#i mean hell it's not even about the creature feeling sympathy for victor how about just ANY emotion

[navree]

once again on my frankenstein bullshit because i’m sure it’s a very nice bookend but it is baffling that so many fix it attempts for this story are built on frankenstein asking the creature’s forgiveness in the arctic because like??? no??? the only time victor was ever in the position of “hey you should really say sorry to this guy” is after he first ran away. everything else after that should be the creature fucking groveling and saying “hey sorry i murdered your brother and then framed your friend so she’d be executed and then murdered your boyfriend and the murdered your wife which made your dad weaken and die”  because in the scales of who’s been wronged more, guy whose father was mean to him is very much trumped by guy who had everyone he loves wiped the fuck out because his son threw a temper tantrum. 

sorry.

[the-gay-prometheus]

Either 15 from Fluff; “You saved me.” Or 48 from Angst; “Wake up! Please don’t do this to me.”

Hehe. You gave me an angst prompt. This was a mistake.

So I decided to do something completely different with this. I had the sudden inspiration to write something not for my main AU... but instead for that ridiculous Red Dead Redemption/Frankenstein crossover AU that I'm now affectionately dubbing Undead Redemption because I have absolutely zero creative talent.

No I'm not planning on actually seriously pursuing this AU. But uh... this prompt made me think of it so I decided to write for it! This... this is a doozy of a piece. Be warned... it’s.... intense. It’s also pretty long so... sorry about that. (needless to say - I chose the angst one)

TW: Blood, character death, murder, hysteria? panic? something like that

~~~

The town of Strawberry was charming - well worth the travel, Henry thought. Remote, but certainly not too much so, as the larger town of Blackwater was only a half-day’s ride away. Surrounded by pine forests and brisk with a mountain’s breeze, it was a quiet town of bare-log houses and little in the way of amenities. A rushing stream cut through the town’s center, turning a large wheel which likely produced what little electricity could be found there.

Henry smiled as he rode down the dirt road, his red roan mare plodding along patiently until he pulled her to a halt at the hitching post in front of the house that was to be his lodging for the week. “Ata girl,” he cooed softly, ruffling her mane with his hand before dismounting. She shook her head with a snort, and rested one hind hoof on its edge as she settled in to stand for however long it would be until she was to be ridden again. Henry reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a sugar cube, holding it out to her with a flat palm, and she gladly snatched it up. Chuckling at her eagerness at the scent of a treat, Henry pat her on the neck and pulled her reins over her head, tying them securely to the hitching post. Though he was giddy at the thought of adventuring through Mount Shann over the next few days, today was to be a day of rest before the excursion, so he took his time unloading what little he had brought with him into the house before retiring to a sturdy wooden chair on the porch to watch the townsfolk go about their day. Part of him was itching to retreat further up the rocky hill behind where he was staying and sit in the woods to write as the sun set, but he was aching after a day of riding and he was far more inclined to stay and rest.

The evening was quiet yet cheerful, until out of the corner of his eye, Henry caught sight of what appeared to be a massive shadow approaching the town from the northern road - one that sent townsfolk scattering and shouting as they all shut themselves into whatever dwellings they could, some choosing instead to hop onto their horses and gallop off. Now thoroughly curious, Henry stood and squinted to get a better look. That shadow turned out to be a massive draft horse, the tallest he had ever seen, with what looked to be an even taller person sitting atop its back. As the stranger rode past the sheriff’s office, Henry could see the sheriff open the door, then quickly shut it again the moment the stranger turned his head to look at him. The odd figure continued on, then halted his giant steed in the middle of the road and dismounted, resting their hand on the horse’s neck and slowly sliding it away as they began striding down the road. As the stranger approached, Henry could hear the jingling of spurs and a sudden chill went down his spine. At about the midway point from the road to the porch where Henry stood, the stranger stopped. His hair was long and black and billowing like the tails of his heavy dark leather duster in the wind, and his face covered by the rim of a black cattleman’s hat that was tipped downward to hide his eyes. “Clerval!” The voice that echoed through the streets was clear and cold as the rushing stream it rose above, yet pitched somewhere between roaring thunder and the creaking of old pines. Henry felt his hair stand on end at the sound of his own name, but he kept his composure and slowly descended the steps, standing a distance from the stranger on the road.

“Is there something you need from me, s-” Henry felt his breath catch in his throat as the stranger slowly raised his head and pulled a dark bandana that covered his mouth and nose down with one gloved hand. Even from a distance, beneath the shadow of his hat’s brim, the stranger’s eyes seemed to glow a dull yellow, sickly and pale yet burning bright enough to be visible from afar.

“The eyes! Those horrible eyes!”

“Victor! Victor, compose yourself! What eyes?” Henry held Victor tightly as the scrawny scientist writhed in feverish agony and pointed toward the wall.

“Surely you can see them! There! The fires of hell burn within them!” Henry looked up and surveyed the empty room with worried eyes.

“Victor… love there’s nothing here,” he reassured him. Victor broke from his grasp and tried to stand, only to stumble backward again.

“Yellow! That dreaded yellow glow- he’s returned for me! He’s- he…” He suddenly went silent, eyes still bugged and wild as he collapsed onto the ground. Henry desperately wanted answers, but… whatever had happened, whatever Victor had seen to haunt him in such a way, it was still far too traumatic of a memory to be discussed. With a heavy sigh, Henry gently picked Victor up off of the floor and carried his limp body to bed, where he laid him down and kissed his sweat-covered forehead tenderly.

“Just rest, Victor. No one is here to hurt you. It’s just me. Everything will be ok.” He took Victor’s clammy hand and held it tightly. “So long as I am here with you, I’ll make sure of that.”

“Who- What are you?” Henry managed to ask as the memory passed through his mind. The stranger’s gleaming eyes seemed to widen, then narrow again. His left hand, which was bare unlike his right, pushed aside the leather of his duster and revealed a pistol holstered on his hip. The fingers that hovered over the pistol’s handle were long and bony with a mixture of pale and discolored skin. Henry felt his heart jump at the sight, and he instinctively raised his hands. “Sir I mean you no harm,” he reassured him. “Just… tell me who you are and how you know me.” The stranger hesitated, and Henry saw in him a sudden moment of weakness.

“I-” The stranger’s voice broke as he began to speak, and he faltered. “I am no one. I am nothing.” Henry’s racing pulse began to slow, and he cautiously stepped forward.

“Everyone is someone, everyone is something.” The stranger’s hand fell back and he dropped his head.

“Not me, Henry. Never me.” Henry felt a sudden sense of sympathy toward him. Surely this was the man Victor was so afraid of, and yet… he seemed so sad, so alone, much more like a lost child than a fearsome demon.

“Maybe not now, but if you let me help you, maybe we can find where you belong,” Henry called to him softly, slightly lowering his hands as he approached. The stranger took a step back. “May I ask your name?”

“I have no name,” was the stranger’s hushed reply. He raised his gloved hand and removed his hat, revealing his face. A scar with obvious stitching ran diagonally down it, and though his raven hair primarily covered over it, another ran along his forehead, and two more ran from his ears to about midway down his jaw line. Henry felt himself taken by the shock of the sight, but he showed no fear as he continued to approach. “Your Victor never gave me one.” Now finally putting the pieces together, Henry’s hazel eyes widened.

“So he finally did it,” he murmured. “He managed to create life from death-”

“And then leave it to die,” the creature interrupted. Henry could see tears streaming down his papery-skinned cheeks.

“I can see you’ve been through so much,” Henry pointed out sympathetically, lowering his hands further. “You can talk to me. I won’t hurt you.” The creature’s chest heaved and his eyes clenched shut as he turned his face away.

“No, no I certainly think you won’t.” In one swift motion, the creature pulled the pistol from its holster and held it cocked, pointed in Henry’s direction. Henry jumped, raising his hands up again as his heart began to race. Though his gun was pointed, the creature seemed hesitant. His hand shook and his face was still turned away. For a moment, he lowered his gun and he wiped the tears from his eyes with his gloved hand.

