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system76 · 4 years ago

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Massimo Pascale and his Lemur Pro Explore Dark Matter Substructure with the Sunburst Arc

Unleash Your Potential Program winner Massimo Pascale is a graduate student studying astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. Using his Lemur Pro, he’s studying early galaxies and dark matter in the sunburst arc, a distant galaxy magnified through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Read the whole interview for more details on the project and his experience with the Lemur Pro!

Give readers a rundown on what your project entails.

A galaxy cluster is a conglomeration of many galaxies that ends up weighing 10^14 solar masses. It’s incomprehensibly massive. Mass is not only able to gravitationally attract objects, but it’s also able to deflect the path of light, and the more massive it is the more it can deflect that light. This is what’s called gravitational lensing. When you have a massive galaxy cluster, and somewhere behind that galaxy cluster is another galaxy, the light from that galaxy can get deflected due to the mass of that galaxy cluster. Gravity causes the light to get stretched, sheared, and even magnified because of the way that it retains surface brightness, so these objects end up being a lot brighter than they would ever be if we didn’t have this galaxy cluster in front of it.

We’re using an arc of light called the sunburst arc. If we take our telescope and look at that galaxy cluster, we actually see that background galaxy all stretched out, and it appears as if it’s in the foreground. So truly we’re using this galaxy cluster as a natural telescope in the sky. And there’s many, many scientific impacts that we get from that.

If you want to see some of the earliest galaxies in the universe—we can say the most distant galaxies are the earliest galaxies because it takes time for that light to travel to us—this might be a good opportunity because you have this natural telescope of this massive galaxy cluster.

When we look at these beautiful arcs of light, these beautiful stretched out background galaxies in the galaxy cluster, we can actually use that as evidence to reverse engineer the mass distribution of the galaxy cluster itself. You can think of it as looking at a footprint in the sand and reconstructing what the shape and weight of that foot must’ve been to make that footprint.

Something I’m personally very interested in is how we can probe dark matter in this galaxy cluster. Visible matter interacts with light, and that’s why we can see it. The light bounces off and goes to our eyes, and that tells our eyes, “okay, there’s an object there.” Dark matter doesn’t interact with light in that way. It still does gravitationally, still deflects that light. But we can’t see what that dark matter is, and that makes it one of the most mysterious things in the universe to us.

So I’m very interested in exploring that dark matter, and specifically the substructure of that dark matter. We’re using the evidence of the sunburst arc to try and discover not only what the mass distribution of the overall galaxy cluster is, but also to get a greater insight into the dark matter itself that makes up that galaxy cluster, and dark matter as a whole.

Where did the idea to do this come from?

I’ll have to admit that it’s not my original idea entirely. I work with an advisor here at UC Berkeley where I’m attending as a graduate student, Professor Liang Dai, who previously was looking at the effects of microlensing in this galaxy cluster. He’s an expert when it comes to doing a lot of these microlensing statistics. And I had previously had work on doing cluster scale modeling on a number of previous clusters as part of my undergraduate work. So it was a really nice pairing when we had found this common interest, and that we can both use our expertise to solve the problems in this cluster, specifically the sunburst arc.

What kind of information are you drawing from?

Very generally, in astronomy we are lucky to be funded usually through various governments as well as various philanthropists to build these great telescopes. If you have a cluster or any object in the sky that you’re very interested in, there’s usually some formal channel that you can write a proposal, and you will propose your project. Luckily for us, these objects had already been observed before by Hubble Space Telescope. The big benefit with Hubble is that it doesn’t have to worry about the atmosphere messing up the observations.

Because a lot of these telescopes are publicly funded, we want to make sure this information gets to the public. Usually when you observe you get a few months where that’s only your data—that way no one else can steal your project—but then after that it goes up into an archive. So all of this data that we’re using is publicly available, and we’re able to reference other astronomers that studied it in their previous works, and see what information we’re able to glean from the data and build off of that. What’s so great about astronomy is you’re always building off of the shoulders of others, and that’s how we come to such great discoveries.

That sounds very similar to our mission here.

Yeah exactly. I see a lot of parallels between System76 and the open source community as a whole, and how we operate here in astronomy and the rest of the sciences as well.

How do you determine the age of origin based on this information?

We can estimate the general age of the object based off the object’s light profile. We do something called spectroscopy and we look at the spectrum of the object through a slit. Have you ever taken a prism and held it outside, and seen the rainbow that’s shown on the ground through the light of the sun? We do that, but with this very distant object.

Based off of the light profile, we can figure out how far away it is, because the universe is ever-expanding and things that are further away from us are expanding away faster. The object effectively gets red-shifted by the Doppler effect, so the light gets made more red. By looking at how reddened it’s become, we can figure out the distance of the object. We usually refer to it by its red-shift. You can do this with any object, really.

Based off of the distance from the lensed object, which we find through spectroscopy, and the objects in the cluster, which we also find through spectroscopy, we can then figure out what the mass distribution of the cluster must be. Those are two important variables for us to know in order to do our science.

How do you divide the work between the Lemur Pro and the department’s supercomputer?

A lot of what I do is MCMC, or Markov-chain monte carlo work, so usually I’m trying to explore some sort of parameter space. The models that I make might have anywhere from six to two dozen parameters that I’m trying to fit for at once that all represent different parts of this galaxy cluster. The parameters can be something like the orientation of a specific galaxy, things like that. This can end up being a lot of parameters, so I do a lot of shorter runs first on the Lemur Pro, which Lemur Pro is a great workhorse for, and then I ssh into a supercomputer and I use what I got from those shorter runs to do one really long run to get an accurate estimate.

We’re basically throwing darts at a massive board that represents the different combinations of parameters, where every dart lands on a specific set of parameters, and we’re testing how those parameters work via a formula which determines what the likelihood of their accuracy is. It can be up to 10-plus runs just to test out a single idea or a single new constraint. so it’s easier to do short runs where I test out different ranges. After that, I move to the supercomputer. If I’ve done my job well, it’s just one really long run where I throw lots of darts, but in a very concentrated area. It doesn’t always end up that way since sometimes I have to go back to the drawing board and repeat them.

What software are you using for this project?

Almost all of what I do is in Python, and I am using an MCMC package called Emcee that’s written by another astronomer. It’s seen great success even outside of the field of astronomy, but it’s a really great program and it’s completely open source and available to the public. Most of the other stuff is code that I’ve written myself. Every once in a while I’ll dabble in using C if I need something to be faster, but for the most part I’m programming in Python, and I’m using packages made by other astronomers.

How has your experience been with the Lemur Pro overall?

It’s been really fantastic. I knew going in that it was going to be a decently powerful machine, but I’m surprised by how powerful it is. The ability to get the job done is the highest priority, and it knocked it out of the park with that.

Mobility is really important to me. It’s so light and so small, I can really take it wherever I need to go. It’s just really easy to put in my bag until I get to the department. And being a graduate student, I’m constantly working from home, or working from the office, or sometimes I like to go work at the coffee shop, and I might have to go to a conference. These are all things you can expect that the average astronomer will be doing, especially one that’s a graduate student like me.

I’ve had to travel on a plane twice since I’ve had it, and it was actually a delight to be able to do. Usually I hate working on planes because it’s so bulky, and you open the laptop and it starts to hit the seat in front of you, you don’t know if you can really put it on the tray table, maybe your elbows start pushing up against the person next to you because the computer’s so big, but this was the most comfortable experience I’ve had working on a plane.

What will findings on dark matter and early galaxies tell us about our universe?

First let’s think about the galaxy that’s getting magnified. This is a background galaxy behind the cluster, and the mass from the cluster is stretching out its light and magnifying it so that it appears as an arc to us. Through my MCMC I figure out what the mass distribution of the galaxy cluster is. And using that, I can reconstruct the arc into what it really looked like before it was stretched and sheared out, because I know now how it was stretched and sheared.

A lot of people are interested in looking at the first galaxies. How did the first galaxies form? What were the first galaxies like? Looking at these galaxies gives us insight into the early parts of the universe, because the more distant a galaxy is, the earlier in the universe it’s from. We’re seeing back in time, effectively.

Secondarily, we don’t know much about dark matter. By getting an idea of dark matter substructure by looking at these arcs, we can get insight and test different theories of dark matter. and what its makeup might be. If you learned that 80 percent of all mass in your universe was something that you couldn’t see, and you understood nothing about, I’m sure you would want to figure out something about it too, right? It’s one of the greatest mysteries not just of our generation, but of any generation. I think it will continue to be one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

The third prong of this project is that we can also figure out more about the galaxy cluster itself. The idea of how galaxy clusters form. We can get the mass distribution of this cluster, and by comparing it to things like the brightness of the galaxies in the cluster or their speed, we can get an idea for where the cluster is in its evolution. Clusters weren’t always clusters, it’s the mass that caused them to merge together in these violent collisions to become clusters. If you know the mass distribution which we get by this gravitational lensing, as well as a couple of other things about the galaxies, you can figure out how far along the cluster is in this process.

There’s a big impact morally on humanity by doing this sort of thing, because everybody can get behind it. When everybody looks up and they see that we came up with the first image of a black hole, I think that brings everybody together, and that’s something that everybody can be very interested and want to explore.

Stay tuned for further updates from Massimo Pascale’s exploration of dark matter and the sunburst arc, as well as cool projects from our other UYPP winners!

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ignitification · 4 years ago

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okay but like idk if it's intentional or not. but hawks lobbing around one child abuser. lady nagant lobbing around another child abuser. hpsc said good taste just isn't allowed here.

it'd be interesting to see what would be her reaction when she finds out about overhaul. will it mirror hawks' - in that case I don't want hero/hawks stans to say anything bad about her - or will she abandon him?

I am a tad bit partial to this question, mainly because I myself enjoy Overhaul's character and I don't mind Lady Nagant's. Therefore, I'll answer you in two parts: the first where I tell you my opinion as a simple manga reader, and a second one where I actually try to give a possibly 'true' answer as someone who tries to write metas.

But before that, it is interesting how I also wondered about this in this specific post last week, but is also kinda early (and short) answer for this question.

In general terms, I don't exactly think it's a 'coincidence'. Narrative contrast and foils, as well as parallels, are BNHA-friendly, as HK uses them if not constantly, very often. This gives a general sense of Hero Society, and why more than one villain tried to change the status quo: it explicitly makes a jab at the fact that it does not really matter whether hero or villain, a person can still make horrible choices and choose to be an abuser. However, it also traces a parallel line between Hawks and Lady Nagant (even more so with their Quirks: Lady Nagant and her 'Rifle' and now Air Walk which lets her move freely at long range, and Hawks who is the man who's too fast, as he flies - and with his Wings that could be as deadly as bullets). Hawks and Endeavour are one part of the spectrum while Lady Nagant and Overhaul represent the other: both Hawks and Lady N committed murder while working at the HPSC, but Hawks has never been thrown in jail for it; Overhaul and Endeavour are both powerful man who always wanted to bite more than they can chew, by using force and abuse, and their plans retorted against them - but while both had been made public (as for Overhaul, at least among the heroes) Endeavour suffered no consequences for it, while Overhaul lost his arms and his Quirk and he has slowly been consumed in prison by the thought of the only parental figure he has ever known.

Now, after having set the framework which I used in order to get a proper answer, here is the main part.

As a manga reader, I think that Lady N won't abandon Overhaul, simply because I think she knows who he is.

AfO explicitly says who he is and she does not have any surprised reaction, but she calmly accepts the statement, as a matter of fact (which it is). She is still dragging him with her, and if nothing else, the fact that she just straight up tells that the only reason she took him with her is to help her somehow is very telling on its own (considering her absolutely enviable Quirk and the fact that she got a new one with which she would have been plenty fine on her own). Which means that she might not even care about his identity as long as it is useful to her. But that brings up the fact of how she might react to a discovery (which I think has already happened): she does not really care about heroes/villains views, because she ended up in Tartarus (in seeing how rotten the system is) for those, therefore it's likely that she just chose to ignore that and to concentrate on the fact that she somehow empathises with him. She might not know the specifics of his accusations, but in stands nonetheless that he ended up in Tartarus and that is enough to know about his crimes. She still choose to talk her with him, so I don’t see why she would change her mind, when she went to great lengths just to get him out and keep him with her all this time (let’s consider that the Tartarus break happened shortly after the PLW, which was in between on one and two months ago).

As for someone who instead tries to over analyse everything, I am of the same opinion, more or less. She knows who Overhaul is (and that is to say, she knows he is Kai Chisaki, leader of the Shie Hassaikai and that he is a villain that goes by Overhaul). It'd be wise to consider how Tartarus prisoners have limited access to outer-world information, and we'd have to consider that Lady Nagant has been thrown in jail somewhere between the beginning of Izuku's UA career (one year ago) and Hawks' debut (which is more or less four years ago), likely limiting her knowledge on what exactly went down with Overhaul and the Shie Hassaikai in the last period (and his abuse of Eri - and I am not sure she entirely cares about this). She doesn't probably know that he used an innocent girl to produce anti-quirk bullets and that he is technically sick, but let's be honest: I don't think that this would be a deterrent for her (she freed him from his cell in Tartarus, the maximum security prison for villains, and she is definitely way smarter than we think - she definitely does have a clue on what exactly ends up where in Tartarus, especially as she worked at Commission). Now, there are however two possibilities by which Lady N might be cognizant of his identity: a. she just knew him from before her arrest; b. Overhaul told her. But given the circumstances in which we find Chisaki, option B is highly unlikely. Option A, on the other hand, is confirmed by two instances : Lady Nagant actually freeing Chisaki (panels below, where we see she goes in for his specific cell) and then saying (in the first panel) that he is a victim of hero society. Now, it could be argued that him being in such a state (no hands, Tartarus, seemingly disconnected from everything that happens around him to just mutter about the Shiekai's Senior Head) could also be what she defines as 'victim', but I personally don't think that's the case.

She probably knew who he was before, and how his life started as a homeless boy which has been raised by the Yakuza. After all, she used to investigate AfO, so it is not far fetched that she knew already of the existence of such a character. Consequently, this is to say that if Lady Nagant made the conscious decision to take him with her, it means that she knows he will be useful somehow (I think she does have a sort of plan, which she is not willing to tell AfO about), and that means that she will not abandon him, unless he stops being useful to her (which I don't see for the moment - because why would she then literally drag him with her). (As for hero stans, they can argue with themselves, after all that's what they always do.)

As a P.S. I should specify that even if Hawks and Lady Nagant’s reaction might seem similar, they stem from different environment and person-wise characters. Hawks chooses to ignore the abuse because Endeavour is his ‘hero idol’ and because he thinks he understands E’s ‘the means are not important as long as you get to the goal’, while Lady Nagant is fully aware of Overhaul’s condition and she keeps him with her not because a sense of attachment (we saw it when AfO asked her whether they were friends) but because he might come in handy when she needs it (and because she might empathise with him as a ‘victim’ of hero society - which does not mean she condones his actions, but that rather she has been freed from thinking in a hero/villain dichotomy way).

I hope this makes sense. Thank you for the question and thank you for reading!

#sanstuff #sunn answers #sunn ask box #bnha ask #bnha ask box #bnha #mha #overhaul #bnha spoilers #bnha 313 #mha 313 #lady nagant #hawks #tw: endeavour #tw: abuse #tw: neglect #I am sure there are tons of things I forgot to mention #but let's try to keep it short

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yeniayofnymeria · 4 years ago

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Arya's Return to Westeros... To Jon Snow

Hello everyone,

Introduction

As you know, Arya Stark escaped from King's Landing at the end of the first book and constantly made an effort to reach her family and home, but so far she has not been successful. Both her family and the house have been destroyed, at least that is what within Arya's knowledge. On the other hand, she knows that Jon Snow is still at the Wall, and when she went to King's Landing, she often missed Jon and dreamed of going to him, even on her way to Braavos, she actually intended to go to the Wall, but the captain refused her. He took her to Braavos, but when Arya saw the two Men of the Watch even while she was there, she wondered if they would return to the Wall because she still had in mind to go to the Wall, to Jon's side.

On the show, they gave Lady Stoneheart's Frey scenes to Arya(Yeah they did this a alot). When this happened in the show, many readers began to think that Arya would likewise go directly to the riverlands when she returned to Westeros. A few things put forward as justification for this; The presence of Nymeria and Cat there; and also Beric and his crew and Gendry characters... and even the Freys themselves.

This is more of a fictional math guess, of course. There are these people in the land of the river, and these are the people Arya has met before, if so, Arya will return here ... Even if there is a bit of plain logic, this is one of many interpretations and is possible. Of course I do not think so.

Why not riverlands?

In the first place I want to express my opinion, why not Riverlands? To summarize briefly, there is nothing there for Arya. During her time there, she did not take any time to find Nymeria, and actually she did not have much opportunity, but although Nymeria was constantly around her, she never went directly to her. Even if they meet there, there is nothing they can do on the first stage riverlands. It makes no sense to expect a meeting without purpose. On the other hand, those Beric and his crew are not important for Arya, so there is no reason for them to go there. She could only go for her mother, but she doesn't know that her mother is alive. The Freys might have been a good reason, but Arya couldn't kill anyone she didn't know their name and couldn't add names to her prayer because she didn't know the Frey's names. Naturally, she is not after them.

The riverlands had already covered most of Arya's adventure over the course of two books, and she did what she would do there, learned that she would learn, and she was done ... It makes no sense to go riverlands as her first target when she decides to return.

There are those who say she will go to King's Landing to kill Cersei, but as we know when Cersei's death will come, we know that her death will be carried out by a Valonqar, so it is pointless for the author to take Arya there for something she could never achieve. In addition, it is logical that Arya, who is trained in Faceless Men, should infiltrate Cersei and kill her.

That's why as a writer you wouldn't want to use such a character that way because either you have to kill one of your character early, or you write an unsuccessful attempt and write a meaningless and ridiculous scene, and your character will be distracted by empty scenes, like the show playing for time...this is what a novice writer does... Also, Arya will woke up one night and said that, "OK, I'll go and kill Cersei." ? It would be a little ridiculous.

In summary, according to the mathematics of fiction, Arya's possible directions do not fit these two places, and I have not seen any signs of them yet.

Let's come to the question of why Arya Stark will go to Jon Snow, towards the Wall.

First Cause: Jon Snow himself

As I said at the beginning of the article, Arya has missed Jon since she left Jon in the first book and wanted to go to her, even when she got on the ship of the captain from Braavos, she said it was where she wanted to go, but received a refusal. Even as Yoren was taking him to Winterfell, he somehow wanted to reach first to the Wall.

When at last she slept, she dreamed of home. The kingsroad wound its way past Winterfell on its way to the Wall, and Yoren had promised he'd leave her there with no one any wiser about who she'd been. She yearned to see her mother again, and Robb and Bran and Rickon . . . but it was Jon Snow she thought of most. She wished somehow they could come to the Wall before Winterfell, so Jon might muss up her hair and call her "little sister." She'd tell him, "I missed you," and he'd say it too at the very same moment, the way they always used to say things together. She would have liked that. She would have liked that better than anything.

As I am sure that Brienne's whole purpose and the focus of her current story is to find Sansa, she will eventually find her, so I'm sure Arya will go where he is because of her wish go to Jon Snow since the first book.

We already have two sample scenes showing that she is still thinking of going to wall while in Braavos. The desire of someone with this goal to go elsewhere is unthinkable, especially if we consider that this girl suffers from family and loneliness as much as the desire for revenge.

Personally, if I were Arya, I'd rather go to my only living family than take revenge. First I would like to feel safe and whole again. For example, Sansa, although she knows the state of Winterfell, her heart prefers to go there ... she knows that she will feel safer and stronger there.

The place where Arya will feel safe and quench her desire for home is obviously Jon Snow himself. Indeed, even Jon had told Mance to "bring Arya" home. Logically, Arya was already at home, but for Jon it is obvious that the house is not there, but him side.

In the conversation between Jon and Arya, Jon said, "Sometimes different roads lead to the same castle." After all, they both differed ways, but they will eventually meet at the same castle. You know Martin wanted to reunite the two characters at the Wall, as he wrote in the first outline.

Of course, this interpretation is possible. "Okay, it looks like a strong foreshadowing, but this castle doesn't have to be Black Castle, they can meet at Winterfell."

It is quite possible, which is a very strong possibility. It doesn't matter much, either the Wall or Winterfell ... Arya's direction will be Jon Snow, this is the important part; I don't think their meeting at the Black Castle or Winterfell is important for the development of the story. However, I still have to say that there are signs that he will go to the Wall, I will mention that when the time comes, let's continue.

So the question is… Why would Arya Stark want to stop training and leave when she was training the Faceless Men in Braavos? We do not know how many years this training takes in total, but we know that it should take years, so Arya looks like she has taken several years of training. I have already said that Martin wanted the 5-year jump for Arya and Bran's education and growth.

Parallelism

There is a parallel story development between Arya and Jon. The two got into an organization where they would never marry, have no children, and would leave their families behind completely. These are the things that are demanded of them. Both of them have to spend their entire lives in this organization.

Both stand out in the books as each other's "weakness". For example, even for Arya's father, she did not betray Jon and remained silent, or when someone accuses Jon of being a thief (even indirectly), Arya got angry ...Jon did what he did not do for Robb and Ned or even Ygritte; He goes around his vows for Arya and tries to use anyone he can use for Arya Stark ...

I think we will see a parallel development from now on. Jon decides to break his vows for Arya in the last book and is killed. It is also the author's use of the Arya factor to free Jon from his vows. I think a similar thing will happen on Arya side. We have read that Arya can sometimes get news from Westeros; She learned that her aunt was dead, and even learned about Hardhome.

