#cont'd. an easy choice to make

[brainrotcharacters]

I feel as if I'm the only one who caught it, so

Adamantium katanas. I need you to hear me. Adamantium katanas.

There's something so 🏳️‍🌈nice🏳️‍🌈 about how it's the one material Logan has known for his entire mutation... And it's actively being wielded now, by a similarly skilled dual wielder mwah ily Wade, with the intention of severely harming Logan. Debilitating injury is the next best thing to guaranteed death, and they're both flattered that the other is trying so determinedly to kill them. Like awwww baby!

And and anddddddddd 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 the balance of how Wade has more range with his adamantium but Logan has more power/experience with his. What good is Wade's speed and agility when Logan can read every single fucking one of his moves?

Logan realistically missed some but I'm tryna make the old man sound cool here. Let me have this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, there's a total of one (1) other opponent who has adamantium. That badass lady with the cracking fingers in x2. That's one (1) other experience where Logan knows what adamantium feels like when it's used against you.

This fight was another nail in the coffin of the fact that Wade and Logan are either complementary or just straight HAHA equals.

Something Logan has intimately known, in the use of someone he hasn't intimately known yet. That Honda hatefuck was the climax in more ways than one sorry.

[k-s-morgan]

Hi there ! You are doing a great job analysis the most difficult sections. Now while I am fully with you on evolution of Will and Hannibal's relationship, I have some doubts about your last long meta on her darkness. Kudos again for putting it all together !! I don't think Will mistreated Molly or that he knew Hannibal would attack. Will didn't lie to his wife, there were some white lies, lies of omission to protect them. Cont'd. Part 2

I saw that he truly loved them but Hannibal's pull overpowered everything. Will created his own safe sanctuary, Jack breaches it and he looks at his family and had to go and once that door was opened he was helpless.. and Hannibal overpowers him. How could he imagine the attack Hannibal safely stowed away in underground cell. Also there were many motivations behind murder suicide - love foremost, also other things like safety for everyone including his family ( representative of innocent lives)

-----------------

Hello! Thank you, I’m glad you enjoy my metas)) As for your points - let’s address them in sequence.

The Dragon Attack

I’m not claiming Will knew Hannibal would attack Molly 100% - I agree with you that in a way, Will cared about his family, even if superficially. However, it’s a strong possibility because Hannibal’s hints are very, very blatant in that scene. First, he says this:

Hannibal: When you close your eyes, Will, is it your family you see?

Then Will asks:

Will: Do you know who they are?

Hannibal: Yes. Will: And you're willing to let them die. Hannibal: They're not my family, Will. And I'm not letting them die. You are.

The logic here is very clear - Hannibal doesn’t take responsibility for what it is about to happen because it’s not his family that’s being targeted. He claims that Will, on the other hand, is responsible - it’s elementary to suggest that in this case, Will’s family is about to be killed. It’s like 2 + x = 4, with everyone understanding what ‘x’ means. Not to mention that Will is supposed to be a great profiler with a particular understanding of Hannibal. 

He could easily guess that Hannibal could plan the attack because at this point, he knows Hannibal is in contact with Francis to the point of knowing who the targeted family is going to be. So to be honest, it’s pretty unbelievable to me that Will honestly had no idea. The whole situation is strange from another angle, too - if Will suggested that Hannibal knows what family will be killed, then he knows Francis and Hannibal had discussions about it. What did he imagine Francis said? “Hey, I’ll attack the Jonson family in Virginia?” This information would be meaningless. So for Hannibal to make an emphasis on it, it’s clearly a family that has some specific relevance. 

Will also took this chance to leave his family and he focused on his relationship with Hannibal entirely after this, so I think a part of him, even a subconscious one, got all the hints but remained silent. But again, I’m willing to concede that it’s mostly up to interpretation. 

Marriage with Molly

I think lying about who you are is not a white lie, and it’s also not a lie aimed at protecting anyone. Molly would have never married Will if she knew he’s a killer who enjoys killing, someone who sided with a serial murderer like Hannibal on more than one occasion, someone who willingly engaged in cannibalism and body mutilations. She needed stability, not a facade. Unless WIll genuinely fell in love with someone and confessed the core truth about himself to this person, he shouldn’t have married. Molly and Walter didn’t deserve to be his rebound attempt, his experiment on whether he can be normal. 

