#(( furthered by miranda's own role that she plays in all of it and how shes done the same to other people before

[royalreef]

      She has an image to maintain, and just because she’s close to someone does not mean that image does not also extend to them in turn. Failure to comply with that image means consequences. If the world is not scared of what the Merkingdom might do to them, then the Merkingdom loses bargaining power, and when Miranda is the only face of the Merkingdom currently inland at the moment... What she does echoes out onto the entirety of her people. 

      Stray elements and actors who know and can say better, actors who do not know the stakes at play and the game they are pawns within, are going to reveal secrets that they cannot understand the power of. There’s a reason why she’s targeted the family and friends of those who need to take a knee before. If they don’t know something is bad or implies weakness, then they’ll expose it the second they begin to lose control.

       ....... Albeit, currently the discussion is upon a more personal scene anyhow. Just because she’s close to someone doesn’t mean that they aren’t fully capable of skipping the act of playing the middle man, and becoming a danger to her themselves.

      And who wouldn’t, really? Who wouldn’t see her, in her weakness, and not smell the blood in the water, not be compelled to take what is rightfully theirs? It was Miranda’s fault for straying, after all. It’s some weakness in her that caused this, some weakness that has to be removed before it can cause any further damage. They’d be doing her a favor, really. She has to be taught a lesson.

[team-avia]

One question has been plaguing my late night thoughts about the Dimitrescu sisters, Bela and Daniela in particular.

Alcina left them when they were 7 and 5 respectively to nurture Cassandra's acting talent and they were left with Donna, but how "caring" was Donna? Did she play a role closer to a mother figure or was she always just an aunt to them? All three sisters to call her "aunt Donna" in game and neither Bela or Daniela show a special affection for Donna (especially Bela after Miranda's route). And what about Angie? She's family yeah, but was she raised alongside Daniela and Bela or were the two sisters always kinda on their own just living in the same house as Donna and Angie?

These girls and their actually quite terrible childhood have me in a chokehold and I need to dissect it further, but this piece of the puzzle makes it hard to make decisive statements right now. Donna and Angie's involvement could make a huge difference and I need clarifications.

We didn't put much interaction with the dimi sisters and donna in the game since we wanted donna to live up to resident recluse vibes, but daniela and her r close since daniela is closer to angie. daniela is almost always over at donna's place, chilling with her and angie, and when daniela was younger, she did call donna mom a few times. donna doesn't mind taking care of them as she adores them she's just not great with expressing it and is afraid of openly caring for others should she lose them. i would say angie and daniela r very close. they see each other as almost sisters even if they're only cousins, and it's that reason why they're rooming together. bela is more 'professional' with family relations and she has great respect for her aunt given she worked for her for a few years and donna took care of them without any complaint, but she only sees donna as an aunt. bela also doesn't really get along with angie due to their conflicting personalities, but she's grugdingly accepted her because she knows angie will be there to look after daniela if worst comes to worst.

Bee

[austinsgirl]

Rather Die | Chapter 1

word count: 1829

rating: pg

————————————————————

"Eliana! We're going to be late!" Victoria called out for her best friend.

"I'm coming!" she responds.

Victoria & Eliana have been best friends since they were kids. They met in Victoria's homeland of New Zealand. Eliana happened to be on vacation, going to Victoria's local beach. They bonded over the fact that they both had the on same Little Mermaid bathing suit on. They've been inseparable ever since, even though up until a couple years ago, they had a long distance friendship, only seeing each other every couple years.

When Victoria was 23, now 25, she decided to move out to Los Angeles to further her acting career. She made quite a name for herself back home, starring in local TV shows & movies. She was ready to really make it big, and the only way to do that was to go to Hollywood.

Eliana was already living in Los Angeles, her home town. Coming from a rich family, her dad was a huge Major League Baseball player back in the 90s & early 2000s. As for her mom, she's been a very successful lawyer.

The girls decided they were going to officially break the distance between them and get their own place together.

With Victoria's success from her gigs at home & small parts she's gotten the past couple years in LA, along with Eliana's heritage money plus whatever she has made being a social star & modeling, they were able to get a really nice penthouse apartment.

Eliana ran down the stairs of said apartment, as they're running late for a red carpet event once again. It's one of the things that has always annoyed Victoria. They're constantly running late because Eliana gets too distracted & takes a million years to get ready.

"How do I look?" Eliana asks.

"Hot as always, now let's go! The car has been waiting like ten minutes already." Victoria says, rushing themselves out the door.

They both made it into their car & headed to The Chinese Theater for the premiere of the new movie 'Elvis'.

Once there, the girls stepped out onto the carpet posing together & separately.

An interviewer had stopped Victoria to ask her some questions.

"So, what are you most excited to see the movie for?" the interviewer asks.

"Well, I listened to Elvis back home growing up. My grandma absolutely adored him, so Im excited to hear all the songs from my childhood & to learn more about the man my grandma loved as a teen. I also am a bit excited to see Austin Butler on the big screen. I remember seeing him on Disney Channel growing up, so that's exciting to see a familiar face play such a big role."

Victoria answered another question.

"Any projects coming up from you?"

"You can catch me as a guest star on the iCarly reboot, which was super fun, getting to work with Miranda, Nathan, and Jerry. I loved the show as a kid, so it was a really cool experience. Other than that, I don't have anything at the moment. Hopefully soon though!"

After stopping at the couple more interviewers, Victoria & Eliana made their way inside the theater. As soon as they sat down the movie started. Just in time.

About 15 minutes into the movie, was the first full performance scene. As soon as Victoria saw Austin's face she was interested. His bright blue eyes, & his dark hair falling into face. She was definitely attracted.

The girls in this scene, screaming over Elvis's moves, getting all hot & bothered. Victoria quickly found herself relating to those girls, minus the screaming. Although if she could, she probably would be.

As the movie kept rolling, the more intrigued Victoria became.

"Damn, he's hot." Eliana leaned over to whisper to Victoria, as the Beale Street scene played, 'Vegas' by Doja Cat blasting through the speakers.

"Mhm." Victoria responded, very distracted by Austin's good looks in this movie.

Just a few minutes later, Victoria felt herself shift in her seat a bit seeing the very mild sex scene.

Thoughts of all sorts kept running through her mind.

During the 'Trouble' performance, she felt like she was grasping for air. Going into this, she knew she was going to find him attractive, but not like this. She's crushing, crushing hard.

Jealousy came over her, seeing Elvis kiss Priscilla for the first time, just wanting to be in that position.

An hour and half goes by & the film has ended. After the credits roll, everyone stands up & applauds.

Victoria sets her sight on Austin in the front, inhaling a sharp breath from seeing him in person. Looking even more attractive as himself.

"Whew, girl. That Austin guy is so fucking hot." Eliana says to her.

"I know. I've always found him attractive, but damn. I wasn't expecting this."

They both made their way out of the theater & back to the apartment.

"Just a heads up, I call dibs on Austin if it ever comes to it." Eliana says as they walk through the door of their apartment.

"Why? You have a boyfriend, remember?" Victoria reminds her.

"Oh, yeah. I guess you can have him then."

"Thanks. I do want him. Like really bad."

"You should go for it."

"Isn't he dating Vanessa Hudgens though?"

"They broke up I think. I wanna say she's with a new guy."

"Hm. I'll have to see if he's with anyone. I won't go for it if he's in a relationship."

"I mean, still go for it if you don't know for sure. The worst he'll do is say no."

"Yeah, I guess. What I need to do is get some auditions."

"I heard talks that Austin's going to be in a new romance movie. Now that, you need to audition for."

"If I can get an audition, I will. He's so fucking fine, like, I could honestly not sit still during those early scenes."

"Oh, I know. I don't blame those girls for like orgasming over him."

"Truly. I felt that".

The next day Victoria set herself up at the kitchen counter with a fresh cup of coffee & her laptop, so she can apply for some auditions.

"Eli, is that movie Austin's going to be in called "The Last Time"?"

"Yeah. I think it's inspired by that Taylor Swift song with the same title." Eliana responds coming downstairs, still getting herself ready for her day.

"Oh, yeah. That song had me crying when Stephen & I were going through our breakup."

"I remember that. Taylor's whole 'Red' album was on repeat."

"You know it."

"So are you applying for it then?"

"Yep. Uploading my resume & headshot right now. I really hope I get this. It's about this couple who keeps finding each other in different places, being on & off, some toxicity. Yeah sounds about right."

"Honestly. But yeah, you better get this. It would be so good for you. Austin's a hot topic right now. You getting casted as his leading lady would really put you out there."

"Exactly. But also, hello, I get to work the hottest guy I have ever seen."

"True. Well, I'm outtie."

"You have your Nike promo shoot today, right?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be home later."

"Okay, I'll be here."

"Love you!" Eliana says out the door.

"Love you too!"

A couple hours later Victoria received an email back about her audition.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." she said to herself as the email loaded up.

"Dear Victoria,

We'd love to have you in for an audition. Please respond to this email as soon as possible with the time slot you would like & for what day. Please have these scenes that are attached to this email prepared.

Hope to hear from you soon."

"Holy shit! Oh my god."

As soon as Victoria was talking to herself out loud, Eliana came home.

"What? Did you get the audition?" Eliana asks.

"Yes!! I'm going in this upcoming Monday at noon."

"Congrats babe! You have all weekend to prep."

"Yeah, you won't be seeing much of me tomorrow & Sunday. I have to nail this audition. I applied just in time too. Didn't know it'd be so soon."

"I know you'll nail this, babe."

Monday comes along, it's the day of the audition. Victoria has never been so nervous in her whole entire life, and has never wanted anything more.

"Victoria Williams?" a producer calls out in the waiting room.

"Hi, yes, that's me." she stands up from her seat.

"Hi, I'm Sarah, one of the producers. Nice to meet you." Sarah holds out her hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you too." Victoria shakes her hand before following Sarah into the audition room.

"This is the director, Anna." Sarah says.

"Hi, nice to meet you. Im Victoria. Victoria Williams." she reaches her hand out to her.

"Yes, I watched a few of your things after I saw your application. Nice to meet you too. Do you have those scenes prepared?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"Alright. Let's go over the one where Jake shows up to Allison's door." Anna says. "I'll read Jake's lines to you, along with the parentheticals, you respond back with Allison's."

"Got it."

Anna starts off the scene, "Allison opens up the door to her townhouse."

"What are you doing here?" Victoria says, delivering her line.

"I don't know, honestly." Anna say's, reading the lines for 'Jake'.

"You don't know? What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know. I was just - I was just walking around town and something just lead me here."

"You're always coming back for something. What is it now? The last time, it was to get back together & you know how that played out."

"I know, I know. I just-

"Jake, I think you need to go."

"Can't we just talk?"

"Why? So we can end up falling into our old ways again & just get heartbroken again?"

"No-

"Then what?

Anna reads off the next part of the script, "Jake suddenly kisses Allison, taking her by surprise."

"Jake, if you want this, -

"I know. I need to be better."

"This is the last time, I swear."

"I swear to god. Cross my heart. The two continue to kiss before going to the bedroom. And that would be the end of our reading." Anna says. "That was really good. I think I can say right now that I would love to have you back later on for a chemistry read."

"Really? That would be great." Victoria says with sparkles in her eyes.

"Yes, really. Just stick around the area, we'll give you a call when you can come back."

"Thank you so much! I will definitely be back."

Victoria leaves the audition room & makes her way outside.

She pulls out her phone to text Eliana the good news. As she's texting, she bumps into someone not paying attention.

"Oh, I'm so sorry...."

It wasn't until her eyes met with a pair of ocean blue eyes, when she knew who she had bumped into.

"....Austin."

—————————————————————

Chapter 2

[mearnsblog]

"Moana" (2016)

I've written many, many words over the course of this project. Probably too many words! But while I've been slow to pick up the pace on watching the movies during the past couple years (life is busy, OK?), I've almost always been quick to put digital pen to paper after I've actually taken the time to put them on. The process of retaining information and fresh thoughts typically works best that way.

"Moana," however, was an outlier. As I sit here now, it has been almost two months since we watched it. As always, part of the difficulty was finding time, but on this occasion, I had a little bit of writer's block. The reason? I love "Moana" so much that it's hard to adequately express it. I like plenty of movies, but it's unusual for me to have such an overwhelmingly strong and positive reaction. I might be brief, but I am going to try.

"Moana" doesn't waste any time. It grabs you mere seconds after the Disney production card ends, with a striking sequence explaining the backstory of Te Fiti, Maui, and Te Kā, concluding with the introduction of the island and our main characters. It does a remarkably efficient job of setting up, well, just about everything in this movie, and it instantly draws you to Tala, the narrator of this prologue as well as Moana's grandmother.

This is a brilliant setup considering how important Tala is to kicking off the plot of "Moana" itself. Our title character, of course, has her song about "wanting adventure in the great wide somewhere," as Belle would say, and make no mistake: "How Far I'll Go" is an A+. It's not hard to understand why Moana is so driven to explore while still wanting to live up to expectations as the heir-in-waiting to lead the village one day. Further, it's not hard to understand why she has such a strong bond with her grandma. John Musker and Ron Clements of "Beauty and the Beast," "Little Mermaid," and "Aladdin" fame directed "Moana" and it shows.

The relationship is obviously special within the movie, and I'm also not going to act like I'm an unbiased observer here. Tala is very different from my own grandmothers in her own way, but that kind of pure connection of love and trust across generations? Naturally, I relate to that. I would not be who I am today without Grandma Mearns, whose love of singing and cooking was dwarfed only by her only love of family, and Grandma Robinson (Grandmar), who lived just a town over and was there for just about everything that my sister and I did. She stepped up in a truly immeasurable way as we grew up without my dad, and she never gave a second thought to any of it. In short, grandma stories have a very high probability of getting to me, hence the difficulty in putting all my "Moana" thoughts all into words!

