#and we did get an iteration of Excalibur

[randomlywanderingmoth]

The thing about Faerie Britain is that, when we entered and where we entered, there was literally nothing we could do to save it. Morgan was the lynchpin holding the whole mess together.

So, entreat and curry favor with Morgan? How exactly? She’s run the country fully competently in our absence, our presence isn’t going to give her anything. Warn her about the Calamity? She outright says she’s game to let it happen as long as her Britain is safe. [Cut for length and also in depth spoilers]

Could Mash have done anything back in time? Could we, if it had been us instead? No and also no, Aesc’s loss of faith is predicated on Uther’s betrayal and death- without metaknowledge there is nothing we could have done, and even with metaknowledge the best we would’ve done is stalled his death by a short few years. He would never be king, and likely his people would have been slaughtered. Again, Aesc would lose faith.

Back to the present then. Let us assume we have some metaknowledge, here and there. Could we stop Aurora from plotting Morgan’s downfall? Not particularly. She won’t listen to us, she’d turn on us if we turned on her, and her death would activate Melusine- or at the very least make her very intent on killing us, and a Melusine out for our heads would make saving anything extraordinarily difficult. If Aurora was dead, Melusine would expressly require the name of Tam Lin Lancelot to remain even remotely stable- failing that the Calamity of Fire would kick off.

What about stopping Barghest and the Calamity of the Beast? There, there is literally nothing we could do. As far as the story depicts it, her Adonis is dead, she ate him some time before we ever turned up, and her hallucinations of him are the only thing keeping her stable. She’s a time bomb and there’s nothing we could practically do about it.

So, saving Baoban Sith then. Stopping her from going wild with the curses, stopping her from turning into a lump of cursed flesh that gets unceremoniously dumped into the Pit to awaken Cernunnos. This one is not expressly impossible, unlike every other item on the list- but it might well be. Beryl Gut has her ear before we even meet her, and he’s driving her down the path of reckless play with curses before we get the chance to ever play party to her conscience, and in order to prevent that we would need to neutralize Beryl Gut as soon as humanly possible. Practically we would need to do that prior to the defense of Londinium, before he teaches her the altered Mors curse that would start to rot her soul- and you’ll note we never get anything even resembling a clear shot at Beryl as such. So, we need to curry favor with her, independent of knowing that Beryl also has her ear.

Even then, we would need to drive Baoban Sith away from Beryl’s methods as early as possible- which would require she be less in tune with curses- which would be difficult, given the thing she wants is Morgan’s praise. Baoban Sith got that by way of violent murder, and she wants to learn Magecraft- a point of order, those are both topics Beryl Gut has us beat handily in- and again, without metaknowledge, we’re playing a game of tug-o-war with someone we don’t even know who it is.

So, let us say, purely for the sake of theory, we somehow succeed. Congratulations! You stopped Baoban Sith from getting turned into a lump of easily hostage-able curse flesh! Now Morgan will kill the traitors, sit back on her throne... and kill us all, because we’re necessarily working alongside folks that are trespassing on her city. Unless we swear off the Round Table Alliance, which translates to cutting ties with Oberon and Percival (and a lot of other people), we’re under her crosshairs- and even if we do cut ties, there’s no guarantee she won’t just oust us as a generally threatening faction.

But let’s say that, somehow, for whatever reason, we save Baoban Sith, and don’t get blasted by Morgan. There’s no guarantee that Cernunnos won’t wake up on his own- and we saw how Morgan’s defenses handled Cernunnos- they weren’t enough. Granted, he had a Divine Core formed from Baoban Sith at the time, but it would be an ugly affair all around.

So, let’s say in theory we could save Baoban Sith. We could save Baoban Sith, we could keep Morgan from killing us. Let’s say that somehow Cernunnos was neutralized. Great, cool. We’re not friends enough with Percival for him to stop Albion, who will definitely turn up when Morgan decides that Aurora’s Wind Tiding was doing her no favors- and we’ve burnt bridges with Oberon. So, Morgan’s supply is exhausted, and the Pit is no longer plugged. Cue Wyrm of the Pit, Vortigern, succeeding in his plan to devour the world because all he needed to do was not care about us enough to stand close enough for us to duke it out with him.

And again, this is all predicated on us having the foreknowledge to do everything in our power, logic at the time be damned, to save Baoban Sith, and a long list of other convenient dominoes lining up.

So what if we never turned up in the first place? What if Mash never became the Knight of Sheffield, what if we never accompanied Castoria?

Well then Vortigern would just find another sucker, and events would proceed largely as normal but without us there.

Saving Fae Britain was a mission doomed to fail from the start.

So what about the reverse? Was there anyone we could save individually?

Also not really.

We couldn’t save the humans because of the nature of the Lostworld phenomenon, so we could only save faeries, and there aren’t many of those that we could save. Furthermore, on any second inspection, all these faeries were also doomed to die, because of the nature of faeries in Fae Britain. They need a purpose, a driving goal, to live. No driving goal, they turn into Mors. They could never survive just sitting in the Storm Border while we try to solve the Bleached Earth problem.

Fae Britain was doomed from the start. There was never anyone we could save. We can only save the rest of the world, from its implosion.

As with every part of our missions since departing Chaldea, all we can do is save our world from the Lostbelts.

