#deva: a weapon to be wielded by those he gives himself to

[magicaldragons]

deva: a weapon.

the movie does everything to show us that deva holds no agency over himself or his actions and that he has no ambition whatsoever.

his main trait is loyalty, and this is emphasized again and again.

• he is enraged at the mistreatment of aadhya, but where an actual 'hero' would save her, disregarding any rules or conditions – he remains bound by his mother's words.

• he is a weapon in the hands of anybody he gives his loyalty to, and throughout the movie, all of his actions aren't really credited to him, but to the person he commits these acts for/with permission of:

1. in the first scene, we see both deva and varadha, without hesitation, understand that deva has to complete the task for varadha's honor

2. it's evident, when bilal tells aadhya, that the only person who can keep her safe is 'amma' (because it is true, only deva's mother can allow deva to help)

3. when we are first introduced to deva, it is through his mother describing him as a "blood-shedding weapon"

4. when varadha comes to ask deva to accompany him, the narration doesn't feel accurate. varadha has barely voiced his request for deva to go with him – it is actually deva who wants to protect him after seeing his condition, but the narration is: "on one hand varadha had decided to take deva, no matter what, and on the other hand, his mother would not allow him to go" further emphasizing that deva is comparable to an object between the only two people who 'own' him

5. in the first action sequence, after his mother releases him from the promise he made to her, we have this shot:

framing deva's mother as if it is her who is responsible for that first blow

6. even after she has given him agency over himself, he still follows his mother's orders, not bothering to put any energy into what he thinks is the correct thing to do

7. we also see this when radha rama blames varadha for vishnu's death and has to be reminded that – no. it was the new guy who dealt the blow.

8. and again, when naarang heads in varadha's direction, completely disregarding deva and all of deva's attempts to provoke him, even though deva is the one who killed vishnu

it's an interesting way of depicting his personality – the movie equates him to a weapon at every turn, either metaphorically or though dialogue

which also makes it extremely significant, that the ONLY TIME deva has ever acted on his own (according to what we know) is when he: 1. went against his mother: to make a promise to varadha instead 2. did not follow varadha's explicit instructions: and pleaded with naarang to leave varadha alone

deva only breaks free from the narrative for varadha – which really speaks about varadha's importance and the power that varadha holds over deva.

[askmerriauthor]

You want to tell them about what we've been doing recently? I thought last session was pretty good.

You’re just saying that because your sub-plot kicked into gear last game and you got to enjoy the narrative spotlight for a while.  :3c

That said, some other folk have been asking about the tabletop game, so why not?

Each Friday with my local group of friends (@ihavenoideahowthisworks here included in that number) I’ve been running a Pathfinder game, as I’ve had the DM bug recently.  I tend to roll heavy with “Rule of Cool” and “Rule of Funny”, so I err on the side of fun rather than sticking strictly to the hard numbers in the books.  Lots of house rules, lots of alcohol, good times all around.

The current party, all freshly 10th level as of last session, consists of:

Shaemus Sigmindson, a Chaotic-Good Half-Elf Rogue and the party’s friendly neighborhood backstabber.  Due to him hastily putting on what turned out to be a Cursed Ring and a few other magical hijinks, he’s now really good at climbing any and all surfaces at a rate of 60′ per round.  So he pretty much never touches the floor if he can help it and Xenomorph-scurries all around dungeons to literally get the drop on enemies.

Abby Noh Rahmael, a Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Magus.  Despite being highly fiendish in many literal ways, she’s the bubbly, wide-eyed heart of the team.  She has a particular knack for getting along with monsters, which leaves her heartbroken when the party inevitably kills them.  She’s recently adopted a young Cloaker and is raising it as a Monstrous Animal Companion.

Valka, a Neutral Evil Human Kineticist.  He’s a people person… with a drinking problem.  Valka is a former pirate/mafia smuggler who’s since become landbound for reasons unknown, and boy howdy does he make the land work for him.  He’s the party’s personal canon capable of putting out massive volumes of damage via Earth and Fire elemental attacks, Korra-style.  The hard part is getting him to cooperate, not fly into vengeful murderous rages over the tiniest of slights, or do really anything without first being paid.

Wenden Jardecha, a Neutral Good Human Warpriest.  Acts a whole lot like a Paladin despite not actually being one, primarily due to his method of worship.  He follows the goddess Sarenrae - a deity of forgiveness and righteousness, though she draws a line as to when evil people are beyond redemption.  Wenden prefers to enforce that line with a sword.  He’s also proven himself really good at crowd control by locking down Boss-Level enemies with status effects.