"Moana" has even more going for it. The Lin-Manuel Miranda/Opetaia Foa'i/Mark Mancina soundtrack is full of hits, it's really cool to see the stories of Te Fiti and Te Kā develop over the course of the movie, and I don't think I could have imagined liking The Rock as Maui as much as I do. On Maui in particular, it's a great role that allows The Rock to act as the wild card who can generously be described as skeptical of a mortal, and yet soon grow to consider her a friend. And Maui is far from a flawless character in his own right, with his arrogance gradually skewered until he can be worthy of his hook's full powers again.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that my love for "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" plays a significant role in my fondness for "Moana." I don't play video games even remotely as much as I did when I was a teenager. As I got more and more into baseball, that left less time for solo gaming, aside from multiplayer ones like the ones in the "Smash Bros." and "Mario Kart" franchises. I think "Wind Waker" might have been the last video game that brought me all the way down the rabbit hole. The adventure was as great as any Zelda title, and I'll never forget the incredible feeling of sailing around the islands of flooded Hyrule on the King of Red Lions or its moving conclusion. The parallels are obvious to Moana and Maui's journey around these Polynesian islands, and the story even includes an underwater realm to briefly explore, too. The endings are all tied up in embracing the role of explorers as well!

I think I've gushed enough. "Moana" forever. It is one of the best Disney films that I will ever see.

Best song: "How Far I'll Go"

Updated ranking

1. “Beauty and the Beast” (review) 2. "Moana" 3. “The Lion King” (review) 4. “The Little Mermaid” (review) 5. “Cinderella” (review) 6. “Mulan” (review) 7. “Tangled” (review) 8.  “Wreck-It Ralph” (review) 9. “Frozen” (review) 10. “Sleeping Beauty” (review) 11. "Big Hero 6" (review) 12. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (review) 13. “Aladdin” (review) 14. “The Emperor’s New Groove” (review) 15. “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (review) 16. “The Jungle Book” (review) 17. “Lilo & Stitch” (review) 18. “The Great Mouse Detective” (review) 19. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (review) 20. “Fantasia” (review) 21. “The Rescuers Down Under” (review) 22. “Tarzan” (review) 23. “The Princess and the Frog” (review) 24. “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” (review) 25. “Alice in Wonderland” (review) 26. “Lady and the Tramp” (review) 27. “Pinocchio” (review) 28. "Zootopia" (review) 29. “Robin Hood” (review) 30. “Oliver & Company” (review) 31. “Hercules” (review) 32. “Pocahontas” (review) 33. “The Rescuers” (review) 34. “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” (review) 35. “Bambi” (review) 36. “Peter Pan” (review) 37. “The Aristocats” (review) 38. “Fantasia 2000″ (review) 39. “Dumbo” (review) 40. “Bolt” (review) 41. “Meet the Robinsons” (review) 42. “Treasure Planet” (review) 43. “Chicken Little” (review) 44. “Fun and Fancy Free” (review) 45. “The Fox and the Hound” (review) 46. “The Sword in the Stone” (review) 47. “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” (review) 48. “The Three Caballeros” (review) 49. “Make Mine Music” (review) 50. “Brother Bear” (review) 51. “Winnie the Pooh” (review) 52. “Dinosaur” (review) 53. “The Black Cauldron” (review) 54. “Saludos Amigos” (review) 55. “Melody Time” (review) 56. “Home on the Range” (review)

[sennthefern]

A Thousand Suns Part 2 Chapter 2 Meta

Hi here’s my messy notes on Chapter 2 since it was, I kid you not, the most difficult chapter to write so far. Granted a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was trying to integrate ancillary material from the comics. However, the actual biggest challenge by far was the core problem: how do you get a paragon Shepard to willingly join Cerberus?

On John & joining Cerberus

I think this is a really interesting question and that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to initially write this fic. Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me from the get go. I’ll try my best to go into how I achieved this.

The way Cerberus operates in this chapter is through a lot of very subtle manipulation choices. Obviously there’s the fact that Jacob lies to John at the very start of the chapter, convincing him that he’s Alliance and that this is merely some kind of black ops off-the-record nonsense, but it runs a bit deeper than that. Each character from Cerberus has a different role to play in John’s manipulation. Jacob is the confidant, allowing someone for John to trust (and trust is a BIG factor in his story for ME2,) Miranda is the “bad cop” in the sense that she’s very upfront and plain about her plans, and Kai Leng is the “worse cop,” aka the guy that makes everyone else look better by virtue of being a giant jackwad. 

On a subtler layer you’ll notice that Miranda is always whisking people along, creating environments and situations where John doesn’t have all the information and is oftentimes the last person leaving the room. Kai Leng is there to run interference, goading John into not paying attention to what’s really happening. The biggest thing that they try to do throughout the course of this chapter is to separate John and Liara, with the intention that John agrees to work with them and further a growing wedge between the two.

Obviously there’s also the exploitation of John’s emotional state when they reveal they’re looking Julia’s body, and Cerberus’ callous treatment of the potential for her resurrection/retrieval. And who’s there to sum it all up in a bow? The Illusive Man, doing his spin doctor routine and sweet talking John with a thousand more surprises and promises. Of course, John’s not an idiot. So he tries his best to keep his distance and have his cake and eat it too. He wants to use Cerberus’ resources without actually working with them. 

But that is literally impossible. In a way it’s deterministic; you can’t use Cerberus’ resources without being a part of Cerberus (whether you like it or not.) Granted, a lot of the time he’s been ‘working with them’ has been spent waiting for the SR-2 to be completed, so the conversation with Anderson at the start of the chapter is really the first time he’s challenged on his allegiances. 

By the end, however, we see John’s central challenge resolved: morals be damned, he has to see this through. The Alliance turned their back on him. He’s got to continue the fight on his own. 

And I think that’s kind of the interesting thing about this fic. How these two twins change and how their respective moral codes rub off on one another. (And yes, I know everyone has been trying to figure out if/when/how Julia is returning. To that I say: I haven’t forgotten; just hang tight :D)

On Omega & the Terminus

So to be completely upfront, ME2 is my least favorite game in the trilogy. Yes, ME1’s gameplay is worse and the writing is weird. Yes, ME3 is… ME3, but I do like the combat in it and i find it to be a satisfying enough conclusion. ME2, though? Where do i start?

I think my biggest gripe is the way the Terminus is handled. In ME1 the Terminus Systems is presented as an alternative region comparable to Citadel Space, even if it lacks a central government. The entire reason the Council doesn’t send in a fleet after Saren to Ilos is because it would spark a war with the Terminus. Cut to ME2 and I realize… who the heck would the war be with? The Vorcha? The freaking blood pack?? Sure, the Hegemony’s there, but they got their asses beat so badly by a barely-interstellar humanity in the blitz that they fully receded from Council Space. Instead the Terminus is presented as the wild west, mainly composed of gangs, gangs, and more gangs. This is so reductive!!! Why would you set a game in a new area only for that part of the universe to be left so empty?

Anyways that’s enough of my soapbox rant. As for how I’m approaching the Terminus, I’m pulling a lot from the ME1 depiction and (perhaps unsurprisingly) a lot of ancillary material. There’s more than just Omega and the Hegemony and mercenaries. There’s rogue asari enclaves and volus anarcho-capitalist trade unions and, most pressingly, the Lysthenti Salarians. They get (i kid you not) a SINGLE sentence in mass effect: ascension and i just… what is the story there!! they’re genetically distinct?? they were forced off Sur’Kesh????? They have their own government in the Terminus???????? Crazy shit. I need to know more BioWare!!

How will these things all work in the actual story? I have no idea. But needless to say that’s how I’m approaching it. (I also pull quite a bit of inspo from Ascension in the description of Omega in this chapter, as well.)

Jacob, Cerberus, and Kai Leng

What can I say about these idiots that hasn’t already been said? I actually don’t hate Jacob. I think he’s a terribly mismanaged character and very poorly written, but he’s not like, bad. Like i said earlier, the biggest theme of ME2 is trust. Who can John trust? Can he really trust anyone? Jacob, to me, is The Guy for this question. John should want to trust him!!! But unfortunately, Jacob sucks! And that’s a juicy conflict!!!!

You may have been surprised to see Kai Leng in this chapter. I know I was when I wrote it. This is a bigger part of the project to integrate ME2 and 3 better. Kai Leng and Cerberus’ Dealings (what those exactly are will be explored LaterTM) are going to be a bigger part of ME2. Did you know that Kai Leng is a big part of the comics? I didn’t! His stuff isn’t great by any means, but it’s at least interesting. (The same cannot be said about his in-game appearances.)

Not to harp on ME2 more, but I am surprised at how little the game actually focuses on Cerberus’ characters. There are interesting things in the lore! Eva Core! Kai Leng! Grayson, Pel, and Golo! The internal politics of an organization that by design is asymmetrical and secretive! I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that Shepard is not willingly working with them in 2, but for a Shepard who is, how much info does he get? Who’s his handler? How much access is he given? These are the questions I really want to explore. 

[yngai]

as much as i adore plague doctor/monster hunter ada wong & her unused design (& have tried to fit her within the game’s narrative & general timeline), the role of a mysterious helping hand guiding ethan through the events of RE8 would be much better served by mia, hell, the game would be benefit greatly with her in the leading role,

[a-n-conrad]

Pet (Karl Heisenberg x Reader)

[Summary: After being gifted to Heisenberg, you manage to survive his games. From there you start to develop an interesting relationship. And as you start to play the role of his pet, things get a bit interesting. (She/Her pronouns)

Warnings: SMUT, unhealthy relationship dynamics, Author belongs in horny jail, Reader has “female” anatomy, themes of pet play, swearing, biting (Blood), reader is losing her sanity a bit, spanking, oral (both receiving), hair pulling, unprotected penetrative (vaginal) sex

Request: Literally, not a single person asked for this. You only have me to blame.]

You felt a bit foolish, being in the situation you were in. You had been one of the people gifted to the “Lords” of the village to do with as they pleased by Mother Miranda. You had to admit, when you were frightened, even more so when you were handed over to the infamous “mad wolf-man”. He had quite the reputation. But unlike the others, you had proven yourself useful enough for him to keep you around, instead of experimenting on you or feeding you to his lycans.

You survived at first by staying out of his way. It was like a game to him. Heisenberg liked games, and you adapted to them rather quickly. At first, the game was to be the perfect assistant. You’d clean, cook, do minor repairs, and stay out of his way as needed. You were there when he needed you to do something, you’d do it perfectly, and then you’d be out of his sight. And he’d try to catch you slipping up, making you nervous with whispered promises of the punishments that awaited you if you did.

It was an odd dance, having to learn the ins and outs of Heisenberg’s moods. Learning how to tell when he was in a bad mood, and when he was in the mood to joke. And as time went on, it seemed that there were more days when he was in the mood to sit and banter with you. And you started to bond a bit, less as captor and captive, and more as something close to friends, though you wouldn’t necessarily call it friendship.

Eventually, he started to grow a bit fond of you, occasionally joking with you that he had started to see you as a pet. He’d grin a bit as he called you pet names, names that were somewhere between affectionate and demeaning. He’d pat your head, like he was praising a dog, when you did something right. He had even joked about making you a collar to show the rest of the Lords that you were his pet.

You knew you probably should’ve hated it. You should’ve gagged at the idea of a collar, and you should’ve hated his pet names. But you didn’t. You found yourself grinning when he called you a “good girl”. You leaned into his touch when he’d pat your head. You could feel yourself losing your sanity. You had to be insane to feel this way, but as you got to know Heisenberg, you found yourself feeling as though it was worth it.

Karl Heisenberg was an interesting man, and one you had to admit that you were fascinated by. He had a biting form of humor that had become much funnier as you realized you weren’t in the danger that you thought you were, and you could hear the intelligence behind it. His jokes were always at least a little clever, as long as he could keep his head. He was complex, with motivations and actions that didn’t always match. And his emotions were so complicated that you were pretty sure he hadn’t even started sorting through them, choosing to instead deny their existence.

He was a mess of a man. He got mad enough to throw metal scraps of rusted metal around the room when an experiment went wrong. He’d rant for hours about the issues he had with his “family”, having to hold himself back from breaking things when he got to Alcina. He felt as trapped as you did. He thought of letting his appearance go as an act of rebellion. Because of that, he’d go a full week without washing his clothes, letting the blood and oil stain the fabric until it might as well be dye. And he didn’t sleep for days sometimes, choosing instead to stay up all night in his workshop, only leaving when he starts to border on collapsing.

But between his anger issues and dysfunction, you saw something in him that you weren’t sure that even he saw. You saw it in the sparkle in his eyes when he figured out an issue that had been bothering him. You saw it in his sleepy groans when he woke up in the middle of the day after staying up all night before. You saw it in his smirks and smiles as he thought of something clever to say.

He was charming in his own way. Not in the way you thought of charming. He wasn’t elegant like Alcina, but he was warm. He was like a fire. Volatile. Deadly. Beautiful. And warm. And perhaps you were a bit of a pyromaniac, as you found yourself staring into a fire pit, longing to see the damage it could do if you let it free. You wanted to see what Heisenberg could do to you. You wanted to let him.

- - - - -

You were a bit suspicious that you weren’t hiding your feelings very well. Heisenberg was clever, and he was incredibly observant. He needed to be. His “family” didn’t exactly get along with him very well, and knowing what you knew about his “siblings”, they would’ve taken any opportunity possible to kill him and take his place as a favored lord. So he was constantly on his toes. And that meant that you were sure that he had noticed you were acting a bit off recently.

And you were sure that he had figured out exactly what was causing you to act that way, by the way that he teased. There was a glint in his eyes when you started to get flustered that was new to you. The way he smirked at you as he praised you, his hand resting casually on your arm for a few more seconds than before. He had even gone through with his collar joke, though he hadn’t given it to you to wear.

He’d wink at you as he held it in front of you, though. It was a silver chain that was about an inch thick, made into an easily adjusted necklace by the extra bit of chain that hung through the loop. The extra bit of chain that also worked as a built-in leash. He’d hold the collar in front of you, dangling it casually from one of his fingers when you started to get sarcastic with him, making comments about how his “pet” needed to be put in her place. And you’d try your best not to show how much you truly wanted that.