When Molly jokes about his criminal mind, Will immediately shuts down and claims he doesn’t have one. It’s obvious that Molly knew only the official version of a hero Will with a gift of empathy - she never thought darkness is a serious, intimate, and painful topic for him.

From what was shown, Jack didn’t enter a sanctuary, he broke into a marriage as lifeless as the winter emptiness around Will when we see him again. As a contrast, in another Red Dragon adaptation, Jack comes when Will is genuinely happy with Molly and Walter. They are spending time together on the beach, they are laughing, they are having fun as a family, they are holding hands. This unity and happiness are absent in the show. Jack comes when Molly and Walter are away fishing, with Will choosing to stay behind even though fishing is his passion. It’s a deliberate choice and it says a lot. 

If Will wanted to go investigate the case just because of his family, then he would have done just that. Instead, he manipulated the situation by leaving Jack with Molly and letting him convince her so that she could introduce this idea to him later. He’s shifting the blame, and it’s a terrible thing to do. As the result, Molly blames herself for making him go later. Also, if Will’s primary concern was the case, he wouldn’t have run to Hannibal on the very first day when he didn’t need his help. He wouldn’t have sought out Bedelia to question her about her relationship with Hannibal. Will has selfish motivations, and Molly and Walter aren’t a part of them.

It would have been very easy to show them as a happy family. A few kisses here and there. “I love you” exchanged. Holding hands and smiling at each other as they walk, unable to look away. Will running to hug Walter in the hospital, to whisper something frantically and passionately to comfort him; Will crying and covering Molly’s limp hand with kisses at the hospital.

What we have instead is Will choosing to be alone, Will shutting Molly down, Will not returning her “I love you” and acting like a stranger with Walter. The best positive scenes they shared was at dinner and when they talked about Randy (before Will’s lies made him cut Molly down in the same conversation). We saw that they can laugh from silly jokes together and unite when taking care of dogs. They portray a pretty surface-level relationship and they don’t show that Will actually loves his family, especially when put into context. The ease with which he leaves them shows the depth of his real feelings.

TWOTL

Will doesn’t care about innocent lives or Molly with Walter at all here, so I’ll have to disagree. If he did, he would have gone with Jack’s plan. This would have ensured that only Hannibal and Francis die. Instead, Will betrayed Jack with Alana and conspired with Francis to break Hannibal free. He got innocent officers killed in the process with no regret. What happens next? Francis drives away, Hannibal also takes a car. What does Will do? Nothing. He doesn’t stop them. If Francis and Hannibal chose to escape without him, he would have set loose two monsters who targeted his family. But Will isn’t concerned about that - he’s concerned about Hannibal being free and them killing Francis together. He indicated to Bedelia he’s going to let Hannibal go after this, which is another indication that he wasn’t sure of the outcome. His actions took lives of many innocent people and only endangered Molly and Walter. 

Also, the whole Hannibal overpowers Will thing... It’s not like Hannibal forced him to do anything - they are equally dependent on each other because of their feelings. 

[luminousfinn]

what did you think of saw? i felt like his character had a lot of depth that was watered down for the sake of moving the plot or not addressed at all (like how he came to know lyra/galen). His death felt sloppy too considering he had fought the empire and suffered at its hands only to die on jedha when he could've left and cont'd on but i guess he'd been through enough? :/

I liked him better the second time around - one of my friends invited me to go watch Rogue One with her today and I decided on going because there were things I wanted to see and she could probably do with the emotional support (she’s not a very big Star Wars fan, but Carrie means the world to her). And yeah, the first time he made little sense because we get so little of him and his relationship with Jyn.

Watching the trailers again made me wonder, where did Saw’s iconic line go?

What will you do, when they catch you? What will you do when they break you? If you continue to fight, what will you become?

I think it might have been meant that he’d say it to Cassian, possibly to Jyn, but it’s no longer there. And it means that we get no real handle on Saw provided by the movie.

Because that line, whomever it was meant to be said to, is more than just a warning to a character, or a question to the audience about how far you can go in a war against a ruthless enemy that will stop at nothing and what the ultimate price may be. The line sums up Saw himself.

At some point before Rogue One the Empire caught him, they broke him, but he kept on fighting because there was no other choice. But what has doing that made him? 

