#there’s literally like several characters who go by Crow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

koos-kave · 8 months

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Yandere Obey Me Brothers HCs except the idiot who wrote them is an actual idiot.

REQUESTED BY A FRIEND 😭

Yandere Obey Me brothers headcanons

Gender neutral MC || TW: violence, mention of furries, guys I swear Belphegor is literally a meme lord and you can’t convince me otherwise, stalking, slight spoilers, mind breaking, conditioning || I do not condone kidnapping, stalking, or any of the things mentioned in these HCs. This is a *WORK OF FICTION* || Please like and interact, I’m lonely… || requests are always open <3

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Lucifer

He would realize he had overly protective tendencies when someone severely injures you. (Belphegor?!)

He’s extremely intelligent and crafty, one of the worst characters to have obsessed with you.

He would share you with Diavolo, but nobody else. (Unless Diavolo wants to share you with Barbatos.Big three on top! Literally…)

Things would probably be the same unless you’re in love with another or discover Lucifer’s infatuation with you. Be prepared to find yourself locked up someplace nobody else can find if Lucifer decides it’s the only way to effectively protect you. (Holy shit Belphegor reference two?!)

He says he considers you an equal, but you know he thinks he’s better than you. You’re just a weak human that needs protection.

Would purposely not heal you after punishments, but would never leave permanent scars on you.

Would not try to break you, condition you to certain things, or permanently disfigure you. He prefers his human in ‘mint condition’.

Will occasionally gaslight you into thinking it’s your fault for his obsession.

Biggest downside is that he doesn’t get memes and doesn’t like them.

Mammon

Would realize he wanted you for himself if he saw you becoming romantically interested in another.

MC… he loved you even if he claimed he didn’t. Why would you do this to him?

He’s hurt, but realizes eventually he has to stop sulking and take control of the situation.

He makes it painfully obvious that he’s been sneaking into your room at night, the greedy bastard can’t resist taking some of your belongings for himself!

He secretly hopes you notice.

He’ll find more and more reasons to keep you close to him, he would definitely let you off the hook for being disobedient unlike Lucifer and some of the others.

Chill most of the time, I bet his crows would really like you too. :)

The type of guy to take pictures of you while you sleep.

Leviathan

Would realize he needed you the first time you defended him.

Everyone says he’d be a perverted freak. I personally think they’re wrong.

He’s the type to try and lock himself away until these strange feelings for you go away…

And if they don’t…

Leviathan will turn to romance manga and anime to try and see what it is he should do.

Honestly, I think he’d have more respect for you than the others. He thinks everything about you is impressive.

If he realizes he’s acting like a yandere he’ll probably shut himself in his room again.

He’s so scared that you’ll find out he’s a ‘freak’ that he goes back to watching/reading romance manga/anime to try and copy the actions a normal protagonist would take.

If he gives up on trying to be normal and turns to darker content… well…

That’s when things could possibly become freaky.

Satan

He realizes that you belong to him when you tell him you think he’s more than his sin.

Probably goes to Asmodeus for advice at first.

He’s been grooming you for quite a long time, earning your trust like a stray cat.

He wants to give you the perfect, domestic life.

He tries to make you fall in love naturally but seeing you around other people (especially Lucifer) makes his blood boil.

Another case of wanting things to stay the same.

He has an incredible amount of patience, both from years after years of attempting to repress his unexplainable amount of rage, and from the sweet delusion that one day you’ll love him too.

Unlike his dad, he’s okay with conditioning. He will do it slowly- like training an animal.

There’s a good chance that, like Leviathan, he’ll stay away from you. Not because he’s worried about what you think of him, no. It’s because he knows these urges will eventually get the better of him and that when they do terrible things will happen to you.

Asmodeus

It’s complicated- you know he’s constantly partying and sleeping with other demons, yet when you do it he feels upset.

That’s sooo not fair to you, darling-! He’ll try not to let his jelousy get out of hand. He wants you to have fun too!

He starts to feel like you enjoy yourself more when you’re around others, he doesn’t like that.

He’s the glorious Asmodeus. You need to know that nobody will ever compare to him!

He’d take breaks from social media to start doing research on what you like.

His content and look will start changing based on whatever you’re into.

Asmodeus doesn’t feel perfect anymore, not until you can see him as perfect in your eyes.

Let’s be honest, the closer he becomes to your ideal man/whatever you prefer the harder it’s going to be to not fall for him.

You’re going to fall for him.

Beelzebub

Sorry gang, I really struggled trying to think about yandere Beel. He just… I just don’t know that much about him and he really doesn’t seem like the type? If someone wants it, I’ll come up with something. I have a few ideas.

Belphegor

You’re going to lose a limb or two. Or three- or just everything!

He’ll slowly fall for you, there won’t really be a pivotal moment that will make it click for him. Maybe he’d fall for you sooner if Beelzebub thinks you’re neat.

A small plus with Belphegor is sometimes he’ll overlook something you do he doesn’t like because he’s too tired to do something about it.

Will literally chug a fucking monster energy to do whatever without falling asleep if you really piss him off.

Actually kind of considerate, knows he sleeps a lot so he usually has a show on to entertain you. Once he woke up and apparently My Little Pony was playing and he said something about gay furry propaganda and went on a rant about why it makes him mad when people call him a furry for having a cow-print pillowcase.

Unlike Lucifer he fucking loves memes. Will snort if you show him a good one…

if you still have hands or access to a device.

———————

This took me months.

I started it 3 months ago, forgot about it, and spent an hour trying to write the rest so I could have something mildly decent to post. I bet there are an unfathomable amount of grammatical errors that render this entire thing unreadable. 😭

W do I have so much anxiety that people will hate these when I post them? #FailingTheObeyMeFandom

#obey me one master to rule them all #obey me #obey me yandere #yandere obey me #obey me satan #obey me belphegor #obey me leviathan #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #omswd #obey me asmodeus #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me shit #i might like Satan #Idk

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drconstellation · 5 months

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i'm sorry i'm a bit slow when it comes to reading comprehension...i thought crowley saves the goats because he doesn't want to kill them, not because they're associated with demons? or did i get that wrong? 🙈

Angelic Sheep and Demonic (Scape)Goats

[Just for reference, the question above was prompted by another meta: Goats, Crows and The Flood]

Thank you for the question. This gives me a chance to write up a sheep and goat meta at length - but I hope you're not going to regret asking it, because its not a simple answer. While I am always saying "it never is in the GOmens AU" I have to admit this one took off with a life of its own (the metas do that sometimes) and has ended up much longer than I thought it would and went to places I didn't expect it to go, but sometimes that is the joy of writing these.

Crowley doesn't want to kill them because he thinks they are innocent and blameless, just like the children of Job - and by extension, we are meant to see he thinks he was unfairly blamed and condemned to be a demon as well. That's it at its most simple level, but by understanding why there is an association between demons and goats will give you a much deeper insight into Crowley's story and why he would act this way. S2 of GOmens is like an onion, you need to peel that thin dry skin off and then slice through several more juicy layers to get the full depth of flavor into the complex meal that has been created for us. Its worth the tears that the chopping of the onion releases in the end. Are you brave enough to find out?

Take the conversation above, between Sitis and Bildad/Crawley. Sitis is a parallel-character to Aziraphale here, wearing the angel's signature teal green, and she questions the demon about the children being threatened with destruction. Then let us put these two parallel scenes side-by side: Sitis vs Bildad and Aziraphale vs Heaven

AZIRAPHALE: Oh. So just his worldly goods. MURIEL: Exactly. Oh, nothing important, no. Just his farm, his camels, his goat, his oxen, his children, his geese… AZIRAPHALE: His WHAT?! MURIEL: His geese. You know, big cross ducks.[flaps arms] AZIRAPHALE: His children?

So we have Sitis looking in horror at a demon at the potential death of her children, and then we have Aziraphale looking in horror at Heaven acting demon-like, not caring if children are destroyed in pursuit of victory over Satan. "Trust in God's plan, Aziraphale. Always," admonishes the shoulder-demon Gabriel (he is so often a shoulder demon - I have words to say about this! - in another meta) In other words, be a good sheep, Aziraphale, and have faith in the Almighty. Don't worry about the goats, or kids. They aren't important.

If you listen carefully during the Job minisode, A Companion to Owls, you'll notice Gabriel prefers to emphasize the number of sheep that will be returned to Job in the end. The Christian church is very big on the sheep imagery! Sheep are considered to be modest, humble, obedient (because they follow one another - you need to be a good follower!) and patient. They follow their shepherd's voice and goes where he directs. (Uh huh...) Followers are described as being part of a flock.

Goats, on the other hand (ah, yes, we'll talk about that in a moment) are considered to be a bit on the nose. Literally. A rutting billy goat is described as having a 'fetid' smell, they can be promiscuous, capricious, devious (wily?) and contrary. Their strong-mindedness, singleness of purpose and leadership qualities (!*) make them the opposite of sheep. While going your own independent way is frowned upon by Heaven, this leading quality of the goat is sometimes used to lead the sheep.

"There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; a strutting rooster, a he-goat, and a king with his army around him." Proverbs 30: 29-31

Did you get a good whiff of that sinister archangel, Shax?

(oh boy, some of the stuff I found researching this for more detail...such as "going your own way creates disunity...this leads others astray..." wtf! Looking at this in context with the show makes it kind of, well, some things make more sense to me now? I guess that's a big reflection on the kind of culture I personally grew up in, because I know there are cultures where unity and togetherness is looked upon as happiness and harmony.)

In the tv show, we know the scene blocking - where the characters stand - has great importance. Standing on the right-hand shoulder of another character makes them a shoulder-angel (the dexter side), standing on the left a shoulder-demon (the sinister side.) By watching who stands where usually tells us what moral stance they are taking in that scene.

If we take the example from the Job minisode below, we can see quite an interesting dynamic from the scene blocking. On the left, we have Sitis and Job, who is crouching down. They are an Aziraphale-Crowley parallel-pair, and they are even colour-coded with their colours! Sitis, in Aziraphale's teal on the angelic right of yellow tunic-wearing Job, who's modelling Crowley's suffering for sin but without understanding why. Job has crouched down to highlight Crowley's entrance. On the right the glowing angels are arrayed - Michael on the angelic right shoulder, Gabriel in the middle (more often than not he stands on the demonic left) but this time Aziraphale is taking the far left demonic position, and we know why - he's about to lie like a demon! But even on a grander scale, Sitis, Job and Crowley all stand on the angelic RHS of the visiting angels, making the archangels and Aziraphale all collectively LHS demons in this scene. And Gabriel thought they'd won the bet...*snort*

You should all take a moment to appreciate this piece of Art. Go on. Do it.

