#and rose's arc of processing the cost of being with the doctor

[illprotectyou-hearteyes]

I love so much when Doctor Who pairs its best writing with the stupidest aliens they've got. Not even your average level of silly for a Doctor Who alien; the ones where they take their own low bar and go digging. Then plop the rotting fungi they excavated right in the middle of devastating character development and the rawest dialogue your 14-year-old self had ever heard. Peak television.

[powerbottomblake]

RWBY:Ragnarok or predictions on the Atlas arc

Building on my previous post about how the RWBY arcs parallel seasons and the archetypal narrative structure linked to each season, I’ve established that Atlas corresponds to winter, aka themes of darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos, and the defeat of the heroic figure, but what I’m going to be developing here is how winter is linked to Götterdämmerung myths, a.k.a Ragnarok, otherwise known as the death of the gods in Norse mythology. So yes, Atlas is definitely a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Time for our heroes.

The thing is, that isn’t the only Norse mythology allusion tied to Atlas, be it the cast, the location or the events of Ragnarok itself. This post will be about delving into all of these allusions and find how Ragnarok’s narrative beats find equivalents in RWBY and how it might help predict the Atlas endgame (or at least part of it) as well as figure out some general plot points.

But before that, I feel like you need to familiarize yourself with the G.U.N theory (though I don’t know if I’m 100% in the scope of it with this post). I think the person that best explained it in a concise way would be @alexkablob in this post but basically the nitty gritty of it is that all RWBY characters aren’t allusions to a single myth but have layers of different allusions to several myths, and decoding them makes it possible to predict the beats of their narrative. Think v6 made it all too obvious with how Adam was Prince Adam (a.k.a the Beast before any character development or growth), the Rose curse and Gaston all wrapped in one (plus some references to Anakin Skywalker too apparently!); or how Yang is Goldilocks, Beauty and the Beast simultaneously (amongst others).

So characters that you know are allusions to a certain myth/fairytale, might have allusions to other ones, less obvious but still just as significant in determining that character’s fate and their overarching character arc, and the Atlas arc of the story is just full of these other allusions, all Norse mythology themed.

I’ll start with the allusions tied to the central figure of Atlas’ plot, aka the man himself, James Ironwood, then branch out on the connected cast’s allusions and how they’d fill their respective roles in Atlas’ version of Ragnarok.

So, as we all know James Ironwood is supposed to be our Tinman from the wizard of Oz. Thing is Ironwood also refers to a location in Norse mythology, Járnviðr (literally old Norse for Iron-wood), where a witch gives birth to giant wolves that are alluded to as Fenrir’s kin, one of them in particular being dubbed snatcher of the moon, who will swallow the moon come Ragnarok.

Before delving deeper into this, who is Fenrir?

Fenrir is a monstrous wolf who’s bound until comes Ragnarok, where he breaks free, wreaks havoc on the realm of the gods, and kills Odin, the patriarch of the Norse mythology pantheon and one of its most powerful figures.

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that CRWBY will merge all the monstrous apocalyptic wolf figures into one because that’s the decision that makes the most sense, and I’m gonna refer to it as Fenrwby to differentiate it from the original Fenrir (listen I couldn’t come up with anything else).

So now we’ve established that Atlas harbors or will get invaded by this giant wolf, Fenrir, who announces the apocalypse and swallows the moon.

Damn, I wonder which character is always closely associated to moon symbolism, incidentally also alluding to a tale called Dead Moon (again @alexkablob got you covered) and whose death circumstances are still a mystery till now?

That’s right I think Fenrwby will be confirmed to be the reason Summer died. Another point that absolutely convinces me of it is that he(it?) refers to. A gigantic evil wolf. Or you could say. A Big Bad Wolf. And guess where Little Red Riding Hood is headed right now?

But before eating Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf eats the grandmother first.

Yeah, this might very well be the last time Maria’s making the trip to Atlas.

But let’s go back to Ironwood. There’s yet another allusion to him and that’s the Norse god Tyr. Tyr was a war god, but also presided over law and justice, which aligns with Ironwood being leader of the military, headmaster and even has the Council (which I assume is executive and judicial power) bow to him.

Tyr’s most striking act and for which he’s most known though is that he’s sacrificed his arm when the gods first bound Fenrir, the arm the wolf bit off being the right one, and lo and behold:

James Ironwood is indeed missing a right arm (well a whole right side because he’s also Tinman, but you get me). From this we can already surmise that the mission Summer was sent over to was probably the containment of Fenrwby, and it cost Summer her life and Ironwood his right side.

That leaves us with one question: who/what is Fenrwby and where did he come from?

