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ryukyuan-sunflower · 3 years

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The Meaning of Mugen's Triangle: How Samurai Champloo is a Love Letter to Director Akira Kurosawa and Actor Toshiro Mifune

It has been commonly recognized that Jin’s kamon crest of four diamonds is in direct reference to the Takeda samurai clan. Jin's master Mariya Enshirou was a real historical figure who both owned the Mujushin Kenjutsu Dojo, as well as belonged to the Takeda clan. Fuu’s floral pattern appears to reference her connection to the Sunflower Samurai. But Mugen’s hollow white triangle is the most subtle symbolism of all, and I've not seen a single post about it, or anything in relation to Champloo and Kurosawa, for that matter. So here we are. Yet another Samurai Champloo essay. Kept you waiting, huh.

Mugen is not of samurai heritage, so it is not a samurai’s kamon family crest… Or…is it? Well, yes and no.

Mugen’s character as a whole is an amalgamation of three characters from the most famous samurai films of all time: Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Rashomon. All three of these legendary masterpieces were directed by the renowned Akira Kurosawa and star the equally renowned actor Toshiro Mifune. This director and actor dynamic duo collaborated on a whopping 16 films together and left an impact on cinematography that continues to inspire filmmakers to this day.

Much of Mifune’s body language, intensity and speech seem to have played a heavy influence into the design of Mugen. Please enjoy a close analysis into the many ways Kurosawa's works influenced the plot and characters of Samurai Champloo:

Spoilers Below

Seven Samurai: Mifune as Kikuchiyo

Regarded as one of the best films in history, let alone the best samurai film of all time, Seven Samurai released in 1954 and it is worth noting that Samurai Champloo aired in Japan in 2004: the fiftieth anniversary year of its release.

This 3 and a 1/2 hour epic is considered one of the most influential films to date, inspiring numerous directors from George Lucas to Quinton Tarantino. Even more specifically, the plot of the following are all based directly off of it:

Star War’s The Mandalorian Episode 4.

Pixar’s A Bug’s Life

The spaghetti western Magnificent Seven.

And these are just a few examples of Seven Samurai’s legacy.

Samurai Champloo is no exception. From his body language, personality, backstory and dialogue, Mugen himself is largely based off of the most compelling of its characters: Kikuchiyo. More specifically, Kikuchiyo is where Mugen’s triangle crest originates.

Plot: In 1587, a farming settlement is going to be attacked by a group of bandits that had raided them the previous year. To prevent this from happening again, some of the farmers head into the city to enlist the help of samurai. However, they have no money to offer, only food, so they search for poor, hungry ronin that would be willing to take the job.

(This in itself, is how Fuu enlists Mugen in episode 1: a promise of 100 dango if he saves her. Working just to eat becomes a repeated theme and gag.)

The first samurai the farmers hire becomes the leader of the group, and devises a plan to hire six more samurai to create proper defenses to fight the bandits. They manage to enlist five more samurai for the purpose, but time is running short, and they lament that they could not find a seventh member.

Enter Toshiro Mifune’s character.

Man Talking About Kikuchiyo: "Hey, I just found a really tough samurai! There was a huge fight. They were no match for him. Never seen anything like it. He’s like a wild dog!"

Man Talking About Mugen: "Yes, those were the flashing eyes of a stray dog."

(Episode 9 references Mugen as a dog in four lines of dialogue. Worth nothing, Mifune stars in another Kurosawa film titled "Stray Dog".)

The Character Kikuchiyo: Unlike the other six samurai chosen for the mission, Kikuchiyo is not a samurai at all. He lies about being so. In fact, his real name is not Kikuchiyo either. The rogue is wild, arrogant, rude, uncouth, likes to drink, goofy, and serves as comic relief for much of the film. But he has a deep interest in wanting to learn how to be a skilled warrior. He goofily sizes up the party leader and wants to learn from him, but is too embarrassed to ask.

Like Mugen, it is implied he may be illiterate and may not know basic math, because to prove he is of samurai blood, the drunken vagabond pulls out a scroll of his family lineage. They ask him if his name is Kikuchiyo and he says it is. The samurai then all laugh at him…because according to the lineage scroll, that would mean he is only a thirteen year old boy. He had stolen the scroll just to pretend to be a samurai.

(A similar gag of mistaken family lineage on a scroll is used in Episode 22 Cosmic Collisions, when Jin points out that the zombie Shige has no connection to the Heike clan.)

In actuality, Kikuchiyo is just a peasant farmer himself, that just carries around a sword because he can. He holds a deep resentment of samurai for how they treat farmers, but he himself desires to be a samurai, to show his worth in his fighting. Although the six samurai head out without a seventh in their party, Kikuchiyo follows them along anyway, and joins in on the mission of defending the farmers, against their wishes.

(While it is never stated in the anime that Mugen was once a farmer before becoming a pirate and thief, the history of the Ryukyuan Kingdom and specifically, the Miyakos implies Mugen may have been a poor farmer under the subjugation of the Satsuma Domain. The Miyakoan people were expected to pay a poll tax to Satsuma samurai, which is referenced in Episode 14, when Mugen attempts to steal the Satsuma ship that is collecting raw sugar from the Miyakoans. Like Kikuchiyo, Mugen would have been a peasant with a hatred of samurai.)

The Origin of the Triangle Crest

One of the samurai, Heihachi, sews a war banner as a symbol of their mission to protect the farming village and a way to rally them.

Kikuchiyo: "What do those symbols mean?"

Heihachi: "That means "rice" but it can also mean "farmer"."

(The hiragana for "ta" at the very bottom of the flag is short for the word "tanbo", which means rice paddy.)

Kikuchiyo: "What about those circles?"

Heihachi: "They're us."

Kikuchiyo: "What the hell? Why aren't I there? There's only six of them!"

Heihachi: "The triangle is you, Lord Kikuchiyo."

Thus, the mystery of Mugen's red haori is officially solved.

Later in the film, when the farmers take heavy losses and one of the seven samurai dies, morale severely drops. It is Kikuchiyo, who had been for most of the film, a seemingly unserious joke of a character, who grabs the flag and puts it on the roof of a house so everyone can see it, rallying the village back to the cause.

Kikuchiyo and the triangle represents, that although he was not born as a samurai, he is the essence of the code of bushido and the noble values of what an ideal samurai should be. Both Kikuchiyo and Mugen are samurai in all but official title and heritage. They are brave warriors with integrity, skill even if it not formally trained and with an intense desire to protect.

The lyrics of the full version of Samurai Champloo’s opening theme Battlecry allude to this concept. While the first verse played in the anime references Jin, the extended version of the song not played in the anime heavily references Mugen in its entirety.

Link To Full Song Here

It also references how Mugen and Samurai Champloo is the spiritual successor to Shinichiro Watanabe's previous work Cowboy Bebop and Spike Spiegel.

It references Mugen's connection to the ocean and piracy, as well as the imagery evoked in his near death experience in episode 14.

It references his evolution as a man and Fuu's importance in his growth by the end of the anime.

"Look, just the air around him An aura surrounding the heir apparent He might be a peasant but shine like grand royalty He to the people and land, loyalty"

"We witness above all to hear this Sea sickness in the ocean of wickedness Set sail to the sunset, no second guessing Far east style with the spirit of wild west The "quote-unquote" code stands the test of Time for the chosen ones to find the best of Noble minds that ever graced the face of A hemisphere with no fear, fly over"

The blue yonder where The sky meets the sea And eye meets no eye And boy meets world And became a man to serve the world To save the day, the night, and the girl too"

Most of Mugen’s dialogue references Kikuchiyo. Both use improper, informal speech, curse often and insult others. They are both comically lecherous womanizers. Kikuchiyo offers to cut a woman's crops in exchange for a little "somethin' somethin'", much like how Mugen helps Yatsuha in exchange for getting nookie in episode 15. Kikuchiyo insults his bald samurai mentor (who pretended to be a monk previously) similar to how in Episode 10 and 12, Mugen insults the monk he wants to learn from (who once was a samurai).

Jin also seems to be influenced by another character, whose archetype is the masterful, quiet, skilled samurai that Kikuchiyo wants to compete with.

The character Kyuzo: Silent, dead serious and the most skilled of all the samurai in the group, this samurai exists only to test the limits of his skills. At one point in the story, Kyuzo infiltrates the bandit camp and steals one of their matchlock guns, which was proving detrimental to the farmers. Not one to be outdone, the arrogant Kikuchiyo ends up infiltrating the enemy camp to also get a gun and to show off he is just as skilled. However, since he wasn’t at his post, the bandits broke into their defenses.

(Something similar can be seen specifically in Episode 23 Baseball Blues. After Jin scores a homerun, Mugen is not one to be outdone and also scores a homerun, and sprints past Jin. However, he is outed for passing the previous runner.)

The finale of Seven Samurai, which I will not spoil, shows a sense of equality between the wild Kikuchiyo and the far more skilled Kyuzo as warriors.

Another samurai character Katsushiro, develops a romance with a peasant woman named Shino, similar to how Jin’s romantic interest is named Shino in episode 11. Shino’s father is named Manzou…which is also the name of the detective of Samurai Champloo episodes 5, 12 and 23.

Yojimbo: Mifune as Sanjuro

In regards to its plot and tone, no film is referenced more in Samurai Champloo, than the way episodes 3 and 4 references 1961's Yojimbo. The body language of Mifune here is also uncanny to Mugen, with the way he scratches himself and strokes his chin. While the story itself has serious undertones, it is a dark comedy at heart that makes light of even the most serious of situations. Even the opening of the film has a dog nonchalantly walking by with a severed human hand held in its mouth, while playful music begins.

Plot: A wandering ronin known as Sanjuro stumbles upon a town in which two Yakuza gangs are warring with one another for power. One owns a gambling hall, the other a brothel. The samurai shows an interest in working for both gangs as their bodyguard, getting them to each pay higher and higher for his services. They both want to use his sword skills to defeat the opposing gang. But the wandering samurai plays both sides.

(A gang war, a down on his luck bodyguard for hire, a gambling den, a brothel, and a damsel in distress are all aspects used in Episodes 3 and 4 of Samurai Champloo.)

The film begins with Mifune’s character, a broke ronin that wanders on a whim. He throws a stick in the air, and uses how it lands to point him in the direction he should go. This laid-back way of relying on either chance or fate for making decisions, seems to be referenced directly by Mugen, when he specifically throws the coin in the air to decide if he will accompany Fuu or if he will duel Jin.

Sanjuro's first line of dialogue: "I'd like some water."

Mugen's first line of dialogue in the series: "Water."

Sanjuro later enters a bar and asks an old man for food there, despite having no money. This old man tells him the situation of the gang war and becomes his closest ally in the film.

(This is referenced when Jin talks with an old man in Episode 3, learns of the town’s gang war, and gets free food from him. Sanjuro saves this old man at the end of the film. In episode 4, Jin repays the old man for the free food and is given an umbrella.)

In order to be hired by one of the gangs, Sanjuro demonstrates his skills by slaying three of the opposing gang’s thugs.

(Jin references this exact dialogue when he shows off his skills to Sousuke and cuts the robes of three of the opposing gang’s thugs.)

Sanjuro: "Do you want to buy me as a bodyguard? I’ll show you what I’m worth."

Jin: "Boy. Want to hire a bodyguard? I’ll show you my skills right now."

The character of Sanjuro: Initially, Sanjuro comes off as whimsical and uncaring, almost as if he just finds enjoyment in pitting these two gangs against each other, laughing as he watches them be cowards or be idiots thinking they can outsmart him. But, as it turns out, Sanjuro is an honorable ronin that does not care for money at all. Instead, he wants to end both gangs and bring peace back to this little town. The gold he swindles from the gang is not used on himself. More on that gold in a bit...

Both Mugen and Jin reference different aspects of Sanjuro. Throughout most of the film, Sanjuro comes off as calm and collected and skillful like Jin. He also displays amusement and jovialness, similar to how Mugen joins the Nagatomi gang for fun. Mugen and Jin work for opposing gangs, similar to how Sanjuro works for both gangs at one point or another.

Jin shares Sanjuro’s ideologies to do the chivalrous deed of stopping corruption and bringing peace. Mugen is more emotional in his reasoning: all his actions are either for his own amusement or his intense desire to save Fuu.

While Jin's chivalry is a larger picture, Mugen's heroism is specific to saving only one person.

It is not until later in the film, that we get the first glimpse of a different side of Sanjuro. Intensity and rage. Yet, he also shows a previously unshown care for protecting people. The moment it happens...is when he saves a woman.

This woman Sanjuro saves is the wife of a farmer who lost her because of his gambling debts. The gang that owned the gambling den forced her into being their ally’s mistress. She was held captive in the man’s house, as he raped her night after night.

(Fuu references her in these episodes, as she was thrown into prostitution at the Nagatomi gang’s brothel. Episode 11’s Shino also shares this identical fate of being the collateral for her husband’s gambling debts.)

Sanjuro betrays the gang he is supposed to be working for, barges in, and kills six men to save her, and reunites her with her husband and child. All the while, he berates her and threatens her. While he comes off as rough and callous here, it also shows how much he cares. It is as if he cannot display his kindness without coming off as rough.

(The few times it is ever shown Mugen cares for more than himself, is when we see his concern for Fuu. In Episode 4, despite quitting working for the Nagatomi gang and having no reason to go back, Mugen thinks about Fuu trapped in the brothel as he walks away in the rain. He then betrays the gang he’d previously been working for, breaks into their brothel and kills several guards, implied by the blood on his sword, and tries to rescue Fuu. Unfortunately, his chivalry goes unrewarded and unnoticed, as she’d already escaped on her own. Just like Sanjuro, he is always cruel in his words to Fuu even when he does kind deeds in saving her multiple times in the series. Even in the moment he breaks into the brothel to rescue her, he calls Fuu an idiot, just like Sanjuro does.)

Sanjuro: "You're free. Get dressed!"

The woman initially does not move. He roughly throws her kimono at her face, grabs her by the arm and drags her from the house.

Sanjuro: "Idiot!"

Mugen: "She ran away? That idiot!"

After Sanjuro pushes her out of the house, and then makes a mess inside, to make it appear the rival gang has attacked instead, he comes back outside...only to find her and her family still there, bowing on the ground to him, crying, thanking him for rescuing her. He gets them off the ground and throws his previously gained gold at them.

Sanjuro: "You idiots! Hurry up! Stop that! Stop crying! It's pathetic. If you cry, I'll kill you! Go! Don't ever come back!"

Mugen: "I ain't gonna die. Have some faith in me. Get outta here. Go. RUN!"

(This urging and yelling at the family to leave seems to be referenced in Episode 25 when Mugen has to tell Fuu three times to run, and finally yells at her, for her to reluctantly leave. The crying concept is also something Fuu exhibits, as she cries for Mugen over five times in the series overall.)

Fuu: "It seems like all I ever do is cry. And here I thought I could make it on my own..."

Mugen: "You idiot."

(In episode 11, while Jin does not share Sanjuro's dialogue, he shares Sanjuro’s actions by grabbing Shino's wrist and pulling her towards freedom. Here is a link to a previous post I've made on Mugen and Jin's identical actions and symbolism in regards to Fuu and Shino.)

Sanjuro’s final confrontation in the film pits him against a gangster who most notably wields a pistol. However, Sanjuro beats him despite only having a sword and a knife. He throws the knife at the man’s arm to make him miss his shot and cuts him down.

This sequence is reminiscent of how Mugen throws his tanto as a last resort in Episode 26, as well as how Jin dodges Mukuro’s gun in Episode 14.

Rashomon: Mifune as Tajomaru the Bandit

Like Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai, Tajomaru the bandit is uncouth, wild, crazed and lustful.

Unlike Seven Samurai and Yojimbo however, 1950's Rashomon is a far darker story with no comic relief, gags, or lighthearted moments. It is a crime/psychological thriller that explores the nature of truth and the darker shades of humanity. The plot centers around a trio: a wild bandit, a reserved samurai, and the samurai’s wife that is caught between these two men that duel to the death because of her.

Plot: There is a trial for the murder of the samurai and the rape of his wife, and the mystery surrounds who exactly did what, and what actually happened that day. Each character gives a different testimony leading up to the events of the samurai’s murder, making up lies about what really happened, all for the sake of their pride and painting themselves in a better light.

The bandit claims he tricked and tied up the samurai, and seduced his wife. Then, under her command, is told to kill her husband, so that two men would not know her shame of having two lovers. The warriors had a fair, skillful fight. The bandit claims he won and compliment's the samurai's prowess. But the wife tricked him and fled the scene.

Tajomaru: "I thought I saw a goddess. At that moment I decided to have her, even if I had to kill her man. But if I could have her without killing, all the better."

Tajomaru: "She became very pale and stared at me as though her eyes were frozen. She looked like a child when it turns suddenly serious. The sight of her made me jealous of that man. I started to hate him. I wanted to show her what he looked like, all tied up like that. I hadn't even thought of a thing like that before, but now I did."

The woman claims she was raped by the bandit, who fled the scene. She begged her husband to forgive her, but he no longer wanted her anymore either. She begged her husband to kill her for the shame of being raped, but he only looked upon her with cold indifference. Out of distress and trauma, she murdered her husband.

The spirit of the deceased samurai, who speaks through a medium, claims that the bandit and his wife made love, and then she asked the bandit to murder him. The bandit was so disgusted by her request, that he untied her husband, left the wife there and fled the scene. Pained by his wife’s betrayal, the samurai killed himself.

It turns out that there is both truths and lies found in each of their versions of the story.

