#they CANNOT be judge and jury because that leads to becoming executioners

[insomnova]

realizing my recent jason posts makes it sound like i hate his character when that could not be farther from the truth. i love my unhinged toxic self sabotaging king. he has so many problems and over half of them are directly his doing. watching people grind down his sharp edges until he's a misunderstood softboy is what gets me up in arms like leave him alone he's doing absolutely horrible things to himself and everyone around him and you're going 2 accept that buddy!!

[fatalflawsy]

Welp... I have angst material now so thank you @annonniiiiieeeee this is your fault.

@thenerdywitchofthenorth

@furiousjellifish

Now watch me descend into madness as I explain this maze

I would like to touch up on the maze we thought of to reincarnate back into the living world.

The canon is that the maze was not made by Hueso it was made be by Oroko Saki before becoming the shredder and he truly put his entire being in that maze because once inside you cannot get out without passing through the trials that lie ahead.

Not only do wayward souls have to navigate the ever moving walls and trails of the maze intentionally keeping you inside and making you go mad but also you have to hear the voices of your loved ones dead or alive telling you every single insecurity about yourself that you have locked away deep down.

If that doesn't quicken the process the soul must also battle the oni and demons sealed inside by Oroko Saki so yeah that will be fun and I shall now call this maze Pandemonium.

Pandemonium is a sort of living creature in a way it's moving walls constantly leading you to either your doom or your salvation usually it's doom honestly but those that prove themselves to be worthy the maze will gladly show the way but those that do not well... They are lost in the maze forever. It will give mercy sometimes showing them a way out but back to the underworld and those souls never want to go back again.

Now this is the trial Sunita must navigate through even with the gifts of the gods on her side she cannot guarantee safe passage unless Pandemonium even lets her so even if she fights through the many demons sealed within or marks her path the voices in calling to her are loud and ruthless slowly driving her mad because of the many she hears most of which are of her grand googly and her family hell even April's voice rings in there moking her.

She stays determined but the constant reminder that she might fail drives Sunita crazy because there's only so much raw determination can do for you in a maze meant to keep the various souls that come into its walls inside and torture them for eternity.

This truly deserves the name Pandemonium.

So why did I think of the name Pandemonium? Because when looking up what it means in Google the word started as "Abode of all demons" and now it's meaning is "Wild, noisy, disorder or confusion;uproar"

Now that does sound like our maze Oroko Saki made doesn't it?

Now how did I hear about Pandemonium? An anime I watched haha eat your heart out people to my angst ridden machine that is Pandemonium!

And if you find yourselves there... You better pray that it helps you out because nobody not even a God can save you from everlasting torment because this place is acting as judge, jury and executioner

Have fun! :D

[snails-oc-stuff]

@dragonherder2030 @gl1tchxr

Decided to make this it’s own post but here’s the Lore stuff(previous posts: first, second).

Okay so basic world stuff before I get to characters-

This is kind of like your classical children’s book/movie/show, animals that have relations closer to human like ones and all talk and stuff. But darker! So yeah, warnings for mentions of death, hunting, and just some darker themes.

The animals mostly live in groups, usually mixed between similar species, though some completely only one species, and others are very spread out.

For example, a group of birds of prey consists of falcons, hawks, eagles, and the like. This group would probably be rather large and well known.

The next down, a group of different kinds of hawks, some are red-tailed hawks, some are goshawks or broad-winged hawks. Also probably well known, maybe a little smaller though

And next would be, say, a group of only Red-tailed hawks for example. These kinds are very rare, and 90% of the time are just families living by themselves for a bit, before rejoining another group.

Most of these groups, minus the third example, are lead by representatives of their species.

Representatives are about what they sound, there a single person that represents their species. There’s one for each general species(I’ll get into the specifics of what that means in a moment), and they’re kind of the judge, jury, and executioners of this world. They, of course, have to lead their people this way, but they also have to keep each other in check. If a representative is considered too far beyond redemption, they’ll be cast out by the others, and since the representatives represent their species, the rest of the species will also be outcast.

Representatives are chosen through death, in one of two ways. You see, representatives cannot die of old age, starvation, illness, or the like, their magically protected. They can only die from wounds/in battle, which is how the next representative is chosen. If defeated by another member of their own species, that animal well become the new representative. However, can choose an heir to replace them if they die by another species hand, though that rarely happens. In that case their heir is made the next representative, if this happens and they don’t have an heir the next representative will be random.

So, general species is a very vague phrase, so I’m gonna try and clear that a little. When I say general species I mean, for example, rather then just say Canine, there are foxes, wolves, coyotes, and many others. Rather then just say bird, or uh, song bird or flightless bird, I’d say there’s one secretary bird representative, one finch, one sparrow, one hawk, one kite.

However you wouldn’t specify past the that, for example, there’d be hyena representative, but not one specifically for, say, brown Hyena’s. A brown hyena *could* be the hyena representative, but it would be for all hyenas not just other brown hyenas. I hope that makes sense.

There are some animals where it’s kind of a gray zone, for example like how there are animals called leopards but aren’t actually leopards(snow leopard, clouded leopards, etc.), and in that case… yeah I’m just gonna look at the species a little and pick myself, not exactly perfect but that’s what we’re going with.

Okay now onto some of the other lore stuff, gosh this is already so long.

So ferals. As I mentioned before, some entire species have been outcast before(it’s pretty rare though), but what does that mean exactly? Well in this world when a representative fails their job and species so badly the entire world doesn’t want them, they’re species loses what makes them… more complex, what allows them to talk, and have more ‘human’ characteristics. They become wild animals, in the sense that we see them in the real world, if not worse because it also raises their aggression a bit.

Yeah I know, I never promised this animal world was well run. In fact I made it kind of badly run on purpose. Flawssss like blaming everyone for one persons mistake. Wonderful.

So, a feral animal *can*, technically still retain their more complex aspects, in certain cases, being the exiled representative, for example(because they still retain their near immortality and magic protection till they die). The other way, is if they have a non-feral animals soul. It’s possible for certain animals to trap souls in objects, and give them to people. If given to a feral animal, the feral animal regains their own mind, but can only speak in the voice of the dead animal.

Okay so there’s all that out of the way, let’s talk some more about relations. (Tw for talk about eating animals/hunting(by other animals of course) until the part that says ‘okay let’s move on from the dark stuff’)

So there are still, of course, predators in the world who can only eat meat. They’re usually given this through those who pass away from other means(old age, injury, or other such examples), however there are other cases. If there’s an actual battle between two or more groups(started for reasons other then food), or in special zones.

These zones are taught to all from a young age, and most people avoid them, however they are widely accepted as violence/hunting zones. Basically places where most rules don’t apply, and animals could be hunted/attacked/killed without much repercussion. These zones also work in reverse tho, because they’re sometimes used for groups of smaller animals to gang up on bigger ones without facing whole groups of bigger ones(they’d take one at a time). Oh and feral animals are always allowed to be attacked/fought/hunted on sight. They have no protection.

Okay let’s move on from the dark stuff! Interspecies relations,

So as I said, it’s not uncommon to see, say, different kinds of birds of prey together, it also wouldn’t be uncommon for birds in general to be grouped, usually in a settlement in that case.

You could probably see a bunch of aquatic mammals and reptiles sharing gossip and a snack on popular beaches.

A group of iguanas protecting a group of smaller newts and geckos.

But what about, crossing even the similar species bound? Seeing a jackal and a crocodile together, not as enemies but as friends? Very rare but not unheard of.

The most common, but not only, case of un-alike species being together is traveling. Two animals who are traveling alone/separated from their group, and have destinations close to each other. They may want extra protection, or just company. This is usually only 2, 3, or 4 animals. Bigger groups haven’t really been seen, but they probably exist lol.

Otherwise, they’ll be seen in settlements. Sometimes a group of, for example, aardwolves and actual wolves may settle, but they didn’t know really close by was a settlement of tigers. The two groups meet and happen to get along, their technically separate still, but they work together and live so close to one another a visiter may assume their one settlement.

And uh.

This is most, though not all, of the the kind of the world building stuff! Hope you like it, sorry for talking so long wheuduhfhsha.

I may make a other post talking about the story and characters specifically, but this was just the basis

OH ALSO. Most of the examples for relations I just made up on the spot and aren’t cannon, they *could* be, like there could be a jackal and croc friendship I make in the future, but most of them are just random things I came up with. That’s all.

As always questions/comments are encouraged because they help me improve and add onto the lore, and also help motivate me to work, lol.

[sunder-the-gold]

Controversial Take: shared Super-Hero Universes were a mistake

Or at least, they carry some serious disadvantages that I’ve never seen anyone address.

For example, I think Superman and Batman being in same “Justice League” universe twists their characters in ways they were never intended to bend.

But I’m no comic-book scholar, so take the following with a grain of salt. These are one fan’s opinions.

Batman

Batman was originally just a millionaire. He had a fancy house and a fancy car. Originally, he even used simple guns. Possibly adopting the first Robin, Dick Grayson, coincided with adopting his One Rule against serving as judge, jury, and executioner.

Batman is supposed to be running around Gotham in his furry pajamas because that’s the best anyone can do about the rampant crime and institutional corruption. Batman didn’t and can’t have the money to build Batcaves on the moon or the Justice League satellite station entirely on his own, or else he could simply bribe his way to justice in Gotham.

Likewise, the very existence of the Justice League should mean the end of crime in Gotham, or at least give Batman the manpower needed to break its back and begin the long process of cleaning it up.

Batman and Gotham are two halves of the same character. Gotham made Batman, and Batman exists because of Gotham. Batman was never meant to be fighting to save the entire planet from alien invasions, and his abilities and advantages don’t work on that level.

The only way writers can make Batman work in the Justice League is to turn Bruce Wayne into Tony Stark, but they know that they cannot turn Batman into Iron Man. Because the moment that Bruce Wayne uses an Iron Bat suit to fight the minions of Darksied or Brainiac, is the day before Batman fights the Joker in an Iron Bat suit.

Also, Batman is an anti-hero. As the saying goes, “Batman isn’t Lawful Good because he follows one rule; he is Chaotic Good because he follows ONLY one rule”. While he’s very much a hero in his goals, his methods are criminal in the eyes of the law. He’s a rebel against an unjust system, like Robin Hood, but he has to struggle with going too far down the path of “the ends justify the means”.

Superman

Superman is meant to be a character who has unstoppable strength, so that the writers can explore the ethics of power and the value of restraint. His most iconic villain, Lex Luthor, has no super-powers at all, because Superman’s struggle isn’t supposed to be physical. Lex Luthor protects himself with laws, lawyers, public perception, and propaganda. Superman cannot carry out vigilante justice against Luthor without losing the trust of the people, and so while Kal-El as Superman fights Luthor’s mad science in the streets, Clark Kent as an investigative journalist works with Louis Lane to expose Luthor’s crimes within the legal, civil channels of a functional society.

But the Justice League narrative is all about fighting big spectacular battles, usually against invading alien forces. In order for there to be any tension, Superman needs to be physically challenged, rather than mentally or morally challenged. He’s reduced from a metaphor for the necessity of restraint when one has the advantage in terms of physical power and the capacity for violence, and becomes a guy who just has more strength and abilities than all of his allies.

Which leads to the “Superman Problem”. People disparage other members of the Justice League for being redundant or useless next to Superman, and claim Superman is too strong to challenge.

That misses the point. Superman is meant to be too strong to oppose directly, like Saitama from One Punch Man. He’s not a bored adrenaline junkie and his story isn’t inherently comedic in that way, but introducing Kryptonite to give him a physical weakness strikes me as lazy.

I’ve never read Red Son, but everything I’ve heard about it sounds like a quintessential Superman story. The narrative is not about whether Superman can be physically defeated, but about how terrifying and ghastly Superman becomes when raised with an “ends justifies the means” mentality rather than the best of humble American egalitarianism.

Superman used to fight for “Truth, justice, and the American way”. And the American way is to recognize that all men are created equal, with equal rights, and equal accountability to the law. The law should impartially protect or convict anyone, regardless of power or wealth. Likewise, America -- the world’s dominant superpower -- should exercise similar compassion and restraint when dealing with the rest of the world.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a darker reflection of Superman. Peter Parker lacked Clark Kent’s moral foundation, and his selfishness got his uncle killed. So while Spider-Man’s narrative of “great power comes with great responsibility” is very close to Superman’s, there’s also a heavy element of repentance, atonement, even self-flagellation.

Spider-Man faces all of the same moral and intellectual struggles as Superman, on top of being physically challenged.

Because Peter Parker bent once before, when he let the criminal go and got his uncle killed. So Spider-Man’s story is exploring what it will take to make him bend again. What will it take to make Spider-Man break, or give up, or compromise?

If Superman is about patience and restraint, Spider-Man is about ENDURANCE. That’s why the entire world is against him. That’s why the narrative conspires to deprive him of any balance between his private life, his professional career, and his super-heroic calling.

Spider-Man’s story is asking “how much shit can one man take?”

Naturally, the perspective of that struggle changes when Spider-Man shares the same universe as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, and SHIELD. Because then Spider-Man isn’t alone, holding up the world like Atlas. He can turn to others for help, including other heroes, like Thor, who are much stronger than him.

On a more positive note, Spider-Man’s story may be about falling 10 times, but it’s also a story about getting back up 11 times. About accepting failure and trying again.

[asterekmess]

1-4 What the fuck is a true alpha? A recurring joke? A convenient plot armor? A desperate attempt to make an irrelevant character look ‘relevant’ despite canon showing otherwise? Scott/Posey Stans think that Scott McCall has a right to command and dictate everyone’s life because he is a tWuE aLpAhA; Scott has a right to play judge, jury & executioner with his “inferior” friends, and he has a right to determine what is wrong or right based on his own benefit and bigoted black and white mentality.

2-4 If you think that this sounds an awful lot like the Divine Right of Kings, you are absolutely right. An unearned (and undeserved) mystical superiority or blessing, a fabricated sense of purity, goes a long way in ameliorating Scott McCall’s Failures and Fuck-ups. And like kings who rule by Divine Right, he can do as he likes. Which is why Scott can patronize and lie to Allison and Kira to control them, assault Isaac and Jackson due to his own pathological jealousy and possessiveness,

3-4 use Hayden (Liam’s girlfriend) as bait against the Dread Doctors without her consent to play the hero, dehumanize Stiles and accuse Stiles of being a violent, dangerous, inhuman monster and serial killer for daring to accidentally kill his abuser in self-defense, sell Derek and his Pack to the hunters, refuse to tell his girlfriend Allison the truth about her mother’s death to look ‘good’ in her eyes,

4-4 plot/conspire with Gerard Argent and Deaton behind everyone’s back to violate Derek Hale’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent for his own benefit, claim that the Argents had a reason to slaughter the Hales (including HUMANS and CHILDREN) in front of Derek Hale and of his comatose uncle – and then Scott/Posey Stans will consider everyone kicking Scott’s whiny, toxic excuse of an ass to the curb and not giving an utter crap when Scott died in Season 5 as an act equivalent of treason

I put all your asks together so I didn’t get confused (which is v likely to happen) and I thank you for numbering them for me. <3

The concept of a true alpha...sigh. Look, I see the intention, okay? I see the goal, the idea that you don’t have to kill someone to become an Alpha. That there can be “Good” Alphas who haven’t killed anyone. But I also think it’s lazy writing. This is one the few instances where TW hadn’t actually shot themselves in the foot yet. They gave us so little information on werewolves that they never actually said that the only way to become an Alpha was by killing another Alpha. They could very easily have said “Also, you can become an Alpha this other way” (Be it by passing the Alpha spark down to children willingly, or being beaten in a special kind of combat, or through a ritual of some kind)

But they didn’t just want another way to be the Alpha. They wanted a way that didn’t take any effort. It would be too hard to introduce another Alpha that would give up their spark to Scott, or to have him put in the effort to do a ritual. They needed a way to make Scott an Alpha without any additional effort. Part of me honestly wonders if they did it because they knew they’d lost a lot of Scott fans by the end of Season 2, what with all of his betrayals and lies and what he did to Derek. They needed a way to reaffirm that Scott was the good guy, so they made up the True Alpha thing and said “Look! He’s so pure and goodhearted and he has so much good will, that he can’t even help but become an Alpha”

They demonized werewolves by reducing them to murderers who had to kill for power (In Derek’s case it was survival, and i’ll fight for him.) and then held Scott up as a saint because he managed it without killing.