It had become another one of Heisenberg’s games. You could tell that he knew. And he knew that you knew that. So the game became how long you could go without breaking.

“So, kitten,” you jumped a bit as Heisenberg appeared behind you. You were making dinner, and had thought that Heisenberg was still working in his shop. He usually didn’t leave for dinner until you came to get him if he ate dinner with you at all, “You seem a bit spaced out. Care to tell me what you’ve got on your mind?”

You could say what you really wanted to. You could say that you wanted him to rail you until you couldn’t walk. But that would end the game. And Heisenberg only liked to end games if he could win them in a satisfying way.

“Nothing you need to worry about, sir,” You muttered, finishing the food you were cooking and pulling it off of the stove, “Just lost in thought.”

He hummed a bit, noticing how you refused to make eye contact. That wasn’t new, but you weren’t usually so awkward about it, “Come on, pet. I’d like to know if you’re planning your escape or something,” A bit of metal began to dangle in front of your face and you knew exactly what it was, “Honestly, (y/n), I really might have to put this collar on you if you’re going to be keeping secrets.”

“It sounds like you’re just looking for an excuse to put a collar on me, Karl,” You had gotten a bit bold, knowing that the line of how much you could get away with was quite a bit further back, “You can just admit that you’re into that.”

He chuckled a bit, resting the arm that he was holding the collar with on your shoulder and leaning into you just a little bit. You could feel his body heat radiating off of him. You always wondered how he was always so warm, living in this factory, surrounded by the cold metal walls, “I don’t know, pet, you haven’t been protesting quite as much. It seems like you may be coming around to the idea. Maybe you’re projecting a bit.”

He had set his chin on your shoulder by the end of his statement, his breath brushing against the shell of your ear. It had sent a shiver down your spine, and you could tell he felt it by the satisfied hum that passed his lips.

“You’re not arguing with me, kitten,” he purred as you failed to muster up a rebuttal, “Is that what you want? You want me to put the collar on you? Do I need to put my needy little pet in place?”

Fuck. You shifted a little, trying not to make the throbbing between your legs obviously. You were trying so hard to think of a comeback, but the teasing had been going on for so long that you were reaching your breaking point. You wanted him to fuck you so badly that it made you look stupid.

He grabbed your shoulder and turned you around to face him. It was so much harder to keep a poker face when you were looking into his eyes, when you could see that glint in them. The kind of glint that made you think he wanted to eat you alive. And you wanted him to.

“If you ask like a good girl, maybe I’ll give you what you want,” his voice came out so much smoother than usual. It intimidated you a bit, knowing that he was holding himself together so well. You knew that there was no way your voice was going to come out nearly as smooth.

“I’m not going to beg, Karl,” Your voice was shaking, but you tried to hold your cool. He always had fun when you talked back a little, and you were hoping that translated to this situation as well. And the wolf-like grin that grew on his face told you that you were right.

“We’ll see about that, kitten.”

- - - - -

You weren’t quite sure when the collar had appeared around your neck. Somewhere between the kitchen and Karl’s bedroom, though, it had snaked its way around your neck, even though his hands never seemed to leave your hips. You were a bit too occupied trying to keep up with his ravenous kisses.

His lips were latched onto your neck as he pushed you through the door to his room. You landed on his bed soon after with a slight bounce. You had been in his room before to clean, but the context was different now. The actual room itself was entirely irrelevant, as Karl climbed on top of you, throwing his hat and glasses to the side, not caring where they landed. All you could look at were his eyes, glowing bright yellow as he looked down at you.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten how much of a fucking brat you’re being,” he growled, looking down at you, “You’ve earned yourself quite the punishment.”

He sunk his teeth into your shoulder, biting just below the hickey that was already forming on your neck. He growled a bit as you squeaked in surprise, biting down a bit harder. You both felt when he broke the skin, and something told you that the mark he was leaving was entirely on purpose. He didn’t want anyone to doubt who you belonged to. His fingers dug into your skin, one hand holding your wrist above your head and the other digging into your side just above your hip. You had a feeling you would be covered in marks and bruises in the morning, and you were alright with that.

He pulled your clothes off quickly, throwing them to the side of the room. He wasn’t wasting any time, so you were pretty sure he had ripped through a seam or two on your dress. And he didn’t hesitate to rip your underwear completely in half.

He threw you around so much easier than you had expected. You knew that he was strong, you had just expected it to take at least a little bit of effort. You supposed that you shouldn’t have underestimated his inhuman strength, because in seconds he had flipped you, moving you so that you were on your hands and knees in front of him. You were entirely vulnerable in front of him, entirely bare as he remained fully clothed behind you.

It was weirdly hot, being at his mercy. He wasn’t a good person, and you knew that. In fact, there was still a feeling in your chest reminding you that he could kill you whenever he wanted. But that didn’t matter at that moment. The fear just made it better in some sick way. You knew you were insane, you had to be, but if insanity felt this good, you were going to accept it.

“Now, kitten, be good and stay quiet through your punishment, and maybe you’ll get a reward,” he stated, sliding his hands from the place they were resting on your waist to rest on your ass instead, “Do I make myself clear?”

You nodded in response, not trusting your voice as his hands slid further down, reaching the back of your thighs, one of his thumbs dangerously close to your pussy. His hands were callused, so as they slid across your skin, it created an interesting sensation. Your eyes almost rolled back into your head as his thumb brushed lightly against your clit, and you heard him chuckle a bit at your reaction. However, before you could enjoy yourself too much, he pulled his thumb away, sliding his hands back up to your ass.

There was a pause for a few moments, and you felt his eyes scanning your body. They always seemed to feel so much more intense than anyone else’s gaze ever could. Before you could get self-conscious, though, one of his hands raised from its place, only to come back down hard. The smacking sound echoed through the entire room, and you couldn’t hold back your yelp.

“Now, now, pet, I thought I said to keep quiet. I’ll let this slide once because you’re cute, but any more, and I’ll have to add some more punishment,” he cooed, grabbing the leash of the collar around your neck and pulling it towards him. He leaned forward until he could actually look at your face, seeing the tears prick at the corners of your eyes already, “I’d hate to break my toy right away, so try to behave.”

He didn’t give you a chance to respond before shoving your head down into the bed and resuming your punishment. You bit your lip, trying your best not to actually break the skin, as you did your best to stay quiet. You were a bit surprised by how much you enjoyed it. After the first few, the pain started to melt away, hidden behind a numb tingling that sent electricity shooting through your whole body. And it was pretty obvious to Heisenberg as well, when slick started to drip down the inside of your thighs.

You lost count before he stopped, but it couldn’t have been more than fifteen. He let out a satisfied hum as he looked at the handprints that were already starting to form, rubbing his hands gently over the forming bruises. You almost started purring as his hands continued to slide across your body.

“You’ve been such a good girl, kitten,” he praises as he moves your body, eventually making you stand in front of him as he sat on the edge of the bed, “Do you want your reward now?”

You nod, far too gone to even try to not look like a desperate fool. He looked proud of himself, seeing you so needy and bare in front of him. It was like a work of art. You had never seen so much admiration and need in his eyes. It wasn’t love. But it was need, and want, and possession.

“Ask nicely.”

You were too desperate to argue. You needed him more than you could remember needing anything, “Please, sir.”

You swore you saw the bulge in his pants twitch at the word “sir” and the glint in his eyes confirmed your suspicions. The grin he gave you showed his teeth, highlighting his fangs like a predatory animal about to lunge.

“Good girl,” He drew it out, shifting his body so that his legs were spread as far as they could be comfortably, before commanding, “Kneel.”

You do as you’re told almost by instinct. It was almost as though your body moved without your brain giving it permission. You had been entirely possessed by your lust. And it only got worse as his hands moved to unzip his pants, only removing enough of his clothing to free his cock.

“You want this, don’t you?” He looked almost amused as your eyes locked onto his cock. You were practically drooling over it. He almost laughed as you nodded, “Enjoy your treat, pet.”

He leaned back a bit, his weight being put on one of his hands, positioned a bit behind him on the bed. He looked so casual as you moved your hands to timidly take the place of his own, which had previously been holding his cock in place. He had to admit you looked adorable, needy and desperate as you kneeled between his legs. You were practically drooling for him.

You started out a bit slow, which surprised him a little. The little kitten licks and kisses felt good enough for him to close his eyes to savor it. However, from the smirk that had formed on your face by the time that he opened his eyes, he realized that you were planning on teasing. He wasn’t about to let that slide.

The hand that he had rested on the top of your head tightened its grip on your hair. “Watch it, kitten. Don’t be a tease,” He growled, pushing your head down a bit until about half of his cock was in your mouth.

With that, your willpower to hold back faded, and you took the rest of him into your mouth. The tip hit the back of your throat just a bit, making you hold back a gag. And as you looked up at him through your lashes and found him smirking down at you, you could tell that he saw it. You reveled in the soft groans that slipped past his lips when you finally got to work, swirling your tongue around as you bobbed your head. You moaned as he pulled your hair, the vibrations causing him to curse and pull your hair even more, “Fuck, kitten, you’re pretty good at that.”

You continued like that for a few more minutes, his grip on your hair getting tighter and tighter. The salty, bitter taste of precum started to hit the back of your throat, making it a bit harder not to gag. But the sounds that slipped from his mouth fueled you even more. You felt proud, hearing how much he was enjoying himself. You almost felt a bit disappointed as he pulled you off of him by your hair, causing you to whine loudly.

“Aw, don’t worry, kitten,” He says, patting your head, “We aren’t done yet. Why don’t you lay down and let me take care of you? You’ve been such a good girl.”

You do as you're told, without saying anything. As you had gotten into the mode you were in, playing the role of Heisenberg’s pet, talking seemed unnatural. It felt right to listen to his commands, obeying him like a dog. So you laid on your back, spread out and completely bare. And you couldn’t hold back the yelp as he grabbed your hips and yanked you roughly to the edge of the bed, so that as he kneeled in front of you, his face was entirely level with your pussy.

You saw that glint in his eyes again as his warm breath hit your already dripping core. You were getting reckless, trying to inch your way closer to speed up the process, only for his grip to tighten on your waist, holding you in place. He had an iron grip on you, and you were thankful for that as he licked a broad stripe up across your pussy before diving in, focusing almost all of his attention on your clit.

You were practically screaming his name as swirled his tongue around your clit with dexterity you didn’t think was even possible to possess. His hands were definitely leaving fingerprint-shaped bruises on your hips, but at least they were holding you in place as you involuntarily started to buck your hips and arch your back. You could feel the knot tightening in your abdomen, your hands ripping the sheets so hard you were a bit worried that you were going to tear them. He slid a finger into you, hitting at just the right angle to make you squeal. You honestly couldn’t think of a time that someone had made you come undone quite so fast, but you certainly weren’t complaining as the tangled nerves in the pit of your stomach finally seemed to snap.

Karl had to admire you as you came, your head thrown back and your legs shaking. Your skin was practically glimmering from the thin layer of sweat that was already clinging to it. He couldn’t help the pride that flooded into his chest as you started to come down from your high looking absolutely destroyed. He wasn’t done yet, but he was glad to see he had it in him to affect you this much.

He slowly stepped back, his eyes never leaving you as you laid on the bed, trying to catch your breath. He made sure to lock eyes with you as he slowly stripped the rest of his clothes off, layer by layer. By the time you recovered, he was finally taking off his necklaces, dropping them onto the pile he had made with the rest of his clothing. Despite his strength, he wasn’t exactly ripped. His arms were fairly muscular and defined, but he had a bit of squish around his stomach. His body was coated in a layer of body hair, the bits of silver shining in the dim light of the room you were in.

He was attractive in the rugged way that made it make sense that he smelled like metal and cigar smoke as he crawled on top of you, keeping pace as you inch yourself further up the bed. It was only once you had settled into place that he leaned down, kissing you feverishly. It escalated with every second, the hand that he wasn’t using to support his body weight roamed your body. It wasn’t long until his hand was moving your legs, angling your hips to make it easier for him to line himself up with your entrance.

He pulled away from the kiss just long enough to slowly push himself into you, watching your reaction as you slowly adjusted to his width and length. It didn’t take you long to adjust, though, and he could tell when you did. He started off slow. It surprised you how gentle he was being, but you didn’t mind at first. Before long, though, you were craving more. You wanted him to use your body.

“Please,” You whined, “Harder.”

He grinned a bit at your begging, recalling your declaration that you wouldn’t beg. He honestly couldn’t tell what part he enjoyed more, the win he had earned or seeing you beneath him, begging for him. Either way, he wasn’t going to deny you what you wanted.

So he leaned back, shifting his weight to his knees so that he could grab your ankles. He pinned your legs to your chest. As he slammed into you, much harder than before, you could tell just how much the angle had changed. Your eyes nearly rolled back into your head as he continued to thrust into you. Your moans got louder, and he started to groan a bit too, cursing under his breath as his thrusts got a bit uneven.

“Fuck, kitten,” he breathed into your ear as he leaned down, your legs on his shoulders. You could feel him twitching inside of you, getting close to his own ending, “You’re such a good girl.”

You couldn’t help yourself as your hands moved to scratch down his back, digging your nails in as deeply as you could. He responded by biting into the same place he had earlier, a bit of blood from before sticking to the corners of his mouth. With a few more rough thrusts, his teeth sinking a little bit deeper into your shoulder, he finished. And the two of you both started to relax.

After a few seconds of you both catching your breath, he pulled away, rolling to the side so that he could comfortably lay on his back next to you. It was an awkward few moments, both of you laying there in near silence, only for him to break it with, “We should probably get that bite cleaned up, huh? My bad, pet. I forget how fragile you are sometimes.”

And with that he got up, moving to gently take care of you. He cleaned up your bite mark, and helped you clean between your shaky legs with a damp washcloth. It was a whole new side of him as he helped clean you off, making sure that he hadn’t been hurt too badly. And after a few minutes, when you had been cleaned enough that you weren’t actively uncomfortable, he climbed back into bed and wordlessly pulled you into his chest.