“You don’t want to do this,” Henry muttered, suddenly filled with a strange mixture of fear and empathy. “You don’t have to do this.”

“That’s just it, Henry,” the creature whispered. His eyes lifted to the red painted sky of dusk. “I have no choice. There are consequences for his actions. A price must be paid as reparation for what he’s cost me.” There was a sudden shift in his expression that made Henry feel his blood run ice cold. “And that price is you.”

He barely felt the bullet when it hit. All there was, was the deafening sound of the shot and the screams that rose from the buildings that followed, the flying open of doors and windows to see what had happened, the terrified whinnies of horses, and a sudden gush of something onto his hands which instinctively flew to his chest. As he fell, he saw the creature become unsteady, nearly falling himself as the smoking pistol fell from his hand, before tensing and letting out an unearthly cry that seemed to echo through the still dusk air. He could see the creature’s stallion turn from the calm shadow he was into a panicked wreck of a beast, pawing and pacing and rearing onto his hind hooves. The creature himself turned and ran, jumping back into the saddle. As he turned his horse around, he looked over his shoulder to Henry one last time with a sorrowful look in his yellow eyes before placing his hat back onto his head and spurring his steed into a swift gallop until he disappeared over the hill beyond.

Hooves pounded on the dirt road that led to the western side of the town, kicking up dust as horse and rider flew down the path. Victor’s eyes kept a steely gaze on the town entrance ahead, his heart racing. As he had been walking down the road, there had been a sudden exodus from the town, with folks high-tailing it out as fast as they could, and he knew something was very wrong. Though his silver gray Kladruber mare was pushing just about as hard as she could, the sound of a gunshot spooked Victor into kicking his heels into her sides hard. She leaped from the pain of it with a panicked neigh, her ears pinning back as she kicked her legs out and pushed into a faster gallop than she had ever managed in her life. Tearing past the arch of the town entrance, Victor tore at the left rein, and his mare nearly tripped over herself as she made as sharp a turn as she could and tore over the bridge that led to the other road. The moment they crossed, Victor watched as one figure stumbled back and another far taller, ran and disappeared over the hill on his mount. Yanking back on both reins, Victor forced his mare into a skidding stop, leaping off her back before she had even fully stopped and racing to Henry just as he fell. He caught him in his arms, but struggled to hold up his weight and fell backward himself. Frantically, he tore the bandana from around his own neck and pressed it hard against the wound that spilled with blood. “Stay with me Henry,” he muttered, though he felt he was going to be sick. “Stay with me, come on, stay with me.” Henry coughed and sputtered, but looked up at him with a strained smile.

“Victor- it’s- it’s ok,” he wheezed. Victor pulled the bandana back slightly to inspect the wound.

“I’ll need to get that bullet out-” He paused, wildly searching around. “Is there a doctor in this town?!” he exclaimed, searching for any sign of a practice that might have the tools he would need. Henry suddenly gripped his arm.

“Victor, no,” he whispered hoarsely. “Don’t- don’t…” His voice trailed off and his breath grew more ragged. Tears began streaming down Victor’s face and his vision started to blur, his heart pounding hard in his chest as panic coursed through him.

“Somebody! Anybody! Help!” he cried out. A few terrified but curious townsfolk began opening their doors to see what was happening. Henry suddenly twitched and sucked in a deep breath, his eyes growing wide. Victor gripped him tighter, pressing harder at the wound. “No- no no no- Henry!” In his arms, the body he held convulsed, and after an exhale and another sudden sharp inhale, it went limp, and once bright hazel eyes stared coldly up at him, sightless. “Henry,” Victor croaked his name, his hand falling from the wound and taking the lifeless hand of the one he held. “Henry please…” he whimpered, choking back a sob. “Wake up! Please don’t do this to me,” he begged. The warmth from the body he held was already beginning to seep away, and the skin began to grow cold. He was gone. Truly, completely gone. There were no longer any thoughts in Victor’s mind. Everything was as blank and empty as the soulless stare from the lifeless eyes that seemed to pierce through his soul. In a blind state of panic, Victor dropped the body and stared down at his hands. He stood, shaking violently as he stared down. Blood dripped from his fingers, but he could barely see it as his vision was so hazy and unclear. He gripped at his face hysterically, smearing blood over his hair and skin. The sudden feeling of it and the realization of what it was sent him into utter turmoil, and he let out an inhuman shriek, stumbling around in blind panic and screaming until he tripped over the corpse’s outstretched arm and fell into the dirt below. As he writhed, a mess of blood and tears, he felt himself go numb, and with one final cry, his eyes rested back on Henry’s lifeless stare and he drew in a ragged breath. Panic turned to searing rage, and he grit his teeth. Around him, a few townsfolk had gathered to check on his condition, but their voices were drowned out by the pounding of his own heart, and his sight faded away to white as his consciousness slipped away.

[thaegeiro]

i want to ramble a little about why i do feel a lot of sympathy for victor. i rip on him a lot on my blog for the being, so i think it often comes off like i just hate him completely, but that’s not at all the case. 

the thing is, most of the shitty stuff he does is not solely or outrightly malicious. it’s shitty, yeah, and he makes loads of horrible decisions, but he’s... not setting out to hurt people. he was a fucking teenager when he made the being. should he have stolen parts of human corpses without permission and experimented on animals to figure out how to create life? fuck no. that was absolutely irresponsible, immoral, and horrible. but he thought he was doing something good. he thought he could find a way to reverse death and save lives. 

and as much as i harp on the fact that he abandoned the being, he didn’t do that out of malice at all. he was fucking terrified. yes, he really should’ve anticipated that the being would be so hideous and frightening, but at that point, he was sleep-deprived, malnourished, dehydrated, and to the point of actually hallucinating from the physical strain he’d put on himself through the obsession of creating the being. he didn’t throw the being out --- he just panicked and ran because he didn’t know what else to do, and when he came back, the being was gone, and frankenstein was delirious enough that he had a fucking fit, hallucinated, collapsed, and ended up ill in bed for almost two years. he couldn’t have gone after the being, even if he’d wanted to. 

so much of his shitty reactions boil down to just pure fear. it was shitty that he didn’t tell the magistrate that the being killed william instead of justine, but he was rightfully terrified that they’d just consider him insane and hang her anyway if he did that, since no one would believe him. it was shitty that he destroyed the second creature after promising to make her for the being, but the being had killed his fucking brother and threatened to kill the rest of his family, so he was rightfully terrified that creating a second creature would only make things worse. 

i’m not saying he’s perfect or free from blame, by any means. he was still irresponsible, arrogant, self-centred, callous, insensitive, and even cruel at times. he does bear a hell of a lot of blame, but honestly, i do feel bad for what he went through. what he went through to pay for his mistakes was unimaginable. he started out doing something that he thought would help people, further science, and benefit the world, and it backfired so badly that he and five other people died for it. 

and not to get too philosophical about it, but i kinda... feel like that’s a big point of the book, tbh??? there’s all this debate about ‘who’s the real monster, victor or the being,’ and to me, the real power of the book is that they’re both so human. you can feel sympathy for both of them and you can see why they did what they did. they both did horrible, shitty, inexcusable things, but victor was acting 90% of the time out of terror, and the being was acting 90% of the time out of desperation and anger he was never taught to control. neither of them should be excused for their actions, but you can see exactly why they acted that way in the situations they were in, and their very human, emotional, instinctive reactions are what dragged the story down into the tragedy it is. 

[thenightling]

Gothic romance?

Well, let’s see.  I guess it all depends on what you mean by Gothic Romance.   A long time ago the term Romance was used to mean anything emotional, dramatic, or exaggerated.  And most Gothic fiction fits under this category but I’ll answer under the assumption that you mean the modern definition, as in Gothic love stories.

