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fuckyeahisawthat · 1 year ago

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There are so many places in the Villeneuve Dune adaptations where he just...takes all the narrative pieces that Frank Herbert laid out and subtly rearranges them into something that tells the story better--that creates dramatic tension where you need it, communicates the themes and message of the book more clearly, or corrects something in the text that contradicts or undermines what Herbert said he was trying to say.

The fedaykin are probably my favorite example of this. I just re-read a little part of the book and got smacked in the face with how different they are.

(under the cut for book spoilers and length)

The fedaykin in the book are Paul's personal followers, sort of his personal guard. They show up after his legend has already started growing (the word doesn't appear in the book until chapter 40) and they are people who have specifically dedicated themselves to fighting for him, and right from the moment they're introduced there is a kind of implied fanaticism to their militancy that's a bit uncomfortable to read. They're the most ardent believers in Paul's messianic status and willing to die for him. (They are also, as far as you can tell from the text, all men.)

In the book, as far as I can remember (I could be forgetting some small detail but I don't think so) there is no mention of armed resistance to colonialism on Arrakis before Paul shows up. As far as we know, he created it. ETA: Okay I actually went back and checked on this and while we hear about the Fremen being "a thorn in the side" of the Harkonnens and we know that they are good fighters, we don't see anything other than possibly one bit of industrial sabotage. The book is very clear that the organized military force we see in the second half was armed and trained by Paul. This is exacerbated by the two-year time jump in the book, which means we never see how Paul goes from being a newly deposed ex-colonial overlord running for his life to someone who has his own private militia of people ready to give their lives for him.

The movie completely flips all these dynamics on their head in ways that add up to a radical change in meaning.

The fedaykin in the movie are an already-existing guerrilla resistance movement on Arrakis that formed long before Paul showed up. Literally the first thing we learn about the Fremen, less that two minutes into the first movie, is that they are fighting back against the colonization and exploitation of their home and have been for decades.

The movie fedaykin also start out being the most skeptical of the prophecy about Paul, which is a great choice from both a political and a character standpoint. Of course they're skeptical. If you're part of a small guerrilla force repeatedly going up against a much bigger and stronger imperial army...you have to believe in your own agency. You have to believe that it is possible to win, and that this tiny little chip in the armor of a giant terrifying military machine that you are making right now will make a difference in the end. These are the people who are directly on the front lines of resisting oppression. They are doing it with their own sweat, blood and ingenuity, and they are not about to wait around for some messiah who may never come.

From a character standpoint, this is really the best possible environment you could put Paul Atreides in if you want to keep him humble. He doesn't get any automatic respect handed to him due to title or birthright or religious belief. He has to prove himself--not as any kind of savior but as a good fighter and a reliable member of a collective political project. And he does. This is an environment that really draws out his best qualities. He's a skilled fighter; he's brave (sometimes recklessly so); he's intensely loyal to and protective of people he cares about. He is not too proud to learn from others and work hard in an egalitarian environment where he gets no special treatment or extra glory. The longer he spends with the fedaykin the more his allegiance shifts from Atreides to Fremen, and the more skeptical he himself becomes about the prophecy. This sets up the conflict with Jessica, which comes to a head before she leaves for the south. And his political sincerity--that he genuinely comes to believe that these people deserve liberation from all colonial forces and his only role should be to help where he can--is what makes the tragedy work. Because in the end we know he will betray all these values and become the exact thing he said he didn't want to be.

There's another layer of meaning to all this that I don't know if the filmmakers were even aware of. ETA: rescinding my doubt cause based on some of Villeneuve's other projects I'm pretty sure he could work it out. Given the time period (1960s) and Herbert's propensity for using Arabic or Arabic-inspired words for aspects of Fremen culture, it seems very likely that the made-up word fedaykin was taken from fedayeen, a real Arabic word that was frequently used untranslated in American news media at the time, usually to refer to Palestinian armed resistance groups.

Fedayeen is usually translated into English as fighter, guerrilla, militant or something similar. The translation of fedaykin that Herbert provides in Dune is "death commando"...which is a whole bucket of yikes in my opinion, but it's not entirely absurd if we're assuming that this fake word and the real word fedayeen function in the same way. A more literal translation of fedayeen is "self-sacrificer," as in willing, intentional self-sacrifice for a political cause, up to and including sacrificing your life.

If you apply this logic to Dune, it means that Villeneuve has actually shifted the meaning of this word in-universe, from fighters who are willing to sacrifice themselves for Paul to fighters who are willing to sacrifice themselves for their people. And the fedaykin are no longer a group created for Paul but a group that Paul counts himself as part of, one member among equals. Which is just WILDLY different from what's in the book. And so much better in my opinion.

#dune #dune part two #adaptation #paul atreides #fedaykin

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t1oui · 2 months ago

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i said i was going to talk about why suzanne collins used the raven perfectly in sunrise on the reaping (and i haven’t seen many people talking about this) so here i am to talk about it.

if you don’t know, the poem lenore dove’s name comes from is “the raven” by edgar allen poe. i know the final chapter(s) of sotr include a lot of the poem, but i still suggest that people go and read the entire thing. as haymitch says at some point in sotr, maybe a few times, “the raven” is about a man losing his lover, lenore, and being super depressed about it while a raven shows up to fuck with him. interesting premise, right?

now, we already see some of the poem coming true in sunrise on the reaping, and haymitch acknowledges this: haymitch, acting in the role of the poet, loses lenore dove (who is, of course, lenore). haymitch compares himself to the poet, getting depressed about his lost love. but something i haven’t seen people talking about, and something haymitch himself never mentions, is the fact that some (including me) believe “the raven” is about a man sad about losing his lover who he accidentally killed. see, haymitch hasn’t sat around analyzing “the raven”, but i have, and i am here to tell you about this connection and its relation to sunrise on the reaping.

if you’ve read sotr you probably know where i’m going with this, but before i go there, i want to tell y’all about why i believe that in “the raven” the poet (otherwise known as the man whose perspective the poem is from) accidentally killed lenore. and why do i think this? allusions!

what is an allusion, you ask? according to wikipedia, an allusion is as follows: “allusion, or alluding, is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something by name (a person, object, location, etc.) without explaining how it relates to the given context, so that the audience must realize the connection in their own minds.”

in other words, an allusion is a reference to someone or something specific (you cannot allude to a concept like death, for example) for the purpose of giving readers/viewers a deeper understanding of what they are consuming, should they pick up on the allusion. obviously we are given some context for “the raven”’s presence in sotr — it is lenore dove’s name poem, and it relates to haymitch’s own feelings about losing lenore dove. but there are more aspects of the poem, like that accidental killing thing, that you would not know about if you haven’t read and extensively analyzed “the raven”.

so, why do the allusions in “the raven” make me believe that the poet is to blame for lenore’s death? well, first off, let’s identify some allusions. let me just say, there are a lot of allusions, and i am not going to talk about all of them, but i will talk about a few that support my point.

first: stanza 7, line 5, which reads, “perched upon a bust of pallas just above my chamber door”. pallas is most commonly known as another name for the goddess athena, but pallas is also the name of a close friend of athena’s who athena accidentally killed. athena was incredibly sad about the death of her friend, and she ended up creating a statue of pallas in pallas’s honor. that’s not super important, but hey: explicit allusion to a myth of a goddess accidentally killing somebody she deeply cared about. 1 point for the accidental murder of lenore theory.

onto the second allusion that i believe best supports my point. now, i’ll admit, this one is a bit more of a stretch, but stay with me, alright? stanza 15, line 1: ““prophet!” said i, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!”

prophet. now, i may be a bit of a greek mythology nerd (alongside, y’know, a hellenic polytheist), but i saw this part of the poem where the poet addresses the raven as a prophet and immediately thought of apollo. apollo, best known as the greek god of the sun, is also the greek god of prophecy. ravens are one of his sacred animals. well, you ask, what does apollo have to do with accidental murder? even more than athena, in my opinion, at least in the context of “the raven”.

see, here’s a myth many people have at the very least heard of: apollo and hyacinthus. hyacinthus was a spartan prince and one of apollo’s lovers. now, there are a few versions of the myth of hyacinthus’s death, but the most relevant (and well-known, i think) version in this case is the version where, during a game of discus, apollo accidentally hits hyacinthus in the head, killing him. accidental murder strikes once again, and with yet another (possible) allusion to greek mythology.

but, one final allusion. stanza 15, line 5: “is there—is there balm in gilead?—tell me—tell me, i implore!” gilead is a region known specifically for its medicinal/healing balm, which is clearly being referenced here. i, personally, believe that the reason the poet was asking the raven this is because he is wondering if there was a way he could’ve saved (or healed) lenore.

now, let’s connect all this to sunrise on the reaping.

we all know that haymitch didn’t outright kill lenore dove himself, but through both his actions of rebellion and his feeding lenore dove one of the poisoned gumdrops, there is an argument to be made that haymitch is somewhat at fault for lenore dove’s death. as we also know, haymitch — of course — tries to save lenore dove once he realizes she’s been poisoned. he first tries to get her to throw up the gumdrops she had, but when that doesn’t work, haymitch asks lenore dove if she has any charcoal tablets, which saved him when he was poisoned in the arena. in my opinion, the charcoal tablets seem like a reference to that line about balm in gilead. haymitch accidentally has a hand in the death of lenore dove, and — like the poet in “the raven” — he tries to save her, but is ultimately unsuccessful. this sends him into a spiral. now, it does look up for haymitch in the end, as he doesn’t straight-up die like the poet of “the raven” does, but hey. that’s not what this analysis is about.

this analysis is really all here just for me to say that suzanne collins utilizes “the raven” in such an interesting, expansive way that most readers won’t ever fully appreciate or understand, and i want more people to know. (also, while reading “the raven” can give you a better understanding of sotr, i read sotr before analyzing “the raven” and i can report that it works both ways. sotr definitely helped me analyze “the raven” and what it’s about.)

so, yeah. dislike sunrise on the reaping all you want, but you can’t deny all the thought, work, and research that clearly went into it, bc this is 1) super cool and 2) a level of attention to detail that i strive to have as a writer myself.