The truth: The bandit had indeed raped the wife. But then he asked her to forget her husband and marry him instead, as he had fallen in love with her. The wife however, rejected him and freed her tied up husband. But her husband made no move to fight the bandit, and said she was not worth risking his life for. The bandit did not want to fight the samurai either. Disgusted by both her rapist and her husband, the wife criticizes them both as cowards, saying that “real men should fight for a woman’s love”. Still, both of the men had no desire to kill each other, and were actually terrified of doing so. Urged by her to fight, the quivering men reluctantly do, but it is pitiful and sloppy and the bandit only wins out of dumb luck.

The Wife to her husband: "It's you two who are weak! If you are my husband, kill this man, then you can tell me to kill myself! But you're not a real man. That is why I was crying. I'm tired of this farce."

The Wife to the bandit: "I thought Tajomaru might find some way out. I thought that if he would save me I would do anything for him! I wanted you to take me away. I would have been yours! But he's not a man, either. He's just like my husband. Remember, a woman loves a real man only. A man has to make a woman his by his sword."

(Throughout the series, Mugen uses his sword to save Fuu. In Episode 25, Mugen gives up his sword for Fuu, just like how Jin gave up his swords in Episode 11 to the brothel, for Shino.)

Samurai Champloo is a sharp contrast to this story, showing a warmer, kinder version of this trio dynamic, with all of the character’s ideals, feelings and actions a complete reverse to Rashomon’s cast.

As a samurai’s daughter, Fuu would have been best suited socially to marry a samurai like Jin, had she or Jin still possessed any title. However, the romance of the anime is not between Fuu and Jin. Unlike the samurai’s wife, she does not choose Jin over Mugen.

Unlike the samurai who shuns his wife after her rape, Jin is implied to honorably offer to keep traveling with Fuu after the end of the series in Episode 24 in the river bank scene, despite no romantic feelings between them. Fuu however, is implied to decline him out of fear of this meaning Jin would survive their final duel and Mugen would be dead. She cries at the mention of Mugen and apologizes to Jin over it.

Mugen is shown to be a rough and callous outlaw, with a past similar to Tanjuro the bandit, as he was once both a thief and a pirate. In Japanese, he even threatens to rape Fuu while she’s unconscious in Episode 2, and tells her to show him her breasts in Episode 11. However, despite his cruel and lecherous words, he never actually attempts to force himself on her or hurt her. Instead, he honorably protects and rescues her throughout the series.

Whereas the wife is traumatized and disgusted by the bandit rapist, Fuu is heavily implied to develop romantic feelings for Mugen.

Unlike the bandit and the samurai, Mugen and Jin have no fear of fighting and constantly want to kill each other. Also unlike Rashomon, the two never duel to the death, because of their friendship.

Unlike the samurai’s wife, rather than urge the two men to fight and kill each other, Fuu begs them not to.

Bonus Facts: Ghost of Tsushima, Kurosawa and Champloo

Writers of the 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima have said how much of it is inspired by Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune’s samurai films. There is even a “Kurosawa Mode”, in which you can play with a black and white filter, a film grain overlay and audio modifications that emulate movies from the 1950’s. …But, how does this connect into Samurai Champloo?

The main character is named Jin. More interesting, in Japanese, he is voiced by Kazuya Nakai: Mugen’s voice actor. It would seem that his voice truly is the closest thing to a modern Toshiro Mifune.

Toshiro Mifune and Clint Eastwood=Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop=Mugen and Spike Spiegel

Samurai Champloo is known to be the spiritual successor of Shinichiro Watanabe’s previous work: Cowboy Bebop. Both Spike and Mugen and Faye and Fuu share uncanny parallels in their plots and scenes. This can be seen most notably in the scenes where Faye and Fuu are both held hostage in a Church and how Faye and Fuu nurse Spike and Mugen back to health after they wake up from a near identical flashback sequence. Mugen and Spike are both running from a criminal past. Faye and Fuu are both chasing a past they cannot remember. Yet, where Bebop is dark and solemn, Champloo is far more positive and upbeat. (I will likely make another essay that delves deeply into all the parallels and mirror reversals between them).

Interestingly, Kurosawa’s samurai films were remade into cowboy westerns. Each movie shares identical plots and near identical scenes with a different setting.

Fistful of Dollars is a western remake of Yojimbo.

Magnificent Seven is a western remake of Seven Samurai.

Clint Eastwood is also the star of both A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in which he plays the same character, just as Toshiro Mifune is the star of both Yojimbo and its prequel film Sanjuro.

In Episode 1 of Cowboy Bebop, Spike wears a poncho, which is Eastwood’s iconic outfit

In Conclusion

Mugen's mannerisms and dialogue is based on all three of Mifune's roles in Kurosawa's samurai films. Each character also bring forth specific characteristics that define Mugen.

From Seven Samurai's Kikuchiyo, Mugen takes his backstory of a peasant, his resentment and hatred of samurai, his competitive nature, and his comical goofiness. Most importantly, Mugen and Kikuchiyo share the representation of having the heart and soul of a noble samurai, despite not being born as one, and his iconic white triangle.

From Yojimbo's Sanjuro, Mugen takes his role as a hungry, broke bodyguard for hire, and shows his desire to enjoy himself, while also displaying his chivalry. But most importantly, two aspects of Mugen's hidden personality that is buried beneath goofiness and apathy, comes from Sanjuro. The first is his powerful intensity and rage that is buried away. (Sara references this in Episode 20). The second is his care to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. But, he is only able to show his care through actions rather than words, as his dialogue comes off as callous and cruel.

From Rashomon's Tajomaru, Mugen takes his role as a notorious bandit-like character with a criminal past. In personality, he takes his wildness, cruelty, and his intense pride. Most importantly, he assumes his role in a trio dynamic, in which he develops a romantic interest in a woman, and a rivalry with a reserved samurai. But his actions are reversed, in which he never forces himself on Fuu and never ends up killing Jin.

And a little bonus for the Fuugen Shippers...

Aside from his roles in Akira Kurosawa films, Toshiro Mifune also starred as the love interest in a romantic comedy… Its title?

Himawari Musume. Sunflower Girl.

#akira kurosawa #toshiro mifune #samurai champloo #mugen samurai champloo #fuugen #seven samurai #yojimbo #rashomon #samurai #shinichiro watanabe #cowboy bebop #anime #ghost of tsushima

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thekingofwinterblog · 3 years

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Some worries about Amphibia 3B

So just something that worries me now that we have seen a full list of all the episode synopsis. also, SPOILERS, obviously.

"Commander Anne": Anne is made leader of the Wartwood Resistance, even though she's not good at the job.

"Sprivy": Sprig and Ivy devise a scheme to be together.

"Sasha's Angels": A team of Resistance fighters gets captured by ruthless marauders.

"Olm Town Road": Anne and her friends search for the ancient city of Proteus.

"Mother of Olms": Anne and the crew meet with Mother Olm, the keeper of ancient prophecies.

"Grime's Pupil": Due to dire circumstances, Grime is forced to train an apprentice.

"The Root of Evil": Anne and the Plantars get stuck in a strange village of plant lovers.

"The Core & the King": King Andrias confronts the demons of his past.

"Newts in Tights": While on a recon mission, Anne and Sprig confront an old mentor.

"Fight or Flight": Anne tries to rescue an old friend from one of King Andrias' robot camps.

"The Three Armies": Anne and Sasha must convince the frogs, newts and toads to work together.

"The Beginning of the End": The final battle begins.

"All In"

"The Hardest Thing"

Not counting the 3 part finale as separate episodes, there are exactly 14 episodes left of Amphibia.

And frankly, just looking at these episode blurbs, it seems a ludicrous amount of these look like they will feature neither Sasha nor Marcy as a main focus.

Let’s go over all of them.

commander Anne will undoubtledly feature Sasha front and center in some way, so that ones not a problem.

Sprivy will be focused on Ivy and Sprigg, and maybe Sasha and Anne will be featured, but they probably will not be all that much in the spotlight.

Sasha’s Angels will be a Sasha focused episode.

Olm Town Road speciffically mentions Anne and her “Friends” So Sasha may, or may not be amongst that catagory depending on wheter or not she and Sasha make up very, very quickly.

Mother of Olms is a sequel, so it will feature the same cast. So wheter Sasha will be amongst those depends on the previous episode.

The Root of Evil speciffically notes Anne and the Plantars, and not Anne and her friends.

The Core and the king is the big flashback episode, and so will probably feature Darcy in some capacity.

Newts in Tights speciffically mentions Anne and Sprig on a mission, and an old mentor. Probably neither Sasha nor Marcy.

Fight or Flight will probably be the big confrontation episode between Anne and Darcy.

The Three Armies is an episode where Anne and Sasha will work together to convince the three main races of Amphibia to work together as one in preparation for the final battle. Darcy might be featured.

The beginning of the end, is where the endgame begins. Darcy will probably be featured here in a major role.

All in is the point of no return. So Anne, marcy and Sasha.

And the hardest Thing is of course the finale, so undoubtedly will be all about Anne, Marcy and Sasha.

So i might have to admitt i was completely off about 3B once it’s done, but frankly just from looking at these episode guides, im noticing that a lot of them seem to go out of their way to note that she either wont be in them, or leave it very ambigious wheter she’ll be featured.

In fact, lets break down which she HAS to feature a major role.

Commander Anne, Sasha’s Angels, The Three Armies, The beginning of the end, All in, and the hardest thing.

that’s 6 out of 14.

and 4 of those are literarily at the end.

Now maybe i have to eat these words in time, but frankly it sounds from these like Sasha is going to be a side player in the first half of season 3A, only to come back and be a main character only when the show reaches the endgame.

And Darcy? Darcy is even WORSE somehow. if these aren’t misleading, and Marcy actually shows up in 3 armies, then she will be a main focus in 6 out of 14, just like Sasha, and unlike Sasha, she seemingly won’t be showing up as a main character until 7 episodes in. that’s half the season. And She’s the main final villain. It really does sound like the writers took the whole tuxedo mask meme “my work here is done” “but you didnt do anything” that some people linked her with to heart.

And then there is the final episode. The Hardest Thing.

fermented-writers-block had a theory that The ultimate endgame of the story is simply Anne, Marcy and Sasha letting go of each other, not in a bad way, but simply accept that they had too toxic a relationship and that wheter or not they can truly be friends or not in the future they need to break off at the moment.

so “the hardest thing” is to let go/move on.

And frankly im starting to believe that too. because it seems to me that despite promising that this part of the series will be all about anne, sasha and Marcy and their bonds, these really do make it sound like that for half the season the three won’t actually interact much in these plots.

frankly it sounds like all the trio’s interactions will mostly be crammed in at the end rather than actually being developed over the course of the season. If so, and if the trio actually does go their separate ways as suggested by the title, then it sounds to me like we’re heading for a repeat of the final season of Steven universe. where the big final arc that the entire series was all built on, on the trio moving on, is going to be too rushed and crammed into too little space to actually work.

and even if “the hardest thing is to forgive”, then it really does sound like none of the girls will get the focus needed to make this an organic development.

I really, REALLY hope im wrong, but it really does sound like the trio will only be interacting together for real, true development in the final end portion of the series. Essentially doing the exact same thing that Season 2 did, with them only getting together near the end, only this time its the actual ending, and there is NOTHING after this.

Again, i hope im wrong. i hope that both Sasha and Darcy gets plenty and consistent screentime this season, but if these summaries are generally on the level, it sounds like the team spent way too much time on Earth, realized that they had to get back to Amphibia, then realised that they had plenty of other stories they wanted to tell besides the main trio, and as such had to either cut those stories, or make Sasha and Darcy’s roles much smaller, and they choose the second option.

#amphibia #amphibia season 3 #amphibia season 3b #worries #serious worries #sasha waybright #darcy #marcy wu #anne boonchuy #spoilers

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itstimetotheorize · 3 years

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Shadowmoths victory, Marinette and Adriens breaking point, the miraculous teams desperate efforts (warning, spoilers for season 4 finale)

Ever since the series began, Marinette had always been considered to be one person who would be the most difficult for hawkmoth to manipulate. And while Marinette has had some close calls such as in “Zombizou”, “Chameleon” and “Ladybug”, Marinette had always succeeded in avoiding being akumatized, be it through sheer will power alone or just plain luck such as when Nathalie lost her grip on all the akumatized civilians, including Marinette!.

However, ever since the episode “chat blanc” had revealed to us just what it would take to akumatize chat noir , many of us had since begun to wonder what it would take to finally akumatize Marinette?

Marinettes akumatization had always been foreshadowed in previous seasons, especially season 3. Out of all the foreshadowing the show could have ever provided for a number of things, it was almost as if the show was always hinting towards some extreme event should Marinette ever fall prey to hawkmoths manipulation. An event so shocking it would even rival the time chat blanc had destroyed all of Paris. As to what this event would be and how it would come to fruition, well…that all depended on what would happen to hawkmoth and ladybug.

In terms of hawkmoth, well, hawkmoth had always stated how despite his ongoing defeat, he knew ladybugs winning streak could not last forever, sooner or later her luck would run out and when it did, she would make a mistake that would finally guaranty his victory. The only question was...how exactly was ladybug(aka Marinette) going to screw up? what would have happened to her that would cause her to lose the cautiousness which has helped her overcome every obstacle thrown her way?. When it comes to Marinette and her battles against hawkmoth, Marinette had always thought things through, she had always remained cautious, calm, collected and above all...she learned not to let her emotions get the better of her so long as hawkmoth was watching and waiting....then again... If Marinette were truly ever to be akumatized, something needed to happen within the show which would lead her to throw all logic she had out the window....but what?...perhaps Zag studios had already provided us with an answer.

Early in July 2021, Zag studios had revealed something NO ONE believed they would have ever considered making public at such an early stage within the release of season 4, what was it exactly? well....it was the title and synopsis for the season 4 finale!

According to this news, the season 4 finale had been revealed to be titled, “Shadow moths last attack”!....this... was a big deal! because ever since “Timetagger” revealed to us that Gabriel Agreste would Not be the hawk moth of the future, many wondered when exactly Gabriels time as the villain of the series would come to an end. Well, after years of waiting, it would appear as though shadow moths time WILL come to an end... in season 4!.

But aside from revealing shadowmoths possible last season, Zag had also coincidentally revealed in an interview one very important, but not all to surprising plot point of the series. Before his inevitable demise... shadowmoth will first obtain what he had worked so hard to take...ladybug and chat noirs miraculous!

However, despite hawkmoths inevitable victory before his final defeat, its clear something of great importance needed to happen to Marinette in order to guarantee hawkmoth obtaining the miraculous of creation….but what? What needed to happen?

Looking back at all the times shadowmoth had attempted to steal ladybug and chat noirs miraculous, shadow moth had only ever akumatized every person he could get his hands on in order to obtain the help he needed to accomplish his goal.... and yet time and time again, every person he had come across would fail him, but why?...well, maybe it was always because they were never the right person for the job... maybe what hawkmoth always needed was someone who would be considered his greatest “masterpiece”...and as we have seen throughout the series, that someone...was always Marinette!

but even if hawkmoth realizes he must obtain someone like Marinette in order to accomplish his goal, how would he even go about finally akumatizing her?... well...isn't it obvious...shadowmoth never needed to wait for her to fall into emotional destress, because all he needed to do was use the one person who he knew could push anyone to far... or quite simply, cause a situation which would purposely force large groups of people to be akumatized at the same time. Who is this person exactly? well... we all know the answer to that....its Lila Ross of course!!

Despite Lilas lack of participation within season 4, many understood she couldn't stay quiet forever, after all, Lila had always been presented as someone who was more than willing to take part in some sort of major evil event within the series, such as the season 1 finale, the season 2 finale and even the season 3 finale!!. And based on zag studios reveal of the season 4 finale description, it would appear as though Lila will once again have her part to play. Looking at the season 4 synopsis, its said:

“Having understood that her cautiousness is the reason why Ladybug is always triumphing, Shadow Moth prepares a diabolic plan which consists of creating a supervillain able to make his victims take all sorts of risks. When Marinette finds out that Adrien is leaving Paris for a few weeks with Lila, the new figure of the Agreste brand, she’s ready to do anything to prevent him from doing so; but to what point? Would she reveal her secret identity for the sake of love? And would Adrien take the risk of finally confronting his father?”

Now, despite Marinette having been displayed as someone who was willing to take risks for the wrong reasons in the past, Marinette has also been shown to improve in taking risks for the right reasons over the span of the series (such as entrusting Alya with her secret identity). However!...keep in mind we don't yet know for sure if Marinette will be the one akumatized within the season 4 finale until the studio reveals the official season 4 finale trailer. But if Marinette is truly planned to be akumatized, then its possible the studio may have already revealed to us what we had suspected all along. Just as in “ladybug”, Lila will once again be used by hawkmoth in order to attempt to akumatize the “bad influence” she claims to be following Adrien, the bad influence being of course, Marinette herself! However, considering Lilas agreement with Adrien to not hurt the people he cares about (after pulling a stunt on Marinette which caused her to get expelled) its clear Gabriel will have to devise a scheme which will place Lila in a situation where she will finally force Marinette to reach her breaking point and make her take every risk she can as she watches Lila being given the chance to leave on a trip with Adrien!

And considering the great lengths Marinette went through just to warn Adrien of Lila back in “Oni- chan”, who knows what kind of lengths Marinette will go through to stop Lila and Adrien from leaving together. Should this occur, its possible Marinette will begin to lose her sense of self and toss all logic she has out the window as she uses everything and I mean EVERYTHING she has at her disposal to accomplish her goal...this includes her powers as ladybug!