Henc Jardecha, a Neutral Good Human Arcanist.  The younger brother of Wenden.  Henc is a know-it-all spellcaster who likes to hang in the background mostly being unobtrusive, maybe casting a little Prestidigitation here and there for dramatic effect.  Until he suddenly decides to Summon a horde of powerful monsters and start tossing around Lightning Bolts when the whim takes him.  He has all of the Knowledge Skills and then some, and boy howdy does he love to rub those high info rolls in everyone’s face.

The game began with an Episode 0 where the party played pre-generated base characters not their own.  They delved into a Goblin-infested ruin after getting word of a mysterious monster living there that had been terrorizing local farmlands.  They met a Kobold Sorceress outside who joined the group and sort of helped them along, discovered a Goblin Chieftain who was weirdly upset with his role of leadership, and eventually faced off with the monster in question - a young Black Dragon.  Despite nearly dying in the process, the party managed to drive off the Dragon… only for the Sorceress and the Chieftain to reveal themselves to be a pair of Kobold thieves in disguise.  They’d been casing the joint before the party showed up and, after using them to get rid of the Dragon, pilfered a small box from the treasure hoard and made their escape.

Following that, Episode 1 kicks in.  The plot so far is that the group - a team from the Pathfinder Society of Adventurers - has been dispatched to the coastal city of Sandpoint upon hearing reports of Werewolves in the region.  Their investigation has taken them to Fangwood Keep - a module I’ve heavily edited and customized - and brought them into conflict with a horde of Hobgoblins that had taken over the castle.  After teaming up with a small militia of irregulars the Hobgoblins had kicked out of said keep, the party took back the structure and discovered that it was actually built from the ruins of an Elven wizard’s tower.  However, nothing was really clean-cut about the whole ordeal.  The party kept finding strange markings set everywhere, oddly mutated creatures, and even Goblinoids altered into far more powerful states wielding unusual magical weapons.  When they finally cornered and confronted the leader of the Hobgoblin tribe, it was revealed that the tribe had been hired by an unknown benefactor to take the Keep so that he could explore its secrets.  After a bit of quick decision-making and some fisticuffs between the Tiefling and the Hobgoblin Leader in an honor duel, the Hobgoblins actually cut a deal to leave unmolested and escape back to their own territory.

Digging deeper revealed the presence of an odd pocket space where the Elven wizard’s inner sanctum lay, filled with Fae and other odd creatures from the First World who had somehow become trapped there.  Some were hostile, others were friendly, but they all just want to go home.  In delving further in, the party uncovered evidence of the strange man who’d hired the Hobgoblins performing foul experiments.  After making their way to a buried chamber deep within the ruins, they finally came face to face with him… so to speak.  Not only was the stranger disguised entirely in a suit of fiendish living armor, but he was accompanied by two Black Dragons: the same young one that the first party had faced in Episode 0 and its mother, a terrifyingly powerful sorceress Dragon.  While their intentions for being in the Keep remained unclear, it all seemed to be part of the Strange Man’s experiments and research.

In the brief conflict that followed, the Strange Man readily offered a bribe to the party to simply turn around and leave without confrontation.  As the value of the bribe rose steadily to over 100k Gold Pieces, Valka happily accepted the deal (Shaemus was incredibly tempted and left his decision up to a die roll).  The Dragons weren’t happy about the Strange Man using their hoard as collateral though and decided to just kill the party instead.  Wenden ended up taking the worst of it and was briefly slain, though oddly the Strange Man exercised magic that kept him from dying even as his associates continued to fight…

While the party fended off the Mother Dragon to varying degrees of success, Wenden ended up being visited by his goddess Sarenrae and one of her Astral Deva heralds in a near-death-experience vision.  It was there the herald explained that the Strange Man they’d encountered was once a follower of Sarenrae as well.  And that he still is, to this present day, a Paladin.  He’s completely turned his back on his faith and has been doing everything he could think of to get the goddess to cut him loose of her influence, yet for reasons unexplained Sarenrae has refused to let him go.  Thus Wenden is given a divine quest: aid those the Strange Man has harmed, destroy his blasphemous Fiendflesh armor, and put a stop to his experiments.  However, the catch is that they cannot, under any circumstances, kill him - there’s too much risk of dark forces just waiting to snatch his soul and put his dangerous knowledge to use.

