#and instantly anne bangs the door down “surprise i set everything ON FIRE”

[sarucane]

OFMD Spiral Parallels 33: Manipulative Pirate Buddies 4

Intro: What I love most about how season 2 builds on season 1 of OFMD is the spiral narrative structure. Ground is repeatedly and explicitly re-trod from season 1 to season 2, but in season 2 everything goes deeper than season 1. Symbols appear and reappear, transformed. Meanings are shuffled, emotions are stronger and truer, and transformation is showcased above everything. The first season plucks certain notes, then the second season plucks the same ones--but louder, and then it weaves them together to create a symphony.

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The conflict provoked by Jack is fairly easy to resolve, because Jack is simply an obstacle to be overcome. When Ed finally realizes that he’s been manipulated by his past, he doesn’t even have to think about why he’s angry. He just has to assert the importance of the present over the past, and take off.

The first conflict led to a rejection of the past in favor of the present which, while validating, was also shallow; the second conflict leads to an embrace of the past that created this moment, and a deep connection that includes all the complexities of past and present. When Stede says “I love everything about you,” he’s describing a feeling that includes Ed whether he’s wearing the big old beard (symbol of the past) or not, a love that Stede can finally be open about feeling, but express in a way that leaves room for Ed’s hurt. Underneath the idealization and anger, underneath the fact that they’ve gotten here by very different paths, there’s the fact that they are both here, and they still care about each other.

And these different resolutions lead to different conclusions for the villains. Jack clings to his ideas of what the past means for the present, even as Ed demonstrates how wrong he is.

Like Jack, Anne and Mary own their manipulations when confronted. But while Jack just fell back on what he knew when challenged by Ed, Ed’s and Stede’s challenges lead to Anne and Mary transforming.

It turns out that Mary believes the very thing that Stede feared and Ed believed at the start of this episode: that the good in her relationship is all in the past, and that an “adult” future holds only endings. To Mary, the past is what it was in Season 1, a force that limits the possibilities of the future.  

But Mary and Jack were both wrong. The past doesn’t determine the present. There isn't only one outcome to piracy, and there isn't only one outcome to a committed relationship.

Jack finds this out when he gets killed. There’s nothing redemptive in Jack’s past that can save him: he’s created this situation, where he’s stuck in Blind Man’s Cove, abandoned by someone who once cared about him, and in the line of fire of the English navy.

But Mary really does love Anne. Mary and Anne weren’t trying to break Ed and Stede up, they just wanted drama. They were as entertained by “breathing the same air” as by Ed breaking a chair. So Anne and Mary get a happy resolution. Anne surprises Mary, sets fire to the big house that symbolizes a relationship dead-end, and the two of them find that actually, there is still more to them than fun and games. From the chaos, transformation.

Other posts in this series

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5

[fandom-readerinserts]

In a Flash. Part 1 of 4 Barry Allen x Reader

Okay, so this is my first ever reader insert. I originally wrote this as a fic for my friend but I’ve just adapted it slightly. Disclaimer: the whole fic is based off the actual episodes so, especially in the first two parts a lot of the dialogue from the episode is used.  

I stood on the control platform inside the building I’d practically lived in for the past few months. I worked for S.T.A.R labs and was a part of the team founded by the renowned Harrison Wells. Over the past several years we had been working on an electrical wonder. A machine called the Particle Accelerator, it was originally designed to provide all of Central City with clean energy. That was, of course, until everything went wrong. But I’ll get to that. Where was I? Oh, yes, the control platform. Right now my team and I were about to launch the biggest and most important project of our entire lives.

“I feel like I should say something profound,” that was Harrison Wells talking, “like, ‘one small step for man.’”

He laughed, “All I can think of to say is I feel like I have waited for this day for centuries.”

I looked around at my team: Ronnie Raymond -  an electrical engineer, Cisco Ramon - an incredible mechanical engineer like me, Caitlin Snow - our brilliant doctor, and Harrison Wells, the genius leader of our group. We’d been waiting for this day for so, so long and now that it was actually happening I was more excited than I had ever pictured myself to be in this moment. The countless times that I had imagined this scenario were turning into a reality. It was everything I’d ever dreamed of and more. I glanced at my watch, thirty seconds ‘til launch, twenty seconds,

Ten seconds,

Nine,

Eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Dr Wells pressed the button.