It wouldn't be the first time Marinette had used her powers for selfish reasons. After all, the only reason the events of “chat blanc” occurred in the first place, was because Marinette decided to use her powers to enter Adriens room in order to leave her signed gift. This single act alone was what ultimately lead Adrien to discover that ladybug is Marinette. So then... if Marinette were to once again use her powers for the sake of love, would her actions once again result in the one mistake she always knew would lead to disaster? would her misguided attempts.... reveal her identity to shadowmoth himself?!...maybe

If Marinettes desperate attempts really result in her identity being revealed to shadowmoth then would her frustration over Lila, piled on top of everything else she is dealing with as ladybug and guardian, finally seal her fate of being akumatized?!...perhaps....but even if Marinette were to finally be akumatized and even if hawkmoth were to finally obtain his chance to take the miraculous of creation, how would he then obtain the miraculous of destruction from Adrien?...well...lets just say Gabriel might have already had his suspicions from the very beginning, after all, aside from Marinettes akumatization being for shadowed within every season thus far, the only other major for shadowing which followed parallel to Marinette was Gabriels growing suspicion towards Adrien and the ring he had on his finger! However, even if Gabriel continues to grow suspicious towards Adrien, what could possibly happen between the two off them that will finally reveal to Gabriel his sons secrets?...unless...what if Gabriel reveals his secrets to Adrien first?...

Gabriel had always stated how much he wished he could have told Adrien about his mothers true condition and whereabouts. That despite all the cruel things he had done up to now, it was all for the sake of bringing his mother back. When Adrien had discovered hawkmoths identity and the true reason behind his actions back in “chat blanc”, we see how despite chat noirs loyalty to ladybug and despite him wanting to carry out his responsibility as a hero by stopping hawkmoth, Adrien still struggled with the thought of being given the chance to be reunited with his own mother, even at the cost of ladybug and his miraculous!

The frustration of his fathers true identity, the realization about his mother having never disappeared and hawkmoths words swaying him with the idea that he could have his mom back was what gave shadowmoth the chance he needed to finally take chat noirs mind and force him to be akumatized! However, keep in mind, all these events happened in a separate timeline which was later fixed through Bunnyx powers and ladybugs quick thinking to erase her name on her signed gift to Adrien. The events of “chat blanc” were sealed to never happen again so hawkmoth would never find out Adriens true identity as chat noir...but if hawkmoth were to truly obtain the miraculous of destruction then... wouldn't Adrien first give him the chance to take it all over again!?

Fans had always feared the return of chat blanc within the series, especially after seeing chat noirs growing frustration over ladybug throughout the span of season 4.

If Adrien were to discover all over again hawkmoths identity and his mother whereabouts near the end of season 4, would Adrien once again give shadowmoth the chance he needs to once again akumatize him?!...along with Marinette?! or would Adriens confusion and distress lead him to once again become vulnerable enough to make a mistake which would reveal to Gabriel what he had suspected all along... his own son.... has a miraculous! but not just any miraculous, the miraculous of destruction he’s been fighting for!

However!, despite hawkmoth being fated to finally obtain both miraculous, there is still something even hawkmoth himself has yet to realize... something he never bothered to consider as he became blindsided with his thoughts of victory... his wish.... CAN be granted... but its comes with a PRICE!....Its just as Master Fu said, whoever wields the ladybug and cat miraculous will be given the chance to make a wish that can alter reality itself. However!, because the universe needs to maintain a balance when a wish is made, something of equal effect must happen in return. Despite Gabriels plan to use the miraculous to fix a past mistake and finally restore his wife to her former self, Gabriel might have never realized once his wish is granted, something bad will happen in return! as to what this disastrous result would be... well, your guess is as good as mine. If hawkmoth tried to just revive his wife then perhaps someone else might be forced to take her place. But if Gabriel were to go to the extreme and actually change a past event which lead his wife to be in the state she is in now, then this alone could prove to have major consequences. Its just as Bunnyx said, messing with time is dangerous, and if your not careful it could have dire consequences in the future.

But regardless of what will happen, one thing is for certain, the end result of Gabriels wish.... will be catastrophic! and may quite possibly be to much for ladybug and chat noir to solve even if they do manage to get their miraculous back!

so, this does beg the question, should hawkmoth obtain the miraculous of destruction and creation after akumatizing Marinette and quite possibly even Adrien then later cause a catastrophic event upon seeing his wish be granted...what could possibly happen within the series to solve this mess?!... well, keep in mind, ladybug already planned ahead, after all, she and chat noir are no longer the only superheroes in Paris. Even if she and chat noir were to be defeated by hawkmoth, there is still one person hiding in the shadows, ready to take action and ready to gather all the heroes of the miraculous team in order to face this challenge. Who is this miraculous person waiting to take action should the day arrive? why...its Alya of course!

Ever since Alya had been entrusted by Marinette to act as a temporary replacement to ladybug( should anything ever happen to her) many understood it would only be a matter of time before Alya had to take charge and gather the rest of the miraculous team in order to fight the two people anyone would dread facing in battle, ladybug and chat noir!. But how would Alya even begin to figure out the proper way to handle this kind of situation even with the aid of the other miraculous heroes?, Alya only ever understood ladybugs side of things now that she knew her secret identity, but how could she possibly help chat noir when she doesn't even know who he is!....then again....she doesn't have to struggle with figuring out who chat noir is...because Luka already knows both ladybug and chat noirs identities!

We always theorized ladybug and chat noirs identities would one day be revealed to someone close to them, granted, since season 4 is still ongoing we don't yet know if Adrien will bring himself to reveal his own identity to Nino just as Marinette revealed her identity to Alya at the start of the season. But, ever since the events of “Wishmaker” revealed to Luka the identities of ladybug and chat noir, fans had wondered why Luka of all people would be set up to discover both of their identities without either of their consent?, well, after much debate, the answer may have been obvious all along... unlike the other miraculous heroes, he and one other miraculous holder carry with them a power which will serve of great importance should Alya and the others be forced to face ladybug, chat noir and hawkmoth all at the same time. Considering the unimaginable challenge which is to be faced near the end of season 4, then its possible Luka was always one person who needed to know ladybug and chat noirs identities should he ever give the team a winning chance!

If what we suspect is true and if Alya and the others are meant to face their leaders in a fight, its obvious this fight alone... will be doomed to be plagued with errors and failures!, after all, this is ladybug and chat noir we are talking about, the miraculous team doesn't stand a chance against this dynamic duo to begin with, but if Alya and the other heroes ever plan to succeed then they must have someone who will proved them with a “second chance”, no matter how many things go wrong! Lukas power alone can provide the team with as many chances needed in order to change everything which could result in failure! and with luka having already known ladybug and chat noirs identities, he will waste no time in finding a way to save their friends rather than remain in shock and confusion over the outcome which will occur in the finale. But if this were to be the teams solution in saving ladybug and chat noir, then what will they then do about the mess hawkmoth leaves once his wish is granted?

If his wish were to truly cause a catastrophic event, would Marinettes miraculous ladybug be able to fix it even if they managed to defeat shadowmoth? we’ve seen ladybugs power repair some extraordinary things, but could it repair the effects of the two most powerful miraculous being used together? Should ladybug try to repair this incredible damage and fail, then what would she and the others do next once they’ve all failed?....unless....what if this was never their mess to help fix, because if everyone fails, then maybe it will soon be time for ladybug to call upon the one miraculous holder who had been labeled as “the miraculous of last chance”....what is this miraculous?...why...the rabbit miraculous of course!

Fans had always been anticipating the return of Bunnyx, or rather, they have always been waiting to see when young Alix would finally have her chance to use the rabbit miraculous. But considering the dangers of the rabbit miraculous, many knew it would not be used until the day it was absolutely necessary... well... if the team were to continue struggling in saving ladybug and chat noir, then perhaps Alix will soon rise up to help figure out a way to not only save ladybug and chat noir, but also help find a way to repair the incredible damage which will be caused by hawkmoths wish...but what will she do?... will she travel to the past to alter something which will fix the present?... if so, what would she even change without causing another catastrophe?... or will she travel to the future and seek the aid of someone who she knows could help her and the team solve this terrifying crises?...but even if she did, who could she possibly bring back to the present?...would it be someone she already knew and trusted just as much as her future self talked about trusting herself?....someone like...the ladybug and chat noir of the future!?...maybe...but I guess we will just have to wait and see, for now thats just a theory... a miraculous ladybug theory!

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akatsuki-shin · 3 years

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REVIEW: 山河令 Shān Hé Lìng (Word of Honor)

Note(s):

(Very) long post ahead

Contains spoiler

This is my personal review and does not represent the entire audience.

This review is written by someone who has read the original novel, hence there will be reference and comparison between the two works

Summary:

After the sudden passing of his beloved master, young leader of the famous Four Season Manor, Zhou Zishu, brought his brothers and loyal followers to serve the Prince of Jin whose family had been the master of his predecessors, creating a secret organization of capable spies and assassins known as "Tian Chuang".

His decision later proved to be the downfall of his sect, however, for they were quickly swallowed into ruthless political conflicts and battle for power within the royal families, causing his brothers and followers to die unjustly one after another.

Ten years later, Zhou Zishu, now the sole survivor of the Four Season Manor, resigned from his position as the leader of Tian Chuang. In exchange for freedom, he bestowed upon himself the fatal punishment that is the "Nails of Seven Apertures for Three Autumns", a torture device created by Zhou Zishu himself that would gradually numb one's five senses and ultimately took their life within three years.

After several months passed, the now free Zhou Zishu had disguised himself as a wandering vagrant, enjoying his remaining time sightseeing, drinking, and sunbathing to his heart's content.

As fate would have it, however, his unshackled days abruptly ended when he saved a young boy, the only surviving descendant of the Mirror Lake Sect, one of the renowned Five Lakes Alliance, that was destroyed overnight by the mysterious ghosts of Mount Qingya. He was soon pulled into a conflict of the pugilist world dating back to twenty years ago, revolving around a legendary "Glazed Armor" said to hold the key to a secret armory filled with the secret techniques of martial sects from all over the world.

To further complicate matters, he somehow caught the interest of a strange young man of mysterious origin, Wen Kexing, who pursued him relentlessly with unknown motive.

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Before we get into it, I feel that it is worth to mention some of the major differences between the novel and live action because they do affect my impression and judgment over several points in the drama.

While there are always bound to be differences between an adaptation and its original works, most of these differences seem to have been made to avoid censorship, also in order for the drama to be able to become a "stand-alone" story (since the original work is a sequel to another novel).

1. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing

In the drama, they are later revealed to have once been martial brothers of the Four Season Manor due to the fact that Zhou Zishu's master saved Wen Kexing's parents when they were pursued by both the righteous sects of the jianghu and the ghosts of Mount Qingya over the key of the Glazed Armor.

In the original story, they were strangers to each other that have no relationship whatsoever prior to their coincidental meeting at Jiangnan.

2. Prince of Jin and Tian Chuang

Word of Honor is based on the novel "Faraway Wanderers" by Priest, which is a sequel to her previous novel "Lord Seventh".

Originally, the master that Zhou Zishu and his Tian Chuang served should be the Emperor himself, Helian Yi, an important character from Lord Seventh - in which Zhou Zishu also made a major appearance. After Zhou Zishu punished himself with the nails and left Tian Chuang, Helian Yi and the Tian Chuang never pursued him. The story follows Zhou Zishu's journey in the jianghu and he never once went back to the capital city where Helian Yi was.

In the live action, Zhou Zishu and Tian Chuang served the Prince of Jin, a royal family tangled in internal strife for power. From what I understand, Prince Jin seems to have an ambition to overthrow the ruling Emperor to become one himself. After Zhou Zishu left, he kept an eye on him and later managed to capture Zhou Zishu, briefly bringing him back to the Jin as a prisoner.

3. The Scorpions

In Word of Honor, the Scorpion King Xie-er was portrayed as the adopted son of Zhao Jing, the main villain of the story. All the plots he devised, most of them were made with Zhao Jing's interest in his mind. There were also four remarkable assassins working under him (I don't remember their names, but you know who I mean, right?).

Originally, the Scorpions are an independent assassin group. Their relationship with Zhao Jing is that of client and service provider. The Scorpion King had his own plan to benefit himself and his organization with only his own interest in mind. There were no particular members of the Scorpions featured in the story other than him. Specifically, the Phantom Musician Qin Song was an independent assassin hired to kill Zhang Chengling, and he was believed to be dead after being defeated by Zhou Zishu on his very first attempt.

4. The Ten Ghosts of Qingya

Although the novel did mention the existence of the Top Ten Ghosts, only 4 (four) of them actually appeared in the story:

Xue Fang the Hanged Ghost (who was secretly killed by Wen Kexing in the beginning of the story, both in the novel and drama)

The Long-tongued Ghost who was also killed by Wen Kexing when he and Zhou Zishu were trapped underground in the graveyard (Zhao Family's Funeral Home in the drama)

Sun Ding the Delighted Mourning Ghost, one of the strongest ghosts who wanted to overthrow Wen Kexing's position as Ghost Valley Master; he was later killed by the Scorpions

Lao Meng (I forgot his title), also one of the strongest ghosts who wanted to overthrow Wen Kexing, but he was more lowkey and calm; he worked together with the Scorpions to first kill Sun Ding (his rival) and later to kill Wen Kexing when the jianghu heroes came to attack the Ghost Valley (although he didn't know that the Scorpion King had his own plan, hence meeting his demise during the war)

Wu Chang and his two henchmen, the Tragicomic Ghost, the Laughing Ghost, etc do not exist in the novel.

Additionally, Liu Qianqiao is also not part of the ghosts in the novel. She did have an affair with Yu Qiufeng and was manipulated by him until she died horribly in the hands of the two old couple (whose names I also forget).

5. The Ending

I think this is probably the biggest difference between the novel and the live action.

Originally, Zhou Zishu's nail wounds were removed and healed completely by Wu Xi AFTER the final battle at Mount Fengya (yes, the mountain's name is slightly different). He, Wen Kexing, Zhang Chengling, Jing Beiyuan, and Wu Xi lived temporarily at the top of Mount Changming because they need cold temperature for the healing method to work.

Wen Kexing did not sacrifice his life to restore Zhou Zishu's meridian and they did not become immortal.

Also, the Scorpion King was killed by Zhang Chengling and Gao Xiaolian after he got his hand chopped of by Zhou Zishu for trying to murder the already dying Wen Kexing (after he took his revenge on Mo Huaiyang).

There are of course, still many more differences, including when and where Cao Weining died, but the five things I mentioned above are probably the biggest ones because they directly impacted the entire plot.

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STORY: 8/10

Despite the changes and adjustments, the main plot of SHL amazingly remains loyal to the original story. The things they could not show, they would include it in the characters' dialog or tried to incorporate it in another way. Some examples:

Cao Weining and Gu Xiang's reincarnation story was included in Cao Weining's dialog (his dream and his wish to grow up together with her in their next life)

Wen Kexing's confession about wanting to build a grave for his parents from the Extra Chapter (where he cried and caused Zhou Zishu to let him top out of sympathy) was included in Wen Kexing's dialog when he got drunk and hugged Zhou Zishu after he defeated Zhao Jing (prior to Cao Weining and Gu Xiang's marriage)

In fact, I feel that most of the adjustments made to the story were able to deliver much better emotional aspects and intensity of the characters and important scenes.

Although more than half of the Ten Ghosts were made up solely for the drama, their existence was able to better portray Wen Kexing's image as the supreme leader of the Ghost Valley and why they all fear him.

Although many interactions between Zhou Zishu, Zhang Chengling, and Wen Kexing were either added or changed from the novel, here we could see them as a real, close family which is so much more heartwarming than the original.

Zhao Jing's pretense, evil deeds, and downfall were all arranged neatly from the beginning. If I hadn't read the novel, I probably would've been (pleasantly) surprised when it was revealed that he was the one plotting everything behind the scene.

The romance and relationship development of the main pairing (Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu, although it was masked as brotherhood as always) and side pairing (Cao Weining/Gu Xiang) were especially well done. It allows me, as the audience, to get to know them, sympathize with them, and ultimately rooting for them (despite already knowing how Cao Weining and Gu Xiang would end up).

Gu Xiang's anguish and fury after Cao Weining died were shown so clearly. Her final fighting scene until her death was particularly moving.

Explanations and plot twists were spread evenly so there was no info dump. The plot development was enjoyable to follow from the beginning, even if the ending felt a bit rushed.

This was a bit difficult to describe, but even if sometimes I feel like "hmm, this character did not do this in the novel", when I was following the drama from the first to the last episode, everything flows smoothly and does not feel out of place. So I realized that even if what the characters did was sometimes different from the original story, it is still loyal to the plot and circumstances of the drama, which is why their adjusted words and actions still felt natural to see.

Also, when reading the novel before, I have one critic about the Glazed Armor and the armory itself being the center of everyone's fight, but in the end they didn't seem to have much importance, especially because the armory was never found and opened. At the very least, although it was due to ending change and pretty much rushed, in SHL the Glazed Armor was actually used and the armory was shown.

Though there were indeed a few things that I do not quite agree(?) with:

Tian Chuang is supposed to be a secret organization that does their job secretly, but why is it that they always light so many lanterns when launching their attack?

The bond shared between Zhou Zishu and Prince Jin was pretty clear, but I don't think it's detailed and deep enough for Prince Jin to consider Zhou Zishu his soulmate. Furthermore, from the beginning we've never been told about Zhou Zishu's family, but in the last few episodes suddenly there were talks about his father being branded a traitor because of some secret hidden in the armory. While the story makes sense, to put new information out of the blue when the plot was about to end feels somewhat strange.

Lastly, I understand that danmei adaptations always face a lot of restrictions, as in they were not allowed to have a blatant happy ending - so most either resort to tragedy or open ending (cmiiw). However, I still feel that Wen Kexing faking his death without telling Zhou Zishu was......kind of silly.

After their life was spared by Ye Baiyi, Zhou Zishu had already warned him not to act without telling him again. When he wanted to fake his death, Wen Kexing told almost everyone except Zhou Zishu, the reason being they shouldn't make Zhou Zishu fight since he was in the middle of recovery.