Except that he had killed. Or at least tried to kill. How could he be this pure person they claimed if he spent weeks poisoning a cancer patient, lying to everyone around him, and he took Pleasure in it. He was Proud of himself for his lies and his tricks and for getting back at Derek by hurting him. That’s the kind of behavior we expect from Stiles, who is established as a morally gray character. You cannot have Scott do something like that and then make the claim that he is morally pure.

Once Scott finds out from Morrell that killing someone will take away his True Alpha status, he goes out of his way to avoid killing people even when it puts others at risk. This ISN’T an Avatar moment, okay? He doesn’t summon the power of his ancestors and render the villains completely incapable of harm. He just fucking lets them go! Deucalion gets his fucking eyesight back for fuck’s sake. He was MORE dangerous than before and they let him go! (I know Derek was part of that, but I’m pretty sure Derek was possessed by a pod person by that point)

He never said he’d behave. No one checked on him or watched to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. They just let him leave. He could’ve just rebuilt a new Alpha pack. Could’ve killed dozens more people.

Jennifer would have too, had Peter not killed her.

Even better, he brings Ethan and Aiden into his pack. They walked right up to him and told him “Everyone is hunting for us because we killed a ton of people” and he just took them in? Gave them protection from the families of the people they’d slaughtered? All because they followed him around for a bit and said “We’ll only kill for you from now on.”

And this is why I get so frustrated about the blue eyes. The concept of ‘taking an innocent life’ is so fucking vague? Scott is indirectly responsible for countless deaths throughout the show. Whether by inaction or because the people doing the killing were acting on his orders, or whatever the fuck else I can’t think of at the moment. It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t intended to kill anyone. He should not still have his True Alpha status. Period. But he does, so apparently Scott can kill as many people as he wants, actually, so long as he doesn’t do it with his own claws and teeth. Or maybe he just can’t kill a human who hasn’t killed anyone else? Who the fuck knows.

I’ll say it again. If The Alpha spark can be used to heal someone, why didn’t Scott use it to save Allison? She wasn’t cursed. She was stabbed. He could’ve done the same thing Derek did. Peter even said that it can be done on accident. All it requires is that he do the pain drain and not stop when it starts to hurt.

To be quite honest, I don’t blame Scott’s True Alpha eyes for his entitlement and his belief that he can do no wrong. He held that same notion way before his eyes ever turned red. The eyes are to blame for no one else calling him out for his actions. You’re told by the only fucking person who seems to know what’s going on in the supernatural world that this kid’s eyes turned red all on their own because he is meant to be an Alpha. That it’s because he is good and pure and it’s a sign of his worthiness. He literally was just gifted extra power, apparently because he’s the only one worthy of it. How the fuck are you supposed to deal with that? Are you supposed to be the one person who tells fucking Werewolf Jesus (technically Derek is Actual werewolf jesus what with the evolution thing, but before that Scott’s as close as it gets cus’ Peter’s just a zombie.) that he doesn’t know best? That he’s doing something wrong? If the Powers that Be made Scott an Alpha, what will they do to the one who tells him he fucked up? Everyone is just supposed to trust that Scott must be in the right. That his reasons are good enough. That he knows what’s best. Because if he doesn’t, then why the sudden Alpha eyes? Peter questions Scott often and happily, mostly because he doesn’t care if he gets struck by lightning or something. It’ll always be worth it to get that last quip in. Eventually Stiles starts to argue too, because he’s reached the point where he doesn’t care if he dies so long as everyone else important to him stops getting hurt. That’s when Scott starts cutting him out. When he stops believing Scott knows best.

And honestly, it’s like the first post I made that sparked this whole ranting binge. Scott cheats. He cheats and he uses his abilities to his advantage without ever thinking of what it does to other people. Except this time he’s not cheating at lacrosse. He’s not taking credit for bowling six strikes in a row. For some reason his eyes turned red, and everyone else is taking it as a sign that he must know better and he should be in charge, and he never disagrees.

Sure, he complains. “Why me? Why does it have to be my responsibility?”

Guess what buddy? It fucking doesn’t. If you stopped fucking ordering people around and admitted you don’t know what you’re doing to someone besides your MOM and you want someone else to take the lead? THEY WOULD. But because he will not admit any kind of weakness or that he isn’t sure what to do, he puts the weight on himself. He blames everyone else for the lead weights he tied around his waist. He doesn’t want to have to do the work, but he hates the idea of someone else being in charge. Of not being important. We’re told right off the bat that Scott wants to be important. He wants to be on first line not because he loves the game, but because he wants to be popular. He wants Allison to go out with him. This is just another way he wants to be important, and he won’t ever let go of it. He gives orders and makes calls on who gets to know what and who is worthy and won’t take responsibility for the failures, but happily takes credit for the successes. When he fucks up by not talking to people or by lying to them or making a bad call, he doesn’t admit it. He doesn’t tell anyone. He lets them think that he’s blameless so that when he actually says shit like “I lost them” someone will say “They’ll come back because you’re their leader” No. He’s not. He lost them because he pushed them away. It was his fault.

Whatever. I’m salty. *pouts* Anyway. True Alpha is dumb, and I’ve read a couple theories about how Deaton made it up, and tbh, I’d follow that logic. If you’re curious, I think I tagged it ‘true alpha’ or ‘deaton’ on my blog.

[mbti-notes]

(1/3)How does one deal with feeling like your friends are neglecting you? I have these couple of friends that lately I feel like I don't hang out with unless I'm the one initiating. When we do see each other everything is going well, but I feel like maybe they take me for granted, or maybe I was the only one thinking that we're friends, while they don't care that much about me and don't really miss me if we go months without seeing each other.

[con’t: Frankly I want to just drop out of contact with them and “test” wether or not they’ll even make an effort to reach out to me, and if they not then why should I?. But at the same time, I’m aware that we all have our own lives to deal with, and people have different ideas of how much effort should be put into “maintaining” a friendship. Also, I never really communicated that I feel this way (cause I don’t really communicate feelings openly like that) and instead always just focus on having a good time with them, so if I were to suddenly make this an issue I feel like it could come out of the blue from their perspective. Should I just stop trying with them and see what happens? And if I were to pursue the issue, how would I do it without putting a needless pressure on them and making things weird? - INFJ]

Ignoring feelings is the road to ruin for Fs. Genuine question: How important are your feelings to you? For example, when you feel neglected or taken for granted, do you honor those feelings and treat them as important? They seem important to you, otherwise, you’d easily brush them off. If feelings are important to you, why can’t you talk about them, and why shouldn’t people talk about them? Is your perspective not important in a relationship? Why do you relate feelings to “pressure” or being “weird”? This seems to imply that you think it’s somehow “unnatural” to have feelings, otherwise, you wouldn’t ask how to “deal” with them as though they are some kind of plague or obstacle?

First of all, in a relationship, people owe each other certain agreed upon duties and responsibilities. If you relinquish them, the relationship ends as there’s no commitment to each other. You seem to think people owe you more than they’re giving you, perhaps rightfully so (as INFJs are often devoted friends to a fault), while you also recognize that different people have a different conception of what their duties and responsibilities are. How are two people, with two different conceptions of their duties and responsibilities, supposed to get onto the same page without DISCUSSING their conceptions and forging middle ground? It’s not magically going to happen without any effort. Long-term relationships require effort to sustain, and both parties must agree to putting in a relatively equal amount of effort, otherwise one party will always feel cheated. If someone isn’t willing to put in the effort, then you’re barking up the wrong tree and should simply move on. This connects to the next point.

Second, if someone doesn’t contact you as often as you’d like, it is unwise to speculate and ascribe motives to their behavior without knowing the facts of their situation. You feel hurt, fine, but don’t jump to conclusions and claim that they don’t care or that they don’t miss you. This kind of judgmental leap is unwarranted, and it actually reflects on your emotional insecurity rather than their moral character. Do you act on every thought and feeling that comes your way? You clearly don’t, because your question is about feeling neglected but not doing anything about it. People can miss you a lot yet still not contact you, people can care about you a lot yet still not contact you, for reasons that you aren’t aware of, because you don’t know what’s really happening inside them. Maybe they’re good friends, maybe they’re jerks. The point is that you don’t really know because you’re overlooking a lot of different possibilities by jumping to conclusions.

INFJs with poor emotional intelligence are often very judgmental (Ti fail), because they aren’t aware that negative emotions have hijacked their speculative process, and they believe that their “intuitions” about people are god-given truths. This often sabotages their relationships over and over again. Nobody likes to be misjudged or wrongly accused, and it’s not a good habit to go around judging people without giving them fair opportunity to present the facts of their case. I’m guessing the reason that you fear talking about it is because you know that the anger you feel in your heart is going to create a volatile situation. And the anger is there because you have jumped to a negative conclusion about their moral character. Blame is a defense mechanism that grants a false sense of power, FJs usually do it to deflect their feelings of hurt/inadequacy/inferiority.

A much wiser strategy is to figure out the facts rather than indulging blame. Once you have the facts, you’d be in a much better position to decide what to do. What’s stopping you from genuinely asking people why they don’t initiate contact? That would naturally open up a normal conversation/negotiation about how much to contact each other. Be honest: Do you actually want to know the truth, or do you like sitting in judgment of people and stewing in your negative feelings (as many INFJs do)? And you even want to “test” your friends in an experiment to prove your negative judgment, which will, of course, turn out exactly as you expect because you’re intellectually dishonest. It’s easy to hold a false belief when you rig the experiment and never actually open yourself up to real counter-evidence. It’s easy to maintain an illogical belief when you have already defined both the cause (bad moral character) and the effect (taking you for granted) in playing the judge, jury, and executioner. You cannot claim to know things through mere speculation, so stop leaning so heavily on Ni. Get the facts from the horse’s mouth instead of presuming to know.

Third, if you are afraid of conflict, you’re never going to get very far in relationships, because relationships are inherently messy and full of conflict. Two people cannot reach a place of mutual acceptance without going through the process of reconciling their differences. There’s nothing wrong with individual differences, the issue is whether you are genuinely able to accept that they exist, on both ends. The decisions that you have made indicate that you can’t accept your feelings. You say that you focus on having a good time, which is often the indirect Fe way of saying that your true feelings remain hidden. By not raising this issue in your relationships, you inadvertently inform other people that your feelings don’t matter, and downplaying yourself cannot lead to a satisfying relationship, can it? It is the fact that you have left your feelings unresolved for so long that makes this situation into “a thing” that you now fear raising with them and now even motivates you to slam the door. The molehill (of innocent differences) has become a mountain (of negative condemnations).

You can’t expect that others will know how to accommodate your needs if you never make your needs known. How are people supposed to know how to care for you if you don’t instruct them? How are you to know why they don’t initiate contact if you never ask them? The point is that these discussions are necessary and constructive for relationship building. If you want to get better at having them, then start having them and learn from any missteps. Communication is an art, a dynamic process that requires adapting to the circumstances of the moment. There are some things in life that mere speculation can never prepare you for, so stop leaning so heavily on Ni. Learn how to do it by simply doing it and gaining experience.

[fictionalcharactermbti]

2018 Follower Favorite ENFJ Winner:

1. Dominant Extraverted Feeling [Fe]

If there is one thing that everyone can agree on about Princess Diana, is that she is focused on people. She cares deeply and always leads with diplomacy. Diana cares for people which is a clear F trait, but what makes her a dominant Fe user is her need to represent and protect all people and communities. She is invested in her role as Wonder Woman. She does this because she knows others need her. She understands that Wonder Woman represents ideals to others and strives to uphold the role.

Roles in society are very important to Fe dominants. Everyone must do their duty in their societal role. This is why we typically don’t see her try to leave her role as Wonder Woman in order to have a private life. She, unlike many other superheros doesn’t seem to need to have too much invested in a false identity. She is Wonder Woman in almost all facets of her life. Princess Diana and Wonder Woman are the same person. She isn’t putting on a costume to be Wonder Woman. Whether in her typical armor or in a leather jacket, she is the same person who takes on the same responsibilities. She rarely struggles with the idea of running away and having her own life like her fellow justice league co-workers. Her individual identity is intrinsically attached to being Wonder Woman and that role in the world.

We see how her Fe further manifests itself interacting with the rest of her functions.

2. Secondary Introverted iNtuition [Ni]

Diana is not necessarily a guardian of her people. This may seem odd as her shield and general role seems to be a guardian role. Which it is, but not the kind of guardian I am referring to here in the case of Ni vs Si use. The ESFJ often protects the hierarchy as is, not to say they cannot question it, but this is the typical role an ESFJ character plays. Diana uses her secondary introverted intuition to understand the cultures and ways of other peoples and individuals.

Diana strives for understanding of others, especially in an emotional sense. A great example of this is in Rebirth where we see her solve the conflict of the God of War with love and acceptance. She bestows this same love on Hades in New 52. Her lasso has sometimes become her Fe-Ni personified, as she discovers the true motivations of others. Her Ni gets directed back at her Fe when she is functioning properly; she uses the motivations she discovers to help others find their place within a community.

Wonder Woman is a great demonstration of Ni secondary synthesizing ideals. This brings us directly back to the guardian term I threw out. First I had to demonstrate the understanding, now we can get to how that effects the guardian role. Diana is not a guardian of the traditions and ways of purely her people. She pushes to unite all people. As she ventures into the world she wants to combine what it best for all people throughout her journeys. No matter the iteration, she does not hold one world above the other or as a direct threat to her way of life. She wants to find a way for all peoples to get along, to find what unites them. In this sense she is a guardian of all people, but not of her specific way of the life. This is the difference have how ESFJs and ENFJs protect people with their Fe.

3. Tertiary Extraverted Sensation [Se]

Now, this all sounds great and all, but how do we address Diana’s more violent tendencies? First, being an F type by no means naturally makes a character less likely to be violent. No function leads anyone to be more or less violent. Functions help us analyze how someone uses violence and gets to the point of violence.

Obviously, we get that Diana is a protector, but it gets confusing that a protector of truth and love doesn’t have reservations at times to kill those she deems bad or evil. Although she tries to resolve conflict with love, we also see a Diana who when talking with Batman gives him guff for not killing his enemies like she does. That way they don’t come back like Batman’s Joker. How does the INTJ Batman show mercy to criminals, while in this moment Wonder Woman, the ENFJ, does not?

This is what happens when Diana uses he Se to support her Fe rather than her Ni. In order to impose the justice and order she sees needs to happen, she can get headstrong and revert to an impulsive nature. She will be trapped in the moment and unlike dominant and secondary users of Se more comfortable with this mode of perception, she can quickly become the judge, jury, and executioner in a heartbeat. She feels justified with her Fe and reacts quickly with Se. As an ENFJ she can become impatient with systems in order to get what she sees as the ideal done. Part of this is being a Judging dominant type; reaching the ends is important and the ambiguity of it all can be tiresome. Her Se feels like it better supports her Fe in order to reach these goals sometimes.

Se is not always her enemy though. When she is using her Ni properly, we see Diana engage in her Se through how she de-stresses. She isn’t afraid to go out and enjoy the human way of life. Being in the moment as a “human” often liberates Diana from her life as Wonder Woman. She can let her hair down and have a good time with the rest of them.