We’ll have to go back to the original myth for a bit here. In Norse Mythology, the trickster god Loki fathers three children with a giantess:  Hel, a woman that becomes a sort of queen of the Underworld, the world serpent Jörmungandr and the world wolf Fenrir. All three siblings are prophesied to be big trouble to the gods but what sets Fenrir apart is that:

He’s the one foretold to announce Ragnarok; his unbidding decides it

He’s the one destined to swallow Odin himself whole

He’s the only “hellish” sibling who’s raised right where the gods live, in Asgard

Beyond the similarity in how the names sound, I do believe Atlas’ design takes after Asgard and is meant to symbolize it.

For further reference here’s Marvel’s take on Asgard:

And here’s our first look at Atlas:

Atlas even has those threads attached to Mantle below which I suspect act as anchors + elevators/transportation conducts (most of it probably dedicated to Dust transport) between Mantle and Atlas, but also are a visual reference to Yggdrasil's roots, the Norse world tree, extending from Asgard to the other realms below.

So Fenrir is raised right in Asgard, but the wee pup is growing at an alarming rate (plus is prophesied to destroy all of it) so none of the gods is keen on approaching him. None except one brave god that is the only one to get close and feed him. And who would that be? That’s right, Tyr a.k.a our basis for Ironwood.

Ironwood hosting and hand-rearing a monster that will ultimately cause Summer’s death and the Atlaspocalypse sounds extremely unlikely, but there’s one scenario where this makes sense.

Atlas is known for its technological advancement and its constant development of new weaponry. I believe Fenrwby was born out of such a project, under the general leadership of Ironwood, but someone must have taken the experiments too far and ended up creating something so terrible Summer Rose herself (and maybe all or a combination of the remaining STRQ team), a silver-eyed warrior, had to be dispatched to neutralize, dying in the process.

Now is the time to remember that Fenrir is Loki’s son. In the original myth, Loki, an Asgardian god, gets eventually banished and during Ragnarok sides with the enemies.

So we’re basically looking for a disgraced Atlesian, who was possibly a scientist and is now currently working with the enemy.

And here is our Loki, none other than Arthur Watts himself, whose fallout with Atlas is yet to be explained.

I believe the reason he left Atlas was because he’s the one responsible for Fenrwby’s creation and in its immediate fallout, evaded arrest.

Another reason that leads me to believe Watts is our Loki is that Loki’s ties to Hel, Norse queen of the underworld, who was described to be ��half-black and half flesh-colored”, which is a dead ringer for Salem.

Arthur Watts’ name also seems to refer to Arthur Conan Doyle and John Watson, the first one being the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the latter his dutiful companion and side-kick, so I believe Watts might be a combination of (evil) Sherlock and Watson. This is further supported with how Watts’ appearance seems to be a blend of both (Watson is described as tan, with a strong build and a moustache and Sherlock as tall and lean) and his outfit being Victorian-era inspired. He is referred to as Doctor by Salem, first to affirm his status as fallen scientist from Atlas but also most likely as a nod to Watson who was a skilled doctor and often would be referred to as Doctor as well. Sherlock Holmes is known to be an emotionally detached analytical machine with a caustic (and at times callous) kind of humor, having a usually dispassionate and cold demeanor, all of which match what we see of Watts. How is this linked to our Ragnarok? Well one of Sherlock Holmes’ most well-known stories, one where incidentally Watson has a very proactive and prominent role, is the Hound of the Baskervilles. The story is itself based on the legend of a “monstrously evil man” who sold his soul to the Devil (Salem) and after his death led a pack of phantom, evil hounds.

Evil hounds, monstrous wolves...Watts always gets linked to big bad canidae one way or the other.

Which brings us to our next question: now that we know who made Fenrwby, what exactly is Fenrwby?

Ok so this is the part where the theory gets tentative because there isn't much to go off of, so bear with me.

Watts is partly based on Sherlock Holmes, who is indifferent and detached usually, unless he's in the midst of an investigation. He then turns driven, getting tunnel-visioned and borderline obsessed (he can even go without food for so long he faints) until he solves the mystery. I think Watts is much the same. He carries himself with cool composure mostly but there was one instance where he showed a sort of zealous fascination: when he saw the seer Grimm.

Ok so I have an inkling that Watts is fascinated by the Grimm, and his forbidden experiments involved Grimm creatures. This is further supported by the Baskerville allusion to a pack of phantom hounds, which could very well reference the Grimm.

So going off this, Watts experimented on Grimm - since Atlas is very much wolf-themed, maybe Beowolfs? - and out of them he made Fenrwby.

But what could possibly be combined to Grimm in a way that’d defeat the combined forces of Ironwood (whose entire right side got severed) and an experienced silver eyed warrior like Summer?