So, last we left off, the party had driven off their foes, so to speak.  The Strange Man cut the battle short when it became apparent the group was a genuine threat.  After halting time through some arcane scroll, he marked the group as part of his experiments and equipped them with a strange, magical deck of cards they’ve yet to fully understand.  With the Strange Man and the Dragons escaped for the time being, the party is left in possession of Fangwood Keep and a number of its First World occupants all relying on them to find a way home to their native plane.  As if that wasn’t enough, it also turned out that the Strange Man awakened some of his other test subjects on his way out, unleashing a pack of highly intelligent, magically capable Barghest Lycanthropes onto the land to give the party something to worry about rather than chasing him.

[iris-sistibly]

4R’s: Encantadia (Jan. 26, 2017 episode review)

Episode 139

Recap:

Death of Hara

Amihan was ready to face her death.

All of a sudden, Alena appeared and aided her in battle. Using the lupig and the water gem, Alena fought the Hathors and Hadezars. Amihan didn’t want to get Alena involved and urged her to leave immediately, but Alena insisted on staying and took Amihan away. Alena found Danaya and Hitano, a puzzled Danaya asked what was going on. Alena apologized to Amihan and knocked her unconscious, Alena revealed that she knew what Amihan has been planning, she cannot allow Amihan to die and told her youngest sister that it is her who is much worthy to make the sacrifice and left, Danaya failed to stop her. The youngest sang’gre healed Amihan’s wounds and when the queen finally regained consciousness, she immediately followed Alena. Danaya knew her sisters must be stopped.

Upon learning from Pirena about Amihan and Alena’s plans, Ybrahim persuaded Pirena to teleport them back to Sapiro, but Pirena refused, saying that her sisters’ decisions were final, and there was nothing they can do to stop them. Ybrahim was disappointed at Pirena for she haven’t changed, she’s still the same selfish Pirena they know. Ybrahim went to Lira and told her that they have to go back to Sapiro “if Lira still wants to see her mother and Ashti Alena alive,” though Lira was quite puzzled, she and Ybrahim whisked their way back to the kingdom.

Alena went back to the throne room and faced Hagorn and his troop once again, and though Alena was clearly powerful, the Hadezars made it difficult for her to defeat Hagorn’s forces and ended up getting injured badly. Amihan appeared shortly after and defended Alena after regaining consciousness thanks to Danaya’s earth gem, Alena witnessed how Amihan was taken down and was terrified at the sight of her sister slowly succumbing to her death. In a last attempt to protect Amihan, Alena created a barrier using the water gem and shielded the both of them, now weak and dying, Amihan urged Alena to leave. The downside of being the sister’s queen is that she too is also bound to follow orders, Alena had no choice but to leave the throne room.

Lira and Ybrahim found Danaya and Hitano who were also searching for Amihan and Alena, Lira asked once again what was going on but it wasn’t the time for explanations and started searching. Danaya and company found Alena who was badly injured, the sang’gre revealed that Amihan was at the throne room fighting Hagorn by herself. Lira and Ybrahim wasted no time and immediately left with Hitano. Danaya tended to Alena’s wounds first and when the latter regained strength, she and Danaya decided to go back to the throne room as well.

Now it was only Amihan left, Hagorn was getting impatient at how the sang’gres seem to be fooling him. Hagorn gave Amihan one last chance to spare her life—surrender everything, something which Amihan swore to never do. Hagorn finally used the spirit gem and ended Amihan’s life, the queen has fallen. Just as Danaya and Alena were about to follow the prince and his diwani daughter, the air gem appeared before the sisters, a gentle wind caressed them and heard Amihan’s voice telling them they love them. Words Amihan spoke before she parted ways with Danaya. The sisters knew Amihan has died, back in the camp, Pirena also heard Amihan telling her she loves her, Pirena knew something happened to Amihan.

By the time Lira and Ybrahim came, it was already too late. Amihan’s body lay lifeless on the throne room of Sapiro. Lira and Ybrahim immediately ran towards the queen and tried to wake her up, but Hagorn revealed that Amihan is already dead. Danaya and Alena appeared and were heartbroken at the sight of their dead sister. Ybrahim was enraged, but Danaya and Alena stopped him for it was useless to fight Hagorn at this point. Hagorn told them to take Amihan’s body and promised to give them time to mourn for their queen.