#can you tell i didnt know how to end this post? yeah. i didn't.#anyway i did this instead of paying attention in history class (which i still feel guilty about tbh 😔)#sunrise on the reaping #sotr #suzanne collins #sotr spoilers #sunrise on the reaping spoilers #haymitch abernathy #lenore dove #lenore dove baird #haydove #thg sotr #the raven #edgar allen poe #the raven edgar allan poe

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frogeyedape · 2 years ago

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I ran out of tags XD Good Omens Spoilers Beware! (time for dinner now)

The Magic Trick You Didn’t See: Being An Analysis of Good Omens Season 2

(or: Neil Gaiman, Your Brain is Gorgeous But I Have Cracked Your Sneaky Little Code And Have You Dead To Rights*) (*Maybe)

***

Soooooo I just spent the last 48 hours having a BREATHTAKING GALAXY BRAIN EPIPHANY about Good Omens Season 2 and feverishly writing a fuckin16,000 word essay about the incredible magic trick that @neil-gaiman pulled off.

Yes, it’s long, but I PROMISE your brains will explode. Do you want to know how magic works? Do you want to know what Metatron’s deal is (I’m like 99% sure of this and it’s EXTREMELY FUCKING GOOD)? Do you want to know about the Mystery of the Vanishing Eccles Cakes and the big fat beautiful clue I found in the opening credits? Do you go through the whole inventory of Chekov’s Firearm & Heavy Artillery Discount Warehouse?

Here is the essay, go read it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/193IXS11XN46lziHRb6eUpM17yK0BQkRqke1Wh64A_e0/ When ur done u can tell me I’m an insane crackpot, and u know what, i won’t even be offended

In case you don’t know whether you want to bother reading the whole enormous thing on google docs, I’ve put the first couple sections of it under the cut. JUST TRUST ME OKAY, HEAR ME OUT, THIS IS VERY EXTREMELY COOL, NEIL IS GOOD AT HIS JOB–

Keep reading

#FASCINATING essay #intriguing ideas and clues #the eccles cakes are DEFINITELY significant! weren't they called the ultimate comfort food? comfort disappears...#s2 has so many threads left up in the air ready to be played with in s3 it's great #wondering hard about the editing/erasing memories ability...is that something any angel at michael/uriel/saraqaels' level can do?#is it something they can do to ANY angel (or demon?)/only if they decide as a committee?#cuz they expected to erase gabriel's memory. saraqael had the thing to “look up” gabriel's memory in her hot little hands at the meeting #was THAT the book of life or is angel memory editing a separate function? (I'm leaning toward the latter)#GABRIEL fell in love?? GABRIEL?? with a demon?? is that Real? is it??#One Prince of Heaven may fall (lucifer/satan) but not two (crowley?) and CERTAINLY not 3 (gabriel) eh metatron? eh?#you are on to something BIG and the payoff is gonna be great!#(hey hollywood execs pay your fucking staff already & stop forcing wga & sag-aftra to strike for survival) (s3 doesn't HAVE to be on prime?)#oooh maggie not sure about maggie not being real. you've got me halfway convinced but aziraphale loves her records #AND she gets all the everyday records that the resurrectionist keeps getting--possible grounding in reality?#“it's just a thing we do” - i am on the fence on this one. on the one hand it is a very Character thing to say. on the other...#it's also a very mellow go woth the flow i don't get it but I'm here and i don't hate it kind of thing to say (and she really really wants #to dance with nina)#*with #the perfect crime...the parallels to gabriel's disappearance with none knowing who done did it (cuz he zapped himself into the fly)#back to gabriel & beelzebub and the everday records....the sheer NUMBER of records...does it imply gabriel turned EVERY RECORD in the juke #every time they visited the resurrectionist (3 times on screen?) or does he change just the one currently selected and there's a ton more #visits there that we DON'T see (but the records are proof of)?#gabriel says Nah. nah. nuhuh. nope. great & terrible prophesy bad things coming ah yes I'll renege and lose my memory to avert it ???#Nah is too out of character to not be deliberate. WHAT DOES GABRIEL KNOW ABOUT WHAT IS COMING. why did he set things up #so that he could escape heaven scot free but memoryless and WHY was that integral to averting the Terrible Thing that is coming?#is metatron the terrible thing? did gabriel have to leave the coop SO THAT metatron would be tempted to meddle & suck aziraphale in?#so that aziraphale (and crowley) can save the day by stopping “heaven”/metatron's plan for the second coming?#the Great Plan is ineffable...the Apocalysn't...the plan behind the plan for apocalypse...god's narration & the nice & accurate prophecies--#what I'm getting at there (poorly) is that...maybe god's plan is to see how long things can last? how great creation can become?#because it IS a damn shame to end an infinite universe after 6000 years before the engine is even fully cranked up...

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ckret2 · 1 year ago

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Chapter 54 of everybody being really eager to kill their prisoner human Bill Cipher for good: the gang's trying a new way to create fuel for the one weapon guaranteed to destroy Bill.

It goes so great.

As Ford drove to Northwest Manor, Dipper skimmed through the introduction to Flatworld, where Edward Bishop Bishop was pretending that his book had been dictated to him by a sentient square; but he couldn't focus on it. He sighed, shut the book, and stared out the passenger window at the passing trees.

"Something on your mind?" Ford asked.

"I'm thinking about the Axolotl's poem again. The one about Bill."

"Ah. Still trying to remember the rest?"

"Kinda. Mabel and I are working on it together," Dipper said. "But it's not that. I've just been wondering... what if the poem is... you know, part of a prophecy about Bill or something? Mabel remembered another line of the poem—'A different form, a different time.' What if the Axolotl was telling us why Bill's back as a human? Maybe we need him here—to, to use his powers to fight off a bigger threat or something. Do you think that's possible?" He held back another question: what happens if we kill him before then?

Ford frowned thoughtfully. "I've been thinking about the Axolotl as well," he said. "About the worlds I visited that called it a god of criminals, tyrants, and luck. That sounds to me like the exact kind of being that would be Bill's ally. And it's odd how resistant Bill was to telling us anything about the Axolotl, when it simply passed over town for a few seconds and then moved on. Why the secrecy? How does Bill think it benefits him for us not to know about it?" Ford shook his head. "I think you're on to something, Dipper—I think whatever the Axolotl told you is important. The question is: important for whom?"

Dipper's stomach turned. The Axolotl had radiated such kindness; it was hard for Dipper to believe it could be up to anything evil with Bill. But then—Dipper clutched at Flatworld with the damning biography on the back—but then, how many people had Bill himself fooled with the benevolent teacher act?

Dipper understood now why "Don't Trust Bill" had so quickly turned into "Trust No One." Even when you knew that there was only one real enemy—even when you knew that most people out there were still reasonably honest and friendly—you could never tell just how far Bill's shadow stretched. "I guess that's true. We can't really know."

"We can't know yet. But it is worth trying to figure out," Ford said. "I wish I could tell you where to start looking for answers. For now... we'll just have to consider anything possible."

Ford was right. But all the same, every time Dipper paranoidly asked himself What if Grunkle Ford is right, what if the Axolotl really is on Bill's side, a second, even more paranoid, even more worried voice asked, But what if he isn't?

####

When they arrived, Fiddleford was already in his lab, hard at work on the miniature particle accelerator they'd come to see him about.

"The paradox what was powering it started yowling" Fiddleford said. "So obviously it ain't a paradox no more."

Ford grimaced. "That does lay to rest whether the cat is alive or dead."

"Sure does," Fiddleford said, sighing. "So I let the cat outside and I'm rebuilding the whole contraption to run on a more robust paradox. I hope you've got better news for me, Stanford."

"We hope so too. I think Dipper might have the solution to our fuel generation problem."

They briefly explained Dipper's unfortunate puppet incident last summer—Fiddleford had to take a break in the middle to grab a cup of coffee, "To steady my nerves,"—its ongoing effects on his sleep, and the new developments of the last few days, culminating in Dipper learning how to project his soul out of his body—

—which, Ford now realized, he probably should have expected Fiddleford to take poorly.