Here we go…

Edward Scissorhands.  Probably the saddest but most obvious one to list with beautiful and haunting music by Danny Elfman.   

Crimson Peak.  This one is practically a love letter to Gothic literature of the late nineteenth century and practically personifies Gothic.

Faust.  The silent version by F. W. Murnau.  This version beautifully follows Goethe’s Faust Parts 1 and 2 and ends with the bitter-sweet ascension of Faust and Gretchen to Heaven, Faust’s love saving him from damnation.

Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride.   Animated with beautiful music by Danny Elfman this film is today strangely under-rated whereas when it first came out people seemed to think it would be the next Nightmare before Christmas. 

The Company of Wolves . This one is an odd film.  Using werewolves as a metaphor for sex, sexuality, and even puberty the film tells several classic werewolf legends all within the mind of a sleeping pubescent girl (having her first period).  In the dream Granny (Angela Lansbury) tells terrible werewolf stories to Rosaleen (Little Red Riding Hood) to warn of the dangers of men but in the end Rosaleen shows sympathy to a werewolf huntsman and it’s implied she becomes one as well.  This is from director Neil Jordan (Interview with the vampire) and can work on it’s own (without understanding of the metaphors) as a good, yet trippy early 1980s werewolf movie.  

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.   Nineteen forties novel, movie, and 1960s TV series.  This is a sweet story of a self-sufficient young widow (in the Victorian era) who ends up in a very peculiar and loving relationship with the ghost of a cantankerous old sea captain.  It’s more empowering than anything you’ll ever find in Twilight.

She Creature (2001 film.  Not to be confused with the 1950s film of the same name.  It has a very different plot.  Also sometimes titled She-Creature: Mermaid Tales).   This film deals with some carnival people trying to take a captured mermaid back to America with them but the mermaid is more of a predator than they realize and she starts to kill off the men who hold her prisoner, only showing sympathy to the one female on board, whom she seems to have developed feelings toward.

Dracula (1979 film).  I like this one because the Mina character (called Lucy in the film) is actually a very strong and aggressive character. You can even argue that she is the one who seduces Dracula first.  She also speaks her mind when she disagrees with his actions.   And it intrigues and delights him. 

Bram Stoker’s Dracula.   The love story might be purely created for the film but I still like it.  Even if they did take some odd liberties about how Dracula became a vampire.

Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula.  Surprisingly respectful to history while still implying Dracula becomes the vampire, the dynamic between Vlad and Lydia is sweet.

Love at First Bite.  This one is a romantic comedy but I have a soft spot for it.  It even gives Dracula a happy ending.

The Vampire lovers.  If you want a little bit of Lesbian romance than The vampire lovers might be for you, it’s an adaptation of Carmilla with one of the main character’s names changed but other than that it follows the novel better than some other adaptions and has a great ambiance and atmosphere.

Interview with the vampire. If you can’t tell that Lestat is in love with Louis than you have no eye for subtlety.  Not strictly a romance but you can tell there is love between the main characters.

The Bride.   Not to be confused with The Bride of Frankenstein this movie is from 1985 and is a very modern (though set in the past) exploration on the Bride of Frankenstein idea. It also gives The Creature a happy ending and I’m kind of a sucker for hopeful outcomes.

Beauty and the Beast.  Nearly all versions of Beauty and the Beast (when done well) are Gothic romances.  Though if you want something a little darker than Disney than I would suggest the 1940s version or the surreal 2014 French version (now available on DVD in the US.)  The 2014 French version has beautiful visuals but the chemistry between the leads is a little weak.  It also gives a very intriguing new backstory for The Beast.  

Sleepy Hollow.  The romance between Ichabod and Katrina is simple yet beautiful. (1999 movie.  Not the TV series.)

Warm Bodies.  May people call this the zombie equivalent to Twilight but R has a lot more character depth and development than Edward ever had.  Also it’s the only Zombie apocalypse movie to have a happy ending. And though the metaphors are a bit ham handed I think it’s sweet.  Love and feeling is what makes you alive.

Let the Right One In.  Though the relationship is platonic the protagonist’s bond is deep and sweet.  And if you want a little violence in your romantic movie night wait until you get to the “bullies at the pool” scene.  You’ll get something delightfully terrible.   

Phantom of the Opera (2004 musical / opera version)

Disney’s Hunchback of Notredame.  I say the Disney version because the romantic aspect of the original is purely in the emotional nature of the story.  Any “Love story” aspect was purely one sided but in the Disney version you get to see reciprocated and unappreciated love.  Also, who doesn’t love “Hell Fire”?

Dorian Gray (2009 version).  Though this film deviates from it’s source material it does capture the heart and feel of the original story and also features a sort of quasi-redmption near the end, out of love.

The Canterville Ghost (1996).   The love story in this is a bit thin but it is there between Virginia and the young lord next door.

Gothic only in it’s atmosphere, nearly any version of Les Miserables.

There are a lot more but that’s what I thought of off the top of my head.

Bonus Fantasy suggestions:  Maleficent (though it’s more of a maternal love), Splash, and Date with a Angel. 

For Gothic Romance TV shows:  She-Wolf of London, Dark Shadows (original and 1990s version), and Forever Knight, and Lucifer.

For Gothic Romance novels try Carmilla, The Dracula Tape (retelling of Dracula by Dracula, himself) by Fred Saberhagen, Goethe’s Faust parts 1 and 2 (Closet Drama), Warm Bodies,  Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Beauty and The Beast (original French novel, not the fairy tale version), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R. A. Dick (Pen name of Josephine Lesley).

TV mini-series:  Jekyll.  A direct sequel to the original story by Steven Moffat and it shows just what happens when Hyde develops feelings toward his alterego’s family.

And the 2004 Hallmark mini-series of Frankenstein starring Luke Goss as The Creature.  It’s very faithful the novel and has good chemistry between Viktor and Elizabeth.  

Plays:  Frank Wildhorn’s Dracula The musical.  Particularly the German production.  Dracula das Musical and the Japanese version where Wao Yoka plays the best Dracula ever done by a woman you are likely to come across. 

The up coming movie The Shape of Water looks very good too.

[injusticetwofanportfolios]

Hello, Everyone.

Hi there, I’ve been watched a lot of youtube footage for Injustice 2 and it’s got me thinking; “What if certain characters were guest fighters?”

So, just for fun, I’m gonna write some fan-made guest-fighter portfolios showing certain characters I add being given intro banter, clash quotes, arcade ending narrations, and so on.The only rules I will give myself is that I’ll only use characters from published media, so no fan characters.  and I will personally only write portfolios on characters I know about. Oh, and when writing lines for the fighters already in Injustice 2, I will stick strictly with how those characters are portrayed in that game personality-wise.

If you have a character you’ve been fantasizing as being playable in Injustice 2, you may ask me if I have plans for writing about them or write a portfolio yourself and show it to me via the private message system.

 Now, to start out, let’s go with Toriel from Undertale. Let’s see how this fire spell-flinging Goat Mom fares at being in a superhero fighting game. I’ll start with a hypothetical website bio and battle intros and add more later.

Edit: also, I may reblog some posts after updating them.

Toriel

“Even one death can be too many.”

After her people were freed from countless years of underground imprisonment. Former Monster Queen Toriel chose to simply live a quiet new life raising Frisk, the human child who helped free the Ebbot Monsters. But nothing could have prepared her for learning, to her horror, of humanity struggling to heal from the wounds left by the Regime’s tyranny. And when Brainiac’s invasion occurred just days after her people’s return. Toriel is determined to use her flame magic to keep both humans and monsters from suffering neither Superman’s tyranny nor Brainiac’s collection.

 Battle Intros

1st and Third line animations: Toriel simply enters the stage and says her first line while an Undertale-style dialogue box opens reading “Toriel Blocks the way!”. After her opponent says the second line, the dialogue box closes up and Toriel says the third line.