[queer-ragnelle]

hello!! i am pretty new to tumblr so still finding my way around, and part of my current project was going to be looking into fandom space to see how some of the word of mouth and online space mimics oral storytelling. i am especially looking at villains in arthuriana and fan interpretations and headcanons for this, so any advice of where to look hereabouts would be really lovely!! ty for your time and hope you have a great day!!

Hi anon! Welcome!

Honestly I'm at a bit of a loss where to even begin. The scope of Arthuriana and what constitutes a "villain" is so vast. There are the obvious Black Knights and usurping nephews, but even those characters have more than their fair share of morally gray/nuanced portrayals depending on where you look. Medieval literature in and of itself was varied even before we get into modern interpretations and the far reaching corners of fandom. I think in regards to this, it might help to narrow your scope to specific "villainous" characters—Morgan le Fay, Sir Mordred, False Guinevere, Sir Meleagant, and the mysterious Knights of Green and Red and Black.

There's also the matter of where you intend to make the cut off. What constitutes "canon" character interpretation? Where does "canon" end and fan extrapolation begin? To my mind, personally, anything after the Middle Ages falls into the "modern" category, which would include Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Idylls of The King on our end of the divide. Speaking for myself, I don't devalue any interpretation based solely on the era of it's inception. If Sir Thomas Malory wrote in Le Morte d'Arthur that Sir Gareth married Lyonesse, then it is so. But when Tennyson claims that, no, Sir Gareth married the Savage Damosel Linet, then he is also correct. Each iteration is it's own self-contained world and anything is possible within that framework. So it is for "villains," as well.

But that said, the beauty of Arthuriana is that each new addition to the literary tradition (and I include films, TV shows, video games, comics, and every other conceivable medium) builds on what came before. I don't necessarily enjoy or recommend them all, but there's definitely a connection from one retelling to the next. In John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), Percival is first revealed as a strange boy wandering the forest who happens upon Lancelot sleeping. Percival is captivated by him. He endears himself to the knight by waking him with the smell of meat he hunted and roasted especially for him. From there, he's brought back to Camelot to begin working under Kay in the kitchens and eventually rises to knighthood. When I first saw this, I was elated. "It's just like in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot!" Go back thirty more years. In The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-1957), there's a character named Brian, a kitchen boy. After Lancelot helps end the siege that was threatening the castle Brian worked at, he begins following Lancelot around, and one morning, cooks breakfast for the knight. By the end of the episode, Lancelot has all but adopted him, and enrolls him in lessons to begin his squiredom, and eventually, achieve knighthood. Sound familiar?

Could it be that John Boorman, as a child, watched The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, saw what they did with their Brian/Gareth hybrid, and said, "I like that idea, I think I'll use it for Percival." To me, Boorman drawing on that 50s show for his own work is no different than Tennyson building on what Malory had done, who in his own turn wrote from the Post Vulgate.

Now we come to the present day. Bloggers share these stories. We quote the texts. I stream movies and TV shows every weekend in the Arthurian Theater Server. We make connections from one creation to the next. You can see the web of inspirations all interconnecting. Then we branch off into our own new interpretations based on the foundations of these creations that came before. I don't know how popular an opinion this is, but I think that goes beyond "head canon," because there is no canon. Arthuriana is a continuously flowing font made up of tiny beads of details. The stories can only function with the existence of the others. It's not derivative in the same sense as one drawing a little too heavily from their favorite childhood fantasy novel. This tradition dates back hundreds of years. We're just continuing it with the technology of our time.

You want to focus on "villains." But I wonder—Is Morgan le Fay's character beholden to a specific source? How do we determine what that is? If one chooses to write Morgan le Fay sympathetically, or even outright benevolent, is she still a "villain?" Is she still Morgan le Fay? Personally, I think we should respect what came before us, and consider how that impacts the new addition we intend to create. Change Morgan too much and she ceases to be recognizable as Morgan, and I'm here to read about Morgan! I think it's important to maintain the same resonance which has kept us interested for so many centuries. And yet the basis for sweeping changes is all around us. Just as Morgan plotted to kill Arthur and seize his throne, she also rode by his side in the boat to Avalon, where he sleeps still. The range of possibilities is vast beyond imagination. So go wild and get creative, I'm not your mom.

I don't know if that answers your questions or not lol. You're welcome to send me another ask or a private message if you want to talk more.

I also open up this question to my followers for a larger sample size—What do you guys think?

Thanks for the ask and have a great day!

[soul-dwelling]

In an interview, Ohkubo said he had an ending for Fire Force in mind since the very beginning, and it had to do with how Shinra's name relates to the concept of all creation.

As I've said, creators can lie about their intentions. Based on what I have seen in the Fire Force manga, from Chapter 0 to the end, I just don't think he actually planned from the very beginning for that manga to ever be a Soul Eater prequel. Whenever he got the idea for this to be a prequel, I think the earliest would have been when suddenly he reveals Fire Force used to be the real world.

And all of this, and the misery of trying to get through that manga, and the misery of the Assault chapters, and now what feels like a threat of another chapter in this story--the fact that this troll creator may not actually be retiring and may now make a story that takes place in between Fire Force and Soul Eater...

...I can't do this.

I'm not interested in this.

It really makes me want to not post on this blog anymore, and just not read anything else he puts out.

It all makes me want to leave this fandom and not come back. I'm not saying that as a promise necessarily, but I do say it as something I'm considering.

(I wouldn't disappear from the face of the Internet: I have enough other platforms and Tumblr blogs I write on.)