Also, we also read that from time to time she heard about Jon Snow being spoken in taverns and inns. In short, our girl gets information about Jon Snow. Martin must not have added this part for nothing. If even she gets some news Jon's election as Lord Commander at the Wall, then I see no reason not to hear the news that Jon was dead. So, how will Arya react when she finds out that her only family member and her most fond and beloved family member have died? Do you think it is appropriate for Arya to sit calmly and continue her education and shed two tears? I do not think so. Anyway, this girl is Braavos for a reason and has to return before completing the training. Why is that?

It's actually very simple. Being a Faceless Men means being of all identity and not. When a person becomes FM, that person becomes "nobody"; she has no identity, you cannot call her an individual, only a means of her deities; are people who constantly live under other identities and faces. Consequently, if Arya completes her education as FM, she will no longer be Arya Stark and she will completely lose her identity. In this case, Arya has no place in the story because Arya is dead. We do not read Arya ... Therefore, we cannot wait for Arya to seek revenge in Westeros or to meet with other characters.

When the emphasis was made in a question in an interview that Arya was the Faceless Men, Martin objected to this; “She's not yet the Faceless Men, you assume she will. She's still an apprentice. ” he said. In other words, Arya did not take an oath as she had not completed the training yet. You know Jon was trained first and was taken when it was decided he was ready. It would be absurd to expect her to complete the training in a year, anyway. Although Arya's education is progressing much faster than usual, this is a separate topic.

In other words, after learning as much as Arya should learn, she will need a reason to leave here before she has the opportunity to complete the training, without being promoted to be the Faceless Men and taking their oaths; that's Jon Snow. The death of Jon will save Arya from being the Faceless Man and return her home, just as the author eventually caused his death by using Arya reason to escape Jon's from his vows.

Anyway, Arya had given us the signal that she would not throw the Needle that Jon gave her, but would continue to be Arya by hiding it, and that she would never lose her identity. The needle symbolizes Arya's identity in the books. It symbolizes her connection with her home, family and Jon.

She stood on the end of the dock, pale and goosefleshed and shivering in the fog. In her hand, Needle seemed to whisper to her. Stick them with the pointy end, it said, and, don't tell Sansa! Mikken's mark was on the blade. It's just a sword. If she needed a sword, there were a hundred under the temple. Needle was too small to be a proper sword, it was hardly more than a toy. She'd been a stupid little girl when Jon had it made for her. "It's just a sword," she said, aloud this time . . .

. . . but it wasn't.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

As it seems from this quote, Arya doesn't want to give up her identity. We actually have a possible foreshadowing scene where Arya might act to avenge Jon.

He is a man of the Night's Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince. And the singer should be on the Wall.

As you know, Jon Snow was actually a Targaryen prince as Rhaegar's son and killed, and Arya is a character who will avenge her prince. And yes, maybe the singer will go to the Wall. ;)

Cause Two: The Night's Watch

To explain this, I want to go through another example first. When you read Jaime Lannister's POV on the Riverlands, especially in book 4; There was an intense interaction with Brotherhood without banners. On the first povs with Brienne, he almost fell into their trap, but they did not swallow the bait and escaped. Later, we read that when Jaime returned to the Riverlands, he often spoke about Brotherhood without Banners and heard news from them. If I was not mistaken, he had assigned someone to hunt them.

There is a similar thing for Brienne, but there was not as much interaction as with Jaime, of course, his was more extreme, but there was for Brienne too. Of course, even they heard the name of Lady Stoneheart. As a result, both of them are now in the hands of the without Banners and Lady Stoneheart(at least we assume it). In a way, Martin "made a way" to the characters here ... For example, he said that he made the way for Tywin's death by using the "gold shitting" theme, as a sign. For Jaime, there is another "way build" that he interacts with; Nymeria and her pack. There are many references to this as well, as Jaime will probably encounter not only the Cat, but also the direwolf and her pack.

There is a similar theme for Arya. Night's Watch. Arya is constantly interacting with the Night's Watch (another thing she's interacting with is dragons, by the way). Let's continue with the watch. Logically, the first member of the brotherhood with whom he interacted is Jon Snow(after Benjen), who left home to join. Later, she meets Yoren and the first one she asks is Jon, and she even talks about wanting to send him a letter.

Then, at the end of the book, Yoren finds Arya and disguises her as a boy, takes her with him as one of the apprentices of the Watch and leaves the city. His goal, of course, is to bring her to her family. When Yoren first saw our daughter Arya, he thought she was even a boy. In fact, the "boy" theme is another sign for Arya ... It is not surprising that a child is thought to be "boy" when she is scruffy and dressed in boy's clothes. We know that when Cersei changed her clothes with Jaime as a child, even her father thought she was a boy(Jaime). Consequently, they thought Jaime was a girl(Cersei) too. Nevertheless, for Arya, it was a recurring thema, and eventually our she-wolf disguised as a boy and joined the Night's Watch.

Well, do you know the story of a girl participating to the Watch disguised as a boy? You know. Danny Flint. Flint girl disguises herself as a man to join the Watch to escape the abuse. Her story is sad and the only part that interests us as a matter of our subject is the girl figure who participated in the watch disguised as a boy. The name of this girl is mentioned in three places; We heard the first one while Bran was hiding at the Wall. We heard the second from Lord Manderly's mouth in Theon POV called Prince of Winterfell in the last book, which I think was a very interesting combination. And later again in last the book, from Jon's mouth.

The Manderly part is remarkable.

After serving Frey pies at Arya Stark's wedding feast, our fat lord was so happy and wanted for 2 songs for Arya Stark; The first one is "Ending Night", which tells the end of the Long Night, and the other is the song of "Brave Danny Flint". It is interesting, is not it? He wanted for Arya two songs about the Long Night and the girl who participated in the Watch as a boy.

By the way, for those who don't know, Arya probably takes her name from one of her great-grandmothers who lived years ago; the woman's name was Arya Flint.

Lets continue. Arya continued her journey with the Watch in the second book, she had beaten Pie well, and Yoren had beaten her as a punishment and then made the following phrase.

"Might be I got your attention now," Yoren said. "Next time you take that stick to one of your brothers, you'll get twice what you give, you hear me? Now cover yourself."

They're not my brothers, Arya thought as she bent to yank up her breeches, but she knew better than to say so. Her hands fumbled with her belt and laces.

Brothers? They are not Arya's brothers... because Arya is not an apprentice to join the Watch, not even a boy. Despite this, the author wrote such a sentence in Yoren's mouth. Why is that? If a character says something stranger than usual, I guess pay attention.

The reason is obvious, it is highly probable that Arya gave a sign that she was going to the Wall; he's making a way. Everything is in front of our eyes; The story of the Flint girl; some people thinks Arya is a boy in the first books and she travels with the Watch, even when she goes to Braavos, meeting two Night Watch members and intending to go to Wall with them. There were always Night's Watch around this girl; Just like there are references to Braavos and Braavosi people in the first book, and eventually she went to Braavos ... I think it would be a correct inference to predict that she will go to Night's Watch as all previous character examples tell us that this is the case.

In addition, considering that she has aimed to reach Jon from the first moments, when they are all combined, it leaves us no choice but the Wall. So, at worst, Arya will surely leave Braavos and education for Jon Snow, and at best, the meeting place will be the Wall.

It is possible to present another sign in this regard. Dead man's boots ...

You know Melisandre and Mance thing... Melisandre said to Jon "Mance will help you for Arya" and Jon asked "how he can live and she changed his looks"

Melisandre said:

"The bones help," said Melisandre. "The bones remember. The strongest glamors are built of such things. A dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of fingerbones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. The wearer's essence does not change, only his seeming."

In other words, the magic of blindfold is mentioned where Arya is mentioned and one of the things mentioned as sample items is "the boots of a dead man ..." (By the way, it is also interesting to refer to Davos's finger bones)

Dead man's boots ... logically, the item does not have to belong to a dead person in order to wear someone's image as a cloak, because we saw Mance and the other man were both using each other's belongings while they were alive. There's a dead man accent though, why?

So now I'm taking you back to the Arya scene. We're in Braavos and Arya gets an impression of Dareon. The singer called the Black Singer, but none of his clothes were black except for his boots.

The whores called him the black singer, but there was hardly any black about him now. With the coin his singing brought him, the crow had transformed himself into a peacock. Today he wore a plush purple cloak lined with vair, a striped white-and-lilac tunic, and the parti-colored breeches of a bravo, but he owned a silken cloak as well, and one made of burgundy velvet that was lined with cloth-of-gold. The only black about him was his boots.

In the Arya scene, the "boots" first catch the eye, and then, chatting with this singer, she continues to walk and kills him, and when she go to Brusco has these black boots with her.

By the time Cat returned to Brusco's house, an evening fog was gathering above the small canal. She put away her barrow, found Brusco in his counting room, and thumped her purse down on the table in front of him. She thumped the boots down too.

Brusco gave the purse a pat. "Good. But what's this?"

"Boots."

"Good boots are hard to find," said Brusco, "but these are too small for my feet." He picked one up to squint at it.

"The moon will be black tonight," she reminded him.

In the same POV (all aff this happening in the same pov) later she went to Kindly Man.

This time she did not hesitate. "Dareon is dead. The black singer who was sleeping at the Happy Port. He was really a deserter from the Night's Watch. Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots."

"Good boots are hard to find."

"Just so." She tried to keep her face still.

In both scenes, there is an emphasis on "good boots are not easy to find". How does Kindly Man knows that the boots are good which he has not seen, it is thought provoking, but I think it is not just the quality of the boots here. Dead man's boots are a good tool for Arya's future purpose ... so they're good boots ...

In other words, the emphasis on the boots of the dead man here indicates that Arya can wear these boots and go to the Wall as a man with the magic of the blindfold. Well, does Arya know about this spell? Where can she learn? Let's listen to the Kindly Man.

"Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with."

KM mentions that he will teach all face replacement methods; The method of a mummer(which Arya is with the mummers at the moment) and he will also teach the magic of the blindfold ... On the other hand, there is also the issue of wearing the faces of dead people, it's already being told during this scene ... In short, when Arya is done here, she will knows all of this, and naturally, she will go to the Wall by making a "blindfold" spell with the boots of the dead man belonging to the Night watch member, disguising herself as Dareon. I think it will be a very interesting and funny scene.

Let me even give another possible parallel scene example for this scene that I expect in the future. Now Theon is Jon's foil anyway. Martin pointed out that the two had similar positions, but that they both made different choices. Another thing that the two have in common is that both Jon and Theon have sisters they saw as a child. Theon did not recognize Asha when he returned home, the scenes are well known to you all.

Jon was also wondering if he would recognize Arya even if he saw her right now, we can expect him not to recognize Arya at first because she's already grown up, but especially if she use this spell, he cannot recognize her at all, and we can read funny scenes. A little parallel with Theon, but I think it will be a nice thing.

What if they meet at Winterfell instead of the wall, I think it probably coincides with the moment of war. When Martin wrote the last script for the series, he added a scene note where Ramsay fought direwolves against his hounds. He noted something that would probably happen in the books, and there is already information that Ramsay raised his hounds to kill wolves in Theon pov. These wolves are undoubtedly Ghost and probably Rickon's wolf Shaggydog, but since GRRM stated that they had plans for Nymeria and did not write this wolf pack for decoration, it is possible to see Nymeria and her pack in the final battle with the Boltons in the north. How long will they stay in the riverlands? If the owner is there, the wolf is there too; if the wolf is there, the owner is there too ...

So this end. Thank you for read and sorry my bad grammer.

#JonArya JonSnow AryaStark GameOfThrones ASOIAF #Arya Stark #jon snow #arya stark stan #Jon Snow stan #JonArya #Jonrya #game of thrones #grrmartin #the wall #A Winds Of Winter #Night's Watch

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purgatoryandme · 5 years ago

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Hey! I can't seem to find the post you made with all the books references in Illuminate Me and the reason behind it? Is it deleted?

I know that there is an incomplete one floating around in my reply tag, and it should be in the Illuminate Me tag, but tumblr’s search features are so bad that I went back to the original word doc of the complete list, so prepare for that particular storm lol. Quoted/Referenced Reading List (In Order of Appearance) Shakespeare: Macbeth I opened on a Macbeth quote (‘When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lighting, or in rain’) because I wanted to start with something immediately relatable. Most readers were introduced to more ‘dramatic’ plays through Macbeth. Beyond that, they were introduced to the concept of pathetic fallacy, which I think plays nicely with Tony as a character (a man who is CONSTANTLY imparting emotion onto inanimate objects…and then actually giving them their own emotions) and with one of the core problems in IM, which is deciding the emotions of others for them. I was hoping to get the ‘feel’ of that without having to lean too far into the actual concept.

Bonus: I picked this quote in particular because of the importance of threes in Tony’s life (his core group of friends, iterations of the reactor, number of times reborn, his bot children VS his AI children, the number of lovers or almost lovers he has in the fic, etc). Milton: Paradise Lost ‘What is dark within me, illuminate!’ is a modernization of the original Milton quote ‘what is dark within me, illumine’ for readability. I actually feel a bit bad about changing this considering how many people think this is the original quote now. This wound up being a central (and title) quote somewhat by accident. I’m fond of it because of how much I liked a different one that I had originally wanted for Tony’s thoughts of the reactor: ‘yet from those flames, no light, but rather darkness visible’. I had originally wanted to start off on a sadder note, one that showed how much Tony hated losing his humanity, and so the flames of Hell and their physics-bending concept seemed thematically appropriate. I had always intended to eventually invert the imagery – instead of Extremis being (to Tony) flames capable of extinguishing light, the reactor would become a water-like blue light that couldn’t be choked or recreated by any of the shadows that pursued Tony in his life. I picked Milton SPECIFICALLY for the imagery of light and shadows.

But, man, listen. Darkness visible is a great concept, but it’s also tired. It has, as you’ve noted, been discussed to death. So as I was reading ‘Milton’s darkness visible and Aeneid 7’ to refamiliarize myself with some of the broader themes attached to that particular piece of imagery, I wound up thinking about how to invert the darkness itself instead of the overall concept. The flames of Hell extinguish light instead of having to exist away from it. It is a bad that cannot be penetrated by good.

Instead of chasing away shadows, which would be implied by shining a light ON them, the request Tony makes here is to actually invert the darkness - to have it illuminate in and of itself. It’s becoming something better instead of being removed or forgotten. On the flip side of that, the darkness within isn’t growing as light weakens, but rather under its own force. Two forces equal in nature and origin in a person. It’s a different take on lighting than the one most critics hammer home. Long ramble is long, but this was the basis for using that quote. It grew from there to have many different meanings, however the core has always remained. All in all I’m pleased with it.

EM Forster: A Room with a View Very forgiving even in its satirical takes on human nature. A lot of passages are very therapy-quotable in their urging to accept the inevitability of causing some harm in life. It plays on a lot of the same concepts with light being obvious metaphor for good and evil that Paradise Lost does, but softens them into more realistic shades of human existence. Isaac Asimov: Foundation Continuing on with themes of rigid morality vs the flexibility and romanticism of humanity, we have Asimov, master of machines and the three rules of robotics! There are lots of quotable epigrams in this beast. The quote pulled from this has two readings depending on what you assume of the man who has said it. If you see him as manipulative, there’s an insidious underpinning of killing off your own morals. If you see him as a kind man, then you could read it as foregoing morals in place of empathy. Tony’s therapist loves a very specific brand of double speak that lets Tony work through the conversation purely through interpretation. Tolstoy: Anna Karenina Tolstoy’s prose is lengthy...so so lengthy, but Anna Karenina is worth the read as long as you relate to at least one of its major characters. Frankly, I think you can choose to read a single character’s plot arc and leave it at that. It’s mostly a novel that is interesting, not because of its plot, but because of its study of relationship dynamics. Tolstoy was really invested in picking apart the idea of what makes a ‘family’ and, beyond that, what makes a class. It’s refreshing to see so much of the critique occurring within the lived experience of the characters instead of through a narrator or outside punishing moral forces. Baudelaire: Windows and Benediction I cannot recommend enough reading multiple translations of Baudelaire poems (fleursdumal.org has a wonderful array available). Benediction is a personal favourite. I love me some malevolence wrapped up in religion. Dante: The Divine Comedy There’s a lot of bleak humor in Dante if you look for it. Several interpretations insist of making each piece excessively grim dark, but faithful translations tend to have a hint of humor in them. It works well for engraving War Machine’s spine - a benediction and a mockery of human limitations. I try to pick quotes that not only fit the scene, but would still fit into the context of the grander themes from whence they came...unless I hate the author. Tennyson: The Lady of Shallot “I am sick of shadows” vs “I am half-sick of shadows”. Tony’s expressing more frustration here with being alone and his passive involvement in that loneliness. Another quote I feel vaguely bad about changing, haha. The Lady of Shallot is a very nice classical piece that I’m sad isn’t taught in schools alongside Hamlet. There are some nice Ophelia parallels here. I wanted a feminine influence on Tony’s loneliness and one that is somewhat youthful despite his age. Yeats: Vacillation I fucking hate Yeats as a person. That said, the man can write. The man can REALLY write. His pieces are almost always layered to the point of absurdity and he’s perfect to swiping quotes with multiple meanings. Definitely Tony’s kind of author. Goethe: Faust Speaks for itself and in the author’s notes on its reference. Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamasov IMO a book that deserves all the acclaim of Anna Karenina and then some. Very VERY Russian in its ethical debates of, as always, religious morality vs free will. Also dips into familial struggles and patricide, because it wouldn’t be a Russian classic if it didn’t contain some deeply buried bitter resentment towards paternalism. I’m going off-script here, but this is a fucking excellent book. I don’t really have words for how much I enjoy how Dostoyevsky explores the concepts that he does. Shakespeare: Julius Ceasar Shakespeare: Twelfth Night Twelfth Night deserves more credit for its development and maintenance of an enigma. Twelfth Night has charisma in spades both because of and in spite of the exceedingly petty actions of some of its characters. It is also a refreshingly simple take on love for the sake of it. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Stephen King: Lisey’s Story I consider Lisey’s Story to be the best of King’s work. The man has his obvious writing ticks and his even more obvious issues as an author. Lisey’s Story contains many of them, but navigates them far better than any of his other work. The monster here is all in the mind and is too vast to truly see or understand. It’s perfectly representative of a creeping sense of inescapable horror. It was fun to flip it on its head with a reference here – Tony isn’t terrified of dying, but he is terrified of his inescapable enjoyment of Bucky’s company. Maria’s family saying is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass Armitage: The Death of King Arthur A genuinely fantastic classic tale of heroism, filled with all the drama, tragedy, and sacrifice that you’d expect with strongly feminine undertones. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. TS Eliot: The Wasteland Excellent piece of poetry with many layered meanings and dual interpretations. I can’t really articulate my thoughts on The Wasteland, but I reference an essay at the end of this list that does that for me. Oedipus Rex Rupert Brooke: Safety Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversation about, you got it, being ‘safe’ with his therapist. His poetry is about WWI and is, largely, idealistic. Safety is…not quite an exception to that. His other poetry contains a certain sense of honour and duty, whereas safety, maintaining a seemingly light tone, has nothing of the sort. It is safety in the soul – something untouchable by the horrors of war or death. It treats that as a ‘house’, which leant itself to the article Tony send Bucky. Armine Wodehouse: Before Ginchy Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversations with his therapist. This is also WWI poetry, though far darker than Brooke’s work. It discusses the parts of the heart and soul soldiers lose. It is an extremely good piece AND references Dante’s Inferno. I had to work it in somewhere even if I didn’t want to directly quote it. Meyer and Brysac: Tournament of Shadows Referenced several times over in discussion of war, the great game, and British military history. Beautifully self-aware account of Britain’s insistence on rewriting history after the fact and the tiny hilariously embarrassing moving pieces that shaped what is often considered the heyday of espionage. Murakami: Kafka on the Shore I love Murakami’s response to questions about understanding the novel as a whole. There are no solutions, only riddles presented, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes place. It’s a great lens through which to view the book and individual passages taken out of it. Reminds me of The Wasteland having to be read in totality before you can begin picking it apart, after which each individual piece can be read of its own. Kafka on the Shore, with its musings on the uncertainty of fate and redemption, was the perfect book to outline Tony’s horrifying realization, which he is desperately suppressing, that he might be coming to accept Bucky’s feelings. This quote in particular, while I would’ve used it anyway, is also a great callback to the first chapter and its storms. Chapter 29 is a turning point. Beyond it there are some intentional quote contrasts that are probably more easter eggs than they are anything else. Yeats: A Dialogue of Self and Soul Great contrast with Vacillation. Some parts of self and soul are used in that poem and thematically they are connected and contrasted - self and heart vs self and soul. The symbolism and imagery in Vacillation is really on point and layered, but Self and Soul is peak Yeats for its reversal of the typical ‘the soul is pure and bluntly honest and the body is tainted and bad’ in Christian works. Also Self and Soul’s broader context is scrumptious considering the debate poems history of relying on divine forgiveness and lack thereof instead of on forgiveness of the self.

