#not only does it show Apollo’s growth from the first book

[m-arnie-xx]

Coming back from the dead to remind y’all of this delightful, criminally underrated time in TTT where Lester-Apollo tells Zeus (in his head) to take his lightning bolt and shove it up his ass cloaca maxima

[annabethisterrified]

Book Review: THE TOWER OF NERO (The Trials of Apollo #5)

***No spoilers until you go under the cut!***

After months in the human form of Lester Papadopoulos, the former god Apollo is nearing the end of his trials alongside the young Meg McCaffrey. All their adventures and misfortunes have landed them back in the place it started-- New York. Meg and Apollo must defeat the final, most powerful emperor of the Triumvirate, who also happens to be Meg’s manipulative stepfather. Meanwhile, Nico, Will, and Rachel have important roles to play as the final battle looms. Even if they can defeat Nero, a more terrible enemy awaits in the form of Python, Apollo’s nemesis. Still, if they can succeed, Apollo will finally be restored to godhood. But after everything he’s been through, going back to the way things were doesn’t sound so great anymore. Apollo and his friends will have to find a new way to make all the sacrifices and pain they’ve experienced and witnessed worth it. That is, if they can survive their final trial.

As both the culmination of The Trials of Apollo series and the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, The Tower of Nero excels at bringing the complicated, moving themes of the saga into final, meaningful reckonings. Nero proves to be a chilling and impressive enemy who forces Apollo and Meg to put everything they’ve learned through their journey together to the ultimate test. New and old characters combine to see the story to its end, and long-time readers are rewarded with actualized development and a bittersweet farewell. The Tower of Nero is a fitting and robust conclusion that shines with all the heart, humor, and growth that makes this saga a worthy frontrunner in children’s literature.

SPOILER SECTIONS BELOW

Welcome!!!!!!!!! Y’all. Y’ALL. I am REELING. If you’ve been around here a while, you probably know I’ve been online here since 2012 (?????!!!!!) where I subjected by followers to weird takes and frantic excitement about the upcoming installments of Heroes of Olympus, then Trials of Apollo. Since I was ten years old, this story has been such a huge part of my life. Now I’m 22 (?????!!!!). So. How am I feeling? I’m feeling like I need to flip over every piece of furniture in my house. In a good way. Look. I gotta break this down into three parts because I’m the worst!

I. TRIALS & TRIBULATION

The Trials of Apollo, to me, felt like the inevitable conclusion to Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Heroes of Olympus. We went through two series where we intimately followed the lives of young demigods growing up through two brutal wars, dangerous quests, and personal reckonings. Gods certainly made appearances, and some were more helpful than others, but the message was always clear-- the demigods were on their own. Two wars fought, two wars won, and at what cost? For what change?

Bringing a god down to earth (both literally and metaphorically) is really the only way a story like this could be rounded out. Especially when the god in question is Apollo. He’s the son of Zeus, who punishes him by turning him mortal. This family set-up already has enormous implications in reference to the previous chain of mythological events: Zeus killed his father Kronos, Kronos killed his father Ouranos, etc. 

Prophecy is also the scaffolding of this entire saga. Everything is dictated by it-- every quest relies on it, most of the demigods we meet are led by it, and the whole Greek/Roman world seems to build their lives around it. My point is, Apollo was a great character to use as the mouthpiece of this last series. He’s been present throughout the previous two series, and he’s relatively unaffected by the Greek/Roman divide. The enemy, the Triumvirate, is also an exciting antagonist-- they’ve fueled and funded the previous two wars, and their obsession with becoming “gods” is loaded with implications as Apollo races to return to his own status as a god.

Apollo himself is also a completely terrible being. From the first pages through his perspective, there’s certainly little sympathy or commiseration with our narrator. Apollo is many things: spoiled, petulant, selfish, and arrogant. He is not good, and now, he is no longer a god. Still, his voice and struggle remained compelling and engaging throughout the series. 

His bond with Meg McCaffrey is, without a doubt, the emotional heart of the whole series. I think they both see aspects of themselves in each other, and it was a genius move to make her the stepdaughter of the enemy. Nero literally sent Meg to be Apollo’s controller and thought that she would easily bring him down; the fact that both these very troubled people cling to each other in the face of such manipulation and frightening circumstances-- and then repeatedly choose to fight their ways back to each other time and again-- is really what makes this series work so well.

With Meg and Apollo at the forefront, after The Hidden Oracle the series takes on something of a “tour” format. We discover new places and revisit old characters across the country, which was definitely exciting for long-time readers to see familiar faces undergo even more development. (This might just be me, but I don’t think ToA can really stand on its own without the worldbuilding/establishment of the first two series-- that’s not a knock on it, but so much of it picks up where the previous series left off, which might make it a disorienting read for someone new to the world.)

Of course, the obvious midpoint reversal of the series is the death of Jason Grace in The Burning Maze. A flip switches completely-- not just for Apollo, but for the whole cast. This is not an incident that just “happens” and is swept aside. In the final two installments, Jason is threaded throughout the story, showing how grief is never truly over. But his sacrifice saved everyone he loved, and had profound impacts on everyone he knew. As brutal as it was, I appreciated how Jason really changed everything through his choice. 

By the time Apollo and Meg return to New York in The Tower of Nero, they are better, stronger versions of themselves. The things they once wanted-- godhood restored, or a father’s approval-- are no longer appealing. Their development (both individually and as friends) is utterly believable and hard-won. We see characters from The Hidden Oracle return changed, too. Losing Jason has dredged up dark feelings within Nico, Rachel is warding off the influence of Python in her mind, and Will’s healer heart is put to the test in yet another final battle. (Listen, this kid played instrumental roles in The Last Olympian, The Blood of Olympus, AND The Tower of Nero. The fate of the world really is in his capable, glow-in-the-dark hands.)

Together, Apollo and team venture into Manhattan for a very intense, exciting, and profound final reckoning with Nero. (CHAPTER 20, ANYONE????) Both Apollo and Meg, once and for all, come into their own and reclaim their power and independence. The pay-off is immaculate, and it’s jarring to remember the Apollo we once knew-- the easygoing one from The Titan’s Curse, the snobbish one from The Blood of Olympus, and the self-pitying one from The Hidden Oracle. His development throughout ToA is seamless and incredibly moving, and we’re left with a protagonist that we can truly, unequivocally root for and love.

II. HAVE YOU LEARNED?

When Nero is defeated, the real enemy still lurks. Apollo’s age-old nemesis, Python, has long haunted him. Their final reckoning is one-on-one, and after everything Apollo’s learned and been through, he goes into his last battle not necessarily caring whether he lives or dies-- he just knows Python must be defeated, no matter the cost. Don’t get me STARTED on his last conversation with Meg!!!!?????? (”Just come back to me, dummy.” I LOVE THEM) 

So, yeah, I’m already crying at that point. Apollo (slowly regaining his godhood) goes into this completely by himself, assuming all risk and responsibility. He’s forced to sacrifice the Arrow of Dodona, and eventually chooses to sacrifice himself by flinging them both down to Tartarus. But we don’t stop there! Oh, no, we go all the way down to Chaos. The primordial soup of all the pantheons, all of existence. Python crumbles, and Apollo clings to the edge-- he clings to life.

This is it. This is the literal rock-bottom moment of the saga, and I’m completely unsure of how he’s getting out of this one. Who’s going to rescue him? What can he even do at this point? Genuinely, I had no idea where this was going-- and I never would have guessed that it would be the goddess Styx who shows up. She’s played an important, but also very minor, role in ToA. I was baffled at first-- I thought, what does she have to do with any of this? But then it ended up playing out in like the most breathtaking, moving way possible. It’s one of the most defining scenes of the entire 15 books to me. 

She only asks him: “Have you learned?”

This is the goddess of promises and oaths. Since The Lightning Thief, we’ve seen how oaths are tossed around like confetti. Percy’s very existence (not to mention Thalia and Jason’s) is because of a broken promise. An oath to keep with a final breath is one of the revisited elements throughout the Heroes of Olympus series. Apollo makes willy-nilly promises in The Hidden Oracle, which he later regrets. 

Then, at the end of everything, Styx only asks Apollo if he’s learned. All the talk of promises and oaths in this story doesn’t actually have anything to do with “keeping promises”-- certainly, so many promises are broken we can’t keep track. It all boils down to whether we learn from what we experience and use that to become better people moving forward. It’s about making sure we mean what we say and what we do. It’s about commitment and devotion to the people we love and the things we care about. Promises don’t matter. Only action does. 

I can’t understate how thoroughly pleased I was that this was the final reckoning of the saga. It was an unexpected and completely profound moment, and such an important scene to use as the emotional climax of the book.

III. WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

After 15 years and 15 books, The Tower of Nero had to find a way to bring the saga to a close without nailing the coffin shut. More standalone novels are surely on the horizon (I’m looking at you, Nico and Will), but as a whole, this saga did need to come to a satisfying end. 

Let’s pick up after Apollo is restored to godhood. He wakes up to his sister Artemis, and the very first thing he does? After finally returning to his true form, the thing he’s relentlessly yearned for the whole series? He just breaks down sobbing. He’s miserable. There’s no relief or joy in the realization that he’s once again an Olympian. 

I’m always a sucker for the trope of “Character does everything possible to reach Goal only to realize that Goal isn’t actually what they want or need at all”, so of course, I was moved to see Apollo learn that he doesn’t actually care much about whether he’s a god or a human anymore. (In fact, he later remarks that he envies Lu’s new ability to grow old and age alongside Meg and her foster siblings.)

I was doubly-moved that Apollo’s restoration to godhood was not an action on Zeus’s part. From what little context we get (a lot happens “off screen” and even Apollo isn’t sure), it appears that Apollo either reclaimed his own godhood through sheer force of will to return from Chaos and reunite with his friends, and/or Styx aided him. But it seems obvious Zeus wasn’t involved, which has HUGE implications for the power structure of the Olympians moving forward.

A lot of us, myself included, had certain expectations for how Apollo’s inevitable reunion with Zeus and the rest of the Olympians would go. I, for one, was excited to see Apollo either tell off his father, or possibly assume a position as the new Camp Half-Blood director or New Rome’s pontifex maximus. Instead, we got a somewhat quiet, but incredibly tense interaction between all the Olympians. The closest thing to an outburst is actually between Hera and Zeus, as she tells him off for not mourning his son Jason, as Apollo did. (Dare I say....I liked Hera for a moment?) (ALSO, I’m fully on-board with the theory that Zeus did not intervene in Jason’s death as a punishment for Jason publicly calling him “unwise” in The Blood of Olympus.)

The whole scene reads as a powder keg. Already, it’s established that Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus (and possibly even Athena and Hera) have no illusions of Zeus’s grandeur. They do not view him as family, or even as a leader. He’s simply just the one with enough power to punish the rest of them when they get “out of line”. 

Apollo began naming Zeus as his abuser fairly early on in the series. Perhaps witnessing the way Meg thinks and speaks about her stepfather Nero made this clear for him. In either case, he begins to explicitly mirror the very same advice he gives Meg in dealing with her abuser: distance yourself from the abusive person/situation, and accept that tyrants do not change and it is not your responsibility to attempt to make them “see the light”. Thus, Apollo makes no appeal or argument to Zeus– he understands by then that it’d be fruitless. Instead, he’s concentrating his energy on doing everything he can do with what he has; he’s committed to being a protector and friend of demigods, and he sees that other gods are beginning to (if not already) see Zeus’s wrongness. (More on this here.)

Was it what I expected going into the book? Nope. But I have to admit that it was really exciting to see Zeus try to hide the very real fear of realizing that his son Apollo is no longer afraid of him, and is quite possibly more powerful than him, too. Apollo switches gears entirely away from Zeus, and focuses his energy back on the friends he’s made and the children he has. It’s a refreshing reminder that it’s often more productive to concentrate on helping others instead of harming those who harm us. 

That being said, I would have liked a few paragraphs or pages discussing what practical differences there will be for the lives of young demigods in the wake of this change. I understand that might not have worked given the very condensed timeline post-returning-to-godhood (the story ends literally the same day or day after), but I do hope and believe that Apollo’s transformation is going to change the way demigods perceive gods-- and what they will expect of gods in the future. Just look at how Apollo is received by the campers at CHB. They’re ecstatic to see him. They think of him as a hero. Apollo is coming back just to help and spend time with his kids, his friends, and the campers, and he’s going to keep coming back. The other gods are certainly going to feel some pressure to follow suit. 

Speaking of Apollo’s reunions...shall we?

I loved that we got to see all the main-players one last time. Mimicking the “tour format” of the series, we get to watch Apollo catch up with his loved ones, who helped him learn how to be a better person throughout his trials.

It was sad, but reassuring, to watch Nico come to terms with Jason’s death. I like how he outlined the differences between Hazel’s and Jason’s deaths, and why he isn’t interfering out of respect for Jason. Watching Jason appear to Apollo (ambiguously as a ghost or as a figment of Apollo’s dream-imagination) was another moving reminder of the stark differences in the ways that different demigods prioritize and think about what it is to be a hero. Jason’s idea and Percy’s idea, for instance, are super different because of the way they were raised. Percy would put anything on the line for his family and friends; so would Jason, of course, but he also has a much broader view of what’s worth sacrificing your life for...which is admirable in ways, but also painfully sad, since a lot has to change in order for Jason’s death to carry weight. Over the course of the last two books, I think it’s very safe to say Jason’s death did change just about everything for the people who knew and loved him, and even those who didn’t. 

Whew. Okay, back to Camp Half-Blood. Nico and Will are clearly now very comfortable with each other, and it’s refreshing to see how they both watch out for each other and bring out the best in one another. I’m excited for their inevitable solo book, but regardless, it’s good to see Nico getting the help he needs (from his own experiences, from Dionysus, Will, etc), and for Rachel to get some distance from her terrible parents by living out her art student dreams in Paris. 

Then, we drop by the Waystation. I simply cannot get over the fact that Calypso is at BAND CAMP. Anyway, it’s unsurprising to find out that she and Leo are still “complicated”, but I’m glad she’s experiencing the highs and lows of mortal life, and that Leo is working on helping out vulnerable youth (and has two mom figures in his life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Glad we get to see Thalia and Reyna both happy and healthy, too.