4. Inferior Introverted Thinking [Ti]

Having an inferior thinking function does not make someone unable to use logic. Everyone’s judging functions has a logic to it.

For Diana, her inferior function means she can be uncomfortable with specifically situational logic. This means looking at the logic of exceptions to the rule. This runs opposite to her main judgment function of Fe. She doesn’t like the holes pointed out in how she tries to help all people. There are issues in universalizing all peoples and in how she wields her power in order to do so. She can be quite idealistic and in her sweeping philosophy, there are those and situations in which her idealism can be problematic, these moments are uncomfortable for her and hard for her to address.

[alwaysspeakshermind]

Top 5 Anti-Varchie Arguments & Why They Make No Sense

#3: “Varchie breaks up every other day/they’re so toxic.”

Yeah, so...to quote both Hamlet 3.3.87 and that one Bugs Bunny meme—NO. 

[Quick but serious question: is this whole “they break up all the time” thing a trying-to-be-cleverly-snarky exaggeration, or are people really just that unobservant? I want to believe it’s the first, but I see it so often now that I’m becoming horribly afraid it’s the latter.]

Over the course of three seasons and 57 episodes, Archie and Veronica break up three times—three!—and each of those times, the breakup is precipitated by outside events, no one is happy to be breaking up, and both parties make a concerted effort to remain friends while neither ever actually quits caring about the other.

Regarding the toxic argument: no they are quite obviously a safe and non-toxic ship. (Although they do appear to present the occasional choking hazard for children under the age of 13 who cannot seem to swallow Varchie’s happiness).  

“Toxic” is, however, a term I refuse to unpack and dissect at the length it deserves right now because I’m so incredibly sick of the misconceptions Tumblr and the rest of the internet perpetuates regarding toxic/abusive relationships that my exhausted frustration with this subject alone can fill pages and it’ll drag me off topic. So instead, I’m just going to point out that while none of Riverdale’s main ships is toxic (everyone’s just young; there is an actual difference), Varchie is the ship with the fewest elements the internet typically likes to designate as such (antagonism/aggression toward each other, childish/petty behavior designed to get under the other’s skin, resentment/bitterness directed at the other person following a breakup, etc.), so the frequency with which this argument is thrown around is extra-laughable. 

Especially considering how demonstrably willing both Archie and Veronica are to overcome their unfamiliarity with each other’s world, share each other’s concerns, support each other’s interests, and essentially serve as each other’s partner because they both consider all those things fundamental parts of being in a relationship (which they are).

**IMPORTANT NOTE: if you struggle to discern the difference between:

(1)  a healthy real-life relationship (which, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, will in fact include arguments because people are people and no human being who possesses a mind of their own agrees with another human being all the time)

(2)  a toxic real-life relationship (which can include arguments but doesn’t have to)

(3)  healthy and toxic fictional relationships (which are entirely different beasts, particularly in book or TV series as plot requirements frequently dictate that characters react in ways that no actual person would, because the narrative needs conflict or drama to function and publishers/networks still over-rely on relationships to provide that conflict or drama)

then you probably will believe Varchie is toxic, and you definitely need to do some research that goes a little deeper than Wikipedia/that one post with a bunch of notes that was written by a person who came out of their first college psychology class feeling like Sigmund Freud. Toxic relationships are no joke, and it’s a little frightening to see how many people on the internet are so confused as to what constitutes one in reality that they frequently interpret normal, healthy relationships portrayed in fiction as toxic, and borderline-toxic relationships in fiction as healthy. (Also, it doesn’t help that people who, for whatever reason, feel the need to paint their dislike of a certain pairing in homilectic terms, are in the habit of taking scenes that check off a few of the “toxic relationship” boxes and twisting them out of context so that they can pretend there’s an element of moral superiority to their prejudice.)

But, important reminder! Fiction and real life are not the same thing, so if you want to measure fiction by reality’s standards, you have to apply liberal amounts of common sense to your assessments of the goings-on in a fictional world and recognize that many developments are necessitated by things like plot advancement, network executives, deadlines, and your basic this-actor-got-sick or that-actor-is-going-leave-soon randomness. Playing judge, jury, and executioner on the toxicity of TV relationships is, if possible, even more complex than just judging the toxicity of real-life relationships because by arbitrary unwritten law, TV relationships must include some onscreen friction. 

In fact, one of the first things you’re taught about writing fiction is that no one wants to read/watch/hear about the thing that almost happened, so don’t waste valuable narrative time portraying that—yes, everyone likes to joke about how they would love to watch a show where the kids went to class everyday and everything happened normally, but it’s a joke. It’s not true. No one who’s done with high school really wants to go back again and listen to an hour of boring lectures week after week, and no one who’s still in school wants to come home and watch a show that’s a repeat of their entire day. TV shows (or books, or movies) expect you to understand that each episode/scene/chapter/whatever is a story they’re telling you about the time something did happen, and that expectation also extends to fictional relationships. Just because you happen to witness a couple’s every fight/argument/disagreement onscreen does not mean you’re expected to conclude that “OMG, this couple is so toxic! All they ever do is fight!” 

No.

That would be like concluding the only holidays in the town of Riverdale are Christmas and Labor Day because we haven’t seen them have Halloween or New Year’s yet. You’re expected to put two and two together and assume they’ve celebrated those holidays that logically must have preceded and followed Christmas, just like you’re expected to grasp the underlying implication that after weeks/months of happiness and fun and peace, these two characters who love each other are now squabbling/experiencing tension over something important that they disagree on. Archie and Veronica are shown working together, being happy, enjoying one another’s company etc. multiple times before conflict ever arises between them, and them figuring out how to navigate through that conflict is intended as a facet of the story’s plot and a developmental point in their character arcs, not a red flag denoting an unhealthy relationship.

But anyways.

Back to the “they break up all the time” argument and why its fallaciousness is so obvious that it needs to be retired with all possible speed. (And as a bonus, also back to its close relatives “they break up for stupid reasons and get back together in five minutes.”

The “Shouldn’t-Be-Necessary-But-Apparently-Is”Quick Guide To Varchie Breakups:

Breakup #1: The end of episode 2x08

Duration of breakup: Almost one whole episode (that spans the course of at least a couple days)

What leads to breakup: Archie, the comfortable-with-feelings person, drops the L-word and desperately wants to hear it back. Veronica, the uncomfortable-with-feelings person, isn’t sure she can say it back and doesn’t want to go on acting like it’s not a big deal when she can see how important it is to Archie.

The outcome: Neither Archie nor Veronica’s actual feelings change at all from the time of the breakup to the time of the reunion. (No, not even when Betty kisses Archie.) Veronica just finally realizes that what she feels for Archie is love, so she goes to see him and tells him face-to-face. Archie is happy to get back together right then and there, and they resume where they left off.

 “Breakup” #2: The end of episode 3x06

Duration of “breakup”: three +/- episodes (end of 3x06-beginning of 3x10)

What leads to “breakup”: Archie believes Hiram’s vendetta against him endangers everyone close to him, not just him, and decides running away is his only option.

The outcome: Once again, neither Archie nor Veronica’s actual feelings change. They both attempt to move on/forget (Archie with Farm Girl Whose Name Escapes Me, Veronica with Reggie), but don’t exactly succeed as evidenced by Veronica’s anger, Archie’s remorse, and how quickly they want to get back together when he returns to town. 

NOTE: This is the one I sarcastically refer to as “the breakup” because it was over the phone (which, as everyone who’s ever utilized this dodge knows, is the easiest way to keep yourself from going back on a hard decision you don’t want to make. It should be obvious to those with functioning sensibilities that Archie does it that way because he knows if he goes the in-person route he’ll have to see Veronica cry and won’t be able to handle it). Besides that, Archie tells Veronica that he loves her and she was “it” for him from the day he met her, and it clearly kills both them to say goodbye. So again, as any viewer with common sense can see, it’s a breakup in name only—their heads are forced to accept what their hearts can’t, and everything they think is resolved is really only postponed.

 Breakup #3: The end(ish) of episode 3x10

Duration of breakup: ALMOST TWELVE WHOLE EFFING EPISODES (end of 3x10-middleish of 3x22). COUNT THEM.

What leads to breakup: Archie has in no way recovered from his rough experiences over the past months, and is behaving erratically. Veronica observes his out-of-character behavior with a lot of concern, and Reggie (whether accidentally or on purpose) fuels the idea that Archie is no longer Archie, so when Hiram ends up shot the day of the PSATs, Veronica knee-jerk reacts due to all the stress, worries that Archie might be responsible for it, and doesn’t contradict Archie when he asks if they’re done.

The outcome: Once again (surprise, surprise!) neither Archie nor Veronica’s feelings for one another change. They again try to move on/forget each other by dating other people (Josie and Reggie), but it doesn’t work. They remain close, continue to look to each other for comfort/support, and as soon as they’re faced with a life-or-death scenario, they throw caution to the wind and tell each other the truth (“I love you. I don’t think I ever stopped loving you”/“My heart ached for you. Because I felt the same way.”)

 To recap: what do these breakups have in common?

(1) Each breakup is due to a legitimate concern involving the other person, i.e., they are breakups for mature reasons, not breakups for “How dare you not text me back within five minutes” or “I’m a free range pony that can’t be tamed” reasons (with all due respect to Fat Amy)

(2) Neither Archie nor Veronica wanted to break up

(3) Both Archie and Veronica continued to love each other

When you’re young, the un-fun truth is that you frequently make really bad decisions in love. (You also do it sometimes when you’re older, too.) Archie and Veronica breaking up because they mistakenly perceive certain issues as insurmountable, trying to move on with other people and then going back to each other to make things right and reaffirm the love they couldn’t pretend away the instant the opportunity arises isn’t them being fickle, or toxic—it’s just them being young and clueless and trying to recover from young and clueless mistakes as maturely as possible. 

And believe it or not, their relationship has been handled very well by Riverdale. There are few other TV couples who’ve been as steady as A&V, and none of them are teen couples (in fact, the only ones that even come to mind out of all the shows I’ve ever seen are married and/or background couples, not main couples, because main characters’ relationships are always put through more drama). It is basically unheard of for a teen show’s protagonist and their primary love interest (who, incidentally, is also another main character) to only go through three breakups in three seasons. It is rarer still for each of those breakups to have a justifiable concern at its core, and rarest of all for the characters to take the mature and difficult let’s-be-friends approach rather than the easy and childish let’s-personally-attack-the-other approach. 

That is not a back-and-forth and/or toxic relationship. That is a fictional teenage relationship handled more maturely than many a fictional adult relationship, and that is good. 

Postscript to the rant: 

Veronica does not break up with Archie in 1x01, because they are not yet together. 

Veronica does not break up with Archie in 1x11, because they are not yet together. 

Archie does not break up with Veronica in 2x01; he’s telling her he wants her to leave because he’s upset and lashing out. 

Archie does not break up with Veronica in 3x01, he just tries to soldier-heading-off-to-war her because he loves her too much to want her to waste her time waiting on him and Veronica refuses to agree to it because she loves him too much to back out because the going looks like it might get tough. 

I don’t know why all of these scenes are forever being cited as breakup scenes, but they are, and it’s so bafflingly incorrect that it makes me shudder. They’re not breakup scenes. End of story.

[kallypsowrites]

Daenerys Targaryen vs Light Yagami

A long while back, I made a post about the different readings of Daenerys Targaryen and how one could make an argument for a light, bittersweet and dark version of her storylines. And I knew that if she ever went dark, I was going to make this post. The version of Dark Daenerys that I think they were set up to write is not the version they wrote at all, which is part of reason her ultimate arc falls so flat. But, shoddy execution aside, I do think this is the direction George is going with the books. No doubt he’ll do it better and more gradually but he has not come out in any way saying that the MAJOR beats of the plot are different. Just the side characters and the execution.

This is the point to turn back now if you don’t like Dany criticism or mentions of Dark dany. I understand that people in the Dany fandom are grieving right now and I get you. So, for all of my pro-dany followers, please don’t read this post! You will not enjoy it, and I REALLY don’t want to fight! 

But, for the rest of you, I’m going to talk about Daenerys arc and how it is awfully similar to that of Deathnote’s Light Yagami--or it would have been if the writers were like...smart and good at character development and framing.

For the non-anime watchers of the fandom, Deathnote is the story of Light Yagami, a privledged, attractive, genius student who comes across a notebook which grants him the power to kill anyone with just the stroke of a pen-so long as he knows their name and face. If the victim’s name is written in the notebook, they will die of a heart attack less than a minute later. But the user of the death note can also specify HOW the person will die (though they must stay within the realms of reality). Once Light finds out that, yes, the Deathnote is real, he sets out on a quest to rid the world of evil doers by taking justice into his own hands. He wants to create a new world--one of only innocent people who follow the law--and he will be it’s savior.

And Light Yagami, despite being the main character, is the villain of this story.

Because while yes, Light’s vision of the world SEEMS great at first, he has effectively made himself judge, jury and executioner for the entire population. He doesn’t investigate to see if anyone is wrongly convicted, he often kills criminals who are already serving their time and jail, and he also has no problem killing innocent people if they happen to threaten him or get in the way of his grand plan. Light’s main problem, you see, is his ego. A vision of a better world with no evil is all well and good, but LIGHT is the one who wants to make it happen and he has a grand vision of himself as some sort of divine, just God. Its not enough for the world to BE better. No. He needs to be the one pulling all of the strings. His vision is useless to him if he is not the one at the top.

Daenerys Targaryen, likewise, is bestowed three dragon eggs which she hatches into dragons, giving her a powerful weapon unlike any the world has seen in centuries. She sets out to change the world into a place where there is no more sorrow. Only laughter and happiness. She wants to break the wheel. She wants to end slavery. These are all great things. But, like Light, her desire for this new world is tied with her own ego. She wants to be the queen behind it all. She needs the throne. She needs people to love and bow down to her. And she has no trouble with killing or punishing people if they happen to threaten that. She believes the ends justify the means and is willing to slaughter millions...if it will help her to build her new world.

Now, its not a one to one comparison. Light lives in the modern day, Dany lives in medieval times. Dany’s story, as a woman in a sexist world, is gonna be different. Dany has way more advisors and people actually know her face, while Light keeps his secret from nearly everyone and acts covertly. Dany faced a lot of hardship in her younger years and Light is relatively privledged. Dany has a name that makes her think she has a divine right to rule and Light has no such ‘divine right’. They aren’t the same people and neither are their circumstances. But I would like to delve a bit into their similarities here.

1. A Sense of Divine Purpose

Let’s play a game. Who said it? Daenerys Targaryen or Light Yagami?

“This world is rotten, and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me?”

“I am justice”

“In all things, one cannot win with defense alone. To win, you must attack.” 

"Look around you, and all you will see are people the world would be better off without."

"I must protect my fledging Utopia."

"No matter what the world is, the god of that world creates the rules. In truth, you have been defeated by the rules I created. And as punishment for defying the God of the new world, you will die..."

"But you know the saying, "play with fire, and you'll get burned". I'll make you regret underestimating me."

“There was no other way! The world had to be fixed! A purpose given to me! Only I could do it. Who else could have done it, and come this far? Would they have kept going? The only one who can create a new world is me."

"I am Justice! I protect the innocent and those who fear evil. I'm the one that will become the god of a new world that every one desires!”

"Our battle will be concluded, and I will begin my reign from the summit of victory!"

“I was chosen to renew this rotten world, to bring about true peace."

"He was someone who deserved to die."

Its a trick question. They’re ALL Light Yagami. But some of these quotes are just a few words off being Danerys Targaryen quotes like:

“I will answer injustice with justice.”

“They can live in my old world or they can die in their old one.”

“They’re all just spokes on a wheel. This one’s on top then that one’s on top and on and on it goes, crushing those on the bottom. I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.”

“We’re going to leave the world better than we found it.”

“You are small men. None of you are fit to lead the Dothraki. But I am. And I will.”