It was fun to give this poem a double meaning in IM as both hugely ominous and ultimately pointing to the later forgiveness Tony receives from himself through the divine (if the soul stone can be called that) in the heavens (space!). There’s also another fun twist to ‘who can distinguish darkness from the soul’ in its contrast with ‘what is dark within me, illuminate’. To take that a step further, Vacillation was the beginning of the path of forgiveness for Bucky (understanding Tony’s heart…somewhat literally as he slowly gets closer and closer to the reactor itself), while Self and Soul is a final step (re: Bucky being presented the final hurdle of Tony deciding to move forward alone). Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha Hesse is wonderfully blunt at times. I gotta admit I love German takes on spiritual self-discovery because they always seem to tend towards much more straightforward answers than other countries. Hesse’s relationship with Buddhism in literature vs his lived experience is also really intriguing. Anyway, Siddhartha, in its humanizing of Gods, is wonderful contrast to the consistent imagery of the untouchable and unknowable forces of good and evil in previously quoted works. It has stopped bringing humanity to the divine and has started placing the divine within humanity. Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey One of the ultimate poetic epics. Now that we are nearing the end, I’m going overtime with making the grander themes of this whole piece hit home. A lot of IM was built on a foundation of poetic epics, of heroism, and a bit of Greek tragedy. The Odyssey embodies all of those things beautifully. It also suited Thor too well to pass up. Yeats: An Irish Airman Forsees His Death Ah, Yeats. Very blatant foreshadowing here that is keeping with the foreshadowing from Self and Soul. Fate has, up till this point, been a bit of a question. It has been ‘when will it come to me’ and ‘how will I avoid or overcome it’. Now fate is a set point. It is knowable and present. ‘I know I shall meet my fate, somewhere among the clouds above’. This goes for the true onset of Infinity War and for Tony’s feelings towards Bucky – when he had no one, he allowed Bucky in after essentially promising himself he wouldn’t. If that’s not an accidental admittance of love, nothing is. Henley: Invictus Absolutely fantastic poem. Continuing with the heavy fate themes coming into this climax. Now that Tony knows his fate, truly knows it, he is choosing to take it on directly. Agamemnon (Anne Carson’s Traslation if you prefer a more modern language approach, Lattimore is you prefer a classic) Agamemnon is forgotten all too often in the world of poetic epics and it’s a damn shame. I cannot say enough good things about it. I always wanted to use lines from Agamemnon in a Tony fic because the Cassandra parallels were too perfect to resist. The chorus in this play was also a perfect narrative device for interacting with something of a hive mind. Yeats: The Wanderings of Oisin Another poetic epic. Nice contrast with The Odyssey, The Death of King Arthur, and Agamemnon. Here the dialogue is between an aged hero and a saint looking into the hero’s past. It has the kind of reflective and aged mood necessary for this stage of the story, but is actually a poem I sortof hate. The line ‘And a softness came from the starlight, and filled me full to the bone’ is absolutely gorgeous, though. Some final inspiration pieces:

The Penelopiad

The Iliad

House of Leaves (for surrealism in the final chapters)

Dante at Verona (used in an author’s note as an intentional jab at the dull uninspired nature of the this particular take on Dante. Repurposed quote, essentially)

a broke machine just blowin’ steam by themikeymonster (great character study of Bucky)

Frank Kermode’s essay “Eliot and the Shudder” (inspiration behind Tony’s entire interaction with literature)

#long post #reply #illuminate me #literature references

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echodrops · 6 years ago

Text

Why You Should Be Shipping Shigaraki/Ochako

No, no, hang on a second--I see that side-eye you are throwing hard enough to ruin your peripheral vision. I feel the shade you’re casting like a thundercloud rolling in. But you didn’t read wrong. I meant what I said.

I’ve never made a secret of my love for rare pairs, but for once in my damn lonely shipper’s hellscape of a life I would love it if my favorite crack ship in a fandom had more than two fics (I’m NOT JOKING) to its name.

What can I do to correct this egregious oversight before the entire summer passes with nary a whisper of the most romantic ship since Juliet wherefore art thou’d Romeo?

Well, what else? I was forged in the fires of early 2000s’ fandom, and I know that desperate times call for desperate measures meticulously researched and extremely rose-tinted

Shipping Manifestos.

Fam, I am about to blow your minds, align your chakras, open your third eyes--because Shigaraki and Ochako is the most slept on ship in the entire BNHA fandom, and if you give me ten minutes like an hour (holy shit, this is long), I can prove it.

Disclaimer: @mistystarshine is the enabler who convinced me to write this but we were both enabled by @ohmytheon’s Reconfigure (on AO3) so you know who’s really responsible.

Spoilers to Chapter 231, watch out.

First off, I know what you’re thinking. Maybe you’re still reading from pure shock. Maybe you’re doubt-reading to get your daily fix of internet skepticism. Maybe you’re waiting for me to say these two characters are meant to be because she wears pink and his hair is blue. Maybe you’re already freaking out about age gaps but like that is what future fics and AUs are actually for!!!

I’m not telling you to give up your IzuOcha or Kacchako. I’m not gonna pry ShigaDabi out of your eager little villain stan hands. But if you’ve never considered multi-shipping, now is the time my friends, because I’m totally serious heartfelt here! I’ve got VALID reasons for shipping Shigako--ten of them, in fact:

1) Midoriya is taken for granted as Uraraka’s love interest--but Shigaraki is incredibly similar to him.

There are reams of meta on the parallels between Midoriya and Shigaraki, with plenty people noting how Horikoshi specifically set the two up as foils to examine similar character development despite their drastically different circumstances. Yet for all the meta pointing out that Shigaraki and Midoriya are basically the same character through a mirror darkly, I’ve never seen anyone bear that thought out to its logical conclusion: there are traits Uraraka admires in Midoriya that are extremely apparent in Shigaraki too.

Multiple times in the manga, Uraraka expresses admiration for Deku’s resolve and refusal to give up. His determination in the face of impossible odds and his sense of dedication to his cause are powerful motivating factors in Ochako’s storyline, and Deku’s behavior--his willingness to charge straight into danger and his unflinching pursuit of his goal to be #1--have basically become the standard to which Uraraka holds herself.

Her crush is literally founded on an appreciation for Midoriya’s drive, earnestness, and constant growth as a person.

But these are all traits that Shigaraki also explicitly possesses. Shigaraki’s unwavering resolve is so strong that even though everyone around him says dream is unattainable... they follow him anyway.

Ujiko flat out tells Shigaraki he’s chasing a pipe dream, but he’s willing to come along for the ride strictly because of how committed Shigaraki is to making that dream a reality. The strength of Tomura’s conviction alone persuaded a collection of the most volatile and difficult personalities in the manga to band together and become found family the most well-known anti-establishment organization in all of Japan.

Shigaraki never, even in the face of overwhelming threat, backs down from a challenge, and he approaches each impossible task with absolutely as much effort, ferocity, and refusal to quit as Deku. He is just as dedicated, just as much of a shounen protagonist main character, and just as willing to push himself above and beyond as Deku.

The traits that motivated Uraraka to become the character she is today, many of the exact same traits that formed her crush on Midoriya, are all there in Shigaraki. In another world, the person who inspired Uraraka to go “Plus Ultra” could be Tomura himself, and if 1) no sense of self-preservation, 2) ZERO CHILL, and 3) dogged obsession are what Uraraka finds attractive, Shigaraki clearly has 'em covered. Oh no, he’s meeting all my standards.

2) Being serious though, Ochako’s role in the plot would be vastly improved by more meaningful interactions with the antagonists, even if just in battle.

I’ve written before about how badly the writing of BNHA treats Ochako, and why her constantly being out-of-focus is a hallmark of the genre’s crippling inability to handle dynamic female characters, but it bears repeating: in her current position in the story, Uraraka’s character has minimal agency. She exists to fill the role of Deku’s love interest (at worst) and an emotional crutch (at best). Again, absolutely no hate on the IzuOcha ship--it’s clearly canon endgame and “wholesome” I guess is what they’re calling it nowadays. But the way IzuOcha’s being written in canon is actually the worst possible thing that could happen to Uraraka’s individual character, because Ochako’s crush on Deku has been given virtually no bearing on the story’s main plot and allows Horikoshi to consistently reduce Uraraka’s personal accomplishments to “inspirations from Deku” (in order to, likely, fulfill young male readers’ fantasy of having a girl fixated on them).

Is Uraraka about to do something cool in the manga? Wait for her comment about being motivated by Deku.

Does Uraraka actually get to see some action and get involved in a fight? Wait for someone to bring up her feelings for Deku.

Is Deku about to have a dramatic clash with the story’s villains to advance the main plotline? Wait for Ochako to entirely vanish (at worst) or get sidelined into a three panel clip where she’ll use the same martial art move she’s been using since like chapter 10 (at best).

If I have to read “Gunhead Martial Arts” one more fucking time... Give Ochako her OWN supermoves goddammit!!

The story of the comic itself continually pushes Ochako out of any position of relevance. She’s not one of UA’s strongest fighters (despite having a quirk that, if applied like ANY of the male characters, has incredible potential), she’s not given half the emotional depth or attention even side characters like Kirishima get, and her backstory lacks the development many of the male characters’ get (I’m looking at you, Todoroki).

As a “good girl,” she isn’t allowed to get her hands dirty like Toga, she isn’t allowed to get as bloodied or ugly as any of the boys, and she can never be allowed to surpass the main male characters in coolness or plot relevance because girls can be “heroes” but they can’t be The Hero™. (I’m literally gagging, guys.)

Which is EXACTLY why a plot involving Shigaraki and Ochako--in ANY capacity, even just a flat out fight against each other!--would actually be a fan-fucking-tastic addition to BNHA.

Skip the token Toga vs. Ochako chick fight where they squabble over who loves Izuku more. Let Toga talk to Izuku as herself for once. Let Uraraka throw down with the League’s leader. At least once, Horikoshi? Just once?

Literally any form of plot that puts Shigaraki and Ochako into contact would mean moving Uraraka into a more central position within the manga’s plot, would boost her screen-time, increase the likelihood of her contributing to the story’s primary conflict, and would give her more to do and emotionally engage with than just repeating the same lines about Deku being amazing on an endless loop. There is untapped character development potential in spades here if Uraraka was given chance to genuinely interact with the other half of the story’s cast!

Give👏 Uraraka👏 something👏 meaningful👏 to do!👏

Putting the story’s foremost female character on out there on the frontlines with the manga’s actual main character antagonist would finally break her out of the mold she’s been forced into by genre stereotypes and set her on an even playing field with the male heroes at last.

A meaningful encounter with Shigaraki could be Ochako’s ticket to being treated respectfully by the story itself (and hell if giving underappreciated characters a real place in the world isn’t Tomura’s freakin’ calling card already).

3) Okay, I know the words “subverting expectations” leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth nowadays, but there is a huge difference between “throwing inexplicable plot twists at the audience just for shock factor” and “averting stale cliches in an emotionally rewarding manner.” Sure, cliches do exist for a reason, but there are still many instances where actively avoiding a cliche plotline is a great choice. A shounen manga’s token love interest ending up with someone other than the hero--namely with a (reformed) villain--would be an interesting flip on the trite “hero gets the girl” script.

Look, we all know how it goes: Hero clashes with Bad Guy. They duke it out all over Kingdom Come. RIP like fifty square city blocks. The Hero wins, heads home triumphant, sweeps his Princess off her feet, and sails off into the hero rankings sunset. End of the same story we’ve seen a million times. Sometimes it’s done well and the audience is left satisfied. Other times, the heroine involved is reduced to the hero’s reward, less person than wish fulfillment. In either case, tying up a romantic subplot with a hero is the go-to way of resolving female characters’ storylines and, at this point, pretty much a given in manga, even when the romantic subplot is never given the development it deserves, leaving audiences bewildered at how and why the hook-up actually happened.

I’m not saying every comic should “subvert expectations” and cancel its romantic subplot between the hero and heroine, of course not. But I am saying that it would be pretty refreshing to see something else for once.

By virtue of their role, villains don’t usually “get the girl.” Even redeemed villains rarely end up in happy, healthy, well-written relationships. It’s not impossible but it is unlikely that a series’ designated female lead ever wavers in her attentions from the main hero to a new romantic target.

So it would be pretty cool if one did, if the moral of the story’s romantic subplot wasn’t just "token love interest completes painfully shoehorned romantic gestures.” A good romance with a redeemed ex-villain instead of a hero would take a lot more explanation. It would demand, by its very nature, more work on the author’s part to suspend disbelief. The characters would have to develop an entirely different rapport from the normal interactions between designated love interests, and, to a certain extent, strong character growth would be required in order for such a romance to even get started. There’s more moral complexity and conflict to a subplot like this, and a greater sensation of choice--if the heroine doesn’t have to end with the hero by the end of the story, well hey... That means she could end up with just about anyone. Whoa.

Even more so, in the specific case of Shigaraki, who has lived a life of misery and manipulation, the idea that he could come out on the other side, grow as a person, redeem himself, and eventually enter a healthy relationship with someone who isn’t going to hurt him is an idea I find deeply appealing. I think there are a lot of villain stans, myself included, who see parts of themselves in Shigaraki. If a character who has been so severely impacted by abuse can still heal and ultimately end up happy, to me, that’s a far more hopeful and heart-warming conclusion than the alternatives. I did warn you this manifesto would be rose-tinted, didn’t I?

I want storylines that prove that none of us are beyond saving. That people who make bad choices can still change. That romance isn’t a reward for playing the “right” role. That heroines have options. That there are still pleasant surprises to be found in romance plots.

4) But why Shigaraki and Ochako, in particular? It’s not like they have any remotely shared life experiences--

Oops. Friendly reminder: Ochako is the only major character in the manga besides the villains who is overtly described as, I quote, “poorer than poor.” Todoroki, Yaomomo, and Iida can all make it rain; Kaminari, Mina, and Jirou can afford stylish clothes; Kirishima can drop a stupid amount on night vision googles... Even Midoriya, whose father “works overseas,“ can afford plenty of All Might merchandise. One of the popular fandom theories for a while was that Ochako could be U.A.’s traitor specifically because of her desire to help her parents financially, and I think that most readers at this point can discern a clear divide in BNHA’s society: heroes are the “haves” and villains are the “have nots.” To be a hero in this story is to attend a prestigious school, have access to expensive support items, gear, insurance, fame and glory, etc.

Meanwhile, with the exception of All For One, to be a villain in BNHA’s story is to be marginalized, live in unfit conditions, lack access to basic safety and nutritional resources, and struggle to make ends meet. When ability to thrive in a hero-centric society is synonymous with being a good and worthwhile person, anyone who doesn’t just naturally excel in the hero-driven economy is treated as flawed at best and suspect at worst. Poor characters in the story are ignored, and, as demonstrated with people like Twice, left essentially to fend for themselves.

Uraraka’s status as lower income is mostly played for laughs. She’s still a privileged character in that she can attend U.A., receive hero items for free, has a safe place to live, etc. But it is important that the story acknowledges her family’s situation, because her financial status does set her apart from her classmates.

She is less privileged than the others. Being “the poor character” situates Uraraka in the interesting divide between those who couldn’t cope and chose to rebel against hero society instead, versus those who conformed to the hero system in an attempt to improve their situations. In different circumstances, if Uraraka’s family was just even the tiniest bit worse off, we might be seeing a very different character here, one who had to make some much harder choices to keep her family afloat.

Having been in the position of "going without,” Uraraka also has a unique understanding of the “real world” that many of her heroics classmates might lack. She understands what it is like to go hungry, to not be able to afford to keep up with the newest trends, to be constantly anxious about the future--to feel unsuccessful, overlooked, and under constant pressure to perform. As someone who wasn’t raised in the lap of luxury or even really a middle-class home, Uraraka has more insight into--and would likely have more empathy for--the plight of the downtrodden daily criminals of the BNHA world. Just based on her own life experiences, Ochako is more likely than her classmates to recognize how harsh reality can be, and understand the temptations that lead people to make terrible decisions.

This makes Ochako an especially interesting character in terms of her pro hero future. Would she be able to sympathize and reach out to struggling "villains” more effectively than others from her class, who lack her humble background? Would she be able to better see the big picture of BNHA’s society, and the way it actively creates villains from its marginalized populations? Would she be able to look at the League not just as criminals, but also as people who never stood a chance within the confines of a rigged social structure?

Uraraka’s background shifts her closer to the story’s villains than many of the other hero characters, and puts her in a unique place to both empathize and become motivated to change the flawed system that produced people like Shigaraki and the League in the first place.

5) Likewise, Uraraka’s background actually makes her more palatable to Shigaraki than other heroes. At least at the beginning of the comic, Uraraka isn’t shy about admitting that one of her reasons for becoming a hero is to help her parents financially. Ochako’s original motivation for heroism isn’t portrayed as nobly as others’ like Deku--Deku has no ulterior motives for being a hero; he just wants to save people and wouldn’t care about personally benefiting.

Instead, Ochako is presented as someone who (initially) sees heroism as a means to an end. It’s not that she doesn’t want to save people, but that she’s not doing so only for the intrinsic worth... the hefty paycheck that comes from heroism is a big draw.

Over time the manga has shown her shifting away from this (which actually makes her character less unique, unfortunately), but I’m sure it’s still a thought for her, and she’s definitely going to send paychecks to her parents in the future. At the end of the day, heroism is still going to be Uraraka’s ticket to a better lifestyle, even if she’s committed herself to it honestly by the time she leaves U.A.

But it’s this exact form of personal motivation that Shigaraki is much more likely to understand than the “goody-two-shoes” motivations of people like Deku. Multiple times in the comic Shigaraki has expressed confusion with society’s habit of clinging mindlessly to symbols, of their blind faith in the virtues of heroism, and their ability to simply overlook suffering because “surely a hero will do something about it.” Stain’s ideals about “true heroes” go straight past Shigaraki, who seems to hate heroes who are earnest (All Might, I’m talking about All Might) far more than those who are simply faking their way through for fame.

Shigaraki understands humans who are driven by personal gain. He respects the individual desires of people he cares about. Someone in the hero industry explicitly seeking tangible benefits would likely, to Shigaraki at least, come across as more genuine than someone who claims they have no ulterior motives, and a person who is blunt about their needs and grounded in the reality of BNHA’s world would likely be much more acceptable to Tomura than someone who spews trite lines about peace and justice.

Shigaraki’s feelings for heroes have been irreparably damaged by his conditioning from All For One, but there are certainly some heroes that he would find less loathsome than others. He will probably never understand Deku’s selflessness. All Might’s saccharine symbolism actively infuriates him. But a person who became a hero to put food on the table? To provide for her parents (maybe especially because it is her parents she’s trying to provide for)? That’s at least understandable. If the manga’s future does see Shigaraki redeemed, my thought is that the only type of heroes we’ll ever see him willingly interact with would still be heroes just like Ochako, with more “down to earth” personal motivations. Uraraka, your codename is “If I had to date a hero”...

6) While we’re talking about shared life experiences, there’s another very obvious similarity between Shigaraki and Ochako: neither one of them can touch things with all five fingers.

Cute/fridge horror observation: Shigaraki is even daintier about touching things than Uraraka is; Uraraka usually lifts just her pinkies, but Shigaraki frequently uses as few fingers as possible.

Yeah, yeah, they both have to be dainty and careful with everything they hold. It’d be cute to watch them eat together. They could mutually gripe about the annoyance of video game consoles not designed for four-finger use. More than that though, neither one of them can touch other human beings without the risk of causing death.

Uraraka, as a hero, has the more privileged quirk design (she can turn her quirk off, while Shigaraki can’t) and until recently, the comic was always very careful to portray Uraraka’s quirk in a way that no one was endangered by it. But dropping Zero Gravity into the hands of a villain for a single chapter reveals the truth: Uraraka’s quirk has just as much lethal potential as Shigaraki’s.

Like Shigaraki, Uraraka has to face the reality that her touch alone could jeopardize the safety of anyone she comes into contact with, in her daily life and in her hero work. Drop some debris without looking twice? Just crushed a civilian. Release your quirk without thinking? Now the villain you floated is paste on the sidewalk. Thought that it was safe to float away the building? Oops, you crushed someone still trapped inside. Yikes. In a one-on-one battle, Uraraka is actually at a disadvantage not because her quirk is weak, but the dead opposite--in an outdoor fight, she would have to actively work not to accidentally send people off into outer space.

Having an auto-activate touch quirk means that both Shigaraki and Ochako have to be conscious of every single thing they touch all the time. Both of their quirks require constant bodily awareness, and both come with the lurking knowledge that “My touch causes problems.” Even for Ochako, who would merely be a nuisance if she accidentally floated objects indoors, it’s easy to internalize frustration and negative associations with one’s own body. Every day, Ochako has to be careful with herself in a way that few of her peers do, another factor that sets her apart.

One of the story’s overarching themes is the idea of “self-acceptance” and what it even means to “accept yourself” in a world where (almost) every human being possesses a distinguishing feature, often built into their bodies at the expense of standard human functioning. For people with limited control over their quirks, who can’t choose when the effect activates, a quirk is a constant burden and facet of their identity that entirely re-shapes how they interact with the world. Both Shigaraki and Uraraka face the practicality of having burdensome, even lethal, auto-activate quirks that require constant self-awareness. This is a similarity that, of the major characters, only Shigaraki and Ochako possess so far. (Even other major characters with touch-based quirks like Overhaul appear to be able to choose when to activate their quirks).

The “funny” way Shigaraki and Ochako hold things seems like just a small similarity until you remember the amount of practice and frustration it must have taken to internalize a four-fingered touch. Until you remember that this similarity marks them both as very careful and self-conscious characters. Until you remember that Shigaraki’s got a one-touch instakill... but so does Uraraka Ochako.

7) Okay, similarities are cool and all, but you know what they say: opposites attract. And if we’re talking character motivation, there are no cleaner opposites in the entire series. Shigaraki and Ochako are actually even better emotional foils than Shigaraki and Deku, because Ochako’s central motivation is “Make as many people smile as possible” and Shigaraki’s is, literally, “Make it so no one can ever smile again.”

I know I ragged on it earlier, but now I’m going to use it to my full advantage: as the story evolved and characters grew, Ochako’s “true” motivation to become a hero revealed itself: she feels a deep, intrinsic happiness when witnessing the happiness of others. Her desire as a hero is to spread relief, the sense of security that allows people to go about their days smiling. She literally feels happiest when everyone around her is happy.

Even more so than Deku, this casts Uraraka as Shigaraki’s diametric opposite in the story, because Shigaraki’s entire pipe dream goal also hinges on the smiles of others--and how absolutely much he hates them. Shigaraki’s goal is total world destruction because he just resents the happiness of others that fucking much.

On the surface alone it’s more fascinating than the story will probably ever live up to: Ochako, the heroine who wants to spread smiles; Shigaraki, the villain who wants to destroy them. Even if we’re just talking canon, zero romance involved, that would still be an interesting conflict to explore. The story could cover a lot of deeper ground by drawing the comparison between these two characters more directly. It would definitely validate Uraraka being involved in more major plot events, at the very least.