Next up, Camp Jupiter and New Rome. LOVE that Hazel and Frank have both reclaimed the curses that haunted them since The Son of Neptune. They really both did just...like...basically die to bring down the Big Bad and then come back better than ever. (Side note: I still obviously have issues with the fact that Hazel is SO YOUNG! There was no reason for her not to be 15/16 like the rest of the Argo 2 crew! Ugh.)

Anyway, then we say goodbye to Percy and Annabeth. Except for the annoying continuity error in terms of the timeline of them learning about Jason, I really really really loved this parting moment with them. I know some readers wanted Percy and Annabeth to stay in New York, but it always felt very natural and meaningful for me that they’d want to relocate to New Rome. That was always the Big Dream for most of Heroes of Olympus, and it makes sense to me that they’d choose to live somewhere designed for demigods to actually live and grow old and raise families. Besides, I’m quite certain they’ll frequently be visiting New York. I digress. 

It was super bittersweet to see these two finally off on their own (and basically living together, as Apollo teasingly implies) going to college! Definitely a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction after following all their exploits since they were twelve. I’m so glad we get to see them (all things considered) happy and excited for their new life together. They certainly stepped back in this series, as they deserved. But they still lose Jason, and that’s something that weighs heavily on them and likely always will. Apollo calls Jason “the best of us”, and I don’t think that use of “us” is lost on Percy, Annabeth, or anyone-- Apollo’s identity and alignment is with them now, which will hopefully lead to positive change.

Then, simultaneously the saddest and happiest (?) reunion-- with Piper. This was obviously really heavy, since the last time Apollo sees her is in the wake of Jason’s death. For me, I’m very proud and excited by the fact that Piper is the only character who basically forges a whole new life (outside of the sphere of the Olympians) for herself. She’s far from other demigods and gods, and is committed to reconnecting with her mortal family and making a beautiful life. She has a new friend, too, which is absolutely awesome. (I mean, we all KNEW, right? But it’s really great to see this confirmed on-page.) When Piper told Apollo that he did right by Jason, I definitely lost it. And I also just really loved the final beat with her-- Apollo’s stammering a goodbye, but Piper’s already turned around to walk back to her new friend and her new life.

The final farewell, of course, went to Meg McCaffrey. She’s reclaimed Aeithales, and is now foster-sibling-extraordinaire by rescuing Nero’s other adopted demigods and giving them a new chance. Meg’s really matured and grown into such a kind and strong leader, but it was super bittersweet to see how much she still values Apollo. Their reunion just about broke me. They share a bond that no one else will ever understand, and they brought each other out of darkness that nearly ended them both. I literally can’t think of a better final dialogue than what they share:

You’ll come back?

Always. The sun always comes back. 

I’m fine!!! 

Anyway, this brings me to the closing lines of the story. Just as Percy opens The Lightning Thief by directly addressing the reader, Apollo closes The Tower of Nero by bidding farewell to us. 

Call on me. I will be there for you. 

On so many levels, this line works really well as the ending. For me, and I imagine for you too if you’re reading this, these 15 books are a pillar of our childhoods. We grew up alongside these characters, and found enormous excitement and identity and magic in these pages. The story may have come to a close, but it lives on within us-- it’s something we can return to time and again for enjoyment and understanding.

More than anything, this story pulled off something I didn’t really know was possible: it makes me feel genuinely and enthusiastically glad to be human, no matter how strange or hard it gets.

____________

My fifth-grade teacher assigned The Lightning Thief as mandatory reading when I was ten years old. I picked it up reluctantly, but from the first lines, I just completely fell into this story. Twelve years since that assignment, I’m now a traditionally-published author myself...writing about what else but mythology, of course. These books saw me from elementary school all the way to post-college life. It’s hard to imagine where I’d be without them-- certainly, I’d never have achieved my lifelong dream of becoming an author, nor would I have found such an incredible online community like the one I’ve found here. I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up alongside these characters and their incredible story. 

I know we’ve likely got more standalones in this world to come, but this is still the end of the saga. I’m sad to see it come to a close, but I’m so ecstatic with the send-off we got, and I’m excited to let the story settle and become a part of me-- something that will always affect how I see the world, something that reminds me of why I write, and something that’s always there to welcome me home.

[rivalsforlife]

Different anon, but I for one enjoy reading 2k rants on Ace Attorney. Do you have any thoughts on the changes they made to AA4 Phoenix? Like do you think it worked? (also if these are getting annoying feel free to ignore)

Glad to hear I’m not completely annoying everyone for constantly dunking on AA!!!

AA4 Phoenix... I’ve got to admit that the first time I went through AA4 I did not exactly like him. But I feel like there’s a LOT of potential there that would have been great to explore in laTER GAMES -- ahem. Well, I did just play the first case of AA4 yesterday with my best friend, and honestly, Phoenix is an absolute delight. My perceptions of characters tend to change upon further playthroughs and reading meta/content on the characters (Iris and Pearl being others who I really started liking later that I didn’t like at first)!

Firstly, I think making Phoenix a dad was a great move, the man already had some good dad-vibes going with Pearl in the trilogy so making it official was good. I also enjoy how they made Phoenix a dad in a way that didn’t feel... off? Like, giving Phoenix an official love interest and him having a biological child would kind of feel weird. But Phoenix has kind of been accumulating children/teenagers that like to follow him around for a while, and having Trucy actually stick around and make it official is really sweet, and their relationship and dynamics are such a great part of the fourth game. It’s done in a way where at first I was like “wait what do you MEAN Phoenix has a child???” but upon learning how he came to adopt her, I thought it made a lot of sense, it fit so well with the Phoenix we’ve come to know over the past few games.

Also one of his first lines is just a dad joke (”I-I’m fine!” “Mr. Fine, was it?”) which made me laugh a lot when playing it yesterday.

It’s also good to see him be a little mean, and show just how much of a genius he’s really capable of being. He’s always had that snarky streak throughout the trilogy and having him actually speak it out loud is great. And he’s also always been a genius, even if people around him don’t acknowledge it, and seeing him take a leaf out of Mia’s book and be the Cryptic Slightly Ominous Mentor is an interesting development for him. Like, it’s been seven years, I can believe Phoenix went through a lot of growth in those seven years.

(I do feel like a lot of the hate AA4 Phoenix gets tends to be from people who projected too much onto Phoenix as the protagonist in the trilogy -- which makes sense since he was originally kind of just intended to be a blank slate protagonist. ... Which I might’ve bought if they didn’t give him the elaborate backstories about becoming a lawyer to save Miles and the Dahlia backstory. Anyways, point is, I don’t really ever see myself in characters because I have a very loose sense of self to begin with, so I never really had that issue...?)

The things I DON’T like about AA4 Phoenix... first, it does kind of sting that two months after his Great Big Finale where he’s finally come into his own as a lawyer, he gets disbarred, and that isn’t resolved for seven years. Seven years is a long time! But I can live with that. There’s also the fact that AA4 rarely brings up any of Phoenix’s friends -- which in the one hand I get, because it’s Apollo’s game, not Phoenix’s -- and it’s odd. I know that Investigations was written after AA4 and is not by Takumi, so he didn’t really have any say in this, but even BEFORE Investigations I can’t believe that Miles would presumably abandon Phoenix over the gap. Particularly not after the ending of the second investigations game. Maya, too. She gets a few offhand mentions, sure, but even in the flashback there isn’t any mention of Phoenix having any contact with Maya, Miles, even Gumshoe... Ema mentions she didn’t even know Phoenix had a daughter, implying they weren’t really in contact either... and of course when only Maya gets a mention about Steel Samurai stuff in the fourth game, it feels like all his friends completely abandoned him. Which is why there are so many older fics written before DD was released where Phoenix was completely alone over the seven-year-gap. And while of course having the characters make an in-person appearance wouldn’t make any sense, having maybe a few random dialogue lines mentioning Phoenix was still in contact with them and they were still close would have been nice. DD and SOJ kind of fix this, but... still.

The other issue is that he kind of ends up overshadowing Apollo’s story particularly in the final case. He is the one who connects everything, and sets everything up, pretty much just using Apollo as a puppet to take down Kristoph since he can’t. Also since the whole story is about Phoenix and uncovering his past, Apollo’s own choices have much less weight. This, again, is something that could be resolved in the sequels by having Apollo have a larger role and not be overshadowed by Phoenix. Haha. hahahahaha. imagine that.

Overall I think Takumi had the right idea making Phoenix not be the protagonist since his story was done with T&T, and it’s interesting to see his growth throughout the years. I don’t necessarily think the disbarment itself was necessary -- Phoenix could still be the ominous cryptic and slightly meaner mentor/dad with his badge, and not in the spotlight, which is what I think DD and SOJ should have done after giving him his badge back. Would have liked it if it wasn’t so easy to walk away from the game with the impression that all of Phoenix’s beloved friends cut contact with him, though. 

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

His Blood Runs Gold I

Percy is a God: Part I

Masterlist for the next part and more of my stuff

Y’all already know what this is!!!!!!!! But if you don’t then click this to find out. And i hope you enjoy Percy as a god cause i definitely do ;) *shivers*

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

We were warm and shivering,

and young and ancient,

and alive.

-We Were Liars, E. Lockhart

Time is non-existent anymore. Percy should be twenty this year but now that he has ichor flowing through his veins, he can be 102 or 5. He has done things Homer would write epic poems about. If he were around at the dawn of time Ovid would have happily dedicated the Metamorphoses to him. But today Percy Jackson has been a god for three years and he has never felt more mortal in his life.

“Percy my boy, what are you doing here?”

“Hello Father, Camp Half-Blood is throwing a campfire in my honour and I thought it’d be rude not to show my face.”

“Very noble of you son. I remember back in my day the Greeks–“

Percy zoned out, tired of hearing how people bowed down to all these stuffy Olympians. The camp threw a celebration every year on the day he got immortalized and in return he reinforced the borders and blessed every demigod before they leave at the end of summer. He doesn’t know if he’s doing a good job, he doesn’t even know if what he does is making a difference, but he doesn’t know how else to give back to the camp and the people that saved his life again and again; who loved him and fought next to him and oh gods followed him into battle.

He’s never had the chance to talk to Chiron, who’s always busy with this demi-god and that satyr, and this nymph. He barely gets the chance to talk to all his old friends– between the new campers wanting to hear his stories and the general chaos of end of summer camp-life. He thanked the powers that be–what a jarring thought that he was one of those powers now– that he managed to find days in-between to see Annabeth and Grover.

He smiled to himself as he remembered the last time he saw Annabeth. She had been moving into her own apartment to start her third year at the University of New Rome. To his unsurprised delight she had chosen archaeology as her major but somehow slipped Latin and Ancient Histories into her schedule. He had helped carry bags and bags filled with books up to her room and they spent the day setting her up and making sure everything was in its place before she started the year.

Their relationship had progressed so softly, so slowly, Percy sometimes felt like he had imagined the year they had as a romantic couple. After he became a god they managed to go on a few dates, some interrupted by hothead immortals and revengeful monsters, and some blissfully alone. But once Annabeth started university and Percy was called again and again to help with this problem and that, it became a hassle to set up dates and figure out when to meet. They didn’t grow apart, so much as grow between. And although he missed the softness of Annabeth, he had gained a friend who knew him more deeply than any being alive– he was eternally grateful for that, and he couldn’t hate what they lost out on.

“Son, are you listening?” Poseidon pulled him from his thoughts.

“Yes father, it really was a great time for you. I have to go now, but Iris message if you need me.” And without waiting for a reply Percy strode out of Olympus and into the streets below.

He considered snagging a car but decided against it, since you couldn’t very well drive into Camp Half-Blood. Instead he walked into the ocean and let the current take him all the way to Long-Island, till he could smell the strawberries on the ocean wind and hear the echoes of camp games and reedpipes.

He stepped onto the beach, loving the soft sinking impressions he made in the sand. After his blood turned gold he realized he could walk on the sand and make no footprints whatsoever. The idea scared him so much he sunk under water and cried for three hours. How could he leave nothing behind? How could he have no imprint? It was Tyson, riding on his rainbow hippocampi who found him and showed him how to balance his weight; showed him how to step into the sand and not on it. When his footprints reappeared once more, he hugged his brother so hard if Tyson weren’t a cyclops his ribs might have cracked.

So Percy walked up the beach and through the strawberry fields, taking the time to breathe in the forest air, the fruit breezes, and ah the smell of chaos.

“JACKSON!” Connor Stoll yelled.

And with that single announcement Percy was home.

The day was spent in good spirits: racing with various campers up the wall and avoiding every deadly thing it spat at you– even if he couldn’t really die; then eating in the dining hall and getting to travel between tables without getting glares from various houses or Chiron; laughing as all the food turned blue just for him.

When it was time Percy walked with some of his friends; Clarisse who grew to be a steady, if raging fire, by his side, and Connor Stoll who is now the oldest of the Hermes kids since Travis left for college, and of course Will who above everyone reserves the right to make sure his friends were protected.

In a moment of vulnerability, he broke down on Percy’s immortal shoulder and wept. I don’t want to bury anymore of my friends Percy. I don’t want to be tending to them as they die in my infirmary. I can’t do it anymore. For him, Percy double, sometimes in moments of obsessiveness, triple checked his border defenses.

Now the little group walks around the perimeter of the camp and talks softly and contentedly as Percy knocks against the shimmering force, leaking power into the hollow spots.

“How is everyone at camp?” He asked.

“Fine, nothing has changed much. Ever since the Giant War it feels as if everything has calmed down to a lull. I’m wary it’s the eye before the storm but gods-dammit we deserve a break.” Connor answered.

Percy hid the rage of that truth but let the ache of those words settle in his bones. He simply nodded at Connor and turned to Clarisse.

“Are there any new campers who need to be protected?”

“Only a few, a lot have moved to New Rome over the last years.” There was a bitter edge to her words, caused by the sting of loss.

“You cannot blame them for wanting a life that is not concentrated to three months of safety.”