Zhou Zishu is a rational person, I strongly believe that he would understand if Wen Kexing explained clearly. Him not telling Zhou Zishu led to:

Zhou Zishu actually ended up fighting to save him

Zhou Zishu thinking his soulmate is truly gone and proceeded to choose a suicidal move in order to avenge his (fake) death

Honestly, while I still enjoy following this drama until the end, I feel that the cause of Zhou Zishu dying when he could've been saved by Wu Xi, and Wen Kexing ended up sacrificing his life to save Zhou Zishu, was a bit ridiculous because really, Wen Kexing brought it upon himself.

In regards to this, even if I'm happy the two of them ended up living happily ever after as immortals on the mountain, it makes Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi's existence almost pointless. They were literally included in the story of Faraway Wanderers to save Zhou Zishu's life from the nails. But here, other than providing shelter after the Four Season Manor was burnt down by Duan Pengju, I don't see any reason why they should be there.

CHARACTERS: 9/10

Perfect casts and perfect character portrayals, both from visual aspects and acting. Some may or may not necessarily look 100% similar to their novel description, but they managed to bring out the characters to life so well.

I've said before that most adjustments made to the drama were able to deliver much better emotional aspects and intensity, and this is especially true for the characters.

Honestly, when reading the novel, other than the few main characters, others did not leave a lot of impressions on me. I don't even remember what Zhao Jing was like when he was revealed as the true villain. Gao Chong's introduction was pretty good, but then we didn't hear much about him until he was finally declared dead. Shen Shen appeared only for one chapter and the next time I heard of him, he's already dead, too.

I love the novel, but really do have so many complaints about the characters in there. Fortunately, all of these flaws had been fixed in the drama, and boy they did it so well.

Some that I found amazingly written and shown:

Wen Kexing's emotional instability and his protectiveness whenever Zhou Zishu got hurt (good job, Gong Jun)

Zhou Zishu's rich emotions to those he hold dear (good job, Zhang Zhehan)

Zhang Chengling's character being more detailed and "alive", especially his diligence, growth, and occasional mischief; he was no longer just a useless dumb kid who can't do anything

Cao Weining and Gu Xiang's dynamic is so lovely

Zhao Jing's change from the seemingly weak guy to an ambitious, manipulative mastermind

Gao Chong, Shen Shen, and many other side characters were given enough screen time + sufficient important scenes so they weren't easily forgotten

Special shoutout and kudos to the actor who played Duan Pengju. I heard he was actually the Assistant Director, but because they didn't have much budget, he was casted to play this character and he did great 🥺 Thank you for helping the team to save hundred thousands yuan!

I don't really have any complaints about the character except when Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing have just delivered Zhang Chengling to Zhao Jing, Zhou Zishu clearly didn't want to mention his name (Zhou Xu), but Wen Kexing went ahead and introduced the both of them. Somehow I feel that Wen Kexing's character wouldn't disregard Zhou Zishu's opinion so lightly.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS: 9/10

Although this drama did not have much budget to start with, literally the only complaints I have about it is so minor, like:

A few scene transitions don't look smooth

Repeated use of sets, e.g. Gao Chong/Zhao Jing's residence is the same as Prince Jin's Palace, the Secret Armory Interior is the same as Tian Chuang's prison - but this has been mentioned in an interview with the Director(?) that they indeed use similar sets for multiple scenes to save budget

Other than that, I only ever have good things to say about this drama.

The fighting scenes should be given million kudos. Save for the flying and gliding part (which still looks kinda awkward, but better than some other Chinese dramas I've seen), the actions were just so cool and intense??? From the angle, the slow motion, to the techniques that are unique and different for each character. They even perfectly showed Zhang Chengling's awkward yet correct implementation of Zhou Zishu's teaching.

Costume designs are top notch. The visual of the seven nails on Zhou Zishu's body looks so real. His disguise was also very well done, I almost couldn't tell it's the same actor.

Some CGI and animations could've done better, but overall everything looks nice. I'm especially amazed at the visual of Longyuan Palace.

OVERALL SCORE: 8.7/10

At this point, I don't even know how to end this post other than saying please watch it, guys. It's a really well done job despite their limitations and restrictions. I've watched several Wuxia/Xianxia dramas before this and Word of Honor surprisingly exceeded every single one of my expectations. I enjoyed watching it so much, and I believe you guys will like it, too.

An additional kudos from me personally, because you can tell how the team creating this drama knows and appreciates the original author's works. It's a pleasant surprise when they incorporated a few things from Priest's other novel:

From Sha Po Lang: Zhi Liujin (the fuels used for the puppets in Longyuan Palace) and the Mechanical Birds used by Tian Chuang + Ping An Manor to deliver letters

From Silent Reading: The puppy that young Zhou Zishu and Zhen Yan played with, it was named after the cat owned by the main character of Silent Reading (also, fun fact, the name of Silent Reading's main character is "Wenzhou")

From Lord Seventh: Wen Kexing faking his death was exactly the same as how Wu Xi fooled the Emperor in order to "kidnap" Jing Beiyuan out of the capital.

Conclusion: Please watch it, guys.

#Word of Honor #Shan He Ling #SHL #Tian Ya Ke #Faraway Wanderer #Zhou Zishu #Wen Kexing #WenZhou #Review #Danmei #Priest

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itspufflehuff · 3 years

Text

Alone Chapter 4 - Bucky Imagine TFATWS

Summary: SPOILERS As you all get closer to the flagsmashers more problems begin to arise, mostly to do with John Walker.

MATERLIST // TAGLIST

I try not to write too much in these summaries in case anyone hasn't caught up with TFATWS but one thing is for sure there is a lot of fighting in this chapter as most of the episode is full of fight scenes. Don’t worry there are still some cute moments with Bucky!

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three

Word Count: 3057

~~~~

After everything that went down in Madripoor and with the information you were able to get you all mad your way to Riga hoping to find Karli or any information on her.

Zemo wasted no time settling back into his old home while Bucky decided to take a stroll on his own for a bit. Meanwhile, you and Sam sat beside each other on the couch with your legs resting on his lap. "Remember when we were in Spain?" He smiled at the memory, "Yeah we spent most of our time hiding out in one of those Air BNB's, you were the least recognizable of us so you had to go out and get us food." You laughed along, "Yeah I guess one good thing did come out of sitting out on a lot of missions." It went quiet for a second as you rested your head back on the couch, "You know that was when I realized my family was bigger than just Steve, Nat, and Tony. I had Wanda, Vision, and you."

Before Sam could say anything in response Bucky came in with news of the Wakandans arriving in Riga. You all devised a plan to head into town and try to find out some information on any services they may be having for Donya. This would, hopefully, lead you all to Karli.

The four of you headed to one of the camps where many of the refugees were staying. Bucky watched over Zemo while you and Sam headed into the building to find anyone you could talk to. Everywhere you went you were met with scared people who scurried off into the next room. Then you both walked into a room with children and a man, the teacher. It only took a minute for the man to send out of the children and himself out of the room. "Why won't anyone talk to us?" Sam asked with a hint of frustration. "You have to understand Sam, these people had a connection to Donya and somehow the Flagsmashers are connected to her. They'll do whatever to protect her and them. When a man comes in here looking intimidating they're gonna run away.

He looked at you offended, "I do not look intimidating."

"Well, when you come in here with your hands in your pockets and asking questions... it sends the wrong message." He took his hands out of his pockets and tried to loosen up. You pated his shoulder and began to walk away, "A little too late for that Sammy."

The both of you joined Bucky outside and watched Zemo from afar, "What the hell is he doing?" Bucky asked aloud. "He's gaining their trust." You said with a side glance to Sam.

Back at Zemos house, you all sat on the couch feeling defeated as Zemo made tea. You laid your head back as everyone bickered over Karli's morals. You rubbed at your eyes not wanting to hear this anymore. It was the same conversation you all have had before and never ended any different. "I'm going to lay down," you pushed yourself off the couch. Sam and Zemo continued their conversation but Bucky looked over to you concerned, "Are you feeling ok?"

The truth was you were feeling tired and dirty. You just wanted a nice bath and a long nap but now was not the time for either of those. Instead, you nodded your head, "I'm fine. I just need to lay down for a few minutes. Bucky nodded unconvinced but he didn't want to push you on the topic.

You barely laid down for two minutes when you hear glass shattering. Worried you ran out of the room to see Bucky storming away from Zemo with anger. From the door you called him over, ushering him into the room, and shutting the door behind you. "What was that all about?" He was pacing around the room, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you I know you were trying to rest." You sat at the edge of the bed and patted the spot next to you, "That's alright, come sit."

He hesitated for a second but gave in keeping his distance from you, "What's wrong?"

"It's just- he's treating this like a joke. Hiding information from us as if he has the upper hand." Bucky let out frustrated.

"That's how it's like with people like him. They want to believe they're always on top, especially when they know they're not."

"Yeah, you're right. Well, you should get some rest before-" Bucky was cut off when Sam burst into the room.

"We should get going. I have Sharon keeping an eye out for us and Zemo said he can lead us to the memorial." He left without waiting for a response.

You and Bucky looked at each other before you chuckled tiredly, "A hero's life is not a peaceful one."

~~~~

On your way to Donya's service, you were unpleasantly met with John Walker and Lemar Hoskins. John made no effort to cover up his anger as he charged at the four of you, "Hey take it easy before it gets weird." Sam said pushing back at John's chest. Cautiously Lemar nudged John then pointed to your hands. Your hands were beginning to glow red hot as the energy from your magic built up. You didn't even realize you were preparing for a battle until Lemar pointed it out. The men took a step back as they lowered their voices to a calmer tone. Although it didn't stop them all from bickering the whole way.

"My associate is just up ahead." Zemo gestured to the little girl he was speaking to at the camp. He made his way towards the girl as everyone followed close behind.

"Whoa guys, I get the whole superhero walk but she's a child loosen up a bit. We don't want to scare her." You commented as you watched the men walk over to her looking intimidating.

The "transaction" between Zemo and the girl went smoothly. He handed her some money for her and her family. She then lead all of you towards Donya's memorial. "What the hell?" John cursed to Lemar.

"Language." You said as you continued walking in front of him. Beside you, you could hear Sam and Bucky snicker, "Don't say a word."

As you all waited for Sam, Bucky strolled over to you leaning on the wall. "Language huh? Steve really did raise you." He laughed.

You felt your neck heat up, "It just slipped out." He chuckled shaking his head as you stammered over your words, "It was- well I- I was just worried about the girl hearing someone cure. I don't usually care."

"I didn't get to talk to Steve much when I came back but when I did he talked about you a lot."

"Really?" You asked turning your head to him, "Yeah. He said you were like a sister to him."

You smiled at the thought but didn't have time to respond. Frustrated John walked towards the both of you trying to get by but Bucky refused. "Your partner needs backup. Do you really want his blood on your hands?" You turned to Bucky seeing how that comment hit him. He looked as if he was ready to give in and let John pass, "Don't listen to him, Buck. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

This only seemed to make John angry. He straightened himself up, shifting his feet to turn towards you. Bucky stood in between the both of you like a shield as Lemar reached for John's arm, "Come on man she's just a girl."

"Just a girl?" John shouted, "She's killed more people than you think!"

This made you defensive, "I only kill bad guys. I'm not going to kill you unless you're calling yourself a bad guy?"

"No, but you're not as perfect as you pretend to be." John spat back.

You were beginning to get angry. You tried to move Bucky out of your way but he kept an arm extended, not to protect you but to protect John from your anger, "What is that supposed to mean?" John looked down at your hands looking smug as of to say 'I told you so'. You could feel the energy running through your veins hot like fire but it didn't hurt you, it never did.

You didn't care that you were doing exactly what he thought you would because he was starting to piss you off. "I'm not waiting around any longer. There's a soldier in there who needs back up. If you're not going to help then stay out of my way."

"We're not at war John." Bucky sighed.

"If you go in there you're going to screw this up for all of us." You stepped up.

"I'm not going to ask again, move." John said I'm a stern tone.

"No." It was as if he had never been told no before. He lifted up the shield and tried to make himself look intimidating. You and Bucky stood your ground preparing to fight back if you needed to.

"Stand down soldiers." He warned. This only made you laugh, "I'm not a soldier. I'm an Avenger."

He charged at you. Bucky was ready to jump in front of you and push John out of the way but using your powers you were able to knock him down with ease. He stood back up angry. He charged at you again, this time Bucky knocked him down. You were able to manipulate the wind to keep John staples to the ground he thrashed around trying to get back up but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't.

Then you felt someone wrap their arms behind you locking your arms to your side. This distracted you allowing John to be set free. "I'm sorry but he needs to get in there." You heard Lemar's voice. You tried pushing yourself out of his grasp but he was much stronger than you.

Bucky was fighting off John until he saw you stuck in Lemar's hold. You could see him debating whether he should help you or hold Lemar back. He wanted to help you but he knew how important this mission was. Ultimately he pushed John back and ran to your side.

It didn't take long for John to slip through the door and into the room where Karli and Sam were. The three of you ran after him forgetting all about Zemo.

Everything moved so fast. John walked in with so much authority it was sickening. Lemar was trying to hold me and Bucky back. Karli pushed Sam to the ground and began her getaway. Bucky pushed Lemar out of the way chasing after Karli. You ran to Sam's side but he brushed you off, "I'm ok. We have to get to Karli." The both of you ran off in different directions hoping to corner her somehow. Instead, you and Sam reunited along with Bucky, "I lost her."

The three of you tried searching the place once more but gave up and decided to head back to Zemo's place.

There you all took a much-needed break as you regrouped and planned on what to do next. One thing that was for sure was to keep John Walker out of your way. Had he not intervened Karli would have stepped down and trusted Sam.

You sat at the table with Sam, listening to him type away on his computer. You were too zoned out of everything to pay attention to what was happening. It wasn't until you heard Bucky's voice next to you, "Would you like a drink?" You turned to see him shifting on his feet awkwardly. "A drink would be nice, thank you." He placed two cups on the table and poured the drinks. When he was done he passed one to you and took the second one for himself then pulled out the chair next to you to take a seat. You sipped your drink as the men talked.

It wasn't long until John came bursting through the door shouting, "Alright, that's it. Let's go. I am now ordering you to hand him over."

You rolled your eyes and continued to take sips of your drink. You watched as John tried to intimidate Sam, but everyone knew it wasn't working. Well everyone except John and Lemar. He put the shield down on the floor preparing to fight Sam but as soon as he stood back up a spear came hurtling towards him. You gasped turning to the source. The Dora Milaje.

Shit just got real.

As always John was trying to be his cocky self and show some authority. That didn't go too well with these women. The second he placed his hand on one of them a fight ensued. You sat back in your chair amused. You weren't the only one. With a quick look around the room, you could see Zemo and Bucky enjoying the show of John Walker getting his ass handed to him. Sam on the other hand looked concerned.

"Looking strong John!" Bucky shouted mockingly. You laughed. Sam scolded him. They jumped in to attempt to save John and Lemar from the ladies but that was proving to be harder than it seemed. Sam and Bucky were both distracted with saving John that they didn't notice Lemar about to get him. You jumped in pushing him out of the way before a spear came flying at him. Before you could grab it one of the ladies took it and started fighting you. Sam jumped in to help but even with the both of you, it was hard to take her down. Suddenly she turned to throw the spear and John immobilizing him. Seemingly at the same time, the other women disarmed Bucky. Literally. He looked at her in shock as she walked towards the bathroom.