2nd Line animation: Camera shows Toriel in the middle of calling someone on her cell phone, she hangs up after noticing her opponent and says her second line while pocketing her phone.

Vs. Aquaman

Toriel: I heard you hurt a lot of people when you joined Superman.

Aquaman: I won’t be judged for defending Atlantis.

Toriel: Then consider me on jury duty.

-------

Aquaman: You’re in a fight you don’t understand.

Toriel: Brainiac’s attacking Earth and the Regime’s still at large, should be enough reason for you to be in it.

Aquaman: You might think so.

--------

Toriel: You remind me of my ex, Aquaman.

Aquaman: But unlike Asgore, you can’t intimidate me.

Toriel:  “Unlike you, Asgore’s trying to redeem himself.” Or “Yet you’ve been fearing Superman before we came to the surface.”

---------

Vs. Batman

Batman: Why should I trust you?

Toriel: Frisk wants what you want, and so do I, Batman.

Batman: We’ll see.

----------

Toriel: I’m not really comfortable with this, Batman.

Batman: I need to know what you can do.

Toriel: Then forgive me if I make this quick.

 ------------------------

 Vs. Atrocitus

Atrocitus: Asgore’s mistakes still anger you.

Toriel: I won’t join you, Atrocitus.

Atrocitus: “Do not deny your rage!” or “you waste a precious resource!”

-----------

Toriel: I may still be angry at Asgore, but my answer is still ‘no!’

Atrocitus: You would make a powerful Red Lantern.

Toriel: I decide what to do with my rage, not you!

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

Vs. Bane

Bane: I expect Mount Ebbot has strengthened you.

Toriel: I find that hard to believe, Bane.

Bane: Prison forged me into a god among men.

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

Toriel: What a miserable creature.

Bane: I’m actually quite content, cabra.

Toriel: Batman has my sympathies for putting up with you.

Vs. Black Adam

Black Adam: You abandoned your species.

Toriel: I left Asgore to protect any humans who fell.

Black Adam: Yet the fact you’re out here tells me you failed even there.

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

Toriel: I can’t ignore the blood on your hands.

Black Adam: You’re no match for a god.

Toriel: Shu’s Stamina can’t protect your soul, Adam.

----------

 Vs. Black Canary

Black Canary: So, how’s Frisk?

Toriel: They’re alright, How’s Connor?

Black Canary: Being a good little hatchling for the sitter.

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

Black Canary: It’s a look, I’ll give you that.

Toriel: I’m not sure I’d look good in spandex anyway.

Black Canary: Point taken

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

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice.

Black Canary: I've got a list of things to teach you.

Toriel: By all means, Dinah, teach me.

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

Vs. Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle: Shall we duel, your highness?

Toriel: Technically, I’m no one’s queen anymore, Jaime.

Blue Beetle: That’s a shame, I’ve only heard good things about you.

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

Toriel: I don’t like having to fight, least of all having to fight children.

Blue Beetle: Hey! I’m old enough to drive!

Toriel: Somehow, that’s not helping.

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

Vs. Brainiac

Toriel: Your pointless cruelty ends today.

Brainiac: Your power cannot touch me.

Toriel: My magic only needs to ‘touch’ your soul.

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

Brainiac: You fail to see mercy in being collected.

Toriel: To my people, it would only be like Mount Ebbot all over again.

Brainiac: But I bring deliverance.

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

Vs. Captain Cold

Toriel: I’ve lost loved ones too..

Captain Cold: Don’t give me your sob story.

Toriel: Why not? You’re using yours to justify siding with Grodd.

----------

Captain Cold: Fire and ice…

Toriel: At this point I’m tempted to melt that gun.

Captain Cold: Maybe I’ll freeze your hands before that happens

-----------

Vs. Mr. Freeze

Toriel: Can’t you see the harm you’re causing?

Mr. Freeze: What I do, I do for Nora.

Toriel: You think she’d want this from you?

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

Mr. Freeze: Could your magic cure Nora’s illness?

Toriel: I’m sorry Victor, it won’t on her condition.

Mr. Freeze: Then you are of no use to me.

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

Vs. Catwoman

Toriel: So you’re working for Batman now?

Catwoman: Everyone deserves a second chance.

Toriel: (skeptical) I hear this is technically your third chance, Selina.

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

Catwoman: I only take from people who can afford it.

Toriel: Batman and the police seem to think otherwise.

Catwoman: Well, I guess even you can’t argue with Batman.

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

Vs. Cheetah

Toriel: What a miserable creature.

Cheetah: (scoffs) I don’t need your pity, Toriel.

Toriel: Know that you’re getting it anyway, Cheetah.

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

Cheetah: I hear Frisk is challenging prey.

Toriel: I promise you won’t get to find out.

Cheetah: Then I promise your dust will coat my fur.

Vs. Vixen

Toriel: So Vixen, do Ebbot Monsters count as in The Red?

Vixen: I can’t tap into your power with the totem, but yes.

Toriel: In a small way, I find that comforting.

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

Vixen: Save the really hot stuff for bad guys, okay?

Toriel: I don’t use more fire than I need to.

Vixen: Should make for one hell of a fight.

Vs. Cyborg

Cyborg: You’re a couple of revs out of date.

Toriel: Jokes about my age? That’s almost disappointing.

Cyborg: you won’t feel that way in a second.

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

Toriel: Think of it as your rehabilitation, Victor.

Cyborg: I’ll never get over Metropolis.

Toriel: There are better ways to deal with grief.

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

Cyborg: This ain’t even your fight, Toriel.

Toriel: I’m here to get you to break off this Regime.

Cyborg: Hell freakin’ no!

Vs. Grid

Toriel: Why are you here?

Grid: In destroying you, perhaps I will gain emotion.

Toriel: Some people who murder tend to lose emotion, Grid.

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

Grid: Your magic gives you control over the field of battle.

Toriel: Perhaps you could say I give new meaning to a ‘scorched earth’ response? Heh?

Grid: I wish I could be amused by that line.

Vs. Deadshot

Toriel: Is someone hiring you to try to kill Frisk?

Deadshot: Sorry, Assassin/Client privilege.

Toriel: (Glares) I’ll personally see that you and your client give Frisk an apology.

-----------

Deadshot: I’ve never hunted goats before.

Toriel: Not sure you’d want to want to hunt one that shoots fire.

Deadshot: Eh, I’ll try anything once.

-----------

Deadshot: Think you’d scream like a goat if I shoot you?

Toriel: I have absolutely no desire to find out, Mr. Lawton.

Deadshot: Now I gotta know.

Vs. Doctor Fate

Toriel: What can you tell me about the fate of my people?

Doctor Fate: You will share the same fate as humanity.

Toriel: Well, at least I know no one’s sealing us in a mountain again.

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

Doctor Fate: your children defied fate to free your people.

Toriel: ‘children’? You mean it wasn’t just Frisk who breached that barrier? What are you talking about?

Doctor Fate: I already said too much…

Vs. Firestorm

Firestorm: Magic vs Science, the ultimate showdown.

Toriel: More like fighting fire with fire.

Firestorm: Let’s see which of us burns hotter.

----------

Toriel: So what’s it like for the two of you to share a body?

Firestorm: It’s like thinking in stereo.

Toriel: I’m not positive, but I think I know someone similar….

Vs. The Flash (Barry Allen)

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice.

The Flash: Can’t run from a fight, can I?

Toriel: There’s no shame if there are better options, Barry.

----------

The Flash: I gonna say, I’m amazed at what Frisk has done.

Toriel: I’m sure they’ll be happy when I tell them you said that.