“I know,” Her nostrils flared, she kicked the rock in front of her. “I know. It just sucks that there’s so few of us now.”

“Maybe we can see about hosting annual games at each camp over the summer?” He suggested, careful to not step where the cracks spidered underneath him– even if the labyrinth had collapsed there was still the chance something tunneled beneath.

“I think that’s a great idea.” Will piped up, “Maybe then I can convince Nico to stay for more than one week.” He rolled his eyes, but the glimmer of happiness in them gave away his annoyed pretense.

“I will talk to the Praetors over there and let you know.”

“Thank you, Percy.”

They turned to face him.

He stared at them for a moment, studying their faces. Even now, all these years later it was jarring to see the signs of growth in their make-ups. He couldn’t say aging, they were barely hitting their twenties, gods Will was still a teenager, albeit not for much longer; but it was weird to watch as they grew up, watch as time changed their features, changed them.

Clarisse, who used to be a spitfire of rage and fierce protectiveness was now, more a well-kept hearth. She was still full of flame, but it was contained, and her fierce was warm instead of scorching.

And Connor, who had been attached to his brother at the hip, was all grown up. Travis was three years into a degree and Connor, although a prospective honours student, had forfeited college until he could figure out what he wanted to do. He was the sole head of the Hermes cabin, but somehow, he kept up the mischief as if the two were still together. The shenanigans are some of Percy’s favourites to hear around the campfire.

And Will, who is dating Nico di Angelo. The two were often running between the camps, though Nico more than the child of Apollo. It was Will, Percy thought, who brought the camp together, more than anyone. And Will, who in the process had lost the most. For him, Percy would continue to be here every year, would continue to help if they called when they were in trouble. Because he too was tired of seeing his friends die. Tired of seeing his friends mourn.

“It’s almost time for me to go but I wanted to say,” He fought to choke back the rising wave of emotions, “I wanted to say thank you. For keeping my home safe. And thank you for being my friends.”

Their hug lasted many moments, ribbons of friendship passing between them. And when Percy walked back into the sea, he was glad no-one could tell the difference between tears and ocean.

Friends, the word echoed in his head. So few and far between since he became a God. It was not that people feared him, they just became… wary. They fell into that space in-between, where one wrong move could plunge them into fear. When he first turned divine, he counted on his fingers how many friends he had, and if he didn’t have enough digits, he deemed it a good day. Now he can count with aching clarity all the people who loved him, and still have fingers to spare.

Annabeth asked him once if he regretted taking up Zeus’ offer, if he regretted turning his red blood gold.

He hadn’t answered her till three weeks later, over a three am phone call.

I don’t regret it, he had said, because I know I can help this way. I know I can protect my family and friends better this way. And when the phone had gone dark, he had whispered into the void of his room– an alcove of coral far, far, far underwater– I don’t regret it, but I’m so lonely. The tears at that admission did not stop flowing for many hours.

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

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@thepersonyourparentswishyouwere

@lesbian-peanuts

How are you feeling?? Cause i got 6K words for this fic and i don’t see myself stopping any time soon. Give me your thoughts young ones!!!!

[mediaevalmusereads]

Daring and the Duke. By Sarah MacLean. New York: Avon, 2020.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Bareknuckle Bastards #3

Summary: Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London’s darkest corners. Grace has a sharp mind and a powerful right hook and has never met an enemy she could not best, until the man she once loved returns. Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back… and make her his duchess. Reconciliation is the last thing Grace desires. Unable to forgive the past, she vows to take her revenge. But revenge requires keeping Ewan close, and soon her enemy seems to be something else altogether—something she can’t resist, even as he threatens the world she's built, the life she's claimed…and the heart she swore he'd never steal again.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: explicit sexual content, violence, blood, references to child abuse and maiming

Overview: There was only one book left in the Bareknuckle Bastards series so I thought “why not?” I was curious as to how MacLean would redeem the main antagonist of the first two books, and I rather liked Grace every time she showed up on the page. While there were some things I enjoyed, I would put this finale closer in quality to Brazen and the Beast than Wicked and the Wallflower. There wasn’t much to bind the two leads together aside from their past, in my opinion, and while MacLean attempts to tell a darker, angstier story, much of the plot felt empty and repetitive. Still, there were some nice nods to feminism and consent was always at the forefront, so I’m giving this book 3 stars.

Writing: MacLean’s prose isn’t radically different in Daring than it was in Brazen. It might be a little more serious, as the subject matter is definitely darker, but overall, it’s easy to get through and conveys MacLean’s ideas clearly. My only major complaint is that Daring felt more slow-paced than its prequels, perhaps because we got a lot of filler and repetition of the same scene but from different perspectives. Granted, some of this happens in the previous books, but because Daring isn’t largely focused on something external (like a business rivalry or a power play with an antagonist), everything just seemed to drag.

Also like Brazen, I don’t think MacLean used her themes to the fullest extent. There were some interesting attempts, such as the story about Apollo and the recurring mask motif, but there were also some duds, like the commentary about people being mad that Victoria was queen because she was a woman (Victoria was not a good symbol of “girl power,” in my opinion). While any one of these could have worked, they didn’t have as heavy of an impact as the themes in Wicked.

I also think MacLean held back on giving her characters unique quirks that served as metaphors; while Grace does have a tattoo that has some significance, it didn’t have sustained presence like Felicity’s lockpicking or Whit’s two watches. As a result, Daring felt the most thematically flat of the three books, and I wish as much care was put into both Brazen and Daring as was in Wicked.

Plot: Aside from the romance, most of the plot of this book revolves around Ewan’s redemption and a subtle concern over the increased frequency of raids on houses of ill repute. To be honest, I think this book started out rather well; Grace rescues Ewan from the explosion that happed at the end of Brazen, and their initial reunion and confrontation was fairly angsty. From there, though, I felt like the plot started to get repetitive and had no shape. Devil and Whit would threaten to beat up Ewan, Ewan would make some grand gesture (like hosting a ball or ask to help Covent Garden in a way), Grace would be attracted to that gesture, they’d have some intimate moment, Grace would then get nervous and run, only for the cycle to start over. While I did like the ways in which Ewan tried to earn forgiveness by helping Covent Garden, there wasn’t a whole lot of tension in these scenes aside from the threat of a brawl. I also didn’t feel like the subplot about Grace’s bordello was prominent enough or thematically related enough to have an impact; the bordello raids seemed to be a commentary about women and power, but it fell flat for me because Ewan didn’t really have to struggle with seeing Grace as an equal or as someone with power in her own right. He’s mostly already there, so the commentary felt rather hollow.

I think I would have much rather seen a plot with stronger parallels to the romance or one with more dramatic references to the characters’ pasts. Maybe Ewan’s secret could have been at risk throughout the book, and Grace has to decide what to do (which could have made for an interesting final showdown, if Ewan’s true identity had been discovered). Getting out of that pickle seems like a much more interesting plot than the empty gestures towards women in power that we got.

Characters: I liked Grace in Wicked, so I was happy that she got her own story in Daring. She’s a smart businesswoman with an intelligence network of almost all women, and I love the pleasure she takes in roaming the rooftops and dressing in bold colors. I also really love the friendships she has with her lieutenants at the bordello, and the sibling banter between her and Devil and Whit. However, my admiration from her cooled whenever she would engage in her back-ad-forth with Ewan. She never seemed to know what she wanted and was fairly flighty, which is understandable to an extent but irritating when there isn’t a strong plot or clear emotional progression to back it up. I always felt like Grace was stagnating and never really evolving, and her main character flaw was just to get over her past and hesitation about Ewan’s title. I wanted her to have something more, like an insecurity that Ewan could help her with.

Ewan, for his part, is somewhat interesting in that he was a villain in previous books. I liked the angst he brought to the story as well as the heartbreak when we finally learn why he made certain choices in his past, but other than that, he didn’t really have an exciting emotional arc. After the first scene, Ewan leaves London for a year to make himself a better man worthy of Grace, and when he returns, he seems to have finished growing and only needs the people around him to see it. I feel like we were cheated of seeing that growth happen on-page.

Side characters were fine and served their purpose. Devil and Whit were at their best when teasing Grace, but at their worst when talking about Ewan. I felt like they were always threatening to beat Ewan up but they never acted, which meant that their words felt hollow and their confrontations were useless. It would have been more interesting, in my opinion, if they had had more honest conversations with Ewan about their pasts so the angst was not just between Ewan and Grace but between the brothers as well. I wanted the brothers to struggle more with their emotions, rather than just think about punching one another.

Grace’s lieutenants, Veronique and Zeva, were fun when they were teasing Grace, but it also felt like they were there to relay information about the raids, which weren’t all that interesting. I liked that Grace was shown to have female friendships, and I liked that the lieutenants showed women in positions of power outside of a domestic setting, but ultimately, the raids just weren’t exciting enough to me to think of the lieutenants as much more than filler.

Romance: Based on the events from the previous two books, some readers may not find Ewan redeemable, so the quality of this romance will largely depend on what your personal threshold is. Personally, I was willing to give MacLean a shot, and while I do think she did everything she could to show that Ewan was trying to atone, I also don’t think she did enough to make the romance exciting. Grace and Ewan seemed to be mainly bound by their pasts, and though Ewan says he loves Grace for her boldness and power, it seemed all tell and no show. Part of the romance requires Ewan and Grace to learn who the other is now rather than try to recapture their childhoods, and I felt like not much of that happened outside of Grace just giving Ewan a tour of her bordello and telling stories about what happened to her after she fled with her brothers. I would have much rather had moments where the two bonded over some shared values - the laundry scene in Covent Garden kind of did that, but it was so dragged out and nothing was really built upon it, so I don’t think it had the intended effect.

I also don’t feel like Ewan and Grace grew within the romance very much, and by that I mean they didn’t help each other overcome some kind of character flaw. Ewan’s character development happened off-page, so most of his arc was about getting others to see that he had changed rather than changing before our eyes. Grace’s main barrier to the relationship was her past and her inability to trust, which would have been fine if all her reservations didn’t go out the window the moment she noticed Ewan’s muscles. It was somewhat exhausting to see her have an intimate moment with Ewan, insist that it was just this one time, then flee because they couldn’t be together (due to his title and her emotional hang-ups). The cycle would repeat, and it didn’t feel like each encounter built on the previous one. I think I would have liked to see a continuous evolution where the two learned who the other had become in the 20 years they were apart, uncovering truths along the way and building back trust rather than this back-and-forth of “we can’t be together” and “well, we can bang this one time but NO MORE after tonight.”

TL;DR: Despite including some delicious angst, Daring and the Duke ultimately relies on a cyclical romance and a lackluster plot, making this book a middling finale to the Bareknuckle Bastards series.

[myeclecticjourney]

Magic Plants

Hi guys! I wanted to share with you a few flowers and plants that I found in my parent’s backyard. I collected a few samples, couldn’t resist. Long post with pictures

So my mom has this stone kid, lol. She calls him “Hugo” like the 1969 movie “The book of stone” maybe he’s the reason her garden is so pretty and full of magical properties haha. Have you seen the movie? It’s actually pretty creepy.

Nevertheless, I made some research about all of the plants and found some amazing properties in each. I want to share this post with you, because maybe you also have this plants in your backyard or near your home, and you don’t really know you can use them in your craft.

TI PLANT

Originally called “Ki” was a sacred plant to the Hawaiian God, Lono, and the Goddess of the Hula, Laka. It meant “divine power”, and later on was recalled “Ti Plant”. Legend has it, it’s also the incarnation of Apollo. This plant releases positive energy, brings luck, happiness and resists evil souls and spirits. That’s why many people decide to have them in their homes.

CROSSANDRA

One of the most chosen variety flowers for folk medicine. Is a well known medicinal plant in various religions in India. It has amazing healing properties. You can use it for fever, headaches, physical wounds, and overall pain. Use it in your craft to attract health. Also you can use it in potions.

CROWN OF THORNS

Don’t let this beautiful and attractive to the eye flower fools you, it’s highly toxic and dangerous. It comes in a variety of colors. Its milky juice contains a toxin called “Phorbol Easter” which can irritate skin and cause severe stomach pain if it has contact with the skin. It might cause vision loss or even blindness if it reaches your eyes. Many believe that its thorns were used to make the crown made by the Romans to Jesus. You can use this plant in shadow work or in directed spells and rituals. Just remember being careful. Keep your pets away from it.

GOLDEN DEWDROPS

Many believed this grass weed was useless, until it bloomed. Its name was given thanks to the beautiful grapes and flowers that blooms from it. Under the sunlight they have a glittery and translucent color like dewdrops. As it belongs to the family of Vervain, the Golden Dewdrops symbolizes evil and witchcraft. Both, flowers and leaves can be used in talismans and amulets to bring protection and peace. Also it’s perfect for rituals.

PETRA CROTON

As most of their family, the Croton is a toxic plant for humans and animals when ingested, tho is not the most poisonous. Got its name thanks to the variety of foliage it has in nature. It’s used in gardens, bedrooms, hotels, and many places to bring color and life to a space. It was once used as a purgative plant, tho nowadays it’s mostly used aesthetically. It represents change, and new beginnings. You can use it in spells, talismans or amulets. Don’t eat it.

FIRECRACKER PLANT

Its tubular, most commonly red, flowers give it its name. Making it showy and appealing to humans. It grows and expands as rapidly as Bamboo, so keep in mind your garden space. It attracts bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators. It was used by Native Americans to treat spider and snake bites, stomach pain, backache, and burns. As it represents life and growth, you can use it to attract not only those properties, but also healing.

MADAGASCAR PALM

At least 12 species of palms were used in African medicinal and spiritual rituals over the years. The seeds are used as oracles, the leaves and flowers as offerings. In other cases the extracted oil was used as a healing mixture. As many believe, when a person got sick, it wasn’t only a physical sickness, but more spiritually. It was related to witches, sorcerers, broken taboos, or displeased ancestors spirits or deities, so the palms where used to cleanse the spirit and alleviate the patient from the suffering. You can use seeds, flowers and leaves as oracles, offerings in your altars, or use them in rituals and spells to attract protection and spiritual healing.