(A/N: So... um. I'm sorry for this. This is my second smut ever and I needed to get a bit... self-indulgent so my brain would stfu.)

[the-insomniac-emporium]

Mia Deserved Better: An Analysis of RE8's Themes/Symbolism

Foreword: I would like to thank @lepusrufus for posting about both Mia and Miranda, and at one point directly saying that Mia deserved better, which is a large part of what caused me to start examining her role in the canon story. Now, I will say that this post, like some of my previous explorations of Village (such as my attempt to determine Donna's age), will not be the best organized. My ADHD makes such things rather difficult for me. However, I have tried more than usual, and have broken up this "essay" into several distinct sections. Still, I am worried that my thoughts will not be as concise or coherent as they were inside my head.

Under read-more for length and spoilers for RE8: Village.

Introduction:

Village is, inarguably, about parenthood. Is it a horror game? Yes. Is it also science fiction? Also yes. But is it still, at its core, a story, and therefore contains imagery, symbolism, and themes? Yes. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with Mia deserving better. My proposal is as follows: While Village is overall about parenthood, it is more about motherhood than fatherhood. Furthermore, Mia's background + actions from the previous game tie her story directly with Mother Miranda's, making their potential interactions massively important to the story... and could have served the theme beautifully. The missed potential in her involvement in the story is honestly a little bit absurd.

Now, let's examine each of the Four Lords + their sections, as the beginning of analyzing the game's theme.

Lady Dimitrescu + Castle:

Ah, perhaps the clearest (albeit unimportant) bits of theme within the whole game. We are immediately presented with another parent, with three daughters she loves very, very much. Initially they work as a team to capture Ethan, easily overpowering him. When they do split up, each still has dialogue regarding their family members. Each of the daughters expresses a desire to be like their mother/make their mother proud. Lady Dimitrescu herself gets very upset every time one of her daughters perishes, and delivers some important dialogue about this in her final confrontation with Ethan.

To paraphrase, Lady D says that Ethan has done something unforgiveable, caused damage that can never heal, and deserves to die before his daughter. That last part is interesting, in the sense that Lady D seems to believe that outlasting your own child is a fate so terrible that she would not wish it upon anyone, including the person who killed her daughters.

Throughout her dialogue and actions, Lady D serves as an important figure of a living mother. What do I mean by that? Well, the only other mothers we see in game are Mia and Miranda. The former doesn't show up until almost the end of the game (seeing as the "Mia" at the start is not actually the real Mia), while the latter does not have a living child, and her behavior has (presumably) changed quite a bit since that loss. As Ethan goes through Castle Dimitrescu, he watches (he causes) Lady D to go through what Miranda did all those decades ago. When we see her loss, when we experience her loss, it is something we connect with, even comparing it (as Lady D does) to Ethan's loss of Rose.

For the more visual side of symbolism, we can turn to Lady Dimitrescu herself. She is very tall, is visibly older than the majority of the Village cast, and has a fairly classic (old-school) motherly look. Everything about her reinforces her position as an example of a mother, especially when she's with her daughters and becomes such a strong figure of protection. Her height allows her to seem the caretaker for her children, even though they are scary/intimidating in their own right.

Donna Beneviento + Waterfall House:

Yes, the baby/fetus/monstrosity is part of this. No, it is not the only bit of thematic work in this section of the game.

To begin, you can find out that Donna is officially the adopted daughter of Mother Miranda. Her birth parents are dead, implied to be from especially tragic causes (more than is the norm when it comes to "orphan making"), and she has suffered greatly from it. We see that she has been seemingly neglected by Miranda, and is incredibly isolated. The tragedy of her loss, along with the consequences presented by it, are something to keep in mind further down the road, when we inevitably deal with Ethan's own death.

One of the consequences of the environment Donna was raised in is, arguably, her reliance on Angie. While interpretations of their exact relationship (aka how much control Donna actually has at any given point) vary, the two very clearly have something akin to a mother/daughter vibe. Alternatively an older sister/younger sister sort of thing. This shows in the way that Donna holds/carries Angie, as well as the contrast in their demeanors. Moreso, the fact that Donna gave a part of herself to create Angie is almost enough to make the symbolism nonnegotiable.

We also see that Donna has a strong understanding of family/family dynamics, through the way that she uses her powers to manipulate Ethan. She dissects his connections to Mia and Rose, taunts him with the lengths he's willing to go to save his child, then shows him a grotesque version of parenthood: The aforementioned fetus monster. Does the monster represent Ethan's fears, or Donna's?

What if the monster is how Donna sees herself, in some way, perhaps thinking that it's her fault her parents died? Bit of a stretch, but it's not a keystone of my theory, so I'm just throwing it out there. We could, however, go a step further and ask ourselves if Donna has noticed the way Miranda neglects her, and the fetus monster is how Donna thinks Miranda sees her. A baby, true, but grotesque, so terribly imperfect compared to her "real daughter" (Eva, obvs).

Regardless, the monster presents an ugly side of parenthood. It shows us the blood, the hunger (with the way it repeatedly attempts to swallow Ethan whole), the wailing. If Lady D shows us the love of parenthood, the bond, Donna in turn shows us the hate, the misery. Everything that one must endure to reap the rewards of family.

Lastly, we get one last bit of symbolism with Donna's death: We play a game with Angie. A childhood classic, hide and seek. Ethan chases her down repeatedly, stabbing away, seemingly only hurting the doll. But what happens when he kills Angie? It turns out that he killed Donna. You kill the child, you kill the parent. A reinforcement of the connection that comes with parenthood, along with another notch in Ethan's family-murdering belt (not saying that he's the "true antagonist" or anything, just keeping track for one of my later points).

Moreau + The Reservoir

Let's get the worst possibility out of the way: Moreau, weakest and sickest of the four lords, lives in a reservoir, where he is relatively safe. To defeat him, you have to drain the water, forcing him onto dry(ish) land. Paired with the main ideas of his section (which I will detail after this nightmare), one could theorize that he's meant to represent birth itself. Again, he's safe in his ("womb") water, and becomes vulnerable when he leaves (like a fragile newborn). Kinda gross, in my opinion, and also not a strong enough connection for me to care much about. It was merely an interesting (albeit horrifying) enough thought that I felt it warranted sharing.

Moving on to the big stuff with Moreau: He's a baby. Evidence: Whiny, has difficulty moving around, struggles to adapt to his growth, throws up a bunch, loves his mother very much, cries for his mother when he's in trouble, etc. Although Mother Miranda does not care for him, he clearly cares for her, and plays yet another role of an abandoned child (like Donna). Without Miranda there to protect him, he perishes terribly, crying out for someone who does not care to answer.

Hearing him cry out for Miranda, over and over, only for her to continue ignoring him is a key piece in the build-up to our confrontation between Ethan and Miranda. The game, in many ways, centers around the comparison between the two. In my humble opinion, Mia should have been involved in this comparison, as opposed to supplying the solution to the result of said comparison. Yes, I know that was a lot of words that don't mean much yet, but trust me, I'm getting there.

Heisenberg + The Factory

Ironically, of the four lords, Heisenberg is the most similar to Mother Miranda. In his massive factory, he is alone except for his numerous experiments, the results of decades of playing God. In comparison to Ethan + Mia, Heisenberg represents artificial parentage, or more accurately, the artificial creation of "life". While the others Lords also performed experiments, they used living subjects. Heisenberg instead chose to use corpses, which he then "brought back to life" with cybernetics + his powers, a somewhat futuristic version of Dr. Frankenstein.

Together, Miranda and him show a rotten side of parenthood (whereas Donna + Moreau showed us the uglier side of the children themselves). To put it simply, they are bad parents. They throw their "children"/experiments into the fray, uncaring, using them as pawns for their own greater gain. The most important part of this is that Heisenberg offers to "help" Ethan: By using Rose as a weapon. In his act of refusal, Ethan demonstrates one of several important distinctions between himself and Mother Miranda. Where she is willing to use her "children" (read: lives that she is responsible for) as tools, he is not.

Miscellaneous Symbolism/Imagery:

The old hag is one of my favorite parts of Village. She's seemingly nuts, has a crazy old lady laugh, wears bones that make soothing bone noises when she moves, and she draws lots of symbols in the dirt. If you look closely (I can provide screenshots if anyone desires, but it will take a bit of work to get them onto my computer), she's drawing one of the most iconic images in the titular village: The winged unborn. This symbol acts as the key you build up after every fight with a Lord, understandably called the Unborn Key (which turns into the Winged Unborn Key). Whether this counts as foreshadowing towards the hag's identity reveal is technically irrelevant, but I like to think it does.

In essence, you build up the key, this depiction of an infant, to progress in the game. The more wings it gains, the closer you are to your goal of rescuing your child.

The cadou itself is very clearly fetus-shaped. Furthermore, the only place within the human body that we know it ever gets implanted is in the "tummy" (thanks Moreau), aka roughly where someone's womb is/would be. Every infected person we see presumably had the Cadou implanted there (though I think it would be interesting if implanting it in different spots caused different mutations. of course, that is a discussion for another day). To become immortal, you have to "bear" a "child". Does it get more direct than that?

Mother Miranda gained her immortality in part for her grief at the loss of her child. She embodied the despair that Lady D spoke of, becoming an eternal source of anguish. Just as the loss of a child is a wound that lasts forever, so too would Miranda last forever (well, until Ethan comes along).

Mia is a loving mother, who puts up with the BSAA making her move across the world, deals with the complications of having a mold husband and mold baby, and has proved herself (see her section in RE7) to be an immense badass. Previously I had forgotten that, and even embarrassed myself in the comments of another person's post by implying she wasn't a tough, ass-kicking machine. Y'all remember feral Mia? People talk about "poor Ethan's arms", but sometimes we forget that Mia was one of the people who did a number on them. Furthermore, she's one of the only living people (from outside the village) to have any connections (pun intended) to Mother Miranda. They worked together, although possibly not directly, on Evelyn. If anyone in Village has a chance of really understanding Miranda's plight, or knowing the truth behind it, it would be Mia. Yet we don't see them interact a single time. Which leads me to the next section...

Conclusion On Theme + Missed Potential:

Okay, okay, so it's pretty obvious at this point that, as previously stated, the game's theme is parenthood. Every section has its symbolism, the story is very obviously about a man trying to rescue his daughter, etc, etc, but what's the point? Is there a lesson, or a more focused interpretation of the central theme? Let's take one last step back, and focus on something I've mentioned a few times now: The comparison between Ethan and Mother Miranda.

Recurring dialogue from Ethan, Alcina, and Mother Miranda all point towards the developers acknowledging that the characters are similar, but there's nowhere near as much conversation about it as I would like. Several times we have the antagonists ask Ethan how he's so willing to kill someone else's child, or prevent them from (essentially) doing what he's doing (aka saving his daughter). While Ethan responds with a mix of "well you started it" and "aghhh fuck-a-you, bitch", there's a much more solid, unspoken difference: Mother Miranda sends her underlings to kill, so that she may revive her daughter. Ethan kills (read: does the work himself) to get his daughter. The difference is much bigger, and more important, at the end of the game, when we realize just how far it goes. Ethan dies to save his daughter. Time and time again Mother Miranda has killed others for her work, but in the end she is stopped when someone willingly dies to stop her.

Where does Mia come in? Mia, the badass mother, the one who once worked alongside Mother Miranda, should have been the nail in the coffin. She is the one who survives, who lives on to raise Rose, she is the silent solution to Ethan's sacrifice. Miranda, you fool, what could you have accomplished if you had held onto your makeshift family? Through Mia (and Chris, to a lesser degree), his "loss" becomes a victory. There's a certain poetic justice that comes with Rose's full family being instrumental in saving her, when Miranda so readily spurned her own family.

Mia could have had an actual conversation with Miranda, their history giving the latter a reason to actually listen. I'm not saying that Miranda would have changed her mind/plans, but the conversation would have been a well-needed contrast to Ethan's "arggg what the fuck is happening, I only have two reactions to things. agg fuck you". Additionally, I feel that Mia (who was captured and had to endure who-knows-what) deserves the opportunity to be the one who points out Miranda's mistakes, who delivers the final "fuck you" to her. More than that, she's the one at the end who can say that hey, maybe she can understand some of what Miranda did. Was there anything her and Ethan wouldn't have done to save Rose? As much as Ethan is a foil to Miranda, Mia could (and should) have played a similar role.

When so much of the story and symbolism revolves around Miranda's experience as a mother, it only would have been fair to shine a light on her equivalent. Her better.

There's more I wanted to say/feel like I didn't properly get across, and I might add more to this at some point, but it's 5:40 AM right now, and I'm starting to feel like my brain is slowing down, so... Feel free to reblog/comment and add your own thoughts!

[verycherrymary]

Let me preface this by saying that I know nothing about Resident Evil and I probably won’t play any of the games but I was curious because it’s hard to ignore a tall, elegant, older woman. My curiosity was piqued and I decided to check it out. I watched playthroughs and cutscenes and sort of got the story but I can definitely (and probably) be missing things. I say this so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. 

That being said, I think that switching the order of appearances between Heisenberg and Dimitrescu would have made the story better. 

SPOILERS BELOW

Now, I do not say this because I wanted Dimitrescu to live longer or anything. I say it based on what Heisenberg and Dimitrescu bring to the table and how, in my opinion, it could have been better utilized by the story. 

Let’s start with Heisenberg. He’s clever, so clever that he has figured Miranda’s plot which is something that the other three lords do not seem to have done. He’s also the newest member of this twisted family and so, he functions a lot like a bratty, youngest sibling who is the black sheep. But he’s also the favorite. Miranda awards him the honor of deciding what happens to Ethan. In her journals, Miranda seems to favor Heisenberg. And even as someone who watched the walkthroughs, Heisenberg is great. He’s funny and he seems the most “normal” out of the four lords (sans the whole killing thing, ya know.) 

He’s also extremely persuasive.