I think we can make an educated guess based off the two major technological breakthroughs we got to witness during V1-3, namely Penny, the first synthetic being able to generate aura and the aura transfer machine. You’ll have guessed it, I think Atlas was dabbling into aura experimentation and Watts rerouted it to his own Grimm endeavors. What if he succeeded in equipping Grimm with something similar to Aura? Something that would hijack the Silver Eyes. I’m just bouncing ideas here but I’m pretty sure Fenrwby is the result of Watts tinkering with Aura and Grimm, and I think Watts staying with Salem is in large part because she’s the crystallization of the divide that fascinates him, being both human (having a soul, so in theory having aura) and grimm. Salem is the long running case study Watts is pursuing in a way.

So. Now that we’ve established what Fenrwby might be and who is behind it, we can delve into the narrative beats of Ragnarok. I made a synthetic list of Ragnarok events that seem relevant and connect to RWBY as a narrative:

Fenrir swallows Odin

I think Ozpin having Odin references in his character is common knowledge enough in the fandom. Odin is the king of Asgard, is associated with wisdom, knowledge and sorcery amongst other things, and is known for having two raven familiars (Raven and Qrow), all of which fit Ozpin.

What could Odin being swallowed mean for Oz and Oscar?

Of course, this could simply be an indication of Oz/Oscar fighting Fenrwby with Ruby, and losing.

But we can take it further. Oz lives inside Oscar through the merge between their souls, their auras connecting. We’ve established Atlas has been studying and experimenting on aura; Watts has most probably even toed the line of what is morally acceptable in terms of experiments. What if Fenrwby, or one of the machines Watts has been “tinkering with”, is able to sever the connection, effectively trapping Ozpin’s soul or at least sending it in another reincarnation cycle? This is a reach, I’ll admit, but something about Odin being swallowed somehow does not bode well for Ozpin.

Thor fights Jörmungandr

Can’t talk about Norse mythology without talking about Thor! And incidentally we have someone in the main cast based off him. I’ve always found it weird how V4 gives Ren a comprehensive backstory but never an explanation for how Nora is just there, beyond “random Kuroyuri orphan”  (How did she get orphaned? Why was she in Kuroyuri? Who were her parents?). I think Nora’s backstory will be fully explained in Atlas as I have a feeling Weiss isn’t the only one coming home. Thor’s home is Asgard after all.

So Thor fights the giant serpent that is Loki’s other son and Fenrir’s brother. One of Jörmungandr’s most striking features is his venom, as he’s described spraying it through air and sea, and it’s how he kills Thor even as he’s slayed by him, poisoning the god to his death.

Our Jörmungadr equivalent thus needs to wield poison, and be sired (or fixed) by Loki aka Watts. That would be Tyrian.

I believe we’ll have the second round of Team JNR vs Tyrian - as foreshadowed by Tyrian’s interest in Jaune - and it’ll end with Tyrian dying and Nora being gravely wounded.

The frost giants join the fray against the gods

I’ve already expanded on this in my previous post, but Jack Frost, Jacques’ fairy tale basis, is said to be based on the norse frost giants. This, coupled with the “Jack and the beanstalk” references, pushes me to think Jacques is going to betray and cause the death of Ironwood and help team W.T.C.H steal the relic.

Gamr, another big hellish hound, kills Tyr

Gamr is another monstrous hound who breaks free of his bindings in Ragnarok. As I said before, I believe all hounds/wolf imagery is going to be compounded in a single entity in RWBY (especially when they sometimes share identical characteristics), so this is Fenrwby getting free of whatever binding Summer put him under (maybe the Silver Eye power petrified him the way Ruby did the giant Nevermore?) and killing Ironwood.

Surtr, a fire giant from Muspelheim, the realm of fire, covers the entire world with fire with his flaming sword

Surtr is a fire giant that guards Muspelheim, a hot and glowing land of fire, and who sets the world on fire with his flaming sword at the end of Ragnarok. This signals the destruction of the world, but also announces its rebirth with the surviving gods and humans meeting afterwards and leading into a new era.

So the guardian of a sword of destruction (Vacuo’s relic), coming from a hot unforgiving land (Vacuo), crashes the fight. I believe this is when the Summer maiden gets introduced, and she uses the relic to end the fight and save the thoroughly defeated team RWBY so that everyone may escape to Vacuo as Atlas’ destruction is complete.

So, to TL;DR this extremely long post:

There is a Big Bad Wolf kind of monster/entity in Atlas I’m tentatively calling Fenrwby

Watts created this monster by dabbling into forbidden experimentation, probably on aura and grimm

Summer Rose sealed said monster but at the cost of her life and the fight cost Ironwood his right side

Fenrwby is unleashed on Atlas, either by Team W.T.C.H, accidentally by Ironwood, or a combination of both

Jacques sides with W.T.C.H and helps them steal the relic

Fenrwby kills Ironwood and Maria

Oz is either defeated, sealed away from Oscar or sent in another reincarnation loop

Nora is from Atlas and we get her extended backstory

Team JNR fight Tyrian and are able to defeat him but Nora is gravely wounded

the Summer maiden arrives in a bind and with the relic of destruction ends the fight and takes team RWBY to safety

[storytell]

A detailed (ish) breakdown of TARDIS AU (Part 1/2).

