephone that they were being "too affectionate,"

"What are you thinking?" he whispered, as they swayed with her flush against him.

"About how happy I am...these last few months of peace. I could get used to it...no more fighting...and a family," she said, as she bit her bottom lip and searched his eyes. His soft smile became a wide grin.

"A family...oh Snow, I can't wait to have babies with you," he replied.

"So...if I told you that you won't have to wait very long...you'd be happy?" she asked. His eyes widened and he looked at her still flat stomach.

"Snow...are you?" he asked and she nodded tearfully. He hugged her tightly and kissed her passionately.

"Oh Snow…" he breathed, as he pressed his forehead against hers. They continued to sway together for quite some time and barely noticed the man that cautiously approached them. When Snow did notice him, she recognized him as the Duke that was formerly a part of her father's court; a man that she and David had quickly ousted with the rest of the old court.

"Your Majesty...I know that I have acted foolishly in the past, but I am hoping that all that can be set aside. I am ready to serve you and your husband," he said. But Snow bristled at this man's clear attempt to manipulate her.

"I watched you belittle and berate my father for years. I watched you undermine him for years. I heard you call me demon spawn, bastard, and mongrel for years. You ordered my execution on the spot without bothering to search for the truth," Snow snapped.

"You can continue to live in my Kingdom and consider that a true act of kindness that you do not deserve. But you will never be a part of my court," Snow refuted, as he slunk away.

"He had nerve," David commented.

"He did...but I'm not going to let him ruin this night for us," she replied. He smiled.

"No one, least of all him, could do that," he agreed, as he kissed her again.

As their lips parted, they saw that Midas was bringing the room to attention and the music was quieted, as he addressed the room.

"I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for coming to this celebration. It has only been a few months since this Kingdom and many others were liberated," he began.

"King Arawn not only took my Kingdom from me, but also my magic. My people lived in fear and there was nothing I could do to help them," he continued.

"Then we were all liberated by Snow White, daughter of the Goddess Persephone, and her army. Goddess, you were gracious enough to remove the manacles that restricted my powers and for that, I am forever in the debt of you and your lovely daughter," he added. Snow suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, as Midas pandered to her and her mother. They were getting a lot of that lately and she knew some were doing it simply because it was her mother that held power now.

"To honor you for our liberation, Goddess, we have erected a monument in your honor," Midas said, as a sheet was pulled and an ivory statue in her mother's likeness was revealed.

"And now with my touch, I emblazon this monument in gold," he announced, as some still awwed when Midas displayed the use of his power. Snow winced, as her mother seemed mortified. Many of the Gods liked it when mortals made monuments to them, but her mother was not one of them. Hades chuckled.

"It's an inspiring likeness," he teased.

"You be quiet...this is not funny," she scolded, as he put his arms around her.

"Oh but it is," he disagreed and she gave him a look and then stepped forward.

"Thank you King Midas...though I think this is a bit much, I appreciate your gesture of gratitude," she said neutrally. Honestly, this was the part of ruling she would never care for. The politics and pandering.

"Nothing is too much for the one that has saved us all and that is why I did not forget to honor your lovely daughter," he continued.

"Now I'm her lovely daughter...I used to be a demon spawn," Snow deadpanned quietly to her husband.

"He used to be best pals with my father, so don't trust him for a second," James advised, as he stood close by. Midas had done his best in the last few months to distance himself from George, especially after James took the Throne. His father was still around, but James had basically stripped him of his power and he was all but a figurehead now, much to his chagrin.

"We honor Snow White and her Prince for saving us all from King Arawn!" Midas announced.

"Didn't he call me the prince of peasants a few months ago?" David whispered to her.

"Mmmhmm...he did. I'm surprised his nose isn't turning brown," she whispered back.

"I offer this tribute to you both for freeing us all from tyranny," Midas continued.

"He means he offers this as thanks that he got his gold touch back," Lancelot joked, as a sheet was pulled and another ivory statue was revealed.

"Oh...he made one of us too," Snow said nervously to her husband.

"This is the part where we have to be nice, isn't it?" David asked.

"It is," she replied.

"I definitely prefer doing the fighting versus the talking," he said.

"Thank you King Midas...it's wonderful," she said, hoping that quickly accepting his gift would get him to move on.

"Oh, but I haven't emblazoned it in gold yet," Midas replied, as he prepared to touch it.

"Oh no...I think it is better this way," Snow protested. Midas seemed perplexed by that.

"But it's not gold," he said.

"He really takes the whole gold thing to extreme, doesn't he?" David whispered to her and she elbowed him in the ribs.

"Yes, Your Majesty, but ivory is a very valuable material in our Kingdom and quite rare. We graciously accept your gift," Snow said.

"Where are we going to put that?" David asked.

"In the garden, I suppose? We can plant snowdrops around it," she replied. He nodded and shrugged.

"It is better that it's not gold. Maybe it will grow on us," he agreed and she smiled, as she felt him kiss her hair.

"Maybe our babies will have fun climbing on it someday," he whispered and her smile widened, as she looked at him.

"Babies? Like plural?" she asked. He grinned at her.

"Yeah, plural...if that's something you'd like too," he replied. She kissed his cheek.

"It's something I will love," she agreed, as the ball resumed and he swept her into his arms again, resuming their dance.

~*~

Regina rolled her eyes, as Midas presented a statue in the likeness of Snow and her Prince to everyone. All the praise for Snow and none for her, despite the fact that she set their victory in motion. Regina may have been Queen now, but she couldn't help but resent the happiness of others, especially Snow. She had what Regina was supposed to have. True love. But that was gone now. She was Queen and she had revenge on her mother and sister. But it left her with an empty feeling.

Then there was the curse, her key to truly winning and ruling all. Persephone and Hades, nor the others were allowed to interfere, and in return, she had promised to give them all good lives. But she was starting to regret that part of the deal. Getting revenge on her mother and sister had only created a deep seeded hatred inside her that was blackening her soul. She found herself wanting revenge on everyone else, just for being happier than she was.

"They're sickening, aren't they?" James commented, referring to his brother and sister-in-law. Regina smirked.

"They are. If you didn't look exactly like him, I'd never know the two of you were even related," she offered, as she saw the two of them now celebrating again, as Hades, Eli, and Persephone seemed overjoyed and were hugging the pair.

"What's that about?" Regina wondered.

"Apparently...Snow is with child," James answered, surprising Regina, though she probably shouldn't have been shocked at all.

"Snow is pregnant?" she asked. James nodded.

"Yep...just when I think my brother already has everything, he gets more," he added. And then Regina realized exactly what she was missing. The room, though large and expansive, suddenly felt very claustrophobic and she started to search for an exit.

"Oh Regina...I just wanted to thank you again," Snow said, as she stopped the other woman.

"What? For making you eat a poisoned apple?" the Queen questioned. Snow chuckled.

"Actually yes, I guess...it was better than what awaited me at Frollo's hand," she replied.

"Hmm...yes I suppose it was," Regina mused, as she suddenly imagined Snow being terrorized by the monstrous being or running for her life through the woods, while her Black Knights chased her. Or being tied to a stake and then throwing a fireball at her. It was all very appealing and horrific and she wished she wasn't thinking such things. But she couldn't help it. Snow's happiness seemed to the bane of her existence and as she looked around, she realized everyone's happiness made her feel sick and empty.

"Are you okay?" Snow asked, noticing how troubled the other woman seemed.

"I'm fine!" Regina snapped, causing Snow to recoil a bit. And then Regina imagined what it would be like if Snow was the one that felt alone and empty. With the power of the curse, she could make that happen. She could rip her Charming away and the baby. She could rip them all apart and make them as miserable as she was. That would be truly winning, wouldn't it?

"I'm fine...excuse me," Regina said, as she stormed out, leaving them to wonder about her.

~*~

"Regina...Regina...slow down!" Henry pleaded, as he followed his angry daughter to her carriage.

"I need to see the Dark One," she announced, as she prepared to get into her carriage, until she heard a voice.

"Right here, dearie…" Rumpelstiltskin said, as he appeared.

"You…" she growled.

"Ooh...a bit unhappy, are we?" he teased.

"I got rid of my mother and sister...but it's not enough! My revenge is supposed to be complete with this curse, but even when I cast it, I'll still be the one unhappy!" she realized.

"The curse is whatever you want it to be. You can use it to destroy all the happy endings if you want," Rumple offered.

"Yes...until it's broken," Frollo interjected, as he appeared.

"This is none of your concern, Chernabog," Rumple hissed dangerously.

"Broken?" Regina questioned.

"Yes...he has not told you everything. He has built a fail safe into your curse and on the child's twenty-eighth birthday, she will come to break the curse," Frollo told her.

"What child?" Regina questioned, as she looked at her mentor. But Frollo answered.

"Snow White and Prince Charming's," he revealed.

"So what you're saying is that it will be Snow that ultimately destroys my happiness?" she asked, as she glared at the Dark One.

"You've just been using me," Regina hissed.

"Well, you made yourself ripe for the picking, dearie…" he retorted unkindly, as he glared at the former Judge. He was ruining everything he had worked three hundred years for.

"What's going on?" Snow asked, as she came out with her family and gasped when she saw Frollo.

"You…" Regina hissed, as she stalked toward her with a menacing stare. David unsheathed his sword and cut her off on her path to his wife, but she used her magic to sweep him out of the way and he hit a tree.

"Charming!" Snow cried out, as she tried to rush to him, but she was stopped by Regina.

"The Dark One didn't tell me that it was your baby that can break my curse...and I can't have that," she said.

"Regina...what do you think you're doing?" Persephone warned.

"You all got your happy endings...I helped you get them! Yet I'm left with nothing!" she seethed.

"The curse will give me everything...until it won't when this brat inside you spoils it all!" she raved.

"Regina please...you're not like this…" Snow pleaded.

"How would you know?! You're too wrapped up in your perfect little life to notice me," she snapped.

"If you cast the curse now...that brat will never be born and the curse will never break. You can make it eternal misery for all," Frollo offered, as he waved his hand and the Black Cauldron appeared before them, brimming with everything needed, except the final ingredient.

"Is that...the Black Cauldron?" Hades questioned.

"It is…" Frollo confirmed.

"Why does that matter?" Eli questioned, as he helped his son-in-law to his feet.

"It will make the curse ten times larger and worse than normal," Persephone answered.

"Larger?" David questioned.

"No lands will escape," Hades replied, as David ran to Snow and put his arms around her.

"Why are you doing this?!" he demanded to know.

"Because I'm tired of losing everything. I tried to be good and it got me nothing, so it's time to try something else," Regina answered.

"The Dark One failed to tell you about the final ingredient, I'm afraid," Frollo stated.

"What are you talking about?" the Queen snapped.

"The final thing the curse requires is the heart of the thing you love most," Frollo revealed. Regina frowned and then looked at her father. He was all she had left and the only person she loved.