And it’s this persuasion that, in my opinion, was underutilized. By the time Ethan gets to Heisenberg, he has beaten three of the lords. Ethan discovers that Heisenberg pretty much figures out Miranda’s plot and wants to destroy her. He’s the only lord that expresses disdain towards Miranda and, for a moment, he tries to convince Ethan to help him. But obviously, by this point, Ethan has no reason to side with Heisenberg. 

But what if this happened at the beginning of the game? 

What if Heisenberg could have convinced Ethan to help him out? What if Heisenberg told Ethan that he hates the other lords and that he’s been wanting to get out of this family? What if Heisenberg was the one who told him about the four lords (and not the Duke). When I first saw the trailer and saw all the pictures in the background, I actually thought Heisenberg’s role was going to be one of a guide almost. Your first look into the mess that is the village. (Also, I thought the X out picture of Dimitrescu was because of his disdain for her.) And sure, he told Miranda he wanted to kill you, but maybe it was all for show. Maybe Heisenberg came up with the idea of a game to allow Ethan to escape his crazy family. Or maybe Heisenberg was just supremely impressed with Ethan and thought Ethan was the man for the job, to take down Miranda. 

This would have made Heisenberg live up to being “the most dangerous” as the Duke said. Heisenberg doesn’t care about the conventionalities of his little family and so, he has no restraints. He’s on his own mission and he’s going to use Ethan to get it. Until something happens that makes Ethan realize that Heisenberg is going to double cross him or maybe has double crossed him. 

Granted, I have not watched everything and there could be things that I am missing, but while the game kind of touches this idea of Heisenberg being a double crosser, it does so kind of weakly. And in my opinion, a lot of it has to do with the fact that it came so late in the game that it kind of lost its effect. Had Heisenberg been the first villain you encounter in this strange world, maybe it would have changed because he would have been your first source of information. And if you relied on Heisenberg’s tellings of what is happening, then you have an unreliable source and as a result, your information may be unreliable, perhaps to Ethan’s detriment. Again, adding to this “dangerousness.” 

So what about our lovely Lady Dimitrescu? Well, she has the makings of a closer. Lady Dimitrescu is like the character on the stage you can’t take your eyes off. Her design is a large part of it, but it’s also her attitude and personality. She’s a diva, from the way she talks to the way she walks to the way she conducts herself. In her mind, she’s the best and all of her other “siblings” are beneath her. 

And it’s this ego that is underutilized in my opinion. 

Leaving Lady Dimitrescu for the end would allow her ego to grow and ultimately be her downfall. In her mind, she’s the best. She’s the oldest, the most responsible, and the most dedicated to Mother Miranda. So if she saw Heisenberg fail, Beneviento fail, and Moreau fail, well that’s not a big deal because she’s Lady Dimitrescu and she’s too big to fail. Mother Miranda made a mistake in trusting Heisenberg because look what happened so of course, it’s up to big sister Lady Dimitrescu to clean the mess her siblings made. 

And that would be her downfall. 

Because then when Ethan Winters comes and starts killing her daughters, one by one, her ego gets plucked further and further as she becomes more unhinged. This is her house, her daughters but this man is storming through them. Now she’s failing too, just like the rest of her low life siblings. But she’s better than them so how is this possible? We already know from her journals that Lady Dimitrescu has the issue that every oldest sibling seems to have: this need of validation. And she was determined to get that validation by proving to Mother Miranda that she had made a mistake and by getting Ethan Winters. 

But now, she’s alone. Her daughters are killed. Mother Miranda will be so disappointed in her. And she too is failing, just like her siblings. She’s feeling an incredible amount of pain and loss.  It would be enough to send her in a rage, to devote herself completely to destroying Ethan Winters. 

And if this wasn’t an action game, I think that the best takedown for Lady Dimitrescu would be one of her own creation. One where all the tragedy, shame, and humiliation causes her to make a dumb mistake that allows Ethan to bring her down. At the end, she’s not so different from her siblings and she too falls. 

Karl Heisenberg and Lady Dimitrescu are the two ends of the same rope, each tugging at each other and believing they are superior than the other without realizing that they will both be hanged by that rope. They stand out because they have personality but it feels like their personalities were not used to the full potential. For me, that’s the most disappointing part of it. I don’t mind if they died, in fact, it’s to be expected. The issue is always the treatment of a character before they died and I just don’t feel like either character was used to their full potential. 

Like I said, I have no clue talking about and I’m not part of this fandom. I just hate seeing really interesting characters just kind of pushed aside. The other two lords have their own interesting parts, especially Donna. But Heisenberg and Dimitrescu really had the chance to be something more and it didn’t happen. 

But this is just my opinion and it’s uninformed and I don’t want hate, thanks.

[thefoolsloop]

The Burnt City continues to evolve

I’m now six shows in and the show is definitely growing on me, with provisos. I’m not sure how much more I can say without spoilers, so proceed at your own risk if you haven’t seen the show or only part of it. [Might be spoilers from here on]

My sixth show was something of a turning point. Apart from having Miranda’s 1:1 as the border guard (I did want to see her in this role and she doesn't disappoint, moving between fierce military loyalty and painful anguish at what she's participated in), I also finally found a loop I think I can fall in love with and it’s not at all the one I expected. Then I brained myself coming out of one of the greenhouses, which is probably karma. I do think there are some serious safety issues to be addressed in the building, but I thought the same about Sleep No More and I doubt anything will change until there’s a major incident.

Anyway, much to my surprise the character I found myself drawn to was Penthesilea Macaria* (Polyxena’s lover). Leal was playing her last night (what an expressive face she has!), so I can’t comment on how other performers approach the role, but Leal managed to capture the sincerity of her affection for her lover (at one point indulging in a tender solo sequence in which she folded over some fabric reciting, “she loves me, she loves me not”). There’s an almost childlike tenderness between her and Polyxena, and the agony and pain she feels after her lover’s death is utterly heartbreaking. Just as it is with Hecuba, but in a different way. Unfortunately Leal, like most of the PD newcomers, didn't do the 1:1 so I was unable to get any further insight into the depth of her character. But perhaps it wouldn’t have added anything - Iphigenia’s didn’t. I also caught a brief glimpse of a couple of characters I would want to prioritise in future visits. Dafni’s Campe looks delightfully mischievous (shades perhaps of the PA in TDM), Stephanie’s maid is an enticing combination of distressed and self-indulgent, according to the situation, and Artemis, Cronos and Persephone are loops that will definitely be worth returning to. I’ve already tried to follow Artemis and Persephone but my goodness, are they slippery.

In addition, the Troy area is starting to have the same vibe as the McKittrick or even parts of Temple Studios. The network of rooms and corridors is no longer entirely confusing and I’m starting to have a better feel for the different mini-biomes in the area (however I still think they could do with more separation from each other, one disadvantage of the space being on only two floors). It’s easy to move from one part to another, and the production design is starting to feel holistic, especially now a few elements have been added.

There seems to be much more to Troy than Mycenae, which continues to disappoint. The space is way too broad, the ‘hedgehogs’ (though well used in the sacrifice sequence) dominate the area, robbing it of the detail which is so uniquely PD. The Schliemann area is under-used, the forest too small (unlike the forest in SNM which is also small but feels like a space you can get lost in), the sandy area has no obvious purpose, and even the large table area (I refuse to reference P*tin) seems bare and under-decorated. Iphigenia’s dressing room is exactly the sort of thing we would expect from PD and the shower area works well too. Couldn’t they have filled the intervening space with something more than a big table? This is not to take away from the fine performances that happen on that table, it’s just that there was surely some way to divide up the space so it was just more... well, interesting. There’s obviously some kind of creative decision going into this that I can’t fathom, but it’s put me right off Mycenae. Which is a shame, as there are a lot of things to like performance-wise, like ‘Sing Sing Sing’ and Agamemnon’s death.

(Incidentally, I’ve noticed the main hall in Mycenae is carpeted. This robs it of much of the sensation that it’s a battlefield. It feels like an exhibition centre or an airport lounge. A barer floor would have been more congruent with the intention, surely? Even plastic linoleum would have been better. I also think the main staircase and the upper balcony feel too plain - in the previous productions the bare stairwells didn’t matter because they were out of sight of the main set, and generally only used briefly.)

I suppose the TLDR is that Troy feels like a ‘world’ and Mycenae doesn’t. To me, at least.

But enough negativity, except perhaps to note that the eye-watering ticket prices discourage much further attendance. I certainly don’t have any more shows booked at the moment. But at least I now feel I have something that I yearn to go back to, unlike Kabeiroi which just made me want to walk away in disgust. At last this is actually feeling like the Punchdrunk shows which have given me weird dreams, happy memories and aching nostalgia.

[*Edit: there was no official cast/character list when I wrote this post. We were guessing who was who and Penthesilea seemed the most likely choice. Then the list was published and the mystery solved. (We also thought the Watchman was Odysseus.)]

[royalreef]

@busygirlgcttagc inquired: "This feels a little too easy... I think that it depends on where, exactly, I'd go" Someone like the princess could easily survive some of Lara's adventures - Horus knows that being able to breathe underwater would've made her travels down sunken ships, chanels under London and dangerous underwater mazes much easier, but when it comes to deserts? Absolutely not. She'd fry in an instant. ... hm. She suddenly feels like fish and chips, for some reason

"Well, where are you going?" she asks, because this is the obvious followup question, the question that Lara should have expected from just what came out of her own mouth. It's a question that makes Miranda's fins lift up, one side tilting down while the other lifts up even further, framing around the tines of her crown like rays of sunlight. That too, is a gesture that comes punctuated by the blatant followup, that her eyes are wide and pretty and her pupils so round that it is easy to see how an apex predator like her could still be so conventionally cute.

( Truly, it's not as high of a bar to clear as some might suspect. Tigers and lions and bears, too, all fill the same role as her, and all have lined children's bedrooms and had their noses kissed at the end of a bedtime story. Dolphins and whales are seen as just as benevolent and innocent as her appearance belies, and even sharks are not free from being so dearly beloved by those who are fully aware of their teeth and their strength. In fact, it might be more reasonable to suggest that the same parts of her, the roundness of her cheeks made by the muscles of her jaw, or the paw-like hands made to grasp and to hold onto struggling prey, are the exact reason she's considered cute. That, maybe, humanity and the aesthetics humanity is drawn to is, in some part, a genuine love and adoration for the same things that they swear they fear. )

( But, so too, predators have roles to play of their own. Miranda cannot be submerged in just any water, as much as humans cannot be expected to breathe just any mixture of gases. Freshwater, or too much ammonia, or pollutants, could all kill her in ways swifter than any blow to the head. She's better at retaining what water she has, as both a natural consequence of being adapted for saltwater and the result of a more terrestrial ancestry than others might suspect, but she's a gigantotherm, and has far less ways to vent heat than even a more warmblooded animal. Extensive dryness would render her outermost coat useless, would crack and chip her delicate gills until they tore apart, even if she is better at handling low-humidity stints than other marine animals. Worse still, she was not built to run, as the same pressures placed upon ambush predators to kill prey quickly are the same pressures that make her endurance worse. This might be a fun trick to learn, when realizing that Miranda has no flight in her fight or flight, but it is less so when moving at all on land is already an exhausting ordeal for her. )

Regardless, Miri leans her head further a little more, letting the full length of her neck close the gap. This, combined with her expression, gives her the effect of a needy feline, begging for scratches behind the ear. She certainly does have earfins both large and fluffy enough for it. "I could help! I know how to handle myself around dark and dangerous places!"

[weekend-whip]

I’m listening 👀 (also not me just going back through the legacyverse and oc stuff because I’m Invested)

Mmmmmmmm okay-

The Alignment Swap isn’t even a Full AU, just some fun thoughts I played around with until I decided to give it all one home:

Jesse’s still the Elemental Master of Surprise, and the Fuchsia Ninja, but he’s got more of Olivia’s role of being in an extremely gray area: still kinda caring about the people he’s close to, but much more focused on furthering his own agenda. He deems himself “evil and unredeemable” after failing to save Miranda, and instead of “masking” himself as a hero, he “masks” himself as the villain he thinks he is. He embraces the more entertainer/trickster side of his personality that “canon” him tends to suppress when he’s not Fuchsia. Have you heard “Ladies and Gentlemen” by Saliva? That’s his bad boy theme asdfghjk

Miranda still gets crushed by a building, but comes to the realization that she could just improve her whole body with mechanics instead of just half, thus she works on essentially turning herself into a Nindroid and tries to convince others to do the same (there’s also a bit more to this but that would cross into canon spoilers SO NOPE–) Just know she goes a little ‘evil scientist route’...and also blames Jesse for making her like this, especially when he confronts her about it.

Olivia, then, I guess takes on Jesse’s role as support for the Ninja, and instead of seeing the Elemental Compass as something to exploit, it becomes something to protect for her. She’s still part of the Shark Army, but works as a double agent instead (along the same lines as Bridget)

Aurora’s bitter about not inheriting the Element of Ice, and abuses her visions to manipulate others into doing what she wants, and instead makes it her life’s work to somehow steal it away from her father. This leads her to Julien to brainstorm an idea for how to do it. She does this in the form of creating a son that should–technically–steal it for her, and from there she could manipulate Zane into giving it up to her...but it backfires.

Harleigh...technically doesn’t really change personality-wise lmao, but instead of protesting her dad she sticks by his side the whole time and assists him with his schemes (which, still, is the opposite of what she’d actually want to be doing, technically). 

Sunni basically just becomes Jay’s bully instead of his biggest fan cuz she feels jaded about being rejected asdfghjkhgfd

Meanwhile the Heartstopper AU is just a series of details/ideas that have been living in my mind rent free since April:

Cole has “Nick’s Life”, but he’s the one that was outed as gay (with people still pushing him to be with girls instead).

Jesse has “Charlie’s Life”, but he’s the one exploring his bisexuality (but absolutely definitely likes Cole, he knows for sure). 