PERSONALS DO NOT REBLOG!

Buckle up, guys, this is going to be a long long ride. The TARDIS au was started by a small group of us on October 5th of last year and is as of now our most developed group au ever. Since its one year anniversary is coming up, I’ve decided to outline some things about the au to encourage people to interact using the characters from it. This WILL be a very, very, very long post, so it’s going under a cut.

NOTE: I wasn’t a part of some conversations revolving around characters and relationships not involving me. If some descriptions seem vague, that’s why.

Part I: The Factions.

The factions are defined very loosely, as they’re subject to change at the drop of a hat. Here is how things are at the beginning of the au’s concrete timeline:

The TARDIS crew: Mark Twain/The Adventurer, Louisa May Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Time Agency: Akutagawa Gin, Jono Saigiku, Suehiro Tetcho, Tachihara Michizou, Mushitaro Oguri , Sakaguchi Ango

Prisoners of the Time Agency: Ayatsuji Yukito, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Yumeno Kyusaku

Torchwood: Fukuzawa Yukichi, Edogawa Ranpo, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

Misc.: Nikolai Gogol, Ookura Teruko, Scottie Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway, Margaret Mitchell, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Here is how the factions look at the end of the end of the au’s concrete timeline.

The immortal TARDIS crew: Mark Twain/The Adventurer, Jono Saigiku, Suehiro Tetcho, Edogawa Ranpo, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Lucy Maud Montgomery

Former TARDIS crew/Earth, 21st century: Louisa May Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Mitchell/”Mitchy” ( @asheard ), Margaret Mitchell, Ookura Teruko, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Herman Melville, Scottie Fitzgerald

Time Agency: Akutagawa Gin, Tachihara Michizou, Sakaguchi Ango

Torchwood: Fukuzawa Yukichi, Mushitaro Oguri

Other/Unknown: Ayatsuji Yukito, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Yumeno Kyusaku, Nick Carraway, John Steinbeck, Nikolai Gogol

Part II: The Characters

Mark Twain/The Adventurer ( @asheard ): The quote-unquote “main character” of TARDIS AU, The Adventurer was thought to be the last of the timelords after he killed them all during the time war. Loosely fills the role of The Doctor, but canon timeline doesn’t include much past the Pandorica. He’s also only regenerated twice, and we’ve taken liberties with how timelords work for the sake of the AU. 

Louisa May Alcott ( @praevari ): The Adventurer’s first companion and only intended companion. Worked at a library for a long time until she was suddenly whisked away by a timelord. She has a keen interest in learning alien languages. Loosely fills the role of Rose.

Edgar Allan Poe ( @inkblccded ): An unintended addition to the TARDIS crew, Poe insisted on tagging along when his best (only) friend Louisa was taken by The Adventurer. Prior to canon events, he was a detective who quit his job after being unable to solve a murder case whose culprit was actually an alien.

F. Scott Fitzgerald ( @chiassosanctum ): Former captain of the time agency from far into the future; defected and decided to cause chaos, causing him to become wanted. A stowaway of sorts on the TARDIS who ends up staying there permanently. Very well-versed in alien technology. Loosely fills the role of Jack Harkness.

Akutagawa Gin ( @tranquilsongs ): Acting captain of the time agency at the start of canon events. Angry at Scott’s percieved betrayal, she dedicates herself and her team to pursuing him no matter the cost.

Jono Saigiku ( @praevari ): A timelord under the influence of a chameleon arc, The Interrogator thinks he’s human at the start of the timeline. He’s one of the higher ranked officers in the Time Agency.

Suehiro Tetcho ( @asheard ): A human with incorporated cyberman parts, assigned to protect Jono at all costs. He’s the only person who is aware of Jono’s secret, and keeps said secret from him as per his orders.

Mushitaro Oguri ( @asheard ): The “cleaner” of the Time Agency, Mushitaro is in charge of fixing any messed-up timelines caused by time travelers. Tormented later by Edogawa Ranpo.

Sakaguchi Ango ( @tranquilsongs ): The supervisor of the quarantined prisoners of the time agency. Very, very tired.

Ayatsuji Yukito ( @asheard ): Prisoner of the time agency. Carrier of a highly contagious alien disease which kills people who come into contact with him within an hour.

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke ( @inkblccded ): Prisoner of the time agency. Host of a parasite which can fight or complete other tasks for him at the cost of years being taken off of his life.

Yumeno Kyusaku ( @tranquilsongs ): Prisoner of the time agency. The result of experimentation on hosting an alien creature that would cause hallucinations to whoever hurt the host.

Fukuzawa Yukichi ( @praevari ): The leader of Torchwood. Adoptive father of Edogawa Ranpo.