"Sweet sasparilla!" Fiddleford kicked over his chair while jumping onto the nearest table. "You're dead?!"

"What?" Dipper said. "No, I—"

"You're like a ghost possessing a zombie!"

Dipper thought that over. "Whoa..."

But, even though Fiddleford thought the whole affair went against the rightful order of the world, he agreed that it was a sound idea and worth trying. "It's lucky that my tater tot and I hunted out all the ghosts in this place during our spring cleaning," he said, opening a cabinet. He retrieved what looked like a pair of vacuums redesigned to be worn like backpacks with an assortment of random electronics dangling from wires. He held up a set of goggles and headphones hanging off one of the vacuums. "I invented these doohickeys that'll let you see and hear ghosts! They'll let us keep in contact with Dipper while he's out of his body." He set the vacuums on a table near the miniature particle accelerator and said, "First, though—Stanford, I need you to help me rebuild this machine."

"Of course." Ford turned away from the vacuum he'd been inspecting to look at the miniature particle accelerator.

Dipper said, "Wait, there are other ghosts in this mansion?"

"Yep!"

"I hunted one at the Northwests' big party last year," Dipper said. "How many more ghosts are in here?"

"We've caught, oh... thirty or forty so far."

"Seriously? That's amazing." Dipper was already thinking about the amazing Ghost Harassers episode this place could have been. Maybe even a miniseries.

"Aw, it weren't that hard. If you leave the TV on, they like to flock around it to watch. All you've gotta do is hide in the corner until a whole big bunch of 'em are gathered 'round—and then ya get them!"

"Oh," Dipper said. "Huh. I just tricked one into getting trapped in a silver mirror."

"Well, that's right impressive too. I never woulda thunk of that," Fiddleford said. "Me and Tate have been sucking them into cooling pouches in these here vacuums and then sticking the pouches in a chest freezer down in the dungeon! Maybe I oughta line the freezer with silver."

"This place has a dungeon?" Dipper asked.

Before Fiddleford could respond, Ford asked, "Which parts are we replacing?" He was inspecting the miniature particle accelerator.

"All of them!"

Ford gave Fiddleford a surprised look. "All of them?"

"Yep! Every last one!"

"Is the design changing that much?"

"Nope! It's staying exactly the same!"

"Then... why can't we just use the same machine we already have?"

"We will be using the same machine!" Fiddleford smiled mischievously. "Or will we?"

"Ah! I see! The particle accelerator of Theseus," Ford said. "Very clever."

"And kinder on the local stray cats, I reckon."

Dipper offered his assistance, but the work involved too much welding and buzzsawing for him to try untrained, so he was directed to sit a safe distance away with the first aid kit. At least it gave him a chance to read some more. He had to shove aside a couple flashlights and the glue grenade to reach where the slim book had slid to the bottom of his backpack during their walk from the car.

He skimmed over some of the worldbuilding looking for the story before he realized the story was the wordbuilding and looped back. It was a lot bleaker than he expected, even after Mabel's warning. Rigid class system, oppressive government, all kinds of horrifying shape prejudices... Frustrating dream visits to the ignorant line people in the first dimension who didn't believe in the second dimension, and to the self-absorbed King Zero in the point-sized zeroth dimension who thought a whole universe was contained inside him... A just as frustrating visit from a sphere who simply couldn't explain the third dimension in a way the square protagonist could understand, which was even more annoying since the square had just seen how the first dimension couldn't comprehend the second for the same reasons, so why couldn't he accept the possibility of a third dimension he couldn't imagine? Dipper got that it was supposed to be a metaphor to help three-dimensional readers understand that not being able to visualize a fourth dimension didn't mean it was impossible; but still. Come on, man. Don't be stupid.

On the other hand, at least now Dipper had a framework to understand the concept of higher dimensions and probably a leg up on next year's geometry. Would high school geometry cover four-dimensional space?

After a couple of hours of work and a break for lunch, the miniature particle accelerator was rebuilt and ready for another attempt to generate fuel. Fiddleford pulled on one of his ghost vacuums like a backpack, put on the set of connected headphones and goggles, and settled his glasses on over the goggles. "Y'all ready?"

"Ready," Ford said. He was seated at the accelerator's monitors, holding the jug that would contain any NowUSeeitNowUDontium they generated, and wearing the other vacuum—with the goggles over his glasses, and he was a bit worried about how Fiddleford had positioned his.

"Ready," Dipper said, a tad less certainly. What if he couldn't do it today? What if he'd never actually been able to do it last night and the whole thing really had been a dream?

But Fiddleford flipped the accelerator's power on, stepped back, and said, "All right! Do your thing!"

"Okay." Dipper stared straight at the machine, and—eugh—thought about degloving his body from his soul, peeling out of his skin fingers first.

This was only the second time he'd left his body deliberately. He'd observed in the past that the mindscape was strangely gray and still compared to the real world—but he'd never realized just how stark and swift the change was, like all the color and warmth had been abruptly sucked from reality. He shivered.

Ford inhaled sharply. Fiddleford stumbled back against the nearest table and yelped, "Flipping flapjacks!"

"You can both still see me?" Dipper said. "Can you hear me, too?"

"Loud and clear," Ford said.

"Like the voices of the dead." Fiddleford shuddered. "Welp, let's get this over with. I don't like all this ghost business. It ain't natural."

Ford gave him an amused look. "Since when have you ever been concerned about what's 'natural'? Didn't the engineering club vote you 'most likely to build a robot that flies in the face of God'?"

"You hush! There's nothing unnatural about iron, electromagnetism, and flamethrowers."

Dipper studied his body's face, its eyes pointed blankly toward the particle accelerator. "Well, I'm looking at the experiment, but I'm definitely not thinking about it. I think that's half of the paradox?"

"That's right," Fiddleford said. "Now, you just—float yerself on over to the other side of the accelerator, and think about it without looking at it."

"Right." Dipper positioned himself directly across the accelerator from his body, shut his eyes, and tried to think experimental thoughts. He didn't know much about Dontium besides what Ford had written about it in Journal 3—that it was inert when you were looking at it and radioactive when you weren't—so, if the miniature particle accelerator generated any, would he get blasted with radiation? Or was his body staring at the accelerator enough to keep it inert? But no—it was supposed to fill up the jug Ford was holding, right? Ford was observing it. Dipper tried to imagine what must be happening inside the accelerator; how did it work, would particles spontaneously generate in the tubes? Maybe they circled around until they fell into the hose to the jug...

He heard Ford gasp. "Fiddleford, look at this— Don't listen to me Dipper, just keep—keep thinking whatever you were thinking!"

"Is it working?"

"It was! Don't let us distract you."

Dipper tried to ignore the sound of Fiddleford running over to Ford, and started humming to drown out their hushed conversation. That was good, right? It meant the experiment was working. Keep thinking about that—experiment. Experiment. Expeeeriment. ... He wondered if trying to do the experiment by putting himself and Tyrone on either side of the accelerator would have worked, or if it had to be Dipper's soul and his body—

"Hot diggety!" Fiddleford shouted. "We've reached critical mass!"

"What does that mean, is it bad?" Dipper opened one eye a crack, trying to squint enough that he couldn't see the particle accelerator. "Is it gonna explode?"

Ford explained, "It means we've generated enough Dontium that it can sustain its own existence. Now, even if you get distracted, what we've already generated will remain. It can only go up from here."

"Wow," Dipper said. "That only took, what, a couple of minutes?"

"Less than that! During our last attempt, we tried for hours without reaching critical mass," Ford said. "Your idea was right on the money. Excellent work, Dipper."

Dipper grinned. After all that anxiety, it was almost a letdown how easy it was, but the coolness factor made up for it. He could just imagine the conversations the first week of high school: What did I do over summer break? Oh, nothing much. Just synthesized a new element. To fuel a weapon custom-designed to kill an immortal chaos god. And did I mention I was a ghost at the time? It didn't quite top last summer's adventures, but...

Then something went wrong.

There was a noise halfway between the electric buzz of a tesla coil and the rip of Velcro being torn apart. A stench like burning hair filled the air. A line of shifting colorful light began worming its way out of the center of the particle accelerator and up into the air.

"Oh no. Ohhh no!" Fiddleford grabbed his head. "The micro-rips! The threadbare fabric of reality! Our experiment put too much of a strain on it! We tore straight through!" One foot bounced agitatedly, "Ohhh, I knew I shoulda run some calculations before substituting in Dipper for you and Stanley."

Dipper gasped as the line of light began to agonizingly stretch open wider. Reality began seeping over its edges and dripping through into the kaleidoscopic miasma beyond. It developed a second horizontal rip across its middle as reality stretched beyond endurance in multiple directions. "What—is that?" He was afraid he knew.

"A dimensional rift," Fiddleford said.

"The Nightmare Realm," said Ford.

The last frayed thread holding reality together snapped apart, and the rift tore open wide, fully exposing the Earth to the roaring roiling chaos beyond.

They screamed.

"Hello?" A giant set of dentures with stubby arms and legs leaned through the rift. "Oh hey! Aren't you the guys that killed Bill?"