Miranda would be Tori but a younger sister (still popping up at random times to scare Jesse asdfghj that’s too perfect)

Kai and Skylor would be Tao and Elle (which I debated with myself for a very long time over it but the more I think about it the more I see it’s a GREAT fit, except Kai’s the one trying to “protect” Cole from Jesse snksnksnk) 

And after much ado about nothing I have recently pinned Nya and Olivia as Tara and Darcy because when ELSE will I have an excuse to further explore that potential angle for their relationship??? Plus Kai and Nya still get to be siblings

Zane would be Issac and/or Aled, and I have no idea how I’d squeeze Lloyd and Jay into this but I’m ruminating (did play around with the idea of Lloyd as Issac, Zane as Aled who would eventually date a nonbinary Pixal, and Jay as Michael without potential shipping with Mira but ho hum we’ll see how far that gets) 

I want Vania as Imogen. I must. 

Chad’s Ben and Harry rolled up into one because I can’t feasibly give those roles to anyone else I love them too much hhhh (just this time around Cole would be the one that’s “old friends” with Chen instead of Kai I suppose while Chen is Jesse’s Ex)

Also ‘Want Me’ is like a flagship Aftershock song for me so there’s that

Anyway I do wanna doodle some of my ideas for these one day so be on the look out for that (such as Miranda constantly spooking Jesse, Cole giving Jesse the nickname ‘Jess’, Cole punching Chen (Yeah!!! YEAH!!!!), The Snow Day Scene, Cole carrying Jesse at the beach (AAAAAAA), and the First Kiss Scene *lies down*) 

Like I said very guilty pleasure but my brain goes brrrr and I follow the hum

[foilfreak]

Beauty and Her Beast: Chapter 7 (aka the ‘big boobie vampire mommy’ and ’mutant servant girl that is very horny for her’ chapter)

WARNING PLZ READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

(AO3 link below:)

“Good evening, sir. Is there something I can assist you with, tonight? It’s quite late, and my mistress has already retired for the evening due to the strenuous nature of today’s events, so while I’m sure the good Lady Dimitrescu won’t be too terribly displeased if you’ve come with urgent news that requires her immediate attention, I’m afraid anything outside the realm of absolute importance will have to wait until morning, when my mistress will be better rested and therefore better able to address whatever concern you’ve brought” The low and smooth voice of an older teenage girl said, staring slightly downward at Salvatore with a level of such blank indifference that he would have wondered if the girl hadn’t seen him had she not outright greeted him upon opening the door.

With piercing red eyes, dark skin and long, black curls tied up neatly and carefully into two thick buns on either side of the top of her head, and dressed in a pretty, but still practical dress, the older teen looked every bit as much the role of a dignified estate’s head servant as she acted, right down to the pencil straight stiffness of her body. Despite how uncomfortable the stiff position looked to Salvatore, the subtly bold way she carried herself did give the older teen an air of confidence and reliability, however what it didn’t do was answer the multitude of questions flying around in Salvatore’s head about who she was, and more importantly, where she came from.

And then it hit him.

“Y-you’re… Alcina’s g-gift… aren’t y-you?” Salvatore asks aloud, though seemingly more to himself than the girl standing in front of him. Said girl furrows her brows in confusion for a moment before huffing in, what appeared to be, mild offense. Though what on earth Salvatore could have done to offend the young teen, he had absolutely no idea.

“I have no idea what you mean when talking about these so called “gifts”, however I think it's important for you to know that I am a very busy woman with a great many things to do, so if this is all some kind of sick game you’re playing to waste my time then I’m going to have to politely ask that you take your rotten whale behind and go throw yourself into the nearest body of-”

“Anastasia?” a low, feminine voice booms from somewhere behind the older teen standing before him. The girl immediately stiffens, her skin around her nose and cheeks darkening even further, her eyes growing wide and her breath catching in her throat as she turns around. Immediately abandoning Salvatore at the still open front door, the young servant clumsily made her way further into the room before disappearing out of the narrow view the hooded man had been given of the castle through the crack in the door.

Taking a step forward and opening the door enough to slip inside, making sure to close it securely behind him, Salvatore lingered along the walls of the room, merely observing the events before him unfold as the young girl, Anastasia, quickly moved to stand in the center of the circular design on the floor of the entrance hall. Waiting for her on the landing at the top of the stairs was none other than the lady of the house herself, Alcina Dimitrescu, standing as tall, proud, and intimidating as Salvatore last remembers, though it would appear that the disfigured man’s fear of the much larger woman was not shared amongst everyone in the room.

“Y-yes Lady Dimitrescu! Is there something I can do for you this evening, my Lady?” Anastasia asks, hands clasped together in front of her and eyes blown wide at the gargantuan woman leering from above, like a lovesick puppy dog waiting for a command from its beloved owner. Eager to perform. Eager to please.

“Why yes, my sweet, I was just wondering what on earth all that racket was and if it could wait until morning to be finished? The girls and I have had quite the taxing day and I do so wish to retire to the sound of peace and quiet” Alcina coos warmly, causing Salvatore to pause in confusion.

“Oh goodness, I apologize, mistress. It’s just that there was a visitor at the door and despite my repeated attempts to convince him to come back when you were rested, he insisted upon making a nuisance of himself. Please forgive me if my attempts to preserve your restful evening were for naught” the girl said sadly, bowing deeply in apology as she continued to speak.

Alcina practically purrs in delight at the teen’s polite, but genuine behavior. “Fear not, my dear, I had only just taken off my earrings when I heard the commotion. I came out here merely to see if things were getting out of control, but it would appear as though you’ve handled things perfectly.”

The girlish blush on Anastasia’s face only darkens in color as the young teen casts her adoring gaze to the floor, joyous glee from having been praised by her mistress evident all over the younger girl’s body.

Not wanting to stay here any longer than absolutely necessary, especially if this is what he’d have to witness the whole time, Salvatore gathers all of his strength and uses it to clear his throat and take a step forward, revealing himself to both women as he gingerly comes out into the light.

“YOU!” Anastasia yells, immediately turning on her heel and making a beeline toward the increasingly anxious Salvatore. “So not only have you made enough of a nuisance of yourself to disturb the lovely Lady Dimitrescu just as she’s about to retire and rest from a very long and taxing day, but now you’ve decided that you’re so above everyone else that you can just waltz right into someone else’s home without even the slightest hint of respect or admiration for the incredible woman living in it, how dare you be so crash and selfish you overcooked blowfish, exit this castle immediately, or I’ll shove my boot so far up your rear end you’ll be fishing around for it for weeks you-”

“Anastasia, calm yourself, dear” the loud, but calming sound of Alcina’s voice said, causing the young teen to pause in her angry scolding of Salvatore.

“My Lady?” The young teen asks, dutifully awaiting orders.

“Let the wretched man inside, he’s the furthest thing from a threat to us, even if he is an annoying little manthing. Although, I’d be lying if I said a visit from you at this hour of night is something I’ve come to expect of you, dearest elder brother.”

The disfigured man swallowed thickly as he stepped past Anastasia to fully face his other younger sister, who looked all the more intimidating from her looming perch upon the upper story.

“I-I know this is s-sudden…” Salvatore begins, hoping he’d at least be able to explain himself before Alcina tossed him back outside on his ass.

“I’ll certainly say” Anastasia bursts in angrily, but she’s quickly silenced and sent away to tend to her other duties by Alcina, who motions for Salvatore to ascend the large set of stairs leading up to the rest of the castle and join her on the landing for a moment.

“Spunky little thing, isn’t she?” Alcina says when Salvatore finally makes it to the top of the stairs, panting slightly as he follows the much taller mutant’s gaze to the door that Anastasia had just exited the room from.

“Th-that’s certainly… one way… o-of putting it” Salvatore stutters, not wanting to offend Alcina by calling her servant rude, but clearly not seeing what’s so great about someone who just yells at you a lot the second you walk through the door.

“Yes! She apparently received a strain of cadou that was quite similar to mine, however her need to consume blood to maintain herself is far more similar to that of leeches. Rather than having to consume it regularly in smaller doses, like myself, she’ll only require one feeding every few weeks or so, which I thought was quite interesting. The only issues Mother Miranda brought up was the fact that her hunger, if it gets bad enough, can trigger both her transformation, as well as some sort of feral and animalistic meltdown that only ends once she’s finally had her fill. Apparently more than a few villagers were lost in the process of learning this information” Alcina comments casually, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Mother only brought her over earlier today, just before dinner, and yet she’s already managed to carve quite the little space for herself here. I hadn’t realized how dirty this place was without any girls left to take from the village until she went through and washed all the walls in the west wing spotless. It was like night and day, I could hardly believe how open and bright the halls looked” Alcina stated.

“W-wow… so th-then… d-do you think y-you’ll keep her a-around… long term?” Salvatore asks curiously, craning his neck so he could get a better look at his sister’s face.

“Perhaps. I’m certainly thinking about it. Not only is she an incredibly hard and fast worker, but she’s also got such a lovely spark of energy and excitement to her, and she’s always very polite and respectful, if a bit obvious in her “admiration” of those she looks up to… not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily. It’s quite sweet, actually!”

“S-she did look… q-quite taken… by y-you” Salvatore comments, having noticed the girl’s far-too-eager-to-be-innocent disposition when Alcina was in the room, vs. when it was just him. Not that it was a terribly surprising turn of events. Alcina, for all her monstrous height and sheer mutant bulk, was still a very beautiful, and very desirable woman at the end of the day, meanwhile Salvatore was only about 2 rolls of the genetic dice away from sharing a more recent common ancestor with the blobfish than he did humans.

“I know, isn’t she adorable? She came exactly like this, too. Mother Miranda has no idea if this is a result of the mutation process or if it's merely her former personality finally returning now that she’s awake and out of containment, but I suppose the logistics of things aren’t really important in the end. I'm so glad I chose her over the other two, I don’t know what I would have done had such a promising and delectable little morsel like her go to waste on the rest of you imbeciles” Alcina coos in amusement. “Regardless of what Mother Miranda said however, I was almost certain this whole “gift” situation was going to be nothing more than a pile of useless drivel that I’d be left to clean up all on my own once the novelty wore off, however after having Anastasia here for these past few hours, and seeing all that she’s willing and capable of doing, I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps I’d been too hasty in my final decision.”

“Funny… K-Karl thought m-much the… th-the same thing i-initially… w-when I t-talked to him… th-the other day… th-though… knowing him… I doubt h-he’s having q-quite as much… of a ch-change of heart… as you a-are” Salvatore said suddenly, more than anything due to the incredible shock that was the concept of Alcina and Karl sharing a similar opinion, at the same time, while both occupying the same dimension of reality.

Alcina’s face immediately turns sour at the mention of Karl. “Oh, did he now? That’s an unfortunate thing to learn,” she says in annoyance, clearly displeased by the notion of agreeing with Karl on anything.

“Y-yes… he… he th-thinks that maybe… M-Mother might b-be using the g-gifts… to d-distract us w-while she’s g-gone away… o-on her mission… b-but that maybe… sh-she also wants… s-something else out of a-all this… something… th-that she isn’t t-telling us… f-for some reason” Salvatore explains, unsure if he should be revealing all this information to Alcina, notorious and open critic of Karl and quite literally everything the younger man has ever done and said, is doing and saying, and will do and say sometime in the span of his chaotic lifespan.

Contrary to what Salvatore assumed, however, instead of looking bored and uninterested in what Karl thought about this whole situation, Alcina looked just the slightest bit… intrigued, if still clearly wary. “Really? And what, pray tell, does our dear sweet little brother Heisenberg believe will come of this whole situation then? Did he say?”

“H-he… he never m-mentioned anything s-specific… but he th-thinks that the g-gifts… might p-play a l-larger role… in all th-this… than M-Mother has been l-leading us to believe.”

“I see,” Alcina says, remaining silent for a moment as she thinks, looking almost concerned by what she’s heard. “And what do you think of this whole mess, Salvatore?”

“U-um… well… I-I think it’s nice… th-that Mother trusts us e-enough… to g-give us her p-previous experiments… and u-use them however w-we want… b-but I’d be l-lying if I s-said… that I d-didn’t think Karl… was o-onto something… I-I don’t know w-what I believe to be t-true a-at the moment… but I d-do know… th-that I’d like t-to give… g-give a gift of m-my own… to Nadine… and that… and that y-you might be… s-someone else who c-could help me… w-with that” the hooded man explains nervously, hoping that Alcina was in a good enough mood to feel like humoring him and his sudden request.

“Nadine?” The tall, pale woman asks in confusion, before suddenly nodding in understanding. “Ah, your gift…”

Salvatore nods. “D-Donna… is f-fashioning a n-new dress… for her… a-and even gave me… this b-beautiful nightgown… to hold h-her over until… until the real one is c-complete. I th-think she w-will… e-enjoy the nightgown b-but… but I’d like to… l-like to get her something else t-too… like a… like a necklace… a-a gold one… o-one that w-would… c-complement her skin tone… j-just right.”

Alcina briefly stares at Salvatore with a blank expression, momentarily making the hooded man worry that he’d overstepped his boundaries and said something to offend the much larger woman. His nerves are thankfully calmed when Alcina turns and orders Salvatore to follow after her, which the disfigured man happily does if it means what he thinks it means.

The two siblings arrive at Alcina’s personal chambers just as Anastasia is exiting them, her arms filled by a large basket of blood soaked towels and clothes, some collected from Alcina’s room, the others likely from either Bela, Cassandra, or Daniela’s rooms.

“Good evening, Lady Dimitrescu! Are you finally retiring for the evening?” Anastasia asks, bowing cheerfully as she finally notices her mistress approaching her. “I’ve already gone ahead and prepared your bed for you, as well as collected all the soiled laundry from today’s harvest. Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?”

“Thank you, my dear, but not quite, I have one more matter to attend to before I fully turn in. Since you were so kind to offer however, I would greatly appreciate it if, once Lord Moreau and I are finished with our affairs, you would be so kind as to escort him to the front door and bid him a good night, for me. You are free to retire to your own chambers for the evening once he’s left” Alcina orders softly, which the young girl obediently nods her head to.