“My reign has just begun.”

“I will do what queens do. I will rule.”

“If it comes to that they will have died for good reason.”

“Because I know what is good.”

“They don’t get to choose [what is good]”

In all of these quotes, Dany and Light have a strong sense of justice, a desire to protect their new world, and an inflated sense of self. But I think the best quote that sums up Light’s state of mind is this one:

"This world is rotten and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me? Even if it means sacrificing my own mind and soul, it's worth it. Because the world... can't go on like this. I wonder... what if someone else had picked up this notebook? Is there anyone out there other than me who'd be willing to eliminate the vermin from the world? If I don't do it, then who will? That's just it: there's no one, but I can do it. In fact, I'm the only one who can. I'll do it. Using the death note, I'll change the world."

You can start picking up Light vibes from Daenerys as early as season two with the “but I’m no ordinary girl. My dreams come true”/”I will take what is mine. With fire and blood, I will take it” monologue, but the similarities REALLY make themselves clear in season 4 and 5 when Dany talked about the breaking the wheel and ‘answering injustice with justice’. As Barristan said, her father also believed in his own form of justice. It made him feel powerful and right.

But this type of talk shows, from the beginning, that it is more about who THEY are (their claim/purpose/skills/divine right) than saving the world itself. This is not a selfless, ‘I want to make the world a better place’ motive. This is a “I want the world to see me as its savior” mentality. Very different things. Dany and Light both want to be powerful. And they both want to be right.

2. The Power to Kill

At it’s core, Deathnote is an exploration about how the power to kill corrupts. No matter what the intention. No matter how it is used. Whenever one has the power to kill indiscrimately and on a massive level, that power will corrupt them the more they use it. Light’s father straight up states that at one point in the show. Light has a weapon that almost NO ONE else has. A notebook that can kill anyone with just a stroke of a pen. He uses it for what some of us might deem a “good” purpose. But it doesn’t matter. It’s still death on a massive scale.

Daenerys, likewise, has dragons, which are weapons of mass destruction unlike any that have been seen in centuries. They can burn whole cities to the ground and melt stone. They are very difficult to kill unless you yourself have a dragon (they went down too easy in the show but I digress). With them, she has the power to kill and she uses it often. It starts small with the warlock in Quarth. And then it grows until the season 8 massacre of King’s Landing.

And many of Dany’s victims are bad people, which Tyrion acknowledges in his 8x06 monologue. Early on in the show she kills slavers and murderers and people who have wronged her. But she often does so without fair trial which also results in some innocents being killed as well. She battles against this. She even locks her dragons away at one point for killing a child, knowing that this could poison her. But ultimately, she is unable to turn away. 

Now, many people say that Dany isn’t the only person in Game of Thrones to commit acts of murder. And you would be right. Ramsay, Joffrey, Tywin, Euron, Cersei...they’ve all got war crimes to speak of. But none of them--thank god--had dragons. None of them had the power to kill on the same scale that Dany does. The message, in this case, isn’t just ‘murder is bad’. Rather, it is that the power to kill on such a massive scale corrupts, no matter how noble the intentions, and it eventually leads Dany to kill hundreds of thousands of innocents in King’s Landing.  

3. Charisma and Love Interests

Both Light and Daenerys are extremely charasmatic people and generally well liked by those who surround them. They, in particular, attract several suitors from the opposite sex, many of whom they have no true feelings for, but some of whom can be useful to their interests. Daenerys, in the show, is of course given a genuine love in Jon, while Light only barely seems to tolerate his main love interest Misa, so there are some differences.

Both of them draw followers as well, particularly based on their cult of personality. Light takes up the persona of ‘Kira’ a just god who punishes evil doers and many people around the world vehemently defend his actions because he has made the world safer. Daenerys, likewise, becomes ‘Mhysa’ to many of the slaves she has freed. They are both very concerned with maintaining this image. Light, for instance, gets very angry when a second Kira starts pretending to be him and operating outside the bounds of what he wants. Daenerys often thinks of herself as a mhysa, because she likes to think of herself as a savior, and many of her good actions stem from not wanting to fall from that pedestal.

Naturally, they both attract a great deal of enemies too because of their severe policies. In some cases, we could say that we don’t care about those enemies because, well, they’re bad people. Criminals. Slavers. Who cares right? It seems like good people support them and bad people are against them. This is a prescedent that Light upsets MUCH EARLIER in Deathnote when a private investigator is hired to tail him. The guy hasn’t done anything wrong according to the law, but Light gladly kills him since he could reveal his secret. The ends justify the means, right?

Daenerys, on the other hand, has the benefit of her enemies being mostly awful people. The majority of her enemies, well, we don’t care about them. That doesn’t change until she actually starts clashing with other characters we know and love, starting with season seven but especially season eight. In the book we do see the RESULT of her conquest all across Essos. Many of the cities she has visited turned into a living hell for many innocent people. But this is ignored in the show. Most of Essos is ignored in the show.

This is because of a problem with framing. Light, despite being similar in many ways to Dany, is framed as problematic from the beginning. We still want him to win in the beginning because, lets face it, he’s fun to watch, but we get the sense that he is sinister and its not surprising when he does bad things later. Daenerys darkness, however, was mostly hidden and misdirected and overshadowed so that it could be a plot twist. We’ll circle back to that later.

Regardless of framing, both Light and Dany have a similar effect on their AUDIENCE. Because you can bet your ass that there were SEVERAL fans defending Light to the death in the fandom, saying that he ultimately had good intentions and the ends DO justify the means. He fooled the audience. He won many of them over with his charm and charisma. And Daenerys has done the same on a much wider scale. There’s a reason that people are saying that it ‘wasn’t foreshadowed at all’. Sure, the execution of the writing wasn’t the best, but not at all? Then why were so many people able to predict this turn? Dany is a likable person on the surface. She’s someone to root for. To get behind and cheer on as she burns her enemies. But a good villain is able to convince you (and themselves) that they are not really villanous

4. Lost Potential/Goodness

One of the most common defenses I’ve seen of Dany in the past week is people posting a bunch of gifs in which she was nice and kind to people as ‘refutations’ that she would ever go bad. But sympathetic and good traits only make a more three dimensional villain. Part of the tragedy of Light and Dany is that they COULD have been great. They COULD have been good...if the power to kill had not corrupted them.

The story starts with Light getting the Deathnote and he moves pretty quickly into dubious morality territory. But halfway through the show, he ends up losing his memory (its all part of his one hundred step plan) when he gives up the Deathnote. He then joins the task force trying to find Kira. Light is clearly a hard worker who cares about justice. He’s smart and capable. He would have made a brilliant detective. And throughout the arc he wonders, what would HE do with the Deathnote? Would he become Kira? No, surely not. He’s overthinking it. He would never do such a thing.

Daenerys starts out the story with no dragons, and she’s a very sympathetic character. As a victim of abuse, we see her rise above her circumstances with only her wits and raw determination. Then she gets the dragons and its a much more gradual descent. She frees slaves after all! She wants to make the world a better place. And when one of her dragons kills a child she willingly locks them away (I.E. gives up her power to kill) in order to try to be better. Throughout this arc in the book, Daenerys often thinks about whether she is a monster or a mhysa, just as Light contemplates his own morality. Self reflection does not automatically equal “good”, after all. But in both cases, we see two bright young souls who could have been wonderful...and that makes their arc even more tragic.

In the end, Light gets his hands back on the Deathnote and his memories and, rather than letting his time without the Deathnote change his ways, he returns to his original plan. And Daenerys rides away from the dragon pit on Drogon and (in the show) releases her other children from the keep, fully embracing the dragon. They tried to give up the power and set it aside (though Light with his memoires never really intended to give it up, it was just part of his plan to throw the investigators off the trail), and they ultimately chose violence in the end.

5. The Ultimate Result

Daenerys and Light both die at the end of the story, killed by someone they trusted--someone who believed in them until they realized the truth behind their supposed goodness. And they both die doubling down on their misdeeds. They do not have regret. They are still overflowing with their divine purpose. They want to do MORE (”It’s not enough. The world is still rotten”/”We will not stop until we have liberated everyone in the world”) and they would willingly kill anyone who stands in their way. Above all, neither of them see anything wrong with their actions. The ends justify the means. They must. If they look back, they are lost.

Their deaths have different framing of course. Light’s is filmed as a mental break down of sorts as he finally reveals just how violent and delusional he is beneath the charismatic facade. At that point we WANT him dead. He’s clearly gone nuts. The angles show as much.

Daenerys’ death is filmed more...empathetically. She’s not frothing at the mouth. She’s smiling. She still so fully BELIEVES in what she has done, and it quite frankly hurts to see. She dies quietly and quickly and gets tragic music in the background while Jon sobs over her body. Light dies alone on some stares after desperately running away until he’s too weak to move anymore.

It’s a similar conclusion. But the framing is the problem. Which is why we have to talk about...

Why Daenerys’ arc fails to deliver

I’m not wild about how they ultimately executed Dany’s arc. Because don’t get me wrong I would LOVE a villainess who fulfills the Light Yagami role. I’ve never seen a female Light Yagami before and Light is one of my favorite characters of all time. But remember when I said earlier that Light is always framed as morally dubious from day one? Daenerys’ framing is ALL the FUCK over the place.

Is she good? Is she bad? We’re not going to tell you because we want it to be a TWIST. Gotta give several scenes that don’t jive with her arc in order to throw everyone off the trail. Can’t make it too obvious where this is heading right? Can’t even tell the goddamn actress until the last season so she can use that info to inform her performance. Make the framing topsy turvy!

Framing is how a film communicates how we are supposed to feel about a character and there is a REASON Daenerys is so divisive in the Game of Thrones audience. Because the directors just didn’t know what the hell they were doing during the scenes, so it didn’t ultimately build in a satisfying way. In the end, there was foreshadowing but her turn was rushed and sudden and not that well written.

There are other problems that make Daenerys fall short of the Light Yagami brand, including:

1. Premeditated vs ‘crazy woman’ evil

This kind of villain is most effective when they think through their decisions and carry them out while they are of sound mind. Light Yagami rarely acted on impulse (except at the beginning and toward the end) and he was never ‘crazy’. Narcisisstic and psychopathic, yes, but not ‘crazy’. But they ultimately choose to make Dany’s turn be this sudden, emotional break down. Like, whoops! My friend was killed. Guess I gotta genocide because I’m SO emotionally unstable. The catalyst for this kind of character’s villain decent can NOT be revenge or an emotional loss of some sort. Because this kind of villain is characterized by being obsessed with themselves in their own vision.

2. Losing supporters to death vs losing them to your own growing ego

In the end of Deathnote, all of Light’s supporters and friends have turned against him as they realize what he has become. This is more effective than killing off all of a character’s greatest supporters so that you don’t have to deal with them. Missandei shouldn’t have died. If they wanted to have a good villain arc, they should have had Missandei realize Dany’s growing darkness and start to have doubts. Maybe they could have had her and Greyworm try to leave for Naath and have Daenerys get snappy and annoyed because she needs her supporters to believe in her.

But by killing her dragon and two of her closest companions, we only feel sorry for her, and it makes it much harder to turn against her in the next episode. If you’re going to make her go villain you HAVE to make the audience turn on the character. Why give them a sympathetic motivation?

3. An earlier turn

Light graduates to full villain about 2/3 of the way through the series which means we actually have time to deal with the aftermath and spend time with the character on his descent. Its the worst written part of the series but, no one’s perfect.

Dany goes dark and gets killed in like...seconds. So there’s no time to actually explore her as a villain. Its just a twist. That’s all it is. A twisty twist.

4. Targaryen madness

I don’t think D&D actually understand what Targaryen madness is or how it works. Like the fact that Aerys deteriorated slowly over the course of many years but Dany had a complete mental break in the span of a couple of days. Also, not all Targaryens are mad, and blaming Dany’s genetics is just one more way to say ‘but its not her fault. It’s just a blood thing’.

Light has no history of ‘madness’ in his family. His father is actually a detective. He’s a normal kid who comes across a powerful tool of death and it corrupts him. That’s it. So Light has more agency in his villain narrative than Daenerys.

5. Legitimate love vs Fake Love

Jon x dany is what ultimately kills the villain arc, because it make Daenerys look like she turned evil because “Jon wouldn’t love her”. Dumb. Very dumb. Stupid and dumb. The writers got caught in between doing a ‘tragic love story’ and a ‘villain decent’ that they decided to write both characters terribly in the final episodes.

Light never cared genuinely about his main love interest and his fall ultimately comes because of his own ego and his death comes not from a love interest he genuinely cares about, but from someone who supported him who he used. Dany’s fall comes from...love. And that makes her potential villain arc so much less powerful. She could have been this strong, amazing character. A great female villain for the ages. But you just HAD to make her a woman scorned/tragic love interest didn’t you. You had to make it about Jon’s man pain didn’t you? How very feminist. How progressive. Groundbreaking.

So Dany could have been a great Light Yagami style villain, and I’m holding out hope for that execution in the books. But the show did not nail it. Not even a little.

In Conclusion

Daenerys and Light’s goals and dialogue and sense of self worth are practically identical in nature, and so is their ability to drawn in the audience. But whereas Light’s story has direction, proper framing, and never tries to trick it’s audience for a cheap twist, Daenerys’ writing is ultimately confused and that’s why very few people like this ending for her.

Both of their stories are about how the absolute power to kill corrupts even the most promising souls. But Deathnote stuck the landing and Game of thrones stumbled and went out with a confused whimper.

[jbuffyangel]

The Code: Arrow 7x21 Review (Living Proof)

You guys know me pretty good by now, so it should shock no one that I love this episode. Tommy takes a vacation from heaven to argue morality with Oliver while he’s stuck in a life or death situation. SOLD.  

Of course, there are problems in “Living Proof” just like any other episode of Arrow. Unfortunately, Olicity is separated for most of it, but they are each struggling with the best way to protect their family. A common theme this year is Oliver and Felicity being on separate, but same trajectories. They reach a conclusion on an individual level, so they can come together and make decisions as a couple. “Living Proof” is a perfect set up for Arrow’s season finale and Olicity’s final episode.

Let’s dig in...

Oliver and Tommy

TOOOOOMMMMYYYY!!!! 

I’m always Laurel when I see Tommy Merlyn. I’m not kidding when I say I love him. It’s not just nostalgia of Arrow days long past. Tommy had a profound impact on Oliver and his journey. Oliver has lost a lot of loved ones, but Tommy’s death really changed his mind about how he should go about saving the city and what it truly means to be a vigilante. Tommy sparked Oliver’s desire to be more – to be a hero. So, it makes absolute sense Tommy appears to Oliver now to deal with his latest morality crisis.

Emiko blew up a building and Oliver is trapped underneath a giant piece of concrete. He’s uncomfortably close to some rebar too and the Tommy parallels are anything, but subtle. Oliver is literally in the same life and death situation that befell is best friend six years ago. Are the writers putting Oliver in this position, so his “hallucination” of Tommy makes sense? Perhaps… or perhaps something deeper happening unbeknownst to Oliver.

Source: smoakmonster

I firmly believe Colin was not allowed to grow a beard while on Arrow because it would overload whatever hotness Stephen Amell was bringing to the table and since he’s the lead that cannot be allowed. I know my truth.

Source: smoakmonster 

Tommy psychoanalyzing Oliver’s mind to explain his appearance is a hoot. Hallucination, concussion or just some good old-fashioned PTSD are all on the table, except for the one that’s the actual truth. But we aren’t there yet. We weren’t wrong to notice the similarities between Oliver’s current situation and Tommy’s death though. There’s always a reason my friends.

Source: smoakmonster 

Oliver escapes from underneath the concrete and Tommy helps with his dislocated shoulder. We enjoy some of Tommy’s patented banter (I missed him so), but he’s here to talk about family - sisters to be specific. 