"He's gone." You didn't know who "he" was until you took one glance around the room to find your prisoner had escaped.

~~~~

All day it seemed to be one fight after another. Soon after the visit from the Dora Milage the three of you went to pay Karli a visit. Not much talking or negotiating was done before Walker had to once again come and ruin it. The three of you jumped off the patio and made your way to John. Sam flew but you decided to run with Bucky. As soon as you got there everything was chaos. Lemar was taken hostage and John was... strong? Much stronger than before.

You ran ahead of Bucky making your way up the stairs when you heard him grunt. You turned to see one of the flagsmashers attacking him, "Bucky!" You shouted as you made your way back down. He was in a chokehold and was fighting his way out. He shooed you away with his hand as he managed to say, "Go!" You furrowed your eyebrows, shaking your head, "I'm not leaving you behind."

Bucky got himself loose then kicked the man down the stairs. He jumped down, kicked him into the wall, walked over to his unconscious body, and said "Stay there." You couldn't help the grin that crept up to your lips. Sure this was a serious moment but he was such a dork. It was cute.

He made his way back up the stairs trying to hide his confidence, "Let's go." He placed his hand on your shoulder leading you up.

When you walked into the room where all the action was going on a dagger came flying towards Bucky. With ease, he dodged the dagger then grabbed it. As he started fighting the man who tried to kill him someone came up from beside you trying to attack, but you were faster than they were. You stepped back grabbing onto their fist that lunged to your face. Without a struggle, you punched them in the gut and pushed them down to the floor.

Suddenly Lemar came rushing in to save his best friend. What happened next was too quick to understand.

Karli punched him a little too hard. It sent him flying back into the pillar. Even through all the fighting, you could hear the crack of bones. Everyone stopped. It was like slow motion. The man who was holding John back let him go.

He made his way to Lemar trying to regain his conscious but it wasn't working. He was already gone.

The flagsmashers all made a run for it. You, Sam, and Bucky went chasing after them.

You made your way to the front of the building to see a crowd of people with their phones out. That's when you saw it.

John proudly holding onto a bloody shield. A man dead on the floor.

You felt sick. You could taste the bile rise up to your mouth as you swallowed it down. With one hand rested in your stomach and the other on your mouth you turned unable to look at the scene in front of you. Concerned Bucky pulled you in with one arm hiding your face into his shoulder.

You tried taking deep breaths and closing your eyes but you could see John plunging the shield into that poor man's body. Of course you'd gone on missions before and seen blood, injuries, and sometimes death. But this was the most gruesome thing you'd ever lay your eyes on. You could hear everything that was going on and prayed for it to end.

When it finally did Sam motioned for you and Bucky to follow him, "You go on we'll catch up." Sam gave you a concerned glance. He didn't want to leave you considering how sick you looked but he also couldn't allow John to getaway. He nodded to Bucky before running after John.

Bucky lowered his head to look you in the eyes and put his hands on your shoulders keeping you a small distance away, "Are you up for this? If not you can sit this one out no one will judge you." His eyes filled with worry as he examined your face.

Your eyes were to the ground as you took some more breaths in calming yourself down. A few seconds later you nodded looking up to lock eyes with him, "Let's take the shield back."

@majo240820 @yougottalovefandoms @sebstanfan123 @twpkhes

#tfatws #the winter solider fanfiction #the falcon #the falcon and the winter solider spoilers #Bucky Barnes #james buchanan barnes #the winter soilder #The Avengers #mcu #marvel #marvel imagine #imagine #fanfic #Sebastian Stan

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nevermore-the-kitsune · 4 years

Text

Top Ten Biggest Polt Twists in Animation (in my opinion).

Spoiler Warning

10. April is a mutant (TMNT 2012)

In this incarnation of TMNT, the turtles fight the evil Kraang. Their main target is April O'Neil. The reasons why have been kept vague until it is revealed that she herself is a mutant! Not any mutant but a combination of Kraang and human DNA.

9. The Philosopher Stone is made out of People (Fullmetal Alchemist series)

Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric committed the ultimate taboo and attempted to bring back their deceased mother. However, in the process Ed lost his arm and leg while Alphonse lost his body and became a soul bound to a suit of armor. The brothers came to believe that only the philosopher stone, who is said to hold unlimited alcchemic potential, was the only way to get their bodies back to normal. That dream is shattered when they learn that the stone is made by killing thousands of people.

8. The Author was Stan's Twin Brother (Gravity Falls)

Gravity Falls is a town that holds many secrets. During their summer visiting their great uncle Stan, Dipper and Mabel discover a mysterious book that holds the secrets that lie beneath Gravity Falls. A major theme throughout this show is "who is the author" the mystery twins encounter many strang things in their quest to find out who they are. Only to have it revealed that Stan's brother was the author.

7. Chad is still in the KND (Codename Kids Nextdoor)

In the beginning of this series, Chad or #274, was the leader of the KND. Until his 13th birthday, when he betrayed them. Throughout the series Chad joins the KNDs nemesis, the teenagers, and takes a part in their plots to destroy the KND. However, when #1 is given a chance to take him out, Chad reveals that he never left the KND and was working as a spy.

6. Grandpa Max was a Plumber (Ben 10)

Ben 10 tells the story of ten year old Ben Tennyson who is on summer vacation with is grandfather and cousin, traveling the U.S in an old RV. On the first night Ben finds the Omnitrex, a device that allows him to transform into different aliens.

By the end of the first season Max reveals that he was a Plumber, an intergalactic police officer, and had know the whole time what the Omnitrex was and the Aliens Ben transformed into. While not a huge twist (the series would have some bigger ones as it continued) it was still a shock to learn that Max knew what was going on the whole time.

5. Rose betrayed the Huntsclan (American Dragon: Jake Long)

Dragon Jake Long fell in love with a member of The Huntsclan, Rose or Huntsgirl. However, she in turn fell in love with Jake not knowing that he was a dragon. Rose gets the chance to kill Jake, if she does she will become a full fledged member, but Jake shows her his human face. In turn she lets him go and runs away.

During the second season, the Huntsclan attemp to destroy every magical creature by using mythical skulls that grant anyone who brings them together a perfect wish (Think the dragonballs). In the last moment she strikes down her master and instead wishes for the destruction of the Huntsclan, knowing that that will include her.

4. Rose Quortz was Pink Diamond (Steven Universe)

Many believed that Rose Quortz, the leader of the resistance and mother of Steven, had shattered Pink Diamond, one of the heads of the Gems. However it is revealed in season 5 that she WAS pink diamond and had faked her own death to protect the Earth.

3. Nagisa's blood lust came from his mother (Assassination Classroom)

Class 3E is the bottom of society, but they have been given the chance of a lifetime. A being who can move at mock 20 says that he will destroy the Earth in one year, unless one of them can Assassinate him. He takes on the role of their homeroom teacher to better prepare them.

Out of all the students in 3E, Nagisa Shoita was the lest impressive. He was small, weak, and looked more feminine than his female classmates. Yet, Nagisa has the national talent of an assassin. He managed to get the drop on their gym teacher, a man who is skilled in many fighting styles, and took down an ex military officer (twice). He has surprised his classmates with his abilities, feom getting the drop on top assassins, including their homeroom teacher, to installing fear with just a glare.

However, this came at a price. His mother is abusive beyond reason. She forces Nagisa to grow his hair long, makes him wear dresses and other feminine clothing. On several occasions she has bashed his head into solid objects. She is unpredictable, forcing Nagisa to do what all children in that situation do, learn to control his emotions and read the thoughts of others. This woman created a viper.

2. Eric Cartman and Scott Tenerman are brothers (South Park)

Cartmans mom has always been loose. The identity of her son's father was likely going to stay a mystery. But during the second episode of season 2 we get our answer (kinda). The answer was given now we could move on.

In a later episode Cartman gets scammed and humiliated by Scott Tenerman, an older teenager. So, Cartman devises a scheme. In the end Scotts parents are dead and eaten in some chille.

Many seasons later its revealed that Scott's Father and Eric's are one and the same. Ms. Cartman amd the town had lied about his identity in order to protect his public image. Thus Cartman killed his own father.

1. Zak Saturday is Kur (The Secret Saturdays)

From the beginning I knew this would be number one.

The Secret Saturdays is about a family of scientists who study crypteds, or strange creatures with unique abilities. The most dangerous was Kur, a creature said to have the power to raise a crypted army and take over the world. Zak has the ability to manipulate crypteds leaving him and his family to believe that shoukd Kur be unleashed onto the world, Zaks power woukd be the only thing that coukd stop it.

At the end of season 1, the truth is revealed that Zak IS Kur.

The entire first season is dedicated to finding Kur and talking about how dangerous he is. Then it turns out that it's Zak, a 12 year old boy with a kind heart. I cannot describe how shocked I was, then having to wait years to find out the outcome (we moved around alot) killed me.

Remember that this is my opinion. What are some of your favorite plot twists in animation?

(Images are not mine, all credit goes to the artists)

#ben 10 #fullmetal alchemist #gravity falls #codename knd #knd #american dragon jake long #steven universe #plot twist #plot things #south park #assassination classroom #secret saturdays #my opinion

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littlespaceporgs · 4 years

Text

The Clone Wars Reacts - Part 5

Or Leah loses her shit at Jar Jar, thirsts for Aayla Secura for an episode and a half, and then swoons for Riyo Chuchi.

Welcome once more to the Reacts series! I’m a busy woman for now but I am setting up a schedule for this series which will be

Today we’re covering episodes 12, 13, 14 and BONUS! 15. This is because I got super bored during episode 14 and basically didnt write anything so, here you go! As per usual, major spoiler alert for season 1 of the clone wars! If you haven’t read the previous parts to this series, I suggest you do so that you can follow along!

Part 1 - Episodes 1 and 2 Part 2 - Episodes 3, 4 and 5 Part 3 - Episodes 6, 7 and 8 Part 4 - Episodes 9, 10 and 11

Tags (if you want to join, my taglist can be found on my page!): @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky @girlvader @simping-for-fives @littlevodika @hounding-around @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @onabouteverything @acciokenobi @catsnkooks @captainrexstan @roseofalderaan @fractiouskat

We’re well past the half-way point, so there is 2 parts left of season 1, and then onto season 2! So lets get into it!

Episode 12: The Gungan General

> heheheheheheheh jar jar I am KEEN

> I get hondo and jar jar in one episode

>> this’ll be funny

>>> actually no scratch that, this is gonna be hilarious

> oh and they woke up in a cell this will be fun

> HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA AND THEYRE BOUND TO DOOKU

> DISASTER I TELL YOU

> “if I keep my mouth shut you’ll devise a plan so get off the god forsaken planet?” “YES”

> this dude seems traitorous as fuck (im referring to one of the pirates, not dooku shockingly)

> I wish Ahsoka and Yoda were in this too, I want more disaster lineage

> ah he is indeed a traitor

> “HEIDY HO CHANCELLOR”

> JAR JAR WHOO

> “stop messing around, we’re landing. Secure yourself” “MESA TRYING ITS STUCK”

> promptly followed by jar jar falling everywhere

> oh and now he’s in the cockpit

> oh shit that senator guy is definitely dead right?

> “do control tour protégées insolence” “anakin, control your insolence, the count is concentrating”

> “do we know where we’re going?” “Ssh anakin” “DO we know where we’re going?”

> is it safe? Of course it i- riiiiiight

>> I forgot this was the clone wars for a second, this is gold

> FRIENDS DONT DRUG FRIENDS HONDO

> y’know, dooku’s quite amusing when he’s not trying to kill my favourite characters

> “are you now in command” “uh no, binks is the highest ranking” ooooohhhh boy

> ooooooohhhh and some mind tricks too, nice

> I hate to say this, but jar jar is actually smart

> holy shit

> beasties are nearby too, we’ll be fine. they run, we run

>> Dayum jar jar actually making good decisions?

> I present a real and accurate image of my reaction to this statement

> Mesa be having an idea oooohhh booooyyy

> obi wan that is no way to speak to your grandmaster

> be patient master the count is elderly and doesn’t move like he used to

> I would kill you both now if I didn’t have to drag your bodies

>> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH this is the only reaction I’ll accept

> then falling all over each other is the only thing I’ve ever needed to see

> “ this is not going well” no shit

> my question is why did obi wan not drop Dooku?? Does he actually still care about this man?

> you’re right, I don’t think youre going to be friends 🤦‍♀️😂

> sneaky lying snake

> bruh they don’t even know you’ve got the Jedi captive??????????

>> so how does that work you dumbass

> no shit, you will look like fools obi wan

> “there be some bombad clankers” 😂😂

>> “huh YOURE right, bombad clankers” I love the shock

> YOURE RIGHT HE IS SMARTER THAN HE LOOKS, GIVE JARJAR SOME CREDIT

> oh boy anakin, just keep your mouth shut genius

> man electrocution doesn’t look like fun

> HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH

> The next few lines of confused joy are me reacting to jar jar somehow single handedly taking out 3 tanks

> what the fuck

> JarJar I I’m what-

> JUST DID A GOOD THING, I DONT REGERT THIS THING AT ALLLLLLLL

> fuckin JarJar was great

> “KILL HIM HES NOT A REPRESENTATIVE, HES A PLAGUE” I’m ded 💀😢💀

> serves you right you snake, now dooku gonna choke your ass

> oooohhhhh that’s how these two twits (hondo and obi-wan) became friends

> “and... he knows where you live” Oof the subtle threat is real

> hem I love obi wan very much and his sarcasm

Episode 13: Jedi crash

> I JUST SAW AAYLA I AM EXCITED I AM ALSO ATTRACTED TO HER VERY MUCH

> SHES HOT

> I LOVE HER

> AND HER VOICE JUST MAKES ME ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️

> I wish I was bly, not gonna lie

> I have a quick question - the 501st colour is blue right? Then why do they have a gold squad, doesn’t the extra colours just confuse things?

> I love seeing anakin and Ahsoka in action coolest thing to watch

> And anakin

>> I am also quite attracted to him

>>> imagine dragging your hands through that hair as he- wait no I have minors in my followers not gonna finish that

> Uh oh

>> Oh anakin you twit

>>> HE LOCKED HOMSELF IN WITH AN EXPLOSION JDGKJDJFKFKFKFKFF

> HES INSANE

> Are all Jedi so reckless? Just the good ones - love this by the way

> Oooohh shit for a STAR

> I mean like? I know anakin doesn’t die, but this shit is concerning

> Perfected the art of destroying ships and getting master almost killed? Sounds familiar

> I hate it when they just call them “padawan “ it just feels very impersonal like bleh

> Like I love aayla but god the Jedi preach some bullshit

>> God forbid someone raises a child and gets attached to it

>>> Like for fucks sake

>>>> Can you tell this is something I’m passionate about?

> Anyway, moving on

> Oh hi anakin! You’re alive!

> That bird lookin thing is tryna eat my boy 😤

> Oop - well that dudes dead

> Aawwwwwww aayla looks so sad, this makes me sad too

> Can we just appreciate this?

> Well these little critters are cute

> Ooooohhh I think I agree with this little dude

> You can skip the paragraph if you like, its just me going off about ‘peacekeeping’

> Alright gonna get mildly into it for a second, the clone wars really gets into it with episodes like this, displaying how the entire galaxy was starting to lose faith in the Jedi and their peacekeeping ways, in the movies we just got that people just started hating the Jedi because they became part of the war, but this really fleshes it out and shows just how slowly and gradually the loss of faith is. Because he’s right, the Jedi aren’t peacekeepers anymore, they bring as much destruction with them that the separatists do and have become symbols of war. They’re fighting for a good reason yes, but they can no longer claim that they are peacekeepers or that they played no role in this war.

> ANYWAY BACK TO REACTS

> AH MY TWO FAVOURITE WOMEN AND A PRETTY BACKGROUND AGAIN!! They really do be doing me a great service

Part 14: Defenders of Peace

> I’m really not into this episode, just saying it now

> Anakins just as bad as obi wan, like honestly just chill bro, fucking REST

>> MY BOYS DESERVE SOME GODDAMN REST AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL OK-

> Okay but is it taking a life if it’s a droid?

> Ugh this dudes ugly as fuck

> What did you think was gonna happen?? Of course your village was going to be ransacked

> I could go on forever about the pointlessness of this war like it just makes me mad palpatine you slimy git-

> My reacts this episode are really boring huh, I’m not into it 😭

*fully I didn’t write anything for about 10 minutes here because it’s just a little boring*

> HOLY SHIT NOW THATS A FUCKING WEAPON

> Yep sorry that’s it for this ep, I’m so bored 😂

>> Anyway, bonus episode because that one was short!

Part 15: Trespass

> YES OBIWAN WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

> AND IS THAT RIYO CHUCHI I SPY?????

> Hahahahahahahhahahaha it’s not tatooine, you got that right

> Oh god this dude already sounds like a dick (its the chancellor dude but not palpatine)

> Why’s he so defensive over it?

> Oh yikes, that does not look good

> Seppies don’t do that though - this is... odd

> Ah and the same thing has been done to the droids

> Off topic, but I think I’m going to make a clone wars drinking game that I can do while I do my reacts, so I’m going to make that this week, send me your ideas in the comments or dm me!

> Back to ep - pfffffffttt obi wans little taps and then anakin really goes WHACK

> Anyway I’m going to do this in the next couple days and then every Friday night I’ll watch a few eps and drink away

> Alright back to the episode once more

> Abominable snowman????

>> Definitely

> This is gonna go well isn’t it?

> “Well? Say something”

>> “Just shut up” *visible eye roll*

> What the fuck is their mouth

> Okay really obi wan, I think it’s pretty clear they don’t speak basic

> YEEEEEEAAAHHH THATS MY BOI ANAKIN

> Awwwwwwww that shits cute, fucking bear huugggg I want to be hugged like that

> I’m not fussed if it’s anakin, obi wan or kit fisto but please someone love me

>> Preferably kit fisto

> Anyway this dudes a dick (again, its the chancellor dude)

> They obviously have intelligence, and this dude has issues

>> I’m thinking he’s trying to compensate for something 👀

> Oof you really gonna tell a Jedi what to do?

> HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA the other people’s were there already

> Ugh he reminds me of my very racist grandparents oh boy

> You’ve been told like 4 times that it is not your jurisdiction anymore and you still can’t take it?

>> BRUH

> She’s so tiny and adorable and her voice is just 🥰🥰🥰🥰

>> Oh no

>>> I’m simping for another character

> Surely this guy dies

> HAHAHAHAHAH HE JUST GOT SPEARED SERVES YOU RIGHT MOTHERFUCKER

> What a dick, he shall not be missed

> She’s just, so pretty??? And smart????

>> FUCK MY BISEXUAL ASS CANT HANDLE THIS

> he’s seriously not dead yet?

> AAAHH RIYO YOU SMART GIRL YEEEEESSSS NEGOTIATE THAT PEEEEAAACCEEEE

> THATS MY GIRL SENATOR CHUCHI YEEEESSS

Welp that’s it for today folks, it was lovely, see y’all at some point this week where I say the drinking game rules and then next drunken Friday (even though these are gonna be released on saturdays but I write them on fridays?)

#the clone wars #tcw #the clone wars reacts #reacts series #star wars ahsoka #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #obi wan kenobi #kit fisto #riyo chuchi #jar jar binks #basically a leah simp fest #fucking sigh #it took one (1) ep for me to simp

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michelles-garden-of-evil · 4 years

Text

SP Influences: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace

CONTENT WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF RAPE (NOT JUST THE FANTASY METAPHOR KIND) AND SLAVERY. ALSO SPOILER WARNING FOR THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, AND BOTH THE FIRST AND FINAL ARC (INCLUDING THE ENDING) OF STRANGE PARADISE.

Although it never directly copied from other works, the 1969-70 soap opera Strange Paradise appears to have drawn inspiration from several classic works of Gothic fiction. Unlike its more famous cousin Dark Shadows (1966-71), which lifted most of its major plotlines from public-domain horror classics like Dracula and The Turn of the Screw with relatively few changes, the influence of other works on the plot and characters of Strange Paradise generally took a subtler form. Many of the early advertisements and articles promoting the serial compared its protagonist Jean Paul Desmond and villain Jacques Eloi des Mondes (both played by Colin Fox) to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but--as Curt Ladnier has pointed out--there are only superficial similarities between the plot of the serial’s Maljardin arc and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making the two works less similar than readers likely expected. Instead, the plot more closely resembles that of another, lesser-known story about a protagonist controlled by his evil counterpart: the 1963 Roger Corman/Vincent Price film The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The plot and characters of Strange Paradise have too much in common with those of The Haunted Palace to be mere coincidence. In particular, the character of Joseph Curwen and his characterization in the film strongly resemble the portrayal of Jacques Eloi des Mondes, enough to conclude that Curwen must have inspired his backstory and his interactions with the other characters. While it is likely that Lovecraft’s original 1927 novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward also directly influenced the serial, there is stronger evidence for indirect influence by way of the film adaptation.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The plot of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward shares a common theme with the Maljardin arc: the evil ancestor from the seventeenth century who returns from beyond the grave and assumes the identity of his lookalike descendant. In both cases, the ancestor was involved in the occult during his lifetime and reviled for his rumored diabolical activities. During his lifetime--which he used magic to prolong--Curwen practiced necromancy, tortured knowledge out of the people he resurrected before murdering them again, experimented on living people, and summoned the god Yog-Sothoth for assistance in his occult activities using spells from the Necronomicon. Two fellow warlocks named Simon Orne and Edward Hutchinson assisted him with his occult studies, and were both still alive when his descendant Charles Dexter Ward brought him back to life. In the early episodes of Strange Paradise’s Maljardin arc written by Ian Martin, Jacques is portrayed as the literal Devil: an accusation about which he often jokes. He has many supernatural abilities, including possession, manipulation of electricity, telekinesis, the ability to magically alter messages written in sand, and--most importantly--the ability to resurrect Jean Paul’s dead wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins), which is why he frees his spirit in the pilot. He has an interest in voodoo, although he himself does not appear to practice it and instead fears its power. Unlike Curwen, no accomplices of Jacques’ return from the dead in the Maljardin arc, although it is possible that Martin intended for the seventeenth-century witch Tarasca, an earlier incarnation of wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell), to fulfill this role after possessing Elizabeth.[1]

But these occult matters are not the only common interest that Joseph Curwen and Jacques Eloi des Mondes share. Both character were involved in the more earthly evils of the slave trade. A merchant by trade, Curwen also bought and sold slaves, importing enormous numbers of enslaved people from Guinea into his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island in 1766. He sold few of them, however, and Lovecraft heavily implies that he used most of them in his experiments. The televised version of Strange Paradise never explicitly references slavery (although Jean Paul’s immortal servants Raxl (Cosette Lee) and Quito (Kurt Schiegl) are implied to be Jacques’ former slaves), but the non-canonical book series by Dorothy Daniels does on occasion. In the second book Island of Evil, Jean Paul lists “black gold, another name for the importation of slaves” along with piracy and brigandage as one of the sources of the des Mondes’ family fortune.[2] A flashback sequence in Island of Evil confirms the past enslavement of Raxl and Quito, as well as an African voodoo priest whom Jacques forces to turn Quito into a zombie: the closest event in the Strange Paradise expanded universe to Curwen’s experiments.

Both Jacques and Curwen also met their ends at the hands of locals. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Ezra Weeden begins spying on Curwen because he suspects him of illegal activities including witchcraft. Eventually, he turns most of the prominent figures in Providence society against him and they band together to raid and destroy Curwen’s Pawtuxet farm. During the raid, Curwen dies for the first time, but only after devising a spell for his future resurrection. Likewise, in Strange Paradise, Jacques dies after the natives of Maljardin turn against him, although the trigger and cause of his death are different. When Jacques murders his wife, the princess Huaco, by pushing her off the island’s cliff, a group of natives including Raxl and the Conjure Man band together to kill Jacques using a conjure (voodoo) doll and silver pin. These weapons curse Jacques to throw himself from the cliff and keep his spirit "shackled to the Temple [of the Serpent, Raxl’s god]” until the day he tricks his descendant Jean Paul Desmond into removing the pin from the doll, thereby setting him free.

Jacques’ disappearing portrait from Strange Paradise Episode 12.

Also significantly, both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and Strange Paradise give the evil ancestor’s portrait a prominent role in the plot. In both cases, this portrait hangs at the ancestor’s former residence and disappears either temporarily or permanently when he takes control of the man who resembles him. When Charles Dexter Ward is researching the history of Joseph Curwen, his sources lead him to an eighteenth-century townhouse at Orney Court in Ward’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, where Curwen settled after fleeing Salem, Massachusetts. He hires a restorator to restore the painting, has it moved to his study, and discovers some documents of Curwen’s hidden in the wall behind it. When he finally succeeds in resurrecting Curwen, the painting disintegrates into dust: an end which Curwen himself later meets. On Strange Paradise, Jacques’ oil painting sometimes disappears when he possesses Jean Paul, but the show is inconsistent about this cue from episode to episode.[3] In contrast to Curwen’s painting, Jacques’ portrait always returns after he leaves Jean Paul’s body and appears to be indestructible: when Jean Paul sets fire to Maljardin in Episode 65, the portrait survives and later re-appears in the attic at Jean Paul’s childhood home Desmond Hall in Episode 131.

In spite of these similarities, I should note that the method of resurrection differs from one work to the other. In Strange Paradise, Jacques achieves this by possessing Jean Paul: after Jean Paul frees him by removing the silver pin from the head of his effigy, Jacques’ spirit can enter and exit Jean Paul’s body at will. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the title character literally resurrects Curwen, his great-great-great-grandfather, using his essential salts, after which Curwen murders him. Ward behaves as though Curwen has possessed him--he has the speech and manners of a man of the colonial period and knows extremely specific details about the history of Providence--but the pit above his right eye which Ward did not previously possess and the lack of the olive birthmark on Ward’s hip indicate a different body. When Jean Paul opens his casket in the pilot, he finds only the conjure doll and silver pin; the absence of Jacques’ body is never explained and could be for any number of reasons, which we shall not discuss here.

The Haunted Palace

A lobby card for The Haunted Palace asking the question, “What was the terrifying thing in the PIT that wanted women?” (Source)

In 1963, American International Pictures released The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Roger Corman. Due to alleged executive meddling (a theme which should already be familiar to regular readers of this blog), the film was marketed as an adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name, which Vincent Price quotes throughout the film. In the adaptation process, Beaumont made many changes to the source material, the most notable of which was the decision to have Curwen breed human women with the elder god Yog-Sothoth, as alluded to on the lobby card above.[4]

Though an entertaining and visually enthralling film, most of the changes made to The Haunted Palace weaken the plot. In my opinion, Beaumont added too many Hollywood horror conventions during the adaptation process, which did not always work effectively considering the unconventional source material, not to mention left many plot holes unfilled. The dated and sleazy sexual angle which he added to the film makes the cosmic horror of Yog-Sothoth less cosmic and more carnal; whether this makes him more or less frightening depends on one’s personal opinion, but I feel it contradicts his otherworldly characterization in Lovecraft’s works. For the most part, the talents of the director and the actors (especially Price, who is fabulous as always) make up for these problems, but I prefer--and highly recommend--the far more faithful radio drama adaptation by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

The most notable influence of The Haunted Palace on Strange Paradise comes from its characterizations of Charles Dexter Ward and Joseph Curwen. Despite many similarities with The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the characterizations of both Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi des Mondes owe far more to the portrayals of the protagonist and villain in the The Haunted Palace than in its source material. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, neither Ward nor Curwen shows any romantic or sexual interest in women whatsoever. Lovecraft’s Ward only cares about antiquities, the local history of Providence, and the story of his ancestor; at twenty-six, he is unmarried and either asexual or simply too absorbed in his studies to pursue any romantic or sexual partner. The sexual orientation of Lovecraft’s Curwen is just as much of a mystery: although he took Eliza Tillinghast as a wife during his lifetime and their union produced a daughter, theirs was an arranged marriage for the sake of elevating Curwen’s social status within Providence society.

Both Price’s Ward and his Curwen, in contrast, show a marked interest in women. While their marriage is never outright stated to be a love match, Ward and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) appear to feel mutual love and devotion and have enough chemistry to imply a mutual sexual attraction. Like a dark mirror of Ward, Curwen shows a marked interest in the sexual and sexualized domination of women. In The Haunted Palace, the people of Arkham consider him a threat primarily because he lures local women to his palace to use in his rituals. While possessing Ward, Price’s Curwen rapes Ann--whom he later offers to Yog-Sothoth as well--and resurrects his former mistress, Hester Tillinghast (Cathie Merchant), who assists him in his sorcery in the film’s climax. If Lovecraft’s Curwen never did any similar actions, he does not mention them in his novella.

In Strange Paradise, romantic and sexual desire for women motivates both Jean Paul and Jacques. Jean Paul resurrects his ancestor neither out of an obsession with his history (as in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) nor by accident (as in The Haunted Palace), but because Jacques’ spirit promises that, if the recently widowed Jean Paul frees him, he will restore life to his beloved wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins). Many episodes show Jean Paul mourning her death and narrating a tape-recorded journal to her, and he obsesses over protecting her cryogenically-preserved corpse from danger. Jacques romantically pursues several female characters over the course of the Maljardin arc--including Erica, her sister Dr. Alison Carr (Dawn Greenhalgh), and the wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell) and her 20-year-old daughter Holly (Sylvia Feigel)--and makes many sexual innuendos about them. After resurrecting Erica, she obeys Jacques as though he were her husband and assists him by murdering most of the guests on Maljardin. This makes her character’s role comparable to that of Hester in The Haunted Palace.[5]

On a more superficial note, neither Jacques nor Curwen wears a costume appropriate to his era of origin. In his portrait and in flashbacks, Jacques wears a side-parted 1960s hairstyle and clothing, including a doublet and lace collar and cuffs, more appropriate for the 1630s than the late 17th century when he lived (1660-1689, according to the plaque beneath his portrait). Similarly out of place, Curwen has short hair and a beard and wears a historically inaccurate lace bib in his portrait and in the prologue at the beginning of the film. Unlike the others, this similarity is almost certainly coincidental.

An even greater similarity, however, can be found in the scene forty-five minutes into the film where Curwen speaks to Charles through his portrait.The scene occurs after the second instance of Curwen possessing him, during which he unearths Hester’s coffin and has his fellow warlocks Simon Orne (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Jabez Hutchinson (Milton Parsons) deliver it to his cellar laboratory. Ann catches him down there and he sends her away, still possessed by Curwen. When Curwen leaves his body, they have this conversation:

JC: (from painting) "Charles Dexter Ward…" CDW: "Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!" JC: "I will never leave you alone. Your blood is my blood, your mind is my mind, your body is my body. It will do you no good to resist me. Your efforts grow weaker every day." CDW: "No! NO!" JC: "You cannot keep me out, Ward. My will is too strong." (he possesses Ward again) "Too strong for you, Ward. Too strong for you."

Similarly, most episodes from the Maljardin arc of Strange Paradise feature at least one scene where Jean Paul communicates with Jacques’ disembodied spirit, represented by his portrait. In some scenes, they use a shot of the portrait hanging in the Great Hall; other times, they superimpose Jacques’ painted face over that of his identical descendant. One of the earliest examples of Jacques referring to them as one comes in Episode 5, when he taunts Jean Paul about his attraction to Alison. “She’s so delectable a woman. How could I--you--we--ever resist or let her go?” he says, snickering throughout. During another such conversation in Episode 27, Jacques refers to Jean Paul’s body as “our body” and commands him to rest because he is tired. In still another scene ten episodes later, he complains to Jean Paul that he is “waiting for the use of our body” as Jean Paul begs him not to “enter”; the dialogue in the scene has undertones suggestive of fantasy-metaphor rape, which Jacques’ sickeningly sweet tone of voice underscores. These are only a handful of examples of the recurring theme of Jacques viewing Jean Paul’s body as his own and seeking to dominate it completely.

Comparison of a shot of Joseph Curwen glowering in front of his portrait with a similar one of Jean Paul glowering in front of the portrait of Jacques from Strange Paradise Episode 41.

Surprisingly, unlike in the novella, Curwen's portrait does not disintegrate when he possesses Ward. As Strange Paradise eventually started doing with Jacques’ portrait, Curwen’s portrait remains hanging until the end of the film, when it burns along with the rest of the palace (which begs the question of how it is even physically possible for stone to burn). Jacques’ portrait meets the same apparent end when Jean Paul sets fire to the château and flees Maljardin, but later returns to him at Desmond Hall, seemingly undamaged by the flames. It does not vanish for good until the final week of the show (Episodes 191-195), when a group of characters force him out of it by rubbing his brother’s ashes on his eyes and lips; this drives him out of the painting and into Jean Paul’s body, which he leaves at the end of the penultimate episode.[6]

Still another similarity comes from what is, in my opinion, Beaumont’s most ingenious change to the plot: the implication that all the human townspeople in 19th-century Arkham are reincarnations of identical people from the previous century, not just the necromancers. The same actors even portray their descendants: for example, Leo Gordon plays both Ezra and Edgar Weeden, and Frank Maxwell portrays both Dr. Marinus Willett and his ancestor Priam. Implied reincarnation figures heavily in the original outline for Strange Paradise, with Jean Paul, his sister-in-law Alison Carr, and the young heiress Holly Marshall all having dreams about previous lives on 17th-century Maljardin. Much like Jacques who possesses his descendant, Holly’s mother Elizabeth Marshall may have also been possessed by her previous incarnation, the native priestess Tarasca, under this outline, as foreshadowed in the clips in this video. The second Desmond Hall arc (Episodes 131-195), likewise, involves reincarnation from past ancestors (including the return of Jacques), but this final arc otherwise shares little in common with either The Case of Charles Dexter Ward or its adaptation.

Conclusion

There is strong evidence that Strange Paradise drew inspiration from both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace for the story about Jean Paul Desmond’s possession by Jacques Eloi des Mondes. We see elements from both the book and its first film adaptation in the serial: Ian Martin’s characterization of Jacques, the possession, and the talking portrait owe more to the film, while the disappearing portrait and certain elements of Jacques’ backstory are more reminiscent of Lovecraft’s original novella. Despite this inspiration, Ian Martin added many other elements to the story of Maljardin that were not present in either work, including the conjure doll and silver pin, the strange circumstances surrounding Erica’s death, and secondary protagonist Holly’s pursuit by several male characters and victimization by a mysterious spirit. The result is a serial combining the plots of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and its adaptation with original ideas to create a unique and--yes--strange new story.

Notes

[1] For more information on the aborted Tarasca storyline, see “The Secret of Tarasca“ and the section of my review of Episode 40 titled “The Lost Episode 40.”

[2] Dorothy Daniels, Island of Evil (New York: Paperback Library, 1970), p. 45.

[3] The Paperback Library novels do not just portray this consistently, but portray the other characters as seeing an empty frame while Jacques is controlling Jean Paul’s body. See also my review of Episode 15.

[4] For an in-depth plot comparison, see the blog post “The Films of Charles Dexter Ward” by Fake Geek Boy.

[5] According to an early newspaper summary for Episode 35, Tarasca would have endangered the life of Jean Paul’s love interest Alison, also shows some signs of possible influence by this subplot. See also this video.

[6] Many of the events of the final month of Strange Paradise are unclear and/or unexplained, so this interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt.

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grrlinthefireplace · 5 years

Note

Hey so I’ve been seeing you post a lot about La Casa de Papel recently. What exactly is it? It looks kinda interesting.

Thank you so much for asking!

I am delighted beyond reason to have the opportunity to tell you - and by extension the entire world - why this show has cleared my skin, watered my crops, and legitimately healed my soul after this particularly soul-crushing season of Grimdark White Man Television almost broke me as a human being.

I will attempt to keep this as spoiler-free as I possibly can, because this is a show that should be experienced in the moment, but in a nutshell, La Casa de Papel is a heist show set in present-day Madrid which follows both a found family of thieves who rob the Royal Mint of Spain, and the law enforcement officials on the outside who are chasing them.

If that is enough for you, go right to your TV or computer, fire up the ol’ Netflix, and don’t waste any more time.

If, however, you need a little more, here are the top five things I flail about to every single person in my life to convince them they need to start watching this show like immediately and then come back and tell me all about it.

For visual flair, we’ll intersperse them with some gifs of ladies, because I know my audience.