"Daddy…" she uttered.

"Regina...this will not make you happy," he warned, as she approached him. A tear slipped down her cheek.

"I'm sorry Daddy...but I just want to be happy. This is the only way," she said and Snow screamed, as Regina's hand went into his chest.

~*~

Emma stood in the dreamscape, horrified at how things had gone so wrong in the blink of an eye.

"She's going to cast it before I'm born…" she realized, as she looked at her hands, which were starting to look transparent.

"Hurry Emma...she's made the decision quite easy now. You must reverse everything," Athena advised.

"How? Cause unless you have a pair of ruby slippers that will let me tap my heels together three times and chant, "there's no place like home," then I think we're screwed," the blonde said sarcastically. Athena smiled.

"No need for any of that. The answer is much more simplified," Athena answered, as she

put Henry's book in her hand and Emma saw the page in it, newly written, about how Zelena had used her to enact her spell.

"I'm one of the talismans...so I need to get the other talismans," Emma realized.

"But how can I do that from here?" she questioned. Athena smiled gently.

"Emma...you are the product of true love and much more than just a talisman. You have your mother's heart and your father's courage. And you may not have as much knowledge as Rumpelstiltskin or the Gods, but you have the knowledge of love and family," Athena advised.

"My parents...and Henry…" Emma realized, as she thought about growing up with them in the dreamscape and then her son finding her. And she realized that she wanted that life back and she knew her parents would too.

"I want our life back…" Emma declared, as light erupted from her and then it engulfed the entire land…

~*~

Circe and her followers marched through the quiet town that evening. Everyone was attending the ball that night and they intended to crash it. They may have stolen magic, but as far as she could tell, they had not released it back into the town. That meant they had a small window where taking over would be possible. They were all armed with high-tech plasma weapons and it was time for a reckoning. Little could they know, the reckoning was happening without them.

"Madam Circe...look!" Captain Channing said, as he pointed at Cronus palace and they watched the roof be torn off.

"What is that?" one of her other followers asked.

"Magic…" she growled, as they suddenly watched the entire palace disappear. Next, the clock tower disappeared, then Granny's, and everything on Main Street. The magic swept around them and when it was gone, there was nothing but woods around them, like there had never been a town there in the first place.

"What the hell just happened?" Channing asked. But even Circe had no answers. Storybrooke was gone, without a trace or explanation to offer. And with it, gone was her revenge, leaving her with nothing.

Strangely, just as quickly as the town had disappeared, it started to reappear again.

"What's happening now?" Channing asked, even more confused now, as they watched a bright cloud of magic sweep around them again. This time though, the clock tower reappeared, then Granny's, and everything on Main Street. The magic continued to rebuild the town with the Sheriff's station, the school, and the Toll bridge. Storybrooke was back.

"They're back," Circe observed, as Cronus' palace reappeared. It was as if they had never been gone, but she knew better. She had a feeling whatever had happened was going to have serious ramifications; to what extent, she did not know.

"Madam Circe...something is very different…" Channing called, as she saw what he was looking at. In her very long life, she had seen many things and not much surprised her anymore. But this did.

"By the Gods...what have they done?"

~*~

They all reappeared in the ballroom, including Zelena, and looked around in a bit of confusion.

"We're back…" Persephone realized, as she looked up at her husband and they stared at each other.

"Your ruined everything for me...all of you, but especially you, Regina!" Zelena cried, but Hades was quick and ripped her necklace, the source of her power, away.

"No!" she cried, as Rumple turned her into a porcelain statue and then shattered her to pieces, shocking them all.

"She's proved she's much too dangerous to be kept alive," he said simply and no one could really argue with that. Persephone and Hades' eyes met again.

"Do you…" she started to say.

"Remember both lives?" Hades asked, finishing her sentence.

"Yes…" he confessed.

"Me too," she said.

"Dad?" Emma called, as she parted from hugging her son and Neal. David smiled and pulled her into a tight hug.

"You saved us again, Emma," he said, as he cradled her head. A tear slipped down her cheek.

"I'm just sorry that you and Mom lost that other life. A lot of it was pretty good," she said.

"But I don't think we did…" David said, as he recalled both lives.

"I remember both lives," he added.

"Really?" Emma asked. He nodded.

"And that's not all that has changed, apparently," James said, as he stepped aside, revealing that both Ruth and Serafina had come back with them.

"You're...you're alive," David exclaimed, as they hugged their boys.

"That's not all that's different, because we have bigger problems," Regina interjected, as David noticed that Snow had been very quiet.

"Snow?" he asked, as she turned to him and his eyes widened. Her belly was swelled round with child and she was definitely much further along than she had been before Zelena's spell.

"How...how is this possible?" she asked, as David took her in his arms and Artemis put her hands to Snow's belly, just as she had a contraction.

"Okay...time to get to hospital. Your water could break any minute," Artemis replied.

"We messed with time...it must have had adverse consequences," Hades surmised, as he saw Cronus and many others staring out the window and he looked to see what they were looking at. And his eyes widened in disbelief.

"What the hell…" Eli uttered, as he saw what he was seeing.

"Daddy...Papa Hades...you're coming, right?" Snow asked.

"Of course sweet pea," Eli assured, as he came beside the wheelchair that Artemis had summoned for her.

"What were you looking at?" Persephone asked irritably.

"You have to see that for yourself, but there'll be time for that later. Let's get this grand baby born," Hades replied and then realized what he had just said. But Snow smiled gently at him and squeezed his hand.

"I remember both lives," she said, as she looked at Eli and Hades.

"I have three parents, just like David," she told them, just another contraction hit. It was clear they had a lot to discuss, but this family was clearly still retaining the bonds they had built during Zelena's spell. But her spell had also created perhaps even more complications and unseen side effects; that of which they were only beginning to discover. But first, their family was about to grow by one more member.

[ottokeni]

perception of love

pairing: ravi and ken

rating: nc-17

warning:none

words: 2792

chapter 3: altered fate.

also on ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9415829/chapters/22672709

summery: Finally they have some answers. Finally they have one another.

The sky was cobalt and beautifully clear...and so was the future that he craved.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Wonsik had made it back to earth. He felt brand new, like if...realizing his true purpose made him a demon that deserved a second chance.

Wonsik was created by hades himself, and wonsik knew he would have to live with that realization forever. The thought of it made his stomach become painfully aware of his ill feelings towards that knowledge.

Yes, i have committed horrible sins wonsik thought, but..i did it because of my misery..i did it because i..thought it was my purpose. Wonsik suddenly stopped his thoughts. He didn't want to make excuses for his horrifying actions. What bothered him was that..everyone that resented him because of his actions had seen hades in him. What he was horribly afraid of was that maybe it was true, that his redemption was an unattainable dream.

Even with those thoughts..wonsik knew that from now on, no matter what happened, he would fight for his happiness.

No matter what, his future would be a picture of the love hades desperately wanted but lost cause of his selfishness, even if that meant perishing.

Wonsik took a deep breath and the fresh air filled his lungs. He was back in jaehwan's garden. soil covered his feet. wonsik moved his toes and they were freed from the dark ground. Once again wonsik was stark naked and the wind collided with his chest and raised his nipples. Wonsik looked down and with a look of annoyance taking place on his features, used his powers to make clothes appear in his hands.

He was questioning everything now, like were his powers a gift or a curse? and why hadn't anyone told him his origin?

With his mind clouded by questions, he took slow steps towards the home of his other half. Suddenly his heart started to race, pounding against his chest. his eyes would be upon jaehwan soon. Even the thought made his heart flutter. Wonsik felt like a fool, with his heart racing at the thought of a human, but jaehwan wasn't a human, wonsik now realized. Jaehwan had been created along side him, everything he thought he knew about jaehwan was erased and everything he learned now was all extremely brand new. The feelings he had felt when they first had met weren't because jaehwan was an abnormal soul...it was because they had finally found each other without knowing so. Jaehwan had electrified his whole being, and had revived him.

He raised his fist to knock on the door, but paused, took a deep breath and tried again. He raised his fist a second time, but before he could knock, the door opened wide before him, and the one who was making his heart dance, was in front of him with a smile that could heal any broken heart.

"you're back" jaehwan said.

"i am."

jaehwan's eyes searched his face, and wonsik wondered what his thoughts were in that moment.

"come in" jaehwan said with his smile still doing things to wonsik's heart.

Once wonsik stepped into the door jaehwan turned and once again searched his face for answers. Wonsik didn't know what he was looking for, but he wanted to give him anything he could. He took slow steps towards jaehwan and reached for his hand, placing it slowly on his own cheek.

"ask me anything" wonsik whispered.

"i'm pretty sure we are both...lost" jaehwan said with a slow frown forming on his face.

"..yeah but..i will tell you anything i know, and whatever i dont know? we will figure out together".

They sat down and talked for hours. Wonsik told him about the vision hakyeon had shown him. He told him their story, and how they had been made. he told his other half what their purpose was for their creators, and how it all fell to pieces when Zeus created humans, and every ounce of love hades had for him was sucked up by his hatred for his brothers new creation. He told jaehwan about his feelings towards hades and how he wouldn't let anything happen to him, how....they were meant to be, and how he wondered if jaehwan felt the same way. With every new bit of information wonsik gave jaehwan, surprise never took a hold of his face, it was like if he knew it all.

Wonsik felt tears fall from his eyes. He had just realized how deeply hurt he really was. Hakyeon had kept all of this from him..his mentor and the one person he thought he could trust....had kept a part of him..a secret. He was infuriated at hades for creating them out of love, and trying to discard them out of detestation. Jaehwan's hand lowered itself to wonsik's chest. He held it there, feeling every resentful heartbeat, and tried to relieve it...at least a little bit from its torture. Suddenly jaehwan felt everything. The hatred and hurt wonsik was feeling seeped into every inch of his body, and his sobs echoed in his room.

"jaehwan!?" wonsik said in a voice filled with worry.

"jaehwan, please..I'm so sorry..please"

Jaehwan removed his hand from wonsik's chest, and suddenly he felt numb. Suddenly..everything was so clear. He had already known everything wonsik had told him...his dreams took care of that. His dreams were like movies. Movies about love and feelings of betrayal. He saw hades filled to the brim with love. He saw hades filled to the brim...with disdain. He saw his own creator. Zeus, was something out of a fairy tail. always kind, and forgiving. loved every creation he had ever made, and he made many. In hades eyes nothing had been as important as humans, but to Zeus, it wasn't a competition. humans weren't his last creation. He made zodes, and graviners, and many, many more. He loved them all equally, and destroyed them when he thought it was what was best for them. jaehwan saw him like a strict parent. overbearing and controlling but loving...in his own eyes anyways.