Edogawa Ranpo ( @inkblccded ): A half-timelord who doesn’t know it yet. Briefly met The Adventurer during an incident with cybermen, but wasn’t picked up by him until years later. VERY loosely fills the role of Amy. 

Tanizaki Jun’ichiro ( @deviantsbliss ): Ranpo’s best friend. Insists on coming along with him in the TARDIS, but honestly ends up being a fourth wheel.

Nikolai Gogol/The Fool ( @asheard ): A timelord driven crazy by the constant sound of drumming in his ears. He tries to take over the earth like twice but honestly don’t worry about it.

Ookura Teruko ( @deviantsbliss ): A Futurekind from the end of the universe. Kept as one of his special ‘pets’. Eventually rescued by the TARDIS crew.

Frances Scottie Fitzgerald ( @tranquilsongs ): Scott’s thought-to-be-dead daughter. Actually adopted by The Fool and warped so badly that she no longer recognizes Scott as her father. Eventually rescued by the TARDIS crew.

Nick Carraway ( @chiassosanctum ): Space lawyer. He’s just kind of there and also very tired.

Margaret Mitchell ( @asheard ): A human from earth who was dragged along by the TARDIS crew. She eventually loses her memories after briefly becoming half-timelord as a way to protect her. Loosely fills the role of Donna Noble.

Herman Melville ( N/A ): Margaret’s grandfather. One of the only people outside of his companions that The Adventurer respects enough to salute to. Loosely fills the role of Wilfred Mott.

John Steinbeck ( @giftandguile ): A tree person bounty hunter hired by the time agency to capture F. Scott Fitzgerald at the start of canon. Doesn’t like when people breathe near him, apparently.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( @deviantsbliss ): A mysterious immortal not even The Adventurer can figure out. He meets the TARDIS crew out of order and ends up marrying The Adventurer after the mortal members of the crew leave but again don’t worry about it. VERY loosely fills the role of River Song.

Lucy Maud Montgomery ( N/A ): Made on a planet at war out of Twain’s genetic material. Technically his daughter. Loosely fills the role of The Doctor’s Daughter. Ends up staying with the TARDIS crew.

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( N/A ): Honestly just there as an NPC. Future husband to Margaret after she loses her memories of the TARDIS crew.

BONUS: Mark Mitchell “Mitchy” Fitzgerald ( @asheard ): Half The Adventurer and half Margaret Mitchell. Lives a human life rather than a timelord life. Ends up left on earth by his timelord counterpart.

PART III: Important relationships.

The progression of relationships between each character at the beginning of the series is as follows:

The Adventurer, Louisa, Poe, and Fitzgerald: Initially began as a romance between the two pairs (Mark and Louisa + Poe and Fitzgerald), however they all end up in a relationship together. After the mortal crew leaves, The Adventurer leaves Mitchy behind because he’s human and can live and die with them, much to the [mixed reactions] of the former original TARDIS crew. The four of them end up getting married.

The Adventurer and Jono Saigiku/The Interrogator: Initially friends on Gallifrey, the Adventurer promised the Interrogator that he’d fix his blindness and get rid of the constant sound of his heartbeat after the latter was damaged by looking into the time vortex. It never happened because the Adventurer ran away, but they reconcile when Jono receives his timelord memories back.

The Adventurer and Edogawa Ranpo: First having met when Ranpo was a little kid, the two started off rough when the Adventurer broke his promise to come right back to bring him on the TARDIS. But, after a long while of traveling together and Ranpo choosing to stay on the TARDIS after becoming immortal, they see eachother as a sort of found family.

The Adventurer and Herman Melville: Melville is one of the people that the Adventurer would do anything to protect. Also close to the only person the Adventurer respects on that level.

The Adventurer and Howard Phillips Lovecraft: The latter was an enigma to the former at first, since they’d been having their meetings out of order. But soon, Lovecraft started to become someone who would occasionally help on their adventures. Even before the mortal crew left, the Adventurer was made aware that this was the person he ended up with. It wasn’t till after they left, though, that the Adventurer and Lovecraft had the event that would lead to them getting married. Lovecraft has since traveled with the Adventurer and the immortal TARDIS crew.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Akutagawa Gin: Scott was Gin and Ryuunosuke’s surrogate father since they were young, and as such they had an extremely close relationship. Scott’s eventual betrayal led Gin to dedicate herself solely to tracking him down. Their eventual reunion was rocky, but ended relatively happily.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ookura Teruko, and Frances Scottie Fitzgerald: After rescuing his not-daughter and his daughter from the Fool and a long process of getting them to realize that the Fool was bad, Scott came to see them both as children to him.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck: Steinbeck is trying to kill him. Scott takes every possible opportunity to annoy him. That’s really it.