The Flash: After this bout, I might save you the walk home.

---------

The Flash: Think you’re fast enough?

Toriel: We both know ‘slower’ opponents have hit you before.

The Flash: Can you be intimidated? Just this once?

Vs. Jay Garrick

Jay Garrick: This old timer could teach you some things.

Toriel: I’m much older than I look, Mr. Garrick.

Jay Garrick: Then let’s see what you got to show for it.

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

Toriel: So you rely on speed? Not much else?

Jay Garrick: This’ll be over quick, chum.

Toriel: Even Frisk needed more than speed to get past me.

Vs. Reverse Flash

Toriel: Your pointless cruelty ends today

Reverse Flash: Tormenting people serves a purpose.

Toriel: “Then I think I’ll enjoy seeing that ‘purpose’ reduced to ash.” Or “The line won’t fly with any judge, Thawne.”

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

Reverse Flash: Even in my future you monsters have been a pebble in my boot.

Toriel: I’m guessing you’re here to wipe us out?

Reverse Flash: It’ll be a small comfort for being stuck in the past.

Vs. Gorilla Grodd

Gorilla Grodd: Humans must disgust you.

Toriel: If they did, why would I adopt Frisk?

Gorilla Grodd: They’d serve better as a slave than your ward.

-----------

Toriel: I can’t ignore the blood on your hands.

Gorilla Grodd: Man has oppressed apes for centuries.

Toriel: Apes hardly fare better with you around, Grodd.

Vs. Green Arrow

Green Arrow: I left my universe for this?

Toriel: I’m guessing you don’t have monsters where you’re from?

Green Arrow: At least not of the cuddly pun-loving type.

----------

Toriel: Your choice of weaponry is most curious, Oliver.

Green Arrow: I know where to place my shots.

Toriel: I’ll just have to keep my guard up, then.

----------

Toriel: Your choice of weaponry is most curious, Oliver. 

Green Arrow: Dinah thinks my weapon is just fine.

Toriel:Then unlike your foes, I’ll trust her judgement.

Vs. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice

Hal Jordan: Here to see the master at work?

Toriel: More like ready to put you through… the ringer (giggles slightly)

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

Hal Jordan: I guess you heard; Guardians want Frisk as a Green Lantern.

Toriel: You can tell the Guardians Frisk’s mother said ‘no’.

Hal Jordan: Pretty much the reception I expected.

Vs. Green Lantern (John Stewart)

Toriel: It suddenly occurs to me I rarely see professionals as superheroes.

John Stewart: You ain’t exactly a seasoned crime-fighter yourself.

Toriel:  Fair point…

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

John Stewart: Where did you come from?

Toriel: My people were sealed underground for millennia.

John Stewart: I’m almost afraid to ask why…

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

John Stewart: Frisk would make an excellent Green Lantern, Toriel.

Toriel: You can tell the Guardians Frisk’s mother said ‘no’.

John Stewart: That’s gonna be a problem….

Vs. Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn: Hey good lookin’!

Toriel: Surely you could go for better than an old goat like me..

Harley Quinn: Learn how to take a compliment, sweetie!

-----------

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice.

Harley Quinn: How about slaps and tickles in ten paces?

Toriel: (nervous laughter) hehe.. interesting idea, I think?

----------

Harley Quinn: I’m workin’ for Batman now!

Toriel: No need to convince me, Quinn, I already trust you more than Diana.

Harley Quinn: Hah! Makes me wish she heard that!

Vs. The Joker

Toriel: What a miserable creature..

Joker: Could you be any more melodramatic?

Toriel: I’d take it over your sick jokes any day.

-----------

Joker: That’s quite the petting zoo you live in.

Toriel: Except you can’t afford the price of admission.

Joker: How adorably misinformed…

-------

Vs. Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy: I know about Flowey.

Toriel: Whatever you’re planning with him, I won’t allow it.

Poison Ivy: You don’t have a choice in the matter.

-----------

Toriel: I can’t ignore the blood on your hands

Poison Ivy: The Green must be restored.

Toriel: Batman has my sympathies for putting up with you.

 ------

Vs. Robin

Toriel: Care to justify betraying your father and his code?

Robin: Because he’s spectacularly wrong!

Toriel: And what if you might be wrong?

---------

Robin: You’re burning the wrong bridges.

Toriel: I’ll burn more than that if it keeps the Regime down.

Robin: Not as long as I’m around.

---------

Toriel: So what kind of mother was Talia?

Robin: No woman could surpass her.

Toriel: I wager it’ll be easy to best her in disciplining you!

--------

Vs. Scarecrow

Scarecrow: The humans you failed to protect still haunt you?

Toriel: I can’t dishonor them by lying, so yes, Scarecrow.

Scarecrow: I can work with that….

----------

Toriel: (coughs from accidentally inhaling fear gas) What…. is this…?

Scarecrow: Welcome to your nightmares made real!

Toriel: Then forgive me if I make this quick.

Vs. Supergirl

Toriel: Kara… your name sounds similar to the first human I adopted.

Supergirl: That a problem?

Toriel: Let’s just say I’ll try to keep this professional.

---------

Supergirl: I’m still learning my way around.

Toriel: Then we have that in common at least.

Supergirl: Let’s see what else we have in common.

--------

Supergirl: So you monsters attacked Frisk, then adopted them?

Toriel: We already resolved that problem, Supergirl.

Supergirl: I’ll be the judge of that.

-----------

Supergirl: So you monsters attacked Frisk, then adopted them?

Toriel: Didn’t your cousin declare war on the planet that adopted him?

Supergirl: Kal didn’t set the best example….

--------

Toriel: If you want, I can take you in, Kara.

Supergirl: Thanks, but the Kents already volunteered.

Toriel: That’s a pity, Frisk would’ve liked having you around.

Vs. Power Girl

Toriel: (distracted) That outfit… is most.. interesting……

Power Girl: Eyes up here!

Toriel: I messed this up, didn’t I?

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

Power Girl: What Earth did they snatch you from?

Toriel: My people were sealed underground for millennia.

Power Girl: Aren’t we a couple of misfits?

Vs. Superman

Toriel: So you must be Superman

Superman: You sound disappointed.

Toriel: Frisk told me you used to be better than this.

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

Toriel: You still have much to answer for.

Superman: Who are you to judge me?

Toriel: A mother of a child whose heart you broke!

-----------

Superman: I took one life to save millions

Toriel: Even one death can be too much, your Regime is proof of that.

Superman: Do you even know who I killed?

----------

Superman: I took one life to save millions.

Toriel: Care to explain your attacks on Gotham and Metropolis then?

Superman: (voice gradually trails off to suggest doubt) I needed to stop insurrection….

---------

Toriel: You made a mistake killing the Joker.

Superman: I did it for Lois!

Toriel: “And look what you’ve turn into!” or “That same rage nearly made Asgore like you.”

-----------

Superman: Your magic doesn’t frighten me.

Toriel: Keep up that thinking, and you’ve already lost.

Superman: (condescending tone) Is that so?

---------

Toriel: I look at you and suddenly think I’ve been too hard on Asgore.

Superman: What give you that idea?

Toriel: Unlike you, Asgore’s trying to redeem himself.

Vs. Bizarro

Bizarro: You Bizarro new worst friend!

Toriel: (tries to imitate Bizarro’s speech) Uh… Me dishonestly prefer being new best enemy?

Bizarro: Bizarro-vision make you happy!

----------

Toriel: I’m not sure how to deal with you.

Bizarro: Me fight for lies, injustice, a-merry-can way.