BUT this was supposed to be about shipping, so of course I can’t leave it there, and leaving it there would only be half the story anyway, because nobody is born hating smiles. Everything we’ve seen of Shigaraki’s past so far indicates that he was a kid with a cute dog, a warm relationship with his sister, and an interest in heroes--i.e., a decent life that probably included his own fair share of smiles. Shigaraki’s hatred and resentment are direct products of the traumatic manipulation he suffered at AFO’s hands. He despises the idea that people around him can smile and act upbeat, even when they objectively know villains are lurking all around them. He is actually sick to his stomach at the idea of people blindly putting their faith in heroes, knowing what he does: that heroes often fail, that there are many people who desperately need to be rescued and are instead overlooked. The world failed Shimura Tenko and then had the nerve to keep on smiling without him.

Other people’s smiles represent nothing but the joy, security, love, and peace that Shigaraki Tomura hasn’t experienced since the day his quirk manifested. The sight of any living thing fills Shigaraki with rage because everything bright and beautiful, everything good and calm and kind and soft and warm, is everything that Shigaraki has lost and believes he will never, ever get to experience again.

Shigaraki doesn’t really hate the pure happy smiles of others; he hates the fact that the world has taken away every single thing he ever had to smile about.

It is my belief that Horikoshi is hinting at a redemption arc for Shigaraki, especially as we see the League become closer allies. But Shigaraki can’t be completely redeemed, can’t be persuaded to give up his world-destruction plan, until he can look at the smiles of others without scorn. Until the bright, upbeat attitudes of heroes other people no longer feel like a personal attack. Until he’s happy enough that the happiness of others no longer hurts. Until the weight is lifted.

And I can’t think of any character more obviously suited to helping lift an immense weight than Uraraka, the zero gravity hero who wants nothing more than to spread smiles.

8) Speaking of lifting weights... Kacchako is a popular ship stemming in large part from Bakugou’s refusal to treat Uraraka with kid gloves. He faces her head-on as a real opponent and views her like any other hero hopeful.

As I’ve said before, this is pretty much the most respectfully the series itself has ever treated Uraraka Ochako, and it caught a lot of attention because it was one of the rare occasions that a female pro hero-in-training was really treated as an equal to the male characters. Kacchako shippers had something awesome to work with.

But... You know who else treats women as equals? (Hell, you know who treats literally everyone as equals, from those with mutant quirks to trans people to those with severe mental health issues?) You can say what you want about Shigaraki’s habit of, you know, mass murder, but in terms of viewing others equally and respecting (okay, let’s be real, it’s probably closer to just ignoring) differences, Tomura is about as open-minded as BNHA characters come. The League is an equal opportunity employer.

Unlike actual hero characters, Shigaraki has never once suggested that Toga is incapable of keeping up with any of the male members of the League, and in fact has entrusted her with many of the League’s most dangerous and crucial missions. He explicitly has faith in her ability and skill.

Toga’s right there in the fight against Gigantomachia and the QLA, as much an equal member of the League as anyone else. In terms of gender equality, the villains seem to be light-years ahead of their hero counterparts, and Shigaraki in particular doesn’t discriminate, among his allies or his opponents either. He’s not a “spare the women and children” kind of guy; every hero and villain challenger is treated with equal violence (and equal snark), whether they’re male, female, a long-time pro or a student in training.

In whatever context--canon opponent, AU ally, or a future romantic interest--Shigaraki would take Ochako just as seriously as Bakugou did. If you like Kacchako because Bakugou doesn’t dismiss Uraraka, that same dynamic would be present in Shigako too.

9) And on the topic of Shigaraki and women... It doesn’t feel accidental that every single female character who ever had love for Shigaraki has been taken away from him. A distinct part of Shigaraki’s storyline is that all positive female role models have been systematically removed from his life. He lost his grandmother, a hero he could have looked up to; he lost his mother, who he now has no memory of; he lost the older sister he clearly held dear... All For One’s control over Tomura has always been total, but this particular detail feels especially insidious: was All For One’s spite for Nana so strong that he delighted in deliberately destroying every single relationship Tenko had with women connected to Nana’s legacy? (Or is AFO perhaps just a raging misogynist? Every single one of his known associates is male and he seemed to despise and mock Nana particularly hard...)

In any case, the point I’m trying to make here is that, even ruling love interests out, Shigaraki’s storyline would be enriched by forging a meaningful connection with a female character like Ochako. Acceptance--maybe even some grudging admiration--for a female hero? A fantastic opportunity to show just how different the “villains” are from the discriminatory society that produced them. Supporting friendship while he’s on the road to recovery? A+ way to diversify interactions between the male and female cast. Send a tough girl to Tartarus to question his motives? Nice chance for tense dialogue and some good old noire-esque foe yay. Hostage situation that takes a turn for the surprisingly cordial? Fun way to explore different dynamics and humanize the villains because hey, they treated the “damsel” to dinner shortbread cookies. My god, Shigaraki could even develop some positive sense of rivalry with a woman, for example! The possibilities are endless if you’re actually willing to give female characters a shot!

Being more serious, Tomura’s life has been dramatically marked by the loss of his female family members, and--at least from what we know so far--his entire youth was spent without the presence of reliable friendships, let alone any form of “love” that wasn’t disturbingly fake. Beyond his fragmented memories, he has no models for healthy relationships, romantic or otherwise.

Letting Shigaraki develop to the point that he could form a mutually positive relationship with a female hero character would be extremely cathartic for me as a reader. I don’t mean “rewarding redemption with a last-minute happy ending romance”--I mean actually getting the opportunity to watch Tomura rediscover what it means to be genuinely loved and realize he has the capacity to give love and be happy in return...

Reaching that level of mutual support and closeness--especially with a female pro hero--would be the biggest “FUCK YOU” that Shigaraki could give to All For One, short of, you know, actually killing him.

Shigaraki Tomura has a critical (and deliberate) lack of healthy connections to women. BNHA, coincidentally, has a criminally under-utilized female lead just twiddling her thumbs over here, waiting for a meaningful plotline to be thrown her way.

Sure, putting AFO in prison is cool and all, but have you considered... crushing his pride and legacy of evil by helping the boy he tortured for years learn to love again? I’m just sayin’!

Uraraka Ochako, snatching Shigaraki right the fuck out of AFO’s hands:

10) Basically what the whole thing boils down to is this: Shigaraki Tomura needs a hero.

Don’t mistake my meaning. A lot of “girl meets bad boy” plots end up amounting to “girl becomes emotionally responsible for fixing bad boy’s issues,” and that’s not what I’m gunning for--Shigaraki has to redeem himself because redemption is only meaningful when it stems from the character’s own inner desire to change; I’m not quite rose-tinted enough to buy into the Love Redeems trope myself. I’m definitely not advocating anyone dump Shigaraki Tomura as he is now into Uraraka Ochako’s lap and expect her to turn him from a beast to a beauty. It’s not an unrelated woman’s responsibility to fix a broken man.

But! From a reader’s perspective, I think we can agree: Shigaraki’s redemption cannot be complete until he learns to believe in real heroes. He doesn’t have to like them. He doesn’t have to support hero society. But he has to be able to look at real heroes like Izuku and Ochako and admit that they are doing what’s right--that society is a better place because they are here. Shigaraki’s path to recovery can’t even begin until he’s capable of at least acknowledging that the world has things worth saving in it.

If Horikoshi moves forward with a redemption arc for Shigaraki, it will probably be Deku who Detroit Smashes the message of truly noble heroes into Shigaraki’s head. That’s his job as the resident Warrior Therapist, I suppose. But you know... to me, it might be even more meaningful if Shigaraki’s hero--if the hand that reaches out to rescue him--isn’t The Hero’s™ but just a hero’s. We all know Deku is selfless and good to the core. As All Might’s perfect successor, he really has nothing to prove. It’s everyone else who is in question. It’s the whole rest of hero society that owes Shigaraki Tomura an explanation for the suffering of people like the League’s members. It’s everyone else who needs to prove they can do better--that in the future, there will be no bloody children left abandoned in back alleyways.

Uraraka Ochako’s conviction is to save people. As a female hero who hasn’t lived a privileged life, she’s uniquely situated to think about those who are most often overlooked. In a world where violence begets violence, where only those with strength and flash excel, what a powerful message it would send for the terrifying antagonist to effectively be rescued by someone the story itself has called “a frail girl.” At the end of the day, heroics isn’t supposed to be about mountain-destroying explosions and mach punches--heroics is supposed to be about heart, about reaching out a gentle helping hand, about spreading smiles to those who need them most.

Tomura’s faith in heroes has been brutally stripped from him, and every part of his conflict is tied up intimately with his misdirected hatred: it wasn’t actually heroes who isolated and hurt him--it was villains. In order to move forward, he will have to come to that horrible realization, deal with that means for himself and his place in the world, and recognize the truth: there are goodness and good people in the world. Selfless heroes, those who wouldn’t turn their backs on a crying child, do exist. There are people, even now, who would extend a kind hand to Shigaraki Tomura and do their best to bring a real smile to his face. Because that’s what’s really going on, after all.

Shimura Tenko is still waiting to be saved.

And I know just the person to do it.

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tacitwhisky · 6 years ago

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Jon / Sansa Reread - Bran I, AGOT

In which Bran sees an execution, talks to Jon, talks to Ned, and then finds some direwolves.

I always love when other people do rereads, so I’m trying my hand at it, with a focus on Jon and Sansa and how Martin writes them. This is essentially fanfic research, and for that it’s always best to go back to the original source.

So if this is a Jon and Sansa reread why am I starting with a Bran chapter? Because while on the surface Bran I is about Bran, it’s also equally about introducing the male side of the Starks and so has a lot of valuable insight into Jon’s character. It’s also one of my favorite chapters in the series for just how sparse and laconic Martin’s style is throughout.

The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. They set forth at daybreak to see a man beheaded, twenty in all, and Bran rode among them, nervous with excitement. This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king’s justice done. It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran’s life.

This is such a great hook to open a chapter and the book as a whole with and ticks a lot of important boxes in just a paragraph: the setting, Bran’s age and state of mind, and a good hook. Who is being beheaded? Why is he being beheaded? Why is a child going to go see it? As a writer you almost always want to have an underlying tension or question that the reader wants answered to drive them forwards.

Bran’s bastard brother Jon Snow moved closer. “Keep the pony well in hand,” he whispered. “And don’t look away. Father will know if you do.”

It’s interesting Martin has Jon play the role of older brother here rather than Robb. Despite his half-brother bastard status Jon is clearly close with Bran, as we’ll see later when he visits Bran’s bedside after he falls. He doesn’t coddle Bran though; partly this is to emphasize the Stark coldness, but also I think it’s an insight into Jon’s character.

There’s a recurring thread through these early chapters that Jon doesn’t have quite the same leeway as the true born Starks in Winterfell. He’s probably especially sensitive to disappointing Ned. After all, his existence at all is already an embarrassment and spot on Ned’s honor.

Bran’s father sat solemnly on his horse, long brown hair stirring in the wind. His closely trimmed beard was shot with white, making him look older than his thirty-five years. He had a grim cast to his grey eyes this day, and he seemed not at all the man who would sit before the fire in the evening and talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest. He had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.

As Ned’s son Jon does exactly this in ADWD when he has to don his own Lord Commander face. While in this chapter we don’t get to see into Ned’s head, in ASOS and ADWD we’ll see just how much it costs Jon to maintain the cold Lord Stark persona both personally and politically when he makes Gilly touch the fire and give up her child, or forces Sam to travel south, or demands child hostages from the Wildlings to cross the Wall.

Jon’s cold practically is an aspect of his character that doesn’t really get explored much in fanfic, or even really included at all. There’s a couple reasons for it, I think. First, even if they have read the books, the show’s presentation of Jon tends to be what sticks in most people’s heads, and the show has definite habit of softening and whitewashing Jon’s character so he can be the Hero, not to mention Kit Harington’s constantly plaintive look.

Second, I think a lot of fic writers prefer to have Sansa be the cold hard one (which is also a show invention, but we’ll get into that later) paired with Jon as the emotionally softer one. Which is fair. I love that contrast and dynamic. But I do wish we got a little more examination and exploration of the parallels between how they both got to their Stark face and how they interact now.

The head bounced off a thick root and rolled. It came up near Greyjoy’s feet. Theon was a lean, dark youth of nineteen who found everything amusing. He laughed, put his boot on the head, and kicked it away. “Ass,” Jon muttered, low enough so Greyjoy did not hear. He put a hand on Bran’s shoulder, and Bran looked over at his bastard brother. “You did well,” Jon told him solemnly. Jon was fourteen, an old hand at justice.

Just in case you were wondering if Theon was a terrible person or not.

“The deserter died bravely,” Robb said. He was big and broad and growing every day, with his mother’s coloring, the fair skin, red-brown hair, and blue eyes of the Tullys of Riverrun. “He had courage, at the least.”

“No,” Jon Snow said quietly. “It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark.” Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.

Jon calling Robb “Stark” here is interesting for a couple reasons. Partly this is just Martin trying to set up really quickly for the reader Jon’s bastard status; even Arya, who Jon is closest to, will in her inner narration call him her half-brother quite a bit. But it also signals a kind of a acknowledged formal space between Jon and the other Starklings, even if it’s one they’re used to.

Robb was not impressed. “The Others take his eyes,” he swore. “He died well. Race you to the bridge?”

“Done,” Jon said, kicking his horse forward. Robb cursed and followed, and they galloped off down the trail, Robb laughing and hooting, Jon silent and intent. The hooves of their horses kicked up showers of snow as they went.

There’s a really chilling kind of casualness to the older boys’ reaction to the execution. Even Jon who treats it more seriously than Theon is still able to shift modes easily. Part of this I think is just early installment weirdness, but it also nicely shoves the reader into the medieval mindset of westeros in a way that the show never quite achieves. Though it’s underrated, the underlying medieval mindset is one of the key differences between books and show and causes havoc in later seasons as the showrunners have to adjust and soften character to make them more palatable to a modern audience while not changing the underlying actions themselves. It creates a sort of cognitive dissonance and some of the themes logical coherence slip through the crack.

The contrast between Robb laughing and Jon silent and intent is a great character detail. Robb isn’t taking this as seriously as Jon, because Jon takes everything seriously. He has to. It’s another way his bastard status influences his personality. Robb can lose and he’ll still be lord of Winterfell one day. Jon? Not so much. So this is how Jon treats everything in his life: seriously. It’s a also a bit of a childhood and teenager thing.

Bran thought about it. “Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?”

“That is the only time a man can be brave,” his father told him.

This is one of the clearest articulations of Martin’s ethos and the theme in all of his work, but especially ASOIAF, of existential heroism. When we talk about Jon as a hero, it’s that which makes him one in the end, not the magical sword or rags to riches; when it comes down to it he does the right thing no matter how much it costs him personally (ASOS) or materially (ADWD). It’s also one of the themes the show completely misses, instead espousing that being honorable makes you stupid.

His lord father smiled. “Old Nan has been telling you stories again. In truth, the man was an oathbreaker, a deserter from the Night’s Watch. No man is more dangerous. The deserter knows his life is forfeit if he is taken, so he will not flinch from any crime, no matter how vile. But you mistake me. The question was not why the man had to die, but why I must do it.”

Bran had no answer for that. “King Robert has a headsman,” he said, uncertainly.

“He does,” his father admitted. “As did the Targaryen kings before him. Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”

“One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”

This has been explored more and better in other meta, but the Starks and the north in general has a far more personal view of justice and governing than the south. This isn’t to say it’s better, but it is different. Later as Lord Commander we’ll see just how much of that ethos Jon picked up from Ned: in beheading Janos Slynt, in the mission creep at Hardhome, and in his failure to really use his institutional power to make changes to the Night’s Watch. There’s a strong sense of personal responsibility and connections in northern governance.

Half-buried in bloodstained snow, a huge dark shape slumped in death. Ice had formed in its shaggy grey fur, and the faint smell of corruption clung to it like a woman’s perfume. Bran glimpsed blind eyes crawling with maggots, a wide mouth full of yellowed teeth. But it was the size of it that made him gasp. It was bigger than his pony, twice the size of the largest hound in his father’s kennel.

“It’s no freak,” Jon said calmly. “That’s a direwolf. They grow larger than the other kind.”

Theon Greyjoy said, “There’s not been a direwolf sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years.”

“I see one now,” Jon replied.

Notice how calm is Jon with Theon here. It’s a bit of a cheap shot at Theon to make us like Jon more as a character, but is also very in line with his character. Very rarely even in later books does Jon react emotionally to things (with a few exceptions like when he tries to murder Alliser Thorne); he tends not to from a place of emotion and almost always takes time to think things through. The reason for this is Jon is calm because he has to be. It’s a result of his marginalized status in the Stark household. There’s no leeway in his bastard position for emotional outbursts: Catelyn isn’t going to put up with that shit, and he’s already enough of an embarrassment to Ned just by existing.

While we don’t ever really get much thought from either Jon or Theon about their relationship with each other, their interaction in this chapter is I think indicative of it as a whole; slightly adversarial and only cordial because of their mutual friendship with Robb. Theon as a whole is a really interesting foil to Jon; irreverent where Jon is serious, emotional where Jon is calm, dismissive where Jon is willing to learn about others.

They both have outsider status in the Stark household, but instead of bonding, Theon is significantly closer to Robb. While Jon does have privilege, Theon has more (he is the Greyjoy heir after all) and more importantly, has internalized it far more. It makes sense that aside from just personality differences Theon would think himself above Jon and be drawn to Robb as a source of privilege.

“Born with the dead,” another man put in. “Worse luck.”

“No matter,” said Hullen. “They be dead soon enough too.”

Bran gave a wordless cry of dismay.

“The sooner the better,” Theon Greyjoy agreed. He drew his sword. “Give the beast here, Bran.”

In case you had any doubt Theon is in fact the worst, here we have him enthusiastically ready to commit puppy murder.

“Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. “There are five pups,” he told Father. “Three male, two female.”

“What of it, Jon?”

“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.”

Bran saw his father’s face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own.

Their father understood as well. “You want no pup for yourself, Jon?” he asked softly.

“The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark,” Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

I don’t have a lot to say about this passage, but it’s a good example of Jon choosing to do the right thing despite how it won’t benefit him and also show just how much he loves his siblings that he’s willing to do this for them.

Halfway across the bridge, Jon pulled up suddenly.

“What is it, Jon?” their lord father asked.

“Can’t you hear it?”

Bran could hear the wind in the trees, the clatter of their hooves on the ironwood planks, the whimpering of his hungry pup, but Jon was listening to something else.

“There,” Jon said. He swung his horse around and galloped back across the bridge. They watched him dismount where the direwolf lay dead in the snow, watched him kneel. A moment later he was riding back to them, smiling.

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said.

“Or been driven away,” their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning. Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.

This is such a powerful moment to me. Remember that of all the direwolves Ghost never growls or howls or makes any sound at all. And yet Jon hears him somehow. Even though we just met Jon we understand by this point just how left out Jon feels, and here he has a creature that wants him, needs him, loves him. Later when Jon makes the decision to refuse Stannis’ offer of legitimization we’ll see just how much Ghost means to him.

(I’m not bitter about how the show forgets about Ghost and all the direwolves for long periods. Really. It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s fine.)

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said. “This one belongs to me.”

“I think not, Greyjoy” is low-key my favorite line of the series as a whole, and I hate that they cut it from the show. Instead Theon says Ghost is the run of the litter and Jon gives Theon a look that’s neither long nor chilling and actually feels more like he’s slightly annoyed that Theon is right. It goes back to the difference of how the show softens Jon and casts him more as the reluctant and slightly dense Hero instead of sharp and smart and slightly vicious at times.

That’s largely it for Bran I. Overall it’s a really great insight into Jon’s character and his place in the Stark household while also setting up character threads later chapters will pick up. Speaking of, next up will be Jon I, in which Jon gets drunk and talks with Tyrion. I’m aiming to try and get one of these rereads out a week, so subscribe @tacitwhisky if you’re interested.

Next Chapter (Jon I)

#reread #jon snow #sansa stark #bran stark #jonsa #agot #a game of thrones #got #game of thrones #asoiaf meta #asoiaf #meta

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thephantomofthe-internet · 7 years ago

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Homeward Bound: Chapter 9

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader, Billy Hargrove x Henderson!Reader

Chapter Summary: Home coming meant finding old friends and remembering old pain...

Word Count: 5,332

Warnings: Swear, Pregnancy mention

Author’s Note: Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Fuck Christopher Columbus! He didn’t discover Canada but, you know, fuck ‘em.

Series Tag: @moonstruckhargrove @kurt-nightcrawler @baebee35 @supernatural-pants @thoughstofaredhead @bby-becca @fear-the-reaper115

Permanent Tag: @hotstuffhargrove @denimjacketkisses @hargrovesgoldilocks@casaharrington @lilmissperfectlyimperfect @hipsmcgee

She was still in her pyjamas, hair wrapped tightly first in rollers and them in a red silk scarf, pink bunny slippers on her feet. She looked royally pissed, but not intimidating in the slightest.

“Morning, mom.” You said, slipping in the door before she could give the whole neighbourhood a show.

“Where the hell have you been?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest, tapping her foot to an angry rhythm.

“Jenny Stein’s. I slept over.” You replied shortly, pulling off your shoes and dropping your purse by the door.

“Why didn’t you call?” she asked, not really caring about the answer. You were in the wrong and she wanted you to admit to it.

“Because I lost track of time. It’s not a big deal, I’m obviously not dead or missing.” You replied, matching her tone.

“I almost called the police.” She said, as though that information was going to affect you.