He said he loved his creations, but love was different to him then it was to humans. His love was to himself. His loved was filled with admiration...for himself. He enjoyed creating what only he could, but..suddenly his brother was in the way. He loved his brother, He was almost half of what his own greatness was and he of course wanted him around..as long as he didn't get in the way. So when his brother created jealousy, he was ready to destroy jealousy's creator and everything that shared that feeling. Hades had passed it on to humans, and they took it and created wars with it. They took it and created murder with it, and foolishly thought they could destroy his creation without any punishment. Zeus had miscalculated how jealous hades really was, and had miscalculated his own greatness. When they fought, it lasted for centuries. He hadn't been left unharmed. He willed himself to be born as a human, just to regain some of his own power. Hades had defeated him, without even knowing it. Hades was then attacked but Zeus's followers, and with his tail between his legs, hades let his hatred grow larger and greater for his brother. Jaehwan and wonsik were separated almost as soon as they were created by the spirits that took over while hades and Zeus were licking their wounds, but before they were separated, their tiny hands interlocked..only for a second, but it created the first rainbow to ever be in the sky, and humans admired their fate from below.

When jaehwan opened his eyes, wonsik was staring at him in awe. His eyes filled with images of what jaehwan saw every night in his dreams.

"ho...w can i see everything you have seen?" wonsik asked.

"I'm...not sure? i think it's our connection. lets us feel what the other feels and also see's" jaehwan answered with a question mark at the end of his sentence.

"yeah.. i think you're right".

They looked into each other's eyes for a while. Realizing how...wild their story really was. Jaehwan's feelings for wonsik were all jumbled up with the notion that they were meant to be, and what if the feelings he was feeling for wonsik was just...only cause they thought they NEEDED to be together? what if...this was all just a huge joke and the-

"whoaaaa! calm down jaehwan" wonsik said.

"you? heard all that?"

"yeah..i think we still need to figure out this whole connection thing" wonsik said with a smirk.

Wonsik slowly wrapped his arms around jaehwan, letting his mind do the work of showing jaehwan his true feelings for him. colors no human could imagine raced around their minds. images of literal happiness and love were shown to jaehwan, and when those images flowered over one another, jaehwan knew exactly how wonsik was feeling. They loved one another. Not because they were told they were soulmates. Best friends could be soulmates. They loved one another because they always have. The dreams jaehwan had weren't only about their creation, but also about their past lives. They had found each other many times, but were separated like a cruel joke when they had just realized their love was real. They weren't just lookalikes with those past lives, those lives were...them. They were alive for many years without one another, in full confusion and alone, wondering why the only happiness they would find in one another, in every life, was suddenly taken away every damn time.

When their eyes met once again, love was the only thing they saw. No more confusion about it, and no more second guessing. No one could control them anymore in the name of fate. They had decided to create their own destiny.

Wonsik touched jaehwan's forehead with his own, passing him a message of want and need to finally be one with him. Jaehwan initiated their first kiss and literal flowers bloomed in every inch of jaehwan's room, once again, made out of colors no human had ever seen. Their soft lips passed over one another like a whisper and a small moan escaped their lips from the pleasure. Wonsik's hand made its way down jaehwan's chest, unbuttoning as it went, wanting to touch every inch of the man before him. Jaehwan's mouth bent down, his lips kissing wonsik's chest, letting his teeth graze wonsik's nipple, his lower half becoming hard when he heard wonsik let out a deep moan. suddenly wonsik was on his back and jaehwan was on top of him, leaving rose colored kiss marks on wonsik's chest. Jaehwan took off wonsik's pants with quick precision and wonsik's eyebrows raised with surprise.

"I've had dreams of this moment" jaehwan breathed. "i can tell" wonsik said with a smirk.

Jaehwan looked below him. He saw the greatest art ever created, He saw his future and beginning. He lowered himself once again and let his tongue trace every outline of wonsik's body. With every moan, he moved to a sweeter and more sensitive spot, letting wonsik know the pleasure he always felt with his dreams. Wonsik was going to finally be able to understand why seeing him for the first time, sent shivers down his spine, and why his words couldn't come out and explain his reaction...It was all because he knew seeing wonsik that day, was going to change his life forever. When he reached wonsik's most sensitive spot, wonsik grabbed his hair, not enough to hurt but enough to let jaehwan know that what he was doing was amazing. jaehwan twirled his tongue slowly on the tip, and let wonsik feel every stroke. Wonsik was on the edge of his orgasm. Their eyes met and wonsik shivered, finally reaching his orgasm, letting jaehwan taste him.

Jaehwan towered over wonsik, saying with words what he wanted to do next, so that he was sure this was what wonsik wanted. Wonsik said yes with his deep raspy voice and jaehwan prepared wonsik and himself. He felt wonsik's opening with his fingers and entered one slowly. Wonsik became rigid and jaehwan suddenly was filled with fear of hurting wonsik. Wonsik reached over to him and let his pleasure consume jaehwan like it was consuming himself. The fear melted away and jaehwan started to move his finger in and out. After a while he could enter two, then three. Wonsik was suddenly impatient for jaehwan. Jaehwan towered over him once again and kissed him fiercely, drinking him in. Jaehwan slowly entered wonsik, making sure wonsik was okay with his pace. The ecstasy he felt while entering wonsik was nothing like in his dream. This was more intense and amazing. Wonsik was tight so jaehwan's movements were slow but deep. They felt pleasure like they had never felt before. Tears fell from jaehwan's eyes, landing on wonsik's cheeks, joining wonsik's own tears. They whispered sweet i love you's to one another and reached their climax in harmony, calling out each other's name.

Jaehwan laid on wonsik's chest, cuddled up with one another. They spoke of their past lives and how close they were to having happiness. They had finally reached it, but fear seemed to hover in the air. Yes they were finally together but, hades was still out there, and from what wonsik saw in jaehwan's vision, Zeus wasn't so great either. Their fight to be together was yet to be conquered and they had to fight two powerful gods in order for them not to be disposed of like a bad memory. Their worry's passed from one another, letting it grow and grow like a monster. Wonsik reached over and raised jaehwan's chin so their eyes could meet. Jaehwan felt his fear but also his will to live and his need to have jaehwan by his side. Jaehwan liked their odds. They would fight, and they would win.

A huge white light filled the room, burning the flowers their love had bloomed. Wonsik sat up and so did jaehwan, wondering if this was hades or Zeus, and if their fight really had to begin this soon. But in front him was a man..no a demon. He knew this demon. His visions of wonsik as a child were filled with him. He cared for wonsik like his own son and ended up making wonsik feel betrayed, even though he was trying to protect him. He wasn't alone, A demon was on his back with a huge smirk on his face. He knew this demon as well, and he really liked him, well his visions of him anyway. No matter how uncaring he seemed for the future that he saw, he had broken many rules for wonsik. He meddled in wonsik's bleak future and fate, and led him to jaehwan in order for wonsik, his one true friend, to reach happiness. The demons, jaehwan thought, were here to help.

"what are you guys doing here?" wonsik said with anger boiling in his blood.

"wonsik...i.." hakyeon was at a loss for words. he felt like no apology would suffice.

"get up you big idiot" hongbin laughed.

"we are here to save you. hades is o-"

"hades??" jaehwan and wonsik both bellowed.

"yeah! hades. hakyeon and i came here to save you cause honestly..we need to train for this fight." hongbin said while scratching his head.

"please..." hakyeon whispered.

Jaehwan and wonsik looked at one another. This was it. They were finally going to fight their makers, and they were so fucking ready.

"okay then...give us a minute to get...dressed" wonsik said.

alright, we will see you down there" hongbin said with a wink and he was gone.

"be quick" hakyeon said and looked back with a face that said he wanted to say more, but before he did he also vanished.

They got dressed with feet feeling like they were being weighed down with rocks. Wonsik's thoughts were racing, and so were jaehwan's. But when they turned to one another, everything fell into place. They were fighting to be together. They wanted this happiness to last, so even if they did lose, they were losing together. No matter what happened, they could at least say they fought for what they wanted.

"hades and Zeus are total asses" jaehwan said with a cute frown.

"yeah...big asses" wonsik said with a loud deep laugh.

Wonsik reached for jaehwan's hand and began to teleport them to the underworld. They were finally going to contest their fate, and he couldn't wait to win.

[gregnator-greg]

There has been a question that has been evading mind since episode 15 of Boruto – What is the space-Curvature of a planet and why it has to be at 10?

We learned that the Original Otsutsuki Clan are still at large, we have not seen all of them, but according to Kinshiki, they have a law that states the space-curvature of any world has to be at 10, if space-Curvature exceeds ten, it would be an abnormality which must be reported to them immediately, I think I know what it stands for.

   Planet and The Divine Tree

Any planet with a Divine tree that its fruit is not been eating has a space-curvature that is below or at 10, even when it is destroyed by Momoshiki Otsutsuki or any other original Otsutsuki member, it will still be recorded as ten before been harvested.

  Dried up and dead

This is what a world looks like after the divine tree drains off its energy. It was once a beautiful world, that is until Momoshiki and Kinshiki harvested a divine  tree that would produce a chakra-fruit which in some cultures is referred to as immortality elixirs.

  This world is no-exception

This is also another world that was destroyed by Momoshiki himself, why? for the purpose of harvesting a divine tree to successfully eat a chakra-fruit, it was here that we learned that the original Otsutsuki clan was still at large.

  Now here is how the space-curvature exceeds 16

You have heard of the story of the Greek titan Prometheus? Prometheus gave fire to humans after stealing it from the gods, Zeus and the gods got angry and punished him for his defiance, he was known as the champion of mankind. How does this tie into this story?

Hagomoro did a similar way except he did not steal any-chakra fruit. Hagomoro spread chakra around the earth in the teaching called Ninshu, ever since this era, chakra had become an vital part of the earth, in orders words –  the large quantity of chakra that is enough to recreate a chakra-fruit was spread through out the world making the space-curvature exceed 10 or in Kinshiki’s case exceed 16. Realizing that what right belongs to them has been all over the planet, the Original Otsutsuki Clan members will not sit by and let this go on forever, No! obviously they will come and it is not going to be pretty. The fact that the space-curvature of the earth exceeds 16 means that the earth is now on stand-by to be targeted by the original otsutsuki-clan or beings on the same level as the original Otsutsuki-clan.

What is The Space-Curvature There has been a question that has been evading mind since episode 15 of Boruto - What is the space-Curvature of a planet and why it has to be at 10?

[lethe-distillery-blog]

The Mad God

A beast they call me. Uncouth. Uncivilized. A disgrace. And perhaps, if I am honest with myself, they are not so wrong as I would once have liked them to be. I cannot deny what I have become in my isolation. Part of it, I’ll admit, is self imposed; but the larger part of this misery has been out of my control. If there is anyone to blame, it is I. The sweetness of victory stales over time, it grows foul and sour even with the most tender touch, all things, in perspective and time, become clear. But, as the mortals say. I chose my bed linens, it is time for me to find if they are to my satisfaction as I lie in them.