They screamed again.

"Is screaming how humans say hi?" the monster asked. "I'm Teeth. Aaah!" He turned toward Ford. "Hey! Fingers! Lookin' less electrocuted than the last time I saw you—"

Ford socked Teeth in the incisor, knocking him back through the rift. "Back, you! You and your 'friends' are not welcome in this dimension!"

"Ow. What the heck, man."

Fiddleford shouted, "Don't stop observing the Dontium!" He bounded across the room on all four to scoop up the milk jug and stare at it.

Ford nearly toppled through the rift, and had to grab onto the miniature particle accelerator as the heaviest nearby object to anchor himself. The rift sucked on reality like a vacuum, and the longer it was open the more powerful it grew.

Over the roar of the rift, Dipper yelled "What do we do?!"

"We have to seal it! Before it sucks all of Gravity Falls into the Nightmare Realm!"

"How?!"

Last summer, the instant Bill had no longer been around to maintain the dimensional rift, it had also sucked reality into it, starting with everything that properly belonged in the Nightmare Realm; but then it had also quickly sealed itself back shut. On the other hand, this rift was just opening wider and wider. Maybe it wasn't like the rift Bill had used to enter Gravity Falls, then? Maybe it was structured more like the wormholes that had been left behind after Weirdmageddon—

"I've got it!" Ford picked up Dipper's body—trying not to shudder at how lifeless it felt—and unzipped his backpack. "Is the alien adhesive grenade still in here?"

"It should be! Let me see." Dipper floated over to peer into his backpack.

The rift was already strong enough to drag at Ford's clothing. The lightest objects in the room lifted into the air and were sucked through. Papers. Pencils. Coffee mugs. Dipper's soul.

He screamed. "GRUNKLE FORD!"

"Dipper!" Ford grabbed for Dipper's ankle, but his hand passed right through. Ford's blood ran cold as Dipper tumbled head over heels into the Nightmare Realm.

"Look at that," Teeth said, watching Dipper soar by. "Dinner delivery."

There was no difference between the mindscape and reality in the Nightmare Realm, if Ford followed Dipper through he'd be able to get a grip on Dipper there. But how would he carry Dipper back to Earth without him melting through Ford's grasp the moment they were through the rift? Didn't matter, grab Dipper first, then figure it out—

Fiddleford shoved the jug of Dontium in Ford's hands as he ran past. "Watch over this!"

"What—!"

Fiddleford jumped into the Nightmare Realm, the end of a long extension cord tied around his waist. He stretched out the hose of his ghost vacuum and flipped a switch, and with a yelp Dipper's soul was sucked inside. Ford gasped in relief.

Trying to keep as much of his attention on the potentially-radioactive jug as possible, Ford reeled Fiddleford back in, shoved the jug in his hands, and dug into Dipper's backpack again until he found the alien adhesive grenade. He pulled the pin and chucked it through the rift. "Duck!"

He shielded Dipper's body and Fiddleford shielded the Dontium jug as the grenade exploded. Even so, the force of it blew aside everything within ten feet of the rift and sent both of them sprawling. When Ford glanced back over his shoulder, the adhesive had gummed up the opening of the rift like a popped glowing magenta bubblegum bubble; and as he watched, it sucked the opening shut. In a few seconds the air was still and quiet, and the only sign the rift had ever existed was an immense, jagged vertical line in the air around which the light refracted wrong.

Fiddleford gingerly got back to his knees, then pulled off his glasses and pushed up his goggles. One of the lenses had been crushed, and the glasses' frame was bent beyond repair.

Ford heaved a long, heavy sigh. "A bit too familiar, wasn't it?"

Fiddleford blinked at him. "Wasn't what?"

"The—reeling you in from the Nightmare Realm?" Ford said. At Fiddleford's blank look, Ford said, "The portal test?"

"Oh." Fiddleford scratched his head. "I... still don't remember it too clearly."

"Ah. Yes. Of course." Ford's stomach churned with guilt as he looked away from Fiddleford. Over thirty years late was too late to apologize, wasn't it? (Over the past year he'd wondered, again and again; and again and again he'd decided that it was.) "Thank you for saving—" He gasped, "Dipper!"

"Oh, right!" Fiddleford took off his vacuum, dropped it on the floor, and unzipped its bag. The ghosts of a Northwest in a buckskin coat and a confused-looking hippie escaped into the air. "Hey," Fiddleford barked. "You get back here!" He raised the vacuum's hose and flipped its switch. He caught the hippie, but as soon as she was sucked in she flew out the unzipped bag and off to freedom again. Fiddleford lowered the hose and shook a fist at the retreating spirits. "I'll get you ectoplasmic varmints, just you wait!"

Ford knelt on the floor and held the bag open wider. Dipper floated out, arms crossed tight and shivering. "So... so cold... and dark... and really, really dusty."

"Let's get you back where you belong."

Ford held up Dipper's body as he lay back down in it. He could see the moment color flooded back into Dipper's cheeks and his eyes focused again. Dipper groaned.

Ford said, "You're never doing that again."

"I am never doing that again," Dipper said.

"We can't do that again," Fiddleford said. "The fabric of reality in this town is too unstable to handle another paradoxical physics experiment that powerful! We'd rip open another rift to the Nightmare Realm!"

"And we just tossed away all of our remaining alien adhesive," Ford sighed. It left Gravity Falls vulnerable if any more rips formed. Sometime soon he'd have to go back to the alien crash site and see if there was any more adhesive he could scrounge up; but even if he did, they couldn't risk wasting more of it like this.

"But did we get what we needed?" Dipper asked.

Fiddleford held up the milk jug of Dontium and shook it. It had a strange shifting color, wavering between cyan and orange depending on the lighting. "Looks like we got about three-fourths of a gallon," Fiddleford said.

"It's only enough to fully power one shot," Ford said. "But... one shot is all it'll take to destroy Bill." His stomach flipped nervously as he said it. He'd been anxious every other time he'd prepared to kill Bill, but that had always been because he'd been preparing to battle for the fate of the universe with a godlike monster who could easily kill him or worse. For the first time, he was preparing to execute a defenseless prisoner, and he didn't know whether it would make the universe any safer.

For half the summer he'd hoped Bill was harmless. Now he wished he had proof that Bill wasn't, so that he could lay his conscience to rest.

Dipper looked as uncomfortable as Ford felt; but when he caught Ford's gaze, he hardened his expression and nodded. Ford nodded back.

"WOOHOO!" Fiddleford leaped his full height straight up, making Ford and Dipper start. "We done it! YAHOO!" He waved his hat around ecstatically, doing a little jig in place. "YIPPEE! HIP HIP HURRrr—hey, how come you fellers ain't celebrating?"

Ford didn't know how to explain without making Fiddleford worry he was at risk of falling under Bill's spell again. "We'll celebrate when he's dead."

####

"Who was at the door?" 8 Ball shouted. When he didn't get a response, he paused his game. "Teeth?"

Teeth waddled into the game room. His face was completely plastered shut with some kind of glowing purple glue.

Pyronica cracked up and Paci-Fire chuckled darkly. 8 Ball sighed, "What'd you get into, you idiot?"

Teeth waved his hands emphatically.

"All right, okay." 8 Ball stood and stretched. "Does anyone have the number of that lamp guy Bill used to hook up with?"

Half an hour later, having lured over Lava Lamp Guy with the false promise of ping pong pool and illicit liquids, they cornered him in a bathroom, with Zanthar sitting in the tub restraining him while Paci-Fire struggled to hold his face still.

"Please!" Lava Lamp Guy screamed. "Let me go! I'll do anything you want! My neurologist said I can't take much more of this!"

"Cease your complaints," Paci-Fire said, as 8 Ball took off Lava Lamp Guy's bowler. "You shall not dissuade us. We do this because we have no choice in the matter."

"Why not?!"

"Because none of us feel like making the trip to a dimension with a drugstore."

8 Ball stuck a soup ladle into the open top of Lava Lamp Guy's head and fished around until he got a scoop of the red goo floating around in the thinner orange liquid. Lava Lamp Guy howled in agony. Zanthar heaved a weary sigh.

8 Ball carried the ladle over to where Teeth was sitting on the toilet lid kicking his feet. "Here you go, bud."

Teeth clapped his hands, grabbed an oversized toothbrush, and held it out for 8 Ball to pour the goop on. He scrubbed his teeth until the goop dissolved the adhesive. "Whew!" He stretched his jaw a few times, then jumped to his feet. "Thanks! I was worried I was gonna miss karaoke night." He looked in the sink mirror to scrub off the remaining scraps of adhesive.

8 Ball put Lava Lamp Guy's hat back on. Lava Lamp Guy groaned, "I think I forgot my third husband."

"You've only been married twice," Hectorgon lied.

"Oh." Confused, Lava Lamp Guy said, "Alright."

Teeth muttered, "Blech, divorce memories." He grabbed a bottle of mouthwash to clear out the taste.

"So what happened?" Kryptos asked. He was hovering in the doorway beside Pyronica.

"I'unno. I think the Dimension 46ers were messing around with their portal or something? They opened up a portal here."