AFRICAN VIOLET

The original seed was discovered in 1892 by German Baron Paul, in an African colony. He then sent it to Germany where first appeared in a flower show and recalled as one of the most interesting plants. Part of the succulent family it helps purify indoor air quality, improving one’s mood and relieving stress. It was used in traditional herbal incense. You can use it in talismans and amulets to bring protection and promote spirituality. Or in spells and rituals. Won’t recommend ingesting it tho.

XANADU

Many humans are attracted to this plant because of the odd shape of its leaves, but be careful it’s another toxic plant, tho much more less. It’s commonly known as “Little Angel” and believe it’s a fairy. Its vivid and lively leaves, bring happiness and joy to a home and its fairy spirit causes a romantic and poetic soul. Use it in your craft for romantic spells or amulets. Remember not to eat it.

BRAZILIAN JOYWEED

Also called “Ruby Leaf”, “Bloodleaf” or “Metal Weed”. Another amazing medicinal plant used during centuries. This Joyweed is known in Brazil as Penicillin, go figure. It grows easily in dry and deforested soil. It’s commonly used against inflammation, cough, and diarrhea. You can use it in your spells, and potions to attract health.

FALSE HEATHER

Also know as “Mexican heather” or “Elfin Herb”, this type of Heather does not relate to the Scotch common one you probably know. Its name comes precisely from that, imitating the Heather. By itself, the False Heather has amazing antioxidant healing properties, it has been used to treat high cholesterol, or colds and chills by tea infusions. Many believe it has antitumor and anti cancerous spread properties. It also brings good luck, admiration and solitude. You can use it in potions, talismans or amulets to attract not only those properties but also health.

Those where some of the most interesting and beautiful plants my parents have in their garden. Do you have one of these as well? Have you used them before in your craft?

I really hope you liked this blog

Image source: my camera 📸

Blessed be,

-May xo.

Bibliography

- Gruca, M., van Andel, T. R., & Balslev, H. (2014, July 23). Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4222890/

- John, L. S., & Tilley, D. (2002, September). Firecracker Penstemon . Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/idpmcpg10756.pdf

- Croton Plant Care: An Ultimate Guide: Ambius US. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.ambius.com/indoor-plants/ultimate-guide-croton-plant-care/#what-are-the-benefits-of-croton-plants

- 7 Powerful Vervain Magical Properties [For Love and Protection]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/magickalspot.com/vervain-magical-properties/amp/

- Spiritual significance of flowers = Golden Dewdrops. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aurobindo.ru/images/flowers/316_e.htm

- Flower: African Violet. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/threehundredandsixtysix.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/flower-african-violet/amp/

- Antinociceptive Activity Of Methanolic Extract Of Leaves Of Alternanthera Brasiliana Kuntz. (2009). Retrieved from https://pharmacologyonline.silae.it/files/archives/2009/vol3/005.

- Anticancer Research. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2020, from http://www.stuartxchange.org/Kupea

- App: PictureThis

[forffax]

give me the aced attorneyed takes friendo

THANK U FRIENDO,,, aced tourney on the brain

favorite female character

HM.... man there’s so many!!! maya obvs is so fuckin good watching her open up and her good natured bullying of nick and her lesbianism,,, love her so much! all of the family shit she goes though... she rlly only has nick and pearl as far as family even if mia is watching over her and despite that she is so damn strong!! love maya 

ALSO TRUCY,,, everything abt her from her design to her and nick taking care of each other to her still maintaining a childlike innocence through a (understandably) v rough childhood? she’s so good Ultimate Daughter and i would kill and die for her 

special mentions to franziska, kay, pearl, and ema!!!! they’re all v good as well :)

favorite male character

mr. miles edgeworth i love you more than most fictional characters from any media i’d die and kill for you sir. his character arc being the driving force behind the first game and his gradual growth throughout the rest of the series, especially the culmination in aai2.... fucking superb i am close to tears thinking abt it!! emotionally stunted but extremely fatherly law men make me :cryingcat:

i love phoenix but for a long time i just kinda ignored his characterization in aj but after reconciling the two as The Same Phoenix i guess i have a better appreciation for his character? he’s a good dad and just a bit stupid i love him

apollo justice makes me lose it but also i kinda ignore all the plot that happened in aa5-aa6 just bc i Don’t Like Those Games Much so rlly my opinion is based on aa:aj! his biting sarcasm and general goofyness really make him seem WAY younger than aa1 phoenix which i like! also he’s gay and trans 

favorite book/season/etc

u know before u streamed aai 2 i would’ve said that my favorite game was apollo justice but now? ace attorney investigations 2 is honestly a game that any aa fan needs to at least watch through at least once that game actually changed me as a person

favorite episode (if its a tv show)

oh him this is a hard one too!! as far as the original trilogy it’s probably either farewell, my turnabout (2-4) or bridge to the turnabout (3-5)! bridge to the turnabout especially is such a good conclusion to the trilogy, not to mention Edgeworth Defense Attorney makes me lose it (he wore the badge!!! he wore the fucking badge!!!!)

conversely farewell my turnabout,,, adrian deserved better and even though we got her cleared of suspicion in the end the fact that we had to accuse her and bring all that to light anyways always made me feel awful which! is how you’re supposed to feel abt it!! it’s such a good case in how it rlly makes u (as nick) question your ideals! and then the duality between phoenix struggling to find his answer and deal with a lose-lose situation and miles being resolute in his new core beliefs,,,, it’s fucking tastey 

ALSO KEY POINTS

- but the miracle.... never happen 

- censored penis lobster

cannot discount turnabout goodbyes either! basically last cases of aa games are generally so so good!!

favorite ship

DOES IT NEED TO BE SAID..... phoenix wright and miles edgeworth are married and in love!! also a big fan of klapollo, franmaya, and junithena! 

character I’d die defending

klavier deserves to work through his awful awful trauma and is a genuinely fantastic character i wish capcom loved him as much as i do instead of reducing him to a one-case-per-game cameo character!! he just deserves resolution at the very least please!!! same with apollo that man cannot be okay after All That 

also ron delite did nothing wrong he’s one of my fav defendants

character I just can’t sympathize with

GODOT MISOGYNIST PRIDE i hate him i really do 

kristoph is also The Worst i’d kill him myself if i could 

COMPLETELY ERASED THEM FROM MY BRAIN BUT LIKE 90% OF THE BIG BERRY CIRCUS IS AWFUL THEY’RE SO BAD moe and regina can stay though they’re cool. man what is it with aa and clowns 

character I grew to love

oh i hated franziska when i started jfa but by the end i loved her!!! she’s the best

ALSO. seb and justine from aai2..... amazing how like a few lines can re-contextualize how u think and feel abt characters but i love them both so dearly!!! bring them all back i would like to see them 

anti otp

NARUM*YO BAD!!!! IT’S BAD TODD!!!

[zenosanalytic]

HoXPoX #1-3: The Sun: Illuminating Menace

It’s yet another installment of me obsessing unnecessarily about the imagery in the first few books in the new House of X/Powers of X series, this time: Colors! The Sun! T H E  S U N!!

The Sun

The Sun and its colors often seeming to represent safety and power, and unsurprisingly it plays into other thematic elements, notably cycles.

HoX1 follows the course of the sun; both through a year, and through a day. Before the story proper we see a montage of the XMen planting strange purple flowers in specific places; on earth, earth again, the Moon, and on Mars. These images are broken up 4 panels to a page across 2 pages. On the first page panel 1 start with lush greenery, followed by color-changing leaves in panel 2, then bare white ground and nighttish skies in panel 3, and ending with red skies over bare ground with a lush green foreground in panel 4. Summer(Green), Autumn(Gold&Brown), Winter(White), and Spring(bare earth plus greenery).

The same pattern of vegetation and earth repeats on the second page(lushness, autumnal colors, bare earth, bare earth&new growth), continuing the seasonal symbolism, but adds to it the sun’s position: if the first panel it is off-panel to the left casting long shadows in a lushly forested environment(The Savage Land); the 2nd setting or rising behind a thin cloud over the Potomac in DC, bathing the scene in reds and oranges and purples(very vaporwave. I will show you),

the 3rd unseen off-panel, it may be over the shoulder or a night scene with an artificial light, while flowers being planted right-of-center in the bare earth by two pairs of purple-gloved hands are spotlit; the 4th rising on the left again, mostly blocked by a barren cityscape, as vines grow up the side of a nondescript office-building. This 4th panel then opens, on the next page set two weeks later, into one of the plotlines of the book; a collection of ambassadors meeting Magneto to discuss Krakoa(the new island-mutant nation) at the Krakoa embassy in Jerusalem.

This plot takes place over the course of a day: it begins with the sun at the same position, rising on the left, continues through a lush marshland scene to a sun-colored orange or gold Krakoa transit-hub, and ends with it setting behind Magneto, framing his message of a new mutant dawn(and non-mutant dusk). In the middle we cut to another plotline, Jean escorting a group of Xavier’s students to Krakoa, with the sun high in the sky and middle-panel.

Its Power

The colors of the Noon-Sun -gold, yellow, orange, and yellow-white- crop-up in scenes of power and safety: the chrysalis-pods of the first two pages and their womb/birth imagery, the pupils of Krakoa’s central interface, the clothing the XMen wear, Lighting-eggs Krakoa provides, and far-flung Krakoan habitats. Jean Grey is consistently backgrounded with orange while on Krakoa, and Scott Summers by yellow when in Chicago(I THINK it’s Chicago judging by the architecture and city-layout, at least) negotiating with the Fantastic Four. In the dusk denouement of the embassy scene, when one of the Stepford Cuckoos(acting as Magneto’s diplomatic staff) reveals they have been reading the minds of the ambassadors, the background is a shining, golden yellow, as it remains when Magneto disarms a hostile, armed agent within the ambassadorial party, despite the dusky sun overlooking these scenes, revealed on the final pages.

In PoX 1, pale yellow-gold light bathes the Krakoa sanctuary as Mystique and Toad arrive back on the island from a secondary portal. The doorframe of and furniture-accents within Magneto’s home are in gold. Golden light cuts in from its windows, gilding the ground floor. Xavier, their leader and figure of authority, stands framed by a yellow-gold screen, drawn from below so that he towers within his frames. All but one of the mutants within the Year 100 section(The Cardinal) are dressed in yellows and, as the human-purists arrive on the scene of Cylobel’s capture, they are wreathed in a golden mist. The same mist backgrounds a frame of her telepathically warning Rasputin off from attempting a rescue, and a same-colored light shines reflected from Rasputin’s face as she determines to make the attempt anyway. Her explosive decimation of the lead sentinel is a wreath of fiery reds and golds, with a splash of deathly purple. The pattern repeats; with gold-yellows coloring laser-blasts, intimations of danger, and feats of enormous, violent strength. The imprisoning sphere in which Cylobel is ultimately carried away is a gold one, as the scenes of Rasputin rushing to save her, cutting down purists left-and-right, are filled with the gold-yellow mist. Finally, Nimrod the Lesser’s throne is accented in gold. In the Year 1000 line, the human-preserve sphere is yellow-gold.

In HoX 2, soft gold-yellow light bathes Moira’s sick-room at 13, when her powers first manifested. The next frame, her revitalized and healthy in youth, shows her running through a softer white light, happy, pursued by a faded adult figure dressed in a pale yellow-gold top. The final frame of the next page, the frame labeling her “ ...something new...” and a mutant, has a beige(light-brown gold?) background, and a yellow triangle-block shares the frame with toddler-Moira’s face of stoic disinterest and/or despair. In her eight life, Magneto’s throne is flanked by golden flame, and topped by a giant, golden squid. In the life where she allies with Apocalypse, they are surrounded in Red-Gold light and flame.

As should be apparent from the above, it does NOT only represent power and safety for mutants. Recall the Jean Grey subplot cutting the embassy story in half: that ends in a grove with Jean and Xavier looking on as Wolverine plays with three children in the grass. Behind Jean is the Orange of the sun as stated above(and possibly the Phoenix Force? Given that the Phoenix-Force manifests AS solar power&imagery it’s a connection impossible to avoid regardless of intent), and behind Xavier a beautiful, pale purple vista of the sun, midday and midpanel(though in the colors of dusk; foreshadowing perhaps?), filtering through the dense trees. This is a moment of happiness, love, and safety for the gathered mutants. But it cuts, in the page directly after, directly TO the sun, a jump-cut from close-up on a face to close-up or establishing shot of a ship, as a group of anti-mutant humans gathered from Marvel’s host of secret organizations approaches a space station in orbit near our star. The station is a Mother Mold: a self-directing, self-correcting, learning sentinel-factory. A knife at the throat of every mutant alive, yes, but also a final stronghold --a place of safety and power-- for these anti-mutant, human-purity fanatics and their AI allies. So the Sun comes to represent safety and power both for the heroes of this story AND for their enemies; again, the symbolism of HoX PoX is breaking down simplistic oppositional binaries.

Moving into the other books, we see Moira repeatedly associated with the color gold. In the fair ministory where PoX 1 opens and HoX 2 ends she is wearing large, gold, circular earrings(obvsl recalling the sun itself). In the final scene of this ministory, a series of exchanged closeups btw Moira and Xavier, gold/yellow is color behind Moira’s head as she speak with, and offers, the knowledge of her repeating life. Her lips in these panels are painted in a reflective bronze; not a direct reference to the sun to be sure, but a reflection of its light.

This could just be another connecting of the sun and its colors to power -what Moira is saying is an artifact of her mutant ability afterall- but, in that she’s sharing knowledge, it could also suggest that the Sun and Gold/Yellow can represent knowledge, as well. If that were the case, it would be another classical reference, with Apollo being both a Knowledge-God AND a Sun-God. And there’s some other evidence supporting that reading.

Its Light

In HoX 1, when we see Krakoa’s IT-information team, Cypher and Sage, in Krakoa’s “interface room”, they are dressed in yellow, Krakoa’s interface is a wall of yellow-god eyes, and a pale yellow-gold light source sits in the corner. When Scott confronts the F4 in the same book his comments, all referencing “knowing” in some capacity(“What would life be without little surprises?”, “you’re a smart man, Richards... I know you know...”, “It’s upsetting, I know, but new beginnings demand a wide berth”), are all backed in yellow-gold, as is Reed’s final response to him(“then I think I have a problem with that”), and Sue’s later comment after the potential conflict is resolved(“...what are all of you thinking?”).