Akutagawa Gin and Tachihara Michizou: This was one of the relationship conversations I don’t really remember, so I’ll try and sum it up as best as I can: Tachihara kept trying to comfort Gin during her time with the TARDIS crew and eventually it worked. I’m pretty sure they got together.

Jono Saigiku/The Interrogator, Suehiro Tetcho, and Edogawa Ranpo: Things started off with just Jono and Tetcho; Tetcho was always programmed to stay with Jono throughout everything. Ranpo only came into the picture after he was picked up by the Adventurer, purposely getting himself caught by the time agents literally so he could hold both of their hands, to which they responded with varying levels of confusion. Things escalated during the Pandorica; Tetcho was thought to have waited 2000 years alone for Jono, but Ranpo had become immortal after the Pandorica and gone back in time to wait with him. They’re in love.

Jono Saigiku/The Interrogator and Nikolai Gogol/The Fool: Jono is mostly unnerved because they both hear the constant sound of ‘drumming’. Mostly he doesn’t want to end up like the Fool.

Mushitaro Oguri and Edogawa Ranpo: Ranpo loves to annoy Mushitaro by leaving well-placed sticky notes throughout the messed up timelines. This is literally what led Mushitaro to quit his job and join Torchwood.

Ayatsuji Yukito, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, and Yumeno Kyusaku: The three of them spoke a lot, being prisoners in adjacent cells for a very long time. Eventually, because of reforms to the time agency, Ryuunosuke and Kyusaku are allowed to leave. Ayatsuji’s consciousness is put into a plastic double of himself (like Rory!) so he too can leave. Ayatsuji and Ryuunosuke are then gay and in love for pretty much all time with their child Kyusaku.

Fukuzawa Yukichi and Edogawa Ranpo: Fukuzawa loved Ranpo a lot. And then he decided to run off with a timelord without a word. Of course, that didn’t make him love Ranpo any less, it just made him worried. Sometimes the Adventurer will drop by so Ranpo can tell Fuku he’s still alive and okay and that he’s also kind of a timelord now.

Edogawa Ranpo and Tanizaki Jun’ichirou: Ranpo was Tanizaki’s lifelong friend and secret crush, but things between them slowly start to get more strained and distant, until Tanizaki decided to just leave the TARDIS with the rest of the mortal crew.

Nikolai Gogol/The Fool, Ookura Teruko, and Frances Scottie Fitzgerald: The Fool didn’t really hold any emotional attachment to either of the girls, viewing a former as a pet or a means for entertainment and the latter as a way to get a leg up on the TARDIS crew.

[flyswhumpcenter]

Sole Obscurato [Whumptober 2019 - Day 4: Human Shield]

[Title meaning: “The sun that was obscured”]

Summary: Serena gambits with the Obelisk Force, Shun complies.

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V (vague canon divergence verse) Ship: The lightest hint of Serena/Shun

Content warnings: None.

Wordcount: ~600 words

Notes: I'm a day late because I got my Internet connection severed by... having my phone stolen. Yeah. That was a thing that kinda happened. It's still here tho! Some light, vague canon divergence for the soul, nothing groundbreaking, but it was still nice to provide. Would have been better if it hadn't happened on BWI day tho lmao I decided to take the prompt both literally and less literally, if you know what I mean. I wasn't up for hostage situations yesterday lol

Event hosted by @whumptober2019

AO3 version available here.

-----------

They were right in the wolf’s jaw, faced with the last of Academia’s forces: a couple guys dressed in that silly-looking uniform that had terrorized his people for way too long, armed with much too familiar disks. He had had his option to card them removed from his and, while he had been forced never to use it again, the danger of the situation called for it in his opinion.

Serena’s hand on his twitching wrist was telling him otherwise, making their walk through the deserted corridors stop in its tracks.

 “We’ve finally found you, Miss Serena,” one of them engaged them, stepping forward. “Please come with us if you want nothing to happen.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Doctor’s orders.”

He felt shivers running down her arm and hand while her face contorted.

“I refuse,” she told them, gulping.

“Then we’ll have to use force.”

 In a reflex, not even thinking twice, Shun put himself forward, an arm in front of her. He wasn’t willing to let those goons even attempt abducting a friend. Not again, not after Ruri’s disappearance, not after Yuto’s, not after losing his world to some maniac’s demented project. He wouldn’t let people be made prisoners under his watch, especially by the same persons who had turned his entire world into an unliveable hell. He wouldn’t let Serena be made their captive, even if it cost him his life.

“Kurosaki,” she whispered next to his ear, “let me deal with this”.

“Wha-”

 Before he could say anything back, Serena threw herself in front of him, arms wide open, legs firmly planted into the ground. The gesture immediately rose the wrong vibes within him back to life, reminding him of all the times he had failed to do what she was trying to accomplish, her gaze inaccessible to him.