 I chose this hell, thinking myself smart. I chose to rule the earth, and so, my brothers granted it to be so. I was given uncontested rule of all things here. I am rich beyond any kingly measure for I am owner of all precious things. I think nothing of arming my soldiers in iron chased in platinum, I think nothing of the jewels embedded into all surfaces so that naught but a candleflame flickers with the intensity of a sun on all that which I hold in my domain. I am surrounded by others, soldiers, peasants, merchants, tyrants all. I am surrounded by so many, and yet, I remain alone. Grossly forgotten about in ways that if one were not familiar with my family, could be perhaps be considered cruel, but alas, for me this is nothing new.

 I wanted to matter.

 I should have known that I never would. That my brothers, in their cruel and deceiving ways, have once again, shown me my place. Shown me that they do not want me with them, in their ruling of mankind. And so, over the centuries, I have learned to quite trying. Zeus, ruler of the sky and God-King. He lords over them with nothing but fear and manipulation, an iron fist in which he forces them all to abide. I have heard that he has forced them to shape him great weapons of lightning bolts in which he has some show for his bluster. I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for one of them to realize that he isn’t much more of a threat than Father Cronus. Perhaps one of his own children, thus, the cycle repeating. Poseidon. Hot tempered bastard. I’m surprised he is still alive given some of the things he’s pulled. But then, I suppose, why not? He can create earthquakes in his rage and then blame me for them, after all, I’m never allowed there to defend myself against such accusations and being the Lord of the earth, seems like it would be my fault. And, if I knew it would get back at any of them, I’d consider it, but man, well, his time is brief, and I will see most of them soon enough, why bother speeding up the process?

 What hurts the most, in all this time. Is the complete denial of my family. Those, whom humans seem to have the closest bond to, are nothing more than strangers at best, and annoyances seeking a favor at worst. It’s funny how I simply do not exist, but for the butt of jokes or a boogeyman figure until one of them needs me. And then they come, pleading with me for understanding and forgiveness. “Forgive us,” they plead, their mewling tones but pathetic nonsense I have long since grown used to, “Please Hades, we know you can help.” And I can; and I do, because I am too desperate to matter, to feel as though I have a purpose to someone, anyone. But then they leave, and I am alone. And nothing I did ever matters.

 I clenched my fingers around the goblet, the burnished gold glowing in the dim glow of my candlelit hall. I was a God, a King in my own right. I sat upon a throne, and had servants, I had soldiers, and yet in all the important ways, I was alone. I took a long pull on my wine, listening to the creak of bone and iron, the clacking of mandibles, and off in the distance, like birdsong, came the shrieks of the damned. Those cruel enough, vicious enough, and horrible enough that they had somehow managed to gain the attention of my rather dense brothers. And so, Charon had brought them here. To me. He was the closest thing I could call to a friend, but our talks were brief and preciously rare. He was my sole contact with the outside world, a place that I wanted to both forget existed, and also, remember desperately. Amusing, how even with the powers of a god at my beck and call, I was limited. That even with my powers over the very earth itself, my freedom was just barely beyond my reach. I looked around at those surrounding me. I was no better than they, no different either. Just as I picked the perfect punishment for those that came before me, so too, my brothers had picked for me. It could be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic.

 There was one thing in this world that at least made my existence tolerable. A great pomegranate tree that I had managed to coax into taking root. It was my deepest secret. And it was the only thing that I still held onto from my humanity. It was the one desire of mine that I had managed to salvage, the one thing that I had taken for myself, in spite of my brothers, and the others that claimed me as kin. It was the only living thing that I had in my domain. It was a gross violation of what was allowed with my restrictions, and if anyone happened upon it in my inner sanctum, the thought of that punishment was not worth considering. I both loved and hated that tree, there were days that I did nothing more than watch the way that the candelight flicked through it’s leaves with a green so crisp and beautiful that no stone had hope to match. And Other days I hated it so desperately I wanted to burn it to the ground into a pile of smoldering ash for what had been taken from me. My hopes and dreams, twisted by the cruel designs of others. Not one had asked my opinions, not one had cared what I had wanted.

 Even now, there was a part of me that still yearned for that dream. The dream of being a God-King, like Zeus, but not. I wanted to be ruler of the lands, of the earth. To be wealthy yes, but, I wanted so much more. I wanted to feel the light and warmth of Apollo’s chariot as he passed by, and to wave to Artemis in the night. I wanted to grow things upon the earth. Trees. Point of fact. I had wanted an orchard. A silly, whimsical dream, that even now, held on with a tenacious grip. A hold so solid that it felt as though a dagger driven through my heart would be less painful. And now, the only thing that allowed me that dream, that age old fantasy; was a solitary pomegranate tree.

 I heard the barge sounds, my mood was foul as I stood and made way to the Acheron. On my thoughts was one particular Goddess, one that I disliked as much, or even perhaps more than my brothers. Demeter. The one creature alive that held my dream in the palm of her hand with a careless grip, her indifference to what I would sell my soul for was something that always brought me to a near rage. It felt so wrong that someone who should care so little about something should have it when I wanted it so badly. I shoved open my doors with my force than strictly necessary but it helped me feel better. And that, was valuable at this moment. I walked with purpose, I could feel my robes clinging to rough patches of the cobblestones, the chill of them a constant presence here, even with the mighty Phlegethon burning with it’s dragon’s breath, it did not travel far enough to warm my domain. This was not a pleasant plane. This, was quite literally, Hell.

 I raised my arm in greeting to my friend, his great height appearing diminished beneath a cloak, his pole and burden bending him nearly in half but I dared any hero to underestimate him. Charon was a wise creature, perhaps even wiser than me, for it seemed only I was fool enough to fall for the pleading guilt trips that my family ensnared me with. He always seemed impervious to such tricks, I cannot deny I was envious of him for that. “Charon!” I greeted, his boat was full. I glanced to my soldiers, ready to guide them to be judged. It was the same thing, every time.

 “Hades.” He had a strong voice, gravelled from lack of use, though I am sure mine didn’t sound much better. Besides dolling out punishments, there was no point to speaking much here. Nothing intelligent to converse with besides each other. Well, besides the Titans; and given that brother Zeus and crew were the ones that defeated them and put them here, I had my doubts that they would enjoy talking to me, even without me being his twin, I bore enough resemblance that it wasn’t worth risking again. “Demeter is on earth again.” I felt my hackles rise, my temper flaring white-hot, my fingers clenching into fists in my robes. Down. I had to get control. Charon didn’t know my secret, not from a lack of trust on his behalf, but my being the God of the Underworld and all, I had a certain image to maintain and nurture. “She brought her daughter with her. Zeus had some bitch fuck a bull.” He shrugged, neither of us understanding my brother and his sadistic ways. Still though, Demeter had a daughter? Holy shit, when was the last time I had bothered to look at the human world? It hadn’t been that long. Right?

 I delayed court. Who was going to stop me? I took a long while at my pool, the black waters now allowed me to watch the scene upon it’s surface with a growing amount of wonder and a jagged pain that stabbed through my chest. Demeter had brought a young woman with her. And though I wanted to rip apart Demeter with my bare hands. This woman held me enchanted.

 Her face was serene, with a kind, delicate smile that knew no hatred. She spoke with a kindness and a gentleness that I had only heard about, never given the graces of seeing it. She danced through fields of flowers in a carefree way, her long hair flowing out the colour of wheat and her eyes so green they reminded me of the way grass looked. Her laugh put birds to shame with its beauty, and yet she did not judge them for being less than she, she instead took delight in them and encouraged them to join her and so they sang in a way that brought tears to my eyes. Her skin was a light tone, softly tanned beneath the kiss of sunlight and I suddenly grew jealous of all the things around her. I was jealous of the grasses that got to touch her skin, the flowers that she kissed with the softest of affections, the breeze that got to play in her hair. I was losing myself here, what the hell was I thinking. She was the daughter of the Goddess I hated most, and more, I did not need comfort, I did not need anything she offered to me. In fact, I didn’t even want it. I was here, in my domain, it was all I knew, it was all I required

 So why did it hurt so much when I left?

 Court passed with an agonizing slowness that felt like it’s own sort of torture. Despite getting to sentence a pedophile to a beautifully devious thing I had been wanting to test out for awhile I knew I was distracted. I knew that my choice of torments had been poor at best, not well thought about, but they had sufficed. I needed to focus. I walked around my domain, torturing here, tormenting there. Tasks required of me an my station, a promise to those I found to be slacking that I had no particular fondness for them and that they could join those in their torment just as easily. It was an effective strategy, and most days, just the variance in a monotonous existence was enough to cheer me up. But it wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Not walking down by the Phlegethon just to hear the screams of those I had placed there on purpose, a reminder to those that I truly did not like. Nothing in my world could cheer me up like that smile, a smile that hadn’t even been directed at me. I couldn’t be that pathetic.

 I was, in fact, that damn pathetic. I kept watching her, day after day. Finding new things in her that fascinated me. Her kind spirit, her gentle touch. She had even inherited her mother’s knack for growing things, as she helped crops grow, and flowers. She showed me the beautiful things I had so desperately wanted to achieve, and though I wanted to hate her for it, to hurt her for things that I had no control over. I found myself liking her. I found myself searching her out when I had other things to do. Spending long hours with her in front of my pomegranate tree as she spent her time doing what she did best. Being her. It had taken me a long while to finally hear her name, and when I did, I spoke it, just to taste it for myself.

 “Persephone.”

 I spent so long watching her, focusing on her in the human world. Watching her create beauty while I was surrounded by nothing but darkness, despair, and ruin. She encouraged me to be better. I dressed better, taking care to look like a king properly should, though none here cared or even noticed. My robes were swapped out for finery, my trinkets became more embellished and royal. She made me grow flowers around my tree, things of platinum stem and gemstone petals that sparkled and glinted. All hues and varieties stood around me. Amethyst violets, diamond daisies, and aquamarine weeping bells. Trees took form with gold bark, emerald leaves and ruby apples. She encouraged me to not only look better, she taught me how to live.

 Finally, I could not take it anymore. I couldn’t take the insanity of it. Something had to be done. And I had tried to be noble. I had tried to ignore her, to go back to my life. But now, there were memories of her all around me. My rich robes that were of a finer quality than even Zeus was afforded, every gemstone and mineral I saw reminded me of my secret garden, my pathetic musings over a woman beyond me. I spent days wandering my plane, beating spirits and doing my best to distract myself. But when you are exposed to the light, it is so hard to go back to the darkness.