In HoX 2, 4th-Wall Moira wears her sun-earrings and, in the first panel where we see her speaking directly to the audience about her abilities, a golden cloud halos her head. A soft, gold-yellow light infuses all the scenes of her at Oxford. The mask of Destiny, Mystique’s partner and lover, is gold, and her power is precognition.

In PoX 1 the usb Mystique gives to Xavier is accented in gold and the screen behind Xavier is that of a computer; an information-device of some kind. As Xavier places the usb in it, golden light bathes him from below, from the machine(though Xavier’s dialogue her is abt “making a better world” and what mutants “owe” to it; a stereotypical power dialogue). As Nimrod the Lesser and his court obliquely(and comically) discuss placing Cylobel in the mutant archive, their dialogue is framed in gold.

Ok so, those are my arguments. I could probably add to it but this is already YUUGE, so I figure I’ll stop here. There’s also some interesting stuff going on with other colors, notably purple, I’d like to get into later, but we’ll see as I move on with the series(which I havent had time to yet what with Wintereenmas and everything X|) If you read this, I hope you liked it ^u^

[moonlit-maiden]

On Nico di Angelo, "Pairing the Spare" and How to Shaft a Complex Character in Less Than 500 Pages

This will be long. Strap in. This is long overdue.

So more longtime followers of mine may already know this but I adore Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. They also know I continue to eastly, to this day, about how he was handled at the end of the Heroes of Olympus series. Now, I've never fully delved into the 'why's and I will do so now as it's probably best to actually articulate it at some point instead of continually lamenting it without presenting rationale.

First: WHY do I love his character so much? It all boils down to shared/similar experiences for social ostracization. Growing up, I was quickly pushed out of social circles due to who my parents were; immigrants. Simply existing with the ethnicity and cultural heritage I had labeled me as untouchable. To sum it up succinctly; white but not the "right" kind of white. Keep in mind this was at the end of the Cold War; attitudes towards Slavic peoples were poor as hell. Fuck, they still are 30 years later! Nico is ousted due to his heritage too; being a Hades child. It's not something he chose nor controlled. He himself did nothing wrong to any of the campers yet when word got out they pushed him away. The same happened to me. As soon as the school kids and/or parents realized my parents were Slavic immigrants they shoved me out. It still hurts to this day. As such, I can deeply empathize with Nico.

Why does this matter? Because that blanket social rejections fucks people up. Nico is shown throughout the series to be distrustful, preferring to isolate himself. He has been shown time and time again he is unwanted due to being a Hades child. Eventually you just... stop trying. When you beat a dog enough times it stops coming around. This is the same thing. In addition, Nico has lost his elder sister, Bianca. The one person he felt understood him because she, too, was similar to him. Now I have Opinions on Bianca that would piss off 99% of the fandom but it's irrelevant here. Her death occurs shorts before or after it's revealed Nico is a Child of Hades. He is 10 years old with no one and the whole camp rejects him. It's a cruel thing to do to someone no matter how much you try and justify it. Rick did an incredible job highlighting how racism, ethnocentrism and bullying harms a child. Nico immediately became my favorite for this and I applauded Rick for having the balls to shine a very uncomfortable light on a situation similar to mine. A situation, I'm very sure many first generation or immigrant kids can relate to.

So where did it all go wrong? To be blunt, Blood of Olympus. Now, the final volume of the HHO series is a hot mess in general. Almost ALL characters get shafted on way or another with mischaracterization, simplification or backtracker on character growth. Not to mention the plot feels very slapdash and messy at times. But again, another subject. We see Reyna and Coach Hedge start to really get to know Nico and realize the extent at how bad his abuse has been at the hands of monsters and demigods alike. Neither feels this is right and shows it as best they can while respecting Nico's boundaries. In the previous book, House of Hades, Jason does the same thing. But then we finally get back to Camp Half Blood and shit falls apart for Nico's arc.

It's plainly obvious to anyone who's ready the series in full that Nico is traumatized, even moreso then most of the cast. He has been physically tortured multiple times, psychologically tortured by the camp and emotionally manipulated by several individuals. Keep in mind, by HOO, Nico is roughly 14. Fourteen. Can you even image how that feels?! He's only just now, after Jason, Hazel and Reyna's persistence that they will not hurt him, that they genuinely care for his well being, that they don't care about his heritage (and don't care about his sexuality, from Jason specifically). And then Will appears and Nico magically forgets 4 years of pining for Percy. It's so jarring, like a screeching record! This is when we enter the issue.

In writing, there are many rules. Like all rules, they can be bent of broken under certain circumstances. The rule in question is the 'pair the spare' rule. The rule states that if the pain cast has paired off, do not pair of the "spare" aka the odd man out unless it's been led up to. Rick chose to ignore this rule and pair Nico with Will, citing that as a canon LGBT character, he wanted to send the message to LGBT kids that they were worthy of love. This in itself is not a bad message. What IS bad is execution. First, Will is a background character. He very much has potential, don't get me wrong! But outside of having a few minor scenes in final volume of the PJO series, Will has only ever been mentioned in passing. From what we've seen, he and Nico have never interacted. On top of that, Will who is a healer, completely dismisses Nico's trauma. This is a very big red flag. When someone is traumatized, particularly psychologically, the absolute last thing to do is to dismiss the experience as "teen angst" like Will does. It shows absolute disrespect for Nico as a human being. And he is a healer. He should know better. In addition, Nico himself is not fond of the dismissive personality Will is displaying, the 'I'm going to tell you what to do' persona because he's a doctor so 'doctor knows best'. And in Nico's POV he says as much in his inner monologue! Yet he's "drawn to him". I'm sorry, but I call bullshit. Nico has been shown in 9 1/2 books to be quite smart, paranoid about social intentions due to past experiences and won't take crap from no one, not even his own father, the Lord of the (fucking) Underworld. Yet he'll just grit his teeth and basically follow Will's lead with little complaint? It's so out of character it's jarring and painful.

We briefly see Nico and Will in the first Trials of Apollo book. They're acting like the normal couple with Nico being the "sassy, snarky" one of the pair. Please note it's been 6-8months since the end of BOO, in-universe. In this one scene it completely erases Nico's trauma, very valid feelings of distrust and hurt, his struggle with both his heritage and his sexuality, his years-long unrequited love for Percy, his grief over his sister and his struggle to make connections with his fellow demigods. Love is powerful but its not a cure-all. It doesn't make the years of hurt and abuse magically disappear (trust me. I know.) and it doesn't change someone's personality to well-adjusted.

Pairing Nico with Will at the end of BOO completely destroys his characterization from a writing standpoint. All the real struggle, grief and unpleasant consequences of abusing and bullying people who are "other" in socially-acceptable ways is wiped away in less then 50 pages. It also send a very VERY dangerous message to LGBT youth; find someone you're attracted to and they'll fix you. That's a toxic message to tell to straight kids so why the fuck would you tell it to LGBT kids!? Unlike most LGBT character in literature that I can tell are shoehorned it, Nico was planned to be gay from the start, I have no issue with this. What I do have issue with is throwing his character out the window so he can chase some cute blond ass. Nico deserves better then that as a character. People who suffered socially-acceptable abuse deserve better then that. Immigrants and first-generation kids deserved better then that. LGBT youth deserved better then that.

THAT is why I keep getting so pissed; Rick took a genuinely complex character and fucked him over so he could lazily pair the spare and not be accused of leaving the only canonically gay character single. But there is a reason 'do not pair the spare' is a rule. It's better to leave a character single then slapdashedly pair them up. This goes double for characters who have trauma in their life and trauma is a serious issue that should be respectfully addressed. Love is powerful. Love helps to heal. But the love of family (Hazel) or budding friends (Jason and Reyna) is just as important, valid and send a powerful message. It sends the message 'you are not alone. You are worthy of love. You are a human worthy of regarding of both your experiences and your fears.' Pairing Will with Nico completely and utterly stomps on this message. It sends horrible signals to LGBT youth and scraps his complex character into the token goth gay boy. And Nico di Angelo deserves better then what he was given.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[tink-bell]

Name: 

Jaby/Mom

Characters: 

Tink Bell (closed rip), Rita Saluki-Sykes, Duchess LaBlanc, DeSoto Sykes, Adam Best, Soleil (closed rip)

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you!) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now? 

Tink Bell: These three years have been one hell of a roller coaster for Tink. It seems like just yesterday I was writing my town alcoholic hell-bent on having a good time even though inside she was a mess. When we first saw Tink, she was your typical punk-rock rebel without a cause. Her idea of a good time was a good lay, a bottle of tequila, and whatever drugs she could find. She was an absolute mess. And as the years progressed we saw Tink sort of lose herself. She got lost in the bottle and the drugs and the dark spiral that was her mind. She lost some good friends (Simba) in the process and made some unexpected ones (Copper, I’m talkin’ about you). But like a phoenix she rose from the ashes and repaired herself and those friendships she lost. She got an amazing girlfriend who literally went through hell and back with her (pun intended). And now as the year closes, so does this chapter of Tink’s life. Her life of adventure with Sophie is starting and it’s the ending I always wanted for Tink. Cue girl walking into the sunset with a bag slung over her shoulder ready to take on the world.

Adam Best: My babe I’ve had the second longest, not counting the time I dropped him for personal reasons. He’s also a character that has been through a lot. We’ve seen Adam be the surly young man who only wants to punish himself for all the death and destruction he’d caused. He was grappling with the loss of his parents and the loss of his first serious girlfriend. That’s a lot for a dude. He made mistakes, hurt people he grew to care about. Then he got himself a best friend and then a boyfriend and things were looking up for our dear Adam. Then Jaby had an existential life crisis and all that went to shit. Adam found a journal that said you could get rid of the curse by killing the wolf that killed you and guess what? Adam went to Greece and got his ass kicked. But it was a brand new starting point for me and my boy. It allowed me to delve into Adam’s need for a normal human life and try to figure out a way to reconcile it with the fact he will never have that. I expected Adam to remain very surly when I picked him back up and to an extent he has. But he’s also moved away from that. He’s no longer filled with the same angst. Instead it’s changed and evolved into something so much more. He’s no longer mourning his parents and Jennifer but instead mourning the life he’ll never get to have. It’s something I never expected from him and I’m honestly very excited to see where it takes us.

Pick another character and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year? 

DeSoto Sykes: Ugh man, I have so much planned for DeSoto. Lauren and I have actually talked out a lot with these brothers and where we want them to end up. I know he’s going to stay a big presence in Swynlake. I’d love for him to become one of the big kingpins in town. It would be hilarious because that’s what his father was back in New York and it’s what he’s been running from for nearly three years. I want him to grow and realize that having people you care about isn’t necessarily a weakness. Des has a long long way to go and his story is far from over.

Rita Saluki-Sykes: It’s no secret that Rita has become my loudest muse, slowly taking the place of Tink if I’m honest. I’ve only had her for a year or so but she’s already been put through the ringer. Her marriage went from one of necessity to one that was almost over to finally something that resembles what she’s always wanted. Even more so now that she’s got her own little kiddo on the way. I’d like to see Rita settle into that mother role. From what we’ve seen she enjoys the night life, partying and eating up all the attention she can get. But with her little one all that is going to change and she’s going to have to become that mother figure. And she’s going to have to balance care and attention for Ollie with the new baby. It’ll be interesting to see how she juggles being a businesswoman, wife, and mother.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it.  

UHM HELLO INTO THE FOREST. Two years ago I did one of these and said how I wanted Soleil to tap into her powers and channel her rage and this is the result of that. This plot was hands down my favorite plot I’ve ever done. It gave me a chance to break Soleil down to her darkest depths, fueled by the loss of Zero and then the fact KNIGHTS or whatever were hurting things in her forest. It was a slow burn plot and one that took a lot of work from everyone involved and it culminated into the best thing I’ve ever witnessed.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Voice. I still think voice is something that I have a good grasp on when it comes to my characters. From Rita’s and DeSoto’s New York accents to Duchess’ French lilt and prim and proper upbringing, I think it’s something that shows distinctly in my writing.

Villains. I love my villains, I love devling into their minds and figuring out what makes them tick. And I’m tooting my own horn when I say that I’m pretty damn good at it. From Taka to Oogie (however brief he may have been), I’ve brought some pretty interesting villains to BDRP and I hope to continue to do so. I’ve got a few character ideas at the ready that I am more than eager to bring to life.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

Plotting! I am the absolute worst when it comes to coming up and approaching people with plots. And I think a big part of that is because I really love for things to develop organically. I’m not one to nudge my characters into something I’m not sure of. I need to break out of that so that I can actually accomplish some of the things I want to for my characters.

Direction. It’s easy for me to lose direction when writing. A reply will start off as one thing and then before I know it it’s shifted to something else entirely. It makes writing an arduous process and often irritating. 

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts. (For example, if I picked Apollo, reading “Akata Witch,” “Children of Blood and Bone,” “Trials of Apollo” series, and Homer’s Iliad might provide inspiration for different reasons– the former two for Nigerian culture and magic and the latter two for a deeper look at Greek Mythology. No, you don’t have to have read these books– maybe you just want to read them!)

Okay so picking Soleil’s forest takedown these are the things I’d look into:

Batman comics featuring Poison Ivy - Mainly because Poison Ivy is one of the few female baddies that have the same sort of magic that Soleil has. And she’s gone down Soleil’s path of wanting to take over the world with plants. It’d be a way to get inside of angry Soleil’s mind.

BtVS s6ep22 “Grave” - This is actually the episode of Buffy that sparked this desire to have Soleil go down that path of evil. It was a possible ending for Soleil in which she didn’t turn into a tree and feed her magic to Enchantra as a way to make amends. This episode showed the power of true love (even if that love is platonic) and how it can stop evil. And it was something that I had wanted to experiment with in Soleil.