“You’ll have to stomp on my corpse before you get to him!” She screamed, fierce, biting.

 He was as surprised as the Obelisk Force agents of her reaction, sudden and frankly unpredictable. She seemed sure of herself, confident in her strength, as the three goons in front of them blinked and stood in awe for a couple moments.

“The Professor wants me alive,” she tells him in another whisper. “They can’t hit me unless they defy orders.”

“And what if they do?!” He asks back, barely keeping the volume of his voice in check.

“They won’t, believe me.”

 Serena sounded so certain and firm that he couldn’t help but buy a bit into her words. It was a stupid thing to do, to believe someone from Fusion like that, and his sister would most likely be unhappy with how he decided to go; yet the situation called for it. He had to believe in Serena, put his life into her hands, completing a process that had started oh so long ago. He begged Ruri to forgive him in silence.

For now, they both needed to survive, to make it out alive and beat the evil from the inside.

 The Obelisk Force goons lowered their disks, instead putting them in duel mode. They’d have to beat them the usual way around, turning their own on, the familiar jingles and voice clips playing as they did so. Serena had since then moved back to being by his side rather than having all four of her limbs trying to cover him, still looking as determined and about to get ruthless on her enemies. Shun, as a consequence, decided to pay her back and protect her during the game, even if it’d mean becoming her human shield.

He wanted their relationship to be reciprocal in terms of strengths and services and, well, he had always hated owing someone for more than a minute. She must have agreed, considering their matching glances at each other, filled with trust. He had missed being able to trust someone like this, despite how catastrophic their meeting had been and how dangerous their current situation was.

 The one certain thing was that they could mutually put their lives in each other’s hands.

[sharkiegorath]

@almaviva90​ thanks for mentioning That Article, the only thing that can make me write coherently rn

I mean, God, if it’d just been called an underwhelming/bad show that would’ve been, like,  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, it’s your opinion, buddy. But personal bias aside, singling Finn out of all the characters in the series, especially the Scotland Yard arc, is??? It’s compounded by how the article doesn’t actually give any reason for why he’s included, unless you count ‘he’s like this one iconic character except not I guess’. So I’d like to examine the subconscious processes behind why Finn is listed as a Great Character while everyone else - cast and character - is disregarded, especially since positive reviews pinpointed the ensemble effort.

anyway I took this as an opportunity to Go the Fuck Off suddenly synthesizing loose scraps of information I’ve had for some time so bear in mind

“The folks who did stick with it mostly stayed onboard for Bertie Carvel’s Finn”??? Where are you getting this information? Since 2014, positive reviews and tweets mentioned the ensemble. For mediocre-to-negative audience reactions, I’d say there was a 50/50 split between people saying they only continued to watch for Bertie versus only continuing to watch for Brit. I’m pretty sure social media suggested there were more people who started watching for one actor then ended up immersed in the overall series.

Anyway.  Anyway.

The reason the article loosely gives for Finn's impressiveness is silly in the first place. Yeah, he's superficially like Malcolm Tucker, they're both spin doctors who go on shouty elaborate tangents. If it's been done before, why's it interesting? What distinguishes Finn so much that he's not just a clone in a different, allegedly weaker setting - which shouldn’t be worth listing - and how can he simultaneously be so similar that the explanation relies on preexisting knowledge of Tucker? 'He's even less charming' isn't a good reason, because intensifying one trait doesn't necessarily make a distinct character. (And based on what I've seen, isn't Finn less intense?)

Oh, and the fun thing is, that implied reason why he’s a stand-out character isn’t that accurate in the first place.

Firstly: we’re socially conditioned to identify with nominally straight white men, even (especially?) when they’re jerks. We create justifications for them in the absence of explicit excuses; we perceive complexity while oversimplifying other characters, even if we feel positively about them. But I’ve seen enough mediocre TV to think Finn is above-average. Until Ep. 5, I was partially willing to view him as complex because I believed everyone else was complex, and everyone else had interesting dynamics with him. I watched along with the original C4 airing. In terms of ‘sticking it through’, no, I didn’t watch just for Finn, and I had only watched the pilot for Bertie. Finn didn’t seem *that* important in the first two episodes of the main series, it looked like he might leave in the third, and his characterisation from the fourth onwards was tied to the overall plot. It was only subsequent marketing that gave away his prominence.

The article mentions (and dismisses) Bertie Carvel’s own opinion on Finn. (Which may have been paraphrased by the interviewer, but was probably still sympathetic.) He's realistic about his characters' flaws, including unambiguously sympathetic protagonists, including those who try to take advantage of institutional injustice. For him to say something along the lines of Finn not being that bad, Finn probably isn't. Babylon takes place over around a month, under uniquely stressful events. Since Liz's escalating issues make her act 2edgier and more unpleasant than usual, I think it's fair to infer that Finn is also not acting entirely like 'himself'; we don't have anywhere near the amount of context about his personal life as we do for Liz or Richard, but we do see his seemingly stable preexisting workplace relationships. Whether any of that justifies his behaviour is up to personal interpretation.