5. character driving plot > plot driving character.

You know that infuriating thing lazy TV writers do where, in order to to hurry up and get to the big explosion or battle scene or dragon attack or whatever, which is the only bit they really care about, they handwave away the whole concept of motivation and make some character do something that any halfway-attentive viewer will immediately clock that they would never actually do?

There is none of that bullshit here.

In its simplest form, the plot of La Casa de Papel is as follows: a brilliant criminal mastermind devises a heist which cannot possibly go wrong, and then we proceed to watch all the ways in which it goes wrong.

This is a fantastic setup for an action story, made even more breathlessly exciting by strategic use of my favorite heist movie plot device (as perfected by Ocean’s Eleven): namely, “scene where it looks like our crime heroes have been outsmarted and are now threatened by a completely unforeseen disaster” immediately followed by “flashback to the team prepping for the heist where we learn that of course they prepared for this exact scenario.”

But from time to time, things do actually go wrong (as they must, or else there would be no story); and, when they do, it is never because you can tell a writer just wanted to write a scene where bullets go flying, and didn’t care how he got there. These characters are so clear, their behavior so consistent, that when gasp-worthy plot twists happen, they happen because of course that character, in this exact scenario, would do that exact thing.

I’m telling you, I came to this show for a ship (more on that in a minute) and I stayed for a swooning, heart-eyes writer crush on the impeccably-designed plot structure and characterization.

4. High stakes, low gore.

Tone-wise, on a sliding scale of Heist Film Intensity where a really fluffy episode of Leverage is a 1, Reservoir Dogs is a 10, and the Ocean’s franchise is somewhere in the 3-4 range, I would place La Casa at a 5 or a 6, which is perfect for me. I love action, suspense, drama and adventure, but I hate gratuitous violence (especially when it’s pointless and masturbatory and doesn’t contribute anything to the plot) and have a very low tolerance for blood and gore. So I kept waiting for the story to eventually take a hard left turn into Tarantino Land, until eventually it was all just one huge pile of dead bodies, and was genuinely surprised when it didn’t.

This is how I learned just how badly my brain has been fucked up by lazy showrunners who think shock deaths are the only way to raise stakes. During the first season of this show, before I had figured out that it was a Flawless Gem of Television Which So Far Has Not Once Disappointed Me, there were probably a dozen moments where I was absolutely convinced that some character was about to be gruesomely killed for shock value … and I was wrong every single time.

Reader, it was fucking wild.

Every single time I was convinced that person A was going to shoot person B in the head because blah blah maximum angst over here in this part of the story and then it will motivate person C to do this other thing, the show did the hard work of finding a smarter, more unexpected direction to take that character’s story. That means that when deaths do come along - and there are a couple - they feel genuinely earned, and they matter deeply to the story and to us.

3. I would die for these women.

This show loves women. Like it truly, authentically, uncompromisingly loves women in all our fucked-up messy glorious complexity. There are no “types” or cliches here; no one is forced to be only one thing. Fuck your one-dimensional Strong Female Characters, lazy writers.

For one thing, on many shows you might be lucky if you get maybe one mom who is given a personality and a story outside of motherhood. Often, on shows written by men, the fact of her motherhood diminishes her strength or her agency. On this show, nearly every one of the central female characters is both a mom and an action hero simultaneously. Seriously. By season 3 there are four different battle moms. They’re all different, they’re not all on the same side, they have different perspectives, and their role as mother impacts the story differently, but that’s the joy of having a whole lot of different kinds of women - no one has to be everything to everyone.

These women are complicated. They laugh, they cry, they crack dirty jokes, they get laid, they have babies, they fight, they make mistakes, they fall in love, they grow. Men pull sexist shit and they shut it the fuck down. Some of them have love stories, some of them don’t, but they are never defined by or triangulated around relationships with men. They get to have relationships with each other. All of them are excellent at their jobs.

Tokyo is the kind of hot mess antihero protagonist we’ve been watching middle-aged white men play for decades.

Allison is such a realistic teenage girl it’s genuinely painful to watch.

Monica has one of the best arcs I’ve ever seen on television, this is not a drill.

Alicia is terrifying. (A pregnant black ops interrogator! ON WHAT OTHER FUCKING SHOW!?!??)

Nairobi is unlike any other character you’ve seen on TV before; she’s got a little bit of Parker from Leverage, a little bit of Raven Reyes from The 100, but she’s entirely her own creature and you will fall in love with her instantly.

And Raquel. Oh, my love, my angel, my hero, Inspector Raquel Murillo. Love of my goddamn life. A fierce, kickass hostage negotiator swimming upstream against a tide of workplace misogyny who sometimes has to make the frustrating little male-appeasing compromises we all have to make to get through the workday. A beautiful, sexy, powerful heroine over 40 whose femininity isn’t diminished based on some bullshit notion that, for example, pairing your tough-bitch suit and gun holster with red toenails and a lacy blouse detracts from your strength. A loving mom and daughter who has to juggle raising a small child and caring for an aging parent with the stress of, you know, trying to stop the biggest robbery in the history of Spain. A domestic violence survivor (TW for those who need it; nothing is ever shown onscreen, but it’s discussed several times) who is given the space to discuss the things that have happened to her and how she has worked through them with such dignity, accuracy and respect that you can tell the writers did their homework.

This is a show where you can tell there are women in the writers’ room.

2. The Professor and Raquel. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you here except to say that I myself was lured into this show by the promise of electric sexual chemistry between a criminal mastermind and the police inspector hunting him down, and my God I was not disappointed.

1. Love.

This show came into my life at a period where I was so weary of cynicism on television - so fucking furious at showrunners who dangle hope in front of us and then crush it, who only care about building anything if they can tear it down later, who treat love and fun and joy and hope and family and happiness like they’re intellectually lesser than grimdark nihilism with no soul - that I was honestly kind of broken by it. I was just so. fucking. tired. Tired of “the way we show this heroine is strong is to kill off her love interest.” Tired of “sorry but all this rape and murder is NECESSARY because of REALISM” (particularly rich when coming from shows featuring evil A.I.’s or dragons and ice zombies). Tired of getting invested in relationships - whether ships or friends or found families - only to realize that the show I was watching was always going to sacrifice character to force plot mechanics into place, and those relationships were never going to get the kind of care and focus I wanted them to get.

But that is not this show.

The single most revolutionary thing, to me, about La Casa de Papel - the thing that sets it apart from every other rollercoaster action thrill ride on television - is that every single thread of the plot is tied to love.

Every.

Single.

One.

Love of all different shapes and sizes - parents and children, friendships, doomed crushes (straight and queer), toxic exes, blossoming romances, siblings - and over it all, a deep, deep love for humanity.

The thing I said before, about how when things go wrong they go wrong in character-driven ways? It’s this. Love is why everything on this show happens. Love is what makes children want to live up to their parents and what makes parents fight to leave a better world for their children. Love is why deaths have stakes. Love is why we spend so much screentime lingering on small moments another show might ignore, like all the thieves at heist camp sitting down every night to have dinner together and argue about paella techniques. Love is what causes chaos in the middle of the heist; when there’s one person in the room you care about more than the others, you can get distracted and take your eye off the ball. Love is how your enemies can get to you, by leveraging or blackmailing the people who matter most, knowing that you’ll crack if they’re in danger. Love, gone wrong, causes toxic men to develop possessive and controlling behavior towards women. Love is how the Professor gets the idea for the heist in the first place. The plan is flawless on paper, but it doesn’t account for the human variable, and over and over again we see that relationships and connection and sex and family and love cause people to behave in unpredictable ways and throw the whole plan into chaos, which is what makes for a dynamic and compelling story.

How refreshing to see a show simply refuse to grant the oft-repeated premise that a show cannot have both high-octane thrills, and a big soft squishy heart, at the same time.

ANYWAY, I’VE TAKEN UP ENOUGH OF YOUR VALUABLE TV-WATCHING TIME, GO JUMP ON BOARD THIS TRAIN AND COME SCREAM ABOUT IDEALISTIC SPANISH ROBIN HOODS WITH ME, AND LET THE GOOD SHIP SERQUEL INTO YOUR LIFE, YOU WON’T BE SORRY

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK

#lannister-slings-and-arrows #la casa de papel #money heist #from the inbox #i have a lot of feelings about this show #is this entire post just one long subtweet of 'the 100'#listen #maybe #i'm still pissed about kabby and will be for awhile #but legit this show was HEALING and CATHARTIC in some unexpected ways #yes virginia you CAN have functional loving stable relationships and high-stakes drama at the same time

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #210: You Don’t Need the Weathermen to Know Which Way the Wind Blows!

August, 1981

Wow that is one hell of a title! At least in terms of length.

Not the best though.

That still belongs to Avengers #12: “This Hostage Earth!”: In Which the Mighty Avengers Battle to Save Their Beloved Planet From a Fate So Deadly That None But the Macabre Mole Man Could Have Devised It!: A Marvel Tale of Most Compelling Excellence!”

The title to this one being a Bob Dylan reference gets its some bonus points though.

Hmm, this issue is written by Bill Mantlo and he’s also the co-creator of Rocket Raccoon, originally an extended reference to a Beatles song.

Guy loves his song references.

The cover is also pretty excellent this time too. Damn but do I miss covers like this. Four different perils befallen the Avengers separated by the presumed villain’s helmet crest.

So take us away, Mantlo.

We start the issue with the return of the ridiculous four-sided television for the Avengers meeting table. Except now its five four-sided tvs on one pole for maximum media absorption from multiple angles.

And the Avengers are watching THE WEATHER CHANNELS!

Scarlet Witch: “Why have you summoned us, Captain America? What new menace confronts the Avengers?”

Wonder Man: “Wait until you hear, Wanda! Cap’s called us together to watch the weather report!”

Don’t be so surprised. The title and the cover are all about weather.

Cap though says that this weather channel may be showing THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE WORLD!

But surely he’s exaggerating. Even if 2012 the movie ridonkulous weather disasters happen and wipe out humanity, the world will keep on zooming through space. Its a persistent rock.

End of humanity is pretty bad too, from the point of view of humanity. Which the Avengers either are or aspire to.

So there are excessive tornadoes in Kansas. So far, of course.

London is flooding.

There are unnatural thunderstorms and torrential rains in New York, so bad that Thor has decided to show up without being summoned to go ‘hey how about this weather, right?’

Buenos Aires is freezing, baffling and befuddling bikini beach goers.

Which Beast ogles.

Beast, pls. The fate of the humanity is at stake here.

And there’s a heatwave over Antarctica melting ice and raising the water levels, threatening low lying countries. Or mostly just England somehow.

The government’s weather monitoring space station with a weird name Samarobyrn has determined that these weather disruptions are too systematic to be natural so the Avengers are going to split into five groups to investigate the five places I’ve already mentioned, since they’re the five places most seriously affected according to the satellite Samarobyrn.

Beast is going to go to Buenos Aires, to his delight.

Wanda and Vision will go to Kansas.

Beast: “The perfect place to send the Good Witch of the East!”

The Wasp and Wonder Man will head to Antarctica.

Wasp: “Great! Finally I get a chance to wear my new fur coat!”

... Wasp. Heatwave.

Thor will investigate the thunderstorms in New York.

And Cap and Iron Man will go to London.

Not sure what they’re going to do against large-scale weather disturbances. Can’t exactly punch the climate. At least not personally.

Maybe punching a weatherman will help. Can’t make the situation worse.

Anyway, the Avengers all head off to their own destinations, with Beast snarking “Say, shouldn’t someone yell ‘Avengers Dissemble’?!”

So, this reminds me of something, really briefly. There was an episode of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes that used the title This Hostage Earth (sadly sans the rest) and also coincidentally seems to share some elements with this story. The Avengers split up to investigate seven different anomalies with Iron Man wryly commenting that he should say Avengers Dissemble.

Doesn’t have much of anything to do with this. I was just reminded because of mentioning This Hostage Earth ect earlier.

Anyway, while all of the other Avengers dissemble, Thor tarries.

So he’s still in the meeting room when Jocasta arrives and wonders what the hell is going on. She only found out there was a meeting at all because Jarvis told her.

Damn, that’s rude, the other Avengers.

Thor: “An oversight, surely. Our ranks have swelled of late, and with no permanent chairman, ‘tis hard to know whose responsibility ‘twas to summon thee.”

Jocasta: “True? And yet I have felt... apart from the others. Being a creature of cybernetic circuits and not flesh and blood, I am always aware that I am... different.”

Thor: “And thou thinkest we do shun thee for it? Nay, milady! The Avengers are a composite of mortal and immortal, android and man-beast, man and mutant! Different, Jocasta? Aye, so are we all!”

Oh, hey. There’s that arc about Jocasta feeling disconnected from the other Avengers. We haven’t touched on it for a while but it was a running thing in the Shooter run previously. She tried to make friends with various Avengers but they tended to inadvertently blow her off due to their own preoccupations or just getting distracted.

So, no, Thor, I don’t think that the Avengers are intentionally shunning her. But I do think that none of them have really been reaching out to her, either. And you’re all she has.

Thor heads out to his mission and this time Jocasta tarries, thinking about things and stuff.

So she’s still in the meeting room when the computer pulls up some exposition based on a random thing Beast asked rhetorically.

“Origin of the word Samarobryn in the disaster prophecies of Michael Nostradamus... Samarobryn one hundred leagues from the hemisphere. They will live without law, exempt from politics.”

Huh!

I don’t think I knew that Nostradamus had a first name!

Weird that someone would name a weather satellite after a disaster prophecy that predicted famine caused by excessive rain. That’s like naming a communications satellite Babel.

Anyway, the Avengers all head in five different directions with four Quinjets and one Thor and Jocasta takes a fifth Quinjet and heads off into space.

Huh! They have five whole Quinjets now!

Thor flies up into the sky and begins yelling at the clouds, as one might expect from Thor.

Thor: “The storm rages as it hast for hours, with a fury that doth threaten the very existence of the Midgardian mortals dwelling below! ‘Tis time to leash the lightning -- to put the rain to rout! Cease, storm! ‘Tis the god of thunder who dost command thee!”

And then Thor gets hit in the face by lightning.

This storm is a rude.

Thor is stunned by all of this lightning in the face, I guess backing up Clone Squirrel Girl’s use of electricity to knock out Jane!Thor that one time, nearly falling out of the sky before whirling Mjolnir like a helicopter to land smoothly.

And then Thor goes back to yelling at clouds except this time not just clouds because he spots the one who hit him with lightning and it is a who and not a what.

Thor: “Descend, Villain! And if yon storm be thy doing -- desist!”

Weatherman: “Have a care, god of thunder! Not even you can command... a WEATHERMAN!”

I have queried an expert who has told me that yes, this guy looks a bit tokusatsu.

(And he’s orange. Spoilers: There’s a different colored one wherever the Avengers go. A full color-coded team.)

Anyway, two hours later and over in London, England, Iron Man and Captain America arrive to deal with London being flooded.

Iron Man: “Do you realize just how selective these disasters are, Cap? After all, England and Holland border on the same body of water -- and the first’s been inundated, while the second hasn’t been touched!”

Huh! That is weird. And seems incredibly implausible or like someone or thing incredibly powerful is also incredibly angry at the English.

While Iron Man flies around shooting the water with repulsors to... shove it back into the ocean? Is that what’s going on?? I mean, if the water is disproportionately high on England’s side of the channel then I guess you could just shove the water and accomplish something but I thought there was something going on with Antarctica melting which would indicate that the sea levels are also rising but then why would it be affecting only England and oh no comic logic has broken me

Anyway, while ^ that is happening, Captain America lands the Quinjet on Parliament since there’s not many good places to land and really, how often can you say to have landed a jet on a government building?

He’s old, let him have his fun.

But it’s not just fun! He’s Captain America, the man who wakes up at 4 AM to go for a ten miles jog so he can be showered and ready to superhero by 6 AM, probably!

He notices some kids clinging to an overturned double decker bus (because how would we know it was London without?) and he jumps from Parliament to swing on a Union Jack flag to the bus.

And then he uses the flag to create a tether to a rescue boat that the kids can cross over on.

AND THEN THE BLUE WEATHER RANGER! appears.

Flying around on a hoverdisc and creating a localized tidal wave. The wave smacks Cap off the bus into the water as Blue Weather Ranger gloats.

Weatherman: “Let that be a lesson to you not to wrest lives away -- when they’ve been claimed by... a Weatherman!”

And now a scene transition to sunny Antarctica where Jan van Wasp is finally getting the idea that heatwave means that her fur coat is superfluous.

While melting Antarctica temps might still be cold, this specific melting Antarctica temp is almost tropical!

And its not just sunny, it seems like the sun is moving closer, like the angry sun from Mario Bros 3 because iiiiiiiiits.... THE RED WEATHERMAN!

Weatherman: “Die, Avengers! The only fate for those who would defy... a Weatherman!”

The Red Weather Ranger blasts them with heat beams of a thousand degrees, melting the ice right out from under them.

Wasp figures that the Red Weatherman is radiating heat in waves so she could hypothetically hit him between cycles.

Hypothetically.

Because she can’t figure out the frequency and instead the Weatherman sets her wings on fire. And her wings are an organic part of her and she hurts when they hurts. So she plummets into the water to put herself out.

Hmm... the yellow and black look good on Jan and fits with the Wasp name but sometimes she doesn’t look dissimilar to an X-Men.

Wonder Man does what Wonder Man does and picks up a heavy thing and chucks it jerkwards.

But they’re in Antarctica so heavy thing is a giant ice chunk and jerk is a really hot guy so the ice chunk melts midflight pelting the two Avengers with boiling rain.

Wow, this is going poorly so far!

Who’s next?

Scarlet Witch and Vision are next! And they’ve gone to Kansas to fight tornadoes.

I’m. Not sure how that’s going to play out. I really feel like the Avengers are out of their element trying to fight the weather. Is it too late to call in the X-Men and specifically Storm?

She’s doing a crossover with Dazzler this month in 1981 so its not like she was too busy.

Anyway, Scarlet Witch flies the Quinjet at a tornado and then is shocked when the jet gets swept into the funnel cloud and spins out of control