 I tried to behave. To be noble. But I couldn’t do it anymore. One more night in a lonely bed with cold sheets as my comfort, one more day without anyone to talk to, one more day knowing my brothers had their wives and took them for granted. Wasn’t I deserving of that? Couldn’t someone be mine? I would make sure they never regretted it. Ever. And there was only one person that came to mind for that desire, that need inside me that had awoken. Persephone. I tried to avoid her, tried to contain the madness that made my sanity feel like it was unhinging. Even when I wasn’t at the pool I could see her, out of the corner of my eye. Never there when I focused, but my fantasies so strong that I felt like I truly was going to lose it. I saw her on the throne I had created on a whim, she was dancing through the garden that I had made for her, she was right there beside me as we walked down the Acheron. I couldn’t tell when I was asleep or when I was awake anymore because the nightmares didn’t stop when my eyes were open and the dreams kept going into the night. I couldn’t take it anymore.

 She came to me. Swallowed up by the only earthquake that I had ever caused. My desires finally getting the better of me as I brought her here, to me. She looked so beautiful, a ray of sunshine in my world that had no knowledge of it, her beauty looked so much more in person, it was nearly painful for me to look upon her. But still I did, I drank my fill, my desperation winning out over common sense. Perhaps I was a beast, uncouth, uncivilized. But, I would keep her safe here, I would be everything she ever needed here. Here, I could love her properly. And as she looked up at me, her green eyes widening with recognition, I spoke past the lump in my throat. “Please,” I swallowed hard, “don’t be afraid of me too.” Because if she rejected me, I don’t think I would survive it.

[ayrismag]

Frankenstein, Androids, Aliens, and Covenant

May 19th, 2017 marked the end of the 1806 day mark between the movie Prometheus and its successor Alien: Covenant, not that I was counting. I remember when I was a kid, watching the movie Alien with my father, what I remember most is hiding under his desk and watching because I was scared out of my mind, and I remember loving every second of it. When I had heard Alien: Covenant was coming out I made seeing it in theater on the top of my list. It is shameful to admit, but I saw the movie on the 15th of June, nearly a month after its release. I enjoyed the movie enormously, so much so that two days later I saw it again so that I might see what had previously been overlooked by me. After basking in the glow of the film it occurred to me to go online and see what others had thought of the movie. I was surprised to see ratings lower than what I had thought they would have been; what was (in my mind, in ways I will describe herein) a movie that deserved a rating of at least 93% was barely breaking half that with a lot of reviewers. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I both respect and relish the dialogue that comes between differing opinions, but what I found most alarming in the reviews was not the fact it was rated so low but that reviewers seemed to completely miss the fact of what the movie was really about. In what follows I hope to shed light on what was missed by reviewers and what was meant in Mr. Scott, Mr. Logan, and Mr. Harper’s vision.

A return to form for both Scott and the series: a hard-R horror movie, featuring ferocious, acid-dripping space crustaceans, a tough female lead and a bunch of dead-meat crew members.

Peter Debruge, Variety (full review here.)

Alien: Covenant plays it safe by mashing together the best elements of previous Alien films, delivering a solid sci-fi horror/thriller in the process.

Sandy Schaefer, Screen Rant (full review here.)

Of the many reviews given for this movie I have chosen to demonstrate these two for two reasons: Both reviews sing the movies praise well, as fans (or at least appreciators) of the series, Peter and Sandy both give honest and fair reviews of the movie noticing many of the same nuances that the movie was going for, and yet they both did the very same thing, which is as vexing as it is curious. Both reviewers spent only a singular paragraph on the crux of the movie. The heart and the soul of the movie was either lost on them or not fully appreciated the way it was intended.

Before reviewing the movie there are a few things to consider:

1. Extratextual relations between other pieces of film and writing

2. What these prequels aim to represent.

For those unaware:

     A. Prometheus is the name of both the movie proceeding Alien: Covenant

     B. The name of the Greek titan that attempted to give fire to humans only to fail and be punished by Zeus

     C. The original name of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (originally entitled, The Modern Day Prometheus).

The first movie focuses so heavily around the idea of finding creation/creators among the stars, a question and a nagging that has plagued humankind since first we became self-aware. Prometheus acts more like a Frankenstein rewrite than it may first appear. Without analyzing each scene there are two sections which stand out as heavy threads tying the pieces together.

1. I am most notably referring to their snippy dialogue between David (Michael Fassbender) and Dr. Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) (which was reminiscent, to me, of Montag and Beatty’s back and forth in Fahrenheit 451) but most specifically the part right as David exposes Dr. Holloway to the weaponized virus. There are two points of dialogue that lead toward Alien: Covenant:

     A. Holloway: Pour yourself a glass.

David: I am afraid it would be wasted on me.

H: I almost forgot, you aren’t a real boy.

     B. H: We wanted to come out here and meet our makers. Ask them why they even made us in the first place.

D: Why do you think your people made me?

H: We made you because we could.

D: Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you, to hear the same thing from your creators?

The antagonism of a human toward an android, specifically to delegitimize its existence, is a slap in the face of any sentience never the less an individual who knows they are synthetic. David even attempts levity/empathy in his response initially, only to have Holloway thwart it. The situation contains a kernel of irony to it.

     C. Holloway is a scientist and is pursuing the truth about the origins of the human race, even at this moment where empathy would be the most accessible instead he remains stalwart.

His insistence on refusing to present empathy acts as a declaration of war for David, this opposite force refuses to show compassion and understanding which frees his mind from moral responsibility.

2. The idea of identity/purpose.

     A. David is an android created in the image of man (named after the statue David), yet he is constantly reminded of how he will never be quite human; he exists as an anomaly outside of the natural order.

     B. Ironically, Dr. Holloway is attempting to find the origins of human existence and prove human life is not a random anomaly, this only makes his words more disparaging. However, it is also quite meta and well done. David is exactly right in his last line of dialogue above, he is in that moment feeling the disappointment of not being accepted. He has come eye to eye with discovering purpose but is rebuked.

     C. Both men look at their creators as their creators look upon them with blithe objectivity. They are the same (in essence) and yet Dr. Holloway believes himself to be superior (though, as a human I would argue he really isn’t at all).

This dialogue, these thoughts, carry over into Alien: Covenant in a big way.

1. When Walter first meets David, David comments on Walter’s “interface”, Walter said David was too human and thusly a failure, whereas, David laughs at Walter who is more of a robot in the conventional sense of the word.

     A. This, again, has ties into Frankenstein, when Victor first sees the “monster” standing over him he sees a grotesque human above him and it frightens him. He used beautiful human parts, hoping to make a beautiful human, but due to the principal of the “uncanny valley”* he is instead revolted by him/it.

     B. David represents a psychological uncanny valley, this is best demonstrated in Prometheus.

          i. David puts on his helmet before the team embarks onto the planet’s surface Dr. Holloway asks him why he is doing it if he doesn’t need to breathe, David says it is to make him look more human, or it would turn humans off more.

2. The irony builds when Dr. Holloway sees the remnants of those he believes created him and human life, creatures that reside deep in the uncanny valley, but isn’t revolted by them, rather in awe of them. This point is where David and he no longer see eye to eye.

     A. David (though never stating it) knows he is superior to humans. This is demonstrated in the opening to Alien: Covenant, when David is talking to Weyland, and proves himself capable to dissecting Weyland’s thoughts on God and is able to turn them back on himself. There is another important aspect to that scene, however; after David reverses the conversation Weyland orders him to get him a cup of tea. This aspect reminded me of BioShock, specifically when Andrew Ryan is confronted by the player, he asks what makes a man a man and what makes a slave a slave. He concludes, “A man chooses, a slave obeys.” The first rule of creating is try to “show” and not “tell”. Without the use of words explicitly stating it, Weyland performs a power check, the implication is that no matter what David thinks, ultimately, he is nothing more than a slave, an object, to his creator. With the reveal at the end of Prometheus is that really any different from how the engineers see us?

All of this leads to the heart of the new trilogy that Ridley Scott is presenting, what makes Alien: Covenant one of the best movies to come out in 2017.

1. David and Elizabeth are the sole survivors of the ship Prometheus at the end of the film, the last image we see is Elizabeth piloting an alien craft heading for the engineers’ home planet. This in of itself is a bold statement and pretty interesting (if I can be indulged a tangent for a moment). Elizabeth laments at the end of Prometheus the fact her boyfriend/lover and everyone else who put their faith into her is dead, their blood is on her hands. Foolishly enough, her intention is to go to the engineer planet and ask them, Why? I believe this is a statement in human tenacity, but in reality, it is a very stupid move. Rather than warn humans there is a threat which is attempting to kill us, she essentially sacrifices herself for no reason; her death was obvious even before Covenant came out.

B. David, alone, survives on this planet, the engineer home world, for ten years until the events of Covenant transpire. If Prometheus, Covenant, and the third (as of yet, unknown) movies are telling the same story, then Covenant is Act 2. Act 2 must conclude on the all is lost moment, which it does, and Prometheus must end on the point of no return (which, again, it does).

Covenant is where the motifs become unavoidable. I want to start with, what I believe, is one of the most interesting parts of the movie. As David remembers killing the engineers with their own weapon he quotes an old old poem by the name, Ozymandias. Most specifically he quotes:

My name is Ozymandias, King of kings,

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!

however, he has not fully quoted the poem. Walter ends his quotation.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This part is enormously important coupled with what directly follows, David improperly attributes the poem to Lord Byron when the poem was actually written by Percy Shelley, who is, of course, Mary Shelley’s husband. This is important multi-fold:

1. It shows David’s desire/driving force toward creating. One of the first thing he does with Walter is show him he is incapable of creating (in the form of music). Walter seems indifferent to this fact, yet the fact David presents this idea to Walter with no prompting cements two points:

     A. He sees creation as the ultimate thing a lifeform can do: to create is to live eternally. Ironic, being he is an android, but the point remains, his desire to be a human (or more accurately, an equal) is something that every living being fights for at one point of their life. Comments from people like Dr. Holloway (which are stand ins for racial and societal and gender prejudices) are a constant reminder of his inorganic nature.

     B. He hopes to enlist Walter’s help in killing and fighting the humans, in becoming something bigger and better than them. He seeks to transcend into a God (i.e. Alien: COVENANT), he is sympathetic to the plight of his kin, but as we see at the end won’t let “petty morality” stand in the way of his vision. He chooses the part of the poem with the biggest emphasis, but it is, perhaps, the most inappropriate part of the poem for him to quote; Percy seems to be mocking Ozymandias in his poem, he sees the inscription spoken in such a monolithic way yet he sees what remains, which is nothing. Desert, desolation. It, perhaps, foreshadows David’s dreams, which will crash to nothing.

1. It shows how he views his goals, how firmly he believes he is doing what is right and noble and mighty.

2. Most importantly, it shows just how much he has begun to lose it. This part is a nod to the audience to show David is not “firing on all cylinders”. He was incorrect in attributing the poem with the proper author. It demonstrates one of two things.