If the point was for Shinra to fix this world by creating a new one, there is nothing before Benimaru changed the Moon that screamed "he will create the Soul Eater world."

"But what about all the foreshadowing?"

Please, I'm begging you, get off of the "foreshadowing" nonsense.

When half of the stuff is foreshadowing (the Moon changed, Haumea's third eye, Shinra creating Lord Death, Excalibur coming into being) and half of it is just there (Spirit showing up, the Lord Death symbols including those on Kurono's outfit, Maki's flames looking like Soul and Maka), it was never spelled out, and I just can't imagine it was planned from the beginning.

And if it was planned from the beginning, it didn't turn out well, when I just pointed out that the so-called foreshadowing (barring maybe Benimaru and the Moon) only happened in the very final arc, and the rest of it were only references haphazardly tossed in since Chapter 0 that you can be forgiven for seeing it as only references because, re-reading the manga from Chapter 0, none of it is strictly foreshadowing and doesn't help set up much of anything in Soul Eater. What, was Spirit just always there and somehow also in the present? Did the Lord Death symbols on Kurono's attire inspire the look Shinra gave Lord Death? What, did Shinra see Maki's flames and think "Oh, more than 800 years from now I'll create two kids that look like that?"

I'm not saying a different ending, where Shinra does create a new world, just not the one from Soul Eater, would be more eye-catching (or, as the more cynical members of the fandom are obsessing with, "better business practices because LOL Ohkubo knows how to market"--Jesus, you people sound like you're promoting that orange dipshit who was in the White House as a "good marketer").

If Shinra just created a new world, any world, and it was just a better world, it may not get the attention. But at least that ending wouldn't be trying to appeal to nostalgia and reduce the entire series to a Soul Eater footnote.

Granted, this could change: that awful post-chapter teaser, drawn by Ohkubo and featuring himself and his editor, just screams that, yeah, we are probably getting Soul World as a story covering what happens after Fire Force and before Soul Eater NOT--and I'm not here for this. At this point, I would rather stop posting on this blog than read or write about another iteration in this story.

If Soul World comes about, I have zero interest in buying it, I have almost no interest in reading it, I really don't want to talk about it or post about it here. I would rather not update this fan site and just go about with anything else for the rest of my life than see this hack coast on Soul Eater after the fuck-ups that were Chapter 113, the Assault chapters, and now this asinine prequel garbage. I don't want to give money or attention to someone that, ethically, I can't agree with: I think Ohkubo is a misogynistic, I think that soapbox rant by the little kid against his mother was one of the most sexist things I have read in recent comics, and I do not feel comfortable being in a fandom that would give a pass to this shit.

So, fuck it: if Soul World comes, I'm probably leaving the fandom. I'll go back to watch Soul Eater when I'll feel like, I'll enjoy older fan content, I may even just write stuff for my own enjoyment, and I'll still work on collaborative fan projects. But I really don't want to try to read new stuff or watch old stuff when I just feel triggered trying to sit through the work of someone that I think is creating toxic work. I don't want to think, "Oh, yeah, Soul Eater takes place in the same setting where Ohkubo stopped everything cold to body-shame an older person because he didn't think she was as hot as a 17-year-old." That's fucked up--it's not hard to see that is fucked up, right? And I don't want to inadvertently promote this guy or be misinterpreted as endorsing the shit he has done. I don't want to be associated with just how bad I think his work has gotten.

[sleepynegress]

WATCHMEN thoughts from a black woman fan...

Thought I’d do a quick rundown on all the eps so far, because this show has so much to chew on... 

And TBH, I am starved for a perspective that isn’t a smug white dude yelling “I CALLED IT!!” (yeah, fool that’s what good storytelling does *purposely* lay out crumbs on the path!) or “ugh, too lib.” The fact that we have this wonderful internet or a mass forum, means we lose the organic first watch experience that I remember from back in the day. So, too many try to outsmart shows by cheating and then smugly pat themselves on the back for “getting it”.   I’m saying, the point isn’t the twist or the gotcha. The point is good storytelling, which this show does ably.  So relax. You don’t get a cookie for “calling it” and you won’t get lambasted as stupid for not seeing it.   Just. Enjoy. The show.   ANYWAY...  You know I gotta put it beneath a cut and bullet it because my scatter-brain lays out things easier that way....

First LINDELOF?!  I mean LOST was okay and now I feel like I need to make a beeline to The Leftovers, because acting, writing, visuals, plot, food for the brain... All. here. in a genre (which you know is my favorite) package.

I picked up a copy of WATCHMEN on a whim waaay back in 2006 (?) in a dusty used book store I used to frequent to just chill in my corner and read a stack.  And I remember having the exact same feeling reading it then *galaxy brain food entertainment goodness* as I’m having with this show...but sadly didn’t have with the movie.  The fact that people came away stanning the “heroes”?  Was a symptom of how wrong Snyder got it.

So, setting up this series sequel as a different type of hero deconstruction, using blackness, especially given how fandom swerves to ignore all the story cues to stan a white villain...is a BRILLIANT way to make certain the show keeps the essence of what WATCHMEN is about. Basically, Lindelof used blackness and race as his own Trieu empathy bomb for what WATCHMEN is actually about. It’s harder to stan Rorschach as a symbol for white supremacy

....I’m saying... white men ain’t supposed to be good at this... Hey, IDK maybe being Jewish helps...wow. he actually is handling the all the layers of black experience allegory and ancestral memory/trauma *soooo* damn well.