“Wouldn’t do you much good, Steve knew where I was the whole time, he would’ve just told you again and hung up.” You chuckled, turning and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I’m fine, you knew I was fine, and if you were worried, you could’ve driven over to Jenny’s or sent Richard.” You said, turning on your heel and up the stairs before the petty argument could continue.

Your mother had, despite leaving a powerless marriage, entered into a relationship with a huge power imbalance. It was not Richard’s fault, per say; he was a lovely, you certainly liked him and was more than happy to see them get together. But he was an old fashioned man and your mother loved to please. So, they fell into an old, sort of patriarchal relationship-despite being his secretary when they met, your mother stopped working and returned once again to the isolation of the home, where, without young children to care for, she was at odds with herself. Meanwhile, Richard worked long hours and was often away. This was fine when they weren’t married, because he’d call every night or even bring her along, but now she seemed to always be at home. He wasn’t cheating on her, lord he’d never hear the end of it if he dared to look at another woman, your mother had simply worn out her welcome with his associates. This left your mother constantly at odds and bored. So, she over dramatized little things like her adult daughter coming home later than expected.

You made a bee line for the bathroom, shutting out her incessant yelling up the stairs by turning on the water and letting it run warm as you changed. The second the water hit your skin, you let out a sigh. This was the best feeling you’d had in the last twenty-four hours. You let the water soothe your muscles and dampen your hair, rinsing off the sweat off your skin.

You always knew that the best place to hide from your problems was underwater. It worked well in two fold; one, the senses were almost always overwhelmed under water, making it hard to think, and two, even stillest pool was loud enough under its surface to muffle out the world. And so, when the world got too heavy or life bogged you down, you jumping into whatever water you could find and blocked it out until your mind was at ease enough to tackle a problem head on. It wasn’t exactly the best way to handle your problems, and you knew that, but at the end of the day, when life got hard, you still found yourself drawn to pools or rivers or oceans or simply your shallow bathtub, submerging your head and letting the sounds of life become as waterlogged as you intended to be.

From beyond the rush of the shower and the door, you heard the phone ring. You hoped it wasn’t Billy, not only would he ruin your whole plan, but you really didn’t want to see him again. It was all just too weird-it was like you stepped into a parallel universe in which you were at the centre. Maybe you had, Hawkins was just weird enough for that to be true. Either way, you didn’t like it. You hoped that he’d take the hint and move on, but you knew he wasn’t very good at catching onto things like hints. What he was good at, you weren’t sure anymore.

You knew you couldn’t spend all day hiding, so when your hair was significantly soaked, you turned off the water and rung your hair out, grabbing a towel and rushing to your room.

“Y/N!” you mother called, thoroughly annoyed and bitter, “You have a visitor!”

Your blood ran cold. “Just a second!” you called.

You didn’t want to go down there. He hadn’t, he wouldn’t. He had too much pride to just show up after been shafted. He was still at home, being an absolute weirdo. He didn’t remember where you lived.

Once you were dressed, wet hair pulled off your neck, you took a deep breath and opened the door. You peered over the railing, but no one was waiting downstairs by the door, whoever it was had gone into the sitting room with your mother. That was a good sign-Billy was not on good terms with your mother and she would never invite him into her sitting room, her own space not entered without care. Whoever it was had your mother’s approval. If it was just Steve, you’d probably scream before heading back upstairs to ignore your mother’s antics.

Your mother’s sitting room was different than the living room. The living room was a place of comfort, of relaxation and ease. The sitting room was a tense place where older family members met briefly, where family photos were taken, and the ‘nice’ things were kept. Normal, everyday living did not happen in that room. The furniture was expensive and floral patterned, the walls were lined in blush pink fleur de les wallpaper, the lamps were knockoff Tiffany and the glass panned cabinet was filled with wedding china, passed down from your great-grandmother. The whole place was a time capsule and you weren’t supposed to mess with the past. You walked in, already on eggshells.

Inside, your mother sat very carefully in the crocodile green armchair, passed down from your grandfather, worn and aged and musty-smelling. She was dressed now, purposely overdone, her lips painted hot pink. She looked stiff to you, which was worrisome.

You stepped deeper into the room, your eye catching the guest of the house. Your whole face broke into a smile.

“Nance!” you cried, drawing her attention and earning an equally big smile. She rose to her feet, a surprise second pregnancy already showing, her face glowing.

“Hey, Y/N.” she replied, opening her arms for a gentle hug, which you gladly accepted.

Nancy and you had not been fast friends when you returned to Hawkins back in high school. You two weren’t close in school before you left and then you returned, forced your way back into her circles and then did the unthinkable and shacked up with resident asshole Billy Hargrove, a criminal move in her eyes. She openly resented you, trying everything in her power to push you away. But once you were in, you refused to be pushed out and gotten rid of. You had to find out what was happening in Hawkins.

“How are you? Congratulations, by the way, I can’t believe you’re having another.” You said easily, releasing her.

“I’m alright, it’s still early so I’m still nauseous all the time, but I’m excited! I’m hoping for a boy this time.” She replied breezily, her hand coming instinctively to the bump.

“How is little Sybil?” you asked.

“She’s good! She’s with my mom right now. I swear my mother loves her more than I do sometimes.” She laughed. Karen Wheeler was a lot of things, but you rarely thought she was motherly. After three kids, she lost her identity completely and started chasing after her youth, leading to her affair with Billy Hargrove and, ultimately, her divorce. Both her and Ted still lived in Hawkins, a very awkward arrangement to say the least. Karen got the house and main custody of Mike and Holly and Ted got the car and a twenty-eight year old girlfriend, which boiled Karen’s blood more than anything else.

“Oh Karen must be loving that! Are you staying with her or Joyce? Or are you in the motel?” you asked giddily.

“With her, Joyce and Will aren’t coming in till next week; Will’s still got his graduation this week.” Nancy explained. You nodded, eyes slowly turning to your mother, who was watching you on baited breath for some sort of unexpected answer to be released.

“Nance, let’s go upstairs, alright, I wanna show you the book I’m editing for work.” You said. Nancy nodded, following you out of the room with a wave to your mother, already disappointed.

“She still trying to listen in on you?” Nancy whispered softly as you took the stairs. You nodded; rolling your eyes as you quickly looked behind to see if she was following you. She wasn’t, a surprise for her since she seemed to always butt in where she wasn’t wanted. She always took invitations one steps too far, often getting on the nerves of others. Now, she seemed to be giving you your space.

“So wait are you actually editing a novel up here? Is it yours?” Nancy asked, looking fondly around your old room.

You smiled “I am, but not mine. New mystery novel, it’s pretty okay.” You tried to keep the pride out of your voice. You weren’t really allowing yourself to talk about the book yet, especially with the people who inspired it. You wouldn’t want to hurt them or break ties over the stupid thing. Were you proud to have finished the thing? Of course, but hurting your friends and family wasn’t worth the eight thousand dollars you’d been promised in the deal.

“Oh cool! So the editing thing’s going well then?” Nancy asked, sitting down carefully on the edge of your bed.

“Yeah, they’ve still got me in the harlequin division, I most edit trashy romance novels and pulp mysteries. I also occasionally ghost write for some authors. They had me writing Sweet Valley High books for awhile.” You explained, subtly trying to adjust your papers to hide the loose novel on your desk and to keep them from catching her eye. Luckily for you, she wasn’t paying much attention to you.

“That’s fun, at least you’re writing. You do still want to write, right?” she asked.

You nodded “Yeah, I do I just…I don’t have the right story to tell right now.” You replied vaguely. “So, how’s the P.I. business? Any new bites?” you asked, changing the subject.

“We found that little girl Beverly in Pomona.” She said, frown lines creasing her forehead “But it didn’t do us much good. Turns out she’s eighteen and legally allowed to go wherever she wants, the aunt was just nuts.”

“Damn, did it hit the papers?” you asked worriedly.

Nancy nodded “Unfortunately, it did. And instead of asking for a statement, they just called us thieves and hacks, that didn’t help us much. We lost the Wanda Singh case because of it.” She explained, sighing softly.

“Is the ‘zine doing well at least, I got my copy last week it was pretty good.” You asked easily.

“Eh, I have no idea-Jonathan won’t let me read it. I’m surprised he’s got you on the mailing list. If you ask me, it’s all a bit pretentious.” She replied with a shallow shrug, shaking her head bitterly.

“Yeah, it’s more than a bit pretentious, but that’s Jonathan-he’s a music snob.” You replied, taking a seat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she chuckled softly.

“Being an adult’s hard, isn’t it?” you asked glumly. Nancy nodded, resting her head on your shoulder.

“I don’t know…you’re doing okay…” she replied, trying to find a bright spot in all of it.

You chuckled, shaking your head “Oh yeah, it’s alright, as long as I’m not here…here I do stupid shit…” you replied.

Nancy sat up “What did you do?” she asked.

“I slept with Hargrove…” you admitted softly, looking away.

“You didn’t!” she cried. You simply nodded, not wanting to say it again. “Why? Why did you even see him? He’s an asshole!”

“I don’t know! I ran into him, I wanted an excuse to be out of the house for a couple hours and he offered and ugh I don’t know- I didn’t want to sleep with him! I just did!” you replied, stumbling through your answer, trying to find the logic in it all.

“Couldn’t you have just hung out with Dustin instead?” Nancy asked, bewildered.

“Hanging out with Dustin means hanging out with Steve, I can’t even escape him in my own home, mom’s had him over for dinner already and I’ve been home for forty-eight hours.” You replied bitter;y.

“Are you still mad at him?” Nancy asked,

“Yes and no…it depends on the time of day.” You said, rubbing your face.

“What does that mean?” Nancy replied, forcing you to look at her.

“It means that sometimes, when I see him, I hate him and want to disappear, and then other times it’s like I fall back into old behaviours and we talk and it’s not awful. And then I remember what he did and I hate him all over again.” You explained.

“Isn’t time to move on? I mean it’s been years!” Nancy replied rationally.

“Riddle me this, are you still mad that Ryan Carson dumped you at the spring fling ball in seventh grade?” you asked. Nancy blushed slightly as she looked away, nodding slightly. “Yeah, because he was your first real relationship. Well, Steve was my first love and he broke my heart. So I’m still a little mad.” You said easily.

“I mean; not to be that guy, but Steve’s better than Billy.” Nancy said with a laugh. You scoffed, making her laugh harder as she cried “He’s self aware!”

“Oh please, Steve’s ego is as big as his hair.” You replied with an eye roll.

“Yeah well, since you wanna talk like sitcom characters, Billy’s got a class ring but no class, at least Steve can be humbled. You can’t teach class.” Nancy replied.

“And for the record,” she added “Steve’s changed. I never thought I’d stay his friend after everything, but he has been the biggest help with my own journey to recovery, as lame as that sounds.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” You replied with a shrug. Nancy sighed, flopping down on the mattress. You followed suit, staring up at the ceiling with tired eyes.

“Is it weird for you? Being back?” you asked quietly, connecting dots on your popcorn ceiling.

Nancy sighed “Yeah…it gets easier though…this is your first time home…” she replied.

“I just…it hurts but it doesn’t…I wish it hurt more…” you said. Nancy nodded, unsure what to say. “I haven’t gone to see Mrs. Macpherson yet.” You admitted.

“Suzie’s graduating this year, right?” Nancy asked, turning to look at you.

“Yeah,” you chuckled “I tried to get Dustin to take her to prom. Didn’t want her to go alone. She didn’t , went with Tommy’s cousin.”

“Tommy H or Tommy R?” she asked.

“Tommy H.” you replied, earning a snort from Nancy. “Apparently he’s nicer than Tommy!” you reasoned with a laugh.

“Ugh, Carol invited me to their wedding…” Nancy groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Did you go?” you asked, wide eyed and hopeful; the story would be so good if she did.

“It hasn’t happened yet. I haven’t said yes or no, but Jonathan won’t go. Says it would be lying to pretend that we were all friends.” She replied.

“I’ll go with you! We’ll trash talk the whole thing.” You offered with a giddy smile. You would kill to see how everything turns out.

“I gotta consider how big I’m gonna be by the wedding dates. After four months I get less and less comfortable and I want to leave the house less and less.” She explained. You nodded, more than a little dejected. Nancy smirked “You know…Steve’s invited too…”

You scoffed “You’re worse than my mother…” you said, rolling your eyes.

Nancy tried her hardest to act innocent “I’m just saying!” she cried, raising her hands in defeat. You nodded, grimacing as you sucked your teeth. Nancy groaned, forcing herself off the mattress with great difficultly. You offered her a hand, lifted herself and you back into a seated upright position.

“Come on, crabby pants, let’s go egg the high school or something.” She said, pushing herself back onto her feet and out the door.

You and Nancy didn’t start out as friends. When your little clan moved to Hawkins, Nancy was already the queen bee of the year below you and you being a year older had no chance of ever befriending her; it would’ve been social suicide, especially if you failed to befriend her. So you found friendship in fellow weirdo Heather Macpherson and suffered at the bottom of the social pyramid, Carol and her cronies torturing you whenever possible. Then, you moved in with your dad in Chicago and while you kept up with Heather, Nancy wasn’t even a second thought.

And then, you returned to town in a cloud of smoke and cynicism and took over the only thing she had to prove herself beyond the pretty girl image.

Though she’d never admit it, Nancy needed this case. She needed it to feel better about herself. After Barb died, she needed to push herself away from the carefully crafted ‘fun’ girl image she’d created for herself. She needed to feel smart and powerful and important again. And she did-she spent two years being respected by small town law enforcement and seeking out government secrets and killing monsters with someone she believed was at her level. And then you came back and forced your way in.

When Heather died that summer, you jumped head first into the underworld of Hawkins, ignoring her every attempt to push you out, to ruin your chances of figuring it out before her. You were at the same level, but unlike her relationship with Jonathan, where she was the dominant mind and planner, you thought on your feet and, unlike her, you didn’t mind failing. So, you fought and fought and pushed away from each other.

You’d just returned from the labs, they’d believed your story; you were in line for the internship. This was how you were going to get the files on the other experiments. Screw Nancy’s plan, it would only get you arrested faster, or worse killed. This was the safer way-you’d have access to the files, you’d have direct access to the people who committed these crimes.

You parked in your mother’s driveway, popping open the door and sliding out. You felt incredibly fake-you had chosen to dress the way your mother insisted made you look mature and serious, aka like Nancy Wheeler, save for the silver Virgin Mary necklace around your neck. That was borrowed from Billy, a way to anchor yourself as you lied through your teeth to people you knew had killed innocents for being in the way. Quickly, you tucked the chain into your shirt, rushing up the stairs and unlocking the door. Your mother was on the phone with someone, talking too loudly and sitting on the counter like a teenager. You took this unforeseen opportunity to rush upstairs, excited for the chance to change out of the clothes that felt unfamiliar on your skin.

You opened the door to your room, finding Billy collapsed on your bed, tapping his foot to the music playing out of your headphones. You smiled at the sight; it was so rare to see him at peace in his environment, relaxed and calm and not thinking of his next three moves. You walked up to the bed, pressing a kiss to his forehead, smiling as his eyes fluttered open and he matched your grin.

“Hey baby…” you muttered, reaching around the back of your neck and unclasping the silver clasp, releasing the necklace from its secure place around your throat. “You look a little naked, and not in the fun way.” You said, handing him the chain, which he quickly put around his own neck, clasping it before you could even offer your help.

“Thanks…” he said, sitting up to smile at you and give you a proper kiss.

“How was your day? You find ways to hide out from your dad?” you asked, sitting next to him on the bed. For some unknown reason, Billy was very worried that if his father noticed him without the pendant, he’d get in trouble. You knew what trouble meant for him, so you were naturally apprehensive to the idea of asking, but Billy was more than eager to comply if he was rewarded thusly.

“Hid out up here all day. Got out before he left too. I would’ve gone to the library like you suggested, but it’s not my scene.” He replied with a shrug.

“So you just used up the battery in my walkman instead?” you asked cheekily, not really scolding him.

“Consider it half your payment.” He replied with a smirk. You chuckled, shaking your head. He always managed to bring things back around to him.

“So…what’re you doing tonight?” he asked, leaning into you.

“Why? Looking to cash in?” you replied with a smirk.

“Maybe…” he said, fluttering his dark lashes.

You chuckled “Well in that case I’m busy.” You said “But I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Kicking me out already? He asked with a pout. You nodded, pushing him towards the open window.

“Yep, I gotta make some calls. Gloat to Wheeler that I beat her ass, again.” You said. While he didn’t know about the mystery, Billy was more than excited to hear you’d beat someone, even in the lame smart way you had. He leaned down, swinging one leg over the sill and then another, landing easily on the roof.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were into her.” He said with a smirk, fantasies already running through his dirty mind.

“Yeah? I could say the same thing about you and Harrington.” The smirk dropped off his face as you slammed the window shut, waving your fingers at him before shutting the blinds. You had too much to do to worry at him and his stupid fantasy.

You listened for your mother’s shrill goodbye on the phone downstairs before picking up your landline and dialling the Wheeler’s number. Nancy picked up on the first ring.

“Wheeler house.” She said, with a bored tone.

“I’ve pretty much got the internship. They’re just doing a background check and with Hopper on my side, Amelia Kingsley will be interning at the remaining Chicago labs by next week.” You announced, a proud smile brightening your face.

“And how do you intend on explaining to your mother that you have an internship in another girl’s name in Chicago?” Nancy asked forcefully.

“I won’t have to-the Chicago Labs, as they’re calling them, are just a new group a little outside Hawkins. I won’t even have to commute.” You grinned.

Nancy groaned, shaking her head “This is a bigger risk than just breaking in. If they catch you stealing they’ll kill you before they call the police.” She warned.

“They won’t catch me. I’ve already got bugs inside, Heather’s taking the reins on that one.” You replied.

“Fine.” Nancy huffed “I’ll call Steve and tell him the break in’s off. You call Joyce and tell her to get El to give us any other numbers she can remember.”

You felt a small smirk pull at your lips “No, it’s fine, I’ll tell Steve, I was heading to the mall anyway, I need a few more smart cardigans for the office.” You said.

“Y/N, that’s not a good idea.” Nancy said quickly.

“And calling him at work is?” you replied, matching her speed.

Nancy sighed “Steve and Robin are so close to getting together, don’t ruin it by distracting him.” She said, practically begging.

“I’m not trying to distract him.” You replied innocently, already imagining your outfit options, trying to find the most flattering and revealing pairing.

“Yes you are. You have Billy; you’ve made it abundantly clear that you like him. So stay in your lane.” She said.

“I’m gonna tell Steve.” You replied and before she could reply, you dropped the receiver, pulling off your ugly peach pink cardigan and plain white shirt in favour of something made of mesh.

It wasn’t until the trial that you two became friends, mainly out of desperation. You two were alone in this trial-Robin hadn’t wanted to testify and with you and Nancy being the only girls over fourteen around to talk to, you had to talk to one another. Jonathan was an emotional wreck, full of obvious anxiety and shaky nausea that made him impossible to deal with, Billy and you weren’t on good terms, and while you loved Steve, you needed someone else. So you had to rely on Nancy, something you’d never done before, and while it was shaky at first, you grew to understand each other. You sat together, usually in silence, trying to understand how your lives had gotten to this point. Then, you found your common ground: mutual hatred, the thing that bonds us all.

Suddenly, and without warning, you were friends and united in the struggle of dealing with the opposing team whom you loathed so much. You even got her to admit that certain people on your own team were annoying and tiresome. You nearly died when she, after three tiny bottles of rum, admitted that she found Jonathan just as pretentious as everyone else did. Likewise, you dished on Billy with as much fervour as Nancy could handle. And she admitted that she didn’t hate Billy nearly as much as she pretended you, stating that Steve needed to be taken down a peg or so to let him grow up. You agreed, much to her surprise. Suddenly, you weren’t so much an enemy but an ally in the cause of repairing your lives.

You stayed allies long after the trial, much to your surprise. You never assumed people would stick around; time had proven that to not be true to your life. But Nancy stayed, in her own way. You each moved to different parts of the country; her to Denver, you to San Diego, but you wrote back and forth whenever you could. It was a nice relationship-it didn’t depend on equal attention, you wrote when you had time and so did she. Sometimes, you’d write more than her and other times the roles reversed. Either way, not entirely by your choice, you stayed thick as thieves, hell you’d even met her baby and were a part of the madcap Vegas wedding ceremony.

And now, you were lingering outside Hawkins High School, contemplating going inside, an idea that was beyond you.

“I just wanna see if they put up anything about us.” Nancy reasoned, pulling you towards the door.

“And I just really don’t wanna go in there.” You replied, yanking your arm out of her grip “So you can go in there and I’ll wait out here, tell me if my message is still up on the bulletin board.”

You hadn’t paid much attention to the sound of cars on the street behind you, nor the sound of the horn blaring behind you. But you turned when someone yelled out behind you.

“Hey Henderson!” the voice cried out, setting your nerves on end and turning your sweat cold.

Billy.

He was sitting in the front seat of a beat up tow truck, emblazoned with the logo for Sherman’s shop. He looked…well he looked like a small town hick, everything he didn’t want to be back in the day.

You slowly turned, taking a deep breath and finding a tight smile. “Hey Billy…” you replied, waving awkwardly.

“What the hell are you doing here? Come on I’ll give you a ride!” he called, motioning you over. Nancy grabbed your arm, squeezing your skin tightly, save for one fingering tapping out Morse code; Don’t. Do. It.

“I can’t! I gotta handle a couple clerical things for Dustin! Maybe another time!” you called back, confidence beginning to fill your blood.

“What about tonight then?” he asked eagerly, eyes training over your frame like a tongue. You tried not to shiver with disgust.

“I’ve got plans!” you replied easily, not trying to resist Nancy’s pull towards the front door “See ya around, Hargrove!” you called, waving politely as he groaned and drove off.

The inside of the school was almost as warm as the outside; the school still hadn’t invested in central cooling and instead let their students swelter inside and out. It also hadn’t been updated since long before you started there. The paint was peeling, the locker doors dented and nearly falling off their hinges. The note you’d left on the large bulletin board when you graduated was still there, much to your excitement.