Sheep and goats had this right- and left-handedness meted out to them long ago in the bible. The sheep belong to the morally righteous right-hand side, of course, the side of angels, and the goats to the demonic left.

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Matthew 25:31-33

This passage and the following lines from Matthew describes how Jesus will judge the righteous from the sinners, and those who have been deemed good will be saved, but those who are deemed unworthy will be treated like goats: "Then he will say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the the devil and his angels" Matthew 25:41

So we've established the link between goats being demons, and the left-hand side, so they have an affinity with Crowley. We can do a bit of humorous visual and word play between kids and children.

Children.

ah.

oh. OH. Hang on a minute...

Lets just take a step back to the beginning of the minisode, where Crawley delivers his short monologue to the assembled goats.

CRAWLEY: You should know why you're about to die. God has abandoned you. The God who claims to love you, who demands your praise, has given you up to be destroyed.

They're rather small goats, aren't they. The kind of size that makes you wonder if they are goat children or grown goats... you know, it doesn't matter - they are little, cute and innocent. You are meant to associate them with kids, now, and in the past. (Like, in the way, way back past. Like not just the Flood, but the Before the Beginning past.) What matters is Crawley's speech to them, because it sounds very much like him repeating his own experience about his Fall from Heaven. We already know from S1 there is a conflict around Crowley's Fall involving wanting to ask God questions. We get to explore this further several times in S2.

Then later, after emerging from Job's cellar, they witness God talking to Job.

AZIRAPHALE: I don't suppose he's getting any answers. CRAWLEY: No. But just to be able to ask the question.

We don't hear all the lines God speaks to Job, but we hear enough to them to understand that they come from the Book of Job 38 and 39. The context behind these two verses is...interesting. I was going to delve into them a little more but I think that will get us off track on this meta, so perhaps I should come back and revisit it separately, but we can note that several ops have pointed out that the lines we do hear God speak clearly to Job can be connected to Crowley. There are no coincidental accidents in S2.

But just look at Job in that last image - the light of God shining brightly down through a hole in the clouds, darkness all around...

Hmm. Remind you of anything. Like maybe... another Voice from above?

Who we've seen has shown a particular dislike for a certain demon, even though most certainly remembers what his name is.

METATRON: Ah, well, always did want to go his own way. Always asking damn fool questions, too.

Well, doesn't that sound just like a demon goat.

That withering look the Metatron gave Crowley in S2E6, the comment about asking "damn fool questions," - just about the only conclusion you can come to is that the Metatron had something to do with Crowley's Fall. What and how exactly is still unclear, but there are some clues in Gabriel's story, as Gabriel is acting as both a parallel and foil to Crowley in S2. At this point we should also talk about the scapegoat ritual that was widely practiced around the near Middle East regions for quite some time.

The scapegoat ritual involved two young goats being chosen for sacrifice, but one of them had the sins of the community spoken over them then set free to wander into the desert wilderness to die, while the other was sacrificed as a Burnt offering to God. This was a symbolic way of removing sins from the community.

It is also applied to the Passion of Jesus. When the gathered crowds are offered the choice between letting Jesus or Barabbas go free, they choose Barabbas. I've written at length how I see this applied to S2 in this meta here: The Passion of Jimbriel: Resurrection and while Gabriel and Crowley share the role of Jesus fairly equally throughout the Passion story line, there is one point it can be split and Gabriel becomes the Barabbas and the goat that was released into the wilderness and Crowley becomes Jesus on the cross - but he turns into the sacrificial lamb! Perhaps that needs to be changed to the burnt offering...

I know there are quite a few meta ops that are aware of the scapegoat ritual, and more often than not I see Aziraphale being suggested as the current scapegoat. But the way I see the ritual being used in GO is not so much in the present story but in the past, and Crowley was the unwilling scapegoat for the rebelling angels that fell.

OK, I think I've run out spoons on this meta, but seeing how its managed to be at least twice the size I initially envisioned it to be, and its since generated two more meta ideas in the writing of it on top of the ones I'm already trying to do, that isn't too bad.

I'll wrap it up by saying no matter who the scapegoat is, Aziraphale needs to let his inner lion out so he can be The GOAT in S3. I'm sure the original nanny-goat will applaud that.

*talking about that topic...I should have a meta out soon centered around Crowley and Gabriel that will cover this. I will probably come back and edit a link in to it.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #crowley #goats #sheep #crows #job minisode #a companion to owls #aziraphale #gabriel #michael #muriel #the metatron #shoulder angels #dexter vs sinister #scapegoat

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happynowyo · 1 year

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Reflection, part 2

A/n: feel free to send request if you want to see some particular scenes in this fic between different characters or if you want me to write some other stuff based on some prompts with Kaz💜

And one more thing. The timeline in this fic takes place after season 1 of SaB but Pekka didn't frame Kaz, Inej and Jesper for murder. Matthias is too good to stay in Hellgate so let's imagine that Kaz was in a good mood one day and helped Nina (from the book kanon) to get him out just as she asked him over and over again. Wylan is a part of the Crows as well but no one except for Kaz knows that he's Van Eck.

Fandom: Six of crows

Warnings: Kaz Brekker and everything that goes with him

Pairing: Kaz Brekker x ShadowSummoner!OC

Summary: wandering about Ketterdam leads Jess to an unexpected encounter.

Word count: 1,7k

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4

Tag list: @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy, @valkyrie05x

The small hotel, located in the business part of the town, looked quite decent. But not enough to convince Jess that Ketterdam could claim to be the fair capital of Kerch.

The journey by sea took several weeks and by the end of it Jess was literally sick of the sight of the water and the noise of waves. She was endlessly bored, but deep down she consoled herself that the calm routine on a ship was far better than being anywhere near the Fold. The farther away she stayed from it, the safer it was.

A few weeks spent in near silence, with the exception of a brief dialogue with the captain, allowed her to put her thoughts in order and fully comprehend what had happened. At night Jess saw her father in her dreams over and over again, and he was so much like his old self, the one who had affectionately stroked her hair and spoiled her with fascinating stories from the past, that it seemed wild to her that the same man could try to subdue Alina to take her power of Sun summoner and use it to destroy everything and everyone around.

The contrast was so great that it was still hard to believe. Jess remembered perfectly well that her father was capable of cruelty, and the scars left on her back as the terrifying reminder were itchy but he was her father, and she was trying to hold on to the good things that had once bound them together. Baghra would surely scold her for that and call her a weak foolish girl whose naivety would lead to a bad outcome, but hadn't Baghra herself stayed by Aleksander's side for centuries and supported him by going along with her motherly feelings?

Jess was well aware of her grandmother's combative nature. Baghra would have found a way to kill the Darkling long time ago if she really wanted to stop him. Perhaps she clung to the idea that time would change Aleksander and allow him to pacify his lust for power and his hatred of the royal dynasty, that used the powerful Grishas as toys for entertainment at fancy parties, and Jess could not blame Baghra for that blind hope for the best.

When she arrived in Ketterdam, the first few days fell entirely out of her mind as she rested and slept pretty much all the time. Dreams saved her from the severe anxiety that came in choking waves and filled every cell of her body. Along with it there were some destructive thoughts full of obsessive paranoia. The Darkling was the strongest Grisha she had ever known, and she could easily imagine the rage her father would feel when he learned of her runaway. She would never be safe as long as he lived, but now Jess had no one who could truly confirm the Darkling's death in the Fold. She wished she had a mass of useful spies in different parts of the world, like Baghra, but she clung to the tip about Nina.

Jess was a couple of years older than Nina, but their rooms were next to each other in the East part of the Little Palace. That was one of the first reasons for their friendship. The other was that their impulsive nature and desire to act out of spite caused them to be punished by their teachers more often than anyone else. They practiced together, spending time chatting and also helping each other during their studies, trying to get their powers under control. Jess joked that she volunteered to be a guinea pig for Nina when she slowed her heart or made it gallop when Nina tried to squeeze her lungs, depriving her of oxygen and instantly plunging Jess into a state of animal panic for her life.

They got along well, so well that they once trusted each other with their most intimate secrets. Technically, Jess was known as one of the servants in the Little Palace. Baghra insisted that the fact of her kinship with Aleksander should have remained in shadows because of the fear of possible future consequences. But the burden of that truth grew heavier and heavier as the years went on. Nina was her only friend and Jess found it increasingly difficult to lie to her about why she always disappeared in the evenings. So on her fifteenth birthday she told Nina about her ability to summon shadows. Putting two plus two together was easy as everyone knew that such a gift was only inherited through the Morozov's bloodline.

Nina appreciated the trust that had developed between them, so in return she opened up about the planned escape. Jess was well aware that her friend was opposed to the idea that Grishas should serve the Crown without complaint and unconditionally participate in someone else's war as part of the First Army. Nina was a hopeless romantic and a relentless adventurer. She wanted something more out of her life besides orders, fear, and endless fighting with creatures in the Fold.

Perhaps it would have been easier for the two of them to run away together, but Baghra kept saying that Jess lacked self-control and the Darkling would instantly send an entire group to find her. The moment was not suitable and with tears in her eyes she had to let Nina go alone, enduring her father's interrogations later, when the alien darkness surrounded her with a thick veil and hurt by touching bare skin. Even if her father guessed the truth, he could not learn it from Jess.

Now she wanted to think that the memory of their former friendship would help her connect with Nina, though she was worried that Nina's opinion of her might have changed over the years. She could believe that Jess had helped her father of her own will and not by the order with the threat of cruel punishment, because who really cared about such details? During the war your motives and sincere desires don't mean anything — it's your actions that matter. And that's how Jess soothed her conscience after another nightmare that threw up pictures of the horrible things Aleksander forced her to do.

Finding someone in an unfamiliar city was a new task for Jess, but she was always the one to learn quickly, so the good two hundred kruge left in the hotel receptionist's pocket helped to get the names of a couple of places where Heartrenders usually worked. After visiting these places, however, Jess was left with nothing. If Nina had ever worked there, it wasn't under her own name. So her next attempt was the town square. You can understand a lot about the people of any place if you listen to what they say.