*whew!* So Yahya, is this gorgeous, amazingly smart black actor who is picking some interesting projects!!  He’s like MBJ, w/o the anime hotep taint, in terms of projects he’s picking. LOVED this reveal. 

Someone posted that they wanted that whole centuries of longing love cliche with a black woman centered... *whelp*  How about one better, where time don’t even exist??

It must be re-iterated that the work and thought put into all the easter eggs of connections is just so much hand-rubbingly, awesome, world-building and minutiae food for fans... and most especially and uniquely... “empathy” in the black experience... such as...

the existence of an actual 70′s blaxploitation movie called, and I shit you not: Abar, the First Black Superman

Her husband being Cal (as in Kal -El)

Laurie always thinking Cal is fine, because her subconscious knew!

Her blue dildo being from a company called Excalibur, --Ex. Cal Abar

Cal’s very straight conversation about atheism with the kids

Cal’s eternal calm

the much more resonant imbued meaning in Hooded Justice’s costume now that he’s actually black

the fact that this show went there, when it comes to specifically, white gays and a twist on that Paul Mooney quote “Everybody wanna be [in with] a nigga but don’t nobody wanna be a nigga.”

the latest with... intra-racial dynamics with non-white people, whiteness and assimilation being touched on with that flash of nostalgia-hazed memory of Angela seeing Will being bagged at the same moment as the bomber who killed her parents... which I think foreshadows both the common cause and complicated morality of Trieu’s ultimate cooperative plan with Will Reeves.

REALLY all of the nostalgia flashes have meaning...they are all narrative underlines for character motives and hints of what is to come.

UM!!! That elephant is such spot-on symbolism because the real Lady Trieu  was said to have ridden a white one, and because all the things they say about elephants and memory are true... 10 pound brains, people (but I did not like seeing an elephant in that state)

Okay... so back to the show: Looking Glass remains the most trustworthy of the whites on the show IMO.  Remember, he joined AFTER the White Night. And he has infiltrated the Kalvary, because one of the masks was missing... And purely because “I would like to see it” (.gif) I really hope they provide a full recount of how he dispatched the Kalvary in his bunker.

Laurie is my girl, with all her elder cynicism and remaining longing for her cosmic fuckboy...(and she should NOT be underestimated I KNOW she has a plan) but I think her feelings for the Dr. may cause a stumble or two (maybe that’s why she was slow getting up off the couch)

Angela remains a Regina King whose character has subverted the whole SBW thing by actually have a fully realized character beyond it (love, children, a damn life!) . HELL, we didn’t even *see it* fully until this last ep but yeah...man... she is the dream and nightmare of her grandfather.

I still really want to know what the adopted kids backgrounds are... I feel like of all the theories online...Everyone has forgotten them and given the heavy theme around fertility, cloning, reproduction, memory as empathy AND her son saying to Angela in the first damn ep. (I hit him because you wanted to hit him) etc... I think there may be more *there*-there. Okay... I’ve written enough for now... So, I’m just gonna call his a placeholder for any thoughts I may have forgotten, because I could do this all day.  I’ll add/edit later as I need to. That said, it bugs me so much that this fandom isn’t thriving as much as other lesser shows featuring black women.  Pleease get onboard with this show!!

I both liked and had complicated feelings about the dynamic between child Angela and Officer Jen (can’t wait to learn more about her) because what she saw in the girl, was the pain redirected into resilience and indifference to the violent end of the perpetrator, w/o a trial(!) mind you... which adds up to potential to be a good cop...*mmhmm*

Adrian Veidt is the least interesting aspect of the show for me, albeit weird and funny (I missed our boy Scar, in Jeremy Irons) his prison is surreal and imaginative and Tom and Sarah are both doing great jobs playing the dim imprints of empty-until-filled clones

Most think HE is Trieu’s father and I have to say what her mother-daughter said to Angela gives credence to that. I could see her having the same kind of conversation with Veidt and coming to a conversational space with Veidt’s plan for humanity. Also “D” is the first letter in “daughter”

[aheartofwood]

the king arthur movie is SO BAD, guys.

imagine a baby and a kitten got together and tried to edit a movie with only the vaguest idea of arthurian legend based on the backs of the VHS of the disney version and also the lion king for some reason, and also the barest idea of how human brains can accept and understand editing and narrative. imagine a pretty good video game opening for 2001, but watched thru the haze of a really strenuous flu and it’s rented and ancient and was chewed up by at least two dogs so it’s glitching a lot. imagine a knight’s tale……………Reimagined™ (needlessly) by a team of randos who only speak italian and their ideas are being translated by jen from the IT crowd in that one episode where she pretends she can speak italian. imagine a movie with a budget of four dollars (except the budget was HUGE). imagine an opium dream within a dream of robert downey jr’s 2009 sherlock holmes where jude law becomes a boring, leathery king who has a bad habit of constantly sacrificing the silent women he supposedly loves to an undulating pile of lovecraftian horror water ladies that live in his shame toilet in his penis tower basement ONLY to super saiyan into a really bad DnD dude with a motorcycle-insignia-metal skull head and the torso of two The Rocks smashed together (sorry, The Rock) instead of (a much better) watson. imagine eragon, but somehow exceedingly, fremdschamenly, schadenfreudingly worse. not many things get both german expressions, in a gleefully terrible adverb form at that, but this movie——oh, THIS movie——-deserves them. 