HA! I love Oliver’s “Don’t sass me look.” At least everyone is agreed this storyline would be far more entertaining if Thea went all evil. Instead, we have Emiko and Tommy wants to know how Oliver is going to deal with her.

Tommy: Speaking of, what about Emiko? What kind of solution are you planning for her?

Oliver: The one she deserves. She let our father die.

SERIOUSLY OLIVER? KILLING? ARE WE BACK TO THIS? 

Oh, hang on I don’t have to yell at him. Tommy is taking care of it for me. 

Source:  ebett

See why I love him? He has a hot beard and says my words because we samesies.

Emiko dropped another bomb on Oliver last week when she confessed to knowing about Merlyn’s plan for the Gambit and letting their father die. Oliver is pretty ticked about it, which is understandable. His sister has lied and manipulated her way into his life while wearing his superhero suit no less (RUDE), she was an accessory to their father’s murder or suicide (whichever way you want to look at it), sent Oliver to hell for five years and, to top it all off, is a terrorist. She also dropped a building on him and the team.

Yeah, I’d say the angry face is warranted. 

Source: smoakmonster 

Emiko is the worst. Not just her actions, but she’s kind of a snoozer personality wise.  None of that means Oliver should kill her though. He must move beyond that kind of thinking.

As horrible as Emiko’s actions are, she unknowingly was the catalyst for Oliver becoming someone who could stop her. It’s a mind bender when you think about it. Oliver’s life is filled with loss and immense suffering. However, that suffering has led to immense love and joy. Oliver has created a family beyond the one he was born into. His life has traveled on a path no one could predict.

I’m not saying it’s okay that Emiko and Merlyn killed Robert or that Slade killed Moira. But we’ve glimpsed the “What if?” with Oliver already. He would be happy, but not a hero. If Oliver wants to serve true justice, then he must look at the bad and the good.

Barry: We both got a look at what life would look like normal.

Oliver: It would have been happy.

Barry: But not full.

Oliver: No. Nowhere close.

Barry: To things not being normal.

Oliver: To life being full.

Tommy tries to defend Emiko and I’m pumping the breaks right there. Listen my delicious bearded cupcake; there are plenty of fathers who abandon their children. It’s an epidemic from my point of view; however, they don’t all become terrorists. The “blame Dad” routine is tired. It is possible to hold Emiko responsible for her actions short of killing, but we don’t need to excuse the behavior either.

If you’re tired of the kill/don’t kill debate well then, I’m sorry. It’s an integral part of the show because this is how the writers gauge Oliver’s morality and his evolution as a superhero. They will always circle back to it just like they will always circle back to Robert Queen and the “sins of the father” theme. Family, guilt, responsibility, redemption, teamwork, heroism, sacrifice, killing, love, legacy – these are all the building blocks of Arrow. The bow and arrow will always be how Oliver fights crime. Killing will always be barometer for his morality.

But didn’t Oliver already decide to stop killing after Prometheus? Didn’t he stop blaming himself for Robert Queen’s death? 

He realized killing can create an unforeseen monster. Adrian Chase was the blueprint for what not to become, so Oliver forgave himself for Robert Queen’s death.  He also stopped viewing the mask as a conduit for his darkness.

So why are we talking about killing again? Oliver didn’t kill Diaz. He didn’t kill anyone in prison. He’s supposed to be a fully realized superhero, but here he is, trapped under rubble, and discussing putting an arrow in his half sister with his almost dead best friend. COME ON.

I know Oliver is not real and the writers refuse to drop this, but there is a reason for it. It’s always one step forward and two steps back with Oliver Queen. This is the biggest pine tree to ever live. Oliver continually circling back to killing feels extremely in character. He finds himself in situations where he believes killing is justified. When Oliver has exhausted all other possibilities he still believes killing can be a solution.

But what about Prometheus? 

Well, Oliver couldn’t kill him because that would be giving Prometheus exactly what he wants. Prometheus believed Oliver is a killer and it would prove him right if Oliver killed him. That’s not happening here with Emiko so TA DA! Totally different circumstances! It’s completely okay to kill her.

But what about Slade? 

Uhhh… Oliver made a promise to Tommy no more killing and he wanted to prove to himself he could be a hero without it. Mission accomplished! NO MORE KILLING!!!

Hahaha. Just kidding. Up next we have Ra’s Al Ghul. 

He had the League of Assassins, chucked Oliver off a mountain, tried to bio weapon Star City into oblivion and made him marry the only lesbian on the show. Ra’s had to die. Right? Right.

Damien Darhk killed Laurel and was a Terminator like magician, so Oliver was completely justified running him through with the pointy end of an arrow. On camera no less!

And round and round and round we go. I’m not arguing any of these people deserved to live. They didn’t. Oliver was always justified killing any bad guy and the world is a better place without these villains. However, it’s not really about the villain. It’s about Oliver Queen and his soul.

I won’t rehash all the reasons why I think Oliver should stop killing and it’s perfectly okay if you disagree with me. This is simply part of my morality. I don’t believe Oliver Queen gets to be judge, jury and executioner simply because he is the Green Arrow and has anointed himself savior of the city.

Oliver’s prison arc was in large part showing him the moral grey zones when it comes to villains. He was operating in a very black and white world when he determined which villains lived and died. Does Ben Turner deserve a death penalty for his crimes? Is he the same as Ricardo Diaz? Who gets to decide?

Ideally the justice system, which is why we have one. It is an imperfect system, but it’s one Oliver has tried to work within for most of the season and has succeeded at it until recently. The larger point is there is a third option for villains when choosing between life or death. JAIL.

And yet, here we are again with Oliver arguing the same moral quandary we’ve argued for the last seven years.  The reason we keep circling back to this issue is because Oliver Queen has no code. We can justify almost anything, which is why it’s important to have a moral code to check our justifications. We all need rules to live by, moral absolutes, which are unbreakable under any circumstances. This is the reason laws exist.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave us the Beatitudes and a whole new section of the friggin Bible to digest. If superheroes are fictional Christ like figures, then their hero’s journey needs to end with a set of rules he/she live by based off the lessons they’ve learned on the road to becoming a superhero.

If you want a less Christian perspective, then consider superheroes modern day mythology. Every mythological hero learned painful lessons which resulted in a morality the Greek and Romans lived by. Our democracy is fashioned from the Greeks. Suffering = lessons = moral code = righteous path.

Oliver needs a code he can apply to any given situation he’s faced with because being a superhero requires checks and balances. He needs something, a lens, to filter his morality through. His morality must set a high bar too because Oliver isn’t just your run of the mill everyday hero. He’s becoming someone else… something else. Oliver Queen is superhero. He supposed to be the best of us.

Oliver views Tommy as a brain concussed hallucination, but he couldn’t be more wrong. This is Oliver’s God moment. I’ve been waiting for Oliver to have a God moment since Barry Allen had his in Season 2 of The Flash. The Speed Force aka God took Barry on an out of body experience to explain that even though Barry has incredible gifts those gifts do not make him God. Barry doesn’t get to decide who lives or who dies. He doesn’t get to rewrite the past or change the future just because he’s experienced lost. Those decisions are outside the purview of The Flash. Barry has immense power, but those powers will not illuminate loss from his life.  

The Speed Force/Barry’s Mom: What you’ve become – it’s wonderful. A miracle even. But it won’t make bad things stop happening to you. Even The Flash can’t outrun the tragedies the universe is going to keep sending his way. 

At the end of the “The Runaway Dinosaur” Barry comes to terms with his mother’s death and accepts it. He achieves peace, healing and let’s go of some of the pain which has been a weight around his neck.  Until his father dies the next episode.

Barry chucks everything God told him out the window and creates Flashpoint to save both his parents.

This is the point where my relationship with Barry Allen began to crumble. HE LITERALLY HAD GOD TELL HIM LOSS WAS PART OF LIFE AND HE HAD TO ACCEPT IT. BARRY HAD TO ACCEPT HE WAS NOT GOD. And what does he do? He creates an entirely new timeline where Cisco’s brother is dead, Caitlin becomes Killer Frost, Sara Diggle is erased and replaced with John Junior. Oh, and I wasn’t allowed to be mad at him about it because he’s Barry.

I don’t know if Oliver Queen believes in God or a life beyond death. I’m leaning towards not given his reaction to Angel Tommy, but “some things are true whether you believe them or not.” City of Angels is an EPIC movie. Watch and thank me later.

Regardless of Oliver’s personal beliefs, he doesn’t have a Speed Force. There’s no higher power/magical whatsit sitting him down for a chat to explain how life works like Barry had in Season 2. Oliver has been flying blind for seven years. Until now.

Oliver: No Tommy! Because of what he did to you.

This is the first time I’ve ever heard Oliver blame Tommy for his death. Oliver is plagued by what ifs? What if Tommy listened to him? What if he got there a little bit sooner? But none of those things happened because Tommy was blinded by the fact that Malcolm Merlyn was his father. And he paid for that loyalty with his life. Oliver isn’t going to make the same mistake with Emiko.

Angel Tommy agrees with Oliver! He takes responsibility for his death, but not for the reasons Oliver stated. 

Tommy was stuck in a cycle of self hatred, one created by his father, and he couldn’t free himself from it until it was too late. Angel Tommy urges his friend to view him as a cautionary tale and break his own cycle of violence.

This isn’t the first time Arrow has referenced Oliver’s cycle of violence. We did a deep dive on it in “Level Two” during Oliver’s psychotherapy session. What that doctor was doing to prisoners was deeply wrong, but he did pull out a nugget of truth. 

Oliver created his vigilante persona to avenge his father’s wrongs. Those wrongs began with violence and death. Oliver has often avenged those wrongs through violence and death. There is a pattern here. There is a cycle even though Oliver has done so much good as the Green Arrow. 

Oliver doesn’t want William to experience the same pain and loss, so he must do things differently than Robert. If Oliver doesn’t want to saddle William with righting his wrongs, then he must break this cycle and be better. Oliver must walk a higher road if there’s any hope of his children being freed from the Queen family’s past.

Oliver: No. You’re wrong. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about my father. This is about Emiko. And the choices that she made? They are on her.

Like I said it’s always one step forward with Oliver and two steps back. He is soooooo close!!!! Everything he said about Emiko is true and showcases the stunning character growth Oliver has gone through these past seven seasons. He’s not blaming himself for Emiko’s actions. Hell, he’s not even blaming Robert. Oliver is holding Emiko responsible for her choices.

Typically, Oliver blames himself for everything. Lately, he’s been putting the blame squarely where is belongs and holding people responsible for their crimes.  He has freed himself from the crippling guilt which began on that raft with Robert Queen. YES. EMIKO IS TO BLAME. NOT OLIVER.

But thennnnn he takes it one step too far. Oliver believes Emiko deserves to die.

He may not be blaming himself anymore, but Oliver’s solution remains the same. He’s still stuck.

Tommy promises Oliver will eventually be free (BECAUSE HE’S AN ANGEL SENT BY GOD OKAY??!!!) but urges him to stay on the higher road because he has a shot at a clean slate. What’s wonderful about “Living Proof” is the writers give Oliver more justification to kill than any other time in the history of this show. Emiko is a threat to Oliver’s wife, son and unborn child. We won’t weep over this woman and no one will be angry if Oliver kills her because he’s protecting his family! If there was ever a justification to kill this is it. This decision is morally justified.

Oliver frees himself from the rubble, meets up with his team and comes face to face with Emiko.

This is all it takes. DADDY RAGE ACTIVATED.  

Source: olicitygifs 

Emiko tells Oliver she’s made certain his family will die and even though Diggle (the moral compass) warns him not to - Oliver kills Emiko. 

Source:  olivergifs

There’s an immediate cause and effect. Emiko is dead, but so is… JOHN?

 WHAT THE FRICKEN FRACK IS GOING ON? Oliver’s team is laid out Game of Thrones style. 

Source:  arrowdaily

Is the Night King here? 

I had no idea what the hell happened.

God happened. Oliver isn’t free. He’s still trapped. Angel Tommy gave him a vision of all his loved ones dying.

Oliver: What was that?

Tommy: How do I know? I’m just a figment of your imagination.

Note to self: When face to face with God don’t call Him a figment of my imagination. He gets cranky.

This is all a hallucination, right? If that’s the case, then how did Angel Tommy know about Emiko and the baby? 

Source: olicitygifs

She just threatened Felicity. Oliver doesn’t know that happened. Sure, it’s easy to assume Oliver just played out his worst nightmare, but he’s trying to morally justify killing. Why would he show himself a scenario where killing Emiko leads to losing everyone he loves? Why would he play out this horrible scenario when Oliver thinks he’s right to kill Emiko? Why torture himself over a person he’s ready to kill?

Source: olivergifs

In Oliver’s despair he calls out to God almost like an exhale. And God answers. Angel Tommy is much more than a hallucination. Losing loved ones isn’t new for Oliver, but God showed him this worst nightmare for a reason. Oliver is making decisions based on fear just like Robert Queen did. Angel Tommy briefly takes the title of Yoda from John (that’s ok he hasn’t had much use for it lately).

If Oliver wants a different outcome, then he’s going to have to do something different. Angel Tommy urges Oliver to embrace the best parts of him instead of giving into his worst impulses.

God gives Oliver Queen his code. What’s does a hero believe in? The Four Pillars of Heroism are Oliver Queen’s answer.

Does Emiko deserve Oliver’s loyalty, selflessness, courage and compassion?  No. She doesn’t not, but that’s not really the point. 

Forgiving someone when they don’t deserve it is quite possibly one of the most heroic things we can do as human beings. It’s a gift and, in many ways, it’s a gift we give ourselves too.

The beauty of these pillars is we all can embrace them. That’s what so wonderful about hero’s journeys. Heroes represent the best of humanity and are a shining beacon of the potential we could all reach. And yet, most of us don’t. Someone like Oliver Queen has a depth to his loyalty, selflessness, courage and compassion that is unparalleled. The reason why most of us don’t become heroes or saints (if you prefer a religious perspective) is because it’s too damn hard. We don’t want to make the sacrifices necessary to be one.

Oliver must offer the same forgiveness offered to him all those years ago through Diggle, Felicity, Tommy, Roy and Thea.  Oliver is one of God’s perfect examples of the power of redemption. If there’s anything he should believe in it should be that and what God wants, more than anything, is for Oliver to be a vessel. God is asking Oliver Queen to be a servant of redemption.

Source: smoakmonster

And it’s Tommy asking. So of course, Oliver will do it. That’s why God chose Tommy to deliver the code. Robert Queen’s death ignited Oliver’s mission, but Tommy’s death ignited his heroism. We must go back to the beginning when we reach the end.

Oliver is given the chance to say goodbye again in their final moments together and Tommy makes a him promise. Death is not an end to love.

This was Oliver’s God moment. This code was the final piece of the superhero puzzle. It’s a gift born from loss, pain, love, redemption and forgiveness. Oliver is the living proof for us all. He is a beacon of light for his family, team, city and yes even villaina like Emiko.

Felicity Smoak

I wish I liked Alena. It would have made her scenes with Felicity more fun, but I don’t so that’s that. Oliver is not the only one reexamining the way he’s doing things. Felicity is as well.

The SCPD tries to arrest her, which cements my belief they are the biggest twats to ever live and they will never be anything other than twats. But things take a dangerous and extremely emotional turn when Felicity and Alena come face to face with Emiko. Felicity must beg for the life of her child.

Source:  arrowdaily

STOP POINTING ARROWS AT MY PRECIOUS BABES YOU CRAZY BITCH! 

Emiko as a villain isn’t all that threatening, but Cookie Monster could be threatening Felicity right now and I’d get worked up about it. 

Source:  arrowdaily

The speech Felicity makes is gut wrenching. Hasn’t she been through enough? Just let her pregnant in peace.