Toriel: Talking like that is just one reason you’re hard to help, Bizarro.

Vs. Swamp Thing

Toriel: You’ve got to let us monsters rebuild, Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing: Not at the expense of the soil.

Toriel: “Then know you’ve left me little choice” or “Frisk told me you were a compromiser!”

---------

Toriel: I thought all monsters were sealed in Mt. Ebbot.

Swamp Thing: I’m of no relation to your people.

Toriel: Guess I should’ve figured as much.

---------

Swamp Thing: Keep your distance from me.

Toriel: Something the matter?

Swamp Thing: Fire is no friend of mine.

Vs. Wonder Woman

Toriel: Hippolyta desired peace for the world.

Wonder Woman: As does her daughter.

Toriel: On her behalf, I’ll reteach you what you’ve forgotten.

---------

Toriel: Frisk used to be a big fan of yours, Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman: ‘Was’ a big fan?

Toriel: You disappointed them when you lost your way.

---------

Wonder Woman: You’d be wise to surrender.

Toriel: (incredulous) Does it look like I care what you think?

Wonder Woman: You’ll care when I make Frisk kneel before Kal.

----------

Wonder Woman: The Regime created peace.

Toriel: Humanity living in fear is NOT peace!

Wonder Woman: You’ll learn to see it our way.

---------

Toriel: You betrayed humanity AND Frisk’s faith in you, Diana.

Wonder Woman: Would it be so hard to trust us again?

Toriel: Forsake the Regime if you want to talk trust.

Vs. Darkseid

Toriel: Are you here to hurt Frisk?

Darkseid: Whatever I can’t control, I must destroy.

Toriel: (in a low, yet angry tone) Then I’ll see you endure achieving neither, Darkseid.

-----------

Darkseid: I will break you for Granny Goodness.

Toriel: My fire has other ideas.

Darkseid: Mine is the fire that forges stars.

Vs. Red Hood

Toriel: You’ve been walking a very dark path, Jason.

Red Hood: I’m the cure for a sick, sad world!

Toriel: You sure it’s not the Lazarus talking?

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

Red Hood: Ra’s Al Ghul saved my life.

Toriel: I suspect Ra’s sees you as a pawn.

Red Hood: Not on my watch.

 Vs. Starfire

Toriel: I don’t like having to fight, least of all having to fight children.

Starfire: I think we both know reluctance won’t help with this fight.

Toriel: Then forgive me if I make this quick.

--------

Starfire: You know, I think Papyrus and Frisk would make good Titans.

Toriel: That’s kind of you to say, Starfire, but I should still say ‘No.’

Starfire: You’re not the first mother to say ‘no’ to Titans, Toriel.

 Vs. Sub-Zero

Sub-Zero: The Lin Kwei would benefit from your powers.

Toriel: I somehow find that insulting.

Sub-Zero: You misunderstand my intentions.

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

Toriel: Fair warning, my fire magic can hurt your soul.

Sub-Zero: It will be met with unrelenting cold.

Toriel: Then forgive me if I make this quick.

-----------

Toriel: I can’t ignore the blood on your hands.

Sub-Zero: Only bloodshed will save this realm.

Toriel: “The Regime already proved folly in that line of thinking” or “Just ask Frisk, there are always better options.”

Vs. Black Manta

Black Manta: What the hell do you want?

Toriel: After seeing the people you’ve harmed, what do you think?

Black Manta: I think you just dug your own grave.

----------

Toriel: I’ve lost loved ones too.

Black Manta: I buried my heart with my father.

Toriel: There are better ways to deal with grief.

Vs. Raiden

Toriel: Seems now we both bear the burden of protecting our worlds

Raiden: It is a burden few are fit to carry.

Toriel: For Frisk’s sake I’ll bear it as long as I have to.

-----

Raiden: I sense great power within you.

Toriel: Power I intend to use to keep Earth out of both Brainiac’s and Superman’s hands.

Raiden: You require training to defend it.

Vs. Black Lightning

Black Lightning: We’re both teachers and parents, Toriel.

Toriel: And if what I’ve been doing is any indicator, we’re technically both superheroes.

Black Lightning: What else do we have in common?

-----

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice.

Black Lightning: Can’t pass up a chance to learn.

Toriel: “True, even teachers should know when to be students” or “I know I shouldn’t either, Black Lightning.”

Vs. Hellboy

Toriel: Did the B.P.R.D. send you after me?

Hellboy: Gotta do what I gotta do, pal.

Toriel:  Then know you’ve left me little choice...

--------

Hellboy: How do you plan to beat me, lady?

Toriel: Simple, is your soul fireproof?

Hellboy: Guess we’ll see about that.

------

Hellboy: You should meet my friend, Liz.

Toriel: She from the B.P.R.D too?

Hellboy: You’d love her, she’s a real fire-starter.

-------

Toriel: You’ve lived peacefully among humans, yet you feel like an outsider?

Hellboy: Never been sure where I belonged.

Toriel: Perhaps you can find a home among my people, Hellboy.

Vs. Atom

Toriel: (half-jokingly) I’ve got a ‘small’ thesis i want to test, Dr. Choi.

Atom: (chuckles slightly) And what might that be?

Toriel: That I can track your soul even when it’s sub-atomic.

-------

Atom: Fighting is easy if you know physics.

Toriel: Never thought about that, but it does make sense.

Atom: Allow me to demonstrate, Toriel.

Vs. Enchantress

Toriel: Release June before I make you do so!

Enchantress: Would you rather be my new vessel, Toriel?

Toriel: Even if I lose, you‘ll only get a pile of dust for your trouble.

-----

Enchantress (June): I can’t help it, she has to be let out!

Toriel: (in a resassuring tone) Stay calm June, I can get you out of this.

Enchantress: Okay hero, let’s play ‘save the world’.

Vs. Leonardo

Toriel: So where are you from, exactly?

Leonardo: The New York of a different Earth, why?

Toriel: Just wanted to know if you were a monster or not.

---------

Toriel: Batman insisted we practice.

Leonardo: Sparring always starts on time.

Toriel: (slightly reluctant) Some of us are less accustomed to this than others, Leonardo.

---------

Leonardo: I’m guessing you’re a mutant too?

Toriel: My people were born from magic, not mutation.

Leonardo: That’s a new one...

Vs. Michelangelo

Toriel: I can safely say I didn’t see this coming.

Michelangelo: Think it’s time to reboot your console.

Toriel: Whatever that’s supposed to mean...

------

Michelangelo: Let’s skip this, I’m starving.

Toriel: Tell you what, I’ll bake you a pie after this bout.

Michelangelo: Sounds awesome! count me in!

Vs. Raphael

Toriel: Need anything before this bout, Raphael? a talking to? a slice of pie, perhaps?

Raphael: I’m complicated, alright? lay off me!

Toriel: How curious, Chara once said the same thing....

-------

Raphael: New York pizza is the best, am I right?

Toriel: (teasingly) I don’t know, Frisk always told me I make the best pies.

Raphael: You’re definitely gonna have to show me and my bros!

Vs. Donatello

Toriel: I can safely say I didn’t see this coming.

Donatello: Or maybe you’re sleeping off a pizza coma?

Toriel: If so, I’m not letting Undyne pay for dinner at Supah Salty again.

------

Donatello: How are you engineering a win?

Toriel: Simple, is your soul fireproof?

Donatello: Seriously miscalculated that one...

Mirror Match Intros

Player 1 Toriel: I can safely say I didn’t see this coming.

Player 2 Toriel: This whole multiverse thing does feel surreal, doesn’t it?