the letters of the opening credits roll (or creep?) across the screen. the kerning is bad. all the T’s have a phallic, buffylike, sword motif going on and it renders the names unreadable. the colors and the blurry shots look like something out of monty python. again, who hired this editor? who watched this movie, kissed their fingertips like an italian grandma, and gently set this eldritch horror adrift on the tides of eternity to be received with fear and loathing by millions of human eyes? the elephants from lord of the rings attack the bridge from legend of zelda, and that red flamey eye guy from eragon (mordred, for some reason, in a shake n bake wig) ?? or possibly from inkheart?? is defeated. remember, we know nothing about these characters. feel nothing for them. and the trend continues. katie mcgrath appears, of course, in her standard and splendid emerald green, and then immediately dies. none of the shots in the first 20 minutes of the movie match up, we go from scenes with several people to ultra close ups of faces—-it’s like the “mmmm whatcha say” SNL skit, but serious. the movie continues to not know if it’s playing itself seriously or if it knows how bad it truly is (how bad me be?)

finally we get ONE establishing shot of a sweeping wall (maybe? the camera never stays still enough to tell) and the audience (five people) grounds ourselves, sort of. we get a whip-fast, but not whip-smart, super evolution of arthur’s childhood, in which he shoves coins into a wall (see kids!!! if u just put YR COINS IN YR WALLS instead of BUYING GODDAMN AVOCADOS, U COULD HAVE A CASTLE!!!!) and hearkens back to his character in pacific rim, bc he’s just a scrappy, vaguely appropriative white guy that loves 2 fight stuff. oh, his mom is killed when he’s young ofc. charlie hunnam eventually fucks off to the island w the sword in the sort-of stone (none of the physics makes sense in this movie?? the sword in the stone dropped into a lake, but is now in a chasm on a different island which shows no sign of the ruins of arthur’s childhood town?? in the final fight scene, charlie hunnam is several floors up from scythe-y jude law, but then suddenly they’re fighting on the top of saruman’s tower  scuse me at the whipping sea-level, then suddenly BACK IN THE TOWER bc i guess it wasn’t destroyed????? bc then it gets destroyed again??) of course, charlie hunnam is the One Man who can Grip the penis sword, even though in an interesting turn of events, They are Testing Everyone by shipping them in boats to the island (this seems like an egregious waste of resources). charlie hunnam got in this unfortch sitch bc i forgot, but the guy who put him on the boat chuckled darkly and said he was “”””getting on a different boat””””, but like, doesn’t everyone end up there?? it had the air of the DMV, on purpose, so why was this a threat? how did he avoid it for so long? are there that many people in the kingdom??? also, if i was him i’d straight up pretend i couldn’t lift it tbh and come back for it when They were getting donuts. oh, another inkheart thing—the BLONDE MOM SURVIVES (!!!??? somehow???? unexplained? she had a HOLE THRU HER BODY??) and maybe has memory loss or something and spends her days being somehow indispensable to jude law despite doing nothing but moving a plate. 

i cannot explain the rest of the plot, because i do not understand it. charlie hunnam just EXPERIENCES things with a world-weary, almost kingly worldliness, despite flashing in between being an innocent farm boy who doesn’t wanna do anything and a self-assured wisecracking hustler. there are some good jokes about boring white dude names in a medieval setting, and no more humor forever is allowed in this movie or any movies ever again. a chris parnell lookalike with a hat says he can shoot 75 yards but not 175, then shoots 175 with absolutely no introduction/buildup/continuance/jokes and spends the rest of the film as robin hood. there are some other dudes?????? more women (the brothel ladies that rescue arthur from the river ((not unlike….the prince of egypt…..)) are killed to further manpain, including lucy, who is Special for an unexplained reason. jude law murders his daughter (i guess???), who has a russian name and a tendency to sit around and stroke birds and stare sappily out the window (i feel u, johanna). everyone is wearing medieval versions of suits. there are many iterations of snake, ranging from economy-sized snake to a Giant Fuckmaster Snake Mother. at least five cloaks are cast off. eric bana becomes a literal rock. everything has the vague, shuddering feeling of an improv show where everyone wants the final word/bit. there is grit, there is dirt, there is snake blood, and there is clanking. so much clanking. charlie hunnam is bravely hurling one-liners but no one is listening. what is the sound of only one hand on excalibur???? apparently not as powerful as…………T W O hands on excalibur. 

the editing continues to be bizarre. they keep trying to do the inception thing where they talk about the plan while showing the plan, therefore (in inception, correctly) allowing us to get to the good parts, but there ARE NO GOOD PARTS or even parts at all and they don’t fully commit to the dang method anyway. the shining light of the film, an unnamed mage woman with good bone structure and sweet harem pants (and who COULD have at least been set up as morwen but was not) who can possess animals and also make a lot of dust fly around behind her, becomes charlie hunnam’s spiritual guide?? sort of?? maybe love interest??? she seems to have no interest in him or inhabiting the worldly narrative/plane of this movie. i do not blame her. anyway, she’s got the eagles from LOTR on her side. she dopes the shit out of charlie hunnam (again, why) with a literal snake and he solves his daddy/uncle issues (line @ jude law: “”””you created me”””””) in an incomprehensible nonlinear part of the narrative (she was captured, but i guess jude law let her go before hunnam got to the castle???? bc he’s Not So Bad After All? bc he was bored? eating a sandwich? fuck idk so she could have met him in the middle of fuck knows? i mean if they have medieval lyft or medieval twitter DMing or something??)  also, he may or may not have gone to a ””””””DARK””””””””island, but he did NOT solve his daddy issues there. he did, however, fight some rodents of unusual size from the princess bride. 