This latest life or death situation causes Felicity to ponder what kind of life her child will have. Poor William has not fared so great thus far. Being a child of heroes is not an easy thing as we see in the flash forwards.

Is Arrow saying Oliver and Felicity can’t do it all? Are the writers saying Oliver and Felicity can’t be heroes and have a family? 

No, I don’t think so because Oliver and Felicity have been doing it all for the last two years. They got married, brought William into their home to raise 

and expanded their little brood all while actively fighting for the city as vigilantes. 

Oliver isn’t choosing between man and mask anymore. He’s embraced both personas and he’s been living in the light more than he ever has in previous seasons by working with the SCPD (twat factory that it is) and going hoodless.

Timing on Arrow is always a tricky thing. I didn’t expect to see Oliver live his happy life with Felicity for as long as we’ve been blessed to watch it. Most television shows end at wedding or baby, but not with this show. Oliver is a fully realized superhero. That evolution worked in conjunction with his relationship with Felicity and not as a “reward” for his superhero evolution. Oliver could never become a superhero without Felicity. He needs her. Felicity Smoak is Oliver’s superhero.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to their choices. Sure, the show could tap out and maybe it would be all rainbows and puppies in the end, but probably not. Arrow isn’t that kind of show and there was always going to be pain right up until the final moments.

Personally, I like that the writers are examining the consequences of having a family and being heroes. We like to tell ourselves we can “do it all” but there are consequences to every decision we make. Once we go through a door another one closes behind us. 

Life is not about “having it all.” It’s about deciding the kind of life you want to live and accepting the ramifications of those decisions. There is no perfect plan. There are always negatives to every choice. We must determine not only if our choice makes us happy, but if we can live with the negatives.

What makes Oliver and Felicity happiest is fighting for their city, but they realize that puts their family in danger much more than if they’d chosen to be farmers or dermatologists. 

It’s a very real consequence that cost them William. He bailed. So, what about the nugget cooking in Ms. Smoak? Oliver and Felicity can proclaim their number one priority is keeping their children safe, but they are also actively engaging in behavior that puts their children at risk.

Felicity tells Alena about how she wants to be a better parent than her parents. I love Donna Smoak, so it made me a little sad to hear Felicity say this. I think Donna was a spectacular mom to Felicity, but I also understand they are opposites which probably drove Felicity crazy as she grew up. And of course, there’s always Noah Kuttler to set the parenting bar real low. Let us not reflect too heavily on Robert and Moira Queen either. Sure, they made the ultimate sacrifice to keep their children safe, but they were pretty much disaster zones of parents right up until their final moments on this earth.

Felicity always wanted to be a mother. There has been some debate on this topic over the years and “Living Proof” essentially ended it. Yes, she wanted children when she imagined what her life would be someday. Maybe she didn’t know how or with whom that dream would come to fruition, but motherhood is something Felicity wanted. This is great because… spoiler alert she’s pregnant!

It’s perfectly acceptable if Felicity didn’t want children, but I’m glad Arrow didn’t go down the “I changed my mind” trope we so often see on television. Like there’s something inherently wrong with not wanting children and thus the character’s mind must be changed. Nope. There isn’t anything wrong with it. It’s a perfectly valid lifestyle choice.

Of course, there are some who change their minds and that’s valid as well, but storytelling can fall into some uncomfortable tropes and the “change the woman’s mind about becoming a mother” is one I’ve watched too much. I’m also fed up with the “kill the lover/husband but the woman gets to have his baby” trope too in case you’re wondering.

Being a mother, however, was not something forced upon Felicity because Oliver wanted it or something she warmed to because of her relationship with William. It was a quiet dream she kept to herself. A dream William and Mia fulfilled.

Of course, Felicity is an amazing mother. The sky is also blue. This conversation with Alena is just one of the million ways the writers showcase Felicity’s A+ level mom skills. Yes, being a vigilante makes Felicity whole. It’s her calling, 

Source:  ebett 

BUT kidnappings and attacks by serial killers is a serious downside to this career choice. That’s just facts.

Source:  ebett

They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If Felicity truly wants to keep her children safe, then perhaps she and Oliver need to change their nightly activities. At least for a little while. Our happiness doesn’t have to come all at once. The life we build can be put together in pieces, bit by bit, until we’ve found a way to incorporate all the things that make us happy while balancing the consequences (good and bad) of those decisions.

Oliver and Felicity love Star City, but they love their children more. Are they willing to walk away from everything they’ve built to keep their children safe? Is that even a question? Of course. They are parents.

Source:  ebett

William Clayton

The messiest part of this whole flash forward storyline is William. 

The writers wanted to keep Mia’s identity a secret which is difficult if everyone knows who she is. This gets dicey when it comes to her brother. Personally, I don’t think William and Mia being kept apart for 20 years was necessary. Sure, it was a great “OMG I KNEW IT” moment and it will be interesting to watch the two of them develop a relationship IF we get a spin off.

Source: arrowdaily

However, it doesn’t change the fact that this storyline is a dumpster fire. William continues to bitch about Oliver and Felicity abandoning him in the flash forwards. YOU WANTED TO LIVE WITH YOUR GRANDPARENTS WILLIAM. OLIVER AND FELICITY BEGGED YOU TO STAY BUT YOU LEFT FOR A NORMAL LIFE. Can we at least remember history correctly? Own your choices kid.

But we haven’t circled back to Oliver and the voicemails. Oliver just decides it’s perfectly normal his son isn’t returning ANY of his calls? He never goes to see William in Central City? REALLY?

And then of course there’s Felicity in the cabin for 20 years. I understand why she didn’t live in Star City and remained hidden. Maybe she thought William had a better set up living with the grandparents. He also apparently changed his name... sooo I guess he’s safer with them or something? 

Bottom line - Felicity is his mother. It’s difficult to process a situation where Felicity would not bring William home to her at some point.

This is where I understand William’s anger. Yes, Felicity believed she was keeping William safe, but the logic doesn’t really track. If Mia is safe living with Felicity, then so is William.  Keeping Felicity and Mia separated from William for 20 years just so the Olicity baby reveal is more shocking to the casual viewer and attempts to keep us fandom super sleuths on our toes for five minutes longer isn’t worth the collateral damage.

Dinah and Roy

Sweet mother of Moses where the hell do I even start? Dinah finds out the SCPD knows Roy murdered those two guards and she immediately starts bitching about her job.

Dinah: She lied about us being behind the Ninth Circle attacks, but she was telling the truth about us covering up those murders. We never should have done that.

Of course, Roy feels terrible his uncontrollable Lazarus Pit rage which resulted in the death of two innocent people and he will live with the guilt the rest of his life. But he ALSO cost Dinah her job and that is most important.

Dinah: He’s right. I’m sorry but the SCPD has already tried to arrest Felicity.  Its better one of us takes the fall than the rest of us spending our lives as fugitives.

It’s not surprising Dinah and Rene are willing to feed Roy to the sharks to save their own asses. 

We have alllll of Season 6 as evidence that this is exactly the kind of people they are, but unfortunately this DRIVES ROY TO SUICIDE. He volunteers to shut off some poisonous gas and the chances of his survival are next to zero.

And what do we get? Dinah crying. PICK A LANE BITCH. You don’t get to guilt Roy into sacrificing himself and then cry over his corpse. You had zero problems sending him up the river for a nice long stint at Slabside if it secured your 401K. But now she’s oh so sad because her new bestie is flinging himself into toxic waste fumes? I CANNOT WITH THIS WOMAN.

Roy survives because he’s the Parkour Prince and Dinah offers some mea culpa about how the world is a better place with a hero like Roy in it. NO SHIT! WE’VE BEEN THERE FOR THE LAST SEVEN YEARS DINAH. Hey everybody! Roy gets to stick around because Dinah said it was okay! 

I have whiplash.

Dinah: I was wrong. We all make mistakes.

Yeah, but you continually make the same mistake Dinah. It’s called disloyalty. What the team should have done is doctor the video, so it looked like Dinah killed the guards and handed it to Bingsley with a big red bow.

Stray Thoughts

Oliver had a building on top of him. Roy had cardboard. It's not always fun being the lead.

I really needed the show to be Tommy backseat hero-ing Oliver for the last six years.

Doesn’t Angel Tommy sound a lot like Felicity? It’s an absolute tragedy Tommy and Felicity never had any scenes together. I will forever blame L&urel for the joy she stole from me.

"I don't know how you ever breathe on this job."

"I don't." I love Felicity Smoak.

It makes me sad seeing Felicity’s genius corrupted like this.

ALENA WAS THE MAD SCIENTIST THUS CONFIRMING MY SUSPICIONS THAT SHE IS THE WORST.

Mia defending Felicity is a big mood.

I love you Roy. You are Olicity's first born son, but this is a lot your fault. So, I accept the guilty face. Next time tell Oliver you have homicidal blood lust tenancies before going out into the field. Okay cookie? Uh huh. Thanks.

Don't think about how we missed out on Tommy Merlyn for the last six years and put up with L*urel L*nce nonsense season after season instead. It'll never be okay.

It was weird Olicity didn’t hugh when they reunited. Made the scene awkward. I loved how Oliver almost slipped up and said “baby” though. Source:  olicitygifs

Completely unacceptable we only had one Olicity scene for Emily’s second to last episode.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x21 gifs credited.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[frostilyfiction]

Weaver's Family and Friends

Just posting a list of my Marvel OC Weaver's friends and family. She is a spider person and exists in an alternate I created, Earth 842, which has some familiar faces who exist in different ways.

Nat - A financial analyst at Pym Tech who is also the superhero Weaver. She was accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider developed by Hope Pym. This gives her regular spider powers. Scott Lang was her mentor before his untimely death and helped give her some tech to use as well. Weaver wants to help people as her parents did but she's too afraid of failure and her own perceived weaknesses. So, she gets a job at Pym Tech feeling that working for a good company means she can help people indirectly. Once she gets bitten  t the spider and develops her posts she's ready to become a superhero as she wants to follow her mother's idea that if we have the power to help people we have the responsibility to. She follows her father's sense of justice that no mar how bad someone is one cannot be judge, jury, and executioner. She believes in catching bad guys and allowing the justice system to deal with them though there are times this moral code is tested, especially when it comes to those she cares for. Weaver tries to protect and save everyone so when she loses Scott it years her up for a while and she goes to the MCU universe to get away. After talking with the heroes of that universe she learns to accept that heroes make their choices and Scott chose to protect her just as she chooses to protect others and that's all she can do at the end of the day.

Family Dad and Mom - A police officer and a lawyer respectively. Helped Weaver develop her sense of justice and responsibility. She's really close to both of her parents even if she can't visit them often.

Friends - Earth 842 Peter Parker - A robotics expert at Stark Industries. Not spider bit in this universe. Lives with his Aunt May. Best friends with Weaver since preschool. After her fight with Mysterio, he learns of her identity as Weaver. Though she doesn't want him involved for fear of his life, he becomes her 'guy in the chair' and helps her with updating her tech. Later becomes an Iron Man like hero called Safeguard who fights beside Weaver.

MJ - A lead singer in a band. Best friends with Weaver and Peter since middle school. Weaver had always admired her confidence and strength. Weaver and Peter both want to make sure she doesn't find out they're heroes but they learn she's known since the beginning. She just wanted them to come to her about it in their own time as she respects them not wanting to get her involved for her safety.

Ned Leeds - Works in IT at Stark Industries with Peter. Plays DnD with Weaver, Peter, and a (semi reluctant) MJ. Once Peter becomes Safeguard he becomes the new 'guy in the chair'.

Aunt May - Peter's aunt who's known Weaver since she was little. Super nice and makes great dinners.

Eddie Brock - An evening news reporter and the host of the Venom symbiote. He's an ally(?). Weaver and him don't see eye to eye when it comes to killing people but they don't get in each other's way and have even assisted each other at times, such as when Venom is taken from him.

Hope Pym - Owner of Pym Tech and Weaver's boss. Pym Tech specializes in biochemistry, entomology, robotics, quantum physics, and AI just as it's founder Hank Pym did and Hope dabbled in most all these fields as well. She assist Weaver in her hero antics by making her web fluid, providing her with her suit, etc. Hope created the radioactive spider that bit Weaver. She wanted to try it on herself but was afraid she'd end up like her father Hank Pym who went crazy after experimenting with the Pym Particles in himself. Hope "recruits" Scott into testing it and assisted him during his time as Spiderman. They also dated.

Scott Lang - An electrical engineer at Pym Tech. Former criminal. Weaver's neighbor. The Spiderman of this universe. Wanted to be known as more than a "criminal" so he accepts when Hope says she wants to test the spider on him. Creates most of his tech, such as his and Weaver's spider legs and web shooter. With Hope's help, he designed a portal to travel dimensions through the Quantum Realm (jokingly called The DeLorean though it's not able to time travel). He dies protecting the device from a villain known as Arachnis though it's still highly sought after by Arachnis and other villains.

Miles Morales - A high schooler who Weaver knows from their dad's working together in the police force. She constantly finds him creating art and helps assist him. He was a big Spiderman fan and now a big Weaver fan.

Gwen Stacy - A high schooler who Weaver knows because her dad is a police captain. She attends a lot of MJ's band's shows as she's an avid drummer. Her dad is not a fan of superhero 'vigilantes' but Gwen is a fan.

[ficsrus]

fic recs: harry potter

notes: mainly drarry, wolfstar

key:

favorites are starred [*]

**Don’t mind if I keep your tie (And your heart, babe) : Complete, rated G, 21k

The Eighth year common room has a parrot in it, courtesy of McGonagall and her mad search for interhouse bonding.

Most of the time, it's just there, until one day it repeats "Potter has a damn fine arse." And the Slytherins know exactly who the parrot's mimicking...

Draco is not amused.

Spin the Wand : Complete, rated T, 3k

In the spirit of inter-house unity, the eighth years have a small party. In an attempt to get Harry and Ginny back together, Hermione and Ron come up with the plan of a rigged game of Spin the Wand, but not all goes as planned.

Excerpt: "The idea was simple: A game of spin the bottle, but instead of a bottle, a toy wand, and instead of a game of chance, Hermione had spelled the wand to land on whoever the spinner most desired to kiss."

*Draco and Harry’s Illicit Affair (and how Blaise Zabini wants nothing to do with it) : Complete, rated M, 8k

Blaise has the luck to stumble upon his friend romping around in Potter's pants. Multiple times.

**Follow You : Complete, rated E, 21k

Necessity has tarnished the Golden Trio's halo. In the publically appointed positions of Judge, Jury, and Executioner, Harry, Hermione, and Ron run the wizarding world. Draco Malfoy finds himself at the mercy of the Judge himself—but instead of death, he's sentenced to something much more humiliating. How will Draco survive as the pet of the most notorious "hero" in the world, and what happens when that strictly defined relationship becomes even more complicated?

New Spells: Complete, rated E, 4k

You'd think that Harry would have learned to stop trying out unknown spells on Malfoy.

And you'd think that Harry would have realised, quite quickly, that any spell that leads to Malfoy moaning like THAT would be a good spell to avoid. Forever.

And you'd think he'd stop doing it to Malfoy in public, before people start to think he's some kind of pervert, for Merlin's sake.

To be honest, Harry isn't certain he's been thinking properly at all.

9 times Harry kissed Draco and the 1 time Draco kissed Harry : Complete, rated T, 5k

'Harry grinned, Draco fell into his trap perfectly. Surging forwards, Harry wrapped his fingers around Draco's tie and pulled him forwards until their lips met over their cauldron. The pressure lasted for three seconds, Harry's eyes shut and Draco's wide in surprise. When Harry let Draco go, he slid back into his seat slowly, eyes still wide, tie crooked and a blush painting his cheeks.'

Tug-O-Want : Complete, rated M, 17k

Harry is back at Hogwarts minding his own business when he finds himself magically drawn to Draco Malfoy. Over and over again.