“Of course, mistress, thank you very much! And I’d be happy to see Lord Moreau out for you, so please don’t hesitate to call me once you’re finished with your meeting” Anastasia says, bowing lowly to both Alcina and Salvatore before wordlessly skittering off to do… whatever it was she planned on doing to those dirty garments.

“Now, about that gift you were talking about” Alcina says upon entering her personal bedroom, immediately striding over to her vanity and beginning to sift through several boxes worth of jewelry, “you said you wanted gold, correct? And a necklace specifically?”

“Y-yes! I-if you have anything y-you’re willing to… g-give away… of course… I’d feel t-terrible taking something i-if it meant a g-great deal to you” Salvatore answers, standing awkwardly in the doorway as he waits for Alcina to return to him with whatever she finds.

Of all 3 of his siblings, Alcina was the one Salvatore was easily the least close to, despite having been the only two around for a considerable amount of time before the eventual arrivals of both Donna and then Karl. It wasn’t that Salvatore was displeased when Mother Miranda first informed him that he’d be getting a “sibling” all those years ago, but Alcina’s natural personality, coupled with her terrifying size and strength from the mutations, had made the very meek and timid Salvatore hesitant to reach out and form any kind of sibling bond with the younger woman, like he had with Karl.

Karl was a royal pain in the ass to deal with on even his best days, but at the end of it all, there’s still only so much a 6 year old can do to you, anger issues and mutant metal bending powers or not. Alcina was both a royal pain in the ass to deal with more often than not, but also a fully grown adult when she first joined the family, so needless to say the 2 oldest siblings hadn’t been given very many appropriately opportune moments to bond or get along.

That being said however, the simple but elegant golden locket that Alcina procures from one of her many boxes of jewelry has Salvatore wondering if maybe he had misjudged Alcina, having never expected her to show him something as luxurious and real-looking as this, especially when the understanding was that she’d be giving it away whatever item of jewelry Salvatore took a liking to.

“This is an old locket I received for my 3rd birthday from a relative who died long before I was old enough to care about who they were, though all those diamond star details on the front do make me think they could have been close with us at one point, or perhaps they just had that much money to throw around? It’s an old and well-loved piece of my collection, but Duke has been bringing back such wonderful treasures from his travels that I just have to start getting rid of some of these old sentimental trinkets so I can make room for all the new additions I plan on purchasing once he finally returns” Alcina explains, gingerly handing the necklace over to Salvatore, who could do nothing but gawk at how extravagant and, to be perfectly honest, expensive the necklace looked.

With 4 small diamonds, likely real knowing Alcina, embedded into the surface of the locket’s front cover, surrounded by small engravings that give the glimmering stones the appearance of stars in the night sky, the necklace looked like it belonged upon the neck of a fair and noble princess, into which the radiant beauty could then place the photo of the man who’d stollen her innocent heart. Nadine wasn’t actually a princess and Salvatore all but gagged at the idea of a picture of his face, mutated or not, being put somewhere for anyone to see, however the necklace was far too perfect for the hooded man to possibly turn it down.

“So what do you think? Will something like this do?” The taller woman asks, curiously. “I could continue looking if that isn’t quite what you’re after, however if that is the case, then I would like to politely request that you come back and look at them tomorrow. It's already so late and I’d have to have the rest of my collection fetched from the vault downstairs.”

“N-no no… th-that’s alright… this i-is perfect… thank y-you… Alcina… this w-was very k-kind of you to do… f-for me” Salvatore says, carefully tucking the glittering necklace into the bag Donna had placed the nightgown in.

“Don’t fret about it too much, I only did it because I had a bit of time to spare prior to going to bed, and you happened to catch me in a good mood. That’s it” Alcina states firmly, though something in the back of Salvatore’s head can’t help but take the taller woman’s words with a grain of salt, feeling as though there was more to Alcina’s sudden generosity than just pure coincidence. “Besides, who knows what gaudy thing you’d have shown up with had you not made the surprisingly wise decision to invoke Donna’s and my vastly superior knowledge of the feminine experience. I don’t even want to think of what tacky little trinket you’d have tried to gift her. Why the thought of that alone is enough to make me want to run for the hills, how on earth do you think your poor little gift would have felt? I’d have had to murder you on the spot if I found out you tried to pass some disgusting pile of garbage off as an appropriate gift. In fact, if I didn’t know that Donna was working on a more fitting dress for her already, I’d have half a mind to skin you alive for only having a flimsy nightgown to take back with you, but I doubt any of the dresses I have, that would be appropriate to wear with that kind of necklace anyways, would come close to fitting her, and I really do want to start making room for some newer, more exciting pieces. So, with all that in mind, count your blessings that the stars have aligned in your favor tonight, dear brother, because I won’t be doing this for you again… unless, you’d be willing to do me a few favors in exchange for some of the other pieces of my collection, that is.”

Aaaaaaaaaaand there’s the Alcina that Salvatore knows and secretly likes. In vehement denial that she feels anything positive for her 3 siblings and also actively trying to get someone else to do her dirty work for her. It's certainly not how the hooded man prefers to operate, but he supposes that if Alcina can somehow convince everyone around her to do all of her work for her, why wouldn’t she take advantage of that as much as possible?

“I-I think that’s e-enough… for t-tonight actually… maybe i-if I decide I’d l-like to get her s-something else… I’ll c-consider that offer y-you brought up” Salvatore says, bowing politely to his sister as he makes his desire to leave obvious.

Thankfully, Alcina seems more than happy to send her older brother on his way, calling Anastasia to come lead Salvatore back to the front door so he could finally begin making his way home.

“Th-thank you again… Alcina… I really a-appreciate this… an-and I'm sure Nadine w-will love the gift t-too” Salvatore says just as he’s about to bid Alcina goodnight and begin following the young servant girl.

“Yes, yes, you’re very grateful of my wondrous kindness to you, I know, you’ve made that fact more than clear already, brother” the taller woman says with an only mildly annoyed roll of her eyes as she stands just outside the door to her chambers. “Just make sure you don’t waste the opportunity my graciousness has afforded you, do you understand?”

Salvatore stiffens nervously as Alcina shoots him a pointed look that screams ‘don’t fuck this up or I’ll fuck you up’, a threat which the hooded man knows she’ll make good on, should Salvatore make it necessary for her to do so. Salvatore wasn’t sure how Alcina had picked up on the nature of his budding affections for Nadine so quickly, or how she seemed to instinctively know what he was planning despite having never asked directly, but clearly she’d noticed something and was now in the process of making the matter of whether Salvatore successfully courted his gift her business.

Heavens above have mercy upon whomever is unlucky enough to have their problematic situation noticed and meddled with by Alcina Dimitrescu.

“Y-yes… I u-understand… an-and I’ll be s-sure not to w-waste... waste the g-golden opportunity you’ve g-given me… OH! An-and Donna w-wants her mannequins b-back... too… sh-she wanted m-me to tell y-you” Salvatore replies, his anxiety only mildly calmed when Alcina makes a face at the mention of Donna’s yet-to-be-returned-still mannequins.

“Oh for goodness sakes, I always forgot about those stupid things. Anastasia?”

“Yes, Mistress?” The young servant dutifully answers.

“Please make a note to remind me to have Heisenberg come by so he can collect and return the manequins Donna leant me while I was commissioning some dresses from her earlier this month. That foul-mouthed mutt owes me a favor, and so if all goes the way I’d like I’ll be making this his problem in the morning” Alcina says devilishly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Of course, Lady Dimitrescu, I’ll be sure to remind you of that first thing tomorrow morning” Anastasia replies warmly, though her amicable grin is quickly replaced by a flush and a girlish giggle when Alcina waves and turns on her heel, swaying her hips in an obvious fashion before bending down to enter through the door of her chambers.

Salvatore passed exceptionally confused glances back and forth between his sister and the young servant standing in front of him, totally clueless as to what just unfolded a moment ago as a feeling of disgust, the kind you get when you see something you wish you hadn’t, began to curl in the pit of his stomach. Whatever it was that was going on in the Dimitrescu house, and more importantly with their new servant girl, it was clearly none of Salvatore’s business. Not that he’d wanted it to be in the first place.

Salvatore had enough problems to deal with regarding his own gift, he didn’t have time to worry about whether or not Alcina was already making moves on hers.

“Have a safe journey home, and do make sure to stop by with Nadine if things turn out well between the two of you. Based on how today played out, it would seem as though things are about to get a lot more interesting around here… and a lot more fun too. Goodnight, Dear Brother” is all Alcina says before gently closing the door to her chambers, effectively ending their conversation without so much as a single word from Salvatore, not that he minded being handed the chance to finally get out of here, especially after… whatever the hell that exchange between Alcina and Anastasia was.

Best not to think too hard about it, probably, especially when there was another woman back at the reservoir who was much more deserving of Salvatore’s lustful and impure musings.

“Uuum… the front door is this way… Lord Moreau,” Anastasia says suddenly, her face still dark from embarrassment, though whether it was from her earlier treatment of him before she learned he was another Lord and not just some random man from the village, or from… that thing he just saw that he doesn’t feel like thinking about anymore, the hooded man couldn’t tell.

Nor did he particularly care to find out.

[365days365movies]

February 19, 2021: The Phantom of the Opera (2004) (Part 1)

I love musicals.

Hands down, when talking cinematic adaptations of musicals, my favorite is Little Shop of Horrors. I’ve seen it MANY times, and will see it many, MANY more. And I’m not the only one. I mean, obviously, but in this case, I’m referring to my girlfriend. She’s chosen to represent herself with a GIF from her favorite musical, Hairspray. So, here she is:

Ravishing. Now, because it’s currently our anniversary, I let her pick today’s movie from my list. And so, she chose a musical that neither she nor I have seen: 2004′s The Phantom of the Opera. And some of you may now be saying, “What, this guy said he liked movie musicals, and he hasn’t seen TPotS? That’s like saying you haven’t seen Grease, or Singin’’ in the Rain, or, PFFT, West Side Story!”

...About that...

Yeah, yeah, I know! It’s insane, and I’m a hypocrite. I’ll be getting to the rest of those eventually, and one of them’ll be coming in the next couple of days, I promise. You can probably guess which one. Anyway, fact of the matter is that we’re gonna watch it tonight, and I’m looking forward to it. 

However, there’s another factor to this, and that’s the fact that this film...doesn’t have the best reputation amongst fans of the original musical. And, yeah, this should ideally be the Michael Crawford version, but the Butler version is the one I have access to, so we’re going for it. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

Paris, 1919, back when the whole city was in black-and-white for a year. They lost the budget for color after World War I. Anyway, at an old opera house, an auction is taking place, and items found within the theater are for sale. One of these is a music box with a monkey on it, an item which sponsors a bidding war between an older woman, and an older man in a wheelchair. I’m sure we’ll find out who they are eventually.

Anyway, a broken chandelier is also up for option, and was involved in the mysterious disaster of the “Phantom of the Opera” fiasco. They turn it on with electric light, and as they raise it to the ceiling, the organist goes fuckin’ NUTS. The song’s so loud that it REVERSES TIME, and we’re now in color, in the year 1870 at the same opera house.

The theatre, managed by the soon-to-retire Monsieur Lefèvre (James Fleet), has just been purchased by Richard Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Gilles André (Simon Callow), who are there to observe. On stage, a rehearsal for the opera Hannibal is taking place, and the costume’s are already...like, a LOT, not gonna lie. The headliner for the show is soprano (and drama queen supreme) Carlotta Giudicelli (Minnie Driver), and is being funded by patron Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson). 

The background dancers are instructed by Madame Giry (Miranda Richardson), and include her daughter, Meg (Jennifer Ellison), and her adopted daughter, Christine Daaé (Emmy Rossum). As the rehearsal takes place, an accident happens on stage, almost injuring Carlotta. Enraged, she leaves, and refuses to perform.

Meanwhile, Madame Giry finds a letter from the Phantom, who demands his normal monthly salary of 20,000 francs, as for Box 5 to be left open. While the new owners think that this is ridiculous, they also note that it’s pointless without a lead singer for their show. 

However, Christine is volunteered, and shows that she is indeed a talented singer. The show goes on, and Christine is a smash, much to Carlotta’s dismay. At this point, Raoul also discovers that this is his long lost childhood friend (and possibly long lost love) Christine, which she also noticed earlier.

But this is because of a mysterious teacher, who sings to her from the walls of the theatre. Meg comes in to congratulate her (through song), and asks who her tutor is. Meg responds...in song (”Angel of Music”).

Afterwards, Madame Giry also congratulates her, and tells her that the Phantom is pleased with her. Right after, Raoul also pays her a visit, and the two reconnect on shared memories of times in an attic in the summer. She tells Raoul that she is visited by an Angel of Music, and cannot go to the dinner that night with him. And the Phantom agrees, as he locks Christine in her room. YIKES. 

And as literally every person in the theatre except Christine leaves, the Phantom serenades her, angered by Raoul’s presence, and Christine’s potential dalliance with him (”Mirror”). And through the mirror, he takes her to a mysterious crypt beneath the theatre. And as they sing their strange duet in the form of the title song (”The Phantom of the Opera”)...I try to resist talking about Gerard Butler until later. And it’s hard. It’s SO hard, guys.

But, OK, he takes her away on a...sewer horse...how the FUCK did he get that horse down there? And wait, WAIT, does he put her on that horse to walk her, like, 20 feet to the gondola? Like...WHY DO YOU HAVE THE HORSE? That is...monumentally wasteful. Where do you keep the horse? Does he feed the horse? How much? How often? With what? Does the horse eat the sewer rats? Is there naturally growing sewer hay? Does the Phantom’s salary go towards buying food for the horse, or buying new horses when the original ones DIE OF STARVATION - WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS HORSE?!?!? WHOMSTVE THE FUCK

And yes, I love this fuckin’ song (not the singers, but we’ll get there), but this is distracting me alongside the statues of naked men in the sewer, because...well, Joel Schumacher. What can I say, it’s kind of his aesthetic. Anyway, we get officially introduced to the Phantom of the Opera (Gerard Butler), a very handsome-looking man who likes wearing a half-mask.