ok that is all the energy i have; this movie has sapped me, i am nothing in the great maw of its terribleness. other stuff happens. we have a happy ending, with 4/6ths of the Round Table built (literally and figuratively), and some Vikings conceding to charlie hunnam for no other reason than he’s a bro, i guess. line: how do u scam money out of a viking? u talk to them. SEE MILLENNIALS ALL U HAVE TO DO IS TALK AND PPL GIVE U MONEY or be born the true heir to the throne of (fake england). 

the worst part is that i don’t understand how jude law, who is 44, looks the same the entire movie and watches as charlie hunnam, who is 37, grows up and eventually challenges him. eric bana, who is 48, doubtlessly had fictional charlie hunnam arthur at like 27-35, making jude law the same age in that fiction. i guess men can just ???? play any age????????? forever??????? honorable mentions: the soundtrack, jude law’s eyeshadow, and the preview for atomic blonde. 

[fire-dwelling]

Fire Force, Chapter 74: “Lightning Long Sword”

Translated from Japanese to Portuguese to English

Page 2

Narration: “The Eighth infiltrated the Nether, but was separated by the white clothes. Hinawa defeated Arrow but exhausted all his power and was attacked by Mirage. At this time, who appears ...?!”

Caption on the image: “Horse in the place of deer? Why deer? Yes! Because it is a word suitable for a rider! A sense of divine white! After all horse and pegasus are also the beloved horses of a rider!”

Page 3

Mirage and Jonah turn around to see the top of Arthur’s head poking out of debris that fell from the floor above.

Narration: “Hinawa in danger! But who appears from the sky ?!”

Mirage: “This head…”

Jonah: “Is that a person?!”

Arthur’s head pops up.

Arthur: “Fuh.”

Page 4

Arthur lifts his arms, knocking all the debris away, as he stands, a hand on his hip.

Arthur: “Descending from the heavens...Born from the earth. And traveling through both...Ha ha. I am a knight.”

In a flashback, we see Takehisa looking up at a hole in the ceiling, where only Arthur’s eye appears in the darkness.

Hinawa: “!!!”

Arthur: (thinking) “This is the biggest noise down below ... What is this?...”

In the present, Takehisa, still recovering against a pillar, calls to Arthur.

Takehisa: “I saw someone peeking from the ceiling. That's why I knocked down the ceiling, and you with it.”

Arthur: “So, the one who call me down from the sky was you, Captain?”

Page 5

Takehisa: “Do I really need to explain the situation?”

Arthur: *pulling up his hood* “No, you do not. These are the ones who attacked Vulcan’s workshop.”

Jonah looks concerned.

Jonah: “M-Mirage, I’m counting on you.”

Mirage lowers their hood over their face, summoning fog and wielding a blade.

Mirage: “So it’s you again? Then my heat will defeat you again.”

Page 6

The fog returns, shadowy copies of Mirage appearing around Arthur. Arthur stares forward, not looking at the shadows.

Arthur: “Does this idiot only know one trick?”

From the shadows, Mirage calls out.

Mirage: “With this, it is over…”

Mirage brings their blade to the back of Arthur.

Mirage: “Die!”

Page 7

Mirage slices through Arthur--without cutting him. And that’s because this iteration of Mirage is another illusion. Arthur stands, still unfazed.

Mirage: “...” (thinking: “He didn’t budge…”)

Arthur grips his scabbard, holding it to his side.

Page 8

Arthur remembers practicing with Benimaru and Konro.

Arthur: (thinking: “During that attack, I did not feel the weight of his life…”)

Benimaru: “On a battlefield you have to sense lives. Otherwise, there's no way to improve.”

Konro and Arthur continue to practice with their swords.

Konro: “Do not be deceived by images or movements! Stop any attack that threatens your life!”

Back in the present, Arthur prepares to unsheathe Excalibur.

Arthur: (thinking) “I can not improve if I do not sense life…”

Page 9

Arthur’s hood lowers, his topknot popping up again.

Arthur: (thinking: “I now have the ability of a samurai. I have a double profession.”)

As his fingers begin to wrap around Excalibur, Arthur now appears with a bit of straw sticking out of his mouth and his eyes closed.

Arthur: “I am the knight samurai!”

Page 10

Arthur opens his eyes.

Arthur: (thinking: “Wait...Concentrate...If I'm a samurai knight, does that mean I'm a samurai? ... What does that mean?...Ah...Yes! It's the opposite!”)

Arthur closes his eyes again, his hand still on Excalibur--and the straw back in his mouth.

Arthur: (thinking: “I am the samurai knight!”)

Page 11

Arthur holds Excalibur in the fog. He remembers again Konro.

Konro: “You watch movements too much. Don’t be fooled by any small movement.”

Back in the present, Arthur senses a shadow moving behind him--and lets it slice at him, revealing this iteration of Mirage is another illusion.

Arthur: (thinking: “What the eyes see is not everything.”)

Page 12

Mirage watches Arthur.

Mirage: (thinking: “He still did not move...He sensed they were only heat illusions. Is he pretending to see through them?”)