The Master Book of Herbalism - Okay this book would give insight to what Soleil did. How, even before she was the spring sprite, she had a vast knowledge of plants and how to use them. 

And now, a wishlist! Jot down a few themes or stories or genres etc that you want to maybe pursue in the upcoming year! (i.e. a good ol’ fashion forbidden romance, maybe you want to dig deep into racial identity etc) This doesn’t have to necessarily be attached to any characters or stories you have now– it’s just meant to help you see for yourself what kind of stories call to your heart.

F O R B I D D E N RO M A N C E- like please guys, you don’t know how badly I want one of these. What’s more drama filled than two people who should not be together at all? C’moooooooooooon Drugs- I have always always been involved in the drug scene in Swynlake. Taka, Lock, Tink, and now Des. I love fucking people up with drugs and exploring those motivations. Coffee shop au type romance/bromance Slow burn, something that starts as nothing and then sooooo slowly turns to something more Friendships Frenemies

OPTIONAL: Why do you RP?

I RP because it’s still my escape. I enjoy it more than I enjoy most things. It gives me an outlet to channel whatever it is I’m feeling and don’t we all need that. Not to mention Mk and Lauryl own my soul at this point and there is no hopes of me ever actually leaving this place.

[tatticstudio55]

Starklings and the Snow Queen pt 2

Or “who’s in my bed?”

 In the fourth story, Gerda encounters a crow, a prince, and a princess. Convinced that the prince is Kay, Gerda enters the palace, and his darkened bedroom, to hold up a lamp and look at his face. And here, the fairy tale is twisted: the prince is not Gerda’s eventual husband, but rather a stranger. - Mari Ness

In her article, Ness qualify the fourth chapter of the Snow Queen as a subversion of the myth of Eros and Psyche. For those who didn’t know (or forgot), this is the story where a beautiful maiden (Psyche) becomes the wife/mistress of a god she’s not allowed to look at… but of course, she looks:

Psyche was a woman gifted with extreme beauty and grace, one of the mortal women whose love and sacrifice for her beloved God Eros earned her immortality.

Psyche became, as Greek word “psyche” implies, the deity of soul. To modern days, the myth of Psyche symbolizes a self-search and personal growth through learning, losing, and saving the real love.

(…)

Eros guided Apollo to give the oracle that Psyche would marry an ugly beast whose face she would never be able to see, and he would wait for her at the top of the mountain. […] After the wedding, Psyche was able to be with her husband only at night. His tenderness and the enormous love he showed to her made Psyche happy and fulfilled beyond her expectations and dreams. She talked about her happiness with her sisters and confined in them how sad she was she couldn’t see his face. Hence, the jealous sisters persuaded Psyche that her lover is not only an ugly beast but also a monster who would eventually kill her, so she should kill him first to save herself.

 With the oil lamp and knife in her hands, Psyche one night was ready for murder, but when she enlightened the face of her beast-husband she saw the beautiful God Eros. Caught by surprise, she spilled the oil on his face. Eros woke up and flew away telling Psyche that she betrayed him and ruined their relationship so that they could never be united again.

Note: the myth doesn’t end there (it has a happy ending!), but I cited the parts that were relevant for now.

The myth of Eros and Psyche appears in (at least) two instances in ASOIAF, and concerns two main characters: Sansa Stark and Daenerys Targaryen. Both involves scenes related to the (pass me the expression) “lover in the dark” trope. However, it is especially subverted in Sansa’s case. On their wedding night (ASOS), Tyrion assures her that, in the dark, he can be just like any other man; that he could be “good to her”. Sansa, however, cannot get over how ugly/beastly he looks (I’m NOT judging her btw, only stating book facts). When she admits that she’ll probably never “want” him that way, Tyrion crawls out of the bed (in the show, he adds “and so my watch begin”), like the prince from the fourth story when he gallantly leaves his bed and offers it to Gerda. How nice.

Daenerys’s lovers, on the other hand, tend to linger in the shadow. The famous “comely shifting shadow” of the young lover she dreams of (ASOS) is perhaps the most blatant example, although not the only one: when Xaro, in ADWD, make advances to her, Daenerys is tempted and think that she could “close her eyes and pretend it was Daario or Drogo”. Even when she sleeps with Jon, they both do so in the dark, unaware of his (true) identity.

Must we conclude that Dany and Sansa are two sides of the same coin? It’s a tricky matter. Jon’s identity is kept in the dark unknowingly to both him and Dany; although in the cases of Xaro and Daario, Daenerys is purposely turning a blind eye (she knows very well Daario is a monster). Whereas in Sansa’s case, she’d like to be kept in the dark – she tells herself that Tyrion isn’t like the other Lannisters, she knows that she shouldn’t resent him for his appearance –, but in the end, can’t make herself want him. In the most literal interpretation, Sansa’s the one who brought a lamp to her lover’s face when she wasn’t supposed to, while Daenerys refrained (so far) from doing so. It goes with her motto:

If I look back, I am lost

If I look back, I am lost

However, the way Daenerys’s story arc has been built up, we know that, at some point, she will look back.

Pic source 

The concept of sight, vision and blindness come into play many times in ASOIAF/GOT. Generally, blindness is presented as an allegory to wisdom (the great Homer was supposedly blind) in myths and literature tropes, and ASOIAF characters aren’t excluded from this: maester Aemon, presumably one of the wisest man in the story, is blind. Part of Arya’s training as a faceless (wo)man includes going blind for some time. Weirwood trees are depicted with “bleeding eyes”; they also project an impression of elderly wisdom. Bran goes blind whenever he uses his “third” eye:

Source

This is all very curious. Speaking of the three eyed raven, it’s interesting that the creature who led Gerda to the prince’s bed was a… raven (Mari Ness say “crow”, same thing):

Gerda was obliged to rest herself again, when, exactly opposite to her, a large Raven came hopping over the white snow. He had long been looking at Gerda and shaking his head; and now he said, "Caw! Caw!" Good day! Good day! He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone. The word "alone" Gerda understood quite well, and felt how much was expressed by it; so she told the Raven her whole history, and asked if he had not seen Kay.

The Raven nodded very gravely, and said, "It may be--it may be!" - H.C. Andersen, The Snow Queen

Crows/Raven in ASOIAF are certainly linked with sight and visions. This doesn’t only apply to the three-eyed raven. The Night’s Watch brothers – the “crows” – are “watchers on the Wall” … and this is where I’ll go tinfoil a bit:

Mormont’s crow (or is it a raven?) is a pest, cawing at people’s ears all day. It goes grain grain grain grain grain grain and snow snow snow snow snow snow, and everyone (Jon, at the very least) is utterly tempted to make him shut up for good. Mormont’s crow comes with a temptation. A temptation to decapitate the bloody bird, sure. But crows being linked to sight, and the fact that the lives of the Night’s Watch brothers are so strongly dictated by a code of strict, austere set of rules and prohibitions (no lands, no glory, no wife) might translate into something like:

Look look look look look look (I know you’re not supposed to, but I don’t care) look look look!

So once again, we’ve got a (very) distorted version of Eros and Psyche. And of course, the underlying question: was does it mean to look? Is it always “wrong” to hold the lamp over something you’re not supposed to see?

Thoughts?

(I’ll probably make a third part in 2-3 weeks, as I’m going on vacation and won’t be bringing my laptop with me.)

[jonathanalumbaugh]

Weekly Digest

Dec 23, 2017, 4th issue.

A roundup of stuff I consumed this week. Published weekly. All reading is excerpted from the main article unless otherwise noted.

Read

When women are discussed on the main economics discussion forum, the conversation moves from the professional to the personal...

Even with generous subsidies, low-income people are still unlikely to buy health insurance...

Managers are biased negatively against minority workers, and this, in turn, makes the minority workers perform worse...

Living standards may be growing faster than GDP growth...

The World Bank’s $1-a-day poverty line inadequately deals with local context, and a better measure can be derived through more complicated math...

Decriminalizing sex work makes it safer and more common...

Poor kids who grow up in rich neighborhoods do a lot better than poor kids who grow up in poor ones...

Better trained doctors mean fewer opioid related deaths...

After a bad outcome, female surgeon’s referrals went down much more than male surgeons...

The average worker does not value an Uber-like ability to set their own schedule...

Foreign finance has led to more inequality...

Preschool programs targeted at the poor don’t work nearly as well as universal pre-school programs...

Shocks to the economy in certain sectors can have larger effects on the entire economy than previously thought...

— 13 economists on the research that shaped our world in 2017

Comments section: Pilote345 - NO WONDER: Recently, the pilots' pay was less than it was in the 1980's. They might be trying to improve, but for example, I just now found Allegiant Air found pays MD-80 1st Officers $34,440.00, not much more than the $15/hour crowd wants for starting burger flippers.

— Airlines battle growing pilot shortage that could reach crisis levels in a few years

— APOLLO 10 0N BOARD V0ICE TRANSCRIPTION

Under Schmidt’s leadership, Google notched its fair share of not-quite-not-evil missteps. After getting everyone hooked on Gmail and Search, the company started to erode some of its original privacy promises.

— Be Kind of Evil

“People want to cast it as a choice between policy or technology as a solution but those should exist hand-in-hand. We would have never gotten renewable energy prices where they are today without really ambitious public policy. It shows the importance of bold goals,” Brown says.

— California Poised To Hit 50% Renewable Target A Full Decade Ahead Of Schedule

“Keep your phone away from your body,” the state health department writes. “Although the science is still evolving, some laboratory experiments and human health studies have suggested the possibility” that typical long-term cell phone use could be linked to “brain cancer and tumors of the acoustic nerve,” “lower sperm counts,” and “effects on learning and memory.”

— California says the only safe way to talk on your cell phone is to text

Developer infatuation with Chrome is not good — because competition between browsers is good.

— Chrome is Not the Standard

The initial physical deployment of 5G networks alone could pack a major economic punch. A 2017 Accenture report forecasts the cellular communications industry will invest $275 billion in new networks, which will create up to 3 million jobs and add some $500 billion to the United States’ gross domestic product. Longer term, researchers expect the new 5G networks to help stimulate productivity growth to rates not seen since the 1950s.

— The Coming 5G Revolution

In early tests, the company claims the feature helped to reduce ghosting behavior on its service by 25 percent.

— Dating app Hinge rolls out a new feature to reduce ‘ghosting’

Liberated from the diamond and pointing calmly eastward, perhaps a designer’s pure intent is revealed—direction for an otherwise aimless walk in the woods.

— Decoding the Mysterious Markers on the Appalachian Trail

Trade the ginkgo biloba for a bag of spinach during your next stop at the store: Leafy greens may be your best resource for boosting memory... The study involved 960 people, all between 58 and 99 and without dementia. Everyone enrolled in the study was part of the Memory and Aging Project, which has been ongoing since 1979 at the Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University.

— EATING SALAD EVERY DAY KEEPS BRAINS 11 YEARS YOUNGER AND PREVENTS DEMENTIA, STUDY SHOWS

— Edward Snowden on Twitter

Commander Persera swam out into intergalactic space last week, she says in a forum post, piloting a ship called the Jack of Flames. The reason for the trip is simply to go further from Sol than anyone else (a previous record was set by one Commander Deluvian, who travelled 65,652 lightyears from Sol along a similar route). But also, she says, to bring a canister of mugs from the infamous Hutton Orbital space station into the void and leave them there. Just because.

— Elite Dangerous pilots are scrambling to rescue an explorer stranded in the void between galaxies

[Eminem says] that he's not making his music for other artists who aren't fans to begin with.

— Eminem Responds to Vince Staples’ Criticism of Him

Reports so far claim the spec will offer support for low, mid, and high-band spectrum from below 1 GHz (like 600 and 700 MHz) all the way up to around 50 GHz while including the 3.5 GHz band. It’s been said that the first 5G networks for consumers will begin rolling out in 2019 and this will continue throughout 2020.

— First 5G Specification has been Declared Complete by the 3GPP

As Brian and his wife wandered off toward the No. 2 train afterward, it crossed my mind that he was the kind of guy who might have ended up a groomsman at my wedding if we had met in college. That was four years ago. We’ve seen each other four times since. We are “friends,” but not quite friends. We keep trying to get over the hump, but life gets in the way.

— Friends of a Certain Age

Comment section: Blaming Amazon for this is wrong. The people make a choice to work for them. This is an indictment on our society that forces these people to have to work. Amazon isn’t a charity that should have to take care of people. But it’s all of us who are to blame.

— A Glimpse Inside CamperForce, Amazon's Disposable Retiree Laborers

Effective filmmakers, no matter their genre or taste, put their fingers in the air, feel for a current, and then make art that either complements or pushes against it. They distill the world they live in, which is why there’s no such thing as an apolitical film.

— How Big Screen Sci-Fi and Horror Captured 2016’s Political Paranoia

The Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts California will eventually make more than $1 billion annually from taxing recreational marijuana.

— HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA IN CALIFORNIA LEFT CHEMISTS IN THE DARK

What makes for an effective office environment? Random encounters with your coworkers. And food. Lots and lots of food.

— How to Build a Collaborative Office Space Like Pixar and Google

Fidelity suggests having your yearly income saved at 30, three times your income at 40, seven times your income at 55, and 10 times your income at 67.

— How Much Should You Have Saved at Every Age?

HCI (human-computer interaction) is the study of how people interact with computers and to what extent computers are or are not developed for successful interaction with human beings.

— Human-computer interaction, from University of Birmingham

The company says it is now focused on “on developing and investing in globally scalable blockchain technology solutions,” but, as reported by Bloomberg, it has exactly zero partnerships in the works with crypto firms

— Iced Tea Maker's Stock Price Triples After Adding 'Blockchain' to Name”

9 “Should you invite someone who assaulted you to your wedding.” No.

— It Came From The Search Terms: “I Can See The Sun In Late December”

The best way to cook a steak is medium rare. Plenty of people will disagree with this statement, for different reasons.

— Medium Rare: The Best Way to Cook a Steak

It sounds like it was made by an algorithm. It checks off so many boxes it could land in anyone’s “Because you watched” recommendations.

— Netflix’s first big movie “Bright” feels like a blockbuster built by an algorithm

State law that is rarely invoked requires tied elections to be settled by “lot.”