In Babylon, lack/introduction of context is juxtaposed with the transparency debate. (Actual Critic Genevieve Valentine also noted the narrative style, I'm not desperately bullshitting here.) It's ironic having characters argue about transparency when they aren't honest about themselves. It's not a mystery show, but mundane-yet-important details about main characters' personal lives are revealed suddenly, sometimes as surprises to the audience but not to other characters, sometimes as shocks to everyone. When characters learn more about each other and adjust their opinions, they themselves become more sympathetic in the process because it parallels audience reaction. I'm insistent that the series - specifically the Scotland Yard arc - is a team effort because otherwise Finn is just an asshole bouncing lines off people who don't verbally respond half of the time, and that's amazingly boring.

There isn't much evidence that Richard is a good person or Commissioner besides the word of his best friend and an infatuated woman he barely knows. He mistreats both of them in some way. He’s not mean to his family, but he's mentioned and shown as verbally abusive towards subordinates. Delgado may have had a point, since every other hint he gives to Liz is reliable. Yet the overall audience is probably more inclined to perceive Finn as the most-likely-to-be-abusive character, even though the only evidence is A) his interactions with Liz (who's matched him since day one; arguments aren't inherently abusive and they’ve started to Calm TF Down by the end) and B) his annoyance with Tom, which only peaks in the last two episodes.

Why does this happen? Because early on, Mia says Finn is an ‘arsehole’ - never mind how they usually seem to get along. (The only time they clash, his anger isn't actually directed at her.) No one paints a heroic picture of Finn; he describes himself through fictional villains or less-than-anti-heroes. He's not charismatic like Richard. He uses big words and has a severe gum addiction. Those 'undesirable traits' are subconsciously associated with being a white collar villain, while the obviously wrong actions of police characters aren’t as strongly vilified.

Audiences are so conditioned to expect certain story beats or clichés that we automatically assume they exist, or that there's a strong connection between things that aren't inherently linked. It happens with Liz, who might be negatively viewed the way Finn views her, or through a stereotypically rose-tinted ‘strong female character’ lens. It happens with Finn...who becomes most prominent as he’s part of the arcs of white women and a Black man. In his specific case, is that why the other characters aren't interesting, while he mysteriously pops out like a fucking daffodil in the middle of a desert? After Richard dies, only Finn could possibly fit what the protagonist of a satire 'should' look like, if you shut one eye and thought satires can't be humanist and pretended you didn't see certain scenes and turned off your deductive reasoning.

The worst things about Finn are his casual -ism’s and active role in the institution. I wonder if they’re the Bad Things identified by people who view him as an archetypal career-driven sadist, or if they come to mind at all. He’s not manipulative or a jerk as a default, he’s not motivated by money or power for its own sake. He’s arrogant and abrasive - that’s the rule in his setting, not the exception. Yet he mentally registers as a flat archetype at the cost of recognising his actual pressing issues. Not seeing his deeper issues undermines his dynamic with almost every other character - which, if you’re using him as a reference point, maybe explains why they might not appear as compelling, just maaaaybe. 

The trickiness of contextualization is specifically linked to Finn, who’s implied to have some sort of literary background. (Thanks, inexplicable Shakespeare bust!) In another interview, Bertie says Finn would describe himself as a ‘realist’. Finn occasionally brings up facts, but his concept of realism revolves around how other people construct their own fiction. (A neat thing about how Liz and Finn usually communicate: she ‘sells’ ideas, he gives mini narratives.)

It’s impossible to guard Richard while being honest about him or the police. Finn is opposed to Liz’s policies because their ‘story’ doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. He also romanticizes the job, but it’s in a Byronic way instead of straightforward heroism; he knows the truth is ugly and gives people more reasons to hate them, so he thinks they might as well control the narrative while they can. He frames his job as a gritty morally grey drama to justify himself - but it’s the wrong ‘genre’ and he fails to salvage their image anyway. Liz and Inglis have idealized, somewhat self-righteous perceptions of the institution, but they don’t use it to justify really bad things; their morality overrides conventional logic several times and it turns out to be the right thing, or the least wrong thing. They’re the only ones who remotely gain something they want by the end.

The emotional climax or whatever of Finn’s largely background arc is quietly admitting that he needs Liz, that her approach might be better than his, and encouraging Inglis’s interest in transparency - an interest that’ll likely have a long-term impact. Finn’s cynicism begins to recede and it’s largely dependent on them; he represents the shifting status quo, he’s an indication that they succeeded in some way. So he’s quite obviously not static and he can’t exist as effectively as an isolated entity therefore, bite me, Digital Spy.