So Jess lurched in the shadows, clinging to scraps of other people's conversations about debts, gangs, Dime Lions, brothels and tourists. The flow of information poured over her in an avalanche, made her get lost in the names and places. Everything began to blend into indecipherable white noise, and Jess stopped focusing so much on her self-control. The shadows instantly came alive, licking her fingers with a unbodied chill and becoming thicker under the visor of some fancy bakery. The anxiety began to override clear thoughts, and Jess shook herself off just in time to see two guys walking past her, making lively conversation.

The vaguely familiar "Nina insisted that this is where they sell the best pistachio ice cream" caught her attention, and she let her curiosity take over, following the pair in a decent distance. She hadn't been able to follow them all the way, however, as someone's hand suddenly tugged at her shoulder, pulling her sharply into an empty alleyway. Her shoulder joined painfully with cold bricks, and Jess felt both indignation and fright as she looked up to see some Suli girl, whose face was half concealed by a grey cloak. She looked so thin and frail at the first side that Jess was surprised that the girl held the blade so confidently at her throat. Not the first time, apparently.

— The city is drowning in corrupt politicians and dishonest merchants, but you guys still rob an ordinary tourist? — the silly joke flew off her tongue before her brain had time to assess the dangerous situation.

Suli's brown eyes narrowed but her grip on Jess' shoulder was still firm.

— You were too focused on my friends for a tourist. Jesper spotted you three blocks back.

— I honestly don't understand…

— Did Pekka send you? Is he so desperate that now he's recruiting some pretty faces from Ravka? Your accent is minimal but my hearing is too trained.

The stranger's face remained impenetrable, so blank that Jess immediately noticed the contrast with the anxiety that flashed in the girl's eyes. God, if Nina wasn't in Ketterdam and Jess had come all that exhausting way for nothing, just to die in an empty alley because of someone else's suspicions, then Aleksander had better be dead indeed so he would never learn of such an embarrassment.

— Look, I arrived in Ketterdam three days ago and I have no idea who Jesper, Pekka and who else are! I'm looking for an old friend, Nina Zenik, I heard a familiar name in the crowd and just followed, so you don't have to worry about your safety. Whatever problems you have with Pekka, I won't give you any trouble, — Jess felt much more confident, though Suli's skeptical look full of mockery made it clear that she doubted Jess' ability to hurt anyone. That's better.

— How do you know Nina?

The jubilation that gripped Jess could be compared to the first alcohol in life that hits instantly and intoxicates too fast. Or to the time when she'd managed to confront her father and her shadows had swallowed his whole. She didn't hide the relieved exhale and visibly relaxed, pulling the stranger's dagger away from her with a slight smile.

— We'd been neighbors once. I hadn't seen her in a few years but I hoped to get some help. It's a matter of life and death, literally, and if you agreed to take me to her, I'd owe you forever.

— You know, Jesper says the same thing when he tries to convince me to leave him with cards alone for another game, it's a surprise you haven't met each other yet.

Part 3

#kaz brekker #kaz brekker x fem!reader #kaz brekker x reader #kaz brekker imagine #inej ghafa #six of crows #nina zenik #the darkling #aleksander morozova #kaz brekker x oc

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anon-s-s-k · 11 months

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I don't know if it's been spoken about yet, but

In season 2 of Shadow and Bone, we find out that Sturmhond the Privateer was the one behind Dreesen, the wealthy merchant who hired the Crows to kidnap Alina the Sun Summoner and bring her to Ketterdam.

Where in Season 1, we saw the entire scene with Alexie and the heartrender Milana, and it kinda seemed like Dreesen wants the Sun Summoner for his own profit.

Turns out, Dreesen was just another pawn in the grand plan and the real mastermind behind it all was Sturmhond all along.

What a twist!

But Sturmhond the privateer is actually Prince Nikolai of Ravka under disguise.

So all this time, Prince Nikolai of Ravka was trying to get Alina Starkov the Sun Summoner, kidnapped from the Little Palace, which is under the protection of Ravkan Royalty and is the home of the second army of Ravka, the Grisha themselves. That too by a gang of the Barrel of Ketterdam.

I mean, look at them

Yeah, definitely not sketchy at all.

So why is it, that the Ravkan Prince wants their Sun Summoner, the one and only saving grace of his country, to be taken from the most secured place in all of the world, which is under the protection of his own family and is in his own country, and brought to the literal bottom of the hell that is Ketterdam, by a sketchy gang of the Barrel.

Really, it doesn't make much sense.

Most of the YouTube videos explaining SaB season 2 I saw said it was just lazy writing or a plot hole or just something the writers wrote to make the characters more interesting and so on and on and on.

Honestly, I too, had thought the same. However, that was until I re-watched the show for like the 20th time, and saw this scene very closely.

And this got me thinking.

What if? *Drum rolls please*

What if, Prince Nikolai had a hunch about what the Darling was planning to do with Alina and the fold?

Just hear me out here.

Prince Nikolai, as shown in Season 2, is not new to the family political scenarios in the Royal family of Ravka, as well as the political stances of Ravka and the other countries. He is aware of a lot of information that even his family may not be aware of. And with his Sturmhond persona, let's just say this man has quite a lot of sensitive and private information under his belt.

But other than valid information, Prince Nikolai is also incredibly intuitive in nature. We know that Nikolai doesn't trust even the King's Aparet, so it might not be a long shot to say that he doesn't trust General Kirigan either. So maybe, it is possible that Prince Nikolai had a doubt about General Kirigan's loyalty to the crown and to the country. He could've had a hunch that General Kirigan might turn on his own people and use Alina in a way that can cause severe damage to his country.

It's not like Nikolai hasn't seen this man his entire life and doesn't understand how much he's capable of with his shadow summoning powers.

But unlike his elder brother Vasily, Prince Nikolai understands politics. He understands and respects Grisha powers and the second army. He understands that he cannot go against General Kirigan as Prince Nikolai. He knows that the second army is loyal to General Kirigan, and if he goes after General Kirigan directly, it will only cause another war between the first army and the second army. And this will cause an immense amount of bloodshed within the country as history will repeat itself, and this time even the Royals won't be spared from it. He knows that with the neighboring countries being at war with Ravka, the fold being a major concern for the country, and the western parts of the country trying to get independence, a war between the first and the second army will cause the ultimate collapse of Ravka. And Nikolai being the ideal king, the self righteous man and the patriot he is, could not let that happen.

Which is why he decides to go for it by kidnapping the Sun Summoner and handling it all in a more politically balanced way. My guess is that Nikolai intended to keep General Kirigan at a distance from Alina, and get her to destroy the fold while standing beside her himself (which he eventually did, bless his soul!), so that if Kirigan ever tried to weaponize the fold (which he did!), he won't get the chance to get on with it.

Things, however, definitely don't go according to his plan and we know the rest that happens in the show.

Well in the end, things did work in his favour though, well except that damned Nichevoya.

(Also ignoring the whole first army slaughtering the second army and the bloodshed thing that went on in season 2, which I'm pretty sure could have been avoided if the Crows had brought Alina to Sturmhond in time as it was planned, but alas!)

So this is entirely my theory. I've no clue if it's already been stated or is there any other theories or if there's anything specified by the writers or actors. If there's any gap or any wrong information or a grammatical mistake there, please forgive me. I wrote this instead of sleeping.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #nikolai lantsov #king nikolai #nikolai shadow and bone #alina starvok #alina shadow and bone #sun summoner #darkling shadow and bone #general kirigan #shadow summoner #six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #sturmhond

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inkblackorchid · 10 months

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What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 1)

*deep breath* Hiiiiiiii.

After sitting on this for ages, I finally decided to make the Crow post. And because this ended up getting stupidly long, I decided to turn this into part one of two, maybe three, we'll see (which I honestly should have done with the Aki posts too, but oh well). So let me quickly make it clear what I'm about here: This analysis is not meant to convince people who hate Crow to change their mind. It is also not meant to dissuade people who love Crow from doing so. Instead, I wanna look at how Crow was handled during the show (up until the end of the DS arc for now, I'll dive into the rest later) and give my own take on why he developed the way he did and turned into such a polarising character. Also, disclaimer, despite the fact that I'll be making an effort to analyse things objectively, I am a mere human and obviously not the one and only expert on all things 5Ds. My only claim to knowledge here is that I've watched 5Ds several times now, love the show and its characters deeply, and like to think I have a decent amount of media literacy. Also, I take no responsibility for the length of this post. Despite me splitting things up, it's stupidly, exhaustingly long. Like, very, very long. So. Let's hop to it, shall we?

Before I get into the meat of things, there's one more thing I would like to get out of the way: I know plenty of people, even now, so long after the show ended, would answer the question of "what happened with Crow, anyway" with something along the lines of "well Blackwings got so popular" or "well Aki's VA got pregnant so Crow stole her spotlight" and I need to burst some people's bubbles here because no. Neither of these things are true. Nor is the infamous "well Crow was meant to be the main villain", actually! And I could go into all of that here, but that would be a whole post of its own for each topic, and luckily, someone else has already done all of that work. I direct you to two posts over on Reddit from @mbg159, who did an absurd amount of digging to comprehensively disprove two of the 5Ds fandom's favourite scapegoat theories:

No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, and most certainly not the boss of the dark signers.

No, Aki being sidelined and suddenly having less presence in the narrative than him was not because her VA got pregnant.

I really don't want this to come off as an "assigned reading"-thing, but it is so, so important to keep these things in mind when looking at Crow, and honestly? I'm just tired of these rumours at this point. It's been 12 years since the show ended, we don't need to keep believing this nonsense. And the posts linked above aren't crackpot theories or anything of the sort—they provide sources all over and all of the links still work. If you still can't be bothered to read them (they are long, yes), then at least take away this tl;dr: Crow allegedly having been planned as a villain doesn't work because there is no evidence that supports it, and both his spike in screentime being caused by the Blackwings' popularity and him "taking Aki's spot" because her VA got pregnant make zero sense because they simply don't match up with the production timeline of the show. It is literally impossible for either of these things to be true. (And believe me, I am as mad as anyone that Aki got shafted, maybe even madder than the average fan, but if it doesn't add up, it simply doesn't add up and there were no regrettable outside influences, someone just actively made shitty writing decisions and that's that.) So please. It has been 12 years. Forget this stuff. Ditch it. Let it die. Because I'm not here to spin conspiracy theories, I'm here to analyse the writing of the show as best I'm able. Okay? Okay.