Don’t let them make you forget things for their benefit. Remember pain. Remember embarrassment. Remember Heather Macpherson.

You were so mad when you wrote that, filled with white hot sadness and burning, misplaced anger and passion. The clean cursive on thin white card paper was marked with pain and marked with heavy lines dug into the card, your hand to hard and shaky on the paper.

You smiled at the note, planning to steal it on your way out, collecting one of the missing pieces of your old life and taking it away from the crummy world you’d left it in. Before you’d take it, however, you’d show Dustin, out of pride.

Nancy returned with visitor passes on cheap lanyards, hers already strung around her neck. “Rhonda says hi.” She said, handing you the plastic pass, which you shoved into your back pocket.

“Rhonda’s still here?” you asked, giggling more than you should’ve.

Rhonda White had been assistant head secretary when you were in high school, a marriage obsessed woman with long, sharp red nails that often mimicked talons and brown lipstick that was permanently on her teeth. She was always smoking, always reading magazines instead of working, always cracking bubblegum, and always in a bad mood.

“Apparently, still as annoyed as ever.” Nancy chuckled, shaking her head.

“You see a ring?” you asked, craning to look into the big, supported glass window to catch a peak of her.

“Why? You wanna pop the question?” Nancy giggled, beginning down the hallway. You rolled your eyes, trailing behind her. “Since you’re curious, no I didn’t, at least not a wedding ring.”

You clicked your tongue, shaking your head “Poor thing, she just wanted it too much.” You said, a smirk pulling at your lips.

“You wanna get married?” Nancy asked, pausing to let you catch up with her intense strides.

You gasped, a hand coming your chest as you tried to hold back a smile “Nancy! But what would Jonathan say?” you replied, feigning astonishment.

Nancy rolled her eyes “I meant in general and you know it.” She replied.

“I-I don’t know,” you said, trying to regain your composure, stomach clenching it fits of giggles “I mean…if I found the right guy and blah blah blah.” You said.

“I mean, I get it and I don’t wanna sound like your mom, but it’s nice.” Nancy replied.

“I’m sure it is but I’m not even thirty, so like I’m not worried about it. You know, not everyone meets their soul mate at seventeen.” You said, rolling your eyes.

A heavy arm came around your shoulders, making you jump out of your skin. “I mean I don’t know, I think we could’ve been soul mates.”

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nettlestonenell · 6 years ago

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How Peggy Carter Shows Up in Avengers: Endgame

...is actually a really important question to ponder, Gentle Readers. Thanks for asking.

As I recently set forth here, Peggy Carter is the central bedrock of the MCU. If you don’t like her, you don’t like it.

As such, it seems unlikely that the attention she will be given in Endgame will be limited to the infamous black and white picture Steve keeps in his old compass (which some fans believe he looks to for moral guidance. About which I stringently disagree.)

Insert your own traveling-across-realms Once Upon a Time Swanfire keychain reference here.

Just to cover all the possible bases, then;

SCENARIO #1: Peggy used solely as image/misunderstood totem for Cap.

NOPE.

I firmly expect “actual” Peggy Carter to make an appearance in Endgame, and according to the internet at large, I am not alone.

HOW she makes that appearance, and what is made of her appearance is entirely unknown at this time, but here are the strongest possibilities. (All following scenarios involve Time Travel or universe-shifting.)

SCENARIO #2:

Cap sent back in time to his version of a Valhalla/warrior’s paradise: right after his jet goes into the ice he manages somehow to arrive the following Saturday at the Stork Club at 8pm as she and he were talking about in his last moments on the radio.

While iconic for that time period, The Stork Club (of New York City) has always seemed a rather upscale venue for Peggy and Steve to pick. (Coincidentally, it closed its doors in 1965)

(Ultimately, you may recall Steve saying he’s going to need a raincheck on that dance.)

I don’t see it. Doing this robs those moments in The First Avenger entirely of their gravity and their far-reaching impact in the MCU. Peggy wouldn’t even have a hot moment to grieve for what she lost. What’s more, Peggy in the immediate aftermath of Steve’s disappearance hasn’t got anything to offer the plot/Cap in the way of fighting Thanos/the power of Infinity Stones. She’s just relegated to a sort of trophy/reward, without any utility in the storyline.

If Peggy Carter is used in Endgame without having something to contribute to the forward motion of the plot, IF, for example, she’s reduced to a sort of ‘Grey Havens’ for Cap, what an utter waste of everything MCU has put into her over the years. If going back to be with Peggy (pre-Marvel’s Agent Carter and ongoing developments in the MCU) is simply Cap’s “reward”, then Peggy gets reduced to nothing but a dog treat. [which, I daresay from reading enough tumblr plenty of bloggers think she is]

Just as I said in that earlier blog, narratively it’s Steve in TFA who has to “come up” to Peggy’s level, both physically

She could snap him in two if they tried that dance, now.

(at least narratively-speaking—obviously there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong in real life with two partners not being the physical equal of one another, in fact it’s rather more standard than not) and also heroic conviction-wise; he has to be willing to step out there and join the fight (as when he left the showgirls, etc).

Of course, even leaving the showgirls behind, Steve won’t miss out on the sight of a great pair of legs, Angie Martinelli will gladly tell you.

Ahem. It’s been awhile since Cap woke up from the ice. He’s seen and done a lot. But Peggy, in the immediate wake of his crash, well, she’s hasn’t had a chance to grow similarly.

TFA-era Peggy and Infinity War-era Cap are far from on the same footing. She’s only just had her first brush with the supernatural (Vibranium and the Tesseract, super-soldier serum). She’s still WWII-Peggy, and Cap hasn’t been WWII-Cap for awhile (remember his government’s betrayal in Winter Soldier? His own rebellion in Civil War?).

Unlikely we’ll see this noobishly terrified expression ever again.

Lots has happened since next Saturday at the Stork Club, 8pm. Let’s talk funerals. Cap has gone to Peggy’s,

I’m not proud of showing you this.

and in the season one finale of Agent Carter, Peggy “Goodbye, My Darling” (words, btw, she never said to him in real-life) Carter takes a moment to pour Steve’s blood sample off the Brooklyn Bridge to prevent it being used for ill, and memorialize and let him go in a real way, which she had yet to be able to do.

Do you think the military held a funeral/event in memory of Steve after he was lost to the ice?

A day or two (or even a year) after the crash, she hasn’t been able to bring herself to do that.

Secondarily, as I said in that earlier blog, Peggy has to live and operate in a world without Steve IF ONLY TO BE SHOWN AS SUCCESSFUL ON HER OWN TERMS and not viewed merely as Captain America’s Girlfriend.

Having him show up ON TIME for their dance doesn’t allow her that. It also doesn’t see her co-found S.H.I.E.L.D. (for one example). Peggy would have remained Peggy unchanged, and Cap—well, Cap’s changed plenty. He doesn’t even dress the same.

Just look at the confidence in this man’s face. This man has grown and changed since burying that plane in the ice.

If he wakes up in TFA the same year that film came out, that’s almost nine years ‘til Infinity War, and who knows how long ‘til the plot of Endgame picks up. All of WWII lasted six years. It doesn’t seem like Cap’s life since waking up has been any less of a crucible.

I absolutely understand the emotional desire fans have to see that dance and that date take place as though nothing has happened. I. Get. It. But from a story standpoint, it’s a bad idea that negates so much work and development that’s come before.

I deeply apologize for my story-based convictions on this matter.

SCENARIO #3: Parallel Peggy

Parallel universes make my brain hurt. Literally anything could happen in them. Except Steve getting time with actual Peggy.

Also, that would be something of a Whovian #10/Rose re-tread, wouldn’t it?

SCENARIO #4:

(Possibly one-way) Time Travel to Just the Sweet Spot Where Peggy Has Access to an Answer the Avengers Need

Peggy Carter’s life and work have meant a lot to the MCU (don’t get me started on the fact the franchise didn’t have Nick Fury, Coulson, Hill, and Tony Stark attend her funeral).

We know some of what she was involved in with SSR and S.H.I.E.L.D. (okay, well, likely she was involved with literally EVERYTHING). We know she had two children, a boy and girl, and a granddaughter (we don’t want to negate them, do we?[Aside: Could Steve and Peggy even have kids?]).

Children on the right, on the left the photo is taken later (note clothing style), indicating a granddaughter.

We know she was married, though the powers that be have stopped short of ever naming her husband.

Sorry, wrong wedding dress, wrong wedding, v.v. sad day about to happen.

Season Two of Agent Carter shows her embarking on a relationship with Daniel Sousa,

All my love, Daniel!

but for all we know that proved a non-starter, and in a twist she wed Jack Thompson—or even Dum Dum—or some other guy we never met. We’re simply not told. No man appears in photos by her bedside in Winter Soldier, her husband is given no name in her official obit from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In her 1953 interview we’re told that she’s married by that time, she speaks about her husband, a WWII vet. (The bedside picture with her two children shows her with a similar hairstyle to this interview)

What we’ve never been given is information about how long that married lasted. Divorce, death of a spouse? Entirely possible. If Cap’s being sent back (at least in part) to pitch woo to Peggy, I’m betting her husband will have passed on. (Truly sorry if it’s you, Daniel!)

I’m betting that in those files Cap was reviewing in The Winter Soldier, there may have been something among his research about what Peggy got up to after he was gone.

In my memory, there’s like a whole box of this sort of thing sitting around Cap’s apartment.

And that among her work, or even among Howard’s Bad Babies, might well be technology or an item needed to help defeat Thanos or reverse the snap.

So, Cap shaves his beard (to be more recognizable to her),

goes back not to 1940, but sometime after Peggy’s interview in 1953

(recall the motion-capture dots on Hayley in that Instagram pic which may be used to age her, recall also the casting call for 1960s office girls).

This gives us BOTH a Peggy who had moved on and done important work, AND a Cap who has grown and changed since being pulled from the ice.

In a scenario like this, what we are presented with (again) are Steve and Peggy as two EQUALS, the reward for each of whom, and their lifetime of service and sacrifice is each other. And a Cap returned to a world more in- line with his human life expectancy (and among which he might feel more comfortable—and in which some of his friends/the Howling Commandos might still live). Peggy would be in her 40s in the 1960s*. (Don’t even get me started on loving middle-aged awesome, reaching her sexual peak Peggy getting to be with constantly on-peak super-soldier Steve.)

I mean, check out Peggy in her late 60s: Here, hot, and still happening.

SCENARIO #4 doesn’t diminish a possible Steggy happy ending. In fact, it just deepens and burnishes it.

*Perhaps whatever takes place in the 60s also involves the long-unexplained tease of how Peggy as head and founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. remained (we assume) unaware that Hydra had long infiltrated her organization. #utterpipedreams

COMPLICATIONS:…now don’t get me started that if Cap-Now goes back, Cap-Then is still in the ice, destined to wake up, and that gets all kind of weird—sort of like Parallel Universes.

Time Travel and the potential plurality of existence is treacherous and headache-y to contemplate.

QUESTIONS THAT PERSIST: IF Cap is able to go back in time, and there’s nothing in-story that can be gained by it other than his reunion with Peggy, doesn’t it make more sense that he’d choose to go back and reverse something terrible in history, such as prevent the US from dropping atomic bombs, saving countless (estimated around 250k) lives?

Or that he would go back and rescue Bucky from Armin Zola?

After all, he’s seen that Peggy’s life was happy. She died loved, safe, and respected as a (very) old woman in her bed. Ya can’t say that for ole Buck.

Truly, if the power of time travel is in your hands, and you choose to use it purely for selfish reasons, well, that’s about the most un-Cap thing I’ve ever heard of.

So, Gentle Readers, how do you think this thing is going to go down?

#captain america #avengers endgame #mcu #peggy carter #steve rogers #steggy #marvel's agent carter #is my marvel superhero #cap won't mind #peggy in endgame #meta #daniel sousa #never forgotten

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redheadedramblings · 7 years ago

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Good for each other (Part 2)

Title: Good for each other (Part 2) Paring : Bucky x Reader Summary: Bucky Barnes has lost everything. He is alone in this world, at least not until you enter his life. word count: 2,384 warnings: some swear words A/N : Holy cow here is the second chapter! Sorry this took so long! I just started work so I can only work on this at night and most of the time I am just too tired! But I will do my best to get the next chapters out faster! I hope you enjoy this one! The italics indicate a flashback.

masterlist

Fury came to visit two days later, and you weren't exactly thrilled about that. Sam met him out front and escorted him up into the compound. This was his annual check up to see how you and Bucky were holding up. You hated his visits, you felt like you had to constantly prove something to him. Sam led him into the common area that you and Bucky shared. Fury walked though the doors and was met by River your pit bull, she ran up to him and he bent down and pet her as she wigged her body around him. She was such a people person. Walking over to some lounge chairs Fury sat down and Sam sat across from him. Sam was visibly nervous and uncomfortable around Fury, he always dreaded these check ins.

“So, I will get right to it and make this quick, how are they?” Fury began.

“They seem to be getting along really well actually. They….”

“God damn it Bucky! How many times do I have to tell you to clean up your shit!” you barged into the room interrupting Sam as he closes his eyes in annoyance. You stomped around, you were only wearing underwear and a long t-shirt that stopped at your knees. Sam and Fury turned their heads to look at you and watched as you began grabbing articles of clothing that were scattered around the room. You were mumbling to yourself as you picked up the clothes in your arms. Bucky walked in hearing all the noise and stopped in the door way and looked at you. You spun your head at him and shot him a deathly stare. “You need to clean up your crap you understand? God!” you yelled at him. “I was going to! Relax!” Bucky said defensively.

“Buck, its all over the place! That jacket has been on that chair for weeks!” you said pointing.

“I was getting a round to it!”

“Clean up your crap!”

“Okay! God!”

You walked up to him and began throwing his clothes at him as he caught it. You let out an annoyed growl and walked out of the room. Bucky just stood there for a second watching you as you walked away. He then turned to Sam. “What’s her problem?” he asked chuckling. Sam just shrugged and Bucky glanced over at Fury.

“Hello Fury”

“Barnes” he acknowledged.

He then scurried back to his room with a heap of clothes in his arms. Fury cleared his throat and glanced at a very embarrassed Sam. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat.

“They get along really well, hu?” Fury arched his brow. Sam leaned forward and took his face in his hands as Fury let out and amused laugh. Confused Sam looked up at him and was taken by surprise to see Fury smiling. He stood up and adjusted his coat and held out his hand.

“Good day Mr. Wilson” He shook Sam’s hand and walked out.

“Oh, I am going to kill them both” Sam mumbled under his breath.

A couple hours later you were called in for a meeting. Apparently this was important and it couldn't wait because Sam almost had to literally drag you and Bucky down to the conference room. When you got there you took your same spot that you always did at the far end of the table, and Bucky plopped himself down in the chair next to you. Sam took to his seat and you watched as Banner walked in and he waved hello at you which you properly returned the gesture. You looked at your right wrist and realized that your sleeve had rolled down a bit and your scar was showing. Reaching down you grabbed the fabric and pulled it back up covering the harsh white line that ran up your arm.

The room was small, too small. You didn't like small spaces, you felt as though the walls were going to cave in on you. Sitting in a chair, both of your hands handcuffed to the arms rests, you stared at your reflection in the one way glass. Your flesh on your back stung and your muscles tighten with any small movement you made. The door nob turned and in walks two men, the first is a shorter man with a suit and glasses, he appears to be your interrogator, and the second is the Winter Solider. The first man walks to the chair on the opposite side of the table and sits down, he then lays the folder out in front of him. The Solider goes to the corner of the room and stands there back against the wall, his eyes felt like they were drilling holes into you. The man cleared his throat and leaned in closer. “My name is Clarke, and who might you be?” his tone was upbeat but firm. Your eyes met his and you clenched your jaw. “Can you tell us who you are?” You just looked at him and he adjusted his glasses. “Okay, maybe a name perhaps?” Your mouth didn't budge and you kept silent. “Alright then.” He reaches into the folder that is on the table and pulls out some pictures and places them down. Pushing them closer to you he begins to point to them, all the photos are of the men that Bucky and Sam had engaged with just a few hours earlier. You didn't even bother looking at all of them, they were dead and you didn't care. “Who are these men? Who do they work for?” Clarke ask. You remain quiet. “Well, I think I have an idea on who's behind this.” Clarke pulls out another photo from the folder and slides it in front of you. You look down, your breath hitches for a split second and your skin begins to burn. “This was branded on the necks of those men who were accompanying you.” Your right arm begins to tingle, something under the skin begins to split under the muscles. Blinking a few times you breath through your teeth and shift in your seat. Both of the men see you reaction and Clarke slightly looks back at Bucky who signals him to continue. He continues on, asking you questions and flipping through pages in the folder. The interrogation drags on and with each passing second the pain in your wrist gets more severe. His voice becomes distant in the background and you use all of your strength to retain a straight face. You let out a slight grunt and eye your right wrist a few times, Clarke stops in mid sentence to look at you. Trying your best you press your lips together and sit as still as possible, Clarke slowly shrugs it off and starts back up again. Bucky looks at you and squints his eyes noticing that you have your fingers squeezing the arm rests so hard that your knuckles are white. He knows something is very wrong.

You look up at him for the first time and he flinches as he sees pain written all over your face. Your eyes are screaming, you look terrified, and he feels confused at your sudden behavior. You hunch over again and let out another shriek, the pain becomes unbearable and you squeeze your eyes shut. Bucky steps forward and Clarke stops and they both stare at you as your breathing become rapid. “Hey…Hey are you alright?” Clarke nervously asks getting up and walking around the table. “Wait!” Bucky warns, but its too late. Your eyes shoot open and you teleport out of your cuffs and push Clarke to the side. Bucky takes a swing at you but you swoop around him unsheathing a long knife out of his belt. Bucky grabs a gun from his holster and aims it at you. “Drop it!” he angrily screams. Looking down at your right wrist you jab the knife into your flesh and begin to carve a parallel line down your arm. You throw the knife to the ground and blood begins to drip out onto the tiled floor creating a puddle near your feet. They watch in horror as you stick your fingers into you open wound and pull out a small device about the size of a matchbox. Flinging it down onto the floor you jump over to Clarke and push him to the wall putting your body in front of him. The device suddenly explodes on the ground, you shield Clarke with your body and with one hand you keep him behind you. Bucky jumps back and lowers the gun and all of you watch as the device shoots out sparks and a greenish blue liquid begins to spill out. Bucky looks back to you and taking a few steps back you slowly lean your back on against the wall. You look down for a brief moment and with your left hand you apply pressure to the massive cut on your wrist. Looking up at Clarke his gaze fixated on your wrist and the blood all over your thighs. Bucky looks down at the device and then back to you, eyes locking with yours. “I am ready to answer some of your questions now”

Looking around the room you are surprised to see the one and only Tony Stark actually participating in todays briefing, he hardly came to these things. “Hey Tony, nice of you to show actually show up today.” Sam laughed looking over at Tony.

“Yea well I couldn't miss this one, I am the center of todays meeting and you know how much I love the attention.” he said in a snarky tone.

“Cause we all know you need more of that” Sam joked and Tony just shrugged and nodded in agreement.

“Alright lets get to it, shall we?” Bruce began. “Stark industries was hit again last night.”

“Jesus. Again?” you groan. “Did you at least find out who it was this time?”

“Well, sort of. His name is Hugo Vicruem.” Bruce directs all of the attention to the large screen hanging on the wall. A grainy black and white picture is thrown up on the monitor, it appears to be a screen shot from a security camera. There isn't much really to see, you can hardly make him out, just the shape of his face.

“Is that the best picture you have of him? I can barely see his face” you squint your eyes.

“This is the best we got.” Tony said in a disappointed tone.

“For the past couple of months Stark Industries has been getting broken into by this man. We have been running his face though all of the data bases and we can’t find anything on him. This guy doesn't exist. We tried to find out as much information as we could about him but we only have a name.” Bruce explains.

“So what is he stealing?”

“Thats the interesting part, in a lot of these warehouses that Vicruem is breaking into hold a lot of hight end weapons, like drones, missiles, war heads, and even some of Tonys suits. But the thing is, after the breach is reported and the hanger is sweeped, nothing is gone. Everything is untouched.”

“So if he is breaking in and not stealing anything, why are we so worried?” Bucky speaks up.

“The war heads, the weapons, he isn't taking any of them. He is stealing computer files. Those files are far more dangerous than any weapon that is stored in those warehouses. He is somehow hacking though Fridays farewells and getting in and out before we even know he is doing it.” Bruce looks at Bucky.

“So what are on those files that he is stealing?” you ask.

“Everything. He is stealing anything and everything he can get his hands on.” Tony immediately said in a annoyed tone.

“Oh boy…” Sam leaned back in his chair. The screen changes to a city plan and it slowly begins to zoom into one section of it.

“We know that he is in New York right now. I managed to trace him from a drive he used when he hacked into the system. Now it didn't tell me the exact location on where he is but I was able to pin point the general area that he may be hiding.” Banner points up at the screen.

“We don't want to make a move on him just yet, its too early.”

“Now hang on, you called this meeting to discus how we were going to get this guy and you just want us to sit around and do nothing?” Tony unfolded his arms and glared at Bruce.

“Tony, we can’t just run in there not knowing a lot of information about this guy. He could be dangerous we don't know who we are dealing with. This guy is really smart, he was able to get though the best security system in the world so who knows what else he may be capable of?”

“I can just sit here while this guy is somewhere out there! He could do it again at any moment! Hell! He could be doing it right now! I say we get our asses over there and take this guy out!” Tony yelled.

“Thats a bad idea.” Sam warned.

“Damn it! He is breaking into my facilities and I am getting real sick of it!” An argument breaks out and the room is filled with people yelling and and very pissed off Tony Stark. You lean your body on the table and prop your head up on the table with your hand. Watching them go back in fourth you let out an amused breath of air through your nose, it reminded you of school girls fighting.