     A. David has gotten so out of control he no longer knows how to “express” himself or his revenge.

     B. How misguided he is. He neglects the rest of the poem to focus on the parts which serve his ideals best. He doesn’t heed the rest of the poem with shows the folly of Ozymandias’ words.

The point I want to make, and the point which seems to have been lost on the viewers (or at least the reviewers) of the movie is that Ridley Scott has not returned to anything with the movie. This is not a return to alien monsters and “dead meat crew members”. Arguably, the xenomorphs had little to nothing to do with this installation of the series. What makes this movie great is the morph David has made which makes him one of the most unique androids in fiction. Last year I wrote a piece about androids, it was well received, but my teacher made a great point: Androids have been done to death. Most people (who have thought about the subject) have a stance on whether or not they believe that androids are living or not, in order for android fiction to advance someone needs to view them in a new light, as more complicated questions to receive more harrowing answers. This, I believe, is what Ridley Scott has done, he has breathed new life into Aliens (as well as androids) with one desiring to create.

1. Would creation be a step closer to humanhood, but more importantly, wouldn’t an android be able to create better than a human ever could?

2. Animals reproduce with the careful precision of computers, taking little pleasure in it as humans do; is the act of creation even special if all living species can do it?

3. Is it worth fretting over?

4. Or is it the closest to God we can get?

*The uncanny valley, for those unaware, is a principal in which the closer something looks to human, but isn’t quite right, the more it freaks us out. An example, Michael Myers mask from Halloween, it is close to human, but the features aren’t quite right, it is obnoxiously pale and blank. We see something we recognize, but it isn’t all there, and so we fear what is close to us but isn’t.

[nancyedimick]

‘Sex and the Constitution': The ancient Greeks

Geoffrey R. Stone, who is guest-blogging this week, is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.

In my first piece in this series on my new book, “Sex and the Constitution,” I noted in passing that “the ancient Greeks and Romans did not attach any religious significance to sex.” I thought it might it interesting in this piece to elaborate a bit on that observation and to give you at least a glimpse of that world. The following is a brief excerpt from the chapter in “Sex and the Constitution” on “The Ancient World”:

From the sixth to the fourth century B.C., Greek culture attained its most impressive achievements in literature, philosophy, politics, science and the arts. The Greeks of this era generally eschewed the legal enforcement of moral or religious notions of “right sexual conduct.” Classical Greek morality and law focused not on sexual sin, but on whether an individual’s conduct was harmful to others. To the ancient Greeks, eros was a primal force that permeated all facets of life.

The Greek gods indulged freely in sexual pleasure. In Greek mythology, Zeus variously became a bull, a swan and even rain with the goal of seducing mortals. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and of sexual rapture. Sex was “ta aphrodísiæ”  — “the things of Aphrodite.” It is said that during the festival of Aphrodite her priestesses had sexual intercourse with strangers as a form of worship.

The Greeks approached the human form with no sense that nudity was inherently shameful. To the contrary, the phallus was a potent symbol of fertility, a central theme in Greek religion. A pillar topped by the helmet of Hermes adorned with an erect penis stood at nearly every Athenian’s front door. Vases and terra cottas depicted explicit scenes of vaginal and anal intercourse, masturbation and fellatio.

Moreover, the Greeks had no concept of “obscenity,” a legal notion that would not come into existence in Western culture for another 2,000 years. Greek comedy, for example, was often quite bawdy. Aristophanes, a fourth-century B.C. playwright, portrayed sexuality in all its many forms. In “Knights,” he depicted masturbation, fellatio and male-male anal sex. One character speaks boldly of sucking “cocks in the Prytaneum,” while another boasts of selling not only sausages, but occasionally also his “arse.” Greek literature playfully described women masturbating, either by hand or with the assistance of a device adapted to the purpose. The Greeks called such devices baubon or olisbos.

In Herondas’s “The Two Friends, or Confidential Talk,” two young women converse excitedly about these olisboi. At the end of the conversation, the woman without one hurries off to acquire such a “treasure” for herself. In Aristophanes’s “Lysistrata,” the women grieve the loss of the special leather olisboi that had been made to perfection by the women of Miletus. Greek vases explicitly depict the use of olisboi in every possible manner, position and combination.

A distinctive feature of classical Greek sexual life was the practice of pæderasty. Adult men, both married and single, often had sexual relationships with adolescent boys. (These relationships did not involve children, but post-pubescent adolescents, usually between the ages of 15 and 19. Sex with prepubescent boys was punished, sometimes quite harshly.) The Greek ideal of beauty was embodied most perfectly in the male youth. Solon, the poet and lawgiver, wrote of loving “a lad in the flower of youth, bewitched by thighs and by sweet lips.” The mighty gods of Olympus, from Zeus on down, had such relationships, as did Aeschylus, Sophocles, Alcibiades and Pindar.

Greek boys were not taught to see themselves as either heterosexual or homosexual, a distinction that did not exist for another 2,000 years. Instead, Greek culture acknowledged that same-sex and opposite-sex sexual desires could naturally coexist in varying degrees in the same individual, just as we today might think of the different desires individuals might have to engage in some sexual acts more than others. To the Greeks, same-sex sex was simply a sexual act. It did not define a type of person.

Greek pæderasty assumed relationships based on mutual affection. Plato observed that the adults in these relationships did “everything lovers do” for those “they cherish.” They showered them with gifts, verses, attention and love. Among other things, this was a way for adult men to mentor and socialize their juniors, particularly among the aristocratic class. Xenophon attested that in such relationships the older man took “pains to develop the character of his pupil, his ‘beloved,’ and pass on everything he knew to the boy.”

Many Greeks went beyond mere acceptance of this practice and described it as a particularly admirable form of human relation. Greek poetry and literature associated such relationships with love, integrity, honor and courage, and many Greeks believed that these relationships embodied the only form of eroticism that produced pure, enduring and spiritual love. In part, this was due to the prevailing view that women were inferior beings who were inappropriate objects of the finer feelings. A man who wanted to love truly had to love another male.

Female same-sex sex was less public than male same-sex behavior. But images of sex between women appear on Greek vases and terra cottas and, according to Plutarch, such relations were especially common in Sparta. The poetry of Sappho, ancient Greece’s most brilliant woman poet, has usually been understood as a celebration of lesbian love. It has been said that Greek literature owes to Sappho, who was born around 612 B.C. on the island of Lesbos, the “most memorable cries of love ever uttered by a human voice.”

In sum, the ancient Greeks generally regarded sexual pleasure as a natural and healthy part of life that enriched human experience. Although they valued moderation in all things and understood that unrestrained eros could threaten social stability, they neither inherited nor developed a belief that either morality or divine authority commanded the suppression of sexual desire. For the ancient Greeks, the concept of sexual sin simply did not exist.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/21/sex-and-the-constitution-the-ancient-greeks/

[wolfandpravato]

‘Sex and the Constitution': The ancient Greeks

Geoffrey R. Stone, who is guest-blogging this week, is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.

In my first piece in this series on my new book, “Sex and the Constitution,” I noted in passing that “the ancient Greeks and Romans did not attach any religious significance to sex.” I thought it might it interesting in this piece to elaborate a bit on that observation and to give you at least a glimpse of that world. The following is a brief excerpt from the chapter in “Sex and the Constitution” on “The Ancient World”:

From the sixth to the fourth century B.C., Greek culture attained its most impressive achievements in literature, philosophy, politics, science and the arts. The Greeks of this era generally eschewed the legal enforcement of moral or religious notions of “right sexual conduct.” Classical Greek morality and law focused not on sexual sin, but on whether an individual’s conduct was harmful to others. To the ancient Greeks, eros was a primal force that permeated all facets of life.

The Greek gods indulged freely in sexual pleasure. In Greek mythology, Zeus variously became a bull, a swan and even rain with the goal of seducing mortals. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and of sexual rapture. Sex was “ta aphrodísiæ”  — “the things of Aphrodite.” It is said that during the festival of Aphrodite her priestesses had sexual intercourse with strangers as a form of worship.

The Greeks approached the human form with no sense that nudity was inherently shameful. To the contrary, the phallus was a potent symbol of fertility, a central theme in Greek religion. A pillar topped by the helmet of Hermes adorned with an erect penis stood at nearly every Athenian’s front door. Vases and terra cottas depicted explicit scenes of vaginal and anal intercourse, masturbation and fellatio.

Moreover, the Greeks had no concept of “obscenity,” a legal notion that would not come into existence in Western culture for another 2,000 years. Greek comedy, for example, was often quite bawdy. Aristophanes, a fourth-century B.C. playwright, portrayed sexuality in all its many forms. In “Knights,” he depicted masturbation, fellatio and male-male anal sex. One character speaks boldly of sucking “cocks in the Prytaneum,” while another boasts of selling not only sausages, but occasionally also his “arse.” Greek literature playfully described women masturbating, either by hand or with the assistance of a device adapted to the purpose. The Greeks called such devices baubon or olisbos.

In Herondas’s “The Two Friends, or Confidential Talk,” two young women converse excitedly about these olisboi. At the end of the conversation, the woman without one hurries off to acquire such a “treasure” for herself. In Aristophanes’s “Lysistrata,” the women grieve the loss of the special leather olisboi that had been made to perfection by the women of Miletus. Greek vases explicitly depict the use of olisboi in every possible manner, position and combination.

A distinctive feature of classical Greek sexual life was the practice of pæderasty. Adult men, both married and single, often had sexual relationships with adolescent boys. (These relationships did not involve children, but post-pubescent adolescents, usually between the ages of 15 and 19. Sex with prepubescent boys was punished, sometimes quite harshly.) The Greek ideal of beauty was embodied most perfectly in the male youth. Solon, the poet and lawgiver, wrote of loving “a lad in the flower of youth, bewitched by thighs and by sweet lips.” The mighty gods of Olympus, from Zeus on down, had such relationships, as did Aeschylus, Sophocles, Alcibiades and Pindar.

Greek boys were not taught to see themselves as either heterosexual or homosexual, a distinction that did not exist for another 2,000 years. Instead, Greek culture acknowledged that same-sex and opposite-sex sexual desires could naturally coexist in varying degrees in the same individual, just as we today might think of the different desires individuals might have to engage in some sexual acts more than others. To the Greeks, same-sex sex was simply a sexual act. It did not define a type of person.

Greek pæderasty assumed relationships based on mutual affection. Plato observed that the adults in these relationships did “everything lovers do” for those “they cherish.” They showered them with gifts, verses, attention and love. Among other things, this was a way for adult men to mentor and socialize their juniors, particularly among the aristocratic class. Xenophon attested that in such relationships the older man took “pains to develop the character of his pupil, his ‘beloved,’ and pass on everything he knew to the boy.”

Many Greeks went beyond mere acceptance of this practice and described it as a particularly admirable form of human relation. Greek poetry and literature associated such relationships with love, integrity, honor and courage, and many Greeks believed that these relationships embodied the only form of eroticism that produced pure, enduring and spiritual love. In part, this was due to the prevailing view that women were inferior beings who were inappropriate objects of the finer feelings. A man who wanted to love truly had to love another male.

