#steel wbn

[juha-art]

Suvi & Steel look like such badasses in the new art. but we know what's really going on there

@quiddie

[girlwithsword]

I know I’ve been all ‘Empire is bad and Steel is, in essence, a cop’ but I’m with Suvi on this one - and I know Ame believes that she is under an existential threat but she has insta travel to the meeting place available! I know she’d /like/ to go to Toma first, but why not stay a few more hours and gather whatever info Steel has??

[cary-atherton-art]

That's it. I'm not mad that you're brave, I'm not mad that you make mistakes. I'm mad that when you make them, you lie

@quiddie

[madamegoodparty]

"AT ANY COST" ????????

My distrust of Steel has been super vindicated ohhoHO man.

Like, on the surface it SEEMS that everything is on the up and up. Steel is telling Suvi exactly how the plan will work. She's recording their conversation. She's praising Suvi by calling her "brilliant" over and over.

But that's what makes the Geas even more sinister, imo. Not only does Suvi not have the option of saying "no" -- but it's arguably one of the worst things that could be done to her specifically. Yes, Steel is laying out the plan step-by-step. But she's not telling Suvi exactly what hiding this music box is supposed to do. She left that very crucial detail out.

Aabria has said before that Suvi can handle just about anything as long as she has all the information. In this very episode, as Suvi struggles to remember the compulsion being cast on her, she says: "I know, and that makes it okay" before surrendering.

But she doesn't know, does she? Not really -- not the knowing that truly matters. It was stolen from her. Aabria literally describes the whole process as "an obliteration of agency and understanding." And worst of all, Steel tells Suvi she must follow the orders she'll have no memory of receiving "at any cost".

Not only does Suvi risk running afoul of the witches, she also may be harmed by the very spell her beloved guardian put on her. There is a chance, however slight, that Suvi could die.

And she would die without truly understanding why.

I have no doubt that Steel loves Suvi deeply. But she is, first and foremost, the Sword of the Citadel. Before Steel and Suvi are mother and daughter, they are soldier and commander.

"You will do this. And it will work."

[chungledown-bimothy]

I think about Sklonda finding out about the tattoos all the time. Just. Brennan’s face, voice, words, intonation… so perfectly mom

if there's one thing about brennan lee mulligan, it's that he is way better at (and fond of) playing an exasperated mom than you'd think (unless you know how much time he's spent working at summer camps)

[naazaif327]

“Sometimes people stab you with a knife, and it sticks in your body, but if you’re clever enough, now you have a new knife”

This is so so cool and also the perfect mask-slip moment for Steel, the first thing that really makes Ame a bit more cautious and withdrawn during her conversation, it’s just so so good! Like, for all of Steel’s genuine respect for the customs and traditions and titles of Witches and Spirits, she is absolutely still the Sword of the Citadel, a powerful leader of Empire and Warfare. She clearly admired and respects Grandmother Ren, and she truly wants to help Ame be rid of the curse, but also, why not find out how it works first, use it our advantage? How useful would it be to be able to delete important memories and intel from the minds of enemies of the Citadel?

Steel says she’s coming to free Naram, but if she finds out exactly the kind of weapon He is, the way Morrow could harness Him to decimate other nations, would she really throw that kind of opportunity away? She is a woman in the middle of a war, losing soldiers every day according to Suvi. What exactly are the lines she would not cross in order to protect the nation she has given everything to serve?

[stardustedknuckles]

It would just be so easy for Steel to start behaving overtly controlling and War-minded at literally any point (seeking control and owning up to what that means) and at that point it would become easy to dislike her and her sway over Suvi but that's not the POINT, she is GENUINELY wise and so, so brilliant and she loves Suvi so truly and she is infuriatingly level headed and sincere in her efforts to help and so very kind, and I love her character more than I can adequately put into words and the inevitable clash of ideals, the rift that will and must develop, is going to destroy me. Because I genuinely don't know if Steel could choose Suvi over the empire and in fact I think it's pretty clear that she wouldn't, but that does not diminish the love she has for Suvi and the two things being true simultaneously have me biting the air. Steel is a goddamn masterclass in examining characters who act from fundamentally kind intent within a twisted framework of lifelong indoctrination and beliefs that have taught her a distorted view of what that should look like. Bringing the empire's light to the world is the ultimate kindness to her, and she wants nothing more than to be a key part of the mechanism by which that will happen. Because it will happen. And we're not told this, we're shown a brilliant and devoted mother figure who will stop at nothing to make a better world in the image of the empire her life belongs to.

Every single time something goes wrong with Ame and/or Eursulon (and even Suvi) I brace for the kind of overbearing "us VS them" mentality that never comes. She genuinely wants collaboration and answers so she can help. she very much means well, as do they all. It compels the absolute hell out of me.

[spice-ghouls]

I've seen people speculating that Steel betrayed Suvi's parents, and while I think the impulse not to trust Steel is absolutely justified, I don't buy the theory that she was directly involved in their deaths.

This is Brennan and Aabria we're talking about, whose narrative sensibilities I trust implicitly, and thus I don't think they're going to do something as unsubtle as revealing her to have been Secretly Evil The Whole Time. If there's one thing I trust this group of people to do, it's to have something interesting to say about imperialism and nationalist indoctrination and wherein lies the complicated blame for those things on the scale of the family unit.

I think if Steel is going to be a plot device to represent anything, it will be the idea that someone can love you and care for you and genuinely do Their Best in raising you, and none of that precludes the possibility of them doing incalculable harm to you in the process. I think Steel does love Suvi, but the problem is that she loves the Citadel far more, and that convinction informed every aspect of Suvi's upbringing.

Suvi, as demonstrated by the events of this last episode, has a lot to unlearn - and we're along for the ride, I'd imagine.

[argobargo]

Idk if I’ll ever be able to finish this, so here’s my WIP of steel!

[brainrockets]

Suvi to Steel next episode:

[beedreamscape]

ONE PRINCESS AHA AJDBEJFBWKJFBWKJBKW

[juha-art]

"You are singular. And the opportunity you have provided for The Citadel cannot be overstated."

@quiddie

[girlwithsword]

so let’s get this straight; Steel’s orders were 1) stay put, 2) shut down any shenanigans, and she’ll be there in THREE days

Suvi immediately leaves the city, once again going off-grid, and it’s already been a day and a half - and no one knows where she, or ANY of her companions are; and OH GOD IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE BROKE INTO HER ROOM and shenanigans are very much afoot

so, even if the trio fuckin survives this encounter, and even if Orima isn’t released to wreak havoc on Port Talon, it’ll take at least another day and a half to make it back..... by which time Steel will have arrived to find 1) no Suvi and 2) very MUCH shenanigans!!!!

oooooohhhhhhhhhooohhhhhhhhhhhohhhhhhh

[jacodraws]

You’re so fucking crazy kid.

[theclockistickingwrite]

“She has to trust someone. She loves her true friends but she doesn’t trust them now. She has to trust someone. She has to trust someone, and it has to be Steel.”

[chungledown-bimothy]

Top 5 Brennan npc's

oh jesus h christ on a cracker. there have been so many incredible ones, i'm sure if asked again later it would likely be a different list. but off the top of my head right now?

1- caramelinda rocks

2- calroy cruller

3- bud cubby

4- steel (wwwo)

5- chungledown bim

if the fox from wwwo counts, he replaces bud cubby.