"What? Uh-uh," Pyronica said. "It had to be some other dimension. We just invaded them, why would they open the portal again?"

"No no, that sounds like humans to me," Kryptos said. "If one of them pushes a button and immediately dies, the guy standing next to him will go, 'I wonder if it does that every time.' I've seen them do it."

"It was definitely them, I saw that local contractor Bill recruited for the portal who went nuts. Fingers or whoever."

8 Ball groaned. "You mean the guy that invaded the Quadrangle and tried to kill everybody?"

"Yeah. That guy. He told me I wasn't welcome on Earth and chucked a glue bomb in my face. I was like, well alright, buddy, I'm not the one who opened up a portal in your house, you could have just stayed home instead of ruining my day," Teeth said. "I didn't really say that to him. I thought it."

"So now the humans are invading us." Pyronica threw her hands in the air. "Great! This is just terrific! Bill teaches them how to make their own portals, they follow us home, and now we're about to have a pest problem that knows how to use tools! How long is it until this whole place is crawling with humans?! I'm going househunting, how many rooms should I look for? 8 Ball?"

"I'm in."

"Teeth?"

Teeth sighed, but said, "Yeah. The neighborhood's going downhill. Especially if we're gonna have a pest problem."

"Big Z?"

Zanthar gave a thumbs up.

Pyronica looked at Paci-Fire. He averted his gaze. Pyronica said, "Paci?"

Sullenly, he said, "We should ask Keyhole's opinion as well."

She laughed in disbelief. Nobody cared about Keyhole's opinion, he went with whatever everyone else went with. Appealing to Keyhole was just a delaying tactic. "Fine, sure. We'll get Keyhole's opinion."

"I'm not going," Hectorgon said, crossing his arms.

Relieved, Kryptos said, "Yeah. Me neither."

"You don't have to," Pyronica snapped. "You two and Morph can wait for Bill to come back from the dead as long as you want. But the rest of us are leaving."

Kryptos tilted toward the hall, gesturing for Hectorgon to follow him away from the others. "How long do you think we can hold this place without the outerplanars?" The Quadrangle was all that remained of Bill's turf. Without Bill's energy boosting them, none of the shapes were particularly powerful. They'd always depended upon the other Henchmaniacs to guard Bill's stronghold, the heavy-hitters like Zanthar and Pyronica. Even Bill preferred to let them fight his battles when he could; Bill's energy was much vaster, but less renewable.

Hectorgon grimaced uncertainly. "We've gotta think of something fast."

####

Dipper stared at the jug in his lap, ensuring it didn't turn radioactive before they got home. Bill practically seemed to have a radar for Ford—and on top of that, could see through walls—but as far as he cared Dipper may as well have not even existed; so they'd decided that Ford would go in the main door to ensure Bill's attention was turned away while Dipper went through the gift shop and took the elevator down to Ford's study. Ford had told Dipper where to find a lead locker that would keep the Dontium contained until Ford could use it to refuel the Quantum Destabilizer; all he had to do was put it in and stare through the crack until he'd slammed the door shut.

And once they'd decided on that, the drive home had fallen deathly silent.

As the Mystery Shack appeared through the trees, Dipper asked, "We're doing the right thing, right?" His voice was quiet. "I hate him, but—we owe him our lives. And there's that prophecy..."

"Lives can't be owed," Ford said. "Yesterday he may have saved us, but tomorrow he would still destroy our world in a heartbeat. We can be grateful to be alive—but we can't let that stop us."

"So, we're doing the right thing?"

Ford was silent for much longer than Dipper would have liked. "I hope so."

####

(We're moving toward some important stuff!! Hope y'all enjoyed and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this week's chapter!)

#dipper pines #stanford pines #grunkle ford #fiddleford mcgucket #henchmaniacs #(for the art & chapter)#bill cipher #human bill cipher #(who doesn't make an appearance in this chapter but the whole fic's about him and nobody can shut up about him so he's getting tagged)#(is this the first chapter bill hasn't appeared in?? might be)#gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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darkmist111 · 8 months ago

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Something I wish was talked about more is that Percy wasn’t told about the full Great Prophecy until days before it was set to occur.

And the implications of who knew, and how it changes the view of people’s actions in that context.

Let’s start off with who knew for sure, Annabeth, Luke, Chiron, and all the gods.

Annabeth has been the one that’s been analyzed the most I think. Her abandonment issues, combined with the knowledge that the best friend she made and boy she loves most likely has a expiration date. She pulls away and is reluctant to open up on her feelings. She spends alot of time bracing for pain she thinks is coming.

Chiron spends a good portion of the time being honestly very pessimistic with Percy, talking about heroes that died tragically, gods that probably don’t care, and honestly usually looks at Percy like he’s already dead. There are many times in the book where Chiron gets a far away look and Percy thinks he’s thinking of fallen heroes but it might be he’s thinking about how the Hero before him is due to die in a couple years.

You will never catch me defending Luke Castellan’s actions, but with the context of the Great prophecy, I can understand how in a twisted way his actions might have made sense. If this kids is gonna die in a couple years anyway why not kill him now? Why wait just so he can die a slower death possibly in service to a broken system. It also kinda makes sense why he wouldn’t recruit him, since he’d be just recruiting him to die for his cause instead of the gods. That part is speculation though since he has no problem later sending demigods to their death for his cause.

The gods are pretty easy to tell with their motives, self centered, they care more about their survival than a single mortals’. Poseidon however is honestly painted in a pretty bad light. The apology of “I’m sorry you were born” takes a different meaning when you think he know that Percy is gonna die. “I’m sorry you were born only to die.” Not only that but his distance to Percy even after his heritage is revealed takes a different tone. Is he avoiding puting time into his son not just because he is a god but because he might die? Granted he’s immortal so Percy was going to die anyway. But did he avoid telling Percy because he didn’t want him to think less of him?

And then we get onto who theoretically knew.

Specifically, did Sally, Grover, or Thalia know?

Sally Jackson is a goddess let me just preface that, but much like other goddesses she’s not perfect.

Is it possible Poseidon told her of the prophecy? If she knew is it possible she hid it from Percy? I love Sally but she does have a habit of keeping things that could hurt Percy from him until the last possible moment. And honestly this is much worse than the other things she’s withheld from him.

Did Grover know? Even with the empathy link, it transfers emotions more than thoughts. Which brings us to another interesting point. If Grover knew the Prophecy did he form a Empathy link knowing he would probably die in a couple years? Or did he not know and Annabeth Chiron and others failed to tell him that? We’re people expecting Grover to die in a couple years? Was he informed? Did people try to get him to cut his Empathy Link, without telling him? Did Juniper know?

And finally we have Thalia, the most underutilized character in all the series, and I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating when I say that.

Did Thalia know and when did she know it? Did she know before being turned into a Tree? Did she know after she was revived? Did she know during the Titan’s Curse? Did she know after she became a hunter? All of these can drastically change how her choice at the end of Titans Curse could be viewed.

If she knew before her death, it adds a layer to Luke and Annabeth, not only was their friend killed but most likely, another will be killed in her place.

If she was informed after she was revived or knew during Titan’s curse it adds a level of stress from her perspective, not only did she die to save her family, one who became a traitor and sacrificed the other to unleash a Titan, but she is know being told she’ll probably die in a couple months to a year.

And if she was informed after she became a Hunter? Did that make her regret her decision? Second guess herself? Did she feel guilty because she basically sacrificed Percy to save her own life? Did she try and avoid Percy out of guilt?

And I think what’s really interesting is that if Percy wasn’t such a good guy, and was more pessimistic and darker in how he view people and these motivations, he could easily reinterpret people’s actions with the prophecy in mind to their worst possible conclusion.

Him getting together with Annabeth only after the Great Prophecy could be seen as her writing him off as not worth it like so many others in his life, only willing to take the leap after the threat had passed.

He could see Chiron holding back on training because Percy might not be alive long enough to make full use of them. Writing him off as another tragic hero.

He could see Luke as worse or better, understanding that the gods do use them but also seeing Luke as another mentor giving up on him as a lost cause before really getting to know him.

He could see Poseidon withholding the truth as a manipulation tactic to give him the illusion of hope up until the point where he can’t back out anymore.

He could see Sally starting a relationship and trying to build a life while Percy is going through these trials as her preparing for her son to die, trying to make it so she has a life that can survive his death.

He could see Thalia’s decision to trust him with the prophecy, not as one of faith but avoiding death by using him as a sacrifice. Her doing the same thing Luke did, and what Percy wouldn’t do to others like Bessie.

Honestly the only one that couldn’t be spun in a bad direction is Grover. But if Grover didn’t know than I can imagine Percy would be angry at those that didn’t inform him since Percy’s life very much is linked to Grover’s. Did Juniper know her Boyfriend was also marked for death?

All of that being said Percy really is a good guy.

I sometimes forget how compassionate he is without thought, even to those who don’t deserve it.

It would be so easy to be angry bitter and spiteful when you’re told you only have a few days to live. To be resentful and cruel to the people that kept it from you.