Player 1 Toriel: Just looking at you feels hard to wrap my head around.

-------

Player 2 Toriel: Need any help with Frisk?

Player 1 Toriel: Don’t you have your own Frisk to look after?

Player 2 Toriel: Yes, but I think they can have a duplicate for a friend…

--------

Player 1 Toriel: So, what’s different in your universe?

Player 2 Toriel: No Mount Ebbot, and I’m raising a teenager named Kris.

Player 1 Toriel: Now I’ve got to know more.

[awed-frog]

The frustrating thing for me, when people use Dean's issues to point out WHY he handles emotional situations badly is that the sympathy isn't with the people that suffers because of it (like Cas). It's with Dean. An explanation for Dean's behaviour shouldn't become a justification. If Dean loves Cas but treats Cas badly, why should we root for this relationship? Him almost killing Cas is about CAS' suffering, not his. But his reaction is not about what Cas deserves, but about his wants. IMO etc.

I’ve been trying to come up with something clever about this ask for a few days, but I got nothing, so I’m just going to tell you what’s going through my mind in the clearest possible way.

1) The viewers will often have a favourite and defend them to the death, and if you find it frustrating, there’s not much you can do other than unfollow people or blacklist some tags. I understand where you come from - I also get annoyed when people justify everything’s a character’s ever done, even the most twisted and problematic things, just because they like him or her. To be honest, I think I stopped caring when I saw a discussion about how Tate Langdon was the perfect boyfriend - some part of my soul just shrivelled and died and I decided that yep, some people are batshit insane and most people get unreasonable around stuff they love, and what can you do about it? 

2) If you’re talking about the writers/creators of a show, on the other hand, I think it’s important to remember where is our POV and what kind of story those people are telling. Like, Supernatural is not House of Cards: whatever he does, Dean will be written as sympathetic, and since we see this world (mostly) from his POV, everything is reflected back on him. I know some people get angry about this - characters getting killed to make the Winchesters feel bad, or simply to advance the plot - but that’s how you tell a story (everybody does the same thing, and if you don’t see it, it means they’re doing their job right). Your main characters are the ones who matter, and the ones whose emotions we care about. So, even when it comes to someone as important to the story as Cas is, Dean will get most of the plot, and this is just how things work.

The next point might upset some people, so I’ll place it under a cut. Stay safe.

3) On placing sympathy on the abuser, rather than the victim - I think there are several reasons for this. One is that, traditionally, our stories in the West are about the conquerors and the victors, not those who have been defeated (when Euripides wrote a tragedy about the Trojan noblewomen being sold off as slaves after the war, people were not happy, and that play is still controversial today). At the same time, we all realize, because we’re not psychopaths, that violence is not nice, and that’s how you end up with this compromise narrative best summarized by Frankie Boyle.

Another aspect of this is that many victims are women (or people ‘outside’ a community, such as queer people or POC), and many abusers are men, and, again, traditionally we give less weight and importance to the feelings and wellbeing of women than we do to those of men. Combine that with the fact many storytellers (I use the term loosely) are men, and you get where we are today: a story about a woman being beaten by her husband is ‘boring’ and not something the audience will want to watch, but the story of a tortured man who can’t help but beat his wife because demons is ‘interesting’ and worth everyone’s attention.

Finally, I think there’s a combination of these two factors in play as well - we mostly want to see stories about people acting, not reacting; about people being brave and fighting and winning, because we generally identify with the main character and we want some sort of happy ending for them. And the problem is - a victim of violence who overcomes this violence - that can still be perceived as a bleak story, right, because abusers are often a solid part of the community (husbands and fathers in family dramas, soldiers and commanders in war movies), which means that this kind of stories are, in their very nature, unsettling and revolutionary, because what they’re telling you is that the community was wrong in trusting those people. It’s no wonder, really, that Francesco Rosi’s Uomini contro was threatened, sued, and had great trouble to find distribution in Italian cinemas: despite being a movie about a century old war, it sided - very clearly - with the soldiers who’d been brutalized by their own commanders, and while the situation was well-known and mostly accurate from a historical point of view, the backlash was still enormous. And this is the same reaction you get, not only towards fictional stories, but about real ones too. All those murder-suicides - ‘normal’ men killing their wives and children before shooting themselves - both the media and the public’s reaction is inevitably incredulity and a refusal to dig deeper. We want to believe our societies are healthy and we want to believe that men (unlike women, those fickle and untrustworthy creatures) are mostly right about everything, and this is what we get as a result. We’re so good at ignoring violence it sometimes comes back to haunt us (is it just me or all the latest US shooters had priors of domestic violence?). So, you see - a man coming to terms with his own anger and becoming a better person, that’s an inspiring story we’re all okay with; but a woman standing up to her husband, that’s a bit different. There’s a seed of revolt there, a sort of If she did it, why can’t I? that we really don’t want people to see.

(In case it’s not clear, I’m violently against all of this. I’m sick of this kind of stories, and I do think that we need some waking up and some revolution in our communities.)

4) You say an explanation shouldn’t mean a justification, and I totally agree, but I also think it’s hard to do this right, both IRL and in fiction, because the more you know about someone, the more you empathize with them, which means any villain can become redeemable with the right background story - just ask Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. As for Dean and Cas, I don’t think Dean ever justified his own behaviour; in fact, he even atoned for it, in his own Dean way, when he allowed a crazed Cas to beat him up and insisted in keeping the bruises. It wasn’t perfect, but, then again, neither is Dean.

5) Why should we root for this relationship if Dean treats Cas badly - does Dean really treat Cas badly? I don’t think so. Dean is a MESS, all capitals. He tries his best, and I really feel for him, but the truth is, he doesn’t know how to do this. As far as we know, he didn’t have any friends or significant relationships growing up, and by the beginning of the series, the only person he seems to connect to in any healthy way is Bobby. Honestly - it takes years for Dean, who grew up as a soldier and a conman and a loner and never had a right to his own childhood and a life that wasn’t taking care of his brother and helping out his father, to get better at this. And, sure, the relationship with Cas is no different - at the beginning, Dean is confrontational, a sarcastic little shit, occasionally cons Cas into having his way - but the magic of what happens between them is that pretty soon, all of Dean’s traditional walls and posturing take a step back. What’s really special here is that Dean is honest with Cas in a way he isn’t with anyone else, and despite the fact he loves Cas so fiercely, he mostly tries to respect his decisions, and is never harsh with him if not in very extreme circumstances. Personally, the one moment between them I truly hated was Dean’s Nobody cares that you’re broken, because, OUCH - looking back, I can see that this was Dean channelling John, but still - it was an incredibly dickish thing to say (and it must have haunted Dean in Purgatory, especially since, as far as he knew, Cas had died - because of him). As for the rest of it - I doubt we’ll ever have fluffy lines between them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly soft with each other. I don’t know if you were referring specifically to S12E19, but Dean pushing Cas against a wall in anger - that’s not abuse. He knows he can’t hurt Cas (physically) unless he really tries, so that scene was about Dean needing to put his hands on Cas, to feel him, to make sure he was there and he was okay; and also a harmless way to let his frustration out, to say what he doesn’t know how to put into words (that he cares, that is, and that he doesn’t need Cas to bring him back any win, the dumbass, because that’s not what actually matters). And maybe that reaction doesn’t seem soft to you, but this is Dean Winchester, right, the killer even demons are afraid of and the guy who basically doesn’t trust anyone - Cas just spent weeks MIA, never bothered to call, didn’t tell them he had a line on Kelly, stole the Colt form Dean knowing full well how much that weapon meant to him, collaborated with Heaven without telling him one word about it - and, on the whole, Dean’s not even angry. He’s worried, and he’s frustrated (with Cas; with himself), but he understands why Cas did what he did, and that makes all the difference. 

“Dude, if anybody else - I mean anybody - pulled that kind of crap, I would stab them in their neck on principle. Why should I give him a free pass?”

“Because it’s Cas.”