More shadows approach Arthur.

Mirage: (thinking: “So! If an armies of these attacked...he’d have to find the original among them!”)

The multiple iterations of Mirage descend from above onto Arthur.

Page 13

The illusions slice through Arthur.

Mirage: (thinking: “But they are all heat illusions! They’re all fake!”)

Arthur stares forward through the strikes. He remembers sparring with Benimaru, and his advice.

Benimaru: “A true attack, capable of taking your life, has a peculiar breath. Read that breath of life!”

Page 14

Benimaru kicks Arthur in the face.

Benimaru: “So stupid!”

Back in the present, Arthur continues seeking out Mirage’s life force.

Arthur: (thinking: “The breath that will try to take my life...The breath of life…”)

The real Mirage sees Arthur through the fog, pulling their blade and sending it at Arthur.

Mirage: (thinking: “I won’t get close to you until you are in my clutches. But when you let your guard down...I’ll end your life with this blade. Shooting from the shadows. Starting…”)

Page 15

Arthur's eyes open with a start.

Arthur: "!!! A breath of life!”

He removes Excalibur.

Page 16

Arthur: “It’s that one!”

Arthur swings Excalibur so widely, its flame cutting through the fog.

Page 17

In fact, the flame cuts so wide it slices through the pillar behind Takehisa--who had to duck just enough to avoid being sliced. Arthur stands before the pillar.

Takehisa: “...Damn it! You’re trying to slice me apart just because I breathed?!”

Arthur: “Heh. Don’t conclude so hastily: I’m a samurai knight!”

Page 18

A blade falls behind the pillar where Takehisa sits. Takehisa looks behind--and sees leaning against the pillar Mirage, sliced along the chest with Excalibur’s flames.

Mirage: “It...can’t be…”

Mirage collapses.

Arthur: “He was planning to attack you, not me...What a cheater.”

Page 19

Arthur helps up Takehisa.

Arthur: “Can you get up?”

Takehisa: “Good work. What about the other one?”

Arthur: “He left his friend behind...And what even is he? Is he human?”

Takehisa: “His face looked artificial...But what did you sense was inhuman about him?”

Arthur and Takehisa begin walking.

Arthur: “First, we need to reunite you with the others.”

Takehisa: “Okay. Lead the way.”

Elsewhere, in another hall…

Page 20

Giovanni chuckles, as Lisa / Feeler has her fire tentacles around Akitaru and Vulcan.

Giovanni: “Kukuku. Did they, those without skills, really think could defeat us?”

Vulcan: “Lisa…”

Narrator: “While their comrades are winning one fight after another, can a sincere heart reach Lisa? Now begins the battle between the commanders: Obi vs Giovanni! To be continued in Chapter 75: ‘The Pride of the Fire Brigade’!”

[aion-rsa]

X-POSITION: Marc Guggenheim Gets Back To Basics With X-Men Gold

ResurrXion is upon us, and readers have now experienced the debut issues of the X-Men line’s new flagship titles. With its release last week, “X-Men Gold” #1 featured a return to form for Marvel’s mutants as the new lineup, led by Kitty Pryde, took on Terrax and proved to the world that the X-Men are still in the business of saving the day. Thanks to the book’s twice-a-month shipping schedule, readers will get to see where Marc Guggenheim takes the team next in a fast fashion.

RELATED: X-Men Gold: The New Brotherhood X-Plained

This week in X-POSITION, “X-Men Gold” writer Marc Guggenheim returns and answers all of your questions about the new team, the potential for an Excalibur reunion and more. This interview was also conducted prior to the recent controversy surrounding “X-Men Gold” artist Ardian Syaf.

CBR News: Welcome back to X-POSITION, Marc! Let’s start with a big picture question from Anduinel.

On a project like this, where the theme is explicitly “back to basics,” how do you judge which elements of the franchise should be considered classic enough to bring back to the forefront intact, which ones to update, and which ones perhaps haven’t aged so well over the decades?

Terrific question. For me, the most important element of the franchise to bring back is the notion that the X-Men are heroes working to protect a world that hates and fears them. That conceit is my north star and it drives all the other creative choices. Admittedly, some of those creative choices are driven by my own sense of what’s “classic,” my own sense of nostalgia. The team lineup is probably the best example of that. The first issue of “X-Men” that I ever read was “Uncanny” #139. With the exception of Rachel (and, if one wants to quibble, Old Man Logan), the lineup I chose for “Gold” is drawn from what, for me, was a seminal read.

That said, I think there’s a reason why a lot of elements of the franchise have endured and even thrived for decades. I see my job mainly as presenting those elements as best I can, in the most interesting ways I can. That’s the other piece of the “back to the basics approach” — reducing the X-Men back down to their core conceits — returning to “first principles,” as it were — then building up from there.

There’s another classic team that your lineup resembles, and Askanipsion has a question about it.

Thank you for having Kitty, Kurt and Rachel on the team. Any chance we will get a reunion with Brian Braddock & Meggan?

Totally a possibility. I love “Excalibur.” I thought it was such an interesting premise for an X-book. And I’d love the opportunity to revisit the history that Kitty, Kurt and Rachel have with Brian and Meggan.

It’s a real testament to the strength of the X-Men franchise that there are so many beloved characters. I feel like I could write the book for as long as Chris Claremont did and never get to them all.