He’s always known he could die but he also always had that little bit of hope dangled in front of him, the idea that not all heroes die gruesome painful deaths, that he could end up like his namesake.

But he isn’t and doesn’t. When people say they were doing what they thought was best he believes them. He doesn’t follow blindly but he doesn’t hate blindly either.

That’s why he’s the Hero of Olympus.

#percy jackson #rick riordan #greek mythology #heroes of olympus #greek gods #percy jackson disney+#annabeth chase #pjo thalia #thalia grace #grover pjo #grover underwood #percabeth #luke castellan #sally jackson #poseidon #chiron #big 3 kids

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two-white-butterflies · 4 months ago

Text

the all-seeing eye

Description: Annatar sees a woman inside Celebrimbor's home. Her eyes are pale, and her voice sounds like a tune echoing inside a closed conch. She is you, the daughter of Melian and Thingol.

Suddenly, Annatar remembers the days before the fall of his Master. The days where the most beautiful elven-princess was captured in Angband, and fell in love with Melkor's lieutenant.

Pairing: sauron/elf!reader

Warning: hints of rape, gaslighting, doomed prophecies

He tells me that his name is Sauron.

The Abhorred.

His skin is soft like the strings of a harp, but it is cold to my touch. He smelled like honey and just-kindled flames. He wipes the sweat off my body, and he gives me food and wine when his master's gruesome torture becomes far too much to bear, and despite the terrifying form that he chose to appear in I still cannot help but care for him.

Even when I feel the darkness drip from his soul like blood dripping from his master's chalice. Even when I feel his desire to corrupt everything beautiful and innocent.

Even after the truth stares at me straight in the face...I still cannot ignore these feelings inside of my chest. Curse my weakness.

As we lay on the dark sand beaches of Angband, I stared at his features.

A new form, I thought to myself.

His hair is auburn, and his eyes are green in this form. I cannot compare or contrast his features to anything living in this world, for I have not seen anything as beautiful yet - and if his master shall have his way, then I shall see nothing beautiful anymore.

"- and every night, I can hear the tears falling from Yavanna's eyes as she mourns the light of the two trees." He whispers, his eyes on mine.

"How can you stand to hear such melancholy tune?" I raised an eyebrow. I grew up inside of my mother's dome, inside of my father's courts where blue and red roses grew. I do not know the tragedy of warfare, nor any comforts beyond my home, my life has always been kind and beautiful - but what about Sauron?

How does he live knowing that such darkness consumes his soul? Has already corrupted his soul.

"The same way that you delight in hearing the birds sing." He responds in a tone in which I cannot discern if he is telling the truth. "Do you not long for the comforts of your home? The green fields of Valinor - the joy in basking in the light of the sun?" I continued to inquire, not knowing why someone would forsake paradise.

He ignores my question. He flicks a piece of my hair away from my face, and he gives me a smile that brings shivers down my spine. He moves his face closer, and he presses a kiss on my lips. A kiss that feels poisonous. It feels like I am sacrificing my light as I feel his dark lips seep into my soul. He breaks free.

"You ask too many questions, fair-lady." He teases.

"Only because I seek to understand your strange kindness towards me," I found myself answering rather quickly. It is not normal to treat your prisoners in this manner - to wrap your arms around their waist, to chain them to your hands as you invite them to the beach, and to press your lips to their own, in the same way that lovers ought to. "- my mother always says that those who are not given love learn to lick them off knives." I added.

"When I am with you, my lady, I feel power like no other. I feel your light cast a shadow upon my own darkness, and it feels wonderful. It feels like flames are crackling inside of the spit of my chest, and the sight of you makes me hunger for something beyond wine and mead." He says the final sentence with a dark glint in his eyes.

My eyebrows merge together.

Only a fortnight left, I tell myself.

Only a fortnight until Luthien arrives in Angband to cast a sleeping spell on Morgoth's court. She shall free me from the chains, allow Beren to take the Silmarils, but what of Sauron?

"- Fair-lady, you must leave now." He loosens the chains. I have not foreseen this; my frown deepens. "What?" I breathed. The first time that something has happened beyond my watch, beyond my power of foresight. "Morgoth seeks to possess everything beautiful and uncorrupted. I need you to be yourself when you become my queen," he says, placing a hand on my chin.

But are you not corrupting me by tempting me to be on your side? Are you not defying the will of Eru Illuvatar by proclaiming me as the Queen of his creation?

"Sauron," his name escapes from my tongue.

He stares deep into my eyes, and I feel myself slowly losing power.

All fades to black and I feel myself collapse into deep sleep.

I awakened to the smell of salve and herbs, the feeling of comfort. I open my eyes slowly to accommodate the sudden brightness. It was not a dream, I tell myself - delighted to be in the comforts of my room once more. "This cannot happen again!" I hear my mother scream from the tops of her lungs.

I close my eyes once more, pretending to be asleep. "Our daughter taken in daylight, returned six moons after...in our own forests, without us noticing, without my power ever detecting her presence." Mother continues to ramble, and I hear disappointment in her tone.

"We can only be thankful that she is back in our arms." Father pauses. "- there will be consequences levied to her guards, and even heavier consequences to those that have taken her." He adds.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"I know that you are awake," my mother sighs.

My bed slightly shifts in weight as I feel my parents sit on the foot of my mattress. I open one eye to look around. I open both of them as I realize their eyes are on me. "You worried us," Father frowns. "Your father has been unable to sleep the entire time. I had half the mind to march into Angband myself - only kept behind by the thought of them doing worst due to my presence." My mother sighs.

She crawls a little closer, until she is massaging my scalp. She looks at my face, eyes filled with concern as she sees the cuts and bruises that paint my face red and blue. "What happened?" She asks.

Our eyes meet, and suddenly, all breath leaves her lungs, though I doubt that air is something that her body needs in the first place. "Melian," my father calls out to her - able to see the change in her demeanor. She places a hand to my cheek. "Naneth," I do not give her the permission to look into my memories.

But that decision is enough to convince her of her initial thought.

My parents are talking outside of my room, and I am not privy to their conversation. I assume that they are talking about me as my mother can see the change in my fea. Whatever Sauron has done is part of me now...even though I find no true pleasure in it.

At least, I don't think so.

I close my eyes to think...the slight of his hand, the darkness in his tone, and that addicting glimmer in his pale eyes. If he is forbidden to me, then why does acquiring him feel so right?

His power tastes addicting. He is the only creature in this world capable of changing my prophecies. He was not supposed to save me. He was not the one who should've freed me from the chains; it should have been Luthien. How is he able to do that? How is he able to change the will of the gods?

Or perhaps, he only fed me that vision...

It does not matter, right? For I shall never see him again.

"I need you to be yourself when you become my queen,"

His voice plays in the back of my mind.

I close my eyes, counting one to a hundred.

What do you see?

I see a man standing on a cliff inside of a volcano. An elf that looks like my sister telling a man to cast the 'ring' into fire.

What ring?

One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

What does that mean? I ask myself. But then, I see visions play once more - of Sauron himself forging those rings with Telperinquar...Celebrimbor. Oh no, that jerking feeling returns at the back of my throat.

Oh no.

I have allowed Sauron inside of my mind.

Mairon flinches at the sudden feeling of you shutting him out of his mind. He did not anticipate you being able to read into his plans so early in the operation - but he surmises that you have always been a random variable to him.

His master is frustrated by not being able to corrupt you, and Mairon is frustrated by not being able to own your soul.

He thinks of you again - your mantle clad in black as he wraps you with his own clothes. He remembers you sitting in the tall grass, singing, as your sister dances. What he would give to have that memory only to himself.

He remembers his master prying deep into his memories, seeing the faint image of you entwined with Mairon's memories of your sister. Morgoth, looking upon your beauty conceived in his though an evil lust, and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor...that even Mairon had to step in.

That even Mairon had to free you and feel the weight of his master's torture. One day, he promises himself. One day, this shall not be the circumstance, and I shall be the master, he tells himself as he soothes his aching body on the cold floor.

It is only three thousand years later that Mairon is able to take a younger form, an elf claiming to be an emissary of the Valar to infiltrate the ranks of Lord Celebrimbor. "What great honor it is to have you by our side." The elf says with a smile.

"The honor is mine, my lord." Annatar lowers his head.

Only a creature as dark as him can radiate such light aura. Annatar's gaze trails upwards as he feels a familiar fea dance against his own. He sees a woman clad in purple silk, staring at him from the mezzanine, her entire body of covered - save for her eyes that bring him back three thousand years in the past.

"Who is he?" He hears your voice echo throughout the gardens. Whereas the other elves' voice sounds like a tune echoing from inside a conch, your voice sounds full, standing in its own elegance without need of other devices. He sees the purple silk fall down, exposing your face that he has not forgotten all these years.

He whispers an incantation to himself, ensuring that his power stays hidden - away from the prodding of your own. "An emissary of the Valar," Celebrimbor answers with a fond smile on his face. "- he says that he is here to aid us, Lómë." He informs.

You continue staring at this 'emissary' as if trying to figure out the purpose of his visit. "What are you here for, mellon?" You raised an eyebrow, still unable to forget the prophecy from thousands of years ago. A creature will arrive to forge the rings...it will be the doom.