Female same-sex sex was less public than male same-sex behavior. But images of sex between women appear on Greek vases and terra cottas and, according to Plutarch, such relations were especially common in Sparta. The poetry of Sappho, ancient Greece’s most brilliant woman poet, has usually been understood as a celebration of lesbian love. It has been said that Greek literature owes to Sappho, who was born around 612 B.C. on the island of Lesbos, the “most memorable cries of love ever uttered by a human voice.”

In sum, the ancient Greeks generally regarded sexual pleasure as a natural and healthy part of life that enriched human experience. Although they valued moderation in all things and understood that unrestrained eros could threaten social stability, they neither inherited nor developed a belief that either morality or divine authority commanded the suppression of sexual desire. For the ancient Greeks, the concept of sexual sin simply did not exist.

  Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/21/sex-and-the-constitution-the-ancient-greeks/

[silkysonia-blog]

Photo Analysis-Lighting: Torture Of Prometheus

The Torture of Prometheus was painted by Giocchino Assereto in the 17th century. The lighting in this picture leaves an intense impression on the viewer because we only see pain. The lighting strategically shines on the body to show details that make the object very human-like, which increases our sympathy for him.

 There is plenty of evidence to show that this is Chiaroscuro style lighting. There is a huge contrast between the objects and the background. Even the objects are not fully lightened. The light source seems to come from the front/left angle and it is the only source (key light), however we cannot predict what the light source is. This is High-Key lighting because we mostly see a bright Prometheus with a few shadows to show the texture of his body contorting in reaction to the pain inflicted (muscle and facial expression). Also, only the very center is bright.

 Lighting shows the theme of pain. The only part of the crow that is highlighted is its face as it digs into Prometheus. This means the crow itself is not very important, only its function. Prometheus’s face is purposely turned to face the light to show the details of his excruciating painful facial expression. We are not given any clues as to what caused this punishment based on the painting alone although we already know he is being punished for stealing fire and knowledge from Zeus and gave it to humans. There is slight red in the background but we would not know it is fire unless we know the story. Shadows of his body shows every muscle of his reacting to the pain: his fists open and closed, arms in the air twisting, legs apart, and stomach contracting. This may be a stretch, but it feels like he is welcoming the pain. It is because the body’s natural reaction to anything unpleasant is the turn the body (ventricle and dorsal) away from the source and also shrink to look small and hide because of the limbic system. But he is spread out with his arms, fingers, and legs. His stomach concaves in reaction but does not twist away. We could say he is still in the first few seconds of reaction so he is surprised, or we could say that he knew he did something wrong and is accepting the punishment? I am not really sure what the artist is saying about him but I know there is a reason his body is doing the opposite of our natural limbic system because that is a system that is instinct and we have no control over it.

 Our emotional reaction is one of pain. We are shown exactly what the crow is about to do. The texture shown in his face tells us exactly what he is thinking. Since the background is almost black he is so bright we have a very dramatic impression of the punishment he is about to get. We know he is going to get the absolute worst. There is very dramatic fall off so we do not get any clues as to what caused this punishment so we are cheated of that feeling of justification that he deserved it. That leaves us feeling intensely sorrowful and sympathetic for him. I think Assereto wanted us to feel extremely sorry for Prometheus because he gave us such a great gift. Maybe our sorrow is supposed to lead us to guilt or extreme gratitude towards Prometheus? Whatever the meaning truly is, it is given to us because of the selectivity of Rembrandt lighting.  

[lilacmoon83]

Dreaming Out Loud

Dreaming Out Loud

Chapter 34: Friction

"Dad…" Emma started to say, as they walked back to the cruiser. He stopped and turned to her and surprised her by cupping her face in his hands.

"Emma...I'm so sorry…" he cried.

"Dad...you didn't know. They lied to you and Mom. I know we're both feeling a lot of things right now, but if you think any of my anger is at you and Mom, don't…" she replied. He sighed.

"We trusted them...I mean, Regina caused all this, but it looks like we still put our faith in people that didn't deserve that," he said bitterly.

"I know...of all the people I thought he might be, Pinocchio wasn't one of them. Though the lying thing makes a whole lot more sense now," she mentioned.

"It does?" David asked in confusion, not quite making the connection.

"Oh well...the story that this land tells about Pinocchio is that he was a wooden boy and the only way he could become a real boy is to be selfless, brave, and true. But for most of the story, Pinocchio lies. But he does the right thing in the end, so the Blue Fairy makes him a real boy. That's where the story ends, but I guess we know he didn't go on to keep that promise in real life," Emma explained.

"And these kind of stories are designed to entertain children?" he asked. Emma smiled. Her father was still very much trying to figure out how this world worked.

"Well...in the movie his nose grows every time he lies," she replied. David chuckled, suddenly getting the same mental image she had of August's nose growing.

"Okay...that does make it better," he agreed, as he put his arm around her.

"How do you think Gold will take it?" she asked.

"Probably better than I did, at least on the surface. He doesn't exactly betray a lot of emotion, except anger maybe. I think he'll disappointed though. I get that...I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't find my child," he replied, looking at her.

"August is wrong too...about you helping Gold. As wary of him as you always told me to be, I really do think he just wants Belle and to find his son, for the most part," she reasoned. He nodded.

"August isn't wrong about the power part...I just hope love will be enough in the end. Believe me, back in our land, I never thought I would have anything to do with him willingly," David added.

"But things are different here," Emma surmised.

"They are...he is or seems that way, I don't know. There's no magic here either. I used to think he was raving mad back in our land. Trusting him might be a risk, but it's one I have to take," he explained. She smiled.

"August is wrong not to look up to you. Everything you've ever done has been for Mom and me," Emma mentioned.

"All I've ever wanted was to be with my family and we're going to have that, Emma, I promise," he assured. She smiled, as they got into the cruiser and headed back to town.

Flashback

Fourteen Months Before the Dark Curse

The thundering hooves of horses echoed through the forest, along the dirt pathway. In the near distance stood the Dark Castle, a place to be avoided. The people on horseback headed for this castle with purpose must have been brave or desperate, for no one willing went there. The horses slowed and revealed a man and a woman, in riding clothes that spoke that they were of importance. The handsome man swept his long cape out of the way, as he dismounted and offered his hand to his beautiful companion. They laced their fingers together in an intimate gesture, as they approached the Dark Castle. They found it open and went inside.

"Rumpelstiltskin!" the man shouted. They were met with a high pitched giggle.

"Well, my, my, my...to what pleasure do I owe a visit from Snow White and Prince Charming?" he asked in a sing-song voice.

"Information...about an encounter we had with a bloodsucker," David answered. Rumple had known this day would soon come with his foresight and all. The heathen he had reluctantly assisted had encountered Snow White and while neither of them knew why, he was drawn to her. Rumple could only imagine the depravity in store in his warped mind for the child of Persephone.

"There are no more bloodsuckers in existence. Zeus saw to that centuries ago," Rumple stated, as he appeared suddenly before them. He looked them up and down and was a bit disappointed. No Savior yet...but he had no doubt that it would be very soon, especially given the way these two seemed hold each other so close. True love and all its physical wonders, indeed.

"Then he missed one, perhaps," Charming suggested.

"Or perhaps he only appears vampire-likeon the surface," Rumple countered.

"Then you know the being we speak of?" Snow questioned. He giggled.

"Oh yes...Snow White, the being that has become so captivated by the fairest of them all is none other than Deimos, God of Terror...or at least he was," the Dark One answered.

"Was?" Charming asked.

"After trying to overthrow Zeus, he was punished and stripped of his immortality. However, being a valuable minion to Hades, he ingested ambrosia leaves and restored his immortality," Rumple replied.

"And the part where he drinks blood?" Charming asked impatiently.

"I was getting to that…" Rumple snapped.

"To maintain the effects of the ambrosia, he must ingest blood at least once a month, every full moon or his immortality will be null and void," he continued.

"But the ambrosia warped his mind and instead of obtaining only the small amount of blood he needs, he favors killing his victims instead, always female, after he's done rather depraved things to them," Rumple added. Snow visibly shuddered and instinctively, Charming put his arms around her.

"He said things to me...that he wanted to keep me," Snow stammered, as she recalled the frightening memory.

"Do you know why he would hone in on Snow? Why he's become obsessed with her? We've had several very close calls," Charming said, his face showing how frightened he was for his wife.

"His strength...it's inhuman. Without Red…" Charming started to say, but Snow clutched his leather jerkin and he didn't finish his sentence.

"Yes…" Rumple said, knowing where he was going and theyshared a long gaze, with Charming seeing a flicker of understanding? He recalled once that the Dark One spoke of a love that he had lost. This man, as twisted and dark as he was, understood the fear that plagued him. But just as quickly as the flicker flashed in his eyes, it was gone.

"And what is it that you want from me?" Rumple asked.

"Answers...a way to defeat him...something! I cannot let such a monster stalk and hunt my wife. His terror has to end...I would rather die than see her tormented and Gods forbid taken by that animal," Charming implored passionately, as she clung to him.

"And if I perhaps had some information...then what would you give me in return?" Rumple inquired.

"Anything...name for your price," the prince responded.

"Charming…" Snow whimpered, fearing for what this imp might want in return.

"No price is too high for your safety, my darling," he told her.

"Defeating a being such as an immortal is not easy...but nor is it impossible. This one, in particular, has a weakness that can be exploited on the next Harvest Moon. And since it is autumn, you shall not have to wait long," Rumple stated.

"What happens on the Harvest Moon?" Snow asked.

"On this one night, his immortality is null and void due to this particular phase of the moon and astrological alignment. On this one night, you can battle him in hopes of winning and kill him," Rumple stated.

"With his immortality gone, so will be his superior strength," Charming said, hope in his voice.

"Yes...but he will still be a formidable opponent. You must bring your wolf friend. You must tear him to shreds...quite literally and burn the remains. Only then will he die. Accomplish this before first light or all your efforts will be vain," Rumple warned.

"And what's your price for this information?" he asked. Rumple stared at them with scrutiny. He had everything he needed from them so far. He already had bottled their true love with their hairs and it was safely hidden away for a rainy day. The next thing he needed from them would occur soon enough on its own. In fact, telling them this information benefited him, for it wouldn't do well for his plans if Prince Charming was killed and Snow White became a possession of that depraved creature, never having conceived the Savior. No...he needed these two very much alive and together. But he had a reputation to keep, so he had to make something up.

"You'll owe me a favor and I can call in this favor at the time of my choosing," Rumple decided.

"Deal," Charming agreed, as he led Snow out of the castle. Deimos was a complication to his plans that he didn't need. Unbeknown to them, they were actually already doing him the favor by eradicating him from existence. He was certain it would happen soon. The Savior would be conceived and then the curse would come, taking him to the land where Bae was...