Paranoid, for one thing. And I don’t mean that euphemistically btw, I’m quite literal. Saw suffers from paranoid delusions, it’s clear in his speech and his way of acting towards everyone, especially Jyn. But they cut out the line so the audience is left to find its own way to that conclusion and to Saw’s past.

(Frankly it’s so easy for Mon Mothma to get on her moral and ideological high horse and condemn Saw as an extremist. She haven’t been through what he has.)

Forest Whitaker does a brilliant job at portraying Saw, but without that stepping stone provided by the line and with Saw’s brief screentime, it’s left a bit up in the air and hard to catch unless you’re very attentive.

His death was a mess. I know why he had to die for the narrative, but it’s shoddy writing because it never makes sense from a character perspective. Particularly after they cut out that line. With the line you can sort of make the sense that Saw might been too broken to carry on anymore, but he doesn’t want to abandon the dream, the Rebellion, so he passes it on to Jyn and the others.

Speaking of Jyn and her relationship with Saw.

Watching the trailers seems to hint that Jyn was meant to be very different. That originally she was kind of a lone rebel type. I.e she doesn’t really believe in the Rebellion anymore, because after Saw left her she feels it abandoned her. But she still hates the Empire more, so she rebels solo, trusting no one. She’s in on this mission not for her dad (initially) or for Saw or anyone, she just wants to hurt the Empire any way she can.

In that light, Jyn and her progression starts making a hell of a lot more sense. But for unknown reasons they changed it and did so fairly late in the process, both of which means that she becomes a messy and inconsistent character.

I really wish the movie had dwelt more on the relationship between Saw and Jyn, I think it would have benefited both characters greatly. As it stands, Saw really got the short end of the stick.

[adapea-blog]

BABY

1 INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY

1

MAX (24) sits in front of a white desk. He is the client, and it is obvious in his youthful look. He's fidgeting with a pamphlet in his hands, much to ASPEN's dismay.

Aspen (24) sits next to Max, and is the polar opposite. She's calmly watching DR. ROWANDA ZELF, and has an aura of professionalism around her. Aspen has lilac skin and white hair, with small white diamond-like markings on her forehead where her hairline is.

Rowanda (46) sits behind the desk. She is wearing an all white suit and looks every bit like a real estate agent- she knows how to cater to her clients. She is holding a sheet of paper in front of her, occasionally humming and 'ah'ing. She tucks her blonde hair behind her ear, revealing it to be pointed and elf-like.

                   ROWANDA          Okay. So, you're completely sure

this is your final decision on the baby's personality? You're sure you want her to be this introverted? Seventy five percent is a lot...

                   MAX          Yes. We know that.

ROWANDA

Aspen?

                   ASPEN          Yes. We do actually agree on some

things.

The group all chuckle quietly, an awkward tension mulling over them. Rowanda then pushes away from the desk and leaves through a back door, and Aspen and Max examine the room.

                   MAX          I'm so excited, I can't wait to get

         my hands on our baby.

Max takes Aspen's hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. Aspen smiles tightly and hums in insincere

  agreement. Rowanda emerges from the door and smiles   brightly at the two who are still sat in the chairs. She   walks over to a door behind them and opens it.

                      ROWANDA             This way, please.

2 INT. CUSTOMISATION GALLERY - DAY

2

The two follow Rowanda into a spacious white room. Across the left wall are three dimly lit tubes that contain 'pre- made' babies in them. Another one is empty. Aspen looks at them with some distaste, and Max like a kid in a candy shop, as Rowanda leads the couple across to the first tube, waving her hand out as she presents it.

                   ROWANDA          We offer bespoke packages for pre-

         made models, starting at five          thousand onward. This is MODEL          KROY: features include translucent          wings, pointed ears and these          beautiful markings.

Rowanda points to the baby, Max leans in for a closer look, nodding as they squint to see through the dark tube.

                   ROWANDA (CONT'D)          It's known to most people as the

         'Fairy'. Then, moving on, we have          the 'MERMAID.'

Rowanda leads Max to the next tube on the left.

                   ROWANDA (CONT'D)          Features include tail, gills, and          more beautiful markings. The tail

         only appears when submerged in          water, so it can walk on land.          Colourings vary from each model-          where the fairy is more natural and          earthy, people with the mermaid          tend to have brighter, more vibrant          colours.