"To help our kin," Annatar answers vaguely.

You are not entirely trusting of him.

"Lómë," he hears another voice call out to you. Lómë, meaning 'eye'. You are the all-seeing eye, but he knows that your powers have limits. Your prophecies may not be exact - but your belief in them are.

Which proves to be detrimental for his plan.

#sauron x reader #halbrand x reader #annatar x reader

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dragon-babe · 16 days ago

Note

hi! in your toriel alcoholism post you said something along the lines of "there's so many themes of neglect in deltarune" and i wanted to ask maybe you'd like to talk about that indepth? I'd like to read your thoughts on that (or maybe you already did somewhere?)

Sure! Others are probably a bit more eloquent with explaining it (I'm good at noticing themes, not always the best at verbalizing them lol) but I'll do my best to hit the broad strokes

that being that member of our main cast experiences neglect in one form or another!

Noelle has a basically work-focused absent mother. She's frequently locked out of her house and for one reason or another, can't get the key from her mom (she's too busy, she chastises Noelle for bothering her therefore Noelle is afraid to ask) idk if you've heard of latchkey kids, but Noelle is one (and doesn't even have said latchkey half the time!) We also see that when the two do interact, Carol is incredibly authoritarian and controlling. There seems to be no warmth there at all, creating emotional insecurity in Noelle. Not to mention leaving her unsupervised on the Internet. Her father is very loving and supportive, but due to his illness is largely absent as a parental figure. he does what he can, but it seems very limited.

Lancer's dad is self explanatory bc of chapter 1, dude tried to throw him off the roof and showed no remorse.

We know nothing specific about Susie's family life, but we know she moved around a lot and never made a friend before Kris. Many folks headcanon her being in the foster system, and that seems entirely possible. Regardless of what her exact home situation is, she doesn't talk about it (red flag), was prone to violent outbursts before Kris (red flag), doesn't call home to let her family know she was spending the night (red flag!) and no one calls asking for her the next day. If she has a family, they don't seem to care how/where she is at any point.

Ralsei is more complicated, with no parents at all to really base off of. But the fact that he had no one at all is something to consider. he's memorized this prophecy and internalized that it's his purpose to serve the lightners at any cost. Ralsei neglects himself.

And then we get to Kris. Adopted child, the only human in the entire town (one could compare this to white people in 99% white towns adopting Asian children and the intense alienation/identity issues that inflicts on the child, but that's not really my place to comment on in depth!), incredibly autistic coded, older brother goes off to college and leaves them to deal with the fallout of their parents divorce alone! and like. Toriel and asgore are both sweet people and do an ok job, but they don't act like parents sometimes.

Asgore is obsessive over his ex wife, everything seems to be some attempt to win her back, and when Toriel ices him out, he ropes Kris in. Take these flowers to your mom, do you think we'll be a normal family again when your brother gets back? What an awful and uncomfortable position to put your child in! He also talks to Kris not as a father but as a friend. You can be friends with your kid obviously, but you need to be a parent First. Asgore needs to grow up and not dump his emotional burden on his literal child.

and Toriel. Sweet overbearing Toriel. Who doesn't want Kris watching MTV and goes to church every weekend. But is known for how she gets while drinking. Who, while her child was fighting desperately to try to save her, locks the house, doesn't tell Kris where she's at after changing plans, invited (essentially) a stranger over to their house, and got drunk. without knowing where her child was in the storm. didn't call Kris once like she did in chapter 1. Kris, after having gone thru the biggest ordeal this far, returns home exhausted to find her perfectly safe and blackout drunk. there's a lot of evidence this isn't the first time either. Susie leaves the situation immediately (hm!) and Toriel doesn't check in on Kris and just sorta offers food (that isn't there when you check the fridge!) So like, Toriel is a warm parent, but not reliable. Kris doesn't feel like they can turn to her for support.

So. yeah. Neglect is prevalent in deltarune

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #deltarune theory #long post #asks #thanks for letting me yap anon!

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knightsickness · 10 months ago

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Rhaenyra being a good person and ruler is not boring. Ned was boring?

was considering answering this with ‘lose the question mark’ but that felt mean i do like ned i think hes a good character. and the thing is ned is a boring guy on a personal level all characters agree but he isnt a boring character nice ≠ boring i dont need everyone to be evil. i dont dislike rhaenyra just bc shes soso nice and i only like villains

i dont know when ‘a character having strong motivations and flaws makes them more compelling than a character who is inoffensively nice’ became controversial i would consider it character writing 101. hotd fans leap down your throat about it bc of the teams discourse. ‘aegon was more interesting than rhaenyra in season 2’ isnt an aegon rules rhaenyra drools team green argument it is objectively true aegon is more motivated and he does more

it is not compelling character stuff and an insult to emma’s abilities that they wont let rhaenyra do anything or have any motivations apart from a) peace shes a pacifist and doesnt want to be in the war she is a de facto leader in except maybe she does want to be in the war? (dragonseeds) b) the stupid prophecy c) the throne but she refuses to have a war about it bc see point a). and she states these motivations every episode but theyre actively contradictory so as a result she just doesnt do anything shes almost entirely reactive. if she really cares so much about not having a war and harming her people there are many actions she could take to change that and make a peace but she wont do that bc she wants her father’s throne (far more sentimental and niceys than anything as selfish and crass as her ugh just wanting the throne) and believes she has to be queen and is the chosen one bc of the prophecy. but she doesnt want a war bc women are wise and war is bad so so so she got main character screentime and did almost nothing in eight episodes. end of season 2 even though the war has been literally happening around her people are still talking about when rhaenyra is going to recognise this and start acting like it. a goalpost that has been moved from lukes death to jaces death bc lukes death affected her and her policy veryy little considering how confident everyone was that this means WAR get ready for a NEW DARK RHAENYRA a mothers RAGE. and that just didnt happen at all

baela and to a lesser extent rhaenys also get hit w this really hard theyre a blandly inoffensive Strong Female Character slurry being smeared on my face like im a baby and id get scared if they had any selfish desires. and this does work at pleasing people who are already tb fanatics yayy girlboss imagine liking the creeps on tg over these characters who are women who are nice but it makes for dull characters and plotlines it insults the ability of the audience to like women unless theyre completely sandblasted of anything potentially controversial. i have no idea what motivates baela to fight for rhaenyras cause other than ‘shes jaces nice girlfriend’. and thats really bad !! ned cat brienne sansa dany etc wanted and did things characters can be nice and morally good and motivated and compelling

#house of the dragon #hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #ned stark

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weirdsht · 11 months ago

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Hello, a cale x reader lunatic here 😭

They meet a fortune teller pre-relationship and pre-war

They're idiots

FT: you're going to have 10+ kids

Cale: uhh...

Reader: wtf is you spouting? /*Terrified

Ohn, Hong, Raon, and the wolf children: 🫂

Selective Vacuous - Cale/Reader

notes: I made it a 4+1 since I had several scenarios but didn't know how to connect them all hehe

tags: female reader, established relationship (except the first one), reader is mentioned to be a spearman, GoD priestess prophet (it'll make sense in the end), vague to mild novel spoilers

English isn’t my first language so there will be grammatical errors

Pls don't repost my work anywhere without my permission

Constructive criticisms and any kind of interaction are more than welcome

Requests are open and welcome

Buy Me Dessert

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“You will meet someone. A male. They will mean the world to you, and will bring you both trouble and comfort.”

“Miss priestess, you’re from the church of the God of Death, right? Don’t you think things like fortunes are for the God of Fate?”

_____ listened to the priestess’ ramblings. Yes, ramblings. Because that does not make sense to the spearman in the slightest. She was already married to her spear. There’s no way someone, especially a man, will suddenly become her whole world.

It just didn’t seem possible possible.

That was why the spearman did not understand the painful feeling in her chest when she saw Cale’s plate breaking. She couldn’t understand why her heart hurt for a person she just regarded as her employer.

“Everything is going to be fine soon young master. So please hold on a little longer.”

She couldn’t understand why her hands were softly wiping the blood on the redhead’s chin. Can’t understand why the sight of her employer in pain makes her heartache when she knows he's going to be alright.

She just can’t understand it.

+~+~+~+~+~+

“You have thirteen children. Whom you all love equally despite not seeing some of them often.”

“Do you think this is an elaborate prank?”

“I’m not sure but this the second time someone from the Church of the God of Death has given me a prophecy…”

“But 13 children? Really? If they're going to try and scam us at least make it sound believable.”

“I can’t even imagine having one child. Let alone more than ten.”

_____ shivered at the thought of having that many children with her significant other Cale. Turns out their chest pains were because she was in love with the redhead.

It took a whopping 5 months for the two of them to realise their feelings.

Another 2 for them to make a move and finally get together.

While the two are already in agreement that the priestess who said that might be a swindler, a certain silver kitten has another opinion.

She thinks that there’s a misunderstanding.

The priestess didn’t say “will have” but rather said “have”, meaning they already have thirteen children. However, she didn’t say anything and opted to keep her thoughts to herself.