Now, for the good part. Shall we start with some facts? Let's start with some facts.

Crow is introduced to the audience in episode 30, shortly after the dark signers arc kicks off. And considering that he later ends up as one of the main characters, arguably even the third most important character in the show after Yusei and Jack, this immediately stands out. For reference, the rest of the signer group is introduced within the first 14 episodes of the show. Even Aki, who is the last signer to be introduced, takes less than half the number of episodes Crow does to finally make her debut. And I don't think you could blame anyone for finding this weird. 30 episodes, even in a show with a relatively short episode length like 5Ds, is an absurd amount of time for a protagonist to get introduced. As for how he's introduced to us...

We get the gist of his character pretty quickly. He's a daredevil, he's used to flipping sector security the bird (pun not intended), he's got a soft spot for kids, and he knows Yusei well—well enough for the two of them to tag-duel some security officers almost immediately after not seeing each other for an undefined amount of time, which, if you know anything about yugioh, says it all.

(Pictured: two lads getting up to Shenanigans.)

There is history there. These two know each other's decks. They know how each the other plays. They can work together immediately and seamlessly. This is a big deal. Aaaaannd... It immediately begs some questions: If this guy knows Yusei so well, and they are really close friends, why the hell is he only showing up now? Why wasn't he helping Yusei put together his duel runner? Why didn't he help him stick it to sector security at the start? Why weren't they in contact?

The thing is, the show never really answers any of that. At least not properly. We can only read between the lines as to why Crow wasn't with Yusei from the start. (At least in-universe. Irl, it's easy enough to guess that Crow was not there at the start of the show because the writers at first didn't think they'd be putting this side character Takahashi originally came up with into the show.) Which brings me to the Enforcers. (Side note: As a sub watcher, I know the Japanese name is Team Satisfaction and I know Kiryu's catchphrase works a million times better with that name, but "Team Satisfaction" will always sound like a boyband name to me and I like to mix and match the sub and dub names based on what I like better on an individual basis anyway, please bear with me.) And before I properly open that can of worms, I feel the need to point something out: After Crow made his debut in episode 30 and got the opportunity to show off his duelling a bit during episodes 30-31, we are immediately introduced to Kiryu/Kalin at the end of episode 32. What this means for Crow is that he has zero backstory at this point and his character had zero time to settle. His only tie to the main story, as far as the audience is concerned, is that he's Yusei's friend from however long ago, and aside from that, he's only got two other things going to endear him to viewers: 1. he stands up to sector security (whom the first season did a pretty good job of establishing as pigs) and 2. he cares for abandoned children. He gets a "Save the Cat" moment and a tie to the main character, and that's it. Just to put that into perspective, we know the most important points of all the other signers' backstories by that point. Jack and Yusei's deal is made obvious to us within the first five episodes; the twins, though the narrative largely only spares them breadcrumbs, anyway, at least have that bit about Ruka/Luna having been in a coma at one point and having a connection to the spirit world shown during episodes 18-19; and though it once again takes Aki the longest to reveal what she's all about, we at least have a good idea of why she is the way she is by episode 24, and we get the icing on the cake of her traumatic past during the narratively excellent duel in episodes 40-41 (no, I will never shut up about how much I love this duel). Plus, she arguably has the most complicated backstory, so it's no surprise that it takes longer to reveal. But here's where the Enforcers come in again.

(And here we see the arguably most deranged rat bastard of a man (affectionate) in the entire show. But hey, at least he has an exquisite sense for dramatics.)

As far as backstory for Crow is concerned, the Enforcers drama initially revealed during episodes 33-35 is as much as we get for him after his introduction. His later duel with dark signer!Bommer/Greiger during episodes 51-53 offers a bit more, but more on that later. First, I want to preface this by saying that I don't think it was a coincidence that Crow and Kiryu/Kalin were introduced so shortly after one another. Because at this point in the story, I think Crow's main role is to add a counterweight to Kiryu/Kalin. To Crow, whatever happened with the Enforcers was evidently not enough to break the friendship between him and Yusei—they're still close and get along well. And then we have Kiryu/Kalin—for him, whatever happened with the Enforcers was a big deal and he's more than a little resentful about it, to the point of wanting to murder Yusei in revenge. (It is also noteworthy that this is the first thing that ever calls Yusei's character into question, because here is a guy who evidently knew him well once and absolutely loathes him, and it's clearly not because of his Satellite upbringing, his marker, or any of the stuff the other antagonists up until this point hated him for. Yusei fucked something up here. Big time. But let's not get sidetracked.) So, what does the Enforcer drama tell us about Crow, anyway? Frankly, not much. We learn two things: One, same as Yusei and Jack, Crow was all for the "liberating Satellite"-thing at first. Two (and this one's way spicier), unlike Yusei, he had the guts to ditch Kiryu/Kalin when it became clear he was willing to go too far. He was even the first to do it. (And I'd argue that if Crow hadn't walked away, Jack wouldn't have, either, but the relationship between these two is a whole other funky can of worms.)

(I love how Yusei grabs him like a naughty cat every time Crow gets worked up.)

The thing is, I wish I could say this tells us something integral to Crow's character, but looking at the rest of the show... it kind of doesn't. Implicitly, it shows us that he draws the line somewhere, and where people he loves doing absolutely insane things is concerned, he does it sooner than Yusei. It's just that this is never brought up again. And as far as his introduction is concerned, this, the first dark signer!Kiryu/Kalin duel, and him rushing to get Yusei to Martha's on his runner is the last we see of Crow for a while.

(For the love of all that's good and holy, why on earth did he deposit Yusei on his runner like that, shrapnel-stab-wound-side down?? Did he pull out the biggest piece of shrapnel before doing this? How did Yusei's legs not drag on the asphalt? Why did nobody think to tie something around his stomach to slow down the bleeding? Ok I need to calm down I'm overthinking this)

After this bit, the signers are pulled centre stage for a while—which was to be expected, for one, and also seems like the right call, writing-wise. After all, they're the ones the audience expects to save the day. As far as viewers are concerned at this point, Crow is just Some Dude who happens to be good friends with Yusei. We've had characters like this before. Hell, the opening episode of 5Ds introduced us to a whole four of them, and for all we know, Crow could have a first been intended to be precisely that, just another Satellite side character, who just so happens to have ties to the Enforcers-debacle that the others don't.

However. Where the writing for Crow as a character, especially considering where he ends up later, is concerned, this looks like less of a smart move. Because the "set-up" (if you can even call it that) to make Crow a protagonist later is... shaky, to say the least. And I'll be frank with you, I'm pretty sure this is because Crow was intended to be neither a dark signer nor a signer (which the Reddit post about him I linked above also proposes). In other words, it was never meant to be set-up in the first place. Considering how the show developed and turned him into a protagonist later, though, I can't help but wonder how Crow could have been written differently to make him actually slot in well with the rest of the signers without stepping on many people's toes. But before we dive into hypotheticals, let's continue looking at what they did with him first.

We see him between episodes 30 and 35, and then he briefly poofs out of existence until episodes 43-44 where he... mistakes Yaeger/Lazar for a dark signer and has a duel with no outcome against him, which only barely serves to keep him relevant.

(The face of a dark mastermind, servant of an ancient, immeasurable evil. Truly.)

Though him outmanoeuvring the vice director despite all the data he has on him shows him to be a cunning duellist, it feels a bit like a throwaway episode, like the show saying "oh yeah wait don't forget that this guy's also there". Crow exists in the narrative—and gets to duel, which sets him apart from Yusei's other Satellite friends—but he does nothing to advance the plot, despite getting whole episode segments dedicated solely to what he's currently getting up to. He's just kind of there, and it doesn't help to set up any of what comes later, except the idea that he can and will fight a dark signer if he finds one, maybe. But the thing is, Crow vanishes after this duel. Literally.

(Run, bird boy, run! Or, uh... drive?)

And look. The way this moment looks? With the black fog literally catching back up to Crow on-screen? And with what he says, swearing that he won't die here, which is strikingly similar to how the other dark signers refused to die, swearing themselves to revenge instead? I get why people thought this would be the moment Crow died and turned into a dark signer himself. But the thing is, even without all the hints pointing to Goodwin instead of him from the start (Goodwin speaks about being willing to sacrifice Satellite within the first ten episodes, the condor is literally on his shirt, ffs, and the corresponding geoglyph is shown in the background when he talks about the Nazca Lines, I am not making this up), Crow becoming a dark signer makes zero sense because it doesn't fit his character. He has no motivation to become a dark signer, because the dark signers ultimately aim to destroy Satellite. And even with what little the audience knows about Crow at this point, it is crystal clear that Crow would never destroy Satellite, not to speak of sacrificing the children he cares for to summon an Earthbound Immortal. It simply doesn't work, because his character doesn't work like that. Crow is deeply protective of Satellite—as his devotion to making it better during the Enforcer days shows—and he is even more fiercely protective of the kids he takes care of. Destroying either or both to turn the world into a literal hellscape instead goes against everything we've seen him say and do up until this point.

However, this is where we have to address the refrigerator in the room.

(Ah yes. The fridge for Crow. The fridge for Crow that was there from the start. The fridge that Crow totally had the time to curl up and hide inside of. The fridge specifically for Crow. Crow's fridge.)

Every time I watch this moment, I don't know whether to laugh like a maniac or heave the biggest sigh of my life. Even when you're being extremely generous with the show and its writing, there is no getting around the fact that this is as though someone wrote DEUS EX MACHINA all across the screen in bold, red letters. And again, I get why people thought this was the moment where the writers decided to do a 180 and turn Crow into a good guy instead of a dark signer due to the popularity of his cards or whatever. The production timeline still doesn't add up, but I get it. And cards or no cards, you can tell that someone made an out-of-left-field decision in Crow's writing for this moment to exist, because the way things were going for him before, purely based on visual evidence, it looked more like he was going to be another victim of the ominous black fog here, for someone (presumably Yusei) to have an angsty moment about later. (Or, hell, perhaps somewhere around this point, they decided that the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin would be a 3v1 turbo duel, which Aki, despite being a kickass duellist, categorically couldn't participate in because she doesn't have a license at this point! It could have been as simple as that.) To contextualise this, between Crow vanishing and him reappearing here, 7 whole episodes pass. He vanishes in episode 44 and reappears in episode 51. His saving grace is that all the duels in between canonically take place within the same night, which is why it's technically not unrealistic for him to be stuck in a fridge for a few hours. Technically. Ok, but what does he reappear for? Well, to have his very own dark signer duel, of course.