— Oyster shucking? A duel? No, Virginia will pull a name from a film canister to settle tied election

— Parents give teacher wine with son's face on label

— Reggie Watts: Fuck Shit Stack

— Reggie Watts: Humor in music

Self-efficacy is defined as a personal judgement of "how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations".

— Self-efficacy (Wikipedia)

The problem Haven aims to address is known as an “evil maid” attack. Basically, many of the precautions you might take to protect your cybersecurity can go out the window if someone gains physical access to your device.

— Snowden's New App Turns Your Spare Android Phone into a Pocket-Sized Security System

After doing a lot of online research and making a terrible mess, I thought I could make a tutorial for humble people like me. If I can do it, you can do it too.

— The Ultimate Guide to DIY Screw Post Book Binding

The robot obediently appeared in the distance, floating next to Miller. Miller then walked into the same space as the robot and promptly disappeared. Well, mostly disappeared, I could still see his legs jutting out from the bottom of the robot. My first reaction was, “Of course that’s what happens.” But then I realized I was seeing a fictional thing created by Magic Leap technology completely obscure a real-world human being. My eyes were seeing two things existing in the same place and had decided that the creation, not the engineer, was the real thing and simply ignored Miller, at least that’s how Abovitz later explained it to me.

— We Need to Talk About Magic Leap's Freaking Goggles

What’s this mistake so many make? It’s using your current job title as your headline.

— What Your LinkedIn Headline Reveals About Your Self-Confidence At Work

With the Dec. 14 repeal, Comcast and others will be able to charge content companies exorbitant fees without, technically, blocking. This fundamentally changes how the internet works, argues Ryan Singel, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

— What will happen now that net neutrality is gone? We asked the experts

The story [Cat Person] stuck with me because I, too, have felt like the story’s main character, Margot. I have belittled myself to make a man in a vulnerable situation feel more comfortable. I have allowed myself to spend time with boys who I did not like that much but who I felt I owed my time to because they really liked me. And I have also taken part in the practice of ghosting- ignoring somebody who is texting me, instead of outright rejecting them. With time, I have gotten much better at being straightforward when someone is interested in me and the feeling is not reciprocated, but I still do the dance many women do: We exert energy into finding the most polite, passive way to get ourselves out of uncomfortable situations with men.

— Why Women Are Ghosting You

[booksbeyondimagining]

Spindle Fire, by Lexa Hillyer

On Sale Date: April 11, 2017

**I received this as an e-galley from HarperCollins through Edelweiss in return for an honest review.**

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars)

Synopsis:

Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king's headstrong illegitimate daughter, whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and her voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close. And then everything changes, with a single drop of Aurora's blood--and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken. As the faerie queen and her army of Vultures prepare to march, Isabelle must race to find a prince who can awaken her sister with the kiss of true love and seal their two kingdoms in an alliance against the queen. Isabelle crosses land and sea; unearthly, thorny vines rise up the palace walls; and whispers of revolt travel in the ashes on the wind. The kingdom falls to ruin under layers of snow. Meanwhile, Aurora wakes up in a strange and enchanted world, where a mysterious hunter may be the secret to her escape . . . or the reason for her to stay.

My Review:

Alright, I was so excited for this book when I first read the description, but honestly, it was kind of a disappointing read. While the concept itself was interesting, there were many things that let a bitter taste in my mouth and had me gradually growing more and more disillusioned with this book. To begin with, while the plot starts off decently and had me enjoying it for a while, it slowly divulges into something that is long and drawn out, and I am astounded that this is being dragged out even more into a duology. The story seems to focus mostly on Isabelle and Aurora’s personal growths. They both seem affronted to discover that their country and society is actually shitty, and from there have to rediscover themselves all while trying to save their kingdom. While Isbe goes a long, long journey to get the prince of a neighboring kingdom to come be her sister’s true love to awaken her (because sure, that’s how things work, Isbe), Aurora is stuck in one place, a dreamland that is inescapable, where she is just trying to find a way back to her world, all the while semi-falling in love with a boy whom she barely knows or spends time with while there. There is also a subplot dealing with two evil faerie twin sisters, one of whom supposedly killed the other, but the mysteries of which are so drawn out and confusing that it’s hard to be really interested or invested in it, despite its apparent importance to the overall plot. There are clues and insights shown throughout that seem like they are supposed to make things clearer about this mystery, but actually make things more confusing and it isn’t until the very end that the faeries’ story is explained in all of one very short, and kind of anti-climactic, chapter. When it comes to the characters, I’m going to just come out and say it: the character and relationship development is just wack. Isabelle, the bastard blind daughter of the king, has this awkward relationship with Gilbert, her best friend forever, where they both love each other but think they aren’t good enough for each other for the obvious pining reasons. Then she meets Prince William who agrees to help her save her kingdom and wake Aurora but, of course, falls in love with her instead (yay unnecessary love triangle!!). This happens, obviously, over the course of…an indiscernible amount of time but I’m gonna say about one or two weeks? Because a fortnight is totally true love. But apparently Isbe starts falling for him too even though she kind of still has feelings for Gil. Literally the entire transition from travel buddies to shameless flirting occurred in what was to the reader about one chapter while for the characters it was one week. On Aurora’s end, it’s even better! She meets Heath, a boy who longs to leave Sommeil, land of dreams, and believes whole-heartedly that Aurora is the key to getting out of there. Three days (one chapter) later, he has apparently changed his mind completely and is angry at Aurora and doesn’t want to leave. All because her parents tithed her voice and sense of touch from her to make her more beautiful and he therefore doesn’t want to live in such a corrupt kind of world (buddy, let me tell you something…). Oh, but then the next time we see him, the tension between them has grown, and amidst some talk about believing in true love, he tells her that she makes him want to believe in other worlds. Wait, I’m sorry, so, what were you believing in BEFORE she appeared in Sommeil? When you thought her sudden appearance was a key to something, hmm? Basically the relationships were like ships being tossed around in a storm, with no sense of how things really transitioned from one point to the next, save perhaps for Gil and Isbe’s relationship (which seems to be getting screwed over anyway because that’s how most potential best-friend relationships end up in YA books apparently). Individually, though, the characters showed some character growth, but nothing spectacular or unpredictable, and I think the most interesting character of all was probably Gilbert. And that’s just in comparison to everyone else, honestly. They were all just very…uninteresting and hard to really care for or connect with. Now, the writing itself has a lot to be said about. While the overall quality of it was decent, there were times when I felt like I was reading a textbook reciting of something, or in complete opposition, trying to understand an abstract idea being painted for me. These moments were not often, though, so luckily I was able to move past them easily and let the rest of the plot take over. However, I still have a few major issues that I feel the need to point out. First: this is a fantasy, taking place in a fantasy world, with fantasy kingdoms like Deluce and Aubin and fantasy seas filled with narwhals and fantasy creatures like fae. Fae, who apparently know what Rome is, because one of them went out of her way to design her home to replicate Roman baths. Statues of Adonis and Apollo and all. I’m sorry, but how did Rome exist in this world? Because if Rome existed then, technically…this should be Earth and these countries should be recognizable? Even if the names might be different because of magical influences, I should be able to figure out what they would be in our real world. But, because there is no recognizable landmarks or cultures or anything then…there shouldn’t be a Rome, right? After all, there is no reference at all to its existence in this world other than this fae’s apparent taste for its architecture. So how does she know what Rome is?! Did she hop through a portal and take some notes? Also, on that note, the story of Icarus is told briefly – a Greek story that should also not exist because guess what doesn’t exist in a made up world!!! That’s right, Greece! By the way, Daedalus was left out of the story so double the negative points on that one. Second: I know this story (Sleeping Beauty) comes from somewhere in France a long long time ago, but the literal translations of the names are killing me. Malfleur, the evil fae = “Bad Flower.” Belcoeur = “Beautiful Heart.” LaMorte, the country where Malfleur rules literally means “The Death.” Sommeil – a land of dreams – means “Sleep.” Heck, there’s a convent in a place called Isolé, aka “Isolated.” I mean, really? Third: Most of the chapters were told from either Isabelle’s or Aurora’s point-of-view, but once in a while there was someone else’s and a lot of these were faeries’. Aside from Malfleur and Belcoeur, and one called Binks (who actually provided a memory that was important to the story), the rest of these little POVs were vague, confusing, and more like brief impressions of the faeries just to paint a quick portrait of them but did absolutely nothing to further the plot and really could have easily been done without. In conclusion, this book was long and far too drawn out, with characters that were only vaguely interesting and relationship developments that bounced around like balls in a pinball machine. It was abstract and confusing at times, especially with the fae point of views, and there were just several things that irked me all the way through. Complete with an unnecessary love triangle, a plot and sub-plot that were dragged out beyond recognition, and characters that just did not spark much in terms of inspiration, I have to say this was very disappointing read.

[wereright]

Who is Batman?

I have loved superheroes since I was two. But unlike most of you, I'm willing to bet, there's one hero who just doesn't work for me.

Superheroes, the ones who last, have a unique life among fictional characters. Superman has had stories written about him and published continuously for 77 years. Spider-man for 53. Wolverine for 41. These are characters whose stories have no end by design. Even death is just another plot point for them. Over the course of their lives the hundreds of writers, artists, and editors who've handled them have helped them evolve and refocused their interpretations to show new facets through the years. The Superman who appeared in Action Comics #1 is not the same one who was killed by Doomsday is not the one written by Chuck Austin is not the one who starred in All-Star Superman.

Over the decades, the most lasting pieces of these characters get distilled by the zeitgeist and the fans to form a more or less cohesive character. There are always comic readers who say things like, "I only liked the Flash while Mark Waid was writing him," or, "Superman would be awesome if he would just get his hands dirty," but they are defining their preferred version of the character by contrasting him or her to what the popular interpretation is.

Which brings me to the character I have issues with: Batman. Like Superman, he's been around for closing in on 80 years and in that time he's been any number of things. There's a version of him for everyone. But it seems that the consensus surrounding the character dictates a hero I just can't get behind. It's seemed that way since Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy ended.

More than any other hero, Batman is defined by tragedy. I think that's my hang up. I don't enjoy, can't have escapist fun with, or imagine a better world built by someone who wallows in the darkest moment of his own life.

The blame for this naturally falls on Frank Miller. The Dark Knight Returns turned Batman away from being a superhero and the World's Greatest Detective and towards being a demigod, a Hades to Superman's Apollo. Miller's Batman isn't a detective, he's omnipotent. He isn't a man trained to physical perfection, he calls on the powers of Hell that visited him the night his parents were murdered to give him the strength to beat alien gods into the pavement. And Miller's subsequent work in the Dark Knight universe--The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman and Robin--have only pushed things further.

What's the counterpoint to this Batman of the Underworld? I think the answer lies in the character's natural progression as a hero.

Batman is born when Bruce watches his parents die in front of his eight-year-old eyes. Something not enough people ask is, "How does this scar Bruce psychologically?" They instead accept that Billionaire + Tragedy + Training + Batsuit = Justice.

Seeing his parents' deaths exposes some of the most common lies parents tell their children: "You are safe. I will always be there for you. I will protect you no matter what."

Bruce's issues all revolve around trust. A stranger came out of the night and took his security away forever. If his parents can be killed, anyone can. If a man on the street can pull a gun and put a life in danger, anyone can. Bruce can no longer trust the unknown to be good or the good not to hurt him by leaving forever. He can only trust himself. So he has to be ready for whatever might come out of the night for him.

But there's one exception. Alfred. Alfred hasn't violated the promises of safety and security. Alfred is the one who has been there for Bruce through everything. He's the one reminder of the world before it became this horrible place full of shadows.

And as we know from the stories, there will be others who will earn Bruce's trust. James Gordon. Dick Grayson. Lucius Fox. Superman.

Yes, Superman. The Batman I could believe in--Batman, the superhero--trusts his allies instead of plotting their eventual deaths behind their backs.

My preference for the prehistory of Batman, that vague five-year span (and earlier) that DC built in before the first issues of the New 52 reboot, includes a teenage Bruce meeting a teenage Clark Kent and the two of them forming the first true friendship either of them has experienced. Clark gets someone he doesn't have to hide his abilities from while Bruce finds the first person who's every bit as good a he appears to be. What's more, he's bulletproof. He's someone Bruce doesn't have to worry about protecting or being abandoned by. Not that this part appeals to Bruce on a conscious level, but subconsciously Clark and his friendship are the antidotes to Bruce's scars. Forming that friendship is the beginning of the healing process for Bruce.

That's the key word in all of this. The thing "my" Batman has that Frank Miller's never will is a chance to heal the wounds his parents' deaths left him with. It won't be quick, and in comic book time it'll never be finished, but here's what it might look like:

--Eight year old Bruce watches his parents' murder. He's left with no family except Alfred.

--A series of psychologists are unable to help Bruce. They never manage to establish trust and Bruce never opens up to them. Bruce begins to read about psychology on his own and later criminology as well.

--Bruce begins taking self-defense classes to try and gain a sense of control over his fears and his environment.

--At Alfred's insistence, Bruce enrolls in private school starting in 7th grade. He can't stand the other students or his teachers, but for Alfred's sake he does his best to tolerate them.

--In his late teens, Bruce meets Clark Kent. They each reveal their true selves to the other and keep in contact when they return to their separate worlds.

--Bruce leaves Gotham on the pilgrimage that will forge him into Batman.

--Bruce returns to Gotham and begins his war on crime. He meets James Gordon and finds in him the first ally he can count on since Clark.

--Bruce meets Dick Grayson and takes him in, eventually training him to become Robin. This is a huge step in Bruce's growth. He's taking responsibility for someone else for the first time. If something happens to him now, there is someone else who will be without a father figure. This likely becomes Bruce's deepest fear, the possibility of leaving someone behind the way his parents left him.

There are more opportunities in there and after, but you get the point. Jason Todd's death would be another landmark, of course, as would Dick leaving to become Nightwing if it's played as a child rebelling against his father. Like in any continuing story with a theme, there would be advances and setbacks for Bruce's ability to trust others.