Storm in a Teacup: Complete, rated M, 8k

For reasons he'd rather not think about, Draco is obsessed with Potter's hair. This cannot end well.

An Issue of Consequence: Complete, rated E, 21k

Draco has woken up in an alternate universe. Or he has woken up utterly insane. Nothing else can possibly explain why Harry Potter suddenly seems to think he's Draco's boyfriend.

*Draco’s Delicious Dilemma: Complete, rated T, 5k

Draco Malfoy bravely deals with new coffee shops, Harry Potter, low-sympathy coworkers, feelings, free muffins, Looks, and some extremely rude signage.

*1,000 Points From Gryffindor: Complete, rated M, 25k

The story of how Harry Potter single-handedly lost Gryffindor the House Cup while attempting to have a “normal” year at Hogwarts. Featuring Harry's suspicious nature turned up to eleven again, a new DADA teacher who is so not here for Harry’s fame, multiple detentions, Slytherins being sneaky, Hufflepuffs being sneakier, and the mystery of Draco Malfoy's hoodie because seriously Hermione who gave that to him and is he wearing it just to torment me? This is ridiculous!

The Good Guys: Complete, rated E, 27k

The Second Voldemort War is limping into its fourth year, and the Forces of Shining Light are slowly turning into the Forces of Expedient Grey. When Draco Malfoy is captured red-handed trying to sell an illegal potion to a clerk at Borgin & Burkes, he is handed over to the Department of Essential and Necessary Truth’s newest interrogator. And as soon as he sees Malfoy, bound and waiting in his cell, Harry Potter knows he’s in trouble. Deep trouble.

**Damage: Complete, rated E, 4k

Harry rises. Draco watches.

IDK My BFF Hermione?: Complete, rated E, 19k

Draco's a hot mess. Harry's lovin' it (hell yes).

Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Complete, rated E, 12k

Sometimes, Harry can't help but wonder why such strange shit always happens to him.

***The Pure and Simple Truth: Complete, rated G, 65k

Harry, Draco, and Hermione go to a pub. Harry, Draco, and Pansy go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Pansy, and Hermione go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Hermione and Ron go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Ron, and Pansy―you guessed it―go to a pub. I could go on. In fact, I did. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Pansy, Ron, Blaise, Luna, Goyle, Neville, and Theodore Nott go to a pub. In various combinations. 

The Problem with Eggnog, Uncommon Thoughts, and Sharing a Bed with Sirius Black: Complete, rated E, 3k

In which Sirius is possibly naked, and Remus' mind is not the safest place to be.

*Necessary Supplies: Complete, rated E, 4k

In which James is a menace, there is a problem with the plan, and a misunderstanding results in awkwardness and boyfumbling.

*For Whom the Pants Toll: Complete, rated T, 5k

"He was like an idiot savant when it came to mayhem."

[kurainohikaru]

Ozma/pin and Salem. The Duality of Choice: Confrontation, Complacency and the Missing Compromise Between Them.

So I felt this topic deserved it’s own separate conversation in regards to episode 3 of Volume 6. Specifically I want to talk about Salem and Ozpin, and what they and their struggle represent, at least in my opinion. If you want to hear some more of my general thoughts on the episode check out my previous post here.

SPOILERS BELOW Also TW for Slight mentioning of Suicide attempts

So let’s start with the elephant of the room and what has probably the most discourse of this episode. Who’s truly at fault? Most would probably lay that with Salem, others with Ozma, or the gods for their outward cruelty in how they handled the whims of humanity? Well I’m here to say the entire point of this episode was to show the exact opposite of this mindset. Prior to this episode many a spectator, myself included were theorizing as to whether or not ShadyOz(TM) was a morally grey good guy or had ulterior motives and was the true evil. This episode has simultaneously made the viewer feel sympathies for his plight while also expositing Salem, who prior to this point has been not much more than the evil puppet-master. She has, from the beginning, touted her respect for humankind, in their unity and resilience, and now we have a much greater understanding for the framework behind the respect of that which she is seemingly out to destroy. The Lost Fable redeems not only Ozpin but Salem as well, for they are two sides of the same coin. They are the duality of choice, Salem of confrontation and Ozpin of complacence. Let’s explore this throughout the episode, screenshots will be posted and I’d like to pay careful attention to expressions here.

This moment was the beginning of everything. Salem lost the only person she had ever known and loved and it sent her into a deep despair. Desperate to have Ozma returned to her, she ventured off to the god of light, her very first confrontation of many. Only to be told that though he could easily return him to the world, he would not, in doing so he would overwrite the delicate balance that he and his younger brother, the God of Darkness had striven to create. Now I’m sure some people already found themselves frowning at how Disney Princess-like this may feel but rationally let’s think for a moment about what this would mean for Salem.

That deep frown and tower was her life. All she ever knew was to be locked and confined within this tower, and unlike her Rapunzel counterpart, there was no happily ever after foretold in the cards that she was to expect. Yes many a warrior came to try and conquer the tower for her hand and beauty, but what does that mean to her? She knows nothing and no one outside these walls, save for the failed attempts of heroes who saw her nothing more as prize to be won and conquered. And then that all changed when a knight who came to save her because it was the right thing to do, and not because of her purported beauty.

You’d be hard pressed to tell me these two didn’t fall in love in this moment, these looks on their faces. I’d wager a guess this is the first time Salem has ever been free from the constrictive rule set by her cruel father. Salem finally had the world to explore, but the definition of her world changed, now her world was Ozma.

We all as humans have undergone the deep pit of despair that is loss. Loss of a friend, a pet, a family member, a partner. None of these losses can be compared to one another but they all lead to the pit of utter despair. And now I posit a question for you, did you ever wish you could change it? Think, “What if things had been different, if they were still here now?” I certainly have. It is a dangerous cycle and one difficult to break and Salem lives in a world where the possibility of resurrection has tangible weight of possibility behind it making that cycle even more difficult to come out of. So how does one break themselves from the self-destructive what ifs and grieving? Most would say time. Time and support. Support from the interpersonal relationships you’ve built over the course of your life and fostered into lasting friendships that will carry you through arduous times. Surely Salem could have moved on as the God of Light told her eventually? Except Salem has NO ONE.

As far as we are made aware, her family is her father who locked her up in the first place. Ozma was the ONLY person in the world she had to support her. He was ripped from her when she finally could see a road that was paving the rest of her life and it crumbled right before her eyes.

That’s not fair. That’s not fair!

And to her it really wasn’t. And I know some people will say “Life’s not fair,” and that is correct. Objectively speaking, Salem was selfish in choosing to confront him and plead for the creators of her world to take pity and bring him back.

That’s the point. After all, can you say as a human you are 100% objective and selfless, especially in a time of great trauma and desperation?

“You monsters! Give him back to me! Give him back!”

And so Salem ventured to the Realm of Darkness to plead with the younger brother of darkness, her second confrontation. She gets her wish, if only for a moment.  I won’t comment much on the actions of the God’s here, saving that for a separate post, but I will say that their inexperience and inability to understand the emotional complexities behind this situation laid the foundation for the chessboard game we know today.

I can’t possibly imagine what the hell this would do to Salem’s mental state. To literally see her love brought back and ripped away from her twice in quick succession would have been anyone’s snapping point. To have something you wanted so desperately you were willing to prostrate yourself before, and even manipulate gods to achieve, only for it to be taken from you just as quickly would be maddening.

Yes I did say manipulate. I know this post has been very Pro-Salem up until this point but that’s because personally, I don’t think she has done anything outlandish enough to be branded as pure evil as some people have been. Is she selfish and arrogant as the God of Light later says? Oh absolutely. Is that out of the ordinary for a human? Not in the slightest. Not to mention Salem has literally been locked in a tower for what we can assume is the majority of her life. Now that is not to say she is unintelligent or naive, but I imagine her social graces are lacking to the point she comes off as childish. Children are arrogant and petulant and selfish, hell most humans adults are, I don’t see Salem acting this way as bizarre at all.

The god’s respond to her manipulation by cursing her to never be able to leave the mortal realm, namely granting her immortality so that shew may never rest with her beloved Ozma. Again I won’t comment on the gods too much in this post, but that punishment seemed rather infinitely torturous. They basically made her immortal with a vague purpose of her needing to understand the delicate balance of life and death. That being said that way does not imply that she would be set free once she did. I would say current time Salem understands that balance very well, even if she uses it for her own gains and manipulative strategies, and she’s still very much immortal as we know it now.

They... were fallible.

Even if Jinn claims this was out of spite towards the gods, don’t you think it’s rather tragic that the girl in the tower, who spent her whole life wanting to see the outside world finally got it and now it’s all worthless without Ozma? That great beautiful world and she’d rather die. Maybe I’m reading too much into this scene but it really made me feel for Salem, and it’s clever given how things develop later.

The gods had hoped Salem would learn from her eternal curse. And she did. She had learned that the hearts of men are easily swayed.

Salem has resolved herself to fight the gods and rid herself from their curse, using her immortality to manipulate humankind into following her with the promise of said curse, not knowing her true goal was to rid herself of it. And so she amassed her army and made her choice to fight, her third confrontation.

And just like all the others, it didn’t end in her favor.

And once again, Salem was alone.

The gods’ retaliation was ruthless, Salem the last remnant of humanity as they shattered the moon and left the planet, their “beautiful experiment” no longer worth staying on the planet and becoming pseudo-deistic as they watch from afar awaiting judgement day, more on that later.

Salem was despondent at this point, nothing to live for but unable to die. She stumbles back into the realm of darkness and lets herself fall into the pits of Grimm, her last hope for the death she craved. The result?

She was wrong.

Now I’ve seen a lot of people write her off as irredeemable by this point once she has been transformed like above. However, I would argue everyone in this story is as redeemable as they are irredeemable. A Choice made is not something that is constant. It can always change because that’s inherently what choice is, the act or decision to decide from a number of possibilities. You are choosing the way you act and you can change your choice just as easily as you cannot. Salem chooses confrontation and it has always been her strategy, the reverse of this is complacency, the inaction based in comfort of the Status Quo, or Ozpin’s side. Let’s move to him for a moment as the episode does.

Where you seek comfort. You will only find pain.

So in an ironic twist the God of Light takes a card out of Salem’s book and manipulates Ozma into accepting the role of reincarnation and humanity’s jury, with the god brothers’ as Judge and executioner through the relics. Ozma also begins to make his first choices of complacency here.

“I’m sorry but that world just isn’t as dear to me without her. If I may, I’d rather return to the afterlife to be with Salem”

Ozma decides that the life of savior is not for him thinking he should return and be with Salem, now that humanity is extinct he can be with her as they both have so long wished for. Nobody could fault him for that. In fact he’s preserving the very “balance” the God of light was up in arms about in the first place. He causally forgot to mention the reason that Salem is still alive is thanks to their curse, instead cryptically stating she was corrupted and no longer the woman he once knew (woo for petty manipulative gods, just like the good ol Greeks).

Ozma either sees through this or wishes to see Salem enough he will ignore the warning and accepts the role almost immediately and then finds himself in the body of this young man, the world reborn from dust like in the WOR episode mentioning it (which I totally forgot about in my last post). Ozma finds himself confused by the presence of Faunus and the absence of Magic, dust replacing it in a shoddy attempt at the gifts of magic he possessed. He hears rumors of someone else possessing his gifts a witch of sorts. He seeks her out and...

“ What do we do now?” “Whatever we want.”

the two reunite again as lovers and we see each of them lie to one another almost immediately. Salem out of fear of rejection and Ozma out of not knowing what the truth was. You could argue this was complacency on both of their parts and I wouldn’t disagree, but the motivations don’t quite work out that ways considering the status quo was nonexistent since they had spent literal lifetimes apart since then.

“These humans have no one to guide them. Perhaps that’s all they need.”

Salem believes that they could be the new, more benevolent gods that the previous god brother’s could not be for them. Ozma clearly was not a fan of the idea but with Salem’s arm on his shoulder he agrees, complacent in her more aggressive methodologies out of his love for her as Salem confronts him with emotional manipulation. The two fall more and more into their choices that have defined them as their tale continues.

“The hearts of men are easily swayed*

“And at the head of that kingdom blossomed, a family.”

The two carry out Salem’s idea and procure a rich following that leads to a kingdom and the happy picturesque couple above. Now I specifically want to point out how happy Salem looks here. Not to say that Ozma isn’t also extremely happy and proud of his girls, but I highlight Salem here for the particular reason that some were claiming that she was pure destruction ever since diving into the pools of Grimm.

To that I argue, she settled down. She wanted to preserve humanity and put them on the right track together with Ozma and had a beautiful family and were loved by many people. I think the pool definitely changed her and gave her a larger penchant for destructive tendencies, but that’s just it, they were tendencies. Just like any human has tendencies to kill someone sometimes or wish they were never born or wish cruel and unusual punishment on someone who has wronged them in the heat of the moment. To say she was irredeemable in this scene made little sense to me and this happiness she feels now makes the eventual outcome that much more tragic when it plays out as we know it does.

“Are we sure this is right?”  “You said we had to bring humanity together. In order to do that we have to spread our word. And destroys those that will deny it.”

“It was a miracle. Their children could perform magic.”

These two scenes are pivotal in the tonal shift they create, though it may not be abundantly clear at first glance. Here we see Salem grinning downward with a slight smirk more like we’ve seen her in the present as she explains to Ozma that confronting dissenters is the only way that they can spread the word of their rule as the assumed new gods. Ozma looks away and has a moment of introspection where either his first life or the life he inhabits posits, “what are we doing?” Ozma begins to break from his complacency realizing that this isn’t the path he wants to take as one of his daughter bursts in and displays her magic for her parents. This is extremely important to Salem, now instead of guiding the current humanity she will begin to think differently shown in the following scene.

“Don’t you see? None of that matters anymore? Why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we can replace them with what they could never be?”

Ozma finally breaks and comes clean to Salem about everything. Her response is that above. She has now shifted to recreating the paradise they once had with the two of them replacing the old gods as the rulers. At first I didn’t see anything wrong with this at all and thought Ozma was odd for not wanting to rekindle humanity with magic. But then I thought more about it and I realized she meant completely wiping out the current humanity and replacing it with their children, since they are both immortal they essentially could repopulate the planet by themselves (though I’m not going to dissect the finer points of that one...)

Now to Salem’s credit this was a perfect solution for the two of them. Both of them, in her eyes at least, had been cursed by the gods to live forever, they were only so lucky enough to find each other again and make that living bearable once more. Why would see want to spare the creations born from those who cursed her so? Why would she ever allow them to return to this world and judge them when she could recreate the utopia they once had, but better because they would be it’s rulers? To her it makes perfect sense for Ozma to forget his task and focus on the new world they would create together, a world full of magic that every human could perform. A world with gods that cared about them and would do better than what they had done to her, to the both of them. Would this have worked? Who can really say for sure but I don’t blame Salem for thinking the way she was, and I don’t quite find her irredeemable here but Ozma plays a critical role here that he fails spectacularly.

See Ozma had a responsibility to his wife and partner to try and reel in some more of her destructive tendencies,  speaking with her frankly and honestly and the two of them working to some sort of compromise that didn’t involve senseless death and destruction but still reintroduced magic into the world through them. It wouldn’t have been a difficult solution either, all they would have to do is keep living and having children through the ages and then as those kids grew and had children of their own eventually it would resurface over time. And It’s not like they don’t have infinite time to spare. But no, instead Ozma decided to exchange complacency for idiocy and outright betrayal.

“We were finally free.” “I...”

Ozma decided his best course of action was to try and sneak out of the castle under the cover of night with their 4 children in tow. Obviously Salem catches him and her rage consumes her and she initiates magical combat against him. The following shot is of the fallen toy one of the girls was holding and Ozpin bleeding and crawling away as Salem rejuvenates and stands over him, distraught that he would throw away their freedom before cutting him off with a stream of fire to end his life.