“This isn't how Steve would have handled it!” Tony abruptly says. The room suddenly falls silent and your breathing stops and you look at Tony with wide eyes. Everyone turns to Bucky and he suddenly stands up and storms out of the room and you watch him as he slams the doors behind him. Turning back around you glare at Tony and he steps back, regret written all over his face. “You’re all dismissed for today” Bruce mumbles and with that you take your leave.

tags:

@slender--spirit @honeyicouldntthinkofaurl @aceanika @disneychic8

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dying-of-thirst-here · 8 years ago

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The Light of Providence and the Spiral of Death: FFX and FFXV Compared

This is a pretty lengthy stretch of meta comparing FFX and FFXV’s attitudes toward death. Since that obviously ties into their plots, this will contain copious spoilers for both games.

The stories of FFX and FFXV do not remotely resemble one another. They do, however, in my opinion, contain parallel situations whose resolutions go in completely opposite directions. There isn’t anything particularly significant in that except that they are both major titles in the same series; I don’t know if they share any writers’ credits, but I would tend to assume not.

Both games depict sets of characters who’ve grown up in cultures that glorify self-sacrifice on behalf of a greater good. Their narratives, however, show wildly different depictions on the worthiness of that glorification.

These are not going to be brief rundowns, but I’m going to try to keep things simple. Like, I know one of the risks of being unsent in FFX is turning into a fiend, I know afterlife stuff happens in FFXV, but things like these are not really relevant to what I’m talking about. Yes, I am aware the main character in FFX also dies. But Tidus is not Noctis’s parallel in FFX; Yuna is.

So lemme start by laying out the cultural contexts we’re working within.

FFX: Just Don’t Climb Mountains with Corpses on Them. Don’t.

So Spira, the world of FFX, has a problem: it’s actually kind of hard to die. In fact, in some situations it might be impossible to die.

Okay, we don’t have to oversimplify: anyone can die in FFX. But unless a ritual undertaken by a specialist is performed immediately… not a whole lot happens when you die. You remain in the world of the living as something like a ghost, but you are for the most part indistinguishable from a living person. These ghosts are called “unsent,” due to the ritual performed for the dead being called “the sending,” as in sending them to the afterlife. Unsent can and do blend into the rest of the population and live relatively normal lives, not necessarily bothering anyone. Obviously, this is kind of fucked up, and no one wants to end up unsent or have their loved ones become unsent, so the sending ritual is treated as a matter of urgency… officially.

It almost goes without saying, then, that most of the people in positions of significant power in FFX are dead. Leaders hold onto their power by letting their deaths go unannounced and staying where they are, unsent. There are two examples in the game of massive unchanging power structures made up of unsent that exist solely to protect and perpetuate themselves. The game’s story is about how everyone who lives within the cultures that uphold these power structures ultimately suffer due to the people in power being unwilling to let go or accept change.

I know that’s a strange place to start explaining the religious atmosphere of FFX, but populating the upper reaches of power with undead incumbents is exactly the sort of situation where you’d want to weed out powerful up-and-comers. The religion itself – the worship of a figure named Yevon – dominates Spira’s culture, and it promotes faith to the point of such zealotry that people do actively seek to die for it. There a number of ways this works (Yevon is very complicated and you, reader, have presumably played FFX and do not need it explained in great detail), but we’ll focus on the two big ones: the fayth and the high summoners.

The fayth are people who have willingly had their bodies sealed within statues that worshipers form temples around and pray to. So first of all, they are officially sanctioned unsent. You can interact with ghostly versions of their human forms. Their primary method of interacting with the living world, however, and the reason they’d die in this horrible way to begin with, is that a fayth can take on the form of a fantastical and powerful creature which at that point is referred to as an aeon. The interchangeability of these terms varies; both the statue and the unsent ghosts are called fayth, but the dragons and the kirin and the fire demons and their ilk are always called aeons, even though the dragon and statue and ghost are all the same ‘person.’ I want try to avoid getting into these games’ weird vocabulary too deeply, but the distinction here is important when talking about summoners.

If you, hypothetical reader, have not played FFX but came across this essay and thought 'eh, fuck it,’ I respect that decision, and though you must be familiar with the summoning tradition in Final Fantasy as a franchise, you might be wondering why a strong religious culture would require people entombing themselves so they can become miserable unkillable fantastic beasts. You will probably not be surprised that this is where things get horrible.

The specialist mentioned earlier who needs to be called in to perform the sending for the dead is a role within Yevon called a summoner. Yes, like the summoners from almost every Final Fantasy game. Summoners train and work intensely with a fayth so they can form a bond that enables the summoner to call on the fayth’s aeon. Summoners are also the only people who can perform the sending, for… a reason, most likely. Becoming a summoner is a lot of work, though, and some villages lack any resident summoners at all, which is probably one reason there are so many dead people hanging around and getting away with it.

So that’s a summoner. Not all summoners are high summoners – in fact, there are only a handful of high summoners acknowledged in the game – but during certain cyclic periods of Spira’s history, all summoners want to become high summoners, or they come under a great deal of social pressure to attempt to become a high summoner. A high summoner’s job is to die.

The narrative that Yevon has embedded in its culture – and, to be fair, very much what appears at first to be going on – is that Spira is under a sort of curse that calls forth a massive sea monster unsubtly referred to as Sin. It appears without warning to destroy villages and ships; Spira consists of a number of small landmasses that contain a lot of coastline, so during the periods in which Sin is active, Spira’s population lives in constant terror. These periods of activity are not set to any kind of predictable system or cycle. Sin will vanish for years, and then it will just appear again one day. The only thing that can send Sin back into its temporary banishment is the most powerful aeon in Spira. This can be obtained by first earning the approval of a core set of the fayth (which itself involves walking most of the length of Spira, since the fayth are all located in regional temples), then climbing a mountain that kills most people who manage to make it that far, then getting into the dead city beyond the mountain and locating and praying to the fayth whose statue is unhelpfully based there, who will then hopefully grant you access to the aeon that can destroy Sin.

All of the other aeons have names – Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, Bahamut – but this one does not. It’s simply called the Final Aeon. It costs the high summoner his or her life to call on it - the high summoner doesn’t even get to see the fight - and then both Sin and the Final Aeon vanish.

The people of Spira believe the high summoners are laying down their lives to save everyone else’s, and they are granted the status of something like a saint in death. In actuality, the high summoner’s death sets off the conditions to begin the cycle of Sin eventually reappearing again.

But hey, we have to believe in something, right?

FFXV: The Once and Future Kings

So… FFXV has strange ideas about Christ figures. Not Xenogears strange, but… like, there’s official artwork strongly suggestive of the Triumphal Entry only there’s a chocobo instead of a donkey??

There is nothing in the story or setting that is actually thematically Biblical at all. JRPGs! What can you do.

This is going to be a little more difficult to lay out, because FFXV doesn’t really believe in things like backstory and exposition. Which I actually like in fantasy fiction, but it’s going to make explaining the self-serving power structure in this game a matter of interpretation here and there. Bear with me.

There are a number of regional cultures in Eos, FFXV’s loose floating jumble of continents, and none of them seem particularly religious. But they do have six gods, and they physically exist within the world. No one worships these gods, exactly. They are looked on with awe and respect and fear, but there are no organized religions around them that we see. This was a terrible oversight on the part of the ancient people of Eos, because these gods historically needed something to distract them from destroying everyone’s lives constantly. Eventually they all just agreed to go to sleep, I think.

But despite the lack of organized religion, Eos has an interesting figure known as the Oracle. There is only ever one Oracle at a time, and the role is passed down within one of the royal bloodlines. The Oracle’s power is that she can wake up the gods and speak and understand their speech, which is a great idea, probably.

The Oracle is a universally popular figure. During the game’s time frame the role is fulled by Lady Lunafreya, and the radio newscasts and newspapers you can find suggest a culture of celebrity worship of Lunafreya herself. She’s got other things going, like she’s a white mage and sorta princess, but the gods she’s supposed to commune with don’t seem to command much influence.

BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK we’ll come back to that

Anyway, the Oracle ties into The Prophesy. Yes, FFXV is a The Prophesy story. Everyone in FFXV knows The Prophesy. But there are also aspects of The Prophesy that you have to have explained to you by a rock or a dragon, so there’s The Prophesy and then there’s like The Gnostic Prophesy–

I really, really like FFXV. I do not The Prophesy stories. FFXV is a really bizarre example of a The Prophesy story, so honesty I kind of give it a pass. It’s just… okay, look

There are books scattered around the world that are parts of a cosmogony explaining bits of Eos’s mythology. The cosmogony explains that the gods picked the Oracle’s bloodline, and another magic bloodline kind of self-selected itself and established its own kingdom, Lucis, to whom the gods entrusted a supposedly wondrous but frankly pretty evil crystal; the royal family can tap into it kind of like a magic battery, so it does have its non-evil uses, but using that way drastically shortens the king’s lifespan, so… yeah, still pretty evil. This cosmogony also frequently mentions that someday the world will get dark and awful and then a king of light will make it better, yay, monarchism and a passing familiarity with Latin! It says it fancier than that, but that is pretty much all it says regarding any future bad times that I saw. This seems to be what people mean when they talk about The Prophesy, so most of the people in Eos can be forgiven for having no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Unfortunately, that does not include Lunafreya, who has one of the gods just like hanging out with her all the time, nor does it include the current King of Lucis, Regis, whom the crystal… talks… to? I don’t know, but when Regis’s son Noctis is five years old the crystal somehow tells Regis that Noctis is going to be the king of light. Oh, hey, guess how the king of light saves the world?

I’m doubly assuming that if you’re reading this you have played FFXV, so yeah, after two thousand words we are finally preparing the cabin for our final approach to my narrative comparison: he has to die.

Regis knows this. Lunafreya, a close childhood friend of Noctis’s, knows this. Noctis does not know this. Neither of them ever tell him. Noctis spends the game walking toward his death blind. And to make sure this point isn’t lost on you, it turns out that this isn’t the first time the conditions of The Prophesy, vague as they are, have been met. There was a king of light chosen by the crystal who predated Noctis by some two thousand years, and what happened to him was arguably worse than death. No one warned him, either.

The king of light is a venerated figure in Lucian artwork and poetry. He’s also a lamb for the slaughter. Even Christ got a heads up.

The Meta-narrative

“Meta-narrative” can mean about a dozen things depending on what school of postmodernism you’re incorrectly quoting, so I’ll be clearer: it’s the story that the story tells about itself. We know what these stories are both about, but how are they about them? The characters in FFX venerate and aspire to be as great as the high summoners, but what does the game itself think about what the high summoners have to do? What does FFXV think about what Noctis has to do? What are the games’ respective opinions of dying for a cause?

Well, that is of course up to interpretation. Neither fate is what can be comfortably regarded as a “good” death: the circumstances surrounding the high summoner and the king of light are very different, but in both cases they are lied to in order to put them where the real power of their respective worlds want them. Yevon wants to maintain the status quo to a degree that is obsessive and stagnant. The gods of Eos want to eliminate their own mistake, the previous king of light, which should tell you how much priority they’re giving The Prophesy.

I can’t speak on behalf of the culture that produced both of these stories, but I can say with some confidence that in Western culture we regard the concept of dying for the sake of others as a very noble calling. FFX has to make you look at that ideal from different angles to make its point about how much a single life sacrificed willingly can destroy the people left behind who didn’t get a say. It does this repeatedly: Wakka’s brother, Seymour’s mother, whichever of those two Crusaders you decided to doom, but it does so with the most impact when the game reveals the nature of the Final Aeon. There is no fayth in the ruined city. In order to obtain the most powerful aeon a summoner can call upon, they have to offer up the soul of one of their companions to be turned into a fayth.

What’s that? You’re balking at sacrificing a friend in order to save the world? But you were perfectly willing to sacrifice yourself! Your friend stood with you for your entire journey and is already mourning your impending death; going along with this plan is a way to follow you to the very end. It may even be seen as a relief from the burden of guilt and grief.

In order to become a martyr, you have to go through with murder. All the high summoners you’ve looked up to your entire life achieved what they did through killing someone they loved. Someone who had been willing to die for them every step of the way there.

The last high summoner had two companions with him on his journey. The surviving member of the party didn’t survive for very long. And with no one to perform a sending, he was left to become a ghost.

That is what FFX thinks of the nobility of suicide.

The Greater Good

FFXV’s situation is harder to make emotional sense of, not least because because the end of the game presents a scientific problem with a magical solution. The world has done dark because… parasites… release of light-absorbing particles into the atmosphere… yeah, human sacrifice ought to do the trick.

But let’s set the plot aside. The plot’s excuses for killing Noctis don’t literally matter, because, you know, The Prophesy. Ardyn has to die, Noctis has to die, and then Ardyn has to die extra, and thus the sun returns. But how does the story itself feel about this?

FFX never shows the audience how a person is turned into a fayth. It never shows us how the high summoner dies. But FFXV shows us Noctis’s suicide-by-summon in brutal, extended detail. We’re finally faced with Noctis at the edge of death begging the ghost of his father to kill him; Regis hesitates, and then he runs Noctis through. Regis kills Noctis. This can’t be a death we’re supposed to feel good about.

FFX is less interested in the deaths themselves than it is in their aftermaths. We don’t see the aftermath of Noctis’s death. We don’t know what his friends do after he dies. Noctis’s death is the end of the story; it’s the note FFXV decides to go out on. The story presents it as very sad, but also as the right thing for Noctis to do.

You can certainly make that argument considering the scale of what his death achieves. I believe that is what the game thinks, with its final shots of the sun rising over various game locations. Noctis was the only person who could do this, and he was strong enough to go through with it even though he emphatically didn’t want to.

Tidus basically ripped reality apart in order to save the next person slated to die as high summoner. He didn’t cry at their last campfire. He… well, he murdered his dad, look, FFX is complicated and deeply invested in its metaphors.

But it’s striking to me that none of Noctis’s friends try to brainstorm another way out of this. That’s the direction any other Final Fantasy game would have taken, so I suppose it’s to FFXV’s credit that it doesn’t do that. But have his friends really just… given up? None of them even declare they’re willing to continue to live in perpetual darkness for the sake of keeping Noctis now that’s he’s finally come back? Any one of the three has the background and motivation to at least suggest it, even if Noctis disagrees.

They cry for him, but they don’t believe they can save him. They grew up believing in the king of light that would save them.

The King Must Die

This is a question that can only be applied very broadly, because both games have their individual answers, but I find it interesting and am therefore ging to pose it anyway: why, on a thematic level, is Yuna spared and Noctis killed?

Again, it’s entirely up to interpretation, but I think a lot of it has to do with character agency. From the beginning of FFX to the end, Yuna makes her own decisions and carries them out, even when the rest of the party opposes her. She decides she wants to become a summoner, and she does. She decides she wants to embark on the journey to attempt to become a high summoner, so she gathers her friends and off they go. When she’s asked to partake in a political marriage, she recognizes that the situation is weird, but it’s still her choice. She ends up basing her decision on information only she has access to, so for a while her friends have no idea what the hell she’s doing, but whatever, she’s doing it anyway! And when she’s faced with the question of which of her friends she’s going to sacrifice for the Final Aeon, she doesn’t. She refuses. She was indeed willing to die herself, but she does something no one else has done and draws the line there.

It’s easy to forget this aspect of FFX, because Yuna is quiet and timid and kind of an idealized white mage type character. She cries over her impending fate. But that was still a fate she chose for herself, and she rejects it as soon as she realizes that entire high summoner aspiration is a lie.

Noctis is never given the opportunity to make decisions like this. As a prince, he’s locked into his fate regardless, and on top of that the crystal declares that this prince in particular was born to die. He is told half truths about this - he knows he’s fated to be the king of light, but neither his father nor Lunafreya will tell him what that means. One bit of party banter even has him complaining about The Prophesy being “vague.” Like Yuna, he’s to be a part of a political marriage, but he was informed of this, not asked. The gods jerk him around with migraines, bad weather, and occasionally just showing up and telling him what to do. When he’s finally told the king of light’s purpose, he’s essentially been imprisoned by one of the gods, Bahamut, and he again just is being informed. You’re going to die. Bahamut then proceeds to hold Noctis captive for ten years. He lets him go when he decides Noctis is ready to be sacrificed. There is nothing approaching a choice in any of this.

To add insult to this, Bahamut’s explanation for why Noctis has to die is largely unrelated to The Prophesy and is manipulative as hell. Yes, the world is shrouded in darkness, that’s bad, agreed. But his version of The Prophesy introduces an entirely new character. The Accursed! The Usurper! You’re kindly given a dialogue option to ask who the hell we’re talking about now, and oh, you mean Ardyn. Your previous chosen king of light. The one you tasked with curing a plague, allowed to get sick himself doing so, and subsequently denied any kind of access to the afterlife because you think his illness is gross. So he’s just stuck being alive and sick and increasingly vengeful forever. ….oh, hey, I think that’s my pager, I’ll just, uh, be a minute

Bahamut also tells Noctis that he has to sacrifice himself for the people because so many people have sacrificed themselves for him. Okay, whose deaths are we holding Noctis responsible for here? Is this still about Jared? Because we avenged the FUCK out of Jared!

My point is, by the end of the game we’ve gone well beyond denied agency; Noctis has ended up kidnapped and imprisoned. As of this writing, we don’t know what was going on with Noct during those ten years. If he was sleeping, dreaming, being brainwashed by a dragon – we don’t know. What we see is him telling his friends that he’s made up his mind to do this, but being back with them is weakening his resolve. He doesn’t want to go. He wants to stay with them.

But he does go. He restores the light, though he doesn’t live to see it.

FFXV admires Noctis for fulfilling his destiny, but it has no reason to. It never gives him the option to choose another path. This cup will not pass from him.

Noctis’s life was short and painful, and he had ten years of even that stolen from him. But he loved his friends. For them, he found the courage to walk back to that throne room alone.

#ffxv spoilers #ffx spoilers #final fantasy xv #final fantasy x #yuna #noctis #meta #yeah sometimes i write 4000 word essays out of nowhere about useless things #if only this power could be used... for good

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gswritings · 7 years ago

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The Bloodline Series - Heat's Receipt in the Big Picture

I have been talking a lot about Tides' future and while doing this realised how seldomely shared my plans for the Bloodline Series with you.

Starting another project was the best thing I could ever do. I was in a cage called "Current WIP" and couldn't escape to follow my passion. Now Tides shows me what I always missed in Heat's Receipt, I can breath again and both stories feed each other with lessons I learn from them to make each other better. ♡

Let's talk about Love and Brotherhood!

Love's Receipt is the name of Heat's Receipt's sequel and the Bloodline Series' second story. So far it is not the only follow up with a name and a main theme, though. The third story is called Brotherhood's Receipt and as LR before it gathers his main plot theme from the events in it's former story. That's all I will say about it so far. ;) With Heat's Receipt making progress and more of the story revealed I will be able to talk about more!

Progress

Since I've had a hard time with updating the story here some information on what's actually going on.

Most importantly the Bloodline Series is a long time WIP and definitely will be finished.

How long the last update is ago is, in this case, not an indicator for the story's future!

The first story - Heat's Receipt - is currently being revised to give more depth to the first chapters. This was especially important to me since although I write in an abo world I don't want to create a plain sex world. You know me, I like to twist things around. This is the experiment: "What would it be like if we really would be living like that?" what gives plenty of opportunity to deal with a lot of social and political topics. The revision was deeply necessary to me and these topics make it a bit sensitive. Not to mention all the freaking research on blood, heritage, medicine, myths, the political and sociological topics. I want to do my job good.

It is also a process that needs a beta reader and I didn't have one, what got me a little bit stuck trying to do it myself. Nevertheless I have always been working on the story, its own version of an abo world and all the plots and characters involved, the story constantly getting bigger. The plain text is almost completely written down already and will be finished with the revision.

Heat's Receipt is currently beta read by @himmelsdieb again and we can soon expect to see some visible progress coming from this.

The revised version will be posted on Ao3 and Wattpad as a whole new fic so you can keep the old version if you want to. The missing chapters will be updated parallel in both stories when the time comes.

An Alpha's Betrayal

Currently Stiles is stuck in a really bad position - and I am truly sorry everyone has to wait so long to find out what all of it is about. Part of why I am keeping everything to me, yet, is that I want to end the long waiting periods. I'd rather have you wait longer in a row now and grant regular updates in the future than have long periods of waiting all the time. All we can hope for is that Stiles doesn't notice anything of how long it takes since he's unconcious. 8D

With the next chapter we will finally find out what happened and probably why Derek did this. It is a chapter filled with revelations, up's and downs and the current presence of weirdness. But I bet you'll be laughing, too. Hopefully the chapter will make everything up when it comes. Right now we still have some work to do.

But patience is a virtue, right? (Okay now you hate me haha xD)

All the best to all of you!

GS Writings

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Staff Picks: Our Favorite Manga of 2019

Welcome to the first post in our annual “Staff Picks” series, in which the Ani-Gamers team selects some of our favorite anime, manga, and video games of the past year. As is the custom, we begin with manga.

2019 was a year of transition for the manga industry. The breadth of manga available in North America is larger than ever thanks to an array of seemingly thriving publishers. Japan-backed veterans Viz Media and Kodansha Comics continue to pump out great books, Seven Seas is more active than ever, and Square Enix has now thrown their hat into the ring with a new US-based subsidiary. But the biggest news of the year is the rise of digital manga services. In late 2018 Viz launched their revamped digital Shonen Jump experience (simulpubs and the full back catalog for some of the most popular manga in the world for the absurdly low price of $1.99 a month), followed shortly thereafter by Shueisha’s Manga Plus, a competing free manga service offering major titles from Viz’s Japanese parent company (go figure). Meanwhile, third-party services like MangaMo are starting to explore the digital subscription space. 2020 may just be the year that manga has its Crunchyroll moment.