'I’m pretty sure that priestess was talking about us and the wolf children…'

+~+~+~+~+~+

“You are destined to be with a powerful man with a very powerful family. Someone whose family has a long history.”

What now?

Does this mean one day _____ and Cale must break up?

“The family with a long history part checks out since the Henituse family are known to guard the Forest of Darkness.”

The spearman puts her hands underneath her chin as she thinks.

“But a powerful man? You have the weakest plate in existence. A powerful family? The Henituse family is a county. Not a Marquisate or a Duchy…”

Besides her Cale grumbled.

“Have you not learned anything? Just tune it out. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such bullshit.”

“That’s true… I guess this one bothered me a bit since they implied we’d break up.”

“We won’t”

After the reassurance, _____ and Cale went back to eating their food.

What they don’t know is that a few days later, the Henituse County will be promoted to become the Henituse Duchy.

But at that time the prophecy told to _____ is already forgotten.

+~+~+~+~+~+

“Forbidden love is ahead of you. There will be a time where your own significant other will feel uncomfortable to show you affection.”

Great now the fortune teller scammers from that stupid church are targetting Cale too.

“But we’ve had great communication since the start of our relationship.”

Cale nodded in agreement as he thought about what could “forbidden love” and “uncomfortable with affection” could mean.

Sure they weren’t the most PDA couple but they don’t shy away from showing affection towards each other. They have also had their fights but they are always quickly resolved.

“Forbidden love is also a weird thing to say… Oh my god, Cale don’t tell me you’re planning to cheat on me?!”

Cale was so flabbergasted he said his true thoughts without filter.

“What the fuck?! You’re literally the love of my life??”

The sudden confession got the two of them to shut up. Both were shocked at what the redhead said.

“...You’re the love of my life too.”

“If you love me then you would not remind me of the embarrassing thing I said not even 5 minutes ago.”

As the two laugh, the words of the priestess slowly leave their minds.

However, maybe they shouldn’t have forgotten it when Cale had to disguise himself as Naru von Ejellan, a 12-year-old kid in human years. If they did then maybe they'd understand the priestess' words...

+~+~+~+~+~+

“You troublesome punk! I knew you’re dense but I didn’t expect you to be a blockhead!”

Cale was shocked at Team Leader Lee Soo Hyuk’s irritated voice. One moment they were talking about passing on one of the team leader’s abilities then suddenly he was yelling at Cale.

“Don’t look at me like a gaping fish out of water. I did so much to help you with your love life only for you to disregard my messages!”

“What messages..?”

Cale remembered all the times a priestess from the Church of the God of Death had told them a “prophecy”.

“That was you?”

“You disrespectful punk, yes it was me.”

“Oh…”

Oh indeed

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fawnspotholiday · 9 days ago

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Noelle as the Second Hero & Susie as the Last Girl: Assuaging Your Doubts

It first comes with acknowledging that we do not see the prophecy in order. Mostly, we do not know the order of the entire prophecy at all, but it is logical to assume the description of the heros goes together.

BUT LO, ON HOPES AND DREAMS THEY SEND. THREE HEROS AT THE WORLD'S END. THE FIRST HERO. THE CAGE, WITH HUMAN SOUL AND PARTS! THE SECOND HERO. THE GIRL, WITH HOPE CROSSED ON HER HEART. THE THIRD HERO. THE PRINCE, ALONE IN THE DEEPEST DARK

There are only three heros and they are described consecutively. Some think this is the order in which they are meant to be introduced to us, but there is nothing to suggest that. It is simply describing the three heros.

The Last Girl, and Why It's Susie

The prophecy of the "last girl" is unrelated to the heros, it is simply a coincidence that Susie sees it before she sees the second hero prophecy. We don't know where this is meant to go in the prophecy and are seeing it out of context. However, we can be certain it is referring to Susie.

As it is clearly meant to be her "rude buster" symbol. And if you still have doubts and think it could be an ACT symbol, datamining reveals it is titled rude buster in the game code.

Whatever role Susie is meant to play we can be sure that she wasn't intended as a hero as this prophecy doesn't fit within the hero one - it doesn't make any sense to describe the first hero, say last was the girl, describe the girl as the second hero, then describe the third hero. Susie was meant for a different role.

The Identity of the Second Hero

Truthfully, there's no super solid evidence that it is Noelle so far - but I feel she is likely the best bet. Due to her being a girl, the most important of the side characters and the only one we've entered battles with, her importance in the snowgrave route, how the snowgrave route shows that she is extremely powerful, her mothers suspicious involvement with Kris and the dark worlds, and that she can equip ribbons like the girl was meant to according to Ralsei along with swords like in the image - two things Susie cannot or will not equip.

Many think the image doesn't look like Noelle, imo it looks more like Noelle than Susie:

There are many ways to interpret it, this is just mine. It gets seen as a side profile often, but the way the heart is drawn slightly in perspective in the LOVE prophecy makes me feel it is more meant to be a 3/4ths view. The lack of antlers could easily be explained by Noelle having the hood of her dark world dress up. An alternative idea is her antlers shedding at some point, which is natural for reindeer. The shape behind her is often interpreted as hair - but I think it goes out at an odd angle, imo it could suggest wings which Noelle once wore and may become part of her design again.

It feels a bit like reaching I know, but these images were meant to be vague and misleading. In reality the identity of all the heros are vague and indistinct, the only thing we can be certain of is Susie's identity as the Last Girl due to the use of Rude Buster.

Additionally, the images on these prophecies may not be intended to be 1:1 accurate but more symbolic - shown by Tenna's which depicts him cut in half, which didn't actually happen though he was still "cleaved".

I've seen some conclude that this indicates the prophecy has already been changed, but since the characters don't react to it or consider it a big deal we should infer that the images are seen as symbolic (outside of the jokes). Since Tenna either dies or you are meant to give him to Proto-Mettaton, I don't think he will be relevant later to be cut in half, either.

Common doubts:

Why doesn't Ralsei know? - It's plenty possible Ralsei is as susceptible to misinterpretation as we are. After all, he is plainly interpreting "LOVE" as romantic love when we all know it may mean something else.

How does Ralsei know Susie's name? - This goes into theories about who/what Ralsei is. Ralsei may have had familiarity with Susie from being an object Kris carries around. Kris may have simply told him - we know that Ralsei is aware of us and speaks to Kris while we're distracted. So it is safe to assume when we met Ralsei for the first time that was not Kris meeting Ralsei for the first time - especially when we save over Kris's file upon entering the game. And really, can we even be sure that Ralsei is who he says he is anyway? None of the members of the Fun Gang could be the originally intended heros for all we know.

What about Gerson? - Gerson believes Susie is meant to be a hero in the story, but I think he is simply taking it at face value like we are. He is simply a Lightner brought back to life, so I don't think he is privy to any special information. He says Susie wields the weapon of hope which seemingly matches the second girl's description, but he is also adamant that Susie should disregard the prophecy entirely. I think the theme of hope matching is simply intentionally misleading. Noelle is also a character defined by hope; the hope to heal her father, and to reunite with her Sister.

The Only Reason This Could Be Wrong

It's not a fair scientific paper if I don't offer possible counter evidence right...?

I would say the only possible way it's incorrect that Susie is not a hero is if the "last girl" part of the prophecy is meant to refer to her in a part of the story that we didn't see other than that one excerpt. Like if it is describing a battle of the heros, and saying the girl came in last to save the day or something.

Why I think this isn't the case

Storytelling-wise, we are intentionally given the prophecy out of order, and intentionally thrown that part to initially not think too hard about but then question later because it does not match up with the consecutive order the heros are described in. This along with Susie feeling special to be called a hero because she was never chosen for anything, and Ralsei commenting that she was meant to wear ribbons, I think was meant to make us pause a bit upon reflection. While Susie is already disappointed in the prophecy because of the ending, it's all the more tragic if her feeling that being picked felt unbelievable is correct. Ralsei also brings up that Susie is meant to wear the ribbons after being asked about Noelle.

Susie: ...then, uh, anything about Noelle...? Ralsei: Umm... Ralsei: I know which items of ours she can equip? Ralsei: Then again, YOU'RE supposed to equip Ribbons...

And, lastly, I feel Gerson's hint is the best - that Susie is The Dragon in the story, not a hero. Since we know the ending is something tragic, the dragon fighting against the heros to prevent it may seem more noble than the heros. Susie has already declared her intent to never let the ending happen.

What this means for the story

I actually don't think this will ever be plot relevant exactly. As in, I don't think the characters will ever stop and say "Are we acting out the prophecy? Did we mix the heros up?" - in fact, the mix up seems integral to them acting it out unknowingly. It feels more that it is something for the audience to realize to add to the suspense and tragedy - Susie is already on a collision course with Kris simply due to Kris secretly working with the Knight and keeping it from her.

By the end, we may see the Fun Gang completely fractured.

#too tired to proofread this now i will later haha #deltarune #deltarune spoilers #deltarune theory #deltarune prophecy #the prophecy #noelle holiday #susie deltarune #kris dreemurr #ralsei deltarune #ralsei

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