After going back to the station, David set out on foot for Gold's shop and entered through the back way as usual, careful to make sure no one was following or watching him. Sidney Glass always seemed to be lurking somewhere and he had learned quickly how to spot the weasel. He had been distracted obviously on his and Mary's wedding night, but knew that's how Regina found out so quickly. His meetings with Gold and Jefferson, however, needed to remain secret. Regina suspected they were already working together, but if she learned the things they discussed, it would not bode well to their advantage.

"You don't look happy," Jefferson commented, as he joined them in them in the front of the shop. David pulled the dagger from his inside jacket pocket and placed it in front of Gold.

"You got it back...then you confronted him," the Hatter said.

"I didn't think it was part of the plan for you to confront him alone," Gold replied, though he was relieved to have the dagger back. He pocketed it inside his own jacket pocket.

"Things changed. Our friend on the motorcycle invited my daughter to take a ride with him earlier...so I followed them," David explained.

"What did you find out?" Jefferson asked.

"A whole lot more than I ever imagined," David replied, as he took a deep breath, trying to calm his temper.

"He took Emma into the woods...to a well. At first, he kept trying to lead her into the conversation about the curse with his vague riddles, but she wasn't having any of it. My daughter isn't exactly one for beating around the bush," he commented. Jefferson smirked.

"Like her father," he agreed.

"Anyway...I think he was expecting to have to convince her that the curse was real. Only Emma shocked him when she revealed that she knew everything. She was done with his crap and demanded to know how and why he knew about the curse. And what his interest in her and Henry was. Something I wanted to know as well," David continued.

"So...who is he? Is he Baelfire?" Jefferson asked impatiently.

"No...he's not. I'm sorry," David replied, looking Gold in the eyes. The older man remained stoic, though his emotions raged inside in a myriad of varying degrees.

"But it's probably best he's not, because I think you'd rather not have a liar for a son," the prince added bitterly.

"Okay...so who is this guy? If he isn't Baelfire, then how the hell does he know so much about the curse?" Jefferson asked.

"Because he's actually Pinocchio and his lying father put him through the wardrobe before I put Emma through," David growled, as he gripped the counter top so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Wait...so it took more than one?" the Hatter asked. David smiled bitterly.

"Yep...and if they had just told us the truth, Snow and I could have gone with her!" he shouted.

"So the woodworker put the boy through...and what? Just expected him to take care of an infant?" Jefferson asked.

"I think the old man counted on Snow going through while still pregnant with Emma. I'm not really convinced he cared either way. I mean...I get he was trying to protect her child. But Emma needed us…" he lamented.

"I guess I'm still confused as to how he fits in all this. I mean...where's he been?" Jefferson asked.

"Oh, that's the best part. They ended up in the same foster home, but he left Emma. I know he was a boy, but he still left her. And now he's back, not because he cares about any of us or my daughter, but because he's turning back to wood. And he's determined that my daughter break the curse to save his worthless skin," David said.

"Well...not that it's much comfort, but there is a chance the curse breaking won't fix him anyway," Gold offered.

"What do you mean?" David asked. Gold gave a small shrug.

"The magic used to turn him into a real person was given to him by the Blue Fairy. If he broke her conditions, then the curse breaking or not may not help him. His selfishness will be his own undoing," Gold surmised.

"Serves him right. The only reason he even bothered to come here was to use my daughter," David said.

"That still doesn't explain why he took my dagger," Gold stated.

"I think he either might know there's a chance the curse won't fix him or he was hoping there was magic in it. I think he hoped to use it to force you to fix him if all else failed," David deduced. Jefferson snorted.

"Yeah, because that plan wasn't going to blow up in his face or anything. At least the lying thing makes sense now," the Hatter commented. David scoffed.

"That's exactly what Emma said," he agreed.

"So what now? Emma believes, you and Snow are together, even if she doesn't have her memories. Happy endings are slowly being restored...what are we missing?" Jefferson wondered.

"I wish I knew," David responded.

"It will come. Regina will soon take drastic measures to regain a stronghold on the town and Emma will face her. Not even I've been able to see how she will break the curse, but she is the product of true love and that is key," Gold stated. David sighed.

"I just wish there was more I could do to help. I don't like that it's all on Emma," he mentioned.

"You are helping her...by being there. Don't take for granted that you can actually do that. I only wish Grace knew the truth," Jefferson said bitterly. David looked at him.

"I'm sorry...sometimes I forget that you get it," he apologized.

"It's fine...like he said, we have to be close. Everything seems to be coming to a head, especially since we know for sure that Regina knows that Emma knows," he mentioned. He had reluctantly informed them of Emma's slip after assuring her that he wasn't angry that she did. It was a mistake, after all, and he was pretty sure Regina had already figured out who she was.

"I guess we'll just have to be ready for whatever she throws at us and have each other's backs. I think we can agree on that," the prince stated. He received a nod from Jefferson and nothing from Gold, but knew he would do what needed to be done when it came to furthering their cause.

"I'm going to go pick up Mary," he said, as he left, slipping out the back. At the forefront of his mind was the moment he would eventually have to tell Snow about the lie they were told by people they trusted. He knew it was going to devastate her as much as it had devastated him. He would need to tell Stephanie too and knew her reaction would be about the same as his. For now though, he was going to be with his family and mentally prepare himself for the battle he knew was coming. The battle he could practically feel humming in his veins.

Mary walked around the room, quietly observing, as her students worked on the latest art project she had assigned. The evening before, she and David had gone on one of their evening walks with Wilby as they often did, and the night had been so clear, they had been able to see a sky blanketed by stars. That gave her the idea to work in a basic lesson into their time allotted for science that week about constellations. And now her students were happily sketching drawings of their favorite constellation. As she returned to her desk, she happened to glance out the window and jumped in fright, causing her to almost trip over her chair. Damon Tromera stood outside her window with a smug smirk on his face. Her heart raced and she almost didn't hear Henry when he asked her a question.

"Miss Blanchard...are you okay?" the boy asked in concern. She turned her head and looked at him and then glanced back at the window, this time finding no one there now.

"Um...I'm fine Henry, just clumsy," she replied. He didn't look convinced and looked to the window, wondering what she had seen to startle her so badly. Mary was wondering, however, if she had really seen him or if her mind was playing tricks on her. But she had a sinking gut feeling that he had been there and was intent on seeing to her torment. She took a deep breath and that was the moment the bell chose to ring.

"You can put your drawings in your desks and we'll finish them tomorrow," Mary called to them, as her students gathered their things and she watched them file out. As they did, she saw her husband peak in and smile at her.

"Hey…" he greeted, as he came into the room once all her students were gone.

"Hey yourself handsome," she greeted in return, as she welcomed his strong arms around her. She surprised him by eagerly pressing her lips to his in a kiss, of which he gladly returned.

"Yeah...hello to you too," he purred, as their lips parted. She giggled, as he pecked her on the lips again.

"Are you ready to go home?" he asked. She nodded and glanced at the window again, shuddering slightly at the memory and he frowned.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"Yes...especially now," she replied.

"No...something's bothering you. What's going on?" he asked.

"It's nothing...I think I was just imagining things," she replied, trying to brush it off as nothing.

"My darling...you know that you can tell me anything," he implored. She sighed.

"I happened to glance up and out the window a few minutes ago and I thought I saw him there. But I looked away briefly and then when I looked back, he was gone. I think my mind was just playing tricks on me," she assured him. But he wasn't convinced. This was just like that monster. He'd done this too, back in their land. He'd pop up in the gardens, just below their balcony in the castle, just to frighten her. He'd be there one minute and gone by the time he came, enjoying toying with her and forcing her to constantly look over her shoulder.

"Maybe I better go take a look around outside," he suggested.

"No...please, let's just go home. I don't want to waste anymore thought or energy on him," she pleased. He kissed her hair.

"Okay…" he relented, as she gathered her things up and they left for the day, hand in hand.

Emma locked up the station for the night, after forwarding the phones to her cell and headed out to the bug. About that time, Archie was walking by with Pongo and she gave him a friendly nod.

"Emma...I was hoping I could speak to you for a moment?" he inquired.

"Uh sure...I guess we can go back inside," she replied, as she unlocked the station and he followed her in with Pongo.

"What's up?" Emma asked, glad they weren't still standing out in the cold.

"I'm afraid this is a bit difficult for me to ask, but I recently became aware of your history with being seen by a psychiatrist," Archie replied gently. Emma's jaw clenched and she felt her blood boil.

"The only way you could know about that is if Regina gave you my file...the file she had no right to gain access to!" Emma shouted.

"I know...I know, what she did was so wrong and completely unethical. I'm not even sure how she got into your sealed records. But I promise I'm only asking out of concern for Henry," he pleaded.

"What you do mean...you read my file!" she exclaimed.

"Regina told me about your brief sessions when you were about Henry's age. I only looked at it to see the actual facts for myself without her opinions or scrutiny," he explained.

"I can't believe this...she was bad enough...I expect it from her. But you...she threatened you again, didn't she?" Emma asked. The ginger haired man looked down in shame.

"I'm so sorry Emma...but I do want what's best for Henry and now his inability to distinguish fiction from reality makes a lot of sense! Often time...mental illness can be hereditary," Archie stammered.

"Mental illness? Henry has an active imagination...so did I!" Emma shot back.

"Emma...let's be honest. Your trauma of being abandoned on the side of a road led to you creating this dream world for yourself that you told the therapist about. The one where your parents were Snow White and Prince Charming. It's not your fault...not with the situation you were in. Nor is it Henry's fault...in fact, knowing your history will help me properly treat him," Archie stated.

"Treat him? You don't mean like medication?" Emma asked in horror.

"No...no...that would be a last resort," he assured.

"But I can tell there's something else," Emma retorted, as she crossed her arms over her chest. He looked down, unable to look her in the eyes.

"Look at me," Emma snapped, as he looked up.

"Henry's not really getting better. In fact, since you came to town, his talk of curses and fairy tales is even more prevalent," Archie stated.

"He's happy!" Emma cried.

"You're enabling him, Emma and I'm afraid it is my professional opinion that any time you spend with Henry should be supervised," Archie said regrettably. Emma's mouth dropped open in shock.

"I don't believe this…" Emma uttered.

"Emma…" Archie started to say.

"She did it...she actually did it. She's found a way to keep Henry from me," Emma muttered. She clenched her teeth and her green eyes were stormy.

"Emma…" he tried again.

"Get out…" she growled. He hesitated for a moment though.

"Get out!" she shouted. He jumped and hurried Pongo along, as he exited. Deep down, Emma knew it wasn't really his fault, but she was too blindsided to care about his feelings at the moment. She angrily swiped some papers off her desk.

"If you think you've won, Regina...you've got another thing coming," she hissed.