With the X-Men now acting as public heroes, Valamist has a question about the role “X-Men Gold” plays in the Marvel Universe.

Given how a part of Kitty’s plan as leader seems to be making the X-Men into more recognizable heroes to the world, is there any plans to see the “Gold” team interact with the wider MU? Such as the Avengers, Defenders etc?

Absolutely. Kitty moved the X-Men to Central Park so they wouldn’t be segregated off from the rest of society, and that includes the various other heroes of the Marvel Universe. The first example of this will be in Issue #6.

Next up, Maestroneto wants to know more about one of the book’s potential romantic subplots.

How are we supposed to feel about Colossus’ feelings over Kitty? He’s moved into her room when she left to get married and now he’s hanging around her. Is this supposed to be romantic or creepy?

Oh, boy.

Thanks to my work on “Arrow,” I’ve got a little familiarity with how everyone’s mileage varies when it comes to romantic subplots. For some fans — not all, but some — relationship storylines are these Rorschach tests where people see what they want to see in the story. I can absolutely see where some people might find Peter’s behavior creepy, while others find him extremely romantic. And I’m sure that there are other people who would place his behavior somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. I will say that my intention isn’t to turn Peter into “creepy stalker guy.” Make of that what you will — so long as my Twitter isn’t full of “Guggenheim thinks creepy behavior is romantic” mentions…

Don’t “@” him! Moving on, we have a question from Purplevit about a certain Ragin’ Cajun.

Will Gambit join the Gold team or just appear as guest star? Did you like to write him?

For the moment, he’s just a guest star — albeit a pivotal one — in our second arc. But I love Gambit and he’s enormously fun to write. He’s got buckets of charisma and a devil-may-care attitude that defies you not to like him.

“X-Men: Gold” #4 cover by Ardian Syaf

Since “X-Men Gold” is set at the school, ţh€ €жţяą-๏яďɨɲąя¥ Tycon wants to know if we’ll see one student in particular.

Considering some of the X-Men graduated, most of them seem to be heading out with other teams or ending up back at the school. One glaring problem is the missing members of the New X-Men — especially Dust, who we haven’t seen have an important role since “Schism.” I know you loved using Dust in “Young X-Men,” so is there a chance we may see her soon in “X-Men Gold”?

You’re right, I love Dust. And I think given the current political climate, it’s more important than ever to include a Muslim in the X-Men’s ranks. My hope is to get her into the book for our “Secret Empire” tie-in.

Here’s a question from Steroid about a character you did use in “X-Men Gold” #1 — although not in the way people expected.

Loved the first issue. My question is what made you go with the decision to create a new Pyro instead of resurrecting the classic old one?

First, thank you. Glad you enjoyed the first issue.

Second, great question. The answer lies in the fact that Daniel Ketchum and I share a great affection for Pyro and Avalanche. Both of us wanted to see them represented in some way on the roster of the New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? (Or is that New New New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? It’s hard to keep track.) But Pyro and Avalanche both being dead presented something of a problem, as you might imagine. It made more sense to me to create new iterations of them rather than have dual resurrections. Also, when the truth comes out about the New Brotherhood, I think you’ll see why it made more sense to have new iterations of Pyro and Avalanche.

Our next question comes from Scott. (EDITOR’S NOTE: This X-POSITION interview was conducted before recent news broke about “X-Men Gold” artist Ardian Syaf.)

You’ve got an aggressive release schedule for “X-Men Gold,” coming out every two weeks. How are the art duties being split up? Will Ardian Syaf be just churning out a book a fortnight? Seems unlikely. Rotating artists? One arc each? I know it’s a little “inside baseball” but I haven’t seen anything about any other artists being involved.

Well, lemme tell ya! We have a murderer’s row of rotating artists. RB Silva is drawing our second arc and Ken Lashley is drawing our third arc.

“X-Men Gold” #7 cover by Ken Lashley

Here’s a question from Kamose1234 about the franchise’s central metaphor.

In issue #1 we saw the Gold team express some anger over the renewed racism against them, but will they have to deal with it more forcefully given Ms. Nance’s organization? As a person of color, I’ve always appreciated the X-Men’s fight against intolerance and I feel we need to see more of this given today’s real world condition.

I absolutely agree with you. I think the X-Men franchise is at its best when it holds a mirror up to real world events. That’s absolutely what I’m trying to do with “Gold,” albeit without turning the book into a polemic. You guys will tell me if I’ve struck the right balance.

As to your question, I think what makes the X-Men so heroic is that they don’t get angry in the face of prejudice and bigotry. Rather, they respond with greater resolve. You’ll see a confrontation between the X-Men and Lydia Nance sooner than you might expect. It might be my favorite moment of my run thus far.

And we’ll close out this week with a question from Chad about one character fans want to see more of.

Will Magik be making an appearance? During the “Prime” issue, Kitty tells her she has a job for her to do….was it to bring the X-Mansion back? Will she still serve with the team? I need you to say “yes”!

The “job” was certainly to move the X-Mansion from Limbo to Central Park, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Illyana. At the moment, I have her in the script I’m writing presently. We have so many great characters to play with, things can and do change as this stage of the writing, but I promise you haven’t seen the last of Magik.

Special thanks to Marc Guggenheim for taking on this week’s questions!

Keep checking CBR for information about the next X-POSITION!

The post X-POSITION: Marc Guggenheim Gets Back To Basics With X-Men Gold appeared first on CBR.

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