I say handsome, because the Phantom in this movie, looks...fine. HE LOOKS OK. HE LOOKS LIKE A DUDE WEARING A MASK. What, did somebody throw a hot candle at his face once, and he freaked out over it and ran into the sewers forever...WITH A HORSE? NOT OVER THE HORSE SHIT.

Look, the Phantom is supposed to be HIDEOUSLY scarred. Famously, in one of the film adaptations of Phantom, actor Lon Chaney Jr. purposely distorted his own face using adhesive face in order to play the role of the hideously disfigured character. Now, other versions have just given him severe, and I mean SEVERE burn scars. But behind the mask, Butler looks...fine. HE LOOKS FINE GODDAMMIT. He looks like he’s wearing the mask because it looks edgy and shit.

But OK, what’s happening in the movie? Oh, right, more serenading (”Music of the Night”), with another song that I like quite a bit. This and the previous song were songs Id heard before, and that I’d already had on my playlist. They’re great, what can I say? Now is Butler doing it justice? Ehhhhhhh, we’ll talk about that in the Review.

During this song he kinda seduces her, or attempts to, and also shows her a wedding dress. She sees herself in it and IMMEDIATELY faints, Jesus!  Curtain falls on Christine while she’s in a bed, and we go back to her room, where Meg is looking for her. She finds the mirror, and is about to go back there, but her mother finds and stops her.

Meanwhile, stagehand Joseph Buquet (Kevin McNally) tells the chorus girls of the legend of the Phantom, and describes a physical description that doesn’t match him...even a little. We cut back to Christine, who wakes up in what my girlfriend refers to as a “bomb-ass HQ.” Which is fair, let’s be honest. Anyway, she heads over and tries to unmask her new masked lover (?).

He’s not the biggest fan of this, and he emos all over the screen (”Stranger Than You Dreamt It”). And then, as he puts his mask on, we suddenly (and I mean suddenly) jump to 1919, where the old woman, Madame Giry, bids farewell to...wait, that’s Raoul? HOW DOES HE LOOK SO MUCH OLDER THAN HER, WHAT???

Back in the past, inexplicably, the theatre owners and manager sing about the theatre and the Phantom’s demands ("Notes..."), and are soon joined by Raoul, who brings them a separate note, saying not to look for Christina any further. THEN, Carlotta joins them, delivering a letter of her own from the Phantom, warning her not to return to the theatre.

In his letters, he details how his theatre is to be run, threatening a disaster if Christine is not cast in the lead role, and if Carlotta is not cast in a silent role. However, the theatre owners and Carlotta refuse to obey, and Carlotta is cast in the role, as the owners try to appease her (”Prima Donna”).

That night, during a performance of Il Muto, Carlotta’s singing the lead role. Additionally, Box Five is full, and the Phantom is PISSED. So, like a Phantom do, it’s time for some good old fashioned petty revenge! He switches her throat spray, causing her to lose her voice on stage, and causing the audience to laugh when the show ends abruptly. They quickly and publicly recast the role, giving it to Christine instead. Well, mission accomplished by the Phantom! Guess we’re good without retribution. And then he hangs the stagehand.

Well...fuck, man. Realizing that the Phantom is EXTREMELY dangerous, Christine goes to save Raoul, who she...is in a relationship with now? Wait...wait, hold up, the fuck did I miss? I mean, yeah, he probably is gonna kill Raoul, but there is, like, NO lead-up to their connection before this point.

Anyway, as Christine explains that there is a Phantom when Raoul says he doesn’t exist...wait, WHAT? MOTHER FUCKER BUQUET JUST NOT MURDERED IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY WHAT IN THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN????? YOU LITERALLY HEARD THE...you know what? Break. BREAK. This is...this one’s tough.

See you in Part 2!

[hoist-the-colours-podcast]

Hi! It is I.... Your friendly neighbourhood anon back again. I just have one more question: IF Muldoon and/or Miranda had survived how do you think Flint and Silver’s relationship would have developed over seasons 3 and 4?

Hello again! Ooooh boy, that’s a question and a half! I’ll be honest, it’s been a minute since I last rewatched S3 and S4, so I might’ve forgotten some significant stuff, but here’s some rambling thoughts under the cut anyway. 

I think Miranda’s the one whose survival would most obviously change the way Flint and Silver’s relationship developed. Without her death (and the subsequent fuck around and find out consequences handed out to Charlestown) Flint wouldn’t have headed down such a dark and destructive solitary path. Flint is clearly a character who always needed a partner to ground him, as he was meant to be the grounding partner for Thomas, and I think that although Miranda struggled to fill that role at times, because of her own rage and desperation as much as Flint’s, it would be so much more difficult for Silver to have found a way to worm in as close as he did if she was still occupying that space. Having said that though, assuming in this version of events Silver still lost his leg then I think that warmth we saw Flint offer him so briefly in 2x10 might have carried further. The lie about the gold would still have been an obstacle - and I wish we could’ve seen some of the stuff that happened between S2 and S3 with Flint, Jack, and Vane hashing all of that out between them - but Miranda was such a force for reason in Flint’s life (with one or two notable exceptions, haha) that I think they could’ve got past it without the pressure of the doldrums and all the consequences of Flint’s mental downward spiral. And this is pretty headcanon-y but personally I’ve always imagined Miranda would’ve quite liked Silver. I think there’d be a healthy amount of ‘I see through your bullshit’ in there too, but after a decade of starving for intelligent conversation I don’t think it would’ve gone unnoticed that Silver was quicker and wittier than most other people on that island. It’s only a shade of Miranda conjured by Flint’s mind that tells him he’s not alone, but I don’t find it hard to imagine the real Miranda pointing out the same thing.  I think so much comes down to what events would’ve surrounded Miranda’s survival and what that would mean for Flint’s headspace and journey, honestly. Whether he would still be on a warpath, still have a mind towards reconciliation, or have reached the point where he’d finally had enough and was ready to retire inland with her. Any path that saw him carry on as a captain would’ve meant having to work with Silver as quartermaster, and there would’ve been plenty of opportunities for Silver to rebuild that tentative thing the lie broke and to foster something closer. It’s difficult to know whether Silver was so different to Gates in terms of the relationship he found with Flint because of something inherent to him and his similarities with Flint or because he was in the ‘right’ time and place to be Flint’s only companion and confidant. It was probably a mix of both. And I think right from the get go there’s a level of kismet implied by the writing, that Silver is Flint’s missing page. There were so many times he could’ve just bailed on Flint but he didn’t, at huge risk to himself, and I don’t buy for a second that it was all for the gold. I think Silver told himself it was all for the gold, and he might even have believed it, but he spent the first two seasons tying himself to Flint and that crew to the point that he chose his brothers almost over his own life 2x10 despite everything he’d said about leaving them all behind without a second glance. And speaking of his brothers, Muldoon! I’m a bit stumped on this one, honestly! I want to say that if he’d lived then his relationship with Silver might’ve developed further (because it sure seemed like they were getting close to one another), and maybe a close connection with one of the men he spoke for would’ve put some additional distance between Silver and Flint. But again I feel like if that was a scenario where Flint was alone and raging then Silver would’ve still had no choice but to find a way to build a partnership with him, for all their sakes. And honestly it’s kind of funny to imagine Silver ultimately juggling three partnerships, with Muldoon, Flint, and Madi (four if you want to count Billy too, five if you count Israel Hands), because my god for a loner he became a Special Person to a lot of people. I think the Muldoon question becomes more interesting towards the end of S4 when Silver’s becoming this iconic, monstrous character in a story he can’t control. There are so few people left who remember where he came from in S1, and Silver’s becoming increasingly disconnected from and elevated over the brothers he cared so much about in S3. If Muldoon was still alive in S4 and he still had Silver’s ear then I wonder whether he could’ve been more of a tether than Madi ended up being (with her idealism making her in some ways a second Don Quixote for Silver’s Sancho to reckon with) and also more of an obstacle to Israel Hands becoming that devil on Silver’s shoulder. But then maybe that’s asking too much of Muldoon!  God, this really is a long and rambling non-answer! I guess ultimately there are so many interwoven moving pieces in this story that it’s impossible to know how it would’ve played out in any of those scenarios, but I think if either or both of them survived it might’ve delayed the relationship we saw between them but not prevented it? As it was, they were forced closer together by circumstance in S3 and S4, but there was still that sense that somehow they were meant to find each other because they were made of the same stuff. Or at least, that’s how I see it. As for the ultimate ending of their partnership...oof, who even knows how additional players would’ve impacted that. What I really need now is a long and angsty time loop fic exploring every permutation of this.

[im-the-punk-who]

Miranda “Barlow” and James “Flint”

So recently I saw this gifset and was like oh fuck yeah do I have feelings on that!! and then I realized that I could save a ton of wordage on the dream meta post if I did a separate meta on Miranda’s role in creating the Captain Flint persona. So this is that post. 

We talk constantly about how James changes his name to become “Captain Flint”, but I feel like sometimes we overlook the fact that Miranda also changes her name. Now it could be argued it would be necessary to avoid detection as Thomas Hamilton’s wife, but wouldn’t James’ name be just as connectable to anyone who might be looking? Certainly to Alfred or Peter. If we argue that James changed his name solely - or mostly even - to separate himself from who he was in London, isn’t it possible to argue the same for Miranda? That “how unrecognizable the woman I am now would be to the woman I was then” ?

(Also it feels significant they both reveal their ‘real’ names to Abigail in the same episode.)

A lot of times Miranda gets characterized as this passive person, who sits back and sort of lets things happen, but in reality I think she is much more an active participant in her life. She marries Thomas - and whether or not she knew he was gay at the time, she builds herself a life that suits her - having the freedom to sleep with who she chooses, build alliances, etc. And she does actively try to protect and discourage Thomas and James from their plan when she sees it’s become to dangerous - even before James returns. And she is the one that decides to leave Thomas behind in favor of saving herself and James. For all that she is a woman raised in English society where she has very little actual power, Miranda grabs it and fights for it, her own self-preservation and self-fulfillment, wherever possible.

(And in Flint’s dreams when she mouths -I’m asking you to come with me so that I can save your life- isn’t that exactly what Miranda asked of him in London? And the second time, when they are below in the hold with death she adds - I have come upon some information which changes things for you - while standing next to a personification of death with a book on the table. Perhaps a throwback to when they found out Thomas was dead, in some way.)

Further, in Flint’s dreams, when Miranda has the whole “When I first met you you were so unformed. But then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world.” speech that is a direct reference to her role in creating “Flint” from James’ subconscious. (and i’m not SUPER gonna touch on this because this is much more important in regards to the dream meanings, but in that speech Miranda is pretty much a direct stand in for the persona of Flint himself. And it is only after James “leaves her behind” he goes through a radical shift towards finally being able to move on from revenge and really focus on what would actually make a difference to the people whose lives he would be affecting. On not burning England to the ground, or asking for a pardon - but simply seeking “her departure from my island.” (which, god, amazing delivery on that line. Fucking shivers.)

Miranda has a deep connection to everything James does as Flint. Although the crew is wrong in saying she is a which that controls him, the truth of it - like that Flint controls the weather - is closer than one might think on first watch. (And Black Sails loves to play with this, how close to the supernatural can we bring our characters while still staying within the bounds of reality. VERY 16th century of them.) She wanted revenge, and she was willing to use James - “Flint” - to get it. Burning the coast, too, wasn’t truly “his” idea - he was acting on Miranda’s last words. And perhaps other things, too, were done because of Miranda’s urging.

While Miranda doesn’t control James Flint directly she has a heavy influence on what he does because the anger that drives “Flint” is as much hers as it is James’. She is not only his co-conspirator, but his confidante, his tether. Even as James does the actual deeds, Miranda is there supporting him and driving his actions, justifying them because they line up(at least initially) with what she wants. And I think it’s interesting that (in a similar manner to Silver, and ... that’s a whole other post, Miranda’s similarities to Silver) when Miranda disagrees with him it causes an identity crisis that starts to unravel “Captain Flint” at the seems throughout the rest of the show.

When Miranda is talking to Eleanor she says “I know their(Captain Flint’s demons) names. I was there when they were born and I know what they whisper to him at night.” While Miranda doesn’t really seem to understand exactly why James feels the need to fight, she does understand why “Flint” needs to. 

And I also think that James and Miranda probably kept each other in that cycle - one feeding off the other’s grief in ways they couldn’t control - partially because in the end they needed such different things to resolve them.

In dealing with that trauma and grief and loss of losing Miranda, of losing the other half of who Flint has been all this time, he is able to move on from the pardons, from antagonizing the coast, from getting ‘revenge’ on England for the deaths of Thomas and Miranda and starts focusing on true liberation - working towards a goal where he truly could walk away from “Flint” and all the carnage he has caused and find his own personal peace. But he can’t do that without reconciling Miranda’s control in Flint that he became responsible for when she died.

And to that end I also think about what Madi says to Silver. That to go to those depths, one needs a partner to pull them back out. James has always had Miranda - even if she was just on Nassau - to help him carry the burden of Flint. When Miranda dies Flint loses that and so of course he goes off the deep end - the tags on that post I think say it best: and that’s part of why he sort of drowns in the persona#the ‘monster’ borne of their rage and grief is too much for one person alone to hold up.

(And I could go into a whole OTHER thing about how he finds that again in Silver and later in S4 in Madi - and how when Madi ‘is dead’ Silver starts to descend into those very same depths - how Flint sees it, how he tries to be the tether for Silver like Silver was for him - “I told you I’d see you through this” - and how Silver, instead of clinging to it like he had done to Miranda, instead of at least letting it keep him afloat, cuts the tether loose when he sends Flint to Savannah AND alienates Madi for fear of it fraying later on and that is when he truly becomes the Long John Silver from Treasure Island just as James “becomes” Captain Flint earlier. I could....but maybe another time because this is already long enough lmao.)