(Not pictured: Bommer's hilariously large runner.)

This is the first time we get to see Crow actively contributing to the larger plot, and in light of where he ends up later, I think this duel does a world of good for him. Firstly, it offers us more backstory (though still less than for the other signers), establishing why Crow's so attached to his orphans, why he's so close to Yusei, and throwing in tidbits like how he learned to read from duel monsters cards. It's "Save the Cat" moments all over, and it also does two other things well: For one, this is the only dark signer duel we get where both parties technically have the exact same goal—revenge. Bommer wants to avenge his hometown, Crow his kids. This duel, more than anything else, shows us that Crow could have become a dark signer—in a world where doing so didn't also mean destroying Satellite and killing his kids. Plus, it's the only duel against a dark signer we get that is fought and won by someone who, at this point, is not a signer. And this is especially important to me because it supports themes the show already began establishing with Rudger/Roman Goodwin and continues much later with Team Ragnarok and the likes: Fate is bullshit, the future is not set in stone, it is determined by what we do here and now and we have to fight to make it better. Therefore, contrary to what "fate" would dictate, Bommer/Greiger is not beaten by a signer. He's beaten by Crow. This is an extremely solid bit of writing that 100% supports the show's themes. (Arguably, this duel might have been even more solid if Crow hadn't actually turned into a signer, because him as a non-signer who stayed a non-signer would have been an even bigger "fuck you" to fate than him becoming the replacement fifth signer later.)

And, well, we know where Crow ends up after that. Seeing as he's been freed from fridge-prison and seeing as Aki doesn't have a runner yet, but the final boss duel is set up as a turbo duel, he joins the fray next to Yusei and Jack to fight Rex Goodwin. And the only thing this duel does for Crow character-wise is bring the whole Daedalus Bridge story full circle.

Which. Let me swing back to that for a second and put on my extra big nerd glasses because wouldn't you know it, I'm a greek mythology nerd and when I hear the name "Daedalus", I perk up like a dog that just spotted a piece of ham.

(Pictured: The least OSHA compliant bridge in the world, probably.)

So. As not to derail this with greek mythology, the short version of the Daedalus myth, as far as it's relevant here, for people who don't know it: Daedalus was a famed architect of Crete, who (among other things) built the labyrinth that kept the Minotaur imprisoned. What he also built was a pair of functional, sort-of mechanical wings held together by wax (because he needed to make a quick getaway at some point, but let's not go there). And he had a son: Icarus. Who famously donned the wings his father built and flew too close to the sun, which made the wax holding the wings together melt, causing him to fall into the sea and die, leaving his father to grieve.

I don't think it's hard to see how the Daedalus-Icarus story connects to the bridge. The Daedalus bridge is named after the genius inventor, reaches into the sky towards the sun, and our mechanical wings in this case are the wings attached first to Rex Goodwin's duel runner and then, you guessed it, the Blackbird. This would lead us to liken Rex Goodwin, of all people, to Icarus, then. And I'd argue the comparison works, too. See, the reason for which Goodwin actually built the bridge at first is left completely up in the air. We know that Crow believes a version wherein the "legendary duellist" wanted to build that bridge to reunite Satellite and the city—and the thing is, for all we know, that might be true. Goodwin never contradicts it, he only claims he was doing it to "oppose destiny" (read: follow Rudger/Roman's plan to take his brother's mark, assemble the signers and fight and win against the dark signers instead of having someone bear both a dark signer and a signer mark on themselves).

(Since when does becoming a dark signer make people swole, anyway? Where was that beef when Kiryu became a dark signer?)

Perhaps along the way, he thought he might as well reunite Satellite with the city, since things were already going to hell there. (Before he became director, which I find very interesting. Did the city decide immediately after the explosion that Satellite was contaminated and needed to be isolated or some such? Were efforts made to reunite city people with their relatives who might now have been stranded in Satellite? Did MIDS, hoping to cover up their mistake, lobby for cutting the Satellite off from the city? Was corruption involved? So many questions...) Or perhaps he simply built the bridge for himself, to get back to civilisation in order to follow his brother's plan and everyone else just interpreted it differently. It matters little—the only thing that matters is how Crow sees it. To him, building the bridge was obviously an attempt to reach the city, despite how hopeless things in Satellite seemed, and Goodwin's final ditch effort to jump off the bridge and "fly" on his duel runner was an act of defiance that turned him into a legend. Most importantly, both these things connect to freedom for Crow. Freedom from the misery in Satellite, freedom from sector security, and arguably, freedom from destiny. But then Goodwin tells him that all building the Daedalus Bridge and jumping off it did for him was teach him that destiny is inevitable. And Crow calls bullshit, because of course he does.

And I'd argue this is even more of a reason why Goodwin works as Icarus: He jumped off the bridge (flew too close to the sun), fell and lost his arm (the wax melted and he crashed into the sea), and ultimately, that fall completely changed his outlook on life and turned him from a (possible) hero into a villain (he "died", metaphorically speaking). This led to him now confronting every hopeful, younger person with the outlook that fate cannot be altered unless you're willing to sacrifice your very humanity itself. And there's Crow, a non-signer partaking in a "destined battle" only signers are supposed to be part of, calling bullshit on all of that merely by breathing.

(Bird boy is angry, watch out)

This moment could have been exemplary to emphasising the show's later themes (and I think to those who love Crow, it is), yet, at the same time, I understand why some people think the writers fumbled the ball with his introduction and role in the plot and cast of characters too much for it to hit as well as it could have. There is also the argument to be considered that the whole Daedalus Bridge-thing, though it might thematically fit Satellite, feels like it could have been written in solely to prop up Crow's character and give him something to clash with Goodwin about. Which, you know. I can't refute that, really. It might have been. And the timeline on Goodwin's shenanigans as the legendary duellist is a bit wonky, too, unfortunately—after all, we know only that the Zero Reverse happened 17 years before the show's start, when Yusei is only a year old. Crow's story would then lead us to believe that Goodwin, after somehow surviving that explosion, stayed in Satellite long enough to see it start turning into a floating heap of junk. (Which means this either happened very quickly or it took him a good few years to start building the bridge; both options have some logisitical issues.) Then he builds the bridge, gets cornered by security, jumps off, and... Then what? He looses his arm (but somehow manages to hold onto his brother's??), somehow makes it over to the city anyway (wow, he must be a great swimmer), then... manages to get hired by the public maintenance bureau somehow, only to climb the ranks at record speed and become director within only a few years? (Or did he meet Iliaster first and they somehow helped him climb to the city's political top?) It's all rather nebulous, and does suggest that Goodwin was not originally written with this bit as part of his backstory in mind. But can I prove that? Nope. Might also just be another instance of the writers fumbling the ball, despite having a solid story outline.

At the end of the day, Crow closes out the dark signers arc by establishing himself as a part of our team of heroes—which is, of course, strongly emphasised by him receiving the dragon's tail mark, while the dragon's head switches over to Yusei.

(The Crimson Dragon, probably: Oh, sod it. Fine, the other guy went batshit and you actually helped. Here's your mark. I'll get you a dragon later or whatever.)

Now, I know this in and of itself was already a polarising moment for people—and the funny thing is, I know that even some people who like Crow hated this moment. And I can see why. Crow's whole thing during the latter half of the DS arc up until here was that he was the only one taking part in the destined battle who was decidedly not destined to be a part of it. He was repeatedly spitting in fate's face, and as I mentioned, this could have been brilliant to throw some weight behind themes the show later brings up again. So in terms of character writing, this moment might have undermined Crow's character, rather than supported it, because it feels like less of a reward and more of a "gotcha": If you're extra uncharitable, Crow suddenly isn't the guy who defied fate and fought for the future (does that ring a bell?) anyway, he's the guy who was supposed to become a chosen one anyway and, like Yusei during the start of the Fortune Cup, simply didn't have a visible mark yet. However. There is also the bigger picture to consider. Character writing aside, Rudger/Roman Goodwin dying would have had a rather sizeable impact on the story, had nobody else become a signer in his stead—because there are supposed to be five signers and Rudger/Roman dying would have seen the group short one chosen one (and short one dragon, but we'll get to THAT can of worms in part two). So, to add my two cents for a minute, I don't think adding a new signer was a bad idea, per se. The execution of this move, however...

And I can hear you yelling. "Rua/Leo should have become a signer instead". And yes. I get that, too. And yes, I know Life Stream Dragon was teased before Black-Winged Dragon was ever conceived of, probably. So yes, Rua/Leo should have become a signer earlier. The question is just where. Because the way this final boss duel is set up, nobody could become an additional signer before this point, it would have turned Rex Goodwin's whole shindig on its head. (Even though the duel against Dimak/Devack could have been a good opportunity to reward Rua with a signer mark early.) Arguably, making Rua a signer instead but letting Crow join the main cast anyway could have made for a stronger showing overall. It would have made the twins harder to sideline the way they were later. And it would have kept Crow's "piss on fate"-theme.

But. This is what we got. Crow got a fast-paced introduction, was quickly made as likeable as possible, had an unfortunate stretch of episodes where he vanished very suspiciously (what I wouldn't give to know what decisions were made among the writers in that period), came back to make a very strong showing against Bommer/Greiger and then participate in the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin, where he got to shove his fate-nonsense back in his face, too. A smooth character arc? Hardly. And with everything laid out like this, I get why he rubbed some people the wrong way. Similarly, I get why he's some people's absolute favourite, though. Both sides have a basis in canon. (But please, let's not justify either with decade-old production conspiracy theories, okay?)

To close this out, allow me to do my thing for a moment and imagine a 5Ds canon where Crow was handled in a way that allowed his character to shine more, and maybe not piss as many people off.