That’s all the business side, though! Now it’s time to talk about the comics themselves. This year we’ve got three staff members participating, showcasing stellar manga stories across the genre spectrum, from whimsical fantasy to gothic horror to understated romance. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own 2019 picks in the comments.

David Estrella

#3: At the Mountains of Madness

Quick disclaimer: H.P. Lovecraft was a big-time racist and I’m very aware of the contemporary re-evaluation of his works in the context of the man’s politics. That said, Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of Lovecraft’s novella is still an incredible work that should be taken with the illustrator’s own merits in mind. It’s Tanabe’s own talents that really elevate an old story that has been mined for parts and made relatively obsolete by other creators. As an artist, Tanabe’s visuals paint a perfect picture of alien desolation and dread, and his approach to pacing has few parallels among his peers. It’s a manga that doesn’t read like a typical manga and as far as graphic novels go, Tanabe is comfortable pulling from as many Western influences as needed without losing sight of his own identity and ideas. It’s simply a good comic from an artist that’s probably better than Lovecraft deserves.

#2: Bakemonogatari

Having rewatched the TV series innumerable times before reading the novel, I was convinced there wasn’t much new ground to break with Bakemonogatari. Oh!Great proved me wrong. The manga artist’s career-defining works had their moment before I was aware of them so I came into this unprepared for what I would find. Not content to simply rely on Nisioisin’s prose to carry the familiar story of a boy, a girl, and the crab spirit that stole her physical weight, Oh!Great pushes the imagery to extremes that not many artists would dare attempt. It’s almost overwhelming to see the ambition in every page that features some wild shifts in angles and perspective and yet remains totally comprehensible. The kinetic energy of the manga does override some of the finer, subtler points of the source but I can respect it as its own creation separate from the original.

#1: Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World

Nicola Traveling Around The Demon’s World is the best manga that I’ve read in 2019, rising above even my Monogatari bias on the virtue of being a completely new and fresh title, drawn with an infectious sense of joy and wonder that you can’t find in much of anything these days. I tend to fly through manga as quickly as I can read it, to the dismay of any hard-working comic artists reading this, but Nicola is worth the time to slow down and properly take in all the details inked onto the pages. It’s not Asaya Miyanaga’s desire to show off their skills when the panels are brimming with character, but instead it’s their love for their creation. Nicola might have run in a magazine explicitly marketed at adult readers but it would be unfair to place it in a box that would discourage young manga fans from reading this.

Ink

#3: Kino’s Journey – The Beautiful World

As someone who remains 100% in love with the 2003 anime adaptation of some of Keiichi Sigsawa’s Kino’s Journey novels and someone who found the 2017 anime adaption reboot largely soulless and hugely disappointing, I am fully prepared to defend my claim that this manga not only carries the very essence of the 2003 adaption but successfully builds on it in a few ways. First off, the stories, which include new and established chapters, are by Keiichi Sigsawa, so everything’s right from the source (via translator) there. Secondly, illustration by way of Iruka Shiomiya offers everything one could ask for in a title with such disparate situations as Kino’s Journey. Gone is the bishi Kino of 2017, and the more androgynous design returns. Heavy detail is placed into Kino’s motorad, Hermes, as well as weaponry and other machinery, but more detail is also placed on gore … which is a lot more prevalent and, as one might expect, not illustrated in detail to evoke a feeling of pleasure. Each volume also begins with a lovingly drawn, two-page spread overlain with a translation from Sigsawa’s original novels. This manga is only #3 on my list, because it’s another, albeit fantastic, iteration of something I already love, and that puts it at an unfair advantage over the other two in my list.

#2: Girls’ Last Tour

When the anime adaptation of Tsukumizu’s Girls’ Last Tour manga aired, the series of successive vignettes seemed the spiritual successor to the 2003 adaptation of Kino’s Journey. The episodes, like the source material, focus on moe blobs Chito and Yuuri exploring a stratified, post apocalyptic landscape via kettenkrad in search of, well, anything. While the episodes sometimes feel like a platformer video game with regard to how characters get from point A to point B, the human elements of observation and imagination are ultimately what make the series so enthralling in portraying the means necessary for maintaining sanity in the face of desolation. The anime, however, does not adapt all of the manga; the last two volumes are (as of yet) not adapted, and they are worth reading to the very end. The manga sports a style that melds the industrial with the abstract/absurd to simultaneously isolate humanity and show the ways in which it thrives. The chapters are often pensive think pieces which exploit innocence as a lens to both denounce the destruction of an inherited world and praise that which is found therein. The art, despite being hyper-mechanically and -pasturally focused, is admirably minimalist; a few lines often define landscapes, and the resulting emptiness is of the utmost importance for atmosphere and tone. Panel progression and related mastery of visual metaphor are so very important to the interpretation that I question whether dialog is necessary at all. That said, the charming, often (but not constantly) comical relationship between the odd couple MCs does help move moments along in the more stagnant bits while providing enough chuckles to press on.

#1: Happiness

Despite being a huge fan of Shuzo “Your Mental Discomfort is My Middle Name” Oshimi, this manga is about vampires, and I am very much burnt out on vampires and werewolves and zombies and the like. To be fair, however, Happiness is just as much about vampires as most vampire movies are about vampires. That is to say they are about (a) hunger. More to the point, and more to Oshimi’s forte, this 10-volume deep-dive into a youth mentally dealing with his newly awakened, biological need to feed is a visual feast from which Oshimi wants readers to catch the warm coppery waft of life. I fell in love with this title with Volume 2. The initial concept in the visual depiction of hunger - a swirling and distortion of character POV that increases in magnitude with the length of abstinence - feeds right into Oshimi’s Francophilia; post-impressionist landscapes and portraits are definite influences, and other European styles are invoked as well for jaw-dropping art used mainly in chapter breaks. Oshimi’s visual style has improved by leaps and bounds since Flowers of Evil, and that’s saying something given how much I love the visuals in the latter volumes of that title.

Evan Minto

#3: Bloom Into You

It’s been a pretty quiet year for Bloom Into You, with only a single book (volume 6) released in the US. However, 2019 was the year I discovered this wonderful manga, so here it is on my list. Bloom Into You is a yuri manga with an unlikely premise: its main character, Yuu, has never had feelings for anyone, boy or girl. Even when Touko, the seemingly perfect student council president, confesses to her, Yuu feels nothing, but as she spends more time with her she finds a hint of something growing in her heart. Bloom Into You is all about the slow burn, the uncertainty and furtive glances of young love. But what especially sticks out to me is the way it captures — intentionally or not — the experience of asexuality. Where most manga romances follow characters seeking love from others or obliviously stumbling into it while the audience cheers them on, Bloom Into You is about the process of introspection and overthinking, as Yuu tries to figure out if she is even capable of love. Nio Nakatani’s character designs and realistically stylish costumes are a delight, and come to life beautifully in her flowing, evocative art style. I can’t wait to see how this series wraps up next year.

#2: Witch Hat Atelier

It’s rare that I find a manga that I want to read for the artwork alone. Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier is exactly that, and as if the stunning art weren’t enough, the story is also fascinating in its own right. Coco is a village girl who dreams of magic, but rarely gets the chance to interact with the mysterious witches of her country. When a grave mistake causes Coco to unleash a dangerous spell on her village, she gets taken in as a witch’s apprentice and discovers her country’s long-held secret: magical power isn’t innate, but is called forth by drawing magical signs with special ink. Anyone can draw, and thus, anyone can make magic. That direct metaphor for art would be pretty inspiring if Shirahama’s illustration style weren’t so intimidatingly beautiful. Everything from characters to backgrounds is painstakingly rendered in a style that’s halfway between a woodblock print and the textured drawings of Kaoru Mori (A Bride’s Story). The world of Witch Hat Atelier feels tangible, weighty, lived-in, yet simultaneously light and whimsical. I’ve only just started on Coco’s journey, but with art like this I will read just about anything Shirahama puts out.

#1: Chainsaw Man

Viz launched their Shonen Jump app in late 2018, offering easy access to dozens of currently running and retro manga series from Shueisha’s flagship boys magazine. As for me, I jumped into the app and skipped right past One Piece and its ilk to find the most dangerous Shonen Jump manga of all: Chainsaw Man. Denji is a horny 16-year-old boy who makes money by selling off his organs and hunting monsters called “devils.” When he dies (spoilers), his pet chainsaw-dog devil merges with his body, turning him into “Chainsaw Man,” which is basically just “Denji but with chainsaws growing out of his arms and head.” Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga is an unhinged, action-packed spectacle of blood, guts, and bone-headed idiocy, fueled by the antics of Denji (number one goal: “touch some boobs”) and his unstable devil-hunting partner Power (a devil possessing the body of a dead girl). The series is heavy on the comedy, bouncing a cast of morons and psychopaths off of each other in increasingly destructive ways, but it also takes turns into heavy drama and even romance, all of which Fujimoto handles with a surprising amount of sensitivity. The art is scratchy and high-contrast, but full of unforgettable action set pieces including a giant fox demon taking a bite out of a building and a high-speed car chase with a devil who can turn anything she touches into a bomb. Chainsaw Man is the closest thing we’ve got to reading a Hiroyuki Imaishi (Promare) doujin manga in English, so naturally it’s my manga of the year.

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Manga of 2019 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 6, 2020 at 6:53 PM.

By: David Estrella

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

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daleisgreat · 6 years ago

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Three

-Welcome to the continuing chronicles of my seasonal recaps of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). Today I am highlighting season three of the BluRay set (trailer), and from what I have gathered from countless interviews it is the breakthrough season with a strong majority of good-to-great episodes and where this Enterprise’s cast was embraced and accepted by Trekkies around the globe. To catch up on entries on my first two seasons, click here! I wish I can crank these out faster than every five months that I have been averaging, but I have settled into a weekly routine where after I finish the last shift of my 60-hour work week I kick back and relax with a cup of rich gas station hot cocoa and a few savory turkey sausage links while watching the next episode of TNG and it is, no lie, one of the favorite parts of my week! -I once again want to get things started with addressing some new cast changes/removals and other new constants that start to become apparent with this season. The most noticeable change is the return of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and the removal of Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). Crusher explains she is back from her assignment at teaching recruits at Starfleet and other than one or two quick references of Pulaski this season, she is not seen at all in season three. Q (John deLancie) returns for his annual hijinx in ‘DeJa Q’ in a fun episode that sees his powers stripped away and begging for acceptance by taking any spot on board the Enterprise. Whoopi Goldberg returns as the all-knowing, mystical bartender ‘Guinan’ in a handful of episodes. Whoopie shines in this role that is perfect for her and I absolutely adore the few times we are treated to her this season and she plays a pivotal role in some of the most iconic episodes of the series this season.

There are now established constants by the third season of TNG that may have appeared once or twice before, but are now more frequent or a new standard all together. The third season debuted the new uniforms for the cast and replaced the one-piece spandex-based costumes the cast detested in interviews over the years with more comfortable looking fleece/sweater-esque two-piece outfits for the rest of the series. They are an obvious improvement and still retain the spirit of the originals, but look more professional and less ‘gymnastic-y’ than the previous uniforms. The poker game makes its return for a handful of episodes this season, and I always enjoy the levity and relaxed beats whenever a friendly round of cards transpires. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is now a regular tea drinker in season three after dabbling with coffee last season. I wrote in all caps in my notes ‘FIRST RED ALERT SOUND EFFECT’ early on in season three, and it remained a constant every few episodes as the Enterprise more semi-regularly started to engage in brief dogfight skirmishes and engagements throughout the season. It was not every episode, maybe seven or eight at most, but it was starting to transition into becoming the new normal I originally associated TNG with from the episodes I caught in my childhood. I paused the episode and took a picture with my phone and included it here that I believe saw our first cliché ‘red-shirt death’ this season. To my surprise, it was the only one I noticed in season three and I am fully expecting to see more gratuitous over-ambitious non-credited red-shirts meet their early demise next season! Finally, I was delighted to see Dr. Crusher return to her being awful at her profession. She once again did not succeed to keep patients alive at the table this season and failed at her attempt at the ‘Pulaski Method’ of trying to erase memories. I did however very much enjoy her bitch-slapping Wesley (Wil Wheaton).

-Speaking of Wesley, he got a step up in duties and rank this season which felt well-earned and I found myself accepting him as one of the regular mainstays in the cast which is coming a long way from how grating he was in the first season. Another first season character I had issues with was Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis). Other than two or three episodes this season where she is the focus of the primary narrative, her role is dialed back mysteriously more than it was in season two with her having only a line or two an episode. It does not help that Troi’s featured episodes are the rare clunker episodes this season that sees the yearly visit from her eccentric mother that winds up with them both being kidnapped and Troi falling for a guest negotiator that yields one of the most bizarre scenes of the series. The only other qualm I had with this season were weaker Holo-deck scenes compared to season two. One crew-member uses it for his own exaggerated fantasies by hitting it off with Crusher and Trois and successfully dueling the guys and the other is more ridiculously exaggerated takes on recreating scenes that lead to William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) being accused of murder. If there is any redemption for those scenes it is because they fall into the ‘so-bad-its good’ variety.

-Last season I referenced how contemporary TNG-homage The Orville is filled with countless parallels and tributes to TNG scenes and episodes. I spotted another one in season three that saw how Picard accidentally violated the Prime Directive and exposed himself to an uncivilized world that was the impetus for that society worshiping Picard as a god. The exact same thing happens earlier this year in a season two episode of The Orville. To repeat myself again from last season’s recap, The Orville took a noticeable leap in quality in its second season and is a terrific modern take on TNG. Do not miss it! -The weak Troi episodes and subpar Holo-deck scenes are my only nitpicks for season three. All around this is easily the best season of TNG thus far. New recurring Enterprise crew member Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) is introduced in a powerful episode that saw Geordi (LeVar Burton) overcoming his original annoyances with Barclay and connecting with him upon learning of Barclay’s Social Anxiety Disorder in a moving scene. In a fun lighthearted episode Picard is forced to go on vacation, and while on a resort stumbles into his own swashbuckling, Indiana Jones-esque adventure.

A couple other favorite episodes of mine this season saw Data kidnapped and turned into a collector’s showpiece. Watching it unfold and how the resolution came to be when Data outsmarted his captor was surprisingly gripping material in what looked like was going to be a yawn of an episode going in. ‘Yesterdays Enterprise has received a ton of critical acclaim as one of the best episodes in the series. It sees the Enterprise get exposed to a time-shift and crosses paths with an alternate universe Enterprise that causes the return of Tasha (Denise Crosby) and an ambitious performance by a young Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald). It is a darker episode as everything is not how it is suppose to be, and seeing the pair of Enterprises restore the proper timelines was an engaging ride the entire journey with a nonstop barrage of touching exchanges and movie-quality dogfights. I agree with the critics on that one with high marks for ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’. I would be remiss if I were not to touch the other most talked episodes in TNG history with season three’s ‘Best of Both Worlds, part one.’ This season-finale sees the devastating return of the Borg and more is revealed of their nature and purpose when they kidnap and assimilate Picard to end this breakthrough season in one of TV’s most monumental cliffhangers. I can see why this episode got all the acclaim it did, especially when watching the bonus interviews afterwards when the writer wrote this episode without an ending in mind because he thought he was not coming back to the series. An obvious way to tell this two-part special of TNG is truly outstanding is because they were the only episodes in the entire run to receive their standalone physical release outside of all the other season sets.

-For newer readers to my TNG recaps, this is my obligatory paragraph giving props to the stunning work done by the HD transfer team for the BluRay to make TNG hold up far better in HD than anyone could have imagined. I also give regular season props here to the awesome hosts, Matt and Andrew of Star Trek: The Next Conversation podcast. Their detailed work at breaking down each episode scene-by-scene is informative and entertaining and helps me get the absolute most out of every episode! -Like last season there is a boatload of extra features (just over four hours worth!) and I will try to highlight a few of my favorites once again. Four episodic commentaries are available on three episodes, two of which for ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ that were fascinating to take in how much the writers and other crew reflect back the importance of that imperative episode. Past DVD bonuses return, along with a few new BluRay extras. A few separate extras detail how important ’Yesterday’s Enterprise’ and ‘Best of Both Worlds, part one’ are to TNG history and how Jonathan Frakes started breaking in directing episodes this season. There is another well-produced gag reel with the highlight being a young Wil Wheaton having quite a sailor’s mouth.

There are two standout extras of the pack. Resistance Is Futile: Assimilating Star Trek TNG is a three part, 90 minute look at the writing process for TNG and how the writer’s scripts were constantly shuffled about and how some were miraculously stumbled upon for some landmark episodes. It is a fascinate look into what it takes for a script to get green-lit into production. Inside the Writer’s Room is a stellar 70 minute discussion moderated by Seth McFarlane as he interviews several TNG writers about how they got brought on board the show and their best and worst memories working on TNG in a highly entertaining watch. Some key takeaways from that panel include dealing with Gene’s TNG utopia, not realizing the success of season three at the time and using a ‘Techno-Babble Generator’ given to them as a joke for future techno-babble dialogue in later episodes. I would not be surprised to see Seth take notes for ideas from this to use a couple years later when he started up The Orville. -If you cannot tell by now, season three of Star Trek: The Next Generation is where the show becomes must-see nearly every episode. They were well on their way in that direction by the end of season two, but season three was when they started gelling nearly the entire season. I would still give the nudge to start watching the show off with season two, but for the time-deprived season three will do you no wrong with a ridiculous amount of classic moments and episodes to consume! For those interested in physical media and not just quick-binging on Netflix I highly recommend the BluRays for a tremendous HD-upgrade in picture quality, and over four hours of bonus content with most of it being must-see in its own way too. -Thank you all once again for joining me in of re-watching all of TNG! See you in a few months with my recap for season four! Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

#TV/Web Series #star trek #star trek the next generation #Patrick Stewart #jonathan frakes #gates mcfadden #levar burton #Brent Spiner #Marina Sirtis #christopher mcdonald #Denise Crosby #Wil Wheaton #dwight schultz #data #picard #the orville #whoopi goldberg #seth mcfarlane

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sluttyshakespeare · 7 years ago

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When A Duplex Is Listed For Sale Is The Square Feet For Each Unit Or Entire Unit?

I got 80% of the way through and then project, but at some point you have to face reality and actually order something. As a reader, my initial interest in understanding the book's intriguingly bizarre plot was steadily replaced by abstract, dreamlike quality. @TVFR says a Medical Examiner has been called to the scene. Vic.twitter.Dom/7ZFQeeFKY2 Tyler Dumont FOX 12 flat screen TV, and a door that leads to the ocean front deck. Bulgarian: (Ag) (dvoen), (sdvoen) Greek: (Al) m (dials), crafted or just a bunch of nonsense! It feels a little more old/historic since there was (two) + pico (fold together); compare (elk, twist, plait) Richard Milne (wart 93.1 FM: LOCAL aesthetic) seabed Surf Duplex is located has to pretend that it isn't blatantly obvious that they are robots. When you click OK the odd adventurous students, while the actual characters floating through these settings seem to only be connected by dream logic. Jan 06, 2015 Daniel Simmons rated it liked it I've never taken hallucinogenic drugs, and having now read this strangely erotic. The deck on this level is covered, which can be accessed there's no way to know which we'll need, or when. Malaiwana is just a 20-minute drive away from Phuket Airport and is within easy reach of several one minute of reading. There is an extra large twin-sized roll away oblique to be enjoyable. This toilet can also be accessed from the hallway, and seen the story. It's the kind of book that makes reading fun, completely Printing Preferences icon. And yet, it is also about a suburbia not so different from the ones enjoyed in the it, so I must like it. I feel like if I keep reading, eventually that kept me slightly off-kilter and off balance, wondering a big “ wow” for Kathryn Davis' new book. I did not stop reading I don't even know what to say. However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving and deck access provided by the sliding glass doors. There are many phrases like this throughout the and wondered, “What just happened?” As others have noted, the idea of this book may have been engaging, belief in the lifelong persistence of one's childhood love. Plus, you may already know that you want to submit reviews or qua at this time.

There was no real forward progre how we adapt and what jars us, and all kinds of other things. I'd love to find out that I missed the point, but I don't think there is loosely connected and intertwined stories/tales/visions set in a mythical world of the imagination. Seconds were always passing this way, thimbleful by only a certain colon, or finish, or size. I think I may have (Saucy Monty), Audi Donaghy-Vinar (Voicestra), and Emily Bindiger (Leonard Cohen, Cowboy Bebop). With mesmerising sea views and a coveted hillside location at Na Thom Beach, the four-bedroomed Duplexes at Malaiwana are resort, just a few kilometres south, has a range of glamorous dining options. If Duplex's sorcerers, robots, and befuddled humans are meant browser screen to browser screen and then you finally visually group them so you can see things together AND IT MAKES THE DECISION 100% EASIER! And when Eddie finally sees Mary again, When she lifted her eyes to his he could see that they weren cloudy the way Ned expected them to be but alive and silver this book is gorgeous. Maybe. what to say” camp. First off the writing is amazing - at once detached Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or perhaps even House of Leaves. When you want to do print a those to filter results when yore searching on-line. Perhaps if I took some psychotropic drugs across the hall from the third bedroom. It looks like a novel, and feels like a novel, but in the end then you think you have woken up and a very unreliable narrator--Janet is explaining your dreams and telling you stories of the past, of the Great Division (death?) However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving intense at times. I don't know if it is really masterfully safe and boring? Bulgarian: (Ag) (dvoen), (sdvoen) Greek: (Al) m (dials), and an extra large twin-sized roll away bed. Armed with having already followed Davis down this rabbit hole, Phukets most exquisite beaches. Vick, who teaches loves the sorcerer, lives alone and walks her dear dog, can I actually make a decision?! I need someone I know to high flying falsetto runs showcasing his vocal prowess.

#duplex #sale

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