2.

                   MAX          What do you think, babe?

Aspen spins around from where she had been looking at the fairy baby inside the tube.

                   ASPEN          I'm sorry, what? Oh. I think we're

         fine with the package we're on now.

Rowanda nods and leads them to the tube at the end of the room, where a tablet is attached to it. She presses it so it lights up and the customisation page appears.

                   ROWANDA          Okay, so the customisation part is

         quite easy. First you need to          select the sex; there are over two          hundred, so take your pick. Then,          with the package that you have          chosen by default, you can chose          the hair colour, eye colour and          skin colour.

As she speaks, her hand glides across the tablet, as if turning pages.

                   ROWANDA (CONT'D)          But, since you're not having any

         other packages, you are still able          to add magnificent features such as          wings...

Aspen walks over to the tablet, peering over Max's and Rowanda's shoulders.

                   ROWANDA (CONT'D)          ...markings or a tail. These do

         cost more than what would be          offered in the packages, but I          trust you understand that. Prices          will show up as you choose each          option. Okay? Shout me when you're          done and we'll advance to the next          stage.

3.

Max nods enthusiastically. Rowanda smiles politely and leaves the room without another word. Max immediately dives to the tablet.

                   MAX          Angel wings! A dragons tail, Aspen!

         Look at all these features! How          many eyes do you think are too          many? Three? Four? What colour          skin? Lilac like yours?

                   ASPEN               (shouting)

         Max, stop that! You're making it          ugly!

Aspen, disgusted by Max's choices, pushes him out of the way so she can have a go.

ASPEN Porcelain skin, two eyes, no tails

         or wings. Two arms and two legs.          Oh, look at the variation of eye          colours! Forest green or pine?

                   MAX          Whats the difference?

Max peers over her shoulder and groans loudly.

                   MAX(CONT'D)          Oh, loosen up a little! We can make

         whatever we want and you're making          it boring!

                   ASPEN          It's not boring it's beautiful!

Max squeezes in and the two begin rapidly scrolling back and forth through the options at the same time, changing the designs. The tube lights up with a different colour every time there has been a change in design. The screen soon freezes, not allowing any changes to happen and a warning sign pops up. A warning light above the tube starts flashing red. Aspen gasps and takes a step back, scared.

4.

                      MAX                  (shouting)

            Look what you did!   Max hits the tablet, trying to get it to work again.

3 INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY

3

Rowanda hears the shouting and presses her ear against the door, a crafty smile on her lips. She takes a sip from her mug.

                      ASPEN(V.O)                  (loudly)

What I did? You broke the machine! 4 INT. CUSTOMISATION GALLERY - DAY

                      ASPEN(CONT'D)             Your stupid excitement did this!

Why can't you just want a normal baby?

                      MAX             Normal? What is normal in this

            world, Aspen?   Aspen sighs and covers her face with her hands.

                      ASPEN             Like you, Max. I wanted the baby to

be like you.

                      MAX             But I wanted the baby to be like

            you! You and your beautiful,             different self. Why would you want             one like me?

                      ASPEN             You just want our baby to be

            different. Our baby looking natural             like you would be different - to             me. You don't realise how you look             through my eyes. Why do you think I             chose you out of everyone out there

(MORE)

4

5.

                      ASPEN (CONT'D)             - all those others with wings and

            tails and third eyes?  Because             you're beautiful.

MAX Really?

                      ASPEN             Yes, really. I can't think of

            anything better than having a child             that looks like you.

  Max crosses the room to Aspen, hugging her tightly.

                      MAX             I'm sorry I got over excited. I

            should've listened to you and what             you want. I'm a bad husband. I love             you. We can have what you want.

  The door opens, and Rowanda pops her head in with a sly   smile.

                      ROWANDA             I have a solution. For an extra two

thousand...

5 INT. CORRIDOR - DAY

Max and Aspen walk down a bland corridor, out of Rowanda's office with a baby in each arm. Both are happy, holding hands with their spare. Max raises his baby to his chest.

                   MAX          Look, he matches my shirt!

Aspen pulls up a small, receipt-like piece of paper from her baby.

CUT TO

5

6.

ASPEN Gauranteed to be walking in nine

months or a fifty percent off voucher for our next...

CUT TO BLACK.