Imagine a Crow who was there with Yusei from the start, alongside Nerve, Blitz, Taka, and Rally. A Crow who was, maybe, angrier at Jack for leaving and stealing Stardust than Yusei was, and who was determined to help his friend get his dragon back. A Crow who still had his kids to look after, and who introduced us to the Daedalus Bridge legend way earlier, to establish it as an organic part of Satellite culture, and who maybe drops hints about the Enforcers earlier, too. And we switch back to him every once in a while as the Fortune Cup is going on. Maybe he's the only one who's slippery enough to outrun Yaeger/Lazar's people when they come to capture Yusei's friends in order to use them as blackmail against him. And he starts looking for them, and runs into Saiga/Blister, and learns what's going on over in the city. Maybe he tries to follow Yusei because all of it rings alarm bells for him, maybe he doesn't because he figures security will be too tight now that Yusei has escaped. Instead of them stumbling out of a container to find TV conveniently playing the Fortune Cup Finale, Yusei's friends are found by Crow, who gets them back to the hideout, where they all catch the finale with Saiga/Blister. (Optional: If we want him to stay a signer, maybe he gets a weird feeling while watching the finale.) Then Yusei's suddenly back and Kiryu/Kalin's introduction proceeds as we know it. Yusei's injured, but Crow sticks around for a little longer, leaving only once he knows Yusei's gonna be fine. Then he decides that he needs to take up arms against the dark signers, too, because like hell is he gonna let anyone destroy Satellite and sacrifice his kids. He can still duel Yeager/Lazar while Aki and Yusei are duking it out in the hospital and the signers learn what the hell being a signer means, it matters little. Maybe this time, he outruns the black fog—barely—and there's no fridge. And he realises that stuff makes people vanish. While the signers start their big battle, he races back to check on the kids and finds the same disaster we already know, and everything else from there on out proceeds as previously. (Except that maybe, the first time Crow sees Jack again, he has some choice words for him for legging it to the city and stealing from Yusei.) Whether he turns into a signer at the end or not is up to preference, I think.

Nobody has to be on board with this version, but this is probably how I would have adjusted it to make things less jarring.

For now, see you in part two.

#yugioh 5ds #crow hogan #ygo 5ds #5ds #rex goodwin #character analysis #yugioh meta #orchid rambles #oh sweet baby jesus this took SO LONG #AND NOW I NEED A PART TWO #BECAUSE I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS #god damn #it's very late at night here but I just Had To Get This Done #anyway take it #here it is #I'll try my best to work on part two quickly but I have no idea when I'm gonna get done with that

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iimr3 · 1 year

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being a ghost quartet fan is harder than being a US marine because its an amazing story i love with my entire being but its literally impossible to explain it to people who havent heard it. like well you see theres these two sisters in a sort of ambiguous time and place, and one of them is in love with an astronomer but he cheats on her with the other so she finds a magic bear and asks him to kill the astronomer and turn her sister into a crow for some wicked fucked up revenge and he demands payment in the form of "one pot of honey, one piece of stardust, one secret baptism, and a photo of a ghost". so she lives several different lifetimes (including the House of Usher and 1001 Arabian Nights) to get those from reincarnations of her sister whos sometimes her mom and sometimes her lover and sometimes her daughter and sometimes a stranger and the astronomer and bear are reincarnated too (every single character is a reincarnation) but also sometimes the four actors are just playing themselves outside of the story (they also play all the instruments) and the whole thing is told non-linearly so all the lifetimes are kind of happening at once and the lyrics are a lot of esoteric philosophy about ghosts and alcohol and stars so good luck figuring out what the hells going on. but you should listen to it because it will change your life and you get to hear gelsey bell make sounds that you will think human vocal cords should not be able to make

#op #ghost quartet

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ilovebellatrixandseverus · 10 months

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HP longfic rec collection

With reddit closing down, and a lot of rec lists being lost to the public that way, I made a post on here asking for recommendations, and now that there were some in the notes - thank you all! - I thought I'd share them here! Feel free to reblog add to it, more the better! Starting and ending this beginning list with one of my own favs each to give you all some recs back:

Wizards in space by esama on Ao3, almost 50k

The Dumbledore's Army use the Room of the Requirement to get themselves a spaceship.

Harry Potter & Stargate fusion, No Warnings, Gen, Complete Work 27 Feb 2015, HP LJ GW FW HG RW LL GW CC ME, AU - Canon Divergence, Dumbledore's Army IN SPACE!, Science Fiction, Chapters: 10/10 Comments: 456 Kudos: 4807, (Knowledge about Stargate is not necessary to read this story)

Reccing this because I adore it so much it always makes me feel things!

Secrets by Vorabiza on ao3, almost 400k words.

Beginning with Draco's unexpected arrival at the Dursleys, Harry's summer after sixth year becomes filled with activity and many secrets. As his summer progresses, Harry generates several unexpected allies as he finds himself actively becoming the leader of the Light side. H/D post-HBP ~~Complete~~

Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Drama, Romance, Explicit Language, Sexual Content

Recced by @niccolo-machiavelli07 with the note 'contains good Snape and Malfoy's. I do need to warn you that it's Drarry and Draco has a literal kid...'

Harry Crow by Robst on FfNet - 700+k

What will happen when a goblin-raised Harry arrives at Hogwarts. A Harry who has received training, already knows the prophecy and has no scar. With the backing of the goblin nation and Hogwarts herself. Complete.

Harry Potter, T, English, chapters: 106, favs: 31k+, follows: 19k+, updated: Jun 8, 2014 published: Jun 5, 2012, [Harry P., Hermione G.]

Recced by @elizabethgoudge with the note 'Harry Crow is quite hetero, but has a super interesting premise about goblins and is very long. He has another one with interesting elves, as well.' and I have read the fic before and can second the recommendation! It's an amazing longfic.

Delenda Est on FFnet (Reboot & Original) 100+k

Dying, Bellatrix uses her heirloom to send Harry to the past. There, he can try stopping Voldemort while making the acquaintance of a young and impressionable Bellatrix Black, who may opt to serve Lord Black instead of Voldemort. H/B. Rewrite of DE with different plot, some new characters. No need to read original. Backwards compatible with PB.

Harry Potter, T, English, Adventure & Romance, chapters: 12, favs: 1k+, follows: 2k+, updated: May 8 published: May 2, 2022, Harry P., Bellatrix L.

Recced by @str82theheartpls with the note 'my all-time fave is being rebooted and the original is amazing too'. Description of the original version is 'Harry is a prisoner, and Bellatrix has fallen from grace. The accidental activation of Bella's treasured heirloom results in another chance for Harry. It also gives him the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the young and enigmatic Bellatrix Black as they change the course of history.'

Oh God Not Again! By Sarah1281 on Ao3 & ffnet, 150+k

So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything AGAIN.

Gen - Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood & Harry Potter - Old Fic, Humor, Time Travel, like literally, originally posted september13 2008 on ff.net, story completed as of december 2009

Recced by @polyvirnl with the note '"Oh God Not This Again" is very good', and I can second that, I read and rearead the fic many times, it's crazy awesome!

The Andromeda Program on Ao3 120+k

Hermione Granger is one of the select few to join the prestigious Andromeda Program to explore space for all of humanity. She thinks it will be an excellent opportunity to prove her worth and show her mettle, but perhaps living on a spaceship and spending her time with the same group of people is not all it's cracked up to be. Or maybe one person in particular is making it especially difficult.

Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Healer Severus, Adult Hermione, Medical Inaccuracies, Minor Injuries, Slow Burn, Swearing, Angst, Power Imbalance, Alcohol

Recced by @echoofawind with the note 'I love The Andromeda Program. It's a Severus x Hermione muggle Sci-fi AU that has Ender's Game vibes'

Pride of Time by Anubis Ankh on Ao3

Hermione quite literally crashes her way back through time by roughly twenty years. There is no going back; the only way is to go forward. And when one unwittingly interferes with time, what one expects may not be what time finds...

Mature, Violence, F/M, HG/SS, Time-Turner, Time Travel,bChapters: 51/51 COMPLETE Jun 2012, Comments: 438 Kudos: 3133 COMPLETE

Reccing this because once you start reading you can't stop! I don't usually read Snamione and I have no idea how I ended up here first, but I've reread it twice since! Hermione as a death eater spy's wife is amazing.

If you have any other fic recs, feel free to reblog and add them to the post!

Note that reblogs are better than replies (or likes) because reblogs help share the post around - so more people get the recs, and more people see the post and might add their own recs as well!

If you rec more than three please use a readmore under the first or so, so not to spam everyone's dash!

#hp #harry potter #hp ficrec #hp reddit #harry potter reddit #harry potter fic recs #ficrec #fic rec #fic recs #ficrecs #drarry #snamione #Dumbledore's army #bellatrix lestrange #severus snape #hermione granger #ilovebellatrixandseverus #harry potter fanfiction

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musical-chick-13 · 1 year

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I’d blame @easy-revenge being an enabler, but really I just enable myself.

I want to talk about how the episode 8/“First Death” ED is an absolutely perfect representation of grief.

The very first shot is of two cigarettes. And though smoking is something we the audience have come to associate with Himeno, the presence of two of them suggests that we are meant to view this shot as symbolic of the relationship between Himeno and Aki. From the very outset, the ED makes it clear that the thing we are supposed to take away from this sequence (and, honestly, probably the episode in general) is the strength of their connection. And immediately after this, we get a brief glimpse of a cemetary, crosses marking graves and crows perching on them. Whatever this connection was, it is broken. Himeno is dead.

It’s worth noting that once the guitar kicks in (and thus we have a clearer instrumental that more cleanly represents what we tend to think of as a “song”, instead of the melody-less, monotone, horn-like sound effect backed by drums at the beginning), we are shown more scenes of Aki and Himeno-a memory, a beautifully done shot of both of them lighting cigarettes from the same lighter simultaneously, with all of their history flashing behind them (with special mention to Makima’s eye, adding a creepy and unfortunate shadow over their intimate moments-just like in life), and a scene of an older Aki approaching a younger Himeno in the graveyard where they met, the first of several Grief Shots, all of which never fully show Himeno’s face. Aki is at a physical distance or, in the case of the shot of her walking through a field later on, not present at all. However close the two of them were in life, and however strong or even accurate memories of her can be, she is, ultimately, inaccessible. She’s no longer a living, breathing person, but a specter. She no longer lives, she haunts. The frames shift in and out of focus, both highlighting both the confusing, disorienting nature of personal loss, and creating an effect similar to crying.

We have some slow-moving shots of other characters (including a wonderfully creepy shot of Makima’s eye opening in especially painstaking slow-motion, which...every single animation choice they make with her is a hell of a piece of foreshadowing--oh, and don’t even get me STARTED on the perfect timing of the background shifting to black with a literal explosion of red on the off-beat at the end of the musical phrase *chef’s kiss*), creating a sinister atmosphere, showing us how serious the situation is, reminding us that there are other people in this story to care for, but we quickly shift back to Aki and Himeno, on a bench, at (relative) peace (except not really, because it’s clear that Aki is Thinking About Revenge, but, hey at least they’re not in immediate danger).