The important thing is that this makes Bruce human instead of an avatar of rage. People call Superman unrelatable because he's a paragon who always makes the right choice, but Miller's Batman is no better. He's a man trapped for eternity in a place of bitter anger, stuck trying to mold the world in his own image and taking out anyone who stands in his way.

To mourn is human, but all mourning ends someday. We revisit the memories of those we lose and we feel their absence at our core, but that pain stops controlling us at some point. Batman shouldn't be built on the idea of making others feel our pain. He should be an example of what a person can do when he takes his pain and uses it to better himself and the world around him. Even after he stops feeling that pain every day.

[boldlykeenblizzard]

share market: Invest 10-20% now and wait for markets to move over next 3-4 sessions: Sudip Bandyopadhyay

There are those individual stocks which are looking right when it comes to valuation. What would you advise right now — buy this dip or stay clear of the market? Volatility is the order of the day and the extreme volatility which we have witnessed over the last five-seven days, not only in India but globally definitely is a cause of significant concern for the investors. The question is whether to start buying as far as the long- term investors are concerned.

The way we are advising investors is that there are lots of stocks which you wanted to buy but considering the high valuation, you did not venture into that. Now the valuations are looking really good compared with 15 days back. It is an excellent opportunity to start accumulating but the question is would you buy today or would you buy tomorrow or would you wait for it.

The way we are structuring this entire thing is we are saying that if you have money, invest maybe 10% to 20% and wait for the markets to move from here on over the next three-four trading sessions. You cannot catch the bottom and you are never sure whether this is the end of the market correction.

If you have identified a good business that you wanted to buy, why not buy it when it has come down by 20-30%? A stock like ICICI Bank has corrected significantly. It is a great opportunity to buy a bank like ICICI at current level when pretty much everything is gloom and doom as far as private sector banks are concerned.

Look at the entire FMCG pack. There has been a good amount of correction. We believe there are green shoots available as far as rural demand is concerned. Why not go and buy a Dabur or Marico. We have to start slowly moving back into the market. These are opportunities which the market gives once in a while. A long-term investor or somebody who is trying to build his portfolio has to start getting into the market now.

What have you made of the developments at YES Bank? As far as the bank is concerned, the developments over the last few days are looking positive. State Bank should be in a position to conclude very soon and if the moratorium is lifted by the end of this week, that will be excellent news. Now the question is valuation of the equity shares. Probably the market is not getting it right. I do not expect the valuation to be significantly higher than the par levels.

I am not sure whether the current market rate of around Rs 22-25, whatever it is quoting right now is an appropriate value for Yes Bank at this stage. If SBI comes in at par or close to par and the other investors come in at that rate, the market will witness one more round of selling to bring the value around that level.

Having said that, can State Bank value the bank at a double the par value which is about 20 bucks? I am not very sure considering the asset quality challenges and considering what has happened and considering the time it will take the bank to come back on rails. It is prudent to stay away from the counter. Yes, the speculators and the day traders will definitely trade and try to benefit but for an investor it is an absolute no, no.

Let us talk about Reliance for a moment. It is looking unsettled on the back of the Aramco deal looking a bit uncertain right now. On the other hand you have got the OMCs which did not react too well to the kind of recovering spike in crude? There are a couple of issues; one is that in the immediate future, a sudden crash in oil prices leads to inventory depreciation and the inventory valuation loss will probably get crystallized in case of some of these OMCs and even Reliance. Maybe, one needs to be a little careful as far as that inventory valuation part is concerned.

As far as Reliance standalone is concerned, the apprehensions and the corrections have been overdone. There are three businesses which the company runs predominantly now; one is the oil and gas piece, the second is the telecom and third is the retail. Yes, there is a petchem business also which is doing reasonably well. As far as oil and gas is concerned, there is volatility and because of what is happening, this Aramco deal may get delayed.

Structurally and fundamentally, if Aramco in principle agrees to acquire a stake in Reliance, I do not think the temporary price fluctuation will not change the contours of the deal though the timing may be shifting a bit. The question is Reliance has some amount of debt in the books and the market was expecting the reduction of the debt and that probably gets delayed.

We will have to wait and watch how things pan out as far as listing of the retail business is concerned. This is a fantastic business and the largest retail player in the country with shop level breakeven coming in. The other is over the monetisation of the telecom business over the next 12 to 18 months, which pieces of the telecom business would get monetised or investors come in.

The only question mark is over the debt reduction and the speed of the same. Otherwise all the businesses are fundamentally strong ad the price correction has been overdone. You can easily look at Rs 1,500 plus, the moment recovery sets in.

In some of the other names that have stood out, Asian Paints has been top of mind to day because it has managed to be the most resilient. But the question arises whether or not we will actually see multifold returns in some of these names that are actually working as safer bets right now? There are two things which come to my mind when we talk about the paint companies and you are absolutely right they have been performing much better than most of the other players in multiple other consumer related sectors. They have withstood the downturn in Indian economy very well. Also, the oil price coming down does give them cost benefit but that comes with a lag impact.

It is not that immediately Asian Paints will get the benefit, it will come with a lag. Maybe next quarter we will see the benefit if the oil price remains low. As far as the demand is concerned, yes, there has been reasonably good amount of work done by the paint companies and their demand has not shrunk the way other FMCG companies suffered.

We believe that the period of growth in spite of the overall economy not doing well is over. If the economy does not pick up or the construction sector, house building sector and the other related sectors where paints are required is not doing well on a consistent basis for a very long time, the paint companies will start showing the kind of fault lines in their armour and get into a bit of a challenge as far as their sales volume growth is concerned.

We have to be a little cautious. Oil price coming down is good news for them but the demand growth not happening either on account of coronavirus or the global growth slowing down, domestic growth not coming back would remain a matter of concern.

Pharmaceuticals is the other pocket that is finding favour and a lot of people who are of the opinion that it may make sense to not just venture into pure play pharma names but even some of the healthcare spaces as well, which for almost one year has been delivering on its earnings as well. Is that a space that interests you? Definitely. Pharma, healthcare, speciality chemicals and chemicals are the spaces which we believe should do well over a long period of time and definitely in the short to medium term. These are the stocks which one should try and accumulate. Since you asked pharma specifically, I will like to point out that we like domestic pharma companies in the sense companies which have a significant part of their sales in the domestic market.

Domestic pharma has been growing at 15% CAGR and Indian companies will benefit significantly out of this growth. A Torrent Pharma, Natco Pharma or most other companies which have got domestic exposure are our favourites at this stage. I am not saying companies with global exposure will not do well but there are elements of volatility attached with the US market and unfortunately we have to live with that.

If you have invested in a company with a significant exposure in the US, be prepared for volatility and it can be asymmetrical volatility. You cannot really plot that volatility on a graph and be assured. My advice to investors is focus on pharma companies with domestic focus and non-US markets. Apollo can definitely be looked at for the medium to long term. It is doing well and it is expected to do even better. The overhang of the promoter share pledge has got reduced significantly post the Apollo Munich deal.

We believe that it will not impact the company’s performance or the share market performance in the near future. As far as speciality chemicals and chemicals is concerned, the US China trade war as well as the coronavirus impact where the global procurers have realised that supply chain depends completely on China is not the thing to go ahead with.

Indian manufacturers will definitely get preference and we have excellent speciality chemical companies whether it is an Aarti Industries or a Nocil or Deepak Nitrite. One can look at buying these stocks at current levels with one year plus time horizon in mind.

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share market: Invest 10-20% now and wait for markets to move over next 3-4 sessions: Sudip Bandyopadhyay

There are those individual stocks which are looking right when it comes to valuation. What would you advise right now — buy this dip or stay clear of the market? Volatility is the order of the day and the extreme volatility which we have witnessed over the last five-seven days, not only in India but globally definitely is a cause of significant concern for the investors. The question is whether to start buying as far as the long- term investors are concerned.

The way we are advising investors is that there are lots of stocks which you wanted to buy but considering the high valuation, you did not venture into that. Now the valuations are looking really good compared with 15 days back. It is an excellent opportunity to start accumulating but the question is would you buy today or would you buy tomorrow or would you wait for it.

The way we are structuring this entire thing is we are saying that if you have money, invest maybe 10% to 20% and wait for the markets to move from here on over the next three-four trading sessions. You cannot catch the bottom and you are never sure whether this is the end of the market correction.

If you have identified a good business that you wanted to buy, why not buy it when it has come down by 20-30%? A stock like ICICI Bank has corrected significantly. It is a great opportunity to buy a bank like ICICI at current level when pretty much everything is gloom and doom as far as private sector banks are concerned.

Look at the entire FMCG pack. There has been a good amount of correction. We believe there are green shoots available as far as rural demand is concerned. Why not go and buy a Dabur or Marico. We have to start slowly moving back into the market. These are opportunities which the market gives once in a while. A long-term investor or somebody who is trying to build his portfolio has to start getting into the market now.

What have you made of the developments at YES Bank? As far as the bank is concerned, the developments over the last few days are looking positive. State Bank should be in a position to conclude very soon and if the moratorium is lifted by the end of this week, that will be excellent news. Now the question is valuation of the equity shares. Probably the market is not getting it right. I do not expect the valuation to be significantly higher than the par levels.

I am not sure whether the current market rate of around Rs 22-25, whatever it is quoting right now is an appropriate value for Yes Bank at this stage. If SBI comes in at par or close to par and the other investors come in at that rate, the market will witness one more round of selling to bring the value around that level.

Having said that, can State Bank value the bank at a double the par value which is about 20 bucks? I am not very sure considering the asset quality challenges and considering what has happened and considering the time it will take the bank to come back on rails. It is prudent to stay away from the counter. Yes, the speculators and the day traders will definitely trade and try to benefit but for an investor it is an absolute no, no.

Let us talk about Reliance for a moment. It is looking unsettled on the back of the Aramco deal looking a bit uncertain right now. On the other hand you have got the OMCs which did not react too well to the kind of recovering spike in crude? There are a couple of issues; one is that in the immediate future, a sudden crash in oil prices leads to inventory depreciation and the inventory valuation loss will probably get crystallized in case of some of these OMCs and even Reliance. Maybe, one needs to be a little careful as far as that inventory valuation part is concerned.

As far as Reliance standalone is concerned, the apprehensions and the corrections have been overdone. There are three businesses which the company runs predominantly now; one is the oil and gas piece, the second is the telecom and third is the retail. Yes, there is a petchem business also which is doing reasonably well. As far as oil and gas is concerned, there is volatility and because of what is happening, this Aramco deal may get delayed.

Structurally and fundamentally, if Aramco in principle agrees to acquire a stake in Reliance, I do not think the temporary price fluctuation will not change the contours of the deal though the timing may be shifting a bit. The question is Reliance has some amount of debt in the books and the market was expecting the reduction of the debt and that probably gets delayed.

We will have to wait and watch how things pan out as far as listing of the retail business is concerned. This is a fantastic business and the largest retail player in the country with shop level breakeven coming in. The other is over the monetisation of the telecom business over the next 12 to 18 months, which pieces of the telecom business would get monetised or investors come in.

The only question mark is over the debt reduction and the speed of the same. Otherwise all the businesses are fundamentally strong ad the price correction has been overdone. You can easily look at Rs 1,500 plus, the moment recovery sets in.

In some of the other names that have stood out, Asian Paints has been top of mind to day because it has managed to be the most resilient. But the question arises whether or not we will actually see multifold returns in some of these names that are actually working as safer bets right now? There are two things which come to my mind when we talk about the paint companies and you are absolutely right they have been performing much better than most of the other players in multiple other consumer related sectors. They have withstood the downturn in Indian economy very well. Also, the oil price coming down does give them cost benefit but that comes with a lag impact.

It is not that immediately Asian Paints will get the benefit, it will come with a lag. Maybe next quarter we will see the benefit if the oil price remains low. As far as the demand is concerned, yes, there has been reasonably good amount of work done by the paint companies and their demand has not shrunk the way other FMCG companies suffered.

We believe that the period of growth in spite of the overall economy not doing well is over. If the economy does not pick up or the construction sector, house building sector and the other related sectors where paints are required is not doing well on a consistent basis for a very long time, the paint companies will start showing the kind of fault lines in their armour and get into a bit of a challenge as far as their sales volume growth is concerned.

We have to be a little cautious. Oil price coming down is good news for them but the demand growth not happening either on account of coronavirus or the global growth slowing down, domestic growth not coming back would remain a matter of concern.

Pharmaceuticals is the other pocket that is finding favour and a lot of people who are of the opinion that it may make sense to not just venture into pure play pharma names but even some of the healthcare spaces as well, which for almost one year has been delivering on its earnings as well. Is that a space that interests you? Definitely. Pharma, healthcare, speciality chemicals and chemicals are the spaces which we believe should do well over a long period of time and definitely in the short to medium term. These are the stocks which one should try and accumulate. Since you asked pharma specifically, I will like to point out that we like domestic pharma companies in the sense companies which have a significant part of their sales in the domestic market.

Domestic pharma has been growing at 15% CAGR and Indian companies will benefit significantly out of this growth. A Torrent Pharma, Natco Pharma or most other companies which have got domestic exposure are our favourites at this stage. I am not saying companies with global exposure will not do well but there are elements of volatility attached with the US market and unfortunately we have to live with that.

If you have invested in a company with a significant exposure in the US, be prepared for volatility and it can be asymmetrical volatility. You cannot really plot that volatility on a graph and be assured. My advice to investors is focus on pharma companies with domestic focus and non-US markets. Apollo can definitely be looked at for the medium to long term. It is doing well and it is expected to do even better. The overhang of the promoter share pledge has got reduced significantly post the Apollo Munich deal.

We believe that it will not impact the company’s performance or the share market performance in the near future. As far as speciality chemicals and chemicals is concerned, the US China trade war as well as the coronavirus impact where the global procurers have realised that supply chain depends completely on China is not the thing to go ahead with.

Indian manufacturers will definitely get preference and we have excellent speciality chemical companies whether it is an Aarti Industries or a Nocil or Deepak Nitrite. One can look at buying these stocks at current levels with one year plus time horizon in mind.

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