Aquil went to Hathoria and fought the Hathorian guards leaving one Hathor for him to interrogate about the Hadezars, and how Hagorn was able to free the ivtres from Balaak, the Hathor revealed that it was through the help of their gods Arde and Ether which is why Hagorn succeeded to free the ivtres. Hagorn and his troop came but didn’t mind him killing his men (also because of Amarro’s plea to spare him) and told him instead to go back to his allies for the queen is already dead. Amarro attempted to win Aquil on their side, but hearing the news only made Aquil more determined to fight for the diwatas.

Lira was the most devastated at the death of the Lirean queen, the young sang’gre begged her Ashti Danaya to heal her mother but there is no cure for death. It was also then that Lira found out that both Alena and Danaya knew what Amihan was planning after Alena resented that it was Amihan who died instead of her. Lira was angry at her Ashtis for keeping this from her and refused to listen to Danaya and Alena’s explanations, that Amihan wanted this to happen, and the sisters has to follow the queen’s orders, it was painful, but it was their only chance to win against Hathoria. Still, it wasn’t enough for Lira to feel better, because no matter how much they try to console her, it will never bring back the life of her mother. Mira appeared and was also devastated at the sight of the dead queen and regretted not being able to spend more time with her. Pirena also appeared and found out that Amihan is dead. Unfortunately, Pirena also knew what Amihan has been planning which only made Lira’s pain worse, even Ybrahim couldn’t bring himself to comfort his daughter for he too was in great pain.

Meanwhile, in the lair of the lambanas, the winged creatures noticed that the tree lit up once again, it was a sign that another diwata has died. The leader of the lamabanas ordered Muyak and a group of pixies to fetch the dead body of whoever died. The lambanas came along with Muyak and was shocked to find out that it was the queen whom they will be taking to Devas.

Raves:

💎 The saddest episode ever! So much angst among the characters right now especially for Ybrahim and Lira’s parts. But everyone did so well tonight! Congrats Enca team! Once again, you have exceeded my expectations! Your hard work, dedication and team work is what makes this show a great success, well done team! Well done!

💙 ‘Till the very end, Amihan has proven that she is and will always be the greatest leader Encantadia has ever had, and I just remembered Cassiopeia’s prophecy, that Amihan will be one of the brave leaders who will make Hathoria crumble into ashes, so that means Amihan isn’t leaving just yet. Either she will be given more time by Emre to fulfill her destiny or she will be granted a second life just like the original. As for Kylie, I have no idea how she managed to slay those fight scenes even if she’s pregnant but damn girl you da queen! The baby sure will be kicking some ass if he or she comes out. This may seem out of topic but I watched Kylie’s interview and I saw how happy she was, it makes me feel happy for her as well. Although I am really looking forward for more KyRu projects after Enca, I guess we’ll just have to wait.

💚 Yaaaas Gabbi! That staff does look like a spear and I had goosebumps watching Gabbi work Adhara’s staff, there’s no other weapon suitable for Alena than a spear. Also, seeing Adhara’s Lupig and Alena’s water gem’s powers combined was THE BOMB! It was dangerously breathtaking, Alena wielding both tools is indeed rave-worthy, both powers synced so beautifully and I have to commend the Enca staff for this great special effect.

💜💪 Hugs for father and daughter, although I would have liked it if Mikee showed some really intense emotions—grief and anger combined while she attempts to avenge her mother and fight Hagorn. That would have been epic for Lira’s character. I still want to see a more serious side of Lira, like “dark” Lira, and then she will be more determined to show to everyone that she is worthy to be Lireo’s crown princess, and become a leader just like Amihan. It really sucks for her right now because she lost her mother twice, the first being Amanda, her foster mom. I am sad that Amihan died, but I am also excited for Lira 2.0! I don’t know but I think Amihan’s death will contribute a lot to Lira’s character development.

💎 That “E correi diu whisper” to Danaya, Alena and Pirena 😭 virtual hugs for everyone in the fandom! Huhuhu!

Rant: 🙄 I was expecting Piry to appear out of nowhere and fight Hagorn! My Emre! Kaloka bes, sobrang duwag and selfish! Well, as the saying goes, you can’t change someone overnight.

Best performers for this episode: Everyone nailed it! 💎

Rating: 10 out of 10 💎s

Photo credits: From Twitter: @GMAEncantadia (Encantadia 2016 official twitter acct) @gmanetwork (GMA network); official website: gmanetwork.com @GMADrama (GMA Drama)

From Facebook: Encantadia 2016

Video credits: gmanetwork.com via YouTube & dailymotion