Over the course of this ED, we are treated to parallel shots of Himeno in a forest-the first, completely naked, head down, hunched in on herself and obviously deeply sad. The second, in her trademark sleepwear, a sly, slightly flirty smile on her face, still a little folded in on herself, but sitting in a pose of relaxation rather than despair. This comes after, in succession, another Grief Shot of Aki at the graveyard, a butterfly flying through the field Himeno was walking through earlier (now empty-once again, as we are reminded, she is gone), and a screen full of flowers immediately wilting, all suggesting that this is how Aki chooses to remember her-not as a helpless victim of tragedy, but the vibrant, unapologetic person she was in life. There’s a sharp, overlit, dreamy filter over her in this later shot--this is how Aki sees her, someone who deserves to be memorialized, but also someone now far away from him, made distant and different through death.

IN ADDITION (and this is the part where I REALLY start to go feral), the singer’s voice only fully lets loose during the scene of Aki and Himeno fighting together. It’s in a higher register, and the melody doesn’t move at all, staying on the same note. High register chest voice (for those who are not as familiar with singing terms, this, in simplified terms, is basically “not falsetto”) is usually instinctively associated with raw, unbridled emotion. Mainly because it’s farther away from most people’s natural speaking voice, so the approach, vowel modification, and support involved make it harder to sing in healthily, and more difficult to vary in volume, leading to a usually uniformly loud and powerful sound. This sense of raw emotion only comes when showing us just how in tune these two are, just how well they work together, just how easily they are on the same page. The conscious choice to use a vocal technique/register commonly associated with heightened, intense emotion tells us what this connection truly meant and, consequently, conveys the gravity of what has been lost.

And interspersed with this fight, still in the midst of this full, raw vocal display of emotion, there is a shot of their hands connecting, lit in golden-yellow. A casual, automatic moment of physical connection, even in the midst of a dangerous and distinctly non-intimate situation. Yes, it’s devastating that we’ve lost a good, competent team. But even more devastating is that we’ve lost something more than that, something more than even a friendship; we’ve lost a partnership. Even more than coworkers, or even close friends, Aki and Himeno were partners.

This becomes even more overt when the singer shifts into a half-chest-voice, half-falsetto cry (expertly shifting between these two registers, I might add), the furthest jump between notes in the whole song so far present here, and it’s not even on a specific word. Just a vocalized “ah.” Loss cannot be put into words, and sometimes all you can do is sigh or sob or scream. This is the natural culmination of everything we’ve seen, and it is crushing.

The animation shifts in and out of focus again (memories aren’t enough, having a partner for some, not all of your life, isn’t enough), and we have a slow shot of Aki opening his eyes this time. But instead of being ominous or unsettling like in the case of Makima, his eye stays downcast before looking ahead with something bordering on a thousand-yard-stare. This is not horror or a warning, this is grief. And ultimately, despite everything else going on, this is the emotion that wins out. This is the point (at least for now, at this particular moment in the story).

We stay mostly in the graveyard for the rest of the ED, (there’s no use in pretending this is anything other than a mourning song, now), minus a brief moment of Power and Denji looking concerned, while Aki sways slightly, a tad unbalanced (backed by an equally unsteady trill in the guitar line). The stillest we’ve been this whole sequence is a few seconds of Aki simply standing in shadow, head tilted slightly downward, holding flowers, gazing at graves. Grief is hard, it’s paralyzing, and it can be (at least at first) all-consuming. This stillness is broken by a flash of bright-dreamy-filter Himeno (once again, not showing her whole face-just her lips this time), just like how memories and hurt associated with grief can come up violently and unexpectedly. And, now that we’ve fully established this as a Grief Song, when the melody involving the chest-voice-falsetto combo repeats to fill out the musical period and resolve its cadence, we now have words (in fact, we have more syllables than expected) and I don’t think that this particular musical choice matching up with the full shot of Himeno in the forest as fully memorialized by Aki is a coincidence. Himeno is re-realized in some way, and so the ability to put this feeling to words is, too. This memorialization can serve as a brief moment of respite, and so we can return to proper lyrics, instead of a wordless keening.

More of Aki alone in the graveyard, and even as we get a few bars of guitar outro, the somber atmosphere doesn’t let up-Aki’s slow trek through the seemingly endless stretch of graves marked with crosses is bleak and lonely. The last shot set to music is a close-up on his face, looking forlorn and lost at what would be the camera if this were a live-action show.

And then. Cut to silence. A brief shot of flowers (the ever-immortal symbol of grief over death) and a lighter (the ever-immortal symbol of Himeno). Once again, this is not just sadness over a death for the sake of it being a death. This is a loss. This relationship was important, and the melancholy and heartbreak of watching this character die is inextricably tied to the loss of the particular interpersonal connection between Aki and Himeno.

(Also, fun fact: this song is in g minor, which a) has two flats, and b) was a popular key choice of Mozart himself, and is considered to be The Key™ in which he most effectively communicated feelings of despair/tragedy/etc. So. Basically I’m losing my mind in real time.)

There’s also the fact that the beginning and the pre-chorus don’t really have a “key” per se. There’s definitely a background accompaniment, but it’s more general sounds rather than specific pitches. (The bass comes the closest, but it doesn’t quite settle on a pitch.) Grief comes from a lack of something. And just like these parts of the song lack a pitch to center around and use as a home base, sometimes grief feels like you’re missing a part of your life, or even, sometimes, yourself. Maybe it’s not constant, but you feel and notice the absence acutely when it shows up.

And this lack of key/center pitch is eventually contrasted (during the verse and at the end of the pre-chorus) with a constant stream of “g” notes in the guitar line. The home base (or tonic note, if you will) of the scale of the key the overall song is in. That thing you lack, that you miss, that you’re grieving, it’s still there. Everything you had and then lost, you still remember. You still want it back. Grief is persistent and, it doesn’t just go away (even if things would be much easier if it did). It’s going to come up, sometimes in places you don’t expect, and it’s going to hit hard.

(And the fact that grief doesn’t go away carries over into how Himeno is treated in the narrative. There’s the heartbreaking scene in the hospital. There are the flashbacks Aki has before he kills the Ghost Devil. There’s him taking petty revenge on the man responsible for Himeno’s death and all the time he spends taking out, looking at, and eventually smoking the “easy revenge” cigarette. Himeno even features heavily in the ED for the episode after she dies. And I’m not going to spoil things for the anime-only crowd, but there are a few little moments later on in the story, too. Her death isn’t just something that’s forgotten, and her idea of “easy revenge” and making what little joys you can out of life to spite the miserable world around you continues to reverberate through the story, and for Aki specifically. We already see a little of this when he goes berserk on Katana Man despite claiming Himeno wouldn’t want that, and allowing himself to relax a little and even enjoy Power’s and Denji’s company in the episode 12 ending sequence.)

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve watched this. And every time I do, I see something new. The level of care put into this sequence, of using every available tool at the animators’ and musicians’ disposal to so accurately and heart-wrenchingly portray grief is phenomenal. This is an absolutely, breathtakingly stunning ED, and I’m not sure I’ll ever see another one like it.

#himeno #aki hayakawa #chainsaw man #chainsaw man spoilers #csm #csm spoilers #meta #chainsaw man meta #csm meta #akimeno #(I mean. not really. I just choose to read their relationship as romantic because it adds to The Tragedy™ and I love emotional devastation)#akihime #aki x himeno #first death #chainsaw man episode 8 #unhinged lady screams about music #behold! a creation!#I got two music degrees and an intense love of anime and I'm not afraid to use EITHER of them

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beesmygod · 4 months

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overthinking quickening and the old hunter's bone aka the cope theory

the old hunter's bone is an item that gives the player hunter the art of "quickening" (dude if this was intentional this was a 10/10 translation job), which increases your roll and quickstep speed. visually, the player appears to disappear into a moving puff of smoke. this short video demonstrates the effect:

youtube

item description:

The bone of an old hunter whose name is lost. It is said that [they were] an apprentice to old Gehrman, and a practitioner of the art of Quickening, a technique particular to the first hunters. It is appropriate that hunters, carriers of the torch who are sustained by the dream, would tease an old art from his remains.

editing mine. a rare objective translation error; the original japanese is ungendered and it does in fact turn out that gehrman's apprentice was a woman. the description is as intriguing as it is incomprehensible. lets break it down:

first the basics: the number of hunters that can use the quickening without an item can be counted on one hand: gerhman the first hunter, lady maria (his apprentice) and I THINK the vermin infested old hunters in the DLC (i will need to double back to check for sure u_u but theres a gif of at least one of them doing it on the fandom wiki). on the other hand, since the player character is not an old hunter and did not practice "quickening". therefore, they have to use the old hunter's bone to gain the same effect for a short time at the expense of their quicksilver bullets. only one other NPC hunter uses this item: the bloody crow of cainhurst.

the old hunter's bone is found in gehrman's abandoned workshop at a grave strongly implied to belong to lady maria, his apprentice. we would, therefore, have to assume its lady maria's bone. but, i can hear you say, isn't that bone a tibia? lady maria has both of her legs!

but....does she?

she's completely covered up from head to toe. we don't know for sure. but we do know that you can do your quickening with only one leg and move completely unhindered on a prosthetic; gehrman is proof positive of this. there are a number of clothing items that reference the removal of the right leg because that's where they believed that the beast scourge originated from. in hindsight, its obvious that this was because of all the wolf infected blood they were unknowingly injecting into themselves via their right leg.

in fact, the statues at cainhurst reflect this belief as well. the statues of knights in the queen's throne room are all missing their right leg.

the bloody crow of cainhurst is a weird wannabe guy so he probably got his bone from the corpses of one of these knights. the people of cainhurst and their ancestors, the pthumerians, both have some form of enemy that can disappear and re-appear or pass through tables. quickening-esque abilities.

the point of this is mostly this: i do not think that maria's entire body was buried at her grave, just the part of her that was left behind: her severed leg. the rest of her was captured in the hunter's nightmare. much like how ludwig's body does not exist outside of the nightmare. they are not "dream versions" of the characters made of their consciousness or some stupid shit there's no precedent for and sucks ass. they are physically trapped.

this extends to laurence and wraps back around to my "laurence is objectively the headless bloodletting beast" thing in spite of his stupid appearance in the DLC. the objective canon im choosing to go with is that DLC laurence was a last minute terrible idea retcon based on the fact that its literally just a reskinned cleric beast and has no concept art or appearances in art books. laurence is the only one who breaks every known convention in the game while simultaneously being one of the most overly ham-fisted addition to a game

the end

#bloodborne lore #Youtube

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alpaca-clouds · 1 year

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Revolution in the Media

The Mageseeker game is coming out in two days – and I kinda want to talk about it. About Sylas and about Demacia. Because holy fuck, I hate the Demacia storyline in League of Legends. Like, some of the other storylines have their faults (big faults at time, let’s face it, the entire Noxus thing is not that much better), but Demacia? Demacia will tell you: “Are Nazis really so much worse than the people fighting against them?”