This could not have been any deeper of a betrayal to Salem. She had risked and lost literally EVERYTHING for Ozma. Her life, her kind, her world. She thought she was doomed to obscurity of living forever only to find him once again, for them to rekindle the happiness she thought had been cruelly ripped away from her by the gods of old. Everything couldn’t be better as her children just displayed magic and she could bring about the utopia she craved, Ozma by her side. Only for that same man who she sacrificed again and again for to try and leave with their children and leave her behind? Please try and tell me that wouldn’t bring you into a catastrophic level of rage, I’d love to hear how you could keep calm there.

Not to mention that the shot of the toy implies that their fight ended up killing the lives of their daughters which I��m sure sent both of them spiraling even more.

Ozpin eventually makes his way back to the task, after an unknown number of lives of mourning and drinking,sent by the gods and he realizes that the only way he can keep man unites is to rid the world of Salem.

We don’t know what happens to Salem after this point to get where she is today but the image of the crystal implies she made that with her magic and integrated it with a Grimm and perhaps that is how she controls them.

What we do know is that both of them took this experience of their fallout to shape their strategies in the present day.

Salem realizes that she should have played her cards closer to her chest. Openly confrontational choices proved disastrous. Now she operates from the shadows, causing mass panic and chaos while never leaving any threads that can trace back to her. Outside of Ozpin, the world knows not of her existence and she can disrupt Ozpin’s task indefinitely. Moreover she wants the relics. Perhaps so that she can summon them early and show what humanity has become so Ozpin can suffer the ultimate failure by her hands’ and rob him of what he treasures dearly just as he had before as we saw. She has learned form her mistakes and it has made her all the more calculating, cruel, conniving, and threatening. She failed to learn that compromise before confrontation could have led them to living together harmoniously

Meanwhile Ozpin has had a regression. His one act of confrontation led to disaster and so he he has returned to complacency, He chooses to be extremely selective about who he informs about his plight and leaves the general populace in the dark, thinking this is the best way to preserve unity. He used Jinn to locate all the relics and locked them up in the schools while he played the role of the most influential headmaster as a way to try and unify humanity against the Grimm (and unknowingly Salem). He lies and tells half truths because the more darkness and evil of the world he exposes to people, the further from his task he gets. He has not learn that choosing to openly communicate without facades or masks, yes may induce some panic and anxiety, can also lead to compromises and cooperation that isn’t backed by ultimatums (Pyrrha).

Well here’s my little essay on choice and it’s duality of Ozma/pin and Salem. Let me know what you all thought! Also I don’t know why or how this got so long and why I decided to do it so late. Gonna go pass out now X.X

[trickormemes]

Black Panther sentence starters

120 starters * includes quotes from deleted scenes feel free to change gender pronouns ’read-more’ added for length content warning: violence

“Tell me a story.”

“Let me see how you are holding up.”

“Why are you here?”

“No need, _____. I can handle this alone.”

“Just don’t freeze when you see her.”

“What are you talking about? I never freeze.”

“Are we under attack?”

“You will speak nothing of this day.”

“This never gets old.”

“It is so good to have you back with us.”

“Are you finished?”

“Just because something works doesn’t mean it cannot be improved.”

“You are teaching me? What do you know?”

“It’s better to leave the crime scene more spread out. Makes us look like amateurs.”

“You’re gonna be a rich boy.”

“This corset is really uncomfortable, so could we all just wrap it up and go home?”

“I accept your challenge, _____.”

“Where is your god now?”

“Show him who you are!”

“Yield! Don’t make me kill you!”

“You have fought with honor! Now yield!”

“Wakanda forever!”

“Stand up. You are a king.”

“I am not ready to be without you.”

“A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father.”

“Have I ever failed you?”

“You’re a good man with a good heart. And it’s hard for a good man to be king.”

“Come home, _____. Stay.”

“I’ve seen too many in need just to turn a blind eye.”

“I can’t be happy here knowing that there’s people out there who have nothing.”

“If you were not so stubborn, you would make a great queen.”

“I would make a great queen because I am stubborn.”

“I see _____ is back. You guys going to work it out?”

“But waging war on other countries has never been our way.”

“(insert location) does not need a warrior right now. We need a king.”

“It’s too great an opportunity to pass.”

“Take me with you. We’ll take him down together, side by side.”

“You sure it’s a good idea to take your ex on a mission?”

“WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE?!”

“The idea is to not be noticed.”

“Not that hard, genius!”

“Can we please focus? Thank you.”

“It just got a little more complicated.”

“Now, whatever the hell you’re up to… do me a favor, stay out of my way.”

“I’m not here to make a deal.”

“Well, that is quite the entourage. You got a mixtape coming out?”

“Please, don’t make me listen to your music.”

“It’s now or never.”

“I made it rain!”

“Put some music on. What do you think this is, a funeral?”

“We’re not going to make it!”

“Guns. So primitive!”

“Did you think we would forget?”

“Every breath you take is mercy from me.”

“If he touches you again, I’m going to impale him to this desk.”

“I don’t trust anybody, not in this job.”

“I see you took your time, didn’t you?”

“So now we are just supposed to let him die?”

“I cannot just let him die, knowing we can save him.”

“Great! Another broken white boy for us to fix. This is going to be fun.”

“With you, I thought it’d be different. But it’s more of the same.”

“To them, you’ll just be an outsider. You’re crazy to think that you can just walk in there.”

“Do not tell me what is possible. Tell me the truth!”

“Some truths are too much to bear, _____.”

“That is not your choice to make.”

“All over the planet our people suffer because they don’t have the tools to fight back.”

“What kind of king… what kind of man does that?”

“No man is perfect.”

“You can’t let your father’s mistakes define who you are.”

“Only reason I don’t kill you where you stand is because I know who you are.”

“I want the throne.”

“It’s not our way to be judge, jury, and executioner for people who are not our own.”

“This is your last chance. Throw down your weapons, and we can handle this another way.”

“I lived my entire life waiting for this moment. I trained, I lied, I killed. Just to get here.”

“And all this death, just so I could kill you.”

“Snap out of it, _____!”

“Is there nothing that can be done?”

“Him? He’s supposed to protect you?”

“Help me overthrow him before he becomes too strong.”

“I am loyal to that throne, no matter who sits upon it. What are you loyal to?”

“The king is dead. Come with me, unless you want to join him.”

“What did I tell you about going into my things?”

“No tears for me?”

“Everybody dies. It’s just life around here.”

“When I tell you to do something, I mean that shit.”

“Burn it all!”

“The outside world is catching up, and soon, it will be the conquerors or the conquered. I’d rather be the former.”

“One more word, and I will feed you to my children… I’m kidding. We are vegetarians.”

“You were wrong to abandon him.”

“You were wrong! All of you were wrong! To turn your backs on the rest of the world!”

“I cannot stay here with you.”

“I cannot rest while he sits on our throne.”

“I must right these wrongs.”

“I’m in too. …What? You’re gonna need all the help you can get.”

*yawns* “Are you done? A-a-are you—are you done?”

“I owed you a great debt. A life for a life. Consider it paid.”

“No harm will come to her. I give you my word.”

“The world’s gonna find out exactly who we are.”

“He lives.”

“Your heart is so full of hatred, you are not fit to be a king!”

“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing with this.”

“You’ll never be a true king.”

“You want to see us become just like the people you hate so much.”

“The world took everything away from me! Everything I ever loved!”

“Would you kill me, my love?”

“Can you believe that? Kid from (insert location), running around believing in fairytales.”

“Maybe we can still heal you.”

“You can’t blame me, I almost died.”

“When you said you would take me to California for the first time, I thought you meant Coachella or Disneyland.”

“Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten are very existence.”

“More connects us than separates us.”

“In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the fools build barriers.”

“We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one, single tribe.”

“Listen, it’s not my place to say, but, man, I really don’t think you should do this.”

“I will no longer rule out of fear. Not ours or anyone else’s.”

“I’ll do my best to keep ‘em off your back.”

“He wasn’t fit to lead.”

“Our children will be leaders of a truly free world.”

“There will be war and death, but in the end, it will be beautiful.”

“Time. It has a way of making you look back on the things you have done.”

[longlostretribution]

I think the reason Iret struggles with his voice is not necessarily because he can’t use it - because, to be honest, it is within draconic culture that the True Voice is not used in public, but it is that he cannot even use it or feel comfortable in using it around those he trusts and loves the most.

Using one’s True Voice is a very personal endeavor to most dragons, as the True Voice is very personal and may even bear magical powers that can influence or affect others (this is the real reason it’s become taboo; when greater dragons first surfaced, they were absolutely feared because of their voices’ magical properties, so they had to become vocal shut-ins to avoid issues with the surrounding species and races. It’s become a historical taboo ever since). In public, it is considered thoroughly rude and taboo to use one’s True Voice, meaning all dragons have a muted form of telepathy that they use to project their Internal (Inner) Voices. These voices are sort-of the “voices in one’s head,” aka the voice that one narrates one’s life with.

Your voice sounds very, very different in your own head than it does to other people who hear you speak- both literally (because of bones and hearing types and all that) and because your Inner Voice may be influenced by people around you, such as your parents, your friends, etc. You may pickup mannerisms and accents that you wouldn’t have otherwise, or tones that sort of blend together into a unique internal voice that is very different from your external or “real” one.

So, the Inner Voice - the projected voice that dragons use to speak to others - can be similar or completely different from their actual or True Voice. This Inner Voice can also change quite drastically over time, where their True Voice can, but doesn’t really change much at all (whether due to lack of use or due to the fact they don’t change locations often; nomadic dragons are more notorious for voice changing than most stationary ones). It is the one they speak with most commonly except in private occasions. They don’t appear to be “talking” because of it’s magical/psychic nature, which can make things pretty funny as their expressions look disjointed and off-kilter at times (if they forget to emote properly), their laughter sounds “canned” because they cannot really laugh (it is also considered rude since it’s using their True Voice) but instead must use the onomatopoeia closest to their desired laugh), and their Inner Voice may be/usually is completely different from their True Voice.

However, most dragons get the option to speak in private with their loved ones or those they trust with their True Voice. It is something very intimate for them and considered an honor if you ever get to hear one. The dragon trusts you with their life, trusts you enough to know you won’t attack them if they use their voice, trusts that you realize what hearing it will bring and understand that the powers associated with them are not always something they can control. It’s deep, it’s intimate.

But for Iret, he can’t ever find someone he trusts like that.

Iret’s voice used to be righteous. It used to bring peace and harmony, it used to also bring morale and vigilance to those who needed it most. He could control the emotions of others - the positive ones - and bring them to do just about anything with it. He didn’t really know the extent of his True Voice’s powers, but he did know he often pushed his friends and his kingdom’s armies to success and victory whenever he sang - so he’d sing. For them, for the ones he loved. He’d sing and bring them HOPES and DREAMS.

And then, he became HOLY IRET, a being borne of despair, desperation, and violence.

Iret’s voice was no longer capable of bringing HOPES and DREAMS to those who heard it. He has become the JUDGE, JURY, and EXECUTIONER: he does not bring morale and positive emotions to those he speaks to. Instead, he brings DESPAIR and NIGHTMARES. A dread most foul fills those who hear his True Voice, and he can no longer lead armies to victory. Instead, he condemns those who hear his voice, judging them and bringing them an acute awareness of the sins they’ve committed that fit Iret’s jurisdiction (that is, cruelty to others, hurting others intentionally, such things like that). Characters do not always violently recall their past sins, however do still feel dread and anxiety upon hearing the deeper, more mangled version of his Voice. Players, however, are forced through hell and back when he speaks to them, meaning his voice is perfect for Judging and Executing those he deems fit.

It also comes with a bit of a twist... While he can no longer lull the living and Characters around him to sleep, he can serenade the Universe with lullabies and put Timelines to sleep. His voice brings peace to celestial beings, especially those who are dying or dead, and it can call up the dead from any point in time to do his bidding, just like he could with his past voice. He also has influence over those negative emotions as well, and, seeing as his voice causes several, can become quite powerful and controlling if need be.

Iret has no idea the full extent of his voice, but he does know that he cannot use it around anyone anymore. He doesn’t trust himself not to hurt people he loves and cares about, and does not want those he cares for feeling terrible just because he trusts them enough to hear it. Not even The Underboss and Ladyette can hear his True Voice without consequence. This is why he keeps his voice to judging only, making him feel a sense of loneliness that he can’t explain.

[themageof-blood]

Knight of Doom

Knight of Doom.

Powers: Can place curses on people, objects, or areas, cause tragedy in the area around them, or exploit loopholes in the rules of the world to escape disasters.

Possible Ability Names:

Curse: The Knight exploits doom.

At low levels the Knight can place curses on objects, causing them to chip away at anyone in possession of them overtime.

At mid-levels the Knight can place curses on locations, causing more grievous effects on anyone inside.

At its highest level the Knight can place curses on specific people, making it follow them wherever they go and lead to their painful death.

Dismay: the Knight exploits sacrifice and restriction.

At low levels the Knight can make metaphysical barriers that drain the stamina of anyone who passes through it.

At mid-levels the barriers become more visible, harder to physically pass through and able to place status effects.

At its highest level these barriers become physical walls that cannot be passed without dangerous sacrifices.

Legalese: The Knight exploits rules and systems. The Knight intuitively gets and gets around rules and laws, understanding how to break them legally or how to trick others into breaking them.

The Land of Books and Execution

Description: A dark, gloomy planet of industrial towns with little wilderness between the towns that are extremely dangerous. The rules are extremely strict, and the rodent consorts spend almost their entire lives doing nothing but reading in the libraries so they can be aware of the rules at all times and never be sentenced to death.

But a few are not. A few are constantly running and hiding, because they've already broken the rules, and have illegal information; the location of the denizen. The executioners are constantly out to remove them from the equation.

Land Marks: Prison of Bones- The Prison wherein captured consorts await execution. At least three consorts with denizen info wait here at the start of the game, underlings stalk the halls, attacking the prisoners whenever possible. Wardens can be found here. Two mid-bosses can be found within the prison.

Grant Guillotine- A massive instrument of death, able to cut the heads of a hundred consorts at once if necessary. Built like a small tower, with Executioners roaming towards the bottom, and the High Executioner at the top.

Judge House- A large building with many denizen appointed juries and judges passing degrees and judgments at all hours. The High Judge can be found here.

Library Labyrinth- A vast network of dozens of buildings all connected together weaving across LoBaE, containing hundreds of thousands of books on many things, but primarily on the many laws. Somewhere within a piece of legendary equipment can be found guarded by a mid-boss.

Unique Enemies: Patrol- Denizen appointed soldiers that stalk the streets of the towns, just waiting for someone to break the rules (middling speed and strength, mid-weaponry, low intelligence, able to summon allies, may attempt to capture to take to the Judge House).

Wardens- Eight foot humanoids that stalk the prison, keeping their many eyes out for trouble so it can be beaten down (high intelligence, high perception, high strength and durability, low speed and agility).

Executioners- Ten foot high humanoids armed with blades and blood lust (high strength and durability, middling armor, swords/axes/halberd/any large bladed weaponry).

High Executioner- A massive monster of a only vaguely humanoid shape, looking more like two Ogres merged together, four armed with each arm holding a different weapon (mindless killing of any in line of sight, high speed and strength, high durability, two poleaxes, one sword, one club).

The Higher Judge- A humanoid a bit smaller than the High Executioner, but remarkably skilled at weaving words to prevent people getting out of jail, if too annoyed by repeated freeings-or challenged directly by a dim Knight-will engage in physical combat (extreme strength, extreme speed, extreme perception and persuasion, punching, book swinging/throwing, very low durability and only middling health).

Challenge: Use loopholes in the laws to prevent the execution of the consorts who know the way to the denizen, curse the equipment of the high executioner to clear the way.