“That’s it? You think there would be more of, like, a loud bang.”

I shook my head at Cisco, who was always making jokes, “If there was a loud bang, we’d all be in big trouble.”

Dr Wells looked around the room proudly, “Ladies and gentlemen, we did it.”

I let out a hoot of joy and clapped along with all of the other scientists. Dr Wells popped open a bottle of champagne, surprising us all. Suddenly everything slowed down. The champagne floated out of the bottle for a moment, as if in zero gravity, before splattering on the ground. Alarms blared and the lights flickered. The ground shuddered and a thunderous boom resounded through the building.

“What the hell was that?” I exclaimed above the panicked voices.

Caitlin looked at me, her face a mask of barely contained panic, “The loud bang.”

“There’s an anomaly in the core chamber,” Cisco said, his eyes franticly searching the computer.

“A chain reaction started, the system is collapsing. We need to shut it down.”

“We can’t ramp down the accelerator from here - we need to do it manually,” I put my hand on Ronnie’s shoulder and addressed him urgently, “I have to get down there!”

Without waiting for a response I took off down the hall, heading straight for the Accelerator. I heard two pairs of feet rush after me and I glanced backward to see Cisco and Ronnie sprinting to catch up with me. I skidded to a halt in front of the electronic door to the Accelerator room.

“Wait, Y/N! You can’t go in there! You could get incinerated by the blast!” Cisco stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder.

I turned to face him, speaking rapidly, “But if I don’t go in there everyone in this building could die, Cisco! I can’t live with that!”

Ronnie spoke up, “I’ll go.”

I stared at him incredulously.

“No, Ronnie! You need to stay here, for Caitlin!”

He shook his head, “No, Ann, I know the Accelerator better than you do. I have a better chance of saving us. I’m sorry to be harsh, but I need to do this. For Caitlin.”

I gaped at him, unable to find the words. He nodded to us, “Set your watch, Cisco, two minutes. If I’m not back by then, you need close the door and initiate lockdown. Okay?” Without another sound, he sprinted around the corner and out of sight. And then there were two. We stood in silence watching the seconds tick by, but the instant between each click felt like a lifetime. The watch beeped.

“Two minutes,” Cisco said softly. I gulped, breathing heavily. Warm tears springing to my eyes as Cisco pressed the lockdown switch and I watched the door slowly close. I heard the clack of heels on concrete and looked up, blinking away the haziness that the tears brought to my eyes. Caitlin came running around the corner,

“Did you guys fix it? Where’s Ronnie?”

“He’s still in there!” I cried desperately flicking the door switch. The com system crackled to life,

“Hello? Cisco,  Y/N?” The walkie-talkie was instantly snatched off me by Caitlin.

“Ronnie! We’re here.”

“Caitlin!”

Caitlin looked at me desperately,

“Open the door!”

Cisco looked at her sadly, eyes wide, “We can’t, the whole building is in lockdown mode. I – I’m sorry.”

Ronnie’s voice came through the radio, “Caitlin, listen to me. Whatever happens, I want you to know that-”

A wave of orange heat seeped through the cracks in the automated door. I turned rushed out the fire exit and up the stairs, my head spinning. I looked out at the city just in time to feel a wave of orange envelop me for a second before it spread past me and merged with the thunder clouds of a storm that was building on the horizon. I sunk to my knees exhausted. My eyes clouded and I promptly fainted.

 One Week Later

 We were still recovering for the shock of one of our best friend’s death. Being Ronnie’s fiancé, Caitlin obviously took it the hardest, but thankfully we were distracted by a new project. A victim of the Accelerator Explosion who was struck by lightning and, supposedly, killed. Dr Wells, who lost the ability to walk due to the explosion, figured out that the patient wasn’t actually dead. His heart was beating so rapidly that the Electrocardiogram couldn’t pick up a pulse, he remained at S.T.A.R labs in a coma. The patient’s name: Barry Allen.