You know - I always felt that for Dean, who’s always been coded as the ‘female’ character both with Sam and with Cas, the Mark of Cain was the ultimate undoing precisely because it took from him all those ‘feminine’ traits which are such a profound part of who he is. The fact that it all culminated in him beating the hell out of Cas, in a reversal of their traditional ‘fights’ (I’m inverted commaing this because most of those happened under some sort of mind control, so they weren’t really fights), was, in a way, a complete assertion of his new role of Alpha Male - while Cas had stepped back into a more traditional ‘feminine’ role the whole season. In this sense, I understand that the narrative focused way more heavily on Dean, because he was the one acting out of character and doing ‘weird’ things - but ideally, yes, I would have wanted to know what that beating meant for Cas, what he was thinking as he healed himself, and everything else. So, yeah - it’s a mess, and it’s not a traditional love story, perhaps, but I still think they’re right for each other and they do make each other happy, so personally, I’m rooting for them. There are tons of abusive relationships on TV that are passed off as normal, even romantic, but this isn’t one of them.

[dantecouldnothaveconceived-blog]

Fear of Failure

Much of Frankenstein revolves around one word, one concept, one part of life: failure. Although a failure is an incredible common occurrence, especially in the realm of science, its effect on mankind varies greatly; some accept it and use it to allow them to succeed in the future; some feel emotionally distraught and as though there is no escape from it; others, however, fear its effects so such a high degree that they simply pretend like it isn’t there. One lad who has developed such a potent fear of failure that he does literally everything he can do to prevent it is our apparent protagonist but true antagonist, Victor Frankenstein.

From a young age, Victor was destined for success; he was intelligent, happy, had a loving family, etc. As he discusses his childhood with Robert Walton, he brags about how “no human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love,” (Shelley 23). While this is certainly a lovely way to be raised, a way free from adversity, it leaves Victor free of any method of dealing with any kind of challenge or failure. He, in a way, develops a form of affluenza wherein he is incapable of properly dealing with a lack of success. Victor’s psychological problems can first be seen as his mother dies after helping Elizabeth recover from an illness. Unlike the rest of his family, Victor hardly grieves over this loss; instead, he is more focused on his failure to save his loved one. This was the first instance of Victor experiencing loss, and he has no clue how to deal with it. Instead of mourning the loss of a loved one, Victor places the burden of failure on himself and makes it his job to prevent such an emotionally damaging event from happening again. As this was Victor’s first true failure, the death of his mother is what he comes to associate it with; not a minor event that he can easily overcome but a tragedy. He comes to fear the very nature of failure as it carries horrible connotations in his mind.

In the same way that humans try to counter their fear of inferiority, Victor does everything he can throughout his life to combat his fear of failure. He “absents himself from our world of ordinary awareness and relatedness, which recedes from him in much the manner that a dream fades at the instant of awakening. Severing all contact with his family, other being, and familiar nature, he is intent on hollowing out a zone in reality where he can be utterly alone,” (Sherwin 892). Victor abandons the blessed life he has been given to prevent any further failures through death. To conquer death, he attempts to play god and create life. “Victor's decision to create new life also seems related to his efforts to master fears of death. Is it merely accidental that his philosophical interest in regeneration immediately follows his mother's death? Despite his acceptance of maternal loss and rejection of the mourning process, Victor attempts to reverse the forces of time by resurrecting the dead. He thus enacts a rescue fantasy, not unlike the service Robert Walton performs for him,” (Berman 60-61). To conquer death, he breathes live into an inanimate combination of the finest deceased body parts a lunatic could ask for. Upon finishing his creation, he realizes that what he saw as a perfect means of success is truly another failure. Instead of taking responsibility and handling the monstrosity conceived with his own hands, Victor simply abandons him. He pretends as though it never happened because he is too concerned that others would view him as a failed scientist. His fear of being seen as a failure causes him to unleash a superhuman recluse upon the world and leave it to suffer and snowball into a murderous behemoth. He abandons what is essentially his child because he is too worried about others discovering his failed experiment, an action that illustrates the part of his character that causes him to only truly care about himself: his narcissism.

Victor’s life becomes little more than a battle with his community, his family, and, most importantly, himself as he tries to preserve the lives of those he loves while continuing to seem successful. This conflict becomes most apparent when Victor’s motive for breaking his covenant with the Creature is revealed. Atop the alps, when Victor encounters his creation and is convinced to create a female being of the same stature, he finally shows decides to take an ounce of responsibility for the hell that he has let reign upon his progeny. This covenant would put an end to the deaths of his loved ones and free himself from the metaphorical prison that he has become trapped in. When it comes time to finish the creation of a second being and complete his promise, Victor obliterates the corpse and dooms those he loves to a world of suffering. “Frankenstein’s decision to break his covenant with the Monster explicitly concerns the ‘chain of existence and events.’ It occurs to Frankenstein that the inevitable result of  ‘those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted’ will be a race of monstrous progeny which may wreak havoc on mankind (p. 166). Precisely because the special creation demanded by the Monster has as its purpose the inception of an effective chain outside humanity- a new family, a new society- it raises the frightening possibility of a new and uncontrollable signifying chain, one with unknown rules and grammar,” (Brooks 598). His motive was not to protect those he loved; it wasn’t to bring happiness to the Creature; it was to protect his name. He doomed his family and the Creature to lives of eternal misery because he feared the possibility that “future ages might curse me [Victor] as their pest,” (Shelley 156). What else could drive a man to abandon those who have given him the world on a silver platter for nothing in return than the overwhelming power of fear. Victor’s narcissistic tendencies cause him to care more about not being seen as a failure than the lives of those he, supposedly, loves more dearly than anything in the world. As these narcissistic tendencies are manifested in his fear of being seen as a failure, his actions illustrate how incredibly controlling fear can be.

Victor’s concealment of his failures has a much larger effect on the novella as a whole, however. The story is formatted in such a way that everything that we, the readers, perceive has been altered by Victor’s narrative bias. For such a simple reason as how he is the one telling the story, Victor has the power to omit or contort any details that he so pleases. Although there is no concrete evidence that he does so, his personality that we discover to be narcissistic and his fear of being seen as a failure reveal that it is unlikely that he did not alter some details to deceive Walton. As he tells his tale, Victor “precedes his narration by admonishing Robert Walton to ‘deduce an apt moral from my tale’ (Shelley 30). Victor frequently interrupts his narration, however, to prevent Walton from deducing anything other than a prescribed meaning. ‘Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow’ (Shelley 53). The phrasing of the sentence is revealing. Even as Victor attempts to repudiate his ambitions, he idealizes those who, like himself, aspire to become greater than their nature will allow, and devalues those who narrow-mindedly believe their native town to be the world. When he does acknowledge guilt, he refuses to locate the true meaning of his crime. Thus, Victor sees himself as a failed Promethean rather than as a pathological narcissist. By interpreting his defeat in terms of the acquisition of forbidden knowledge, instead of empathic failure, Victor heroicizes his story. His last words to Walton indicate the belief that his ambition has been noble and blameless,” (Berman 72-73). In addition to altering the details of the story, Victor interjects his ideas and defines his motives in certain ways to prevent Walton from seeing him in any way apart from the protagonist, the victim, the scientist whose “mild” failure was no fault of his own but instead of external factors. Even on his deathbed, Victor refuses to accept or blatantly reveal that he has not been successful. His fear of failure is so deeply rooted that he feels forced to not only deceive his friends that he grows up with, his family that he loved so, and his companion who is the captain of an atlantic crabbing vessel; he also feels forced to deceive himself.

The juxtaposition between the happy Victor in his days of youth and the narcissistic Victor who indirectly kills everyone that he loves illustrates the wholly negative effect of terror. Though Victor has free will as a member of mankind, he forces his own hand to do whatever would most fully combat the failures that coat every aspect of his life. Shelley’s depiction of Victor’s descent into madness vividly illustrates how much power fear holds over the lives of mankind.