And this is… sadly a problem that American media has in general. Especially during the last… ten or so years. And I want to talk about it.

The Demacia Storyline

Other folks have talked about this before, but let me make this once again clear: The Demacian regime in League of Legends is fascist. Let’s face it. It is basically fascist. They have literal concentration camps, have an underclass, who are held in those concentration camps just for the way they have been born… And if we were going through Ecco’s “traits of ur-fascism” we would find a lot of the traits in Demacia one way or another.

In itself it would not be a problem. A lot of media does have fascist bad guys, but of course League of Legends does not have Demacia as the bad guys. Instead, well, we have several champions in the storyline, who can be played by the players of the main game. And who of course do not want to be reminded of “You are playing the bad guy”. So, all characters within the Demacia storyline are treated the same. Sylas is as good and as bad as Garen.

This is something we have seen especially in the entire Lux comic. Which so clearly shows Sylas as bad and manipulative and you should not side with him within the story, that so clearly says: “The only good side in this is neither.”

And just… No. For one: Sylas is the victim of the Demacian regime. A victim who managed to escape what is effectively a concentration camp. He is a rebel, who tries to bring the regime down. No, he is not as bad as the Demacians. Him killing the king and rebelling the way he is, is basically the same, as a Jew escaping a Nazi concentration camp and then going on to kill Hitler.

This is not a case of “good people on both sides”, but a case of “fascists on one side, those who fight them on the other”. There is no equivalence.

But of course this is not the first time – and probably not the last time – this happens in American media.

The Daisy Fitzroy thing

Remember Bioshock Infinite? That third Bioshock game, that was quite different than the other two that had come before?

Now, let’s put it bluntly: Bioshock has always kinda suffered moral relativism. The old games basically go like: “Laissez-faire Objectivist Capitalism is bad, but the other alternatives are not that much better (if at all!)” Which is just blatantly wrong, though obviously it is just a very American way about depicting it, given that… well, we know how Americans cling to their “freedom economics” and it being the “only right economic system”. Because Freedom!

But then… Well, then came Bioshock Infinite. Instead of in Rapture, we play in Columbia. A religious pseudo-fascist place, with a regime that is build very much on the suppression of BI_POC, especially Black and Irish people, who are used as a servant class and outright slaves. Obviously with a lot of iconography mirroring the South under slavery and later Jim Crow.

In that game, we have a group of rebels, though. The Vox Populi. Rebels fighting against the system, which to the credit of the maker is shown to be unquestioningly bad. The rebels are under the lead of a Black woman named Daisy Fitzroy, who gets involved with the protagonist, by forcing him to get her weapons to fight the regime… But then comes the big twist, when Daisy Fitzroy tries to kill a kid of the oppressing class and your NPC companion Elizabeth kills Daisy Fitzroy in turn. After which you are going to fight the Vox Populi as much as the folks of the regime, with the only difference between the enemy types being the color schemes.

In that moment, when Daisy Fitzroy tries to kill the white kid, the game is taking your hand and pointing at her: “See, people fighting against white supremacy are just as bad as the white supremacists themselves! Don’t you agree?” Which is, of course… like a really bad conclusion to draw from it.

Because, let’s be very clear: Even if she had killed that child… Someone trying to free themselves from oppression through radical means will never be as bad as the oppressor, who did the same horrible acts without any reason other than “you look different, hence you are less human than me and I can treat you that way”.

But, of course, there is another screaming example of this…

The MCU and the faulty status quo

Honestly, to me right now there is no bigger offender in this than the MCU and within the MCU there is no offender as bad as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Now, let me preface this with: Yes, as much as I love Black Panther, that movie very much is very much at fault for this, too. At fault for the entire: “Oh, yeah, the guy who wants to do something about systemic racism is as bad if not worse than systemic racism.” But at least that movie ended on a change to the faulty status quo. (A change, mind you, that was undone by later installments of the MCU because the MCU just cannot have the status quo change too much, obviously.) It also clearly came down on the side of “the thing the good guys fought for originally was real bad”, with T’Challa outright confronting his ancestors on it.

No such thing, however, happened in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which obviously features our main characters going up against first and foremost the Flagsmashers. And now lets be very clear: The Flagsmashers are anarchists! Which is very much on the very tailend of “wanting to change the status quo”. (Note: I am an anarchist.) Their reasoning is a good one, though. They say: “Yeah. The entire Snap made it that people could move without borders. That was good. Now we are displaced and the organization that is supposed to take care of our needs cares more about enriching themselves than making other lives livable.” Which is something that is actually shown to be right. We know they are right.

Now, for once, of course, the entire thing with them turning towards violence comes kinda out of nowhere and is not really set up. But… We also need to talk about how violence is a valid means of fighting an oppressive system. And this system is very much oppressive. Again: The series SHOWS US THAT IT IS! That people oppressed in this system die of neglect! The system, as it stands, is a form of oppressive violence. That it kills through neglect rather than through active means does not make the killings less horrible or less deadly.

Yet, the Flagsmashers all die in the end. All those, who were enriching themselves through the system get no narrative punishment, with Falcon (now Captain America) holding them a nice speech. And the literal fascist getting a last minute redemption arc.

And that is just… horrible. I cannot put it any other way. It is horrible. It is a horrible end for that story.

The myth about the peaceful revolution

What all of this calls back upon is the myth about the peaceful revolution. The myth, that a peaceful revolution will be the only successful revolution and that violent revolutions are destined to fail and are – in fact – as bad the oppression they fight against. This, obviously, does completely ignore the fact that… most revolutions that were successful were either violent or had a violent revolutionary group cooperate with a peaceful revolutionary group. Just that again and again the violent groups will get erased from history.

The example most probably know about, is the Black Panthers, who served as an aligned group to MLK’s peaceful civil rights movement. Here, too, it often gets erased that the Black Panthers were closely aligned with MLK and were not a completely different group. Just as it is often erased from history, how the Black Panthers for example also helped feed and educate other underserved communities, including the poor white people.

We see the same again and again in the way we speak about history. A good example is decolonization (a process, mind you, that long has not ended). We kinda never go into how that happened. The usual narrative is: “Oh, yeah, western forces realized it was bad, so decolonialization happened.” Maybe we are talking about Ghandi, the peaceful revolutionary in India, and maybe we actually get told: “After WWII the western forces had no money left to uphold colonialism.” But, oh, what is that? No money left? But wasn’t one of the main things about colonialism that it was meant to extract value from the colonies? So should this not be a reason to hold up colonialism?

Yeah, no. Because here is the thing. In almost all colonies there were constant violent revolutions happening. And those had to be fought down with military power. Which was a costly endeavor. So costly, in fact, that in the end the colonies cost the western forces more money, than it brought them. But again, this gets erased from history. (Let’s face it, we do not speak about the ills of colonialism enough either way.)

But they (those who hold power) want us all to believe that it happened all through peaceful means. Because this way, we do believe that we, too, should rebel peacefully against the system that oppresses us and that destroys our environment. To put it frankly: They would not allow a form of protest, that actually worked.

And media? Well, media serves to uphold this myth as well. By telling us again and again that those rebelling and revolting through violent means are as bad, as those who uphold an oppressive and often directly or indirectly violent regime.

We need to make better Media

Something I see this in as well, is the reception of media and the lack of understanding of tropes and storylines, that might put you into the shoes of violent revolutionaries, who end up harming some innocent bystanders as well – at times a lot of them. Heck, even those trying to change the system that has oppressed them in a way that they are no longer oppressed, without a care for others get often judged as harshly, if not harsher, than the actual oppressors.

My two main fandoms are kinda an example of this. Both Arcane and Castlevania has this issue.

In Arcane the main issue is, that we have an obvious example of oppression of the poor. Piltover oppresses Zaun. And while the series kinda shows this, it also asks us to be very much on the side of Zaun, given that from the main characters only Ekko is exclusively aligned with Zaun, while everyone else is either at least partly aligned with Piltover or a bad guy. And sure, we do see that under Silco the poor suffer even more because of how he pushes his drugs. But… Well, he originally was a revolutionary and while Vander has given up the revolution he is the one to fight for Zaun independence, but yet… He is very much the bad guy, other than all those other characters who uphold the oppression. Which is… Not good.

I talked about the issue in Castlevania once again. Isaac. Here the issue is not as much with how the series is written, because for once the series actually has a somewhat good and understanding take. But… fandom has the issue here. Now, Isaac has been enslaved before. He ran away, after which he again and again was attacked and assaulted for either the color of his skin (this is after all the time that the first Europeans came up with the idea that Black people are less human than white people) or his religion. Given that this was all he had ever known, he at some point decided that it was how humanity had been – and hence that humanity should be extinguished. Which, if you have just a droplet of empathy, is kind of understandable. Not right, mind you, but understandable. Yet, a lot of folks have a lot more empathy for either Dracula or Hector, who partook in the genocide as much as Isaac did, than they have for Isaac.

This really… Is just not a good look.

And of course, all of this we see again and again in real life. Not only from the fascists themselves, who will claim there were “good people on both sides”, but even from more left-leaning folks. When marginalized folks get angry with their oppressors, they quickly get labeled as “as bad” as the oppressors. See Tone Policing. As a trans person I have been told several times by people, who identify as “left leaning”, that I am as bad as JKR and her posy, because I say that folks who support Rowling and her conservative fantasy shit are not really leftist and are definitely not queer allies.

So, yeah. Really. Fuck this thinking. Threating oppressed people rising up as the same as the oppressors is just shitty. And I just wish media finally let go of this shitty trope.

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