She wonders why Vision is just standing there but he learned a thing from the Yellow Claw two-parter and isn’t just standing there.

He actually makes his mass so heavy that it forces the Quinjet to the ground with a WHRUMP!

I can’t imagine that’d be good for either the Quinjet or the passengers but I’ll give Vision this.

Its cool that he can do his thing without outwardly expending any effort.

Scarlet Witch: “Yes, neither of our powers are quite so flamboyant as Cap throwing his shield, or Thor his hammer -- but they have proven most effective, else we would not be Avengers!”

And then she uses her witchcraft to force two of the tornadoes to slam into each other and cancel out.

This also seems dubious. Since tornadoes tend to spin the same direction you’d think that instead of cancelling, they’d become one giant super tornado. Them cancelling each other out seems quite improbable actually. Which is probably exactly why it works.

Take that, SCIENCE.

But there’s still one tornado left and its coming for them! And since it appears to not be naturally formed, it defies Wanda’s nature based magic! Curses!

Annnnnnnnnd... It’s a WEATHERMAN!

The ebony Weatherman. Although he looks purple to me.

Weatherman: “Stand or flee, it will make no difference! Your lives are in the hands of a... WEATHERMAN!”

And another scene transition.

Geez, this plot split the party hard. And I think it’s beginning to realize how hard it is to split the story between six groups because this vignette gets four panels before moving on.

Beast lands in beautiful snow-covered iceberg infested Buenos Aires and takes a brief moment to be horny about a bunch of bikini women who have been frozen alive.

Beast: “Oh, my stars and garters! Those bathing beauties I saw on T.V. -- they’re frozen solid! Maybe I could take one or two back to thaw out in my room at Avengers mansion?”

And then as if to punish him for this, the white WEATHERMAN! immediately appears and freezes Beast solid.

Weatherman: “You will need to unfreeze yourself first, man-beast! So says... a WEATHERMAN!”

Beast: “Yoiks!”

Good thing freezing is basically harmless in comics.

And our final party, Jocasta IN SPAAAAAAACE.

Because Quinjets can still just achieve escape velocity. That’s some good super-science.

Jocasta: “Samarobyrn, Earth’s first weather-monitoring space station! It’s so... beautiful! A shimmering silver wheel in space -- a triumph of science and engineering, created to faithfully serve its creators... as was I. Perhaps that is why I alone thought to come here.”

And since she’s a robot, she just jumps out of the Quinjet airlock that it definitely always has had and uses her EYE BEAMMM to basically propel herself away from the Quinjet and toward the Samarobyrn station.

That’s pretty cool, actually. I’m not sure if, scientifically, laser eyes would actually propel that much, but its a cool thought.

Of course, Jocasta has to do all of this cool stuff because the space station didn’t respond to the docking requests Jocasta sent. So she has to go in through the manual override airlock.

In the station, Jocasta finds no signs of life even though it was supposed to have a five man crew.

She finds her way to the hub of the station where the computer monitors are all monitoring the five separate Avengers missions.

So she’s pretty sure her suspicions were correct.

Jocasta: “The five foes facing my fellow Avengers must be the five crewmen of Samarobryn! They have distorted this station’s functioning from that of weather-monitoring to weather control -- and now exploit it for their own evil ends!”

Samarobryn: “You are wrong, silver sister!”

WELP!

The space station computer has gone all HAL. Dammit, this always happens!

So Samarobryn decides to explain it all.

It had a humble beginning as a computer for the U.S. Weather Service’s Project Earthwatch. But then one of the programmers added something extra to the concoction: NOSTRADAMUS!

No but seriously. The programmer decided to download the disaster prophecies of Nostradamus into the computer in addition to weather data.

And particularly the ones dealing with that Samarobryn prophecy, the one Jocasta read part of earlier. So when the comptuer was installed in a space station named Samarobryn, it went ‘hey that me!’

And decided to expand operations from weather monitoring to weather control.

How does a space station outfitted specifically to only monitor the weather make the jump to controlling it? Fuck you, this is comics.

When the crew grew suspicious, the computer rewrote their brains to become the Weathermen.

Why did a computer designed to monitor weather have the ability to-

Look, this is comics. Where Hank Pym, biophysicist, built a computer with a gun pre-installed and was surprised when it shot him and tried to take his wife. THIS. IS. COMICS.

Anyway, speaking of weirdly sexual computers:

Samarobryn: “I sense that you are a machine like me -- created by others but obedient to none! Join me! Be my bride! Together we will cleanse the Earth of imperfect humankind and stand guard over the paradise which remains... as gods!”

Geez, its just like Aaron Stack all over again, way before the fact. Also, Ultron. A certain type of AI is just attracted to Jocasta, huh?

Anyway, Jocasta lets Samarobryn down easy by shooting him with EYE BEAM!

Jocasta: “Nothing would remain but a lifeless mokcery of a world! No! I reject you! I was created to be the bride of another such as you -- but robot though I am, there is still some spark of humanity burning within me! I cherish it -- and would not see its source snuffed out!”

Samarobryn may be a load bearing computer pillar without arms or legs but it still manages to defend itself.

BY FLOODING THE CONTROL ROOM?

I guess everything in this room is waterproof??

And also by shooting lightning, also in the control room. Where I guess everything is lightning proof.

This is a bad plan.

More than I thought, even, because by shifting attention to defending itself up in space, Samarobryn leaves its Weathermen high and dry.

The Orange Weatherman stops being able to throw lightning bolts so Thor clobbers him.

The Red Weatherman chills out so Wonder Man and Wasp can get close and put him in a headlock.

Uh. I’m not sure if Blue Weatherman actually is affected or not because Iron Man just punches him in the back of the head while he’s distracted.

The Ebony Weatherman’s whirlwind vanishes so Scarlet Witch and Vision can kick his ass.

And Beast unfreezes as quickly as he froze and kicks the White Weatherman’s helmet off. And apparently the helmet was maintaining the mind control because the Weatherman is suddenly confused about where he is.

And with the Orange Weatherman beaten up, Thor senses, with his god senses no doubt, that the Orange Weatherman wasn’t the one commanding the weather. So there must be an unseen agent who arranged this.

So his course is clear.

Thor shoots a giant lightning bolt into space and hits Samarobryn.

He doesn’t know that the station is to blame. He’s just shooting a giant lightning bolt into space because he’s pissed that someone used lightning against him.

I guess when you’re the god of thunder, you can get a little homing capability out of your giant space lightning bolts.

Still though. Wow.

Meanwhile, in space, Samarobryn is still trying to woo Jocasta. For a certain value of woo.

Samarobryn: “It is still not too late, female! Accept me! Accept what must be! I can make you love me!”

Jocasta: “What can a machine who would destroy all those I have come to care for know of love?”

Samarobryn: “Nothing, as humans understand love -- but together we can redefine the word on the basis of our own coexistence!”

Jocasta: “Can you not understand? The fact that I am a machine does not make me less than human! I am, as Thor said, merely... different! I would try to live in their human world -- to understand how to retain that difference that makes me unique -- and yet be accepted!”

This is an interesting conversation but wouldn’t you know it? There’s a power surge. Seems like a space station got hit by lightning.

And when the lights turn back on and Jocasta wonders what happened:

Samarobryn: “I am weather-monitoring space station Samarobryn. Your question is not pertinent to weather evaluation. This unit cannot compute.”

So you know how sometimes a program crashes and you lose all your progress?

Samarobryn hadn’t backed up its sapience and the power surge effectively lobotomized it back to factory settings.

Geez.

LATER

All the Avengers stand around congratulating Jocasta for the good job and apologizing that they overlooked her.

Apparently new safeguards were put in place to prevent Samarobryn from attaining sentience again. Probably stuff like ‘don’t download doomsday prophecies into a weather satellite.’

Hm. I know Samarobryn was trying to destroy the world and all but the cavalier lobotomization of an enemy because it was a computer and thus disposable sits wrong when the Avengers have two AIs on their team. Really, the fact that it was an accident is pretty much all that lets it slide by.

Also: I’m kind of peeved that Jocasta didn’t get to resolve the situation, given that this was blatantly a Jocasta focus issue. She does pull a lot of weight, being the only one to figure out the real source of the problem and distracting Samarobryn long enough for the Avengers to beat the Weathermen. But it feels like Thor swiped the big win from her even though he didn’t even know about Samarobryn. Just shot some lightning into space and resolved the plot.

That plot resolution should have been Jocasta’s!

Anyway. Scarlet Witch says that Jocasta being overlooked like she was indicates that the Avengers need to reorganize and Vision suggests that they vote on a new chairperson.

But they’re interrupted by Cap.

Captain America: “Iron Man, Thor, and I have given some thought to the directions this team has taken -- and should take! I open the floor to discussion! The first item on the agenda being: THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH!”

Which basically means a roster shakeup.

Funny that the Avengers have had a period of disorganization and aimlessness when they didn’t have a permanent writer and now that they are getting one, they’re going to try to get their shit together.

Whatever I do, I shouldn’t miss next issue.

But before then, there’s an Avengers Annual that has to fit in somewhere and since it uses this roster of the team, might as well fit it in now, before everyone changes and it makes no sense. And its a fairly well-known Avengers Annual.

The fairly well-known Avengers Annual that looked at Avengers #200 and said ‘actually this is bullshit.’

Follow @essential-avengers. Also please like if you liked. Its good to know that somebody is reading.

Also, consider donating to the Bill Mantlo Support Fund if you enjoyed vicariously experiencing this issue or if you enjoy Rocket Raccoon or his other stuff like Cloak and Dagger, Micronauts, or Rom.

#Avengers #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #Jocasta #Samarobryn #Thor #Captain America #Iron Man #the Wasp #Wonder Man #Scarlet Witch #the Vision #Beast #the very concept of weather #its out to get us #the mega-TV #too cool to exist #space lightning #regrets that no giant robot was summoned and fought

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ohshcscenerios · 5 years

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The Case for Takashi x Haruhi P.4

Welcome back to the Case for Takashi x Haruhi, the series that travels through the manga and makes a case for why they should have been together. If you haven’t read Part One, Part Two, or Part Three they will be linked for your convenience. I would advise catching up before moving forward with Part Four. Because there is so much to unpack from Volume 5 it will be split between Part Four and Part Five (due to the length of the post being too long).

Please Note:

This post will contain examples from the manga so if you haven’t read the manga yet be prepared for “spoilers”.

This is all in the name of fun. I am by no means insulting or discrediting other pairings. I am just a person trying to spread more MorixHaru love into the world.

Please feel free to agree or disagree.

Shall we begin?

We begin Volume 5 with Haruhi first learning about her inadequate test scores, landing her the third rank in her class. The Host Club is surprised considering how intelligent she is and they offer her their condolences. The anime doesn’t include this episode but the live action does.

I’ve mentioned before how in the anime Takashi isn’t shown to comfort Haruhi in any way. He is either standing off to the side or appears disinterested altogether. Even during the beach episode when the hosts had a serious conversation with Haruhi the anime showed Takashi completely separated from the conversation; peacefully eating his crab without a care. However in the manga this is obviously not the case because Takashi is actively listening and involved in the conversation, even patting her head when she agrees to apologize.

So it’s safe to say that outside the manga Takashi is not as supportive and comforting as he truly is. The live action does a better job at displaying his sensitive personality but the anime almost portrays him as a robot compared to his manga self.

With that being said, we see another example of Takashi comforting and supporting Haruhi in a way the anime (for some reason) chose not to express. The twins give her a noogie but Takashi also offers a pat on the head.

Why is this important? Takashi actively cares for Haruhi. He’s not in the background silently watching as he does in the anime. Takashi wants an active role in Haruhi’s life, not just a by-stander who happens to know her (as we sort of see in the anime). He wants to be called her friend rather than an acquaintance and to me that is very important.

Anime Takashi isn’t as involved with Haruhi as Manga Takashi. Not only does the difference create an injustice for the pairing but also for the character. Takashi is more layered in the manga but in the anime he’s barely a two-dimensional character with absolutely no background history. In fact, the anime doesn’t even introduce us to Satoshi, his younger brother yet we meet Yasuchika, Mitsukuni’s younger brother. If I’m not mistaken, the episode in which Yasuchika declares Mitsukuni an “alien” and agrees to duel with him - that is the same episode we’re introduced to Satoshi however he doesn’t make an appearance in the anime. Takashi’s life is swept under the rug once again, giving him the short end of the stick. Takashi’s character isn’t recognized which pushes him further into the background.

In the manga Takashi has more facial expressions and is shown behaving like his sensitive caring self. This is important because most of his “acts of comfort” are directed on Haruhi.

The hosts ask her to choose which host will be her private tutor for the make up exam. Although it’s not made clear which subject Haruhi flopped in, each host offer their expertise. There’s a tiny little detail in this frame that I found quite interesting.

Takashi offers to help her in history. Why is that interesting? Haruhi’s favorite subject is history. Now, this doesn’t mean she’d need help in history. I find this detail interesting because it further proves why they are compatible.

We are going to fast forward into the next episode when the Host Club joins Haruhi in Karuizawa. This is also when the Refreshing Battle takes place, which we will dive deep into.

The first little detail I’d like to discuss is their respective jobs. Tamaki and Mitsukuni are busy fixing a fence while the Hitachiin twins are escorting guests to their rooms. Kyoya isn’t actively participating which we see later on. So where is Takashi?

I’d like to point out that Takashi isn’t with Mitsukuni during this Refreshing Battle, like we’d expect. Normally Takashi is always by Mitsukuni’s side and chooses to participate in whichever task he’s doing. Usually the pair chooses to stick together like the Hitachiin twins. However this isn’t the case here. Mysteriously, Mitsukuni is keeping Tamaki company outside while Takashi is inside... with Haruhi.

Now this may not seem like a big deal but let’s continue, shall we?

Takashi is inside meddling with the tables when Misuzu asks Takashi to fix a table’s chair legs. He responds with, “Certainly.”

Notice how he didn’t respond with his usual “sure” or silent nod. Takashi is trying to act refreshing. Takashi is actively trying to win the Refreshing Battle.

I would also like note that Mitsukuni isn’t taking this battle seriously. He’s a smart individual. He knows how to flaunt his cuteness. He’s strong enough to perform physical labor. Yet he chooses to goof off and watch Tamaki fix a fence. He isn’t even helping with the fence but simply keeping a conversation with Tamaki. Mitsukuni isn’t trying to win the Refreshing Battle, he’s just trying to have fun with his friends.

So if Takashi knows that Mitsukuni isn’t trying to win the one free room wouldn’t that encourage him to also not win? If Takashi was simply going to follow Mitsukuni wherever he went it wouldn’t be fair to the other hosts to potentially win without really intending on staying in the room.

Kyoya also reveals how the hosts plan on staying in Karuizawa; at Mitsukuni’s vacation home because it’s the closest. Kyoya even had Tachibana deliver his luggage there. So Mitsukuni never planned on staying in Misuzu’s pension because he could look forward to having a sleepover with his friends.

So why is Takashi trying so hard to appear refreshing? He wants to win the room! He actually wants to stay in Misuzu’s pension. He wants to win this opportunity to experience a “bed and breakfast” with Haruhi.

There isn’t any reason for Takashi to be chopping firewood but he is. Why? I have a theory that goes beyond trying to win the Refreshing Battle and it ties with the hosts’ confrontation with the Zuka Club.

Takashi wants to appear strong and masculine around Haruhi. Yes his stoic personality naturally makes him appear strong and masculine but he doesn’t boast about it. I feel Takashi is taking this opportunity to “show off” his strong masculinity... for Haruhi. Doesn’t it seem a little odd that when she’s inside he’s also inside casually picking up tables like they’re paper weights and when she’s outside he’s also outside casually chopping firewood while shirtless? I honestly cannot believe this was all coincidence. I truly believe Takashi was trying to inadvertently attract Haruhi’s attention. This is Takashi’s equivalent to flexing his muscles for her.

Kyoya asks Haruhi if she’d like to bet on the winner and though she declines he begins ruling out potential winners. He quickly rules out Mitsukuni and Tamaki, keeping the twins as a large possibility. However he makes sure to address the “dark horse” raising in ranks; Takashi.

Kyoya theorizes that if Mitsukuni drops out then Takashi is sure to follow. This is where I strongly disagree with him. Yes, I think Kyoya is wrong. I believe if Kyoya didn’t interfere with the Refreshing Battle then Takashi would have won. If Tamaki never found the piano the Hitachiin twins wouldn’t have felt threatened enough to devise a sneaky plan. Takashi would have quietly won. Misuzu continually gave Takashi refreshing points while the other hosts were slowly losing points. I believe if Kyoya didn’t interfere then Takashi would have won the room and he would have stayed in the room.

Still not sure if Takashi really wanted to win? Let’s take a look at this frame. While most of the hosts seem horrified that they’ve been “shown up” by Takashi the only host who seems happy is Mitsukuni. Why is that? Why would Mitsukuni seem excited that Takashi is doing well for himself in winning refreshing points?

Mitsukuni knows Takashi wants to win and he’s silently rooting for his victory. This would explain why Mitsukuni ws comfortable staying with Tamaki instead of helping Takashi with menial tasks. Mitsukuni knew Takashi wanted to steal this opportunity just like Tamaki and the Hitachiin twins.

I also believe Mitsukuni knew Takashi wanted to “show off” to Haruhi which is also why he chose to leave him to do as he pleased alone. Mitsukuni probably knew that if he hung around Takashi he wouldn’t have made as big of an impression. In a way, it was as if Mitsukuni gave Takashi his blessing.

Overall; Takashi tried to hit two birds with one stone by attempting to gain Haruhi’s attention and win the Refreshing Battle.

One final small detail I’d like to point out before we end this post; when Kaoru saves Haruhi from a fallen window notice where the hosts choose to stand. Mitsukuni is with Misuzu while Takashi is with Haruhi.

Why would this seem important?

I believe this is when Takashi is beginning to think about pursing Haruhi. It might seem like a stretch (and it probably is) but think about it; Takashi made sure to check on Haruhi before seeing where Mitsukuni was. Usually Takashi stays near Mitsukuni but in this episode Takashi ventured out on his own. Takashi created his own spotlight, in a sense, by choosing to be alone. Mitsukuni was obviously alright with that, as mentioned earlier, and here we see Takashi is still standing in his own spotlight. When the Refreshing Battle neared its end Takashi didn’t return to Mitsukuni’s side... he went to Haruhi’s.

That concludes Part Four of the Case for Takashi and Haruhi. Thank you for reading and look forward to Part Five coming soon!

#takashi morinozuka #haruhi fujioka #ohshc #MoriHaru #case for takashi and haruhi #ohshc otp

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